When in Rom-ania!

Monday was pretty much the same as Sunday. We fluffed around for majority of the morning, organising accommodations, looking into things to do, etc.

We went to the Post Office first off to send home more random things. Our bags keep getting heavier even though we keep sending stuff back. Thankfully though the Bulgarian post was cheap (fingers crossed it makes it) and our load was 2kg lighter... for now.

After that we went down to the bus station to organise our ride across the Bularian/ Romanian border. Things dont run as nicely here on this side of the world, unlike Switzerland, so we had to spend a night at a border town (being Ruse) and then cross the border the next day.

With the tickets sorted we got to squeeze in a bit of tourist stuff. Basically the only thing I really wanted to do whilst on the coast of Bulgaria was go down and at least touch the Black Sea... so thats what we did. We also saw a naked man, but thats another story.

Once back at the hostel we made our first attempt at cooking in a hostel kitchen. Blehhhh. Maybe thats what made us sick....

That evening we then took the bus to Ruse. We arrived late and had no clue how to get to our hotel but once we did, we were so glad. The only "cheap" place in the town we got to stay at an english guesthouse. The host a loopy english men kept us up for half the night being a bit weird, but we were grateful for the cleanliness and native english speaking.

We had a look around the 5th largest city in Bulgaria the next day but neither of us were very interested. Not that we knew yet but we were both on the verge of getting "sehr" sick. That morning I saw a little boy that looked exactly like Nicolas. I had a huge cry in the middle of the street. I think Lacey was ready to chuck me in the looney bin. 21st October was Diana's b-day also... Happy Birthday Deee!

At 2pm we were in our bus which turned out to be a van. Crossing the border. I am proud to say that, yes, I now have a Romanian stamp! Yay!

BUCHAREST! Has to be the dodgiest city on the face of the earth. We arrived and half the drivers looked like they were on a suicide mission. We were holding onto our stuff for dear life because we had heard a few too many bad things about the people there.

Luckily we made it out of the city unharmed and caught a train to Brasov that evening. Both sick and tired by this stage Lacey had a hold of her stomach like she was ready to curl up and die and my glands are so swollen like I have golf balls in my throat.

Our hostel Kismet Dao was reccomended to us and it was ok if you like brown water running from the taps....Welcome to Romania ;-)

We met some nice people though and got a good chance to relax, watch movies and eat proper food. Romania is so cheap! So Wednesday was spent wandering around the city and taking in the sights. The sight of the first school in Romania was right next to our hostel and we got to see the Black Church which was built in the 1400's and survived the great fire that burnt down majority of Brasov.

On Thursday we did an organised tour of the castles,etc in the area. We paid some guy 70RON to drive us around for the day which turned out to be a huge rip off as we had to listen to rap music the whole time and hold onto our seats like it was our last car ride on earth but lots of people had told us that it was not possible to see all the sights in a day on public transport so we did the tour and we easily got to see all that we wanted to see. Firstly we went to a fortress in Rasnov and then we went to Bran Castle which is advertised as Draculas' castle but once inside there is no mention of Vlad Tepe or any blood sucking vampires.

It wasnt until we went to Sinaia that we really got a chance to see something special. The palace was really beautiful and we were lucky enough to have a guided tour. It was really informative and the palace was absolutely beautiful. The australian couple that we did the tour with were really good company also. They will be in Budapest when we are there so perhaps we will get to meet them again soon.

Once back at the hostel we made our way to the train station and then caught a train to Sighisoara. Lacey was pretty sick by this stage so she has spent the day in bed today whilst I went sightseeing with a few of the guys from the hostel.

After breakfast we headed to the History Museum. What a great place!

After climbing levels and levels of stairs once at the top we got a great view of the little town. Did you know that right now I am 15 478km away from home?

We also went to the Arms Museum, saw Draculas house and walked up a million stairs to the citadel and graveyard

... kinda scary!

This afternoon I was uber-productive doing a pharmacy-run for Lacey and I, doing a bit of shopping and posting more postcards.

