Travel

Art and Architecture in Kaunas, Lithuania

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European Capital of Culture 2022 and UNESCO World Heritage City, Kaunas is full of beautiful architecture and artwork. It’s the second biggest city in Lithuania with a population of just under 400,000 people; the whole country has around 2.8 million people. My spouse and I visited last weekend and had a lovely time, despite the unusually cold weather (it snowed!). It may seem to be a bit of a random choice to some, but we got a great deal on flights through Wizz Air, and I always love exploring new and different places.

After a 7am flight, we arrived at our hotel around lunchtime and were lucky enough to be able to check in straight away. Dagirdas Old City Hotel is in the heart of the Old Town, just a stone’s throw from the Old Town Square and numerous historic buildings.

We left our bags (we’d only brought a small backpack each to keep the flights cheap!) and went straight out for lunch. On the square were a few restuarants and we found a lovely one called Soul with traditional dishes on the menu. We shared a goat’s cheese salad, cheese doughnut duo and potato pancakes with cheese-spinach cream – all delicious.

After lunch, we began exploring the old part of the city and headed towards the castle. Kaunas Castle was originally built in the 14th century and is the city’s oldest landmark. It was destroyed and rebuilt more than once, with a major restoration in 2010, although parts of the original castle still remain. It is now a small museum as well, and there are great views of the city and nearby Neris River from the viewing platform at the top of the tower.

As the castle was full of students on a school trip when we got there, we decided to go for a walk through Santakos Park down to the confluence of the Neris and Nemunas Rivers. The views across the rivers and around the park were lovely. Although the sun was out intermittently, it hailed for a few minutes and we were very glad we’d worn our big winter coats!

We then headed back to the castle, by which time the students had all gone, and explored the museum inside the castle tower.

After that, it was time for some refreshments. Nearby was a chocolate cafe, CH Chocolaterie, so of course we had to go there. The cake (caramel for me and chocolate for my other half) and hot chocolate were delicious, and we bought a few handmade chocolates to take home with us as well.

We spent the rest of the afternoon wandering around the old town, finding random works of art and admiring the historic buildings, before finding a traditional Lithuania restaurant for dinner, Bernelių Užeiga.

We weren’t very hungry as we were still full of chocolate and cake, so we ordered smaller dishes to try – beetroot soup and baked Lithuanian cheese, which were, once again, delicious.

The next day, we set off for Laisvés Avenue, one of the longest pedstrian streets in Europe at just over a mile long. On the way, we had some traditional Lithuanian dumplings at a wonderful little café and bakery called Dviratis Ir Gitara. We had one portion filled with vegetables and the other filled with curd cheese and spinach, both of which were served with sour cream and really tasty. They had a huge selection of cakes, cookies and pastries, which we couldn’t resist trying as well. We shared one of their traditional varškės spurgos (curd cheese doughnuts), freshly baked, followed by a different kind of ring doughnut filled with pistachio cream.

Full of delicious food, we set off along the pedestrian street, and came across the longest market I’ve ever been to. We didn’t buy anything, but it was fascinating to look at all the different stalls selling everything from fish smoked right in front of you to pastries, cakes, cheese, and meat, as well as all kinds of clothes, hats, candles, gifts, and more, interspersed with murals, sculptures, other works of art, and more historic buildings. At the far end of the street was St. Michael the Archangel (Garrison) Church, which was built in 1895; a very impressive building you could see from a long way down the street.

After a quick stop for hot chocolate and to warm up (there was the occasional flurry of snow in amongst the rain!), we headed for Unity Square where there are several statues and sculptures, including the Freedom Monument and War Memorial with its eternal fire.

Our final stop before dinner was the Yard Gallery – a once derelict courtyard surrounded by apartments, which has been turned into an open air gallery by artist Vytenis Jakas with help from other artists and neigbours.

Dinner was at Avilys, another restaurant with traditional dishes on the menu. We had hoped to try the cepelinai, traditional potato dumplings, but they only had ones stuffed with meat, not cheese as we were hoping. Instead, we had cheese doughnuts and fried bread with cheese sauce as starters, then I had ravioli with mascarpone, walnuts and sage sauce and my spouse had risotto with boletus (mushroom) and spinach, all of which was really good.

In the morning, we had a final walk across the Old Town square and along the pedestrian street to grab a quick breakfast at one of the cafés before our taxi to the airport.

Kaunas is a lovely, quiet city with lots to see and do. I’d definitely recommend a visit if you get the chance.

Iceland: The Land of Ice and Fire 2

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Part 2: Southern Iceland

The first few days of our trip to Iceland were spent in and around Reykjavik. The second part of our trip to Iceland began by hiring a car so we could drive to the hotel we had booked in the south of Iceland.

Driving on the icy roads was a little daunting at first, especially when the windscreen wipers didn’t clear the windscreen and we had to pull into a garage to clear it by hand! Wipers adjusted, we set off on the 90 minute drive to Hotel Rangá. The roads were fairly clear until we drove through a couple of small towns, and then we just drove slowly and carefully, and it was all fine. One thing to remember if you hire a car in Iceland is that you must have your headlights on at all times – it’s a legal requirement.

We stopped in the tiny town of Hella, the nearest town to the hotel, to pick up a few supplies and snacks. There was a tiny bakery next to the supermarket, with rows of delicious-looking cakes, so we had to get a few to try them! Especially the traditional snudur with caramel glaze – a bit like a giant cinnamon bun.

We had booked dinner, bed and breakfast for three nights as the hotel is fairly remote and we wanted to make the most of the facilities while we were there.

We chose Hote Rangá for a few reasons. 1. It’s remote, so there’s very little light pollution, which makes it much better for seeing stars and the Northern Lights. 2. The hotel has it’s own observatory with two high powered telescopes and a local astronomer gives a talk every evening that the sky is clear. 3. They do a wake up call when the Northern Lights appear. 4. They have natural hot spring water hot tubs for guests to use anytime. 5. The restaurant had good choices on the menu – important when I’m pescatarian and my spouse is vegetarian and gluten intolerant.

The hotel also had a pool table, board games you could borrow, a bar, and various areas around the hotel where you could sit, relax, and enjoy the views and quiet.

The first evening we just explored the hotel and enjoyed dinner in the restaurant. The food was fantastic, definitely a gourmet experience and, as three courses were included, we had to make the most of it!

That evening, the skies were clear which meant the astronomy talk was going ahead. We wrapped up warm in as many layers as we could and headed outside to the hotel’s observatory. The astronomer was extremely knowledgeable and told us details about everything he showed us in the night sky, from the nebula in Orion’s belt and the Andromeda galaxy to Uranus, Jupiter and four of its moons. The amount of stars we could see just by looking up was astounding. It was really hard to take good photos as I didn’t have a tripod and it was so cold my hands were shaking. These photos show the same view of the Orion constellation, but the left image is with professional camera settings and the right one is without. Not the clearest, but they give you an idea of how many stars we could see.

