Returning to Russia is not returning home but as Russia has played an important role in the last 14 years of my life, returning after a five year absence felt like a homecoming. I left Russia at the beginning of 2008 shortly before the financial crisis in mid winter. Snow clung to buildings and streets alike. Cold permeates everywhere and…
When it comes to crossing borders in Eastern Europe when officials start treating you like a friend, you begin to wonder whether something is seriously amiss. Border crossings are something many people take for granted when travelling. They are associated with long queues and direct officials. However, having spent a considerable amount of time travelling through Eastern Europe I had…
The “fasten seatbelts” sign flashed on, signaling our final descent. The clouds that had obscured Europe for the majority of the trip, slid past the aircraft windows and opened up the view to a featureless landscape covered with snow and long shadows thrown off by a sinking sun. I began to feel that familiar sense of anxiety when the wheels…
It is December, people talk excitedly about the upcoming holidays – what they want to do, where they want to go. Travel agents advertise frenetically, trying to out do the cut throat competition for trips to exotic and warm destinations: Egypt, India, Thailand, and for the first time this year I even have heard advertisements for Indonesia. Times change rapidly…
I used to think that it was the big things, catastrophes, disasters and hair-brained adventures which were the stuff of excitement. They happen rarely though and I’m starting to appreciate this may be a good thing, even if it leads to dull news. So I suppose I should take the time to enjoy the small events and sights that I…
The Cooks comprise 15 islands which are broken into two groups, the Southern and the Northern Cooks. The Northern Cooks are about 10 degrees of latitude north of the southern cooks. This is a huge distance, the Society Islands are closer to Rarotonga than some of the Cooks. The population of the entire country is estimated by various sources as being from 13,000 to…
An absorbing and skilful story, exploring the attitudes of a younger brother who has grown up overawed by the image of his elder brother, whose life is changed when he goes to Bosnia and Serbia to explore the land that took his brother’s life.
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