Dubai, Dubai......and MORE DUBAI

Hello from Dubai.....and again hello from Dubai

We have now been here for 3 days, even though we were supposed to leave after 2! OUr flight today was overbooked and our whole team were bumped off the flight, we have now been put up in a dodge hotel with free food for the whole time. The only good thing about this is that we were all given (after a fair amount of negotiation) free return flights from our original destination which means we can come back and do an african safari! yay!

Anyway, overall dubai is an interesting place....very hot (i know i say this in all the posts) but this is the hottest. Temps around 43 degress at 5.30am in the morning and still again at 11pm at night (with 1000% humidity, no pools necessary). We have had a great time exploring the city, its quite strange as there are these huge buildings and then nothing beside it except sand and pretty much the entire city is under construction.

We went to the famous 'ski dubai' which is at the the mall of the emirates and its huge!!!! We will be stopping in dubai again after africa and hope to go and ski or snowboard as its quite cheap like most things in dubai.

Last night we went on an arabian adventure which was great fun. We went duning (4wd), watched the sunset over the desert, patted a camel and rode one, and had a huge feast and yummo food. We also got tattoos and smoked together as a team, because a team that smokes together, stays together...........(sorry mums & dads, close your eyes, your not supposed to read this bit, its tradition to smoke apple tobbacco, but you don't inhale you just swirl it around in your mouth to get the apple flavour, very wierd....as you smoke it through a bong type apparatus, and the tatts are only henna and will be off in 2 months!!!). Wait until you see the photos, great photos of matt and vanita (and vanitas mum) doing it too! we all had a go!

Time is running out as always, there never seems to be enough internet time!!! We will be back in a few weeks (depending on flights and availability) so will catch you then!!!

luv nay & jay (with tatts)

The boat has finished.......arrival in UK

hello again!

well of course since our last post we have been to quite a few more destinations, to name a few we have been to Santorini, Kusadasi in Turkey, Naples and finally Rome. Our boat trip has now finished and we farewelled the Barber family in Rome last night. We will now be travelling alone for a bit which will be different, however in a few days we will be meeting matt and vanita in Dubai!!

as i have limited time as we are at Heathrow airport i will just list some of the highlights of the past week or so:

- Santorini - such a beautiful place however was a little bit scary when we were there as winds were up to 60 mph and the swell was huge. after some major convincing, nay decided that she would catch the tender boat over to Santorini, however the trip back left a little to be desired with waves crashing into the tender boat, the lovely coffee that was had at Santorini was certainly seen again. it was then a little bit choppy for the following 2 days which wasn't great! (no pizza or ice cream was had on those days!)

- Kusadasi, Turkey - again amazing place. we had a tour that day to Ephesus where there are heaps of old buildings and lots of places which are mentioned in the Bible.

- Naples - hmmm not much to mention about Naples, really is just a transit city. as we were there on a sunday, no shops were open so we went to the museum instead.

- Rome - loved it, huge city with lots of history. so hot though!!!!

will add more to this post when i have more internet time!!!!

nay and jay

Katakolon, Athens and Mykonos......I'm feeling tired....

So, we are still on the boat and travelling around the beautiful seas, since our last post we have left Corfu and travelled to Katakolon and Athens. Katakolon was a little seaside town with lots of shops. It is where Olympia is, however due to a strike of the security staff we were unable to see the sites, however we have postcards, which are almost as good!!!! We just had a relaxing day of catching up on sleep, drinking coffee and sunning ourselves.

Athens, well what a city! So busy and HUGE (as well as hot, almost 40 degrees with a hot wind blowing!). We went to the Acropolis which is under renovation, actually its been under renovation for over 7 years, but we think they are making progress between siestas! Quite amazing and views over the city which seems to go on forever. The rocks and marble were extremely slippery and starting to wear so was a steep staircase to walk on. Only some minor slips and falls so still in good shape! There was an ambulance waiting at the bottom so not sure if they knew we were coming or not!

On the boat as we were leaving Athens, we also met some of the staff who work in the wheelhouse bar which plays kind of jazzy music (think Norah jones & Joss Stone) and the guy grew up in Pennant Hills and went to Penno High...small world. He and his wife travel the world on the cruise ships doing contracts between 4 and 7 months and then go home for a quick holiday before returning to the next ship....what a life, such a lovely couple and we are heading back to the same bar tonight to continue our catch-up!

Today we are in Mykonos, a small island in Greece, surrounded by the bluest water and covered in white houses. We are just walking around the island and soaking it all up. Tonight we leave and head to Kusadasi in Turkey where we will be getting a tour around the area.

Now, back to the boat, its amazing! The food is spectacular, and the eating never stops. Did I say there was a pizzeria, ice cream stall and burger bar all on the deck around the pool, plus if you are still hungry, there is always the 24 hour buffet.....

