family

I get a new camera for Christmas

YAY – finally I get a new camera, and it is just in time for Christmas! It is a Sony Cyber-shot DSC-HX200V Camera from Media Galaxy in Brasov, Romania. We walked into Media Galaxy and it was packed with customers. All around people were madly Christmas shopping. It seems to be the same the world over […]

Visiting Brasov Romania for their Christmas Markets

Visiting Brasov Romania for their Christmas Markets We decided to leave Bucharest early and drive to Brasov to stay. On the way, my gut feel was to change the tires to winter snow tires and not just rely on carrying snow chains. It was Sunday, so it was amazing that I found a little workshop […]

Bucharest and one of the most amazing restaurants

This is a really quick blog of our amazing three nights in Bucharest. You can scroll through and enjoy this with photos. So how did we get here? We left Veliko Tarnovo before noon after exploring the cute town. We then headed in ‘pea soup thick fog’ to Ruse. We had hoped to explore this cute city […]

Exploring Bucharest Christmas Markets Romania

We decided when we were in Turkey that we would head to snow for Christmas. So on the way, we had a stop in Bucharest, Romania and country number 43 on our world trip. We mainly chose here because (we are Australian, and we have grown up with a hot Christmas, so) the idea of […]

Exploring Veliko Tarnovo Bulgaria

Yesterday saw us heading north in Bulgaria. We wanted to see the historical little town of Veliko Tarnovo and arrived mid-afternoon. Veliko Tarnovo is the medieval capital of the Second Bulgarian Kingdom and the town with the most dramatic setting in the country. It is perched on several hills, and the Yantra River meandering through. […]

Exploring Old Plovdiv Bulgaria and a Renaissance stay

We finally left Istanbul, Turkey after a great 6-week stay, and headed to Bulgaria in what seemed to be hours and hours of driving on the Turkish side in the rain. For the first time ever we had smiled at a border crossing.  I nearly fell out of the car.  Firstly the Turkish side checks […]

Art Nouveau Charm at Armada Pera Hotel Istanbul

From even before the moment we stepped foot in the front foyer of Armada Peru Hotel in Istanbul, we had amazing service. What happened to us this day was unique. The roads were blocked so we had to follow a taxi in order to find a place to park and get to the hotel.  The taxi […]

Five Star Service at Sirkeci Mansion Istanbul

We drove into Istanbul at peak hour.  We arrived in the dark and stopped outside the front door of the Sirkeci Mansion Boutique Hotel.  Like a scene from a movie, staff seemed to spring from nowhere and in one minute our bags were in the lobby, and next thing a staff member (at my suggestion) […]

We find a cool bull in Istanbul

We just spend a few days in the Historical old town section of Istanbul on the European side. Now we move to the ‘trendy and hip’ European side, but also go and visit the Asian side of Istanbul And this where … … We find a cool bull in Istanbul It was only supposed to […]

We drove our car through the Bazaar in Istanbul

After a fantastic stay in Safranbolu Ottoman town, we headed toward Istanbul. But the car needed a mechanic – again.  It has a loud noise in the front wheel.  We had already had a service in Kalkan.  There the mechanic promised us he had attended to all on the list.  The next day, we had […]

Staying in a 200 year Ottoman Mansion at Gulevi Safranbolu

We are part of a Facebook group called ‘Families on the Move’ – a group of long-term traveling families who encourage, swap tips, share advice, and generally help each other. We also meet up from time to time, so the kids can play, and the adults can talk. One family in this group has been […]

Are we Exploring Outer Space ?

The last few days we have had a great time in Cappadocia, a region of Turkey that feels more like you have landed on another planet, but we haven’t – we have actually arrived in Central Turkey. You can read about it here. It is a weird and somewhat freaky place. It is like a […]