South America, finally! Two weeks in Bogota and the northern coast of Colombia

Two years between blog posts isn't traditionally how you keep an audience coming back for more. But then blogging itself is a bit old-fashioned now, so I'm not exactly at the cutting edge of online entertainment.

That said, this blog is now in its 20th year because I am a middle-aged man and started it when I went backpacking after university. And while the posts may not be as regular as they once were, they're still packed full of travel-based goodness and top quality photos with pithy captions.

Excitingly, this was my first foray into the continent of South America which leaves me with only one continent left to visit – Antarctica. Probably won't be ticking that one off the list any time soon, but never say never,    

In two weeks you can just about scrape the surface of Colombia but there's so much I didn't have time for on this trip. It's a big country, nearly five times the size of the UK, so I had to leave some things out. You could go there and focus on just the cities, the mountains, coffee regions, the jungles, or the coast. 

I flew in and out of Bogota, then focused on the north coast – Cartagena, the Rosario Islands, Tayrona National Park and Santa Marta. Cartagena and Tayrona National Park were the highlights on the coast. Cartagena is a beautiful old walled city beside the sea and Tayrona is a scenic national park with trails you can take through the jungle before ending up on a stunning beach.

One notable achievement for me in Colombia was that I levelled up to become a black coffee drinker. If you're going to do it anywhere, it might as well be a country known for excellent coffee. The food and drink in general was pretty decent, although I wouldn't say Colombian food is the most exciting in the world. Lots of good solid hearty options, and ceviche was a highlight, but often the best food I had was non-Colombian. Wu Dumplings and Beer in Bogota, for example, was really good and the food is accompanied by 90s hip-hop restaurant soundtrack.

Taxis and the driving in general was an experience. Driving in Colombia is what you could generously call 'quite aggressive' – indicators might as well be replaced entirely with an extra button to honk your horn. It's not the first place in the world I've been where buses are driven with such gusto but sometimes you forget quite how different countries have their own national driving style. Let's call it a style.

Here are are a few other highlights to round off:

- Watching the World Cup Final in Cartagena where everyone was supporting Spain and disliked Argentina because of the dirty tactics they employed.

- Playing tejo (see photos below) which is technically the national sport of Colombia but one I'd not heard of before visiting.

- Met a Welsh boat captain in a bar who had decided to make a bold career change to emerald dealer. He had employed the translation services of a Colombian man (also in the bar) who had spent 30 years in the Swedish Air Force, before becoming a translator for high-level diplomats and state leaders, including Tony Blair and Barack Obama. (Saw photo evidence of Blair)

- Zipaquirá and its Salt Cathedral were an unexpectedly charming day trip out of Bogota. 

- Street art in Colombia is a big deal and really brighten the place up. More street art everywhere please.

Plaza de Bolivar in the Candelaria district of Bogota. The mountain behind it is called Monserrate, which has a large Catholic Church on top. You can walk all the way up, which takes about two hours, but the cable car and funicular railway seemed the more fun and less sweaty options.

This was one of my favourite paintings on a walk round the Botero Museum in Bogota. It features lots of works by Colombian artist Fernando Botero, who certainly had a recognisable style.

Street art in Colombia was fantastic in general, especially in the capital. A bit of fortuitous timing means the cat is looking at the woman who works in the cafe inside the building.

More street art, but in Cartagena this time.

The walls of Cartagena and the clock tower at night.

If you see a guillotine in the backyard of a museum it's your duty to have a photo taken in it. This was in the Palacio de la Inquisicion in Cartagena. 

A park in Cartagena that went big on the fairy lights.

A balcony in Cartagena that went big on the flowers.

I intercepted Alastair in Cartagena and we took a trip to Isla Grande, which is part of the Rosario Islands off the northern coast of Colombia. The ride there was pretty smooth, the ride back was somewhat bumpier.

Langoustine lunch on the beach in Isla Grande. Watched the fishermen arrive on their boat, they showed us what they'd caught and we said yes please.

Obligatory sunset photo on Island Grande. Although by luck more than judgement we also happened upon one of Pablo Escobar's abandoned mansions, which was just over my left shoulder as I took this photo. It's  boarded up and falling apart now.

One of several monkeys I saw on the walk through Tayrona National Park.

