Sean's European Extravaganza Spectacular

Rural China: Yangshuo and Dehang

2011-05-01T15:51:00.000-07:00

The trip from Guilin to Yangshuo proved to be the most scenic and relaxing way of travelling within China. We made our way to the Li River, backpacks and all, and climbed into a bamboo motorized raft. We drifted down the winding, lazy river for what seemed like ages, passing beautiful green covered karst peaks, waterfalls, and fishermen. Two hours and 65 kilometers later, we arrived near Yangshuo, where a little bus took us into town. The town of Yangshuo is smaller and cuter than Guilin. Though the real highlight, like Guilin, is the surrounding countryside. We spent the first evening exploring the town and eating delicious steamed buns filled with vegetables.

To properly enjoy the Yangshou countryside, Maren and I rented bikes the following day and set out along one of the tributaries of the Li River. We didn’t have much need for a map; we just followed dirt trails along rice fields, streams, and through tiny villages. The whole area is remarkably green and lush. Even the rivers appear green. Halfway through our ride we decided to cool off in one of them. We didn’t find a real swimming spot, just crossed through a field to the grassy edge of the water and jumped in. It really amazed me how people live in the tiny villages. Life seems to move so slowly for them. You can see on their faces they just don’t have the same concerns or sense of urgency as most Westerners or Chinese people from big cities.

On the ride back to Yangshou, we stopped at Moon Hill, a karst peak with a bizarre shaped rock formation on top. We left our bikes and hiked up the mountain, which is a couple hundred meters high. From the top, we had fantastic views of the entire greater Yangshuo area. Countless green karst peaks sprung up in all directions with tiny villages nestled in the valleys. We caught a great sunset over the Li River as we rode into town that evening.

The following day was a travel day. After relaxing in the morning for our last few hours in Yangshuo, we started a long and slow train ride north in the afternoon. We had to switch once in the evening, and finally reached the city of Jishou early the next morning, which was as close to our destination as trains go. We then found a bus to take us yet again into the rural Chinese countryside, this time to the tiny minority village of Dehang. Located in a nature reserve far from any large city, Dehang truly captured the perfect mix of authentic culture and beautiful scenery. The village was practically devoid of tourists and was quite quiet, even in the main square. We found a cute but rather run down guesthouse to stay in located right on the stream flowing through the town. Part of the building literally hung over the water.

We were quite hungry after the long train trip, so we ate a meal at our guesthouse. The lady running the place cooked us four different vegetable dishes. I can barely explain what they even were (Check out the picture I’ll be posting in Picasa) but they were all unique and delicious! The sour melon and minced red peppers were really unusual. It started raining during our meal and was absolutely pouring by the time we had finished. We put on some rain gear and set about exploring the town. There are several trails that lead out of the town through the nature reserve. The first one took us past waterfalls and stone bridges, along rice paddies and a cute family of ducklings.

The weather improved and we regrouped back in town with lunch and tea, only to set out again in the afternoon along another stone path. This one took us up another stream to the Nine Dragon Waterfalls. We turned off the main path, passed a miniature hut with a donation jar for some guy who apparently maintains the trail. The path was muddy, steep, and treacherous. We criss-crossed back and forth past rushing water, crossing crude wooden bridges and clambering along the jungle-like path. We eventually reached what appeared to be an impassible waterfall, though there was an unstable wooden ladder leading right against the waterfall itself. I made the rather poor decision to see what was beyond the top of the ladder. There were some steps cut into the rock which I could hardly see due to the rushing water. I climbed basically up through the waterfall itself, holding onto a steel cable which had been bolted into the rock in a few places. I got soaking wet and slipped several times, but managed to make it over the top of the falls to a ledge and a pool where I could see more waterfalls above. I made my way back to where Maren was waiting very, very slowly, gripping the steel cable for dear life. As adventurous as Maren is, I made certain she didn’t follow me on that path. :)

After the amazing Nine Dragons Waterfalls, we continued along the stone path until we reached the Liusha Waterfall, the tallest in China at 216 meters. The height of the falls was really impressive, though despite the recent rain, the volume of water was pretty low. There was a large green pool of water at the base of the falls with a couple of people swimming. Maren and I walked along a trail in a loop around the pool, so that we actually went behind the waterfall, which was really cool. There were four Chinese girls, obviously tourists, who took a liking to Maren and me. We all snapped a bunch of pictures together. One of the girls was so tiny that when she stood on a rock next to me for a picture, she was still only as tall as my neck. It was already dark as we walked back into town. Along the way back was an old lady selling tiny crabs and fish on sticks, fresh out of a hot pot of oil. We realized it was fresh seafood caught from the stream that runs through the town, and we ate them whole, shells and heads too, yum!

In Dehang, all of the ‘restaurants’ were really somebody’s home, and always only had one person working in them. Sometimes the family was eating together, but we were always the only guests because the town is so tiny. It was bizarre to see every one of the handful or so places to eat in town have the same exact menu which they give the tourists. The menu didn’t make much sense to us. But the funny part was that when we pointed to one of the choices, the menu didn’t seem to make any sense to the people cooking the food either! They stared at the Chinese characters and looked confused about what we were ordering. After getting back from the waterfalls, we found a place to eat on the main square. Instead of using the menu this time, for one of our dishes we pointed at some fish we saw, the same tiny whole fish we had tried earlier which came from the stream. We were served a huge plate full of whole deep fried fish, along with some veggies and a bunch of spices. One of the more interesting Chinese meals we tried. And it went very well with Chinese beer.

The next day was filled with more hiking around Dehang. Our first hike in the morning was a complete accident. We mixed up some signs we saw and ended up climbing a gigantic mountain just outside of town. We hiked up a steep path for quite a while before realizing it wasn’t where we intended to go. But Maren and I were both a bit curious (and maybe stubborn) and decided to see just where this trail through the forest went. We eventually got to a set of endless staircases taking us directly up a cliff. After what must have been a thousand stairs, we reached the top of the mountain. The path was so steep, that we were now looking nearly vertically down on Dehang from above! The views around were decent, but not worth the long painful hike.

We sorted ourselves out on the correct path in the afternoon. This was a beautiful scenic hike along a stream winding upwards through a valley. We passed tons of green rice paddies, pools perfect for swimming, and impressive waterfalls. Eventually the hike started getting steeper and we climbed hundreds (thousands!?) more steps up to our destination: the appropriately named Platform of Heavenly Questioning. This was a naturally formed flat stone ‘platform’ jutting out into the valley. The trail leads to the platform from behind, so you reach the platform with three sheer cliffs around you and an absolutely stunning view of the valley below. This climb was definitely worth it for the views and the amazing platform itself. We laid down on the rock for a long time and rested. On the way back, we jumped in a couple of pools to swim and cool off.

The hiking Maren and I did in Dehang was incredibly exciting and beautiful. Nearly every day we had spent in China up to this point involved hiking or biking, and we were rather exhausted. For our next stop in the country, we picked a spot with no natural beauty whatsoever. Xi’an is instead a cultural mecca in the middle of China. Only a 20 hour train ride away…

I’ve published a few more albums on my Picasa Web Albums page (http://picasaweb.google.com/SkiMania29). I finished the ones from Thailand and will hopefully be caught up to where my blog is soon!

Guilin, Dazhai, and Dragon's Backbone Rice Terraces

2011-01-17T14:02:00.000-08:00

The most overdue blog in the history of the world…

Guilin really is as beautiful as its reputation. The city itself is somewhat commercial and touristy, but as soon as you escape the center the scenery is fantastic. Maren and I spent our first day exploring the area on bikes. We rode in beautiful weather through green countryside passing karst peaks, farmers in rice paddies, and countless lakes and rivers. We spent the entire day on the bikes and got lost several times. We finally completed kind of a half loop around the entire greater Guilin area and made it back to our hostel. In the evening, we found a busy street lined with restaurants. Despite all the crowds, several Chinese people working at the restaurants came up to us to aggressively ‘convince’ us to pick their restaurant. We had no idea how to compare, but eventually settled on one and ordered a local specialty: chicken hot pot. The pot filled with random and unrecognizable pieces of a whole chicken finished cooking on the stove at the center of our table. I still am not sure why so many pieces had weird bones in them; the only piece I could identify was the feet which were not particularly tasty.

The following day we decided to check out the scenery a bit further from Guilin. We got our packs together and took two busses to reach the miniature minority village of Dazhai. Dazhai sits high in the mountains and is populated by perhaps a couple of hundred farmers. The rice terraces perched in the surrounding mountains are an incredible feat of engineering and give the area its name of Dragon’s Backbone. The village was actually used as a model by Mao for its agricultural techniques. At the other end of the Dragon’s Backbone is the larger and more touristed village of Ping’an, so Maren I decided to stay in Dazhai where we were virtually the only foreigners. The bus journey had taken longer than we expected, so we found a place to stay for the night and delayed our trek until the following morning. In the evening, we explored the village which is truly incredible. All the homes seem to double as guest houses and are very large. They are all wooden and have tons of red lamps hanging outside. There are rice terraces built into the sides of all the nearby hills, and we found several pathways leading up for some great views over the town as it got dark. For dinner, we ate some vegetable and rice dishes (of course), which included bamboo flavored steamed rice which was served inside a piece of bamboo.

We began our hike from Dazhai to Ping’an first thing in the morning. We started out on a stone step trail, but along the way it switched from rock to dirt to the edge of the rice paddies themselves! The path was hard to follow, but we asked locals along the way who helped guide us. We passed through half a dozen or so tiny villages, completely isolated and unspoiled. But the real highlight was the rice terraces. The terraces are built right into the side of the mountains, and complex irrigation systems ensure a steady flow of water reaches even the most distant paddies. The scale of the terraces and the way they wrap endlessly around ever y contour of the natural environment are what really make them so awe-inspiring. They also look quite different during each season of the year. We experienced them in the middle of the summer where the sun bounces off the water and the green shoots of rice are no more than half a meter above the waterline. The effect of the sun creates a golden image across hundreds and hundreds of terraces. It is easily one of the most beautiful scenes I have ever experienced. During our 5 hour hike, Maren and I took somewhere close to 700 pictures (!), yet they don’t even quite capture the grand feel of it all. In some sections, we literally walked in between rice terraces along the grassy dividers, a hundred meters above the villages in the valleys below. We passed a handful of locals working the fields and only a couple of backpackers. The entire hike was serene, peaceful, and beautiful.

We reached Ping'an late in the afternoon and weren’t sure whether we would be able to get back to Guilin the same day. After talking to a couple of locals, we figured out where to wait for a bus. The bus took us back to Dazhai where we had left our packs, but it was the last bus of the day. Once getting to Dazhai, the driver planned on turning right around. We used some complex negotiating (think hand signals) and jumped off the bus as soon as it stopped. We literally ran 500 meters or so through the village to grab our bags from our guesthouse, then turned around and sprinted towards the bus. Fortunately, the driver seemed to have understood us as he was still there, waiting patiently. We made it back to Guilin in the evening to stay at the same hostel as a couple days earlier.

Our next adventure began the next morning on wooden raft travelling 65 kilometers down the Li River to Yangshuo. Stay tuned! I promise the next blog won’t take nearly as long as this one did! Pictures coming as well.

Hong Kong, Macau, and Guangzhou

2010-09-18T15:46:00.000-07:00

After our flight landed in Hong Kong, Maren and I took a bus straight to the downtown neighborhood of Kowloon, which is on the mainland as opposed to Hong Kong Island just across the water. My first impression of the city was that it is a cross between Singapore and Las Vegas. It is modern and efficient, yet wild and fun. There is a constant sensory overloading stream of advertising, ranging from flashing neon signs to screaming people. There are people everywhere at all hours of the day, and they seemed mostly friendly. We stayed in a gigantic old building called the ‘Chungking Mansion’ on the main road through Kowloon, right in the center of the action. There are several so-called ‘mansions’ in the area, which are basically 20+ story run-down apartment-style buildings divided into several sections filled with businesses, cheap guest houses, tiny shops and restaurants. We found a miniature room in a guesthouse on the 6^th floor with its own bathroom for a very cheap price. There was hardly even room for us to lay our backpacks down, but we didn’t mind for the price and the location.

We spent most of our first full day in Hong Kong searching for a guide book to China. It was surprisingly difficult to find a used book store, and we didn’t want to pay for a brand new book. We finally searched through all the guest houses in our mansion. Several places had books they didn’t want to sell, but we finally found a hostel with the newest copy of the Lonely Planet book. We asked the guy if he would sell it to us, and he just said, ‘You can have it.’ We sure felt lucky and saved a lot of money! Later in the evening, Maren stayed in while I took a ferry across Victoria Harbor to Hong Kong Island. The skyline at night is truly incredible. There is also a nightly light show where most of the major buildings on the island turn on colorful, flashing lights. Once on Hong Kong Island, I wandered around until I found the Mid-Level Escalators, the longest set of escalators in the world. They are outdoors, and take you nearly halfway up the peak at the center of the island. Along the way, I passed through a few different neighborhoods and tons of bars, restaurants, and shops. By the time I arrived at the top, I was surrounded by luxury apartments and Western businessmen. There is an amazing diversity of people in Hong Kong, particularly in terms of class, culture, and clothing.

Maren and I took the ten minute ferry to Hong Kong Island the following day. We walked between the high rises and took the elevator up the Bank of China building to the observation deck. After the views across the harbor and the city, we took the famous peak cable car up to the island’s high point. I was surprised to discover that most of Hong Kong, including the peak, is covered in rainforest. It is quite easy to escape the crowded city and find yourself alone on a trail in the forest. From the top, we walked along a cool trail that wraps around the entire peak. The sky was gray, but the weather hung on to give us great views across the sea to Hong Kong’s numerous tiny islands, many of them uninhabited.

The rain arrived that evening, and we bought an umbrella for about 3 euros. We walked to a nearby street night market, which wasn’t very crowded due to the weather. We drank fruit shakes and perused the stalls filled with fake brand name stuff. It was easy to find a bar later on showing the World Cup, but only the England game, not the U.S. match. We watched the later German game in the middle of the night with a crowd of people while standing on a sidewalk outside a bar.

I was really looking forward to the food in Hong Kong, which was for the most part good and cheap. We mainly ate at little hole in the wall restaurants with no tourists. The food was not quite as diverse as I had expected though. We only seemed to find meat choices to go along with noodles, rice, or soup. They rarely added many vegetables, and we never found any vegetable dishes on the menu. One highlight was some authentic dim sum, which we tried at a nice restaurant in Kowloon.

We left Hong Kong by ferry in the morning, destination Macau. Macau is a former Portuguese colony about an hour’s ferry ride away. Like Hong Kong, the island has special economic status, which has helped turn it into a gambling mecca even larger than Vegas! We didn’t want to spend too much time there, so we decided to make it a day trip. We organized a bus ride for the evening and dropped off our packs. We walked through the downtown area and checked out a couple of casinos, with the first being the Wynn. I couldn’t believe how similar it is to the original Vegas version; in fact they are basically identical! Several of the big Vegas hotels have built carbon copies of themselves in Macau in the last five years. I attempted to try and play in the poker game going on at the Wynn, but the line for the low-limit games was way too long. We also checked out one of the older ‘classic’ casinos. It looked like it was designed in the 80s and the decorations were mostly cheesy and over-the-top.

We next walked through the pedestrian only streets filled with cool Portuguese-architecture buildings in various bright colors. We followed the road to the ruins of a very old Catholic church. Only the front façade and the steps up to it remain, which is a bizarre sight. Our last stop was the food and candy neighborhood, filled with shops and free samples. We tried dried meats, egg custard tarts, and peanut brittle candy. I had to fight the crowds of Chinese people to buy some candy, which seemed to be an incredibly popular souvenir. We made it to our bus in the evening and took it to the border, where we thankfully didn’t have any problems with our Chinese visas.

Our bus arrived in Guangzhou very late at night. I am embarrassed to say I had never heard of this city before coming to China, despite its having over 10 million people and being the 3^rd largest city in the country! But that is because I had only heard of it by its old Westernized name ‘Canton.’ Guangzhou is the capital of all things Cantonese, the most noticeable to us being the language and the food. After hopping off the bus, we walked through the rainy night along the Pearl River. After a few kilometers, we reached a tiny island where the river forks, and found our hostel. In the morning, the weather was still dreary, but we grabbed our umbrella and hit the sights anyway. After walking around our island and the river area, we found a metro stop and took the surprisingly modern and efficient metro north to one of the main train stations. There, we bought tickets and dropped off our packs. Our next stop was the Mausoleum of the Nanyue King. This was the tomb of an important king in the Nanyue kingdom, over 2000 years old, yet it was discovered only in the 1980s by accident. The museum and mausoleum were impressive; we saw the burial site along with tons of relics and artifacts found in the tomb. The highlight was the actual burial ‘suit’ of the king, made of thousands of little jade pieces.

After the museum stop, we walked through the nearby neighborhood and found a local restaurant to eat at. We found a place that had pictures of the dishes on the wall, because like many restaurants we found in China, there was neither an English menu nor English speaking people. The meal turned out to be one of the best of our entire trip. We got three huge plates of fresh vegetables cooked in different sauces and noodles. It was delicious and enough food for the whole day, plus it all cost less than 3 euros. We also found a bakery with strange looking sweets and got a few to try out later. We then walked to a small lake set in a nice park. The path around the lake felt like walking in the jungle. There was a hotel that looks like a palace which was built basically on the lake itself. The park was a nice and peaceful getaway from the frenetic industrial port city. We had a nice leisurely walk around and then made our way back to the train station. The stop in Guangzhou was quick because both of us wanted as much time as possible in China’s countryside and small villages. Which is why we then took an overnight train west to Guilin, in one of the most beautiful areas of China.

There is one thing I forgot to mention in previous blogs. While in Thailand I received news that my bank had put a hold on my debit card due to some unauthorized activity on my account (which I later found out came from Texas… bizarre). Upon losing Maren’s wallet, neither of us had a working debit or credit card. The rest of the trip was cash-only, which proved to be challenging at times. It was nearly impossible to make any kind of reservation!

Kuala Lumpur and Singapore

2010-09-11T01:02:00.000-07:00

We arrived in KL in the very early morning and searched out a hostel in Chinatown, the backpacker heart of the city. We got lost with a group of other backpackers from our bus and overshot Chinatown. The others took a taxi back while Maren and I backtracked. The place we found put us up for free in a dorm room to sleep for a few hours. We caught up on our bus-induced sleep deprivation and moved into our room. KL is an interesting and unique city, though not necessarily for a backpacker. It is very modern and commercial, but there is not much more than a day or two worth of tourist sights. In fact, the food is a bigger reason to visit the city than just about any other attraction. We first visited the huge national mosque. Malaysia is an Islamic country, though not in the Middle Eastern style. Here, there seems to be much more tolerance and less fundamentalism. The mosque even had English pamphlets with titles like ‘So do Muslims really have to pray 5 times a day?’ and ‘How to convert to Islam: It’s easier than applying for a visa!’ Maren did have to wear special clothing to enter the mosque. But instead of just giving her a head covering, they gave her a head-to-toe purple cape. She looked hilarious!

We next visited a gigantic park. KL has lots of parks filled with rainforest to escape the surrounding urban metropolis. This one had a nice lake with fountains and a deer park, both regular deer and mouse deer. Our hostel hosted a free rooftop barbeque in the evening. It was filled with delicious Malaysian food and we ate till we were completely full. There was a huge variety of noodle and rice dishes along with barbequed meat. We stayed on the roof with the other backpackers to watch the World Cup afterwards. In the morning, we woke up early to get to the city’s famous twin towers with the connecting bridge/viewing platform. We arrived fairly early, but not soon enough to book a trip up the towers. They reached the maximum number of entries per day just as we arrived. Instead, we walked through a cool park in the jungle right in the city center to another very tall building. This was a communications tower with an observation deck much higher and with better views than the twin towers. The walk through the jungle was fun as we saw and heard a troop of monkeys. The views from the tower showed every side of KL.

We left KL in the afternoon by bus and arrived in Singapore later in the evening. As soon as we reached Singapore, I could tell the city was far more modern and advanced than anywhere we had seen in SE Asia. The border had a massive building with thousands of people shuffling through customs when we arrived. We found the only cheap hostel in town later in the evening. Prices in Singapore are nearly comparable to large cities in other first-world countries. The city is clean and orderly as I had expected, but I never noticed any strict laws or ‘police state’ type rules that I had heard about. The city is also covered in numerous rivers and canals. The weather was warm and humid, but not as hot as Thailand.

We spent our first full day walking through the city. We visited two temples, one Hindu and one Buddhist, both with phenomenal designs. The Buddhist temple actually had an elevator which reached several floors, including a small museum and an outdoor rooftop garden. We continued on to yet another well-decorated Buddhist temple before making our way toward the water. We walked through the financial district where the ultra-modern skyscrapers made us forget we were even in SE Asia. After a statue of a bizarre water-shooting beast, we circled back toward our hostel. We stopped at a dessert restaurant, which are very popular in Singapore. We tried a few strange desserts, including grass jelly and peanut paste. Many of the popular desserts and drinks that seem like they should be sweet are in fact not sweet at all. It is very strange that none of the different flavors are emphasized with any sugar.

We returned after our long day of walking back at the hostel, when I noticed something horrible. Maren’s wallet, which I had been carrying with me in the bottom pocket of my cargo shorts, was missing! The bottom of the pocket had a huge hole ripped across it which revealed what had happened. My cheap shorts had failed in the worst possible way. We spent the next two days in Singapore attempting to track down the missing wallet. We retraced all of our steps for the entire walk we had gone on. We talked to people working at every place we had stopped. We filed a police report and followed up at two different police stations (on a side note, it was strangely difficult to find a police station). The wallet had Maren’s debit and credit cards, which were the only sources we had been getting cash from. It also had her ID, driver’s license, etc., but the most immediate concern for us was getting money for the rest of our trip.

We both recognized the irony that I was able to get my lost camera back from the seemingly dishonest rickshaw drivers of Delhi yet couldn’t get a lost wallet back from the honest and law-abiding Singaporeans. We were getting desperate, but fortunately Maren’s father (the ‘Packrat’ :) ) stepped in to the rescue. He has a friend who lives in Singapore who we were able to contact. We met up with him and received a supply of cash to last us the next few weeks through China. Lucky! Unfortunately we didn’t hear any positive information from the police by the time of our scheduled flight to Hong Kong. We left Singapore very disappointed about the wallet, but we had money and passports, which is all we needed to continue on. After a quick ride on the metro and a short flight across the water, we landed mid-morning in Hong Kong.

Koh Samui, Railay, and Phi Phi

2010-08-25T06:45:00.000-07:00

The next ferry took us to Koh Samui, the most famous and (over)developed of the islands. With good reason, however, the beaches are incredibly beautiful. The sand is perfect and just stretches on and on. We were lucky to find an amazing bungalow in a perfect location at the same cheap price we had been paying. Our bungalow, on the gorgeous beach of Lamai, was a tiny but cute A-frame and was literally on the sand itself. For the next two days, we never left the beach. We swam and relaxed, drank fruit shakes and whole coconuts. I went for a run on the beach in the morning, from one end of Lamai to the other. In the afternoon, Maren and I both got Thai massages at a little hut next door to our bungalow. 200 baht (5 euros) for an hour long massage and well worth every cent! A Thai massage is a unique experience that involves some stretching and sometimes painful pressure. But overall it felt fantastic and relaxing. In the evening, it started raining, the first we had seen in Thailand. It rained very hard but didn’t last long as we watched the World Cup from a bar next to the beach.

Both Maren and I could have used a couple of more days on Koh Samui. We were lucky to have found such a perfect place to stay and relax without huge crowds of people. But it was time to move on to the other side of Thailand. We took a ferry back to the mainland, and then a bus across the peninsula. We ended up in Krabi, a port town that is the gateway to a few beach destinations along a peninsula. We arrived fairly late in the evening, and decided to stay the night in Krabi before continuing. We found a decent hostel and went to a night market next to the harbor for a late dinner. We had the cheapest food and drinks of our whole Thailand experience. Delicious fried noodles with fresh seafood and vegetables plus a beer for under a euro!

The following morning, we went down to the pier and negotiated with a boatman to take a longtail boat to Railay Beach, about an hour away. Railay is famous worldwide for its rock climbing. There are incredible limestone peaks and cliffs on both ends of two beaches running parallel to each other. In the middle is jungle with paths running between the beaches. The tide moved the waves in and out by nearly 500 meters! We arrived at high tide, but in the morning people had to trek (or get a tractor ride) through muddy tide pools just to get to a boat to leave. Again we found cheap and amazing accommodation: we stayed in a wooden bungalow that felt like a condo in a jungle setting right next to the beach. We spent the first afternoon just exploring the area. Railay is a very small place, and it only takes a few minutes to walk between the two beaches. There was an amazing lightning storm late in the evening which we watched from the beach. It was far away but lit up the clouds for hours.

I decided to go rock climbing the next day. It wasn’t cheap, but I wanted to check out why Railay is so famous for climbing, and those rugged limestone cliffs looked pretty inviting. Maren is not a big fan of heights, or at least of voluntarily climbing up cliffs. She walked through the jungle to spend the day on Railay’s ‘third beach.’ I went with my Rasta-looking climbing instructor to a popular area of cliffs at the end of our beach. There were about 8 other climbers around, with dozens of different routes up the wall. I first went over the basics with my instructor as it had been nearly ten years since I last climbed. In the following couple of hours, I did 5 different climbs. The second and third were my favorites. The second because it took me 25 meters high and had incredible views over the bay and the beaches. The third because it was the most difficult and I barely managed to do it without falling. By the 5^th climb, my forearms were completely useless; I could barely hold my own body weight with both hands! I called it a day and met Maren over at the beach. We walked through the water to a tiny island, then over some rocks to the secluded tip of the Railay peninsula. There were bizarre and beautiful limestone cliffs and stalactites and caves all around.

The final stop in Thailand was Koh Phi Phi (pronounced ‘pee-pee’). From the beach at Railay, a longtail boat took us out into the bay, where we transferred to a ferry to Phi Phi. It was raining during the trip, but our good luck with the weather continued. We arrived at Phi Phi with blue skies. The first view of the island is similar to the islands off the east coast. But soon after walking through the town, we realized Phi Phi is quite different. There is only one real town, though it is fairly big. There is also not much need to explore the island as everything is close by, particularly the best beaches. Phi Phi has a very interesting shape that, like the Railay peninsula, produces two beaches right next to each other facing opposite directions. Unlike the rugged beauty of Railay, however, Phi Phi is just a pure picture postcard beauty. The beaches are just flawless. We heard from various people, including our guidebook, that Phi Phi is quite expensive, especially for accommodation. Fortunately, this was not true at all. We managed to find a nice secluded bungalow right in the center, just a one minute walk to the beach. The price was becoming a broken record: 6 places in a row were each just 300 baht a night.

Our first mission on Phi Phi was to head straight to the beach. It was crowded, much more so than any other place we had been in Thailand. I felt as if we had suddenly left the low season and entered the high season. It wasn’t any trouble finding a spot on the beach though. After recovering from the sun-drenching, we walked up a path at the edge of town. It took us up a hill to a couple of lookout points, the highest of which had a perfect view over the island. Afterwards we went for a Thai massage right next to our bungalow. In the evening, we found countless restaurants and bars, all seemingly packed. Phi Phi seems to be a magnet for backpackers, many people seem to stay much longer than they had planned. Some of them work at the bars, get free accommodation, and party every night. We checked out the beach bar scene at night. There were fire shows, dance parties, and buckets and buckets of booze. Phi Phi is definitely a place to drink and party a few days of your life away.

We rented a kayak the following day to enjoy the perfect weather. We left right from the main beach and paddled out of the bay and just around the corner. We reached a beach called Monkey Beach, though we didn’t see any monkeys there. The only people there were leaving just as we arrived, so we had a 100 meter long stretch of sand all to ourselves. The beach had some of the most amazing sand I have ever seen, or should I say, felt. It was wet and soft and we just sunk right into it. After an hour of playing around in the water and sand on our own personal slice of paradise, we paddled back to the main beach. In the evening, we finished off our Phi Phi experience with yet another Thai massage;) We awoke in the morning to heavy rain, which was fine by us as it was to be a travel day. I put on the poncho my mom had given me just in case (thanks mom!) and we made our way to the pier.

Maren and I decided to try and save some money and make our own way to Malaysia, instead of buying an expensive bus and boat combo ticket. We first took a ferry back to Krabi, followed by a shared taxi to the bus station, and a cheap bus ride across the Thai peninsula to Hat Yai. From there, we asked for any bus to Malaysia, but got rejected by everyone we asked. There didn’t seem to be any ‘normal’ busses heading across the border, which seemed very strange. We finally gave up and bought a ticket from a travel agent to take one of the tourist busses. I still have no idea how the locals make the trip. We still managed to get to Malaysia at way under budget compared to the expensive package price, but unfortunately it was getting late. Our bus left in the evening, and we thought we would arrive in a town called Butterworth late at night. Butterworth is where we had planned to get off to take a short ferry to Pulau Pinang. Once on the bus, however, they told us we wouldn’t arrive until past 1 in the morning, when the ferry wasn’t running. So we had to scrap our plans mid-bus ride and turned our trip into an overnighter all the way to Kuala Lumpur, the bus’ final destination. Next up: KL and Singapore.

Bangkok and Island Paradise

2010-07-19T23:06:00.000-07:00

Hi everyone, sorry for the lack of updates! Maren and I have safely arrived in Seattle! We spent the last 3 weeks in China, where Blogger (and Facebook) are banned. So I was able to write my blog but unable to post it. I will post blogs over the next week or two to update the last 6 weeks of travels. And we are both working on sorting through many pictures which are going up on Picasa (http://picasaweb.google.com/SkiMania29) Let's start where I left off, in Thailand:

The first thing both Maren and I noticed upon arriving in Bangkok was that we were being completely ignored. What a relief after India! No one was staring at us, and only a handful of touts wasted their time bothering us. There weren’t a large number of tourists in Bangkok due to the recent violence in the city. We saw no sign of unrest during our stay, though I did make a conscious decision not to wear a red shirt. After navigating the public transit, we made our way to the most popular backpacker area of the city along Koh San Road. In the afternoon, we hopped on a tuk tuk, which is pretty similar to the autorickshaws of India, just a bit bigger and generally in much better condition. Our tuk tuk driver drove us around to a couple of sights in the city, waiting for us at each one. Normally we wouldn’t be interested in this type of ‘tour,’ but the price was too good to pass up. The driver was offering some sort of ‘government special’ for tourists for one day. The price was 10 baht (about 25 cents) for both of us, as many sights as we could see in a couple of hours. The only catch was a required stop at ‘tourist information’ which was really a travel agent where the driver collected a commission. We stayed for about 2 minutes. We wandered through several temples and saw a giant golden Buddha statue. We next visited a temple perched high on a hill with great views of the city. Later on I tried my first authentic ‘phad thai’ (famous noodle dish) from a street vendor. For 50 cents it was everything I had hoped for. We finished off the evening with a couple of beers along Koh San Road.

The next day, we exchanged our Lonely Planet India book for Lonely Planet SE Asia. We did some quick research and took a bus out to the train station where we made our travel plans for later. We then took a walk through the city until we reached the main river which divides Bangkok in half. It was fairly easy to hop onto a small passenger ferry at one of the many piers. The views of the city along the river are unique. We passed lots of small boats, temples, giant office towers, and old wooden homes hanging out on stilts over the water. We stopped at Wat Arun, the Temple of Dawn on the opposite side of the river. The architecture of the main temple, the design and shape, along with the four smaller pillars at each corner, make for an extremely impressive sight. We walked around the temple and through the green surroundings. Unfortunately we couldn’t go inside the temple; we hadn’t remembered reading that there was a dress code and they didn’t like our shorts nor our flip flops. After taking a boat back across the river, we walked to Wat Pho, a massive temple complex. It is filled with a number of small Buddhist temples, lots of Thai architecture, and the highlight: a giant golden statue of the reclining Buddha. It is kind of funny to see a statue of a person lying down, but that is one of a few popular poses of Buddha (sitting cross legged is another common one). The complex was also filled with tons of other statues and relics. As we continued our walk back, we stopped in a market for some delicious and fresh Thai food.

In the evening, we got on a bus heading south. We booked a bus-and-boat combo ticket and joined a gang of other backpackers all headed for the south of Thailand. I am sure there is plenty to see in the rest of Thailand, but Maren and I wanted to spend as much time as possible on the beach ;) Our bus left at a very inconvenient time, which meant we arrived in the port city of Chumphon in the north of the southern peninsula very late at night (more like early in the morning). All of the backpackers had to attempt to sleep on the floor of a room by the pier. We were woken up as it became light out and walked onto our ferry, arriving a couple of hours later at Koh Tao. Off the east coast of Thailand there are three main islands. Each has its own atmosphere and activities, so we decided to see all three, going from north to south, beginning with Koh Tao. Koh Tao is by far the smallest and least touristy of the three islands. It has become famous in the last ten years for diving, and that is certainly the thing to do. Koh Tao is not known for having beautiful beaches, but we quickly learned a funny thing about Thailand: even a ‘bad’ beach can still be pretty damn good! After one failed attempt at a guesthouse our guide book had recommended (out of our price range), we ending up staying at a quirky little guesthouse in a great location, just a one minute walk from a sandy beach. The price for a double was 300 baht (about 7.5 euros) which, ironically, was the exact same price we ending up paying at every place we stayed at during our whole time in Thailand. Koh Tao, like other islands in Thailand, is incredibly green and beautiful. There are wooden bungalows, round rock formations, sandy beaches, palm trees, and tropical weather. In a nutshell, it is paradise!

We spent our first day on Koh Tao doing practically nothing except the beach. We walked the length of the sand near our guesthouse and across some rocks to the island’s main beach. The rest of the evening was swimming, relaxing, drinking fresh fruit shakes, and eating yummy Thai food on the beach. It was a great feeling to stay in one spot and relax for the whole day. We rented a motorbike the following day to explore the island. Though Koh Tao is quite small, it is rather hilly, so a bike is necessary to get to the center or to the smaller beaches. This was my first time ever driving a motorcycle (or dirtbike, scooter, etc.) and it took a little while to get used to. Once I did, Maren hopped on the back and away we went. Some of the hills were quite steep, and the underpowered motorbike couldn’t handle both of us. We slowed to a crawl while I revved the engine, then Maren had to hop off the back and walk just before the bike would have come to a complete stop. We first went to a pretty beach on the south end of the island. It was mostly empty except for a couple of guesthouses. The wooden bungalows perched on rocky outcrops right on the water looked like a peaceful way to relax for a week or two. There are only a handful of decent paved roads on Koh Tao, the rest are dirt and rock and some can be pretty bad. On our way to one of the beaches on the far side of the island, we had our first (but only!) crash. It wasn’t too bad considering we were only going about 3km/h up a steep, rocky hill. The tire slid into a rut and I didn’t get my foot out in time before we basically just fell over sideways. Unfortunately we landed on a rock which cut a pretty good gash in my left leg. Maren also got an injury on her leg, though it was from the hot exhaust pipe of the bike searing her skin. We dusted ourselves off and decided to forget that hill. Later on, we made our way into the center of the island. I was driving extremely carefully at this point, and when the road started to get bad, we parked the bike. The walk through the jungle wasn’t too much further to reach one of the highest points on the island. There were fantastic views of the hilly green landscape and the tiny villages along the beaches.

