Jim89

From Moldova me and Sean went to Transilvanyia. Although Draculas castle in Bran was actually quite disapointing, Transilvania is a very beautiful Romanian mountianous region with some great quaint medievil looking towns and a peacefull atmosphere. i was quite shocked entering Sigosohara and finding the place crawling with nazis and the German Wehrmacht riding about in troop trucks and sidecars. it took along time trying to convince our German frineds there that we had just inadvertantly walked into a multimilion-pound film set and it wasnt real (they were quite tramatized). From the window of the train to Sibiu we saw the ghostly skeleton of a partly destroyed power plant - blackened shells of buildings surrounding an imposing cooling tower which looked like it could topple over at any miniute. being the curious types, we got off ... read more

Chernobyl. an infamous word connected with the fateful explosion at reactor no. 4 in Northern Ukraine. now the whole area is abandoned and still radioactive. until i visited i didn't realize the shear scope of the disaster and the true heroics and selflessness of those entrusted to contain the reactor and clean up the area. It took the USSR 2 days to admit the reactor explosion in 1986, in which time many people had already received deadly doses of radiation in the nearby city of Prypyat. Initially firefighters and pilots who flew over the site throwing sand into the fire controlled the fire which nearly caused a second explosion would have been powerful enough to make most of Europe uninhabitable. in the next year over 500,000 people were called up contain the lethal radiation and clean ... read more

After visiting the much talked about, yet slightly disappointing lake Orchid in Macedonia, all 4 of us hitchhiked to the massive Tikves winary in the South. for €5 we got a personal tour of the factory, 5 bottles of fine wine and a few shots of lethal 60% local rakkai. Hitchhiking back drunk in the evening was quite a funny experience. I’m not quite sure how I made it back to our hostel, but on our rides I kept on rambling on about how much I love the rakkai here, and somehow 2 different people gave me a 1.5litre bottle of homemade 60-80% brew. most people say threes nothing to do in the capital Skopje, but I found it one of the best cities I’ve been too - a modern part with cafes and random sculptures ... read more

For the last year i have had such itchy feet to go traveling again. for this trip i and going to try and hitchhike around the Balkans without a set route, meeting new people and exploring different cultures on the way. I started with a one way flight to Split, Croatia - a beautiful medieval looking town with marble streets and quaint cafes and pizzerias. i also went to Hvar island to see the old fishing village and the rugged coastline which adjoins the crystal clear sea. i felt Croatia was quite expensive and touristy, so i soon got a bus to the small village of Jajce in Bosnia (i chickened out of hitchhiking this time). The beautiful ottoman style town hugs an impressive looking castle which overlooks a gigantic waterfall. here i stayed with a ... read more

When I entered Nepal, I had one thing on my mind: the Annapurna circuit. A 2-3 week trek in the Himalayas, said to be one of the best in the world. Both physically and mentally it proved very demanding. Usually 6-7 hours hiking daily: through jungle, alpine forests, mountains and barren dessert landscapes, in rain and snow. The landscapes here are just spectacular, with views over vast lands, surrounded by towering mountains. We saw many traditional Nepalese and Tibetan villages, seemly cut off from the rest of the world, looking like something out of the lord of the rings. We came across many convoys of pony’s carrying supplies up steep rocky paths, and many wooly yaks, and eagles and giant 3m long griffins high in the sky. The trail was full of small Nepalese men portering ... read more