Home to Istanbul?

I like daydreaming of places I’d like to travel to.  Perhaps home to Istanbul? Mostly this is where I like to get there under my own steam or at least to get there fairly independently.  As much as I love flying, there is a certain “something” to the satisfaction of arriving in some faraway place on your own.  And so yesterday my day dreaming took me to Bulgaria and then to Turkey and the very edge of Europe.

Knowing this could be a tricky thing to raise with Rachel, I figured Bulgaria might be easier to swallow, rather than suggesting we go to Istanbul.  This is because I figured Rachel might not know exactly where Bulgaria was, other than being in Europe.  And mainland Europe, after all, wasn’t that far away.  Istanbul on the other hand is almost into a different continent with its different alphabet, climate, language, non-Euro currency, Arab influences and everything else for that matter.

No point in messing around.  I decided to suggest a possible holiday destination, once my escape plan had been accomplished.

“How about Bulgaria?  Perhaps in the Autumn?”

“Go on….?” a somewhat guarded and cautious reply from Rachel who by now knows she needs to be careful expressing too much interest in any of my ideas as it might be interpreted as a clear go-ahead on my part.

“Bulgaria is only 1,300 miles away, just like driving around Scotland and back.  Easy.”

Raised eyebrows.

“Actually if we get that far we might as well go as far as Istanbul, since we’ll almost be there.  We could drive there in a few days.  I’ve just washed the Honda and I’m sure it’ll make it”

What could possibly be wrong with my idea?  We could have fun by doing it on a shoe string, staying in B&Bs or camping along the way and we’ll have all the time in the world.  Actually we could go via Poland and I’ve always wanted to visit one of those WW2 concentration camp museums to blow my brains out on some startling modern day history.

“I thought you were going to break me in gently to this travelling lark!”

“I am!”

Raised eyebrows morph into a frown.

“What about Poppy [the dog] and my Mum?”.

Damn I knew there would be a snag.  Grandma is needing more attention and care these days from us.  She doesn’t readily warm to the idea of strangers looking after her.

Still, it was a nice daydream.  One day.