Ham and Cheese stuffed with Ham and Cheese in Montenegro

I'm writing part of this post from one of the most magical places I've been to. We're in Lovcen National Park in Montenegro. I can't describe why it's so magical - yes, it's stunningly beautiful but so are many other places that don't weave their magic spells on me like this place does. Maybe it's the peace - the birds are singing and crickets are chirping. Maybe it's the acres of forest and lush green grass. Maybe it's the rugged mountains providing a stunning backdrop to the scene. All I know is that when I sit on our tiny balcony staring over this place, everything feels right.

But that's enough of the mushy stuff - I'd better start at the beginning! We arrived in Montenegro a couple of weeks ago. Montenegro is only a tiny country. If you haven't heard of it don't despair. It used to be a part of Yugoslavia but during the 90's Yugoslavia started breaking up into what we now call Croatia, Serbia, Macedonia, Bosnia/Herzegovina, Slovenia and Montenegro. Montenegro didn't achieve independent country status until 2006.

Our first destination was Kotor, a stunning old Venetian town set within city walls that run up a steep hill. Kotor is a very popular tourist destination and the old town is small. We couldn't get accommodation inside the city walls so we settled for an apartment not far away. It turned out to be perfect - a brand new place with fantastic views of the bay and just a short walk from everything. The owner, Zoja, was lovely.

Dawn, we kept thinking of you because we know you loved this town!

We had fun exploring Kotor. It has narrow, cobblestoned alleys and gorgeous old buildings.

We poked our noses inside a couple of stunning churches. The floor of this one was scattered with branches of broom and rosemary. We're not sure why. Many people there were there for religious reasons, not just looking.

I thought this photo was very funny! I wonder if the cat was a souvenir too!

We clambered up to the top of the old fort and walls that surround the town. It was a steep climb but the views were stunning.

The old town sits at one end of a striking deep-water bay lined with old stone houses with terracotta roofs. One problem though was that the deep bay allows humongous cruise ships to pull right into the port. The tallest building in the town is about 6 stories, but most are only one or two stories. Some of the cruise ships tower 15 stories high. The large ones seem so out of place. With their huge bulk, regular loudspeaker announcements and noisy anchor dropping they seriously detract from the gorgeous smaller scale beauty of the place. I've got nothing against cruise ships but I think the large ones shouldn't be allowed into such small places. The ship below was just metres from the walls of the old town.

Sometimes a place can be wonderful but it's the people we meet that make it special. The lady that owns our apartment recommended that we get takeaways from the guy across the road. As we haven't had an apartment anywhere else in our travels, plus we had a lovely balcony to eat dinner on, we took her up on her recommendation. The guy was such a character, We picked out some kebabs and while he cooked them up for us, we were offered some home-made rakja (the local fire-water). By the time our meal was cooked John had downed a few rakjas, and we had the whole recipe written up for us (it's made with green walnuts and fermented in the sun for 40 days!), and we had a new friend to boot. The food was so delicious and the company so friendly that we went back again the next night armed with a few beers. Who needs to go to the pub for drinks and companionship when you can go to the takeaway joint? It's a pity that this photo doesn't show his fantastic, toothless smile!

The other character we met was in a much stranger location - half way up a steep hill near the old city walls on a walking track. There was no road access at all. The only people that visited here were walkers or people that were exploring the higher reaches of the city walls. The guy was massive (a lot of Montenegrins are very tall) and didn't speak a word of English. He had a few tables and chairs set up under a roof overlooking the spectacular bay of Kotor. There was no menu, just a sign outside that said "Rakja, scotch, cheese, ham". And that's all he sold. The cheese and ham are local specialities. He brought out a wheel of cheese and we just pointed to how much we wanted and he cut it. Nothing was weighed - it was all just done by guess. Funnily enough, it always seems to add up to an even number of euros. Somehow John ended up having to taste his rakja and we got shown through his very basic house. We got chatting to a German/English family and the owner broke a branch off a cherry tree so we could all eat the cherries! Once again we were best mates in a short period of time.

Our aim was to do some more walking along a 6-day trek we had read about. It was a bit tricky because there were no maps available - we just pinched the idea from a website! Zoja, our landlord, was able to help us with directions for the first day. This walk started at a different town and we walked up and over a huge hill back to Kotor. It was a hard but gorgeous walk in the humid air as a thunderstorm rumbled and grumbled overhead but nothing much happened.

We then lightened our load and left a bag with Zoja while we did the rest of the walk. Our next day of climbing took us up past the cheese and prosciutto guy again and he was rapt to see us. After another round of cheese we kept climbing, with sensational views over the bay of Kotor beside us.

