Well... I never really got around to writing these final posts and am starting work next Monday so in all likelihood will never be able to write adventures in those great places. But looking back on this trip, besides going to all these places to see the sites, eat the food, taking pictures, more importantly, I have gained a deeper appreciation for life, both good and bad. Freedom of true independence. Being extremely lost, hungry, and tired. Hospitality of strangers. Sheer chaos of an epic party.
It's this appreciation for all of that that I will carry on for the rest of my life, that makes travel so wonderful, when you can really explore. Doing things like forcing myself to meet people I have nothing in common with and gain a mutual understanding over some drinks or a meal. Simply put, overcoming the fear of going into the unknown and having nothing turn out the way you expected it to. But that's a full life of constant adventure and discovery, not perfect or without risk, but full of experiences high and low.
With each trip, you can begin to know more about yourself and learn where your values lie. Because when you're out of your element, removed from a familiar place and people you know, you begin to really think about life and who you are.
"Life is what happens to you while you're busy making other plans." - John Lennon
So plan some, but just keep living, and know that Life Plan A never works out quite exactly as planned.
---
Addendum:
1) A guy I met on this trip is keeping a blog himself, and this fellow nutso is traveling a whole 80 days. I like the points he makes about traveling alone, which I recommend everyone do because it's a whole new travel experience. Some of his words about pros of traveling alone: "Without a doubt, traveling solo is the best way to go. It’s total freedom. Go where you want to go. Do what you want to do.
Feeling lonely? Meeting people is easier when you’re stag. Fellow backpackers going it alone are more approachable. Intrigued by the lone traveler, groups want to take you in like a stray puppy."
2) Also, there is a book I downloaded for free from the Amazon Kindle store and recommend to read if you've been through Europe before. A young traveler back in 1923 visited Europe on a shoestring budget and has some great stories to tell about his passage through Europe. I certainly had a kick reading it.
http://www.amazon.com/How-See-Europe-Cents-ebook/dp/B004T2LKMC
---FB posts I made while in Europe, capturing brief snippets of my journey that my posts may not have---
WARNING: when going to pubs and clubs in Berlin one may 1) finally run into Rice alumni & 2) enjoy dangerous levels of fun with ridiculous characters from around the world.
July 3 at 6:02pm
New level of confusion yesterday when my high-speed train was all of a sudden rocking back and forth on a ferry in the Baltic Sea.
July 1 at 8:31am
heavy thunderstorm while at the beach, skinny dipping in the ocean, and... probably the best 15-minute excursion with 6 strangers i will ever partially remember.
June 28 at 4:14pm
Discovered the perfect cure to a Belgian beer hangover with some very cool ladies from New Brunswick. Now onto eating brownies on beaches outside Amsterdam.
June 28 at 12:29pm via Facebook Mobile
Hopefully will be In Bruges tonight! Don't want to try my traveling luck.
June 27 at 1:59am
Free FUNK concert at La Defense! RER line A. George Clinton FTW.
June 26 at 10:26am
After eating the best tapas in Spain, it is onto Paris! Talia can attest to this. #foodmakesmehappy
June 23 at 2:51pm
Even 45C (113F) weather won't stop me from drinking my mid-day cervezas!
June 22 at 8:02am
Finished a 3.5 hour free walking tour. Saw giant group of pre-teen girls crowding a black SUV in front of a nice hotel, big bodyguards, and then celeb popped out. He was rushed into hotel. Clueless to who it was, I asked one of the few girls who wasn't crying. It was a Jonas Brother...
June 20 at 7:33am
Got out of the train station. Pulled into a massive swarm of people protesting for the next two hours. Found my hostel. Welcome to Madrid!
June 19 at 7:50am
Jam session with strangers from Morocco, France, Britain, Canada/Mexico, Cameroon, a drunk dog, and Mary. Another fantastic night on Barcelona beaches, life is truly amazing.
June 17 at 6:38pm
I don't even know how to describe my first 24 hours in Barcelona. Bizarre, awesome, and ridiculous?
June 14 at 11:53pm
España para los próximos 10 días! Emocionado! Barcelona. Madrid. Toledo. Sevilla. Grenada. Y más?
June 14 at 2:35am
Roughing it in Rome. Seriously, sleeping on the ground in a house under reconstruction.
June 4 at 9:47am
So many policemen are out in Athens, it reminds me of Half-Life 2.
June 2 at 9:54am
Crunk in Croatia (Zagreb) and wasted in Vienna. I hope I don't rolf in Rome.
May 28 at 4:05pm
First 8 hours in Budapest yesterday = Took a shot of my host's homemade palinka upon arrival, went to a famous bathhouse and met a bunch of Canadians, got really lost, and saw some of the most breathtaking views of my life (Budapest at night from Gellert).
May 26 at 7:47am
My Austrian hosts are too awesome. Climbed a mountain last weekend and wakeboarding this weekend! #holyshitsoexcited
May 24 at 10:58pm
Loves that they list the weight of your meal in the Czech Republic. 1 kg, please!
May 24 at 9:30am
Off to Salzburg, Prague, Vienna, Budapest and Zagreb! Hopefully, Capital One let's me withdraw my money soon or else I will be broke and homeless in Eastern Europe.
May 21 at 3:44pm
Monday, August 1, 2011
Friday, July 8, 2011
brb
Back in the US of A. Will try to blog about travels after I move to SF in a week.
Content will include
-Why Spain is amazing and life really is a lot different there
-What the hell I did in Spain for so long
-Amsterdam, coffeshops and prostitutes
-Copenhagen
-Hamburg, Germany's Amsterdam
-BERLIN, a very very cool city
-Frankfurt
-might elaborate on Florence or try to fill in stories here and there, but that should about cover everything!
Content will include
-Why Spain is amazing and life really is a lot different there
-What the hell I did in Spain for so long
-Amsterdam, coffeshops and prostitutes
-Copenhagen
-Hamburg, Germany's Amsterdam
-BERLIN, a very very cool city
-Frankfurt
-might elaborate on Florence or try to fill in stories here and there, but that should about cover everything!
Wednesday, July 6, 2011
nude in the NETHERLANDS
Awesome! Get to use my sis’s laptop and thereby, type on a keyboard. Hallelujah.
---
Addendum to Bruges post: I didn’t elaborate much when discussing the bike riding in Bruges. If any of you have been in Amsterdam, it was like that minus the trams and EVERYONE being high.
1) what you have as your death vehicle are these big Dutch bikes, with high seats and handlebars, and if they were armored they’d be one-person tanks.
2) you are riding around cobblestone streets which are choppy enough, but then you have these roads where big trucks are driving on all the time as well as other bikers, hordes of tourists, fancy cars (I managed to see someone driving an Aston Martin). So, you are clinging to that 6” between the road and the high curb of the sidewalk that is meant for drainage.
3) there are moats and other hazards to avoid as well
---
Back to the story. After a great day in Bruges with the ladies from New Brunswick, I decided it was time to head to Noordwijk before it got too late and I definitely didn’t want to check-in much later than 10 PM. I didn’t mention but some of the Belgian locals were VERY nice and I managed to have some short conversations with them. The scariest thing that can happen to you minus those really bad things, I need not name, is passing out. Who the hell knows what could happen to you or your stuff if you passed out somewhere. Only happened to me once in Switzerland, but it was Switzerland so I didn’t have much to worry about. Almost happened in Italy in a village at about 11 PM, that could have been pretty bad. The trains took a little while, but I don’t remember having too much trouble with the trains out of there. Maybe I have developed some kind of travel selective memory though. Anyways, got into Leiden Central and hopped aboard Bus 40 or 44 which would take me to Noordwijk which was about 50 minutes away. At 4EU it was a pretty pricey ticket, but alas Northern Europe is very expensive. Just sat there not thinking about much, just gazing out the window and remembering to look for a lighthouse and get off at whatever stop that was closest too.
At about 9 PM, I finally got to the Lighthouse Square with the very obvious lighthouse and the beach just beyond it. There it was, the Flying Pig Beach Hostel. I had booked it because the Amsterdam downtown Flying Pig Beach Hostel (one of Europe’s “Famous Hostels) was full and I figured it would have great service as well being under the same brand. Plus, I wanted some time outside the cities especially after having just been in Paris. Anyways, got to the counter and met Leo who was working the bar/reception (who Nick – a guy I met in Madrid had told me lots about during our random group’s big night out in that awesome city). There were a bunch of people in the smoke room in the back beyond the counter, smoking (joints and cigs alike, remember this is the Netherlands), and playing some drinking games.
Back to Leo, here was this 6’4” tall beach bum with dreads, he was incredibly lanky and kind of looked like a dinosaur, who had the exact personality of Leo from That 70s Show, the big hippie/stoner who “runs” the record shop. After chilling and talking to Leo who asked me about my travels thus far, I figured it was time for a big beer and to drop my stuff off in the room (a 12-bed dorm in the basement).
After dropping off my stuff and picking up my beers, I went to go mingle in the smoke room. Quickly I was pulled into the drinking game by Ari, quick talking heavily tattooed Italian-American from New York who had been living in LA studying to be a lawyer representing celebs but was now bumming around at the hostel for a few months. He was introducing me to a bunch of people including this Brazilian girl who he told to give me a kiss. Alas, that did not happen but drunk Ari decided to give me a kiss on the cheek since she didn’t. The game looked like Ring of Fire with a bunch of cards stacked on a mug of beer in the middle on which we had to stack the card that we drew from the ring around the base. It definitely was some variation of the game as I heard things like Question Master, but there were a bunch of different rules and also pretty much everyone was without some article of clothing. Anyways, within 5 minutes of playing my shirt and shorts were gone, taken by the girl from Canada who was the ‘Confiscator.’ Also gone was the dress of the blonde Australian girl sitting next to me, who was attractive but way too slutty for my tastes plus Ari was groping her which was off-putting too. 15 minutes later they were making out. After a few more rounds in the game it was my turn again and I pulled my card and did whatever you were supposed to do when you pulled and managed to put it on the pile above the mug with two edges off and not sticking it under any other cards. Someone, I swear, hit the table a few seconds later and the pile fell off the mug, thus I had to chug the thing. Kept going around meeting people, drinking, passing blunts and so forth. So, a number of drinks and joints into the night I was high and drunk. Met a bunch more characters that night, and Tom would fill me in on everyone’s backstory tomorrow. Went out to the porch for a bit to chat with the Brazilian girl about going to Carnaval. Got some more tips and it was again reinforced that I should go to Salvador Bahia for the REAL Carnaval. It started to sprinkle to see we all headed indoors. I had reserved the shuttle for 9 AM in the morning into town so I figured I should drink some water and call it a night. Went to the communal computer to check some mail as I was getting some water in me.
After I finished the glass and logged off, I was thinking fuck it, I really should check out the beach. Ran downstairs to grab my flipflops, and saw Ari coming out of the staff room which was linked to the giant dorm looking for something, probably a condom. Had seen him take the Aussie girl down a little while before. There were a few more hookups that night as was obvious in the morning. There were a couple of other easy and attractive “pulls” as Ari put it that night, but perhaps having somewhat of a conscious, I don’t think any guys went after them. Went back up after grabbing my flipflops, returned the glass to the bar and out the window I saw a small group of people heading out, so I ran off to go to the beach with them. We got acquainted on the 2-minute walk to the beach, some siblings from Ireland, a couple of Noordwijk locals, a Finnish guy, and a few others in the mix. I think between all of us we had some beers, a bottle of wine, portable speaker+iPod, and some joints, don’t really remember too well. Anyways, we sat down for a few minutes and chilled watching the waves break with a light coming from our backs from this shack that looked like it would be a bar during the day. I think we were talking about touching the Baltic Sea just to say we did? We started to hear thunder and saw lightning in the distance. It was quite an amazing scene. Anyways, before I knew what was going one of the girls had taken off her dress and bra, telling the Finnish guy to watch her stuff and was running out to the ocean. I thought she still had her panties on, but upon second look it was confirmed that would be that those would have to be some miraculous panties that could stay on without anything gripping onto the hips. It started to sprinkle again at this point and some people started to head for cover. The Irish girl kept her underwear on but headed out as well. I don’t really have any qualms with getting naked, I think having done Baker 13, gone to a number of onsens in Japan, is probably testament to that. So I went. Running into the ocean was pretty liberating, but I have got to say the way the sky looked, the way the headlight hit the beach, it was really beautiful. It started to rain pretty heavily at this point and thunder a bit more so after being out at sea I decided it was time to head back, grab my clothes, put them on and run like hell to the hostel. It was getting pretty cold out in the rain. Couldn’t find the others but headed back with the guy from Noordwijk. Probably had some conversation about life in Noordwijk or just life, but some time later made it back all soaked and with sand in my shorts.
