In the land of Ouzo and Zorbas

During our lazy days in Samoa we had some time to plan our next move. We went through all kinds of route plans including Japan and USA among others but ended up booking a flight from Auckland via Sydney via Singapore all the way to Athens, Greece. One of the reasons was that the tickets from Singapore to Athens felt dirt cheap being less than 300€ per person. And besides, who doesn't love Greek food ;D

Before going to Europe we stayed two nights in Auckland in a lovely airbnb place nearby the airport. We ended up taking a taxi there after many failed Über tries (the drivers didn't want to take such a short trip). Our Airbnb had lovely hosts and a lovely house, but when its dark and you're in a new place it can be tricky to find the right house. Not saying that we intruded some random Samoan resident's home when the front door was open or anything... 🙄

We didn't have much time in Auckland between our flights but still we were still fortunate enough to visit Pasifika Festival and meet our friend from Brisbane and some of her family members also. It was precious and we are so much looking forward for meeting again hopefully in the near future, maybe in Finland this time :)

The following day we took public transportation to Auckland airport. Our layover in Sydney was short but in Singapore we had to wait for few hours.. The company we flew to Europe with was called Scoot and as you might expect there were no personal touch screens or other luxuries included in the 266,19€ (with luggage!) price. Luckily the 11 hour flight left early in the morning around  3 am and we got some sleep during the journey.

We got to Athens March 27th around 10 am and went for a morning coffee straight away as there was no service on the plane and our journey from Aucland had taken nearly 26 hours. There was plenty of time to plan our route to our accommodation as our check in at Olympion Hotel started from 1 pm. With our caffeine-filled minds we had no trouble figuring out the best option and went to buy the train tickets to our destination. We did some waiting and after getting on the train and riding half an hour or so we got to the station we had googled. It seemed a little empty when we got off but we didn't pay too much attention on that at the moment although later on there was some trouble...

From the station there we had less than 10 minutes walk to our hotel.We checked in and almost immediately went to look for a grocery store. We found one nearby and being there shopping groceries in Europe using euros it felt weirdly familiar and foreign at the same time. Among other groceries we bought Ouzo which I've always hated but when in Rome (Athens)...

Back in Europe!

The essentials

After traveling all the way from New Zealand to Europe and not getting too much sleep we didn't do any sightseeing on our first day in Athens. One place we did visit though was a nearby restaurant called Fagourio. They didn't speak too much English there but we got our order through and the food was absolutely mouth watering and amazing! It was just a simple little place but it's very often the case with some of the best experiences. Little street food stalls in Bangkok or Kuala Lumpur, a modest bar in Koh Tao serving tasty Tom Yam, little sea food restaurant in Gdansk, tiny hole in the wall serving those tiny but so, so tasty tacos in Mexico.. Those are the places that stick to your mind.

Our first real taste of Greece

The next day was our only full day in Athens so we decided to visit Acropolis. It didn't take long to walk back to the train station where we arrived the day before. But when it was time to buy tickets there was no place to do that. The ticket machines were out of order and there was only a guard in the ticket booth so we continued our way along the tracks. After walking a while we got to another station and there... we faced the same situation. Only after a considerable walk we found a bigger station and there we got tickets for the train. We bought tickets for the next day also because our own station was a ghost place. It was a bit rainy when we got to Acropolis but we decided to visit there anyway. There were some Finns in the ticket booth queue so we tried to keep our silence :D

Views from Acropolis

Rest of the day we just strolled around Athens and looked for two restaurants that Mark Wiens had recommended in his vlogs. The restaurants worth visiting for are called Kostas Souvlaki and Mam. Kostas offers tasty gyro pitas and Mam delicious cheese pies (mm my mouth is watering just thinking about what we ate..). The next day we packed our stuff and took a train to the airport (luckily we had the tickets ready..). There we took the short flight to Rhodes.

Our ride to Rhodes

From Rhodes airport it was an easy bus ride to the center of the city. And our hotel was located very center indeed, it was conveniently named The Perfect Spot Luxury Apartments. If you're staying in Rhodes for more than few nights we highly recommend checking the place out. It was spacious and relatively cheap and, well, on the perfect spot.

We spent the next few days in Rhodes center and Old Town. If you're around and feeling hungry, be sure to check out Stavlos.

On Sunday we had a full schedule. First in the morning we took a good walk and visited Acropolis of Rhodes. Then we went back to our hotel to play some Tantrix and get ready for Throne of Helios 9D show (and Starbucks next door, gotta keep collecting those mugs ;p).

