Well, we now bid a fond farewell to another member of our expedition - Shitbag 2 (which we accept is an ironic nickname), the 150 quid Rover has fulfilled his part of the bargain and has been set free in the glorious Kyrgyz wilderness to roam the mighty mountains and forage for natures wealth bursting from the countless crystal streams rushing through this idyllic land.

Christmas was a strange event in Almaty - we went out on Christmas eve and there was almost no life whatsoever. We can only assume that the hordes of expats that are supposed to live there must all have gone home, and even the Irish bar was dead. On the other hand we managed to maintain the fish tradition and went to a sushi bar for our evening meal. It was pretty good considering we're about as far from the sea as it's possible to get in the entire world! On Christmas day it actually snowed which was a first for me, and for Christmas lunch we went out and got a rotisserie chicken from a street food stall, not quite roast turkey but very nice all the same.

Boxing day we went skiing in Chimbulak, Almaty's nearby ski resort. It's nothing like as big or as well developed as the European resorts but good fun for an afternoon and Grapes managed a few runs down the nursery slopes to exorcise the demons of her last skiing trip...

We arrived in Bishkek only on Wednesday after a very pleasant journey and the easiest border crossing since we entered Greece. The only scary moment was when we thought we'd done all the border formalities (which took no more than an hour for both sides) when a border guard asked us for our documents just before the last gate. He then asked us to step out of the car - here's where they collect their bribe we thought. He then simply said "Welcome to Kyrgyzstan" and handed us back our documents with a smile and we were in!

Bishkek is actually a fairly dull city, there's almost nothing of note to see except they still have their statue of Lenin, although he has been relegated to a quiet park tucked away from the main square he used to dominate (and I can't help feeling he looks a little bit like my cousin....). We visited all the "sights" in about 2 hours, and finding a decent restaurant here is a little difficult as its the run up to NYE which is the big winter event here and everything's given over to work do's which look even worse than the ones I used to go to. At least when you do find food it's pretty good and absurdly cheap!

On Friday morning we rang Ruslan, the guy Ole suggested we contact in Bishkek to help us sell the car. Amazingly he was round our hotel within 10 minutes, promised he'd help us and proceeded to explain how undesirable our car was (right hand drive, rusty holes, no spares availability, etc). He perked up a bit when I pointed out that's its actually a Honda Accord in diguise (SB2 is a 1995 Rover 620) and mentioned that he had a couple of friends on the lookout for a new car which he'd bring round that evening for a viewing.

In the meantime we disappeared for a few hours to the Ala Archa national park, a stunning valley in the nearby mountains (30 minutes drive when you find the right road and don't get caught driving without your licence Grapes - 2 pound bribe and we're good to go!). These are part of the same range we were skiing in the other day which are all effectively part of the Himalayas. We met some local students on their winter holiday (all from Osh though they're studying in Bishkek) who'd mostly been drinking all day and were in (shall we say) high spirits... They gave us some food but unfortunately no drink as I was now driving though Grapes managed some, well grapes.

In the evening Ruslan turned up with his mate, a young looking chap who got Ruslan to look the car over for him and take it for a test drive. I was after $1000 and the buyer to pay for registration and customs duty (about $600). He wasn't too sure and they estimated that fixing the rusty bits was going to cost around $400 (much cheaper than the UK). While he was pontificating another friend turned up, an enormously fat businessman in a Landcruiser. He had a quick look round (didn't spot the radiator weep) and offered me $800 on the spot. I said 900 and it was a deal.

Today Ruslan took us to the customs place, but after some waiting the big boss decided to leave early and nothing can happen without him as he's the guy who collects the bribes. Ruslan very kindly took us round the houses in Bishkek to get a legal document drawn up that basically absolves me of all ownership of the car and passes the responsibility of paying customs duty onto him. He'll now go back to the customs place on Tuesday to finish the process off and we merely have to be in the city just in case there is a problem. After that we're free of the shackles of car ownership!

Things that went wrong with our car in 9500 miles:

• Drivers window mechanism broke - eventually got the window up and unplugged the motor, not a problem when it's below freezing all the time.
• Weep in the radiator.
• Something going 'boing' in the front suspension - loose anti roll bar mount maybe?
• Clutch release bearing going 'screeeech' every so often - didn't on the road test...
• Funny clicking noise when changing gear and taking up drive - never worked out what this was and it was there since we got the car and never got worse - maybe something to do with the gearbox linkage.
• Mashed up wheel trims and dented rims from repeatedly driving into potholes too fast.

Checklist for importing a car into Kyrgyzstan:

• Make sure its German, preferably Mercedes
• Make sure its left hand drive - new laws coming into Russia and Kazakhstan, and possibly Kyrgyzstan banning RHD cars. Already in place in Azerbaijan...
• Make sure it has aircon - 40 degrees in summer here...
• Make sure it's in good condition - buyers here are a little more discerning than those in the Gambia...

So don't buy a rusty old Rover then.

Merry Christmas Everyone !

We're now in Almaty, only 250Km from Bishkek where we attempt to sell the car. The journey here from Astana went smoothly in as much as most of it was on ice rink flat black ice... Somehow we managed on our summer tyres although by the side of the road there were plenty that weren't so fortunate. We have now experienced pretty much everything that the Kazakh roads had to throw at us - blizzards, potholes, rocks, mud, ice, snow, foot deep ruts, fog, freezing rain and finally no hotels for the last 300 miles which caused us to arrive here at about 12 last night. Due to the conditions we had to change our original route via Aralsk and Shymkent to the Astana route and have now covered 2700 miles in 8 days since leaving Aktau.

Sadly it looks like we wont be getting a white Christmas here after all. The weather is unseasonably warm, which is lucky as most of my clothes are being washed after a faulty petrol pump sprayed me from head to foot with the stuff. Thankfully they knocked a few litres off the bill as it never made it into the car!!!!! At least it was 96 octane - I'd really hate to be covered in diesel.

Almaty's hotels are in the main full or overpriced. A hotel porter took pity on us after showing us another rubbish room and rang a friend of his on the sly who has rented an appartment to us for a few days at a reasonable rate. Its actually a really nice place and pretty well located. We've decorated it with a couple of chocolate santas and a piece of tinsel that was kept in the car. The flat also comes with a stereo that we can play christmas music through via the power of ipod.

Next challenge is to find a cinema showing Borat, in english.

OK so on Thursday having bought some thermal underwear, a wintercoat for Rich, a jerry can and snow chains, we ate our last proper meal (Indian curry) and headed into the Kazakhstan steppe.....

The first hurdle was trying to get out of Aktau as absolutely no-one knew how to and there are absolutely no signposts in this part of the world. Yup not the average local, the 4 star marriott hotel or even the petrol station which was actually situated on the road out could point us in the right direction!!!. At first we thought that was strange, funny even but now we know why.... The answer being, if you're going to travel across Kazakhstan you should try every means possible except the road. (In the end we found a helpful Russian who spoke a little english, as he was heading in that general direction we followed him).

