Greece : Cruisin, Boozin, Snoozing - Day 6/7 - July 11/12 2008

We got off the boat at about 8am, got onto a coach bus and made our way back to Syntagma Square. We said our goodbyes to all of our travel companions, and then made our way to Hermes Hotel to stash our bags until we met up with Christian later in the morning. We found an internet cafe to send a few emails and then went to kill time in a nice, air conditioned Starbucks.

 

Around 10:40 we made our way back to Syntagma were we met up with Christian, who'd booked us a hostel for the night before we had to leave at 3am to make it to the airport on time. We went back and grabbed our bags and then took the metro to the next stop, got off the train and made our way to the hostel. The hostel was in a bit sketchier area of town than the old Plaka area, but the place itself wasn't too bad.

 

Christian's brother Dominic was sleeping when we got there. We dropped our stuff off and decided what we wanted to do. We decided we were hungry and went to get some eats. We found out that all Christian had eaten since he got to Greece was gyros, the traditional Greek fast food. Well, that and greek salad... probably cuz those 2 things are the cheapest thing on the menu most places. 

 

We went for a walk, even though we were tired, and had a beer on a cute little patio. While we were sitting there random people kept coming up and wanting to sell us stuff. No even kidding, we had a lady selling linens, one selling roses, a guy with paintings and someone selling asian looking fans. Crazy. 

 

We went back to the hostel after that and Dave fell asleep. Christian went out for a bit and then came back. I'd napped a bit,  but for all the lack of sleep we'd had the whole time on the boat I wasn't tired. So I went to use the internet in the hostel, and then went to figure out how far teh bus stop was from our hostel. I'd realized by looking at the map that we really weren't very far from where we'd stayed the first time, and upon going for our walk I found out it was about 5 min further away. It took me less than 15 min to walk from the hostel to the bus stop, which I thought was kinda funny as the metro trip took longer.

 

I got the bus times, bought bus tickets, and went and bought some souveniers. I'm terrible about getting souveniers so I thought I was doing alright to have that taken care of. I walked back to the hostel and by then I was pretty hungry so I got everyone up and we went for dinner. Dave and I had kebabs and Christian and his brother had greek salad. We went back to the hostel and had to figure out our flights and transit between airports.

 

Upon investigation it seemed we needed about 2 hours between flights to get to the airport, and that woudl be pushing it pretty close. The only possible problem we might have is if our flight from Athens to London was late. We kept our fingers crossed and hoped for the best.

 

The hostel had a cute rooftop patio and offered free Ouzo, so we all had a shot and then more or less called it a night. Dave and I had to plan on leaving around 2am in order to make it to the airport around 3am to get our flight that left at 5:30am. We walked to the bus stop, got on and got to the airport without any difficulty.

 

And then disaster struck. We looked at the board showing flight times and saw that our flight to London was delayed by an hour and a half. This was the worst possible thing that could have happened!!! Immediately I called our insurance company to find out what we could do, if we were covered etc. They said that we would be covered provided that the delay was caused by one of four reasons: accident, road closure, weather or mechanical failure. She said I would also require something from the airline stating this was the case. After we checked our baggage we went over to the customer service desk but they weren't helpful at all.

 

We spent the next 3 hours drinking coffee, and checking what airlines were leaving from London to Toronto that we might be able to fly with. There wasn't much from Gatwick, but we were able to find a flight from Heathrow that left around 2pm.

 

As soon as we landed in London Luton I was on the phone with Air Transat telling them we weren't going to make our flight and that we would need a new flight from London Heathrow. She booked us, but the sad thing was that for the two of us to fly it cost $1400! I didn't want to spend a tonne of money in the event the insurance wouldn't cover us, so we went with our cheapest option.

 

I called our family to tell them of the change and we proceeded to get ourselves to Heathrow, which took at least an hour and a half. Once we got there we rushed from the underground to the terminal and then had to go through a few hoops to get our ticket figured out, but after that we were all cleared to go.

 

After all of the hassle with our flights, our Air Transat flight back was pretty nice. The seats were probably the roomiest of all the ones we'd been on, and even though we didn't have our own TVs in the back of our seats we could watch the movies they were showing for everyone and all that.

 

A somewhat anticlimactic ending to the story, but we made it home safe and sound to Toronto, and my aunt and uncle picked us up at the airport before taking us back to my other aunt and uncle's house. We held on as long as we could and went to bed relatively early.

