The road to Greece

Olympic Airways always had a terrible reputation in South Africa. The staff were extremely rude and unfriendly. We bitched and moaned about them. But we didn't stop flying with them because they had a direct flight to Athens - you left Johannesburg in the evening and by early morning you were ready to order your first greek coffee. In 2009 Olympic Airways stopped their direct flight to JNB, and we never stopped bitching and moaning.

No other airline offers a direct flight to Athens. I decided to fly with Qatar because they had one of the shortest layover times (of course I booked at the last minute and all the short layovers were fully booked, lesson learned). We left home at 6pm on the Saturday evening and only finally arrived in Athens the Sunday evening just before 6pm, a 24 hour trip, exhausting, bring back Olympic!

Qatar Airlines far exceeded my expectations. The service was amazing, the seats are huge with lots of legroom, the plane was massive with all of the latest state-of-the-art features. Each seat has an entertainment station with endless options of music, tv series, movies, documentaries, news channels, games and much more - there is even a language learning facility!

Not only do you get great in flight entertainment but you get a complimentary little bag with a bunch of goodies inside Eye/Sleeping mask (wtf are those things actually called?), socks, earplugs (very useful in case of singing girls and squeally babies), and a toothbrush with toothpaste. No I didn't need any of those things but I am a sucker for free things! I am impressed to no end, cheap date I am.

Our flight was at 10pm and I was starving, my biggest concern was that I would fall asleep before the food service. Not on Qatar's watch! I slapped the 'Please wake me for the food service' sticker on my seat faster than bullshit spews out of Juju's mouth.

The flight was great overall and we arrived in Doha around 7am. Welcome to Doha!

Doha International Airport has got to be the busiest airport in the world. Every two minutes a flight took off, but bizarrely enough only Qatar Airlines was flying, we didn't see any other international airlines, weird. Apart from watching planes take off you can make use of the airport's free wifi, check into their fancy Oryx Lounge, or head to the canteen for breakfast That's what a 14 euro breakfast looks like...gulp... oh and the chips are standard no matter what your order, at 7am,weird.

My experience with Qatar Airlines was so fabulous, I will always fly with them from now on. My uncle was equally impressed, he couldn't believe we paid so little for such a great flight, his final conclusion is that the airline gets free petrol from the government!

Bye bye Olympic, Qatar please give us a direct flight!!

.

Birthday on the Bridge

We arrived in Istanbul on Gykeria's birthday so of course we had to go out and celebrate. Galata Bridge is a double level bridge with restaurants/coffee shops underneath and a road on top. We decided to make our way from one end to the other to see what was on offer before deciding on a place to go to. It took ages!!! As we walked past each establishment we were wooed by the employees and promised special discounts, it was almost impossible to walk away, we landed up pulling each other out of their clutches (of course we enjoyed every minute of it!)
Turkish man: "Hello my beauty, come come, I give you special price, delicious food, come come, beautiful girls, oh so beautiful! I give you flower"
He proceeded to fold a serviette into a rose!


We oohed and aahed and were about to sit down when we heard someone calling us:
Turkish man from next door restaurant: "My lovey ladies, that is a paper flower, I give you real flower, come come beautiful ladies, I give you special price, come come"


Ching... chong... CHA! Paper beats actual. Why? Because the paper guy promised to give us a cake! We really are cheap dates.


Not only did we get cake but fruit and fire too! *shrugs* who knows why the fruit comes with fire!


AND we got "3 flowers for 3 princes" we assumed he meant princesses.


Just when we thought it couldn't get any better a little band popped out of nowhere and starting singing happy birthday! This was the best unplanned party ever!