We returned the motorbike the next morning before our planned snorkeling trip and were faced with an unwelcome surprise. Neither Maren nor I had noticed any damage to the bike despite our fall. It seemed so harmless we had hardly considered it. But the bike shop noticed the side of the plastic piece where you rest your foot was a little bit scuffed. I am certain they later just sanded it smooth in about 10 seconds, but they ended up charging us for a replacement piece. It was an agonizing negotiation, especially considering the language barrier, but we finally paid them the incredibly overpriced ‘replacement fee’ of 1300 baht (a little over 30 euros). It was frustrating because that amount of money goes a long way in Thailand when you are on our type of budget. But there wasn’t a whole lot we could do except try to lower their fee, considering they held my passport as a deposit. Luckily, our depression didn’t last long. Our snorkeling trip was fantastic! We got our gear sorted, and then went out on a boat with a small group to 5 different dive spots all around the island. There was quite a bit to see, some interesting coral and types of fish I never knew existed. At one dive, I swam through the largest school of fish I have ever seen. There were thousands upon thousands of them, all moving in unison, dividing as I swam back and forth through them. We ate lunch on the boat and later stopped at a private island. We relaxed on the beach until we got too hot, then we swam through some coral known as the ‘Japanese Garden’ due to the bizarre white color and flower shape. I would have liked to have gone scuba diving, but the prices on Koh Tao if you aren’t certified are pretty high. Snorkeling got us much more to see and the full day trip was only 500 baht each (12 euros).

In the evening, we booked our ferry trip to the next island to the south, and did some shopping in town. The shopping, food, and drinks are all very cheap on the islands, despite them being tourist hotspots. We also continued to feed our new addiction to fruit shakes, which usually only cost between 50 cents and 1 euro and are unbelievably fresh and delicious! In the morning, our ship set sail. Less than two hours later, we arrived on the hippie, beach-party island of Koh Phangan. The island is famous for its full-moon parties, though we didn’t plan our trip using a lunar calendar and therefore completely missed it. We also somehow missed the black moon and half moon parties as well. Because of that, we were on the island during the lowest of the low season, it was nearly deserted! We decided to stay on the ‘full moon beach’ anyway to check it out. The beach supposedly fills up with as many as 15,000 people during the full moon, but it was also cool to experience it the way we did. Most of the people in the area either hadn’t planned around the moon, like us, or they were the permanent expat types. It is easy to see why the island has become an enclave for hippies. The beaches are beautiful, the villages aren’t overdeveloped, and the attitude everywhere is extremely relaxed.

We followed our first day of relaxing and swimming with exploring the island the following day. We rented a motorbike and rode to the eastern side of the island towards a waterfall we had read about. The area was thick jungle; we parked the bike and found the small river. Then we started trekking upstream to find the famous waterfall that had been visited by Thai kings for centuries. There was no obvious trail, so we hiked through the jungle and crisscrossed the river over rocks. We passed several small waterfalls and even found a few inscriptions on rocks written by Thai kings, but the main waterfall we were looking for turned out to be little more than a trickle. We drove our motorbike down to the end of the stream, where there was a nice secluded beach to rest on for the afternoon. We drove back as it was getting dark, stopping for some petrol along the way to make sure we didn’t get stranded. The Full Moon Beach was still pretty empty in the evening, but we drank beer on the beach anyways, and had a cocktail at the one beach bar with a small crowd.

We returned the motorbike in the morning before our ferry left, only to get completely scammed again by the bike shop. I had driven very carefully, never crashed, and we were both certain we had not caused any damage whatsoever to the bike. But the guy, who had seemed friendly the day before, now looked for any possible minor damage he could get us for. He found a few nicks on the underside of the bike and demanded 3000 baht! It was déjà vu, and we hardly argued with him for 5 minutes before agreeing that I would go to the police while Maren waited. I came back an hour later with two sympathetic cops who believed my story. Unfortunately, it was basically this guy’s word versus our word, and the cops insisted we pay something to resolve the situation. After a very long debacle, we walked away with 1000 baht less in our pockets. We agreed to never rent a motorbike ever again in our lives without taking pictures of the bike first. Fortunately, there was another quick cure for the depression caused by overpaying for two motorbikes in a row: Koh Samui.

Agra, Varanasi, and Bodhgaya

2010-06-21T11:19:00.000-07:00

After taking a rickshaw from Agra’s train station to the main backpacker area of town around the Taj Mahal, we found a nice guesthouse to stay at. It was in a quiet garden setting despite being right next to the most visited attraction in India. Not long after we settled in, I looked for my camera and a horrible feeling set in. I searched and searched, but I couldn’t find it anywhere. I began to think it might have fallen out of the pocket of my Indian pants, which was starting to tear. The only place I could imagine having lost it was in the rickshaw, which meant there was practically no chance of getting it back. Maren and I both thought it would be nearly impossible to ever again find our rickshaw driver (there are an infinite number of them), and even if we did, the chance that he would have found my camera and would give it back to me was even less. I was completely demoralized that the likelihood of ever seeing my camera again was pretty slim. It was even more frustrating that we only had a narrow window of time to get to the Taj Mahal before it closed in the evening. It was Thursday afternoon and the Taj is closed on Fridays, so we couldn’t wait for the next day. Nevertheless, considering the value of the camera, I thought it would be worth trying to find the rickshaw driver and see if he had it.

We found another rickshaw to take us back to the train station to retrace our steps. Once there, we went to the same place we had gotten our original rickshaw and were mobbed by drivers asking where we were going as usual. We split up and tried to pick through all the faces, which wasn’t easy. But after only 5 minutes or so I turned and saw our driver! I wasn’t totally sure at first, but when he saw me, I noticed a flash of recognition. I pulled him aside and he said ‘Iknow, I know.’ I was excited and frantic as I kept asking him if he had my camera, but the only words he would say were ‘I know, I know.’ Finally he walked me to his rickshaw and pulled out my camera! I felt such a massive sense of relief I thought I might faint! This tiny old Indian man had just saved this part of our Indian trip from being a total disaster. He of course demanded a large sum of money for returning my camera. I already had the camera in my hands, so I could have just said thanks and walked away. I tried to negotiate a fair amount instead, but Maren finally convinced me to just be grateful and pay the amount he asked, which I did after he drove us back to the Taj Mahal. Considering the guy could have just taken the camera for himself, I certainly was grateful, and paying him ten times the normal fare definitely made his day.

We walked up to the entrance of the Taj Mahal still with a sense of disbelief that we had gotten my camera back. It was especially ironic that this had happened just before we went to see the most photographed sight in India. There are three entrances to the Taj which all lead to a large and beautiful garden ringed by red sandstone walls. As we walked through the gate of the fort-like building leading to the Taj, the giant white domes appeared before us. The very first thing we noticed is how big the Taj Mahal is! It is something I had never considered from seeing photographs. The gardens and fountains between the main gate and the Taj are gorgeous and immaculate. They are also in perfect symmetry, as is the Taj and all the other buildings in the complex. The gardens and fountains make a perfect foreground for amazing pictures of the Taj. There are several other impressive red sandstone buildings on either side of the gardens, including two large mosques on either side of the Taj itself.

You have to take your shoes off to walk up the stairs to the Taj and the two mosques. The temperature was still in the low to mid-40s this evening, which meant the stone tiles were very hot. We had to practically run to the shade inside one of the mosques, and then had to tiptoe around the back of the Taj above the river in order to see it from all angles. Finally we walked up the stairs to the giant white marble pedestal to the most beautiful building in the world. The massive onion-shaped domes really tower over you. When you get close enough, the craftwork and design of the marble itself is incredible. Inside the Taj, the marble is just as beautiful and intricate. There are only two tombs inside, one for the maharaja who built the Taj and the other for the wife he built it for. We walked through the forested section of the gardens on our way out where there were hardly any other tourists.

As I mentioned, our guesthouse was situated right next to one of the entrances to the Taj. This area of Agra was originally built to house the 20,000 workers the maharaja brought in to build the Taj. Now it is filled with guesthouses, restaurants, and tourist shops. Fortunately a few of the guesthouses have rooftop restaurants with nearly unobstructed views of the Taj Mahal. We picked one for dinner and another one for breakfast the next morning. That night, however, was the worst of all our nights in India. As I wrote in my last blog, we were drinking tons of water all day long. We usually bought two or three 1.5 liter bottles at a time. When we went to sleep that night, we somehow miscalculated how much we had. One thing I haven’t mentioned so far about India is the power outages. Nearly every place we visited has regular power outages. They usually affect different sections of the city at different times. Sometimes they last a couple of seconds, other times twenty minutes, and occasionally even longer. Despite the insane heat which was now pushing close to 50 degrees in the middle of the day, neither Maren nor I wanted to pay double the price for rooms with air conditioning. Therefore we were relying on a single overhead fan. The location of our room in this particular guesthouse in Agra made the room, despite the fan, hotter than any other place we had stayed.

I woke up in the middle of this particular night to the sound of the fan clicking off, which had become familiar due to the power outages. I discovered I was lying in a huge pool of my own sweat, with more sweat literally running down my skin all over my body. Maren and I drank what was left of our water supply, then began to get very nervous. I decided to go wake up the reception and buy some water, but the guy told me some nonsense about the water being in the restaurant and he didn’t have the key. No shops were open at this time, so I returned to the room to suffer. The next few hours were miserable. The power did not come back on. Neither of us could sleep. We were both becoming very dehydrated very quickly. Finally we went to our last resort: tap water. We each drank just enough to make it through the night and hopefully not get sick. We finally left the room at about 5:30 and miraculously found a shop that was just opening. The bottles of water we each drank next were the most refreshing of our lives. When the fan finally clicked on, my sheets were so soaked with sweat that the air from the fan completely chilled them and I actually became cold!

The next day in Agra we spent at the other impressive building in town: Agra Fort. The walk there was mostly through a peaceful park. It also passed a temple and some ghats on the riverbank. We had read that one of them was a ‘burning ghat’ which means bodies are cremated on the steps next to the river. We passed by some fires and then later a funeral procession passed us with men carrying a body over their heads on its way to be cremated. This was an unfamiliar event and gave us both a strange feeling. Before we went to the fort, we first bought our train tickets at the Agra Fort station for our overnight train that evening. We were told that all the tickets, both AC and regular sleeper, were sold out, but that we should still pay for the AC sleeper to get on the waiting list. We were numbers 9 and 10 on the waiting list, so there was a good chance we would get on if we showed up a couple of hours before the train left to check.

Though obviously overshadowed in fame by the nearby Taj Mahal, Agra Fort is a gigantic, impressive red sandstone fortress with beautiful gardens and a maze of white marble architecture, detailed stonework, staircases leading to nowhere, and windows facing the Taj Mahal. The Taj is just a few kilometers away, and the view of it across the river is a cool perspective, though probably not for the maharaja who built it. His son took over and imprisoned him in Agra Fort, where he had to stare at the Taj from afar for the last 8 years of his life. There is an incredible amount to see at Agra Fort, and the architecture is phenomenal; it is a shame it is not in another city where it would be much more famous. An interesting phenomenon happened as we walked through the fort. Several of the Indian tourists asked if they could take a picture with either Maren or I. One of them shoved this chubby baby right into Maren’s arms and started snapping photos. The annoyed look on the kid’s face combined with the confused look on Maren’s face while she awkwardly held him was hilarious. We started refusing people who asked after that because it seemed weird and no one would explain why they wanted a photo. When a group of young guys asked for a photo with only me, and Maren not included, I definitely began to get a creepy feeling. Later in the evening, we gathered our things and made our way to the train station. We found out we were now numbers 3 and 4 on the waiting list, but there was not a lot of hope that that would improve. Our best bet was to talk to the reservation guy once the train arrived.

Our destination was Varanasi, to which there is only one train per day. We were told that we could get a refund for our ticket and leave the next day, but I felt like that would be a waste of time as we had already seen the two highlights of Agra. I decided I was not going to take ‘no’ for an answer. We started talking to everybody we could, the inquiry booth, the reservation staff, even the station manager. Unfortunately no one seemed to speak English quite well enough for them to help us. One of them seemed to say that we were allowed to just go on the train and try to figure it out onboard. When the train finally arrived we were running around in a panic. We found the reservation guy who pretty much told us, ‘No seat for you.’ We ran around more talking to more people, the station manager in particular seemed very confused about what we should do. Finally we found someone who said yes, we were allowed to go on the non-AC, sleeper class train and try to find a bed or wait for a bed to open up. We went back to the reservation guy to ask him if that was OK, and now he just nodded his head to the side, which means ‘Sure.’ We climbed onto the train and prepared for what was to be our 2^nd most uncomfortable night in India.

Our overnight train left Agra just after 10 PM. We spent the next 6+ hours on the dirty, metal floor of the sleeper class car next to the toilets. There were lots of other people all around us doing exactly the same thing. There were people constantly walking past and over us. We found some newspaper to lie out and attempt to sleep on, but most of the trip we were sitting on our bags or trying to sleep while lying against them. We also didn’t want to both sleep at the same time for fear of thieves. The heat was stifling which meant we had plenty of sweat to go with the filth and grime we had acquired from the dirty train. Our space was also tiny and horribly uncomfortable, and the smells from the squat toilets one meter away sure didn’t help. We finally arrived at some station in the early hours of the morning where many people got off the train. We managed to find two empty top bunks and fell asleep clutching our backpacks, dirty and exhausted.

Varanasi is located directly on the Ganges River and is one of the most holy sites for Hindu pilgrims. The center of the old town is filled with narrow alleys and tiny shops and is closed to rickshaws. We took a rickshaw as close as possible with a truly infuriating driver who repeatedly tried to take us to the wrong place, then stopped several kilometers short of where we told him we were going. After that, we got quite lost in the alleyways looking for our guesthouse. One of the problems is that there aren’t addresses in India. I don’t mean they aren’t labeled, I mean they literally do not exist! If the street has a name (which is only common for major roads), that is the address, but there aren’t numbers. We asked some clueless people which direction the river was and got very conflicting directions. We even said the name of the river to some people, pronouncing it the Hindu way, and got some blank stares. I still have no idea why. When we finally made it to our guesthouse, Maren and I both enjoyed long showers and a large breakfast.

The Ganges River in Varanasi is lined with dozens of ghats and is truly a sight to behold. The ghats are the lifeblood of the city and there are people around them twenty four hours a day. We walked to the river in the evening, and were surprised to see tons of people all moving in the same direction. There was a Hindu ceremony taking place at the first ghat we got to, which we later found out happens every single night. The steps were filled with crowds of people, and even the river was filled with boatfuls of onlookers as well. Several guys wearing traditional Hindu outfits stood on pedestals on the ghat and performed rituals. While music played, they made loud noises, waved sticks of incense, and lit some things on fire. We walked around the ghats for awhile and found some other smaller, similar ceremonies happening nearby. Because it was the hot season and the water level was at its lowest point, we could easily walk from ghat to ghat all along the river.

We organized an early morning boat ride with our guesthouse, in time to see the sunrise. In the morning, however, the guy didn’t show up at reception. So we walked to the river, found a boatman, and settled on a price which was lower than what we had booked. The sunrise turned out to be less than impressive as it was overcast, but the boat ride was phenomenal nonetheless. Our boatman turned out to be a very good pick, because he spoke English quite well. For an hour as he rowed he gave us commentary on each of the ghats we passed. We learned about the history of some of the ghats and the buildings on the riverbank. At the furthest point of the ride, we reached the main burning ghat in Varanasi. Because the Ganges is the holiest river, Hindus often come here to die. It is believed that dying in Varanasi can end the cycle of reincarnation. Cremations happen at this ghat all day and all night long. There is a very complex process of how people pay to be cremated here, because the wood used to burn the bodies is expensive for most Indians. When we arrived we saw a few fires and bodies being prepared for cremation. It is quite shocking to see this happening in the most public of surroundings. The ashes, or sometimes even partly charred bodies, are dumped straight into the river.

There were tons of people swimming in the river as we passed by in the boat. It was Sunday, which meant there was even more than usual. I would have thought that a pilgrim bathing in a holy river would be a solemn and private affair, but that could not be further from the truth. It appeared to be any other day at a beach: groups of boys laughing and splashing in the water, families, people swimming across the river, and guys waving at us. It looked like fun, and Maren and I both would have liked to have a swim ourselves in the holy water. The only catch is the one thing that cast a bit of a shadow over the whole Ganges experience: the river is incredibly polluted. Not by farming chemicals or some factory or even ordinary garbage, but by raw sewage. There are over a hundred sewage pipes in Varanasi alone leading into the river. We read that the contamination levels are thousands of times higher than what they should be for safe swimming. The hundreds of not-always-completely-cremated bodies every day don’t help the situation either. So we dipped our hands in the water during our boat ride, but a swim in the ‘holy’ water would have more likely resulted in an infectious disease than a purifying experience. There are some recent efforts to clean up the river by establishing a real sewage system in the city, hopefully they work.

It is a bizarre sight to see cows living in the middle of a city, but they are everywhere in India. Cows lying around, walking the streets, and in the case of Varanasi, even hanging out in the middle of the crowded train station! We found out from an Indian guy we met later that no one actually owns them. Cows are used on dairy farms, but once they get older they are just abandoned. No one cares for most of them; they pretty much just eat garbage, create traffic jams, and are ignored. The amount of garbage is another sight to get used to in India. There doesn’t seem to be any public sanitation service, garbage cans are few and far between, and there are makeshift dumps on the side of the road, in rivers, or in random holes in the ground. When you combine this with the lack of any sidewalks, it makes for very, very dirty feet!

The next stop on our way east was Bodhgaya, a famous Buddhist pilgrimage sight. Bodhgaya is the site where Prince Siddhartha attained enlightenment while meditating underneath a Bodhi tree and became Buddha. We took a train from Varanasi to Gaya, where we arrived late at night. We found a place to crash before taking a rickshaw to the small town of Bodhgaya in the morning. While on the rickshaw, we passed tiny villages of mud and straw huts, and people that appeared to be living an agricultural, subsistence lifestyle. Bodhgaya is in the state of Bihar, which is one of the poorest in all of India. When we arrived, we walked through the quiet town until we found our guesthouse. It was located in a tiny little village on the edge of the city, complete with primitive houses, small farms, and half naked children running about. It was quite a different experience from other guesthouses we had stayed in and it was intriguing to ‘live’ and experience this side of India. We spent our first afternoon at the main Buddhist attraction, the spot of Buddha’s enlightenment. The small complex is filled with plants and greenery and is a great spot to relax. The main temple has stood in its location since nearly the time of the enlightenment itself. The actual Bodhi tree surprisingly still exists there, well, kind of. The current one grew from a branch taken from the original Bodhi tree which was taken to Sri Lanka. The tree and a small monument where Siddhartha sat meditating are behind the temple. There are tons of other Buddhist relics all around the area.

The town of Bodhgaya is filled with monasteries from every Buddhist country. As this is one of the holiest places for Buddhist pilgrims to visit, many of the monasteries are quite impressive. There is also a massive Buddha statue in town, which we visited the next day. It was ordered by the Dalai Lama fairly recently and has a 30-some meter high sitting Buddha surrounded by his disciples. Apparently the Buddha is hollow and filled with 20,000 miniature Buddhas, though I am not sure what the point of this was because there is no way to look inside. We spent the rest of our time in Bodhgaya just relaxing and trying to stay out of the heat, which had climbed into the high 40s. In the evening, we took a rickshaw back to Gaya, where we caught an overnight train to Kolkata (the new spelling of Calcutta).

Maren and I met a young Indian guy in Gaya on his way to Kolkata as well. He spoke decent English and was pretty helpful answering our questions about the train trip and India in general. In Kolkata the next morning, we arrived at a chaotic train station jam packed with people in the center of the city. We had to fight our way through the crowds, and then took a taxi with our new friend just to get across the river to the nearest metro stop. After getting directions, Maren and I headed to the north of Kolkata near the airport. There was more chaos and an unbelievable number of people everywhere. We somehow managed to get on a bus which dropped us off close to the airport. We had incredible difficulty finding a cheap hotel next to the airport which Lonely Planet had recommended, and when we finally found it, it was full. No problem though, the place next door had better prices anyway. We had some grand plans to explore Kolkata on our final day in India, but the long train rides and one uneasy stomach finally caught up with us. We walked through the markets and neighborhoods around our hotel, but that was the extent of our Kolkata experience. The next morning, we woke up early and made it to the airport in time for our much-anticipated flight to Bangkok, Thailand!

Delhi and Rajasthan

2010-06-16T08:22:00.000-07:00

People! Dirty, filthy, grimy people, starving people, begging people, lying and cheating people, crippled people, urinating-and-defecating-in-public people, hassling and touting people, hopelessly impoverished people. The first thing you notice in India is the hoards and hoards and hoards of people everywhere and they are, without exception, staring. With so many millions in Delhi, a white person with a backpack stands out, so I suppose it is natural to stare. Maren and I quickly felt as though we had taken a trip to the zoo, only we were the attraction to be viewed. Fortunately we got somewhat used to this during our India travels, and we learned to just smile and ignore it.

Getting around in Delhi almost always involves an autorickshaw. These are simply glorified tricycles with a roof and a lawnmower engine that tops out at about 50 km/h. They tell tourists they can only take 2 people, but we saw some with as many as 7 or 8 Indians crammed in. There are an unbelievable number of yellow and green autorickshaws all across Delhi (and most Indian cities). They mass in certain areas, but it is always easy to find one. Negotiating the price can actually be rather fun. The oversupply of rickshaws means you can make them compete with each other to match the price you want. The first price you are told for a destination is usually about 250% of what you should pay. When going to a hotel or guesthouse, we never told them the name, even though they ask repeatedly. If you tell them, they will try and con you into going to a ‘better’ place where they will get a fat commission. I have never in my life felt as harassed as I did by the touts, guides, and rickshaw drivers of Delhi. It is very difficult to ask for directions to anywhere, not because of the language barrier, but because everyone lies. People everywhere try to direct you to the wrong place so they can earn a commission. They claim you must make train reservations in a certain office, which of course is some travel agent jacking the price up. The fact that we were travelling in India during the low season didn’t help. May is the hottest month of the year in most of India, and the monsoon season doesn’t start until June. Yet the number of touts is the same year round, so the fewer tourists get harassed even more. It can be truly infuriating that people simply don’t take ‘no’ for an answer. The only way to get rid of some touts is to be incredibly rude, but after a couple of days we didn’t feel bad at all about being rude. Ignoring them doesn’t help much either. They follow you everywhere asking ‘Where you go?’ and just don’t give up.

Maren and I decided to stay in a popular backpackers area of New Delhi on a street called the Main Bazaar. The street is in an unbelievable state of disrepair, which I think is somewhat temporary. I’m sure it always looks pretty rough, but it appeared as though they were currently attempting to widen the street; there was construction work happening on both sides of the road. Bricks were falling from rooftops, we had to duck under cables and tiptoe around puddles of dirty water, all while trying to avoid honking motorbikes and rickshaws.

Our first task once we got settled in our place was to shop for some Indian outfits. We both knew that we stood out way too much with Western clothing. We easily found a shop and both picked out a pair of pants while Maren also got a shirt, the price was about 9 euros total. Despite the temperature hovering in the mid-40s, not a single Indian person was wearing shorts and we wanted to attempt to fit in at least a little bit. We both noticed that Maren got slightly fewer stares once she wore her new outfit. Now only 90% of the people were gawking;) Indian people feel absolutely no shame in staring at someone, which is baffling to me. Everywhere we went we were stared at, and even when I ‘caught’ someone staring, they rarely looked away. People would stare as they rode by on a bike and twist their head all the way around as they passed to keep staring. There were even times cars or motorbikes stopped on the street so all the passengers could stare at us for about 5 seconds before they drove off. That might explain some of the horrible traffic jams. There were times people were staring for so long they seemed to be in a trance. A few times I finally waved at them and said ‘Hello, can I help you?’ and that sometimes broke the trance. People never attempted to be discrete when they were talking about us either. There would be a group of guys or girls or a family all staring, then one of them would say something to the others, they would all talk more or laugh or whatever, then kept staring and kept talking about us, all while I am staring right back at them, just shaking my head.

Another interesting cultural difference we noticed is that Indian people do not understand the concept of ‘single-file line,’ or ‘wait your turn.’ And the Western notion of privacy does not seem to apply in public places. Whether it was a line going into a tourist site or a line to buy a train ticket, many people were ruder than I could have possibly imagined. Everyone crowds and pushes their way to the front. When I got to the window they would crowd around to my left and right shoving their arms and ticket and money all in front of me. I made some rude comments to people several times and I even forcibly pushed someone back in line a couple of times. When I did, they said ‘OK,OK’ like they know what a line is, but just couldn’t help themselves. I think the sheer number of people in India has created this aspect of their culture, because if you aren’t pushy and aggressive you will end up waiting forever!

After changing into our new outfits, we headed to Humayun’s Tomb, which is the most impressive sight in Delhi. We took the Metro to get close enough to take a cheap rickshaw. Delhi’s Metro feels like a different world, a little slice of London right in the middle of India. It is modern, efficient, and (shockingly) clean. The tomb is actually a very large complex of several tombs and various buildings of Mughal architecture. This means primarily red sandstone along with some white marble. These two materials were used by the Mughals and other groups all across central India. The beautiful buildings and the spacious gardens were a welcome relief from the chaos of the city. In the evening, we walked to Connaught Place, which is the heart of New Delhi. We ate at a crowded self-service restaurant and got a variety of snacks. We were hoping we could find some that weren’t that spicy, as Maren is not used to eating spicy food. Unfortunately, nearly everything we ordered was very spicy, despite the staff insisting that it wasn’t. We learned that night that when an Indian person tells you the food is not spicy, that does not give you even the slightest clue as to the actual spiciness of the food. Another note about the food in India is that it is nearly always vegetarian, at least in the areas we travelled. India has more vegetarians than the rest of the world combined, and with the Muslims not allowed to eat pork, and the Hindus not allowed to eat beef, all that is left is chicken, mutton, and fish which you can find primarily at tourist restaurants. In certain religious cities, the entire city follows a strict vegetarian diet, and it is impossible to find either meat or eggs on any menu.

Our second day in Delhi, we applied for our Chinese visas. This was an annoying and time consuming process. We first went to the distant Chinese Embassy, which told us we had to go to the visa office somewhere entirely different. Then we had to get more paperwork which we hadn’t brought with us. In addition to copies of our flights in and out of China, we had to give them our complete trip itinerary including a place we would stay, and show them a copy of our flight from Kolkata to Bangkok, and explain how we would get to Singapore. It was really a bunch of nonsense, but we finally got out of there as the office was closing and were told to come back in 4 business days. We decided to use the time to explore Rajasthan, the state to the west of Delhi that is home to some of the most interesting areas of India and one of the most well travelled areas of the tourist trail. We took an overnight train all the way to the south of Rajasthan to Udaipur, known as the most beautiful city in India. The ride was 14 hours, but not terribly uncomfortable. We rode in an air conditioned sleeper car that slept 6 people in kind of an open room. We got sheets and pillows, but we brought our own food because we were uncertain about the onboard meal.

Udaipur felt like a breath of fresh air compared to Delhi. It is a small town (400,000 people feels like a small town in India!) with far fewer rickshaws, touts, and hassles. The main draw of the town is the lake with two beautiful island palaces, which are now incredibly expensive resort hotels. The more impressive one was featured in the James Bond movie ‘Octopussy’ which meant every backpacker oriented restaurant in town screened the movie every single night. We stayed in an amazing guest house on the opposite side of the lake from the main town. I think we got the most expensive room in the place, though it was (by our standards) still incredibly cheap. It was a huge room on the top floor overlooking the lake, the palaces, and the main town. We had to mostly imagine the beauty of the lake; as it was the end of the hot season, the water level was at its lowest point of the year. This meant half the lake was completely dried up and had kids playing cricket and cows bathing in small muddy ponds.

After getting settled, we walked into the main town to the city palace. Neither of the two island palaces are open to non-guests, so the city palace is the main sight to see. The huge complex is perched high on a hill and is filled with interesting Indian art and architecture. We ate dinner at a restaurant overlooking a big and colorful Hindu temple in the center town, and decided to check it out afterwards. We walked all the way up the steps and found a group of people all sitting on a carpet with some of them playing music. We stood in the back at first, but after the second old man motioned for us to join, we decided to sit down. We clapped along to the music for much longer than we had planned. People left and other people joined, after kissing the Hindu statues in the front. Some children spoke to us as well, with the very few English words they knew. On our way out, we talked to a local guy about the temple and the traditions. Maren and I both felt this was our first real contact with Indian people and culture, and it was quite a relief to find out not just that they didn’t want our money, but how welcoming and friendly they were.

The following day we walked through a tiny village to another nearby lake. We had noticed on a map that this lake had an island park in the center, but were a bit confused that there were no bridges to get to it. We understood as soon as we caught our first glimpse of the lake: it was nearly completely dried up as well. We didn’t see any obvious path, so we just left the road and climbed down to the dry lake bed and walked across. The lake bed felt like a desert wasteland with hot winds pummeling us and whipping up dust. The park had a white wall around it and was filled with pink flowers and lots of greenery despite the dry weather and temperature in the low to mid 40s. Later in the afternoon, we walked to a hotel in town with a pool. For a very small fee, they let us use the pool and even provided towels. This was the first time we had been swimming since the Dead Sea and was very refreshing in the Indian heat. At this point, we began to realize just how much water we were drinking. Bottled water was a constant source of concern during our trip in India. It was easy to find and always fairly cheap, but we had to think about it every time we went walking somewhere, were about to get on a train, or even when we went to our room at night to sleep. We were drinking up to 6 liters of water per day each!

We ate dinner at a restaurant right on the lake and very close to the island palace. The food in India was overall very tasty, and quite a bit different than Indian food I had tried at home. Most of the dishes are vegetarian, though they make a lot of meat dishes as well for tourists. The prices for meat dishes are usually about double that of a vegetarian dish! I couldn’t believe how cheap the food was everywhere we went. Even at a nice restaurant, we never spent more than 5 euros each for the whole meal, drinks and appetizer included. At most places we ate at, the meal with a drink was between 1 and 2 euros each. At the cheapest places, like the train station cafeteria, we were eating a full meal for not much more than 50 cents. Eating the street food is even cheaper, though you have to be more careful. Most of it was spicy Indian snacks made in a less-than-hygienic environment, so we didn’t eat it very often because we were worried about how our stomachs would react. One of the times I did, I chose 4 different spiced vegetable filled pastry-like things, which was more than enough to completely fill me up. The guy told me 10 rupees (about 20 cents) and I started to get 40 rupees out, thinking he meant 10 each. Then he told me 10 rupees total and started laughing after seeing the shocked look on my face.

Our next Rajasthan destination was Pushkar, back in the direction of Delhi. We woke up very, very early to try to catch the 7 o’clock train. Despite everything we had seen in town and in our guide book telling us the train left at 7, we showed up at 6:30 and they told us we had just missed it. Fortunately for us, there was another train leaving a few hours later, so we didn’t panic. I say fortunately, because for most of the other trains we took in India, if we missed them, we were stuck for 24 hours. We had a very cool experience on the 6 hour train ride to Pushkar. Not long after we left, a huge Indian family got on and sat next to us. Next to us, around us, above us, there must have been 15 or 20 of them, and only 4 were adults! There were about 6 girls in their teens and twenties that took an immediate liking to Maren. They all had Henna tattoos on their hands, arms, and feet. One of the girls asked Maren if she wanted one, and soon enough two girls were both working on her hands and arms while about 12 other kids watched and giggled. They spent literally hours working and totally covered both sides of both hands and arms. The designs were really amazing and were even more impressive considering they did them aboard a bumpy and shaky old train! The Henna lasted the rest of our trip in India, though all of Maren’s sweating from the heat made them fade quicker than they otherwise would have;)

Pushkar was another great small town to relax in. Unlike Udaipur, however, Pushkar is popular as a pilgrimage site. Hindus come for the holy water of the main lake which the town is built around. Apparently Brahma himself bathed in the water. There is also a Brahman temple in town, one of the only ones in the world (every other Hindu temple is dedicated to one of the other gods). One of the first things we noticed is there wasn’t a single rickshaw! They aren’t allowed in town. Also, because of the religious nature of the town, every restaurant is strictly vegetarian, which means not just meat is banned, but eggs and alcohol as well.

We began our full day in Pushkar by hiking a small mountain on the edge of town. There was a temple on top which was closed, but the views over the town and the lake were worth the climb. Afterwards, we began a slow walk around the entire lake, stopping along several ghats. A ghat is a wide set of stairs leading down into the water. Most are for bathers, but some have other purposes. The lake was mostly dried up, but there were some pools of water that were filled with people. We also went to the Brahman temple, which was the largest temple we had seen thus far and was filled with lots of cool sculptures, religious relics, and a troop of monkeys. We were approached twice while walking around the lake by ‘priests.’ We talked to the first guy for a minute who took us to his private ‘temple,’ then realized his scam and gave him a tiny amount of money to leave us alone. The second guy was more persistent in trying to get us to drop some ‘special flowers’ into the lake for good luck. We had to be pretty rude to make him stop following us. We found a beautiful, massive, brand new temple on the far side of the lake. The view from outside was all we got, however, because the inside was still completely empty.

In the evening, after dinner and relaxing at what had become our favorite cheap rooftop restaurant, we got on a midnight train back to Delhi. This short trip to Delhi was relatively painless. We went straight to the Chinese embassy office, paid the incredibly exorbitant visa fee ($150 for Americans, $40 for everyone else!), got our passports back, and hopped on the next train leaving for Agra, home of the Taj Mahal.

Cairo

2010-06-06T06:41:00.000-07:00

Cairo is a massive, dirty, loud, crowded, chaotic city. At first it is difficult to see how it could be the capital of the Arab world. We only had two days to spend in the city before our flight, which is surely not enough time to fully appreciate the city, let alone Egypt. The hostel we arrived at late at night was booked the following night, so we had to wake up in the morning, switch to a different hostel, and go back to sleep. In the afternoon, we walked to the nearby Egyptian Museum, a must-see for anyone visiting Cairo. We stayed until closing time, over four hours, yet I felt as though we had just scratched the surface. The museum is set in a huge, beautiful complex, and it is filled with more Egyptian artifacts than one can possibly imagine. There are literally hundreds of thousands of individual items on display: mummies, sarcophaguses, weapons, jewelry, statues, and everything else that has been plundered from the pyramids and tombs of Egypt. At most of the pyramids themselves, there is very little to see inside! The section dedicated to the relics of King Tut’s tomb was most impressive. We skipped the Royal Mummy room as the fee to enter that room was more than double the fee to enter the museum and we already had plenty to see, including other mummies.

We walked a bit through downtown Cairo after the museum. One of the first things we noticed is the complete lack of any Western-looking tourists. Perhaps that was because the city is just so huge they tend to get lost in the crowds. It also occurred to me that Cairo is the biggest city I have ever been to, 16 million people! Crossing the street can be quite an adventure and takes some practice. The drivers are horrible, there are rarely stoplights or crosswalks, and when there are they don’t mean much. You basically have to just wait for the right time and move quickly. It requires equal amounts of patience and bravery. Often you get stuck in the middle of a 6-lane road for a few seconds, pray for your life to Allah or whoever, and then make a mad dash for the other side. It helps to find a local person and follow their lead, using them as a human shield. The smog and noise of the city are both intense. Another thing we noticed is the high proportion of men to women walking the streets. This is true during the daytime, but is most noticeable at night. When we first walked to our hostel at 4 AM, there were still lots of people walking around and hanging out along the streets, but hardly a woman could be seen. Poor, little Maren felt very out of place and uncomfortable with the unwanted attention.

