I’m always interested to find that our sense of smell is so powerful and evocative. We boarded our old BA Boeing 787 on time, took off, and after the usual plethora of announcements and a packet of pretzels, I threw my blanket over my head and tried to get some sleep. Even in my sleep induced haze, some 5 hours later I was awakened by the aroma of freshly brewed coffee wafting down the aisle. Not wanting to miss it, I emerged from my blanket and waited hopefully – for a full two hours. Must have been the crew’s wake up treat. …
Singapore (Mar 4)
Well, I’m meant to be all chirpy and upbeat on the first day of a holiday, but my brain is feeling like its going to explode before I even get to the fun bit. The online forms and paperwork is very tedious and time consuming, but its complicated by two extra things. Firstly there is an order that they must be done in, which often seems to loop back on itself. And secondly, there are time windows that everything has to be done by, or after, or both, and these are complicated by time differences, and where you’ll be during these windows.…
Off to Brisbane (Mar 3)
Took the Conn-X-ion shuttle bus to Brisbane airport, checked in, then took the airport shuttle across to the international terminal where we did our PCR test. After receiving our results and finding we were clear, we lodged our final paperwork, checked in to our flights, had tea in the restaurant, and headed to bed.
And So It Goes
Wandered up and down the long Singapore Changi concourses watching the sun rise, and waiting for our last flight – a small Silk Air Airbus to Darwin – arriving back in the great south land just after lunch.
It’s been a great trip.
We visited 15 different countries in 60 days, and got over 50 stamps in our passport, exchanged 12 different currencies, slept in 22 different beds, did 24 tours and one cruise. We travelled in planes, trains, trams, buses, ferries, yachts, cars, taxis, funiculars and an underground trolley. We walked over 927,000 steps, a total of 602 km (about the same distance as Melbourne to Canberra), at a rate of just over 10.5 km per day.…
Back to Singapore
Well, what can we say about Turkey? Probably a few things that are safer to say now that we’ve actually left. Turkey, like many countries with ancient cultures, is a bit of a contradiction. It’s really an older civilisation trying to come to grips with being in the modern world.
Up until the end of WWI, it was a world power as the islamic Ottoman Empire, with a corresponding sense of entitlement. At the start of the 20th century, the Sultan had realised that they were declining both as a regional power and as a cultural force, and started to try to bring the empire into the new century.…
The Bosphorus Strait
The Bosphorus Strait is one of the most strategic bits of water in the world. Together with the Dardanelles a little way south, they control access from the Black Sea to the Aegean Sea which connects to the Mediterranean and the rest of the world. Whoever has controlled the Strait has controlled trade and held the fate of countries in their hands.
It was one of the reasons that Constantine moved the capital of the Roman Empire from Rome to his new capital Constantinople. Over successive centuries it became a prized, strategic possession. When you think that the mighty Russian empire only has a couple of warm water ports (the other one is Vladivostok way over near Japan), having a route from the Black Sea in the event of a crisis is a game changer, and so right up until the Cold War it’s been at the forefront of worldwide military strategy.…
Old Istanbul
I learned a few things today.
Firstly, I learned that whilst anybody can build a mosque in Turkey, they can have at most one minaret (that’s the tower that they used to climb to call the faithful to prayer, but now prefer to have speakers mounted on to save their legs). If a mosque has four or more minarets then they have been constructed by a Sultan. Every Sultan worth his saffron (did you know that saffron is more expensive than gold?) would commission his own mosque as his own tribute to himself, and it would bear his name.
So there is actually no such thing as the Blue Mosque, although that’s what the people call it.…
Byzantine Constantinople Istanbul
We made it. The planes were still flying, though we got a bit buffeted. The incoming flight from Athens was running a bit late, so we left about 20 minutes after our scheduled time which cut our transfer time at Athens airport down to 40 minutes. Given that we were transferring from a domestic flight to an international flight, and therefore had to work out our gate, change terminals, go through passport control and security checks, and make it to the bus in time was a tad stressful.
However we ran the length of the airport, and the gate staff sighed when we turned up.…
Last Day In The Greek Isles
Rats. It’s our last day. Up early to hit the bakery for a last coffee and pastry, and to watch the dawn break over the harbour. Lovely morning, but of course it’s predicted to go down hill from here. Greece has been magnificent. The warmest, friendliest and most patient of any of the nations we have visited on this trip. Genuine smiles, lovely food, reasonable prices. What’s not to love.
I had visions of sailing into Santorini harbour late afternoon as the sun set, having a final drink to celebrate our mastery of sailing, and pledging eternal fealty to our fellow crew, but that was nowhere near what transpired.…
Gale Force
It’s like somebody stepped on an ant’s nest. The forecast of a force 10 gale tomorrow is still current, and is likely to last for a few days, so every boat of every size is madly trying to get where they want to be so they don’t get trapped where they don’t. It’s likely to be very widespread, so pretty much all of Italy and Greece is locked down.
G Adventures has 6 boats in the area. Two have been grounded in Athens, two in Mykonos, and two in Ios. (Ok, I know that technically ships are not grounded, well until after the storm anyway, but I can’t think of the correct nautical term).…