The 2009/10 European Domestic League's Winners and Losers, and the Top Scorers

English Premier League:
Winners: Chelsea
Runners-Up - Manchester United
Relegated - Hull City, Burnley, Portsmouth.
Top scorers: Didier Drogba (Chelsea 29 goals), Wayne Rooney (Man Utd 26), Darren Bent (Sunderland 24).

Italy Serie A :
Winners - Inter Milan
Runners-Up - Roma
Relegated - Atalanta Bergamo, AC Siena, AS Livorno.
Top scorers: Antonio Di Natale (Udinese 29 goals), Diego Milito (Inter 22), Fabrizio Miccoli (Palermo 19), Giampaolo Pazzini (Sampdoria 19).

Spanish La Liga:
Winners - Barcelona

Runners-Up - Real Madrid

Relegated - Valladolid, Tenerife, Xerez CD.

Leading scorers: Lionel Messi (Barcelona 34 goals), Gonzalo Higuain (Real Madrid 27), Cristiano Ronaldo (Real Madrid 26), David Villa (Barcelona 21).

German Bundesliga:
Winners - Bayern Munich
Runners-Up - Schalke 04
Relegated: Bochum, Hertha Berlin.
Top scorers: Edin Dzeko (Vfl Wolfsburg 22 goals), Stefan Kiessling (Bayern Leverkusen 21), Lucas Barrios (Borussia Dortmund 19).

French Ligue 1 League Table:
Winners - Olympique Marseille
Runners-Up - Lyon
Relegated - Le Mans, Boulogne-Sur-Mer, Grenoble.
Top scorers: Mamadou Niang (O.Marseille 18 goals), Kevin Gameiro (Lorient 17), Lisandro Lopez (Lyon 15), Mevlut Erdinc (PSG 15).

Dutch Eredivisie League Table:
Winners - Twente Enschede
Runners-Up - Ajax Amsterdam
Relegated - Sparta Rotterdam, Willem II Tilburg, Rkc Waalwijk
Top Scorers: Luis Suarez (Ajax 35 goals), Bryan Ruiz (Twente 24),Mads Junker (Roda 21).

Portuguese Liga Sagres League Table:
Winners: Benfica
Runners-Up - Sporting Braga
Relegated - Belenenses Lissabon, Leixoes SC.
Top scorers: Oscar Cardoza (Benfica 26 goals), Radamel Falcao Garcia (Porto 25),Liedson (Sporting CP 13).

Danish SAS Ligaen League Table:
Winners - FC Copenhagen
Runners-Up - Odense BK
Relegated - Aarhus GF, HB Køge.
Top Scorers - Peter Utaka (Odense 18 goals), Tim Janssen (Esbjerg 15), Dame N'Doye (FC Copenhagen 14).

Greek Super League Table:
Winners - Panathinaikos FC
Runners-Up - Olympiakos Pireus
Relegated - Pae Levadeiakos, Pas Giannina, Panthrakikos.
Top Scorers - Djibril Cisse (Panathinaikos 17 goals), Giorgos Barkoglou (Levadiakos 11), Javier Campora (Aris 11), Victoras Lacob (Iraklis 11).

Austrian Bundesliga League Table:
Winners - FC Red Bull Salzburg
Runners-Up - Austria Wien
Relegated - SC Austria Kelag Kärnten
Top scorers: Steffen Hoffman (SK Rapid 20 goals), (Roman Wallner LASK Linz 19), Marco Janko (FC Red Bull Salzburg 18).

Santorini

At last, the final instalment of my holiday in Greece ... the volcanic island of Santorini. The island is actually the 'lip' of an enormous volcanic crater and part encircles a massive caldera (the basin of the volcano, now filled by sea). At the heart of the caldera lie the two youngest landmasses of the Mediterranean. This picture below was taken on the larger of these two barren landmasses, looking towards Santorini:


Santorini is an incredibly popular tourist destination, but where Corfu was very much a family and package tour destination, Santorini attracts a different type of tourist - clearly the kind that has more money to spend because everything here was more expensive. Tavernas in Corfu add chips to every meal. Tavernas in Santorini create works of art.


The charm of Santorini is not its beaches, but rather the quaint pedestrian walkways, the awe-inspiring views and the blue-domed churches that epitomise Greece. White-washed villages cling to the rim of the volcanic crater, accessible to the harbours below only by hundreds of steps carved into the mountain side. At the capital, Thira (pronounced Fira), tourists can take the cable car or a donkey ride to reach the harbour at the cliff's base. We did both, to the kids' delight!


We stayed in the smaller town of Oia, famous for its sunsets. Words cannot describe the beauty of Oia (pronounced Ia). I'll just have to let the pictures speak for themselves ....

