• Angharad Dowse
abr. 2017 – feb. 2018

European Adventure

Una aventura de 318 días de Angharad Leer más
  • Fes

    27 de septiembre de 2017, Marruecos ⋅ ⛅ 22 °C

    Today was our designated do nothing day
    Our Hostel breakfast was incredible - 4 plates each!
    We put our laundry in and should be charged with extortion. It's 5 dirham per item and we had 30 items... THATS $20 TO DO A LOAD OF WASHING 😱😡😖
    We went out for lunch and Will got his camel burger - I had a bite just to say I have had camel. I didn't like it. It was like funny kebab meat. Will enjoyed it though.

    Came home and slept - was gonna read but I enjoyed just lying down

    Went to the streets and main gate. On the way the tour guide saw us while driving and parked then chased us down the street to say hey. 😂 I feel totally safe with him but we are gonna skip the tour and say I'm sick for 'just in case' purposes.

    We found the main blue gate which was very nice then walked down one of the Main Street - the workers are far less pushy which is great.
    It was pretty dark so we Turned around and had dinner.
    great beef!
    they keep giving us food on the house that we don't want to eat but feel like we must. 🙄

    When walking home we noticed a "bar" (more like place with a tv) showing a soccer game. It was fit to bursting with men and all the woman were just sitting outside. Maybe 70+ uninvited women hahaha

    Our room had aircon and it's so goooooood

    The owner is coming off as a real douche. He hasn't spoken to us. The workers are lovely.
    He is just so arrogant and I appreciate that he does actually own it.. but he walks around like he owns the place.
    A real tool.

    We had the funniest night all up on the terrace. There were these 2 Americans and I was in hysterics- they did not hold back they talked about all the drugs they have taken and the most ridiculous stories.
    They were amazing 😂😂😂
    One won tickets and went to Michael Jacksons funeral which is awesome.
    These chicks were honestly cracked.
    There were 2 other Americans, 2 Dutch, 1 Scottish and us + the worker dude.
    Everyone had some wine and beers.
    I laughed so much!!
    Leer más

  • Fes

    28 de septiembre de 2017, Marruecos ⋅ 🌙 20 °C

    At 9:30 Will went to town and told old mate I was sick. We still gave him money. Apparently he was suspicious haha
    He came back and we sat in the main area. We didn't want breakfast but they served us anyway.
    I felt sick but got some relief on the loo.
    We didn't want to walk past our guide man so we walked in the opposite direction to Mcdonalds. We are are so over tangine and cous cous. Oh and kebabs.
    Back to hostel and I had another nap cause I still wasnt feeling great

    Woke up and we organised Japanese delivery for dinner. It came in a little box like the ones on US Sitcoms. 🤗
    We over ordered just so they came though. Very enjoyable.
    Meyouki made us mint tea ( American Japanese girl in our room) - she is here with Viktor who is from holland.
    We made our way upstairs because she ordered sheesha.
    It was mint flavored.

    I am still BLOWN THE FUCK AWAY BY THIS. Apparently everyone in the world know this BUT Aboriginals are not Australian. It just means indigenous??!?!??!

    Honestly not coping.

    I thought it was our word for our specific indigenous like Eskimos or Mauris*(NZ)
    WHAT WHAT WHAT
    😱😱😱😱

    Played with Bruno a lot.

    I'm surprised the tortoises dont get stepped on more.
    I gave everyone a big talk about the difference between a tortoise and turtle 🐢
    So many tortoises die because people put the into water but they can't swim...
    I also own a turtle because of this incorrect labeling the world uses.

    I like the Berber alphabet.

    'Your welcome' in Arabic is "shook raan"
    Not spelt like that of corse.

    2 of the dudes came back from their hammam. I am keen to try too. ( it's their bathhouse) maybe in Rabat.
    Went to bed about 1am.
    Another enjoyable night.
    Leer más

  • Chefchaouen

    28 de septiembre de 2017, Marruecos ⋅ ⛅ 22 °C

    6am start. Had left the hostel by 6.20 the sun wasn't up but lists of people were coming back from their morning prayer and people were sweeping the streets. We walked 4km to the bus stop through the old town which is disgusting lol
    It's a Less touristy area and the men are disgusting. They are legs ok?!?!
    On the way we bought croissants but the lady dropped the bag in custard which I didn't know so that all transferred over to my pants 😒
    Waited for the bus for 30 mins then got on. Will doesn't fit. It was bad. I felt so bad for him.
    It was a 4hr bus and I felt so sick for the first hour. The second hour I managed to sleep.
    We stopped for a wee break and I tried to have a vomit but for the first time, I failed.
    Getting a lot of air out through my burps made me feel a little better though.

    Back on the bus and I may have had another nap? Not actually sure.

    When we arrived in Chefchauen we had to walk up a steep mountain to reach the main part of the town.

    We are both so grossly underwhelmed by this place.
    There is lots of blue but not everything as advertised.
    We went to information and asked where the main blue area was and famous staircase bit.
    Found it. That was cool but took all of 5 minutes.
    The area it was in was definitely more blue but I just really didn't care. Woop dee doo.
    I don't like Morocco really. Neither of us do. It's a bore. Like if this is their best stuff...

    We walked past a kasbah (know idea what thatbis 😂) had drinks in a store and then went to the bus stop where we waited 3 hours for our bus to come 😂😂😂😂 so not worth it.
    Still glad I came. It's talked up so much I would feel regret if I hadn't seen for myself.
    I fed a cat some muffin and we slept on the benches.
    We used the toilet and both consider it possible we contracted hepatitis. It was a disgrace!!!!!!!!!!!
    It was like a garbage pit you had to wade through to reach the hole.

    On the bus I feel so sick like I need to vomit. I reckon im sick because the hygiene here is non existent. Last 2 toilets didn't have hand washing facilities.
    I just feel dirty.
    We are currently just over half way.
    There was a random stop though so ppl got off so now we have 2 seats each which is the best! And has really helped.

    We made another stop so everyone could go pray in the prayer rooms.

    Still on the bus. Cannot wait to be off!!!
    I need to eat but I am not hungry.

    Oh and I have a really big liquid filled blister on the ball of my right foot which is going to make our 4km walk home great... 🤗

    The bus is really cold.

    The walk was a challenge but we are home 😭😭😭😭🤗🤗🤗🤗 BED
    Leer más

  • Fes

    29 de septiembre de 2017, Marruecos ⋅ ☀️ 31 °C

    Slept in until 11ish. My cough is really bad because I'm right under the air con.

    We decided we should probably do something today 😂
    We headed towards the Tanneries.

    People are so freaking annoying!!!!! Good intentions yes but i am so over every second person giving direction when they don't even know where we are going.

    I might have half yelled at one dude... he was like
    "the medina is down here"
    "We aren't going to the medina"
    "You need to go this way"
    "You don't even know where we are going!!!! "

    Gah go away.

    He chased after us because I think he was surprised and slightly impressed a woman spoke to him is such a way. he told me he liked me hahahah Somehow we ended up with a guide ... 😒😒😒😒 (not him) he took us to the tannery and passed us on to someone else - it's sneaky! You just go through 4 levels of his shop to reach it.

    As we walked out onto the view area he gave us mint to hold to our noses because my word, IT WAS SO BAD OMG.

    The shop owner stayed with us and told us all about it.
    It's a Friday so not as many people were there..
    They put the skins into the big pools of pigeon poop to clean it.....
    then they do something with the spin wheel then they dye it in the pool of dye. It can take 2 months for sheep and goat and 3 months for camel and cow. There were men standing in the pools splashing the contents around.
    around in the neighboring buildings were skins hanging up. The white skins get dried in the shade.

    So thankful for the mint.

    Apparently it's UNESCO site but I don't actually think thats true... the Fes medina is though... (I still don't understand what a medina is...) but I suppose the pools might come under the same area?

    Why don't I know what a medina is? Because it's meaning keeps changing.

    It's suppose to be surrounded by a wall BUT doesn't have to be...
    then Today I was told :

    "the medina is this way"
    "We aren't going to the medina"
    "You are in the medina"
    .... then how can it be over there if I am already in it? 🤔🤔🙄🤔🤔🤔🤔🤔

    Whatever.

    We then had an awkward showing through his shop.
    He tipped him 10€ because he was good and because we didn't have anything smaller 😖😖😖😖
    The stupid guide wanted money too - gave him 20 dirham to shut him up and leave us alone.
    I made a very loud point of telling him he should not have lied and said it was free (we knew he would want a tip but couldn't get rid of him and he insisted it would be free - bullshit)

    I accidentally startled Bruno when he was sleeping and he nipped my hand. Now, he is the cleanest dog I have ever come across so here's to hoping I don't get rabies ✌🏼🤞🏼🤞🏼
    Poor puppy. He had lots of cuddles to say sorry to each other 😻🤗

    I have also not been hungry for a week so my hypercondriac side has decided I have Hep A. 👍🏼
    Lol

    Walked home, rested then walked to the shopping mall 3km away for food.
    We are still avoiding old mate tour guide.

    Walked home, played with dog and talked to everyone in the common room.

    The hostel was putting on a free dinner but that wasn't ready until 9:15 lol.
    I forced myself to eat even though I'm not hungry. Forced myself at lunch too.

    Sat next to a french guy who was really nice and wrote down stuff for us to see in France - same with a girl from the Ukraine

    It was a good night but I found that Sophie Monks episodes as the bachelorette have been uploaded to YouTube so I went and watched 2 of them while Will stayed upstairs and continued drinking with everyone.
    It's currently 2:20 am and I can hear him laughing upstairs haha

    I would like to leave Morocco and go somewhere with better sanitation please.
    ✌🏼
    Leer más

  • Rabat

    30 de septiembre de 2017, Marruecos ⋅ ☀️ 23 °C

    Still have a cough and not hungry but I made myself eat the fruit salad and yogurt on offer for breakfast.
    Will is surprisingly chirpy considering he had 16 beers.
    Bloody camel. Didn't even get drunk - I'd be in the hospital.

    Anyway, cuddled Bruno and packed. I don't know why I cant fit stuff in my bag but I've put my sleeping bag back on the outside of my luggage because I was finding it just too difficult to stuff everything in.

    We walked to the batha fountain and got in a taxi with another guy from our hostel.
    So cheap!!! It was only 8 dirham. (80c)

    Bought tickets for the next train with no issues and away we went.
    We are in first class again because I am really hot and it has basic air conditioning 👍🏼

    It's so dirty outside. Just rubbish after rubbish pile.
    I know it's a poor country but it's still totally unacceptable.
    It's realllllly bad.

