Monday, July 20, 2015
Trip Seven - The Big Triangle
| "Bye, Bye, Peter" |
So
it's time for Trip Seven. My students have all said their Goodbyes and are
leaving for their summer holidays on the beach so it's time for me to pack my bags
and jump on a plane.
The Plan
I'm staying in Europe again this summer and doing my best for global warming as I fly a month-long massive triangle of 10,700 km around three corners of Europe. As per last summer I am perversely determined to experience more contrasts so this time it's between North and South, hot and cold, in both temperatures and people I suspect. Northernmost point of the triangle is Bodo in Norway with a temperature range of 10-16 degrees in August, then in mid-August we are in Van, east Turkey with 13-27 and then Western-most Georgian Tbilisi with a warm 19-31 before moving south to Armenia.
So it's the (very expensive) delights of Scandinavia for the very first time including visits to Denmark and Sweden along with Norway and then heading South to an old favourite,Turkey, the eastern regions this time.
The Turks are usually very friendly so I'm curious to find out why my guide book warns you about going out after dark in somewhere called Diyarbakir where the local kids are reputed to throw stones at unwary tourists.
Also included is a trip to Armenia, a country that has been on my list for a long time and to get there it's been recommended by one of my students that I take the cheap option and go via Georgia by bus. So Georgia gets an inclusion as does Macedonia because it's very near and I like the Balkans.
The Plan
I'm staying in Europe again this summer and doing my best for global warming as I fly a month-long massive triangle of 10,700 km around three corners of Europe. As per last summer I am perversely determined to experience more contrasts so this time it's between North and South, hot and cold, in both temperatures and people I suspect. Northernmost point of the triangle is Bodo in Norway with a temperature range of 10-16 degrees in August, then in mid-August we are in Van, east Turkey with 13-27 and then Western-most Georgian Tbilisi with a warm 19-31 before moving south to Armenia.
So it's the (very expensive) delights of Scandinavia for the very first time including visits to Denmark and Sweden along with Norway and then heading South to an old favourite,Turkey, the eastern regions this time.
| The Alleged Stone Throwiing Kids of Diyarbakir |
The Turks are usually very friendly so I'm curious to find out why my guide book warns you about going out after dark in somewhere called Diyarbakir where the local kids are reputed to throw stones at unwary tourists.
Also included is a trip to Armenia, a country that has been on my list for a long time and to get there it's been recommended by one of my students that I take the cheap option and go via Georgia by bus. So Georgia gets an inclusion as does Macedonia because it's very near and I like the Balkans.
 |
| One of them Norwegian Fjords |
As for Bodo, it's tad north of the Arctic Circle so presumably experiences all-day light and all day darkness at least once a year.
As for the triangle here are the measurements: Madrid to Bodo 1970 miles, 3170 km
Bodo to Yerevan 2190 miles, 3520KmYerevan Madrid 2490 miles, 4010 km
So the Plan is almost finalized and we have 38 nights on the road, with 27 hotels (18 one-nighters), 12 flights, 13 different airports, 4 cars, 3 trains and a bus.
Trip Highlights are expected to be Bergen, the snow of Kars (in Summer ?), and the apricots of Armenia.
The Reality
What a crazy idea, flying to a place called Bodo up beyond the Arctic
Circle in deepest Norway and then hiring a car to go to see a glacier
and after that off to the extreme east of Turkey breathing on my
dreamt-of Armenia over the gorge at Ani.
| Some old Geezer in Norway in December |
After that the sheer grandeur of Mount Ararat and the stark, dramatic scenery of the Caucasus mountains, well, the Lesser Caucasus. And the view from the top of Nemrut Dagi at dawn.
And then the impossibility of finding where you are in Turkish towns, the miles and miles of mind-numbing emptiness in Eastern Turkey before the Caucasus appears. The appalling roads in the wilds of Armenia where straight-on signs are followed by a Y junction and the similar extreme difficulty of finding any of the places your taxi driver has recommended in Macedonia. Compare the charm of the old town of Tbilisi while the old town of Yerevan has been destroyed and replaced by Armani, Boss and all the rest.
