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NEW ZEALAND

Our final destination of our amazing trip, and what an amazing place to end our journey and wind down before our big flight back to New Zealand. We had seven nights in Paris which at first we thought would be too long but it was perfect. We quickly settled into the Parisian lifestyle in our Airbnb apartment in Bastille with our patisserie on the corner.

We spent a full day just wandering the streets and checking out the first district where we saw Notre Dame and walked along the river as the city of lights came alive. We couldn’t match the Paris fashion scene but with our jackets on I think we pulled it off.

One of our favourite days was an e-bike tour through hidden Paris. There were 12 people and a very eccentric guide who navigated us around the Paris streets and its scary drivers. The E-Bike was the perfect way to see the city and a lazy option on the hills surrounding the Latin Quarter. We visited hidden churches and gardens that otherwise we would not have found, but the best kept secret was a café we stopped at that had original letters from Marie Antoinette before her beheading, Voltaire’s desk and even Napoleon’s hat.

On a Monday we made our way out to Versailles to visit the palace and grounds, you would think after 12 months of travel we would have remembered museums are usually closed on Mondays so when we arrived and were told the Palace was shut we just laughed. We spent a few hours wandering the grounds which were really beautiful and it was great to get out of the city for a while.  

My Birthday was a few days before flying out so it was a great excuse to go to the Moulin Rouge. This is totally worth it and we had a really great night sipping on champagne and watching the can-can girls and other acrobatics. The following day we signed up for a wine tasting to bring in my 28th Birthday, this was a really informative session with trainee Sommelier even attending. What we would take away from French wine is if you want to drink French, ask a Sommelier!

On our final day in Paris and last day of the trip we spent some time inside the Louvre which was incredible, the exhibitions were great and we hunted down Mona Lisa as were the rest of the tourists. We went for a late lunch before heading to the Eiffel tower, the line was reasonable and we made our way to the top, where the views were breathe taking. Day turned to night while we were up there and the city lights came alive, which was awesome. After some great snaps we made our way down and walked back through the city. It was the perfect way to end the trip on top of the Eiffel tower!

To everyone who has been following our journey along the way thank you, we have loved sharing our stories and pictures with you all.  

We landed in Brussels but after loads of other travellers telling us Brussels is not great we bypassed the city and made our way straight onto Bruges. This is a very cute town and quite famous on the tourist trail as the place was swarming with busloads of tourists. We arrived at our hostel and quickly checked in so we could jump onto the afternoon walking tour. The tour took us through the town and gave us a brief history before finishing at a brewery where we were able to sample some Belgium beers. We met a few people we stayed chatting to that evening and we all decided to do the hostel beer tasting which helped navigate us through Belgium beers. The next morning we wandered around town and enjoyed the sights. We were definitely starting to slow down on the travel front by now and we spent a bit of time just chilling at the hostel, trying to figure out our last ten days of travel.

From Bruges we made our way to another town in Belgium called Antwerp, famous for diamonds, much to Petes delight. The town was again really picturesque. We didn’t really do much in this city we only spent one day wandering the streets and enjoying our studio apartment before making our way to Paris for our last week of the trip.

Arriving in Budapest after a 7 hour train ride after a big night out we were keen to settle into our hostel and go and grab some dinner. We spent the evening roaming the streets and found ourselves in some famous “ruin bars” which are basically converted warehouses and apartments that have all manner of old things hanging from the walls and ceilings as well as old bathtubs converted into seats. We spent a day walking through Buda and Pest on the other side of the Danube river. We had some really great weather on our first day with clear skies and sun, although it was still getting as low as minus 13 at night.

We signed up for a boat cruise down the Danube one night which was the first time the cruise had run in the past few weeks as the river had frozen over in the cold snap. We cruised through the sheets of ice and had a dance and a few beverages along the way.

We said goodbye to Todd in Budapest as he had the big flight home while we spent an extra night in Budapest, spending the day at the bath house. We soaked up the goodness of the mineral pools on our final day in Budapest before retiring for an early night before taking the first plane out to Belgium.

From Berlin we took a bus across to the medieval city of Prague, where we spent a few nights. Arriving on a Monday the town was pretty dead and not a lot of places were open although for the off season there was still a huge amount of tourists. We had a full day walking around the city jumping onto the free walking tour, with the guide sharing all the weird and wonderful facts of Czechia and its people. We went for a meal in a medieval themed restaurant which has some huge portion sizes and some big glasses of beer. When in the party city of Prague we couldn’t help ourselves we had to jump onto the pub crawl. This was probably one of our favourite nights out with a really great group of people. The Irish were in town on Uni break, needless to say there were a few laughs had at their expense. The next day’s train ride to Budapest was a long one!

Germany was a popular port of call for us on our European tour going in around four times over the 6 months. Our first taste of Germany was in Munich at Oktoberfest in late September, where we spent three nights camping in torrential rain while spending two days inside the beer tents. We signed up to an Aussie/kiwi company that sets up your tent and provides transport to and from the festival, the company was great and the liver got a decent workout. The tents were less than ideal for some who weren’t familiar with camping in the rain and found themselves waking in pools of water, luckily we spent the time to put a few extra pegs in to stay dry. We met Angela who went to University with Pete and quickly got to know her partner and friends who we partied with on the second day, we later all met back up for New Years in Amsterdam. We had a blast at Oktoberfest but definitely something I personally don’t need to repeat, there was a lot of Stein drinking but the dancing and singing of the German festival songs will stick with us. After a rainy wet weekend we took the first plane out of Munich to Milan, Italy.

The second time we entered Germany was when we were in Salzburg, Austria and jumped on the local bus across the border into Bavaria. Here we spent a few days in Berchtesgaden enjoying the many hiking trails, the weather was so nice and warm during the day and we did some really picturesque hikes. One evening we went into the town centre for the famous Christmas markets when we were introduced to the Krampus. Krampus is a horned, folklore figure described as "half-goat, half-demon”, who, during the Christmas season, punishes children who have misbehaved, in contrast with Saint Nicholas, who rewards the well-behaved with gifts. It is basically any male older than 16 who is unmarried dresses up as the Krampus and terrorises the town, it’s like being whipped with a wet tea towel, very painful and the young lads were not holding back, as we found out the hard way. From Berchtesgaden we headed back into Austria before making our way to Innsbruck.

On entry number three into Germany we were heading from Switzerland to Amsterdam and took an overnight stop off in the city of Cologne. After a broken down train in Switzerland we had a late arrival into Cologne that evening but it didn’t stop us heading out to check out the famous Kolsch beer scene by dropping into many Bauhaus’.  The next morning we had a quick look at the huge gothic Cathedral and a quick walk along the Rhine river before jumping back on the train and making our way to Amsterdam.

Our final destination in Germany was Berlin, where we spent 5 nights exploring the city on the back of our camping trip through Iceland. We had a lot of snow and cold weather in Berlin but battled the chilly weather and went and saw all the main city sites including, the Berlin wall, East side galleries, holocaust memorial and check point Charlie, to name a few. We went to the Hofbrau brewery for a traditional Bavarian Pork knuckle, ending up with a three person meat platter which did us nicely. We spent one night on the Berlin pub crawl where we met a few others from around the world. Another evening we found ourselves at a craft beer festival in the suburbs with over 120 kegs with beers from all over the world, the boys were in heaven. Berlin was a pretty fun city and great place to pick up some international cuisine.

Our Iceland adventure began with a flight into Reykjavik, the capital city, with a population of only 300,000 the city was nice and small. We arrived at 4pm and by the time we found a bus to the city it was already dark at 4:30pm. We spent two nights in Reykjavik which gave us a day to look around town and acclimatise to the weather a little. We jumped on a walking tour that took us to all the local sights and gave us a great intro into life in Iceland. That night we went out for a traditional Icelandic meal, we almost broke the bank with the bill but it had to be done. Let me tell you nobody ever needs to try fermented shark fin it is quite possibly one of the worst things we had all tried ever!!

After two days in the city it was time for the real adventure to begin, we left our accommodation in the pelting rain, sleet and snow and made our way to the camper hire store. We collected our Ford F350 camper and after getting the low down in the snow and sleet we were ready to set out. First stop was the grocery shop where we decided on a few meals for the coming days and nights.

We spent the day making our way to famous Golden Circle loop, first stopping at the mid-Atlantic ridge where a canyon has formed. We geared up and took a walk along the canyon where huge waterfalls have formed as a result of the two tectonic plates splitting. Many people go diving in between the two plates, we passed on this as the divers looked a tad cold waiting their turn in the snow. Night came before we knew it so we stayed the night somewhere close and had our first evening meal in the camper, thank god for the heater as the place was pretty icy come morning. The following day we continued on the Golden circle visiting the famous geysers where geothermal pools squirt water out of the ground, some 5-10m into the air. We finished up the Golden circle before making our way south to the famous ring road. We stopped off at some really beautiful waterfalls along the south coast before finding another place to rest for the evening as we were going to venture to the DC3 plane wreck the following morning.

As we woke the rain had been steadily falling most of the evening but not wanting to miss the opportunity to see the plane wreck we donned our rain coasts and made the 4km trek to the black beach where an abandoned DC3 plane was left abandoned since it crashed in 1973. We were lucky enough to have the plane to ourselves so the boys busied themselves with some photography while I took shelter from the weather inside the shell of the plane.

Over the coming few days, we made our way along the ring road, stopping off at some really incredible sites. We saw some huge glaciers, including the biggest in Europe as well as some basalt column structures with rock pinnacles that reach out to the ocean. 

We were lucky enough to get some clear skies in between the clouds one evening camping at the base of a glacier so Pete decided to do some night photography. He rushed back to the camper and showed Todd and I the Aurora that showed up on his camera. Unfortunately we never saw the lights flashing through the sky the best we had was a green glittering in the sky but the camera could pick it up a lot better than the naked eye.

We found ourselves on a glacial lagoon one morning looking at some giant icebergs that had broken away from the glacier floating in the lagoon. The beauty of this is hard to describe the beach was scattered with glacial icebergs some so clear you can see through them like looking through a glass window. As we walked along the beach we were greeted by a few friends, some seals popped up to say hello and followed us on our walk around the lake.  After collecting a nice chunk of ice for our gin and tonics we were back on the road, where the scenery just kept getting better and better, there were many photo stops along the way.

From the south of the island we made our way north but after a windy night we opened the door to a very snowy scene. The entire road was covered in snow as was our car and the ground outside. We set off as the snow hit our windscreen and visibility was at a minimum. A few hours into the drive we saw a sign that said the road was closed, the boys assured me it was a “soft close” and it wasn’t closed for our kind of car. We continued on the snowy windy road before arriving at a bridge crossing where two cars were stopped across the middle of the bridge. An all-wheel drive full with Malaysian tourists was stuck in a snow drift and the car was iced to the road.

With about seven guys in total including Pete and Todd they pushed the car off the ice and turned the car around. The Canadians in a Suzuki swift also turned around as conditions were only getting worse and their cars were less than ideal. We continued on for the next few hours as Todd navigated our way through a mountain pass with 5m visibility. It was some great driving and well rewarded once we came out the other side and found some nice hot pools waiting for us.

We found ourselves in a town that evening in the north of the country, Akureyri. Here we pulled up for the night and treated ourselves to a pub meal. We found a good bar for the boys to try some local Icelandic craft beers. We were the only ones in the place and had a great chat to the Icelandic local bar tender.

Our trip around the Island came to an end as we made our way back to Reykjavik and onto the famous blue lagoon. We spent quite a few hours in the lagoon soaking up with hot water with an outside temp of about minus five. We spent our last evening just out of Reykjavik before returning our van in the early morning and making our way to the airport for a flight to Berlin. 

After the big farewell in Switzerland we were excited for our four nights in Amsterdam for the New Years period. Todd, Pete and myself made our way from Saanen with a nights stop over in Cologne, Germany and onto Amsterdam. Here we met Pip and Andrew and Angela and Matt. We checked into our amazing Airbnb which was better than we could have expected. The house we had rented had an open fire with a huge living area where we spent most of our time when at home.

We all arrived the night of the 30th and were eager to check out the town, we had some local Aussie guides with us, Aaron and Teagan who have been living in the city for the past few months so they took us out for dinner our first night. We ended up roaming the streets at night, looking in different bars and checking out the red light district.

New Year’s Day came around quite quick and after a late start and a failed attempt at a walking tour we were starting to think of our evening plans. We got our supplies and put on our best outfits and started the evening festivities. There were fireworks going off all through the day and night as fireworks are very much legal in Amsterdam. The kids in our neighbourhood were having the best time and I think Pip even wondered across to the neighbours to have a go. Close to midnight we made our way to a square close by where you are able to let off your fireworks. You really had to have eyes at the back of your head as you weren’t sure what direction they were going to fly at. The police were in attendance but just enjoyed the show like the rest of us. We spent the rest of the night dancing up a storm at a local bar.

New years day was a slow one for all involved and there was a lot of lounging around. The following day we did some sightseeing, visiting the Banksy gallery and roaming the streets and canals. We had a final dinner all together, joined by Aaron and Teagan and before we knew it our new years Amsterdam adventure had come to an end. We all left the following day with Todd, Pete and I off to Iceland. 

Entering Switzerland from Austria we swung through Zurich, and found it to be a lot like a European Singapore – very orderly and full of bankers. We took a scenic train through to Interlaken where we stayed for a few nights. Using Interlaken as a base to explore the Alps. We managed to fit in a lot of hiking and sightseeing, even visiting the famous set of the classic James Bond film On Her Majesties Secret Service on top Schilthorn. After Interlaken we headed to Saanen to catch up with our Swiss family!

After 10 months on the road we finally arrived at our home away from home, Sannen. We were greeted at the train station by Ivo and we made our way to our apartment for the next 2 weeks, the longest stay of the trip so far.

