Honeymoon - Athens - Santorini (30 April 2013 - 5 May 2013)
This story started from a 1000 pieces jigsaw puzzle of Santorini. When Jianhui was in primary school, his parents bought him a jigsaw puzzle and after months of hard work and effort, he finally completed his Santorini jigsaw puzzle. Imagine how tedious it was for a young boy to fix a 1000 pieces jigsaw puzzle, consisting of nothing but blue blue sea and white/blue houses with a ship. From then on, he wished to go Santorini to see the chapel, the white/blue houses, the river cruise in the sea and the blue blue sea.
And so, we had planned to go Greece (Athens & Santorini) for our honeymoon. From Manchester to Switzerland to Milan and finally to Greece. As you can see, this is definitely not a trip you can find at travel agency! It's totally catered to our preferences (though we had chosen to go Milan just because it's convenient to take flight to Greece) and we had planned the whole trip (flight, accommodation and transport) ourselves! Thanks Jianhui for doing most of the planning. I am officially the hotel OIC as I am in charge of sourcing for accommodation.
30 April 2013
As per usual, it was an early flight to Athens. So, we took the early train from Central Station to Malpensa Airport by Malpensa Express. It costs EUR10 per person instead of EUR90 by taxi. It's a comfortable train and fast too. In fact, I would recommend all to take this train instead of taxi.
After checking in, we looked around for breakfast and we know what we want to eat when we saw McDonald's. Haha. And surprisingly, the Egg Sausage McMuffin tasted extremely good. It was a satisfying breakfast before we boarded the plane.
We took Aegean Airlines this time and they served us Greek sandwiches which were not too bad. I'm quite a fussy eater when it comes to plane food so if I managed to eat it, it can't be that bad. It was a short 2hr 30mins flight which I find it acceptable and enjoyable.
I really love Greece! Especially Santorini!
When we touched down, we went to taxi stand to take a taxi to Central Hotel. It was supposed to be flat rate of EUR35 but according to the taxi driver, Fotini, this charge was not inclusive of tolls. Oh well, at least, she was a friendly taxi driver who made casual talks with us and even recommended some tourist attractions to us. We were thankful to her for bringing us to the hotel (which was hidden in one of those small alleys) as we would definitely have lost our way if we were to drive from airport to the hotel.
Athens is extremely hot. Probably just like Singapore. The sun works extremely hard in Athens as it will work from 6am to 8pm at least. You can really feel the sun shinning directly on you as there are no clouds at all. And, you have to equip with a pair of sunglasses if not you won't be able to see anything at all. It's really that glaring.
The lift in Central Hotel is extremely small that it can only allow max 3 passengers each time. And if you were to carry luggage, it's definitely only for 2 persons only. And we also realized the lift is super not responsive. Sometimes, you had to press the Up and Down buttons a few times before the lift will come and "pick" you up. The hotel room was quite small and the toilet was extremely small with a tiny basin. What's up with them to give us a small basin? We were supposed to stay at Central Hotel for another night when we came back from Santorini to Athens. After much thinking, Jianhui decided that we should just stay in Sofitel Athens Airport Hotel since the price was reasonable and most importantly, we could save on cab fare and the hassle of travelling around. This turns out to be a wonderful idea as Sofitel Athens Airport Hotel is really very big and nice! =p
After checking in, we walked around our hotel. It was then I realized Folli Follie is really everywhere in Athens! Haha. We happened to witness the guards at the Parliament changing duties in which they displayed a series of marching.
Just when we were walking around, we came across a happy tidbits shop which sells a lot of nuts, chocolates, tidbits and candies. We bought BBQ almonds and mixed nuts which were very fresh and delicious! We walked around and couldn't find any better restaurant for dinner, so we settled our dinner at a restaurant near our hotel.
We ordered the set dinner for 2 which cost EUR15 per person with salad, appetizers and a main course each. They also offered us 2 vodka shots which Jianhui finished both. I'm not a vodka person. The potion for the salad and appetizer is HUGE. So huge that we were so full after appetizer. We couldn't really enjoy our main course - Pork Chop for him & Grilled Chicken for me. After dinner, we went back to Thea Rooftop Garden at the top floor of our hotel to look at sunset. It was a beautiful Acropolis view.
We know that it's definitely the best place to chill out at night and so we came back around 8 plus for drinks. By the way, the weather at Athens is weird. It is freaking hot (around 28-30 degree celsius) in the day and will go down to 21 degree celsius at night. I ordered Vinsato (as recommended by Audris) while Jianhui ordered Mythos which is Greek beer. He loved the draught beer as it is very cold and cheap, only EUR5 for a pint of beer. Vinsato tasted like Hakka wine to me. Haha. We stayed until 9.30pm then we went back to our hotel room.
