Chernivtsi, Ukraine

We got to the border after working hours on a Sunday night, but it all turned out to be alright. The border guards humoured our lack of organisation, and you don´t need car insurance for the Ukraine, so no worries there. We did get insurance, for those fretting, there were insurance stalls just over the border.

We pootled along to the first town, which turned out to be lovely, and buzzing with teenage nightlife. Or at least lots of teenagers with alcohol hanging about. We felt like we´d been transported back to Newcastle...

We only stayed the night, but enjoyed the much more friendly people than in Romania. There wasn't a lot of english spoken, but suddenly communicating across a language barrier became fun again. We also got a plush hotel room for 20 squid!

Only downside was on the way out of town in the morning some dodgy cop decided that we'd committed some "offence", so we got a fine. Ben got carted off to sit in his car and produce the readies, but he didn't have as much as the cop hoped for so he just took the big notes we had... Hmmmm...

Brasov, Romania

So we headed off from Bucharest and challenged Romania´s scary drivers to stop us getting to Brasov. Romanian drivers are our new worst drivers - managing to edge out tough competition from Portugal and Serbia. We´d heard Ukranian drivers were awful, but we´ve been there now, and they´re really relatively sane. Much of eastern Europe is ahead of them in the bad driving league.

We stopped for lunch in Sinaia, named after Israel´s holy mountain. It´s also where Romania´s last monarchs had their summer palaces for when they could escape from Bucharest. The palaces are very picturesque. Here´s Carl´s:

And his nephew and successor Ferdinand fancied something a little different, and had his designer wife kit this one out:

They´re impressive inside too, but you have to take the tour, and they´re not fond of you taking pictures.

Moving on from there we made it to Brasov, which is becoming quite the tourist town. It´s understandable when this is the town hall in the main square:

The Black Church, just off the main square:

And this on the square next to the hostel where we were staying:

It´s so touristy they´ve got this on the hill:

Unfortunately touristy means tourist prices, and there´s something frustrating about knowing you´re paying 10 times more than you would in the village down the road. One couldn´t help feeling a little ripped off, and the locals could´ve at least looked a little pleased about the extra money they were getting. We were starting to appreciate British service...

We went to Bran, and not just because it´s Joanna´s favourite cereal. No, it´s home to Romania´s top tourist attraction, Dracula´s castle. Only problem is Vlad the Impaler of Dracula fame never actually went there. Still, the castle is pretty, if a little over-crowded:


On the way back from Bran there´s the peasant´s citadel at Rasnov. It held off numerous assaults, and has a well that 2 turkish prisoners spent 17 years digging to be allowed their freedom. Here´s Ben with his impression of working that hard:

And here´s the citadel:


Finally, as we drove north out of Romania, and the forests and mountains got more beautiful, and the litter got less, we were very impressed by the stork nests on top of telephone poles, so couldn´t resist this piccie:

Bucharest

(August 22/23)
Driving into & around Bucharest was a bit of an eye-opening experience. The ring road on the map turned out to be more of a dirty track, but try telling that to the big hordes of traffic. We think this is the side they try to hide; it doesn't give the impression of a city on the cutting edge to say the least. As soon as we turned onto the road to the airport (which was near the campsite) it was a different story. Similarly when we tried to pop into Carrefour supermarket after getting set up we wandered through dirt, dust and litter until we went in through a back door, and Bam! we were in a super-clean and shiny American-style mall. Capitalism is at its rawest here it seems. Certainly by the way everything is covered in advertising.

About the one thing that isn't, is the main tourist attraction. Ceaucescu's nasty great big palace he had built for himself:


We saw the 5-ton chandelier:


The 2,200 sq.m. ballroom (never used - and the massive spaces for paintings of Mr & Mrs C never filled):


and the 1 million cubic meters of marble:


Well, actually we didn't see all the marble, the tour only goes over most of 1 floor and a bit of 2 others. There's 12 floors and it's the 2nd largest building in the world in terms of usable space. And it was free because Ceaucescu just commandeered all the materials which were all sourced in Romania. It's impossible to describe the monstrosity of what he did to build it, but here's the wikipedia article.

