http://www.travelblog.org/Bloggers/Jai-Essex/ Travel adventures in journals and photos from Jai Essex en-us Wed, 09 Dec 2009 13:01:41 +0000 Wed, 09 Dec 2009 13:01:41 +0000 After a few weeks in relatively small places the familiar sounds of a big city railway station greeted us as we staggered irritably off the train from Ljubljana. Namely shadylooking characters in jeans and leather jacket combinations whispering taxi and change money to anyone with a rucksack. With not a wink of sleep between us on the overnight ride from Slovenia and knowing that humouring http://www.travelblog.org/Europe/Hungary/Central-Hungary/Budapest/blog-344010.html The sound of the metal bars closing behind me echoed down the bare corridor. The small cell was empty except for two beds. I could make out my cellmate on the bottom bunk his reddish beard glistening in the chink of light shining through the tiny barred window. I didn't know how long I would be in here but it would be at least three days. Six hours earlier I had been in a fourstar hotel. Now I http://www.travelblog.org/Europe/Slovenia/Upper-Carniola/Ljubljana/blog-339064.html Noone from either city will thank me for saying it but Zagreb is a bit like Belgrade. No eyes are going to pop out of their sockets at the array of architecture which here is largely grey and plastered in graffiti. Historic sights are few but Zagreb is home to some great cafes clubs and bars which more than made up for it.The train journey from Mostar was a draining 13 hours long. Fortunately http://www.travelblog.org/Europe/Croatia/blog-338386.html Look at the silly tourists wandering around confused with their big backpacks let's go and scam the fuck out of them was what went through a taxi driver's mind as he pulled up next to us as we contemplated the long walk from Mostar train station to the Hostel Nina. After we agreed a five euro ride he first asked if we were Swedish must be my flowing blonde locks before dropping us at a plac http://www.travelblog.org/Europe/Bosnia-and-Herzegovina/South/Mostar/blog-338381.html As well as being the catalyst for this entire journey Sarajevo is the most incredible city I have ever seen or am likely to see in my lifetime. And I can go anywhere I want. But between April 1992 and late 1995 the only way in or out of this city was by sprinting across an airport runway or by queuing for hours to go through an underground tunnel hoping not to be hit by bullets. The longest sie http://www.travelblog.org/Europe/Bosnia-and-Herzegovina/East/Sarajevo/blog-337730.html We had altered our itinerary to be in Belgrade a little earlier to see the stand out fixture in the Serbian football calendar. Red Star Belgrade v Partizan Belgrade due to take place on Sunday.We rolled into town at roughly 7.30am the day before having spent the night train journey sharing a compartment with Bane a 20yearold Red Star fan from Podgorica who was returning to the Serbian capital http://www.travelblog.org/Europe/Serbia/West/Belgrade/blog-336710.html Morrissey may well have written Everyday is like Sunday about the British seaside town but he really should come to Montenegro in the off season. Nobody else does.Ulcinj our first arrival point on managing to get out of Albania is heaving with tourists from June until August but in early October the only people about were the 10000 townsfolk. Many shops bars and cafes had closed for the wi http://www.travelblog.org/Europe/Montenegro/blog-333522.html It's fair to say that Albania suffers from an image problem. Communist for so long and isolated because of its refusal to become part of Yugoslavia in 1948 plus the breaking up of relations with Russia and China it suffered more than anyone when the old regime collapsed in 1991. The country's economy collapsed the capital Tirana was swamped with migrants now free to travel there and infrastruc http://www.travelblog.org/Europe/Albania/West/Tirana/blog-333022.html The only possible reason there is no direct train from Sofia to Skopje can be to see who is man enough to take the bus. This was the most unrelaxing sixhour trip ever. Our coach wound its way high up the mountainside in the pouring rain along narrow unlit roads. Of course as it was through a border point there were plenty of trucks coming the other way causing our driver to lean ever closer to http://www.travelblog.org/Europe/Macedonia/Skopje/blog-333009.html It took me a while to figure out why I was so fond of Bulgaria's capital. The architecture is fairly typical of the region and the sights and history don't compare to some other cities we have visited even with it being some 7000 years old. But Sofia has to be one of the highlights of the tour so far.Discovering that the fine local Zagorka beer was priced at 60p definitely went in its favour b