But if you wanted to experience a wild comparison of locations in Europe (well, plus Armenia and Georgia) this trip provided it. And what a wonderful contrast in locations. Bergen, Oslo, Bodo,
Stockholm, Copenhagen, Istanbul, Sanliurfa, Diyarbakir, Van, Kars, Trabzon, Tbilisi, Yerevan, Skopje, Athens, Lake
Ohrid to name but a few. Tourist hells, empty plains, volcanic land that is full of black stone for miles around and towns and
places that nobody ever goes to. Freedom here but restraint there, rich and poor.
And
what a varied number of living styles can there be in the world?
Copenhagen - the noise of Freedom Personified to the rigid habitat and
life in pious Sanliurfa via the normality of Macedonia. The isolation of
Goris surrounded by mountains and squashed between Turkey, Iran and
Azerbaijan where silliness reigns and people, or rather governments, across borders don't speak
to each other.
To places where I felt an honoured guest, (Where are you from?) to the tourist hot-spots of Lake Ohrid in Macedonia and Athens.
The Highlights
The Main Highlight has to be the fantastic scenery that I saw in Eastern Turkey and Southern Armenia in the Lesser Caucasus. No single picture can show the dramatic landscapes of plain, valley and mountain and there is so much of it. So I found one picture that will give you an idea.
Mount Ararat. And the single most impressive sight was to see Mount Ararat, the highest mountain in Europe and Turkey at 5165m.
It really is most impressive. Here she is in winter, so in August there's less snow than here and apart from its height it is of course famous for being, apparently, the resting place for Noah's Ark. And not content in seeing it close-up in Turkey from the west we also travelled round to the other side to see it from the east in Armenia. Not so simple because this part of the world has a few problems and people here, namely the Turks and Armenians are not on speaking terms due to the Genocide that took place in 1915. So the border is closed, no flights and you have to go via Georgia.
Ok, a long round trip but the famous RV17 highway is good and almost empty even in summer and the weather is holding.
Ok, they had to rebuild the stern but they say it's 95% original and it certainly looks like it. Of course, you can't go on the ship but there's lots of exhibits all around and you can spend a couple of hours marvelling at this 17th century time capsule that only sailed 1.5 kilometres in its short life before it capsized in Stockholm harbour where it was preserved thanks to the non-alkalineness of the water.
So here it is. I expected to see a tiny splinter like the preserved relics of saints but no, its a 4"x3" chunk behind that gold cross. Down on the bottom left it has a piece missing, presumably the piece that was removed for carbon dating. 6000 years old was the convenient result.
It's stored in the museum of the Echmiadzin Cathedral, just outside Yerevan, Armenia, which is considered to be the old cathedral in the world, Armenia being claimed to be the first State to accept Christianity as its religion.
There was so much noise coming from one street that I headed that way to see what was happening. They had closed the street, in the middle of the city, laid artificial grass down the middle and there was hundreds of people there having a ball.
Oh, and the place is bursting with blonde's on bikes.......
And it's strongly encouraged, by your pension host, that you climb the last 600m "before" sunrise....ie 5 o'clock...Well, I just missed it but here it is just after sunrise.
And there's a cracking restaurant at the Cable-Car entrance. Everyone speaks English, the food is great, it's cheap and the view from the balcony is amazing.
Armenian Roads. Recently my brother-in-Law fell asleep while driving in Spain and completely destroyed his car. Fortunately this cannot happen in Armenia as sleep is impossible while driving. Seat-beats are not only compulsory but a necessity to keep you in your seat. Why? Because you'll be buffered, thrown about, jolted from side to side, pummelled and bruised by the state of the roads.
