Plane Rides.
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First we had to go to Auckland so that we could get to Brisbane Australia. We stayed in a motel near the airport for the night ready to wakeup at 6:00am to catch the shuttle that came around at 6:30am. We got to the airport on time hoping that we'd be able to go to the koru lounge to get some breakfast but we couldn't as there was a delay with the baggage carousel where they just stopped working. That delayed us for over an hour meaning that we couldn't go to the koru lounge and had to wait for the plane food and dad said "that was by far the best economy meal I've ever had" (imagine him saying it in a wise wizard voice). The photo next to this text was right as we'd sat down with our drinks and I took the opportunity to take a photo of this marvellous moment in time. As I'm writing this I am still at the Brisbane airport but our flight takes off at 10:40pm Australian time and 12:40am in New Zealand, we then land at Doha's 6:20am which is New Zealand's 3:20pm. We leave almost an hour after that to Athens.
Brisbane.
Because we're in Brisbane for 10 HOURS!!! I thought I'd give it its own paragraph. As I'm writing this there are 4 hours and 17 minutes left to go. When we got off the plane we went straight to where you get your bags taken through the scanning machine and for some reason they always make me take of my shoes, its probably because they're boots and who knows what you could hide in the heel but still its annoying having to take them off every time. Because we'd gotten used to people telling me to take them off we were confused when they didn't so I looked at my dad and he looked at me about to take them off and then he asked the person "hey uhh does she need to put her shoes in the tray?" (again with the wise wizard voice) and she replied with "nah I don't think so" (and she had a VERY Australian accent) and i looked back at my dad in disbelief it just seemed crazy to me, I didn't have to take my shoes off, my mismatched socks wouldn't have to be judged by the security it was amazing. When we first got to the place where you wait by the gates my dad got a coffee and I got a chai latte because I'm super cool and have a giant sweet tooth. I then went on Education Perfect even though it annoys me but then I got bored of that and I was really hungry so I told my father and he told me to look at what the little cafe thing had and then I got a ham, cheese and tomato croissant but for some reason there was no ham which upset me a little but I was fine I guess then I did more maths and walked around because my legs hurt from sitting down and then my dad got a phone case for my because I kept dropping my phone but it ended up being to small because apparently iphone 11 pros are smaller than the normal 11's which confused me a little but we carried on and then I SAW CHOCOLATE it was called "AUSTRALIAN Chocolate Covered Macadamia Nuts" and yes "AUSTRALIAN" was in full capitals and so i asked my dad if we could get them and they were SO GOOD and they looked a-real-fancy especially compared to the outside of the box, I don't get why they'd make the outside look less fancy because the outside is what you see when you're buying them its not like you buy it with the box being opened. I would post a picture but for some reason the pictures aren't working so you're just gonna have to guess what they look like. (as I finish its exactly 3 hours and 40 minutes to go)
Doha.
As I'm writing this I've been in Doha for not even an hour so I'll just add on more as we spend more time here. When we first got off of the plane there was this rush of really hot air that almost immediately disappeared as we walked a few more steps.
We then looked for a place to sit and my introvert brain led us to a corner with 4 - 6 other people where we could see the departures on the six tv's for some reason and then I connected to the wifi as I do at every airport (this is our fourth one I'm becoming a pro) but my dad decided to ask me what he was meant to do after he pressed "Proceed" which I know is a big no no and thought that he did as well but apparently he didn't and I had to explain to him that he needed to press "Done" instead but he didn't listen and said that I was wrong like my wifi wasn't working almost fine and his wasn't. |
I also got my signature chai latte of course and my dad got his normal latte I guess I don't actually go up with him when he orders them so I can protect the stuff.
Did you know that the population of Qatar is 2.8 million and only 313,000 of them are actual Qatari citizens. Qatar is also very wealthy due to having a lot of oil.
Did you know that the population of Qatar is 2.8 million and only 313,000 of them are actual Qatari citizens. Qatar is also very wealthy due to having a lot of oil.
GREECE!
When we first got to Greece I didn't really notice how hot it was because we went from the cooled airport to the cooled taxi and then we stood outside for a little while waiting for the hotel person to stop talking but then we went into the cooled room where he continued to talk which I got really bored and annoyed at. After he finally left we had a shower as neither of us had in over a day and a half and then we went to a restaurant where I fell asleep due to jet lag and my father took an AMAZING photo which I can't be bothered sending to my computer right now.
When we woke up we got ready and then went to the Acropolis where a tour guide came over, gave us tickets and then helped us skip the line. But then she said "wait here I need to find the other family with two little daughters." and then she never came back but we needed to pay her but we just couldn't find her so we started walking around hoping to bump into her at least so we could pay her, but then as soon as we started walking up the hill we saw her and they'd practically just started so that was great. Then we proceeded to learn all about the art they used to make and how much people depended on the wealthy.
But then we got to see the cool stuff!! Like the actual Acropolis where we got to learn about how they used iron covered in lead (to stop it from rusting) to stick the bricks together and during the Greek War of Independence the Turks got cornered in the Acropolis and ran out of bullets so they started taking the lead out which the Greeks weren't very happy about so they actually ended up giving them some of their bullets.
The 'Aquila'When we left the Acropolis we had to try and find our way back quickly because it was 11:00 and we needed to be back before 11:30 because thats when the cab came and we also needed to get ready, but we got there with enough time for me to have a quick shower, finish packing my things and get going.