Pete and I had a week in Sannen catching up with friends and meeting new additions to the Paroni family. We spent an afternoon hiking the hills as the weather was not optimal for any kind of winter sports like we hoped. The only bonus with the clear skies was the clear views and the views from the top of the mountain were perfect.

After a week alone we were super excited for the arrival of Pip, Andrew and Todd. They arrived on the 22nd just in time for a quick shower before we ushered them off to Ivo’s 40th Birthday at the local snowboard hire shop. Not too long after our arrival Ivo was surprised by one of his closest friends from the other side of the country. This was not to be the only party surprise as within a few minutes my parents showed up. I had not seen them in 10months and all the Swiss kept a very good secret, some of the Swiss were as surprised as I was to see them. All in all it was such a great reunion for everyone and awesome to see Mum and Dad.

The next few days we explored downtown Gstaad, known for its high class shops and amazing Swiss Chalets, owned by the rich and famous. The town was full of long fur coats and some eccentric fashion as we perused shop windows and took in the sites.

On Christmas eve we were treated to a traditional Swiss Christmas dinner with some of the best sausage meats we have ever tasted, it helps when a Swiss chef is cooking. We ate our way through the variety of salads vegetables, sausages and sauces. After dinner we exchanged presents while the ‘lighting of the tree’ was happening, this involves real candles being placed on the tree that are set alight and you all sit around and watch as the candles burn. This is a strange tradition considering all the houses are made out of wood.

Christmas day involved ice-skating on a frozen lake something that I’m sure will be remembered by all in years to come – very special. Once fitted with our skates some took to the ice easier than others, with our Swiss comrades to lend a hand there wasn’t too many slips and spills and zero broken arms, so all in all a success.

Christmas night we were up for another Christmas dinner with the other side of the Swiss family, there was 18 in total so much wine and many laughs were had throughout the night.

The next day we all hit the slopes for some snowboarding and skiing, as it was with skating some took to the snow easier than others. We were lucky to have the trained Swiss instructors on hand to help while some of us enjoyed the runs down the mountain. Lots of pictures and many laughs with a few beverages to finish the day, everyone was pretty sore and exhausted.

One of our final days in Switzerland we made our way to 3000m above sea level to Glacier 3000 where we thought we would try some boarding. We really tested our skills or lack of and found ourselves in a few sticky spots. We finally made one run but after a 20 minute T-Bar ride back up the mountain it was time to call it a day. We enjoyed the views from the top with a clear visibility of the surrounding Alps.

We said goodbye to Mum and Dad and our Swiss family and boarded the train to Amsterdam where we all met back up for New Year’s Eve.

From Istanbul we took a short flight to Vienna where we spent three nights in the heart of the city. Our first impression was great as we experienced the ease of a working public transport system with the underground trains taking you just about anywhere. We wondered the city many times and stumbled across our first Christmas markets, the one we were recommended had an ice skating track that circled the markets, neither of us were keen for a broken leg so stuck to drinking some gluhwein (mulled wine) and watching the locals tackle the track.

We visited the summer palace which was stunning and well worth a look through. There were Christmas markets outside the palace and the sun had set (at 16:00), by the time we exited so all the Christmas lightswere on and people were everywhere, a really fun atmosphere.

On our final day in Vienna we made our way to the wine region on the outskirts of the city, taking the bus to the hills that overlook Vienna, although it was too foggy to see the city the view over the vineyards was great. We walked down the hill and made our way to the cellar doors to try some of the local wine. This was unfortunately not meant to be as they were all shut the day we went so instead we found a cosy restaurant and tried some wine there.

From Bratislava we came back through Austria and had a stopover in Graz a small town but a really pretty city centre covered in Christmas lights, we arrived at night and left early the next day making our way to Ljubljana, Slovenia.

We made our way from Ljubljana to Salzburg the home of Mozart and the Sound of Music. We opted out of a sound of music tour and instead found ourselves enjoying the hills of Salzburg with some other backpackers. That night we went out to the open air skate ring in town and bravely put some skates on, some of us were more naturally talented than others!

From the city we made our way down to Innsbruck in the heart of the Austrian Alps, the town is a massive tourist hub for Italians and they were everywhere. We had a really nice air bnb and spent some time wondering the streets and hills before retiring to the warmth of our apartment. Austria was great and we were off on our next adventure, Switzerland.

We spent two nights in the small capital city of Slovenia, Ljubljana (Lube-lee-anna), which is a great wee town with a population of about 60,000 university students scattered throughout the city it had a great vibe. We ventured up to the castle where we were able to have a view over the city and surrounding Alps at sunset. There is a river that flows down the middle of the city with Christmas markets on one side and cafés and bars on the other we spent a few hours wondering. From Ljubljana we made our way to Lake Bled, where the town sits on the lake with a castle overlooking it on one hill. We spent a full day exploring the lake and soaking up some much needed sun, although still with jackets and scarfs on. We met some others in the hostel, 5 Aussies, and we all teamed up together and headed out for Vintgar gorge. This was a really nice day spent hiking through the bush and finding waterfalls, there was ice everywhere! The water that was pouring through the gorge was a crystal blue colour and just stunning.

That night we all went down to the opening night of the town Christmas markets where a famous Slovenian singer was performing. The whole town had come out for the event so after walking around for a while we found a place for dinner and headed back to the hostel for a fun night in. From Bled we jumped on a bus through the Alps to Salzburg.

From Vienna it was a short 60km bus ride to the capital of Slovakia, Bratislava. We took the morning bus and ended up spending two nights exploring the city, small but packed with historical buildings it was still full of tourists and locals alike. Bratislava was a very picturesque and friendly city – very different to how it is portrayed in the movie Euro Trip!

The Christmas markets were in full swing as all European cities at this time of the year so we braved the cold and headed out both nights for some market food usually consisting of meat and onion, never the less some hearty food to warm you up.

We jumped onto a walking tour as we usually do and within half an hour it began to snow, our first snow of the season. There was another Australian in the tour so Myself, Pete and the other Australian were a little bit excited, the Europeans on the trip thought it hilarious seeing how excited we all were.

We spent another night in Bratislava before taking the bus back to Vienna the next morning making our way towards Slovenia. 

After a long 10 hour bus ride from Sophia, Bulgaria we found ourselves in the middle of Istanbul. We arrived at the hostel and found we were the only guests in the place, which was a bit of a surprise to see just how bad tourism industry had taken a hit in Turkey.

We spent 4 days wandering the streets of Istanbul visiting some of the famous sites such as, the Blue Mosque, Hagia Sophia, Topkapi Palace, Grand Bazaar and the Spice Bazaar. As we were wondering around Pete was often spoken to in Turkish as his new beard tint and haircut made him blend in with the locals, they all assumed he was my tour guide as there was no blending in for a red head in Turkey.

We worked our way through the Turkish menu at different restaurants, even trying some traditional Ottoman cuisine, which is a casserole cooked in a clay pot, but mostly we ate a lot of Kebabs.

The Blue Mosque cannot be missed when in Istanbul it really is an amazing building, the interior is where the magic is, the walls and roof are lined with mosaics of course in shades of blue. The neighbouring building the Hagia Sofia was also worth a visit with the unique history of being both a Christian and Muslim place of worship.

As we wondered around Istanbul we were constantly asked to come into shops to the point where some of the locals were saying “Come and spend your money in my shop”. There were barely any tourists present in the city and it was becoming quite annoying just walking down the street and always been asked to come and buy something. We braved the Grand Bazaar which is basically a massive market place with shops that sell just about anything and everything. The spice bazaar was our favourite as we were able to try so many different types of Turkish delight and teas, some of which we purchased. One evening we jumped on a boat that takes you along the Bosphorus Strait which was really nice as the sun was setting over Istanbul. We really enjoyed our time in the city but were glad to be heading out after a few days.

We jumped on a tour with a few others to Gallipoli and Troy from Istanbul where we were taken to Gallipoli where we met our tour guide who took us around the site. Our first stop was Anzac Cove, in my head I imagined the beach to be much bigger and the cliffs to be might taller than they were in real life. We then moved onto the Australian war memorial at the site of the battle of Lone pine, the Turkish memorial and the Kiwi memorial atop Chunuk Bair. We saw the old trenches and it was interesting to see just how close both sides were to each other for months at a time, their trenches were sometimes within 10-20m of each other. The Turkish have really done a great job with preserving the memorials and it’s a really emotional experience to visit the graves and the endless lists of names that line the memorials.

After Gallipoli we went back to town where we spent the night before heading off to Troy the following morning. We took the ferry across the Dardanelles and met our next tour guide to talk us through the ancient city of Troy. The site is where the story of the Trojan horse derives and whether true or not it’s still a great story. The site itself has a huge history dating back to around 5000 years ago where the place had been a prosperous city for many different empires throughout the ages. We were able to see the different layers of the city as different empires added to the city. It was a great few hours on the archaeological site. From troy we jumped on a bus and made our way to Ephesus.

We arrived late in the evening at Ephesus where we met some fellow travellers at the hostel. Ephesus was pretty impressive being the old Roman capital of Asia Minor the ruins are incredible. We spent the day wandering around the archaeological site before finishing up at St John Basilica, dedicated to John the Baptist as he spent his last years living in the area and was believed to be buried in the Basilica, although not standing today, they believe it would have been the 6th largest in the world if still standing today.

The hostel we were staying in was run by a Turkish and Chinese husband and wife team who had lived in Australia for over 15 years before recently moving to Turkey. We were treated with some home comforts such as Marmite for the Kiwi and Vegemite for the Aussie, also on our last night we had an amazing stir-fry something we had both really missed while travelling.

We spent a day riding the bus before we reached our next destination in the southwest of Turkey, Pamukkale. This small town contains hot springs and travertines (terraces of carbonated minerals), left by the flowing water. This has produced a huge white hillside in the middle of a desert which is quite the contrast. We also explored the old ancient Roman city that surrounds the travertines. We spent the afternoon taking photos and exploring before heading back to the hotel.  

The next morning we took yet another bus to Fethiye, where we stayed a few days to explore the Turkish coast. This town was also extremely quiet but we managed to find a few things to entertain us such as hiring a scooter and exploring the coast. This was a great day and ended with a swim in the ocean which was still so nice and warm. We visited the blue lagoon and toured the peninsula of Fethiye.

From Fethiye we took our final EVER 12hr overnight bus ride to Cappadocia in central Turkey. This is home to the first Christian society in which they built their houses into the crazy rock formations known as Fairy Chimneys. There were many monasteries and churches to explore as well as the old houses lived in by people for thousands of years. We took a day tour that showed us an underground city protected from invaders and which went on for 8 storeys below. The small tunnel size was a hazard for some. Our biggest highlight for Cappadocia and Turkey would have to be our hot air balloon ride, this was amazing, with perfect conditions watching the sunrise from 800m up in our balloon was pretty incredible. It was a great way to end our time in Turkey, we were glad to be on our way out as it wasn’t always the easiest travelling in Turkey, so next stop Vienna, Austria.

Our last stop in the Balkans was Sofia, the capital of Bulgaria, here we spent two nights one full day to explore the city. Bulgaria became a member of the European Union in 2010 and since then the city has boomed they now have a metro system that was until 2010 30 years in the making as were many other city projects. Our first impression of Sofia walking from the train station was that it was a little grim, the buildings were really outdated and there was not much colour around. Upon further exploring the following day we visited some really impressive sites, there is so much restoration work going on in the city - digging up Roman ruins and various other artefacts from different eras. The huge communist buildings are a reminder of their past and stand tall in the city centre. Out of all the places we have been the last month this place was buzzing with tourists like none other, apparently once they became EU members andwere accepted into NATO tourism and investment started to boom in Sofia.

 After a full day exploring Sofia Pete decided he needed a fresh cut before heading to Turkey, I left him to it only for him to arrive an hour later with a much darker beard and a severe Turkish look going on. Pete thought the barber was offering a beard trim but after about 5 minutes of wet cream on his beard he realised he was actually getting a beard tint, at least he can now hide some of those greys. 

We were never planning on going to Kosovo but were told that it was worth a look and it had a pretty good night life so being a Friday we decided to head across the border to Pristina only 90km from Skopje. After arriving at the hostel we took a quick stroll down the main city drag that was really modern and packed with people. Once we returned to the hostel we got chatting to fellow travellers before embarking on a bit of a bar crawl with the group. The bar scene in Pristina was worth the travel, but we returned home before that next taxi to the club.

The next day we did a walk around the city visited the local food market and caught a glimpse of the Bill Clinton statue that is erected on Bill Clinton Street. We also saw the university library voted the ugliest building in Europe which we would both have to agree on.

That afternoon we made our way to the bear sanctuary using the following directions from the hostel: walk to the bus station and show the bus drivers a picture of a bear until one of them nods – take his bus. You will be dropped at a petrol station at the end of a lake, go into the nearby restaurant and ask the waiter for a bicycle, follow the road around the lake until you find the bears.

These directions actually worked and we managed to hunt down some bikes for 1 euro each, which was a bonus as it would have been a slow 3km walk. The bear sanctuary was amazing, the brown bears are rescued from horrendous conditions in Albania, most being kept in small cages outside restaurants to attract customers. These bear’s new enclosures are amazing and the carers have done a great job at rehabilitating them into a more natural environment. It was great to see them up close but really sad to read their stories. After an awesome afternoon out at the sanctuary we headed back to Pristina and back on the bus across the border to Skopje. 

Our first stop in Macedonia after another minibus ride and border crossing, was the picturesque Lake Ohrid. After eight months on the road and numerous travel destinations we were both feeling a little exhausted and in need of some R&R so we booked a nice apartment overlooking the lake. We didn’t really do anything while in Ohrid, we mostly enjoyed the balcony views, did some cooking and enjoyed catching up on some much needed life admin. After a relaxing time at the lake we said goodbye to our place and made our way to the capital, Skopje.  