But outside Yerevan the roads are APPALLING. Every word that you can think of applies; broken, patched, bumpy, ridges, pot-holes, uneven, anything over 60 is unsafe and you know there's really trouble when you see a 30kph sign; because the road turns into a dirt track.
It's now one of the major tourist attractions in Armenia.
Macedonia. I spent five days in Macedonia and was a bit relieved to get back to a little normality after Turkey when dress sense can be a little heavy with headscarves all the rage in many towns. Ataturk banned them but they are obviously on their way back. In Macedonia, by contrast, here were woman in mini-skirts and all showing off their hairstyles. Something we take for granted in Europe, of course. Anyway, Macedonia the country is also very nice, beautiful in fact. It's just a bit bigger than Wales and is very similar with mountains, valleys, rivers, forests and a large lake, Lake Ophid to satisfy the tourists.
Skopje, though, feels a tad like Las Vegas with a dozen or so huge statues of old warriors and holy men, a bridge fashioned after the famous one in Prague, lots of fountains some of which are in the river, and a huge monument to Alexander the Great who of course was born in what is now Greece. What a curious world..
Old Tbilisi, Georgia. Yes, it's not like you imagined is it? It is in fact a very nice town. OK, it is a bit dilapidated with many buildings on the point of collapse but the old town is like the picture; winding lanes, full of cafes, a castle above, a waterfall, several old churches, a mosque, sulphur baths, etc.
So why is it called Georgia?. Well, it's not actually because the Georgians themselves call it Sakartvelo (საქართველო in Georgian-speak) but of course us Westerns have to find an easier name for it. One theory supposes that the Western name came from the way the Crusaders saw how devoted they were to St. George. And yes, there are a surprisingly number of frescos showing St. George and a dragon. How curious.
An amazing number of people, I could almost write a post of just the lovely people I meet. First was the Venezuelan guy on the plane to Norway, then the hot dog seller in a remote filling station in wildest Norway who I meet three times, Mustafa the Turk who offered me a breakfast in his Petrol Station on the Euphrates, the two lovely girls in the coffee bar in Kars that are learning English Lit in Konya, Jimmy and Cevo the two Macedonian taxi-drivers in Skopje eager to make money, the two German travellers in Goris who have even been to the Falklands and invited me to share a bottle, the Armenian writer who publishes maps and his wife in Goris who live half a year in Ealing, West London. The Georgian teacher Borak, who teaches Turkish in Kars and runs the Internet Cafe at the weekends and taught me Georgian.
And not forgetting Dogan, the porter of the Divan hotel in Gaziantep who used to live in Rochester and kept saying "in't", and also Murat, the owner of the hotel in Karadut who showed me his garden and gave me apples and pimentos and got me up at 3.30 so I wouldn't miss the dawn on Nemrut Dagi. And then there was Daniel, the Georgian teacher cum taxi-driver who knows the Dean of Norwich.
| Jana having a cuppa |
And we can't leave out the white horse and tiny little kitten that also crossed my path.
So one Venezuelan, one Norwegian, five Turkish, two Macedonians, three Georgians, two Germans and three Armenians. The horse was Turkish and the kitten Georgian, I assume.
Only one....A Kia Picanto. Never hire a Kia Picanto in Armenia. Never.
The steering was really heavy as was the clutch. Then the bloody thing won't start. I dumped the thing in Echmiadzin, 30 minutes from town and got a shared taxi back to Yerevan, 2 euros. I was glad to find an excuse to get rid of it. Back at the shop, "But you have to press the clutch." "What, to start it?...... why didn't you tell me."
And then the following day in deepest Armenia, at the superbly named town of Yeghegnadzor, 3 hours from the capital this time, the alarm refused to work as I tried to unlock the car with the remote. Desperate to get my stuff out, I used the key so then the alarm went off and won't stop. And then I started to lose my cool. Trying this and that and not realising that the car would lock itself when you closed the door, for some stupid reason I separated the key and alarm and yes the car locked itself with the key inside and the alarm still going off..............
