End of a Journey

From the moment I left Hong Kong to the moment I arrived home in England I visited 18 countries in 135 days, 4 hours and 20 minutes. I travelled from Thailand to England without getting on a plane.

The person who had the original idea for this trip is unknown. Jen and I were at a party and had lots to drink when one of us floated the possibility of travelling together. We were both finishing work at the same time so it seemed like a good opportunity.

Then the next morning we never spoke about it again, with headaches to nurse we both forgot about the drunken plan to travel together. Then, sure enough, a month later we were at another party and the idea came up again whilst drinking. The next morning though we actually decided to do it.

I have had the journey of a lifetime and would not have had the same experience if Jen and Nikki had not been with me. Whether I was riding on elephants, hurtling through jungles on motorbikes or partying with Russian military on a four day train, they both made it even more fantastic.

I am going to make a video of my trip as I took with me a HD camera and have lots of footage. It will probably be on here in one month. In the meantime I will not be writing another blog, I am home with my family in England and the blog was originally for them to keep track of me. It is great to be home and see everyone, this will be my first Christmas with them in four years.

But the moral to this story is to drink lots, have crazy ideas and then follow through with them in the morning.

for the final time:

bx

THE END.

I'm Coming Home!

On my last full day as a backpacker Nikki and I took a walk on the beach in The Hague. It was cold but very nice and home is just across the water.

I am excited about seeing family, friends and living in one place for more than a few days at a time. Home cooked roast dinner, fish and chips and proper cadburys chocolate are also high on my list too.

All I need to do now is head West.

bx

War Crimes and Red Lights

I arrived in Amsterdam unsure of where exactly I was. Am I in the Netherlands? Am I in Holland? Also, why do people from this country speak Dutch? Surely a better name for the language would Netherlandish or Hollonaise.

I did know that from Amsterdam I had to catch a train to The Hague. I have a friend who lives and works there called George. When I arrived in The Hague I looked for a public pay phone to tell him that I had arrived. There was no phone to be found, I eventually gave up and approached a lady at the information counter.

"Is there a public pay phone I can use?"
"There is one close by, but I think it is out of order".

This could have been a problem, but the lady was not finished.

"If you want, you can use my cell phone to call, is it a UK number you are ringing?"

I was left amazed, where else in the world would a lady offer her personal phone to call an international phone number? The Netherlands is the answer, or perhaps Holland, I was still not sure.

George works in The Hague for the War Crimes Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia where he is an assistant to one of the Judges. Which I thought sounds very important.
On the way from the station I asked if he could show me the Hague so I could take a picture, he looked at me strangely and gestured towards the street "This is all The Hague", he explained. Up till that point I always thought that The Hague was a name for one particular building, whenever I heard news reports like 'Gordon Brown gives a speech in The Hague', I imagined one stone structure, when it turns out to be many different places within one city.

I decided then to wait before asking him to clarify the name of the entire country.

My first morning George had to go to work and I decided to tag along. He mentioned quite casually that I could watch proceedings in court from the public gallery and I tried to be casual in response, but I was actually really excited.

The security to get into the building was understandably significant, George gave me a tour then one of his friends directed me to the public gallery. I went through some more security checks then walked into a room where I found myself seated behind the Ambassador of Croatia! On my left was the defence and the accused, on my right was the prosecution. The Judge was ahead and the issues they were dealing with were very much current. Click here to view a news article about what I witnessed happening!

I eventually left the court and some of Georges friends asked if it had been boring. I can see how it could get tiresome everyday but it was such an amazing experience to see a court in action, I decided there and then that Nikki would have to come on Monday.

Nikki. You might have thought she left us to return to England but she got bored, so decided to return to meet in The Hague. In typical fashion she arrived by plane, then met Jen and I in a bar. We were all joining the defence interns for a pub crawl and things were fun till we ended up in a club that was so empty it was sobering.

