Home sweet home!

The interrail trip we have been planning for the last 6-8 months is now history!!We have visited 19 cities in 8 countries.

During this trip we had 24 train journeys(some local,some international) and 1 bus,1 minibus(rented),1 plane ,1 ferry trip which which are all international.

I have posted the plan in my previous post and I am happy to say that most of the things went according to the plan.The map shows the visities we have visited and differen colored lines indicate differen ways of transportation which is also noted on the line.

After 1 month, it is good to be home.

Interrail Plan

Here is my plan for the 1 month interrail trip during July ,I hope everyhing goes as planned.
The number shows the day in July.

1 – Amsterdam
2- Amsterdam
3- Den Haag Rotterdam gez.
Amsterdam kalis
4-Amsterdam->Brugge yola cik
Brugge gez
5- Brugge de kal.
Belki Bruksele git-gel
6-Sabah’tan parise yola cik
7- Paris gez
8- Paris Gez
9- Paris’de dolas GeceTreni ile Madrid’e git
10- Oglen Madride in
11-Madrid Gez

12-Mardid gez
Belki toledo git-gel
13-Madrid den Barcelonaya git.Barcelona gez
14-Barcelona gez
15-Barcelonadan Marsilya ya git
Marsilya gez
16-Marsilya gez
17-Marsilya dan Nice e git
Nice gez
18- Nice Monaco belki Cannes gez
19- Nice’den Genoa’ya git.Gece treni ile Venedik
20-Venedik gez
21- Venedik ten Floransaya git Floransa gez
22- Floransa gez
Ogleden sonra Pisa’ya git gel
23- Floransa dan Roma ya git
Roma gez
24- Roma gez
vatikan
25- Roma gez gece treni ile Bari
26- Bari gez
Feribotla yunanistan
27- Igoumenitsa dan otobus ile Selanik git
28- Selanik gez
20 trenine bin
29- sabah 8 Sirkeci

ZAAL '96 Graduates met after 10 years

1996 graduates of Zonguldak Ataturk Anatolian High School met in Zonguldak after 10 years.
It was a lovely and warm meeting. The list of attendees was Ulas,Seba,Banu,Ayca,Vural,Serdar(&wife),Hakan(&wife),Melih,Sertan,Ozge,Ceyda,Ozgur.

We first met at SahilCafe on the beach side, as the sun grew hotter we went to Doktorlar Lokali at Fener, we talked till the evening and decided to meet for breakfast the next morning an Iliksu. Iliksu beach side has changed a lot, several places offer bruch now.

Steps to interrail: 3

The hardest step to interrail is completed. I got the Schengen visa from the Netherlands.Now all I have to do is to wait till the flight date. Let me briefly tell the steps for visa.

I read through the web page of missions of the Netherlands in Turkey. Their site has a word document listing the required documents for visa application. It listed lots of lots of documents. I collected them, also I went to their place and asked for a Visa application form which also had a list of documents for visa application.

I went to Anadolu Sigorta for travel insurance and the insurance for European States valid for one month costed me 16EUR.

Finally I went to their place again to apply for the visa, 35EUR visa fee should be payed for the application and my visa was ready in 2 days.

The previous step.

Fener-Balat region tour

Last week I attended Fener-Balat region tour with Istanbul Travel Club. As far as I understand this region was the old Istanbul and mainly where the non-muslim folk of the Ottoman Empire lived. It is full of historical places, mostly churches.


And don't forget the Vatican of the Orthodox community, the Fener Greek Patriarche.










The Greek High School near the Patriarche.


Also nearly Pieere Loti's Cafe has a great view although it is hard to climb there:)



In brief,I can say that the region is really lovely and historic.

Steps to interrail: 2

Yesterday we bought our interrail tickets from Genctur at Taksim. We are in the process of collecting papers for visa .
The pic shows the interrail tickets together with corendon airlines tickets to the Netherlands which I bought online but obtained the printed versions for visa application from their office in Kozyatagi , guidebooks, superfast ferry brochure which they kindly posted via mail upon my request and passports. There is one huge step left: getting the visa.




We are signing papers in the Genctur office for buying the railpass.


The previous step

Book Review: Europe Through the Back Door 2006

Title: Rick Steves' Europe Through the Back Door 2006 : The Travel Skills Handbook
Writer: Rick Steves
Year: 2006
Pages: 630

This is the first book review from the series listed in my previous blog entry: My Book List for Summer 2006 Interrail Planning I hope more reviews will come soon.

This is not a guidebook in the commonsense.It is so-called as 'Read-before-go book '. The book is organized in two sections, the first section is a travel skills handbook dealing with Planning an ininerary,transportation,money,sleeping and eating.. etc. as the title already implies

And the second section gives what the author calls 'backdoors'.List places that are not discovered by tourism agencies yet or not getting necessary attention. The counties mentioned includes: Italy, Portual, Spain, Morroco, Frace, Belgium, Netherlands, Germany, Austria, Switzerland, British Isles and Scandanavia.
The auther list few ,if not one, cities in each coutry and gives hints and beautities of that city.

The first travel skills section is helpful although you might find these information everywhere and also internet.It is still good to have all these information packed in one place completely.

The second section is for people looking for not crowded, relatively calm places in Europe. If you are looking for info about popular sightseeings of these countries you should get a guidebook which is also recommended by the author.

Accompanying site for the book can be found at ricksteves.com . I can not decide whether to recommend buying or not buying this book. The amazon link is here for you to further investigate.

Book Review: Yolculuga Cikanlarin Kucuk El Kitabi

Title: Yolculuğa Çıkanların Küçük El Kitabı Okumaları, Hatırlamaları ve Paylaşmaları İçin; Öneriler, Gözlemler ve Andaçlar
Writer: David Scott, William W. Forgey
Year: 2003
Pages: 184

As the book name already tells this is a handbook for travellers.It contains 377 tips for travelers before and during the travel period.The book should be even smaller but the publisher prefered to use big fonts to make the book look 'useful'.


I don't think the book contains life-saver tips, you may still want to give it a try since it is cheap 3.58YTL. I bought it from Ideefixe.

Book Review: Moskova ve Petersburg Cep Rehberi

Title: Moskova ve Petersburg Cep Rehberi
Writer: Neil Winson
Year: 2003
Pages: 140

I bougth this book before my second trip to Moscow.Although I did not have time to validate the contents of the book due to hard work I still will mention about the book.
It is a small sized thin pocket book as the name implies, has a small map of cental Moscow and Moscow metro in the front cover and a small map of central St.Petersburg and Petersburg metro in the back cover of the book.
The book gives short history, important places to see and hotel&restaurant info for the two cities.

I bought it from Kadikoy Alkim bookstore, you may pferer to buy online istead.

Steps to interrail:1

Today I competed the first step to interrail. I talked with my managers in the company that I want to resign and leave by June 30th. And they accepted.Now it is clear that I have a one month holiday I can devote to interrail.

I have already bought my plane ticket from Corendon airlines for 19EUR(54EUR with tax) to Amsterdam and my 5 travel books that I have already listed in my previous blog entry "My Book List for Summer 2006 Interrail Planning " already arrived.

The brocure I requested from Superfast Ferries for the Italy-Greece passing arrived, including information about timetables and fares.



Now the next and the hardest step of all is to obtain the visa.