There's a donkey in the bar...

Our Greek exploring began in athens where we wondered around saw the Monastiraki markets and tried to figure out which island we would go to we ended up deciding on Ios and Santorini so we booked our Ferry Tickets and were off

After making a pretty decent attempt at trying to sleep on the floor and then on the benches and almost getting off at the wrong island we arrived in Ios

We arrived and got to our beautiful green tent

and moved from the beach

to the pool the whole day

and chilled that night on the beach

We started the next day hot and sweaty in with the sun shining into our into our lovely tent

and headed to a second day of being beach bumssss but this time we sat in a hammock for a couple of hours

We decided that since it was our last full day in Ios we should go into town and explore. Im not sure if anyone has ever told you, but the Greek Islands are really pretty...

We dressed ourselves up and hit the towwwn

On the way to 'hitting the towwwn' we met a donkey.

After our intense night of dancing we started heading back and got a taxi. Too bad our taxi driver was crazy, and when another guy tried to come with us to the same place he told us he would take us to the police. After about 2 minutes of awkward silence of us looking confused we got another taxi...

The next day, and our last morning in Ios, we went to the beach for our last uick swim and then headed to the port to go to Santorini.

After a couple of hours on the ferry and deciding what we should call Norman Pless it came down to a battle between Norman or Plesssayy.(we decided just on Norman) We arrived in Santorini very eager to wash our clothes and have a shower. But first we spend probably half an hour just staring at the amazing view form Normans house.

Then after showing we  went back to look at the view except this time with coffee and hot chocolate

We then went out to dinner with Norman and some Shanelles moms friends and found out some interesting stories about Michellle's past.. scandle!

The night only got better with alot of amazing greek food including fava beans, green beans, eggplant, some crazy burger using 3 different kinds of meat and about 10 other plates. 

  

The next day, we went to Oia in the north of the island. It was quite touristy but really beautiful (not as beautiful as the view from Normans place though)

After finally having vine leaves and some artistic posing

 

we went to back to the house, chilled a bit, then went for a late swim at a black sand beach near Akrotiri in the South.

That night we went for a local dinner and watched the sunset from a taverna on a hill. The place was so cute and she gave us a surprise dessert that we had to guess what it was. who knew caramalised carrot could be so go damn tasty.

The next morning we woke up nice and early for out trip to the volcano. We walked around the  Nea Kameni and I provided first aid to some guy who tried to climb a rock and failed when a huge part of the rock fell on his head...

Then we went to the hot springs which we swam to from the boat, so unfortunately no photos, but they were in a cove and they werent really that hot. But it was pretty anyway.

When we got back to Thira we split up. I went to the Archaelogical Museum where I spent an hour getting really excited over the terracotta oven.

That night we made a thank-you dinner for Norman of our classic dish stir fried vegtables with cashews. Not sure how impresses he was by pur lovely dinner easpecially after 2 night of dining in really nice restraunt but we enjoyed it.. 

We then rushed up to th car and round the windy streets of Santorini to catch our 10 o'clock ferry. But we found out when we got there it had been delayed  8 hours. So we went back, slept and came back 5.30 the next morning. 

All our big plans for Athens failed as we only got there around 2. So we instead went to the National History Museum (exciting Thira room), The Agora (lots of Ionic and Corinthian columns) and took photos of the Acropolis from a distance.

Our flight was at 4.30 so we went to the airport around 11 where we spent some time in the Airport Archaeological Museum

Slept, read, chilled at Maccas and ate.

Did it hurt?

Our mystical trip to Cappadocia started in the hostel lobby and we met Holly, Jenny and Sarah who were also coming on the trip. We were picked up and dropped off on the side of the road which was pretty confusing and after about half an hour waiting there, the next bus arrived. It kind of felt like a chaotic school excursion.

We listened to they might be giants on repeat

And won a free Pepsi in a Doritos packet

We got to our hostel which was in cave

And then headed on our tour of Capadocia and went to the first lookout point of capadocia which was amazing

Then to the pigeon monastry

And took a walk through Ihlara Valley which was formed by a volcanic eruption

Had an epic lunch

And went to Derinkuyu (the underground city) which was used to hide from enemies at several times in history.

and got our beautiful bridge photo in the underground city

We went out to dinner that night with Sarah and Jenny, the town looked amazing at night

Sarah and Jenny headed off to bed and we met up with Amani and Fraser who we had met in Turkey and drew representations of ourselves on clay pots...

The rock formation sight seeing continued on day 2 with the gorme open air museum,some beautiful viewing points with a spot of wine tasting in between

We went back to the main town and found a really cute cafe where we got another bridge photo.

We then needed to say goodbye to cappadocia and headed on a 12 hour bus ride back to Istanbul

But our time in Turkey was not yet over and we tried to cram as much into the day without missing our flight.
we finally got to the blue mosque (3 attempts later)

and took the ferry to the Asia side of Turkey

I(lee) also then relised the perils of travelling and saw I had gained kankles from the 12 hour bus ride..

we then wondered around and saw lots of cats

Another thing we slowly began to realise was the Pepsi conspiracy. Because we had won the Pepsi in the doritos packet we went looking for a place to get Pepsi but nobody sold it and one evil man said they didnt sell it but it was in the fridge and when i pointed to it he just smiled and said no..

I then got my fresh fish sandwhich from the side of the port which I had been craving for the past couple days

And then pretty much did a sprint to collect our bags and get to the airport with 10 whole minutes to spare