San Sebastian! Yes, you all thought it was on the plain didn't you. We left Pamplona in bright sunshine and halfway to San Seb it was aleady looking grey and by the time we arrived it was raining. We had heard a few stories about the rain there but we have been complaining of the heat for a while so a bit of rain was quite a godsend really. Well, it might have been had we not been walking the streets with out backpacks looking for a hostel that did not seem to exist. We gave up in the end and [View Full Entry]

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So we 'did' Rome and I managed to contract a cold whilst there so, as we were both running on very low batteries it was decided that we would find somehwere quiet and just do nada - nothing - niente - rien du tout. We thought we had found the ideal spot at Lago Trasimeno at La Casa Sul Lago but unfortunately they had no beds available. We did however find a nice litte farmhouse in Umbria - just outside Perugia which of course was my old stomping ground back in 1993. I went to Universita per Stranieri for 3 months [View Full Entry]

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Could it be because we arrived on 15 August - a public holiday in Rome - but more of that later, firstly the story of the trip from hell aka Cairo to heaven aka Amalfi Coast. Just a short flight, a short train journey to Naples on a very smart train and then an interesting trip on the Circumvesuviano and we were in San.Agnello just 10 mins out of Sorrento. We were booked into a Hostel called 7 which is fairly new and very Italian design. First night we were just two in a 10 bed dorm, next night two more [View Full Entry]

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These were the words of Hani our guide for the Intrepid tour in Egypt and we had already discovered this on our arrival at the airport. The flight was exciting in that we saw the Pyramids from the air but Cairo was a shock to the system. As soon as we arrived we were grabbed by a guy who said he would get us a taxi - some young guy loaded our bags onto a trolley and we followed him to the taxi. He put the bags in the car and then held out his hand - Baksheesh. I think if [View Full Entry]

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Well think last update was Selcuk, Pamakale and we were heading to Dalyan mud baths. We had a crazy guy called Ati who took us and we were only 2 aussies on a bus full of poms who were all burnt (funny that.....) We had a great time at the mud baths and in the sulphur pool and of course now look at least 20 yrs younger (yeah, right!!). After Dalyan we had to say goodbye to Fetihye and head to Antalya as we had a flight booked to Istanbul. Didn't make it to Cappodoccia unfortunately as it was too far [View Full Entry]

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Bus from Istanbul dropped us in Ecabat and we headed to Gallipoli - very hot day and not a lot of shade around. It was very interesting and the guide told a lot of the history of Gallipoli which I didnt really know about. All seemed such a waste of so many lives really - war, it's a mugs game. Following day we headed to Troy and had our pics taken in the Trojan horse - not the original one of course. From there we headed down to Selcuk - was supposed to take 6 hrs but it actually took 8. [View Full Entry]

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We arrived into Istanbul 2 hours later than we expected and the place looked huge and scary. However, once we got of the bus and started asking people where to catch the Metro and how to get into the city they were just so friendly that I though this place is going to be OK. We had to fight our way through an indoor market to the cash machine (tuikish lira this time 1.23 to the dollar) and all the guys on the market stalls were calling out but in a friendly fashion. We got the money out then someone helped [View Full Entry]

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Bucharest was uneventful - we only went there to catch the traın to Varna ın Bulgarıa . We found the hostel fairly easily but it seemed to be in a rough part of town. Hostel owner insisted the area was ok so we felt reassured. Hostel was nice and had these amazing showers with huge shower heads. Only probelm was when you went to use them, they didnt work which Lyn discovered that evening and the next morning. The owner said it was all to do with water pressure - go figure. We had tea close to the hostel with a [View Full Entry]

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This is my first blog. We are in Romania on our way to Turkey. Its been very hot and humid most of the time. Tropical thunderstorms nearly everyday. Since Tallinn, we spent a night at Joesuu east of Parnu in Estonia. We had intended going bog-walking and canoeing at Soomaa national park near Joesuu however when we arrived there was nobody in sight and the hostel hadn't been stayed in for over a year - it did look really good on the internet. We eventually found somebody who let us into the hostel and we had the entire place to ourselves [View Full Entry]

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OK I think we left you in Krakow on last blog and it was a short one - sorry about that but time and interenet access wait for no-one. From Krakow we caught the overnight train to Budapest in Hungary - we got lucky and had a 4 berth cabin to ourselves so great sleep. We stayed at a lovely hostel - the Budapest Bubble (google it) with a lovely girl called Olga in charge. We had a great time at the thermal pools - spent a few hours in there and it was nice and relaxing though we probably broke [View Full Entry]

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