After 50 miles the road turned into our worst enemy. Trecherous, non-existent, horrendous, diabolical, dangerous, hell - not even all of these words strung together do the road justice in my opinion. Despite there being only one route, for over a thousand miles and 4 days so far, we have experienced roads which have been littered every couple of metres with pot holes the size of elephants (no joke!), visibility of less than 2 metres during dense fog and snow storms, miles of mud track and miles of sheet black ice (a 360 degree spin was achieved yesterday but thankfully on a very wide and deserted stretch of road). It has been so bad at times that our average speed for the past 4 days has been around 25 miles an hour. Not great when towns are on average 200 miles apart and the temperature outside is on average -5.

On the second day the driving had worsened to such an extent that we enquired about putting the car on a train. Unfortunately the past two days have been a national holiday celebrating independence and everything has been closed. As such we haven't been able to establish whether this is either possible or expensive. Therefore coupled with some local advice that the road gets much better (thankfully it has) and a desire not to spend christmas on a 48 hour train crossing we decided to press on. Last night we made it to Astana, the new capital which looks a bit like a mini Las Vegas - they seriously like their fairy lights and christmas trees here!. Needless to say after days of eating nothing much but crisps, bread and pot noodles we enjoyed a very good Italian last night and feel like we are heading back into civilisation (hey we even found an internet cafe).

This afternoon we will head towards Almaty which we suspect will be a 2 day drive. Lots of people have told us that this is the best road in Kazakhstan and many have even described it as a motorway!!! We shall see shortly, although it did at least look like a dual carriage way on our way in late last night so fingers crossed...

Had an interesting few days since the last post and are now in Aktau, Kazakhstan.

The British embassy were actually quite helpful and directed us to the port who suggested (although without any mutually comprehensible language) that we could return with the car on saturday to leave it at the port and take the next ferry on sunday or monday. Afterwards we met up with Paul and Lisa from the visa queue in Tbilisi who had a far smoother journey here on the overnight train. We had a few drinks in the "Old England Pub" complete with HMS Victory bar and a rubbish late night indian. Baku is actually quite a fun city full of expat related bars and restaurants but all quite cheap.

Friday we went to visit the mud volcanoes of Qobustan, 60km south of Baku. On the way we were stopped by police after money. They tried to tell us we were going too fast (surprisingly we actually weren't) and when we asked how fast they told us 30... We laughed and wandered off. The mud volcanoes proved quite difficult to find but eventually after half an hour off road the Lying Planet proved its worth and we were staring at stark little piles of mud with bubbling pools at their summits. It was all rather surreal and quite a lot of fun, although the landscape was treacherous and only Lisa got away without getting significantly muddy. In fact the whole landscape round baku is rather surreal - barren plains with pools of oil and hundreds of old school oil wells, all covered in a network of pipelines and pylons. Its quite eerie in a post apocalyptic kind of way.

Chinese was quite good in the evening although even more MSGey than the guide suggested - I've almost never been so thirsty.

On Saturday we returned to the port, only to find that apparently they can't get us on the ferry and can't look after the car after all. The embassy advises us to get a customs extension at the ferry port so we head down. At first the customs guy seems quite relaxed but goes out of the office to check something and when he returns the atmosphere has changed. We HAVE to get the car out of the country RIGHT NOW. He sends me to pick it up and impounds it on the spot. We go to fetch a guy from the ferry company to speak directly to customs as we can't really communicate with anyone, and suddenly we're on the ferry tonight! Just enough time left to get some food (to eat cold while going through the customs procedure) and we're on the boat. Fortunately we've already checked out of our hotel in readiness for losing the car. To be fair the customs officials in Baku were all above board and never asked for any bribes.

The ferry crossing was 24 hours, and we arrived in Aktau port at around 1am on monday morning. The first night on the boat was rather fun as the crew invited us into their various cabins for food and drinks. They served us the legendary fermented mares milk, a national drink in all central asia. It is even more horrible than it sounds and the neat vodka was easier to down. Before long we were thoroughly drunk on the endless compulsory vodka toasts but no problem - the crew members were now going on duty. In an alcoholic haze I just remember steering the boat and playing with the radar system before passing out in bed. Oh well, one childhood dream has been fulfilled.

On the boat there was a Danish guy, Ole with 1 mongolian and 2 tajik travelling companions. They were good fun playing cards with on the boat to fill the time. He was in potentially quite expensive trouble - left kazakhstan to enter azerbaijan without the required visa and got turned back, but now without a valid kazakh visa either. He was also trying to drive an expensive new car west so had that as an added responsibility. He currently has 2 weeks left on his transit plates to get to Denmark and at the time of writing the authorities are trying to fly him to Baku where he can get a visa on arrival while the Tajiks drive his car back onto the ferry (for the 3rd time!). Nice to know some people have worse problems than us (though his description of the roads in Kazakhstan were not encouraging)...

After the ferry landed we got into the country with relative ease. However the car didn't as the customs guys didn't get back to work till 9 in the morning. By the time we'd ascertained this there was nothing to be done but stay in the port waiting room until they arrived. The waiting room has been deliberately designed to discourage this - metal rows of chairs, concrete floor and no heating (-5 outside).

At 9 a fixer from the port authority arrived. He was actually extremely helpful and got the car sorted with a minimum of fuss if not delay - some of the staff there were still mired in the Soviet mentality. We got our first look at Aktau at about 11. Its a fascinating place, 100s of miles from anywhere designed as a utopian soviet city of the future. I love it! Its kind of like a milton keynes meets skegness with a nuclear powered desalination plant as a water supply and no grass whatsoever. Less endearlingly all the hotels are full, but we're not sure why. We eventually got in the soviet era (in every sense) Hotel Aktau which was the last option outside the 5* $300 per night one...

Today we're attempting to buy warmer clothes for the expected siberian temperatures, apparently down to -30 at night. We shall also be buying jerry cans as petrol stations are few and far between. Finally snow chains sound like a good idea...

Tomorrow we shall head off again to Almaty, around 2500-3000km away with very little in between. Thankfully the ipod still works!

Finally arrived in Baku late last night after a rather trying journey from Tbilisi. We left Tbilisi after breakfast 2 days ago, got lost on the way to the border and when we finally did make it had to wait a ridiculous 24 hours before nearly being turned back for having an illegal right hand drive car.

The rest of our stay in Georgia was pleasant enough - met a few fellow travellers in the hotel and Azeri visa queue. We also managed a couple of days away in the Caucasus mountains and in Stalins home town Gori. The mountains were nothing short of spectacular, huge granite peaks with a dusting of snow just making them look even more dramatic. The day we arrived the weather was overcast and gloomy which just added to the effect. We stayed the night in the only hotel in Kazbegi (which might be the only open hotel in the whole of the Caucasus) which itself was only just open. On arrival we were informed that there were no restaurants in town but they were happy in the end for us to buy food and cook it in their restaurant kitchen. We came up with "egg fried pasta" which was surprisingly tolerable.

The next morning we woke up to find 6" of snow had fallen overnight, and guess which muppet doesn't have any snow chains for their front wheel drive shitter? The flat bits surprisingly still proved drivable but the small problem of a 2300m pass on the only road home soon became a bigger problem - a run up can take you a few hundred metres to the first hairpin but no further... Some less than helpful Russians offered to tow us to the top for a very charitable $100 so we told them to piss off. Eventually in the last village at the foot of the pass we wandered into a house whose yard contained nothing but heavy diesel machinery to see if they could help. After a few rounds of vodka they happily got a snowplough up and running and off we went at a stately 8mph all the way up. They didn't want payment but we gave them a generous tip anyway, and this, ladies and gentlemen is the difference between Russians and Georgians!

