Cruising the world

Photos: Week 22-France (again) and Luxembourg

jamesandjulie — Thu, 29 Nov 2012 06:10:00 GMT

Week 22-France (again) and Luxemburg

jamesandjulie — Thu, 29 Nov 2012 05:59:00 GMT

Unfortunately I woke still feeling rubbish, so after a slow start we caught a train into Monaco. The station was very flash looking and it was quite clear walking around the town there was a lot of wealth. We even played a game of “spot the Ferrari” there were so many! We initially walked around the wharf, which had a carnival going on before finding Monte Carlo casino and taking a few snaps of it, and the flash cars parked outside. We stopped for lunch at a carnival stand and shared a ‘Big American Sandwich’ that was like a hamburger, but in a loaf of bread and topped with fries. It was pretty huge but inexpensive-which was hard to come by. Honestly you can pay 14 euro for a hot dog here! We then walked around the old town and saw the Royal Palace. We learnt that Monaco has its national day in two days time (19^th November), which explained all the flags and pictures of royalty around. Unfortunately because it was the off season we were unable to go inside the State Rooms of the Palace so we made a beeline to the casino instead. We wandered around the Pokie lounge and had a flutter, loosing 35 euro. Ah well, it had to be done. By this time I was starting to feel a bit rubbish, so we headed back to the campground and settled in for the evening, preparing for our trip to Nice the next day.

Feeling slightly better, we caught a bus to Nice for the day. We were lucky to be blessed with yet another sunny autumn day so we took advantage by strolling the promenade, admiring Nice’s pebbled beach. There was even a couple of brave people sunbathing on the beach, it would have been around 16 degrees! After a quick lunch we visited the modern art Museum, where we read in the Lonely Planet guide that Andy Warhol’s Campbell Soup Can painting is. We walked the whole museum to discover that it was in fact not there at all-considering we have the last two editions of the Lonely Planet with the same information we were pretty annoyed! We may have to write to them to complain. In saying that, their Pop Art collection was pretty cool and we did manage to see a couple of Warhol’s pieces. From the rooftop gallery we also got a nice view of Nice so we took a few photos before heading home for the day.

The next two days were huge drive days, as we headed in the direction of Luxemborg. The first day James drove a huge 450km to Lyon. The scenery was stunning, as we drove around the western side of the French Alps. Snow was on the top of the ranges and all. The roads were so windy that it took us 9 hours to get there. A massive drive for James but the highlight had to be breaking our ‘highest elevation record’ from 1200m (just outside Lyon at the start of the trip) to 1444m. We checked into the same campground we stayed at in July (another record) and had a more enjoyable stay this time around. The facilities were all heated and we even arranged some croissants and a baguette for the next day.

After a discussion that it would be another huge 9 hour drive the next day, we decided to break up the journey over two days so we drove 350km the next day to a small place called Vagney. Or so we thought we were staying here. We pulled up at a campground we had read in our AA campground book was open all year to find the gates open, facilities open but no reception, people or campers. Strange. I called the telephone number and through very broken French learnt that the campground was actually closed. I was quite pleased in some ways as it was a freaky little abandoned campground on the edge of some woods (the stuff horror stories are made of!). But it also posed a huge problem, having no internet to search for another ‘open’ campground nearby, which are like hens teeth now we are so close to Winter. Faced with the prospect we may have to keep driving onto Luxemborg, we searched on the Garmin for campgrounds nearby and after one telephone call, we managed to get a hold of a campground that was only 8km away. We checked in (I could have kissed the lady on reception we were so happy) and we settled in for the evening, parked beside the beautiful lake on site. It also gave us the opportunity to use wifi and we booked our ferry crossing home for this Saturday. Hard to believe it is all coming to an end, a life we have become accustomed to!

Things we will miss:

-Dusty, Campground cats, Sunsets, Reflections on the water, Water fountains, trying new food, exploring a country, driving on dodgy roads, beaches, Great people we have met along the way, local beers and wine, castles and fortifications, city tours, history lessons, stunning scenery, movie nights in the van, Theme parks, swimming pools

Things we won’t be missing:

-Cold showers and public toilets (especially squatter toilets), folding our beds out each night, trying to communicate in foreign languages, European touts, wild dogs, driving on dodgy roads, following the Garmin’s (dodgy) instructions, November coldness, snakes and giant bugs, bad wifi

We had a sleep in and got some bread for the journey, arriving in Luxemburg around 2.30pm to what was more of a trailer park than a campground! We spent the afternoon chilling out in the van watching movies with the intention of hitting the city the next day.

We managed to catch a bus into Luxemburg city, walking around the sights before booking onto a walking tour which was interesting but not overly great. Afterwards we celebrated our last lunch in Europe by dining at a nice restaurant. I was desperate to try some local fare, called Judd mat Gaardebounen, or Smoked Collar of Pork with Broad Beans. It was so aweful that I couldn’t even finish the beans! Such a shame and another bad Lonely Planet recommendation. We headed back to Dusty and had a quiet night in, dining on soup with bread and yummy strawberry custard tarts to celebrate our last night in the van.

We took our time rising the next day, knowing we had until 8pm to get to Dunkirk to catch the ferry. As we started our 350km journey toward the coast of France we soon realised that the roads were all motorways and we were going to be able to make the 4pm sailing. We arrived at Dunkirk at 3pm and were able to change our ticket to the earlier sailing which was great. We pulled up in front of the ferry in the crap weather and soon found out there was heavy rain and flooding expected in England and there were gail force winds making their way through the English channel. Lucky we make the earlier crossing as we crossed no problems at all. On reaching Dover the news wasn’t wrong and we were welcomed back to England with pouring rain.

Time to get back to reality by finding a flat and starting back at work.

Photos: Week 20 and 21, Italy

jamesandjulie — Tue, 20 Nov 2012 03:58:00 GMT

Week 20 and 21, Italy

jamesandjulie — Tue, 20 Nov 2012 03:51:00 GMT

Week 20

The drive to Florence was extremely windy and quite narrow considering we were on the A1. We arrived at camping Michelangelo in Florence at about 11am. At the campground we were treated to a great view of Florence especially the old town (although camping was 33 euro per night, aka rip off). We quickly had some lunch and got some well over due washing done, then hit the pavement toward old town. Firstly we went to Piazza Michelangelo where you get possibly the best view of any city we have seen in our travels. In Piazza Michelangelo there is of course a statue of David, and a clear view of the cathedral of Saint Maria del Foire, Basilica Santa Croce and Maria Novella, the river Arno which has the Ponte Vecchio bridge. We made our way down hill and crossed the Ponte Vecchio bridge which was lined with jewellery shops. We then walked past the Uffizi museum toward Piazza della Signora, which was pretty cool as it had whole lot sculptures (including a replica of David) around the Piazza. We then went to the Cathedral of Maria della Foire and had a look inside, it was amazing, the third biggest after St Peters and St Pauls. After this we went to Santa Croce Cathedral and had a tasty gelato. We then headed back to the campground and took some great night shots of Florence along the way. That night we planned for the next day with the Academia gallery at the top of the list to see Michelangelo’s David, then a city tour followed by a visit to the Uffizi museum.

We woke nice and early to beat the queues at the Academia gallery, which we did there was no queue and few people inside. We strolled around and took in all the artwork and sculptures by all the big names. We sat down and admired Michelangelo’s David for a while before watching a documentary on him. By 1130 we were gallery(ed) out, we decided to head for lunch. I had a nice duck ragu and James had a pizza of course. We started to head toward the meeting point for the city tour with a spot of purse and bag shopping along the way. I managed to score a nice little leather bag and purse for 50 euro (bargain). We found the meeting point outside the Basilica of Santa Maria Novella but to our disappointment the clown taking the tour didn’t show up on time. We waited half an hour then left. At this stage we couldn’t build up energy for another museum, so we decided to flag the most talked about and most popular museum in Florence, the Uffizi museum. Nevermind maybe we’ll do it when we’re 70. On the upside we headed toward Piazza Pitti and saw the palace that was rather grand. Along the way we found the best flavoured gelato (Choc-orange) -the cheapest we have found in Italy. It was so good we went back for a second helping 2 minutes later. We were done with Florence by this point and are starting to notice we don’t have stamina we did 3 months ago. So back to the van for some dinner and skype home.

Parting ways with Florence we packed up and drove onto a place called San Romano, where we were basing ourselves for a visit to Pisa. We parked up and then walked a 3km walk to the train station, arriving in Pisa that afternoon. With Pisa being quite small it only took a couple of hours to see the sights, the leaning tower (of course) and the surrounding cathedral and baptistery. It was cool to see the leaning tower (it really is on quite an impressive angle). We were lucky enough to get a really nice sunny day and managed to take all our funny photos there before sampling some tasty gelato nearby. We sat in the sunshine and gazed over the to the tower of Pisa, which was when James decided he would go for round two of gelato. We made our way back to the train station, picking up some bread on the way so we could enjoy some bruschetta with our prosecco to wrap up the evening.

We woke to another sunny day in Tuscany, driving on to Siena and found a nice campground. On arrival I had to make a phone call back to London about a potential job for when I return. This was all going well until I had a snake slither past me (I was only wearing jandels too!), freaky! After this excitement we had a quick lunch before walking through Siena old town, which had a marvellous city wall around it. We strolled through the narrow streets and spotted some unique points to their grand old buildings; they would have plastered heads of famous people sticking out of the sides of the walls, just under the rooftops. Quite strange to look up at, as they were looking down at you! We walked to Piazza Del Campo, which was a strangely curved amphitheatre shaped square (which we are guessing is for the horse race they hold here every year). We spotted a sign offering huge slices of pizza, so tempted I decided to have a piece, James preferring a gelato! It’s highly probable we will make a gelato purchase at every third store at this rate! We then walked onto the beautifully ornately decorated Siena Cathedral (Duomo di Siena), which had pink marble on the front, and a zebra striped appearance on the tower and pillars inside, with black and white marble. Quite stunning and strange to see, probably my favourite cathedral to date given how unique it was. By this stage it was starting to get a bit cold so we took our finally shots and headed back to the campground to warm up in the van.

