Merry Christmas all

Well, I know that I am a little bit behind in my blog updates. The last month has been, shall we say unorthodox. With accommodations that dont have internet (or internet running at 1995 pace), a Spanish air traffic controllers strike, a 'near death experience' at sea in a Mediterranean storm that made us miss Egypt (well, near death if you ask the Yanks on board) and the first time ever that snow hit the U.K causing airport closures, we are finally in a place were blogs can continue. So, watch this space, more updates will arrive when I get more organised. Until then, we wish everyone a Merry Christmas.

Bosnia and Herzegovina

Just up the road from Montenegro is Bosnia and Herzegovina. To get there we had to go via Croatia and I think the border guards are so used to people going through this small piece of Croatia to get somewhere else that they just glanced at our passports, pretty much just to make sure we had one I think, and sent us on our way. The drive up to Mostar in southern Bosnia was spectacular. The road followed a river through gorges and forests which meant that it was hard to keep two eyes on the road and not wander through the scenery. Mostar itself is famous for its bridge and even more famous for having it blown up. During the war, the bridge was unceremoniously destroyed by Im not sure who. The whole thing was captured on film. I cant help wondering why an army would blow up a monument like this bridge, KNOWING they will only have to rebuild it again later. It is a small bridge so it is not really strategic, you cerainly couldnt get a tank across it. It is the main drawcard in the city and really, is the only drawcard. Mostar is not a bad little town, but if it wasnt for the bridge, I dont know if people would come. There is a charming little old town that has a real Turkish feel, something that is common throughout the Balkans, having been under Ottoman rule for so long. Actually it was rather disappointing that the area was so like Turkey, since we spent a month haemorrhaging money in Turkey, we could have just come to Bosnia. In the old town here is a small bazaar selling toursitic trinkets, mostly made of copper since the town was fmaous a long time ago for its coppersmiths. But more interestingly was the trinkets made from things found from the war such as artillery shells, engraved with the bridge. It was a good way to bring about some good from something that wasnt.
Moving on, we made our way to the capital, Sarajevo. The city still has the scars from the siege which lasted over three years. It is hard to find a building that does not have bullet holes or shrapnel holes in it. It is a constant reminder of what can happen and I dont think people are in a hurry to paper over the cracks. The city also has a Turkish influence and feel about is, with numerous mosques and a large undercover bazaar. The best influence though is in the food. Cevapcici's have their origins in Turkish food but have been adopted by the people here, and they have done a very good job with them too. It is so simple, just small, rectangular minced meat sausages with a round piece of bread and some chopped onion. You get 10 for about $2 and it is so good and the city is famous for them. Apart from the food, the main other thing Sarajevo is famous for is the war, and maybe the Olympics, and of course being the place where WWI started with the assassination of Archduke Ferdinand. We found the spot where the Serbian Gavrilo Princip shot the Archduke and were surprised to find there was no plaque or memorial. Apparently there was a golden imprint of Princip's feet but that was discarded when the recent war started, because he was Serbian. When the city was under siege in the recent war, it was almost completely surrounded apart from a small area with access to the mountains. The U.N took control of the airport so to get resources like food, water and medical supplies in to the city, the people dug a tunnel 800m long and 1.6m high. Goods were brought in through the narrow stretch of 'free Bosnia' in the mountains and then transported into the city t=via the tunnel. Part of the tunnel still exists and the lady who owned and ran our hostel took us on a tour of the tunnel. She actually used the tunnel during the war so she had first hand experience of how it worked. It was good to see it still there, although not all of it since it went under the main runway. It is hard to know who was on the right and wrong side during this war, since all sides did some pretty ordinary things, but the Serbians do seem to be the main antagonists. So, lets go to Serbia.

