“But I wore the juice!”

I got you something to fix your brain, said Riho, a genuinely helpful and sincere expression on his face.
Unaware that my brain was in fact broken, I accepted his gift with some surprise. It was a book of puzzles intended to develop logical thinking, and he presented it to me with a pleased smile, telling [...]

Traveller’s Rest

It’s good to be back in Tallinn.
The absence of blog posts this week is an indication of how exhausted I’ve been - finally being able to lie down in a comfortable bed, cook healthy meals in a familiar kitchen, and lounge around in pyjamas all day reading and chatting and sleeping has been a real [...]

Withdrawal. Again. (Or “In which I kindly, with the patience of a saint, refrain from exploding and injuring all the imbeciles that seem to surround me”)

Hey Hayley! screams the irritatingly enthusiastic message from Facebook. Now you can throw a spaghetti cat at your friends!
Isn’t that marvellous?
I have been up since the early hours, on train after bus after train and all but strip-searched at the airport by a possible witch (with PMS). I have been shaken around inside one [...]

Money Matters

Blimey, Sweden is expensive.
I don’t mean that Sweden itself is expensive, obviously. That would be crazy money (especially for a struggling freelance writer), and I’ve no idea how you’d go about it anyway, or even if it’s possible to buy a Nordic country privately. I’ll check on Ebay when I have a better internet connection; [...]

I prefer trains.

An hour. A whole sodding hour I spent packing and repacking my bag before I left Vienna to catch my flight from Bratislava. I really don’t understand how I have exactly the same amount of stuff before every flight, and yet each time it seems to take up more and more space in my bag [...]

Smoke gets in your mind

Ah. I didn’t know Vienna was the self-proclaimed Coffee Capital. Marvellous.
Following my fourth delightful caffiene treat of the day, I strolled happily through the Museum Quartier. I was stopped by a woman in her thirties, who looked exremely distressed. She was babbling frantically in German and rummaging in her bag with the jumpiness of someone [...]

Where am I?

I’m suffering from a severe case of haven’t-got-a-clue-where-I-am-itis, which means that the first few minutes upon waking up in the morning are becoming increasingly confused and disorientated. It’s a new ailment to me, since for much of my life it was a safe bet that when I opened my eyes I would be in Ballymena, [...]

Feeling the Terror

I’ve always been fascinated by the history of Hungary, after studying the 1956 revolution at school, many moons ago.
I was very excited, then, to actually be in Budapest and have the opportunity to see round the House of Terror – a step-by-step journey through Hungary’s history of Soviet occupation and ethnic cleansing. Sure, it doesn’t [...]

Laundry Day: the “on the road” version

Having had the hostel dorm to myself for two nights, I was last night joined by an Englishman called Dave. Hooray! Conversation that did not necessitate sign language! We went for a few beers and exchanged travel stories at the bar – but not before I’d attempted to find out from the barman if there [...]

The boy in the tower

Do you see the lengths I go to for you people? Today, I climbed up to a little dot up in the clouds, at the top of a series of very large hills. The dot would turn out to be the Lookout Tower, from which, I had been informed by Nice Hostel Man, I would [...]