Matt & Kate's travel blog or: Matt & Kate's bogus journey

Funny computer, sorry, but it is Syria!

O u r   T u r k i s h   a d v e n t u r e   c o n t i n u e d   o n   w i t h   t h e   c r u i s e   m e n t i o n e d   l a s t   t i m e .     L e s t   p e o p l e   t h i n k   w e   h a v e   s u d d e n l y   u p g r a d e d   o u r   t r a v e l l i n g   b u d g e t ,   t h e   c r u i s e   w a s   d e f i n i t e l y   m o r e   i n   t h e   V i e t n a m e s e / H a   L o n g   B a y   w o o d e n   b o a t   s t y l e   t h a n   P   &   O   l u x u r y   c r u i s e   -   b u t   n o n e   t h e   w o r s e   f o r   t h a t .     W e   h a d   b e e n   c o n s i d e r i n g   t h e   t r i p   s i n c e   r e a d i n g   o f   i t   ( a n d   s e e i n g   i n n u m e r a b l e   s i g n s   f o r   i t   t h r o u g h o u t   T u r k e y ) ,   i t   s e e m e d   l i k e   i t   c o u l d   g o   e i t h e r   w a y ,   w e   w e r e   w o r r i e d   t h a t   i t   w o u l d   e i t h e r   b e   a   p a r t y   c r u i s e   w i t h   a l c o h o l i c   b a c k p a c k e r s   o r   a   s h o d d y   o p e r a t i o n   o r   s h o d d y   w e a t h e r .     A s   i t   t u r n e d   o u t ,   t h e   w e a t h e r   w a s   p e r f e c t ,   t h e   o t h e r   p e o p l e   w e r e   a r o u n d   o u r   a g e   a n d   d i s p o s i t i o n   a n d   t h e   c r e w   w e r e   f a n t a s t i c   ( a   f a m i l y   o f   t h r e e   a n d   a   c o u s i n ) .     I t   t u r n e d   o u t   t o   b e   a   q u i t e   f a n t a s t i c   f o u r   d a y s   w i t h   o n l y   o n e   f u n n y / b a d   i n c i d e n t   ( d i s c u s s e d   l a t e r ) .
 
 A   t y p i c a l   d a y   o n   t h e   b o a t :   w a k e   u p   o n   t h e   d e c k   a t   s u n r i s e   ( 7 a m ) ,   w e l l   I   d i d   a n y w a y ,   K a t e   s l e p t   l o n g e r   i n   t h e   c a b i n ,   g o   f o r   a   s w i m   a n d   h a v e   b r e a k f a s t ,   c r u i s e   a r o u n d   f o r   a   w h i l e ,   h a v e   a   s w i m ,   h a v e   l u n c h   ( a m a z i n g   v e g e t a r i a n   f o o d ) ,   c r u i s e   a r o u n d   a n d   m a y b e   s e e   r u i n s   o r   a   t o w n ,   h a v e   a f t e r n o o n   t e a ,   c r u i s e ,   s w i m ,   h a v e   d i n n e r   ( a l s o   a m a z i n g ) ,   p l a y   g a m e s   o r   j u s t   t a l k   f o r   a   w h i l e   a n d   t h e n   s l e e p   o n   t h e   d e c k   u n d e r   t h e   s t a r s .     F a n t a s t i c .
 
