Festival - Copenhagen, Denmark
visited Jul 5, 2006
After the last post, we spent most of Sunday wandering around the most famous bits of the city, including the Little Mermaid who sits on a rock near the port. We arrived back at the festival house to be told that there wouldn't be anyone to let us in at the squat where we were staying until about midnight. To our jetlagged selves, this sounded painful, but a nice woman showed us a mattress in the attic of the house here, and, despite the heat, we crashed for a few hours. When we finally got to the squat, we were shown a large concert room that was the designated sleeping area for festival people. It smelt of old beer and cigarettes, but the atmosphere was a little better up on the stage, so we set up there and crashed. As it turned out, we only had one night there, as the second day, we were told about two women who had offered their house for showers and maybe to sleep, but only to "nice" women (which we apparently are). As I was desperate for a shower (I hadn't had one since Korea, and this was our second day in compenhagen!), we turned up there quite late on monday evening, and ended up staying the night. It's a lovely little flat on the top floor, occupied by a Danish lesbian couple and their flatmate from Sweden. It's nice to be able to stay with and talk to some locals - the people at the squat didn't seem in the slightest interested in talking to us, and we sort of felt like intruders. It's much nicer in the flat, and we are very very grateful to the three women for hosting us! Our days have pretty much consisited of spending the morning wandering around Copenhagen, and the afternoon and evening at the festival. Kate has had fun showing me all her old haunts from her semester here in 2004, as well as the tourist sites of the city. Unfortunately it's been really hot, so our tolerance for wandering around is a little limited, but my overall impression is that Copenhagen is a very pleasant little city. As part of the festival we have been to workshops on Queer family, Queer Hair and a very exciting talk and film from Del LaGrace Volcano, which was unexpected. He is in the process of making another book of photos called "Femmes of Power" which sparked Kate's interest. After the workshop we spent some time talking to Del, along with some other people interested in being in the book. It looks like an exciting project! Also as part of the festival, we visited Christiania. This is a whole area of Copenhagen that was squatted about 30 years ago, that has declared itself an independent state. We visited the queer house there, which is actually just a theatre and organising space, but it's very nice to know it's there. We were also given a tour of christiana by one of the women from the house, which was nice, as we would never have seen all the intersting nooks and crannies of the area without it! On to England and Cold Ash tomorrow. I hope it is cooler there!

Made it! - Copenhagen, Denmark
visited Jul 2, 2006
I've been travelling for over 60 hours. I think itøs some sort of record for getting to europe. Of course, about 15 hours of it was spent in a 5 star luxury hotel, which seems to prevent too much sympathy coming my way. I think the night in Stansted airport more than makes up for that, even though I was lucky enough to score one of the very few sets of seats that didn't have arms to get in the way of lying down. I met kate in the baggage collection section of the airport here - our flights were so well timed! - and we negotiated our way by train to central, then, using my dodgy knowledge of a map I glanced at 4 days ago, plus a new map, we miraculously fonud our way to the Festival House, where we have been welcomed warmly, and offered a place to put our bags for the day, and some internet! Yay! Unfortunately, I managed to leave home without my European adaptor, so my computer is currently out of action, and I canøt get the several thousand words of blog entries I wrote while waiting in airports and on planes. They will be uploaded as soon as we find the adaptor Kate brought. We don't get to go to our accomodation until about 8pm tonight, by which time I think we will both be asleep on our feet, but we'll dig out the adaptor then. Korean airlines overall rates low on movies and entertainment (no individual tvs!), lowish on food, but absolutely top notch for the stopover. If I hadn't had that proper night's sleep, I would probably be a whole lot deader right now than I currently am. Have to go, Kate is dying to show me around Copenhagen! She's already at the markets that I can see out the window here, and I promised to catch up, after my internet fix. Oh, and this is the 45th country that I have visited in my life. Hey Dad: Beat you!

Incheon Stll - Seoul, South Korea
visited Jul 1, 2006
So no free internet at Incheon Airport. I could have paid 3000 won ($4ish) for an hour, but I only have about half an hour, and I can't be bothered changing any money for it. On first impressions, Korea seems to be somewhere in between China and Japan. And I'm not just talking geographically. I went for a walk last night, and decided that korea smells similar to China, and the shops were very much like some I'd seen in the richer areas there (remembering that these are shops within a 2 minute walk of the Hyatt Regency, that seems reasonable!). Bowing is important here, as in Japan. The hotel person who led us to our shuttle bus last night bowed deeply to it as it pulled away from the curb. I still prefer both chinese and japanese food, but I've worked out why now. I don't like Kim Chi. I picked up a whole book on this korean staple (it's pretty much pickled vegetables, I think) in an airport bookshop half an hour ago, and read "once you have acquired a taste for it, your dinner table will never be complete without it". I think I'll just skip the acquiring process and live happily without it! I meant to take a photo of me all pink cheeked after my bath and wrapped in the fluffy white terry toweling bathrobe, but I forgot, so you'll just have to imagine it. Here are some pics of my hotel and the view from it instead. As you can see, something else that reminds me of china is the thick soupy smog, although it is also overcast (I think) today, which might not be helping. Boarding now.

Leaving again... - Brisbane, Australia
visited Jun 30, 2006
Brisbane I know I keep leaving, but sometimes brisbane isn't such a bad place. During this last 4 months, I have discovered that I need to discover more about the nooks and crannies of the city (because I hadn't realised there were any) and have realised that I like water. I like the fact that Brisbane has a huge great river through it, and that in order to get just about anywhere, you need to cross it, or drive along it. The riverside expressway at sunset is a lovely sight (I promise that's not why I had the accident though), and from the air, the whole place is rather pretty. Flying to Hamilton last week, we did a loop right over the city, and, as there wasn't a cloud in the sky, and it was a wonderfully clear day, the river (and the skyscrapers) were all sparkling in the sun. It was fantastic! Pity I don't own a camera at the moment!

Incheon (The airport city next to Seoul) - Seoul, South Korea
visited Jun 30, 2006
I'm sitting in the Hyatt Regency Incheon, Not Using their internet. I'm too cheap to pay 20000won (whatever that means) for a day's access. Just as I was too cheap to pay US$10 an hour to use the inflight wireless internet (I had heard they had it now, but didn't really believe it!). So this will just have to wait until I next get a connection - hopefully in Stansted or Heathrow, where I think there might be free wireless. Finally got away from Brisbane - I should remember not to arrange such early flights when I don't have any family in town! The wonderful james came to my rescue, giving me half a lift to the airport. I still had to be on a train to Bowen Hills at 6am, but if I had caught the train the whole way, it would have been 5am. At the checkin, they told me their weren't any exit row seats left, and found my an aisle bulkhead instead - I wasn't looking forward to it. I was, however, directed to the reservations desk to make a reservation for an aisle seat for the next flight, and discovered a wonderful thing. Korean air reserves the exit row seats for people who go and specifically ask for them at a separate counter, and they easily changed my first flight to a window exit row. This system means that any spare seats on the plane end up in the exit rows, so there's extra space in all directions! I was most pleased, and the flight was rather pleasant. No individual tvs on this flight, and the drawback of the exit row seat was a small screen too far away to read subtitles, so I skipped the korean movie and read instead. I should have brought another book as carry on, as I've finished the first one. I hope I can find someone to swap with, as I dare say the next flight will have the same problems! I did get to watch the second movie - Failure to Launch. Yay. One moment of excitement - I happened to glance out the window just as we were flying over the chesterfields. I wouldn't have expected to see them, being just two small reefs and islands in the middle of the coral sea, inhabited only by birds, pretty much, but obviously we were in just the right spot. I last saw them in 1991 when we stopped there on praxis. I'm pretty sure it was the chesterfields, anyway! On arrival, I discovered that they don't make it too easy to work out where you are supposed to go for the Hyatt (I get free accomodation here because the flights don't meet up, which is nice), but managed anyway. I've explored the hotel, been for a walk down the street to a few shops that are nearby, had the set menu dinner (my opinion of korean food is improving slightly) and soaked in a deep hot bath. I'm now wrapped in the white terry bathrobe loungng in the armchair with my feet up, and I'm about to crawl into the king size bed and crash. get 10 hours sleep, have the buffet breakfast (which I've heard is very nice) and then take the free bus 2 minutes down the road to the airport at the nice civilised hour of 11.15 or so. Hopefully I'll feel relaxed and slept enough to survive the 24 hours after that - still dreading this night on the floor of stansted...

2.5 days in Brisbane - Brisbane, Australia
visited Jun 29, 2006
Day 1 was taken up getting Rhys and kieran away. I hadn't seen Rhys in a while, so it was good to catch up. We had Sandy and Celine and the kids over for a barbecue (would you like bleeding, or charcoal?) and otherwise spent the time madly rushing about getting things mum and dad wanted sent up, and making kieran tidy his room. They are joining mum and dad on the boat for 2 months of sailing in PNG, so they needed to leave the place respectable! They finally got away, and I had 1 day to sort myself out to leave. Now it's 2am, and I have to be on a train to the airport at 6. Argh. I had better go! his is the last of the Brisbane 2006 posts. Next post will be from Korea, London, or Copenhagen! I'll have to think of a name for the next itinerary!

South Molle Island - Hamilton Island, Australia
visited Jun 18, 2006
I know I should add these other islands to travel post, but I can't be bothered, so I'm just putting all the whitsunday adventures under hamilton island! Day two of my trip was the last day of the Seawind Rally, so we raced from Stonehaven to South Molle Island. Sailing puts me to sleep, so between that and my severe long term lack of sleep during assignment season, meant I don't remember much of the actual sail. The evening was taken up by the final celebrations for the rally, including the presentations, a seafood buffet, and a rather dreadful cruise-ship style floor show called "flames of polynesia". The next morning my mother decided exploring the tracks in the south molle national park would be a good idea. We did find some nice views, but I think and I did enjoy it, but I'm still glad we didn't climb the major hill! The next days turned out to be less than fine - we snorkelled in the brief moments of sunshine, and did not much when it rained. I read lots of books. It was nice. And the snorkelling was good - in Butterfly Bay we saw a whole herd of Maori Rass - great big gentle fish, each of them about a metre or more long! It was impressive. As was the coral - better than we saw at Keppel in April! We left the Whitsundays to head north, stopping in Gloucester passage (Monte's "resort" which was the most low-key resort I had ever seen!) and Shark Bay (Cape Upstart) where we went swimming at approximately shark feeding time (ok, pretty sill in hindsight, but we didn't see any sharks, so it was all good).

