Some first thoughts on Turkey

I put it on my list of resolutions so I figured I would start to think about this possible vacation destination Turkey. From what I've read so far is that Isanbul, being the capital, is the easiest place to start from. Finding out if there are cheap flights to Turkey was easy and its a good option since the buses and trains can be slow and have hold-ups at the border. In particular Sultanahmet where some of the city's major sights and monuments are located near each other. From the main square, the Blue Mosque and the Haghia Sophia are both a stone's throw away. There are thousands of years worth of history in this square kilometre alone, its incredible even though I live in Budapest at how much this area is saturated in politics, culture and world-changing events. You can just breathe history here. From here it is easy to explore the Topkapi Palace and the Grand Bazaar.

I realize the more I travel that not only does the capital city not give a real representation of the country as a whole but that most of the really touristy sights also don't represent the capital city. They are mandatory to visit in my opinion, usually just to see what the hype is all about, but it is certain that tourists crowd the Blue Mosque and that they outnumber the locals at the Grand Bazaar. I like to get to know the locals when I travel and to do this I usually have to find the more outer districts of the city and lose myself in neighborhoods where English-speakers are harder to find.

Balkinology, a travel site, suggests taking a walk along the south shore of the Golden Horn from Galata Bridge. Checking out Fener and Balat will be helpful too in getting a more realistic and cultured impression of Istanbul. The city walls were built in the fifth century and it is possible to trace them along the outskirts of the city. I can't even imagine how long it took to build them and by how many men.
Another site I think is a must-see especially for art-lovers and architect admirers is the Church of Saviour in Chora which has frescoes in classic Byzantine style.Thinking about travelling again is exciting, especially to a location like Turkey which is really geographically close but can feel so exotic at the same time.

Adventure trip to the South of Croatia

I have to admit, this was not as much a 'fun' holiday as I thought it would be, but nevertheless we saw some really nice places, including the old town of Korcula, and the island of Korcula itself is beautiful.

We didn't plan it at all, just decided to go on a holiday on a Monday afternoon, and bought the train tickets to Zagreb (I was so naive that really believed, there IS a discount for people under 26 in all the countries - well, in Croatia, there wasn't).

Our train left from Budapest Keleti around 14:00 in the afternoon, and we arrived in Zagreb in the evening - short sightseeing, because we wanted to catch the train that went to Split at 23:00. So, we left the luggages in the lockers (quite cheap!) and had a nice walk, admired the trams that seemed even older than ours in Budapest...



The first mistake i made was not reserving a couchette ticket for the trip, but we thought there wont be any people on the train on the last week of September...We were almost right, except that in the last moment, a couple came into the compartment, and the lady was singing and talking to herself all night long :) :)
Maybe I'm getting older and fastidious, but the dirt of the curtains, the cold and our nice fellow travellers' lullaby did not make it one of my favourite trips.

We were sooo happy to see the Adriatic sea among the hills when we were approaching the town of Split - and so disappointed again, by the Balkanic conditions that still dominating the south of this country. They might have a far better highroad system than we do, but I don not envy the poverty and the desperate need of wealthy tourists of them. Finally we fought our way to the ferry's ticket office (at least a million people asked us whether we needed a cheap hotel room in Split) and sat down to have a coffee (3 hours until the next ferry left to Vela Luka, no direct ferries to Korcula...- so a bus ride along the island was waiting for us, but i was excited).

3 hours on the ferry, which we spent mainly sleeping, because of being exhausted, then arrived at Vela Luka (the other end of Korcula island) and searched for the bus we was due in 5 minutes to depart. We asked the girl at the newspaper stand where do the buses to Korcula city depart from - she said right here, just wait. Of course we did not find any signs of bus stop or anything similar, so were quite surprised to see the bus leaving from behind us, next to the ferry station....

We sat down, already yielding to the fact that another 3 hours of waiting is in the view, when the bus came back (!) and just passed by. Tried to run after it, waving and shouting to the driver - did not help, so we decided not to take a taxi but rather have a pizza at one of the restaurants. Also called the receptionist of our accommodation that we might be late, she was absolutely understanding and said that would be waiting for us (normally she only works until 18:00, and we were to arrive at 20:00 with the next bus. (IF we can catch the small boat that would bring us to Orebic, our real destination on the Peljasic Peninsula).

Finally in Korcula, from the bus we saw a bigger Jadrolinija cruise waiting in the port, so we ran there to find out it is the one we needed, but it wasn't... (I broke my personal record of 200 metres...:) 20 minutes later the boat arrived, the steersman got out and reassured us that we were at the right place, he'd be back in 20 minutes and then he remounts to Orebic - first really good news of the day!

When in Orebic, of course we took the wrong direction, so needed about half an hour to find the guest house (and it was getting dark, so i was being quite hysterical).
Both of us were so tired that after we were shown our room and got the keys, fell asleep almost immediately, and it was only in the morning when i realised how nice view we had to the sea from our little balcony.

The weather was rather cool and windy, with couple of hours sunshine, so we had the chance to swim - but about our stay there and the way home, I'll tell you next time!