First comes the list of places that I want to go...later comes the places where I have been
Where I Want To Visit:
These are the places in the world that I want to visit. In no particular order - though Japan is top:
1. Japan
2. Tornado Alley
3. Cuba
4. St Petersburg
5. Melbourne
6. Dubai
7. Seoul
8. Iceland (Northern Lights)
9. Chile
10. Falkland Islands
11. Iran
12. Beirut
13. Detroit
14. Canada
15. Ukraine (Chernobyl in particular)
16. Athens
17. Belfast
18. Orkney
19. Hong Kong
20. Galicia
21. Zimbabwe
22. Costa Rica
23. Lake Bohinj, Slovenia24. Belgrade
25. Ronda, Spain
26. Tbilisi
27. Tirana
28. Gothenburg
29. Malta
30. Luxembourg
31. Granada
32. Valencia
33. San Sebastien
34. Cordoba
35. Ronda
36. Bilbao
37. Naples
38. Florence
39. Saltzberg
40. Sarajevo
41. Odessa
42. Fareo Isles
Where I Have Been:
James Went To Stockholm
Stockholm was the final part of my road trip without using roads (except Bolts) via Tallinn and then Helsinki. It’s another city that I didn’t do justice to in the two nights that I stayed there, though we had a little more time there in total than we had in Helsinki. Yet unlike Helsinki, I feel like I may need to go back here – there was far too much to cover in just a day and a half. Plus it was coming to the end of an expensive trip, and Sweden is hardly know for being affordable, so I … Continued
So Helsinki was the next stop on the trip after falling in love with Tallinn. We caught the ferry across which took 2.5 hours and was actually rather fun – it had a very 80’s old people kind of vibe, shit decor, country and western bands, loads of pensioners. I was quite amused, especially by being able to watch the sea whilst I pee’d. Though upon arrival at our Airbnb, when we eventually found out which door it was, they had only made one bed out of 3 beds, one bed was also broken – which he told me that … Continued
I’m tallinn you, I had a good time in Tallinn. It was the first stop on my next three city/country tour of Europe, Estonia was a completely new country to me – having never visited a Baltic country. Plus I had an accomplice this time too. I had a feeling that Tallinn would be my favourite city of the trip – spoiler (because nobody is going to read all 3 reviews anyway), it was my favourite city of the trip. I loved how Tallinn mixed modernity, art deco cool with medieval history too. Just how stunning is this building? Yet … Continued
Lessons From My Multi-City Holidays
I’ve now had three multi-city holidays. First up was Basel, Liechtenstein, Luxembourg, Strasbourg and Metz. This year I did one trip to Trieste and Ljubljana, and I’ve just come back from a trip to Tallinn, Helsinki and Stockholm – still to write about any of those. I still feel like I’m perfecting the art of the multi-city trip – I haven’t come back completely satisfied once yet. Don’t Travel Back On A Sunday 10 days after my flight back from Stockholm, I’m still knackered. Yes, holidays are supposed to be for relaxing and recovering from a busy life. I’m not … Continued
Yeah I went to a lake. This post shouldn’t take long, but Lake Bled was the original inspiration for my Trieste to Ljubljana trip – in fact I think I was mesmerised by a Windows ’97 photograph of Lake Bled. OK, perhaps not Windows ’97, but it first came to my attention via one of the photos that loads up on my PC quite some years ago. I’d already clocked that Slovenia was stunning, from my first night in Ljubljana. Lake Bled didn’t disappoint. Basically a lake in the more mountainous regions, with a castle on one side, and a … Continued
After Trieste, it was time to head to the lovely jubbly Ljubljana. Though pronounced like: Originally I planned to get the train from Trieste to Ljubljana, because I like trains and dislike buses. However, there are only 3 a day. Only one of these I could buy a ticket for in advance, others I had to buy on the train which I felt sceptical about. Then you have to change at Villa Opicina, apparently. Because the train cannot go over the nearby mountain, it actually has to go back up the coast, before turning around and going around the mountain … Continued
I read about Trieste a while back, I think in The Economist, and it intrigued me enough to have it on my “maybe visit” list. Ljubljana was on my “definitely visit” list, and I realised that I could combine the two – fly to Trieste and then either get the train or a bus to Ljubljana. And with Ryanair having some seriously cheap flights there, it was game on. Trieste is definitely less Italian than other places in Italy that I’ve been, for multiple reasons. It only became part of Italy after World War 1, prior to that it was … Continued
Yeah I’m running out of European countries to visit, and Sarajevo was on my list of places to visit – the capital of Bosnia. There is more to it than a weird 1st world addiction to ticking off countries, as I’m quite fascinated by geopolitics, and Bosnia is somewhere I’ve seen history happen in my lifetime. Plus I rather like this area of the world, having visited Belgrade, Zadar, Skopje and Split – the scenery can be stunning, especially the Croatian coast. Bosnia was on my to-do list for more than the purpose of ticking off another country. The Challenges … Continued
So one of my closest friends of the last 15 ish years is from the Czechia (sorry, Czech Republic), yet I’d never even been to Prague. It was time to put that right in August. And…it was hot and sunny into the mix. In fact it was probably too hot at times – it was 33’C when we arrived on the Friday afternoon, and with quite a walk to the nearest bars and restaurants I became a tad hot and flustered – our Airbnb seemed to be in an area full of Airbnbs. I’m sure the locals don’t want to … Continued
The final adventure on my rail tour of Europe took me to Luxembourg. By this point I was pretty tired, and wondered why I hadn’t booked a holiday to Spain or something, but hey, there was a new country to go to – the closest country to the UK that I had yet to visit. After a pretty un-scenic train journey of around 50 minutes from Metz, I arrived in Luxembourg – I decided that I’d be a proper tourist and do one of those “free” walking tours. Which was a wise choice, except for all the further walking I … Continued