Around the World 2024
The Holiday of a Lifetime (8th March - 6th November)
What an unforgettable eight months that was! And all thanks to my amazing dearest loveliest Lebley Jane.
In just over 240 days (almost 2/3, that is 65%, of a whole year) we visited 28 countries in 5 continents with 100 different accommodation stays averaging 2.42 nights per stay. A few were too long but so many were not long enough.
Since we got back people have often asked us "so what was your favourite destination?"
The truth is there have been just too many highlights to do them credit. And rather than spending hours boring the pants off people I'm going to try to summarise them all here in this blog.
What follows is the briefest summary of the whole trip. Each visit can be zoomed into by clicking the links in the text, or the photo collages below them. Otherwise scan through the summaries and briefest of notes below.
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I still can't believe how I ever composed travel blogs whilst actually travelling before. My first one was "Algirdo in Brazil 2014" which I wrote, literally as I travelled. Two years later I did another, "Aljice en France 2026" and two years after that, "Algis goes to Russia" - my favourite one, I think. Then, at a much more leisurely pace, I wrote a blog, over four years, tracing Nottingham Forest's glory years "Forest 40 Years Ago". I think I'm most proud of the research that went into that one. And then I did another for the Qatar World Cup in 2022, two years before we set off for the trip recorded in this one.
Apart from the Forest 40 Years Ago one, all the others were written as I travelled. Not this time. In fact it took me almost TWO YEARS to complete this - after we returned. So. Why so long? Apart from laziness, we obviously we did a lot more, for a lot longer and went to many more destinations, than I ever did before. It was never going to be possible to record everything as we went and, let's face it, to do so would have detracted from the actual enjoyment of it.
The other reson is just the sheer volume of images collected. I estimate that Lesley and I captured over 20,000 (yes, twenty thousand) photos and videos during the trip. I have tried to go through every single one of them, removing the worst ones and any duplicates. Most of the photos have been cropped in some way, and thus improved, and all of the videos have been processed too - sometimes combining them, sometimes editing bits out of them, but always compressing them to a smaller format, at the expense of some quality.
Anyway, apart from this blog acting as a handy on-line diary for Leb and me to refer to whenever we forget anything about what we did, I hope it will serve as an interesting record for our grandchildren, and close family at least. Of course anyone else who might be interested is most welcome too. If you spot any errors, broken links etc. please email me ... algis@kuliukas.com.
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March
The trip started with us staying with Žem & Frankie in Bendigo. It was the perfect way to start the holiday - with family (including Pippin the dog) in a new part of the world for us, but one that was still just like home. I quite like Bendigo and we enjoyed visiting the old gold mine and the bizarre Buddhist Stupa.
We then left Australian shores and headed for another quite familiar feeling country, New Zealand. We had long planned a road trip around that amazingly spectacular land and it lived up to expectations. We started on the South Island, at Queenstown, then drove down to Invercargill and then back up to a fabulous cruise on Milford Sound.
Next, we caught the ferry across to the North Island where, after a fabulous but far too short stay in Wellington we drove up through Tongariro National Park, Lake Taupo, and then the sulphurically stinky Rotorua. Then we visited Hobbitland where I went down with a nasty urinary tract infection (whilst Leb had a great time!) I received wonderful medical attention in Hamilton before we finished our Kiwi adventure Auckland.
After New Zealand, we flew across the vast Pacific Ocean and the International Time Line, bizarrely arriving in Mexico City, bizarrely, pretty much the same time we left Auckland - albeit almost 24 hours later, if you see what I mean.
The main reason for going to Mexico was to see the full total eclipse in Mazatlan, having witnessed our first in Exmouth, WA the year before. But we also squeezed in a visit to Teotihuacan and the Frida Kahlo museum in Mexico City. The aptly peaceful four days we had at La Paz included some amazing snorkelling with whale sharks and sealions.
