Istanbul, Turkey

We were really on the fence a few days ago about whether or not we should come to Istanbul as it was about 15 hours by train further east than Thessanoliki, Greece, the next city we had planned to visit, which means it would have been 15 hours from Sofia to Istanbul and then another 15 hours back in the same direction to Thessanoliki. Anyways, we went for it and are so glad we did. Istanbul was very different both architecturally and culturally from the other european cities we have seen to date as a result of middle eastern and Islamic influence. We stayed in a lovely little hotel in the most amazing location, directly beside Sultanahmet square, where both the Blue Mosque and Hagia Sophia are located. Our room had a direct view of the Blue Mosque and the hotel terrace had a beautiful view of the square, city and ocean.

The Blue Mosque gets its name from the blue tiles lining the interior walls and the light that filters in from the mostly blue stained glass windows. It is incredible in size and stature and was built around 400 years ago. The Hagia Sophia, which isn't quite as elegant as the blue mosque, is still pretty amazing as it was built around 360 AC, initially as an eastern orthodox church, and then was eventually converted into a mosque in the late 15th century. Directly behind the Hagia Sophia lies the Sultan's Palace, which Geoff and I spent an afternoon exploring. They had some pretty incredible artifacts including an 86 carat diamond headpiece, surrounded by 49 smaller diamonds! There were also a number of muslim treasures, including the prophet Mohammed's beard and tooth, as well as Moses's stick that he had in hand when he, according to the Bible, parted the Red Sea.

It has been fascinating to learn more about the Muslim culture and religion, which I'll be honest, I didn't know a lot about beforehand. Funny enough, I just happen to be reading the Satanic Verses again while we travel, which has been helpful in better understanding the religion and stories of the Qur'an. Muslims are required to pray five times per day, and it seems that most of the mosques here, over a loud speaker, conduct a call to prayer usually at 5:30 am,12:30 pm, 3:30 pm, 6:30pm and 7:30 pm. The first 5:30 am call to prayer was a bit of shocker for us, especially since we are staying right beside two mosques! They are very old, slow and beautiful prayers that are sung in intervals and echo throughout Sultanahmet square and across the city. I will try and attach a video I captured just as we were leaving the city so you can get a sense of what it sounded like, although the sound is not that great.

Other than that we spent time shopping in some of the markets, drinking apple tea and eating Turkish delights. The food, in my opinion for a metropolitan city, wasn't that exciting. A lot of donairs, kebabs and meat stews. Muslims don't eat pork so there was a lot of lamb and chicken available but it was hard to eat as a vegetarian that's for sure! I can definitely say during this trip Geoff and I both have had our fair share of vegetarian pizzas and pastas. My favourite part about Istanbul was the fresh juice that is available everywhere; orange, pomegranate, pineappple, all juiced as you watch. Best thing to get you back to health when you have a cold (which we both came down with after the train ride from Sophia).

Anyways, we are landing in 15 minutes in Athens so must go, will post once we get in.

Jess

Sofia, Bulgaria

In a previous post I had mentioned that Bulgaria is the poorest of european nations, with the average citizen earning only $550 USD/month. From what we saw in Sofia, infrastructure is probably the most obvious evidence of any poverty. We saw a number of large projects that looked like they were started and then due to a lack of funding, were never completed. The main train station has this large mall complex that leads down to the metro station that was built I guess in anticipation of it being filled; however, almost all of the stores are empty with the exception of two or three. I should note, however, that their metro system was brand new, clean and cheap so not everything, of course, is like how I describe it above.

We ended up staying at a hostel just outside of the main shopping district. Exiting out of the metro on our way to the hostel the first morning, our fırst view was of the mountain that overlooks the city, Mt Vitosha. It was great to see mountains again, having been in flat countryside since our trip to the Alps in Switzerland. In the summer, or in winter if you had the right equipment, you can hike up to get an amazing view of the city and surrounding mountain ranges. Bulgaria supposedly has some of the best skiing in Europe and cheap, only 30 leves for one resort I saw for a day pass (about $20 CAD). Unfortunately, as we did both of our train rides in and out of the city/country at night we didn't get to see much of the mountains in this country.