Without maps, navigation was a bit tricky but the tracks were well marked. We may not have taken the most direct route but we got to our destination ok. The town was called Njegusi and this is where the famous ham (also called prosciutto) and cheese comes from. We soon realised that this ham and cheese was so famous that it featured on every menu in the country. You could have Njegusi ham entrees, Njegusi cheese entrees, pork stuffed with Njegusi ham and cheese, beef stuffed with Njegusi ham and cheese.... you get the idea. We were quickly over it! (Apologies to our vegetarian/vegan kids!)

There was only one accommodation option in Njegusi. We found cute looking A-frame bungalows, but they weren't very nice. The bathroom leaked stinky odours into the hut (we've come across this a few times) and the mattress must have been 30 years old. Every spring could clearly be seen - and felt. We were so tired that we still slept but were keen to leave the next day. The food was wonderful though and here's what the view was like from our window. Our next day's destination is that peak just visible in the distance over the ridge towards the left of the photo.

Without maps, we relied on local advice and found our way relatively easily the next day. We had great views as we climbed all the way up to a famous (in Montenegro at least) monument to a much -respected king on the top of a mountain. The king was apparently a visionary as well as a poet and philosopher. The monument was amazing and the views were unbelievable. After walking hard to reach the mountain top we were greeted with hundreds of steps though.....

Our destination that night was a lovely hotel in the middle of the National Park, which is where I fell in love with the place I mentioned earlier. Here's the view from our hotel balcony.

We spent a day doing a truly stunning loop through the National Park. It really is a sensational place. We walked through old beech forest where the leaves from centuries of trees provided soft cushioning under our feet. We saw distant sea views, rolling hills, a gorgeous little church in a valley, stunning forests and ruins of bunkers and lookouts from not-so-long-ago days of war. Oh - and four snakes in two days! One had been run over but the other three were very much alive. Many snakes in Europe aren't poisonous but one we saw was a viper - definitely poisonous. It was only about 60 cm long though.

 We think this one is actually a legless lizard but it's the only one I managed to get a photo of!

We sadly left our little piece of paradise and headed out of the national park to our next destination, the old capital of Montenegro. Throughout the walk we had seen a lot of herbs, mainly sage, but also rosemary, thyme and marjoram. As we headed out, sage in full flower painted the sides of the track purple.

We didn't see a lot of the old capital city of Cetinje as we were busy trying to organise the next day's walk and there was very little info available. It took us ages to work out where we needed to go which was a shame because the town looked lovely. We saw it at night though - it's full of gorgeous old buildings from when it was the old capital but it's only small so it was very quiet. It was lovely.

The walk the next day turned out to be not as interesting as the previous days but we found this gorgeous tea shop en route. It was closed but it was a lovely place for us to stop for a quick break.

 When we were about 3/4 of the way through the walk a man offered us a lift. We were just walking on the bitumen, so we accepted. He turned out to be a park ranger and loved that we had enjoyed his park. He dropped us right where we wanted to go. Our final plan always was to catch a boat from here up the river to Skadar Lake and finish our walk there, which is exactly what we did. The final destination wasn't really that amazing but we just wanted to do the boat trip! 

Skadar Lake is huge and is lined with water lilies.

Two very happy Vegemites. We did it!!!!

We're off for a well-earned rest! See ya!

Istanbul

Aaaaahh, Istanbul! The name alone conjures up images of Sultans and harems, of bazaars, spices and mosques. The only city in the world that straddles both Europe and Asia, Istanbul teems with an incredible 20 million people. That's the entire population of Australia in one city.

We had five days here to see the main sights, catch up with friends and do some much-needed clothes shopping and repairs (some of our hiking gear didn't survive the hike too well!) but we barely touched the surface.

We stayed in the touristy area near the main sites. The advantage was that we were close to most things. The disadvantage was that we were constantly approached by people trying to sell us carpets, tours and whatever else we apparently must have. We were constantly reminded of an old comedy skit that has the line "You look like you want to buy a carpet". I tried to google it but I can't find it. If anyone knows who did that skit or can find it on Youtube, please let us know! We even had that exact line used on us.

Our first stop was Aya Sofya. This building started life as a Christian church in Byzantine times. It was then converted to a mosque and is now a museum. Unfortunately it was under renovation so large parts were barricaded off but that's got to happen at some stage.

There were a few amazing mosaics.

We headed down to the mighty Bosphorus, which has witnessed so many incredible sights over the centuries - battles, celebrations and trading have been happening along it for thousands of years. We were hunting out a balik ekmek place. This literally means fish and bread. Yep - for a few dollars you get a piece of fish slapped into a bread roll with a bit of salad. John loved it!

