The Mayan Highway (Mexico, Belize, Honduras)

I entered in to Mexico through Cancun once l left Cuba. My initial plan was to stay in Cancun but after meeting Igor in Havana, he told me to take a bus straight to Playa del Carmen which is about 40-minutes south of Cancun and l while l can’t speak about Cancun, Playa was beautiful and l fell in love very quickly. I spent 3 nights here where l stayed in the Yak hostel and joined a few of their activities including a class on how to make mojitos, which turned into more of a learn to make a mojito and then drink as much as you can with the remaining time left in the hour. While at the Yak, l saw a guy called Viktor from Sweden who l had actually met in Cienfuegos in Cuba and a Turkish-German guy by the name of Kc (pronounced Casey) who has actually been travelling for 3 years and only going home for a few months here and there.

Viktor left after my first night (remember him though), and then that was when l met Kc and we formed some laughs over the next couple of days. On the 3^rd day we joined the hostel in playing volleyball but with the volunteer that was taking us to the net, not having any interest and literally walking off to go swimming, we did what we could. Here we met a beautiful Israeli girl by the name of Shani and our duo turned into a trio. We played some South American guys in a 3v3 beach football game and as we were playing for drinks, they thought they had it in the bag, however when Shani beat all 3 of them in one run, l think they became a little scared….. we won the game and they paid up.

Playa del Carmen beach

I left Playa and headed to Tulum via a collectivo taxi, which was cheaper than the bus at only 40 pesos and once again l was on my own. I heard that Tulum beach was beautiful but also the town was close to Coba. I arrived into Tulum and realised the beach was 7kms away from the town so while l did visit it both days to have a swim, would l say it is worth it? My answer is no. My second day in Tulum l headed out to Coba which is a group of Mayan ruins, and while not on the wonders of the world list like Chicken Itza, said to be beautiful in its own way because its set more in the jungle and it is beautiful and cheaper, the only problem is the bus to Coba. It leaves at 10am and doesn’t return until 3pm and once you have spent about 2 hours at Coba (I was walking too and not cycling), you are left with a lot of time to kill and there isn’t much to do in the town. The story of the day though is once l had visited the big popular temple, l went out to the further one and not many tourists went this way so l was alone on this track and as l headed around a bend, a person was waking the other way and it could have been anyone but on second look, l couldn’t believe it but Viktor made an appearance.

Coba’s main temple

When l first entered Mexico, l wanted a few days to relax and do nothing at all to a point where l could sleep and not be questioned why l was being so lazy. I had the opportunity to space out and do this in a town called Bacalar. Bacalar is situated about an hour north of the Mexico-Belize border and inland but is situated on a lagoon but known as the lagoon of 7 colours. To get here, you have to take a bus and ADO is the main first class bus service in Mexico. The cost is about 220 pesos. I stayed at Blue Monkey hostel which was right on the lagoon and had its own jetty so l could walk straight down in the morning and dive straight in for a morning swim, which l did take advantage of every morning. I spent 4 nights here and was the perfect time to rest. I should also mention that on my third night, Viktor made another appearance and we both stayed the final 2 nights and then headed off to Chetumal via another collectivo taxi costing 40 pesos each.

Here Viktor and l separated again as he headed onto Caye Caulker and l was staying in Chetumal for a couple of nights. I only decided to stay in Chetumal due to the sole reason that when l was in Cuba, l was speaking to an American lady who told me to visit the zoo here as it is more of an eco-zoo. On my 1 full day l had there, the owner of Downtown Hostel in Chetumal lent me his bicycle for free and l rode up to the Mayan museum which is one of the best in Mexico to learn more about the Mayan culture and life. It cost 73 pesos to enter and while it wasn’t all that big, it was still nice to see and learn a bit of world history. I moved onto the zoo after this and it looked like a rundown place from the outside. It cost me 20 pesos to enter and once you are through the front gates, its well looked after and all the animals looked happy but then again, l’m no animal expert. The camel looked like it wanted to spit on me or anyone who walked past (I say anyone because being midweek, there was about 20 people there and 2 school groups), and as l also had plenty of time looking at animals by myself, l did spend some good quality time with the monkeys trying to play games with them.

Chetumal sign

After Mexico, I headed by bus into Belize, once again without much planned except that l wanted to take the boat from Belize to Honduras and it only runs once a week on Fridays. I had booked 2 nights in Belize City and when l arrived, it quickly dawned on me why a lot of people say not to stay in Belize City. It is not that the city is dangerous but more the fact there is literally nothing to do in the city. I met up with Viktor again (I know, it’s funny to think we didn’t plan any of this) and we both had a look around on trip advisor for what to do and when number one is a small bridge on the main road, we decided to move onto San Ignacio where we could conduct a day tour to the Actun Tunichil Muknal cave or better known as the ATM cave. The tour cost $95usd ($125aud) but it was completely worth it except that we were not allowed to take cameras due to past incidents with tourists and the Mayan artifacts.

Stock photo provided by Mayawalk tours as we were not allowed to take cameras on the tour

Viktor and l separated once more (and at time of writing, we have not crossed paths again) and l headed onto Dangriga on the coast of Belize where l was planning to take the boat from on the Friday. I was told that Dangriga is the cultural centre of Belizean music however when l arrived and l asked the information lady about where to go to experience this, she kindly informed me that is wasn’t until the weekends which wasn’t going to work for me, so l went for a walk to see all l could in Dangriga which, if you could believe this, is less than Belize City. I was the only one at my hostel for the first 2 nights which was right on the beach which could make things look up, except for the fact that the water a dirty brown colour, at least l was entertained by the local Belizean premier league football team training every night right out front my door.

Friday came and l was excited to get moving again after a couple of unexpected rest days. I walked onto the jetty as where l was instructed to get the boat from however was turned around by a bus driver telling me l was in the wrong location. Walk back a different direction for 15 minutes before l find a travel agent to get clarification, turns out l was in the right place to start with. The boat arrived and once l had paid for my ticket, $67.50usd ($89aud) one way which includes departure tax from Belize, the rough sea crossing to Honduras began.

I arrived in Puerto Cortes, which is the major port town of Honduras, where l experienced a rude start to a new country. I was highly ripped off by the money exchange man and then being no other taxi service around (I needed to take one to the local bus station) l used the same company the guy works for and his friend would stop at a bank for me, but when the first ATM didn’t work, he took me to another 2 and charged me an extra 50 Lempira (). It doesn’t seem like much, but in central America and being a budget backpacker, then that could mean money towards a whole meal. I was shoved onto a local bus to take me into San Pedro Sula where l planned to stay a couple of nights and while the city was large, it didn’t have all that much to do either while it is also known to be one of the most dangerous cities in one of the most dangerous countries in the world, it had a vibe of everyone was watching you.

The ‘international’ jetty to Honduras

I spent 2 nights in San Pedro and then took the long slow bus journey down to Managua, the capital city of Nicaragua to visit Gabriela who is a friend l met in Myanmar and then onto the rest of the country which will be in the following blog.

Below is the ferry option to Honduras. Note before, the times have changed and it actually arrives in Dangriga at 11am with arrival time in Honduras around 4pm. Starla ferry is the company and they do have a website.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Cuban Delights

Everything you know about Cuba, forget it.

If you have read any of my other blogs, you will understand that I have a motto, that if anything can go wrong, it will and the start of my journey into Cuba was no exception. As mentioned in my last blog, I arrived very early back into Nassau and after I waited until McDonalds had opened for breakfast, I headed to the airport to wait 10 hours until my flight into Cuba on Cubana Air. I knew before this time, that the airline had already delayed my flight until 7pm however I had a feeling I should just jump back online and re-check my booking. It’s a good thing I did, as my flight had actually been moved and the new date was for 2 days later!

I’m not going to lie and my stress levels went through the roof. I asked a lady for help and she said she would be right back. 2 hours later and she hadn’t returned so I found another person who gave me a Bahamas number for Cubana Air rep, who I called and explained my situation. He was able to get me on a new flight with American Airlines through Miami into Havana which had me settled, but of course, the problems didn’t finish there. I arrived in Miami thinking everything would be fine but when I went to board the plane, I was informed that the tourist card I had originally acquired while in London was only good flying from any other country from America and besides all my arguing that I was only re-routed through America because my original flight was cancelled, the lady didn’t care and said I had to purchase a new visa (apparently a special one) that you need if coming from America and I wouldn’t be boarding the flight without it. The cost was an additional $100usd.