Skopje was a really nice modern city with hundreds of statues, fountains and open spaces dotted throughout the city. The first thing we noticed was the “London style” red double decker buses that were everywhere, apparently Macedonia were given some busses after World War Two from the English to help with their transport system and they loved them that much that they now have many, the modern ones are from China of course.

We spent a few nights in Skopje where we jumped on a walking tour that was able to explaine the reason behind the hundreds of statues and replica monuments we had seen dotted throughout the city. Apparently the president is obsessed with statues he sees in his travels and decides Skopje needs that exact statue or monument too, many of the locals disapprove of the money spent on such things but it is a site to see. Of course in the main city square there is a huge statue of Alexander the Great, with a statue of his father Phillip just across the river. We also stopped off at the home of Mother Teresa, where she lived until age of 18 where she moved to India to start her missionary work. There is a nice museum in her honour that we were able to look through. We ventured into the old town built in Ottoman times similar to most seen throughout the Balkans. The fortress situated on the hill overlooking the city is definitely worth the walk up, the views are great.

On our last day in Skopje we made our way out to Matka Canyon home to many medieval monasteries and 10 huge caves found throughout the river. We took a small boat ride through the canyon to explore one of the caves they say is over 250m deep and 400m wide, divers have still to this day been unable to find the bottom. The boat ride was really nice with the autumn leaves on either side and the sun shining it was a beautiful site. After the canyon we made our way back to our hostel to board a bus to Kosovo for the night. 

After another long tedious bus ride with a border crossing we arrived in Tirana the capital of Albania. We spent two days exploring Tirana in which we went on a walking tour where we again learnt the history of this country we really knew nothing about. If in Tirana I recommend a walking tour to find your bearings and gain an understanding of the people and their history. The first evening in Tirana we went to a jazz club to watch a few Italians from the hostel play a gig, this was great as the bar was nice and it was a chance to see a few local hangs. The next day we ventured up to the Bunkers which is an underground bunker system build in the communist times in case of nuclear or chemical attack. The tunnel system and bunkers dotted around the city are prevalent everywhere and I’m sure there are many more not in view. After exploring the bunkers we ventured up to the cable car that takes you to the top of a mountain overlooking Tirana. It takes about 20 minutes and is incredibly steep at times but the views are very much worth it.  After a few days in Tirana we were back on the bus and making our way to Lake Ohrid, Macedonia in search of some nature and away from the big cities. 

Arriving early into Podgorica we checked into our hostel and caught up on a few hours sleep before venturing out. We wondered the city and the surrounding hills which took us the good part of the day. There isn’t much to see in Podgorica as it’s a pretty quiet capital especially on a Sunday - It had a bit of a ghost town vibe.

The next day the owner of the hostel and his friend drove us through the mountain pass to Kotor, stopping off at the former capital of Cetinje before driving up a mountain to a monastery that overlooks the bay of Kotor. The day was perfectly clear and we had great views from the top of the surrounding bays and mountains. The drive through the woods was beautiful as the autumn leaves were in full swing. From the monastery we drove down the serpentine road involving 25 switchbacks down the mountain before arriving in Kotor, the views along the way were quite impressive and at times a little scary.

We arrived in the stunning medieval town of Kotor where we found our hostel in the middle of old town which dates back some 2500 years ago, surviving multiple wars and invasions. We spent 3 days in Kotor which was a great place to pull up for a few days as the hostel was great fun and we enjoyed the old town. We took a bus north of Kotor to Perast where there is two man-made islands in the middle of the water, one with a monastery on it and the other a church. We took a boat out to have a look around the islands where we were able to get some great pictures.

We spent to afternoon climbing the fort of on the mountain above which is still really well preserved and overlooks the city below. After a few days in Kotor, some Rakia and dangerous drinking games we were off to Albania. 

Our journey from Sarajevo to Belgrade was a wild ride to say the least, as we signed up for a minivan transfer offered by the hostel we expected we would have a seat and a safe passage to Belgrade, boy were we in for a treat. Ready for an 8 am departure the next day we all piled into the small car along with our baggage before the drivers of two separate cars realised they had overbooked, after a standoff with the driver where he tried to convince one of us to stay behind or leave our baggage, neither being a good option, we managed to convince him to take us. 8 hours later after being lost in the Bosnian mountains with a Serbian driver who was avoiding Bosnian police checkpoints at all costs and some serious traffic weaving manoeuvres we finally arrived in Belgrade somehow still in one piece.

Belgrade was nothing to call home about, we spent a few days in the capital but did not venture out of the city so we cannot really comment on the rest of Serbia. The city was like any other we had been to, we took a walking tour around the city where we gained a different perspective of the breakup of Yugoslavia. We invested in some woolly jumpers as the temperature continued to drop and ticked off a few key sites in Belgrade like the old Fortress and the Nicholas Tesla museum which Pete was pretty pleased with. From Belgrade we headed south to Montenegro where we boarded an overnight train to Podgorica, which bought back our Tran-Siberian days.

Our Eastern Europe adventure continued in Bosnia & Herzegovina which saw us board a bus from Dubrovnik and head across the border to Mostar. Mostar is famous for the Stari Most, a 16th century Ottoman Bridge in the centre of the city, where people jump/dive off the 23m high bridge into the river below. We spent a few hours watching the locals and a crazy Scotsman attempt the jump - some more elegant than others. We spent the afternoon wandering the streets looking at the scarred buildings, with bullet holes and mortar shells still very visible. On the advice of someone in the hostel we jumped a high wall into an abandoned building that was used as a snipers nest during the Bosnian war which we were told had some great graffiti art. After climbing a few floors up the view of the town and surrounding hills was pretty impressive. It was a pretty eerie feeling walking through a place that had been pivotal in the battle for Mostar and looking at the highly political artwork gratified on the walls.  

That evening we went out for a traditional Bosnian meal which consisted of meat, meat and more meat, the food was great - the Bosnians really know their way around a BBQ.

The next morning we jumped on a bus to the capital, Sarajevo where we made our way to our hostel on a late 1960’s tram – the transport system of Sarajevo was donated to the city by other European cities after the war, in the case of the trams they are mainly 1960’s and 1970’s – the locals say that taking the tram is very healthy for you, the ride is so bumpy that you will not have any kidney stones left by the end of your journey! We jumped onto a walking tour in the afternoon to learn something about the war and the town itself. The tour was great in providing us with a snap shot of the origins of Bosnia and the devastating effects of the war. There is still reminders everywhere of the brutal war against Serbia with many buildings still covered in bullet holes. We also saw the place where Franz Ferdinand was assassinated, sparking the first world war.

The next day we booked onto a tour with a local Bosnian guy who took us to different city sites including Memorial Park, the 15th Century Ottoman Fortress, 1984 Winter Olympic Park and Bosnian war Tunnel Museum. We spent the day driving around the city and the surrounding mountains as he explained Bosnian history and the war to us, from his first hand perspective. It was an informal tour that meant we were able to ask questions and have a few laughs along the way. One of the highlights was seeing the old 1984 Winter Olympics Bobsleigh track covered in graffiti. We walked down the track snapping a few pics along the way.

After returning to the city in the evening Zladan our guide for the day pointed us in the direction of a local wine shop he work at. After dropping his name at the shop it wasn’t long before the owner was taking us through a wine tasting of the local hooch. It was a great way to spend our last evening in Bosnia. 

Croatia was unfortunately a short trip for us, arriving at the shoulder season things were closing up and the weather was turning. We flew from Rome to Split where we spent a few days in the city just wondering the streets and soaking up the last few summer rays before making our way to Dubrovnik. Here we pulled up for three days in a really nice guest house, caught up on sleep and relaxed a little. Dubrovnik itself is super touristy and swarming with the cruise-ship crowd but we managed to find a few great little bars and eats when out and about. We walked the city walls which were definitely worth the money - the views are great. We spent evenings sitting on the rocks and watching the sunset and our last day we thought we would be adventurous and hike the hill behind the old town, a few minutes in and the rain started, although we did have the hill to ourselves.

Croatia was a great place that is on the radar for a return trip in the summer where we can fully explore the islands and soak up the Croatian sun. 

Jordan was a top secret mission for Pete and I telling only our siblings before heading to the Middle East. This add-on to our trip came about when our friend Henry had booked and planned a trip to Jordan, our other friend Bridgette living in London jumped on board and so did we. Having minimal knowledge about Jordan as a country there was quite a bit of Wikipedia and blog searching before we flew out of Rome. The four of us met in Amman the capital of Jordan where we stayed in the down town area. We all met up the following morning after arriving on late evening flights, mostly half full planes.

Day one in Jordan we came to the realisation very quickly that we were more than welcome in this beautiful country, the people went out of their way to say hello and show us their city, the standard line was “Welcome to Jordan”. Being a Muslim country Bridgette and I thought it wise to wear rings on our wedding fingers in case we were questioned, although the first Jordanian Bridge met on her flight over just laughed at her. We spent the day roaming around down town Amman visiting the Roman amphitheatre and the Jordanian museum that even had an exhibition featuring World War One Australian Army gear, curated by the Council for Australian-Arab Relations. We also saw the famous dead sea scrolls which got the boys excited about searching for treasure. After the Museum we headed back down the street where Bridgette and I stopped in for a quick shop a.k.a. looking in an Arabian wedding dress shop, the shop owner let us try on some dressed before wanting some pics with us, a lot of laughs had by all.

We found our way to a famous street food restaurant which has even served the King and his family. We had our first of many feasts of hummus, pita bread, cucumber, tomato, falafel and olives, with some mint tea to accompany the lunch it was perfect.

After lunch we made our way up to the Amman Citadel that pre-dates the Roman era but has obviously been built on many times since, with an amazing view over the city it was only fitting to have a call to prayer sing out as we were on top overlooking all the mosques, it was a little eerie. As we were about to leave and head back down the hill we met a taxi driver called Walheed who apparently was number one taxi driver in Amman, Henry couldn’t find him on trip advisor as he claimed but we won’t hold that against him. For a minimal fee he took us on a ride through the city to two different mosques, one where we were able to go inside once Bridgette and I had Burkas on. He explained the prayer process and the layout of the mosque which was pretty interesting, basically the women are separated from the men so the men don’t get distracted during prayer or at least that’s how I interpret it. After the Mosque he dropped us back at the citadel for sunset before we made our way back down town.

That night we went out in search of the famous Jordanian dish called Mansaf which is Lamb or chicken cooked in a sauce of fermented dried yogurt and served with rice and a dish of the fermented yogurt to pour over. Some liked this more than others but it was definitely different for the taste buds.

That night we went to the west side of Amman where we found a few rooftop bars and where the other half live. Bridgette got us an invite to a pre-wedding party at a bar close by from her friend she met on her flight to Jordan. We arrived in our modest culturally sensitive clothing only to find the girls in amazing skimpy dresses, as we didn’t realise it was a Christian wedding and not a Muslim one, with an open bar and a lot of new people to chat to it was a great night all around.

The next morning we dusted ourselves off and got ready for a long day of road tripping, with Henry as skipper, Pete as Nav and Bridge and I as back seat drivers we were off to tackle the Jordan Highways. The Jordanians are pretty fast and loose when it comes to lanes and they don’t ever look behind so I think Henry took this on board and went for it, no looking back. We made our way north and stopped for a quick photo opp at the Syrian turn off, we actually did take this right as we were heading to Jerash but didn’t quite make it to Syria. Jerash is home to an ancient Roman city that was way better preserved than the Roman Forum we had just seen in Rome. We also found our traditional head wear in Jerash that we wore basically the entire trip.

We were back on the road with a few hairy moments over the mountain crossing as we made our way to the Dead Sea. We bobbed around for a few hours and took many photos floating in the salt before washing off and hitting the road for Aqaba. As we drove to Aqaba we followed the Dead Sea and kept an eye on Israel as the Jordanians were doing with the many watch towers and machine guns along the way.

The next day we were up early and made our way to the ancient city of Petra. We began wandering along a narrow meandering gorge with all the other tourists, dodging horse-driven carts and mules along the way, eventually the rocks opened up and we were confronted by the famous Treasury of Petra. This ancient building carved directly into the cliff face has to be one of the most impressive buildings we have seen on our trip so far. After spending a while at the Treasury we moved deeper into the ancient city where we would end up spending hours hiking over the surrounding hills discovering cave upon cave. It is easy to see why Petra is considered one of the Seven Wonders of the World, the scale of the city was overwhelming, everywhere we hiked and looked we would find even more caves and intricately carved tombs. We finished up our day on top of the hill overlooking the narrow gorge where we began walking into the city, watching the sun going down before heading back to Aqaba on one of the most hair-raising drives of the trip – If we thought Jordanian driving was crazy by day it got even crazier at night.

The next morning it was another early start as we made our way out to Wadi Rum, a protected desert wilderness in southern Jordan. We met our guide in the town of Wadi Rum before leaving our car and jumping on the back of a 1980s Landcruiser and heading into the majestic sandstone mountains of Wadi Rum. We had another two in our tour group, Anne-Maree and Chris from Brisbane who being close to all our parents’ age became Mum and Dad for the weekend, it was quite fitting as they had four kids and they were similar ages to us so we had name changes and had some great family pics together. We had a long day exploring the desert including looking at ancient cave drawings, climbing mountains, desert springs, natural mountain bridges and sunset views on top of a mountain. When we arrived at camp we were blown away with the facilities, great beds, running water, huge common area and an amazing chef… what more could we ask for? The boys went out for some night photography as we retired to bed for the evening.

