Restless Feet

The End of Another Adventure

2007-08-25T04:10:00.000+01:00

I'm back home in England now, which means it's finally over. I made it from Scandinavia to Asia by land and sea, visiting 24 countries and nearly 60 cities, spending an unhealthy amount of time on trains and buses and sleeping in all kinds of different hostels, hotels, apartments and friends' places.

I am certainly looking forward to relaxing at home, sleeping in my own bed, not getting up at 6am every day to catch lengthy train journeys and being able to take a shower whenever I want! But first, however, I want to take a look back at my trip:

My route map (click to enlarge)

Some of my favourite moments:

After climbing down a mountain for two hours, and still mid-way up, sitting in a cottage with friends and eating sauerkraut whilst gazing over the Austrian Alps.
Holding hands and singing patriotic songs, whilst joining in the graduation party of some Estonian students.
Visiting an abandoned Soviet missile base in the middle of nowhere, with nobody else around except the couple of people I was with.
Staying in a hostel covered in bullet holes in Bosnia and having one of the best times I've ever had.
Visiting a Serbian monastery nestled in hills of Kosovo, one of the most serene places I have ever been.
Celebrating Midsummer by the sea in Lithuania, complete with bonfire and music.

Relaxing in Istanbul on the final day of my trip

And some of the most memorable moments:

Being on a bus full of smugglers from Ukraine and getting caught up in the ensuing madness at the border.
Hurtling along dusty, bumpy tracks at over 100mph, crammed into a car with five Albanians as we headed across the border to Shkodra.
Firing an AK-47 in a Soviet bunker, with no tuition and a Russian man shouting at me (in Russian) to hurry up and get on with it.
Unexpectedly bumping into a friend on a bus in Lithuania I had previously met in a remote forest in Finland a year before.
Visting a non-existant state (Kosovo), where everything is run by the UN and peacekeepers are needed to keep things stable.
Witnessing the continued ethnic strife in a village in Bosnia, where the two opposing peoples live on opposite sides of the river.

Thank you Europe!

Above all this, I met so many wonderful people on the way who I will never forget - Europe is such a fantastically diverse and interesting place, and if anything Eastern Europe is even more so. I'd like to say thank you to all the people who made my trip so memorable and, despite travelling on my own, never left me feeling lonely.

Now to start planning my next trip...

Thanks for reading!

David Allan,
August 2007

Bonus Videos - The Best Moments

2007-08-24T21:43:00.000+01:00

I finally got round to uploading videos of some of the most memorable moments of my trip:

Singing a national song during a graduation party in Estonia

The annual diving contest from the Old Bridge in Mostar, Bosnia

Standing on top of a hill in Prizren, Kosovo during the call to prayer

I have also added some of my photos to a collection on Flickr, so please take a look.

Turkey - Istanbul II

2007-08-21T04:04:00.000+01:00

With my third day in Istanbul dawning, and my final of the entire trip, I headed with Metin into the modern shopping district of Kadıköy where we met with his cousin.

On the ferry again

After coffee next door to a British pub (a strange thing to find here), I caught a shared taxi, known as a Dolmuş, down to the harbour and caught the ferry back across to the European side. There were still many things left to see in my short time left.

Inside the Hagia Sophia

First stop was the Hagia Sophia (or Aya Sofya), a stunning example of sixth-century Byzantine architecture. It's amazing to stand in such an enormous building, knowing it is 1500 years old. For a thousand years it was the largest cathedral in the world and was, after the fall of Constantinople, converted into a mosque on the orders of the Sultan complete with the addition of minarets.

The view from the Hagia Sophia toward the Blue Mosque

Next I headed by tram further along to the bustling Grand Bazaar. An enormous, sprawling collection of over 4,000 shops and stands and packed with crowds of people, it contains what is supposedly the world's oldest shopping mall. Just finding my way out was a challenge, but I managed to resist the draw of buying anything.

Leaving the Grand Bazaar

I went on a tour of several more historic buildings and mosques, which are great places to get away from the heat, noise and crowds of the city and simply relax. I also made sure to try a kebab and they certainly seemed a lot healthier than the ones we have here in England (which we only tend to eat after drinking) and combined with the cheap price I'm glad I'm not staying long or I'd be eating these all day.

Entering another mosque

I spent some time wandering around the backstreets, trying to find the 'real' Istanbul behind what the tourists see, but it is striking how clean, modern and 'first world' the city is, which really isn't how I had expected it to be. At least in the centre I didn't find any slums, although there were quite a few cluttered and disorganised scenes like the one below, which only add to the charm.

Wandering the backstreets

I took a lift to to the top of Galata Tower, a historic structure that provides an excellent 360-degree view of the city. From here it's easier to get a sense of the sheer scale of the place - this is one of the largest cities in Europe and continues to expand each year.

Some of the most impressive architecture is almost hidden away

After completing my final sightseeing of the trip, I caught a boat back across to Kadıköy and met up with Metin. Later that night we headed out to İstiklal Avenue, arguably the most famous street in the city, rammed with all kinds of shops, galleries, bars and clubs.

Heading toward the enormous suspension bridge

Here I managed to try the local ice cream which, as a big fan of the stuff, I would say is unique in the world. Chewy and stringy, the seller literally stabs the tub with a stick and pulls it out as if it were made of plasticine and then does all kinds of tricks with it, swinging it around his body. Definitely something worth seeing!

We later took a trip across the bridge by dolmuş

We caught a dolmuş across the Bosphorus Bridge, which gave a fantastic view of the city at night and headed back home. The last day of my trip is now over and tomorrow morning I must get myself to the airport, which apparently will take a bus, boat, tram and a train! While the journey won't be too enjoyable, I'm really looking forward to finally going home. Just a few more hours left!

Turkey - Istanbul I

2007-08-21T02:51:00.000+01:00

The train pulled into Istanbul's Sirkeci station in the early morning. The station dates from the era of the Orient Express and still retains the air of mystique it earned as the terminus of that famous journey. After saying goodbye to my cabin-mates from the train, I headed into the city to get some Turkish lira. Unfortunately, it was a public holiday and few shops were open, so I had to aimlessly wander around, tired and carrying my bags, until I eventually found an exchange office. The rates were terrible, but I needed the cash for the final part of my journey.

Made it! Istanbul! End of the line!

I boarded one of the famous ferries across the Bosphorus to my final destination - Asia! The stretch of water separates the two parts of the city, the European side to the West and the Asian side to the East. The journey took about 20 minutes to Kadikoy, at which point I could now say that I have journeyed from Scandinavia to Asia by land and sea. Quite an achievement!

The ferries are a major mode of transport in Istanbul

I was heading to my Turkish friend's place. I met Metin as a fellow student whilst on exchange in Finland and was looking forward to once again seeing a friendly face. It was also nice to have somewhere more homely to stay for the very end of the trip - no more bunk beds for me. I took a taxi from the ferry terminal quite a distance into the suburbs and was alarmed by the horrendous quality of driving I witnessed. Despite the roads and cars being all shiny and new, it seems that modern driving standards have not yet reached Turkey.

On the ferry between Europe and Asia

Despite firmly agreeing on a price before accepting the ride, the taxi driver managed to rip me off and actually snatched some money out of my hand when we arrived. I got very angry, started shouting at him and he started shouting at me, and with neither of us speaking the other's language, I realised the situation would not be resolved and walked away. The money was actually very little, and it was the end of my trip so I decided to shrug it off, but it was not a nice welcome to Turkey.

Towers and a big flag on Camlica Hill

I was warmly greeted by Metin and took a shower, much-needed after such a long journey. Later, we met with a friend of his who had a car and he drove me around and gave a tour of the Asian side of the city. After stopping for traditional Turkish food in a charming little café, we drove up to the top of Camlica Hill, one of the tallest in Istanbul and offering a fantastic view of the city. Sipping Turkish coffee at the top, surrounded by Turkish families on their holidays with not a tourist in sight and gazing across the water to Istanbul, I felt that this was definitely a wonderful place to end my journey.

I have never seen three people on a moped before...

But still, there was much left to see in the city and the next day we headed out to some of the biggest attractions. Crossing back over the Bosphorus, we headed by Istanbul's shiny new tram system to Sultanahmet, where the most famous sights are located.

The Roman Cistern

First was the fantastic Topkapi palace, the centre of the Ottoman Empire, with impressive gardens and ornate courts. Next up, the Roman Cistern beneath the city, a cavernous and rather creepy underground cavern complete with walkways and moody lighting.

The Blue Mosque

Next, the Sultanahmet Mosque, or the 'Blue' Mosque, is an amazing example of Islamic architecture, complete with six towering minarets. Inside is just as impressive, and as a working mosque, inside it was possible to see the locals kneeling on the ornate mats to pray.

One of Sultanahmet's minarets

Istanbul is a real clash of east and west, and with its impressive and eventful history, has been influenced by the Roman and Byzantine empires, as well as the crusades and the Ottomans. We passed what just looked like a ruined stone, but the nearby plaque informed that this was the 'milestone' of the Byzantine empire, from the days when the city was the great imperial capital of Constantinople. The milestone was the zero point from where all distances throughout the empire were measured - quite an interesting thing to almost walk past without noticing.

I guess they didn't notice the sign...

Later, we took another ferry, this time up north to the foot of the enormous Bosphorus suspension bridge, which spans both continents. There we found a somewhat off-the tourist-trail area of small shops and traditional restaurants, one of which we ate in. Both the food and the view across the water was excellent, and eating while looking at two continents at once is something I haven't done before.

Inside a mosque

Afterwards we took a boat back across to Kadikoy and sat on the harbour side watching the sun set, an excellent antidote to the day's sightseeing in the blazing heat.

Sunset on the shore of Asia

So I still have one more full day to pack in the delights of Istanbul before heading home. The last day of my trip is about to dawn...

20 Hours on a Romanian Train...

2007-08-19T23:37:00.000+01:00

Now nearing the end of my journey, I investigated the best way of getting to Istanbul from Romania, and found two options. The bus would take about 10 hours, or the train up to 20. The choice seemed obvious, except for one problem...there are no buses. I couldn't find evidence of them anywhere in Bucharest and nobody knew about them, despite being features in most travel guides. There are flights costing just 40EUR and taking only an hour or so, but if I've made it through 23 countries so far without flying, I'm not giving in now!

Crossing over the Danube, from Romania back into Bulgaria

Waiting on the platform at Bucharest, I expected a standard lengthy sleeper train, and was surprised when it pulled into the station - just three carriages long. There was a mad rush to get on, and I had to evict some unfortunate person from my cabin, which was already full. No way I was going to let somebody take my bed on a 20 hour trip! I settled in for the long trip ahead, equipped with charged ipod and several books ready to pass the time.

There was a real party atmosphere on the train

In the event, I didn't need any of them. The long journey, which I had been dreading, turned out to be fantastic. Within minutes of pulling out of the station an American in my cabin cracked open a bottle of wine and we got talking, and gradually as the journey continued I met several people down the carriage, including a couple of English guys from the hostel in Bucharest and even an MIT-graduate.

Winding through Bulgaria

After passing away the hours talking, night fell and it was time for sleep. The beds weren't particularly comfortable but eventually I drifted off, only to be woken by the Turkish border guards at about 2 in the morning. Everybody was marched off the train and forced to queue up and buy a visa from the most fantastically rude lady I have ever encountered, who literally threw your passport back at you.

Sunset on the longest train journey of my life

After an overly-long and bureaucratic process, we re-boarded the train and went back to sleep, waking up to watch the sunrise as the towns and villages of European Turkey rolled past the window. Onwards to the end of my journey and one of the great cities of the world...Istanbul!

Romania - Bucharest

2007-08-18T10:00:00.000+01:00

I took an express train from Brasov, back down South to my penultimate destination, Romania's capital city of Bucharest. The train was a nice contrast from that which I took a couple of days ago in Transylvania, this one being the fastest and most expensive class. Strangely the design bared more than a passing resemblance to a New York subway car, complete with shiny aluminium exterior - a weird experience.

The site of the secret police's former HQ, put to innovative use

I met an Australian couple on the train and together we walked to the hostel, avoiding the unusually aggressive taxi drivers touting for business outside the station, which are apparently a notorious rip-off. Upon checking in at the hostel, the nice girl in charge became strangely excited upon noticing we shared the same birthday and insisted I come back later in the evening for a big drinking game she was organising, complete with free drinks. Needless to say I made a mental note.

The Palace of the People - one man's grotesquely egotistical creation

In the meantime I headed into the city and straight for the number one tourist attraction - the Palace of the People. It really is a spectacular and imposing sight, being the single largest building in the whole of Europe and second largest in the entire world (beaten only by the Pentagon). Unfortunately, the directions given to me at the hostel were wrong and I ended up walking around the outside of the entire building looking for the entrance, which gave an exhausting but lasting impression of its sheer size.

Inside the palace

Eventually I found my way in and after making my way through the somewhat chaotic entrance hall, managed to join an English-language tour. Built by the command of Nicolae Ceauşescu, the communist dictator of Romania, with much of it designed by his wife, it was supposed to be a symbol of power and wealth. However, it was deeply unpopular, with a staggering one-fifth of the city being demolished to make way for it (needless to say the unfortunate residents had no say in the matter), including many historic churches.

One of 500 extravagantly ornate chandeliers

Built at fantastic cost in one of Europe's poorest countries, the building is sickeningly ornate. The sheer statistics are mind boggling - over 1000 rooms, 12 floors, 1 million cubic metres of marble and 200,000 square metres of luxury carpet. The place was so big that many of the rooms were never used. The worst part of the story is that this enormous monstrosity was never put to good use - still only nearing completion by the time of Ceauşescu's removal from power and subsequent execution, it still hasn't been finished. Upkeep alone costs a fortune and with all the lights on it would rival the entire city for power consumption.

On the palace's balcony, overlooking the impressive main avenue

The rest of Bucharest is testament to Ceauşescu's delusions of grandeur. Much of the historic and older neighbourhoods were razed, with the city rebuilt in French style, earning it the nickname "the Paris of the East". It's hard when wandering around to get a real sense of where in the world you are - there's a full-size copy of the Arc de Triomphe and an enormous main boulevard based on the Champs-Élysées cutting through the centre, sneakily built a handful of metres longer and wider on Ceauşescu's orders. It really doesn't feel like being in deepest Eastern Europe.

Parisian architecture on the streets of Romania

I took a walk around an area marked the 'old quarter', and found nothing particular old. It seems the history of the city was erased and rewritten on the whim of just one man. Having said that, despite the dark history of much of this place, and the loss of the old, it really is an impressive sight and holds its weight amongst many of the great cities of the world. It seems Ceauşescu really did achieve his dream.

Revolution Square

However, no visit to Bucharest would be complete without seeing where his dream ended. Revolution Square is the site where, in 1989, Ceauşescu delivered what would be his his final speech and had to be rescued by helicopter as an angry crowd booed and chanted slogans against him. He didn't escape for long and was eventually caught and executed, bringing Romania's difficult period of communist dictatorship to an end. It is nice to know that there's a happy ending to the story, with the country having joined the European Union at the start of this year, a fitting reward for Romania's journey to democracy.

A memorial to the Romanian Revolution of 1989

After a hard day's sightseeing I made my way back to the hostel, where once again I bumped into the Irish guys I had previously met in Macedonia and then again in Greece. How on earth can you bump into the same group of people three times in locations hundreds of miles apart?! I may have by now established that they are legendary drinkers, and altogether about twenty of us from the hostel took part in without doubt the funniest and craziest drinking game I've ever experienced. The game involved the creation of rules that everybody had to follow - my favourite being that the Irish and English had to 'swap' accents for the rest of the night...

We had so much fun a jealous neighbour kicked us out of the garden

And so with Bucharest done, my trip is nearly over. Twenty one countries down, one to go. Onwards to the end of my epic trip and a well earned rest - Turkey is awaiting!

Romania - Brasov & Translyvania

2007-08-17T03:15:00.000+01:00

The six hour journey to Bucharest was more fun than I imagined, as I shared a compartment with an Australian and Dutch couple and ended up chatting all the way. After arriving in the Romanian capital at 7pm, I headed toward the 7.30pm train and asked a conductor-looking person if it was the train to Brasov. He responded by grabbing my bags from my hands, running along the platform and jumping on the train. He then put the bags in a cabin, gestured for me to sit, kissed me on the cheek and stuck his hand out for money.

A church opposite my hostel in Brasov

I was utterly bewildered, having seconds earlier been standing rather tired on the platform, but it turned out this was a fitting introduction to the rather strange world of Romania. The train eventually departed, beginning a somewhat-creepy journey onward to Transylvania, with me on my own in the poorly lit cabin and the train winding its way in the darkness through the mountains. Traders regularly came to my cabin, trying to sell me everything from pens to toys, but I relented.

Brasov town centre

I arrived in Brasov, a major town in Transylvania, at about 11pm and took a taxi (with a female driver, the only one I have seen in eastern europe so far) to the hostel at the other end of town. I was greeted by a woman, who stuck her head out of the window above and yelled that I was late. What a nice welcome! Once inside, she was actually really nice and clearly just having a bad day. She even lent me money to eat and insisted I go to a local Romanian restaurant, called Casa Romanesque.

Not quite as glamorous as Hollywood, but probably nicer

I spent the rest of that evening chatting with people on the hostel's terrace, which had a great atmosphere. I talked with a funny Swede, a Mexican living in Cuba about all kinds of things, from life there to Castro, politics and communism and even spotted two Americans I had met previously in Macedonia and two Brits from London I had shared a taxi with in Bulgaria.

Walking through the backstreets

The next day I set off into town with the intention of getting to Sighisoara to see 'Dracula's castle'. The train times were inconvenient, so I waited for a minibus with another girl from the hostel for two hours, but for some reason none of the drivers seemed willing to take us there, despite it being marked on the route. I gave up and visited the Black Church and the old town, which was much more charming than I expected.

Behind the sign

I walked to the foot of the hill featuring the Brasov Hollywood-style sign and while deciding whether to walk up or take the cable car, the two Brits I had met in Bulgaria, brother and sister Em and Daniel, turned up. We decided to walk up the hill together. It was a pleasant climb as it was entirely in shade and at the top were met by a spectacular view. Just before the summit we passed a guy carrying a big jar of gherkins and a bottle of wine which seem, at least to me, strange things to have on a mountain.

Throwing a gherkin off a mountain. Somehow, strangely symbolic.

After a drink in the hilltop cafe, we descended back to the town and I headed off to the station to buy my next ticket. On the way I ran into the Dutch couple from the train the day before and was invited to dinner, so instead ended up back at Casa Romanesque where we had a great meal.