Ok, so I’m now in Cuba and finally rejoicing that I made it but still the problems continued. I had to wait an hour and a half for my bag to show up at baggage collection and then without realising that Citibank is an American bank, my card wouldn’t work and I had no access to any of my money so all l had on me was $12usd which I changed for an amazing $10.45cuc. Just to be clear Cuba has 2 currencies 1 is cuc which is the same as usd and the other is peso which is about 1usd to 24peso. I met a girl at the airport who I shared a taxi with into the city and she was awesome enough to trust me to Paypal her my half when I could and let me keep my 10.45 so I could eat.

I checked into my hostel and Enzo, the owner, was just as awesome and understanding and even lent me 20cuc until I could get money which would come in the form of some life saving from the parents to my Australian account. If you are wondering why didn’t I just Internet transfer the money back to my other account, well Cuba is very behind with internet and is not very good at the best of times and besides, Citibank’s website was blocked from within Cuba.

I just had to get a photo of Cuba street in Cuba

I spent the first and second day of my time in Havana walking around the old town and checking out all the sites and taking what I would consider ‘me being artistic’ photos with Julia and Charlie who I had met around the hostel. On the third day, I decided to head onto a town called Cienfuegos which is south of Havana. I traveled to this town via local trucks that are converted into bus style vehicles and after a hour waiting on the side of the road and a bit of hitchhiking for the remainder 65kms.

I found accommodation in a little place on the Main Street for $15cuc a night in basic private room and when I say basic, it didn’t even have a toilet seat. I spent the next day walking around town and the plan was to head out a waterfall called El Nicho however like nearly every country I have traveled too, the taxi drivers want more money than it is worth so that idea came to a quick stop, where instead I took a day to relax and just walk around the city with a friend I met in Havana who happened to be here at the same time. A cheap place to eat in Cienfuegos is Restaurante Las Mamparas. It is on the main street and head to the back of the menu for the cheap set menus.

Cienfuegos sunset

I left Cienfuegos via a collective taxi, a collective taxi is when they put everyone they can find into a car a drive you to your destination, which cost me 20cuc for a door to door service (the bus cost 18cuc and is not door to door). The plan was to kill a night back in Havana before I headed onto Vinales which all worked out fine except that I arrived nice and early back in Havana so I could have easily headed onto Vinales that day.

Collective taxi was again the choice for the following morning to get to Vinales and this time costing me $3 more than the bus for $15cuc and also part reason it decided to rain on the way to the trucks. Vinales in the providence of Pinar del rio is the main tobacco growing region in Cuba. They do not roll the cigars here but only grow the leaves. I didn’t have accommodation booked in Vinales, so the plan was to walk around to find a casa. The cheapest I could find was $25cuc but with a little negotiating, I managed to get a room for $20cuc a night which was great except for some minor flooding in the bathroom. I spent the first day walking around the city, which there isn’t much to see. The next day, I met up with Esther who I met on Couchsurfing and we spent the day visiting anything in walking distance or at least what we thought. Our first stop was a tobacco plantation where we were told there was a mural painting on a wall but the tourist information lady actually meant it was not there and further so we started the walk which was going to be 5kms each way however at the plantation we asked a danish tour guide where it was and on our walk, she stopped the bus and gave us a lift to the painting and to the best, as described by everyone in the region, Pina Coladas in all of Cuba.

The pre-historic mural painting

On the way back, we were offered a horse cart back to town for $5cuc but unfortunately Esther misheard and gave the man $10cuc  and it came by chance that I came across Monica, another friend from Havana, int he centre of town. She joined us and we walked down some back roads towards a cigar factory and we were offered a horse riding tour of about 4 hours for $10cuc (in town, most places will ask $20cuc. I have added a picture below with a pointer on a map where you can find this tour). We accepted to do the tour the next day and the cigar factory was not that exciting as it turned out, it was a leaf preparing place before they were sent to Havana to be rolled.

My final day in Vinales and the 3 of us went on the horse riding tour where we visited a tobacco plantation and was shown every process from growing the tobacco to how cigars were rolled (the place even gave us a free cigar each and offered us a mojito for $3cuc which I happily accepted), a Cuban coffee plantation and a walk in a cave where they charged us $2cuc each to guide us through and tell us that a rock looked like different animals. During the ride, Monica’s horse showed to me why it should be number 1 and as it raced to pass my horse, it lashed out and kicked my horse with my leg in the way. I was lucky to walk away with minor damage because she was riding one big horse.

Tobacco plantation half picked

The final 2 days I spent back in Havana given that 1 of the days was a bus travel day before my flight into Cancun, Mexico and the rest of Central America.

Tips:

• First and foremost, you will read most places on the internet saying that the local pesos can not be used by tourists. That is a lie as you can pay for everything in local money and the only things that really accept only cuc from tourists is accommodation, taxis and any special tours.
• In Havana, anything you do in the old town will be considerably more expensive than the outer suburbs.
• Internet access. When you find a wifi zone, there will be a booth where you can buy access cards for 1 hour up to 5 hours or as I did, there will be men around with there own modem box in a backpack who will sign you in to those wifi for 1 hour for $1cuc. I found it generally works better in the evening/night.

You do not need to pre-book most accommodation. There is a lot of choices throughout every city and generally you can just turn up to find a place. Depending what time you turn up, booking the first place in Havana wouldn’t hurt but one guy I met, turned up to find his hostel was actually closed.

Below l have placed the map location of the $10 horse riding tour location and the cheap place to eat in Vinales. The red markers are the locations and the green one is the main square of town. Both map screenshots are off maps.me app for accurate positioning.

The red marker is where you will find the cheap horse riding. Jorge luis (l believe was the mans name).

Once again, red marker is the restaurant (the bar across the street you can buy $1 beers and is also a wifi zone)

Bahamian love

The Bahamas. A country of overs 700 islands and cays, which they will constantly remind you about and a currency that is 1 for 1 with the US dollar and quite expensive as everything has to be imported in from the USA.

I flew in Nassau, which is the capital of the Bahamas, without anything booked other than my first couple of nights’ accommodation, a flight out and a plan to visit the swimming pigs. I flew in with Bahamas air and even though the flight is only 45-minutes, if you have a bottom that is bigger than a small child, there is a good chance you will not fit in the seats properly.

Once l had landed, there were only taxis from the airport (which l have later found out that there is a bus, but they are not allowed on airport property) and had to bargain to get a $20 ride into town as my accommodation or more-so tent in the front yard of an Airbnb hosts property, would not be ready until 3pm…. I arrived at 9am.

I proceeded to head to the ferry terminal as l was told the cheapest way around to other islands, to which l found a ferry that worked a very tight schedule to me but would work for $70 each way in an overnight journey which would save me some money each way on accommodation. I headed back into town and found a bar to sit and relax until 3pm and with $3.23 local beers, it made the afternoon fly by all that little bit quicker. I headed onto my Airbnb or should l say tent after another taxi ride which l paid $15 for but was later advised it should have been $10 and worked out my plan for the remainder day of my stay.

There is a bus system in Nassau which is not properly signed anywhere you go and you just have to ask around for where they pick up in downtown, however each bus is $1.25 for any trip and no matter what, every bus goes to downtown during its route. I spent my second day walking around downtown checking out the city but as l was being strict on my budget, l couldn’t enter any museums. I did spend some money however on a conch salad, which is a fresh made salad with conch (a sea creature kind of like a mussel), and a highly praised local dish which also acts as an aphrodisiac for me.

Sunset from the overnight ferry to Exuma

Day 3 and l was off on my ferry to Great Exuma island with is one of the southern major islands with its main city being Georgetown. My ferry was a basic main cabin shared with locals as it was actually a freight ship and the beds l was told about, well they came in the form of 3 seats next to each other which it was possible to lie down on. The ride took 12 hours which was 2 hours faster than expected even though we were hitting 3 to 4 meter swell and the boat was moving all over with a lot of people falling sick. My Airbnb hosts, Mel and Freddie, on Exuma had kindly offered to pick me up, so l had to wait around for the next 2.5 hours for my ride but was worth it as Freddie proceeded to show me all the main parts of Georgetown so l couldn’t get lost.

I spent my first day walking around Georgetown, checking out the sites to see, the crystal clear blue water that is actually real and not just a photoshop trick in the magazines and sampling some local cooking at the local fish fry. What is a fish fry? It is a series of little shacks set up on the water where the locals consider the real food of the Bahamas is cooked and served. Each island has their own fish fry district and is usually cheaper than any restaurants.