5 minutes on hamilton - Hamilton Island, Australia
visited Jun 16, 2006
Flew in to hamilton to meet my parents. Mum swore she saw elton john getting off the plane, but when she pointed him out (waiting for his luggage with the rest of us plebs) it really wasn't him, although she kept saying it was. Looked nothing like him. There weren't any buses back tot he marina, and everyone else on the plane had a resort bus to collect them, but us grotty yachties divided my luggage between us (I had 15kg of stuff mum and dad asked me to bring up, plus my stuff!) and trudged over the hill to the marina, where the boat was already overstaying the paid time in the marina, so we pretty much leapt aboard and left. A lovely sail to Nara inlet, where we met up with Joy and Chirs on Esprit, had dinner, and crashed. I think it was about 7.30 when I fell asleep! I think I really need this holiday!

Finished! - Brisbane, Australia
visited Jun 16, 2006
It nearly killed me, but I finished all my assignments. And a mere 6 hours or so before my flight north. Now I have two weeks of whitsundays and far north queensland to look forward to! And NO UNI WORK!!!! until next year that is...

The worlds seems to have survived... - Brisbane, Australia
visited Jun 7, 2006
So it's half an hour after the end of the 6/6/06, and we appear to still be here. Admittedly I haven't been out of the house since about 8pm, so it's possible the rest of the world has ceased to exist. Or that the world was sucked into hell, but they couldn't be bothered with australia. Or maybe I just didn't notice. I've had my head down doing assignments. At the end of Pirates, when life returned to something resembling normal, I had 5 to do. I've done 2 of them. I now have exactly a week until I leave for the whitsundays, and I'm halfway through assignment number 3. Will hopefully have it done before bed tomorrow night. That leaves me a whole 6 days to write the other 2 - only 4000 words worth. No problem. Just don't expect any updates between now and then. But then, there will be lots of exciting new updates. I have a wild plan. After my two weeks in the whitsundays, I have three days in Brisbane again, then I fly to Copenhagen (via a night on an airport floor in london) for 5 days of festival, then england for 4 weeks of work, then israel for more festival, then travelling around the middle east with Kate, ending up in Egypt, then flying to Morocco, and travelling up to portugal, then on, still overland, to Edinburgh. From there, I return to london to fly to korea, then on to Japan for 3 months more work (I have to do some occasionally), then back to Aus, via Korea again. I'll give a prize to anyone whocan come up with a decent name for the Itinerary for that trip!

A Pirate! Horror! - Brisbane, Australia
visited May 15, 2006
That's not "A Pirate Horror" either. Pirates of Penzance is shaping up to be very nice, now that we are in a real thatre, and not in some basketball court that happens to have a stage, as we were for the last performances in Scarborough. The Powerhouse Theatre is great, nice lighting, lots of space, excellent dressing rooms. It opens tomorrow night!

Crunch - Brisbane, Australia
visited May 9, 2006
I had my first ever car accident on the riverside expressway on my way to uni today. I was just thinking how the traffic was flowing pretty freely for 4pm on a tuesday afternoon, when, in precisely the milisecond I glanced down at the radio to eject a tape, the traffic stopped flowing. I didn't, at least, not quite fast enough, and managed to push the next car (which must have stopped very suddenly, and was probably very close to the ute in from of it, into said ute. Three car accident! we all managed to drive off the expressway, which was good, but my car had a cracked radiator, or something (as well as all the panel damage and a sticky driver's door) so it had to be towed. It's all covered on comprehensive insurance, with a really low excess, so I'm not overly worried about that. It does leave me carless for the time being,which would be annoying if my brother didn't decide he and his girlfriend could cope with one. He's gallantly offered me his car pretty much for the duration, which is wonderful. Especially as I have to drive to Scarborough three times in the next week, and the powerhouse every day for the week after that. And carry costumes and whatnot. I'm talking of course, of Pirates of Penzance, which opens in scarborough on friday, and then at the powerhouse on Tuesday. It's on for one week only, so email me for $20 tickets! --- end plug ----

A Young, Edgy Rock Opera - Brisbane, Australia
visited May 5, 2006
Rent! See Sean's blog for details: I'll write later. http://lettherebeblog.blogspot.com/2006/05/525600-minutes.html

Tropical Island - Great Keppel Island, Australia
visited May 1, 2006
After a rushed half day in Gladstone, we left at dawn (I'm told - I wasn't awake for it) to get through the Narrows with the tide. This is important, as there is a crossing about halfway through the Narrows that is used to get cattle from the mainland to curtis island. This means it dries out at low tide. completely. So leaving with the tide was important. We made it through ok, and into the open sea for the 4 hour crossing to Keppel. This was the only bit of actual sailing with actual waves that we encountered on the whole trip, and it was actually very calm, really. Enough to send Kate to bed after taking a sea-sickness tablet though! And Ihave to admit that I was having trouble concentrating on anything by the time we got to Keppel. It would have been nicer if we could have had the engines off, but the wind just wasn't with us. That first evening we were anchored at Long Beach, and decided to walk over the island to the resort for a sunset drink, and, after parking the dinghy on the beach, set off on a likely looking walking track. The track led to another beach, then disappeared. Undanted, we pressed on, climbing around the rocks of the next point, to discover.... more rocks. I think we clawed our way around 4 rocky, oystered points and along several beaches before we found the resort. We were just in time for a sunset drink, but as we hadn't brought a torch, there was a suggestion that we should go straight back while it was still a little light. A few inquiries told us that it was actually very easy to get to Long Beach. It was at the other end of the airstrip. So not only did we not have to climb over rocks, but there was an enormous paved road between the resort and the boat. Grrr. We drank our large and decadent cocktails (and mocktails) sitting on a bench overlooking the beach while watching the sun sink down behind Yeppoon on the mainland. It was very pleasant. Then we walked back along the airstrip in the dark (which was a great chance for some amazing star-gazing) and discovered that the beach wasn't at the end of the airstrip. There was a path to it though. A windy, sandy, treacherous footpath through the trees with several forks. I wished I gained a better understanding of the difficulties my blind friends face in getting around, and wished sincerely that I had a white cane. We survived though, and did end up at the beach. Then we just had to wander along it until we tripped over the dinghy (did I mention there wasn't even a moon to help us?) and pointed it towards Cutting Edge's masthead light (just as well Dad thought to put it on before we left!). Our two days on Keppel were lovely. I taught Kate to snorkel. Once she was given some extra flotation (a jet-ski jacket), she even stopped using me to keep herself up, which was nice. Lucky I'm a strong swimmer - and have positive boyancy! It was good to be in the water again - I hadn't snorkelled for about 10 years, which is sad. And really noticeable when I couldn't hold my breath for nearly as long as I used to be able to. I remember free-diving to 17 metres in Tonga once, and this time I was having trouble holding my breath very long at all. Ah well. I'll just have to practice more. When I have the chance...

Kelly - Gladstone, Australia
visited Apr 28, 2006
I managed to find Kelly's husband, Jack, at the marina, and got kelly's mobile number from him. It turns out she was working in Biloela for the day, which is why she hadn't been at home or at her usual work in Tank St. He said they had a doctor's appointment that night (because Kelly is pregnant!) but they could come to the Yacht club afterwards, where my family and assorted friends and I would be having dinner. It was rather weird meeting after 15 years, but very good to be in contact again. After dinner, Kelly and Jack came back to Cutting Edge (my parents' boat) and I showed them some photos that were on my computer of our childhood. It's strange but the collection I have, which consists of whatever Dad has scanned in, only includes about 2 of Kelly, although I recall spending nearly every day with her. She doesn't appear in any of the ones of my birthday parties or anything. Odd. The best one I have posted here. It's sweet! We've now exchanged email addresses, which means there is some chance we will stay in touch a little better now. And I know where she is now. She and Jack have bought a block of land in Benaraby, just near our old primary school, so I can imagine them being there for while to come.

Memory Lane - Benaraby, Australia
visited Apr 28, 2006
After an early start from Biloela, we arrived in Benaraby (via the occasional wrong turn) early enough for me to have a look around my old home town before having to get the car to my parents in Gladstone. We first drove past the old hall where I used to go on the ancient Sunday School bus every week from the age of 3 (my parents no doubt appreciated the quiet sunday mornings!). Apart from shrinking, and the service station next door changing brands, nothing seemed to have changed much. We then drove past my old school, and I was compelled to get out and have a closer look. At first the plan was just to look in the garden bed under the flag pole for the plaque over the time capsule that we planted there during the school's centenery celebrations in 1986. I had to check if it was to be opened this year, but it's not until July 12, 2011. Once I was that far into the school grounds, it seemed to make sense to go up to the office, and we were signed in to have a look around and see what had changed. Not much, though it's all now painted white instead of EdQLD yellow, and there's a new classroom and a new playground. They have 6 classes there now. There were three or four when I was there - about 60 to 80 kids, depending on the year. After the school, I went up to the house I grew up in. It was also still very recognisable, although there have been a few changes. I knocked on the door and was shown around but the current owner, which was nice. When we lived there the walls were all cream (I was 9 before I realised that walls were allowed to be colours other than cream). My room is now painted dark purple with a silver ceiling - colours chosen by the teenage boy who lives there! The woman who showed me around also told me that Kelly had moved back in next door. Her mother had always lived there, of course, but Kelly had left years ago. Kelly was my best friend throughout my childhood. We met when I was 2 (and she was 6!) and, living next door to each other, we more or less grew up together. After I left in 1989, we more or less lost contact, although I remember staying with her for a night in 1991 when we were back in Gladstone on the boat. I hadn't seen her since then, though, or had any contact. From the woman who lives in my old house, I discovered that she was married, and had moved back here with her husband, and that he worked at the marina! I resolved to track her down before we left the next morning.

