Montenegro: Kotor and the Adriatic Coast

From Mostar we headed via Dubrovnik straight on to Kotor, a little town on the shores of a fjord-like inlet. There truly could not be a more picturesque setting. The steep mountains start virtually on the shoreline leaving the town to hug the small...

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Sarajevo & Mostar: More food, relaxation and frustrating tours

Our second morning in Sarajevo started with an attempt to wake up for the sunrise. Our alarm was set for 5am assuming that sunrise was closer to 6am. Unfortunately this assumption was based on our experience in Istanbul and failed to take into account...

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Bosnia and Herzegovina: Sarajevo

So if you think that the Sea-to-Sky Highway used to be narrow and windy, think again. The road between Belgrade and Sarajevo would have put it to shame. Our bus covered the distance of approximately 325km in just under 8 hours. The reason for this was...

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Serbia: Belgrade

From Bucharest we headed by a 13 hour night train to Belgrade. Finding our seat on the train was an adventure in itself. We couldn’t sort out the car numbers, but when we found our seat numbers, we figured we were in the right place. When the conductor...

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The breathtaking Peles Castle

Our last day in Transylvania started out in the pouring rain. There was little point taking any of the gondolas up to the peaks, whether in Brasov, Busteni or Sinaia, given that all we would have seen were the inside of the clouds.Instead we headed...

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Transylvania: where vampires still roam the forrests

(I’m too tired to write anything coherent so for now this will have to do. Maybe over the next few days I will be able to revise this post.) Transylvania is famed as the home of Dracula, steeped in mystery and legend. Yet it is so much more. First and...

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Bucharest

There truly isn’t much to say about Bucharest. It is a large city with a very communist feel to it. The communist housing blocks comprise probably over 80% of the city and quite often hide the true gems that are stuck somewhere in between, be it churches,...

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Bulgaria: Country with the weird alphabet but fantastic food

We’ve now spent a couple days in Veliko Tarnovo, a quaint little town in the heart of Bulgaria located on the steep banks of the meandering Yantra River. The region is fantastic for day trips, hikes and rock climbing, but all these activities are weather...

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Sozopol: Our first true European stop

We arrived yesterday in Sozopol, a little coast town on the Black Sea, absolutely exhausted. It was the perfect place to rest up and relax and an ideal first stop in a new chapter of this journey. The Middle East and Turkey, as fascinating and enjoyable...

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Istanbul: From Asia to Europe all in one day

We are currently running on maybe 5 hours of sleep over the last 72 hours and are likely to add only a couple more to that total over the next 24 hours. As such, if this entry makes little sense, please accept my apologies.We left Bergama on the 10...

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Pergamum and the crowds

Just as in Ephesus we got up early and arrived at the ruins shortly after the opening of the gates. Again, the crowds were not bad, but everywhere we turned we could see them scurrying across the ruins, ducking behind corners, peaking around the bends....

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Same country, different sea

The last time I wrote we were on the south coast of Turkey relaxing on the Mediterranean Sea. We've now made it to Turkey's west coast and with it to the Agean sea.Our boat trip, although relaxing, did not turn out quite as we would have wished. We...

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Antalya and Standard Transmission Vehicles

From Side to Antalya it’s about 80km, so one would have thought about an hour would have been enough to make the trip. Well, I left Side at 3:30pm and finally managed to meet up with my next Couchsurfing host in Antalya at around 7:30pm.Antalya had...

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Side: a Turkish Playa del Carmen

Before heading to the coast let me wrap up a few Cappadocia matters. Firstly, the Whirling Dervishes, well, they whirled, and whirled, and whirled, and whirled. Nearly 45 minutes of non-stop turning. I don’t know whether I can say that it was a fascinating...

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Cappadocia: a land where time stood still?

I’m sitting right now on the terrace of our cave hostel trying to soak in the last rays of the setting sun as the temperature slowly begins to drop. Every time the wind blows a shiver runs down my arms and spine. As hot as it is during the day, the...

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Cappadocia: the land of fairies

One of the first things that came to our mind after we crossed the border into Turkey was the wish that all places were the size of most Middle Eastern countries. In Lebanon we managed to travel through nearly half the country in one morning. Unfortunately...

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