Category European Cities
Balkans Tour 2017 – The Environs of Skopje
Continuing the recap of my 2017 Balkans tour….. Skopje, North Macedonia You may have gathered that I do not like the ‘new’ Skopje, the €500 million vanity project that looks like it was dreamed up by Liberace on acid. Thankfully we arrived armed with a couple of decent things to take in if, as was […]
Skopje Then & Now (2006 v 2017)
The ‘new’ Skopje is not my cup of tea. I first visited in 2006 and loved the vibe of the place. Authentic, a little run down but an earthy energy to the city. Fast-forward a decade and what I found was massively different, a horrendous beautification project akin to a woman having plastic surgery to […]
Balkans Tour 2017 – Tirana
Continuing my look back of my 2017 Balkans Tour – how did Tirana 2017 compare with Tirana 2007? We had just arrived by marathon bus journey from Sarande in Southern Albania and dilapidated taxi to our hotel from Tirana’s run down bus station…….. Tirana We found our hotel to be delightful and soon forgot our […]
Balkans Tour 2017 – Corfu to Southern Albania
As I continue to remain in the UK for the next month or two at least, I am reliving my 2017 Balkans tour. It started with a flight to Corfu……. Corfu, Greece It seemed that I was the only easyJet passenger en route to the Greek Island who would not be staying for a week […]
Friday Photos – Europe
Today is of course the 75th anniversary of VE Day, time to reflect on what a wonderful continent Europe is. It still has its difficulties of course, but is a wonderfully culturally diverse continent and a pleasure to travel around.
A-Z April Challenge (Cities Visited) – W for Warsaw
I have visited the Polish capital maybe half a dozen times. The first time was in 1992 when I arrived by overnight train from Leipzig and stayed in an extremely spartan youth hostel, the second in 2008 with three buddies for a weekend and latterly a few work related trips. The reconstructed Old Town, […]
A-Z April Challenge (Cities Visited) – T for Tbilisi
Tbilisi, Georgia I adore the Georgian capital having visited twice – arriving by train from Yerevan in 2015 and departing by train for Baku in 2019. How apt that I am writing about the wonderful city on St George’s Day. Here is an account of my 2019 visit. The very comfortable Art Rooms Hotel where […]
Orthodox Easter Sunday
Today is Easter Sunday in the Orthodox calendar. A day of celebration for Greeks, Russians, Bulgarians, Romanians, Serbs, Georgians, Armenians, Latvians, Estonians, Ukrainians, Belorussians and a host of others. Here are a few Orthodox cathedrals & churches that I have visited over the years. Χριστός ἀνέστη!
A-Z April Challenge (Cities Visited) – O for Odessa
Hamish & I arrived in the Ukrainian city of Odessa in 2011 by train from Chisinau in Moldova. The intention was to take an overnight train onto Sevastopol, but we had stumbled across some sort of public holiday and all trains were full for the next three days. Train Arrival But Not Departure With heavy […]
