We finally arrive at the major transition stage of our trip, Russia. Transitionary as it covers a vast land mass linking Europe and Asia and it is during this leg that we cover long distances. One of the most interesting changes we are looking forward is to witness firstly: the cultural differences between European Russia and the Far East and secondly: the physical changes, the changes in appearance as we travel from European towards the orient, Japan and Korean. The sheer size of Russia is something to contemplate and as we spend days aboard various Trans-Siberian trains it will become apparent, Russia covers 6.6 million square miles and the traditional Trans-Siberian journey from Moscow to Vladivostok it 5,806 miles. There are three main journeys that cross Siberia, the classic, the Trans-Manchurian and the journey we are ... read more

Today, we set off on another mammoth journey overland to Stockholm. 6 hours of drinking, sleeping and black jacking oh and many cheese crisp butties we arrived. We found our hostel very easily (City Hostel (we think) 50 Euros for 4 bed dorm). FYI, this hostel is well nice, so clean and we highly recommend it. So after a quick shower we ventured out to get our bearings and of course some food, with a map Keaney ripped in half two minutes after buying it up! Typically the bit where it ripped was the bit we needed!!!! Keaney also felt more like the local in the taxi ride back as he was directing the taxi man back to our place, the taxi dude didn't have a clue where we were staying, and mind you it didn't ... read more

Munich We arrived in Munich early, after a not so good sleep we were disappointed to find out that Munich has no showers (Tony not having washed for 48 hours was in need of one greatly!!!!). So we did what all self respecting backpacker would do and got out the wet ones!!!!! Feeling like tramps brushing our teeth next to people having number 2s we soon emerged slightly cleaner and less smelly ready to sample some of the Bavarian sights and beer halls!!! It did not take us too long to have a look around, Munich is quite a small city. We took in a burst river (too much rain for this time of year), a church, a Jewish museum, a market and by the time we had done all this we were rather thirsty and ... read more

Mostar After a 6 hour bus journey going through many boarder controls we finally made it into Bosnia. Once in Bosnia we had a rest stop but were not allowed to go to the loo because some old woman wanted paying before letting us in, considering we had just come from Montenegro which uses Euros and Croatia which uses Kuna we could not quite understand how she expected us to pay her!!! She would not accept Kuna so we boarded the bus with our leg crossed and hoped the ride was not too bumpy for the rest of the way. After 8 hours going across 3 boarders we made it to Mostar. Straight away you could still see the lasting effects of the war and bombing in 1993 by the Serbs. Where Croatia had done everything ... read more

After our long awaited BNO (big night out) we got an early ferry to Dubrovnik, now this was a ferry, a big ferry, so T was happy, the last two boats have been catamarans where you cannot go outside but with this ferry, outside was the only place you could go. We dumped our stuff in a corner, tying it on to the boat so it did not fall into the sea and chilled for the next 5 hours taking in the Southern Dalmati coast line. Dubrovnik is a beautiful town once described by Lord Byron as the jewel of the Adriatic. It was totally destroyed in 1991 by the Serbs and they have done an amazing job doing it back up. They even went as far as having it done up using old style methods. ... read more