Floss

I expected Russia to be cold and the Russians to be dour. I expected the food to be revolting and the vodka to be ubiquitious and akin to paint stripper. I expected to see many large communist-style apartment housing blocks and for transportation to be unreliable and clunky. I did not expect Russia to feel as if it were 1985. I was both half right and totally wrong. After spending a few days in Moscow, a day in Novgorod and a few days in St Petersburg, I can hardly call myself an expert on Russia. However, that's not going to stop me making a few gross generalisations as is my wont. Let's face it- Russians aren't a really friendly bunch, but as with almost all countries there were a few little stars that lit the trip. ... read more

Ok, so I really just had more photographs I wanted to put up, but I received so many vehement objections the last time I put photos up without any explanation that I tried to add something here... When travelling in Egypt, DO ...wear warm clothes when climbing Mt Sinai in the middle of the night. ...seriously, wear lots of warm clothes when climbing Mt Sinai in the middle of the night. ...did I mention the clothes thing? Because it's really really cold up on Mt Sinai in the middle of the night and you don't want to have your feet turn into ice-cubes, your hands turn into freezing rocks and your nose cease to be a part of your face. ...maintain a calm, confident demeanour at all times, and not go psycho at people who interrupt ... read more

It's been almost two years since I wrote my last really depressing blog, which at that time was on the Cambodian genocide. Over the weekend I visited Auschwitz, just near Krakow in Poland. Words really can't do justice to the concentration camps, or to what happened there. Consequently, I'm going to keep this brief and just put down a few of my own thoughts that I had while I was there - censored a little as they were extremely depressing at the time. Our first stop was Birkenau - commonly known as Auschwitz II. Birkenau was exactly as I had always imagined Auschwitz - a huge flat landscape marked with large barbed-wire fences, guard stations and rows and rows of basic stable-like structures. Bleak would hardly be sufficient to describe it. The temperature was bitterly cold, ... read more

Covering up Since the revolution in 1979, women in Iran have been required to wear a hijab (head scarf), manto (knee-length, long-sleeved coat) and long trousers. While some push the limits with tight waists, capri pants and strappy sandals, the standards are clear: only the round of the face and the hands from the wrists down should be visible. In Tehran, you could get away with a scarf sitting halfway back along your head, sock-free feet, a small amount of neck skin and a tighter coat. Away from the city, standards changed dramatically, and few women ventured out without the all-encompassing chador. While in Qom, the religious centre of Iran, the standards were extremely strict. My hijab was pinned tightly to my forehead and was wrapped snugly around my neck so as to show not a ... read more

Or so the newsagencies proclaimed in April, when temperatures reached the unimaginable heights of 25 degrees. Not exactly a heatwave, but somehow I don't think- "London has nice weather and everyone's enjoying it" - would have sold the same number of newspapers... I started writing this blog back then and then May hit, bringing wind, rain and plunging temperatures. Despite having had the hottest April on record (or some such thing) last Monday's temperatures plummeted to give us one of the coldest days in May ever. So, rather than leave this poor blog languishing in my drafts folder for ever, I thought I'd go ahead and release it - reminiscing fondly of the Spring That Was, rather than celebrating the present. So, here are the five top reasons I loved (emphasis on the past tense there) ... read more