Independence Day and Two Birthdays

23rd May, day 36, around Telavi, Georgia



We leave our nice comfy homestay and set out to a nearby bushcamp. The morning is spent exploring (or rather, hobbling round) the town. Very small town with not much to see.

The afternoon is spent wine-tasting. I was a little dubious at first, after my unfortunate experience at Batumi, but the wine at the first place really wasn't too bad, expecially the sweet red, it was a sort-of alcoholic Ribena. Yum. Then it was on to the local fire-water "chacha". It's really very pleasant, and you can light fires with it.

Tonight we arrive a beautiful spot not far from Telavi for a 2-night bushcamp. This will be my first camp since the toe incident, and I've decided to lose the plaster. We'll see how it goes.

24th May, day 37, bushcamp near Telavi, Georgia



Most of the day is spent in preparation for tonight's party, which is spent in the camp with guests from the nearby village. Pete secures a lamb for us to slowly roast on a spit over a fire. I don't think I've ever had lamb cooked that way before, but it was very tasty indeed. A good time was had by all, Odessyans and Georgians alike, despite not sharing a language at all. Beer and wine flowed plentifully. I t was our way to say a big thank-you to all the wonderful hospitality we've received in Georgia these past couple of weeks.

25th May, day 38, Telavi - Tbilisi, Georgia


From bushcamp to capital city. Tbilisi is in some ways similar to the more touristy European cities like Prague, with cute little streets of pavement cafes and interesting buildings to look at. But on the other hand, you risk your life whenever you step outside because car drivers here are utterly mental, and the roads have no traffic control whatsoever, apart from the occasional optional red light. Junctions are mostly free-for-all scrums.

A group of us have our evening snack in a cafe close to out hotel. It is a theme-cafe celebrating the proud history of the Soviet Union. Or maybe it's just being ironic. The sign says "KGB - Still Watching You" and makes a cool T-shirt.

26th May, day 39, in Tbilisi, Georgia

Not up to much, can't walk far. The Georgians are celebrating their Independence Day today and the city is hosting parties and parades. It's ironic that they are celebrating their independence from the Soviet Union (much to Russia's annoyance) yet still the paranoid security arrangements and the style of government seems very much Soviet in nature. Old habits die hard.

This evening we celebrate 2 birthdays - Roberta and Jim. We all go to an Italian restaurant for a refreshingly un-Georgian feed.

Georgian Scenery

I haven't got enough pictures on here, I know. And today I am sitting in a hotel room in Tbilisi, Georgia, with a dodgy toe, still not able to walk very far. What better opportunity to try and work out how to do a slideshow?

So here goes:

15th May, Day 28, Sumela, Turkey - Batumi, Georgia

We were warned about this border crossing - ex-soviet frontier complete with razor wire, watchtowers and guns. We were expecting a long and tedious wait for all the beaurocrats and power-crazed border guards to let us through.

Luckily, the reality was different. It was all very quick and painless. The woman in the passport control booth was studying the passports so closely she might have been doing her best to find a forgery and I think she was probably disappointed to not find one, but it didn't take too long and then we were into our 8th country.


Our accommodation tonight is a "Luxury Yacht" - actually and old wooden ship of stereotypical pirate-ship design, moored in Batumi harbour, and converted into a hotel.

We all sit on deck drinking Georgian wine. Georgians are very proud of their wine. I can only assume that's because they've never tasted proper wine and so don't know what it should taste like. Imagine Tesco Value 99p a litre in a plastic bottle with "RED WINE" written in bold block capitals on the label, and you have something still rather nicer.

However, a good evening was had by all, as we all had a Georgian Feast, a sort-of Tapas of little dishes shared by everyone. It was all very tasty, although rather more salty than I would have liked. The Georgian Wine flowed freely. After a few, it was doing its job quite well and I didn't mind so much. After all, when in Rome...

Several glasses later, my memory gets a little hazy. I seem to remember getting up on the dance floor and attempting to do Morris Dancing to the traditional Georgian music playing. It doesn't fit, but I didn't really mind. I also seem to remember propozing a toast to morris dancing. After that, it all gets a bit silly.