Montenegro

Montenegro wil be the next big thing in Europe if our visit is anything to go by. Some stunning scenery even at this time of year. It looks like it is mostly set up for summer, and Germans, but I think once the word gets out the rest of Europe and the world will be there soon. All it will take is a cruise ship to visit and it will become as popular as Dubrovnik. The people are really frienldy and willing to chat to anybody. They have some nice old town cities and fortresses and as I said the scenery is its main drawcard. It wasnt as cheap as we expected but that is probably due to it using the Euro. Any country that has adopted the Euro has gone from dirt cheap to reasonable overnight, which is quite a big jump. We stayed in a locals house, with an old fishing boat captain who rents out his rooms. As soon as he arrived, he had us drinking his home made alcohol and we were having a chat. A very friendly guy and typical of old sailors, with lots to say and lots of opinions. They must have a lot of time to think out at sea. I think I will let the pictures tell the rest of the story. If you think you would like to go to Montenegro, get there soon because it wont be like this for long I think.

Albania

We made our way from Macedonia to Albania, through some great mountain scenery. As soon as we got through the border crossing, it was aparant that we were in a different country. The roads were different. At this stage they werent too bad, just different. The main road to the capital, Tirana, was sometimes like a country lane and sometimes like a one way mountain road and sometimes like a typical two lane road. That didnt mean it changed the way people drove of course, which is to say faster. It is like a rule that you must go faster than the guy in front, regardless of how fast they are going, and to do this you must be no further than one metre behind at all times. Most people in Albania have not had cars all their lives and in fact it has only been in the last 10 years that cars have become more reasily available. This means that generally people have only been driving for 10 years or less, and it shows. There are no rules really. Lanes dont mean a thing, right of way means the one who can get there first. If you want to get into a space, then you move over and THEN indicate. Tirana is crazy. You can fit five cars into a two lane road, no problem. We made it through unscathed though, more by luck that judgement. The city itself, apart from the traffic, is quite nice. It would seem that no one works because at all times on all days there are people everywhere. We were in a bar at about 2pm and it was full. I quite like the place though and would like time to explore it more, but as it was we decided not to head south (given the state of the roads, it wasnt a good idea) but to head to Montenegro instead.

Macedonia

Macedonia has had its fair share of history. Of course it is the birthplace of Alexander the Great (although now there are experts who think he was born in Albania), they took on the might of the Roman Empire (and lost) and still exists as a country today. But. Officially, Macedonia is called the Former Yugoslavic Republic of Maceondia because the Greeks seem to think that the name Macedonia belongs to them. Bulgaria also has a claim to Macedonia as it was a part of Bulgaria (and should still be according to most Bulgarians). I had a friend in high school who is Macedonian and people would give him crap about being greek. I can categorically say now that Macedonia is no where near Greek. They are Slavic in origin and, Im sure they would not like to hear it, closer to Bulgarians than anyone else. That is my observation anyway (disclaimer). The country itself is quite nice, mountainous and beautiful. Our first cab off the rank was the capital, Skopje. There is a large Turkish influence here, which makes sense since the Ottomans had control for a long time. But the Turkishness is somewhat overpowering, leading you to think what is Macedonian and what is leftover Ottoman. The food was really great, cheap and not for vegetarians (or vegans for that matter). BBQ is the name of the game here and they are quite proud of it. The other thing they are proud of is Mother Teresa who was born here. There are a number of monuments dedicated to her and a University. In the city, there is a large amount of construction going on, including a new bridge which will be a few metres away from the old bridge, at least that's what it looks like. There is an old castle which overlooks the town and you can walk up to it easily. When you get there you find from the outside it looks wel maintained, but on the inside is abandoned. There is a good view from its walls nonetheless. Dotted throughout the city are a number of statues and most of them seemed to be tampered with. Hula hoops were the order of the day and they moved from statue to statue as the day goes on, presumably so they all get to have a play. There is an arty feel to the city that borders on the eccentric.
We had a nice place booked for our next city, Ohrid, nestled on the lake of the same name. That was until we actually got there to find an old man telling us, in very broken English, to bugger off, hand wave and all. When I showed him a piece of paper that had our reservation on it, he sighed, said "no, hotel" and pointed down the road. This was a new experience for us, a hostel changing its mind about a guest before we even set foot in the place. The reverse has happened but not this. The old man disappered into the house and about five minutes later reappeared with a phone. He spoke to someone and then shoved the phone at me. The guy on the other end spoke English and informed me that the hostel was closed but that he would give us a room at his hotel. Immediately I thought it was a scam but then he said he would give it to us at the same rate. Ok. Just down the road we found the hotel, which also owned the hostel which made me feel a little better, and they gave us a huge suite, so not too bad after all. The town itself comes with a huge rating, being right on the lake. It is very small though and it only took us an hour to look around and honestly, the town itself was nothing to write home about. The lake is quite nice, very tranquil but I think that was to do with the time of year. During the summer this place must be choc-a-bloc, given the obvious tourist traps that were closed for the winter. The sunset over the lake went a long way to making the visit worthwhile, but it is not really a place I would go back to though. Macedonia overal, on the hand, I would definitely return to. I think there is a lot more to this small country than we saw.

