My First Overseas Holiday
My first overseas holiday after starting work saw me take trains from Hong Kong through China (Guangzhou and Beijing), Mongolia (Ulaanbaatar), Trans Siberian (Irkutsk to Moscow) and then through Poland, Germany (East and West), Belgium and across to London. We then flew to Greece on the way home for two weeks.
This was in July 1986. Chernobyl was April 1986.
The trip was amazing in that it encompassed all the topics covered in my elective subjects for the HSC. I had studied the revolutions of China and Russia in Modern history, Thucydides and the Peloponnesian War in Ancient History and Architecture History in Art. In hind sight it would have been better done before I completed my exams as I learnt so much more that the text books and teacher could not impart.
In Beijing we walked the wall, saw Tianmen Square, Chairman Mao lying in state, the Summer Palace, temple of the moon and many more sites.
Ulaanbaatar was impressive in its lack of people after Beijing. We went to a Russian resort for a traditional mean in a yurt complete with fermented Mare’s milk.
In Russia we cruised Lake Baikal on a hydrofoil, saw countless silver birch trees from the windows of a swelteringly hot train (soft class) as we sped along next to the gas pipe line. Visits to the Kremlin including the Armoury and Assumption Cathedral.
Greece absolutely blew my mind. I was able to walk through history. See the sights and sites that I had studied and sit back and take it all in from the Acropolis, Delphi, Theatre at Epidaurus, Beehive tomb of Agamemnon and the Lion Gate and Citadel at Mycenae.