    We napped but I was so stressed we would miss our stop it was hardly a rest. I had a mini panic every 5 minutes lol.

    Made it - had lunch then walked to the hostel.

    I love Will.
    I couldn't find the passports.
    I basically said to him I felt like vomiting, I can't find them.
    He kept me calm and wasn't angry and together we searched our bags.
    I messaged the old hostel to check if they were there but we did find them. 👍🏼
    I think my panic got in the way because they were in a different compartment than usual.

    We checked in and sat upstairs and talked to some people - so many Germans in Morocco!
    These 3 people left and were replaced with others.
    Everyone is really nice.
    We went out to dinner with 3 people from the hostel. They all leave for Fes tomorrow. It was a lovely resturant - they washed out hands when we entered and when we left. They also have ridiculous tea pouring skills. They hold the tea pot like over a meter away.

    Rabat is already our favorite spot.
    "Everyone" said it was rubbish but once again our opinions don't match.
    It's cleaner, we haven't been hassled and it's not falling apart and yet has s feel of authenticity.
    There are more cats though :(

    I hate walking past the chicken shops - that have live chickens just waiting..

    We chatted to more people at the hostel.
    My cough is annoying, Will has a sad tummy, the hostel needs more toilets and power sockets.

    Read some of my book - gotta finish it quick because book 5 of 'Lusam' came out today and I'm so keen!!!!
    Leer más

  • Rabat

    1 de octubre de 2017, Marruecos ⋅ 🌙 20 °C

    Itchy from mozzies but other than that I slept ok. The call to prayer was so damn loud this morning though.

    Cough was so bad so I took a cough tablet.
    20 mins later I felt like I needed to throw up so I did... I though I was dying lol
    My vomit was bright green -
    After having a quick panic Will reminded me that the cough pill had a green coating.

    So All g.

    Sick of being sick. Haven't pooped since I last documented it - so it's like the 4th day? 😑😑😑😑

    Walked to the beach. It was really smoggy.
    We walked past this humongous cemetery and through a mini one which was so overgrown and covered in trash.
    The waves were good on one side of the boardwalk and crap on the other. Most people were on the crap side which was probably the smarter option. I think there were hidden rocks on the other side.
    We walked to the end of the boardwalk which had a barrier for waves to crash into and create splash.

    It was nice but the smog made it hard to see.
    Then walked to the medina/souks/ what ever the crap the main busy section is called for Will to eat some street food thing he saw last night. He bought it, didn't like it, threw it out so then we walked to maccas. Lol
    Got on the internet and replied to dad about the turtle....such a stupid turtle. 🐢
    They are cleaning the tank this weekend so the best of luck to them.

    In the markets there were boxes of tortoises for sale.

    Ok new medical disaster 😂😂😂😂
    I have developed a cysts on my wrist. Google tells me its likely not cancerous 👍🏼
    Just add it to the list - FYI I also have a big blister and a bleeding mozzie bite on my foot.

    I had a 3 hour rest on a wooden bench downstairs because our bedroom is way too hot.

    Will woke me up because he was getting angsty and wanted to go for a walk.

    We headed for the Hassan tower - a mosque they started building in the 1100's but never finished.
    I was in shorts which was a dumb move so we didn't linger cause it might have upset some people but we did go have a look.
    Churches are just so much better.
    The design was ugly.
    Boriiiiing.
    We sat in the park nearby but got moved along. We aren't sure why but there were a lot of police about this evening - we think something to new with the Islamic new year still going on.

    I really enjoy the radio towers they have around disguised as palm trees 😂

    We wanted to cross the river so we caught a row boat for 25c each. Winning.
    That was fun lol.
    It took us to an obviously rich area where we had dinner.

    Important notice:
    For the first time in my life - I had a sip of coffee and liked it 😱😱😱😱😱😱😱

    Will got 2 because it was so good.

    I fed a cat all my pepperoni from my pizza. Hehehe

    The sunset was beautiful! Unfortunately my phone couldn't properly capture it.

    Everyone is blind - It's insane! Some of their eyes are seriously ducked up.

    I'm surprised that more children aren't missing Fingers... their favourite game?
    Dropping Fireworks in alleyways....
    Really hurts the ears and scares the shit out of you...
    Why you would go be a child a lighter.. ?
    Anyway..

    Have I mentioned the King reminds me of Lewis from
    Suits?

    Read a lot of my book tonight.

    Me and Will have swapped beds because he was too hot.
    Leer más

  • Rabat

    2 de octubre de 2017, Marruecos ⋅ ⛅ 29 °C

    Kept everyone up coughing 😏

    Woke up with the intentions of going to a Hammam.
    Reception told me yesterday they would take me -
    What a bunch of geese. . 'staff' will be getting a low score on my review. They didn't know what I was waiting for... they eventually figured it out and took me to the hammam. Well, he tried to...
    he had no idea where he was going and had to ask 5 different locals for help. I was so worried because he walked in complete circles that I wasn't going to find my way back because I left my phone in the hostel.
    Eventually he found one but it was closed...... 🤦🏼‍♀️🤦🏼‍♀️🤦🏼‍♀️
    It is their literal job to know these things.
    They offer it as a service.....
    so cranky.
    He tried to make small talk as we walked back but I was not in the mood.
    I'm back at the hostel now and I'm not sure if I still even want one. I would google myself if the damn hostel had internet..

    Ok found one with a high rating on google so Will escorted me there.... my Hammam was by far my favourite and most ridiculous experience in Morocco.

    Ok so I had to buy stuff at the door - a exfoliating glove, black soap stuff and 2 other bags I don't know what they were.

    Went in and it was like a public swimming pool change room.
    I had to remove all my clothes except my undies then go into the next room with my cleaner - she also got nude 😂😂😂😂😂😂

    It was sort of like a steam room. Just a massive square tiles room with a bunch of naked woman in it washing.
    They aren't shy with the water - taps were always running.

    I just sat in the corner naked while my lady went somewhere - she came back 5 mins later with a bucket.

    In the bucket she put the black soap and a green powder and made a paste. She rubbed it all over me - I then had to take my undies off for her to do my bum 🙊
    She then took me into the next bus room which was slightly hotter.
    I sat on the floor for 10 minutes in this goop watching other nude ladies wash.
    I felt surprisingly unembarrassed. Seeing some of these woman gave me some real body confidence hahahah

    Anyway waiting waiting waiting...
    sweating sweating sweating..
    she then came back and used hot water to wash it off me.
    Her sign language skills weren't the best. She struggled to communicate with me what she wanted me to do.

    I then got taken back into the 1st steam room where she then threw a bucket of water on the floor (which saturated my undies still lying there) to clean it and made me lie down on my stomach - and so began the scrub down..
    she wasn't gentle.
    I had heard from people that they were horrified by the amount of dead skin comes of them when getting a hammam so I purposely have been poor with my shower hygiene and my oh my... YUCK! Hahaha rolls and rolls of dead green skin.
    You know when you run your hands together and you get the little green stuff ... like that only some where half as thick as a cigarette.
    So satisfying.
    After she did my back etc I then rolled over my side then back then side again.
    The ass, boob and inner thigh scrub were, errr, interesting.
    I have never been so exposed.
    Where she was scrubbing my boobs her face sweat was dripping onto me lol.
    And her boobs were dancing everywhere hahaha oh god.
    this was so bizarre.
    She then washed the dead skin off.
    I didn't need my hair washed so I didn't buy shampoo at the front but she must have though I just didn't know because she borrowed someone else's and washed my hair.

    She then put the last of the little powder sachet things into a new bucket and made a other paste - this was suppose to be a massage I think?
    It was more of a thorough rub down.

    When doing my arm she basically placed her boob into my hand. Cute.

    When doing my legs - she though the appropriate place to place my foot was between her boobs hahah

    I had the giggles a few times

    She also did my face which was too tame for my liking hahah

    So exposed.
    So very, very exposed.

    She then washed me down again.

    My undies were so wet but I had to put them back on to walk home.

    I put all my clothes on and left.
    I get to keep my glove woo ha

    I hated the walk home. Because I was by myself I got called a whore a few times and a bitch too.
    How lovely.

    Got home and recounted my tale.

    We sat around for a bit charging our phones before we loaded the maps and headed for the kings palace.
    A 4km walk there and we couldn't even take a photo 😑 dudes with guns everywhere and you couldn't even cross the street to look.
    So yeah a long walk to see a door.

    We walked back to the hostel and chatted to our English friend for a while. Her name is Finnula which is super strange. As is she.. she is nice though :) #fbpals

    We then headed out to watch the sunset In hope of the same beauty as yesterday- nope.
    Crappy sunset but we did like sitting watching the water and people fishing.
    We spend far to long watching and waiting to see if the waves would push 2 separated plastic bottles close enough to each other to touch.
    Stupidly satisfying when then did finally touch.

    Sitting on this wall was probably the nicest spot in Rabat/Morocco. (Excluding the waterfall)

    Walked home - will went back out to get food for himself.

    I bought my morocco magnet - it's of a door. All the other magnets had buildings and shit but I didn't know what the buildings were because they all look the same. 3 terra cotta mosques next to each other.. woo... pass.

    I was in hysterics this evening... some girls came back from the Hammam and where losing their shit at the worker 😂😂😂😂
    They were told it was a spa.
    hahahahahahhahahahahahah
    One chick kept going in and out of Spanish to get her point across.

    I doubt this will read funny in year to come but on the off chance I remember (workers name is santiago)

    " make sure you read the hostel review tomorrow.. it will read FUCK YOU SANTIAGO, lets go to a "spa" that will be nice, that will be fun *trails off into Spanish*

    I was in my bed listening to her complain about how she felt like a tajine chicken in a pot... when she got her glove out to use as a prob I couldn't breath 😂
    "Do you want a massage? " *pretends to rip skin off*
    The over dramatic version and accent were just so so funny.

    The American dude -Gedrick - has gone off with some other blokes to get one tonight. He had taken an extra 150 dirham to try convince a worker to try jerk one of the other guys off 😂😂😂😂😂
    I may never see him again. He may go to jail.. 🤦🏼‍♀️😂

    I asked him a question earlier but he couldn't see me and he was so startled.
    He was like " man, don't do that! I'm so baked, I thought i was hearing voices"

    I would like to get to know him more. I know he served in the air force for 8 years and served in Iraq - he Lives on a farm and lived in Japan. He just seems so interesting.
    he is also the only person on my travels who makes their bed everyday. Evidence of Military training right there!