1 May 2013
We had breakfast at Central Hotel. Basically, the breakfast looked exactly what I saw from the photo posted by travellers on tripadviser. It's Labour Day and we read from news that the people were on strike today. As a result, train stations not in operation and in fact, they gathered right at Syntagma Square for strike which was very near our hotel. There were also a lot of police men at stand by.
As such, we decided to walk to Acropolis Hill. It was also closed due to Labour Day. It seems like a bad day to come to Athens on Labour Day. Nevertheless, we made our way to top of Acropolis Hills which we got to enjoy breeze and wonderful view of the city. We relaxed at the top before we slowly made our way down.
It's closed on Labour Day! Boo boo! (He says we look as if we took this photo just outside Singapore's Botanic Gardens. Haha)
The closest shot we can take...
It's time for lunch. We chose Yard Cafe as it looked decent and most importantly, there were quite a number of people eating there. Haha. We ordered crepe and meatballs which were quite nice. I like the crepe more though. And the Mythos beer cost only EUR4. It's cheaper but Jianhui complained that it is not as chilled as the one he had at Thea Rooftop Garden. Haha. As for me, weather was so hot that I ordered Coke and somehow, it's totally very shiok to drink Coke at Greece. In fact, I had been drinking too much Coke at this trip. Ops.
Mickey in Mythos beer
After lunch, we bought bus tickets to take the bus ride to Piraus. It's open-concept bus and we were basically suntanning sitting on the upper deck of the bus. We got to enjoy the scenery from Acropolis to Piraus - where there were a lot of yachts and beach.
After the bus ride, we were feeling really hot that we went to buy ice cream! The weather feels like Bangkok to us. It was really that hot. I think the temperature went up to 31 degree celsius. After eating ice-cream, we shopped around. And I decided to shop for singlet and shorts at H&M for Santorini. As I didn't expect the weather to be so hot in Greece, I did not bring shorts since the weather was still relatively cool before we left Singapore. Thankfully, I managed to buy singlet and shorts for only EUR15! Quite a good buy! And I bought white top with blue shorts to match the houses in Santorini. Hahaha.
We had our dinner at Thea Roofttop Garden. We ordered pizza with Mythos and Moschato! It was definitely a great dinner with wonderful companion.
2 May 2013
We took an early flight to go Santorini. This is a short 45 minutes flight that I wish I can just leave my luggage in Athens while bringing just a small bag to Santorini.
Santorini Airport is relatively small and there is only one baggage claim. Haha. We claimed our luggages then we were thankful to see a board which reads "Hui Kian Chong". Haha. They totally got his name wrong but we were happy to be fetched to Sunset Hotel.
We had difficulty in locating Sunset Hotel as basically most hotels look similar. Jianhui went to ask for directions and we met the owner. He brought us to the Sunset Hotel and it's definitely a nice room with a perfect location for sunset view! With free WIFI too! This would mean that I can Facetime with my family and showed them the scenery here!
Our cosy room!
Sunset hotel - Perfect location with perfect Sunset view
The room is cosy with nice decoration. The only problem with the room is, the toilet is really small and after each bath, the toilet floor would be all wet. Nevertheless, I'm totally satisfied with the room though I would appreciate if they could give us extra pillows! Oh ya, it seemed that in Greece, you can't throw toilet paper into the toilet bowl which was quite irritating as we are so used to throw it into the bowl. I had to make a conscious effort to remind myself NOT to throw the toilet paper into the toilet bowl.
After checking in, we walked down slope to look for food! There were a lot of people driving cars and ATVs until it was very dangerous to walk on the road. We walked about 1km and we decided to try Triana Tavena. There weren't many people but there was a seaview and so we chose this restaurant. We ordered pork steak and calamari. The pork steak was tasty though it was kinda too tough. All in all, it was a satisfying lunch. After lunch, we walked around the shops, shopping around for souvenirs and taking photos before walking back to our room for toilet break. The thing about Santorini is, you can't find toilets other than your own room. As a result, we had been walking up and down (2km in total) most of the time for toilet break.
What is Santorini without taking photo with the chapel?
For dinner, we tried Obelix's chicken and pork Gyro Pitta. The chicken Gyro pitta was simply delicious. It was so good that we knew that we would definitely come back for more the next day. It was definitely one of the best food I had eaten so far. Simply love it!