Bulgaria: Would you like cigarettes with that?

Bulgaria would have to rank as one of the most unhealthy places going around. Everything comes with cheese, they put salt on already salty food (we saw one guy have a good 30 second shake on his pizza) and they ALL smoke. I asked someone if everyone smokes, he replied "Oh, yeah!" like it was something to be proud of. When I asked at what age people start smoking, 14 was the response. In spite of being a land of drug addicts, Bulgaria is a really cool place and the people are quite friendly, if outwardly gruff. Veliko Tarnovo was orur first stopping point and I think it was the best. It is an obviously old town, with an old town layout, that is to say it doesnt have one. Streets meander in any which way they feel like and buildings are built what feels like on top of other buildings, but all this just adds to the charm. It feels like there is a lot to see, without there actually being a lot to see. A few days go past and you ask yourself "what did I do?", you dont know but you enjoyed doing it. There is a great castle at the top of the hill, which dominates the town, and on certain days, is illuminated at night, synchronised with music. The resulting display is impressive. (Bulgaria is becoming an exciting place to live for expats, especially Brits and we met quite a few. There is a lot to attract people, the cost of living is quite inexpensive, the countryside is beautiful and the people are amiable, whats not to like (if you can put up with the smoke that is). Our next port of call in Bulgaria was Plovdiv. Quaint without being attractive to the point of "I want to live here". It has some interesting Roman ruins, mostly interesting in the way they are displayed. There is a ampitheatre right in the centre of town, in the middle of a pedestrian zone. Unfortunately, half of it is covered and you cant see it, so it is sort of on display. There are some Roman town walls too, somwhere. Even when we asked people, we couldnt find them. Mostly it was a nice, inofffensive town to while away a few days. Its the kind of place that you are glad you went, but are not sure you would go back. There is an interesting statue of an old guy with large ears. Aparantly it represents an old guy who used to hang around and listen in to peoples conversations, and then diligently report them to whoever needed to know, or so the story goes. It's a good statue anyway. Sofia, the capital of Bulgaria, was our last stop. It is a city that needs time to scratch beneath the surface to find all its glory. You can walk around and tick all the boxes, church here, architecture there, museum, gallery, check, check, check. After that, you wil be left wondering, did I actually 'see' Sofia. It reminds me of Adelaide in that way, in that it needs time for people to war to it. Unfortunately we didnt have that sort of time, but what we saw we didnt dislike. Our next country is Macedonia, which as more than a few Bulgarians made sure we knew "once belonged to Bulgaria", and Im sure they wish still did. In fact, choosing the losing side in two world wars "as long as we can get Macedonia back" is testament to this.