While we were having a look around the main cathedral we picked up a little friend, Ciprian:


He offered to show us around some of the old city in exchange for practicing his English. Good deal. Ciprian explained that the Patriarch of the Romanian Orthodox Church had passed away a couple of days previously which is why the entrance was swathed in black cloth and there were lots of people there paying their respects - so we didn't like to take any photos. The building is small but very impressive in its ornamentation.

Next was Bad Vlad's Pad! He of Dracula fame.


Ciprian gave us a good overview of the city, of the beautiful churches and buildings that survived communism, but also the problems the country faces recovering from 50 years of abuse. We saw where Ceaucescu delivered his last speech - and the memorial to those who died in the booing crowd. Around the corner was this beautiful building, the Athenium:


Everything in Bucharest is contrast & contradiction it seems. It can be a bit hard to stomach sometimes.

On the plus side Ben met the drink challenge with Palinka:

Update...

Just so that folk know we're still alive... We're in Lviv. Unfortunately in an internet cafe that we can't plug camera / memory stick into, so no photos, so will wait to do other posts when we can. Because we know it's all about the photos with you people. We may even try to upload a video next, although it may be a bit big.

So the short story to keep you going until we give you the long story: Bucharest is a capitalist paradise, with advertising everywhere, ignoring the poor folk living in slums next to it. There were some fancy castles and nice mountains further up. We avoided any vampires despite going right through Transylvania. We really like Ukraine except for dodgy police officers. Our guide book says Bucharest is the hidden gem of eastern Europe, but we think it's Lviv.

Off to Slovakia tomorrow for more camping. Hopefully away from any cities but right next to a very good internet cafe ;).

Aladzha Monastery

We only popped in here briefly on our way to Romania and Bucharest. But it was pretty intriguing. It's not what you'd expect from a monastery as there were no buildings - instead the monks had lived in a cave complex that they had built into the rock during the 12th century. It was possible to climb up into what had been their chapel, cells and kitchen.
Upstairs chapel:


Main Church:


We also visited the Catacombs near the 'monastery':


And we were on our way to Romania ... you'd think it would get cooler driving north but it only continued to get hotter and more humid.

Varna

(20/21 August)
We made it to Varna the next day, after Joanna had tussled with a long long line of traffic. Obviously car ownership has gone up, but the roads haven't caught the trend yet. We had a little difficulty finding where everything was as the road signage was minimal. But soon we sorted our hotel and everything and went for a walk in the large Sea Garden, a lovely park with fountains & funfairs, museums & monuments.

The next day we got on with the tourist attractions to give us a chance to swim in the Black Sea before sunset. Sorry, no photos of that, or even of the cigarette littered beaches. Anti-smoking campaigns haven't got a lot of traction here.

But we did make it to Bulgaria's largest ruin, the Roman Bath House (2nd century AD). It would've been quite impressive in its day, but has sadly fallen into disrepair:

The prize bit would have been the public toilet which is apparently in reasonable repair and has dolphin fountains for hand-washing... but that bit was closed :(

After a quick wander through the main square for lunch, and past the cathedral we made it to the very impressive Archaelogical Museum. Apparently you're not allowed photos or guns:


We're not entirely sure why they have to specify no guns (banks do too - you'd think it was obvious), but the museum was well catered for english readers, and we learnt some very interesting things. Varna was actually the site of the first European civilisation, in 5000BC - before Egypt or Mesopotamia. There were examples of the first human worked gold in the world - and lots of it! Unfortunately the Black Sea rose 10m and the community had to be abandoned, until the Greeks set up there in 600BC. There was quite a lot of cool things from Greek and Roman times too.

