Discovering Istanbul

Sorry for this short break...

On my first day in Istanbul, i look for a flat, i decided to start with the couchsurfing faltmate groupe and contact 4 or 5 people. Then, i have the chance to read in my mailbox that there is a couchsurfing meeting at 2 pm. I join what starts with a couple cay (tch-eye), talking about politics, turkey, foods etc... The turish cs girl tells me she does not like Turkey because of womens position, the italian Cser tells me how much he loves it, the spanish Cser is discovering something new as i am and is rather happy about it. Different experiences different points of view, as always :)



We then start to drink a couple beer on one of istiklals small side streets. The typical type of streets you find in Taksim, walking only, narrow, full of people and full of terasses, half of them cafes, half restaurants. The restaurants display great ice tables full of fish, the waiters want to invite us in... The traffic is intense and the population very mixed, this is on of the things that strike me, unlike in the Balkan where it is pretty straight forward to spot a foreigner (ok i still cant recognize Albanians from Croatians or Serbian but i think this is impossible anyway), here i am puzzled by the variety of hair and skin colors, figures traits and eye colors. In the end in Istanbul i could look Turkish...
So we sit and sip our beers, the Turkish girl sitting opposite me, Eva, slams them down one after the other, i have two, the Italian dude one while she had 3... It turns out she did a year exchange in Check republic. That explains things! Later, two more people join us, they confirming the impression i just mentioned, both Turkish and yet one has chocolate skin, a round face and an American accent, and the girl has freckles, dark curly hair, also a very round face and i would have said she is German. After they join us, we head for some food, finally, i had nothing but beer to eat today. The food is nothing special and Eva gets all excited that out Turkish specialty is not served properly. An eggplant puree with some meat pieces, covered with melted yellow cheese. It is ok for me anyway.
As i sip my glass of red wine, one of the eventual flatmates i found shows up, he does not like this place so we move a bit further. Still in taksim, he and his girlfriend take me to a small alley, into a building, in the elevator and up the the last floor. There, we are welcomed by chill out music and a nice atmosphere. The Balkoon bar offers both a roof terrace and a roof greenhouse. It is too cold outside, we make ourselves comfortable at a large table. Soon three more girls join us and we start a lot more chatting about Turkish society. They paint a very unequal repartition of wealth, few people are extraordinary rich and spent a week end shopping in Dubai or a week flying around the world from Istanbul, to Dubai, Paris, London new-york Sydney and home, while many people are extremely poor... As i picture a depressed France where many people are on prosac to my neighbor, she tells me that she is as well... I meet some very nice people and a sweet place where i will come again but the cohabitation is not going to be possible, he looks for a longer therm flatmate...
Later, we all leave and i join the second potetial flat mate. She listens and sings hxc, Hard core music. Yeaaah!! She looks for someone temporary before choosing “the perfect match”. I can visit tomorrow. We understand each other pretty well in this Arsen Lupin bar, playing a lot of rock, hard rock and metal classics.
It is past two in the morning, i am exhausted and head home. On my way i find out i now live in a city, a big city with all the stuff that comes with it. Prostitutes, transvestites, drugs, violence and verbal aggressions... For the first time in 6 month i feel slightly unsafe. Mmmhh dont care, just want to get home, and i do, fast.

Tea and salad

After a too short night we are woken up by the sun. I hear Micheal moving around next doors and go check for him, it is 10 am and i slept mere 4 hours... But feel incredibly good, must be the Garlic :) We start chatting and go out for coffee, just 50 meters from the old center we find a cafe filled with older man, reminding the men drinking tea and playing checkers in Turkey. The price is 4 times lower the in the old town. We then check out the room and go for lunch, Cevap, Sarajevo style. They are supposed to be the best worldwide and for sure are the best for me so far. We then join Micheal for some tea in a back yard chicha cafe.


This man amaze me, he has been around so much and still is amazed by any new information, even or person. We dig the young girl who comes to ask for some change. Pola marka, pola marka (half a mark)... He plays with her and his umbrella, she wants to exchange here worn out umbrella for his new one. She finally gets her pola marka and then wants the 2 marks of the bill... she goes of, sorta chased away by the cafe owner. Our neighbors offer us the end of their chicha, and by lifting it by the top, the bottom glass part loosens off and brakes... The owner comes out, smoking his cigarette, casual like... and charges them 50 Euros... I go around to check out the pries of chichas in the tourist shops... you get new chichas, complet, for 60 euro, turist price. We all agree she should fight for it and not pay it... Who ever payed his broken glass in a bar?? As Micheal says, you are a tourist, they want to get every last dime out of you and you have to resist. This is most important in India and you learn it very fast Michael tells us :)

Finally a little clear sky if you can call this clear...

