Looking back, I don't think that we really got a lasting impression of St Petersburg. Whether this was due to some 'travel weariness' or because we felt like we'd already seen similar sights in other European cities, I don't know. We did enjoy the few days we spent in St Petersburg though and we did our fair share of exploring. St Petersburg has nice buildings. It has very old buildings. It has history. It has one of the best art galleries in the world, and it has countless things for tourists to see. In spite of all this and even though [View Full Entry]

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Until this trip, much of our limited knowledge of Poland stemmed from several drunken outings with UQ Boxing to the Polish Club in Brisbane; these outings were always followed by next morning headaches, and only the tatters of any Polish cultural knowledge remained. So it was that we entered Poland armed with vague memories of drinking vodka with gold flecks floating in it, and 8% Okocim beers. Of course the UQ Boxing coach was also from Poland and this raised our expectations of meeting lots of small, friendly, yet potentially dangerous people. Due to a tight travel schedule, we had a [View Full Entry]

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There is no question that Prague is an attractive city. It is very pretty. The Old Town of Prague is particularly picturesque and is exactly what you see on the postcards - with its narrow, cobbled streets, and grand, almost fairytale-like buildings, so full of history. Prior to arriving in Prague by train, we'd been really looking forward to spending time there. We expected that we would love the place - everyone else seemed to; and we did like it.....we just didn't fall in love with it. Its impression wasn't a lasting one. We also found that the huge amount of [View Full Entry]

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"Berlin ist arm, aber sexy."........"Berlin is poor, but sexy." spoken by Berlins' mayor in 2004 Many cities are recognisable by their grand old buildings. London has Big Ben and the Houses of Parliament, Edinburgh has Edinburgh Castle and the Royal Mile, Beijing has Tiananmen square and the Forbidden City, Prague by Wenceslas Square and Charles Bridge. Berlin is unlike these other cities in that much of what is recognisable about it was built in living memory. The dust is still settling around Berlin after momentous, traumatic change - you can still see pieces of [View Full Entry]

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We were only in Copenhagen for one and a half days, so rather than pretend we know something about it, we'll just post the photos with our comments. It is quite a quirky city and I hope we've captured some of this in the photos. The only activity we'd recommend as a must to people thinking of visiting Copenhagen - do the Carlsberg brewery tour. It's both informative and intoxicating. [View Full Entry]

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Sweden: land of endless daylight, beautiful people, and industrial strength coffee. Every morning at breakfast I have 2-3 coffees, and then the muscle under my eye starts twitching. It tastes really good though, and as quality coffee is hard to find in China, Emma and I are indulging our caffeine dependencies while we can. Breakfast is great here: cheap by Swedish standards, at 55SEK (approx $10 AUS), you can get a massive buffet of meats, breads, cheeses, fruits, and muesli lathered in yoghurt. Swedish food in general is good, healthy food with lots of fish and salad, but extraordinar [View Full Entry]

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I love to visit my home-country whenever possible, and so we decided to make a 4 day stop-over in London before we began our marathon trek overland from Europe back to China. Being from the north of England, a trip to London is quite exciting for me, and this time was no exception - particularly because we got to see my family and old friends again. Luckily for us, the weather was glorious during our stay in London, with brilliant sunshine and clear blue skies everyday. Perhaps we got the only four days of summer, but it was perfect for spending [View Full Entry]

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Since we last wrote, we've been on some interesting day trips around Zhejiang Province; so we thought we'd take the opportunity to write a brief blog and upload some of the photos. Xitang The area that we're living in has a number of ancient water towns dotted around, within about an hour's drive of Jiaxing. We visited one of them - Xitang - last week. We went with the two other foreign teachers and Charles, one of the Chinese teachers from our school, as the guide. The modern area of the city is similar to many others in the region, but [View Full Entry]

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“To my mind, the greatest reward and luxury of travel is to be able to experience everyday things as if for the first time, to be in a position in which almost nothing is so familiar it is taken for granted.” - Bill Bryson. When we arrived in China we were like babies - we could barely speak, couldn't read, and didn't really know how to get around. The smallest task that you take for granted in an English speaking country requires a tremendous amount of effort and planning. When you get hungry, you think: “Shit, I have to go to [View Full Entry]

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As we write this blog, our neighbours are trying to control a fire they just started in their backyard/junkyard. About 20 minutes ago, they brought over a dozen or so bales of hay from a truck, sat them in some bushes, and then lit them. I assume that they are trying to burn away the bushes - they've been removing old bricks, scrap iron and other junk from other parts of their yard for a couple of weeks now, and planting vegetables in the cleared ground. Their toddler kids having been doing their part too, going out in the morning to [View Full Entry]

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