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Christopher travels - Chris Lock

I am a high school teacher. The summer of 2006 was my third summer in a row that I travelled for the entire summer. In 2006 I travelled to London, then Greece, Turkey and Egypt. The summer of 2007 was a trip to Australia. The summer of 2008 was a trip from Cape Town to Nairobi, 6 weeks in a truck with an overland tour company. The most recent summer trip, July and August 2009 was the longest trip at 10 weeks. I visited Central Europe, the Balkans and a side trip for the last week in Paris. You can see all my photos at My online photos I have many future trips planned in my head - but let's take one trip at a time.

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Joined on: June 25th 2006
Last Login: November 22nd 2009

Blog Entries: 71
Photos: 274

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Blogs & Travel Journals

by Christopher travels, order by Date newest first.

By Christopher travels
September 7th 2009

A week in Paris without going in Seine Europe » France » Île-de-France » Paris

Eiffel Tower

Then there was Paris. I had already seen and experienced much while travelling through Central Europe and the Balkans, but I had to finish my summer trip in the city of Paris. I had been before, twice, but I wanted to re-visit as a more seasoned traveller. Paris was, after all, my first destination on my first big summer trip five years ago, so how would my trip this time be different? There was much left to see and do in this great metropolis, things I had not really done on my first two trips. I wanted to get to know [View Full Entry]

By Christopher travels
August 27th 2009

The Hills are Alive Europe » Austria » Tyrol » Innsbruck

Castle Fortress Salzburg

Let's start at the very beginning, a very good place to start. I decided to catch the afternoon train from Ljubljana to Salzburg last Friday. However, the train was more than one hour late, so this afternoon train became an evening train. While I was waiting for this train, I was stung by a wasp on the top of my ring finger. I was eating an apple at the time. The sting was quite painful at the time, but the pain changed to a discomfort, and by the evening almost all traces of the sting were gone. We finally got onto [View Full Entry]

By Christopher travels
August 20th 2009

Ljubly Ljubljana Europe » Slovenia » Upper Carniola » Ljubljana

The Dragon Bridge

I know exactly where I am. Do you know where tiny Slovenia is on a map? The country was a part of Yugoslavia, the most northern region of that ex-country, sandwiched between Austria to the north and Italy to the west. The southern border of Slovenia is now Croatia, and there is a small border with Hungary to the north east. I left Zagreb with one of my hostel room mates who was travelling in the same direction as me this day. We had a real border crossing soon into the two hour train trip, a stamp out of Croatia and [View Full Entry]

By Christopher travels
August 17th 2009

Some lovely spots along the Dalmatian Coast Europe » Croatia » Dalmatia » Split

Stradun, Dubrovnik
Marble streets in the midday sun

I took another bus, this time from Mostar in Bosnia to Dubrovnik in Croatia. The border crossing between the two countries was rather routine, as each border guard just looked at my passport. They stamped a few other passports of travellers on the bus, but mine and the other Canadian on the bus were just glanced at. Quite a bit different from travelling into and out of Serbia, my previous country. The bus was completely full, and since I got on half way through the bus trip at Mostar, I didn't get first choice of good seats, but I had to [View Full Entry]

By Christopher travels
August 10th 2009

The Whole 20th Century in a few Days Europe » Bosnia & Herzegovina » South » Mostar

Latin Bridge, Sarajevo
The exact location of the assassination of Arch Duke Ferdinand in 1914

Bosnia is not the first place one thinks of when planning their holidays, but Sarajevo and Mostar are rather striking and beautiful cities. I arrived in Belgrade, Serbia on the morning of Tuesday last week, after spending a unrestful night on the train from Budapest. I shared my sleeping compartment with three other men, who all spoke German. We had a 2 am wake up call to cross the border, first to leave Hungary and a passport stamp and then a few minutes later as the train moved forward a few miles and another passport stamp as we entered Serbia. Belgrade [View Full Entry]

By Christopher travels
August 3rd 2009

One part gypsy, one part communist, one part Hapsburg Europe » Hungary » Central Hungary » Budapest » Pest

Hungarian Parliament

With the title, I can only be in one place, Hungary. I arrived to a very crowded train station, with many people coming up to me asking if I want a taxi, room to stay, change money, some of it legitimate, some of this not so much. I walked to the Mellow Mood Hostel and Hotel information booth they have permanantly set up in the station, and asked for a bed in a dorm room at the Marco Polo Hostel. A good name for a traveller. This was done, and they even had a shuttle bus to take us to our [View Full Entry]

By Christopher travels
July 29th 2009

Tales from the Vienna Streets Europe » Austria » Vienna State » Vienna

New Palace Hofburg

I left Bratislava last Friday after a terrific windstorm blew through the night before. I woke up early and rushed to the train station to take what I thought should be a quick ride into Vienna, there I would have breakfast. I got to the train station to see I had just missed a train but they go every hour. Then I looked more closely, and the train was 20 minutes late. I looked more closely at the departures board to see that every train was late. Hundreds of people were in the station lying about, obviously some had been there [View Full Entry]

By Christopher travels
July 22nd 2009

The Highs and Lows of the Tatras Europe » Slovakia » Presov Region » High Tatras

Zakopane train

I traveled by train to Zakopane from Krakow, a mere 3 1/2 hours to go 120 km. Let me know if you cannot read this blog entry because I am using a Slovak keyboard and I have to use some letters in the wrong locations. I arrived in Zakopane in the Tatras region of the Polish side of the Tatra Mountains. Lonely Planet says that no one stays in hotels because there are some many private rooms available - they will meet you as the train arrives. And they did meet us, but walked right by me. I approached a group [View Full Entry]

By Christopher travels
July 17th 2009

Krakow, medieval city and modern history Europe » Poland » Lesser Poland » Kraków

View of Krakow from window

I will spend a total of 5 days in Krakow, and it's easy to fill up five days of things to do. Krakow is a beautiful city worth walking and wandering for hours and days, as well as time spent going into various buildings, churches and other tourist sights. I took a very hot and crowded train from Warsaw sharing a compartment with five Poles. An older gentleman was keen on talking, and did so in Polish with a younger man, but also with me in good English about a variety of subjects - health care, travels, Russia, the war and [View Full Entry]

By Christopher travels
July 13th 2009

Chopin in the Park Europe » Poland » Masovia » Warsaw

Chopin in the Park

This is my third day in Warsaw. It's a large city, at times confusing, busy, but rather interesting. And certainly worth a few days visit. It takes that long just to figure out the buses and trams. And because Warsaw is a large city, you need to learn to use public transit, or walk for hours and hours. Even still, I seem to walk for long distances because in all my travels I have never seen bus stops so far apart; no kidding, each stop must be in excess of 400 m apart, at least a six and possibly more minutes [View Full Entry]

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Christopher travels - Chris Lock

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