Last stop ın Europe

In around 48 hours time I will be at Ataturk international airport awaiting my flight out of Europe and into New Delhi, India. To get the ribs out of the way first then! they still hurt a bit but they are getting there and I do not think they will be an obsticle to my progess. That little incident aside I have enjoyed my 2 and a half months easing into the trip, visiting places I have never been before and meeting great people along the way. Istanbul is in many ways a terrible choice for my last stop as there is simply too much to do here! It really is quite a place, smokey streetside kebab stalls, crazy carpet salesmen, amazing architecture and some 14 million people make for a pretty electric atmosphere and it has reignighted my passion to travel at just the right tıme. My last few days in Bulgaria were spent in the town of Plovdiv which is a bit more westernised than the capital Sofia. It also has an attractive old town and a small Roman Ampitheatre and was a nice place to finish that part of the trip with. I bid fairwell to Max and Maria after insisting on buying them dinner for all their help. It was the least I could do really as I may have had to go home without their help. A few boring statisics for you then, so far I have been to 7 countries, travelled for 74 days and stayed at 31 hostels/hotels a fair old start I thınk. I have to say I am a bıt nervous going into India but also massively excited. I have always wanted to go there and I know there is going to be a massive culture shock but I will deal with it and adjust as I always do. There is a lot more I want to write but this keyboard is beyond confusing and it has taken me almost an hour just to write this! Signing out for Europe then, India, baby, I will be seeing you real soon. Chris

Show must go on

I am going to assume that pretty much everyone reading now knows what happened to me almost a week ago. If you don't then please ask someone else. The reason is I am sick of talking about, sick of thinking about it and sick of it hanging over my trip like the horrible grey cloud that it is. Yes I am still recovering physically and mentally but I am getting there and I am now beginning to feel that leaving Europe and getting to India will almost start things afresh and I can go on from there. I am trying to look for the positives in what was a horrible situation and I think firstly the fact that something awful has happened to me and I have not ran home at the first opportunity is massive and does give me confidence for the months ahead. I did always wonder if I could cope with something really bad happening and now I know that I can and that makes me feel proud and eager to continue with things. I have had a bit of help with my backpack from the lovely Max and Maria from France who are pretty much driving me around Bulgaria, I cannot thank them enough and they have even altered their route slightly to help me, proof indeed that there are decent people still out there to counter the arseholes that exist in this society. It was always going to be a struggle for me to like Bulgaria after what happened, I still find the people cold and unfriendly in general and it is a struggle to get anywhere if you do read Cyrillic, I have slowly been taking in the alphabet to try and get into it. The two things I really have liked so far are the 2 hostels I've stayed at, first in Veliko Tarnovo and now here in Sofia. Both are part of chain called Hostel Mostel and really well run establishments aimed at backpackers with a range of services such as day trips to nearby attractions and walking tours of the cities. The other thing is the Bulgarian love of putting cheese on pretty much everything which suits me right down to the ground and after a couple of months of being relatively watchful of what I am eating I felt I deserved to pig out a little for a change. My route from now until India is fairly simple, I am in Sofia for tonight and tomorrow then 2 nights in the town of Plovdiv further south. After that I am Istanbul for 4 nights and then it is on to Delhi in India for a completely new chapter and new experiences in a place that will undoubtedly be like nowhere I have every been before and hopefully I will almost be back to 100% by then. To be honest I cannot be bothered to write much more, this is simply updating to let people know I am okay and still very much enjoying this trip for the most part. I will probably do one last update from Istanbul and that will wrap it up for Europe. Thanks for all the messages of support from friends and family, you've all helped me get through this. Chris xxxx