For dinner, we went to a hugely popular Egyptian ‘fast-food’ style restaurant. You first pay for what you want and get a ticket, then take it to the station that is making that type of food. They had everything from grilled meat and fish to stuffed pitas, baked pastas, wrapped grape leaves, pizza, and crepes. After trying to decipher the menu and getting help from a guy working there, we ordered several things to go and took them back to our place. It was a huge meal and very delicious!

Despite a morning start out to the pyramids of Giza the following day, we didn’t arrive until after noon. The public transportation from Cairo was quite inefficient, and an organized bus tour might have been a better option. Giza is a suburb of Cairo, though nearly as chaotic, and it is disturbing to see the pyramids basically in the middle of a city. We rode the bus with a friendly and chatty Egyptian man who was on his way home to Giza. We transferred to a small mini-bus, in which the man paid for both of us saying he was ‘inviting.’ We got especially nervous when we flew past the pyramids and were dropped off down an alley. The friendly man took us to a friendly camel-tour man who proposed a friendly 600 Egyptian Pound offer, which we obviously declined. We quickly said goodbye to our ‘friend’ (who then asked for foreign money for ‘souvenirs’ for his children) and walked about 3 km back to the entrance to the pyramids.

The inside of the pyramid complex was filled with tourists, camels, horses, and hustlers. The Sphinx and the three huge pyramids themselves were impressive, of course, but the entire experience was clouded by the environment. I don’t just mean the noise, pollution, commercialization, and annoying people constantly hounding us for a camel ride. Watching the way the camels and horses were being treated by their ‘drivers’ (not to mention overweight tourists) was really depressing to see. Little Egyptian kids were laughing and whipping the camels for no apparent reason. The horses had to go up and down steep paved hills that had no traction so they kept slipping. It’s not easy to walk on your own around the pyramids, despite them being very close to each other. People were bothering us the whole time, telling us the other pyramid was closed or we could only go on a camel or some other conniving story to try to make us part with our money. I think the only way to not get hounded is to go on a big tour bus. The pyramids themselves are remarkably big and it is amazing to imagine them being built. As we were leaving, however, I felt jaded by the whole spectacle and wish we had skipped Giza and gone to some other, more authentic pyramids.

As I mentioned before, neither Maren nor I felt we had a ‘complete’ Egyptian experience. We both wished we had the 5 days we had originally planned instead of 2, but hopefully we will go back another time. We ate a dinner of Egyptian pizza, pancakes, and fresh fruit, and then left for the airport first thing in the morning. It was a mostly uneventful flight, and after a six hour stop in Bahrain, we landed in the morning in Delhi, India. Our original flight was to Mumbai, but when we rebooked our flight from Cairo, we changed the destination to Delhi. Our two weeks in India, from Delhi to Kolkata (where we arrived the morning I am writing this) coming up in the next couple of blogs!

By the way, Maren is now the editor-in chief of this blog, to make sure I don’t leave out any important details, and also to provide her commentary when appropriate;)

I am now finally posting this from beautiful Koh Tao, Thailand! First trip pictures are up on Picasa. Facebook will take a bit longer...

Petra and the adventure to Cairo

2010-05-30T01:38:00.000-07:00

After the Indian visa fiasco I wrote about previously (read the Jerusalem post down below first!), Maren and I had to figure out where we would go next. Since it was Thursday evening and we had a flight from Cairo to Mumbai on Monday, we figured we would have to go straight to Cairo. There was one complication: in order to travel by land from Israel to Egypt, you must get your visa in advance. All other methods of crossing you get your visa on arrival. Both Egyptian visa offices in Israel are closed on Fridays and Saturdays. We had no intention of staying in Israel any longer, so we caught an overnight bus from Tel Aviv to Eilat, at the southernmost tip of Israel next to the border with Jordan. We met three Argentinean girls when we got off the bus heading for the same place as us. The five of us taxied the short distance to the Jordanian border where we had to sit around for a couple of hours until the border opened at 8 AM. We crossed, caught another taxi to the nearest town of Aqaba, and then found a mini-bus heading north. There are few busses running on Fridays, so we had to wait another hour or two for the bus to fill up before it left. There was one American guy on the bus named Drew who has spent the last year studying Arabic in Damascus. Our group (now 6) spent two hours on the bus, and arrived in the town of Wadi Mousa in the afternoon. Along the way, I could tell we were in a very different land. There was desert in every direction, though not the sand dune type. It was more of a barren, dirty, rocky wasteland. We passed small villages and even some Bedouin people, the nomads of Jordan’s deserts. Wadi Mousa is the tourist town that has been built around the entrance to Petra, the most famous sight in Jordan. We all walked to a hostel we had read about and settled in. The Argentinean girls went straight to sleep. Even though Maren and I were exhausted, and despite the temperature still in the high 30s, we decided to head to Petra for the rest of the afternoon.

Petra is the site of an ancient civilization of people called Naritians (sp?). These were Semitic people that built a town in and around a massive river gorge sometime around 100 or 200 BC. Various groups of other people came through, and the Romans eventually annexed the town a few hundred years later. But, mostly due to some devastating earthquakes, the town was abandoned around 600 AD. The main remnants of the town are the carvings and tombs in the sandstone walls of the gorge. Petra is a huge site which could take a week to fully explore. We met up with Drew at the ticket office, and he joined us for most of the afternoon. As we began to walk in, we saw some of the carvings and tombs along the main road and began to realize how incredible this place was. It was very expensive to enter, 33 Jordanian dinars (nearly 50 bucks!) which is insanely high by 3rd world country standards. We paid 38 JD to get a 2 day pass and after all that we saw, I can easily say it was worth every cent. We entered the very narrow canyon with enormous sandstone walls on both sides of us. There were various geometric carvings all along the ‘road’ into the center of Petra. After awhile, you turn a corner and see between the canyon walls in front of you the incredible picture-postcard view of The Treasury. The Treasury is the most famous and most photographed icon of Jordan. It is a gigantic wall carving that, through its protected location in the canyon, has remained nearly unchanged after two thousand years. You can go inside the huge door at the base to see the royal tombs, but it is not particularly interesting (neither are the insides of most of the thousands of tombs carved into the rock around Petra). The view from the outside, however, is absolutely stunning.

Past The Treasury, the canyon opens up a bit, and there are numerous tombs and smaller rock carvings, as well as quite a few Roman ruins, including a large theater. Drew continued on his own, while Maren and I decided to do a nearby hike. We started up the rock cut stairway, which led to switchbacks up the side of the canyon. Forty-five minutes (and a few liters of water) later, we arrived at the High Place of Sacrifice. From the top, we had a 360 degree view of the surrounding area, including much of Petra. We laid down on the smooth stones and enjoyed the cool breeze, only to find ourselves waking up a half hour later;) Afterwards, we trekked back into town, exhausted, and ate a big pizza for dinner.

The second day in Petra was even more incredible than the first. At the entrance, we took a seldom used and somewhat treacherous alternate path we had read about. We dropped into a dried riverbed and followed it around the main path through Petra. Along the way, we had to scramble up and down former waterfalls and squeeze through narrow sandstone walls. Fortunately it didn’t rain; we read that we would have to find a way out in a hurry if we felt even a few drops because flashfloods could be on the way. The path took a couple of hours, and we only passed one other person, a Bedouin-looking guy on a donkey. We finally exited near the back of Petra and walked through Roman ruins. We continued on until we reached the base of our hike. There is a popular route filled with tourists (and donkeys) leading up to the Monastery. The hike took a bit over an hour, until we turned a corner and were faced with the incredible stone carving. The Monastery is, in my opinion, even more impressive than the Treasury. It is larger, more intricate, and in perfect condition. We hiked still further up until the trail split. We took both paths and were rewarded with some of the most amazing views I have ever seen. The view was of the incredible canyons, mountains, and gorges that stretch for a hundred kilometers in nearly all directions. And behind us down below was the beautiful Monastery. We rested for a long time and enjoyed the views from both peaks. Maren and I took over 500 pictures in our two days in Petra, and as incredible as they are, I am not sure they do it justice. The natural beauty of the surroundings, the amazing tombs and stone carvings, and our two days of trekking and climbing make Petra one of the most memorable experiences of my travels (so far;).

It took about three hours to get all the way back to our hostel. They were putting on a BBQ on the rooftop which we happily joined. We met a couple of English guys, a father and son, who were planning on going to Cairo the next day, so we joined forces. We took a shared taxi in the morning from Petra to the ferry terminal just outside of Aqaba. We chose to take a ferry to Egypt to avoid paying the expensive Israeli ‘departure tax’ again (we had just paid it two days earlier). Also because you have to get a visa ahead of time to cross the land border from Israel to Egypt, which could take some time. Instead, we could skip going back to Israel by taking the ferry from Aqaba to Nuwaiba on the east coast of Sinai Egypt. We arrived in plenty of time at the ferry terminal, but they didn’t take credit cards for the expensive ferry tickets. No one could tell us the exact price beforehand, so we had decided to wait to withdraw money, but there was not a single ATM at the terminal. I had to go back into town in Aqaba to get money. The taxis at the ferry terminal wanted 12 JD (13 euros!) for the return ride to the nearest ATM. I left the terminal, walked along the road, found my own taxi, and bargained the driver down to 1 JD to take me into town. He dropped me off at an ATM which didn’t take my card. I then proceeded to walk through the entire town of Aqaba, stopping at 5 different ATMs, none of which worked! I was sure Maren was getting very nervous back at the ferry terminal with our luggage. After over an hour of searching, the 6th ATM I found miraculously worked. I caught a mini-bus back to the ferry terminal for ½ JD. Maren was incredibly relieved to see me, nearly two hours from when I left, and less than half an hour before the ferry’s departure time. We ran to buy our tickets and made our way onto the ferry.

In spite of our rush to board the 1:00 ferry, the boat sat around until nearly 4:00 when we finally left! We couldn’t go outside, so the trip was pretty miserable. We arrived in Nuwaiba, along with the two English guys, in the evening and found there were no more busses going to Cairo. We talked to several people, walked to the empty bus station, tried to bargain with the taxi drivers, and finally decided to take a ‘mini-bus,’ just a van turned taxi-on-demand. This was the sketchiest looking ‘taxi’ I have ever taken in my life. It appeared to be already full, yet they said they would squeeze us in the back. The luggage rack on top was already filled, but they said they would put ours on top of the other luggage! We were incredibly skeptical of this whole situation, particularly when one guy said the trip would take 3 hours. But the price was so cheap (about 8 or 9 euros each) compared to a normal taxi (25-30 euros each) that we eventually decided to go for it. Once we got in, we drove around the town for another hour looking for even more passengers to completely fill the van! We crammed three more guys in (I think there were 13 people total now) and finally hit the road. I say ‘road,’ but the road across the Sinai Peninsula was the sorriest excuse for a paved road I have ever seen. There were huge portions of the road missing all over the place. There were sections we had to come to a complete stop to figure out a way around the massive potholes. We had to drive on the sand around the road more than a few times. Considering how terrible the quality of the van was and how much weight it was carrying, we probably averaged under 20 km/h! By the time the road began to improve, however, we began to fear for our lives as the driver had a lead foot. We arrived in Cairo 7 or 8 hours after we left, after 1 o’clock in the morning!

The van, predictably, did not even drop us off in Cairo proper. The driver dumped us out in a crowded, dirty market underneath an overpass on the outskirts of the city. It took a long time just to figure out where the hell we were. The taxis wanted huge sums of money to take us into the city (double or triple the price we just paid to get there!), but we got really lucky and found a nice Egyptian guy who was heading into the city himself. I thought he might be trying to scam us as we piled into another mini-bus. We got dropped off on the side of the freeway in the middle of nowhere, then waited for another mini-bus which took us, to my disbelief, to downtown Cairo! We left our English friends and, after even more confusion, found the hostel we had reserved. After much-needed showers from all the dirt and sweat of our journey, and a ‘welcome tea,’ we made it to sleep around 4:30 AM.

Also, for those that didn't see on Facebook, I found out while we were in Jerusalem that I have been accepted into the University of Hamburg! I will be starting a 2 year Master's program in Political Science, Philosophy, and Economics in the fall! Very exciting!!

We are currently in Veranasi, India and leave for Thailand at the end of the week. Will write about Cairo and India ASAP! And pictures are coming soon, I promise!

Jerusalem

2010-05-30T01:32:00.000-07:00

Our first experience in Jerusalem was quite a shocking one. We got off the bus and decided to walk to the Old City where we were staying. We quickly discovered we were walking right through the center of the ultra-orthodox Jewish neighborhood of the city. Every person we saw, literally every single one, looked the same. The men and boys all dressed in black ‘suits’ with black, brimmed hats and two long curls of hair on either side of their face. The women and girls wore, without exception, dark colored long skirts and a long sleeve button up blouse. It seemed like a scene out of a movie. Fortunately, Maren and I had realized there was a chance we would be walking through this neighborhood, so we had both changed out of our flip flops on the bus. She had put on jeans and a sweater as well. This turned out to be a good idea, as we passed signs ‘instructing’ women how to dress so as not to ‘distress’ the residents. That concept seemed pretty sexist to both of us, but I suppose I should not question their traditions.

The first view of the walled Old City of Jerusalem was pretty amazing. Our hostel was just inside Jaffa Gate, the most used entrance through the wall. We climbed all the way to the roof where we would sleep, and we had a view of every major site in the Old City. The Dome of the Rock and Temple Mount were only a few hundred meters away. We spent our first evening just walking around a bit and getting something to eat in the New City. It got pretty cold at night on the roof, so we had to bundle up. In the morning, we took a free walking tour of the Old City. It definitely helped both of us orient ourselves better as the narrow winding streets can become confusing. We stopped by the Basilica of the Ascension, where Jesus was crucified, buried, and resurrected. The next stop was the Western (wailing) Wall. The Wall is open 24 hours a day and always seems to be packed with people. We picked a day where dozens of bar mitzvahs were taking place, which was pretty entertaining. There were big groups of guys everywhere singing and dancing. The men are separated from the women at the wall, so the women had to watch from afar. We walked onto a nearby rooftop to get some cool views. The next stop on our tour was the ancient Roman ruins where we learned some of the history of Jerusalem.

Later in the afternoon, we walked just outside the Old City to the City of David. This was the original Jerusalem and was discovered relatively recently. The ruins at ground level were fairly interesting, but the coolest part was underground. There used to be a spring which served as the city’s water source. The people carved a tunnel through the rock to bring the water to the town. Maren and I walked down several flights of stairs until we reached the tunnel. It is still filled with water! The water was over knee deep in some places, and the entire walk was through complete blackness. There were recommendations to bring a flashlight, but we only had the light of each of our cell phones to guide us. The tunnel is about a half kilometer long and very narrow. I had to duck my head through most of it. The walk took over half an hour, but it feels like hours and would be horrible if you were claustrophobic.

The next day we took a day trip to Bethlehem, which is not far from Jerusalem. We should have done a lot more research, however, because neither of us realized Bethlehem is in the West Bank! We opted out of an expensive tour, and took the bus there instead. The bus dropped us off at a military checkpoint and we were both confused. As we looked at the huge wall dividing Israel we figured out what was going on. We had to answer some questions to the security guys because we didn’t have our passports (they were still in Tel Aviv), but they let us through. We were still far from the main sights in Bethlehem so we negotiated a cheap taxi to take us. We got out at the Church of the Nativity, the traditional place where Jesus was born. It was crowded, and there was a long line to go down to the spot itself, so we first walked around the city a bit. There was definitely a different feeling of being in the West Bank from the rest of Israel. It is more run-down and impoverished, and I could feel the tension from the security guys. The city of Bethlehem is not at all beautiful, and I am sure there are better places to go in the West Bank. We returned to the church and saw the site of the birth. The other sights in Bethlehem didn’t sound that interesting, so we called it a day and headed back.

That evening was Friday, the start of the Sabbath. Maren was busy taking care of some things back at the hostel, so I decided to walk around the Old City to see what was going on. Everything is closed in Jerusalem from sunset Friday to sunset Saturday. Everywhere I walked there seemed to be Jews all hurriedly walking in the same direction. Many of them also had on funny fur hats that look Russian. I realized they were all walking to the Western Wall, so I did as well to check out the party. This was a totally different experience than seeing the wall the previous day. It was completely packed with Jews, and only a very small number of tourists. It really felt like a party, there were people singing and dancing everywhere. I was told that there were even more people than a usual Friday night, because the following week was the celebration of Israel’s independence.

On Saturday, we walked just outside the Old City to Mount Zion, which is not much of a mountain, just a hill really. The buildings and churches there have really interesting architecture. We first stopped at the sight of Mary’s ‘eternal sleep’, and then saw the site of the Last Supper. From the rooftop, we got a view of the Old City, New City, and East Jerusalem. We spent the afternoon walking through the New City. It was very quiet because it was Saturday. We walked through a couple of parks and some cute neighborhoods. We found an outdoor café that was surprisingly open (and crowded) on our way back.

We got a late start out to the Mount of Olives on Sunday. The Mount of Olives is in East Jerusalem, which is the Arab part of the divided city. We took a bus, which turned out to be a mistake, because we still had to walk up the very steep hill on this very hot day through the massive Jewish cemetery. From the top of the Mount of Olives, the view over the Old City is incredible. We walked down the hill and saw a couple of churches. We walked through the famous grove of olive trees and to the Virgin Mary’s tomb. I am embarrassed to say, however, that we never found the site where both Jesus and Mohammad ascended into heaven. I guess we should have asked more questions or done more research. That’s what happens sometimes when you don’t take the guided tour…

We walked through the Lion’s Gate to get back into the Old City, which was the only one of the 7 entrances we had not yet been through. On Monday we took a day trip to the Dead Sea, which definitely lives up to the hype! We took a bus through the West Bank, and along the sea for awhile. We got off at a beach just outside the West Bank called Ein Gedi. It is a free beach, though very rocky. As we walked down, we saw a couple of dozen people floating out in the water, then a few other people on the beach covered in mud. We walked down the beach about 50 meters until we found the mud pit. I had to reach deep inside a hole in the ground to find some gray clay. Then I dunked it in water and started covering my whole body! Maren did the same and we walked back to the main beach covered neck to toe in mud. We waited for it to dry, then went out into the water. At first, you don’t notice how salty the water is because there is nothing to distinguish it from any other beautiful crystal clear blue lake;) That is, until you try to swim. Despite being a swimmer, I have never in my life been able to float very well. I floated so incredibly easily in the Dead Sea it made me laugh. Even when you breathe completely out, there is no chance you will sink. We both kept our faces out of the water, but I did get a tiny drop of water in my mouth and it was so salty it burned. We picked a very strange day weather-wise to go the Dead Sea. It was very hot, the sign said 41 degrees! It was also incredibly windy and dusty. We ate our picnic lunch near the beach while a windstorm blew dust and garbage all around us. We had planned to go to the nearby fortress Masada after Ein Gedi, but the air was so dusty we could barely see the mountains only a couple of kilometers away. We decided we wouldn’t be able to see much at Masada and it wouldn’t be worth it. After the bus back to Jerusalem, we went on a quest to find the best falafel in Jerusalem. After doing some research, we hunted down a place called Moshiko. There, I had what I am certain is the best falafel in the world. For 17 shekkels (3.5 euros), we both got a gigantic pita with fresh falafel and every type of topping you could imagine. We ate them at a table in the middle of a crowded street with a squeeze bottle of sauce so they didn’t get dry. Mmmmm.

Tuesday was our last day in Jerusalem. We would have left earlier, but our Indian visas were still not ready in Tel Aviv. We decided we needed to go back to find out what the problem was. In the morning, we went back to the Basilica of the Ascension (we hadn’t gone inside on our tour). It was pretty amazing inside, nothing like a church. It is made up of numerous rooms on several levels that are all controlled by a handful of different groups of Christians. Don’t ask me how the Ethiopian Christians got their own section. We saw the site of the crucifixion and resurrection, but didn’t stay long due to all the swarming tourists. We caught a bus in the afternoon to Tel Aviv. We had been told our visas should be ready that evening, even though they originally should have been done the previous week. We checked back into the same hostel we had stayed at previously, but the visa office was unexpectedly closed, so we had to wait for the morning.

Maren and I spent all day Wednesday and Thursday trying to sort out our visas for India. It was incredibly frustrating. The idiots at the visa office were hardly helpful and to this day, I have no idea why it took so long to get our visas. We even made a couple of trips to the Indian embassy to talk to them directly, but they wouldn’t let us inside. I was very close to calling off India and demanding my passport back. The delay was messing up all of our travel plans and it seemed like it was going to be more hassle than it was worth. Originally we were planning on going to Petra, in Jordan, on the 10th for a couple of days, then to Cairo for 4 or 5 days before our flight on the 17th. By Thursday evening, we were told our visas were ‘almost’ ready and we sat at the visa office for over an hour after agreeing that we weren’t leaving till we got our passports back. Finally, by some miracle, they arrived. We returned to the hostel, called our airline, and started rebooking our plans. Afterwards, we went to a restaurant someone from our hostel recommended to get a special sabihe (the Tel Aviv version of a falafel we had tried previously). This one came on a plate, however, with amazing hummus and several salads. It was a perfect meal for our last night in Israel.

There are a couple of things I forgot to mention in my last blog. The first is the weather. Northern Israel was quite warm and pleasant, though it rained a couple of times. It was mostly between 24-28 degrees during the day. Jerusalem was hotter though, in the 30s every day, which made the conservative ‘dress code’ even more inconvenient. The other thing is the cats. There are stray cats EVERYWHERE in Israel! Apparently there used to be a mice problem when the British were here, so they brought over some cats to take care of it. Now there are cats mulling about in every city. Some of them appear to be in good shape, but others (i.e. the ones crawling through dumpsters) are very rough-looking.

Obviously I have much more to write about, but this post is getting quite long! I will write about Petra, the adventure getting to Cairo, and Delhi (where I am writing this) as soon as I get the chance!

A tour through northern Israel

2010-05-04T15:29:00.000-07:00

Wow, this trip has finally begun! Right now, Maren and I are in Safed (there are about 5 other spellings), in northeastern Israel, not far from the Sea of Galilee. Yesterday, we biked around the entire sea! More on that later...

First, there are a couple of things I forgot to mention in my last blog, as well as the trip to Hamburg before we left. My hip is feeling really good. It is nearly completely healed. I am walking without a limp, and only notice it when I walk up stairs. I think I could run already, though I am still holding off on anything too strenuous. The other thing was something which happened while Maren and I were driving back to her house in Marx. We were on a local highway when we spotted a car on its side in the ditch ahead of us. It was starting to get dark and it was raining a bit. We both could tell instantly that whatever had happened had just occurred, as the headlights and windshield wipers were both on. Based on how many cars were on the road and the fact that we were the first to stop, I would guess the car went into the ditch only ten or twenty seconds before we showed up. We ran over and there was a very distraught lady staring up at us from inside the car, which was beginning to fill up a bit with water. We dragged her out, which was tough because the car was on its right side. Within a couple of minutes, 4 or 5 other cars had stopped to help. We ended up waiting about ten minutes for the ambulance, then answered some questions from the police. The lady told us there was some animal in the road, and she swerved to miss it and the car rolled into the ditch. It was quite a random experience, I have never been 'first on the scene' like that before.

Last week, Maren and I were getting a bit bored in Marx waiting until we could catch a flight, so we decided to go check out Hamburg. Hamburg is the 2^nd biggest city in Germany, only a few hours away by train, and Maren’s sister Fritzi lives there. We spent Thursday evening wandering around by the harbor and the ‘beach’, there is water everywhere in Hamburg. It feels a bit like Venice in some places. On Friday we did more sightseeing stuff while Fritzi was at work. We walked through the downtown area, the university, and to an island with cool views of the city. We went out with Fritzi and her boyfriend in the evening to the ‘Reeperbahn’, which is the largest red-light district in Europe. It is also where the majority of the bars and clubs are. There were hoards of young people along the streets as far as the eye could see, in every direction, until at least 4 in the morning when we finally called it a night.

Sunday was finally the day for our trip to begin. Maren and I took the train 5 hours to the airport in Cologne, then caught a 4 hour flight to Tel Aviv. The first obstacle was the immigration check. We chose what turned out to be the wrong line due to the incredibly slow lady checking passports. We chatted with people in the line next to us who were staying at the same hostel and agreed to share a taxi (we arrived too late to use the public transportation). Our line was so slow though, that after those people right next to us got through, we waited another 40 minutes! When we finally got to the front of the line, the whole room was empty. She asked us a bunch of dumb questions, she told us she would let us stay in Israel two weeks, then finally agreed three weeks would be OK. Our backpacks were the only ones on the stopped conveyor belt, and of course we had to pay for a taxi for just the two of us because it took so long. We were both so annoyed, that when we finally got to our hostel, we decided to go walk along the beach for awhile (at 3 AM) to forget about it.

Tel Aviv is a very large, commercial, and new city (one hundred or so years old). There are not many sights to see, no history or religious stuff. There are three things to do: go to the beach, go shopping, and go to the bars or clubs at night. We spent Monday doing exactly that. The weather was perfect and our hostel was literally one block from the beach. Before the beach though, we had to go somewhere to apply for our Indian visas. Not the embassy, because as their website proudly announces, they have ‘outsourced’ visa applications. So we went to some travel store who told us it would take 8-10 business days to get our visas. We had no other choice, so it looks like we will have to head back to Tel Aviv the end of this week to pick up our passports. Fortunately, Israel is a very small country, much more so that I realized. Getting back there to pick them up won’t be terribly inconvenient. We did a bit for shopping for some necessities (I didn't have any shorts!). In the evening, we walked a half hour down the beach to an old port city called Jaffa. It looked really cool at night and had some nice views. We went to a bar later on in Tel Aviv to see what all the hype was about, but we didn’t feel like a big night of clubbing on our first day in Israel. Considering we would have to return to Tel Aviv anyway, we left on Tuesday to begin exploring the north of the country.

The bus and train trips so far have been cheap, short, and relatively easy to figure out. We arrived in Haifa and spent Tuesday evening on the beach. We stayed in a cool hostel with a really nice garden out back, though the guy snoring in my dorm room the first night may have been the loudest snorer ever to sleep in an 8 bed dorm. On Wednesday we took a day trip by train further up the coast, all the way toward the border with Lebanon. We explored the town of Nahariya a bit, then caught a bus right to the Israeli-Lebanese border on the coast. There, we took the steepest cable car in the world (or so they claim) down some cliffs. We explored various caves and grottoes that have been carved out of the rock by the water. The area has an interesting history as well due to its strategic importance. We could see buoys out in the water only a few meters away marking the border of the countries. There were a couple of Israeli warships permanently stationed nearby. Later in the afternoon we walked down the shore till we found our own private little stretch of sand for a picnic lunch.

Maren and I took another day trip Thursday on the same train, though this time just a shorter trip to Akko (also called Acre). Akko is the oldest town in Israel, with an ancient port as well. The history of the old city is pretty incredible. Many different groups of people at one time controlled the area, and the city was the capital of several empires. We took our own tour through ancient ruins, Arab markets, and an underground tunnel to the sea. We walked along the city wall overlooking the water, then got some ice cream and made our way back to Haifa. The first few days in Tel Aviv and Haifa, Maren and I were trying to find a good falafel place, as it is the national food of Israel. We did find a place in Tel Aviv to eat something called a sabihe. It had fried eggplant, potatoes, a crushed hard-boiled egg, veggies, salad, hummus, and something that looked like pico de gallo. It was really tasty, but we still wanted to try an authentic Israeli falafel. We heard there were places everywhere selling them, but couldn't seem to find one that was open at 7 or 8 o'clock until our fourth day in Israel! We finally did in Haifa, and it was cheap and delicious! Now, we are finding these places everywhere, along with shawarma, which is similar to a kebab.

I woke up Friday morning covered in mosquito bites, and I have been itching ever since. But when I looked over at Maren, I quickly forgot about my bites. She got one right on the corner of her eye, which caused her whole eye to blow up and swell shut! She looked pretty funny, but fortunately it went away by the next day. We stayed in Haifa until Friday because we wanted to see the most famous sight in the city: the Baha'i Gardens (they were closed Wed and Thurs). I didn't know much about the Baha'i faith, but you can see the gardens from most places in Haifa, and they are incredible. Haifa is the world capital of Baha'i, and they spent $250 million on these gardens and the spiritual buildings around them. They make up 19 terraces on the side of Mt. Carmel, which has a wealthy neighborhood overlooking the city. We took the mandatory free guided tour and learned a bit about Baha'i, the history, and the gardens.

After the gardens, we hopped on a bus to Nazareth. Despite being the home of Jesus, the city is entirely Arab, one of the few in Israel outside the Palestinian Territories. We spent Friday evening walking through the old city. Our hostel was absolutely amazing, a gigantic old Arab house right in the souq (market). The hostel itself was beautiful and had an interesting history. And everything we could want to buy was just a short walk (and haggle) away. We spent Saturday checking out the sights. We went to the Basilica of the Annunciation, at the sight where Gabriel informed Mary she was pregnant with the Messiah. We also went to the Greek version of the same church, where the Greek Orthodox people believe the event happened near Mary's Well. Maren bought a head scarf in the market so that we could go into the nearby mosque. I think it was actually the first mosque I have ever been inside, usually they are closed to non-Muslims. The next stop was an amazing spice shop. This old, famous store at the end of the souq was huge and had every type of bulk spice you could imagine. Needless to say, it smelled so good we didn't want to leave. We stopped for some Arabic coffee and special sweet pancakes at another famous shop. Finally, we walked out of town and up a hill called 'Hill of the Leap of the Lord' or something where Jesus ran to get away from some angry Nazareth mob. Maren and I cooked some tasty vegetable pancake things for dinner with some fresh produce in the market.

I enjoyed Nazareth very much, the Arab culture there differs from the other places we have been. People talk to you much more as you walk through the streets, which is usually (but not always) a good thing. On Sunday we took another bus to Tiberias, the biggest city on the Sea of Galilee. We weren't interested that much in the city, as it was mainly just commercial and boring. There were huge hotels along the beach charging money to get down to the water. We ended up staying in a cheap hostel just a couple of blocks from the water, but we had to walk quite a ways to get to a free, yet rocky, beach. It was worth it though, the water felt great! For dinner, we both got gigantic shawarmas that we could barely finish. We needed lots of energy for our plans on Sunday.

The idea was to get up early to start our bike ride, but we failed miserably. After breakfast, checking out of our hostel, and getting set up on our rental bikes, Maren and I didn't hit the road till half past 11. We completed the full loop around the Sea of Galilee, 55 kilometers, and returned our bikes just before 6 in the evening! The first 25 km or so were on the side of the highway, hilly, hot, and mostly miserable. I think it must have been over 30 degrees. I am very grateful we did this part first, however, because the second half of the ride was fantastic! There was a tree-lined bike trail for much of it, and we found a deserted beach directly across the lake from Tiberias. We were drenched with sweat from the ride, but we found a sandy little spot and ran into the warm water with all our clothes on. We ate a picnic on the beach and the final 20 km were pretty relaxing. The guy running our hostel was nice enough to drive us to the bus station, where we left for Safed.

We found a cute guest house on a hill on the outskirts of Safed. Maren and I are paying dorm room rates, though we are the only people in our room. The place has a huge garden and lots of places to relax. We both were pretty exhausted from the ride and slept very well. Today, we walked into town to check out the old city and the artist's quarter. Safed is the smallest city we have been to so far in Israel, and it is definitely a nice place to relax. As it is on a hill, there are great views everywhere you go, we could even see the Sea of Galilee to the south. We bought some cheese a tiny local famous cheese shop and some ice cream as well. We spent the late afternoon reading books in the sun in the hostel's rose garden.

A few more things about Israel, so far. It is a pretty expensive country. Prices are mostly comparable to western Europe. One major exception is transportation, which is actually very cheap. Some food items seem incredibly expensive though (5 or 6 euros for a box of cereal). There are also soldiers everywhere, i mean EVERYWHERE! It is pretty evenly split between male and female, and they are always very young. About half of the guys I have seen are carrying rifles with them, and some of the girls are as well. They carry them everywhere, in the mall, on the bus, even into those caves we went to in the north! It is just a regular part of life around here I guess. Despite the scary western media about Israel, I have felt incredibly safe here and have not had any reason to feel otherwise. The mix of people is pretty interesting as well. In Tel Aviv, it looks like any European beach community, young people walk around in swimsuits and flip flops. In other places, there are Hasidic Jews everywhere you turn. And then there is everything in between: Arabs, soldiers, and tourists. Most signs are in Hebrew, Arabic, and English.

Tomorrow, we are leaving for Jerusalem. We are planning on several days there as it should be by far the most interesting city in Israel. We will have to head back to Tel Aviv to grab our passports, but we might just do that on a day trip. Other day trips will hopefully include Bethlehem and the Dead Sea! I have lots of pictures, I will try and post them all on Facebook and Picasa in the next couple of days!

Impatiently waiting

2010-04-20T08:30:00.000-07:00

As you might have guessed, Maren and I are stranded here in Germany, unable to fly due to the volcanic ash. It feels silly, because our original plan was to leave on the 14th instead of the 17th. If we had, we would have made it to Istanbul with no problem and be well on our way through Turkey right now. Oh well, such is life, no way we could have predicted this one. This experience has just further reinforced my view that trip planning is a futile endeavor. I would much rather travel on the fly, change plans at the last second, and be flexible in case something like this happens. We have been searching for days now all our options for getting this trip started. We even considered a 48 hour train ride from here to Istanbul! Unfortunately it is way too far out of our budget...

I have spent the last week hanging out at Maren's house here in Marx. We have done a few day trips to Oldenburg and Wilhelmshaven nearby. Maren got the last of her vaccinations she needed to travel, and we picked out a new travelling backpack which I bought her for her birthday. We also went to an amusement park with her younger sister and her two friends. Other than that, we have just been relaxing outside in the nice weather, going on bike rides, and following the (bad) news.

We haven't gotten any information at all from our airline. We decided on Sunday that it wasn't going to be worth it to wait around for them to tell us when we can fly to Istanbul. And every day we wait to fly is one day less in Turkey, which would make it more and more difficult to get to our next destination in a reasonable amount of time. We didn't want to rush through Turkey, so we decided to just forget it and go some other time. Instead, we booked a new flight to leave this Sunday to Tel Aviv. We will just pick up the trip from there. We will even have a couple of extra days, so we might make a short trip to Jordan as well. I am a bit disappointed as I was very excited to see Turkey, but Maren and I are thinking we could make a trip to both Greece and Turkey on some other future trip. Hopefully our airline will refund our money from the original flight.

I am keeping my fingers crossed that the crazy volcano lets up by next Sunday so we can fly. I am anxious to get this trip going, this one week delay is long enough as it is! Maren and I are going to go see Hamburg in a couple of days and stay at her sister's place. Then back here this weekend to pack (again) and get ready to leave for the Holy Land!

Recovering quickly, ready to travel!

2010-04-09T01:59:00.001-07:00

My last days in Kirchberg were pretty uneventful. I spent most of the time in my room trying not to move a whole lot. I went up to the kitchen twice a day to eat (they were still letting me eat for free!) and outside for a bit to get some fresh air. I took care of some things I needed to do before I left, like mailing my skis to Germany, where I am now. I also did a lot of research for my trip, set to begin in just over a week! That's right, I decided not to postpone the travels because I seem to be recovering very well. Before anyone says anything: yes, I will be very careful the first few weeks. No, I will not be rock climbing or playing rugby. At this point, I am able to walk on my own just fine, even for some distances, with just a bit of a limp. Every day I seem to improve. I am hardly using my crutches anymore, except for longer walks. I am not sure yet if I will take them with me on the trip.

