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Istanbul: Galata and the Golden Horn
Last night someone decided to dig up the road outside my hotel which may or may not have had something to do with the five-hour powercut. After giving up on sleep I lay in bed listening to the calls to...
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Istanbul Under
Istanbul‘s Basilica Cistern (Yerebatan Sarnıcı - Sunken Cistern) is a large underground cistern that used to provide the Constantinople and Ottoman palaces with filtered water. Previously it was a...
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For Hildegard
Snatches of light and laughter, high pitched shrieks and giggles, you know the kind, the ones they always put in short film reels to depict a happy childhood. Running water, pounding feet on the...
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Budapest: Central Market
When I first arrived in Budapest I noticed a beautiful building, which I assumed due to its style and shape, was a church. It is a large building in Pest, situated by Szabadsag bridge, with a huge...
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A winter weekend in Budapest
Budapest is a beautiful city and never more so than in winter, when the wind bites colour into cheeks, lights sparkle across the river and snow lends the glamour of a white coat. At Christmas there is...
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Italy 2009: Where the train meets the sea
One of my most magical train journeys was from Bologna to Bari, where the sea was my constant travel companion. It started off my love of train travel… I stepped off the sleeper at Bologna, 06.30 on a...
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Istanbul 2011: First impressions
It’s early evening in Istanbul and on the TV a woman is singing a mournful melody accompanied by a baglama. Outside people call to one another as they lean from windows, orange sellers trundle their...
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Istanbul 2011: Galata and the golden horn
Last night someone decided to dig up the road outside my hotel which may or may not have had something to do with the five-hour powercut. After giving up on sleep I lay in bed listening to the calls to...
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Train travel 2012: Romanian reflections
Bucharest Nord. In 2009, journeying in the opposite direction, I sat on a cold red seat awaiting a train to Budapest. Nearby, a woman was eating nuts, the discarded kernels vacuumed up by the jaws of a...
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Kefalonia 2010: to the sea, olive groves and bougainvillea
My entire world, my very own paradise, is defined by one tiny patch of man-made shelf. It is my apartment balcony and it has all I could conceivably want, namely a view to the sea. Imagine living...
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Eastern Europe 2012: Hungary-Romania by train
Thursday evening found me sat in the same pub in Keleti pu, Budapest, which I sat in two years ago, drinking the same lager, in the same cavernous room. Despite being well into the new year, it still...
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Menorca 2011: the Cami de Cavalls
My walk in Menorca begins at a small pebble cove, waymarked in pretty blue tiles by an artist’s summer residence. On the stone wall of the house an inscription in Menorcan reads, “On a point of Els...
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Menorca 2011: Cami de Cavalls #2
When the fierce Tramuntana wind has blown itself out, I meet Ramon to experience the southern aspect of the Cami de Cavalls. The tourist literature boasts that Menorca possesses more beaches than all...
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Shopping in Budapest
When I first arrived in Budapest I noticed a beautiful building, which I assumed due to its style and shape, was a church. It is a large building in Pest, situated by Szabadsag bridge, with a huge...
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Budapest: on foot
My eyes open to a sharp blue sky, occasional dusky cloud and treetops dancing wildly outside the skylights. The steamed condensation on the glass betrays how cold it is and I burrow back under the...
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