Halloween in Transylvania

As a child and as an adult I've never really cared for Halloween, I like horror films don't get me wrong but the dressing up and everything that goes with it has always just seemed like a waste of time. I still kind of feel that way but at least I can say that being in Romania for Halloween this year has been an enjoyable experience. I have traveled a fair bit of Romania since my last update, from Cluj-Napoca I headed east to Sighisoara, a great little Saxon town which was the birthplace of Vlad Tepes. It's sights can be seen in a few hours and seeing I was with a Canadian I actually bothered to go in the museums for a change! the best of the 3 was the history museum which was set inside a tower. It had exhibits on each level all leading to a cracking 360 degree view of the town and surrounding mountains. In all honesty I could have done the town in a day trip but the 2 nights I spent there were well worth it for the people I met in the evenings. I went to the same local restaurant both evenings and then to the one bar that seemed to have any signs of life after 10pm, first with Florain from France and then Alexis from Australia the second night which ended up with a lot of beer being consumed and discussing the history of Romanian football for 4 local guys we met. The next day I stumbled out of my hostel, leaving my towel behind which annoyingly I've been unable to replace since. I went to Brasov which is meant to be the number 1 destination in Romania for tourists. The hostel I had booked had given my bed away to a large group of Serbians who were there for Halloween, which was rather annoying. They did direct me to another hostel nearby which was pretty cool, so I stayed there the 3 nights instead. The actual center of Brasov did not really overwhelm me. There were the usual pedestrian shopping streets, souvenir shops and overpriced restaurants and besides the excellent main square it didn't offer a lot. Brasov is known for excellent local hiking but I was feeling fairly rubbish and not really in the mood, so for the first time in the trip, I had a day off and didn't really do anything but watch TV in the hostel with Hannah from Australia who had the flu and no real other option and Judy the hostel cat! I got my act together the next day and visited Bran castle which is known as Dracula's castle even though Vlad Tepes only briefly stayed here. The first sight of it is pretty ominous and in my opinion the best thing about it, inside was quite touristy but still I'm glad I went and saw it. I did do a short hike when I arrived in Brasov, up to the Hollywood style Brasov sign in the surrounding hills. I left Brasov yesterday for Sibiu which is the third of the Saxon towns and my last stop in Romania. I have actually yet to visit the town and feel fairly lazy today. I have noticed that these days are creeping in a bit more now, which was always going to happen, in travelling as with anything in life, you need to take the odd day for yourself here and there. Last night was good though, I went out for dinner with 2 Australian girls and another from New Zealand. They all had a lot more travel experience than I did and were all travelling alone so it was interesting to hear their stories. We bought massive 2.5 litre bottles of local beer for the equivalent of just over a pound and this may explain my slight reluctance to shift my arse at all today, though the center isn't meant to be big and the sights can be done in a couple of hours. Last night I had these cabbage rolls filled with meat and rice for dinner and I've actually got slightly addicted to these since arriving in Romaina, they are cheap, filling and amazing. I have had a tricky week mentally, I won't go into detail on here but I feel as though I have been tested and come through the other side of it with the same massive appetite to carry on with this trip as I've ever had, I mean I'll be in India in just over 2 weeks for goodness sake and that is really exciting. This is my last night in Romania and I'd rank it second behind Croatia so far, the people are incredible, so warm and hospitable for people who have so little compared with Western Europe. The towns are stunning generally and the surrounding countryside on the train journeys has been among the best I've seen. Add to that great food, cheap beer, quality hostels and the awesome fellow travelers I've met and it has all been a wonderful experience. Tomorrow I get the train to Bucharest and then immediately get another train to Ruse on the Bulgarian side, arriving at around 2am. I have booked a private room in a bed and breakfast as I feel I need a couple of days to properly regroup otherwise there is a chance Bulgaria will be wasted in my hurry to get to India. That's about all I have for now, hope everyone had a great Halloween!

