Going to be Away?

[Jubal]

Destination UNKNOWN D:

[Tusky]

That there Cyprus for a bit of diving and driving

[Jubal]

Ooh, Cyprus is lovely Which part of it? I went to the Paphos area a few years back.

[Tusky]

Nice! I've visited Paphos when I was younger and remember it being an interesting place.

I'll be based not far from there in Limassol . There will be a fair bit of car based roamage too

[Jubal]

I'm just stepping into my plane to go back to Vienna - hopefully it'll be an OK flight, it's a bit delayed so I'm nervous about catching my train at the other end...

[comrade_general]

If you don't catch it it shouldn't be hard to find - they always leave tracks.

Badumtish.

[Jubal]

Got it with five rounds minutes to spare

[Glaurung]

And more awayness for me: ten days travelling around Europe (by train, inevitably!). Tomorrow I fly out to Sofia, in Bulgaria (a new country for me), and on Sunday embark on a circular tour of the southern Balkans by special train, via southern Serbia, Macedonia, northern Greece (including Thessaloniki), and back through southern Bulgaria to Sofia. This is spread over a week. Then it's on to Germany, for a day or so, around Hannover, and finally back home on Monday 8 October.

Access to Exilian is likely to be intermittent, especially in Serbia and Macedonia where I may not have mobile data roaming. However, based on previous experience, I expect that there will be internet.

[comrade_general]

thank you for telling us enjoy your vacation dont worry there will be internet

[Jubal]

I feel like this is going to need to go in the Hitch-hiker's Guide soon...

[Glaurung]

Indeed, especially if CG has anything to do with it.

In other news, I have now reached Sofia. There is internet There are also mountains, or at least very large hills, close to the city, and lots of buildings from perhaps the mid-nineteenth century onwards. I suspect there is an older city centre somewhere nearby.

As an added linguistic excitement, I don't speak any Bulgarian (though it's similar to other Slavic languages) and it's all written in Cyrillic, which I can transliterate with some effort.

Also, I've realised, I've increased my "Womble world tour" score by one, i.e. I've visited another place after which a Womble is named - Bulgaria in this case. Previous such locations have included Wellington and Adelaide. Unfortunately, there are still a lot to do: Tobermory, Orinoco, Bungo and Tomsk as obvious ones.

[Glaurung]

Further news from Sofia: the hotel I'm staying in is hosting a dental conference, and the space outside the breakfast room is the commercial exhibition. Leaving breakfast to be faced with a stall covered in dentist's tools was not an experience I had on my list for today...

[comrade_general]

That really must be a shocking sight, especially for a British man!

[Jubal]

Also, I've realised, I've increased my "Womble world tour" score by one, i.e. I've visited another place after which a Womble is named - Bulgaria in this case. Previous such locations have included Wellington and Adelaide. Unfortunately, there are still a lot to do: Tobermory, Orinoco, Bungo and Tomsk as obvious ones.

Hm, Orinoco may be a challenge! Bungo at least you have options for - Indonesia, Japan, Angola, and curiously a suburb of Edinburgh. I wonder which one the name was done for...! Apparently there's a Tobermory on either side of the Atlantic too so there's options there.

[Glaurung]

And so to Serbia, via some rather scenic country. There is internet here too Alas, data roaming is horribly expensive, so I'm using hotel WiFi.