So I figured this blog needed one. And it is of course a happy one. Dermot and I are home safe and sound and stuffed after a great Christmas with the McDowell/Hayden family. We didn't think that we would make it home for Christmas. We arrived in Los Angeles on the third leg of our flight from Auckland to find all flights to Philadelphia canceled. We heard that there was a standby flight to Philly at 9 p.m. Christmas Eve, so no worries, right? After the most stressful 2 hours of my life fighting for two seats on a packed plane Dermot and I landed in Philly via Las Vegas (with our bags!) at half ten at night. At half eleven we were showered and in our pj's watching Conan O'Brien by an open fire. Thank you gods of travel.
16 countries in 4 months, that's a sense of accomplishment.
As per usual, I was getting really choked up leaving New Zealand. I kept saying to myself I didn't want to leave but that's just me being typical sappy Abby. Dermot and I did everything we wanted to do there, and we did it richly. It's a pity it's so far away. It's the kind of place you could return to year after year, to the beaches, the cities, the countryside, the people. But, probably won't. Return that is in body. I'll return there daily in my mind.
The last week or so was spent reaching the top of the south island then retracing our steps to Auckland via Wellington and Raglan. We met up with our friend Freddie again in Nelson for a few pints and a long walk through the Abel Tasman National Park (I believe it was 22 km). Nelson was a great little town and the Abel Tasman was a great challenge. People who have never hiked the Abel Tasman say that it's a walk on the beach. And true, it is, there were many golden beaches to cross, high tide abiding. But there were also many hills to climb in the that golden searing New Zealand sun. No complaints really, I'm just out of shape. I remember my first week in the country a tour guide said to me that New Zealand experience is all about birds, bush, and Maori culture. We experienced all that and more.
After saying our fond farewells to Freddie and to the south island, we boarded the Interislander ferry to Wellington. I would love to transplant Wellington onto Pennsylvania. I love it, I want to live there, I could live there if it wasn't so feckin far away, but that's what makes it Wellington. Raglan after Wellington was a nice, little break before the bustle of Auckland and the ensuing cold of Philadelphia. People go to Raglan for its breathtaking beaches and never leave. We left extremely sunburnt, or in my case lobsterfied. Yet, it was nice to have the time by the sea to reflect upon the trip and the road before us.
Back in Auckland we got to see Rhys Darby the comedian perform live. He's known better as Murray Hewitt the manager on Flight of the Conchords, i.e. my hero. Hahaha. It was nice coming full circle to Auckland. We stopped by the Auckland Base hostel for a few spirits, rounding our complete tour of the cheapest and best bars in the whole of the country.
That pretty much sums it up.
Dermot and I both agree that this trip has sufficiently scratched all our iches and planted our feet firmly on the ground and brought our heads down out of the clouds. We've said it all the time, we did everything we wanted to do. We look forward now to the road ahead as it bends towards other directions. It goes on and on, remember?
Thanks for reading!
Monday, December 29, 2008
Monday, December 8, 2008
Misty Mountains
So we left sleepy Dunedin behind us with 3 pictures of the entire city in our camera's memory card and a wicked hangover. We had a great time there, though, despite the lack of things to do or things to take pictures of. We spent most of our time in The Bowler playing pool with our friend David or talking philosophy with the barman Mark. Dunedin was mini-Edinburgh indeed, cosy pubs and rain.
Off to Queenstown it is, then! Queenstown in the most beautiful "city" in all of New Zealand. It's nestled between a mountain range called The Remarkables, an apt name for a particularly spectacular section of the southern alps. And I use the word city lightly because it's actually quite small.
The drive to Queenstown from Dunedin was really long, so there wasn't much to do upon arrival. We booked a day tour to the Milford Sound then headed to the cinema to watch the new Bond movie.
The day trip to the Milford Sound was wonderful. Dermot and I had intended to get to the Milford Sound after Queenstown, though we weren't really sure how we were going to go about it, so the day tour was great. Having someone else drive us around for a few hours and give us the full tour really saved us a lot of hassle and basically enriched the experience far beyond anything we could've managed to do on our own.
That night, was Friday night, and since all we've heard about the entire time throughout New Zealand and even before coming to the country, was how great the nightlife in Queenstown was, we were excited. And don't get me wrong, I haven't seen 4 a.m. in a loooong time, but it left me a bit surprised. We went on a really shitty pub crawl that left us at 2 a.m. in a crappy club with a bunch of drunk English people dancing on the bar to Britney Spears. So we left in search of better entertainment. It was dead, the whole town was dead. It took us a half hour in the quiet darkness to find another place. Was there going to be another place? I dunno, we hoped. We eventually ended up on the Sky Bar that had a great atmosphere and a lot better music. Drunken English people are a more tolerable when Oasis is on in the background.
Since we had done all we wanted to do (i.e. all that we could afford to do) in the area of adventure sports, there wasn't much to do in Queenstown but drink.
And eat Fergburger. They are the pride of Queenstown, a tiny little business that sells the best burgers the size of your head. Yummy.
We'll leave the rest to your imagination.
We got the chance to take a few day trips. Queenstown has the highest concentration of LOTR sites in the whole country, but since the money was running low we decided to try and see them ourselves rather than pay for another tour. We headed to picturesque Arrowtown for the Ford of Bruinen where Arwen escaped the Ringwraiths. Then to the site of the AJ Hackett bungy jump where they shot some scenes for the river Anduin and the Pillars of Argonath. But the highlight was a day trip to Glenorchy where Orthanc was superimposed at the head of lake Wakatipu. But the location of Isengard was secondary, next to the scenery along the way to Glenorchy. It was unexpected beauty, which is the best kind. See the pictures we've uploaded, if they do it any justice.
The next stop was Wanaka, a little town by a beautiful lake. It was raining. And there wasn't much to do in Wanaka. It was still nice, and it served the purpose of getting us along the northern track up to Nelson, where our last stop in the south island will be.
After Wanaka was Mount Cook national park, where spent 2 days getting some fresh air on a couple (thank goodness) easy walks around the mountains and grounds before New Zealand's highest peak. Mt Cook and it's surrounding peaks were stunning. They looked fake, as we kept repeating to ourselves. But pinch me, they're real. The snows on the peaks that you could see from a distance were a neon blue. And Dermot had fun trying to hit some of the glaciers in Hooker Valley lake with stones, I think he managed to skim one of them. All the lakes around the national park are pure alpine blue, it was gorgeous. Pure, unspoiled nature.
We're glad to be doing these little villages, off the beaten path.
We arrived yesterday in Arthur's Pass, or Arthur's arse, as Dermot said this morning as I broke the news to him that it is STILL pouring outside. Misty feckin mountains. We can't do much walking in the rain here, which is unfortunate. Dermot said we could always put on our swim trunks and head to the hills, but we're not that ambitious.. We leave tomorrow, so hopefully it'll clear for a few hours so that we can take in a few photos, it's supposed to be beautiful, under all that mist.
Tomorrow we head to Nelson, to meet up with Freddie again and hike the Abel Tasman national park. I think we're actually going to camp under the stars. Those famous New Zealand stars.
I love this country.
Off to Queenstown it is, then! Queenstown in the most beautiful "city" in all of New Zealand. It's nestled between a mountain range called The Remarkables, an apt name for a particularly spectacular section of the southern alps. And I use the word city lightly because it's actually quite small.
The drive to Queenstown from Dunedin was really long, so there wasn't much to do upon arrival. We booked a day tour to the Milford Sound then headed to the cinema to watch the new Bond movie.
The day trip to the Milford Sound was wonderful. Dermot and I had intended to get to the Milford Sound after Queenstown, though we weren't really sure how we were going to go about it, so the day tour was great. Having someone else drive us around for a few hours and give us the full tour really saved us a lot of hassle and basically enriched the experience far beyond anything we could've managed to do on our own.
