Hello my fellow travellers! Today was my final day in Lithuania as I will go to Riga in Latvia tomorrow. It is fascinating, I find, that my last day in this country would also be, by far, the best one. This part of the trip was very spontaneous, I felt that I had seen what I wanted in Vilnius and I had heard, already back in Kaunas, about Kryžių Kalnas, a hill covered with over 100.000 crosses. It's located about 10 km outside of Siauliai so I decided to go there and it was a really good decision. I sent a last minute couch request to a family of three, Ugne, Egidijus and their son Paulius and it was accepted immediately even though Egidijus was away, working on a boat, and Ugne was tired from preparing ... read more

Hello my fellow travellers! This morning I took the train from Kaunas to Vilnius to check out the capital city of Lithuania. I met up with Roberta who stayed with me in Sweden last year together with Paulius and Ruta and I handed over the keys to their apartment to her as agreed upon beforehand. She told me that there would be a celebration at Šv. Stanislovo ir Šv. Vladislovo Arkikatedra Bazilika, the main cathedral of Vilnius, as a local Archbishop, Teofilius Matulionis, would be beatified which is a rather big deal. Before I went there though I went to the church Šv. Konstantino ir Michailo Cerkvė further up the hill since I could see it from the point where me and Roberta met and it looked quite beautiful. Close to the church is a nice ... read more

Hello my fellow travellers! After an early start, that involved an unexpected radio interview about couch surfing and travelling, I fled the Swedish Midsummer's festivities in favour if the Lithuanian Summer Solstice festivities. I will be staying for two days in Kaunas with Paulius and Rūta whom stayed with me a couple of years ago. Unfortunately we only got to meet briefly as they are going to their home village 100 km away from here but they are kind enough to lend me their apartment while I'm here. From here I will continue to Vilnius where I will stay with a new girl but also meet up with Roberta who also stayed with me last year. Today I mainly just walked around in central Kaunas with a short break together with Paulius, Rūta and Rūta's sister ... read more

Hello my fellow travellers! This morning Hemant drove me down to the centre of Muscat where I started by buying my bus ticket back to Dubai for tonight so that I wouldn't miss out on it, I had to wait a bit for something which I didn't quite understand what it was but finally I got the ticket squared away and I could get on the city bus going to the historical part of Muscat. This is a new bus line that Hemant didn't know about so I sent him a text about it so he can inform his future guests about it. I jumped of near Al Alam, the royal residential palace in Muscat. It's about 200 years old and is a beautiful, albeit modest, palace that also serves an official function as it receives ... read more

Hello my fellow travellers! Today I started by going to the Al Bastakiya, an historical area built around the mid 19th century, that contains the oldest buildings in Dubai. The area spans some 31,000 square metres and is free of charge. It's a very lovely area to walk around in and just enjoy the atmosphere, it's filled with museums and cultural sites of various artistry and it's all free of charge which is really great. There is also a piece of the walls of old Dubai remaining inside the district. A really beautiful feature here is the barajeel, tall wind towers that stretch up into the sky which really elevates the feelings of being in the old orient. This area was actually scheduled to be demolished in 1980 and much of it was demolished and the ... read more