Istanbul to Cappadocia

After a slight mix up with the group meeting point, we were directed to a different hostel, where I met the rest of my travel companions. There are nine of us in total plus two drivers. This provided much relief as the group combines a range of ages, a fairly balanced male/female mix and so far, the people seem pretty nice. The group leaders seemed like great guys too. For the rest of the day we went off to explore Istanbul and I found myself mostly ignoring various forms of hastle from Turkish men as I walked to the Blue Mosque. Although this part of town had some great architecture, it felt quite sleazy as it had many obvious tourist shops and cafes. I preferred the area around Taksim Square and its happening main street.




The following morning we left our hostel at six am and took a tram to the edge of the city. From there we met the truck for the first time and the drivers negotiated grid locked roads as we made our way towards central Turkey. They drove for thirteen hours, with frequentent breaks at service stations along the way.

After a few hours the countryside changed into a landscape of rolling hills with scattered villages and uniform housing blocks, to dry, arid mountains. I managed to sleep for quite a lot of the journey due to such an early start as well as the continual rocking of the vehicle. We watched the sunset against the mountains and a few hours later we turned up at a campsite. We were given a quick demonstration in putting up tents and fed a meaty pizza. I found this disgusting as it had been ordered for our arrival, by which point it was warm, greasy with a scattering of minced meat and possibly some vegetables. I tried to satisfy the rest of my hunger with a packet of crisps.



The night was cold. Very cold. It felt like I woke up every hour and put on another layer of clothing until three am, when I decided there was still enough of the night left that I couldn't stay as I was until morning. By this point I was in the sleeping bag wearing a full set of clothes with thermals, a fleece and a coat with a hood. I began to wonder whether I had the sleeping bag inside out, and had to get out into the cold tent, turn it the other way and in desperation I grabbed all the clothes that I had with me, to stuff into the sleeping bag around me. All our tents were so close together I was slightly concerned about waking the others, since every movement sounded so loud, but I became too cold to think about that. I awoke to hot morning sunlight and realised that I was sleeping next a mesh layer without a cover. In the morning I was set up with a different tent which I shall try tonight.

Today we went on a tour of the Cappadocia region and encountered great rock structures, referred to as fairy chimmney, where people use to live until the ninteen fifties. We went inside one of the buildings but I found it far too claustrophopic, with narrow tunnels and low ceilings in the darkness. The rest of the group explored the underground city, where people use to live, their existance completely undetected by those above. The group were told to leave their backpacks behind to ensure that they could fit through some vary small spaces. After seeing the photos from the rest of the group, I think that I made the right decision in staying above ground.



On the way back, we stopped off in a large town and I bought duvet to put over the top of my sleeping bag and a towel, since I think my travel towel is back in England, in a different backpack. I am hoping that with a warmer tent, being fully prepared with thermal clothing and a duvet to cover the sleeping bag, I should be able to feel warm.

I feel that I am starting to get to know the group a bit more tonight and we had our first evening dinner at the camp which was a fun experience.

Istanbul, Turkey

I've arrived in sunny Istanbul. I'm staying at a hostel near Tasksim square in the modern part of the city. The streets here are bustling with people and everything is very colourful, from the shop fronts, to the clothes that people are wearing. It definately has that feel of Europe meets Asia, with a very happening yet chilled atmosphere.



So far Istanbul seems like an interesting city, which I shall see a totally different side to tomorrow, when I go to the old part of town to meet up with the Dragoman group and start the tour. There's a small supermarket next to the hostel so I'm going to head back and relax. So far so good...

Pirita Beach, Tallinn, Estonia

Another part of Tallinn that I wanted to visit was the Pirita beach and the old Olympic village. We took a bus out to the east of Tallinn, where we wandered through a beautiful pine forest, before emerging onto an empty beach. In the distance stood a desolute looking, white soviet building, which formed part of the 1980 Olympic village. The whole area was incredibly quiet and peaceful.



There are many cycling and walking trails nearby, so we followed a path through woodland for a few miles. We were considering walking to the TV Tower, but it is a long walk from the main road (many miles), so we turned back and returned to Tallinn.

I wanted to see some of the new town, so we wandered through the modern city, with it's glass fronted department stores and high rise buildings. It felt like consumerism is really alive here. I missed the character of the old town and felt glad that we weren't staying here, as it would give such a different impression of Tallinn. Visually, it was an interesting place to be, with old soviet buildings in between ultra modern department stores.



In the morning, a medieval fair was being set up in the main square, and upon our return it was in full swing with stalls selling bags of spiced nuts and interesting crafts, such as pointy felt hats and traditional clothes. We found out that at the weekend, there would be many more stalls all over Tallinn, as part of a Medieval Festival and we had just caught the edge of it.