Jess in Bilo - Biloela, Australia
visited Apr 28, 2006
Kate and I finally set off yesterday, about 14 hours later than planned, to drive to Gladstone, via Biloela, to deliver a car to my uncle, and meet my parents on their boat. The purpose of the Biloela detour was to see my childhood friend Jess, who lives there now. I hadn't see her since 1995. and that was only for a one short evening. We only had time for another rather short evening this time, too, as Kate and I didn't arrive until 8.30 last night. We had had a few adventures. We ran out of petrol. It was very embarrassing, but thankfully not that inconvenient, as we were about 100m from a petrol station at the time. The petrol station was closed, but there was one on the other side of the road, more or less, which was open, and lent us a fuel can. So all in all it was a good place to stop. And considering we had been stressing about it for 70km (ever since discovering the petrol station in Eidsvold was closed), we were very happy to stop there, and not in the middle of nowhere. Meeting up with Jess was seriously trippy, but wonderful to know she's still alive and surviving. Even if she is living in Biloela! Here's a pic of us, just to prove it. And one of us 20 years ago, for good measure.

Ex-traordinary. - Brisbane, Australia
visited Apr 21, 2006
Tonight I had arranged to meet Tony in town for the regular dinner-and-a-movie. Bizarrely, on my way there I ran into Sean and Michael in Pulp Fiction (the bookshop). They were staying in the hotel above the bookshop for the night. Michael gets married tomorrow. Weird. Kate arrives here on Monday! I'm not sleeping well. Grrr.

Hope Harbour - Upper Coomera, Australia
visited Apr 10, 2006
My parents, Kieran and I spent the night on the boat, and spent the morning doing lots of last minute things, and, eventually, having a cooked breakfast together. Sandy and Celine and the kids arrived, and, with surprisingly little last-minute ado, they left around lunchtime. While Sandy and Celine and the kids will be back in two weeks or so, my parents have no intention of returning Brisbane until, probably, late this year - after they've sailed up the Queensland coast and spent the two months their visas allow them in the Trobians, off the east coast of Papua New Guinea. I managed to get back to Brisbane in plenty of time for my evening class. Life should be a little less insane now. For the next week or two, at least.

5 minutes in Brisbane - Brisbane, Australia
visited Apr 9, 2006
I stepped off the plane at 4.25pm on monday afternoon (apr 10th, but this needs to be blogged as 9th to keep the order right). As I had no luggage to collect, I was able to be in the car (Kieran picked me up) by 4.29. Kieran teleported me to uni, and I was in class by 4.55. Pretty amazing really. After class, Kieran picked me up again (nice brother) and drove me home where I arrived just in time for a barbecue dinner with my family - my parents' last supper before leaving on their boat. At 10.30pm, all four of us piled into the car (fitting around all the last minute stuff they were taking) and drove down to the boatat sanctury cove, to spend the night and see everyone off on their sailing adventure the next day. So it was more than 5 minutes in Brisbane, but not by much!

Mad Rush - Sydney, Australia
visited Apr 9, 2006
Sydeny was, as always, a mad rush. That city runs so much faster than Brisbane. Whenever I'm down there it just all seems non stop. Now, I know you could say that is because when you only have 5 days in a place, everything is a rush, but when I lived down there last year I was there for months and it never stopped. Still, at least this time Kate and I managed to do everything essential that was on our list, which is a lot better than last time. There was some unexpected excitement. On thursday night, Kate's flatmate's cat got run over, and we all ended up dashing to an all night emergency vet hospital. The cat is still alive, and, once it has recovered from its $3000 leg reconstruction surgery, will no doubt continue to live a long and pampered life. But it did mean our dvd and gelati plan had to be postponed. Friday was spent running a dozen little errands, and pottering about, but saturday was non-stop socializing. We had brunch at the Chocolate Dog in Newtown with Nick and a bunch of people from Brisbane. Obviously. They were down for Nick's 30th birthday, which was also my flimsy excuse. The evening was spent celebrating Nick's birthday over dinner with the same brisbanites, and about 25 sydney people in a very fancy restaurant in Erskinville. Kate and I opted to share a meal (yes, we're cheapskates) and so had a very pleasant morsel of kangaroo each, followed by a small poached pear and molecule of very nice icecream. It was a very fancy restaurant. After dinner the party moved to a funciton room downstairs where we talked and some people danced to the CD compilation Nick had created for the occasion. I bet the pub had never played anything from the Oklahoma soundtrack before! The toughened party people went on to the imperial around midnight, but Kate and I took the going-home-and-crashing option instead, with a slight detour to drive our friends Eric and Peter home, as well as Oddur who was staying with them. Sunday was then a day of rest, except for going out to Victoria Park to meet a whole lot of queeruption type people who play anarchist soccer there on sunday afternoons. We arrived and sat down to talk to Eric and Peter while we watched to work out if there were any rules, and somehow never got around to the playing soccer part. It was fun to watch the others playing though. There were goals, and vague teams, but no boundaries, and it was played on a bit of a hill, so it was all interesting. Sunday night we finally managed the dvd and gelati plan that had been postponed, and Monday was spent in sleeping in, packing and getting to the airport. Sydney was fun. No idea when I'll be back there - no further flights are booked, and I leave Australia in less than 3 months. Might be next year before I get back there. Ah well. Kate is coming up here in a mere 2 weeks, so that's something.

Idyllic Weather, and a New Computer! - Sydney, Australia
visited Apr 6, 2006
I finally have my first ever brand new computer: a very small, white laptop with all the bells and whistles. It's very exciting. It also has a webcam permanently attached, so I can take pictures like this one! Now I just have to work out how to insure it internationally. It's the single most expensive thing I've ever owned, and just owning it has the potential to get stressful. Insurance will help though. It wasn't a mistake, I am indeed in Sydney. Being the jetsetter that I am, I have flown down for the "weekend" (wednesday to monday). The excuse was Nick's 30th birthday, and a relatively free weekend in terms of uni work, but I don't exactly need an excuse to visit Kate. And to get out of that awful Brisbane weather. It was so horribly humid the last 2 days, I was very, very grateful to be leaving. It was only a couple of degrees cooler in Sydney when I arrived, but the difference in humidity made my hair stand on end. Literally. I've had static problems since I got here. Last night Kate and I had cheap indian (indian food, something else I missed while in Turkey. I must do it again soon!) in Newtown on the way home from the airport, and today I have the house to myself while she and her flatmate are at work. I'm sitting in the doorway of her lovely ground floor unit, with an incredibly blue sky, a very cool wind blowing, looking out at a grassy, tree-ey area that I might go and sit in shortly. In the sun, because it is my favourite sort of weather - the sort where you appreciate sitting in the sun! I'd take a photo, but this camera seems to only be designed for indoors, and the outdoor ones just come out all overexposed. More on Sydney adventures later.

Queer Film Festival - Brisbane, Australia
This place was Average visited Apr 4, 2006
I very cleverly organised to go to Sydney during the Brisbane Queer Film Festival. It's a lesson in effective calendar use for me. However, all was not lost, as this year the BQFF is bigger and better than ever, and started on the Tuesday. My flight wasn't until Wednesday, so I was able to go to the opening night! Just as well. I have only missed one year since it started 6 years ago, and that was last year when I was living in Berlin. In fact, the year before that I came home (from Berlin, by coincidence) on the second last day of the festival, and still managed to see 3 films. The opening night film was called "50 ways of saying fabulous", which is a New Zealand film based on the book of the same name by NZ author Graeme Aitken. I had loved the book - we studied it in Quook, the queer book club at UQ, years ago, so was keen to see the film. It was lovely, and will hopefully get a wider release, and when it does I suggest you all go see it. Or catch the second screening at the Powerhouse sometime this weekend (www.brisbanepowerhouse.org for details). After the film there was the required drag show, accompanied by free drinks, nibblies and the most disturbing iceblocks I had ever seen. If anyone ever offers you a paddle pop "bender", say no. Just do. It was nice to be at a queer event in Brisbane again, but it was yet another reminder of how long I have been away (or possibly an indicator how the community has grown in the last few years). I only saw one person I knew! Apart from the people I was with, of course. Oh, and the guy handing out the free beer knew me, though I didn't remember him at all. Apparently he was my dancing partner in HMS Pinafore years ago. That was a rather Brisbane moment.

Pirates! - Gympie, Australia
This place was Poor visited Apr 2, 2006
I didn't go to Gympie by choice. Actually, I didn't go to Gympie at all, but to a camp site about 20km south of it. And why? For Pirates, of course. OK, so it had nothing to do with real pirates, and a lot to do with the Gilbert and Sullivan musical "Pirates of Penzance". I'm in the current Queensland Musical Theatre Company's producation of it, and it was a rehearsal camp. You'll be very glad to hear that we got lots of very good work done, and the whole first act is now blocked and looking good. And there are some very funny bits. Pirates is on at the Brisbane Powerhouse from the 16th to the 21st of May, and at some hall in Scarborough the weekend. Email me to get discounted tickets for only $20! Yes, this was a shameless plug.

midnight musings - Brisbane, Australia
This place was Awful visited Mar 26, 2006
I've been reorganising my blog. You can tell because it suddenly looks like I was last in Bulgaria. I wasn't. I have now uploaded all interesting photos I have for our Helsinki to Istanbul trip. I think. I haven't yet written anything about Hungary or Romania though, but I'll get there eventually. I suggest that if you want to see current posts, you click on the "date visited" link above, as the "date posted" order is misleading. To see past posts, the best way is by going to "trip itineraries" in the side bar to the right here, and pick the one you want. Brisbane's all a bit dull at the moment. It seems I've been away too long. Although I still know people here, I haven't met any new people for many years, and have lost contact with pretty much all my acquaintances. I still have a few good friends here, but they are all used to leading their lives without me, or we are now in different places, or something. Oh, and most of my friends seem to have moved to Sydney or Melbourne, which is also a problem! So, I spend my days doing uni work (or trying to avoid doing uni work) and hanging out at home. It's probably really good for me right? No distractions from my studies? argh!!!

Distracted... - Brisbane, Australia
visited Mar 20, 2006
Uni is turning out to be pretty busy. Turns out that at Masters level they're serious when they say "full-time". And, to make it even less likely that I will write much to this blog in the next few months, I've had to start a blogspot.com blog for one of my subjects. I'm doing a subject about technology in second language learning, and part of our assessment is to keep a blog where we reflect upon our teaching and learning experiences. It's interesting, but all my subjects seem to require me to be reflective. Perhaps we'll all end up qualified to be mirror balls as well as teachers... Anyway, the new blog is officially my "Serious Blog" and can be found here: www.nontravelblog.blogspot.com And, just for good measure, here is a photo of me in my new glasses. It seems I've been far too studious and wrecked my eyes. It isn't fun.

