I’ve been living in Edinburgh for almost six weeks, now. We’ve moved from our damp (but nice) flat by The Meadows and into a converted schoolhouse in the Old Town. I’ve never dwelt in the centre of a city before, but even after just a few weeks here, it will be hard moving somewhere [...]
Or, Not Spanish, Basque or How a bunch of girls drank me under the table.
I think I’ve discovered the friendliest people in Europe, if not the world. I’ve spent three nights in Azkoitia, the heartland of Euskadi, the Basque country. I came to visit Dafne, a friend I made in Chiang Mai, and her family [...]
Good food, friendly locals speaking a language that I almost understand, sunshine, vistas over patchwork fields, cobbled streets filled with nuns. This is Assisi, Umbria. It’s hot. I love it. I’ve spent the afternoon wandering up and down the hill gathering picnic ingredients for tonight’s dinner with Jen and Jo. I have baby tomatoes, fresh [...]
Ljubljana – a small, charming, beautiful, expensive town. Just another day, over budget…
Slovenia is one of those countries where I had no idea what to expect, and was delighted nonetheless. Ljubljana seems to be the most bicycle friendly city I’ve ever seen, so tomorrow I’ll be riding. It’s a tiny capital city, with about 260,000 [...]
Kiskassa has just shot to the top of my ‘places to work when I run out of rail pass’ list. Kate and I arrived mid-afternoon after a few hours train from Budapest, a wander through downtown Pecs and forty-minute bus ride out to the village. Kiskassa has one street, maybe two hundred and eighty residents [...]
This will be my last night in Budapest for a while. In the morning I’m headed south to a village near Pecs, to spend a few days relaxing on a farm. I’m hoping I’ll get a chance to do some riding or maybe hiking, depending on the terrain. I’ll be back in the city on [...]
Every day is a good day.
Eight of us (the aforementioned party of six, with newly acquired Canadian, Rich, and sometimes-companion Lori of Scotland) took two cars to the site of the tomb of Vlad Tepes (a.k.a. Vlad III the Impaler, a.k.a. Vladislav Dracula, a.k.a. Count Dracula). Getting to the church required forty minutes of [...]
We made the most of our last day in Athens. A wander through the markets yielded enough fresh food to feed a small army, and after an hour or so of slicing and packing, we headed to Lyceabattus Hill with a sunset picnic in mind. Laura (Canada), Isobel (Sydney), Samantha (Melbourne), Martin and Charlotte (Perth), [...]
Just spent the last three days strolling through the jungle. Had a fantastic time, in general, and got to know my Hua Lumphong friends a little better. Anja, Jo, Dafne and I were together for pretty much all of the time. We were joined for the first day of the trek by the lovely Chris [...]
I spent this morning at the Chilli Club cooking academy with my new friends Dafne (Basque) and Anja (German). We started with a trip to a local market to buy ingredients, before starting on some serious cooking. Between us, we cooked red, green and yellow curries, stir fried vegetables, pork and pad thai, sticky rice, [...]