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Santorini - Simply magical

Santorini.....WOW!

This is one of the few places in the world that is actually more breathtaking in real life than you imagined possible.

We were so grateful for our new fancy camera and it didn't stay in the case for more than 5min.




Around every corner is a stunning view, especially in the afternoon when the sun hits the east of the island and you get the feeling that you're walking around in a postcard!

We spent our 5days in Santorini walking around the 4 major cliff-top towns, eating fabulous Greek cuisine and exploring the far reaches of the island.

On our second night, we were treated to a free Greek opera preformance in the village square at sunset. This was part of the Santorini Sunset Festival that just happened to be in our little village during our stay.
It was such a surreal experience looking at this picture-perfect view and hearing this enchanting music...one of the higlights of our trip so far!

In order to fit in some much needed R&R, we hired an ATV so that we could take ourselves off to some of the local beaches.

 
The first beach we visited was Red Beach.

As you can see from the picture to the right, the cliffs and sand on this beach are a burnt red colour and it makes for some great photos but is a pretty crappy beach to swim at.

We had more luck at two of the "black beaches", which are so named because of the black pebbly sand. Here we were able to rent some lounge chairs and an umbrella and could spend the day reading, swimming and sleeping.

We stayed at a boutique hotel in Firostephanie, one of the smaller cliff-top villages.

Upon our arrival we were up-graded to a junior suite with it's own balcony and view out to the sea.

The best feature of the hotel was the pool area with the incredible view over the Caldera volcano.

Every morning we enjoyed breakfast served pool-side and every evening before heading off to dinner, we enjoyed a drink with our fellow guests in this very same spot.

THE CALDERA

BLUE STEEL OVER FIRA TOWN

SUNSET ON THE WAY TO DINNER

OIA













On our last night, to celebrate our 5year anniversary, we enjoyed a mouth watering dinner on the roof top terrace of a restored 200 year old mansion in Oia.

The view of the sunsetting over the sea was amazing and  we had an award-winning menu to choose from.

All in all, we felt as though we were living in a dream for 5 days and believe that this must be the adult equivilant of Disneyland.

We're off to Mykonos now!

Will blog again from Athens at the end of the week.

You stay classy Sydney.

Rich and Simone xxxx

Tel Aviv - Plenty of great hummus and quality time with family

We've had the most incredible few days in Tel Aviv.

First of all, the beach here is stunning and runs for miles. They have cafe's literally on the sand..meters from the water.

The shopping is also world class and we managed to pick up a painting by a local artist as a momento from this special time in Israel.

Richard's cousins were extremely generous with their time and treated us to a fabulous tour of the city that included eating at a great tapaz resturant near the beach front, going to the local markets (where, by the way, you can purchase 1kilo of cucumers for 25cents!!!), a visit to the old Jaffa train station that has been restored and converted into a fabulous cafe and shopping district and a tour of the old town of Jaffa with it's 4000 years of history. We loved every minute of all this.

After our trip to Jaffa, Richard's cousins took us to a typical Middle Eastern restaurant whereby they attempt to cover every inch of your table cloth is various salads and dips...plenty of hummus of course! The minute you've finished one of these dishes, they just replace it with a fresh bowl of the same thing.

After half an hour of pigging out on this banqette of food, they then bring out a meat of fish dish and it's your job to find a corner of your stomach that's not already stretched to capcity inwhich to store this new food.

We spent half the meal trying to work out how we could start up a restaurant like this in Sydney as our fellow Sydneysiders would LOVE it!!!

On our last night, Richard's cousins took us to an amazing French brasserie and Simone ate the most gourmet hamburger and fries she's ever had.

The food and company were second to none and it was a great end to the perfect few days in this stunning city...we'll be back here for sure!

Who wouldn't love a country that serves cheesecake for breakfast?

After an eventful 11hour plane ride during which Simone discovered the consequences of opening her mouth in a Thai shower, we arrived in Israel and were collected by Richard's cousins.