    We are packed and ready to go.
    I don't know if I am meant to check in to our flight or not but I have no internet so I can't check..
    Let's hope not.

    Notes:
    - A man kissed Wills arm in the street
    - Will (& many others) had to pee in the shower because our hostel just didn't have available toilets
    - lots of gum trees out and about
    Leer más

  • Transit

    3 de octubre de 2017, Rumania ⋅ ☀️ 18 °C

    4am alarm and taxi man arrived at 4:30. It was a fancy pants taxi. No wonder it was so expensive.
    He got us there so early the airport wasn't even open.
    At about 5 they opened the door - you needed your passport and plane ticket just to enter the airport.
    We checked in no issues and went through to our gate.
    Wait wait wait - got on the plane.
    It's a 3 hour journey to Paris.
    Sooooo tired. How tired? I COULDNT REMEMBER WHERE TO PUT THE TOIELT PAPER AFTER I WIPED - I actually stood up to look for a bin before I turned around, saw the toilet and remembered it goes in the bowl.
    Omg.

    When we rocked up to Paris I was surprised by how many Air France planes were there.
    We were in France... 🤦🏼‍♀️🤦🏼‍♀️🤦🏼‍♀️🤦🏼‍♀️🤦🏼‍♀️🤦🏼‍♀️

    When going through the french customs they got cross because I didn't take my kindle out of my bag.
    I have never had to take it out this whole trip.
    Whatever I got through ✌🏼

    We had to run and barely made it to our next plane.

    Some dude was in my window seat and I wasn't about to give that up lol
    I told him it was my seat but he didn't really understand so I got the worker to tell him in french - he moved :)

    I slept a good chuck of the journey - its 3hrs as well. On Both planes we were given food plates. Not the best but semi passable.

    Arrived in Romania and it was chaos. No organization at all !! No lines, just clumps of people trying to get through customs.
    I actually got a well inked stamp for a change woo!

    And so began today's little drama... 😂😂😂😂😂👏🏼👏🏼👏🏼👏🏼🤦🏼‍♀️🤦🏼‍♀️😒🤘🏽

    Our luggage didn't make it onto the flight and is still in France.
    Alas.

    Off we went to make a luggage claim.

    There was another dude who came from Morocco- his bag didn't make it either.

    We had to answer the most ridiculous questions.
    The dude did not understand how much stuff is in our bag - he was like describe the items inside , ermmmmm???
    I think the name tag on my bag, travel strap they out on with the code and description of my colour compartment bag things inside are going to be more helpful in identifying my bag that "inside is a blue shirt"............ oh! And a green shirt..........
    They will take 1 - 2 days to get to Romania. As compensation they have given us a white shirt 🤙🏽🤙🏽🤙🏽🤙🏽
    Good job guys 👏🏼👏🏼👏🏼👏🏼👏🏼👏🏼
    They will drive them out to us for free but there may be an issue with phones and contacting us to let us know they are coming - will sort it tomorrow. If we must I'll just go back to the airport to get them.

    We left the airport with just our backpacks and got in a cab - he was honest and we didn't even need to ask him to put the meter on.
    It took 45 mins to get there - lucky it goes off distance and not time.

    Our Bnb dude was outside and waiting for us and took us up to the apartment.
    It's so nice 😭 YAY PRIVATE SPACE!

    We chilled for a bit then walked to get groceries.
    It was normal, rather than cheap prices.
    Came home and made nachos. We would have gone with tacos but couldn't find shells.

    The shower pressure is shit but other than that I'm very happy here.

    Romania is lovely so far. YAY EASTERN EUROPE

    We are watching nat geo wild :)

    Oh with our free shirt we also got some comforting cream (😂)inside our pencil case bag 🤘🏽
    Leer más

  • Bucharest

    4 de octubre de 2017, Rumania ⋅ ⛅ 17 °C

    We slept til midday 👏🏼👏🏼👏🏼👏🏼👏🏼👏🏼
    I had several alarms set up to check to see if the airport had emailed me.
    Nope.
    I had a shower and of course one came in while I was showering - it said along the lines of "your address was incomplete so we couldn't deliver. 😒
    Annoyed because if they had messaged to say "leaving now" as they said they would we could have met them our front because they did find the apartment block..
    whatever. We decided that even though it would cost us money and time it was easiest to just go back to the airport to get them.
    We walked to the street and found a taxi. Of course it was the most expensive company 😒😒😒 it cost $20 to get to the airport but was quicker than yesterday.
    When we arrived we didn't know what to do... we couldnt go back through the airport because of security so we asked one guy who led us to a phone and disabled a number then left - no one answered so we just kept standing there. We asked heaps more people for help only they didn't speak English :(
    I went to the info desk and they gave me a different number to try - no one answered that one either. 😖😖
    We just started Dialing numbers - 30 mins passed and we got hung up on 5 times - Will seriously frustrated by now.
    I got onto the wifi and email came through saying to come tomorrow because our bags weren't at the airport..... 😡😡😡😡

    We kept ringing numbers and finally someone answered and came out to get it.
    We had to sign in at a security check point.
    We went back to the same place as yesterday and got quite cranky because everything they said we should have done ie ring them - we said we told the guy yesterday we couldn't do and he said he had noted that down. They were like "oh....." 🤦🏼‍♀️🤦🏼‍♀️🤦🏼‍♀️
    They then focused on the address not being valid but had nothing to say when I said the taxi driver managed to find it....
    Basically one chick rang the delivery guy and arranged for our bags to come. We had to wait 30 mins but we were so fine to do that. Just relived they were coming and we didn't have to make another trip out.

    We got taken to the delivery bag and got our bags 😭😭🎉🎉🎉🎉👏🏼👏🏼👏🏼👍🏼

    Got in another taxi and came home.
    So impressed with the driver - one look at the address and off we went - no gps- very old school.

    Got home, dumped our stuff and went to buy tacos 🌮

    Came home and cooked 🤤🤤🤤

    We downloaded the final 2 episodes of game of thrones - watched one together then trailed off into our own stuff.
    I caught up on the bachelorette and he watched some documentary.

    We plan to go on a walking tour tomorrow which I'm pretty keen for.
    Leer más

  • Bucharest

    6 de octubre de 2017, Rumania ⋅ ⛅ 16 °C

    Woke up to the front door opening lol
    Some lady popped her head in then panicked and said "sorry housekeeping" then quickly left.
    We were like ehhhhh ok? Lol

    Woke up - nearly 1 hehehheeh
    I emailed dad to organised Skype for the following day and he actually replied 😱😱😱
    We were able to organise a skype date then and there 👏🏼 mum was high and probably won't remember though...
    had to hang up because time was moving fast and our tour was starting in an hour and we hadn't looked up where to go.
    Pretty easy - straight down the road for 1km
    We were the first there but the guide was waiting.
    She had great English #winning

    Waited for everyone then we started...
    First stop was 30 meters away from the fountain we started at - she pointed down the boulevard to point out parliment.
    Parliament is Bucharests biggest attraction. It is the 2nd biggest building in the world coming in behind the pentagon.
    It already looks freaking massive but It also goes 90m below the surface. Apparently top gear did an episode racing through their tunnels hahah

    They had a dictator and he is the one who built the building and the surrounding boulevard. He was sentenced to death after being a dick.
    😆 my enthusiasm on documenting every bit of history through this is fading ..... go google the dictator because it is interesting. 👍🏼👍🏼

    Apparently a lot a lot a lot of artists come do concerts and call them Budapest and it pisses them off hahah

    We then walked to a church where people got crowned. Romania had 3 sections and this was for what sounded like the Velakia section.
    There was also a white building behind us that is now a resturant where some document got signed - emancipation from the Ottoman Empire maybe?
    She dumped so much info and didn't always clarify things so not sure.
    She had lots of great picture cards showing us the things she taught.
    Like what things use to look like etc.

    Next was a statue of Vlad the impaler. This history lesson I found to be the most interesting. Despite him being aweful they still view him as their forefather - a letter from him to someone is the first record which mentions Bucharest "he signed our birth certificate"
    He impaled a lot of people... such a horrendous way to die. Could take 48 hours.
    He lined the streets with 200 men as a warning to the bigger army approaching.
    What a loon.

    We then went to the museum and posed in front of a statue that everyone hates. It was silly but I kinda liked it lol. It's a man holding a dog with big boobs.
    Nearby was the palace of bank which was a lovely building.
    Another Aussie dude was on our tour and we chatted to him at our mid tour break at GLORIA JEANS 😭😭😭❤️❤️ I was so excited. Starbucks sucks.

    Next was a little monastery. Goodness me churches are much more beautiful than mosques.
    When the dictator dude built the boulevard 40 churches were destroyed. Some of the remains were in the courtyard.
    8 of the churches were saved and literally moved on a cart and tracks.
    Next we walked to the university square where she talked about communism and the communist dude again 1984-89.
    Lots of people have died in the square - it was and still is used for protests.
    We were gonna give 30 Lei but the people before me all gave 10 so I kept the extra 20 hahaha so all up we have about $3 👊🏿

    Our house is really close to the university square so we walked home - I have about 2 weeks of a plumbing block to relieve- and so I did ✌🏼✌🏼✌🏼✌🏼✌🏼
    We went out for dinner then came back home - we watched game of thrones and did some base planning for our Romanian plans.
    Just relaxing and it's great.
    Leer más

