Day 5 - Back to Sydney

We had agreed the night before that we were going to show up in the shared breakfast hall in our bathrobes. So here I was, standing in my Cow PJs with the bathrobe on when Will walks out of the bathroom fully dressed. I chuck a tantrum saying he needs his bathrobe as well since we agreed on it.

We walk out in our bathrobe when Will has another change of heart. We decided that he should check out what people are wearing so we're not the only morons in our PJs. He gives me his robe before he walks to the dining hall and comes running back screaming everyone is fully dressed. We trip back into our room where he screams at me "WTH WERE U THINKING?!?!". ME? It was a Will and Grace decision, yet I get the blame??

We get dressed into our normal clothes and head back out for breakfast. This was a lovely country breakfast where you get slices of fresh country bread, cereals, fresh fruit salad etc. When we sat down, the waitress immediately came over to offer us freshly brewed tea and coffee. We ordered a pot of coffee to share and hit the food.

Vegemite on country grain toast

Fresh fruit

As I was waiting for my toast to cook, one of the woman on the table next to us walks to the toaster to put toast in, only to see our toast there. She sits back down to wait her turn. Because she was busying talking, another girl put her toast into the toaster when we took our toast out. When she found out, she stood there GLARING at the other girl, ready to stab her with a butter knife. Someone get her some toast already!!!

Ontop of the cereals, bread and fruit, they also offer a full english breakfast made to order. After we finished our toast, the waitress asks if we would like our hot breakfast now. Of course we did! We have a hangover woman!

GIMME MY BREAKFAST!

Will's

My breakfast with the lot

Perfect runny poached eggs

After breakfast, we head back to pack our stuff. I realised I had left our cheese and olives in the fridge in the dining room and ran back out to grab it. As I walk into the dining room, I see 2 guys wrestling the toaster with a pair of metal tongs to get their toast out. The waitress comes running out to offer to turn the toaster off. They turn around and go "No, we're alright thanks." and continue to jam the tongs into the toaster??????

I grab my stuff and run back so I didn't have to be a witness to the accident waiting to happen. We pack our stuff into the car and took a step back to see how much we've accumulated in the 5 days:

The backseat

The backseat from the other view

The boot

We jump into the car to head back into Sydney. Within 10mins of driving, Will screams "MAGGIE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!". Without another word said, he winds down the window and I take a photo. As I said, perfect partnership.


And no, I won't bother explaining as no one would really understand. Just accept that this was a big deal for us ;)

Another 5mins down the road, I spot a sign that says "award winning cupcakes". Before I could say another word, Will parks the car to let me out. Now that's being on the same level. I walk in and ummed and ahhed for ages before picking out some cupcakes to take home:

SMJ is happy with her cupcakes!

Clockwise: Double choc, Hummingbird, Lemon cream and Bailey's cupcake

Will starts screaming that we've been in the car for less than 20mins and I've made another purchase. I spotted a heap of other signs that point to fetes and markets along the way, but we both decided to give it a miss. That is until we saw the markets in Linden

Without even discussing, Will knew that we had to stop. We find parking and run towards the market. Within seconds of arriving, our camera goes off non-stop. We did laps around the market just taking photos until I found a really nice Jam place where I bought some Jam for research.







We eventually get tired and leave. The whole way back to Sydney, we're looking for a car wash to clean the dead bugs off the car.


Maybe it was the car wash, or the drive, but we were hungry again and hit KFC. This has got to be one of the worst KFC experiences I've been to. I think their air conditioning was broken, as it was about 35degrees in the restaurant. I was sweating just lining up, and going to their toilet to wash my hands, they ONLY had hot water. And I mean HOT WATER. The food was still good....


Will drops me off at home and helps me unload all my crap:

2/3 of my stuff

Some of the goodies I got

The crap Will shoved into my bags

I had a fantastic time on my trip away, which was quite surprising for me. I'm not much of a traveller within Australia, let alone within NSW. I'm sooooooo glad Will asked me along, I can't wait for the next road trip! I guess any holiday can be fantastic with the right people. Especially when Will and Grace goes on holidays! That beats any other holiday out there!

