This weeks update...

Haven't had much time for updating this recently, mainly laziness on my part. Brief summary so far is...
Spent a few more days in Romania, absolutely fantastic country which I really want to visit again, stayed in a hostel type place with a massive living room with billiards and a bar, though we couldn't use it. Did some free camping and had a campfire out in the middle of the mountains. Drank more, went to Bucharest and drank a hell of a lot more in a club followed by much dancing (YMCA and Motorhead make a good mix?) and trying to walk home despite having no idea which way we were going. Went to the Peoples Palace in town and walked around it, took about 45 minutes as it's so huge.
Spent the night free camping in Bulgaria by a big lake, got one of the canoes out and a few people went for a paddle. Had a great BBQ then carried on into Turkey the next day. Took 5 hours to get through customs as they've changed the rules again and it was May day so they wanted us to take everything out to make sure we weren't going to cause riots in Istanbul. Staying in a hostel in the city centre at the moment, went to see the Blue Mosque (not actually blue) and Hagia Sophia (not as impressive as I was led to believe), went for a cruise on a ferry, wandered round the Bazaars and haggled on a few things and just enjoyed Istanbul. So much going on it's all quite hectic and everyone seems to be in a rush, it's quite nice to just sit around and watch what's going on.
Ended up drinking until 3:30 last night with the barman on the roof so stayed in bed 'til 2 today, went for a pizza for lunch and then to a Turkish Baths. Never been so glad of a cold shower after sitting in the sauna for 10 minutes, had a scrub/massage wash thing and I'm feeling fantastically relaxed and clean now. Sat in the hostel with a few others having a drink or two deciding whether to head into town to find a club whilst Bob Marley sings away on the Ipod, life is good!

Heading up to the Black Sea tomorrow to stay for 2 nights by a beach, hopefully for some surfing and messing around in the sea, then down to Goreme for a few more days...