The biggest city in Europe and the bestest in the world. If only it wasn't the second most expensive in the world as a result

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i give it 3 for being big but it loses many points for reminding me of dawn of the dead.

half dead creatures shambling around behind trolleys, hunting for their next meal.

and don't get me started on the guy who walks round with a basket on his head.

the derwent valley is a beautiful stretch of land in the peak district. there are two gorgeous dams, a vast river and reservoir and oodles of soothing pine forestry.

derwent is easily accesible from Snake Pass in Glossop.

heres some pictures to illustrate just how wonderful it is:



ladybower dam. the place where they tested the bouncing bombs back in WW2



a wonderful reservoir



me surveying the land



the ginger fury finds ladybower and gets rather excited



a duck and her ducklings. we fed them until they exploded (only joking)


a wonderous place to visit.

The most breathtaking sceanary that I have ever seen, from the lake to the forrests.

straw huts and goats a plenty, not to mention the medicine man.

The wildlife that can be seen there is truely amazing. It also has the unusual ability to just go dark in a snap. With very little warning hardly any dusk at all, just day... day.. .day... a bit dul.pitch black!

two points taken away for the level of poverty and desolation in parts.

longsight is an area in south-central manchester divided by the main A6 stockport road corridor that heads south out of town.

the main community is centred around the junction of stockport road and dickenson road. in this area you can find longsight market which is famous for absolutely nothing but sells everything from stolen dvd players to illegally imported howler monkeys. out on stockport road you have many, many kebab shops - some of which sell food that is actually edible. theres an asda, a lidl and a farmfoods which exist in a constant state of conflict (the asda - lidl war of 2005 is particularly memorable because farmfoods allied themselves with lidl, the underdog. many frozen chicken pies died.)

the sun never comes out in longsight. this is because the sun is scared that an eastern european woman will leap out in front of his car with a baby in a pram and use the pram to scrub the windscreen violently while demanding 'monee monee monee' in broken english.

famous people who come from longsight include minnie driver. thats all.

the longsight crew are a community focused youth group who do a lot of work in the field of shooting, intimidating and murdering rival moss side based youth group, the gooch gang.

there is a man with tourettes who can regularly be seen exiting rapidly from shops, usually with a shop assistant's foot planted firmly in his backside. his cries of 'f**k off you silly bitch' can be heard like birdsong even in the furthest reaches of longsight.

if you're lucky a man will walk his goat for you, a woman will do an impression of a psychotic zombie and a scotsman will try to flog you poetry.

the trollys at asda DO NOT go beyond the RED LINE. this is the law.

the 192 bus is a testament to british public transport. its supposed to run every five minutes between stockport and manchester city centre but, by a miracle of excellent customer service, you will wait fifteen minutes and then seven will turn up at once. not one of them will let you on no matter how much you display your enthusiasm for boarding - this is also the law.

there is a strong chance a rangy fellow will approach you on stockport road and utter the following, 'my names pete simpson. i've just done fifteen years for murdering the man who raped my sister. give me some money.'

i work in longsight and i love it. the place has more characters than an episode of the fast show. yeah, it smells, its dangerous and its dirty, but theres nowhere else quite like it.

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Situated at the southern tip of Africa where the Atlantic and Indian Oceans meet Cape Town is one of the coolest towns I have ever visited.

You can climb Table Mountain and absail down it or take the stunning cable car journey. The view from the top is incredible - you can see for miles across the ocean and will often see whales out past the harbour.
There are several companies that offer winery tours and township tours (visiting the shanty towns in the surrounding area).
Within 2 hours drive there are several game reserves where you can do classic safari adventures or even go for horseback or quad bike safaris.
The V&A waterfront is beautiful and has some of the finest restaurants I have ever been to - you must have a steak in Balthazar and some seafood whilst listening to the jazz in the Green Dolphin.
There are all sorts of boat trips leaving from the waterfront too including whale watching and champagne cruises.
A little further down the coast you can find many beautiful beaches including the delightful Camps Bay - a great place to go and watch the sunset.
For evening entertainment you can't beat Long Street for live music (both contemporary and traditional African), bars and nightclubs.
Greenmarket is a good place to pick up traditional crafts but it's very busy and full of tourists with money to spend so you need to look after your wallet. Also you should always look to bargain down to about half of the original price.
And lets not forget the world class museums, art galleries and the planetarium - all definitely worth a looksie.

