London was a meeting ground of sorts for us, and perhaps I should first divulge all the key players in this soiree with friends. First of course are the boys (Jamie and Richard) who were spending the week with us but were unfortunately heading home at the end. Next is Litty, who I used to go to high school with and moved to Cambridge University 2 years ago for a PhD scholarship, and came down and spent the first weekend in London with us. Then there was Ross, who was in the grade above me at school and moved to London [View Full Entry]

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Visiting Barcelona was like unveiling a well-kept secret. The best restaurants were out of the way and in little niches off main streets. The most fashionable clothing stores were found after weaving through small side streets and then ducking through side-side streets. The muchos cool nightclubs only opened at 1am and were only known by word of mouth. We were lucky that we had met a friendly Spaniard way back in Vietnam who had written down for us a bunch of her personal ‘favourites’ in Barcelona. We were quite lucky with our accommodation and had booked an apartment a while a [View Full Entry]

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Jian and I do not get homesick much on our trip. We are too wildly caught up in the adventure of travel to realistically allow our minds to stew the way an unoccupied mind will (I’ve done a lot of mental stewing in the past- actually it was probably more porridge than stew…). But that trip from Amsterdam to Cardiff station was looonng. Very long. Why? Because we were stirring the emotional cooking pot, brewing. Thoughts of friends back home, our families. All brought on by the fact that as when we stepped off the bus at Cardiff there would be [View Full Entry]

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Amsterdam was a bit of a blur. No, we did not get ridiculously stoned and visit seedy live sex shows (though we did try a space muffin which was deeelicious) but we did get ridiculously drunk and visit some sex museums. So all in all, a rather tame (but incredibly fun) visit to Amsterdam. By this stage of our trip we were itching to see friends and we met up with Libana, a friend of Anne-Marie's who I had also become friends with over the years. We stayed in a hostel together and wined and dined on the canals, strolled the [View Full Entry]

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We loved uber cool Berlin! It was a city full of unexpected surprises, rich culture, troubled histories, pumping nightlife, colourful inhabitants and an intrinsically exciting vibe. It was definitely the most cosmopolitan city we have been through in Europe yet its dark past has not been destroyed or hidden by all the modernity. Similar to Vienna, it is full of museums and cultural hotspots, but in addition contains plenty of parks, plazas and places of solitude. Adam again travelled with us to Berlin and as we hopped off the 5 hour trip from Prague into the busy Hauptbahnhoff (Berlin Centr [View Full Entry]

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Praha is a city full of interesting juxtapositions. Monolithic traditional buildings stand alongside contemporary post-modern structures. Old cobblestone roads turn into new tarmac superhighways or super-tunnels. An interesting mix of ethnic minorities from Thais to Indians to Greeks share subway journeys with the Czech locals. Wonderfully romantic and picturesque streetscapes adorn the old part of town; turn a few corners and you reach ghettos filled with junkies and large dogs (what is it with large dogs in this part of Europe!?). Unfortunately, our hostel happened to be in this part of town [View Full Entry]

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Still reeling from our overnight train trip from Hanoi to Hue in Vietnam over a month ago, we nervously booked a 12 hour overnight journey from Florence to Vienna. We needn’t have worried at all; the 120 euro we paid per person for this heavenly ride went very far. Comfortable beds, soft doonas and pillows, kiwi fruit and chocolate and a Smirnoff with ginseng to help us go to sleep…then in the morning they converted the sleeping cabin into a comfortable double seater and served us the most satisfying breakfast since our 5 star resort in Phuket… Vienna was a … [View Full Entry]

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It’s hard to not be prejudiced when going to places you have always wanted to go. Of course I want to go everywhere, but for quite some time … I’ve longed for Florence, Italy. I guess to some degree it was something sparked at quite a young age… whilst watching late night Italian films on SBS. And then hearing about its character and class from those who have been there. It also helped that one of my top three favourite books of all time was set there, Hannibal by Thomas Harris- which solidified in my mind: Firenze- a place I [View Full Entry]

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The Vatican City. It has it's own post office, police uniform and is technically a separate country to the rest of Italy. Unfortunately we ran out of time to explore St Peter's Basilica, as we waited hours in the line to the Vatican Museum. Probably should have done the former as the most interesting object in the museums was a 4000 year old mummified body of a small pharaoh. You could still see his fingernails and toenails. One of it's eye sockets had a patch over it, where they would have removed his brains from. It was fascinating! Of course there [View Full Entry]

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After a 2 hour flight, a 1 hour train ride, a 20 minute subway trip and a 30 minute metro journey … we finally reached our campsite in the northern suburbs of Roma. As it was May the 1st, an important labour day holiday throughout Europe, every cheap bed remotely close to the city was fully booked out. It was not a bad alternative however, as the staff were friendly, it was super cheap and it offered a welcoming retreat from the tourist mecca that Rome has now become. I guess we didn’t really know what to expect in Rome. [View Full Entry]

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