Troy and Ephesus

So 2 days out of Istanbul and 2 sets of ruins visited. 

First up on our way out of Gallipoli was a visit to the remains of the city of Troy, famous of course for the legend of the wooden horse and the Greek army. 

The first thing you see when entering the site (which cost 15 Turkish Lira or around £5.50) is a replica of the wooden horse from the legend which is only around 35 years old. The reality of the situation is that nobody knows if there was actually a wooden horse involved in the battle for the city or not, as they only have tangible proof that a battle was fought in the city by finding arrowheads and spears etc as they have excavated the site over time.

The wooden horse at Troy

At this point only around 30% of the site has been excavated with the remaining 70% being currently buried beneath reasonably deep woodland. The technology company Siemens is funding further research into the site which will be taking place over the next 5 to 10 years (slow progress the excavating lark!). So far they have found that the city has been rebuilt essentially 9 different times on the same site, obviously over many different eras, and they are able to roughly date and map each of the layers of the ruins individually. The cities were named (rather unoriginally) Troy 1 through to Troy 9, with some of the ruins dating back to approximately 3000BC. It is widely believed by experts that the city in existence at the time of the great battle would have been Troy 7, although there was evidence of war paraphernalia also discovered in Troy 6.  

Following the trip to Troy we camped up at a rural spot in the hills near a village called Kocaoeayoru, where after the locals discovered our presence we became somewhat of a tourist attraction. Locals in cars, on bikes and even riding tractors to come and have a look at what we were doing. Everybody was very friendly and one man even brought us some eggs and milk from his farm.

The locals stop by for a chat (and then pop back later looking for a lost sheep) on the tractor

Following our stay there, we made the short drive to the beach near Selcuk where our campsite for the next 3 days was. Everybody was delighted to see the deep blue sky and sea, and the golden sandy beach, and within a couple of minutes most of the group were out larking around in the shallows (great fun!).

Our campsite just outside Selcuk

The only scheduled event during our stay at this campsite was a visit to our second set of ruins, the Roman ruins of Ephesus, with an admission price of 25TL (or around £8.50). With a large quantity of remains dating back to around 90AD and later, Ephesus is the largest example of Roman ruins in Turkey, and what a sight it is. The site dwarves that of Troy, and there is a remarkable amount of the building structure still remaining. Some restoration work has been made to some of the structures, but on the whole it is in excellent condition. The 2 highlights of the visit were the old library building (the second largest in ancient history), and the amphitheatre which was capable of holding up to 25,000 people for a gladiatorial contest. 

The library building. Some of the group at the bottom give you a sense of scale

The remainder of our stay at the campsite we have tried to treat as a "holiday from a holiday", where we have taken a bit of time to relax and get a few jobs sorted out (such as washing and a repacking of our bags). The mosquitoes however have take an exception to me having a good time and have bitten me something chronic (Despite repellent and long clothing being ever present in the mornings and evenings)! Two of my bites have swollen up uncontrollably and extra rations of stronger antihistamines have been acquired by Adam the driver for me :)

Tomorrow we set off for Pamukkale, which is home to natural hot springs, and terraces of carbonate minerals which have been left behind by flowing water. Aside from the early start it should be awesome!

Istanbul

We arrived 5 days ago in the wonderful city of Istanbul in Turkey. Billed as the gateway into Asia, Istanbul offers an interesting mixture of old and new architecture sat side by side (some of the city walls are from Byzantine era).

We stayed in the Orient hostel in the European side of the city (Istanbul of course being the only city in the world that spans 2 continents, Europe and Asia), within walking distance of many of the city’s main attractions.

The Blue Mosque

Istanbul has been the first place where we have been able to stay for a few days, and it really makes a difference in terms of what you are able to see and do.

The first day we made a trip to the Grand Bazaar, which is the city’s largest indoor market area, and you are able to buy just about anything you can think of there. You do of course have to be able to pick between genuine products, and black market copies which are absolutely rife in Turkey. The bazaar is a wonderful experience with the brightly coloured displays at every turn, alongside superb aromas coming from the stalls selling sweets and spices. All of the girls who are traveling with us tasked themselves with finding loose fitting clothes and headscarves, ahead of the visit to Iran we are making after we leave Turkey. In Iran all ladies must be fully covered with the exception of their hands and faces (with no hair showing across the forehead), and this applies also when travelling in a private vehicle such as our truck.