The next morning we went to Amsterdam with slight sore heads. It was really nice weather and the city was packed. Everywhere I walked it seemed I was stepping onto a bike lane, tram line or busy road. We visited the red light district with women wearing practically nothing and standing in glass windows. We also stopped into the 'Erotic Museum', which made a funny and somewhat unusual change to the usual historical experiences we have had so far.

The day unfortunately ended on a sad note though. Jen and I parted ways. She was returning to London that night by bus and so our adventure together came to an end. It was all quite emotional even though I know that I will not be far behind her. On Tuesday 15 December I will be home.

And it turns out I am in The Netherlands, but Holland is also here too...

bx


(The last photo of us all together)


(George and Nikki strike a pose in the sex museum )





(Nikki, George and myself at The Hague, in The Netherlands)

Tack Castle

Nothing says 'welcome' quite like the British flag flying outside a German family home.



This was the reception I received when I arrived to stay with Brigitte and Peter, close family friends who I had not seen for many years. On my first night we went for a drive round Hamburg which gave me the opportunity to see some of the city sights by night. Hamburg has more bridges than Venice and the whole city has waterways intersecting the streets. It was an interesting first glimpse at the city.






The weather was not brilliant during my stay but it is winter and to be expected. What made up for the weather was the brilliant cooking skills of Brigitte. Never in my life have I felt so well fed quite so consistently. Breakfast would involve of fresh bread, cheese, different types of sausage, salmon, turkey and jam. For dinner we ate a type of meat wrapped in cabbage leaves and on another evening had steak and potato with bacon. For lunch when I was out exploring Hamburg Brigitte even made me a sandwich and packed fruit in my bag!


(Breakfast with the Tack Family)


On my second full day with the Tacks we went to the city and took a bus tour of the area. The tour was in English and it gave me the opportunity to learn about the different areas of Hamburg. I did not know that the Beatles music career started in Hamburg and was surprised to turn a corner and see an old submarine floating in the water!





Staying in Hamburg was my first time for many months living in a family home environment and I was made to feel so welcome. In the future when people ask where I stayed in Hamburg I will say that I stayed somewhere better than the Four Seasons or the Marriot, I stayed at Tack Castle.




bx

Christmas Markets of Berlin

I could live in Berlin for twelve months or more, which is the highest score I can give a city. With the trip almost over Jen and I have been reminiscing about the places we have been, rating them according to how long we could live there. A snapshot example of a few of my ratings would be:

Kuala Lumpur: 1 Month
Phnom Penh: 6 Months
Hanoi: 12 Months
Beijing: 3 Months
Moscow: 12 Months
Berlin: 12 Months

Berlin scores high partly because of the Christmas markets. I imagined one street of stalls selling food and gifts but instead I found an entire Christmas city. Some stalls were two stories high and the complex was huge. The food was straight from the oven and delicious. I ate Pretzels, Bratwurst, cheese toasted rolls and consumed lots of warm Glugwein with shots of rum which made me feel very festive!

There were multiple Christmas markets around the city and each one had different fairground activities. Jen and I went ice skating near our hostel and I'm proud to say I did not fall over!




(One of the hundreds of food stalls at the Christmas markets)



Whilst the Christmas markets were incredible we had to leave during daylight hours and explore the city. Jen and I studied the cold war and in particular the Berlin Wall at school so were interested to see the locations we had previously only read about in books or seen on television.


(The Reichstag, note the glass dome on the roof)


(view from the glass dome over Berlin)


(Me in the glass dome)


(Berlin wall)


(Victory Tower)





(Checkpoint Charlie)

bx

Denmark

Nikki took control of getting us to the hostel as soon as we arrived in Copenhagen. We had been on an overnight bus so it was good that someone in the group was alert and in the mood for navigation. In no time at all we had found our hostel, checked in and were waiting for our room to be cleaned. Nikki was desperate to do some laundry so we found a posh cafe that was also a laundrette! It was strange to be amongst people having business brunch with our dirty clothes wizzing in the background but the Danish bacon and eggs were worth it.

