Before leaving Romania, we had two more stops to make to see a bit more of what the country was like when free of tourists. Cluj-Napoca is on the edge of Transylvania, pretty scenery on the way there of course, and a nice town when we got there. Despite the taxi driver who 'misunderstood' where we wanted to go (and made some extra money) it was a nice stop. A good hostel for the night, lovely buildings of course, and green parks. It cost to go into the botanical gardens, go figure, so we enjoyed the other parks for free, eating [View Full Entry]

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Another place that was on my list of must visits - Brasov for Bran Castle, home of Dracula. But there's heaps more to Brasov than just Bran Castle. We stayed at a cool hostel about 10 minutes walk from the main square, arrived on Sunday night and managed to find it without any issues which is always an achievement! The weather had turned cloudy for the first time in a while, which suited the Dracula atmosphere quite nicely. Not so spooky were the five loud, stereotypical Italian guys who were also staying in our dorm. Gestures and accents and quite full [View Full Entry]

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After being in small places for the last wee while, Bucharest was a definite contrast. It's a sizeable city, complete with traffic, dirt and stray dogs - yes, Bucharest is known for it's 'community dog' problem. Our train journey to get there turned a wee bit complicated, as the train was late arriving by two hours, then after 20 mins travelling it stopped for another 2 1/2 hours in the middle of nowhere! Grrr. Arriving at the border town of Ruse, I jumped off to get the onward tickets as we'd been instructed by the train people in VT. However, we [View Full Entry]

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Well, this was an interesting few days... We left Plovdiv intending to head to Macedonia, via Sofia as there is no direct bus. Which meant getting up at 4.30 to get to the bus station to make the early bus so we could connect early in Sofia, which we did. And we quietly congratulated ourselves on making the connections with no issues and having things go so smoothly. Just before the Macedonian border however, reading the ever referred to Lonely Planet, we discovered that while Tania and I, as Kiwis, didn't need visas to get into Macedonia (which we'd carefully checked [View Full Entry]

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The first true Eastern European stop on my trip, beautiful Plovdiv, home of the best street kebabs in the world. And I don't feel that comment is an exaggeration - wait until you try them! Tania, Emma and I have had a great time here. The crossing to Bulgaria was smooth, which was nice, and we arrived in Plovdiv and and found our hostel with little drama. We were staying handily on the main pedestrian street in town. The mall is basically made up of clothes shops, it seems Bulgarians are keen on their fashion. Though their taste in clothing may [View Full Entry]

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Istanbul, end of my Middle East tour. And what a captivating city to finish in! Turkey has been a surprise for me, it's so scenic and beautiful. I'm not sure what I expected, but this is definitely a place to come back to one day. Istanbul is a beautiful city. Being spring at the moment all the gardens are planted out with springflowers, and there are lots and lots of tulips everywhere. I'm not sure of the connection but it seems to be a city of tulips as there are a number of tulip statuettes around. And it is actually raining [View Full Entry]

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Okay. No matter what I say about this stop on my travels, I'm not going to do it justice. But I guess I have to try! This blog will be a big longer than my usual summary for those who wanted lots of details... So sorry to those with less interest and time. We arrived and took the ferry across to Carnakkale (and Europe!) at around 7am on 24 April. The weather was clear and sunny, though cold, which seemed slightly surreal considering the reason we were here. Our group of 24 (Aussies, Kiwis and one sole American) were lucky enough [View Full Entry]

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Hey, guess what, I went to visit some roman ruins! My apologies for the sarcastic tone, but after a cold shower on a cold morning, a long drive to Ephesus and another roman site, this wasn't my most positive day! But in saying that, Ephesus has some lovely features and things that do differentiate it from the scores of other sites around this part of the world. The library was massive back in the day, not quite rivalling Alexandria but pretty substantial none the less. And a lovely facade still stands from it. And of course the roman toilet is an [View Full Entry]

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Yet another beautiful place in Turkey! They just keep coming... On the way along the Mediterranean coast, we stopped for lunch at Kas, my first real Med seaside town. It had all the stereotypical ingredients, turquoise water, sloping tree-covered hills, a marina, red-rooved white plaster buildings and lots of flowers and plants. Bliss. Here I purchased my obligatory evil-eye pendant to scare away the evil spirits so between that and my St Christopher (thanks Michele) I should have no problems from here on in! Passing the border between the Med and the Aegean Sea was definitely more th [View Full Entry]

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No, not the Olympus that the Olympic Games stemmed from, but a lovely place on the Mediterranean coast of Turkey. There are also roman ruins here (yes, they're everywhere!) but there is so much more to this place than a bit of history. It's developed into a backpacker mecca with a long, scenic dirt road lined with backpacker hostels, many of which feature treehouses to sleep in. We stayed a Kadir's, a Middle Eastern icon according to the Lonely Planet, and I can see why! In peak season it would go off, even in the quiet season as it is now [View Full Entry]

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