Misty Helsinki

After going on my Huski Safari, I headed back to Helsinki, to spent a couple of days before flying back to the UK for a couple of weeks of R&R. Unfortunately, it was very misty and overcast, raining and even snowing. Spent the days walking around the city, not an overly exciting place, but there is a sea fortress off the coast which was quite interesting.

Huski Safari!!!!

OMG!! So much fun. So worth every dollar spent on it. It was cold enough to spend a morning being pulled through the forest (about minus 5 or so), but the company provides you with warm weather gear, so despite the cold, I was toasty and warm (the pushing and running to help the dogs up the hill, and over the new snow helped to keep me warm as well).

I am currently in Rovaniemi, in Northern Finland, and yes it is a little bit chilly (was a toasty minus 14 yesterday, but as the sun was out felt relatively warm, no need for gloves even). I visited Santas Village, me the man himself, went over the arctic circle, and now am heading back down to Helsinki tonight on the train.

So where have I been before here. Since leaving Riga, I headed to Tallinn, in Estonia. This was a beautiful little city, up there in my favourite places of this trip. Only stayed a day and a half, because as I said, it is onl small, and I only had a week left before I fly back to London. I had both nice weather and snow here (seems to be the way for most places, either snow or rain one day and lovley sunshine the other). I had a lovley personal walking tour (no-one else arrived to go on it and the guy was happy to take just me which is nice as they work on tips, and I didnt have a lot left to give him). Saw some sights that I would not normally have gone to, like a flea market where you cant take photos, as everything there is stolen!!!

Photos soon, when I can get some net from my computer.

The tour through eastern???? Europe continues....

Riga

Overly excited to be at the centre of Europe

Warsaw


Auschwitz
Salt mines-sculptures are completely made out of salt, amazing

So my geography skills are worse than I thought...I always thought that Lithuania was in Eastern Europe. So apparently it technically is classified as Eastern Europe (according the the website I looked at, feel free to correct me), but it also has the geographical centre of Europe located about 26km north of Vilnius, so shouldnt that make it part of central Europe???? I'm confused!!!!! Ok ok, so it doesnt take much.

So where has my tour taken me??? After leaving Poland, no I didnt really like Warsaw at all, was glad to leave, it is just a city, I headed to Vilnius (Lithuania), where I spent a day exploring the city. I then headed north to visit the geographical centre of Europe (thus my confusion). Vilnius is a lovely if small city, with a cute little Old Town full of Churches. The Russion Orthodox (I think, there were so many) is absolutely amazing, one of the most interesting and nicest inside that I have seen, the outside it nothing to write home about though (sorry no photos of it though).

I then caught a bus this morning to Riga (Latvia), and spent the afternoon wandering around in the rain looking at the Old Town here. Again it is lovely (if hard to see through the mist), and after a couple more hours exploring it tomorrow (fingers crossed for better weather), I will again be on a bus heading north, this time to Tallinn (Estonia), ready for my dash to Finland!

The winter continues to be long and cold (apparently it is the worst one a lot of people can remember), and as a result there is still snow on the ground, and on some days still falling!

Falling apart

It is just as well I only have 8 odd weeks left, as everything is starting to fall apart...the two pairs of trousers (Ok so after 7 months of constant wear thats not all that surprising), singlet top (two have already been left behind as they were more holes than shirt), day bag (first one was left in Pisa, the replacement is now falling apart, just cant trust those $10 bags!!), gloves, jacket, camera bag. Hopefully I can make them all last the next 8 weeks and limp home with what I have left :)

As for travelling, I am currently in Warsaw, about to finish my quick tour of Poland. It is not as nice here as Krakow, but the old town is still very nice, and the Royal Castle was worth the visit. Another day exploring here, some parks, statues etc, and then an overnight bus to Vilnius.

Euro? Krone? Zlotie?

