Greece: Part 2

Well it's taken me a while to get around to updating the blog and continuing our Greece story. Couple of reasons for this, firstly both Asia and I got hit bad by jet-lag and today is about the first day I have felt like I'm not in zombie land. Mental note to self: never go back to work the day after arriving from a seven hour timezone change and a temperature change of 35 degrees to 7. Melbourne has been seriously cold since we arrived back, New Zealand cold even.

My friend Toby from NZ has been staying with us the last couple of nights, he has made a stopover on the way to his big OE in the UK. It's been great to catch up and I'm now nursing a seriously sore head after one drink to many at the Quiet Man, our local Irish establishment, last night.

Okay on with the Greek story:

It would remiss of me not to mention the truly amazing place that we were lucky enough to stay at for free while we were in Crete. Nick and Georgia, our friends who got married, had organised for a friend of a friend, Michael to loan a few of us the use of his house for a week. The house was built in a semi traditional greek style and situated on a decent block of land containing grapevines and olive trees. The setting was truly picturesque, and the photos, while good, don't even do it justice:



So this is one big thank you to Michael who generosity was truly incredible.

Most of the week leading up to the wedding consisted of late nights, Greeks typically don't have dinner until after 9pm and when in Rome, sleepins followed by afternoons lazing on the incredible beaches:



A couple of cultural differences in Greece were immediately obvious - it's everyman for himself on the roads, and don't flush your toilet paper! The roads in Greece are crazy. Road rules are really an afterthought and those painted white lines that you normally use for crossing the road as a pedestrian, don't even think about wandering out in front of an oncoming car, they will not stop and you will certainly become another statistic. The toilet situation was a bit odd at first but once you got used to it wasn't really too bad. Apparently the story is that the plumbing in Greece can't handle the toilet paper so every toilet has a little bin where you place your used toilet paper.

Okay, I've had enough of typing for now. To come still is the wedding story and our journey after Crete. Hopefully this time in the next couple of days.