Cert. TESOL class of 2002 - Brisbane, Australia
This place was Great visited Mar 10, 2006
I discovered recently that over half of my Cert. TESOL classmates were in Brisbane, and decided to organise a dinner party so we could all meet up. Thanks to the wonderful Eileen for hosting and to everyone for coming. It was great to see Juz for the the first time since the course, I think, and to meet his wife Maggie. Another new face was Marlin, Mal and Dave's new baby.

Mardi Gras Again - Sydney, Australia
This place was Amazing visited Mar 4, 2006
Having been in Brisbane a total of 6 days, it was obviously time to leave again, so I spent Mardi Gras weekend with Kate in her fancy new house in Sydney. It was, of course, great to spend time with Kate again (after a whole 9 days of separation!!) and Mardi Gras was a great excuse for us to dust off our tail coats and top hats. It was all a bit of a re-run of last year, as we were with the same float which had the same theme (repeal the same-sex marriage ban) and the same props, pretty much, and we were in the same outfits, but it was still fun as always. Other floats were all quite different, with a couple of decent political ones, and some inexplicable ones (the Ikea float? The Lincraft float? huh?) and some impressive ones (the Ikea float, the lincraft float... hmmm). On Sunday afternoon Kate had organised some of her friends to come over for a houswarming/welcome home/meet the girlfriend party, so I got a chance to meet a few more people I had been hearing about for most of a year, and catch up again with those I had met before. It was really nice to sit around and listen to a bunch of highly educated australians disecting current affairs - something I don't exactly get a lot of overseas. It was very nice. We also went for a walk around Kate's scarily perfect "village living" created suburb. Thankfully she lives right on the edge of it, as the rest all gets a little bit too "Truman Show" with perfect lawns and matched (though all slightly different and "individual") houses and apartment blocks in shades of beige. The perfect blue sky added considerably to the impression, I suppose! Anyway, now I'm back in hot and very sticky Brisbane, I had better get on with catching up on the two lectures I missed while I was away! I'll post photos soon, I promise.

Home again - Brisbane, Australia
visited Feb 25, 2006
I'm home again! Jet lagged and still exhausted even though I've been back a day and a half already. I'm off to see if I can remember how to drive (nearly 12 months since I last did) and visit people.

Going home - Vienna, Austria
3 Stars This place was Average visited Feb 23, 2006
I was only in Vienna long enough to catch a bus to the airport this time. I had hours to wait though, but couldn't do much as I had all my luggage with me. I met another australian at the airport though - I sat down next to her on the only available seat in the whole place (apart from the expensive cafe, of course) and noticed her "Student Flights" travel agent wallet. Figured she had to be australian, and as it turned out, she was a UQ student. We checked in together so we would be next to each other on the flight to Dubai. We parted at Dubai airport, as she was spending a week there, while I waited for my connecting flight. This will be the last post in the "while living in Istanbul" itinerary. I'll be in Brisbane for 4 months studying, then off to again at the end of June to work a summer school in England, and then a 6 month contract somewhere else. I'll keep posting here though, even while I'm in Brisbane. It's not strictly travelling, but then neither was living in Istanbul, and I don't have any other blog site!

Leaving Istanbul - Istanbul, Turkey
3 Stars This place was Average visited Feb 20, 2006
Our last day in Istanbul was a serious of almost disasters. It actually started the day before when they wouldn't let me into Topkapi palace because it was *just* too late. I lived in Istanbul for 5 months and didn't get to see the best Ottoman palace there is. At least we saw Aga Sofya - on the day before we left! It was amazing, especially when you remember it was built in what was the dark ages in England - 6th century AD. It had the world's largest unsupported dome for a thousand years, until Michelangelo topped it with St Peter's in Rome. It would probably have seemed an even more amazingly enormous space and dome if it hadn't been half filled with scaffolding, but at least it is good to see they are working to keep it in decent condition. So having spent Sunday afternoon doing tourist things, we met all the teachers from school for a last meal at a Meyhane - a sort of restaurant where you eat lots of little dishes (like spanish tapas). My favourite kind of meal. We (well, some of us) drank Raki as well - the turkish version of Ouzo. I had managed to escape traying it until then, but I'm glad I did before I left Turkey. While it isn't something I would like to drink regularly, it was quite nice. After getting home much later than planned, we spent a few more hours packing and sorting things, then got up the next morning and continued packing and sorting. There was lots to do. We planned to post a box of stuff each (despite reservations about entrusting anything to the Turkish postal system ever again). Roger came over - I think he thought we could go for lunch, but we drafted him into helping - finding boxes from the supermarket, buying us packing tape and helping squeeze things into the boxes. We ended up with 5 different boxes of various sizes, which was more than we wanted, but there just weren't any big boxes around, it seemed. We decided to take them in a taxi to the post office (even though it was only a 5 minute walk away, it was all uphill, and time was beginning to be an issue!) At the post office the troubles really started. First, they told us we would need to open all our lovely packed and taped boxes so they could search them for dangerous things that couldn't be posted. Such as glass. It turns out that the Turkish postal system doesn't trust itself with anything remotely breakable, so they wouldn't accept glass or ceramics. the main reason I had decided to post stuff home was because my students had given me a beautiful glass and brass narghile (turkish water pipe/hookar) and a lovely ceramic plate. I also had a set of Turkish tea glasses. Everything else in the box I wanted to post was basically packing for those things. The next thing they told us what that it was illegal to post any boxes that had writing on them. As we had used supermarket boxes they said things like "dishwasher powder" on the side, and other things that would no doubt confuse the poor postal workers horribly. We were provided with plain A4 paper and told to cover all the writing. There was also a small mountain of forms that needed to be filled in. All three of us were working on this, and when the first box was finally ready, I took it to the man who was helping us, and he finally weighed it and gave us a price. Over AU$300, or $133 sea mail. And this was for one of the smaller of our 5 boxes. We had been at the post office an hour, had pulled all the breakables out of their nice safe packing and jumbled them into our backpacks, had used up miles of packing tape opening and closing boxes, and we were due at the airport in about an hour. And they wanted to charge us probably $500 to post everything. We decided that for that price, we would take taxis and pay excess baggage if required. It would work out cheaper. So we walked out of the post office, and carried all the boxes back home. There, we swept everything that was left into our backpacks, gave most of the contents of our fridge to Roger, as a completely inadequate thankyou, and ran out the door, still carrying 5 boxes, and my backpack was full of glass and ceramics. Just as another tiny wonderful moment of the day, as I bent down to pick up my backpack for the last time, my old jeans decided to split in the inner leg. Luckily it wasn't too serious or noticable and I was able to ignore it. Not that I had time to do anything else! We still hadn't bought our plane tickets (although they had been reserved) so we had to ask the taxi to stop in Taksim so I could run up to the Yugolsavian Airlines office and hand over large quantities of cash, and then come back and race to the airport to get there on time for the flight! The excitement didn't stop there. We arrived at the airport, found a trolley for the boxes, raced through the xray machines at the airport door, and arrived at the check-in desk. I think we were about the last to check-in as no one else was there. We loaded all our luggage onto the check-in scales, and breathed a sigh of relief that we had made it. Then the guy at the counter mentioned that we had 60kg of luggage between us, and that the limit was 20kg each, and as it was a propeller plane, and quite full, he couldn't let us not pay excess baggage charges. He was very nice and apologetic about it, and said we only had to pay for 10kg, at AU$5 per kilo. We asked if we could take the smallest box hand luggage instead, and he pointed out that that would put us over weight on the hand luggage, but he would let us not pay for it, bringing it down to only 6kg we had to pay for. We decided that was well worth it, and I reached for my wallet, which only had $10 in it. So I asked Kate to find hers. That's when the problems started. Her wallet wasn't in her pockets. Nor in her backpack. Nor in her big pack. We soon had every bag open looking for it, and Kate went back to the xray machines at the door to see if it was there. The poor guy behind the check-in desk was getting quite distressed for us, I think. I started telling him about our dreadful time at the post office, and in the end he said "I'm very sorry for you, and you don't have to pay anything, I just hope you find the wallet!" So if you ever want to get out of paying excess baggage, find a sweet check-on person, and be completely hopeless. Oh, in the end Kate found her wallet in her backpack. It had got itself in to some place at the bottom where both of us had missed it several times each. We made our plane, exhausted, hot and sticky (it had been the warmest day in Istanbul since about October) and still pretty stressed, with absolutely no plans for our arrival in Belgrade. The plane was indeed a propeller plane, with only about 50 seats, and it was much noisier and slower than other planes - it took over 2 hours to get to Belgrade.

Albanian food? - Tirana, Albania
visited Jan 12, 2006
The albanians appear to have been conquered by every force that passed anywhere near them in the last 3 or 4 thousand years, which makes an interesting sort of mix. Italy is one of their closest neighbours (something I hadn't considered) so Italian coffee and food is everywhere, and quite a few people speak Italian, which helped us communicate a bit. The Albanian language (called Shqip!) sounds italian and seems closely related to the romance language group. Half the language, however, is turkish - the Ottomans were the invaders who lasted longest within the last millenium, and they definitely left their mark - in the food as well as the language. Actually, finding real albanian food is a bit hard. The cafes and fast food joints all advertise the same list of things: Byrek (Turkish Burek) Pice (Italian Pizza) Sufllaqe (Greek Souvlaki) Qofte (Turkish Kofte) and of course, the ubiquitous hamburger.

Durres - Shen Osman Kthupit, Albania
3 Stars This place was Average visited Jan 10, 2006
Durres doesn't seem to be marked on this map, which is odd, as it is one of Tirana's major cities, was the capital for the first half of last century and (probably because of that) is the hub of the train system. I've emailed travelpost to ask if it can be added! On the second day we wanted to take a minibus (furgon which is the same as a turkish dolmus) to Kruja, a mountain town with a castle where Skenderbeg, the national hero, once defeated the Ottomans. We wandered around the terrible crossroads that passes for a bus station for an hour or more looking for the right furgon. They are building an overpass there, so the whole area is a great big building site, and the furgons themselves have no signs, it seems you just have to know, or understand what the drivers or 'conductors' are yellling at you as pass. We did finally find an empty minibus with a driver who offered to take us to Kruja for 10 times what we expected - he wanted to play taxi, and take the two of us in an empty van. We didn't want that, so walked away and jumped on the next bus we saw to Durres, which was the capital of Albania for centuries. It was after lunch by then, and the trip took an hour over rough roads in a bone rattling bus, but the couple of hours of sunlight we had in Durres was about the right length of time to explore! We saw the Adriatic and a cluster of mushroom bunkers watching it, a few stretches of Byzantine wall, the modern town mosque (which replaced a historic one that fell down, apparently) and the Roman amphitheatre. We were peering through the fence around the amphitheatre when an old guy came and let us and sort of showed us around - the language barrier was interesting, as was his ability to mountain-goat all over th place while we struggled behind. The highlights were the mosaics that were part of the chapel there, but you could only see them by craning through two sets of iron bars around a corner. A pleasant town for a few hours, but we felt that was enough and found a bus to get back to Tirana.

