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!!!
Monday, October 27, 2008
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.
Sunday, October 5, 2008
Carpe feckin diem
I'm not sure when we'll get the opportunity to do this in the next few days, so I'll rush this blog to have it updated. We board a train to Sofia, Bulgaria tomorrow at 8:40. It arrives at 18:20. So we'll get one day in Bulgaria after all that travel. Then on Wednesday we head to Bucharest, Romania from Sofia on a train that takes 9.5 hours. And that's if the trains are on time. Which I hear they never are.
Right, be present be thankful.
Hard to be at the moment cause we're a bit burnt out. We booked an extensive trip this month and we're feeling it. 1 day of travel, 1 day of sightseeing and so on and so on. We booked our flight to New Zealand and all of our hostels for the month, so we have to stick with the schedule. We'll get through it, gladly. But it's draining.
The train from Bled, Slovenia to Zagreb, Croatia was easy enough. We had an hour to anticipate Croatia. But it was in that hour that we realized there are no trains to Dubrovnik. We therefore sacrificed Dubrovnik to use it as an excuse to come back to this area of the world another time, and in better weather. It's been cold and rainy so far. So in this pickle, we consulted the map in our Lonely Planet guide and said, well, we're booked into Sofia, Bulgaria on Monday 6th, we have two days to kill in a place that must be between Zagreb and Sofia?
Where is there such a place?
Serbia.
Belgrade, Serbia is in between Zagreb, Croatia and Sofia, Bulgaria.
I said to Dermot I'm not going to Serbia. Did they or didn't they execute Slobodan Milosevic? And what about his cronies? I'm not going to Serbia.
But we're not going to Dubrovnik. We only booked two days in there and it's an 11 hour bus ride to Dubrovnik from Zagreb, who knows how much it's going to be to another country. Gotta stick to the schedule.
Okay, we'll go to Serbia, but I'm not telling my mom.
Alright, so we arrived in Zagreb to our hostel and instantly booked our hostel for Serbia off of hostelworld.com, making sure it got high ratings for security and so forth.
My mom text me 'watch out for the bad guys' in Zagreb. I thought to myself, wait til she calls and finds out where we're going next. AH!
Okay, okay, I'm prejudiced. It's out of ignorance and fear.
Belgrade's been fine.
Zagreb was wonderful.
Everyone is friendly. Everyone speaks English. Yes, there are a few assholes wearing anti-USA t-shirts, but there are assholes everywhere. And who knows what they've seen in their lives, let alone the stories their parents may have. I'm not gonna judge. I'm just gonna sit here in my humility. I'm humbled.
And tired.
In Zagreb, 2 double rums and coke each was a fiver. We took advantage. And we met a lovely Croatian couple who bought us some of their national shots - one tasted like honey, one tasted like a pine cone. They taught us how to say cheers in Croation, some saying that sounded like giggly puff. They had been talking to some turd sammich at their table that was trying to convince me that Tony Iommi the guitarist from Black Sabbath was the most overrated guitarist of all time and all he played was a bunch of power chords. Needless to say the conversation with this turd didn't last very long, so Dermot and myself alongside the Croatian couple left him and headed to a Croation chipper. I think I ate a burger, I wasn't going to ask. They showed us around the city at night, inadvertently, because Dermot and I were so drunk we didn't remember where our hostel was. But it was nice, for us anyway. We thanked them profusely once we did find our hostel and we went to bed.
The next day we explored the surprisingly small Zagreb. We took some pictures, played some Scrabble in the park, then hit the pub again for some more double rums. The bartender remembered us from the night before.
We left for Belgrade on Saturday morning. The train was packed. And to our disdain you could smoke. There was one man who took the liberty, every 3 minutes. I asked Dermot how was he still alive? Eventually the train thinned out and Dermot and I could close the door to our cabin. Dermot said the Serbian countryside could've been Ireland 50 years ago, or Ireland if Hitler had had his way. Endless, endless corn fields.
My IPOD had died and I was finishing my book while Dermot was in his own little world listening to his IPOD, I heard Bob Marley faintly. Suddenly our cabin door gets pushed open and in walks this 6'5'' Serbian guard who asks for our passports, border patrol. I give them to him. Dermot takes off one of his ear phones to hear something if there was something to be heard. He was in fact listening to Bob Marley.
Don't worry pssssssssssh...(something in Serbian) Dermot. O'Connor....(something in Serbian)...psssssssssh. About a thing. Cause every little thing, gonna be alright...