That night, was Friday night, and since all we've heard about the entire time throughout New Zealand and even before coming to the country, was how great the nightlife in Queenstown was, we were excited. And don't get me wrong, I haven't seen 4 a.m. in a loooong time, but it left me a bit surprised. We went on a really shitty pub crawl that left us at 2 a.m. in a crappy club with a bunch of drunk English people dancing on the bar to Britney Spears. So we left in search of better entertainment. It was dead, the whole town was dead. It took us a half hour in the quiet darkness to find another place. Was there going to be another place? I dunno, we hoped. We eventually ended up on the Sky Bar that had a great atmosphere and a lot better music. Drunken English people are a more tolerable when Oasis is on in the background.
Since we had done all we wanted to do (i.e. all that we could afford to do) in the area of adventure sports, there wasn't much to do in Queenstown but drink.
And eat Fergburger. They are the pride of Queenstown, a tiny little business that sells the best burgers the size of your head. Yummy.
We'll leave the rest to your imagination.
We got the chance to take a few day trips. Queenstown has the highest concentration of LOTR sites in the whole country, but since the money was running low we decided to try and see them ourselves rather than pay for another tour. We headed to picturesque Arrowtown for the Ford of Bruinen where Arwen escaped the Ringwraiths. Then to the site of the AJ Hackett bungy jump where they shot some scenes for the river Anduin and the Pillars of Argonath. But the highlight was a day trip to Glenorchy where Orthanc was superimposed at the head of lake Wakatipu. But the location of Isengard was secondary, next to the scenery along the way to Glenorchy. It was unexpected beauty, which is the best kind. See the pictures we've uploaded, if they do it any justice.
The next stop was Wanaka, a little town by a beautiful lake. It was raining. And there wasn't much to do in Wanaka. It was still nice, and it served the purpose of getting us along the northern track up to Nelson, where our last stop in the south island will be.
After Wanaka was Mount Cook national park, where spent 2 days getting some fresh air on a couple (thank goodness) easy walks around the mountains and grounds before New Zealand's highest peak. Mt Cook and it's surrounding peaks were stunning. They looked fake, as we kept repeating to ourselves. But pinch me, they're real. The snows on the peaks that you could see from a distance were a neon blue. And Dermot had fun trying to hit some of the glaciers in Hooker Valley lake with stones, I think he managed to skim one of them. All the lakes around the national park are pure alpine blue, it was gorgeous. Pure, unspoiled nature.
We're glad to be doing these little villages, off the beaten path.
We arrived yesterday in Arthur's Pass, or Arthur's arse, as Dermot said this morning as I broke the news to him that it is STILL pouring outside. Misty feckin mountains. We can't do much walking in the rain here, which is unfortunate. Dermot said we could always put on our swim trunks and head to the hills, but we're not that ambitious.. We leave tomorrow, so hopefully it'll clear for a few hours so that we can take in a few photos, it's supposed to be beautiful, under all that mist.
Tomorrow we head to Nelson, to meet up with Freddie again and hike the Abel Tasman national park. I think we're actually going to camp under the stars. Those famous New Zealand stars.
I love this country.
Monday, November 17, 2008
I tripped on a cloud and fell 8 miles high
So we said our goodbyes to Freddie at the end of our Rotorua stay and headed for Taupo. We're looking forward to meeting up with him in Nelson, at the northern tip of the south island a month from now. We really enjoyed hanging out with him, he's a great guy. And it was fun seeing the interaction between the most English of Englishmen and the most Irish of Irishmen. Yes Freddie, the Irish have a language, what do you think we spoke before you came around? And I believe Dermot can now use the word "whilst" more often...
We got up to a lot in Rotorua. The highlight being white water rafting. For an hour we battled level 5 rapids (level 6 being too difficult for commercial rafting). The instructor for some crazy ass reason put me in the front, despite me arguing that I wasn't that light... but now upon reflection maybe it was because I am in fact not light (10,000 cheesburgers later, remember?) The crew paddled at my at my pace and we managed to not flip our boat as it went down a 7 meter waterfall. I was surprisingly calm because at the back of my mind I knew I was a good swimmer. Dermot, on the other hand was more nervous. After the waterfall, I switched places with Dermot and Freddie as they took to the front and I got in the back. They got the chance to be nearly drowned as we went head first into a rapid. All the pictures I posted have us smiling like idiots. It was awesome.
We also went to a Maori Hangi in Rotorua, which is the equivalent to a Hawaiian Luau. It gave us tourists a chance to dig into Maori culture and food. We got to see an hour's worth of dancing, singing, and fearsome haka's (seriously, look up the word "Haka" on Youtube and see what I'm talking about) then we stuffed ourselves stupid in typical Maori cuisine. Mmm... vegetables. Then after it got dark they took us to see some glow worms, or the Maori fairy eyes. Touristy, but mandatory. It's their country after all.
We also went to a Maori Hangi in Rotorua, which is the equivalent to a Hawaiian Luau. It gave us tourists a chance to dig into Maori culture and food. We got to see an hour's worth of dancing, singing, and fearsome haka's (seriously, look up the word "Haka" on Youtube and see what I'm talking about) then we stuffed ourselves stupid in typical Maori cuisine. Mmm... vegetables. Then after it got dark they took us to see some glow worms, or the Maori fairy eyes. Touristy, but mandatory. It's their country after all.
Rotorua was great.
It's a volcanic hot spot. The gut wrenching odor of molten rock and sulfur hit your nose at the most undesirable of times. By the third day I was ready to leave or one of those gags of mine was gonna turn into puke.
Anyway... Taupo was our next destination and since it was pretty close to Rototura the drive there was easy. We checked into our hostel then proceeded to book some events for the days ahead.
Two, is skydive.
It was 2 o'clock and we were thinking of getting something to eat. But the lady behind reception had better ideas. She suggested we go sky diving instead, and do the crossing tomorrow.
4 o'clock comes around and Dermot and I are hoisted off to Taupo Airport in a limo.
Shortly after, I'm dangling my legs over a the side of a plane and thinking what on God's green earth am I doing!?
Dermot said I screamed but I don't really remember much.
We both agreed that it was the longest minute of our lives, versus the popular argument that it goes by too quick. We didn't anticipate the speed at which we were going to fall. For 60 seconds I struggled to breath (and in the DVD you'll see that that struggling looks something like a fish trying to breath out of water) and my head felt like it was going to explode from the pressure. We fell through a cloud and green earth came up to meet us then, thank God, the parachute unfolded and we were hoisted back up in the sky for the most unbelievable 5 minutes of life. Because the instructor is behind you, you feel like you're alone, in the windowless, bottomless world of the sky. You could see for miles and catch your breath. My instructor pointed our Mount Doom in the distance, I squealed with delight.
It was the best thing we've ever done.
It was good that that was the best thing we've ever done because the following day was the worst thing we've ever done. I can look at the pictures now and see the beauty and I can feel the pride in me knowing that I completed a 12 mile trail of tears around volcanic wasteland in the searing, ozone-less New Zealand sun. I mean, what else could I have expected? It's Mordor for crissake, it's not gonna be a walk in the park, like the hike up to Murren in Switzerland now seems. I was weeping by the end of it, under my breath because I didn't want to test Dermot's nerves anymore. I basically made him carry me down the side of a volcano. It was the steepest of slopes with a surface of loose, sharp rocks. I had already wiped out and bruised my spine and cut my hands trying to do it on my own. So he ushered me down for 45 minutes of terror like my brother used to help my 93 year old great grandma climb the step to our house if it was icy. We walked up the devil's staircase, then down jagged crags, then up steep inclines, through snow and then surfaces that looked like the surface of the moon. I got my pictures in front of Mount Doom but that was only the beginning of the hike, so don't be decieved by the smiles, haha. Aw man, I'm never going to yell "hurry up" at Frodo and Sam running up Mount Doom at the end of Return of the King anymore because I know how hard it is.
