Michael Smith

Burnley Mike

After two years working and living in Australia I am about to set off on a six month trip back to sunny Burnley in the UK travelling overland as much as possible



Travel Blog Posts


Burnley Mike icon
Burnley Mike
November 6th 2009

NORTHWEST RUSSIA - (September 2007) - (Monday 3rd to Friday 7th September) - Mon 3rd - Tues 4th Sept- (Novgorod) While I was in Russia I wanted to see more of the country than just the two big cities of Moscow and St Petersburg. However, at the same time due to time constraints, I didn’t want to travel too far within the vast country, and certainly not anywhere which would take days to travel to and from. During my time in Moscow I had visited a couple of the historical Russian towns located close to Moscow which had been former capital cities/ towns of the early Russian State. While I was in St Petersburg, I also wanted to venture out of the city and see something else of the area. When I was in Moscow people ... read more



Burnley Mike icon
Burnley Mike
November 6th 2009

ST PETERSBURG, THE RUSSIAN FEDERATION - (Aug/ Sept 2007) - (Thursday 30th August to Monday 3rd September) - Thurs 30th Aug - Mon 3rd Sept - (St Petersburg) The more I read about Russia and learnt about the country, the more interested I became in it and the more places I wanted to visit. However, Russia is such a vast country and my time in the country was limited, so unfortunately on this occasion, I decided that I would restrict my journey to the western European part of the country. Siberia and the far north and east sounded absolutely fascinating albeit a long way away, so unfortunately, those places would have to be left to another time. Therefore, on my return to Moscow from the Golden Ring cities I decided to head straight up to St ... read more



Burnley Mike icon
Burnley Mike
November 5th 2009

THE GOLDEN RING, THE RUSSIAN FEDERATION - (August 2007) - (Sunday 26th to Monday 27th August) - Sun 26th - Mon 27th August - (Moscow/ Vladimir/ Suzdal) - Before I'd arrived in Russia, I hadn’t really had any expectations as to what I was expecting to get out of my visit or where I wanted to go. Yes, I was interested in seeing something of the country but apart from what I’d seen and learnt about Russia from the television, I didn’t really know much about the country and certainly not much about any of the other cities in this vast country apart from Moscow and St Petersburg. I therefore didn’t have any specific plans of where I wanted to go during my trip apart from knowing that I wanted to see Moscow and St Petersburg ... read more



Burnley Mike icon
Burnley Mike
November 4th 2009

MOSCOW, THE RUSSIAN FEDERATION - (August 2007) - (Wednesday 22nd to Wednesday 29th August) - (Moscow) The train pulled into Kazansky train station in central Moscow during the mid-afternoon of Wednesday 22nd August - (Whilst I think it was Kazansky Station, after all this time I can’t be certain as Moscow has a number of train stations which serve Russia, the former Soviet Republics and the rest of Europe, and beyond). It was a relief to finally get off the train. However, I was slightly apprehensive about what lay in front of me in this unfamiliar city. This feeling wasn’t helped by all the stories I’d heard about Russia being very unfriendly and bureaucratic. As with all nationalities, I’d heard my fair share of stereotypes about Russians being very sullen and stand-off’ish and generally, just being ... read more



Burnley Mike icon
Burnley Mike
August 11th 2009

CENTRAL ASIA to EUROPE - (Aug 2007) - (Sunday 19th to Wednesday 22nd August) - So the day had finally arrived when I would start my long journey back to Europe, or to be more exact Moscow. Over 70 hours, including three nights, on a train all the way from Tashkent in Central Asia to Moscow in Eastern Europe. For the next few days I would be stuck on a train, travelling alone, and I didn’t really know what to expect. I’d nearly had a last minute change of plan and had been weighing up the possibility of travelling back to Europe via the Caucasus’ (Azabazan and Georgia) and into Turkey and from there into Western Europe and back to England. However, to do the region justice, I would probably have had to extend my trip ... read more