Our first day was spent walking far and wide. Copenhagen has the longest pedestrian street in the world and is also famous for hotdogs. Every five minutes there seemed to be a stand where you could purchase a sausage with mayonnaise, mustard, pickles, onions, dried onions and ketchup...They were delicious but made us stink for the rest of the day.

The biggest 'must see' tourist attraction was something called "The Little Mermaid". The author of the original story came from Copenhagen and it was with great anticipation and excitement that we walked past the Winter Palace in search of the famous fishwoman. What we found was a medium sized statue of a mermaid overlooking the water. It was a somewhat overhyped attraction but I can now say that I have seen it.

(The'must see' attraction herself)

Both Jen and I have friends living in Copenhagen and through some master organisation we managed to meet with all of them at the same time in a bar. Jen knew James from living in London and I knew Christian from working in America. Christian had grown up in Copenhagen and asked to see a map to show him where our hostel was. He studied it for a moment then looked at me and remarked "Copenhagen is generally quite a safe place, but where you are living, people get shot". The general unsavoury nature of our hostel area was also confirmed by the girlfriend of James, the problems were gang related involving the Hells Angels and rivals, thankfully none of us were motorbike riding gang members so we were told we should be fine.

(From left to right, Celia, James, Me, Nikki, Christian, Unknown guy who jumped into shot)

Christian tried to teach me how to order two beers in Danish and then strode up to the bar girl and explained what I was about to try to do. It was quite funny that he placed such importance of warning her in advance and even more so when she looked at me and said "I'm Latvian but you can go ahead and try speaking Danish anyway". I ordered my beers and we had quite a few more, eventually arriving at our hostel past four am and with no bullet wounds or any other motorbike gang related accidents to speak of.

Our last night we stayed with James on the floor of his flat and visited some other attractions including an area where drugs are sold openly in a self contained village. We also spent time at a famous fairground area which was lit up for Christmas. The next morning Jen and I said our goodbyes to Nikki who had to fly to England for a wedding and we then set off to catch a bus for Berlin which involved a ferry that we were not aware of till we were told to get on it. Typical advance planning from myself.

(Copenhagen is gearing up for the climate summit so there are globes and things dotted round the city)

(The waterfront)

bx

Finnish Fisu

If you are drunk on a cruise ship between Finland and Sweden then things can become deceptive. The boat rocks backwards and forwards to the swells of the sea, so I blamed my lack of coordination on this rather than the bottle of vodka infused with three packets of Fishermans Friends mints that we were all drinking.

Three packets of mints diluted into one bottle of Vodka creates a Finnish drink called Fisu, it may sound nasty but it is actually very nice. We could also excuse our drinking as having a traditional Finnish cultural experience, which is always good.





(Me and the Fisu)






(On the boat, leaving Helsinki)

The ship was huge, clean and cheap, it is amazing but it would have been cheaper to make the overnight ferry ride between both countries every night than to stay in any hostels or hotels that either capital city offered. Below is what we should have done to save about 45 quid.

• Day in Helsinki - overnight cruise ship - day in Stockholm - overnight cruise ship - day in Helsinki (repeat as required)

Who would think that the cheapest way to explore a country is by leaving and returning to its borders everyday!

I woke up early on the boat despite my slight headache and went up to the top deck to watch the ship arrive in Stockholm. It was very cold and windy but watching the city start to get larger on the horizon was worth it. When we left the boat no one checked our passports, which seems to be standard practice when crossing borders in Europe. We walked twenty minutes to the local train station and then navigated our way by train and bus to our hotel.

(My first view of Sweden)

(Small streets of Stockholm)

Our time in Sweden was spent visiting the Royal Palace, gazing at the impressive display of crown jewels and wondering if they are as relaxed about securing their crowns as they are with border crossings. We ate lunch in an underground prison, explored the endless winding side streets of the old city area and walked miles and miles in an attempt to see everything Stockholm had to offer. Next stop. Denmark!

bx

Russia to Finland Border Crossing

We reached the border between Russia and Finland after only a few hours journey. Around two hours later almost everyone in the bus had gone through the Russian and Finland border process, but one woman in our vehicle had been detained.

