We are off on the road once more--this time on a ten-day tour on our own of Croatia, Montenegro and Bosnia, then flying to Istanbul for a few days before joining a two-week guided tour of Turkey.
Our timing sucks! (Or does it blow?) It started with our travel partners, Gary and Chris Abbate , having to drop out at the last minute due to some medical issues. They were disappointed to miss the trip we had all spent so much time and effort planning, and we were extremely bummed at losing our travel buds.
Then there's the refugee issue. We've always watched Turkey carefully. The southeast corner (in the Kurdish region near the Syrian border) has always been dangerous. We'd go to New Jersey first! But we consider our tour company, Overseas Adventure Travel (OAT) to be pretty conservative and careful. Plus Roger has been there a couple of times in the seventies and we have friends who have been there recently and it is a WONDERFUL and EXOTIC country. Then a couple of weeks before our travel things begin to unravel a bit. First, the Turks allow the U.S. Air Force to bomb ISIS military targets in Syria from our airbase in southeast Turkey. That pissed off quite a few Turks. Not bad enough? Then every malcontent from Syria to Sub-Sahara Africa decided to tramp through Turkey on their way north to the Promised Land (Germany, apparently). So the danger may no longer be contained to that easily avoidable southeast corner of Turkey. But certainly Istanbul is safe, we thought, until we read that Celebrity and Costa Cruise Lines cancelled Istanbul from their ports-of-call for the rest of the year because of "security concerns".
But we're not done yet. Hungary excluded the refugees at their southern border, throwing them back to Serbia, which is fine with us because we're not going to Serbia. Then Serbia directs them to Croatia and Bosnia, two countries where we ARE traveling and they are arriving daily in the tens of thousands. So within days of our departure we've got ISIS, Angry Young Turks, Ethiopian refugees, and irate Balkan border guards on our asses. All of these things have happened within the last ten days. Will this change our plans or slow us down? Never! We moon them all. Well, maybe one of us does.
Good travel always has an element of the unexpected. If we wanted safe, we'd go to Cleveland.
Watch for our next BLOG post of Split, Dubrovnik and Montenegro.
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| Starting in Split, Croatia; bus to Dubrovnik; day-trip to Montenegro; bus across the Bosnian border to Mostar; bus to Sarajevo. Flight to Istanbul for a few days, then a two-week tour. |
Then there's the refugee issue. We've always watched Turkey carefully. The southeast corner (in the Kurdish region near the Syrian border) has always been dangerous. We'd go to New Jersey first! But we consider our tour company, Overseas Adventure Travel (OAT) to be pretty conservative and careful. Plus Roger has been there a couple of times in the seventies and we have friends who have been there recently and it is a WONDERFUL and EXOTIC country. Then a couple of weeks before our travel things begin to unravel a bit. First, the Turks allow the U.S. Air Force to bomb ISIS military targets in Syria from our airbase in southeast Turkey. That pissed off quite a few Turks. Not bad enough? Then every malcontent from Syria to Sub-Sahara Africa decided to tramp through Turkey on their way north to the Promised Land (Germany, apparently). So the danger may no longer be contained to that easily avoidable southeast corner of Turkey. But certainly Istanbul is safe, we thought, until we read that Celebrity and Costa Cruise Lines cancelled Istanbul from their ports-of-call for the rest of the year because of "security concerns".
But we're not done yet. Hungary excluded the refugees at their southern border, throwing them back to Serbia, which is fine with us because we're not going to Serbia. Then Serbia directs them to Croatia and Bosnia, two countries where we ARE traveling and they are arriving daily in the tens of thousands. So within days of our departure we've got ISIS, Angry Young Turks, Ethiopian refugees, and irate Balkan border guards on our asses. All of these things have happened within the last ten days. Will this change our plans or slow us down? Never! We moon them all. Well, maybe one of us does.
Good travel always has an element of the unexpected. If we wanted safe, we'd go to Cleveland.
Watch for our next BLOG post of Split, Dubrovnik and Montenegro.
We love hearing about your adventures. Sorry your travel friends had to drop out at the last moment. We are doing an OAT trip to Easter Island, the fjords of Chile, and Iguassu Falls this November. We also did an OAT trip to Guatemala and Costa Rica in March this year. Had a great Chicken Bus ride experience in Guatemala during that trip. We were in Istanbul with travel friends in June 2014.
ReplyDeleteNels and Tess Freeman
Great account of your overall plans, Looking forward to tales of terror, derring-do and incredible adventures (but that's all in a novel I'm now reading). I am looking forward to YOUR stories of fun, friendship and interesting places you've visited.
ReplyDeleteBe safe and carry on
ReplyDelete