1986-12-27 Sydney was basking in a 30 degree afternoon as we left on our 20 hour Olympic Airlines flight to Athens via Singapore. Arriving 0815 Athens time we checked into our well-sited downtown Titania Hotel. Enough time to wander the streets and to visit the Archaeological Museum
1986-12-29 A short flight from Athens and we were in Istanbul. A wander around around the back streets and then a ferry ride across the Bosporus to catch the "Vangolu Ekspressi" from Haydapasa Station. A 20 hour overnight train ride through the snow to central Turkey.
1986-12-30 Late afternoon arrival in Kayseri, Turkey
Cold but not snowing, we walked around town and checked into the "Hotel Kent"
1986-12-31 Wandered Kayseri town before an hour and a half bus ride to Goreme. Found a suitable rock-dwelling to call "home". Chatted to some Japanese travellers who lived in the cave above us and imbibed a new year's eve drink or two.
1987-01-01 Travelled to Nevsehir and Kaymakli (an underground city) by local "dolmus" A bus to Ankara where we booked into the "Hotel Tac"
1987-01-02 Discovery walks around Ankara including Ataturk's Memorial and the Museum of Anatolian Civilizations. No room for us on the celebrated "Mavi Tren" so we took the alternative seven hour bus ride to Bursa where we booked into the Hotel Diyar. Bursa is an Interesting city with a lot of historic buildings and a killer "Iskender Kebab" on offer. A cable car was available from the middle of town up to the ski resort of "Uludag" where we managed a fun day skiing on some excellent snow.
Bus ride to historic Iznik to visit the religious sites of the "Council of Nicae" which was a bit of a seminal event for Christianity some time back..Plenty to see here. Our minibus to Yalova got caught in a traffic jam and we arrived in time to see the Istanbul ferry we had planned to catch pulling out. We then found ourselves at the conveniently-sited "Hotel Ciftci" to be around for our 6.15 departure the next morning (which we made with time to spare).
1987-01-07 Morning arrival in spectacular Istanbul where we were fortunate to find the "Hotel Neset" in the laleli area and where we could settle in for a while. The following day we visited the Archaeological Museum and the Hagia Sophia - the magnificent church built by Justinian 1 and which had the highest dome in he world for 1000 years. The Blue Mosque was covered in scaffolding in readiness for our visit of course so we consoled ourselves by purchasing Turkish Puzzle Rings at a bazaar.
The next day (9th January) found us at the delightful Dolmahbahce Palace with its 259 rooms under golden roofs. Walking to Taksim Square at the posh end of town we covered the recommended walking trail to the Pera Palas Hotel of Agatha Christie fame. The observation deck of the Galata Tower was naturally closed for the winter so we rode on Europe's first underground railway, the "Tunel" to the Galata bridge and the railway booking office at Sirkeci Station.
On the following day we started a shopping expedition at the Grand Bazaar resulted in a free-for-all spend-a-thon for clothing and trinkets and the odd bauble or two.
1987-01-11 this was our last day in town. We wandered the back streets and sought out old historic churches and sites such as the Greek Patriarchate and the Kariye before preparing for the 42 hour train ride to Trieste.
The train consisted of many carriages from many lands and travelled through a very snowy night on a track through Nis, Bulgaria (to connect with the train coming up from Thessalonika in Greece) before continuing on through a snowy, daytime Yugoslavia to Belgrade. At Belgrade we swapped trains and continued our journey in an icy cold 6 berth couchette, which would get us to snowy Trieste by the next morning. We shared on-board stories with a male Turkish opera singer and a globetrotting Canadian family who were planning to be on the road for a year. At Trieste Rail Station we ate a very welcome Spaghetti Bolognaise before we caught another Italian train to Venice. Following our arrival, there was an unholy scramble for an affordable Pension still available after dark. We did OK and then wandered the snowy streets looking for food of any description (without a lot of luck)
1987-01-14 The very next day we trudged through snow and slush to visit St Mark's Square where cross country skiing had been in vogue the night before. The Doge's Palace was closed but we got to see the Quadriga on St Mark's church, Bridge of Sighs next up and then a slap-up pizza meal at the railway station at Mestre. Jac unfortunately broke her beautiful ceramic mask so we had to find another. Mission finally accomplished later that night.