If you ignore how sweaty my shirt is, the scene looks kind of idyllic. This is the destination when you're on the two-hour jungle trek through Tayrona National Park. If you don't want to do the walk there and back in one day, you can sleep in a hammock in that tower in the background.

There wasn't a lot to see in Santa Marta, it's more of a transport hub for people visiting other places nearby. But large iguanas roaming around the gardens of the Quinta de San Pedro Alejandrino were worth a photo. 

This sign in the Chapinero district of Bogota raises more questions than it answers. 

The central square in Zipaquirá, home to the Salt Cathedral and an excellent cafe with a manager that very charmingly upsold us on some excellent coffee.

Inside the Salt Cathedral. That green crucifix at the back is supposedly the largest underground crucifix in the world. How much competition is there for that title? I don't know. But what I do know is the cathedral/caves dug out of a giant former salt mine was very impressive and well worth a day trip from Bogota.

On the final night in Colombia we played a game called Tejo, which involves throwing a heavy metal disc like (about the size of an ice hockey puck) at some exploding targets surrounded by clay. Can be played at the same time as drinking beer.

Close up of the metal disc (known as a tejo), which is thrown at the clay target area. You get more points for landing between the exploding targets but where's the fun in that?

A few days ambling about in Vienna

Another trip another blog, this time Vienna, the culture-packed capital of Austria. I was going through old blog posts recently to fix some formatting glitches and it's a good job I keep writing these because I generally don't remember quite a lot of what I've done. So I guess I'll keep blogging until it becomes a completely obsolete medium and the site gets shut down. Which can't be that far off, because blogs are very 2010.

Vienna always comes top of those 'best cities to live' rankings that appear in the press from time to time and so I was intrigued to see why it's regarded so highly. A lot of that is down to Vienna's high quantity and quality of social housing, rent controls, great public transport – many of the things that make a well run modern city. (And something a lot of modern cities lack.) 

It really had the feel of a great place to live while I was there. Admittedly I was only there for a few days and I'm sure Vienna has its own problems but I couldn't see many. Culture, food, drink, beautiful architecture, history are all there in abundance. Apparently there's an old stereotype about the Viennese people being rude, but I didn't encounter that at all.

Most importantly, I ate apple strudel on multiple occasions. The best one was probably in Cafe Landtmann, where Sigmund Freud is said to have gone between classes at the University of Vienna right across the road. Now it's a bit of a pricey tourist trap but I had to go in one of Vienna's fancy cafes while I was there and pay €6 for a coffee with extra ambience.

 

Kimchi on sweet potato fries – I'm not normally a food pictures person but this was the first thing I ate in Vienna and it was immense.

Does it count as street art if it's not on a street? Let's call it some graffiti with an admirable message.

Dr Freud will see you now. This the waiting room for patients of Sigmund Freud or his wife, Martha. This is the only room in the museum restored to what it once looked like, the rest of it is nice but a bit underwhelming. 

One of the Easter markets that were on in the second half of March. This one sold thousands of painted eggs.

The roof of Stephandsom Cathedral and its multicoloured tiled roof is right in the middle of Vienna's city centre.

Another angle of Stephandsom Cathedral, with dramatic sculpture.

One of Vienna's many pretty town squares, I think this was the Jewish Square

So sue me, I took another food photo. This time its apple strudel. If you go to Vienna and don't eat strudel I don't think we can ever truly be friends.

You might recognise this if you've seen The Third Man, a film from 1949 starring Orson Welles that was set in Vienna. The bottom left of the photo has a little portrait of Welles.

Back in the Easter markets again, this time taking a photo for Vita so she can see how big the eggs in Vienna are.

Can't remember what this church was called, but it was on the edge of the old town and made a nice photo with the steps leading up to it.

Some culture from the cheap seats at the Musikverein. The Bavarian Symphony Orchestra conducted by Simon Rattle. At €10 for a standing ticket, you can see something pretty spectacular for an affordable price. (Sitting tickets went up to €130)

A mural of Mozart, possibly Vienna's most famous resident

Belvedere Palace on the outskirts of central Vienna.

Czech out what I did in Prague

Hello and welcome to my travel blog that stubbornly refuses to modernise and become an Instagram or TikTok account. Apparently the peak blogging era ended around 2012 so I'm only a decade behind. Keep it going for another decade and maybe this blog can become a retro curiosity. 