So I have made it to a new country, with a new language, and yet another currency. Poland. I am in Krakow at the moment, leaving tomorrow for Warsaw. It is a lovey city, only had a day here to explore, but it is only small, and everything is close by. It is getting colder again as I head further north, and I am getting to experience blue sky, sunshine and snow all at once (I've had it rain out of a blue sky, and now snow out of one-I love weather!)

Yesterday was spent at Auschwitz. I am glad I went, it was very moving and depressing, but also very interesting. I did learn a few things though. There were actually 3 camps, Auschwitz I being the most well know, but not the largest. Birkinau was actually about 100 times larger. Only those who went to Auschwitz had their numbers tattoed on them, the othere concentration camps only had them on their clothes.

today was spent exploring the city, and then I headed out to some salt mines. These were amazing, not at all what I expected. There are some really nice sculptures made out of salt, the walls are salt, just about everything is made of salt. There is also the worlds largest underground chapel, completely made out of salt-including all the sculptures on the walls-and all done by the miners themselves in thier own time, no professional carvers.

Lovely Prague

I was a little bit nervous about coming to Prague-I had heard conflicting accounts of the place, the majority of them being that people didnt feel safe here, like they were going to be mugged etc.

Prague is beautiful. It is an amazing city. I am in love with Prague. Sooo glad that I came. I felt completely safe here which was nice. The buildings are amazing, so many colourful buildings, mixed in with baroque, gothic, just about anything else you can imagine (and sometimes two different styles together such as gothic and baroque in St Vitus cathedral???? Random, but by the time they had were finishing the cathedral the style of the day had changed, so they just finished it in the new style. As you do!)

I spent 3 days exploring the city-wandering the streets, getting lost, being snowed on (so much for it being spring), climbing the hill up to the castle several times. They also have a lovely clock in the Old Town Square, which plays every hour, a majoy tourist attraction-unfortuanately it is also one of the biggest let downs. The twelve appostles walk past two at a time, and then a rooster gives the most pathetic cock-a-doodle-do imaginable, and your done until the next hour!

Tonight it is the night train to Krakow-hopefully I will manage to get some sleep!

Buda and Pest

Budapest-a tale of two cities. It is a lovely place, the two cities are very different to each other. Buda is hilly and quite small, mainly on the top of a hill, with some lovey widinding roads, St Matthews church which has a nice colourful roof, the Fishermans Bastion, which gives some lovely views out across Pest, and a castle, which houses museums.

Pest is a much larger city, and has much more to see, but is also more your typical city. Beautiful buildings, a grand market with a colourful roof, and St Marks Cathedral.

Croatia

I did a very quick stopover in Croatia of a couple of days-only saw Zegrab. It is a lovely little city, not a huge amount to be seen, but a lovely church with a colourful roof, and some very nice buildings.

Planned route

I have been asked to give a plan on places that I hope to travel to next. It is only a rough guide, not sure if I will get to all places, or when I will be there, but I hope to get to Hungry (Budapest), Slovakia (Bratislavia), Czech Republic (Prague and Cesky Krumlov), Poloand (Warsow and Krakow), Latvia (Riga), Lithuania (Vilnius), Estonia (Tallin), Finland (Helsinki and Rovaniemi), Scotland (Edinburgh, Dundee and Arberdeen), Wales (Cardiff), Turkey (Anzac Cove, Gallipoli and Istanbul)and maybe into Scandanavia (Norway, Denmark, Sweden-not sure yet)

By which time it will be time to come home, I will be well traveled, and completely broke!!!

In Goal!

Its alright, I havent been arrested, I am stayed in a hostel which is an old converted goal. It is absolutely beautiful, probably the most beautiful hostel I have stayed in this holiday.

Ljubljana is a beautiful city, only small but lovely buildings, a castle and some nice bridges. Only spent a day here, then headed out to Lake Bled for a day. This was nice, would have been even better if it was clear and I could actually see the mountains, can only imagine how spectacular it would be. I climbed a cliff to see the Castle here-it has a fantastic view over the lake and the church in the middle of the lake (kind ofa random spot to put a church).
Ljubljana

Ljubljana

Lake Bled

Lake Bled

Leaving Venice

After spending a very enjoyable day exploring Venice, I am off tonight to Slovenia, heading to Finland the slow and-hopefully-enjoyable way! I love Venice, despite the getting lost (maps dont really help), flooding, and multiple dead ends that you inevitably find. Will be sad to leave I have enjoyed not having any cars/bikes/motorbikes around for the last couple of days.

