Lisbon

Lisbon is a spiderweb of little cobbled streets lined with tiled buildings and gothic architecture. We stayed in an apartment at Marques De Pombal which is not far from the main tourist district of Baixa. The city is set on a series of hills so exploring by foot is a mission, especially when all the great castles and churches seem to be set on top of them, but there always seems to be a cafe halfway up where you can stop for a cafe and a pastel de nata (Portuguese tarts). In the centre of town there is the old elevador de santa Justa, a vertical elevator that takes you up to a viewing platform where you can look down across the city. It's over a hundred years old and used to be powered by steam. The Trams are also a great way to see the city though sometimes it feels more like a roller coaster. One thing we'll never forget is the amount of times we we're offered drugs, it seems every five minutes some dodgy man was whispering to us "you want hashish marijuana".



















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Moscow

Ahhhh the beauty of the Cold War decay..... Construction everywhere, mullets gallore (not the styled David Beckham mullet either), scary customer service people (where buying a bottle of water feels like you are committing a crime). With only 24 hours in Russia we headed for the tourist district of Red Square. We saw Lenin's Body, the Kremlin and lots of cathedrals. We got completely ripped off paying $200 on a taxi from the airport to the hotel..... hey that's Russia for ya.

Tokyo

Scott says: Konnichiwa,
Day one we arrived at Narita airport at 6.30 am, we headed for the subway and made our way to our hostel in Minowa but couldn't check in till 3pm so we dropped of our backpacks and took off to see some sights. We caught the train to Asakusa which should have been a 20 minute trip but since the only word we spoke in Japanese was arigato the train trip ended up taking over an hour. The streets are lined with vending machines for drinks and cigarettes and much more in the red light district. We grabbed a coffee in a can to help balance out our lack of sleep. Later that day we met up with some friends in Shinjuku for drinks and dinner.
Day two we headed to Harajuku where on a Sunday all the crazily dressed teenagers gather at the entrance to Yoyogi park to show off their costumes and be photographed. The Japanese pop culture was my main reason for wanting to go to tokyo so being their on a sunday to see the teens in cos play was a real highlight. Along the walls of the park a lot of rock and punk bands set up and play most the day.
With 30 million people living in the city, Tokyo was electric, and the people were so happy and helpful. Tokyo Rocks!
Sayonara

Karl says: Tokyo......such a crazy and wonderful place. Vending machines everywhere, a million and one flavoured soft drinks, bloody complicated train lines, people everywhere, bright lights and advertising, automatic toilets, guys wearing snakeskin cowboy boots (while wearing shorts) and fruit girls dressed up like dolls....... these are a few of my favourite things.