Albanian Sheep - Tirana, Albania
4 Stars This place was Great visited Jan 10, 2006
Today was the day when Muslims around the world slaughter sheep ceremonially. This was definitely noticeably here in ALBANIA. Of course, maybe it had nothing to do with the bayram (bajram in albanian, or shqip, which is the albanian for albanian). It is entirely possible that there are usually sheep tied to lamp posts in albania's capital city. It is possible that seeing someone walk a sheep by the back legs 'wheelbarrow' style down the street of a clothes market (not even a food market' which I would have understood) is entirely normal. And people playing with sheep in alleys is an everyday occurence. Or maybe not. How would one ever know. Will write more soon - assuming I don't fall down a bottomless albanian pothole and am never seen again.

Shqiperise (which is Albanian for Albania) - Tirana, Albania
3 Stars This place was Average visited Jan 9, 2006
Tirana from the air is very odd. It's in a large flat valley, with a dramatic backdrop of snow capped mountains. It's hard to tell where the city starts, because as far as you can see, there are buildings dotted over the fields. While driving around we noticed the same thing - there isn't any real country there at all, just endless houses and buildings, mostly three storey and brightly coloured, each surrounded by a few fields and haystacks. The overall impression is of endlessly sprawling sparse suburbs, with fields instead of gardens. On the ground you can see the amazing building boom they seem to be having. Every second house seems to be only half finished, and even those that are obviously being lived in often have flat roofs with metal rods sticking out waiting for the next storey to go on. More evidence of the flurry of boom Albania is in is the state of half of their roads. Half of them have been dug up to be re-done, even in Tirana, leaving cars, buses, pedestrians all bumping over rocky lumps and potholes in the choking dust. Oh, and the other half of the roads are just like that normally of course. This probably explains the car wash phenomenon. The first word of Albanian I learnt after getting off the plane was "Lavazh" which means car wash. Along the road into town from the airport there seemed to be signs for them about every 5 metres, most of them not much more than a guy with a hose and bucket, I think!

Holiday plans: Albania, anyone? - Istanbul, Turkey
4 Stars This place was Great visited Jan 6, 2006
My school never gives time off without it being absolutely necessary, such as when a border needs to be crossed for visa reasons (one day off), Christmas (2 days off, though it was apparently 5 last year) and new years (1st of Jan is a public holiday). And, of course, the muslim holidays, like next week. I have 5 days off! So, instead of staying here and climbing our mountains of uni work (Kate's in exam time now, and I have 6000 words of assignments to write in the next 3 weeks) we are doing the sensible thing, and flying to Albania for the week. Well, for a few days, at least. We're flying to Tirana (the capital) on Monday morning, and fly back on thursday. We didn't have much choice - there seems to be only a few flights a week. At least with Turkish Air. Even if Albania does have an airline, I'm not sure I want to fly with them, so I didn't bother doing any further research! Three nights there should give us enough time to explore the capital and possibly the two towns near it that my guide book highly recommends. And apparently that is about as much of the country as you need to see! Except the beaches, of course, and as it's mid-winter, I don't think we really need to see them! Not sure why the idea of Albania has really captured my imagination, but I am really excited to be going to such an unusual place. It probably has far too much to do with the Dilbert comic strip, and its depictiong of "Elbonia". Oh dear...

New Year's Musing - Istanbul, Turkey
4 Stars This place was Great visited Jan 1, 2006
Our New year's plans were pretty much completely unformed until about 7pm, when Roger (one of my friends from work) rang and asked us both to a house party, which broke up aroung 10 so everyone could go into a club in Taksim. Due to general new year's chaos, Kate and I didn't end up going to the club (didn't really want to start the new year in a reggae bar anyway!) but had dinner in our favourite cosy pasta place, and then managed to be in Taksim square for the midnight fireworks. New Year's in Turkey is interesting. For a start, they can't seem to realise that there is a difference between Christmas and New Year, so all the decorating and other celebratory trappings get mixed up: Santa hats with 2006 in flashy lights, christmas trees that say "Happy New Year", even sequined bunny-ears-headbands, which seems to me to be a completely different religious holiday alltogether. And there is a strong tendency for people to sing 'Jingle Bells' after wishing you happy new year. It's all a bit odd really. So, being the end of the year, I thought I'd look at what I've achieved. During 2005 I: Lived and worked in 4 different countries (this is a record for me, I think) Spent a total of only 2 weeks in Bris-vegas (another record) Added 12 new countries to my list of places I've been Lived in Berlin - something I had wanted to do for years Lived in Sydney - something I must do again sometime Helped organise Queeruption in Sydney Met Kate Survived 5 months of long distance relationship Survived 5 months of live-in relationship (including intensive travelling!) Went to Queeruption in Barcelona Found a summer school in Britain that I actually want to teach at again (never happened before) Started a Masters of Education (TESOL) Added turkish to my list of languages I can get by in And something else I did in 2005: failed to finish writing up all the posts to this blog about our travels in august and september. I will finish them - I add a new one every now and then, so check to see if you've missed any. As soon as I've finished the 6000 words I have to write for my Masters course in the next 4 weeks, I'll try to actually get those posts finished! Glad I have a good memory...

2 nights at the Opera - Istanbul, Turkey
5 Stars This place was Amazing visited Dec 13, 2005
After the sad performance of West Side Story (see my earlier post) we were slightly trepidatious at spending another whole 10AUD on two more tickets to the opera, but I have wanted to see a production of Carmen for a long time, so we decided to risk it! I'm very glad we did! Far from the mess of WSS, Carmen was a wonderful production both visually and musically - the costumes were beautiful and colourful, the sets incredibly elaborate, the dancing polished (I think they might have actually rehearsed more than once!) and the singing beautiful. There were a few moments when I thought a little more drama and actual acting would have helped those of us who were having trouble with the turkish subtitles (opera is hard to understand in any language and the non-native french was mostly impossible to decipher) but overall it was a great experience. I don't think I had ever realised just how much famous music there is in Carmen. Hearing it all at once was fantastic. On the strength of that, we bought tickets to Madame Butterfly this week - another famous opera I have often wanted to see. Again a very traditional performance, with elaborate sets (well, set, this time, in the singular) and traditional costumes. Actually very traditional costumes - possibly modelled on original costumes from the 1904 premieres - designed by someone who had had a kimono described to them, but probably had never seen one! Butterfly's dress was something like 1900's dress with japanese features, such as long rectangular sleeves and an obi on the back! Quite pretty, of course! Like 'Carmen' the music was wonderful, though a few moments could have done with a little more drama to help those of us who couldn't understand their turkish-italian diction or the subtitles. I had to stop myself trying to understand the words after a while - both in Carmen and Butterfly, I found myself getting a headache after the first act or so - from trying to decipher singing in one language, subtitles in another and translating what I could into English for Kate! And it wasn't just the multi-lingual aspect that got to me. I suddenly realised at one point that we were australians watching a opera set in japan about an american sung in Italian performed by turks. Argh!

I think I like Eastern European food! - Veliko Turnovo, Bulgaria
2 Stars This place was Poor visited Dec 8, 2005
I had to leave Turkey to get a new visa, as my three month one was coming to an end (we've been here three months already, it seems!) and, after much discussion with Kate (Beirut? bad flight times. Lesbos? only one overpriced ferry a week. Cyprus? let's just not even go there) we ended up retracing the path we took to get here three months ago and headed for Bulgaria. We took an overnight sleeper train, and had our own two-bunk cabin with wash basin for the trip! It left from the station that was the terminus of the Orient Express, and I'm not sure they aren't still using the same train carriages. It felt quite luxurious, and not overly expensive (50AUD each way for a 12 hour trip) and, apart from being woken up for the border formalities (you have to get out in the cold for the Turkish part) we pretty much slept comfortably the whole way. Veliko is not the world's most exciting town, despite being billed as the number one highlight in Bulgaria. It was pretty, being situated on a gorge with a hairpin bend in the river at the bottom of it. It has a nice fort that is nearly 1000 years old or so, a few museums we didn't even bother with, and a wonderful restaurant (actually two - they are a chain!) where Kate and I ordered far more wholesome eastern food that we could possible eat all for 20AUD. It was so good that we went to the other branch of the same restaurant the next night to try a few more things. The enormous salads and feta cheese and stewy things were all amazing. We stayed one night there - in a hotel that was billed as the best deal in town, but where the lady who ran it was rude to us pretty much non-stop. We should have left right at the beginning - it certainly isn't the only hotel in town! We hadn't made a reservation, figuring it wasn't necessary in December, and so walked in off the street (it was easier just to walk there than to work out coins or whatever for the public phones). We asked to see the room, which seemed to annoy the woman, and she showed us a cell with two narrow beds, a dubiously beige bathroom and a view of the street. We asked about rooms on the other side of the hall (the ones with a view of the gorge). 'No. Full.' Then we asked about a room with a double bed. 'No double bed'. She grumbled to herself all the way back down to the desk. We should have left then, but it was definitely cheap, and for one night we decided we could handle it. While registering our passport details, she paused to complain about something at great length to a friend who had come in. Neither of us understand Bulgarian, but I am positive she was complaining about us. Her eyes never so much as flickered towards us, but her friend was not so well controlled, and by the way her eyes slid over us occasionally, we could tell we were the topic of the discussion. She spend longer whinging to her friend about us than we had spent in the hotel so far, so goodness knows what she was saying! I even started to think about reclaiming our passports and leaving, but didn't. She was short and unapologetically rude to us the whole time we were there, which thankfully wasn't much. At about 9pm, we were in our hotel room considering an early night, when we heard a commotion outside. There was a parade of what appeared to be morris dancers who had taken a few fashion tips from the KKK, all with what looked like cowbells of various sizes tied around their waists waving flaming torches. Half the town seemed to be following them, and not surprisingly we decided to join them. After putting on our many warm layers, we caught up with them easily (flaming torches and cowbells are not hard to follow) and followed them to a square and monumnet outside a shiny new hotel and casino. We joined the crown watching what looked like morris dancing. Then there were speeches. Then a bit of theatrics, complete with fancy lighting and atmospheric music - a guy in chain mail and a group of women in white robes and veils clutching tealight candles came through the crowd and posed and danced about a bit. Then things got confusing. Some strange little man in a bow tie and cape wearing a great big gold-coloured wreath around his head recited some sort of dramatic poem. It was all highly entertaining, even though we barely understood a word (Bulgaria was mentioned frequently). Then there were fireworks from the top of the hotel. Everyone craned their heads back to watch them explode directly overhead and then were forced to look down to avoid the rain of ash. Then we all spent some time dusting off our clothes. We finally worked out what was going on when a ribbon was stretched across the entrance to the hotel and a large pair of scissors appeared. The ribbon was cut, the people in fancy clothes all went in, and the rest of us rabble dispersed into the night. I wonder if that happens every night in Bulgaria...

