Bucharest, Romania

Our travels began breathlessly. Sailing off on the catamaran from Skopelos to Thessaloniki, hot-footing it to the station and, eager to clock up the miles but with no set route in mind, we jumped on the first overnight train north. A sweltering night and day through Greece and rural Bulgaria until we found ourselves in Bucharest, Romania.

Bucharest is an odd city. There is the immense parliament building, but much of the rest is still being re-built after the war and communist years took their toll. The old town is a billion euro development package away from being a gem of a place. Until then we walked the duck boards over the construction site.

You couldn't call it a pretty city but in our brief stopover, we definitely discovered some of Bucharest's wayward charm. Not least the free cake in honour of Saint Pantelimos and the fantastic reconstruction of traditional village dwellings in one of the many parks.

Bucharest Buns (video clip)

Bun-obsessed Bernard (Sam) in Bucharest...

Skopelos

Before heading off on our travels a few weeks of Greek sunshine were needed for Sam to de-tune from hectic London life. Fully Shirley Valentine-d we began planning our trip, based at our favourite cafe on Skopelos waterfont.

All important breaks for Greek salad and endless baklava were needed when getting to grips with Russian visas and train timetables. We made full use of the cafe's free wi-fi for web searching, even if skype calls were made yet more difficult by the racket of cicadas.

It wasn't all work. We escaped our sessions of trip-planning and life-sorting by hiking out to remote beaches and setting up camp.

Exploring the islands and enjoying the lifestyle has been great but we are ready to leave Greece now. It is hot and crowded and we want to head somewhere cool and remote: Siberia (though we will surely miss those late afternoon dips).