Gori was our next stop purely because I wanted to see the Stalin Museum. Being the only famous Georgian ever (Georgi Kinkladze doesn't count) they still venerate him as a great leader. The museum exhudes a fascinating religeous zeal for the man and manages to completely gloss over some trivialities such as the millions of his own people that he had murdered, etc. The guide that took us round seemed especially misty eyed when describing the great success of collectivisation ("some problems" roughly translates as "10 million die from starvation").

We had lunch in unpronouncable Mtskheta, the pretty former capital 10km from Tbilisi. A popular spot for Sunday lunchers we ate Lobia (lentil stew in a clay pot), huge pork gyoza type things and bbqed lamb. All delicious and eaten with the hands after a local ticked us off for using cutlery.

Picking up our visa was quite straightforward, until we came to deposit the dollars in the bank. Put simply the bank almost doesn't exist, and neither does the street its on and when you do eventually find the correct spelling of the street the door's round the corner on another street and in any case its not even a bank but an office so no one's heard of it anyway.

We set off on Tuesday morning to the Azeri border. Of course because we're leaving from Tbilisi there's no latin signposts to the border (they assume you've used the bypass as its actually illegal to transit through the city) so we end up taking the wrong road out of town. Every local we asked kept telling us that we were OK to proceed and eventually sent us down the most awful road which was somewhat akin to navigating the battleground at Ypres. To make sure we were still going the right way we shouted "Krasny Most" (the border) at someone who simply leapt into the back of the car gesticulating and babbling wildly. Fortunately he wasn't an escaped loony and we eventually ascertained that he was an Azeri living in Georgia and we were being invited for lunch at his on the way to the border. Lunch was fantastic - lovely homemade bread, chicken pieces, a sort of home made salsa and syrupy fruit. Also accompanied by an ever increasing crowd of friends and relatives none of whom could speak more than about 5 words of English. Eventually there were about 15 of us in this 1 room house toasting something(?) with slightly sparkly homemade wine. They also gave us a bottle as a parting gift (in return we gave the children a large packet of crisps - a move we came to regret....!).

Furnished with directions to the border we made our way there for about 4pm. And settled into the queue.

By 9 in the morning some Azeris also queuing had come to chat and decided to give us a hand and talked the border guard "managing" the queue into letting us jump to the front of the car queue (trucks seem to get special treatment and the border crossing seems completely unable to cope with the volume of imported German cars). By 10 we had reached the Georgian side of the control which went smoothly apart from the slightly concerning "you wont be allowed to take a right hand drive car into Azerbiajan". As I know that it has been done I chose to ignore that and we'd been waiting for 18 hours in a car in sub zero temperatures without any food so I wasn't going to give up so easily.

Things didn't get off to a flying start - we waited another 5 hours to get into Azeri customs at which point we were helped to jump to the front of the queue again (this time everyones tempers were getting frayed after so long waiting and several people were rather vocal in expressing their disgust though the presence of armed border guards prevented them getting too agressive).

It is at this point that (as the registered owner) I'm invited through the gate to have a chat to the customs guy. There's only one person on the whole border who speaks English and he's a young soldier (actually a really nice chap). Through him they tell me that we have to turn back as the car is illegal but after a bit of pleading and cajoling (and showing our Kazakh visas) the official relents and allows us to take the car into the country for 72 hours. The $20 worth of bribes probably also helped although I got the impression that everyone had to pay $10 to each official anyway.

And the front window seems to have broken for the last time - something went snap and the window went all floppy - may have a look at some point but haven't had the time.

We finally escaped the border at 4 - a full 24 hours after joining the queue but our joy was short lived. Hungry, tired and thirsty we were pulled over at a police checkpoint after about 5km. They proceeded to make up a "computer check" while going through all our belongings looking for money and items to steal (classily the first thing they mentioned to me was how many guns they all had - i.e. highwaymen...). Thankfully most of the money we had was hidden and we only carry a little and use ATMs instead. The bastards made off with our torch (we watched as the officer oh-so-subtly slipped it up his sleeve) and possibly 20 euros (wish I'd counted the money in my wallet before entering this stinking corrupt police state). He went right through our car and was reduced to eventually just asking where we kept our money. Fortunately he eventually gave up after going through the most obvious places, clearly annoyed that he didn't get as much as he'd wanted. We only made it another 10 or 15km when we were stopped again, this time by an officer with a car. He had nowhere to take us for questioning and by playing the dumb tourist much more effectively this time he gave up after a few minutes.

In spite of our tiredness we were positively seething and although you can prepare and expect this kind of treatment it still makes the blood boil. Faced with a whole 400 more km to go to Baku we decided to do it by night as our oncoming car is almost impossible to clock as foreign in the dark. Luckily it worked and after taking an overly long route in the dark on some implausibly bumpy main road, often averaging only 30mph, we made it to Baku by midnight and followed a friendly taxi driver to the hotel we intended to stay at.

Today we were awoken by a lot of noise as it turns out our hotel is full of refugees but at least its reasonably clean and cheap. As we hadn't had a proper meal for 48 hours we thought we'd extend that a little longer and went for McDonalds. At the moment we're just waiting for the British Embassy to repoen after their civil servant size lunch break - we need some advice about the customs documents that I signed to get into the country at all. Hope it all goes well...

It is at this point I would like to mention Grapes' "word of the week". We have quite an effective barometer of the success of the trip:

Eastern Europe: "Peckish"
Ankara visa chase: "Worst case scenario"
Georgia: "Dodgy"
Azerbaijan: "***********&^!(*^#$&^$!&%#$!*&(^#$*&%!&$ police"

Also a final note about HSBC - the World's local bank. They are not the world's local bank - they are merely everywhere like a particularly annoying bad penny. In spite of being "local" they still charge me just as much commission for international withdrawals as everyone else so I am now particularly careful to not use them ever again and spread my money around the banking world a little more.

Well since our last post we have escaped Ankara and are now in Tiblisi in Georgia. We have spent the last couple of days travelling along the Black Sea Coast - literally just a bypass along the sea for the most part and not really a holiday destination sadly, although some German tourists do visit apparently. I'm sorry but I'll keep this update fairly short as the internet connection here is quite slow and Georgia is prone to frequent power cuts.

Highlights of the past couple of days include Rich getting a speeding ticket in Turkey (was travelling at 104kph in a 90 kph zone and being fined 75 turkish lira which is the equiv to about 30 pounds), visiting the Sumela monastery (a fantastic 6th century remote monastary built into the side of a mountain and barely accessible by road), having to give way to about 500 sheep at the top of a mountain pass (Rich has a great photo of the sheep parting around the car which we'll try and add soon) and finally simply getting through the Turkish border at Sarp ! (taking a mere 4 hours - and we think we got special treatment!).

Our first impressions of Georgia are that its very beautiful amd bizarely full of imported German Mercedes, but at the same time there are lots of smelly dirty trucks polluting the road and much poverty. Main road hazards include a collection of craters in dirt tracks which they call roads (?) where cows, pigs and geese have priority and a lack of road signs or where they do exist they are written in either Georgian or Russian cyrillic - one of the many reminders of the Soviet era.

