The beginning……of an adventure

Mongol Rally Route

Although we are not leaving until the 18^th of July the adventure has already started for us. We have been applying for visas and it has been taking us ages because we did not expect we had to plan the all trip there and then. We have never really thought before about how far we have to go and how many countries, people, cultures, religions, foods, roads,adventures, habits, obstacles, challenges we will live in the 10000 miles we are going to travel.

There were so many more places we wanted to go to but the visa cost would become too high. I suppose the fact we have to reach Mongolia by the 14th of October did not help either.

So here is the route…..we leave from Italy the 18th of July, we are passing through Austria and into Hungary where we hope to visit at least Budapest. We then go into the land of Dracula and cross the border into Bulgaria, with its monasteries, sky resorts, old tombs and natural parks. Once we reach Turkey we will definitely be out of Europe and in the hands of God or better Allah.

Turkey with its Roman ruins and Turkish baths, with the beautiful Cappadocia and the fantastic Istanbul. After we have gone across the all length of the country we then will move into Iran and it better be good because it cost us the beauty of 145 £ each to get a visa. By the way I will have to wear the Hejab (because I am a woman) for the entire time we are there and believe it or not, I even had to wear it when taking a photo for my visa, having the photographer laughing at me because I did not know how to do it properly.

But going back to the trip…..Persia with the famous Persepolis so important in the past, the even more striking Isfahan and so far the second country in the world for gas and oil resources. A country that most people consider Arab but that in fact is so different in culture, religion, language and habits.

And then we get into Turkmenistan and Uzbekistan about which we know nothing about…….and the famous land of Borat, Kazakhstan. Russia is next, followed by Mongolia where there are only 80 km of sealed roads in the all country and only a look at the map will make you understand the difficulty involved. We will be able to tell more stories about these countries during the trip…..that is one of the reason we are going there….

Ulaanbaatar is the final target……(if we ever get there)….where we can go and visit the charity we are raising money for.

I will be writing soooooooooon…..

——peace—–:-) and a thought goes for all the Italians killed and hurt by the earthquake…

This Ball A

Mongol Rally Route

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