A Bit of Bulgaria

And so we began our final journey. After flying back to Istanbul from Sydney, we collected our car in Thessaloniki, Greece. From there, we had only 2,500km left of our trip before selling the car in Amsterdam and moving to the UK.

The first stop on this final leg is Sofia, capital of Bulgaria. This brings our final country count to 46.

We didn't stay for long, partly because there wasn't much to see, and partly because we came very much at the wrong time of year.

The city has some very unique and famous churches. In the middle of a busy road and metro intersection is the 14th century Sveta Petka Samardijska Church.

The 4th century Roman Rotunda of St. George, surrounded by the President's Building.

The gigantic Aleksander Nevski Memorial Church.

There are a few monuments which can euphemistically be described as interesting. The Monument to the Bulgarian State was built in 1981 to commemorate the 1300th anniversary of the first Bulgarian Empire.

There is also the towering statue of Saint Sofia. All we can gather is that she must have really liked gold.

She is, of course, not to be confused with anyone else who loves gold.

Perhaps it is only fitting then, that the streets of her city, are indeed paved with gold.

Sydney

Getting a bit tired of the snow and cold of Europe, we flew "home" for a couple of weeks to visit our old amigos and of course, to go to the wedding of our friends Michael and Sarah.

On the way to Sydney, we spent a day in Singapore.

As we hadn't slept much on the flight, we raced to see as many sites as possible before falling asleep.

The butterfly garden at Changi Airport.

So we saw a lot of people, and forgot to take photos most of the time, but here are a few.

Pub trivia (which we won) with Matt, Mikey, Lucy and Yonah's spirit in the middle.

Australia Day BBQ at Anya and Andrew's place.

Roz's birthday celebrations

Poker at Nicola's place

We had some of the food that we've been missing, including among others, Erciyes Turkish takeaway and Harry's Cafe de Wheels pies.

Josh playing the weekly game of squash that just hasn't been the same since he left.

Josh recalled what beaches with waves are like

While Yaz recalled what a country without an ozone layer is like.

But the main reason for our visit was the wedding. Prefaced by the buck's weekend.

 The wedding also went swimmingly. 'Twas a beautiful ceremony followed by a most fabulous shindig.

Lucy, Bob, Aviva, Yaz and Megan

 Dean, Matt and Yaz

Brian and Josh

Clockwise from Josh: Josh, Jared, Lucy, Andrew, Aviva's left eye, Yaz

 Goodbye Australia, catch ya on the flippity-flip

Cappadocia

After our brief and separate stints in other parts of Asia, we reunited in the Asian part of Turkey, spending three days in the beautiful and unparalleled region of Cappadocia.

We based ourselves in the town of Göreme, one of the towns in which people have built their homes into the rock for thousands of years.

The rocks in this part of the world have been eroded to form beautiful and strange shapes, such as these fairy chimneys.

Pigeon Valley

There is some great local cuisine...

...some great local pottery...

...and a combination of the two. Kebap cooked in a sealed clay pot

Cappadocia was a major site of early christianity, with many underground churches paying tribute to saints of the 4th century.

Persecuted for their religion, the Christians used underground cities to avoid plunder by Romans and later Muslims. Kaymaklı Underground City could shelter up to five thousand people.

While seeing the landscape on the ground and underground was impressive, it was only from up in a hot air balloon early one morning that we could truly appreciate Cappadocia. We haven't used the term "breathtaking" yet in the blog, only because we were saving it for something as breathtaking as this.

The pilots like to show off by going right into the valleys.

Upon landing, we received customary champagne, and a graduation certificate.