2 days to go: Planning for a change of plan!!

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Having previously sailed across the Black Sea and been lucky enough to visit the site of the 1945 Yalta Conference and seen where the files were kept in Odessa, when we finally received notice that our cruise was no longer calling at these ports, Roisin and I took it in our stride and were looking forward to the replacement destinations. Hopefully the rescheduling would take us to somewhere new and equally exciting…

…Burgas and Volos: Well, they were certainly places we hadn't been before. As for exciting, let's leave it there for now. There is so much to experience before we get to these new destinations; some places we have been to (more than once) and some we are not as familiar with so, as normal, several weeks before we set off, the internet took a hammering and research on each port has been thorough; checking out the history, things to do and see, the local transport and the national currency.

Ah, the currency. Whatever happened to the United States of Europe? I remember when you could visit most countries in Europe and only have to make a single trip to the Bureau de Change!! Our route will start from Venice where the Euro is still king. Our first port of call is Split in Croatia (the Kuna). Next we stop in Kotor, Montenegro. Here the Euro is their national currency although they don't have their own mint!! Not to worry, I'll make sure I bring plenty of Polos (the ones with the holes in the middle) and humbug!! We then stop at the ports of Izmir and Istanbul where the Turkish Lira is king (or should that be Sultan??) From there we head in to the Black Sea and on to Constanta in Romania. Romania use the Leu. (pronounced lay.) Having worked in Romania in the mid-90s, I still have about 600 leu. This at the time was equivalent to about £1.20. The current rate of exchange is 5.5 leu to the pound sterling. Wow! Now that's what I call inflation. My hopes of a windfall were short lived though as I realised since 2005 Romania changed its currency to something call the New Leu. A quick check of Wikipedia informed me that the denomination of 1 new leu was equivalent to 10,000 old leu!!! The Leu wsn't the only thing that had been deflated!!

Bulgaria is our next stop, the port of Burgas is relatively new on the cruise itinerary so there is not much information on this port. Bulgarian currency is the Lev. Yet another set of notes and coins to get used to! From Burgas it is plain sailing (so to speak!). Thereafter our final two ports are in Greece: Volos (where Jason supposedly got fleeced in the sales at Argos. Oh wait, I meant he set sail in the Argo in search of the Golden Fleece!!) Finally we dock in Gythion (For Sparta) before heading back to Venice. There are only 2 sea days during this time so some of you will be pleased to know that it is unlikely there will be any quizzes to write about!!

It seems a long time since my last blog but this week is the start of a busy 6 months. That's the future, I'm only interested in the 'now' as there are new experiences to savour and hopefully plenty of interesting ‘occurrences' to tell you about. We start our journey on Thursday 18th September 2014. I hope you can join us in at least a couple of episodes and I feel I'm likely to have many of them in the coming weeks!!!

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Comments

[Anne]

Yep, you are so used to thinking that we only have the pound and the euro but there are still quite many strange currencies left... Enjoy the trip

[chris-roisin]

Jo Napot, Anne. Like the Forint for example!!! Hope you're still enjoying Hungary!