The next day we visited the Caves of Hella, a historical site which is Iceland’s oldest still standing archaeological remains. Some believe the caves date even further back than the settlement of the Nordic Vikings. You have to visit the caves on one of their tours, which are in English every day at 10am, 12pm and 2pm, and it’s best to pre-book. The tour guide was fantastic, combining humour with historical facts, and again, he was very knowledgeable about the history of the area. It was really interesting to find out that the Vikings may not have been the first settlers in Iceland – there may have been Irish monks there first, but they’ve been written out of history.

That evening, after another delicious dinner, we went to the astronomy talk again and gazed at more stars and planets. We’d requested the Northern Lights wake up call each night and had set out our warm clothes ready to throw on, and on the second night we got the call at around 1am. There was a definite reen glow in the sky, this time with more defined lines that you could see directly. Once again, it was difficult to take clear photos – I resorted to putting my phone in a mug with the camera on a timer to try and get it as still as possible without a tripod! That’s why there’s so much snow at the bottom of each photo – the mug was on the ground as it was the most stable place to put it with the wind blowing. Even then, my photos are a bit blurry, but it gives you an idea of what we saw. There’s even a hint of reddish purple lights above the green. The first image is without the professional camera settings, so it’s more like what we could see with our eyes.

We were very lucky to see the Aurora Borealis not just once, but twice during the week we were in Iceland.

For the rest of our time at Hotel Rangá, we played pool, tried out the hot tubs, played board games, ate more delicious food, and generally had a very relaxing time. On our final day, we decided to leave a bit earlier so we could drive via a black sand beach on our way to the airport. We went to Eyrarbakki Beach and found a very interesting sign there.

Sign reading: Next stop South Pole 10,632 miles

There was a viewpoint which gave great views over the tiny town as well as the seafront. The beach itself was covered in huge lumps of ice, which we thought were rocks at first due to the black sand caught up inside the ice. It was stunning to see.

Overall, our trip to Iceland was absolutely fantastic. It had been on my bucket list for a long time, along with seeing the Northern Lights, and it definitely delivered. If you get the chance to go, definitely do it!

Iceland: The Land of Ice and Fire 1

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Part 1: Reykjavik

Iceland certainly lived up to its reputation as the land of ice and fire while I was there at the beginning of February. Our flight landed during a short gap in a blizzard and was then stuck on the runway for four hours as it was too windy to de-ice the planes waiting to leave, which meant there was no free stand for our plane to pull up to. Eventually, we were able to taxi to a slightly more sheltered area and turned into the wind so the door could be opened and steps pulled up for us to disembark.

After getting the Flybus from Keflavik Airport to the Reykjavik Bus Terminal and a smaller bus into the centre of the city, followed by a short walk, we finally arrived at our hotel in the centre of the city around midnight, which was about five hours later than we had originally expected.

Although it was still snowing the following day, it wasn’t too heavy, so we decided to explore Reykjavik using a self-guided walk we found online. We walked through the centre of the tiny city in the snow, admiring the coloured buildings and looking at all the food options. Several restaurants had Icelandic tasting manus, with dishes such as puffin, horse and whale. Needless to say (as we’re both vegetarian) we didn’t try them! Instead, we found a vegan restaruant for lunch called Vegan World Peace which had an excellent menu with a variety of Asian dishes. We did more exploring in the afternoon, popping in and out of shops whenever the snow picked up, and saw most of the key places: the harbour, Cathedral of Christ the King, Tjörnin Lake, City Hall, Austurvöllur Square, Rainbow Street, and Hallgrimskirkja church (from a distance). We even found Dillon (my family name) whisky and wine bar!

In the evening, we had decided to check out the only gay bar in town: Kiki Queer Bar. When we got there, just after it opened at 8pm, we were told there was a performance on so could only go in if we got tickets. Of course, we couldn’t resist a random show and we were very glad we stayed as the Heart Attack Drag Show was fantastic.

Luckily, the weather started to clear up the next day. We were very fortunate the rest of the week as it was mostly clear but cold (it got down to minus 9 degrees one day, but with wind chill it felt like minus 17!).

Sunday afternoon, we went to the Lava Show – a unique show where they pour lava at 1,100°C into the showroom and tell you all about it. There was also a video explaining about all the volcanic activity in Iceland, and the host was extremely knowledgeable about the geology of the island. We booked the premium tickets, which meant we got a behind the scenes tour after the show, where they showed us the furnace the lava was melted in and told us all about the process they go through. We also got a piece of lava as a memento.

Our Northern Lights tour with Grey Line Iceland had been cancelled on Saturday due to the weather, but we rebooked for free on Sunday. The coach picked us up from outside the City Hall at 8pm and took us to Thingvellir National Park, where there was very little light pollution. We were very lucky that we actually the Aurora Borealis appeared not long after we arrived at the park – it looked very grey with just a hint of green to the naked eye, but on camera it was much brighter.

It was really difficult to take decent photos – you needed to do a long exposure for the Northern Lights to show up clearly, and I hadn’t even thought of bringing a tripod with me. It’s pretty much impossible to hold your camera or phone completely still, even for four or eight seconds, and especially when the temperature is -11°C and feels like -17°C. You also had to change your settings for low light levels in order to capture the lights, which the tour guide talked us through on the way there. My photos aren’t great, but they give you an idea of what we saw. On the left are photos taken with the pro settings, on the right are the same photos with regular night settings, and these are more like what we could see ourselves. They’re a bit fuzzy, but it gives you an idea of what the Aurora Borealis looked like.

Despite the late night of the Northern Lights tour (we got back to our hotel around 1am), we were up early the next day for our Golden Circle tour, also with Grey Line. The Golden Circle consists of three key sights: Thingvellir National Park, where you can walk between two tectonic plates; Geysir Hot Spring Area, which has boiling mud pits, exploding geysers, and is where the English word ‘geyser’ comes from; and Gullfoss Waterfall. It was fascinating to drive around part of Iceland and see just how white, mountainous and desolate the country is. The most interesting part of the tour for me was walking between two tectonic plates – the Eurasian and North American plates – as that was something I’d never done before. It was also interesting to see what the park actually looked like in daylight, after standing at the viewpoint the night before to see the Northern Lights. The geysers and waterfall were all impressive, but as it was so cold, we didn’t spend too long outside admiring them.

The following day, we left Reykjavik for a hotel in the South of Iceland, a few days of relaxing, and more Northern Lights, which I’ll post about next time.

