Day 429: Come, Armageddon, Come
05.03.10: And so I found myself lashed to the mast on the grim grimness that is the Grimaldi ferry. And you thought going to the
Day 430: The Italian Jobn
06.03.10: I stayed the night in the Koine Hostel, a decent enough place, but with that cold puritan edge that sucks all warmth, happiness and
Day 431: Back On Track
07.02.10: The ferry ploughed head-first into the Greek port of Igoumenitsa at around 6am (it was still 5am for me) and speedy disembarkation was encouraged…
Day 432: Day of Disaster
08.03.10: Woke up at a respectable time and headed over to the Iranian Embassy all bright-eyed and bushy-tailed. I jumped in a taxi only to
Day 433: The Pope’s Nik-Naks
09.03.10: Scraping my face from my pillow, I headed back to the Iranian Embassy (this time I walked) with a shiny new reference number. The
Day 434: My Wit’s End
10.03.10: I dropped the passport, photos, photocopies and receipts off at the Iranian Embassy, expecting a ‘great stuff Graham, here’s your visa!’, but instead got
Day 435: The Getaway
11.03.10: The fact that I got out of bed this morning just goes to show how dedicated to the cause I am. Atheer didn’t get
Day 436: Rimming The Black Sea
12.03.10: Dear old Bertie died of a heart attack in the 1920s and – according to his wishes – had been stuffed and kept in
Day 437: Back In The USSR
13.03.10: I actually woke up at 7am, but Rati was still asleep, so that gave me an excuse to go back to sleep until noon.
Day 438: The Valley Of Oh Dears
14.03.10: After yesterday’s glum-fest, I didn’t think things could get any more glum. I WAS WRONG! After leaving my (Overlook) hotel I went over to
Day 439: A Turn-Up For The Books
15.03.10: The Azerbaijan Embassy is only open for two hours every morning, but after last night’s little beerathon, Rati and I were in little mood
Day 440: You’ve GOT To Be Kidding
16.03.10: The day started slowly, with me finally dragging myself out of bed around 11pm. I spent most of the day packing my bag, organising
Day 441: Politics & Modern History
17.03.10: So after yesterday’s half-crazied shenanigans, I found myself kicked off the bus at 6am in the MIDDLE OF NOWHERE somewhere in Baku, the capital
Day 442: The Dolphins In The Dole Queue
18.03.10: The Caucasus – it’s where us whities get our rather daffy pigeonhole ‘Caucasian’, a term lampooned by Lewis Carroll in his nonsensical Caucus Race
Day 443: Bless My Lucky Underpants
19.03.10: I called Alex (whom I met at the Irish Pub the other night) and asked him if he could get in touch with the
Day 444: Shurely Shum Mishtake
20.03.10: So I had nothing important to do today, it was a big public holiday in Baku and the main road through town were shut.
Day 445: The Naxçivan
21.03.10: This must be the most incredibly naff ship I’ve been on so far; all dirty floors, peeling fake wood wallpaper, murky corridors, broken lights,
Day 446: Guns N’ Roses
22.03.10: I gave up all hope of a schedule months ago. When people ask me (and they do) when I think I’ll be finished I
Day 447: The Aral Sea Disaster
23.03.10: The train arrived at the town of Beyneu at about ten minutes to five in the morning, enjoyed a cup of tea in the
Day 448: Paranoid? Who Said That?!
24.03.10: I woke to find the two guys that I was sharing a room with sitting on their beds staring at me like I had
Day 449: The Great Game
25.03.10: The plan today was simple. Well, I thought it was. First up, visit the Kyrgyzstan Embassy and hand over my passport, while that visa
Day 450: The Incident
26.03.10: I had real trouble dragging myself out of bed this morning. I asked Fred to wake me up, which she did, but what I
Days 451-452: Movin’ On Up
27.03.10-28.03.10: Woke up at Baha’s flat wondering if anybody got the number of the truck that hit me before stumbling back to Fred’s. Her mate
Day 453: My Kingdom For A Biro
29.03.10: By 9am I was back outside the Kyrgyzstan embassy. I put my name down on the list and headed over to the DHL office
Day 454: Unpronounceabilistan
30.03.10: Wasn’t too happy when the guy from Vladivostok whom I was sharing the taxi with (and someone I thought was a friend) whipped out
Day 455: Digging For Fire
31.03.10: I left in the morning with Nazik and did a bit of blah before meeting up with Aima again. I needed to buy a
Day 456: Bish Bash Bosh
01.04.10: Sorry about the lack of blog updates this month – I’ve been hammering the website to make it all fabby and groovy for when
Day 457: The Land That Time Forgot
02.04.10: By 5am I had made it around that pesky enclave of Sohk and had arrived at the border of Tajikistan. Chances are you know
Day 458: Can You Imagine?
03.04.10: So where to next? The plan is on Monday to head off towards Turkmenistan, Afghanistan and Iran. Three of the hardest countries in the
Day 459: Doctorin’ The Docket
04.04.10: I may have mentioned this before, but for some stupid reason you have to register three days after you arrive in Uzbekistan. The problem
Day 460: The Wizard of Uz
05.04.10: Today was yet another D-Day in terms of getting visas and getting going. Within minutes of me wiping the sleep from my eyes I
Day 461: The Forbidden Stan
06.04.10: Groggy and grumpy I awoke from my nightborn passage through Uzbekistan. Like Alexander The Great so many years before (and Michael Caine and Sean
Day 462: The Herat of the Matterc
07.04.10: Part of the reason I’m doing The Odyssey is to prove that the world is a lot more open than people think. If I,
Day 463: Iran ROCKS MY WORLD!
08.04.10: The train pulled into Tehran central at around 9am. I fannied about for a while trying to find somewhere that would change my US
Day 464: Persepolis
09.04.10: Last night’s taxi took me to the coach station and within minutes, I was hurtling down through the good night towards Shiraz near the
Day 465: Breakfast Of Champions
10.04.10: In what has to be the most touching thing that’s happened to me in the last 16 months of traversing the globe, last night