Category My Book
Marvellous Moldova – Part One
Moldova is said to be the poorest country in Europe and indeed a visit here does seem like a step back in time. The ex-Soviet offers a break with a difference, especially if you also take in ‘rogue state’ of Transnistria as part of your visit. I arrived on the overnight train from Bucharest. Travelling […]
Free Book Download
I am pleased to let you know that the first few chapters of my book are now available for free download at Smashwords. If you like what you read, the full version is available from Amazon etc. I hope you enjoy it.
Just The Ticket
To set the scene, Hamish & I had just undertaken a horrendous overnight bus journey from Odessa to Sevastopol due to all the trains being full. Predictably we had shared the journey with thirty beer-swilling, chain-smoking, salami eating, joke telling construction workers. Sleep had therefore been sporadic at best……. When we arrived at Sevastopol […]
Armenian Adventure
Armenia is not easy to get to from the UK. There are no direct flights and three of the four land borders are not accessible, a consequence of Armenia’s long running disputes with Azerbaijan & Turkey and our own less than cordial relationship with Iran. There are signs that borders may open in the not […]
Sunday Photo – 8
This picture was taken in January 2003 in Tallinn – a trip we took to celebrate my birthday, which just so happens to be today! We stayed for three nights – first day dull, second day sun & blue skies and third day snow. This meant we retraced our steps twice and got three sets […]
Friday Photo – 7
This photograph was taken in Minsk in 2013. Although Communism has officially ceased in the former Soviets, the attitudes still remain, especially in the older generation. This was never more apparent than when we visited the capital of Belarus where we encountered some of the most unfriendly people ever on our trips, especially in the […]
Georgia On My Mind
A country that is not overly visited from the West, but with so much to offer is Georgia, with its wonderfully cosmopolitan capital of Tbilisi, stunning vineyard-strewn countryside of the Kakheti region and the bizarre Black Sea playground of Batumi, amongst its highlights. Batumi, Black Sea Coast, Georgia The adventurous and time-rich amongst you might like […]
Bosnia – Bouncing Back
Many people will forever associate Sarajevo and Mostar with conflict. There is no doubt that both cities suffered greatly in the 1990’s Yugoslav war. Less than 20 years on from those brutal ethnic purges, permanent mental scars remain with the surviving inhabitants, as do a number of physical blemishes on pavements, roads and buildings, left […]
Michael Palin
Today I had the honour of meeting one of my heroes, the charming and unassuming MP. He signed my copy of his book ‘New Europe’ and gratefully/gracefully accepted a copy of my book, which features many of the countries that he went to for his. I was typically tongue-tied in the presence of such greatness – […]
Angst in Ankara Station Part II
Regular readers of this blog will recall a book extract that I published a couple of days ago about our train journey across Turkey to Syria in 2009. On that trip my travel buddy Hamish was (thankfully only temporarily) separated from his passport for a while at Ankara Station, leading to all sorts of palpitations. In 2014 […]