16th May, Day 29, Batumi - Mestia, Georgia

Urrgh. I feel like shit. I'm in bed by 6pm. Luckily its a proper bed.

17th May, Day 30, in Mestia, Georgia


Still not completely recovered but I'm a lot better than yesterday. It was probably more than a hangover. I soldier on bravely. Today it's a mini-bus ride to a small village supposedly the highest permanently inhabited village in Europe, at about 2200m. Can't remember what it's called but it's only a few miles from the Russian border. It's a long local taxi-bus drive from Mestia on insane twisting tracks clinging precariously to the side of the mountain. The driver takes delight in driving as close to the edge as he can, until he breaks down. Three of us get out and push, but the driver didn't stay in and steer, so the bus neally went off the edge!

Luckily we all got out ok, and we continued to the village. It was muddy and had more pigs than people, and several medieval towers which are very common this these parts - they were used for defence, where women, children and valuables were stored in them for protection whilst the men were fighting off invasion.

18th May, Day 31, Mestia - Noqalaqevi Fort, Georgia

We leave Mestia on the same road as we arrived 2 days ago, the one I missed. For several hours, the truck follows a narrow, bumpy road with a steep rise on the right, and a steep drop on the left, with no barrier. It is spectacular mountain scenery I missed when we came because I was too busy lying on the floor of the truck feeling sorry for myself. I'm glad I got to see it this time.

Some of our group leave us for a while - Kay, Rich and Darrel are catching the overnight train to Tbilisi, Darrel to fly back to the UK to sort some things out at home, and Kay and Rich to sort out Visas. Hope everthing works out OK and they rejoin us when they can.

We arrive eventually at our bush-camp near a Roman fort called Noqalaqevi.

19th May, Day 32, Noqalaqevi Fort - Uplistsikhe, Georgia

A long-ish day on the road to another bush-camp today. Stopped in Kutaisi, a fairly large town, for a couple of hours at lunchtime. I helped out with the shopping there at the market, selling vast amounts of fruit, veg, meat, cheese, and everything else. I helped carry about 50kg of veg back to the truck - tiring work. It was interesting watching Pete (the tour leader) trying to haggle, but he was getting pissed off at the high prices they wanted to charge him compared with what the locals paid.

The evening saw us arrive at the place we were to camp, and nearby there is an impressive cave-city on a rocky escarpment, similar to some of the caves in Goreme, Turkey. Had a little wander round.

20th May, Day 33, Uplistsikhe - Kazbegi, Georgia

First this this morning, I slipped waring my sandals and my toes had a little disagreement with a rock. Luckily, the rock suffered no damage. My toe, unfortunately, was a different matter. I looked at my toes and was a little dismayed to see one of them leaning over at an ungainly angle, being quite unable to move it. I fear I might have profaned at that point.

I hobble onto the truck and Kirsten then gives me a couple of Neorofen to kill the pain and the rest of the group quickly finish clearing the camp so they can get off to Gori, where Pete, Kirsten and Zaza (our Georgian guide and interpreter) get me checked into a hospital to get my toe sorted out. I am quickly and efficiently checked into the impressively titled "Legal Law Person MOD Hospital", which is neat, tidy, clean, modern, and I appear to be the only patient. I guess the average Georgian cannot afford it.

A quick X-ray later shows a nasty dislocation and a tiny break. They pull my toe back into place after a very painful anaesthetic. They want to insert a metal rod, according to Zaza (who interprets for me) but I don't want that, it'll need a doctor to remove it in about a month, and I'll be a long way from here by then, I really don't want the hassle of finding a doctor on Turkmenistan or wherever. So, instead, they plaster it up. I now have plaster all over my left foot coming up almost halfway to my knee. The group members with some medical expertise inspect the X-rays I have been given and all agree that there's no need for all that plaster, but luckily it should be easy for me to remove myself.

The rest of the group bush-camp again tonight and tomrrow night in Kazbegi, but Joy and I check into the local hotel. Camping with my foot in plaster? No thanks!