We caught a ferry up the Bosphorus and saw some gorgeous old palaces, forts and grand summer houses along the water's edge.

Next up was the Sultanahmet Mosque. This is just as old and stunning as the Aya Sofya but it is still an operating mosque. 

We loved the gorgeous colours and amazing decorative work.

All women had to wear a shawl and long skirt to get in. Not sure I'd make a good Muslim woman!

We then walked through the ancient underground water cisterns. These stored water for the old city. It was very atmospheric. Most of the columns were re-used from other things. One column was supposed to be dedicated to the over 100 slaves who lost their lives building this cistern. We marvel at these incredible buildings and it's a shock to realise that many were built by slaves.

Also in this area was the remains of the old hippodrome where they used to hold chariot races. Two obelisks stolen from the Egyptians a long time ago marked the two turning points in the race and these are still standing. There is surprisingly little room to get speed up and the turns are sharp. They must have been very eventful races!

We stayed in a great hotel and one day they ran a free Turkish food tour. Of course we had to join in! First up were vegetarian meatballs. The reason that sounds strange is that they were traditionally raw but modern food laws don't allow that. They were yummy!

Next up was what our hotel manager-cum-food guide called "the most challenging part of the tour". He led us to a stand where the meat (pictured below) was roasting on a skewer. We had seen these before and knew what the meat was - sheep intestines. What we didn't previously know was that it was stuffed with sheep thymus glands!

The guy cut off a sample for us to taste so we could decide if we wanted a small serve in bread. I decided in a rash moment to give the tiniest piece a try. At first it was surprisingly tasty. It was salty and herbal. Then the taste of the gland kicked in. I suddenly remembered that I had tried "sweetbreads" before (Helen, Val and the Johns - remember the Fawlty Towers night at Dunkeld?) You would think that I would remember the horrific taste and not try it again! It was soooo awful! John decided that his taste was ok so he had a serve in bread but, judging by the photo below, I think it quickly lost its appeal!

We were then shown through the Spice Market. As you'd expect, this was awesome!

We bought the best dates I've ever had here.

This one's for you Courtney. They had so many different tea varieties as well as coffee beans from all over the world.

Lots of dried foodstuff hung from rooftops.

And now one for you Connor. Our last stop was the very shop where Turkish Delight was first invented hundreds of years ago. We sampled a number of wonderful ones. I always thought there was only one sort of Turkish Delight but there are all sorts of flavours. Yummo!

And now for a complete change of pace- just outside the spice market was the corner where you can buy your leeches! They are used for sucking blood for medicinal purposes. They were huge! I think I'd rather let nature take its course.

On a lighter note, I'll tell you a funny story. One night we were walking back near the river to our hotel after dinner. We passed some people and one of them dropped something. John picked it up and called out to them and one of them came back and collected it. The guy was a shoeshine guy and what he dropped was a brush. He thanked John then seemed to suddenly be inspired to shine John's shoes. We then realised it was some sort of scam as he tried to insist on shining John's shoes. We got out of there fast. A couple of days later we were again walking in a similar area and someone walking past us dropped a brush. John immediately launched into a game of footy with it, kicking it along the footpath. We could hear the shoeshine guy making comments behind us but he knew that we knew he was trying scam us and he wasn't too vocal!

Next up was the Topkapi Palace, home to various sultans for centuries. It was incredible. Many rooms had walls lined with hand-painted tiles and some parts were lined with gold. It had a harem, which is really just where the women lived, and a circumcision room. Circumcision is a big thing here. It's usually done at around 12 years old. Ouch!

Across the other side of the river from where we stayed there was more to see. The Galata Tower was so beautiful at night.

Ramadan started the day before we arrived. This is where devout Muslims don't eat, drink or smoke from sunrise til sunset for a month. I think it would be very tough going. At sunset, people set up picnics or join in on communal feasts. There is a party atmosphere each evening.

People picnicked in the gardens around Aya Sofya and the Sultanahmet Mosque. Fountains were lit up and coloured lights surrounded the area in celebration each night.

Sultanahmet Mosque was lit up with a sign that said something like "Welcome to Sultanahmet". They put these signs up especially for Ramadan.

While we were in Istanbul, John decided that he was tired of his beard, plus we had Skyped the kids and they were both shocked by it, so we went to a barber. Again, John had the cut-throat razor treatment.

The final result - what do you think?

One of the sights I was most looking forward to was the Grand Bazaar but I found it to be a bit underwhelming. It was nice to see but mostly sold touristy stuff. I expected there to be huge crowds there but it was fairly quiet. Some of the shop displays were gorgeous though.

