Bulgaria

The further south we have headed, the poorer the areas have become. The more south we go, the more we see abandoned factories, old and falling down houses, more people living on the streets, more beggars, and the more manly the haircuts on the girls.

Old house, Rila Mountains.

We took another overnight train from Bucharest to Sophia. The had originated in Moscow 2 days earlier. All the train staff only spoke Russian and the signs where in the cyrilic alphabet which was a bit confusing. It was my first taste of these letters, but luckily Justin knows the sounds of the letters which helped while we were in Bulgaria.

Saturday in Sophia.

Arriving in Sophia, Bulgaria was a beautiful change. The bus station itself was horribly run down and stinky, but once we left that area it was great. Sophia is amazing place with a huge mix of ancient ruins and new modern city. The central subway station is built over an ancient Roman city, and they are excavating parts of it, which you can see.

Old and new, Sophia.

Bulgaria was also a nice change from being surrounded by smokers. There are smokers here too, but most people smoke outside. And the food is better than other Eastern European countries.

Saturday buskers in Sophia.

We hired a car (it was so cheap!) for a week, and went exploring the countryside. We have been getting tired of big cities and lots of people. We visited a couple of touristy places, including Rile Monastery, Devin and Veliko Tarnovo. The monastery was founded by a hermit in the 10th century and is the most famous Eastern Orthodox monastery in Bulgaria. Devin is famous for its mineral waters and has a massive gorge cutting through the mountains. The Trigrad Gorge is beautiful. It has a very narrow road, sometimes down to one lane, that runs the length of the gorge and has massive rock walls either side of a narrow river way below the road. Veliko Tarnovo is a small town that is famous for its ruined city and castle. It is where some of the Bulgarian Emperors lived. It has some of the oldest history in Europe dating back to 3BC.

Rila Monastery.

Monks Quarters, Rila Monastery.

We also went hiking, which turned into a death march. We had planned to get a chairlift to the top of a hill then hike around the lakes there, but the lift was not working so we decided to walk up (and down) the very steep hill. The views at the tops were beautiful but our knees were very sore the next day. The best part of the hike was that a very friendly dog followed us all the way up the hill.

A friendly dog, Rila Mountains.

Sorry this is such a short, brief post, I will do better when I start to talk about Turkey. Actually you will have trouble keeping me quiet....!

Rila Monastery.

Devin.

Autumn in Bulgaria.

Veliko Tarnovo. 

  

Heading South by Train

I realise I am very behind on my blog as over the last few weeks we have travelled a lot and haven't had much time to write. And when we do have time I'm usually too tired to think. We have spent the last few weeks in a lot of trains. Mostly overnight trains with sleepers, but also trains during the day. Here is a quick catch up, so many things have happened and we have seen so much it is actually hard to remember it all.

Bubbles!

Graffiti art, Prague.

From Prague we took the overnight train to Budapest in Hungary. We had heard great things about this city and had high expectations, but unfortunately it did not start well. We arrived very blurry eyed at a run down, dirty train station, had to walk a long way into town to find our hostel, the hostel was unfriendly and not very clean and the weather was grey and dismal. We were both too tired to be bothered moving that night so we slept there and moved the next day, and things improved from there. The history and architecture is amazing and we spent the next day just wondering around and sitting in cafes.

Buda Castle, Budapest.

From there we took another overnight train to Cluj-Napoca in Romania. Romania is beautiful! The train took us through beautiful countryside, right through Transylvania with it's misty gorges, rocky outcrops, rivers and trees turning orange and red. Just what you would imagine from a Dracula story. We also got our first views of wandering sheppards and their flocks of sheep or goats. Cluj itself is a university town and therefore has a great culture. Great food, everyone is friendly and everyone under 30 speaks English.

Fancy fencework.

Next we went to Brasov, one of the oldest towns in Romania. The history here dates back to 9500BC, and there are a lot of ruins and buildings from the middle ages. We did a day trip to Bran, the so-called town of Dracula. Bran castle supposedly was the setting of Bram Stokers book Dracula. The castle is like a large manor house with lots of rooms, narrow passages, steep stairs and a secret passageway between floors.

Bran Castle.

Bran Castle.

We took another train to Bucharest where we saw our first few orthodox christian churches. In some ways they are similar to catholic churches, but in other ways they are very different. The walls and ceilings are covered in paintings of saints and people from the bible, chairs only around the outside of the main hall so people either have to stand or kneel on the floor, and the alter is behind a large wall, often covered in gold leaf, and you can't see the holy place. All the churches are dark and elaborate.

Night time in the city.

Stavropoleos Monestery, Bucharest.