21st May, Day 34, in Kazbegi, Georgia

Boring day sitting on my arse doing bugger all. Not very mobile.

22nd May, Day 35, Kazbegi - Telavi, Georgia

A long drive through amazing mountain scenery. I'm a bit more mobile today, I've really got the hang of this fast limping, so i can take advantage of the photo opportunities when the truck stops at pretty places.

At mid-afternoon we arrive at our homestay in Telavi, where then evening is spent celebrating Kirsten's Birthday! A good time is had by all. I did not get very drunk, either, not after Batumi, no way.

Mountain and a Monastery

11th May, Day 24, Kaya Camping - Mountain free camp, Turkey

An early start from the campsite this morning for 2 nights free
camping on the way north-east to Sumela Monastery, near Trabzon,
Turkey.

After leaving Capadocia, which is an amazing place, the country
became flatter and more barren dotted with industrial
installations which have seen better days. Not the prettiest part
of Turkey after the beautiful (and touristy) Capadocia. We
continue pretty quick on fast roads, until we stop in the small
town of Zara. Here is the true Turkey - a small town where the
tourists don't go, with only squat-toilets, and no English is
spoken anywhere, although many Turks seem to have German as a
second language. "Sprechen sie Deutch?" is a popular question, to
which, unfortunately, the answer has to be "Nein". I buy some
Turkish tea for the group. Hopefully people will like it.

After leaving Zara, we start to see the occasional snow-capped
mountain in the hazy distance. We gradually start to see more and
more mountains in the distance, until the entire horizon in front
of us is filled with them. I didn't know there was a mountain
range in Turkey. I do now, we were headed straight for it.


We start climbing into the foothills. The countryside is now very
pretty and green. We've already attained a fair altitude by this
point and we are looking for a place to camp, but everywhere is
either farmland or too rough or sloped. We continue out of the
foothills and into the mountains proper. The trees stop. The
snowline arrives, and we then find the perfect spot, a short
distance from the road through the mountains at an altitude of
2200m (7200 ft). It a stunning place. Walking around you can
certainly feel the altitude, I get breathless more quickly than
usual here, and it is a very bitterly cold wind. Not surprising,
there is still some snow around.

Last thing before bed, the night sky here is a sight to behold.
Looking forward to the Himalayas now more than ever.

12th May, Day 25, Mountain camp - Riverside camp, Turkey.

It's a steep road down the mountain this morning, and we lose 2km
in height in no time at all. It's warm again. We arrive at our
other free camp, beside a river and behind a restaurant, by
lunchtime.

After lunch, a group of us take a walk along the river to a small
town (even smaller than Zara) where we tourists quickly become the
main attraction in town. We get the feeling that the locals don't
often get foreigners in their town, and we are surrounded by a
friendly group all wanting to talk to us. It is tricky because
none of us speak a word of Turkish and none of them speak a word of
English, but it doesn't seem to matter. I go into a shop because
after buying the tea yesterday, I really need a tea stainer to go
with it. I know Turkish for Tea, but not 'Strainer'. Some
gesturing later, the shop keeper has shon me tea pot, tea spoon,
and various other tea paraphenalia, but no tea strainer, until a
draw a picture of it. Got there in the end. I come out proudly
brandishing my tea strainer when a Turkish man offers to buy us
tea from the cafe next door. These cafes seem to be the centre of
the community like pubs are in the UK, the men sit outside all day
drinking tea and playing backgammon. You never sea a women there,
though. They do all the work, it seems. So Joy and I sit down and
get treated to tea, and attempt to string together a basic
conversation with virtually no shared language.

13th May, Day 26, Riverside camp - Sumela via Trabzon, Turkey

A quick drive to Trabzon for a spot of sight seeing. The most
interesting thing going on in Trabzon is a man sitting on the edge
of a tall building threatening to jump off. The authorities have
deployed a huge air cushion beneath him. As Joy and I are buying
something to eat in a cake shop, there is a gasp from the crowd of
spectators, so we miss whatever exciting has happenned. But when
we come out, the man's not there any more.

