Lithuania - August 2005

Villainous Vilnius

The Guinness

We found Guinness at the Mano Kavine, a café bar. It was poured by cheerful Sveta who picked the next destination out of the hat for me – Tirana, Albania. This was greeted with a stunned silence from Margaret and the boys – I guess they wanted Paris or Amsterdam!

Enjoying a Guinness at Mano Kavine

Sveta picking out my next destination

Getting There

Flew Lufthansa from Birmingham via Frankfurt.

Team Makeup

A family trip with Margaret, Sean and Gareth

Accommodation

I spoilt the family and we stayed at the Ratonda Centrum hotel rather than a youth hostel.

Food

At Zemaiciu Smukli, a popular traditional western Lithuanian restaurant we had the zemaiciu blynai – a variety of stodgy potato pancakes filled with things like cheese and meat.

At the Yellow Submarine cafe, whose walls were full of Beatles posters, we went for the local dish of what turned out to be deep fried chicken, cheese and vegetables that any Glaswegians would have adored.


Sightseeing highlights

Churches galore.

A Russian Orthodox topped with its emerald green onion roof.

St Anne’s, a red brick building completed in 1582 in a heavy Gothic style.

Church of St Peter & Paul, full of two thousand mouldings from floor to ceiling, some not the sort you’d expect to see in a church.

Going to the revolving restaurant at the top of the 325 meter tall TV tower

Out of the City

We went to Trakai on an ancient bus to see the attractive red brick castle.

Trakai Castle

Trakai is also home of a community of Karaim people, originally from Turkey, who practice a branch of Judaism. They were originally invited to the area by the Lithuanian Grand Duke to act as his guards in about 1400.

Quirky moments

Wooden scaffolding

A statue of Frank Zappa

Bumping into, almost literally, Prime Minister Algirdas Brazauskas and his wife, being asked to stand aside by the biggest minder I have ever seen. It’s been quite a year for seeing Prime Ministers. In the past 12 months I’ve also seen the Bulgarian premier driving into the parliament building, the Faroe Islands Premier making a state of the union speech and Tony Blair driving past with the Queen driving up the Mall.

Algirdas Brazauskas and his rather large minder behind

Coming down with a villainous Vilnius virus on the last night, struggling home and spending the next week in bed with gastroenteritis.

Memories

The slapping noise car tyres going over the cobbles.

Hen and stag parties wandering the streets.

Being invited to dance by a Lithuanian folk dance band (fortunately there are no pictures of my efforts).

Faroe Islands - July 2005

Footloose in the Faroes

The Guinness

My research on the Internet before I left home led me to believe there may be a pub selling Guinness in Torshavn but that proved to be a false rumour.  Fortunately for us, a kind sole called Henrik and his wife Lene invited us all around their house for Guinness they have brought over especially for us, all the way from Denmark.  Their kindness meant I didn't have to drink my 'emergency bottle' that I had brought with me.

Enjoying a Guinness with Henrik and Lene

Henrik picking out my next destination - Vilnius

Getting there and around:
One reason for waiting till July to go was that not only was it warm but we could fly from Stansted direct to the Faroes with Atlantic Airways, landing on what is probably the only flat piece of land around. We hired a car for a few days but that's an expensive option so took it back and used the good public transport system - coaches and ferries and even a helicopter at one stage.

The helicopter taxi

Team makeup: 
A great turn out of Dave, Pete, Lynne and Paul..

Accommodation
Youth hostels at four different locations.

The only Youth Hostel with a turf roof I've ever stayed in.

Food

Not the highlight of the holiday that's for sure.  We self-catered a few nights and had some mediocre food other nights.  I gave the whale meat a miss. 

Sightseeing highlights

So many on this trip. The bright green scenery was spectacular. Massive cliffs, no trees, sea birds, houses with turf roofs.

The historic part of Torshavn

The tiny Mykines Island where we happened upon a folk festival.

Kristian Blak and others jamming at the Mykines Youth Hostel

The annual parade where the Prime minister gave a speach and people wore traditional costume.

Out of the City

We spent a couple of nights in the capital Torshavn then visited a number of other islands.

Village of Sandavagur

Quirky moments

The others in the party searching for a Geocache which was in Henrik's garden only to realise it wasn't Henrik's garden they were looking in, it was somoene elses garden.  

