TravelStream™ news feed for member dconlisk on TravelPod's free travel blogs service http://www.travelpod.com/syndication/rss/dconlisk en-us Copyright ©2009 TravelPod.com Sun, 02 Sep 2007 10:43:27 -0400 http://www.travelpod.com http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/dconlisk/worldtour06-07/1188397860/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/dconlisk/worldtour06-07/1188397860/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/dconlisk/worldtour06-07/1188397860/tpod.html Sun, 02 Sep 2007 10:43:27 -0400 All the way round...

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Newcastle, United Kingdom

After all the excitement of Amsterdam, standing on the deck of the ship as we entered the mouth of the Tyne I experienced that familiar reaction on returning from travelling: a sort of mild depression, an anti-climactic feeling after looking forward to getting home for the past few weeks of the trip. But that's normal and usually short-lived and besides, Tynemouth is not the loveliest place to look at.We arrived into the terminal and of course Jenny's folks and her sister Emma are there to meet her, PO with his camera at the ready. Then I hear "Where's the party?" in an unmistakeable Irish accent and my parents appear! "What the hell are you doing here?" is of course my first utterance. What a fantastic surprise! (Not least that it saves me a trip to Ireland, hehe).So the trip is more or less over. That's it. We are back again and spending time with our families (the only ones missing being my sister Aoife and her boyfriend John). We spent a few very relaxing days in Newcastle, catching up with each other, being exceptionally well fed and watered, and doing some sightseeing in the area. Now my parents are gone back to Ireland and I'm ready to head to Glasgow tomorrow.I've searched through all the stuff I stashed here so many months ago and realised how little of it I need, and how few clothes I actually own. In my mind there was a whole wardrobe to be uncovered here, but no. Perhaps a little too generous at the charity shops before I left, but that's a good thing.I feel like I should give some sort of summary of the trip, what I've learnt, my top ten favourite places, yadda yadda, but no. I'll leave that out. What I will say is this: I may be skint and in debt and feeling the fear, but it was worth it. Save your money. Stop buying so much shit. You don't need it! Save your money, and then quit your job. You can get another one. And then go travelling. On your own if you have to. Take the train and the boat if you can. Fly if you must (I did). Go and see the world and worry about all the other crap when you get back. If you get back. Or, better still, don't worry about it at all. Go travelling.
]]> http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/dconlisk/worldtour06-07/1188310860/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/dconlisk/worldtour06-07/1188310860/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/dconlisk/worldtour06-07/1188310860/tpod.html Sun, 02 Sep 2007 10:30:15 -0400 All the way round...

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Amsterdam, Netherlands

We took the train from Berlin to Amsterdam early on the morning of the 28th. This is the first leg of our final day of travelling. We arrived into Amsterstam bang on time in the early afternoon with plenty of time to spare to make the ferry to Newcastle. We wandered out with our bags and had some food, before disaster struck.Well, maybe not disaster but something strange and potentially destructive happened in our brains. Rather than wait 45 minutes for the shuttle bus to the ferry port, we decided we'd rather just keep moving and get their ourselves. So we got some directions (which we didn't really understand, but that didn't seem to matter - as I said, something really bad was happening in our brains) and off we went. Mapless and half-cocked. Disastrous. The train lady never told us when we'd reached the bus station we were supposed to get off at, and so we found ourselves at the end of the line, with a lot less time to spare now. We turn around and go back, and arrive at a train and metro and bus station. The wrong one. We argue. We panic. We take a train to the correct station. There is no bus. There is no time. We jump in a cab. It's after 5pm, with our ferry casting off at 6pm. How long will it take? Depends on the traffic. We'll go the harbour route as the main highway is bound to be busy. We speed off. The cabbie is chatty, wants to hear about the trip. We aren't really in the mood, concentrating as we are on not screaming or having nervous breakdowns in his nice clean cab. The traffic builds. We slow. This is bad, we are informed. But no, it's okay, they just had the bridge up to let a ship pass. Not our ship, thankfully. We move again, not too fast, but at least we're not stopped. It's 5.30. We're not so far now. The cabbie shares his stories of missing the ferry. You feel like dying when you miss it apparently. We tell him he's not helping. Signs for England. 5.40. There's the ferry. We drive in, no, foot passengers that way. We reverse out. Fast. We screech up to the doorway. We throw 60 euros at the guy and race in... to find some Geordie lasses casually chatting to the check-in staff. 5.45. Plenty of time we are told. They check our tickets and passports. At three different desks. We are on the ship. We are on the ship. We can't believe it. Our legs shake. We even have a cabin this time, two berth, en suite, with sea view if you don't mind. We shower and hit the pub. We have a buffet and a bottle of wine. We sleep the sleep of the blessed. We wake up in England...
]]> http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/dconlisk/worldtour06-07/1188011940/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/dconlisk/worldtour06-07/1188011940/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/dconlisk/worldtour06-07/1188011940/tpod.html Sun, 02 Sep 2007 10:19:59 -0400 All the way round...