Pandemic Adventures Part 2: Stuck in Limbo

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My last post ended with my stay at a hotel near Bangkok airport, waiting for my flight back to Shenzhen (well, back to Guangzhou, as there weren’t any flights to Shenzhen and Guangzhou is the next closest city). The night before my flight I had messages from several of my friends in Shenzhen telling me that the Chinese government had just announced they would be closing the border to foreigners as of 00:00 on Saturday 28th March (link to article here). My flight was due to land at 11.20pm on 27th March. I thought I would arrive just in time to scrape through passport control and get back home to China.

Unfortunately, this was not to be.

When queuing to check in for my flight, I and other non-Chinese in the line were approached by other foreigners who told us that they’d been turned away when they got to the check-in desk. There was no official announcement, nothing from the staff of the airline. So I continued to queue in the vain hope that I would be allowed on the flight or at least be given some useful information. Instead, I got to the front of the queue and was just told no, please go over there out of the way.

I kept asking people to try and get some official information and eventually was directed to a member of staff around whom was a growing group of foreigners. We were told that even though the plane was due to land at 11.20pm, by the time the plane got to the gate and everyone had their temperature checked it would take about two hours, and so we wouldn’t get through immigration until after midnight and therefore wouldn’t be let in the country.

And so I became stuck in Thailand.

That was on 27th March. Two months, one week and three days later and I’m still in Thailand. And there’s no news about when the Chinese border will reopen to foreigners.

Thankfully, I have two amazing friends – James and Nat – who took me in, for which I am eternally grateful.

I felt at the time that the whole situation completely sucked, and the feeling of being stuck in limbo was horrible; however, I tried to look on the bright side and be grateful that I’m healthy, I have wonderful friends, I’m safe and I have a place to stay.

Since then I’ve had many, many ups and downs.

My work informed me that as I wasn’t able to return to China, once my students returned to school I would no longer be able to teach them. My students returned to school on 11th May, so after 12 weeks of teaching online I had to stop teaching.

In the run up to this point, as well as at many times since being stuck in limbo, I was an absolute wreck. I find it really difficult to talk about such things, but writing about it is – for some reason – a little easier. I’ve had many days where I’ve just been in floods of tears. I’ve been angry, I’ve been sad, I’ve been heartbroken, I’ve been grateful, I’ve been stressed, I’ve been anxious, I’ve been depressed. I’ve pretty much been a roller coaster of emotions over the last four months.

Basically the only things getting me through all this have been my friends, my partner and my family. I honestly don’t know what I would have done, how much worse my situation would be, if it wasn’t for them. They have kept me sane, they’ve given me a place to live, they’ve called me, they’ve made me laugh, they’ve kept me company, they’ve comforted me, they’ve helped me in so so many ways I can’t even count.

I have to give a special mention here to Hela, my flatmate who I’ve never lived with because she moved into my flat after I became stuck in Thailand (which had been planned months earlier). She has spent hours on video calls with me, helping me to sort through all my things, organising and re-organising everything, selling things I wasn’t keeping, coordinating with other friends to sort out and pack my belongings, and generally being just an amazing friend. I really don’t know how I would have got all my stuff in Shenzhen sorted out and shipped if it wasn’t for her.

At this point, it doesn’t look like I’m going to be able to go back to Shenzhen before starting my new job in Myanmar. I’m really upset that after nearly nine years I’m not going to have the chance to say a proper goodbye to my friends, colleagues and the kids I’ve taught. Yes, I’m hoping to go back and visit once everything reopens, but it isn’t – it won’t be – the same. I loved living in Shenzhen; I had an amazing time there, met so many great people, did so many brilliant things and visited so many fantastic places. It’s such a shame it’s all ending like this. And I’m truly heartbroken.

Despite all the emotional turmoil I’ve been experiencing, there have been good things that have come out of all this. Here’s a few of the positives I’ve been trying to keep in mind during this whole thing:

I’ve started walking on a semi-regular basis, and I’ve walked a total of 182km since 13th April. Looking at this I’ve just realised if I walk another 18km in the next seven days that’ll make it 200km I’ll have walked in two months. Not bad going for someone who hates exercise, even if I do say so myself!

I’ve gotten back in touch with and had video chats with several friends who I hadn’t spoken to in years – one of whom I think it was nearly 20 years since we had an actual conversation rather than a Facebook chat! It’s been really lovely to catch up with people and have regular chats with people who I live thousands of miles away from.

Since I’ve stopped working, I’ve been using my time to study. I’m doing a Masters in Educational Leadership and Management through the University of Bath via distance learning, and I just have my dissertation left to complete. This has actually given me the time to concentrate on this and (hopefully) I can get most of it completed before I start my new job.

Other ups and downs have included the anniversary of the passing of both my maternal grandparents, the death of a close family friend, the nine year anniversary of announcing I was moving to China, and getting a new job in Myanmar as KS2 Coordinator (overseeing classes in years 3 to 6/ages 7 to 11 for non-teachers!). I’m very much looking forward to my new job and settling into my new home; I just hope the borders open in time for me to get there and finish any quarantine that’s required before I’m due to start at the beginning of August.

Rainbow after a thunderstorm.

Pandemic Adventures

/ Rae

I haven’t been on social media much recently, simply because everything has been so crazy and I’ve been trying to get my head around a whole load of things. Now I’ve been in one place for a few days, here’s what’s been happening with me.

My school’s Chinese New Year holiday began on Saturday 18th January, and I flew to India on 21st January for a fantastic tour around loads of places with great friends. At the time the novel coronavirus was just starting to be a news item, but as it was a two hour flight away in Wuhan, we initially didn’t think it would affect us at all. I had a fantastic time in India; however, it was gradually overshadowed by the increasing number of cases spreading throughout China. In the third and final week of our holiday, our flights back to Shenzhen were cancelled and we were informed that our school would not be reopening on 10th February as planned.

At this point we all had to make decisions about what to do and where to go, which ended up being all different places. I continued with my original plan of visiting one of my good friends in Goa while I figured out what to do next. Autum suggested I go to stay with her in Kazakhstan, as then I wouldn’t have to pay for a hotel, so I booked a flight to Dubai and then on to Atyrau as it was about £200 cheaper to do it that way. Plus it meant I got to visit Dubai for a couple of days and go up the tallest building in the world.

However, things are never that straight forward of course. Autum’s work were concerned about me coming to visit as I live in China, even though by the time I would have arrived I would have been out of the country for nearly three weeks, and suggested I don’t come immediately. This was quite upsetting as it seemed really unreasonable at the time and left me slightly stranded. My flights then got cancelled as there was a time change which meant the connection didn’t work, but at least it meant I could get a full refund. However, I’d already booked a hotel in Dubai and tickets to watch the sunset from the 155th floor of the Burj Khalifa.

I booked a new flight to Dubai, and bid farewell to my friend in Goa. After lots of discussion and looking at options, I then flew to Bahrain for a few days. This gave me a base to work out of for a week of remote teaching which wasn’t too far from Dubai and so wasn’t too expensive to get to or stay in.