I think I'll skip on that one

Upon leaving I met with Daniel, Em and Taka, a Japanese traveller from the hostel, who it turned out had also been eating there but sitting outside. Together we went on a quest into town to use an ATM, then back to a kiosk for beer and sat on the terrace until the middle of the night.

With Em and Taka, triumphantly clutching our beer

The next day I once again set off to go to Sighisoara and waited for a bus to the station, but it took ages to come and I managed to miss the only reasonably timed train by a minute. Frustrating! After two days of trying, I gave up on going there and instead, determined to go somewhere for the day, caught a train to Sibiu, a town a couple of hours away.

Self-promotion in Sibiu

Sibiu is this year's European Capital of Culture, whatever that means, and is a nice place to spend a day. I didn't see anything specifically amazing, but it has a charming atmosphere and plenty of old buildings, with an impressively large main square.

Yet another nice old-town

Romania has five different type of trains, ranging from the fast and clean 'Express', to the cheap and agonisingly slow 'Personal'. Annoyingly, I was forced to take a 'Personal' train back to Brasov, which is something I was told to avoid. The journey took more than twice as long going back, the train was dark and full of very strange, mostly drunk people, who threw all their empty cans and bottles straight out the windows. The train stopped regularly, sometimes even in the middle of fields for a farmer to get off. Not particularly enjoyable, but it was interesting to experience things as the locals do.

Hiding off the main square

I made it back to Brasov after 11pm and spent a final night relaxing on the terrace and chatting with all kinds of travellers. There's just one final stop before the end of my trip, so tomorrow it's back to the capital Bucharest, for a penultimate bout of sightseeing.

Bulgaria - Sofia, Plovdiv & Veliko Tarnovo

2007-08-14T03:08:00.000+01:00

Having slummed it in standard class for the duration of my trip, it was almost a relief to be told that only 1st class seats were available on the Thessaloniki - Sofia train, and at just EUR16 for the 6 hour trip, it wasn't a bad deal. It made it all the more comfortable as the train sat, bewilderingly, just outside the station for 1.5 hours before finally deciding to leave.

Someone actually thought this was a good idea

Upon arrival, things started going wrong as I tried 3 ATMs and found that none worked, and with no Bulgarian money couldn't get any transport to my hostel, which I knew was a long way away. I decided to walk and the moment I stepped out of the station it started pouring with rain. Having been up since 5am, after a night of drinking, to catch the train and incredibly frustrated, I was forced to change my precious remaining euros at the rip-off exchange office in the station, something I had managed to avoid doing until now. I took an overpriced taxi and eventually made it to the hostel.

The Palace of 'Culture'

It was at this point that I realised my credit card was missing. I suppose that being so tired, annoyed and carrying lots of stuff I managed to lose track of it, especially in trying so many ATMs. While I don't think it was stolen, this did nothing to improve my mood and wasted yet more valuable time. After cancelling my card and arranging a money wire from home, I rushed out to do some sightseeing.

The cathedral, one building that is indeed beautiful.

My first stop was the incredibly hideous 1300th anniversary statue, built by the Soviets in typical social realist style. It really is amazing that they considered this to be fitting tribute to the nation and really hasn't stood the test of time. Shoddily built and with no real enthusiasm to maintain it, the monument is now fenced off as it is literally falling to pieces. Close by is the equally ugly palace of culture, which is at least still being used in multiple functions, including a cinema.

The Soviet Army memorial

I made a quick dash to a park on the edge of the centre to catch a glimpse of the Soviet Army memorial before nightfall. I was actually quite impressed by it, especially the scenes of battle depicted around the base. Bulgarians may not want it in their city due to the history it represents, but it's a fitting reminder of a bygone era and well worth seeing.

A statue of Milo, Veliko Tarnovo's nosiest resident

The next day I got a train to Plovdiv, a town not far from Sofia. It's a charming town with lots to see and as such tends to be full of tourists. After walking around the small old town, I headed down the main street, passing a statue of Milo, apparently a very nosy man who listened to other people's conversations. Somehow this endeared him to the people of Plovdiv and they chose to erect a statue in his honour. How lovely.

Roman remains

The Roman Amphitheatre was a little over hyped and I didn't pay to enter, especially as it's easily visible from the path above. On the way to a park on the outskirts of the centre, something strange happened. A building, not too far away from me, exploded. There was an enormous bang and car alarms down the entire street went off as it filled with smoke. Not something you see every day! It seems in Bulgaria health and safety laws aren't particularly respected by demolition crews.

Not something you expect to find on top of a hill

Once at the park, I climbed a hill to be greeted by a massive statue of a Soviet soldier at the top. It really is an impressive sight, overlooking the entire city. It seems those Soviets really do (did) know how to build monuments.

It really is bigger than it looks

Back at the hostel I recognised Nathan, an American I had met in Thessaloniki. Bumping into people really seems to be a very common occurance when travelling. He was also heading to my next destination, so the following day we took a bus to Veliko Tarnovo, a town in the east of the country.

Sunset in Plovdiv

Once there, we parted ways and I made it to my hostel, which was the emptiest I've been to. After walking across the entire town to buy a train ticket for the following day, I headed to the town's famous castle, dramatically located on a hill surrounded by gorges. At the centre of the complex, perched on its own small hill, was a church with one of the most interesting interiors I've seen, painted entirely in modern art.

Amazing artwork inside the church

Returning to town, I discovered the the hostel was completely empty and would remain so for the rest of the day, so it didn't look like I was going to meet anybody. Once again, however, I bumped into someone I knew. While walking along a street I heard someone call my name - it was Arnold, the father of the American family who had rescued me on the Albanian-Macedonian border over a week ago. How do these things keep happening?!

Yes, this is a real picture. Quite amazing.

We had dinner together and then headed up to the castle, to watch one of the most impressive light shows I've seen. The entire castle, and the hill, were lit up in widely ranging colours synchronised to music, along with some fantastic lasers that seemed to shine across the entire town.

Not something you see every day

After being treated to dessert (they really are a generous family), I headed back to the hostel for a good sleep. Tomorrow I'm heading to Bucharest, capital of Romania and then onwards to Transylvania.

Erm, suppose I won't go by bus then...

It's quite annoying as the drive to Bucharest only takes 2 hours and the train, for some reason, is much longer at 6 hours. Unfortunately I haven't been able to arrange a ride despite a tip-off that a local hostel provides a driving service. Looks like it's going to be another day spent on trains!

Greece - Thessaloniki

2007-08-11T03:05:00.000+01:00

I took an early bus from Kosovo back to Skopje, as I heard the border could take several hours. Rather unfortunately, it didn't and we raced through to the Macedonian capital 3 hours before my train to Greece. This meant spending the time waiting in what must be the worst train station I have ever encountered, anywhere. Run-down, dark, and depressing in an almost post-apocalyptic way, to make matters worse my train was 2.5 hours late, which meant spending the entire afternoon in this hell-hole of a place.

The seafront was fenced off for construction. Not a pretty sight.

The train did eventually arrive and trundled through the night to Thessaloniki, Greece's second city, arriving just before midnight. My hotel was right across from the station, which was lucky as I didn't have a map. Walking into the reception, I immediately recognised some familiar faces - the two Irish guys I had met in Skopje days earlier. They were just arriving from Athens and immediately invited me out for a night of drinking, which was a perfect antidote to the day's boredom.

There are a few historical sights dotted about

After stopping for a typical Greek kebab, and almost getting in to an argument with the restaurant's owner over the use of the term 'Macedonia' to describe the Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia (you'll have to look that one up), we drifted between bars for the rest of the night.

The view from the hill

I spent the next day walking around the city. To be honest, there wasn't very much to see. It wasn't a nasty place - it was very clean, orderly and modern, but without a guidebook it was difficult to find many attractions. I did visit a nice Byzantine church and walked up the hill to the city walls, from where there was a great view, but doing this in the scorching Mediterranean heat was exhausting.

In the backstreets

A shopkeeper told me that most of the big cities in Greece are quite similar and to see the real Greece I should visit the islands in the Aegean, something I definitely intend to do one day. On the way back to the hotel I spent some time wandering the backstreets on the side of the hill, which were charming and almost completely deserted, unlike the thriving city.

It's quite a relaxing city

So all-in-all, not the best place I've been, but a rather relaxing stop after such a place as Kosovo and it's almost relieving to be back in EU territory, in a well-developed and modern country. Having said that, it's now time to move on to Bulgaria and Romania!

Kosovo - Prishtina, Prizren & Peja

2007-08-09T01:17:00.000+01:00

Kosovo is a strange place to visit as a tourist. My only knowledge of the place concerns the recent war and continuing ethnic strife that has seen plenty of coverage in the international press. Lately, it has been in the headlines again as much discussion takes place at the UN over a final decision on its constitutional future. At the moment, Kosovo is still legally part of Serbia, although it is now fully autonomous in a form of 'supervised independence' overseen by the UN. The vast majority of its people want full independence, with the small Serbian minority opposed.

A statue of an Albanian 'freedom fighter' in Prishtina

I was glad not to be venturing to Kosovo on my own, having met a couple in the hostel in Skopje who also wanted to go. With there being just the one budget hotel in Prishtina, it made sense for us to journey together.

Bill Clinton is a hero to the Kosovan-Albanians

We got the bus from Skopje and very soon started to pass military warning signs and camouflaged vehicles bearing UN insignia. We were already at the border. As I soon came to find, nearly everything important in Kosovo is run by the UN. The border was no exception, with the United Nations Border Guard making us get off the bus as they checked through our bags. They even put a UN stamp in my passport.

Even the bins are managed by the UN!

Once through the checkpoint I found Kosovo to look quite unlike how I expected. There were no visible remnants of war, or damage and there was a vast amount of new buildings and infrastructure. Enormous amounts of foreign aid has flooded into the country since the conflict, and unlike Bosnia which still has very visible scars, here they seem to have, in a way, very rapidly swept everything under the carpet.

The charming old town of Prizren

On arrival in Prishtina, the capital, we took a taxi through the backstreets to the guesthouse and were met by the owner, a friendly and rather eccentric local professor who had recently opened up his home to foreign guests. After unloading our luggage, we then took a taxi back to the bus station and caught a bus to Prizren, a village in the south of the province.

Graffiti on the last remaining wall of a church

This was our first real experience on-foot in Kosovo, and it was quite an interesting place for it. Prizren suffered a recent outbreak of serious violence in 2004, which resulted in the burning of Serbian homes up the hillside and destruction of several churches. Indeed, we passed the remains of one medieval church, which had been completely blown up. Tellingly, on the outside was spray-painted 'No Negotiation', a reference to the ongoing negotiations with Serbia over independence. It is shocking that centuries of cultural history can be so senselessly wiped out in such way.

Surviving churches were heavily guarded

The rest of the town was very pleasant. We visited a mosque, walked through the old town and climbed up to a castle with a spectacular view for miles around. In the castle I met some Canadians who were filming a feature-length documentary on Kosovo. Being something of a film geek myself, we had a lengthy discussion about what they were doing and from the sounds of it, the documentary may make quite a splash when it comes out.

In the fortress overlooking Prizren

We headed back to catch the last bus, and at the station met the only other foreigners we'd seen in the town, two french girls. One of them had been working as a journalist in Kosovo for several months now, so she was able to give a valuable insight into the place. Once back in Prishtina, we arranged to meet up in the evening.

Remains of a destroyed home in Prizren

That night we all met up, in perhaps the creepiest place possible, in the middle of a pitch-dark park, outside the shell of a large half-built church, whose construction was stopped years ago. That's the last time I let other people choose a meeting place! The french girls took us to a street full of bars, where we sat outside and had a meal of local food. Interestingly, the journalist had been in Kosovo for 9 months and not seen a single incident or outbreak of violence, so perhaps the peace here is a little more secure than it seems.

Try waiting here at night!

We stopped by the locally well-known Phoenix Bar, next to the UN, a favourite of peacekeepers and soldiers apparently, although we didn't spot any. The next day I was on my own again, as the couple I travelled with moved on. I went back to the Phoenix for a desperately-needed full-english cooked breakfast, my first on this trip and one of the few culinary delights I miss about the UK. I got talking with the barman, a local, and had a revealing discussion about the real situation here.

Yes, they even have speed signs for tanks

He didn't seem to have much hope for Kosovo's future, saying Kosovans are too lazy to work and once the foreign aid dries up (which it is already starting to), the economy will sink even further. He was also quite envious of my position travelling eastern europe, as it is very difficult for locals to get visas. It's a shame that he's so pessimistic but perhaps that's what going through such a terrible conflict can do to you. I asked him where I should go next and he strongly recommended Peja, so I jumped on a bus and headed to the small northern town.

Kosovans seem to be genuinely grateful for the international assistance

I walked into the town centre and wandered through the bazaar, which was definitely worth a look and sold all kind of things, including a stall dedicated to nationalist Albanian flags and ornaments. My guide book recommended a visit to the Serbian monastery here, but warned that it is very difficult and at times impossible to gain entry. I decided to try my luck, but finding it proved the biggest challenge.

Heading toward the monastery at the foot of the mountains

Eventually I asked in a shop and was given the directions, in German, which luckily I was able to understand. Many people in the town speak either German or Italian as a second language due to the nationality of the UN peacekeepers in this region. I walked a couple of kilometres out of town and as the number of KFOR patrols increased, I knew I was getting close. After interrogation at an Italian military checkpoint, I was given a pass and allowed to proceed into the monastery.

Inside the Serbian Monastery

Inside was one of the most serene places I have ever been. A stream gently flowed through the beautiful trees and flowers and with the towering mountains as a background, it was quite an incredible setting. An elderly nun kindly unlocked the church for me, the inside of which was dark but I could just make out the wonderful frescoes covering the walls and ceiling. It really is a shame that such a peaceful place has to be so heavily defended.

Interesting choice of name for a restaurant!

From what I can gather, the monastery is the seat of the Serbian patriarchy, and therefore part of the reason why Serbs consider Kosovo to be the birthplace of Serbian culture and want it to remain a part of their country. It's worrying that once the international troops leave, the monastery, along with other Serb churches and communities, could be put at risk of reprisals.

Photos of the dead and missing are displayed outside the UN building

It seems that being ethnic Albanians, the population are just as nice as in Albania itself. Despite undergoing such hardship, I was warmly welcomed by the people I encountered, from an inquisitive ice cream seller, who wanted to know why I had come to Kosovo, to more than one group of kids who stopped me and wanted to know what I thought of the place. This really is such a fascinating region, full of kind and intelligent people, and I just hope they stay level headed in the times ahead and choose a path of peace.

Macedonia - Ohrid & Skopje

2007-08-07T01:11:00.000+01:00

The crossing to Macedonia was interesting as it is the only one I have ever done on foot. I'm used to passing through airports, being in a bus or train or at least a car, but this border crossing from Albania was something like out of the wild west. I had to take a taxi from Pogradez, the nearest town on the Albanian side and was eventually pushed out by the driver who gestured in the direction I assumed I had to go. After following a deserted cliff-side road around a hair-pin corner, I found the near-deserted border post tucked away almost as if it was supposed to be hidden.

Ohrid Castle

I made it across and tried to find a way to Ohrid, my destination, quite a distance away around the other side of the lake. The bus would not be coming for quite a while and I was stuck in the middle of nowhere, but luckily I met a nice American family who were also stranded and together the 5 of us, plus a driver, squeezed into a private Macedonian car and paid 10EUR to take us to Ohrid.

On the castle walls

I had a lot of fun in Ohrid. The hostel I stayed in was run by a Finnish guy, which must be pretty unique in eastern europe and attracted all kinds of people. I met some Irish teachers, two Moldovan-Americans on their way to visit their homeland for the first time and even a group of Kosovans. This turned out to be quite convenient as I'm hoping to travel to Kosovo soon and was able to ask them everything I needed to know. They were some of the friendliest people I've met (must be that Albanian blood) and really helped set me at ease about the idea, after being continuously told it's a stupid thing to do.

An archaeological dig sight

Ohrid itself is a nice town, with a lot to see including an old Roman amphitheatre, archaeological ruins, an imposing castle and several remarkable churches. One in particular is nestled dramatically on a cliff above the lake and was a spectacular sight at sunset.

A beautiful sight

It was really nice just to wander around the town and relax by the lake, after my rather chaotic-but-fun time in Albania. I met with the American family in a restaurant and they bought me lunch, which was nice of them.

This was taken from a charming fisherman's village at the cliff base

Later on, I went out in a big group with people from the hostel. We first went to a highly recommended pub, which was absolutely rammed with people so made our way along the lakeside to another bar. The town seemed to have made a transformation once night fell - the place was thriving, with crowds of holidaymakers and revellers filling the streets. Quite different from the serenity earlier on!

An oversized message of support from Tito regarding a 1970s earthquake

The next day I took the bus with an Aussie and a French girl from the hostel, as we were headed to the same place in Skopje, the capital. We were forced to take a late bus and arrived in the middle of the night, in the pouring rain. Not a nice introduction to the place, but it actually turned out to be quite fitting.

A typical sight. Note the Tito dedication on the sign

Skopje is, I'm sorry to say for anyone who lives there, possibly the most depressing and dull city I have ever visited. Maybe it didn't help that the weather wasn't too great, but the dull, grey, concrete buildings, dirty streets and almost total lack of sights combined to make it a thoroughly unremarkable place.

Not the best destination for sightseers

The 'historic' stone bridge, supposedly a highlight of Skopje turned out to be nothing more than a rather plain modern reconstruction over a dirty river. On the other side, the thriving Turkish market was indeed quite interesting, but it was no different from the others I've seen.

Converted railway cars now serve as bars in the old station

Unfortunately Skopje just screams 'Former Yugoslavia' to me, which basically means a landscape of crumbling concrete and lack of cultural appreciation. After Ohrid, which I really enjoyed, Macedonia's capital was a let down. However, all is not lost, as it conveniently serves as the launching pad to perhaps my most exciting destination yet - Kosovo!

Albania - Shkodra, Tirana & Kruja

2007-08-05T00:56:00.000+01:00

The journey to Budva, the main beach resort of Montenegro, was quite interesting, with the driver having an enormous argument with some other passenger and ending with everybody having to switch buses. Not quite sure what happened there. Once in Budva I tried to book a hostel at the accommodation desk, but the astoundingly unhelpful lady didn't seem to want to facilitate this, despite it being her job, so I set off on foot and had a quick look around. I was not impressed at all, with the town crowded with tourists and a seemingly never-ending landscape of dull apartment blocks and hotels stretching along the coast. I decided to move on immediately and head to Albania.

The Albanian National History Museum

This was where, for the first time on my entire trip, things got difficult. Despite Montenegro's close proximity to Albania (they share a bloody border!), nobody seemed to know anything about actually getting there. I eventually took a bus to Podgorica, capital of Montenegro and right next to the main border crossing, certain that there'd be public transport continuing from there. This was not the case. I was told that there were no buses at all and that the railway line had closed years ago. Eventually I met a helpful taxi driver who offered to drive me to the border, for a 'cheap price' of 25EUR. I had no choice and accepted.