I walked calmly, not, to my hotel over the road. "How long are you staying, sir." "Probably a few days, that's my bloody car you can hear."
But next morning the same bloody thing. Alarm going off because the alarm was still set and the remote didn't work. Another friendly native appeared "Wait a minute" and an "Expert" promptly arrived. Quickly locating a wire under the bonnet he looked at me and I nodded. The alarm stopped but the hazard lights continued flashing. What the hell.
It was at this point that I seriously contemplated ending my Armenian travels and turning right at the main junction back to Yerevan. The roads were getting worse the further east we went, the bloody lights continued flashing and this car, for want of a better word, was bloody hard work to drive.
But, this was really no more than a serious test of my manhood.
I turned left and continued on. What the hell..........
Ok, the horse. As I mentioned in "Dawn on Nemrut Dagi" there's a large mountain in central Turkey that must be seen at dawn. Well, it's only 15km from the hotel but the road is a torturous, twisting thing going up the Turkish equivalent of Mont Ventoux. And after you leave the car you get to climb 600m up stone steps (for most of the way) and halfway up you realise that you should really have bought your fleece because it's bloody cold.
Anyway, I got to the top at about 5.15 to find about a dozen hardy souls all wrapped up in blankets and woolly jackets while I am in my shirtsleeves. Germans and Turks, it seemed but all with guides. After a rather lengthy briefing for the time of day, the tourists headed down but all the guides recommended the western route as you can see more statues and its quicker. Bugger that, I'd seen the statues already and I wanted to see the sun a bit more so I used the eastern route that we used to go up.
Anyway, I got to the top at about 5.15 to find about a dozen hardy souls all wrapped up in blankets and woolly jackets while I am in my shirtsleeves. Germans and Turks, it seemed but all with guides. After a rather lengthy briefing for the time of day, the tourists headed down but all the guides recommended the western route as you can see more statues and its quicker. Bugger that, I'd seen the statues already and I wanted to see the sun a bit more so I used the eastern route that we used to go up.
So there I was slowing descending this mountain of stone, not a blade of grass or greenery anywhere and wishing the sun would get a move on. I paused to admire the magnificent view. I felt completely alone in the world, everything was so silent and I could see for miles over mountains and not a living thing in sight. But then, I caught a movement in the corner of my eye and looking down the mountain path was a bit shocked to see a white horse walking up the path about 300 yards away.
He came closer and closer, each of us pausing to rest a while before we continued on. Clip, clop, clip clop, with his head down we approached each other on this cold mountain at 5.45 in the morning. I don't know what I expected as meeting a horse on a mountain doesn't happen very often. I needn't have worried - he brushed past me, ignoring me completely as if it happened to him every day. Perhaps it does....
"An apple strudel, please", the whole world speaks English, of course. And of course this comes with a helping of cream....
A little creature blushed against my legs, nose twitching and gradually climbed up furtively until it got onto the table. I lifted it onto the spare seat and a saucer, a spoon, a little cream and I had a happy cat that fell asleep on my lap.
The friendly waiter had already noticed the goings-on and was only too eager to take a photo.
So What Things Did You Learn?
| Helpful "English" road sign |
But really it's not meant for you, it's for people who don't know the area. Strangers. So then what's the point of having them if your area doesn't have many visitors?
You go to the rather large Turkish city of Gaziantep with 1.3 million inhabitants, which clearly doesn't expect many visitors, and you can drive around for 2 and half hours and you will only see 5 or 6 road names. Believe me, I've done it. And they are little things that, after dark, requires you to park your car and go back and read. Even in Istanbul, in the busy suburb of Bahcelievler, just a handy three metro stops from the airport, there's not a single road name to help you find your hotel. You just have to ask someone. But its worth it because the Hotel, Tempo Suites, is one of the best I have found at 69E per night.
 |
| Yes, it's a Hotel |
Following on the same theme, there is clearly something odd about the Armenian character. Here, for example, is my Armenian hotel in the unfortunate town of Yeghegnadzor. And yes, that is the one and only entrance.