 T h e   o n l y   e x c e p t i o n   t o   t h i s   r o u t i n e   h a p p e n e d   o n   t h e   s e c o n d   n i g h t .     W e   h a d   d o n e   a l l   o f   t h e   a b o v e   a n d   w e r e   r e l a x i n g   w h e n   t h e   f a m i l y   a s k e d   u s    d i s c o   t o n i g h t ,   n e x t   b a y ?    a n d   w e   a l l   s a i d   n o ,   b e d   s e e m e d   m u c h   m o r e   p r o b a b l e   b y   t h a t   t i m e .     F i v e   m i n u t e s   l a t e r   t h e   b o a t   s t a r t s   u p   a n d   w e   t a k e   o f f   t h r o u g h   t h e   d a r k   ( n o   h e a d l i g h t s )   t o   t h e   n e x t   b a y   a n d   w e   w e r e   a l l   n e r v o u s   a s   w e   c o u l d n  t   s e e   a   t h i n g ,   s o   h o w   c o u l d   t h e   f a m i l y ?     W e   g e t   t o   t h e   n e x t   b a y   s a f e l y   a n d   o n e   o f   t h e   o t h e r   p a s s e n g e r s   i s   o n   t h e   p h o n e   t o   p e o p l e   f r o m   t h e   c r u i s e   c o m p a n y   w h o   a r e   s a y i n g   t h e y   o w n   t h e   b a r   i n   q u e s t i o n   ( a n d   h a d   c a l l e d   t h e   f a m i l y   s a y i n g   t o   m o v e   t h e   b o a t )   a n d   t h a t   t h e r e   a r e   t w o   g i r l s   o n   t h e   b o a t   w h o   r e a l l y ,   r e a l l y   w a n t   t o   p a r t y   a s   i t   i s   t h e i r   b i r t h d a y   ( i t   w a s n  t   a n d   t h e y   d i d n  t )   -   w e   t o l d   t h e m   n o .     H a l f   a n   h o u r   l a t e r   a   s m a l l   b o a t   c o m e s   a l o n g s i d e   a n d   t h e s e   t w o   g u y s   c o m e   o n   b o a r d   ( t h i s   i s   a b o u t   1 1 p m )   a b s o l u t e l y   d r u n k   a s   s k u n k s   a n d   u s e d   t h e i r   c h a r m   ( w e l l ,   w h a t   t h e y   t h o u g h t   w a s   c h a r m )   t o   t r y   a n d   g e t   u s   t o   c o m e   t o   t h e i r   b a r   w h e r e   t h e r e   w a s   a   h u g e   p a r t y ,   b l a h ,   b l a h ,   b l a h .   A   s m a l l   a r g u m e n t   b r o k e   o u t   w h e n   a   f e l l o w   p a s s e n g e r   t r i e d   t o   t e l l   t h e m   t o   l e a v e   a n d   t h e y   s h o u l d n  t   h a v e   m a d e   t h e   f a m i l y   m o v e   t h e   b o a t   i n   t h e   d a r k .     W h a t   f o l l o w e d   w a s   h i l a r i o u s   i n   h i n d s i g h t ,   a   l i t t l e   s c a r y   a t   t h e   t i m e .     S o m e   f r a g m e n t s   o f   t h e   c o n v e r s a t i o n   t o   i l l u s t r a t e   h i s   c h a r a c t e r :    I  m   g o i n g   t o   d o   m o s t   o f   t h e   t a l k i n g   b e c a u s e   I   p r o b a b l y   s p e a k   b e t t e r   E n g l i s h   t h a n   y o u   g u y s    -   s a i d   b y   a   T u r k   t o   4   A u s t r a l i a n s ,   2   C a n a d i a n s ,   1   B r i t o n ,   1   A m e r i c a n   a n d   2   D u t c h   p e o p l e   w h o   s p o k e   r e a l l y   g o o d   E n g l i s h   -    i t  s   o b v i o u s   y o u   n e v e r   h a d   a   b i g g e r   b r o t h e r   t o   b e a t   s e n s e   i n   t o   y o u ,   b u t   I   c a n   b e   t h e   b r o t h e r   y o u   n e v e r   h a d  ,    i f   I   s e e   y o u   o n   t h e   s t r e e t   a g a i n   I   w i l l   p o k e   y o u r   e y e s   o u t    a n d   o n   a n d   o n   i t   w e n t   b e f o r e   t h e   o n e   w h o   w a s   a c t u a l l y   a   p a r t n e r   i n   t h e   c r u i s e   c o m p a n y   d r a g g e d   h i m   o f f   w i t h   n o   a p o l o g y .     I t   k e p t   u s   e n t e r t a i n e d   f o r   d a y s   a f t e r w a r d s   b u t   i t   w a s   a   r e a l   r e m i n d e r   o f   t h e   s l e a z e   t h a t   i s   a l w a y s   l u r k i n g   i n   T u r k e y .
 