A closer view of that wonderful communist mural

It turned out he used to work for the Montenegrin tourist board and therefore spoke impeccable English, which was quite a pleasant surprise after my experiences earlier in the day. He explained that not many people want to travel to Albania and so the only way is by private car. We drove alongside the rusting railway line to a large and beautiful lake that marks the border. Once at the official border crossing, he negotiated with another driver and I was passed along into a crampt old car with an Albanian driver, with 5 of us squeezed inside. Little did I know this would be the scariest ride of my life, and a worthy introduction to Albanian road safety. Or, rather, the lack of.

Sunset in Tirana

He drove at speeds that must have been well over 100mph, along bumpy, poor-quality roads, overtaking on blind corners and generally ignoring anything resembling a highway code. We made the journey, which looking at my map I estimated to take a good hour, in about 30 minutes, arriving in the Albanian border town of Shkodra. This place was a real shock to me, having an almost third world appearance. Crumbling buildings, chaotic streets and a staggering lack of infrastructure. There was rubbish all over the place and random piles of it burning in roads throughout the city. Weathered old men road past on horse-pulled carts, motorcyclists, none of them wearing helmets, weaved dangerously in and out of traffic and filthy trucks drove past with people sitting on top. I attracted quite a few stares, clearly being the only foreigner around. I hopped on a Furgon, which is the main method of public transport here in Albania. Like a communal taxi, furgons are minibuses with a flat-rate fair that pick up and drop off people anywhere on their routes and continue to be a necessity throughout eastern europe and Russia.

The main square

While waiting on the furgon for more passengers to get on I saw my first traffic accident happen just metres away from me. I was amazed to see the poor old motorcyclist picked up by passers by and bundled into a car off to the hospital within seconds, leaving just a pool of blood in the road to indicate that anything had happened. Once we set off to Tirana, the capital, I counted twelve road-side shrines to accident victims in just five minutes. I have never seen a place as dangerous as this, and once again the ride was quite unnerving, with the minibus weaving in and out of traffic, overtaking on corners and having a total lack of seatbelts that I would soon need to get used to.

In the Albanian countryside

A couple of hours later I was dropped off in a random street on the outskirts of the centre of Tirana. Not knowing where I was, I tried to ask passers by but nobody spoke english, and the waiting taxi drivers didn't seem to want to drive me, but pointed in the direction of what I hoped was the centre. After a long walk in the heat, and not finding any hostels, I eventually found a hotel on the main square with one room left and managed to persuade them to let me have it for 25 Euro a night, which was the best I could do.

A typical village market

After a good night's sleep in a proper hotel bed, I awoke quite excited to discover this strange place I was in. A quick wander around the city found it to be quite a pleasant place indeed, if you can look past the chaotic traffic and accept that crossing the street is much like a game of Russian Roulette. All the buildings have been recently painted in bright colours, giving the city a strangely cheerful and disorientingly art deco-style look, not something I would have expected in this part of the world. What would have been a depressing place full of grey apartment blocks has had a remarkable facelift, which I later found out was thanks to the mayor, who is a former artist.

One of those lovely bright buildings

My aim of the day was to head to Kruja, a town in the countryside which came recommended as a good place to see. I eventually caught a furgon there and had a walk around the town, then headed up to the castle on the hill. Here I spotted the only other foreign tourists I saw in Albania - three of them! The castle was quite nice, but there wasn't much else to see and so I grabbed a furgon back to Tirana, on which I met a charming Albanian chef, who spoke almost no english but we managed to have a constructive conversation through the international language of waving our arms about. He explained he had been a soldier in the Albanian army and had just come back from Iraq, but said being a chef paid better!

Statue of Skanderbeg, hero of Albania

This brings me on to one of the things I most liked about Albania - the people. They really stood out, even after having just travelled through 17 countries, as collectively the nicest, friendliest, most charming people I have encountered. Despite having perhaps the least number of English speakers of anywhere I've been (with Ukraine in a close second), it really didn't seem to matter. Even if people couldn't understand me, they were very patient and tried everything they could to help. When leaving Tirana I asked a group of taxi drivers how I could get to the Macedonian border, and rather than a simple shake of the head that I expected, I soon had a team of them working together trying to find out how I could get to my destination!

Atop the clock tower looking over the main square

Albania had one of the strangest post-war histories of all the eastern european countries. Before the war they were led by the self-proclaimed King Zog (Yes, really). After the war, led by the dictator Enver Hoxha, the country was, like the rest of the region, transformed into a communist 'people's republic' with close relations first to Yugoslavia, then after falling out, with the Soviets. However, after the death of Stalin, Hoxha also fell out with the USSR and had just one friend in the world - the Chinese. Eventually they fell out with them too (I see a pattern emerging) and became one of the most isolated countries in the world. Nobody was allowed in or out, propaganda emphasised the importance of self-determination and independence and the evils of the outside world. Hoxha had over 400,000 bomb-proof bunkers built across the country as defence from the outside. Albania was, in a sense, a tiny black hole in the corner of Europe that was a mystery even to its neighbours. And in fact, it still seems to be that way today. Yes, it's now free, democratic, capitalist and making steps towards joining the EU, but it still feels like nowhere else in europe, a place few people know about and even fewer have visited.

A rather small example of those ever-present bunkers

This is what I loved most about Albania, the real sense of difference, of being somewhere few tourists go. It's just such a unique place - 90% of all cars in the country are Mercedes (just don't ask where they came from), those 400,000 large concrete bunkers still litter the country as they proved demolition-proof and despite appearances of normality in the capital, the power still goes out several times a day. This doesn't seem to be much of a problem for its residents, even in the night - within seconds generators are wheeled out and as a strange hum descends over the city, the cafes and bars stay open and people continue to get on with their lives. What a wonderful place!

Montenegro - Kotor

2007-08-02T00:56:00.000+01:00

Luckily I made it onto the crowded bus, the only of the day, along the coast to Montenegro. This is quite an exciting place to be - it's the newest country in the world, having unilaterally declared independence from Serbia only last year. I was headed to the main tourist attraction - the walled city of Kotor.

The view across the fjord from the castle

'City' is quite a generous description of the place. Kotor is very, very small - probably not even a quarter the size of Dubrovnik, a similarly-walled city, which I also thought was small. However, the real attraction of Kotor is its dramatic location, at the edge of the biggest fjord in southern europe.

Climbing back down the ruined fortifications

The town is built against the base of an imposing hill, atop which is located a castle. I stupidly made the exhausting climb in the heat of the midday sun, up over 1,600 steps, but was greeted by a worthwhile sight.

Unlike Dubrovnik, this place doesn't seem to exist purely for tourism

I would say that the fortifications and fjord are much more of a reason to visit Kotor than the town itself, although it is very charming and quite authentic. There are not so many tourists here, and those that are seem to be Montenegrin and Serbian. It suspect it won't be long though until the cruise ships start turning up!

There are cats everywhere

Once again my timing proved lucky indeed, as I arrived at the height of the Kotor Festival, featuring various displays of sculpture, art and music. I didn't get to experience much of the night life as I was staying in possibly the worst hostel I've been in, and it wasn't possible to meet anybody.

Festival decorations

I quite liked Kotor and Montenegro and hope to see more of the country, so tomorrow I will jump on a bus further up the coast to Budva, the main coastal resort in this area.

Croatia - Dubrovnik

2007-08-01T00:54:00.000+01:00

I arrived in Dubrovnik quite late and was met at the bus station by the owner of the room I had arranged to stay in. She drove me in her ancient car up into the hills, around a bewildering array of alleyways to her apartment.

In the main square

After unpacking I headed straight into town to get a quick taste of the place, which involved a very long walk along dark and rather creepy alleyways to make it back down to the main street. Most of the accommodation in Dubrovnik is located away from the old town, along the coast and in the hills which meant my stay involved a whole lot of walking. I'm used to that by now, though!

Inside a guard tower

The town is as charming as it looks in all the postcards, although it is a little overrun with tourists, most of them being shipped in by the thousands aboard cruise ships. It's a very small city and as such it's completely dominated by tourism, with little life ongoing aside from supporting that.

Atop the city walls, looking out across Dubrovnik

The next day I took a walk around the entire city walls, which are supposedly the best examples in Europe. They definitely provide the best view over the city and coastline. Later on I took a ferry across to an island out in the sea, which contains a national park, but my exploration was hindered by half the island being closed due to a forest fire warning. It's certainly extremely hot and dry right now.

The historic fortifications are the best I've seen

Dubrovnik was exactly as I expected - a small but beautiful city rammed with tourists. It was a nice relaxing stop, and two days was enough to see everything important. Next stop - the newest country in the world!

Bosnia - Mostar

2007-07-31T00:49:00.000+01:00

Mostar comes as probably the most highly recommended place by other travellers I've met on my trip, or at least the most enthusiastically-so. More than once, upon mentioning I was going to Bosnia, I was met with an excited, "You have to go to Mostar!", and I decided to follow that advice!

The old front line runs right through the town and is still very visible

I didn't make the 7am train from Sarajevo, having managed to oversleep several hours and instead took the bus. It was a shame as the train journey is supposedly one of the nicest in Europe, but the road follows the tracks for much of the way anyway, and the scenery I did see was great.

The world's largest coffee pot, apparently!

Not only did Mostar come highly recommended, but so did the only hostel in the village. Having just opened this year, several people had told me it was their favourite hostel, which sounded like quite an achievement. And indeed, I had a very good first impression with the owner of the hostel, Bata, picking me up at the bus station in his car and giving me a quick drive around the town, pointing out the important sights.

The Koski Mehmed pasa Mosque

The hostel itself did not quite live up to what I had pictured in my mind. Located on the first floor of a dull grey apartment block, surrounded by other apartment blocks and alarmingly with bullet holes on the side, the interior was crampt with a lot of beds squeezed into one apartment. However I was given a great welcome, fed with home made cake and drink by Bata's wife and given a lengthy introduction to the town and recommendations of things to see.

The famous Stari Most (Old Bridge)

Bata very apologetically told me that the main hostel was full and I would instead be put in his brother's old apartment with a couple of other people. I was a bit annoyed but once there realised just how lucky I was - for the rest of the day I had an entire apartment, with bathroom, kitchen and TV all to myself and it was even located right next to the river!

There is still a lot of leftover war damage and deserted buildings

On the journey into Mostar I did notice quite a few forest fires and this was all the more dramatic once in the town. The sky was an amazing shade of yellow and it was gently raining ashes - not good for the environment I know, but a surreal and incredible sight.

Mostar at sunset

Eventually the other two people staying in the flat turned up - Adam, whom I had met in Sarajevo and recommended the hostel to and Jonathan, a Canadian tour guide on vacation. Indeed, I had expected Adam much earlier and he explained that he was on the train from Sarajevo, as I had intended to catch, which got caught up in the forest fires and was several hours delayed. Looks like taking the bus paid off!

The old town and bridge

It was already evening and together we headed into the old town, noticing quite a lot of excitement on the shore of the river under the old bridge. We went down and watched a free concert of contemporary Bosnian music, surrounded by seemingly the entire young population of Mostar. It looks like my timing here couldn't have been better - this concert marked the eve before the annual diving contest, which I hadn't heard about but could tell was something quite important from the excitement in the air.

Relaxing in a cave. In Bosnia. Doesn't get much better than this!

The great thing about Mostar is just how relaxing it is. The old town, while small, is fantastically atmospheric, with narrow lanes filled with market traders, a charming old mosque with a minaret that can be climbed and even a nightclub located in a cave. All kinds of things can be found at the market - I bought an old 50,000,000 dinar note from a charismatic white-haired trader who was alarmingly fit - he must have been about eighty years old but had bigger muscles than me! The next day I spotted him doing handstands on the very edge of the old bridge, with nothing but jagged rocks below. What a legend!

The diving contest

The diving contest was great to watch. As you can see from the photo above, it's a very long drop indeed, yet apparently the water below is only about 4m deep. A special technique is required to dive head first, although the majority of participants preferred to go in feet first. The bridge really is the heart of Mostar and a symbol of the divided town. One side of the river belongs to Bosnians, the other to Croatians, and they still don't seem to like one another. The historic 400 year-old bridge was destroyed in the violence of the 1990s and only rebuilt as recently as 2004. Reconstructed to the original designs, it is now on the UNESCO World Heritage List.

Overlooking the historic village from the watch tower

Having been persuaded to stay much longer than I intended, I was able to make one of the day trips organised by Bata. Taking eight of us in his minibus, he drove us around several key sights in the surrounding area that most tourists would probably not even know existed. First up was a charming historic village, dramatically surrounded by a large hill on three sides. Its citizens chased away in the war, they have since returned and tried to rebuild the place as it once was.

This picture really does not capture the beauty of the falls

Next up were some fantastic waterfalls, the best I have ever seen, complete with hidden caves into which Bata led us. Much swimming and climbing was required to reach areas I would never have tried to get to on my own. Later we moved on to an old Dervish House and took a boat ride into a large cave where the water was clean enough to drink. After a mad dash back to Mostar, I had to grab my things and run to the bus station, making the last departure of the day onwards to Dubrovnik, and even met a couple of people I knew from Belgrade on the bus!

The old Dervish House

Mostar was without doubt my favourite detonation on this trip so far, perhaps ever, and the same goes for the hostel, thanks to the wonderfully helpful and selfless Bata. After rushing hectically from country to country for nearly two months now, it was great to just relax and soak in the atmosphere of this tiny place off the usual tourist trail. I came for just 1 night, ended up staying 3 days and could have been here a week if I had the time. From trying (for free) famous Turkish coffee from the world's largest coffee pot, to smoking a water pipe in a cave, watching 50 suicidal people jump of a bridge and even spotting the winner of Bosnian Idol, so many nice little things happened during my time in Mostar. Definitely somewhere to come back to!

Bosnia - Sarajevo

2007-07-29T00:46:00.000+01:00

Many random things happen while travelling, and just one of those things happened on the long bus journey to Bosnia. I was reading the novel Trainspotting, which I would normally not exactly wave about on a bus in England, but thought I was safe here, when a guy across the aisle lent over and asked in surprisingly good English what the title of the book meant. He had recently seen the film but could not understand what it had to do with trains! After explaining the title, we got talking and he explained he was a Bosnian Muslim on his way back home to Sarajevo.

A billboard promoting the EU peacekeeping force still present here

We chatted about all aspects of Bosnian life, and he insisted I tried his mother's home-made apple pie. Repeatedly. It was really quite nice! Once we arrived in Sarajevo, on the outskirts in the 'Serbian' area, which is nowhere near the centre and more importantly, my hostel, he even offered to pay for a cab for the two of us. This involved walking across the unmarked and unofficial border to the muslim side of the city, where he said the cab drivers were better. This really highlights the divisions in Bosnian culture - the country is a federal state split into Bosnia & Herzegovina, run by muslims and the Republic Srpska, run by Serbs and from my experience the two peoples really want nothing to do with each other.

Minarets are a common sight in Bosnia

Thanks to the help of the kind stranger, and a further tram ride, I made it to my hostel which was located on top of a hill with a spectacular view overlooking the city. I walked back down into town and wandered the streets of the small, but fascinating Turkish quarter, packed with market stalls and traders selling all kinds of things. It felt very eastern and unlike anywhere I have been before.

On the streets of the Turkish bazaar

The new town was not quite as nice, but still retains some former Austro-Hungarian charm. The one thing that did catch my eye was the main street, nicknamed 'sniper alley' due to the likelihood of being shot there during the war. Nearly every building sustained damage, with many destroyed. Still today, most of the buildings on the street are covered in bullet holes and shell holes can be seen in the pavement, known as 'Sarajevo Roses' thanks to the red cement used to fill them in. Often nearby a plaque or memorial can be found, listing the people killed by the shell.

An all-too-regular sight

It's amazing to walk around the city and still see all the damage. Being here just a decade ago would have been unthinkable. Over 12,000 people were killed in a ghastly four-year siege, almost all of them civilians, with the entire city surrounded. A small tunnel under the airport was the only link to the outside world and has now been turned into a museum.

Many new graveyards had to be made - some from city parks

Aside from the bloody 1990s, the city is also famous from another dark chapter of history, being the place where WWI was triggered. In 1914 Archduke Franz Ferdinand and his wife were assassinated by a Bosnian radical just next to the Latin Bridge. It is is quite something to be able to see the exact spot where one of the most destructive wars in history began.

The Latin Bridge

Aside from the legacy of conflict, Sarajevo is a thriving and flourishing city, with a real energy visible as it emerges from the darkness of the last century. It's a great place to go out at night - after a meal in a traditional restaurant, a group of us from the hostel went to the highly recommended City Pub, which despite its dull name is the place to be in Sarajevo.

Inside my first ever mosque

The pub itself and the whole area in the streets around it were rammed with people drinking and dancing away well into the night. Making it all the way back up the steep hill to the hostel was a different thing, however, but eventually I made it back to bed.

Sunset on the hill

I had wanted to get the train onwards to Mostar in the morning, but it left at 7am and I wasn't so sure if I was going to make it after a hard night partying. Stay tuned to see if that happened...

Serbia - Belgrade

2007-07-28T00:44:00.000+01:00

This is the point where it's supposed to get interesting! I have been interested in the former Yugoslavia for a long time, but unsure about visiting. Having heard so many nice things on my trip though, I decided to plough ahead and will hopefully make it right through the region to the other side.

Outside the military museum

Upon arriving at the hostel I met two english girls and an Aussie, called Travis, who I later found had worked on the classic Austrlian children's TV show Round the Twist, which I had grown up watching. What a legend! We all went out for dinner together at a traditional Serbian restaurant. On the menu were such enticing things as 'fried brains' and 'bull's sex organs'. I went with the sausages.

Everybody against us!

The next day a visit to the castle was in order, with the main attraction being the military museum. It was fascinating to see the view of the 'other side', pro-Serbian and anti-Nato. Throughout the exhibition, Nato was always described as 'the aggressors', although those with a knowledge of history will know that was not the case.

The owner of this uniform was held as a P.O.W.

Pride of place in the museum were captured U.S. uniforms and weaponry, as well as those belonging to the KLA (Kosovo Liberation Army), or as the museum put it, the 'Illegal terrorist organisation'. Definitely the most impressive exhibit was a fragment of the American F111 stealth-fighter plane shot down in the conflict.

On the castle walls

Elsewhere the city was quite nice, but aside from a few churches there was really not much to see. I ventured out of town to the burial place of Marshal Tito, the leader and unifier of Yugoslavia, which included a museum showing the wide range of gifts given to him by other world leaders. On the bus journey back into town I passed the bombed-out Serbian military headquarters, destroyed by Nato airstrikes in 1999.