That night we ate at an amazing traditional Bulgarian restaurant. It was probably the most legitimate traditional meal yet as you didn't feel as it if it was just a big show for tourists, in fact, I think we might've been one of the only tourists in there. I'll try and post some of the videos I took but they had some pretty extravagent meals that were brought out. One of them was this giant egg that was doused in oil, lit on fire and then cracked and served to an adjacent table. There were also musicians and people from different tables getting up to hold hands and dance around the main part of the room, which was lovely to watch. At the restaurant Geoff and I shared a plate of wet corn bread balls, yogurt, huge chunks of feta and this antipasto/vegetable chutney. Geoff had a big meaty plate of pork knuckle and potatoes, while I tried this garlicky fish dish in tomato stew. The best was desert, creme brulee with homemade blueberry jam and a glass of pear brandy. Mmm... all for around $40 including tip!

The second day was just spent wandering around, checking out some of the churches and parks. Geoff found a couple of skate spots, one which had this huge metal half pipe (see pic below). The statue that you see in the background was erected as a memorial to the Russians for freeing the city in WW2, although, it has become an item of controversy amongst citizens, some wanting it to be taken down owing to the fact that I guess people feel as if the Russians never truly freed them, as they spent another 40 odd years under the influence of communism. Some of the other statues in this park have become famous worldwide as they were painted like superheroes or outfitted with knitted clothing in solidarity for the women of Russia's punk band, Pussy Riot (see pic below).

On the second day, Geoff noticed he was covered in bed bug bites, which was pretty awful! We were put in this four person dorm room for the two of us as they did not have any double beds left, which meant we had separate beds. Unfortunately for Geoff he picked the one with a couple of bugs in it, and ended up with bites on his hand, stomach and face, of all places! We ended up getting a discount on the night, not that there is much a hostel can do to avoid this type of thing as it is so easy for someone to carry these things from one place to another, especially when you have such a high volume of travellers. Of all the places I have ever stayed though, this is only my second time encoutering them (for any of you reading this from the South America trip, I'm sure you will remember Corey's ankles and bum from that hostel in Colombia - eaten alive! :)); hopefully it is my last! I am also really hoping none crawled into our bags, even the thought of it gives me the heebie jeebies.

Anyways, we spent the following night on an agonizingly long 15 hr overnight train ride, where neither of us ended up getting more than 2 hours of sleep, having been checked what felt like million times by various border guards for our tickets and passports and then having to get out at 2 am to get our passports stamped and finding out that we needed to get a visa to enter Turkey for 45 euros each, which we of course didn't have as we hadn't used euros since Germany, and of course they only accept payment in cash. We were luckily saved from being ditched at this remote outpost of a border corssing by the conductor who ended up paying for our visas until we could pay him back at the next station with a bank machine. Crisis averted, although it didn't lead to a calm sleep thereafter.

The only thing that made us feel a bit less clueless about the visa situation was the 20 year old Calgarian backpacker that we saw go barefoot into the soaking wet, reeking of pee, train bathroom, after which, we had a good laugh in our exhausted hysteria, which was a bit mean spirited I guess, but was so shockingly gross! We later heard it was his first time travelling and only his third day on the road, if only his mother knew...:)

Anyways, we have arrived in Istanbul, Turkey! More to update about at a later time...

Sofia, Bulgaria

Some photos from Sofia yesterday, including Geoff's bed bug bitten face, ugh, ...will write more about it tomorrow...:)

Belgrade, Serbia

Hi all.

We most recently spent two days in Belgrade, the capital of Serbia. Entering Serbia by train, we immediately saw a large open landfill, directly besides which were crop fields littered with trash. You can imagine our first impression of the country. Fortunately, however, our first impression of Serbia was not the impression we left with as we borded our overnight train last night. Serbia appears poorer than Hungary; however, is the wealthiest country in the region we have just entered, the Balkans (generally these are the Southeast european countries of Bosnia, Macedonia, Croatia, Kosovo, Romania, etc.).

The first day in Belgrade we spent enjoying the fortress that overlooks the joining of the Danube and Sava rivers, probably the most interesting fortress we have seen to date. They have added some public art as well as displayed many of the canons and tanks that had been used at the fortress in past wars. It was amazing to see the damage that had been made during the 1999 NATO bombing of Belgrade, which was evident by whole parts of the fortress being destroyed. There were still sections of the fortress that laid in ruins and people were warned not to walk in those areas. Geoff and I did a bit of research on the internet yesterday to find out a bit more about what happened in the 90s in this area.

