Coca's Best of Portion 2 Awards!

And the vote(s) are in! The best photos of the greatest portion names after the illustrious 2nd digit of the positive sector of the number line are in. Let's see the results below.

Best Patriotic Photo! - me displaying my Bulgarian pride during the reunification day ceromonies. Beats the rain soaked, scared running photo from the Hungarian National Holiday earlier.

Best Attempt at American-ness! - Nothing says American better than a Hot-Dog from a cart with the god-almighty Confederate Flag! Long live the Confedaracy!

Best Meal! - Home cooked Vegetarian delight with Romanian veggies costing pence on the dollar. Look at the enthusiastic crowd! Sighisoara, Romania.

Best View! From the train crossing Romania to Bulgaria on the Bospor express. All aboard!

The World Is too Bıg!

Well I am fınally preparıng to leave Turkey and ıts tıme to start plannıng agaın. Its a terrıble but ınevıtable part of travellıng that you have to set some tıme asıde to scourge the ınternet for the cheapest flıghts, always convencıng yourself ıf you just look longer somethıgn wıll turn up.

Over the few weeks of plannıng I have changed my plans to fly over the mıddle east to get to Indıa and Asıa, to headıng overland and spend more tıme ın Jordan, Syrıa, and Iran than I am ın Thaıland, whıch was once goıng to be a huge chunck of my trıp. I also went from flyıng straıght to Beıjıng, avoıdıng Japan, to flyıng to Japan and takıng a boat to Beıjıng, back to flyıng dırect to Chına skıp Japan. It was a very sad moment for me. Also arrangıng New Years plans, tryıng to corrıspond so that frıends from back home and come vısıt for a few weeks, have shıfted all over Asıa. Orgınally set so that we spend New Years ın Hong Kong, ıt looks more lıke ıt may be ın Thaıland and I could skıp Hong Kong all together.

The poınt of the matter ıs, as we have saıd tıme and tıme agaın, the world ıs far too bıg and 1 year ıs far too lıttle tıme to be able to fıt ıt all ın. Ohhh, ıt paıns me all the places I cant go, but so ıs the way of budget travellıng.

My ıtınerary ıs always changıng but you can get the latest form of where I thınk I wıll be ın the Itınerary sectıon.

MrRyan

I aplogıze that none of the Is have dots over them but I am typıng on a turkısh keyboard.

Nithin: Update from Thessaloniki, Greece

Time for a more traditional entry. The past two days I've been Couchsurfing with a extremely friendly Greek couple, Antonia and Cristos, who live in the hills of Thessaloniki, Greece. Thessaloniki (or Salonica) is the 2nd largest city in Greece, and not frequented by tourists.

Maybe its a normal Greek thing, but this city is filled with ruins. And so casually, as you walk down the street, next to the shopping mall, and even in allies. People sleeping on ruins, drinking on ruins. And no mention of these Ruins by Lonely Planet, or by my hosts. Though I assume if I lived here, I probably wouldn't notice the ruins either.

Last night, I met up with another Couchsurfer, Tilemahos, who was nice enough to take a break from studying (its exam time for Greeks) and take me to his favorite Taverna, a tiny place tucked between two narrow steets halfway up the hills of the city. It was exactly the kind of place one would never find on their own, but here I was, sipping Greek white wine with a local, eating food that he had specially choosen for me, but the names of which I didn't know. We talked about politics, culture, girls, and languages, the meaning of friendliness. He admonished me for pretending to like anything that I was given to be "polite", telling me that lieing was a greater insult.

I wish I could spend more time in Greece. The atmosphere, the openness of the locals, is something I've only gotten a taste off. And therein is one problem with travelling - even one year is not enough. You never have enough time to see everything. But I promise you, Hellas, I will be back! Tomorrow, I head to Meteora, then after that, Turkey by some means.

Last night in Istanbul

Hmmm, I started typing up a serious reflexion on Istanbul (where I am now) and how it is the melting pot between the west and east and how eariler today I was hearing the muslim chanting from all the mosques outside while inside the owner to the hostel was watching an episode of "How I met you mother" and blah blah blah. But the internet erased everything I wrote so instead I will write about something a little bit lighter...

Well tonight started off kind of sad since the guy I have been travel with for the past three weeks, James, was about to leave to fly back to Edinburgh after a short stop over in Sofia, Bulgaria. James and I met in Cluj Napoca, Romania one night when it seemed that we were the only people in the hostel wanting to go get a beer. Now a quick note about meeting people in hostels, there is a special phenomenon that happens among people who are all travelling. Travelling friendships do not work along the same timeline as perhaps a normal friendship would if you were back at home. No, people who are travelling are naturally in a more open, relaxed mindset willing, and wanting to meet new people from all around the world, not the mention that they are in a foreign land so they have no other friends to hang out with.

So it normally works out like this, after hanging with a group of people for one night you are comfortable with each other and end up having a great time! By the second night you are all proper friends. The third night of going out, everyone is best friends and it's just like hanging out with a group of your oldest friends from back home. Well James and I were hangout non-stop for the past three weeks together, and we got along really well, so it was sad that we were finally splitting up.

Luckily as we were wandering the streets waiting until James needed to leave to catch his bus we ran into a local Turkish guy named Mehmet. We first met Mehmet when we arrived in Istanbul, he was kind enough to show us all the way to our hostel and he didn't even want to sell us a carpet afterwards (everyone in Istanbul wants to sell you a carpet). Somehow, we ran into Mehmet everyday afterwards all around town, which in a town of 17 million people is quite impressive.

We ended up spending the next hour at our favorite Nargile bar located behind the Blue Mosque, laughing, having fun with the waiters and meeting more locals. Turkish hospitality is really amazing!



(right) Mehmet
(below)James and I at a Nargile bar

My Bulgarian Mother

NCoca

No country has given me the first impression as Bulgaria.

The train ride into the country was amazing. It was like Kansas, but painted, red, orange, brown sunflowers, an empty countryside on the Bosphor express. It was small train, the conductor took all our tickets and kept checking to make sure we all knew when to get off. Most people were heading to Istanbul, me and a few others, to Veliko Tornovo. Heard of it?

I had no accomodation, and Bulgaria is my first illiterate country (AKA - country where i can't read anything, as they use Cyrillic, like Russian). Others on the train told me that the hostels in the city were completely booked up.

Of course, when I got off, a friendly lady was there to offer a private room. She was small, 5-5, old, but energetic, and took me on a walking tour of Veliko Tornovo, one of the oldest cities in Bulgaria, teeming with history. The room was amazing, 3 beds to myself, a fantastic balcony and view of the city, so amazing that I'm still here.

I became her son, in some sense. She wrote down the address, told me not to go out, told me who I should not hang out with. Later when I was out with some fellow travellers who were on the same train as I, she showed up randomly and forced me to go home, saying my new friends were, quote "narcotics". I had no choice but to agree, she was my mom. She then walked me to my room, which I soon snuck out of. Just like high school!

Velicko Tornovo has made my heart warm, and I'll be sad to leave tomorrow morning. Photos and more stories to come!