Day 149 - Saint Vincent and the Grenadines 🇻🇨

June 20, 2021

Today is our third day in the Caribbean. We don’t travel far, as we are island-hopping to Saint Lucia’s neighbouring island, Saint Vincent and the Grenadines.

Like Saint Lucia, Saint Vincent and the Grenadines is a small, island nation that is an ex-British colony. Saint Vincent and the Grenadines gained independence from the UK in 1979 and is still part of the commonwealth. The nation also shares its currency, the East Caribbean dollar with Saint Lucia and seven other Caribbean nations.

Bananas are a significant export for Saint Vincent and the Grenadines but the largest export is “inflatable pleasure craft” making up 55% of the countries exports. I tried to find out more about this bizarre stat, but couldn’t find any more details. It doesn’t even seem like there is a factory making inflatable pleasure craft in Saint Vincent and the Grenadines. If anyone can solve this mystery, please let me know…

In April this year, 16,000 residents had to be evacuated from their homes after the La Soufrière volcano erupted in the North of Saint Vincent. This evacuation was made significantly harder due to covid.

One of Saint Vincent and the Grenadines larger islands, Mustique has some notoriety due to famous residents such as Shania Twain, John Cleese, Mick Jagger and Tommy Hilfiger. It’s also the island that Boris Johnson controversially visited during Christmas 2019 at the expense of a political donor.

One final fact about Saint Vincent and the Grenadines is that whaling is still allowed in limited quantities on the island of Bequia. Locals are allowed to catch up to four humpback whales per year using traditional hand-thrown harpoons. Apparently, often they don’t manage to meet their quota.

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One of the two Pitons, huge volcanic plugs on the island of St. Lucia

Day 148 - Saint Lucia 🇱🇨

June 19, 2021

Today we’re sunning ourselves in Saint Lucia, the Caribbean nation with the claim to being the only country in the world named after a female saint. Interestingly there’s also another country named after a woman, and that’s Ireland, named after the Celtic goddess of fertility Eire.

Apparently, it’s still common to find imperial measures such as miles and gallons in Saint Lucia, as the country has only recently adopted the metric system. I genuinely thought the US was the only hold-out.

Saint Lucia was home to the Henrietta ship, starring in the Pirates of the Caribbean movies. Sadly for the ship that was originally built back in 1940 in Finland, it sank back in 2014 while sailing to Saint Vincent and the Grenadines. Maybe this is a fitting end for a well-known pirate ship?

Other tourist attractions in Saint Lucia is known for is its abandoned sugar mills and Sulphur Springs, the world’s only drive-through volcano.

Although, who am I kidding, most people visit Saint Lucia for its stunning beaches. It’s been voted for multiple years as the top honeymoon destination, although, personally I’ll take that recommendation with a pinch of salt. Also, Saint Lucia is certainly no honeymoon destination as far as I’m concerned as the law prohibits same-sex sexual activity, with a punishment of up to ten years in prison.

One of Saint Lucia’s most iconic landmarks are its huge Pitons, or volcanic plugs. They certainly give the coastline a dramatic appearance, and also lend their name to Saint Lucia’s most popular beer.

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Day 147 - Saint Kitts and Nevis 🇰🇳

June 18, 2021

Today we head to the dual island paradise of Saint Kitts and Nevis. Saint Kitts and Nevis is the smallest nation in the Western Hemisphere and has around 52,000 inhabitants.

Cricket is a big deal in Saint Kitts and Nevis, with the country being the smallest nation to ever host a Cricket World Cup in 2007. Given cricket is so popular, it’s pretty unsurprising that Saint Kitts and Nevis was previously a British colony, only gaining full independence from the UK in 1983.

Saint Kitts and Nevis is today apparently a very sleepy country, with agriculture, specifically sugar plantations still making up a significant part of the economy. However, tourism is increasing, and Plantation Inns are the choicest places to stay.

If you particularly like your stay in St Kitts and Nevis, the country will grant citizenship to almost anyone who is willing to make a $400,000 (USD) in a government approved real estate investment.

If you do end up visiting St Kitts and Nevis, don’t forget to try the Goat Water.

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Day 146 - Rwanda 🇷🇼

June 17, 2021

Rwanda is a small, landlocked country in the Great Rift Valley in central East Africa. Rwanda is also the smallest country in East Africa, and it’s even smaller than Haiti.

I don’t know much about Rwanda up until this day, but like me, of you’ve heard of Rwanda, it’s likely because of the horrific Rwandan genocide in 1994. During the Rwandan genocide, up to 1,100,000 people are though to have been killed in a period of 100 days.

Nowadays it seems Rwanda is in a much more positive place, and is one of the success stories of Africa. For example, Rwanda has the world record of the most representation of women in Parliament as 64% of the seats in the Rwandan parliament are occupied by women.