Brightly coloured bowls in the Grand Bazaar

From the hostel’s rooftop bar we had a wonderful view of the River Bosphorus in one direction, and the Blue Mosque (largest mosque in the city) and Haghia Sophia (previously a place of worship but now a museum) in the other.

The second day we decided to take a river tour of the Bosphorus, and for the equivalent of just under £3.50 we were able to spend around 1 hour 45 mins cruising up and down the river taking in the sights in the sunshine. You can find some things in Turkey which are very good value for money, but equally there are some things that are even more expensive than in the UK, so using your judgement before you hand over your money is a must. It is also the first country that we have visited that it is widely accepted to haggle (especially in the markets), and it is quite fun having some banter with the locals over prices, even though neither party can understand what the other is saying most of the time!

It was proving quite a luxury to not have to put up the tent each night, and to have the guarantee of warmth regardless of what the weather was doing outside. Having said that with the exception of the first morning the weather has been excellent with temperatures reaching the low 30’s.

On our final day in the city, we went to visit the Blue Mosque. Despite still being a fully functioning mosque, the building is open to visitors at all times of day. Worshipers receive a “call to prayer” around every 4 hours, which is broadcast from the towers around the edge of the mosque. Within the building itself, there is a large area at the front of the building for men to pray with the women being confined to a smaller area at the rear of the room. If the outside of the building wasn’t spectacular enough, the inside took things to another level, with a high amount of ornate decoration for a building of it’s size.

The inside of the Blue Mosque

Our final visit of our stay in Istanbul was made to the Spice Market, which by it’s name you can probably guess is full of stalls selling spices and other delights (mainly Turkish delight!). We both managed to resist the temptation of the food, with the exception of the free samples, and came out with our money and waistlines intact.

Piles of spices and teas in the Spice Market

During our journey out of the city, we stopped at the Iranian embassy to submit our applications for the Iranian visas. After a hold up of 2 and a half hours, the embassy decided that they would process our applications by Friday, rather than the 24 hour period that we were expecting. As a result, 2 of the group have stayed behind in Istanbul to collect the passports in the morning (hopefully with visas granted!)

The girls in Iranian dress. From left to right: Vicky, Jackie, Janet, Stephanie, Libby, Rebecca, Laura, Emily, Polly and Helen. Vicky has rebelled and dressed in blue so that she can find her clothes in the laundry!

Feel free to leave us any comments on our blog posts, it will be nice to hear what you think of our adventures so far!

Daily Routine

Of course travelling overland is a great way to see all the parts of the world you would miss by taking a flight to your destination, but naturally an overland truck does not stay clean by itself and the food does not magically come down the aisle with the cabin crew. So here is a small insight to the daily life of an overlander, it's not always the luxury that you might think!


Currently we are travelling as a group of 21 people, and that helpfully divides into groups of 3 very well. Each group will cook dinner, cook breakfast and clean the truck once per week, and those tasks are grouped closely together to get "your turn" out of the way as quick as possible.


Mornings:
5.30am - This is the time we get out of bed in the mornings if the truck is due to move that day. If your group happened to cook dinner last night, then it will be your turn to cook breakfast this morning. If you are cooking breakfast, you get cooking straight away as breakfast must be served by 6.00am. If you are not cooking, you can start to pack your tent away early.

Cooking using the gas supply from the truck

6.00am to 6.30am - Breakfast time. If you haven't eaten by 6.30am you won't be getting any breakfast as this is the time all of the breakfast equipment is packed away.


7.00am - This is the time that the truck sets off in the morning for the next destination, and o everything and everybody must be on the truck and ready to go by this time.


During the course of the day we can be travelling anywhere for up to 12-13 hours a day (once outside Europe where you are restricted to 9 hours a day), and so it is important to synchronise food and toilet stops well to maintain a steady progress. Don't forget a toilet stop does not mean there will actually be a toilet! You get what you get regardless of what you need!


5.00pm - On an average day this will be the time that the group cooking dinner will assemble to unpack and begin cooking. If you cooked breakfast that morning, that means it is your turn to clean the truck. Each day the truck is swept, mopped and disinfected, and if necessary a toilet hole is dug by the same group somewhere near where we have found to camp.


7.00pm - This is the time dinner is normally served (unless we have a very long driving day). If you cooked the dinner you must wait until everybody else is eating before you are allowed to serve yourself.