Despite all these guys sleeping in the room, including two Indian guys (so out of place) who were in town for an academic conference at the fancy hotel in the plaza but couldn’t afford accommodations there, I am sure I made plenty of noise getting cleaned up and into bed only to get up a few hours later to go into town. Also, I laughed when I realized the bottom bunk bed that was set up that was set up like a fortress, having blankets draped all around the sides belonged to the Fremont, Cali high school grad with the hot girlfriend who was half Natalie Portman and half Katie Holmes. Dunno how that ever happened, apparently they had met while traveling.
Took a quick shower and hung my clothes on the edges of my bed to dry. Regardless, would find sand in my bed the next morning.
First night in Noordwijk.
---
Addendum to Bruges post: I didn’t elaborate much when discussing the bike riding in Bruges. If any of you have been in Amsterdam, it was like that minus the trams and EVERYONE being high.
1) what you have as your death vehicle are these big Dutch bikes, with high seats and handlebars, and if they were armored they’d be one-person tanks.
2) you are riding around cobblestone streets which are choppy enough, but then you have these roads where big trucks are driving on all the time as well as other bikers, hordes of tourists, fancy cars (I managed to see someone driving an Aston Martin). So, you are clinging to that 6” between the road and the high curb of the sidewalk that is meant for drainage.
3) there are moats and other hazards to avoid as well
---
Back to the story. After a great day in Bruges with the ladies from New Brunswick, I decided it was time to head to Noordwijk before it got too late and I definitely didn’t want to check-in much later than 10 PM. I didn’t mention but some of the Belgian locals were VERY nice and I managed to have some short conversations with them. The scariest thing that can happen to you minus those really bad things, I need not name, is passing out. Who the hell knows what could happen to you or your stuff if you passed out somewhere. Only happened to me once in Switzerland, but it was Switzerland so I didn’t have much to worry about. Almost happened in Italy in a village at about 11 PM, that could have been pretty bad. The trains took a little while, but I don’t remember having too much trouble with the trains out of there. Maybe I have developed some kind of travel selective memory though. Anyways, got into Leiden Central and hopped aboard Bus 40 or 44 which would take me to Noordwijk which was about 50 minutes away. At 4EU it was a pretty pricey ticket, but alas Northern Europe is very expensive. Just sat there not thinking about much, just gazing out the window and remembering to look for a lighthouse and get off at whatever stop that was closest too.
At about 9 PM, I finally got to the Lighthouse Square with the very obvious lighthouse and the beach just beyond it. There it was, the Flying Pig Beach Hostel. I had booked it because the Amsterdam downtown Flying Pig Beach Hostel (one of Europe’s “Famous Hostels) was full and I figured it would have great service as well being under the same brand. Plus, I wanted some time outside the cities especially after having just been in Paris. Anyways, got to the counter and met Leo who was working the bar/reception (who Nick – a guy I met in Madrid had told me lots about during our random group’s big night out in that awesome city). There were a bunch of people in the smoke room in the back beyond the counter, smoking (joints and cigs alike, remember this is the Netherlands), and playing some drinking games.
Back to Leo, here was this 6’4” tall beach bum with dreads, he was incredibly lanky and kind of looked like a dinosaur, who had the exact personality of Leo from That 70s Show, the big hippie/stoner who “runs” the record shop. After chilling and talking to Leo who asked me about my travels thus far, I figured it was time for a big beer and to drop my stuff off in the room (a 12-bed dorm in the basement).
After dropping off my stuff and picking up my beers, I went to go mingle in the smoke room. Quickly I was pulled into the drinking game by Ari, quick talking heavily tattooed Italian-American from New York who had been living in LA studying to be a lawyer representing celebs but was now bumming around at the hostel for a few months. He was introducing me to a bunch of people including this Brazilian girl who he told to give me a kiss. Alas, that did not happen but drunk Ari decided to give me a kiss on the cheek since she didn’t. The game looked like Ring of Fire with a bunch of cards stacked on a mug of beer in the middle on which we had to stack the card that we drew from the ring around the base. It definitely was some variation of the game as I heard things like Question Master, but there were a bunch of different rules and also pretty much everyone was without some article of clothing. Anyways, within 5 minutes of playing my shirt and shorts were gone, taken by the girl from Canada who was the ‘Confiscator.’ Also gone was the dress of the blonde Australian girl sitting next to me, who was attractive but way too slutty for my tastes plus Ari was groping her which was off-putting too. 15 minutes later they were making out. After a few more rounds in the game it was my turn again and I pulled my card and did whatever you were supposed to do when you pulled and managed to put it on the pile above the mug with two edges off and not sticking it under any other cards. Someone, I swear, hit the table a few seconds later and the pile fell off the mug, thus I had to chug the thing. Kept going around meeting people, drinking, passing blunts and so forth. So, a number of drinks and joints into the night I was high and drunk. Met a bunch more characters that night, and Tom would fill me in on everyone’s backstory tomorrow. Went out to the porch for a bit to chat with the Brazilian girl about going to Carnaval. Got some more tips and it was again reinforced that I should go to Salvador Bahia for the REAL Carnaval. It started to sprinkle to see we all headed indoors. I had reserved the shuttle for 9 AM in the morning into town so I figured I should drink some water and call it a night. Went to the communal computer to check some mail as I was getting some water in me.
After I finished the glass and logged off, I was thinking fuck it, I really should check out the beach. Ran downstairs to grab my flipflops, and saw Ari coming out of the staff room which was linked to the giant dorm looking for something, probably a condom. Had seen him take the Aussie girl down a little while before. There were a few more hookups that night as was obvious in the morning. There were a couple of other easy and attractive “pulls” as Ari put it that night, but perhaps having somewhat of a conscious, I don’t think any guys went after them. Went back up after grabbing my flipflops, returned the glass to the bar and out the window I saw a small group of people heading out, so I ran off to go to the beach with them. We got acquainted on the 2-minute walk to the beach, some siblings from Ireland, a couple of Noordwijk locals, a Finnish guy, and a few others in the mix. I think between all of us we had some beers, a bottle of wine, portable speaker+iPod, and some joints, don’t really remember too well. Anyways, we sat down for a few minutes and chilled watching the waves break with a light coming from our backs from this shack that looked like it would be a bar during the day. I think we were talking about touching the Baltic Sea just to say we did? We started to hear thunder and saw lightning in the distance. It was quite an amazing scene. Anyways, before I knew what was going one of the girls had taken off her dress and bra, telling the Finnish guy to watch her stuff and was running out to the ocean. I thought she still had her panties on, but upon second look it was confirmed that would be that those would have to be some miraculous panties that could stay on without anything gripping onto the hips. It started to sprinkle again at this point and some people started to head for cover. The Irish girl kept her underwear on but headed out as well. I don’t really have any qualms with getting naked, I think having done Baker 13, gone to a number of onsens in Japan, is probably testament to that. So I went. Running into the ocean was pretty liberating, but I have got to say the way the sky looked, the way the headlight hit the beach, it was really beautiful. It started to rain pretty heavily at this point and thunder a bit more so after being out at sea I decided it was time to head back, grab my clothes, put them on and run like hell to the hostel. It was getting pretty cold out in the rain. Couldn’t find the others but headed back with the guy from Noordwijk. Probably had some conversation about life in Noordwijk or just life, but some time later made it back all soaked and with sand in my shorts.
Despite all these guys sleeping in the room, including two Indian guys (so out of place) who were in town for an academic conference at the fancy hotel in the plaza but couldn’t afford accommodations there, I am sure I made plenty of noise getting cleaned up and into bed only to get up a few hours later to go into town. Also, I laughed when I realized the bottom bunk bed that was set up that was set up like a fortress, having blankets draped all around the sides belonged to the Fremont, Cali high school grad with the hot girlfriend who was half Natalie Portman and half Katie Holmes. Dunno how that ever happened, apparently they had met while traveling.
Took a quick shower and hung my clothes on the edges of my bed to dry. Regardless, would find sand in my bed the next morning.
First night in Noordwijk.
Tuesday, July 5, 2011
Sex, drugs, and alcohol
Noordwijk, Netherlands - Flying Pig Beach Hostel. Truly one of craziest little places on this planet. Stay posted.
I know my past few posts have been shit, so I will try to redeem myself on this one.
I know my past few posts have been shit, so I will try to redeem myself on this one.
Saturday, July 2, 2011
Random
I hate bread.
Boccadillos, babirusas, toast, whatever. So annoying to eat it all the time in provided breakfasts, as a way to stave off hunger, etc. Can't wait to get back to the states and go back to a protein heavy diet plus fresh veggies and fruits. Nom.
Surprisingly haven't gained much weight on this trip, just a little. I think it is due to the fact I walk on average 6 miles every day, no exaggeration. Maybe the minimal sleep thing too.
---
Smart traveler
More and more I have inherited the role of travel consultant. Helping other tourists find places to go, recommending places to eat, how to save money, some historical background on buildings, and so on. Also navigating groups when we are all drunk as hell and it's 4 am.
The time for me to become familiar with a city has gone down from 2 days to an afternoon. Usually the first day I get I will walk all the way across town to get familiar, be it Prague, Paris, or Barcelona as well as do an extensive walking tour. I like getting familiar with then area around the hostels for the markets, goings-on in the streets and so on. See what events are going on.
Boccadillos, babirusas, toast, whatever. So annoying to eat it all the time in provided breakfasts, as a way to stave off hunger, etc. Can't wait to get back to the states and go back to a protein heavy diet plus fresh veggies and fruits. Nom.
Surprisingly haven't gained much weight on this trip, just a little. I think it is due to the fact I walk on average 6 miles every day, no exaggeration. Maybe the minimal sleep thing too.
---
Smart traveler
More and more I have inherited the role of travel consultant. Helping other tourists find places to go, recommending places to eat, how to save money, some historical background on buildings, and so on. Also navigating groups when we are all drunk as hell and it's 4 am.
The time for me to become familiar with a city has gone down from 2 days to an afternoon. Usually the first day I get I will walk all the way across town to get familiar, be it Prague, Paris, or Barcelona as well as do an extensive walking tour. I like getting familiar with then area around the hostels for the markets, goings-on in the streets and so on. See what events are going on.
An observation
Unamerican?
I realize I really like British, Canadian, German, and Aussie travelers way more than most of the Americans I have met. Especially, Canadians, seriously they are the coolest by far and I have met so many more of them than Americans or anyone else.
Also, I am coming to appreciate the normal parts of culture rather than all the sites and other touristic things. Like in Paris, I went to the store bought some beers and went out to the park to go mingle. What I found was a community gathering with a funky local jazz band playing some pretty innovative music I hadn't really heard anything similar to before, old French ladies breaking it down doing some variation of the robot, sat down with some locals and shared some wine and hung around for another 30 minutes or so because I was really digging the music. Made my way out to go to the subway station to head a bit out of town for the big jazz festival, but before I even got into the subway stop a street performer caught my attention.
Then again that might just be me, where I don't like getting too comfortable anywhere doing the same old, never having to figure things out like you do you when you are in a different culture. When there is struggle to communicate it can feel like quite an achievement, and I am always a fan of cultural exchange. There is some adventure and excitement to be had when you are lost. Plus it is almost always hilarious when you bust out something in bad German, French, etc.
I was listening to a Rick Steves bit - interview of David Sedaris about living in Paris - and I was really feeling the same way he did. He started living outside of the States after 40 years there to work on some of his latest work and he talked about putting a new "observer" lens when you are out of your home culture you have been and just see much more of what is going around you.
I realize I really like British, Canadian, German, and Aussie travelers way more than most of the Americans I have met. Especially, Canadians, seriously they are the coolest by far and I have met so many more of them than Americans or anyone else.
Also, I am coming to appreciate the normal parts of culture rather than all the sites and other touristic things. Like in Paris, I went to the store bought some beers and went out to the park to go mingle. What I found was a community gathering with a funky local jazz band playing some pretty innovative music I hadn't really heard anything similar to before, old French ladies breaking it down doing some variation of the robot, sat down with some locals and shared some wine and hung around for another 30 minutes or so because I was really digging the music. Made my way out to go to the subway station to head a bit out of town for the big jazz festival, but before I even got into the subway stop a street performer caught my attention.
