29 January- Thursday I just want to apologise in advance for any spelling errors and lack of spaces as this keyboard sucks. Was up bright and early to get the first tube to london victoria. Made my way to gatwick - significantlyeasier for me than stansted and got there with heaps of time to spare. Went through security and had a breakfast favorite - maccas egg and bacon roll before meeting up with soma and boarding the flight to Berlin. Having had a very earlz start we both pretty much slept thewhole flight. On arrival we made our way to the [View Full Entry]

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10 January - London to Oslo and Vigeland Park I don't know who was booking my flights for Oslo, but they must have been insane. My flight was at 6:30am on a Saturday morning from Stansted. This means that after just a few hours sleep, I was up at 2am and in a taxi by 2:30am to London Victoria bus station, to get the bus to Stansted Airport at 3:30am. I actually got there slightly early and managed to get the 3am bus. Had a nap on the hour and a half bus trip which was good. Checked in (only had [View Full Entry]

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4 November This morning I headed to the Blue Mosque nice and early before coming back and having breakfast. Despite being there quite early there were a lot of people, most of whom looked like they were probably there on an organised bus tour. Everyone as they enter have to go through the ritual of removing shoes before putting them in a plastic bag and carrying them with you. The mosque was quite pretty - blue tiles inside, bright red carpet, a small area for ladies to worship in the corner. You can hear the mosque bells go off at prayer [View Full Entry]

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26 December - London to Dublin to Galway My flight was at 9am from Stansted so at about 7am I was in a taxi to Liverpool St station. There was absolutely no traffic around, what with it being Boxing Day and all. Then it was a quick train ride to Stansted before boarding the flight to London. On arrival into Dublin airport my biggest issue was getting some euro. This proved more challenging than expected as the first three ATMS I found were out of order. Useful. After finally getting cashed up I discovered the food court before getting on my [View Full Entry]

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2 NOVEMBER - OFFICIAL TOUR END We had all agreed at dınner the evenıng before to say goodbye to Stefan our tour leader at breakfast the next mornıng. All we were really doıng was puttıng off the ınevıtable. So at 830am we had breakfast and then saıd our goodbyes - whıch was (as expected) quıte sad. Then ıt was goodbye to Ben and Jen as they were stayıng ın a hotel elsewhere untıl they left for Dubaı a few days later and ıt would be unlıkely that we would see them agaın. In a way ıt ıs good t [View Full Entry]

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30 OCTOBER - BANSKO TO PLOVDIV We left Bansko early ın the mornıng followıng another breakfast of meat, cheese, bread, jam and cereal wıth warm mılk. Delıcıous. The trıp through to Plovdıv was supposed to take about four hours but our mını bus drıver was a bıt of a hoon and we got there ın about three hours. Eıther that or the traffıc and roads were better than expected!! On the way we endured some of the hıts from the 90s - they sure love theır 90s musıc here! Arrıved ınto Plovdı [View Full Entry]

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28 OCTOBER - TRAVEL TO BANSKO This morning we were all up early to get some breakfast from the local shop before heading to Bansko via the Rila Monastery. We had private transport organised which we all squished into. Ended up being quite a long day though. The Rila Monastery where we stopped for about an hour was quite pretty. Up at the top of a huge mountain (read = bumpy long and winding drive) which was very scenic, again, the autumn colours make the mountains and the trees spectacular. Despite the sun and blue skies, by the time we got [View Full Entry]

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26 OCTOBER - VELIKO TARNOVO First stop was breakfast this morning - which for five of us took well over an hour. The meals here dont neccessarily all come out at once - but as they are ready. So we all got our fries, then a few omelettes came out, then another two. Well after everyone had finished theirs I finally got mine. After that it was internet and showers before heading up to the fortress. As usual, we ran into pretty much everyone else at some point at the fortress as it was on everyones's to do list. Wandered around [View Full Entry]

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23 OCTOBER - SINAIA Free day today so after getting up and grabbing some food a few of us headed up the mountains via cable car. I dont do well with heights and cable cars and the two rides were slightly interesting - like a giant ski lift. Scary... The first cable car went up to 1400 metres and then the second one took us up to the very top of the mountain at 2000 metres. We were hoping to see snow, but while we could see it on other mountains it was always a little too far away to actually [View Full Entry]

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20 OCTOBER - SIBIU, ROMANIA It was a 'free day' today so woke up at about 8am for breakfast. Discovered that much of our tour group had had a very eventful night. Four people (two rooms) had been moved at about 2am as they couldn't sleep because of the noise from the night club below. I didnt hear a thing. Then when I asked about breakfast I discovered that apparently breakfast wasnt included despite us being told that it was. Hmmm. So I had to go and wake our tour leader to get it sorted out. Felt really bad as he [View Full Entry]

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