Today we headed to San Gimignano by bus to give James a break from driving. On arrival we were greeted by city walls, which we walked through to what is called Medieval Manhattan. It was lovely strolling the streets, taking photos of the old buildings and towers. We made a local purchase of some Wild Boar and Truffle salami, which was really tasty but stunk our bag out all day! We were also pleased to stumble across the 2006/07 and 2008/09 Gelato Champion’s shop. Obviously we had to try it. James played it safe with mango, passionfruit and a second one of mint and crème caramel whereas I was more adventurous with raspberry and rosemary and pink grapefruit and sparkling wine. Although not my favourite flavours, they did taste, as you would expect them to, exactly like the flavours. We spent the last hour walking outside the wall where we managed to get some pretty pictures of the Tuscan countryside before catching a bus back to Siena where we settled in at the campground.

We left early from Siena to drive to Ravenna, where we were lucky enough to have been offered a full B and B experience, including personal tour guide in my Italian friend Matteo and his family (Matteo was over from London for the weekend). We arrived right on midday and Matteo and his mother greeted us, we offered a customary and highly recommended bottle of wine from Tuscany and then they showed us around the home before we meet his sister and father and sat down for lunch together. And what a fantastic lunch it was. Our first course was cuttlefish with peas in a tomato-based sauce with white and brown rice (which was almost black in colour). We had never tried cuttlefish and found it to be really tasty, a cross between squid and a firm fish. The second course was sea bream, marinated anchovies, peppers stuffed with an olive and anchovies and a salmon, prawn, tomato and cannellini bean salad. All so delicious, and served with a glass of white wine. We both went back for seconds on these courses it was so yum! We then had homemade preserved peaches and finally chocolate-orange cake with a Chantilly cream and some sweet dessert wine. It was such a treat to be sharing a meal with my friend’s family as I have always dreamt of “doing like the locals do” in Italy.

After lunch, Matteo gave us each a bike (and after a detour to collect his bike from his grandmother’s flat) and we rode into town where we did a guided tour around the Old town on foot. Matteo showed us through Dante’s Mausoleum, the Basilica of San Vitale, home to one of the many churches with beautifully detailed and UNESCO listed Mosaics, the Neonian Baptistry, again with beautiful mosaics and we even went through the chocolate festival filled with creative displays and lots of chocolate shaped tools and instruments to purchase.

That evening Matteo took us out to the Regional wine festival that was being held that weekend in their local sports stadium. It was also a chance for Matteo to introduce us to some of his friends from high school. For 14 euro each, we got a wine glass, a platter of food that included sausage from Bologna, pizza, bread and local cheese and all the wine sampling you could fit in between then and closing time. It was such a bargain of a deal. Our excitement soon turned to apprehension when we realised that we were highly likely to be the only people there speaking English and wondered how we would even be able to ask for a sample! However Matteo was fantastic and helped us along until we had enough wine in us to pluck up the courage ourselves! And to be fair we only had to admit defeat once as the gentleman was trying to ask us/tell us something!

We spent the evening meeting and greeting Matteo’s friends (who seemed to enjoy practicing their English on us), wine sampling some delicious wines including the local red wine, Sangiovese and exploring and tasting samples from the gourmet foods section, including the very potent cherry wine (I swear it was a liqueur!), a delicious mandarin gelato (the best flavour yet) and staring in amazement at how costly fresh truffles were to buy! We also got our chance to try the local snack of Pidina, a type of pita filled with Italian ham and soft cheese which was also delicious. Exhausted after a day of touring, we drove back, had a snack of more of the delicious chocolate cake and Chantilly cream and hit the hay.

We woke by 10am (it was so nice to sleep in a normal bed!) and had some breakfast before driving back into town to see the Bascillica of Saint Apollinare Nuovo and the mausoleum of Teodorico. It was a huge shame we had to get going towards Milan and could not stay for lunch but Matteo’s mum was fantastic, providing us with a sample of everything she had prepared for lunch. We decided to quickly eat before getting on the road and enjoyed it all; a pastry filled with cheese, asparagus and Italian ham, a local version of chicory wrapped in prosciutto and a soup with local pasta (made from egg, breadcrumbs and parmesan). It was all really delicious. We said our fond farewells to Matteo and his lovely parent’s after a fabulous stay that did not disappoint (it completely exceeded all of our expectations) and promised to meet again, in Italy or in London. Matteo’s mum provided us with more pidina, mandarins and a bottle of local red wine for the road too, which was so generous of them. I would love to visit again and hope we cross paths with his family again in the future. It was a great experience for both of us and one we will never forget.

We drove on to Milan that afternoon and arrived in good time taking the motorway all the way. We checked into the campground and after confirming a location in town, meet up with friends, Kirk and Eli, who were visiting for the weekend. We strolled the longest fashion street in Milan before admiring the Duomo (Cathedral) and the boys stopping at McDonalds to attempt the Happy Meal Challenge together. The goal of the challenge (as attempted unsuccessfully in Turkey and Greece) is to eat a Happy Meal in under 1 minute. Both boys came so close, but again no cigar (just chunks of bread in their glasses of coke!). Gross! We then went to dinner, having a delicious pizza and red wine before heading back to the campground.

Week 21

The next day we jumped online to book the Milan city tour (which included the Last Supper). It was frustrating to find out that doing this tour was the only way we could actually go and see the Last Supper, as tickets are sold out two months in advance (so tour company’s buy them in bulk). At a rip off price of 60 euro each, we booked the morning tour for the next day before heading back into Milan to meet up with Kirk and Eli. We walked up to the top of the Duomo, which showed how impressive the statues and decorative pillars really were up close. We then did a spot of shopping (rather unsuccessfully) and had lunch together before farewelling Kirk and Eli and James and I heading back to the campground for the night.

We made it just in the nick of time for the start of the morning city tour (rush hour traffic we had not planned for!) and were the last ones on the bus in fact. The tour took us to the Scala Theatre where we got to look inside the museum and theatre itself, where all the big names of Opera had performed and which we knew nothing about. It was very interesting but we likened the theatre to any of the lovely theatre buildings in London really. We then walked through the oldest shopping mall in the world, which is also home to one of the two seven stared Hotel’s (a cost of 11,000 euro/night to stay at-NOT including breakfast) and onto the Duomo where we looked around inside. We then drove onto the castle where Leonardo Da Vinci lived for 17 years and is now a museum. Unfortunately we did not have time to go inside the museum that is home to Da Vinci’s first fresco painting he completed after the Last Supper and also a Michelangelo sculpture. After this we drove onto the Cenacolo Vinciano at Piaza Santa Maria Dell Grazei to see the Last Supper. Security was tight, with three automatically controlled doors to get inside. Each group of no more than 25 people at a time are allowed 15 minutes before you are ushered out. The security measures were said to help protect the painting. It was an impressive mural and the tour guide explained the meaning of the painting to us all including the history of the building, which was bombed in WW2 and used as a barn by Napoleon’s army. It was even a prision at one stage. There was definite evidence of deterioration, which we learnt was due to the style of the painting but it was definitely well worth the tour to see it. It was pretty awesome to be standing in front of the Last Supper, much more impressive than the Mona Lisa or the statue of David we think.

We finished the tour and headed directly back to the van, driving on to Italian Riviera. We had initially found a campground close to Cinque Terre online, but despite saying it was open, to our shock (it was 5pm at night) it was closed. Thankfully we had a back up option, but this meant driving through the windy coastal roads, with massive one-way tunnels. It meant huge delays but we arrived in Rapello at 7pm pleased to see the gate open. Exhausted it was dinner and then bed.

The next day we raced to the train station and caught the next train to Cinque Terre. Cinque Terre is made up of five separate coastal villages, all in succession, which are mostly cut off to road traffic and have beautiful rustic buildings, built high by the waterfront. We arrived in the bottom village Riomaggiore only to discover the walking tracks were all closed for winter and that there was a train strike that day from 2pm to 6pm. It meant we only had time to visit this place (which was beautiful) and one other, we chose Vernazza. We enjoyed strolling the streets, taking photos and tried some pizza and yummy gelato; fig and ricotta was delicious. Then it was time to head back before the strike. Unfortunately we were delayed by one hour getting back so all in all we were very disappointed that we were not aware of the strike as we could have seen all of the villages any other day. Seeing we got back early we managed to find the esplanade in Rapello and strolled the streets before heading back to the van, taking home some yummy profiteroles filled with custard cream.

Despite plans to move on, we both agreed the Italian Riviera was well worth exploring some more, and the weather was so sunny and warm too so after a morning of errands we caught a train to Genoa and explored their old town, home to many impressive buildings. We then toured through their aquarium; Europe’s second largest, enjoying the dolphin show and seeing all sorts of cool and weird creatures, the alligator were my favourite and James liked the Jellyfish display the best. It was a nice relaxing day out.

We drove out of Rapello and drove through to France, settling at a campground between Nice, Cannes and Monarco. Unfortunately I had a bad head cold so I spent the rest of the day lying down while James watched movies. We agreed to catch a train to Monaco the next day, both hoping I would feel better tomorrow.

Photos: Week 19- Slovenia

jamesandjulie — Sat, 10 Nov 2012 05:10:00 GMT

Week 19-Slovenia

jamesandjulie — Sat, 10 Nov 2012 05:02:00 GMT

We crossed the border into Slovenia and are back in the EU again. We firstly found our campground before driving into town to buy an oil heater and then back to the campground to set up and crank the heater. It was great to have a warm van and we stayed inside watching movies to really enjoy the heat before exploring why Terme Catez campground was voted Europe’s top campground in 2012. The complex was massive. Not only did it have a beautiful campsite beside a lake, it also had a hotel, Indian Tepee’s and Pirate cabins you could stay in. It had a shopping complex, a mini casino and a huge swimming complex, both summer and winter one’s. And the best part was that for 39 euro, James and I got the campsite and a three hour pass on the day of check in and on check out to the indoor heated swimming complex. It was great. We tested out all pools, including the hydro slides, wave pool, artificial wave (well James did!) and the spas that evening and again the next morning. It was great value and also great fun.

