A series of rough seas pictures from Malta, that I’ve decided to call The Other Great Siege of Malta.
The actual Great Siege of Malta was a long and bloody affair between Christians from the West and the Ottoman Empire to the East. You can read a great account of the build up and outcome of the events in 1565 on this post by ilovemalta.com.mt (a website dedicated to Maltese gastronomy, which there is plenty of.)
However, when I visited Malta and Gozo, I witnessed another attack on the islands that still goes on today.…

Earlier this year I spent a month studying Italian in Rome, taking two weeks of lessons at an Italian language school. I made some great progress there and in Sicily afterwards, gabbing away in my patchy Italian whenever I had an excuse.
Whether you prefer to learn the language before you visit a place or you don’t mind jumping into the deep end, here’s why I think you should learn Italian in Italy…, and Rome in particular.

When I spent a few months in India in 2010, I visited the Namdroling Monastery Golden Temple in Bylakuppe, the home to thousands of Tibetan monks, not far from Mysore in Karnataka. I recently guest-posted a photo essay from the day trip on the site of my friend and fellow blogger Steve. Head over there to see the rest of my photographs from Namdroling Monastery on back-packer.org.…

Today I am very pleased to reveal to you, exclusively, an exciting new concept in travel blogging, photography, and indeed the internet.
Without further ado,
proudly introducing!
*drum roll please*
…the year 2012!…
Yes, you may have heard of it, but you’ve almost certainly seen nothing of it from me. Just over a year ago I started my first blog, but I didn’t write much about travel or publish many photo’s, as I was too occupied with the act of travelling itself.

With less than a fortnight of 2012 left, and only one day until the ‘end of the world’ according to the Mayan calendar, I’m getting prepared to break in the New Year in style. The ‘end of the world’ is a complete misnomer, actually being the predicted date of a new and better age for humanity… (we’ll see), so I’ve got plans to see out the old year and bring in the new at Edinburghs Hogmanay celebrations.