View from my Airbnb in Exuma

Day 2 of Exuma was the main reason l decided to head into the Bahamas in the first place. I had booked a tour with Exuma water tours to take me to the famous swimming pigs. The tour started with a sightseeing section of expensive private islands like the one owned by  and Tim Mcgraw/Faith Hill’s private island. Our first stop was off at a cave we had to swim to get in to which was close to a sunken drug plane, followed by the pigs. This is a sight to see, the story is that they were shipwrecked on the island and they survived by learning to swim which now they are now protected by the government. We then moved onto swimming with a sandbar, nurse sharks, lunch and a visit to the endanged rock iguanas of the Bahamas. The tour cost me $200USD but the day was worth every cent.

Pig Beach

The following day, l headed back to Nassau in the afternoon, again by overnight ferry that was a smoother ride than the first one and onto the airport for my flight to Cuba.

Tips:

• The bus from the airport is 12b. You might have to wait 30-minutes but the bus will come despite what all the people like taxi drivers say at the airport. To catch the bus, walk to the far left of the terminals and walk down the road to the roundabout out front, wait on the side of the road and hail the bus when it comes. To return to the airport, the bus leaves from McDonalds in downtown. Its across from the Hilton hotel. A taxi will cost about $25 for the same journey.
• Each bus ride will cost $1.25 no matter how far you go and every bus route will go via downtown in its route.
• There is another version of the Fish fry in Nassau at the ferry boat terminal which is not as nice as it looks like a back street but the food is still fresh and the people are all friendly
• Mail boats. These exist as the cheapest option in The Bahamas to travel around, however they run on a very loose schedule and to book a ticket, you can speak to a captain or the company of the mail boat. The offices are not open on Saturday or Sunday.
• Buy sunscreen or anything you can from America/home country before entering the Bahamas. As mentioned, it is expensive and sunscreen cost me $15 for a bottle.
• The ferry company l travelled with was Bahamas Ferries and while they told me the journey will take 14 hours, both way was only 12 hours so be prepared for an early morning arrival. There is basic food and drink available for purchase on the ferry.
• Tiki Bikini is a bar you will want to visit if you would like to have a drink. For $10, you can get 4 beers and 4 shots.
• Bus 11 or 1 will take you from downtown to the ferry terminal.
• You must try the Soda Goombay. It’s a pineapple soda and very delicious.

The delights of Canada and USA

Just a quick disclaimer that l won’t be going into much detail of Germany or England as l was there visiting friends and enjoying the Christmas break

Germany – Nuremburg

I headed into Germany or more so Nuremburg for about 9 days before Christmas to visit a friend l met in Tuscany. This was my first visit to the city that is known for its beer (I think that is a lot of cities around Germany), The world’s best Christmas markets and its very famous castle. It is also the home to the Nazi’s rally grounds which in now a large museum depicting the grounds of what they were to be used for. My friend unfortunately fell sick while l was there so a few of the sights l had to see on my own and it was discovered that the town also consists of a series of underground tunnels used for storing beer and food over the years. It only holds English tours twice a week on a Sunday.

England – London and Skegness

I headed onto London from Nuremburg for the Christmas period as l had a few more friends based there plus one of my very good friends from back home was visiting his parents for Christmas and invited me up for a couple of nights to spend the day having lunch with his family and head into watch Grimsby football club play their boxing day game. I headed back south to London to spend New year eve there plus wait for the plane prices to drop. I was also lucky to see my sister and her husband in this time once they had returned from their Christmas holidays

Now onto my main part of my story… My continuation of my travels.

I decided a while ago l wanted to head into south or central America and try to visit Cuba and the Bahamas at the same time and my ticket in was a cheap flight ($325 aud) from Gatwick through Toronto was going to get me there. Transport through was also provided by Geryhound (except the flight from New Orleans and Fort Lauderdale), which the best way to describe Greyhound buses is as the weird and wonderful world of America.

Canada – Keswick and Toronto

I landed in Toronto after a long and boring flight with Westjet, but l got there safely so l cannot argue. I headed up to a town called Keswick which is about 1 hour north of Toronto for a few days to catch up with Leslee, who l met in Myanmar and as l had been in mostly London for the last 20 days, it was a welcome change to get out of the city. I stayed with Leslee and her father and was shown nothing but amazing hospitality which added to the fact that while l have traveled this world, Canadians now go down as the nicest people l have ever met and this even showed when it came to a bus that was not in service that was clearly signed but then changed to sorry. Everywhere else in the world just say out of service and we get it, but Canada takes it that one more and provides an apology.

Leslee took a couple of days off work while l was there to hang out which l was grateful for and she took me another hour north to visit some other friends that lived on the edge of Lake Simcoe where we spent the night talking and drinking rubbish Canadian drinks* and going for a walk on the lake, yes it was frozen enough to not fall it.

The next day we decided to go for the long drive south and back to pick up a puppy for Leslee’s sister where l was shown more of the Canadian country side and constantly told how l must have Tim Hortons as it is the best thing in the world. Leslee had to go back to work and l spent the day relaxing when her father Bill asked if l wanted to join him for a few drinks around at his friend Lenny’s house and a few beers turned into more than expected but was an entertaining night where l committed to going ice fishing the next morning riding around on ski mobiles and fishing through little holes on the lake. If you are wondering, l caught zero fish and probably hold the record for not catching a single thing on the opening day of being able to fish on the lake.

Later that day, l headed down to Toronto for a few nights where l saw all the sights a tourist could see except paying the extortion price of going up the CN tower. The best part of the personal sightseeing tour l conducted for myself was the Steam Whistle Brewery. I also had a chance to catch up with Sara who is another friend l met in Myanmar.

*Note that the Canadian drinks were not actually that terrible

In Toronto, l stayed at Planet Traveler hostel which seems to be the only place there that seems any worth to stay at especially when some nights we received a free dinner and every morning was filled with a large continental breakfast.

Frozen lake walking

USA

Throughout USA, l had decided to finally get more active on couch surfing and give it a real go plus some of the cities were not showing many, if any hostel results.

Buffalo

I stopped in Buffalo for a few days for the sole reason of visiting Niagara Falls and not realising Niagara had their own town, I headed into Buffalo. I couch surfed with a guy called David just outside of downtown where l was shown around the local area and he even took me along to see what acro yoga (acrobatic yoga) was all about. The following day l headed up to the falls and of course l didn’t follow google maps completely and saw a bus that had Niagara on it which l assumed was the town however it meant Niagara street which was a complete opposite direction. After that lengthy delay of about 3 hours, l finally arrived to the falls. Being mid-winter, no boats were running and the falls were probably not as impressive as summer however they are still worth seeing.

Note – all the buses are $2 in Buffalo for any one trip and you can obtain a day pass for $5 for unlimited travel on all trains and buses which also includes the town of Niagara which is at least 40 minutes to 1 hour away from Buffalo.

American Falls

Cincinnati

I arrived in Cincinnati at a beautiful time of 1am in the morning since l left Buffalo. I was stopping through here to break up the trip from Buffalo to Nashville and gave me to visit Becky who is another friend from my time in Myanmar. I was meant to stay with Becky but after a bit of confusing messages on my end probably because l was trying to sort my life out too much at once, she forgot about me (Becky, l hold nothing against you if you’re reading this), so at 1am in the bus terminal l was searching for any accommodation possible where l had to settle with a 4.5 star hotel. It was advertised for $130aud which l was about to accept but told myself to hold off for a bit and 30 minutes later when l logged back on, the price had dropped to $80.

The next night l picked up a bed in a makeshift hostel at the Bunkhaus in the OTR (over-the-rhine) region. It was nothing special but it was a bed and the next morning, there was a stew that somehow had been made overnight to eat for free. I also took the chance to catch up with Becky and get my tattoo updated (if you want to know about my tattoo, there is a picture and description of it on my Instagram theworldaccordingtoaginger).

The following days, l moved to stay with John who is another couch surfing host but lives just over the Ohio river in Newport in the state of Kentucky. I used this time to visit the Great American Ball Park where professional baseball was born and John kindly took me for a day trip down to Red River George where the national park consists of natural rock bridges and a lot of hiking.

 

Great American Ball Park

(See also the featured picture is overlooking the Ohio River into Newport, Kentucky)

Nashville

I have never really listened to country music and could never say it was the style of music for me but once you visit the capital of country music, it’s hard to not gain respect for it. I couch surfed with Steve this time around who lives about 5 miles outside of the main city so l got to enjoy some peace and quiet while also getting the chance to head onto the main strip of Nashville called Broadway. I met up with Sion, another guy on couch surfing from Wales and had a few drinks over the course of the night.

