Hutcho

Jerusalem is Great Jerusalem reads like a check-list of historically important and religiously significant sites for the three great monotheistic religions of Christianity, Judaism and Islam. Within a five minute walk of each other you have the holiest place in Christianity, The Church of the Holy Sepulchre, where Jesus died and was resurrected, the holiest place in Judaism, The Western Wall, the sole remnant of the holy temple, and the third holiest place in Islam, The Dome of the Rock, where the Foundation Stone is located, this is where Muslims believe Mohammed ascended to heaven. The Foundation Stone is also claimed as a holy place by the Jews. Not to mention the various other churches (158), mosques (73), synagogues (1204), holy places and relics built, stored and worshipped next to, around, past, through, over, under and ... read more

Beirut is a city of contrasts and one undergoing rapid change. On the one hand you have tall, modern apartment buildings, ubiquitous with any city in the west, on the streets below numerous sleek designer stores compete for your Lebanese Lira. On the other hand though you have the bombed out and bullet riddled remains of a civil war era concrete shell, an armed military presence on most corners in the city and check points on the country's roads. Beirut is not a great city for tourists in my opinion, not too much to do and keep you occupied apart from walk around and soak up the atmosphere. I'm sure it is a fantastic place to live in though as the night life is meant to be fantastic, given my poor travelling status I was reduced ... read more

The sky grew darker at 2 in the afternoon on Thursday as storm clouds rolled in and the wind picked up. A massive bolt of lightning streaked across the sky followed seconds later by the accompanying rumble of thunder. We could see the torrential rains sweeping across the tent grounds and as they reached us a few minutes later we took shelter in a vendor tent and laughed. Off to a good start and we hadn't even seen any live music yet! Bonnaroo is a 4 day music and arts festival held in Manchester, Tennessee, which attracts some 80 to 90 000 people, held this year from the 11 - 14th of June. Matt and I had only managed to secure a ride down to Tennessee the day before, which given my organising abilities is about ... read more

I got a ride into Breckenridge with a guy I met on the bus, it was dumping snow, I smiled. For the first few days I stayed at the Fireside Inn, the only dorm in town and by far the cheapest place to stay. It was here that I met future room mates and partners in crime Marcos, Nacho, Pablo and Martin (Argentinian), Flavio (Brazilian) and Nick (Kiwi). First item on the agenda was to secure a warm and humble abode for the winter. All I wanted from a house was a hot tub and a deck covered in snow to store bottles of liquor, the only problem with this ingenious plan was the average price of a house like this, we looked at one and it was way beyond our price range. Casa Awesome Our ... read more

Being the highly dedicated and passionate blog writer that I am, I have cleverly postponed posting (and indeed writing) the last of the blogs from my RTW trip until many months after I have returned home. Indeed it is only through a sense of wanting to "round off" the chronicles of my year away that I have eventually tied myself to the chair and forced myself to sit down and type out the following witty, enticing and salivating prose. So without further ado onwards.... When last we met our intrepid adventurers (me and some friends), we had just set off from Queenstown after a week of snowboarding and partying in the snowboarding and partying capital of NZ, . The very last night I had managed to get the van towed which was a slight problem as ... read more