There was a noticeable rise in tension within the bus. People looked at each other with nervous energy and the bus conductor would walk up the aisle and whisper to people, his eyes glancing around suspiciously. Soon the detained woman returned to the bus, being escorted by a Finnish customs officer in uniform. As the woman stepped onto the vehicle the noise level dropped and everyone watched in silence as she picked up her bags from her seat and was marched back across the border.

Once the woman had left, the bus was permitted to leave. The engine started and the tension suddenly burst. Amid a flurry of movement the bus conductor whipped out a big brown sack and worked his way up the aisle. Passengers everywhere began pulling out hidden bottles of vodka, packets of cigarettes and other smuggled items, depositing them in the sack as he shuffled past. Even a little old lady was in on the action, producing a bottle of vodka from her handbag. It would seem that our bus was more smuggling vessel than human transportation device, and our conductor was the Del Boy Trotter of the Russian to Finland border crossing.

When we arrived in Helsinki our experience was slightly surreal. We had been travelling overnight from 9.30pm to 5am so Jen, Nikki and I had not had much sleep. The bus suddenly pulled up to the side of the road, turned off its lights and everyone seemed to go to bed. Even Del Boy started to snore. We were not sure if we were in Helsinki, we were not sure why the bus had stopped and we were not sure how long we would have to wait. We failed to have any of these questions answered because we were all tired, we simply went to sleep slightly confused.

Two hours later the lights of the bus went on, everyone woke up and exited the vehicle. It turned out we were in Helsinki.

And Helsinki was great.

We checked into the hostel and headed straight into town. We found an old indoor market and started our Finland experience by tucking into some juicy Reindeer. I felt slightly strange eating Rudolf, and I felt bad that Santa will be going round in circles now that he is minus an engine, but it sure was tasty!

Later that night we went to see an ice hockey game, because that it what Finnish people do. The home team unfortunately lost the match, but the atmosphere was amazing.

The rest of our time in the city we explored the shops and side streets. Amazed to be somewhere that uses English in everyday life. We also booked our onward journey to Sweden, on a cruise ship, which should be fun!

I will be sad to leave Helsinki, it is certainly not the most exciting place in the world, it has awful weather and less than 6 hours of daylight. But the people were friendly and for our short visit we certainly enjoyed ourselves.

bx

(ps photos to be added soon when i sort out computer issues)

St Petersburg

Many guide books say that if St Petersburg is your first destination on a trip to Russia then you should not expect the rest of the country to be the same, and I have to agree.

If you like old, big and impressive buildings then St Petersburg is for you. It does not feel like Russia, it has an arty and creative vibe that Moscow and Irkutsk lacked. You can walk along winding canals and get lost in old palaces and Cathedrals where Tsars one roamed. It is a beautiful city with an incredible history and a place I imagine people must love. Personally though I have not fallen for the charm that St Peter has to offer, it has not made an impact on me in the same way that the rest of Russia has on my trip. Perhaps this is because it is more European in nature, or maybe because I have not drunk enough Vodka. I do know that if I visit one more Cathedral or museum I might throw myself from its highest spire or window...


(Canal with impressive Cathedral in the distance)


(A hermit in front of the Hermitage)


(The fortress that first prompted the building of St Petersburg and a ship that is in fact a posh health club on the left)

I leave for Finland tonight!

bx

Moscow

I never imagined that I would happily organise my day around going to see a dead body. Death and tourism is quite a strange mix, but when you are in Moscow you have to go and visit the mausoleum of Lenin, so this is what we did on our first full day. Lenin never wanted to be covered in wax and preserved for eternity, Stalin decided it should happen, and you never disagree with a man who could send you to a labour camp as quickly as he could shake your hand.

The mausoleum is situated near the center of Red Square, which is overlooked by the incredible Kremlin, St Basils Cathedral and the History Museum. You file into the giant stone tomb and walk down into the darkened depths beneath the square, turn the corner and see Lenin face up in a glass box. You walk quickly past the dead leader, prompted by guards to keep moving and suddenly the bizarre experience is over and you are back in Red Square. It was a strange start to the day.

