Shortieweb

Sorry for it being so long since my last post, but I'm full of excuses.

The guys from SupershopUK left us on the 19th and I had quite a bit of organaising to do before going away on the 23rd. I managed to make one entry before, but that was it.

On the 23rd we left for Rome to watch Panathenaikos with a couple of mates and didn't return until the 28th. One of the guys came down with a bad bought of flu and was laid up in a bad way on our homeward journey, and guess what! even though I had a fluey cold a few weeks before going, I came down with it Monday and it hit me like a brick. Must be my age!! i'm feeling a lot better today although I still have a fever and all the aches that come with it, I'm up and about.

Anyway, enough!!

This trip had been planned for about 2 months. Nickos Cuba done all of the hard work organising the whole thing and I must say done a grand job. There were to be 4 of us travelling and we were to meet Jeff, a Zante regular over in Rome from the UK.

Just 2 days before leaving, as usual, 1 guy dropped out leaving us in the cart financially. Nickos had managed to get such good deals on all of it but this made it more expensive with everything booked. There was only one thing for it, we had to find someone else, fast.

Well I know it's a boys trip away, but Nickos suggested that I ask Jules!!  Great for me, although I always enjoy these trips I often feel a bit alone as I don't yet speak enough Greek to join in the conversations, and I know they do there best to make me feel part of the laugh they are having, it's not the same, so I welcomed this decision, in fact I rushed home to push it on her before anyone else was found. She didn't need a lot of convincing, we needed a break.

We travelled by road and ferry. We had a great time on the ferry going out, with the boat full of Panathenaikos fans, a jolly lot to say the least.

We left Tuesday morning and arrived in Rome on the Wednesday afternoon. Good going. The game was to be played on thursday. there was a hitch! we had no tickets!!

We had heard that some tickets were to be released on the day of the game but had to find out where and when. We started at the obvious place, the stadium, but there were no tickets to be had and no clues where to get them. Nickos stopped a guy who spoke good English, he told us of a place in town where the tickets may be made available. After a lot of searching Nickos decided to get a cab to this place and sure enough a sea of green shirts were queueing outside the shop. They queued for ages and when they finally got in the shop they produced our passports and were told tickets were not available to us because we are English!!

Well!! Nickos, bless him, seached everywhere for spare tickets amongst the fans. He managed to find one for Jeff quite early on. As we were walking the streets of Rome you could

hear the Greek fans singing. We found them     at a square that had a stadiun type area. They were making the most of it. Nickos got amongst the crowds asking for spare tickets. He found one!! His determination paid off just in time, someone knew of somebody else who had a spare ticket somewhere else. We jumped on the train, Nickos armed with the guy's number and met him in St Peters Square. The deal was done, we had all the tickets and only a couple of hours before the game.

Needless to say the game was fantastic, Panathenaikos winning and going through to the next round.

We still had a day or so to enjoy Rome. We decided to spend our time wisely and take one of those open top bus tours, hop on and off style and it was the right choice. Poor Jeff had to leave us halfway through as his flight was booked for that afternoon. I'm sure he enjoyed the time he had there, a nice easy going chap, we could have done with a little more time to get to know him better.

We saw all the beautiful sights in Rome, fantastic some of it, the Colosium and the Vatican being the highlights, but if you go to Rome, one of the most spectacular sights is the Fontana Di Trevi. It must be seen at night to appreciate it's full glory.

I have to say! call me ignorant if you like, but I thought most of the food was crap!! I'm not a fan of pasta or pizza so I suppose I am bias, however, I did try it, a recommended dish of Penne with a cream sauce and small pieces of pork. Sorry! I hated it. On our last night we found a restaurant near the hotel that served good food, and cheaper too.

Rome is expensive, but I find this and expect it in all cities, so I had no problem with it. You are looking at 6euros for a bottle of beer though. Ouch!

All in all, we had a fantastic time, a trip that we'll remember. Nickos and I would both like to thank Andreas for the dose of flu!!!  but he also was good company so we'll let him off.