We headed straight for the seaside town of Ashkelon, 60km south of Tel Aviv.

There Richard enjoyed the first of many, many, many shwarmas.

The day and evening were spent touring the beachfront and marina and spending some quality time with the family.






The following morning we were excited to hop in the car and head across the country to the Dead Sea.

For those of you who don't know, the Dead Sea, is over 400m below sea level and is the lowest point on earth.

This vast stretch of water receives a number of incoming rivers, including the River Jordan. Once the waters reach the Dead Sea they are land-locked and have nowhere to go, so they evaporate, leaving behind a dense, rich, cocktail of salts and minerals.

This concenration of salt in the water creates an environment where those swimming in the water can only float on the surface and can't stand up.The Dead Sea is surrounded by mountains to the east and the rolling hills of Jerusalem to the west, giving it an almost other-worldly beauty.

After surviving the Israeli freeways on which road rules and speed limits appear to be optional, we couldn't wait to jump into the sea to cool off.

However our excitement was short lived, the temperature outside was a dry 48degrees and the water was felt like a hot bath. We now understand what it feels like to be a poached chicken.

Never the less, it was incredible to feel completely weightless in the water and float around as though you were reclining in a lounge chair. The surronding landscape is also quite breathtaking.

Like many of the locals, we decided to return to the sea for a swim in the evening, expecting cooler temperatures...but were slapped in the face by a 37degree breeze when we left the hotel at 6:30pm

Alas, there was no respite from the heat, but then again, we are the shmucks who decided to visit the dessert in the second hottest month of the year.

The next morning we headed off to Masada, an anicent mountain-top fortress built by King Herod. It was also the site of a mass suicide in 70 CE, when almost 1000 Jews took their own lives rather than become slaves to the Romans.

 
One would expect the temperature to drop the higher one climbs, but this was not the case. We both shed several kilos as we toured around in the sun for 4hours learing about the facining history of sumpuous Roman palace that was built here and the Jewish rebels who built a community in this remote and hostile environment.

One of the highlights of our tour was sitting in the ruins of a 2000 year old synagogue, as seen in the photo to the left.

Next stop was Jerusalem which is simply OUT OF THIS WORLD!

As a massive history buff, Simone absolutely lost her mind when we first walked into the old city of Jerusalem.

The history of this 1 square kilometre is mind-blowing. Everywhere you look, you see buildings and ruins from various eras dating back thousands of years.

Our days were spent on the go, absorbing everything we could and stopping for the odd falafel or two.

Speaking of food, the breakfast buffets in Israel are phenomenal. In addition to the usual suspects (fruit, toast, ceral etc) they also offer sweet options including cheesecake, chocolate cake,  apple strudel...and best of all, cheese blinzes!!! (pancakes filled with warm cream cheese)

On the second morning, Simone couldn't wait to make it down to the breakfast buffet for her cheese blinze. To her horror, the blinzes that morning were filled with a substance that wasn't cheese.

Undeterred by this set back, she requested to have a word with the head chef at the hotel. The chef closely resemballed the soup nazi from Seinfield and demanded to know who had a problem with the quality of his blinzes.  

Simone enquired about the filling. He confirmed that it was in fact mushroom and that the cheese blinzes would not reappear until the next day. After seeing the disappointment written all over her face, he returned several minutes later with three freshly prepared cheese blinzes and made her day.

Over the 3 days we spent in Jerusalem, we managed to see the location of Christ's crucifiction, the cave he was buried in, the dome of the rock, prayed at the Western Wall and explored the 4000 year old ruins at the Tower of David.

We also made it to the Kenesset, which is the Israeli parliment house and took a tour in Hebrew as we didn't have time to wait for the English tour to start. Following the tour proved quite challenging given that the only word we could understand the entire time was "Kenesset".

On friday we took our lives into our hands once again and hit the Israeli freeways to Tel Aviv.