Romania impresses

I'm currently in Cluj which is my second stop in Romania. I have to say that Romania has surprised me so far, the cities are more modern than I would have expected and the transport is pretty efficient, I've met some really nice people and the 2 hostels I have stayed at are amongst the best so far. Going back to Novi Sad in Serbia where I last updated, my only full day there was spent mainly in the fortress area of the town which is the other side of the bridge and overlooks the city. As I said I preferred it to Belgrade as it was far more manageable and a lot less traffic to negotiate. After finding a delicious local pasta restaurant I went out to a couple of bars with the owner of the hostel who was Serbian but had actually lived in Wales for a while and had some interesting stories to tell. That aside my opinion of the hostels in Serbia was fairly low, I barely ever saw a member of staff so was unable to really get any inside knowledge of what there is to see. I have found the hostels in Croatia and Italy useful for this, so with only 5 days in Serbia its a shame that this happened, still I did see a fair bit by myself and enjoyed my time in the country nonetheless. Onto Monday then which turned into a hellish waiting game in the Serbian border town of Vrsac. Having got up early to get there I had, not unreasonably, assumed that a town only 12km from the Romanian border would have decent bus and train connections but it didn't. There was just the one train and it left at 6:20pm which was around 8 hours to kill before I could leave. The town itself was not a bad place but due to the train station being so far out of town and having no left luggage so I could leave my backpack I was forced to spend my time at the train station and the area surrounding it due to spending the last of my Serbian money on the train ticket and a sandwich to keep me going. The long waits are part of the traveling game but they are not really something that I enjoy, I prefer long journeys, at least then I feel as though I'm making progress. Anyway the time did eventually pass and 2 hours later I was in Timisoara, my first stop in Romania. I slept like a log and awoke the next day to explore. I have to admit to a slight degree of nervousness mixed in with the excitement whenever I enter a new country, it is usually washed away pretty quickly though and again this proved to be the case. Timisoara is stunning, its the 4 biggest city in Romania, a student city and has some really beautiful pedestrian streets and squares. The main one has the city cathedral at the end and looks out of a fairytale as many buildings in Romania seem to. The history of the city is also pretty cool. It was the scene where the unpopular Romanian leader was overthrown during the 1989 revolution. I would recommend reading about it, its a fine story. The day after, yesterday, I had another tough day of travel. I had to wait another 4 hours at the train station for the train to Cluj. It is also the first day I have had proper cold weather during the entire trip and I not even noticed until then that I had not even noticed that I had not even packed a warm coat, scarf, gloves or hat! rather than look for any of these I dived into a smokey, local bar and warmed myself up with a couple of coffees. The 7 hour journey to Cluj turned into 8 hours because of a delay. I met a really nice Romanian girl called Spiri on the train which helped pass the time. I am finding the locals here pretty engaging and a lot more interested in travel than those in Serbia. I think Romania does have a pretty good travel network though. As I mentioned the hostels have been great here, the one I'm at now, Retro Hostel, is rated as one of Romania's best. They are brightly decorated and aimed at backpackers the way a hostel should be. Cluj is actually in Transylvania and is described by lonely planet as 'a real city' which usually means its fairly ugly but I think it has a lot going for it and whilst not as picturesque as Timisoara I am having a great time here so far. Next up I hit the Saxon triangle of Sighisoara, Brasov and Sibiu. Brasov is meant to be the highlight of any trip to Romania and I intend to do some hiking there as well as head out to Dracula's castle in nearby Bram, this will fall on the 30th October which is a day before Halloween and that is a complete coincidence! I have changed my itinerary in places, Sibiu has been added in as it is supposed to be amazing and I am nearby anyway, I've also added an extra day onto Brasov due to Bram castle being closed on Mondays. To balance this I've decided not to go to Bucharest, I've heard nothing but bad things about it and feel a big dirty capital is something I could do without. I will still have to go here as its the route to Bulgaria and may have to stay a night depending on trains and buses. I have also removed Constanta, on the black sea coast as its too far out the way and added Ruse, on the Bulgarian side of the border which fits in better and is near a good national park, though I've not booked accommodation there yet due to uncertainty about getting there. I do intend to put some photos on here soon, hope everyone is well back in the UK and wherever else you might be.