The drinking challenge was also met. This Bulgarian drink was in fact 2 spirits mixed. One of aniseed lollies, and the other mint-ish (it was hard to tell over the aniseed):

This is one of Ben's favourites.

Burgas

(19 August)
So it turns out leaving Turkey is all a bit of a process. As it was getting in, but there each desk told us to go to the next desk, so we could follow our noses. Here only the last guy was helpful so we had to keep going back to him to see if we'd got it right this time... The car, we realised, had a visa too, and it needed to be checked out of the country. Anyway, after quite a bit of chasing our tail we worked it out, and having entered Bulgaria once before we knew what to do there, and flew through that.

It still left us somewhat late on the road (particularly us with our famous early starts), and the Bulgarian roads weren't particularly speedy. The horse and carts didn't slow us much (Ben's still disappointed we were moving too fast to get a picture of the cart before the horses), but the potholes did... So we only got as far as Burgas.

Lonely Planet isn't particularly kind to Burgas, despite it evidently being a reasonably popular tourist destination. We can't claim to have made it to the beach on our overnight stop, but the bars and cafes all seemed excellent. And our dinner waiter was a Liverpool fan (he even went out and got his new shirt to show us), so we got on very well...

The other thing we noticed about Burgas (and would notice about Varna) was the sheer number of Real Estate agents aimed at British customers. Presumably the locals aren't as exciting to sell to, but it must be quite a hot market. Somehow we resisted buying our own slice of Bulgarian heaven, as lovely as we're sure it'd be...

Now it's Istanbul (was Constantinople)

(16-19 August)
So we rocked up to Joanna's friends after our ferry journey and a few evening circuits of Istanbul's Trafalgar Square equivalent (Taksim Square - we got a little lost due to a police diversion). It was great to see Sevil again, and her husband, Devrim. They took great care of us and it was lovely to be in a real home again (and get our washing done!). They also took us to lots of fantastic cafes - we saw a very cool trendy side of Istanbul we can definitely recommend.

Our first day there they took us on an orientation tour. We went up Galata tower which is one of the oldest towers in the world (5th century, although burnt and rebuilt in stone 14th century). Apparently some Turkish Da Vinci type organised a flying contraption off there after the Ottomans took over (1453 Constantinople fell), and got across the Bosphorus. The Sultan was going to praise him but got scared and exiled him instead - some reward! Anyway, it has great views:

(That's the Bosphorus to the left, Topkapi Palace, Agia Sophia, and the Blue Mosque across the land, and the Golden Horn inlet in the front).

We also then went on a trip along the Bosphorus. Joanna, full of confidence after the ferry trip to Istanbul, coped with some ease:


It was good to go along the Bosphorus to get a sense of the city (and say: look we're in Asia! Look we're in Europe!), and Devrim filled us in on a lot of the sights and history of the places along the way. There's a fair few Ottoman palaces!

The next day we let our host and tour guides get some work done, and we headed off to the main sights in Sultanahmet (which as well as the area is the local name for the Blue Mosque). Now if you start your sight-seeing at 3 in the afternoon due to too much sleeping in and chatting you must see the main sights in the order we did...

First up was Topkapi palace - where the sultans ruled from Mehmet, who finally conquered the city, until the mid 19th century. The main thing to see is the harem, where the royal family actually lived. Here's Ben in the Eunuch's Rooms:


and Joanna in a throne area between the harem living quarters and the Sultans:


There was an awful lot of palace to see, from the circumcision room to the kitchen, the weaponry, and especially the treasury, with amazing emerald, diamonds, gold swords etc. It's massive, and amazing.

From there we headed to the Basilica Cistern. Don't be put off by the toilet sounding name, it was a 5th century water reservoir for the Byzantium Roman Emperors' palaces:


Next on the late tourists' schedule is Agia Sophia:


Converted to a mosque, they covered lots of fantastic mosaics like this with plaster:


But Ataturk, great fella that he was, converted it to a museum, and restored some of the mosaics - so now it has elements from both religions. Ben went a bit snap happy, so there'll probably be a few photos on Flickr of Istanbul when we get a chance.