We are staying with Richard's family and enjoying touring this trendy beach-side city which reminds us a lot of Rio De Janero.

We have been introduced to some world class humus (which you eat with absolutlely everything..including breakfast)

Heading off to Santorini on Monday morning. Will write again soon.

You stay classy Sydney
Rich and Simone x

P.S  If you click on any of the images you'll see a larger version.

Koh Samui 2

The last three days have been been quite busy...by island standards anyway. 

We discovered an ultra trendy, Mediterranean-style beach resort and spa called Beach Republic....it's Samui's version of Ibiza...two outdoor infinity pools overlooking a stunning beach, surrounded by

luxurious cabanas and lounge chairs.


They have two bars and a restaurant and speakers and lights everywhere.


We made good use of their day spa, lemongrass scented steam room, gym etc for the day.




 

The next day we hired a jeep to  explore the island. We dubbed it the Kerymobile. Unlike Australia, they give you the car empty of any petrol and it's your job to make it to the nearest gas station to fill up.

We started off at Bophut fisherman's village and then, by chance came across a stunning little cove called Cheong Mon. We spent the afternoon there swimming and enjoying massages on the beach.

At night fall we headed into Chaweng Beach. This is a mini version of Bangkok with an endless sea of shops, markets, restaurants, hotels, bars and ladyboys. 

Found a little hole in wall for dinner serving fresh authentic Thai food. Along with the meal, we were handed a bottle of fluro orange mystery sauce labeled "kitchen Sauce"...we couldn't quite work out what it was but that didn't stop Rich emptying half the bottle.

On a full belly we made our way over to Chaweng Stadium for a Muay Thai tournament. We watched a poor English guy attempt to take on one of the Thai locals and by the end of the fight, he was left with a face full of shiners.

 

 

The next day our journey brought us to a temple that housed an under-composed monk who died 30years ago but who's body and organs are still intact followed by a cobra farm where we 'enjoyed' a show involving two Thai boys taunting and kissing scorpions, cobras and pythons. Following the show,  Simone overcame her fears and held a giant python that was almost as large as her.

We then high tailed back to Chaweng to watch the State of Origin at 'Aussie Land', a dodgy pub owned by a Queenslander and full of local expats. There was lots of banter throughout the afternoon and as two of the only Blues supporters, we left the pub with our tails between our legs.

Yesterday we headed out to the the incredible Angthong Marine Park...a group of 40 secluded islands off the coast of Samui. We spent the day hiking, snorkeling and generally just enjoying the magnificent  scenery.

So far we have successfully managed to get a massage every single day...and at $6 a massage, why wouldn't you?

We plan to spend the next two days relaxing by the pool at the resort and reading our books.

Flying off to Israel on Saturday night and will enter another post when we arrive there.

You stay classy Sydney

Rich and Simone

Eating injury in paradise

Arrived in Koh Samui at 9:30am today. Headed straight to the resort which is absolutely wonderful with every comfort you could wish We walked into our room to find an incredible display on the bed  (rose petals laid out in the shape of a love heart, dozens of freshly picked tropical flowers and towels shaped into two kissing swans) and a bottle of champagne on ice.

After a huge buffet breakfast, we headed off to Lamai beach for a swim in the warm sea and a coconut oil massage on the beachfront for only $10 per hour..got to love Thailand.

While at the beach, Rich was attacked by a large Thai lady who attempted to carry out a pedicure after telling him that his feet were in a terrible state. By the time he had extracated his foot from her grip, he had one very smooth sole and was feeling extremely violated.

The highlight of our day was the extensive BBQ and seafood buffet the resort is famous for;Rich is now heading off to bed with a serious eating injury. The seafood was so fresh and tasty and the desserts were to die for...would have been rude not to stuff ourselves silly. The diet starts tomorrow!

Hope this finds you all happy and healthy and we''ll post another update soon.
Rich & Simone xxxxx