Day 20 - 22: Bulgaria

Early Day 20 we flew to Sofia, Bulgaria, sadly leaving Istanbul behind.

Sofia was.... disappointing. The city was dead, like a ghost town. Not just lacking tourists, lacking people in general! Not to mention the lack of things to see and do..  

We walked around down town for about three hours and saw everything there was to see then aimlessly wandered back toward the hotel for an early night, glad we only has two days there! 

Even dinner was a let down. A quaint traditional Bulgarian restaurant recommended by the hotel concierge desk, although the ambiance was great, the food was very plain and didn't impress me at all. 

Next day however, Day 21, the city redeemed itself when we set out to explore the mountain. Sofia is nestled at the base of Mt Vitosha, a 7000-odd foot mountain, with its base only a short taxi ride away from down town. 

A chairlift takes you up a few thousand feet and drops you off at a ski chalet where a number of hiking trails up to the summit begin. And here is where we found all the people! It turns out this is a popular weekend attraction for Sofia-nites. (Not surprising considering the lack of things to do or see in town.)

The climb to the summit took us about an hour and a half, just a little mountain, but it was fairly steep going. We went off-road to get more of a 'hike' out of it, since the actual path was a cleared gravel road, boring! Our track was slightly more perilous, over rocks and up a river bed climbing straight up. We passed by some ice sheets left over from winter and joined up on the main path right as we reached the top where an old weather station is sotuated. We found a niche out of the wind and had lunch, before trekking back down again for an all up five hour round trip. 

 

 

 

Day 22 was uneventful - ten long hours on a train from Sofia to Bucharest, Romania. The countryside is beautiful here - rolling fields of sunflowers interspersed with forests and open farmlands. So much open space, it goes on for miles! 

Day 14 - 19: Turkey

A 3.00am flight out of Cairo on Day 14 brought us to Istanbul at 6.00am, luckily our hotel had our room ready so we were able to crash for a few hours sleep before  setting out to explore later that afternoon.

I loved Istanbul! We stayed in the old city in the suburb of Sultanahmet, which is the main tourist area. That area is so picturesque - cobble stone streets with vendors on every corner selling roasted chestnuts and corn on the cob, cafes and resteraunts with outdoor eating areas spilling out onto the street, souvenir stalls and shops by the dozen all lit up by hundreds of Turkish lanterns in so many colours. These were by far my favourite!

 

Seeing the city had to be put on hold though as we set out early Day 15 on a two day tour to the Gallipoli Peninsula. After driving down there, we spent the afternoon at the ruins of the ancient city of Troy. They even have the Trojan horse from the Brad Pitt movie in the town as a tourist attraction.

Then Day 16 was a full tour of the Gallipoli Peninsula covering all of the battle sites from the Great War including ANZAC Cove and North Beach where our soldiers landed on 25 April 1915. They've still got the original preserved trenches. Ben was in his element being the history buff he is! Our tour guide was a wealth of knowledge and took us to the sites of the Turkish troops, explaining their histories to us as well as different views on the traditional ANZAC stories we learn in school.

 

Day 17, back in Istanbul, we spent wandering Sultanahmet and taking in the local sites - Sultanahmet Park, the Blue Mosque, Hagia Sophia and the Hippodrome. 

That evening we caught the Metro down to the Grand Bazaar. An indoor maze of a market place where we haggled some great bargains. Ben bought a leather jacket and I got a beautiful walnut wood and pearl backgammon/chess board.  

On Day 18, we had an early visit to the Basilica Cistern, an underground water reservoir...

...followed by an afternoon on one of the hop-on hop-off buses looking round the rest of the Europe side of the city with some great views over the bay and a look at Taksim Square where all the current protests are going on, then got off the bus back in Sultanahmet to visit the Topkapi Palace and wander round the huge palace grounds.

Day 19 we caught the ferry to the Asian side of the city. The views of the old city were so pretty from the water!

Over in Asian Turkey we met up with my... hmm... cousin-in-law once removed? Something like that! Anyway, we met up with Bianca who lives over there and she took us out to explore the Asian, less touristy, side of the city. We wandered the markets, did some shopping and introduced us to some great new foods, before we met up with her kids and said hi to them too.

