so i'm NOT going to istanbul. nor turkey at all. that was just an ill-fated dream i guess, spurred by the talk of everyone around me spouting off about how wonderful it is. when it came down to it though, i (a), couldn't find a guidebook, and (b), don't have the time. to be done well, and to see what i want to see, turkey needs 2+ weeks at LEAST, and though i have that, i still want to go island hopping in greece. in the end, i didn't want to do the CONTIKI tour of turkey and greece, 21 countries in 14 days, or something like that. and thirdly, and most of all, i'm growing tired of "sight-seeing". and thats what istanbul would be, as its full of wonderful sights. nope, instead, i'm sticking to my original plan, and will be heading to bulgaria for a few days, before heading out to the lovely islands of greece for about 2 weeks. the "sights" there should be much more apealing, and certain much more relaxing. once again, i feel as though i need a vacation from my vacation (although traveling is at times hardly a vacation). i miss the beach, and don't want to rush it. so with that, i'm heading south, not east.
bucharest has had a lot to do with that as well. the city just really does nothing for me. i can't be bothered to go looking at things, cause frankly, there's not that much here. just MASSIVE boulevards, lined with utterly unapealing concrete structures. i mean, thats great for the first few hours, but its really cold and unfriendly after a few days. even the people's palace, the 2nd largest building in the world, is a massively unattractive building. i would have expected more. and the tour of it was crap as well. sure it was interesting to see the inside, but after visiting 18 conference rooms, i'd had enough.
and i'm nearly out of time here, and seeing how the thing ate my entry the other day, i'm not chancing it. next update will be from sofia..