  • Bucharest

    6 de octubre de 2017, Rumania ⋅ ⛅ 23 °C

    Still coughing 😩

    We did a load of washing yesterday and they had all dried - Will has realized he has lost another 2 shirts though 🤦🏼‍♀️
    Got ready and headed towards the Parliament.
    It is bloody big. I knew it was gonna be but still impressive. It was modern as well and clean looking.
    ✔️✔️✔️✔️ alright next.
    Onto the national museum.
    It cost $3 to enter 👌🏻
    The first floor was crappy. I don't know what it was... it was modern but not in English and didn't really have anything? It was like a building model?
    2nd room was eh. Just lots of old Roman stuff that is everywhere around Europe..
    the 3rd but was awesome though.
    In the center of the museum was the biggest column I have ever seen.
    This column though... omg. It's like 5 times as thick as one from the Parthenon.
    Due to the lack of English I don't know anything about it other than it's the Trajan column. I think the original is is Rome though. 🤔🤔🤔
    Idk 😂 I think the purpose of the display was to look at all the friezes. Very detailed.
    The next section you couldn't take photos and it was all the gold and royal stuff. Probably my favourite jewelry section of a museum we have been to.
    The necklaces and crowns were hectic. You could see some of the age though they look a little mushed. The crowns looked fake.
    We left then headed home because shock horror Will had to poop.
    We got there and he didn't need to any more 😡😖😖😖 freaking honestly. 😒😒😒
    We chilled out because it was really hot outside. I looked more closely into how we were gonna get the train tomorrow night and what we were going to do with our bags all day because we have to check out at 12.
    We are gonna try get lockers at the station when we buy tickets. 🤞🏼🤞🏼
    I fell asleep. Lol - Will woke me up and we went to dinner at a resturant that we walked past on our tour and was recommended.
    It was really good actually. It was only $50 all up and we bought the whole shop.
    We had 1 Pepsi, 2 beers, 1 entree, 2 mains, 1 dessert and 2 shots of Visinata which is a Romanian sour cherry alcohol.
    I got the lamb stew which was delicious- I also had the pavlova and was so excited about it but it was crap 😞 not like home.
    After we left and went walking for Will to find a dessert place because I jumped the gun when ordering my Pavlova (he never gets dessert so I assumed he didn't want any) - he got a scoop of ice cream and a Croissant.
    We then went to a bookshop that was supposedly lovely and again recommended on our tour.
    While it was cool, I don't think it's exactly the city's top attraction..
    Walked back home.
    We renewed our workaway subscription (30€😒) then I browsed while Will napped. I soon fell asleep too 🙊
    I woke up before he did and semi packed. I got the. Ew load of washing out to dry.
    I was really thirsty so we went to buy a drink. We accidentally bought soda water not regular which is a real bummer. We have done it so many times this trip. Boo hiss.
    Home now. Will is going through the workaways I found.

    I have decided I can now figure out if I am tired on not by noting if my feet are hyper sensitive to the blanket. Rubbing them back and forth is so comforting- it means nap time 😁😁😁

    Our toilet smells. Well maybe not even the toilet? We aren't sure - maybe just the water system in general because it does keep squeaking.

    My hair is atrocious but the water pressure is crap so I don't want to wash it.

    I'm keen for the ridiculous train ride tomorrow night!

    I've liked Bucharest. Claps for Romania. 👏🏼👏🏼
    It's far more modern than I expected and not a single gypsie in sight lol.
    Leer más

  • Bucharest

    7 de octubre de 2017, Rumania ⋅ 🌧 8 °C

    So we got woken again by the damn housekeeper only this time asking what time we were leaving.
    Don't know why the Bnb dude couldn't have just messaged me to ask me that rather than send her round...
    he will score low for communication.
    I get so much satisfaction reviewing things hahaha

    We both showered and packed. I gotta send a lot of stuff home soon, by bag is too big. Time for some winter clothes me think! Today is a consistent 9 degrees.

    It was raining so we jumped in a taxi who we knew was dipping us off but didn't really care. He offered a fixed price way more than what it would have cost but I understand - it was only 4km away and accepting us meant when he has to rejoin the really long taxi line so he has to make it worth it for himself to do it.
    He charged $7
    Got there no troubles and found the ticket place relatively easily.
    We got the tickets and got a discount. She explained why but I couldnt understand her so I just nodded.
    Our train leaves at 7:15 tonight.
    We found lockers that were massive - only $8 for 24 hours for all our stuff so that's not bag considering what they can sometimes charge.
    Now, we were going to walk to an open air museum but it was bucketing.
    We spent the next 7 hour hanging out in the station.
    Boringggggggg
    At least we didn't have to lug bags around.
    We chilled in the maccas free wifi zone then in the station waiting bay where the most aweful smelling human I have ever smelt sat near us.
    He later actually got asked to leave and that could have been why.
    I couldn't believe the assault on the senses.
    Will reckons he smelt like a coin. Hahahahaha
    Not a typo.

    Another man got asked to leave because I think maybe he was drunk. He was talking to everyone so loudly and i think harassing one lady.

    We had subway for dinner and charged our phones there.

    Got on the train at 7.
    We couldn't figure out how to get into our apartment.
    The worker needed to unlock it for us. Why is wasnt already unlocked...

    No one else is in our compartment YAYAYAY.
    And Will fits the mattress YAYAYAY
    This is so cool.
    It's an old soviet train that hasn't been redesigned.
    It reminds me of a Nana's house.
    Terrible curtains and carpet with way too much velvet.
    ...An Autumn colour scheme haha

    The toilet isn't that bad considering. The toilet seat was metal and my ass has never experienced such a temperature but it as least had a flush button.
    No toilet paper though 😒

    It's like being in a rocker. We both had a 2 hour nap straight off the bat.

    It's now 11. Will is now watching and I'm working up to reading my book.

    According to other people's recounts of their experience on this train - at about 1-2am there is going to be a very long and loud disturbance because they have to change every wheel over 😂 it takes them a while apparently.
    They have to change the wheels because the tracks are different in Moldova. - one of Stalins strategies to slow people down lol

    Will keeps beating me at chopsticks and it's bullshit

    We should have brought another bottle of water

    Will won't stop singing and I'm close to telling him to sleep outside. So freaking annoying lol

    We are both really enjoying the journey.
    it's 12:28am so all new adventures of the journey will be in tomorrows records.
    👍🏼
    Leer más

  • Chisinau

    8 de octubre de 2017, Moldavia ⋅ ☁️ 9 °C

    It's currently 4am and we have been awoken by customs for our passports.
    Soooooooo awkward. Wills passport had money in it that the officer threw back at us. He wasn't happy.
    Must think it was a bribe... Hoping we are let in 🤞🏼🤞🏼lol

    Next bloke came by and he was really nice - he checked our luggage and asked if we had anything to declare.

    Still waiting for our passports.

    Got them woo.

    We moved maybe 100m then on came the Moldovans.
    The customs chick was much more thorough than the Romanian. I had to open my bag for her to check for stuff.
    She was so brutal to the guy in the cabin next to us.
    "Why you travel alone?" "You don't have friends?" 😂😂
    It was all very intense. I don't think they liked my photo. I do look like a 12 year old boy. Eventually they stamped us both.
    On our way!
    I slept really good apparently because people in the morning talked about how loud and long the changing of the wheel took.
    I thought the information I had read must have been outdated because I didn't hear a thing 😅
    Nevermind.. Hahaha

    We arrived at 9:30am - ish.
    So groggy.

    It was rainy but we still planned on walking to the hostel.
    So much waterrrrrr 😩😩😩😩😩
    So many puddles too that we kept stepping in.
    The place was deserted and bland.
    Walk walk walk.
    We found our street easily enough. Next challenge was finding the hostel cause turns out Wills GPS only pin dropped the street not the actually house number.
    Good times in the rain were had by all.
    We found shelter and I put my bags down so I could explore. Even though they are water resistant there was a lot of water and I didn't want water seeping onto my kindle and journal book.

    Found it.

    We couldn't check in for 2 hours but they let us stay inside 🙌🏼 I had a snooze on the couch and Will called his parents to chat.
    Dural looks like it's a go but time will tell.
    We plan to get a goat.
    I will be pushing for a pig. #dreams

    Beds became available- dumped our stuff then went out for breakfast/lunch.
    Will didn't listen to the instructions given to him so he took us the wrong way...

    We found Andys Pizza though. We stood around like dixks for a while before deciding we are probably meant to seat ourselves.
    I wasn't sure if people would speak English here but our waiter did fine.
    We got 2 drinks, a pizza, soup and chips and it was only $14 😂
    Big tick for moldova.
    Went home via the supermarket then both fell asleep on our beds. The doona was so toasty. 😍
    Woke up a few hours later and it was still pouring.
    It's the wine festival at the moment and we were gonna go because it's the biggest festival of the year but it's just not gonna happen.
    We didn't even want to brace the rain for food. We had to though.. there was a resturant across the street but when we walked in it looked as if maybe an event was taking place?
    We ran down the street to option 2 which we though had exuberant prices until we figured out our meal with dessert was still only $35 😂
    Ran home and now in bed.
    Trying to figure out where we are gonna go after Romania but everything is so inconvenient. We are thinking of maybe flying to Turkey for 3 days to bang it out.

    Not sure is I have mentioned that I really love the Romanian money - the Moldovan money is tiny!

    My hair is a huge huge knot and I can't be bothered to deal with it without a proper shower.

    Looked up things to do in Moldova and it's seriously lacking. Hhaha might just go walking :)

    Our resturant had cigarettes in the menu before the dessert section hahah ridiculous.
    Leer más

  • Chisinau

    9 de octubre de 2017, Moldavia ⋅ 🌙 8 °C

    Woke up midday but then took 42 minutes in the shower getting rid of my birds nest so we ended up leaving around 1.
    We walked to town which certainly had more people. We were gonna go to the museum but it looked completely dilapidated so we kept walking. There was no where to eat so we just kept walking and walking..
    We walked through their arcul de triumf which was nice and past a statue of Stefan. Don't know who Stefan is but the streets named after him so I assume he is important.
    Some of the buildings were boring but others had such interesting facades.
    We ate the food of our people (McDonalds) - quite honestly it was that or an ice cream from a kiosk..
    We walked past parliament which was very unusual looking - it had a pink tinge- I liked that it said Moldova with the hedge though. There was a pack of 5 stray dogs just chilling on the lawn.
    We walked down the street for maybe 2km just getting a feel for the place then turned around.
    The woman are all beautiful.
    We walked through 2 parks - both lovely- the second one had a great community vibe with enough benches and kiosks. Lots of people in it enjoying the "sunshine"
    We then walked home having seen pretty much everything. I like it. Its a cute little city.

    I like that their traffic lights have countdowns.

    Got home and sat in the kitchen and ended up deciding yo hire a car tomorrow with Liz (Scottish) and Karel (American) because everything there is to see requires one. It's also piss cheap.
    At one point there was discussions on hiring a mazarati for the day for 65€ but we didn't end up going with it.
    We procrastinated for about 2 hours trying to book this damn car but eventually got one. In this time I managed to book flights to Turkey. We are only planning on staying 2 days due to security warnings. To be fair the entire continent has warning so eh. Can't let them win.
    London has more attacked lately lol. We just want to see galipolli. We will then fly to either Serbia or the Ukraine. 👍🏼 still got to book our Romanian hire car though.

