The sights, sounds and smells of Europe so far......
1. In the country towns of England , the smells of fertilizer in the fields
2. In London and Paris, the almost constant sounds of sirens.
3. In France and Greece, the constant whine of two stroke scooters, in Greece, they are often straddled by someone without a helmet, smoking a cigarette , but at least red traffic lights are a social occasion with everybody having a chat.
4. In villages in France, the occasional smell of sewers, the smell is there one minute, and gone the next.
5. In Paris, the musical pitter patter if car tyres over the cobblestones.
6. In France and Greece, the smell of cigarettes everywhere, stairwells, restaurants, hotels, drifting into whatever window you leave open.
7. On the Greek islands, the sound of loud American cruise boat patrons, they pile of boats in the morning , hunt in packs , operating at least 10db above any other nationality. They want everything in American dollars, want everything like home, and then they are back on their boat and gone by 6pm.
8. Also on the Greek islands, Japanese tourists, who either hunt in packs, or as couples, with the wife dressed up in her best dress and makeup and high heels ready to do ridiculous poses and pouts in front of every tourist icon they can find. I am sure they only judge their holiday, not by the experience, but by the photos. ( in santorini we even saw a Japanese man with a quarter back tattoo of his wife pulling a funny face.... It was hilarious!)
9. The smell of coffee wafting out of cafes in France, and the sight of 50 people sitting in the outdoor tables ALL facing out (they don't even set the tables up to face each other, they all face out)
10. The smell of men's heavy cologne, often accompanied by white pants, slip on shoes and a three day growth. Fabio is alive and fell in Greece!
11. In Greece the sound of donkeys. Santorini had the overpowering smell of donkeys, and as our hotel room was cut into the rock, with a path over it. We had the clip clop of the donkeys being led to work every day across the roof of our room.
12. Paris patisseries, that the smell was hard to walk past. And the assault of colours behind the glass of berries, cream, lemon......yum
13. Looking up at perfect blue skies, crisscrossed by vapor trails of jets thousands of feet above.