After pretty much five days in the bustling cities of Portugal, it was time for some fun in the sun on the Algarve. With beautiful beaches and cheap airfares to nearby Faro, predictably, Lagos is a holiday haven for golfers and Brits. Apart from an old city wall, a fortress and a church, there's nothing much to see in Lagos - but that was not why we came here. Once we arrived, we found our hostel after a taxing walk in the 30+ degree heat - The Rising Cock. I kid you not, the hostel is really called this and I have the photo to prove it. Of course, a hostel with a name such as the Rising Cock is not going to attract a quiet crowd - and sure enough the first sound we hear ... read more

Yes, my liver has been working overtime, since I landed in Iberia - they sure know how to party here ;-) As many of you remember from my last entry, my last night in France was very much a wine infested one, and the train the next day would have been unbearable if it wasn't for the beautiful French countryside that occupied my eyes along the way. With green fields and dinky French villages, the French countryside, I think, is the most beautiful. We even passed a couple of castles, including a fantastical one just outside Lourdes. It's weird how that when crossing the border, you immediately sense a different culture and a different visual setting even though you've only travelled less than a kilometre. The people are different, the language is different and there are ... read more

The ferry over from Split to Ancona was actually fairly high-rolling. Among the amenities available on board were a restaurant, bar and casino. It was a 10 hour overnight voyage, so I decided to book a bed in a 4-bed cabin so I could get some decent sleep and in the process manage to score a 10€ discount for being under 26 - score! Also, the boat was pretty empty, so there was no-one else in my cabin which was sweet as. The only thing that sucked though was the fact that the journey ended at 6.30am so I was pretty tired as I zombied through Italian immigration. "Did you not sleep on the boat?" asked the officer. "No, not much", I laughed back. The officer though wasn't joking though, as I had held up the ... read more

I was supposed to catch a ferry from Venice to Pula, but baulked when I saw the 74€ price tag. Instead, I took a train to the border town of Trieste with my Eurail pass, and then caught a bus to Pula for the princely sum of 12.50€ (my train pass doesn't work in Croatia). Italy doesn't actually border Croatia, so the bus had to go through Slovenia, famous for being mountainous, and it's easy to see why. I can't actually say that I've been to Slovenia though, as per my own rules, I never actually got off the bus and set foot in Slovenia, so I have not officially been there ;-) You could tell once you hit Croatia though, with red earth, old clay houses and scorching sun creating a classic Mediterranean landscape. Having ... read more

Hello everybody, from the romantic city of Venice, Italy. The last place I was in was the "City Of Love" itself, Paris. So I've spent the last two days in the two most romantic cities in the world - which are also the two worst possible places to be if you're single. I know that Europeans are supposed to be a little more "expressive" when it comes to love, but the PDA over here is just a tad over the top. The geriatric PDA outside Notre Dame almost made me bring up my beef bourguignon. But I suppose that if there are two places in the world where couples have an excuse to shove their tongues down each others throats in public, it's in Paris and Venice. And according to the couple sitting next to me ... read more