Can you see the sign "Hotel"? No, there isn't one. Can you see the name of the Hotel? No, it hasn't got one. Do you suppose there's a name on the street? No, there isn't.
And this happened several times. Why, I just can't understand, because it makes no sense to me.
The Tomb of St. Hripsime. Yes, I know you've never heard of her. She was a nun and died in the 3rd Century after being stoned to death, allegedly by those very stones you can see in the wall shelf..
Anyway, she was a Christian nun in Rome and so beautiful that the Roman Emperor Diocletian fell in love with her and wanted to marry her. No way, so she and the other nuns ran off to Armenia, as you do. There her troubles were not over as the nasty Diocletian wrote to King Trdat about her and he in turn tried to rape her, so the story goes. She resisted, she's a nun, and was put on trial for being contrary and was killed by stoning.
And whatever you think about the story, her tomb is beautiful and like all things in Armenia, very hard to find. No, I think there was a sign this time, it's quite close to Yerevan, but about to close at 7. It was 6.50 and the gatekeeper was anxious to go home.
After going in I stupidly started talking to myself about the church while a woman caretaker sat in the dark unobserved.
Anyway, I like poking around but not knowing what I am looking for I see a dark area to one side of the altar and then some steps down into semi-darkness. I ventured down and there was St. Hripsime.....
Yeraskh, Armenia, just. And I have to include this place. It's the large, mysterious roundabout where Armenia meets Azerbaijan, Iran and Turkey, not that you would know it. My map tells me that I have to turn left at a junction in a place called Yeraskh. No, this town has been given no name that I could see ( it was probably in Armenian, Երասխ ) and no, this roundabout has no sign anywhere.
You might expect, in such a militarily sensitive place, where Turkey (very-unfriendly) is just a few miles away on the rightish, where (friendly) Iran is just a couple of miles away on the direct right and the closed (pretty-unfriendly) border with Azerbaijan just a stone's throw away directly in front that they would assist drivers in avoiding mistakes, but no. It was simply a case of following the car in front (the white one), hoping he knows the way and turning left past the fruit sellers.........Another example of Armenian infrastructure or lack of it.
The Jouney Cafe, Chiva, Armenia.
And just past Yeraskh, over a tortuous mountain road, and in the wilds of Armenia is the wonderfully friendly oasis called the "Journey Cafe" on the roadside at Chiva which is all oak beams and space and would not be out of place in the Hampshire countryside. And it's just what you need after tackling Armenian roads for an hour.
And the two girls will apologize (in English) for the bad spelling (English) on the tissue box and will actually give you a small handmade Armenian table mat if you ask if it's for sale.... Magic
And one nice thing I noticed in Armenia, there's nothing from China, everything I found was homemade, in Armenia.
Kars, Eastern Turkey.
So last but not least it's Kars, one of the main destinations of the trip, 50 or so miles away from Armenia on the far east of Turkey. Once again, a strange place that nobody ever goes to (no, not quite true I did meet a German couple in Armenia and they also had been there).
But it's more than a town, it's a book by the Turkish Nobel Prize winner Orhan Pamuk. The book is called "Snow" which is Kar in Turkish and the book is based entirely in the town which has very bad winters with lots of, yes, snow.
I had to pinch myself at finally getting there but it was worth it. No, it's not pretty but it has some nice old buildings and good western-style cafes. It has a big castle on the hillside, an old Christian church (closed for renovation) and at dusk the trees have nice little coloured lights and some of the streets actually have nameplates!
And there, working in one of the cafes, I found two very nice young ladies who not only speak very good English but are studying English Lit in Konya University.......
Enough Places, Didn't You Eat Anything?