The second day, l rented a car and Sion joined me. We headed some a short drive down the highway to the dry county of Lynchburg where the Jack Daniels distillery is located. Yes… you read that right, one of the biggest whisky produces in the world in located in a dry county. The tour is worth the drive if you’re ever in the area. We also stopped at the exciting diner venue of Waffle house where we had great conversations with the local employees who didn’t know where Australia was and don’t even ask them where Wales was as they didn’t even know it existed as a country.

Overlooking Nashville

New Orleans

For so long, all l kept hearing from a lot of people is how l must get to New Orleans or if you speak to my parents Nolins. I love jazz and to finally get into the city of where it was born was making me think, trip done, l can now go home happily (but we know going home wasn’t the option).

I chose to stay in a hostel this time as l wanted to have a bit of a party and meet people. I had both and had a chance to visit the sights of the city as in the national World War 2 museum and conduct a couple of free walking tours including the voodoo tour and St Louis Cemetery where Nicholas Cage already has a tomb.

Frenchman street is where all the jazz bars and clubs are and is an amazing night out, where the famous bourbon street for me was over rated and filled with gentleman clubs and dj nightclubs.

The hostel l stayed at was Auberge NOLA hostel in the garden district and everything about it was amazing and while l spent the last 2 days of my time in the city with the flu, l couldn’t have asked for a nicer hostel to be available.

Second Hand Street Band – local artist in New Orleans

Fort Lauderdale

My final stop in USA for this leg of my journey was Fort Lauderdale which is situated about 40-minute drive north of Miami. I was staying and visiting my friend Marty who l know from my time in Tuscany. He took me on my first night to a bar that was unique as it worked on an honor system of, take what you want but pay for it all at the end which was a different way to experience a bar.

The next 2 days consisted of heading to Fort Lauderdale beach and seeing the non-touristy part of south Florida followed by spending the night around a fire, drinking whisky and smoking cigars… yeah, my life is hard.

My third day was when l got to experience the ‘real’ south Florida. Marty and l had decided to go get a pizza for lunch and on the way back we saw car parts on the road where Marty casually made the comment that there must have been a car crash recently until the next street over l was looking out the window and saw this car coming straight for us and about to smash into the side, Marty swerved and so did the other car however he kept going, hit a rock, the car launched into the air, came back down, a few more skids and then straight into a tree. The 2 occupants, leaped from the vehicle and took off running through a street where a lot of the local people gave chase. To summarise, it was my first witness to a stolen car chase and it had gone completely wrong for the thieves.

My final night, l spent with Carlos and Jay who are friends of Marty and we went off to watch my first National Hockey League game between the Florida Panthers and Anaheim Ducks. Florida Panthers won.

I finished up by this leg by flying out of Miami to Nassau which is the capital of the Bahamas and l will spend the next 6 nights here enjoying some island life.

Oh, and l don’t know if the car thieves were ever caught.

NHL game

Baltic adventures – (Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania)

I left Russia and headed onto Tallinn which is the capital of Estonia to start my journey to England by Christmas. My journey through the countries is via LUX Bus and l highly recommend them for a cheap, efficient and luxury travel however a little disappointing l can’t get another bus travel story for a while.

Tallinn, Estonia: As l mentioned, l started off in Tallinn for the first 3 days. I arrived around 2pm and by the time l got to my hostel it was 3:30pm. This is due to no one’s fault but my own because old ‘genius’ me thought that l knew the correct direction of tram l must get on until l checked my maps once the train was doing a 180 turn and heading back the same direction… like l said, l am a ‘genius’.

I headed out to look around town once l was checked in due to an opinion of mine believing that buildings and monuments look better lit up at night in the colder countries. I wasn’t wrong and l was lucky to catch my first Christmas markets of the season where there were stalls and food along with hot mulled wine which l tried for the first time, however l was told for my first night of food to head to a restaurant underneath the town hall called 3 Dragons in English. It is a traditional medieval place where they will treat you as such if you don’t even greet them with a simple hello, because this happened to me when l obviously don’t speak Estonian and couldn’t understand what she was saying to me. They don’t have a menu, but will happily tell you what is on offer. I recommend this to anyone passing by to try, because not only is the food delicious, once you step through the door, it feels like a whole different world.

The second day, l headed onto the free walking tour of the city. It went for about 2 hours with some funny but great information of Tallinn and a little bit of Estonia and how they were finally a free country after many years of oppression. That night followed by visiting some of Tallinn’s drinking establishments to taste to local liquor and into a very sore head the next day which involved a trip over to the occupations museum to gain an insight of what the country went through.

Tips:

• Tallinn tram system is very efficient. To buy a ticket, you can buy directly from the driver and you are not meant to do what l did and ride the tram for free without one as it could be a 40 euro fine if caught however l was told the inspectors are very minimum.
• Across the road from Tallinn Backpackers, is a small underground bar marked with a red light, l know what you are thinking but that wasn’t the reason l went in, so head down into it. It’s a cool little bar and the bartenders know their beer.

Tartu, Estonia: I spent a few days in Estonia’s second largest city and to give you some idea of the size, it is about as large as a what most would consider a small town in Australia. It was mainly snowing the whole time I was there so made it a bit hard to get out a lot to see the sights however l still visited the KGB cells museum which is also known as the Grey house but it was very interesting to understand what happened.

Tartu is also filled with many weird and wonderful statues but as it is a university town, one of the main statues in the town square are dedicated to the students of the city. Other places to visit is freedom bridge which as you walk across, has information on history of Tartu and the gunpowder armoury which has been changed a little over time but now is a pub/bar which hosts local bands and a local hotspot with the locals.

Riga, Latvia: The capital of Latvia and the largest old town of the Baltic states where it also hosts the cheapest airport to fly in and out of in Europe which makes it perfect for the British to get away for the weekend. I spent a few days with my mate Nick who flew over from London as he was in need of a get away and it was a pleasure to catch up but l destroyed my body this weekend as one pint turned into five very quickly and the return times back to the hostel were at the earliest times of 4am.

We did manage to see a few sights of the city by joining the free walking tour and learn more about the history of Latvia but of course it wasn’t without confusion. The first day we tried to join the tour and we were told the meet point wasn’t far away and when we arrived no one was there even after we has walked around the whole church. We headed through the Christmas markets instead, drank some cold mulled wine because it looked hot and went into Riga’s museum if occupations however the current one is being renovated and we had walked in the wrong direction again. When we worked out where it was, we stopped by the hostel and l kindly explained to them that their posters were wrong about the free walking tour which they thought was weird and here comes the confusion, we later worked out after more sightseeing we went to the wrong church to meet the guide and hands down, l highly believe both churches look similar. I apologised to the receptionist the next day back at the hostel and explained that l was an idiot.

A few more nights were spent out where this time include watching the mighty Chelsea football club defeat Manchester City who only had one supporter in the bar in form of a gypsy who seemed like he just wanted to fight everyone and later a lot of drunken karaoke (l can’t sing at the best of times and sorry for anyone’s ears that night).

Tips:

• If you want a cheap decent meal, you can head into the central markets where you can spend around 3 euros to get a couple of pastries and a coffee
• For a good night out, Rock Café is brilliant with a floor dedicated to a live band playing a lot of the current hits.
• If you visit the occupations museum, take the guided tour to visit the cells, otherwise you will only have to pay a donation to see the exhibit.

Vilnius, Lithuania: The last capital for me to visit of the 3 Baltic states was Vilnius which also contains an unofficial country republic called Uzupio which is also a UNSECO World Heritage Site. Once again, l didn’t know too much of what to do in the city except l did have plans to catch up with Audrius who is a friend l met in Myanmar. On arrival into my hostel, I needed to get food as it was starting to get late and tried my taste buds at one of the Surelis restaurants in the city (there are only 2 or 3 of them) as they serve traditional Lithuanian food and l was introduced to fried garlic bread sticks with cheese sauce and while they sound very unhealthy…. They are, but they are the local beer snack that all the locals take when they are drinking and are absolutely delicious.

The second day, l walked around the outskirts of the old town of Vilnius with a hostel mate by the name of Jamie. We visited the KGB museum of the city, which also marks off visiting the 3 KGB/occupation museums of the Baltics which l recommend doing each one because they each they the individual story each country had to go through during their history. We also walked by the river and saw the Green bridge which dubbed by the locals as the unluckiest bridge in Vilnius as he had been destroyed the most in various ways over time and headed to a military vehicle museum for a look.