 A n y w a y ,   t h e   c r u i s e   w a s   g r e a t   j u s t   u n f o r t u n a t e   t h a t   t h a t   h a p p e n e d .     F r o m   t h e r e   w e   w e r e   i n   O l y m p o s ,   a   t o w n   f a m o u s   f o r   i t  s   a c c o m m o d a t i o n   s c e n e   ( t r e e h o u s e s   a r e   e v e r y w h e r e ) ,     a   s e r i e s   o f   f l a m e s   t h a t   s p o n t a n e o u s l y   a n d   c o n t i n u o u s l y   b u r n   f r o m   t h e   s i d e   o f   a   m o u n t a i n   ( s u p p o s e d l y   l i n k e d   t o   t h e   O l y m p i c   e t e r n a l   f l a m e ,   b u t   t h e   e x p l a n a t o r y   m a t e r i a l   a t   t h e   s i t e   w a s   a   b i t   s h a k y   o n   t h a t   p o i n t   a n d   E n g l i s h   g r a m m a r   i n   g e n e r a l )   a n d   s o m e   r u i n s   b y   t h e   b e a c h ,   t h a t   w e   d i d n  t   s e e   f o r   t i m e   r e a s o n s .     T h e   t r e e h o u s e s   w e r e n  t   q u i t e   t r e e h o u s e s   t h o u g h ,   t h e y   s t a r t e d   t h a t   w a y   b u t   t h e y   a r e   n o w   m o r e   w o o d e n   b u n g a l o w s ,   v e r y   n i c e   t h o u g h .     T h e   f l a m e s   w e r e   p r e t t y   s p e c i a l ,   i f   I   w a s   m o r e   k n o w l e d g e a b l e   i n   C h e m i s t r y   a n d   G e o l o g y   I   c o u l d   e x p l a i n   h o w   i t   w o r k e d ,   b u t   n o   s u c h   l u c k   s o r r y .
 
 F r o m   O l y m p o s   w e   t o o k   a   l o n g   s e r i e s   o f   b u s e s   ( f i v e   i n   o n e   d a y   b y   t h e   e n d )   t o   g o   t o   K o n y a   w h e r e   w e   w e r e   g o i n g   t o   s t o p   b u t   d e c i d e d   o n   t h e   b u s   t o   j u s t   g o   s t r a i g h t   o n   t o   G o r e m e   a s   w e   w e r e   r u n n i n g   o u t   o f   t i m e .     A   g o o d   m o v e ,   b u t   a   l o n g   d a y .     G o r e m e ,   w h e n   w e   e v e n t u a l l y   w o k e   u p ,   w a s   p r e t t y   a m a z i n g .     G o r e m e   i s   f a m o u s   f o r   i t  s   o p e n   a i r   m u s e u m   w i t h   f u n n y   r o c k   f o r m a t i o n s   e v e r y w h e r e   a n d   c a v e   h o u s e s ,   c h u r c h e s   a n d   m o n a s t e r i e s   t o   e x p l o r e .     T h e   r e g i o n   i s   f a n t a s t i c   a n d   t h e r e   i s   p l e n t y   t o   s e e   b u t   w e   h a d   a   f u n n y   t i m e   f o r   t w o   r e a s o n s   -   f i r s t l y ,   I   w a s n  t   p a r t i c u l a r l y   h e a l t h y   a t   t h e   t i m e   s o   w e   h a d   t o   c a n c e l   t h i n g s   w e   h a d   b o o k e d   ( t h e   s m a l l   m a t t e r   o f   a   h o t   a i r   b a l l o o n i n g   t r i p )   a n d   s e c o n d l y   w a s   t h e   p l a c e   w e   s t a y e d   i n .     I t   w a s   g r e a t ,   a   c a v e   r o o m   a s   g o o d   a s   w e   h o p e d   b u t   o n e   o f   t h e   e m p l o y e e s   w a s   a   r e a l   g r u m p y   f e l l a .     T y p i c a l l y   h e l p f u l   w h e n   w e   w e r e   b o o k i n g   t h i n g s   i n   a n d   s p e n d i n g   c a s h   ( s o   h e l p f u l   h e   e v e n   d r o p p e d   u s   a t   t h e   m u s e u m ,   e n   r o u t e   s t o p p i n g   a t   t h e   A T M   f o r   h i s   m o n e y ) ,   b u t   w h e n   w e   h a d   t o   c a n c e l   t h i n g s   a n d   g e t   m o n e y   b a c k   i t   s u d d e n l y   g o t   v e r y   d i f f i c u l t   a n d   h e   w o u l d n  t   t a l k   t o   u s .     T h i n g s   l i k e   t h a t   b u g   m e   a n d   s o   I   d i d n  t   h a v e   a s   p o s i t i v e   a   v i e w   o f   t h e   t o w n   a s   I   w o u l d   o t h e r w i s e .  
 