 

Got up sunday and hung around til about noon when my aunt Jane brought us home to my house... finally, after all the travelling, home sweet home!!!!

--
alanna foell : professional photographer : www.afphotography.cjb.net

Greece : Cruisin, Boozin, Snoozing - Day 5 - July 10 2008

This was our last day on the boat. Dave and I slept in til 8:30 (after being up at 6 every other day, this was SUCH a treat.) and managed to miss breakfast completely. We were docked in Crete, at Heraklion (Iraklion, if you ask the Greeks) and we didn't have anything booked. By the time we got ourselves up and moving, we only had about an hour and a half to head into town. Our only mission was to find the internet cafe and send a couple emails, and find something to eat.

 

There isn't much in terms of quicky food in most of Greece, and I downright refuse to eat american fast food while in a country with it's own fantastic cuisine, so eventually we found a coffee shop that had some croissants. I got a delicious chocolate croissant and I don't remember what Dave got. We went to the internet place and then turned back towards the boat.

 

Our next stop was Santorini, which we had heard from Christian was beautiful. We arrived there early in the day. We had a tour booked to take us to Oia, (Eee-ya) which is where most of the pictures you see of Greece are taken. It's the home of the multiple blue domed churches and white washed buildings. It was absolutely gorgeous. I took a billion pictures, almost all of which look like the many postcards you could buy.

 

After the tour to Oia, we went back to Thira (Fira to the Greeks) where we didnt' have nearly as much time as we would have liked. The city itself is built WAY up on the top of the island, away from the port to protect themselves from pirates. If you were to walk up to the city, you'd be going up 588 steps, all of which are about 3 feet long and on a bit of a slope, covered in donkey crap and made of cobble stones that have been worn smooth and slippery over the many years. To get down we had a couple of options. We could go down by foot (no thanks), by cable car (meh) or by donkey. Guess which I picked, much to Dave's chagrin. Hehee. We'd been warned by the older lady on our boat to not take the donkeys down the hill, but our own Contiki tour guides told us it was fun and to do it. I know Dave would have MUCH rather taken the cable car, but I was dead set on the donkey.

 

It was the most hilarious thing I have done. Being competant with horseback riding, it wasnt really all that scary at all. The worst part was the fact that we didn't have anything but a loop at the top of the saddle to hold onto. No reins or anything like that. The donkeys just knew to go down the hill, and they did that regardless of who or what was in their way. That includes people and other donkeys. My donkey liked to be at the front of the pack and would bite any one who got in his way.

 

Once safely down the mountain, amazed at the sure-footedness of the animals, we got back on a little boat and went back to the ship. Most of our group had gone to do a different excursion that involved trekking up an active volcano and swimming in a sulpher pool. That one sounded really exciting too, but I really was tired of hiking up hills in the heat and wanted to get some good pictures to take home. We showered, changed and got ready for dinner.

 

We went to the restaurant again but this time we were just seated wherever. We ended up at a table with all americans. That wasn't much fun at all. It was two older couples, somehow all of them were all teachers, and they were just so.... american. Dinner conversation went from stuff about travel and school and such to people being executed and other depressing topics such as. Dave and I got out of there soon after we were finished dinner.

 

Our group decided to have a toga party that night, as it was our last night on the ship. We went back to our room and got ourselves all toga-ed up. After dressing we went to the disco and met up with the rest of the group. The night was a lot of fun, and we were up til at least 2am. We had to meet up with the group at 7am in the lounge, which wasn't enjoyable, and so not much sleep happened.

Greece : Cruisin, Boozin, Snoozin - Day 4 - July 9th 2008 - Part 2

My apologies for taking so long to finish this account of our trip... I'll attempt to finish that today!!

 

So, after we got back from the beach at Rhodes, we had our "elegant" dinner booked at the restaurant. We didn't have assigned seating this time, so we sat with a few of the other couples. Dinner was wonderful, as it always seemed to be in the restaurant. The staff in the restaurant had a surprise for us as well, which was amusing. All the lights went down, music started playing and the servers and other staff came out with Baked Alaska dessert for all of us to have. They performed a few songs, complete with some show-stealers (whom I couldn't quite see because I'd opted to not wear my glasses... Apparently the guy that I thought looked a lot like Cuba Gooding Jr. was actually asian. Oops.