We ducked back over to Europe, love saying that, by 6.00pm in time to go inside Hagia Sophia and the Blue Mosque before dinner.

 

 

After dinner we wandered back up to Sultanahmet Park where the Ramadan celebrations had begun. Hundreds of families had flocked to the park in frontof  the Blue Mosque, with huge picnic spreads, all waiting for the moment the cannon fires signifying when they can begin their feast! The Blue Mosque and the fountain were lit up for the celebrations too and people were wandering the crowds selling fairy floss and glow sticks.

...And, last of all, here's some more lanterns just cause I love them! 

 

Day 7 - 13: Egypt

On Day 7, we were up early and back out at the airport for a short flight down south to Aswan. In Aswan, we stopped at an ATM guarded by the local Police, fully equipped with unclipped MK5s!

We dropped our bags at the Nile Hotel which, as its name suggests, is right on the Nile. We had an amazing view right out our window. Watching out the window as the men carried crops on their donkeys, horse drawn carts bumped up and down the street and felucca sail boats gliding by, reminded me so much of the computer game Age of Empires!

After dumping our bags, Ben and I went for a walk to explore with Michelle and Adrian, the Danish couple. Our leisurely stroll down the street along the Nile was cut short though by a group of demonstrators forming in the street beginning to chant and shout. We sidled back down the street and back inside the hotel without any dramas though.

That evening we took a boat to Elephantin Island in the middle of the Nile to a Nubian Village. One of the Nubian men took us on a tour of their village before we stopped for dinner with a Nubian family, eating their traditional home cooked food.

One things that amazes me is that so many of the people live in mud brick houses with thatch roofs, riding donkeys for transport, yet they still have iPhones and satellite TV! And although there are modern toilet facilities, they provide a basket next to the toilet and ask you to put your toilet paper in the basket instead of flushing it down the toilet!

On Day 8, we had a 3am start, driving three hours out of Aswan to Abu Simbel, the massive rock temples built into the cliff at the old border between Egypt and (old) Nubia.

Entering any of the tourist sites in Egypt is a bit like running a gauntlet. Getting from the car park to the entry you have to pass dozens of souvenir stalls and the Egyptians selling them are intense! "Head down, walk fast, don't make eye contact, mind you don't get pick pocketed on the way!" They try and give you 'gifts', later demanding you pay for them. When you do want to buy something the bargaining is fun though! I haggled a magnet down from 250EL to 50EL and a photo with the guy on his phone!

Ben got offered a million camels for me by a guy who re-named me 'Shakira' and followed us all the way back to the bus, knocking on the door and trying to get me to come talk him!

Driving that afternoon we spent three hours going through desert and the mirages on the horizon were unbelievable! It really does look like a lake off in the distance, and even shows the reflection of the clouds and sand dunes.

Day 9  began with a short boat ride out to Philae, an island on Lake Nasser in the Nile, where we explored the Temple of Isis.

That afternoon we set out from Aswan on board a Nubian felucca sailing north on the Nile. We layed about on deck lazing on scattered cushions and mattresses, eating lunch, reading and sunbaking, then stopping to have a swim off the side of the boat... it really doesn't get much better than that. In the evening the boat docked and we slept out under the stars, after a very extensive insect repellant bath on my part!

Next morning, Day 10, after being rudely awoken at 5.00am when the sun rose, we were feeling quite stiff and sore from the night on deck. Not to mention quite grubby with countless layers of sunscreen, insect repellant and Nile water from the previous day. But, seeing as feluccas don't have showers we had to suck it up and do our best with a packet of wet wipes! 

After breakfast we got off the felucca and set out driving to Luxor, stopping intermittently to visit various temples along the way - the Temple of Edfu, Kom Ombo and Karnack, most of which we had completely to ourselves which is unheard of apparently!

By late afternoon when we reached Luxor, we were well and truly hot, tired and fed up, having added several more layers of sunscreen and insect repellent topped off with three temples worth of dust! We checked in at our hotel and had a much needed twilight swim in the roof top pool with an awesome view over Luxor.