One of our favourite places was a bar six floors up where there was a fantastic view of the city and we could look right at Aya Sofya. It was wonderful!

So finally it is time for us to leave Turkey. We've been here for nearly eight weeks and have absolutely loved it. The people are so caring and generous. It's part of the Muslim culture that everyone should care for other people. Nobody should be allowed to go without food or drink or any necessities. 

I have never been to a country where there is so much to see. Mountains roll down to stunning turquoise bays, wildflowers bloom everywhere, jaw-dropping landscapes abound and ancient cultures have left their imprints from one end of the country to the other. It really is a travellers' dream.

Terrorist attacks in 2015 and early 2016, plus a President who seems intent on offending other countries, have left this country's tourism industry a shadow of its previous self. Often we were the only customers in family-run accommodation or restaurants. People involved in the tourism industry begged us to tell our friends that Turkey is now safe and I'm more than happy to do so. I wouldn't hesitate to recommend it to anyone (just stay clear of the Syrian border - that's a different kettle of fish!). With shocking terrorist attacks happening since in Paris, Manchester and London, plus others that have been stopped before they happened in many other countries including Australia, Turkey is no less safe than most other parts of the world. It's a truly magical place.

Anyway, that's enough of my waffling! I'll leave you with one of my favourite photos from Istanbul.

Bye for now.

Heather and John

Ancient Civilisations and Awesome Landscapes

Hello again! Welcome back to our little blog. If you're reading this then you've done well listening to our stories for this long!

We left Cappadocia and headed across to the west coast. It's a long way so we flew. Flights are so cheap here! We stayed in an interesting backpacker type of place run by an Aussie Turk. We met some lovely people there and had a lot of fun.

Our main destination there was Ephesus, one of the largest ruined cities in the world. It was incredible. Even more incredible is that 80% of it is still under the ground, awaiting discovery! This was the fourth largest city of the Roman Empire and it had everything - houses, theatres, temples and markets.

The main street must have been stunning in its time.

Restoration makes such a difference to what we see and can understand. The restored building above was a highlight.

There was a separate section that was still being excavated. It was kept under cover for protection and we had to pay extra to get in but we're sure glad we did it. This was an area of houses owned by the wealthy. There were gorgeous mosaic floors and amazing painted walls.

For some weird reason that I can't work out, I've lost the next lot of photos on my camera so you'll just have to envisage the following. One of the strangest places was the public toilets. There was no privacy in those days. Rows of toilet seats were carved into marble slabs over drains. There was only about half a metre between seats. The really privileged people had the rights to one toilet seat and they had their initials carved into them! There was also supposedly a brothel.

The next day we visited a very cool old castle and explored the ruins of a huge church. Wish I had the photos. We also found a restaurant owned by a Turkish/Chinese couple who had lived in Australia. We were excited to have Chinese food after about 7 weeks of Turkish food!

We caught a bus to our next destination, Pamukkale, and had our first negative experience with Turkish touts when we were told we had to get off the bus and got driven to our hotel but in they detoured past a tour shop to try to get us to buy a tour. We had heard about that sort of thing happening but we had never experienced it anywhere else. We were definitely in prime tourist country now!

Pamukkale is famous for mineral-rich water which deposits calcite onto the landscape, leaving gorgeous white terraces cascading down the hill. There are pools of ice-coloured water that people can swim in. It's a UNESCO World Heritage site but we were so disappointed to find that they had diverted the water away from the real pools and had built new pools from concrete! They had ruined a large part of the area. We think that maybe this was done before it became World Heritage listed but we're not sure. We could still see some lovely real pools though.

As the water drips over the edge of terraces it creates stalagtite-like effects. This is a real pool.

There were some cool features on the white surface.

In one of the fake pools.

Pamukkale is a double whammy - at the top of the cascades is a gorgeous ruined city. Some parts were lined with flowers. It was very pretty.

Ohhh, poppies again!

The main street here was amazing once again. All those columns on the right belong to the public toilets. That's a lot of loos!

As we slogged up a hill to see the theatre I said to John that I was at the stage where this was a JUT - Just Another Theatre. I was getting a bit theatred out. Then we stepped out onto the top floor and were blown away! The theatre had been 90% restored and it was simply stunning. It was huge! The stage part was several stories high and was still missing its last two stories. The views from the top were sensational as well. This photo is taken from half way up. Over the centuries this place served many functions, including gladiator fights.

We're off to Istanbul next - it's our final destination in Turkey!

Cheers,
John and Heather