Turkey from above

Our next stop on the lap of Turkey was Cappadocia. It is an area full of 'Fairy Chimneys' and riddled with caves that have been used for centuries to hide and live. Early Christians used these caves to hide and set up churches and there are miles of tunnels, rooms and whole communities underground. From the outside they look like conical shaped chimneys with irregular holes in them. Driving and walking through them is great but undoubtably the best way to see the land is by hot air balloon. In fact there is an entire tourist industry based on hot air ballooning. Goreme is the name of the town and it has a certain touristic feel married to a local culture, if some what oportunistic. It was here that I found a 'real aussie meat pie' that was nothing of the sort. I have seen a few places around the world advertise the elusive real meat pie, but they always fall short, way short. For our balloon ride we had to get up at 5am, which made me think twice if I wanted to do it. There are a rare few things in this world that are worth getting up so early. We got picked up by a van with a dozen other people in it and drove about 10 minutes away to a large wooden hut in a field for our free "breakfast" which turned out to be tea, coffee and breadsticks. When we asked if there was anything else to drink we received a look of combined loathing and puzzlement and a rather short answer "no". We were only there less than five minutes when someone approached us and ushered us outside to another awaiting van. Apparently this company had overbooked so they were palming us off to another one, of which there are many and, as I understand it, are all part of the same conglomerate, so it really doesnt matter to them which company we go with, the money all goes to the same place in the end. The second van took us to a second hut in a second field with a second breakfast, again of tea, coffee and breadsticks. By this time, even though it was still dark, there were some balloons being prepared. I had never seen this before and was interesting in how it is done. The balloon and basket is laid flat on the ground and two large fans are placed either side of the basket facing the balloon. These fans inflate the balloon with normal air, until there is enough space to light the burner. Still lying on the ground, the burners are lit intermittently, heating the air inside the balloon until such time as the team feel it is ready. Then the basket is righted and the burner is used in its upright position until the basket is just starting to lift off. It is at this time that the passengers are squeezed in, five to a compartment that would comfortably fit two, with six compartments in all, four for passengers and one central one for the pilot. Just as the sun was coming up, so we also went up, along with at least 25 other balloons. I thought we would head straight up and get a good birds eye view of the land, but we spent a good 15 minutes at about the height of just above power lines. At the time I was thinking the pilot is either very skilled or very green. It turns out he was very skilled and was taking us almost withing arms reach of some of the taller fairy chimneys before we really took off and gained some altitude. There really isnt too much of a sensation to the balloon, I think mostly due to the quiteness of it, and the slow ascension and descension of the balloon. You really feel like you are floating in the air, which of course you are. The entire ride lasted almost an hour and the pilot put is down exactly in the place where he told us he would, in a small area boxed in by power lines, a road and a gully. Very impressive. We were given a certificate to say that we had been in a balloon (thank goodness too) one issued to Phil Johnson and one issued to Taya Dowelles, I hope that we see her soon to give it to her. A champagne toast later and we were driven back to the hostel were we got into our car for a 10 hour drive out of Turkey. As much as we liked Turkey, it felt good to be leaving and heading for somewhere new. Bulgaria

Hiccup Count - reprise

The hiccup count is gone but today we had a string of about 20 in a row and that deserves a special mention. All up for the whole day it must have been over 40.