Well, I had the odd kebab, chicken curry and pizzas but it's the unusual that is most interesting. I was introduced to "Sütlaç" in Kars by my friend Unmihusu. It's turkish rice pudding but tastes different to the Spanish version. And then as a gift I had some "Trilice", very rich.
And in Armenia I found an amazing thing. It's about a foot square, its dry and not sticky and feels like very thin leather and they fold it up and roll in into a kind of stick. And you unfold it and tear a piece off and chew it and yes its pear. Others are apricot and other fruits, cherries etc . So I asked the guy back at the hotel what it was and he says its concentrated juice that they dry it in the sun. Well, it's not a great discovery but the thing is so curious.
The Best Bookshop
The Best Hotel
Um, difficult. The Thon Bristol in Bergen was very pleasant, with very friendly staff and they even give you an umbrella to cope with the rain. The City Palace in Lake Ophid was also very nice with a balcony looking over the lake and a very good restaurant downstairs and the London B&B in Skopje had some very nice decor and a trendy bar/terrace downstairs right in middle of town and then the quirky but big and clean Tempo Suites is always good in Istanbul and you get your own coffee machine.
The relaxed ambience in the Mirhar in Goris was second to none and came with a garden for taking a quiet drink and they even offer you books full of maps if you look at the maps on the wall for too long and then the writer of the book comes over and introduces himself!!
And the Erebuni in Yerevan was very nice too with free internet and right on the main square.
So some very good choices this time.
Anyway, she was a Christian nun in Rome and so beautiful that the Roman Emperor Diocletian fell in love with her and wanted to marry her. No way, so she and the other nuns ran off to Armenia, as you do. There her troubles were not over as the nasty Diocletian wrote to King Trdat about her and he in turn tried to rape her, so the story goes. She resisted, she's a nun, and was put on trial for being contrary and was killed by stoning.
And whatever you think about the story, her tomb is beautiful and like all things in Armenia, very hard to find. No, I think there was a sign this time, it's quite close to Yerevan, but about to close at 7. It was 6.50 and the gatekeeper was anxious to go home.
After going in I stupidly started talking to myself about the church while a woman caretaker sat in the dark unobserved.
Anyway, I like poking around but not knowing what I am looking for I see a dark area to one side of the altar and then some steps down into semi-darkness. I ventured down and there was St. Hripsime.....
You might expect, in such a militarily sensitive place, where Turkey (very-unfriendly) is just a few miles away on the rightish, where (friendly) Iran is just a couple of miles away on the direct right and the closed (pretty-unfriendly) border with Azerbaijan just a stone's throw away directly in front that they would assist drivers in avoiding mistakes, but no. It was simply a case of following the car in front (the white one), hoping he knows the way and turning left past the fruit sellers.........Another example of Armenian infrastructure or lack of it.
And just past Yeraskh, over a tortuous mountain road, and in the wilds of Armenia is the wonderfully friendly oasis called the "Journey Cafe" on the roadside at Chiva which is all oak beams and space and would not be out of place in the Hampshire countryside. And it's just what you need after tackling Armenian roads for an hour.
And the two girls will apologize (in English) for the bad spelling (English) on the tissue box and will actually give you a small handmade Armenian table mat if you ask if it's for sale.... Magic
And one nice thing I noticed in Armenia, there's nothing from China, everything I found was homemade, in Armenia.
So last but not least it's Kars, one of the main destinations of the trip, 50 or so miles away from Armenia on the far east of Turkey. Once again, a strange place that nobody ever goes to (no, not quite true I did meet a German couple in Armenia and they also had been there).
But it's more than a town, it's a book by the Turkish Nobel Prize winner Orhan Pamuk. The book is called "Snow" which is Kar in Turkish and the book is based entirely in the town which has very bad winters with lots of, yes, snow.
I had to pinch myself at finally getting there but it was worth it. No, it's not pretty but it has some nice old buildings and good western-style cafes. It has a big castle on the hillside, an old Christian church (closed for renovation) and at dusk the trees have nice little coloured lights and some of the streets actually have nameplates!