The Serbian border patrol man was ringing through his walkie talkie. This Irishman listening to Bob Marley on his IPOD looks nothing like his passport. It must be a fake. Let me ring intelligence to see if he's a wanted man. He has a beard now, and long hair, it must be a disguise. Nothing like his passport.
Nothing comes over the walkie talkie.
We're good to go. Hvala, and welcome to Serbia.
Anyway, I'm gonna go get some sleep. Early train tomorrow, not really lookin forward to it, gonna need some energy.
I'm thankful for every tired minute of this trip.
Sofia, Bulgaria is tomorrow (night). Then Bucharest, Romania on Wednesday morning.
New pics are up. There are bombed out buildings near the train station here in Belgrade. I'm gonna take some pictures of them tomorrow and post them in the Belgrade album.
Goodnight.
Right, be present be thankful.
Hard to be at the moment cause we're a bit burnt out. We booked an extensive trip this month and we're feeling it. 1 day of travel, 1 day of sightseeing and so on and so on. We booked our flight to New Zealand and all of our hostels for the month, so we have to stick with the schedule. We'll get through it, gladly. But it's draining.
The train from Bled, Slovenia to Zagreb, Croatia was easy enough. We had an hour to anticipate Croatia. But it was in that hour that we realized there are no trains to Dubrovnik. We therefore sacrificed Dubrovnik to use it as an excuse to come back to this area of the world another time, and in better weather. It's been cold and rainy so far. So in this pickle, we consulted the map in our Lonely Planet guide and said, well, we're booked into Sofia, Bulgaria on Monday 6th, we have two days to kill in a place that must be between Zagreb and Sofia?
Where is there such a place?
Serbia.
Belgrade, Serbia is in between Zagreb, Croatia and Sofia, Bulgaria.
I said to Dermot I'm not going to Serbia. Did they or didn't they execute Slobodan Milosevic? And what about his cronies? I'm not going to Serbia.
But we're not going to Dubrovnik. We only booked two days in there and it's an 11 hour bus ride to Dubrovnik from Zagreb, who knows how much it's going to be to another country. Gotta stick to the schedule.
Okay, we'll go to Serbia, but I'm not telling my mom.
Alright, so we arrived in Zagreb to our hostel and instantly booked our hostel for Serbia off of hostelworld.com, making sure it got high ratings for security and so forth.
My mom text me 'watch out for the bad guys' in Zagreb. I thought to myself, wait til she calls and finds out where we're going next. AH!
Okay, okay, I'm prejudiced. It's out of ignorance and fear.
Belgrade's been fine.
Zagreb was wonderful.
Everyone is friendly. Everyone speaks English. Yes, there are a few assholes wearing anti-USA t-shirts, but there are assholes everywhere. And who knows what they've seen in their lives, let alone the stories their parents may have. I'm not gonna judge. I'm just gonna sit here in my humility. I'm humbled.
And tired.
In Zagreb, 2 double rums and coke each was a fiver. We took advantage. And we met a lovely Croatian couple who bought us some of their national shots - one tasted like honey, one tasted like a pine cone. They taught us how to say cheers in Croation, some saying that sounded like giggly puff. They had been talking to some turd sammich at their table that was trying to convince me that Tony Iommi the guitarist from Black Sabbath was the most overrated guitarist of all time and all he played was a bunch of power chords. Needless to say the conversation with this turd didn't last very long, so Dermot and myself alongside the Croatian couple left him and headed to a Croation chipper. I think I ate a burger, I wasn't going to ask. They showed us around the city at night, inadvertently, because Dermot and I were so drunk we didn't remember where our hostel was. But it was nice, for us anyway. We thanked them profusely once we did find our hostel and we went to bed.
The next day we explored the surprisingly small Zagreb. We took some pictures, played some Scrabble in the park, then hit the pub again for some more double rums. The bartender remembered us from the night before.
We left for Belgrade on Saturday morning. The train was packed. And to our disdain you could smoke. There was one man who took the liberty, every 3 minutes. I asked Dermot how was he still alive? Eventually the train thinned out and Dermot and I could close the door to our cabin. Dermot said the Serbian countryside could've been Ireland 50 years ago, or Ireland if Hitler had had his way. Endless, endless corn fields.
My IPOD had died and I was finishing my book while Dermot was in his own little world listening to his IPOD, I heard Bob Marley faintly. Suddenly our cabin door gets pushed open and in walks this 6'5'' Serbian guard who asks for our passports, border patrol. I give them to him. Dermot takes off one of his ear phones to hear something if there was something to be heard. He was in fact listening to Bob Marley.
Don't worry pssssssssssh...(something in Serbian) Dermot. O'Connor....(something in Serbian)...psssssssssh. About a thing. Cause every little thing, gonna be alright...
