Tangier, Tanger or Tinker...it all flies. I was really excited to get into Africa - a brand new continent! I was also looking forward to seeing Tanger, despite the warnings about crime that I had heard. A few days before arriving, they had the February 20th protests - I got in on the 26th - but these were just for one day, and were mostly non-violent (5 people died in one town, but the people here told me that it was more gang-related that relating to the protests; hooligans just take advantage of these situations sometimes). Due to these factors, I was a little wary. After the first night, I knew it was actually totally fine. My advice to anyone coming to Morocco via ferry from Algeciras or Tarifa is to spend a couple of nights ... read more

Granada, Haiti, Poland, Nicaragua...Well, just Grenada really. My arrival into Granada was not the best...I had missed my first bus from Barna and had to pay another 70 big ones for the privilege of a 15 hour ride. I got into Granada at 3.30am, without having had any sleep on the bus. It was a short taxi ride and quick check in, so I hit the hay at 4am. Sleep? No such luck. It was warm, two guys were snoring, and at one point a piece of fluff from the blanket got up my nose and I had to spend 15 minutes sneezing and crying to get it out. Boo. After a long shower in the morning, I went for a walk around the town - which improved the mood greatly. The Oasis backpackers hostel is ... read more

Spain - the Road Trip! Martha and I set off from Madrid on the morning of the 12th, in our little Skoda Fabia, "El Coachelito". The dude on the counter looked skeptical when we said we were taking it to Barcelona, but Coachelito performed magnificently. Less so Emily, our GPS. She didn´t seem to know where we were at any given time, making it difficult to tell us how to get to somewhere else. Regardless, we managed. Our first stop was Bilbao. We stayed in a little pension hotel called Don Claudio, which was shockingly good. There were some funny smells in the street outside (a motif set to continue for this trip), which we later discovered were due to this being the meat packers district. In the morning, we checked out and went to have ... read more

Du pain...du vin...du Boursin. En Bordeaux. Bordeaux is an historic little town in the Acquitane region of France. The region has been occupied since pre-history, and the city has it's origins in pre-Roman times. The Romans conquered it and built masses of architecture, including the partially preserved Colosseum on Rue de Dr. Albert Baraud, and many mosaics preserved in la Musée d'Aquitaine. Bordeaux is a city of two halves. Where I arrived in to, and stayed, is the old heart of the town. These days it is a run down maze of streets and markets, interrupted by the occasional medieval cathedral or two. It's population is mainly African and Arabic, and as such it is bustling and alive. The cleaner, newer center of town is West along the Gardonne river, and is exceptionally well kept and ... read more

A right lovely stay, it was. I waved bye-bye to Ireland from the ferry to Holyhead at around 9am, and took a couple of trains to London. It was dark when I arrived, but it wasn't hard to find the Palmers Lodge hostel. It used to be a factory making the (apparently) famous Huntley and Palmers biscuits. It was a cool little place, with a nice crowd and it's own bar and restaurant (5 pound for every meal). The city of London was great too; everything is in walking distance. It was a little overcast, but fairly warm, so I headed out on foot on the morning of the first. I walked down to Trafalgar square, and checked out Nelson's column and the big ship in a bottle they have there, then walked through Admiralty Arch ... read more