My lifelong dream has been realised: I have set foot in Egypt and seen some of its wonders with my own eyes and touched them with my own hands. Cairo is an enormous, dirty and polluted city, yet I thoroughly enjoy being here. There are roughly 20 million people in Cairo and I am yet to meet one person who has not greeted me with a smile. In fact, many have been quite keen to strike up a conversation with me, which I have always engaged in with much gusto. My first full day in Cairo was also a feast day, [View Full Entry]

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WE FINALLY GOT TO SEE THEM! On the night of our return to Reykjavik from our drive along the south coast of Iceland, we were at our hostel when we heard a group of school students running around outside in mad hysteria, screaming that they could see the Northern Lights. Realising that we did not have to return our hire car until the following morning, we decided to drive to a nearby national park to view this phenomenon outside of the city's glow. As we emerged from the front door of the hostel, I was stopped dead in my tracks by [View Full Entry]

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For our third day in Iceland, we decided to spend the day in Reykjavik and hope to see the Northern Lights after nightfall. We ventured into town and ate lunch at a restaurant I had spied two days earlier, primarily because the name of the restaurant was 'Brons'! Whilst there, I thought it only appropriate to try a 'Viking' beer. I have been feeling quite welcome in Iceland and not just due to the restaurant which shares my name, but also because nearly every local begins speaking to me in Icelandic. Marty thinks that my prominent brow has something to do [View Full Entry]

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This time two days ago we set out for Iceland from Heathrow (after another typical delay on that hopeless airport's behalf), which I was more than a little excited about after spending two months teaching a selection of the finest human beings that Essex has to offer... We arrived at our lodgings around three o'clock in the morning, so we just crashed into bed at the Reykjavik City Hostel and hoped to catch a few zzzz's before our first full day on this fascinating island. We managed to sneak in roughly four hours of sleep before the chainsaw snorer whom we [View Full Entry]

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We began the Croatian leg of our journey by catching a train to Pula from Ljubljana. This short trip actually required three different trains, but we got there in the end and found some accommodation in the home of a local family! They were a friendly bunch who sat down with us for some tea and biscuits on the morning of our departure and despite the total lack of English on their behalf, along with the total lack of Croatian on our behalf, we had an entertaining and informative conversation. Pula itself is an old Roman city at the southern tip [View Full Entry]

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After leaving the glorious Lake Bohinj, we made our way to Kranj to meet up with a guy we had befriended during our time in Vietnam at the beginning of the year. Zima (his nickname) met us with the same infectious smile that we remembered from all those months ago and drove us to his home, in the village of North Brnik (Zgornji Brnik in Slovenian). We first stopped off for a beer at a local pub before going to his house to meet his lovely wife and children for the first time. Zima is a stonemason and he showed us [View Full Entry]

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During the bus journey from Trieste to Lake Bohinj (via Ljubljana) I had planned to read a considerable amount of my novel; however, the stunningly beautiful scenery of Slovenia held me captivated and Jules Verne's descriptions of life under the sea had to take a back seat as I took in the sights of Slovenia. Lake Bohinj is located in the Julian Alps, which are in the north-west of this tiny European country and it is one of a number of glacial lakes in this region of Slovenia. The grumpy bus driver dropped us off 5km from the camping ground, so [View Full Entry]

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With the last few weeks through France and Italy involving the consumption of numerous delectable delights, it only made sense to spend a night in Bologna to eat some bolognaise. Therefore, after I checked in, dropped off my backpack and had a shower (complete with a showerhead that consisted of lights that covered the entire spectrum of the rainbow, with a function that allowed you to either choose the colour of your choice, or let it continually change colours!), the first thing on the agenda was to find a restaurant. Being a Monday, many places were shut, but thankfully the receptionist [View Full Entry]

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Having seen Michelangelo's David before, I was unsure whether I would be as awestruck as I was the first time. In an unexpected turn of events, I actually found myself even more spellbound than I was four years ago. The sheer scale of this masterpiece (which he completed when he was only 29!) is what struck me first, but once I got closer and studied the perfect form of what I had to keep reminding myself was stone, not flesh and bone, I could only marvel at Michelangelo's knowledge of the human body, such as how certain muscles are tensed in [View Full Entry]

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For our visit to Pompeii, we decided to stay in Naples and make a day trip to the excavated city. What we discovered about Naples, however, was that this is a city where you can never feel entirely safe or at ease. Maybe we were just staying in a dodgy part of town near the train station and Piazza Garibaldi, but there was definitely a heightened sense of awareness for your safety when wandering the streets. That being said, I did certainly feel alert and had a buzz whilst walking through such a tumultuous place. The aspect of Naples that I [View Full Entry]

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