Day 12 - More shopping and my favourite Bugis

All the kids are at school today. So me and my sister headed off for some shopping. Not before breakfast at her favourite Roti house:

Kopi

Mutton Murtabak and chicken curry

Roti Prata with curry sauce

Nasi goreng

We drove to Sim Lim square where I was hoping to buy a new camera lens, tripod and other accessories. But the prices were way more expensive compared to me ordering it from New York. Instead, I went and bought a new digital camera for the kids. Just a little cheapie for them to go play with and take on excursions. We also grabbed a few blood pressure monitors to use at home.

After that, we went across the road to OG where I ended up buying a wallet that cost more than my camera bags, which cost more than any handbag I've ever owned!! We ducked across the road after an hour to grab a quick lunch:

Hawker centre

Fish head noodle soup

Fish fillet noodle soup

After lunch, we quickly drive to my niece's school to pick her up. In Singapore, they start at 7am and finish at 1pm. We swung by to pick up my nephew before sending him off to Violin practice. It was at this time that it started storming. I'm not talking about just rain. I'm talking lighting and thunder, the type that makes you drop your glass and rattle your window.

Luckily, the plan was to stay home for the night and I helped my sister make BBQ pork for dinner:

The rain died down, so I grabbed a quick bite and ran off to the MRT to go to my favourite shopping centre, Bugis. Don't ask me why I like the shopping centre, I just do. I think its one of the first few I used to go to all the time whenever I visited Singapore. Its more sentimental value than actually good shopping I think. Didn't stop me spending up a fortune though.

My sister has also been raving on and on about the MOS fish burger and how its better than the maccas fillet-o-fish. Since I only had a light dinner, I ordered myself a fish burger and a piece of chicken:

MmMmm cheesy......

This was a whole chicken breast!

I was expecting a chicken strip or something small, little did I know it was going to be a whole piece of chicken breast. It was also incredibly moist. I bit into it and it squirted chicken juice everywhere! I also saw a stall making fresh cut potato chips. They literally cut the potato up in front of you and then fry it. I just had to get myself a small cup, which they drenched with wasabi mayo. Can anyone spell tears?

Day 29 - To Istanbul we go!

OMg. Its our last day in Mykonos. I'm not sure we've exactly overdosed. The only thing I've really overdosed on is those bloody green pills that keep making me throw up. Not sure if its actually making me feel better or worse. Today, I'm feeling worse since we had to get up early to get ready to leave. We do some quick packing before heading off to breakfast. We knew exactly where we were going and what we were going to order. Tea with Turkey, Tomato and cheese Crepes. I didn't even bother bringing my camera since we've had so many photos of it.

We sit at the cafe, taking a last look at Mykonos. God, we've never been up so early before. There's barely anyone up (at 11am) giving the town a strange peacefulness. After breakfast, we do a quick last lap before heading back to the apartment to pack. Since I was pretty much all packed, it took me less than 10mins to finish the packing so I decided to have another quick lap of the town whilst Moishii continued packing. I even used up the rest of the credit on my phone card and whatever spare change I had.

I get back to the apartment and wait for Moishii to finish packing when we began and slow and dangerous climb down the stairs with our luggage. Because of the stupid handrails, you couldn't lean on anything for support. I even bent the handle on my suitcase trying to get it down. It took me a few good minutes to get my suitcase down, which by then, had me sweating like I just ran a marathon. I practically collapse into Local Christine's seat whilst waiting for Moishii.

Next thing you know, Moishii practically comes tumbling down the stairs because of the weight of his suitcase. We finally managed to get all the bags down when we each did a last inspection of the place before locking up. Next thing was to actually get the suitcase from one end of town to the other end where the travel agency was. You see, a few days ago, we went into Windmills travel, the place I won the photo competition from to book our transfer to the airport. As we were chatting, the guy screamed out "YOU'RE THE ONE WHO WON THE PHOTO COMPETITION!!". Looks like I have a reputation there. Anyway, we ended up booking and paying for our transfer, who will pick us up from the office.

So through the narrow and unevenly paved streets we went. There were stairs and ramps and many near misses with scooters screeching past us. After about 4 rest breaks, we managed to get to the travel agency only to be really early. I dragged my suitcases 50m back down the road and plonked down on a bench in the shade.

