Speeding Across the Romanian Countryside...

... at an average speed of 50 km/h?? Sometimes I swear I could have run faster! But this being the case, we did actually appreciate getting to see things and enjoy the trip. On our next train ride I did notice the difference that it is so much more pleasant to go slower. The train was meant to leave at 5:45, but did not show up until about 6:30. It was cold waiting on the platform, so we were happy to get on the train and find our seats. We lucked out, and ended up with a table and four seats to ourselves the whole way (13 hours).

Romanian Countryside

This picture does not show the piles of garbage that we saw at the edges of most fields. We also saw a lot of little towns full of garbage and buildings which were falling down. This pretty much completely ended when we crossed the border into Hungary. We had our passports checked twice, once by the Romanians before the border and once by the Hungarians after the border. The sad thing about having a British passport: no cool foreign passport stamps. 

Another thing we saw a number of times was horse drawn carts

Looking out over the Danube to Serbia on the other side

Lunch in the dining car. Not quite the picture I had in my head of Poirot on the Orient Express, but I guess travelling on a Romanian train is slightly different. Good food though!

13 hours later we made it to Budapast-Keleti station!

2 nights in Bucharest

On Easter Sunday we were up early for a 5:30 am taxi to the airport. We said goodbye to my Mum at the airport, as she had to fly home and go back to school. My Dad and I flew to Bucharest, about an hour flight. We were picked up by the brother-in-law of my Dad's colleague. He took us to our hostel, which was a bit of a shock. Well actually the whole city was a bit. It looked as if everything had just been let to fall apart. The first day was cloudy, which didn't make things better. The next day when the sun came out it did look a bit better.

First day in Bucharest:

First experience walking around Bucharest and I was already scared of the wild dogs that roam the streets

Romanian National Gallery

Our first stop was the Romanian National Gallery. Practically got a personal tour from the many security guards, "here is a very famous Romanian artist." We tried to skip some paintings, and got told we missed them ... I think they needed a few more visitors. 

The heaviest building in the world: the communist-era parliament building

Enjoying a lovely dinner

One of the best restaurants of the whole trip - the Bistro Atheneu. We went there both evenings we were in Bucharest and had some really good Romanian food. Well, actually I had pasta the first night. The second night we even managed to sit outside on their terrace. 

Day two:

Walking in the sun past the Canadian Embassy! Not the nicest looking building...

We walked out of the city centre to the Romanian Village Museum, luckily enjoying some sunshine on the way! The museum consisted of old village buildings (houses, churches, work buildings) from villages all over Romania. It was nice to walk around and see, though unfortunately on Mondays the individual buildings were not open. Plus there were tons of school groups.

Home Sweet Home

An early water wheel powered washing machine! For carpets to be left for hours to wash.

Next we went down to the Lipscani district, which is one area of Bucharest that has been nicely restored (or still is being worked on). We went inside the old orthodox church and spent a little while watching the people in their personal devotion (including a lot of crossing themselves and kissing the pictures).

Old Court Church of Bucharest

We went up to the train station to check where we would be leaving from early the next morning. See our train? The 5:45 am IR72 to Budapest Keleti.

Easter in Istanbul

Here are a few pictures from our 4 days in Istanbul over Easter. As you can see, it was not overly warm at the beginning of the trip. Luckily on our last day when we ventured over to Asia, the sun came out and we were finally warm!

Mum and I in the spice market

This was my favourite market, as it was smaller and not too crowded. There were lots of stalls and things for sale to look at though! We came back later for Mum to buy some saffron for Robert and Christie, and for me to buy some souvenirs.

Yemi Camii

The first (and thus one of my favourite) mosques we visited: the small Yemi Camii by the spice market. It was my first experience of the rituals of going in a mosque, and what they are like inside. Both of which I found fascinating and really enjoyed. They are so ornately decorate inside!

A new favourite type of bread!

This was a meal at the restaurant around the corner from our hotel, Oceans 7. We ate here on 2 occasions. This is the bread that most restaurants bring as an appetizer. It is called puff bread, and is like puffed up pita bread. When you cut a hole and try and cut it, all the hot air is forced out. On our first evening in Istanbul Mum and I had our first taste of this bread, possibly the best we had the whole trip

Visiting the Topkapi palace. Everywhere there were hyacinths planted :) I loved it, I'm not sure everyone else did since they do have a rather strong smell.

One of the many cats I made friends with and wanted to take home with me...

Turkish delight and tea

This is a  lovely tea and treats cafe where we stopped one evening. There were so many different treats in Istanbul that I loved. Baklava, plus the Turkish delight like I am eating in this picture.

Friends!

We went one evening for a walk down by the water, and these cats found us. Three more cats I wanted to take home! We were walking back to our hotel along the shores of the Bosphorus. The two adult cats made it very clear I should pet them, you can even see that one is climbing onto my lap. The little kitten was a little unsure.

Mum and Dad in the Roman Cistern

This underground reservoir had 7 long rows of Roman columns. It was spectacular. Also, it was so big that the various school groups down there with us seemed to get lost and we could enjoy some space. There were walkways through it, however there was not too much water in the bottom. Enough that in one place however that you could see fish swimming. 

Kuçuk Aya Sofya, Little Hagia Sophia

This was another church that had been converted into a mosque. However, what was special about this church was it was octagonal. Very pretty inside. 

The Blue Mosque

The Blue Mosque was another favourite of mine. I like it from the outside, with its six minarets, and from the inside, with its beautiful blue details. You can see in the picture all the cables holding up the chandelier lighting.

The Grand Bazaar

Mum and I finally doing some shopping, just outside the Grand Bazaar. We had rather quickly exited the Grand Bazaar, as it was huge, overwhelming, full of tourists, and personally a bit of a disappointment. Maybe that's because I was set on buying a carpet until I realized I couldn't afford one. Here we found some very reasonably priced textiles and scarves. 

Inside Hagia Sophia

Dad and I spent a lot of time checking every railing for this, only to find it well sign posted (as Mum had predicted). These are the Viking runes scratched as graffiti into the railing of the upper level. Mind boggling to think Hagia Sofia is so old as to have Viking graffiti! 

Haydarpasa Railway Station

Our last day and finally some sun and warmth! We took a ferry over to Asia, to Haydarpasa. We disembarked at the Haydarpasa railway station, where the train used to leave for Baghdad. We then proceeded to walk from there to another ferry station north from here. Luckily we finally found somewhere to stop for lunch, then another stop for icecream before taking a boat back to the European side.