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Brussels-> Istanbul
  • Madeline Rigby
  • Jack Cumersdale
  • Madeline Rigby
  • Jack Cumersdale

Brussels-> Istanbul

Accidentally following in the footsteps of mehmed the conqueror 🐈🧛🗡️ Read more
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  • Trip start
    September 4, 2026
    Brussels-> Istanbul

    Impromptu stop in Belgium

    September 4 in Belgium ☁️ 22 °C

    After being 1 hour delayed in Manchester, missing our connection and staying the night in a hotel in Belgium we are finally in the airport and waiting to go to Bucharest, 12 hours late but never mind. Atleast we got our dominoes for free.Read more

  • Brussels-> Istanbul

    Exploring Bucharest

    September 5 in Romania ☀️ 30 °C

    Me and jack have had such a fabulous day, we started off by having some food in the old town and then a walk around, we stumbled across a street food festival that had live music and it was right in front of the largest parliament building in Europe! We then had a drink and a snack and abit of shopping! We then went to a fabulous rooftop restaurant and went to see the closing act of the food festival who were really good (it was electronic folk music) and went finished the night of in a club I went to 3 years ago!

    Jack will post more pictures of day 1 soon!    Read more

  • Brussels-> Istanbul

    More day 1 adventures

    September 5 in Romania ☀️ 32 °C

    Posting more photos from our amazing first day in Bucharest. Safe to say I won’t be swapping from cricket to disc throwing.

  • Brussels-> Istanbul

    Transilvania

    September 6 in Romania ☀️ 28 °C

    Today we took a day trip tour to Peles castle, Brasov and Bran castle aka Draculas castle. Peles castle was absolutely stunning and Jack says Brasov was one of his favourite towns he’s ever seen. We ate some questionable food, Jacks unknown meat sausages were very wet but we tried anyway!Read more

  • Brussels-> Istanbul

    Sofia day 1

    September 7 in Bulgaria 🌙 20 °C

    We arrived in Sofia quite late this evening (6pm) so we checked into our hostel and went to explore alittle bit, mostly just looking for some pain killers for my shoulder and food, all the pharmacies were closed but we did find a beautiful supermarket (never taken a picture of a supermarket before but this one has topped all supermarkets) and then we went for food, got to ride on the underground which puts all of them in other countries to shame, so clean and lots of cool archeological facts aswell, had some yummy food and then went to 2 bars where I tried two different Bulgarian wines and jack had two different whisky sours.

    So far Sofia has exceeded our expectations and this is jacks first hostel experience is soon to be documented. Anyways we’re going to sleep now after 7 hours on a bus and we will check back in tomorrow!    Read more

  • Brussels-> Istanbul

    Sofia day 2

    September 8 in Bulgaria ☀️ 27 °C

    Today we went on a walking tour and saw all the amazing sites. We couldn’t pick a favourite as they all showed so many amazing aspects of sofias history. Madeline did not match my enthusiasm and was not as keen on seeing all the Roman ruins possible 😂. We ended a great day in a communist themed bar, we played chess and drank good wine. Madeline bumped into an old high school friend 🤯.Read more

  • Brussels-> Istanbul
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    Some landmark photos from Day 1 in Istanbul

    September 10 in Turkey

    Some site seeing pictures of our hectic day in the historical thumb of Istanbul. The video at the end shows the sheer size of the coastline. This is the European and Asian coastline. This does not include the 2 hours of walking it took to get around the historical ancient peninsula (thumb of Istanbul) that our hotel is located in.Read more

  • Brussels-> Istanbul

    Turkey day 1

    September 10 in Turkey ☀️ 26 °C

    Today we explored the historic European peninsula, and by that I mean EVERYTHING. We have done 30,000 steps. We have seen the blue mosque, Haggia Sophia, basilica cistern, the hippodrome, the golden horn of Istanbul (the harbour), the grand bazaar, we have eaten Turkish dumplings, chicken doner, Shish kebab, Turkish coffee and tea and been extremely overstimulated!!!!

    It’s been amazing, one thing I will note here is that when thousands of sweaty tourists take their shoes off on a carpet, the smell of feet is rather prominent. I enjoyed dressing extremely modestly even though it is completely different to what I’m used to and even though we saw Medusa’s lair jack didn’t turn to stone, that has got to be a good sign!!!!

    Here’s some pictures and videos, if jack has any cool landscape shots he’ll add a post aswell. (He is so good at taking photos of buildings and food, photos of people though, he still needs some work….)    Read more

  • Brussels-> Istanbul

    Bonus cat post day 1

    September 10 in Turkey ☀️ 27 °C

    There will definitely be more of these but he’s some amazing kitties I have seen. + 1 dino bird

  • Brussels-> Istanbul

    Day 2 Istanbul

    September 11 in Turkey ☀️ 27 °C

    Today we have walked to one of my favourite historical figures tombs. Mehmed II (the conqueror). It was incredible and extremely ornate. I felt huge sense of satisfaction from this as all the countries we have been to (other than Belgium) are countries he has invaded and conquered is some respect. This included Vlad the impaler (Dracula) and Romania as well as Sofia. With Istanbul or Constantinople as it was known being his greatest conquest. After this we went to other areas of the European side and the Asian side using ferries, busses and trams. Seeing sites like the Galata tower and the colourful buildings of Balat. Finishing of with some fantastic food, including gluten free baclava 🤩.Read more

  • Brussels-> Istanbul

    Beach day!

    September 12 in Turkey ☀️ 28 °C

    Escaped the busy city for a beach day and it was absolutely amazing! We aimed to go to one island and ended up on a completely different one but it was absolutely beautiful, we swam in the sea along with many a jelly fish, jack made friends with a cat who liked his chair and we had the yummiest seafood dinner, jack had a sea bass fajita and I had a sea bass casserole and we shared some muscles aswell, we then had a long ferry ride back to Istanbul and finished the night watching a documentary about the ottomans!

    I have added many cat videos into this!    Read more

    Trip end
    September 15, 2026