hkwoody

The first thing we noticed in Rome was the lack of Italians. Our B&B was within walking distance of Termini Station, the whole way almost every shop we saw was Chinese (mostly clothes and accessories) or Indian / Sri Lankan / Bangladeshi (mostly convenience stores). As well as the physical shops there were many African street sellers hawking mostly selfie sticks. Our landlady was Russian. Maybe it shouldn't have been but it was a surprise to see such numbers and variety of immigrants. Surprise number 2 was the huge numbers of tourists, early November and there were still queues for everything, the longest of which was for St Peters. We thought by going on Saturday there would be fewer people than on Sunday what we hadn't bargained for was the Pope who was doing some kind ... read more

After a few days enjoying the wonderful hospitality of Atsuko's old friends in Bulgaria doing nothing more than drinking too much home-made wine and rakia, and overeating delicious local food it was time to move on again. First stop in Greece was Thessaloniki. Our first impression from the walk between the bus station and hotel was that the economy was in better shape than we'd expected, sure there were a lot of empty shops – like almost everywhere these days, but the streets weren't lined with homeless children, nurses turned hookers, or abandoned Porsche's. Our only full day here turned out to be a public holiday, surely one of the strangest. October 28 is 'Οχι Day (όχι translates to no) which celebrates the refusal of the Greek government on October 28 1940 to allow Italian and ... read more

Like every bus journey we've made in Turkey Antalya to Denizli was an uneventful breeze – helpful people at the otogar to point us in the right direction, plenty of available seats, modern comfortable buses, smooth driving, onboard wifi - not at all what we're used to. We didn't even have to wait for the dolmuş to Pamukkale fill up as we got nearly the last two seats. All a bit too good to be true, but we'll take the smooth with the rough. It turns out the travertine’s at Pammukale have been getting drier for years – too much water being diverted for commercial uses apparently, so it was less spectacular than we'd expected. Even if we'd known this in advance we'd still have gone so it was definitely worth the visit, but lacked the ... read more

We knew hot air ballooning was popular in Cappadocia so we didn't expect to have the skies to ourselves but there were dozens and dozens of balloons, probably more than 100, and this is the low season! This was a new experience for both us, and it was a fantastic one. The heat and noise when the burner was being used contrasts sharply with the cold and silence when it's not. The incredible views without windows, wings or engines getting in the way. The slow drift in whichever direction the wind takes you – of course the balloon company has a good idea which way it's blowing before take off, these are sightseeing tours. The skill and knowledge of the pilot. The bright, clear, sunny morning with mist still in the valleys. The amazing geology. Everything ... read more

The first thing you see when entering Turkey from Iran is a duty free shop stocked with whisky, vodka, gin etc. This is a bit surprising as much of eastern Turkey seems to be as dry as Iran. Not one of the restaurants we've been in has served any alcohol, and no supermarkets or convenience store type shops sell any, not even beer. We knew we were travelling again as soon as we got out of the immigration gates. Having found the dolmuş (mini bus) we then had to wait for it to fill up with passengers before the driver would leave. It must have been a slow afternoon as he struggled to find enough people, so after about 30 minutes he made an offer – if everybody paid one more lira each he'd leave, we ... read more