Contiki - Turkish & Greek Island Odyssey

We flew from Vienna to Istanbul, where our next Contiki kicked off. We had two nights in Istanbul prior to the start of the tour, but we deliberately didnt want to hit up the touristy attractions during this time as we knew we would cover them while on tour. So we spent our time wandering the streets, eating Turkish delight and meeting up with other Contiki-goers who had arrived early in Istanbul like us. One early meet up turned into a late night rooftop bar and shisha session (a long pipe with herbal apple tobacco in it - but tobacco free, don't worry parents!) 

We met our tour guide Ausgard (A local Turk) and the 30 other travellers. Half our group is Australian, 40% are Canadian and then there is an American, a Brazilian and 2 Mexicans. All are about our age and really easy to get along with. We even have two doctors, which was really handy considering I fell down some steps on the third night and got a giant purple kankle. Not broken though, according to the docs! 

Things we've loved about Turkey:

• The beautiful mosques everywhere. 98% of the population are Muslim, and when you are supposed to pray in a group 5 times per day, there's a pretty big requirement for mosques. Two of the larger mosques in the centre of Sultanahmet play the Call to Prayer several times each day and night, which is this chant that's projected all over the city. It's almost hypnotic and when you're walking through the spice markets it makes the experience feel even more Turkish! The Blue Mosque and the Hagia Sofya were the most beautiful. The Blue Mosque is tiled in over 35,000 blue ceramic tiles and was awesome. 
• The archaeological museum because they had mummies! 
• Visiting the ancient ruins of Troy, and seeing remnants of the fortification walls, wells and the stone they would lay sacrifices for the gods.
• The traditional Turkish dinner and show we saw in Istanbul. The belly dancing was amazing and so were their costumes. 
• One of the highlights of the trip has definitely been visiting Gallipoli. While we were really looking forward to it, we didn't realise how emotional it would be. We stood on the beach at Anzac Cove in the exact spot the diggers landed, and saw the trenches they had dug to get out of the machine gun fire. We saw rows and rows of headstones with too many men younger than we are now. We saw Lone Pine and the whole peninsula from the Australian War Memorial. We saw the hills where the Turks were hiding and waiting for the Anzacs. It was surreal being there, especially because as we were exploring a huge thunderstorm rolled in from the ocean and the thunder sounded like gunfire. It's hard to believe so many bad things have happened there when its just so pretty. The Turkish made a really beautiful memorial for the Australian and New Zealand soldiers  in Anzac Cove, everyone was pretty moved by it. The whole afternoon was incredible. 
• Sitting around on the rooftop terrace in Izmir with the group just chatting for hours. One new fact that outraged me - in Canada their sunscreen is SPF 110, and SPF 30 is their lowest coverage. Considering I'm from the country with the highest rates of melanoma, I think I speak for all Australians when I say 'what the hell?!' 
• Visiting the ancient city of Ephesus in Kusadasi, where whole sections of the library, palaces and city are still standing in various stages of ruin. Anthony and Cleopatra even visited there during its glory years.
• Going to a property out of town and learning how Turkish rugs are made. It's sounds boring but was really cool. The owner of the business is Turkish but spent 15 years in Sydney so he loved hanging out with us Aussies. He showed us the whole process, including how to get the silk from the cocoons of silkworms, which bought back a lot of memories for me as we had silkworms as kids. The only thing about Turkish rugs is they are really labour intensive, and therefore expensive. We asked for a price on a silk rug that was the size of a doormat and it was $4,500. But the owner knew we were Contiki and didn't expect us to buy anything which was good. It was just fun seeing how it was made. And watching the ninja squirrels, sleeping owl and noisy rooster that lived on the grounds.
• And finally having a bit of free time to relax by the pool. This doesn't sound like much, but on Contiki any relaxation time is a bonus

So that was Turkey. It was insanely busy, always smelled like spices and baklava, and was a lot of fun. But the Greek part of the trip blew our minds!