Day 11 began with a donkey ride. Ben's donkey sure had his work cut out for him, although Ben's legs were just about long enough that he could put them down on either side and help him along! Twenty minutes later the donkeys deposited a rather saddle sore group beside our transport vehicle for the day, a pick-up truck! We piled in the back and set out to the Valley of the King's and the Temple of Hatshepsut with the wind in our hair... and plenty of bugs in our face!

Late that night we boarded a sleeper train in Luxor and awoke in Egypt on Day 12. First stop was the Cairo Museum, then on to the quintessential tourist destination we'd all been waiting for, the Pyramids!

 

Ben and I spent our final day (Day 13) and night in Egypt living it up at a five star hotel, relaxing and recuperating after a massive week, and getting ready for the next stage of the adventure!

Next stop, Turkey!

 

Day 6: Qatar - Egypt

Day 6, another travel day. We slept in and checked out late, then caught a taxi to the airport for our flight to Egypt.

We flew on Egypt Air which was an experience to say the least. There is no rhyme or reason to the boarding regime - a bus picked us (and all the other passengers) up from the gate and took us to the stairs onto the plane. As it got closer, everyone was pushing and shoving for prime position near the door because, as we saw seconds later, once the doors open its a mad free-for-all of scrambling to get on the plane and find your seat. Then, mid flight some guy just lights up a cigarettte and puffs away til the steward comes and politely asks him to put it out.

The flight was only three hours but was over miles of real dessert, the view out the window looked like an ocean with wave after wave of sand.  

We were picked up at Cairo Airport by a rep from G Adventures, the company running our tour. Ben and I aren't usually big on tours but with Egypt as it is we thought it better to be on the safe side, plus it included a lot of cool things we'd never be able to organize on our own. Considering the political situation that exploded nation wide through Egypt the day we  arrived, we were especially glad we had! 

The first thing we noticed on arrival to Cairo was the traffic! You think Canberra drivers are bad... come to Cairo and you'll get a whole new meaning to the concept. The traffic is a mixture of automobiles, scooters, horse drawn wagons and donkeys. Their main roads can be up to four lanes wide, however there aren't any lanes - no white lines, no cats eyes, nothing. To make things more interesting, speed limits are just a suggestion and everyone drives like rally drivers and uses their horns rather than their indicators when changing lanes and not bothering to give way when turning corners across traffic, just a beep of the horn means "I'm coming through" .  Funnily enough though there's no road rage as such, everyone just accepts that's how it is and gets on with it despite being cut off left right and centre! 

We were dropped at the hotel where we met the rest of a our tour group - a couple from Denmark, two Sydney girls, and a couple from the UK, as well our tour guide, then checked in for an early night.

 

 

Day 3 - 5: Doha, Qatar

Day 3 began in the air conditioned comfort of the Museum of Islamic Arts, conveniently located only a few blocks from our hotel.

The museum is a huge modern building down on the water with a massive collection of middle eastern artwork, including Arabic calligraphy, intricately carved wood panels, ceramics, jewelry and more.

Lunch in he museum consisted of camel cottage pie, yep - we ate camel, and white mushroom and haloumi soup! Delicious. 

After lunch we wandered through the Islamic Cultural Centre, a big spiral topped building that looks like a sandcastle (below on the far left). The centre has a mens' and ladies' mosque open to those who aren't Muslim so we were able to have a look inside. 

Later that day, we were picked up by Brooke, a friend of mine, who took us down to Souq Waqif (the markets). The Souq is a maze of alleyways full of stalls selling everything - traditional jewelry, clothing, food, spices, traditional home wares, toys, and souvenirs. 

  

We wandered the stalls amongst throngs of Qataris dressed in the traditional garb that made it feel like we'd stepped into an Arabain Nights movie! We went into one of the many restaurants in the Souq for another dinner of delicious middle eastern cuisine! This time we ate at a Syrian restaurant - 'Damasca', I even tried a few puffs of Brooke and Ben's flavoured tobacco through the shisha.