http://www.travelblog.org/Europe/Bulgaria/West/Sofia/blog-331216.html I wouldn't make a good hobo. I'm not addicted to crack I haven't got a beard and I have trouble enough sleeping in hostel beds especially if the pillows are too big. So managing to get an hour's shuteye on the floor of a Bulgarian railway station with prostitutes and other undesirable characters roaming around nearby surprised me.It had been none of our intentions to spend the night on the har http://www.travelblog.org/Europe/Bulgaria/East/Varna/blog-329424.html Whenever I went to a Hallowe'en party as a kid I always went as Dracula. And not just because my widow's peak and pasty complexion meant I barely had to do any preparation. The legendary tale of the bloodsucking vamp from Transylvania was one of my favourite books so I jumped at the chance to visit the spooky territory where the story was based.Of course Bram Stoker's work of fiction was at leas http://www.travelblog.org/Europe/Romania/Transilvania/Brasov/Brasov/blog-329406.html Even a mother wouldn't say Bucharest is good looking. Our night train from Chisinau pulled in past foreboding grey suburbs while everyone both inside and outside the grotty Gara du Nord station seemed to be whispering taxi in a highly suspicious manner. We had been warned by our Lonely Planet oracle to give these a wider berth than a crocodile with BO so heads down we headed for the sanctity http://www.travelblog.org/Europe/Romania/Muntenia/Bucharest/blog-326815.html Moldova was a destination we had decided on more out of curiosity than a desire to see anything specific. It's skipped over by most visitors to the region because the small nation of about 4.5million people has little to boast about historically or culturally compared with neighbouring Romania or Ukraine.We'd heard and read a few things about its celebrated wine industry as well as corruption and http://www.travelblog.org/Europe/Moldova/Centre/Chisinau/blog-325707.html Kiev is full of people trying to get somewhere in a hurry. Buses marshrutki public minibuses and metro trains cram residents in making the London Underground at rush hour look deserted. And why not. Because unlike neighbouring Belarus Ukraine seems desperate to shake off its former communist shackles and make its way in the world.Russia its influential neighbour has expressed an unease abou http://www.travelblog.org/Europe/Ukraine/Kiev/Maidan-Nezalezhnosti/blog-324752.html Regular readers will already be aware of the childish undercurrent to my sense of humour so when the opportunity arose to explore a bit of Brest I was not going to turn it down. We did not want to milk it though so we stayed in the small south western border town for just 20 hours.We had enjoyed a first class four hour journey from Minsk. It only cost 11 pounds but we didn't get any food. We did http://www.travelblog.org/Europe/Belarus/Brest-Voblast/Brest/blog-322649.html Arriving in Minsk on a warm Monday afternoon I halfexpected the place to be set in black and white like an old war film. I expected serious moustachioed men in beige trenchcoats and sunglasses to exchange briefcases in dark alleyways stopping only to utter something like Red Fox November in Sevastopol is always clement before scurrying off.For Belarus is technically a dictatorship run by c http://www.travelblog.org/Europe/Belarus/Minsk-Voblast/Minsk/blog-322083.html Lithuania almost didn't make the cut for this tour. We chose to go to Vilnius because it was reckoned to be the easiest city to obtain a visa for neighbouring Belarus. As it was we ended up getting them before we left home but rather than realign our meticulouslyplanned itinerary we decided to give it a go.We scheduled four nights here and as the frustratingly pedestrian train gradually clunke http://www.travelblog.org/Europe/Lithuania/Vilnius/blog-319312.html The capital of Poland definitely feels different to Krakow and Gdansk. Home to around 1.5million people it was bustling during evening rush hour when we finally got to the city centre. Our arrival saw us squeeze our way through a mass of office workers on their mobile phones on our 1km walk from the station to the hostel. This may surprise you if you read the Daily Mail because of course it seem http://www.travelblog.org/Europe/Poland/Masovia/Warsaw/blog-318464.html For all the cosmopolitan charm of its new town the northern Polish city of Gdansk's real history lies within its hulking dilapidated shipyards. From within this run down background many believe the first nail was driven into the coffin of communism in Europe. The workers spoke out for the Polish population and former the largest trade union in the world to show their puppet government that they http://www.travelblog.org/Europe/Poland/Pomerania/Gdansk/blog-317612.html