 

After dinner we went to the pub, and then to the disco. We were going to play Killer Kings, but were having a hard time agreeing on all the rules. It was hot and loud in the disco so we went up to the pool bar. Kings was forgotten about, but a game called Yee-Haw! was started. The only rule was that they couldn't tell us the rules... and if you broke a rule, you'd have to drink. The idea was that you'd have to pay attention and follow the lead of everyone else. It was pretty fun.

 

Yee Haw! turned into Thumper, which I had never heard of before. You can play it clean and you can play it dirty, and with a group of 20-somethings you can imagine which way it went. The idea was that we'd all each pick a sexual action. Mine was a boob grab. Amoungst some of the much dirtier actions there was also Ass Slap, Shocker and Pelvic Thrust. We sat in a circle and started a clapping rthymn. One person would start by doing their action and then doing someone else's. This passed it to the next person. That person would then do their action and someone else's. If you messed up, either by not doing something fast enough, or doing it wrong, you had to drink. The game was hilarious. Earlier in the night there had been these younger kids roaming about the boat in togas (aka bedsheets!). A couple of them happened by our game and asked if they could join. We didn't know their names, so from then on we referred to them by their action (cock-slap and blow job)

 

We played until about 3am when we all gave up because our legs hurt from all the leg slapping. At that point we called it a night... we didn't have to get up for any excursions so we were actually able to sleep in!!!

--
alanna foell : professional photographer : www.afphotography.cjb.net

Greece - Cruisin, Boozin, Snoozin - Day 4 - July 9th

We woke up early and we were in Rhodes. We actually were going to spend a whole day on one island!

 

We had a tour booked for the morning, so off the boat we got, nice and early, and met with our tour guide, a funny man who's accent we couldn't quite pin-point. He had a spanish look about him, but he had a pseudo-british accent that came and went. And at some point I couldn't get past the fact that I realized he looked like Robin Williams in Aladdin - yes, I am aware he was a cartoon, but the look was the same.

 

We started out our day with a walk through the medival city of Rhodes, in which people still live in. We learned about how the city protected itself from intruders (not one, but 2 moats!) and all about the cannonballs etc. As the sun crept higher in the sky we worked our way through the city before getting into a coach bus and headed off to Lindos, another small city on the other side of the island.

 

On the way to Lindos we stopped at this little gas-station/pottery shop place where we went inside and were taught the beauty of handmade pottery. A guy at a foot-powered wheel demonstrated to us how a clay pot is made, and then, in front of all our eyes sliced it in half!! The point was to show us how REAL pots have ridges from the maker's hands on the inside and factory made ones do not. We were also shown how pottery is painted and fired, as well as how proper REAL pottery will not break or scratch. The latter was demonstrated by first scraping a coin over the face of a plate repeatedly, and then taking a clay urn and SMASHING it on the table over and over again. It's durable stuff. It's meant to be used!

 

In Lindos is the acropolis, which stands upon a huge hill. Yes, another huge hill that we were to climb up. 358 stairs or something like that. And so we climbed. In more scorching heat. The stairs are old rock, worn smooth by thosands of people climbing them for the last who knows how many years... and people were going up as well as down, which made it a long process. By the time we finally made it to the top we were roasting. We passed through the gates and our guide let us go to explore. From the top of the fortress you could see SO much. It was an oven, mind you, but the view was fantastic.

 

We didn't stay up there too long before heading back down the hill to the city core. It was slightly scary walking on the sidewalks which were made of small round stones all laid together in mosaic patterns (I admire the people with the patience to do the work to make them). I was dying for something to eat so we stopped and got a crepe with fresh fruit and icecream. Then we made our way back to the bus.

 

We had to wait for a shuttle to take us back up to our bus (it was up on a hill and it was crazy hot and we didn't want to walk). While waiting there was this old guy, big fat hairy stomach, with his shirt rolled up to his boobs... and he seemed to insist on pressing his sweaty midsection into me repeatedly. Not so much fun!

 

Eventually we gave up waiting for the shuttle and got a taxi, all of 4 euros took us to the top. Probably more than we needed to spend but thats okay. I was away from Mr. Hairy Sweaty Gut and back on the nice cool bus.

 

I think pretty much everyone fell asleep on the trip back to Rhodes. Once we got back to the boat we ate lunch on board and got ready to go to the beach. Dave and I had some laundry to do and we were told to go to a place that would wash, dry and fold our laundry for 5euros. It took FOREVER to find the place. The streets in Rhodes do not make any sense at all. After we dropped off our clothes we headed towards the beach. Again, with the streets that don't make sense this took a while longer than necessary.