We woke to a mountain directly behind us with the morning sun hitting the surrounding mountains and the red dirt. We were off for another day of desert exploring that took us all the way to a close-up view of the Saudi border. Our guide Saba showed us their watch towers through binoculars. We made a few jokes about behind invaded and making our Tomorrow when the War Began strategy, our guide was pretty great playing along with our games. The boys made themselves pretty on one of our stops as Bridgette applied some traditional eyeliner (called Kohl) using charcoal to their eyelids. They looked kind of ridiculous but we all had a great laugh and a few photos were taken. That night we were back at camp for a traditional Wadi Rum dish similar to the New Zealand Hāngi, called a Zarb, in which they use an earth oven and place a large pot on submerged hot coals and then bury everything. This would have to have been our top rated meal in Jordan, the flavours were amazing and the chicken was so tender.

As our Desert experience came to an end we had one last thing to tick off which was camel riding, we rode for two hours back to the town of Wadi Rum which was at times becoming increasingly uncomfortable for some. We made it and were all pretty happy to be off the camel and walking again, needless to say there were a few sore people over the next few days. We said goodbye to our guide Saba before hitting the road back to Amman. We made it thanks to Henrys amazing driving, although if he drives like he did in Jordan back in Perth he could expect a few infringements.

We had a last lemon and mint juice together before saying goodbye to Henry that night and Bridgette, Pete and I sorting ourselves out for early departures in the morning. We highly recommend Jordan as a tourist destination, the sites are endless and the people are great.  

Arriving in Milan after a long weekend at Oktoberfest, Munich, our hotel was a welcomed delight, a chance to dry our clothes, bags and shoes and get some much needed washing done. After we ticked off a few jobs we were able to get out and explore Milan, the fashion capitol of Italy. To say we felt less than fashionable was an understatement - picture runway attire as you wonder the streets, the clothes were outrageous at times and way too stylish to compete with our backpack wardrobe. We spent three nights in Milan where we dined on the canals, had coffee in the city and people-watched as the Vogue fashion show was in town and there was a few great sights out and about. We were able to see one of Michelangelo’s uncompleted sculptures as well as a Di Vinci exhibition as we began to get a taste of the art and history of Italy.

From Milan we made our way down to Florence where we checked into our hostel and had an afternoon wander around town. There were tourists everywhere but it was great to get amongst the hustle and bustle of the narrow streets. That evening we jumped onto a walking tour that took us through the town explaining how Florence came to be such a prominent city and the famous Medici family, the tour dragged on a bit so we didn’t quite make it to the end. The next morning we jumped onto another tour this time it was the renaissance tour which was excellent to learn a little more about the art scene and have the facades of different cathedrals and churches, like the Duomo explained to us.

We pre-booked some tickets to skip the huge line into the Accademia Gallery to see Michelangelo’s statue of David, we weren’t disappointed as there was a great display inside of renaissance art and other marble sculptures.

That evening we headed up to the Michelangelo viewpoint with many others as we watched the sun set over Florence and the city lights come out. This was a pretty special view and definitely worth a visit when in Florence. On our return down the hill we found the city food market where we indulged in some freshly made pasta dishes, we enjoyed the cheap eats and amazing food so much we returned the following night.

Our final day in Florence we decided to book onto a wine/historical tour that took us into the Tuscan countryside. We assumed as we booked this through our hostel then the age group would be mostly our age, wow were we wrong, let’s just say we probably brought the average age on the bus down significantly. The day was pretty slow starting as we made our way through an old village but then we arrived in Siena the old medieval town. It was one of those tours where you’ve got an ear piece in and listen to your guide in English and French, some of the oldies got lost along the way but they were so easy to spot we made it our mission to round some of them up making sure they made it back to the bus, this was partly (mainly) as we didn’t want to miss any time at the winery. We found a great place for lunch in Siena - a family run business and the best antipasto platter we have ever seen. The last stop of the day was at a winery in the Chianti region where the owner was a bit of a character and had the whole group laughing as we went through the wine, olive oil and balsamic vinegar tastings. Pete and I smuggled a bottle of rosso back onto the bus and everyone in the back corner had their cups ready, it was a good few laughs on the way back to Florence.

Our next stop on the itinerary was Rome where we took another Bla Bla Car with a few university students who gave us a few local tips for our stay. After arriving late in the afternoon we checked into our hostel and booked onto a free night walking tour. The tour was great, it was a city tour of modern Rome with a Dutch tour guide and two other couples all from the U.S. The small group was great and we all had a really good time seeing the city by night. We visited Trevi fountain, parliament house and other piazzas. After the tour wrapped up the six of us decided to go out for a bite to eat where we ended up settling in for the night. It was a great evening and a great way to meet some others along the way. The next morning we jumped onto the ancient Rome tour, this was pretty good to piece together a time line of Roman history. After a nice lunch, pasta again of course, we made our way into the Colosseum where after a short wait in the line we made our way inside. We didn’t opt for a guided tour inside but even still it was great to wander around and you can read different boards as you wander through.

 The next morning we were up bright and early as we had an early Vatican tour booked to be one of the first through the door. This was one of my favourite tours all trip, having someone explain the art and the time of the church was great, the background stories provided by our guide were really great. The tour was just through the Vatican museum and Sistine chapel, we carried on after the tour making our way into the tombs under St. Peters Basilica which is home to many past popes including the tomb of Saint Peter himself which was pretty impressive. From the tombs we made our way up some steps and found ourselves in St Peters Basilica which was so impressive but also so overwhelming as the entire basilica is filled floor to roof with different art, statues, engravings and gold, so much gold. From St Peters we made our way out into the Vatican square and found the Vatican post office where I posted Gran a postcard stamped from the Vatican. After a long four hours at the Vatican we needed a bit of a sit down and some lunch so made our way quickly past the Spanish steps which were well over-rated but were nice and clean as they had just reopened two days previous. That evening was a quite one after a big day of tours and steps.

The following day the Pope was making an appearance at the Vatican so we were up early and followed the 15,000 others onto the metro to the Vatican. It was a pretty surreal experience as we walked in and saw the Pope on the big screen and then realised it wasn’t a replay and he was in his Pope-mobile out in the crowd. We came within about 5m of the Pope and managed to snatch a few pictures as many phones, hands, and babies were thrown the Popes way. We stayed for the mass that followed and the Pope gave many shout outs to the Pilgrims present which was greeted with cheers and flag waving. After the mass we managed to weave our way through the crowd and headed to a nice spot for lunch recommended by a girl in our ride share car. It was a quiet area which was nice to spend a few hours away from the hustle of Rome.

The next day we had finished with Rome and we boarded a train to Naples where we then caught a ferry straight to the Amalfi coast where we stopped for two nights in Sorrento. Here we had booked a great AirBNB with our own room and an amazing balcony with views of Mt. Vesuvius. We were met by Franco and Pepe who had limited English but were just so lovely, that evening we went to the local pizza place and made our way back to our balcony where we watched the sun set and had our pizza and wine - delightful. We spent the next day walking around Sorrento which offered some really great views and loads of stair climbing.

The next day we jumped on a bus and headed further down the Amalfi coast to Positano, the bus ride there is not for the faint hearted the cliff drops are impressive and the sharp narrow roads are a tad scary. Once we forced our way off the packed bus at our stop we made it to our hostel. Here we were positioned overlooking the cliffs, ocean and rooftops from the terrace view. We made our way down for an afternoon on the beach where I finally got to have a swim and Pete did some good napping on the beach. We had a really nice lunch with ocean views before heading back to the beach until the late afternoon. We then had to tackle the 750 stairs upwards back to the hostel! That evening we went to dinner with others from the hostel and made some plans for the next day. We awoke to a massive thunderstorm where we all huddled into the common room and had some breakfast and coffee followed by more coffee as we prayed for the weather to clear. Finally about 12:30 the rain had stopped and a few of us decided to make the most of the afternoon and ventured down the Amalfi coast to do the Path of the Gods walk. The 12 km walk stretches across the mountain tops and offers some impressive views of towering cliff faces and the towns along the way. We made it back to the hostel in the dark but the walk was so worth it with the stunning views.

The next day we made our way back to Naples on the ferry where we checked into our hotel to prepare for our next adventure in Jordan!

From Portugal we made our way to Spain the land of sangria, vino tinto, tapas, paella and late nights. Spain didn’t disappoint we started in Madrid where we spent 3 nights in the heart of the city. While here we went to the archaeological museum for some culture, which was a really great option on a 43 degree day, the museum was nice and cool and really great displays. We would recommend if in Madrid. As we battled through the heat of our first day in Madrid we had a siesta before waking up to a man in our hostel cooking up a huge paella. It was our first Paella and only 2 Euro so that was a bonus, we do love the perks of hostel living sometimes. Day two in Madrid saw us on a morning walking tour which is always a must in a new city, the girl was a bit of a performer so it was a really fun morning exploring the history and sights of Madrid. After the walking tour some of the group decided we would all go for some drinks and tapas which is where we all remained throughout the “siesta” period. Later that night Pete and I found a great local bar and tapas place where we were dressed up and basically made fun of for the evening – the price to pay for being young foreigners in a locals bar. We had a great night there as we were “made” to sample different wines. On our third day in Madrid we jumped on a day trip tour to the old capital of Spain, Toledo. There was a small group of us exploring the old town together, taking in the ‘Game of Thrones’ feel of the place as we explored the old medieval streets, the old churches and the synagogues. After a long day we took the bus back to the hostel where we packed up our things ready to make our first Bla Bla Car journey. This is a ride sharing app that connects you with others driving to the same city as you, it is way cheaper than buses and trains and we thought we would give it a go. We arrived at our meeting point and met up with our driver and two others also on the trip to Valencia, It was a great way to get some local tips and knowledge.

We arrived in Valencia safe and sound and said goodbye to our car pool group and headed off to the hostel. That next morning we went on a walking tour around the centre of Valencia where we were again given a detailed history of the town and the local places to check out. After a half day tour we had the afternoon to explore the food market, eat some food and try some traditional Valencia cocktails. That night we went out for a nice dinner together before retiring to the hostel for some sleep, its hard to get used to the late nights in Spain, before you know it its 2am. The next day we were off to Barcelona.

After another successful Bla Bla Car ride with some Barcelona university students we arrived at our next destination, Barcelona. We arrived late the first afternoon so settled into our accommodation and made our way out and about for a wander. The next morning as usual we jumped onto the walking tour focussing on the gothic quarter of the city. After the tour we found a nice place for lunch, some paella of course. That evening we made our way up to a lookout called Bunkers that overlooks the city and harbour where we had a picnic with a few Australian girls. It was a really great evening watching the sun set over the city, drinking Vermouth as the city lights came on. The next day we had locked in a tour of the Sagrada Familia, a Basilica designed by architect Goudi, with construction beginning back in 1882 and not due to be finished until 2026 on the centenary of Goudis death. Although still very much a construction site it was no less amazing, having the audioguide was great to be guided through the construction process as well as what each part of the Basilica symbolises. From the outside this place looks amazing but when you step inside it is just incredible, the open interior and stained glass windows are mind blowing.

That evening we met up with others at the hostel and we all made our way to Camp Nou, home of the famous Barcelona Football Club. We were lucky enough to have tickets to a champions league match between Barcelona and Celtic FC from Glasgow. We were treated to a hat trick by Messi and 4 other goals from Barcelona, Celtic were unable to even get a look in as they were absolutely outclassed by Barcelona. This was probably one of the biggest highlights from our time in Spain, 80,000 people in a stadium that can hold 100,000 was pretty special and won’t be forgotten anytime soon.

The next day we ventured up to Goudis Park but we were not overly impressed, it was a little run down and the views from the Bunkers were better. We decided to walk back to the city where we passed various alley ways and streets before hitting the main boulevard. We found a nice place for a siesta in the park where we pulled up for a few hours before continuing back to the hostel. That night we had a little crew of people from the hostel that were keen to go out to some bars so we jumped on board. Needless to say it was a really good night but way too late for us and we suffered greatly the next day. Our last day in Barcelona was a quiet one where we didn’t achieve much which was also nice to just hang out for the day, before having our last Paella for dinner. The next morning we flew to Munich for Oktoberfest. 

It was a short tour of Portugal, flying from London we landed in Lisbon where we started our travels. Lisbon is a really pretty city which was a lovely welcome to Europe, with loads of history and a great nightlife. The first night we arrived in Lisbon we were back in the hostel scene, the hostels in Lisbon are world renound so it was a pretty easy transition. Night one we thought we would attended the hostel dinner followed by the pub crawl, we only made it to pub two before heading back to bed -  hopefully we can do better next time! The next day we went on the free walking tour with a local Portuguese guide who showed us the sites of new town pointing out famous monuments, great eats and drinks and various things to see and do while in Lisbon. One of the things we thought sounded interesting was Fado, which is traditional Portuguese music that is full of emotion and expression and should be watched while in small bars drinking wine. That afternoon we made our way back to town where we found a wine tasting warehouse where we could sample different wines from all Portuguese wine regions.

That evening we went to a Fado bar for dinner where we were seated next to a really lovely American couple whom we spent the evening chatting with, at various intervals different singers come out into the tiny space in the back corner of the restaurant and sang a few songs. As this is happening everyone is quiet and only the music of the guitars and singers are heard to allow for the emotion of the song to come through in the singing. It was a really great night and a unique experience.

The next morning we attended another walking tour this time through old town where we saw the old hilly streets of Lisbon. With various viewpoints looking over the city and the river it was a really great morning seeing a different side of the city, our guide was great and we were given a real mix of social and cultural history. Once back at the hostel we packed our bags and made our way to the bus stop where we boarded the bus to Peniche, a small surfing town north of Lisbon.

Once at Peniche we realised our hostel was actually in another village called Ferrel, after locating a taxi we made our way to the village. The hostel was run by a young Portuguese couple who had converted their home so it was small and homely. The village around was really empty and the weather was terrible, after walking through the village we thought we had made a bit of a mistake in coming to Peniche. That evening we walked to the next village which was a bit more happening, where we had dinner before returning to the hostel for the night. We met a few fellow travellers at the hostel before retiring to bed. The next day the weather was no better and it was only 20deg so definitely not beach weather. Instead we had a really great day cycling the coast with some bikes we hired and found a great spot for lunch where we tried the famous Portuguese octopus, it didn’t disappoint.