After the most amazing eclipse in Mazatlan we caught the bus south to Guadalajara and then enjoyed our last stop in a most picturesque Guanajuato. Mexico was great, and not at all scary. The food was fantastic but I must admit I did start to long for some bland British stodge by the end of our stay.
April
Next stop was the USA. We started by visiting New Orleans and experiencing the music of the French Quarter. After that, we caught the overnight Amtrak line train line from New Orleans to New York but had to skip Atlanta and a few other cities we'd hoped to visit. America is just so expensive. We both loved New York and it was especially great to be in the Ukrainian quarter when "speaker" Mike Johnson finally agreed to pass the military aid package to Ukraine (only about 10% of that has been delivered even now).
Spain's Barcelona was next. After a couple of nights in the massive coastal city we caught the train, via Zaragoza, to the Rioja region where much wine was consumed. We then caught a bus to Pamplona, famous for its bull fighting and crazy races. Next was San Sebastian in the Basque Country. The tapas, hot chocolate and wine in all these places were magnificent.
May
After April had turned into May, we made the short journey across the border from Euskadi (Basque Country) to South West France so Leb could have a birthday treat week with her sister, Lucy in Nerigean not far from Bordeaux. We has so much delicious food and wine there. Lovely.
Whilst Leb stayed on in France to try to reduce the number of things they had missed in their conversations, I had a great few days in London, watching Spurs v Man City, visiting the Hunterian museum and attending a talk by Yulia Mykytenko at the Ukrainian club. I quickly had my first (of many) fish & chips - which in my opinion, Australia never quite gets right - and soon after my first (of many) pork pies, which Australia seems to lack completely.
Three days later Leb rejoined me at Gatwick Airport and we picked up a hire car. We drove south to the delightful Sussex village of Alfriston to hear a great talk on Piltdown Man by Vernon Reynolds.
We then had a lovely road trip along the south coast of England, seeing Julia & David in Brighton, Ingrid Brocklesby near Bournemouth, Leb's dear uncle Barry in Looe before popping in to stay a couple of nights in Lyme Regis.
Paul and Judy McKeon kindly hosted us for a few days at theirs before we retraced our wedding 37 years ago at the still functioning Catholic Church and the sadly now derelict Sodyba, where we had our reception.
It was great to see Rob Steel and Elly Nason and their growing family before going back to our old stomping ground, High Wycombe in Bucks. We visited our first three homes there before heading up the M40 to Oxford where we had a lovely evening with Primatologist Simon Bearder. Leb then headed back to London whilst I enjoyed a fantastic pub crawl in some of Oxford's famous old pubs.
Leb visited her dear friends, Susie Pascall and Nicky Villeneau including, thankfully spending a few days with Toots before her health deteriorated.
Meanwhile I spent a very boozy week in Nottingham.
June
By the time we rejoined eachother again in Stroud, it was truly summer. Now in the month of June, we had another lovely week with Leb's other sister Tina and Jan and Leb's old friend Ruth Moore.
After the Cotswolds, we headed west towards, and sometimes just crossing, the Welsh Border. We stayed at a lovely holiday cottage in the middle of nowhere on the Black Mountains, called The Birches. Anyone that knows me won't be surprised to learn that this used to be the home of Elaine Morgan. It was actually where she started her writing career.
It was at The Birches too, where Leb unfortunately developed a very nasty hip problem doing some exercises. We didn't know it at the time (at first we thought it was sciatica) but she had developed sacro-iliac joint dysfunction. Poor-ole-Leb would regularly be in agony for weeks after this.
By this time the 2024 European Football Championships had started and so I had to somehow fit in as many evenings watching football in British pubs as I could. (It was tough sometimes!) After The Birches we headed north.
First stop was Liverpool, where we visited the Beatles museum, had a ferry ride on the Mersey and a great musical night in The White Star pub, apparently frequented in the past by John Lennon. Then, after finally visiting the town of Kirkby in Merseyside, we nipped over to Manchester where I visited the national football museum and we caught up with our dear old friends Fax and Anne Stojic.
