jenstanley

Now, I know that Belgrade is not the most obvious of holiday destinations, but it is certainly a happening place with friendly people and upbeat nightlife and lots and lots of cafes. Apart from the lovely atmosphere of the place, one of the best things about being there is the sense of being well and truly off the beaten track, something I've never felt before not even in the middle of nowhere in Laos or India. I guess that most people think 'Belgrade, that's in Serbia, there was a war there' and quickly write it off as a no go zone. There just aren't any tourist restaurants or cafes here mainly because there aren't enough tourists to sustain them. This means that when you go into a cafe you know that it's the real deal where ... read more

Stop 1 - Vienna The one plan I had for Vienna was to eat cake, and eat cake I did! Big chocolaty chocolate cake...and ice cream. When in Vienna one really must, honest. The first thing that struck me about Vienna is the size of everything. Every building seems hugely over sized and the space between some of them seems vast in the urban setting. The architecture's is generally very grand baroque style with statues and curly bits in every possible place. I was so pleased that my GCSE German wasn't a total waste of time. I actually managed to fairly confidently, and probably very badly, speak German to people. They all seemed to speak perfect English but appreciated us trying. On day one we were up early to go to the Spanish Riding School. This ... read more

Dispite all the bad things we had heard about it we decided to throw caution to the winds and stay in Agra for the night. It turned out not to bed as bad as everyone says at all and we managed to eat without being poisoned (there was a horrible scam that involved poisoning people, rushing them to a phoney Dr who continued to poison them and claim their travel insurance, but it seems to have died out). Our hotel had a roof top view of the Taj Mahal too. We arose at 5:45 am in order to get to the Taj for sunrise. When we got there is was still pretty dark and the Taj was a dark blue colour. Now most people stay right by the gate to take photos as the sun come ... read more

So, from Goa we headed up to Hampi. Train was very late but we just managed to get a guest house in Hampi before everything closed. Hampi is actaully really small, just a few tiny streets, which is nice. It's a very chilled out place with lots of roof top cafes and amazing scenery. We went to Hampi for the ruins of ancient Hindu templed and palace. It really is an awsome place. The whole landscape is covered in huge boulders. You kind of have to see it to belive it (photos will apear soon). It looks just like a load of giants have just picked up the boulders and thrwn them around a lot. We did spend a long time speculating as to how some of the boulders got to where they are (e.g. on ... read more