The Norwegians have started their Christmas celebration with their fullest enjoyment. It`s very popular to take danskebåtene across the ocean from Norway to Denmark. Shop'o'hoi! For combining partying and shopping on tax free, the Norwegians go with the shiplines DFDS Seaways to Copenhagen, Color Line to Hirtshals, and Stena Line to Fredrikshavn.

Christmas is party time. For many Norwegians, celebrating Christmas is real rock`n roll, and the biggest rocker of them all is Santa Claus. Santa is the world's best traveller, but he is also the world's best dancer.

The bartender just brought me a huge whisky (November 2005). I am at '10 Downing Street', a pub on the second floor of a shopping mall in Pune, Maharashtra - India, the happening university city to the east of Bombay.

It's popular world wide for children to tell Santa what they would like for Christmas, but where do he live? Shall your wishlist be sent to the North Pole, the South Pole, Rovaniemi in Finland - Soumi, or to Savalen or Drobak, Drøbak in Norway, or somewhere else?

Eager tourists who would like to visit Santa Claus! The Santa Claus Air Plains to Rovaniemi, Lapland, in Soumi - Finland, has become a big business. Norwegian media report about heavy traffic in the air across Norway. 90 % of the tourists who across Norway on their way to Rovaniemi are British.

I was in Khajuraho, Madhya Pradesh, city of 1000-year-old temples adorned with all the erotic positions of the Kama Sutra. The temples were rediscovered by a British explorer in the early 19th century after languishing forgotten in the jungle for centuries, and now tourists flock here.

From 17th - 28th February next year you can enjoy hundreds of entertainment opportunities at the traditional Venice Carnival. It's a party with no barriers or borders, and it's arranged in one of the most amazing and famous historic city in the world. For more than 200 years, Venice has been a wonderful place for fancy-dress parties, jokes and sneers. And for over 20 years, Venice has been welcoming masqueraders, visitors and tourists who want to join the carnival and have fun in the late winter.

So this morning on Oct 8th (2005) I wake up and I notice my bed is moving. Weird, I check and it's moving alright. I think neighbours shagging, but the vibration is not coming from the wall so then I think large mammal under the bed. I jump up and shout 'what the fuck'. I get off bed, cross the room and look beneath gingerly, nothing there. After a few minutes it stops.....

The next year is the Peer Gynt Year. Then it`s hundred year after the famous Norwegian author Henrik Ibsen died. Announced in a press release on 14 October this year (2005), the Ministry of Culture and Church Affairs, informed that it has suggested for the National commitee to give 12,7 million Norwegian kroner extra in grant for celebrating Norway's big son. All together this Ministry intend to contribute with 19 million kroner. It`s also proposed to spend 8 millions kroner from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs` budget dedicated to the finale big show in Egypt.

The celebration will be marked with over 300 arrangements around the world. The finale arrangement will as mentioned be in Cairo, Egypt, at the Great Pyramid of Giza. The scene play will be accompanied by music from another famous Norwegian, Edvard Grieg. It will be dance, theatre and music based on Ibsen`s poem about the great adventurer Peer Gynt, inspired from a true person from Vinstra. As dramatically told about in the poem, Peer Gynt talks to the Sphinx in Cairo. It's a travel tale beyond all imaginations.

Ten o'clock Thursday night (20 October 2005), Kath my Aussie travelling companion has gone to bed. I walk toward the bridge over to Hanuman Ghat on Lake Pichola in Udaipur. This is the Venice of Rajasthan, an alluring, seductive city built by the Maharajas.

I am not ready for bed and I want some hard liquor to help me kill my cold. I wait for the first auto rickshaw to come along and I hail it.

In Iceland, not only the sun stays up late, but pub crawls start when punters in England are already being thrown on to the street after last orders.

The Reds goes marching in.....! Liverpool F. C. won the big soccer match against AC Milan in May, but were not guaranteed a place next time around. Finally UEFA changed its rules after a meeting of the executive commitee and Liverpool will play in the opening round of qualifiers. This is a really big day for the great football club Liverpool in England. They can make again!

The manager in Liverpool, Rafael Benitez basked in the glory of Liverpool's incredible Champions League triumph over AC Milan in Istanbul and insisted "we did if for the fans". I heard the fans where singing even the first half didn`t work as it was expected, but the big fans of Liverpool Football Club didn`t give up. Some of the greatest supporters ever are Lasse Roen (Røen), Ole Røen, Pål Møller and Andre Hope.

In addition to being the greatest football team in the world, Liverpool city can offer the big adventures of the Beatles, Albert Dock, Penny Lane, Strabbery Fields , Flanagans Apple Pub. Join a tpur to the Beatles homes, schools and venues of The Beatles.

The Reds fought back as the big heroes they are. The boss explains that they couldn't have done it without the help of the vociferous travelling Liverpudlians. This is without doubt my biggest night in football," said a beaming manager Benitez. It`s the biggest football events in world travel guide Travel Explorations ever, because Liverpool soccer team and the unique city, is the one of the greatest cities in the world. The people there are just the greatest.........

The festival goes on from 28th April to the 2nd of May 2005. The Spirit Of Speyside Whisky Festival is now in its seventh year and this year is going to be bigger and better than ever, according to the Festival Co-ordinator Wendy Clements.

- Where else on earth can one walk from the Eiffel Tower to the Luxor Pyramid in just one day?

- Where else can one experience the scenic canals of Venice and the architecture of Monte Carlo as they mingle with Elvis?

- Where else but Las Vegas can one experience the extremes of The "Sahara" desert and tropics of "Rio"....

Only in Vegas, baby....