After that it was up to the Lake District and a three night stop in Ambleside for some hiking (yes, I still can't believe Leb did that hike, still in absolute agony.) Next we drove across the Pennines (with Leb lying on her back in the back of the car) to Newcastle for a night in the Toon where I watched England'd very disappointing opener versus Denmark. Last stop in England was on the Northumbrian coast, to do a very quick visit of Lindisfarne.
The big UK leg over, we handed in the car at Edinburgh airport before flying across the North Sea to Oslo. We had the most a wonderful train ride across the mountains to Bergen where we went on a cruise up a spectacular Fjord.
Oslo was probably the worst time for Leb's hip pain and it was really only the thought of the long flight home that prevented her pulling the plug on the whole trip. Instead, she'd bravely carry on. As well as the Fjord cruise and a lovely walk, we also had one lovely afternoon relaxing in a world class swimming pool in Bergen. I think that helped.
Next was the Baltic States. Starting with Riga in Latvia. We had originally intended to spend longer in all three Baltic States and I had planned a road trip through parts of Latvia I'd never been to before, but because of Schengen Shennanigans (a recurring theme) those plans had to be curtailed and we had to limit ourselves to just two nights in Riga.
July
We then made the relatively short but comfortable bus ride up north to Tallinn, Estonia, and not the islands I'd planned to visit. Still, three nights is better than nowt. I always love going to Tallinn.
Last, but certainly not least of the Baltic States was, of course Lietuva, tevyne musu. We caught the bus again back down to Vilnius. We had planned this for months too because we wanted to be there for the centenary of the Tautos Švente.
Whilst there, we bumped into old UK friends Rasa Mačiuliene, Paul Markevicius, Christine Harmes and a new aussie one Belyssa Radzivanas. I made sure I spent time visiting memorial sites to the Litvaks, shamefully for the first time for me. Their pre-war population of 200,000 was decimated in the holocaust - especially in 1941. So many were murdered so quickly, let's face it, only thanks to a great deal of local collaboration. It was at the site of Paneriai - where as many Jews were killed as the number of spectators as Vingis Park for the song festival the night before - that I lost my wallet. An event that would also affect later plans.
Krakow in Poland was next. After eating an inconceivable amount of pieriogi, we had a short break in the Tatra mountain resort of Zakopane where we enjoyed bathing in hot spa waters under the mountain tops. One exciting, but ultimately, typically, disappointing night was after staying an extra day in Krakow to see England narrowly lose to Spain in the European Championship final.
More Schengen shenanigans left us no choice but finding somewhere hot and sunny outside of the EU zone, so we flew to Antalya, Turkey for some hot days in the sun and our first snorkel since Mexico. It was only here that Leb finally had her hip problem properly diagnosed - Sacro Iliac Joint Dysfunction. At least she could now seek out the right advice.
August
Next, we flew back to Türkiye, but this time to the cosmopolitan metropolis of Istanbul. There, we had the very pleasant surprise meeting with another Lith-Australian friend, Kristina Tamosauskaite Aktaş.
The biggest pleasant surprise of the whole trip for me was next - Montenegro, and its wonderful coastline where we did more snorkelling. I had one of the best birthdays ever in the capital Podgorica. A boozy day of hiking, visiting a winery, walking around Roman ruins, watching football and having a lovely meal. It capped twelve days of Montenegran bliss.
Next we again caught the bus south to the capital of Albania, Tirana, where we had a short stay full of delicious food.
Our original plan was to hire a car and drive down to the Albanian Riviera near Greece but after I lost my wallet (and driving licence) in Vilnius we had to flip our planned coast time to Montenegro where buses seemed easier to navigate with.
From Albania we flew across the Adriatic to Perugia in Italy to spend a few days with Leb's old friends Julia and David at their gorgeous holiday home. Then we hopped over to the island of Sardinia - a place we'd long wanted to visit. It was a lovely few days until Leb stood on one of those bloody sea urchins. It took weeks before the barbs started to dissipate. Poor Leb was really going through it. Having to put most of her weight on one limb was the last thing anyone needs with a hip problem.