 

Once we finally found the beach we settled ourselves on one of the lounges with an umbrella. Before we had a chance to get to the water, a lady came over and started saying "Ticket??" and we told her we didnt' have one. We asked how much and she said 2 euros... and she started filling out tickets while Dave gave her money. When he gave her money she looked in his hand like he was crazy and said 8 euros!!! So we said "eff that, we'll lay on the stones!"

 

We played in the water for a while before I got annoyed and suggested we go buy goggles somewhere. I bought us some cheapo goggles and then we found a new place to swim. In the water we took pictures with my underwater camera and entertained ourselves by chasing fish around.  Eventually we'd had enough and went to pick up our laundry. On the way back to the boat I stopped and bought some shells as souveniers from a boat docked in the port.

 

... more to follow in another post!! ...

--
alanna foell : professional photographer : www.afphotography.cjb.net

Greece - Cruisin, Boozin, Snoozin - Day 3 - July 8 2008

After our first night on the ship we woke up in Turkey! We had booked an excursion to Ephesus which started early in the morning, so we had to meet the group at about 7am. And we had to be ready and have eaten by this point. Not an easy task, let me tell you.

We disembarked in the port of Kusadasi (pronounced Kush-a-dah-suh) where we met our guide, this cute little Turkish woman, probably not more than 30 years old. She told us about the town and the Turks in general as we drove about 20 min to the ancient city of Ephesus.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ephesus (if you're at all interested. Wiki can probably explain better than I can!)

The ancient city was amazing. Way back in the first century (I think) it was buried by an earthquake. Then, sometime since 1900 people realized that Kusadasi was the location of the ancient city and started excavating. Both Dave and I were amazed at how advanced the Romans were, with their aquaducts and sewer systems. The streets are made of marble and everything is amazingly well preserved, considering it has spent a couple thousand years under the ground!

After the tour of Ephesus, which I could probably go on about for a lot longer, we went back to Kusadasi and saw a demonstration of how the turks make carpets. Our guide told us about how this is a dying art, and how it's often virgin girls who make these carpets as their dowry for when they get married. It's incredible how they make the carpets, with the intricate designs and colours. Some can take months to finish.

When the demo was over, Dave and I roamed about the town walking through the bazaar to find some things to take home to people. Everywhere you looked there were Evil Eyes (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Evil_eye#Protective_talismans_and_cures) for sale. I bought a few, "bartering" to get a better price. Everything fashion that you saw was probably counterfeit. They were selling LaCoste t-shirts for 3euros. Yeah. Not real. Designer bags, watches and sunglasses were also everywhere.

Because it was on our list of things to do in Turkey, we went for turkish coffee. Basically, it is super concentrated coffee with sludge in the bottom. (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Turkish_coffee) We found a little cafe that had baklava (mmmmmm) as well as turkish coffee so we sat down. The server asked if we wanted it sweet or extra sweet, so being people who only put milk in our coffee normally we opted for "sweet". The coffee arrived in tiny little cups with a bit of froth on top. I took a sip... it kind of had a sandy texture. Weird. Very weird. But not bad. The baklava was awesome (as it always is) and with the exception of the arrogant American family sitting at the table behind us the whole experience was a treat. I definitely want to return to Turkey at some point. The country intrigues me.

Back on boat by 11, we ate some lunch and then grabbed our books and read on deck until our stop at Patmos. The sun was climbing higher in the sky and with it went the temperature. It was supposed to reach about 40 before the day was over.

In Patmos is St. John's Grotto and Monestary. Our Contiki guides had advised us against taking the tour organized by the ship and instead offered to take us up to the Grotto. We started the walk, which quickly became a hike up a 45 or 50 degree angle of smooth rocks with no shade. Not realizing the extent of this "walk" I had only worn flip flops. My feet were killing me. It took about 20 min to walk up to the top, where we waited in line to see the Grotto.

Story goes that St. John was exiled here from Ephesus and made to stay in a cave. He was old and blind and he smacked his head a few times on the roof. While unconcious he had visions, and in the visions God told him to write the book of Revelations. So, he told his scribe who was with him all the things he had seen.

The Grotto (cave) has been converted into a holy place and people are expected to wear skirts/long pants as well as have their shoulders covered. No pictures were allowed to be taken.

