Tony visited Wamena, capital of Baliem Valley, with a couch surfing friend, Raymond. Raymond is from Wamena, and Tony stayed with his lovely family just outside the town. The Baliem Valley is home to many cultural tribes most noticeably Dani, Lani and Yali. Raymond’s family are Lani.
The only way to reach Wamena is by plane. Trigana and Wings have several flights a day from Jayapura. Almost all produce is flown in by transport plane,
So my trip of five weeks in Eastern Europe is nearing its end. I’m in Riga, capital of Latvia. Riga is nice with a lively atmosphere and interesting ‘Old Town’ with many 18th-19th century buildings. I mainly relaxed enduring the 34 degrees C heat and sweating as I joined a walking tour around of the city’s more interesting streets and squares.
Before visiting Riga, I’d been in Liepaja, on Latvia’s coast. It’s one of the nicest beach cities I’ve visited and is home of rock music and other musical styles.
After leaving the small dwarfs behind in Wroclaw, Tatiana and I took the Polski Bus to Krakow. Our new friend, Izabel, a lovely Polish lady living in Wroclaw, who we met on the bus, organised the tickets for us as we had no internet access. Tatiana’s phone has screen reading activation software, but her free internet connection no longer seems to work outside of Greece! Krakow is a fantastic city for both blind and sighted tourists alike.
Tatiana and I have been travelling for about two weeks now. First three days in Berlin again, where we revisited the Neptune in Alexanderplatz to feel up the naked female statues! We also trammed it to Voltz Park, people’s park, to explore the fairy tale fountain with all the lovely statues to children’s fairy stories: Snow White and her seven dwarfs, Hansel and Gretel, etc. Then the journey to Poland. We took the train to Poznan and stayed three days.
Now back in Bucharest after a fascinating trip. I’ve visited Chernivtsi, Ukraine, it is also called Cernau in Romania. A historical city about three hours bus ride north-east of Suceava, Romania. After three days there I headed to my 94th country, Republic of Moldova. I stayed in Chisinau, the country’s capital. It’s about a 7-9 hour night bus ride from Chernivtsi. Nice quiet people and little to do or see. Some lovely parks, an orthodox church,