After a day of rest, we left Taupo and headed to New Zealand's capital city Wellington. It's built around a bay at New Zealand's southern most point in the north island. The major highway into Wellington was basically on the beach. High tide was in and only one strong gust of wind would've drenched the cars in ocean. It was so strange to see. Our hostel was located a good distance away from the center of the city, in a little town called Plimmerton. Our hostel was right by the ocean, it was beautiful.
In Wellington I got to get my geek on with a full LOTR day tour that took us to several locations including Weta Studios where all the magic happened (the CGI, the costumes, art design, etc). Dermot got to shake hands with Lurtz, the massive Uruk-hai leader - just look at the pictures I'm not talking crazy! We got to visit where the Hobbits left the Shire, The Road where they encountered their first Ringwraith; Rivendell where we really had to use our imagination; Isengard where Gandalf of Saruman had a stroll; the river Anduin; and Helms Deep. Now, nothing looks anything like the movie, except for maybe The Road. Peter Jackson and crew manipulated the scenery so much with CGI. But you could still see traces of the crew and you got to hear the stories of how everything was done.
I remember back in 2001 trying to explain to my parents as we were heading to the theatre to watch The Fellowship of the Ring about the books and the story. My mom asked me "where is Middle Earth"? I said, well, it's made up, it's Tolkien's fictional world. But I said that in 2001, before I had been to New Zealand. New Zealand is Middle Earth, there can be no other country on earth more suitable to be the place that millions of people have visited in their minds since 1937 when the stories were first published.
It's magical. The Maori call it Aotearoa, or the land of the long white cloud. To me, as I can't see it from space, it's like driving on the back of a sleeping dragon, one of those mythical sea creatures from the Dark Ages that foreign explorers would devise to occupy the farthest stretches of maps. The jagged edges of mountains and beaches look like claws. The green, its scales, the parched earth, it's haunches. The volcanic fissures are its breath. You must drive slow and careful around the slithering mountains, and take in all the beauty.
Because our hostel in Wellington was away from the city and by the beach, we got the chance to see the famous New Zealand stars. They twinkle. And the sky is actually a dark blue, except if you looked to the far left to see the bright lights of Wellington that seem to be from a distance something out of War of the Worlds.
Anyway, Wellington was great. It was a very vibrant, artsy city. It was surprisingly small for a capital city, but that is not a complaint, because it was very walkable and warm, people wise. Dermot and I looked lost, what else is new, and a woman came up to us and said as much and pointed us on our way. You don't get that it most capital cities.
After Wellington we headed to Christchurch on the south island. We boarded the Interislander Ferry with our car. When the ferry started to churn about in the Cook Straight, we headed down a level to the movie theatre to pass most of the "turbulence" for lack of a better word. Sea sickness is never fun.
Christchurch was very nice. It was colonial in appearance, kinda like if Tommy Bahama designed Boston. Not as youthful and hopping as Wellington was, but it still had a lot for us to do... like pub crawls! Which are always a great way to meet people and see the city (and hopefully remember it the next day).
But the highlight of Christchurch was the day trip to "Rohan" (stay with me, more LOTR references here). Rohan featured in the 2nd movie, The Two Towers, it was the home of the horselords and Edoras, the capital and the Golden Hall. Tolkien described Edoras as this isolated kingdom surrounded by 360 degrees of mountains. Peter Jackson wanted to build his own Edoras in a studio because the chances of finding such a place on earth were slim to none. But him and his film scouts were in a helicopter, flying around the south island to map of other film locations when they flew into this place, Mount Sunday as it's called in real life. The helicopter pilot said, as they flew through a cloud and Mount Sunday was revealed to them, "holy shit, is that for real". And it was. And it became the location for Edoras in both the 2nd and 3rd movies.
The crew built The Golden Hall upon Mount Sunday in 8 months for little under 3 weeks of filming.
That's where Dermot and I went that day, on this tour. We alongside a few others hopped in an off road vehicle to visit the site of the Golden Hall and I got to stand where Eowyn stood in The Two Towers and, and, it was the greatest day ever. I got to sword fight Dermot in front of the mountain. The tour guide wanted me to use the sword, but I said gimme the battle axe. And I got to sit where the fire place in The Golden Hall was, and...
And, I can die a happy person... many, many years from now, heh.
My geekness has been fulfilled.
So we're in Dunedin now. A sleepy, little Scottish town 6 hours south of Christchurch. It's raining today too, pouring actually. Kinda funny, we go to the "Edinburgh of New Zealand" and it's our first rainy day. Dunedin was founded by Scottish immigrants in the late 1800s and the town is rife with the celebration of all things Scottish. Rainy days, included.
We head to Queenstown on Thursday, the party central of New Zealand.
So ah, I figured I'd blog now while I had the time.
Sorry for the long entry. There's so much to do in New Zealand, it's hard to find the time.
Hope all is well, Happy Thanksgiving to all the yankees to read this.
After a day of rest, we left Taupo and headed to New Zealand's capital city Wellington. It's built around a bay at New Zealand's southern most point in the north island. The major highway into Wellington was basically on the beach. High tide was in and only one strong gust of wind would've drenched the cars in ocean. It was so strange to see. Our hostel was located a good distance away from the center of the city, in a little town called Plimmerton. Our hostel was right by the ocean, it was beautiful.
In Wellington I got to get my geek on with a full LOTR day tour that took us to several locations including Weta Studios where all the magic happened (the CGI, the costumes, art design, etc). Dermot got to shake hands with Lurtz, the massive Uruk-hai leader - just look at the pictures I'm not talking crazy! We got to visit where the Hobbits left the Shire, The Road where they encountered their first Ringwraith; Rivendell where we really had to use our imagination; Isengard where Gandalf of Saruman had a stroll; the river Anduin; and Helms Deep. Now, nothing looks anything like the movie, except for maybe The Road. Peter Jackson and crew manipulated the scenery so much with CGI. But you could still see traces of the crew and you got to hear the stories of how everything was done.
I remember back in 2001 trying to explain to my parents as we were heading to the theatre to watch The Fellowship of the Ring about the books and the story. My mom asked me "where is Middle Earth"? I said, well, it's made up, it's Tolkien's fictional world. But I said that in 2001, before I had been to New Zealand. New Zealand is Middle Earth, there can be no other country on earth more suitable to be the place that millions of people have visited in their minds since 1937 when the stories were first published.
It's magical. The Maori call it Aotearoa, or the land of the long white cloud. To me, as I can't see it from space, it's like driving on the back of a sleeping dragon, one of those mythical sea creatures from the Dark Ages that foreign explorers would devise to occupy the farthest stretches of maps. The jagged edges of mountains and beaches look like claws. The green, its scales, the parched earth, it's haunches. The volcanic fissures are its breath. You must drive slow and careful around the slithering mountains, and take in all the beauty.
Because our hostel in Wellington was away from the city and by the beach, we got the chance to see the famous New Zealand stars. They twinkle. And the sky is actually a dark blue, except if you looked to the far left to see the bright lights of Wellington that seem to be from a distance something out of War of the Worlds.
Anyway, Wellington was great. It was a very vibrant, artsy city. It was surprisingly small for a capital city, but that is not a complaint, because it was very walkable and warm, people wise. Dermot and I looked lost, what else is new, and a woman came up to us and said as much and pointed us on our way. You don't get that it most capital cities.
After Wellington we headed to Christchurch on the south island. We boarded the Interislander Ferry with our car. When the ferry started to churn about in the Cook Straight, we headed down a level to the movie theatre to pass most of the "turbulence" for lack of a better word. Sea sickness is never fun.
Christchurch was very nice. It was colonial in appearance, kinda like if Tommy Bahama designed Boston. Not as youthful and hopping as Wellington was, but it still had a lot for us to do... like pub crawls! Which are always a great way to meet people and see the city (and hopefully remember it the next day).