20mins later, we finally dragged our stuff into the agency and was quickly ushered into a waiting van. One of the reasons we went for the transfer is that there is a severe shortage of taxis. We went to the taxi ramp and stood there for 10mins and barely saw any taxis. Any taxi that did come by, was quickly snatched up. The transfer was a guaranteed way to getting to the airport. So we're off in the van, and taking in our last look at Mykonos. Within 10mins, we're at the airport. And again, we have no checkin counter. So we sit around and wait and wait until the counter finally opens.

We quickly rush to check in our stuff when suddenly BAM. We're given an excess baggage fine. WTF? I know my suitcase was heavy when I flew into Mykonos, so I deliberately put more stuff into my handcarry. My bag was only around 20kg whilst Moishii's bag was closer to 25kg. The check-in woman explained that from Milan to Mykonos, we had a 20kg baggage allowance. From Mykonos to Istanbul, however, we only had 15kg each. LIKE WTF? How does that work? What am I supposed to do with my other 5kgs? FFS. We ended up paying about 20euro fine and checked our luggage in. Moishii even checked his hand lugagge in as there was no way it could fit into the overhead compartments.

We then go through security into the waiting area. At the waiting area, there was this chick on crutches. You could tell she had her foot completely cut up. I assume it was a bad combination of sandals and broken glass? And no, it wasn't the chick from Scandinavian bar, otherwise I would've gone up to chat to her. As we were sitting there and waiting, I ended up using the last 2euros on my phone card and almost spent another 100euros at duty free on a bag. But I managed to control myself until it was time for boarding. Suddenly there was a massive line with people shoving in to get through the gate first. We almost get trampled in the process, and honestly, I'm so sick I don't care.

We finally get our tickets checked and we're allowed out onto the airfield, where it was about a 200m walk to the plane. That wouldn't have been an issue had there not been gale force winds whipping us around. I literally got blown backwards. I'm not a small girl, and I'm also carrying a 15kg hand luggage plus my handbag that was easily 7kg. But I was STILL blown backwards. Here we were, gripping onto each other and trying to walk through the wind to the plane. We literally had to STOP because the wind was so strong, we couldn't take another step without toppling over. We had to wait for a break in the wind to advance forward. By the time we got onto the plane, I had hair bigger than Effie. I'm pretty sure I swallowed a few bugs as well.

We collapse into our seats and get ready to leave Mykonos. It was a bloody turbulent ride, but damn we were glad when we finally got out at Athens. It was a good few hours before our connecting flight to Istanbul, and to make matters worse, our flight from Mykonos to Athens was so early, we couldn't check in for the next leg of our flight. So the first thing we had to do when we got to Athens was to find the Turkish Airlines counter, which obviously wasn't open yet. We also managed to steal a trolley to shove all our stuff onto. 15mins later, they announce the counter for our check-in. So off we go, except we got stuck behind a tour group and people trying to check in 50bags each. There was also a guy and his crazy kid who was going nuts infront of us knocking shit over. Apparently they were Turkish and the dad was calling the kid a bastard amongst other things.

We finally checked in and got our tickets. By this time I was pissed off and ready to kill someone. The plan was to hit the duty free stores, so here I was, storming from one end of the airport to the other, ready to strangle any kid that gets in my way when suddenly Moishii practically rams me with the trolley screaming "CLAWFEET!!!!!!!!!!!". I whip around, and in amongst this MASSIVE line of people waiting to check in, was clawfeet and Colgate! OMG!! What are the chances??? I screamed their names at the top of my lungs and practically lunge through the crowd at them. I think I scared the crap out of them and half the people in line.

Clawfeet squeezes through the crowd leaving Colegate to check in. We had a good awkward chat for about 20mins, before Colgate practically made his way to the front of the line. We said our final goodbyes as they fly back to Perth. Meanwhile, we had to fulfil our Athens tradition of spending time at their Maccas. So we plant ourselves down at Maccas and immediately ordered some familiar comfort food.

Nuggets!

Big Mac!

Crispy, crunchy, salty fries!