Seen the main sights here, St Mark's Square-made it there last night, but almost didnt make it back! The water taxies decided that they were going to go on strike (not really convient in a city that is full of water!) We made it part way back to our hostel after visiting a flooded St Marks, and then had to navigate the city in the middle of the night with no map-we did eventually make it back though. Today was spent visiting St Marks while it wasnt flooded and during the day, Doges Palace, and then randomly wandering the streets exploring.

Lost in Venice

Had a fun day exploring the city today-and getting lost. It is one of the things that has to be done in Venice, everyone does!!! There are either no street signs, or they dont match the map. Having said that, it is great just to wander the streets and explore, although makes it difficult to find the things you do actually want to see-like St Marks Square.

I did managed to find the Rialto Bridge, and make it to the ferries to Murano and Burano, so it was a partially successful day. Murano was slightly boring, the glass shops were amazing the skill of the workers, athough a lot of the glass is pretty ugly. Unfortunately you have to pay to watch the glass blowing so I gave it a miss.

Burano was beautiful, with the most amazing colourful houses. Had a nice time wandering around exploring them all, before heading back to the main islands of Venice, and a boat trip down the Grand canal-very nice.

I then got lost on my way back to the accomodation-finally bought a map which helped slightely, and eventually made it. Hoping to go out again tonight with some other girls from the hostel to have a look at St Marks Square at night-hopefully it isnt too flooded and we dont get too lost.

Photos-as promised

Touring Italy

I have been doing some travelling around Italy. After leaving Rome I headed south to Naples, from where I visited Pompeii. Pompeii was absolutely amazing, spent the whole day there, unfortunately didnt make it to any of the other 4 sights that are in the area, but thoroughly enjoyed what I did see. It is amazing what has survived the eruption, the paintings which they have uncovered, and what they can tell about the plants that used to grow there. They have managed to replant a lot of the grape vines which used to grow there, using the holes from the roots!

I then spent a day exploring Naples-and hated it. I felt unsafe, it was dirty, and I decided that it was much more preferable to spent my last 2 hours sitting at the train station waiting for my train, rather than wandering the city-I wont be going back there unless I am either on a tour, or with at least one guy!

From Naples I headed to Pisa, where I was relieved to feel safe, and have no guys trying to pick me up-what a relief! Pisa was a lovely little city. Went and saw the leaning tower, and went up it. Feels so strange to climb the tower, like you are drunk (or at least what I expect it would feel to be drunk, never having experienced it myself :)) The tower leaned a lot more than I expected it to-really does look like it is falling over! I also explored the Baptisery, Cathedral, Cemetary in the same square, and wandered the lovely streets of the town, before catching a train to Florence.

Florence was again a nice city. I could have spent a lot of money here, there were so many lovely leather goods, bags, gloves, jackets, shoes-but I was good and limited myself to a leather bound notebook and a nice little coin purse-gee I'm restrained! The Cathedral here was amazing, made out of coloured marble, it is one of the most impressive ones I have seen on this trip! I climbed the tower next to it to get some great views over the city, then explored the lovely laneways and streets of tehy city.

Tonigth I am in Venice. I was very surprised to make it to my accomodation without getting lost (it is inevitable that you get lost in Venice, apparently it is one of the top 10 things to do here). After a lovely dinner of gnocci (included in the price of the accomodation), I spent the nigth watching the water rise up and over the pavement in front of the accomodation, and in through the front door (luckily I am on the first floor so it doesnt effect us). It occures fairly regularly when the tide rises. Hopefully it had gone down tomorrow so I can go out and explore without getting wet feet.

Photos soon, when it is not so late, and I am not falling asleep!