We met a lovely French Canadian couple from Quebec at the hostel who joined us for dinner and drinks that night. We had a reasonably early night and with the hostel snorer from the night before no longer there we were able to get some sleep before our alarms woke us for an early bus to Porto.

After a four hour bus ride we arrived at Porto, famous for being the home of Port wine and riverside views. We checked into our hostel before setting out to explore the city. While roaming the streets we ran into Emma whose apartment we had stayed in in London, she joined us for lunch where we found a nice café on the old flower-merchant street. Emma invited us to join her boyfriend Russel and their friends for dinner that night. That night we walked not too far from our hostel to their apartment where we tried different Portuguese ports and wines before heading to the restaurant. The restaurant was not on our “backpacker” budget but with such amazing food, wine and company we couldn’t have asked for a better night.

The next day we hit up the hostel walking tour which we find is the best way to get the local knowhow. Two Portuguese guys took us on a long tour through the city before finishing at the riverside. We then headed across the bridge to the Port wine cellars and tasting rooms. Here we spent the afternoon sampling a few ports - they are not how I remember from sampling my Grandpas Ports that’s for sure! We found a great rooftop bar which overlooked Porto where we soaked up the sun and admired the view.

That night we retired to the hostel where we packed up our things as we were off to Spain the following morning, to the town of Vigo, north of Porto for a bit of R&R. We absolutely loved Portugal and will definitely come back one day.  

We started our Scottish adventure in Glasgow where we spent three nights with the Saunders family, Ross, Lyndsey and wee Blake. We couldn’t have asked for a warmer welcome, after a month living out of the van it was the perfect place to pull up for a few days in their delightful guest room.  We were treated to a guided tour of Glasgow city by a real Glaswegian, Ross, who showed us the city centre, a quick peek in the museum and a look around the ‘prestigious’ Glasgow university. We were taken up into the surrounding hills and waterfalls and shown the Kelpies, which are large horse statues standing 25m high on the side of the highway. It was great having our very own tour guides and we have to thank Ross and Lyndsey for such a lovely stay in your home with all the homely comforts, Olympics banter and a fab tapas night. We will also not forget our new names anytime soon, as their young two year old Blake renamed us Pepe and Digger, a few laughs were had over this.

Before a final goodbye with the Sauder’s we headed out towards Loch Lomond, here we walked around the village (slightly cold for the Aussie), some duck feeding with Blake and a nice seafood lunch before saying goodbye and we were back on the road making our way towards Islay.

Aiming for the ferry to Islay we stopped off in the town of Inverary where we purchased our ferry tickets for the following morning. It was a really rainy Scottish day and braced with jackets and an umbrella we had a quick look around town before seeking shelter at the Prison museum, we spent a few hours inside before we were back on the road heading south. We found a place by the sea to pull over for the night where we attempted to cook in the wind and rain which was a few laughs under our small ‘sunshelter’ side tent, a really good Thai green curry was the result so we were pretty pleased with ourselves. With an early wakeup and a quick pack up we made our way to the ferry and after a few hours sailing we had arrived in Islay.

Islay, famous for its whisky distilleries was the reason we had ventured across for a visit, with it being such a rainy couple of days spent on the Island it was perfect to hide in the dry, warm tasting rooms of the distilleries. Pete did a professional tasting while I sat in the comfort of the Lagavulin lounge. I was now the designated driver as we made our way around island visiting various distillery’s, each unique, some very corporate and some really rustic. The following day we took the afternoon Ferry back to the mainland and attempted to make our way to Oban. We had started to drive in the dark to get a few kilometres under our belt for the next day before we were shortly turned around by the police as the road was flooded. The officer pointed us in the direction of Crinan which was a tiny fishing village hidden away just a few miles back the direction we had come from. We awoke on the side of the road to the amazing coast line and 18th century canals that went for miles.

After a few weetbix we were back on the road to Oban where we stopped off for a bit of a stretch and a look around. Oban is a really picturesque town and definitely worth a stop, we had some lunch and even managed a skype with Pete’s family on the wharf. After lunch we stocked up on some supplies and headed onto Fort William, with Ben Nevis in our sites.

We spent the night at the Base of Ben Nevis and the next morning set about the 5 hour climb. It was definitely not our most exciting climb with no great view and the summit was covered in mist and cloud but it was still a really fun morning with a few laughs with other hikers along the way. Once back at our campsite we took advantage of the showers, freshening up before we hit the road again, a quick coffee in Fort William and we were off to Skye.

We got into Skye late in the evening and found a spot right by the ocean that we thought looked perfect to spend the night, that was before we got out and were immediately attacked by swarms of midgies. Tired and exhausted from the days events we did some crafty ninja work and managed to set up our bed without opening the door again that evening. That morning we made our way out of our beachside view and quickly up to the cliff where there was some wind to keep the midgies away, it was a lesson learned that’s for sure. We spent the day driving around Skye in what you would say were perfect conditions for Scotland, not a cloud in the sky and the sun very much out.

We made our way off the island in the afternoon commencing the Highland 500, the road that follows the west and north coast through the highlands. This would have to have been one of our highlights from our trip so far, with stunning views and a really fun drive through steep mountain ranges we found ourselves at a village called Applecross. Here with the sun still shining we stopped for the evening, making our way to the local pub with beach views, there was tourists and locals alike soaking up the sun. So at the recommendation from a local Scotsman we met in Ireland we had the famous fish and chips and a G&T and watched the sun go down.

The next day we continued our trip along the Highland 500 where were stopped in at small fishing villages along the way. Loads of smoked salmon was consumed along the way as every village had at least one smokehouse, it was amazing. We saw our first highland cows which are so hipster with their long fringes and chilled out vibe, we were able to take many pics of these beauties. Late that evening we made a quick stop off as we spotted a fierce looking mountain that we just couldn’t pass by, the sun was out and we thought we would have the best views from the top. The mountain was called Stac pollaidh according to the map and with the afternoon sun on the rock, the views from the top were breathtaking, this hike was 100 times better than Nevis! After a long day of driving and tired legs we found ourselves at a beachside campsite near Loch Inver.

Still not keen for a swim at the beach we continued our journey around the coast, spending a night at the northern most point of Scotland, and passed through John O’Groats until we made our way around the top of the island to Inverness. Inverness was not much to write home about although the sun was still out and we did walk around for a few hours enjoying the sunshine before we made our way out to Lochness. We found Dune beach where many documentaries have been made about the man who has been searching for Nessy for 17 years. We continued around the lake until we found a nice spot on the side of the road where we could Nessy spot, no sightings from us I’m afraid so back on the road we went.

We made our way to a small town north of Inverness called Fortrose where we were meeting friends Rose and Mel, who we had previously seen in Copenhagen and who seemed to be following us around! We went for a lovely coastal walked and dolphin spotting before retiring to a café for some lunch and a wine. Somehow we ended up at a Wake that evening in the town pub where people welcomed us with open arms, it was a fun but strange night.

On the road again and we were making our way towards Edinburgh, we hadn’t driven far before we saw a sign in the town of Nairn that said Highland games. Evidently we had to make a stop for this, we were treated to some highland dances, some running races, marching band and some hammer throwing, unfortunately we couldn’t wait around for the caber tossing. We stopped off for the night somewhere along the east coast in a visitors carpark before making our last few km’s through Perth and Aberdeen to Edinburgh.

We spent the next three days at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival where we saw so many great comedians, the streets and bars were buzzing. We ran into a friend we met in China, Lynn, and had a really great catch up as she had just arrived back in town from Asia and we all had lots to catch up on.

Edinburgh was our final stop in our Scottish adventure and we loved every minute of it, we were sad to be leaving and would have to say it was the best place in the UK! 

We commenced our six week tour of the UK and Ireland in the motherland, England. We flew from Norway, landing at Heathrow where our friends Oliver and Natalie picked us up for a weekend in the English country side. We found a picture perfect Bed and Breakfast in a village close to Bath. We spent two nights exploring the area around Bath and Stone Henge; the boys were way more excited about ’the Henge’ than we were. After an amazing weekend catching up with Oliver and Nat we said goodbye and made our way back to London where we spent the next 3 days exploring the city. Our favourite site from this visit would be the Churchill War Rooms which are definitely worth a visit when in London.

We had arranged a campervan for our UK travels so after London we picked up our van named ‘Zenit’, a brand new VW Caddy that was going to be our home and transport for the next six weeks.

 We felt like we had a new found freedom and set off with our dodgy GPS, pelting rain, 5 lane motorways and roundabouts. Having not driven for the last six months it was a tense first few hours. We headed south to our first destination Dover, famous for their castle and white cliffs. We found our first nights camp spot on a field overlooking the coast, it was a great wee spot and a really picturesque village within walking distance. This was our first night where we tried out all our camping equipment and cooked (more like heated) a frozen meal in the pan, our meals definitely improved over the weeks. While in Dover we did the coastal cliff walk where you have an amazing view of the famous cliffs as well as the port where you take the ferry across to France. We were able to see France in the distance as we jagged some good weather. We also stopped off at the Dover Castle on our way out of town which was really great to explore as it had been used as a military base and underground hospital in World War Two so there was lots to see.

From Dover we made our way to Brighton where we were greeted with some classic English weather (rain, wind and cold), not the best day to explore the famous pier but luckily they had a few penny arcade games to keep us warm and dry. We found a place to pull up for the night and the next day made our way into the town centre as the sun was out and we didn’t want to miss the chance to see the classic UK beach town vibe!

As we made our way back to the van we were discussing our next stop with no clear destination in mind we made our way towards Portsmouth stopping off along the way at various villages. After perusing the town of Portsmouth we decided jump on the ferry across to the Isle of Wight not knowing what to expect and no accommodation locked in we made our way onto the ferry. We were arriving quite late and googled a campground for the evening, when we rocked up to say we were a little surprised would be an understatement. There was water slides, a carvery, casino and entertainment, not knowing whether we were in the right place as reception was shut we asked one of the casino security guards who directed us to the back of the park to the ‘touring area’ where we set the van down for the night. After a wonder through the village and fish and chips on the beach we returned to the campground and just had to go and see what the“entertainment” and casino was all about. It was one of the most bizaar places with various acts entertaining the quests in a big hall with a lively bar at the back end. Not quite sure what we were in for we found a table and watched the last few acts perform.  After a bizaar experience at a Brittish holiday park we were back on the road and touring the Island before taking the afternoon ferry back across to the mainland where we continued our journey up to Dartmoor National Park.

Our van was great as we had a little fridge allowing us to pull over wherever and have a bite to eat. We made in to Dartmoor after a long day of driving and found a really great spot to do some (legal) freedom camping within the National Park. The next day we did a hike that had an accompanying App with an audio tour of the walk… definitely such an English experience that provided us with a few laughs along the way as we navigated the route.

While we were hiking we decided on a place to stay for the weekend and knowing we had acquaintances in Bristol we decided to send our friends a message to see if they could accommodate some travellers. So by the end of the hike we had sorted the following few days where we would be staying with Craig and Carl, whom we met in the Philippines.

Craig and Carl were more than welcoming when we arrived late on Saturday evening, many bottles of wine were consumed and so many laughs had throughout the weekend. They provided us with a very comfy bed and an amazing home cooked meal. Thanks again guys, and we hope we can repay the favor one day!

From Bristol we made our way into Cardiff and continued through Wales and Ireland for the next few weeks.

We caught the ferry from Belfast to Liverpool some three weeks later where we continued up the west coast to Scotland. We spent a day exploring Liverpool which we really enjoyed. A highlight would have to be the Beetles museum, worth a look if you find yourself in Liverpool. After some rest and recovery in Liverpool we continued on to the lake district which to be honest we found pretty over-rated and swarming with tourists. We spent the night and then continued north, passing Carlisle and stayed the night in Gretna just across the Scottish Border. We spent three weeks in Scotland before we headed south back to London passing through Newcastle. Newcastle was not what we expected and for a strong historical town it was so modern and buzzing with life, maybe we just caught it on a super sunny day but there were people everywhere. We made our way back to London and said goodbye to Zen and headed back into central London where we spent the next few days regrouping, planning and catching up with friends. It was the perfect place to spend a few days planning our next six months while catching up with Perth friends, China friends and New Zealand Uni friends - Thanks to all for making the effort to catch up it was a blast of a weekend. Now onto Europe….

After crossing the Irish Sea we found ourselves in Dublin still with our trusty van - we decided to book into some accommodation for the weekend. The place was definitely not the best Airbnb we stayed at but it was in the old Guinness cottages where the workman for the Guinness Brewery were housed, so a lot of history around the area. Staying so close to the Brewery we did the famous tour and sampled some freshly poured Guinness on a Sunday afternoon. The day after we arrived we headed into town to restock the wardrobe, as a few things were in desperate need of replacing. The one-in one-out policy is still very much enforced. After a few hours on our own getting haircuts and so forth we headed to the famous temple bar district to listen to some live bands. The street was buzzing on a Saturday and we signed up for the Dublin pub crawl. This turned into a great night out with other backpackers and a great way to find small hidden bars. The weekend in Dublin was a great one and we would definitely recommend a stay here.

Monday we were back on the road and aiming for Cork. We stopped off on our way in Kilkenny and jumped on a walking tour. Our guide Jim was great and we had a few laughs as he told us the historical story of the town. After lunch and coffee we were back on the road towards Cork. We knew we wouldn’t find a campsite in the city so we headed for the neighbouring town of Cobh where we found a secluded spot to try our luck at freedom camping, no one bothered us and we had our own little beach all to ourselves. The next morning we went and strolled through the streets of Cork which wasn’t overly interesting other than Pete collecting some Pokemon.