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Halmstad, Sweden

Just so that it doesn't look like we went Sweden -> Denmark -> Germany
]]> http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/dconlisk/worldtour06-07/1187964960/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/dconlisk/worldtour06-07/1187964960/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/dconlisk/worldtour06-07/1187964960/tpod.html Sun, 02 Sep 2007 10:17:56 -0400 All the way round...

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Somewhere small in Denmark, Denmark

We took the short ferry crossing to Denmark to spend a couple of hours there, browsing cheese and booze shops, drinking a beer and having a famous Danish red sausage, and wandering about the little place before returning to Halmstad in the evening. Only noteworthy really as it's another country to add to the list! Most important.
]]> http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/dconlisk/worldtour06-07/1188137280/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/dconlisk/worldtour06-07/1188137280/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/dconlisk/worldtour06-07/1188137280/tpod.html Sun, 02 Sep 2007 10:15:49 -0400 All the way round...

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Berlin, Germany

After a week of pampering in Sweden (including a classic car show and a day trip across the sea to Denmark) it was time to hit the road again so we took an overnight train from Malmo direct to Berlin. The train was driven straight onto the ferry like a car, and we slept in it in our six-berth compartment like peas in a pod - a bit more cramped than the Asian trains but still comfortable enough. The air doesn't circulate so well though when the train is in the cargo hold of a ship but there you go.On arrival at Berlin's brand spanking new Hauptbahnhof our good friend Olli was there to meet us - thankfully, as the place is absolutely massive. It was 6.20am as well, on a Sunday to boot, but luckily there was plenty of coffee to get us back to Treptower park where Olli, Sabine and Lara live together in a lovely apartment there. They looked after us splendidly, feeding us up and taking us to the various parks in the area. We spent Monday walking all over the city, from the Brandenburg Gate to Checkpoint Charlie to Kreuzberg and back to Treptower park all on foot. A very pleasant city and not at all as expensive as Sweden was (thankfully). We saw plenty of parks and spent our time (when not wandering) lounging about bakeries and beach bars drinking coffees and beers. Very nice. Definitely a city to return to and 'do' properly at some point (something I can't say for too many cities we've been to on the trip recently).
]]> http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/dconlisk/worldtour06-07/1188050640/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/dconlisk/worldtour06-07/1188050640/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/dconlisk/worldtour06-07/1188050640/tpod.html Sun, 02 Sep 2007 10:07:00 -0400 All the way round...

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Malmo, Sweden

After a fantastic week of relaxation it's finally time to get back on the road. We took the overnight train from Malmo to Berlin...
]]> http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/dconlisk/worldtour06-07/1187718060/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/dconlisk/worldtour06-07/1187718060/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/dconlisk/worldtour06-07/1187718060/tpod.html Sun, 02 Sep 2007 10:04:26 -0400 All the way round...

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Halmstad, Sweden

When the train arrived in Halmstad, Jenny's uncle Lasse and his wife Lotten were waiting for us on the platform, from which point we've been totally pampered by them. Sunday Lotten's son Mattias and his girlfriend Jeanette came and drove us to see Malmo where there is a cultural festival with food from all over the world, live music, the works. Otherwise, we've been keeping clean, well fed and well slept, up to date with photos and blogs, and generally relaxed as hell. Fantastic. We'll stay here until Saturday when we take an overnight train to Berlin.Of course some of you will immediately recognise that Halmstad is the home town of everyone's favourite Swedish pop band, Roxette. It's surrounded by beautiful forests and coastline, all of which we've been chauffured, chauffeured, driven around to see. None of this, of course, makes for an interesting blog entry.
]]> http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/dconlisk/worldtour06-07/1187458440/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/dconlisk/worldtour06-07/1187458440/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/dconlisk/worldtour06-07/1187458440/tpod.html Tue, 21 Aug 2007 13:40:55 -0400 All the way round...

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Stockholm, Sweden

The ferry from Helsinki was basically a floating nightclub-casino, that just happened to spend the night going from A to B. We just had walk-on tickets and as such ended up sleeping on the floor with the other bums. It wasn't so bad, we were safe from the drunken hordes (except on an unspeakable bathroom visit during the night) and woke up to the sight of the Swedish coastline - beautiful, with lots of little islands everywhere all with lovely typical Swedish cottages everywhere.On arrival at the terminal, things went very well. Yes, the shuttle bus took euros. Yes, the ATM machines in the station in town worked. Yes, I could have some change for the baggage lockers. Yes, ALL of our baggage fitted in a single locker. Yes, everyone speaks English. Easy, easy, easy.We had a few hours to wander about before taking the train to Halmstad. Another beautiful city, very grand. We were lucky to catch the changing of the guard at the castle, wandering along just at noon by accident in time to see the soldiers firing their old muskets. The other very interesting thing was to see a bunch of guys on the street scamming people with the little ball under the matchbox game, where you have to point at the matchbox that hides the ball and win double your money. We stood watching for about 20 minutes, fascinating stuff. It's pretty obvious after a few rounds that the guy is not surrounded by a crowd of curious onlookers like yourself at all, but there are in fact six of his mates there, and you. So his mates take turns to win and lose, until you see just how foolproof it is and easy to win. Until you put your money down that is...Anyway, the train to Halmstad was the lushest yet. Looked like it had been designed in Ikea, a fast, tilting train that ran perfectly on time. Beautiful. I love Europe.
]]> http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/dconlisk/worldtour06-07/1187371560/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/dconlisk/worldtour06-07/1187371560/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/dconlisk/worldtour06-07/1187371560/tpod.html Tue, 21 Aug 2007 13:33:42 -0400 All the way round...

