Here’s a rundown of our Christmas travels 2011!! :)
Day 1 – Ash had celebrations at school that lasted until
about 2:30 at which point we were on a bus to Chisinau to exchange monies, have
lunch/dinner and catch our overnight bus to Brasov, Romania leaving at
7:30pm. All went well with only a minor
hiccup when we realized we somehow exchanged our Moldovan lei for British
pounds instead of Turkish Lira… happy we caught it before arriving in
Brasov! Outside of the border crossing
in which we had to get off the bus and show our luggage/passports both in Moldova
and (an hour later) again on in Romania, the ride to Brasov went rather
well.
Day 2 – We arrived in Brasov around 5:30am were we met
the woman renting out the apartment we would be staying in for 3 nights… so
nice!! We found it on www.airbnb.com … where you can find apartments
or rooms for rent all over the world that are usually less expensive than
staying in a hotel. Anyway, we then
slept for a few hours before setting out in search for some brunch, we found a
great place where we enjoyed croissants, coffee, a veggie omelet, and poached
eggs for an incredible price… a great start to our vacation!! We walked around for a bit and attended a
Christmas Eve church service in the historic and beautiful Black Church both
the singing and message were in German, which made it all the more majestic
(even if we couldn’t understand anything that was happening).
Day 3 – Merry Christmas!!
We made ourselves mimosas (orange juice and champagne), which is a
Christmas morning tradition for Ash’s family.
After a long walk around Brasov, where it was lightly snowing (perfect
for Christmas), we read for awhile in a local coffee shop and returned to our
apartment to watch holiday movies before going out for a nice Christmas dinner. We made our way back to the center of the
town where we took pictures in front of the Christmas tree and bought ourselves
some vin fiert (malt wine) – yumminess!
Day 4 – We woke semi-early (actually setting an alarm on vacation – wow) and took a bus up into the mountains to Poiana, a ski resort, just for the pleasure of being “in” the mountains and seeing the trees covered in snow. We walked around for awhile and then took the bus back down into Brasov where we decided to check out the gondola just outside the old city walls. We took the gondola up, up, up and then after enjoying the view and taking a ridiculous amount of pictures we made our way down, down, down on foot…. Perfect! After a coffee break, absolutely necessary of course, we made fools of ourselves ice skating but had a blast in the process.
Day 5 – Said goodbye to Brasov and hello to Istanbul via train from Brasov to Bucharest and flight from Bucharest to Istanbul. The flight was delayed, but we finally arrived in Istanbul around 7pm and quickly got lost after taking a cab and ferry to the neighborhood of our next apartment… after speaking with many cab drivers one gracious gentleman actually called the woman we were renting our apartment from and she ended up meeting us just a couple of blocks from the apartment without issue. And then sleeps…
Day 6 – Walked around the Asian side of the city and
found a great local café were we enjoyed our first cup of Turkish coffee… we
were instantly hooked. A short ferry
ride later we were on the European side and found ourselves looking at the
marvels that are the New Mosque, Blue Mosque, Hagia Sofia, the Grand Bazaar, Spice
Market, and every side street that leads to new and exciting areas of the
city. Slightly exhausted we headed back
to our apartment, found dinner on the way and ended the evening watching a
movie.
Day 7 – Up bright and early and on the ferry for our
amazing Turkish bath experience at Suleymani Hamami (the only Turkish bath for
couples in Istanbul that we know of).
Basically we sat on hot marble for half an hour while sweating more than
we ever have in our lives (sounds appealing doesn’t it? It gets better I
promise), after which we were scrubbed, bubbled (bubbles!!), and massaged for
another 30 minutes. Lovely and relaxing…
the best way to complete said experience was to find a orange juice stand and
enjoy two large glasses of fresh-squeezed orange juice as soon as possible
afterwards. :) Life is good :) For lunch we shared a
ridiculously large sandwich from a street vendor and walked around the Galata
Tower and Taksim neighborhoods for hours before grabbing a couple of beers and
Turkish pizza and heading back to the apartment.
Day 8 – Our last day in Istanbul… sad face. Wondered around the Asian side some more and ate what we dubbed a breakfast tocaniţa – basically, pure yumminess in the form of scrambled eggs and veggies all mixed together! Finally we made our way to the airport via the metro and arrived in Capadochia (central Turkey – look it up!!) around 9:30pm.
Day 9 – Happy New Years Eve!! Enjoyed breakfast and tea at our hostel before heading out for a long walk/hike around Capadoccia – gorgeous and unlike anything we’ve ever seen before. We found a local café and shared some spectacular lentil soup and fresh baked bread with Turkish coffee. We are now hooked on both Turkish coffee and lentil soup – we’ll be giving both a try in the kitchen at some point in the near future. :) For New Years night we found a great local restaurant where we enjoyed some great food and live Turkish music… the music was done by a father and son with the father playing a drum and singing and then son playing a Turkish guitar, absolutely beautiful. Another unexpected find…
Day 10 – Hello 2012!! Went on our first “official” tour
ever after finding out there wasn’t any way via public transportation to reach
a couple of different sites that we really wanted to see before leaving
Capadochia… decided it was definitely worth it in the end (it’s called the
Green tour throughout the region so if you ever find yourself in Capadochia
check it out!). It started with a
panoramic view, beautifully breathtaking, but ridiculously windy. Then a short ride to see an underground city,
the largest in the region, where people used to live in order to find safety
from attacks. On to the Ihlara Valley
with a short, but very worthwhile hike along the river at the bottom of a
stunning canyon ending at our lunch spot.
After lunch we had a bit of a longer ride to see one of the many cave
monasteries in the region – imagine a labyrinth of rooms built into the side of
a mountain… incredible. Last stop was a
local artisan center, aka an obvious ploy to get us to buy jewelry (although it
was beautiful) and finally back to the center of Goreme (the name of the town
where we stayed, Capadochia is the region name). We finished our day with a bowl of lentil
soup, homemade hummas, fries (which one of these is not like the other? Haha)
and some delicious tea. Perfect!
Day 11 – Ridiculously early morning alarm at 4:00am to be
on the shuttle to the airport by 4:30.
Easy flight back to Istanbul where we spent the day wandering, finished
with going to see Mission Impossible 4 (don’t judge :) to pass the time and
rest our tired legs. We drank Turkish
coffee for the last time and found some beautiful traditionally painted mugs to
remind us of the city. On to the train
at 10pm … yay to first class sleeper cars!! Boo to border crossings at 3:30am!!
Day 12 – Day on the train!! Note to self (and others :) – there are not restaurant
cars on every train regardless of the length of the trip, so pack snacks!! Yay for reading, enjoying the country side of
Turkey, Bulgaria, and Romania, listening to music, talking, playing games,
drinking French press coffee, and generally enjoying the trip back to
Moldova!! Next stop Bucharest… We had only 25 minutes between one train and
the next, but managed to get food and find our train without any problems. The train from Bucharest to Chisinau only got
better … We didn’t even have to get out at the border crossing between Romania
and Moldova – so spoiled!!
Day 13 – Arrived in Chisinau safe and sound around 9am
and there you have it!!
We hope that everyone else was able to have as blessed of
a holiday as we were. We definitely
missed our family and friends back home and look forward to when we can spend
our holidays together again. Love and
light to you all and Happy New Year!!