It's strange seeing such a building in the city centre

The nightlife of which I had heard so many good things did prove to live up to its reputation. Lined down the main river are many clubs and bars, all located on barges. The club we visited featured one of the most ridiculously loud sound systems I've heard, and was a lot of fun, but not as cheap as I hoped!

Bye bye Serbia!

Very early the next morning, I walked through the near-deserted city and took a bus to Sarajevo, which apparently only went to the 'Serbian side' of the city. I had no idea what this meant, but would find out soon...

Croatia - Zagreb

2007-07-26T00:42:00.000+01:00

The journey through the mountains into Croatia was one of the most dramatic so far. This is why I'm refusing to use planes anywhere on this trip (except the end, of course). You get to see so much more and get a real sense of distance.

The sign says don't lean out the window but it's just so nice!

After arriving in Zagreb, the capital of Croatia, I waited absolutely ages for a tram, then 3 came at once. Typical. The right stop for my hostel was also hard to find, being in the outskirts with no real variation in the landscape of dull, grey apartment blocks.

Creepy!

To be honest I really was not very much impressed with Zagreb. With the exception of one short but very lively street full of a great variety of bars, there wasn't too much that caught my attention.

The city at dusk

There's a funicular railway up to another section of the town, although it's the shortest I've ever seen and walking up the adjoining steps is cheaper and probably quicker too. The rather grey weather did nothing to improve my view of the city.

In the old town

I think to really appreciate Croatia, one must visit the coast, of which I've heard many great things. Later I will do just that, heading to Dubrovnik, and hope it's somewhat more enthralling!

Slovenia - Ljubljana & the Julian Alps

2007-07-24T01:40:00.000+01:00

After a 7 hour wait on the steps of Venice station, which was actually a lot more fun than it sounds, the strike finally lifted and we were able to get an overnight train to Ljubljana. There was a party atmosphere on the train, with everyone onboard in the same situation. Despite it being packed and with many standing in the corridor (all night long!), there were bottles of wine and whiskey being passed about and even a few sing-alongs complete with guitar accompaniment.

On top of the world

I arrived in Ljubljana, the capital of Slovenia, at about three in the morning and grabbed one of the few cabs still running to my hostel and collapsed into bed. In the morning, after a brief walk through the rather pleasant but tiny old town, I caught a bus into the countryside, stopping off next to a lake. On the bus I met five English people travelling together, all from very close to where I study in London, which was quite a coincidence. Together we decided against waiting for the boat and instead walked around the lake to the cable car at the other end.

Hiking in the Julian Alps

We took the cable car up to the summit, which was quite a dramatic journey, climbing over 1km vertically. At the top we hiked around for a while and climbed up to another peak, before being forced to return for the last cable car in the evening.

A novel method of recycling

Later, back in Ljubljana, we met up again and went on a bit of bar crawl, more to find anywhere still open than for variation. With the students away for the summer, the city seemed to be quite dead at night, but we still managed to find a couple of places, although disappointingly (or not) the Horse Burger takeaway was closed, which would have made quite a novel post-pub snack.

A typical wall decoration in Metelkova

At the end of the night we went to one of the most interesting places I've seen - Metelkova. A former military prison, it has since been converted into a hybrid hippy squat and hostel. In fact, it was rated the best hostel in the world last year by Lonely Planet. The entire area is decorated by modern, somewhat anti-establishment artists in quite an unconventional manner and there are even the remains of military vehicles and what looks like part of a helicopter lying around. The disco was quite an experience - seemingly everyone was on LSD and kept dancing even when the music stopped. Shame I didn't get to stay in the hostel!

Italy - Venice

2007-07-23T01:37:00.000+01:00

I took a super-fast and comfortable Eurostar Italia train (oh how I love my Interrail pass) to Venice Mestre station, and catching a glimpse of the amazing landscape I then had to trundle back out on a lowly local train to a small town I was staying in outside the city. The centre itself has very few hostels and little budget accommodation to speak of.

A Gondola on the Grand Canal. I love being original.

After an exhausting walk in 40C temperatures across the 'small' town to find my B&B, I recovered in the air conditioning of my room and headed back into Venice. It really is like in the postcards - walk straight out of the rather grotty train station and you are greeted with a movie-like view of the Grand Canal stretching out in front, packed with canal boats and gondolas and lined with historic renaissance buildings.

Torre dell'Orologio (Clock Tower)

I took a waterbus, the best method of travel in the city (there are no roads or subways at all), along the length of the Grand Canal to St Mark's Square, the hub of Venice. The famous Basilica was nice, although there is little to see thanks to the darkness of the interior and is perhaps best viewed from outside. The square itself and the surrounding area is a wonderful place, and made all the more nicer with the total lack of traffic jams (or in fact, any cars) that somewhat spoiled Rome.

Entering St Mark's Square

Venice is one of those cities with not so many specific 'sights' to see, and is best experienced just wandering around and getting lost. And getting lost is quite easy actually, and happened to me a great many times, but every time it happened I would just discover another amazing area around the next corner. The maze-like array of narrow alleys and passages means it's never difficult to find somewhere away from all the tourists.

A typical 'street' in Venice

Once again the weather was against me, with temperatures climbing well above 40C and rapidly becoming unbearable, even with the shade afforded by the narrow streets. I was forced to head back to my hotel room and relax in the comfort of my own air conditioner (which really I came to appreciate), until the evening.

I love exploring all the narrow alleys. Even the creepy ones...

The city is beautiful at night, although even easier to get lost in, with little street lighting available to read maps. More than once I would think I was nearly back to the train station and then come across a complete dead end, requiring much back-tracking. Still, it was a lot of fun!

The grand canal. Again.

However, leaving Venice was not a pleasant experience. The Italian railway system, in all its wisdom, decided to go on strike the day I needed to leave Italy. I was assured by two separate ticket offices that the strike would not affect international trains, and so happily boarded the departure to Slovenia. About half way to the border, it simply stopped and everyone was told to get off - the driver was now on strike and it would go no further. Typical! Stuck in a random town in the middle of nowhere, that didn't even have any bus services, I luckily managed to meet up with two fellow Brits in the same position as me and together we managed to get the last operating train back to Venice and spent the day trying to get some useful information out of any railway staff, which was not forthcoming. Find out in the next post if I made it to Slovenia...

Italy - Milan & Rome

2007-07-20T02:00:00.000+01:00

I wasn't exactly sure where to go after Munich, other than to head 'South' and maybe pass through Italy. I jumped on the next train to Milan, which arrived after dark at the main station. Not a good idea. The area around the station was probably the dodgiest I've been in on my travels so far, with large groups of homeless and illegal immigrants acting very aggressively to passers by. I did not feel comfortable there. To make matters worse, I had not booked ahead any accommodation, hoping that my luck in Munich would be repeated here.

The centre itself wasn't too bad

Unfortunately, it wasn't, and I had to wander around the city at night with my bags looking for a place to stay. Everywhere was either far too expensive, or creepy, so after a bit of sightseeing I went back to the station and booked a place on an overnight train to Rome. I would have to sleep on the train instead!

Milan in a nutshell

The city centre itself was quite nice, although there was little to see, with the exception of the nicest shopping mall I've ever been in and the glorious Gothic church, the largest in the world. Obviously there were the ubiquitous designer shops all over the place, what with Milan being the capital of fashion, but that didn't particularly interest me and they were all closed anyway!

Even in a posh mall such as this, there is still a McDonalds!

The overnight train to Rome was not the relief I was hoping for. Despite being past 11pm, the digital display board outside the station read the temperature as 35C(!) and there was no air conditioning on the train. Or rather, there was, but it wasn't switched on until after several hours. Rather than fall asleep I think I may have passed out!

The enormous statues outside are wonderfully imposing

I made sure to call ahead to Rome and book a place in what seemed to be the only available hostel in the city. Arriving at about 9am at Roma Termini station, I set out into the bustling streets and caught a bus to the edge of the centre, past the Vatican, to the hostel. Surprisingly my bed was ready for me, but I resisted the temptation to sleep and went back out into the heat to begin sightseeing.

There's history all over the place

I braved the long queue for the Colosseum, which was definitely worth it in the end. It really is an almost magical place to be in, dripping with history and an amazing engineering achievement that has to be seen to be believed. The surrounding areas are also full of Roman ruins, perhaps not quite as impressive but equally interesting, although the sun really was wearing me down by that point.

St Peters Square and Basilica at night

After a good night's sleep, I devoted the entire next day to the Vatican. I started with the Basilica, which was until recently the largest place of worship in the world. It can hold a staggering 60,000 worshippers and the cavernous yet intricately detailed interior is absolutely stunning. Probably my favourite building I've ever visited, it really did take a long time to take it all in.

At the top of the Basilica

I climbed to the top of Cupola, which was exhausting but completely worth it, giving perhaps the best available view over Rome, looking out across St. Peters Square. The stairs to the top, especially the final few, would however cause a lot of problems for those with claustrophobia. I saw more than one person having a panic attack, which is not a nice thing to see!

Looking out across St Peters Square from the Basilica Cupola

Later, after visiting the tombs of the Popes, I went to arguably the main attraction - the Vatican Museums. Widely heralded as one of the best collections of art in the world, if not the best, I spent the entire afternoon gazing at some of the finest objects, engravings, paintings and sculptures created by man. The Last Judgement, the incredible fresco by Michelangelo covering an entire wall of the Sistine Chapel, is the star attraction. Luckily I managed to avoid most of the queues that form earlier in the day and walked straight in.

The Roman Colosseum

Of course, I spent much time simply wandering the streets of Rome, and also looking at the other famous sights such as the mythical Pantheon and the collection of beautiful fountains, notably the magnificent Fontana di Trevi. I could have spent an age in Rome (if not for the heat) but once again it was time to move on, this time to another famous Italian city.

Germany - Munich

2007-07-17T01:58:00.000+01:00

I arrived in Munich with nowhere to stay, having for the first time failed to book any accommodation ahead. This was because I had a friend in the city, but was unable to get in contact with him in time, and so wandered out of the station to find a hostel. Luckily, I stumbled across one of the best hostels I've been to yet, which had just one bed left. Result!

The governmental building is still covered in bullet holes from WWII

The hostel, unusually, provided a free walking tour of the city which I of course took advantage of. Led by quite a character indeed, it ended up taking over 4 hours, leading us all over the city. He gave a great deal of background to the history of the place and pointed out some of the stranger things, such as a statue built to celebrate a victory over Napoleon that never happened as, strangely, Napoleon was their ally at the time. How does that work!?

The beer halls even have lockers to keep your own beer steins

Most exciting of all the sights were the famous beer halls, which are a bit like pubs except enormously bigger, sometimes with seating for thousands. We stopped in a few on the tour, for the requisite, ridiculously-sized 1 litre beer, which is a bit like weight-lifting to drink thanks to the forearm strength required to raise the glass to your lips.

Monumental 1930s architecture

The beer hall I found most interesting is the one where the first meeting of the Nazi party arguably took place. Munich is (in)famously considered the birth place of Nazism, although you'd be hard-pressed to know it by walking around. There are no plaques, tourist information or even memorials noting this, although perhaps this is for the best. The city seems to be torn between wanting to forget its evil past, and trying to remember so that it is never repeated. While almost all the war damage has been carefully cleaned up and erased from view, bullet holes are still left on some government buildings and the university gates, as a reminder to future generations of what began here.

It's hard to gauge the scale in this pic, but that glass is bigger than my head

Eventually my friend, Marcus, called me and we met up. He had only just moved to Munich, which was quite a surprise to me as the last time I heard from him, he was living in north-western Germany. We went to one of the beer halls and had more deliciously oversized beers. Munich really is the beer capital - it has the most breweries of anywhere in the world, and the highest consumption - 1.5 litres a day! That's 0.5l for each meal, and yes, they really do drink beer with breakfast!

Surfers in the English Garden

I really liked Munich, it's a very vibrant city full of young people with lots going on. In just one day I was able to see a festival of European cultures spread all down the main street, some of the best free musical performances I've seen, and even watch people surfing in the main city park! Definitely a place to return to, perhaps in Oktober time, as I heard there's some kind of...Fest....held here I might be slightly interested in.

Austria - Wels, Innsbruck & Jenbach

2007-07-16T01:44:00.000+01:00

I was on my way to Wels, a small town in Austria where my friends Guenther and Clemens study. Unfortunately, the journey was a bit of a nightmare. Due to engineering work, the announcements of which I obviously could not understand, instead of taking an already-complicated 3 trains to get there, it ended up as 5 trains and a bus.

Tasty wheatbeer!

I eventually arrived at Wels station and was met by my friends, who took me back to Clemens' place where we enjoyed a wheat beer, which is quite a novel idea to me, involving a specific way of pouring it upside-down into a special glass. Needless to say, I made quite a mess on my first attempt but thanks to plenty of practise that night am now quite adept at it! My timing in Wels was very lucky, it was their last night in the town before moving back to their family homes for the summer. That night we went to a barbecue party at a friend of theirs' house, which was really more of a mansion and had its own swimming pool and sauna, which was great fun.

Inside Innsbruck Cathedral

The next day I tagged along with Clemens back to his hometown of Innsbruck, in the Austria Alps, which again was excellent timing as it was a place I was going to visit anyway. This time I stayed in a hostel where I met my first Icelandic person (which is quite rare, there's only 300,000 of them!). He mentioned how much he wanted to go hiking in the Alps, so I invited him out with me and Clemens.

Climbing to the summit. Not pictured: terrifyingly long drop below

Together we took 2 cable cars up to the top of the large mountain that dominates the view from the town. We climbed on foot a bit further to the summit, then gradually hiked back down the mountain.

The view was spectacular

At times it was quite scary, as Clemens, being a native of the Alps, is not particular used to staying on paths and instead seems to prefer ridiculously steep routes, which managed to bring us down the mountain rather quickly indeed. It was a lot of fun, if a bit exhausting in the heat.

The Achenseebahn Steam Mountain Railway

That night we embarked on an epic tour of the bars in Innsbruck and randomly ended up at the only all-night waiter-style restaurant I've ever seen, at about 4am. In the morning, I said my goodbyes and began heading toward Munich, but first stopped at the town of Jenbach for a nice little side trip. Clemens had recommended to me the steam train up to a lake in the mountains, where I took a boat across and then hiked back along the rather precarious cliff-edges surrounding it.

Lake Achensee

The lake was beautiful and the steam train journey very impressive, being of the rare cog variety, allowing it to climb at a very steep angle. I wish I had more time there to enjoy the scenery further, but Munich was calling!

Czech Republic - Prague

2007-07-13T14:13:00.000+01:00

The hostel was not exactly in the nicest area of the city, being quite a way out and requiring a metro journey and much walking to get to. However, once inside it was really quite nice and very colourfully decorated, with the walls covered top to bottom in graffiti.

Lots of building work going on...

Strangely it seemed to rain about five times a day in Prague, which was actually quite refreshing. Just as it started to get a little too hot, a sudden rain shower would appear for a few minutes. Quite a change from the roasting temperatures in Bratislava.

The old town from the river

The city itself is very nice and while for mainstream tourists it might deserve its newfound position as the tourism capital of eastern europe, I'm not quite sure it suits adventurous backpackers so well. It's absolutely packed with visitors and tour groups and visiting some of the big attractions requires a lot of waiting.

The castle at dusk

The royal palace area is definitely worth a visit, although the actual 'palace' section itself is quite small indeed, and I was quite bemused by the need for a ticket to visit a small lane containing some tourist shops. The cathedral was the star-attraction for me, especially the tower which can be climbed in an exhausting 287 claustrophobic steps.

Statues on the historic bridge

The hill next to the castle is reachable by funicular railway, with an observation tower at the summit. It's quite a hairy climb, with the spiral stairway exposed on the outside of the tower and which in the wind could clearly be felt shaking! At the top is a great view over the city.

Best museum of Communism ever!

The museum of Communism, fittingly located behind McDonalds and next to a casino, is probably my favourite museum on the entire trip so far. It has a great sense of humour - one of the many fake-propaganda posters outside stating, "You couldn't get laundry detergent, but you could get your brainwashed!", alluding to the shortages in communist shops. Inside is a wide range of ex-Soviet relics which, having an interest in the politics behind the USSR, I found fascinating,. The museum offers a more detailed and wide-ranging approach to what life was like in Communist times compared with the more narrowly-focused occupation museums in the Baltic states.

Yes, it's a pig on a diving board. No, it's not real. I hope.

I had a good stay in Prague, but was looking forward to heading onwards to meet my friends back in Austria, something I had been looking forward to for a long time!

Austria - Vienna

2007-07-12T14:11:00.000+01:00

Austria was another place near the top of my wish list, although I'll admit it was more the Alps I was looking forward to. Still, it was really nice to spend a couple of days in the capital. Now let's see if I can do this update without mentioning the name of that certain childhood composer that is the only thing most people know about Vienna before arriving...

The imperial architecture is fantastic

I didn't find that many actual 'sights' to see in the city, but just walking around and soaking in the elaborate architecture was fascinating.

This really is quite a breathtaking sight

The Museum Quarter, a large modern arts centre prominently located in the historic centre was a great place to hang around in, with lots of different exhibitions and these great (and very popular) sofa-bed type things for lying in the sun.

Counting down the days to Euro 2008...

On my second day, the weather took a turn for the worse and so I spent it back in the Museum Quarter, and also at the Freud museum, located in his former apartment, which is well worth a visit.

One of the flak towers

Being a bit of a history geek, I was quite excited to discover a WW2 flak tower, just like the ones in Berlin. Bristling with anti-aircraft guns, containing air raid shelters and massively well protected, the towers proved impossible to demolish following the war and still remain, covered in advertising and in the case of the one above, the tallest artificial climbing wall I've ever seen. They really do stick out like sore thumbs, but I find they do add character to the city, looking just so out of place, almost as if they've fallen from space.

It's not THAT bad, really

I had a great time in the hostel, meeting a group of Scots who appeared to have had the same experience in Bratislava as me. We went out at night, only to find that there were no bars of clubs open anywhere nearby, except for a solitary Irish pub, so we had to resort to that. Not exactly the Austrian experience, but it's ok as I had to get up early for my next train. As you can probably tell I was quite impressed with Vienna overall, and see, I didn't even mention Mozart! Oh....bugger.

Slovakia - Bratislava

2007-07-11T14:04:00.000+01:00

I arrived in Bratislava in the middle of the day, which was a bit unfortunately as like Budapest it was ridiculously hot. It was also once again a long walk to the hostel, which ended up quite difficult to find as a building was being constructed, quite bewilderingly, across the actual entrance to the street! How on earth was I supposed to find the place if the street no longer exists?