After the Grotto the group was continuing up the long hot trail to the monestary, but Dave and I were roasting and instead opted to go to the beach that was in town. We walked back down the hill, found a place to lay on the beach and ventured into the water. It was cold. And salty. I'm always forgetful of how gross salt water is. Blech.

Eventually we had to go back to the boat, and once on board had time for a nap before our dinner with Contiki in the restaurant. It was blue and white night, so we all got ready and went to the restaurant for dinner. We were seated with 6 Australians, interestingly enough who were all currently living in London. After dinner we went up to the pool bar and sat around with other members of our group until about 1am...

Rhodes in the morning... and morning comes quickly.

Greece - Cruisin, Boozin, Snoozin - Day 2 July 7th 2008

We got up early to meet the group for breakfast at Hotel Hermes, where we had toast and eggs and yogurt with honey and fruit. I was delighted by this, as I LOVE yogurt. Dave was not so excited, as he loathes it. Ah well. It's good for ya.

We gathered up our stuff and walked to Syntagma Square to meet our coach to take us to Pireaus Port, about 20 min away. Once we got there we had to wait in line until customs opened up and let us board the cruise ship. Greece runs on "ish-time" which means they start things 9-ish... While standing in line we made friends with some Australians. Finally, about 9:45 or so we were on board. As we boarded we were given blue swipe cards and had our picture taken. The swipe cards would be our boarding pass onto the ship as well as our payment for drinks aboard the ship.

We went to our room, which was little more than a box with 2 beds across from each other. Our bathroom wasn't much larger than a closet and the closet wasn't much bigger than a ... I don't know. It was small.

We had a lifejacket trial run at 11. Dave and I took pictures of each other looking super cool.

After the lifejacket thing we went and paid for our all inclusive drinks package on the boat, which entitled us to as much as we wanted to drink between 10am and 2am. Not too bad since drinks on the boat were like, 4.75euros, and the drinks package was 20euros a day.

We spent the day on deck reading and such. Eventually we arrived in Mykonos. We had to take tender boats over to shore. Once on shore Haley, our tour guide showed us around the island before letting us free. Dave and I walked around took pictures and then went to find somewhere to eat. We had some saganaki (fried cheese) and greek beer. After that we went to an internet cafe to let the world know we were still alive.

We had to be back on board by about 8pm, so we got back early. Once on board we went and found some dinner in the buffet and then wandered into the pub. Sitting at the table were 2 of the guys from our group so we introduced ourselves.

These guys were from NZ and they were just hilarious. We heard all kinds of stories, about their 21st birthday, about a "ginger pig" that kept coming around, and about how the one guy is always "spewing" (stories that were always accompanied with "blech!" sounds to illustrate exactly what spewing consisted of).

Eventually we ended up at the pool bar, sitting and drinking until they shut down. After that the guys went down to the disco (which we named "the highschool dance" due to the amount of awkward teenager types trying to woo each other with their lame dance skills...) and Dave and I went to bed. In our separate beds across the room from each other.

5:30 am was going to come early.

Greece - Cruisin, Boozin, Snoozin - Day 1 July 6th 2008

July 6

We got up super duper early at Sonya's house, as I think I mentioned in that other post, and went to the train station to catch the Gatwick Express to the airport. We got to the airport, checked our stuff in and went to the gate.

LONGEST TREK EVER!! I swear it took at least 15 min to walk to our gate, and we probably had to run it cuz I was sure we'd be late. Our flight to Athens was booked with Easyjet (more about them later... grr!) and they have a strange policy regarding seating. Basically it's first come, first served.... which means it's a free for all.

We got on the plane, had somewhat okay seats, and settled in. There was no entertainment, no beverages, no nothing. Talk about no frills flights!! We left London at about 7:30am (we sat on the tarmac for an hour waiting to take off) and arrived in Greece around 12:30 or so. We went through the airport, got our passports stamped and went outside to find the bus. My only and immediate thoughts upon exiting the airport was this: "holy crap, I can't understand ANYTHING in this country and it's freaking HOT here". We found the bus to take us to Syntagma Square, which I knew was close to our hotel, and got on. As the bus drove, Dave fell asleep leaving me to try to pay attention and know where we were and what was going on.