After leaving Kusadasi we lined up to board the Louis Olympia cruise ship that we would be living on as we sailed to Patmos, Rhodes, Crete and Santorini though to Athens. Neither of us have even been on a cruise ship before and had no idea what to expect. Our cruise ship was the smallest of three docked in Kusadasi, and it had 2 pools, a casino, a disco, dozens of lounges, bars and restaurants everywhere, and really cute little cabins that surprisingly aren't too cramped. The bigger ships must have been incredible!  The best part is that all your meals are included in the price, so you can eat buffet style every meal and you don't need to pay extra. They also do a drinks package which the whole group took full advantage of - €20 per day for all you can drink, which includes water, juice, coffee, soft drinks, beer, wine, spirits and cocktails. Oh my God. Considering a cocktail at home is almost €20 by itself, we have all been sampling the whole menu. It's also handy because you can't drink any of the water in Greece, and a lot of us were spending quite a bit on bottled water in Turkey each day too. So €20 was amazing value. The ship doctor wasn't a fan of the package however, he whinged about it while treating one girl on our tour for sunstroke and alcohol poisoning. 

Things we've loved about Greece:

• Sitting around the pool with our tour group ordering cocktails and feeling like celebrities.
• The toga party our tour manager organised for the first night. We literally borrowed bed sheets from housekeeping and busted out the best dance floor ever.
• Walking around the tiny but beautiful Patmos. You can basically walk the island in 15 minutes, but you take 30 because everyone is too chilled out there to do anything on time.
• Docking in Rhodes for the day. We visited all the little shops, and hit the beach with our group. The beach is rocks, not sand, but the water was crystal blue (and super salty so I floated well!) There is a 4m diving block out about 20m which we all swam out to and even I jumped off. Trying to stick to my new years resolution to 'try new things'. And the list is getting longer. You know the saying YOLO? (You only live once?) our group has started saying YOIGO (You're only in Greece once) so being at the top of that diving board and looking down was definitely a YOIGO moment. 
• Climbing the active volcano in Santorini. There are little holes in the rocks where boiling steam blows out of the earth, and you can actually smell the sulphur. We made it to the top and built a little rock pile out of volcanic rock to mark making it. After the volcano climb you could jump off the little pirate ship we were sailing on into the thermal waters that are heated by the volcano. Brian did it but I didn't as the sulphur turns the water red and stains your bathers and I didn't have anything black to wear in. 
• Catching the cable car from the top cliffs of Santorini down to the port. The postcards don't lie, this really is the most incredible cliff top town you've ever seen. The only downside was it was really really windy, so the donkeys weren't out taking people up and down the stairs. But that's okay, it means they're looking after their donkeys. 

The only bad moment of the whole trip? On the last night of the cruise we had really bad weather and a lot of us got seasick. I should be grateful though, our tour guide said on the last tour he was on, the swell was so bad a grand piano flipped over. It was kind of funny though - we had a cult of 800 people on board who believed that the goddess of the lost island of Atlantis was going to appear from the seas in Santorini. So when the bad weather  in Santorini struck they all got really excited that she was coming. No such luck though, no goddess, just a lot of people unable to walk in a straight line from the ship lurching around. 

So now contiki is over and I'm writing this from the ferry we're taking back to the Greek islands for a week of relaxing. We made some amazing friends and had one last dinner with them in Athens last night before we all went our separate ways. From that first day on contiki where we all stood around awkwardly, to crying in the street in Athens saying our goodbyes, contiki has been the best experience for Brian and I. Our group are already planning a reunion in 2014 (looks like it will be in Calgary, Canada for stampede week haha).

 

Lots of love,

Kobi and Brian

Xxx

Spice Markets, Istanbul. The smell is amazing!

At the Blue Mosque, Istanbul.

 

Being a good Muslim so I can see inside the mosque.

