Istanbul, Gallipoli & Bucharest: One Train to End Them All.

With the end of our Eurotrip in sight, we arrived in Istanbul, the city at the end of Europe, and the only city in the world in which you can get lost in and end up in a completely different continent. As you might expect from a city that stretches from the European continent to the Asian continent, Istanbul is a pretty awesome clash of cultures. For Westerners it feels very different to the rest of Europe, yet there are still some aspects of it that remain European (wide pedestrian streets with big stores on them, a few castles here and there…). However the first thing we noticed about Istanbul is how enormous it is. It literally took an hour from the moment we entered Istanbul on the motorway, to be dropped at the bus station, driving on the motorway the whole time.

We couchsurfed with a guy named Faruk – it was really sweet to get to chat to a local about the happenings of Istanbul (especially recently), and get a nice driving tour around the city. The traffic in Istanbul is probably the craziest out of all the cities we’ve been to, which is saying something after Naples. In the words of Faruk, when you drive around you have to “be really quick and not respect anyone else on the road”. At least he knew what he was doing.

She's a happening place she is, the old Istanbul. Built on dreams and history. 

(It's hard to always come up with captions that make sense, ok).

If we earnt a lira for every time we heard someone yell "Bosphorous Tour!" we'd be able to afford twenty Bosphorous Tours by now. Here Phoebe poses in front of a happy group of tourists, crossing the Bosphorous to the Asian side of the city. We spent most of our time on the European side.

Dressing up for a visit to the Blue Mosque. Very crowded, but a rather spectacular building inside and out, nonetheless.

The Grand Bazaar was like a scene out of Aladdin, with Felix being Abu the Monkey. It was nice enough, but a bit more upmarket than we were expecting. It seems you need a substantial amount of money to really enjoy the Bazaar...

...We preferred to spend our time at the spice market. Much more affordable, just as colourful, and ten times more delicious. Seriously, those Turkish desserts are to die for. The kunefe was probably our favourite - crispy noodles soaked in sickly sweet syrup, covered in minced pistachios and filled with melted cheese. Perfection, equalled only by the mighty baklava itself.

Istanbul was full of kitties!!

Like many other New Zealanders before us, we made the journey out to Gallipoli to visit the battlefields where so many Kiwis lost their lives. It was pretty special to be able to see the places we'd heard so much about at school, places that held so much significance for our country, in such a far away land.

Close to Anzac Cove, where it all began.

The predominantly Australian cemetery at the Lone Pine.

Anzac Trenches.

The casualties from the Maori Contingent, on Chunuk Bair. 

So far in Turkey we’d been catching buses, because they’re quite cheap and the rail network is less than extensive. Regardless, we decided to give the train from Istanbul to Bucharest a go, as we’d heard it was reliable enough… It took us 20 hours on the train to get to Bucharest. TWENTY HOURS. On a plane, we could have made it to Australia in that time. Look how close Bucharest and Istanbul are on a map. LOOK.

Slowest. Train. Ever. Phoebe's smile does not at all reflect our feelings at this time.

We did make it though, so I guess it was reliable enough. Bucharest is the capital of Romania by the way. It’s a bit of a mixed bag, but overall it feels like a pretty nice, safe place. The outskirts are very run down and perhaps not a place you’d want to hang out in at night, but the centre is the complete opposite. We heard that Bucharest has the most bars per capita in all of Europe, which would not surprise us. It’s also outrageously cheap, which gains big points with us. We met some young Aussies from Tasmania who were more than happy to sample the nightlife with us – we had a few laughs, mostly at them rather than with them.

Conveniently our hostel was situated just around the corner from the childhood house of Phoebe's Greek grandfather! We think the new inhabitants were a little suspicious of us photographing their house.

We did the free walking tour in Bucharest, which didn't teach us so much about the history of Bucharest, but did teach us many fun facts about the city. Did you know that the Romanian Parliament (background on the right) is nicknamed the 'Iceberg', because it extends further beneath the earth than above it? It's also the largest Parliament building in the world (regardless of the fact that the inside remains unfinished!).

When Bucharest became the capital city, they began designing heaps of buildings that were modelled off buildings in Paris, earning Bucharest the nickname 'Paris of the East'. We could keep spewing Bucharest-facts all day if we wanted to.

Money-saving Intiative #38: We only paid for one night of accommodation in Bucharest - the second night we spent in the airport, waiting for our 6am flight to Paris. It is not something we would recommend to anyone as we arrived in Paris extremely exhausted and smelling like feet. 

 Thus ended our 3 month Eurail journey around Europe....

Next time: Recovering in Paris, before the Asian leg of the trip begins.