In total, I worked at Hotel Willms for exactly 12 weeks, averaged 33 hours per week, and made just about 4000 euros, which works out to slightly over 10 euros per hour. And given my living situation there, I was able to save quite a bit. Most of my expenses were only at the beginning of the season, before I moved into the staff accommodation. All in all, right now I still have more than 3200 euros in my pocket! It will hopefully be enough to travel with, though I will be on a tight budget.

I left Kirchberg on the 1st of April, exactly 4 months after I arrived on the 1st of December. Packing my bag to leave was a difficult process. It was incredibly full due to all my winter ski gear, including some things I picked up during the season. Last year, my pack usually weighed about 14 kilos, but I think it was pushing 20 kilos last week once I clipped on my ski boots. However, taking the train with that weight in my condition wasn't as difficult as I expected. I had to make 5 different changes to get to Frankfurt, but I just took it very slowly. I met Maren's brother, Marius, at the train station in the evening. He lives in Frankfurt, and we took the U-bahn a few stops to his car, then drove to his flat. I met his roommates and we hung out with some of his friends. We both had to wake up very early the next morning, then drove out to the airport. The drive should have taken 20 minutes, but for some inexplicable reason, Marius didn't have any idea where the airport was, so we were about an hour late. We arrived and picked up Maren, her friend Inga, and Inga's mother, all having just flown in from Johannesburg, South Africa. The 5 of us drove to Maren's hometown in the Harz Mountains. It is a cute little town and popular during the winter, though most of the snow had melted when we got there. We dropped off Inga and her mother, picked up Marius' girlfriend, Marie, and headed north. We arrived in the evening at the big house I had been to before in Marx (the middle of nowhere, 40 km north of Oldenburg).

There were already quite a few people here when we arrived, and more kept coming over the Easter weekend. In addition to Marius and his girlfriend, Maren has two older sisters, who both brought their boyfriends. All 4 grandparents were there, along with a collection of aunts, uncles, cousins, and friends. There were between 20 and 40 people at the house the whole weekend. We all ate huge meals and played games together. I attempted to speak German to as many people as I could, which was pretty funny. Especially with Maren's grandparents, who don't speak a word of English.

Most of the people left on Sunday. The siblings and their partners, as well as Maren's mother stayed. We all spent the next few days working on a massive clean-up of the house. Cleaning the Easter mess was no problem, but the real work was the incredible collection of stuff in the gigantic garage. Maren's father (who has been working and couldn't make it home for Easter) is a major packrat. It took days to sort through the boxes and boxes of stuff. The garage (3 interconnected garages, really) was filled with cars, bikes, games, sports stuff, books, furniture, just going on for eternity. I was not really able, or allowed, to help too much because of my hip. Maren and I drove down to Oldenburg one day with her younger sister, Johanna, because she had to go back to school. The clean-up just ended yesterday, and now everyone is leaving the house except for Maren and I. It has been really fun getting to know Maren's siblings. We have all been having a lot of fun together. I am learning a lot of German as well.

Our trip is coming together pretty well. Maren and I will spend the next week doing some more planning, booking some airline tickets, and picking up a few things we will need. We also need to arrange visas for some of the countries we plan on visiting. Maren also just finished cutting my hair. It was my first haircut since Halloween! Think it was about the longest it had ever been in my life... Now I am ready for the hot weather this summer. I will try to post one more blog before our adventure begins!

Out of the Hospital

2010-03-26T09:12:00.000-07:00

They let me out of the hospital on Wednesday. I was very relieved to get out of there as it was very boring. I knew I was also running up a big bill that somebody was going to have to pay. The previous day, Tuesday, they did another X-ray of my hip. Apparently I was healing as expected, so there was no longer any reason to keep me there. They prescribed some pain meds, gave me a pair of crutches, and sent me on my way. Ralf, my boss at the hotel, came and picked me up to take me back to my room. Right now, I am hardly in any pain. My leg has been improving quite a bit. Now I can kind of limp around my room if I leave the crutches too far away. I can actually turn on my side when I sleep, a real luxury I will never again take for granted.

I was also relieved as I was leaving the hospital to find out the bill. I was worried my crappy traveler's insurance was going to be insufficient. I wasn't sure what to expect regarding the cost of 8 hospital days, with X-rays, CT scan, meds, physical therapy, crutches, etc. I figured somewhere between 10,000 and 50,000 euros! Turns out my bill was just under 1,500 euros!! Amazing! Which means my insurance should cover it and I won't have to pay a dime.

As for my plans, I will be leaving Austria next week on the 1st as originally scheduled. I think I will be able to carry my backpack. Ralf will give me a ride to the train station, then I will just have to carry it when I switch trains a few times on the way up north. Maybe I will find someone to help me if it's a problem. I think I will FedEx my skis, depending on how expensive it is, unless I am able to sell them in the next few days. I will most likely be pushing the date back for the start of my travels with Maren. Not by more than 2 weeks though. That would be 6 weeks from the date of the accident, and I doubt I will need crutches then. So that is not a huge setback, we will work out the plan next week.

The weather here is incredibly warm, I have been walking outside in just a T-shirt. Most of the snow has melted already, and it feels like summer. The whole town has cleared out quite a bit, only a handful of tourists and locals left. I am getting very anxious to finish my recovery and move on to the next adventure!

Scheisse....

2010-03-20T02:08:00.000-07:00

On Wednesday, St. Patrick's Day, I went skiing after work as I often do. It was my 33rd, and last, trip to the slopes this season. On a good note, I would say I got my money's worth for my 510 euro season ski pass, about 15.50 euros per time. Though I had imagined I would have gone a lot more. The weather was perfect and there was a ton of powder, over 30 cm from the day before. I actually had to shovel snow around the entire hotel the day before. It took over 4 hours and I was exhausted. I also went running two days before that, for the first time in about 6 months. I ran for an hour on a hilly, snow-covered trail and felt really good, but my legs were very sore for three straight days. Which is why I waited until Wednesday to ski.

I was on the backside of one of the main mountains, in an off-piste area with some trees. It wasn't a dangerous place, and there are always lots of skiiers over there. My second time through, I hit a jump that I had found on my first run. It landed in a creek bed, but there was tons of snow, especially with that huge layer of powder on top. I took this jump a bit faster than the first time, and landed further away, but I never sensed any problem and fully expected to ski right on through when I landed. But for some reason, my skis sunk deep in the powder and just stuck there. I, of course, did not stick there. I was thrown forward and popped out of one ski. I somersaulted a few times and felt a horrible pain. When I stopped, I was stuck pretty deep in the powder. I slowly pulled my legs and arms out, but it was pretty painful. I spent about 15 minutes trying to stand up, but I quickly realized there was something wrong with my left leg. I couldn't lift it or put any weight on it whatsoever. I couldn't turn my body much either, as it caused excruciating pain.

I realized I wasn't going to be able to get off the mountain on my own. A couple skiiers came by and called the Ski Patrol for me. The Ski Patrol dude wanted to call in a helicopter, but I knew that would be insanely expensive (he said 2-3000 euros), so I told him no, let's get a ski-doo or something. An hour later, I was strapped in and on my way down the mountain, into an ambulance, and off to the ER in St. Johann, a town close to Kirchberg and Kitzbuehel. At this point, I was thinking I tore a muscle or something. Though the Ski Patrol guy and the EMT in the ambulance seemed to think it was a broken bone. I had an X-ray within 5 minutes of getting to the hospital. 5 minutes after that, a doctor came and told me I had broken my left hip. He said while it was a fracture, I didn't completely break it and would therefore not need surgery. They did a CT scan not long after that, then I spoke to another doctor. He told me that if I moved much, I could seriously damage my hip. Therefore I needed to stay in bed. No problem, I thought, just put me in a wheelchair and take me back to the hotel. I will stay in bed all day. Then he told me what he meant was that I would have to stay in the hospital for a week!

So here I am, still in the hospital. Today is day 4 and I am hoping they let me go ASAP. My first day here was pretty miserable. I could not move either of my legs even one inch without serious pain. The doctors wanted to shoot me up with pain killers right when I arrived, but as I have a deep-seated psychological aversion to needles, I declined. They have me on some pills, but the pain is not too bad anyway, as long as I don't move. It was really frustrating not being able to turn at all, so I didn't get a lot of sleep the first night. My condition has been steadily improving since that first day. I am now able to move my left leg on its own. I can slowly turn onto my right side. I can walk around a bit with crutches. I still can't put weight on my left leg, though the fact that I can now lift it up and down is promising. Yesterday was my first day of physical therapy, which went fine.

The latest news, which I heard this morning, is that next week I will get another X-ray, as early as Tuesday. If it looks OK, they will let me leave on crutches. I will have to come back a week later and get another X-ray to make sure I am healing properly. I should expect to be on crutches for about 6 weeks.

Ralf, my boss, came on Thursday morning to bring me some things from my room, including my netbook. So I have plenty of movies to watch and the internet as well. There are 3 other people in my room, all older Austrian guys with various ailments. None of whom speak much English, but I am getting to practice a bit of German. Though mainly with the nurses and doctors, as my roommates are not very social. With 4 people in my room, there is a pretty constant stream of nurses, doctors, friends, and family in my room. Which keeps me from getting too bored.

As far as work is concerned, I only had 2 more days left anyway. So I am not worried about not making that money. I can still stay in my room at the hotel until April 1st. Ralf will come pick me up whenever they let me leave the hospital, then hopefully take me back here for that last X-ray. As far as my trip goes, I am optimistic that this incident won't create any serious setbacks. I still intend to go to Germany and hang out with Maren and her family, then leave on the 17th for Istanbul. I might still be on crutches at that point, but should be healed well enough to move. My concern is carrying a big backpack around. So I am planning on just taking it day by day to see how I feel. I might need to find alternative transportation to Germany on April 1st as well. Perhaps I will put my skis and pack in the mail.

As far as costs/insurance, it's not looking good. I have very basic travel insurance, which I have contacted, but it is incredibly limited. Yes, Austria has universal healthcare like the rest of Europe. But it is unclear to me right now if that will benefit me in any way. I just read a story on the internet about some American without health insurance in Italy who had an accident, spent 2 weeks in the hospital, and walked away without so much as a bill. It sounds like I won't be so lucky, however, from what the hospital administrator has told me.

So, the good news is that hopefully my future travel plans won't be affected too much. I am recovering fairly quickly. I'm also fortunate this happened at the end of the season when I was just about done with work and skiing anyway. Though it's a bit depressing that there is still snow and the last 3 days have been sunny and very warm. I am going to make sure I heal properly before leaving the hospital, but I really hope that happens soon. I was not injured in any way besides my hip, so as soon as I am able to walk with crutches, navigate stairs, take a shower on my own, etc., I expect them to let me leave. (As of yesterday, I no longer have to pee in a plastic bottle or give myself a sponge bath in bed!)

I'll update this blog in a couple days, hopefully with news that I am about to leave the hospital!

Ski Season Winding Down

2010-03-19T06:48:00.000-07:00

I am going to write a couple of blogs today, this one to cover the last month or so, then another to cover the events of the last few days.

A few days after my last post in the middle of February, I was out skiing in one of the parks. There was one particular jump that seemed pretty popular, and I went off it several times in the day. I was feeling pretty confident, so I decided to attempt a helicopter (360 spin) on my last jump of the day. I've done that trick before, but it has been years... Well, for no apparent reason one of my boots popped out of my binding right as I left the snow. I spun all the way around in the air, but the landing with only one ski on resulted in epic failure. I limped my way home with pain in my lower back. Every tiny bump in the snow hurt like hell. So I ended up having to take about a week off from skiing until my back felt better. I didn't need to miss any work, but was very fortunate that it didn't snow much that week so I didn't have to snow shovel! My back fully healed and I was back on the slopes near the end of the month.

My friend Lisa came to visit on the last weekend in February. I had to work the first couple of mornings, so she got to sleep in. We went to Kitzbuehel one evening and I showed her around the town. We met up with some of my Aussie friends and went to a couple of bars. We took the train to Zell am See another day, where they had a really large street market going on. We waited for Saturday to hit the slopes. Lisa had told me before that she was a beginner skiier. I told her no problem, but I hadn't realized until we were on our way up the hill that it was her 2nd time ever skiing! Looking back, we probably should have taken a different lift to one of the beginner hills. Those lifts are free, by the way. Fortunately for Lisa, we found someone selling a lift pass in front of the ticket office for only 8 euros! What a steal! The problem is that the main gondolas in the Kitzbuehel ski area don't lead to any easy runs. We went on the easiest run that I knew of and quickly discovered one critical element of skiing that Lisa lacked: the ability to stop! All in all, I think it made for a pretty humorous day, and she didn't get hurt at all. Hopefully she learned a little bit, though I think her next trip skiing should be on a much flatter hill!

Lisa and I took the same train on Sunday. I left her in Munich, where she headed to the airport to fly home to Dublin. I continued on towards Nuremburg to meet up with Maren. Her sister lives with her boyfriend, Arne, in a suburb of Nuremburg called Schwabach. Unfortunately her sister was out of town, but Arne was happy to have us stay with him. We checked out Nuremburg one day, which turned out to be a cool city. There is a huge walking area in the center with lots and lots of shopping. The architecture and old buildings were pretty nice as well. I couldn't tell you a whole lot more about the city than that, as we only had one afternoon to walk around. Maren and I got groceries, then got lost on the incredibly long walk back to the flat in Schwabach. We finally made it and cooked a big dinner for Arne with he got home from work as a thank you for letting us stay there. The following day, Maren and I took care of some things and talked about our trip some more. We took the S-Bahn to the main train station in Nuremburg where we said our good-byes. She headed to Frankfurt for her flight to South Africa, where she is right now. I took the last train back to Kirchberg.

The month of March has been mostly uneventful for me. I have been working quite a bit and skiing every time I don't work and the weather is decent. There has been a surprising amount of snow this month. The weather seems to stay very cold for about 3-4 days and we get 20-30 cm of snow, then turns very warm for a few days without a cloud in the sky. At work, another dishwasher named Misa was hired a few weeks ago for a couple of nights a week. He is very nice and speaks to me in German, very clearly and slowly and without an incomprehensible Tirolean accent. I was told that my last day of work would be March 21st. After that, there won't be enough guests in the hotel. That will also be Tommy's last day. And Andrea left last week, so life in my basement room has been a bit lonely and dull. I feel pretty good about work ending. My boss told me that I can stay in my room until April 1st, as that is the day I will head up to Germany and meet Maren when she flies back from South Africa.

Maren and I are both very excited for our trip together. We have booked the first flight to Istanbul, we leave on April 17th. The rest of the trip is still coming together. We are cutting Greece out. We both feel it is a 'normal' place (i.e. not exotic) that we can visit some other time. We would prefer to save more time for Southeast Asia. It looks like we will split 4-5 weeks between Turkey, Israel, and Egypt (max one week in Egypt). That will give us 8 weeks for India, China, and Southeast Asia (possibly Thailand and Cambodia). I can't wait to leave!

After much work, I have completed Rosetta Stone German Levels 1, 2, and 3! I am feeling much more comfortable with the language. It is still very, very difficult to understand Austrians when they speak, but I can now read German quite a bit better, and my speaking ability is improving as well.

As I alluded to earlier, important events occurred on Saint Patrick's Day, which I will write about later today or tomorrow.

Announcement!

2010-02-13T08:36:00.000-08:00

I spent most of this week skiing. Today was my 24th time on the slopes this season. On Wednesday, I skiied as far away from Kirchberg as I have been so far (not including taking the train to Zell am See/Kaprun). I kept taking lifts and gondolas as far as I could for almost 3 hours. I visited 6 or 7 towns and took the gondola up from each one. I finally decided to head back, without even going as far as I could have. Skiing back required the help of a map several times. When I got back, I realized I had not taken the same run, the same lift, or the same gondola twice the entire day! It was a lot of fun skiing on so much new terrain.

Alright now on to my announcement. I will get right to it. I am leaving in April, after the ski season is over, to continue my backpacking adventure. For 3 months, I will travel through Europe, Africa, Asia, and end up in North America! And here is the best part: I won't be travelling alone!!! Maren and I have decided to do this trip together, and I am incredibly excited. This is the third part of my adventure so far, with the first being travel through Europe, the second being working in Austria. This third part is definitely the craziest and coolest part!! As I have mentioned in other blogs, neither Maren nor I are big on planning trips. We would both prefer to just take off without much of a plan and figure it all out along the way. It keeps us flexible and able to change directions every time we hear about a cool place. But for this type of trip, we both think we will need to do a bit of planning, given the expense of flights across continents. If we were staying in Europe, it would be no big deal as there are cheap flights everywhere. But we need to book some flights very soon for the places we plan on travelling to. We will probably only book the longest and most expensive flights, and not plan anything else until the trip begins. So here is our tentative itinerary:

We will fly from Germany to Istanbul, Turkey. From there, we will take a bus out to the western coast of Turkey for a bit, and then a ferry out to the Greek islands. After the Greek islands, we will end up in Athens, from where we will fly to Tel Aviv, Israel. We plan on about 2 weeks in Israel, then will probably take a bus to Cairo. After some time in Egypt (and hopefully a Nile River cruise!), we will fly to Mumbai, India! We will have about 3 weeks in India, then will somehow get to China for another 3 weeks! After that, we are hoping to go to southeast Asia, probably Thailand, Malaysia, or the Phillippines (we will only have time for one, I think). By the middle of July, we will fly from southeast Asia to Seattle, just in time for my sister Lauren's wedding! Maren and I are still working on our plans for the U.S. and beyond after the wedding, so I won't mention any of that just yet.

So, there ya go. Turkey, Greece, Israel, Egypt, India, China, Thailand (?). I plan on finishing work here in Kirchberg by April 1st, then heading to Frankfurt to meet up with Maren when she flies back from South Africa. We will meet up with most of her family and get things ready for the trip. We intend to leave the second week of April. I guess I should say it again: I am incredibly excited for this trip! I couldn't imagine a better plan or a better travel partner!

Midway Through the Season

2010-02-07T04:14:00.001-08:00

Life is still great in the mountains! My living situation has finally stabilized, no changes there. The snow has picked up a lot since my last post. It snowed about half a meter here last week. That meant lots of snow shovelling at work, but it is worth it for the powder on the slopes!

I spent 4 days with Maren in Germany. It was relatively simple to take a few trains to get to the Memmingen (near Munich) airport. I landed in Bremen where Maren was waiting for me, and we drove back to her flat in Oldenburg. Her parents are currently in the market for a new house in Oldenburg, so for the time being they are living in a flat with Maren's younger sister Johanna. Maren is living there for pretty much just the month of February. She has stopped travelling to work for the month before she leaves for South Africa. It was snowing as soon as I arrived and didn't stop much for the next few days. In fact, I left the same day a massive storm hit northern Germany. Maren and I spent our time walking into town, shopping, and biking. On Friday we left with her mother and sister for a house her family owns north of Bremen in the middle of nowhere. It is a massive warehouse that they have converted into a house and storage space for all her family's stuff. Her father (who was out of town) seems to be a bit of a packrat. The place was really cool despite there not being a whole lot to do in the area. We drove to nearby Wilhelmshaven to the indoor swimming pool Friday evening.

I had to wake up very early Saturday morning. My first train left the town of Sande before 8 o'clock. It stopped in the tracks for no apparent reason for about 15 minutes. This caused me to miss my connection in Oldenburg, so I also missed my connection in Bremen, then missed my connection in Hamburg to the airport. I arrived at the Hamburg airport an hour and a half later than I had planned, at 12:35 for my 12:50 flight! Shockingly, I somehow made it onto the plane! It involved a lot of pleading and running. I flew into Innsbruck and took a couple of trains to get back to Kirchberg to work that evening. In the end, I didn't get to really see any of Bremen or Hamburg which was a shame, but I will have plenty of time to do that in the future. I got to spend time with Maren and meet some of her family, which was the main point of the visit. All in all, it was a fantastic trip and I made use of every second of my free time from work!

I went skiing several times last week. On Thursday, I decided to head to Zell am See and Kaprun for my 20th time on the slopes. It took a little over an hour by train to get there, but it was well worth it. Both of those ski areas are covered by my season ski pass, and I had heard many good things so I decided to check it out. Zell am See had a large ski area with great snow and amazing views over the huge lake next to the town. I stayed for a couple of hours, then headed over to Kaprun. I took a taxi with some other people who didn't want to wait for the bus either. The mountain next to the town of Kaprun is called Kitzsteinhorn and is one of the tallest peaks in Austria at over 3200 meters. Some of you may recognize the name, there was a fire in the funicular tunnel in the year 2000 that killed 155 people. I took 2 gondolas up, then a chairlift, then a T-bar (2000 vertical meters total) and I was at the highest skiing point, at over 2900 meters. I was actually on a glacier that is open for skiing year-round. It was incredibly windy and cold up there, despite very warm weather down below. As I skiied down, I was getting blown right and left by the wind, but the snow was perfect and I had a lot of fun. I managed to forget my sunglasses in one of the gondolas, which was the only disappointment of the day.

Some other things to mention:

My friend Lisa (who I met in Lisbon, then visited in Dublin) is coming here for a visit in a week and half. We will get some skiing in, see some Austrian sights, and I will get to repay her for letting me crash at her place in Dublin!

On a side note, everyone please root for Yulia in today's Ukrainian election! The polls don't look so great, but I am still hoping that damn rapist doesn't win...

Alright, just to give you a little tease for my next blog post: I have, until recently, been uncertain as to my plans after the ski season. But a plan has been developing lately, and I will have huge news to report very soon! I will let you all know about my next epic adventure this week.

Auf Wiedersehen Maik! Plus, Hahnenkamm and Fun Week Ahead!

2010-01-24T15:06:00.000-08:00

To start this blog, I must explain the circumstances behind my new and improved (yet again) living situation. The big news to report is this: Maik was fired. So, the big room is all mine!! A lot led up to the firing, so I will first say that I am glad he is gone. While initially it was cool having him talk in German to me, it got annoying after the first week. He talked constantly to everybody around him, and it was usually about things that nobody else cared about. He would go on and on about movies and music, asking me if I knew of some movie he had on his computer. Then he would ask me about the next one, and it would go on for literally an hour or more. He would show photos and give commentary for hours on end, completely ignoring my lack of interest. He also drank alcohol every day. Most days it was just a few beers, but I was starting to sense he had a problem. It also seemed very strange to me that Maik has 3 children (from 2 ex-girlfriends). His two daughters live with their mother in Kitzbuehel, yet in 2-3 weeks of living with Maik, he never saw them. In fact, the only times he even left the room were to go to work, or to go to the bar or the supermarket with me. There were also a couple of incidents that made me a bit nervous. First, he invited some of the hotel guests into our room to drink and party. Then he invited our boss' son and his three friends (who were all 16 or 17 years old) into our room a few days later, again to drink and party. While I had fun both nights, it didn't seem like a very good idea to be drawing that kind of attention (of course the son told his dad about it the next day).

So finally the kicker: The night before Maik's last day, the two of us, along with Tommy and his girlfriend, went out for a drink in town. To sum up a long, stupid night, we ended up in Kitzbuehel with Maik's car, everyone drunk except for me. Maik refused to let me drive his car, and drove home completely trashed, leaving me alone in a parking lot freezing my ass off at 4 am. They tried to convince me to get in the car with them, and Tommy told me the next day Maik drove like a maniac, almost killing them a few times. He hit a couple of things with his car, then broke in to a convenience store to steal something to try and fix his car's damaged tire. Like I said, a very long story that I just summed up. I waited an hour in the cold for the train. Maik didn't wake up for work the next morning, so I ended up covering his shift, which didn't matter to me. When Maik finally made it to work, he said some pretty bad things to Klaus for some reason (depends on whose story I believe). They decided it was time for him to go, and Maik had moved all his stuff out and was driving back to the other side of Austria a few hours later.

I won't tell an old tale here, but for those readers who remember the story of my first roommate at university, Maik was an eery reminder of the other alcoholic who was kicked out of my room, Matt (minus the homicidal instincts).

This weekend was Hahnenkammrennen, which is what Kitzbuehel is most famous for. It is a 3 day ski event which draws 50,000 people to town. I didn't want to pay 24 euros to sit at the finish line and watch the race, but I did want to check out the party afterwards! Friday was the Super G, which I watched on TV, then Andrea and I headed over to Kitz to check out the music, souvenir stands, hoardes of people, etc. Saturday was the Downhill, which is the most famous and supposedly dangerous downhill ski race in the world. The skiiers hit speeds over 140 km/h. Today, I went up to the mountain (16th time) after the last race, the Slalom. I noticed they were letting some people onto the roped off Downhill course, so I snuck through to check it out. I only got to ski on the top half of the course, but it was absolutely insane. I knew it would be steep, but I didn't realize it would be a solid block of ice. It was like trying to ski down an ice rink tipped on its side. Most of the people there just fell and slid straight down, which I practically did as well.

Now for the best news of all: I am visiting Maren in northern Germany this week! After work on Tuesday, I will catch a train to Munich, then fly to Bremen, where Maren will (hopefully) pick me up and drive us to Oldenburg. I fly back to Innsbruck from Hamburg on Saturday, in time to work that evening. I am excited to see Maren, and also to visit northern Germany for the first time (and hopefully understand the 'real' German accent :) ). My boss is letting me go on this trip because I had planned it before the 'Maik' situation. They are not going to hire a replacement, I guess they decided it wasn't necessary to have another dishwasher. So my hours are increasing to four and a half days per week. I have Thurs, Fri, and Sat mornings free. It is actually the perfect amount of work. A good balance of money and free time.

Life here has definitely calmed down with Maik gone. I am really getting used to the mountain lifestyle. Work is going fairly well and I have new places to ski every day. I should mention a bit more about the skiing. I am a bit disappointed with the snow. It is still a bit lacking in many areas, and the powder days have been few so far. All the towns in the valley are at 800-900 meters, and the gondolas take you to the peaks at 1800-2000 meters. That really isn't all that high for a ski resort of this magnitude, which brings me to my next point, which makes up for the lack of snow: the ski areas around me are so massive they put Whistler to shame. There are lifts and gondolas as far as the eye can see. Then you turn a curner and there are 3 more gondolas and 12 more chairlifts. I thought the whole Kitzbuehel area was pretty big considering it takes over an hour to get from one side to the other. Then I discovered an even bigger area with more people and more gondolas which I can get to via a 10 minute bus ride. Every day I go skiing, I wait for one of several busses at the bottom of the hill. Whichever comes first determines where I will go for the day. I think after 16 ski days, I have probably been on about one third of the ski runs in the area. I am not including the 6 other ski areas covered by my season pass which I haven't been to yet as they require a train ride. I hope to check out some of those places on my off days. Well, I am (as usual) enjoying my good fortune to now have a big room with free accomodation all to myself! Not to mention the beer Maik left here in his hasty departure...

Snow, Week with Maren, and New Developments

2010-01-12T09:20:00.000-08:00

Last night when my shift ended at work, Maik and I made ourselves plates full of food and headed downstairs. We ate in our room, drank beers from our fridge, and Andrea came over from next door. After a few beers and lots of thumping techno music from Maik's system, we got ready and walked 100 meters down the hill to Der Tiroler, the closest bar/club. We hung out and had a few drinks until we spotted a few guests staying at our hotel from Cologne. More beer and several Jaeger shots later, we staggered back up the hill and back to our room with the guests. Another hour of music, drinks, and general German debauchery and we kicked the guests out so we could sleep. Woke up this morning at 7:50 in time for an espresso before I started work at 8:00. Washed some dishes, took out the recycling, shovelled some snow, ate lunch, and then hit the slopes on last night's fresh powder. Tonight should be a repeat... Life is hard in the mountains :)

Clearly, a lot has happened since my last post! Alright, I suppose I should go back and explain. A day or two before New Year, my boss told me he had hired another dishwasher, an Austrian. This sounded like very bad news for me. He was worried about my lack of valid work status I guess, though I am still not sure exactly what changed from the time I was hired. He told me to plan on working about 4 days per week for the season. This meant I would be making quite a bit less money than I would with the 6- or 7-day weeks I was expecting. Plus I would have to pay for my own food on my off days. But it also meant I would have a lot of time off to go skiing which would be nice. However, I was worried that they were soon going to get rid of me altogether. Especially when I spent the next morning shovelling snow instead of washing dishes. Anyway, there was nothing I could really do about it. New Year's was not terribly exciting. I worked until 11, then met up with some of my Austrialian friends at a bar. We lit some fireworks and had a few drinks, that was about it.

Maren arrived on the 2nd of January. She stayed for a week with me at the Deutsch Institute just outside of Kitzbuehel. She had already been sick for awhile before she got here, and I had also been sick for a couple of days. I am actually just starting to recover the last day or two. She and I didn't do too much the first days as we were both waiting till we felt better. I had my first day off work on the 3rd which was really nice. The commute to work 4 times per day was a killer. The total time I spent walking, waiting, and taking the train/bus was about 4 hours per day! Insane! Maren and I bought a bunch of food and spent the days eating healthy and drinking tea. I only skiied once between Christmas and New Year's, and didn't ski again until Maren and I finally went up on Friday. The snow was decent, and we had a lot of fun. Saturday was her last day here. She left to head back to Germany. She has some things to take care of, and then she might work for a month or so. She is leaving in late February for a monthlong trip to South Africa. I am not sure if we will get to see each other again before she leaves.

After Maren caught her train, I hauled my pack and my ski gear over to Kirchberg. A few days earlier, my boss had told me some incredible news: one of the staff rooms was available for me to live in! They are usually only for the 'real' workers who are on contract for the entire season. Many of them choose not to live at the hotel though, because they are married or for other reasons. The new Austrian dishwasher, Maik (pronounced pretty much like the English 'Mike'), had just moved into the biggest of the 3 staff rooms. My bed is in a little nook in the corner, on the other side of the table and chairs. Maik already had the room set up well. There is a TV and speakers with his Playstation 3 and 1000+ movies. There is an espresso machine and a fridge currently overflowing with beer. We have separate closets and a nice bathroom. There is free Wifi for me to use the internet. My laundry is done for me once per week. I get 3 free meals per day, including my off days. My only complaint: the hotel does not stock our fridge with beer, so we have to pay for it ourselves... Haha, just kidding. That will be one of my only expenses this season and it's not much. We just spent 45 euros on 50 liters of beer, should last us quite awhile. I can't believe how lucky I have gotten with this room. It takes me about 30 seconds now to get from my bed to the kitchen. Best of all, accommodation is free! We only have to pay a flat 50 euros each per month to cover our portion of the utility bills. Klaus is in the room to our left, though we never see him. Andrea, a server from the Czech Republic who speaks German and a bit of English, is in the room to our right. Andrea, Maik, and I (and Tommy when he is around) will probably be spending quite a bit of time this season hanging out in our room due to its cool setup.

One important note about Maik: He speaks only German. I have not heard him speak any English. Literally. He has not spoken a SINGLE WORD of English! Which is awesome, and he talks a lot, all the time actually. At first, I didn't understand very much, but I am already learning so much. Now I am able to figure out what he is talking about more than half the time. He uses a lot of hand gestures (naturally, not just to help me), which is very useful to me. I haven't spoken to him a whole lot as I am not very confident in my speaking ability. My comprehension is improving dramatically though. He knows I don't speak German obviously, but he just talks and talks and talks anyway. He realizes I don't always understand, but that doesn't slow him down. I think I am learning much quicker without anybody translating what he is saying. Since I moved in, I have hung out only with German speaking people which is pretty cool.

Well, that pretty much brings us up to date. I now officially have the best job/living situation of all the ski bums in town. Nobody else is getting accommodation AND food covered for the whole season. I have made the Aussies pretty jealous :) Despite only working 4 days per week (which is each day one of the 4 regular kitchen workers has the day off), I am going to be able to save a decent amount of money this season given my laughably low expenses. I should be able to save 90% of the money I earn. So, my worries about the uncertainty of working here the whole season have been relieved, they clearly plan on keeping me around. Plus, I can put my skis on right outside the hotel and ski down the hill to the bus stop, 5 minutes later I am on my way up the gondola! I plan on doing quite a bit more skiing from now on, every day I don't work, plus afternoons of work days when I am not too tired. It feels so nice to completely unpack my bag for the first time in over 6 months! It looks like I will be able to accomplish all my priorities for the season, which are, in order: 1. Make money 2. Learn German 3. Ski 4. Party

My address is:

Sean Stephens
c/o Hotel Willms
Kirchangerweg 13
Kirchberg in Tirol, A-6365
Austria

Life as an Illegal

2009-12-28T05:42:00.000-08:00

Today I am getting paid for the first time since June. It is going to be really nice to actually have an income. My boss told me on my first day, 'Just write your hours on a piece of paper. Whenever you need money, let me know and I will give it to you.' Kind of a strange way to handle it, but I should be getting close to 400 euros cash today for my 6 days of work! It looks like I am going to do a lot better than just break even this winter. I have been skiing when I have time in the middle of the day. Still not a lot of snow yet, but I'm not giving up. I worked Christmas Eve, Christmas, and will be working New Year's Eve and Day as well. It is sure a lot of work days, but I am not feeling overwhelmed yet. The food and the money more than make up for it.

A bit about work: Overall, the job is going very well. It is pretty simple and basic kitchen help, kind of mindless work but not too boring. I generally wash all the dishes (yes there is a quick automatic machine), sort out the recycling, peel vegetables, mop the floors, sort and dry silverware, that sort of thing. The hotel/restaurant is owned by two German brothers in about their 40s. One of them spends his time in the kitchen while the other does the bar and the general hotel stuff. The other kitchen helper guy is named Klaus. He has been the main one to 'train' me. He is definitely the big dumb doofus of the kitchen. He hardly speaks a word of English to me, which would be very helpful to my quest to learn to German, except he just mumbles quickly even when I ask him to enunciate slowly so I can understand. Instead he points to something and mumbles instructions, I just nod, say OK, and figure it out myself. It's not worth asking him to explain anything twice. He has a certain way he does every task and of course wants me to do things the same way. Since I always find my own way, he seems to think I am incompetent. That actually often works out in my favor, because he just does the difficult and annoying tasks himself. I don't really mind him too much, I just ignore him most of the time. One of the chefs in the kitchen is a younger guy inamed Tommy. He speaks English the best, though I need to tell him to stop talking to me so often in English because I will never learn German if he does.

The best part of my job is the free food. The restaurant is very nice with a fairly wide range of Austrian and international food. The main courses range from about 15-30 euros. I can eat first thing when I arrive in the morning, just a quick snack for breakfast. Then at the end of my shift, there is a big lunch for the staff. Usually salad and bread, plus a big stew made from the previous night's meat, plus multiple side dishes of potatoes, rice, etc. After my evening shift, we all eat again. Usually we get whatever the daily dish was. So far, I have had filet mignon three times, plus duck and an angus beef roast, all with loads of sides. It is not quite food straight off the menu, but much better than most 'staff meals' that my friends are getting at their restaurants. I fill up my own plate, so I usually eat a ton. I can pretty much snack all day long as well on soup, bread, etc. We often get a beer or two at night as well.