The Social Federal Republic of Yugoslavia, a federation of slavic nations, was founded in 1943 by Josip Tito. His authoritarian government was socialist but was not aligned with the Americans or Russians during the cold war period. In the 80's, however, near the time of the fall of communism elsewhere, rising nationalism amongst the six republics within Yugoslavia led to individual regions seeking independence from the central Yugoslav government in Belgrade, which itself had become focused on strengthening centralist power and developing a "greater Serbia". In the end, hundred of thousands died as a result of the various wars that ensued and heinous war crimes were committed, genocide included (Kosovo). While at McGill in my post-socialist societies course, I watched a very good film about this war called 'No Man's Land', if anyone is interested in a more human side of the story (full movie here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_I7kj_oz3KU&feature=youtube_gdata_player). There is also a lot more information on the topic on the web: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yugoslav_Wars

Anyways, overall it has been interesting to learn more about it by actually being here; however, there doesn't seem to be much public information/memorials about it, similar to what you see in Western Europe with regards to WW1 and 2. Wounds may still be a bit too fresh...

Other than that, the Serbian people were amongst the friendliest people we have met yet. In our Lonely Planet it says "Serbians are not known for their warmth, but they should be", which from our experience, rang very true. After the fortress, we spent the rest of afternoon visitng the Ethnographic museum and National museum, both which were quite small and under construction, but interesting nonetheless. They had a beautiful cobblestone street called, Skardilija, where Serbian bohemians, artists and writers used to hang out. We ate at a nice little restaurant with an exterior covered in yellow flowers where we ate like royalty. A full three course meal for two with a beer will cost you in the $25 dollar range, including tip and tax, so we have indulged. Last night we happened to eat at a restaurant voted #1 by Trip Advisor in 2012 against 257 other restaurants, so were spoiled with some very good food.

Yesterday, we had initially planned to rent bikes and ride along the river while we waited for our night train but it ended up snow-raining very hard the entire day! I knew I was going to jinx us by mentioning that we hadn't had rain in over 3 weeks!

Anyways it turned out to be a verrrry long day as we wasted the whole day lingering in smoky cafes, spending the rest of our dinars (serbian money). Geoff is not a fan of the overnight trains but I had managed to twist his arm into doing one last night. It was probably the oldest, ricketiest train we have been on yet and were crammed in a 6 person room (even though we were told it would be a 4 person when we bought it) with about a foot of clearance while laying down between you and the bunk on top of you. Luckily, we had it all to ourselves. From what I had read online though, I wasn't expecting much as the trains in the east aren't known for their comfort or modernity.

Anyways, we made it finally to Sofia, Bulgaria where I am writing this blog post. Before coming here, we found out that there had been large protests in the streets in Sofia just two days ago, over primarily high heating costs, which eventually led to general protests over the poor standards of living for the Bulgarians (Bulgaria being the most impoverished country in Europe - the average Bulgarian earns $550 USD a month). The president had offered his resignation as a result of some bloody protests, and just yesterday at noon was this resignation accepted by the governing bodies, meaning an interim government is being established until elections are held in April. I know some of you may be thinking... why would you go there then amongst all this?! The british travel advisory warnings indicated it was safe to come and so far we have seen no evidence of any upheaval. So... So far so good :). Plus what is a little travel without some socio-political excitement? Kidding... :)

Ok, will write more about it tomorrow. Post a comment, would love to hear more about things are in Van! Will include some photos from our days in Belgrade...

Train to Serbia

We picked up this old Serbian man on the train ride wearing a wool coat and cap, and carrying his bag on a stick over his shoulder. This is what came out of the bag during the trip...

Budapest, Hungary

I'm having to retype this as our tablet is refusing to connect to the internet. Excuse the typos, im using a Serbian keyboard...

Oh the joys of travelling. Today we are on our way to Belgrade, Serbia. We arrived at the stations this morning at 8:15 to catch a 9:05 train to Belgrade, as indicated both in our train schedule book and on the web. We were informed upon our arrival, however, that there is no 9:05 am train, only a 1:05 pm train. Ugh. So after 4 hours in the local McCafe, we are about 2 hours into our 8 hour train ride into Serbia.

Personally, I am quite interested in learning more about Serbia, as well as Bulgaria, the two countries we will be passing through on our way down to Instanbul, Turkey, especially since we haven't met anyone yet in our travels who has been there. Unfortunately, I think due to the war between the Serbs, Bosnians and Croats in the 90s, these countries havent been seen as the most desireable places to visit, at least by Westerners. This is likely much more true for Bosnia and Serbia; Croatia, which I visited a couple of years ago, was being hailed as the 'new Greece' due to its an amazing coastline along the Adriatic sea. Anyways will be able to provide more detail on what it's like once we get there.