Then again that might just be me, where I don't like getting too comfortable anywhere doing the same old, never having to figure things out like you do you when you are in a different culture. When there is struggle to communicate it can feel like quite an achievement, and I am always a fan of cultural exchange. There is some adventure and excitement to be had when you are lost. Plus it is almost always hilarious when you bust out something in bad German, French, etc.
I was listening to a Rick Steves bit - interview of David Sedaris about living in Paris - and I was really feeling the same way he did. He started living outside of the States after 40 years there to work on some of his latest work and he talked about putting a new "observer" lens when you are out of your home culture you have been and just see much more of what is going around you.
In Bruges
Bruges
A great 24 hours here. Trains (Paris-Bruges with 2 connections) were a colossalfuck again but forget that I got there 7 hours later than anticipated (full trains - more like the French railways only allow a limited number of EuRail + a train ahead of us breaking down). Also it has been very hot in the past few days, so everyone was a sweaty messy. Also, when we got into the station there were all these emergency workers with a hydration station, some stretchers and people running about, couldn't really figure what all the hullabaloo was all about.
When I got into Bruges jumped on the bus and took it to Marketsquare, did some roaming but got into Snuffek hostel without much ado and decided to just go find some food and grab some Belgian, preferably Trappist beer.
Walking around I found a restaurant after a while. This 50s style burger place. I don't know what the sauce was or what exactly the patties were but it was delicious. One of the best burgers I have ever had. Went around to find a liquor/grocery store to find some beer, so I picked up some Westmalle 9%, it was a solid find. Drank some before taking a much needed shower and when I came back down I sat down with the cute Canadian girls who were talking with the Australian guy. Already felt a bit tipsy because of lack of sleep and not much to eat that day. They were a very friendly group and in no time we were talking about just about everything and sharing plenty of laughs. Learned even more about Canadian culture, since they were from New Brunswick and on the trip I had learned plenty from people from Ontario, Toronto, Vancouver and of course, Montreal.
Three of the girls and the Aussie guy had the 5 drink combo for 10 euro: Duvel, westmaue doppel, ... So, everyone was drunk. Keep in mind Belgian beers are strong 6-10% usually. Some even stronger, 12% ones. The four girl kept having cherry and raspberry beers that were actually really good. I will go on unnaming them because I may or may not have fallen in love with the beautiful blonde and may one day convince her to move to Cali ;-)
I just got the happy hour beer (Maes) a few times which was really sweet and tasted like honey and Palms. The girls didn't like some of the stronger liquid bread so I drank for them, of course being the gentleman I am. We were having lots of fun and good convo so before we knew it, it was really late. We were all in the large dorm Rm 21 together, We got back into the room at 3am... causing as little noise as we could... yeah right. I had gotten in pretty late... So my bed had a folded sheetset, so I just unfolded them once and lay on top. Simply trying to cover the mattress in some fashion. No way was I going to make my bed drunk and tired as I was.
Abandoning my original plan to get into Amsterdam early and have a silly day in and out of coffeeshops and the Red Light District before I went to Noordwijk and the beach hostel, I decided to tag along with them biking around town the next day and whatever else until the late afternoon when I would head out. They were really great company, so it was definitely the right decision.
Anyways, the next day we all woke up early with hangovers except the girl who had the 4 fruit beers. I had to check out but we had all also reserved bikes for the day which we had to pick up by 10 am. Together we discovered that the cure to a Belgian beer hangover is biking around town, Belgian fries, and Belgian chocolate. Really worked wonders. We went to both the fry museum and chocolate museum, so we learned all about what went into both. Bruges definitely had its charm.
Fairly warm afternoon when I left... Onto Noordwijk about 30 km outside Amsterdam on the beach.
A great 24 hours here. Trains (Paris-Bruges with 2 connections) were a colossalfuck again but forget that I got there 7 hours later than anticipated (full trains - more like the French railways only allow a limited number of EuRail + a train ahead of us breaking down). Also it has been very hot in the past few days, so everyone was a sweaty messy. Also, when we got into the station there were all these emergency workers with a hydration station, some stretchers and people running about, couldn't really figure what all the hullabaloo was all about.
When I got into Bruges jumped on the bus and took it to Marketsquare, did some roaming but got into Snuffek hostel without much ado and decided to just go find some food and grab some Belgian, preferably Trappist beer.
Walking around I found a restaurant after a while. This 50s style burger place. I don't know what the sauce was or what exactly the patties were but it was delicious. One of the best burgers I have ever had. Went around to find a liquor/grocery store to find some beer, so I picked up some Westmalle 9%, it was a solid find. Drank some before taking a much needed shower and when I came back down I sat down with the cute Canadian girls who were talking with the Australian guy. Already felt a bit tipsy because of lack of sleep and not much to eat that day. They were a very friendly group and in no time we were talking about just about everything and sharing plenty of laughs. Learned even more about Canadian culture, since they were from New Brunswick and on the trip I had learned plenty from people from Ontario, Toronto, Vancouver and of course, Montreal.
Three of the girls and the Aussie guy had the 5 drink combo for 10 euro: Duvel, westmaue doppel, ... So, everyone was drunk. Keep in mind Belgian beers are strong 6-10% usually. Some even stronger, 12% ones. The four girl kept having cherry and raspberry beers that were actually really good. I will go on unnaming them because I may or may not have fallen in love with the beautiful blonde and may one day convince her to move to Cali ;-)
I just got the happy hour beer (Maes) a few times which was really sweet and tasted like honey and Palms. The girls didn't like some of the stronger liquid bread so I drank for them, of course being the gentleman I am. We were having lots of fun and good convo so before we knew it, it was really late. We were all in the large dorm Rm 21 together, We got back into the room at 3am... causing as little noise as we could... yeah right. I had gotten in pretty late... So my bed had a folded sheetset, so I just unfolded them once and lay on top. Simply trying to cover the mattress in some fashion. No way was I going to make my bed drunk and tired as I was.
Abandoning my original plan to get into Amsterdam early and have a silly day in and out of coffeeshops and the Red Light District before I went to Noordwijk and the beach hostel, I decided to tag along with them biking around town the next day and whatever else until the late afternoon when I would head out. They were really great company, so it was definitely the right decision.
Anyways, the next day we all woke up early with hangovers except the girl who had the 4 fruit beers. I had to check out but we had all also reserved bikes for the day which we had to pick up by 10 am. Together we discovered that the cure to a Belgian beer hangover is biking around town, Belgian fries, and Belgian chocolate. Really worked wonders. We went to both the fry museum and chocolate museum, so we learned all about what went into both. Bruges definitely had its charm.
Fairly warm afternoon when I left... Onto Noordwijk about 30 km outside Amsterdam on the beach.
I love Switzerland
Stayed in Bern the first night. Got in way late because of all the delays getting out Italy. Christ, I was so happy to get out of that country after Florence. Tourist traps, lines, delays abound. Fire on the tracks, thus I had to switch trains about 3 times. Lost my light blue Express jacket and some peaches in the process. I bet whoever found that was extremely confused. It was during one of these switches I could have been very screwed, literally having nothing but the clothes on my back.
In love with this country. Really, I could live here for a very long time. The one thing is though... I feel like I have no money aka poor. The Swiss franc = 1.25 USD or so, but whatevet that is the exchange rate. more significantly everything is 2-3 times the price in the States. Can you say $20 for a big Mac meal at McD's? No joke. Even all the other Europeans I have met say the same.
Anyways, got in late into Bern. Immaculate tram system. Brand new, clean, etc. It is damn near futuristic. So happy I didn't have to worry about wandering around at night, getting pick pocketed, and so on. Also, bunch of party animals toting alcohol and getting wasted on the trams.
Delia was extremely welcoming when I found their pad. She is truly remarkable knowing about 5 languages, just finished a 1.5 year trip around the world, among other things. Oh yeah, also great cook. Heated up some of this corn bread-pizza stuff which I have long forgotten the name of... Really felt like we were old friends catching up. She is officially the most expert South American traveler I have met, so I will be talking to her about my future travels (hopefully next February) in Peru and Brazil.
We all got up around 11 because of the drinking (of a popular Nicaraguan drink which was basically OJ and rum, which I would never think to do in a million years), smoking (I have smoked a few times on this trip whenever everyone else is which is all the time and I feel like it which is only some of the time) , and convos late into the night. Had an awesome Swiss breakfast with fancy breads and sausages. Walked into town for a brief tour. Gorgeous view from Rosenplatz on top of a hill. Had beers with Delia and her brother. Great weather and seemed like everyone was out enjoying it. Walked down afterwards to the Biergarten... Too cool. A public park where they had Viennese bears frolicking around by the river. Also, when it is warmer people swim in it. I was tempted too, but it was a little too chilly. A very picturesque scene. Hung around a lot longer than expected. Headed out after returning back to their apartment to grab my stuff.
Got into Interlaken without problems. Thank god.
---
Interlaken = Amazing.
I am sure to return when I have A LOT more money. Canyon jumping, hang gliding, or just hiking and so on.
If you imagined a small touristy city amidst the Alps, this would be it.
Stayed at Balmer's Herbege which is on the list of "Famous Hostels." bumping place with a lot of activity and people to meet. The club gets out of control a lot, so they have some bouncers. Anyways, stefanie mentioned she met the sisters who run the place at a hostel conference.
Talked quite a while with the older American guy in my cabin who had a ton of travel stories. Some of them are pretty good. I was not pleased to know that the guy who had left was uber-drunk last night and couldnt find the bathroom or get out of the room and promptly pissed all over the front door and unfortunately for the guy whose bed was nearest the front door, his backpack as well. Maybe you can hear me retell some of the other storie sometime!
Also interestingly enough there were a million Indian FOBs when I was there, which was out of the blue.
Met some Googlers late that evening, one of whom knew Neil Parikh. Small word. Anyways, we became friends really fast. They shared the same entrepreneurship goals and real passion for life. Guys who wake up every day and think to themselves, "Let's do this shit." will meet up with them in Barcelona and of course in San Francisco.
Told the Johns Hopkins Indian bros about canyoning Chli Schliere the next morning with the AlpinRaft company I heard about while messaging some CouchSurf hosts. One of the girls' dad had worked with that company for a while so it seemed legit enough.
On the note of bros, I swear almost every American guy around the age of 20 I have met in my travels here is the same bro personality. "doing the pub crawl tonight?" "yeah, man go see this, it was awesome." I like that they are having a good time, but their personalities... not so interesting and not very open-minded. I have much preferred meeting a lot of the solo travelers (even more preferably from other countries) on this trip who are always up for trying new things and not being a prototypical tourist.
Anyways, I digress.
---
Canyoning Chli Schliere
Unfucking believably awesome time. see link on FB and watch the video! Every leap of faith and hitting the cold watwas felt like taking a shot of adrenaline. Our guides were a couple of chill Kiwis. Seriously, i have yet to met an uncool Kiwi or Aussie in my life. Cool people on my group. I hung out with the guy who went to Brown and found out he had laundry coins for his hostel which he wouldnt need so i promptly jumoed on the chance to clean all my clothes there.
In love with this country. Really, I could live here for a very long time. The one thing is though... I feel like I have no money aka poor. The Swiss franc = 1.25 USD or so, but whatevet that is the exchange rate. more significantly everything is 2-3 times the price in the States. Can you say $20 for a big Mac meal at McD's? No joke. Even all the other Europeans I have met say the same.
Anyways, got in late into Bern. Immaculate tram system. Brand new, clean, etc. It is damn near futuristic. So happy I didn't have to worry about wandering around at night, getting pick pocketed, and so on. Also, bunch of party animals toting alcohol and getting wasted on the trams.
Delia was extremely welcoming when I found their pad. She is truly remarkable knowing about 5 languages, just finished a 1.5 year trip around the world, among other things. Oh yeah, also great cook. Heated up some of this corn bread-pizza stuff which I have long forgotten the name of... Really felt like we were old friends catching up. She is officially the most expert South American traveler I have met, so I will be talking to her about my future travels (hopefully next February) in Peru and Brazil.
We all got up around 11 because of the drinking (of a popular Nicaraguan drink which was basically OJ and rum, which I would never think to do in a million years), smoking (I have smoked a few times on this trip whenever everyone else is which is all the time and I feel like it which is only some of the time) , and convos late into the night. Had an awesome Swiss breakfast with fancy breads and sausages. Walked into town for a brief tour. Gorgeous view from Rosenplatz on top of a hill. Had beers with Delia and her brother. Great weather and seemed like everyone was out enjoying it. Walked down afterwards to the Biergarten... Too cool. A public park where they had Viennese bears frolicking around by the river. Also, when it is warmer people swim in it. I was tempted too, but it was a little too chilly. A very picturesque scene. Hung around a lot longer than expected. Headed out after returning back to their apartment to grab my stuff.
