Europe is now behind me

Once again I find myself with a little time on my hands and have decided to update my avid readers on what has been happening since Bucharest (Nothing much!).  We left Bucharest on a miserable morning (drizzling heavily) which brightened up as we got closer to Bulgaria.  After crossing the border we stopped of at Velika Tarnova which as you all know was the capital of Bulgaria before it was moved to Sophia.  We camped outside VT as it is known in a campsite also called Velika Tarnova outside a small town whose name escapes me.

First day was fine but noit surprisingly it started to rain in the evening and the following day was (yes, you guessed) wet!  Met a couple of locals and had some tea and they gave us the low down on all the ex-pats (Peter, Barbara, Keef, Mike, Lynn, Nick, Nicky and others) as we didn't speak Bulgarian I can only assume that we were being given the gossip as the previous names seemed to keep coming up in the conversation

My Bulgarian mates

We left Bulgaria and crossed into Turkey rough camping in what could generously be described as a tip!  The following day saw us arrive in Istanbul.  We spent a couple of days here and the sun was shining (yay!)  First full day was spent mainly in the Iranian Embassy getting visas sorted (we got tea and chocolates!) Once the formalities were completed spent some time exploring Istanbul which is a great place and is an eclectic (cool word, don't know what it means!) mix of old and modern.  Did all the good touristy things and saw the Blue Mosque, Grand Bazaar and did a city bus tour.

Istanbul

The Blue Mosque

With our Iranian Visas safely obtained we left Istabul and headed for Galipoli and ANZAC Day.  I'll leave you to find out more about what happens if you are interested but this was pretty much a mega gathering of Aussies and Kiwis who attend a rememberance day service then have a major party!.

After leaving Galipoli we crossed the Bosphorous and left Europe behind and entered Asia proper (not that you would know).  Rough camped near the legendary Troy and visited the ruins the following morning (not much to say).  After leaving Troy we wound our way to Seluchek where we stayed in an excellent camp site (hot showers!) and visited the Ephesus whose Library (as you all know) is one of the seven wonders of the ancient world (prizes for anyone who knows the other six).

The Library at Ephesus

From Selucheck we moved on and had a really long drive day (12 hours!) to arrive at Oludinez which is a spot on resort on the Aegean (at least I think its the Agean).  Sun blazing and we have had a couple of days chilling out and I am writing this using the free Wi-Fi that seems to be everywhere.  We leave tomorrow and make our way to Ankara and all places East.

Before signing off I thought I'd better correct some mistakes from the last post relating to the people I am travelling with.  Floyd is not actually a Christine but a Catherine.  We also seem to have a Megan, Claire, Julie and a young Pauline who are more single women.  We also have an Arthur (don't know where he came from!).  Julie, young Pauline and Arthur are French but never mind.

Jenny is with Adam (not the driver Adam another one!), I'm still not sure who Nicky is with, could be Geoff but I'm not sure if he is with Nancy or whether Nicky isn't actually Nancy.  We have a Dell and Kim too.  I'll do a register before my next post to see if I can actually list everyone on the trip.  We have two more people joining in Ankara so I suppose I'll just get even more confused.

So, signing off for now, will blog again soon.  Hope you are all well.

Matt in Turkey
Thinking of you (NOT!)
Phone turned off

Oh, nearly forgot.  For those of you with nothing to do I have uploaded some photos (well, nearly all of them) which you can look at if you are so inclined by following the link.  I haven't fully gone through these so there will be some (probably a lot) of dross. http://www.mattgivertz.com/trips/big_trip_2010/london_to_istanbul