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The Library at Ephesus



Another pıle of rocks


On the 12th I moved up to Selcuk, a small town about an hour up the road from Kusadasi on the west coast of Turkey. There is some old pile of rocks called Ephesus just outside of the town so I decided to stay for the night as I was in no rush anywhere.

After I done my tourist bit I drove back to the hostel where I met an Australian (there every where) guy who was going the same direction as I was so I offered him a lift the next day back up to Canakkale.On the 12th I moved up to Selcuk, a small town about an hour up the road from Kusadasi on the west coast of Turkey. There is some old pile of rocks called Ephesus just outside of the town so I decided to stay for the night as I was in no rush anywhere.

‘Ephesus was one of the seven churches of Asia that are cited in the Book of Revelation.[2] The Gospel of John may have been written here.[3] It is also the site of a large gladiators' graveyard.
Today's archaeological site lies 3 kilometers southwest of the town of Selçuk, in the Selçuk district of İzmir Province, Turkey. The ruins of Ephesus are a favorite international and local tourist attraction, partly owing to their easy access from Adnan Menderes Airport and via the port of Kuşadası.’
After I done my tourist bit I drove back to the hostel where I met an Australian (there every where) guy who was going the same direction as I was so I offered him a lift the next day back up to Canakkale.
Turned out he was some kind of ancient Roman-Greek history buff so I spent 5 hour (with a stop off in the middle to look at some more rocks) listing to him dribble on about rocks. To be fair a lot of what he was saying was interesting but we all have our limits when it comes to the subject of rocks.

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Walters photo shoot in from of his hotel


I stayed one night in Canakkale, and headed down to Kusadasi to meet up with Walter and Mark. I arrived around midday and started looking around for accommodation. Because Kunadasi is a big package holiday town it is quite expensive compared to the rest of Turkey so I opted to camp instead of a hotel. Turned out my campsite was considerably better located than the two boys hotels and for 5 Euro per night im sure a little bit cheaper ...haha.



The Campsıte, wıth clothes line included in the price

That night I meet up with Walter and his girlfriend Rachel (I think Walter was more happy to see the car than myself but that’s the way it goes I suppose). After Walters’s photo shoot with me and the car we went out and meet up with Mark and Erin. It was nice change to go for a few with people who know ya already rather than explaining the same old story…...where your from, what your doing, how long your traveling for..etc.

I stayed in Kusadasi for 2 days and had a good time but that type of holiday just isn't for me I think, not yet at least.

Road to Turkey

Today is the 20th of September and im writing about leaving Montenegro 2 weeks ago....just not enough time.

I left Montenegro with Sandy the Dutch girl in the hostel. I was heading to Kosovo and then down into Macedonia. Sandy had never been and decided to tag along for a few days.
Too get to Kosovo I first had to drive into Serbia and then down into Kosovo. It all went relatively smoothly except on the Serbian border I had to pay 120 euro for insurance I already had but again being so prepared I didnt have the original document with me to prove it. To add insult to injury minimum days you can buy insurance for is 40..which I still think is a scam and that the border guards pocketed at least half the cash if not more. Considering I was only going to be in the country for a few days, I was well and truly got screwed over....ahahahah.
We crossed in to Kosovo easily, the usual questions at the border...”What the fuck are you doing here in this car” and then carried on for a few hours into Pristine. Only eventful part of this trip was running over a dog that had being split in two by a truck...hahaha, I laughed. Sandy didn’t.

Pristine is a strange city, full of expats who are working for the UN. I say work, but think most of them are at feck all. We had a good look around the city but then headed back to the Hostel, situated right beside Kosovo’s presidents house (It was a fairly normal house from the outside, just a lot of security).
That’s about all we done there and headed out the road to Macedonia the next day. Probably would have liked to stay another day but it just didn’t work out.



Camp Clarke

The road to Macedonia again was straight forward and the border was easy. The one good thing which I am so glad that I found was that the Irish army base was on the Pristine – Skopje road about 10K out of Pristine. I pulled in to the front gate of the base and tock a picture with the car and Camp Clarke sign. Was thinking of driving up to the main entrance to get a picture with one of the soldiers but decided against it in the end. I know if Walter or Luke were with me at the time we probably would have been brought in for some tea and a pack of Tayto or something like that but I moved on up the road.

I landed in Skopje and dropped Sandy off. She was going to stay there for a night or two then get a bus back to Montenegro. For me I wanted to push on to Sofia in Bulgaria. I was moving so fast at this time because I knew Walter was going to be on holidays on the west coast of Turkey for 7 days and I was pushing hard to try and meet him and Mark for a few days. As Walter was meant to be on the trip I thought it would be cool to get a photo with him in turkey and drive him about a bit...so he did actually join for some of the trip.
I stayed in Sofia only for one night. Meet up with some English guys and got wasted with them.