 F r o m   G o r e m e ,   w a s   a n o t h e r   l o n g   t r i p   -   a n   o v e r n i g h t   b u s   t r i p   t o   t h e   S y r i a n   b o r d e r   a n d   t h e n   o n   t o   a   b u s   t o   A l e p p o   i n   S y r i a .     A l l   i n   a l l   s o m e   1 9   h o u r s   i n   t r a n s i t   s o   w e   w e r e   r a t h e r   t i r e d   b y   t h e   t i m e   w e   a r r i v e d   i n   S y r i a .     B u t   t h a t   i s   a   s t o r y   f o r   a n o t h e r   t i m e .     F i r s t   i m p r e s s i o n s   o f   S y r i a   a r e   a m a z i n g   t h o u g h ,   t h e   f r i e n d l i e s t   p e o p l e   w e  v e   e n c o u n t e r e d   y e t ,   s e v e r e   l o o k i n g   p o l i c e   w i l l   b r e a k   i n t o   a   s m i l e   a n d   w a v e   a n d   s a y    h e l l o !    o r    w e l c o m e !  ,   i t  s   a   g o o d   f e e l i n g .

Alright, back on the horse – no time to mope about a missing camera. The morning after we arrived in Istanbul we had a new camera and headed straight out to see the sights and experiment with our new toy.

Istanbul is a fantastic city (humungous too!) and we had a great time exploring all the sights and then having a relax in the trademark Turkish cafes with all the couches and junk. We saw all the usual suspects – Topkapi Palace, Aya Sofya, the Blue Mosque, the fancy street with all the embassies/restaurants/cafes/etc, did a boat trip along the Bosphorus and Kate (I wasn’t so inclined, which I sort of regret) saw the Whirling Dervishes “perform”. Great time had by all.

Next stop was Eceabat for both Gallipoli and Troy. The latter was not particularly exciting. Compared to other ruins we had seen and will see there was comparatively little there to see and the allure on is purely in the romance of Homer’s stories – which we aren’t very familiar with. Oh well. Gallipoli on the other hand was quite a good trip, all the things we had hoped – moving, educational and informative. Even if the information didn’t extend too much into the Turkish side (it was very much an ANZAC history lesson).

From Eceabat we went to Selcuk to visit Ephesus, one of the best Roman ruins in the area. They were spectacular, if a little over run with tour groups (a big problem in the area unfortunately and, to get slightly off-topic, surprisingly so when you consider how easy travel is around Turkey. Every hotel, pension, corner deli can sort out bus tickets for you and give you a lift to the bus station on top of it). But still, they were amazing and right on the edge of Selcuk itself so our pension organised a lift out there and back, conveniently given by an employee of, what else, a carpet shop. Several hours later (and many carpets inspected, a glass of tea, inspection of cats (adorable), discussion of Australians behaviour around Anzac day (deplorable by the sounds of it), the ideal souvenir to take back from Turkey (why a carpet of course) and investment advice (buy a carpet!)) we extricated ourselves and headed onwards to Pamukkale.

Pamukkale was famous years ago for its thermal baths on the side of a mountain that had salt or calcium or some such making it all white (Pamukkale actually means cotton castle) but over the years the water has reduced and you can’t swim any more. But what is left is by no means sad, it is still one of the most amazing things I’ve ever seen – I can only imagine how good it was when it was still functioning as baths. To top it off there are ruins and things at the top of the mountain. Spectacular.

From Pamukkale we also took a daytrip to more ruins, Aprodisias. It’s chief advantage is that there are far, far fewer tour groups running through so it is actually quite atmospheric. It isn’t really a match for Ephesus though. Still was a nice way to spend the day.

We are now in Fethiye about to head off on a 4 day boat cruise through the Mediterranean. Should be relaxing indeed – just what we both feel like after all the tramping around ruins and the like. It also gives us the illusion of staying in one place for more than a few days, something we haven’t done for quite a while and is starting to wear us down. It is of course just an illusion (but one, I hope, that holds).

Lots of photos below, possibly because we have seen so much recently or possibly because we have been taking a lot more photos than usual (and spending time playing around with lighting and the like) with our new camera. Some crackers in there (I think so anyway).

Our eight or nine days in Bulgaria have flown by and we are now on a bus to Istanbul, very bumpy so it’s difficult to type but on an eight hour bus journey, time is not a problem.

We started in Sofia, which I really loved. I can see that it’s not for everyone, Kate included who was less taken with it. As always in Europe, a strange mix of old and new (the transport system is a particularly large chunk of old – trams and trolleybuses trawling the streets make for crumbly roads and wires everywhere) and more than a few pretty funky cafes and bars and restaurants (one even considered themselves too good for us. I can’t deny we weren’t appropriately dressed, doing a good imitation of street buskers.) And of course amongst all of this are all the large, bureaucratic buildings you would expect from former Soviet friendly Bulgaria. Oh and fantastic Orthodox churches to boot.

