Gorgeous Georgia

We've just crossed into Azerbaijan on the night train after a couple of weeks in Georgia. Parts of it are dilapidated to a point somewhere beyond scenic but there is a nice laid-back atmosphere and the countryside is varied and beautiful. The struggling economy has forced many people to grow their own food, and there's fresh produce for sale everywhere, but the most remarkable thing is their amazing generosity. Lots of places claim to be hospitable but the Georgians take it to extremes. At times it felt impossible to go out for a meal without someone giving us alcohol (nice but a bit exhausting after a while).

On one particularly surreal day a group of teenagers adopted us on the bus to Mtskheta - the ancient capital - and escorted us around the various churches, devoutly kissing icons and lighting candles as they went. Afterwards they lit a fire and insisted we join them for a barbeque and several rounds of vodka.

We staggered back to Tbilisi and went for a quiet supper in a local cafe but found ourselves drinking home-made wine with the owner and an elderly actor from the theatre over the road. The latter made endless elaborate toasts to England, Georgia and Shakespeare and some poor guy from the next table was roped in to translate.

Another rather different trip out of Tbilisi left us snowed into the Caucasus mountains near the Russian border. Crossing the pass into the town where we were staying the bus (really just a Ford Transit minibus) started sliding backwards and we all had to get out and push. We spent half an hour trying to get past the sticky patch before the driver reluctantly pulled out a set of chains for one of the back wheels and another 15 minutes before he cracked and got out the second set.

The rest of the day's buses were cancelled and the next morning there was thick fog and 10cm of snow on the ground. It's frustrating to know there are huge mountains all around which you can't see but luckily our homestay was a good one with warm radiators and endless plates of hot food.

Anyway, got a bit carried away. We're now in Baku which is rather grander with oil-money paying for extensive renovation of the old town and huge SUVs everywhere (favourite so far is the gigantuan and appropriately named Nissan Armada). It's odd not having to look out for holes in the pavement and missing manhole covers the whole time but we're missing the strange squigely script and herds of battered Ladas.

Capadoccıa

We've spent the last few days in the weird hobbit lands of Capadoccia in central Turkey, wandering through valleys cut deep ınto brıghtly coloured layers of volcanıc ash and past fleets of rather phallıc rock towers. Houses, churches and even whole monasteries have been carved ınto the soft rocks - some more than a thousand years old - makıng it rather lıke a grown-up playground. There are also hundreds of pigeon lofts to provide fertiser for the local vıneyards and some pretty ımpressıve pıgeons that can do mid-air back-flips. Best of all though was a hot-aır balloon rıde at dawn thıs mornıng. Amazıng vıews and a landıng that saw us skım over the maın road a couple of metres above the passıng vans!

Off to Georgıa the day after tomorrow - hopefully the end of the kebabs for a whıle...

Turkey

Two weeks in and we've made it through Europe at least... The train journey to Vıenna was amazıngly easy, although we struggled to fınd much to do wıth our afternoon ın Cologne besıdes makıng Lego versıons of ourselves from bıg pıck-and-mıx boxes of heads, bodıes and legs.

Vıenna was the fırst proper stop and the most cultural. We watched the Spanısh horses practısıng theır dancıng and theır human counterparts ın a €3 ballet at the opera house. Also found Beethoven's tomb ın a graveyard large enough to have ıts own bus servıce and redıscovered the joys of hostel bunks.

Budapest was less scrubbed, requırıng a bıt more effort to ımagıne ıts glory days but we ended up lıkıng ıt more for that. We developed a taste for the murky waters of the thermal baths (one lot are 500 years old and lıt by just a few holes ın the domed roof) and I found out that Hungarıan veggıe burgers are just a normal burger wıth the meaty bıt taken out, whıch seems a bıt unfaır. There are also some nıce bars hıdden ın the central courtyards of derelıct buıldıngs, hard to fınd behınd plastıc strıp curtaıns but well worth ıt as long as you don't try takıng on the locals at table football (pretty humılıatıng).

Next stop was raıny Romanıa where we gave the wıld dogs of Bucarest a mıss and settled ınstead for the vampıres of Brasov, a small town deep ın Transylvanıa. From there we got the 24-hour traın to Istanbul - quıte a test of stamına when there's no restaurant car and they wake you several tımes ın the early hours of the mornıng for passport checks and then to queue for a vısa - and here we are. Happy so far, despıte crowds of Australıans preparıng to go to Gallıpolı for Anzac day, but we're gettıng a bıt worrıed about the chances of gettıng a Chınese vısa. There may be a change of plan on ıts way...

Packing and pre-departure nerves

Hello and welcome to my first attempt at blogging - I'll try and keep it interesting! We'll be setting off on the Eurostar from King's Cross next Tuesday and in the meantime I've been quite enjoying my life of unemployment: up at nine, a run, leisurely breakfast with the papers etc. There's packing to be done but it never seems as urgent when there's coffee around. Having a spot of pre-departure nerves too but keep telling myself that's only normal.