Commuting to work twice a day is a big pain in the ass right now. I definitely need to move out of Kitzbuehel and into Kirchberg. Right now I have to take a bus and a train each way to get to work. I have the schedules down for the most part, but it is really stressful on the weekends, holidays, etc. when the schedule changes and/or the busses are late. It would be really nice to live within a ten minute walk to work (i.e. anywhere in Kirchberg). While I glad to be working a lot of hours and also be able to ski in the middle of the day, I might get burnt out at some point. I was told I would be working 6 days a week, but I am not exactly sure how that will work. I am currently working 14 days straight, I hope after that I start getting a day off. I am allowed to take any day off I want if I can find a replacement to send in to do my job. That shouldn't be a problem, but they want me to only send in one guy as a replacement for the whole season. That way they can train him in a couple of days. It will be tough to find someone who is willing to do that whenever I ask for the whole season.

I skiied Saturday and Sunday afternoons between work shifts. Saturday was some of the iciest conditions I have ever experienced, so I went to a new area yesterday which had soft snow and great runs. This weekend I was only been able to go up for 2 hours each day because of my work schedule and the fact that runs close at 4:00. Once I move over to Kirch, I expect to get 3-4 hours a day on the slopes. I'm keeping count of days on the mountain, 9 times so far, already more than my last two seasons combined!

It looks like I am going to be able to save a lot more money than I expected. I don't have to pay for food or transportation (my ski pass covers it), so my expenses are incredibly low. Assuming I pay roughly what I am paying now for rent (300 euros) for the remainder of the season, I should be able to save at least 1000 euros/month and maybe up to 1500. That could put 5000 euros in my pocket by the end of the season which would be great! I'm not entirely sure what I will do come spring, or what I am saving for, but I have a few crazy ideas in mind (to be revealed at a much later date, obviously). Maren is with her family in Austria and I am trying to see if I can get my shift covered at work so I can go ski with her for a day, though she is about a 4 hour train ride away. She will be coming here in a little over a week.

I just posted the pics from my first couple of weeks here. Happy New Year!

Perfect day on the slopes! Plus, my week in Italy

2009-12-20T10:51:00.000-08:00

I spent the whole day skiing today. The sun was out and there wasn't a cloud in the sky. There were very few people on the slopes, and I spent the last few runs in knee-deep, untracked powder! It was amazing snow and I hope it continues...

Last week, I took off for Italy to meet up with Maren. She flew into Bergamo which is outside Milan. So I only stopped for a bit in Milan to change trains. We both wanted to spend some time in smaller towns and avoid the big cities. Bergamo is exactly that, small enough to walk around easily. I arrived late at the B & B, so we didn't get out in town till the following day. Maren and I went for a walk and explored the town center. Then we headed up the hill nearby and got some great views. We also checked out the Christmas market before heading to the grocery store. We cooked ourselves a fantastic Italian feast back at the B & B. We made enough for dinner the following day :)

Next stop on the trip was Lake Como, north of Milan. A quick train ride got us to the town of Como, right on the lake of course. We had a pretty bad experience finding accommodation that night. We got a listing from the tourist information, yet every place seemed to be either closed or they just didn't answer the door/phone. We ended up wandering all over town several times in the cold. It took over 4 hours! But we finally found a reasonably priced hotel room and were incredibly relieved to take off our packs and get warm. We went out to a nice dinner, bought some candy at the Christmas market, and went back to the room to crash.

The following day, Maren and I walked through Como (to the few parts we hadn't seen the previous evening). We walked along the water till we got to a funicular. It was one of the longest I have ever seen, and it took us straight to the top of the mountain overlooking the town and the lake. We walked around up on the hill a long ways and took lots of pictures. We took the funicular back down as it was getting dark, then looked for food. After a long search, we found exactly what we were looking for: an inexpensive pizzeria right on the lake. We had another walk through the Christmas markets after dinner to finish the night.

We left Como the following morning to go to Verona. It was a last minute decision. We had been looking at going to Switzerland, but couldn't seem to find a hostel or B & B at a reasonable price. We were absolutely determined not to have a repeat of Como (4+ hours in the cold), so we booked a B & B in Verona the night before. It was only 30 euros for the double room, and it was right in the center of town! I spent one night on my own in Verona back in September, that's when I went to the Verdi opera. But it is a great town, and I definitely enjoyed another night there! Maren and I spent the evening walking through town, checking out the various Christmas markets, and buying more sugar-coated nuts. We searched for a restaurant for awhile until we found a cute little place where we shared pizza and pasta.

Maren had to get back to Germany soon to visit family and friends for the holidays, so we started making our way north. We took the train to Innsbruck, which is the biggest city in the western panhandle of Austria. It is only about 80 km away from where I am now in Kitzbuehel. We quickly found our B & B right in the center of the Old Town. Innsbruck is a really nice place, and I definitely plan on heading back over there this season (about an hour and a half by bus + train and only 5.50 euros each way!) It was really cold when we arrived, quite a bit below freezing. We wandered through town, ate some roasted chestnuts at the Christmas market, and then found a Chinese restaurant for dinner (we both have plenty of time to experience Austrian cuisine another night :) ).

We woke up relatively early to head out of town. We got on the same train, I headed to Woergl (between Kitz and Innsbruck), while Maren had to spend the whole day to get up to Marburg to visit a friend where she went to school. She is going on a ski holiday with her family in Austria, not too far south of Kitz, after Christmas. Depending on my work schedule, I may head over there to go skiing and meet her family. She will probably spend some time here in Kitz or Kirchberg on her way back in the beginning of the year. I am looking forward to it! When I got back into town, I spent one more night at Alpen Rider (the name of the 'hostel' I had been staying at previously in Kirchberg). I joined the whole crew there for a night out in Kitz. We ate at a traditional Tyrolean restaurant (Tyrol is this area of Austria), then hit the bars.

The next day I moved into a new place in Kitz. There are about 10 of the original group staying here at the 'Deutsch Institute.' It is kind of like a student residence that we are all using as temporary accommodation until we find homes. I am going to start looking tomorrow for a permanent place in Kirchberg. The pink palace in Kitz eventually fell through. Well, I could still live there, but it would be even more expensive than we originally thought. Plus, it makes a lot more sense for me to live in Kirchberg where I am going to be working 2 shifts a day beginning Wednesday. The Deutsch Institute is a pretty decent place, the only real problem is the location. It was a 15-20 minute walk out of Kitz. While it is on the bus line, it still takes 2 busses to get to Kirchberg. It is really cheap though. I am paying 10 euros a night for a double room (all to myself unless someone else shows up) with my own bathroom. I can also stay there as long as I want, though I hope not the whole season. If I am still here when I start working, I will see how bad the commute is, but I think I can hold out till I find a new place. I plan on moving to Kirchberg as soon as I find decent accommodation there.

Well, today was my 6th day up on the slopes. So far, only about half of the ski areas are open due to lack of snow. It is easy to find places with lots of snow, there are just some lower altitude areas that are a bit bare. This place is absolutely gigantic. I have probably seen about 10% of the total area so far. There is a massive web of gondolas and lifts that take you everywhere. You can take a gondola up in Kirchberg, then through a series of lifts, runs, and more gondolas, make it all the way out to Pass Thurn, which is over 30 km away! Sure beats taking the bus!

So far, I am doing alright on a budget. I have already paid for the expensive things (my lift pass, my rent at the Deutsch Institute through the end of December, my ski gear, the week in Italy...). So I shouldn't need much more money until I start working and get paid. I am really looking forward to it, which sounds silly considering the job is washing dishes. But it will be nice to get into a daily routine, plus I will get to eat good food for free and practice German all day long!

Merry Christmas everyone! I will try and update again before the New Year. Pictures of Austria and Italy are coming in the next couple of days! For those that didn't catch it, my Austrian phone number is 0043 664 996 6682. Hopefully I will have a mailing address soon!

Update from Austria

2009-12-10T05:14:00.000-08:00

First off, I GOT A JOB!!!

I got a phone call yesterday from a hotel/restaurant I had dropped my phone number off at about a week ago. The guy they had hired flaked out, so I went in this morning and got it! I will be mainly washing dishes in the kitchen, there might be some other work as well. I don't start till December 23rd, so I have a couple of weeks to hang out and ski! I'm going to be working a morning and evening shift six days a week so it will be quite a bit of work. But I will have every afternoon free to go skiing. The guys running the place seem to be very nice and flexible, if I am ever sick or want to go ski all day, I can send a friend in to cover my shift. They are going to start me at 8 euros an hour and if I do alright, bump it up to 10 or so. That seems to be the going rate for dishwashers in town, and it will be plenty to live on around here.

As for accommodation, that is still up in the air. We are still in negotiations to get the 'pink palace' right in the middle of Kitzbuehel. Every day the situation seems to be changing with the number of people that want to live there. So the price keeps changing as well which is making people uncomfortable. I'm still not sure if we are going to end up living there. My job is in Kirchberg, about 6 km from Kitz, so I would be bussing (or skiing) quite a bit every day. It would make more sense for me to live in Kirchberg, so I am going to look for some other places as a backup to the pink palace.

I have been up to the mountain three times this week! So far, the snow has been so-so, they definitely need more of it. The snow machines have been working hard the last couple of days. I have been taking the bus out about 20 minutes outside of Kitzbuehel where there has been a fair bit of powder. Earlier this week, I bought my gear: a pair of one year old Elan skis with bindings, brand new Rossignol boots, and some decent poles. All for 80 euros!!! It was an incredible deal, I was prepared to pay 200-300 euros for it. It was from a rental shop, I still don't know how the guy gave me such a good deal. He even machined the skis for me and he's going to service them again for me for free when I go back in.

Most of the people I have met here have been really cool. I am staying at a hostel with mostly Aussie ski bums. The majority of the people there have had success finding jobs so far. About half the people have accommodation, the rest are holding out for the pink palace as well. I've been meeting some locals as well which has helped me around town. I finished German Level 1 in Rosetta Stone and am now working on Level 2. It has definitely helped, and I am starting to understand a bit. It would be really cool to be speaking at a basic conversational level in a few months. My accent is still pretty terrible though...

Tomorrow I am taking the train down to Milan to visit Maren and hang out for a few days. I bought an Austrian rail pass today as well. Milan is not that interesting (or cheap), so we will probably spend just one night there, then take off for somewhere else. I'm not sure when I will get back, but I will have to sort out the accommodation dilemma right away!

Wow, it just started snowing as I write this!

Lots of Snow in Austria!

2009-12-04T05:02:00.000-08:00

I have arrived! I've been hanging out for a couple days now in Kirchberg and Kitzbuhel, right next door. The area is really beautiful. There are several small towns in the valley, each has a gondola or lift up to the mountains. So far, most of the people here are friendly, though in general don't speak as much English as I had expected. There has not been a whole lot of snow prior to today. I woke up this morning and it was absolutely dumping snow! It is still going now, and there is 10 cm on the ground in some places. It is supposed to continue through the weekend. My first ski day will hopefully be tomorrow!

As soon as I arrived, I started looking for a job and a home. It has been really difficult, but I might be making a little progress. There is a lot of competition from all the Aussies here for the few jobs that don't require legit work status or fluency in German. This afternoon a few of us are going to look at a gigantic 15 bedroom house right in the middle of Kitzbuhel. We have to convince the lady to rent half of it to about 20 of us. It is kind of run down, but fairly cheap I think. She wants to rent the whole place to 40 people; she wants 40,000 euros for the season. That works out to 200/month which would be pretty damn good. I also have kind of a job interview tonight as a dishwasher at some restaurant in Kirchberg. Most of the available jobs are dishwashing, kitchen help, hotel work, that kinda thing. Hopefully I can find one that pays a little bit and I can work in the evenings so I can ski all day. I bought my season pass to the mountains yesterday, so I am definitely committed to staying here (it was 500 euros).

Looking for a home and a job has been pretty crazy. I have mainly just been knocking on doors and asking people if they have a room for rent or any job available. It is like cold calling I guess, and I have been rejected hundreds of times by now. But that is the best way to find something in this area. There is also a newspaper with listings that has been helpful. I can't wait till I get the living situation sorted out. That is much more important than finding a job. I am only allowed to stay where I am now until the 15th or so, then they kick all us ski bums out. There is a group of about 25 of us staying there. There are 2 English kids, 1 kiwi, me, and the rest are Aussies (including the owner and all the workers there). Everyone is really nice and friendly, but I think we all realize that we are competing against each other so some people (myself included) are a bit secretive. Most of us are looking to move into the big house though, and once we all find jobs I think we will become good friends.

I have a lot more to say, but WiFi is in short supply around here! I will try to update more next week. Jonathan is here too, hanging out where I am staying and going sightseeing during the day while I look around. Oh, and if I get a home in the next few days, I will go meet up with Maren in Milan next weekend!

Ready for an Austrian adventure

2009-11-30T02:16:00.000-08:00

I flew into Paris yesterday and am very excited to be back in Europe. I spent about 9 days in Seattle taking care of some things. I sold my car, saw friends and family, and packed some ski gear and warm clothes. My dad also emptied my storage unit for me, thanks! Though it was a short trip, I was already getting antsy to get back here.

I had a fairly easy couple of flights to get into Paris, and I didn't get asked a single question at customs which surprised me. Yesterday I went to Montmartre and saw Sacre Coeur. Last night I met up with some French friends of mine, a couple guys I met in Budapest plus Clement and Jonathan (who I met up with in Portugal, Paris, and Krakow). We went out for a couple of drinks, drove through the Christmas markets along the Champs Elysee, and saw the Eiffel Tower Christmas 'light show.' Today I am just hanging out at the hostel until my train leaves this evening, overnighting through Munich to Kirchberg in Tirol. Jonathan will meet up with me in a couple of days to go skiing. There is not a whole lot of snow up there yet, but they should get some this week. There is only one lift open currently, but the entire 60+ lift ski area is set to open December 5th.

I suppose this blog will change a bit from previously. I might not update as often because I won't have as many travel stories considering I should be staying primarily in one place. I hope to find a job and a home as soon as possible. I am not sure what to expect when I arrive, so I am going to just try and be flexible and take whatever comes to me! I will update my progress later this week!

One more thing, here is my new Austrian phone number: 0043 6649966682. You should be able to reach me on that any time through May 2010!!

Fantastic final week in England!

2009-11-19T14:57:00.000-08:00

My first evening in Manchester, I went out to a unique bar with an Aussie girl named Emily I met at the hostel. The tiny bar was in a converted underground public toilet. We walked down the stairs right from the sidewalk of the street. It was pretty clever. Later we met up with a French guy named Julien I had met earlier, but most of the pubs seemed to be closing around 1 o'clock so we decided to rest up to go out the following night. On Friday, I went to the Manchester Art Gallery to see some British and European art. I also explored some of the buildings downtown, including the town hall and Chinatown. I went back to the hostel and met up with Emily. We found a bus to take us just outside the city to Old Trafford, where Manchester United's stadium is. The stadium was built in 1910, yet is very impressive and looks fairly modern. We went through the trophy rooms and history, then took a tour. We got to walk out to the pitch and into the players' lounge and dressing rooms.

On Friday evening, I made myself dinner at the hostel, then found Emily and Julien. Before we headed out, we met a German girl at the hostel, Maren. The four of us found a bar/club called MoJo I had heard about. The place played really good music and we stayed the whole night at a booth and the dance floor. My rain jacket was stolen when I left the booth for a couple of minutes which was annoying, but I still had a lot of fun. On Saturday, I went to the Museum of Science and Industry with Maren and Julien. We didn't have very much time there, but managed to check out several exhibits on textiles, engines, and airplanes. We rushed back to the hostel in the rain so that Maren and I could grab our things. We walked down to the station just in time to catch our bus to Sheffield.

I had looked up a few places for accommodation in Sheffield, but hadn't booked anything. There are no hostels in the whole city, which is crazy considering the size of it, 700,000 people or so. I guess it is not much of a tourist destination. Maren and I found a bed and breakfast which was full, then found a hotel which was also full. At the hotel, they told us everything was booked because there were several events happening in town that weekend. We were starting to get a bit desperate, so I used my backup plan. I called Emily, who had gotten to Sheffield that morning and was staying in a hotel room she had booked months in advance. She said it was alright, so we got on the tram and snuck into her hotel room. The three of us got ready, then headed to the Sheffield Arena for a concert, the reason we were all in Sheffield. The Arctic Monkeys are a really cool Indie rock band that are actually from Sheffield. I could have seen them a couple of days later in London, but decided it would be much better to see them in their hometown. Emily had bought her ticket way earlier, I bought mine the day before, and Maren just bought hers at the show. The Arena didn't quite sell out, it holds 14,000 people though. Maren actually paid less than Emily and I to get in because there was no service charge at the venue. The show was really good, the band was awesome and the crowd was crazy.

On Sunday, Emily took a train back to London, so Maren and I went to go find our own place to stay in Sheffield. We went back to the first B & B we tried the previous day and fortunately got a room. Though the name has changed, there has been a B & B or hotel in that location since 1817, the photos in our room and the lobby were very cool. We walked into the city to see the cathedral, the winter gardens, and some other sights downtown. The weather was actually nice for a change, so we kept walking up to a hill overlooking the city. We found a couple of walking trails, then a huge park. By the time we started walking back, it was rainy and windy. After we got dried off and changed, we found a pub for dinner. We ate some traditional British food, then found another pub with live music. I got to know Maren pretty well and am a bit sad my travelling is ending at the same time hers is beginning.

On Monday, Maren and I took a bus to York, which is much more of a tourist attraction than Sheffield, or Manchester for that matter. There is still a wall surrounding the city center and a river cuts straight through the town. There are lots of cool buildings and plenty of historical attractions. We went to the first two hostels mentioned in my guide book. The first was turned into a hotel and the second one was closed. We were a bit discouraged but decided to go find a B & B. We walked just outside the city walls along the river to a street that had 5 or 6 different guest houses on it. After a bit of comparing, I negotiated a good price on one of them for a nice room in the upstairs loft. We put our warm clothes on and went into the city center to look around. We found a pub for dinner with a table overlooking the river.

Tuesday was to be my final day in York and my final day in Europe on this leg of my trip. We got up for the 9:15 AM breakfast at our guesthouse. They served us a full British breakfast which was entirely too much food. Cereal, toast, and coffee followed by sausage, bacon, egg, hashbrowns, beans, mushrooms, tomato, and black pudding. Maren and I walked through more of the city seeing some historical ruins, then climbed onto the wall to walk around the city. Next was the main attraction in town, the gothic cathedral which is the best in Britain and one of the largest in the world. We bought the full tickets to see the entire place. We took a tour of the interior and learned the history of the church. Next was the undercroft and crypt where we saw the origins of the first church on the sight, nearly 2,000 years old. Afterwards, we climbed the 275 step tower to get an incredible view of the gothic towers and the whole city. Maren and I went to the train and bus station to arrange our plans. I wanted to stay as long as possible, so I ended up paying way too much to book the last bus of the evening to London. We went out to dinner at an Italian restaurant. Then we ran to the bus stop for the end of my trip.

It was very sad saying goodbye to Maren. Even considering all the people I have met on my trip, she is the only one besides Cameron I have actually travelled with. Though we only spent four days together, we really connected and have a very similar approach to travelling. She is completely carefree: I asked her the night we met if she wanted to go to the concert in Sheffield the following day. She barely thought about it and just said 'OK!' Her trip just began in Manchester, and she will probably find a job and spend a year in England. Fortunately, she is going on a ski vacation to Austria with her family at the end of December. I hope to meet up with her then or maybe have her come stay with me in Kirchberg in January.

I took an 8.5 hour bus ride directly to Heathrow, then a 2 hour flight to Frankfurt, then an 8.5 hour flight to D.C., then a 5+ hour flight to Seattle. The total travel time was about 32 hours.

The title of this blog is still appropriate (though maybe not the subtitle), so I will continue to write here while I am in Austria.

Partied in Poland, now exploring rainy England

2009-11-12T11:42:00.000-08:00

I spent the whole day Wednesday in Greenwich, a London neighborhood to the southeast of the center which I got to by train. It is a cool area of town with a bit of a slower pace and lots to see. The first sight I went to was the Royal Observatory. This is the famous place where the Prime Meridian and Greenwich Mean Time come from. The observatory was up on a hill with great views of the city. I stood on the Prime Meridian at 0 degrees longitude where the world is split into the Western and Eastern Hemispheres. I learned about the history of the observatory and saw the Time Ball, Millenium Clock, and a cool museum filled with clocks, telescopes, and the first ever time pieces. Next stop was the Queens House, an impressive Victorian building filled with British art. After that was the National Maritime Museum. Britain obviously has an important naval and shipping history, and this museum definitely showed that. The best exhibits were on the British navy and explorers. They even had Lord Nelson's uniform he was wearing when he was shot and killed by a French sniper in the naval battle of Trafalgar in 1805. It still has the bullet hole in the shoulder. I walked through Greenwich along the water, then through the Naval College to the Painted Hall. This was a gigantic hallway with a memorial to Nelson. The amazing walls and ceiling took 19 years to paint. I got back into town and met up with my friend Karina, who lives in south London. I initially met her in Seville. We also randomly ran into each other at Oktoberfest on my first night. We had a few beers and have kept in touch. We ate seafood pasta at an Italian restaurant, then found a pub for a couple of pints while we watched a football match.

On Thursday I went to the Victoria & Albert Museum in South Kensington. Once again, I spent an incredibly long time there yet didn't manage to see everything there. The museum is filled with decorative arts, meaning sculptures, paintings, fashion, furniture, jewelry, and everything in between. The place has 6 floors and 4 million items, you have to walk 7 miles to see it all. Some of my favorites were the Rodin sculptures, the samurai swords in the Japanese room, and the silver rooms. I spent 2 hours on the first floor alone! After 4 and a half hours, I was only finishing the 3rd floor, so I gave up and headed home. I might go back at some point, but there are really so many sights to see in London it is tough to do them all. Cam and I went out Thursday evening because he did not have to work Friday. We went to three or four pubs near his place and had a pint at each one.

On Friday, Cam left for Krakow and I headed to Tate Britain. It is filled entirely with British paintings from all periods of history. Most of the 17th and 18th century stuff was pretty good, but I was most impressed by the contemporary art collection. Oh, plus the JMW Turner was very nice. It was raining when I left as it has been every day in London. I decided to head back to Cam's place to relax, then got ready for Friday night in Camden. Camden is a neighborhood just north of central London which is famous for 'alternative' type people. Think piercings, tattoos, and guys wearing lipstick. Needless to say, it was a very interesting evening. I was going out for my friend Pav's (Alex's) birthday. I met Pav in Lagos, then we rented an apartment with a group of friends in Valencia for La Tomatina. The first strange thing to happen was right when I got on the Tube. I spotted Tom, another friend from Lagos and Valencia who stayed in the apartment. It was incredibly random that I saw him given how big London is and how many people are on the Tube. I didn't even know he was in London, but of course he was heading to Pav's party as well. He was with another girl who I recognized who had stayed at the same guest house as me in Lagos. We got to the club/party/horse stable where I waited outside for a couple of friends. I invited Uttara and Karina. Uttara is the girl I met at Oktoberfest and then saw again in Salzburg. I gathered them both and we went inside not knowing quite what to expect. The place is called Proud and is basically a club that has been converted from a horse stable. There are multiple rooms with different DJs plus a live band. The theme for the night was a 'dark circus' or something which basically meant gypsies and evil clowns and cool lighting and bizzare outfits. We found Pav's private booth where she had at least 50 people crammed in. We experienced the crazy party in each room, it was definitely an experience.

I woke up relatively for my flight to Krakow on Saturday. I left my pack at Cam's and just took my daypack which was nice. No problems at the airports or on the flight. No one in my group was at the hostel so I headed to Pawel's place. I hung out with Mishka until Cam got back from his day at Auschwitz. He and I headed into the main square to find the French boys. While we were walking towards our meeting place, I spotted Clement, Vincent, Jonathan, and Julien in the middle of the street. As Jonathan and Julien came over to Cam and I, I noticed out of the corner of my eye Clement wind up and punch Vincent in the face! We all ran over to see what the hell was going on, they acted like they were just joking around. Clem obviously hit him way too hard though, and Vincent started bleeding all over the street. His nose was pretty messed up too, which we had to straighten later. Once he got cleaned up, we went to Pies (the bar I spent a lot of time in last time in Krakow). After a few minutes, Vincent and Clem started yelling at each other, and Vincent started punching Clem. We had to drag the two of them out of the bar, where they kept yelling at each other in the street. As we held them both away from each other, I saw a group of about 8 Polish skinheads nearby watching. Two of them came over to where I was standing next to Vincent. They were laughing as they came over, and I could tell they were assholes, so I told them to get the F out of there and shoved one of them. The other one just continued right up to Vincent, who was bent over wiping blood from his nose. The kid punched him right in the face and kept laughing as I lunged at him. Some girl came in between us and dragged the kid away from me. It was so dumb and totally unprovoked. As the rest of the skinheads came my way, I decided we better get the hell out of there. So I yelled at Cam and we grabbed our two idiot friends and left while the skinheads kept yelling and laughing. Vincent and Clem are best friends and made up about an hour later. Though they are completely immature for starting such a dumb fight to begin with. I still have no idea what caused it. We had to straighten Clem's nose as well and the two of them spent the rest of the trip in Krakow with black eyes. Vincent's was especially bad from that last punch thrown by the skinhead. It was bad enough they wouldn't let him in to the club we went to called Kitsch. So we sent him home, then the other French guys headed home not long afterwards. Cam and I went to another club called Prozak and had fun with some Polish people we met. It was kind of embarrassing for both of us to see our friends act like 6 year olds. Anyway, it was pretty funny when they both tried wearing sunglasses the next day when it was rainy and overcast!

On Sunday, after sleeping in till nearly noon, we got our group together to go to Wawel Castle. The group now included Pawel and his friend Asha. The 8 of us wandered around in town and up to the castle. The French boys weren't moving very quick so Cam and I had to lead the way. I had already seen the castle, so after a quick stop I suggested we go to Nowa Huta. It is a Communist town just outside of Krakow. The Soviets built it as a model communist city, kind of a 'workers paradise.' Of course it was anything but. It was filled with horribly ugly Soviet architecture of cement and steel. It wasn't actually that interesting to see it, I suppose we should have taken a tour to see the cooler sights. After walking Nowa Huta, we headed back into Krakow to go out to dinner at the same German-themed restaurant Pawel took me to a few weeks earlier. We stuffed ourselves with Polish food, beer, and vodka, then went to Pies where I met Pawel's (famous) father who happened to be in town.

I planned on seeing some more of Poland on this trip, so Cam and I decided to head out on our own Monday. The French guys had some other plans in mind. We took a train to Wroclaw (pronounced like 'vraw swahf' if that makes sense), a cool student town north of Krakow. The city is similar to Krakow with a large central square and cool architecture. The nightlife was supposed to be one of the highlights, though unfortunately we were there on a Monday. We found a decent hostel and explored the city center. We ate dinner at a traditional Polish restaurant, then had beers at a couple of bars. As I mentioned, it was fairly quiet being Monday. The city is pretty nice, but ultimately a bit of a let down. It was just a bit to similar to Krakow and the dreary weather and slow Monday night didn't help.

The following day, Cam and I went to Wroclaw's main tourist attraction, a gigantic panoramic painting. We bought our tickets to the tour, then explored the town a bit more. The university was very cool looking, and the river was scenic. The tour began and took us into a huge round building. The painting itself is 15 meters tall and 120 meters long. You stand in the center of it and walk around inside. It was painted by a team of Polish painters and depicts an important battle in Wroclaw where they defeated the Russians back at the end of the 18th century. It is by far the largest painting I have ever seen and they made it cooler by including actual dirt and objects at the base of the painting which made it even more realistic. Afterwards, we packed up at the hostel and went to catch the train back to Krakow. 5 hours later we arrived, then met Vincent and Clem for dinner. Julien and Jonathan had already left that morning to go back to Paris. We went to the same restaurant as before, though this time I shared the seafood platter with Cam. After a few beers and with the place closing, we went out for my final night in Krakow. We decided to go back to Prozak because Cam and I had liked it a lot and the French boys had missed out. One of the first things that happened when we got there was a rather interesting experience. As we walked by the bar to find a table, two girls stopped us and asked if we spoke English. After talking for a few minutes, we found out they were Russian students. They seemed to be very friendly, but I was still a bit surprised when they kept mentioning they were ready to go somewhere else and wanted us to come with them. Vincent came over and whispered something in my ear like 'I think they want money.' He had forgotten the word 'prostitute' but I understood quickly what he meant! I'm still not 100% sure they were Russian hookers, but when they left a couple minutes later, telling us we should join them at their apartment 'after party' where they had Russian vodka waiting, we definitely did NOT go with them! It was pretty funny, especially since I had no idea what was going on at first. Not long after, we met a group of 8 crazy American girls and partied with them at Prozak the rest of the night.

I woke up at noon yesterday and was very grateful I had booked an afternoon flight back to London. Cam is staying in Krakow until tomorrow, Vincent and Clem until early next week. I made it back on my own to Cam's flat. I made myself dinner and lounged all evening. It might have been the most uneventful day of my trip so far, but I badly needed it. Since he was gone, I slept in Cam's bed and got a decent night's rest. Today, I woke up early, ate a huge breakfast, and made by way to the coach station. 5 hours later, I got off here in Manchester. I am excited to see some other places in England, and this city definitely seems like an interesting place so far. I arrived this afternoon and found a pretty cool hostel. The weather is terrible of course, but I explored the city center anyway. Manchester used to have a reputation as a grimy industrial place. True, it is the world's first 'modern' city and the birthplace of the Insustrial Revolution. But from what I have seen, it is a very cool mix of old architecture and ultramodern new buildings. My hostel is in a cool, young area of the city right next to the main square. I checked out Urbis, a new museum with exhibits on the history of rap/hip hop in Britain and the history of British television. Tonight I will probably go check out some local pubs and maybe see some of the live music this city is famous for. Tomorrow I hope to go take a tour of the famous Manchester United's football stadium.

After another day or two in Manchester, I am thinking about visiting Liverpool, only 37 miles away. Probably only one more post before I get back to Seattle next week!

London is so easy and relaxing

2009-11-03T15:57:00.000-08:00

On Monday, after the police ordeal I discussed in the last post, I continued on through the park to the Caves Monastary. The Monastary is split between the Upper Lavra and Lower Lavra. I went through the upper section to see the religious sights. I went in to a couple of museums as well. The one containing Ukrainian folk art was pretty memorable. Next, I went down to the lower section to go in the crypts themselves. I walked down the stairs with dozens of of worshippers holding candles. I was supposed to buy a candle as I was the only person without one. I had to walk behind other people just so I could see my way. There were a whole bunch of caskets and sarchophaguses with Ukrainian religious figures in them. Every person was praying and kissing the tombs. A lot of the people buried there were monks. It was a very unique experience. I continued on to the WWII museum, yet arrived there too late to go inside (I blame the cops for the delay). It was interesting to walk around outside, however, as there were lots of tanks, artillery, monuments, and a helicopter. Also, a massive Soviet metal monument is there. It is a woman over 100 meters tall, my guide book says people call her 'tin tits'. Yulia hadn't heard that before and thought it was hilarious. I think normally you can climb inside her but she was closed for renovations. I cooked dinner again for Yulia, Japanese food.

On Tuesday I got on the metro to find the Chornobyl Museum. It took an hour to find off the metro which was kind of frustrating. Even when I know the street names I am looking for, they are very rarely posted anywhere and I can't understand the letters. I really should have gotten a map in Ukrainian, oh well. The museum was really cool. It had all sorts of artifacts and peoples' stories of the disaster. There were recreations of the power plant and simulations of the explosion. I really wish I could have gone to Chornobyl itself, but you can only go on guided tours which don't run very often. The area is about 2-3 hours north of Kyiv. The contaminated area reached the outskirts of the city but fortunately no person in Kyiv received radiation poisoning. The stories of the people working at the plant at the time were really fascinating. It was also interesting to read the Soviet newspapers at the time. All they mentioned was a two sentence statement about an accident at the plant in the paper one full week after the incident. I went to see the main university in the city, but they wouldn't let me go inside. I walked through the botanical gardens nearby, then to another beautiful church. After that was the Russian art museum. Most of the art was really cool, it was nice to see very different art than what I have been used to these last few months. It was also the premier of a new exhibit of interesting modern Russian art, so the place was packed with people. I met up with Yulia later on in the evening for a live organ and chamber music concert. There were lots of different performances and it was very enjoyable. I cooked Yulia pork chops and mashed potatoes when we got home.

On Wednesday morning, Yulia took me on the metro out to a bus stop. I got on the bus to Odessa, about 5 hours south of Kyiv on the Black Sea. I arrived and met Masha (nickname for Maria), who is Yulia's friend she asked to show me around. Masha was really nice to come meet up with me and take me around town. We walked through the main sights in the city center. We saw the main walking boulevard and the beautiful opera house. We headed down to the port and strolled along the water. We took a funicular to get back up the hill. Afterwards, we went back to Masha's flat for me to unload my daypack. I met Masha's husband, Vova (not sure how to spell that, nickname for Volodymyr). He is a really cool guy and we got along great. Both of them spoke English well. They have a fantastic apartment in a really massive 20 story building similar to Yulia's. Vova stayed in for the evening, while Masha and I headed out to meet up with her friend. We went to a cool underground bar until her friend showed up. The three of us listened to some live jazz music and had a few drinks. We got in a cab and were dropped off on a very dark residential looking street. I was really confused until they pointed towards this cellar door. We walked down some stairs and found another really cool bar. It amazes me that none of the places have signs or even names it seems. The three of us enjoyed champagne, sushi, and backgammon while sitting on pillows with our shoes off. A strange combination, but lots of fun! We had a blast and Masha and I didn't make it home until very late.

On Thursday, after sleeping in of course, Masha and I walked down to the beach. It was a nice walk from her flat down to the water. Unfortunately my first view of the water involved some old dude stripping down and jumping in naked. But aside from that, the Black Sea is really incredible and the beach was great. The water is incredible clear despite the name and not even that cold given the time of year. We walked along till we got to the dolphin aquarium. We didn't spot any wild dolphins off the coast which are seen sometimes. So we decided to go see the dolphin show. I felt like a little kid watching the show. There were 4 dolphins doing some really cool tricks. We grabbed some dinner as we walked back to Masha's place. I also stopped at the supermarket to pick up some snacks for the road. I grabbed my things and Masha and Vova went with me to the bus station. I really enjoyed meeting both of them and hope that I see them again in their European travels. I bussed back to Kyiv and arrived around midnight. I got on one of the local busses and hoped it would go to a metro stop. Luckily it did, but the metro stop was closed. They don't usually close till later, but now I was in a dillemma. I got on a different bus that listed some metro stops in the window. After 10 mins or so, I was pretty sure I was not heading into the city. I called Yulia and she told me to just get off so we could figure out where I was. It took quite awhile, but we decided the best way for me to get home was to have her talk to somebody. So I walked up to random people on the street and asked for help as I handed them the cell phone. Needless to say, the first two people just stared at me like I was crazy. Yet the next guy and girl I walked up to decided to grab the phone and see what I was talking about. They explained to Yulia where I was, which was out in the burbs somewhere on the wrong side of town. She arranged for them to explain to a cab driver how to get me home. I eventually did get home, spending the last of my hrvynias, about 5 euros for the 45 minute ride. I felt really helpless which is not a good feeling. Though I am definitely grateful for Yulia and don't know how I would have survived without that cell phone she let me borrow. She had dinner waiting when I got back as well.