When the bus stopped, we got off the bus and tried to figure out where we were supposed to go to get to the hotel All I had was a name and an address. We looked around, all the signs were Greek. We saw a bus shelter across the street and went to look on it. It was all Greek. Finally we asked a guy, who pointed us down the street. We went down the street, which eventually ended. When it ended we didnt' know which way to go, but picked right and walked about a block and a half before running into a girl with a suitcase with a contiki brochure in her hand. Excited, I said "Are you looking for Hermes hotel!?" and she looked frightened, relieved and confused all at once. She had asked a cabbie for directions and he'd pointed her down the street. Together we walked down the street and eventually found the place. Nice place it was too!

We checked in, and upon check in we were informed that we were actually staying at a different hotel!! Not really excited about that. The guy gave us directions, told us to come back to Hermes for our meeting that night, and bid us farewell. So off Dave and I went again to find our hotel. It wasn't too far away, just around the corner basically. We dropped our stuff off and decided we were starving so we set out to find a proper Greek lunch.

We came across a cute little outdoor restaurant (most of the places are outdoor types, actually) and sat down. The server came over and was so nice. He suggested I try the moussaka and Dave had a gyro. We both had a Mythos beer (mmmm) and watched the Greek construction workers across the street install pipes into the road.

After lunch we were exhausted so we figured we'd go back to the hostel to have a nap before our meeting at 7pm. I set my alarm for 6:30 and we both passed out completely. A little while passed and I woke up and looked at my alarm. It said 7:12pm!! We panicked and ran out of our room and back to the other hotel. Thankfully we weren't the only late ones and we hadn't missed much. The meeting was basically going over how the ship worked as well as the next morning's procedures.

After the meeting we went out for our "traditional Plaka dinner" with the group. Dinner was served outdoors again, at this awesome little place. The staff brought us all kinds of treats like spanakopita (spinach and feta pastry bundles), greek sausage, fava beans (I think?), amoungst other things. We also had chicken or pork souvlaki for dinner as well as ice cream for dessert. And lots and lots of Greek wine. One of the guys in our group was greek and thus he was able to convince the people to bring us a few more bottles.

Once dinner was done there was the option to go out to the club with the group, but we opted out of that and just went home to bed. We ended up not sleeping right away, but instead watching the silliest movie on TV (Stuck on you with Matt Damon and ... someone)

Up early the next morning to board the boat.... but thats another post!

24 Hours in London

** Apologies to anyone who reads my facebook notes... this is the same**

Last week Dave and I set out for our Greece trip, via London. We had plans to visit our friend Sonya while we had 24 hours in London between flights...

July 4/5

Dave and his parents picked me up at work to take us to the airport. After they dropped us off we checked our stuff in and went to kill time before boarding. Ate some food and then waited at the gate.

The flight was on time, which was nice. Boarded around 4:30pm. The flight itself wasn't very eventful, though I attempted to sleep but it didn't happen. We arrived in London early, at about 4:30am. (or 11:30 home time) and then proceeded to gather our luggage, go through customs and all that fun stuff. We were getting weary but we still had to make it to Sonya's house. We figured out the train situation and finally got moving just after 6am.

By the time we got to Sonya's house it was almost 9am. (4am home time!). Sonya was ready for us! She had organized a grand tour of the city, first by car and after by foot. Dave and I had showers and then we piled into Julian's car. It was Dave's first time on the other side of the road, and with the craziness that is driving in London I can't say for sure how he found the experience!!

After driving around til about 11am, we came back to the house and then headed out the door again, this time on foot. We took the subway downtown, and got some food to eat at this cute little pub, who's name I have since forgotten.

Full of beer and pies, we started our walking tour of the city. Sonya had gone to immense efforts and planned our trip complete with information about all kinds of things. We saw all the usual London things: Westminster Abbey, Buckingham Palace, St. Paul's Cathedral, Tate Modern, Tower Bridge, the Tower of London, the London Eye, Oxford St, the British Museum, amoungst so many other things. If the pedometer on my phone is at all accurate, we walked about 20km. I'm sure it's closer to 15, but on no sleep, thats pretty commendable!!

After our touring about, we went for a proper Indian dinner, where Julian bargained with the guy to get a better deal on dinner. That whole thing was so odd! I've never experienced such a thing before.

We finally made it back to Sonya's around 9pm (4pm home time!), got ready to leave again at about 3:30. We found the energy to blow up our air mattress and were asleep in moments.
We got up around 3:30, got back into the car, and Julian drove us to the train station where we could take the train to Gatwick and get on the plane to go to Athens.

Pictures of London :: http://picasaweb.google.ca/alanna.foell/24HoursInLondon