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Welcome to my travel log! You will find here a lot more than in the travel reports, stripped from political correctness. Enjoy! 
Jun 11, 2010 06:00 PM Poznań (PL) - after years... Day 1
The trip did not start as planned. But it was because I foolishly decided to trust the public transport and stitched legs of my journey by different modes of transport to the last two minutes. First, the bus stop at the tube station was closed to allow room for some stupid exhibition. Then, the escalator at the station closest to the platform was closed for an unknown reason, which meant that I missed the train. The next one was in 5 minutes. And if it had run normally and had not stopped for 30 seconds longer at each station, I would have just made my connection for the National Express coach to the airport (£15 return). Fortunately, the next coach came on time some 15 later, and the driver kindly honoured my ticket for the previous departure. This all meant that I arrived at the airport 25 minutes later than intended.
The £10 all inclusive Ryanair flight was on time and it landed 5 minutes early. Quite common with Ryanair, who rigged their schedules showing much longer flight times on the timetable than it actually takes to get there. For example, the London to Poznań timetable states 2 hours of flying, when in fact the trip takes only 1 hour and 35 minutes. This way, they awarded themselves a buffer just in case something delays a departure.
Poznań welcomes me with a great 31C weather with a few white clouds in the sky. This lasted only about 2 hours and then grey clouds arrived and produced light rain. The evening got pretty advanced before it was dry again. Right in time for a night stroll and bar hopping. And there was a lot of bars to be hopped! The old square had a good selection of lounges, disco bars, clubs and pubs. But the side streets leading out of the square had even more. And every where and there, there was this little quiet cafe, like the SoHo on Wroniecka Street.
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Jun 06, 2010 06:00 PM So, 105 countries covered in writing... and counting.
Today, I published my travel report on the Bailiwick of Jersey, which makes it the 105th country about which I have written on GLOBO so far. I was in Jersey few years ago, but I thought it would be good to say something about this place, as there had been no travel reports on the island on our website before. Neither had been a word on the Bailiwick of Guernsey, about which I published my report a few days ago.
By the end of the summer, I am planning to write about five more countries, about which I have not written yet, and where I have not yet been, except the last country on this list: Albania, Bosnia & Herzegovina, Kosovo, Macedonia, Serbia, and Turkey. I know that the list says six countries, but on GLOBO, Kosovo is still part of Serbia... I might actually wait with Kosovo reports until we carve it out in order not to complicate work that would need to be done to do it. It is possible that my first Albania report could appear on GLOBO this month.
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Jun 01, 2010 06:00 PM Warszawa (PL) - flight booked. Finally!
It has been at least four years, since my last visit to Poland's capital. For some strange reason (I am not sure if I know exactly what reason) I had resisted travelling to Warsaw for such a long time. When direct London to Gdansk flights were introduced by cheap airlines, there was little motivation for me to venture that far east. Winter was never my favourite season, and the capital of Poland has always had much colder winters, compared with the coast, to which I was used to. And in the summer, it was always nicer to go somewhere at the seaside. Then, a number of airlines stopped flying to Warsaw, particularly easyJet, bmi, SkyEurope, and as the Modlin airport never opened, Ryanair never started flying there, and prices have become less competitive.
Anyway, as Wizzair were giving 20% off the ticket price yesterday, this twisted my arm. So, when mid August comes, I will go to Warszawa. I expect significant changes. Not just the new (well, not so new anymore!) Terminal 2 at the Warsaw Chopin Airport, a few new skyscrapers downtown, a new bridge over the Vistula river, several new stations of the metro line, but also new places to eat, sip coffee, shop and go out at night.
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May 31, 2010 06:00 PM International Children's Day
Hello Globies and GLOBOkids,
Happy International Children's Day! It was established by the World Conference of the Well-being of Children in Geneva in 1925. And it has been widely and flamboyantly celebrated by the Eastern Block during the Cold War, but in fact, it is also an important day for children celebrated across Africa. I remember many events in Africa taking place with kids in the centre of attention, usually performing, on that day.
The picture here features children in Ramena, northern Madagascar, whom I met on the beach and gave lollipops and sweets. That is why they were jumping and dancing.
