Crossing into Hungary, we drive through endless fields of sunflowers and wheat before eventually reaching the huge and regal city of Budapest. My first impression as we walk down Andrassy Street is that it looks like Paris but cleaner. The architecture, the cafes and the shiny high end stores are alluring. We check into the lovely Wombats hostel and score our awesome new Brissy mates Ben and Jess as roomies. After settling in, we meet the rest of our group downs...

Josef surely has the best job in the world. We cross over the Slovakian border, drive past sparse housing and through vast farmland, before pulling into a small clearing at the edge of dense bushland. Josef stands there grinning and waving as our 40 strong tour group scuttle excitedly toward him, our eyes cast over his head to not one, but two ex Soviet tanks parked proudly in the thick mud. Hello, boys! He's removed the turrets, so what we have are convertib...

I've always known there was something a little special about me. I'm sure you've noticed it too. Maybe when I walk past, and you feel an inclination to drop to your knees, or fetch me some chocolate. It's only natural. You see, I have a sprinkling of Polish royal blood coursing through my veins. Well, possibly. Maybe. Probably not. Google gives me no evidence. In fact I'm pretty much going off one vague, throwaway comment my Mum once made which I have obviously c...

Our first stop in Poland is one that I am dreading, but have wanted to do for years. As we pull into Auschwitz I, I'm surprised - it looks deceptively pleasant. It's a beautiful day, and there are trees around the well kept, red brick buildings that stood here as military barracks before the war. From the outside it is only the tall barbed wire fences, once electrified, that hint at the atrocities committed here by the Nazis against Jews, Soviet soldiers and othe...

It's our final night in Prague, and I'm convinced that I have come down with the worst flu that you can possibly catch. I'm shivering, I'm aching, I can't breathe, my head is pounding, glands throbbing and the key symptom - I'm whinging and complaining to the point of manic tears. "I'm dying, I'm dying". Yep, I definitely have man flu. After parting ways with Ben and Gem, we checked into the hostel then went out for a Thai massage and dinner. The massage was gr...