But the highlight of Christchurch was the day trip to "Rohan" (stay with me, more LOTR references here). Rohan featured in the 2nd movie, The Two Towers, it was the home of the horselords and Edoras, the capital and the Golden Hall. Tolkien described Edoras as this isolated kingdom surrounded by 360 degrees of mountains. Peter Jackson wanted to build his own Edoras in a studio because the chances of finding such a place on earth were slim to none. But him and his film scouts were in a helicopter, flying around the south island to map of other film locations when they flew into this place, Mount Sunday as it's called in real life. The helicopter pilot said, as they flew through a cloud and Mount Sunday was revealed to them, "holy shit, is that for real". And it was. And it became the location for Edoras in both the 2nd and 3rd movies.
The crew built The Golden Hall upon Mount Sunday in 8 months for little under 3 weeks of filming.
That's where Dermot and I went that day, on this tour. We alongside a few others hopped in an off road vehicle to visit the site of the Golden Hall and I got to stand where Eowyn stood in The Two Towers and, and, it was the greatest day ever. I got to sword fight Dermot in front of the mountain. The tour guide wanted me to use the sword, but I said gimme the battle axe. And I got to sit where the fire place in The Golden Hall was, and...
And, I can die a happy person... many, many years from now, heh.
My geekness has been fulfilled.
So we're in Dunedin now. A sleepy, little Scottish town 6 hours south of Christchurch. It's raining today too, pouring actually. Kinda funny, we go to the "Edinburgh of New Zealand" and it's our first rainy day. Dunedin was founded by Scottish immigrants in the late 1800s and the town is rife with the celebration of all things Scottish. Rainy days, included.
We head to Queenstown on Thursday, the party central of New Zealand.
So ah, I figured I'd blog now while I had the time.
Sorry for the long entry. There's so much to do in New Zealand, it's hard to find the time.
Hope all is well, Happy Thanksgiving to all the yankees to read this.
Sunday, November 9, 2008
Over the moon...
Kia Ora, bro. Or hello, to those that do not speak Maori.
Happy days, I get to blog.
Dermot and Freddie are black water rafting right now. I was planning on doing it, we had paid for me to do it, but I woke up this morning and truly realized what the f#ck black water rafting entails, and I chickened out. I'll let someone push me out of a plane over Mount Doom (Tongariro National Park) but I'm not gonna raft in a cave by myself with a single light on my head and a single tub keeping me afloat.
Bgok! Bgok! (Chicken noises?)
By the way, Freddie is our friend we met in the last hostel back.
Anyway, we'll start at the beginning, or the plane ride from Berlin to Auckland.
It was the nicest plane ride I've ever taken. Korean airlines is packed with polite, helpful employees, you get great food, free socks, and loads of great movies to watch. And in between the movies they show you clips of how to do airplane yoga, which after 20 hours of sitting down, felt really nice. So getting here was really a peice of cake. It's a small world when you think of it. We can fly to the farthest land mass away within 24 hours, and you get free socks in the meantime. Lovin your work.
That's another saying here, loving your work. The Kiwis are full of catch phrases. New Zealanders called themselves Kiwis, not after the fruit, but from the native, flightless bird. Makes sense, right?
We arrived in Auckland on the 28th. It was sunny and warm.
We took showers, left our stuff at the hostel, then walked to the local town of Parnell, where our hostel was located, to get some food. Parnell is a very posh borough of Auckland, so cheap backpacker food was hard to find. We ended up in The Bog, an Irish pub for a pint and some burgers.
The Phillies were playing on the t.v. I assumed it was the rained out game, a re-run, it couldn't be game 5. But it was the bottom of the 6th inning...
Bar tender, excuse me, is this game live?
Yep, this game is live.
Dermot and I got to watch a team from Philadelphia WIN a championship. It was the greatest, most random moment. Something must've told me to go into that pub, probably the only pub in Auckland showing the game. I got to watch it live. I still don't believe it. The Philadelphia Phillies are world champs. Phuck yeah!
Auckland was a great city. It's the biggest city in the North Island, where we'll be spending the next couple of weeks. We got to drink in a pub called Father Ted's and watch the All Blacks beat the Aussie's in rugby. Dermot called Auckland mini America. We got to eat at Wendy's, it was very exciting all together. Though relatively small, there's a great street called Queen St that has lots of pubs and restaurants and an IMAX theatre we took well advantage of (we hadn't seen a movie in months!) It's great to be in a country that speak English, haha.
And Maori.
New Zealand has only been a country since 1840. I guess because of that the natives and their culture had a chance of survival against the colonization. The English were the first ones here and they signed a treaty with the natives that gave them their land and their language and protection against other potential white faced threats (i.e. the French and the Dutch). So nowadays, you are of European or Maori descent (or of course both, love knows no bounds). I know I'm only seeing the tip of the iceberg. I'm sure there are grave social injustices and prejudice, but it's wonderful to see the European incorporate the Maori culture into their own, and almost show it off with pride and humility. It makes me wonder if in another world the US couldn't have been this way. Native American culture at the forefront instead of radio-active reservations and bloody memories...
We stayed in Auckland for 5 days, 3 of which it took us to get over the jet lag. Going to bed at 5 p.m. and waking up a 6 a.m. was fun (not).
During the five days there, we took a day tour. The woman giving the tour said we're going to start the day with a game. Everyone stand up who wants the chance to win a free bungy jump off of Auckland's Sky Tower (the tallest building in the Southern Hemisphere). Dermot stands up. After two rounds of heads or tails, Dermot wins the contest. A half hour the contest, Dermot is standing on top on the tallest building in the Southern Hemisphere getting ready to jump off it. I'm standing below getting it all on camera.
3,2,1, and Dermot jumps!
I have it all on video. I'll post it soon.
Luck of the Irish, right?
After Auckland we headed north to the Bay of Islands in our new (used) car that we bought. It's a Mazda Astina. It drives, and it has breaks, good enough for me. And the guy we bought it from gave us a written guarantee that when we bring it back to him, if it's still in one peice, he'll buy it back from us for a little under what we paid for it. I drove and Dermot navigated. There are only like 4 roads in New Zealand (just kidding) so it wasn't hard for us to find Paihia, the town in which we were anchoring in in the Bay of Islands.
It was beautiful and the weather cleared up for us giving us 4 sunny and warm days by the beach.
Jealous? ;-)
We met Freddie Judge from London in our hostel the first day and figured out that we were all headed the same direction for the next week or so, we'll tag along together and see what kind of stuff we can get up to. The second day in Paihia we did some extreme flip flopping along the rocky coast of the beach. Dermot got blisters and everything.
The third day we took an Awesome Experience tour bus up to the north of the North Island to Cape Reinga where our bus driver drove us along a 90 mile beach, taught us some more catchy phrases, made us listen to Kiwi reggae music, pushed us down high verticle sand dunes on boogey boards, and fed us fish and chips. Sweet as, bro.
The fourth day my mom called me every hour to update me on the election. And around 4 o'clock New Zealand time I got a text from Carrie: OBAMA! And a phone call from my mom a second later saying it was official, President Elect Barack Obama. Dermot, Freddie and I were walking around downtown Paihia at the time. Dermot took a picture of me screaming with joy before I ran all the way back to our hostel to watch the live coverage on CNN.
Pinch me, the Phillies and Obama win in one week.
Best. Week. Ever.
We headed south for Waitomo then after making the most of the Bay of Islands.
We stopped over in Auckland to pick up some stuff we forgot in the hostel and do a Skyscreamer reverse bungy, when in New Zealand!
Waitomo is a remote part of the North Island, you have to find it on small roads through winding hills. It was lovely. I saw what looked like Shire (from the Lord of the Rings) at every turn (the whole fecking North Island looks like the Shire) but this part of it even more so. The sun was setting and it turned the mountains purple.
