Nurwara Eliya and Ella

Crazy train rides, breathtaking vistas, tea plantations rolling over hills for miles. Cool climes and staggering waterfalls – Little towns and yet more spicy curry. Tea country we have arrived. Looking up at the towering scenery around, waterfalls streak the green mountains with frothy white. This one high and thunderous such a powerful sound. Stiff […]

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Dambulla & Kandy

Carved, painted rock temples. Golden buddhas, and bodhi trees. Huge monitor lizards and a temple built for …. a tooth!  More spicy food than we could eat (actually we couldn’t eat!). Leechy forests and monkey bandits. Kandy you sound sweet but you can pack a punch girl. Golden Temple Dambulla is the largest and best-preserved cave

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Sri Lanka – Negombo, Anuradhapura, Polonnaruwa, Mihintale, Habarana and Sigiriya

Crumbling ruins in the middle of the jungle, a nerve wracking hike to a sky high palace, monkeys monitors, and more monkeys and an alarming elephant safari (for the elephants and us). Gorgeous Sri Lanka not the  easiest place to travel but the steamy humidity, tongue singeing curries and few uninvited toads in the bathroom

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Auschwitz-Birkenau

Poland was never in our plan for this trip, kind of out of the way and not on our route. But as we travelled through Romania and then northwards, the story of the Nazi holocaust got very loud. It had affected everything and everyone. So many of the people whose lives we had learned about, whose

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Prague

Gothic churches and soaring spires, menacing gargoyles watching from cathedral roofs. Tales of witches casting spells and a street of alchemists  searching  for the philoshers stone. Kings, queens, and castles.  Bridges, bridges and more bridges. Humming Christmas carols in August ? and multiple cases of major and minor defenistration (I know, I know, super shocking)

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Vienna

Motzart, Beethoven, Hadyn, Schubert, Klimt, Schiele, Kafka, Freud, Mahler. The big hitters all lived here in Vienna. Opera, ballet, orchestra, galleries and architecture. Four days and we knew we were going to only skim the surface of this truly spectacular city of the arts. Beautiful place, beautiful apartment so elegant and sophisticated.  We were so pathetically

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Dracula’s Castle

Holy moly, crosses and garlic. Loving trippy Transylvania. Dracula, creepy castles and foggy forests as far as the eye could see. Horrible tales of evil deeds and gruesome medieval torture. Now spending the day with the Count himself. Well it would be rude not to stop by. We took an early bus from Brasov to

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Brasov

Picture postcard, pretty Brasov. Pastel walls and terracotta tiles, cobbled streets and medieval towers.  Emerald misted forests,  saxon forts, and a massive thunder and lightening show making our first experience of Transylvania Hollywood perfect.  InterRegio trains not known for being luxurious (hehe) super hot, super dirty, but super cheap only about $10 each and only

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Veliko Turnovo

Hilly, green, restful place. Stormy skies and medieval forts. Slow pace strolls, cobbled streets and too much ice cream. We had a nice rest here after non-stop travel for eight weeks ahhhhhhh and did I mention ice creeaam We took a bus from Sofia (the newish capital of Bulgaria)  to Veliko Turnovo (the old capital

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