 

Sultanahmet, Istanbul

Bird lady, Istanbul

 

Australian cemetery, Gallipoli

 

Anzac Cove, Gallipoli

Lone Pine and the Australian War Memorial

View of the Gallipoli peninsula from Lone Pine

The beautiful memorial to Australians by the Turkish

Contiki girls in Canakkale

Canakkale ankle injury (pics taken a week apart)

Contiki toga party

Toga antics

 

Walking the ruins of the ancient city of Troy

A replica of the Trojan Horse. And yes that is Brian's butt in the photo. The other two are contiki people but the poor unsuspecting tourist on the end will get a shock when he looks at his photos. 

The Turkish rug demonstration. The little white things floating are silkworm cocoons. 

The ancient ruins of Ephesus, Kusadasi

The ancient ruins of Ephesus, Kusadasi

Our cruise ship, home for 3 days

Disembarking via tender boat to head to Rhodes.

The diving board in the sea at Rhodes that we all jumped off. That's Brian sitting down the bottom having just jumped. 

Testing out the GoPro in Rhodes

 

GoPro shot

Contiki crew in Rhodes. 

 

Making it to the top of the active volcano in Santorini. Behind us is the postcard scene that Santorini is famous for. It looks like snow but it's just lots of white houses on a cliff top. 

Building our rock pile on the volcano. There were hundreds of these built by others who hiked it.

The view of Santorini from the volcano

Santorini 

 

Brian jumping off our pirate-style sail boat into the thermal volcanic water. You can see how the sulphur has stained the rock red behind him. 

 

Being pirates on the boat. Arrr.

 

Shenanigans on board the ship

Brian patting the tiniest kitten in Patmos. 

Saying our goodbyes in Athens. And yes I was a mess.

Vienna

This is just a short entry as we only had 24 hours in Vienna. We caught the train from Budapest this morning, which meant a 4:30am start for us. Considering we've been sleeping in until after 9 for the past 3 weeks, this was hell. But it was nice to be back in a German country, as we know some basics of the language and understand their public transport system, which makes it a bit easier. We actually felt a sense of relief seeing things written in German, because the Czech and Hungarian languages are really difficult to follow. 

 

We weren't able to do an organised walking tour as the times didn't work out, but Brian downloaded a self guided walking tour so we headed off with iPhone in hand to visit some of the iconic sights in Vienna, like St Stephens Cathedral and the Belvedere Palace. 

Vienna is beautiful and reminded us very much of the term 'old money' - you can see why it's considered one of the jewels of the EU. Everything is very old (St Stephens was built in the 1400s!) but well kept and just about every palace and cathedral was being refurbished. Scaffolding makes for terrible photos though!

 

We made sure we tried a traditional Viennese coffee (kaffee) house, because they're famous for their coffee. I ordered coffee and wieners, while Brian got the apple strudel. It was amazing, though I didn't realise at first that the grated cheese that came with my wieners was actually grated horseradish, which hurts like hell when you eat a whole mouthful. 

 

The best part of my day? Well in German, wiener means 'sausage'. But in Vienna I kept seeing the word wiener in a context where 'sausage' just didn't make sense. But Brian insisted it meant sausage. After a day of walking around looking at the Sausage Philharmonic Orchestra and the Sausage Mozart Concert Hall, we found out Wiener in Austria actually means 'Viennese'. Because Vienna is called Wien (pronounced Vien) in Austria. Hahahahaha hilarious. Sometimes I wonder how we get by in these foreign countries. 

We're just having a quiet night in tonight, as to tomorrow we fly out to Istanbul ready for Contiki: round two. 

