Category: The Black Sea

Today, we arrived in Sinop, Turkey. The First of May is Labour Day in Turkey; the first day of holidays for school children and a day where peaceful protests take place in city centres across the country. Peaceful on account of the massive amount of policeman assigned to making sure they’re peaceful. Or that’s how our guide explained Labour Day...

This morning, the alarm went off at 5:30am, and we crawled out of bed unenthusiastically, and headed for the top decks. It was cold and a keen wind was blowing. Slowly, other passengers emerged; some in dressing gowns, all wielding cameras and ipads, most looking like they’d prefer to still be in bed. By 6:15am, we were passing Istanbul, on...

Today, we arrived in Canakkale (pronounced Chan-ackle-ee), where we were down for our first tour escort duty (well… I was… Tracey had a paid-for ticket), to visit the ancient city of Troy. At the grand old age of approximately 5000 years, Troy is actually several cities all built on top of each other. Naturally, there isn’t a great deal left,...

We very nearly missed breakfast. Following our long journey to Athens yesterday, and all the travelling inbetween, the alarm going off at 8am barely raised a groan. Consequently, when we finally crawled out of bed at 9:15am, knowing that breakfast finished at 9:30am, it was with a certain amount of expediency. Fortunately, we made it to breakfast, and I can...

Our journey South yesterday, from North Yorkshire was straightforward and relatively uneventful. We found the hotel (Mercure Hotel) where we would be staying the night, and the car will be spending the next two weeks, without any problems at all. This morning, we were up at 8am, and ready for the Airport Hoppa when it turned up at 9:15am (we...