After dinner, we walked around the shops and enjoyed the sunset too.
We also found Folli Follie here which was a good news for me as I was aiming to buy a watch or bag. Hehe. By night time, the weather started to be chilly and windy. Temperature can go as low as 22 degree celsius.
It's getting dark and so, we went back to our room. We had walked up and down the slope for 3 times today! Haha. It reminded us of our up slope way home at Senja.
3 May 2013
Today seems like a special date for the Greeks. The chapel kept on ringing the bells and there was free bread too. We didn't know what's the special occasion until Jianhui googled and then we realized it's their Good Friday.
We had our breakfast at Sunset Hotel and I simply love the chocolate spread for the bread. And for once, I managed to enjoy sweet orange juice instead of sour one. Haha. It was a simple but nice breakfast for us.
Our breakfast!
After breakfast, we went for a stroll towards the right side of Firostani - that's where we staying and it is very near to city of Fira. It was up slope and more up slope. We wanted to walk a bit further up, but we needed our toilet break and so we headed back to our room. It's really funny that our walk is limited to 1 hour each time. Haha.
We relaxed in our room and we also ate chips just outside the room while enjoying the breeze and scenery. It's simply such a beautiful and relaxing place. As we weren't that hungry after eating chips, we went to a Crepe Cafe for Crepe & coffee. The crepe was okay only. I'm not a coffee person but somehow, I had been drinking a lot of coffee during this trip as I came to realize that Europe's coffee tasted much better than tea for sure. As such, coffee would always be a better choice. Right now, I miss my lipton tea so much!
We were running low of cash (All because of the expensive cab fare from Athens airport to Central Hotel) and so we exchanged our balance CHF for EUR. It's pathetic that from CHF100, we only managed to get EUR81+. Haha. Now that we had some extra cash, we started buying souvenirs again. Haha. And we went to my favourite Folli Follie! I liked a watch and when I wanted to pay for it, Jianhui bought it for me as a present! Hehe. I'm a happy girl!
Around 2 plus, we went out to explore taking the local bus to Oia - another town. Luckily, we didn't have to wait for long before the bus came. The bus fare was expensive, EUR1.60 per person and for 2 ways, it will cost EUR3.20. Oia looked like Fira except the shops at Oia looked newer and had nicer walking paths. The souvenirs at Oia cost more than the shops at Fira too. Thankfully, we had bought all our souvenirs.
At Oia
We bought pistachio and strawberry ice-cream to eat as I remembered that Audris had recommended pistachio ice cream. To be frank, I can't really taste the pistachio taste. I guess I still prefer the nuts. Haha. There wasn't anything interesting at Oia and so, we took the bus back to our town.
For dinner, we went to our favourite Obelix for more Gyro! This time round, each of us had chicken Gyro pitta. It was yummy as usual.
Super nice Gyro which I would recommend to all!
We also went back to Triana Tavena for dinner again as Jianhui wanted to eat his Pork Steak. The steak is softer today but the Fava we ordered was really not to our liking. We tried to eat as much as possible, but it had such strong bean taste that I didn't really like it.We were so full that we didn't really finish the food.
We walked back to our room to enjoy sunset together.
4 May 2013
It's time for us to check out. So, we woke up early to have breakfast before we relaxed outside our room. I'm so going to miss this place.
They helped us to arrange transport to the airport.There was quite a queue at baggage drop off and self-check in station. Jianhui tried to check in while I queued at the baggage drop off.
Soon, it's time to board the plane and we took a bus to the plane. The air stewardess of Aegean gave us each a white and long candle for us to light up at church for Good Friday. This confirmed that 3 May 2013 is their Good Friday.
We touched down Athens at 12plus and after collecting our luggage, we were happy that we just had to walk over to check in to Sofitel Athens Airport Hotel.
And when we saw our room, we were very glad that we had changed to this hotel last minute. It was simply awesome! Spacious room with really big beds, nice bathroom and even late check out at 2pm! There's free bread too! Even the toiletries are branded - Loccitane! In short, it was really a FANTASTIC hotel. I could just rot in the room till tomorrow. Haha.
It's just R&R for us till tomorrow. Our long holiday is coming to an end. It had been a wonderful trip with lots of surprises and memorable memories. Definitely a trip I will never forget.
16 days of holidays, covered 4 countries, took 8 flights, stayed in 8 hotels, took 21 Europe trains, 2 public metro to airports with many many sets of clothes and 3 pairs of shoes just for 2 of us - Jianhui & me. This is our kind of honeymoon trip. Just the way we are. A great adventure!