Got into Interlaken without problems. Thank god.
---
Interlaken = Amazing.
I am sure to return when I have A LOT more money. Canyon jumping, hang gliding, or just hiking and so on.
If you imagined a small touristy city amidst the Alps, this would be it.
Stayed at Balmer's Herbege which is on the list of "Famous Hostels." bumping place with a lot of activity and people to meet. The club gets out of control a lot, so they have some bouncers. Anyways, stefanie mentioned she met the sisters who run the place at a hostel conference.
Talked quite a while with the older American guy in my cabin who had a ton of travel stories. Some of them are pretty good. I was not pleased to know that the guy who had left was uber-drunk last night and couldnt find the bathroom or get out of the room and promptly pissed all over the front door and unfortunately for the guy whose bed was nearest the front door, his backpack as well. Maybe you can hear me retell some of the other storie sometime!
Also interestingly enough there were a million Indian FOBs when I was there, which was out of the blue.
Met some Googlers late that evening, one of whom knew Neil Parikh. Small word. Anyways, we became friends really fast. They shared the same entrepreneurship goals and real passion for life. Guys who wake up every day and think to themselves, "Let's do this shit." will meet up with them in Barcelona and of course in San Francisco.
Told the Johns Hopkins Indian bros about canyoning Chli Schliere the next morning with the AlpinRaft company I heard about while messaging some CouchSurf hosts. One of the girls' dad had worked with that company for a while so it seemed legit enough.
On the note of bros, I swear almost every American guy around the age of 20 I have met in my travels here is the same bro personality. "doing the pub crawl tonight?" "yeah, man go see this, it was awesome." I like that they are having a good time, but their personalities... not so interesting and not very open-minded. I have much preferred meeting a lot of the solo travelers (even more preferably from other countries) on this trip who are always up for trying new things and not being a prototypical tourist.
Anyways, I digress.
---
Canyoning Chli Schliere
Unfucking believably awesome time. see link on FB and watch the video! Every leap of faith and hitting the cold watwas felt like taking a shot of adrenaline. Our guides were a couple of chill Kiwis. Seriously, i have yet to met an uncool Kiwi or Aussie in my life. Cool people on my group. I hung out with the guy who went to Brown and found out he had laundry coins for his hostel which he wouldnt need so i promptly jumoed on the chance to clean all my clothes there.
Monday, June 27, 2011
Firenze
Florence
I was pretty touristy here doing the things that everyone does and enjoyed all the sites but blew through money like crazy. Keeping this entry short since no super crazy stories so much here minus some interesting characters at the hostel and the friendliest hostel stay i have ever met. Also, managed to wander into Snooki and Mike the Situation from Jersey Shore filming in a pizza restaurant!
I have a list somewhere of what there was to do. If interested just ask me for it.
I was pretty touristy here doing the things that everyone does and enjoyed all the sites but blew through money like crazy. Keeping this entry short since no super crazy stories so much here minus some interesting characters at the hostel and the friendliest hostel stay i have ever met. Also, managed to wander into Snooki and Mike the Situation from Jersey Shore filming in a pizza restaurant!
I have a list somewhere of what there was to do. If interested just ask me for it.
Roma and La Spezia
Roma (what I can remember of 16 or so days ago)
So much in the past few days... I don't even know where to begin. Guess I could start with being lost, a common theme on this trip. Got into Frascati from Bari. Tiny little town, I had no idea where the bus stop was talked to an old woman who gesticulated and spoke a bunch of Italian. Honestly, if you know Spanish, Italian isn't far off minus the accent ("It'sa me-a Mario!"). Figured out to stand by this tiny bus stand and waited for a long while before it came. Got off after seeing signs saying Montecompatri but we could have easily been in some other village.
Anywyas after wandering an additional hour after getting off the bus, finally found the place.
I stayed with Patrick from Essex at his "house." He is no carpenter, handyman, or etc. but is trying to build his entire home himself. I actually wasn't put off by it at all despite it literally being a 2-story shed like structure (think Great Depression) plus sawdust and tools everywhere. Probably one of the nicest individuals I have ever met, despite being a bit... Unorganized. He hitchhiked across South Africa and Colombia before. Freaking nuts. Anyways if you were following my FB posts from a while ago, I did moon all of Rome, but unintentionally. The shower is literally a little fixture rigged in a corner of the house and we set up a big wooden board as the "door." I hung my towel on some of the wall supports so I had to move the door and take a few steps out of the shower to get to it. What I didn't realize at the time was that Patrick had unscrewed the massive "windows," hence I mooned all of Rome. Got to do some cool stuff in Montrcompatri like zoom around on a Vespa, see all of Rome and Vatican from the roof of a house on a hillside, go to a harpsichord recital, share food with locals.
There was a Russian couple from Minsk, Vlad and Irene, who was staying there as well, which made things even more interesting. The dinner we had where Vlad explained Russian humor was very hilarious, the jokes didn't always make sense to me and Patrick but were still very funny. The two were great company, having a good time always. The first day we missed the intercity bus into town twice, but it wasn't so bad. They even cooked us all lunch once. Also, it was interesting to learn more about Russia. Just how cheap everything is like cell phone bills, utilities, and food. 50EU feeds 4 people for a week.
Made my way fast and furiously through everything in the next few days, Vatican City, Colosseum, Di Trevi, etc. The free walking tour (I think i did NewEurope) really lent a great hand to finding the best local stops, such as the Real best cappuchinos in Rome at San Eustaccio and not the other place everyone else says is the best. When I went to museums and other places like the Sistine Chapel, I brought along my iPod touch to use the Rick Steves (thanks Jas for introducing me to your friend) iPod app. He has these free walking tour audio guides that provide a great deal of very interesting information as you view certain art pieces, conveniently shown on the app in case you can't find or recognize it. Great for a guy on a budget and isn't an art history major.
Despite Patrick's very much appreciated hospitality and kindness, I decided that one day 4 I would stay in town. On CS I found a couple of girls from the US that were looking for a place the same time I was. I contacted them to split a hotel room in town. Mai and Michelle from Miami were an interesting duo. As I have traveled alone for a while and just the way I am, I set lots of objectives, things to see/do/eat, but these two were super chill about everything. It wasn't conflictive, it was maybe even a bit complementary. I met up with them after they went about on an itinerary I put in place for them. Grabbed some wine and got cappuchino at the aforementioned place, which took a bit of talking to several locals, and also some food and wine which we finished sitting in front of the Pantheon, probably my favorite building. I really wished I had gone to it the first day the first day so that the rain would have been coming down in the middle of the building. Anyways the two were big stoners and gave me all sorts of tips on what to buy in Amsterdam and also described the sex show they went to... which consisted of fat people sex and some lactation. Gross. They had some other great stories as well.
Got my IPod touch stolen at Roma Termini, bah.
---
Next stop!
Onto La Spezia to hike and see the spectacular views from La Cinque Terre. Ended only doing Portovenere, a nearby town. What an amazing place if only for a couple of hours. Old Moorish church on the edge of a cliff which meets the ocean. Got there at sunset, and it really was a view to die for. There were gardens there and also a seaside cemetery. I want to be cremated when I die and have my ashes spread into the ocean, but if I were to be in a grave, I would want it to be here so I could stare at the waves breaking against the cliff and get amazing sunsets every day. Got back and Ernesto had prepared an amazing seafood pasta dinner along with some mashed potatoes, but unlike anything in the States, I had seen it at some restaurants before. So good :-) probably the best 1-2 hour activity (not including travel time) on this trip, I definitely took the bus the wrong way for a while and was in nowhere Italy hanging out with two other guys at this random bus stop in the mountains.
Stayed with Ernesto for an evening, a quiet Italian, whose Spanish was better than his English. His place was immaculate, quite opposite of Rome. I realized on this trip I greatly enjoyed alternating cities with smaller villages or some nature. No matter how beautiful these cities are made into in movies and so on, they are still cities filled with dirty streets, hobos who piss everywhere, crowded subways, and so on. Don't get me wrong the sites are amazing, but they are usually in crowded, touristic, polluted cities. Ernesto was quite well travelled in small towns like Lucca, Sienna, as well as some in Portugal, Morocco. His photos were amazing, and hopefully I will get to take some of my own in those places as well.
So much in the past few days... I don't even know where to begin. Guess I could start with being lost, a common theme on this trip. Got into Frascati from Bari. Tiny little town, I had no idea where the bus stop was talked to an old woman who gesticulated and spoke a bunch of Italian. Honestly, if you know Spanish, Italian isn't far off minus the accent ("It'sa me-a Mario!"). Figured out to stand by this tiny bus stand and waited for a long while before it came. Got off after seeing signs saying Montecompatri but we could have easily been in some other village.
Anywyas after wandering an additional hour after getting off the bus, finally found the place.
I stayed with Patrick from Essex at his "house." He is no carpenter, handyman, or etc. but is trying to build his entire home himself. I actually wasn't put off by it at all despite it literally being a 2-story shed like structure (think Great Depression) plus sawdust and tools everywhere. Probably one of the nicest individuals I have ever met, despite being a bit... Unorganized. He hitchhiked across South Africa and Colombia before. Freaking nuts. Anyways if you were following my FB posts from a while ago, I did moon all of Rome, but unintentionally. The shower is literally a little fixture rigged in a corner of the house and we set up a big wooden board as the "door." I hung my towel on some of the wall supports so I had to move the door and take a few steps out of the shower to get to it. What I didn't realize at the time was that Patrick had unscrewed the massive "windows," hence I mooned all of Rome. Got to do some cool stuff in Montrcompatri like zoom around on a Vespa, see all of Rome and Vatican from the roof of a house on a hillside, go to a harpsichord recital, share food with locals.
There was a Russian couple from Minsk, Vlad and Irene, who was staying there as well, which made things even more interesting. The dinner we had where Vlad explained Russian humor was very hilarious, the jokes didn't always make sense to me and Patrick but were still very funny. The two were great company, having a good time always. The first day we missed the intercity bus into town twice, but it wasn't so bad. They even cooked us all lunch once. Also, it was interesting to learn more about Russia. Just how cheap everything is like cell phone bills, utilities, and food. 50EU feeds 4 people for a week.
Made my way fast and furiously through everything in the next few days, Vatican City, Colosseum, Di Trevi, etc. The free walking tour (I think i did NewEurope) really lent a great hand to finding the best local stops, such as the Real best cappuchinos in Rome at San Eustaccio and not the other place everyone else says is the best. When I went to museums and other places like the Sistine Chapel, I brought along my iPod touch to use the Rick Steves (thanks Jas for introducing me to your friend) iPod app. He has these free walking tour audio guides that provide a great deal of very interesting information as you view certain art pieces, conveniently shown on the app in case you can't find or recognize it. Great for a guy on a budget and isn't an art history major.
Despite Patrick's very much appreciated hospitality and kindness, I decided that one day 4 I would stay in town. On CS I found a couple of girls from the US that were looking for a place the same time I was. I contacted them to split a hotel room in town. Mai and Michelle from Miami were an interesting duo. As I have traveled alone for a while and just the way I am, I set lots of objectives, things to see/do/eat, but these two were super chill about everything. It wasn't conflictive, it was maybe even a bit complementary. I met up with them after they went about on an itinerary I put in place for them. Grabbed some wine and got cappuchino at the aforementioned place, which took a bit of talking to several locals, and also some food and wine which we finished sitting in front of the Pantheon, probably my favorite building. I really wished I had gone to it the first day the first day so that the rain would have been coming down in the middle of the building. Anyways the two were big stoners and gave me all sorts of tips on what to buy in Amsterdam and also described the sex show they went to... which consisted of fat people sex and some lactation. Gross. They had some other great stories as well.
Got my IPod touch stolen at Roma Termini, bah.
---
Next stop!
Onto La Spezia to hike and see the spectacular views from La Cinque Terre. Ended only doing Portovenere, a nearby town. What an amazing place if only for a couple of hours. Old Moorish church on the edge of a cliff which meets the ocean. Got there at sunset, and it really was a view to die for. There were gardens there and also a seaside cemetery. I want to be cremated when I die and have my ashes spread into the ocean, but if I were to be in a grave, I would want it to be here so I could stare at the waves breaking against the cliff and get amazing sunsets every day. Got back and Ernesto had prepared an amazing seafood pasta dinner along with some mashed potatoes, but unlike anything in the States, I had seen it at some restaurants before. So good :-) probably the best 1-2 hour activity (not including travel time) on this trip, I definitely took the bus the wrong way for a while and was in nowhere Italy hanging out with two other guys at this random bus stop in the mountains.
