Where: Somewhere in Pakistan | When: March 13th

Southern Pakistan is wandering past the window at the moment - I'm on the 24 hour train from Quetta to Lahore. Came in yesterday from Bam, got an overnight bus to Quetta from the border and then got on the train a few hours ago. There's a definite sense of grandeur to this train, perhaps because it seems to be from the 50s, that I like a lot. It's certainly not quick but it seems oddly dignified because of that.

I got to Yazd as planned, met some great people and saw some cool places in the area around the city. Went to Kerman after that and basically just relaxed for a few days with the plan of going straight to the border, but then I decided to stop for a couple of days in Bam. It used to be one of Iran's big tourist cities - the Arg-e Bam was an enormous, ancient mud-brick citadel in the north of the city until just over 3 years ago when a major earthquake destroyed most of the city. Going now was quite surreal; the whole place is half-built, with a couple of gleaming new schools built by the Red Cross and Red Crescent with international aid money. There are some shops, and the odd restaurant, that have reopened in new buildings too, but many of them are running out of shipping containers. The Arg still looks impressive in terms of size, but the central part was blocked off by restoration work and many of the smaller buildings are completely unrecognisable. The oddest thing was that nothing there was remotely as I was expecting it to be. Definitely worth a look.

Where: Shiraz | When: March 5th

I'm nearly across Iran now - I'm going to be in Yazd by the end of the day tomorrow, with any luck. The weather is brilliant - the vineyards here are where the Shiraz grape came from (they're gone now though, as alcohol is now illegal throughout Iran). It seems very odd that I was walking through patches of snow when I crossed the border a few weeks ago.

The trip across Turkey was interesting, it got colder and colder as we went east until eventually I was sitting in a bus station where the doors kept freezing shut. The mountains were spectacular and the villages did have that definite feeling that they were a few decades behind the rest of the world.

The border crossing into Iran was laughably easy compared to the hassle of getting a visa, customs waved me through without caring remotely what was in my bag. Got to Tabriz in decent time and spent a few days there, a few in Tehran and a few in Esfahan before coming to Shiraz. Esfahan, especially, was a very impressive place, and Persepolis was absolutely amazing.

Where: Istanbul | When: Feb 20th

So, like I said, updates not so much of a priority right now, but at least this says something. Better to save all the good stories to tell in person anyway.

After Budapest I got the overnight train to Bucharest; it was an odd contrast - Budapest does have a bit of an eastern bloc 'feel' to it, but equally it's got some places that would look good if you dropped them somewhere in central London; Bucharest doesn't exactly have that kind of thing going for it, but was an interesting place.

I got a bus straight through Bulgaria, directly to Istanbul. In retrospect the train would've been the more comfortable option, but the bus was cheaper and faster (although the hours on end sitting doing nothing whatsoever at the Turkish border didn't really help; ah well) and I was happily in my room before 6 a.m. I've been in Istanbul a little longer than I would've liked, but I was tied up with a few visa things - hoping to spend the next few days traveling across Turkey and then into Iran, so even if I do get around to writing something more there's no assurances of a usable internet connection to send it with, but I'll do my best.

Where: Budapest | When: Feb 9th

I had all kinds of great plans for loads of updates about all the cool things going on, but having spent most of my time without a second to spare, it looks like I'm just going to throw the odd thing up here every few weeks, maybe upload a few pictures if I get the chance. I'm sure nobody will be able to shut me up about this whole trip when I come back anyway. Been to Brussels, Amsterdam, Munich and Vienna so far, and I'm in Budapest now.

Brussels was a cool place - more so than I would have expected, actually, and it's got a whole area of ridiculously upmarket shops which has got to be worth another visit when I've got some money to spend. Met some great people in Amsterdam too, although I wasn't hugely impressed with the city itself; it was perfectly nice, just not my favourite of the places I've been. And it was absolutely freezing. Munich is definitely the kind of place where you can have a good night out, and I stayed at a place called Wombats which was so nice that I went to the one in Austria too. Absolutely loved Vienna - totally my kind of city, the modern art museum had some awesome stuff and the whole city just looked great, easily my favourite so far. I'll put some more stuff up when I get a chance, but like I said, that might be a while.