Turkish Travels

We flew into Bodrum last Saturday night and spent a few days at Danielle' Dad's apartment in the nearby town of Güllük. The apartment was high up on a hill with fantastic views of the town and the sea. Sunday we walked into the main part of the town which was a few bays over, had a nice lunch of Turkish cheese pancakes by the sea and stocked up on supplies, including Turkey and weird Turkish Raviolo. We made it back to the apartment just in time for a tropical storm, complete with thunder, lightening and hail! Fortunately we had plenty of rum and a pack of cards to see us through the afternoon.

Monday we lay by the pool and worked on our tans. The sun was wonderful and the pool "refreshing". Tuesday we spent half the day at the beach and the other half back by the pool. 

Wednesday we had an early morning flight to Istanbul then found our way to our hostel (cheers hostel) right in the middle of the old town. After checking in we wandered down to the water for the first of many kebabs for lunch. Then, after a bit of a nap in the rooftop bar we wandered round to see the Aya Sophia and the Blue Mosque (both of which were very close to our hostel) and the nearby park. Dinner consisted of more street food: round bready things and sweet corn.

Thursday we navigated our way through the Grand Bazaar (the markets) and explored inside the Blue Mosque then had a lovely cheap restaurant dinner of Turkish pizzas and chicken shish. Yum.

Friday we took a cruise up the Bosphoros, seeing many impressive buildings, bridges, a fortress and a couple of impressive bridges linking Europe with Asia. We then enjoyed some weird but nice Turkish ice cream before exploring inside the Aya Sophia church/mosque museum. It was huge inside and a very interesting mix of Christian and Islamic designs. Afternoon tea wad Turkish delight and Baclava and more street food for dinner.

Our last day was spent pottering around, buying souvenirs and such things. Of course, more street food was eaten, including one fish kebab. 

Back to London tomorrow morning. 

We flew into Bodrum last Saturday night and spent a few days at Danielle' Dad's apartment in the nearby town of Güllük. The apartment was high up on a hill with fantastic views of the town and the sea. Sunday we walked into the main part of the town which was a few bays over, had a nice lunch of Turkish cheese pancakes by the sea and stocked up on supplies. We made it back to the apartment just in time for a tropical storm, complete with thunder, lightening and hail! Fortunately we had plenty of rum and a pack of cards to see us through the afternoon.

Monday we lay by the pool and worked on our tans. The sun was wonderful and the pool "refreshing". Tuesday we spent half the day at the beach and the other half back by the pool. 

Wednesday we had an early morning flight to Istanbul then found our way to our hostel (cheers hostel) right in the middle of the old town. After checking in we wandered down to the water for the first of many kebabs for lunch. Then, after a bit of a nap in the rooftop bar we wandered round to see the Aya Sophia and the Blue Mosque (both of which were very�close to our hostel) and the nearby park. Dinner consisted of more street food: round bready things and sweet corn.

Thursday we navigated our way through the Grand Bazaar (the markets) and explored inside the Blue Mosque then had a lovely cheap restaurant dinner of Turkish pizzas and chicken shish. Yum.

Friday we took a cruise up the Bosphoros, seeing many impressive buildings, bridges, a fortress and a couple of impressive bridges linking Europe with Asia. We then enjoyed some weird but nice Turkish ice cream before exploring inside the Aya Sophia church/mosque museum. It was huge inside and a very interesting mix of Christian and Islamic designs. Afternoon tea wad Turkish delight and Baclava and more street food for dinner.

Our last day was spent pottering around, buying souvenirs and such things. Of course, more street food was eaten, including one fish kebab. 

Back to London tomorrow morning. 

Krakow

We have spent the past five days exploring Krakow and have really enjoyed ourselves.  Friday we caught an early morning flight from Gatwick, then managed to navigate our way into town and found our awesome and cheap apartment, just minutes from the centre of the old town. As per usual we spent our first afternoon orienting ourselves, stocking up on food at the supermarket and exploring the Christmas markets. We visited the main square that night and were impressed by the beautiful and colourful lights.

Krakow Main square

 Saturday we went straight back to the main square (Rynek Glowy) and into the big church, St Mary's. The inside of the church was impressive, with lots of colours, a bright blue roof and huge opening altar. The church is known for it's trumpet call every hour (for the past 600 years) which stops suddenly to reflect the legend of the trumpeter who was killed by an arrow while trumpeting to alert the city of the approaching enemy's army.

Inside St Marys church

 We also visited the Wawel Cathedral and the state rooms of the Royal castle, all of which were impressive.   Another highlight of Krakow is the planty gardens which is the city park which circles the old town and provides a nice green space (when it's not covered in snow) and a great walking path. While wandering through the gardens we admired St Florian's gate and the small section that remains of the 14th century city wall.  

Approaching the Castle

Castle Cathedral from inside castle grounds

Monday we took a tour out to Auschwitz. The tour was in two parts, with the first at Auschwitz-I, a well restored museum. Most striking were rooms filled with items from victims, such as shoes, brushes and one filled with human hair. Auschwitz-II was the more famous camp where 100,000 individuals were held at a time. An unimaginably large place.

Auschwitz-II, looking back upon main gate

Our last day was a fairly quiet one, generally wandering round, eating and drinking. Overall Krakow has been well and truly worth the visit!!

