London

My week in London has been quite fantastic. After a weekend at cousin Ant's place, the site of a great great party full of wonderful people from every corner of the world, this week has seen me go shopping and eating mostly... as well as seeing Mary Poppins on West End. Tomorrow we go back out to the countryside until next week. The trip's end is nearing as we leave next Thursday night for Hong Kong. Thanks everyone here in London and See you soon everyone in Hong Kong.
-Andrew

Hong Kong -> London Picture tour

In progress.... please browse:
	We set off from Hong Kong station on 2nd June 2005... (Our leaving entry...)
...and arrive in Beijing 24 hours later. Here we spend 4 days and nights touristing, eating local foodand visiting the Great Wall out at Simatai. (1st Beijing blog entry) (2nd entry in Beijing)
Early in the morning of the 7th June, we hop on the trans-mongolian train in Beijing and arrive in Ulaanbataar, the capital of Mongolia, 30 hours later. We are greeted by local guides and taken to our Ger camp. (blog entry for Mongolia)
	After 2 nights at the Ger camp and one night in Ulaanbataar itself, we get back on the train this time heading for Irkutsk in Siberia. This is the least comfortable of all the trains we go on but also the most interesting. It takes 30 hours. (blog entry: "train to Siberia")
Siberia was hot and nature was in full swing... We homestayed in a beautiful, remote village outside Irkutsk right on Lake Baikal for a couple nights. ("Lake Baikal" entry)
	Irkutsk is one of the bigger capitals of Siberia. With a population of 600,000 it gave us a good taste of what life is like for the Russians out there. We boarded the trans-siberian next after one night in Irkutsk itself. (Our Irkutsk blog entry...)
Riding the trans-Siberian rail from Irkutsk to Moscow takes 76 hours. It is a long journey through many many stations, some with 20-30 minute stops where one could get out and stretch legs, re-stock the bread, noodles and beer supplies and take a break from the clickity-clack. (the entry about the "trans-Siberian")
	Arriving in Moscow we were greeted with an evening of sun before 2 days of straight rain and low temperatures (12-18 celcius). Museums and pubs were the order of our visit. The sun came out the day we left. (An entry in Moscow... Some pictures from Moscow...)
We then boarded a train from Moscow, through Belarus into Poland where we spent 4 days in Krakow. ( Moscow through Belarus, Wawel Castle in Krakow, Krakow square, The Wieliczka Salt Mines)
Next was a short overnight journey to Vienna, which saw us arrive at 6:00am. 2 nights in Vienna kept us busy at museums and sights (and almost bankrupt)... ( An entry from Vienna, and another blog )
	We then pull into Bratislava for a night. It is sleepy, relaxing, beautiful and bed-bug-ridden. ( "Bugislava" )

Trip in a nutshell...

Over the next couple weeks I will attempt to put together a better version of our trip on this blog. Please keep checking back for the latest...
If you would like to know anything in particular or would find a particular thing interesting, let me know by commenting on this entry.
-Andrew

We Made It! (overland Hong Kong -> London)

Got into London yesterday afternoon and were warmly welcomed by the Pinckney family.


After a great night's sleep and a lazy day today I'm feeling a little more recovered and am revelling in the accomplishment of our great trip. After 40-odd days on the road which took us from Hong Kong to London I think we have made a few friends, learnt lots of things, taken a heap of photos and have a few stories to tell. Due to problems with the blogger I wasn't able to update the blog earlier but I'll update it tomorrow when I have more pictures. Goodnight!

I'm now ready to get back into one of these!

Hungarian Thermal Baths - the Gellert Baths, Budapest

Weather

AMAZING WEATHER the whole trip.

Of our 40 or so days of travelling we had only 4 full days of rain while touristing, of course it did rain a couple of times as we got on the train... Here's hoping it continues that way!!

"Izzy-Pants"

Displayed here are our "Izzy-pants":

Thank you, Izzy, for this great disposable undies... Kath got through all but one and I haven't gone anywhere near them. Sexy? I think so!!!

I'll update more

Please keep checking back this weekend... I'll try to update it a bit when we get to London... Paris is just too difficult and expensive! Have Fun!!

Strangest Things we've seen

1) Bone Church in Kutna Hora, Czech Republic... This whole church is decorated with bone stuff...

2) Man on street with telephones and scales, Ulaanbaataar. Even though I don't have a picture, these guys sat along the street with a phone and scales to weigh yourself... costs money.

