Day 2 of eating refugee rations was a lovely sunny Saturday… Conveniently my 9am web-meeting was cancelled so I stayed in bed until 10, reading and catching up with friends’ news and their videos of travel adventures etc. So lovely not to be rushing off anywhere. We had a late breakfast, same thing as yesterday but not quite as tasty. Rice with cinnamon. It overflowed – again- you have to be quite observant cooking rice, beans etc. This is now the third pot of […]
food
Operation Refugee Day 1
Antony and I are eating refugee rations for 5 days. Today we began. It is going to be a huge challenge for me as I just love food and cooking delicious meals. What we have to work with is not very exciting!! One of my friends did it last year and I sponsored her.. this year I thought I’d give it a go myself. I asked Antony to join me as it would be easier than doing it alone. Seeing him eating fruit and […]
Krakow (Part 1)
After a pleasant four hour train trip from Warsaw, we arrived in Krakow around 4.30pm on a beautiful sunny spring day. Our BnB was a lovely studio apartment that was completely Ikea furnished and decorated. It was just across the river from the castle and the main part of town. One of the reasons this placed grabbed my attention when booking was that it included the free use of 2 bikes. The men’s bike was really big and the seat was up really high […]
Day-tripping from Prague
Kutna Hora is about 85km from Prague and definitely warrants a day trip. Together with friends Gena and Chris we took a train to this town which boasts a number of sights including the famous ‘Bone Church’ aka The Sedlec Ossuary. This was a pretty crazy place to see! The whole underground chapel is decorated with human bones. 40,000 people have their resting place here!! The reason being that around 1278 a local abbot went to Jerusalem and brough back some soil which he […]
Akhaltsikhe & Georgian Food
We took a marshutka from Kutaisi to Akhaltsikhe and when we got off we were admiring the cars set up as hardware shops and were trying to work out which way to go to get to our hotel when a bustling woman approached us offering accommodation at her guesthouse. We had already booked a room a hotel so politely declined her offer. Not giving up she offered home cooked meals and a husband who could drive us to Vardzia and other places of interest […]
Money Matters Iran
I kept a record of every cent we spent in Iran, so we know how much money we spent on what. Hopefully the info below can give you a rough guide in terms of costs if you plan on travelling to Iran. There are no ATMS in Iran that accept foreign cards so you must take USD or Euros in cash and exchange them. We took USD and the rate we had in Feb & March 2016 was 1USD = 34,000 Rial. My husband and […]
Food in Iran
This is not at all a comprehensive post on Iranian food… it’s more about our experiences eating, on a budget, in Iran and a few other food related notes. Being a vegetarian meant that my consumption of Iranian food was often limited to eggplant dishes, fresh greens and salads, rice, yoghurt and bread. I was not complaining – the food overall was very good, fresh and divinely presented. Iranians make the best rice in the world too and there were many varieties of bread […]
Qazvin
Once the capital of all Iran, Qazvin these days is a smallish city with a population around 400,00 and home to a few pleasant sights. The main reason for us and many other tourists to come to Qazvin is the city’s proximity to the Alamut Valley & Castle of the Assassins. We had an amazing day trip exploring these places and it was great to be in the mountains again. But Qazvin itself was also nice to wander around. The highlight of the town […]
Yazd, Iran
Most places we went to in Iran were above amazing, all with their own delights and highlights, so it’s hard to pick a favourite. But if I had to, Yazd would certainly be vying for the prize! For starters there was the hotel we stayed in. It was cheap; $20 USD per night for a private room, with 3 toilet shower rooms shared with one other couple and a decent free breakfast. Ok the room was not soundproof at all but we are good […]