From here we went to Plovdiv, but it didn’t really do much for either of us so we left the next day for Veliko Tarnovo, a much nicer proposition. A funny shaped town, there is a wiggly river running through the centre with the buildings high on the valley sides. But it had lots of atmosphere and a great fortress on the outskirts, plus we stayed in a fantastic apartment with the best shower of the trip (these things are important to Kate of course).

We had been tipped off about cheap car hire deals to be had in VT so we hired an old bomb for a few days and hit the road. And what a windy, narrow, bumpy road it was too. Luckily the local drivers realise how dangerous overtaking on narrow, mountainous, blind corners really is and don’t do it…

Regardless, it was a great road trip and while I would have rathered doing it by bicycle (obviously), the distances, time we had available (we can still feel the validity of our Syrian visa ticking away), mountains and atrociously bad roads for cyclists to share all ruled that out. We saw a few monasteries (in amazing locations – “how’s the serenity” indeed), some caves, small villages, museum towns, crazy UFO-shaped monuments on top of remote mountains (it’s all true) and just fantastic scenery.

We then returned to VT and caught the next bus to Varna, on the Black Sea. We were there slightly out of season and so it was a little strange being in what is obviously a summer retreat – the beach is kilometres long and the whole stretch is matched by beachfront restaurants, cafes, bars and nightclubs, all looking a bit sad with only handfuls of people around. Above this is an equally long stretch of parkland with lots of pathways throughout, it also has a zoo, an aquarium, navy museum, dolphinarium (I must say I didn’t know that was a word) and assorted statues. Oh and countless popcorn, corn, ice cream and drinks sellers. And oh again, about a thousand babies in prams. I have never seen anything quite like it, the whole park was like some overgrown nursery.

But it was still very nice.

Food in Bulgaria was a welcome change. After enduring countless Eastern European meals of “gee shall I have pizza, pasta or a huge slab of meat?” we found something new in Bulgaria – salad! You get the same choices as above, but every meal starts with a salad from a ridiculous choice of salads, one place we went to had about 80 salads to choose from (most places had at least 20). It was good to feel like we were eating healthy again. On that note, my sudden conversion to tomato eating couldn’t have come at a better time. Tomatoes featured in, roughly, 95% of the salads. Cucumbers would come in second at about 85% I would estimate. I have further statistics on salad composition but I will leave it for another time.

Ciao ciao.

This is the point in the blogging routine where I then go off and play with the camera and upload them all on to the laptop, etc.  But it was not to be this time.  That’s right, we have lost our camera.  Luckily (sort of) we only lose about a week worth of photos… But that includes all the awesome photos from our roadtrip. We are hopeful that the hostel we stayed at in Varna will come through with the goods… We have since  bought a new camera as didn’t want to miss the sights of Istanbul (well, not miss but not be able to have photos of them.)

In the meantime, here is a link to that UFO building I mentioned – it is an awesome monument to both the greatness and stupidity of communism.  http://jimmybulgaria.wordpress.com/2009/07/12/buzludzha/

And here are the photos that were uploaded before tragedy struck.

Then continuing our straight-line approach we headed to Nis (or Nish depending on the transliteration from Cryllic you prefer). Very little to report about Nis as it was a stop over on the way to Sofia. One strange thing though was they had a lovely main pedestrian mall type thing with cafes all down the centre, I would guess about 30 of them in a row. But we could only find 1 restaurant in town and only one of the cafes sold food (if you don’t include dessert, which every single café sold in abundance). Very odd.

In hindsight, if we had our time over we probably would have gone to Belgrade and then on to Sofia in one hit, but how were we to know? An interesting experience to say the least.
We are now in Bulgaria, which we will write about soon.  From here, we are  a mere day away from Turkey – then Syria, Jordan and Egypt before returning to finish Africa proper…

Some photos (the ones that say Mokra Gora are from the tour around Zlatibor, the one from Nis is the only photo we took there…)

This is Kate and I have decided (with just a little bit of encouragement) that it is probably my turn to write a bit of the blog, so here it is. Our time in Bosnia started in Mostar. I had no idea what to expect from Bosnia and so it was a pleasant surprise to find that we were in a country of stunning scenery, large mountains and clear water rivers.

We arrived in Mostar at night and were met by a woman at the bus stop offering private accommodation close by. It turned out to be in the dodgy looking set of flats behind the station, but despite external appearances it turned out to be fine.