Burnley Mike icon
Burnley Mike
August 5th 2009

THE UZBEKISTAN DESERT - (August 2007) - Introduction - I’m now writing this blog well over two years after getting back home to England. I had good intensions at the time to complete all the ‘blogs’ while I was on the road visiting all these places. And when that didn’t happen, I intended to complete all my ‘missing’ blogs as soon as possible after I got back home to England. That also didn’t happen, and now it’s January 2010 and I’m still struggling to find the time to complete them all. Therefore in the interest of completing the story of my return to England from Australia ‘overland’, or should I say ‘overland as much as possible’ - all the ‘blogs’ from herein will be brief and hopefully to the point. Which is probably for the best ... read more



Burnley Mike icon
Burnley Mike
December 22nd 2007

THE SILK ROAD, UZBEKISTAN - (August 2007) - (Friday 3rd to Friday 10th August) - Fri 3rd Aug It was with some relief that after spending nine days in Tashkent, I was now able to leave the city and head out and begin exploring the rest of Uzbekistan. In particular, I was looking forward to visiting the old Silk Road cities of Samarkand and Bukhara. There is still some dispute as to which country Samarkand and Bukhara belong to. Due to Stalin and his gerrymandering of the old Soviet Central Asian borders, the cities are in what is currently known as Uzbekistan. However, up until the late 1980’s, the Soviet Republic of Tajikistan was still claiming Samarkand for itself as the city is very close to its border. To back up this claim, the predominant language ... read more



Burnley Mike icon
Burnley Mike
September 15th 2007

TASHKENT, UZBEKISTAN - (July / August 2007) - (Wednesday 25th July to Friday 3rd August) - (Tashkent) The trip across the border from Khojand in Tajikistan into Uzbekistan went without a hitch. Everything was straight forward enough. Once in Uzbekistan, I immediately managed to get a taxi to the capital Tashkent without caring too much whether I was paying over the odds for the ride or not. I’d had enough of messing around haggling over transport costs so I just got in the first taxi I came to and accepted the driver’s first price. It was good to be in Uzbekistan finally, the very reason why I had come to Central Asia in the first place. I was now within touching distance of seeing all those legendary Silk Road Cities I’d read about for so long ... read more



Burnley Mike icon
Burnley Mike
September 7th 2007

TAJIKISTAN - (July 2007) - (Thursday 18th to Tuesday 24th July) - Thurs 18th - Tues 24th July - (Khorog to Dushanbe) I don't know what this Blog says about me, the people I met, or just Tajikistan in general, but the most memorable things that happened to me in my remaining time in Tajikistan involved bus / taxi journeys and two journeys in particular. During the remaining seven days that I was in Tajikistan, I visited the capital Dushanbe and a couple of other places, but even a few weeks after visiting them when I was thinking about what to write for this Blog, I found it almost impossible to remember exactly what I'd done! After all the trouble that I'd experienced in Khorog (see previous Blog), I couldn't wait to leave and get on ... read more



Burnley Mike icon
Burnley Mike
August 18th 2007

TAJIKISTAN - (July 2007) Thurs 12th - Wed 17th July - (The Pamir Highway) I'd been undecided (me? - never!) about whether to go to Tajikistan since planning this trip. It sounded like a wonderfully scenic country and would be the nearest I would probably get to being in Afghanistan without actually going to Afghanistan itself. On the other hand, I wasn't sure whether I had the time or inclination to go, especially as it seemed to be hard going and difficult to get around once in the country as there is supposedly very little public transport. Furthermore, the country was still supposedly subject to archaic rules and regulations left over from Soviet times which apparently didn’t make travelling in the country easy. However, after reading more about the country and meeting other travellers who were ... read more






Tot: 0.067s; Tpl: 0.003s; cc: 15; qc: 60; dbt: 0.0374s; 1; s:notus w:www (50.28.61.183); sld: 1; ; mem: 1.5mb