Friday was my day to leave Kyiv and Ukraine. I asked Yulia how I should get to the airport, and she said she was coming with me. For work, she has a car and driver she can call pretty much anytime, very cool! We hopped in the black sedan and were escorted an hour away right to the airport. Another painless airport experience and a few hour flight got me to London. I think I must have forgotten how ridiculously easy it is to get around in London. I got out of the airport and there were signs and English-speaking people everywhere ready to help! It felt almost too easy! I got the bus into town, bought a weeklong metro card, and found Cameron's flat. He has a really cool place in an amazing location in the northeast part of central London. He lives with 4 other Aussies that are all really nice. I settled in, then headed out for a beer with Cam and Fathead (Tim). Their place is about a 5 minute walk from amazing nightlife with hundreds of young people roaming the streets. When we got back I set my sleeping bag up on the couch which is my current home. I also finally got a SIM card for the phone I have been carrying around. So if anyone needs to call me, the number is 0044 7760 875 321.

Saturday was Halloween! I spent the day taking care of some errands, exploring the neighborhood, then finding some things for my costume. I got black and white face paint because I was to be Uncle Fester from the Addam's Family. I'm not sure that I looked anything like him, but Cam (Frankenstein) shaved my head to try and pull the look off. The paint was the oily type which I soon found out does not dry. What a mistake, I had to be careful what my face touched the entire night. We went to a house party of one of Cam's friends. I met a bunch of fun people and we stayed at the party until it was starting to get light outside! I had a plan in mind to stay awake, but Cam bailed and got a few hours of sleep. I stayed up and hung out with a South African girl named Deborah. We met up with Cam at about 11 AM, yet she was too tired and headed home. Cam and I then proceeded on to The Church! This was the crazy party that is every Sunday in north London. I went to it back in July and having been raving to Cam about it though he still hadn't been. I made sure to wash all the oily paint off my face first. The Church was the same wild drunken debauchery that it was in my previous experience, though with it being post-Halloween, even more people wore costumes. I was really starting to crash around 2 or 3 PM, so I managed to make it back to Cam's place on my own. I fell asleep for a few hours, woke up and ate the communal dinner with Cam's roommates that they have almost every night. I fell back asleep at 9 PM and didn't wake up until 10 AM Monday morning. All in all, Halloween was fantastic!

Yesterday, Monday, I felt pretty good after sleeping so long. I took the Tube a couple of stops to the Museum of London. This covered the entire history of the city, from cavemen to the Romans to the monarchs. There was a whole lot to see but my favorite part was the exhibit on the Great Fire which destroyed basically the entire city in 1666. It still amazes me that so many museums in London are completely free to go to. I went grocery shopping in the afternoon and relaxed back at the flat. I hung out with the flatmates last night, we had another communal dinner.

Today I went to the Imperial War Museum, another free one. After sleeping in a bit and making breakfast, I didn't get there till noon. The place was really incredible, it covered WWI and WWII in great detail. There were tons of tanks, planes, and artillery, not to mention a German V2 rocket. There were so many exhibitions within the museum as well, on the Holocaust, genocide around the world, British Secret Service, war's affect on children, and more. I spent nearly 4 hours in the museum and didn't feel like I even saw it all. I had to get back because I had volunteered to cook dinner for everyone. I roasted a chicken along with stuffing, mashed potatoes, and corn. Everyone seemed to enjoy it so I might cook again this week.

Tomorrow I will do some more sightseeing, then hopefully meet up with a friend in the evening. One cool thing about London is that a lot of people I have met on my trip so far live here. There are at least a few people that I will see while I am here (besides Cam). I'm leaving for Krakow on Saturday and am really excited for it. After I get back to London, I plan on exploring some other English cities until I fly the 18th when I fly to Frankfurt and then Seattle. I'm also having a party to see all of my friends from home on the 21st at my mom's house which should be lots of fun! I can't believe tomorrow is the start of the 20th week of my trip!

Watch for me on the Ukrainian version of 'Cops'

2009-10-27T16:11:00.000-07:00

Yesterday in Kyiv, I was walking along a path through a park on my way to the Caves Monastary. I was taking a couple of pictures and there were a few other people nearby in the park. Two police officers in uniform approached me and said something in Ukrainian. I told them I did not understand. One of them laughed and said 'Passport.' I instantly knew I was in big trouble. I stayed calm and asked what the problem was, told them I was a tourist, showed them my camera, and asked if I was going the right way to the Monastary. They hardly spoke more than a few words of English, but they persisted and asked for my passport. I told them I didn't have it with me. I actually did have it in my pocket, I always carry it with me. But I am learning how these encounters work and expected that if I handed over my passport, they would be in control of the situation. They told me I had to have an ID card or a passport and began threatening to take me to jail. They patted me down and said something about 'weapons.' Then they asked me to show them what was in my pockets. I showed them most everything except what was in my left pocket, which had my passport and a bunch of random scraps of paper (maps, receipts, directions, phone numbers). They demanded I pull everything out, but I refused to pull everything out of that pocket. They said 'OK' and pulled out the handcuffs. They cuffed me behind my back and said something about 'police station.' I said 'OK, let's go.' I was pretty sure they were still just trying to scare me.

We started walking, only about 5 meters, when they stopped and again told me to empty my pockets. I told them I didn't understand what the problem was, and could I speak with someone who spoke English. They called up the police station on a cell phone and got me some lady who spoke decent English. She said I was required to show them my passport and because I didn't have it, they had to take me to the station. Then came my favorite part of the entire ordeal. I asked her if I had done something wrong, or whether there was some reason the cops had stopped me. She said that yes, there was a very good reason they stopped me: 'Because you are a stranger.' LOL, funniest thing I have ever heard.

I asked her if I were to show my passport, would they let me on my way? She said they would. So I got off the phone, asked the cops to show me their IDs, which they did. I assume they were legit even though I couldn't read them. I fished out the stuff in my left pocket to show them, then said 'Oh, what do ya know, my passport is here! Thought I had left it at home.' They looked it over for about 5 minutes and spoke on their phones again. Then they put it next to my face and determined that it was not in fact my passport. I think I started laughing which did not make them happy. I then told them every piece of information on my passport, and I guess they started to believe me. So I asked if I could go, but of course not yet. They asked if I had my 'immigration card.' I filled out a standard customs type card when I entered the country, and was told to show it when I exited the country. It was in my bag at Yulia's apartment. So I told them nope, and then we went through the same ordeal with them pulling out the handcuffs and telling me it was police station time. I still wasn't intimidated and told them OK. They started asking me when I entered the country and where I was staying. I told them the truth, and finally asked if they could speak with Yulia. I thought about it and decided that might not be a terrible idea.

So I called her up (she had let me borrow a cell phone so I could stay in touch with her) and explained the situation. She spoke with the cops for awhile and then they handed the phone back to me. Next was the moment I had been waiting for. She told me to pay them 50 hrz (4 euros or so) and I could leave. I know that amount of money is basically nothing, but it just feels wrong to pay an obvious bribe. I told Yulia I wasn't going to pay them anything. She said OK and spoke with the cops again. After a few minutes, they hung up and handed me back the phone and my passport. They spoke with each other for a bit, then shrugged, looked at me, and said 'Goodbye.' Victory!!

Yulia later told me about the conversation. Legally, the cops can ask anyone at anytime for their ID card or their passport (which I knew). The law used to say that tourists had to carry their immigration card with them, but that is not true anymore. The law also used to say tourists had to register in every city they visited in Ukraine! The cops told her that I hadn't registered in L'viv or Kyiv. Yulia told them she knew that wasn't the law. But apparently she had read about a bomb scare that day nearby where I was. She though maybe the cops were enforcing some sort of 'state of emergency' type situation and she then asked what I could do to leave. She offered that I pay the 50 hrz because it would be much easier than going to the police station. The cops agreed to her that they would let me go if I paid them. When I told her I wasn't going to pay, she told them and then said I would go with them to the station. then asked which police station we were going to so she could come help me. They told her something like 'OK, nevermind' and hung up on her!

The whole thing lasted maybe 30-40 mins. I am proud to say I didn't panic and have avoided paying a bribe or being arrested twice in a row now!

Kyiv is Unbelievable! Most beautiful city in Europe?!

2009-10-26T01:54:00.000-07:00

On Monday I went to Auschwitz. It took an hour or so to get there by bus. But it took nearly an hour to find the right bus! I think they make it difficult because they want people to pay more money and take the group tour. I was told by several people that seeing Auschwitz was a very intense and emotional experience. I suppose that helped me prepare myself for what I was going to see, but I was extremely moved nonetheless. I met a couple of girls on the bus, and we took the obligatory guided tour together. It began with a film about the liberation of the camp by the Soviets. Then we walked through the complex and went into several buildings with different exhibitions. Some of the buildings and most of the stuff inside have been recreated. I think the Germans destroyed much of the camp when they knew the Russians were getting close. But there are still some original things: a room filled with human hair was one of the more disturbing things. There was literally 2 tons of hair they had shaved off of the Jews after they killed them. They used it to make clothing. There were also collections of luggage, brushes, eyeglasses, little kids shoes, etc. The sheer numbers were incredible, I would guess there were several hundred thousand pairs of little girls' shoes. After we toured the main camp, we got on a shuttle out to Birkenau (Auschwitz II). The Nazis opened this camp when the original began filling up. It is much, much bigger than the original, it held many more people and many more people were killed there. The majority of people sent to Birkenau didn't even stay there. They got off the train and were marched directly to the gas chambers. This camp was so massive it is hard to describe. Nothing has been reconstructed here, so the camp looks as it did in 1945. There are brick chimneys as far as the eye can see because the Nazis burned down the wooden buildings as they left. The gas chambers in the back of the camp are still in ruins, but there is one that you can walk into and even see the ovens. All in all, I am glad I saw Auschwitz, I think it is something to see once in a lifetime. Oh, there were also a few huge groups of loud, wild Israeli kids there, all wore the Israeli flag on their back like a cape. They ran around yelling and sticking tiny Israeli flags to every monument they saw. Kind of strange and interesting to see.

The tour lasted 4 hours or so, then I got back on the bus to Krakow. Monday evening was pretty slow. I met up with Pawel because we had planned on checking out the music festival. It turned out the first few days of it did not include any music, just record release parties, fan meet and greet type things. So we went out to dinner and had a few drinks in a bar, then called it a night. Tuesday was my next day trip, this one on a much lighter note. I went to the Wieliczka Salt Mines. These have been around for nearly a thousand years, and are still used today. Again, it was a bit complicated for me to find the correct bus, but the people at my hostel helped me find the right one. I went down into the mineshaft on a guided tour, which is the only way in. We began walking down flights of stairs, and after quite a while, we exited and were 80 meters underground! The mines are like a labyrinth with tunnels heading every direction. Several rooms open up and many include sculptures and churches, all made out of salt of course. We learned about how the mine operated and all the famous people who have visited the mine. I'm not sure why they visited, but there is a salt statue for most of them, including Pope John Paul II, Goethe, Copernicus, and many more. We trekked for 3 km and went down to 135 meters underground. Only 1% of the mines are open to tourists, the whole complex is 300 km and over 500 meters underground! After the 3 hour tour, we were led to a big restaurant and bar, a concert hall, and much more, all 135 meters down.

That evening, I met up with Pawel and we walked into the main part of town. We met a couple of French speaking girls when we were eating dinner, who in turn met a Spanish speaking couple as we left. The 6 of us all went to Pies, which is Pawel's favorite bar. I had now been there about 6 times in less than a week! The group turned out to be a quite a mix of people because niether of the French speaking girls were actually French. I discovered there were at least 7 languages spoken and 6 nationalities represented at the table. It was, as usual, very humbling to be the only person there who spoke just a single language. I will fix that this winter!

Wednesday was my day to leave Krakow. I got on a train to L'viv in western Ukraine. I still don't understand why, but it appears to be about 250 km from Krakow on the map, yet the train takes 9 or 10 hours. The train seemed to be moving fast and in a generally straight direction. True, the border crossing took awhile and was a bit of an ordeal. As I was leaving the Schengen zone, the border guards take their jobs (far too) seriously. They took my passport on the Polish side of the border and said they would give it back to me in an hour. That was kind of scary, I still don't know why they cared so much about me leaving Poland. Then we spent an hour watching the train 'change' tracks. The people next to me explained that the width or guage of Russian (and Ukrainian) train tracks differs from that of Western Europe (and Poland). So they had to basically jack my train car up off the ground and replace the undercarriage and wheels. The process took a long time while the train moved forward and backward, shook constantly, and made a lot of loud noises. On the other side of the border, the Ukrainian border people basically just took a glance at my passport, thanked me, and moved on.

I arrived in L'viv near midnight. As soon as I got off the train, I realized that while I thought I had been travelling in Eastern Europe, I was very wrong. Slovakia, Hungary, and Poland do not even compare to the Eastern Europe feel of Ukraine. There are no tourists, no tourist information, no English signs, no English speaking people! The toughest part is that the language is entirely different. I mean the actualy alphabet is so different that it is difficult to even ask for help. I decided to try and walk to my hostel anyway, though I didn't have a map and only really knew the street name. I walked for an hour in the cold, asked many 8 people along the way who gave me a variety of answers. Another hour and I was pretty sure I was getting close, though I had been going in circles due to the conflicting directions. I finally figured out that my street name is also the name of a monument, plus there are a couple of other streets with the same name. I finally did the one thing that I absolutely loathe: I got in a taxi. I felt so defeated, especially when the drive took about 3 minutes and an hour earlier I had been about 50 meters away from the hostel. The hostel was ridiculously cheap (2.35 euros a night!). I guess I got what I paid for because it was quite a dive. I had to wake someone up to get inside, after I finally got my bunk up on the 7th floor I managed to sleep only to wake up shivering at 6 in the morning. Very few of the lights worked, particularly the ones in the bathroom. I was told there was no hot water in the morning anyway. Strange thing is, the hostel had Wi-Fi with a perfectly strong signal!

I checked out but left my bag at the hostel the next morning. I spent the entire day exploring L'viv, which is a very pretty city with cool architecture and nice monuments. After several hours, I had seen most of the main part of the city (a lot of which I had seen the night before). I ate at a couple of different street vendors selling food for absurdly low prices (about 60 Euro cents for a footlong sub sandwich). In the evening, I saw a very interesting musical street performance in one of the main squares. I couldn't believe my eyes, but the musicians were Native Americans! The Ukrainian crowd was in awe of course. I am still trying to decide for sure if they were actually American or not, but you can take a look when I post the pictures. I went back to the hostel to pick up my bag, then out to the train station for the night train to Kyiv! I think one day was plenty for me in L'viv. The train was fairly painless, and I arrived in Kyiv at 7:30 Friday morning. After navigating the metro, difficult because the alphabet is so foreign to me, I found Yulia! We went back to her amazing apartment. She lives in the northern part of the city that has several massive apartment buildings. Hers is on the 13th floor and is huge. She has an enclosed sun deck type of room with fantastic views of the city.

Yulia helped me settle in but then left for work. I spent all day Friday exploring Kyiv. This city is absolutely phenomenal. I couldn't stop saying 'Wow' everywhere I went. It might be the coolest looking city in Europe! The city is very spread out, so the metro is essential. It is very quick and efficient, and easy to use once I started recognizing the names of the stops. I started out in the city's main plaza, called Independence Square. This was the sight of the Orange Revolution, more on that later. There are amazing buildings and fountains and monuments everywhere you turn. I spotted a gigantic golden-domed church and began walking towards it. Turns out this city is filled with golden-domed churches. They literally dot the skyline and are all incredible. I got to St. Sophia's, which is the 2nd most important religious site in Kyiv. It was really breathtaking as I walked into the cloister and explored the grounds. This one was all original and built in the 11 century. Afterwards, I went to a very similar golden-domed church that faces St. Sophia's down a busy boulevard. This one was destroyed by the Communists to make room for some stupid concrete and building which they never built. So the church was rebuilt ten years ago. The inside was filled with amazing golden art and architecture. I headed out to the main river running through town and through a park with great views. To get down to the river, I took one of the oldest streets in town called Andrew's Descent. It is cobblestoned and steep and lined with souvenir shops. I climbed a couple of nearby hills to see more great views of the city. I walked for an hour or more along the river until I found the Caves Monastary. This is the most important religious place in Kyiv and all of Ukraine. Unfortunately I got there too late to go underground so instead I saw the churches and chapels and the other sights on the monastary grounds.

Friday evening I met up with Yulia back at her place. A friend of her's came over and the three of us went downtown and found two different pubs with live music. Yulia and I got a slow start on Saturday, but made it out to see a few more sights in town, including two museums. We also climbed the bell tower at St. Sophia's which was lots of fun. We walked through a brand new, rich neighborhood of Kyiv. It is filled with houses of cool colors and interesting architecture. After eating dinner at a traditional Ukrainian restaurant, Yulia informed me that Saturday evening would be The Orange Revolution - Part 2! She didn't tell me much more than that so I was pretty excited. In short, the Orange Revolution was a populist movement in 2004 after a fraudulent and corrupt election. The people protested in masses in Kyiv for a couple of months until the courts declared a new election, which the original winner then actually won. 'Part 2' probably wasn't quite as exciting, but I sure enjoyed it. We went to Independence Square, which was absolutely packed with people. There were easily several hundred thousand people, maybe even half a million or so. It was a political rally for the current Prime Minister who is running for president. We muscled through the crowds while several people spoke on the podium, then found a spot right in the middle about 50 meters from the stage. Their PM (named Yulia as well) looks like a beautiful doll, not a politician. After she spoke, several famous Ukrainian musicians came out and played, then fireworks finished off the night.

For some reason I have been seeing a lot of politics in the last couple of months. First was the vote on the Lisbon Treaty when I was in Dublin. Next was the German elections when I was in Hannover and Munich. Then I stumbled upon that right-wing rally in Budapest. Now a Ukrainian rally as well. The politics here are pretty unusual. The guy who the PM is running against is the same guy who initially 'won' the corrupt election in 2004. He has also been to prison 3 times, including once for rape! I don't understand how a convicted rapist can become president. The guy is actually leading in the polls!

Yesterday, Sunday, Yulia and I took the metro and then a bus just outside of the city to an open-air museum. It was actually kind of an old Ukrainian village that has been set up to see how people used to live. It is in a massive park, basically, so we walked through and saw old straw huts, windmills, wooden churches, barns, and a lot of other cool stuff. We stayed there till dark. We stopped at the grocery store on the way home so I could cook dinner. Yulia has been really nice to let me stay at her place and show me around. I cooked Italian food last night to help repay her. Today, she is off at work and I am planning on heading back to the Caves Monastary to go underground. I hope to also see the WWII museum.

A few things about Ukraine. The currency here is the hryvnia which is difficult to pronounce, so I don't really try. There about 12 of them to one euro. Yet they have a one hryvnia note and all the coins are even smaller. By comparison, the smallest euro note is 5, which is about 60 hryvnias. So everyone constantly uses notes here to pay for even the smallest things which is pretty strange. The public transportation is unbelievably cheap. The tram in L'viv cost 1 hryvnia to use which is 8 cents! I am glad I bought tickets though because the ticket police checked me 3 different times. In Kyiv, the metro tickets are a whopping 1.70 hryvnia. Apparently they used to be .50 and people threw a fit when they upped it by so much. For the metro, you buy little plastic tokens instead of a ticket. I really like this method, much better than having a ticket stamped or punched. You put your token in and walk through, nothing to carry on you to show anybody. People here are also extremely religious. Nearly every person that even walks past a church or monument crosses themself. Many of them even go kiss the monument as well. Even the most famous churches are actually filled with people praying, not just tourists like most places. Every person here speaks two languages as well! They speak Ukrainian and Russian, which are quite similar. But in Kyiv, it is 50-50. I don't know of any other city that has an even split of two spoken languages where everyone understands both.

I have my plans for the next few weeks as well. Last Wednesday, I bought 3 plane tickets! I am flying from Kyiv to London this Friday. I am going to hang out with Cameron and I'm sure go to a fun Halloween party. Then on the 7th I fly back to Krakow! It is going to be a reunion with Cameron, Vincent, Clement, and Pawel. I'm sure it will be a lot of fun even though I was just there. I will try and do a day trip to either Wroclaw or Warsaw. On the 11th, I head back to London. I would like to explore England a bit (I have only been to London so far) until the 18th when I have to get to Franfurt for my flight to Seattle. As for this week, I will spend the next two days here in Kyiv. Then on Wednesday I am going to take a bus down to Odessa on the Black Sea. It is a big beach party city during the summer, but I think it is pretty laid back this time of year. Yulia has a friend who I can stay with and who will show me around. I will probably head back Thursday night before my Friday morning flight. I am really enjoying Ukraine. It is very different from anywhere I have been so far! I am trying to learn a bit of Russian as well :)

It's cold in Krakow! Next stop Ukraine!

2009-10-18T12:16:00.000-07:00

On my final day in Budapest, I headed out to Memento Park just outside the city. After a tram ride and a bus ride, I made it out to see the Communist sculptures. After the fall of communism, the city moved all of the various pieces of Soviet art around the city to this park. It was fairly interesting, especially seeing Stalin's boots. They are a famous symbol of Hungary, I guess they destroyed this huge statue of Stalin except for his boots. I headed back into town and went to the Jewish Quarter. There I headed for the synagogue, which is apparently the second largest one in the world. Who woulda thought that would be in Budapest? The inside was very lavish and impressive. Later that day back at my hostel, I was hanging out in the common area when a girl (Lia) came to check in. I heard her say she was from Seattle, which is strange enough considering I have not met a single person from Seattle in the last 4 months of travelling. I got to talking with her, turns out she is from Mill Creek (where I used to live). We figured out that we knew all of the same places and used to go to one particular bar in the Mill Creek Town Center called Azul. My old flatmate Megan used to work there so I went a lot. After talking with her longer, we both finally realized that we actually met at Azul back in March. My friend and I went into Seattle with Lia and her boyfriend at the time and partied all night! We had both obviously not recognized each other or remembered each other's name. Small world! Can't believe she was staying at my tiny little hostel in Budapest!

My bus ride to Krakow was leaving at 6 am the next morning, so while any normal person would get to bed early to make sure they woke up at 5 am, that's just not my style. Plus I would probably have slept in no matter when I got to bed. So I decided to head out with Lia! We went to a few bars, sang karaoke, and met a whole bunch of people, including some Hungarians that took us to a fun club. We stayed out until 5 am when I had to head back to get on my bus. The bus ride took 8 hours, and went straight through the beautiful mountains of Slovakia. I didn't get as much sleep as I had hoped for, but I am glad I got to see a little bit more of Slovakia. When I got to Krakow, it was snowing!! I stepped off the bus into -1 C degree weather and a near blizzard! OK, maybe blizzard is an exaggeration, but it was really coming down! I met a couple of Polish guys from Krakow on the bus who told me they have never seen snow in October. They showed me around a bit and gave me some tips before I headed to my hostel. I dropped off my stuff and headed to the main square in town to meet up with Pawel. It was pretty funny when I found him because neither of us had any warm clothes at all! We both had just light rain jackets on and were freezing.

Pawel is both French and Polish and speaks both languages. His father lived in Krakow for 40 years and was an important anti-communist activist. Everybody in this city knows him apparently, and Pawel therefore knows a whole bunch of people in town. Pawel is doing an internship at the company of one of his father's friends (Tommy). He is also living at the guy's apartment, it is his first time living in Poland. We headed out for a beer after we met up, then went to go see his flat. The place takes up the top two floors of the complex which is really cool. I met Mishka, who lives there as well, she is Tommy's daughter.

Pawel and I headed to one of his favorite places for dinner. It was kind of a German beer hall themed restaurant with huge portions of cheap Polish food. We each had a liter of beer, a plate full of pierogi, then shared a massive platter of Polish meat. There was multiple types of sausage, chicken, pork, steak, and other stuff I couldn't identify. Of course there was 2 of everything, plus vegetables and rice. It was a ridiculous amount of food that we couldn't quite finish. It cost 50 zlotys each which is about 12 euros. And that is by far the most you would ever pay for food in this city. I have been eating lunch at restaurants for about 3 euros. You can eat the Polish version of fast food for about 2 euros or less.

On Thursday, I headed into the main part of the city, the old town. Krakow is very compact and you can walk just about everywhere. I went to the church in the main square which was absolutely stunning inside. I explored the old town some more, then headed to the main shopping mall. I went straight to H & M, of course, and bought a jacket, gloves, hat, and scarf for about 60 euros. The jacket was more expensive than I had planned, but it is exactly the kind I wanted and very warm. I am both relieved and excited to start preparing for winter weather! I changed into all my new stuff back at my hostel and re-entered Krakow warm and cozy! I explored Kazimierz, the Jewish section of town, which also has some of the scenes from Schindler's List. Pawel had some other plans Thursday night, so I decided to go out on my own. I found some tasty Polish food, then went to a couple of bars.

Most of the bars in Krakow are underground in brick cellars. Often there is hardly even a sign and you walk down stairs having no idea what to expect. They usually have small rooms connected by passageways, some of them actually have dozens of rooms! I found a cool one and ordered a beer, which costs about 1.5 euros and comes with a shot of cherry vodka! Some people pour the vodka into the beer which I tried, it actually tastes pretty good. I was then told that a 'concert' was about to begin so I headed to that room. There was a projector with some strange and random images in crazy colors. There was a guy on a laptop controlling the image and the sounds. The sound was not music, it was mainly static that was played at a deafeningly loud level. It was a very bizarre attempt at modern art that in my opinion failed miserably.

On Friday I slept in and barely made it to my hostel's breakfast which ended at noon. I did my laundry as well, then went to Wawel where Krakow's castle is. The castle is huge and you can tell it was built in sections over a very long time period. There are many clashing architectural styles. The castle is up on a hill with some good views of the city. I went to the cathedral and climbed up the bell tower. It was probably the biggest bell I have ever seen, it weighs 12,600 kilos! I also went into the crypt which has tons of Polish royalty. After that, I checked out the museum/treasury/art gallery and learned a bit about Poland's history. I met up with Pawel later in the day and we got ready for the 'big party' he had been telling me about. He and Mishka and I went over to one of their friend's places and got a group of people together. We drank Polish vodka, of course, and headed out to their usual string of bars and clubs. There is no way I would have ever been able to find some of those places on my own. I walked down a sidestreet, into an alley, around a corner, down several flights of stairs into basically a dungeon, only to find a bar packed with Polish people drinking and dancing. Definitely not a tourist place. We had a great night and I ended up sleeping on Pawel's couch when we got home.

Saturday was a bit of a slow day. When we finally got moving, Pawel and Mishka and I went to Kazimierz where Mishka is working on an apartment. She is an architect and interior designer. Her father bought a flat there and is letting her basically do whatever she wants with it. It is pretty run down, so she is basically acting as contractor to fix the place up. We checked the place out while Mishka talked with the electrician. Then we got lunch at a famous Polish fast food place. I also picked up my backpack from my hostel and moved to a new hostel where I am now that is only one block from Pawel's place. It is making things a lot easier. That evening, Pawel and I went into the old town. We found a traditional Polish cellar restaurant and paid about 8 euros for a full meal with drinks. We met up with one of Pawel's friends and drank cherry vodka at several places until the wee hours of the morning.

Today, Sunday, Pawel and I went to a museum that is named after a famous royal Polish family that Pawel is a member of. I guess there are quite a few people in Krakow that have the same last name as the name of the museum. It had some interesting art in it, including a famous Leonardo da Vinci painting. We went to the mall to get some warm clothes for Pawel, then found a spot for lunch, borsch and pierogi! We lounged around his apartment for awhile and watched a Polish football match. Tomorrow I am going to Auschwitz. There are a bunch of tours that head out there, but I am going to do it on my own. I think the bus takes an hour and a half so it will probably be an all day trip. A weeklong music festival starts tomorrow in Krakow, so Pawel and I will go check that out tomorrow night. Sometime this week, I am leaving Krakow. My next stop is Ukraine! I have a couple of reasons for going there. The first is to visit my friend Yulia who I met in Budapest. She lives in Kyiv (Kiev) and invited me there. The second reason has to do with the Schengen zone, my lack of a visa, my future plans in Austria, etc. It is complicated, but basically I need to leave the main part of Europe now so that I am able to get back in safely later. I will probably spend a few days in Lviv (I don't know how to pronounce that either), then on to Kyiv.

Oh, I also have my next flight booked! On Nov. 28th, I fly from Seattle to Paris, just in time to get to Austria on Dec. 1st! Thanks mom!

For my memory mostly, here's a quick recap of the cities I have stayed in during my trip, in order: London, Dublin, Galway, Belfast, Glasgow, Edinburgh, London, Paris, Caen, Paris, Barcelona, Madrid, Tangier, Fez, Sahara Desert, Oarzazate, Marrakesh, Essaouira, Casablanca, Marrakesh, Seville, Albufeira, Lagos, Lisbon, Valencia, Madrid, Venice, Verona, Balogna, Paris, La Houssaye-en-Brie, Nantes, Dublin, Hannover, Ingolstadt (oops!), Munich, Salzburg, Vienna, Bratislava, Budapest, Krakow...

Spectacular Budapest! Krakow next! Plus, plans revealed...

2009-10-12T16:31:00.001-07:00

My last night in Bratislava I went out with Jan, Ben, and Lenke, a Slovakian girl who worked at our hostel. We went back to the bar from the previous night and had loads of fun. The same singer was there, though he now had a new guitarist and drummer. The band was really good and the whole scene was a lot of fun. We met quite a few people, including some Slovakians and some American art students. At some point as we were leaving I lost track of Jan, Ben, and Lenke, and headed off with the artists to a couple of other bars. I didn't make it back to the hostel until very late. There I found Ben having a beer that this funny drunk Scottish guy had bought for him. He demanded I have one as well, so I didn't get to sleep until nearly 6 am!! I set my alarm, but no use, I slept in and missed my bus. Oh well, it was only 4.5 euros. I ended up taking a train that cost 13 euros instead. That turned out to be quite an ordeal, however. I got the schedule from my hostel. There were direct trains from Bratislava to Budapest leaving later in the day. They recommended one of them because it would be easier, but I preferred to get to Budapest a bit earlier. So I chose the 3-connections route through Vienna.

I bought a ticket at the train station that simply listed Bratislava to Vienna, with no connections mentioned as well as no departure time. I figure that meant I could take any way I wanted. I asked the ticket person, but she didn't understand a word I was saying. I used the printout my hostel had given me and took a couple trains through to Vienna, then just made the one to Budapest. I was halfway through Hungary when I was finally asked for my ticket aboard the train. Some Hungarian lady told me my ticket wasn't valid. She didn't give me any explanation why despite me asking over and over. She plugged some numbers in her little machine and said I owed her 31 euros! Of course I refused and promptly got kicked off the train at the next stop! What a joke, I still have no idea what was wrong with my ticket. I still wasn't going to pay any more money, so I waited about 10 minutes till another train came along which said Budapest. I hopped on and sweated the whole way waiting till I got kicked off again. When the ticket guy came by, I was pretty nervous. He studied my ticket for about 30 seconds, then shrugged and said 'OK'. I was incredible relieved.

I got into Budapest last Thursday and walked through town to my hostel. The town is separated by the Danube into Buda and Pest, I am staying in Pest, the newer city. My hostel has been rated highly and won a bunch of awards. It is very poorly labeled from the street, and once I got in it looked like a very run down apartment building. I got up to the floor where the hostel was and couldn't believe the place. It is called Home Made Hostel, and every stick of furniture in the place is really interesting and bizarre. The staff are the some of the friendliest people I have ever met, and the people staying here are all incredibly nice. A huge variety of people as well. In my first 4 nights here, I had to switch beds every night! They are constantly juggling me around to make sure I can stay here even though they are fully booked. One night I had to sleep on a makeshift bed on the couch, but I didn't mind one bit. I only planned about 3 days here, but I love the hostel and love the city even more, so it became 6 nights! I didn't do too much on Thursday after I arrived. That evening, I decided to go out for dinner. I met an Irish girl named Ruth and we found a local place with excellent Hungarian food for fairly cheap.

On Friday I went sightseeing on my own. I went in St. Stephen's Basilica nearby which is supposedly the most impressive church in town. I walked over the Chain Bridge to Buda and saw the castle along with several other sights up on the hill overlooking the river and the whole city. I went into two museums, the first was an art gallery. It was entirely Hungarian art from the 19th and 20th centuries. I didn't really know what Hungarian art was prior to that, but I was extremely impressed! Most of the 19th century stuff was gorgeous, while the modern art was much more fascinating than most of the modern art I have seen. The next museum was the Budapest History Museum which took me through the 7000 year history of the city. That evening, I went out for dinner with an American couple from Oregon and a Scottish guy. Had some great food again and a few beers. I planned on a fairly early night, but then I met a group of 4 French guys from Paris at around 11:30. Next thing I knew I was having a few beers and then heading out for a big night! (I know, I know, this blog definitely makes me sound like an alcoholic) We found a pub fairly close to the hostel, then discovered there was a club downstairs. We spent the entire night dancing down there. We met a whole bunch of people, Hungarians and travellers, and the French guys probably took 1000 photos! Made it back home around 4 or 5...

On Saturday, I went out for some more sightseeing on my own. I first headed to the Parliament building, which is probably the coolest building in town. All of the architecture in Budapest is stunning, and this building is the highlight. When I got close, I discovered there was some political rally taking place. I watched for a bit and grabbed a pamphlet. I didn't understand a word of it, so I later asked at my hostel and they told me those were the radical right-wingers! I walked up to the north part of town to an island in the Danube. There wasn't much to see there, but it was a nice walk with good views. I took a short nap back at the hostel, then headed out with Ruth and a couple of English girls I met at the hostel. We went to a truly amazing place, it is called a 'ruined bar', which are unique to Budapest. It was basically a huge, old, run down building with a very strange floorplan that has been converted into a bar. It was filled with random, crazy furniture and a mish-mash of art, lighting, and decorations. It had two foors with a massive courtyard. I drank some great Hungarian beer and we basically just hung out at a table for most of the night.

On Sunday, I went back to the Parliament building because I wanted to take a tour inside. The only way to get a ticket is to show up that morning and get one for the afternoon. On Saturday they were sold out when I got there, and the same thing happened on Sunday! So I walked around a bit more, then headed to the Terror Museum. This was in a building where both the Nazis and the Communists had the headquarters of the Secret Police. The museum covered the whole history of the Nazi and Communist occupations and the methods they used to suppress people, interrogate them, and even torture them. It was very interesting, and I learned a lot of history. The final two rooms had photos of the 'victims' then the 'victimizers' and it was pretty intense. I walked to Heroes Square which is just a huge courtyard with some gigantic monuments in it. I walked through the city park just past it. That evening, I decided I wanted to see the opera. I had been looking up tickets to it the previous couple of days, but all the shows I wanted to see were sold out. Ruth had already bought a couple of tickets before she arrived, so she had seen the ballet on Saturday and was getting ready to go to the opera on Sunday. I decided to head over there with her to see if I could grab a ticket at the door. I'm glad I bought a new long sleeve dress shirt a week ago because people really dress up nice for the opera! At the door, everyone seemed to deny me entry, claiming there were no tickets and there wouldn't be any empty seats. I couldn't find any scalpers outside either. I think Ruth felt really bad as she walked in without me, but I stuck around a bit longer. Right as the show was getting ready to begin, I asked a ticket lady again and she told me that there were seats available if I didn't mind not being able to see the stage. I couldn't believe no one had told me that earlier! I bought a ticket for about 2.50 euros (no joke!) and got up to the third floor about 2 minutes before the show began. I never even went to my seat of course, I just stood in the back leaning against a column. The theatre is so small, though, that my view was perfect! The opera house is truly an amazing feat of architecture. I would have paid that much just to walk in and see the place. The opera was a famous Hungarian opera called Bluebeard's Castle. It is kind of a dark fairly tale about a king that kills all his wives, and his new wife has just moved in. The music and singing was fantastic, and I found Ruth sitting right nearby me at the intermission. The opera is only one act which is just over an hour long. The second half was basically a replay of the first half which seemed rather strange, but they added some interesting twists. After the show, Ruth and I headed out to a restaurant for a bite to eat and a bottle of wine. By the way, she is a very interesting person. She hasn't lived in Ireland for 5 years. She moved to Moscow after getting her Master's to be a TV producer at a government run news channel. After that, she moved to Paris where she lives now to work for a TV station there. She speaks fluent Russian and French and travels a lot! We planned on heading to the famous Budapest baths the next morning.

