Stopped off in BRATISLAVA!! I hope everyone has seen Eurotrip. The scene where they stop off in Bratislava is classic. It's like a desolate, grey 'Eastern European' wasteland, with a man washing himself with a rag on a stick, and a dog eating a mans hand. To tell the truth, that imagery is closer to Romania than the real Bratislava. Bratislava is a thriving little metropolis, with a very cool walled old town and some great restaurants. I wouldn't know, because I was too lazy to be bothered taking out a different currency just for a 2 hour visit, but I [View Full Entry]

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Bupa + Pest = Glamerous Hungary's capital city is an interesting mix - it is divided by a river into two districts called Buda and Pest. Buda has more natural springs, the Palace district and other really flash hotels and monuments. Pest has the shopping and clubbing scene. With their powers combined, they are a really fun destination. However, as I mentioned earlier, I was taking it easy. So after our walking tour of Palace Hill and the Citadella, Ximena and I hit an internet cafe and grabbed some dinner. Our hostel was right in the middle of the city, so [View Full Entry]

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The morning in Brasov As soon as we got to the town in Brasov we all headed to the internet cafe to get some contact with the outside world. Bulgaria is a pretty quiet country, and internet access was hard to come by, so we all needed a technology moment. Sighisoara Today's stop was in Sighisoara, a quaint little tourist village that just happens to be the birthplace of Dracula. We had a look around and saw the spot where Dracula (aka Vlad Tepes or Vlad the Impaler) grew up. There are lots of Dracula-inspired souvenirs you can get, and the [View Full Entry]

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The landscape on our Romania drive days were really beautiful, the patchwork fields and rolling hills were all sorts of autumny colours and it was a pleasure watching people working the land as they have done for years. Not that I'd want to do it, but it was picturesque. No Draculas Castle for us :( Since it was the end of the season, Bran Castle closed early so we couldn't visit. But we made the most of the afternoon preparing for a dress-up party back at the camp. It was a gender bender, so we dressed the guys up like girls, [View Full Entry]

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We only spent one night in Bucharest, so it's all a bit of a blur. But I'll try to remember as much as possbile. Veliko Tarnovo On the way through Bulgaria, we stopped off at a fortress called Veliko Tarnovo. It was really impressive, and at the top of the hill was a church decorated in a really unique way. Instead of the usual romantic style with gold leaf and bright colours, it was completely gothic, and almost painted in the cubist style. Unfortunately I couldn't take pictures, but it was really quite dark and disturbing on the inside, with sharp [View Full Entry]

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Side-bar You will notice that from here on, my attitude kinda changes. After Istanbul I am more concerned about taking it slow than trying to see as many sights as possible. The reason for this is fatigue - I had no idea how tiring such a regimented tour routine would be. So from here on I'm a bit more lazy, and am taking in the atmosphere of the cities rather than seeing everything there is to see. Serdika, as the Romans called it Sofia was a nice city, but after Istanbul I thought it was very quiet. We did a walking [View Full Entry]

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The drive day to Istanbul was pretty lively, lots of people were singing and chatting rather than sleeping on the bus, so I think we were all really looking forward to being in the centre of the ancient Eastern Roman Empire, also known as Byzantium, Constantinople or modern day Istanbul. Day One - How Bazaare! Once we had settled into our HOTEL ROOM WITH ENSUITE, Ximena and I went straight to the Grand Bazaare and Spice market. The Grand Bazaare is quite flash, and has all sorts of leather, gold, silver, rugs, all the fancy stuff. So we carried on to [View Full Entry]

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We got to the Çanakkale Peninsula at about 3pm after a pleasant drive day, and met our guide at the museum on the Gelibolu penninsula. He gave us a tactical rundown of events surrounding the Battle of Gallipoli from a Turkish perspective, which was really interesting. We then went into the museum to see artifacts, uniforms and weapons from the battles. It was a good intro for the afternoon, and I had no idea how many monuments and battlefields and cemetries and trenches there were to come. We first visited the main cemetry on the coast near ANZAC cove. The cove [View Full Entry]

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Kavala was a one night stop on the way to Istanbul, and although it doesn't really have much touristy monuments and stuff to see, we did spend an amazing afternoon on the beach. A sandy beach. I made the most of this, and it would be the last beach we get to swim at. Most of the other cities we go to will be inland or in mountains. And given the time of the year we are getting into (Autumn), we might not have warm weather for too much longer. So we sunbathed and swam in the clear blue sandy sea, [View Full Entry]

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The Plains of Thermopylae On the way to Meteora, we made an unsceduled stop at a monument to the Spartan King Leonidas. In 480BC Thermopylae was the scene of a huge battle, and if any of you have seen 300 you will know that it was 300 Spartans (as well as a few thousand Greeks) against tens of thousands of invading Persians. An epic tale of courage in the face of adversity. And we were standing on the same site, it was really something. Meteora From temples to monastries as we reached Meteora, a city with strange cliffs that grow out [View Full Entry]

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