TravelBlog » Nellie J

Nellie J - Ellen Jackson

It's six weeks til our European adventure. Four of us - Miss Jules, the two Petes and me. The original plan was to traipse through France following the Rugby World Cup. The plan evolved over Sydney dinners with maps, Google and much red wine. Now we\'re taking sleeper trains to Russia, exploring the Baltic States in a minibus, chilling out in a B&B in the south of France, spending a romantic weekend in Paris, catching up with friends and family in the UK and then heading home.

This may not be the year-long, round the world backpacking adventure of some, but it will be a well-earned, event packed exploration of parts of Europe. A combination of one-day-at-a-time, we have no idea what we\'re doing, and what the hell, bugger the cost luxury. Read on...

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Joined on: July 28th 2007
Last Login: November 12th 2007

Blog Entries: 10
Photos: 51

TB Code: [blogger=44435]
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Blogs & Travel Journals

by Nellie J, order by Date newest first.

By Nellie J
October 16th 2007

A weekend in Paris and we go our separate ways Europe » France » Île-de-France » Paris

Le Cave

We thoroughly enjoyed the remainder of our time in Avignon and the hospitality of our hosts at Lumani, Elisabeth and Jean. The latter part of the week was spent exploring the surrounding Provencal villages and checking out some of the local wines in the Chateauneuf-de-Papes region. Of course we got caught up in the allure of French wine country and had to invest in some of the local reds. Then we had to work how to get it home in the face of luggage weight restrictions (we curse you EasyJet) and hand luggage liquid restrictions! By Friday our soujourn in the [View Full Entry]

By Nellie J
October 10th 2007

En Provence Europe » France » Provence-Alpes-Côte d'Azur » Avignon

In Marseille

Bonjour mes amis. Nous sommes en Provence. Le survivre à est parfait et la nourriture est délicieuse et abondante!* We've now been in Avignon for four days and the boys are slowly recovering from the great Wallabies debacle. On Sunday we ventured back to Marseille to see Fiji v South Africa. It was a hot day and we knew we would be seated in the sun so we took our time before the match and participated in an authentic Marseille experience - Bouillabaise (seafood soup) et vin de blanc by the port. The "Frenchness" of the event was lessened somewhat by [View Full Entry]

By Nellie J
October 7th 2007

Hell and Heaven (Pete's rugby epitaph) Europe » France » Provence-Alpes-Côte d'Azur » Avignon

It was the worst of times; it was the best of times. France performed as requested in losing to Argentina such that they would meet Nouvelle Zealand in the Quarter Final. Australia could possibly beat France but only France has the wood on NZ. The Wallabies had only to beat Wales and England to meet France in the semi final. Everybody played their part... except for Australia. We may never know who turned up on that Saturday in Marseille in the Australian strip but clearly aliens were involved. England had embarrassed themselves in defeating the USA 28-10 and were then thrashed [View Full Entry]

By Nellie J
October 7th 2007

Vilnius, Avignon and Black Saturday in Marseille Europe » France » Provence-Alpes-Côte d'Azur » Avignon

Soggy in Trakai

Unfortunately the weather didn't treat us kindly in Vilnius. The rain fell, and fell, and fell. The boys staged a revolt on the day assigned for our city tour. No more churches! We negotiated with the guide and driver to take us to Trakai, an ancient capital of Lithuania approximately 30 km from Vilnius and the setting for a medieval island castle surrounded by lakes, quaint timber bridges and birch forests. It would have been quite picturesque - if we'd been able to see through the rain. The local cuisine was on the menu that night. The Lithuanians are partial (or [View Full Entry]

By Nellie J
October 4th 2007

It's Tuesday, we must be in Latvia Europe » Latvia » Riga Region » Riga

Riga from above

Our whirlwind trip to Riga has come and gone. We arrived in Riga mid-afternoon on Monday, settled into the Grand Palace Hotel and then cruised the cobbled streets of the Old Town and a little beyond the remains of the medieval walls to get our bearings. Riga is a much larger, more cosmopolitan city than Tallinn. Once described as 'the Paris of the East' it is filled with ornate, decorative Art Nouveau architecture, classy boutiques, modern glass shopping centres and poker machines. The latter didn't do much to add to the sophistication of the city but they did remind us of [View Full Entry]

By Nellie J
September 30th 2007

Russia to the Baltics Europe » Estonia » Tallinn

The streets of Tallinn

Tere. Greetings from Estonia. Two days ago we boarded a train in Russia and seven hours later we arrived in Scandinavia. Estonia, whilst a neighbour of Russia's, is closer in culture and style to her Scandinavian cousins. Finland is only 48 nautical miles to the north whilst Sweden is a six-hour ferry trip to the west. Estonians are Lutherans - no gilded, ornate, coloured decoration in the churches here. Not that many of the locals practice their religion. That was beaten out of them by fifty years or so of Soviet occupation (with an occupational interlude by Nazi Germany), prior to [View Full Entry]

By Nellie J
September 28th 2007

From Russia With Love Europe » Russia » Northwest » Saint Petersburg

The train to Novgorod

This is our final day in Russia. Since my last entry we’ve travelled in relative luxury on an overnight train from Moscow to Novgorod with supper served in our cabins and the space for both us and our bags! Novgorod is an ancient city to the north of Russia. Believed to have been settled in 859 (no-one is really sure, it’s too long ago) it was ruled from 862 by a Viking king. Novgorod seceded from Russia in 1136 and functioned as a republic until the 15th century, thus it is known, according to our guide at least, as the heart [View Full Entry]

By Nellie J
September 27th 2007

From the city to the countryside and our adventures on the Russian roads Europe » Russia » Northwest » Moscow

Traffic in Moscow

A change of pace from the big city hustle of Moscow to the country quiet of Suzdal. Referred to as an 'open air museum' (by which they mean nothing has changed here for hundreds of years) Suzdal is one of the 'Golden Ring' towns - former seats of power in centuries past. It's a sleepy town of churches (thirty-three of them in nine square kilometres we were informed by our guide) with autumn coloured trees, elderly Russian women in shawls selling a handful of onions, six tomatoes and a jar of pickled vegetables by the side of the road, chickens pecking [View Full Entry]

By Nellie J
September 20th 2007

The Adventure Continues Europe » Russia » Northwest » Moscow

Waiting for the train

The last few days has seen us on a train from Cardiff back to London then Eurostar under the Channel Tunnel and across France to Brussels. We were treated to a three-course meal with wine and we toasted Pete C's birthday as we sped through the countryside. At Brussels we quickly swapped to a German high speed train - a marvel of engineering. Slick and superfast, it sadly lacked the seat-side service and finesse of the French. Pizza and red wine dinner at Koln (Cologne) railway station then, within the hour we had boarded a Russian sleeper train. We divested ourselves [View Full Entry]

By Nellie J
September 15th 2007

Our European Adventure Europe » United Kingdom » Wales » Cardiff

Afghanistan (or somewhere near there) from the air

Well what an adventure! We're only three days into our European escapade (aka Rugby World Cup tour) and we've so far encountered a flight delay in Bangkok (a seven hour layover allowing for three hours kip at the Bangkok Airport Novotel), the great Belarusian transit visa challenge (we wrangled a 48 hour visa in less than two), cold showers at our London hotel (thankfully we weren't paying the 150GBP tariff advertised in reception) and a fairly mean hangover for some of the group - they're working on a second as we go to print. Catching up with friends and family at [View Full Entry]

Looking hopeful outside the Belarusian Embassy in Kensington

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Nellie J - Ellen Jackson

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