The Serbian border patrol man was ringing through his walkie talkie. This Irishman listening to Bob Marley on his IPOD looks nothing like his passport. It must be a fake. Let me ring intelligence to see if he's a wanted man. He has a beard now, and long hair, it must be a disguise. Nothing like his passport.
Nothing comes over the walkie talkie.
We're good to go. Hvala, and welcome to Serbia.
Anyway, I'm gonna go get some sleep. Early train tomorrow, not really lookin forward to it, gonna need some energy.
I'm thankful for every tired minute of this trip.
Sofia, Bulgaria is tomorrow (night). Then Bucharest, Romania on Wednesday morning.
New pics are up. There are bombed out buildings near the train station here in Belgrade. I'm gonna take some pictures of them tomorrow and post them in the Belgrade album.
Goodnight.
Wednesday, October 1, 2008
Vienna, Australia
Right, so we left Interlaken thinking that there was no way we were going to top the good times and the good friends.
Not to diminish the people we met there, but holy hell, it got better.
Salzburg was great, I mean, the hotel was great. And that's where we spent most of our time. We had a bit of trouble finding the place, but what else is new. We came to the corner of where our supposed hostel should be, but all we saw was a 4 star hotel. We looked at our hostelworld.com print out and saw that it was in fact where we were going to be staying for the next 3 nights. Unfreakingbelievable.
It had a huge cozy bed, clean linens, a private shower... a tv!! Since the tour was expensive and Dermot had never even seen the Sound of Music anyway, we saw downtown Salzburg in half a day. Beautiful city, but tiny in comparison. There was a festival going on downtown which was a real treat to see the people of Salzburg out in force and celebrating their culture. We ate some of the local goodies. And Dermot won me a banana moon in one of the carnival games.
Dermot and I were sick anyway, we were both fighting colds. So the rest was well needed. We ate at some local Salzburg restuarants, in particular the first night with some American ladies. We talked about politics and we exchanged travel tips. But after the meal and one beer each we headed back to the hotel to watch Austrian television and eat some Austrian pastries in that big cozy bed.
And so on for the next two nights. So thank goodness for Salzberg. I really enjoyed the luxury of clean towels and tv and leaving my bag unpacked the entire time.
Off to Vienna!
We arrived and found our hostel with little hassle. When we checked in and went up to our rooms it began. Ashlea from Melbourne, Australia was in the room already and we said we'd all head out together to get our first impression of Vienna. We strolled around this expansive, gorgeous city. The weather was perfect, hot even. We found the tourist information center and booked walking tours for the following day. And rest assured in that fact, we headed to the pub. Our first Australian pub in Vienna, Crossfields. We ordered at the bar the local brew while Ashlea ordered a Fosters. Then we noticed some seats had cleared in the corner of the pub. We asked the lads sitting there where these seats free and they said no. Haha, joking. Way to break the ice Ben. So that's how we met brothers Ben and Sam from Noosa, Australia. We found out that by chance we we're all staying in the same hostel, West End. Ben and Sam wanted to go back to the hostel to freshen up because they had been in the pub all day, so me, Dermot, and Ashlea downed our beers and we headed across Vienna in the dark to our hostel. Ben tried to join a pub crawl, but we think it was a funeral. Sam led the way and was our tour guide. He showed us Van Gogh's cathedral where Mozart won his first music competition. Eventually Ashlea asked a local where we could get a train back to our hostel, and we were officially on our way.
The second pub that night was Wombat's hostel bar called the Wombar. Don't really remember much else of that night, the pitchers of beer were so cheap, we met a stationed army man from the US named Fred who tried to get with Ashlea, but she was afraid of his... hahaha...
We ended up in KFC anyway. Like Sam said, every man must know where the nearest KFC is. We devoured a party bucket like starved cannibals. And so began the cult of KFC. We exchanged numbers and said we'd meet up tomorrow afternoon sometime. Dermot and I were going on the walking tour while all the Australians were getting up at half 5 in the morning to watch the Footy... or the equivalent to the super bowl.
Dermot and I paid for the most lackluster of walking tours. Plus we were the youngest people on the tour by 20 years. We got some good pictures, heard about Mozart, visited some places that made crisp apple strudel, but that was about it.
I'm going back to Vienna to do it proper, it's second in history and beauty only to Rome. You know, go see a symphony or something...