As much as I love trying new food, especially authentic Italian and Greek food. Every now and then, you just need some junky Maccas to make you feel better. We sat and did a bit of recapping whilst at Maccas until it was time to move again. So we grab our belongings and moved back to the duty free area where we immediately hit the shops. I was planning on buying some Ouzo on my way back for my coffee guy in Sydney. But on careful inspection of the packaging, I'll probably end up with a suitcase of broken glass and ouzo so I gave it a miss instead. We hit the CD store for some retail therapy when we found the Je T'aime Singles! That's right! They have the songs that they sing on Je T'aime! And guess what? They had the Shish Kebab song! We JUST HAD TO BUY IT!!!

Feeling better after our retail therapy, we headed to the boarding gate where we bump into the screaming kid and his dad again. God, I swear if he sits near me, I'm shoving a vomit bag down that kids throat to shut him up. We eventually get on the flight and Moishii strikes up a conversation with the guy sitting next to him. Me? I just pass out from the combination of motion sickness tablets and those bloody green tablets. As we're about to land in Istanbul, all the seats go upright and the seat belts are fastened. I still managed to semi doze off waiting for the pills to wear off when we practically crash onto the runway. The plane hits the tarmac then BOUNCES UP INTO THE AIR before landing again. Since I was half a sleep, I gave out a little yelp. It was a good thing I wasn't screaming bloody murder. That definitely woke me up. Infact, it woke the whole plane up. I'm surprised people didn't have a heart attack from that.

We get off the plane and say a quick goodbye to the dude before heading towards immigration ourselves. I grab my Visa and quickly get through immigration where theres a massive wait for the suitcases. We had a mild panic attack thinking they've somehow stuffed up our luggage and they're stuck in Athens. Luckily, after awhile, the bags all come out. We also quickly ducked into Duty Free to grab a few bottles of Vodka for BellBoy as a gift whilst I went to exchange money to make sure we actually HAD money to spend.

We get out into the arrivals and jump into a taxi. Next thing you know, we're hurtling down the streets at an alarming speed without seatbelts. God I've missed Istanbul. We eventually come to a screeching halt outside Sude Konak where I practically tumble out of the taxi to kiss the floor. When I recovered enough to help with the luggage, I noticed that they had turned the street into a one way street, and built a new restaurant smack bang opposite the hotel.

We quickly checked in and go to our room. Now here's the thing. We assumed that knowing Bellboy, and the fact that bellboy thinks I am going to Istanbul with the bisexual sister of my ex-lesbian lover, that we would get a great room. Not only was this room small, our window faced a hole in the wall where the ventilation pipes and other random shit get thrown into. Basically it was a view of dirt, dust and rusty pipes. Our bathroom also had no ventilation, meaning by the time you finish showering, you break out into a sweat again.

We get changed and went for a walk around the streets to grab some water as well. Everytime we're in Istanbul, we always walk past a chinese restaurant behind the hotel. This is Istanbul's "Chinatown" according to Moishii. Everytime we promised that we'll go try their food another night. This night is no exception. Hehehe We even found a chinese travel agency in Istanbul!!

Istanbul's "Chinatown"

I wonder if I could get a discount from them?

Since it was close to 11pm and the last time we ate was around 3pm, we decided to go across the new restaurant call Maestro for a snack. Moishii explained that he's been meaning to try this place out, but every time the mentioned it, Bellboy has a complete fit and doesn't let him go, screaming that the place rips people off etc and that Sude Konak has better food and they do him a good deal. We go in hestitantly, especially since we're the only people in there. They give us a menu and looking at the prices, we were wondering wtf Bellboy was on about? The prices were really reasonable.

Inside Maestro

Their water feature/fish pond

Seeing that we're both sick, and I've developed a really annoying coughing fit, all we really wanted was soup and tea. I spotted lentil soup on the menu and immediately decided to order that. Back in 2005 when I got really sick from Mykonos, the thing that made me feel 10x better was a lentil soup we had in a dodgy back alley/courtyard in the Grand Bazaar near some metal factory. A few minutes later, they plonked down a basket of bread and our soup.

Basket of bread for our soup

Lentil Soup

Tea to sooth our throats

God I missed the Turkish Lentil soup. All we needed was some lemon juice. We practically licked the bowl clean before we went back to our hotel rooms and passed out for the night.