Stayed with Ernesto for an evening, a quiet Italian, whose Spanish was better than his English. His place was immaculate, quite opposite of Rome. I realized on this trip I greatly enjoyed alternating cities with smaller villages or some nature. No matter how beautiful these cities are made into in movies and so on, they are still cities filled with dirty streets, hobos who piss everywhere, crowded subways, and so on. Don't get me wrong the sites are amazing, but they are usually in crowded, touristic, polluted cities. Ernesto was quite well travelled in small towns like Lucca, Sienna, as well as some in Portugal, Morocco. His photos were amazing, and hopefully I will get to take some of my own in those places as well.
Hiatus.
Hiatus
I have been on blog hiatus for over 2 weeks?
Been way caught up on just meeting people, going out, having long conversations, taking paseos (walks), just... living. At this point, don't know what to really write about. Seeing amazing and incredible things everyday or learning about everyone's life stories. Too much, not any time to write it down, but alas I will try to jot some things down.
Lot easier for someone just to ask me about a city and I could go on and on about what I did there, the people I met, and so on.
---
Update 6/27/11
Well... All trains are booked for Bruges from Paris until 2 pm so I guess I have an additional 5 hours to hang out at Gare du Nord... Or at least the McD's across from it. Time to blog. Would go into town again but it is a serious drain on the wallet, next time, Paris!
I have been on blog hiatus for over 2 weeks?
Been way caught up on just meeting people, going out, having long conversations, taking paseos (walks), just... living. At this point, don't know what to really write about. Seeing amazing and incredible things everyday or learning about everyone's life stories. Too much, not any time to write it down, but alas I will try to jot some things down.
Lot easier for someone just to ask me about a city and I could go on and on about what I did there, the people I met, and so on.
---
Update 6/27/11
Well... All trains are booked for Bruges from Paris until 2 pm so I guess I have an additional 5 hours to hang out at Gare du Nord... Or at least the McD's across from it. Time to blog. Would go into town again but it is a serious drain on the wallet, next time, Paris!
Thursday, June 9, 2011
Gyro Greece
Port police
Got checked for passport twice at Patras while trying to leave. This following the worst, and hottest bus ride of my life. The policeman who asked for my passport the first time was hanging out of the Port Police building's doorway and the whole situation was super sketchy, but after he showed his badge, I figured it would be better if I just complied than walk away. He spent forever looking it over and I was clueless as hell in the building. There were about 5 other men there "working" but it really didn't seem like it.
Walked about 200m leaving to make it to the port terminal when a van with port police stopped me and interrogated me, looked over my passport with magnifying glasses, etc. Pretty sick of it at this point, as I w trying to catch my ferry.
Not a Chinese terrorist, kthx!
Got checked for passport twice at Patras while trying to leave. This following the worst, and hottest bus ride of my life. The policeman who asked for my passport the first time was hanging out of the Port Police building's doorway and the whole situation was super sketchy, but after he showed his badge, I figured it would be better if I just complied than walk away. He spent forever looking it over and I was clueless as hell in the building. There were about 5 other men there "working" but it really didn't seem like it.
Walked about 200m leaving to make it to the port terminal when a van with port police stopped me and interrogated me, looked over my passport with magnifying glasses, etc. Pretty sick of it at this point, as I w trying to catch my ferry.
Not a Chinese terrorist, kthx!
Greece
Got out of Verona and made port luckily catching the Superfast Ferry in Ancona over to Patra and then bus to Athens. Turned out my cabin mate on the ferry was a middle-aged man from San Diego, who has couch surfed part of his trip and booked some pretty interesting places in between. Some great websites out there where you can book empty apartments for a weekend, etc.
Wasn't easy, but I am used to this unorganized travel of East and Southern Europe, asking people where the hell to go next.
Got into Athens a bit earlier than expected and Tiago, my next host (a Portuguese guy on a work exchange program) Tiago meet me at Syntagma, essentially city center and the metro exit situated right across from the Parliament building. The square was bustling with protectors and demonstrators as well as police with several streets blocked off with their giant vans. There was a horde of motorcycles that drove around the square repeatedly honking and revving their engines, making as much noise as possible. Really something to see.
---
Decided to camp out in McD's that was so prominently situated at the corner. As much as I hate fast food, gotta love McDonald's. It has the 3 things a person needs:
1) food
2) shelter (roof and bathroom)
3) Internet
Seriously, every is always on their smartphones or on wifi. Anyways, was also getting fed up with paying to use the restrooms, so I ordered something super cheap.
When we finally met up walked past the police barriers and onto the street with all the embassies and where the ambassadors lived from Italy, Canada, and so on. Came when the guards were changing. Got to be the most ridiculous military wear I have ever seen. The past is a funny thing.
Finally getting to his place, met his half naked and hairy Portuguese flatmates as well as a couple girls from U of F who were couch surfing there too. Chilled that night with them and some of their Greek friends who came over and was just prepping a plan for tomorrow. George, their greek friend, showed us Youtube videos he found of their boss that was recently fired. The guy was actually crazy, playing sax upside down, ghostbusting with his brother, flying planes ridiculously close to sailboats. So strange. Anyways, some great wine that night!
---
Did all the ancient ruins and other sites during the day, Acropolis, etc.
Really enjoyed the new Acropolis museum, not just because it was a break from the heat.
Met the China CSer who had taken a trip , he had come back from visiting Meteora (AMAZING monasteries on the peaks of cliffs). On that point, I am going to make note of continuing to see more of the UNESCO World Heritage sites throughout my life. Truly amazing places and sights.
Went to the Exaercia (sp?) late at night. It's where the young people hang out and you meet all sorts of people. Grabbed souvlaki in thr way which was yummy and super cheap. Like a greek burrito for simplicity's sake. 2 euros! The area looks extremely sketchy with people wearing punk attire and some homeless people, from the looks of it, but it is actually pretty safe apparently. Feels like People's Park at Cal. People playing music, discussing politics, drinking beers, smoking, all sorts of stuff. Saw the ugliest game of street ball on the worst court ever too, won't forget that.
Countless police out tonight. Not just in the city but even residential streets. Toting riot shields, submachine guns, etc.
Great time in Greece, but next time will bypass Athens and other crowded, polluted cities and go straight to the islands for a vacation on those glorious beaches.
---
Greek girls...
How do I put this, I have caught myself staring more than I ever have in any other country. Truly stunning women here. The other guys agree, Greek women are "very nice (italics)." Tiago tells me about one time he is walking on the sidewalk and spots the most beautiful woman he has ever seen. He can't help but stare but a few meters later he runs into a pole, haha.
Wasn't easy, but I am used to this unorganized travel of East and Southern Europe, asking people where the hell to go next.
Got into Athens a bit earlier than expected and Tiago, my next host (a Portuguese guy on a work exchange program) Tiago meet me at Syntagma, essentially city center and the metro exit situated right across from the Parliament building. The square was bustling with protectors and demonstrators as well as police with several streets blocked off with their giant vans. There was a horde of motorcycles that drove around the square repeatedly honking and revving their engines, making as much noise as possible. Really something to see.
---
Decided to camp out in McD's that was so prominently situated at the corner. As much as I hate fast food, gotta love McDonald's. It has the 3 things a person needs:
1) food
2) shelter (roof and bathroom)
3) Internet
Seriously, every is always on their smartphones or on wifi. Anyways, was also getting fed up with paying to use the restrooms, so I ordered something super cheap.
When we finally met up walked past the police barriers and onto the street with all the embassies and where the ambassadors lived from Italy, Canada, and so on. Came when the guards were changing. Got to be the most ridiculous military wear I have ever seen. The past is a funny thing.
Finally getting to his place, met his half naked and hairy Portuguese flatmates as well as a couple girls from U of F who were couch surfing there too. Chilled that night with them and some of their Greek friends who came over and was just prepping a plan for tomorrow. George, their greek friend, showed us Youtube videos he found of their boss that was recently fired. The guy was actually crazy, playing sax upside down, ghostbusting with his brother, flying planes ridiculously close to sailboats. So strange. Anyways, some great wine that night!
---
Did all the ancient ruins and other sites during the day, Acropolis, etc.
Really enjoyed the new Acropolis museum, not just because it was a break from the heat.
Met the China CSer who had taken a trip , he had come back from visiting Meteora (AMAZING monasteries on the peaks of cliffs). On that point, I am going to make note of continuing to see more of the UNESCO World Heritage sites throughout my life. Truly amazing places and sights.
Went to the Exaercia (sp?) late at night. It's where the young people hang out and you meet all sorts of people. Grabbed souvlaki in thr way which was yummy and super cheap. Like a greek burrito for simplicity's sake. 2 euros! The area looks extremely sketchy with people wearing punk attire and some homeless people, from the looks of it, but it is actually pretty safe apparently. Feels like People's Park at Cal. People playing music, discussing politics, drinking beers, smoking, all sorts of stuff. Saw the ugliest game of street ball on the worst court ever too, won't forget that.
Countless police out tonight. Not just in the city but even residential streets. Toting riot shields, submachine guns, etc.
Great time in Greece, but next time will bypass Athens and other crowded, polluted cities and go straight to the islands for a vacation on those glorious beaches.
---
Greek girls...
How do I put this, I have caught myself staring more than I ever have in any other country. Truly stunning women here. The other guys agree, Greek women are "very nice (italics)." Tiago tells me about one time he is walking on the sidewalk and spots the most beautiful woman he has ever seen. He can't help but stare but a few meters later he runs into a pole, haha.
Tuesday, May 31, 2011
Cruisin the Mediterranean
Got up at 5 am to make sure I saw the Arena di Verona, didn't have enough time to make it up to see Romeo or Juliet's house. Cool little town. Will have to come out here when I am traveling with someone else ;-) and will actually go into Venice (not Mestre station which is what I saw, filled with industrial complexes and far from the island).
That 4 hours of sleep was amazing. Haven't got that much in the last few days. Pretty sure napping on the trains is the only reason I am still functional. Plus, coffee.
Getting checked in Ancona and boarding was a huge mess. They do not have clear directions at all, and I was definitely told opposite things at least 3 times on where to go and what to do.
Really looking forward to Athens with Tiago (Portuguese party guy from the looks of it) and hopefully meet up with Efi for a drink then spending relaxed days in the capital cities (Rome, Paris, etc.) No agenda, just figuring it out when time comes. Need to find more hosts or else book hostels to find some people to party with.
Anyways, just chilling on deck watching the ship's wake.
---
Conglemeration of Twitter posts
Starting to get lazy. If I were to cover bits and pieces of the last few days or so. These would be some of the posts.
Uh oh, recognizing the Slovenian immigration officer. I think he remembers me too.
Forgetting what some fruits and vegetables look like #traveleating #bread
Oh, thank god, a salad! #jubilation
Cheek kissing is awesome. #germangirls
Shit shit shit. #everytimeiamcatchingatrain
That 4 hours of sleep was amazing. Haven't got that much in the last few days. Pretty sure napping on the trains is the only reason I am still functional. Plus, coffee.
Getting checked in Ancona and boarding was a huge mess. They do not have clear directions at all, and I was definitely told opposite things at least 3 times on where to go and what to do.
Really looking forward to Athens with Tiago (Portuguese party guy from the looks of it) and hopefully meet up with Efi for a drink then spending relaxed days in the capital cities (Rome, Paris, etc.) No agenda, just figuring it out when time comes. Need to find more hosts or else book hostels to find some people to party with.
Anyways, just chilling on deck watching the ship's wake.
---
Conglemeration of Twitter posts
Starting to get lazy. If I were to cover bits and pieces of the last few days or so. These would be some of the posts.
Uh oh, recognizing the Slovenian immigration officer. I think he remembers me too.
Forgetting what some fruits and vegetables look like #traveleating #bread
Oh, thank god, a salad! #jubilation
Cheek kissing is awesome. #germangirls
Shit shit shit. #everytimeiamcatchingatrain
Croatia?!
Riding to Zagreb from Vienna! Slovenian countryside is truly amazing. This is up there with riding through Austria.
Whew 10 hours on the train. Youthful feel to the city. Less refined then the other parts I have been to in Europe I guess. Anyways, couldn't get ahold of Marko using my phone, but got to know a Croatian girl sitting next to me the train and was kind enough to let me borrow hers. A PhD in physics, she definitely already looked smart. Told me about how the Pope was coming into town hence heavy security as well as the town festival.