The next day, l met up with Audrius, where he joined myself and different hostel friends (Phil, Steph and Pete) on the walking tour of the town and into the republic part of town where we learned that all you need to do the whole time is smile to be accepted (there are 3 other rules being, don’t drive over 20km/hr, have to be creative to live there and the fourth being if you don’t abide by these rules, the residents have the right to push your car into the river). After the tour, Audrius showed the 4 of us around to the following:

• Senoji Trobele – a traditional rural Lithuanian restaurant
• Bambalyne – a underground bar with lots of different local beers to choose from
• Surelis – One of the best beer places to visit in Uzupio

We also that night visited the government house of Uzupio which is actually a pub and the bar man gave us a good laugh when we walked in but l am happy to tell you that story in person.

My final day, l met up with Jamie again and we headed out to Trakai, which is the ancient capital of Lithuania and has a castle on an island. We spent all day out there which l found very interesting learning more of the history. It cost 6 euros to get into the castle but it is worth the money, so don’t hesitate.

Tips:

• For a good meal at a cheap price, find a kebab place called Jammys. They serve large kebabs for a very cheap price. It is located near the KGB Museum and is a local hotspot.
• Buses to Trakai leave all day and it only costs 1.80 euros each way. Buy your ticket from the driver. When in Trakai, you must try the pastry pies which are a local tradition and very tasty.

I have now headed into Germany for a week before England over the festive period. I will write my new blog in the new year so until then, Merry Christmas or Happy Holidays to everyone and hope you all have a nice time seeing in the new year.

Hostels on my way through: (I only reviewed Tartu for an extensive look at what l thought on this place)

• Tallinn Backpackers – centrally located is the best thing it has going for it
• Terviseks Hostel (Tartu) – The best and most central in Tartu
• Naughty Squirrel Hostel (Riga) – The best place in all of the Baltics
• Jimmy Jumps House (Vilnius) – Centrally located and free waffles for breakfast

A small train ride from Mongolia to St Petersburg

Yes, the heading is a joke because it isn’t a small train ride but if you haven’t worked it out yet, l was on the trans-mongolian train. It is the same as the trans-siberian and the only difference it the direction the train changes at Irkutsk.

Train Leg 1:

I had a late train out on Mongolia at 8:50pm on the 4^th November to head to Irkutsk in Russia. I had a 2^nd class cabin booked for this leg, which l found out later you can only take 2^nd class (middle option) as there is no 3^rd class option (the lowest) out of Mongolia. I shared my cabin with 2 ladies from Norway who had just been working in China for the last 3 months and were excited to be going home to their own beds which l had to laugh about and then sadly think about the comfort of my own bed after being away for so long. The train ride was straight forward but was going to take 1 and a half days to get to Irkutsk mainly with a lot of the hours being spent at the border crossing. Our border crossing took combined about 10 hours.

We arrived at the Mongolian border side at about 4am and had to wait until 9am for customs, so when l got off the train was quite unusual to see our carriage sitting alone with no engine or other carriages hooked up. The reason was simply they only needed one carriage to take across the border and a Russian engine must come pick up the carriage. We were cleared by customs at about 10:30am and we were off again for the next 30 minutes where we stopped again and this time for the Russian border control to inspect everything and they are stricter than the Mongolians, this time having dogs and photography equipment on the train to see who is who. We then left and headed for Irkutsk.

Irkutsk: A small town situated on the east side of Russia in Siberia. It is located next to the biggest lake in Russia called Lake Bikal which everyone mainly visits the city for the lake… except me. I booked only 1 night in the town and didn’t have much time to get out and see the lake so l decided to spend my time in town and experience Russia for the first time. The city alone is beautiful and it offers some nice churches and a tourist route they call the green line. The green line is a painted line on the footpath that takes you around to all the main sights of the town. I spent some time in an art museum of a famous Russian artist however l can’t remember his name. I struggled to find any places that serve traditional Russian food in town and there is no night life however l wouldn’t have been able to talk to anyone due to the fact in Siberia, not many people speak English.

Tips:

• I was told the time to visit Lake Bikal (if you don’t go in summer) is in March when it is completely frozen over and you can ice-skate and conduct other activities on it.
• I bought a sim card in Irkutsk for the whole country for 300rub ($6aud) which was unlimited data

one of the mainchurches in Irkutsk

Train Leg 2: My first 3^rd class experience. The carriage is open beds and each carriage holds 52 people but you only get 2 power sockets per carriage, but 2 toilets and a hot water urn for your beloved minute noodles that will become your diet for any leg of the trains. Here l was offered vodka by a local for the first time and this was more than once while he tried to explain to the young Russian lady next to him that l am Australian. That was about as exciting as this leg became except for when l went to sleep l had every bed around me full, however when l woke, l had 1 lady left. It seems everyone just disappeared overnight, don’t worry, they didn’t, they just departed at a stop earlier in the morning. This trip again was approximately another 36 hour ride.

Novosibirsk: My next stop along the route was here in bigger than Irkutsk yet still a smaller city than most Novosibirsk. Everything that you would most likely want to see in the city is situated along the main road or if not, then most likely a maximum 10-minute walk off it. The town has a famous arts centre with a square in front of it named after Lenin, a central park of its own where the fountains would most likely be turned on in the summer however most days that l was there, the temperature was an average -15 degrees Celsius. The city also has a main church like all the other cities of Russia, apologies as l cannot remember the name but l couldn’t visit it anyway due to it being completely locked up while l was there. One place l do recommend for a drink and a good night is Truba jazz bar. Cheap beers and good music to relax to out of the cold, they also serve food which l was told by the other hostel people l went with that it was tasty. I met some of the most genuine people throughout Siberia, for example when l ordered a taxi from the hostel to the train station, it turned up 5 minutes late and the reception guy paid for my taxi, given the cost wasn’t much but the thought and offer was a pleasure.

Tips:

• Be careful in Novosibirsk, because l accounted one place at dinner where the place had no English translation and the man charged me extra because he knew l couldn’t put the right price to things on the board. How did l work it out? Russian keyboard on my phone + matching letters + google translate = answers

Lenin Square in Novosibirsk

Train leg 3: This time the train ride was shorter at only approximately 15 hours, it was a nice change. I had booked 3^rd class again which was empty until about 1am when we stopped at Perm and what seemed like a million-people piled onto the train but the worst thing about it was the noise from people getting on but when you book 3^rd class, you really can’t be picky. There wasn’t much else about this train ride except the start. I arrived at Novosibirsk with what l thought was enough time to get onto the train, but without making it to obvious, the train terminal you arrive at it different to the one you get the long-distance trains from. The other terminal is only about 200m away but they don’t make it an obvious thing.

Yekaterinburg: One of the largest cities in Russia outside of the obvious Moscow and St Petersburg and situated close to the border of Asia and Europe. This city was one of my favourite stops and l personally would have liked to stay an extra day. I arrived around midday and decided to get some washing done which wasn’t dry by the time l went out and when you’re in -15 Siberia, it isn’t that much fun having damp pants. My first night l went to a Kontinental hockey game (KHL) as it was a recommend one thing l must do while in Russia.

The journey there was easy and while google maps was helping the conductor lady on the tram was persistent and wasn’t going to let me walk to the arena by myself, so for the next 20-minute journey, she walked up and down the train trying to find someone to walk with me so l didn’t get lost. She found one lady who could speak a little bit of English and she was lovely too as she was going to wait with me at the ticket line to help with translation but l didn’t want to hold her up from her husband and told her l could manage. I don’t know the rules however their l am, sitting in the cheapest seats for 250rub ($5.50aud) googling the rules, l gradually picked up on what was happening. Getting home, l decided to get an Uber as the temperatures were dropping fast and my phone only had 40% battery which l thought would be enough but it was that cold that my phone was using more battery to keep warm and l was losing about 5% every 5 or so minutes.

Day 2 I went for a walk around town and started with the Boris Yeltsin museum in the Boris Yeltsin centre (Yekaterinburg is the home town of Boris), which l highly recommend to anyone to go see as it’s in both English and Russian and it was a great insight to the country’s history. I proceeded into town, visited downtown, Dr Scotch pub (which is a Scottish pub but was recommended on lonely planet for some unknown reason as it is just a pub), the Beatles monument (they never visited the city but it has 3 whole walls dedicated to them), the largest tower in Yekaterinburg that you can go to the top for 360 degree views and the famous cathedral called Church on the Blood where it known that a Tsar royal family was executed.

As l said, l had run out of time, but there are a few more things you can see in the area like a monument about 12kms out of the city marking the border of Asia and Europe.

Tips:

• The tower cost 300rub to go up and while it does get you entry into a museum in the tower as well, it’s all in Russian so there wasn’t much point
• There is a red walking line in the city that you can follow and to get more information, stop by the information centre where the lady piled me up with more maps and books l could possibly carry.