I even tried to speak Romanian (which is alot like French) but the people only laugh at me and answer in English! Oh well!!

Tomorrow hopefully Lacey and I are well again and then we catch a flight to Budapest. We have both been there before but we love the city and look forward to seeing a few things that we missed last time.

Hope everyone has a great weekend. Love you all.

Love Megan

So I thought saying goodbye to "Jack and Rose" real names Reg and Eva was the saddest thing about last Monday.... I was wrong!

We departed the cruise ship at 11am on Monday back in Bodrum. It was a beautiful day and Lacey and I were happy to be back in Turkey. We love it here!


In Bodrum we only had a few things to do and that included going to Migros (a swiss supermarket chain) and heading to an internet cafe. We had a flight at 8am Tuesday morning so we had all day to kill. It was nice walking around the city. I discovered that the Turkish Post system is uber-expensive and also that the Bodrum airport is open 24 hours a day.

This is where I spent the evening on Monday - sleeping on a bench. You can imagine how impressed I was.

So after the traumatic ordeal we arrived in Istanbul at about 10am. We flew into the asian side and had to catch a ferry to the european side where we were staying in an area called Sultanahmet. This is major tourist town and we easily found a hostel.

Tuesday was spent dragging ourselves through the city in search of food. That evening after a mid-afternoon sleep we headed back out for a treat and watched a free show in an out door cafe. We watched a "sufi whirling show" which is a twirling meditation that originated among Sufis, which is still practiced by the Dervishes of the Mevlevi order. It is a symbolic ritual through which dervishes aim to reach the "perfect" kemal. They try to desert their nafs, egos or personal bad desires by listening to their master and sufi music, thinking about God and whirling (from wikipedia)

On Wednesday after much needed rest we set out to explore the city. We wandered down to the "grand bazaar" and were amazed at how big it was. We found that street vendors were also a lot cheaper than in the bazaar. The turkish people really know how to hassle you and try every way possible to get you in their stores. For example: "Hello Lady, do you come from heaven!" Hahaha it is funny at first but after a while it is really tiring when men are asking you to come into their shop and have tea, etc!

We went through the "Blue Mosque" which is the national mosque of Turkey and was built between 1609 - 1616 under the rule of Ahmed1.
The mosque gets its name from all the blue tiles in the interior walls.

Unsure of how many days we were to spend in Istanbul, I didnt want to miss the chance to go to Gallipoli. I planed to go on a tour organised through my hostel, so this was how I spent my Thursday. My dads birthday.

I had to wake up at 5.30am to be ready to be picked up by a shuttle to take me to the "otogar" (bus terminal). No one else from my hostel was going on the tour but thankfully when I got on the shuttle an aussie girl from Melbourne was also doing the tour so we spent the day together.

This tour was fantastic. Of course I knew of the battle of gallipoli but the information that I found out from the tour really made me appreciate what the australian army men went through. This picture to right is the view from Anzac Cove known as the "sphinx"

The terrain here is crazy and there are winds 75 percent of the year at over 60km per hour. We got to go in trenchs and also visit the largest australian memorial site called "lone pine" Lots of Australian families paid for grave stones but the rest of the peoples names are here. You could spend hours going through the people and seeing if there are long lost relatives on the lists.

Supposedly if you search hard enough you can find bones on the land. But my tour group and I did find a few things including shrapnel, bullets and a piece from a hand grenade.

I spent 10 hours on the bus on Thursday and didnt arrive home till midnight but it was well worth it and I would recommend anyone going to Turkey to take the time to visit here.

The turkish people really respect australians and I wasnt really sure as to why seeing as a war with our men took place on their land, with thousands of people killed but through it all there is a great respect between the two countries. Here is an extract from a speech given by an Australian ambassador at the commoration of Lone Pine.