After we got on the boat we didn't do much for a little while and it was mainly just figuring out our cabins and trying to find my dads suit case, but then we started moving and I found my favourite part of the boat which was up top where the sea spray would just get me so it could cool down my face when I was too hot. |
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Hydra.
When we got to the first island, Hydra (MARVEL) we got to count a BUNCH of cat and then cat counter went up to somewhere around 70 - 80 and there was this patch of kittens that were just so cute!
But before we saw them we got ice cream (my dad had a beer) and there were these people with a bag of cat treats sitting next to us. |
They just took out a treat and gave it to the cat walking past but after the cat got their treat they walked over to me and jumped up on my lap!!! SHE WAS SO CUUUTE!!! but I had a feeling she had fleas so I got her to get off and then washed my hands a BUNCH and burned my clothes (I didn't actually burn my clothes mum its okay). I don't really remember what we did after that because we didn't get off.
Monemvasia
Monemvasia has a very long wall going around it which was made to stop the invaders from getting in. Spoiler alert, it didn't always work. Within the wall is a town and a castle at the top of the hill (which is very tall) and a town with a bunch of alleyways and weird turns which made it very hard for the invaders to find their way around once they got in.
Monemvasia was founded in 583 by inhabitants of the mainland seeking refuge from the Slavic and the Avaric invasion of Greece. From the 10th century the town became an important trade centre. In 1147 Arabs and Normans tried to invade but both failed. In 1248 the French captured it, and in 1262 it was taken over by the Byzantines. After the fall of Constantinople in 1453, Monemvasia became under the control of the Venetians until 1540. Then the Ottomans ruled the town until 1821 when after the war of independence it became part of Greece.
Chania, Χανιά, Crete
The lighthouse that you can see in the first two photos is the Chania lighthouse and was built by the Venetians in the 16th century to protect the harbour. The light house was damaged during the Ottoman occupation and was damaged again during the battle of Crete in 1941 and rebuilt again in 2005. New Zealanders fought in the battle of Crete which was very famous in NZ because it involved thousands of NZ troops that were under the command of major general Bernard Freyberg VC who the Freyberg pool is named after.
Elafonisi, Crete
We went to Elafonisi on the 29th of June. To get to there from the Chania dock was an hour and a half drive.
Elafonisi is a beach where there used to be a BUNCH of pink sand but people kept stealing it so now there's only a little left on the rim of the water. We actually saw some people get told off for taking some of it.
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The Aquila
The Aquila is the boat that we were on for the first week of our trip in Greece. It had three floors, the bottom one with the cabins, the middle one with the kitchen and the living room (and a few more cabins) and then the top floor with a seating area with a table, four sun beds, two bean bags a steering place, a mini fridge and a great view. Out of all of them I definitely spent most of my awake time up the top. On the boat they had a bunch of cool things you could use for water stuff like the seabob that people started calling the 'phoebob' because I was usually the person using it, what you did was you held onto the handles (oh really! <:o) and then on one of them it had a little button behind it and you'd push that and it'd turn on the motor and then you didn't have to put effort into swimming. It also had 4 settings where you could go pretty slow which was 25 and then okay which was 50 and then fast which was 75 and then makes-a-scary-noise-so-I-only-did-it-sometimes which was 100.
On the boat they also had the inflatable couch that you can see in the third photo down there with me screaming (thanks dad) that they tied to the smaller boat (the one that we used to go to islands from the boat if there wasn't a dock with a spot free) and went around on it, at first Ashley and I went on with Kelly which is the person in the bright life-jacket but she got terrified and screamed to get off, but then her husband got on and I was in the middle and got absolutely squashed because at one point we went up in the air came back down and they both landed on me. It's fine. It's not like I need ribs that badly. But then Anna and Jung wanted to go on and I went on with them because 3 people at a time and then we got off and did it again the next day annnndddddddd I fell off. I fell off of it. To be fair I was only holding on with one hand so it was my fault but still it was also the fact that there was a bigger current and also we were going faster than the day before, it didn't hurt that much after I sat in the middle of the ocean for a little while but after that i got right back on, went over another wave that made us jump quite high (this time we didn't go sideways) and lost the goggles........ bye bye goggles. The worst part about falling off is that no one even saw it happen, Ashely was screaming, looked away, looked back and I was gone and then the people like my dad still on the boat (the big one we were actually staying on) were facing the wrong way and I hope the people on the other boat were watching the waves that they were taking us over. By far the funniest part of falling off was looking up again to seeing Ashley sideways screaming for her life to be saved.
The food was AMAZING (apart from the seafood in my opinion) and the desserts were just perfect and the orange pie was the best thing I’ve ever had. The fridge up top was so nice, every day I would have at least 5 cokes which actually made them run out…….. so I just started drinking the cola lights and I was fiiiiiiiiiine. I’m writing this as we’re leaving and before we left I took 3 bottles of Coca-Cola Light and 1 bottle of λεμονάδα (Greek lemonade……. I think…… I just sounded it out I didn’t ask or anything……. What if it’s just some sort of lemon alcohol…… because I know λεμόνι means lemon……. So I assumed that λεμονάδα meant lemonade…….. OH WELL IM PROBABLY FINE) and just spaced them out in my bag so they don’t crash into each other in break (I’m so smart). All of the staff were so nice and even though we didn’t get to meet the chef but if I did then I would’ve given them the best high five ever because that food was so good.
Santorini - Cats? Plato? Atlantis?
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