lessons learned

I think the two most important things I have learnt so far from Europe with regards to my upcoming travels are that location is everything and to wing it all the way to Rio from India onward! What I mean is that in terms of meeting people and seeing the destinations being in the center or as near to it as possible is massively important! my 3 days in Belgrade, whilst good, were a real struggle at times as I was in a fairly crap hostel with not a single other person and a good 45 minute walk from the center of the city and in terms of nightlife and the time it took me to get anywhere I do feel I have missed out a bit with this one. Whilst I have an itinerary for beyond Europe I do not really intend to stick to it religiously, once I get to India all that matters is that I am back in Delhi for my flight to Thailand in mid February and so on. I guess Europe kind of had to go that way, especially Italy, it is kind of essential to book even though it is approaching the end of the season, all I can do now is go to each place I have booked over the next month or so, enjoy them, remember why I wanted to go there and make the best of them. It kind of sounds like I am not having fun which could not be further from the truth, I have had some great times already and Europe is such a small part of this trip that it really has to be put into perspective. Sarajevo was great, my second night involved a night at a Latin club with Mexican Bryan and South African Chris. It was a very lively place and the sort of club where you can have a chat with people if you are not so into the dancing side of things. I met a fair few people who were doing similar routes to me in terms of heading to India after Europe which surprised me a little but I guess I am getting quite far east now so maybe will meet more travelers with this sort of trip in mind. The final day my awful navigation of the place continued and by the evening I had given up with the culture and had a MacDonalds and watched Taken at the cinema, I shouldn't have bothered as both were shit! I left Bosnia the following morning, grabbing a final burek along the way, this is one of the national favorites and is a thin pastry stuffed with one of meat, cheese or Nutella bizarrely. The train to Belgrade took almost 9 hours but was fairly comfortable as train travel often is, I have always enjoyed long distance travel providing there is some level of comfort involved. I have no doubt I will be kissing that goodbye in India! I actually crossed borders 3 times on the journey as the train went into Croatia for a small stretch of it. It left me with 4 unexpected stamps in my passport, my first of the trip and an exciting moment for us travelers! I arrived at the aforementioned rubbish hostel and made it to the center the following day. Belgrade is not a beautiful city by any means, its the biggest I have visited since Italy, though it does have its attractions such as the fortress which towers over most of the city center and the old town which is busy but easy enough to happily get lost in. Due to the vast distances between my hostel and the city center I was unable to sample the legendary nightlife which I was rather annoyed at but I am sure there will be many more nights out to come over the next couple of years. The following day I took a walk to a town a couple of hours away along a really nice path along the Danube river which runs through the city. It was a world away from the hustle of the big city and was a relaxing way to spend the day. The heat has emerged yet again although it surely cannot last much longer, it is 26 degrees today in Novi Sad, really cant believe it! The train here was a simple affair and I am now in Serbia's second city which is most famous for the Exit music festival which takes place in June each year and is rapidly becoming one of the biggest music festivals in Europe. I have sampled the atmosphere today and much prefer it to Belgrade, its a much more manageable size and not as noisy or daunting. I head to Romania on Monday which may prove to be an adventure in itself as I can only get a ticket from here as far as a town on the border and then have to figure it out from there, should be interesting! It will also be my 50th day of the trip so far and I think I am doing pretty damn well so far!

Disorientated in Sarajevo

I'm currently in my hostel in Bosnia's capital city, Sarajevo. Today I have tried to get around and see the sights but they have mainly either been closed or I have been unable to find them. It's a bit humbling in all honesty as I've pretty much breezed through things so far, so to not actually be able to find what I want brings me down to earth a little bit. I like Bosnia though, Sarajevo in particular, its a bit more spread out than say Zagreb but you can still walk most places and there is a vibrant feel to the place with outdoor cafes and bars still going, though it is cooling now and I feel the heatwave is finally over as Eastern Europe finally heads towards winter. That being said its still warm here, I'd be surprised if its much below 20 degrees which is the kind of weather I would have expected when I started in September in Rome rather than mid October in Bosnia! My first stop in Bosnia was Mostar and despite my previous entry I did end up getting to see a bit of the town on my first evening. I ended up watching the Bosnian national team survive a second half battering to get a creditable draw in Greece in a world cup qualifier. Its good to see football is as popular here as anywhere else, the locals were getting properly into it. The next day I had a look round the old town, the highlight of which is the stunning Stari Most which is the bridge reconstructed after the war in the 90's. It really does illustrate the true senselessness of the war that two cities as beautiful as Dubrovnik and Mostar were bombed the shit out of for no apparent reason. I saw further evidence of the war with the ruins of a hotel near my hostel, seeing modern ruins is fairly shocking if I'm being honest. Dinner was a dirt cheap chicken risotto in the old town and there was still time to see the sunset over the bridge before the end of the night. The hostel here in Sarajevo is very inexpensive and pretty full of travelers, my first evening was spent playing cards and getting to know people over some surprisingly good Bosnian wine. I'm about 45 days into my trip now and it is starting to feel like a way of life now, not to say every day isn't exciting but it doesn't feel like a holiday anymore its actually just what I do. I think one of my favorite parts is my arrival in a new city and going out to explore after I have dumped my bags at the hostel. The one thing I did achieve was booking my train ticket to Serbia, its a 9 hour trek on Wednesday and will actually represent the first time I have arrived anywhere at night, I have Novi Sad after that and then its onto Romania!