1987-01-15 and the 6.30 train to beautiful Ravenna, the spectacular and historic city. Visited Theodoric the Ostrogothics' impressive Mausoleum, church of San Appolinare Nuova, the Baptistry, Church of San Vitale -all priceless and remarkable treasures in themselves.
Took the Vienna-bound train to Villach to change to an Austrian train going through to Salzburg. Bev and Jac ate at a boutique cafe (ham rolls and hot chocolates) and I chose to eat Goulash and chips at the Station's "Cafe La Sleeze" (big helpings popular with the partly inebriated local lads). We chose the centrally located "Gasthof Dietmann" as our base and purchased a 24 hour ticket to see all in town. Cable car to the mighty Salzburg Fortress and a nice tour albeit in German language only. (English available in summer!) and with the temperature hovering around minus 4.
Next day it was Goulash again at Cafe La Sleeze and then a bus to Berchtesgarten in Germany (where Hitler's Eagles Nest was unfortunately closed for the winter as expected). To console ourselves we decided on a Hallein salt mines tour, bumping into peripatetic nephew Kriton on the way. The saltmine tour was a buzz with its little mining trains and underground lake crossing before the 120m slide and some sample packets of genuine salt. Horse and carriage rides around Salzburg followed and then a gigantic food splurge at the Rail Station Dining Hall (writer's choice was "Bauernschmaus Platter" which was very generous in its proportions).
1987-01-19th caught the train to St Johann im Pongau with a change to a bus to take us to the "familienfreundliche" ski town of Wagrain. We checked into comfortable Bauernhof Hinterleiten. This proved to be an excellent choice which showed us Austrian country lifestyle: animals at the bottom or ground level, utility and living rooms above. Family bedrooms were built above this and luxuriously appointed guest rooms above them all. The roof area itself held the washing to dry out.
The very next day, after a hearty breakfast, we headed up the gondola to avail ourselves of the ski terrain of three linked resorts (a "skicircus" consisting of Flachau, Wagrain and ........ a total of 170 runs/lifts) We skied the day with new found friends Gerhard and Hanne from Munich. We also dined and chatted with them that night in the downtown restaurants where the food and wine were worthy. At breakfast we introduced Gerhard and Hanne to the delights of Vegemite which Gerhard felt was similar to "axle grease"
1987-01-21 Rough Schnapps were available direct from the still downstairs before our departure for points east via Salzburg and then the delights of the dining car and on to Wien Westbahnhof. Due to our late arrival we were lucky to secure comfortable acommodation at Pension Dr Geissler in the Inner Ring of the city. So close to MacDonalds too!
The Pension delivered a hearty breakfast to help us start the day. The Military Museum caught our eye and among it's treasures was the bullethole damaged Graf & Stift limousine that carried Archduke Ferdinand on his quick spin through the streets of Sarajevo just before the start of the First World War. His clothes of the day were also displayed, in need of a good laundering and repairing by the look of them! The day was rounded out with a visit to St Stefan's Dom and some hard-core shopping. The budget chain WienerWald Restaurant delivered the goods for us foodwise that night, with schnitzels for all in generous proportions.
Next day found us exploring the Imperial Apartments and the impressive KaiserGruft, the Imperial Crypt of the Hapsburgs. Followed this up with the Vienna Technical Museum.
1987-01-24 saw us depart on our pre-arranged two day package trip through the "Iron Curtain" to Budapest, Hungary. A four hour trip through the snow brought us to the "Hotel Grand Hungaria" a bit of a showpiece at the time and a change of pace for us. After several tram trips up and down the river we were serenaded by Gypsy violinists over our adequate evening repast.
The package also offered us a guided tour around the many sites that of interest to the outsider and through this we saw quite a bit of the city, although we did miss out on the narrow gauge railway run by excited "Young Pioneers" apparently. Lunch and views at the Hilton made up for this.
Our local Hungarian guide did seem to get a little agitated when discussing Hungary's future political prospects and it came as no surprise that six months later the Hungarian border guards were the first border guards to slacken off in their vigilance over cross-border movements.
This was the end point of our European travels for that year. Flying out of snowy Vienna our feet first touched dry pavement on our return to Athens where we were joined by our friends Pete and Sophie coming up from touring points further to the south. Our Olympic flight home was thankfully interrupted by a three day recuperation poolside at a nice hotel in Singapore. Singapore Slings and cultural shows helped us to come up (or down) to speed to prepare for the return flight to Sydney and the inevitable return to school and daily grind of work.
