Umrah is among the most spiritually uplifting acts of worship. Believers call it the most transformative journey, offering a chance to seek Allah Almighty’s forgiveness and blessings. Anyone going for this spiritual retreat knows that it requires proper planning and preparation. Before you travel to Saudi Arabia for the pilgrimage, you must have a comprehensive…
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“It’s not yours India, hands off” – Don’t Stop Living. Who countrifies an ocean? Seriously! And the answer is INDIA.🇮🇳Nutheads. The only country in the world to countrify an ocean and claim it as theirs is INDIA – well it’s not yours. Hands off, India. I am renaming it The Africalasian Ocean to decountrify it…
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“Fly me down to capital city in the sun” – Noel Gallagher. Inspired by Nomadic Backpacker Trevor Warman’s post on capital cities he skip-packed on his journeys, here is a list of capital cities that escaped me to date (as of September 2024). For whatever reason, I have visited all these countries below but I…
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Here is a full list of My Printed Book Anthology By Jonny Blair (1980 – 2024) Backpacking Centurion Series – A Northern Irishman’s Journey Through 100 Countries My first book series is Backpacking Centurion which covers my journey from country 1 (Northern Ireland) to country 100 (Tunisia), from 1980 until 2015. This series of four…
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“Never go back you tell me, it’s the worst thing you can do, but I must go there till I find out where it is I’m going to” – Highly Likely. When it was arranged that Northern Ireland would play Romania away in a football friendly in 2024, I just had to go. It was…
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March 2024 saw me finally arrive in Gagauzia. My oh my what a journey! This is a fully autonomous republic in eastern Europe, which borders Moldova. I crossed the border by marshrutka from Chisinau in Moldova to Comrat in Gagauzia. Comrat is the capital city of Gagauzia and I toured the city’s top 12 sights.…
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“I follow the Moskva down to Gorky Park” – Scorpions. On a brave spring day in March 2024, I celebrated an odd moment of freedom here, actually on a glory day. 26th March 2024 to be exact. This was my day of freedom from the world and the disasters of the previous 10 years. And…
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“Shouting at the world you’ll never change. But it’s what’s inside, you’ve got to rearrange” – Andy Cairns. A 2014 Jonny Blair once shone his light on perky Moldova 🇲🇩. It was November 2014 when I first crossed by nighttrain into the extraordinary world of Moldova. Memories aplenty, and there did it all go wrong?…
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“Alone on the beach, on my own, out of reach and you just passed me by” – Noel Gallagher. Before this trip to Pakistan (my final Stan), I got my Pakistan visa online (not exactly an easy visa to secure) and arranged to fly into Lahore and out of Karachi. From Lahore, I’d also visit…
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“My tea’s gone cold, I’m wondering why” – STAN! (By Eminem Featuring Dido) Firstly this is no raconteur rhetoric, it’s just a reflection of a journey which took me 17 years from the first Stan (Stansted) to the last Stan (Pakistan). Yes, Iran-borderic Pakistan 🇵🇰 was the last of my FIFA ðŸŒðŸ†⚽️Stans when I finally…
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