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Helsinki, Finland

Our train from St. Petersburg was obviously a Finnish one. It stood out a mile. Very clean and Western looking, with friendly staff and very efficient in general. One impression I had was that, as with most trains I've taken in Europe, people sit in rows of two twos, all facing in the same direction, with maybe the odd table where four people face each other. On the trains in Russia and in most developing countries (i.e. Southeast Asia and India in my experience), it's much more social with three facing three in most areas at least, if not with a bench facing setup where the number of people in a set (geek!) depends on how busy the train is. Anyway, just a little thing. Even the 'unfriendly' Russians would talk to strangers all the time on the trains. Compare with the tube in London...The border crossing was another easy one, thankfully, and we breathed a sigh of relief when our paperwork was in order and the Russian border guards didn't try to do us. We'd heard a lot about various scams, but not on this train. We didn't even have to leave our seats to get through both sets of customs. Very nice.Anyway, in keeping with recent trends there was a problem with our train. Unlike in Russia where we sat in sweltering heat each time the train stopped, or were allowed out to wander on the tracks and take some air, here in Finland we were very well informed and looked after at all times. Welcome to Europe!Because of the delay though we only had time to wander with our rucksacks across town from the train station to the harbour. Impressions were excellent, cafe culture, very European (not surprisingly) and a beautiful town. One to come back to maybe. Anyway, we boarded our ferry heading for Stockholm after a quickly swallowed Finnish beer in the ferry terminal, accompanied by take away food from an excellent food market in the harbour...
]]> http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/dconlisk/worldtour06-07/1187017440/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/dconlisk/worldtour06-07/1187017440/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/dconlisk/worldtour06-07/1187017440/tpod.html Tue, 21 Aug 2007 13:25:53 -0400 All the way round...

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Moscow, Russia

The three days on the train from Irkutsk to Moscow flew by - really. Plenty of cards, Baltika beers, hot tea, sandwiches, staring out the window, reading loads and having intellectual discussions with our neighbours in the next compartment. Luckily for us we only had one other person in our compartment, and she spent all of her time with her family in another carriage - so we had the place to ourselves. Our neighbours were a very interesting bunch - 79 year old Hugh originally from England now living in Perth, Australia, 65 year old Hugh from Perth as well, and 40ish Theo from Indonesia. They were travelling together from Beijing to Helsinki before returning to their respective homes - Theo in Indonesia, Hugh teaching in China and Mark back to Perth. During the course of our conversations all sorts of topics were covered, with Hugh quoting from the likes of Descartes and making jokes about the Irish boat people in Vietnam and such like. We took whatever opportunities were available to get off at some of the stops, when we had 15 or 20 minutes to check out the fare on offer. From cardboard boxes filled with crayfish to deep fried potato dumplings to all sorts of tourist tat and various kinds of fruits - we didn't go hungry, certainly. So the time flew by. We went from being six hours behind Moscow time in Irkutsk so that's six time zones we trained across since we boarded the train on Friday. And finally we are back in Europe, though still in Russia. We arrived into the station at about 5pm and wandered about the station trying to stash our rucksacks. Initial impressions were pretty rough, with plenty of alcoholics lying around on the ground in the station and suchlike (the station reminded us of a rough version of the Barras) but we jumped a metro here to the Red Square area and it is absolutely beautiful. So of course we thought we'd better jump online immediately and jabber about it. On that note, I'm off back outside into the blazing sunshine for a Baltika and some shashlik...... later ...That night we had arranged a bed with a guy we met on the couchsurfing website. Unfortunately, he was a mobile phone type of guy and as such didn't bother his arse showing up at the Metro station at 11pm as arranged. So we hung around the station for an hour trying not to get caught by the police, who are notorious for extorting money from tourists for bogus visa issues. Anyway, we eventually got a hold of him and he came and met us and dropped us off at his flat. It was a small squat. Great.We had to be quiet going in and out of the building.Thankfully, there was another French girl also staying through couchsurfing and so we chatted to her and relaxed a bit before falling asleep on the floor. In the morning we got ourselves and our gear out of there and went and found another hostel, losing a precious morning of sightseeing time in the process. Which was fine with me, at this point I was in no mood for it anyway. In the end we saw quite a bit of Moscow city, the center at least, and managed not to get scammed by any policemen. Seeing Red Square and St. Basil's Cathedral was fantastic, something I've always wanted to do. Initial impressions of the people are that they are very unfriendly, and don't like smiling. Apparently if you stay longer you get past this and they are very friendly people, but not without some Russian you don't. Anyway, I was glad to see the back of the place to be quite honest. I don't like cities where you can't rely on the cops.
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