And there, working in one of the cafes, I found two very nice young ladies who not only speak very good English but are studying English Lit in Konya University.......
Enough Places, Didn't You Eat Anything?
Well, I had the odd kebab, chicken curry and pizzas but it's the unusual that is most interesting. I was introduced to "Sütlaç" in Kars by my friend Unmihusu. It's turkish rice pudding but tastes different to the Spanish version. And then as a gift I had some "Trilice", very rich.
And in Armenia I found an amazing thing. It's about a foot square, its dry and not sticky and feels like very thin leather and they fold it up and roll in into a kind of stick. And you unfold it and tear a piece off and chew it and yes its pear. Others are apricot and other fruits, cherries etc . So I asked the guy back at the hotel what it was and he says its concentrated juice that they dry it in the sun. Well, it's not a great discovery but the thing is so curious.
The Best Bookshop
Of course, you have to bear in mind that I'm looking for bookshops with an English content.To begin with, there are NO bookshops in Turkey, not even with Turkish books. Ok, an exaggeration, there's a very good one on the pier in Izmir and a good one in Istanbul airport but only two in about a dozen towns/cities. Obviously they all buy their books on Amazon.
I found a couple of small ones in Yerevan, Armenia with English titles but I couldn't find anything in Macedonia or Georgia.
So the first prize goes to the one in Stockholm, I think it was called "Akademibokhandeln", like its name it's huge with the rather simplier "Tanum", another vast shop in Oslo a close second.
The Best Hotel
Um, difficult. The Thon Bristol in Bergen was very pleasant, with very friendly staff and they even give you an umbrella to cope with the rain. The City Palace in Lake Ophid was also very nice with a balcony looking over the lake and a very good restaurant downstairs and the London B&B in Skopje had some very nice decor and a trendy bar/terrace downstairs right in middle of town and then the quirky but big and clean Tempo Suites is always good in Istanbul and you get your own coffee machine.
The relaxed ambience in the Mirhar in Goris was second to none and came with a garden for taking a quiet drink and they even offer you books full of maps if you look at the maps on the wall for too long and then the writer of the book comes over and introduces himself!!
And the Erebuni in Yerevan was very nice too with free internet and right on the main square.
So some very good choices this time.
Saturday, July 11, 2015
Second Life - A Trip Summary
Travelling on your own, as I do now, means you meet a lot of people. If you feel like it that is. And even in fact when you don't feel like it. As it was when I meet a French guy, I don't even know his name, in the bar at Bari Train Station. We sat at the same table, there was nowhere else free. We talked a bit, while grabbing a coffee before trains, but at one point he said something that hasn't left my brain. "You don't drink, you don't smoke. What do you do?"
An intrusive question you might think over a quick cup of coffee but I thought how sharp to spot these things after 5 minutes. And I remember he interested me because he told me he was catching a boat to Bar in Montenegro, a country that has always intriged me. Black Mountain.
Anyway, I have turned over his phase many times in my mind trying to really work out what he meant. What do you do for thrills, for enjoyment, for fun? And I stil haven't come up with a adequate answer.
So a summary of my trips. In the last 3 and a half years I have visited approx 28 countries, ok that includes a few islands (Corsica, Sardinia, Crete, Rhodes) and Kuala Lumpur, in Mayalsia where I failed to leave the airport but you get the drift.