    Anywho we then went to the beer house for dinner only the menu was shit so we ended up just having a beer before going to a new place. We jumped on the bus to get there and that was an adventure and totally unnecessary - it was like 1km away. Bloody lazy American ! Hahahah

    This new place was out of their entire menu except pork. (It's a grill house so that's stupid)
    The other 3 bought 2 racks of 8 beers to share amongst them.
    I got really sick though and had an awkward gastronomic attack in the bathroom and vomited in their bin and I exploded the other end. Delightful.
    I have been dropped home and they are all still out.
    Bed time (feeling better now:))
    Leer más

  • Orheiul Vechi

    10 de octubre de 2017, Moldavia ⋅ ⛅ 13 °C

    So I had suspicions we wouldn't... but we did not wake up on time. Everyone was extremely hung over. Well, except me but I like sleeping so..
    Eventually, after Lizs angry encouragement Karel (sounds like Karl) rebooked the car for 12:30 not 10.
    I was in total hysterics. This guy is a 100% stereotypical american dickhead but when he made the call 30 minutes after we were meant to be there the reason he gave was "due to the bad weather we have postponed put plans"
    It was so so sunny. His speech pattern and accent is exactly like snake from the Simpsons.
    Liz gave us another hour which was enough prep time for me to jump up. I helped by ripping the blanket off karel. We for some unknown reason had asked for a taxi to drive us the 4 blocks.
    By the time we got there because of traffic we were late. It was ok though cause they called and said they would be there at 1.
    We waited but were hungry so went to the restaurant next to the radisson blue hotel which was our pick up point. It was so cheap except the water was $5!!!! Almost the most expensive thing we ordered.
    At 1:30 they were still not there so we called them - they were stuck in traffic apparently - they got there soon after.
    We had to do all our contract signing in the business conference room of the hotel 😂
    Karel was a small douche but we got there. Seriously his stereotype is off the charts.
    I said to Liz outside he is so American and she was like " yes, he is so difficult " 😂
    We got upgraded to "an intimation car"
    America was driver - we drove to Orheiul Vechi but on the way past the most ridiculous prison I have ever seen in my life. It was so dilapidated and abandoned looking we were like "hey how cool would it be to have a look inside" ... until I spotted the man in the watch tower holding a machine gun.
    We are all totally flabbergasted that this is a working prison. I'm sure the guns are a deterrent but if you pushed the walls in an attempt to escape they would probably collapse. This place was so dirty I can't imagine the quality of life in there...

    We made it to a view point- popped out for pictures - jumped back I. And drove to the monastery car park. There was a very vocal Turkey there 🦃

    Walked up the hill and ta da, beautiful scenery and a church. This is suppose to be the big "it" place of Moldova. Not grossly impressed. The nature rather than the church was cool.
    There was a cute dog and some goats I touched which was a highlight.
    A monk rang the bell and I have recently found out also walked in on Will on the loo 😂hahahah
    The church had some weirdo pidgeon whose ass feathers were like peacocks. We think maybe carrier pigeons ? 🤔🤔🤔🤔

    The cool part of the sight was the cave/rock face monastery which we had to walk down stairs to get too. Only one was accessible but when driving to and from you could see lots of different caves. I would have loved to have follows the monk man down further into what I assume is his living chambers.
    Outside on the ledge people had put coins into the holes in the rock face so we did too.
    The view was so nice.

    The boys were keen to keep exploring so off we went towards some river Liz found on the map.
    We drove through so many villages and on the shitties roads we had to drive so slowly on because of the human sized pot holes and rocks.
    In separate villages we saw geese and then turkeys being herded😂
    Our car also got chased by a very angry dog that at first i was so stressed was going to run under the car - nope, just at it; with great aggression and force.

    Finally found this damn river- chatted to some more sheep while there - nothing noteworthy about the river but it did give us a clear view of Transnistria on the other side of the river (unrecognized/recognized country)
    There are so many random Jesus shrines in places no one loves for miles around..

    Idiot Karel ignored directions because he wanted to explore but we all eventual came up with a plan of going to Orhei for dinner.

    The villages remind me very much of the Bulgarian villages.

    Karel parked the car in "Romanian style" i.e. Half way on the footpath then we went to dinner.
    Terrible food lol but sooooo cheap.
    Also, I'm not complaining about the translation difficulties.... I asked for ice cream -1 scoop chocolate 1 scoop strawberry but she brought out a bowl of each which was 3 scoops per flavor woohoo!! Hahaha
    Will drove home for a bit but they swapped back over at the petrol satiation when we filled up.
    It was bloody cold.

    Karel, though so very very American did have some truly terrific one liners throughout the day so despite being so freaking frustrating I'm glad he came.
    I couldn't do a second day with him though - great In small doses.

    We dropped the car off and had another adventure on the bus to get home. 2 cats followed us to the hostel so i fed then some cat food. They were so friendly 😭😍

    Overall we had a great day and pleased we actually did something in Moldova. We paid for half the car which came to $22 👍🏼
    Leer más

  • Chisinau

    11 de octubre de 2017, Moldavia ⋅ ⛅ 15 °C

    Woke up and moved out bags out of the room but we were allowed to stay in the hostel until we needed to so we stayed in the kitchen area and for organised.
    We bought our Turkish eviasa. SIXTY U.S DOLLARS EACH 😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭 if we had known we probably would have skipped. It was suppose to be $20 for a single entry but that's no longer and option so we had to get the multiple entry visa for $60 😭😭😭😭
    We also booked a car for the next 4 nights and accommodation around Romania.

    Feeling accomplished we went to Andys pizza again and got food. Our eyes were too big for our stomachs but still great food! The fried cheese was delish.
    We then went and got me a magnet from the markets.

    Back at the hostel the assistant worker child dude tried to call us a taxi but they are having issues with taxi drivers is Chisinau at the moment - not enough.
    So we just walked the 4 km to the station - luckily almost all of it was down hill.

    Bought our ticket for $110 😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭 it was only $60 on the way here. But moldova isn't a popular place - Romania is ... so much so we paid an extra $7 each to upgrade to first class so we didn't have to share a living quarter.

    I love the autumn colored trees.

    So far our journey has been good. I had a nap 😏
    Our train left at 4:45pm - it's currently 7:56pm and we have done our Moldovan customs check which was intense - she did not like my photo...
    we then had both bags properly searched.
    Some lady then told us she was a doctor do we need help... we said no and off she went..

    They are currently changing the wheels over which is gonna take a while. It's been 20 minutes and they have only just finished our carriage and we are first In line for the wheeel change. They lifted us up but we couldn't feel it. You wouldn't know if you weren't watching.
    Can't wait for Romanian customs so I can go back to bed hahah.

    Jokes the previous passport check was not the legit one - this is the 4th time I've had to show the Moldovans my passport.
    1. Passport matches ticket
    2. Unsure why
    3. What I thought was customs
    4. Customs
    They didn't like my picture this time either. Wills always passes straight away but mine they checked under lights to check it wasn't fake and checked my face like 10 times. Then they disappeared with it - that was fun..
    But we both did eventually get stamped woo.

    20 meters on its now Romanias turn. 👍🏼👍🏼👍🏼

    Ok we so we got the same bloke as last time - absolutely champ. A slightly plump man with a big mostache.
    He remembered us once we said we were there 3 days ago.
    We pointed to our bags which were in the apartment above our heads and he just looked at them, paused and said "ok, I see " then he left 😂😂😂😂😂😂 best bag search ever hahahahaha

    There is a lot of drilling noises coming from the roof. Maybe searching for hidden drugs? Or the train is broken hahah

    2.5 hours later - we have made it through the silly customs.

    We actually prefer 2nd class to this.
    It's 11:57 so documentation will continue in the next entry.
    Stay tuned...
    Leer más

  • Roadtrip

    12 de octubre de 2017, Rumania ⋅ ⛅ 10 °C

    The train stopped so many times and we don't know why. They must have been scheduled though because we arrived on time.
    Out we popped and straight into maccas - the only reliable place you can trust to be open at 6am.
    Will was starving because we didn't have a proper dinner.
    The look and thought of their breakfast menu made me feel ill so I skipped. I nibbled on Wills chips.

    We caught a taxi to the airport and after an argument for the price down to 60 lei from 80. It should have been 30 ..
    the problem is we can't really decide to get out and get a new taxi cause our stuff is in the boot and he could be a real ass about it which is better to just avoid.
    He refused to use the meter because of the traffic - to be fair it was pretty bad lol.
    Still, taxi drivers as a species are pooheads.
    Made it and found our hire car place.
    They decided they don't take debit only and credit cards yada yada so we had to upgrade to the top insurance . More money gone ... wahh.
    Probably best though. Drivers be cray cray.

    We had to take a shuttle bus out to our car. Nice little hatchback thing. It will do the trick.
    I got the worker dude to write Peles castle into the gps because it decided it didn't like the English version - off we went!
    They are fucking crazy. Cars just jump out of no where.
    We drove for about an hour an a half to reach stop 1 - Peles castle.
    We had to pay 15 lei for parking - boo and then walk up a hill - bigger boo

    But wowey! Ok so it's more of a palace than a castle but Hooley Dooley! The most intricate and sublime design yet! A masterpiece.
    It's really new though - it the summer residence of the first king and queen of Romanian which was late 1800's to early 1900's.
    The castle has a bloody lift for heavens sake - not as authentic in age and "history" as the others but still - WOW.
    So we decided to pay the 7€ each to see inside the first level but we skipped level 2.
    Our basic tour (which was really hard to find because of the lack of signage) took us to the reception hall and maybe 10 of the 150+ rooms.
    Beautiful beautiful beautiful.
    It cost 8€ to take photos so I didn't. (Well not many 😝)
    Made it back out and had to take off our shoe protectors we had to put on before entering.
    We would have liked it better though if we didn't have to go around with the tour guide. 1. She was a bore and 2. She didn't say anything that interested us - only what countries things were made in and what style.
    Only interesting piece of info was that the king and queen had 1 daughter who died when she was 4. They then adopted prince Ferdinand who became the 2nd king.

    I told Will I want my library room in our future house to look the same as the palace one 👍🏼👍🏼👍🏼 easy peasy.. heh

    The gardens were lovely too. Picturesque. I could just imagine people in gowns around the garden.

    I bought some raspberries of a gypsy lady on the walk down the hill and they were yummy.
    This section of Romania felt like Romania.. it was brown? Not dead but sort of like had the feeling of a ski resort? I doubt that makes sense but yeah. Loved it!

    We then put Bran castle into the gps and off we went.

