22 – 23 aug 2016 ~ Before coming to Istanbul, I thought it would be a pretty city with some beautiful buildings, at a similar level to Budapest. Very shortly after arriving, it turns out I was wrong. Istanbul really is one of the great cities of this world, on a similar level to London, Paris or Rome. If I made one mistake in planning my trip, it was only giving myself one day in Istanbul.

16 – 22 aug 2016 ~ Romania is really starting to feel like eastern Europe rather than central Europe. The people were very kind, and really enjoyed eating and drinking together, and often appeared to me as supreme bohemiens.

14 & 15 aug 2016 ~ Despite the Soviets having done their best to concrete-ify it, and the dilapidation that not having quite enough money brings with it, Budapest still clearly shows that it was once the co-capital of one of Europe’s great empires.

14 aug 2016 ~ living the good life, Bavarian style

12 – 14 aug 2016 ~ Having traveled south already, and there not being so much land to the west and north, I decided to go east. Looking for unusual and interesting destinations, I ended up looking at Georgia; a
smallish country on the Southern Caucasus, just about in Asia.

I took the sleeper train to Munich. The following morning, I woke up just before we arrived in Munich. Like many German cities, the area around the main train station is a bit dilapidated and poor, with mostly immigrants living there. Getting further towards the old town, Munich starts to match your expectation of Bavaria’s capital city…