"A unique relationship was forged between Australians and Turks on the battlefields of this peninsula. During the suffering and destruction of the war our soldiers developed a respect for their Turkish adversaries as soldiers and as men. The Australians appreciated the Turks’ courage, fighting ability and sense of honour. For example, J J Ryan of the 4th Battalion, who fought at Lone Pine, referred to the Turks as “good honest soldiers – brave”, who were “not afraid to die”. E W Bartlett of the 11th Light Horse said the Turks “fought very fairly and like us were honest troops”. One final example from Allan Salveson, who landed soon after the Battle of Lone Pine and was sent to hold the line here: “they were very good fighters and very fair people"

As I mentioned in an earlier post. The people in Secluk showed such hospitality to us and now I can really understand why.

So back to Istanbul on Friday we planned to meet Lauren (the aussie girl from Thursday) and go to the Princes Islands, aout a 90 minute boat ride from the golden horn of Istanbul. James a NZ guy from our hostel also came.

It was quite a long way to the islands and sadly not really worth it. I did see some massive jellyfish though! We still had a nice day and then once we arrived back to Istanbul Lacey and I made the trek to the Tasim area and found a really great street full of shops and nice restaurants. There was even a gloria jeans coffee shop! After dinner we headed to the metro station and caught the oldest subway in the world down the hill.

I went a bit crazy later on a had some CHOCOLATE baklava and also bought lots of handmade turkish jewellery... so pretty!

Our last night in the hostel was a bit of a blur as the guy behind the hostel bar decided it was a good idea to give us free shots and beer, but we had fun hanging out with all our fellow travellers!

Rush, rush, rush on Saturday we had alot to do in our last day in Turkey. First things first we went and bought our ticket to Varna, Bulgaria. We then went to the "spice bazaar" and had a look around.

Funnily enough, whilst having lunch we met a girl who we had met whilst in Selcuk, 2 weeks ago so we spent some time with her which was really nice and then after we went to the Aya Sofia. Originally a christian church it was then converted into a Mosque. One of the most amazing places I have ever been to. Sometimes to me churches all look the same but this one was GINORMOUS and had lots of character.

In the 1930's Turkish president Ataturk, turned the mosque into a museum and made sure that the original mosaic tiled pictures of the church are also shown, though once covered up. The detail and contrast within this place was amazing.

So back to the hostel to pack up our things we stayed there for a little while and then made our way to the bus station ready to begin the 11 hour bus ride to Varna. I hate buses but I was also a bit nervous about crossing the border.

Thankfully we made it and I now have a Bulgarian stamp. We jumped into bed in our cute little hostel at 5am this morning and spent the day relaxing and having a wander around the city. A bit dreary, tomorrow we will explore more.

I just wanted to mention also, if you get my blog sent to you in an email, if you reply to my emailed blog it also gets sent to everyone in my contact list. If you would like to write me you can hit FORWARD and write to my email address or you can go to my blog link and at the bottom click on COMMENT.

Speak to you soon,
Love Megan

Island Hopping

Wednesday was spent on the island of Paros. A relatively sleepy town especially since the summer season is over. Lacey and I enjoyed wandering the quiet streets. Never would I have thought that I would be lucky to see the famous blue roofed houses in Greece but here I am and loving it. We were lucky enough in Paros to watch a beautiful sunset also which made this island really memorable for us.
After Paros on Thursday we headed to the much anticipated island of Mykonos. This is the island that I had heard the most about so I was really looking forward to going and seeing it for myself.

To me, Mykonos has been spoilt in the sense that you can tell it is the most toursitic island. A maze of souvenir shops all selling the same thing, my favourite place on the island would have to be the lookout where 5 windmills stand. We had a beautiful view over the ocean and watched as the many luxury cruise liners anchored up for the afternoon.

We headed back to the ship at 4pm once our shuttle bus arrived. That evening I was lucky enough to watch an eclipse from the boat. It was really pretty but sadly I got no photos...

After Mykonos was seen we sailed to Syros on Friday. Said to have a Venetian feel, Lacey and I could tell right away. There was something about this place that was to be enjoyed. Not as quiet as Paros, the people were really friendly and the scenery was great. We caught a bus around the whole island and it was so picturesque.