The other night Jay and I went to one of the 'special restaurants' Sabatinis. What we didn't realise was that it was going to be a 10 course dinner and I am not kidding. You got one of every starter and pasta and soup on the menu and that was before you even got to your main meal! Just in case you were still hungry there was dessert as well. Luckily we are walking every day and therefore we are burning off the calories and we can still fit into our clothes! Jay also surprised me with flowers at the restaurant the other night with my fav flowers, oriental lillies....very romantic!

We are having some trouble uploading photos to our blog so photos will be uploaded slowly (thanks dad!) but will be about a week behind. Not many places, including the boat will let us do what we want to do and therefore the photos need to be sent to someone else to upload....

Anyway, must go, more exploring to be done..
luv nay & jay

Start of the luxurious cruise.........Dubrovnik & Corfu

We are now at the start of the cruise with the Barber family. The cruise is amazing and sooo plush, there is food galore (24 hour buffet and about 6 restaurants to choose from) and the rooms are beautiful....actually the whole ship is amazing. We spent one night on the boat in Venice and then started our journey to Dubrovnik, Croatia. We walked the wall around the old city and was a great way to see the city looking down across all the roofs. Like Venice, so many alley ways and shops to look at. We had a croatian pizza for lunch (this was the name of the pizza too...) and washed it down with a Croatian beer (same price as a soft drink). After lunch we went for a swim at the Croatian beach, after finding a spot to sit in between the topless ladies we were freshened by the beautiful water. As our ship didn't dock, tenders were used to get into Dubrovnik, as the seas were a little rough and so nay was looking a little green on the trip to land and also again on the way back....managed to get through the trip with some deep breathing.

Its very hot here at the moment and so our tans are looking very nice so far! There are 3 pools here on the ship and so we have been spending quite a bit of time in the pool when not exploring the land. There is always something to do, eating, movies to watch, more eating, books to be read, and exploring oh and there is also more eating to be done... (jason had 2 afternoon teas today!!)

Today we went into Corfu for the day. Jay and his mum did a greek cooking lesson, which ended up being just a cooking demonstration with no hands on work which was a little disappointing, however they did get to eat some delish food (maily comprising of garlic)...the rest of the family took off for the city and a look at the old forts......the traditional greek cuisine was then tasted....McDonalds!!! (couldnt beleive it!!)

Tommorrow we are heading to Katakolon in Greece which is where the old Olympia site is, however there is a strike for the guards that look after the olympic sites and musuems (spelling??) tommorrow and thus no entry will be permitted, so photos from a distance (over 400 metres...stikes suck!!) will be all we get tommorrow and a look around town.

Well that is all for now, sigining off.
Ciao

Venice...oh my

bonjourno from venizia

apologies about the last post, i realised when i was half way through that we had about 30 seconds left of time so had to abruptly end the post.

After helsinki and a mad rush to catch our next flight, we stayed in milan for a day, not a great city, and felt quite unsafe, people everywhere trying to get money anyway they can. I actually yelled at some guy for trying to help us with our bags, it was a little out of control.
due to huge amount of luggage we are carrying around with us, we were almost charged $400 in excess luggage but manged to argue our way out of it, thanks to joe for the travel tips on how to avoid extra payment.

milan to venice is a very short 30 minute flight, so after a quick cup of water we were here. its such a beautiful city and you could walk for days around here without going through the same streets. we visited murano yesterday which is the glass making island, very beautiful and expensive!!!!

we nearly bought a vase for 630 australian dollars, but we managed to talk ourselves out of it and bought jewellery and cufflinks instead! we have manged to eat quite cheaply here, just pizza and hamburgers (without the bun....wierd i know!).

our hotel is beautiful, great for the price we paid, breakfast is served in a little courtyard and is all included. our rooms looks onto one of the many alley ways and is very authentic.

jasons brothers and sisters arrive today and we will all have dinner together in venice tonight...yay! tommororw we get the boat and spend another night in venice on the boat before started our voyage to croatia and onwards.

must be off, gelato awaits......and more pizza....and wine.....and beer

Hong Kong, Helsinki & Milan!!!

Helloooooo!!!!!
I had hoped to post some photos with this blog, however the computer that we are using won't let us do anything and won't read our SD card, so fingers crossed next time!!
It has been a busy few days of travelling around and spending too many hours on flights! Jay and I are becoming to really enjoy plane food as its the only food we have been eating. We spent 1 night in Hong Kong, which of course wasn't long enough! The room that we stayed in was beautiful!!! and the bathroom was all glass and kind of didn't block off from the bedroom, hard to explain but we do have photos!!!
The next day we got on a plane and heading to helsinki for a quick stop over! It was the longest plane journey ever! No personal tvs or anything so we watched some foreign films on the main tv and there wasn't much music either!
must go time running out!