Feels like a long time since the last blog, probably because it is...just been to lazy to do any major updating, and the lack of fast internet doesn't help either. Most importantly, the world trip has continued after the extended break in Australia, I finally made it to Fiji and Samoa, and there's been some important stuff happening for me personally. Where to start? Fiji was pretty lovely, we had an amazing time on three of the Yasawa islands, splurging a bit too much, considering our tight budget. But there's just no cheap accomodation in Fiji, the prices are a shitload higher than in any European country. At least, we got to stay in a real Fijian village with the locals for a couple of days, which was a great experience, despite getting eaten alive by ... read more

Damn, I'm tired. The last couple of days were rather full on, and here is how it all came about: On Thursday evening, I was taking the plane from Liepaja to Riga. The airport was tiny, there was only one building, you couldn't even call that a terminal. The plane was a Fokker with some 50 seats, but luckily, there were only about 10 other people on board. The flight consisted of taking off, getting a tea, drinking it, preparing for landing. If it just were always so hassle-free... After taking the bus to the centre of Riga, the thing that shouldn't happen happened again: my host wasn't there. So I waited for about 20 minutes, then started asking people if I could use their mobiles, but they either pretended they didn't have one, or were ... read more

Alright, the best news first: I've made it safely back into civilization, i.e. the EU. Unsurprisingly, it's like a different world here, no more surly people, bad service, spitting as a form of expression, and no more Cyrillic! But how did it all come about? After my last proof of life, I managed to catch the train from Kyiv to Minsk after 10 hours of waiting at the train station. Yes, I could have left my luggage in a locker there, but -behold!- the descriptions were all in Cyrillic, and since I prefer my luggage safely tucked away, I refrained from that plan and grudgingly carried it with me. I killed the time reading, going on the internet, and snoozing away with the head on my backpack. The actual trip was nothing worth mentioning, the usual ... read more

Ah, Moldova. The joys of myriads of concrete blocks, the cheerful stares you get in the streets, the benign hassling from the police, and the feeling of union when sharing a Mercedes Sprinter with 20 other people. I think I'm the only foreigner here, despite the Peace Corps volunteers, some diplomats, and the Russians, but you can't really consider the latter to be foreigners here. This is their country. They can live their whole life here without speaking a word of Romanian (oh excusez-moi, make that Moldovan), they drive the best cars, they do some quality trafficking of the most beautiful women here. About 25% of the Moldovan population lives abroad. They don't have an economy. The country lives on the money sent back by their people abroad, and by what they can smuggle in from ... read more

Yeah, so looks like I'm in Bratislava now, pretty knackered and about to go to sleep. But I thought I should finally get my ass up and write something on this thing. The trip to Gdansk was rather bizarre...first I was standing with the other pathetic passengers in a giant queue on Hahn airport, waiting to board. They wouldn't even make an announcement, it was pretty frustrating just standing there for more than half an hour without knowing what's going on. Ten or so minutes after the flight should have started we could finally board. The flight itself went by real quick, and we were already approaching Gdansk, when the captain said we couldn't descent because of bad weather and fog. So the plane was flying a curve for about an hour over the city, which ... read more