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........
Wednesday, November 29, 2006
Friday, November 24, 2006
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.
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.
Monday, November 20, 2006
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......
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......
Saturday, November 18, 2006
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 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!
Sunday, November 12, 2006
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.
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.
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.
Thursday, November 09, 2006
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.
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.
Monday, November 06, 2006
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...).
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...).
Friday, November 03, 2006
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).
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).
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