It's not Kurdistan

That's right, it is NOT Kurdistan. At least not according to the Turks, who say that it is a part of Turkey and cannot become Kurdistan, and you can seriously be put in jail for suggesting such a thing. South Eastern Turkey is an area which is inhabited predominantly by Kurdish peoples, as is the border region of Iraq. It is almost a taboo to say you are Kurdish, hush hush, under the table sort of thing. Its hard to desribe, but this encounter with a Turkish woman might help. When she met another woman and enquired where she was from, Sanliurfa was the response, a town in SE Turkey. "Oh, well you're not really Turkish then are you, you're Kurdish". In the same conversation, when asked if the area should be an independent Kurdistan, the answer was an emphatic no, since "it all Turkey and we are all Turks". Its that kind of hipocritical attitude that has this part of Turkey not as developed as the rest. In a little village called Yucavali we stayed at a homestay program in this region. It was a fantastic experience and it is further evidence that those who do not have a lot are the first to be generous in giving it away. It is the same all over the world, only the rich and well off are not keen on being generous. In the village, everyone is related because there is so much inter-family marrying, mostly first cousins. People dont really leave the village so they dont have much of a choice. For some in the village there isnt running water, and there are often blackouts as we experienced. There are kids roaming about the village, some go to school, but some dont. The homestay program is bringing income to the village and things are looking up. The centre of the village is the giant settlement mound, which is exactly what it sounds like. A large hill of earth where settlements have been built on top of each other for thousands of years. In this mound you need only scratch the surface to find pottery from before Christ. The whole area is an archaologists dream and there will soon be a big wig in the archaological field coming to take a look, to see if there will be a dig there. The family we stayed with were sooooo friendly and they couldnt do enough for you. In the family there were two boys and a girl aged 18, 17 and 11-ish. The parents didnt really speak English but the two boys did a little, but we all got by with no worries at all. Ive never drunk so much tea in my life, but it is the first port of call on the welcome train to mix expressions. Tea is always offered and in this area they drink buckets of it. If you take one, you must take three. It is served at every meal. Speaking of which, the food was a highlight. All of it was home grown, organic by default, and all home made. Every morning the women make the bread, (and Tanya being a woman had to make it too) which consists of flour and water mixed together then cooked on a metal plate over a fire. It is so simple yet comes out so nice. Breakfast with still hot just made bread should be done all the time. It puts Baker's Delight to shame. We havent eaten so much on this trip, three meals a day whether you like it or not. It is served on the floor, as everything is done on the floor since there is no furniture in the house, and you help yourself. Everyone gets some bread, which you place whatever food there is in and wrap it. It is very simple but again, sooo good. Of course this is only put on for guests, when they are by themselves they would only eat rice and yoghurt. When you have one quarter of your bread left, it is replaced with a new batch. When your tea is almost finished, you are offered more. They cannot do enough for you. After dinner, the family makes their own entertainment. We had a great time entertaining the kids until it was time to sleep. There are two rooms in the house, one for men, one for women but since we are married, it is ok to sleep in the same room. Out come the beds which are stored cushions, and are placed against the wall. In the morning, the cushions are taken away and stored again. They are actually very comfy to sleep on. At the end of the three days there, we felt like we had made some more friends, learned a little Kurdish as well as Kurdish customs and hopefully left the place in a better condition than we found it in.

It's all ruined...