The small old town is quite charming

Luckily I worked it out and arrived in a near-deserted hostel, which would make my time in Bratislava a bit less enjoyable as for the first time I ended up not meeting a single person.

Sometimes you have to look down to see the statues...

I took a walk into the old town, which is very small, thanks to the Soviets having demolished half of it to built a horrendously ugly suspension bridge. The castle, thankfully, survives and was a very pleasant place to relax and gaze across the city.

A robot in the castle keeps watch

The city is located on a river, but strangely does not have much of a riverside or promenade to match any of the other cities I've been to. In fact, the other side is dominated by the largest communist housing estate in Europe.

The 'flying saucer' bridge and communist tower blocks

It's a bit hypocritical for me to complain, but the city was rammed full of British people. Although, in this case, the wrong kind of British people - stag parties comprised entirely of loud, rude, incredibly drunk men. It's not the city's fault but it really harms the atmosphere.

Modern art on the main street

I've complained a lot about Bratislava here, but maybe it's just because I really didn't enjoy myself. It was too hot, the hostel was bad and there wasn't much to see or do. But I'm sure the city could be very enjoyable with the right people, especially with locals. And on the bright side, I was really impressed by the fantastic array of modern art and sculptures on display, probably the best I've ever seen. Maybe I should have given the city a second chance, but unfortunately I've got to keep moving!

Hungary - Budapest

2007-07-10T14:01:00.000+01:00

I stayed a night in Krakow (which I had already visited last year) to catch a train onwards in the morning. I then had to change in a random town, which involved a couple of hours of free time waiting for the connection. This turned out to be quite an experience, as upon arrival I realised I actually had no idea at all which country the station was in.

Maybe this town was actually in the Twilight Zone

Due to its location, it could have been any of 3, and I literally had to ask someone once there, "Excuse me, which country am I in?"/ I was met by an understandably confused expression, but thankfully they answered that I was in the Czech Republic. After a couple of hours of looking at not very much at all, I jumped on the train to Hungary.

If only the weather had stayed like this

I made the mistake of underestimating the size of the city and, ignoring the metro, tried to walk from the station to my hostel, which eventually took about 30 minutes. Once there it was already quite late so I didn't do any sightseeing and instead went out on the town with other backpackers.

At the foot of the royal palace

The next day I headed out across the river, which separates the two sides of the city, the west is known as Buda and the east as, you guessed it...Pest. Unfortunately the walkway on the rather ornate southern bridge was boarded up so I was unable to get a good view of the river front.

Looking North from the hill

So instead, I climbed a big lookout hill, giving a great view of the city. By now it was roasting hot, the beginning of the big summer heatwave, the brunt of which I would thankfully miss, which saw temperatures reach 45C.

There are still reminders of the revolution scattered around

I then took the funicular up the second hill to visit the walled Royal Palace area, almost a city within a city, containing government offices and various official places. Unfortunately I didn't have time to visit the Parliament on the other side of the river, it looks absolutely beautiful and would be well worth a look.

The waterfront at dusk

The (free) military museum at the top of the hill features a great exhibit on the 1956 Hungarian Revolution, which saw the people rise up against their Communist oppressors and its subsequent defeat at the hands of a Soviet invasion. There really is a lot of history in Budapest and my time was not enough to explore it a deeply, but I think I still got a good feel of the place. After a day of sightseeing, it was time to go. Following a nightmare of queuing at the chaotic main train station, I jumped on a train back north. Next stop, Bratislava!

Poland - Lublin

2007-07-09T16:32:00.000+01:00

After the Ukrainian border debacle, I managed to jump on the day's only train to Lublin just as it was starting to pull away. My friend wouldn't be there until later, but he sent a friend of his to pick me up at the station, who showed me around town and even took me to dinner, which was nice. That night, once all together, we engaged in much drinking before the rather somber events of the next day.

The monument to the victims

Lublin itself is a nice, medium-sized university city, with attractive streets and quite a few things to see, but undoubtedly the main attraction is the former Nazi concentration camp, called Majdanek.

No chance of escape

Majdanek was one of the largest Nazi concentration camps, but thankfully was never finished to the full size it was intended. Later in the war the camp became a centre of extermination, mainly for Jews but also victims of other nationalities.

Inside the gas chamber

I have already been to Auschwitz before, so I knew what to expect, but still a few things shocked me, including the crushed-up Jewish gravestones used to build the access road. At the end of the camp is possibly the worst thing I have ever seen - under an enormous, open-air concrete mausoleum is a huge pile of ashes of the camp's victims. It is an absolutely horrible sight to see.

Cramped bunks

Much of the camp survives as it was during the war, and interestingly the camp, unlike many others, is not hidden from sight at all. There was no special 'security zone', there are no natural barriers such as forests in the way - the camp is slap bang right next to Lublin and is now actually surrounded by suburbs.

These sheds housed thousands of inmates

Aside from the camp I actually had a great time in Lublin, including a night bowling where I found I was nowhere near as bad at it as I remembered and a couple of great meals in traditional Polish restaurants. It was really nice to hang out with actual Polish people rather than backpackers for a change, and get to really experience the place.

Ukraine - Lviv

2007-07-07T15:45:00.000+01:00

Ukraine was a country high on my list of places to visit. Torn between East and West, it can't seem to decide whether to move closer to Russia or the EU. It is in fact the only Eastern European country that does not have joining the EU as an official goal and recent political turmoil shows it could still go either way.

Just like any other European city...

Getting there was not easy - a 7 hour train journey from Warsaw to Przemysl on the border, and then a dilapidated old Ukrainian bus across to Lviv, Ukraine's second city. It was probably the worst bus I've ridden on, with the seats not firmly secured to the floor and a worrying stench of diesel fumes throughout. A nice introduction to Ukraine!

I really should make an effort to learn this alphabet

To be honest I had absolutely no idea where my hostel was in the city, and I soon discovered everything was in the absolutely impenetrable cyrillic (Russian) alphabet. Luckily, of all people I was sat next to the owner of a travel company who kindly took me on the tram to the hostel, which was the only one in Lviv.

The book market

I set out to do some sightseeing and found it to be very similar to other Eastern European cities. In fact, Lviv was historically a Polish city, right up until the second world war when the USSR moved the borders of Ukraine westwards, swallowing up the whole area. The architecture and feel of the place still seems to me very Polish.

On top of the hill

I climbed the hill dominating the town, where the ruins of a castle now lie, before climbing back down to visit the market. Just as in other former USSR states, there are many relics left over to buy including medals, old uniforms and propaganda posters. I settled on some Soviet coins from the time of the Moscow Olympics in the 1980s, which aren't too rare but I liked the design.

Soviet War Memorial

In contrast to the overall European atmosphere of the place, there are still areas with a Soviet feel, especially with the monumental 'Social Realist' sculptures scattered around.

Close up of the war memorial

One of the most interesting places in the city is the main graveyard. Hanging around graveyards isn't normally something I would do, but this one was particularly beautiful with many extremely elaborate and ornate gravestones and shrines. Interestingly, almost all of the buried had Polish names, and there were big groups of Polish tourists wandering around taking photos and placing candles.

Another war memorial, this time in the graveyard

Late at night I decided to head back to the hostel, which turned out to be a lot more difficult than I thought. It was pitch black, with no moonlight and there were, amazingly, no streetlights. In fact they were there, just not switched on. I had to make my way across the entire city in total darkness, without tripping over the cobbles, uneven paving stones and bewilderingly large holes randomly dug in the road.

One of the random holes, this time in daylight

It was not a particularly fun experience, especially as I could at times hear voices close to me but not see anybody at all. Thankfully, I made it back safely to the hostel, where the owner just laughed and said "Yeah, it's not like England here". Well I know that now!

Ukrainian nationalist hero, you won't see many of these in the east of the country...

In fact the biggest problem I had to overcome was the sheer rudeness and unhelpfulness of the local population. Nobody spoke English, which I really don't mind at all, but many seemed to only pretend not to understand my attempts at sign language which had worked everywhere else in europe. Normally pointing at your watch and then the train would work, but apparently in Ukraine they don't understand even simple things like this. Coupled with the alphabet being unreadable for me, I was not able to take a train back to Poland and had to settle on a bus, which was easier to work out and yet still involved a taxi ride across the city to the main bus station which is conveniently 7km from the centre!

The totally bewildering train departure board

The bus ride back was amazing - I was the only foreigner on the bus and absolutely everyone else, the driver included, was smuggling. They were strapping cigarettes and alcohol to their arms and wearing sleeves over the top, putting them down their trousers, in the engine compartments, they even used screwdrivers to remove the air conditioning panels and hide bottles of vodka in there! At the border, despite bribing their way across the Ukrainian side with US dollars, the Polish customs were having none of it, forced everyone off the bus and searched everybody one by one. Luckily I got out of it, waving my British passport at them, but the guards were furious with everyone else and arrested seemingly half of the bus. In the end it took 3.5 hours just to cross the border! I had been warned about the likelihood of smuggling on the buses, but thought it was exaggerated. I think I'll pay more attention in future...

Poland - Warsaw and Gdansk

2007-07-06T19:53:00.000+01:00

I took the bus from Vilnius to Bialystok in Poland, which was the closest major railway station so that I could start using my Interrail european rail pass. I took the train to Warsaw and was greeted by my friend, Kuba.

Warsaw Old Town

He briefly showed me around a few of the major sites in the evening, including the old town and the tomb of the unkown solider. I gathered that he didn't seem too impressed with the city.

Tomb of the Unkown Soldier

The next day I went to Gdansk for the day to meet my housemate from London who was there with her friends for a music festival. Interestingly this involved getting the train to 'Hel', which is obviously a lovely name for a town. They were already very drunk but we met up and went for a few beers before arranging to meet in their hometown, Lublin, later in the week where they promised me lots of partying. I'm going to hold them to that!

I'm going to Hel...

Gdansk was very nice, with lots of historic buildings but it was easy to see everything quickly and the one thing I really wanted to see, the Solidarity movement museum, was closed.

Gdansk Old Town

I headed back to Warsaw and spent a full day sightseeing. I went to the top of the Stalinist 'Palace of Culture' to get a good view of the city and explored the old town in more detail. Warsaw is really nice but I can understand why the Poles don't seem too impressed with it. It's more a place of business and work than a tourist destination. Having been completely destroyed in WW2, only the reconstructed old town really stands out as something to see.

View from the tower

In the evening I stayed the night at Kuba's place with a bunch of other Polish students. They couldn't really speak much english but we had a great time drinking together and watching the Polish team play volleyball (which is really big over here apparently). Luckily they won!

The Stalinist 'Palace' at night

Unfortunately I have to drag myself up early in the morning to get the 7 hour train to the Polish border. Ukraine here I come...

Lithuania - Vilnius

2007-07-06T19:41:00.000+01:00

I arrived in Lithuania's capital, Vilnius, tired and exhausted after such a long journey. Upon getting off the bus I noticed somebody blocking my way.

Bell tower in the main square

I looked up and had to blink a few times - a familiar face was staring back at me and smiling. It was Margarita from the summer cottage last October in Finland! What an amazing coincidence to bump into her - we had been on the same bus.

The old town from the castle tower

Luckily, she was a local of Vilnius and offered to show me around. We went to the churches and monasteries, climbed the castle tower and walked around all the major sites, including the breakaway self-declared 'free republic' of artists and nonconformists with its comical constitution prominently displayed.

Entering the 'Free Republic'

The city is very nice, definitely my favourite so far on this trip. The old town is much larger and more impressive than the one in Riga. There's a lot to see but in the one day I had I think I saw enough to get a feel for the place.

The Russian church at sunset

It was great to have a local guide, Margarita even took me to Vilnius University to have a look around which is something most tourists don't get to do. Despite having such a great time, I knew I had to leave. Next stop, Poland!

Lithuania - Soviet Missile Base

2007-07-01T13:52:00.000+01:00

The hostel in Klaipeda offered the chance to visit an old Soviet missile base and this was something I really didn't want to pass up. The manager of the hostel drove me, Andy and Melanie on the one hour trip to the remote location.

Entering the bunker

The missile base was the first built by the Soviets in occupied europe. It held 4 massive nuclear missiles, each in its own underground silo.

Keep out

This is not an official tourist attraction, it really is just an abandoned military base. The most dangerous parts have been sealed off and lighting has been installed, but the national park it is located in does not pay any money to maintain it and it is therefore degrading rapidly.

Deep in the base

There are several underground floors open to viewing and one of the silo chambers. Anything that wasn't nailed down has been taken over the years, but there's still a lot of cool stuff.

Armoured doors seal every room

Most of the original warning signs, painted on the walls in Russian, are still visible. They say such encouraging things like "If you smell gas, put on your gas mask immediately".

It's easy to get lost inside

There are some interesting rooms, such as the barracks and communication center, as well as the generator room (still with original generator) to explore. The atmosphere is just like being in a hollywood movie.

Inside the silo chamber. It's a lot taller than it looks!

The star attraction has to be the missile chamber itself. Over 30m tall, this held a rocket with a lifespan of about 15 years (they were replaced only once in the base's lifespan). Thankfully they were never used for their intended purpose. Eventually the rockets were removed and sent to Cuba just before the start of the missile crisis.

Standing on top of the silo

One day the Russians simply packed up and left. Apparently this was because they knew the Americans had discovered the base's location, but nobody knows as all the information is still classified. After several years, the locals returned to the base and were startled to discover its true purpose. They had no idea!

Lithuania - Hill of Crosses and Klaipeda

2007-07-01T13:14:00.000+01:00

I got the bus from Riga to Lithuania, stopping off at Siauliai. I had originally intended to head straight for the coast but I had heard good things about the hill of crosses and it was on the way, so it seemed like a good thing to do.

That's a lot of crosses

The hill itself is about 20 minutes out of town by bus, then a 2km walk. I was greeted with quite a sight - a small hill absolutely covered in thousands and thousands of crosses.

There are also thousands of tiny crosses hanging from the larger ones

The tradition of placing crosses started long ago but took on greater significance during the Soviet occupation, when the crosses were removed by the Communist authorities. The villagers would sneak over the barbed wire at night, and risking their lives place a cross as a small act of resistance.

There are some more elaborate statues as well as the personal contributions

I went back to the main town and got the bus onwards to Klaipeda, Lithuania's main port and summer getaway resort. The main attraction is not the town itself, which is quite pleasant and historic, but the strip of land across the harbour.

The Soviet-era factory kind of spoils the town's charm

The Curonian Spit is quite an oddity. A sand bar 100km long and about 4km wide, it stretches parallel to the shore, with the sea on either side. Half way down the spit is split in two thanks to the Russian border with Kaliningrad.

Relaxing by the waterfront

I took the ferry across, then the bus an hour down the spit to Nida, the main tourist hub. After climbing the sand dunes, I rented a bike and spent the day cycling through the forests and along the beaches. It was definitely one of the most pleasant places I have ever been.

On the dunes, looking toward Russia (Kaliningrad)

Back at the hostel, I bumped into Andy who I had met previously in Tallinn and Tartu, and Melanie who I had met in Saremaa. Together we went out to a Lithuanian restuarant and then headed to the town centre, by the river where the midsomer celebrations were taking place.

Bonfire at the midsomer celebrations

There was a free concert with a strange but entertaining mix of rock and traditional folk singing (which I am told is quite popular in Lithuania), along with a bonfire and lots of alcohol stands. We stayed a while then went back to the hostel to get some sleep. Tomorrow we were off to somewhere quite exciting!

Latvia - Riga and Sigulda

2007-06-24T22:46:00.000+01:00

I had been really looking forward to Riga, especially because the hostel I would be staying in was one of the highest rated and had frequently won the annual best hostel award for the entire world. I would not be let down!

The guards at the central monument were not amused at our attempts to climb it

Upon arriving I was given a free welcome beer and was informed by the barman of all the best places to go and things to avoid. He takes everybody out on the town every night at midnight, which is quite a nice touch and something I wanted to take part in, at least on the first night.

Old Riga

One poster in the bar caught my eye - a shooting trip to an ex-Soviet bunker to fire AK-47s amongst other guns. It was something I couldn't turn down, as we never have the chance to fire real guns in the UK. I put my name down and met up with the others before taking the tram together to the bunker which was surprisingly near the city centre.

Shooting in the bunker

The bunker contained a huge gun shop selling all kinds of weapons and was run by some crazy Russians who didn't speak any english, which didn't exactly fill me with confidence. They literally just put the weapons in our hands and said 'shoot' without any instruction. It was good fun though, if a little scary, and the firing range itself was quite safe. We got to use a pistol, AK-47 and pump-action shotgun (which indulged all my horror movie fantasies).

The view from up high is quite impressive

Later I did some sightseeing, climbing one of the tall church spire to get a view of the city and then doing a lot of walking. I met with someone from the hostel and we went to a local restuarant before heading to the bar and meeting other travellers then going to a club.

Not sure what this is, but it isn't Soviet, despite the appearance

The next day was spent doing more sightseeing and in the evening we went to another club, this time much bigger and more impressive. It was great fun and we stayed pretty much all night.

Some of the new buildings are quite impressive

I awoke in the morning in my bed with no memory of how I got there. This was quite surprising as the club was quite a long way away. One poor guy said it took him 2 hours to walk back as he kept getting lost, but I guess I have some sort of homing instinct.

Soviet locomotive at the railway museum

On the 3rd day I got the bus to Sigulda, described as 'the Switzerland of Latvia' It's not quite as impressive as that, but the main castle is very pleasant (although a 5km walk from the centre), as is the cable car ride to another castle, although it's not quite as well preserved, being a big pile of ruins.

Soviet skyscraper in the Russian district

Once back in Riga I headed to the Russian market. The whole area on that side of the city is like stepping back in time to the Soviet Union. There is even a towering Stalinist skyscraper and Russian church to complete the effect.

Main square in the old town

All-in-all I really liked Riga. It was definitely my favourite stop on my trip so far, with the hostel especially being a lot of fun. Next, I was off to my fourth country - Lithuania!

Estonia - Tartu

2007-06-24T22:18:00.000+01:00

I arrived in Parnu in the afternoon and headed straight for the university dorms where I would be staying. They were brand new and very nice, but I had a room to myself and knew it would be difficult to meet anyone. Luckily, fate would intervene.

Main square of the old town

I set out to do some sightseeing and almost immediately on the bridge into town I bumped into someone I had met in the hostel in Tallinn. We had hung around together quite a lot there so it was quite a surprise to meet up again, especially as he was supposed to be going to Russia, but in fact ended up coming to Tartu first.

Inside the KGB cells

He had been in Tartu the day before so knew the town already and showed me around. Later, just after we sat down in a cafe another person we knew from Tallinn walked past, again much to our surprise!