We have most recently come from Budapest, where we spent 4 days. I visited the city in 2009 but had a fairly vague memory of it. What I do remember was the loudest snorer that I have ever heard staying in our dorm room and this rather annoying backpacker who had decided to set up camp at the hostel for a couple of weeks and become the resident Budapest know-it-all. Christi, if you're reading this, I'm sure you'll remember the one? :)

Anyways, this is all to say that I didnt have the fondest memories of Budapest but am so glad I went back to re-explore it! Geoff and I stayed at this absolutely lovely, eclectic, artsy hostel in the Buda side of town. The owner had obviously spent much careful time decorating and putting together the rooms and common area to make it feel so warm and comfortable, with knick knacks, antiques, art and fish tanks all over the walls and in between the windows. The first night we arrived they prepared a traditional goulash soup with wine and bread for all of the guests. We ended up having a lovely conversation with a Moldvan and Australian couple, the Moldvans studying in Switzerland, the Australians living and working in Berlin. Of all the sometimes hard things about backpacking - ahem, showing up for a non-existent train and waiting 4 hours - when you are enjoying delicious wine and interesting conversation in a foreign country, there is absolutely nothing better about travelling. Even better than the excitement of seeing new places and things everyday, are the people you meet and the stories and experiences shared.

We spent the rest of the four days exploring the Pest castle, visiting the Ethnographic Museum, shopping in a giant indoor market and finally taking a dip in one of the thermal baths. The weather was cool, 0 to 5 degrees, but those 5 degrees, in comparison to -5, made all the difference and allowed us to spend more time outside. So far we have been very fortunate and have not had rain for 3 weeks - knock on wood - so no complaints there! Hard to believe as a Vancouverite for February!

Anyways, hope all is well in Van!

Jess

Happy Valentines Day from Prague, Czech Republic

Happy Valentines day to you all!

Geoff and I arrived in Prague last night and have enjoyed our time here so far. It is a unique city, you feel as if you are walking within the walls of a large castle complex. There are some amazing churches, synagogues and castles within the old part of the city, which includes the Prague castle located on the top of the hill looking over the town. The city, from what we've seen (which is by no means the whole city), is very touristy, even in the slow season. At night it is a bit Disney-esque with the castle-like buildings, the cuckoo clock (the main clock in the centre of the old town has rotating puppets that come out on the hour) and tourist shops/restaurants. The clock in the centre of town, however, is pretty amazing. It is a solar clock that has been running for 600 years with 75% of the original parts!

Things like goulash, potatoes, onion soup and pork knuckle are big favourites for the czechs. We have been feasting; this morning I had sweet pancakes with fruit (essentially fruit that is wrapped in a thick crepe and topped with whipped cream and chocolate sauce). For dinner, it was vegetarian goulash and a gorgonzola salad drizzled with honey, mixed with grapes and tomatoes. The best so far in Europe has been the pastries; the apple strudel I had today was made with a dense crepe and warm cinnamon apples, all washed down with hot chocolate made with cream, so thick it looked almost like pudding. I also can't forget to mention the $2.50 0.5 L pilsners that are the Czech Republic's beer claim to fame, very tasty.

Today, we took a three-hour guided tour through the city by foot. There were some really interesting points that came out of the tour, like: did you know Hugo Boss designed the Nazi uniform? Hitler also preserved the jewish quarter in Prague as he eventually wanted to retire in Prague and open the one and only "museum of extinct people". It was also interesting to hear more about Vaclav Havel, the famous playwright, poet and dissident during the Soviet era, who eventually became President after 1989. He was a big fan of rock music (which had been outlawed during the Soviet era), and invited some bands to come play at the Prague castle, including the Rolling Stones. The Stones ended up playing at the castle and found the castle a bit dark at night, so Mick Jagger, I guess a fan of Vaclav and Prague, ended up offering to pay for lights to be set up to light up the castle at night.

Tomorrow night Geoff and I have decided to take an overnight train down to Budapest (approx. 8 1/2 hours). We've decided to fast track some of these northern cities to get down to where it is warmer - at least in the Vancouver temperature range. Today, although the low was only -5 (max -1), it was cold being outside for an extended period, especially when we didn't bring full winter gear like boots! My almost all mesh Nike Frees just weren't cutting it today :).

Anyways, will write soon from Budapest! Some photos from the last 2-3 days in Berlin and Prague:



Museum Island, Berlin

Skin eating fish

Berlin, Germany

After a long 15 hour train ride we made it to Berlin from Grindelwald. Berlin is massive, we walked for hours today and only saw a small portion of the city (pop. 4 million). The history here is incredible and we spent the day checking out Karl Marx Allee, the Berlin Wall and the Jewish Museum. Seeing the wall was moving, I just can't believe something like this was ever erected through the middle of a city (although, i guess it somewhat resembles the current day West Bank wall in Israel...). I can only imagine what those who witnessed/participated in bringing the wall down must have been feeling that day/night. Today there are only a few portions left standing, the longest being a 1.3 km stretch called the East Side Gallery, which is covered in artwork from artists from over 20 countries (completed in 1990).