Train station wasn't all that inviting. Contrast with Marko, who was one of the most hospitable people I have ever met in my life. Seriously, he should get an award. Made me dinner spontaneously, drinks, etc. He finished dental school but needs to do a year or two in practice before he can get his own license. Super sweet pad and great host, could not have asked for better. Went to a jazz club, had some mediocre Croatian beer (after having had Czech beer and having had Belgian ales before... no contest). Walked around the main sights in town, lots of events going on. We both had 4 tall ones by the time we met his friends at the movies. Anyways, getting a bit of sleep finally before Plitvice tomorrow, the whole reason I came!
Next day: with 2 of his friends we were off to Plitvice Lakes. Google it. Seriously amazing. About 2.5 hour drive. That was pretty much our day, hiking trails and checking out the lakes and waterfalls. A few boat rides across the lakes. Had no idea about them until James Liu told me that one day he visited Rice and was telling about his ridiculous Europe trip. So nice to get out of the cities every few days. Can only see so many churches and other buildings at a time before I get bored.
--
Complete clusterfuck of traveling trying to leave!
Train Zagreb - Villach (missed, due to wrong bus)
Bus Villach - Venice (missed, train arrived a few minutes after)
Train Villach - Verona (missed, bus was late, literally pounding on the door button to get on)
-25EU online bus ticket (barely missed this bus, but had to buy another ticket for the bus 3 hours later)
-20EU for other bed in Verona. Could only find doubles. Great bed and breakfast nonetheless.
-10EU for reservation on train that locked its doors and I frantically tried to open. My damn bus was late. The bus I ended up taking was twice as long of a ride and packed.
Starting to get a bit broken down from all these traveling fails. Oh well, booked an amazing room in Verona, Italy to relax tonight before going to Ancona for the ferry to Greece!
...
Way late for check-in. The woman had left to run errands but we agreed to meet back at 10 pm so she could give me the key and so on. Despite all that, very awesome service. Would probably stay here if I was coming again.
Whew 10 hours on the train. Youthful feel to the city. Less refined then the other parts I have been to in Europe I guess. Anyways, couldn't get ahold of Marko using my phone, but got to know a Croatian girl sitting next to me the train and was kind enough to let me borrow hers. A PhD in physics, she definitely already looked smart. Told me about how the Pope was coming into town hence heavy security as well as the town festival.
Train station wasn't all that inviting. Contrast with Marko, who was one of the most hospitable people I have ever met in my life. Seriously, he should get an award. Made me dinner spontaneously, drinks, etc. He finished dental school but needs to do a year or two in practice before he can get his own license. Super sweet pad and great host, could not have asked for better. Went to a jazz club, had some mediocre Croatian beer (after having had Czech beer and having had Belgian ales before... no contest). Walked around the main sights in town, lots of events going on. We both had 4 tall ones by the time we met his friends at the movies. Anyways, getting a bit of sleep finally before Plitvice tomorrow, the whole reason I came!
Next day: with 2 of his friends we were off to Plitvice Lakes. Google it. Seriously amazing. About 2.5 hour drive. That was pretty much our day, hiking trails and checking out the lakes and waterfalls. A few boat rides across the lakes. Had no idea about them until James Liu told me that one day he visited Rice and was telling about his ridiculous Europe trip. So nice to get out of the cities every few days. Can only see so many churches and other buildings at a time before I get bored.
--
Complete clusterfuck of traveling trying to leave!
Train Zagreb - Villach (missed, due to wrong bus)
Bus Villach - Venice (missed, train arrived a few minutes after)
Train Villach - Verona (missed, bus was late, literally pounding on the door button to get on)
-25EU online bus ticket (barely missed this bus, but had to buy another ticket for the bus 3 hours later)
-20EU for other bed in Verona. Could only find doubles. Great bed and breakfast nonetheless.
-10EU for reservation on train that locked its doors and I frantically tried to open. My damn bus was late. The bus I ended up taking was twice as long of a ride and packed.
Starting to get a bit broken down from all these traveling fails. Oh well, booked an amazing room in Verona, Italy to relax tonight before going to Ancona for the ferry to Greece!
...
Way late for check-in. The woman had left to run errands but we agreed to meet back at 10 pm so she could give me the key and so on. Despite all that, very awesome service. Would probably stay here if I was coming again.
Vienna
Back to Austria.
Nice walk around all the sites in the afternoon. Daniel showed me all the sites (Imperial Palace, etc. etc. [pick up any travel book]) and also the University of Vienna which had an amazing quad. Funny, goofy guy. Also, he is about 6'4" didnt expect him to be so tall. The famous St. Charles church in town center (Stephensplatz) was all pimped out, trust me not poor choice of words. Also, there was epic Star Wars music playing, a bizarre scene.
Rained in the afternoon so no wake boarding, unfortunately. Was really looking forward to that. Hung out with flat mates. Fun group of guys. In a very Austrian manner, ended eating loads of meat and bread that evening. I don't think they believe in fruits and veggies.
Several hours later... Christoph's 28th birthday. Pretty sure I had 4L of beer (so easy to know when you drink 0.5L at a time) and about 7 games of bowling (I actually got much better as the night went on), hanging around later night ended at 3:30. His girlfriend and other friends from Cologne had come in as a surprise. Nice people, a party bunch. Did the European cheek kiss goodbye thing and headed back. Had to get up at 5:15 for morning train.
1 hour of sleep >_>
Nice walk around all the sites in the afternoon. Daniel showed me all the sites (Imperial Palace, etc. etc. [pick up any travel book]) and also the University of Vienna which had an amazing quad. Funny, goofy guy. Also, he is about 6'4" didnt expect him to be so tall. The famous St. Charles church in town center (Stephensplatz) was all pimped out, trust me not poor choice of words. Also, there was epic Star Wars music playing, a bizarre scene.
Rained in the afternoon so no wake boarding, unfortunately. Was really looking forward to that. Hung out with flat mates. Fun group of guys. In a very Austrian manner, ended eating loads of meat and bread that evening. I don't think they believe in fruits and veggies.
Several hours later... Christoph's 28th birthday. Pretty sure I had 4L of beer (so easy to know when you drink 0.5L at a time) and about 7 games of bowling (I actually got much better as the night went on), hanging around later night ended at 3:30. His girlfriend and other friends from Cologne had come in as a surprise. Nice people, a party bunch. Did the European cheek kiss goodbye thing and headed back. Had to get up at 5:15 for morning train.
1 hour of sleep >_>
Friday, May 27, 2011
Buda...best. Seriously.
Shout out to the couple from Atlanta! Thanks for the good company and beer :-)
I regret not staying longer in Budapest, especially over a few weekends to really experience the nightlife (Google 'ruined pubs'). Off all the cities thus far, I feel like I could have stayed here for months on end,
Anyways, back to what Budapest was like, I got into. Keleti train station. Managed to find my way to the street my host, Lajos, lived on. However, I could not figure out for the life of me which building it was. So I rang someone random on #46, they spoke some incredibly unintelligible Hungarian and I got rung in, take note Ramya! Anyways, I walked into this incredibly dark stairwell, keep in mind it was the middle of the day, Imagine the abandoned building from the Matrix, but without 99% of the set lights. It was at this point I was getting a bit worried. However, I was fortunate enough to survive walking around there for several minutes but then made a call to Lajos who was actually in the much better lit building next door,
"Hello, Mr. Norman!", greetings, etc. I thought it was hilarious he was calling me Mr. Norman with his Hungarian accent. Anyways, first thing we did when we got into his awesome IKEA-furnished flat was take shots of his homemade undistilled apricot and herbs+lemon palinka (45%). They were both quite good, definitely something new after all the beer consumption in Europe, thus far. I could tell already this was an eccentric fellow with his vast book collection, NFC parking meter prototypes (turns out he is an embedded systems programmer) in the surfer room, antique camera, never mind all our communications preceding including him telling me to take a shot in the bathroom at Keleti, all the jokes and sarcasm as well. I didn't really come to Budapest with a plan, so in a rush he suggested I check out the one of the famous bathhouses. He introduced me to his beloved orange VW Transporter (3rd generation) aka the bus from Scooby-Doo. So, after eating he dropped me off at Szechenyi Bath. I came just with swim trunks in hand and was quite aloof of all that had just happened. The bath was amazing, with a main "pool" area, several saunas, ice pools, and all sorts of other temperature, aroma, etc, variations. I will never forget coming out of the hottest sauna i have ever exoerienced and then jumping into a cold bath of 18C. I chatted with a Canadian tour group of mid-20ers, not wanting to just be there alone. Couple of cuties who looked remarkably like Camerian Diaz (pre- bad aging) and a thinner "Sloane" from Entourage. It was a good time and well worth the 2600 florencs (about 190 per USD).
Not having a map and remembering one of the turns I had to make coming back, I got really lost on the way back. The only marker I really had in mind was a cool building with a shattered glass and metal look that Deloitte had. About 45 minutes later Lajos picked me up from godknowswhere. His girlfriend Margarita was with him. He drove us aro und both Buda and Pest pointing out the buildings, discussing history, and so on. It was late at this point so we went to Gellety Hill for several amazing views. I would have to say the view of the Danube, the city lights, and all of it together made up for the best view of this trip thus far.
Something that I will never forget is when we were atop the hill with some of the few statues kept from the Communist era, I wanted to take a picture of a few since I thought I had a good view. However, before I did Margarita asked if I knew what I was taking a picture of. I couldn't answer her and so we got into the history of why the Communists used the George fights the 7 headed dragon story, which I completely forgot not being Catholic and all. Anyways, from now on I will make sure I know what I am taking a picture of so it is more than a visceral response of "this is pretty, let me take a picture."
Came back and discussed classical music after he found out I played violin and piano. Some Shostakovich with Oistrakh, his favorite violinist. I am a Heifetz man myself, but Oistrakh was truly a great as well. Got some other Hungarians in as well like Bartok and Liszt. I think Lajos loved nightcaps because I had another shot of something.
---
Spent the next day doing everything on the comprehensive hop in hop off Budaoest Sightseeing buses and as well as a boat ride on the Danube and a couple hours spent on Margaret Island, apparently where everyone goes to run. This is definitely the way to go, in order to see what's around, understand some history, and get as much in as possible before further exploration. Won't go into all of it, you will have to experience Budapest yourself :-)
Got back to Lajos' flat around 10pm after being out all day. Tried traditional Hungarian bread (origins dated back to 16th century). Made delicus sandwiches with some amazing cheese he had bought as Well. Took shots of Borovichka and some other palinka probably about 2am at this point. Found out about his enjoyment of Buffy the Vampire Slayer. Lol. As he said before, he didn't believe in art just entertainment. We watched an episode where one of the major characters was killed, and then an operatic song comes on. He recognized it afterwards we listened to a selecton from Puccini's La Boheme while smoking cigarettes. I was reading the booklet from the CD and at the end of Act 1 that song occurs when two neighbors suddenly fall in love, which similarly happened in Buffy before the woman was killed.
Discussed the ridiculousness that is English and also, Hungarian whereby they append nouns with a million different suffixes to describe it. was really tired by this point so I packed a bit and made sure to set my alarm early to make the Vienna train in the morning.
I regret not staying longer in Budapest, especially over a few weekends to really experience the nightlife (Google 'ruined pubs'). Off all the cities thus far, I feel like I could have stayed here for months on end,
Anyways, back to what Budapest was like, I got into. Keleti train station. Managed to find my way to the street my host, Lajos, lived on. However, I could not figure out for the life of me which building it was. So I rang someone random on #46, they spoke some incredibly unintelligible Hungarian and I got rung in, take note Ramya! Anyways, I walked into this incredibly dark stairwell, keep in mind it was the middle of the day, Imagine the abandoned building from the Matrix, but without 99% of the set lights. It was at this point I was getting a bit worried. However, I was fortunate enough to survive walking around there for several minutes but then made a call to Lajos who was actually in the much better lit building next door,
"Hello, Mr. Norman!", greetings, etc. I thought it was hilarious he was calling me Mr. Norman with his Hungarian accent. Anyways, first thing we did when we got into his awesome IKEA-furnished flat was take shots of his homemade undistilled apricot and herbs+lemon palinka (45%). They were both quite good, definitely something new after all the beer consumption in Europe, thus far. I could tell already this was an eccentric fellow with his vast book collection, NFC parking meter prototypes (turns out he is an embedded systems programmer) in the surfer room, antique camera, never mind all our communications preceding including him telling me to take a shot in the bathroom at Keleti, all the jokes and sarcasm as well. I didn't really come to Budapest with a plan, so in a rush he suggested I check out the one of the famous bathhouses. He introduced me to his beloved orange VW Transporter (3rd generation) aka the bus from Scooby-Doo. So, after eating he dropped me off at Szechenyi Bath. I came just with swim trunks in hand and was quite aloof of all that had just happened. The bath was amazing, with a main "pool" area, several saunas, ice pools, and all sorts of other temperature, aroma, etc, variations. I will never forget coming out of the hottest sauna i have ever exoerienced and then jumping into a cold bath of 18C. I chatted with a Canadian tour group of mid-20ers, not wanting to just be there alone. Couple of cuties who looked remarkably like Camerian Diaz (pre- bad aging) and a thinner "Sloane" from Entourage. It was a good time and well worth the 2600 florencs (about 190 per USD).