The day before yesterday, I bought some tea. Yesterday, I bought a
tea strainer. Today, I decided to buy a tea pot. I find a suitable
shop in Trabzon and buy one. Whilst buying it, we get invited to
sit down and once again get offered tea, and an opportunity to try
and hash out a converstion with virtually no shared vocabulary.
One day, I will get used to it, but it is quite difficult to do.

The Turkish are an incredibly friendly people, and they find us
fascinating.

14th May, Day 27, in Sumela, Turkey



No travelling today. We visit Sumela Monastery. It's perched halfway up a cliff and is a gruelling climb. It looks more impressive from the outside than it does inside because only a small portion is accessible. Seeing anything Christian in Turkey is unusual because every day since entering Turkey we've heard several calls to prayer from various mosques, Turkey is predominantly Muslim, although officially secular.

Tomorrow we will leave Turkey and enter Georgia. I have really enjoyed Turkey - the country is very beautiful and the people very friendly. In Istanbul the friendliness seems to have an ulterior motive to make you part with money, but it is still a wonderful place to visit. When you get off the tourist track, there is a really genuine friendliness and fascination with us.

Brief Update

We are now in Trabzon, Turkey sitting in an Internet cafe. 3 more nights in Turkey before movıng on to Georgia. More detailed blog entry soon, but internet connections may get harder to find...

1st May, Day 14, Bucharest, Romania - Veliko Tarnovo, Bulgaria

Lying around the campsite yesterday because I really wasn't feeling very enthusiastic about going into Bucharest again, and I was feeling just a little homesick.

Enough of that nonsense. Today we're on the move again, and it feels good. It feels especially good because we're leaving Romania and heading for the 6th country of the trip, Bulgaria. The border with Bulgaria seems a little confused - we are all handed our passports so we can be checked in individually. Then we hand them all back again, because we're going in as a group after all. They are normally in the truck safe.

Through the border, the countryside is immediately different. Gone are the medieval looking strips with horse-drawn ploughs. Gone are the wrinkly old women carrying 3 tons of hay on their backs. Gone are the mountains of rubbish along all the roads. We how find ourselves in the middle of the Chilterns or South Downs or somewhere like that. Only the lack of white horses and pubs with morris dancers outside and the presense of road signs in cyrillic characters gives it away that we are not somehow magically back in the UK but in Bulgaria after all. The countryside really is similar to England, just less densely populated, so more of it.

The towns don't look much like English towns, of course. There is a campsite near the town of Veliko Tarnovo, and that is today's destination. By the time we get to the campsite, we are all very well aquainted with the town, having been driven round it about 3 times. It's a new campsite, Odyssey Overland have never been there before, it's a first. It's very hard to find because the directions are written in our familar alphabet (e.g. 'Follow signs for xxxxx' but all the signs are in cyrillic. Very tricky. It's owned and run by some British ex-pats, and when we finally get there it's absolutely gorgeous.

That evening it's celebrations all round. It's the 'Goodbye Europe' party, somewhat premature.


2nd May, Day 15, Veliko Tarnovo - Middle of Nowhere, Bulgaria




We have a free morning to explore the town. The most interesting part is an old castle. It's a very impressive castle, the walls are largely intact and it crowns a very steep hill. On the highest part of the hill is a church. Inside the church are walls painted with what can only be described as bondage scenes. Very wierd.

After looking round the castle and sleepy little town we head of again into the countryside for our second bush-camp. AFter some scouting aroud we find a suitable spot near a lake where out comes the boat for a little fishing trip. The lake is home to millions of frogs, judging by the noise, and no fish. Or maybe just intelligent fish.

3rd May, Day 16, Middle of nowhere, Bulgaria - Istanbul, Turkey

Up at about 6am for a 7am departure. Urrrgh. I am allergic to mornings. Such an early departure is very necessary - it is still a few hours travel to reach the Turkish border, and Istanbul is a further 280 km from the border. Then there's the border itself...

Is it a truck? Is it a coach? The border guards did not know what to make of it at all. That, combined with the main computer system being down meant that it was 6 hours delay at the border.

