INTO TURKEY - TASTING THE CAKES, AND REVELLING IN HOT SHOWERS AND LETTERS AT ESSO CAMPSITE

By the time we reached Turkey we had been on the road for three weeks, yet this was the first stop where we could pick up mail from home.  Imagine being out of contact with family and friends for that length of time in the 21st century - inconceivable!  Letters were like lottery wins and home entertainment rolled into one!

SATURDAY 16TH OCTOBER, 1976

"Early start - dark when got up - no one looked very bright!

Countryside fairly poor, flattish fields, lots of cart and oxen, dirty muddy rivers, mostly dried up; low hills in the distance.  Stopped at grotty town - spent last drachma on biscuits - funny blend of Turkish and European clothing - most women enveloped in black.  Little kids came after us for money - boys pushing smaller kids in prams - pathetic sight; came as quite a shock when felt a little tug at my elbow.

Stopped at border for a bit - some buses were made to empty completely - at Turkish side, bedding and things spread all around.

Long drive for most of the day.  Stopped for a cay stop in town on the coast.  Got a welcome in the cake shop (me and Neva needless to say!) everyone very friendly.  Had an eclair!

Eventually reached the Esso Campsite outside Istanbul - dark by that time, so haven't seen anything yet.  Kitchen facilities - all ate in the dinning room area - Encounter [Overland] group singing away at other end of room.

Hot showers here too!!!  Windy and cold tonight.  1st mail stop.  Letters from Mum and Dad."

DREAMLIKE DUBROVNIK - VIRTIGINOUS VIEWS, OVERLANDER PHOTOS 1976

LETTER HOME:


"Highlight today was Dubrovnic - as good as I'd hoped.  No traffic is allowed inside the old city walls and so it is lovely and peaceful, masses of small allies and old houses.  We walked round the town wall, quite high up and so the views were terrific - some of the wall drops away to the sea, worth feeling a bit of vertigo!"

GORGEOUS YUGOSLAVIA - LOVELY LADS AND STICKY CAKES, and meet my friends the Overlanders, 1976

EXTRACTS FROM LETTER HOME:

"One thing that is very striking to the girls of the group is the positive hordes of gorgeous looking fellas in every town we've been to in Jugoslavia!  Why was I never told?!  (The group by the way is very much over weighted with girls - 17 to 11!  There are three couples and I'm the youngest of the group.  Everyone seems to get on well) ...

There's often a group of us who sightsee together (the card sharps at the back of the bus!)  There's a super Aussie couple, Paul and Julie, another Aussie girl Jan who is friendly with the driver's helper Fred, who suddenly appeared at Paris.  Then there's a couple of nice fellas, Rob and Mark - Rob feels a protective responsibility towards a newly released school girl! and is a real laugh, and Mark is rather exuberant and is always the first to fall over clutching a vino bottle or to dance on the tables! ...

A great feature of Jugoslavia are the fabulous little sticky cake shops!  At one town we were eating these and I smacked my lips and said how much I was enjoying it - next minute the little man had rushed away and got a glass of water!  (It's the custom to have it with the coffee).  The chocolate eclairs, Dad, are out of this world!"

More on the Overlanders novel at: http://bit.ly/bEVp5V

TALES FROM AN UNTIDY BUS - washing strewn everywhere and there's a body in the aisle, 1976

EXTRACTS FROM LETTER HOME, WRITTEN IN FLORENCE, ITALY, 1976

" ... refrained from spending small fortunes on leather goods (and of course the pink inflatable pocket size statue of David - thought you'd like it for the new mantelpiece at Suardal!)
However we treated ourselves to real Italian pizzas and ice cream (water melon flavour)

... the rain has caught up with us again I think we're cursed.  Tonight we're going into a disco - the Red Garter.

By the way we're not going to Tehran which is a bit of a shame, so don't write there.  Geoff the driver (a Scot) said that writing on p.cs or aerogrammes to Asia is advisable so no one will break into them.  (It takes about 4 days for a letter to get to Istanbul).

We're a day ahead of schedule if you're following on the map!  The group we met in Paris were a month overdue from Kathmandu, so I may be spending Xmas in the Khyber Pass!  Half their group were struck by hypertytus [sic] and flown home!

Well, signing off - got to tidy the bus!  At the moment all the packs are down, washing is strewn from railings and there's a body sleeping in the aisle (Fred who appeared in Paris and makes himself useful cleaning windows etc - done the trip before).

Off to Venice tomorrow,
Love and kisses,
Jan

OVERLANDER LETTER HOME, 1976 - Angel Delight, Pernod, cards and camping in the rain.

FIRST LETTER HOME WRITTEN ON THE BUS THROUGH FRANCE:

A touch of envy at Contiki Tours; no camp stew and Angel Delight for them ...

 

On the bus!

(Provence)

Dear Mum and Dad

Hope you got my p.c. from Paris.  We had a good evening - some of us got a lift from Contiki Tours into Paris again.  A very smooth bus - tinted windows, luxury seats and a courier who tells sick jokes!  (They even had a marquee affair where they doled out breakfast - not real camping!)

They drove up the Champs Elysees and round the Arc de Triomphe all floodlit - and round and round ... the traffic being Parisian it took some time to work our way to the outside of the race-course and take one of the roads again!

And a brief encounter with a formidable female French patron in a bar ...

They all went to a restaurant for a meal but as we'd eaten the soup/stew? and Angel Delight? concoction at the camp we all piled into a bar down the road.  We were "stung" by the awful prices because we sat down rather than prop up the bar.  Two of the group tried to "persuade" the waiter that the prices were too much and disappeared behind the bar with him - far from winning, the lady patron appeared - and no one argues with French landladies (they ended up buying the waiter a drink!)

Aussie card games on the bus and putting up tents in the rain ...

Yesterday we were woken at 6.0 (ugh!) and were on the road by 8.30.  We had a few 15 min stops on the auto-route, but apart from that, were on the road for 12 hours!  Spent most of the day playing rummy than then learnt an Aussie game called "5000" - I was pretty useless (having excelled at Rummy) - perhaps it would help if I stood on my head!

In the dark and rain we pitched at a place called Orange, Provence.  Had a quick drink to fortify us - the exuberant barmen had been knocking back the Pernods, so insisted that the first round was free! (About seven people).  This morning was still wet and hazy."

card scores recorded on toilet paper!