As the sun began the set, I noticed a couple of cars coming towards me were flashing there lights. At first I thought it meant a cop was ahead, or something. But when the cars kept flashing, even miles up the road, I made Freddie get out of the car and check my headlights, maybe they weren't working.
They weren't.
Freddie said, well, you better hurry up then because the sun is going to set soon.
Cue the reverse vampirism.
We chased the last bit of sunset through the winding, dark roads towards Waitomo. Dermot asked Freddie for his miners cap (i.e. the thing he uses to read books at night in the room) to shine towards the road ahead and I turned the emergency blinkers on.
For 15 km we rode in the dark, seeing the signs for Waitomo in the blink of the emergency lights.
It was hysterically insane.
We parked the car in the bright lights of Waitomo's only pub, waddled our way to our hostel which happened to be right behind the pub, dropped our stuff off in the room, and proceeded to drink and laugh away the danger. Freddie played some awful songs on the juke box and we went to sleep safe and sound.
Yesterday we drove around the countryside of Waitomo, eventually ending up at the black sand beach where local Maori women were catching fish (apparently to put in omelets) and I managed to get burnt in the 3 minutes I took off my hoody when the sun managed to show itself. New Zealand has "bugger all" ozone. Apparently.
Tomorrow we head to Rotorua, i.e. the movie location for the Shire, and the heart of Maori culture in the whole country.
Sweet as, bro.
Happy days, I get to blog.
Dermot and Freddie are black water rafting right now. I was planning on doing it, we had paid for me to do it, but I woke up this morning and truly realized what the f#ck black water rafting entails, and I chickened out. I'll let someone push me out of a plane over Mount Doom (Tongariro National Park) but I'm not gonna raft in a cave by myself with a single light on my head and a single tub keeping me afloat.
Bgok! Bgok! (Chicken noises?)
By the way, Freddie is our friend we met in the last hostel back.
Anyway, we'll start at the beginning, or the plane ride from Berlin to Auckland.
It was the nicest plane ride I've ever taken. Korean airlines is packed with polite, helpful employees, you get great food, free socks, and loads of great movies to watch. And in between the movies they show you clips of how to do airplane yoga, which after 20 hours of sitting down, felt really nice. So getting here was really a peice of cake. It's a small world when you think of it. We can fly to the farthest land mass away within 24 hours, and you get free socks in the meantime. Lovin your work.
That's another saying here, loving your work. The Kiwis are full of catch phrases. New Zealanders called themselves Kiwis, not after the fruit, but from the native, flightless bird. Makes sense, right?
We arrived in Auckland on the 28th. It was sunny and warm.
We took showers, left our stuff at the hostel, then walked to the local town of Parnell, where our hostel was located, to get some food. Parnell is a very posh borough of Auckland, so cheap backpacker food was hard to find. We ended up in The Bog, an Irish pub for a pint and some burgers.
The Phillies were playing on the t.v. I assumed it was the rained out game, a re-run, it couldn't be game 5. But it was the bottom of the 6th inning...
Bar tender, excuse me, is this game live?
Yep, this game is live.
Dermot and I got to watch a team from Philadelphia WIN a championship. It was the greatest, most random moment. Something must've told me to go into that pub, probably the only pub in Auckland showing the game. I got to watch it live. I still don't believe it. The Philadelphia Phillies are world champs. Phuck yeah!
Auckland was a great city. It's the biggest city in the North Island, where we'll be spending the next couple of weeks. We got to drink in a pub called Father Ted's and watch the All Blacks beat the Aussie's in rugby. Dermot called Auckland mini America. We got to eat at Wendy's, it was very exciting all together. Though relatively small, there's a great street called Queen St that has lots of pubs and restaurants and an IMAX theatre we took well advantage of (we hadn't seen a movie in months!) It's great to be in a country that speak English, haha.
And Maori.
New Zealand has only been a country since 1840. I guess because of that the natives and their culture had a chance of survival against the colonization. The English were the first ones here and they signed a treaty with the natives that gave them their land and their language and protection against other potential white faced threats (i.e. the French and the Dutch). So nowadays, you are of European or Maori descent (or of course both, love knows no bounds). I know I'm only seeing the tip of the iceberg. I'm sure there are grave social injustices and prejudice, but it's wonderful to see the European incorporate the Maori culture into their own, and almost show it off with pride and humility. It makes me wonder if in another world the US couldn't have been this way. Native American culture at the forefront instead of radio-active reservations and bloody memories...
We stayed in Auckland for 5 days, 3 of which it took us to get over the jet lag. Going to bed at 5 p.m. and waking up a 6 a.m. was fun (not).
During the five days there, we took a day tour. The woman giving the tour said we're going to start the day with a game. Everyone stand up who wants the chance to win a free bungy jump off of Auckland's Sky Tower (the tallest building in the Southern Hemisphere). Dermot stands up. After two rounds of heads or tails, Dermot wins the contest. A half hour the contest, Dermot is standing on top on the tallest building in the Southern Hemisphere getting ready to jump off it. I'm standing below getting it all on camera.
3,2,1, and Dermot jumps!
I have it all on video. I'll post it soon.
Luck of the Irish, right?
After Auckland we headed north to the Bay of Islands in our new (used) car that we bought. It's a Mazda Astina. It drives, and it has breaks, good enough for me. And the guy we bought it from gave us a written guarantee that when we bring it back to him, if it's still in one peice, he'll buy it back from us for a little under what we paid for it. I drove and Dermot navigated. There are only like 4 roads in New Zealand (just kidding) so it wasn't hard for us to find Paihia, the town in which we were anchoring in in the Bay of Islands.
It was beautiful and the weather cleared up for us giving us 4 sunny and warm days by the beach.
Jealous? ;-)
We met Freddie Judge from London in our hostel the first day and figured out that we were all headed the same direction for the next week or so, we'll tag along together and see what kind of stuff we can get up to. The second day in Paihia we did some extreme flip flopping along the rocky coast of the beach. Dermot got blisters and everything.
The third day we took an Awesome Experience tour bus up to the north of the North Island to Cape Reinga where our bus driver drove us along a 90 mile beach, taught us some more catchy phrases, made us listen to Kiwi reggae music, pushed us down high verticle sand dunes on boogey boards, and fed us fish and chips. Sweet as, bro.
The fourth day my mom called me every hour to update me on the election. And around 4 o'clock New Zealand time I got a text from Carrie: OBAMA! And a phone call from my mom a second later saying it was official, President Elect Barack Obama. Dermot, Freddie and I were walking around downtown Paihia at the time. Dermot took a picture of me screaming with joy before I ran all the way back to our hostel to watch the live coverage on CNN.
Pinch me, the Phillies and Obama win in one week.
Best. Week. Ever.
We headed south for Waitomo then after making the most of the Bay of Islands.
We stopped over in Auckland to pick up some stuff we forgot in the hostel and do a Skyscreamer reverse bungy, when in New Zealand!
Waitomo is a remote part of the North Island, you have to find it on small roads through winding hills. It was lovely. I saw what looked like Shire (from the Lord of the Rings) at every turn (the whole fecking North Island looks like the Shire) but this part of it even more so. The sun was setting and it turned the mountains purple.
As the sun began the set, I noticed a couple of cars coming towards me were flashing there lights. At first I thought it meant a cop was ahead, or something. But when the cars kept flashing, even miles up the road, I made Freddie get out of the car and check my headlights, maybe they weren't working.
They weren't.
Freddie said, well, you better hurry up then because the sun is going to set soon.
Cue the reverse vampirism.
We chased the last bit of sunset through the winding, dark roads towards Waitomo. Dermot asked Freddie for his miners cap (i.e. the thing he uses to read books at night in the room) to shine towards the road ahead and I turned the emergency blinkers on.
For 15 km we rode in the dark, seeing the signs for Waitomo in the blink of the emergency lights.
It was hysterically insane.