Not having a map and remembering one of the turns I had to make coming back, I got really lost on the way back. The only marker I really had in mind was a cool building with a shattered glass and metal look that Deloitte had. About 45 minutes later Lajos picked me up from godknowswhere. His girlfriend Margarita was with him. He drove us aro und both Buda and Pest pointing out the buildings, discussing history, and so on. It was late at this point so we went to Gellety Hill for several amazing views. I would have to say the view of the Danube, the city lights, and all of it together made up for the best view of this trip thus far.
Something that I will never forget is when we were atop the hill with some of the few statues kept from the Communist era, I wanted to take a picture of a few since I thought I had a good view. However, before I did Margarita asked if I knew what I was taking a picture of. I couldn't answer her and so we got into the history of why the Communists used the George fights the 7 headed dragon story, which I completely forgot not being Catholic and all. Anyways, from now on I will make sure I know what I am taking a picture of so it is more than a visceral response of "this is pretty, let me take a picture."
Came back and discussed classical music after he found out I played violin and piano. Some Shostakovich with Oistrakh, his favorite violinist. I am a Heifetz man myself, but Oistrakh was truly a great as well. Got some other Hungarians in as well like Bartok and Liszt. I think Lajos loved nightcaps because I had another shot of something.
---
Spent the next day doing everything on the comprehensive hop in hop off Budaoest Sightseeing buses and as well as a boat ride on the Danube and a couple hours spent on Margaret Island, apparently where everyone goes to run. This is definitely the way to go, in order to see what's around, understand some history, and get as much in as possible before further exploration. Won't go into all of it, you will have to experience Budapest yourself :-)
Got back to Lajos' flat around 10pm after being out all day. Tried traditional Hungarian bread (origins dated back to 16th century). Made delicus sandwiches with some amazing cheese he had bought as Well. Took shots of Borovichka and some other palinka probably about 2am at this point. Found out about his enjoyment of Buffy the Vampire Slayer. Lol. As he said before, he didn't believe in art just entertainment. We watched an episode where one of the major characters was killed, and then an operatic song comes on. He recognized it afterwards we listened to a selecton from Puccini's La Boheme while smoking cigarettes. I was reading the booklet from the CD and at the end of Act 1 that song occurs when two neighbors suddenly fall in love, which similarly happened in Buffy before the woman was killed.
Discussed the ridiculousness that is English and also, Hungarian whereby they append nouns with a million different suffixes to describe it. was really tired by this point so I packed a bit and made sure to set my alarm early to make the Vienna train in the morning.
On route to Budapest
Tried my Capital One this morning as it was finally removed from the Fraud hold. it worked! Hallelujah, I can blow all my money now. Had to pick up a bottle of Krusovice for my Budapest host. It was 10 korun. Less than 0.4 euro, this must be some shit stuff. Or just cheap, it is Czech beer after all, arguably some of the best in the world. Excited about those Belgian ales.
Looked truly ridiculous with my backpack, water pack, while holding some bread and toting a bottle of shitty beer across town.
Barely caught the train again. 1 minute to spare. I should really stop this. Had to make sure I picked up a burger for lunch >_> I don't think I have caught anything on time this entire trip except for the Munich->Salzburg train.
Long ride ahead. 7 hours?
Wow. Getting the iPad Bloomsberg Businessweek and Plants vs. Zombies was critical. Passes the time fast. Need to refer a bunch of articles to people after I get Internet.
Met a group of 4 from Cal (aka Berkeley). Really nerdy bunch but cool enough. One of the guys was working at a startup with the long term goal of social entrepreneurship which of course I thought was awesome.
Czech Republic and Slovakia look the same. Also, 17.5 euro to pass through Slovakia border to border since it's not covered on the
Looked truly ridiculous with my backpack, water pack, while holding some bread and toting a bottle of shitty beer across town.
Barely caught the train again. 1 minute to spare. I should really stop this. Had to make sure I picked up a burger for lunch >_> I don't think I have caught anything on time this entire trip except for the Munich->Salzburg train.
Long ride ahead. 7 hours?
Wow. Getting the iPad Bloomsberg Businessweek and Plants vs. Zombies was critical. Passes the time fast. Need to refer a bunch of articles to people after I get Internet.
Met a group of 4 from Cal (aka Berkeley). Really nerdy bunch but cool enough. One of the guys was working at a startup with the long term goal of social entrepreneurship which of course I thought was awesome.
Czech Republic and Slovakia look the same. Also, 17.5 euro to pass through Slovakia border to border since it's not covered on the
Prague!
Prague
What a beautiful city, especially at night. Woe to the man that takes a woman around Prague on a date and cant get any. You have to seriously lack game. Got in pretty late since I chilled at Stef's about 2pm instead of doing the morning trains. Was tired, had to plan Rome and had a change of heart about the route I wanted to take post Greece.
Met up with Carlo, my "Italian raised/studied in Finland/working in Prague" host, in the New Town Square. Ate a super late dinner at this nice vegetarian place. Realized really quickly that Prague was cheaper than most of Europe. The 24.5 korun = 1 euro conversions weren't too difficult.
Discussed 40-year old man stuff (politics, economy, culture) with Carlo, a quite intelligent guy, and fluent in many languages. His Czech was quite good and he was learning from a Czech person in exchange for tutoring Italian.
He lives about 30 minutes from Old Town so we took the tram. I won't forget how beautiful Charles Bridge looks at night. or Korluv most :-) We walked across that as he continue to explain the history of the key buildings, statues, and so on.
---
New plan below:
6/4-6/7
Bari->Rome
6/8
Rome->Florence
Florence->Pisa
Pisa->La spezia
6/9
La Spezia-Florence
Florence-Zurich
6/10
Zurich
6/11
Zurich-Bern
Bern-Interlaken
(stay at Ballmer's)
6/12
Interlaken - canyoning, holyshitsoexcited
6/13
Interlaken-Bern
Bern-Barcelona (overnight)
6/14-6/18
Barcelona
6/19
Barcelona-Madrid
Madrid-Toledo
6/20-6/22
Madrid + Sevilla
6/23
Madrid-Paris (overnight)
6/24-6/27
Paris
6/28
Paris-Cologne
Cologne-Amsterdam
6/29-6/30
Amsterdam
7/1
Amsterdam-Copenhagen
7/3
Copenhagen-Hamburg
Hamburg-Berlin
7/5
Berlin-Frankfurt
---
Got up way too late. Was exhausted. The night before Carlo recommended I go to Vsheyrad, a place where very few tourists go, in the southern part of Prague. There was an old cathedral and gorgeous parks with an amazing view of the river and some of the city. Also, there was a cemetery with many big names of Prague. Even if Carlo hadn't told me you could figure it out since the tombstones were massive and ornately made. Right next to the station was a tech expo center. International IEEE Conference on Speech, Signals and something. Man, I should've applied, maybe they would have covered my airfare 8-)
Did the free New Europe tour for Prague. Wasn't as good as Sonja in Munich, but entertaining, informative, and worthwhile nonetheless. So much has happened in Prague with so many groups since its inception. Jewish Quarter in particular was fascinating. Whats crazy is that Hitler, who loved Prague deeply, preserved that Jewish ghetto because he wanted it to be a museum for an extinct race. It is the sole reason, that those buildings still exist.
Met up with his heptalingual German friend for dinner+beer. The guy had been and lived everywhere. Great restaurant. Had a 0.5L Pilsner Urquell and I have since forgotten the name of the dark beer but it was really good!
Came back late and I was tanked, plus had to take care of SimpApply, some emails, and figuring out how I would get to my hosts house in Budapest. Zzzz
What a beautiful city, especially at night. Woe to the man that takes a woman around Prague on a date and cant get any. You have to seriously lack game. Got in pretty late since I chilled at Stef's about 2pm instead of doing the morning trains. Was tired, had to plan Rome and had a change of heart about the route I wanted to take post Greece.
Met up with Carlo, my "Italian raised/studied in Finland/working in Prague" host, in the New Town Square. Ate a super late dinner at this nice vegetarian place. Realized really quickly that Prague was cheaper than most of Europe. The 24.5 korun = 1 euro conversions weren't too difficult.
Discussed 40-year old man stuff (politics, economy, culture) with Carlo, a quite intelligent guy, and fluent in many languages. His Czech was quite good and he was learning from a Czech person in exchange for tutoring Italian.
He lives about 30 minutes from Old Town so we took the tram. I won't forget how beautiful Charles Bridge looks at night. or Korluv most :-) We walked across that as he continue to explain the history of the key buildings, statues, and so on.
---
New plan below:
6/4-6/7
Bari->Rome
6/8
Rome->Florence
Florence->Pisa
Pisa->La spezia
6/9
La Spezia-Florence
Florence-Zurich
6/10
Zurich
6/11
Zurich-Bern
Bern-Interlaken
(stay at Ballmer's)
6/12
Interlaken - canyoning, holyshitsoexcited
6/13
Interlaken-Bern
Bern-Barcelona (overnight)
6/14-6/18
Barcelona
6/19
Barcelona-Madrid
Madrid-Toledo
6/20-6/22
Madrid + Sevilla
6/23
Madrid-Paris (overnight)
6/24-6/27
Paris
6/28
Paris-Cologne
Cologne-Amsterdam
6/29-6/30
Amsterdam
7/1
Amsterdam-Copenhagen
7/3
Copenhagen-Hamburg
Hamburg-Berlin
7/5
Berlin-Frankfurt
---
Got up way too late. Was exhausted. The night before Carlo recommended I go to Vsheyrad, a place where very few tourists go, in the southern part of Prague. There was an old cathedral and gorgeous parks with an amazing view of the river and some of the city. Also, there was a cemetery with many big names of Prague. Even if Carlo hadn't told me you could figure it out since the tombstones were massive and ornately made. Right next to the station was a tech expo center. International IEEE Conference on Speech, Signals and something. Man, I should've applied, maybe they would have covered my airfare 8-)
Did the free New Europe tour for Prague. Wasn't as good as Sonja in Munich, but entertaining, informative, and worthwhile nonetheless. So much has happened in Prague with so many groups since its inception. Jewish Quarter in particular was fascinating. Whats crazy is that Hitler, who loved Prague deeply, preserved that Jewish ghetto because he wanted it to be a museum for an extinct race. It is the sole reason, that those buildings still exist.
Met up with his heptalingual German friend for dinner+beer. The guy had been and lived everywhere. Great restaurant. Had a 0.5L Pilsner Urquell and I have since forgotten the name of the dark beer but it was really good!
Came back late and I was tanked, plus had to take care of SimpApply, some emails, and figuring out how I would get to my hosts house in Budapest. Zzzz
Monday, May 23, 2011
Salzburg - Mozart/"sound of music" town
My first couchsurfing host!!
Stephanie, the Austrian/Australian, greeted me at the train station which was so awesome, since there wasn't an information center or anything close around there. Glorious weather too. We walked through the city, she pointed out the main attractions all the Mozart buildings, the main garden which is on the cover for any tourist guide to Salzburg. There was a small orchestra playing in the garden with quite a crowd. I got to learn about the bureaucracy and conservative nature of the town. Finally got to her place, an awesome 1 bed flat, nicely furnished.
