Dragon's Travels

I'm still quite busy here, spending time with family and visiting my uncle who has been very ill with heart failure (he seems to be on the mend now though, hopefully he will make a full recovery) so sorry for not responding to people's comments very promptly! I promise I will get back to you, it's just that I haven't had lots of time to spend on the laptop (Instead I have been preparing posts quickly at night before going to sleep, and also using things that I had written beforehand but not got around to posting...)

I have made my decision though, and I will use the cheap flights to Poland that I got a few months ago, so I head off to the airport tomorrow morning - I was really lucky, as I still had my passport in my bag from when I joined the library (I thought they would need to see ID) so I have just been able to wash the clothes I had packed to come to Somerset, and I will repack them for Poland. That saved me a long diversion to Nottinghamshire on the way to Luton airport!!

I don't have everything with me that I need, so I have had to buy a few bits, and I will make do without some things. Which reminded me of this post, which I uploaded a little while ago, but obviously hadn't posted yet:



Several years ago I decided to take a little mascot travelling with me, and get pictures of him everywhere.

My mascot of choice is Dragon, a dragon I bought myself from a car boot sale when I was little (imaginative name, I know…)

Sadly for Dragon, many of his travels have either involved him being left in suitcase so he didn’t get to see the sights, or even being carried around the sights in a bag, but not taken out for photos! (I did this in Petra, which is rubbish – Petra is SOOOOO spectacular and photogenic! Dragon would have loved it ;)   On some occasions, poor Dragon has even been left at home, wondering why he couldn’t come away with me as promised…  (It turns out that I’m pretty rubbish at this ‘take a mascot on holiday and get photos’ malarkey!)

Dragon has successfully made it to some places though, and he asked if I could share his holiday snaps with you ;)

Dragon’s first trip was to Prague, Czech Republic, where he enjoyed a nice Pils :)

Next on his hit-list was Rome, Italy. He enjoyed gelato at the Trevi Fountain,

and posed for snaps outside the coliseum.

Next up, Dragon fancied a bit of action, so he headed for the slopes in Austria.

It turns out Dragon wasn’t keen on the cold, so he decided to defrost with a little sunbathing at the beach in Egypt’s Sharm el Sheikh – much better!

Dragon even served his country, deploying to Afghanistan in 2008! He had to get his uniform specially tailored for him ;)

Following a tour of duty, Dragon decided another holiday was in order: this time, he went back packing in Malaysia, and got snapped in front of the iconic Petronas Towers in Kuala Lumpur.

Closer to home, Dragon decided to have a go at more mountains, but instead of skiing down the Austrian Alps he walked up Scafell Pike (the highest peak in England):

And Ben Nevis (the highest in Scotland):

As you can imagine from these photos, Dragon wasn't very taken with this British weather... Dragon had really loved Asia though, and after saving up he returned there some more – first to go trekking in the Himalayas in Nepal:

And then for another back packing trip, this time to Sri Lanka, where he made friends with the Lion of Lion’s Rock (Sigiriya)

Dragon next decided to stay closer to home again, and indulge in a little port sampling. He headed off for a long weekend to Oporto, Portugal, to sample a few drinks at the port lodges. He didn’t want to make public his port-fuelled shenanigans, so instead here he is outside a church – much more dignified, and definitely not because I forgot to take any photos until the last minute… ;)

Oporto was lovely, but Dragon had a hankering to go somewhere more ‘edgy’, so he slipped off to Lebanon – a really stunningly beautiful and friendly country, so sad that it experiences so much trouble.

Dragon’s also went to Tunisia, where he enjoyed catching the train into the capital, Tunis. He visited the square where the Arab Spring began, and he went shopping in the souk.

Dragon’s last holiday was to Romania, where he really enjoyed visiting Transylvania, and was quite taken with Bran Castle:

Dragon enjoyed sharing his holiday snaps with you, and he really hopes that I can remember which box I packed him in so I can take him to more places!!