Mostar was a place of contrasts. The old town was a very pretty area of stone buildings sitting either side of a beautiful river. The newer part of town is extremely gritty and not at all attractive. I’m not sure I’ve ever seen quite so much graffiti. Mostar’s star attraction is the bridge that joins the two sides of the old town. This was destroyed during the war but has since been rebuilt as an exact replica. Apparently it was a local tradition for young men to jump off the 20m high bridge to display their masculinity and to attract girls. Unfortunately Matt was not willing to jump off the bridge for me though. The locals will only jump for money nowadays, but we were lucky enough to be around when someone paid for the entertainment.

Many of the buildings in the old town were damaged during the war, but many of these have now been repaired, despite the numerous bullet holes still being visible. However, outside of the old town we went for a walk along the ‘frontline’ during the war. It’s an eerie sight. Half the buildings here remain the ruins of war damaged houses and apartments riddled with bullet holes. In some cases people are still living in flats that managed to survive, despite all the other flats in the building being in ruins. How these buildings can be considered structurally sound is anybodies guess.

We took the extremely scenic train ride from Mostar to Sarajevo and found private accommodation in another dodgy looking block of flats, which again turned out to be fine inside. Sarajevo was not as exciting as we had hoped after it’s rave reviews in the guide book, but the old part of town was worth seeing and is an interesting mix of European and Middle Eastern cultures. We had some shocking food here (some places seem to soak the food in salt), but thankfully we also managed to find some great restaurants to balance our culinary experience.

From Sarajevo we took a bus to Zlatibor in Serbia.  (To be continued.. by someone..)

It’s been a while between wi-fi access but we are in a quite luxurious apartment/hotel in the middle of nowhere in Serbia – but of course – and voila.

But to back up about a week or so ago: after our brief stopover in Geneva (actually staying in Ferney-Voltaire in France just across the border) we flew on to Split. First impressions were mixed – we knew that Croatia tends to work off private rooms rather than hotels, but it was still a bit unusual for us to get off the bus from the airport and being surrounded by middle-aged women saying “you want room maybe?” over and over. Our first experience with the process wasn’t that great and we got a fairly average room further out of the old town than we were told. Oh well.

Split itself was a very nice place, all the action being in the small old town (technically a palace, but that was a while ago now – pizzerias and souvenir shops tend to abound nowadays). We didn’t hang around for too long though, taking a ferry the next day for the first of our island stops – Hvar.

We got a bit more luck this time with accommodation – the room itself was unimpressive but the window opened out onto a small courtyard and in it were a couple of cats with six little (a couple of weeks at the most) kittens walking, climbing and falling everywhere. Great entertainment. The town was again quite nice and had a great view from a fortress at the top of a hill. Oh and of course lots of beaches which we had fun exploring. Beautiful clear, blue water, if a little on the cold side.

Next stop was Korcula Island where we had the best accommodation so far. An apartment to ourselves complete with a balcony and an amazing view over the old town. We dusted off our cooking skills and had quite a few meals on the balcony with the town in the background and also watched the coming and goings of cruise ships (quite a popular – unsurprisingly – route). From the town of Korcula we did a tour of the interior of the island, including wine tasting and stops at a few of the smaller villages. Beautiful country side and little bays everywhere.

We eventually tore ourselves away and headed off to Dubrovnik. Wow. For several reasons. Very beautiful city, red tiled roofs with the yellow (they always like to say gold though as it’s more suggestive) stone everywhere and fantastic buildings with the impressive wall – quite the sight. But also wow because of the sheer volume of people walking up and down the main street of the old town, probably the busiest place we’ve been so far. From Dubrovnik we took a daytrip to Mijet Island to see the national park there. The main feature of the NP is the little island within the island on the lake that has a monastery on it. A relaxing days swimming wandering the island.

We then took the bus from Dubrovnik to Mostar in Bosnia & Herzegovina but that is a story for another day. From here (Zlatibor, Serbia) we will shortly be arriving in Bulgaria for a short stop on the way across to Turkey.

Fes was next. A very over the top place – people, shops, people, mosques, people, smells, people and food everywhere. But fantastic fun. We did all the main sights (the tanneries are as great and as smelly as promised) and had a great time.

From Fes we caught the train to Rabat to start our ill advised quest for visas for Senegal. The train was a portent for things to come. 3 hours in a small compartment with 8 people and no air-conditioning (well, a tiny bit) and 40 degrees outside – all up probably the hottest I’ve ever been and that includes when I’ve been in a sauna. Have never been so happy to get off a train. (We found out later that first class – we travelled second, it’s the default ticket – actually has working air-conditioning and is rather pleasant and only costs a few dollars more. There’s a tip for future reference.)