Anyway, we met up with Ashlea and our new KFC cult inductee Vinod from Alaska. Cue the Sarah Palin jokes and we were off to meet up with Ben and Sam at another Australian pub The Travel Shack. Carol from Perth, Australia, another girl in our room who looks like Nicole Kidman came along as well. Waggawagga (another girl from Australia, it's not her name, it's where she's from but we all forgot her name and decided to call her Waggawagga for the rest of the trip) said she'd meet us there.
There are no kangaroos in Austria but there sure were alot of Australians.
I fucking love Australians.
We got sloppy at the Travel Shack. Extra strong Australian wine and steins full of strong German beer helped. We all got along like long lost friends. We crawled back to our hostel in each others drunken arms, but not until we got some KFC.
The next morning we said we'd all get together again and try to see some sights. Sam said it was the second time in 24 hours that he'd woken up hungover. Waggawagga led the way, she was studying history in Austria. So for a good hour or so we were the proper tourists.
We lost Waggawagga around the statue of Maria Theresia, so we made up some stories ourselves. Maria Theresia the Kebabslayer. Her one hand rules the world, the second is outstretched saying you there, go get me a kebab, with extra garlic sauce. The cult of KFC then began kebabs for Christ. It was hysterical, trust me.
Around half 11 we decided that we'd had enough of sightseeing so we went back to Crossfields we were had met and ate and drank for a few hours. Then Vinod wanted to go see some more sights, so we let him. Ben and Vinod left for Beethoven's grave while Sam, Dermot, Carol, Ashlea, and myself headed to Flanagan's Irish pub where we sat outside in the sun. Some very colorful conversations later Ben and Vinod came back, we headed inside the pub and ate some dinner.
Then we headed to Wombar again for the funnest night ever. We took full advantage of the two happy hours and the barman pouring shots of Jägermeister into our mouths. We danced ourselves into oblivion. The Wombar had the best music ever. The guys behind the bar playing the music knew that the majority of the customers drinking there tonight were Australian so he fed into it. AcDc ruled the airways. We all screamed TNT OI! OI! OI!
We managed to crawl home, but not together. We were all leaving the next day at different hours of the morning. We hugged like little girls and said we'll all meet up again someday. I hope that's true. Dermot and I could really use some of that free room and board promised to us at so many occasions during that weekend.
Best. weekend. ever.
All the pictures have been updated. We've been in Slovenia for the last 3 days. Beautiful, peaceful, and cheap. We were told not to go to the main city, so we've been around Lake Bled in a wonderful hostel... full of Australians.
And for the record, here is our new, improved Itinerary
Slovenia
Lake Bled
Croatia
Zagreb
Serbia
Belgrade
Bulgaria
Sofia
Romania
Bucharest
Transylvania
Hungary
Budapest
Slovakia
Bratislava
Czech Republic
Prague
Poland
Krakow
Warsaw
Germany
Berlin
Then fly to New Zealand.
Tomorrow, we head to Zagreb, Croatia.
No worries!
Not to diminish the people we met there, but holy hell, it got better.
Salzburg was great, I mean, the hotel was great. And that's where we spent most of our time. We had a bit of trouble finding the place, but what else is new. We came to the corner of where our supposed hostel should be, but all we saw was a 4 star hotel. We looked at our hostelworld.com print out and saw that it was in fact where we were going to be staying for the next 3 nights. Unfreakingbelievable.
It had a huge cozy bed, clean linens, a private shower... a tv!! Since the tour was expensive and Dermot had never even seen the Sound of Music anyway, we saw downtown Salzburg in half a day. Beautiful city, but tiny in comparison. There was a festival going on downtown which was a real treat to see the people of Salzburg out in force and celebrating their culture. We ate some of the local goodies. And Dermot won me a banana moon in one of the carnival games.
Dermot and I were sick anyway, we were both fighting colds. So the rest was well needed. We ate at some local Salzburg restuarants, in particular the first night with some American ladies. We talked about politics and we exchanged travel tips. But after the meal and one beer each we headed back to the hotel to watch Austrian television and eat some Austrian pastries in that big cozy bed.
And so on for the next two nights. So thank goodness for Salzberg. I really enjoyed the luxury of clean towels and tv and leaving my bag unpacked the entire time.
Off to Vienna!
