I spent fifteen days travelling from Bucharest to Kiev through Romania, Moldova, Transnistria, and Ukraine. It was a fascinating and little visited part of Europe to explore. I’ve covered the…
Less than two hours from Kiev, visiting Chernobyl Exclusion Zone is thankfully a near unique experience. It provides an insight into what happened here over thirty years ago, and what…
Home to one of the best collections of aircraft I’ve visited, the Oleg Antonov State Aviation Museum is well worth taking a 25 minute Uber to reach from central Kiev.…
One of the largest and most historic cities in Eastern Europe, Kiev exceeded any expectations I had, with the little I knew about it relating to the Orange Revolution in…
The third largest city in Ukraine, Odessa is an interesting place, filled with wide leafy streets and some beautiful buildings, but you don’t need to look very far to find…
Tiraspol is the largest city in Transnistria and the second largest in Moldova. It is less leafy than Bendery but still a pleasant place to spend a couple of days.…
Transnistria is an unusual place on the border between Moldova and Ukraine, home to around half a million people. It is about as close as you get to being a…
The capital of Moldova, Chisinau is a rather pleasant if unspectacular ex-Soviet city of about 700,000 people, though it’s population has been falling as it has become easier to Moldovans…
Two of Moldova’s most popular tourist attractions, though as one of the least visited countries in Europe they were pretty quiet in early September. Wine is one of Moldova’s main…
One of the more obscure parts of Europe, the autonomous region of Gagauzia is the least visited region of Moldova, which is the least visited country in Europe. Unlike Transnistria…
One of the more popular destinations, in this little visited part of Europe at least, is the Danube Delta. Most of it lies within Romania though the northern most part…
A reasonably comprehensive post on Romanian Orthodox churches and monasteries in Bucharest, featuring 25 of them, plus three wonderful synagogues. Orthodox churches are relatively narrow and tall, often with between…
Far more pleasant than expected, if with a rather spread out and variable built environment, Bucharest had plenty to fill a few days. There are some excellent, if exhaustingly huge,…
Set up sixteen years ago, The Sculpture Park in Surrey has by far the largest collection of sculptures I have ever seen in one place. Along 3km of trails there…
I’ve been to about sixty five countries to date, a respectable number, if far short of a number of people I’ve met on my travels who have been to more…
London has a reputable as an expensive place to visit, though the weak pound helps mitigate this. It’s quite easy to have an enjoyable day exploring the city for free,…
An eclectic pair of places, both quite unusual and wonderful in different ways, representing the strong personalities of those who created them. Painshill is a classic 18th landscape garden filled…
I spent two and a half weeks travelling from Delhi up to the Ladakh region, as far north as the remote Nubra Valley. India is a huge and diverse country…
Off limits to tourists until 1994, the Nubra Valley is an incredible place about five hours drive from Leh. It’s close to the border with China so a Protected area…
I’ve been along some pretty spectacular roads around the world, and travelling one of the highest roads in the world, from Leh to Nubra Valley over the pass at Khardung…