The next day, after check out we drove onto Lake Bled, driving around the lake and working out a parking location for tomorrow when we planned on walking it. Then onto the campsite 15km away, right on the NW edge of Slovenia and right beside the Austrian border. The lovely campground lady gave us directions on where we can fill up our gas bottles too which we were pleased about (being halfway through our last bottle of gas now) and we agreed to check it out the next day.

Unfortunately the gas bottle store was closed for stock take, so feeling frustrated we drove onto Lake Bled and walked the 6km around the lake. It was a fresh but clear morning and we managed to take some great photos of the church and castle on Lake Bled on our walk, stopping in Bled for lunch at a cafe. The café was cool as it backed onto an ice rink and we watched ice hockey and figure skaters while we ate our massive hamburger and pizza. Such big meals we had to doggy bag half the pizza (and also a piece of Slovenia’s version of custard slice). Lake Bled done, we headed off to Ljubljana Resort campsite after two failed attempts at stocking up on food supplies (the supermarkets were shutting by 1pm as it is a public holiday the next day). We planned out the next week’s driving and accommodation locations then settled in to watch a movie on the laptop.

It rained quite heavily in the night and we woke to the same. Braving the elements we caught a bus into town and walked around the Old Town, before dodging the rain by visiting Ljubljana Castle. We watched a movie about the castle’s history over the last 5000 years then moved onto the museum of Slovenian history. We left the castle and headed back to old town for lunch at a place we spotted on the up to the castle. We heard good things about Slovenian food and to delight it fulfilled our expectations. We had soup served in a loaf of bread, Hungarian goulash, Weiner schnitzel, and to finish off a layer cake made from apple, poppy seeds, walnut, and cream cheese. The only downside of lunch was that we didn’t have enough room to fit in a horse burger which the locals go crazy for, (damn it!).The rain had pretty much stopped by now but it was quite cold so we spent an hour walking the old town admiring the colourful old buildings and other quirky little things seen along the way. It was a shame about the rain (but we can’t complain because of the great weather we have had over the last 4 months), but Ljubljana had a very nice feel to it and was a very pretty looking city, it was a shame we couldn’t stay a little longer.

The next day was my birthday so we spent the morning shopping at BTC City, a massively spread out mall in Ljubljana. I managed to pick up a couple of winter coats and some ankle boots so I was pretty stoked. James also picked up a sweater and some shoes (one of the bonuses about nearing the end of the trip is we can now load up the van!). We then drove around the city hoping to find a mechanic who could do an oil change on Dusty, but after three failed attempts we gave up. We did manage to find a place to top up our gas bottle however, so we will now have enough to last the rest of the trip which is good. Although we planned on driving out of the city that day, by this time we decided our best move was to stay another night, so we checked back into the Ljubljana Campground and James took me out for dinner. We went back to the same place we had lunch yesterday, Sokol and had a nice fish plate (trout, langoustine, mussels and squid). We later found a café and bought a couple of tasty slices of cake, mine with chocolate and raspberries and James’ with chocolate and pistachio. I had a lovely birthday and was thoroughly spoilt.

Predjama castle was the first stop of the day, which we admired from the outside before driving onto Skocjan caves where we did a tour. The tour itself was packed with people, thankfully they separated us out into two groups; the Italian’s (they were the bulk of the group and who went in before us) and the rest of us (Slovenes and everyone else who spoke English). We weren’t allowed to take any pictures, flash or no flash, which was a shame as it was so stunning. We saw loads of stalagmites and stalactites as we walked through 3km of cave. The best part was a bridge crossing 45m above a raging river. It was so impressive and a little daunting all at once. Afterwards, we drove onto Adria Resort in Koper, setting up camp right beside the Adriatic Sea once more. We watched the sunset then had dinner and jumped into bed.

The next day we were supposed to head into a small town called Piran, which is a Slovenian resort town on the Adriatic that is quite picturesque. After reading about it the night before it didn’t really excite us so we decided to flag it a head toward Italy, which only happened to be 2 km down the road. We decided to head to Bologna which was 300km SW so it was a big drive. Just before we crossed the border into Italy we snuck into a gas station and got the last cheap gas we would see for awhile. It poured with rain the whole time we drove and just as we reached Bologna it stopped which was great. We parked the van at the campground a ran to catch a bus into the town centre for some exploring. We cruised around Bologna with the intention of not doing much. We strolled through some markets and made our way to the main Piazza. We were surprised how busy it was for Sunday because usually everything in Europe is dead on a Sunday. After about 3 hrs we headed back to the campground and got set for an early start towards Florence the next day.

Photos: Week 18-Bosnia and Herzegovina

jamesandjulie — Mon, 29 Oct 2012 08:28:00 GMT

Photos: Week 18 Croatia

jamesandjulie — Mon, 29 Oct 2012 08:02:00 GMT

Photos: Week 17-Montenegro

jamesandjulie — Mon, 29 Oct 2012 07:56:00 GMT

Photos: Week 17-Albania

jamesandjulie — Mon, 29 Oct 2012 07:53:00 GMT

Week 18-Croatia and Bosnia

jamesandjulie — Mon, 29 Oct 2012 04:00:00 GMT

The next day we crossed the border into Croatia. It was a bit of a nerve wrecking crossing as for the first time we were asked if we had anything to declare. Stating only fruit and vegetables we realised afterwards that we actually were over our alcohol limit threefold. Woops! We made it through and drove to Dubrovnik, stopping several places to admire the view of the harbour and Old Town. We camped at the most costly place to date-32 euro/night and spent the afternoon at the beach consuming some of our wine to ensure we would be under the limit in time for our next border crossing into Bosnia. That night we heard a friend would be in town tomorrow so we decided to stay one more night, but at a less expensive sight.

The next day we drove 10km out of Dubrovnik to a great campsite, costing 12 Euros. We explored Old Town once more, enjoying gelato and then wine at Buza Bar, a bar on the outside of the rocky wall and watched the sunset before heading home. We heard from our friend the next day he had arrived so it was a shame to have missed meeting up once more.

The next day we had an early start so we could get to Mostar in Bosnia. Getting to Mostar was strange ordeal. As you head north about 50 km out of Dubrovnik you reach the border of Bosnia. The strange thing is you have about 10km of Bosnia’s coastline before going into Croatia again, then another 40 km later you are heading inland toward Mostar and crossing into Bosnia again. The first part is just a quick look at our passports and waves us through. The border crossing towards Mostar is where they checked our paperwork and stamped our passports. If this isn’t confusing enough just before we reach the border for the first time the Sat Nav (aka the Garmin) decides to turn us off just before the border to James’s disliking and heading for another crossing inland that we are told was only for locals to use, therefore we had to turn back and use the costal route as James originally thought. As we headed back to the costal border crossing we discussed the fact they may have seen us turn off the first time as though we were trying to avoid border control (aka smuggling drugs). Luckily this wasn’t the case but we were held up by a gnarly car crash on the other side of the border.

Back on track, we were heading to Mostar, and we were excited about seeing the Stari Most (old bridge). First we decide to find our camp ground which was a little bit of task as the GPS doesn’t cover Bosnia, so as soon as we turn off the road to Mostar the GPS is heading to the middle of nowhere which is a bit daunting. We found our campground Mali Wimbledon which didn’t prove to be to much problem. We quickly had some lunch and changed some Euros for Bosnian marks so we could get on the bus to Mostar. We stayed on the bus for about 2km too far which worked out quite nicely as we got to walk through the war damaged streets toward the old town. The abandoned buildings were like nothing we’ve seen before, they really do like they have just been blown up with bullet holes and big gouge marks in there sides with signs on the side warning that they are unsafe to enter. We strolled the Old Town to Stari Most, a 25m bridge that crosses a river that separated the Croatian’s and Bosnian’s during the war. Unfortunately the bridge was destroyed in the war so what we were seeing was the rebuilt replica. Albeit it was impressive and we even managed to witness a local tradition of bridge jumping, with 2 men making the 25m leap. We then organised a guided tour through the Old Town, which was frustrating as we did not get many of our questions answered as the guide did not speak good English. We then went for dinner and had the “National Plate” which included meat rissoles, Bosnian cakes, stuffed peppers, stuffed onions, rice, boiled potatoes and a beef stew and 1L wine. It was huge, although I managed to squeeze in dessert of a stewed whole apple filled with sugary syrup and chopped walnuts. It was then a difficult challenge to find the bus stop home, where we waited for 30 minutes before it came along.

The next day we got up and walked into Blacaj to the Tkija, a Dervish Monastery from the 15^th Century. On the way there we took photos of a castle on the hilltop, only abandoned in 1828 and also visited a really cool old village. The Dervish Monastery was also impressive, perched under the cliff face, beside a river which seemed to appear from a cave under the cliff side. It was very picturesque and James braved the water by dipping his feet in, which he reckoned was ice cold. We made our way back to the van, ate some lunch and then drove onto Sarajevo. Upon arrival to Sarajevo, of course our GPS does not know where to go, so we drove nervously around trying to find our campground. After eyeballing google maps we managed to find the campground relatively easily and settled in (the only ones in the huge campground). First impressions were how cold the place was. There seemed to be a haze over the town and the temperature had dropped about 10-15 degrees compared to Mostar 130km away. Our first taste of winter! We settled in for the night, confirming our place on tomorrow’s walking tour.