September
Next we caught the bus to Bavaria, in Germany and the old city of Nürnberg where my Oma and Uncle used to live. Unfortunately I couldn't find their graves in the cemetery but I did trace the site of the Nürnberg Nazi rallies and the War Trials Museum. Then we caught another train down to Munich where, continuing the Nazi theme, we visited Dachau. It wasn't all gloom and we also visited a fabulous bierkeller.
Next, another dose of Schengen Shenanigans compelled us to leave the Euro zone for a few days and, once more, go back in blighty to stop the Schengen clock. It's a hard life!
On the positive side it was great to catch up with old mates, Jake Holloway, Romas Kinka and others.
After halting the clock, we flew back to Europe to resume Schengen time and caught the train straight from Munich to Innsbruck in Tyrol, Austria. It was here that we made the culinary discovery of Kaiserschmarrn, the most delicious pudding - as long as you are literally starving!
Keeping with the alpine theme, we then caught a train across the mountains to Garmish-Partenkirken (GaPa, if you can't remember the name!) and then Füssen to have many, many selfies on or nearby the irresistably named Wank Mountain.
Next was supposed to have been a cycling tour around Lake Constance (Bodensee) but the weather was so bad we only had a single day's biking to Wasserberg. Leb, by now, was getting regular great advice and support from Dr Ryan Peebles and so she even felt confident to cycle.
October
From Konstance we caught a train to Basel where I was ripped off by some internet hacker. After one full day there we boarded our Rhine River cruise, which would normally be a holiday in its own right. Amazingly for us, this was just a tiny part of our whole trip!The cruise was great overall but being polite to four bible bashing Trumpers was a massive strain for me and it felt a big relief to get off in Amsterdam.
Leb left me in the Dutch city a day early - an opportunity I used to get high (actually, very low) on "space cake". She went to be with her dear field, the ailing Toots.
Leb and I met up again soon enough (after the most unglamorous stop for me - in Crawley!) for the next leg of our amazing trip, a first visit to Morocco.
So, to Morocco, and the famous city of Marrakech. This was my 69th country visited and it is very different from anywhere I've visited before. We also visited the coastal town and city, respectively, of Sidi Kaouki and Essaouira. We we ate lamb tagines galore. Delish!
Then it was back to blighty where we again went our separate ways for a few days. Leb was able to say a final sad farewell to Ruth (Toots) Catherine Haines and spend more days with friends and family whilst I had a much more selfish time bombing around England drinking beer, watching football and seeing old mates, some of whom I'd not seen in decades. Andy Smales, Paul Stevenson, Antony Cobb, Steve Buckley, Jeff Newcombe, Steven Clarke, Paul Chamberlain, Simon Bishop, Jason and Tim Caunt to name just some.
Amazingly, I saw Forest beat Crystal Palace at home and Leicester City away and even did the City Ground tour for the first time. I can't believe that when I finally returned to Perth at the end of the trip, Forest would be sitting in third in the Premier League. These were truly amazing times!
November
Finally, we had one last relaxing five-day stay in Bali to draw breath and to try to get back into the right time zone before heading back home, some 240 days after we left.
Wow!!!
How lucky am I? This was definitely the holiday of a lifetime. Two years on, I still can't quite believe we did all this and even scanning through them over and over again now, it just seems too much. But there it is. We did it.
Finally I want to acknowledge that of course it was only possible because Leb had the brilliant idea to take advantage of Curtin University's very generous salary sacrifice scheme. Four years of working at 80% salaray followed by a year off at 80% of her salary was perfect. It gave us the financial security to plan and execute this holiday of a lifetime at what feels like the perfect time in life to to so.
Thanks, mi'darlin'!
Here's the holiday summary spreadsheet...
Where next? Who knows.