Love,

Kobi and Brian

xxx

Wieners, strudel and kaffee at Cafe Sperl

Model replica of St Stephens Cathedral

 

One side of St Stephens Cathedral (complete with scaffolding)

 

One of thousands of statues in the city

Viennese Palace

 

Budapest

I know we've said this before, but this is our favourite place so far. Budapest (pronounced Budapesht, according to a bona fide Hungarian) is amazing. It's beautiful, lively, built to look old and grand (when it's not actually that old!), and is full of young people. We knew within 5 minutes of getting off the train that we would love it, as the parks were all full of people having picnics, playing frisbee, tightrope walking, walking dogs and drinking beer. Plus it's been about 26 degrees, which is the nicest weather we have had all trip - that definitely helps boost the city's profile in our minds! 

We did a walking tour on our first day as we actually knew nothing at all about Hungary. Turns out they're a pretty interesting bunch, who as far as they can trace, are actually from the area now known as Mongolia. Hungarians don't believe they really fit in with the European landscape for that reason - they relate their ancestry more closely to Asia than Europe. Their history since moving across the globe to what is now Hungary is pretty brutal; basically they just continually started and lost wars. Hungary was one of the key instigators of WWI - they wanted to expand their territories so asked Germany for assistance as they were the major power in the region.  They lost, and tried again in WWII.  They lost again, and the Soviets occupied Hungary for a long time after that. There have been a few civil wars too, which our guide joked that they also lost even though they were only fighting themselves.

 

Things we've loved about Budapest:

• All the outdoor bars and restaurants that are completely full even on a Tuesday night. The prices at these bars were awesome - $2 Cosmo? Please!
• Visiting Szimplakerti ruin bar, the bar rated number 3 in the world by Lonely Planet. Ruin bars are really popular in Budapest. After WWII there were a lot of buildings with serious bomb damage that the Soviets didn't want to waste money repairing. In some areas the residents got together and created bars in the ruins. The bars are huge as they're basically former residential or office buildings, and they are so cool to walk through.
• Spending the day at Szechenyi Bath House, one of the oldest and largest thermal pool complexes in Europe. The waters are considered healing, as they are drawn from the oldest well in Budapest, where the water is 76 degrees. It's cooled for swimming, but still kept between 20 and 40 degrees in various pools. It's a huge building and also has spas, saunas, solariums etc. We had a great day relaxing by the pools when the sun was out. Had less fun being mentally scared by all the European dudes in speedos. 
• Sitting on the steps to the St Stephens Basilica and people watching
• Walking over the Chain Bridge and up the hill on the Buda side to see the Royal Palace and get the best views of Pest across the river. We also had great views of the Parliament building (now the third biggest in the world) 
• All the sausage dogs and chihuahuas over here. 
• The free plastic cheese at our hostel. And having a washing machine (hallelujah!) 

We did have trouble with the language though. Hungarian is not like any other language. You know how people say if you can speak Spanish you can pretty much understand Portuguese, and French and Italian are similar etc? Nothing is similar to Hungarian. And it's completely backwards. For example:

Hello is 'seeia' 

Goodbye is 'hallo'

And when they write their name they write Halbert Kobi Lee. 

What the hell!?

Was great to see our families on Skype today, wishing both our mums and my sister a Happy Mothers Day for tomorrow.

Love, Kobi and Brian 

xxx

The Royal Palace

St Stephens Basilica. We sat on those steps and people/dog watched a lot.

View of Pest.

Fishermans Bastion

Szechenyi Thermal Bath House

Szechenyi Thermal Bath House

Walking home from the Ruin Bar

Enjoying something I can't afford at home!

Prague

We've been in the medieval city of Prague this week, and can't believe how old it looks! We've been in so many places with a lot of history on this trip, but nothing looks quite as ancient as Prague does. Some of the old gothic cathedrals (and there are a LOT - Prague is also called the City of Spires) look really spooky; lots of black and pointy detail to them. Some of them probably are haunted, so many people have been executed in Prague over the centuries. We even went into one cathedral that actually had a mummified arm hanging from the ceiling on a chain where a man tried to steal from the church.

