One of the best books - no, make that the best book - I read last year was 1812: Napoleon's Fatal March on Moscow by Adam Zamoyski. I was reading it in Smolensk, fittingly enough, on a flying two-day stay, as part of our two weeks in Russia, in the very city where the Russian… Continue reading Obsessed with History in Smolensk
On Lorikeet Lane
Tina and I got married exactly nineteen years ago. Our list of previous anniversary getaway locations includes Montville (Sunshine Coast), Spicers Hidden Vale resort, Mount Tamborine, and Westport, Co. Mayo. This year we went back up to the Sunshine Coast hinterland for an anniversary overnighter. A feature meal is an important part of an anniversary… Continue reading On Lorikeet Lane
Morning coffee in Moscow
Moscow was our journey's summit. St. Petersburg, in particular the Hermitage, had been more like an outcrop just below the peak, the one with the best views, but we'd still had some climbing to do. It would be all downhill from here to Greece, our next and last destination on this trip. Arriving so early… Continue reading Morning coffee in Moscow
Our, and Russia’s, first Kremlin
Having learnt just enough Russian to recognise the word gorod (town, city) in the name Veliky Novgorod, the town four hours south of St. Petersburg (by train) we'd be stopping in overnight on our way to Moscow, I wondered what the nov- prefix meant. Indeed, what did Veliky mean? Eoin and the dragon Well, turns… Continue reading Our, and Russia’s, first Kremlin
In the Hermitage and at the ballet in Russia’s city of culture
Back home in Brisbane after our European summer break, we watched a movie one cold winter's evening called Russian Ark. It's set in the Winter Palace of St. Petersburg's State Hermitage Museum, somewhere we'd visited on the Russian leg of our trip, and it's unusual for having been shot in one ninety-six-minute-long continuous take. In… Continue reading In the Hermitage and at the ballet in Russia’s city of culture
Back in Zak
Denmark was three different places in three nights. Russia was six in fourteen. A lot of Lego and Museums of Great Revolutionary Wars. In Russia, furthermore, there were also side trips to Veliky-Novgorod (south of St. Petersburg, on the way to Moscow) and Smolensk (west of Moscow, on the way to Belorussia, not that we… Continue reading Back in Zak
A tour of Leningrad – I mean St. Petersburg
We'd lined up a tour guide for our first full day in Russia. Igor came and met us outside our hostel/hotel. He was a serious, middle-aged, academic type, and spent a long time untangling four sets of headphones he said he wanted us to use while he talked into a microphone as we walked the… Continue reading A tour of Leningrad – I mean St. Petersburg
A train to St. Petersburg
As Paul Theroux has said on many an occasion, train travel is the real travel. We couldn't agree more. After our two days in Finland we did what the UK hasn't managed to do in three and a half years and caught a fast train out of the EU. From Helsinki Central Station, with its… Continue reading A train to St. Petersburg
Copenhagen and Helsinki
After getting the morning train from Roskilde, Denmark, we managed to grab an hour in Copenhagen before our flight to Helsinki. Another smash and grab, like our lunchtime in Hamburg, only this time the weather smiled on our travels. Copenhagen streetscape Not quite believing our luck with the weather after the last few days we… Continue reading Copenhagen and Helsinki
Into Scandinavia
After a week in Ireland, the road was calling again. Up at 3:45am, Tina and I rounded up our sleepy troops and we all kissed Mum goodbye, not knowing how many years it'd be till we see her again. We shoved the boys and the suitcases into the taxi as it idled in the cold,… Continue reading Into Scandinavia
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