Worst Side Story - Istanbul, Turkey
2 Stars This place was Poor visited Nov 23, 2005
We've discovered the opera here! The Ataturk Cultural Centre (the performing arts complex here) has an opera theatre and a program full of famous names, and the most expensive tickets are only AUD10! And it's a quarter of that for the top balcony! Not wanting to splurge that much, or sit up in the gods, we've decided the mid priced 1st balcony is our favourite spot! Tonight we saw West Side Story, figuring that whatever language it was in, we both knew it well enough to follow, if not recite the entire thing ourselves! It was with some excitement that we took our seats in the 'Big Hall' (such an original name for a theatre)and took a moment to appreciate the 70's decor (It's very similar to QPAC in Brisbane - both inside and out) and get freaked by the gold face of Ataturk leaning out of one wall at us (that guy is EVERYwhere). The appreciation started to wain when the orchestra started playing the overture. And then the 'dancers' came on and it wained further. And then they opened their mouths. Oh dear. We didn't leave. It was sort of compelling - in a 'how much worse can it get' sort of way. The dialoge was all in Turkish, but the songs were in English - with Turkish subtitles on an electronic signboard above the stage. For some odd reason they had significantly changed some of the words - even the ideas of the songs, and some of the new lyrics were definitely not written by a native speaker. The oddest part was where they changed the song 'America', which is originally a sort of musical duel between the Puerto Rican men and women, into an all-girl event, with one lone female playing the men's anti-US part. Very odd. Apart from that, the orchestra were sloppy and the dancing all over the place, which is odd cos the performers certainly weren't singers, so they must have been chosen for their dancing. The 3 main characters were definitely singers - Anita in particular was excellent - but the lovers themselves looked more 40 than 14. All in all it was an interesting experience, but we're really hoping that next week's performance of Carmen is a whole lot better!

Underground Cities - Kaymakli, Turkey
4 Stars This place was Great visited Nov 6, 2005
On Sunday morning we took a series of buses and domuses to get to Kaymakli, one of the most popular underground cities. We had been told that it was worth getting a guide as many of the rooms have no sort of explanation of what they were used for (stables, kitchens, living rooms, storage etc), but there weren't any official ones, and neither Kate nor I could stomach entertaining the hustlers that offer themselves as guides at the entrance. We decided to explore on our own, which would have been fine - if we had remembered our torch! We had carefully packed a torch when leaving Istanbul, then managed to leave it in the hotel room the entire time we were away! We did have Kate's little red key light, but that wasn't really enough. Although all the main passages of the city are well lit, there are many passages leading off the main route that invite exploration, but without a torch it's all a bit scary! Luckily we quickly met some other anglophones - an american couple who had bought a torch outside the entrance and were intent on exploring every nook and cranny of the place! The four of us crawled down every tunnel we could find (many passages were too low to allow just bending over) and poked the torch into every corner of every room. Surprisingly, it was quite warm underground, and between that and all the exercise and contortions required, we were soon stripped down to t-shirts and were carrying all the warm clothes that were necessary outside. I thought it odd, as I had heard that it could be quite cold in the underground cities, but I guess the caves are about the same temperature all year around, and it would seem pretty chilly in summer when it's 35 degrees or more outside! After more than an hour underground, we emerged mole-like into the grey sunlight, dusty, hungry, with thigh muscles killing from all the crouching and bending and crawling and hair full of bits of roof-rock from all those times we had failed to crouch and bend enough.

strange and unusual - Goreme, Turkey
4 Stars This place was Great visited Nov 5, 2005
The end of Ramadan meant both Kate and I had a few days off school and uni, so, again after much last minute discussion, we decided to fly to Kapadokya (in English it's spelt 'Capadoccia' for some reason) which is one of the most popular tourist destinations in Turkey (after Istanbul and the beaches that is). Kapadokya is a region right in the middle of Turkey that is famous for its bizarre landscape and cave cities - both above and below ground level. Both of these phenomena are caused by the thick layer of incredibly soft yellow rock that covers the whole region. The ease of carving rooms and passages through this rock has been exploited for millenia and there are whole villages that consist of cave-houses and whole 'cities' dug underground where hundreds, even thousands of people could live for months and months at a time in times of danger. Göreme is the main town in the most interesting area, but we stayed about 2km away in a tiny village called Cavusin. We were the only guests in the little hotel, and the only foreigners in town (apart from the busloads that arrived every morning to see the local cave village and church) and so the evenings were very quiet. It was grey the whole time we were there - and freezing - so staying out after dark (about 4.30pm) wasn'tt too appealing. We had dinner in the hotel (the guy who ran it cooked, just for us!) and spent the evenings drinking apple tea and playing backgammon! During the days we explored what we could of the area. It would have been marvelous to have been there a little earlier in the year when it was warmer and the days were longer, as there are dozens of walking tracks to follow. AS it was we didn't have time to walk more than a short way along any of them. The tracks lead through valleys of bizarre luna landscapes and the almost-ubiquitous Fairy Chimneys (see the photo when I get around to loading it), and often lead through caves and tunnels and other exciting things.

school and.. well.. school - Istanbul, Turkey
4 Stars This place was Great visited Oct 28, 2005
After a few weeks of working 35 or more contact hours a week, my hours have finally dropped to something reasonable, and I might even have time to write more often! I'm now working full weekends - at school from 9 til 7 saturday and sunday, but during the week I only have 3 evening classes - each three hours long, so I practically feel like I'm on holiday during the week. The classes are mostly allright though - each three or 4 hours long and all beginner, elementary or pre-intermediate. I prefer the beginner and elementary classes - it's nice to know exactly what your students know and don't know, pretty much, because you've taught them everything they do know! I've also started turkish lessons, just for fun. My colleague Suzanne and I thought it would be interesting to be on the other side of a beginners immersion language lesson for a change. And of course, turkish might be useful in the next few months. Unfortunately we started with a completely crap teacher, and pretty much failed to learn anything useful for the first week (8 hours) of classes. I don't know where they found this teacher, but she didn't seem to have any discernible teaching skills at all. She arrived over an hour late for our first lesson, and 40 minutes late for the second. On the third she brought a friend who sat next to her at the front of the classroom, and they conversed in turkish occasinally during the lesson. In front of us. The lesson content consisted of random lists of words - apparently whatever came into her head at the time. In the second lesson (that's after about 4 hours of class) she decided to teach us every verb tense that exists in turkish - all the suffixes that is. Of course, she didn't speak any english, so she was explaining entirely in turkish, which of course we didn't understand a word of, and we didn't actually know any verbs to add the suffixes to anyway. Mercifully, that teacher couldn't come at all for the 1st lesson in the second week of our course, so it was taken by the school director - the woman we had arranged to take the course with. And in those 4 hours, we actually learnt to say things! Whole sentences! And questions! We (the three of us in the class) had pretty much determined to ask her for a different teacher that day anyway, so it was a nice surprise. We begged her to continue teaching us, and, by changing the days of our classes, it was possible. It just means I have to go in to Taksim on my 2 days off as well every day that I work. But that's worth it if I'm actually learning something. The course will run about 8 weeks in total, so it won't be forever anyway. I'd better go get ready for today's lesson. I'm sure there was some homework I had to do... Kat

On the second day of Ramadan... - Istanbul, Turkey
3 Stars This place was Average visited Oct 6, 2005
There is some sort of big national festival. The largest Turkish flag I've ever seen has been hung from a building just accross from the school. And there was strange chanting in the streets, and the schools all have a holiday (but apparently no one else) and the usual impressively/oppressively strong police presence in the Istiklal Caddesi has been supplemented by other uniforms. Something to do with independence from something, I'm told. Turkish keyboards irritate me.

The Hammam - Istanbul, Turkey
5 Stars This place was Amazing visited Oct 5, 2005
We finally got there. After weeks of planning to go to the hammam and having to postpone the plan, we finally took ourselves to the Turkish bathhouse. We chose Cemberlitas, an expensive touristy one, as we were told it was probably best at first, just because they are used to silly foreigners who don't know what to do! Next time we'll go to a locals one. It was also strongly recommended to pay for the full treatment the first time around - again so that you know the drill next time! After paying your money, you go into the dressing room, to remove all your clothes and wrap a thin cotton bath sheet (like a sarong) around you before progressing into the bath room - or rather the steam room. It's all entirely segregated, of course, and men and women don't see each other at all after the entrance. The bath themselves consist of one great big room with no actual bath or pool in it at all. In fact, there is are no pools in a turkish bath - only taps and basins and lots and lots of steam. Cemberlitas is a historical hammam - about 500 and something years old, and the steam room is large and round with a domed roof with small stars and circles cut into it so you can lie back and watch the sky. The main feature of the room is an enormous raised marble platform which occupies most of the room. This is, as far as I can work out, the source of the heat. Everyone lies on the platform and soaks up the heat, and it's also where a nearly naked attendant washes and massages you, if you've paid for the full treatment. The wash and massage can get a bit personal, but it is relaxing - and you certainly get exfoliated! It's all done with mountains of sudsy foam that they produce by trapping air in a wet soapy pillow case and squeezing it through the fabric. I wonder if it's the traditional way... After getting washed, you go back to lying around with all the other naked women for an hour or so soaking up the steam and occasionally being dripped on from the ceiling. All in all it was a wonderful experience and I really wish I had more time to go more often. I wouldn't want to go back to the touristy one, but I've heard about one in Besiktas, which is near us, that is the hottest in town! And another not too far from my school that is the largest in town! Both sound worth checking out, and both are a whole lot cheaper than the most touristy one in town!