Rabat and Casablanca were unremarkable and overall unpleasant – largely because we were both sick at this point as well as the visa misadventure. Rabat was fine, there just wasn’t much to see or do, but Casablanca was downright unsightly. Buildings crumbling onto the street everywhere, rubbish and smells galore, none pleasant. A recommended stop for all.

It was at this point (Rabat) that Ramadan started. Not a good place to be (that is, off the tourist trail). For lunch in Casablanca we had 3 choices – McDonald’s, KFC or the tiny corner shop. I’ve never seen Morocco so quiet as it gets between 7 and 8pm (when everyone is at home eating) but then it goes crazy after 8 and everyone parties (and smokes) the night away, not ideal for sleeping. But it reduces the number of tourists somewhat as most guidebooks advise you not to travel during Ramadan but it posed no great problems for us.

Next stop Essouira, a beachside town that is a good 15 degrees cooler than inland. We even wore jumpers at night, a nice change. Much like Chefcheouan it is very relaxed and laidback (a definite hippie hangout) but also very full of Europeans. No problems finding lunch here…

Marrakech was the last stop. What a great city, the central place is certainly a sight to see at night when it fills with restaurants and people of all types (monkey handlers, snake charmers, story tellers – I wish I spoke Arabic, the people seemed spellbound by the stories – fortune tellers and of course touts of various descriptions). With our onwards flights booked we decided to squeeze in a tour before we left to go and see the Sahara.

The tour was a real insight into the Moroccan way of doing things. They herded us all into minivans, sat around for a while then told us to wait 15 minutes as the air-conditioning doesn’t work and they are waiting for another bus, 15 minutes later they said they will change the bus later and to get in. We drove off but stopped in the outskirts of town and swapped to another bus and then went back the way we had come and we were off. It soon became obvious that our new bus didn’t have working air-conditioning either, but we were away at least. It also became apparent that there wouldn’t be an itinerary as such, nor any informative commentary, we simply turned up somewhere the driver said “we stop for 5/10/x minutes for toilet/drinks/food/picture/walk/carpet shopping, I wait here.” But despite all of this it was a fun trip with nice (for the most part) people (including the bus driver himself) and great sights. The Sahara was particularly amazing, we stopped at the edge of it and did a camel trek for an hour or so at sunset, stopped at a “nomad” camp – rather fixed in position for nomads if you ask me – for dinner and sleeping under the stars (literally just a mattress and a blanket on the sand dunes). The next morning though we were up at 5 or so for the trek back and then breakfast before getting back in the bus for the long, long trip back to Marrakech (close to 10 hours driving). That day was not so fun, but there is very little choice really.

That’s it really. A great place to visit but I think 2 weeks is the ideal time – you can see most things and you leave before the constant bargaining and touts everywhere wear you down. Which they do.

Until next time, here are some photos.

Well, you can you fairly safely disregard everything you read in the previous post.

After planning away and getting increasingly excited at the prospect of arriving in Africa proper, with just one hurdle to go (the visa for Senegal) we failed.  First stop was the Senegalese embassy in Rabat – closed for 2 days for public holidays and then informed us that only the embassy in Casablanca can issue visas for Australians; off we go.  But, long story cut short, they wouldn’t issue us a visa with the itinerary (or lack thereof) we had.  In a trademark fashion we planned our escape and we will now be flying to Split, Croatia via Geneva for a day. And in 4 days time.

So, revised itinerary: Croatia, Serbia, Bosnia, Bulgaria, Turkey, middle east to egypt to Ghana and then the reverse of our African oddysey.  We figure arriving in Senegal on the train with a plane ticket out is probably easier. If not, we will figure that out when the time comes.

Morocco is great by the way. A proper blog entry will follow from Europe.

No photos sorry, just some rambles.

In Morocco now after a quick dash from Seville to Tarifa and then over on the ferry to Tangier.  First impressions – hot and busy and not at all unlike SE Asia. 

Since arriving in Tangier we have been in Tetaoun, Chefchaouen, Fes and are now in the capital Rabat.  All have been pretty good places, but they tend to blur into one another as there are few sites that aren’t mosques (that you can’t go in) and medinas to wander through and get lost in.  Good though.

In Rabat there is less to see but we have come to organise visas – something we have so far failed to do.

