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Baltics24: Day 18 – Istanbul
And yet, despite everything, it’s still not Constantinople. I’m beginning to think that I can’t go back to Constantinople. Our last full day in Istanbul, and kind of the last day of the trip. Tomorrow morning we grab breakfast, then a car takes us to the airport, then the next stop is a couple of hours in Singapore before the final stretch home, where a dog should be very happy to see us. Today was all about commerce: Byzantium/Constantinople/Istanbul has been a centre for trade for a while, like most of its history. Marco Polo was here (though I don’t think he graffitied the Hagia Sofia). Out of all this…
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Baltics24: Day 15a – Vilnius – Istanbul
This might end up as a two part entry as it’s a little after 2am and we’ve just checked in to our Istanbul Hotel. So if I fall asleep typing this I’ll throw some more words at the screen in the morning. The main tasks for today in Vilnius were shopping, shopping, and shopping. All the last minute souvenirs and presents and that kind of thing, including getting the snow dome. Important stuff. Checkout of our “interesting” apartment (it did the job but had a few quirks, like the sensor for the shower light and exhaust fan with a 5 second loop) was at noon, but our flight wasn’t scheduled…
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Baltics24: Day 13 – Vilnius
Vilnius (though the locals barely pronounce the second i) the capital of Lithuania (which is spelt locally as Lietuva) is an interesting place. It’s the second largest city in the Baltics, with just a few less people than Riga, Lithuania is the most populous of the three countries, and as Laura told us yesterday, has a more spread out population (of the 6 cities with more than 100k pop, 4 are in Lithuania). This morning was the obligatory wander to see where things were, it was also about 30 degrees so a part of the wander was just to find patches of shade. There was an occasional breeze which helped.…
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Baltics24: Day 8 – Tallinn
Another full day in sunny, historic Tallinn. We headed out into the suburbs to see a bit more of Tallinn and check out some shopping. We took the tram, and after a couple of stops could hear an accordion playing, followed soon after by a teenage boy with a cup seeking donations. Not many other passengers paid any notice, and even had we wanted to, so far it’s been a pretty cashless trip — I didn’t need to get any SEK in Stockholm, and haven’t had to withdraw any euro here, it’s all been card. Even the public transport both here and Helsinki could be done using a standard credit…
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Baltics24: Day 7 – Tallinn
A full day in Tallinn. Started with the hotel breakfast, which was okay, a bit chaotic as breakfast buffets go, but I was introduced to the Estonian “superfood” kama, a mixture of different flours (generally barley, rye, oat, pea but others could be involved) which was mixed with milk like a smoothie. So a grainy super smoothie or something. We then headed out to the Balti Jaama Turg market, probably Tallinn’s largest daily market, three floors of food, clothes, random stores, and weird bric-a-brac masquerading as “antiques”. The antique corner had a number of crowded stalls, jammed high with everything you could imagine: every shape of glassware, badges, soviet army…
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Baltics24: Day 5 – Helsinki
Our last full day in Helsinki, so we spent it eating, walking, shopping, sightseeing, and for me another sauna. We headed to the harbourfront markets for an early lunch and to check out the various stalls selling souvenirs, things made from wood, reindeer, elk, amber, silver, and other assorted animals. L has been eying off various warm hats, but in the end decided that Perth just isn’t likely to get cold enough. Lunch was a shared plate full of potatoes, salmon, and crunchy fried vendace, a freshwater whitefish a bit larger than whitebait that the Finnish love to eat. Its bones are soft, so I ate them tail, fins and…
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Viet Nam the fourth: Day 12 Hoi An – transit
A fairly quiet day really, as the plan was that I’d get picked up around 4pm at the hotel for my flight to HCMC then home. I’m writing this at Da Nang airport, after my flight was due to depart, as VietJet have been sending me updates all day telling me my flight is delayed. In theory I’ve got about an hour until I board, in practice who knows. It turn out that while VietJet are cheap, they aren’t actually that good. Despite booking a two stop ticket, I’ve been told that they can’t check my bag through to destination, so at HCMC I get to pick up my case,…
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Viet Nam the fourth: Day 11 Hoi An