We spent our first night in luxury at a very smart hotel in Batumi and had our first taste of Georgian beer - we approve. Sadly Tiblisi has a lack of mid range hotels and accomodation seems to range from homestays or 4 star hotel complexes charging an average of 160$ per night - sadly beyond our budget. Thankfully we eventually found a very central small hotel for 40$ per night and guraded car parking is provided at a cost of 2 lar a day which is the equivalent of about 60 pence a day.

Last night we went out for traditional Georgian fayre and naturally had a bottle of Georgian wine (Very good). At the restaurant there was only us and a group of young Georgians celebrating a 22nd Birthday. Very kindly they invited us to join them, introduced us to homemade wine (white wine produced using the skins), and much dancing and toasting was enjoyed. Sadly only one of the group could speak much english so we either kept smiling and saying "super" a lot or speaking to one of the guys brothers on the phone who spoke limited english.

Today we went to the Azeri embassy and have started the visa process, Rich was right in that they do not require a letter of support, simply two phots and 40$. Its also much quicker here - we pick them up on Monday (so we'll be in Georgia until Tuesday).

Sadly we've not been sleeping too well over the past couple of days (i've had a cold and Rich has had a bad back) and coupled with a 2 hour time difference between Turkey and Georgia we've been pretty tired today so other than going to lunch with a nice French traveller called Eva we've not done much more today than catch up on sleep. surprisingly though we've just bumped into the Georgian border officer who sorted out the car paperwork for us at the border (some 400k away!) here in Tiblisi.

Off now to get some dinner and probably some more wine !!! (champagne is also very cheap and apparently very good here - ummmm might give some a try too!!!). Hope you are all well - if its any consolation its bitterly cold here........

We're feeling pretty elated right now - after over a week in Ankara the Kazakh visa was issued this morning, we're just waiting for the Indian visa this evening and tomorrow we're off! It's hard to describe how dull Ankara is. Its probably a bit like Canberra which I've never been to but would assume exists purely for government and nothing else. Unfortunately we had no luck with the Azeri one, which they insisted required the ridiculously expensive letter of support so we're going to try in Tbilisi instead. Hopefully Tbilisi is nicer than Ankara though from what I've heard "more exciting" may be nearer the truth.

To fill the time we've had to find ways to amuse ourselves - there are no hostels in Ankara so its not like we can share tales of boredom with fellow sufferers. We saw the Museum of Anatolian Civilisations which is apparently the only tourist attraction in the whole city. We saw the new Bond film last night (not bad actually) complete with 15 minute fag break for the Turks. We've been playing strip canasta (thankfully for all concerned Grapes keeps losing). A nice game is a sort of paper scissor stones race - you find a (very long) staircase and play paper scissor stones. Each win means you can move another step. If you draw you save up the steps until someone wins. Great fun! We never played the poo game though. That was reserved for if we had to stay this weekend as well. The rules are simple - you both take laxatives and the first one to go for a poo wins.

Any additional suggestions are of course welcome...

Its taken a week, but we finally reaslised the other night that our hotel supplements its takings over the winter (and probably summer as well) by doubling as a brothel. We were up chatting to one of the staff one evening and noticed a stream of old Turkish men with young Turkish and Eastern European women going into the hotel and leaving less than half an hour later. This would go some way to explaining why its so noisy at night (not that kind of noise thankfully). If you ignore this it's actually quite a nice hotel.

We have a Visa !!! - the Krzgyz Republic have given us each a pretty stamp in our passport and will allow us to visit for 1 month. Only 3 vısas now to go!.

Not as much luck at the Azerbajan Embassy though - visa will take 3 days and they need a letter of support from the Bristish Embassy before they can even start the process. Naturally the upshot is that Rich reckons "It'll be fine to get the Azerbajani visa in Georgia!" - he reckons there we won't need a letter of support and that the visa should only take two days in Tiblisi.........(fingers crossed).

All things going well we should be able to collect our Kazakhstan visas tomorrow......

Spent a few days in Capadocia, but now in Ankara waiting for visas...

We ended up spending 3 nights in Capadocia even though we'd originally planned 1. The guesthouse we stayed in was lovely (Walnut House in Göreme - highly recommended) and there was so much to see and do that leaving earlier would have been stupid. While there we met a Canadian family who were travelling for a year - David, Grace and their 2 children (whose names I can't for the life of me remember or even spell! Anyway, they were about 8-10 years old and were missing a year of school (David and Grace are both teachers). Wish that had happened to me!

Sunday night we ate in a restaurant which when they brought us the menus proudly proclaimed that it was one of Lonely Planet's "top 5 eats in Turkey". Actually we got there soon enough that it probably still is and had some superb original Ottoman food.

On monday we did some walking in the Valleys surrounding Göreme. The scenery is truly amazing - a geological fantasy world of spires of rock, canyons and caves (some man made, some not). Most of the rock is ancient compressed volcanic ash which is incredibly soft (you can scratch it away with your fingers) but it is mixed in with harder stuff - this is what has made the scenery so amazing through erosion and led to almost everyone in the region living underground for millenia - some still do. In the morning we were advised by the hotel owner (Ali) to visit a couple of local churches carved into the rock. When we found the ticket office (in a cave) there were a couple of old blokes who insisted on making us tea before showing us in. The first church was housed in one of the so called "fairy chimneys" and contained almost unblemished 6th (if I remember correct) christian frescoes - all very lovely. We went back to the ticket office after being shown round and they must have been bored or decided they liked us as they took us to the other church for free. This one was carved into the top of a cliff face which we had to enter via the top down a precarious staircase. The old boy had a gammy leg but still seemed pretty sure footed. Inside it was much the same as the first - original frescoes in good condition apart from the eyes of the subjects having been scratched out by subsequent muslim conquerers. We were taken back to the ticket office for more tea and they got us to fill in their lottery numbers!

In the afternoon we headed to the "Göreme Open Air Museum", which is more of the same really. A variety of rock cut churches with frescoes if different eras in differing states of repair. In fact the erosion which created the landscape is still very much a problem and much has been washed away if not destroyed by earthquakes. It was all very lovely but I suppose that once you've seen one early Christian fresco you've seen em all... By the time we finished that lot the light was fading so we headed back for home.

Tuesday we headed further out of Göreme to Çavusin, another village once cut entirely out of a rock face. This had been habited until the 50s when an earthquake forced everyone out into conventional buildings. You can still wander the ruins, and fortunately we were approached by a guide who offered to take us round. Normally we're very wary of these guys but he didn't ask for money and seemed harmless enough. Happily he took us on an amazing tour along precarious ledges, leaps over nothing and through lightless tunnels - routes we'd never have found on our own (thanks Dad for the torch!). In places steps have been carved in the rock face you can still use and Grapes scaled most of it without problem. It was such a good tour that I was more than willing to part with some cash after (he didn't ask though he clearly expected!) and although I didn't have any small Turkish Lira he gratefully accepted my 10 Bulgarian thingys.

Next stop was the Paşabag valley where many of the postcard pictures are taken. The formations here are all slender chimneys of stone with little caps - they look much like mushrooms. One outcrop had the usual church carved in it, and slightly more unusually a hermit hole in the top reached via a vertical tunnel in the middle of the ceiling below. I admit I didn't manage to get up that one (hand holds are carved in the tunnel like two ladders facing each other but it's difficult to get your feet up into the tunnel as well as being a bit narrow for someone as tall as me - thats my excuse and I'm sticking to it!).

