Greece, funny toilets and computer Viruses

Hi All

Well I have found another hotel with free WIFI, only trouble is that last night, before I could blog to you, I downloaded a Virus.... Bloody hell, you have never seen such a panic, I almost went into melt down. I have no idea how I would do this trip without my Laptop, all the pre bookings and everything. It took Kearie and I about 3 to 4 hours to get rid of it, and fingers crossed we think we have succeeded, unless the sneaky little bugger is hiding somewhere within the computer, waiting to pounce again. I am not doing any banking etc for awhile, just in case... I love my computer, I am so lost without it, I was devastated, so am very grateful we seem to have gotten rid of it.

Okay onto Greece, well the place is brilliant, we have seen ruins that are incredible, views that are amazing and toilets that just make you shake your head... Some of the toilets here are Turkish toilets, you know the hole in the ground, but they are not the most incredible ones. We were on the bus when Alexia told us that many of the toilets in Greece cannot take paper, it blocks them up, yep toilet paper, they provide bins beside the toilet for the paper. Well Kearie and I just looked at each other, we couldn't believe what we had just heard, I think Alexia was expecting that, because she repeated herself. It is the weirdest thing, luckily some of the hotel toilets take paper, but not all... Kearie and I are trying to use the ones that do, it is not easy using the toilet in Greece, you really have to be picky, or have a strong stomach. Just thought I would share that, so you don't get too envious of me travelling around like a lady of leisure... see, I am suffering too...

Yesterday morning we went to the area of Meteora, it is an amazing range of huge rocks, just sticking out of the ground, like a mountain range. Hundreds of years ago the monks & brothers built Monasteries on the top of these amazing rocks. There were about 20 in all, how they built them, I have no idea. The Germans bombed a lot of them as they knew the monasteries always supported the people and any resistance in previous wars, so they were taking no chances, there are only about 6 left and we visited two. One was a monastery and the other a nunnery. They were amazing.


The rock formations are huge.


The monks had to haul everything up the rock face by basket, all the building material and visitors etc, the monasteries were really inaccessible, until they built bridges and roads for the tourists. Apparently they wanted solitude when they built them, well that would have worked out fine... It was awesome.


The views were amazing

'
The view from our hotel room balcony.. eat your heart out!! THough we did have goats down below in the morning, though they didn't wake me, it was lovely to hear the goat bell in the early morning, and watch them all come together....

We then left the area and travelled to Delphi, once again we saw amazing ruins, and the scenery at our hotel was to die for. Delphi is a ruin of a temple dedicated to Apollo, over the years and decline of the temple, the people of the area, built a village on top of it, right on the ruins. When it was discovered they couldn't ask the people to move, so they waited until an earthquake hit the area and told them it was unsafe, they helped them move to a new village and excavated the site. Having the village on top of the ruins for hundreds of years has actually preserved the site better than if it had been left uncovered and victim to the elements. It was pretty awesome.


A view from the car park of the Gymnasium area. Awesome!!


Delphi again, from about half way up, really great. I fell on the way down and hurt my ankle, I hope it gets better soon, it is still quite sore. But at least I only broke my umbrella and no bones!!

We travelled last night to Olympia and today we saw the ruins of the first Olympic arena. Alexia is a great guide, she is really nice and always has a joke to share. She is half Greek and half Argentine, and only moved to Greece 10 years ago. She makes us laugh with her descriptions of how lazy the Greeks are, they only like to sit and have coffee for hours, and do not like to work. She is right though the shops close at 2:30 each day and only reopen at 5:30, but on Monday, Wednesday and Saturday they don't reopen at all, the Greeks have worked hard enough on those days. Nothing is open Sunday at all. The shops open at 9 to 9:30 most days. When Alexia tells us about an area, most stuff doesn't run on time or has taken forever to be built of whatever, they are a lovely people, but not very energetic. They yell at one another all the time, I thought they were having a go, but apparently that is only them having a conversation and mostly they are friends... Good grief, it sounds like you are in a war zone any time you are around more than one of them.


Part of olympia, it was pretty amazing..


The spot where the Olympic torch is lit each time before any Olympic games, be it Summer, Winter or Special. It is a whole ritual with Greek actresses dressed like Godesses and everything. They had pictures...

Alexia taught us how to say a few words in Greek, I cannot write them, as I cannot write Greek, but Alexia told us an easy way to remember Thank you, is to remember someone you know called Harry, as thank you is pronounced F-harry's-toes, only with at Greek accent. So I was Fharrystoesing all over the place, it always makes the Greeks smile, that you have bothered and they always say "your Welcome" back at you. Well the other day we had a long bus trip and I hadn't used the phrase for half a day, so I was buying something and I said Fharryssocks!! As soon as I said it I thought, "Oh no, wrong foot reference". The little Greek looked confused, I grabbed my purchases and took off, what an idiot, sometimes I even amaze myself!! She is teaching us a few words here and there and mostly I am okay at it. I noticed that when I try to speak another language, if I don't know the word, I just say the English one with a French or whatever accent, yeah like that helps. But in France I used to put La in front of the English word and sometimes it actually was the right word, almost, so it does kind of work. Not so much in Greek though and La is pretty useless here...

Cheers for now

Lones