There are for sure a lot of ruins in Turkey. Some of the most famous ones you can think of are in Turkey, and there are quite a few that you wouldnt think are in Turkey since they are of Greek origin like Troy. Some are a bit meh and some are in good condition. Some come with magnificent views and some are in the middle of nowhere with noone around them. Here are some examples. In Bergama are the ancient ruins of Pergamom which doesnt have the romantic history of somewhere like Troy but was an important city in its time. It is built on a rather large hill and has the most amazing views of a lake nearby. There are not too many tourists here and you can wander around at your leisure checking things out, including one egotistical sized ampitheatre. Another more well known set of ruins is Ephesus. Famous for being the focus of a book in the New Testament written by St. Paul (who was born just down the road a bit), it was for a long time the second city in the Roman empire which would give an indication of its size and wealth. Today it is near the town of Selcuk and is the focus of the many cruise ships that visit (too many if you ask me, bloody cruise passengers!). On the particular day we were at Ephesus, there were four ships is port, but you couldnt really tell, unless you count the thousands of stupid people on tours walking around the place (some who were astounded that they have marble here too, just like in the States). There is still excavation going on but the parts that are open demonstrate how the city must have been at its height. Given that most of the city is built from marble, the whiteness of it must have been visible for a fair way in the sun. There are more ruins in Turkey than you know what to do with. You can get ruined out and sometimes you find yourself going past three thousand year old buildings of some significance without a second look. One such occasion was in Patara, the actual birthplace of Santa Claus, or St. Nicholas to give him his proper name. It is a small town off the beaten track but is has a magnificent beach. To get to the beach you have to go past the ruins of an ancient town, and to be honest we did just that, went straight past them. Some ruins sound better on paper than they look in real life. There is the ancient town of Haran which was Abraham's old haunt (yes, THE Abraham) which has lots of 'locals' who are kindly prepared to go out of their way and guide you to the best parts of the town, for a small fee of course. Since the town isnt that big, you dont really need a guide, but it can be difficult to tell them that. There are some good examples of 'Bee Hive houses' there but as to the actual Abrahamness of it, it falls in to the better on paper catagory. Out in the desert there are some ruins that are definitely not taken over by tourists, six year old boys driving tractors are testament to that. It is in this rural area that the prophet Jethro hung out. There is a fairly large set of ruins but since there is nothing around, I cant see the attraction. Most of the houses in the ruined city were subterranean and you can walk down into them without much of a problem. Also in the desert are ruins of 400 year old caravanserais. Since these are on the main road, such that it is, you can see why they are here. Trade is a strong motivator for building. Given the number of ruins in Turkey and the significance of most of them, it is easy to miss some. We tried to visit all that we can, but that would take a long time and we would be old, some would say ancient, by the time we saw them all. This is just a sample.

Gallipoli

When you arrive at the Gallipoli battlefields, you can immediately understand why the landings were doomed. The intelligence the British had showed smooth ground which would be easy to cover. It must have been heartbreaking for the ANZAC's when they saw the terrain, up, down, up, down. The whole area is full of gulleys, valleys and crests in such a small area. To travel 20 metres in one direction probably takes about 200 metres of actual movement. There is a road that runs directly along what was the front line and it takes you to all the battle sites in the area. The battle sites themselves are marked with monuments, both ANZAC and Turkish, and they all have cemetaries. The actual landing site at ANZAC cove is now a cemetary and has changed so much over the years with road building and car parks that the landing site is quite smaller than it once was. Looking at the gravestones is a mixture of eeriness, solemnity and wonder. There are so many that died on 25th April, 1915 the day of the landing. It is actually hard to describe and put into words what you see and experience there, so I hope that the pictures will describe it better.
Just before the Gallipoli landings, the allies tried to send ships up the Dardenelles. They bombarded the area before sailing through and destroyed the mines that the Turks had laid. However, during the night before, a small minelayer managed to put down some mines which sunk allied ships the day after and turned the naval battle in favour of the Turks. To the Turks this is a national celebration and the actual ship that laid the mines is docked in the town near Gallipoli, and has been turned into a museum. On the same site is the fortress that the allies were trying to knock out in order to get their ships up the Dardenelles, which is also now a museum. Inside there is a shell that embedded itself in the walls, that is still there. There is also, aparantly, two bullets that hit each other in mid air on the battlefield, and fused together. The amount of ammunition that must have been fired for this to happen is staggering. (I say aparently because it wasnt on display when we went through).
Another site that is near to Gallipoli but a little bit older and maybe more famous. Troy. With a site so famous and so old you would think that it would take a long time to go through. Three hours later and we had seen it all.
Ancient cities are usually small, but Troy is actually about eight cities built on top of each other. The history of Troy is interesting, but not as interesting as Homer makes it out to be. The ruins have been excavated for over 100 years and are still going. It is pretty cool to walk around a city that people lived in 3000 years ago and see that it is relatively advanced. It was a little subdued and understated for something so significant, which is probably why it only took three hours to walk through, despite reading everything and walking slowly. It was an experience, one Im glad we did. Next stop on the ancient trail, Bergama and the ruins of Pergammom.