3) Cows mooing to be let in, village on Lake Baikal.

Sacre Couer in Montmatre, Paris.

In Paris now. There are close to no internet cafes in Paris. Its funny - many more and much better internet cafes in Moscow and ex-Eastern bloc countries, but the West has almost none!

PARIS

Tired, but here we come.

Went on a pub crawl last night. Felt like we were in kindergarden again... some kid was celebrating growing out of nappies or something... another kid had never heard of Tiananmen massacre...

NO RAIN, though. We now await our train... soaking up as much sunlight as there will be this evening with expired travel tickets and a few more euro before broke... Just a few hours until a 12 hour sleep in a comfy German\French couchette...

-Andrew

Blasts in London - glad you are safe and sound

Just a quick note from me to say we are extremely relieved to hear all we know are safe and sound following yesterdays bombs in London. Thanks Mum for texting me - we were on a train between Prague and Berlin at the time and had no idea what had happened. Thanks also Sandi, for posting on this blog that you are ok and others for texting and calling me. We are utterly shocked specially following the great news that we had got the Olympics.

We are fine, continuing our trip. We are now in Berlin and about to embark on a bike tour.

Our thoughts are with London and you all. hope you all recovered from your epic walks home - well done Sandi for only getting lost twice, well done Katie for stopping at the pub and very well done Dad it's a long trek to Fulham from the city.

Katherinexxx

Sunny Rainy Sunny in Prague

Prague is a great lil' town - as Kath said, very touristy but beautiful. Lots of little lanes and very small area-wise, so everything is close together.
check out more info about prague
In the rain yesterday, we visited the Mucha Museum and learnt lots at the Communist museum, as well as seeing the astronomical clock and other beautiful sites around Prague.

Sorry no pictures yet - haven't found a place where I can upload them.

Prague the story continues

Having had a beautiful first day where we wandered around this chocolate box city it was somewhat fortunate that on our chosen museum the heavens oponed and it poured with rain all day.  Having set ourselves up with a good breakfast including killer hot chocolate we started our museum day with the Alfons Mucha museum.  Mucha, who, although you may not have heard of, produced some of the most famous posters of the Art Nouveau style in the early 20th century.  Lots of swirly lines and women with hair strands that seem to have a life of their own.  It was a joy to wander around and I was stunned to discover what a massive output he had and what a prolific craftsman he was.  His works included not only graphic design, but also drawing, painting, furniture and even money design (he designed the new banknotes for the newly formed Czecholovakian rebublic after WW1). 

 

After warming ourselves up with a hot drink we then went on to the Communist Museum, which surprise, surprise is a museum dedicated to the communist period of Czeck history.  |t included information on political ideals, daily life under communism, the secret police, soviet propaganda and a video of demonstrations against soviet occupation which took place from the 60s onwards.  Again, fascinating and a small insight into what it was like. which was mostly repressive, scary and a long way from the Ideal Socialist World it was supposed to be.

 

Following a much needed siesta we ventured out again to our last musem of the day... The Sex Machines Museum!  An entertaining place containing all sorts of eye-watering contraptions (some dating from 17th century).  I think my favourite was a machine for easing the frustrations of female prisoners! 

After dinner (yes, we had no problems eating after that) we went to a jazz club to listen to some live jazz.  Located in a cellar it was very atmospheric and the music was pretty good too.

 

Today we hired a car and drove out to a couple of towns outside of Prague.  Andrew drove brilliantly (not once going on the left side of the road), I on the otherhand nodded off while I was supposed to be navigating - oops!  still we found our way around and drove through lots of pretty villages, some of which seemed to consist of 3 houses and a dog.  The weather is once again warm and sunny and it was nice walking around.  We went to the castle of Arch Duke Ferdinand (the one, whose assissnation sparked off WW1) the outside of which was lovely (we were too lazy to go inside and do "The Tour". 

 

Overall Prague has been enjoyable, though with so many tourists it doesn't feel like a real town at times.  Tomorrow we head for Berlin which while also being formally communist (well half of it) will be a big change from what we've seen so far. 

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Learning from history...

This is where I take the few spare moments at the i-cafe to talk seriously. Aside from Austria, this trip has taken Kath and I through ex-communist countries (and China which is still communist). It has been a great learning experience, visiting museums, talking to guides and locals and hearing and seeing the differences, the changes, etc.