Our plans are still to go: Senegal, The Gambia, train to Mali (possibly including a ride up the Niger river to Timbuctu), Burkina Faso, Benin, Togo, Ghana and then fly to Egypt.  And then the Middle East from there.  We shall see.

Whenever something interesting happens or we are able to put photos on we will blog, otherwise just email us.

Till soon.

We are now in Seville after finishing off our Portuguese adventure (and finally learning how to spell Portuguese, it’s tricky). This post will only talk about Portugal and then there’ll be a big finale with the small amount of Spain left (Seville and Tarifa – from where we catch the ferry to Morocco) and then, who knows how much blogging there will be from Africa and the Middle East. Boy are we looking forward to them, but that is for another post.

Lisbon was our next stop after Coimbra. We stayed in Lisbon for five nights and loved every minute of it, what a place. So much to see and I thoroughly recommend it to anyone who hasn’t been. We spent a few days exploring the sights of Lisbon central before heading out on various trips around the place and probably could have stayed for longer were it not for the sense that we need to keep on moving to see other places..

Anyway, in Lisbon itself the highlight for me was the night of Fado we got to enjoy. For the uninitiated, Fado is a style of music that Portugal is “famous” for, but I’d never heard of it before – Amalia Rodrigues anyone? Both Coimbra and Lisbon are good spots for it and we saw it in both places, but Lisbon-variety Fado is far superior. Having said that, we had to pay for the privilege – the Fado houses all have a minimum consumption charge for entry. They are quite high, but to save us getting ridiculously drunk they charge incredibly high prices for their drinks so it all works out, sort of. A great night out.

But the major, major highlight was actually Sintra, a small town about 20kms away from Lisbon. What a place! Former playground of Portuguese royalty and super-rich, it is just filled with sights, castles, palaces, statues, gardens and, of course, restaurants and souvenir shops nowadays. Absolutely amazing and the current “best spot of the trip so far” for both of us. We spent hours exploring just one mansion and surrounding gardens, complete with lakes, personal church, wells, natural caves and even secret caves linking parts of the garden. We could both see ourselves living there, might be a little out of our price range though.

Another good day trip was to Belem, an outer suburb of Lisbon that has many monuments, museums, churches and tarts. Belem is famous for “Pasteis de Belem”, little custard tarts. There is one place that is quite well known for it and has been making them for over 100 years, so of course we had to go there with everyone else. The experience was great, but though they tasted good, they weren’t quite the flavour explosion I was hoping for. Oh well, Belem was very nice though.

We reluctantly left Lisbon and went to Evora, the major drawcard for us being the “Capela dos Ossos” – Chapel of Bones. Disappointingly the whole thing wasn’t made of bones, but there were skulls and bones everywhere and even a body hanging from the wall (don’t know whose it was). Apart from this, Evora is part of the area in Portugal known as Casas Brancas – white houses. Very literal of them. All the towns in the area are filled with white walled houses with some yellow around the bottom and that’s it. A very interesting sight indeed.

Next up was Faro, a beach town but one that boasted it’s very own Capela dos Ossos. Sadly, this one wasn’t quite so interesting. But apart from a leisurely day at the beach (where, finally, the water was a temperature other than freezing – though still not exactly warm) there were two things to report in Faro. We had booked into a fairly budget place over the internet only the day before (wireless internet was a bit thin on the ground in Portugal) and we dutifully showed up for check-in at 2pm. The manager eventually told us (after being pulled away from his game of soccer out the front) that we should come back at 4pm as they haven’t actually figured out the rooms for the day or something and he couldn’t very well kick people out now could he? (Check out was midday though.) So with growing unease we spent two hours wandering the streets and having lunch. Get back at 4pm and, again eventually, he told us that they are over-booked but they have another hotel in town for 5 euros more. “Show us on the map where it is” we said, to which his eventual answer was “the next town over, but you have a car?” A small silence and then we just left. Ended up with a good hotel in a nicer part of town and were much happier for it. Second event was much more exciting (for us). We had seen segways everywhere in Europe and were keen to try them out – luckily for us they had them in Faro so after dinner we went for a ride. For those who don’t watch (rather, didn’t see before it was cancelled) Arrested Development or for those generally not “with it” as the youngsters say nowadays – look at the photos and you will soon be enlightened what I’m referring to. Much, much fun and not too bad to operate at all. A word to the wise though, if you try and fit them in really narrow spaces they tend to climb the walls and force you to jump ship. Most amusing.

Till next time.