Contiki V - Eastern Europe and the east of the West.

As you might be able to tell from my last post, I was pretty tired after Gallipoli, so much of the last week and a bit has been a blur. From one Eastern Bloc country to another, staying only a night in each and seeing very little has left me dizzy! Luckily I have been keeping up with my travel journal notes so I can figure out what I have done in the last week for you.

The day of the Dawn Service at Gallipoli, we drove to Istanbul where we stayed the night, and then in the morning we did a city tour and went and looked at some carpets. I remember going to a place called the Spice Markets, which was cool. It was a big covered bazaar, much like I had imagined these things would look. There were some spices, but much more besides that. I had managed to lose this beautiful black pashmina I bought in India somewhere so when I found one which was exactly the same there, I bought it. It cost me heaps less than it did in India! I wish I could say that it was because my bargaining skills had improved, but he was offering it about five NZ dollars so I didn't have the heart to try to bargain him down!

The Haga Sophia and Istanbul

After the markets we went to see the Haga Sophia and the Blue Mosque, two mosques which sit right opposite each other. We got some good history on them, although I already knew that the Sophia was originally a church. Unfortunately I didn't have time to go and ask them to 'give it back' as Someone thought might be a good idea, as we were off to a carpet-selling attempt. I sat through that (it was cool, but these blatant attempts to get money off us annoy me), then I went and found some lunch. Everyone else went to see the Grand Bazaar, but I was exhausted so I went back to the hotel to do some washing and sleep. It was so nice to have clean clothes! I hadn't had a chance to wash since before Egypt, so you can imagine I was a little manky. After my nap and washing expdition, the others came back from town and we all got changed and went out to see a belly dancing show. That was great, although the belly dancers were better in Egypt. The male dancers were great though - knife throwing and all sorts of fun!

In Bulgaria we just basically stopped at the hotel (which was nice), slept, and then went again. I saw very little apart from fields, a nuclear power station, and lots of those communist flats.

Bucharest in Romania was great. There was this whole street which was basically a fountain... it's hard to describe but there was like a big fountain in the middle of the road, then down the length of it in the middle was a long pool with jets spraying into and above it in all directions. Very cool! They also had a building, at the end of the street, which is worth mentioning. It is apparently the second biggest building in the world, after the Pentagon. It was built under the communists and was made, like so many buildings in Europe, to rival Versailles. It is so huge that they still can't find uses for all the rooms, despite housing Parliament and a number of other government departments there. The logistics of heating and air conditioning the behemoth are such that it is still damp and cold in many rooms, too. Yay for communist dictators who have no-one to tell them that they are being ridiculous! I like follies. Except when it's my folly.

One end of the Street O' Fountains

In the same city, we stayed in a hotel that looked like it was a converted lunatic asylum, probably haunted, and if not then definitely a hollywood supernatural horror film set. So cool. Well, I liked it. Some of the other girls were a little less than impressed. Hehe.

The next day we stopped at the castle of Vlad Tepec, also known as Vlad the Impaler, Vlad Dracul, or "Dracula". Apart from the name and the bloodiness he has very little in common with the fictional vampire (see Erzebet Bathory for that stuff), but the castle was cool anyway.

I think this is a living room or something. I have many more impressive
pictures, but they are all in the wrong orientation...

From Romania we went to Budapest in Hungary, where we went for a cruise on the not-very-Blue Danube and saw the illuminated sights - lots of cool buildings. There was free wine, which was not disgusting, so the next day I was nursing my only hangover of the tour so far. I rather liked the city, and will have to go back and drink less!

Ooh, look at the prety liiights

And some more scenery, in the cold light of day. It was still pretty, even though I didn't feel so well...

My next stop was Vienna. We arrived in the evening and went out to see a concert of Mozart and Strauss music, which was great, despite my apprehensions of it being a bad orchestra. The women's dresses were awful (peach and poofy, like some 80s brisdesmaid nightmare), but they were very good at what they did.

The next day I got to meet a friend of mine whom I work on the Santharia project with, by the name of Christian, though we call him Art. We wandered around Vienna together and he showed me the sights. Thanks so much for the awesome day, Art! We went on this massive ferris-wheel thing (which I wasn't at all nervous about...) and into this massive Versailles-style palace called Schonbrunn Palace, and walked around the centre of town. There were some amazing builldings, but one of the highlights I will mention was the statue of the baby elephant which is outside the natural history musem. Soo cuute! We also ate heaps of traditional food: sausage, Sacher torte, Vienna coffee... it was a fabulous place and I had a great day out! After I left Art I went and had some... oh, I forget what it's called, but it is a traditional dessert - pancakes with plums and stuff. It was very good, so thanks for the tip, Art!

A sphinx presides over the dusk outside Shonbrunn Palace in Vienna

Well, that's as much as I have time for today, but tune in next time for Germany and the West!