Cappadocia to Trabzon

Last night we arrived in Trabzon after a grueling journey through endless mountain passes and twisty roads. What was expected to be a four hour journey turned into a ten hour expedition, through mountain passes of 3200m, in the mist, clouds, and hill sides covered in pine trees. There was even snow and a flock of very woolly rams.

The landscape changed dramatically from the dusty rock scape of Cappadocia. We passed through lush green plains, next to poppy fields and inland lakes until we reached alpine scenery. I took many photos along the journey as the mountain roads provided breath taking views. Unfortunately I felt very dizzy, but thankfully I survived with the help of several motion sickness tablets. Eight hours of those roads was exhausting and I was very glad to arrive, even if Trabzon is possibly the ugliest town that I have ever seen! The weather here is pretty similar to at home. It's cold and grey, with stormy looking clouds. Not quite the Turkish seaside resort that I was expecting. However, I went to see an old church this morning with some of the group and then wandered around the town. There were streets of brightly coloured clothes shops and market stalls with fabric and fresh fish. I tried to buy a silk head scarf but I couldn't find a colour scheme that suited me. Most of them tended to use floral prints in bright colour and I decided that the choice of head scalf represented the wearers personality. There are times when blending in is really useful, but when I walk around on my own I don't seem to have many problems since many of the local girls have curly brown hair and western style clothes.

Despite there being not a lot here for tourists to see, it's an interesting place with lovely fresh bread and great fish restaurants. I enjoyed walking through the narrow streets, which showed a very honest representation of the way of life here, in industrial Turkey.

This afternoon we took a trip out of town to the Sumela Monastery which is built into a cliff face, hidden in the forested Karadaglar mountains. It was incredibley atmospheric, covered in mist, with a vertical rock face that continued as far as the eye could see. Inside the monastery were religious frescos that covered the entire surface area. Although the visibility was pretty bad, and we weren't able to see the building from the valley, it was still an interesting trip.

Cappadocia, Turkey

Today a few of us went for a wander from the campsite to the town of Gerome, passing several rock formations along the way. I tried to take a fairly slow walk in the hot sun as apparently today the temperature reached the mid thirties. I think that I am beginning to get used to it, as I'm feeling a lot better.




The people on the tour are all really nice and its been fun just chatting and trekking. For lunch we stopped off at a restaurant and I had lamb kabab and rice which was nice. My idea for being vegetarian really doesn't work out here, as I feel so much better for eating meat.



Tomorrow we are leaving and heading to the North East of Turkey. We have our first bush camp in the evening and then we arrive in Trabzon the following day.

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.