Emmad
Emma de Hoog Joined: February 21st 2008
Logged in: June 22nd 2008
Logged in: June 22nd 2008
Map of where I've been...
Travel Blog Posts
Church and monument - Cluj-Napoca
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 lunch and watching the locals. Wandering around a town is the best way of discovering it I think, and this place was no exception. Oradea is on the border of Romania and Hungary, and wasn't ... read more
Brasov streets
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 on to be sharing space with! Unfortunately Monday was the only day Bran Castle was closed, go figure, so we too a bus out to Rasnov Fortress instead, which turned out to be very cool. ... read more
Crossing the Danube
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 didn't know how long the train stopped for, and then the ticket office was closed as it was now so late! Luckily we'd been chatting to a friendly local guy on the train who did ... read more
Communist remnants
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 beforehand) Emma J, who is Australian, actually did require one. In advance. Unfortunately she had not checked, and therefore had no required visa to obtain entry into Macedonia. At the Macedonian border the border police ... read more
Winding streets in the old town
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 not be quite the same as ours, with the big hair and 80's style. However everyone is nicely dressed and made up, so we made a wee bit of a contrast with our backpacker clothes ... read more
Tulips in Istanbul
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 here! After so long in the desert one kind of forgets about cold and wet weather... And you have to love a city that does corn on the cob and roasted chestnuts as street vendor ... read more
Crossing to Carnakkale
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 to pick up a fantastic guide who is passionate about the area and the history to take us around the Gallipoli penninsula for several hours on the morning of the 24th, the day before the ... read more
Genuine Fakes..
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 obligatory stop. It's hard to imagine using a WC as a communal social stop, but that's what the case was here. And the order of seating depended on rank. We had quite some speculation about ... read more
Safe transport
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 theory than a noticeable change. They are both beautiful turquoise and clear waters, so inviting. Apparently the word tuquoise actually comes from here as a description of the water. I don't know if that's true, but it's a good ... read more
Treehouse
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 it was pretty busy, and a really funky place. The treehouses and rooms were all named after various things backpackers would find familiar, I stayed in Iluru (sp? sorry Aussies) and the two that stood ... read more