The commute into town went relatively smoothly, starting with a walk and then a tram into town. Considering we hadn’t been able to obtain a map, we had to cut out a map of the city out of our AA Road Map book! The weather was a balmy 7 degrees and there was a huge fog over the city, which made it difficult to get our bearings. When we got on the tram we could not get over how prehistoric and ugly it was. We later learnt that Sarajevo’s tram system was the oldest in Europe with Austria using Sarajevo to be a test city for electric trams. Where to get off the tram turned out to be a challenge, as we discovered none of the stops were named. Thankfully a ticket inspector, who called us Australian, told us to get off at stop 5. We did and soon worked out we got off a stop too early. We eventually found our meeting point for the walking tour and stopped for a quick bite beforehand at a local café. We scored a bargin there, as we both had a hot drink, a burek (meat pie) and a doughnut for only £2.60. The tour group ended up being 8 of us, and our tour guide Nino was fantastic. To give you some background on him, he was 27 years old, so he was around 7 years old when the war broke out. His mother is Bosnian and his father Serbian who actually fought for the Bosnian Army. Nino provided a very detailed and balanced history of the Ottoman Empire, the first and second Yugoslavia and Bosnia Herzegovina as it is today. This also included details of how Franz Ferdinand was assassinated, Tito and the political history of Bosnia Herzegovina. Nino told us that currently unemployment in Bosnia Heregovina was at 43%, a huge increase from the previous 4% when Tito ruled. What was most interesting was his personal experience of the Balkan war. He spoke of living in a basement for three years, sometimes going 3 or 4 days without food. He mentioned his mother used to go for daily walks (to take her mind off things) and how she chose the narrowest streets to avoid snipers and how he received one hour of schooling a day by a teacher who used to visit. He also showed us a Red Cross Telegram that was used to communicate, after the Serbian Army bombed the post office. Many buildings around town remained badly damaged (we saw a castle with a huge hole in the roof) and various reminders of the war, including many cemeteries with death dates between 1992-1995 and Sarajevo roses (areas of shell damage on the streets, filled in with a red cement to symbolise the deaths of at least three people in that very spot). However there were some lighter sides to the tour, with Nino showing us a Yugo car, a mass produced cheap car in the 1980’s with some funny jokes to go with it; how do you double the price of a Yugo? Fill it up with petrol! Why does a Yugo have a heated rear window? To warm your hands when you are pushing it! Oh, and you will receive a complimentary bus timetable when you purchase a Yugo!

The tour ended in the Old Town, which had a huge Ottoman influence, inclusive of a Turkish Bazaar. After the tour we enjoyed lunch of chicken soup and Bosnian stew before a spot of shopping and a walk up the hillside to see a view of the city. We even stopped for afternoon tea of more stewed whole apple with walnut and sugar syrup (which we first tried in Mostar) and custard square and then dinner of more stew, Bey soup (made of Okra) and Dolme (onion, tomato and peppers stuffed with meat) -all delicious hearty food. It was such a fascinating day, Sarajevo was amazing, a real mixture of Austrian-Hungarian and Ottoman architectural influence. Where else in the world could you see a Mosque, Catholic and Orthodox church and a Jewish Synagogue all in the space of 100m apart. It was well worth the trip (even if it was a high of only 11 degrees!).

We woke to another cold morning, no frost, just! We had to turn on the hairdryer to warm the van before either of us could crawl out of the sleeping bags! Must be time to buy a heater. We eventually packed up and drove through a mountain range, stopping for lunch at the beautiful Unesco nominated town of Jajce, which had an impressive castle and waterfall there. We drove through the Republic of Srpkspa (the Serbian part of Bosnia) hassle free, which is virtually an invisible border, and back into north Croatia, camping at Koruna Campground at Plitvice. It was a huge campground, set amongst some woodland, with great facilities. It was the longest walk we have had yet to a bathroom (a good five minute walk) but it was beautiful.

Despite rain in the night and a very overcast day, we set off to Plitvice National Park. We decided on a 4-6 hour walk and were immediately impressed at the tiered lakes with beautiful waterfalls at each level. The walkway was often directly across the lake, which was cleverly done by using natural wooden fence posts. As a part of the walk we caught a boat and then at the end a train back to the start. It was an impressive walk that not even the patchy rain and high winds could impair. We got back to the parking lot and realised that Dusty’s lights were on-woops. But as the legend Dusty is, even after five hours, he still started beautifully. Whew. We drove onto Croatia’s capital, Zagreb and checked into a camp site attached to Plitvice Motel where we literally parked in the Motel carpark.

It was a disruptive night for two reasons, firstly we had cats sneaking up into the engine to sleep and secondly, it rained and then started snowing. Needless to say it was a slow start, despite Daylight Savings as neither of us wanted to move from our sleeping bag! We did head into Zagreb by lunchtime, looking through the Dolac Market, the Cathedral before sampling some more Burek (meat pies). It was freezing and rainy, very hard to cope with after being in shorts and a t-shirt less than five days ago. But we made an effort and took a bus north of the city to a recommended site, Mirogoj cemetery. Established in 1876, the cemetery spanned for miles and was home to huge family gravestones, home to many famous Croatians, including the first president of the Republic of Croatia. It had a beautiful entranceway too. What was probably most striking were the volumes of locals visiting their family plots to leave candles and flowers, with florists strategically placed along the whole length of the cemetery entrance. We decided to head back to the centre of town for lunch, but it started raining and sleeting so we gave up and headed back to the van, stopping for a hot chocolate in the Motel. As we suspected, Zagreb was very average and we look forward to moving on Slovenia tomorrow, where it will hopefully be 5 degrees rather than zero.

Week 17-Greece, Albania, Montenegro

jamesandjulie — Mon, 29 Oct 2012 03:55:00 GMT

Finding decent tyres for Dusty proved to be hard work. The first place offered us retreads that James saw cracks in! Then we spent half an hour driving around only to find smaller tyre shops either had no parking space, or only did scooter tyres. Finally we found one on the way out and Dusty finally got two new front wheels ( and I sorted some groceries). We left Athens at lunchtime and drove 200km to Rion, just outside of Patra, finding a campground with a view of the Rion-Antirro Bridge. The camp owner was telling us it was built and owned by the French. He also mentioned it was very expensive and that most locals take the ferry instead at half the price. We had a quiet night in planning our move towards the Balkin countries.

The next day we tried our luck at the port and managed to drive right up to a ferry and get on all for $6.50 euro. We anticipated a cost of 20-30 euro to cross the bridge so we were stoked with the saving. We drove the winding coast towards Igoumenitsa running into a massive lightening and thunder storm as we drove into the campsite 10km south of the town. The campsite was in a nice bay and we stayed right by the clear blue water but unfortunately the weather was too bad to enjoy it.

We did wake to a clear, sunny morning and the beach was just awesome. But we made an early dash to the Albanian border, via some very rough, mountainous roads filled with hunters and their dogs. I am not sure what they were trying to hunt but we thought it could have been bears. The Albanian border crossing was a bit nerve wracking and full of argy-bargy. Going through Greek customs I had to get out of the van and ended up being surrounded by locals trying to push in front of everyone else. The Customs Officer was very kind and made sure I kept my place, which was great, and we proceeded to the Albanian entry point, hopeful to obtain car insurance at the border. We got through we no problems and James left me in the van while he sorted the insurance. It was a bit of a rough area for a lady to be on her own in as I was surrounded by men in vans and people begging for money. James returned with the insurance (40 euros for 15 days) and we gave some small change to a child before filling up with petrol, the cheapest yet at 1 euro 30cents/litre. Immediately you could tell you had changed countries, not just in the landscape but also in the donkeys carrying loads of pomegranates and the many locals walking down the middle of the streets/motorways. At one stage James was really concerned he could smell oil, which proved to be an oil rig! We soon learnt that one of Albania’s exports is crude oil, passing two oil rigs and one oil lake on the journey, man did it stink. The drive to our campground in Durres (on the Adriatic coast) was the hardest yet. We came past close to 10 Police checks (thankfully they waved us through each time once we got close enough for them to realise we had a foreign licence plate). And the roads were horrendous. The tarsealed highways had potholes the size of paddling pools in them, frequently resulting in traffic being down to one clear lane and they were so bumpy. Poor Dusty got a thrashing, although full credit to James with his driving as it was a slow and arduous journey of 310km in 7 hours. We pulled into our campground which turned out to be a pine tree lined backyard of a hotel and restaurant. The lovely lady owner had her teenage daughter come to speak to us to translate and sort payment. A very basic campsite, with no internet, squatters for toilets and use of the hotel showers. We took a stroll to the beach and we were greeted by truckloads of rubbish on the shore and several stray dogs that proceeded to chase us off the beach as we ran for our lives back to the van. Such a shame to see the Adriatic shoreline in crap shape when we know it is in places so beautiful and tidy. That evening we decided to dine in the hotel’s restaurant. With low expectations, James ended up with some tasty calamari and I had mullet fish (which tasted similar to sardines), with a salad and fries. With two beers included, dinner cost us 15 euro-not bad at all.

Not wanting to spend any more time in Albania (as we have limited coverage of roads on our GPS) we crossed the border in Montenegro and drove up the coast to Sveti Steven, where we stopped for lunch. The attraction here was an old fisherman’s settlement on a small island close to the shoreline, filled with terracotta roofed houses. It also had an amazing stony beach with the clearest water we have seen yet. It was a stunning spot for lunch. After a few photos we drove back to Petrovac and settled into a campsite 300m from the beach. We spent the afternoon relaxing on the beach, with a third wheel in tow (a very friendly puppy).

