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.