Our hostel is really cool, it's got a bit of a hippy vibe and our room is decked out in an African theme. It's been really nice to have our own little kitchen and actually cook some meals for ourselves rather than eating out every night. We're making it a habit to go out for one traditional meal in each city so we do get to experience the local cuisine and not just make eggs on toast. Brian had rabbit for his traditional Czech meal and loved it.

Things we've loved about Prague:

• Our 3 hour walking tour, complete with Czech tour guide Jirka (pronounced Prrrrrika)
• Charles Bridge and all it's buskers and vendors
• Hiring pedal boats and pedalling around the river for an hour to see the sites. We were peddling along, not a care in the world, and suddenly a ferry fog horned us and scared us to death, it was right behind us and we were in the way. We have never peddled so hard, my heart was about to burst. They really need to put rear view mirrors on those boats!
• Taking a picnic up to some old castle ruins and spotting a squirrel. It was bright red with pointy ears and looked very similar to our dog.
• Brian loves that everybody always has a beer in their hand (even the women). He bought a 500ml beer for 39cents the other day. I was tempted to order the bottle of Jacobs Creek Sparkling just to remind me of home, but it was $14 and I can get it for $6 at Dan Murphy's.

Next we're off to Budapest. I'm really excited because from here on in, the weather is warming up! It's in the high twenties in Budapest! Which means no more layering, no more bulky coats, and a bit of vitamin D. We've been looking forward to the warmer weather, but at the same time were trying not to wish any time away because we're having so much fun.

Love,
Kobi & Brian
Xxx

  Prague Castle & Charles Bridge


Old Town Square


The Astronomical Clock (built in the 1400s)


Old Prague Ham baking

 

Ice Bar Shenanigans

Our new Scottish friends Ryan and Twisted Metal (that's seriously how we were introduced)

Charles Bridge

Pedal boating


Views from the pedal boat


After we hired our boat we spotted these WAY cooler swan boats and were very jealous of anyone in one.

 

The only spot in our room that got wifi

Our room in the Artharmony Hostel

Our room in the Artharmony Hostel

Berlin

We made it to Berlin, even though we almost missed our flight because we were eating McDonalds. I think it might be time to admit we may have a problem.

Berlin is awesome. In one word, it's just cool. I actually felt very uncool in Berlin. Everyone who lives here is very alternative, and just manages to look cool all the time. But you can't try and look cool. The thing about Berlin is no one tries, that's uncool. So I can't win really. I just look like a dork. I even saw a dog that was cooler than me - he was wearing hipster glasses.

Regardless, we've had a great time here. Our first two days were very relaxed as we recovered properly from Contiki. Which was made easy by the fact that our hostel (The Circus) is one of the nicest hostels in Europe (the internets words, not just ours!) We're in a private room with a shared bathroom, and everything is just so nice and new. Other good things about the hostel? Ridiculously cheap meals and drinks, and free dinner at 7pm until it runs out. So at 6:55 every night we join the stampede of other starving backpackers and spend our food money on wine instead. It's been a great way to meet people!

We've explored Berlin pretty thoroughly now, thanks to several walking tours, our own day trips, and Brian's understanding of all the maps and public transport systems. And our verdict? You can tell that Berlin has a pretty dark history, from its involvement in WWI, the rise of Hitler in WW2 and then the Berlin Wall dramas that spanned decades. And while they don't try and hide any of that history (in fact there's 187 different museums dedicated to it!) they're obviously keen on creating their own identity separate from all of that. Now they're considered the artistic and cultural capital of Europe, and that's part of what has made it such an interesting city to spend time in.