Also with a Rand being about 9p you can get a lot for your money

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Not nearly as bad as it's reputation. Most of the really troublesome zones were bulldozed in the mid-90s and redesigned with parks, wide open roads and well-lit streets to reduce crime and make the area much more pleasant in general. It currently suffers from a lack of bars and nightlife, however it has lots of West Indian and Somalian food shops, along with quirky little places where you can buy anything from wigs to rare reggae (audio cassettes still available as of 2006!). It's often described as a ghetto, but as there are many different races and cultures living here (and nowadays, it seems, getting on reasonably well) I don't think that term is at all accurate.

Situated conveniently between Manchester City Centre and Manchester Airport (on the 105 bus route between the two), it's a 15-minute bus ride from town or a 20-minute walk West from Rusholme. There are several parks including the large Alexandra Park situated on Princess Road (M56?), home of the annual Caribbean Festival, held in late August.

If the reputation has ever put you off paying a visit, you can rest assured that you're as safe here on an average afternoon as in any other part of Manchester. There are some areas still slightly higher in street crime than average, but on the whole it's a friendly, vibrant and varied community with a lot to offer those with an interest in other cultures.

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Made famous by the Da Vinci Code, this church was linked to the Knight's Templars and is full of interesting things to see. The interior is covered in carvings and designs, and although it's very small there's so much to see you can easily spend an hour looking at things. To preserve the church a canopy has been built over it to help it dry out, and this means that you can walk around the outside getting a close look at a church from a direction you don't normally see!

Right next to it is the Rosslyn gorge which falls away and is probably well worth a look (we ran out of time). My only complaint is the number of other people there who kept getting in my way Stupid tourists...

A wonderful Loch surrounded by huge hills and with Tibbie Shiel's Inn in the middle. This is a walkers dream with plenty of hills to go climbing up and magnificent views of the water and surrounding hills. If you enjoy walking in the countryside this is well worth a weekend visit! The Tibbie is a lovely Inn to stay at with a Landlady who will happily chat away into the evening hours!

A lovely little village just outside of Edinburgh, it's most notable for being on the Firth of Forth between the Forth Rail bridge and the Forth Road bridge. The view is absolutely spectacular! In fact while I was there I met a guy who had got out of jail that day and had specifically driven up just to look at the view and remind himself that he needed to sort himself out and get back on course with his life. I hoenstly can't blame him because if there was any view to make you appreciate life...

The people are nice, the food is good, and there are a couple of nice pubs. All in all a brilliant destination!

This is one of the most beautiful cities I've been to in a while - it's also the fastest growing city in the country, and you can tell why! The river Ness runs through the centre of the city and overlooking it is Inverness castle (now the Sheriff's Office so no tours) and the city Cathedral. About five minutes walk along the Ness and you get to the Ness Islands, a small series of islands/parks which are really nice to wander around and sit and relax. I could probably spend a week there just enjoying the scenery!

Apparently Inverness has a reputation for being a s***hole, but I honestly have no idea why! Also, it's right next Loch Ness so well worth a visit!

Another lovely city, full of winding streets. I happened to be there during a german beer festival, so I spent most of my time there rather than seeing things! What I did see however was very nice and I'd quite like a full day there to see things.

It took two trips before I began to appreciate the beauty of Glasgow. Both were quite short visits, but all the same... It reminded me of London (and the guy I was with of Manchester). Still the food was nice and it did seem pretty lively at night, so I'd guess that it just probably wasn't what I was after.

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A rather nice little town between Edinburgh and Glasgow, this is well worth a wander for an hour or so. It's one of those places that brings 'picturesque' to mind. The people are really friendly and it's just generally nice to visit!

A really beautiful city full of beautiful old architecture and sweeping parks. The castle is well worth a visit (although a bit pricey) and I also recommend Camera Obscura as a museum for the techy's to visit (there's a hologram of a microscope and if you put your eye to where the viewer appears to be you can look down it!).

Also if you get the chance I recommend a walk down the dean gorge - it's only about 1 minutes walk from the town centre and you'll swear you're in the middle of the countryside. Absolutely gorgeous!

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