Paul with the girls outside Torshavn Youth Hostel

Lasting memories

The spectacular scenery

The visit to the Mykines Island.

The puffins,  dead and alive - the Faroese still trap and eat puffins.

Bulgaria - September 2004

Shuffling around Sofia

A full collection of photos from this trip can be found in my Sofia Flickr album

The Guinness

I found two or three Irish bars in Sofia before I struck lucky but they only sold Murphys. I finally found Guinness in Flannagans Bar at the Radisson Hotel on Narodno Sabranie Square (7.90 Lev ~£2.70/pint).

Enjoying my first Guinness in Sofia

My Guinness was poured by Miro who kindly picked out the next destination I had to go to.

Miro picking out the Faroe Islands.

Getting there and around:

£199 ticket with Lufthansa from Birmingham via Munich. Bus from the airport into Sofia and hopped on and off trams a lot in the rest of my visit using the five day pass I purchased in a kiosk outside the airport.  Be careful on the trams as they have a habit of stopping, changing their number and heading off in a completely different direction!

Which way is that tram going now?

Team makeup: 
A solo effort - too short notice for others to join in.

Accommodation
100-year old Sun Hotel on Maria Luiza. Friendly staff on which to practice a new Bulgarian word each morning.

The Sun Hotel

Food

I had a nice meal at the Krim restaurant which turned out to be Russian food and not Bulgarian I think. Deep fried peppers stuffed with goat’s cheese to start followed by the beef stroganoff.  I gave the borscht a miss as I didn’t think the waiter looked like he’s appreciate my Star Wars joke -  ‘May the borscht be with you’

 Sightseeing highlights

Churches of all shapes and sizes

Seeing the Prime Minister arrive at the Parliament

Old Soviet style monuments

A folk dancing festival

I also saw a recently found gold mask from a Thracian tomb (~ 4000BC) from Eastern Bulgaria on display for the first time in the Archaeological Museum.

Out of the City

I didn’t get out of the city, only to the outskirts, with a short walk in the foothills of Vitosha Mountain and a look around the ancient Boyana Church.

Boyana Church

Quirky moments

• Fretting about whether I would be allowed to check-in after finding I had booked the flight under Miss Richards.
• Thinking I was a brave and adventurous tourist going to Sofia only to bump into a Saga Holiday crowd from the UK.
• Man sized pot holes in the pavements in Sofia on poorly lit streets.

Goose-stepping guards

Kiosks where the head of person serving you was at pavement level.

Ireland - August 2004

Debuting in Dublin

The Guinness

The challenge started with a visit  to the Guinness  St James’s Gate Brewery in the heart of Dublin where we were welcomed by the Guinness Storehouse Operations Director Michael Sheary. 

Ops Manager Michael Sheary.welcomes us.

 We had a complementary tour around the Guinness Storehouse with guide Noel O'Reilly before ending up in the Gravity Bar for a Guinness where Noel kindly picked out of the hat the next destination I had to go to, Sofia, Bulgaria. 

Getting There

Flew from Birmingham with Ryanair at £4 each plus taxes making it £30 each for the round trip.  Hired a car at Dublin airport.  Used the local metro system, the DART, to get in and out of the city.

Team Makeup: 

A family trip – Margaret, Sean and Gareth

Accommodation

We were kindly put up, or should I say we imposed on, friends Teresa and John in Bray, County Wicklow, Margaret’s hometown.

Food

Teresa puts on a fine spread and we were duty bound to do it justice including the long-standing Irish tradition of multiple puddings.

Sightseeing highlights

The Guinness Storehouse tour including the history of Guinness manufacturing and history of the advertising in the ‘My Goodness, My Gilroy’ exhibition.

• The Spike (known locally as the Stiffy on the Liffey) in Connelly Street. A conical spire of rolled stainless steel plate which tapers from 3 metres in diameter at the base to a 0.1 metre pointed pinnacle at a height of 120 metres.

Out of the City

In Bray we visited friends and family and had time to explore a local hill called Carraigoona.

Quirky moments

Loosing our way from the airport out to Bray and having to jump out of the car in a Tesco car park to get a signal on a hand-held GPS.  Men will do anything to save having to ask a stranger the way.

Buying an emergency bottle just in Dublin in case I dont find any in Bulgaria