Corfu

I chose to visit Corfu to experience two things: the setting for Gerald Durrell's My Family and Other Animals and the famous Corfiote beaches. I grew up in a seaside town and hated going to the beach - we looked down our noses at the tourists who flocked to the sea to do nothing but sit on the sand. Now I'm one of them!

I knew that Corfu is now a top package tourist destination and has become really built up. I also knew not to expect the island to still be anything like what it was in the 1930s when the Durrell family lived there. Even so, I wasn't quite prepared for the urban sprawl of Corfu Town. The run down buildings seemed to sweat in the heat. I was disappointed.


Our apartment was in a resort in the built-up town of Gouvia, with an amazing swimming pool but no real beach to speak of. The kids loved it. Gouvia itself was a little seedy, with empty shops and too much litter, but it had character and it was on all the major bus routes.

A day trip into Corfu Town revealed the charming old town, presided over by two Venetian fortresses. Narrow alleys, colourful shop windows, street cafes and horse drawn carriages ... this town is well worth a visit.

The town's charm lies in its lively atmosphere, grand Venetian architecture and leafy streets, and enables the visitor to overlook the dilapidated state of the buildings.


But the best thing about Corfu isn't the main town. It's the small villages and the lush vegetation that you find when you get away from the built-up areas. And the beaches. The best sandy beach we visited was at Paleokastritsa, a series of coves with dramatic slopes covered in trees dropping down to the crystal clear sea. The beach is shallow and the waves gentle, so it's ideal for kids. Boats take visitors to the sea caves that dot this section of coastline. Paleokastritsa is also so popular that the tourists busses arrive in droves.

My favourite place on Corfu, though, is without a doubt the quiet and unspoilt village of Kalami. And not only because it is the area immortalised by both the Durrell brothers.

Though the village now boasts dozens of holiday villas and several souvenir shops, you can still easily imagine how Kalami looked in the halcyon days of the 1930s. Perhaps it's because the village is at the base of a steep slope and not accessible to tour busses. Or perhaps it's the fact that the beach offers few boat excursions or water sports. Or the fact that the beach itself is made up of large pebbles and impossible to walk on without shoes. For me, all of these things are bonusses - and the best thing of all is that you don't get sand into everything!


At one end of Kalami beach lies The White House (pictured below), Laurence Durrell's former home and now a taverna that makes excellent seafood. I highly recommend the swordfish.


I left Corfu with a lovely brown tan, infinitely more relaxed and happy than I arrived. Our next stop was Santorini, perhaps one of Greece's most popular tourist destinations. But I was sad to leave Corfu. There was still so much of this island I hadn't yet seen and still so much of that lazy, friendly island life to soak up. Oh well, next time ....

What I love about Greece

For those who've requested pictures, you'll have to bear with me. I haven't got the digital pics from my husband yet and I still use a film camera, which means I need to get the negative processed, developed & scanned before I can share them with the world. I know it's old-fashioned but I just love the quality of real film!

Now here are the 5 main reasons I love Greece (and most particularly the Greek Islands). I know that one tends to experience a place differently when you're there on holiday, but I still think that if I had the means I'd move there tomorrow!

1. FRIENDLY. The Greeks are the friendliest nation. Everywhere we went people smiled and made conversation. And the Greeks love children. So many people chatted to my girls, patted their heads, offered them cakes and sweets ... not exactly what I want to encourage in this dangerous world, but in Greece you truly feel that it's well-intentioned.

2. EASY-GOING. Despite the legendary Mediterranean temperament, the Greeks are so laid-back. The atmosphere feels so unpressurised and relaxed (and I don't think it's just because I was on holiday and relaxed!). I never encountered any aggression while in Greece. Far from it. Considering the narrowness of the streets, drivers are incredibly patient with one another. I watched a bus waiting as a taxi dropped its passengers and luggage and the bus driver did not hoot once. Here in Johannesburg drivers are very quick to hoot - for example, if they think you haven't taken off quickly enough at a traffic light. I know that the metals in the earth here in Jo'burg add to the aggression levels, but the Greek Islands really are at the opposite extreme.

3. SAFETY & SECURITY. Coming from South Africa, it is a real novelty for me to be able to walk around the town streets alone at night and still feel safe. And theft seems to be almost unheard of. With the assurance of a local we once left all our towels and bags unattended on the beach while we went off to a taverna for lunch. It was all there when we got back. I would love to become trusting once again and lose that urban suspiciousness.

4. SUNSHINE. The sun in Greece has a wonderful golden quality to it, so different from the bright whiteness of our African sun. Rather than an intolerable heat that burns, the Greek sun turns the skin brown. And apart from a little rain and wind, we had amazing weather throughout. Let's face it: this is the Mediterranean. Even the winters are bearable in comparison with many other places on earth.

