Teargas in Turkey (Istanbul, Turkey)

I had booked 17 nights in Istanbul to bunker down, get to know the place, and relax. I ended up having to bunker down for real, and I certainly got to know the place and the people, but I was on edge the whole time. Istanbul was not a particularly pleasant part of my trip.

Here’s why.

a)      Civil unrest.

It all began one evening when I left the dingy confines of my accommodation and headed out to get dinner. I turned out of my alley and onto another street and when I did I found myself amongst a crowd of people. It was strange, because there were so many people around me but everyone was silent, just looking further up the road at something I couldn’t see. I kept walking onwards through them, and then suddenly I heard what sounded like guns firing and the street ahead filled with smoke. Everyone around me started to run in the same direction which I had just come, like a herd of cattle, and I just turned around and ran with them. As I ran I could hear more and more shots going off, and as I neared the entrance to my hostel I wondered if it would be better to stop and fumble with the key to get in the bulky security door entrance, or just keep running down the street with everyone else. I went for the door, and got in quicker than I ever have I went up to my second floor room and opened my window to see what was going on below and was hit in the face with a plume of gas which stung my eyes, and filled my nose and throat.

At the time I wasn’t sure what was happening. I’ve done my research and I know that terrorist attacks (usually minor) occur somewhat regularly in Turkey (more towards the east, but certainly attempts in Istanbul, and a bombing at the US embassy a few months ago). So that was my biggest fear and immediate conclusion. But then I put two and two together and realised it was teargas and then got online to confirm that it was just a riot. The cops were shooting rubber bullets and teargas canisters at the rioters. I must say, I was quite relieved.

Long story short, anti government sentiment led to peaceful protests, cops came in and got overly aggressive, leading to major riots in my part of the city. The town got trashed, chaos ruled, four people died (including one middle aged tourist), and the Istanbul police have received negative attention from the whole of the European Union (to which they are applying) for the way they handled the situation.

Going out to dinner was a problem, and id often be sitting eating with my eyes watering from the teargas in the air. Other days, when I had to go across town to meet up with someone or go and do something, it was like a video game; I’d go down one street and then get hit with teargas as cops chased away another group of protesters, and then I’d try another street to be met with the riot squad blocking the way. It was as close as I ever hope to be to a battlezone.

The rioting went on hard for about a week and then became more sporadic. A month later, when I was back in the city again, there were still demonstrations taking place.

b)      The Almost Mugging

So as if I wasn’t on edge enough waiting to cop another faceful of teargas, or a rubber bullet to the eye, when I went for a stroll in my immediate area to check out some of the backstreets, two guys tried to rob me. One behind, one in front, they both sandwiched me with their shoulders so I couldn’t move, and the guy in front started yelling something at me which I couldn’t understand. Being ready for this sort of thing since I first went to Thailand as a teenager, I clamped my hands over my pockets and just yelled ‘What the fuck?’ They shoved me for a bit, and were feeling all around but luckily my pockets were deep and I had a good hold on my wallet and camera inside. Then suddenly, they just backed off. They stared at me and I turned in the opposite direction and walked away. This was about 100 - 200 m from my accommodation.

And that brings me to the third point:

c)       My choice of accommodation.  

It was by far the cheapest private room in the city, and sometimes you only get what you pay for. The room was a dump. It was noisy and hot and filthy. 17 dollars a night for 17 nights. I didn’t have a good night’s sleep once. Right next door, a transvestite brothel operated, so whenever I left the place they were hanging out the windows yelling and swearing at me. One night I came home and one of them was drugged up and stumbling around right in front of the door to my place. I thought I was going to get beat up by him/her. Furthermore, as the yelling and smashing of glass and chanting from the riots outside kept me up, one night just outside the door to my room the idiot manager of the joint was having a fistfight with one of the guests. Total chaos.

Room with a view:

 

So between getting gased repeatedly, avoiding the trani hookers spitting on me everytime I left or returned to my room, and being almost robbed of my valuables, my Istanbul experience was very different to what I was hoping.

Luckily, I knew I had another full week booked later in the month. But I haven’t been more ready to leave a town all year.