The next we went headed off to the famed bay of Kotor. It was beautiful drive first up the coast through Budvar then around the Bay of Kotor. The road through to Kotor town was extremely narrow but very picturesque and didn’t dissapoint our eyes. Tucking Dusty’s wing mirrors in we drove to Auto Kamp Jadran, which was literally like parking on someone’s front lawn. An old couple who spoke little English greeted us and showed us the very clean squatter toilets (2) and the one outdoor garden shower (which had a taupoline shower curtain and a shower rose with a pullcord to release the cold water). Yip, no hot water-but this was expected as we had read about this campground and knew it was the closest to Kotor town and it had the most beautiful view of Perast Old Town across the Bay. We had lunch and caught the local bus into Kotor town (10km away). You basically had to stand on the side of the road and put your hand up when the bus drove past, rather than walking to any bus stop. Great! With Montenegro having a population of 400, 000, we soon realised this was a place where everyone knew everyone, as people were greeting each other on the bus and chatting away.

We walked through Old Town and decided to climb the 1350 steps to the St Nicholas fortress, which had the most amazing view of Kotor and the wharf. We explored an old church as well as the fortress itself, all which looked very fragile and crumbly (and authentic). We spent the afternoon wandering the Old Town before having dinner at Bastion, where James had squids stuffed with garlic and prawns and I had mussels in tomato sauce, all of which was very tasty. We managed to catch a bus home thanks to the local’s help by pointing us to the right place to wait-everyone is very welcoming and friendly here. James braved it to have a shower in the dark-he came back so frozen I completely chickened out!

We planned on leaving Auto Kamp Jadran the next day but it turned out the owners were not home (we waited until 1pm for them to no avail!). We passed the time playing with a mother cat and her six-week-old kitten so we were well occupied! I also managed to build up the courage to shower too-probably the fastest shower I have ever had in my life it was so cold. We suspected the water was pumped straight from the bay itself. Admitting defeat we decided to stay another night and make the most of our time, catching a bus around to Perast. We walked the small town admiring the old church built on a tiny island in the middle of the bay. We also were able to spot Dusty on the other side which was cool. We nibbled on local white wine (really not that great) and some traditional squid stuffed with smoked ham and cheese in a tomato sauce, absolutely delicious. We stopped off back in Kotor and tried some Kotor cake (basically a custard square minus the icing) and a Montenegro pancake (pancake in an orange sauce with figs, prunes and walnuts). Both were yum. We managed to visit a fruit and vegetable market too and picked up 4 apples, 500g beans and 1 garlic clove all for only1 Euro. It felt like daylight robbery! We topped off our majorly ‘foody’ day with a van-cooked meal of steak, potato and beans. Oh and we managed to catch up with the owners, so payed up before going to bed.

Photos: Week 14,15,16-Greece

jamesandjulie — Fri, 19 Oct 2012 05:38:00 GMT

Week 14,15,16-Greece

jamesandjulie — Fri, 19 Oct 2012 02:09:00 GMT

Week 14

Crossing into Greece was the best border crossing by far. Having exited the EU to enter Turkey, the river that separated Turkey with Greece was heavily manned by military and even the bridge had a line down the middle. Although I am not sure that Greece being in the EU and Turkey not had much to do with it as we breezed through border control after the official muttered “oh, your New Zealanders”. We drove to a border town called Alexandroupolis and decided to stay a couple of nights to catch up on administration (this blog!) and skype home. It wasn’t a bad campground, albeit a little vacant. It was on the beach so we enjoyed the sunset the first evening with a glass of wine, pretty much on our own. And we made friends; well I think she befriended us, with a large dog that followed us into town the first day and even slept under the van at night-James named her Wolfie. While in town we tried our first Gyros (a pita filled with shaved pork or chicken, salad and tzatziki) and were happy for the most maker, as opposed to the dry kebabs in Turkey. Later that day I wandered back into town in search of ice cream and found despite three shops advertising them, only one stocked them. Perhaps our second sign of Greece’s austerity measures (second to the price of fuel, which seems to fluctuate by 20 cents or so per station-the highest price being 1.98 euro/litre).

The next day was purely administration and funnily enough I read MSN NZ news to read that Greece was having a national strike regarding the austerity measures enforced on them (higher taxes and less in their pay packets). I don’t think the message reached Alexandroupolis though, as all stores were operating as normal.

Farewelling Wolfie goodbye (who had gotten so used to following us around that she even walked into the shower with me!) we drove to a beach outside of Nikiti and decided to free camp the night, alongside a German couple. It was another great afternoon swimming and sunbathing at the beach and we watched a fabulous sunset from the van too. A gang of cats visited us around 9pm and we gave them a pat or two before heading to bed. We woke to a fantastic view of the sun rising on the Aegean sea and a few fisherman on the water.

We drove onto Meteora that day and at times it was over some windy and rough roads. We settled at Meteora Garden campsite and instantly made friends with two kittens who decided to invite themselves into the van. We made sure to sweep the van for felines before bed and settled in for the night. It was a great nights sleep until I rolled over at 5am and felt fur and then a heartbeat through my foot. One of the kittens had fallen a sleep under our seat and had made itself comfortable at the end of my bed. Thankfully it had not needed a toilet stop during the night, but we kicked “Furby” out and went back to sleep. That day we visited two of the six remaining monasteries (origionally there were 24) all of which are perched on individual rocky pinnacles around 400m above sea level. Thankfully the days of reaching them by rope ladder are now over and we were able to walk up the stairs carved into the rock face to visit. We managed to see all six from the outside, drivng the 5km stretch of winding roads to see them. It was an amazing sight and one we would recommend to others visiting Greece.

That afternoon we drove to Delphi over some huge mountain ranges. I suspect the Garmin thought it was a shortcut but we ended up driving down the side of one mountain range and up another and drove 30km in one hour! It was not cool, it was extremely steep and windy (it would make a good episode on Top Gear) as Dusty’s brakes were smelling by the end of it! We ended up camping near Delphi for a bargin price of 11 euro (an accident as the owner’s wife quoted us that and it was meant to be 19 euro!). James gave Dusty the once over and discovered we had worn the front tyres down to the first layer of material. We agreed to sort a tyre change in Athens.

Delphi is a place the ancient Greek’s regarded as the centre of the world; as Zeus released two eagles at opposite ends of the world, meeting at Delphi. It was a place where pilgrims consulted the oracle of Delphi and she would answer questions translated by a priest on wars, voyages and business transactions. We walked through the remains of the town where various pillars remain standing and various treasures remain preserved at the neighbouring museum.

After Delphi we were having lunch in the van when an Englishman approached us and asked if we were in Bucharest a month ago. Turns out we stayed at the same campground as them! They were now on their way back to France so we wished them safe travels. We drove onto Athens campsite, 6km outside the city centre and had a quiet night in planning our itinerary for Athens.

Week 15

We rose early the next morning to get a head start on the tour groups going through the Acropolis. We were slowed slightly by rush hour traffic on the bus, but reached the metro and it was all plain sailing from here. The Acropolis was an impressive sight, despite it being really hot to be walking around ancient ruins. We stopped at the Odeon of Herodes Atticus, which was being set up for a concert and they were playing “Man in the mirror” by Michael Jackson. The acoustics were great. We headed up the top via the Temple of Athena Nike on to gaze upon the Parthenon and the Erechthelon. From the Acropolis we had a great view of the city of Athens and could even see the boats coming into Piraeus Port. After taking some great photos we headed down through Roman Agora before having a delicious gyros at the near by restaurants. After lunch we checked out the local markets and managed to find a Greek embroidered flag (along with a few others we were missing) and James contemplated but decided against purchasing a metal gladiator helmet. We spent the afternoon checking out the ferry schedules to the Greek Islands before visiting the Temple of Olympian Zeus, another amazing site and finally onto Piraeus Port (an unsuccessful attempt at finding parking for Dusty). After a dinner of pork souvlaki we headed back to the campsite, exhausted.

We had a nice sleep in before arranging Dusty to stay at the campground while we backpacked the Greek islands. Before departing we headed back into Athens for a gyros for lunch. We ordered our gyros and the waiter brought us an unwrapped gyros (basically the same thing, but unwrapped and costing another 7 Euro each!). We think he was trying it on but after a few sharp exchange of words between ourselves and the waiter, we made him take it back and bring us the 2 Euro gyros that we ordered. He probably spat in it, but it still tasted ok! Oh, and the waiter ignored us completely after this! Oh the drama!

We then visited Acropolis museum, filled with pottery and marble artefacts that were well preserved. The museum itself had a glass floor with an archaeological site below to see which was pretty neat too.

We collected our bags from Camping Athens and caught a bus to Piraeus Port, having a gyros and bottle of wine for dinner before boarding our massive boat to Crete at 9pm. We sailed through the night and got to Souda Port at 6.30am. Given that we thought we were arriving at Chania port, we were quite worried for a minute that we had boarded the wrong boat. We soon realised that Souda port was the closest to Chania-6km away. We managed to bus to Chania with most other people leaving the boat. We explored old town Chania that morning, including their market and wharf before catching a bus to Kissamos. Upon arriving, we found some accommodation and booked a cruise for the next day to Balos lagoon before heading to bed for a sleep-were shattered after a sleep deprived night on the boat. We woke for an early dinner and went to a local taverna where we ate gyros and pizza before being served some raki (a small bottle), two shot glasses and a small dessert each. We had read this is what happens at a taverna-which is essentially a family run restaurant. We spent the rest of the night lazing in bed watching a movie.

