Across northern Türkiye
Note: It’s now considered more polite to use Türkiye to refer to the country formerly known as Turkey. This is understandable because who would want to share a name with a big awkward bird? Occasionally, […]
adventure
In the deserts of Iran
We flew from Pakistan into the northeastern city of Mashhad in Iran. The two countries have a land border in Balochistan, but it’s dodgy. You need a special permit and an armed guard. We’re not […]
Postcard from Pakistan
We were the only people crossing the Attari-Wagah border when we walked across from India to Pakistan. The immigration halls on both sides were completely empty, apart from the staff who were overjoyed to see […]
Poha for breakfast
Somehow, more than two years have sneaked by since my last blog post from Ukraine, just before all hell broke loose there. It was still Covid times when we got back to Bulgaria and we’d […]
Magnificent Ukraine
Ukraine is a wonderful surprise, full of interesting, unusual and amazing things. I knew next to nothing about it and had a vague (and totally baseless) idea that it might be a kind of emptier, […]
Adventures in Moldova
Moldova is kind of unusual. It’s a little bit this and a little bit that. Generally, I found the Moldovans to be quite reserved. Not really friendly or unfriendly, just sort of minding their own […]
Chasing vampires and bears
I’ve always wanted to explore Romania for its fascinating folklore, fairytale castles, and dark forests with wolves and bears, and especially Transylvania for the vampires.
Spring in Neykovo
While we were off gallivanting in Malta, the greyscale Bulgarian winter was transformed into full Disney technicolour. I had no idea our village of Neykovo could be so beautiful. All the deciduous trees, that I […]
The many layers of Malta
When my father’s family migrated to Australia from Scotland in 1927, their ship stopped in Malta. He kept a couple of old photos in his photo tin that always fascinated me. It looked so beautiful […]
First steps on the old silk road
It was an adventurer called Zhang Qian, between 100-200 BC, who is said to have started off the old silk road trade route, from China to the west. He keeps appearing in lots of different […]
Adventurous Hermit 