We continued our clockwise journey and found a campsite just out of Killarney. The next day we did the full Ring of Kerry road which is the peninsula coast out from Killarney. The drive was super windy and narrow but the sights were worth the ride. The coastline was beautiful and we found a few stops along the way. Killarney was a great little town and we would have definitely loved to try the local music scene if we were there longer. After an exhausting day of driving we stopped for the night just out of Limerick, in Adare - a small farming town where we found a small campsite. After a late start we had a quick breaky, which usually consists of cereal and banana and made our way towards limerick for a look. Limerick was pretty dead midmorning on a rainy day and we didn’t hang around for long. We saw the Castle across the river but were a bit ‘Castled’ out so decided not to stop in at this one.

With the Galway races in our sites we hit the road and headed north, where we arrived in a seaside campground in Salthill just on the outskirts of the city. We took a stroll down to the local pub which was great as the town was in racing fever. We had just missed ladies day the previous day, but with 3 days of a 7 day race meet still ahead we were off to the Friday evening races. We put on our finest outfits, consisting of, my one dress and Pete’s one crinkled dress shirt we had in our possession and took the bus into town. We headed out to the races after a nice Irish coffee to kickstart the afternoon. After breaking-even with our betting money the buses took us back into town where we stopped in at various bars and enjoyed a big night of live music and a lot of dancing with the locals! Thank god for the kind people next to us in the caravan park who bought us over some strong coffee midmorning as we arose. The locals loved hearing about our trip and I’m sure they would have cooked us breakfast without any hesitation, the Irish hospitality is amazing.  

Eventually back on the road we continued up the coast towards Westport only a few hours today, where we landed ourselves in a holiday fun park. The campsite was full, being a public holiday weekend, but they allowed us to stay in the carpark which was all we needed for the night. From here we headed for Donegal, which was all shut up on a Sunday of the Bank holiday weekend so we headed out towards the coast in search of a campsite for the evening. We stumbled across a small fishing village called Killybegs where a rowing completion was taking place and we were there just in time to watch the last race. That evening we wondered in from our campsite to check out some more live music, not realising it was a bank holiday on Monday, so Sunday was going off! We stumbled into the small local which was overflowing with people and we just had to go and check it out, turns out we landed in the middle of two hens nights a 21^st and a stag do all on the same night. Many hours later we exited with new friends and somewhat celeb status, being the only Aussie/Kiwi combo the town has seen in here as most tourists don’t stop in at their town.

On the road again and this time we were on our way to Derry and onwards to Bushmills. We ventured into the famous Bushmills distillery where they have been producing Whiskey for over 400 years on site. We took a tour which showed the distilling process right through to the packaging and shipping of the Whiskey, the tour ended with a sample, not for me but Pete enjoyed it.  From the distillery we made our way to the Giants Causeway where Irish mythology tells the story of a giant constructing a causeway to Scotland, basically it is a lot of amazing rock formations with a rugged coastline. Further along the causeway coast on our way to Belfast the weather had set in and visibility was to about 100m, needless to say we didn’t see much coast after the causeway. We spent a day in Belfast where we wondered the streets and took a walking tour. The tour was the best way to get the history good and bad of the city. That night we boarded an overnight ferry back to England landing in Liverpool. We were sad to say goodbye to Ireland as we had such a fun time and the people are just amazing. 

From London we took the clockwise route around England and found our way into Wales, Cardiff the capital being our first stop. This place was bustling on the “hottest day of the year” at a barmy 30deg Celsius. We took advantage of this strange sighting of the sun and found a nice spot in the heart of the city for lunch. After a wonder through Cardiff and at the recommendation of our friends in Bristol we headed out to St David stopping along the way at numerous beaches to watch the summer frenzy (still not warm enough for either of us to contemplate a dip!). St David is in the western corner of Wales with a coast covered with incredible sea cliffs, we stumbled across a great little campsite right on the cliff. The next day we set off with a stop off at St David’s cathedral and the Bishops palace which was really well done and a great place to explore. We made our way north along the west coast aiming for Snowdonia. We stopped off for a night in Barmouth, a lovely beach side town although with the one day of summer out of the way it was back to raining cloudy Wales and the puffer jackets were back on.

Next up we made our way through the Snowdonia National Park with a few stop offs, one included Europe’s longest zipline which we couldn’t drive past. This was a great few hours in gale force winds. On the first zipline I was spun around which severely reduced my speed and left me stranded quite far from the finish, Pete took great delight in photographing the experience. After a few hours of ziplining it was back on the road making our way towards Mount Tryfan, the mountain we were to attempt the next day. We spent the night at the base of the mountain looking up towards the summit that was occasionally visible as the clouds flew over it. In the morning we woke to perfect conditions, or as perfect as we could have hoped for and headed on up the mountain. With no fixed track it was a lot of fun finding our way to the top. Once on top the weather turned and we were fully in cloud and rain. We made our way down the other side carefully as our visibility wasn’t great and the weather began to clear again the lower we got. On the way down we past what the locals call ‘Lake Australia’ as the lake actually looks like Australia! We made our way back to the car and headed straight for Holy Head to catch the last Ferry to Dublin. 

What a beautiful, scenic, fun, hard to get around, ridiculously expensive place. These words pretty much sum up our time in Norway. We set off from Petes relatives in Sweden and made our way north the Oslo the capital of Norway. Here we were greeted with some delightful rainy weather as we attempted to find our bearings in the city centre. We spent two nights sightseeing and visiting museums, the Polar Exploration museum is a must when in Oslo and it didn’t disappoint, with amazing exhibitions that were thoroughly enjoyed by us both. We visited the Viking museum with thousand year old Viking boats on display which was pretty fascinating.

From Olso we boarded a 6 hour train voted by lonely planet as the number one most scenic train trip in the world, it did not disappoint, with the highest station at 1200m above sea level with a lot of snow still present. The train bought us to Bergen, where arriving on a Sunday meant absolutely every supermarket and shop was closed and the city was pretty much a ghost town. We only spent a day here as no more time was needed… it was a small city and we were eager to hit the hiking trails.

From Bergen we headed across to a small village called Loftus in the Hardangerfjord where we stayed for two nights, from here we were able to access to the Trolltunga hiking trail which as seen in the pictures was well worth the 23km round trip for the ‘perfect’ photo! Summer time in Norway means most roads are under construction and maintenance work is being carried out. We were staying in the fjord with only one road in and out. The morning of the hike the public bus didn’t show up so we ended up hitch hiking to the start of the hike, we then hitched a few more times to get back home, it was actually a really good way to meet some locals and other travellers.

After our hike in to Trolltunga we headed off the next morning to the city of Stavanger after a strong coffee and some ibuprofen to get the legs working! Stavanger was a great town and we really liked the place. We stayed in a great Airbnb with several other travellers and the weather managed to hold out for us. We took a ferry to the fjord to do the Pulpit rock trail. This was a really easy half day walk compared to Trolltunga, there were lots of people on the trail so lots of laughs along the way. The views from the top of the flat rock that sticks out over the fjord are breathtaking well worth the trip up. After another night in Stavanger we decided Norway was just a tad too expensive and super difficult to navigate the public transport system so decided to move on to England. This was our first flight since May when we flew from Korea to Hong Kong, our overland travel from Hong Kong to Norway took around 2 months as we covered over 10,000 km on trains and ferrys.

Our trip to Sweden began on the ferry from Helsinki. We woke up to the gentle movement of the ferry and saw that during the night we had entered the Stockholm archipelago. As the ferry approached Stockholm port we saw small boats heading out to the many summerhouses on the islands of the archipelago, midsummer was approaching and people were leaving the cities and entering party mode.

The few days we spent in Stockholm were well spent wandering through the old town, and around the canals. We hired bicycles and managed to venture a bit further out of the city to some of the smaller islands that make up greater Stockholm. Summer was a great time to take in these places, with most people out enjoying the sunny weather either on the canals or in the many parks.

After Stockholm we headed south to Malmö and ventured to Copenhagen, Denmark for the weekend before coming back to Sweden to head around the country to the town of Båstad. Båstad is a small town of around 4000 people, though this number grows significantly over the summer when people from all over Sweden come to stay in their summer houses to enjoy the beautiful countryside around the town. The town is home to my (Pete) Great-Great-Grandfather, and I was extremely fortunate to be able to meet some of relatives in Båstad. Staying with Kenneth and Anna was great, it was the first family home and home cooked meal we had had in months! Our new Swedish friends were incredibly welcoming and we can’t thank them enough for how welcome they made us feel. Kenneth took us on a tour through the old parts of Båstad and we even took a look around the house where my great-great-grandfather grew up before he sailed to New Zealand. Learning some of the family history was really interesting and made me appreciate my heritage and origins.

After a great couple of days in Båstad we were back on the train heading north to Gothenburg, the second largest city in Sweden. Here we stayed a night and spent our time wandering the city, finding some very cool areas packed with cute little restaurants and bars, the city had a very young feel to it, with people out and about at all hours.

Finally our time in Sweden came to an end with us boarding a bus in the pouring rain of Gothenburg to head further north into Norway to explore Oslo.

COPENHAGEN

Our time in Denmark was short but sweet. We had a long weekend in Copenhagen over Mid-summer when the Scandinavians come out to play and celebrate the longest day of the year. Our short trip to Denmark started in Malmö, Sweden, where we took a train across the bridge to Denmark. We stayed in Nørrebro, a very cool and diverse district of Copenhagen. Being Midsummer there was a party atmosphere in town, so we ventured out into the streets and joined in. High-school graduates were on the back of trucks, driving through the streets dancing and yelling (and streaking). The canals were packed with revellers on boats out to be seen as much as they were there to see things.

We spent some time wandering the streets of Freetown, Christiania, an old hippie commune that is now home to some of the more colourful people in Denmark. We were also lucky enough to catch up with friends from New Zealand who were passing through, it was nice to have some friends for a change while we are on the road!

Our short but enjoyable stay in Finland began when we left Saint Petersburg on a high-speed train direct to Helsinki. This was a milestone of the trip so far, as we had managed to make it all the way from Hong Kong to Helsinki completely by rail.

We were greeted in Helsinki by something we hadn’t seen in a while… a smile! The Finns were incredibly friendly and happy people, or at least they seemed that way after Russia. Helsinki was alive with people out and about soaking up the sun from the short but sweet Scandinavian summer. The sun never really sets in Helsinki during the two summer months, so we were able to get out and explore the city until late in the night.

Our second day we boarded a ferry across to Suomenlinna, a former sea-fortress built on six islands off the coast of Finland designed to protect Helsinki. We had a nice time inspecting the old U-boat, and cannons that mark different eras of occupation of Finland; we learnt a lot of north European history.

Having the spectre of Russia directly on the door step obviously weighs heavy on Finland, and some people were reluctant to talk about European politics, while others were very forthright and strongly opinionated. This was probably one of the main things we picked up in Finland.

Our short stay finished with us booking a cheap overnight ferry to Stockholm, Sweden. Turning up at the wharf we saw a huge boat that turned out to be a cruise ship, complete with cheesy night club, and duty free shopping. Probably some of our better accommodation we have had on our trip! Hayley was excited about a night on a ship, Pete however… not so much! It gave us a great view of Helsinki and the outlying islands as we sailed off into the white night.

The phrase of the journey “That’s so Russian hey!”, whether it was the non-existent smile, the Adidas tracksuits or the gangster-looking mafia men, the phrase was always used. Before arriving in Russia we only had a version of Russia we see in Hollywood movies and western media’s version of Russian politics and its people. Now we can say there are definitely some truths as well as false facts presented to us in the West.

We only scraped the surface of what Russia has on offer to explore, we had no idea there were so many ethnic groups encompassed within Russia nor did we fully understand how Russian states work and how each differ. We travelled 7622km from our departure point in Ulanbataar, Mongloia to Moscow, then onwards to our exit in Helsinki, Finland. We travelled by public train the entire way, spending many nights aboard the famous Trans-Siberian.

Siberia

We boarded the train from Ulaan Bataar where we settled in for 2 nights in a 4 birth cabin with a smelly old retired Frenchman called Claude. As we settled in for the night it wasn’t long until we were drifting off to sleep with the blissful sound of the wheels on the tracks. This was until Claude started up his trumpet (snoring) at which time we looked at each other knowing it was going to be a long few nights. We woke at the Mongolia/Russia border where we were stopped by Russian troops who inspected our cabins for stowaways, perused our visas and asked us a few questions about our travel plans. This was our first taste of the Russians, they were not the friendliest bunch to have met first off the rank but hey, they were border control.

It took us another full day and night to reach our first destination Irkutsk, where we took a 2 hour bus ride out to Lake Baikal. After refreshing in a much needed shower we headed out to this beautiful enormous lake.  Lake Baikal is the largest fresh water lake in the world holding 20 percent of the worlds unfrozen surface fresh water. It has a depth of 1642m at the deepest point making it the deepest lake in the world. From the township of Listvyanka we were treated to an amazing view of the Baikal mountain range, still snow-capped, and the endless lake. We had a great day walking around and exploring, we also took a seat on one of the sightseeing boats with a glass bottom, which was interesting to see coral and freshwater Baikal Seals. The next day in Baikal the weather had turned so we took the opportunity for a down day and Hayley tried to recover from a head cold.

The next day we attended the very popular Seal show in a very small enclosure, although it was a super cute and funny show put on by these fresh water seals. In the afternoon we returned to Irkutsk where we wondered the city streets stopping off in many cafes and bars using their wifi as we awaited to board our midnight train to Kazan.