Church on the blood – Yekaterinburg

Train Leg 4: The best train leg of my journey without any challenge. I hopped onto the train at 6:30am and this time l had booked 2^nd class for the 24-hour journey to Vladimir. I accidentally woke the one of man up in my 4-person cabin but he wasn’t worried and went to the bathroom, so while he was gone, l unpacked and put my cup on the table, he came back, saw my cup and proceeded to reach behind his pillow, pull out vodka and pour it into my cup. He didn’t speak much English so for the next 8 hours we had a very broken conversation, but l found out he was a hunter and he had me try some salty pork he had killed and cured himself, oh and about another 10 shots of vodka. I thought he had run out about 5 shots in between us but he had a new bottle sitting in his bag. Another man joined our cabin later in the day who could speak English and he translated between us where they asked me questions about if l liked Russia and the unusual one for me if l preferred Trump or Clinton.

We bought some beer at our next major stop and snacks to share and by the time l went to sleep, l was in a very happy place (thank you vodka!). I departed the train early the next morning and was a little sad not to continue along to Moscow.

Vladimir: A very small town situated about 4 hours outside Moscow. You can complete seeing this town in half a day and l only stopped here to see another town and break up the train ride. They town does consist of a main gate that is the centre attraction of the city and a nice church but you must go in the morning otherwise it will be closed.

Vladimir

Train Leg 5: 4 hours outside of Moscow and was still offered sheets and my own bed space but didn’t need them as l was going to stay awake and take in the final leg of my train ride.

Moscow: I was excited to be here, while the train ride was a great adventure, l could place my bags down for more than 2 days in a row and have a rest. The first night l visited Red Square where the Kremlin is located along with St Basils Cathedral (even though l thought it was in St Petersburg). A walk around the Kremlin walls is possible and you will find the tomb of the unknown soldier which is guarded all year round no matter what temperatures hit Moscow.

Over the next few days’ l visited the Kremlin and the cathedrals inside the grounds plus the armoury which l highly recommend as it is Russia’s biggest collection of gold, silver and items gifted to them over the centuries. It cost 700rub ($14.5aud) but it also comes with a free audio guide so you know what is going on inside but doesn’t include entry to the cathedrals but you walk into them and sometimes the ladies employed to check tickets don’t care so l got to visit a couple of them. I also went to another KHL hockey game, this time to watch CSKA Moscow with 2 kiwis and as they had no idea what was happening, l was more the expert now so l could tell them what was going on and tried to find a bar to have a drink which l found some trendy places that charged 300rub for a simple corona however l did manage to find a bar that served 500ml local craft beers for 190rub ($4aud). Mostly everything in Moscow is located around Red Square and 4 days’ l found where probably too long but everything is my own opinion.

Tips:

• The metro is Moscow is brilliant and it costs 50rub ($1aud) per ticket to get you anywhere in the city)
• Moscow is a little like Sydney where it is confusing roads in every direction and navigating can be difficult so if you don’t have a sim card, l recommend leaving Red Square the way you came in otherwise you could think you are walking in the right direction but 30-minutes later be further away than what you started.

Tsar cannon inside the Kremiln grounds

St Petersburg: My last stop in Russia and the one city l was most excited for. I flew this time from Moscow as l managed to get a ticket for 30euros ($42.50aud). I stayed here for 5 nights which seemed about the correct amount of time. The first night, l went and watched a Zenit St Petersburg Russian Premier league game and bought the ticket for 400rub of a man out front selling his friends membership card for the game and l just handed it back to him once l was in the stadium. Day 2, I visited the Hermitage museum which is ranked in the top 5 largest museums of the world and the price to enter is 600rub but once again a local man approached me and sole me a ticket for 400rub because locals get local price. The Hermitage is nice but l felt that l had seen a lot of it in the Louvre and probably didn’t get a much enjoyment out of it as everyone else.

Over the next few days’ l went on the free walking tour offered in the city which l highly recommend, went to a soviet donut café as their recipe is different to what l was expecting and they are delicious, visited a soviet arcade game museum where most of the machines still work and you can play them.

Tips:

• The metro is Moscow is brilliant and it costs 35rub ($0.72aud) per token to get you anywhere in the city)
• It didn’t happen to me, but about 1am in the morning, the bridges over all the islands in StP open so make sure you are on the correct side of them.

St Issacs in St Petersburg

I stayed in hostels all the way through-out Russia and have reviewed all of them through the website below.

Irkustk – Ushanka Hostel

Novosibirsk – FunKey Hostel

Yekaterinburg – Hostel R.E.D.

Vladimir – Dostoyevsky Hostel

Moscow – Fasol Hostel

St Petersburg – Soul Kitchen

For more photos, please head to instagram and follow theworldaccordingtoaginger

Mongolia – A hidden world from tourism, a place of karaoke and with a taste of North Korea

One of the countries l have wanted to visit over the last 5 years has been Mongolia the problem is coming from Australia, China knows you need to pass through and take their airlines so it becomes expensive and the only other way is through Russia which this time around l did as l was coming from Europe, l managed to get a cheap flight with Aeroflot (Russia’s airline) for $530 AUD. I had lots of warnings and read lots of bad reviews about Aeroflot but my ‘need’ to get to Mongolia outweighed my thoughts of terrible service because as you may have previously read, l have had enough bad bus journeys that l would have considered this the same, however l cannot praise Aeroflot enough. I had 2 amazing flights with them and the service was brilliant while we did experience a little turbulence, this can’t be noted as a bad measure towards the airline.

I arrived in Ulan Bator (UB) early morning and l had minimal winter clothing. I decided to take a taxi from the airport and l am glad l did, as soon as l walked outside the nice warm temperatures of -5 degrees celsius hit me. The 30-minute taxi ride cost me 30,000mnt (about $11usd) to get to Sunpath hostel’s door in heating and even though l arrived early and that day, the hostel let me go straight to my bed and offered me breakfast which instantly won over my heart with how tired l was. The other guests at the hostel were great and we all decided to head over to the black market (not actually a black market, but just a large market where you can buy nearly anything and everything), where l could buy some winter boots and other items to keep me warm. The following couple of days, we explored the city which included visiting the main square and large statue of Genghis Khan, the winter palace and the national museum. In my opinion and speaking to a few other people, there isn’t a lot to do in UB itself unless you want to sing karaoke, well there is a pub every 10 meters that offer the service, however a lot of people who come here actually spend most of their time on tours of the countryside.

I had organised for my time in the country to head north to a town called Murun and volunteer my time helping with a lady called Saraa with her guesthouse and women’s group. I sent her emails before l arrived and heard nothing and on the Sunday when l arrived, l still had no idea if l was going to help her or not. I had planned for 2 weeks in country and after l didn’t hear anything, l started asking other people if they had work, l got one response from another lady called Delai at a hotel for me to go and help her and then 5 minutes later, l had a response from Saraa, so l decided to split my time between the 2 places and help both out, then within the hour l was out the hostel door and onto the bus station for another overnight long distance Asian bus ride. I will never get used to these bus rides but each one is unique.

I arrived in Murun and headed straight over to Saraa’s house where l was informed that her guesthouse was closed for the season, so l would be staying in a small room with her sons and she would only need mostly help with her women’s group. I’m not terrible but l am not the greatest when it comes to understanding women and trying to organise and help with a women’s group was going to be a challenge. I was also informed that there was no shower and l could walk down the road to the public showers to pay to use them. The afternoon, l headed over to the hotel and met Delai, who offered me to stay at the hotel, where l accepted straight away because it is the little wins in life where l could shower and have a western toilet. Over the next few days, l helped where l could but l decided it wasn’t right due to the fact helping Saraa wasn’t exactly what we originally spoke about, plus she was also trying to sell me a tour which was more for less days than what l could get back in UB and then when l was staying in the hotel, l wasn’t getting the same local feel so l left back to UB to join a tour of the country side and see Mongolia, which is what l came for.

Back in UB, l met Dante at the hostel and we decided to go on a 3-day tour of central Mongolia which included the semi-gobi region to conduct camel riding, a visit to the ancient capital of Mongolia called Karakorum, horse riding while both nights we stayed with nomadic families. We had a few more people staying at my hostel that night and l heard from a friend that there was a North Korean restaurant that is a must do which l can say was an experience however you can’t take photos….unless you’re sneaky.

The next morning, we convinced Guillermo and his father who had only arrived 3 hours earlier to join us. The tour started from the hostel and our transportation, a beautifully kept soviet van the hostel offers which had plenty of room for the 4 people. We arrived after a long 5 hours out to our first ger camp with a nomadic family where we rode camels through the semi-gobi region and that night we were taught how to make horse meat dumplings which are delicious and drank a lot of vodka. I don’t drink vodka however l tried to match the locals which was always going to be a difficult task especially when they told us a tradition is if you sing, play guitar or tell a story you must drink a shot of about 2 standard shots of vodka. The family had a beautiful daughter called Iichka, she is very cheeky but a lovely little girl who loves taking selfies.