After seeing Lenin we visited the history museum and then St Basils Cathedral. The Cathedral looks like it has been constructed by a a cake maker using colourful icing whilst under the influence of drugs. Many photographs were taken.









(That is one big brass monkey...)


(Broke the bell in the Kremlin)

People warned me about crime rates and corrupt police officers in Moscow but my experience was totally positive. Every time I turned a corner I was faced with a gigantic and impressive church or Soviet era building that forces me to get my camera out and take a photo. We walked into the Kremlin and looked round the extensive armoury which was full of diamonds and weapons, and weapons covered in diamonds. We also visited the Moscow State circus on ice, which was entertaining and something I recall my dad telling me about when I was younger. In the main lobby they had a bear, a camel, baby tiger and a cheetah!


(Churches everywhere)


(Lenin lives here!)

From Russia with love...
bx

PS. If anyone wants to see Lenin in a box then click here.

Four Days on a Russian Railway

Evening two of our four day train journey saw eight people crowded into one small train compartment. We were all sharing three cups which were frequently filled with shots of Vodka and consumed with enthusiasm from the Russians and slightly faked enthusiasm from the British.

Nikki was talking to a minor sporting celebrity from Belarus, Jen was chatting in basic German to a Russian with basic German ability and I was talking to a Muslim man from Turkmenistan about the difficulties he experiences having five wives, fourteen children and six grandchildren. Communication was not easy for any of us, but we had a Russian phrasebook and plenty of time to make friends.


(From left to right, Muslim man with 40 children, guy from army, me, Nikki, Jen and minor Belarus sporting celebrity)

Day one of our four day train journey saw us crowded into another train compartment, this time filled with Russian students studying car mechanics. They were on their way back to university and incredibly curious about these strange three British people in the third class compartment of the train. Vodka was consumed and the phrasebook was used when sign language or basic English failed. Vodka always seemed to improve all of our linguistic skills so gradually the phrasebook would be picked up less and less. As the students left the train one lad who was also a boxer looked at Jen and asked "will you forget us?" which was quite sweet because they were our first trans-Siberian friends and would be very hard to forget.


(The car mechanic students)

In evening one of our journey Nikki and Jen took a nap. Nikki then woke up to find a Russian soldier sitting on the end of her bed, some tentative English was used and soon it seemed like the entire Russian military was crowded in the train compartment. Many of the lads were heading home after completing their one year mandatory period in the army and some others were continuing on to join the Special Forces. Everyone was excited and some unusual presents were handed out. Nikki got a Russian army issue vest and Jen got given an army issue belt. Beer and vodka was consumed and a complicated card game was explained.


(A few of the army guys)

Our last day on the train Nikki and Jen had mastered the card game and the compartment was filled with some familiar and some different faces. Most of the lads in the Army had left the train so now it seemed a little bit quiet. One old lady who was a school teacher sat next to Nikki offering her tips on her card game strategies and the promiscuous Muslim father of an entire village got grumpy when Nikki and Jen kept winning. Two gas van drivers were also in the compartment along with a man who Jen had met on her way to get hot water earlier in the day. Vodka was again consumed.

Throughout the trip there seemed to be a revolving door of curious Russians eager to make friends with us during our journey. At the end of one day I asked if Nikki had read any of her book and exasperated she replied "Ben, where would I have found the time!" Which was a very good point, and probably why the four day train journey seemed to be over so quickly.

We stepped of the train at around 5am Moscow time and waited for the underground train system to open. We found our hostel and all took our first shower in four days. We are just waiting for the sun to rise now so we can go and explore Moscow.


(Our train that would take us to Moscow)


(Jen is presented with a Russian army issue belt)



(Nikki pretends to be happy that I am taking a photo)



(Action shot, Nikki confused with phrasebook)


(The view from my top bed down the open dorm style carriage that was our home for 4 days)

bx