During my Second Life, as I term it, I have taken 7 trips with each one being longer than the last and have seen the following places:
TRIP 1 (Summer 2012) (6 hotels, 14 nights)
Rumania - a tour by carBucharest, Piteşti, Sibiu, Sighișoara, Cluj-Napoca, Gura Humorului, Brasov
TRIP 2 (Xmas 2012) (6 hotels, 18 days)
MaltaValletta,
Sicily (car tour)
Syracuse, Messina,
Italy(car tour)
Altomonte, Lecce, Bari
Albania
Durres, Tirana,
TRIP 3 (Summer 2013) (12 hotels, 21 days)
Italy Pisa, BrindisiGreece
Patras, Olympia, Sparta, Areopolis, Nafplio, Mycenae, Athens, Delpi, Thermopylae,
Bulgaria
Sofia, Ruse, Veliko Tarnovo, Plovdiv, Bansko,
TRIP 4 (Winter 2013) (7 hotels, 21 days)
Italy Pisa, Livorno,Corsica
Bastia, Ajaccio,
Sardinia
Cagliari,
Crete
Heraklion,
Rhodes
Rhodes,
Turkey
Istanbul,
Lebanon
Beirut.
TRIP 5 (Summer 2014) (16 hotels/bnb, 31 days)
Greece Rhodes
Turkey - Antalya, Fetiyah, Selcuk, Izmir, Canakkale, Edirne, Istanbul, (car tour)
Ukraine - L'viv
Poland - Gdansk, Torun, Wroclaw, Krakow, Warsaw (car tour)
Serbia - Belgrade
Greece - Athens
TRIP 6 (Winter 2014) (16 hotels, 32 nights)
Hong Kong - Hong KongVietnam - Hanoi, Saigon
Cambodia - Phnom Penh, Siem Reap
Singapore - Singapore
Australia - Sydney, Melbourne
New Zealand - Auckland, Wellington, Christchurch, Greymouth, Wanaka, Te Anau, Dunedin (car tour)
Malaysia - Kula Lumpur
Turkey - Istanbul
TRIP 7 (Summer 2015) (xx hotels, xx nights)
Norway - Oslo, Bergen, Bodo (car tour)
Sweden - Stockholm
Denmark - Copenhagen
Turkey - Gazientep, Santilufa, Dyfarbakir, Van, Kars, Erzumrum, Trabzon (car tour)
Macedonia - Skopje, Lake Ophid, Prilep (car tour)
Georgia - Tbilisi
Armenia - Yerevan, Yeghaghor, Goris (car tour)
Greece - Athens
TRIP 8 (Winter 2015) (xx hotels, xx nights)
Brazil- San Paolo
Chile- Santiago, Punto Arenas, Ushasia
The Falklands -Port Stanley
Argentina - Buenos Aires, Igauzu
Uruguay - Colonia
TRIP 9 (Summer 2016) (19 countries, 21 hotels, 48 nights)
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2012 - Rumania, Malta, Sicily, Italy - (4 countries, 3 new)
2013 - Italy, Albania, Greece, Bulgaria, Corsica, Sardinia, Crete, Rhodes - (8 countries, 7 new)
2014 - Lebanon, Rhodes, Turkey, Ukraine, Poland, Serbia, Greece, Hong Kong, Vietnam, Cambodia, Singapore, Australia - (12 countries, 9 new)
2015 - Australia, New Zealand, Malaysia, Singapore, Hong Kong, Turkey, Norway, Sweden, Denmark, Turkey, Macedonia, Georgia, Armenia, Greece, Brazil, Chile, The Falklands- (17 countries, 11 new)
2016 -Argentina, Uruguay, Finland,
15 days in Rumania (1 country)
xx in Malta, Sicily, Italy, Albania (3 countries, 2 islands)
xx in Greece and Bulgaria (2)
xx in Italy, Corsica, Sardinia, Crete, Rhodes, Greece, Turkey and Lebanon ( 5 countries, 4 islands)
xx in Turkey, Poland, Ukraine, Serbia(4)
xx in Hong Kong, Vietnam, Cambodia, Singapore, Australia, New Zealand, Malaysia, Turkey (8)
So 7 countries, 6 islands, 39 Towns/Cities of which 31 I had stayed in . So 31 hotels, in fact 35 hotels because I've had two in Sofia and Heraklion and three in Athens.
Eleven airports abroad and 7 ports.
