Well, it's back for me anyway. Amanda's first time here. We went to the Guinness Storehouse yesterday (of course) and are taking it easy today. Tomorrow we fly home. Let's see, from Mostar, Herzegovina we went to Dubrovnik, Croatia, and spent two days there. We took the overnight ferry up the Dalmatian coast to Rejeka and spent part of the day there before getting on the train to Ljubljana, Slovenia. Another few days there, and then a train to Budapest, a few more days spent, and finally a flight to Dublin. We've become quite adept at sleeping on transport. Amanda even [View Full Entry]

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Warsaw, Poland Krakow, Poland Sighisoara, Romania Belgrade, Serbia Sarajevo, Bosina & Herzegovina Mostar, Bosina & Herzegovina Croatia is next... [View Full Entry]

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In Kaunas, hanging out this evening until our 23:30 bus to Warsaw. Here are some of our photos from St. Petersburg, Riga, Vilnius, and Kaunas. They appear in reverse chronological order. Photos from Halong Bay, Hong Kong, Mongolia, and the rest of Russia are coming soon! [View Full Entry]

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We really enjoyed our train rides from Irkutsk to Ekaterinburg, and Ekaterinburg to Moscow. We lucked out with quiet, amiable train compartment mates and timely trains. they're really efficient here! Yesterday we arrived at 6;30 AM, dropped our bags at a hostel and set out into the city. First on the list, of course, was going to visit Mr. Lenin, and then we wandered around the Kremlin. We went to the Ismailovsky park market in the afternoon, then the new Tretyakov gallery, where we saw all kinds of great Soviet art: statues of tractor factories, paintings of happy women harvesting grain, [View Full Entry]

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We're currently in Irkutsk, Russia having left Hong Kong, flying through Beijing to Ulan Bator, taking a 5 day horse trek in Terelj National Park, back to UB, and then on the train to Russia. Tomorrow we leave Irkutsk for Yekaterinburg. It's 2 nights/3 days away on the train, we'll spend a long day, and then we're on to Moscow, another day or so away. We've had a problem with time and internet recently. When we have a lot of it (like on a train), there is no internet. When we have internet access, there is much else we'd like to [View Full Entry]

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We have spent the past week in Hong Kong enjoying the fantabulous above-and-beyond really quite wonderful hospitality of one Ms. Evasdottir. She has played tourguide (and history/religion professor), housed us, and taken us to way more authentic Chinese restaurants than we'd have found on our own. Thank you, Erika! We will fly tomorrow to Ulan Bator and spend a few days there before getting on the train. We're disappointed to miss Beijing and the first leg of the Trans-Mongolian, but between visa cost & hassle and wanting to linger here a few extra days we decided this was best. We we [View Full Entry]

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We spent the day after our last post hiking in the beautiful hills around Luang Prabang. The next morning we boarded a minibus to Nong Khiaw, a town about 3 hours drive from Luang Prabang. It took us four hours because our driver kept stopping every 10 minutes or so, for smoke breaks, to deliver fruit to a friend, to fix the malfunctioning gas pedal, etc. At Nong Khiaw, we had just enough time for a quick lunch before we took a public boat up to Muang Ngoi. It is only accessible by boat (on the Nam Ou), so there are [View Full Entry]

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Well, the elephant tower didn't quite pan out in terms of observing elephants, but we had a good time. We trekked into the forest out of the village of Ban Na, about an hour's drive outside of Vientiane. Because we arranged the trek through an office in Vientiane, we had an English speaking guide with us, plus our driver. Add to that the required two local guides from Ban Na (who supposedly are there to keep us from being taken down by an angry elephant), and we had quite a crew. We are in the rainy season here, so everything was [View Full Entry]

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We have made it to Vientiane. Thanks to heavily booked flights we have to stay in Vientiane for two nights before we can continue to Luang Prabang. The town is very pleasant, and we have a great hotel room for only $19. At dinner this evening we had Beer Lao, along with Lab (minced chicken with herbs & spices, served with sticky rice) and (a green papaya salad with lime juice and fish sauce and lots of spice). We are very excited for our trek tomorrow. We'll be heading down to the village of Ban Na, where we will trek a [View Full Entry]

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Hi everybody! Eric here. Today I flipped a bit. The big 10000. 2^5. My MSB will stay here until I turn 64. I don't really remember my 1st, 2nd, 4th, 8th, or 16th birthdays specifically. This one will be somewhat unforgettable. Phnom Penh. Cambodia. Up until a few days ago I would not have believed it. So yeah, we had a pleasant day. We went to the Russian Market (lots of boot leg CD/DVDs), the Royal Palace, and the National museum. We continue to treat ourselves to good food (thank you Lonely Planet for your recommendations!). Have a good one everybody! [View Full Entry]

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