Finally we press on to Istanbul, and my first impression this time us just how HUGE it is. It takes ages to drive in towards the centre, and tonight we are all in a dorm in a hostel in the Sultanahmet area, right in the middle of the main sites, the touristy bit. Joy and I, however, fance a little holiday to ourselves so we upgrade to a nice hotel nearby for 3 nights of luxury.

4th May, Day 17, In Istanbul


What an amazing city. In Europe, once you've seen one city you've seen them all, pretty much, apart from the individual attractions. Istanbul is refreshingly different. It's got the attractions, but it's also nice to follow your nose and just wander around, and you'll see some amazing things. Early in the day we get accosted by a well dressed man who apparently wants befriend us. He wants us to come to his shop. We oblige. He gives us tea and coffee in his shop, which is full of leather goods. I really don't want a leather jacket, thank you very much. I'll have to carry it for the next 6 months. We've got to budget carefully for the next 6 months. These excuses don't wash with him, he wants to get down to business. He shows me a nice jacket, says it's 800 lira, but says that since I'm first customer today, he'll knock it down to 660. What's my offer? Desparate for a way out, I offer something so ridiculously low that he'll hopefully laugh in my face and throw us out of the shop. I halve it. 330. He looks aghast, goes off to talk to his colleague, then comes back and says OK. Wants to shake my hand on the deal. Damn. Can't get out that easily. It was FAR too easy to knock him down, how much lower would he have gone?? I'm in no mood to find out, I'm just suspecious about his agreeing so readily. I'm also suspicious about his claim that he makes all the goods himself in his workshop. They've got labels such as 'Armani' and 'Hugo Boss' which appear to betray his claims. I just up and leave anyway. I told him I didn't want it right at the start, but would he listen? Oh no!

Istanbul is a wonderful city, but you've got to be able to handle the hard-sell. They'd make a British double-glazing salesman cringe, and they're all over tourists like flies on shit.

5th May, Day 18, In Istanbul


Last night we had a hard time finding a fish restaurant. There are hundreds of them, each with a hard-selling tout who cares little white lies such as 'I've just eaten, I'm not hungry'. They explain that theirs is the best restaurant, the trouble is, they ALL say that. We choose one where the tout was less agressive, but the waiter then recommends the most expensive dishes and the most expensive wines in the whole place. We buy cheap ones anyway. They must think we're made of money if we are to eat lobster for dinner every night for the next 6 months.

Today we take a boat trip around the Bosphorus and Golden Horn, taking in the the view of the major sites from the sea. The mosques make a pretty skyline.

6th May, Day 19, Istanbul - Akcakoca, Turkey



I leave Europe today, and enter Asia for the first time. The picture if from the truck as we cross the suspension bridge linking Europe with Asia, and the horn is blowing in celebration.

We meet up again with the others after our three nights of relative luxury. We've probably gone soft now. I think it's another 9 nights under canvas before our next proper bed, so have to toughen up again. It's a few hours drive to Akcakoca, a small town on the Black Sea coast, but when we get there we find an awesome campsite, on a steep terraced hill right down to the sea. We're here to 2 nights, so get ourselves a good spot with a sea view where the sound of the waves crashing against the rocks below will lull us to sleep. I go for a swim, although climbing up slippery rocks to get out proves a bit of a challenge.

7th May, Day 20, In Akcakoca, Turkey

A lazy day in a small town. There's a small but busy harbour with a number of tiny fishing boats, and a modern mosque with lots of stained glass windows. The mosque is strange, it also houses a market.

The day ends with a quiz. My team, the Happy Pink Fluffy Bunny Rabbits comes equal first but lose the tie breaker. Unfortunately, my argument that our amusimng team name should earn us a bonus point does not gain underversal agreement.

8th May, Day 21, Akcakoca - Kaya Camping, near Goreme, Turkey

Several hours on seriously bumpy roads. Attempt to write blog, but can't type because of shaking all over the place.

When we arrive I'm on cook group so help to prepare a lovely chicken stir-fry. The rest of the evening is spent on the camp-site relaxing. In bed by 9:30 because of a 5 am start...

9th May, Day 22, touring around Capadocia, Turkey.