Peering into the war-damaged church

Now the first guy I had met was doing the 'couch surfing' thing where you stay with a local at their place for free. He was with a university lecturer so we decided to meet up with him and go for dinner. Being a lecturer in Political Science he of course knew a lot about the history of Estonia and we were able to ask him all the questions that had been bugging us about Estonian life and culture (this was good as he was pretty much the first local we had contact with).

Estonian graduation party

The one thing that I had been wondering about was why there were so many well-dressed people walking about carrying flowers. Well the answer was that it was graduation week for the Estonian students, and the teacher was invited to one of the graduation parties. Of course, he brought us along!

The view from the party

The party was amazing. It was held in a luxurious loft of a tall building, with lots of people there but it was pretty much 100% estonian students and me and the 2 Americans huddled in the corner feeling like impostors. Luckily we mixed in pretty quickly and ended up taking a sauna with a bunch of them, which was rather random, and then sitting out on the roof watching the sunset over the city. The best moment came when the Estonians, and us, all held hands and sang a national patriotic song. It was very moving indeed and not a moment I will ever forget.

High up on the roof, sitting on the neon sign while drunk. Probably not a good idea...

We were out pretty much the whole night, which wasn't my original intention as I had to get an early bus in the morning, but it was definitely worth it. Onwards to Latvia!

Estonia - Saremaa and Parnu

2007-06-20T13:40:00.000+01:00

The bus to the island of Saremaa took about 4.5 hours, including an hour on the ferry, which was quite pleasant. Except, that is, for the enormous dragonflies the size of small birds swarming all round the decks. I've never seen any this big before and would be seeing yet more of them on the island.

On the ferry to Saremaa

The island is quite special in Estonian culture because due to its isolated location it was always the last part of the country to be invaded and occupied so traditions and culture that were lost elsewhere could be kept alive.

The castle at Kuressaare

The weather was great as I arrived and after dropping my bags off at the B&B in the capital, Kuressaare, I set off to explore the town. There wasn't too much to see, with the exception of a great medieval castle which houses the museum of the island. Otherwise I spent the day relaxing at a slow pace as I knew the next day would be quite tough - I was going to rent a bike and cycle down the Sorve peninsular.

A strange centrepiece for a harbour

Unfortunately by the morning the weather took a turn for the worse and it was raining on and off all day, but I decided to risk it and cycled about 20km south along the coastal road to see the WW2 remains that the island was well known for.

The battlefield site

Some of the heaviest fighting in Estonia during the Second World War took place on the island as the Germans retreated in the face of the Red Army. At the present site of the battlefield now there isn't much to see, except a typically drab and tasteless Soviet war memorial.

'Banned History'at the modern art museum

I cycled back and spent the rest of the day relaxing before catching the bus in the morning to the coastal resort of Parnu, back on the mainland. This is apparently the place where Estonians go on holiday and is known as something of a party town, although I didn't see much evidence of that. It was all a bit eerily quiet but the town was very pleasant with lots of historic buildings.

It's possible to walk the 2km breakwater right out into the sea

I was only there for a night as I wanted to squeeze in one more stop in Estonia before leaving. It was definitely a nice place with a great beach but once again the weather was against me and it was quite cloudy and windy at times.

On the beach

In the morning a grabbed another bus, this time Estonia's second city, Tartu, and my stay there was I'm glad to say, much more exciting!

Estonia - Tallinn and Laheema

2007-06-15T17:28:00.000+01:00

My trip to Tallinn was a little more hectic than I had hoped. I managed to miss my train, which already was a dangerously late time and had to get the next one, which meant I had just 20 minutes to make it from the station to the port with my heavy bags. The problem was the port was on the other side of the city and much further than I expected.

Leaving Finland

Thankfully, I made it to the boat with just 1 minute to spare and was the last passenger to board. That's me I guess, always leaving things until as late as possible. The journey itself was very relaxing and gave me time to catch my breath and eat some breakfast before arriving in Estonia.

Arriving in Tallinn

Once in Estonia, it was exactly as I remembered on my two previous trips last year. I headed straight for the hostel, which was one of the highest rated in europe according to the booking website I was using. I dumped my bags and from the outset started meeting lots of different people.

Walking around the edge of the old town

I was quite nervous about my first time alone in a hostel, but I soon learnt to be as open and friendly as possible as everybody else was in the same situation. Most of the others seemed to be from english-speaking countries, namely Australia, Canada and the US, so it was easyt to communicate and get along.

The only reason they put the sign up must be because someone already did it...

I did some quick sightseeing, although having already been to Tallinn (twice!) there was little I had not already seen in the old town so I took a walk further away to the new town with its gleeming skyscrapers.

Old meets new

Later that afternoon I went to an Estonian restaurant with a couple of people from the hostel. It's true what they say about Estonian food, it was full of meat and quite bland but as I hadn't eaten all day I didn't really mind.

Out on the town

That night a big group of us went to a bar called Hell Hunt, which was much nicer than it sounds and even claims to be Tallinn's first pub. After it closed we wandered around until we found the holy grail - a 24 hour bar! The beer was so cheap that I ended up drinking far too much and couldn't get up the next day.

Former KGB headquarters with bricked-up torture basement

The problem was I was supposed to get up early and head for Saarema national park, but I didn't wake until the afternoon and by then it was raining heavily, so I decided to stay in.

Walking from Palme to Vosu

I decided to extend my stay from 2 nights to 3 and got the bus the next day to Viitna. I then stumbled across a local bus which saved a 7km walk to the tourist information office. The driver spoke no english when I asked where it was going, but the passengers seemed to know english and all helped out. In fact, when I nearly got off at the wrong stop seemingly half the bus stood up and told me, which was quite a nice experience.

On the beach at Vosu

I walked about 3 hours to Vosu, getting lost several times on the way along lanes that were unmarked on my map, but eventually I made it and relaxed on the beach for a while.

Still painting the lines...

It was a nice little village but there was little to see so eventually I got the bus straight back to Tallinn and collapsed into bed.

I guess there are ACDC fans even way out in the country

I had a great time in Tallinn and a good experience on my first time in a hostel. I'm currently on the island of Saremaa, which is where I headed next. Hopefully I'll have time to update this again sometime soon!

Four More Days in Helsinki

2007-06-11T10:18:00.000+01:00

So I'm back in Helsinki yet again for the beginning of my new pan-European adventure. With any luck, over the next few weeks I'll be heading south through eastern Europe, stopping off at as many cities and places as I can along the way.

By the sea

I arrived back in Finland Saturday afternoon and gave my friend Gerard a bit of a shock when I remembered that I had forgotten to tell him I was coming. Thankfully he was as welcoming as ever and offered to let me stay so I headed to drop my bags off. The one thing that surprised me most when I arrived was the heat - the thermometer on the flat balcony said 31 degrees! I had been in Helsinki just a month previous and at that time it was still practically winter.

On the boat to Suomenlinna

In the evening I headed to Suomenlinna, the large UNESCO-protected island fortress in Helsinki harbour with some friends for a picnic. We ended up staying until 1.30am, but luckily the boats were still running at that time. We managed to see the sunset over the city, which was beautiful from the island. It was especially interesting as the sun didn't set until after 11pm! It stayed quite bright all night, which seems really strange for someone from England. It makes Finland feel really different from home, but it does have the annoying side effect of making it difficult to sleep.

On the island at sunset

Anyway, we got the boat back to Helsinki and went to the very-crowded Aussie Bar in Kamppi before heading to a flat in Pasila to drink cocktails until 7am. Considering that thanks to my flight I had been up since 5am this was far too much for me and eventually I fell asleep.

Lonely man on Suomenlinna

The next day I drifted back to Gerard's to recover for a bit before meeting with a couple more of the erasmus survivors, including a friend from last year who by chance was in Helsinki this week, which was a nice surprise. We decided to head to the beach here in Leppavaara. We had only recently heard of its existence when someone looked on Google Earth and realised with quite a shock that "oh wow we actually live near the sea!". In fact there was a reason nobody had been there before and it took us several hours of getting lost in forests and down country lanes until we found the sea, but no beach.

On the ´beach´in Leppavaara

We ended up lying on the rocks drinking beer which was good enough for me. Problem was I had to meet some friends in the city so I ended up walking almost all the way to Helsinki until I found a tram line, which was quite a feat as I don't know anybody who has done this.

Best bar view in Helsinki?

I met with Florian, Rafi and Giulia and together we headed to the best bar I've been in Helsinki. It was on the roof of a very tall hotel, right in the centre. The view was absolutely amazing, it was possible to see in 360 degrees across the entire city. I can't believe I didn't know about it! We got to watch a spectacular sunset over the skyline before I headed back to Gerard's for a barbecue.

In the studio

On Monday I randomly ended up in a recording studio with some friends. I can´t sing or play any instruments so I was able to just sit back and watch. It was quite an impressive show - I had no idea my friend has such an amazing singing voice.

Today I´m heading into town to meet a friend before the traditional Tuesday-night sauna and then Bar Fly. Tommorow is the big one...I´m heading by ship to Tallinn to begin my adventure. I can´t wait!

A Frozen Picnic & Home Again

2007-05-18T17:38:00.000+01:00

We ended up oversleeping a bit, originally intending to head to Kaivopuisto for the picnic in the morning, but 2pm was fine by me anyway. It was slightly less freezing than the day before, which was nice and so we managed to drag ourselves across the whole city, up and down hills carrying heavy food and drink, to get to the park.

Who's idea was it to have an outdoor picnic in early-May Scandinavia anyway?

On arrival we were faced with quite a sight, the whole place was rammed with thousands of people, most of them uni students wearing their distinctive overalls and caps.

With the fellow exchange students at the picnic

For some reason we decided to sit on the rocks by the sea, where the wind made it feel ridiculously cold but after a few beers it didn't seem to matter.

Me, Rob, Cord and Xavier doing something stupid again, no doubt

Walking round the park, I spotted all kinds of strange things. From people dressed in costumes to elaborately-decorated tents and even a Vappu push-chair, which thankfully contained a sound system and not a child.

It was surprising the lengths some people went to

It was too cold to stay for long and eventually I headed back to the city centre with Rob. On the way we passed one of the weirdest-decorated cars I've ever seen, but I've got used to seeing things like this by now.

Pimp My Ride...the Finnish version

I spent the rest of my Vappu week in Finland visiting friends, partying and clubbing as well as quite a bit of sleeping. It was really great to be back and have such a fun holiday. However, by Friday it was time to say goodbye to Helsinki (again) and return home to face reality and take my university exams, but I knew I'd be back eventually.

A bird by the sea...

In fact I'll be back sooner than I first thought. I'm returning on June 9th for a few days before I begin my pan-European adventure, which of course I hope to write about here. In the meantime, thanks to all the people who gave me such a wonderful time and perhaps I'll be seeing you on my journey!

Vappu!

2007-05-17T02:33:00.000+01:00

Despite the cold weather, we had been out in the city all afternoon, meeting as many drunk Finns dressed in all sorts of crazy outfits as we could. We had gathered from some unnecessarily-long conversations with these people that the traditional celebrations in Helsinki would begin at 5pm with the 'capping' of the statue in the harbour, and it was something we didn't want to miss.

You don't see something like this every day...

Most students are wearing overalls, which act as a uniform for their particular department, e.g. Electronics is navy blue and Media Engineering orange. Adorned on these overalls are badges earned through different events, most of them parties involving heavy drinking. Some students were covered in a frankly alarming number of these.

The students are lowered over the statue. And yes, the top hat is apparently back in fashion

After spending the afternoon drinking in the park, we headed to the statue where I was to meet my other friends. Unfortunately the thousands of people surrounding it made the task a bit more difficult than expected, but I found them in the end, after being told to look for a 'giant bear'.

After the capping of the statue

The atmosphere was electric, everybody was so happy, although most likely because of the enormous amount of alcohol consumption, but it was quite a strange thing to see on such a cold day. It was also unusual to see so many people together at once in the city.

Andrew, Florian and me, feeling generally bewildered by the whole thing

Eventually the ceremony began, and I can honestly say it's one of the most random things I've ever seen. A group of students, hanging from a giant hat (itself connected to a crane), lowered over the statue and after a countdown placed a cap on the head. Apparently the cap is awarded to students graduating from university, so this marks the end of the academic year.

Heading toward Senate Square

The moment the statue was capped, the crowd went (even more) crazy, cheering and singing and firing off the corks from bottles of sparkling wine. It was an absolutely bizarre scene but a lot of fun to experience.

That's me about to sign somebody's leg

Afterwards we headed, along with the massive crowds, toward Senate Square and the steps of Helsinki Cathedral where more partying ensued.

Apparently a gas mask is standard student attire these days

There was a rather average free concert, featuring an unfortunate hip-hop act that tried to fire up the crowd and get them moving but it was far too cold and the people far too drunk to comply.

It's a shame Lordi weren't playing but it was still 2 weeks until Eurovision

I stayed for a while, at various times losing friends and finding others in the crowds, before queuing for about half an hour in a McDonalds to use the toilet. Afterwards I decided enough was enough and caught the train home.

Xavier and Josep getting in the party spirit

We partied in the flat the rest of the night, my third full night of such activity, but this time we knew we'd have to drag ourselves up in the morning(!) the next day for the traditional picnic.

Return to Finland

2007-05-17T01:48:00.000+01:00

It had been four months since I left Finland, and I was desperate to go back. Many of my friends there were lucky enough to be staying for a whole year, so I had been feeling a bit unlucky with only getting to stay for five months. I needed an excuse to return to Finland, and luckily it came in the form of...Vappu!

The overly-happy musician in Helsinki continues to play...good to see that nothing's changed...

Many countries celebrate May Day (1st May), but none do it like the Finns. In Finland it is a celebration of the start of summer and the graduation of students from university, so it's a lot happier and livelier than the 'traditional' anti-globalisation protests we have here in London. Generally it's a week of partying and heavy drinking (which is pretty much how the Finns seem to celebrate everything) and that sounded great to me. After finding that eight of my friends from across europe were also heading back for Vappu, I booked my ticket with just a week's notice, and dragged my housemate along for extra company.

Chilling with Metzi back on the balcony, just like old times. It may look nice but it was almost freezing!

I didn't 'officially' have the time for a week-long holiday such as this, as exams were coming up at university, plus important coursework deadlines, but I knew it would be worth it. Walking back through Helsinki was such a wonderful experience...it seemed that nothing had changed, it was almost like I had never been away. I got the train, just as usual, back to Leppavaara where my friends were staying (right next to where I lived last year).

The things you do in the middle of the night...

The moment I walked through the door into my friend's flat, a beer was placed straight in my hands and the partying began. We literally didn't waste a second! It felt just like being home again. In fact the only shock was the temperature...in London we were having a phenomenal, record-breaking heatwave for late April of 26 degrees. Upon landing in Finland, it was 5 degrees and very, very windy!

Rob, the beer robot. Unfortunately I cannot post the dance.

The best part of the first night back was definitely the sauna...I forgot just how relaxing it is, especially in the freezing weather. After five or six goes in the sauna we headed back up to the flat and partied until late. It was nice to catch up with friends I hadn't seen in months and gave us a chance to warm up our livers for the main event of Vappu that would be kicking off in a couple of days...

The End

2006-12-27T01:52:00.001Z

I have been home a week now and a day hasn't gone by when I have thought about my time in Finland. It was without a doubt the craziest, most intense and maybe even the best time of my life. I met so many people - I knew at least 100 by name and counted most of them among my friends. I had no idea that things on exchange would be so good. Before going to Finland I feared I had made a huge mistake and would be stuck in a freezing country all alone for five months. Instead I did things I've never dreamed of, met some of the nicest people I've ever known and simply had an enormous amount of fun.

Many people signed my flag with farewell messages

So many great things happened in Finland. I went on three cottage weekends. I went camping. I tried the sauna for the first time. I went to Estonia. I went to Lapland. I went to Sweden. I even went to Russia of all places. I've seen the sun set at 10pm in the summer and 2pm in the winter. I've drunk in a bar made of ice, eaten reindeer and learnt to eat squid with chopsticks. I sang karaoke in a taxi, passed out on a cruise ship and built an igloo.

Some of the Erasmus Intensive Language Course group, August 2006

I was trying to think of my favourite moment in Finland, but there are far too many. Instead, here are some of the most memorable:

Lying on the roof of a summer cottage, in the middle of nowhere, surrounded by forest, listening to the sound of wolves howling in the distance
Running out of a traditional wood-fired sauna and jumping in the Baltic Sea, while it was snowing
Sitting on the edge of a jetty out in a lake at night with a friend, gazing at the stars
Climbing to the top of a hill I discovered in Leppavaara, watching over the whole town as the sun set
After our bus suddenly stopped, looking out the window and seeing my first wild reindeer walk across the snow-covered road right in front of us, in Lapland

Evtek exchange student group, Autumn 2006

And how did Finland affect me?

England now feels warm
I cannot get drunk on beer any more
My English actually got worse
...but my Finnish is considerably better than before I left!
Every Thursday I get an urge to go to Onnela for happy hour
I consider it normal to get away with not buying a ticket when travelling on a train or tram
I can now swear in a wide variety of different languages
I am now addicted to coffee (Finns are the world's biggest drinkers)
I get confused when crossing the street, trying to remember which side of the road cars drive on

Most importantly of all, I'd like to thank all the wonderful people who made my time in Finland so special. It was magic guys. You will not be forgotten!

So to sum up, how best to describe my Erasmus exchange in Finland? In the words of one friend...it was erasmic.

Thanks for reading!

David Allan,
December 2006

Leaving Finland

2006-12-27T01:51:00.002Z

After a week of partying and saying our goodbyes, it was time to leave Finland. But things were not over...yet. By chance, about 10 of us had flights leaving at almost the same time, between 5-6pm on Saturday 23rd. So this meant one thing...airport party! As usual I had left everything important until the last minute and was frantically trying to sort out my things, pack my bags and clean the flat, before running to the station with all my bags to catch the train that the others were on. There was no time for a fond farewell to Leppavaara but maybe that was for the best.

Gunther uses his travel card for the first time

On the train I met with Gunther, Steffen and Linda as we headed toward Helsinki to meet the others. We decided to pay for our last train journey - most of the erasmus students always tried to avoid paying - and above you can see Gunther ironically using this 'travelcard' thing he had got but never used. We thanked the rather bemused conductor for 5 months of free travel as he passed by.

Me with my bags, travelling to Helsinki from Leppavaara for what must have been the hundredth, but final, time

We met with the others in Helsinki central station, and with time to be spare we enjoyed a coffee before getting the bus to the airport. Amazingly, considering it was almost Christmas, the huge airport was almost empty and I was first in line for my check-in. We wandered through security without even having to wait, which has never happened to me before. With a few hours still to spare I spent the last of my euros on presents for my family in the shops and then we enjoyed a final beer in the airport bar.