Rwanda also has a reputation for being a clean country and is also known for conservation and protecting the environment and in In 2008, Rwanda made headlines by banning plastic bags. Another initiative that made the news is Rwanda’s mandatory, monthly national community service initiative called Umuganda where all residents work together to put something back into the Rwandan community.

Given everything we’ve seen about Rwanda so far, i’s not so surprising that Rwanda is one of the fastest growing economies in the World. Arguably this calls for a cold Primus to celebrate!

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Day 145 - Russia 🇷🇺

June 16, 2021

Today we head to Russia. A country I’ve been dreading writing about. There’s just so much to write about Russia.

Russia is the largest country in the world, is home to Moscow, the largest city in Europe, and is the country with the largest stockpile of nuclear weapons in the world.

I still find it incomprehensible that Russia borders with both North Korea and Finland. Russia has the world’s coldest town, but also has a sub-tropical resort on the Black Sea. It’s unsurprising then that Russia has the longest railway in the world, the Trans-Siberian Railway, spanning more than 9,000 km.

Anyway, I’ve had a really long day at work where I had to give a talk to the entire company. It’s 10 pm, so I’m signing off early. The only thing I will commit to, is I’m going to visit Russia as soon as it’s humanly possible.

Russia is a truly fascinating place. If you don’t believe me, just look at this drone footage of Moscow that inspired this entire blog series…

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Day 144 - Romania 🇷🇴

June 15, 2021

Sometimes described as the Wild West of Eastern Europe, or the only Latin country in a sea of Slavic countries, today we visit Romania. I don’t know very much about Romania, however, everything I do know about Romania is very interesting. Well, interesting to me at least.

Everything is fascinating, whether it’s the mountainous, castle filled region of Transylvania, or simply palincă, a lethal moonshine that gave me a horrendous hangover after my office Christmas party a few years ago.

I’m also particularly transfixed by Romania’s Communist past. Outside of the Soviet Union and in the barbarous hands of Nicolae Ceaușescu Romania arguably had a harder time than any other country in Eastern Europe.

By the 1980s, Ceaușescu had all but bankrupted Romania. The situation was so bad that coffee wasn’t even available. Instead, people were encouraged to drink nechezol, a substance made from a tiny amount of coffee, barley, oats, chickpeas and chestnuts. Not the ideal way to get your caffeine fix. Nechezol literally translates to “neigh”, because it was only fit for consumption by horses.

Palace of the Parliament, Bucharest, Romania

While regular Romanian’s were drinking nechezol and largely going about their daily lives on horse and carriages, Ceaușescu was spending vast sums of money on vanity infrastructure projects. The most notable of these are Ceaușescu's folly, otherwise known as the Transfăgărășean highway and the gargantuan Palace of the Parliament.

The Palace of the Parliament is the world’s heaviest building and is still not completed despite construction starting in 1984. When construction started, residents living on the site were giving less than a day’s notice to vacate their homes before they were razed. 40,000 people were displaced from their homes to make way for this monstrosity.

I’ll leave you with a few, slightly more positive facts about Romania. For example, Romania has an underground glacier. I had no idea such things existed, it has seven wonders, and finally, Romania is home of Dacia, the tiny, underdog car maker which has had a phenomenal rise in the past 15 years.

Romania, you’ve made it near the top of my list of places I’d love to visit!

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Day 143 - Qatar 🇶🇦

June 14, 2021

Welcome to Qatar, a tiny middle-eastern country a similar size to Jamaica. Unlike Jamaica, Qatar is one of the wealthiest countries in the world. The IMF predict that this year it will have the highest GDP per capita in the world.

Qatar is due to host the FIFA World Cup next year. So far this has been mired in controversy with alleged bribes and concerns about working conditions for the foreign labourers building the three new state of the art stadiums for the games.

Qatar is home to a vast foreign workforce, in fact, migrants make up 85.7% of Qatar’s population! As a result of this, men outnumber women by three to one.

Similarly to nearby Bahrain, the Qatari economy transitioned from pearl diving to oil production in the twentieth century. Nowadays the majority of Qatari exports are oil, or oil-related products, but Qatar is making efforts to diversify. You’ve probably heard of Qatar Airways, Qatar’s jumbo-sized airline. Qatar Airways serves over 78 countries making it the 6th largest in the world in terms of the number of countries served. It also apparently has a mean business class.

Until recently Qatar was planning to construct a huge 40km causeway to Bahrain, however this infrastructure project is now on the back-burner due to the Qatar diplomatic crisis. This crisis unfolded in 2017 with Saudi Arabia, Bahrain and the UAE accusing Qatar of supporting terrorism. Saudi Arabia closed their border with Qatar, effectively turning Qatar into an island nation. Thankfully the crisis came to an end this January, and Saudi Arabia has now reopened their border with Qatar.

Right, that’s enough football, oil and diplomacy for one night. Tomorrow we’re off to Romania!

