Europe inter-railing trip, June 2006

 

So where have I been on my travel adventure so far since the 14th June?

Milan, Venice, Lake Bled in Slovenia, Ljubljana capital of Slovenia, La Spezia, Cinque Terre, Pisa, Florence, Rome, Naples, Pompei, and Sorrento. Some for a few hours, others for a few days, but it's been a whirlwind tour all round!

The photos are from Venice where I watched the sun go down, very nice! And Lake Bled, and a quality gorge near Lake Bled. Unfortunately my camera has decided to delete the rest of my photos up until now, but I will get similiar photos from folk i have met along the way. Think

there is some fault with my memory card, just a tad frustrating but I’m looking on the bright side, I’ve got some great memories for life!

So now I am sitting in Istanbul, after a marathon 3 day journey from Naples starting on Wednesday morning and arriving in Istanbul on Friday night! During that time I travelled on 7 different trains, 2 buses and 1 boat!! And i met loads of very random and wonderful people

along the way!

The journey from Athens to Istanbul was an experience. I took a sleeper night train for the first leg, where i was sharing a tiny cramped room with 3 total randoms, but got a decent sleep and

woke up with all my belongings so all good! Then a train and 2 buses followed before a long wait on either side of the Greece / Turkey border, checking our passports and paying 15 euro for my Turkish visa.

Then for my final train journey to Istanbul, we encountered 1 long stop which was particularly funny. Many of the locals began picking grapes from some of the trees, and giving many branches of grapes to myself and my fellow travellers, it was almost like a mini feast! There were many people taking advantage of this exceptionally productive tree, including the ticket conductor. This bizarre activity continued for over half an hour and I was wondering if the train had stopped to pick grapes, and wondering if I'd ever make it to istanbul! It finally became clear that the long wait was for a train coming in the opposite direction, as there was only one train track for much of the way! So the train passed and we were on our merry way, stuffed

full with the local Turkish grapes!

So I plan to stay in Istanbul for 3 or 4 nights, exploring this massive wonderful city with the help of my Auntie Marion`s first hand experience and advice. I am staying at a very cool hostel (6 pounds per night) with a rooftop terrace overlooking the Bosphorus, the magnificent huge mosques. This hostel also shows the World Cup footie, includes Scrambled Egg for breakie, and has belly dancers 3 times a week!

The plan after Istanbul is to work my way back to Athens via a couple of Greek islands, before flying back on the 8th July for graduation on the 12th! So lots to look forward to!! Right, better be off to do some sight seeing.