At this point we found out that school wasn’t going to reopen on 17th February, as per the first update we received, but was being pushed back again to 24th February due to requirements from the local government in Shenzhen. I had been wondering about this and hadn’t yet booked my outward flight from Bahrain, as I wasn’t sure if I would have to go straight back to China or if it would be better for me to stay out of the country for now. As it seemed that this whole situation wasn’t going to get better overnight, I booked a flight from Bahrain to Kazakhstan for the Friday of that week.

Bahrain seems like a lovely country, although I didn’t really get to see very much of it. The whole time I was there was the first week of remote teaching, and I had to do this using only my phone. When packing for India I had decided not to bring my laptop as I was fairly certain I wouldn’t be doing any work (school work or masters) during my travels. This meant that from the moment we found out that school wasn’t going to open on 10th Feb, halfway through the last week of our CNY holiday, we had to start planning for online teaching and learning. And I had to do all my planning, finding and making resources, recording and editing videos, uploading videos and resources, communicating with my year group colleagues, and checking and marking children’s work just using my phone.

All the things you have to do as a teacher take long enough as it is. Add to that: adapting everything for online learning, adapting teaching input to a series of under-5-minute videos to make sure they will actually upload, a constant stream of messages and emails about what we’re doing and how to do it, more messages about the changes happening in China, even more messages from parents concerned about their children’s education and what we’re doing about it, making lesson plans in word, making PowerPoints and pdfs for lessons and work for the children – and having to do it all using only a phone. As you may imagine, it all took rather a long time.

At this point in time many members of staff were in parts of the world and therefore time zones other than China, so staff were asked by school to be available from 2pm-8pm China time instead of the usual school day times. Bahrain is 5 hours behind China, which made it 9am-3pm for me; pretty reasonable times. However, as most of my colleagues were in China at this point I was waking up to around 200 messages every morning that first week. Once we started lessons and the children were uploading their work, I also had around 150 pieces of work to mark. Every day. Needless to say, I was working long after the time we were supposed to be available. Especially in the first couple of weeks, teaching online is so much more work than teaching in class. Everyone I have spoken to agrees with this. It’s so much easier actually being in school. On top of this some of the parents didn’t like the way we were teaching or the fact that school was closed, and started demanding that either they had a refund of the fees for semester 2 or the semester should be extended into the summer holiday. Of course, the teachers weren’t happy with this suggestion as we were all putting in more hours than we normally would be.

I managed to do a short tour of Bahrain on one day, by making my lesson videos and preparing everything the day before, and in between being constantly on my phone for work. Luckily, I was the only person on the tour so I could ask my tour guide, Ludmila, to repeat information if I missed anything she said! She was very accommodating, which was great. I saw the Tree of Life, the first oil well, Bahrain fort, the king’s camel farm, Al Fateh Grand Mosque, Bahrain National Museum, Bahrain Formula 1 track and Manama souq. It was a busy but interesting day!

On Friday 14th February, four days after school was supposed to open, I flew from Bahrain to Dubai to Almaty to Atyrau, finally arriving about 1am the next morning. Autum met me at the tiny airport with a borrowed winter coat, as I had gone from a balmy 20C to a slightly colder -5C. Atyrau in February is so cold that the river freezes over. When I visited last year we walked across the frozen Ural River and I stood on the line where Europe and Asia meet.

Week two of online teaching was considerably easier as I was able to borrow Autum’s laptop, and as the time difference was only 3 hours behind China I didn’t have quite as many work messages to wake up to. However, we had new requirements for online teaching from the Chinese Education Bureau and so had to change our timetable for that week to ensure we were meeting those requirements. This still meant making videos for every lesson, planning what we were doing, rewriting the planning into child-friendly instructions, having our Chinese Teaching Partners translate all the instructions into Chinese so the parents could read them too, making the resources and uploading everything to an online server for the parents to access. The first day of online teaching my TP had tried to email all the instructions and resources to all the parents – and her email had crashed. The school IT guy set up the online server as a solution, and that’s what we’ve been using ever since.

I felt much less stressed about the whole situation once I was staying with Autum. I’d been there before, so knew a few people as well as the place, and having a laptop to use for work made such a difference. Of course, the situation wasn’t done changing. The third week of online teaching we had another new timetable, still with video lessons as there were many staff and students still out of the country and so in different timezones.

At the end of the third week, we found out that we would be starting live online lessons the following Monday, 2nd March. This meant that I would begin teaching at 5am every day due to the time difference. The Education Bureau sent out information that the children should have a maximum of 2 hours online teaching per day in primary, with offline work also provided to follow on from the online lesson. This whole time I’d been in constant contact with my colleagues in Year 6 via WeChat, organising everything we had to do between us. (And I will say at this point that my colleagues have been awesome.) With the live lessons we were given the choice of using either a WeChat video platform or Zoom. As WeChat was only available in Chinese, we opted for Zoom!

Starting this whole process of teaching online was a complete baptism of fire. None of us had ever taken part in an online meeting system, let alone had any training. A lot of it was trial and error, at the same time as researching the best ways to do things, adapting our lessons, and trying to ensure that the students and parents were as happy as they could be, considering the difficult situation. What made the whole thing more difficult was the constant changes. Every week we were given different expectations for what and when we had to teach, and so a different timetable of lessons.

Once we started the online live lessons, it was really nice to see the kids again, have a chat with them and find out how they were doing. We got positive feedback from the parents as well, as they preferred the live lessons to video lessons, and the complaints and demands for a refund of fees stopped. For the second week of live online teaching, the number of lessons for the children increased to three per day, but as we were still limited to two hours online by the Education Bureau they had to be three 40 minute lessons back to back. Any offline work we set for the children had to then be completed after all the online lessons had finished.

On the Friday of week 4 of online teaching, and after we’d done all our planning for week 5, we were told there were more changes coming from the Education Bureau. These were supposed to start the following Monday, but as it was such short notice my school decided to keep with our then current plan of changing to three lessons each day for week 5 and start the new plan the week after on Monday 16th March. Previously, this date had been the proposed reopening date for school and all staff were encouraged to return before that date just in case. However, with the new information from the bureau it seemed that this was not to be.

Just to add to all the stress of teaching online, the constantly changing timetable, and the state of the world in general, I was only allowed to stay in Kazakhstan for 30 days and there was no way to extend my stay. This meant I had to leave by 14th March. Of course, this wasn’t going to be as straight forward as it should have been. 14th March was also the beginning of Autum’s spring break holiday, but due to the spreading virus her plans were cancelled as well. My original plan had been to fly to Thailand and stay with friends near Pattaya, so that I was closer to Shenzhen to make it easier to get back and the time difference was only an hour to make it easier for live online teaching. However, the day before I was due to fly, Thailand was added to the list of countries that meant a 14 day mandatory government quarantine upon arrival in China. So I had to decide whether to stick to my original plan and fly to Thailand regardless, fly somewhere else like Turkey or Uzbekistan that I could get a cheap or direct flight to from Atyrau and then return to Atyrau (although by many people would be there then due to the holiday) and start my 30 days again, or go from there back to China but with no guarantee that that country wouldn’t be added to the list before my return to China and therefore I’d still have to quarantine. Plus somehow making sure that I still had access to wifi and enough technology that I could teach my lessons (hence the original plan of going to stay with friends who could lend me a laptop).

