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Thanks to Renault Eurodrive we have taken possession of a beautiful, black, sleek Renault Sport, which will be ours for the next 5 and a bit months.
I’ve even been allowed to drive it twice, but honestly, I leave the steep, windy mountain roads, the narrow, windy village streets and the blisteringly fast autostradas to Bruce. In Italy there aren’t many other roads!
Bruce with Elisabetta, taking over the black, sleek Renault Sport with tell tale red number plates
I’ve been silent for too long. Too busy travelling, too little time to write the stories and annotate the photos, and at times, poor internet.
We had a great time touring Bulgaria and Romania, dodging bad weather and learning a lot about Romans, Ottomans and Saxons in that part of the world.
We arrived in Milan, Italy last Monday and picked up the car we have leased for the next 5 1/2 months. Now we have stopped in Tuscany, near Sienna, for a couple of weeks, so we have time to catch up, post photos, tell stories. Look out for lots of news…
We are touring Bulgaria. We visited Sophia and from there visited the most important monastery for the Bulgarian Orthodox Church in Rila (thanks Steph), and the Boyana Church for it’s life like frescoes from 13th century, perhaps predecessors of early Renaissance art.
We also went to Veliko Tarnova to see where the Bulgarian Independence movement of the Middle Ages sprang. It is on the Yalta River and has fantastic fortifications on its rocky cliffs.
In all of this we found great difficulty as touring English speakers. We found a muddy road instead of rock churches at Ivanovski and Ruse on the Danube was anything but interesting.
Today, however, we had the best experience when we visited the Thracian Tomb of Shipka. The granite tomb was amazing, but even better was a young guide called Radoslav Petkov who tried with his very limited Engish to explain the history. Radoslav has just graduated in History and had been working for the Museum for a whole week. His explanations were wonderful and our ability to link this bit of history with the Egyptian tombs, the Hellenistic battles and the Roman conquers made today a winner. Thanks Radoslav!
In Form IV (year 10) we were given a choice – German or Geography. I choose German and whilst it has helped me in my travels and my language skills, I have always regretted giving up Geography, but none more so than when we visited Santorini. What a geographical experience!
Thera from Scaros Rock. Santorini
Well sometimes our Just In Time mode of travel becomes Just Too Late!
We booked accommodation for our next stop in Santorini BUT the boat between Crete and Santorini is full for the next two days. Oh well, we will just have to laze in the sun for another two days.
I guess you loose some and you win some. This has to be a win.
Amazones Village, Piskapiano, Crete
After
we need a rest!
So we are off to Crete for a week, where we hope to find a kitchenette and a laundry. We will catch up on paper work (I assume there is still some money in the bank) and Bruce will do some work.
We will also plan our next adventure, but right now we are thinking “The Balkans” until end of June.
We are having a great time, leaving home comes highly recommended.
I love a cup of coffee, but unlike Bruce I don’t crave it. Instead the coffee I enjoy most is with friends – one or many.
In Antalya, Turkey I saw a sign outside a coffee shop with a quote that matched my feelings exactly…
The heart does not want coffee or cafe,
The heart demands conversation with friends,
Coffee is the excuse in this case
So, my friends, we meet for conversation, not coffee. Something I miss right now, as we travel far and wide.
The Coffee Story
Part 4 – Cappadocia to Safranbolu
We were certainly becoming accustomed to bus travel around Turkey. The journey from Cappadocia to Safranbolu was the longest, more than 500 km and an overnight journey. So here is a little about what to expect on a Turkish bus:
It’s not an airline, but a well organised bus system, in Turkey.
Part 3 – Antalya to Cappadocia
With confidence growing, we prepared for our first over night bus journey. Comfortable clothes, an early light dinner and iPhones charged to listen to the music.
The driver from our hotel gave us instructions to take the bus with livery that matched the ticket. Four buses pulled out at 9:30pm, not one of them matching the yellow and black ticket.
Sixteen buses pulled into their bays for the next departure at 10:00pm and not one matched our bus ticket.
It was about that time that a man with limited English asked where we were going. Bruce meanwhile went looking for some assistance.
It turns out that our instructions were wrong and we should have been on one of those 9:30pm buses. And now we were told to bring our luggage and run (after a bus that left 15 minutes ago?)
We were piled into a minibus with the driver who was competing for speed with an ambulance with sirens blarring, in the same traffic jam.
We reached the bus, which had been stopped just out of town and shuffled in. Alas, not enough seats, so after some Turkish chatter, Bruce and I were given adjoining seats at the back of the bus. One young man was asked to give up his seat and sat on the step between the two double seats at the back. Not comfortable for a long night journey.
At the comfort stop in the early hours of the morning, the man who had asked where we were going, reappeared. By now I had learnt he was a policeman in the area of Cappadocia. He showed me photos on his phone of the sights we were expecting to see there. He also warned us about the sharks at the bus station in Göreme.
An amazing sight of thirty to forty hot air balloons hovering over Göreme in Cappadocia greeted us when we arrived at 6:30am, but the Information Office where we were to be met was shut. It was however a shadowy looking guy who knew who we were and where we were staying.
For further encounters with our policeman friend Dilaver, read Bruce’s blog about our run in with the law.
Part 2 – Fethiye to Antalya
We had survived the journey to Fethiye so we were better prepared for the next journey.
A minibus arrived at our hotel and transported us to the bus station and we were shuffled onto the bus.
What amazed us this time was the quality of the buses. Massive big vehicles with luggage compartments underneath that you could easily stow away in.
And on the bus, after our destination was checked, we were offered water, tea, coffee and cake, all from a little trolley wheeled up the aisle. Then rubbish was collected. There was a comfort stop half way through our journey where most people walked – to shake off the cobwebs.
The most amazing part of the journey was the speed and ease with which the bus driver navigated the steep winding road coming down into Antalya. This part of Turkey is mountainous, and those steep mountains seem to fall right into the sea.
We arrived at a massive bus station and felt overwhelmed. We have been to big rail stations and big airports. This was big. Buses were everywhere. People were coming and going in all directions, all knowing where to go.
Before long the two older, fair to greying passengers were identified by our hotel manager. What an easy journey. We are now masters of bus travel!!
