After 33hours on a ferry from Venice, which included two nights spent sleeping on the floor as we had the cheapest fare possible so it did not include a cabin, we arrived at the Greek port town of Patras. Unfortunately though I left my sea legs on the boat and within ten minutes of landing on Greek soil I managed to fall over carrying my huge backpack and three pieces of hand luggage with my forehead and nose breaking my fall. However, after a quick assessment by pharmacist Zara to ensure no concussion had been suffered and the fast raising bump [View Full Entry]

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Although famed for its museums, palaces and other beautiful buildings we saw very few of the inside of these popular tourist attractions whilst in Vienna. We were instead shown a less touristy side as we were lucky enough to have a guide -one Mr Scott Wigglesworth, a friend from back home who lives in the city. So whilst we did walk around the Museum Quarter and see the outside of Parliament and the Hofburg palace, the majority of our time was spent wandering around, eating, shopping and partying in the fabulous city also known as Wien. However, some touristy things were [View Full Entry]

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Coming into Amsterdam our Busabout guide annoyingly referred to Amsterdam as “the Damage”, given the city’s party-hard reputation and the young tourist tendency to leave Amsterdam in a somewhat more decrepit state than when they arrived. Although it wasn’t our intent to get “damaged” we became like the throngs of other tourists and certainly made the most of our weekend in Amsterdam. Ever the thrifty backpackers, we were lucky to stay for free at the flat of one of my cousin’s close friend’s right in the centre of the city. We arrived at 7pm o [View Full Entry]

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We were all struck by a sense of culture shock arriving in civilised and orderly London after having become accustomed to India's vast contradictions of wealth and poverty, beautiful scenery juxtaposed with mountains of rubbish and some of the world's poorest, yet kindest people. However, within minutes of leaving the airport we were eagerly anticipating hot showers, western food and a washing machine and couldn't wait for our European leg to commence. Our first full London day was basically spent eating and shopping. After visiting the sensational food halls of Harrods, Selfridges and Mar [View Full Entry]

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From the rather disappointing Agra we journeyed to the Rajasthan, a desert region in the North West. As the last unexplored area on our six week Indian adventure, it had been eagerly anticipated, and I am glad to say it exceeded all expectations. On arrival at our first stop - the city of Jaipur - a midget rickshaw driver with a humpback and an extreme mullet (yes I am deadly serious, wish I had taken a photo now…) attached himself to us and became our unofficial guide for the next two and a half days. Jaipur is famed for having the [View Full Entry]

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Agra… home of the most beautiful symbol of love ever constructed… the Taj Mahal, India’s most well known and most loved building. Agra is also home to some of India’s other great sights, the Fort for example is exemplary, it held out invading armies for hundreds of years. It even managed to hold of the advancing British Colonial army longer than its counterparts. You would think that with all these great sights Agra would be a fabulous city to visit, and if you did think this you wouldn’t be the first person… we were fooled too. Arriving at the trai [View Full Entry]

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From the amazing Varanasi we made our way west to the Madhya Pradesh region. After a 12 hour train journey we arrived at our destination - a small rural station in the middle of nowhere. As our train had been delayed three hours it was 1.30am and there were no rickshaws, so we bunkered up and slept on the floor of a waiting room until 4.30am when we could get a taxi to take us to Tala, an even smaller town, which is surrounded by Bandhavgarh National Tiger Park - our final destination. After breakfast, a nap, lunch and then another [View Full Entry]

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We left the quiet, peaceful south and boarded a plane from Kochi to Delhi. The plane ride was reasonably boring, as there were no people selling fun Indian snacks and we were unable to yell out the window at every stop to ask for anything we may be craving (like we have become accustomed to on the trains). Our first impressions of Delhi were less than favorable...we arrived at 11.30pm and after surviving a drive with a stoned taxi driver we then had to endure a long walk down a ally teeming with sleeping dogs, homeless people and open latrines to [View Full Entry]

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After three weeks in India (today is exactly our half-way point) the wildlife of this country still never fails to amaze me. On any given day you can be sure that you will see all of the following - cows, dogs, goats, and squirrels - then on most days you are also likely to come across - water buffalo, monkeys, chickens and cats. All these beasts are used to the humans who also inhabit their towns so one must get used to sharing all common commodities with them. Also, as a result of their human companions all of these animals live [View Full Entry]

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Hi everyone! Carrying on from Claire's last entry we next bounced our way to Palolem Beach on a very noisy sleeper bus. The driver's whiskey-drunk son (supposedly one of the conductors) took a bit of a liking to us and relocated me a few times but we made it one piece and thankfully a rickshaw driver was waiting at the stop (we were dropped off at 4.30am in the middle of nowhere). Palolem Beach is beautiful - in spite of the roving packs of dogs (more from Claire on the beasts later). You can tell in high season it would be [View Full Entry]

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