8.00pm - Washing up time. Those that cooked must now clean everything that was cooked with or eaten off of. Once this is done all of the equipment must be packed back onto the truck ready to cook breakfast in the morning. 


By 9.00pm you are normally finished with your duties, and you leave it as late as you dare before you go to bed to be up again at 5.30am to do it all over again! This is generally the time when I will look to see if I can blog or go on facebook, and so there is not often a lot of time left over to do anything else.


The good news is that once those tasks are out of the way, you get  5 days with a bit extra time before you do it all again! Tonight my group cooked, and so I will do breakfast and cleaning tomorrow. Vicky's group is one night behind me, and so she will be following the same pattern starting tomorrow.


On days where the truck does not move things are a little more relaxed, and breakfast will not normally be served until 7.00am.

The group cooking using a fire we have made near Istanbul. We cook on fire where possible, but it is mainly using gas at the moment.

Bulgaria

Found an unexpected wireless signal on the beach where we are camping in Galipoli, so time for a bit of impromptu blogging!


We were glad to finally get out of Romania, as with the exception of the mountains there really was not much to see or do there at all. Even the journey out of the city was harder than it should have been, with the traffic police frantically blowing their whistles seemingly just to tell you there is nothing wrong!?! I think a certain Mr Venamore would find it quite easy to find work out here (a few select people will know what I mean)!


So out of Romania and into Bulgaria, and immediately the country takes on a more positive aura. I'm not saying that everything is perfect suddenly, but the country is maintained better, the people are friendlier and the scenery and walks are just incredible.


We stayed on a campsite for 2 nights that was run by an English couple, but we hiked to a couple of local villages to get a feel for what Bulgaria really feels like.

Panoramic view from the campsite over the hills

On the second day the weather improved dramatically from the first day (after the tent pegs were ripped out of the ground by the wind during the night), and all of the mist visible in the photo above was burnt off. We went for a walk in the morning, before Vicky and I tried an archery session in the afternoon. Although it was challenging, it is certainly something we would like to try again in the future.

Some of the group at the campsite. From left to right: Jay, Janet, Vicky and Toby.

We were all quite sad to leave the campsite the following morning as we had all had such a great time (especially the 80p a pint beers in the evenings), but of course were looking forward to our journey into Turkey at the same time.

Romania

So the 7th country on our agenda is done having spent the last 3 days in Romania. 


We started our stay with a camp in a muddy field (one thing we have learnt about Romania is that it rains...a lot!), where we spent a number of hours hoping that the field's owner would not turn up and boot us off, which fortunately they did not. Vicky and I slept on the truck that night as I was cooking and unable to help put up the tent, and it was a fortunate move as a heavy rain storm swept in flooding a couple of the groups tents.


The next morning we packed our bags and headed off toward Bucharest, via Bran Castle (which is the castle in Transylvania used in the setting of the story of Count Dracula). Surprisingly the castle was not as Gothic or as creepy as you would associate with the story of Dracula, and it was actually quite light and airy in places.

Bran Castle

One thing that has been apparent as we have traveled through the country is just how run down and decaying a lot of the countries are. In a lot of cases it is difficult to tell whether a lot of the buildings are still in use or whether they are derelict. There are an enormous number of buildings that have crumbled away and not been restored, alongside a number of new build properties that have been left in a half finished state almost certainly never to be completed. 

On the contrary though the physical scenery is breathtaking, especially in the mountain regions. It is just an awful shame though that the country is blighted by a severe fly tipping problem, and there is rubbish everywhere you turn, whether in the cities or miles from any civilisation. The country also has another problem with a huge number of stray dogs, where it is not uncommon to see a stray or two wondering every 2-3 miles in the country and on almost every street in the city.

The breathtaking mountain scenery

In a way the city of Bucharest itself was a bit of a disappointment as there was very little to take in compared to any other capital you would have been to, but although a lot of the buildings are constructed in a monotonous concrete there is still some impressive (if crumbling) architecture to be seen. Along with that there are a number of small independent businesses that are alive and well in the city, that would surely struggle to stay alive in more contemporary cities.

Another early start tomorrow as we head off for Bulgaria :)

Budapest

Another country ticked off the agenda! We have spent today exploring the beautiful but huge city of Budapest. The city is split in 2 by the river Danube, with Buda (hilly and residential) on one side and Pest (flatter and commercial) on the other. Our campsite is in the Buda half of the city, and the reception and bar is created from an old tram station.

