Day one - Popradske Pleso 22/08/07 Today we made the journey from Poprad (the main transport hub of the high Tatras) to Propadske Pleso, a mountain lake that lies at an elevation of about 1500m in the High Tatra Mountains in Northern Slovakia. We first had to catch the train from Proprad up to Stary Smokovec where we bought a hiking map and small book detailing some of the different hikes in the Tatras - an indispensable purchase we thought, and so far has given us lots of inspiration for planning our activities over the next few days. After filling up [View Full Entry]

---

---

After working out how to leave Zagan, and managing it successfully with a picturesque train ride across the beautiful lush green Polish countryside, we arrived in lovely Krakow, where we have stayed for the last few nights. It has been quite a full few days, and a confronting chaser to our intense experience at Zagan. Initially we had not planned to visit Auschwitz because we didn’t really feel as though we needed to go. We both kind of felt that going might be an unnecessary horror, like it would be an experience that would just 'preach to the converted'... you know, [View Full Entry]

---

---

Today we packed a picnic lunch and headed off vaguely in the direction of the Museum, which we worked out to be about a four kms out of town. The walk was pretty, and I was excited to find a couple of apple trees along the way where I delighted in the satisfying taste of a few stolen apples, wild and fresh and cool… Not long after I had eaten a few of these delicious treats, we saw a sign that appeared seemingly out of nowhere pointing, not to the museum that we had come all this way to see, but [View Full Entry]

---

---

Well, we've made it to Zagan! An absolutely picturesque town in the middle of nowhere, filled with amazingly old trees, beautiful rivers and lakes, stone buildings... and not a word of English to be seen! We managed to find our way from the deserted-looking train station, to our accommodation (a converted granary situated lake-side next to a beautiful green park filled with massive lime trees, birches and weeping willows) and now we are off in search of... anything really! Just having a look around at this stage and working out where things are... Tomorrow we will head off to the POW [View Full Entry]

---

---

After three delicious days in Berlin, we are on the move again. Currently on board Zug 241, from Berlin to Krakow, we are heading to Zagan in Poland to visit the Museum of Allied Prisoners of War Martyrdom, Stalag Luft III where my (Hero’s) grandfather was a POW during the last part of WWII. We are happy to be on the train again, as both Keira and I have fallen in love with train travel and particularly on a day like today which is cold and rainy and miserable, it feels wonderful to be comfy in our carriage watching the rain [View Full Entry]

---

---

Having crossed another time zone, and with one more to come, we are currently sitting in transit at Riga International Airport, Latvia, waiting for our flight to Berlin, Germany. After a late night last night, we woke fairly early to organise our gear and repack, ready for a day of travelling. So far all has gone to plan, despite having to negotiate our way to St Petersburg’s international airport, Pulkova 2, without a phrasebook. Although we had the details of the metros and bus we needed to catch, we were quite anxious about whether this would, in fact, lead us to [View Full Entry]

---

---

What can we say? We love it here. We have walked all over the city, heading out at about 10 in the morning and not returning until 12 or 1 at night (the sun doesn't set here until 11.30, so more daylight means more walking!)... and we spent three days at the Hermitage. Definitely not enough time... We are leaving tomorrow, and are both feeling a little forlorn as we are wishing that we could stay longer, purely to make more visits to the Hermitage and soak up more of the beauty that resides there... as well as (of course) drink [View Full Entry]

---

---

We are now in St Petersburg, and travelled here on the overnight train last night, without Carly and Chrisy. When Carly and Chrisy met us at Jaggernath last night we discovered that they hadn’t had quite the dream day in Moscow that we had. Carly’s passport, along with her other ID, her credit cards, her cash and other valuables has been lost and/or stolen at the train station. Also gone were the train tickets to St Petersburg that they had just purchased. Oh no. So they had spent their afternoon caught up in the frustration, anxiety and stress of trying to [View Full Entry]

---

---

After four nights and four days on the train from Irkutsk, having travelled around 7000 kms and having crossed 5 time zones, we have finally arrived in Moscow - stinky, overfed and showing early but distinct signs of cabin fever, but incredibly excited to be here! Thanks to our previous train trips, we all felt as if we had got our ‘train legs’ - and it was with this new confidence that we boarded the lengthiest leg of our Trans Mongolian/Siberian journey. Informed by the successes and lessons of the previous trips, we had hit the supermarkets on our departure day [View Full Entry]

---

---

Wow. We have just spent four days in the Siberian (kind of... technically Russian I think, but 'Siberian' sounds a lot more impressive!) wilderness... hiking in the Sayan Mountains, situated near Lake Baikal about 70ks outside Irkustsk. The mountains were like heaven after the cramped and stuffy (though incredibly enjoyable) confines of our train kupe - the air was pure and beautiful to breathe, the water was sweet and the most amazing shades of aquamarine, and the greens of the trees and mountain herbs were so vivid, punctuated brilliantly by the bright yellows and pinks of the many wildflowers growing on [View Full Entry]

---

---