Bear Pics

So I'm pre empting the blog post... But I saw freakin' BEARS in Brasov... it was awesome...

Admittedly they were just mooching rubbish on the outskirts of town, but still... BEARS

Diana Bolea (the most awesome of hostel chicks) let me take some of the pics she had already (because mine are crappy and stuck on my camera). So much love and thanks to her...

Love, Hugs and Vampire Kisses
ANt

Ve Vant to suck your Blood... Or at least hav your Lei

So I was wrong... it isn't Romania that is weird, just Bucharest... Brasov (and Transylvania) is actually quite cool.

Because Brasov was pretty well booked out when I arrived I slept on a couch till 3am before I got a room in the hostel and I had a nice (if bland) dinner at a traditional restaurant. My biggest complaint about Transylvania is that Romanian food is not amazing... it's a little boring (My "asian chicken with chilli" in Bucharest was a little dull too... and the only thing asian about it was if had rice).

Sylvia at the hostel is amazingly hectic... like she's on speed hectic and it's hilarious to watch. "I'm shooting... well not really, we have a word in Romanian that is like shooting but not and sounds different and that's how I feel... it is a saying I can't explain", is an example of how she was carrying on trying to find everyone who owes money for the rooms. She treats us all great though and has made the stay at this hostel (The Rolling Stone) pretty awesome. Hence why I've staying the extra night tonight rather than staying in Sighasora.

I did watch a stupid HBO Spartacus tv show the first night though... really bad. Cross Oz with Gladiator and 300 and you've got the right idea... all tits and dicks and stupid violence pretending to be real.

Anyway Brasov looks WAY better than Bucharest (I love the town sign on the hill). After a sleep in I went for a breakfast pizza and wandered around the town a lot. I then got the cable car up to the top of the hill to the sign and decided to walk down... so of course it started to pour with rain and I got a little soaked (I did have my jager poncho though). I guess getting rained on is my tribute to Jonathan Harker.

The bear watching was canceled last night so I spent the evening drinking with Eonie a Scottish/English girl (she was from the border) and today I did my castle tours of Bran and Peles. Peles was the most insanely over the top ornate palace I've been in... It appears when they go nuts for decoration the Romanians REALLY go nuts (see the palace of parliament too). Bran castle touts itself as "Dracula's castle" even though it isn't... Still very scenic though.

Anyway time for dinner before bear watching...

Love, Hugs and Kisses
ANt

Romania is really weird...

So my trip to Bucharest was a little bit chaotic... Obviously the first part of the train trip in Turkey needs to happen on a bus. And the first thing that greeted me on the bus was a girl with longer and thicker underarm hair than me... haunting in that "I can't take my eyes off it" sort of way. I then got to sit next to a crying Romanian girl for the bus ride. After we eventually got to the train I got to jump into a sleeper car... That was pretty cool, I felt very Sean Connery-James Bond getting to travel across borders in a sleeper car. I was sharing with a German dude... he was nice, but very very serious about everything. It was a bit "we make conversation now", "it is sleeping time now" etc. Waking up at 3am to cross the border (not to mention that it took FOREVER to get my passport back) was a bit sucky though. A stop for an hour or so in Bulgaria around 12 was annoying too as noone took Lira or Euro... But I'd been told that Bulgarians nod their head no and shake their head yes, and it's true! They actually do it.

Bucharest is a really fucking weird city though... I couldn't quite work it out. It had a lot of WTF moments... I had massive trouble finding my hostel (not the least because it had two addresses) and I found what seemed like whole blocks that are just empty/abandoned. It's like whole blocks went broke (including the strip clubs... which are EVERYWHERE).
There was also a metalica/motorhead/slayer concert (or something like that) in Bucharest that day so of course I ended up at a metal club after going to dinner. It was a refreshing change after a week of Turkish pop. Vaguely related to that, metalheads worldwide all dress the same... And on that note have you ever noticed the only difference between a fat metal chick and a fat metal guy with long hair is the beard (and vajay jay obviously). So there was a lot of windmilling on display and a couple of dudes dancing in a rather amusing way (or having a fit I can't tell)... Very cool. The "half dan" salute also lives on in Romania now.
Traveling alone means I get way less opportunity to cut way loose like I would at home, but if you were traveling in a pair would you be that happy if your "other half" kept going nuts all the time? And in a larger group you're risking the development of a "man of shame". Smoking is also not banned in Romania and it was so smokey in this basement you could barely see by the end. I planned on leaving early but ended up having to much fun so once again I was out till 2am. I also nearly wandered into the Shisha bar I walked past too...