The Sky I Scrape (Bulgaria)

Getting off the train in Bulgaria, the storm clouds loomed above and I was forced into a Lada (mass produced commie vehicle) with a hillbilly looking guy who said he would drive me and two of my companions to the hotel. His car was forty years old and as basic as they come, and as I sat in the front the guy was creeping me out with his awkward enthusiasm to practice a bit of English, making me think he was wrong in the head. I thought I was going to be told to squeal like a pig before too long. But no, he dropped at our accommodation, helped unload our packs and waved us off with his toothless grin. Thanks fella.

Our first stop was a small town called Veliko Tarnovo, and it didn’t take too long to see the scythes and horse drawn carts. It’s a nice town, perched on a small canyon forged by the river.

When I got in a taxi and asked to go to a nearby village for a look, the driver was smiling and shaking his head. I couldn’t understand it, it was only a few kms away, why wouldn’t he take us there? So I repeated myself, said the name of the village slower and offered him a little more money than we were told would be enough to get us there. Again he shook his head with a wide grin. And then I remembered; here, shaking your head from side to side is positive, meaning yes, or I agree, whereas nodding your head is the negative. I got caught like that on a few occasions.

The capital, Sofia, has a great name and a nice church and that’s about it. Like Romania, the action is out in the countryside and up in the mountains.

Next we took a public bus up into the mountains and visited a monastery. It was impressive but I was more taken aback by the mountain landscape, the pine forests, and the streams raging with snow melt. This would have been a great place to stay longer and do a few hikes.

 

Next we stopped in a small village called Gorno Draglishte, and this was one of the bsolutye highlights of the trip. Myself and another guy walked up to a chapel on a nearby hill and had the amazing panoramic views of the surrounding mountains. It was a great afternoon and as we kept walking along the ridge of the hill, the evening set in and the colours of the clouds were changing every few minutes. Joe and I wandered around these empty hills for hours just breathing it all in.

 

 

 

 

 

The house we stayed was somebody’s home and they put on a feast for us. The next day the village had an annual show and we got to see dancing, singing and everybody in town come out to watch. After seeing so many bullshit ‘local performance’ tourist trap fakes over the years, it was nice to see something that they were doing just for themselves, and we just happened to be there on a the right day. We got lucky.

Later that day we drove up into the hills to a bear sanctuary. This organisation confiscates or purchases bears off gypsies who train them to dance, fight each other, or fight with humans. The bears we saw had suffered from years of abuse and malnutrition and most were kept from hibernating. Some looked so gnarly I wondered how they could still be alive, and one or two were obviously mentally ill – and you’d think that would be hard to spot in an animal, but im telling you  these bears were messed up. Some had half their jaws missing, or had big gaps in their face where big rings had been. Some looked healthy though, and for the second time that day we were given a performance; a very rare one we were told.

I rated him 9/10 for stamina, 2/10 for technique.

 

Our next stop in the mountains was Bansko, which applied to host the upcoming winter Olympics. It’s a ski resort town and not very exciting, but its close proximity to the highest and grandest mountains make it a must stop coming through Bulgaria. A few of us did a hike up into the hills to get to an alpine lake. It was one of the most epic landscapes I’ve ever been in.

 

 

 

 

Final town in Bulgaria was Plovidv. Not a whole heap to see here…Our hotel didn’t allow smoking or guns so I had to leave my cigarettes and my gun with the receptionist.

 

In Bulgaria someone flashed the colourful currency of a place called Australia and for a moment I wanted that to be my next country. Same thing happened when I saw a black Prado. But then I heard some news of a footy player doing something dumb or that things were getting exciting on ‘The Voice’ or ‘Masterchef’, and I thought thank F I’m in Bulgaria. And I don’t know where I’m going next, but I know exactly where I don’t want to be.   

From Plovdiv we caught an overnight bus down and into Turkey (with immigration and customs processing from 1 – 3 a.m.). I was so happy to be in Istanbul, because I had booked for 17 days and I thought I could kick back and relax for a couple of weeks. Oh how wrong I was…

 

Vampires, Demons and Graveyards (Romania)

First morning in Romania and I’m standing in a graveyard looking at a painting of a farmer being beheaded. The next picture shows a young girl being hit by a car.