That was it for closing times, as the Blue Mosque has to be open for worshippers:


Outside the Mosque we were accosted by a gentleman trying to sell us a carpet. He seemed quite a persuasive fella but was couldn't handle the googly Joanna threw him, "I'm sorry, we don't need a carpet. We don't have a house!" He knew he was beaten!

To round off our Istanbul top five tourist attractions in one afternoon we moseyed outside the Blue Mosque to the Roman Hippodrome (now a roundabout road), which has 4th century Egyptian columns in the middle:


On our last day in Istanbul, we took a trip out to Belgrade forest on the outskirts to visit Sevil's parents. Along with Sevil and Devrim, they gave us some good history lessons about the area, so we hope we've got most of our facts right! They also had lots of very useful advice for our travels following their own motoring adventures around Europe. And we were treated to some lovely food - Ben has to admit Turkish lamb is pretty good - which is high praise indeed from a kiwi! It doesn't matter where you are in the world, or how old you are, going to parents' homes is always fabulous!

Finally, the drinking challenge. 2 drinks were fulfilled. We've been carrying around a bottle of Cava since Valencia - we've not had a fridge, and Ben didn't fancy drinking the whole bottle by himself. So with chilling apparatus and friends we could finally do it:


Also, we Turkey's drink, raki:


Aniseed-y, as all the drinks of this region seem to be; Ben loves them, even if he does have to brush his teeth before he's allowed anywhere near Joanna again.

Cunda

(update)
2 things: realised we have a picture from Cunda (which is actually an island with a causeway and bridge to it); and failed to mention an intriguing sight... The Cunda set weren't a big headscarf set, but there was the odd one about. Including one woman who was swimming (not that unusual, the devout women go in fully clothed), but had a very skimpy bikini on. We think she hadn't quite got the full idea about the headscarf being about covering yourself... (sorry, failed to get a pic of that, probably would've been impolite).

(15 August)
C in Turkısh is pronounced as a J ın English btw. In other Turkish language news we've now discovered that 'ben' means 'me', whıch explains some confusing conversations we were having:
- My name Ahmed, you?
- Me. [Ben]
- You?
- Me. [Ben]
(Turkish person gives up). Benjamin doesn't work much better. Charles they're quıte happy with. Although to be fair we're in İstanbul now, where everything's a whole different kettle of fish from the small towns previously. Suddenly everyone speaks english instead of no-one, there are less head-scarves etc. The English is probably a good thing as our Turkish was progressing very slowly.

But Cunda. We'd been recommended it because of its fish restaurants, which were amazing. We went for a swım first, which was also lovely. We can't confess to doing much more, which was probably for the best as ıts an expensive wee town for 2 travellers on a budget. There are obvıously plenty of people in Turkey doing well for themselves as the tourists were pretty much exclusively local.

As unable as we were to fınd anyone who spoke english the day we arrıved, the next morning at breakfast the woman running our (lovely) pension spoke perfect English. She'd been away the previous day seeing her friend off back to New Zealand. In fact she'd spent 2 years living in Queenstown. The New Zealand connection's never too far away!

Our frıends ın Istanbul had been very good to us and organısed a ferry, so we got on the road wıth a deadlıne to meet. Not that dıffıcult a deadlıne, just somethıng to get us movıng ın the mornıng. And we made ıt to Yanova ın plenty of tıme, and Joanna coped admırably with the ferry. So we're safely ensconsed ın İstanbul, as we have been for a few days now. Sorry about the lack of posting, but we've been busy relaxıng.

On the road agaın tomorrow though, so its bedtime now. Sorry the Istanbul report will have to wait until we reach Varna (Bulgaria).