On the train again and this time for what we thought was 2 nights 2 days but on day 2 we realized we had read our ticket wrong and still had a further night and day, let’s just say there were a few unhappy faces between the two of us. This was the oldest train we had been on to date it was wooden and super noisy all adding to our Trans-Siberian experience! As we rolled through Siberia you could only describe it like this: “Tree, Tree, Tree, Small Village, Tree, Tree, Tree, Small Village”.  We had a few different cabin buddies along the way, mostly all men either coming or going to work. Although they didn’t have much English, using the small amount they did have they were able to express their shock and horror that we would optionally choose the Tran-Siberian as a holiday destination. We tried to explain that it was famous worldwide but they just laughed at the thought. By the end of day two, boredom had really sunk in and there were only so many books to read, music to listen to and cards to play. The only thing left to do was buy some beers at the next train stop and drink some leftover Mongolian Vodka. The next 12 hours flew buy and before we knew it we were arriving in Kazan.

Kazan

Arriving in Kazan it was straight to the hotel and straight in the shower! We ventured out for a much needed stretch of the legs after three days on the train. Kazan is the capital of Tatarstan, a Republic within the Russian federation approximately 700km to Moscow and north of Kazakstan. This city was a complete contrast from Siberia with new modern and refurbished buildings and a beautiful waterfront precinct. The very next day we met with our local Honcho, (guide) Aigul who showed us her amazing city. We walked through the old Kremlin that encompasses a Mosque and Orthodox Church side by side. We spent a big part of the day firing off questions and trying to understand the Russian way of life. We had a great day with Aigul visiting the city sites and gaining and insight into life as a young person in Russia.

Moscow

From Kazan we were back on the train this time just for one night, but were surprised to find ourselves on the newest Russian train - a double decker, it was so nice and modern and a welcome surprise. We exited the train in Moscow where we checked into our hostel and waited for the arrival of our next Honcho. Helen arrived and spent the day with us taking us to Red square, the Kremlin, and a few local hot spots like old Soviet supermarkets. The architecture in Moscow is amazing, very different to the European style, with big facades on the buildings that are almost fierce looking. We tried the local food at the many cafes, our favourite was the Brosch which is like a beetroot and capsicum soup with meat. Pete tried a few Russian Lagers along the way. Mostly though we just missed the amazing flavours of Asian cuisine. It was often meat with potato or in a pancake and often quite bland to our taste. Helen was a very patient guide with two very tired travellers and managed to tick off some of the main sights in Moscow. We ended our day with a tour of the Moscow Metro which is like no other, the beautiful murals and differing designs at each station made for quite a sight.

The next few days we took our time to wander through the city, no matter which way we walked we were just in awe at the buildings presented before us, I mean ridiculously huge pillars and soviet style buildings everywhere. Our highlight of Moscow would have to be the Bolshoi Theatre where we watched the Ballet, Giselle. We pulled out the best outfit we both had and put it on and headed out for a night at the ballet. Having some of the cheapest tickets in the house didn’t matter as we had a spectacular view of the entire venue and were given some binoculars. This is a night we won’t forget for a long time to come.

After the ballet we raced back to the hostel to catch our last night train the St Petersburg.

Saint Petersburg

Our first morning in St. Petersburg we met Lydia who was our local for the day, all our Honchos were either young people studying English at university, already English teachers or in the tourism industry looking for some practice. Lydia was looking to improve her already amazing English. She took us through the main sights of St. Petersburg which is very European in its appearance, the only difference was all Russians! We really enjoyed St. Petersburg, it had the history and culture that we were keen to explore as well as a lively summer nightlife. We ended up in a “Soviet café” for lunch where we tried traditional food which included fish soup with a side of vodka, Russian meat dumplings and some picked vegetables.

The next day we boarded the train to Helsinki which was a short 3 hours commute. Our time in Russia had come to an end and we think we were pretty keen to enter Europe. The Russian people we met once we got speaking with them were absolutely lovely and we really appreciated all our guides for showing us their Russia. It was an amazing place to visit and incredibly interesting but we were glad to be met with the smiles of the Finnish. 

SIBERIA

KAZAN

MOSCOW

SAINT PETERSBURG

Our journey to Mongolia began waking up in a tent, on the Great Wall a few hours from central Beijing. A bit tired and dusty we packed our tent and marched down the wall to meet our driver. Beijing traffic was at a standstill and we were glad we gave ourselves a few extra hours to make it to the train station. A quick baby-wipe shower in the toilets at Beijing central station was all we could muster to ensure we didn’t overpower the other passengers on the train with our aroma. Finally the train arrived and we began the first section of the Trans-Siberian. Little did we know that we would have the whole 4-bunk cabin to ourselves so were able to have a second baby-wipe shower in the privacy of our cabin – a bit nicer than the train station toilets!

As the train slowly made its way through the Chinese country side we had our dinner and talked with the other passengers before heading to bed. A few hours after nodding off we were woken at the Chinese/Mongolian boarder by a Chinese official pointing a thermal camera at us and shouting something about passports. While the passports were taken care of we got to witness the ‘swapping-of-the-bogies” where the entire train is hoisted up and the undercarriage swapped (The Chinese train tracks are a different gauge to the Russian gauge tracks used in Mongolia). 6 hours after arriving at the crossing we were able to trundle off again, passports stamped and ready to go. The next morning we woke up to views of the Gobi desert. Initially it was a bit of a shock, the contrast to the Chinese country side was huge, where before there had been rice paddies and gardens there was now dirt, sand, dirt, sand, with the occasional camel. After 30 hours on the train we eventually made it in to Ulaan Baatar, capital of Mongolia.

We were greeted by our guide Enny who spoke impeccable English and directed us to our hostel. We had two days to explore Ulaan Bataar before we set off on our ‘Wild Nomad’ adventure. We used that time to take in the city sights and do some shopping before our departure.  We quickly found out how highly the Mongols regard Chinggis Kahn – We saw the Chinggis Kahn statue that overlooks Chinggis Kahn square, which is off Chinggis Kahn Road, obviously, that night we would drink Chinggis Kahn beer and Chinggis Kahn Vodka at the bar the Mighty Kahn. Ulaan Baatar reflects the varied political history of Mongolia, with a number of ultra-modern cement and glass style buildings that have been made since the country became democratic in the early 90’s, contrasted with soviet style government buildings and apartment blocks that serve as a reminder to the communist period from the late 30’s to the 90’s. On the outskirts of town there is the Ger district, where Nomads who have moved to the city to try their luck set up camp. 

We had a memorable dinner in Ulaan Bataar at a North Korean restaurant (located very close to the North Korean Embassy) where we were had traditional North Korean cuisine. Midway through the meal the Waitresses took to the stage and performed various North Korean songs and dances, something that has to be seen to be believed.

An early departure from Ulaan Bataar with the Landcruiser packed and our guide and driver at the ready we headed into the steppe. The scenery quickly changed as we headed towards our first camp in Amarbayasgalant. The drive was mostly paved roads until the driver took a sharp left and we headed into the hills. When we asked how the driver knew where the camp was with no signs or obvious road Enny replied “These guys just know”. This set the standard for the rest of the trip. Having arrived at camp one we were shown to our first Ger, slightly excited we took a few photos. That afternoon we took a short drive to a Monastery built in 1727 that is still in the process of being repaired, we saw some ‘Monklettes’* and Enny was able to guide us through the Temple. *NOTE, Monklettes - not the actual term for Monks in training. 

Making our way north the following day we found ourselves in the picturesque area of Unit, we arrived quite early that day and after lunch decided to go and climb a volcano that had been staring Pete in the face since we arrived. We dragged Enny and the driver up the short climb which provided us with a few laughs. There was an awesome view back over the Steppe and we watched a few nomads attend to their herds. That night Enny taught us a few traditional games of knuckle bones and Pete taught her the NZ game of knuckle bones.

Next up we woke early to make the long drive north to Khovsgol Lake where we had heard two days prior there had been a 2m snow fall. I think Pete and I were a little too excited to see some snow, as the locals were less than impressed. We ran into some rough driving as we made our way out to the lake, there was melting snow and thick mud to contend with, luckily our driver was a pro. The lake was picture perfect and the weather was warmer than the previous few days so we threw our things in the Ger and went for a wander. That night we had our first of many card nights, we were periodically stopped by a herd of Yaks that had entered the yard. Every so often we would out in the snow and run around attempting to chase them away, lets just say the owner was not too impressed with our herding skills.

The clear afternoon in Khovsgol gave us the opportunity to attempt horseriding, when a local nomad bought around a few horses for us to take for a ride. The ride was an interesting one, Ennys horse refused to budge about half way through the ride and stood on a nice piece of grass and just munched away, while Pete's got tired and decided to sit down while he was still on the horse! My horse ‘Spot’ was well behaved and I had no problems navigating back to camp.

After Khovsgol we began our route south with a long day of off-road driving where we stopped at a half way camp in Jargel Jiguur. There wasn’t much there but we did manage to find the camp hot pools which Pete and I happily spent the afternoon lounging in.

It was another rough morning of driving as we wound our way through the mountain pass to Terkiin Tsagaan Lake, known as ‘White Lake’. Today Pete and the driver decided it was a great Gopro opportunity, so they constructed a mount on the front of the car and filmed as we drove past Yaks, Sheep, Goats, Horses, some amazing scenery and local nomads. I don’t know who was more excited the Driver or Pete. We arrived at ‘White Lake’ and were greeted with a very chilly breeze, it quickly became apparent why it is known as the white lake, as there was a solid layer of ice remaining in the centre. The clothing layers were put on and we ventured out to Khorgo Volcano. We hiked up and around the volcano which overlooked a snow capped mountain range and the lake.

Leaving the lake and volcano we continued south into Gobi country. Due to the long drive we stopped off along the way for another night in a Ger camp. The family run camp still had a few Gers to construct so that afternoon we helped out, but mostly just got in the way. Mongolians take great pride in their ability to put up Gers and will proudly boast that they can do it under 30 minutes... Maybe these guys needed a little more practice because after 2 hours the Ger still wasn't up, and it wasn't until our driver got sick and tired of the smack-talk he could hear from the construction site that he came over and started directing things - the Ger went up very quickly after that! 

On the road again and we finally hit the Gobi within 10km the scenery changed from flourishing rolling hills and green grass to rock and sand with grass patches. There wasn’t many places for Enny and I to relieve ourselves and we got quite good at finding the biggest bushes possible. We pulled up for lunch at an oasis surrounded by flat country. Back on the road and a short time later our driver had spotted something in the distance, heading over to investigate we found it was the Spring Naadam (festival) for the Gobi district of Saikhan Ovoo. We pulled up to take a close look, and were lucky enough to have arrived in time to see a horse race. The desert race was for horses under 2 years old, and was 10km long, all the jockeys were around 6 or 7 years old, many riding bareback!. We asked the local police if we could follow the race in our Landcruiser, and the cops said it would be OK so long as he was allowed to ride shotgun! It was one of those “how do we find ourselves in these situation” moments. We were driving next to the only other car in town that was able to handle the rough terrain (The Mayor, in his Lexus), we had a policeman hanging out the window yelling at the horse owners chasing the pack on their motorbikes, with Pete standing through the sun-roof taking photos. The horse races can be notoriously dirty, so between our cop and the Mayor there was a fair bit of shepherding required to make sure none of the kids snuck off early on their horse to get closer to the finish line. Once the race started we saw a motorbike take off out the front of the pack, with a guy on the back waving a Mongolian flag, this was what the horse riders would aim for, as the motorbike determines the track they take. The kids yelled and whipped their horses across the course, kicking up a huge dust cloud, chocking the horses and riders further back in the pack. Excitement was boiling over by the time the pack reached the finish line, back at the Naadam. There were screams of encouragement as the winning horse crossed the line. Everyone rushed to the horse to rub it, the sweat of the winning horse is good luck. Looking around the crowd we saw smiles from those whose horses had done well and tears from those who had lost. The race was probably the highlight of our journey in Mongolia, something we happened on completely by chance, and were able to be involved in.

That night as we settled in to our Gers we were still recounting various stages of the race, our driver had been the most excited by the whole thing, he didn’t let the fact that he didn’t speak a word of English stop him from joining in talking about the race.

The next day we drove for hours through the Mars-like plains of the Gobi to the Khongoryn Els sand dunes. The dunes are over 40km long and a few hundred metres high. Naturally something like that is just asking to be climbed, so despite the heat we crawled up on all fours to one of the highest (and steepest) sections. Once we had regained the ability to breath at something like a normal rate we enjoyed the view, before enjoying skidding down the steep slopes. From the sand dunes we headed over to a Nomad family that our driver knew and had some traditional milk tea with the family in their Ger and sampled some of the old boys snuff. The family had a heard of camels and the patriarch proudly showed off a large collection of medals and ribbons on display in the Ger from the various races his camels compete in. His eldest son had just come 69th out of over the 1000 camels competing in the biggest camel race in the world. The man’s son took the two of us for a ride on some of his camels across the desert. Being spring time the camels were shedding their thick winter coats, making them look a bit patchy, but the fur was soft and they didn’t smell too bad, so we held on to the front hump, leaned back on the rear hump and enjoyed the ride.. Well, somewhat enjoyed the ride, we had sore butts for a week afterwards! 

The next day we had a short drive to the famous flaming cliffs, the place where fossilised dinosaur eggs were first discovered in the 1920’s. Pete hunted unsuccessfully for dinosaur fossils while Hayley and Enny gossiped on the hill. That night in the Ger camp a bottle of Mongolian vodka appeared and we found ourselves playing Chinese poker with the workers from the camp until 4.30 that morning. Surfacing from our Ger a few hours later, we faced an uphill battle to achieve anything, but managed to get our act together enough to leave camp and head to the Yol Valley, home of mountain goats and Ibis. A glacier snakes its way through the bottom of the Yol valley, so we went to investigate. Decked out in our best Glacier-hiking gear (Jandels and t-shirts) we got a few looks from the other tourists and the locals alike. After the glacier we drove north to middle Gobi and spent our final night in a Ger and then headed back to the bright lights of Ulaan Baatar.   