 

I’ve had a good look at graveyards and cemeteries throughout Asia and other parts of eastern Europe, but this one takes the cake. Above the burial mound there is a headstone that details how the person died. I’ve never seen anything so interesting at a graveyard - some of the paintings are quiet extravagant. That’s when I knew I would love this country!

We enter Romania through the region of Transylvania, staying in a few misty mountain towns. Very local and very cool to see. The scythes are out and people are cruising around in horse drawn carts. They are drinking the local spirit (raki) like water and washing their clothes in the snow melt streams. These small towns are very cool and what I was hoping eastern Europe would be like.

Small town Transylvania:

Smaller Town Transylvania:

We stopped for a couple of night at a town called Brasnov, which had a big beautiful gothic church right in the middle of the ancient town. Here we were told that bears come down into the town often and one local said that about one person a year gets killed from a bear attack. After hearing that some of us went on a hike up into the forested mountains for a great view of the town and region.

 

It’s in this region that Vladimir Drac originates. This was the guy who held the Turkish invaders at bay by horrifying their much larger and stronger army by setting up displays of impaled Turks. He shoved a spear through their body, A2M, and could do so in a way to avoid all major organs and have the victim moaning in pain for hours and even days. Arriving at a battlefield to see their fellow countrymen in that sort of state sent the Turks back, and Vlad Dracul, Vlad the Impaler, won the fear of all of Europe. This lead to the Dracula myth, with a lot of creative licence from English writer Bram Stoker. We visited Draculas castle, which ‘he may or may not have visited once or twice’, avoided all the tacky vampire souvenirs, and saw a lot of business trying to align with this market. Vampire camping anyone? 

Near Draculas castle is a great castle ruin with great mountain views.

 

It had to be Transylvania that I got possessed by a demon. That demon was most likely e.coli. And it really messed me up. After hearing that the local water might be drinkable I decided to give it a go. Bad move. At first I thought it must have been some food so I kept on chugging this tap water to rehydrate myself. But that just gave the demon some buddies with whom he could wreck up the joint. And I’m sharing a bathroom with another poor soul! I checked the internet and for the town I was there were warnings that the water supply is likely tainted by biological pathogens from human waste. It left me drained and wilted, looking like a ghost, but I still dragged myself to see everything and only vomited in public once.

(The symptoms would ease considerably but I wasn’t back to normal until a month later when I decided to kick it with a stern course of anti-biotics)

Apart from destroying me from the inside Sighosuara was a lovely town.

 

Okay, so I’m getting a little bit churched out, but that’s okay because I’ve found new faith and every time I go into a church I find my man and thank him for all the great rock and roll in the world. Here he is with JC:

 

The capital, Bucharest, is pretty low key and uneventful; its parliament located at the centre of town is the world second largest building (after the Pentagon), and then there’s a few nice parks and bullet holes speckling the city. In a nutshell, crazy leader in soviet times when people are starving uses all countries money to build himself the biggest parliament on earth, loses the people, cue revolution in 90’s, cue death of him and his wife, civil unrest and gun fighting in the streets follow, adaption of democracy, now democracy with severe corruption but more hope.

 

The city was worth seeing, but to me the soul of Romania, as with many countries, is in the small towns and the simple life.

Thirsty in Hungary (Hungary)

A stuffy and delayed overnight train from Ukraine and we arrive in Hungary. Yeah, its had a better run economically, and it’s got all sorts of ties to central and Western Europe, but to me that just makes it a little less intriguing. In most parts of Budapest I felt like I could have been in any big city of the western world…even Sydney. After the last few countries it felt too…easy.

 

In Budapest (pronounced Budapesht) I ate the goulash, went cycling around the town and took a dip in the public hot baths.

 

After being spit roasted by the Nazi’s and Soviets, the country is a little bitter about the last hundred years. And rightly so, I guess, there’s an interesting museum dedicated to it, ominously called ‘The Museum of Terror.’ But does that warrant a local fella going off at me for wearing a shirt that I bought in China with a large red star on the front? Maybe. Soviets probably killed his parents, and here I was just thinking the star is a cool shape (that poor shirt is buried deep in my pack now).

