No words, just photos...see you in Canada! [View Full Entry]

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Nope, France isn't in Eastern Europe but I did make it one of my stops (and only Western European location) on the journey. I had never seen France before so I decided to book a flight from Moscow, via Berlin, to Paris. The plan was to make my way down to the French Riviera where I had invites from 2 friends, Mike in Menton, and Nico in Cannes to visit and explore this renowned area with. Ahhhhh Paris, it was only a matter of time before I saw parts of this city. And I do mean parts because it's too damn [View Full Entry]

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...it's not as bad as some people say it is." That's what my friend Elena said to me as she departed the taxi cab, also known as Russia's public taxi service or dudes in their old Russian cars driving people around the city for an agreed upon price. Moscow was a great experience overall and I think it was highlighted by the company of good Russian friends like Julia. My friend Elena in Vancouver gave me Julia's contact info in Moscow and we ended up getting along great while touring museums, city sites, bars, and parks. Thanks for all the help [View Full Entry]

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The Russian bureaucratic process was immediately evident as our bus from Helsinki to St. Petes was held up at the Russian border for over an hour while the driver sorted things out with the officials. I didn't know it at the time but this was a sign of things to come in this lovely country. Out of all the countries I've visited on this trip, Russia has got to be the most difficult to enter. I had to line-up outside the Russian embassy in Helsinki (which had a really rediculous working day of only 3 hours) for two days in a [View Full Entry]

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After recovering in Rzeszow, Poland for a few days, I began to make my way north with my Polish friend Berni, who had some time off from studying and who decided to see some new and exciting places...she had never ventured outside of her country walls before! Our first stop was Warsaw, Poland where we spent the day touring the rebuilt Old Town, which had pretty much been obliterated during WWII. It was pleasant but we agreed that Krakow's Old Town was nicer and original as well. From Warsaw we took a night bus to Vilnius, Lithuania and spent a couple [View Full Entry]

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As for the title, I'm referring to an old colleague from Poland who told me to not bother visiting Poland becasue there was nothing to see there. Well Jan, I beg to differ because thus far in my travels it has been one of the best places but I may be partial due to my timing. I arrived in Krakow, Poland after a quick tour of Brno and Prague in the Czech Republic. Prague was a beautiful city but to tell the truth I didn't do much sightseeing but rather a bunch of relaxing and "socializing" with many friends from the [View Full Entry]

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Not much to say in this entry since I did a lot of relaxing and exploring of Eastern Slovakia with its many small cities and villages. Basically, I went from Hungary north into Slovakia's second largest city (but still small) called Kosice. From there I checked out Slovansky Raj National Park and a heritage town called Levoce. Did some hiking in the national park and checked out some musuems. Then, I spent a couple days in the High Tatras and small resort towns called Stary Smokevec and Horny Smokevec....and some more hiking. The scenery and mountain air were great, check the [View Full Entry]

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Some closing notes on Bulgaria: The Bulgarian sense of humour that I experienced there was cynnical and maybe that's why I shared so many laughs there. For instance, I was always joking with the hostel workers as we got to be good friends over the 6 days I stayed in Veliko Tarnovo. Mila was really wacky and one line I still laugh about when I replay it in my head with her Bulgarian accent (similar to Russian) was "maybe before you go, I'll break your legs, like a present!"...classic!!! The bus-ride to Sofia turned out to be quite the laugh as [View Full Entry]

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This country is sweet! I was immediately impressed by the cheap beer (a 1.5 Litre bottle of good Zargoska lager for $1.50 Canadian!) and the amount of good looking women walking around. Maybe it was Turkey and the lack of female presence in public for the past 4 1/2 weeks but Bulgaria has it going on! The train ride here was something else though. I boarded the train at the Turkish border city of Edirne but there weren't any ticket sellers at 2am when the train rolled through from Istanbul. So, I boarded the train deciding to pay once I was [View Full Entry]

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Well, we fınally slowed thıngs down and found ourselves enjoyıng two great sıtes ın Western Turkey: Pamukkale/Hıeropolıs for 2 days and the Selçuk area for 3 days. Both sites (Hieropolis and Efes or Ephesus) had nicely restored Roman ruins for Larisa and I to wonder around...so, I hope you can enjoy some of the photos and get a sense of the enjoyment we had exploring them! Pamukkale was a fun, small place. The town dıdn't seem more that a few thousand people and there weren't very many tourısts around...I guess ıt was stıll early  [View Full Entry]

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