Posers

Sarajevo old center.

We head up the hills, using the clear sky for the first time today to have a small pick nick with the rests of the vegetables we got in Cacak. Tomatoes, cucumbers, onions, little hot peppers and olive oil. The excellent local bread makes the whole thing just delicious. We then have to say goodbye to Micheal heading for Ljubljana and then Bologna where he wants to settle down a bit. Sad one, once again, this was a great encounter.

We go to sleep our last night at Zlatko and Bilja‘s were we have a quiet night, drinking tea, and beer :) and watching Guca the movie by Emir Kusturica to prepare for the real festival.

View on Sarajevo from their balcony.

The war cemetery, there are buried all the people who died during the occupation.

Our happy hosts.

They have been so nice and welcoming. Made us tast the special Bosnian caned food, showed us movies, played us music, hosted us and most important shared a great time with us. They were a real life enjoying compagny and i can still remember all those hysterical laughter with Zlatko!

Steaks Dejan Style!

Dejan and Katrina are most welcoming us two poor lost souls in the hills. They offer us hot tea, a place to dry our cloth, soaking wet. Soup, Bread and grandmas Pita. Later we get crackers of all sorts, beer and delicious vines... And Dejan gets out some nice meat out of the freezer for later dinner. It is 5 pm and we jut had a great meal... Dejan is a warm, always smiling baker who speaks little English. Between my poor Serbian and his basic English we understand each other pretty well. I have to laugh every time he is searching for a word and makes big gestures and speaks out some Jebote and other words i wont translate. The girls go to sleep and watch a movie while we keep talking and drinking spritzers :) is this the modern role of men and wife? he he just kidding, small joke regarding yesterday...
Around midnight, the meat has unfrozen and Dejan prepares a whole bunch of schnitzel and an omelet with delicious bacon. This bacon is nothing like what you find around our supermarkets, it is almost completely white, excellent, tasty fat! We literally explode our stomaches and roll to bed after a little Rakija and more Vine.

Chef at work, faster than light when it comes to slaming schnitzel!

A bit of seasoning...

and here you go, Schnitzel for two!

with omelet...

Wet beautiful Tara

Today will once again not be the most successful hitchhiking day... After some reasonable time waiting and seeing hundreds of cars pass by, we get a ride out of Cacak (read Tchatchak), to Pozeda (read pogda, their should be a hat on the z) were it rains... After a hot tee we catch bus to Uzice (same, Ugize but i am not going to do a Serbian workshop now...) where we taste the very recommended Kompleta Lepinja, a fresh hot round bread sorta pizza like out of the owen, filled with kajmak (this creamy local cheese i can never get enough off) and cow meat. Tasty, very cheap and filling this is a must try local specialty.

After asking our way around we get to a tunnel where the road is heading through to Tara. The rain is now poring down and there are already almost 10 people waiting for a ride. A woman tells us there is a bus in a couple minutes to Tara, it turns out to be bullshit. Was it to get ride of us or a mistake... never mind, we are at the bus station and get a ticket to Kremna, the last place on the main road pretty close to our national park. The bus drives not along the main road but trough curvy roads in the mountains. The drive is shaky and curvy but the scenery is beautiful despite the rain.

Anyone wants to take a wet hitchhiker along??

Rural Serbia

Yeaaa rain!!!

Upon arrival, we go for a nice warm Turkish coffee you can feel we are somewhat higher in the mountains, it got real fresh. We buy a kisobran (umbrella:) and head to our park under the rain. We are singing in the rain, happy and in a positive state of mind despite the poor luck hitchhiking our way trough Serbia... Soon enough, a veterinarian picks us up and drives us some kilometers up the hill. The heat inside his car is on more boost to our motivation. And it will be needed since we walked a more hour under the rain, only slightly protected by the forest around. Again, everything around is beautiful and we don't mind the rain to much. But this will change as we get into a windy plain and learn from some locals that our destination is 17 more kilometers away...

beaa

The rare cars driving trough don't pick us up and and the first Sobe (room) refuses single night stays... Fortunately, once gain, Serbian hospitality (and maybe a bit of luck) saves us and we get to share the small, warm home of Dejan and Katarina.

Getting to Bucarest, meeting Criss

Now I decided not to hitch hick down to bucarest, but rather to rest, eat shower and do a bit of blogging at Denis place. This is also because Deni himself is going down to Bucarest by train to meet friends and go to the sea side.

Train ride to Bucarest with Deni, it is raining again...