We're flying back to Singapore tomorrow!
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Angeline winks
at |3:07 AM|
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Honeymoon - Milan (28 April 2013 - 30 April 2013)
As mentioned in my previous post, we took our last train from Lausanne to Milan. For the train to Milan, we even had to pay CHF21 to reserve the seats. We were enjoying our last train ride. Seriously speaking, I really enjoy taking the train as it's accurate and so comfortable. Perfect place to take afternoon nap too. And when you woke up from your nap, you got to see beautiful scenery.
Along the way to Milan, we could notice that there are no more beautiful scenery or mountains as compared to Switzerland. It is amazing that as we move on from Lausanne to Milan, the announcement goes from French to Italian and English.
When we reached Milan, the weather didn't look that good. Weather is a bit cooling. We checked in at Hotel Berna. And we were allocated to a room at a building opposite the hotel. Strange, isn't it? The hotel room was really small and so crowded that I hardly could find a place to open my luggage. And it's the first hotel that provided us shower gel and shampoo. Haha. The renovation is wooden, so not really my kind of taste.
After resting, we decided to go for dinner. However, it started to pour heavily. This must be welcome rain for us? We were told by the receptionist that dinner starts at 7pm on Sunday and most restaurants were closed on Sunday. True enough, when we decided to order room service, we realized that room service not available on Sunday too. ''>_< In the end, we ran (in the rain) to a pizza shop nearby. We ordered pizza and pasta. The pasta was really ordinary (which I think Jianhui can cook even better than this) though pizza was still okay. We had a full dinner before we headed back to our hotel. The rain just dampens our mood.
29 April 2013
When we woke up in the morning, it was gloomy and still raining. Definitely not a happy start to our stay in Milan. It makes us feel so moody at Milan. We borrowed umbrellas from the hotel and walked to the train station for breakfast. Nothing interesting and so we ate Burger King. After breakfast, we went to check out how to take Malpensa express to airport. After fiddling with the machine for a while, we gave up and decided that we would buy the tickets online instead.
At the train station, I noticed that there were a lot of homeless people loitering at the station. They would sit or even sleep whole day at the train station. Sometimes, they would ask passers-by for money or some would loiter the ticketing machine. Oh ya, there were many many people selling umbrellas too.
It was raining the whole morning and so we were stranded in the hotel for the whole morning. By noon, the rain seemed to be smaller and so we took a train from Central Station to Duomo. At the ticketing machine, a woman wanted to help us buy the tickets. We wanted to buy All-Day tickets but she changed it to a single trip EUR1.50. In the end, we were cheated EUR7. We didn't argue with her as all her other "friends" were at the station and we didn't want to attract unnecessary attention. So, that's the reason why there were so many people wanting to help us buy tickets. I finally understand why.
We went to the famous Cathedral at Duomo to take photos. Photos didn't turn out to be happy due to the bad weather.
The Cathedral (Duomo)
We walked around before we went to Prada shop! I wanted to buy a wallet! =p However, my red Prada wallet was out of stock and so, I bought a blue one instead. Actually, it's still not cheap but then, it shall be my reward for myself! And I guess I can use this wallet for years so it isn't so expensive afterall right?
We had lunch at a Pizza Cafe again. The pizza and Gnocchi were much better than the one we had last night. It was quite a decent lunch I would say. We walked around before we went to McD for ice cream. For this trip, eating ice cream and buying water is part and parcel of our daily routine somemore. However, in Milan, we can't seem to be able to buy water. As a result, we would always do water parade at the water station at our hotel lobby. The hotel personnel must be wondering why this 2 chinese people like to drink water so much. Haha.
As for dinner, we were still feeling quite full and so we didn't eat dinner. In fact, there wasn't any dinner available for us too. All we ate for dinner was a bar of Switzerland chocolate which I bought at Lausanne. So, we slept in hunger.
All in all, it was quite a gloomy stay in Milan due to the bad weather.
30 April 2013
We woke up early to take an early flight to the Malpensa Airport to go Athens. It was 7 plus and we checked out with our luggage to the train station. Once again, I saw many homeless people sleeping at the train station in the morning. It must be so cold to sleep at the train station for them.
We ate doughnuts for breakfast before we boarded Malpensa Express to the airport. It was quite a comfortable train ride to the airport and it costs us EUR10 each only.
We're heading to Athens!
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Angeline winks
at |4:44 PM|
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