Our second day we headed over to Karakorum to visit the site and thankfully we did hire the tour guide because there are only a few plaques around to explain to us what was what. That night we went to our second ger camp with another nomadic family who was set up at the base of some large mountains to protect them from the wind. This time we went horse riding and we were given the freedom to let our horses get up to a gallop and run free in the open plains of the Mongolian countryside which words can’t even describe the freedom and peacefulness a person can experience in that moment. We ended our night with a traditional Mongolian bbq where they heat rocks in a fire and then place them in a large pot over fire with the meat, so basically the method for cooking is stewing the meat rather than grill.

Our third day was mostly made up of driving back to UB with a few small stops on the way to see a sharman worship place and our van running out of fuel and then 5 minutes after going again, it broke down but these were all rectified within 30-minutes.

I have spent the last few days not doing a lot however it has been nice to relax before l get on the trans-mongolian tonight and head to Moscow with a few stops in between.

 

Tips:

• Taxi drivers cannot be negotiated but a form of transport that is acceptable in the city is a form of hitchhiking, where you can wait on the side of the road with your thumb out and a local will most likely pick you up. This is the cheaper form of getting around and you must agree a price before you get in the car.
• The black market is a lot of fake gear but it all is fine for the temperatures on Mongolia. The shop vendors don’t negotiate too much but do try.
• The North Korean restaurant is in the EXE building. It is worth visiting, except the prices are a little higher but they also put on a show of singing and dancing for you.

An Italian, Greek and Turkish love affair

As you would know from reading my previous post, l left Certaldo and headed south to Napoli for a few days. I took Flixbus, which was very easy except something obviously had to go wrong in travel for me and the first bus l was on got a flat tire so l was eventually moved to a second bus. In Napoli, l stayed at a hostel called 6 small rooms. The hostel wasn’t quite in the old historical centre but l knew this so l wasn’t bothered because a short 20-minute walk and l was there. It is located down a back alley and at the top of 6 flights of stairs which is not fantastic especially when you need to take your bag all the way up. The hostel is nice and small but l was slightly let down a little by the staff and their attitude to the place because only one of them introduced themselves to me and that was because he was checking me in and for a small place with the rooms so close to a common area had a noise curfew of 12am meaning the staff would play loud music from reception which was easily heard from every room upstairs (there are rooms on the floor below), the fact thatthey were not being paid might have be why some lack of motivation existed however l didn’t let this bother me and made the most of it.

The next day for me was raining in the morning but it was the first Sunday of the month and in Napoli, that means all museums are free which lucky enough for me included Pompeii and Herculaneum. I chose not to do Mount Vesuvius after some quick google search as it was low cloud cover and while I read you can see the crater, you won’t get the views of the world below in. There is only one train line out to Pompeii and Herculaneum, so you won’t get lost but l highly suggest not getting a tour guide and just picking up a map guide yourself (l guess a good thing about my hostel, is they had some free for the guests to borrow). If you want to know more about the sites of Pompeii, another way is to walk around and stand next to a tour group for that section, but just don’t hang around for too long otherwise they will get suspicious. Herculaneum l picked up an audio guide for 8 euros which when traveling on a budget that is expensive however l justified it as l had free entry into the two sites, l could afford it. I actual though Herculaneum was a lot better than Pompeii, maybe because Pompeii was bigger and more spread out but Herculaneum has more preserved paintings and a lot less people. On a side note, when in Pompeii and you make it to the thermal baths, in the main room, you will look up and see a window up high, face it and cover the light with your hand, below the window you will see something but l will leave it as a mystery for you to discover yourself.

That night, once back at the hostel, l met another Australian in Lily from Perth and l convinced her we should go get some of the best pizza in the world as Napoli is where margarita pizza was born however due to our ‘fantastic’ hostel staff, we walked around all Sunday night to one of the top 4 places to find they were all closed and we when we got back we mentioned it to them and the response we got was “yeah, they are all closed on Sundays”, on the bonus side, l got free cardio training in after the 5km walk.

Monday morning came around and l took myself off to the Napoli underground walk which is a guided tour of Napoli’s old water tunnels and bomb bunkers used in world war 2. I highly suggest this tour and it only costs 10 euros with the guide (If you get Alex, he is fantastic) for an hour and a half and then the rest of the day consisted of being lazy after looking a little around the city and finally getting a pizza as they were open and yes, it was good however l like my pizza base a little harder than it was served but the topping was amazing and that taste l will never forget and then by the time l knew it,

Pizzeria Da Michele – The place we went too

Tuesday was upon me and l was due to leave however l did manage to get a kayak tour of Napoli in before l left which was great however lily and l unfortunately didn’t get the proper tour as one of the main sites was closed due to an Italian TV show filming there. That night l headed up to Gaeta where l spent the next 5 nights with close family friends, some who l had not seen in 10 years.

Gaeta is the getaway town for all the families in Napoli when it comes to their annual holidays in August and for me is a must do if you want a break from the cities and get a feel for a small town on the Italian seaside. It has a nice walk up to the top and around one of the mountains next to town, Split Mountain which it is said that 7 cliffs split the moment Jesus was crucified and this was one of them (there is also a monastery there now too) and some of the best seafood in the world which l highly recommend their local dish of octopus pie but you might get in trouble if you don’t try their olives of buffalo mozzarella and if you do, don’t be like me and tell them they are just like any other, they won’t let you live it down. I also got a cheeky day trip to Rome in and saw Vatican City minus St Peters because the pope was holding a service and it was closed, the Spanish steps and the Colosseum.

Gaeta from the mountain top

After Gaeta, l headed to back to Rome where l met up with some friends from home in Steve and Nate as we were leaving on a cruise ship to Sicily, Mykonos, Kusadasi, Santorini, Athens, the Amalfi Coast and then back to Rome. In Sicily, we hired a car and drove to Taormina which had amazing sights from in the mountains to a cable car to the beach. Mykonos was a day on quad bikes for Nate and l as Steve woke up late so we went on and did our own thing. Kusadasi was the place to buy ‘genuine’ fake items and Nate and l headed to Virgin Mary’s final resting place out near Ephesus and Steve to ladies beach (it’s hard to drag him away from a beach). Santorini, Nate and l rode donkeys to the top while Steve took the cable car and then we all spent the day on quad bikes visiting Oia in our time. Athens, we went into town but the price of getting into the main areas scared us off a little so we walked around the markets and then in the Amalfi coast we hired another car and drove along the coast and back. Many new friends were made while we quad biked, rode donkeys, walked many kilometres and probably consumed one to many scotches. I have made a rough video of our time on the cruise. Once l reached back to Rome, l had one final day with the boys before l moved onto solo travel again.

Santorini on quad bikes

In Rome, l stayed at The Yellow hostel, which l was told had a reputation for being a big party hostel and while l did sit outside and take it all in over a couple of beers, l had a great stay with perfect sleep every night. I have headed out of Italy now and it was a pleasure for the last 5 months but l need to see more of this world so if you don’t know where l am right now, head over to Instagram and follow me at theworldaccordingtoaginger to find out.

If you haven’t seen it yet, the video is on Youtube at https://youtu.be/XI9K-X6uphY

A tomato for you, a tomato for me, a tomato for everyone

I heard about this festival called La Tomatina festival (it’s basically a large tomato fight) around 15 years ago and l knew from that moment that l needed to go and this year, only 15 years later, l finally found my way to Valencia for 3 nights where Phil, Marcus, Giorgio and myself would stay for the duration. Phil joined me in Certaldo for 4 nights before we headed to Valencia and from the moment we hopped off the plane in Valencia 2 hours before Giorgio was meant to arrive is when our first story started. The wifi in Valencia airport, that even though it says it exists, actually doesn’t work and so Phil having data we got the address of our Airbnb and set off on the metro towards the location. We changed trains like we worked out and on the way, looking out the windows, l was getting a feeling we were not in the right area however Phil said let us just go check it out plus he needed to find a pack of cigarettes, which was the easiest part and the lady had pretty decent English (this ended up being a saving grace about 20 minutes later). We got to the address and l knew straight away this was the wrong place and our GPS took us to the wrong street, so we headed back to the tobacconist to ask about the address. She took one look and let out a little giggle that we were in the complete wrong location and we had to be back in the city, so by this time of carrying our bags and in the heat we decided to get a taxi but apparently this little town does not believe in taxis and wifi was also non-existent and the only option was another 30-minute train ride back to the city plus a combined 20-minute walk meant we found the Airbnb at the same time Giorgio arrived. We stayed just out of the old town where it was quiet enough to get some sleep but still an easy walk to the main tourist areas. Marcus arrived in the afternoon and we decided to head out for dinner and drinks however Giorgio and l decided we would cap the night so we had a good head for the next morning as it was festival day and this ended up being the best decision as Marcus and Phil were not doing that well the next morning.