The sea hates me too

I spent a day in Hydra and decided to catch some rays while I was there. I couldn’t find a beach but all around the waterfront are ladders (just like a swimming pool) leading straight into the sea, there are small pebble beaches (the beaches are small not the pebbles) and concrete slabs (how comfy!).
I found myself a sweet little spot and spent an hour suntanning the front, I lay there thinking maybe its the sand that I don’t like about the sea and not actually the sea (sand gets everywhere!!) then went for a dip (stood on a slimy rock full of moss, shuddered and quickly swam deeper where I wouldn’t have to stand on any slimy crap, wait whats this crap floating around me? Eeeeuuuw seaweed!!! and yes we have conclusive proof that I definitely don’t like the sea!). I hightailed it out of the sea back to my sweet spot in the sun, undid my bikini strap and starting working on tanning the back.
After about 15 minutes a boat came past and disturbed the water (there are no waves in the sea here), a wave came crashing onto the slab and reached my knees, I looked back and saw the second wave coming…… I leapt to save my Nine West Shopper (yes I know its not a beach bag!!!!) containing my cellphones, ipod and camera, and yes my bikini was still undone and the crowd received an x-rated Baywatch moment, and no I didn’t save the HTC but the rest are all still working.
After walking back to the hotel with all my belongings drenched, my once fabulous Nine West shopper now has stains from the Marie Claire towel (more free stuff! Buy this months issue and get a free beach towel) and from my sarong. I’m now sitting at a beach bar sipping on a Screaming Orgasm (vodka, baileys, amaretto, kahlua)….. after baring my bosom to all and sundry I think I deserve a screaming orgasm!

Things I am loving about Greece

- The shoes here are to die for!!! I popped into Bershka and Zara quickly the other day; the shoes were calling my name and begging to come home with me! Its times like this I wish I had a husband to fight with….
Me:”You’re sleeping on the couch!”
*door slams*
*door opens*
Me: “I hate you!”
*door slams*
*door opens*
Me: “My mother was right about you!”
*door slams*
*two days of silent treatment pass*
Him:”Baby I was wrong, I’m sorry, how can I make it up to you?”
Me:” Weeeeeeeeell we could always go past Bershka and see if they have any new shoes, and then maybe past Zara too”
- I am far from domesticated. I have learnt (on more than one occasion) that washing reds and whites together equals a lot of pink socks. Greece has a wonderful, marvelous, miraculous product called Colour Catcher – it’s a piece of paper that you put in the washing machine with your clothes, it somehow catches the colour, no more sorting clothes before washing them… I told you it’s wonderful, marvelous, miraculous! *makes a note to re-steal the red Captain Morgan t-shirt from Tyrone’s house*. And the washing powder smells so divine…….I swear I have been going out and not just doing laundry!
- I love free stuff. And glitter. If you covered a piece of poo in glitter I would buy it. If you covered a piece of poo in glitter and gave it to me for free I would be your best friend forever! The supermarkets here give you something free every time you buy something; one trip to the supermarket got me a shampoo (plus free conditioner), shower gel (plus free face wipes), magazine (plus free beach bag). The free stuff isn’t just small samples, full sizes people! ……..I swear I have been going out and not just doing laundry and grocery shopping!
- Johnson & Johnson (what do you mean its called Johnson’s now?) has the best shower gel in the world, its called Dreamy Skin, and it really makes your skin, well, dreamy
- Dove shampoo. It smells just like Dove soap and makes your hair look and feel like the girls hair in the Organics Good Hair Day ad
- Vanilla Happy Hippos. They are made by Kinder; chocolate and wafer shaped like hippos. They make me happy *swears she can feel her ass growing*
 Movie Moment: - “Luben, you need to be appy, like ze ippo”
“My name, is RUBEN not Luben, I’m going to kill you!!!!!”
- The Periptero (garage shop on steroids). You will find a periptero on pretty much every corner; from any periptero you can see at least another three. Its basically a small wendy house with a person sitting inside it, the outside (all four sides) is covered in rows of bubble gum, sweets, magazines, ice cream fridges, coodrink fridges, airtime etc etc. They are open 24 hours a day and its completely safe to walk to one at any time of the night to get that strawberry milkshake you are craving (I’m sure I could convince the shoe-buying husband to go while I keep the bed warm). The amazing part is that the person sitting inside cannot see the outside at all and yet no one steals anything!


- Internet access is super cheap. 50 Euros (approx R570) a month for unlimited internet access, and the Greeks think that is expensive!
The mobile phone packages are also brilliant. For 5 Euro (approx R57) a month you get 600 free minutes to talk to friends on the same package. For prepaid users if you run out of airtime you can still recharge your account via sms and the amount gets deducted from the next voucher you buy, you can never run out of airtime!
- Public transport is fairly cheap, easily accessible and readily available. A ticket costs 1 Euro, is valid for all means of public transport (bus, trolley, tram, metro) and is valid for an hour and a half. For example, you can take a bus to from Galatsi to Syntagma (about 30 mins) then take the metro from Syntagma to Glyfada (about 10 mins), say hi and bye then go back the way you came, the ticket is valid for the last leg of your trip even if you exceed the hour and a half, you just need to punch it again before the time is up – and you can do all that with one ticket.