Nice was a short sharp trip over a couple of days but that was really just a precursor to, and solo-travelling practice for, the next one. The Balkans (not to be confused with the Baltics!), specifically Athens and Istanbul, is where I’m off to now.

Apart from knowing I wanted to go somewhere this trip was unplanned until a week ago; not as spontaneous as Nice, of course, but that’s fine! With 8 days to fit my travel into I was again spoiled for choice but eventually decided to head (a little bit) south for the winter and see a part of the world I’d somehow managed to avoid up to now.

I knew from the start that Athens and Istanbul would be my “main events” but initially I was looking at an Athens-Thessaloniki-Sofia-Istanbul route. Thessaloniki sounded nice enough to spend a little time in, and the overnight train from Sofia to Istanbul sounded intriguing even if potentially scary. On a longer trip I think that would still have been my preferred route, but with just 8 days available I felt that I couldn’t really do justice to 4 cities and it’d be a pity to skimp on any. Instead I’m going to fly directly from Athens to Istanbul which gives me a full three days (plus partial travel days) in each city. Sorted!

Continuing with the “treat this like a backpacker” thought I’m doing AirBnb in Athens and a hostel in Istanbul. The AirBnb place in particular sounds pretty interesting but I’ll get into the details of that later!

The flight out is from Stansted, leaving at 8.45 on Saturday. Have to be up and out by 5.45, oh joy!

Flights booked, visa acquired, accommodation booked, what else…

Oh yes! Bag upgrade! Now I can feel like a real backpacker. Old on the right, new on the left.

And also: new shoes! Important for all of the walking I will inevitably be doing over the next week or so; fingers crossed they don’t entirely cut the feet off me.

Status: excited!