Valencia city

We woke up nice and early to get some breakfast in an walk to our pick up location as we went through the tour company es.tomantina for tickets and transfer to Buñol where the festival is held. Before l continue the story of what we had to go through to get into the festival, l need to let everyone know who reads this, DO NOT USE THAT TOUR COMPANY! We got told that our bus would depart at 7am for the 30-minute ride to Buñol, so we turned up at the meeting point about 15 minutes early just waited. There was no main organiser for about the 1000 people they had there and just a tour guide for each bus walking around with a piece of paper and a number scribbled on it which was the group they were looking after. After about an hour, Phil, Marcus and l (Giorgio had booked late and had already left) found other members of our ticket group but no tour guide and nearly all the buses had left when a bus driver walked up and said we were his group so we just went along. The bus ride was smooth enough and when we got to the Buñol, we disembarked the bus to find everyone else had been given a t-shirt and entry wristband except our bus because we had no tour guide. We ask another guide what to do and his answer was ‘you don’t have a guide?’ and then proceeded with the old saying, let me ask my boss. We stood around for another hour before we even got a t-shirt which was in an unorganised way too and when we then asked about wristbands, we got told to just get them at the entrance but no real indication exactly where. We walked to the festival to get told we had to go all around to the other gate to get a wristband and by the time all of this happened we finally got into the main fighting section 15-minutes before the fight started at 10am.

The fight, l can only describe with one word… madness. It was a bit slow to get started where we were but once it did, well there were just tomatoes everywhere. The fight lasts 1 hour and believe when l say that is all you need as by the end of it, you’re standing in 30cm of tomato sauce and you have tomato in every hole of your body, even if you don’t want it there. I lost Phil and Marcus about 20-minutes in but found Phil at the end for the long walk to the showers and back to the bus where we located Marcus again and because our tour company is awesome, our bus was delayed taking off saying he hadn’t been paid and was going to leave us there, however we got lucky and at least got back to Valencia where we were able to finally shower properly and catch up with Emily (a friend l met in Certaldo and had also planned to come to Tomantina but that is another story and if you ever meet her, she can tell you) to have some drinks.

Tomatina madness

Day 2 of Valencia, we hired bicycles and with Giorgio being our tour guide as he had been to Valencia before, we headed to the old town for the cathedral and up the spire for the views, then over to the Science and art museum which transforms into a completely different town altogether which also included a fall from Phil as he tried to cross some water, the funny part to this is about 5-minutes before, he was telling Giorgio and l to be careful as we decided to ride in a skate bowl in bikes not made for it and then to the beach. We rode about 20kms that day and by the time we had dinner and drinks that night, we were all falling asleep at the table.

The trip home the next day was straight forward which was a nice change for me after the strike I experienced in my last blog and getting to Valencia but in summary La Tomatina festival is a must do once in your life, Valencia is a very beautiful city with many little hidden gems and l would love to return to the birthplace of Paella but l still need to see the rest of the world first.

The many rolling hills of Tuscany and the adventures in between

I haven’t added to my blog for about the last 4 months as l have been settled down in Tuscany for the time as l picked up some work managing a hostel and figured it would be better to try and summarise my time here in 1 entry rather than weekly or monthly updates.

The town l have been located in is Certaldo. It is 1 hour (approximately) by train from Florence and Pisa and 40 minutes from Siena. Its described as being in the belly button of Tuscany were you are surrounded by vineyard after vineyard. I took over as manager of this beautiful hostel (guesthouse) called Fattoria Bassetto and instantly fell in love with our ancient and calm the place made me. It was mostly built in the 13^th Century and was once a monastery (as if l haven’t visited enough in my first 9 months since l left Australia) and then it was a vineyard were later it became a tobacco farm as producing wine wasn’t as profitable and then eventually a guesthouse.

I didn’t know much about Certaldo and l was severely low on my knowledge of the Italian language but l had to be in Europe for the summer as the main reason to be here was to be able to jump over to London for a week and witness my beautiful sister marry the love of her life which will always be a memory to treasure however l knew that l wanted to be in a new country and experience everything l could. Certaldo is also a curvy but short 20 minute drive to San Gimginano(SG will be used for future reference) which l was actually able to experience on my second day of being here. SG is an old medieval town which has amazing views of the vineyards surrounding and has to gelato shops that are to die for (one did win awards a few years ago for the best gelato in the world, however l preferred the one that hasn’t won the awards, but this is a personal choice).

A month later l was lucky enough to visit Siena during the festival day of Il Palio. It is a traditional horse race that run in the main square of Siena. It is conducted twice a year so don’t be too worried if you miss the first date. I highly recommend being in Siena for this event and to describe it in 3 words would be to say ‘it’s utter madness’. There are 12 districts that are able to compete and l chose the goose house (working off the fact that l am probably a little bit of a goose) and walked around the city before to see sights and the festival parades all leading up to the race in the evening. I headed into the square to get a decent view point about 3 hours before the race in the hot sun until the race started, however at least l got to watch all the districts entering the square in the formal parade for that time. The horses then came out and lucky l found a local guy near me who could speak English and explain to me what was happening where the biggest point l took out of it was in this race if you’re not first, you’re last but a horse may still finish and place in the race even without its rider. The race was run and the winner was the she-wolf house where for all those hours standing in the sun was worth it as the celebrations were held right in front of me, however l had to made a quick walk to get to the last train leaving Siena for the night and also to get back to Certaldo as l had a table booked at the pub to watch Italy continue their run in the European championships. If you’re wondering, the goose house came second.

Life in Tuscany continued with many more visits to SG and Casa Alle Vacche and Poggio Alloro, these are 2 wineries I highly recommend when you are in the area. A month later l was graced with a visit from my parents and my aunty for a week and in this week, l finally got to visit Volterra and attend the Mercantia festival which brings local acrobats, performers, bands and other performers to Certaldo Alto. Volterra is another medieval city about an hour drive from Certaldo and much larger than SG where it also contains ancient ruins of a roman amphitheatre. The day l left for London, the family and l decided we had to see the Leaning tower of Pisa and get that tourist photo and while l don’t have a copy of the photo, you can have a look at the family selfie. 

I headed off to London at the end of the week and caught up with the many family and friends for the sister’s wedding. I don’t need to blog about this because it was a special time with family and friends however the journey home was where the biggest adventure started. I left for Heathrow well over 1.5 hours before l had to be there and my train got stuck at a station for 20 minutes and by the time we got to Heathrow, even though l had checked in, the bag drop was closed. I was told to try and get a 15kg bag on cabin luggage but continued to argue the stupid point the bag drop lady was trying to make as l knew l wouldn’t get it on. They finally accepted and off to Pisa l went once l used the express lane through security because the lady just didn’t care about who was going through. I arrived at Pisa (l should mention my phone provider TIM in Italy are terrible and my sim card had stopped working) and with no phone, l had to get a new sim card and get it registered however being a Sunday the only place was at the airport. While l waited for it to register, l found out there was a train strike and this was after l had bought the train ticket! I tried many options for returning to Certaldo but in the end the only option was to return to the airport, get a bus to Florence and then a second bus to Poggibonsi (it’s the next town about 15 minutes from Certaldo) where l had to be picked up. In the end, a journey that was meant to take 1.5 hours from Pisa took me a nice little 6 hours to complete.

Life went on in Tuscany and l had my friend Laura from Myanmar come help me around the guesthouse plus l also made a few more amazing friends however l was graced with the beautiful face of my friend Phil on his way through to Thailand as a few months before we had decided to go to La Tomatina festival in Spain (La Tomatina is in a separate blog). In the week leading up, we headed out to Volterra for a medieval festival and saw some knights fight for a championship.

In the weeks from La Tomatina to the point the blog now finishes where l am up to now, I was able to get up to Empoli for a Serie A game and out to Livorno but l am still in Tuscany for the next 2 weeks before l move on Naples for a few days and slowly back up to Rome via a town called Gaeta to visit some family friends and then out of Rome, l am getting on a cruise with some good friends from back home to the Greece and its islands.