5. NO MALLS. What a great place to raise kids. There are no shopping malls and virtually no strip malls, at least on the islands I've visited so far. I actually watched as a group of kids gathered in the town square in Oia (Santorini) on a Friday night to play with a skipping rope and ride bikes. No getting dressed up in brand name gear to hang out at the mall, where drugs and predatory grown-ups abound.

Next post ... Corfu.

Heaven on Earth

I'll post more in the following days, with pictures, but for now I'm just popping in to say "hi". This deliciously long and lazy holiday is now nearing its end and I'll be back to the day job on Monday. In the meantime, I'm still feeling so relaxed and deeply contented thanks to my stay in paradise.

As much as I love travelling, I haven't really been to that many places. The only continents I've visited are Africa and Europe, unless the Arabian peninsula counts as one these days. So I guess I really should be visiting new places when the opportunity arises (which isn't every day when you have kids and live at the back end of nowhere, geographically speaking). But I'm so glad I've revisited Greece instead of exploring somewhere completely new.

Five years ago my husband and I honeymooned in the Greek Islands, and it was simple luck and the roll of a dice that we landed up here rather than Mozambique, Mauritius or Spain. Now I'd be quite happy never to visit any other place on earth, because Greece resonates with my soul.

My next blog post ... what I love about Greece.

Hasta los Huevos Diego Serna and the Greatest game Everwhever! With Video by Burrito

Burrito loves all the Futbol yesterdays especially wheres Burrito's Mexico lindo win! Ahuevo!
But Burrito bring you footage of the greatest game everwhever in the history of futbol! You no believe? Here is great game recaps of Greece vs Germany! It important to see how well thought of all the plays are made. Maybe Zinho can get some ideas for the next Miami FC game by watching this video.
So go get something from Taco Bell, Burrito recommend the Quesadillas! ...and then sit backs and watch. Check it out homies!
Burrito love Monties Pythons!

In other news MiamiSoccerFan.com has letter from Afusionado who writes about Burritos compadre Diego Serna. Burrito still sad Diego was released from team. Once upon a times Diego play for the Miami Fusion, the best team in MLS historys and Diego was the all time scoring leaderers making 52 goles in 100 games! Chingada madre! Thats a lot, pero Diego only score 4 goles with Miami FC. Anyways, wherever you are Diego, Burrito want you to know you were always better then Ezra (Hendrickson)! Get it? Ezra... never mind pinches culeros! Burrito going to miss the divings and goles he missed! Hasta los huevos Diego! Here is one last chant for you!
Di-e-go, Di-e-go, Di-e-go!
Read more HERE

Greece, here I come!

This will be my last post for a couple of weeks as I'm off to the Greek Islands for a very long-awaited holiday. One week at Oia on Santorini and then one week on the island of Corfu, which I've wanted to visit since I was a girl, thanks to Gerald Durrell's books.

For the first time in as long as I can remember I'm travelling without my laptop, so that I can have a real break. Right now I'm so exhausted I could cry. I absolutely cannot wait to get there so I can lie on the beach with a book or sit in a Greek cafe and sip a cocktail while watching the sun set.

I'll upload pics when I get back, but in the meantime here's a little something from the internet to whet my appetite (and yours!). This is where I'll be next week:

His name is Alexis Georgoulis

As a follow up to my previous post, this is the gorgeous Greek god of My Life in Ruins. I'm not a big fan of Greek heroes and have no foreseeable plans to write one, but this man could change my mind ....


Can you tell that I'm trying to get away with very little writing in my blog posts?

Chick Flicks

There are some really great movies for women (and all other hopeless romantics) on circuit at the moment.

The Proposal has received coverage this last week over at Pink Heart Society. Despite the fact that the cinema had awful sound (at least we got free movie tickets afterwards to make up for it!) I loved this movie. It's definitely one for the keeper collection, and Ryan Reynolds is very drool-worthy.

The other recent movie I saw is My Life in Ruins. We chose this for the simple reason that it's set in Greece and we're off on holiday this coming week-end to a Greek island. I'm so glad we did! The movie was fun, full of both laughs and sighs.
Early on in the movie I had a few concerns about the leading man. Could they have not found a good-looking Greek actor for the role? Then about half way through he emerges bare-chested from the sea and I thought "Okay, so that's why he got the part! But couldn't they have at least found someone with a prettier face?" Then in the final scene he appears in a suit and I just knew why he'd been cast in the role. Yummy!

Babes Of The Month - Cheeky Christmas Cheer!

'Babe Of The Month' - Greece Is The Word!