My last full day in Hoi An, and also L’s birthday. After breakfast we went to pick up our laundry, things sure are fierce along laundry street. once we’d got our clothes we walked the length of the street, and no less than two other locals, looking at our bag (and assuming it contained dirty clothes) gestured for us to come to them for laundry. Once they realised we were carrying a bag of clean clothes they went back into the shadows, watching, planning, scheming. If not today or tomorrow, some day soon laundry wars are coming to Hoi An. We checked out a different massage place this morning, one…
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Viet Nam the fourth: Day 10 Hoi An
Coffee. Viet Nam is one of the world’s largest producers of these wonderful beans, though they rarely get recognised for this as the majority is robusta, not the better marketed arabica variety. I’m not even sure many self-proclaimed coffee snobs know much about robusta beans, as these tend to form the backbone of the instant coffee market. Kind of like grain whisky, it’s the bulk of all of the popular scotch blends, but only a big whisky nerd could name any of the grain distilleries. Robusta beans are higher in caffeine, generally more bitter, lower in sugar, higher in anti-oxidants, and are more resistant to disease so need less pesticides.…
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Viet Nam the fourth: Day 9 Da Nang – Hoi An
The historic village of Hoi An sits about 25km south of Da Nang. Even 10 years ago, there as a definite undeveloped space between the two. These days, the coast south of Da Nang is full of new resorts, and resorts under construction, so it’s hard to say where Da Nang ends and Hoi An begins. If you want something made, go to Hoi An: clothes, shoes, glasses, jewellery, you name it, they can probably find someone who makes it. Las time we were here, not long after VN opened up post-covid, it felt like we were almost the only western tourists, many shops were closed, and street vendors made…
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Day 24: Aachen
Where I become an accidental pilgrim, and walk a lot. Woke still quite tired, but with my hotel room facing east the morning sun was warming it up (there is an aircon in the room, but it is more noise than cool) so it was time to go walking. Found an interesting and popular place, Leni Loves Coffee I think it translated to (or Leni Lives Coffee, my German isn’t too good), probably the first cafe in Germany I’ve seen that does an iced coffee, so after one of those and a breakfast of smoked salmon, poached eggs, avocado, and hollandaise sauce on bread (not toasted, strangely) I felt a…
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Day 20: Edinburgh
Last full day in Edinburgh, so spent almost 17,000 steps making the most of it. First stop of the day was the tram down to Haymarket, basically the closest laundromat. They apparently do pick up laundry from my hotel, which reception failed to advise me late night when I asked them where the nearest laundromat was, and they also do free delivery to my hotel so at least I could arrange that. But they only take cash, which had me wandering down the road, first to the post office, but my card wasn’t compatible, and then to a cashpoint a bit further down. I did manage to get a set…
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Day 19: Edinburgh
Basically a day of wandering around Edinburgh, seeing pretty things, buying a few things for me and others, and eating things. Kicked off with a bit of a wander through New Town, and by new, we’re talking only built up around 250 years ago. It’s a chunk less touristy than the Old Town, there are odd spots but generally the tours don’t stray far from Princes St. Was able to grab breakfast at a little local cafe, a “triple” bun with egg, bacon, and haggis, and a decent serve at that, with coffee (a decent flat white), and paid less that 10 pounds. There seems to just be the one…
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Day 7: Inverness, Culloden, Dufftown, Speyside
“A short trip to Dufftown”, words that will live in infamy almost as long as the Duke of Cumberland’s orders of “No quarter” at Culloden. Travelling with a member of Clan Donald, a visit to the battlefield of Culloden was on the itinerary. You won’t get a history lesson here, as a chunk of what I know is derived from reading the Dr Who novelisation of The Highlanders as a pre-teen. The visitor centre was a decent experience, more balanced than I expected, but I guess we’ve got to a point in time where we can interpret events like this with a more nuanced view, looking at world context, the…
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Day 5: Glasgow
Now where were we? Then it was walk, kebab, sleep, hangover. Welcome to Glasgow. Ah, I remember now. It was a rather slow morning, doing as little as possible while my liver and kidneys did what I brought them along to do, and the paracetamol kicked in to help some. I was upright and mostly human by around 11.30am, just a little too late to get the breakfast menu at the nearby Smile Cafe, but in time for the lunch menu including some amazing pizza by the slice. And when I say slice, they say 1/4 of a whole pizza. With this amount of salami and zucchini pizza, plus a…