Anyway, all the best kids! Let your dreams come true. Lots of travelling, no volcanic ash disruptions and no strikes. Happy trips and interesting travel companions on your escapades, wherever you may take them. Yeah!
There is also the Universal Children's Day established by UN General Assembly back in 1954 and assigned to the 20th November.
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May 31, 2010 06:00 PM Bosnia & Herzegovina - flights booked!
I acted on an impulse today. I saw a promotion on Wizzair, largest low fares airline in Central and Eastern Europe, offering 20% discount on all tickets today (on all bookings made online today), but for travel in the next 12 or so months. Not a bad deal at all.
I was considering expanding my exploration of southern and western Balkans this year, but was not sure, how much I was going to pack in one summer, since I could not secure a holiday long enough to do Albania, Kosovo, Macedonia, Serbia, Bosnia & Herzegovina in one go. Having secured tickets for two trips already; one to Albania, Kosovo and Macedonia via Greece, and the other as a weekend in Serbia (Belgrade and Novi Sad), I was left speculating what to do with the federated Bosnia & Herzegovnia.
I checked a few dates for the flights with Wizzair from London to Split and/or Dubrovnik (I was particularly keen on the former), and the price of £65 all inclusive did not seem too bad. It was for mid September, STN to SPV. I got it. It will be a 5 days holiday, given that I would need to transfer from Split all the way to Sarajevo on wheels, and that is about 7 hour-long ride. I plotted a route and it looks like this:
Day 1 (Friday)
- Arrival in the morning in Trogir at 09:30 a.m.
- Transfer to Split in the afternoon
Day 2 (Saturday)
- 06:00 morning coach ride to Mostar, arrival at 09:35
- Lunch visit to Blagaj
- Hike back to Mostar late afternoon
Day 3 (Sunday)
- 07:59 morning train (scenic!) to Sarajevo, arrival 10:22
- All day in the capital
Day 4 (Monday)
- 07:05 morning train (scenic!) to Capljina, arrival 10:02
- Short taxi ride to Pocitelj
- Quick transfer by road to Ploce
- 17:30 coach to Split, arrival at 20:00
Day 5 (Tuesday)
- Morning ferry to Supetar on the Brac island
- Evening ferry back to Split
Day 6 (Wednesday)
- 10:05 flight back to London
This is obviously a provisional plan only. Tuesday (Day 5) is a buffer, just in case travelling between A and B proves challenging. If it happens otherwise and there is anything that grabs my attention in Bosnia & Herzegovina, I might stay longer there and reduce the provisional buffer to a few hours.
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May 28, 2010 06:00 PM Iceland + the UK = Love? v Hate? Hmm...
I have just heard a commentary by a Briton that Iceland not only caused a major financial turbulence in the UK as people, businesses and local councils lost thousands of millions of pounds as the banking sector collapsed in Reykjavik, but they also stimulated the eruption of the Eyafjoel volcano to punish the UK for demands of the massive refund, causing huge damage to the airline industry and the economy overall. Never mind the inconvenience caused to travellers. Well, I have to assure that most British people actually do not believe that Iceland would stimulate the volcano on purpose. We actually believe this is an utter rubbish! We'd happily consider the Icelandic people as refreshingly eccentric, only if judging by Bjork, but from the science point of view, it would be seriously difficult to provoke the volcano, which lies under a giant glacier (incidentally, the British media keep confusing the name of the glacier with the name of the volcano) and not that it would be much easier with any other semi-dormant volcano.
We still love Iceland here. And now that their currency depreciated nicely, it is cheaper for us to go there. Nice one, as paying £7 for a pint of beer was not stimulating much party going. This does not however mean, it seems, that we'd welcome the nation to the EU. As our government changed and promised referenda for much anything to do with the EU treaties, the British people will have a direct say whether to allow Iceland in or not. This, I fear, might be a risky business. It is not personal with Iceland. It only seems that the EU enlargement does not appear too appealing to the Britons. Yet, for now, we continue travelling to Iceland for pleasure... and the dip in the Blue Lagoon.
