I just crossed the finish line! I got into Croatia this morning and arrived in Split shortly after. I've walked around the old town a little bit and taken a couple of snaps. Here, the incredible Palace of Emperor Diocletian:
Over two months ago, I started my trip in Almaty and made my way to Croatia. It's a cool feeling: I've traveled the Silk Road using only overland transportation. I recently found that Marco Polo's house is close to here, on Korcula Island, which I thought was fitting.
I'm glad that I was blessed with the time to make this trip happen -- overall, it really was an amazing experience. It think it was about the right length of time as well: any shorter would have been painfully rushed, any longer and my energy and cash might have worn out somewhere along the way.
While I hoped the trip would be fun, I had expected a healthy dose of bad moments -- days of loneliness, stomach sickness, police encounters. Luckily, there were only a few:
- Waiting for the Caspian ferry while very sick in Turkmenistan
- Getting stuck in the Anzob tunnel (a.k.a. Tunnel of Death), Tajikistan. Side note: I have it from a reliable source that a taxi driver actually died from suffocation the night I got stuck -- eerie, huh?
- Not getting to go to the Pamirs because of a horrendous misprint in my guidebook
And of course, there were plenty of highlights. It was a tough call, but here are my top ten:
10. Drinking beers on mosques / making videos in the empty old town, Khiva (Uzbekistan)
9. Making an organic dinner with a WW2 vet (Nagorno-Karabakh Republic)
8. Finding the beached ships of the old Aral Sea, Moynaq (Uzbekistan)
7. Seeing Turkmenbashi's Ashgabat (Turkmenistan)
6. Climbing Mount Olympus (Greece)
5. Checking out the Darvaza Gas Craters (Turkmenistan)
4. Learning (some) Russian
3. Making it through all five 'Stans on one go. In hindsight, this wasn't that easy to do.
2. Making good new friends: James, Michael and Thierry especially (Uzbekistan to Georgia)
1. Staying in a yurt with nomads (Kyrgyzstan)
An incredible summer so far, but I've saved the best for last. Tomorrow, I will be joined in Split by the beautiful Stephanie. We're going to spend two weeks traveling down the Dalmatian coast to Dubrovnik, visiting Cologne and checking out Iceland. Should be fun!
So, this will be my last post on this blog... at least for now. Hope you've enjoyed it!
2 comments:
Bravo Alastair!! What a tremendous journey and a fantastic blog. A huge group of people have been with you along the journey, albeit vicariously. Hope to see you soon. Hugs.
great stuff al, thanks for sharing mate! has been awesome to follow along on your trip, especially now that i'm stuck back at school. let me know when the next trip's blogs start coming out... =)
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