Morning walk near Acropolis of Rhodes

A game of Squiggle (Tantrix)

If you ask me to think Greece the first thing comes to mind would be a small tavern filled with people, live music and delicious food. The place we had dinner in (Kathopoulis Family Restaurant) was just like that and we really enjoyed the night! (usually stereotypes are bad but we'll let this one slip).

On our last day in Rhodes we hopped on a bus and traveled to Lindos. The place was full of cute small streets and the main thing there was to get all the way up to the fort but of course with out the help of the poor and cute donkeys.. We walked though. We saw the ruins from the outside and decided not to pay the touristy price for the ticket. So we went back down and visited a nice restaurant on the way instead. Greek salad and tzatziki never fails, really :)

Lindos

After Rhodes its was time to leave the clear blue waters behind and hop on the airplane and travel to Nyköping where we got a ok priced bus ride to Stockholm. There it was easy to navigate our way back to Finland. The ferry ride went through icy grey waters which felt so familiar (ugh) and also somehow very distant. And BAM. Then we were back home. Just like that. It was weird.. It was like we hadn't been anywhere but at the same time with all the memories of all the great places.

Memories from our trips together on the wall

What an amazing journey! <3

Afterword

If you have a travel bucket list, it just might happen that during your journeys the list does not shorten but instead grows longer. In our original plan we were supposed to stay 3 weeks in Philippines and fly home from Hong Kong. So I guess those go in the list. And when we were musing on our route options back home we grew more interest in visiting Japan. I've heard so many good things about Nepal, too, and that would be in the same general direction so add those too.. And of course the list is long already including places in Europe, Africa, Central and South America and who knows where. Maybe we'll write something here during some of our future trips. Or maybe we won't.
Traveling is a passion nonetheless and it's been it's own journey writing this blog, surprisingly time consuming for sure but a nice way to assemble our experiences. Thanks for our readers for traveling with us, we hope you liked staying with us. See you next time!

- Matias & Sini

Our route so far

Visiting Samoa and Some Moa

After NZ South Island we stayed couple of days in the North Island again before our trip to Samoa. It was cool to go back to our "roots" as we stayed again at the Bamber House. From there it was easy to get to the airport and to the city center. It was a bit bittersweet to go back to Auckland as I missed my mum and sis but.. It was also exciting :)
One year before we were planning to pack our bags and head out to the world my two (actually three) co-workers said farewells and went to see the world :) and now.. after 1,5 years it was time to see Sofia and Sebu again.. In Auckland NZ! Haha that was so cool! :)
So on one Saturday afternoon we met up on Queen Street and hopped on a ferry and went to the Waiheke Island. It was so nice to catch up as I had followed their journey through Instagram and got some good tips of places to visit. We had a great sunny and warm day at Waiheke Island playing frisbee golf, Tantrix and consuming beer on a beach. The night got even better when we tried unhealthy vegetarian food (by Lord of the Fries) talking about future plans and chilies in wrong places.. Good times 😎

A summer day well spent

Tantrix and beer on the beach

But yeah, that was the "Moa" part* of the story but the actual post is about Samoa.
What started as a joke in a bar in Bondi Beach Sydney turned out to be our reality and all of a sudden we were in a bumpy plane ride towards Samoa.

It took maybe 3-4 hours to get to Samoa from Auckland and when we got there we immediately noticed that we aren't in a super Western country anymore. The main terminal was under construction so we were guided to a nearby building for our immigration. There was a duty free "shop" consisting of one little stand in the corridor and a Samoan band wearing Samoan Talofa shirts was playing ukuleles and singing local island songs near the luggage belt. That was so special and thoughtful. We did not have any expectations whatsoever so it was all so exciting! When we arrived it was pitch black so we didn't see anything from the van's window and it was quite late when arriving to our accommodation in Apia, Talofa Inn. It was so late that no shops were open, they don't have any 24h 7/11 or gas stations there. But after a quick Google search we found a place of relief.. McDonald's! Oh hallelujah! And the best thing was that McD was just few blocks away and it was pretty much the only building staying open 24/7.

It was so dark and silent outside that I was super afraid to go out after 11pm in a strange place.. but we had to eat so my knight in not-so-shiny armor went to fetch some dinner for us. My hero <3

I can not even put into words how wonderful place Talofa Inn was. It's a small place in a wonderful location in Apia. Only 6 rooms, commodity kitchen, marvellous breakfast and smiling lovely ladies taking care of the people there. Talofa Inn was also a place where we met this one German/UK/Chinese guy and a Canadian girl.

