The word is a very exciting place

From Athens, I decided some island hopping was in order. A quick pointer for all you travellers out there. Greek night ferries are stressful. It's okay if you have money to spare and can afford a cabin, otherwise you literally sleep anywhere there is a space. I'm not kidding. I finally managed to sleep, when I was rudely awaking by the woman next to me kicking me in the head. So naturally I got to Chania, and after an hours walk with my heavy bag, I finally arrived at the hostel and I wasn't in the greatest of moods, but luckily Simon (the friendly Russian who was in the hostel in Greece, who I was on the ferry with and in the hostel in Chania too!) managed to keep my spirits up. I then went and explored Chania. It's a very small touristy place, with not a great deal to see, so there's just a couple of pictures for you today:          The venetian harbour lighthouse                        The ve...

Now, it's a bit of a way out of the centre, (metro and then a bus journey) but the zoo is a great place to spend the day. Yeah yeah, I can hear you all say, a day at the zoo. But genuinely, it's a fun and really interesting zoo. The high point was watching the dolphin show, something I had never seen before, and something I went  to see again later in Batumi  Can you guess which was mine?                        The great escape! These little animals were awesome, Coaties if I remember rightly, they were sociable little things running up and down the enclosre squeaking at you. Then they got fed, and it was a free for all for the fruits and snails! But it was hilarious to watch!  The zoo was a bit on the expensive side (17 euros if I remember rightly, but it was well worth visiting, the animals were all well looked after, had plenty of space, and the whole place had a really good feel abo...

Next up in Athens, museums. We all like a good museum, especially when air conditioned and with a cafeteria! ;) Two stick out in my mind. The first, the Acropolis museum. Now cheekily enough, it's not included on the multi pass, so you've got to pay to go in. But it's worth it. It has some smashing original pieces, and there's even archaeologists there to ask questions. I went up to ask one question about egg paints, and was there for half an hour! Poor James had to find a seat in the corner while me and this woman were discussing marble statues. The original Caryatids from the acropolis. Now there was great big signs everywhere saying no photos, but everyone pretty much seemed to ignore it, so I quickly took one when the security guard wasn't looking just in case. My awesome veal stew with potatoes in the acropolis cafeteria Instruments from the Greek folk music museum Two pictures from the museum of Cycladic art  These three are from ...

Athens is awash with history and places to see it. When you visit the acropolis, you can either pay for a ticket just for the acropolis and its slopes, or you can pay (I think) €30) euros for a multi ticket, which gets you into 7 sites. Believe me, it's well worth it. Off the top of my head I can't remember the names of them all, but each and everyone has something interesting to be seen. Here's just a few pictures from some of the historical sights: (I apologise for not more details in the this post, but Athens was over 2 months ago and I can't remember all the little details having seen so much since, In really sorry!)  This was part of Trajans library, a huge sprawling structure, one of the largest libraries of the ancient world.  These two pictures were taken of the temple of Hepheastus, and you can see the difference in the colomns!  This is two pictures of the temple of zeus, with the highest collomns I have ever seen! It's mad how they are...

So here we go, Athens! The first part is all about Athens most famous sight. The acropolis. Go and see it becuase it's important, and the history behind it is so so important. But I guarantee, you'll get the feeling of being there before as you step foot on the top of the mountain. I had the same problem with the colloseum. You've seen it on the tv, in pictures so many times, it kind of wears the magic off of it when you do see it for real. I think also the fact that the acropolis is a building site, and it just littered with bits of marble everywhere, it does beg the question what are they actually doing up there? Apparently it's been under restoration and covered in scaffolding for as long as anyone can remember! Here's a couple of photos for you:  (these are actually modern replicas, the originals are in the acropolis museum, but there's nothing to tell you that while you are in the acropolis)  One of the cannons from when the acropolis was us...

Cetinje is the former historic capital of Montenegro. While its small, and not really a must visit destination, it's a nice little place to wonder around. It also has the National museum of Montenegro, a huge sprawling museum that takes you from prehistoric times, all the way to independence in 2006. There's also a little monestary you can visit, as well as a large park. That's about it. The museum was interesting, it was the first time I had heard anything from the Montenegrin perspective. But other than that, only head to Cetinje if you have a spare day or want to visit the musuem. The staff there are friendly and helpful and tried to answer some of my questions despite being neither historians or English speakers! 

Budva is similar to Kotor, it's a small medieval town over run with tourists, particularly Americans. But don't let that put you off, I had a nice little day trip there. There's a good little archaeological museum there, and some great places to eat! The place I went to for lunch had everyone wearing tuxedo's, even the wine bottles! I guess the old chestnut of the sea is always bluer on the other side has never been more true! 

Coming from the biggest let down ever, Podgorica, meant I hit the Montenegrin coast with extremely low expectations. But it was lovely there, it really was. Kotor was beautiful, and it had that same rabbit run feeling you get from small little cobbled medieval streets, with churches and old building dotted about. I'm not going to lie, it has the same problem as Dubrovnik. It gets incredibly crowded when a cruise ship is in port. Small places like Kotor are just not designed for two thousand people to descend into. But, When a ship wasn't in port, Kotor was a quiet friendly place, and especially in the mornings, you had the place to yourself. Kotor is a great place to use as a Base as well, from there, you can do trips to all over the Montenegrin coast, to Budva, Perast, Novi Herceg, and also to Cetinje. My first day in Kotor wasn't great. Suffering from severe food poisoning, I ended up with an emergency doctors appointment first thing the next morning. He didn't ...