On the first day of Ramadan my true love sent to me... - Istanbul, Turkey
3 Stars This place was Average visited Oct 5, 2005
an sms asking if I had clothes to wash. But enough of my domesticities... Ramadan has started. For a secular country, this still seems to be having enough effect to disrupt things. Perhaps it won't be so noticeable after the first few days, but my evening classes will be starting a half hour later for the whole month, to allow the students to eat first. I have just been told this - 4 minutes before I was planning to be in class, and they tell me i have an extra half hour. mildly annoying. And we aren't supposed to eat in the streets. And this morning I had to change the planned lesson that was all on buying food in a cafe. I had planned it for just before lunch (that's my sadistic tendencies showing) but found I couldn't do it when most of them hadn't eaten since dawn and wouldn't til sundown. 3 mins at the photocopier, and it turned into a lesson on clothes shopping instead. We are also told we should expect a drummer in the streets at about 3 in the morning - to wake us up in time to eat before sunrise. Just what I need. Haven't these people heard of alarm clocks? More entries await uploading on my computer. If I ever had more than 5 min at home at a time, I would do it! soon, I promise. Although Nathaniel and Carolyn (of all people) arrive tonight, so computer time might not happen much this weekend...

Rejoice with us! - Istanbul, Turkey
5 Stars This place was Amazing visited Sep 30, 2005
We have a house! After two weeks in the hotel looking at flats and rooms in sharehouses that were never suitable, we have found a wonderful place in a suburb called Nisantasi (Nish-AHN-tasher). The area is known for being a fancy shopping place, and rather chic area of Istanbul. Turkish people are all very impressed when we say we've moved in here. One friend instantly asked "near the Armani shop?" which gives you some idea of the type of place it is! Of course, it doesn't look it in our street, but it is a bit nicer than some other areas we've seen. The flat itself is the largest flat we have seen in Turkey so far, with 2 bedrooms, a study, a garden and an enormous living room. It also just happens to have a washing machine, dishwasher, satellite tv, and, more importantly, internet and a wireless hub. We're sharing it with one Australian woman, who just happens to be going back to Australia in early February. She'll be away 3 months, during which time we have the flat to ourselves. Very glad to be out of the hotel and have access to a kitchen and laundry again. It's been a while, and eating in restaurants and handwashing clothes was really getting a bit boring! We had some trouble leaving the hotel though - there was a bit of a dispute over the payment. It's all way to complicated and boring to explain, but there was a little matter of 75YTL (which is just under AU$75) which the school thought we should pay, and we thought was the hotel overcharging us. The confusion was all due to a little discount the school was getting, which the hotel was trying to make us pay. It took more than an hour of stressful arguing before I worked out that if I asked my Director of studies (an English woman who speaks turkish) to explain it to all the turks I was dealing with in turkish, then maybe it would be sorted. And low and behold it was. I think I really need to learn turkish. And properly enough to argue with hotel morons.

First Impressions - Istanbul, Turkey
4 Stars This place was Great visited Sep 15, 2005
First real döner in turkey: disappointing. We were starving and went into the first doorway we saw with a kebab spit out the front. Turned out to be a kebab joint that aspired to restaurant status, complete with red plush seats and leather menu holders. We ordered one overpriced dürüm döner and a drink to share. It was entirely without sauce and dry and horrible. We'll have another asap, from an ordinary street kebab joint this time. Real Turkish Delight: We have found a wondrous shop. They have every sort of turkish delight and halva that you could possibly imagine. We are already regulars, and it's only 24 hours since we found it. I started with plain, vanilla turkish delight. Much chewier than any I've had before, and strongly and deliciously flavoured. Turkish Icecream: I never knew it was different! We bought an icecream each today when in need of a sugar fix. I can honestly say I have never uttered the phrase "I still have icecream stuck in my teeth" before. Turkish icecream is thick and slightly chewy, and very strong in flavour. And the chocolate is a rich dark brown and actually tastes like cold, soft, chewy chocolate! Incredible! The Bazaar Quarter: See, this isn't all about food! We wandered into the bazaar quarter today pretty much by accident, while looking for a post office and internet. At first it was wonderful, although the crush of people and noise and hawkers trying to sell you things by practically pushing them up your nose was slightly worse than in most of the rest of this city. We thought we'd just try to get through to the other side. Bad idea. Several tiny streets and alleys and uphills (there are some serious hills in this town) and millions of people later, my agoraphobia is getting the better of me, and we turn for what I think is the quickest way out along the quietest streets. The variety and quantity and fascinatingness of the things for sale is amazing and fantastic and looks incredible, but I think I will have to be more psychologically prepared before I wander in there again!

Room service... Room Service... - Istanbul, Turkey
4 Stars This place was Great visited Sep 13, 2005
Well, I think I'm in Istanbul. We've just spent two days and nights in a truck, so perhaps after a shower all will be clearer. We arrived last night, and were taken to Kadiköy (one of the major suburbs on the asian side of Istanbul) to our truck driver's company site, given a truck to sleep in for the night, and this morning were dropped off in a place that may or may not be called Saragoza. Our first necessity was money, so we looked for a bankomat, and found this net cafe just near it. As it's only 10am, we thought checking email for the first time since poland might be a good idea. I thought I had better see if my school had been trying to contact me before I contact them today and break the news that I have arrived without giving them any notice! This blog was planned as an up-to-date day by day account of our travels, but lack of internet access and time in the last 2 and a half weeks has made that hard. Over the next few days I'll go back and fill in all the blanks in this blog - we've definitely been having adventures, so there is lots to tell!

Arriving home? - Istanbul, Turkey
3 Stars This place was Average visited Sep 12, 2005
Driving towards Istanbul, I am reading the Salman Rushdie article in the book of travel stories i've been carrying for months. He writes about returning to India after more than 12 years away - after the Satanic Verses brouhaha. It's interesting to read something about going home while driving towards what will be my new home. At least for a while! The European Turkish countryside is noticeably different from Bulgaria and Romania. For a start, the roads improved the moment we crossed the border, and we are travelling on a 6 lane engineered marvel - better than we've seen since Hungary, I should think, and more of it too. The landscape consists of gently rolling hills, but the road doesn't go up and down much - instead there are long viaducts built over the valleys - each with a sign at the beginning to tell you the name of the bridge and exactly how many metres long it is. Without these signs I might not have noticed, as the bridges are no different to the roads, and unless you are looking at the side of the road, you don't notice that the tree tops are suddenly at road height! Another major difference is a lack of people. Instad of the road winding through constant villages, we have nothing but the occasional town huddled on a distant hillside. The fields are huge, obviously worked by machine (unlike Romania) and currently burnt to the colour of dust. The heat and dust haze means the sky is almost the same colour. 30 Km from Istanbul, according to the signs, and it feels like we are on the outskirts of a big city. 25 Km from Istanbul, I see a corpse. The traffic stops all of a sudden, an ambulance races past us on the hard shoulder, and everyone is changing into the far inside lane. When we get to the accident, there is a body lying in an unnatural heap with a few sheets of newspaper over the head and shoulders, and a growing bright red pool of blood seeping out from under it. The ambulance is already there, but the paramedics are just standing around. A few metres further on, an old beaten up truck with what looks like a scrape of red paint on one corner has stopped at the end of a long pair of skid marks. Maybe we won't stand on the side of major roads and wave our thumbs at passing traffic in Istanbul...

Friendly border guards!?! - Istanbul, Turkey
5 Stars This place was Amazing visited Sep 11, 2005
We crossed the Turkish border at about lunchtime today. Borders have been getting more and more complicated lately, and this one needed a map and directions. For some reason we couldn't just stay in the truck and have our passports checked there, but had to walk half a mile through no-man's land to the a gi-normous parking lot with a few little booths in it. There were no signs, so we lined up with everyone else, who seemed to be clutching bits of paper along with their passport, which worried us. When we finally got to the window we were utterly astonished to find a helpful border guard! After barking an initial impatient 'paper?' question at us, he realised we had no idea what we were doing, and came out of his little booth to point us toward the border police booths. Turns out we were lining up to declare our cars or something. Oops. Amazingly, the next border guard was also helpful and friendly. I presented my passport at a booth that had no line (turns out it was for turkish people only, or something). The guy took it, looked up my name, and then used it, nicely, while pointing us to the office where I had to buy my visa. And even that was easy. We returned, en-visa'd, to the next booth (which now had a shorter line than the first) and were shown yet more displays of amiability! My visa was stamped without comment, but Kate's student visa earned her a nod of respect! And then we had to explain that we were walking back the way we came to find our truck, which got more surprised and impressed noises from both the guards (the man from the first booth had come over to chat with his colleague while we were still there). Wonders will never cease.