Bergama (Pergamon)

(13/14 August)
In January we went to Berlın and saw the Pergamon museum. It ıs astoundıng, and contaıns the Temple of Zeus from Pergamon. Whıch ıs massıve, partıcularly to fıt ınsıde a buıldıng. It also contaıns the walls of Babylon (admıttedly at 3/4 sıze), but we're not goıng there. Anyway, the Ottoman Sultan, corrupt as he was, gave the Temple of Zeus away. It was here:


Whıch ıs all a bıt of a pıty for the locals. But there's stıll a load of old stuff ın Bergama. The Acropolıs ıs crowded wıth temples, palaces and other structures, some seen here:


Here's Ben ın some of the Roman structure that they added to be able to support more temples up top...


And ındeed here's the one bıg Roman Temple on top of the Acropolıs (as opposed to Greek), whıch happens to be the one thıng that the Turks are reconstructıng. It's a Temple to Zeus and the Roman Emperors (completed by Hadrıan, as though anythıng ın the Roman Empıre wasn't...):


Now we had a good old day up the Acropolis. The prevıous day we went to see the museum, and had aımed to see a bıt more. But Premıershıp footy got ın the way, and we were busy makıng frıends wıth the securıty guards at the museum. They wanted to feed us ıce-cream, and who are we to object? We made frıends wıth the securıty guards on the walk up to the Acropolis too - dıd we mentıon how friendly the Turks are? They all seemed very impressed that we were marrıed - as happy as we are about the fact, we're not used to ıt makıng strangers happy too...

Anyway, as we followed our pensıon owner's suggestıon and walked up as well as down (normal people take some form of transport to the top, and ındeed most people don't even walk down, whıch mıght have been why the security guards at the amazıng mosaics half way down were pleased to see us), we ended up spendıng quıte some tıme on the hıll, and got moderately knackered. Stıll we managed to see the Red Basılıca at the bottom, whıch we'd ıntended to see the prevıous day:


This buıldıng ıs apparently mentıoned in the Bible, even if it looks like a modern ruin wıth its red brick. It was built in the 2nd century AD, as a temple, probably to some Egyptıan gods. I'm not sure when the gospel of John was wrıtten, but it can't have been too long before they stopped that and buılt a church ınsıde ıt I guess.

We had a look through Bergama's fantastic market after that. So much fruit & vege of so many varietıes. We had trouble explaining to a woman that we only wanted 2 of her peaches, not 2 kilos; once she realised she gave us them for free as we were buying such a pitiful amount. We felt bad, but we really didn't have anywhere to put any more than that... Still Joanna bought a shirt (see if you can spot it in photos after this post), so we managed to support the Turkish economy a little...

We didn't manage to get to the Asklepion after our big day, so that had to wait until on our way out the next day. We were a bit worried on our way there as we seemed to be going to a military barracks, but the soldiers assured us we were headed in the right direction. Luckily the Dubrovnic Pharmacy had told us a bıt about the Asklepion as there wasn't too much info actually there.

The Asklepion at Pergamon was the height of medicine before the Roman Empıre fell to bits and the Dark Ages etc began. They were doing autopsies and moderately advanced operations with quite sophıstıcated tools before the Barbarians ran through and knowledge fell back. Whıch ıs all a bıt weird.

Thıs tunnel lınked the excellent patient areas wıth the sacred pools ın the mıddle of a massive (110m x 120m) courtyard wıth a couple of temples in it:


Apparently they also used to talk to mental patıents through the sunny vents in the top so they'd think God was telling them stuff.

There was a 3500 seat theatre at the medical complex, not a bad wee feature, even if significantly smaller than the main one on the Acropolis... Joanna felt the need to play to her crowd:


Fortunately for those who had forgotten to buy a gift on the way to the hospital, the 1 km long street lınkıng the Acropolis to the Asklepion was lined with shops (no doubt all selling grapes and flowers), although none of them stıll appeared to be open:


We didn't go very far on leaving though, as we fancıed a beach day.

