Rome to Pompeii

Bevan says,

We are quite pleased with ourselves. We have got ourselves to Pompeii and in spite of speaking only a few words of Italian we have arranged a place to stay. Furthermore we have found a camping shop and bought a tent or "Tend" as they call it here.

As we were going to pick up the car this morning I asked the hotel receptionist what the give way rules are. She looked a bit confused but said I should stop at red lights and go for green lights.

This didn't really clear things up for me and I hadn't managed to work out the rules by observing Rome traffic.

Anyway I picked up the car and there didn't seem to be any info about the road rules from them either.

Oh well I had the reassuring sat nav to give me advice and I'd asked Forrest to remind me to drive on the right. Off we went to the tent shop. After less than 5 minutes we got to our first left turn. I was waiting for a gap in the traffic when there was a honk from behind me. Forrest looked round and informed me it was the police. After another honk I guessed they were berating me for my overly defensive driving and eventually a gap appeared that I could safely enter.

We made it to the tent shop with no further incidents and bought a tent and two sleeping mats for 105 Euro. Sorted!

Off to Pompeii. After 10 minutes of trying to work the sat nav out we hit the road. We were in a traffic jam around most of Rome but eventually got on the motorway to Napoli. The road was good and I found the middle lane suited my conservative driving style. 130 kph is fast enough for me in a strange car on the wrong side of the road.

We passed Casino where Forrest's great granddad fought in world war 2. Might go there on the way back I thought. Then it rained for the first time on our trip, and then it hailed! The cool thing we found out was that our windscreen wipers are automatic.

We finally got off the motorway and had to do another left turn. People were honking at us from behind and one person overtook us so we followed him barging into the traffic.

Forrest describes the drivers as ruthless and I think I will have to work on my ruthless attitude.

We have a new pass the time driving game. Count the indicators. We spotted 14 drivers indicating in the 200 plus km drive from Rome but there was some debate about 2 cars that were indicating but were changing lanes in the opposite direction.

Pompeii and Ercalano tomorrow.

Bevan.

 P.S. from Forrest

We got the washing done for the first time (in a washing machine).

Plus we saw two apes and a bambina like people we know have.

getting to Rome+ Rome.

           GETTING TO ROME + ROME

First we had to get out of the Plaka area and we passed border control and met Tom.
"I like his helmet with the light bulb" says dad.

Then we got to Rome.

We got up really early and saw a museum.

There were 3D paintings and mazaques that looked like real paintings.

                                 here's a cool painting I liked

                                            a real dead pope.

         and a good pic that I took from the top of                               St Peter,s basilaka 

                                                                                                              Forrest

Leaving Athens today

We are leaving Athens today and we have had no rain except a really small drizzle at Santorini.

I forgot  to say that in Epedoris we went to a place were you could hear a piece of paper rustle or a person   breath from a really far distance

and in somewhere we saw a turtle and a tyre in it's home ground.... UNDER THE SEA.

One more thing because we are leaving for Rome soon, we saw lots of peacocks and some even flew up a tree!

Who ever knew peacocks could fly?

Forrest.

Attempt to summarise where we have been.

Dubai - Burj Khalifa

Athens - Acropolis Parthenon

Athens - Temple of Zeus

Corinth - Corinth Canal

Nafplio - Mycenae

Olympia - Olympia

Delphi - Delphi

Meteora - Monasteries

Cruise - Istanbul (Hippodrome, Blue Mosque, Hagia Sophia, Ancient Cisterns)

Cruise - Kusadasi (Ancient Ephesus)

Cruise - Santorini

Cruise - Crete

We had a day of relaxing and went on a glass bottom boat. a highlight was seeing a turtle.

Generally Forrest tries to avoid smiling in the photos.

Bevan.

Ephesus

We went to Ephesus and we saw old toilets and apparently slaves used to sit on the toilet that their master had reserved for himself and be a seat warmer.



here they are.

Here is a pic of Ephesus which is an old city in Turkey.

I just learnt something...if you turn your undies inside out their lifetime is two times longer.

The people on the boat like to make fruit animals.

Cruise ship

We just got on the cruise ship and soon we are leaving for Istanbul.

Bevan talking now. There are riots in Istanbul at the moment which might be a good thing. Tear gas should be good for clearing Forrest's sinuses since he has been allergic to spring in Greece. 

Back to Forrest now. our cruise ship is called the crystal.

 PS I'm allowed as many milkshakes as I like.

News flash teddy attacked by lion!

News flash! Teddy eaten by lion. 

 Wallace the 7 year old lion escaped from the zoo and ran down the street at 2:00 just after lunch.

Despite great efforts from Forrest, teddy was injured and is in a critical state at Eipeildoon hospital.

   

Teddy is recovering but won't be traveling for a while 

And as for Wallace, the Delphi zoo has secured his enclosure to make sure this type of accident won't happen again. 

Forrest the news agent.

pictures

Here are some of the picturez that haven't put on the blog.

I
have
a                                                  
running
race
at
Olympia
and
I
win!
                                                   
                                                     
                                                This is a bridge wow
             

Akropolas+more yummy food

Hello peoples of the world, I just went to the Parthenon. It is very old and there are drinking fountains that spray you in your face, so they are like booby traps of the Parthenon. 

We also are at a restaurant called 

to kafeneio and the"meatballs with THE sauce" is really yummy:).

 

Athens at Leisure.

Bevan speaking now.

We have just had a great meal here in Athens. I had lamb chops which were not a bit like Mrs Easton's lamb chops. Forrest had an enormous plate of Carbonara and boy do they make a great Greek salad here in Athens. We had a swim in the pool on the hotel roof which has a spectacular view of Athens. All in all I'm feeling relaxed and pleased that we decided to come to Greece.

The Jet lag has hit Forrest and Teddy again.

In Athens

Hi, we just arrived in Athens and I think this hotel has a pool O_O.

I also found out that Athens has a lot of motorcycles.

warning if you do not like motorcycles or math

         then you will not find this bit interesting

   you have been warned ................................

I timed how long it took me to count 100 motorcycles and it only took me 4 minuites 3 seconds and 9 miliseconds! I rounded it up to 4 minuites witch meant that every minuite on average you will see 25 motorcycles every minuite                                                                                                                             the maths is over now

yesterday I went to the burj khalifa (and aparently its pronounced bersh-hah-leafa).

Ive got some photos  here.

    

xbgrdngrd

at the Dubai mall

In Dubai

Right now we are in Dubai, the time in Dubai is 8:15 am and the time in NZ is 4:24 pm!

The plane ride was really long and there was a stopover for two hours but I kept myself entertained because

there was a thing in front of everyone that could play games,movies and see out of cameras

on the front,middle and back of the plane.

Ready to go!

we are just about to leave and we are very excited!

hopefully we have thought of every thing (prob not).