http://www.travelblog.org/Bloggers/Erin O Neill/ Travel adventures in journals and photos from Erin O Neill en-us Thu, 21 Aug 2008 12:52:31 BST Thu, 21 Aug 2008 12:52:31 BST First stop was Warsaw. Only stayed here for a couple of nights which was all that was really needed for this city. Loved the old town and castle and then the contrast heading down Royal Way to all the modern upmarket clothing shops which was shadowed by the old communist building of the Palace of Culture and Science. Learnt a fair bit about what happened to Poland during the war and then during http://www.travelblog.org/Europe/Poland/blog-249578.html First of the month just after pay day so off to Wales with Ange flatmate Dan and Fran her matescousin to spend it. Hired a car for the weekend and took off Friday evening for the 3 12 hr drive to Cardiff Wales arriving late in the night. Up early the next morning for a look around the city and werent disappointed in the sights. Had a look at the stadium and the Cardiff castle with its http://www.travelblog.org/Europe/United-Kingdom/Wales/blog-249282.html Off to Paris for a long weekend with Kate Dale and Kates sister Zoe. Landed at the airport to find that there was a transport strike on in town with only a select few of the metro lines running which caused mass queues and people so jammed in the trains that I really found it hard to breathe at times. We had a hotel booked in for the northern part of Paris at the Anver area which turned out http://www.travelblog.org/Europe/France/blog-249281.html Reached Bialystok northern Poland late at night and managed to somehow find my hostel in a creepy ghetto type part of town. The town itself was nothing at all special just a unfriendly concrete town with a few shops and churches. Caught another bus in the morning to my destination Bialowieza National Park which is in the north east of Poland a few kilometres from the Belarus border. This http://www.travelblog.org/Europe/Poland/blog-249279.html Arrived early morning in Vilnius the captial city of Lithuania and booked into the Old Town Hostel just outside the city walls. To enter the town you must walk through the gate of dawn and past the St Theresas church where there was often mass crowds out in the street preying below it. Again the city had beautiful old buildings with plenty of character around.Spent the first couple of days exp http://www.travelblog.org/Europe/Lithuania/blog-249278.html Tallinn is a medieval town situated at the top of Estonia and is similar in building appearence to Riga but with a lot of the shops restruants and local clothing taking on a medieval theme.I stayed in old town at the Tallinn backpackers which was another social spot for heading out with loads of other travellers to hit the pubs at night. Our hostel had a underground pub which was once an old war http://www.travelblog.org/Europe/Estonia/blog-249277.html A great countryFlew into Riga the capital on the 9th August and stayed for a few days in a awsome hostel Fun Friendly Franks based in the Old Town of Riga. It was a small city but the buildings were so amazing with paved streets and a great laid back feel about the place. The hostel was up 2 flights of well worn wooden stairs and it was a great place to meet other travellers. Every night t http://www.travelblog.org/Europe/Latvia/blog-249276.html Kate won free tickets to Berlin so began my second trip into Europe.Another sleep over in Standstead Airport for a nice 6am flight to Berlin. On arrival the weather was perfect We had finally found the summer weather. We were put up in the Circus Hostel which was well run and pretty classy compard to many of the hostels I have been too. They also put on a big buffet breakfast consisting of wa http://www.travelblog.org/Europe/Germany/blog-249275.html During the summer I spent my initial time with Kate and Dale in their flat before finding a job a few minutes away as a live in nanny in Raynes Park Wimbledon. Lovely family of 4 with Sam who was 12 and Sarah who was 15. Job was boring really just a nannyhome helpschool pickupscookingshoppingcleaning etc.While not working I tried to see and do as much as possible around the city. Went to http://www.travelblog.org/Europe/United-Kingdom/England/Greater-London/blog-249274.html Kate and I decided we would go and visit an old school mate in Netherlands. Stayed the night at Stanstand Airport in order to fly into Eindhoven bright and early. Horrible place to sleepFrom the airport we caught a bus up to Amsterdam where we stayed in a horrible dank dungeon of a hostel for a few nights in the centre of the city. I really liked this town as it had a lot of atmosphere and so http://www.travelblog.org/Europe/Netherlands/blog-249272.html Arrived into New Delhi just after 6am. Headed into the backpacker suburb of Paharganj to a cheap hotel called Navrang to rest for the day. Booked onto a goldern triangle which had two seats left and was leaving that night. Spent the day wandering around the Main Bazaar Road. Lots of shopping and places to eat. Heaps of people rickshaws and cows lined the open dirty roads. 