1Km from the Turkish border

The next day I crossed the Turkish border and turned south towards the west coast of turkey. In total I must have drove for 9 hour that day.....I was glad to see my bed that night.



Trogen horse from the movie in the centre of Canakkale

I stayed in Canakkale which by complete chance is actually quit a famous place particularly for Australians and New Zealanders. Firstly, Troy is only 15 km down the road with the ruins of the fortress and a massive wooden horse for tourist to climb into for photos. Secondly Gallipoli Campaign took place at the Gallipoli peninsula across the water from Canakkale from 25 April 1915 to 9 January 1916, during the First World War.
I done the tour and it was interesting but its mainly for Australians and New Zealanders, hence ANZAK tours, or ANZAK day.

Podgorica

I dont have a clue who that is or what its about...my tour guide was in bed.



Nice Church beside the hostel



The view from on top of the "big hill"

On the road to Kotor

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Kotor from on top of the old castle on the hill.



Montenegro has to be one of my favorite countries so far. Left Dubrovnik with Tom and Mark in the car and traveled down to Kotor a big tourist/ cruiseship stop off for one night. Kotor is situated on a lake and has a cool old town inside these massive old castle walls. We stayed in hostel inside the walls of the city, which for the first time in a long time was really nice and cheap.
That evening we walked up a million steps to the top of the hill to see the castle. Sightseeing done we meet up with a Finnish guy and went out with him. Fairly calm night as it went and I was happy to see my bed that night and a 12:00 check out was good for me.
The next morning we headed towards Podgorica and stopped off in Sveti Stefan in Budvar for a swim and a quick look around.
Driving into Podgorica none of us were too impressed by what we were seeing. Even people from Montenegro will tell you not to go there because it is such an ugly city from the outset but for me once you look around and are there on a weekend you'll think its a great place.
We got to our hostel/shed for the night and through our bags in. The hostel was really a dilapidated old house beside the national football stadium rented out by and old American guy who just filled it with beds. If you can get over the slightly run down look you will soon relies how cool the place really is. That also goes for the city itself.

The hostel is called Steve's place (Steve being the 50+ American who visited Podgorica a few years earlier and found that there was no hostel in the capital city and decided to set one up). Steve himself was not around for the first night that we were there as he had went traveling around Europe for 3 weeks but was on his way back. He had asked a guest, Sandra (20 year old Dutch girl) to look after the hostel while he was away (no worries). Sandra turned out to be our party hostess for the night. She took us out showed us where to go, mixed with some of the locals and a great night was had by all. Tom and Mark were moving on the next day but I decided to stay another night.

2675 miles on the clock

Today

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Again im writing all this about a week late. I left Zagreb and the two lads and pointed myself in the direction of Split on the coast of Croatia. Although Luke and Pete were good fun to be around it was still nice to be out on the open road by myself again. Its all motorway from Zagreb to Split but even so the views of the countryside, mountains and little villages were amazing.
I got into Split in the early evening and found a cool hostel right beside the old town. On my first evening there I put up a sign on the notice board that I was heading towards Dubrovnik and if anyone wanted a free lift they were welcome. After two days I decided to move on down the coast to Dubrovnik. I had received some requests for a lift but due to timing only one guy was able to travel with me, Alec a Londoner who turned out to be a really interesting guy. He had actually traveled the same route to Australia as I am hoping to do. He did it when he was 18 in an organized tour bus with 35 other people. Naturally enough I had lots of questions for him which kept me entertained on the 3 hour trip. In Croatia the motorway ends at Split. After Split, a long windy coastal road zigs-zags its way along the rugged coastline. Again unbelievable views.
An interesting fact that I didn't know before I drove there is that Bosnia and Herzegovina cuts Croatia into two parts. Bosnia and Herzegovina has a coastline which couldn't be much more than 10 or 15 kilometers long, hence you don't really notice it on a map ........or is that just stupid Liam coming out again. Went through the normal border checks and was out of the country within 15 minutes and back down the road to Dubrovnik.
We found a hostel but unfortunately it was really shit, with the main problem being that there was a curfew at 3 am....(not that I stay out any later than midnight mother..;). Sure we settled in and just happen to meet up with two more English lads and we decided it would be a good idea to celebrate our new found friendship with a few pints. Turns out that they were heading down to Montenegro as I was two days later so I told them they could jump in and id take them down.
While we were out we also meet up with 3 South African guys who were cycling from Scotland back home to South Africa. These guys were lunatics but great craic. They had had a few though days cycling and decided to stop off in Dubrovnik for a week to relax on a yacht owned by one of there family friends. We had a good laugh with them and when we meet about 40 Australian ladies who were on a boat trip along the coast of Croatia, the night really kicked off. The amount of lads who were staying on a yacht in Dubrovnik marina doubled in a second..........best chat up line ever. They did find it a little strange that our yacht had a curfew dough.
We messed about in Dubrovnik for another night but nothing could beat the first one.