Monday morning I slept in and woke up to a rainy, cold day. My first day in Budapest was really warm, I think it was 25 degrees! Now it is getting very cold, and the forecast has snow on Wednesday and Thursday. Ruth and I decided to wait till the afternoons for the baths to see if the weather cleared because some of them are outdoors. I walked down to the Parliament building again for a ticket. They told me the building will be closed for the next few days, so I went 0-3 in trips to get a ticket! Oh well... I bought a new pair of flip flops I was going to need at the baths, I destroyed/lost my others at Oktoberfest. I took a nap back at the hostel, then Ruth and I headed to the baths. We went to the famous and popular one in town. The building itself was really spectacular. It was a bit difficult to figure out the protocol, but I eventually got a locker and changed. The number of baths was incredible, each of them are labelled with the temperature. They are of all shapes and sizes, in large rooms and down tiny corridors. There are plenty of saunas as well. Ruth and I headed to one of the huge outdoor baths despite the rainy, cold weather. It was actually very refreshing to jump into the warm water with steam rising from it. We basically ran back inside afterwards because it was so cold. I went into one of the 16 degree cold plunge baths inside, then into a 40 degree jacuzzi immediately after, lots of fun! The whole thing was really relaxing and we stayed until it closed at 7.

After the baths tonight, Ruth and I headed out for dinner. She found a Roma (Gypsy) restaurant in a guidebook that was nearby. The place was really unbelievable, probably one of the more unique experiences I have had on my trip so far. We walked down the stairs from the street into a cellar. There were two guys playing these cool Hungarian Gypsy instrument called the Cimbalom. It is an upright, piano-like string instrument, they tap the strings with what looks like drum sticks. The restaurant was only one room, with brick walls and ceiling, and had only 3 tables, all of which were empty. Our server spoke a bit of English, yet told us the menu was only in Hungarian. We quickly found out there was only one choice of food anyway, and I don't think a menu even existed. We got a bottle of red wine and the dish of the day, which was delicious though I can hardly describe what was in it. The musicians were very friendly and played the whole time. They tried to get us to buy their CD as well. We finished our meal and got a shot of Schnapps each, which is the traditional Hungarian thing to do after the meal. We ended up buying a shot each for the musicians as well. A couple of other groups came into the restaurant for drinks. A third musician joined as well, a violinist. He was really incredible, so Ruth and I decided to stay and have another drink and watch. I think we must have stayed for about 3 hours after we had finished our meal! They played all sorts of Hungarian and Roma music. The violinist spent half the night playing just for Ruth and I, probably because we seemed to be enjoying it the most. A few other Roma guys showed up as well, they all looked like they were in the mafia. One of them took over for another guy on the cimbalom which was really surprising. The whole evening was really amazing as it was like experiencing a culture within a culture.

I'm spending one more full day in Budapest tomorrow. I'm hoping to make it out to the Communist Sculpture park which should be interesting. On Wednesday morning, I have a bus booked for Krakow! My French friend Pawel lives there, so it will be really cool to see him and have him show me the city. I'm not sure how long I will stay there and have no plans afterwards.

Alright, now to reveal my plans! Thanks to my mom, I have changed my itinerary for my flight home. I will be back in Seattle November 18th! 'But wait,' you say, 'I thought you wanted to travel forever?' Very true, I am not done with my travels. I will be booking a flight in the next couple of days for my return to Europe! I plan on flying back here around the 28th of November. So I will only have about 10 days in Seattle. I plan on selling my car, selling all the crap I have in storage, packing up a bunch of warm clothes, taking care of a few other loose ends, and of course seeing friends and family (hopefully Thanksgiving in Oregon!). So why only 10 days? Because I have somewhere to be on December 1st!!! I will be heading to Kirchberg, Austria to work the entire winter ski season! Alright, so I don't have a specific job lined up, I don't have a work or travel visa, and it all probably sounds a bit shady. But I got this particular idea from speaking with some Aussies in Munich that did it last year. They hooked me up with an Aussie guy that lives in Kirchberg and runs a hostel. He puts together a 'ski bum' type deal every year where he lets a few travellers stay with him for a week or two. He helps them find jobs and places to stay. The jobs are nothing exciting or well paying, but they pay cash which is what I am looking for. One of the girls I spoke with ended up washing dishes in a restaurant for a few months getting 8 or 9 euros an hour. But she stayed in a house with a bunch of other travellers doing similar types of work and her rent was 5 euros a day. She boarded the entire season and had a blast, even saved a bit of money. Ideally, considering I am a fairly avid skiier, I will find a job giving ski lessons to tourists who speak English. That might be tough to pull off, but I will certainly give it a try. Either way, I am determined to make this happen and continue my travels. Though I will have go under the radar when it comes to immigration... but I have a few plans in mind for how to resolve that issue.

Well, hope to see family and friends at the end of November! After that, I might not be back to Seattle until May! I am having the time of my life!

Bratislava is so underrated! Budapest tomorrow!

2009-10-07T09:56:00.000-07:00

I took the train to Vienna last Friday which was quick and easy. I showed up at Wombat's Hostel which was just as good as I expected. A little bit pricey considering it didn't include breakfast, but worth it for the atmosphere. They give you a coupon for a free beer in their bar right when you walk in. The scene is so good there that a lot of people stay at other, cheaper hostels and just walk over to Wombat's to hang out. There was a massive bed in the lounge area that fit about 15 people napping in the afternoon. The bar was open till about 2 or 3 am every night. My room was absolutely huge, could have fit a lot more than 6 bunks in it. I didn't do too much on Friday around town. Just walked into the city center for a bit and looked around. There is a huge outdoor screen showing the the live opera almost every night. I never made it to the opera, but at least I got to see a bit from the outside. I bought some groceries as well, 3 breakfasts and 3 lunches plus a few beers for 9 euros! I hung out around the hostel and met some cool people at the bar downstairs.

On Saturday I went sightseeing. I got a 72 hour public transport pass and went to the main cathedral in town, St. Stephen's, which was impressive. I walked along the Danube for the first time. I went to the palace (Schonn Brunn) and walked through the amazing gardens for quite awhile. There were some really cool fountains and a great view of the city from the top of a hill. I went to the market next, which had a flea market as well on Saturday. The place was packed with people. When I got back to the hostel, I found out that I had picked a great time to come to Vienna. Saturday night was a once-a-year event called 'Long Night at the Museums' I think would be the way to translate it. Every museum in town (there are 94!) was open from 6 pm to 1 am and could be entered for one flat rate of 13 euros. This was an incredible deal considering most museums were 10 euros each. I went with an American guy named Mike who was staying in my room. I wish we had planned it a bit better and mapped out where we would go, because you definitely have to pick and choose which museums you want to hit. We did see quite a bit though. We saw one of the main art galleries which had a lot of Dutch and Flemish art, including some Rembrandts. It also had Greek and Egyptian sculptures which were very cool. Next was the Natural History Museum which had a lot of interesting rocks and minerals, including a 60 kilo amethyst and a bunch more! Next was the Treasury which had crowns and swords and stuff from the Hapsburg empire. Next was the Leopold Museum with a huge amount of contemporary art. We ate dinner somewhere in there as well, and left the last museum at nearly 1 am. Back to the Wombar for drinks!

I went sightseeing on my own on Sunday. After a long ordeal, I made it to the massive cemetary south of Vienna. I thought that one in Paris was big, but this one dwarfed that one. There are over 2.5 million people buried at this one! I had to wander for quite awhile before I found what I was looking for: a special section with the graves of Beethoven, Mozart, Schubert, Brahms, and a couple of others. They all had really impressive headstones. I love Vienna's art and musical history, it was definitely a popular place! After that I went to the Belvedere Palace and gardens. These gardens were pretty amazing as well, and the art museum was really nice. It had a big collection of Klimt works, he is pretty much the most famous Viennese artist. His most famous work was there, it's called The Kiss. Ended up back at the Wombar as usual. The bar was packed because one of those huge groups had piled in to the hostel that day. I was hanging out with a couple American guys and a Canadian girl when the awesome bartender announced that every time a song came on, the first person to yell out the artist got a free shot at the bar. The bar was mostly filled with Aussies, so maybe the 4 of us had an advantage considering most popular music comes from America. The four of us nailed the first 20 or so songs!!! We usually all yelled the artist right when we heard the first note, so the bartender just gave a shot to each of us. I didn't pay for a drink the rest of the night and we stayed until 3 am when the bar closed! It was a whole lot of fun.

I went to the Sigmund Freud museum the next day, which is in the apartment he used to live in and work out of. It was nothing special, but I am glad I got a picture of the famous couch! Though I doubt it was the same one... I saw another impressive church, then headed back to the Wombat for a nap. Monday evening I met a cool Aussie couple. I found Mike and the four of us headed to a local brewery. Took awhile to get to it, but it was definitely worth it. The pub had a really good atmosphere and they had some bizarre beers on tap. The first one I had was the hemp beer, which somehow tasted like how I imagined it would, minus the mental effects. We had the chili beer next, which was really hot! Had a great night and ended up back at the Wombar of course. The Aussies and Mike went to bed, but I stayed until close again and met a bunch of fun people.

Yesterday, Tuesday, I hopped on a bus to Bratislava! I wish I could have taken the hydrofoil down the Danube, but it was just too expensive. You can actually take it all the way to Budapest, though that is 60 euros or something. I took a 6 euro bus ride, and I just booked my bus ride to Budapest for tomorrow morning, only 4.50 euros! I absolutely love Bratislava! I heard some negative things about it, a lot of people say to just do it on a day trip from Vienna. It's true there are not a whole lot of sights to see, but the city is beautiful and the people are really nice. My first mishap was right off the bus though. I got off and was waiting for the driver to open the luggage compartment under the bus where my backpack was. I turned to look at something, turned back and the bus was driving away! So I had to trek it to tourist information, then to my hostel and have them call the company and bring my bag back! That was pretty embarrassing, though that driver really should have paid more attention. I spent yesterday seeing all the sights in town. I went to the main castle overlooking the city. I also checked out a museum with some Slovak art, old stuff and modern. I spent awhile just walking the streets of the city. There is a reputation that Slovakia is filled with beautiful women. I can only speak for Bratislava, but it is definitely true! I still can't believe the ratio of attractive women here in a city that is not that big, they are everywhere you turn!

The atmosphere in this city is pretty surprising for a European capital. It is almost as if the city is asleep, or in slow-motion. There are no crowds of people and none of the hustle you see everywhere else. People sit out at cafes drinking coffee or beer just like in Vienna. But here, even the main square feels like a very lazy place. I find it really enjoyable actually. My hostel here is dirt cheap yet really nice. Last night I took a free walking tour of the city which they organized. I learned quite a bit about the history of Slovakia and Bratislava. Our tour guide told us all about what it was like during the Velvet Revolution when communism died. It was very interesting, the Slovakian people have never in their 1000+ year history been independent, yet for the last 16 years have had their own country. They got the Euro earlier this year, yet most places publish prices in euros and crowns (think thats what it was called). After the walking tour, 5 of us headed to the Slovak Pub, which we were told had the best traditional food. All 5 of us ordered the exact same thing: this potato pasta dish with sheep's cheese and bacon. It got mixed reviews, though I personally loved it! We all also got the famous local grape soda, then a beer after we ate. Only cost 6 euros each! I love the cheap prices here, I think I will have to stay in Eastern Europe for awhile to save money!

After dinner I headed back to my hostel and met a couple of German guys, Jan and Ben. We decided to head out to check out the nightlife. The people working at our hostel are really friendly and helpful, so they gave a bunch of recommendations. We went to a bar called Alligator, which had live music. The place was an underground smoky pub with mostly locals. The band played a bunch of cover songs, they were actually really talented. We had a blast and stayed there all night till the band left. We chatted with some of the local people, many of whom speak English fairly well. Then we left the bar and had a very interesting experience.

We had just left and were only 100 meters away from the bar when a couple of cops stopped us. The woman didn't say a word but the guy spoke to us in broken English. He told us that some people living in the area had called them because we were being too loud. This was of course ridiculous because we had just left the bar one minute earlier and were just talking in the street. The cop didn't seem to care or understand when we told him this. He said it was 'quiet hour' and we had to pay a fine of 20 euros each. This was the most corrupt bullshit I've seen! It became clear to me he was just going to try and pocket the money. We refused to pay the fine and asked what law we had broken. He didn't understand the words 'law' or 'crime' which made the conversation pretty difficult. He kept threatening to take us back to the police station where there would be a 'big penalty'. After awhile he said we would only have to pay one fine of 20 euros for all three of us. That's when I definitely knew this was a scam. We refused to pay it and spent about 20 minutes haggling with the guy until he finally let us go. He basically gave up when I said I didn't care if the fine was only one euro, I wasn't going to pay him because I didn't do anything wrong. He told us to be quiet and go home. Of course that made us want to stay out later and cause a riot! So we found another bar, an Irish pub, and drank a few more beers, then as we left we saw the cops again! We ran down a few streets until we lost them! About 3:30 we finally made it back to our hostel. It was a really fun night!

Today I slept in, then got on a bus for a day trip out to Devin Castle just outside of town on the Danube. The place has a 7000 year history, though it sucks the place is still in ruins from when Napoleon's army destroyed most of it. It was still very interesting and I got some great pictures. Tonight I am planning on heading out soon with Jan and Ben. We might go to the same bar to see another band we heard was very good. Tomorrow morning I am on the bus to Budapest!

So many sights to see in Salzburg!

2009-10-01T13:50:00.000-07:00

I better write this blog now before I forgot all of the amazing things I have done in Salzburg! As I wrote before, on Monday I just hung out at my hostel, relaxed and recovered. One of my Aussie friends from Munich, Lonnie (sp?), showed up as well. I met several other people here and hung out with a few of them over the last few days. I watched The Sound of Music that night with a huge group at my hostel. They play it every night here! Salzburg is where it takes place and you can see many of the sights from the movie all around town. That is probably the 2nd most famous thing about Salzburg, with the first being Mozart.

On my first full day here, Tuesday, after poring over all the brochures and maps of the sights in town, I decided to buy a 3-day Salzburg card and do it all! Paid 37 euros for it, and it covered every attraction in town plus public transport. I calculated today (my last day of the card) that the full price of everything I did was 138 euros! Not a bad deal...

After eating a huge buffet breakfast at my hostel, I spent all day sightseeing on my own Tuesday, 8 and a half straight hours! I ended up taking over 400 pictures! I still have no idea how I could have taken that many. I will go through and delete quite a few that aren't that interesting, just keep the better ones. First stop was the huge fortress on the hill overlooking all of Salzburg (it is in the background of a lot of Sound of Music scenes). I took the funicular (tram) up the side of the mountain and got amazing views of the city. The castle was pretty big and fairly interesting. There were plenty of small museums throughout, but the views were the highlight. I walked into the beautiful old town next, poked around the cathedral and the monuments in the various squares. I went to the Salzburg Museum which gave a history of the town and the important people that have lived here. Went to the Salzburg Gallery which actually had a whole lot of Dutch and Flemish paintings, including some Rembrandts, plus some modern art. I hopped on the bus next and headed south of the town to Hellbrunn. This was a pleasure palace built by the royalty in the 17th century, I believe. The palace was pretty uneventful, though the gardens were beautiful. The real highlight, however, is the trick water fountain tour. It was a guided outdoor tour behind the palace through a long series of fountains and water devices that some king used to entertain his guests. Everyone gets pretty wet, because the guide turns on the various jets at different times, and you have no idea where the water will come from. There were a couple grottos where we walked in dry and came out running from the spray! There was also a stone table and chairs, the only chair without a jet in it is for the king at the head of the table. That's where the control for the jet is, of course.

After the water sports, I walked through the gardens, up the hill to the Folklore Museum. Not too exciting so I hiked further up for some fantastic views before heading to the zoo nearby. The zoo was fairly impressive, there were separate sections for Africa, South America, Asia, and Austrian, among others. The snow leopards were pretty cool looking, the brown bears were the cutest swimming and playing with each other. Didn't see the falcons, they must have been sleeping. I got back on the bus and headed even further south to a small town. I got on a cable car (gondola, basically) that took me all the way up into the mountains! It was about a 12 min ride to get to the 1900 meter peak where the views were incredible. I could see the Austrian Alps, lakes, villages, Salzburg in the distance. I got lucky that the only clouds were on the way up the cable car, but it was very clear up top. I wish I had gotten there earlier because there were hiking trails all over the place. I got there so late in the day I had only 20 mins before the last car down. It was very cold and windy up there, but the views were so good I didn't mind one bit. I headed back to my hostel after an exhausting day. I grabbed some food, hung out in the lounge, and uploaded all my photos.

Yesterday, Wednesday, I decided to slow it down a bit with the sightseeing. I had done so much, I realized I was going to get through my 3 day Salzburg card in only 2 days! And you can't do any of the sights twice... So I stayed close by, saw the 4th century Christian Catacombs, then hit the two modern art museums. The first was mostly landscape photography and not so interesting considering all the pictures I have taken myself on this trip! The much bigger Salzburg Modern Art Museum up on the hill adjacent to the fortress was very impressive. I took the lift straight up to the top of the mountain. The museum had a lot of stuff, but the best was the sculptures. I generally prefer paintains over sculptures, but this modern art was really fascinating. I spent awhile just walking around a few of them and staring. I got caught taking pictures of them (it's happened a lot on this trip!) so I had to put my camera away halfway through. I still don't understand why they care so much about a photo of a stone object. After the museums I walked down to the river for a cruise! It was on a medium sized boat for about 45 mins and I saw most of Salzburg. The river moves pretty quick so the boat has a couple of jet engines to move upstream. It was a nice relaxing way to sightsee while Mozart played in between the commentary. Next was the Mozart Residence where he lived as a kid. Not particularly interesting, mostly stuff about his family, nothing about his music/compositions. I went to the main park in town next and ran into Lonnie and another friend from my hostel. We walked through the beautiful park, saw some of the settings from the Sound of Music (the rows of trees they danced through) and took some fun pictures. The three of us headed back to the river, bought a couple of beers a piece from the store, and hung out next to the bike path right on the river. We chatted for a couple of hours and headed back to the hostel when it started getting cold. I stuffed myself at the all-you-can-eat buffet at my hostel for dinner. Hung out in the lounge again last night with some new people that showed up.

This morning, I headed out to the train station to meet my friend Uttara who I met in Munich at the Hofbrauhaus. She is from North Carolina (though born in India). She missed her first train, so I had to wait an hour for her to get there. No matter, she only had one day in town, and as I seem to have become the expert on Salzburg (people at my hostel ask me every question about the sights), I showed her around to some of the cool places. We went to the last two things on my Salzburg card I wanted to see as well. First was Mozart's birthplace, which was much more interesting and had a better museum than the residence where he lived later on. Next thing was to walk through the tunnel under the mountain to the other side of town for the Stiegler Brewery tour. I obviously saved the brewery tour and tasting for the last stop on my Salzburg card! We did the self guided tour and enjoyed the beer tastings outside. That brewery is pretty old, started in 1492. After we walked back into town, did some window shopping, and found a very good Austrian restaurant for dinner. I don't think my meal could have been more authentic, it was rolled ham, pork, sausage, potatoes, dumpling, and sauerkraut! A whole lot of food which tasted fantastic. After dinner we walked along the river and over the bridge and I got some nice night pictures of Salzburg. I walked Uttara back to the train station and she headed back to Munich.

Tomorrow morning I am getting on a train to Vienna! I booked a hostel for tomorrow night that has a reputation of being a place to party. I had been hoping to go to somewhere else in Austria first, like Graz, but trains are the only real transportation in this country, and it costs 50 euros to go anywhere. So Vienna is next, not sure for how long. I am excited for some fun this weekend in addition to the amazing sights Vienna has to offer! After Vienna will be Bratislava. It's right next to Vienna in Slovakia. So my first excursion on this trip into Eastern Europe will begin soon! Might go to Budapest after that, but I can't say for sure as I never plan more a day or two ahead. Well, it's October now, the month I am supposed to return home. I will announce now that I will not be on my originally schedule flight home on October 22nd. I'm not quite ready to divulge my plans as I am still mulling my options and I have not made any firm decisions. All I have to say is I love Europe and won't be returning home in the immediate future!

The Oktoberfest Recovery Begins

2009-09-28T07:38:00.000-07:00

Alright here's the Oktoberfest day-by-day, starting last Wednesday:

Day 1 - I left Hannover early and caught a train to Munich, which took just under 5 hours. I watched a couple of movies along the way (finally saw Gran Torino, great movie!), I am loving having a netbook! I also traded a few movies with Malisa a few days earlier, I seem to keep doing that so I am never bored on a train or plane. I got into Munich and found my way down to the campground where Cam had told me he was staying. It was only about 20 mins south of the city center, in a wooded area right along the river. The place was huge, there were thousands of people there I would guess. I couldn't find Cam though, as he was already out and about at the fest. By some miracle I noticed a piece of paper on a display board with my name on it. Cam had written me a note telling me where his tent was. Though that dumb Aussie wrote the wrong sector of the campground so it didn't help much! I was able to rent a tent and dumped my stuff in a massive tent field run by some tour company. Never ended up sleeping there though, more on that later. I had a few beers at the campsite and then hopped on a shuttle to the fest. Oktoberfest is absolutely crazy and huge. It is like Disneyland, there are rides, roller coasters, food stands, beer halls, beer tents, and beer gardens, not to mention hoardes of people, absolutely everywhere you turn. Nearly all the women wear traditional Bavarian dresses called dirndls while maybe a third of the men wear lederhosen. I wish I had gotten them, but they are way too expensive. About 100 euros for the cheapest, while they can get to over 1000 euros! Plus I wouldn't want to have to carry it in my pack after the fest.

I spent a while just wandering around the fest, there is so much to see it is sensory overload. I found one of the huge tents and grabbed a seat outside in the beer garden. I met some random people sitting near me and was amazed at how friendly people were. The beer costs 8.50 or 8.60 per liter (in a stein of course) at every major beer tent. There were maybe 8 or so major breweries that each had the biggest tents, I was told the biggest of them hold 50,000 people. After going inside, I believe it. It wasn't too difficult to get in, find a table, order more beer, and meet a bunch of people. I randomly ran into my friend Karina who I met in Portugal. Ironically, Cam ran into her separately the next night! Amazing given how many people are there. I hung out with her and her friends the rest of the night. I believe my stein count was 3 for the night (plus 2 at the campsite earlier).

Now for the most embarrassing moment of my trip so far (and possibly my life). My memory is a bit hazy at this point, but I'm pretty sure I got on the wrong shuttle back to the campsite. In my defense, there were literally hundreds of shuttles and busses picking people up outside the fest. Regardless, I fell asleep on the shuttle (as many people do on their way home from the fest!) I have no idea how long I was asleep because I don't know what time I left, but I woke up as the shuttle stopped and it was about midnight. I didn't recognize where I was and asked a few people where the campsite was. They didn't seem to be sure, but were able to point me in the direction of the river. I walked for a while, and asked a few more people with no luck. I was quickly alone and had no one left to ask. I had no map on me, it was pitch black, and I was getting really cold (was wearing a tee shirt and flip flops). I asked a few security guards at some office building and they pointed me towards the river, which I was never able to find. I wandered for what seemed like forever. I was in some neighborhood freezing my ass off when I decided to call it quits. I considered knocking on some random door, but instead found an apartment building with the outside door unlocked. The heat was on and I sat down on the stairs with my head against the wall and fell asleep! I woke up at 6 am or so shivering (the heat wasn't that great), I heard people stirring, getting ready for work. I left the building and wandered for an hour until I found a bus. I didn't care where it was going, I just got on. I got very lucky that one of the stops was the Hauptbanhof (train station). I knew how to get back from there. Then, next to the highway, right before my stop, I saw the scariest street sign of my life: Munich - 72 km! LOL! I am so embarrassed, but I suppose it makes for a good story. I was in some suburb in the middle of nowhere (still don't know exactly where, but clearly people were directing me to a different river than I thought!), and I had to pay 15 euros to catch an hour and a half train ride back to Munich.

Day 2 - I got back to the campsite at around 9 am, cold, tired, and hungry. I found Cam at the site fairly quickly. He was there with a big group of Aussies that he met in Prague on his way to Munich. Lucky for me, some people that had camped in the site earlier had left their tents. So I grabbed the nicest looking one and moved my stuff out of my original tent and into the new one. Only had to pay 11 euros a night to camp there (vs 20 to rent a tent). I probably should have gotten some sleep at this point, but everyone was ready for a big day at the fest so I showered and got ready. Cam got lucky as he was borrowing lederhosen from a friend. About half of the rest of our crew dressed up as well. We headed the fest in the early afternoon and had a blast all day. I think I drank 4 steins that day and of course crashed hard in the early evening. I was exhausted and fell asleep with my head on my beer at one point! Cam was tired too so we walked to a grassy hill with a bunch of passed out people on it to take a nap. Cam said the next day that I was asleep before my head hit the grass. He woke up a couple of hours later and couldn't find me. Once again, my memory is failing me, but I at least made it home to the campsite. I'm not sure why exactly I left Cam on the hill, I feel kind of bad about it. But he ended up back with our friends and partied more. I got back to the campsite relatively early and slept.

Day 3 - I was now mostly caught up on sleep and was feeling pretty decent. Cam and I went sightseeing on our own. We wandered around the city center, climbed a church tower with great views, and ate some interesting German seafood dishes from a market for lunch. We decided to head to the Hofbrauhaus to check it out, kind of mandatory for a tourist in Munich. I had been there when I was in Munich 5 years ago, but I definitely wanted to experience it during Oktoberfest. It was packed as expected, and Cam and I hadn't planned on doing much drinking as this was our recovery day. Well of course we decided to grab a table and have a stein. Then the plan became, 'Let's have one then head back early tonight.' A couple of American girls, then German guys, came and sat down with us at our table. As we were about to order food, some guy at the table next to us gave us his full plate of food, untouched! It was a pork knuckle, a traditional Bavarian dish, which Cam and I devoured. We ended up staying the whole night there, drinking 3 steins a piece, and having an incredibly good time. We left after midnight, hung out with our new friends in a park for a while, then headed home. Got to sleep at about 1 am.

Day 4- Staying out so late on our supposed recovery day was obviously a bad idea. The reason we wanted to get in early was because our alarms were set for 3:30 am!!! It was the day of the AFL (Austrialian football) Grand Final, which is their Superbowl. There were 14 or so Aussies in our group, so they wanted to watch it live. After a couple of mishaps, we got to one of the Australian bars in town and got in line at 5:00 or so. Just before the game started, the doors opened and hundreds of Aussies poured into this tiny bar. The place was horribly packed, it was literally impossible to get to the bathroom and nearly impossible to get to the bar. I'm guessing, but I think I was the only non-Austrialian in the whole place. And I don't know the rules to the AFL or who the teams are! It was all in fun though, and the game was incredibly exciting as it came down to the wire. The team our crew was rooting for won, they're called the Cats, which I still think is a horrible name for a sports team. Afterwards, Cam and I headed back to the campsite to try and sleep for a bit before a big day at the fest. We got an hour of sleep or so and then headed back into the thick of it. This weekend was Italian weekend at Oktoberfest, so there are groups of sleazy Italian guys everywhere you look. The fest was so crowded this day it was starting to get frustrating. Not only could we not get into a tent or a seat at a beer garden, we couldn't seem to find any place to order a beer. We spent 2 hours at Oktoberfest without drinking a single beer, unbelievable! Finally we met up with our other friends for few beers at one of the smaller outdoor bars. Eventually, our friend Lauren found us as well! Cam and I met her in Seville, then she was in Lagos, then stayed with us at the apartment in Valencia for La Tomatina. It was awesome to have a reunion! She is a really cool girl and becoming a good friend as we keep meeting up all over Europe. She had to leave the next day for China, I hope to meet up with her again in the future, maybe southeast Asia! Here is her blog if anyone wants to read about her adventures: http://laurensworldtrip.blogspot.com. Lauren and Cam and I went on one of the roller coasters, the Olympic-themed one with 5 loops. It was a blast, I will post the video! Then we attempted to go meet up with our friends in one of the big beer tents. They had a reservation, but could only get a limited number of entrance wristbands. We spent nearly two hours trying to get in, the lines were so long, and security was hardly letting anyone in. Eventually some kid gave me a wristband as he was leaving, so I got inside and tried to find our friends. Finally I found them and went outside to grab Cam. It was so late Lauren had to head back for her early flight. Cam and I got in and spent the rest of the night up on one of the balconies, standing on a table with our steins and a bunch of friends. We danced and sang all the cheesy cover songs played by the German band in the middle of the tent. We met some funny German guys that actually lived in Munich. After the tent closed down, they took a little group of us to an afterparty/club. It took forever to get to because the German guys talked to every person we met along the way. We only stayed at the club 20 mins before Cam and I decided to head back, absolutely exhausted. Amazingly enough, I remember the end of the night very well, which is a good feeling! Stein count for the day was 4.

Day 5 - Cam left early in the morning to get back to London, so I spent the day sightseeing/recovering on my own. I saw two very cool sights in Munich. The first was the royal family's summer residence. I took a really nice walk around the palace and through the beautiful gardens. I had lunch in a beer hall nearby, wurst of course. Then I headed out to the other side of town for the English Garden. It is apparently the largest city park in Europe. It was really impressive and I walked through it for a long time. I drank a stein at at beer garden right next to a lake. I spent the whole day alone which was fine by me. I took a lot of pictures, then headed back to the campsite at 8 pm or so. Of course the post-Oktoberfest party was already in full swing at the campsite, so I went to check it out for a bit. Once again, one stein turned into many, and I had one of the best nights in Munich partying with a bunch of people I just met. I spent most of the night with a German guy and girl (Julia and Florian) who study together in Hamburg. The three of us drank a lot of beer and talked to everyone around us. The campsite is mostly Aussies but there were a lot of Italians there for the weekend as well. I didn't make it to my tent until 3:30 am or so.

Today - I woke up, packed my stuff and left my tent for the next camper who shows up like I did. I caught a train to Salzburg in Austria where I am now. I got to my hostel pretty quickly and am very impressed. My room has a view of the huge castle up on the hill. I took a long hot, badly needed shower and am doing my laundry right now. I am going to stay here 3 days and hope to see the whole town and take a tour or two. There are a lot of Mozart sights to see here, plus there is a Sound of Music tour which I might do. Apparently the Eagle's Nest is fairly close, and I would love to see it. It was built by the Nazis as Hitler's summer retreat, basically. I have seen it in movies and it is incredible (they went to it in that HBO series Band of Brothers). Other than that, I just plan on relaxing, recovering, and exploring Austria!

Oktoberfest is finally here!!!

2009-09-22T15:36:00.000-07:00

I had a pretty easy flight out of Dublin, and a relatively painless four train rides to get to Hannover. Though the ticket I printed out for my train ride had a few issues. I only glanced at it previously because I already knew the details. I had noticed it wasn't in English, but just assumed it was in Dutch. After looking closer when I got off the plane, I realized it wasn't in Dutch. I was told by a couple people it wasn't in any language, it was just gibberish. I ended up going to the train station and having them print me off an itinerary along with a handwritten note to the German train system that said my ticket was legit.

I got to Hannover and met Marlene and Malisa at the train station. I stayed with Marlene's family at their brand new house which is really nice. We went out to a cool club on my first night. I met a few German kids and had a few beers for only 2 euros each. I am still amazed at that price, incredibly cheap for a club with a cover. We made it on the last tram home, then spent the next couple of days exploring Hannover. We rode bikes around town a bunch and to the huge garden/park called Herrenhäuser Gärten. It is designed in a similar style as Versailles and was really impressive. We wandered through and I got some great pictures, plus I got to see the tallest fountain in Europe. Malisa and I walked over to it and saw that it was turned off. I was pretty disappointed, but we decided to eat our picnic lunch next to it anyway. I made some joke about waiting as long as it took for them to start the fountain, otherwise I was asking for a refund. An hour later, after we ate and chatted and were getting ready to leave, the fountain turned on! I'd say the thing was about 40 meters high, though now I am curious and just looked it up, apparently it is 82 meters tall!! Wow was I off. The following day we met up with one of the girls' friends, Linnea, and went pedal boating on the lake. I ate dinner the first few nights at Marlene's, then once at Malisa's place and once at Linnea's house. I ate some great German food and once again feel lucky to be taken care of so well!

Today was my last day here, and I took a day trip with the girls to Münster, where Malisa is going to Uni. We walked around the town, which was very pretty. There are lots of tree lined walking and bike paths, just like Hannover. Both cities are extremely bike friendly. Plus they both have really convenient and efficient public transportation, people can easily live here without a car. We ate dinner right next to the lake, then lost track of time and had to run 1km back to the train station so we wouldn't miss our train. It didn't matter in the end because Marlene forgot to write our connection down, so we went to the wrong stop and had to wait an hour for the right train! If you plan it well, it seems you should never have to wait more than 5 mins for a connection to take a train anywhere in Germany.

I am planning on meeting up with Cameron tomorrow in Munich. I am probably going to have to buy a tent as we are staying at a campsite on the outskirts of town and Cam's tent is small. Apparently I can find one for about 15 euros there, and just ditch it afterwards. I'm not sure what my plans are after Munich and have no idea how long I will stay there. Probably until I get tired of paying 8 euros for a beer or until my liver fails me, whichever comes first. I am thinking I would like to visit Austria afterwards, but we'll see. Probably won't get online in the next week or so unless I find an Internet Cafe or this campsite has WiFi (yeah right).

Thanks for the comments on my posts by the way!

Resting up in Dublin, ready for Germany!

2009-09-15T15:39:00.000-07:00

I had a really relaxing time in Nantes. It is a very nice city, clean and attractive. But there aren't a whole lot of sights to see, I could hardly believe it when I found out 800,000 people live there! It's not even mentioned once in my Lonely Planet guidebook. Vincent and I wandered around and checked out the castle, the main cathedral, and checked out a couple of bars. It is pretty easy to walk most everywhere.