Two days in the life of a Turkish Truck Driver. - Veliko Turnovo, Bulgaria
This place was Amazing visited Sep 10, 2005
Rides: 2 cars and a truck Countries: +1! (even though all we saw of Bulgaria was its Turkish truck stops) Drive 2 hours, stop for tea in a turkish truck stop (even in Bulgaria). Drive two hours, bribe a border guard or 6 - either with chocolate or euros. Lunch in a turkish truck stop. More tea. Drive two hours, drink more tea - yes, again in a turkish truck stop, even in Bulgaria. There seems to be a whole network of truck stops run by turks and catering exclusively to turks spaced a neat 2 hours apart all along what passes for the highway through Bulgaria. Sleep 7 or so hours (outside a turkish truck stop, after drinking copious quantities of tea), repeat. Leaving Bucharest, we caught buses and a tram and a minibus to the edge of town (which took about 2 hours longer than it should due to trams marked on the map no longer existing...), then stood on the side of a road in what seemed to be a small satellite village. Although it wasn't marked, I think we were standing at the local bus stop, and a few other people came and stood about waiting too, including an elderly woman, who did her best to chat to us. My Romanian was better than it had been a week earlier, but still pretty minimal, so it was fun attempting to communicate. She, and another lady who was also waiting, explained that we should take a bus, or a train. And we explained that we prefer to hitch. And they explained there was a bus, and a train. And we explained we wanted to hitch! Random side of the road conversations can be fun! And the old lady explained how she wanted to be as big as me, and that both she and Kate were two skinny, and that her sister was a big woman, but she herself never managed it. Eventually we were picked up by a young stockbroker in a tiny trendy-yellow car. He was off to play paintball about 20km up the road with a friend in the purple convertible that was following. After an in depth discussion of Romanian economy and all the countries he had travelled to on business and holidays, he dropped us off in the middle of nowhere, where another car pulled up to pick us up almost before we had got out of the first one! The second lift was an ancient battered 4WD with sideways bench seats in the back and four grubby, smoking men in it. It was towing a trailer that had in it, among the junk, a couple of live geese. We were squeezed into the back with two of the guys, and were taken to what we were told was the border, which runs through the town of Giurgiu. It didn't look very open - there were fences across the road, and when we we wandered towards a guard he waved us to left. So we tried the left side of the building. Another guard waved us to keep going. There seemed to be nothing to the left but a street with houses along it, so I turned back to the guard in confusion, and he made a big waving gesture as if to say it wasn't close. After studing the passing traffic of buses and trucks, we determined that the buses with "Istanbul" on the front were indeed going left and disappearing around a far corner. So we followed. Around the corner we could at least see the border station they were going to - a kilometre or two away. We had cut a corner in our efforts to see further, so we made our way back to the road, waving our tumbs at the trucks as we got close, and although we weren't exactly expecting them to see us until we were actually on the road, one stopped before we even got there! The truck was driven by Hasan, a middle aged turkish truck driver, who lived in Istanbul, but he and his colleague in the next truck were delivering a load of timber from Germany to the Iraqi border for the US Army, and planned to spend a night in Istanbul on the way. He spoke about 20 words of German, which was useful. Over the next 2 days he looked after us very well: refusing to let us pay for our meals and letting us sleep in his truck alone (at a turkish truck stop somewhere in Bulgaria), while he took the spare bed in his colleague's truck. We hadn't planned to spend a night with them - we had planned to stop in Veliko Tarnovo, but just as I was thinking "it should be close now, we should tell him we want to get off" I saw a sign for the turn off go past. We'd missed it! It wasn't much of a problem, as we'd been debating whether or not to stop, anyway. Kate wanted to get to Istanbul a few days earlier than planned, and we knew that it would be easy to return to Bulgaria from Istanbul. At least, easier than, say, Estonia. There were a few eye-openers on this trip, such as the state of the average truck stop toilet (actually, that wasn't a surprise at all). The fact that there are cleverly placed truck stops run by turks every two hours along the highway, so that the drivers never have to miss their teabreaks. The fact that they ate lentil soup for breakfast. The number of bribes of german chocolate or 5 euro notes it took Hasan to get his truck easily and relatively quickly through the bulgarian border. The fact that a truck driver existed who wouldn't try something inapropriate on Kate! Hasan was the model of decency. Unfortunately, his mate wasn't so good. At one of the stops, Hasan had suggested that one of us travel with his colleague, but we had refused as we always prefer to stick together, of course. Also, the colleague seemed like a bit of a dunce. We felt really bad when the bulgarian police stopped us late on the first night and Hasan had to give him a 10 euro bribe to not fine us for having more people than seatbelts. After that, Kate travelled with the colleague most of the time. As he spoke a few words of russian (about as many as Kate, really) and no german, it seemed to make sense that she went with him, and I stayed with our friend Hasan. Unfortunately, by midday on the second day, he was getting creepy, and holding her hand and that sort of thing. The usual. Somehow I'm exempt from the usual truck driver attentions, but my presence never seemed to stop them trying for Kate. For these reasons, we were very grateful when Hasan offered his truck for our first night. Unfotunately, unlike most trucks, his only had one bunk, and a very narrow one at that. Kate and I did, however, manage to get some sleep while sharing it. We probably would have been more comfortable in our tent, but safer in the truck! Hasan even gave us his keys and told us to lock the doors. Spending two days with a decent and hospitable turk was a great introduction to Turkey. Although he gave us his phone number, we never did contact him afterwards, which I still feel slightly bad about. I think he might have been hoping that we'd sponsor him to come to Australia or something, though, and I didn't really want to get into that. Still, I'm very grateful to him, and hope he doesn't think badly of us for not getting in touch after he looked after us so well!

Erk - Bucharest, Romania
1 Stars This place was Awful visited Sep 10, 2005
Bucharest was a horrible city. WE had been warned that we might not like it, and that we shouldn't plan to spend more than a day or two there, but that hadn't prepared us for the reality of Bucharest. After loving the rest of Romania, and appreciating the countryside and rural scenes and fresh air, Bucharest was a horrible shock. Dirty, dusty, even their big impressive buildings look run down and unimpressive. The so called historical quarter wasn't, and the ginormous "Palace of the People" that Ceausescu (the second and last of their communist era megalomaniacs) bulldozed a 6th of the city to build was hard to get to, hard to find the right entrance to, and they wanted a ridiculously overpriced entry fee to see inside. To improve our impression of the place, our hostel was grotty and felt dodgy, and with reason. We left some things in the fridge while we went sightseeing all day, and they got nicked. Including about half our dinner ingredients, and things that were in a plastic box tied up in a plastic bag (about as secure and "owned" as you can get in a hostel fridge). Luckily some friendly germans helped us out with a couple of ingredients and we were able to make dinner. A few hours after we left the hostel, I discovered my camera was missing. I like my camera, and it's the only one I've got, but the 100 photos on it are all the photos we had of Romania, as we weren't really using kate's camera at all. I was going to download them in that hostel but felt the place wasn't secure enough to display that I was carrying a laptop, and so I didn't want to get it out). So annoyed. Don't bother with Bucharest, just spend all your time in the rest of Romania.

Even worse... - Bucharest, Romania
1 Stars This place was Awful visited Sep 10, 2005
Just to top off our wonderful experience of Bucharest: a few hours after leaving, I happened to be rumaging around in my day pack, and for some reason noticed there was something missing. Namely, my camera. Yes, after years of not having anything much stolen (nothing but a dictaphone and expensive sleeping bag in Italy in 2003 and a travel-sized bottle of sunscreen in Oradea a week before Bucharest) I have had my camera stolen from my day pack in a hostel room. It must have been while we were cooking dinner (with half the ingredients as the rest had been stolen as well), which is, I think the only time it was out of my sight and unlocked. Pretty silly to leave it unlocked, but I had met many of the people in the dorm by then, and they all seemed trustworthy. The camera itself is a loss - I had got quite used to it - but Kate has a digital camera with better resolution, so I'll just have to work out how to use hers properly, and borrow it often. More of a loss are the 100 or so photos that were on the camera. I had noticed the day before that the card was nearly full, but didn't download them to my laptop, because I didn't feel the hostel was secure enough to display the fact that I was travelling with a computer. Those 100 photos were almost all the photos we had of Romania. We hadn't been using Kate's camera at all. There are a few of Oradea, which I will upload when I get around to writing that blog post, but apart from that, I have no photographic record of our time in Romania - the country I think I have enjoyed most this trip. I bet it was the same git who stole our dinner too.

Sighisoara, Romania

3 Stars This place was Average visited Sep 5, 2005
We arrived in Vienna around lunchtime, and were dropped miles from the centre, which isn't a problem, and not in sight of any form of public transport, which was. After walking a mile or three, we found a tram stop, and hopped on the next tram heading to the centre. We had managed to contact Kate's friendBojana, whom she had met in Russia, and after depositing our packs in a locker in West Bahnhof, we managed to meet her, and spend a lovely afternoon wandering about, sitting in a park, and exploring the international food festival that happened to be on (without actually eating any of it, as it was all extremely overpriced). As Bratislava was not far away, and we wanted to have time to spend with Bojana in Vienna, we decided to take a train rather than hitch. It also meant we didn't have to spend a night paying for accomodation in expensive Euroland, but could retreat back to Eastern Europe as quickly as possible!

Well, a campsite outside Cluj, anyway... - Cluj-Napoca, Romania

3 Stars This place was Average visited Sep 4, 2005
We arrived in Vienna around lunchtime, and were dropped miles from the centre, which isn't a problem, and not in sight of any form of public transport, which was. After walking a mile or three, we found a tram stop, and hopped on the next tram heading to the centre. We had managed to contact Kate's friendBojana, whom she had met in Russia, and after depositing our packs in a locker in West Bahnhof, we managed to meet her, and spend a lovely afternoon wandering about, sitting in a park, and exploring the international food festival that happened to be on (without actually eating any of it, as it was all extremely overpriced). As Bratislava was not far away, and we wanted to have time to spend with Bojana in Vienna, we decided to take a train rather than hitch. It also meant we didn't have to spend a night paying for accomodation in expensive Euroland, but could retreat back to Eastern Europe as quickly as possible!

Oradea - Nagy-Varad, Romania
This place was Amazing visited Sep 3, 2005
I have finally worked out what this website calls Oradea! I'm gradually adding photos and more writing to the (recently renamed) "Helsinki to Istanbul" itinerary. I just have Hungary and Romania to write now, and I'm nearly finished uploading photos for it! Unfortunately, these are the only photos of Romania that I have, as my camera was stolen in Bucharest, and I hadn't downloaded the hundred or so photos I had taken. Of all the countries we went on this trip, Romania was probably the most interesting and most beautiful. The loss of the camera was annoying, but the loss of the photos was far worse. I will write more about this later when I fill in the rest of the writing that needs doing. Just as well I have a good memory!

- Budapest, Hungary
4 Stars This place was Great visited Sep 2, 2005
We arrived in Vienna around lunchtime, and were dropped miles from the centre, which isn't a problem, and not in sight of any form of public transport, which was. After walking a mile or three, we found a tram stop, and hopped on the next tram heading to the centre. We had managed to contact Kate's friendBojana, whom she had met in Russia, and after depositing our packs in a locker in West Bahnhof, we managed to meet her, and spend a lovely afternoon wandering about, sitting in a park, and exploring the international food festival that happened to be on (without actually eating any of it, as it was all extremely overpriced). As Bratislava was not far away, and we wanted to have time to spend with Bojana in Vienna, we decided to take a train rather than hitch. It also meant we didn't have to spend a night paying for accomodation in expensive Euroland, but could retreat back to Eastern Europe as quickly as possible!