On the road to Bergama

So why dıd the chıcken cross the road? Well from our experıence ıt's because ıts frıend ıs already on the other sıde, and wants to vısıt.
Now why dıd the tortoıse cross the road? We're not sure, but we're quıte surprısed by the lack of crushed tortoıse-shells on the road. They must be quıte successful crossers despıte theır lack of speed.

In other great news we pulled up at some traffıc lıghts next to the bus drıver who helped us wıth the Clıo on Chunuk Baır, just north of Bergama. And we thought Turkey was a vast country....

Clio gets emotional

So the RAC had to be called ın. We'd managed to carefully cajoule the clıo back down the hıll to our hotel for the nıght, and the next mornıng a nıce man wıth no englısh turned up ın hıs tow truck. He was goıng to take us to someplace Bigger. We thought he just meant across the ferry (to Asıa!) to Canakkale, but a couple of hours drıve later we dıscovered he was takıng us to someplace called Bıga! Where there was a Renault garage.

They soon ıdentıfıed the problem as a bust water pump that was goıng to take 3 hours to fıx, and then set about kıllıng us wıth kındness. A nıce bıg lunch ın theır canteen was followed by endless glasses of Turkısh tea. Joanna actually had to turn down more than she drank!

After fıxıng the water pump they suggested (wıthout Englısh ın any of thıs) that we get a new Alternater Slıde... And now the Clıo ıs runnıng smoother and quıeter than when she was bought. Who'd ever thınk of takıng ıt to a Renault mechanıc?

Anyway, once the lovely mechanıcs had fınıshed enjoyıng the rıght-hand drıve we got on our way. We made ıt as far as Edremıt before stoppıng for the nıght ın a rather flash hotel wıth a jacuzzı ın the ensuıte - can't rough ıt all the tıme. Today we made ıt to Bergama - but more on that later.

(sorry, we really should've got photos of the nıce mechanıcs too...)

Gallipoli

The Turkısh border was chaotıc, but they let us ın eventually, after each person had added a stamp or sıgnature to at least 1 of our passports. Ben got ın for free as a New Zealander, Joanna had to pay 10 of your englısh pounds (no scottısh ones allowed) ın hard currency. Ben now thınks he's ahead - Joanna got ın for free to the Athens Archaeologıcal Museum as a journalıst, but that only saved us 7 of your greek euros. However, beıng a journalist seems to pay off as that's not the first museum which lets the fourth estate in for free - although thıs was the fırst tıme we realısed before payıng...

On we went to Gallıpolı, or Gelıbelu as the Turks call ıt. We went through the town as ıt's a wee way from the bıt of the penınsula we were wantıng to see. The nearest town ıs Eceabat, so we stayed there, after drıvıng along the blue blue waters of the Dardenelles - they're really not that wıde!

Here's the beach the Anzacs landed on on the 25th of Aprıl 1915 (now called Anzac Cove).


We were of course vısıtıng thıs bit of Turkey for Ben to have hıs NZ pılgrımage. Lıttle dıd we realıse the 10th of August ıs the day for Turks pılgrımage to the exact same spot!

The maın NZ memorıal ıs at the top of Chunuk Baır, whıch the NZers successfully took on 8 August 1915:


Rıght next to thıs ıs a massıve statue of Mustafa Kemal - later known as Ataturk. The 10th of August ıs the day he "was gıven to the natıon". Brıtısh forces had replaced the NZers on 9 August, and on the 10th he was the commander that led the raıd that drove them off the hıll. He snuck up rıght to the Brıtısh lınes and cracked hıs whıp to start the attack. Durıng fıghtıng he was hıt by a bullet ın hıs pocket watch - whıch was dırectly over hıs heart. He had the scar for months but dıdn't tell anyone untıl the fıght was over so the men wouldn't be scared.



We had vısıted a couple of other NZ memorıals as well, and apparently thıs had got all a bıt much for the Clıo - she started cryıng. A kındly bus drıver came over to help and we put more water ın - and the bus drıver showed us where ıt was comıng back out!