Eastern Trekking through Eastern Europe

My trip through Eastern Europe consisted of a 9 day tour that went from Prague in the Czech Republic to Split in Croatia, via Poland and Hungary, followed by a sailing trip through the Croatian Islands (both with the "Eastern Trekker" company).

Of the places visited I absolutely loved Poland and Croatia. Poland has such a fascinating history with it's prominent role in WWII, the people were friendly and the two cities we stayed in (Krakow and Zakopane) had a great atmosphere! The awesome atmosphere in Krakow may have had something to do with the fact that the Polish soccer team made it through to the European Cup on one of the nights that we were there after playing the match in Krakow. The fans were flooding the streets and celebrating and were keen for us to join in!

Croatia was amazingly beautiful. Plitvice Lakes National Park is one of the most beautiful places that I have ever seen (I can't urge you enough to see it - it's amazing) and the islands were also spectacular with translucent blue water, rustic villages, great seafood, wine and beer.

Eastern Europe is still relatively cheap to travel in, historically rich and stunningly beautiful but get in while you can - apparently the number of tourists increases annually and along with that the prices increase and a little something of the authenticity of the bigger tourist towns is lost. If you want a taste of European culture, history and amazing sites but can't afford to be crucified by the Euro exchange rate and crazy prices in the larger cities in Western Europe then definitely consider Eastern Europe (they should hire me for their tourist offices!).

Talented People

I've been lucky enough in my travels to meet a lot of talented people. I've introduced you to Chris and Caroline's blog - which has provided me with several hours of entertainment. Now I would like to introduce you to Laura - another co-traveller from Egypt. Laura is an amazingly creative person who makes up awesome jokes at the drop of a hat that had us in stitces on the trip, she studied animation at uni and has a couple of examples of her work on youtube that I have attached.


WILBUR


I love Wilbur and can't even comprehend the patience, imagination and skill that it must have taken to make this video. Wilbur took 6 months to complete- from concept to set and model construction to animation and the finished thing!


EVIL LITTLE JONO


Little Jono is a little creepy. A much simpler animation that is still awesome! It took about 5 weeks to create from story to movie- 3 weeks were spent in a dark room animating cut-outs under camera.

Egyptopia - Part 2

OK so I promised to write more about Egypt but it feels like it has been so long since that trip that quite frankly I can't be bothered.

So instead, for those who are interested I am going to provide the link to a couple of travel blogs of some of my tour companions:

BLOG number 1: Chris and Caoline's World Tour

http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/cc_world_tour/1/1208879400/tpod.html

Chris & Caroline are two Aussies who work in film and TV in Australia, their World Tour included the Backroads of Egypt a shorter version of my Egypt trip that didn't include Sinai - they are both talented writers and photographers and their blog is both entertaining and educational. It's a good read!

BLOG number 2: Miss Eeeema's World Tour

http://nzemma.blogspot.com/2008_04_01_archive.html

Eeeemma (well Emma actually but say it in a kiwi accent and what does it sound like??) is a Kiwi girl also known as "sunshine" as she is always happy and always smiling and is like having your own personal sunbeam around. For a positive spin (which I would not have been able to achieve!) on anything Egypt and Sinai check out her blog! She was only supposed to do the shorter version of the trip but she loved us so much she couldn't bare to leave us and stayed on for the Sinai part too :-)

Also I've given a selection of the best photos on facebook but if you want to see the whole kit and kaboodle you can check them out at:

http://picasaweb.google.com/lynneyp


Gillen
xx