Next stop was the ancient monastic complex at Zelve. This is a similar affair to the Göreme museum except that no effort has been expended to make it easy for the visitors or even to maintain it. The upshot of this is that it's incredibly good fun! There are no tour groups there and you have pretty much free reign to visit it how you want. There's lots of chambers, many exposed by erosion and most now unreachable, but there are still many tunnels linking it all together and even some more of the vertical ones and this time I did manage to get up them even if Grapes didn't (sensible girl). By the time we'd finished I was covered in dust and if she ever wants children she got an insight into looking after a 10 year old boy....

That evening we went to a restaurant recommended by the hotel guy (Tardinelli I think?) and though it was empty we decided to give it a go. There was only one guy in there besides the owner and half the food was off the menu but fortunately what we got was excellent as was the company and we spent the rest of the evening with them. I got a kind of lamb stew cooked in an earthenware jar which was broken open in front of me and Grapes got some sort of sizzling chicken stew which arrived on a hot plate. We were introduced to raki, the local spirit (on the house naturally!), similar to Ouzo but a bit rougher and stronger. Actually make that a fair bit stronger as my head testified the next morning. After a while the restaurant closed so we went to a local bar and were given a lesson in dancing Turkish stylee to almost continuous strobe lighting. By the time I made it back it was about 2:30 (Grapes having succumbed shortly before at about 2) but a truly memorable night. Apart from the bits I can't remember...

Next day we finally left Göreme and headed round a route the guys the previous night had recommended. First stop was a picturesque Greek town which had all its inhabitants thrown out in the 20s (all part of the mutual Greek-Turkish antagonism). Second was an archeological site that was still being excavated and as such wasn't allowed to be photographed or really visited at all until the Ministry of Culture had approved it. One of the archeologists showed us round including an almost pristine Roman mural untouched in almost 2 millenia. Sadly the others were all under covers. Next was a proper traditional village (Soganli) nestled in a gorge. Here people were still living in caves in the cliff faces and following the same lifestyle and traditions that had been observed for centuries. Sadly it was very quiet when we arrived but if you arrive on bread making day apparently its a different story. Last we headed onto the Ilhara valley en route to Ankara. Ilhara is supposed to be beautiful but in winter it was just a little grey and dreary. The weather was very cold and they wanted to charge us just to walk into the gorge. We made do with a drive through the village half way along where you can see that in the summer sun with everything in full leaf it must be lovely indeed. For us it was just cold, bleak and empty.

The drive to Ankara was nice and easy except that I needed to go to the loo every 30 minutes having drunk about 4 litres of water to ease my hangover. Ankara itself posed the same problems as Istanbul but eventually we found the district we wanted and with a little haggling secured a half decent hotel for a good rate. The only unnerving thing is that parking is either tight or very insecure (we're not yet sure which and no one there speaks any english - in fact I had to order water the other day via the power of pictionary when charades failed) - they have one set of keys for the car and keep moving it around for us!?!

Thursday we started looking for visas. Unfortunately all the embassies we were looking for appear to have moved and eventually we had something like 3 different addresses for each of them. Eventually we followed a lead on the internet where bizarrely a website claimed that you can get an Azeri visa from the Canadian embassy. Of course this isn't true but the receptionist was incredibly helpful and got us a real address and information. We found out that we need a letter of support from the British embassy for the Azeri visa so we went there next. 50 bloody quid each and not ready for 24 hours! Sod that! Useless English bastards. We're going to try and get one without.

Friday we went to the Azeri embassy first - closed for a national holiday. Next the Kazakh embassy - put in our application and we have to ring up on Tuesday to find out how things are going. Then to the Kyrgyz embassy where the application process was fairly painless. The chappy asked for a letter of support but when we told him how much the British embassy wanted to charge he let us off if we wrote letters explaining why we wanted to visit. We were then told to deposit our dollars in a bank and return with the receipt to get our visas to be issued the same day. Next we went to the Indian embassy and got our applications in. India is a pain and if you apply outside your home country they refer the application back so it can take up to 4 working days. Again we have to ring up on tuesday.

After all this lot we were knackered so went to get some lunch. We found a lunch canteen type place and had a couple of good kebabs. It was very full so when a couple of people who came in were seated next to us - one a Turkish lady translating for the other, a Northwestern European man. We got chatting and they were over for the afternoon from Istanbul to sort out some business dealings of some sort in the capital. Eventually one of them (Deniz) let on that the other (Lars) was the Danish Consulate General to Istanbul - i.e. A Very Important Person! He kindly gave us his card and said that if anything went wrong in the east we were to give him a call! Lovely fellow! Deniz was lovely too - really enjoyed the discussion on EU-Turkish relations over lunch!

In the afternoon we headed back to the Kyrgyz embassy having paid the bank. Annoyingly the embassy was closed even though it was supposed to be open. The chap had a bad back so I guess that it being a quiet friday afternoon had decided to head home early...
Today we had a long lie in, and visited the local market in the afternoon. Ulus (where we're staying) is a bit of a dive and quite boring so it was refreshing to see it suddenly come to life. I ate grilled rolled up lambs intestine in a bun (much nicer than it sounds) and one stall holder gave us a carrot each!

Anyway, we're stuck here until at least wednesday and there's really not a lot to see so this may explain why I've rambled on so long. Off to buy a rotiserie chicken for dinner and sneak it into our room now. Also havıng announced wıth much fanfare that I have a card reader I forgot to brıng it this evening, and happy birthday Mum!

We now have a card reader, and to prove it...

... here's us in Cappadocia.

Also thanks for all the comments so far. Glad to see that people are actually reading this and nice to hear from you all!

After having a few lazy days in Antayla we decided to have some more and so headed further east along the Turkish coast. Our next stop was Side aka German tourist hell (apparently the most popular resort along this stretch!). Side may once have been a very beautiful resort but sadly it has been completely destroyed by tourism and as such is dominated by shops trying to sell you appallingly bad fake D&G t-shirts and Prada handbags or else is full of restaurants, cafes and bars. The only saving grace was the remains of a roman city at its entrance. We stopped for lunch had a wander around and then headed off. Half a day was more than enough for us and to think people book two week holidays there.

Nevertheless we continued east and went to Alanya - to be honest we weren't expecting much but actually it was OK. We stayed near the West beach and wandered around the town for a bit before heading down to the harbour for dinner. We ate fablously well at a smart restaurant just at the end of the harbour - we had shrimp for starters (Rich wanted calamari but 3 days in a row and for both lunch and dinner was a bit much for me by now) and then had some greda which came which a burning flame next to it (hard to describe but it looked impressive and the fish tasted great). In fact the restaurant was all the better for the live music! which can only be described as a fat 'Barry from Eastenders' looking guy with a keyboard, flute and guitar jamming cabaret standards along to the demo button- Awesome. Afterwards we looked for a busy and non sleazy cocktail bar (no chance!) but were able to drink some lovely strawberry daquiri's .