I am so happy and glad that the people of these countries can put behind them some terrible treatment and lifestyles that affected society and each person to the core. Although many of these countries face so many more difficulties and challenges now with their transitions out of communism and into free-economy, democracy and joing the EU...

It was quite an awakening when we were reading the paper the other day to catch up on foreign affairs to still see people suffering and being unfairly treated in some places of the world - Zimbabwe was the place that we were reading about... Seeing the horrors the Nazis and Socialists put people through, it's difficult to understand why Mr. Mugabi wishes to go down similar lines as the leaders of those regimes...
-Andrew

Prague...the story so far....

We arrive on Sunday late afternoon after an easy-ish journey.  I say ish because Andrew had a case of boredom and I had my nose in a book which put us at cross purposes some of the time.  Matters were not improved by the difficulty in obtaining a ticket for the tram as tickets could only be bought from machines which took coins, and freshly arrived we had no coins (i'm really beginning to see the highlights of having a single European currency having changed currency 3 times in one week!).  We therefore had to make a couple useless purchases of water to get coins and pissed off the kiosk guy by only having big notes.  Well we finally got the tram and were treated to a great view of the Castle on our way in.  We found our hostel OK and were greated by a very surly receptionist which made me wonder if we weren't still in Russia! having dumped our stuff we then set out to explore. 

Prague is really a very beautiful city and although I had visited 10 years ago I remember very little having spent most of my time in bed with acute tonsilitis (thankfully this cannot happen this time the offending organs having been removed shortly after that holiday).  The city was occupied by the Nazis early on in WW2 and as a result survived the war mostly intact apart from one bomb dropped by the Americans who thought they were flying over Dresden! The city therefore has kept it's stunning mixture of Gothic, Renaissance, Baroque and Roccoco architecture making it a visual feast simply just walking around.  The drawback is that it is incredibly touristy.  nearly everyone strolling around is a tourist and all businesses seem to be in some way connected to catering for the masses of sightseers.  We took a walking tour this morning which showed us round the major sights of the Old town, Jewish quarter (intact as Hitler wanted to preserve it as a museum of an Extinct Race), Charles Bridge and the Castle.  The weather is hot and sunny so lots of photo opportunities were taken advantage of (together with the other million tourists).  We are now feeling a little touristed out and tomorrow are going to take it more easy and see a couple of small museums.  On wednesday we are going to hire a car to see some smaller (and hopefully less crowded) towns in the region.  Will update you with piccies of those as they come through. 

Right, off to sample more Czeck stuff.... the beer and wine...

Kath

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Budapest

Budapest is the bustling capital of Hungary and, as such, it is busy and buzzing with action. Unlike some of the other Central European countries that we've been to, Budapest seemed to be more crowded and lively. On one side of the river, Pest is completely flat and filled with beautiful old buildings. The Hungarians, living in slightly hotter climate, love the outdoors and there were many pedestrianised streets where restaurants and bars overflowed onto at all hours of the day. On Buda, the hilly Western bank, people live in lovely houses that peacefully line the hillsides overlooking the otherside.
Staying in a lovely Pension just off the Oktogon, we had easy access to everywhere and we got to see the city and learn lots of history on a bike tour organised by Yellow Zebra... very very worthwhile.
One way of taking advantage of there climate and natural springs is Hungarian baths... We visited two of these, there first being one of the largest bath complexes in Europe. It had two heated outdoor baths, an outdoor swimming bath, a sprinkling of saunas, steambaths, etc., heated indoor baths (all labelled at 40, 38, 36, 28 and 16 degrees Celcius), a wave pool (whoever thought being swept around a 20m oval like a washing machine would be so fun!!) and all sorts of massage and other rooms... a perfect day out when the weather is good, or even when its bad! Yes, we caught a bit of rain in Budapest, but it wasn't bothersome, sometimes even welcome as the weather was very humid and warm. Had dinner with Anne and Laurent (while little Clemence slept in her cot) (these are friends of Kath's living in Budapest) and they were very hospitable and cooked up a feast - Thanks so much guys!

Hopefully some pictures coming soon - I have some great ones from the Citadel (thanks again Anne!) but have to find a cafe where I can upload them.

-Andrew

House of Terror

The house of terror is a great museum that we visited. Very touching and educational / powerful exhibitions in the place where the Secret Police had their headquarters in Budapest during Nazi and Soviet reign... CHECK IT OUT!!