    When we got there we had to find parking which was surprisingly easy.
    We had lunch at a local inn there which Will really enjoyed. He got soup in a bread bowl.
    We then had full bellies so we walked to the castle. This one didn't have the same option as the other one where you could just walk around the outside and not go in so we had to pay.
    35 lei each and then We paid an extra 10 each to see the torture museum. We figured it's Draculas castle so what a good opp to see some gore.

    So, the castle has been done up too much to have an old feel but it still had a lovely courtyard. Inside was mainly the set up from when some royals spent time there. In other rooms it had info on the creation of Dracula and pop culture.
    It wasn't the best but we loved the torture section. We needed help finding it but oh lord. It had some terrifically horrific stuff. It was the most extensive collection I've seen in the one spot before.
    There was one where they hold you upside down so all the blood goes to your head. They then spread your legs and saw you in half but because of your bloods location you stay conscious and alive for a long time.
    The spiked mummy sarcophagus thing was gruesome. Ive seen it in so many movies but never one in life. It could take 3 days to die inside 😐😐😐😐😐
    All the items had great English explanations next to them so that was awesome.
    We then left the castle and went around the side to take some Dracula pics 🤓😎

    The torture museum, not the castle was worth the $$

    We then drove to Brasov to the hostel - we got so lucky with parking! Near miracle but we got one for free!!!!! 😋
    We left our big bags in the car and only took our small backpacks.
    We checked In and put stuff in our locker before we walked around and went to the supermarket.
    We went past the black church, through the main square and saw the Brasov Hollywood sign. The main square is actually really really nice. Brasov has an old great feeling. I can't really figure out why I like places and dislike others but this was a great spot.

    We weren't hungry so we went back to the hostel before going back out for dinner later.
    There were 2 Aussies we talked to and got some tips for Montenegro and France from.

    We took our shoes off and stuffed then immediately in the locker because they smelt SO BAD!!!!!!!!🤢😷😷 it's because they got wet the other day.

    We booked our hostel for Turkey and are going to stay 4 nights instead of 3 because the difference in flights to Serbia differed by $200 for one day.

    Unfortunately as it would turn out... Istanbul has 2 airports and we are flying into the one that's far away.
    We are going f to get a private pick up for 60€ because the shuttle bus doesn't take us the whole way and is 20€ p.p 😒😒😒😒😒😒😒😒😒
    Stupid turkey. Lol
    My bad .... again. Lol
    I triple checked Serbia before booking - they only have the one airport lol.
    We have booked a Bnb for 7 nights because we can pull put head in and try save and Emily from work is also going to be there 😁😁😁

    We both showered because we stunk haha
    Our room was super spacious and our beds comfy :)
    Leer más

  • Roadtrip

    13 de octubre de 2017, Rumania ⋅ ⛅ 13 °C

    Shocking, I didn't want to get up. Only animals can make me rise... so I did. I got up.
    The hostel had free breakfast so we helped ourselves then walked to the car and got on the way. It was about a 40 minutes drive to the liBEARty bear sanctuary. (The bricks for bear people) we had trouble finding the entry because it was an illegitimate street but after passing straight by it the first time - we found it.
    It was 40 lei each to go on an English tour which was totally, 200% worth it.
    We had about a 20 minute wait before our tour started - a solid 30 people were waiting with us.
    Found out it also costs 55 lei to take photos which is an outrageous $16 but ONLY if you use a camera - not a phone wooohooooo!!!

    Knew i was going to be a loser and cry at some point because before we even entered I read one sign that said "it's not a zoo, it's a sanctuary so you may not see us but we finally have the chance to be free" and my eyes stung.

    Our guide could speak English quite well so that was a great start - he told us the rules then led us to a room to watch a 7 min video about the sanctuary
    Had stingy eyes during the doc too.
    It talked about the abuse of bears and how they were used for entertainment. The sanctuary opened up in 2005 inspired by Maya the bear who didn't make it. She was in such a bad state she self mutilated and ate her paws. She died in the founders arms.
    In 2007 the laws changed in Romania and a lot of bears were saved and taken away from entertainment pits in tourist areas.
    Romania has about 40% of all of Europes bears - apparently not because they are plentiful but because everywhere else has few.

    Ok so after the video we saw Maya's memorial and next to it a cage that one of the bears - Opi, lived in for 12 years.
    They have a variety of bears in the sanctuary... ones that have suffered true horrors like Opi and other that have been wild bears but started to go into human areas - one of the bears actually caught a train 😂😂😂😂😂😂 it had to be tranquilized and taken away from humans.
    Opi is rarely seen and chooses to feed when people arnt on tour.
    They only do 3 tours daily in the morning to make sure the animals arnt stressed.
    Others come close to the fence to eat during the tourists hours so they could be seen.

    The sanctuary currently has 98 bears - we saw 20!!! So an awesome amount.
    After bear 1 we saw bears 2, 3 & 4 - a mum with 2 cubs 😍 she was a wild one.
    Max the bear was who we saw next. Max is blind - he had needles poked through his eyes.
    He also had his teeth and claws removed.
    Humans all deserve to die, We are the worst.
    This was all done intentionally so that when people took photos with him it took an element of the danger away.
    He seems quite content now.

    Next we walked to a big big big big enclosure - can't remember how many hectares but a solid chunk - 5 more bears were near the fence feeding.
    Apparently in the wild there is only one bear every 20 square kilometers but because they are provided with enough food they live in peace (mostly)
    It's a real high tech place - they have cameras everywhere so they know if a bear is sick but also have a 24/7 live stream on YouTube.
    The organization has agreements with supermarket chains to give them the expired food to feed the bears. It still costs $50,000 a month to run everything.
    The bears were eating chicken and one was munching on a bread roll haha
    We walked past some deers who we learnt will never be bear food 👍🏼👍🏼👍🏼lol
    I also saw my first ever wolf! So cool! They have 6 on the property - a zoo shut down and they had nowhere to go.

    We saw a few more enclosures - they have only have had 1 bear get pregnant in the park - normally they castrate the bears before they reach sexual maturity but this particular male reached it 2 years early so...

    She and her cubs were in a smaller enclosure to keep the cubs safe cause the other bears would attack them - the cubs will go back into the wild.

    We both actually had such a terrific time! A great great organization!

    We left feeling like time well spent and drove to sighisoara *
    It took 2 hours - it was a nice drive - full of more lunatics though. The side of the road is covered in memorials. I would have seen 35+ today. We saw so many near accidents it was frightening.

    The what I presume to be Romani settlements are so cool and just scream ROMANIA.

    A few cool castles on the way and when driving into sighisoara it too was an awesome sight.

    Vlad was born here and it was a halfway point so seemed a good time to stop for lunch.

    We didn't walk up the hill to the house (now resturant) but still could see it.

    Drive drive drive onto Cluj - romanias second biggest town. So far not impressed - granted I haven't seen anything but eh.
    Our hostel is nice though and we are the only ones in our room YAYAYA I CAN PICK A BOTTOM BUNK 👏🏼👏🏼

    Forget to mention Will did the most beautifully genuine laugh today and it was hilarious.
    It was his reaction to the speed camera the gps spent along time warning us about.
    It was completely rusted over.
    Leer más

  • Roadtrip

    14 de octubre de 2017, Rumania ⋅ ☀️ 9 °C

    Good sleep.
    Woke at 9:30 for the free breakfast. People had already smashed the Bread and jams but we got some cereal :)
    We packed and left.

    We really should have gone to the city centre to see cluj but the photos weren't very enticing - it would have been a 4km round trip and we just couldn't be bothered lol.

    In the car currently 1.5 hrs in to the 4.5hr drive.
    It's not a very scenic route so far. Very flat and boring.
    We did stop at a petrol station to fill up and got bacon flavored chips which were awesome hahah

    They have so many roundabouts like England it's so stupid - especially the ones on the highways!!!!

    Haven't seen any prostitutes today - yesterday we saw maybe 10 all up standing on the side of the roads.
    We were lucky enough to see a car drive past and actually pick one of the girls up 😂

    Nothing really exciting happened until we finally started to drive down transfagarasan road. A very famous route.
    Top gear did an episode on this road - it was ordered to be built by the dictator dude so that military personnel could cross the mountains quickly if there was an invasion. The official death toll is forty but apparently hundreds died building it from many reasons but 1 being untrained in how to use dynamite.

    The autumn leaves were just incredible. Such strong Red, orange yellow and greens. Even a few purples.
    The road is ridiculous and can only be done at like 30-40km max an hour because of the bends. Some are practically U - turns.
    Near the beginning we pulled over and had some sandwiches for lunch. Wills peanut butter to bread ratio is ludicrous.

    We started at the bottom of the mountain and around halfway had the most wonderful view of the rest of the mountain we still had to climb covered in snow. We got out at a few designated photo spots to try take photo only the phones couldn't properly capture it and the sun was in a crappy place.

    There was suppose to be a fabulous waterfall - we found it but it was nothing special - definitely not worthy of a dot on the map.

    Will threw a snowball at me the dick lol.
    And so began the cliff climb.

    We got a reasonable way up before IDIOTS blocked our path. It took an hour to get 100m even with 2 police helpers because everyone doesn't care about others and just park on the road to go take photos. People kept trying to overtake and headbutting into other cars - it was just disastrous . Will was fuming. I have never seen such disorganization on a road. At first we thought the hold up was because someone had gone of the cliff or something because the queue was so long. Nope, just people being wankers.

    Finally got through the carnage and got back into the beautiful mountains but now going down.

    We drove and drove and finally found our hotel - we are about 1/4 of the way through the road and will finish it tomorrow.

    Our hotel is an expensive $75 for the night but there was no other option. Sneaky buggers.
    Our room is fine.
    We had a 3 hour nap then went to the resturant for dinner. It was shit lol.

    Back in the room and now back to bed 😁😁😁
    Leer más

  • Roadtrip

    15 de octubre de 2017, Rumania ⋅ ⛅ 11 °C

    We got to sleep in because our hotel didn't include free breakfast so we had no motivation to get up haha

    Left just before checkout and got back on to the Transfagarasan highway.
    The leaves had turned much more noticeably orange in one day.
    Ahhhh so pretty.
    We drove past a huge lake but the trees blocked our view. I always feel guilty that I can look but Will can't so I almost subconsciously only allow myself to see what he can.
    We made it to the Poenari castle - Vlad the impalers real castle unlike the Bran castle.
    It's just ruins now but it was 1480 steps to reach the top.
    That didn't include the 100 steps before the start line either.
    Ohhh the buuuurrrrrn.
    There I was thinking we were making excellent progress and well over halfway when suddenly we reached the 1/3 notification sign 😳😳😳😳 oh man.

