Istanbul, Queen of Cities

The Blue Mosque, as seen from Hagia Sophia


Galata Tower


View of Galata Bridge from Galata Tower


Fishing with rods from Galata Bridge


Walking on Galata Bridge


Inside the Topkapı Palace


Hagia Sophia exterior view


Hagia Sophia interior view


Sunset in Bosphorus, as seen from the Asian side


This was an express sightseeing tour.

Next post: Urban Istanbul!

The year that was...

Weddings, rhino's, ancient churches and neon lights....

I've had a pretty busy year, I had intended to load some pics for you guys over the last 11 months but have not had the time. Here's a summary of some of the pictures that have captured my experiences across the continent in the last 11 months.

The chameleon called mother nature....

I found these gems of nature in the Hennops river valley, close to Pretoria South Africa.





















African sunset in Polokwane





The River Nile: Uganda








My first bunjee point, I jumped in Uganda over the river Nile.

Thessaloniki - Istanbul by train

Following on the "Ride the Balkan train" project that me and some friends started last year, here is episode 2. Istanbul!


Starting from the Thessaloniki train station at around 20:00, the train reaches Drama train station by 22:30, while being still on Greek ground.


On the Greek - Turkish border the train stopped for more than half an hour, both on the Greek and the Turkish station, Uzunköprü.

A few minutes after 4:00 the custom police completed the passport control and we were able to continue our sleep.


After the first light, at around 8:30, we woke up with some modern urban architecture in our eyesight. After spending some time at Google Earth, I guess this must be Bahçeşehir.


When you see these funky buildings remember: you still got another hour on the train!








At 8:49 we made a short stop at Halkali train station. A breath away from Istanbul.


First signs of Istanbul's urban structure








A ha!








At around 9:30 we reached our destination, the Istanbul Sirkeci Terminal.

Total travel time: 13 hours, 30 minutes!

In my next post I will play the tourist!

Four airports in 16 hours

A week ago an amazing journey has started, which brought me and my beloved better half from winter to summer once again. In 16 hours we got from Kyiv, Ukraine, to Koh Samui in Thailand.



This is how airport in Kyiv looked like a week ago. Almost a North Pole. Getting to airport was quite a challenge as well.




Because of the heavy snows and very frosty weather (-15C), traffic was paralyzed in the city, and we had to abandon the taxi and jump into metro, which took us closer to the airport.





Eventually we got to the airport on time.



We had a flight with Turkmenistan airlines, which brought us to Ashgabat, a connection on the way to Bangkok. Airport #2 on our way was only interesting by Turkmen carpets (sold at ridiculous prices).



Other than this, there is nothing of interest in this airport.



Airport in Bangkok (airport #3, if we keep counting) is just amazing. It is enormous, but also very elegant, convenient, and features local culture in both interior and exterior design and architecture:





Thailand is one of few countries, where Ukrainian citizens can get visa on arrival.







Waiting for boarding for the plane to Koh Samui, our final destination on this trip. Some passengers enjoy almighty Google logo on a TV screen:



This is it! The plane to the tropical island:



The last flight was only 1.5 hours.



And finally, airport #4 on the route - Samui. Temperature outside is +30C.





Airport has literally no walls. There is no need for walls on a tropical island, which used to be home for the biggest plantation of coconuts in world.



This is how passengers get from the plane to the airport - in small funny electric buses.





Arrived at the bungalow:



More reports to come!