After visiting a travel agent who contacted the immigration office for me to check I definitely couldn’t stay longer than 30 days in Kazakhstan, and the airline office to see if I could change or cancel my flight (I couldn’t without a fee and/or losing ask the money I’d paid for the flight), and having conversations with Autum and other friends about what to do, I decided to keep to my original plan of going to Thailand as I figured that wherever I went at that point is probably have to quarantine when I got back to China anyway, and at least that way I’d be with friends, the time difference would only be an hour and I could borrow a laptop for my lessons.

About an hour before my taxi to the airport for my flight to Bangkok, Autum decided she would come with me. Her dog was already being looked after as she was originally supposed to be away for two weeks, and she decided she didn’t want to just stay in Atyrau for the whole two weeks with very few people around. She quickly packed her backpack and we headed to the airport for the first flight to Almaty. When we arrived there and went through to the departure lounge, there was quite a while when we were the only passengers in the whole departure area – the only other people were staff. Then just to freak us out even more, the hands on the main clock on the wall started whizzing around!

The second flight and our arrival in Bangkok went without any further drama. We simply had a temperature check once in the airport and were asked to download the app for the airport to keep up to date with changes. The car I’d organised was waiting for us and a little over an hour later we arrived at my friends James and Nat’s place just outside Pattaya. Unfortunately, the laptop I was going to borrow died but as Autum had come with me I could continue borrowing hers for the time being.

The day after we arrived there was an announcement by the Kazakhstan government that they were going to close the country’s borders the next day at 8am, meaning people could leave but no-one could enter until at least 15th April. This meant Autum couldn’t go back at the end of her spring break. James and Nat had kindly said we could stay as long as we needed to; however, neither of us wanted to impose on them for longer than necessary. We just needed to figure out what to do.

My family suggested I go back to the UK, but at this point there were restrictions in place for people arriving from abroad and I’d have nowhere to quarantine. Plus my parents and sister are all in the high risk group, so I wouldn’t want to put them at risk by staying with them, and with live online teaching I’d have to teach from midnight until 8am every day, which would be horrendous. I decided I would go back to Shenzhen as now things were starting to open up again as the only cases were imported. However, it turns out that getting back to China is not as easy as I had hoped.

I wanted a direct flight to Shenzhen as it’s only about 3 hours and usually not very expensive, and this would save me the hassle of going through Hong Kong when all but one border is closed. When I looked at flights the earliest direct ones weren’t until the last couple of days of March, and the prices and times were ridiculous. The first flight which was a reasonable price and was at a time that ensured I didn’t miss any of my online classes was on 1st April, so I booked it and let my work know what I was planning on doing. A couple of days later I was checking that everything was still ok with my flight; I found out that my flight no longer existed. As I’d booked through an intermediary, it took them a couple of days to catch up, but I had already decided not to wait and looked for a new flight to Shenzhen. There weren’t any.

At the same time, Hong Kong had just announced that they would only be letting in Hong Kong residents, meaning I couldn’t fly into HK either. That left me with one option – to fly into Guangzhou, the next city to Shenzhen. I booked a flight for Friday 27th March, again so it wouldn’t affect my online teaching time.

While I was dealing with this, Autum decided she would go to Hawaii to stay with her parents until she could go back to Kazakhstan. Initially there was no rush to get back by a particular date, as she was still on holiday, but then Hawaii announced a mandatory 14 day quarantine for everyone on arrival from Thursday 26th March. In order to get back before that so she could self quarantine instead, she booked a flight for Wednesday. Just to add to the stress of flying under the circumstances, when she got to the airport the majority of flights were being cancelled. Luckily, hers was not, and she successfully boarded the plane from Bangkok to Hawaii via Tokyo.

In the meantime, the Thai government started introducing various restrictions to curb the spread of the virus. Whilst Autum was in the air, I found out that if I waited until Friday to go to Bangkok I might not make it there at all as starting Thursday people would not be allowed to travel between provinces. Thinking it wouldn’t be a good idea to get stuck and miss my flight, I booked a hotel near the airport for two nights, and a car to get me there. I finished my lessons for the day, packed, and hung out with James and Nat for a little while before getting the car to my home for the next couple of days.

So this is where I am now, watching the occasional plane land and take off as I eat a late dinner, hoping my flight on Friday will go ahead and enable me to get back to China, and wondering what awaits me when I arrive there.

India part 4: Jodhpur

/ Rae

My friends and I arrived in Jodhpur about 5pm. As the hotel had its own restaurant and bar we decided to stay in for the evening and just have a few drinks and snacks there while playing games. It was a fun evening, which once more involved playing several rounds of Monopoly Deal.

The next day we picked up our local guide for the day, Sunny. He told us that Jodhpur is known as the blue city, whilst Jaipur is the pink city and Udaipur is the white city. The houses in Jodhpur are painted blue to distinguish the houses of the Brahmin, to keep cool in the summer and because mosquitoes hate blue.

The main attraction in Jodhpur is the Mehrangarh (which means majestic) Fort, which presides over the city from the hilltop. The views from the top are stunning, even before exploring the splendours of the more than 500-year-old fort. It took around 200 years to build and was completed in 1459.

Traditional Marwar painting, which are the best rice paper paintings in the world, decorates the walls around the entrance and is restored regularly. The current Maharaja became so when he was only 4 years old because his father died in a plane crash, and he’s now 72. He has no real power politically and he still lives in the palace. We spent most of the morning walking around the fort and admiring the size of the place and the intricacies of the carvings and paintings.

Partway through our tour we were treated to a short music demonstration using traditional Indian musical instruments. This kind of music in India has been used for meditation and yoga for 2000 years. It was very relaxing to listen to, I really enjoyed it and the proceeds went towards supporting traditional musicians in the area, so I bought a CD of the musician’s music. He told us that his father had been a musician for the Maharaja in the fort, and had taught him how to play.

We continued around the fort and saw a display of Marwar paintings, a statue of the first Maharaja, the cribs that had been used for the previous Maharajas, beautiful coloured glass windows, ornately decorated rooms and stunning views of the surrounding area.

Once we left the Majestic Fort, which truly lived up to it’s name, we drove the short distance to Jadwant Thada, which was built in 1906. Known as the Baby Taj Mahal and built from the same Makana marble used for it’s pure white colour, it is a tomb for the royal family. When the Maharaja dies and is cremated 99% of his ashes goes in the Ganges River and 1% is kept for the tomb.

