http://www.travelblog.org/Bloggers/Lee Clare/ Travel adventures in journals and photos from Lee Clare en-us Sat, 26 Jul 2008 09:58:57 BST Sat, 26 Jul 2008 09:58:57 BST We were all planned to head onto Albania after Montenegro but we have both become increasingly fascinated by the former Yugoslav republics and so we switched routes and headed up to Serbia to hear the other side of the story. In one of the books Irsquove been reading it says that during the nineties journalists used to call Serbia lsquoMordorrsquo though that was due to good old evil lord http://www.travelblog.org/Europe/Serbia/Kosovo/Prishtina/blog-153570.html We have had a wicked time over the last week. Dubrovnik was a mini holiday in our great big one just to soak up the sun or in Lee's case get sun burnt The old town is really stunning it is one of the most picturesque places we have visited The only bugbear was the incredible number of American tourists from cruises who crowded the narrow streets They even had name badges 'Nancy Cohen from Oh http://www.travelblog.org/Europe/Croatia/Dalmatia/Dubrovnik/blog-153545.html We arrived in Sarajevo after a day train journey from Budapest not really knowing what to expect. I think most of us can remember the pictures from the war and the siege on Sarajevo I was expecting the possibility of a very depressing visit although Lee assured me he had read great things about the city We were greeted from the train journey by the agent of our hostel who was absolutely bonkers http://www.travelblog.org/Europe/Bosnia-and-Herzegovina/East/Sarajevo/blog-150324.html We had a quality weekend in Budapest a lot of walking around and taking in the city We will let the pictures speak for themslves on this oneClare and Lee http://www.travelblog.org/Europe/Hungary/Budapest/blog-149979.html We had a wonderful couple of weeks in Romania as you can probably tell by our inability to choose between the photos we have taken sorry I know there are a lot for this one First stop Bucharest what a random city it is It is Chisinau's grown up prettier sister By that there are amazing Parisian avenues albeit a little rough around the edges but there are also blocks and blocks of communist http://www.travelblog.org/Europe/Romania/Bucharest/blog-144747.html The journey from Krakow took a whole day which was pretty annoying to say to say how close they are Lviv was once part of Poland and is about 80km from the border. The trip to the border town where we had to change trains was pretty uneventful however when we tried to get across to get our next train we were not allowed on the platform as the train was still being cleaned. We were stood waiting http://www.travelblog.org/Europe/Ukraine/Lviv/blog-142149.html We arrived in civilization in Clare's terms this means any city with a HM which Warsaw has many it even has a Zara following the overnight bus from Vilnius. We were pretty tired after the bus and it didn't help that when we were getting the train into town from the bus station Clare was Babusked. So far in Eastern Europe we have been Babusked far too many times by crazed old ladies in pub http://www.travelblog.org/Europe/Poland/Masovia/Warsaw/blog-141527.html We have spent the last week in Lithuania and loved every minute of it Our first stop after leaving Riga was Siuali to see the Hill of Crosses. A cross in Lithuania apart from the obvious symbolises defiance against foreign invasion something that Lithuania has experienced a lot of from Germanic knights in medieval times to the Soviets more recently. Apparently crosses had been put on this partic http://www.travelblog.org/Europe/Lithuania/Vilnius/blog-137045.html After the craziness that is Russia Tallinn Estonia was a wonderful relief We were not able to get visas as we were hoping for Belarus but the Baltic's so far have exceeded expectations to make up for it We arrived in Tallinn early morning after the worst overnight bus I have ever experienced the heater was on me all night and the icy road made for an uncomfortable bumpy night None of the lu http://www.travelblog.org/Europe/Estonia/Tallinn/blog-137026.html After all the hype in the last blog entry our train from Moscow was brilliant we must have had our fingers burnt by the trans Siberian where the people in third class were alcoholic gold toothed skinheads The train to St Petersburg was full of families and middle aged couples. We had a group of Russian uni graduates next to us who could speak English so we winded up chatting away having a few ja http://www.travelblog.org/Europe/Russia/Northwest/Saint-Petersburg/blog-133719.html This is my second time writing this I managed to delete the last one so I hope I manage to sound enthusiastic this time but we will seeOur first day on the trans siberian was pretty much taking in the beautiful chinese countryside which included more and better views of the Great Wall than we had seen before and miles and miles of industrial towns. Each was more bleak than the last coal mines http://www.travelblog.org/Europe/Russia/blog-131826.html After 5 days on the train we were really ready to get flying into Moscow however the maximum 15c weather has really inhibited what we have been able to do. Its unbelievably cold I have resorted to double layers of thermals and I've bought a huge russian fur hat Clare has the same well she looks like a garden gnome at the mo We have been around the main sites St. Basil's Cathedral Red Square http://www.travelblog.org/Europe/Russia/Northwest/Moscow/blog-131818.html Well we are back in the calm of Beijing on our last night before jumping on the transSiberian express to Moscow. We are all sorted including being huge stereotypes and buying War and Peace For Clare and Crime and Punishment For myself to get us in the mood. Clare thinks she will polish off War and Peace in 2 days We will see..................... The last few days in Beijing have been http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/China/Beijing/Forbidden-City/blog-128655.html Well after being lured into a false sense of security by Beijing that China might be a pretty cruisy place has been blow away by the madness of Xian. It really feels like a billion people live here the roadspavementsshops everything is full with people And for a touristy place we have never been stared at more anywhere people have been grabbing their friends and telling them to look at us etc http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/China/Shaanxi/Xi--an/blog-127329.html Probably the first thing that strikes you about Beijing is how calm it feels. We were expecting absolute craziness from a city with 15 million people but it is so quiet at times it is eerie. This is particularly true of Tiananmen Square although the large portrait of Mao and the vastness of the place surrounded by imposing Soviet style buildings do tend to stun anyone into silence For the last f http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/China/Beijing/blog-126571.html It is our last night in Melbourne its been pretty cool mainly working and living in Melbourne. Lee has been working not very hard in my opinion but that is engineering in the city centre if you hear of any major bridge collapses in Melbourne it wasn't him I've been working in Admin earning some pennies doing the 95 thing. Most of the highlights have been sporting ones not surprisingly real http://www.travelblog.org/Oceania/Australia/Victoria/Melbourne/City-Centre/blog-123193.html