    I did better than Will. still, was putting on bit of a brave face to prove a point 😝😝 hahahaha I definitely struggled!
    There was only 2 benches the whole climb up which I think is a bit silly considering how many people do it of all walks of life. Some of the oldies were so sweaty!

    Made it to the top and it cost 5.80 lei each. Bit annoyed because i purposely tried to find info about cost last night and there was no indication of a fee.
    Lucky Will had his wallet. I would have lost my shit if we climbed all that way to be denied entry!
    Not jealous of the ticket guy who has to climb the stairs every day to get to work..

    Got in - more stairs... and then found 2 mummies on spikes. Such a gruesome way to go... 😓😓😓😓
    The castle was only small and mainly just some walls left but the view was awesome! Took some pictures then headed back down.
    I think we arrived at a good time because truck load of people were now on the paths.
    And when we reached the bottom no more car spots were available.

    We kept driving and turned off the pretty road and started to drive through villages again.
    Damn horse and carts always blocking the road.

    We were so hungry as it was about 2pm by now and still hadn't eaten anything so we stopped at a street corner store for nibbles.

    Drive drive drive. So many doggies. They seem to know when to cross the street though.

    Drive drive drive - finally made it to our hotel.

    The front gate was closed we were like uhhhh???
    Made some noise and finally a dude came out to get us.
    I told him we had a reservation and he looked so confused
    " we are closed today"
    HAHAHAHAH of course they are...
    no matter though! He let us stay woohoo!

    He couldn't take card though so we went out to have a proper breakfast/lunch/dinner and get money out.

    After 4 ATM's not working lucky ATM number 5 gave us money 🙌🏼

    We went back and grabbed our stuff from the car because we have to get up early tomorrow to get to the airport.

    We think we might have found a workaway in Slovakia on the snowfields - still in the early stages of questions but looks great if it works out.
    We will see what they say.

    We have just chilled and enjoyed having internet because the last few places have been crap.
    Caught up on the news and watched some videos :)

    Turkey tomorrow :)
    Leer más

  • Istanbul

    16 de octubre de 2017, Turquía ⋅ ⛅ 19 °C

    Ew yucky early morning - we heard rustling down stairs at around 5:30 and didn't think anything of it... we went to leave at 6:30 and the worker man was like don't leave without breakfast, it's ready"
    Ahhh shit. We felt so bad but we had to leave. Hope he wasn't too put out.
    We drove for 1.5 hours before hitting the traffic.
    What caused the traffic? PUTTING ROUND ABOUTS ON A HIGHWAY 😡😡😡😡😡😡

    We stopped to refill the car all the way - $30 for a quarter tank 😒😒😒

    It took another hour to go maybe 4km but we finally got there. As we are sitting in traffic Will mentions he scratched the hubcap.... don't know why he hadn't previously mentioned it... 🤦🏼‍♀️
    didn't matter though because they didn't record it when we dropped the car off woohoo!
    Everything went really smoothly from then on.
    We got breakfast then checked in, went through all the different customs and found our gate.

    The big dilemma of the day was I hadn't bought a Romanian magnet yet. I had to break the bank to get one.... 7€!!!!!! For a little wood thing. Appalled!
    I do love it though..

    We exchanged our Moldovan money over to Romanian - in Moldovan it was worth $18 - we got given $10...
    then my airport salad cost about $8
    Seems reasonable...

    We boarded with no issues and had no issues on the plane despite it being an unknown airline (Pegasus airlines) - because it wasn't a full flight we got exit row snd the seat between us was free :)

    I read on the plane - it only took an hour to arrive.
    Can't believe it - Turkish customs were the best ones yet - they didn't need my e-visa because my passport activated it on their systems, they checked my photo and stamped me - no silly game of 20 questions.
    Also super excited that their stamp is a red circle - I'm over European black rectangles lol.

    Whats more Wills bag was first out and mine not far behind - THEN we walked though the exit and our name was straight in front of us on a sign - easy peasy! Why isn't it always like this😒

    The dude led us to where we got a private bus to pick us up. Traffic was dreadful so it took over an hour to reach the hostel. Istanbul by the water looks so gorgeous 😍
    Its wayyyyyyy greener than we both thought! They take some serious pride in their gardening! There were heaps of gardens that had been cut into displays. When leaving the airport there was a hedge in the shape of an airplane which was cool.
    The grass is immaculate.

    Lots of mosques everywhere but they already shit on Moroccos.

    Made it to our hostel - front door service - we tipped the driver $5 cause we went to pay him the whole amount and he was honest and tried to communicate he only takes the tip not the money. So for his honesty and because the awkward word tip had been uttered... we tipped lol.

    Our dorm is awesome! Really spacious and all beds have a power socket and curtain for a touch of privacy.

    We were starving so we went out and got kebabs only they weren't kebabs... they were the kebab ingredients on a plate ... not made up.
    It was shit to eat with a knife and fork :/

    Turkish exchange is just as hard to do as Romanian. 10 Turkish is $3.50
    My brain just rejects the math.
    It would be fine if things were 10 or 100 lira but it's always a stupid number like 73 or something.

    We walked past the blue mosque but are going to investigate properly tomorrow.

    We are both buggered. We went out for dinner and Turkish tea.
    Very excited to have Turkish delight in the coming days 🤗

    Will wasnt feeling good so he left me at the resturant to pay and ran back to the hostel which was close by.
    Inner him back there and he still has a sad tummy :(

    In bed. Keen for sleeeeep!!!

    Forgot to mention because I suppose it's a given.... the Romanians can't drive. I've uploaded a picture we took on the highway - they do a great job at using their lanes.... bloody hell.

    I actually feel very safe in Turkey. I know anything can happen at any time but in saying that, it can happen anywhere.
    Leer más

  • Istanbul

    17 de octubre de 2017, Turquía ⋅ ⛅ 21 °C

    Slept in 🙌🏼
    They are quite comfortable beds. People were so loud In the morning though.

    We packed up all our dirty washing and stuffed it into a bag. We chucked out our toothbrushes holders because they smelt like mould and we spent 10 minutes looking for our locker key which Will lost but it was on his bed the whole time...
    then we left...

    Dropped off the washing at a laundromat around the corner - luckily it went of weight and not clothing items.

    We then stopped in for kebabs for breakfast lol
    We made sure we bought the wrapped version today haha it was ok but very basic. Australia is kicking ass in the kebab department.

    We headed towards the blue mosque. We got pretty far in just as it because time to call for prayer. We have had to leave and it will reopen in 45 mins.
    So we have gone walking. Currently sitting on a park bench at a lovely park full of animals. I think they treat the strays quite well here. I've notice a few provided with food and non have looked like they were on deaths door.
    On our travels we walked through the markets ( not sure if it's there main bazaar or not. It surely isn't - it was only one street?)
    We popped into a sweet shop and I bought some Turkish delight 😍😍😍
    I've sampled 2 already and they are delicious. I don't think my sample box has a rose flavored one which I'm pretty cut over 😖

    Hung around in the park for a while then went back to the mosque. They offer free covering clothes for women so they gave me a skirt and head scarf.
    I thought that was pretty good of them.
    In we went - so you go through the entry to like te internal bit but not the prayer section - I liked this bit, very nice Turkey 👍🏼
    We then had to line up and take our shoes off. I could smell my feet but I suppose because everyone had removed shoes they can't possible know it was my feet they were smelling 😓 inside was beautiful but I do avtually think I prefer the one in Abu Dhabi.
    I was also expecting more blue. Yes it was blue - ish but not BAM.
    The stain glass was awesome and the carpet under my feet felt friendly :) heh.
    The front section visitors couldn't enter.
    We stood and looked for a bit then left. Nothing too exciting - still great to see.

    We walked up the street and Will uttered some magical words " I feel like ice cream" 🤗🤗🤗 ok ok you twisted my arm we can get ice cream. 🙊🙊🙊

    We found a man in traditional attire- he did the proper ice cream show we had heard about so we tipped him. Basically the ice cream is extra sticky and he does tricks with the cones as well.

    The ice cream was great. Expensive but great. but hey, we had a good show and another ticked off experience.

    We turned around and went to collect our washing but realised not enough time had passed so we went to the hostel and organised a Gallipoli tour for tomorrow. We also put our name down for a hostel BBQ tonight.
    Will has a cold so he is grumpy lol.
    Went to collect the washing and it's all so beautifully folded woo!

    Oh my so embarrassing !!!! I was talking to Will and being jokingly dramatic about something and it turns out the dorm wasn't empty like I thought it was. She must think I'm crazy hahahaha
    He knows I was just being funny but she won't 😓 hahahah

    Will is having a rest so I'm just chilling for the moment 🤙🏽

    We went upstairs to the terrace at 7 when dinner was suppose to be served but the chef bailed... there was very frantic man trying to organise everything. 1.5 hours later we got served pasta and vegetable curry thing. It was really nice but don't know why it took so long... we were starving! All we ate today was the smell kebab for breakfast and an ice cream scoop.

    It was a really uncomfortable wait because the table fotted everyone but us... so we were just sitting to the side like dicks. 😓

    I showered which I hate doing in hostels because it's so difficult getting dressed while wearing wet thongs.
    Leer más

  • Gallipoli

    18 de octubre de 2017, Turquía ⋅ ⛅ 23 °C

    The bus came to get us at 6:30/7. We picked up a few more people from places before we headed to Gallipoli. I was so tired I fell asleep quickly. We had a pit stop where we had "breakfast" which meant a packet of chips/gozleme because we didn't stay long enough to order anything substantial. I then slept on the second leg of the trip too woo! It took about 5 hours to get there.
    Before our tours we first had lunch. Lentil soup, a meat combo then a piece of fruit.
    Andddd off we went!

    Our guide was great - very clear English and he repeated things many times in different ways to make sure he was understood.
    Our first stop was brightmans bay - where the ANZACS were suppose to land. He took us to a map and went over both sides strategies pointing out differences places, advantages/disadvantages, landing sights, troop placements etc. he explained to us why Turkey had chosen the German side - essentially England didn't give them back 2 of there war ships which upset them then Germany approached with a good offer. He explained the German - Hungarian - Austrian placement and how Russia had asked the allies for help which is why Turkey was attacked - it has a direct route to Russia if penetrated.

    He made sure we took in the type of terrain at brightmans bays so we could compare to Anzac cove. He gave us 15 mins to walk around. The water looked flawless.