Anyway for my day in Bucharest I went to the Palace of Parliment (after observing that Romanians appear to love to rollerblade). The palace of parliment is apparently the second largest admin building in the world (after the pentagon) but it's still not entirely completed. It was so insanely over the top though (especially given it is barely used). Very pointlessly/dictatorially opulent but just kinda depressing at the same time as it's just a waste. On that tour I saw a "Billabong New York" tshirt... Wtf?

I also bought my train tickets to Brasov and Prague. Now Lex may mock the Germans customer service abilities, but the Romanians were mindblowing... Admittedly I was buying a train ticket from a city I wasn't in to another country... but it shouldn't be that hard.

And of course some old guy assumed I was Romanian.

I also nearly missed my train to Brasov, and when I got on it my cabin was padlocked...

I'd like to say I arrived in Transylvania on a dark and stormy night... but I didn't... it was just a rainy late afternoon. And the chick running this hostel is pretty hilarious

Love, Hugs and Kisses
ANt

Istanbul (not Constantinople)

So it has been a while since I last wrote anything so I feel compelled to write a decent length post here.

Anyway after a brief hiccup leaving Xanthi (something about deciding not to run the train "because this is Greece") I ended up hopping a midday bus the next day to Istanbul. So after saying bye to Rosie (who gives the best hugs in Frisbee), Matt and Karen I spent what felt like ages (but really wasn't that long at all) on a bus full of Nannas getting clucky over the one child on the bus (who wouldn't shut up). I nearly lost my bus at the border with turkey when I was the only one that needed to go off and get (pay for) a visa and it started to drive off before I came back...

Karen was right though... Xanthi backlava was AWESOME and compared to it the Turkish stuff here in Istanbul just in't cutting it=(

Anway I got in late(ish) in the arvo/evening to Istanbul and was immediately confronted with the most chaotic and insane bus terminal I've ever seen, but with skill, luck and fortitude (my bag is kinda heavy) I managed to negiotiate the combined train and tram network from the Bus station to my hostel in Sultanamet... kinda like the "temple bar" of Istanbul... Touristy/Backpacky but still cool.

I trudged up to my room after checking in to be greeted by something on one of the beds that was even more distressing than used condoms... a travel bible... So I ran for dinner (kebab of course). I returned to find 4 christians in my rom and I lasted a good 26.4 minutes before I took off for a shower and a quiet beer downstairs with the soccer.

So of course the table I ended up sitting at was 4 Australians, 2 Canadians and an Irishman and I sat down in the last spot just before the waterfall... say goodbye to THAT quiet beer. Anyway these guys and girls were getting pretty loose and spent so much money at the bar that we got unlimited free shisha all night for the rest of our stay...

The group was also the first time I could remember everyones names. Aiden was the Irish guy, Jo the Canadian girl and (get this) Richard the Canadian guy (easy), Nick and Chris the Australian guys (my cousins' names) and Phoebe and Katie the Australian girls (my other cousins' names! woot coincidence).

Towards the end before that carted off into the nightlife Chris even pulled out his guitar for a version of the Axis of Awesome's 4 chord power song... Very cool and easily the best backpacker song to play ever.

Next morning I woke up and faffed about for a while and then went to the Blue Mosque and Aya Sofia (the Church of Holy Wisdom). Both were very cool and quite monumental, Because Aya Sofia used to be a Byzantine Orthodox church before it was converted to a mosque it's also the only mosque I've seen with pictures of Mary and Jesus in it. I also wanted to go to the palace and archaeology museum but being a Tuesday they were closed. So I had a midday siesta and the went to the Grand Bazaar.