Capadocia is a region of stunning volcanic rock formations. There's a nearby snow-covered extinct volcano and the ash from it formed a soft rock which eroded over the ages to form incredible shapes. I'm no expert in geology as I'm sure you can tell.

My lack of expertise notwithstanding, it's obvious to me that some of the formations are not entirely natural but betray signs of intelligent design. The little square windows in the larger rocks and cliff faces give it away somewhat. In about 7000 BC (if I remember correctly) many rocks were hollowed out to form man-made caves in which thousands of people dwelt. Even today, the towns of Goreme and Urgup partially consist of hollowed out rocks with windows and doors and many are still occupied. In Goreme, the rocks were bought up by the filthy rich and have become 'cave hotels' while in Urgup they are still largely occupied by families.

One very nice way to see the rocks is to fly over them in a hot-air balloon. So that's what we did. Hence the 5am start. As well as the hollowed out rock towns, we see a valley of rocks shaped like tall thin mushrooms, or Fairy Chimneys as they are tweely marketed to tourists as. More likely it should be called 'Valley of the Penises' but it would attract an entirely different type of tourist if it was.


Another sight worth seeing was an underground city. Some 12 levels going down to a depth of 80m below the ground was hollowed out in a complex system of rooms and corridors and steps, in which some 7000 people were thought to have lived. In the 1960s, some Australian tourists apparently got lost down there, and it took 3 days to find them. Nowadays it is not so easy to get lost because it is well lit and there are arrows on the walls, and many of the tunnels are blocked off with stone walls leaving only a relatively small portion of the original city accessible. Even so, it is still an impressive size.

10th May, Day 23, still in Kaya Camping.

Day of laziness. Day of blog updates and hangover recovery.

22nd April, Day 5, Bamberg - Prague



A long day on the truck, and this is the day we cross the first significant border. Not that there's any real border formalities to go through, but this is the day we say goodbye to Western Europe and hello to Eastern Europe. The Czech Republic is former Eastern Bloc and you can still see signs of its Communist history, such as endless grey ugly apartment blocks all good Communists seem to live in. The countryside is at first similar to Germany (endless pine-covered hills) but this gives way to flatter farming country soon enough.

Today we are heading to Prague. It takes ages to drive round the ring road in the rush-hour to out camsite, which is on the northern edge of town about 10km from the touristy centre. The view from the ring road is less than impressive, the outlying regions of Prague are largely untroubled by visiting tourists and consist of endless Communist-looking apartment blocks and vast Tesco warehouses each about the size of a small town. Yes, the Czech republic's ecomony isn't bad now it's been westernised (or should it be 'Tesco-ised'?). Passing all this less-than-stunning scenery I start to fear that the campsite won't be anywhere nice, but a wrong-turn later we are there and nicely surprised.

I am on cook duty today. It's a bit chaotic cooking for 24 people but we pull it off with a very nice chicken and tarragon stew and eventually collapse into the bar at 9:30 pm.

23th April, Day 6 in Prague



It's up early (the hour is still in single figures) to negotiate the public transport into town. Pete (the tour leader) has a criteria to determine whether of not you've actually been somewhere, and that is you've only been there if you've done a poo there. Another (slightly cleaner) definition could be that you've been there if you've used local public transport. So I've now been to Prague. The public transport is quite civilised and took us round all parts of town we wouldn't normally see. It's not a bad city really, even outside the tourist area. It is noticably poorer than Western Europe and is a marked change from Germany which is clean, tidy, efficient, not a blade of grass out of place, trains run on time, but it is catching up fast.

Didn't bother meeting the others for a group meal out in town, but instead had a nice romantic meal with Joy in a restaurant we visited when we came before. Very nice.

I'll skip the description of the touristy bit. It's only a short flight away so go there yourself.

24th April, Day 7, Prague - Budapest

An early start and a long drive via Slovakia, an unofficial extra country on this trip between Czech Republic and Hungary.