And now it is sunny again... (check out the endless sunflower fields...)

The sun plays hide and seek, or gods creation as Frances would say ;)

Bucarest Thunders...

Tonight, after droping my stuff at Vasiles, the couchsurfer hosting me in Bucarest, I get to eat some warm food with Andrei in the center. After so many days in the mountain eating bread, we are very happy to get some warm food, him especialy since he ate almost nothing today. He tels me the end of his adventures on the ridge : the water shortage and the thirsty dog, the sun, the pain in the feet and a the adventurus night down at the refuge (a couple hours walk before the bivuak).

Later that night, I meet some of his friends and talk, mainly about blogs... Can i make some money with my travel blog?? maybe, but it is hard, especialy since i have only couple visitors... You need to know some other blogers and exchange traffic... And change the white on black thing, nobady reads that, to painfull. And you need to use highlighting :). I try to ever since but sometimes forget...

We the go to pick up Criss at the bus station. She just arrived, it is midnight and she has been on that bus about 40 hours... we didnt see each other for more than 2 years and now meet again in Bucarest!!! She is here for a photoreportage. Andrei and his friend then kindly drop us at Vasiles place.

At Vasiles, we drink a couple beers and talk more. About photography, about bloging, websites and working traveling. Vasile also wonders why and how i travl alone. I try to explain once agian that you meet more people. He says you have nobody to share that with later... sure thing, but for now i have Criss! :) we argue a bit into the night and I catch up with Criss, so much time, so much to tell :)

Anyhow, it is 4 am and my mind is busy with figuring out how i could make little money out of the blog and where i could get a good camera. Vasile and Criss with their brand new EOS 40D made me jalouse and feel like an amateur with my old small Elph...

Walking down

The Bivuak in morning light.

This park has lots of Orhids but i did not earch enough and saw only those flowers by the path.

Muuuu
Imagine a little bit of snow here.

The sun is shining again, and i finaly get to the valley were Deni will pick me up!

Pietra Craiului national Park

On the next day, Deni kindly drives me and i get to the start of my treck in the Pietra Craiului national Park. It is a famous national park of Romania.

Somewhere between Rasnov and the start of the treck.

Begining of the treck, a small group of loud teenager are having a picknik, laughing and listening to music on their mobile phone, the type of teens anoying us "old" people on the tram. The have little food, a large 2L bottle of beer and one of coke and a tiny water bottle (or is it Rakija ?:)?). The are making kokes, spitting around and ask me where i am from. France i answer and one of them starts in perfect French, with a sligth "Racaille" accent :) using polit "vous" when speaking to me.

His mother went to France some 3 years ago and married a French man there. He tells me it was hard integrating in the begining but now he has loads of Friends and also tells me "la France a un gros problem en ce moment, ca va pas bien hein" speaking about french economy (parents words comming out there??). But then also tells me how much better it is than in Romania, how he loves it in France. He tells me about "Psy 4 de la rime" and other french hip hop bands but wants to know nothing about "IAM"... Some other influence speaking out there, he never listened to it...

On the way up we came across a herd of sheep, a bunch of yapping sheperd dogs. All of them have sticks hanging down from there neck. I imagine this is to protect them from bears. So they cant get their neck so easily and let them bleed to death... The dogs dont look to nice... A couple meters later, the Park Guard holding a chain saw and a sheperd are standing there with a horse and a dead donky. Both the horse and the donkey have sticks around their neck. It didnt save the donkey, a bear destroyed his back and you can see all the insides. The look on the face of the donkey is quite stupid and desperat... Its head bounces very comicaly from rock to rock as the horse pulls him avay... Despite the tragic event we all have to laught at this...

I still regret today i didnt take pictures of the teenagers or the donkey, horse, guard and sheperd...

After leaving the young to their ascention, i continue to the hut i will spend the night in... Out of question i sleep outside! this is an other sheperds house on the way there.

One of the two dogs (what a cute couple) at the hut. Much nicer then the sheperds dogs...

I take a hudge break once at the Hut, the two weeks in Belgrade and the way to Romania were exhausting. I sleep a lot, eat something, drink hot chocolate, check the map, write up in my journal, i m about 2 weeks late, and read a bit.

Writting up some more...

Brasov

The next day, Deni takes me all around Brasov, the nextdoor town. Not only have an excelent host, but also an excelent guide. I get to know everything about local history and see all the monuments, the city wall etc... Better than a hundret words, some pictures:

Old town center.

Same place, other angle, old defending towner in the back (one of several)

Church, forgot the history about this one, sorry Deni, its been a long time... Can you refresh my memory?

Beautifull view from up on the road.