I'ts such a different culture here. Doha comes alive at night with most people only heading out for dinner around 8-9pm. At 10pm each night we've discovered it's normal to see families, with young kids and babies, sitting down to start their evening meal, or wandering the shops which are open well into the night.  But it makes sense, after all, by 10pm at night it's dropped to 36 degrees, which seems almost cold compared to the 50 degree days!

On Day 4, we had a pre organized tour at Aspire Dome, the sports complex equivalent to our AIS in Australia. Melanie, a work friend of Ben's dad, showed us around the multi million dollar complex and explained to us how the program works. Melanie works in a program attempting to identify young talented females. The girls must train in a completely female environment with security at the doors to prevent males entering as they are not wearing an abaya or hijab. Unfortunately once a lot of the young girls reach puberty they stop training as their fathers and/or brothers no longer allow them to.

The hotel at Aspire is the torch, it's a 300 odd metre tall cylindrical building with 47 floors. On the 19th floor a pool juts out from the wall, hanging over 100 metres off the ground!

Next door to Aspire is the Vilagio shopping mall.  Like the name suggests, it has an Italian design with the ceilings painted like the sky, canals running through the walkways and gondolas available to sail up and down in. There's also an ice skating rink in the middle of the food court! Much to Ben's displeasure I got some shopping in!

That evening we went back to the Souq for dinner at 'Al Adhamiyah Iraqi Restarurant' and a few more hours wandering the alleys and browsing the stalls. We also walked up to Doha's Grand Mosque.

On Day 5 we caught a taxi to the 'City Centre', the biggest mall in Qatar. From there we got on board the 'Doha Bus', the city's new hop-on hop-off tourist bus that tours all the major tourist sites around town. The company was still in the trial phase and we ended up getting it for free and were the only ones on board - our own private tour bus! 

We rode the bus from City Centre up to Katara - the man made beach and shopping centre, however being Friday - the holy day, everything was closed, so we stayed on board and continued on to to 'The Pearl' - the man made residential and shopping circular island built around a central island. The middle is full of water where all the residents park their yaughts.  

We stayed on the bus for its entire loop which took us back through town, down past the Souq and the Museum of Islamic Arts before finishing back at City Centre again. We had a late lunch at Applebee's where I tried a burger with 'beef bacon' - no pigs are harmed in the making of beef bacon! *Sigh* ...it's just not the same.

We ended our final day in Doha back at the Souq. Ben met the local firies and had a look over their truck before we headed back for an early night, ready to fly on the next day for leg two of our adventure. 

Day 1 - 2: Doha, Qatar

On Day 1 we flew out of a very wet, cold winter day in Canberra to Melbourne where we boarded our Qatar Airways flight to Doha, Qatar. 

We arrived in Doha at 5.30am on Day 2 to a sweltering 33 degrees, which later reached a max of 45 degrees!

We flew Qatar Airways and I was thoroughly impressed. Every seat had its own entertainment unit with hundreds of movies and tv shows, including new releases. There was pretty decent leg room, for me at least, the food was great and I even managed to sleep eight of the 13.5 hour trip.

After landing early morning we went through customs and got our bags. A quick taxi ride later and we were at our hotel, checked in by 8.00am.

The rest of the day was a lazy day, acclimatising and getting over jet lag. We walked a few blocks at lunch time... big mistake! The heat is dry which is bearable, but the wind is like an oven and the sun is intense. So we escaped back to the air con of our room for the arvo until it cooled down.

Around 8.00pm we met up Brendan with a friend of a friend of Ben's who took us to dinner. We ate at a restaurant called Al Mourjan on the Corniche Promenade, sitting outside alongside the waters of the Persian Gulf with a spectacular view of the new part of the city of Doha. The food was great - plates of cold mezza: dips, bread salads etc for starters, and mixed grill for mains. 

After dinner, Brendan drove us around into the new city and out to Katara for ice cream with a view over the water back at the city. On the way home we detoured past the man-made island 'The Pearl' before arriving back at our hotel around midnight, exhausted!