Lithuania is an extremely flat country, its highest point is only 294 metres above sea level and yet during our very brief visit to the country we managed to spend the majority of the time climbing different hills. We arrived in Lithuania by bus from Riga in Latvia, and our first stopover was Lithuania’s best known sight, the Hill of Crosses. The hill, which has come to be an extremely significant monument of Lithuanian national identity, is a stirring sight with hundreds and thousands of crosses and monuments of all shapes and sizes. Its origin is unknown, but prior to Soviet occupation it was a place of pilgrimage for Catholics. During the Soviet occupation the crosses were bull-dozed three times and it became a representation of Lithuanians’ allegiance to their own identity as they protested peacefully ... read more

Moscow The heat in Russia was surprising, it wasn't that we expected to step into a snow storm, it was just that we hadn't factored in the need for airconditioning or keeping up fluids in Russia. We arrived at Hotel Kosmos in the afternoon after a long drive from Novgorod and our airconditioning and fridge were received with child-like excitement. A decent buffet in the hotel saw the end of the organised parts of the first day and we spent the remainder of the evening peering out our windows at the Space Museum and statues we could see and partaking in one of the joys of travelling, handwashing. We later learnt that during our handwashing exploits some of the guys on our tour got extremely ripped off in the hotel's nightclub paying $50 a drink, which ... read more

It began rather ominously. We slept straight through our alarm and wouldn’t have made our flight if it wasn’t for our persistent taxi driver. On arrival in Tallinn we managed to get out more money than we meant to and then make my card mysteriously disappear. We had to wait at the airport and buy cokes in order to get change for the bus ride into the city centre and then we walked in the completely wrong direction looking for our hotel on the edge of Tallinn’s old town. We were hoping this wouldn't be an indictation of things to come. Bright blue skies and long twilights proved we had nothing to worry about as we spent the next three days in Tallinn. Tallinn is the capital of Estonia, the northern most Baltic State. It sits ... read more

Lara: The Travel Gods have not been smiling on us recently. After our newly purchased road-trip car was written-off and our Icelandic trip cancelled due to volcanic ash I didn't really have much hope of actually making it to Mexico for a conference. Plus, it was a conference…not half as much fun as I had in Quintana Roo last time around. Two and a half years ago Al and I were backpacking around Central America (see ) spending time in Tulum cenote diving and visiting ruins before heading west to Palenque. I was reluctant to return to a much-loved part of the world for such a brief amount of time and to be staying in Cancun, package holiday heaven (or hell), in an all-inclusive resort, the kind of place I would normally avoid. It was, however, ... read more

We had been walking for an hour, with rain dripping from the ends of our noses and the mist so thick there was nothing to see. We had stopped talking and joking about the weather some time ago and our sole aim became getting back to the car and out of the rain. We were in the New Forest, an ancient hunting ground for England’s monarchy, where deer and wild ponies roam freely, and the hoards flock to during nice weather for picnics and walking. Our initial impression of the New Forest was grim and as we climbed back into our car, covered in mud and wet to the core we wondered whether this was a sign of what the rest of the weekend would bring. Using accommodation given to us by Rae & Matt, Al's ... read more