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OVERLAND: Liverpool to India, start across Europe to Istanbul

So I had been busy planning my Overland trip, that is all the way from Liverpool across the European and Asian continent to India with no flights, just public transport.

Train tickets for across Europe were sorted first. Scheduled to leave on a Monday afternoon Eurostar to Paris on 20th September, and all goes well several trains and a few days and nights l8r i will be arriving in Istanbul.  Also have to  sort my India, Pakistani and Iranian visas which should be do-able if a little tricky to get hold of and involved trips to London and Manchester to visit the embassies.

The general outline then is to spend October in turkey with mark my Australian backpacking friend, then Iran in November, before crossing Pakistan and getting into India, down to Goa for the Christmas holiday period.
Here it is from the start then:
Well after 3 days of travelling I reached Istanbul this morning! Its great to meet up with my friend and start exploring after a large section of my journey is already complete.

The train journey went reasonably well across Europe, despite being quite tired now, after getting a Eurostar to Paris Monday evening, I followed that on to an overnight sleeper service to Munich, before a high speed Austrian railjet daytime train to Budapest, Hungary.

This left me a few hours to stock up on food and drink for another night train over to Belgrade, Serbia, and finally the longest leg of all Belgrade all the way through to Istanbul, via Bulgaria.

So spent the afternoon here exploring around Istanbul, which including seeing the grand bazaar with endless amounts of aisles and shops and traders on show, and the great blue mosque. Going to enjoy the food and head out for a good meal tonight

6 comments

  1. we've been thinking about you every waking minute since you left us Tom. Glad you arrived safely and are enjoying your travels.
    We will enjoy reading your blog, please keep us updated…
    take care,
    lots of love from your mum and Dadxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

  2. Hi Tom, how exciting reading about your travels, I'm quite jealous. But I made it to Grimsby by myself! Denise and I going to Shannon's 4th birthday party at Pirate Pete's, how does that compare for excitement? We are really proud of you, have a great time, fond love, Nanny xx

  4. wow overland to Instabul – some trip that already mate! Mosques and culture are great,call to prayer and all that but make sure you check out the kebabs too! I reckon you could get some garlic bread with that !!! Enjoy mate – Rob.

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