Kamea and I wanted to see Harry Potter on the big screen but it had finished its Wellington run. I had purchased some Super 8 gear and had to pick it up in Paraparaumu so it didn’t seem too much further to go to Levin to see the Potts. It was a ridiculous reason to [...]
Image by bondiben. On February 7, 2005 I left Canada and returned to Australia for the first time since December 6, 2001. Despite my sadness at leaving Tara, coming home to Australia was marvellous in so many ways. For a start it was a hot summer in a way that I hadn’t experienced since leaving. [...]
Image by laurenatclemson. In early December I went to Paris for four nights with Paula. It was magnificent. It’s such a beautiful city, and Parisians are truly sophisticated. It was a bit of a nightmare getting there as our plane from Belfast was delayed by almost four hours. At least we could laugh at me [...]
It’s a bit weird always having to think about what you’re saying and who you’re saying it to. Politically I would consider Northern Ireland to be part of Ireland as a whole but technically at the moment it’s part of the United Kingdom. (That suits me very well actually because my Republic of Ireland work [...]
“Belfast? Why on earth would you want to live in Belfast?” say about half the people I tell. Most people who’ve actually lived up here are fond of the place though and I love it. It reminds me a bit of Hobart, with a bigger harbour and a smaller mountain (well, hill really). And there’s [...]
Image by Patrick Kiteley. I can proudly say that I have danced to ‘Murder on the Dance Floor’ in England, Ireland, Germany, the Baltic Sea, Estonia, and Russia. Whilst there is a thriving local pop industry in each of the countries I visited, particularly Germany, there is a fondness for English speaking music that is [...]
Image by kafeole. On the train to Riga we were sitting with a lovely woman called something like Lillian. She was a pensioner in Russia and was visiting her daughter and granddaughter whom she hadn’t seen for a long time. She didn’t speak much English and we didn’t speak much Russian but with our phrase [...]
Image by davecobb. On what we expected to be our last day in Moscow we trooped down to Lenin’s Mausoleum to see the man himself. Standing in line, the guards said “no more Lenin” and closed the gates. We were devastated. You can’t come to Moscow and not see the dead Leni. We decided that [...]
Image by Spin Cycle NYC. The Izmailovsky Markets are an enormous expanse of mainly tourist-focussed souvenirs and paraphernalia. However, there was also loads of interesting arts, crafts and second hand junk. Most of the sellers are fairly standoffish but Mr Stamp Seller has obviously been to sales school. First he started smooth, then he tried [...]
What time you got up and the mood of the woman serving decided whether or not your free breakfast was good. On good days we got dumplings or fried eggs with bits of ham. If you were not in her good books you might just get a couple of pieces of cold, dry toast. Whatever, [...]
We met another two young men in Moscow, B from Australia and D from Canada. D was a um… a bit reckless. B was a little annoying. Every night D and B were both keen to go to a bar called the Golden Duck or some such silliness. This was because there was a traveller [...]
Researching Russia before we arrived I read plenty to warn me about drivers and their lack of etiquette. Stalin was rather keen on wide streets as it meant that it was easier for tanks to get around. This means that there are lots of roads where there are eight lanes of traffic going in one [...]
Tracey and I were pretty good about making our plans for our trip but we decided to change them when we were there and boy, was that a mistake! We’d divided our time in Russia equally between St. Petersburg and Moscow, but after being in St. P for 4 days decided that we’d like to [...]
I felt very sad being in Russia. China is the only other country that I’ve been to that is not a so-called first world country. So to be faced with the poverty of a nation was confronting. It was all the more sad because there are clearly lots of extremely wealthy people in Russia. It [...]
Tallinn is a historic and beautiful city – at least the Old Town is. It was slightly touristy, which means we didn’t have any language problems but there was a sense that we were walking wallets. I went on a bus and walking tour of the city of Tallinn with a small group of Chinese [...]