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Praia da Ursa, just north of Lisbon, Portugal

Day 142 - Portugal 🇵🇹

June 13, 2021

Today we’re headed to Portugal, and it’s a great opportunity for me to go through some old photos. Portugal is a place that sparks good times.

The first time I visited Portugal was back in 2013 with Joe and our friend Emma. We drank our way around Porto’s port houses before setting out on a road trip along the Douro valley.

Of the port houses we tried, my picks would be Calem, Taylor’s and Croft. It’s hard to go wrong though, especially with a tawny. When in Porto we also witnessed Portugal’s bizarre student tradition of praxe. All of the students were parading around town covered in Coke cans.

After leaving Porto we drove East along the winding Douro valley. You very quickly feel like you’re in the middle of nowhere. We found a tiny village paradise somewhere outside of Vila Nova de Foz Côa. It was the kind of place where elderly people would stop and stare intently at you as you drove past in a car they didn’t recognise. It’s a truly special part of the world. Our cottage had a resident cat, who was completely vicious.

We then headed south via Serra da Estrela, mainland Portugal’s tallest mountain and eventually the medieval university town of Coimbra.

We ended up in Sintra and Lisbon. The coastline around Lisbon is possibly the most dramatic of anywhere I’ve ever visited. In fact, to this day, my article about Praia da Ursa is still this blog’s most-read article.

We’ve been back to Portugal since, both with my parents and with friends from Cambridge. Portugal has never failed to disappoint, even with 40mph winds and torrential rain.

Now I really feel like a glass of tawny and a Pastéis de Nata.

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The view from the top of St. Mary's Church, Gdańsk, Poland

Day 141 - Poland 🇵🇱

June 12, 2021

Today’s destination is Poland. I’ve been to Poland twice, and both times fell in love with the country. However, before even visiting Poland I was a huge fan of Polish food. When we lived in Cambridge, I used to love going to a Polish community centre and restaurant called Klub Polonia Club. The food was excellent, the service was warm and friendly and it was the perfect place for a cosy meal with friends. I really hope the Polish community in Cambridge continues to strengthen despite the catastrophe of Brexit. Importing food from Poland got infinitely more difficult this January.

The first time we visited Poland, we went to Gdańsk. In some ways, Gdańsk reminds me of Copenhagen. An old Northern European city defined by the Baltic Sea. We enjoyed delicious, warming food, but also felt like we were immersed in the cities incredible story. From visiting the eery Gdańsk shipyard, where the beginnings of the solidarity movement started that eventually lead to the end of Polish Communism. Gdańsk is also home to the impressive European Solidarity Centre, a wonderful museum that tells the story of the solidarity movement and how it relates to modern-day Europe.

We also visited Kraków back in December 2019. It was actually one of the last weekend trips we took before the pandemic. Kraków is a wonderful small city with a huge, dramatic-looking, Disney-like castle. Unsurprisingly it’s also a city full of delicious food from The Kraków Bagel to delicious roast pork knuckles.

The most moving thing about visiting Kraków though was visiting the old, mostly abandoned Jewish neighbourhood and Galicia Jewish Museum. It was genuinely haunting and opened my eyes to the horrors of World War II in a new way.

I’ll leave you with a few facts. Poland is home to the second oldest University in Europe, The Jagiellonian University. Poland used to be home to the World’s tallest structure, the Warsaw Radio Mast. Unlike most tall structures, the Warsaw Radio Mast did not lose its record to a new taller structure, but instead dramatically collapsed due to negligent maintenance.

Right, time for a Żywiec. Twoje zdrowie!

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Day 140 - Philippines 🇵🇭

June 11, 2021

Today we travel to the Philippines, a country a little smaller than Italy, but with a population of over 106 million people. The Philppines is the world’s second largest archipelago and consists of 7640 islands, of which only 2,000 of them are inhabited. Nearly 5,000 are still unnamed.

The Philippines is apparently a bit of a surprise when travelling through South East Asia as it shares a lot of cultural influences with Spain and the US due to its history in the galleon trade and America’s occupation following World War II. To this day the US and the Philippines continue to have close ties.

A remnant of this can be seen when travelling around Manila as “jeepneys” are the dominant form of public transport. Jeepney’s are small buses converted from the thousands of army jeeps that the U.S. military left after World War II. They can carry around 18 passengers and are brightly painted and decorated as well as apparently being swelteringly hot and uncomfortable to ride in.

Despite the fact that English is the de-facto language in the Philppines, there are around 175 other languages spoken. The Philippines is developing rapidly, and it’s English-speaking population makes the Philippines a very popular off-shoring location for services. In fact I work with a team in the Philippines at work.

Manila, the capital city of the Philippines is the world’s most densely populated city. In fact, the world’s three most densely populated cities are all located within the Philippines.

Time for a San Miguel (not the Spanish type), or actually in this case a glass of cold wine from Alsace. Our friends accidentally over-ordered, and this is something I’m more than happy to help out with.