    We went up the road only maybe 1km to Anzac cove and the difference in terrain was astronomical. It was now Cliffs and hills.
    It was a smaller area than I invisoned.
    He told us all about the landing and how the first Anzacs got maybe 1km up but then Turkish re-enforcements arrived and pushed us back. We never got further than we did on the first night. We equaled it one other time but never beat it.

    Next we went to where they hold the Gallipoli memorial. Here was the only truce ever called when 3000 dead Turkish soldiers had been laying out on the fields for 5 days. A blinded Turkish solider came and negotiated a temporary truce so they could all clear and bury the bodies.

    There is a rock face near by soldiers called the spynx because it reminded them of Egypt which is where they did their training. I could see the resemblance.

    We then went to the Ari Burnu cemetery.

    We then got out to look at a statue of a Turkish soldier carrying an Anzac to get him help.
    Not real enemies - both sides where just following orders.

    Next was lone pine cemetery. It has its name because only one tree grew there. Amazingly enough a solider sent a pine cone from the tree home in 1915. In 1990 a seed was used from the same cone to grow a new tree at lone pine which I think is really special. A sort of relative tree. It's not in the centre where a representative tree already stands but off to the side near the entrance.

    Gee Golly Wiz it was so hot! We found shade and heard about the battle at lone pine. It was basically a blood bath. Many many many many soldiers died between 6-9 August 1915.

    The youngest Australian solider was a boy called James Martin - he was only 14. He doesn't have a grave but his name on the wall. Location unknown.

    The graves were simple and some had lovely words - others plain. I must say one was in the stupidest position I nearly fell over it. I don't know why it was there - my first photo upload - I was just walking along reading names then BAM a grave.
    Most of the messages on the graves where religious.
    We had 20 minutes here.

    We then went to Johnstons Jolly which is Anzac and Turkish trenches very close to each other. The whole situation was pointless and had very little action. The soldiers on both sides use to talk and poke fun at the other - even swap food/cigarettes by throwing it over. Johnston was apparently the lead Kiwi who lead the area and was into the joking.

    We then went to the main Turkish cemetery which is where we ran into a lot of school children.
    No Turks are actually buried there - they are in a mass grave near by. The cemetery is for regiment 57 out of respect because they were not commanded to fight but to die and showed great courage. Their commander was Mustafa Kemal who became the founder and first president modern day Turkey. In 1915 it was still the Ottoman Empire.

    We then went to the Nek - the cemetery is under renervation but we were still able to hear what happened there.
    Four waves of 150 Anzac men were stopped dead by the turks. We suffered nearly 400 deaths in an hour.
    We saw more trenches that still had Barbed wire attachments.

    As we were driving higher the views were stunning over the water.

    We then went to the main New Zealand memorial and to be honest if I was kiwi I'd feel ripped off. No names just a concrete slab with a massive statue of Mustafa Kemal and 15 Turkish flags.
    I didn't like it.

    This was the furthest point the Anzacs ever got.

    I had a lot of information thrown at me today and it was a challenge connecting all the dots but I think our guide did a great job doing that.

    Our group was 7 Aussies and 1 Kiwi.

    We then Drove back to our tours office and we had 30 mins before our bus left to go back to Istanbul so we had time to check out a little open air display nearby.
    I actually really liked it. The first one was statues in trenches shooting at each other and the other was a map of turkey that you walked around to better understand the positioning of everything.

    We then sat out side and I made 3 dog friends.
    I finally asked why the chips in their ears mean. It means they are stray but they have been looked after so vaccination and desexed. Macedonia did a similar thing.
    1 dog had a clip and 2 didn't. One of the poor babies was so skinny. He was so happy and energetic trying to play with the other dogs but his ribs were so obvious.
    I only had chocolate so I couldn't feed him :(

    Back on the bus now. We changed buses so it's bigger and we get 2 seats each. I've had a good solid nap.
    1 more hour until we should be back In Istanbul.

    Arrived back safely. Keen for bed - a long but fantastic day!
    Leer más

  • Istanbul

    18 de octubre de 2017, Turquía ⋅ ☀️ 23 °C

    Despite my suggestion that his hair was fine and he is wasting my money.. Will decided he MUST have his hair cut. There was one close by - blah blah blah he got his hair cut but while I was waiting I had the best morning.
    Along came a dopey cat 😍😍😍😍 it was so bowed leg it looked like it was straddling a horse but I made one click with my tounge and over it came. It then jumped up onto the bench and plonked itself into my lap. He was so friendly 😩😩😩😩😩😩😩😍😍😍😍😍😭😭 I want him.
    He cuddled for 20 minutes. He just wanted to be close.

    Unfortunately Will finished his haircut so we had to leave kitty 😭😭😭😓😓

    We then walked to the Grand Bazaar 1.5km away. You have to walk through a metal detector gate thing to get in.
    I was surprised - it was all enclosed but street after street after street of everything. Lucky my map was preloaded or we wouldn't have made it out alive. Lol
    We didn't buy anything despite everyone's efforts. They at least take no for an answer.

    We got a big glass of freshly squeezed lemonade from a street stand for 70c each #winning then went off to find food. Tom Carnell had sent through instructions that we had to try a wet burger so we went looking. Eventually we found them and they were actually pretty good. I had 2, Will had 4. They were about the size of a McDonalds cheese burger and were just a bun covered in red sauce then 1 patty - and maybe a pickle? The picture had a pickle but I don't think my burger did?
    We then just sat on a bench next to the blue mosque looking at The Hagia Sofia* which is a pretty cool monument - a church turned mosque turned museum. It actually rates as number 1 on TripAdvisor above the blue mosque. We decided not to visit though because of the cost.

    We then went back to the hostel for a poo date.

    We then popped out to buy me a magnet, toothbrushes and we bought Bill some Turkish delight. I was gonna buy some for mum and dad too but something in the back of my mind tells me they don't like it.
    Apologies If I'm wrong.

    I was gonna buy mum shortbread when in Scotland cause I know she loved it but she isn't suppose to have it...😶 impossible person to buy for..

    We booked our shuttle bus to the airport tomorrow 13€ each which is pretty reasonable considering it's so far away - actually on a different continent 😂

    We relaxed in the foyer for a while then headed out to have some Turkish tea.
    Yum yum yum.

    As we were sitting there I amused myself by watching a street cat climb a house and take a shit in someone's flower pot hahahaha

    We saw this pot on fire the other day so we went to the same resturant to get the same thing.

    It's called some fancy name but it's a clay pot kebab.

    It was delicious! Yum yum gobble gobble gobble.
    I fed a cat so trying at my feet. I always feel good when I do.

    We also got some hookah and I finally tried baklava which I didn't like - it was way too dry!

    Turkish cuisine ✔️✔️✔️✔️✔️✔️

    Weirdo worker kept coming and smoking our hooker though. Grossly unprofessional lol.

    We then went home and I caught up on the bachelorette on my phone. 👍🏼

    Forgot to mention like 2 nights ago a girl in our dorm had the most vocal sex dream and it was soooooooo uncomfortable for everyone!!!! So loud 😂😂😂😂😂😂😂 I was dying inside for her. I hope no one tells her I would be beyond mortified. She gains nothing by knowing 😂
    Leer más

  • Belgrade

    20 de octubre de 2017, Serbia ⋅ ⛅ 24 °C

    Got up and packed then waited for our shuttle bus.

    A HAPPY 5 YEAR ANNIVERSARY TO US 👏🏼👏🏼👏🏼👏🏼

    I have really enjoyed Turkey.
    I have felt safe the entire time. Istanbul, not Turkey, is currently orange on trip advisor which is the second highest alert.
    Potential danger at every turn but I haven't felt threatened by the people. In Morocco some people really set off warning bells and individuals in other countries too. Not Turkey. I have felt very relaxed and welcomed. They get very excited when we are Australian and despite some people with obvious woman issues I have been treated with respect which I wasn't expecting. I enjoy answering for Will way to much. When a man ignores me and will only talk to Will I always butt in 😂😂😂 like hey I'm boss hahahaha

    Turkey also is quite pretty.
    Even though everyone tells me it's a non denomination county, not a Muslim country (bull, it 100% is) people have not had judgement in their eyes towards foreigners.
    A really nice place and I would come back.
    I find the Ottoman Empire interesting and we didn't really touch on it.

    Our shuttle took 1.5 hours to reach the airport and it was so bumpy we both felt sick. We had to scan all bags before entering the airport and then Rush rush into McDonalds
    😝
    Hooley Dooley we got some American sized meals. They were ridiculous. They don't put ice in the Coke though which was shit.

    We waited for our checkin to open then went and dumped our bags.
    Through more customs - a blue stamp this time woo!
    I even saw a lady lift her burka to the man customs officer. A first.

    Another bag check and we were through!
    We already had a gate number so we went there but a plane to Saudi Arabia was yet to board and we got the strangest looks 😂 definitely didn't fit in with that crowd.

    We waited the 1.5 hours and have now hopped on the plane and didn't die during take off 💪🏻
    We should land in an hour. Will is greatly uncomfortable because he doesn't fit and I am very very hot and want a drink. I went to buy one at the Airport but flat out refused because I bought water yesterday for 1 lira - the airport was charging 17. Get stuffed.

    Landed - as we exited we had to show our passports. Being Australian we got let straight through but half the plane had their passports confiscated and all went on an excursion through the airport for further questioning. Hahaha
    Turkish people were let through - it was the Saudi Arabians and others that were stopped.

    The customs lady was really nice but laughed at my picture " it Looks like your brother, sorry"
    Heh 😒
    Why do customs insist on using the same page to stamp? I'm trying to fill the book, pick a new page!! Lol

    We got picked up at the airport - my Angharad sign was easy to spot.
    I love the stress it takes off.
    Dude drove us to our apartment. He gave us suggestions on the way of things of to eat and drink.
    There was lots of traffic so it took a while to arrive.
    I organised a private driver through our Bnb for 15€
    A taxi would have cost the same but this saved the whole finding the address debacle we so often experience .

    The house is nice. Cosy feel.

    We went out for food and it was so cheap :)
    I finally had another shopska salad 😭😭👏🏼👏🏼👏🏼👏🏼👏🏼👏🏼YAYAYAY

    Only issue was I accidentally ate a pepper because I thought it was capsicum. MOUTH ON fire 🔥🔥🔥

    We went to the supermarket and bought staples.
    I found Mi goreng ** so I'm keen to try their version.

    I left my phone cord in turkey so my phone won't make it through the night :(

    We Skyped Jess and Jaxon. She is auditioning with Aunty Anne (Petes Aunty) for the family feud today LOL.
    Leer más