We woke excited to be going to one of Crete’s top beaches for the day. We had managed to get the bus depot to store our luggage for the day while we explored Balos lagoon so we bused to the port and jumped on the boat (a huge people mover which was full with tourists) and sailed away. First stop was Gramvousa where despite it’s beautiful beach with turquoise waters, the main attraction was to climb the hillside to an old castle ruins (built around 15^th century). Beating the crowds we reached the top, admired the awesome view and headed to the beach to explore the shipwreck near to the shore. After lunch we headed to Balos Lagoon, which was nothing short of awesome. We read that Crete had some beautiful beaches and they weren’t wrong. Balos lagoon did not disappoint. It was a rocky shoreline before the crystal clear shallow waters of the lagoon appeared and beyond that a beautiful white sandy beach. I hope the photos we took do it justice as we think this is probably the best beach we have seen. Arriving back at the port we jumped on the bus and collected our luggage at the bus depot before driving back to Chania. We found a room for rent near the wharf so checked in before enjoying a beautiful dinner at Moutopaki Taverna on one of the back streets, huddled between the old town wall and with grape vines overhead. James had a delicious pork souvlaki and I had aubergine stuffed with mince meat and béchamel sauce. We also tried dolmades (rice wrapped in grape vine leaves) and although hot with greek yoghurt-we were used to having them cold, we were still not impressed, despite friends promising us they would be. Ah, I guess they are not for us. The Taverna also sold wine by the litre, so we enjoyed their Retsina (home made wine) before once again being offered a shot of Raki and a tasty dessert. By far the best meal we have had in Greece.

It was an early rise to catch the 7.30am bus that took us up to Sumatra Gorge. The gorge is the longest in Europe and one of the most popular walks too. The bus winded up the narrow roads on some very tight hairpin corners, and dropped us at the summit. We were amazed to see how mountainous Crete was. We started the 13km walk (mostly downhill) on some rough rocky steps that lead us to the dried riverbed. We walked through the riverbed past old churches and Sumatra village, which was inhabited up until 1960 when the gorge became a National Park. It was amazing scenery, as he gorge rose above us on both sides and you could see fossils in some of the rocks. Lunch was the only negative as we were swarmed by wasps! We completed the walk in 4.5 hours and walked down to the beach (another 3km) for our first view of southern Crete. The beach was quite isolated, being cut off by the surrounding mountains and was black sand. We bought a couple of beers, lazed on the sun chairs and enjoyed 3 swims in the Libyan Sea, each time sprinting to the water as the black sand was super burning hot. Catching the ferry back to Agia Romeli we were once again confronted with beautiful beaches cut off by mountains. We even saw a carved walkway to a beach that was cut into a previous slip. From the port town we caught a bus back to Chania, arrived back at 8.30pm, in time for a gyros for dinner and an early night.

Rain woke us at about 6.00am, the first rain we have heard or seen since Timisoara in Romania (in over a month). We decided to catch a bus to Heraklion, Crete’s capital, in preparation for departing Crete for Santorini the next day. Before leaving Chania we also managed to book a ferry and first night’s accommodation in Thira, Santorini via a travel agent, a good idea given we arrive at 9pm at night.

We got into Heraklion and proceeded to look for somewhere to stay which proved quite an effort, especially in the heat. We finally found a place to stay, settled in and then hit the pavement for a look around and something to eat as it was about 1530. Our lunch was awesome in Heraklion we had a sort of tapas theme going on. The best thing was barley rust covered in a tomato olive oil and feta concoction. We then went to the venetian port which house Herklion port. It was a nice senic walk but we were stuffed from lunch so we headed to a supermarket for some snacks for tea and had an early night.

We rose early to go to Knossos (Knossos palace the home of the Minatour). It was Crete’s number 1 attraction but unfortunately we were extremely underwhelmed at the ruins but I guess we can now say we went to Knossos which only dates back to 7000 bc. After Knossos we had a big lunch in preparation of our 5 hour ferry trip to Santorini. Again lunch was quite tasty with James having fried octopus and I had Moussaka. We then hung out for our ferry for a while and were on our way to Santorini at 4pm.

Week 16

We arrived in Santorini about 10pm so it was dark and we couldn’t appreciate the view except for the lights of Thira and Oia perched up in the night sky. We caught a bus up into Thira and got to Petros pension at about 1030pm, I think we may have awoken the owners who thought we must have been a no show. We dumped our stuff and shot into the town square for a bite to eat. It was still quite lively at 1100pm for the off season and there was heaps to pick from. James manage to pick up the biggest Gyros he had come across so far, it was so big he actually blew out and had to throw away ¼ of the pork.

We had a sleep in the next morning as we were so stuffed. We dragged ourselves out of bed and got going toward the Cliff side in Thira where we could get these Caldera views that are so famous. The view didn’t disappoint it was fantastic. Steep cliffs with typical Greek housing running down the cliff faces and the picturesque blue top churches you see on the post cards. We walked north around the cliff face toward Oia as I thought it was only a 3-4 km walk, turns out it was a 3-4 hr walk and 16km. We continued north until we found a taverna where we had a break from the sun and something to eat and decided we would catch the bus around to Oia. Oia was stunning, with the cave houses looking much older than those in Thira. We walked through the village snapping photos left, right and centre and eventually decided to relax and have a drink at an upstairs garden bar overlooking the caldera before watching the sunset from the castle. We have seen many sunsets on this trip now but I have to say it was the most picturesque. We caught the bus back to Thira and James made a sprint to the pension to collect our bag, just making our hourly bus to Perissa beach. We arrived at 9pm at our hotel, 100m away from the beach and crashed for the night.

After a nice sleep in and a huge breakfast we walked down Perissa beach and managed to find some free sun chairs to relax on for a couple of hours. Planning on hiring an ATV to cruise the island we got sidetracked by a local restaurant where we dined on pork gyros and aubergine. We hired a 50cc ATV (to save money!) and it was rubbish. I could have run faster uphill than it-James reckon’s the top speed downhill was 55km/h and uphill 18km/h. We managed to cruise to Red Beach for a look and a swim. It was a very sheltered spot with a rock cliff face of red pumice rocks. Afterwards we cruised to the end of the peninsula and climbed up near the lighthouse for great views of the caldera. Deciding the sunset was not going to be great through all of the cloud we drove back to the hotel for an early night.

The next day we took the four wheeler over to Kamari Beach and lazed the morning away before catching a bus back to Fira and checking into a traditional cave room with a caldera view. It was a cute wee room with a spectacular view and a huge balcony all for our selves. It was great. The room came with a kitchenette so we cooked ourselves a bacon and egg dinner (what we were craving after so much rich Greek food!) and had nibbles and wine as we watched the sun go down.

The next day we caught a ferry to Ios and were pleased to see Sal, the owner of Hotel Mediterraneo at the Port ready and waiting to pick us up, along with an Australian couple. Sal was a great host and had a cool Labrador called Nana, who followed him around and was very sociable with the guests. Ios was pretty much 90% closed down for the season, which was why we had lots of trouble finding something to eat for lunch –managing only a few supermarket snacks. We spent the afternoon wandering around the labyrinth of the village before joining the other 6 guests in the hotel at the bar together before deciding to go out for dinner. We had a nice dinner of pork penne in a tomato sauce and James had a juicy steak that he wasn’t so impressed with as they covered it in oregano. After many a kilo of wine (they serve their local wine by the half or whole kilo!) we ended up back at our hotel pool bar for the rest of the evening. Needless to say we were both feeling a bit worse for wear the next day.

After a slow morning, and farewelling our drinking friends we decided to hire a scooter to cruise the island. We drove down to the port initially and dined in Susana’s Taverna where James had the tastiest kebab to date-a seafood kebab consisting of two large prawns wrapped in bacon, two mussels wrapped in bacon, two pieces of swordfish and grilled squid. It was all so fresh and tasty. We then drove out to Homer’s tomb (a famous Greek poet) and to three different beaches (where we were the only ones on the beach!). We managed to see all the surrounding islands, including a fantastic view of Santorini, before taking a back road (literally a dirt road that resembles a farm race!) down the steep hill back to the hotel via the main beach, Metropolis Beach. After a quick shower we drove back to the port to the same place for dinner where James at the same seafood kebab while I ate a whole fish, very tasty. We headed to bed early.

The next day we drove to Metropolis Beach and lounged there for the morning before returning the bike. Sal drove us down to the port and we bid him farewell before jumping on the fast ferry back to Athens. We arrived back at Athens Camping at 8pm, found some dinner down the road and settled in for the night, pleased to see Dusty in good shape, safe and sound.

We decided to stay on in Athens for another day, as it was Sunday and we needed to replace the front tyres before driving any further. It was an admin day with the blog being updated, calls home made and a load of washing done. We managed to scrap together an evening meal with the canned food in the cupboard (as all supermarkets are shut on Sunday’s in Greece).

Photos: Week 11,12,13-Turkey

jamesandjulie — Wed, 26 Sep 2012 20:57:00 GMT

Photos: Week 11-Bulgaria

jamesandjulie — Wed, 26 Sep 2012 19:33:00 GMT

Week 11,12,13-Turkey

jamesandjulie — Wed, 26 Sep 2012 19:29:00 GMT

We woke early to get packed and ready for our departure from the EU into Turkey. It was difficult to say how long this border crossing would take so we wanted to prepare for every eventuality. In many ways it was a shame to part ways with Bulgaria (as we literally only had a fleeting visit to the Black sea) but it was mixed feelings, as they really were not a nation geared up for camping.

The border crossing was huge, firstly there were two stops on the Bulgarian side before entering the Turkey side, which had at least three different check points. Everyone’s vehicle’s were being searched so we figured they would go to town on us. But after we opened the back doors and he saw there was no one else inside, he was happy. Officials were talking amongst themselves about us, all we could make out was “New Zealand” but we passed through customs and passport control with no problems at all.

Driving in Turkey was an experience. The motorways were of an ok standard however as soon as you were off these, it was a rough ride. We were aiming to stay at a campground in Edirne but our first and second campgrounds (found on our Garmin) did not exist so we stopped and got cash out, had some lunch (Burger King would you believe) and pondered what to do. Deciding to drive on to Istanbul (another 170kms) we experienced first hand the crazy driving antics. Driver’s seem to have no patience, as they honk their horns and flash their lights when they want to pass. We even came across a car stopped on the entrance to a motorway, completely blocking our way onto the motorway as he talked to someone on the side of the road! Although we did have some laughs, especially when we filled up with gas and the petrol attendants were leaning into the vehicle (almost right across me) talking with amazement that we had a right hand drive vehicle. And we got a toot and a wave from a motorcyclist (of unknown origin), which we waved back at. Third time lucky we found a campsite on the outskirts of Istanbul, 50km away. We pulled up and were introduced to Ismet, the caretaker who spoke little English but was really welcoming. We spent the evening catching up on washing and preparing for our time in Istanbul, including where to park Dusty while we do the two-week tour of Turkey.