We parked the car in the bright lights of Waitomo's only pub, waddled our way to our hostel which happened to be right behind the pub, dropped our stuff off in the room, and proceeded to drink and laugh away the danger. Freddie played some awful songs on the juke box and we went to sleep safe and sound.
Yesterday we drove around the countryside of Waitomo, eventually ending up at the black sand beach where local Maori women were catching fish (apparently to put in omelets) and I managed to get burnt in the 3 minutes I took off my hoody when the sun managed to show itself. New Zealand has "bugger all" ozone. Apparently.
Tomorrow we head to Rotorua, i.e. the movie location for the Shire, and the heart of Maori culture in the whole country.
Sweet as, bro.
Monday, October 27, 2008
Blow your nose weather
I have 20 minutes to write something. Tomorrow we depart for New Zealand and leave all this blow your nose weather as Dermot calls it behind.
It's cold.
Since we left Prague we've really felt the ensuing winter months.
But in Poland it added to the atmosphere. I dunno, stereotype or not, I just consider Poland one of those cold countries. And it was.
Anyway, Prague.
Beer crawls, tourists, and theives. It's a beautiful city. I say that a lot here, but I mean it this time. Take away the bazillion tourists, and it's eastern Europe serene.
Somebody stole my wallet in our hostel. We know who it is, we've canceled the card, the company is investigating it, Dermot and I look forward to having our 3,500 EUR returned to us as soon as possible. Unforunately, when something like this happens it puts a damper on the city itself, but I think once the money is returned and the case is closed I'll look back on our 4 days there more fondly.
Picture this, we're in Krakow, Poland, in the expansive, hopping town squre. We go to get money out of the ATM and it says that we've already spent our daily limit. But we've been on a train all day, how could that be? Where's my credit card Dermot? Cause it's not in my purse. It's a beautiful evening in Krakow, early birds are going to dinner, people are coming home from work, music is humming loudly, and then there's me in front of the chapel ripping through my luggage in a way that would make Jack the Ripper proud and screaming it's gone! It's gone! My wallet is gone.
Eh, we went through the emotions, drank the 11 free shots of vodka our hostel was offering that night and finished the night with a little Polish kareoke.
We saw the tiny Krakow the next day. I can understand why Pope John Paul II was proud to call it his home, the city of his life. It was quaint and medieval and very walkable.
We then headed to Warsaw, Poland. Which was a huge city in comparison. Thankfully our hostel was in a perfect location, otherwise it would've been too much. We saw what we could though, considering we arrived at the Jewish cemetary an hour and a half after it closed THANK YOU LONELY PLANET. Anyway, we saw a Christian cemetary that was equally as moving. I can't express how shocking it is to actually see the countless grey headstones that mark deaths at the year 1944.
The Warsaw Rising monument was equally compelling. The Polish have some history. It was a very moving city. And it has a wonderful old town, that despite being completely rebuilt in the 1970s looks like you've stepped back in time when the Polish actually had the opportunity and the wealth to create and flourish in their own right.
Off to Berlin. The first night we arrived in really late so we only had some time to get some food and drinks and soak up the night life, pacing ourselves for the next day. We took a 4 hour walking tour around the city which was so great because we really saw everything. Berlin is freaking awesome and I will jump at the opportunity to come back. Vibrant, historical city. It's awesome.
That's the justice I can do it, Berlin is awesome.
I'm rushing to write this, gimme credit!
This whirlwind tour of Europe has been exactly that. A whirlwind. Day long train rides, 8 hours to sightsee massive cities, ...hangover days.
I can't believe we did it. I can't believe this European chapter is closing, for now.
Amsterdam, hehe, I really haven't been the same since.
Munich, it's weiners and pretzels and beer halls.
Interlaken, heaven on earth.
Vienna, and the cult of KFC.
Romania, look at all the COLOURS.
And all those twisting, revealing train rides.
And so much more...
Dermot took a picture of me throwing out our Europe On A Shoestring book as I made room for our New Zealand travel guide in our carry on bag.
I'M SO EXCITED. We're so excited.
We depart tomorrow, Oct 28th and we land Oct 30th in Auckland.
We'll say hi then, from the otherside of the world.
In the meantime, GO PHILLIES!!!
It's cold.
Since we left Prague we've really felt the ensuing winter months.
But in Poland it added to the atmosphere. I dunno, stereotype or not, I just consider Poland one of those cold countries. And it was.
Anyway, Prague.
Beer crawls, tourists, and theives. It's a beautiful city. I say that a lot here, but I mean it this time. Take away the bazillion tourists, and it's eastern Europe serene.
Somebody stole my wallet in our hostel. We know who it is, we've canceled the card, the company is investigating it, Dermot and I look forward to having our 3,500 EUR returned to us as soon as possible. Unforunately, when something like this happens it puts a damper on the city itself, but I think once the money is returned and the case is closed I'll look back on our 4 days there more fondly.
Picture this, we're in Krakow, Poland, in the expansive, hopping town squre. We go to get money out of the ATM and it says that we've already spent our daily limit. But we've been on a train all day, how could that be? Where's my credit card Dermot? Cause it's not in my purse. It's a beautiful evening in Krakow, early birds are going to dinner, people are coming home from work, music is humming loudly, and then there's me in front of the chapel ripping through my luggage in a way that would make Jack the Ripper proud and screaming it's gone! It's gone! My wallet is gone.
Eh, we went through the emotions, drank the 11 free shots of vodka our hostel was offering that night and finished the night with a little Polish kareoke.
We saw the tiny Krakow the next day. I can understand why Pope John Paul II was proud to call it his home, the city of his life. It was quaint and medieval and very walkable.
We then headed to Warsaw, Poland. Which was a huge city in comparison. Thankfully our hostel was in a perfect location, otherwise it would've been too much. We saw what we could though, considering we arrived at the Jewish cemetary an hour and a half after it closed THANK YOU LONELY PLANET. Anyway, we saw a Christian cemetary that was equally as moving. I can't express how shocking it is to actually see the countless grey headstones that mark deaths at the year 1944.
The Warsaw Rising monument was equally compelling. The Polish have some history. It was a very moving city. And it has a wonderful old town, that despite being completely rebuilt in the 1970s looks like you've stepped back in time when the Polish actually had the opportunity and the wealth to create and flourish in their own right.
Off to Berlin. The first night we arrived in really late so we only had some time to get some food and drinks and soak up the night life, pacing ourselves for the next day. We took a 4 hour walking tour around the city which was so great because we really saw everything. Berlin is freaking awesome and I will jump at the opportunity to come back. Vibrant, historical city. It's awesome.
That's the justice I can do it, Berlin is awesome.
I'm rushing to write this, gimme credit!
This whirlwind tour of Europe has been exactly that. A whirlwind. Day long train rides, 8 hours to sightsee massive cities, ...hangover days.
I can't believe we did it. I can't believe this European chapter is closing, for now.
Amsterdam, hehe, I really haven't been the same since.
Munich, it's weiners and pretzels and beer halls.
Interlaken, heaven on earth.
Vienna, and the cult of KFC.
Romania, look at all the COLOURS.
And all those twisting, revealing train rides.
And so much more...
Dermot took a picture of me throwing out our Europe On A Shoestring book as I made room for our New Zealand travel guide in our carry on bag.
I'M SO EXCITED. We're so excited.
We depart tomorrow, Oct 28th and we land Oct 30th in Auckland.
We'll say hi then, from the otherside of the world.
In the meantime, GO PHILLIES!!!
Thursday, October 16, 2008
10,000 Cheesburgers later...
We're in Bratislava now, killing time. Cause there's not much else to do here but kill time. People told us not to go to Bratislava, actually, everyone told us not to go to Bratislava. But we did. So the expectations were low. No real surprises after we arrived. We got some good pictures, it's a surprisingly picturesque little city. Little being the key word. We're looking forward to drinking in a pub tonight that has a statue of Lenin in it. And last night we drank a beer called Kelt out of the coolest. tap. ever. It was a viking sword with horns. Awesome.