Things we've loved about Berlin:

• People watching. Everyone here is dressed crazily, with strange hair and a funny dog. Sitting out on the sidewalk with a coffee has never been so entertaining.
• Our hostel. Aside from the shrine to David Hasselhoff (they're obsessed in Berlin!) it's been a great place to eat, sleep and meet people. Many nights we didn't even leave the hostel bar because we were having so much fun with new friends.
• Our 6 hour Best of Berlin walking tour. We are now full bottle on Berlin's history, which includes more craziness and evil than we ever thought possible. We even saw the place where Hitler committed suicide when he realised he was going to lose WWII. It was so good to see that they have just turned the site into the worlds most boring and average car park. No recognition, and no opportunity for a shrine of any kind. Exactly what he deserved.
• Our 3 hour Alternative walking tour. This gave us an insight into Berlin's famous street art, graffiti, squats and other areas off the beaten track. There are so many pieces of art on buildings, walls etc, that without a guide to explain their meaning or their context in terms of Berlin's political landscape, you'd just think they were scribble. After WWII, Berlin had been bombed heavily and large chunks of the CBD were completely gone. This left a lot of exposed building facades, and the city began to allow artists to decorate those spaces to help fill in the gaps around the City. We loved this tour and even got to tag a section of the remaining Berlin Wall.
• The beer. I even drank my first whole beer, and it was a dunkel (dark beer)!!
• Though it sounds morbid, we actually had an incredible time at Sachenhousen Concentration Camp. Huge effort has gone into restoring the camp and turning it into a beautiful museum. I know we didn't fully understand everything we had been told about the camps until we were actually there. It was a huge camp, and some of the original barracks have been restored as part of the museum, as have the gallows and crematoria. Much of the grounds remain the way they were left in 1945, and in a way it's almost hauntingly beautiful there; behind the walls and barbed wire is a huge forrest, with lots of green lawn and flowers. Despite walking out of there with little faith in humanity and wondering how humans could treat each other that way, we were glad we went. I think you only ever need to see one concentration camp though. One is more than enough.
• The Berlin Zoo was a happier place for me than Disneyland was. It's one of the worlds biggest zoos, and it has the worlds most successful breeding program. So there are babies everywhere! Almost every animal exhibit had a baby in it. After so much gloom and doom in learning about Berlin's history, it was so nice to go somewhere where we were surrounded by life and ridiculously cute monkey babies. And one seriously cranky silverback gorilla who punched the glass when a camera flash went off.

The only disappointment? I had been told I HAD to try pork knuckle, a Bavarian staple. So we headed off to a traditional beer house and ordered one. It was so, so gross. It was basically a plate of gelatinous fat, and neither of us could eat it. I would not recommend it.

Today in Berlin is May Day, also known as Riot Day. Formerly it was the equivalent of Labor Day, however years ago the celebrations turned into a big riot with police, ending in businesses being trashed, cars set alight etc. So now, on May 1st every year, the streets fill up with food, performers and bars during the day, and turn into massive riots with the police at night. So we headed down this afternoon to people watch and listen to the bands, and made sure we were safely tucked up and blogging away by nighttime.

We're training it to Prague tomorrow, ready for some goulash!

Love,
Kobi & Brian

Sachenhousen concentration camp memorial

Sachenhousen concentration camp memorial

Sachenhousen entrance

Sachenhousen grounds - the areas with rocks were formerly barracks.


A Berlin City project where the former residences of Jewish Germans killed in WWII are recognised with a gold plaque.


A memorial to all the victims of war

The site of Hitlers suicide bunker. Now a car park. Sucked in Hitler

 

The Jewish war memorial

The Jewish war memorial

Our walking tour group at Brandenberg Gate

Out for dinner with new friends from the hostel

 

Berlin Zoo - mountain goats


Berlin Zoo - baby elephant

 

Berlin Zoo - pondering gorilla

Pork knuckle. Shudder

Street art on the Berlin Wall

 

The East Side Gallery, the longest remaining portion of the wall which has been decorated by professional graffiti artists.

 

Street art


Street art

Watching the Champion League soccer


The hipster dog


Brian tagging the Berlin Wall (Kobe Bryant is how other travellers remember our names)

 

An international award winning piece of street art. The building next to it had been bombed, leaving this facade open.