We had been admiring the menu of the Olde Hansa all week and decided that since it was our last night in Tallinn, we should go. So in the evening we headed to the old town hall, with its atmospheric lanterns at the entrance. It was a grand affair and we were greeted by the lady of the house wearing traditional costume, who led us into a magnificent banquetting hall with flickering candles and string musicians. The food was wonderful, with an incredible selection of hearty feasts from the middle ages, from wild bore to quail eggs and everything in between. The evening contained many surprises, including jesters and viking ships covered in sparklers. We both enjoyed our meals. I chose a meat dish accompanied with berries and a 'bean bag'. The waitors played the perfect hosts, as everything arrived with compliments and best wishes from the chef. The atmosphere was great too, with large parties of diners celebrating, it was easy to have a good time.

Eco Museum, Tallinn, Estonia

Having explored much of old Tallinn, we decided to take a trip out of town to the open air Eco Museum. With a collection of rescued buildings from the 17th - 19th century in a large parkland. It was a cold and windy day, but the musuem was beautiful, situated along a rugged coastline, looking back towards Tallinn. One of the ground staff was keen to have someone to chat to and seemed curious as to why we would visit Estonia, with so many larger countries to could go to. We tried to explain that we thought it was interesting and we liked Estonia because it was somewhere different. The man took our photo infront of a blacksmith's house.



I love architecture, especially old wooden buildings and I really enjoyed a day of walking around and photographing different styles of windmills and farmhouses. I also liked how quiet it was, with only a handful of tourists in the time that we were there. We had lunch within the park and enjoyed the hearty rustic food. The open air museum is quite large, so in the afternoon we explored another part of it.

Architecture in Tallinn, Estonia

After a breakfast of cake and hot chocolate at the Anneli Viik Cafe, we walked to the Alexander Nevsky Cathedral with its domes and ice cream coloured exterior. We continued to explore the surrounding streets with narrow alley ways and pastel coloured buildings.



In the afternoon we headed to Kalamaja, on the other side of the river. Its known for being quite a creative district, with the city's remaining wooden houses.



One of the restaurants that had been recommended to us was the Troika, a Russian themed restaurant in the heart of the old town. Curious as to what we would be served, we booked a table. The restaurant was quite beautiful and the vodka plentiful. However, our table was placed directly under a podium which an Opera singer would wail from. I've never appreciated opera and it was almost comical, but we were quite glad when she finished! The food was interesting and I was impressed with the presentation, as my beef hot pot arrived, baked in bread, which the waitress cut open infront of me. We also ordered dumplings, which came in a rustic bowl with a hand painted, wooden serving spoon. I wasn't keen on the slightly sour taste, but in general the food was good and definately flavoursome.

The Old Town, Tallinn, Estonia

We took a bus from the airport, into Tallinn and found ourselves confronted by a beautiful walled city, with an arched entrance, that led us into the old town. There are so many medieval buildings and tall merchant houses as well as a gorgeous town square. I didn't expect it to be so stunning. We found the Alur Hostel, which is a few minutes walk from the main square, with fairly cheap but basic double rooms.



We wandered around the old city, with it's wonderful architecture, finding an old church tower to take photographs from. The spiral staircase was very claustrophobic and I hated every moment, but thankfully I had Robin behind me, persuading me to keep going. When we got to the top, the view was fantastic and I saw the domes of the Alexander Nevsky Cathedral in the distance, which we are hoping to see tomorrow.



We also discovered a great place to go for cake and hot chocolate, Anneli Viik Handmade Chocolates Cafe, on Pikk 30, has the most delicious cakes and a selection of hand made chocolates to die for. I ended up eating some while we were in the cafe and then buying more to take away. Madame Butterfly was my favourite, with its smooth Baileys truffle center. They also did a good selection of dark chocolates.



On our first night we ventured to Turg restaurant, an outdoor market themed restaurant, with simply cooked dishes from around the world. Unpretentious and friendly, the food was both inexpensive and enjoyable. We had a nice evening and decided to try the Depeche Mode bar that had been recommended by a friend. I love Depeche Mode, so we went into the bar, which played a continual loop of DM videos on a screen. The atmosphere was relaxed as an alternative crowd gathered on bright red sofas, enjoying the strong cocktails that were served.

Art Nouveau District, Riga

In the morning I took some photos of the city from St Peter's church tower. I love being able to look down upon a city as the buildings seem quite different from above, with brightly coloured roofs jammed in between a maze of architecture. The traces of snow left from the day before glistened in the sun light.



I had never taken much notice of Art Nouveau architecture before, but after feeling that I had seen most of they city, I thought that the Art Nouveau district could show a different side to Riga. The buildings were stunning, probably the most elaborate collection of architecture that I have ever seen. I couldn't believe how much detail had gone into carving the facades of these buildings, embellished with sculptures of women and machines.