Anyway, so the last time we tuned in was Serbia...
Right, so we left Serbia on the longest, most uncomfortable train to Sofia, Bulgaria. We were crammed in with 6 other people for 12 hot, deordorantless hours. Dermot sat next to Sauron the Dark Lord, or atleast his cousin (Iiiii SEEEeeee youuuuuu). And I was sitting next to some 7ft Serbian pervert who spoke to his mom or his wife I wasn't sure for all 12 of those hours in the beautiful language that is Serbian (not). The train wove us through the scorched earth of Serbia, stopped randomly in the middle of nowhere for 20 minutes here, 45 minutes there, and got us into Sofia a half hour before most of its restaurants closed.
We got a taxi to our hostel, where we checked in then ran to KFC for dinner. We then bought loads of beer to wash down the dinner and train ride. But when we got back to our hostel, the kindly receptionist told us we couldn't drink after 9 p.m. It was 11 p.m. Never tell an alcoholic she can't drink. (Just kidding mom).
So we signed up for Facebook accounts, I let Dermot beat me in a few games of pool, then we collapsed in our room and fell asleep to the soft purrs of an Asian woman coughing. And I particularly enjoyed walking downstairs and across the courtyard 2 times in the middle of the night to pee.
Sofia, Bulgaria was worth it though. We'll add it to the list of places we've been that'd we'd gladly return to. I'd love to see more of Bulgaria as well, its history seems rich and ancient. Sadly, the poverty of the city struck me hard. It's not easy seeing 80 year olds begging on the street... Long lives Communism.
We saw what we could of Sofia on foot in the searing heat. Then went back to our hostel for the free dinner that they were serving and to drink the beer that we had purchased the preceeding night. We were getting up around half 6 to catch a train to Bucharest, Romania.
We got to the train station at 8 a.m. for our 8:40 train. We departed the train station at an awesomely annoying 11:30 a.m. We arrived in Bucharest at 21:00 after another painful journey, (our cabin could've doubled as a sauna). And then there was the Romanian Border Patrol, otherwise known as two badge-less jabronies in fake-looking jackets, who took my passport away from me saying they needed to stamp it. My bullshit radar was off the charts, but they gave it back to me after a half hour, laughing, silly American girl. I said under my breath that the funniest thing about this is my husband is probably less hairy than your mother. Haha hahahaaaaa. Funny.
We saw the sun set on Bucharest as we attempted to find our hostel without getting lost. Attempted, being the key word. We are SO good at directions. But after 1 hour of walking up and down the same street, I started screaming, EXCUSE ME, CAN ANYONE TELL ME WHERE THE NEAREST STRIP CLUB IS. Because our hostel was above a titty bar called 'Heaven' - insert ironic quip here.
We found the hostel eventually, toweled ourselves off because it is SO HOT in this area of the world, then set off to get some drinks.
Bucharest was so cosmopolitan. Definitely not the shit ridden, rabid dog infested, wasteland of crumbling brick buildings as I had anticipated. No seriously, what do you see when you picture Bucharest? I'd argue that it wouldn't be far from what I had pictured. It was a great little city.
Off to Transylvania! Muah ha haaa. I need a tissue! We meet some fellow backpackers at the bus stop who had actually stayed at the same hostel we did who were heading to Transylvania as well. Small world. Brasov was the collective destination. So we ended up traveling with Mark from Australia, and Vanessa and Alana from New Zealand for the next 2 days. We suggested to them that they should stay in the same hostel that we were because they'll probably have room and it's the top rated hostel on hostelworld.com for Brasov, Transylvania. So they complied. We arrived in Brasov, where we had to take a another small train half hour outside the city, well past Brasov town, where the Carpathians became scarily closer and more abundant. Oh Christ, where are we taking these poor people! We hired two taxis who had no idea where our hostel was exactly, but it was somewhere thatta way, farther into the Carpathians.
We're no where near Brasov, are we?
No. Nowhere near Brasov.
Just call me Jonathon Harker. The fear I had in me as the taxi struggled to climb the slight, rocky trail up the mountains to our unknown destination was as palpable as Bram Stroker could have described it.
I felt bad, I had told our fellow travel companions that our hostel in Brasov was the highest rated location for the area. So it was guilt, really.
But then the trail broadened. The countryside before the Carpathians was breathtaking. See our pictures, if they can do it any justice at all. The sun was setting, the air was cold, the moon was coming out from behind the clouds... this is what I wanted from Transylvania. I just hope our companions felt the same.
They did.
Hallelujah.
So as to reiterate, we were in the middle of nowhere on this farmer's farm. Josef, a very nice man, with his wife and family. I finally got a picture of a woman with the babooshka on her head as requested by my mom! Hahah. We took loads of pictures, played with the dogs and chased the chickens around, adjusted to where we really were, unpacked and got psyched about the prospects of hunting for Bran castle the following morning.
Anyway, who's hungry? Lads, help Josef clear the back of his pick up truck and we'll ride 3km to the nearest town to get some dinner. Everybody hop in! Mind yer arses, the road gets bumpy ahead. Very, very bumpy. Mind the branches as well, they sting at 60 km/pr hour!
We were loaded like cattle into the back of his truck and spun around the hills of county Brasov for 30 minutes each way all for the sake of some pasta and drinks. Hysterical.
We made each other dinner, drank a bit, then got a good night's sleep in the fluffy clean beds of Villa Park hostel, with alarm clocks set for 8 am the following morning.
We hiked to Bran Castle, otherwise known as Dracula's castle on a hot, clear day. The castle itself was insanely disappointing. No mention of Vlad Tepes at all, and the interior dates to the early 20th century. But the hike there was spectacular. The path was not the least bit man made. We hiked up rocky slopes, down slippy hills where we swung from trees like suicidal monkeys, as we followed our instincts (or should I say Mark, Vanessa, and Alana's instincts) and a few signs here and there. Bran castle is that way, you're good, keep going! 3.5 hours later we arrived in Bran town, ate some pizza, and caught a very deserved bus back to our hostel. Well, atleast the nearest town next our hostel. Remember the 3 km car ride? We had to walk that, uphill. Fun.
It's okay, because of the 10,000 McDonald's cheeseburgers we've been eating since we've come to this area of the world we burned off like, 4 of them. There are McDonald's everywhere!
We left for Budapest at 7 am the next morning. An hour long taxi ride and we were at the train station in time for our train, which was also on time. Sweet!
11 hours later on an okay train, we arrived in Budapest. Our hostel there was freaking awesome. We watched Scrubs on DVD, got our laundry done, checked our internets. Place Budapest on the list of places to come back to as well. It was so beautiful. We took a walking tour so we saw the vast majority of the city and learned the chaotic history of the Hungarian people. And we went on a pub crawl to a karyoke bar where we sang some Chili Peppers and Bon Jovi.
The highlight of Budapest of course were the baths. Dermot and I spent half the day soaking in the thermal baths of Budapest's most popular destination. The water smelt like the stuff you developed photographs in and the number of hairy, unfit men in speedos was a bit disturbing, but all that aside, it was heavenly.
We ate that night in an Italian restuarant where we drank Hungarian wine called Bulls Blood. Yes, Bulls Blood. Tasted like flowers.
We left Budapest wanting more and expecting to see it again.
And now we're back here, to Bratislava. 1 hour and 16 blogging minutes later. How's about that for killing some time?
Photos will be uploaded later, my fingers hurt. And Lenin awaits.
Anyway, so the last time we tuned in was Serbia...