The next day it was raining heavily, but when it stopped briefly we wandered around the castle and through stones from execution rock. Apparently prisoners were told that there lives would be spared if they threw a stone from the top and it hit the water. An impossible feet and when it hit the rock below they were pushed to their deaths. Both of our stones naturally failed to hit the water. Afterwards with the promise of continual rain for the next four days we headed further along the coast before venturing inland and heading for the Capadocia region. By now it was mid-afternoon and we drove up to a pass of 1700 metres which no doubt provided spectacular scenery but by now it was pitch black - with the numerous sharp bends and hairpins we had made slow progress and the car never got above 30mph or 3rd gear. By the time we got to the next town it was alreay 8pm and we had another 130k to go in the mountains.

Ok this would be the point where most people would decide to give up and look for accomodation - but not us. After turning the wrong way up a steep hill and then having been given a lesson in reversing Rich takes over the driving. You see the map says that part of the road we are to take is unmade, now in Romania in my mind this mean't impassible (Rich proved otherwise - poor Rover). But in actual fact the road was actually Ok if a bit gravely. At one point we stopped the car and turned off the lights (there was nobody else around for miles) and it was pitch black. So we continue up and down mountains for the next few hours before arriving in Nigde where we found a reasonable hotel.

So today we got up early and headed into Cappadocia, our first stop was Derinkuyu and a visit to an underground city. Fortunately I didn't get to claustraphobic and it was amazing to be exploring what I can only really describe as a rabbit warren cut out of rock.

There were lots of tunnels (most of which I couldn't stand up in - so you can imagine what it was like for Rich) and caves. Not all of the city has been excavated so we were only able to go three floors down but apparently there are at least 8. Afterwards we went to Uchisar and climbed to the top of a castle made from hollowing out a rock, from the top we got our first proper view of the landscape. We then wandered around the village which was full of fairy chimneys and houses cut from rock.

Tonight we are stopping in nearby Goreme, we did consider staying in a cave tonight but its quite cold so we're in a traditional ottoman home instead.

Last update we were waiting for the rain to finish. Happily it did, and even more happily the power cut occurred after I'd spent 1 hour typing...

As for bonfire night, hope everyone who bothered back home enjoyed it. We of course have our own supply of fireworks but the middle of Istanbul wasn't the best place to let them off. That we even still have our fireworks is a little fortunate after we were stopped for a random search in Dover but at least our country's safe eh? ;-)

We're now in Antalya which is a big touristy city on the mediterranean coast. Grapes needed a rest from the incessant rain and cold and thankfully its nice and warm here. Only got here yesterday after a 9 hour drive but the seafood is great and everything's a bit cheaper than Istanbul. Didn't do anything today apart from stroll round getting mistaken for Germans and relaxing on the beach for a bit.

Actually since last time we posted nothing much has happened. The weather cleared up for our last day so we did some sightseeing, ate some nice food, and had a few drinks to round things off. Also got our first free beers off a Turkish guy trying to get us into his restaurant (he succeded!) and some artist did an unrecognisable picture of us (again for free as part of an Efes promotion).

The journey here was also fairly unexciting except for arriving at the automated toll booth into Asia with no idea how to pay. It was quite funny sitting there wondering what to do while the woman behind went apoplectic with rage. Our fun was cut short when a helpful local showed us what to do (park up beyond and go and pay in an office). This was a shame as it would have been quite interesting to watch the woman pop a blood vessel and spray blood all over her windscreen (probably still screaming at us as she expired). We also had a burger king for lunch. Cough.

Finally, we have lost our mascot, Carlos the reindeer. He came with the car but we treated him more like a red headed stepchild than the cuddly travelling mascot that he was. In the end he'd had enough of being squashed at the bottom of Grapes' backpack and only taken out for token photo opportunities in the freezing cold and has made a bid for freedom. We can only hope he's gone onto a better life than we could provide.

Ah rain, precipitation in fact... We are in Istanbul and it has been pissing down all day, much like it did in Bucharest but here they're not really prepared for it. We also stopped for a night in Veliko Tarnovo in Bulgaria and the only thing that changed was the rain turned into snow. In fact it stayed snowy into Greece and even Istanbul was under a layer when we arrived though it had gone by morning (yesterday was nice though if a little chilly...).

We left Bucharest in the rain which was appropriate as it's a pretty dreary place, not that much to see and particularly affected by wars, communism and the follies of despotic rule. During this trip we have learnt not to listen to any hype in lonely planet guides (which in spite of their editorial style are like the eponymous starbucks of the travel guide world). Anyway, south of the capital is much of a muchness, flat and monotonous until you get to the border. When we got there we couldn't find a single open lunch place so eventually stopped in a "Penny" supermarket which anyone who's been to eastern europe will know that it's the Aldi equivalent over here.

The border provided a few laughs. First we'd made an effort to spend all our Lei but then discovered there was a bridge toll, so back into town to find a cashpoint. When we got to the first checkpoint things become a little difficult to follow. The guy asks for our green card. Of course First Alternative Insurance (take note of the name!) has assured me that I don't need one for any European nation (thats European, not just EU) and I hand over my insurance certificate. The upshot is that we've been driving for over a week in Romania without any insurance whatsoever... I'm supposed to pay 150 Euros for the insurance I haven't got and a 30 Euro fine. After a little discussion he eventually agrees to waive the insurance on the basis that we don't come back and we slip the 30 Euros (actually 20GBP and 10 Euros cos we've run out of cash) into the passport and when its handed back the money has gone... A little shady but seems to work. At the next checkpoint we apparently have missed something (and I will never know what) and have to go back to the previous check with $45 for which there is no receipt. I think they're laughing at us now. Then there is the 66 Lei road tax that we apparently have to pay which we know nothing about, but they only take Lei so its off to the money changer to swap some more dollars at a laughable rate before we're finally allowed out of the country. The Bulgarian side seems more transparent - we're asked straight away if we have a green card which we don't so buy a weeks insurance for about $15. We then need a road tax sticker (4 Euros) and a "disinfection fee" of 2 Euros and we're through!

Going to have to find some time to write a letter to First Alternative! Twats.

Its about a 1.5 hour drive to Veliko Tarnovo which is Bulgaria's medieval capital, a pretty town crammed onto the top of a gorge around a tight S-bend of the river. When we arrive its snowing and dark which makes navigating the steep, narrow cobbled streets a bit tricky. Things are made trickier by the fact that Bulgaria uses the cyrillic alphabet and dual script signposts are still a rarity. Eventually we find the cheap hotel listed in the guide book and book ourselves in. Of course nothing's even that simple - the passport control forgot to stamp our passports so the hotel can't check us in until the police have come round to verify our authenticity. On top of that Bulgaria operates a state sanctioned foreigner pricing system where we get charged double what the locals do though to be fair its not exactly expensive even after that. Bulgarians clearly haven't thrown off the old communist system with the same gusto as the other nations we have visited.

We feel the need for a relaxing evening and thankfully get one. The restaurant downstairs is packed and we share a table with an unsmiling Bulgarian couple. The portions are huge, the pizza (chicken fried in brancy butter with wild muchrooms and rosemary) fantastic, lovely trout fillets in sesame seed and a rather good stuffed chicken breast with sweet pepper in sauce. Outside the snow is falling thickly and we go to prop up the bar in a busy pub - all very warm and christmassy.