It was chaos there, not as bad as you'd imagine though... All the carpet dealers are elsewhere it seems. Another nap and I joined Nick and Chris for a pipe or three and a few drinks, with Jo and Richard joining us later. Now Nick and Chris went to Knox or Shore or somewhere like that and were pretty typical private school north shore kids. And Jo described Richard (somewhat harshly, but hilariously) as "an ego with arms and legs" but they were all fun kids.

I started the evening by joining Ina the finn (who had a stud on one of her teeth...) and after her friend got back from her date she left us to be replaced by Nick (number two) from Perth and his two friends. But I had a relatively early evening (2am again) as I was off on my gallipoli bus trip the next day.

So I woke up at 630 in torrential road flooding rain to jump on a bus for the 5 hour drive to Gallipoli. My good weather run continued though as it wasn't raining there. 7 of us on the tour with our guide Eleif (A-Leaf), a 50 year old bogan couple and a 20 something year old bogan couple included. They mean well and can't help being bogans though... they thought I was pretty amazing though given I could sleep stretched across the aisle on the bus and was so "super seasoned" travel wise. They were talking about thieves for ages, how amazing it was I'd travel alone and that I eat local food and try things like shisha.

I could bag them but I won't... as I said they mean well and they're WAY better to deal with than Americans. Kind of a "wow this is different" approach not a "hunny we don't do that at home! they're wrong".

Gallipoli was a pretty cool place to see... lots of photos and I find it awesome that the Turks love it too... Because it is where Attaturk cut his teeth and the only front of WW1 they won..

Elief was an awesome guide too and had good knowledge. Very "modern" in her views too... like the "modern young turks" you hear about... A pretty kick ass ambassador for turkey really. But everyone on the bus was getting down on "sleepy the bus driver".

And then it finally happened... a turkish guy spoke turkish at me during a pit stop assuming I was turkish... everywhere I go that happens... I should be a spy or something.

After getting back to Istanbul late I met Nick, Chris, Jo and Richard and we got a little bit loose on the town... Lots and lots of fun and the first time in a while I've gone out stupidly late etc... 5am home. Jo and I went a but nuts on the dancefloor (Turkish pop is quite gay really... and No speak Americano is a big hit here too) and Nick and Chris pulled out their "Rhodesian" accents my man... These accents are so insanely un PC and rude but very very funny...

"We hunt the darkies at night... but you can't see them so you have to aim for their teeth..."

"We're not racist though..." "Ahhhh we're racist"

"Mugabe was a smart darkie.. during the war he wore a frown and sunglasses... so we couldn't see him my man..."

A sleep in today and I went to the Palace and Archaeology museum... The arch museum was pretty cool (if you're into that). I might be a less sophisticated thing, or a we were pillaged by the europeans thing, or a we don't care about it thing or perhaps a the ottomans trashed it all thing... but the museums here don't have the same level of exciting stuff as other places... especially byzantine stuff.. just lots of broken statues. But both these places were pretty cool.

EDIT- After writing the above I managed to lose my berlin ring =( but I bought two fancy ones today at Taxsim square and I made it to bed before 2am for the first time in Istanbul! And because I was the first in my room to bed I was even able to turn the light on to get ready for beddy byes. I did a cruise up the Bosphorus today, starting in pouring rain. It was pretty interesting but the cruise did combine two of my most hated things in Istanbul. Stupid American (and British) tourists (both young and old) and sleazeball turkish guys... Americans are so freakin' stupid stop comparing Istanbul to places you've been before... it's Istanbul and as such an absolutely unique and amazing city... Asking where the suburbs and CBD are is just pathetic. And watching Turkish men try and pick up little blonde tourist girls 15-20 years younger than them is pretty sickening... they're not interested and just afraid to tell you to piss off..