Inside the tomb the walls are lined with paintings of all the previous Maharajas, each one with the dates of the time they ruled. Our guide Sunny told us that all Maharajas were warrior caste, which meant that the priests always higher caste and could tell the Maharaja what to do but didn’t value wealth so the Maharaja was always wealthier.

Just before we left the tomb, we were given a short taster session of meditation with a focus on chakras. The guide dabbed scented oils on our wrists and gave each of us a rose quartz necklace to wear during the demonstration which represented peace. We were told to choose a small coloured band each, and the guide then explained that each colour represented a different chakra and this was the area we should focus on. We had to put the band on the associated finger and roll it up and down that finger ten times. The guide next used a sound bowl while we closed our eyes and focused on our breathing and chakras for a few minutes.

Our final stop of the day was a visit to a textile shop and jewellery shop, where we were shown beautiful handmade fabrics and intricate pieces of jewellery.

After leaving the shops we said goodbye and thank you to our guide, and set off for our next destination: Sadhargarh Castle.

India part 3: Sambhar

/ Rae

A huge lake that seemed to stretch all the way to the sky greeted us upon our arrival in Sambhar. Only a two hour drive from Jaipur, Sambhar Heritage Resort has two locations – one in the town of Sambhar and one the other side of Sambhar Salt Lake, the largest salt lake in India. We got a little lost finding the resort but we made it eventually and had our breath taken away by the stunning views across the lake.Shreyans, the manager, welcomed us to Sambhar Heritage Resort. We were given a drink of fresh guava juice with a rim of salt from the lake, and then shown to our rooms which were Swiss tents.The resort rooms are all tents because the land is owned by the government and so permanent structures are not allowed to be built there, other than those already there. One such building is the resort restaurant, NaCl, which is 150 years old and was built by the British. We had a delicious lunch in NaCl and around 3.20pm we set off for our local tour.We were asked if we’d rather drive along the road or across the lake, to which we said definitely across the lake! As it’s dry season the water level in the lake is lower than usual and so it’s possible to drive across part of the lake bed as a shortcut to the other side. We stopped for a few minutes to admire the view and look at the flocks of flamingos through the binoculars Shreyans had considerately brought with him for us to use.As we continued on our way we saw a few nilgai which is the largest of the Asian antelopes and whose name means ‘blue cow’. The females are brown and the males are a blue-grey colour. We got quite close before they bolted.Sambhar Salt Lake is 9% salt with a maximum depth of only 3.5 feet and is about 90 square miles. In comparison the ocean is usually around 3.5% salt.Across the curve of the lake we reached a small peninsula. Here we visited Shakhambari Temple, where there are Indian records showing there has been a temple here for at least 2000 years.In the temple we were blessed by the priest and each given a red bindi, our first of the trip. We then climbed up to a viewpoint where we had a 360 degree view of the lake and the hills behind.In this part of India Marwari is the local language and only a couple of the staff at the resort speak English. Shreyans’ English was excellent, which may be why he was our main contact and guide while we stayed in Sambhar.Once we’d had our fill of the views we drove back through a local village and to a small shop, encountering a few local animals on the way.We went back to the resort where we picked up bicycles so we could cycle along the dam across the lake. After a rather bumpy ride Shreyans showed us agood place to stop and watch flocks of flamingos fly overhead while the sun set. It was beautiful.We cycled back to the resort, and my bike chain came off for the second time whilst Toby’s bike broke completely; he got a ride on the back of the motorcycle Shreyans had ridden in on the back of, while he walked back with Toby’s broken bike.We had a few minutes chilling out in the room then met around 7pm for dinner, which was included in our tour package. We had an Indian feast! To start we had vegetable, noodle and coconut milk soup followed by an appetiser of tikka paneer. We then had palak paneer, mushroom curry and dal, accompanied by garlic naan, saffron rice and salad. This banquet was finished off with a hot carrot pudding, which was interesting in both flavour and texture. I quite liked it but the others weren’t so sure!We ended the evening playing Monopoly Deal with a couple of glasses of beer (or Bacardi breezer in my case) in Jo and Nikki’s room, before a very quiet night’s sleep interspersed with the sounds of wild animals.After a breakfast with all of the food, we went on a tiny train that seats only six people plus staff. It’s around 100 years old, stopped working in the 1970s and was renovated in the last couple of years to be used as a tourist attraction. It still has the same engine as when it had originally. It was used initially by the Britishers and engineers to check on the salt production. They always had to have five people on the train (three in the driver’s cabin and two in the back) as when they got to the far end the train had to be physically picked up and turned around to go back again! So for safety, we also had to have five people as well as us in case the train needed to be picked up and turned around.We rode the train out to the salt pans, with a short stop for the points to be manually changed. The colour of the water, and the stillness was incredible.At the salt pans water is pumped from the lake to the salt pans to a depth of 3-3.5 feet. It is left for about three months didn’t which it evaporates down to about 1-1.5 feet. Salt crystals form on the surface and once they get to a certain density they sink to the bottom. You can literally put your hand in the water and scoop out a handful of salt crystals.The larger pans use tractors to scoop out the salt crystals, the smaller ones in town are done by hand. Once the salt has been removed the remaining water is pumped out back to the lake. This left-over water has a very high bacteria content which means algae grows well which attracts the flamingos to the lake. Workers then remove the top layer of soil in the bottom of the pan by hand, add a fresh layer of soil then pump fresh water in from the lake and the whole process starts over again. Start to finish it takes around 3.5 months. As this is a government enterprise the salt is sold at only 5 rupees per kg. This is very cheap as most companies sell their salt for 12 rupees per kg.We stopped out by the salt pans while the manager Shreyans explained the process to us, and then waited while the workers collected some fresh salt to give us.There are 32 or 33 salt pans here and they produce 10% of the salt consumption for all of India. Sambhar salt is just for Indian consumption, it isn’t exported as mostly Himalayan salt is exported from India.This was our final experience in Sambhar, and absolutely fascinating. We were each given a small pot of the salt that had been collected for us to take home. A perfect souvenir before setting off for our next stop, Jodhpur.

India part 2: Jaipur

/ Rae

We arrived in Jaipur around 10pm after a long day sightseeing in New Delhi followed by a long 5 hour drive. There was a bit of a mix up with the rooms but we (or rather, Toby) got it sorted and we eventually got to bed. We had breakfast at 8am and left at 9am to pick up our local guide, Arvind.

Arvind was a fountain of knowledge about Jaipur. He told us that Jaipur is known as the Pink City, it was founded in 1727, and built by the Hindu Maharaja Jaising. The red ochre colour of the buildings means good luck and welcoming, and was chosen by the Queen of Jaipur at the time. The interior city is 10 square km and surrounded by a wall with gates on the four sides, with a 2 mile 40 yard long straight road from the Sun Gate to the Moon Gate. Hindi is the main language in Jaipur, which is one of 18 languages spoken in India.