What a difference a day makes

24 hours ago I was sunbathing on a beach in Dubrovnik, now I have just had to delay my first experience of exploring Mostar, Bosnia due to torrential rain, it really is quite a change in my fortunes! It was sad to leave Croatia at all really, not just because of the weather either! I have had a great time there, the cities and towns are generally beautiful, the locals friendly and helpful and even though a lot of places were quite quiet I did meet some wonderful people and have some great nights out, particularly in Rijeka, Split, Trogir and Dubrovnik. The difference between Croatia and Bosnia is fairly noticeable. The landscape is different, the people look different. Bosnia is mainly a Muslim country and I have already noticed a lot of mosques and heard a lot of prayers in the short time I have been here in Mostar, which is pretty much Bosnia's second city. I had a pretty great final 5 days or so in Croatia, which is a little surprising considering I have hit with a particularly vicious bout of man flu in that time. I think the reason for this has been the fairly hectic pace of my travel so far. I have been going to a new destination every other day since Florence almost a month ago and I think that may have caught up with me. It did mean that my full day in Torgir wasn't a particularly great one, I had decided to go to nearby Sibernik on a day trip but had to call it quits halfway through due to feeling rubbish. Its bizarre having a cold in a really hot climate, I had probably made it worse drinking the night before with Mario who ran the hostel in Trogir and a German girl who was on holiday in the area for a bit. After this it was time to head to Dubrovnik which I do not need to describe to you as its pretty much world famous now. I had to get back to Split and then take a 5 hour bus journey to reach Dubrovnik, it was really scenic, going along a windy coastal road. The bus briefly passes through a tiny stretch of Bosnia for around 20 minutes which is a little odd. I had cancelled my initial hostel as I noticed it was way out of the center and had some pretty bad reviews. I decided to splash out a bit on the only hostel in the old town area, it proved a good decision as the place was packed with travelers. I ended up going out into town with 3 guys from San Francisco, an Irishman and a Korean dude who spoke no English. There were not a lot of places open but there were enough of us for this not to matter and we ended up in a dodgy Latin club called Fuego which was an experience to say the least. The next day I went with the American guys to a nearby island for some snorkeling, cliff diving and swimming. It was another day where I felt lucky to be doing this and pinching myself with disbelief that I was still in Europe and we were approaching mid October. I went out for a beer and pizza with Paul the Irish guy when we got back, he had traveled pretty extensively to India and various other places I am heading so it was useful to pick up some more information about this. We also discovered that everything is around half the price outside the city walls which was good because Dubrovnik old town is by far the most expensive place I have been to so far and that includes Italy! The evening was along the same lines as the night before only this time we avoided the nightclub! Interesting story for those of you who follow the TV show Game of Thrones, they were filming in Dubrovnik whilst I was there, although I think they were just finishing it off when I arrived as we were denied access to a bar due to the closing which was going on. Anyway the little guy on the show ended up partying at the hostel we were staying at and one of the guys who worked there had a picture of him passed out on the hostels couch! My final day in Dubrovnik ended up being seeing the sights of the place such as the city walls walk which was stunning. I spent the afternoon on the beach again surrounded by impossibly good looking Croatian women, yes life was good! I avoided going out that night as my bus here was early in the morning. I have pretty much passed out, exhausted when I arrived here and my attempts to see the city have been thwarted by the weather so I have to wait until tomorrow to really see what Bosnia has to offer. I have tomorrow here in Mostar and then I go to the capital, Sarajevo for 3 nights, after that it is Serbia and Belgrade which is supposed to be Europe's ultimate party night! hopefully this cold will be gone by then!