10pm boarded our b http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/India/National-Capital-Territory/New-Delhi/blog-249215.html Arrived at the Varanasi station by 5am and had a long wait until someone from our hotel came to pick us up. We were dropped off in a very busy part of town by the river and had to find our way down long narrow ally ways of Godaulia to Ganpati Guesthouse. These streets were crazy very dirty and filled with loads of tiny shops rubbish people and mad animals from goats monkeys waterbuffulo and http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/India/Uttar-Pradesh/Varanasi/blog-249207.html 8th May and Cathy and I were up at 5.30am to say our goodbyes to everyone then we were off for a very long boring 6hr bus trip to Chitwin National Park. We were signed up with the Rainbow Safari Lodge situated just outside of the park. In the evening we were taken on a tour of the village and learnt how these people must live with dangerous animals and malaria mozzies. These houses were made fr http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/Nepal/Chitwan/blog-249199.html 25407 A nice 6am wakeup call to start the day off then a 6hr van ride to our starting point of Phedi. The drive was through a lot of rice paddy fields past rivers and numerous small towns. Was good to get out of the city and into fresh air. Plenty of burned out crashes along the way though so was nice and reassuring about the road safety in this country. Reached Phedi by 2.30pm just as it http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/Nepal/Annapurna/blog-249197.html 16407 Left Zhanghau in a taxi and drove for half an hour through no mans land to the Nepalese border. Lots of people were there trying to get through and we just waltzed on through. Caught a ride in a curiser and drove 4hrs past numerous bustling towns packed buses and fertile fields. The instant change from Tibet was incredible with so many people who diffentently had more of an Indian p http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/Nepal/Kathmandu/blog-249173.html 120407 The start of our land cruiser trip down the friendship highway from Lhasa to the Nepalese border via Mt Everest The first two hours was easy going along nice roads up through snowy mountains. Stopped at the peak at 4794m for some photos and a turn at sitting on a yak. The toilets were just the beginning of how bad they were yet to come with just an open pit behind a small wall in wh http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/China/Tibet/Friendship-Highway/blog-249168.html Spent 35hrs onboard a train from Xian to Lhasa. This was quite the experience of being squashed in a small 6 bunk room with no English speaking people who would keep offering me food to eat like chickens feet and I also came down with a cold. This train ride is the highest in the world and it goes over 5000m in altitude. The view out the windows showed bare land with a few packs of yaks and onl http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/China/Tibet/Lhasa/blog-249163.html 4407. Off the train in Xian and headed to Bobs hostel where I caught up with a girl I had meet back in Beijing. We shared the whole hostel with just one other kiwi couple which was great. This town was filthy. It was the most polluted city Ive ever been in and I constantly had a sore throat here. The four of us caught the bus up after lunch to the Terracotta Warriors. It took forever to wa http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/China/blog-249155.html 290307 Day of travel from Hong Kong up the river delta by a turbojet to Shenzhen through customs and then a 3hr flight on China Airways to Beijing. Finally as night arrives I manage to work the buses and tubes and the narrow roads with no sign posts to find my hostel Leo's Hostel. This was down a great little traditional road fill of stalls shops and rickshaws with loads of families amou http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/China/Beijing/blog-249149.html So the big OE begins. After a long flight I land in Hong Kong in the early hours of the morning and board a bus to my hostel. This time of day there is still a fair bit going on out in the streets even if most of the shops are boarded up. Get dropped off on the busy Nathan Road in Kowloon and discover what a fire trap of a building Ive booked myself into Chungking Mansions. Luckly I thought http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/Hong-Kong/blog-249139.html