Our first stop was the Palace of the Wind. It has 5 floors, lots of tiny windows and was built in 1799.

Next we headed to the Amber Palace. Once we arrived in the small town surrounding the palace, we were asked whether we wanted to ride an elephant up. Toby and Nikki rode an elephant (all the elephants that walk up to the palace are well-looked after and only do a maximum of five trips a day, and are all female); Jo and I went in the car up the hill. Around the town and the package is a 12km long wall, like a mini version of the Great Wall of China. It was built in the 16th century, around the same time as the palace which was completed in 1592 by three different kings and took 25 years to build. In the town is also a palace from the 10th century with the same name.

The town next to the palace, Amber Town, is over 1000 years old. The town and palace names are the same, named after the Hindu goddess Amber, goddess of art. There was a 400-year-old painted fresco of the Hindu goddess Lakmi with lotus flowers, which is her flower and the symbol of prosperity and good luck. In the palace is a saffron garden; saffron is only grown in three places in the world: in Kashmir, India, in Spain and in Iran. Within the palace are two separate areas, the winter palace and the summer palace on opposite sides. In the winter palace is a mirrored room made with glass imported from Belgium. Interestingly, the Maharaja had a wheeled chair as he had 4kg of jewellery that he wore and so he couldn’t walk when wearing it all. He had 12 wives, and each wife had her own apartment within the palace.

Another thing our guide told us was about the Indian caste system. Hinduism is all across India, and there are 4 castes – priest is the highest level then warrior, merchant and lower caste. Maharajas are all warrior caste, which means the priests are above them although don’t have any wealth. Families are very traditional in India; people must marry within their caste and around 90% of marriages are arranged. When daughters get married their parents must provide a dowry, which means that in a poorer family with several daughters some of them may never marry. However the divorce rate is very low with only 5-10% of marriages ending in divorce. Unfortunately, due to this traditional outlook, a high percentage of women are still illiterate, mostly in the countryside.

Next we went to see Jal Mahal, the Water Palace, which was built in the 18th century and was where the Maharaja and queen would stay in the summers.

Jaipur is known for block printing fabric. Wooden blocks are used (minimum 1, maximum 7) or metal blocks for silk, to print intricate designs on a large sheet of fabric. This fabric is then turned into clothes, scarves, cushion covers, bed spreads and much more. Only vegetable dyes and all natural fabrics are used. Once the fabric has been printed it is then left in the sun for 40-60 hours then washed 2 or 3 times to fix the colours. They have to stop production in monsoon season, but otherwise it continues all year. According to the manager of the store, block printing is like a married man, never perfect! But that’s part of what makes it unique. More than 400 families living in nearby villages work on this project. After the demonstration we looked around the shop where they sell all the products and we were shown samples of all the different fabrics. None of us bought anything, although it was all very interesting.

Next it was time for lunch, and this time we had a buffet for 600 rupees at Aanandam restaurant. The food was fine, although not as good as lunch the previous day.

After lunch our guide took us to the City Palace, or the Palace of the Maharaja. We decided not to go in as cost was 3500 rupees (about £35) for the full tour, 2000 rupees (£20) for half or 700 rupees (£7) just for the museum.

As we were leaving we saw a small boy (who we had also seen at the Water Palace) who wanted to show us some magic. As it seemed he had followed us all the way there and waited for us we agreed to watch his magic show. He was actually really good. We just hoped that the tip Toby gave him wouldn’t be taken from him by older street children.

Next we went to Jantar Mantar, which means ‘instrument of calculation’. This is a large complex of huge astronomical instruments that are part of the buildings. It was built in 1728 by the founder of Jaipur city and took 6 years to build. The various instruments are used to calculate the angle of the sun, planets and constellations, as well as make people’s horoscopes. You can also find the biggest sun dial in the world here, and loads of chipmunks running up and down one of the trees.

Finally our guide took us to a spice market stall, some flower stalls and a small bazaar (which was really a line of small shops) selling jewellery, shoes and clothes.

On the way back to our hotel we drove past Albert Hall, which was built in 1876 and named after Prince Albert who came over from London to visit Jaipur around that time.

For dinner we explored the area near our hotel and eventually found a place not too far away. We ended our stay in Jaipur with some tasty food and a couple of drinks.

India part 1: New Delhi

/ Rae

Travelling from Hong Kong to New Delhi, India, turned into a bit of a saga. To begin with our flight time was changed to an hour later. We boarded for the new flight time of 8.35am and then sat on the tarmac until finally taking off at 10.10am. Probably because of this delay, we then had to make an unscheduled landing in Varanasi to refuel! We eventually landed in New Delhi at 3.50pm, 3 and a half hours later than scheduled. By the time we got our luggage, found an ATM and got sim cards, the driver who was picking us up to take us to our hotel had been waiting around 7 hours for us! I felt really bad for him, but there was nothing Toby and I could do except explain and apologise.

Another hour and twenty minutes later, and we arrived at our hotel for the night where we met our friends Nikki and Jo who we would be travelling with for the next two weeks. We had a delicious dinner of paneer tikka butter masala with garlic naan in the hotel restaurant, and then went straight to bed.The next morning began the first day of our tour. At 9am after breakfast we were collected from our hotel by our driver, Swami, who was to be with us for the whole two week tour. We picked up our local guide for the day, Shiva, and drove to our first site: Jama Mosque.

A flight of steps rose up to the entrance, where we had to leave our shoes and rent a long robe (women only) to wear over our clothes. Built in 1650-1656, Jama Mosque is the largest mosque in India and is still used for religious ceremonies and services as well as being a tourist attraction.

After a tour of the main courtyard and building, we were asked if we wanted to climb the tower for an extra 100 rupees. Of course we said yes, and proceeded to climb the 120 very narrow, steep and twisty steps to the top. At the top there was no barrier around the stairs so it felt rather precarious on the tiny landing, especially as there were four other people already up there. However, it was definitely worth it for the view.

After returning the robe and paying a small fee to the man who was looking after our shoes, we drove to the Rajghat – the memorial for Mahatma Ghandi. He was cremated in Delhi and his ashes were scattered in the rivers of India. The stones of those rivers were then placed around the memorial.

It was very peaceful, and I found it quite surprising that such a large, green area was in the middle of New Delhi after all the noise and dust of the traffic just a short distance away. Flying just overhead were many eagles, which I also found surprising as I don’t think I’ve ever seen that many in one place in the wild.