Right, so we left Serbia on the longest, most uncomfortable train to Sofia, Bulgaria. We were crammed in with 6 other people for 12 hot, deordorantless hours. Dermot sat next to Sauron the Dark Lord, or atleast his cousin (Iiiii SEEEeeee youuuuuu). And I was sitting next to some 7ft Serbian pervert who spoke to his mom or his wife I wasn't sure for all 12 of those hours in the beautiful language that is Serbian (not). The train wove us through the scorched earth of Serbia, stopped randomly in the middle of nowhere for 20 minutes here, 45 minutes there, and got us into Sofia a half hour before most of its restaurants closed.
We got a taxi to our hostel, where we checked in then ran to KFC for dinner. We then bought loads of beer to wash down the dinner and train ride. But when we got back to our hostel, the kindly receptionist told us we couldn't drink after 9 p.m. It was 11 p.m. Never tell an alcoholic she can't drink. (Just kidding mom).
So we signed up for Facebook accounts, I let Dermot beat me in a few games of pool, then we collapsed in our room and fell asleep to the soft purrs of an Asian woman coughing. And I particularly enjoyed walking downstairs and across the courtyard 2 times in the middle of the night to pee.
Sofia, Bulgaria was worth it though. We'll add it to the list of places we've been that'd we'd gladly return to. I'd love to see more of Bulgaria as well, its history seems rich and ancient. Sadly, the poverty of the city struck me hard. It's not easy seeing 80 year olds begging on the street... Long lives Communism.
We saw what we could of Sofia on foot in the searing heat. Then went back to our hostel for the free dinner that they were serving and to drink the beer that we had purchased the preceeding night. We were getting up around half 6 to catch a train to Bucharest, Romania.
We got to the train station at 8 a.m. for our 8:40 train. We departed the train station at an awesomely annoying 11:30 a.m. We arrived in Bucharest at 21:00 after another painful journey, (our cabin could've doubled as a sauna). And then there was the Romanian Border Patrol, otherwise known as two badge-less jabronies in fake-looking jackets, who took my passport away from me saying they needed to stamp it. My bullshit radar was off the charts, but they gave it back to me after a half hour, laughing, silly American girl. I said under my breath that the funniest thing about this is my husband is probably less hairy than your mother. Haha hahahaaaaa. Funny.
We saw the sun set on Bucharest as we attempted to find our hostel without getting lost. Attempted, being the key word. We are SO good at directions. But after 1 hour of walking up and down the same street, I started screaming, EXCUSE ME, CAN ANYONE TELL ME WHERE THE NEAREST STRIP CLUB IS. Because our hostel was above a titty bar called 'Heaven' - insert ironic quip here.
We found the hostel eventually, toweled ourselves off because it is SO HOT in this area of the world, then set off to get some drinks.
Bucharest was so cosmopolitan. Definitely not the shit ridden, rabid dog infested, wasteland of crumbling brick buildings as I had anticipated. No seriously, what do you see when you picture Bucharest? I'd argue that it wouldn't be far from what I had pictured. It was a great little city.
Off to Transylvania! Muah ha haaa. I need a tissue! We meet some fellow backpackers at the bus stop who had actually stayed at the same hostel we did who were heading to Transylvania as well. Small world. Brasov was the collective destination. So we ended up traveling with Mark from Australia, and Vanessa and Alana from New Zealand for the next 2 days. We suggested to them that they should stay in the same hostel that we were because they'll probably have room and it's the top rated hostel on hostelworld.com for Brasov, Transylvania. So they complied. We arrived in Brasov, where we had to take a another small train half hour outside the city, well past Brasov town, where the Carpathians became scarily closer and more abundant. Oh Christ, where are we taking these poor people! We hired two taxis who had no idea where our hostel was exactly, but it was somewhere thatta way, farther into the Carpathians.
We're no where near Brasov, are we?
No. Nowhere near Brasov.
Just call me Jonathon Harker. The fear I had in me as the taxi struggled to climb the slight, rocky trail up the mountains to our unknown destination was as palpable as Bram Stroker could have described it.
I felt bad, I had told our fellow travel companions that our hostel in Brasov was the highest rated location for the area. So it was guilt, really.
But then the trail broadened. The countryside before the Carpathians was breathtaking. See our pictures, if they can do it any justice at all. The sun was setting, the air was cold, the moon was coming out from behind the clouds... this is what I wanted from Transylvania. I just hope our companions felt the same.
They did.
Hallelujah.
So as to reiterate, we were in the middle of nowhere on this farmer's farm. Josef, a very nice man, with his wife and family. I finally got a picture of a woman with the babooshka on her head as requested by my mom! Hahah. We took loads of pictures, played with the dogs and chased the chickens around, adjusted to where we really were, unpacked and got psyched about the prospects of hunting for Bran castle the following morning.
Anyway, who's hungry? Lads, help Josef clear the back of his pick up truck and we'll ride 3km to the nearest town to get some dinner. Everybody hop in! Mind yer arses, the road gets bumpy ahead. Very, very bumpy. Mind the branches as well, they sting at 60 km/pr hour!
We were loaded like cattle into the back of his truck and spun around the hills of county Brasov for 30 minutes each way all for the sake of some pasta and drinks. Hysterical.
We made each other dinner, drank a bit, then got a good night's sleep in the fluffy clean beds of Villa Park hostel, with alarm clocks set for 8 am the following morning.
We hiked to Bran Castle, otherwise known as Dracula's castle on a hot, clear day. The castle itself was insanely disappointing. No mention of Vlad Tepes at all, and the interior dates to the early 20th century. But the hike there was spectacular. The path was not the least bit man made. We hiked up rocky slopes, down slippy hills where we swung from trees like suicidal monkeys, as we followed our instincts (or should I say Mark, Vanessa, and Alana's instincts) and a few signs here and there. Bran castle is that way, you're good, keep going! 3.5 hours later we arrived in Bran town, ate some pizza, and caught a very deserved bus back to our hostel. Well, atleast the nearest town next our hostel. Remember the 3 km car ride? We had to walk that, uphill. Fun.
It's okay, because of the 10,000 McDonald's cheeseburgers we've been eating since we've come to this area of the world we burned off like, 4 of them. There are McDonald's everywhere!
We left for Budapest at 7 am the next morning. An hour long taxi ride and we were at the train station in time for our train, which was also on time. Sweet!
11 hours later on an okay train, we arrived in Budapest. Our hostel there was freaking awesome. We watched Scrubs on DVD, got our laundry done, checked our internets. Place Budapest on the list of places to come back to as well. It was so beautiful. We took a walking tour so we saw the vast majority of the city and learned the chaotic history of the Hungarian people. And we went on a pub crawl to a karyoke bar where we sang some Chili Peppers and Bon Jovi.
The highlight of Budapest of course were the baths. Dermot and I spent half the day soaking in the thermal baths of Budapest's most popular destination. The water smelt like the stuff you developed photographs in and the number of hairy, unfit men in speedos was a bit disturbing, but all that aside, it was heavenly.
We ate that night in an Italian restuarant where we drank Hungarian wine called Bulls Blood. Yes, Bulls Blood. Tasted like flowers.
We left Budapest wanting more and expecting to see it again.
And now we're back here, to Bratislava. 1 hour and 16 blogging minutes later. How's about that for killing some time?
Photos will be uploaded later, my fingers hurt. And Lenin awaits.
Thursday, October 9, 2008
About our pictures
I don't know why some of our pictures aren't showing clearly. Some are, some aren't. But all of our pictures were uploaded at the same time, the same way. We've noticed that sometimes the pixelated pictures just take a while to load... and some just don't load at all.
I'm not quite sure what to say.
Picasa web lets us order prints, etc. I suppose then it just gives us a reason to meet up with ye and show you the pictures then.
Hopefully, the glitch will fix itself, soon. We're getting some good pictures over here.
Love you all.
I'm not quite sure what to say.
Picasa web lets us order prints, etc. I suppose then it just gives us a reason to meet up with ye and show you the pictures then.
Hopefully, the glitch will fix itself, soon. We're getting some good pictures over here.
Love you all.
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