Talofa Inn breakfast

Chatting at the breakfast table lead us to experience Samoa in a way we hadn't planned. Odin and Megan were heading to see the island of Upolu and we had the pleasure to join them. First we checked a 100m waterfall Papapapaitai and then got to swim in smaller one called Togitogiga (I am not making these names up...). Well Matias couldn't unfortunately swim as he had his new ink on him, but he got to enjoy the scenery still :) It was refreshing and amazing experience to have a dip. Also interesting experience as we met this local guy who first talked about his life and then laid his eyes on the Canadian girl trying to hook up with her behind the bathroom :D Well no time for hooking up as we had to rush to see what more the island had to offer ;D then we ended up in a paradise.. To Sua Ocean Trench. This place was so pretty with ocean view, small fales and clear water ocean trench where one can just chill and float. It had some scary ladders but I made it with Odin and Megan while Matias guarded our stuff and had his chill time enjoying few cold ones :)

Driving through the island

Togitogiga Waterfall

To Sua Ocean Trench

Chillin' in a fale

After the chill time we headed to explore the island little bit more.
We ended up in a tiny village of Uafato. The whole village was playing and enjoying some cricket like sport by the ocean and we actually drove through their playing field.. twice. Whoopsie. Luckily the village people were patient and let us move on in peace.
Odin was a good driver and we made back to Talofa Inn and cooked some dinner and we got introduced to Dhal soup :D ah.. that thing "saved" our lives later on our journey!

We stayed little over a week in Apia and we chilled, read books and wandered around a lot. We visited the fruit market and the flea market often and enjoyed the view of the ocean and the colorful bus terminal :) We also found an amazing restaurant called Paddles. It's a Italian restaurant founded by Italian guy who fell in love with a Samoan lady. You should always make a reservation, but if you forget and go just when it opens, you just might get lucky and get to have the marvelous food over there before the hustle. Especially the tuna and the salsa brings big smile to my face to this day :)

Apia bus terminal

Flea market

Mmm..

Heavenly tuna

We also visited The Cultural village of Samoa and that was an eye opener and amazing peak of Samoan history and the way of living there. We also got to taste some taro with Palusami and some fish made in umu, the tradition natural oven. The cultural village visit was free of charge but they accept donations so we felt it was good to give a little something back.

Umu cooking

Palusami is good!

We pondered should we go to visit Savai´i the bigger island and supposedly more beautiful island of Samoa but we counted our days and resources and wanted to try something fancy for a change instead. We booked our last 3 nights near the airport in a five star hotel. It was Sheraton Samoa Beach Resort and it was something else.

Breathtaking beach with hammocks and peace. Super friendly staff, swimming pool, good beer and big comfortable bed and also.. great food :) Though as we had our budget also in mind we weren't the typical five start residents.. oh no :) we had our own canned food! We had Dhal soup and dynamite chili meat mix and noodles with us! Matias, our chef "cooked" our delicious meal by putting the water heater on and filled the sink with hot water. Then he added our cans to heat up. After some waiting we had semi warm food to fill our tummies with. Haha it was silly but hey it made sense! The last night we spoiled ourselves and went to a Fia Fia night. Samoans are proud of their fire dance skills so the night meant good food, nice dance performances from ladies and gents of Samoa. Our waiter made sure we got good seats and what do you know we were invited to dance on the stage with the locals :D The fire dance later on was also cool! Or more like on fire! The guys are talented.

Sheraton Samoa Beach 

Life hacks

One of my favourite moments of all time

Samoan dance

Fia Fia Show

Ay ay ay :) I am smiling so much while writing this post by the way. 
I still drift away to the Sheraton hammock where we cuddled in an amazing sunset while listening to our favourites Robin and Popeda <3

If you ever get a change to visit this place.. do it. And bring your sun block and mosquito repellent.. The sun is hot and there is the possibility to get dengue or zika for example so stay safe and enjoy your life :)

Next for us it was time to work our way back to Europe and.. back home :) ️

*Oh and the headline.. The Moa part was NZ of course. Moa´s are extinct giant flightless birds native to New Zealand. But Moa is also a small brewery from Marlborough, New Zealand, offering a wide range of craft beer. So the Moa lives on after all.

- Sini

Our route so far