We drove past the president’s house which was surrounded by people setting up for celebrations for Republic Day on 26th January. We weren’t allowed to stop as tourists aren’t allowed in any of the 340 rooms in the president’s house. India has a president as well as a prime minister; our guide Shiva told us that the president is just a signatory with no actual powers and the prime minister is the main person in charge. He also told us a little of the history of India: Independence Day is celebrated on 15th August; India was ruled by the Moguls 1246-1857 and ruled by the British 1857-1947. He also told us that Muslims always used red stone for buildings with some white marble to make it beautiful, apart from the Taj Mahal which is all white marble, whereas the British always used sandstone so this is how you can tell who built various buildings.

The India Gate was our next – very brief – stop. A huge war memorial of the British times and reminiscent of the Arc de Triomphe, it was built 1912-1929 at the same time as the president’s house and parliament buildings. This is the VIP area of the city, with all the buildings designed by the same architect, Edwin Ludynes.

Our next stop was a delightful restaurant called Suribachi for lunch, which was so delicious! We shared dishes of paneer butter tikka masala, cauliflower curry, broccoli roasted with yogurt and cheese, garlic naan and saffron rice. I tried to order fresh lime juice but instead was given salted lime juice. I asked for sweet lime juice instead and they just added sugar to the same drink so it was still salty, if a little less so. I tried to ask again for sweet not salty and the same thing was repeated. On the fourth attempt I finally managed to get a fresh drink with just sugar and no salt added! A classic example of the language barrier in effect, but I was none the worse for wear and tried a salty lime juice drink I would never have ordered otherwise.

After lunch we were taken to a shop selling carpets made from Kashmir wool, pashmina and silk. We were given a talk about how the carpets are made on a hand loom: a carpet 2.5ft by 4ft takes 5 months to make; a carpet 6 by 9ft takes 14 months with 282 knots pet square inch, and costs £1485 delivered to your home somewhere in the world; the largest size carpet takes 2.5 years to make. They draw the design on graph paper first then transfer it to a coded chart, which they follow on the loom. The carpets are hand-knotted: each knot is individually tied, pushed down into the row and cut. Each is cut downwards which gives a diagonal direction to the pile, and you can then tell the difference between a hand-knotted carpet and a machine made carpet. Also cutting the threads diagonally gives a different shade of colour depending which direction you look at it, dark one side, light the other, which machine-made carpets don’t have. Then the row is pushed down and the base threads are switched front and back before repeating the whole process with the next row. The edging is done separately. When the carpet is finished on the loom it’s taken off and trimmed with special scissors flat on the floor. Only natural vegetable dyes are used to dye the threads. The back is as good as the front with the design, which is another way of telling hand-made carpets from machine-made. The carpets are always washed before being sold as they have been on the loom for months, or sometimes even years.

Our final stop of the day was Qutub Minar, which is named after the person who designed it and had it built, and is a UNESCO World heritage site. It was built in 1193-1210 and is 72.5 metres tall – the tallest building from the 12th century – with 379 stairs to the top. The buildings next to it were built in the 4th century as a Hindu temple but then were converted into a mosque when the minar was built.

In 1296-1311 work on the nearby Alai tower began. It was planned to be 150 metres tall but Alai, who was building it, died and no one else thought it could be done so it was left unfinished and only the base remains.

Once we left the Qutub Minar our tour guide Shiva left, with a tip of 1000 rupees from us, to catch the bus. We set off on a 5 hour drive to Jaipur after a fantastic first day in New Delhi, India.

Pompeii, Wine Tasting, Vesuvius and Herculaneum

/ Rae / 2 Comments

The main reason my sister and I chose to stay in Naples for our holiday this year was so we could visit Pompeii. We researched lots of different options and in the end decided on a full day tour which consisted of a guided tour of Pompeii in the morning, lunch and wine tasting at a vineyard on the slopes of Vesuvius and climbing to the top of the volcano in the afternoon. It was on the expensive side (around £256 for 2 people) but well worth it, and something I would thoroughly recommend if you have the time and budget.Once we’d made our way to the pick-up point by the train station, we had a short coach ride to Pompeii for a three-hour guided tour. Our guide was very knowledgeable and made sure that our group had time to look around for ourselves as well as showing and telling us about different areas. The main thing that struck me about Pompeii was the sheer size of the place. I knew it had been a town, but I hadn’t realised it had been a sizeable city of several thousand people before Vesuvius had decimated it in 79AD. Two thirds of it have been excavated, giving a huge area that can be explored. It’s absolutely amazing. If you haven’t been there, go!At the end of our guided tour of Pompeii we had a few minutes to buy a drink and souvenirs. My sister and I got matching bracelets made of Vesuvius rock and Murano glass beads, as well as a lemon granita as it was really hot. Our group headed back to the coach and then to the vineyard on the slopes of Mount Vesuvius where we would have our lunch.The vineyard was gorgeous. We were given a short tour which included an explanation of how they use roses at the end of each row of vines to check for diseases instead of using pesticides. Lunch was held in an open room which looked out towards Vesuvius’ peak.Along with lunch we got to try six different wines produced at the vineyard. It was a really great way to do wine tasting, as it really made a difference and gave you an idea of the kinds of dishes different wines would go with. We had a sparkling rosé, a still rosé, a white, two reds and a dessert wine, all of which were delicious and went perfectly with the simple yet scrumptious food. Of course, I preferred the reds, and if I hadn’t been about to go travelling for a few weeks I may have bought some to take back with me! My sister bought one of the rooster jugs as it was really cool – the water poured out of its beak!Instead of the usual post-lunch nap, our afternoon was going to be spent walking off lunch by going to the top of Mount Vesuvius. The hike up took about 45 minutes and was quite steep most of the way, but the views were absolutely worth it. We had enough time at the top to stop for a quick cold drink, get a good look into the crater and walk most of the way around the rim. There were also souvenirs in a small kiosk, which my sister took full advantage of!After we’d admired the view sufficiently, we made our way back down the volcano, found our coach and headed back to Naples for dinner and some chill out time before an early night. It was an exhausting but awesome day, and definitely one to tick off the bucket list.The next day we visited Herculaneum or Ercolano, as it is in Italian. This was another town which was devastated by the same eruption of Vesuvius as destroyed Pompeii; however, this one was covered with lava rather than ash. This meant that many more buildings were preserved in a much better condition than those in Pompeii.When we first entered the site we were a little underwhelmed by the size of it having just been to the city of Pompeii. Once we started looking around though, we discovered just how well-preserved it was. Many buildings still had roofs, mosaics on the floors and paint on the walls. It took us nearly three hours to look at the most significant buildings and it was fascinating to see the detail in the mosaics and wall decorations.If you visit Pompeii, ensure you make time for a visit to Herculaneum as well.As a side note, there are two train stations in Ercolano and the site of Herculaneum is about a fifteen minute walk from either one, pretty much in the middle of the town. Don’t let a taxi driver talk you into believing it’s 6km away and charging you €10 to take you there via a very scenic route as we did!