For the first time in several years (and definitely this side of the pandemic) I went on a solo trip, something  that felt slightly odd at first. We had a child nearly 18 months ago and so all trips away have been as a family. Now, that is all well and good and very enjoyable but so is the odd bit of solo backpacking. This blog is called the Inane Babble of a Backpacker after all, not the Inane Babble of a Man Clinging on to His 30s Who Goes On Nice Family Holidays. Maybe that can be the Instagram/Tiktok account.

Prague is somewhere I feel like I should have been before now, it's almost remiss of me not to have been there. The flights there were cheap and cost of accommodation, eating, sightseeing was very reasonable too. Around £2-£3 for a beer was fairly common. And it's very walkable if you're concentrating on the main sights either side of the river. 

My accommodation was in Praha 2, just outside the Old Town area about five minutes from the National Museum. It turned out to be a great location for food and drink options without paying the inflated prices of the Old Town. In fact, I was staying just around the corner from the gothic Church of St Ludmila, the first picture below. And then below that you'll see the first mistake I made...

The Church of St Ludmila.

I'd seen someone raving about these ice-cream filled doughnut cones online and made it a priority to try one for myself. Unfortunately I wrongly chose a cream-filled rather than ice-cream filled option, complete with strawberries and chocolate sauce. It was a LOT of cream and the regret kicked in long before I'd finished it. 

Prague's Astronomical Clock beside the main square in the Old Town. Been telling the time since 1410 – that's a lot of time.

This was just outside the Franz Kafka museum and is a sculpture of two men urinating at each other. Didn't find out why, just took the photo and enjoyed the scene. The base looks like the outline of the Czech Republic and I could google it to find out more but I'm not going to.

Sunset over the Vltava River, which runs through Prague. Prague Castle is on the hill in the distance. 

The National Theatre, with one of the local trams going past.

Praha means Prague in Czech, which is why I took this photo. And a tram just happened to be passing to add a bit of extra je ne sais quoi to the picture.

The Dancing House in Prague, designed by architects Vlado Milunić and Frank Gehry. You know what? This building was a bit underwhelming. There, I've said it. I expected more, walked a fair way to see it and it was just a bit 'meh'.

The Electric Sheep Book Bar - great cocktails and live music, delicious chocolate covered pretzels, plus a three legged dog wandering around looking for all the attention it can get. What more could you ask for? 

One of the 30 Baroque statues that are dotted across the famous Charles Bridge. Also one of the earliest known examples of doing bunny ears over someone who doesn't know it's happening, captured in stone.

Aerial view of Prague from the tower of St Vitus Cathedral in the grounds of Prague Castle. Climbed about 250 steps to get to the top of that tower but the views were spectacular.

I suppose there has to be a photo of me in there somewhere to prove that I actually went. A few more grey hairs since the last solo trip, hoping to one day attain 'silver fox' status. Prague in the background again, taken from the top of St Vitus by a passerby who looked like they knew what they were doing with a camera and wouldn't steal my phone.

Part of the Waldstein Garden, next to Malostranka Station.

Water-level view of the Charles Bridge from a little boat tour I went on. Ice cream and a beer included in the ticket price, lovely stuff. Need to update their audio tour though, still referencing Queen Liz, gawd bless 'er.

Front door goals.

Sculpture of Sigmund Freud suspended over a road. Easy to miss when you're walking by at street level, let me tell you.

I loved the design of this Metro station so I made a little video and it turned out very well. Almost looks vaguely professional.

Czech stew and dumplings. Very hearty Eastern European fare - probably not first an obvious pick in the middle of summer but I was determined to try some while I was there.

On my final night I walked up the hill into the middle of a park called Riegrovy sady, where loads of people gathered to watch the sun set over Prague with a drink or two. Castle in the background again. Fire juggling guy in the foreground, low-key smell of weed wafting about, you get the idea.

Interior of the Spanish Synagogue. Very impressive and blingy.

My flight leaving Prague was delayed by two hours so I had some time to kill before I went to the airport. And just so happened to be near the Prague Ghost Legends Museum. I kind of hoped it was going to be one for the enjoyably shit category of museums and it did not disappoint on that front. Although it didn't kill much time before my flight either as I was done in about 25 minutes. This exhibit accurately demonstrates what I would look like if I were a ghost.