We made the decision to park Dusty at Mo Campground so by lunchtime the next day we were all packed and driven by Ismet into town to catch a bus to Istanbul. What a mission that was. It took us 2.5 hours to get to Sultanahmet, the district home to Istanbul’s Old Town and the bus was packed. We were really grateful to have not driven into Istanbul with Dusty as the roads were jam packed and it was chaos for drivers trying to enter onto the motorway from off ramps, even ambulances with their sirens blaring weren’t given priority! We stood for most of the 2 hour bus journey before being packed onto the tram to Sultanahmet. Tired and sweaty we tried three hostels before successfully finding a room at the Oriental Backpackers and checked in before spending time at the bar on the roof terrace admiring the view of the Bosphorus and sampling our first kebab-which was not great as it was dry and had chips inside it! Our hostel was very close to two major attractions, the Blue Mosque and the Hagia Sophia so we took a few photos from the outside before running into a volunteer (Hasan) who was promoting a free presentation on Islamic culture. We joined him for the presentation, which was really interesting and explained the history of the Blue Mosque, the Hippodrome area and included information on their prayer times and what is said at prayer. Afterwards we got chatting to Hasan and he agreed to show us through the inside of the Blue Mosque, even pointing out that the carpet is made from NZ wool! Afterwards we bought some freshly squeezed pomegranate juice, which was fairly tart (it was only afterwards that I realised pomegranates were out of season!). We ended the day having a tasty dinner of lamb in yoghurt sauce and lamb mince skewers with aubergine.

Our first hostel breakfast was not bad. Turks tend to eat cucumber, tomato, olives and cheese for breakfast so we were pleased to also see some cereal and watermelon available. I soon learnt their tea was super strong-you are meant to fill your cup half full with tea then top up with hot water so I was fairly awake after my first cup! We checked out of the hostel and headed straight to the Hagia Sofia, which was built in 532 AD originally as a eastern orthodox church and was then converted into a Mosque (painting over the mosaics and murals depicting Catholicism). Nowadays it is a museum and they celebrate its history having uncovered the mosaics and is an eclectic mixture of muslim and catholic symbols. It was absolutely stunning. After a kebab lunch we walked through the maze that is the Grand Bazaar before spending time at the Egyptian Spice Bazaar (Egyptian due to Istanbul being part of the silk road). We loved the market as it was full of tasty treats. We bought up large on dried apricots; figs and Turkish delight before completing a river boat cruise up the Bosphorus past the Bosphorus bridge and back. We returned to collect our bags and checked into the Sultan Hostel (where the Fez tour started from). We managed to get a free upgrade to have our own bathroom, likely because he thought we were not coming as we arrived so late he probably gave our booked room away. We enjoyed a shish kebab for dinner.

Breakfast at the Sultan Hostel was very average. No fruit or yoghurt available so we literally ate plain bread. We decided to join a hop on hop off bus tour, which covered two routes-the Golden horn and the Imperial Peninsula, which crossed the Bosphorus Bridge into the Asian side of Istanbul/Turkey. Interestingly, Istanbul is the only city to sit on two continents, so it was a novelty to be crossing from Europe into Asia and back again. We also stopped at the Spice Bazaar for lunch and found a great Kofte shop, filling up on bread and salad before buying some more dried fruit. On the way back to the hostel a guy touting for us to dine at their restaurant stopped us and as we were talking a wedding car, with the groom driving and the bride in the passenger seat drove past only to be stopped by the tout. We wondered what was going on when the groom wound down the window and gave him an envelope (with one American dollar inside) before driving off. Turned out that this is what you do on your wedding day; it is good luck to give away money.

We arrived back at the hostel and joined the Fez Tour meeting, which was brief but gave us a chance to meet Adinan, our tour guide and meet 6 of the 11 kiwis joining our tour. Wendy, Russel, Sue and Phil in particular, who are around our parent’s age were from Tauranga and Waihi so we had a good old chat to them, discovering Phil grew up in Morrinsville too. We ended the day enjoying a meze dinner of rice in grape vine leaves, hummus, garlic and mint yoghurt, aubergine with tomato and pide (Turkish pizza shaped like a canoe).

A 7am start to the tour was delayed by 30 minutes, as three of the tour group were late, but we eventually got on the road, driving 5 hours on the European side of Turkey to the Gallipoli peninsular. After lunch we did a tour of the Battlefields, visiting various marked and unmarked gravesites for Turkish, Australia, British and New Zealand soldiers. Such a beautiful place for such a gruesome battle. We were shown where the ceremony’s are held each year, a visit to anzac cove, then worked our way up the hill to lone pine, Chunic Bar (where the New Zealand memorial is), the Turkish memorial, and close by a massive statue of Mustafa Kemel (the future Ataturk, who the Turks adore) . I noticed a name on the memorial list as G Dunlop from the Otago Battalion-I will have to do some research into whether this is an extended relative. The youngest identified gravesite was for a 16 year old boy from Australia which some shows the young age of some of the soldiers. I was very impressed at how all the memorials were presented, the Turkish people (although they were the enemy at this time) continue to show great respect to ANZAC soldiers. We then drove to the ferry and made a 15 min crossing over the sea of Marama and arrived on the Asian side of Turkey (Anatolia) in a town called Cannakale. After a massive day we check in to our hotel and then quickly headed out for some dinner. We walked down to the Troy horse from the movie which looked really cool. We took a stroll down the water front to check out the local eateries for dinner. James headed back to the hotel after this to deal with his Turkey tummy which came on all of a sudden and I went and scored a kebab for 3 TL (£1).

We had an early start the next day as we headed to Troy first, then Pergamum, and finally to Kusadasi. Troy was slightly disappointing as it really is all about the legend of the wooden horse, which obviously no longer exists. The ruins itself were poorly excavated as it was discovered by a German archaeologist who was purely looking for treasure. But in saying that, when it is excavated it fills back up again with dirt very quickly as it is in such a windy location so Turkey has given up funding it’s excavation. We enjoyed a tasty lamb shish before driving to Pergamum, an ancient Roman ruins on the hilltop. Being perched on the side of a cliff meant it was a wobbly cable car ride to the top, we literally swayed from side to side, even with a full load of people, very freaky. Pergamum had a well-preserved audium (which looks like an amphitheatre but is used for public meetings-the word audience comes from this word). James and a few others walked down to the bottom to test out the acoustics and he was amazed at how small we all looked at the top. We checked into our hotel in Kusadasi and had Adi inform us we had two free buffet dinners. He had even arranged a birthday cake for the two people’s whose birthday it was. Very impressive for a budget tour! After tea we had a few drinks with Averil, Daniel, Shannon and Jack before hitting the hay in our most fancy hotel of the tour-4 star.

In the soaring heat we toured the impressive ruins of Ephesus. It must have been 38 degrees. There was a massive audium/theatre (bigger than Pergamum) and the Celsus library (which seemed to be the biggest draw card of Ephesus and rightly so) and you could roughly make out the old city streets and buildings. We took a lot of awesome photos here. Ephesus was one of the most well preserved and stunning ruins we have seen yet. By obligation we stopped at a Turkish carpet store and although out of our budget to buy, we learnt a lot about the quality of carpet and watched them being made. We saw carpets made of silk, cotton, wool and a combination of these.

After a buffet lunch we visited Virgin Mary’s house. The story is that John the bible (aka the apostle) was asked by Jesus to look after Mother mary here. Not much info I know, but it was hot and we were knackered after our trip to Ephesus. We then drove to a Turkish delight store and got the chance to sample all the flavours from the very friendly but slightly odd salesman. James purchased some Turkish candyfloss that almost looked like wool clippings in colour and shape but tasted just like the pink floss we know. We then headed to the ruins of Artemis temple. There wasn’t much to see except a few columns that still stood and we were knacked by this time anyway. We drove back to our hotel after this and headed straight to the pool for a swim, some beers, socialising with the group we were travelling with and some pool (table).

First stop the next day was a Tannary for a fashion show of leather goods. It was a little uncomfortable as there was a catwalk and James and I sat in the front row. It was really hard not to laugh as the models strutted their stuff in front of us so seriously. Two people from the tour were chosen to dress up like a sultan and his wife and also strut around which was pretty funny. After a buffet lunch we had a guided tour through Pammukale. We walked through the ancient ruins, past gladiator tombs and up to the audium/theatre, which again was massive and just as impressive as Ephesus. Beyond this was an area with hot water springs, pools and beyond this, a hillside of white calcium oxide formations in the shape of white terraces with clear blue pools. It was absolutely stunning and I am not sure the photos do it full justice. We could have stayed for much longer but we had a three-hour journey to Bodrum, our first beach stop. We arrived in time for a quick dip in the pool before having dinner and a fair few too many drinks with the new bunch of kiwis who had joined the tour-Cam, Roanna, Nina and Sarah, with Averil joining us also.

We slept most of the day away but salvaged by playing some darts and and a trip to Camel beach where James had fun doing back flips off the pier with a group from the tour while I lazed on a beach lounger. We had a group dinner at a local Chinese restaurant that evening.