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May 21, 2010 06:00 PM Greenwich Park - a warm weekend destination
I considering a trip somewhere in England this weekend, since the weather forecast was promising an unusually warm days ahead. I noted a few nice cities last night and was going to make a decision this morning. But unfortunately, and strangely, for a few days, I have been on Californian time. Staying up until 4 a.m. or 5 a.m. and then sleeping until noon or 1 p.m. Today, I was still in bed at 3 p.m.! This is not right!
Anyway, since it was so late, I really could not go anywhere. So, gathered myself together, and decided to hike to Greenwich Park, just across the river from my place. It was packed with people hungry for sunshine and warmth after such a long and cold winter, and slow spring! I had a cone of ice-cream, which we call 99p, which cost me 170p... And I sat down on the grass watching people playing football, Frisbee, riding bikes, hugging and kissing and trying to cross a fence, where they should really not be going, and a few lads smoking ganja... It was such a good day for many. It was so nice to see so many happy people.
I noticed that some work is going to be done to the Greenwich Foot Tunnel, as they put up blue boxes around. I fear that will close the tunnel and I will lose my connection to this great London borough. Maybe there will be ferries, who knows... Well, there should be! We'll see.
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May 15, 2010 06:00 PM Southern Balkans - tickets booked!
After a few days of wrestling with the decision whether and when I should to go to Albania, Kosovo and Macedonia, today I decided on the dates and the route. The trick was in the flights. Direct flights to Tirana (Albania) from London and then back from Skopje (Macedonia) were prohibitive in prices. I was not prepared to pay over £450 for this privilege. None of the no-frills airlines have discovered Albania or Macedonia yet, except that easyJet flies to Corfu (Greece), only 25 kilometres from Albanian coast, and to Thessaloniki (Greece), apparently increasingly better connected with Skopje by road and rail - well, it better be!
And so Corfu and Thessaloniki, none of which I visited before, have just become the beginning and the end of my week-long holiday in the southern Balkans. To substitute for the curtailed holiday in Tunisia. And I will make sure that no camel gets near me this time.
Albania will have the honour to become the 130th country that I will visit. From Saranda, where I plan to arrive by boat from Corfu, I will make my way north to Fier, Apollonia, Berat, Tirana, Kruja and Shkodra.
Then I will cross to Kosovo (country number 131), to Prizren and Pristina. And perhaps Pec (Peja) if time and transport allows.
Macedonia (country 132) will be next with a very short visit to Skopje - apparently not that inspiring at all - and to Ohrid for a longer than I would normally allow myself stay. And then a hop to Thessaloniki for the night and a morning flight back to London. Hopefully, this will work well. I am planning to rely entirely on the public transport everywhere, except perhaps Kosovo. But even there, it should be possible to get around without major problems.
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May 14, 2010 06:00 PM Album with photos from Tunisia is done!
The loading of photographs for my Tunisia slideshow is finished. It is a large photo album with over 140 images. Yet, there are two groups of photographs still missing there. One from Dougga and the other from Bulla Regia. However, the Globosapiens's cities database still needs to be updated for those two locations as the approval for them is pending. I will upload the photos as soon as the approval is granted and create separate albums for those places.
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May 13, 2010 06:00 PM Bamberg (DE) - a potential weekend destination
I found out today, that one of my friends had moved to Bamberg, Bavaria. I have never been there. I checked it out and realised that it had been listed as World Heritage Site by UNESCO. This is what the organisation says about Bamberg:
"From the 10th century onwards, this town became an important link with the Slav peoples, especially those of Poland and Pomerania. During its period of greatest prosperity, from the 12th century onwards, the architecture of Bamberg strongly influenced northern Germany and Hungary. In the late 18th century it was the centre of the Enlightenment in southern Germany, with eminent philosophers and writers such as Hegel and Hoffmann living there."
Sounds good to me. A quick scan on the internet, and joggling of a few options, it looks like I could take a flight with Air Berlin from London Stansted to Nuernberg for under £100, and then hop on a train for an hour and arrive at this pretty place. I am thinking a Friday to Sunday weekend. Perhaps in September.
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