We loved Romania, and it would be one of our favourite places except for one thing...the smokers. They are everywhere and there are no non-smoking places. By the end of everyday in Romania we both had sore eyes and throats. In many ways we were sad to leave this country, but also relieved because of it.

Cesky Krumlov, Czech Republic.

Time out in Bucharest.

Street soccer, Bucharest.

Buskers Everywhere.

As we have been travelling through Europe we have come across many, many buskers. Most of them play music extremely well. Here is a little something from Prague.

Hello from Europe!

Dzien Dobry! This means hello in Polish, as Poland was our first stop in Europe. Unfortunately it is not pronounced the way it is spelt. It is actually said "Jen dobry". Justin and I flew from South Africa on an 18 hour trip to Warsaw, Poland and walked into a bit of culture shock. Suddenly we were in a land of working plumbing, great public transport, a huge amount of history and historical buildings, cold weather, everything being on time, and salads instead of all food being fried. Everything seemed so orderly!

Warsaw, Poland.

We spent a few days looking around the of town of Warsaw, visiting a few museums and monuments. The city of Warsaw was so badly bombed during World War II that if had to be entirely rebuilt. And I have to say it looks great. There are not too many large high rise buildings and there are some beautiful parks which contribute to the nice open feel of the city. While there we saw a pipe organ concert in one of the churches and a few days later we saw a piano concert in a park. The city is full of music and art.

Pipe organ from the 1500s.

Beautiful park, Warsaw.

So we spent a few days in Warsaw, then caught a train north to Gdansk to see a fortress called Malbork. It is the largest fortress in Europe and was used by the Teutonic Knights after they came back from the crusades. This is one of the most impressive collections of buildings I have ever seen. For a start, it is huge. We spent the whole day looking around it and only saw about two thirds of it. These knights were a religious fighting order that also acted as landlords, traders and rulers to the surrounding areas.

Entrance to Malbork castle.

The Grand Hall, Malbork Castle.

We returned to Warsaw for a few days again to catch up with a friend of Justin's, before heading south to Krakow where we met my parents. Here we saw the Jewish Quarter, Wawel Castle and The Human Body exhibition. This is a world wide travelling expo all about the human body and contains plastinated and dissected bodies. It was very well done and interesting. I would highly recommend seeing it, if you ever get the chance. We then travelled with my parents for 2 weeks through the south of Poland and Czech Republic. We visited many places including Europe's oldest salt mine and a small town called Zywiec, where my Dad is originally from and got to meet some of his childhood friends. It was great to see some of his family history.

The Jewish Quarter, Krakow, Poland.

The main chapel in the Wieliczka Salt Mine. Everything is carved out of salt, including the floor. 

While in the south of Poland we visited Auschwitz. This is one of the strangest places I have ever been, I almost don't have words for it. It is actually 3 separate camps and they were only partially destroyed by the retreating Germans at the end of the war, so many of the buildings are original. It is really creepy, but at the same time really sad and interesting. Everyone becomes very solemn as you walk around, and I admit I had tears in my eyes at times as we saw the wall where people were shot, the underground rooms where medical experiments were conducted and people were tortured, and the gas chamber with it's furnaces next door. Everything is so orderly, it is hard to imagine just what went on here. The average life span of someone here was 3 months, although I personally knew someone that survived 2 years there.

Work did not set anyone free, Auschwitz.

Some of the many, many shoes, Auschwitz.

On to more happy things. We also got to visit some small towns in Czech, as well as Prague. We have seen several castles, many old towns (mostly restored), an opera (Rigoletto), beautiful lakes and hills, eaten some great food including wild blueberries, and we have also seen the change of season. When we first arrived in Poland all the trees were green, but within a few days the temperature dropped and the first frosts came. All the trees started turning gorgeous yellows and reds.

Winter is coming.

We said goodbye to my parents in Prague as they were flying back to NZ, while we caught the train to Budapest in Hungary. We are hoping to make it to Turkey before the weather gets too cold.

As usual, some more photos:

A hallway in Malbork.

Shutters on a window (and Justin), Malbork.

One of the draw-bridges, Malbork.

One small part of Malbork from the outside.

Buskers are everywhere, Poland.

Double wire fences all around the camp, Auschwitz.

Some of the 28 buildings that housed prisoners, Auschwitz.

  

South Africa: Part 3

I have been going through my many, many photos of South Africa and though I would put a few more up for your enjoyment (or to create jealousy).

Male lion, less then a year old.

Lion cub that is 8 days old. I want one!

Lion cub that is 3 months old, they grow up very fast.

Cape Glossy Starling.

Zebras, no other comment needed.

Male giraffe.

Leopard, an animal that is rarely seen.

Sunrise in Kruger National Park.

Baby feeding.

Oops the truck is stuck!

Rhinos.

Goshawk.