The old tram station, now the bar / reception

After we arrived we took a cable car ride up to the highest point of the city to climb the observation tower, and then hiked back down through the forests to find the camp site again. 

This morning we caught the local bus down into the main city, and boarded a tour bus where we were able to stop at many of the local highlights including the Parliament building (a rather awesome building), the citadel viewing point, the synagogue and the cathedral.

Us next to the Danube with the Parliament building in the background

Tonight we will be using up some of our spare currency to buy a few drinks in the bar, and then getting up at 5.30am to make our way into Romania in the morning.

View of the Danube from the citadel vantage point

  

Vienna

Another 2 days completed on our epic tour, and the latest stop over has been in Vienna, Austria. We were delighted to meet up with our friend Sabine in the centre of the city, where she gave us the grand tour of the city including a trip up the tower of Stephanssdom the city cathedral.

Roof of the Stephanssdom

In the evening we capped of our stay with a walk along the river Danube as the sun was setting, before a freezing cold night saw us left with ice on some of our tents and a general lack of sleep. 

Sun setting by the river Danube

Now we're off to Hungary to check out Budapest for a couple of days!

Church of Bones

Our last stop on the way out of the Czech Republic (other than the one at the petrol station to allow people to spend all of their left over Krona on sweets) was at the famous Church of Bones.

Inside the church are the bones of over 30,000 people who wanted to be buried on sacred ground, but due to the plague there was little space available and so they were stored within the walls of the church. Some time later a half blind monk (no I'm not making this up!) was commissioned to pile the bones up, and in doing so he created some off the most morbid interior design since Lawrence Lewellyn Bowen.

Check out my facebook page soon to see more crazy constructions like this one!

Prague

So the last 2 days we have been camped just outside of the city of Prague in the Czech Republic. We have been staying on a small and basic campsite about 40 mins away by public transport from the main city.

Camping just outside Prague

Prague is an incredibly beautiful city with plenty of interesting architecture, and is busy with people everywhere you look. The city's castle, which is more akin to a cathedral and palace rolled into one, is the cities main attraction, although we found it slightly too touristy and therefore did not go inside.

View looking away from  the castle

On the plus side alcohol is cheaper here than the lemonade or the coke you would mix it with, and therefore it is forcing us to drink more of it....shame :) 

Tomorrow we head off to Vienna in Austria for another 2 days, and fingers crossed another few great days!

Hoping to put some photos on Facebook soon, but the battery on the computer is running low and will need to find somewhere to charge before I can do that. Visit again soon for some Austrian news!

Changing of the guard at the castle

Germany

Next up for us has been a spot of bush camping in the forest in Germany. Having left the farm in Belgium at 7.00am (our routine being up at 5.30am, breakfast served at 6.00am, breakfast cleared away by 6.30am and on the road by 7.00am) the truck traveled 678km to an area of forest off the beaten track in Germany (nearest village unknown).

Ready to camp in the forest

It was a fairly uneventful day with the maximum permitted time on the truck of 9 hours being clocked up. The driver (Adam) has to conform to the European regulations when it comes to driving, the same as if he were say a haulage driver. Once we leave Turkey and enter Iran then there will be no restrictions on the distance we can travel in any given period.

Some of the girls find a small clearing for their tents

Once we were set up and dinner was eaten we took a short walk around the forest before bedding down for an unbearably cold night in the tent, with just 2 and a half hours sleep before our 5.30am alarm call.

Coming next...Prague (Czech Republic)

Internet at Last!!

On our third day we finally have an internet connection! Time for some blogging :)

Lets rewind to 7th April, and of course the day we set out on our epic adventure. We traveled from London down to Dover in time to catch the lunchtime ferry to Calais, and a rather amusing crossing it turned out to be. We shared the ferry with a party of snowboarders all kitted out in fancy dress who were headed off to Switzerland for a massive convention, and there was just about every costume imaginable on view.

Us setting off on the ferry

Once on the other side of the channel, we the journeyed 372km into a small village in Belgium where a local farmer, come dentist, reluctantly allowed us to camp in a field next to his horses. A freezing cold night followed, with unfortunately not much sleep to be had. Spirits were high however as we headed off on the next leg of our European phase the next morning...

Sandy farmers field, our tent, and the vehicle in the background