My roommate Phouc (hilariously pronounced Fok) was heading to Vienna, so it was a sad goodbye. We had gotten along really well and have made plans to meet up again at some point before my odyssey ends. Seeing him off reminded me of all the people I’ve met on this trip. I’m only a few months in but I feel like I’ve had a lifetimes worth of experience just from the people I’ve met and become friends with. The girls in Taiwan were so good to me but now that feels like ten years ago and I might not ever see them again. It’s sad, really, that you have these great, short, intense bursts of relationships and then without fail the itinerary calls and I’m going South, while they’re going East. Bye. (Photo of Phouc and our Russian bride, I mean guide, Jyenya.)

 

Away from the capital we visited a wine region town called Eger. It was a pleasant spot with a really old townscape, but the highlight was going down into the cellars where the wines were being stored, sitting around big tables and trying the wine. These were gnarly, mould on the walls, squeeze through the narrow doorway, hundreds of years old cellars. And the lady who was running the show looked like she was hundreds of years old too. But that didn’t mean

 she couldn’t pour a drink…right into my mouth.

 

Honestly, I had less than a week in Hungary which is a total disservice to the country and to me. But I don’t think I’ll be coming back in a hurry; I know where I belong – I like my countries broken and backwards.

Bulgaria and Romania here we come!

Nuclear Peace (Ukraine)

The Ukraine…this is one place that I could never have imaged going to. And the only thing that I could bring to my about this country was Chernobyl, and the nuclear meltdown. That stereotype is a reality, with 10% of the country being radioactive to the point that it’s illegal to live there, though some squatters still do. Considering the Ukraine is the second largest country in Europe, that’s a sizable area of a ‘no go zone.’ A lot of people died, especially the ones who were sent in to clean up the mess, and many people are still dying from the longer term effects of radioactivity exposure. Despite this, the Soviet casualty count was/is 31.

Another ugly characteristic of the recent past is the fact they were only given back their independence from Russia in 1991. There was originally a Ukraine-Soviet war but there’s no stopping such a big neighbour like Russia when he shows up on your doorstep in the 1920s. It took the collapse of the soviet union, plus the realisation that a large part of the country closest to the Russian mainland was radioactive, to reinstate Ukraine as its own nation again.

But this country seems to be progressing. Yes, there are corruption issues which I have now taken to be a given with these ex-communist countries, but they are apparently handling better than some of those other countries. The land is clean and green, and there is a much more hopeful mood than the dreariness of Russia.

Kiev has a wonderful outdoors street scene, with plenty of buskers and places to buy beer and food and hang out. Plus its all so cheap! We went to the ballet one night, a fully-fledged performance of Sleeping Beauty at the National Opera House and it cost $2.50 for the ticket. (Actually, that’s one of the good things left over from soviet communism. They believed that all art should be accessible to all people, and that’s why it is so cheap. Now that’s a really good idea, like a lot of the ideas which formed the principles of communism, it’s just a shame that you need corruptible people to coordinate it). I explored lush green parks, and watched families have picnics. The Orthodox Easter occurred when we were in Ukraine so we saw how they celebrate Easter (a lot less commercial and family/ritualistic than ours). Also, it was cool to have Chicken Kiev in Kiev.

 

One day I got blessed by a preacher who splashed my face with holy water and the next thing I know my debit account has been frozen…the big guy is onto me. So that was fun to have to resolve wondering if the Russian mafia were off spending my money on black caviar and fur coats. 

We went up to a village in the Carpathian Mountains and did a hike up into the forested hills. The meals we had in these smaller villages were absolutely epic; the best food I’ve had since China and you bet they had their own bootleg spirits which they poured endlessly.

For me, the best things about the Ukraine is being able to see groups of farmers working the one, small patch of land, all using ancient looking farm equipment, such as scythes. It felt like I’d gone back in time a hundred years. They villages are so humble and simple and everybody seems to be working together and helping out in the fields. The cities were quaint and relaxed and the people were pleasant.

Considering what these folks have been through with soviet times and the nuclear meltdown, Ukraine seems like it has finally come in to a little bit of peace and quiet. Like this old couple, who would have seen some pretty crazy shit in their day, but now are taking it easy playing chess by the river in the afternoon sun.