The last time we were in Budapest was a chilly December 2010, it was the first time we had travelled overseas and it was love at first site! After visiting numerous European cities we both still hold a special place for Budapest so we were very excited to return and it did not disappoint. It is definitely a very different city in summer, beautiful green trees lining the roads instead of knee deep snow. Our stop this time was brief, but we knew exactly what we wanted to see and do and it was achievable. Last time we had neglected to go to the famous thermal baths, so this was on our list along with getting up close to the parliament house which is a magnificent building. Along with this we were keen to visit Trophia, ... read more

After a comfortable four hour bus trip from Riga we arrived into Vilnius at around midday. I had drawn a rough map of where our hostel was located in relation to the bus stop. We walked for around 400 meters downhill until we realised it was uphill in the other direction, you would think we would be good at this by now! We did make it to our hostel; a small apartment located in the old town however and met up with the owner and some other people staying at the hostel. The owner was extremely welcoming and informed us on all the main sites to see and spots to hang out at in the city over a local wine. After settling in we set off on foot to explore the city, after getting such good ... read more

Having arrived in Berlin after a whirl wind of flights from Victoria Falls to Botswana then to Namibia, Frankfurt and finally a connecting flight to Berlin we were exhausted but excited to be back in Europe. We got off the plane in a daze and waited for our bags to come through, always a nerving experience, they were there but mine had been obviously opened. All of the clips were open and the contents completely mixed around and worse our SLR camera missing! I felt completely sick, we checked all the lost and missing desks before making our way to the Air Namibia desk where we were told that the camera would have been taken in Victoria Falls and that their policy did not cover items going missing from bags and therefore neither would our insurance, ... read more

Driving through the infamous Tete Corridor (well known in the days of Mozambique's long running civil war as the Gun Run) we entered Zimbabwe, our first stop the capital, Harare. Here we camped along Lake Chivero for two freezing cold nights. During the night zebra and horses would stroll around our tents and in the afternoon giraffe and sometimes rhino could be spotted across the lake. There were two zebras in particular that we often saw running around with a sheep that they had befriended. The camp grounds were also home to Zimbabwes biggest bird park, we were able to hold some of the birds and even nurse a young hawk. After the first freezing cold night and equally as freezing shower a group of us decided to venture into Harare city to purchase some warmer ... read more

After a night at Mikardi beach we made our way on tut tuts to the ferry terminal where we waited to board the ferry to Zanzibar. After taking a motion sickness tablet we buckled down for the two and a half hour journey, we were very lucky as the waves were quite calm. (A week later we found out that the ferry we caught had sunk with 150 people dead) After passing through immigration and finding our hotel in the maze like streets of Stone Town we found a cafe on the waterfront and treated ourselves to some delicious lunch. After lunch some of our group made their way to the slave market or did a spice tour. We decided to wonder around ourselves, we found an amazing local market where I brought some dresses made ... read more