It was boring for most of this drive - very flat country with nothing much to look at until quite close to Budapest when it gets prettier and hilly. But it is a significant step forward - we are now over the backbone of Europe. The river in Prague (the Vltava) flows northwards and comes out in the Baltic (I think), and now we've come to Budapest where the river Danube flows toward the South and East into the Black Sea, although we are still a long way from the coast.

The camsite here is on the Buda side of the Danube, which separated the two cities of Buda and Pest, hence the name of the now unified single city of Budapest.

The campsite is on hilly country and seems to be in a quarry - it is surrounded by cliffs on 3 sides and quite small. It's not bad though, despite a lack of grass, and it's out first meal cooked over a campfire tonight, before going on to do my duty of testing the local beers at the campsite bar.

25th April, Day 8, in Budapest



The campsite is a bus-ride from town. We get off at a place which looks nice and central and then study the map with confused expressions on our faces. Then we head off to the Jewish Museum in Pest. It it well known that Jews have a somewhat financially oriented culture and this is made very clear by the extortionate price we paid to get into the museum and synagogue. The museum was quite boring and pointless, although the bit about the holocaust was very moving. A photo of a dignified looking man standing on a platform with hands tied together and noose around his neck needs no words to describe it and really expresses the extreme evil of the Nazis 'Final Solution'. The guided tour of the Synagogue and Ghetto was OK. Apparently they even used to charge those using the Synagogue for regular worship. The mind boggles.

Pest looks like any other European city but Hungary is in quite poor shape and so there's not much tourism here. Some beautiful buildings stand derelict and scruffy.

After lunch we crossed over into Buda and it is a complete contrast from Pest. It is very hilly for a start (Pest is flat as a pancake) with steps all over the place and has a large impressive castle at the top of a hill. This bit is crawling with tourists and is a UNESCO world heritage site.

Back to the campsite for curry cooked over a camp fire. Lovely.

26th April, Day 9, Budapest - Turda Gorge



The border with Romania was the first one where the border guards came on board the truck and checked individual passports. I suppose no-one told the border guards about the EU. Either that or they were bored. I never imagined I'd ever see an attractive border guard but she really was lovely.

On crossing the border we enter a land of bumpy roads full of cars and lorries being driven by utter maniacs, and miles and miles of hideous heavy industrial installations, most of which is derelict. Eventually this gives way to open countryside which is very flat and full of small stips of land being farmed by peasants. The land is certainly fertile here, but the Romanians don't know anything about modern farming methods and so the country is full of people manually working the fields. If they are lucky they'll have a horse drown plough. A few very lucky ones have tractors.

After a while it gets hilly. We find our first bush-camp (where we camp not in a proper campsite but in the middle of nowhere. It's OK, the truck does have plenty of beer on board. It also has spades with which to dig poo holes but I won't go into that right now)

The camp is at a beauty spot called Turda Gorge. There is a ridge of high hills with a sidden gap, the Turda Gorge itself. A small river runs through it, and it is surrounded by sheer cliffs. Unfortunately, for the Romanians, the countryside acts as one big rubbush dump, especially beauty spots. It's not nice to see piles of discarded beer cans, plastic bottles, and other rubbish strewn all over a beautiful landscape, but the Romanians have absolutlely no appreciation for the beauty of their countryside and no respect for the environment.

That evening after dark a group of us pick up our head-torches and go for a walk along the gorge - there is a marked footpath but some tricky scambling over rocks is required as well as some care - sometimes the path is narrow with a sheer cliff wall on one side and a sheer drop down to the river on the other. All rather fun at night. About half an hour in we came to a large cave and went inside and looked at the bats and had some group pictures done.

27th April, Day 10, Turda Gorge - Sighisoara



Tonight we stop in our first Hotel! Looking forward to a comfortable bed. On out way there we stop at a layby where we prepare lunch and attract quite a crowd of locals who have never seen anything like us, and who try to sell us a bunch of onions an an extortionate price. They must think we're made of money. I suppose, by their standards, we are. They haven't really mastered the art of haggling. In haggling, one of the fundamental principals is for the seller to gradually drop his price until accepted by the buyer. This basic principal is completely unknown to these people, who stick rigidly to their original extiotionate price, hence no sale. Shame, because they were probably really tasty.

