Tarifa and Gibraltar day 6-7 (July 16- July 17) We took taxis again to the bus station to avoid the peak hour on the local bus, which I‘m sure the locals would agree was a good idea as 12 people with packs and wheelie bags take up a lot of room. It was then a comfortable three hour bus to Tarifa, which is a beach side town within sight of Morocco. We dropped our luggage and then caught local bus to Gibraltar. It was a walk to cross the border which was pretty straight forward, and then we walked to the [View Full Entry]

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Cordoba and Seville day 3-5 (July 13- July 15) Metro and Bus to Cordoba and then local bus to the hotel. The hotel was right near the old town. Another very hot day so we had a short orientation walk and then very glad to visit the beautiful Mesquita not the least because it was wonderfully cool inside. This was a Mosque that had a Catholic Church inside. The Moorish design, with arches and marble pillars, and decorative walls were all left in place with the Catholic church making use of alcoves along the side, and placing the church itself in [View Full Entry]

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Madrid and Toledo day 1-2 (July 11- July 12) We hit a traffic jam on the way to the airport, three of us had close flights and so were sharing a taxi. Eventually we passed the roadworks that were the cause and got to the airport not too much later than we had planned. My flight was the busy one, I think Dubrovnik is popular with the Spanish, and it took a while to check in. It was a two and a half hour flight to Madrid. I had read up about the Madrid airport which is a large one, and [View Full Entry]

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Kotor and Dubrovnik day 12-13 (July 9- July 10) This time we had a private bus and travelled in style, complete with red and blue disco lights that came on through the tunnels. It was only a 45 minute journey to Kotor and I wondered why we didn’t just do it as a day trip, but on arrival I was glad we were to stay in this town. Kotor is set on the edge of a fjord with spectacular blue-green water. Our accommodation was the best we had stayed in and we scored a balcony that looked toward the mountains as [View Full Entry]

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Ostrag Monastery & Budva days 9-11 (July 6 - July 8) Leaving Sarajevo we took a bus to our next destination, Ostrag Monastery. The road from Sarajevo through the nearby mountains was very narrow with some lovely sheer drops, but this of course meant great views. Especially initially we were on a narrow country road with not much passing room for the oncoming traffic. You can see why this area is spoken of in the same breath as Switzerland. We were met at the roadside stop by a local mini-bus for the rest of our journey. If we thought the previous [View Full Entry]

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Sarajevo and Mostar day 6-8 (July 3 - July 5) An amazing bus journey from Belgrade to Sarajevo through the ? Mountain range. Granite outcrops on top of high mountains, and gorgeous valleys. We took a local trolley bus upon arrival, once the electrics had been restored as there had been a problem down the line. As we drove through you could still see the scars of the recent war marking the building with bullet and mortar holes visible in many buildings, with others you can see the patches but the painting was yet to be completed. We were staying in [View Full Entry]

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Belgrade day 4-5 (July 1-2) A very local train to Belgrade (plastic seats) but comfortable enough for the short journey. Then a half hour local bus to our hotel, who didn’t have our booking and they were full from having the European Youth Games in town. While our leader sorted it out, we went in search of coffee and a toilet (the hotel refused to let us use theirs!). Fortunately, the coffee shop had no problems letting us use their toilet, even before we’d ordered so our faith in Serbian hospitality was restored. We took taxi’s to the alternate hotel that [View Full Entry]

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Novi Sad 2-3 (June 29-30) I met the rest of the group on the work to the train station. Our train trip was a warm but comfortable enough one on the way to Novi Sad, Serbia. The border crossing was pretty painless and we were soon there. We had lovely rooms in Novi Sad. The town had a very alive feeling and lots of cafes. Our orientation work took us past the local market and over the Danube to the local fortress. The interesting feature on the clock tower was that the hands were opposite to what you expected the long [View Full Entry]

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Budapest day 1-2 (June 28) This tour had begun the day before, and as I had spent some time in Budapest before I had opted to take a more convenient flight that had me join the group a day later. There was a note that had the details of when we were to leave the following day. I grabbed a nap before heading out to work the now familiar streets of Budapest. There was a festival around the chain bridge so I wandered through. The Danube had overflowed it’s banks and was full of debris from the rain that had occurred [View Full Entry]

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Istanbul day 20-21 (June 26 -27) We arrived in Istanbul passing great views of the Bosphorous and the magnificent Mosques on the way. Our hotel was in the Sultanhamet area so really handy to all the usual tourist sites. A nice casual breakfast while we waited for our rooms to ready, before heading out on our orientation work and to get some Turkish Lira. We wandered around the streets and Blue Mosque area then grabbed some lunch, before heading to the Taksim Palace. It was quire an amazing area, especially the Harem. The following day I headed off to the largest [View Full Entry]

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