Beer time

Today we woke up to flutters of snow. We wandered round town this morning, stopping at the christmas markets for some warming Glüwein, then went to the Augustinerbräu beer halls (fits 1000 people) this afternoon. We had the Christmas brew, served in 0.5 & 1 litre porcelain beer mugs. Very nice.

Snowy park

Beer hall!

More snowiness

The snow this afternoon was awesome and the fortress and mountains invisible. We stopped at some different christmas markets for dinner of potato with garlic sour cream and the biggest chocolate eclair you've ever seen!!

Invisible mountains and fortress

Giant chocolate éclair!

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Location:Salzburg, Austria

Snowy Sunny Salzburg

After a shocking early departure from stansted airport (6:30am departure meant a 3:00am wake up) we arrived in Salzburg to light flurries of snow and the temperature hovering around zero. Bused into town and found our hostel, which is central and close to everything.

Spent our first day wandering around town, getting orientated and enjoying the scenery. By the afternoon the clouds had lifted and we could see the snow capped mountains surrounding town. We climbed up to an old monastery for some good views of the city. Highlight of the first night was finding the Christmas markets and having glüwein and chocolate pretzels for dinner. Rounded off the first night by by watching 'The Sound of Music', which appears to be the only DVD the hostel owns.

Garden from the Sound of Music

View over old town with the Alps and the Fortress behind

Day two started with a late breakfast before catching the funicular up to the fortress. The views of the city and the mountains were spectacular, particularly helped by a nice blue sky day. We spent most of the day exploring the fortress, the state rooms, torture chamber and a random puppet museum before wandering back down the hill to town. Now it's time to hit the Christmas markets again for some dinner.

View from the Fortress

The fortress buildings

View over town

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Location:Lasserstraße,Salzburg,Austria

Old town & New

From Tucepi we drove further down the coast, crossing into Bosnia for about 20km along the way (no stamp in the passports sadly). We arrived in Dubrovnik in time for a quick explore of old town before cooking dinner in our apartment. The apartment was in a fantastic spot looking over old town and out to the many surrounding island.

Us in Bosnia

The view of old town from our apartment

On Sunday we spent a bit of time hiding from the rain but managed a trip to the beach when it cleared up. There's over 400 steps each way to the beach so by the time we made it back up to the apartment we were ready for another swim! Instead we settled for beers on the balcony.

Monday was a beautiful day. In the morning we did the walk around the old city walls. This was a lot of fun and we got some great photos of old town. Next stop was the beach for some much needed refreshment in the beautiful clear water. We returned to the old town for Mels walking tour before returning to the beach for another swim then picked up donuts for afternoon tea. That evening we drove up the hills surrounding dubrovnik to catch the sunset and had dinner in a restaurant overlooking town.

Old town

Sunset over Dubrovnik

Tuesday was adventure day, we met our guide in the next towns ferry terminal before catching a ferry to the island of Lopud. We picked up kayaks here and kayaked to a nearby island with some excellent cliff jumping and an underground cave with an underwater entrance, slightly scary to swim into. Then we kayaked around the island to a tiny fishing village for lunch before paddling to our third island for the day, enjoying a quick dip off the rocks before returning to the start. Made for a huge day out.

Today the plan is to have donuts for breakfast before one last walk around old town. Then we set out for our last stop of the trip, Mlini.

The gorgeous pool at our hotel on the last night in Croatia

Location:Dubrovnik

Relaxing in Tucepi

The Coastal road down to Tucepi was nice and we stopped at various little beaches along the way. Our hotel was really nice, with a great view of the sea. That afternoon we wandered along the seafront promenade then enjoyed dinner on our balcony.

One of the little bays we stopped at along the way to Tucepi

View from our apartment

Friday was supposed to be "lie on the beach day" but instead it decided to rain most of the day. We started with breakfast buffet (donuts!) before managing to squeeze in a wander along the length of the beach and a coffee by the water before the rain really set in. In the afternoon Brad and Ryan went for a drive up a mountain, while Mel and Jenny went out for gelato.

View from half way up the mountain

Saturday morning was glorious blue sky so it was down to the beach for a pre-breakfast swim before tucking into even more doughnuts and chocolate croissants. We then went back to the beach for some sunbathing then departed for Dubrovnik.

The beach

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Location:Croatia

(Slightly) Sunny in Split

Arrived in Split after flying out of Gatwick at the highly uncivilised hour of 6am. Picked up our rental car (aka 'Da Ca') and navigated as close as possible to the city centre (the old town of Split is car free). After several near misses, wandering through several windy alleyways, we found our apartment. In the middle of the old town (UNESCO world heritage site), we had a cool location next to Diocletian's Palace. After wandering round town, the palace & the promenade, we returned for snacks & a nap before trying some Croatian beer. For dinner we ordered the largest pizza of all time ever, before returning to the promenade for a late night wander, catching a random croatian band live. Despite not understanding a single word we thought they were quite enjoyable.



The waterfront promenade

Part of Diocletians Palace

Dinner!

Thursday morning breakfast consisted of leftover pizza and doughnuts from the nearby bakery. Then after a quick wander we were back in the car heading along the coast to our next stop, Tucepi.

Doughnut breakfast

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Location:Split, Croatia