I did see some nice views and a couple of pods of dolphins though =)

Lunch at the fair end of the Bosphorus was nice, but I probably didn't need 3 hours waiting in the rain to return. But the weather was a lot nicer. Then when I got back I went to Taxsim square (sober and in daylight for once) and walked "the street". That was cool... some very cool places along the way (and a decidedly high number of piercing and tattoo places given the lack of stupid piercings and tattoos I have seen here.. but then again 16 million people... I took a few photos especially of this graffiti fist I first saw in Berlin and I think I saw in Paris... and I have seen all over Istanbul. I wish I had more time to explore that area, but I guess you could spend months wandering all the alleyways there.

Then I got lost trying to find the tram stop and spent a while wandering through the "dodgy" parts... which ironically where safer for me given there'd be noone targetting tourists and noone was trying to sell me stuff...

All up Istanbul is a pretty amazing place... Hard to believe I've only been here 4 days... But yeah quite cool.

A couple of random observations

Cats are everywhere

The turks love a bromance and bromantic embrace... and whatever the female equivalent is

Cats are everywhere

Turkish emos are funny

Cats are everywhere

Vendors will say "euro" when quoting a price and then accept that amount of lira... dodgy!

Cats are everywhere

The only thing more annoying than Americans in your hostel is groups of 20-30 european school kids... SHUT THE FUCK UP and stop it with the hairspray too!

And did I mention cats are everywhere?

Love, Hugs and Kisses from Kitty Town

ANt

So Greece makes Newtown seem car friendly...

So I left my packed out Parisian hostel to wander the streets of Paris for a few hours with my heavy ass bag on. I saw lots of old fancy buildings without knowing 100% what they were.
I then hopped a train for Charles De Gaul and I almost instantly understood why that airport is so hated. I was over an hour early but I still nearly missed my point due to incompetant security staff and southern europeans inability to line up. I then slept the whole flight which was pretty kick ass, but I did miss dinner.

Landing in Athens to a transport strike however meant that I couldn't get a train into the city and had to hop a bus, which dropped me on the other side of the city from where I wanted to be (the central station). I thought about walking across the city but in the end hopped a taxi for 6 euro (bargain!) to where I needed to be. I then got into the hostel to find Rosie had cooked a dinner... I <3 Rosie. We spent the night telling travel stories and catching up and it was lovely.

Friday we slept in and then we did the wander around Athens. We went to the Parthenon and Acropoplis etc... Very good to see but much as you imagined... There are lots of fallen down buildings in Athens.
We also had a delightful time watching the pigeons run around with their "I'm a sexy pigeon" puff up as the females ignore them... A trip to the Athens flea market was a tiny little bit more organised than I thought. Until we went off a side lane and it became exactly what you imagined it would be. Some very cool shops and some tourist traps rubbed shoulders but I was loving the chaotic antique stores.
Rosie and I also made friends with a hilarious greek man. He stopped me walking past asking me where I got my (Mac uni games frisbee) shirt and then dragged us into his store... He showed us all his foreign money and then his first dollar he earnt (back when he lived in melb) and then promised us that he would make us look like a proper greek boy/lady. He gave us some "lucky pennies" and then told me how handsome a greek boy I am and that if he was a greek lady he would be in love with me (!). He then started with Rosie, who while clearly not looking like a greek is also amazingly beautiful and needs to have both cheeks kissed and her nose rubbed and then a bit of a neck nuzzle... it was very very very funny...
A reasonably long overnight train (leaving at 11.59) got us to Xanthi the next day where we had a lovely day wandering around and hanging out with Karen. We got to watch the Australian team not lose in the soccer (maybe we should just start training and practising one man down?) and then Matthew got home and we went out to a really cool dinner and drinks...
Today we jumped in the car (for the first time in a while) and went out to a Greek Orthodox monastery in the middle of a lake... And then we had another MASSIVE (yet awesome) lunch in the village Matt is from... Then we got to watch NZ not lose to Italy... yay
Xanthi was lots of fun and very "Greek"... Just what I wanted to see.

Off to Istanbul tonight and I think I've even got some accomodation booked! Way to work ahead Anthony

Lθvε, HugΣ αnδ Kιssεs
ΑΝτ