China, what can we say, the sheer scale and diversity of the place meant it was always going to be an epic adventure. We were not disappointed. Our trip began when we entered from Hong Kong and took a high speed train from Guangzhou to Guilin, a short bus ride later and we were in Yangshuo, where our trip properly began. We joined a 16 day tour with the Dragon Trip tour company, with 15 in our group we took public transport and met a local guide in each of our five major destinations.

From Yangshuo we took a 25 hour sleeper train north to Chengdu, capital of Sichuan province. A few days in Chengdu we had another sleeper train through the Qinling Mountians into northern China to the ancient city and former capital of Xian. Another few days in Xian and we were on the road again, this time with a bus to the birthplace of Kung Fu and Zen Buddhism, Shaolin. After seeing the monks and witnessing the power of their Kung Fu we had yet another night train to Beijing. With time running short before we had to be leaving for Mongolia we quickly saw a sample of the sights in Beijing before heading out to the Great Wall for one of the trip highlights, camping on an unrestored section of the wall.

YANGSHUO - GUANGXI PROVINCE

Arriving in Yangshuo at night we headed straight to our hostel to catch some rest before the real fun began the next day. We woke to a town surrounded by spectacular karst limestone mountains, think like something straight out of the set of the movie Avatar. We decided to do a traditional Chinese cooking class, where we walked to the market and bought our food to cook up a storm. The market is what you would expect, fresh fruit and veg, spices, ginger etc. We were a little confronted when we arrived at the meat section of the market, you can select your live chicken, goose, cat or dog and they will ‘prepare’ it for you on the spot. The vegetarians in the group definitely stayed outside for this part. We returned to the kitchen where we took to the wok and cooked three dishes and attempted some dumplings, great fun and tasty food.

In the afternoon we hired some bikes and took a leisurely ride out into the country side where we really saw the beauty of the place. We headed to the river and went bamboo rafting, which is a bamboo raft with two seats and a man using a bamboo branch as a paddle to push us along.  With amazing views surrounding us we sat back and enjoyed the ride. We were lucky enough to spot a local fisherman using Cormorant birds to catch his fish. A rubber band is placed around the birds neck so that when it dives into the water and catches a fish in its beak it is unable to swallow it, and instead the fisherman is able to get the fish instead.

We woke to a rainy day in Yangshuo gathered our raincoats and headed out to the mountains for lunch at an organic farm.  We walked a few kilometres to the famous Water Buddha caves, where we were shown through the cave system while it continued to pour outside. We ventured further into the cave and found some natural mudpools. This was the perfect way to spend a rainy day and give our skin a much needed exfoliate! That night we cleaned ourselves up and headed out for a night of classic Karaoke, some real team building here.

Nursing a slight hangover the next day it was a late start for all so we boarded a bus to a traditional market to stroll the shops and try some of local food. Every time I looked behind Pete was in another selfie with one or many Chinese girls, he definitely didn’t mind the attention! From the market we headed to a rural village where we had dinner with one of the local host’s families, we drank tea and ate an assortment of vegetables, meat and rice fresh from the farm.

That night we were constantly woken by a huge storm with constant flashes of lightening, which lit up the surrounding mountains. The wind was howling and the rain was pelting, the storm continued throughout the night and we woke to no power and the town half flooded. We had a bus at 0900 that morning so we quickly packed our bags and walked the back streets to find our bus. Once we were in the bus we began to realise the extent of the flooding, there were shops under water and cars fully submerged. The bus took three different routes to try and get out of town but all were flooded, our final exit route was luckily a success, if we had of been one hour later we may have been stuck in town. We made it safely to the train station where we boarded an overnight train to Chengdu.

CHENGDU - SICHUAN PROVINCE

Sichuan, the spice province, famous its spicy hotpot and Panda sanctuary, it’s capital city Chengdu city did not disappoint. We arrived late afternoon and settled into our hostel, freshened up and headed out to find some street food before a night at the Opera. Chinese Opera was everything from singing, dancing, acrobatics and storytelling. Arriving back at the Hostel everyone was keen to go to check out the nightlife. Kid, our local guide called his friend and we ended up at his friends nightclub where we had many laughs at lots of dancing with the local Chinese, Pete even got offered a Tibetan wife.

The following day we headed to the Leshan Buddha that is 71m tall and was built overlooking the confluence of three rivers. In ancient times the rough waters caused many local fishermen to drown, so the Buddha was built to calm the rivers. We were guided through the temple by our local guide Kid who was able to explain the basics of Buddhism to us and the way to enter and pray in temples. He was currently studying Buddhism and a great source of information. Once we returned to the hostel we headed across the road for a spicy hotpot dinner, still one of our favourite meals of the trip so far.

The next morning we took a bus to the Panda sanctuary where we strolled around the park and observed the Pandas. The older Pandas were not interested in anything but the bamboo in front of them. The bamboo provides them very little nutrition so they have to eat around 25% of their body weight of bamboo every day! It doesn’t leave much time for much else! The baby pandas were everyone’s favourite, they were super energetic and so so clumsy, we spent a while just watching them play with each other. We returned to the hostel where we boarded another overnight train to Xi’an.

XI'AN - SHAANXI PROVINCE

One of four major ancient Chinese cities, Xi’an has a history of over 3,100 years and acted as the capital to many Chinese Dynasties. We met our local honcho Sasha who was from Kazakhstan and had been living in China for 10 years, studying Chinese ancient history. We had the perfect guide to teach us more of Chinas long history. Staying there in the centre of town we took a walk to the ancient drum and bell towers which once were used to let the villages know when to start and finish work as well as notifying them of festival days. Xi’an is the start of the Silk Road and many Persians travelled this route and stopped in China, there is a specific Muslim quarter which we explored at length trying much of the street food along the way.

The next morning we took a bus to visit the famous Terracotta warriors, the “eighth wonder of the world” - according to the Chinese. This was incredible to see these ancient ruins and definitely one of the highlights of the trip. We returned to the city in the late afternoon and hired some bikes at the city wall and biked the 13.7km ancient wall passing all major gates along the way. It was a bumpy ride but with great views of the city. 

SHAOLIN - NORTHWEST HENAN PROVINCE

After our final night in Xi’an we woke early to board a six hour bus to the birth place of Kung Fu, Shaolin. We were staying out on a farm where they provided us with some great accommodation and food for days. That afternoon we purchased some kung fu shoes and made our way to a local Kung Fu school where we first observed the students demonstrate their skill to us. From here we wondered across the road to a pavilion where we could shelter from the rain. We learnt a Kung Fu routine with the help of the students. Pete had his own private trainer to check he had some weight behind his punches.

Day two in Shaolin we went to the Shaolin Temple where we hiked to Dharma’s cave where he continuously meditated for nine years. This is who bought Zen Buddishm to the world and helped Kung Fu take off. We spent the day walking around the pagoda forest and temples before returning for the evening and preparing for another night train to Beijing. 

BEIJING

Arriving in Beijing with less than 24 hours in town before taking the train to Mongolia speed tourism was the only way. We arrived in the heart of the city around 0730 , dropped our bags at the hostel while everyone showered we grabbed the camera and headed down the street to Tiananmen square for a few photos, being so early we were lucky enough to beat the crowds. With huge government buildings surrounding the square and army personal on post it was slightly confronting. Mao’s portrait is front and centre and directly opposite his mausoleum. We were in Beijing on a Monday which meant we were forbidden from entering the Forbidden City as it was closed. We jumped on the subway and made our way to the temple of heaven and wondered the park. There many elderly Chinese playing card games, dancing, knitting and all sorts throughout the park. We quickly returned to the hostel to meet back with the group to take a bus to the great wall.

Our bus ride was slightly delayed as a road crash meant we spent a few hours on the side of the road as we waited for the crash to be cleared. We arrived at a farm at the base of the hills leading to an unrestored section of the great wall, where they provided us with a quick dinner before we hurriedly gathered up our camping equipment and made the hike up the hills to the wall. It was a swift walk as we were chasing the sunset that was quickly setting before our eyes. We ran the last bit and made it just in time for a quick sunset snap. This would have to have been the highlight of our trip so far! After the sun had gone down we pitched our tents and build a camp fire, it was a great way to spend our last night in China, a clear sky meant we could see the stars overhead, and a bright moon gave us clear views along the wall all night. Waking up at 0430 the next morning we were a little dusty but it was totally worth it to be able to see the sunrise from a rampart on the wall. After deconstructing our tent we said goodbye to our tour group and headed back into Beijing to fight the traffic on the way to the train station, where we would board the 28 hour train to Ulaan Baatar, capital of Mongolia and begin our next adventure!

After a short flight from Seoul we found ourselves in Hong Kong where we boarded the express train into the centre of town. We navigated our way to Soho which provided us with endless bars and eateries. After a refresh at the hotel we met up with Petes work friend Pete and his wife Carrie who treated us to a lovely dinner of tapas and wine, followed by more wine in the famous Lang Kwai Fong area.

Day two we went out for some famous Hong Kong dim sum and it didn’t disappoint. We spent the rest of the day walking the streets eating and drinking at endless cafes and bars, before we boarded the rooftop tour bus to see the city sights.

Day three we met up with Pete who took us on a hike through Victoria Peak, we were provided with amazing views and even saw a snake, who would have thought. We thoroughly enjoyed our time in Hong Kong and it will not be our last visit. Big thank you to Pete and Carrie for your hospitality. 

Flying from Myanmar we landed in the ‘New York of Asian’, Seoul, where Maglev trains exist and fashion and skin care products are a necessity. We were in awe at the ease of the public transport system that took us directly from the airport and dropped us in Hongdae, where we were staying. Hongdae was predominantly a university town with restaurants on every corner and bars at every turn. The streets are alive with small boutiques and shops and we spent many hours just strolling the streets and watching the crowds. We went out for a traditional Korean BBQ which is a must in Korea, unsure of what needed cooking and what didn’t we stumbled our way through a delicious meal. Pete found himself in the Samsung shop trying out the virtual reality technology and I found my way into the amazing world of Korean skin care products.

We did the tourist thing and ventured out the DMZ (De-Militarized Zone) where North and South Korea split at the 38th Parallel. It is hard to imagine how two halves of one country could be so very different. The tour took us down one of four infiltration tunnels dug by the North to attack the South. The last tunnel was found in 1978 and the South believe there are many more, although North Korea deny they ever built them!

Everybody knows the famous Gangnam song from 2012 so we thought we would go and check out the streets of Gangnam. This area was a bit of a contrast from the university district, this was the playground for the rich and famous. There were street performers and great little bars - definitely recommend a visit there.

All in all Seoul was an amazing city to visit I have come away with more face products than can fit in my bag and Pete had begun dreaming of his future virtual reality purchases. The Koreans are great fun, they love a good party and a few laughs.

Arriving in Myanmar we weren’t too sure what to expect, where to go, or what to do. What we found was a country full of some of the friendliest, most welcoming people we have ever met. Myanmar only opened for tourism in 2012, and a lot of changes have happened since then. The country is still finding its feet after 50 years of military rule, but the people there are working hard to make the place accessible and open for foreign visitors. With nearly 90% of the population practicing Buddhism there is no shortage of temples and Pagodas to visit.

Our trip started in the south in Yangon city where it was like we had stepped back in time. Formerly known as Rangoon, the city was built by the colonial British 150 years ago, and most of the buildings still remain, largely unchanged from colonial times. This city provided us with some great street photography with the endless street markets and stalls. You will not find a fast food outlet, a 7-eleven or a supermarket in Yangon. Each street sold a different product from fresh fruit and vegetables on one street to fabric and clothing to tools on the next. You could get lost just observing this very different way of life.

From the streets of Yangon we made our way to the train station where we took the circular city train the takes about 3 hours. The train runs from the city and loops around the country side and back again. We sat and watched and were watched in return as people got on and off along the way, so many smiles and laughs with the locals… we were quite a sight.

While in Yangon we visited the famous Pagodas that were covered in gold and a real place of worship for local and overseas visitors. Pete wore the traditional Myanmar attire called a Longyi as you cannot wear shorts in temples. The locals found it most humorous with Pete’s attempt at wearing the Longyi and were more than happy to give him a few lessons.

From Yangon we took a 20 hour overnight train to Bagan, this sounds horrendous but it turns out it was one of the highlights of our trip in Myanmar. We were smart and paid the extra $5US for a sleeper carriage which made the trip somewhat more comfortable. It was one of the hottest dustiest trips we had taken but being able to high five and chat to the locals at each train stop made it all worth it. The kids all knew what time the train ran and would head down to the station and give big waves and smiles as we went slowly past. We arrived in Bagan in 40 degree heat in what felt like the middle of the desert.

We spent two days in Bagan exploring some of the 2000 temples and shrines dotted around the country side. The mode of transport offered to tourists is E-Bikes (electronic scooters). The first one I had ran out of battery in the middle of nowhere, so we lift ‘Misty’ on the side of the road and headed back to town for an upgrade. The heat just about had the better off us in Bagan with over 40° each day and 80 % humidity it was early morning and sunset visits to the temples. After a few days in Bagan we were templed out.

From Bagan we were on the road to Mandalay, with a four hour long bus ride which was pretty uneventful considering the state of the roads! Once in Mandalay city we made our way to the hotel and shortly after lightning and thunder filled the sky. All of a sudden the heavens opened and there was golf ball sized hail raining down. People were running and ducking everywhere to hide from the weather. Our power went out shortly after we watched as the storm passed over. We ventured out in search of some dinner shortly after and most streets were flooded. We found ourselves in a traditional Indian restaurant where we were treated to an amazing dinner. There was a noticeable change in the culture of Myanmar as we moved further north from Yangon to Mandalay, with a greater level of Indian, Bangladesh and Chinese influence, rather than the ethnic Burmese in Yangon. We explored Mandalay for a few days, checking out the palace, the U Bein bridge and the Mandalay Hill. 

YANGON