We were quietly chuffed to leave Bosnia by something approaching a normal border crossing! However it was not without incident as we discovered we had to pay a ten euro eco-tax, and we had no euro - however after much umming and ahhhing we were allowed to pay with pounds - only after the Montenegrins had confirmed it was actually real currency we were trying to give them and then they even gave us change. The drive from the border to Budva was eventful to say the least! We ended up cruising along quite happily through the lovely countryside until soon [View Full Entry]

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Our entry into Bosnia from Croatia was unusual to say the least. We had a road map of the general area and we were happily heading to Metrovic to cross the border. We reached an isolated little check point (just 2 guys in uniform waving through a steady line of traffic on a dusty disused road) and asked where the Bosnian border was - the guy just pointed and grumbled “Bosnia.” So we drove off, expecting to find border control shortly. As it happened we ended up driving about 15 minutes on tiny country roads (gravel and dirt) before we emerged [View Full Entry]

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The train from Lesce Bled to Zagreb unfortunately ran about an hour or so late, which meant that once again we wondered if we’d be in time for our flight to Split (echo’s of our mad race for our flight in Bucharest ringing in our heads). The train finally arrived and we settled in for the 3 hour journey through to Zagreb, stopping en-route for the general passport checking and stamping. We arrived in Zagreb with about an hour and a half to go before our domestic flight down to Split. Luckily we managed to get a tram to the city [View Full Entry]

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We were definitely excited to be leaving behind the London “summer” and get a real summer abroad in Europe! First stop was Ljubljana in Slovenia, where we landed mid morning. We had a few hours to kill before our train departed to Lake Bled so we put our bags in storage at Ljubljana train station (2 Euros for a HUGE locker - bargain!) and headed into the capital city. We were instantly impressed with Ljubljana as a place and were glad we had a few hours to spend exploring the streets! When we first landed in Slovenia, unfortunately it was raining [View Full Entry]

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For Kristi's birthday this year I took her to Oslo the Capital city of Norway for a weekend break :) Kristi had no idea where I was taking her, all she knew was that on Friday she had to meet me at Liverpool Street station at 12.30pm so we could take the train out to Stansted airport. (I emailed her a series of misleading clues throughout the week, hints suggested everywhere from Somalia to Iraq!) We arrived at the airport and I managed to get Kristi to the actual boarding gate with her still having no idea where we were going, [View Full Entry]

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We touched down in Bucharest and immediately noticed the heat! It was lovely, a dry 27degrees and not a cloud in the sky :) Once we cleared customs we found the bus we needed to the city and hopped on, some random guy who spoke no English helped us with our tickets and stowing our packs - we assumed he worked for the bus people... until we got to our stop and he helped us off again and then wanted to walk us to our hotel. Needless to say, having experienced this sort of thing before, we pessimistically assumed he was [View Full Entry]

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We arrived in Malta not really knowing what to expect, we had heard a lot about the tiny island nation but had no real conception of what it would actually be like. After some incredible views - Malta is actually 3 Islands: Malta, Gozo and Comino - from the plane as we flew in, our first impression was ... WIND! It was crazily windy as soon as we hopped off the plane, in the first 2-3 days we experienced some of the strongest, most forceful wind I’ve ever experienced (and I have been to Wellington and Chicago!). We had arranged a [View Full Entry]

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Hi all! Time for a long overdue blog!! As most of you know, we left Asia to arrive in London in mid January - greeted by ridiculously grim weather! Although on the plus side, not long after arriving we did get to enjoy a ‘Snow Day’ - London’s heaviest snowfall in something like 20 years. The city pretty much shut down - schools were closed (Martin was stoked!) and transport came to a standstill meaning barely anyone went to work and most companies had to stay closed (so Kristi got the day off too!). But it was really fun! We were [View Full Entry]

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Now we’ve been saying all along that Lao people were awesome, so friendly and accommodating that the local people become a real highlight of Laos as a country. But nothing is quite as good an example as this is….. on arriving at Vientiane we hoped out of the minivan, grabbing our bags then trying to read a map to see exactly where we were in relation to our booked hotel. The minivan drove off, we figured out where we were (by asking a nearby tuk tuk driver how far and then dividing that distance by 3) and it was then that [View Full Entry]

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Vang Vieng is not big enough for an airport so the only way to get there is by bus, we chose the most expensive option (ha ha expensive being about $30NZD) to get there hoping it would be the most comfortable. The “VIP” bus was not the most comfortable way we’ve ever travelled though, with seats with no leg room and so forth…. And the road was incredibly windy. Don’t know how we missed that important piece of info before leaving Luang Prabang! The bus wound up and down huge mountains for several hours and there were quite a few queasy [View Full Entry]

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