We left Bodrum and stopped in a town called Akyaka where we caught a boat up the Azmak river (in Turkish this means horny), which was a cool 10 degrees. We all jumped off the boat to test the water and it was ok at first and then felt like a layer of freezing ice hit all your extremities and you got an instant ice cream headache. Crazy cold! We had a meat and cheese pancake and a fish sandwich for lunch before driving to Fethiye, another beachside town. We had a few drinks with dinner with some of the tour group and James lost a game of fingers (a game we hadn’t played since Dunedin!) and had to eat a whole chilli, which nearly killed him, it was so hot. Even the chef gave him an Ayran drink (a salted yoghurt drink) to ease the pain. We had a rough sleep in the hotel as we were staying right beside the kitchen, and as you do at 1am, someone started preparing breakfast, chopping cucumbers with force. Then the air conditioning unit broke and got stuck on freezing. Probably the worst sleep on our travels yet.

The next day we went boat cruising around the body of water called “12 islands” and this is was how we spent the whole day including stopping at five of the islands for swim stops. It took me a while to jump off the boat but eventually did. We even did a group photo with us all jumping off the boat, even if I jumped 10 seconds after everyone else-woops! James did some awesome staples off the boat too which I managed to film. That evening we checked into a new hotel and James, Averil, Daniel and I hung out with Adi and the Bus driver and had the best dinner for the entire trip, a lamb shish kebab with tasty charcoaled peppers, tomatoes and loads of salads and hummus.

We drove onto Saklikent gorge and arrived at this huge canyon with clear blue water where we spent 30 minutes tubing down the river, which I was rubbish at as I could not steer the thing to save myself. We were then driven to a mud pool where we all jumped in, covering ourselves with mud. James jumped in first, literally diving into the mud and covering his whole body, only realising after he needed someone to wipe his eyes so he could see! After some dodgy mud wrestling and some concerned looks on the girls faces that our bikini’s were falling down with the weight of the mud we washed off in the river before having lunch on the river front and joining Adi and some of the tour group for a canyon walk to a waterfall. It was beautiful and well worth the walk. We drove onto Kas, stopping just before at Turkey’s most photographed beach-Kapatas Beach for a swim. James and a few of the boys climbed the rock face to jump into the ocean and it was very chilled out swimming around on the stony beach, washing off the remnants of the mud pool! We had dinner and drinks that evening with the group.

The next day we bussed onto Olympos where we stayed in Kadir’s tree houses. It looked almost cartoon like how they houses were built, with rickety steps and balcony’s that I am sure Occupational Safety and Health would not pass. Inside we had the plush rooms, with air con and private bathrooms, not bad for a budget tour! We spent the afternoon playing volleyball. That night we caught a bus to and then walked up a hill to the Chimera flames, a naturally occurring flame that came out of the rock face in several spots. We had fun putting out the flames with water and then waiting until the gas built up even to start the fire again. It was quite an unusual sight.

Breakfast was great, our first omelette in ages. Certainly beats olives and cucumber for breakfast! We had booked onto a sea kayak tour that took most of the day as we ended up having to drag the kayaks out to the sea on our own before having a poorly guided tour around the caves. We did stop for some snorkelling where we swam right into a cove. The water was very clear but no coral or many fish to be seen. We all arrived back exhausted and I had an early night while James stayed and played 500 with some of the group.

A 6.30am start was difficult but necessary as we made our way inland to Cappadocia, stopping at Turkey’s largest cave-22km long. We walked 1.5km in to see an impressive 35 metre drop and various lime formations before driving onto the region of Cappadocia. It was an impressive arrival to see all the strange rock formations and fairy chimneys, some even around our hotel. This was when James and I decided we should definitely join the group to go hot air ballooning. We managed to book through Adi for the next morning. That evening we managed to find a non alcoholic restaurant (which means the food is cheaper) and had a nice meal of shish kebab and a stew in a clay pot (which they seal with a bread dough and cook in a charcoal fire).

We woke at 5.30am ready for our hot air balloon flight but as we waited to be picked up, we all watched the sun rise in disappointment as we weren’t in the air for it. We had unknowingly been booked on the second flight of the morning, there for would miss the sunrise. We expressed our annoyance to the guy at the hot air balloon company and he only added fuel to the fire by saying there was no sunrise this morning. The whole group protested and we asked to go back to the hotel. Some people in the group were close to crying, as this is the number one thing to do in Turkey and apparently the best place in the world to hot air balloon. By breakfast we had managed to contact another company and book on a sunrise flight for the next morning.

We spent this day touring Cappadocia, seeing various rock formations, fairy chimneys, castles and the Kaymakli underground city, where the Christian had hidden from invading Muslims, and had carved out a maze of underground rooms and tunnels. It was a slightly claustrophobic experience but pretty cool too. We spent the evening at a Turkish culture dinner and show, where we watched whirling dervishes (where men dress in a white a-framed skirt like ensemble and dance in a trance like state, an ancient form of prayer), gypsy dancing and even belly dancing. It was dancing like we had never seen before so it was worth a look. The group ended the evening with a few drinks (including the feared Turkish Raki) and cutting some shapes of our own on the dance floor.

We were picked up for our balloon flight at 5am the next day and after some nervous toilet stops we were taken to our air balloon where it was being inflated with air and flame. It was one of many balloons being prepped and we watched a few take off before we all boarded (20 of us) and gently and smoothly rose off the ground. He explained he could control up and down and turn the basket but was unable to steer us and we would go where the wind blew. It was amazing to see the sunrise. He took us inches away from cliffs and trees and we flew to 2000 feet. One of the best experiences we have ever had. We landed with the help of the crew straight onto the back of a trailer and we all jumped out and celebrated life with some champagne and a certificate presentation. After a short sleep the girls in the group spent a few hours together in the Turkish bath. Quite a process; a mud mask, sauna, followed by lying on a hot slab of marble and getting washed down, scrubbed and washed with a bubble bath solution, rinsed again and then into a cold bath before finishing with an oil massage. It was impressive how smooth my skin felt afterwards and it was a neat experience.

That evening James had a Turkish shave and I could not believe what I was seeing it was such a lot of pampering for a male! For 10 lira(3 pounds), James got his hair trimmed, the hair on his ears burnt off, razor shaved followed by a mud mask and aftershave and cologne applied, hair styled, nose hairs trimmed and a back massage, fingers clicked and arms stretched. He drew the line at having his neck cracked.

Given it was the last night of the tour we had a group dinner and farewelled some of the group who were leaving on a night bus before polishing off a bottle of vodka with some of the guys, including Adi and the bus driver, Eshan.

The next day was an early start again. We left Capadoccia at 6am with a 10 hr drive to Istanbul ahead of us. We slept most of the way and the time flew by. As we hit Istanbul the traffic of course delayed us and we had our first accident (hitting a dog), which caused a bit of excitement, our bus driver Ehsan was visibly pissed off. We got back to the Sultan hotel in good time and farewelled Adi and Eshan, which was a bit sad. We got all showered up and meet the crew for some dinner and beers back at their hostel, which had a great terrace view of the Bosphorus at night.

The next day we managed to surface at lunchtime as we were totally wrecked from 4 early morning starts and late nights. At 1 o’clock we meet up with some of the crew for a happy meal challenge at Mcdonalds. We had to eat the cheeseburger, fries and drink the coke in under a minute. It was an epic fail for all 3 boy who were defeated. After this we went shopping for a mini guitar and some bowls but in the end made no purchases because they weren’t quite what we were looking for. We want to go to Taksim square but were just to tired to do anything so James went home for sleep and dreamt up a new technique to conquer the happy meal challenge while I went and looked for a painting to buy. At 6pm we meet up with the guys again for our last supper together and had some beers. As we got hungry we decided our last meal in Istanbul of course should be a happy meal. Again we attempted to slay our cheeseburgers, chips and drink but again 4 of the boys were defeated again and went home with their tails between their legs. After this we headed back to the hostel and bid our new friends goodbye.

Week 11-Bulgaria

jamesandjulie — Wed, 26 Sep 2012 19:28:00 GMT

Crossing the Bulgarian boarder went fairly smoothly, after they checked our passports and paperwork for Dusty, including looking inside the van to check we weren’t smuggling anyone else in! The first thing that grabbed our attention was the Cyrillic writing on all the road signs, thankfully with some translations below. We drove on to the Black Sea to a campground called Laguna, in the seaside town Varna. We didn’t realise until we walked into town via the beach (including the nudist section-filled with naked middle aged men) that we were actually staying beside Golden Sands resort, one of the two top spots at the Black sea for a holiday. Compared to Romania’s beaches, Golden Sands was awesome, as it was filled with people, was cleaner and had a nice vibe. We were really stoked to also get a seaside view from the campground, so decided to stay for two nights to soak up some rays.

That evening we enjoyed Georgian cuisine, purely because it was a type we had never tried before. Echoing our trip to Russia, dill was the spice of choice throughout our meal of stuffed aubergine, cheesy bread like a pizza, chicken in walnut sauce and a pork, tomato and gherkin casserole. Although tasty it was heavily salted which was a bit of a shame. We had a great waiter who thought we were Australian, which, given we were in Bulgaria we were quite impressed with. Turned out he has family in Adelaide and had visited Australia before (which made ordering that much easier with our funny accents!).

The next day we spent lying on the beach working on our tans, before doing a spot of shopping. I managed to pick up some woollen slippers (they will be awesome for at the end of our trip when winter strikes) and a funky clay teapot before enjoying a rubbish meal out at a tourist restaurant, honestly the waiter did not even try to talk to us. A real shame and we left without tipping.

Saying a fond farewell to an awesome campsite we drove on to Sozopol and checked into another campsite on the beach. Although this time it was very different. Granted it was a cheap campsite at 10 pounds/night. But I was mortified at the state of the bathrooms; squatters for toilets which were surrounded in water from being hosed out and the walls were so mouldy and derelict, honestly I would not have wished it on my worst enemy. I was grateful for our portaloo! We made the most of a rough campsite lounging on the beach before catching up on emails and skyping family back home.

Photos: Week 10 Romania

jamesandjulie — Tue, 4 Sep 2012 23:28:00 GMT

Photos: Week 9-Hungary

jamesandjulie — Tue, 4 Sep 2012 23:05:00 GMT