Final Chorus

In four weeks of travelling, experienced by we:
12 brand new countries
11 markets and bazaars
10 different hostels
9 overnight trains
8 palaces and castles
7 illegal immigrants
6 final train changes
5 hours canoeing
4 extra euros train fare
3 pizza slices
2 upset stomachs :(
And so much ice cream we lost count!

Well it's all over and I am back in Paris for a few days.

The trip from Belgrade to Sarajevo was pretty uneventful but Anna and I were really surprised to see a shantytown on the outskirts of Belgrade. Sarajevo was great except that Anna and I both got a touch of Belgrade Belly and so spent most of our first day there in our hostel room. I was recovered sufficiently on the second day to take the hostels tour and I'm really glad that I did, it was led by a guy who lived in Sarajevo during the seige and so he was able to illustrate quite well what it was like. We visited the tunnel museum where we saw the remains of the tunnel under the airport and a video on Sarajevo during the seige and how the tunnel was used. Then we went to the Jewish cemetary overlooking sniper alley, which was one of the places the serbian snipers particularly liked to be based, and he talked to us about life during the seige. Sarajevo is still very obviously recovering from the seige and there are still lots of buildings that were badly damaged but I really liked it and would definitely return given the chance.

We only had short visits in Zagreb and Ljubljana but we enjoyed both cities. Zagreb was a bit disappointing in that much of what we wanted to see was covered in scaffolding but there was some kind of folk danicng festival on so there were lots of people walking around in interesting costumes so that went some way to making it up to us. Ljubljana was really prettily situated with the main square on the river. the castle there was a bit too modernised for our taste but we enjoyed the bric a brack market along the river.

We had a coupleof hours in Venice on the way back to France and naturally we put them to good use finding some pizza and gelati and St Marks square. We were very happy to arrive in Beziers as we'd had another confrontation with a railway official, although this time the man was far more reasonable. We were really interested to see about seven men escorted from the train for having no passports once we crossed the French border.

The south of France was lovely, a really nice way to end the trip, although we didn't exactly take it easy all the time, on Wednesday we did a 9km canoe trip. It was great fun and I was really happy to be back on a river again.

Better finish there, off to the Japanese embassy tomorrow to get my visa organised.

Serbia Sightings

Ten passport stamps
Nine brand new countries
Eight overnight trains
Seven cookie packets
Six haribo wummies
Five kebab variations
Four ethnographic museums
Three more nights in hostels
Two bombed out buildings
And one more week on the road

Well we had quite the night when we tried to leave Bulgaria, the train inspectors decided that my ticket was fine but that there was a problem with Anna's, which is of course exactly the same. After about an hour of them telling us to pay five euros and us telling them we had no money the people in the next compartment got involved, as they spoke some English, and it was quickly resolved that we ad nothing to pay, the originial inspector took this with very bad grace but did leave us alone after that. We then got in about three hours late which meant that we missed our connection to Macedonia but luckily there was another one not too much later.

We're in Serbia now and spent the afternoon at a military museum, it was pretty interesting but I am sure that we missed quite a lot with our lack of Serbian, the English signs were about 1/4 of the size of the Serbian ones! Tomorrow we'll go the the Ethnographic museum and maybe the car museum, depending on time. Then it's off to Sarajevo.

Turkey Lurkey

Eight tasty pastries
Seven attempted carpet sales
Six scoops of icecream
Five passport stamps
Four Bazaar bargains
Three chicken kebabs
Two mosque visits
And a couchette all to ourselves!

Bucherest was interesting, so much recent history, but it has to be said that it was a bit dour. Most interesting thing learned there: the toilet paper is just like streamers, you know those pretty coloured crepe paper rolls you use to decorate the house at Christmas, just like that... but without the pretty colours!

Istanbul was fantastic and felt so friendly after Romania, I think Anna and I could be married several times over by now had we so wished it. I was almost tempted, the ice cream man seemed like a pretty good proposition! ;)

In Sofia now and have seen the Cathedral and a big communist monument... I think it must be abou time for an icecream...

BudaBest!

Five ice creams
Four brand new countries
Three rolls of film
Two weary travellers
And one more night in a real bed

Have had another few eventful days, after Krakow we spent a day at Auschwitz, which was really interesting, although naturally not at all cheerful. We both felt that actually Birkenau had more impact as the site at Auschwitz itself is quite museum-like.

We spent yesterday in Bratislava, which was a really nice, chilled out, attractive,though small, city.

Came on to Budapest in the evening in time for dinner, delicious paprika chicken, and then both crashed out, the nights on the train are starting to catch up with us I suppose. Today we looked around Pest and saw the Citadella, the Palace and the Market hall. I really like it here and of all the places that we have visited so far I think it the one that I would most like to come back to and spend more time in.

It has good ice cream too.

Praha, AHA!

Three days a-travelling,
Two brand new countries,
And a roll of film already!

Well a day and a half in Prague was plenty for us, it is a really nice city but I can't see why it is quite so popular as it is. We enjoyed a walk around the city, over the famous Charles Bridge and up to the castle. We then found that we didn't have an awful lot left to do! I guess that in general people head there for the cheap beer and that really wasn't what we were after. We did have a nice meal in a restaurant that had a live jazz group playing though and that was really nice.

Spent last night on the train and arrived in Krakow at some horrible hour of the morning. Still this meant that got an early start on the sight seeing here and have already managed to go through the old town and the State Rooms at the castle. Have also eaten perogies (sp?) and will be heading out for some icecream soon, as recommnded by the native Krakowian we shared a train compartment with last night.

So yeah, so far it's been tough!