Waiting for the bus to the airport

We were having fun together, joking and chatting right up until the last minute. I normally hate airports but it was great fun. Finally, it came time for me to leave for my plane. I said a fond goodbye to everyone and walked alone to my gate. The flight home gave me time to reflect on my experience in Finland, but it wasn't until I got back home that I realised that the best time of my life was finally over. It was not a good moment.

The Beginning of the End

2006-12-27T01:51:00.001Z

The last week in Finland turned into one massive party. Despite it still being exam period, we went out the last 6 nights in a row and things intensified once we had our last exams.

The group gathers in Metzi's flat in Leppavaara for once last pre-gaming session

In the last week we still kept up all the usual traditions - Barfly on Tuesday and Onnela on Thursday for the cheap student nights. But every day there were less of us as people started leaving, by mid-week it seemed the group had shrunk by half. There used to be so many of us going out together - between 20 and 30, so it was quite strange going to a bar and not finding so many recognisable faces any more.

Leppavaara hill on my last day

On the last Thursday I went to Kilo where the Spanish provided some of their home cooking and then headed to Onnela - the one club in Helsinki we had returned to every week, the place of so many happy memories. It was really sad being there, knowing this was the last time, but I managed to enjoy myself. Then on Friday, my last full day in Finland, I took a walk back up to the top of the hill for one last look over the town and to watch the sunset.

Up close with the band

By Friday night most of the exchange students had left. I must have said goodbye to about 50 people in the last week. But still, the remaining survivors decided to make the most of our last night in Finland. After a few beers and a final game of table tennis in the Leppavaara club room, we all headed into Helsinki to Molly Malone's, the Irish Pub. This was the first bar I had been to in Finland, so it was fitting that things had come full circle and it would be the last.

Things got crazier as the night wore on

The night was amazing, one of the best I've had in Finland. The band was great, the atmosphere was fantastic - all the exchange students were dancing and singing along and the band were playing up to us, even dedicating a few songs to the erasmus students and responding to requests. I stayed as late as possible, until the last train, before heading home to catch a bit of sleep before flying home the next day. Things were, unfortunately, coming to an end.

Last Weekend in Helsinki

2006-12-27T01:50:00.000Z

My last weekend in Finland really crept up on me. In fact I didn't realise it was my last weekend there until after it had passed!

The Cathedral with newly-added Christmas tree

I had managed to get on a rare tour of the Presidential Palace on Saturday, with some fellow students. It had originally meant to be earlier in the week, but it was postponed until the weekend so we didn't get to see the palace on a working day. Still, it was very interesting and I learnt a lot about this mysterious building where the President works.

Inside the State Room

Inside it was quite grand, we even had to wear plastic covers on our shoes to keep the floors clean. It was nice to see the State Room, which I had previously seen in the newspapers as the place where the independence day ball was held. We also saw the President's study, where, our guide informed us, is where she met Conan O Brien!

Ice skating in railway square

After the tour I headed back along Esplanade, through the Christmas market selling all kinds of hand-made crafts. I then met up with my friend next to the railway station and we went ice skating on the outdoor rink.

All aboard the exchange-student-train!

I haven't been skating in many years so it was quite a harrowing experience at first but I warmed to it and by the end was busy racing with friends and playing steal-the-hat which was a lot of fun. I didn't even fall over once! That night we went to Myyrmaki (the location of my university's other campus) for a final student flat party there and I spent Sunday evening with a friend who was leaving the next day. It was already time to start saying goodbye to people and the air of finality began to set in. Still, there was more partying to do before the end!

Lapland Part II

2006-12-18T21:13:00.000Z

It was great to wake up in the nice warm cottage, look out the window and see everything was covered in thick white snow. After breakfast we headed outside to make use of the few hours of daylight available to us.

The boys prepare to get the girls

The plan was to walk to the town centre and inquire about skiing and other activities, but on the way we inevitably became bogged down in a snowball fight between the ten of us.

In the midst of the snowball fight

It ended up being everyone v the British, which actually made the sides even and allowed me to concentrate on throwing snowballs at the French (that is to say, Florian, the only French person with us!).

The truce, which as you can see I broke shortly afterwards

Eventually we made it to the bus stop and took the free ski bus to the resort town of Levi. We hadn't actually seen the town yet and I was quite impressed by the big slope that dominated the view.

The Belgian couple romantically vandalised this innocent car

We asked about the possibility of skiing, but with it already quite late we decided to hire the equipment the next day to make best use of the time. Me, Andrew and Rachel booked a ski lesson for the following morning.

Our finished igloo, complete with snowman guard

We spent the rest of the day doing the usual snow things of throwing it at each other, sledding, creating snowmen and working on our igloo. We finally finished our igloo in the evening and to be honest it really came out great - it was big enough for four people, atmospherically illuminated by candles we had sunk into the walls and even had a window. Inside it was really cosy and actually quite warm, so it worked well.

The four builders inside our igloo

It had been a very long day spent outdoors in the cold, so what better way was there to relax and warm up than with a sauna. We were quite thoroughly freezing after finishing our igloo so we spent much longer in the sauna than usual and then tried the ultimate Finnish tradition...running outside and rolling in the snow (naked) to cool down before running back to the sauna. It was a great and very refreshing feeling.

Me, Andrew and Rachel trying on our equipment. The helmets came in handy!

The next day we got up early and caught the bus to Levi. We all headed to the ski shop, where three of us rented the downhill skis and the rest went for the cross-country skis as they were more interested in trying it. They went off on a long distance track while the three of us took a lesson. It was at beginner's level and despite the rather cheap price we had our own instructor just for us.

The others were not getting on so well with the cross-country skiing

I had actually been skiing once before but never learnt the 'proper' way to do it, so it was good to learn things like the correct way to fall over, how to slow down and how to stop (which I had never actually got the hang of). Our instructor was a great teacher and even made us take off a ski and ski down an easy slope with just one leg to learn to balance.

Andrew outside our starting area

Me and Rachel got the hang of it very quickly indeed, while it took Andrew a little longer but considering we were all relative beginners we made a lot of progress. Rachel persuaded me to attempt the terrifying-looking red level slope, as we were getting a bit bored of the kid's slope and realised we were not going to improve much more without tackling something tougher.

We tried this just hours after putting on our skis for the first time!

By this time Florian had joined us, as he was something of a pro at skiing and didn't need lessons. In fact he even took the absolutely suicidal-looking 'black' level course, which is used for the skiing world cup that took place a couple of days before we arrived. Anyway, Rachel went first down the red slope and despite a couple of falls she made it in one piece. It was then my turn, and while it was frankly the scariest thing I've ever done (at times clouds obscured the top so you couldn't even see the bottom!), it was a great feeling to make it down. We spent the rest of the afternoon taking it in turns on the slope (as we had cheekily only bought one ski pass so needed to share it) and by the end I had improved enormously and after a day I was at a level Florian said had taken him weeks to learn!

Outside the cottage on our last day

Eventually we had had enough of downhill skiing and swapped our skis for cross-country, which was if anything much harder as there was no gravity to assist you. We skied back to the cottage instead of taking the bus, and returned them in the morning (as the rental was for a 24 hour period). We then packed our things, caught the bus back to Rovaniemi, where we briefly met our friend Robin who now studies there and got the overnight train home to Helsinki. I was exhausted after the weekend so I found it much easier to sleep. It was just a shame we had such a short time in Lapland. It was an amazing experience and I really want to go back sometime!

Lapland Part I

2006-12-18T20:38:00.000Z

At the beginning of this month a group of 10 of us went to Lapland for a 3-night stay in a cottage. I have always wanted to visit Lapland, so this was like a dream coming true.

Our fellow passengers were not amused at the level of noise we made all night

The overnight train journey took 12 hours (!), with us leaving Helsinki around 2230 and arriving in Rovaniemi the next morning. The journey was actually quite fun, with us exploring the train, meeting fellow travelling students in the restaurant car and playing cards. I found it very difficult to sleep though, the train was extremely uncomfortable and very strangely designed. I started to have flashbacks to the trip to Russia!

The snow was a bit thicker than I expected

We arrived in Rovaniemi, on the edge of the Arctic Circle to discover, to our horror, that there was no snow. Anywhere. It was freezing cold but there was no white stuff...and we were in Lapland in December! It seemed that our dream trip was going to be ruined - we had been talking for weeks about skiing and building an igloo and snowmen. Luckily we had further to travel and got the bus two hours further north to Levi. I was so tired after the train journey that I fell asleep almost immediately, waking up when the bus stopped very suddenly - there was a reindeer in the road, straight in front of us! Then I looked around and saw that there was heavy snow everywhere! It was amazing.

The landscape was completely blanketed in white

The first thing I did when I got off the bus was sink up to my knees in snow, which was a great feeling (until my legs got cold). We headed to the nearest service station where we ate in the smallest, emptiest Hesburger I've ever seen (we were the only customers) and bought enough food and drink to last the weekend, then called for taxis to take the 10 of us, with our bags and supplies to the cottage.

Our cottage

The cottage was much closer than we expected, but it was still nice not to need to carry all our things through the snow. We did have to wait outside for a short time while we waited for the owner to bring the keys, but we entertained ourselves with our first snowball fight.

The weekend beer supply

Inside, the cottage was great - very modern, clean, with a nice big kitchen, huge fridge, its own sauna and multiple rooms. It even had a TV, which I hadn't since leaving home four months ago! This was my third cottage weekend in Finland, and this was definitely the nicest 'mokki' I've been to.

Putting up the Christmas decorations

It was already very dark, despite being about 2 o'clock in the afternoon (it was practically night time by 3pm!), so we spent the afternoon relaxing, talking and drinking, as well as decorating the cottage for Christmas with some decorations we found in a cupboard.

Relaxing in the afternoon

It was quite disorientating that it was so dark but still relatively early - in Lapland the sun doesn't rise at all for several weeks over winter, and vice-versa in the summer, so it's quite a confusing place. We were already relaxing as if it were night time, so we made an effort to go outside and actually appreciate what Lapland could offer....snow!

Me sledding down the hill...shortly before a big crash no doubt

There was a lengthy slope next to our cottage and we found a couple of sleds in the shed, so we took them out on a test run. It was great fun and by the end of the day I felt quite a professional at it, although stopping was still a bit of a problem.

Our unhappy snowman

We ended up playing a drinking game that involved making challenges, and silly me came up with the idea that the next person to drink had to run outside and build a snowman. And what do you know...the next person to drink was 'the boys'. There were only 3 of us, so we had 7 girls pointing and laughing as we struggled to build a snowman but I think the results were quite impressive, as you can see above.

Building our igloo

Later on me, Rachel, Andrew and Florian embarked on our quest to build an igloo, as we had always wanted to do so. It wasn't quite the traditional kind...it had snow walls and a flat wooden roof covered in snow, but it turned out really nice. You can see what the final version looked like in my next update.

The cottage group (minus the camera lady) surrounds our snowman

We spent the rest of the night in the cottage chatting away, playing games and planning what to do over our next three days in Lapland. Stay tuned to find our what we got up to!

Russia Part VI: St Petersburg II

2006-12-18T17:14:00.000Z

Our second day in St Petersburg began with an early rise and a trip on the metro to the centre of the city, from where we walked to the Hermitage.

Scenes like this make it clear why St Petersburg is regularly compared to Venice

We were heading to the Hermitage for a guided tour arranged for our group. Many people didn't make it due to the early start - the partying the night before had been quite intense. I'm glad I made the effort to go because the others missed out on the museum - we were lucky to get there just in time to miss the queues which by midday stretched for up to 3 hours. The wait was mainly down to a lack of cloakroom space (coats and bags are not allowed inside) rather than a particularly large amount of visitors.

The large square outside used to be home to military parades

The Hermitage is one of the largest, oldest and most important museums in the world. Spread across six buildings, the largest being the Winter Palace, the collection includes works by Michaelangelo, Van Gogh, Picasso and Leonardo da Vinci amongst others. In fact the da Vinci collection is considered to be enormous, with a grand total of two paintings - which makes sense when you consider there are only a handful left anywhere in the world.

The palace is also an attraction in itself

The winter palace is enormous, featuring over 1000 halls and rooms, all intricately decorated. A former winter residence of the Russian tsars, the assault on the palace is considered to be the official milestone of the October Revolution. Thankfully today it is a little more peaceful, with the exception of the chaotic cloakroom queues.

Back outside the palace

We then walked across to the other side of the rather wide river, taking several bridges on the way, to visit the Peter and Paul Fortress. A large fort on its own the island, it houses multiple museums including the museum of St Petersburg, which charted the history of the city from its early days to the present, including the monumental 300-day siege of 'Leningrad' in WWII, during which over 1,000,000 residents died.

Resting place of Peter the Great

An attractive church on the island holds the resting place of the city's namesake, Peter the Great, as well as the remains of the last emperor of Russia, Alexander the II, who was murdered by terrorists. His body, along with that of his wife has only recently been interred here, due to the Soviet attempts to delete that particular era from history.

There was a great view from the island at night

Exhausted, we took the metro back to the hotel and after a quick rest the entire group headed out to a Russian restaurant. While my experience was pleasant, again we had problems with some of the others only being told their food could not be cooked due to lack of ingredients two hours after they had ordered!

Taking a break in the club

Afterwards a group of us went out with our guide, who took us to some very strange 'alternative' bars in a rather scary looking part of town. It was an interesting experience but I really wanted to try clubbing in Russia, so we ended up going to a place called Revolution. It was clearly a very trendy place - we had to queue outside for quite a while and pay a rather hefty (by Russian standards) entry fee. It was also quite an ordeal to even get through the door - I had to empty everything from my pockets and was very thoroughly searched, more so than at any airport. Still, it made me feel a bit safer once inside. The club itself was great and one of the best I've been too, with multiple dance floors and a karaoke area. It was here that we finally met some very friendly Russians - the young ones. Whenever I mentioned I was from England they seemed very impressed and wanted to shake my hand. This was the opposite reaction we got from anybody else during our stay!

Our guide...and the Russian taxi

By the early morning it was time to leave so we did something else I had wanted to do since arriving - take a Russian taxi! how does it work? Well, you simply hold your arm out by the street, wait for any car to stop, make a deal with the driver on the price and then he takes you. There are few official taxis in Russia and even then they are unmetered so this is the best way to get around and also very cheap - just a couple of euros to go across the city. I was also happy that the particular kind of old Russian-made stopped for us - it was great fun to ride in, especially as our driver didn't seem to regard red lights as any kind of an obstacle. Once back at the hotel we got some much-needed sleep, ending our final night in Russia.

The early morning view over the city

We got up quite early again, tired but wanting to make the most of our last few hours in the city. I took the metro with a friend back to the centre and we climbed the long staircase to the top of a church for a great view of the city. After eating, it was time to head back for our 3pm coach departure back to Helsinki.

Yes, we stayed in the Hotel Moscow...in St Petersburg

The trip back was fun, with us stopping just before the border to spend the last of our Russian money on cheap goods. I bought a 1 litre bottle of vodka for just 3.50EUR (~£2.00), as did most of the others along with enormous quantities of cheap chocolate and snacks. The border was quite a process - we had to get off the bus twice for passport checks (once on each side), as well as a couple of searches through the bus. In all, my passport was checked six times just to leave Russia! Once we finally crossed the border our guide shouted out 'Welcome back to glorious Finland!' and everyone cheered and clapped. It was great to be back, although I had an amazing time in Russia. For a while we all unanimously agreed that we had fun but would never go back again...ever. However, I find my opinion changing slowly and in a way I miss the sheer hectic craziness of Moscow - St Petersburg was nice but to me wasn't nearly as interesting. So I get the feeling I'll be back...one day!

Russia Part V: St Petersburg I

2006-12-18T17:06:00.000Z

The overnight train journey was much more comfortable than the previous and we arrived in St Petersburg early in the morning relatively well-rested and awake. A tour bus met us at the station ready to take us around the city, helping to give us a good feel for the place. The weather had not improved since Moscow - it was still very grey but not too cold. My first impressions were that the city seemed a lot nicer in comparison to Moscow, with better architecture and more historic buildings.

This is probably the most edible-looking building I've seen

We stopped at a couple of churches, which were very impressive from the outside but both were currently closed to tourists for some reason. We got to see many of the main sights of St Petersburg from the bus (which saved a lot of walking) and like with Moscow stopped to take photos every now and then.

The Winter Palace, home of the famous Hermitage museum

The sheer amount of water in the city was quite surprising. St Petersburg is nicknamed 'The Venice of the North' due to its large number of canals, bridges and interesting architecture. The bridges themselves are quite an attraction - the main river is lined by draw bridges that raise overnight to allow ships through. This literally cuts the city in two and means if you are stuck on one side of the city late at night, you have to wait until morning to get home! Thankfully we weren't caught out.

The Cruiser Aurora

One of the key sights was the Cruiser Aurora, the Russian warship that fired the first shot of the October Revolution. Preserved by the Soviet government, it is now a museum ship and can be entered. The shot fired was actually a blank, being symbolic rather than a shot in anger, aimed at the royal Winter Palace which now houses the Hermitage Museum.

An all too-common sight

While the city was much cleaner than Moscow, it was still relatively dirty and the cars filling the streets were the same filthy grey mud-covered colour. The people were also nicer and more open to foreigners (and we even found some that spoke English!), yet we still unfortunately encountered a lot of rudeness.

The city is very colourful at night

After a day of sightseeing we went to the hotel to leave our bags and then headed out with our knowledgeable guide to a rather obscure underground bar/club where we watched a string of live acts. The first in particular was very good and we had a great time listening to the Russian music.

It took us a long time to realise that this band was singing in English

Afterwards many of us went to another bar, quite a distance away on foot down the immensely-long main shopping street. It was packed with students, most of them international-looking, so we didn't exactly get the Russian atmosphere there but at least the beer was cheap...

I think we had drunk one too many by this point

We took the long walk back through the night to our hotel where more partying occurred before heading to bed. Our last full day in Russia was approaching!

Russia Part IV: Moscow III

2006-12-08T16:11:00.000Z

Our third and final day in Moscow began with a trip to the nearby market. It was absolutely enormous, the size of a small town and took us about two hours to get through from beginning to end. Every time we turned a corner expecting it to end there was always more!

There were a bewildering array of signs and stalls

Touring the market was probably the most interesting experience I had in Russia. There was a fascinating range of things available to buy, from ex-soviet gas masks and fighter-pilot helmets to traditional Russian food and knock-off branded goods. It was quite a challenge when buying from the stall owners, you really had to argue to get the price down from the usually ridiculous initial value.