His parents have a really nice, new flat next to just about everything. Vincent's father, Jean-Pierre, used to own a big restaurant and is an incredible chef. Neither he nor Vincent's mother, Martine, speak much English at all. Possibly less English than I speak French! I ate some amazing French food while I was there. And, of course, had a fresh baguette for every meal of the day. One night for dinner we sat down and Jean-Pierre put the dish on the table and said to me "Bugs Bunny!" So I ate some damn good rabbit. We had cous cous another night, roasted chicken a different night. I love that they eat every meal with fresh baguettes. You don't waste any food because you use the bread to mop up your plate when you are done. And the four of us drank 2-3 bottles of amazing French wine for dinner each night, not to mention the bottle or two for lunch. I tried the local favorite, called Muscadet, which was sweet and really tasty. Also had various wines from Bordeaux and the south of France, a couple different champagnes, reds, whites, roses, you name it. Many meals started off with a tomato salad which I (shockingly) am starting to enjoy. I would really like to learn French better to be able to talk to all my new friends. I am going to start watching some movies in French on my computer, and I hope to take a language class sometime after Oktoberfest.

On Friday I took a day trip with Vincent and his parents to the coast. We stopped in a medeival walled city called Guerande to look around, then continued to the salt flats which Bretagne is famous for. We made it out to La Baule, which is kind of like Nice for the west coast of France. It is a rich French playground with a huge sandy beach, dozens of kite surfers, and expensive real estate for miles. We walked along the main beach boulevard and had a beer at a cafe. On the way back, we stopped at a German U-boat dock fortification thing that is basically in the same condition as the war. The Allies bombed the shit out of it apparently, but no luck. The concrete walls are probably 20 feet thick. It housed 100 U-boats right in the Loire delta. It was pretty amazing to see.

On Saturday evening, Vincent and I decided to finally check out the bars and clubs. We wandered around not really knowing where to go, eventually followed some people to the Island of Nantes (in the Loire River) and found one of the main stretches of clubs and bars. There was some famous DJ playing at the biggest club, and there was a 45 euro cover! We kept walking down the strip and found a bar/club that was absolutely packed with no cover and 3 euro pints of beer! I couldn't believe it, so we stayed for awhile. On our way home, we talked to a couple of French girls that were headed the same direction as us. They hardly spoke any English at all, so Vincent tried a little game: he pretended to be American. They completely bought it which was hilarious. He was my buddy Vince from New York and we were travelling together. They had no idea he spoke French, and I just played along.

I explored the last bit of Nantes on Sunday with Vincent, saw the old biscuit factory, lol. As I said, not a lot of sights. After yet another amazing dinner, they drove me out to the airport and I hopped on a plane to Dublin. Quick flight, easy bus ride, hopped off the bus on O'Connell St. in Dublin and found Lisa right away! We walked back to her aparment ten mins away and I met some of her flatmates. There are two German girls, one Brazilian guy, and one other guy, not sure where he's from yet, maybe Brazil too? They are all very nice and speak excellent English. They are all in school or working (or both) here in Dublin. They all have fairly normal routines, and Lisa works 6pm to 12am every evening, so I have been hanging out with Lisa during the day and her roommates until midnight. On Monday I stayed in and took care of some chores. Transferred some money, posted some pictures, bought my next plane and train ticket, etc. Today, Tuesday, Lisa and I got up really early (5:30!) to take a day trip out to Kilkenny. It is two hours away by train, so we had to leave early to have enough time for her to get back to work. It is a really cute, very Irish town. We went into the beautiful castle right on the river which dates from the 1200s. Saw a modern art exhibit, went to a cathedral and climbed the cool round tower. We stopped in a pub for lunch and a Guinness before heading back to Dublin.

I have booked the next week of my trip, I am flying to Eindhoven (in the Netherlands, no one has heard of it, even my new German friends who live two hours away!), then taking the train to Hannover. I looked up many cities to fly to and take a train from as there aren't many directs from Dublin to Hannover. It is only 10 euros (before tax) for my flight, plus 29 euros for my train, not bad! I am staying with my friends Marlene and Malisa in Hannover until next Wednesday. I then have a train booked for Munich for Oktoberfest! I will meet up with a bunch of friends there and camp! I am really excited, hope to post again just before I head there!

Living the French Life

2009-09-10T04:17:00.000-07:00

My last day in Balogna, I took a day trip by train out to Ferrara. I went with a couple uni students I met at my hostel that were going out there to start study abroad programs. The town was really nice with a real university feel to it. I checked out the main castle in the center of the town which was fairly impressive. Wandered around a bit and had pretty much seen all the sights. I headed back to Balogna and got in touch with a couple of girls I had met my first day in Balogna. They had just moved into university residences. I met up with them in town and we ate at an Italian buffet, the same one I had been to the previous night. All-you-can-eat Italian food plus any drink you want for 7 euros! We went out after to a few bars and had a great time. I caught the last bus back to my hostel, barely made it! If I had missed it, would have either been a 7km walk or sleep on the street.

The next day, I packed up and headed to the train station. Vincent had convinced me to head to Paris for the party! I found what I think was the cheapest way for me to get there, so I hopped on a train direct from Balogna to Paris for 100 euros. Not too bad, cheaper than a last minute flight. The train took 10 hours, but I watched movies on my netbook, slept, and saw some incredible views of the French and Italian Alps, especially near Torino (the Winter Olympics city). Got into the Gare de Lyon in Paris really late, so I found a hostel to crash. Woke up and trekked out to Marne-la-Vallee, a Paris suburb about 30 mins away by train. Got off the train and was staring at Disneyland Paris. It looks pretty impressive, though a far cry from the real Disneyland. After an annoying hour trying to get on the internet to look up Vincent's phone number (I forgot to write it down), I called him and he swung by to pick me up. We headed back to Clemont's house, in this tiny French village called La Houssaye-en-Brie. That's the town where all 14 of the French guys I stayed with at the villa in Portugal went to high school. Many of them still live there, and they know everybody in town. Vincent and I stayed at Clemont's, along with Clemont's cousin Pauline and her friend Julie.

When I arrived on Friday, there were a bunch of guys already setting up the party. I jumped in to help, setting up multiple tents, building structures to hold up several tarps (the weather sucked, rainy and windy), preparing food, helping the DJ set up equipment, etc. There was a lot to do! It took all day, but I definitely started to realize this party was going to be crazy. People started showing up at 8 or so, the DJ was awesome (Fabien, a guy I met in Portugal), and everybody was dressed in 'French' clothes. Meaning, those funny hats, white shirts, red handkerchiefs, etc. I was wearing this silly fur jacket, looked ridiculous. There were probably 150 people that came by through the night, and I didn't get to sleep until it was light outside. I saw a lot of the friends I met while in Portugal, they were all very glad I made it to the party. I'm pretty sure I was the only person at the party who wasn't French! Took a lot of great pictures and met just about every person that walked in. In French culture, you introduce yourself and shake hands or kiss every single person that arrives. I have gotten used to it by now. I am really enjoying the French way of life and have made many great friends.

I didn't wake up on Saturday until 5 pm!!! When I did, I immediately started helping prepare everything for the next party! More food and a new DJ. The weather was a lot better as well, though still kind of cold. That party was a lot of fun as well. Many of the same people, yet a whole lot of new ones as well, probably 200 that night. All in all, I had a blast and am really glad Vincent convinced me to go. Originally, I was only going to head to the party if Cameron did as well, but he decided to stay in London, and it sounded like too much fun to miss. I spent the next 3 nights at Clemont's place with Vincent and the girls (Pauline and Julie, aka Ginger and July). Clemont and his dad really took care of us. We had fantastic homemade French dinners each night. Sunday night we drove into Paris with several friends to an Australian bar. One of the guys is going to Aus in 2 weeks, and 2 others are meeting up with him soon. They are all going to be gone for a year and were very happy to practice their English with me, and at the Australian bar as well.

On a side note, all of the conversations taking place about where we are going or what we are doing are in French obviously. I usually have no idea what the guys are talking about, they speak way too fast and use too many words I don't understand. It is also really tiring to listen to all day long, often my brain needs a rest so I kind of tune them out. Vincent and Clemont also have a very bad habit of not informing me what in the world is going on. They pretty much have me on a 'Need to Know' basis and they don't think I need to know anything until 5 minutes before we have to do it. Most of the time, it is pretty funny because I am always surprised when they say, 'Alright let's go!' and I don't have a clue where we are going and have to get ready in a hurry. Sometimes, when we have to catch a train and I have 2 minutes to grab the laundry I just finished doing and pack my whole backpack, I wonder why they didn't tell me 10 minutes earlier!! Then I yell at them and they yell back at me 'Stupid American!', but it is all in fun.

On Monday, Vincent and Clemont informed me that we were going to go to Le Duplex, one of Paris' best nightclubs. Then they asked if I would mind driving, so they could both drink! Well of I course I don't mind, but driving in Paris sounded pretty scary. Not only is the city really busy and the streets are confusing and the drivers can be crazy, I can't read much on any of the street signs. And 2 drunk French guys providing terrible directions wouldn't help. I drove Clemont's old Renault, a beat up thing he bought for 100 euros that actually drives pretty well. Everyone in the car (besides me) was already drunk and we were blasting the electronic music they always listen to. Fortunately, I got to follow the car in front of me for about half the ride to Paris. But it was nearly 1 AM and they were doing roadwork on the A4, the main highway. So when the road closed and Clemont yelled at me to pull alongside the car in front as the car exited the freeway, it didn't work out so well. From then on, I was on my own with Clemont and Vincent both yelling directions in drunken French and bad English. It was pretty damn funny and I was sure we would get lost. We did, several times, but finally once we got into Paris I saw the Arc de Triomph. I asked them where the club was and they said right next to it! The traffic circle where the Champs Elysee meets the Arc de Triomph is the biggest one in the world. 12 different streets all meet at the roundabout, which is basically its own highway! The circle can fit about 15 cars wide!!! I had no idea I was going to have to drive on it. Fortunately, it being 1 AM, the circle was not incredible busy (though still quite a few cars). Somehow I navigated onto it, did a complete circle because the guys were confused about which street to take, and then crossed 12 lanes of traffic in one swift manuever to exit at the absolute last second. The girls were screaming in the back, but I was in control so it was hilarious! I parked, snapped some photos of the Arc and the traffic and we met up with our friends and got into the club.

I can see why the club is one of the best in paris, it was packed on a Monday night!! It was expensive, so probably a good thing I wasn't drinking. We got a private area with bottle service, meaning 150 euros for a bottle of Absolut vodka. Despite being sober, I had a great time and we all danced a bunch. Mostly electronic music with some American hip hop thrown in. I always make fun of the guys when they sing along to the English lyrics yet have no idea what half of the words mean. About 4 AM some of the guys and girls started falling asleep on the couches, everyone was still very tired from the weekend. So we called it a night early and I drove us home. Back around the crazy circle and down the Champs Elysee, along the Seine with all the main Paris sights flying by, onto 3 different highways, and somehow got us home in one piece an hour later. 5:30 AM, Clemont and Vincent were hungry, so Clemont cooked breakfast while Vincent and I went back through the backyard to the chicken coop. We were trying to be really quite, but Vincent was drunk and scared, so I fended off the cock with a stick while he stole about 8 eggs, laughing the whole time.

On Tuesday, I woke up to 'We are going to the castle in 5 minutes, get ready!' So I went with Clemont and the girls to Vaux le Vicomte, one of Louis XVI's amazing chateaus not far from Clemont's village. We didn't go inside, just got tickets to the gardens which were incredible. Similar in style to those at Versailles, we walked through them for 2 hours with amazing views throughout. It was pretty incredible and a great place to relax after several big nights in a row. We stayed in Tuesday evening, just enjoyed a nice meal some of Clemont's extended family. Went to a neighbor's house and drank a lot of good wine. I am definitely starting to learn more French, I can't hold a conversation by any means, but I recognize more words. I can even ask some basic questions and understand the answers, though my accent needs a lot of work. Sometimes I know how a word is spelled and I say it several times, yet they stare at me blankly. I swear sometimes they know what I am saying, they just pretend not to to spite me for having an American accent!

Wednesday was to be my last day staying with Clemont. We woke up relatively early and I caught a train into Paris with Vincent and the girls (Clemont had to work). My sister Lauren had just gotten into Paris, but unfortunately we weren't able to meet up (tough to communicate, I don't have a phone and hers didn't work). We went to the modern art museum called Centre Pompidou. Spent a couple hours there, some of it that weird 1970s sexual video art (like at Tate Modern in London), some of it really cool and bizzarre, but the best was the Matisse and Picasso collections. We also saw the Royal Palace and the Louvre's 'repository' museum or something like that, where they keep a lof of art for sale. Afterwards, Vincent had a date with the bartender we met at the Australian bar (that is a funny story in itself), so I took the girls to that big cemetary I had been to before, then to the Jardin du Luxembourg, which was absolutely beautiful. Clemont got off work early, so we had to hop back on a train out of town so he could pick us up from the station.

Wednesday evening, I packed my stuff in a hurry and went back to Marne-la-Vallee with Vincent. We said goodbye to Clemont and the girls, and I bought a 12-25 year old discount French train card. Then Vincent and I got tickets to Nantes!! We took a 3 hour train ride to Nantes, where I am now! Nantes is in Brittany, well, right next to it, on the west coast of France. Vincent's parents live here, and he is going to work and start uni here in a week or so. I am staying with him at his parents' place. They are both very nice and have a really cool place. They are taking care of me as well as Clemont and his family did. I am unbelievably grateful to Clemont and Vincent for taking me in like they have. I hardly pay a dime for accommadation or food. My only expenses are public transportation, entrance to museums, and the occassional drink at a bar (though even most of those get paid for by one of my friends here). I suppose I should feel a bit bad for mooching so much, but Vincent and Clemont both love to travel, so they know what it is like to be on a strict budget. They have both travelled all over the world and have been in similar situations where they have met people and stayed with them free of charge. And of course, they both know that when they come to Seattle eventually I will take care of them!

So, here's my plan: I am going to stay here in Nantes with Vincent until Sunday evening. We are going to explore the city today, check out the nightlife tonight. Either Friday or Saturday, I hope to take a day trip up to St. Malo and Mont St. Michel (sorry we didn't go there Roxanne! So close to it now I can't miss it!) On Sunday, I will fly to Dublin. I've already been there, so why Dublin? Well, there aren't a huge number of places you can fly to from Nantes, and taking a train would take a long time and be fairly expensive even with my new discount card. I found a fairly cheap flight to Dublin, and I can fly to anywhere in Europe from there. Plus, my friend Lisa who I met in Lisbon offered to let me stay at her place in Dublin right off O'Connell street!! She lives with I think 6 roommates and has a spare couch, so it should be a lot of fun! I will stay there a few days, then fly to Germany! In Germany I am hoping to stay with some friends in Hanover. I met Marlene and Lisa in Galway, Ireland at the beginning of my trip. We have kept in touch and they have asked me to visit. I will check out Germany a bit until the 23rd of September, when I plan on heading to Munich for Oktoberfest! I will meet up with Cameron there, and Lauren as well (friend from Spain and Portugal who was in our apartment for La Tomatina).

So the next couple weeks of my trip are looking pretty sweet! I have friends to stay with and places to go! It sure is nice meeting so many people on my travels, and Facebook is great for staying in touch! For example, I met a Swiss guy at that Australian bar the other day in Paris. Talked to him for maybe 20 mins or so. A day later, he found me on Facebook and now I have a place to stay in Geneva whenever I make it out there! The internet connection was bad at Clemont's house, hopefully it will be good where I go in the future so I can post more often. Stay tuned for pictures!

Pizza, Pasta, Gelato... yum.

2009-09-01T07:43:00.000-07:00

La Tomatina, wow. I decided afterwards (and I think each of my friends did as well) that I am so glad I went to La Tomatina, but I would never, ever do it again. It is definitely a once in a lifetime experience. It was crazy, wild, painful, exhausting, disgusting fun!

The day before the festival, Cam and I went for a run out in the park next to our apartment. It was the first run of my trip, meaning the first in over 2 and a half months! I really needed it though and hope to keep running at least 2-3 times a month. We ran about 40 minutes at noon, it was unbelievably hot! Our group of 7 went out in Valencia to pick up some things for the festival, goggles. shoes, outfits, etc. Cam and I went to the beach, which was alright, very warm water, yet kinda dirty. That night, we planned on going out in Valencia because we hadn't heard any more details about the wine festival. The plan was to get up early the next morning and meet some other friends at the train station and head to La Tomatina together. I am so glad that plan changed!! We heard from some people that there is a big party in Bunol (the town of the festival) the night before and we shouldn't wait till the morning to go. We found this out very late, though, and the trains weren't running at the time. So the 7 of us hopped in 2 cabs at about 1 in the morning and made it down to Bunol. We jumped right into the party, which was basically a massive outdoor rave that lasted all night until 10 AM the next morning when the festival started! The party was really fun and everybody had a blast. As you will see in the pictures, I had a massive bullseye painted on my upper body as well as another on my forehead. Needless to say, I was getting a lot of looks from everyone! But Cam was in a Speedo and Tom was wearing a white dress, so I guess we all were getting looks. Almost got in a fight with about 12 Spanish guys who clearly did not like us tourists.

We made it out into the streets of Bunol, right in the heart of things. There is a wooden pole, about 5 meters high, that had a chicken or a ham or something attached at the very top. The entire pole is then greased up, I think it was soap. The idea is, the tomato throwing doesn't start until someone gets to the top of the pole and pulls the meat down. We were right up close, and I even spent about 20 mins at the base of the pole with people climbing on top of me. It was basically a mosh pit, with hundreds of people pushing and climbing on each other, everyone was hot and sweaty, pretty gross. No one was really working together to get to the top (stupid Aussies, most of them :) ). 2 hours passed with people trying to get to the top of the pole! I couldn't believe it was taking so long. After all that time, finally the cannon sounded without anyone ever getting to the top of the pole. Trucks filled with people and tomatoes started rolling down the street. Within minutes, thousands of tomatoes were flying through the air and we were ankle deep in them. Throughout this, everyone wearing a tee-shirt (both guys and girls) had them ripped off. So there were wet tee-shirts being balled up and thrown as well, not to mention the Spanish guys whipping people with them. As it went on, I started getting hit with a LOT of tomatoes, obviously. They started to hurt, though, and I took about 4 tomatoes right to the face. One of them gave me a bump on my forehead, another one gave me a black eye. That one hurt so bad I almost fell over, I was seeing stars! It felt like getting hit with a baseball. Supposedly the Spanish guys bring some of their own tomatoes that they freeze first. Bunch of assholes. Anyway, I spent a lot of the time turned away from the tomato trucks, protecting the girls in our group. Therefore I took a bunch of tomatoes to the back of my head and neck, which are still pretty tender from bruising. The girls wanted out, but there was no escape. Just way too many people to even move. Just before it all ended, the last couple trucks actually opened their rear doors and tomatoes just poured into the street. For some reason I thought it would be a good idea to jump in. I basically dove into tomato soup. When I finally stood up (with help), it was literally knee deep! I was pretty glad when it all ended, as I smelled horrible and felt like I just got my ass kicked.

We made our way down the hill to the 'showers' and the river flowing down the street. I rolled around on the ground for awhile until I was somewhat clean. Around this time, I reached for my pocket and my camera was nowhere to be found :( It was a huge mistake to even bring it, I had it in a double ziplock bag and only used it before the festival. I didn't take it out during the tomatoes. My pocket was buttoned as well, I figure someone must have picked it at the end of the tomato fight before we headed to the showers. Turned out to be a 200 euro mistake. That's what I paid for a new one in Venice, though at least I now have a brand new model. Oh well, lesson learned, and I only lost about 4 days worth of pictures. I just borrowed Cameron's camera and am using his pics for those days cuz they were basically the same as mine. Took about 2 hours to get through the crowds and back to the apartment with everyone. We all pretty much showered and went to sleep as we had been up for about 36 hours. I got up at midnight and checked out some of Valencia's nightlife with Matt.

The next day, Cameron and I finally parted ways after 2 and a half weeks travelling together. He headed back to London, I bussed up to Madrid with Matt. I had a flight booked for Venice the next morning. He was headed to Marrakesh a couple hours later. We went out for some cheap tapas in Madrid and then decided to head back to the hostel to get some sleep. My flight was at 7:15 so I was going to have to get up very early. I had just climbed into bed about 1 AM (really looking forward to about 3 hours sleep!) when 2 people staying in my room, Jack and Julia, walked in and announced it was time for everyone to go on a pub crawl. They also informed me that the metro wouldn't be running until 6 AM, which would be cutting it close to get to my flight. They were flying too, and had a cab booked with a spot open. So I climbed outta bed quick and went with them on the pub crawl! The cab was to leave right after the last club. I had a lot of fun, and the last club was the same one I had been to about a month earlier in Madrid, the one with 7 floors. I made it out to the airport just in time for my flight. Slept a bit, but still woke up in Venice feeling exhausted, not to mention still sore all over from La Tomatina. So I wasn't in the best mood when my backpack didn't show up. I filed a claim with the airline and started thinking about the pain in the ass it was going to be to buy a new backpack and all new clothes. I got into Venice and began a 5 hour search for my hostel. Probably the worst day of my trip so far. The hostel gave me the worst possible directions, plus Venice has to be the most difficult city in the world to navigate. Possibly worse than Morocco. I finally called the hostel and they told me it was on the completely opposite side of the city to what the google map had shown online. Had to boat over and then ask about 8 people how to get there. The hostel wasn't that great anyway, and overpriced like everything in Venice.

Despite the circumstances, I thought Venice was absolutely beautiful. It is pretty fun working your way through the winding streets and bridges and canals (as long as you don't need to be anywhere at a certain time or have luggage with you). There are quite a few cool sights to see. Plus the pizza and paninis and gelato were amazing! Then the good news, the airline found my bag and delivered it to my hostel the next afternoon. Only had to go one day with dirty clothes and an unfortunate odor. The extra toothbrush and toothpaste in my daypack sure saved me. I also bought a new camera, I definitely didn't want to miss taking pictures in Venice! I went out to check out the bar scene that night as well. I met an American couple from Texas that were really nice and bought me a few beers at a couple different bars. My hostel had a 1:30 curfew, meaning if you show up late you are locked out. It took me 40 mins to walk to the bars, but for the walk back I didn't look at my watch until it was 1:05! I grabbed a 2 euro slice of pizza next door to the back and jogged most of the way back, showed up just as the hostel was locking up. Glad I didn't have to sleep on the street, that would have been one horrible Venice experience.

I hopped on a boat the next morning, then a train, and arrived in Verona early afternoon. I had a guesthouse booked, and once more had a terrible time finding it. After getting on the third bus, I spotted it, rang the buzzer and no answer. I sat outside the door for 15 mins wondering what to do. Finally I opened the mail slot and noticed the key taped to it and a post-it titled STEPHENS. When I got in, there was another note on my bed informing me that the owner wouldn't be around till the following afternoon and that I should leave the money in the mailbox. Pretty trusting guy! I never even met him. I spent the evening exploring Verona, saw the Romeo and Juliet (or Giulietta as they call her) sights, including Juliet's house, the famous balcony, and a statue of her. It wasn't as cheesy as I expected. Verona is a gorgeous city with awesome architecture and beautiful views along the main river. On my way back from checking out the castle (with a moat and drawbridge), I passed by the main square with a 1st century Roman amphitheater. There were hoards of people in line to get in, so I stopped by the ticket office to see what was going on. I heard something about a performance and ending up buying a 20 euro ticket. I got in line still unsure what I was going to see. I finally found a brochure as I entered and realized I was about to see a Verdi opera!! It was the final night of a summer opera series at the amphitheater, which holds 20,000 people. I saw Aida, by Verdi as I said, who is the most famous and well known Italian opera composer. I sat up on the stone steps, wearing shorts and flip flops while the people down below in the 200 euro floor seats were wearing suits and even some tuxedos. It was my first opera and it blew my away. I obviously have no idea what they were singing about, but it sounded awesome. The music, the set, the costumes were all incredible. It's hard to believe the actors can sing as loud as they do without microphones. The opera lasted nearly 4 hours! Didn't leave till 1 AM. I found a bar without a single English speaker and had a few glasses of 2 euro Italian wine (so cheap and so good!). This was now the third night in a row I had gone out alone because I hadn't met a single person at my hostel (the one in Venice was deserted).

After one night in Verona, I had seen all the sights, so I hopped on a train to Balogna where I arrived yesterday. I found the only hostel in town and was very glad to meet a huge slew of people and finally have some human interaction. This hostel is huge, though it is 6 km out of town, but an easy bus ride. Yesterday I stayed in and relaxed with some new friends. We all ordered pizza (the hostel has a free delivery deal with a local pizza place) and watched 'The Hangover' on my netbook. It was really nice to have a night in like that. I woke up today feeling awake and refreshed. I spent today exploring Balogna. There are not that many sights to see, it is mainly just a laid back university town. The university is actually the oldest one in Europe. A lot of the people at my hostel are studying abroad there, and are sightseeing before they move into university residences. I saw a couple art museums, a huge basilica, and then climbed up to the top of a tower, the tallest in town with some amazing views. Tonight I am going to try some pasta with the famous Balognese sauce, which they call ragu. Picked up a couple bottles of cheap wine and am going to check out the nightlife with some people from my hostel.

I think I will stay a third night here in Balogna so I can do a day trip tomorrow to Ferrara and maybe Ravenna as well. The following day I plan on heading down to Florence. I am really looking forward to Florence as I have heard amazing things and know I will enjoy all the art and culture there. Oh, I picked up a new small backpack today from H & M for 20 euros. It is really cool looking and has lots of pockets. The one I had been using went to the garbage, it was starting to rip. I am also getting excited for Octoberfest, though it is still 2 and a half weeks away. I now have about 15 friends that are going (including Cam), who are currently all over Europe. It will be cool to see people that I haven't seen in a month or two. I am also considering going to a party in Paris this weekend. The crazy French guys from Portugal keep hounding me to go! Might be an expensive trip to get there, but it will be a 2 day party and it sounds epic. The guys would pick me up, have a place for me, feed me, etc. If I can find a relatively cheap flight or train ride I will do it.

Ready for La Tomatina!

2009-08-24T14:35:00.000-07:00

Just arrived this afternoon in Valencia, Spain. I spent 3 nights in Lisbon, which is a pretty cool and interesting city. Though it lacks any truly amazing sights like other European cities, it is laid back and has fun nightlife. I spent one full day out at Sintra which is about 40 minutes by train towards the coast. Sintra is absolutely amazing with its castles, palaces, parks, and beautiful scenery. The Moorish castle on top of the hill had really incredible views. I got some great pics all the way to the ocean and the surrounding sights. Quinta da Regaleira is kind of like an adult outdoor fantasy land. It is covered with beautiful trees and trails on a hill. There are ponds, waterfalls, tunnels, labyrinth grottos, towers, a Roman well. I spent several hours exploring, it was well worth it.

I stayed at one of the best hostels I've ever been to in Lisbon! It was called Yes! Lisbon, it is brand new, a former restaurant with an industrial type kitchen and a cool bar. The common area is huge with couches, bean bag chairs, movies on a projector screen, and lots of fun people!

I am staying at an apartment here in Valencia with 6 other friends. It is really nice, and not too expensive because there are so many of us. Tomorrow we will explore the town and go to the wine festival down south. Looks like we are getting ready for bed now, gotta run.

I just posted several more albums on Picasa Web, check em out!

For my memory mostly, here's a quick recap of cities I have stayed in on my trip (in order): London, Dublin, Galway, Belfast, Glasgow, Edinburgh, London, Paris, Caen, Paris, Barcelona, Madrid, Tangier, Fez, Sahara Desert, Oarzazate, Marrakesh, Essaouira, Casablanca, Marrakesh, Seville, Albufeira, Lagos, Lisbon, Valencia...

Finally a Chance to Relax! In Lisbon...

2009-08-20T18:10:00.000-07:00

Sorry to worry everyone for not posting for so long!! Wow, so much has happened since my last post. I have just been very busy and seem to constantly be doing something new. Tonight I am finally just hanging out at a hostel in Lisbon, so I have some time.

After Essaouira, my dad and I got on a bus to Casablanca. That was quite an ordeal. The bus broke down about an hour out of Casa. We stood there in the heat for nearly 3 hours with no explanation of what was wrong with the bus or whether we were getting picked up. We ended up hitchiking into town, which was much easier than I would have expected. I think that may actually be the first time I have ever hitchhiked. The guy drove like a crazed lunatic though, like most Morrocan drivers. We stayed a night in Casa which was more than you would even need. We saw Hassan II mosque which is the second or third largest (depending on who you ask) in the world. It was really impressive, though we didn't go inside. We checked out a couple other sights, including Rick's Cafe from the movie. That was pretty much a huge letdown, just a tourist trap as you can imagine. Headed on the bus back to Marrakesh the next day. Stayed the night in the new town, had a really good dinner, I think it was Lebanese food. My dad took off for the airport the next morning. I really enjoyed our trip together. I am very lucky because I would never have gotten to experience Morroco like that without him!

I headed back into the medina to find the supposed rooftop terrace where you could sleep for 30 durhims. Finally found it and made my way up. It was pretty amazing, just like a hostel on a roof! There were about 30 or 40 people staying up there on little mattress pads and sleeping bags. I met a bunch of cool people and spent two days roaming around town, haggling over my new haircut (had my head shaved for about $3), and smoking some hash up on the terrace (hey, it's Morroco, I had to give it a try). It was crazy hot during the day, hard to even do much until the evening. I made it out to the airport with some English friends on my last morning and had a surprisingly painless Ryanair flight to Seville in Spain.

I met an Aussie named Cameron on the tram into Seville from the airport. He had been on the same flight and actually stayed on the same roof terrace though we hadn't met. I brought him along to the hostel I had booked and we are actually still travelling together nearly two weeks later. The hostel was really really nice with lots of friendly people. We quickly got a whole crew together and went out to a flamenco bar. It was pretty cool, though it was a free place and I am sure 'real' flamenco is much better. Walked around Seville the next day, saw the amazing cathedral, cool views from the top of the tower. Saw the palace too, which was incredible. Could have spent all day just at the palace and the surrounding gardens. Rounded up more people back at the hostel, think there was about 15 of us, to head back to the flamenco bar. Cam and I were the only ones that had been there before I think, but we failed miserably in our attempts to navigate. That city is very confusing, not as bad as Morroco though I suppose. Had a lot of fun there again, headed out to another bar along the river, met a lot of interesting people. Really enjoyed the hostel in Seville, especially the hammocks on the rooftop terrace!

Cam and I both had planned separately on heading into Portugal after Seville, so we decided to basically travel together. We hopped on a bus toward Lagos, a beach party town in the Algarve (the southern part of Portugal). Halfway on the busride, he gets a text from a couple French friends he met in Dubai months ago. They were apparently staying at a villa in Albufeira, which is on the coast east of Lagos. Luckily the bus was making a stop there, so we hopped off and Vincent and Clemont picked us up in their car. Turns out there were 14 guys total, all from around Paris, who drove to the villa together for a two week holiday. We got to the villa and I was stunned. It was gigantic, had amazing views overlooking the town and the ocean, and had an incredible pool out back with a huge patio. I think they were only supposed to have 8 guys staying there, but all 16 of us (14 French guys plus Cam and I) fit there pretty comfortably. The next four days are kind of a blur. The guys just party constantly. They are all pretty crazy. We spent each day at the pool or drove down to the beach. At the house it was basically a fraternity. They assign two guys each day to do all the cooking and cleaning. We all ate every meal together, Cam and I pitched in when we could. A lot of French kids have holidays in that town apparently, because there were constantly girls hanging out at the villa that the guys knew from home. Most of them were staying in apartments in town, but spent most days at the villa by the pool. Some of them cooked for us too, which was really nice. The first night we went to a club in town, the second night we recruited girls from the beach back to the villa for a pool party, the third night we went to see a DJ play at a club on the beach, the fourth night we barhopped through town. The night of the beach club was crazy and fun. A typical day where we ate breakfast at 12, lunch at 6, then went out to dinner at midnight! We ate at a really fancy restaurant owned by the guy who owns the villa. It was the most expensive meal of my trip, 30 euros, but worth every cent! It was a set four course meal with amazing seafood, grilled pork, 5 different cakes for dessert, and all the white sangria we could drink. One of the better meals of my life, easily the best of this trip. We didn't get to the club till 3 AM, there was a line of several hundred people, we somehow cut to the front. Got in, the main DJ got on at 4 AM and we danced in the sand till sunrise. What a crazy party. The whole experience at the villa and Albufeira was like living in a dream. We also hardly paid a dime, I think we gave the French guys 25 euros for the whole 4 days to buy some food and beer with. We offered more but they said no. They were all really nice guys and most spoke a fair amount of English. I learned a ton of French while I was there, though it was impossible to keep up at dinner when 3 of them speak at the same time, all way too fast with lots of slang. It was fun to try and speak with them what I could. As nice as they are, most of them are absolutely crazy. They got drunk and chased each other around the villa naked and into the pool just about every day.

Cam and I finally pulled ourselves away from the villa and Albufeira after four days. It wasn't even by choice, it was because that was the final day for the guys, they were heading back to Paris. We got on a bus to Lagos, our original destination. Turns out Lagos is a lot like Albufeira, a crazy summer party town with even more people and wild nightlife. We showed up in town late in the evening with no plan and no hostel booked. Had to wander around the city for awhile until we met a couple of girls that showed us back to the place they were staying. It was a guesthouse, kind of like a hostel. It was actually attached to the most popular hostel in town so we met a lot of people staying there as well. We planned on two nights there, but everyone we met said everybody ends up staying in Lagos longer than they plan. The town gets pretty repetitive, so here is what I did on one day, all four days were almost identical: Wake up about noon, make breakfast at the guesthouse, complain about the heat, get down to the beach late in the afternoon, meet up with people from the previous night on the beach, go swimming and cliff jumping, back to the hostel to chill, finally shower and get ready to go out at 10, go to Casa Rosa or the Fat Monkey Bar, pay 10 euros to get a full meal of food plus a Power Hour: all you can drink beer for one hour, hop from bar to club to bar, hanging out with friends from the guesthouse or the hostel, hopefully make it home before sunrise. The town is just packed with tourists, and for whatever reason more than half the people there are from Australia. That is really not an exaggeration, I eventually walked up to some random people and asked them which suburb of Melbourne they were from. About 75% of the staff at the bars were Aussies too. I don't know how people could spend so long in that town, the beach/bar routine is pretty tiresome eventually.

After four crazy days in Lagos (which followed four crazy days in Albufeira), Cam and I got on a bus to Lisbon where we arrived tonight. This city seems really nice so far, I think I will go explore it tomorrow. We found an OK hostel here, but there is another one we like better which was full tonight, so we are going there tomorrow instead. So far, I have not been planning anything, just been showing up at the bus station, showing up at hostels, and it has worked out really well. I am getting very used to talking to strangers to get info. Yesterday though, Cam and I got the idea to go to La Tomatina next week, so we have been planning that. That is the tomato throwing festival near Valencia, Spain. Three of our friends from Lagos have booked an apartment in Valencia for three days, so we will head there to stay with them on Monday. I am planning on painting a bulls eye on my head or chest or back or something. It should be a lot of fun. After that, we might head out to Ibiza, it is an island off the coast of Spain famous for its nightlife, its really expensive and lots of celebrities go to the clubs there. Might be too expensive, not sure yet. I don't really have any plans beyond that. Cam is heading back to London at some point after that, I might head to Italy then. I will probably meet up with him again in a month at Octoberfest.

Well, I will try and upload pictures tomorrow. And I will try and post more often so I can give more details. It is tough to remember all of this stuff! Plus I have to type forever! I might do another post in the next day or two to fill in some details of the last two weeks which I have forgotten. I just have so many stories to tell! Time for bed, one of my first nights in a while I should get a decent night's sleep.