After our trip into the Serengeti we were given the opportunity to do a village walk in one of the Masai villages. We were brought through a museum where they told us about their lives. I think the most shocking bit of information was that the young boys of the village are circumcised in public, and they are not allowed to scream in pain even though there is no anesthesia, the punishment being they will be banished from the village. We then walked into the village where they live and were greeted by all the beautiful children. We were told by [View Full Entry]

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To go to the Serengeti we had to split up into 4 jeeps and leave the truck behind in Arusha. It was a long enough drive to the Serengeti so we stopped off at the Ngorongoro crater for our lunch and a few photos. Lunch was difficult as there were some black kites in the area that wanted our food just as much as we did. On the way we also had an unexpected break when one of the 4 wheel drives broke down. We found some Masai men to build us a new part for the vehicles suspension out of [View Full Entry]

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We flew into Kenya late at night and someone from the hotel met us at the airport. As the driver started getting closer to the hotel we were wondering what the hell we were doing in Nairobi, particularly when the lonely planet for Nairobi describes the city as the most dangerous in Africa. Then we saw the hotel and we were even more sceptical. The hotel didn't even look like a hotel from the outside, it was all boarded up and there were prostitutes on all the street corners. We got into the room and we were thankful that it wasn't [View Full Entry]

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So it was a long journey to Tromso. We got a ferry from Tallin to Helsinki, then the bus to the airport, then a flight to Oslo, and from there another flight to Tromso. Finally we arrived at the little apartment we had booked for ourselves and it was so lovely. The weather was a bit colder than we had been used to, being in the Arctic Circle and all that. It was snowing on the mountains nearby and rained every day we were there, but we still managed to have a great time all the same.We spent the week wandering [View Full Entry]

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We found this cute little beach town on the border of Bulgaria and Romania called Vama Veche. After being inundated with offers of sub standard accommodation that were much more expensive than Bulgaria, we found the perfect place. Vama Veche is a tiny place, a few dirt roads and the main road through the town. Its full of hippies with dreadlocks and contrastingly flashy people in expensive cars who have come here from Bulgaria. Lots of people camp on the beach here for free and there are plenty of bars on the beach so we spent a lazy few days here [View Full Entry]

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Istanbul was never on our itinerary, but it was AMAZING! We cannot say enough good things about this place. We got here early in the morning after a long bus journey from Skopje, and the bus station was mental. Neither of us has ever seen a chaotic bus station like this so it was a bit overwhelming, especially when you've just woken up, but we found a free bus that brought us into the city centre, and from there we got a tram into the tourist area, called Sultanahmet. When we got off the tram we were lucky enough to meet [View Full Entry]

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We begin our journey through Albania with three bus rides from Budva through to Tirana. We ended up with a private room at Freddy's Hostel. Tirana wasn't the most exciting city we have been to so far but it is interesting with Albania only just having come out of an unsuccessful communism in the 90's. Things in Tirana were fairly cheap & people were generally extremely friendly. On one occasion we were given a police escort to an ATM across town (they just found it easier to do this than tell us where it was). We walked around the main square, [View Full Entry]

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After Croatia, the Ćevapčići continued, and we found a new food - bureks, a greasy pastry filled with meat, spinach, cheese or potato. Obviously Carol's favourite was the potatoes. We started off in Mostar, and what a fabulous place it is. We got off the bus and found the cheapest accommodation with the loveliest lady, Lena. She made us some local coffee and chatted about the town and we decided to explore it for ourselves. The old town is so pretty, and its hard to believe that it was ever destroyed, especially so recently. Mostar's icon is the Stari Most, also [View Full Entry]

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After a very cheap Ryanair flight (50 euro would you believe!) we had left Ireland and were now in Venice. It was great to be back on the road again after 2 months of sitting still in expensive Ireland. Thanks very much to all of Carols friends who put us up while we there, we can't imagine how tough it would have been without ye. Although Venice was pretty expensive as well, it is a really beautiful place. Even traffic jams in Venice seem beautiful - gondolas, water taxis, delivery barges and water buses all fighting to get through. We had [View Full Entry]

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We actually spent a good couple of months in Ireland, but only did a little bit of touristing (new word, thanks Garry!). We rented a car for a few days and headed south west to Co Clare and Limerick. We spent a few nights in a small town called Doolin, and while there we checked out the Cliffs of Moher. We got our first glimpse of the cliffs which are pretty impressive. By the time we got to the next lookout platform, in typical irish fashion, the fog had come in pretty thick and fast and we could barely see 1m [View Full Entry]

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