We arrived and found our hostel with little hassle. When we checked in and went up to our rooms it began. Ashlea from Melbourne, Australia was in the room already and we said we'd all head out together to get our first impression of Vienna. We strolled around this expansive, gorgeous city. The weather was perfect, hot even. We found the tourist information center and booked walking tours for the following day. And rest assured in that fact, we headed to the pub. Our first Australian pub in Vienna, Crossfields. We ordered at the bar the local brew while Ashlea ordered a Fosters. Then we noticed some seats had cleared in the corner of the pub. We asked the lads sitting there where these seats free and they said no. Haha, joking. Way to break the ice Ben. So that's how we met brothers Ben and Sam from Noosa, Australia. We found out that by chance we we're all staying in the same hostel, West End. Ben and Sam wanted to go back to the hostel to freshen up because they had been in the pub all day, so me, Dermot, and Ashlea downed our beers and we headed across Vienna in the dark to our hostel. Ben tried to join a pub crawl, but we think it was a funeral. Sam led the way and was our tour guide. He showed us Van Gogh's cathedral where Mozart won his first music competition. Eventually Ashlea asked a local where we could get a train back to our hostel, and we were officially on our way.
The second pub that night was Wombat's hostel bar called the Wombar. Don't really remember much else of that night, the pitchers of beer were so cheap, we met a stationed army man from the US named Fred who tried to get with Ashlea, but she was afraid of his... hahaha...
We ended up in KFC anyway. Like Sam said, every man must know where the nearest KFC is. We devoured a party bucket like starved cannibals. And so began the cult of KFC. We exchanged numbers and said we'd meet up tomorrow afternoon sometime. Dermot and I were going on the walking tour while all the Australians were getting up at half 5 in the morning to watch the Footy... or the equivalent to the super bowl.
Dermot and I paid for the most lackluster of walking tours. Plus we were the youngest people on the tour by 20 years. We got some good pictures, heard about Mozart, visited some places that made crisp apple strudel, but that was about it.
I'm going back to Vienna to do it proper, it's second in history and beauty only to Rome. You know, go see a symphony or something...
Anyway, we met up with Ashlea and our new KFC cult inductee Vinod from Alaska. Cue the Sarah Palin jokes and we were off to meet up with Ben and Sam at another Australian pub The Travel Shack. Carol from Perth, Australia, another girl in our room who looks like Nicole Kidman came along as well. Waggawagga (another girl from Australia, it's not her name, it's where she's from but we all forgot her name and decided to call her Waggawagga for the rest of the trip) said she'd meet us there.
There are no kangaroos in Austria but there sure were alot of Australians.
I fucking love Australians.
We got sloppy at the Travel Shack. Extra strong Australian wine and steins full of strong German beer helped. We all got along like long lost friends. We crawled back to our hostel in each others drunken arms, but not until we got some KFC.
The next morning we said we'd all get together again and try to see some sights. Sam said it was the second time in 24 hours that he'd woken up hungover. Waggawagga led the way, she was studying history in Austria. So for a good hour or so we were the proper tourists.
We lost Waggawagga around the statue of Maria Theresia, so we made up some stories ourselves. Maria Theresia the Kebabslayer. Her one hand rules the world, the second is outstretched saying you there, go get me a kebab, with extra garlic sauce. The cult of KFC then began kebabs for Christ. It was hysterical, trust me.
Around half 11 we decided that we'd had enough of sightseeing so we went back to Crossfields we were had met and ate and drank for a few hours. Then Vinod wanted to go see some more sights, so we let him. Ben and Vinod left for Beethoven's grave while Sam, Dermot, Carol, Ashlea, and myself headed to Flanagan's Irish pub where we sat outside in the sun. Some very colorful conversations later Ben and Vinod came back, we headed inside the pub and ate some dinner.
Then we headed to Wombar again for the funnest night ever. We took full advantage of the two happy hours and the barman pouring shots of Jägermeister into our mouths. We danced ourselves into oblivion. The Wombar had the best music ever. The guys behind the bar playing the music knew that the majority of the customers drinking there tonight were Australian so he fed into it. AcDc ruled the airways. We all screamed TNT OI! OI! OI!
We managed to crawl home, but not together. We were all leaving the next day at different hours of the morning. We hugged like little girls and said we'll all meet up again someday. I hope that's true. Dermot and I could really use some of that free room and board promised to us at so many occasions during that weekend.
Best. weekend. ever.
All the pictures have been updated. We've been in Slovenia for the last 3 days. Beautiful, peaceful, and cheap. We were told not to go to the main city, so we've been around Lake Bled in a wonderful hostel... full of Australians.
And for the record, here is our new, improved Itinerary
Slovenia
Lake Bled
Croatia
Zagreb
Serbia
Belgrade
Bulgaria
Sofia
Romania
Bucharest
Transylvania
Hungary
Budapest
Slovakia
Bratislava
Czech Republic
Prague
Poland
Krakow
Warsaw
Germany
Berlin
Then fly to New Zealand.
Tomorrow, we head to Zagreb, Croatia.
No worries!
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