Off to Athens on Saturday we had planned to do one of the excursions the cruise offered. For 20 euros we got driven into the city and explained a few things. Our guide wasnt exactly the best so we decided to make our own way back to the ship and leave the tour. Whilst in Athens I climbed the hill and saw the Acropolis, we went shopping at the greek flea markets and we saw the changing of the guards at parliament. We were taken to the Olympic stadium that was used at the first Olympics in 1896 and was a replica of the stadium used in ancient times. Another cool place, we had a nice day exploring. We braved the greek metro system and were impressed how efficient it was. Our guide mentioned to us that whilst in the process of construction the greek people often come across ancient ruins and so many of the subways are like museums, keeping the findings where they are so people can see them still.

That night was another beautiful sunset. It is so relaxing to watch the sun go down while sailing along. I think I will have to go on another cruise after this one.

Today was our last full day on our cruise and we were meant to go to the island of Kalymnos. Even though it is sunny and warm where we are at the moment unfortunately we didnt make it to Kalymnos due to high winds (which we experienced last night while sleeping - - imagine stuff falling off your dresser at 4am and being rocked about) so we are in Kos today again since we could port here. A bit disappointing to miss out on visiting that island, we have spent the day packing and window shopping.

Tomorrow we get off at Bodrum Tukey and disembark for good. Tuesday we will fly to Istanbul and stay there for a few days with the hope to also then go to Chanakule where the gallipoli site is.

Hope everyone back home is well! Look forward to spending some more time in the sun with you.... soon I will be back in the snow and freezing as we head furthur north!

Sea..... Glorious Sea!

So I have no idea what happened to my previous post " reaching little australia" so I will have to do that another time! I am currently being charged an arm load to sit on this little greek computer, so I'll be quick!

6am Monday morning Lacey and I left our warm beds and got ready to head to Secluk bus station in preparation for the greek end of the holiday. We had booked a 7.30 bus to take us down to Bodrum where our cruise ship picked us up.

THE BUS DIDNT COME! We had to wait till 9am for a bus to pick us up and by that stage I was mad! We were allowed to board our boat at 3pm so we wanted to be down there early so we could have a look at the town.

It was beautiful scenery on the drive and finally by midday we were at the coastal town of Bodrum. Very touristy, Bodrum looks like a cool little town. A man hailed me down whilst walking to the ship and said he could do my hair for ten lira, so I got a wash, cut and colour for ten bucks! I was so happy as I had cut my own hair a few weeks early and it looked like a blind 4 year old had done the job! My hair is really short now and I love it!

So back to the important things! We had a little lunch by the beach and then we walked the million kilometres with our huge packs to the big cruise ship!

It was like a floating hotel in reception and we were really impressed! Thankfully we got this cruise for about 500USD for both of us which included 7 nights accomodation and breakfast and lunch or dinner. It is pretty basic in our little cabin but so nice to be able to relax and leave our stuff unpacked. It has been a drag having to pack up all the time and lock all our stuff.

First night on the ship we had to do a mock emergency drill and Lacey and I took it very seriously as you can see from the above photo. I am having Titanic flash backs just thinking about it.

The best thing about our ship is that I am pretty sure Lacey and I are the most popular people on board..... not to mention, the youngest. There was no warning on the website than mentioned that we were boarding a retirement cruise. So I have taken to calling the ship the "Geri Train" i.e the geriatric boat. All the people are so nice though. Most of them have seen more places than me and I think it is so cute how these elderly people come on these holidays and see the world, hahahaha!

We are having lots of fun though and we are seeing some really beautiful places. Yesterday our day was spent on the island of Kos and it was really nice to spend our time shopping, sightseeing and relaxing. Kos is a very touristy island and we talked to a few of the locals and enjoyed a pitta gyros for lunch which was really good!

The afternoon was spent relaxing on the top deck reading and listening to music. We are really luck to be having such nice weather. Supposedly October is meant to be stormy but I havent seen a cloud in the sky.