The weather here is grey and cold, makes it hard to spend a lot of time outside, but is probably the best weather to be spending time in museums :).

Yesterday we spent the day recovering from the train ride and checking out this massive outdoor flea market in a park just near our hostel. They had some really neat things and if I didn't have to carry it around for the whole trip, I would have bought a few larger items. The highlight of the market was the hot wine and food carts that Geoff and I both indulged in. Tomorrow we are off to check out some more museums, Charlie's Checkpoint (one of the checkpoints along the wall) and perhaps the palace on the west side of town. Some photos from the last few days:

Bern and Grindelwald, Switzerland

Today we took the train through Interlaken to the resort town of Grindelwald, Switzerland. We lucked out with an amazingly beautiful day (it started out pretty foggy). I've never been to a mountain resort like this where you are literally propped right in the middle of the mountains, surrounded by the jagged, snow covered alps. The town is very charming with German architecture and cabins with red and green shutters. It's so hard being here and not being able to snowboard!! But just glad we were able to make it. We almost decided to skip the alps and head right to Munich today, instead we leave here at 6 and take an overnight train to Berlin.

Bern the town we stayed in the last two nights was so lovely, it was straight out of a movie or painting. The night we arrived it was magical: snowing lightly while we walked by the quaintest shops: super old antique, book, wooden toy and a marionette store, as well as, cool hipster art galleries and clothing stores. The town was built in the 15th century and all of the street lights look like they havent been changed since the 1940s. It was a very charming university town, but was ridiculously expensive!!! The equivalent of a big Mac was about $12-13 CAD! A plate of pad thai was about $25. I've spent over $300 euro in the last day and a half and haven't bought anything just food and lodging. Needless to say we are excited to be moving on to Germany where things are a little bit more affordable, although, at the same time sad because Switzerland is so beautiful. Feel really fortunate to have seen it by train and for reaching the alps, something that was on my travel bucket list.

Last night Geoff and I went to this cluster of bars that the hostel guy told us was "super alternative". It was pretty cool to take in - I feel like this is what Berlin's party scene is going to look like - punk vibe with graffiti, etc. I would liken it to the Fouf in Montreal or the Cambie in Vancouver. Anyways it was sort of refreshing to see that the City wasn't completely idyllic, it had a bit of grunge to it. Overall in Switzerland, though, you see very little poverty and public transport is amazing.

Anyways time to leave the Internet cafe! I have attached some photos from the last few days. I'll also try and attach a video.

Nice, France

Today Geoff and I are travelling from Nice, France to Bern, Switzerland, an approx. 8 1/2 hour train ride. Although long, we are looking forward to travelling through the french/swiss alps via train for the views, particularly since it is such a nice sunny day. The weather in Bern is going to be a lot colder than what we have experienced so far (low of -11 on Saturday!) but will hopefully be worth it.

Nice was an absolutely beautiful city and I can understand why it becomes so busy in the summer. It has a 22km palm-lined, promenade that runs through along the water through the city and the port. The sea is a beautiful aquamarine colour with white pebble beaches, beaches that can cost up to 15 euros a day during the summer to sit on.The promenade has a very California-esque vibe with room for both bikers and pedestrians. The town itself is very clean and European with a beautiful man-made waterfall/fountain at the top of the hill to the east of the city. Geoff and I splurged last night and ate in the touristy region near the beach. We had the largest bowl of mussels and clams ever (they are smaller than the ones we get at home so there were probably about 70 of them in the bowl). It took us almost 45 mins to finish! We had also ordered a fire grilled pizza with the most delicious cheese, it was unbelievable. I am going to miss the french food and wine. Schnitzel just doesn't compare! We also visited the museum of modern art, MAMAC, which was really interesting, it has some very large pieces from Andy Warhol and Keith Herring. Most of the museums in Nice are free, which is great for us budget travellers. Unfortunately, we are leaving just before the annual Carnivale de Nice starts, which looks like it is a big affair given the number of seat stands and
decorations that were being set up. There seems to be quite a few festivals at this time of the year; gives people something to look forward to I guess in the winter, hopefully we catch one in another city!

Anyways, will update more tomorrow with how Switzerland is. We'll likely stay in Bern just one night then head to Interlakken or Jungfrau to check out some of the lakes/mountains in the interior. Looking forward to it!