Arrive at the hotel. So far my opinion of Romania is not favourable, but the Hotel is decent enough. Sighiasora is a small town with an interesting looking historic citadel at it heart. The rest of the town is typically Romanian - a dump.

28th April Day 11 Sighisoara - Bucharest

This morning it is raining. Up until now, it has been horrifyingly sunny. I'm glad then rain occured while we were safely in a hotel, I don't like the idea of packing up tents in the rain.

We were originally going to Rasnov Castle today and bush-camping nearby. But the castle is closed. This is quite a disappointment, is the castle is very typically Transilvanian. It's not the one of Dracula fame, it's rather less touristy. Instead we just go straight to Bucharest a day earlier than intended. On the way we drive through some incredible mountain scenery. Here we are in the southern end of the Carpathian Mountains which from here stretch north and east into Ukraine. The road through the mountains is rather windy with numerous switch-backs around which mad Romanians overtake blindly with considerable risk of flying off the side and right down to the bottom of the valley. Utterly bonkers.

The campsite near Bucharest is not really intended for tents. It has chalets surrounding a tarmac area, with woods behind. We just had to camp in the woods.

29th April, Day 12, in Bucharest



Woke up to find that some people were sharing their tents with about 100000000000 ants. Luckily only the outside if our was infested, none had found their way in, thank goodness.

It was our turn to cook breakfast now, so an early start to set everything up and start cooking. Eggy bread for all except me. Eggs - yuk.

After breakfast some of us head into town on the bus. Last year's group, we learned, has some trouble because you can't by bus tickets on the bus, only in town. So the place to buy bus tickets was a bus-ride away. They get on the bus anyway and have a spot of bother with a jobs-worth inspector and the police, who really couldn't care less about the paradox they were caught in.
This year, forewarned, the crew all went off in a taxi early in the morning in order to buy bus tickets for everyone. It seems you can only buy tickets in multiples of 2. wtf...

So, 4 of us get on the bus armed with tickets. We have to stamp them ourselves. Then a group of about 3 thugs who claim to be ticket inspectors ask to see our tickets. "Ticket no good!" they say in broken English. "Passports!" They want to see out passports? My god, it only a F*cking bus! They then attempt to get us to pay a fine of 50 Lei each (about 12 pounds, and many times the cost of the original ticket). Apparently, we hadn't stamped it quite right. The holes were in the wrong place or something silly like that. Luckily, one of our group, an Austrailian called Dennis is a very experienced traveller and he was not going to be intimidated. After a while, the 'inspectors' gave up and got off. They were seen to start walking back again, no doubt back to the bus-stop near the campsite to try and fleece some more tourists. I really don't think they were real ticket inspectors, they didn't bother checking any of the locals.

There's nopt a whole lot to do in Bucharest except go and see Caucescu's Folly as I call it, or Parliament Palace as it is now known. It was build as an expression of extreme megalomania by the former dictator of Romania, the one who took food out of the people's mouths in order to build this huge palace, orginally (and ironically) called 'The Peolple's Palace'.

Bucharest is a city of wide boulevards and some intersting buildings, some of them suffering from neglect, and millions and millions of sex shops. I would not recommend a visit.

30th April, Day 13 - still in Bucharest

A day of resting at the campsite, and writing all this section of the blog up (from Prague to Bucarest). The wi-fi doesn't work here, so you be reading this for a few more days.

Tomorrow we leave Romania and head for Bulgaria for 2 nights and then Istanbul for 3 nights. I am looking forward to leaving Romania. As a country, it has not managed to recover very well from communism, it is still very poor, the infrastructure is shoddy and hap-hazard, the beautiful countryside is full of rubbish, they don't realise what incredible potential their country has for tourism, and as such they don't welcome tourists, they just barely tolerate them. Why was Rasnov Castle closed when they could be making money out of it? The proper way to fleece tourists is to fleece them nicely so they'll want to come back and be fleeced again, not piss them off.

Seeing Romania has given me a whole new appreciation of the UK - it is, by comparison, a paradise.