It was so big, it really was a super-market. Err...sorry

It was also one of the more intimidating places we visited, with the large crowds thronging the tiny alleys making us feel particularly vulnerable and I spent much of the time checking my pockets. The sellers also had a nasty habit to literally grab us and pull us to their stalls, making it a bit like running the gauntlet, trying to evade the arms clawing at us. At one point someone shoved a hat on my head and commanded me to buy it. I politely declined.

The Evtek group in Red Square

After buying a frankly silly amount of stuff (I bought some ex-Soviet medals, stamps, poster and some Russian dolls) we headed into central Moscow for a last look around. We made our way to Red Square to see it in daylight for the first time where we found out that Lenin's Mausoleum was closed for 2 months, so that explained why nobody was queuing outside.

Lenin's Mausoleum

We later walked around to some of the more obscure sites we didn't think we'd end up having time to visit and then took the metro on something of a 'mystery tour' stopping off at a random station and having a look around.

The Kremlin and waterside at night

We walked along the riverside to take some photos of the Kremlin at night from a bridge, which afforded quite a nice view. To be honest by now we were just wasting time as we had to get the train to St Petersburg at night and had already seen everything in Moscow we wanted to.

At night time it's actually quite an attractive city

After a while we went back to the hotel and had a meal in the restaurant there. Again we had a rather nasty experience with the service but by now we had come to expect it and I enjoyed my traditional Russian dish of...whatever it was.

Traditional Russian food with traditional Russian Pepsi

We collected our things and met with the others in the lobby, before heading en masse back into central Moscow, to the Leningrad railway station for our night time train. By now the hectic experience of taking the metro had become something of a running joke, with the chant of 'be aggressive!' frequently ringing out before we charged into the stations, sometimes coupled with the rolling up of our sleeves before entering. Once we even had a mock team huddle on the platform before boarding the train in rush hour!

Waiting in Leningradsky terminal

We waited inside the station next to an enormous bust of Lenin's head until our train arrived and then boarded ready for the overnight trip to St Petersburg. The train was much more comfortable than before and we actually managed to get some sleep this time. I was quite happy to leave the bustling metropolis of Moscow behind, especially after being promised by our guide that our next destination would be much more 'civilised' and European in character!

Russia Part III: Moscow II

2006-12-08T16:06:00.000Z

Our second day in Moscow began with a guided bus-tour of the city. This was a nice change from all the walking of the previous day, with us being driven around the major sights and stopping at key points for a closer look.

The Monastery

After visiting a church, our next stop was a monastery on the edge of the city centre. It was surrounded by a very attractive park with a lake populated by hundreds of ducks. But as with the other nice parts of the city, there was a nasty contrast if you turned your back to the monastery...

The view in the other direction

After more driving about, with our very knowledgeable guide who filled us in on all kinds of interesting history, we stopped at the memorial to Soviet war dead from WWII. It is an enormous spire at the end of a long walk with a section for every year of the war. The weather was quite poor while we were in Moscow so anything tall, like the spire, faded into the mist.

War memorial

We saw various other sights from the coach, including the enormous Olympic stadium that hosted the 1980 Moscow Olympic Games and the former residences of Soviet leaders. We also stopped on a hill giving us a look over the unfortunately-misty city. Strangely, there was a terrifying-looking ski jump on the hill. I wasn't tempted to use it.

Mmm! Haven't had a tasty CrapDog in years!

After stopping for food our tour came to an end in the centre of the city and we looked into visiting the Kremlin. Annoyingly there was an official function with hundreds of people queuing at the main entrance, so we were forced to walk around to one of the other gates to get inside.

That's one big cannon

Once inside we explored the grounds of the Kremlin. We only bought the cheaper tickets which don't give entrance to the museums, but there was enough to see outside, including multiple churches and the enormous Tsar's cannon and bell, both of which are basically stupidly-large versions of the normal varieties.

Either that's a big bell or those are very small churches.

The cannon was built to defend the Kremlin and never used, which is fortunate because I have the feeling it would have taken out most of the fortress if fired! The bell was also never used as construction of its tower was never begun. I can't imagine what kind of noise it would make but it would probably be the last thing you ever heard if you were too close.

Inside the Kremlin

As I said in my previous post, the Kremlin really is quite impressive and is clearly the jewel of Moscow. In fact it seems to be the only clean and well-maintained part of the city! It was getting dark so we headed back to the hotel for a quick rest before going out for the night.

The former KGB building

Again we came back to the metro station near Red Square (seems everything interesting is near there) and were led by our slightly-crazy-but-nice Finnish guide, Jukka, to a somewhat hidden restaurant/bar located in a basement. On the way we passed the imposing building that was formerly the headquarters of the KGB. Apparently there is a museum inside, but you need to inform the authorities 48 hours in advance of when you want to go and must state your purpose of visit. Sounds like a very mysterious kind of museum to me.

Inside the bar

I was very hungry so I ate first, while the others got a head start on the cheap vodka. Strangely, I was served my dessert of ice cream long before the main course came. This was just one of many problems we had in restaurants in Russia, but I'll forgive them as it's always been a bit of a childhood dream to have dessert first!

Paying the restaurant bills was always fun with the piles of Russian money needed

We were treated to a performance of Russian reggae by a group who had clearly taken far too many drugs to be coherent. I didn't want to drink too much but others kept buying me drinks and it would have been rude to turn them down! We eventually stumbled back to the hotel and continued with the drinking in an Irish person's room.

View from the hotel at night

We spent the rest of the night drinking far too much and eventually drifted off to bed in the early morning, ready to get up in a few hours for more intensive sightseeing. Unfortunately, Rachel managed to forget where she left her shoes and we spent the morning looking for them, but the less said about that the better!

Russia Part II: Moscow I

2006-12-08T14:21:00.000Z

After the exhausting overnight trip and the frankly scary arrival and journey to the hotel, we headed back to the metro to go right into the centre of Moscow, getting off at the stop next to Red Square.

Statue of Marshall Zukhov, hero general of WWII, near Red Square

Despite my pleas we did not enter Red Square immediately and instead embarked on a tour around the outside of the Kremlin. The Kremlin itself looked very impressive and is very imposing - constructed as a fortress it is at the centre of the city and located on high ground.

I'd recognise this anywhere

Right outside Red Square is a McDonald's, which would no doubt make Lenin spin in his Mausoleum. Interesting you had to pass through a metal detector to get inside, which is probably due to all the issues with terrorism Russia has been experiencing. I never actually went in, but friends told me that the staff didn't even know the word 'big mac' in English when ordering food!

Roads in Moscow are quite chaotic

After a while we came across one of the big highways that ring the city. It's quite an experience crossing these as drivers do not always stop at red lights, but we made it over in one piece. The strange thing is that most of the cars in Moscow seem to be one shade - grey/brown because of the dirt. Even the newest cars are coated in thick mud and dirt. The same goes for the streets - our shoes and trousers became filthy after walking around the city. If everyone cleaned their cars the city would seem like a much brighter and colourful place!

Church of Christ the Saviour

We made our way to the biggest and probably most impressive of the many churches in Moscow - the Church of Christ the Saviour. It has an interesting history - demolished by the anti-religious Stalin, with the aim of constructing a giant statue honouring Soviet leaders. Due to WW2 this never happened and the massive hole dug as the foundations was turned into one of the biggest open air swimming pools in the world. Thankfully, the church was reconstructed in the 1990s following the collapse of the USSR and is now the main church of Russia. Inside it really is beautiful and absolutely huge, but unfortunately photos were not allowed.

The main shopping street

Having not even eaten a real breakfast yet, we were hungry and headed toward the main shopping street to look for somewhere appealing. It's an interesting street - one side packed with shops, bill boards, advertisements and colour, the other lined with dull, grey Communist-looking apartment blocks. It really does reflect the recent history of the city.

Eating in an American diner...in Moscow

Most of the restaurants seemed to cater for fast food, so we settled on an authentic American diner, mostly for ironic effect (and definitely not because I love hamburgers). Interestingly, none of the staff spoke any English and the menu was entirely in Russian. Definitely a strange mix!

Too many choices!

In some cases the Russians seem to have over-done the whole capitalism thing, with a worrying array of billboards as can be seen above. Another strange feature of the street was that they were playing pop music down the whole length. It was a weird experience to be walking through Moscow with the Black Eyed Peas as the soundtrack. [Shaky-cam video]

One of the many street traders

After more walking we headed for a historic pedestrianised street (the name escapes me) and explored some of the souvenir shops and stalls. Here we experienced one of the unfortunately common bursts of Russian rudeness when a previously-nice stall owner told us he hoped we 'didn't come back' after we said we didn't want to buy anything at that time but might the next day. Anyway, we were tired and thirsty so it was time to look for somewhere to have a coffee...

One of seven 'Stalin Skyscrapers' or the 'Seven Sisters' depending on which name you prefer

...and we couldn't resist Moscow's Hard Rock Cafe. Despite another rude waitress who actually huffed at us as we came in, it was a nice place to have a drink and they were playing Radiohead, my favourite band on all the screens as we entered so that made me feel at home.

Tomb of the Unknown Soldier

We walked back toward the Kremlin, passing the Tomb of the Unknown Solider on the way, which honours the millions of Soviet soldiers who died in WWII. There is still a very military feel to Moscow, with many soldiers in uniform on the streets which almost seem to outnumber the police.

St Basil's Cathedral

We finally entered Red Square, which was very impressive and definitely the nicest part of the city. On one side there is the Kremlin and Lenin's Mausoleum, the other side is a very upmarket shopping centre and at the end is the strangely-attractive St Basil's Cathedral. [Video]

Our 'Russian Bar'

After an exhausting day of sightseeing we headed back to the hotel, stopping to buy some drinks on the way. The beer was quite cheap, at least compared with Finland, but the vodka was ridiculously so. We had heard many horror stories about fake Russian vodka but this was from a proper supermarket so we decided to take the risk. However, we did later find that all the beer we had bought was more than 2 months past its sell-by date! The consumption of said alcohol and playing of cards ended our first day in Moscow.

Russia Part I: Arrival, Culture Shock

2006-11-30T16:09:00.000Z

I spent the last week in Russia, taking the overnight train from Helsinki to Moscow on Sunday, spending 3 days there and then moving onto St Petersburg for another 3 days before heading back. This was a student trip and there were about 35 of us, and one guide. To be honest the whole experience of going to Russia was a bit overwhelming. It is by far the strangest, most different place I have ever visited, and I have been all over Europe. It was a place of massive contrasts, both in its people and the cities themselves.

The group meets at the station

A lot of us were actually quite nervous about going to Russia. Just look at some of the travel guides on the internet and you'll see why - racist and xenophobic attacks are on the rise, corruption has invaded every level of society, especially the police who are not to be trusted and have been known to extort money from foreigners and on the news you'll see things like Russia being ranked almost bottom in the world for press freedom. Right before we left a leading critic of the government was murdered in Moscow.

Don't let their smiles fool you. Unfortunately, nearly every uniformed Russian we met treated us with contempt.

Anyway, with all these worries pushed to the backs of our minds, we met at the station and I have to say I was becoming extremely excited. All I had read about Russia, how it seemed to be so different and far away and unwelcoming somehow made me even more interested in going. The visa alone was quite a hassle - you had to specify exactly where and when you are staying. There's no such thing as a standard tourist visa in Russia!

Nothing in Russia, even on the international trains, is in English.

I was going with seven others from my university and another five friends from Helsinki, so I knew quite a sizeable amount of the group already. After meeting our guide, Jukka, we boarded the 18.30 train. This was our first shock. Compared with Finnish trains it was very dated and quite obviously ex-Soviet. The Russian staff on bored spoke no English at all - the first indication that our time in Moscow was going to be quite difficult.

Relaxing in our cabin

We had a 14 hour overnight journey ahead of us. Although we had beds, most of us had no intention of sleeping at least until the early morning. I spent much of the time drinking beer and playing cards with the others. My first trip to the restaurant car was another major shock - the staff seemed to completely ignore my presence and it took 15 minutes to get served. The waiter kept walking into me as if I wasn't even there and didn't once utter 'sorry' or 'excuse me'. I would later begin to realise that this is quite normal behaviour for Russians.

A typical view from the train

The next shock came at the border. After the rather terrifying Russian border patrols had boarded the train, searched our cabin and taken our passports, we finally moved over into Russia itself. Apparently the Finland-Russia border is one of the most starkly contrasting in the world. Finland has the world's lowest corruption rating and one of the very highest standards of living. Russia, as you might have guessed, is the opposite. Even though it was dark, we could still see the enormous difference immediately after entering Russia. It was like night and day. Clean, respectable houses gave way to enormous, filthy factories belching smoke from massive towers. There were less street lights, the cars looked like they were decades old and the ride got a lot bumpier as we left Finnish tracks.

Our view immediately after leaving the station

We were awoken in the morning by a very loud Russian lady banging on our door and urging us to get up, despite being over 40 minutes from arrival. When we eventually did get there, tired, slightly hungover and confused, we headed out through the crowded station into the city. This was one of the most uncomfortable moments I've experienced. Everybody appeared to be wearing black. Everyone was wearing fur hats. Everyone was staring at us. We looked completely different and really stood out as foreigners. The Russians all had glazed looks on their faces. It was an incredibly depressing sight, combined with the grey bland look of the station square and compounded by the typically-dull Moscow weather. But things were about to get more interesting as we headed onto the metro...

Inside the Moscow metro for the first time

Our guide told us one thing before entering the metro - 'Be aggressive'. He was right. The Moscow metro is regarded as being one of the few ex-Soviet institutions still running as well as it ever did. It really is quite impressive - the stations are large and ornately designed, they are attractions in themselves. They also tend to be quite deep below ground, with many being designed for dual-use as nuclear shelters. It's fast and efficient and I must say that coming from London I was quite impressed with the sheer frequency of the trains - you rarely have to wait more than a minute. The problem is that it is very very crowded, sometimes with queues to get into the stations and then queues for the escalators and you really have to force your way onto trains as others don't seem to care if they get in your way.

Sights like this in a metro station remind you of where you are

We arrived at our stop, Ismailovsky Park, where our hotel was situated. If anything the area looked even more depressing than the earlier scene in central Moscow. Huge, bland concrete monstrosities stretched into the sky. It turned out one of those was our hotel. Originally built as the athletes village for the Moscow Olympics in the 1980s, the tower blocks had now been turned into a series of enormous hotels. We stopped to change our money into roubles, coming out with big piles of cash. Of course we were always worried about pick-pockets, so it was worrying to be carrying so much. We also had to carry our passports at all times (as police have a habit of checking) so it was quite a test to keep it safe, sticking out of my pocket in a crowded city for a week!

One of these was our hotel

We checked into the hotel and I was given a room on the 23rd floor. The hotel itself was quite pleasant on the inside and it was nice to have a TV in my room for a change. I had a look at BBC World for the first time in months and the main story was the dying Russian ex-KGB agent, a critic of the government, who had been poisoned in London. Nice!

The view from my hotel room.

After a quick rest it was time to head into the city for some sightseeing, which I'll write about later. I must say that while I have been very negative in this post, I think it was down to a mixture of paranoia and the shock of entering a very strange place. Things got a whole lot better, and while my first hour in Moscow is one of the most unnerving experiences I've had, by the end of the first day we had grown used to the 'charms' of Russia and were having a great time.

I'm heading to Lapland tonight and won't be back until next week, so stay tuned for more on my trip to Russia. It'll be much more upbeat, I promise!

More Ice Hockey

2006-11-30T15:52:00.000Z

A couple of weeks ago I went to see some more ice hockey. This time it was two games on the final day of the Karjala Tournament. If you're wondering why I chose to sit through two ice hockey games in a row, it's because the tickets were sold together as a package and I'm always one to get my money's worth.

No alcoholics allowed apparently

The tournament is played between four of the leading ice hockey nations - Russia, Czech Republic, Finland and Sweden. My tickets were for Russia v Czech Rep. and the mother of all battles...Finland v Sweden. There is a massive rivalry between Finland and Sweden and I never thought I would get to see them playing each other live so I was quite excited.

The English...supporting Finland

The first game, Russia v Czech Rep. was very exciting and closely fought right up until the end. The game finishes 2-2 and thus went to penalties, which I've never seen before in ice hockey so it was quite interesting. Russia ended up winning, although we were cheering on the Czechs as this now meant that Russia had won the tournament and Finland would have no chance.

The Finns and Swedes line up against each other

The Finland v Sweden game was still very exciting. The stadium was full of Finnish fans, I could only see a handful of Swedes surrounded by a sea of blue and white. It was again closely fought but the Swedes started to gain the upper hand by the end and won 1-0.

The final score

It was great fun again to see some ice hockey and I'm becoming quite a fan now. It's a shame that when I leave Finland I won't be able to see anything like it, even TV coverage of the sport is very limited at home. Still, it was nice to see the national team of Finland playing in Helsinki against the hated-Swedes and I hope they win sometime in future!

Stockholm Part II - The City

2006-11-20T13:21:00.000Z

As I mentioned in the last post, we drifted off the boat in a daze, hungover and tired. But there was work to be done! We had just 6 hours to look around a city several times the size of Helsinki.

The old town

We originally intended to get the metro into the city centre, as the port is right on the outskirts but we couldn't find the station and ended up walking, which took about 30 minutes. It had the side effect of allowing us to see some of the non-tourist parts of the city.

The architecture is much nicer than Helsinki

After a much-needed breakfast consisting of a hotdog and coffee, we began walking around the city centre. As I said, Stockholm is much larger than Helsinki and more spread out. It's built across multiple islands linked by bridges, with canals adding to the confusion and it's also quite hilly in contrast with Finland's relatively flat capital.

A typical street in the old town

The city is very historic, with many old buildings and even an entire 'old town' on its own island. This was definitely the most attractive part of the city with its narrow winding alleys and cobbled streets. Unfortunately we didn't have time to visit any of the museums or major attractions, including the royal palace which really is a must when visiting Stockholm.

Old meets new

We climbed a couple of hills to get some rather impressive views of the city and walked around a few of the many districts, each with their own individual character.

Outside the royal palace

It was also quite interesting to get used to Swedish currency, the Kronor, with its confusing variety of coin sizes and unclear labelling of values. Luckily we didn't spend too much money in the shops during our short time there, although it was nice to see my first Burger King since leaving the UK!

Looking toward the old town

Despite feeling rather ill after the night before, we had a great time looking around the city. It's a shame that we didn't have more time, as really at least a few days are needed. I suppose I'll have to go back some time!

Me. In front of a statue. With a large group of Spaniards in the background.

We headed back to the port by metro and boarded the ship even more tired and exhausted than when we had left, ready for another relaxing evening of...insane partying!

You can view more of my photos from Stockholm in this gallery on my Flickr site. As for now...I'm going to Russia this evening! Expect more updates when (and if) I return in a week...