SmaviesAdventures

Tokyo, Tradition meets Technology A Nio Statue with the Un  So.. having been in Tokyo (read about our first few days here ) for a longer stay we have been able to see the sights, and be a bit touristy. Tokyo is a high rise kinda place there is lots of skyscrapers and you barely see anyone around during the day, you just have to figure that there are a lot of people in those buildings that you never see. These sky scrapers are a massive and really bring the definition to the usually cloudy or raining sky. Weather wise we never felt more at home. Clouds have rained and drizzled and generally leaked on us for the last 10 days, but the Japanese people are really friendly one stranger saw we were out and about with our suit cases in the pouring rain trying to find our apartment. He chased us down the road and gave us an umbrella for free. Another gent who was some sort of plumber or handy man, ran round the streets trying to find our address for us and took us right to the door. A...

Japan, A Fiasco in Foreign Foods Arrival We boarded our flights from Istanbul at around midday on Sunday after going through the Istanbul underground system, it was a little confusing as to where we needed to go as neither of us had too much of a clue about any of the Turkish (this really should have been a sign of things to come). Our first flight was good and about four hours long where both of us watched a film before we landed. Upon landing in Abu Dhabi, our transfer stop, we got out the plane and wandered through the halls, the airport is huge there. Eventually around 22:00 we moved towards our gate and got onto the bus. Stepping out of the terminal was an interesting step, it was like stepping into a preheated oven. Scarily the temperature at 22:00 was still around 40 degrees. The plane journey from there on in was fine, we mainly slept for it and then had a chicken pie for breakfast\lunch as the time in Tokyo was about midday when we were landing. Andrew ended up be...

Istanbul, first footsteps in Asia View of the Blue Mosque from the Hagia Sophia We left Macedonia fairly early on Thursday morning. Our second plane of our trip was awaiting and we were up early to catch it. After downing our final espresso in Macedonia we walked to the centre to catch the airport bus. It was a little odd to be leaving Macedonia as we had grown quite fond of it, but we were ready to leave for the sunny sights of busy Istanbul. The Domed Roof of the Hagia Sophia Istanbul is a very odd and interesting city, our plane landed at Sabiha Gokcen airport which is located on the Asian side of Istanbul (the part located to the east of the Bosphorus Strait, the bit of water separating Istanbul). We had decided however to stay in Sultanahmet as it was close to the sights that we wanted to see and our time in Istanbul was short. We got the bus quite easily which dropped us near to the ferry which took us towards the side of Istanbul that we needed. The boat crossing wa...

Skopje, the city of a thousand vomiting lions and other cool stuff My Macedonia was full of lions, they are the national symbol there. Every fountain is laced with them, even the main bridges are. There are lions everywhere, apparently this was something to do with them being a triumphant dynasty in the olden days it was a symbol of their power and prestigiousness I guess much like our 'three lions on a shirt.' The more lions you have the tougher you are. It's difficult to determine whether there is a new or old part of town. The bizarre looks a little run down, it follows the Balkan trend of a wedding dress shops on every corner and a few in between, these stand out rather glamorously against the ramble of other shops like one might go to the Oscars on a Friday night and need a new dress every week. They all sparkle and they are all beautiful. We spent most of our time round the fountainous region. Looking at all the warriors, women and vomiting lio...

Kosovo It's funny travelling around this area that there are many places where there is a somewhat negative stigma. Due to recent wars throughout the region (Kosovo's is slightly more recent that Bosnia's I believe) It is easy to presume that the area you are going to is going to feel unsafe or look like a warzone. We already had these pre-conceptions challenged when we went to Bosnia . But Kosovo was always going to be a different story, as I said their war is more recent, but they are also still in conflict with Serbia (Issues around the legitimacy of their sovereignty). Pec, Peje, Peja We left Podgorica to arrive in Kosovo and drove through beautiful gorges with clear blue water, steep grey cliffs and luscious green pine forests. Our route took us high up into the mountains dividing Kosovo from Montenegro. Once passing the Montenegrin border we drove for a long time through no man's land before arriving at Kosovo's border. Upon passing it and receivin...