This morning at 2am our ship set sail for Paros and we didnt arrive here till about 1pm this afternoon. Our first stop was the internet cafe but from what we have seen between here and the ship is really pretty. I really like how all the buildings in Greece are white. It is so beautiful against the blue sea!

Tonight we might head out an enjoy some nightlife that the island has to offer, though I am not sure. Tomorrow we head to Mykonos and that is supposed to be one of the nicest islands here! I'll let you know!

Sorry if I havent been in touch much. Getting acces to computers and payphones isnt so easy on the ship.

Write again soon x x x

Reaching "little Australia

this post is under construction

Sometımes I wısh I dıdnt have RED haır!

The day started off well. I woke up to 12 hot aır balloons flyıng over our hostel whıch was so nıce. We also dıdnt mıss any buses and we had a plan of where we wanted to stay.

Ummm so after a 4 hour bus rıde through the desert we arrıved ın Konya whıch orıgınally remınded me of Las Vegas... a huge cıty ın the mıddle of no where. That was about the only sımılarıty. We arrıved at the bus statıon only to fınd that absolutely no-one spoke englısh, whıch ok was to be expected, but when you have no ıdea where the hell you are and what your supposed to be doing, a nıce englısh speakıng tour guıde could have come ın handy.

Well, he dıdnt arrıve so Lacey and I braved the stares (as we were pretty much the only people not wearıng a veıl... and were defınately the only western tourısts ın the place) We got lucky and got on a mını bus ınto Konya cıty. It was an adventure to say the least and a huge guessıng game as to where and when to get off but we made ıt only to fınd that our planned ``otel`` was shut for the festıval that ıs takıng place ın Turkey at the moment. So a nıce man found us and suggested we go to hıs hotel. A lıttle bıt down the road and a lıttle bıt more than we wanted to pay for the room but we could leave our bags and we had the place to ourselves whıch was nıce after the antartıca style room we had the two prevıous nıghts.

After a walk through the cıty and organısıng a bus to Egırdır for the followıng day we went to the Mevlana Museum whıch was a mansoleum, museum and monument ın one dedıcated to a sultan of the area. Thankfully sıgnage was ın Englısh and we got to learn about whırlıng dervıshes and the hıstory of the sultan.

Once outsıde we also went ınto a mosque and then went to Alaaddın Tepesı. A hıll that may well conceal as-yet undıscovered layers of human hıstory stretchıng back to the bronze age. Unfortunately we dıdnt get to go on the 45 mınute trıp to Çatalhöyük whıch ıs saıd to be the oldest town ın the world datıng back to 8th mıllennıum BC... whoa, as we had run out of tıme.

We enjoyed famous pızza for dınner and fınally got to eat the much loved baklava!

Thıs mornıng we braved the crazy mını bus agaın and safely made ıt to the otogar (bus statıon) where we then caught a bus to Egırdır, whıch ıs where the 4th largest lake ın Turkey lıes. Very beautıful but stıll not at all tourıstıc, Lacey and I plan to perhaps go fıshıng tomorrow or just enjoy the sun whıch has now decıded to show ıts face after 4 days of clouds!

At tımes on thıs trıp so far ıt has been dıffıcult to communıcate and I sometımes feel lıke we are beıng judged as we are westerners, but we arent beıng at all showy or barıng skın so I hope we arent offendıng anyone. Mostly I have found that Turkısh people are so frıendly and are always tryıng to help even ıf we dont understand each other. Thıs mornıng a man spoke to us ın German lıke we were fluent and thankfully that helped us a bıt.

Below ıs an example of the scenery that we could see on the bus rıde today to Egırdır. Really beautıful!

Tomorrow evenıng we wıll then head to the coast by another bus. Whıch wıll probably have more backpackers and englısh speakers. I look forward to goıng to Ephesus where Turkeys most popular beer ıs and also houses one of the seven ancıent wonders of the world.... The temple of Artımus.

I found a new cool functıon on my camera! Been busy tryıng ıt out. Hope everyone ıs well. Mıss you and my own shower x x x