Riga in the snow

While the Riga Old Town Hostel is a great place to stay, they don't do breakfast, so after a short walk, Double Coffee was discovered. I was so impressed with this like-Starbucks but better chain, offering a menu of breakfasts, lunches, cakes, sushi and cocktails at cafe prices, that it became a bit of an institution. They all had a large newspaper style menu printed in English and a selection of grumpy waitresses, but the food was amazing.


I tried to photograph the architecture in the Old Town but it rained so much that a trendy shopping mall seemed like a much better idea. The twenty-something Latvians really do like there clothes, shoes and handbags and the women looked so much more stylish than in London.



While I was in the shopping mall, the rain had changed to snow and there was now quite a covering. The previously dull looking parks had been transformed into something magical and the trees looked like they had been coated in icing sugar. The Russian Orthodox Cathedral was beautiful too. The intricate pattern on the outside looked like the whole building had been covered in stripy wallpaper with elaborate plaster decorations. I loved the shape of it too, with it's multiple domes and arched doorways. Riga suddenly seemed a lot more exciting now that there was snow. I just hoped that it would be there in the morning.

Leaving Lithuania behind

Anticipating another awkward journey of getting buses back to the airport, I looked up the words for bus station so that I could make sure my first bus would be going in the right direction. I also found out the word for airport and set off two hours early, not knowing how frequent the buses were. I was half way to the bus stop, when I found the 120 mini bus that I wanted two days ago. Although the driver was on a break, I persuaded him to let me on there, since I had no idea where the proper bus stop was. It was a really quick and direct journey, although this meant arriving at a tiny airport stupidly early. There were only three flights out, that day. The airport had one cafe and a shop.

Kaunas, Lithuania

Kaunas in February feels like a sleepy little town, rather than Lithuania's second largest city. The old town seems empty and even the new town, with its long street of fashion stores and cafes is so quiet for a place of this size. I keep thinking if this was London, the streets would be packed, but Kaunas is nothing like a British city. The people here seem relaxed and go about their daily life with an acceptance of what they have. Some of the buildings are quite run down and many unoccupied, yet the people seem content.

Today it rained a lot, so I made my way to The Devils museum, which had some really imaginative carvings of Lithuanian devils as well as a floor of international exhibits such as Mongolian masks and Bolivian straw dolls. As with everywhere else, I had the museum to myself, apart from the staff, who really should know better than to rustle about behind curtains, in a dimly lit room of devils because it felt a bit spooky. They were working on the display, completely oblivious to the macabre situation. Most of the depictions were quite sweet but there were a few masks, with hair and teeth that conveyed the horror that was intended.

I would really like to visit Vilnius because I hear its a lot like Kaunas, except that its bigger with more to do and see. They also have a craft market and a lot of art galleries. After seeing the standard of their illustrations and creativity, it sounds like somewhere that I would like to see.

Kaunas, Lithuania

Getting into town was quite a task. The words for place names are destinctly unfamilar and trying to understand written signs felt impossible. After arriving at Kaunas airport, I waited at a bus stop with a group of people until no. 29 turned up. Not the one I was expecting but everyone got on, and usually following the majority usually leads to the town center. The driver pulled away before I had chance to ask, and I was on board, so I had blind faith as well as a bit of reassurance from the other passengers that they thought the bus 'might' be going via the train station. At least that was on my map. The driver took payment and juggling change whilst negotiating duel carriage way slip roads and other obsticles. The view became more build up and we were approaching the edge of the new town. I began to catch street names, so knowing roughly where I was helped. A while later, the driver looked over and hinted that this was my stop, either that or it was as far as I had paid for, so I got off. The guidebook mentioned bus 1, 3, 5, or 7 all lead to the old town, so I got on the next no. 3, presuming that since we had been heading towards town on that side of the road, that it would be the right direction, but to my horror, the bus was heading back out of town. A girl on the bus confirmed this and told me to get a no. 1 trolleybus to the old town, from the other side of the road. It felt identical to the last bus, packed with locals and the same system of payment to the driver. Eventually I made it to within a short walk of the guesthouse.

Kaunas is a really creative place, with beautifully illustrated books, wooden toys and amber jewelery. There is a strong sense of individual style, heavily influenced by folklore. I think I may have to visit the museum of devils tomorrow because we don't have one of those at home!

I like the architecture here. The buildings in the old town look a lot like Prague, or any other European city, with tall merchant houses, painted in pastel shades. However, the churches and cathedrals seem to have a Russian influence, being more domed than angular, in whites and grey. I'm staying in a converted church, which is a gorgeous building. My room is cosy, although the crucifix on the wall is a bit disconcerting, as is a Lithuanian version of the Bible next to my bed.