As we biked along the azure coast of Inishmore (the largest of the Aran islands) off the West Coast of Galway, we basked in the sun’s warm glow and drank in our idyllic surroundings; stone walls interspersed with wildflowers, undulating hills, grey seals languishing on warm rocks, cows lazily grazing in green fields, and the clear blue waters of the Atlantic ocean sparkling like a sea of diamonds. Dave sidled up to me on his bike and we laughed together, held hands, enjoying the (rare) Irish sun and discussed how much we loved being together, and how blessed we were that [View Full Entry]

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An hour outside of Praque lies the small town of Kutna Hora, and therein lies the fascinating Church of Bones - Sedlec Ossuary. The church houses the bones of over 40,000 departed souls, their skeletons having been fashioned into moody sculptures and morbid works of art that adorn the cavernous interior. So the story goes, that back in the 11th Century Henry, the abbot of Sedlec visited the holy lands of Palestine and brought back a handful of earth from Golgotha, Jerusalem. This hallowed soil was then sprinkled on the grounds of his local cemetery, thus rendering the new land sacred [View Full Entry]

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An overnight bus from Vilinius deposited us in Warsaw at 6am. Early morning in Warsaw's international bus station proved to be rather grim - there wasn't much activity and the money changers didn't open until 10am, so we settled in for the long wait both penniless and starving with our new Irish mate Kevin. After scouring the neighbourhood and surrounds for sign of a money changer or ATM, Kev eventually discovered a hidden ATM inside the station, about 2 metres from where our bags were piled! Warsaw was quite a nice place actually and had the best parks we've seen so [View Full Entry]

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Another old town, and to be honest by now we’re a little old town fatigued. Sort of like travelling in Asia and grimacing at the thought of seeing another temple, or Tibet and visiting yet another monastery - we’re just hankering for something different. So to be honest we didn’t spend too much time lingering around here. Instead our Lithuanian hosts Danielius and Grazina took us out to the countryside for a taste of something a little different. We took a day trip out to nearby Kernave which is the site of manmade hillforts that date from the Bronze Age until [View Full Entry]

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So far our European "Summer" has been less than impressive: instead of sun we've been caught in torrential downpours and forced to wade through mud, where has the sun gone? It seems strange that we were having warmer weather in Siberia (not normally a place you associate with sunshine!). Unfortunately our time in Latvia was marked with lots and lots of rain ... First stop was Riga where we stayed with the very hospitable Jolanta and took refuge in her apartment from the uncooperative weather. Riga's old town centre was pretty small to explore so we were able to cover most [View Full Entry]

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What do crazy wigs, blokes dressed up in cow suits, bungy jumping, traditional dancing, choral singing, hark rock, sausages and techno music have in common? Beer. Yes in Estonia all of these sometime complimentary, sometimes contradictory forces were brought together under the uniting and liberating force of beer, resulting in the Tallinn beer festival. One could say that it was a case of expert organisational skills that we timed our visit to Tallinn with the beer festival, but rather it was by sheer luck that we discovered that there was a festival on and that we would be there at the [View Full Entry]

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Russia was nothing short of amazing. From the long sandy white beaches of Siberia; cards, vodka and stories on the great Trans Siberian railway; to joining our Russian friends in celebrating the omnipresent daylight of “white nights” - we had a blast. The Russia we experienced was lively and progressive, far removed from the bleak repressive Soviet times that dominate history books. It’s hard to put everything into words, and try as we might this blog will hardly do it justice, but here we go - from the beginning ... Nikolai was our fabulous Russian carriage attendant who giggled and smiled [View Full Entry]

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The first leg of our Trans-Siberian train journey delivered us into the heart of Mongolia, to the capital Ulan Bator. We stayed at the Golden Gobi, a place that had been recommended to us by many travellers, and Helene a couchsurfer whom we had met in Beijing had e-mailed ahead with our reservation so that we were met on the platform by the staff with a welcoming sign for “Helene’s Friends”, and after some confusion we realised this was us, not the name of another hostel as we had surmised! Oogi the affable host tailor made a tour for us conquering [View Full Entry]

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After Macau we were on the second speed leg of our trip in order to get to Beijing, met up with another enviro geek and get our onward train to Mongolia which meant more consecutive nights on the elaborate Chinese rail network in our luxury hard sleeper cabins ... Xian Here we were spoilt with a room with a balcony that overlooked the Bell Tower and plaza in the heart of the town. An early evening stroll through the square revealed a thriving nightlife: teenagers navigated ramps on rollerskates; children flew long lines of kites; couples canoodled; and astronomers with giant [View Full Entry]

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Macau is the only place in China where gambling is legal, all part of the peculiar "one country, two systems” rule that allows such anomalies. The Chinese love lady luck and gambling is a big part of traditional culture so Macau hopes to capitalise on the huge Chinese and foreign population with a penchant for gambling. Macau is pitting itself as the next generation Las Vegas; according to the sales pitch it’s destined to be more than just a conglomeration of hotels and casinos, but more an entertainment and recreation destination without the tacky and seedy undertones said to plague Vegas. [View Full Entry]

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