Next day we decide that the town isn't too exciting so set off quite early for the Turkish border. We don't particularly fancy going through the police registration rigmarole again and in any case there's nothing really to see on the way. Unfortunately the first road we try is suddenly blocked, apparently by an accident and our non-cyrillic 1:800000 map is no help getting round. We head back to VT to try the other main road and are nearly over the mountains (some great overtaking on snowy hairpins etc) when suddenly everything stops again. After a 40 minute wait the word comes back that cars are to go through and we pass a queue of about 2 miles of lorries to the accident site where a lorry has left the road and a huge crane is lifting the wreckage out of the valley bottom.

The southern side of Bulgaria is almost as boring as southern Romania although the sun is now out and the scenery is getting more mediteranean. We hit the motorway and as we do see a sign saying "Greece, 8Km", which is too hard to resist so we turn the car round and head to Greece. As an EU country the borders should be less hassle and we can stock up on Euros and make a couple of cheap phone calls. In Greece there's a little snow araound and it's still bitterly cold so we head more of less straight to the Turkish border. This border crossing is quite a minor one but we're through the Greek side with no problems. The Turkish side is best described as a bit chaotic. We go to office 1 to show our passports. Then to office 4 to sort the car. Of course we don't have a green card and this is where things get interesting. There is nowhere at the border to buy insurance so eventually (no one speaks any English) a fixer/taxi driver offers to take us into town to buy it there. Back to office 3 to buy our visas (10GBP) and office 1 to get them stamped. Then we're free to enter the country so we take the taxi into town. The fixer finds us an open insurance broker (at 7 on saturday evening!) and we somehow end up with 3 months insurance for about 15GBP. After picking up his dinner we're back to the border - office 4 to show the car documents, office 3 to get the stamp for the car (the chappy can't find the UK in his country list for about 15 minutes!) and then office 1 for the last stamp and we're off! Never found out what office 2 did...

Had an excellent kebab in the city and then decided to press on to Istanbul with the idea of finding a cheap hotel on the outskirts and driving in the next morning. Of course the Turks haven't yet hit on the idea of scummy out of town hotels so Grapes spends several hours driving round the edges of Istanbul without a map gradually having a nervous breakdown as we're cut up and harrased by lunatic Turkish drivers driving through reds, the wrong way up one way streets, over kerbs all at great speed. At about 1am we have arrived at the airport and there are still no cheap hotels so we stop at one of the expensive ones. The cheapest room is 215 Euros so we use the toilets to show our disdain for the place before asking the concierge if he knows any cheap hotels nearby. Happily he turns out to be very helpful (doubt he could afford to stay here!) and finds us a decent room for $50. He gets us a taxi which we follow to the hotel as he doesn't have a map. Thank God for that. We have a well earned beer and pass out at about 2:30.

Next day (yesterday) we decide to drive as far into Istanbul as we can and get a hotel within strking distance of the centre. After a bit of aimless driving we eventually arrive about a mile from the historic centre in a cheap hotel with free parking. Even at the end of this trip I reckon navigating Istanbul without a map will be one of our greatest achievements!

In the afternoon we wandered round the city without any great purpose. Its lovely and bustling but very cold and quite expensive. I'm happy though as almost everywhere you go you can smell bbqing meat! As we'll be picking up some visas in Ankara we may be eating a lot of this over the next couple of weeks (and Turkey is a very big country...).

Since our last update we have been around both Bran and Rasov castles. Whilst Bran castle was definately worth visting it didn't really live up to my expectations. Whilst gothic loooking in architecture, the castle was actually on a small hill in the middle of a village ( I had in my mind bleak images of it being sited on top of a high rock and looking quite imposing). I'm sorry to disappoint but it didn't look very scary, inside it was actually very pretty with a nice courtyard and lots of galleries. Bran castle actually served as a watching/outpost for Wallachia and then as Queen Maria's summer residence before being donated back to the people of Bran. Whilst we knew it had no connection to Vlad Dracula before visting it was good to see that the tourist machine didn't exploit the legend either.

We then headed to Brasov Poiaina and Sinia which are Romaina's top skiing resorts. They provided good views from the road but we decided to trek up from Cota 1400 to Cota 2000 to get a better look around. Effectively this mean't climbing up a black run and whilst mostly fine there was one point where we were climbing an almost vertical hill (my first strop of the holiday!!). Rich has got a great photo of me trying to hitch a lift on a passing cable car!. The view at the top was stunning it was just us and snow capped mountains - the type of image/scenery you always see in travel brochures and so well worth the 2 hour hike in the end (plus the promised bar of chocolate if I made it to the top!!)

Afterwards we got back into the car and headed to Bucarest. Like the Country, the city of Buacrest has yet to fully expolit the value of tourism oh and they also drive like maniacs. Believe me when I say that Romanians parking across busy city centre roads is not uncommon oh and the crumbling Dacias and horses and carts have also now been replaced by brand new Mercedes. My other observation of Romanians in Burcarest is that they only eat Pizza - after a couple of hours strolling on Tuesday night the only type of restaurant we could find was Italian. On Wednesday we went to Caucescu's People's palace - this is Romania's equivalent of our Millenium Dome. He flattened one sixth of Bucarest to build the building, destroying over 20 churches and making over 70,000 people homeless in the process. It was well worth the tour around but sadly today it is now used as a conference centre. Bucarest is not a pretty city but gives you a good flavour of an Eastern Eurpoean city before its spoilt by tourism. Other sites in Bucarest include a copy of the Arc de Triomphe and Champs Elyses (6m longer than the genuine article).

Hi, today we are in Brasov which the Lonely Planet guide has dubbed the new Prague, but to be honest whilst its pretty and full of character I'm not so sure about the comparrison.

On Thursday night we went out in Cluj and had a lovely traditional meal and Rich was particularly amused by the fact that Romanians seem to eat raw chillies with their soup. The restaurant was particularly traditional and rustic, ironically we decided afterwards to go for a drink in a nearby bar. The only one with any life in it was called the Fashion Bar and honestly it would have looked pretentious in Clifton. The best way to describe it was a passage way between two buildings draped with fabric to look like a marque with night heaters, leather loungers and plasma TVs everywhere and for the locals this was 'the place to be seen'.

The next day we headed towards a Gorge called Cheile Turzii which was absolutely stunning and surrounded by beautiful limestone mountains. We hope to get a card reader soon and when we do will post some photos on this site. We took a 4 hour trek through and around the gorge (good preparation for me for trekking in Nepal but also our first real exercise since travelling) and at the end of the Gorge we got chatting to three local students. We continued the walk with them and helped the finish off their sandwiches in return for a beer. They had hitch hiked there and originally we planned to camp there but as the light was fading and it was getting cold, we offered them a lift back to Cluji and in return they offered to put us up in their student digs for the night. There were only two rules about guests in the dorms - no foreigners and no girls !!! but they managed to pursuade the security guard to let us stay in return for a small bribe of two packets of cigarettes. The guys room was OK considering it was student accomodation less said the better about the showers and toilets. We were also fed a Romanian traditional dish which comprised of rice and mince rolled in cabbage, baked and then served with thick cream - it was really nice and very similar to a Polish dish my gran used to cook. The guys room was filled with computers and through a student computer network they were able to download the latests movies and music in seconds - this was piracy central it seemed.