The Black Catherdral, remember the little anecdote about this one :) Merchants going from the far East to Europe had to pass trough a dangerous forest full of robers just before getting to Brasov, where the "safe" part of the journey started. So They old stoped in this church to thank God and offered something, mostly Carpets from the east. Also it is named Black because it burned a couple times.

Getting to Rasnov and first Castle.

Gypsy life in Romania

The hike to Rasnov is quite interesting, after getting out of town as usual, i get to a spot where loads of people seem to be hitchhiking... I join them and soon people start asking where i go. Direction Pitesti I say and soon i have the company of a young nice woman going the same direction. Meer 5 min later a car stops and of we are! This is hitchhiking in Romania fast but not free... It is like a taxi service, people join in for expenses.
Raluka is very happy to meet me, she didn't speak French in 5 years! She still has a very perfect pronunciation and wide vocabulary. Sometimes she mixes up some Italian (she speaks fluently) and makes excuses all the time :) She invites me to here home anytime and pays for the ride as she gets of and when i get off later the drivers refuse payment.
The next ride i get after walking my way trough the city for an hour... Once at the right spot, a guy picks me up in a mater of minutes. He doesn't ask me for money, i think it is implicit but since i sit the whole journey with my heavy bag squeezing me in, i just get out of the car and he drives away. I don't understand Romanian but the two guys in front didn't seem like nice guys and the other hitchhiker seemed oppressed and like they made fun of him...
The two next rides are real hitchhiking rides, people not caring about money, rather about you. This said i understand the fact of paying rides given the price of fuel in these countries compared to wadges... and In Romania i will contribute a couple times. The first dude is an old man in a n old Dacia, turning of his engine when it goes downhill, the next one is young and has a new Dacia Logan. He speaks little Spanish and we sorta communicate :) He feels like he has to show me how good the Logan is and drives like a madman on the beautiful mountain roads.

Rasnov Caslte

We entered the mountain region and are getting close to my goal. He drops me of at the petrol station where i meat my host Deni. He takes me to his house where i meet his caring mother and father. They speak perfect German and communication is easy again :) Deni is full of knowledge about the region and takes me to the local castle which history i get told. It was boight by an italian fastinated with castels and who wanted to restaure it. He did in a very authentic and beautiful way and then started to make littel money out of visits. The city of Rasnov understood there was money there, and tooke the mater to justice to get the castle back. The italian dude died and the castle is back to Rasnov and since they put this very big Hollywood style hudge RASNOV signe in front of it. Like Deni remembers, in the sim city game, this is the cheapest way to make people in your town feel happy :) Up there, looking at the woods I also get to hear stories about Bears, camping, mountains and Bucharest.

The castle from under the pooring rain.

After a good meal of cheese, tomatoes, ham and a lovely stew with meat, I get a good shower and we go to meet Denis friend who is celebrating her birthday! There i get to meet more lovely People and talk about all sorts of interesting subjects.

Craiova II

Some more pictures....

Craiova Curch

An other church somewhere around Craiova.

Villagers... the storks :)

More storks, acctual 3 or 4 in one nest sometimes (didnt know about those habits they have)

Eduardoes Home :)

My shower this afternoon :) very nice!

Andrea

Craiova

Walking around Craiova:

Gardens and Town hall (if i remember right)

Having fun with a camera and some fountain...

Something went wrong? first floor only...

In Craiova i meet Guillaume, my host from France and his friend Andrea from Italy. We grab a beer, talk about India and mostly the road to get there, over Iran. We then go to his place for dinner and later meet some friends of his to play PlayStation with a camera, something close to the Wii but you don't hold anything. The camera captures your motion and whoever is fastest in realizing some move like jumping around our waving a lot whith your hands wins. In the end you sweat a lot (especially in the middle of summer in an apartment) and look really stupid but you have a great time.

Looking stoopid? no, having fun!

This day i also made plans a little for the next days and asked an other couchsurfer in Brasov to host me. This is in the Carpatian mountains where i want to do a little bit of castle visiting (long time i didn't see a castle :) and some trekking. But before leaving Craiova, i will Andrei on his job. He is working for Terre des Hommes and we will do a toy delivery to some schools in poor, remote areas around Craiova. This allows them to organize summer activities for children there.

Toys : mini football, hockey etc...

After work, i meet a Friend of Andrei, Eduardo. We go for dinner and eat an Romanian specialty, Mici, some grilled mixed minced meat with spices. Delicious. Besides being an amazing man with amazing stories and mind which i cannot describe here, Eduardo seems to have met Erwan, a friend form Australia! Damn small world once again...