On Saturday we left Cluj and drove to the Fagaras Mountains - the students told us about a very scenic road which takes you straight through the mountains but was closed from Mid-October onwards. However thankfully for us it was still open and its the sort of road and scenery that only the Swiss Alps can rival. We climbed to over 2034 metres and navigated 31 hairpins to get to the top. Countless Top Gear style programmes and car adverts must have been filmed here. The problem was that we didn't get to the top until late Saturday afternoon and by the time we did it was very foggy and dark - we couldn't seem more than 20ft in front of the car, so came back Sunday morning to really appreciate the scenery - it really was amazing. In the afternoon we visited a Dam which was equally impressive, I suspect it has featured in many films. There was the opportunity to bugee jump off one side which was quite an extreme drop. Rich and I both agreed that neither of us would do it, me not even for a million pounds. That evening Rich decided that he hated Romanian drivers as none of the cars had their headlights adjusted and driving with your spotlights on seems a national pastime - we were blinded all the way back to our hotel.

Today the weather seems to have turned against us, its rained almost continuously and has been quite cold.We tried to go to Bran castle today but unfortunately its closed on Mondays so our plan is to so back tomorrow and spend Halloween with Dracula......

Now in Cluj-Napoca in Romania. Its a studenty city full of western wannabies who make us travelling types look decidedly scruffy, especially after we arrived having camped in the wilderness of the Apuseni mountains, a very beautiful area full of autumn colours and pine clad mountains. The whole region is full of towns and cities that still exhude a certain beauty under their decades of accumulated shabbiness. Yesterday we did about 30Km off road over a mountain pass. The car held up well though we had our first breakdown of sorts as one of the windows jumped out of its guides due to the roughness of the track.

The main excitement since the last post was getting caught up in the riots in Budapest. 23rd October is the anniversary of the first (failed) revolution against the Soviets. This one happened to be the 50th, and as it so happens the govenment is very unpopular with the people after being caught admitting to lying to win the last election. Don't know why they're so surprised.... Anyway, we had a feeling that we might see a demonstration of some sort when an old man started explaining his take on the situation at a police road block. All morning nothing much happened, we spent most of the time wandering near the parliment building admiring the police closing the roads and 5 car convoys of foreign dignitaries howling past (Grapes thinks she saw Jack Straw in one but we don't know if he was actually there).

After lunch we were wandering round another part of town (to see the market but it was closed as it was a bank holiday) when we saw loads of people heading in one direction so we thought we'd follow. It was initially to see a traditional Hungarian string trio warm up act with lots of flag waving though the crowd didn't appreciate the police helicopter circling overhead. After a while we got bored and went for a beer. Deciding to head back to see what was going on a crowd had gathered some way away from the stage where they were confronted by a line of police in riot gear backed up by police trucks. There was also a bunch of press taking photos so I joined in in "no mans land". Just as I turned to go back the lines of photographers seem to have got out of the way and the police opened up with tear gas cannisters and coloured water jets. Needless to say we legged it! The protests had had an air of menace (a few too many people had arrived in combats and army boots obviously looking for a fight) but were still peaceful up to that point.

After wiping the tears away (that stuff is seriously unpleasant and we didn't even get a proper spray) we made our way back to one of the big TVs covering events on the stage. At one point people on one side of us were singing some rememberence song (little old ladies and children included) while on the other you could hear explosions and see plumes of tear gas and coloured water. As the sound of rioting intesified more and more people started leaving the crowd and heading towards the action you could see that something was going to give, and Grapes rightly persuaded me to start to move away. Suddenly everyone started running and scattering in all directions as a full on police cavalry charge tore straight through the middle of the crowds. This time we escaped down one of the side streets and decided to leave them to it.

Apparently the rioting continued through the night but was over by morning - the police contained them in a wide street and we didn't find out how it ended.

The next day we left Budapest and attempted to find Szobor Park - full of the old communist statues that filled all Eastern bloc countries. Try as hard as we might we didn't find it after about 3 hours (its outside the centre and no maps cover the area or mark it) so we decided to head for the Romanian border. The motorway bridge over the Danube the got blocked by an accident so to avoid the (enourmous, immobile) queues we tried our luck on the local roads to the south eventually crossing on a ferry. The heavens then opened and we drove most of the way to the border in the pissing rain through some of the dreariest countryside I've ever seen, discovering in the process that the windscreen wipers merely smear the windscreen rather than wiping it...

The Romanian border was a disappointment though - through in about 10 minutes with no hassle whatsoever. Stayed in a dingy hotel that once upon a time must have been palacial with collapsed infested beds and shared bathrooms. Don't believe everything you read in a Lonely Planet guide!

Now sitting in an internet cafe in Budapest, weather is lovely and warm, same cannot be said for the bloody hungarian keyboard i'm wrestling with... Caroline was back on the grapes last night and neither of us are feeling our best today. Ended up in an underground club with a pond for a ceiling with a live reggae/ska band after one of the finest mojito's i've had for a while. Bristol can learn something from this... Budapest is a little like Prague with less austere communist blight and cheerier jingles on the underground announcements. Probably fewer sights to see but who cares? - its about 30 degrees warmer here!

Stopped in Györ the night before and ate some proper paprika and cream stew type stuff. Before that we stopped in Vienna for lunch and partook in a little Weinerschnitzel and Sachertorte. Very nice. Going to see if I can get fat before we get back.

Got invited to visit a Czech school by a teacher friend. Thought we'd just have a little tour but instead ended up being the star attraction in a q&a type lesson with a load of hormonal 14-15 year olds. Got introduced as "travellers and explorers" which was quite fun but it turned out they didn't speak english so we had to get by in Czech.

Car is doing fine - no problems to speak of and is reasonably economical. It managed a fully legal 130 (indicated) mph on an autobahn - needless to say Grapes wasn't at the wheel... The less said about crappy iPods the better though. It died after 1 day leaving us with no music (that wasn't central european commercial karaoke pop) for the best part of a week. Is it wrong of me to suggest that Apple are shit?

Next stop Romania somewhere. If we get it right we may be in Transylvania for Halloween!

We had a good crossing to Boulogne and watched the sunset on the horizon (the green flash theory is true) and then found a lovely seafood restaurant before driving through France, Belgium and Germany until 3am in the morning. Hard to believe but whilst we passed many McDonalds we struggled to find a motel and ended up staying in an Ibis just outside Cologne. Spent the next day in Cologne and visited the cathedral and unsurprisingly with Rich managed to find a good sushi restaurant for lunch before heading on to Nuremburg where we had a few beers and some traditional german food. Have mastered driving abroad (during the day - leaving the night driving to Rich) and we haven't really had any arguments so far...... Were now in the Czech Republic staying with Rich's mum and dad until Thursday currently visiting the historic Cesky Krumlov.

Just about to go to bed - still haven't packed and leaving at 10:00 in the morning (latest!). Start as you mean to go on...

Well one day to go and were busy packing and doing all the last minute things that we should have done weeks ago but hey ho "It'll be fine!". Ferry from Dover to Boulogne is booked for 5.40pm tomorrow so there's no turning back now.

We'll do our best to keep this site updated regularly and ensure there are lots of amusing stories to keep you all entertained - so keep visiting to see where we are and what we're up to....