Really got to know Stephanie a lot better on our afternoon mountain hike up about 2500ft. I thought I was adventurous and an adrenaline junkie but it's nothing compared to what she has done. In her New Zealand travels she did canyoning, canyon jumping, mountain biking. Also, her Australian adventures were just crazy with all the parties and other outings. Relatively strenuous climb with steep slopes at the end. There we a number of memorials on the way up of people who had died climbing. Stephanie surprised me with a large can of Augistiner Steigl at the top. Too awesome. It's the lager locals have been drinking since 1492 when the monks were brewing it. Different brewery from the famous local one in Munich. Already at the too you could see Salzburg, surrounding towns, Germany, Swiss Alps. I won't forget it.
Took the tram down, bastard said only local students qualified for discounts. Found out the mountain was the "Sound of Music" mountain. The town had lots of people come for Mozart (therefore, asians) and "Sound of Music" tours, since it was filmed here. She pointed out where she grew up, parents' lake house, and so on.
Ate traditional Austrian dinner of "cheese dumplings" with bacon for dinner which was kinda like a thicker mac and cheese. The plate looked relatively small but it destroyed me, so good but I couldn't finish it.
Damn, I need to find some version of her in California. No joke. Hopefully she can get a placement in the States and we can climb in the national parks in California or something of the like. Anyways, she also thoroughly convinced me I need to go road trip in England and Ireland. Recommended a hilarious book called, Round Ireland with a Fridge, I seriously want to check it out.
She knows everything about travel, as she studied in a program towards becoming an agent for 2 years, is a couch surfer, and worked in a popular hostel for many years. Having traveled extensively and been to many hostels and so forth, she has an amazing idea of the best hostel experience ever. Told me stories of having Everything stolen in Spain, how she managed to go to a party in Lisbon where she didn't know anyone or speak Portuguese but survived and got back in one piece. She wants to work for STA and then find another gig in a few years. Talked to me about her brother leading a different way of life, wanting to wear nice suits, have a nice car, get married, the normal gig. Funny how even in the same family people are so different,
Anyways, to today. Got up late. I worked furiously to try to reach some hosts in Rome. By the time we left it was 1:35. We walked across more shops and parts of town we hadn't crossed before. She left me at the bridge because she had to meet up with another couch surfer who had gotten in. This Albanian/Danish 19 year old who was biking from Denmark to somewhere in Italy?! Effing crazy.
I tried to catch the 2:10 to Linz so I could transfer to Prague. Ended up running for my life again because we had underestimated the time to walk it. All sweaty and nasty from running, i didn't make it. Got there around 2:14. Luckily I caught the 2:01 rail jet that was running 25 minutes late. It was the only other train that could make Linz in time for me to transfer to Prague.
Now I am chilling the fuck out now that I have 5+ hours on a train that should be taking me to Prague! Meeting Carlo in the evening by the university.
Stephanie, the Austrian/Australian, greeted me at the train station which was so awesome, since there wasn't an information center or anything close around there. Glorious weather too. We walked through the city, she pointed out the main attractions all the Mozart buildings, the main garden which is on the cover for any tourist guide to Salzburg. There was a small orchestra playing in the garden with quite a crowd. I got to learn about the bureaucracy and conservative nature of the town. Finally got to her place, an awesome 1 bed flat, nicely furnished.
Really got to know Stephanie a lot better on our afternoon mountain hike up about 2500ft. I thought I was adventurous and an adrenaline junkie but it's nothing compared to what she has done. In her New Zealand travels she did canyoning, canyon jumping, mountain biking. Also, her Australian adventures were just crazy with all the parties and other outings. Relatively strenuous climb with steep slopes at the end. There we a number of memorials on the way up of people who had died climbing. Stephanie surprised me with a large can of Augistiner Steigl at the top. Too awesome. It's the lager locals have been drinking since 1492 when the monks were brewing it. Different brewery from the famous local one in Munich. Already at the too you could see Salzburg, surrounding towns, Germany, Swiss Alps. I won't forget it.
Took the tram down, bastard said only local students qualified for discounts. Found out the mountain was the "Sound of Music" mountain. The town had lots of people come for Mozart (therefore, asians) and "Sound of Music" tours, since it was filmed here. She pointed out where she grew up, parents' lake house, and so on.
Ate traditional Austrian dinner of "cheese dumplings" with bacon for dinner which was kinda like a thicker mac and cheese. The plate looked relatively small but it destroyed me, so good but I couldn't finish it.
Damn, I need to find some version of her in California. No joke. Hopefully she can get a placement in the States and we can climb in the national parks in California or something of the like. Anyways, she also thoroughly convinced me I need to go road trip in England and Ireland. Recommended a hilarious book called, Round Ireland with a Fridge, I seriously want to check it out.
She knows everything about travel, as she studied in a program towards becoming an agent for 2 years, is a couch surfer, and worked in a popular hostel for many years. Having traveled extensively and been to many hostels and so forth, she has an amazing idea of the best hostel experience ever. Told me stories of having Everything stolen in Spain, how she managed to go to a party in Lisbon where she didn't know anyone or speak Portuguese but survived and got back in one piece. She wants to work for STA and then find another gig in a few years. Talked to me about her brother leading a different way of life, wanting to wear nice suits, have a nice car, get married, the normal gig. Funny how even in the same family people are so different,
Anyways, to today. Got up late. I worked furiously to try to reach some hosts in Rome. By the time we left it was 1:35. We walked across more shops and parts of town we hadn't crossed before. She left me at the bridge because she had to meet up with another couch surfer who had gotten in. This Albanian/Danish 19 year old who was biking from Denmark to somewhere in Italy?! Effing crazy.
I tried to catch the 2:10 to Linz so I could transfer to Prague. Ended up running for my life again because we had underestimated the time to walk it. All sweaty and nasty from running, i didn't make it. Got there around 2:14. Luckily I caught the 2:01 rail jet that was running 25 minutes late. It was the only other train that could make Linz in time for me to transfer to Prague.
Now I am chilling the fuck out now that I have 5+ hours on a train that should be taking me to Prague! Meeting Carlo in the evening by the university.
Neu + Munich
Disclaimer: Serious travel beginning, writing style going to crap.
Got up bright and early to go on the tour to Neuschuanstein Castle which was about two hours away by coach bus. The amazing story of 'Mad' King Ludwig II, his murder mystery, the history of the castle and so on was all very engaging. Fantastic guide from South Africa, Brad, who had been doing the tour for 11 years and knows everything and was quite fun. He's got it made as he simply lives by the castle now. Paragliding for free in return for turning tourists to the school that exists by the mountains and castles. In the winter, there is skiing to be had.
Important note: Munich - Beer capital of the world.
Sonja Crome (american) from Sandman's neweurope walking tours led us today. Completely free, the guides work strictly on a tip basis. Bumped into the girls from UF again after meeting them at another hostel the previous morning.
I have never been so engaged for 4 straight hours. Fascinated by history, folklore, etc. She knew everything from the history of stones on buildings to a very detailed account of the rise of Hitler and the Nazi party.
Beer is heavily engrained (ha, pun) into Bavarian history. I had no idea. They have paid of national debts with it, monks have been brewing for hundreds of years, and hold the craziest traditions centering on beer. (see maypole). Discovered a new favorite beer today, with the help of the guide. It's called, or "Noble Stout" or Eidelschtaut (sp?). From the Augustinerbrau Munchen brewery.
It apparently is the Pope's favorite beer and he imports it twice a month to the Vatican. As the guides joked, since it's the Pope's favorite beer it is God's favorite beer. The brewery never spends money on advertising and only serves from wooden barrels, never metal kegs. A third of their yearly profit also goes to charity.
I am missing so many details from the past 2 days, but nevertheless this city is truly amazing. Will come back one day for Oktoberfest, for sure!!!
Got up bright and early to go on the tour to Neuschuanstein Castle which was about two hours away by coach bus. The amazing story of 'Mad' King Ludwig II, his murder mystery, the history of the castle and so on was all very engaging. Fantastic guide from South Africa, Brad, who had been doing the tour for 11 years and knows everything and was quite fun. He's got it made as he simply lives by the castle now. Paragliding for free in return for turning tourists to the school that exists by the mountains and castles. In the winter, there is skiing to be had.
Important note: Munich - Beer capital of the world.
Sonja Crome (american) from Sandman's neweurope walking tours led us today. Completely free, the guides work strictly on a tip basis. Bumped into the girls from UF again after meeting them at another hostel the previous morning.
I have never been so engaged for 4 straight hours. Fascinated by history, folklore, etc. She knew everything from the history of stones on buildings to a very detailed account of the rise of Hitler and the Nazi party.
Beer is heavily engrained (ha, pun) into Bavarian history. I had no idea. They have paid of national debts with it, monks have been brewing for hundreds of years, and hold the craziest traditions centering on beer. (see maypole). Discovered a new favorite beer today, with the help of the guide. It's called, or "Noble Stout" or Eidelschtaut (sp?). From the Augustinerbrau Munchen brewery.
It apparently is the Pope's favorite beer and he imports it twice a month to the Vatican. As the guides joked, since it's the Pope's favorite beer it is God's favorite beer. The brewery never spends money on advertising and only serves from wooden barrels, never metal kegs. A third of their yearly profit also goes to charity.
I am missing so many details from the past 2 days, but nevertheless this city is truly amazing. Will come back one day for Oktoberfest, for sure!!!
Thursday, May 19, 2011
Not so good
Got to the Frankfurt Hostel just fine. Great views from the balconies, also right next to the station. It happens to be next to a place called "World of Sex." Self-explanatory. Also, so many bankers and sex shops, strong correlation? I think so. Anyways, Frankfurt is a big financial services city, so there were massive bank buildings throughout. That amidst some fascinating and beautiful architecture.
As I tried to make my first withdrawal from an ATM disaster struck. My Capital One card was invalid. I had already called in last week to be approved in all the countries I would be traveling in. After an hour talking to two different reps who subsequently talked to whomever, 10 euros spent at a call shop, and being furious at the bank my debit card remains a clusterfuck, as Sean would say. Complete incompetence. I will probably chew out more of those idiots when I can find a pay phone and call collect. Usually keep my cool about these things but has become a serious problem.
Exchanged all the cash I brought and luckily my sister has another bank debit card which we can withdraw from, but I am not sure how I will cope when she has to go to her program in Copenhagen.
Ate a shawarma sandwich at the Lebanese shop, walked around for about half an hour through a park and passing lots of shops. There was a massive Euro currency symbol monument. Something Flava Flav would wear around his neck if he could.
Returned to the hostel for a chill night following up with CS messages and relaxing.
Excited about Munich despite all this!
As I tried to make my first withdrawal from an ATM disaster struck. My Capital One card was invalid. I had already called in last week to be approved in all the countries I would be traveling in. After an hour talking to two different reps who subsequently talked to whomever, 10 euros spent at a call shop, and being furious at the bank my debit card remains a clusterfuck, as Sean would say. Complete incompetence. I will probably chew out more of those idiots when I can find a pay phone and call collect. Usually keep my cool about these things but has become a serious problem.
Exchanged all the cash I brought and luckily my sister has another bank debit card which we can withdraw from, but I am not sure how I will cope when she has to go to her program in Copenhagen.
Ate a shawarma sandwich at the Lebanese shop, walked around for about half an hour through a park and passing lots of shops. There was a massive Euro currency symbol monument. Something Flava Flav would wear around his neck if he could.
Returned to the hostel for a chill night following up with CS messages and relaxing.
Excited about Munich despite all this!
Air Travel is...
Well... the beginning of this journey has been pretty un-adventerous thus far, having to fly between all these airports. With the exception of me running all the way across the long C terminal of the Washington (IAD) airport to catch my connecting flight since we were late on the one from Austin. Putting Crossfit and endurance running training to good use!
Just touched down in London.
Okay, I take all that back about adventure. I think I have set the world record for running across Heathrow Terminal 1. Barely caught my flight, which said Flight Closing by the time I was able to get to the connecting flight area to even check the status. I briefly saw a sign that said "Allow 10 minutes for walking to Gates 5, ..." anyways, i am pretty sure I did it in less than a minute. I looked for Anissa's gorgeous lookalike at Coach and Burberry in passing, but alas she was not there. Probably quit since last time I saw her was last October for the Rwanda trip.
Chilled the fuck out on the plane to Frankfurt as I was exhausted and I still haven't gotten a solid 8 hours of sleep in the past 2 weeks. Chatted with the man next to me briefly as we descended. Turns out he was coming back from a business trip and get this, the business deals with vineyards so he had some nice wines from Brasilia and England with him. One day I will probably start a mini-brewery, wine has to grow on me more before I contemplate operating a vineyard, well that and having $XX. Anyways, he mentioned how the weather was going to be a lovely 24C which would be fantastic for hanging out in the beer gardens ;-)
Just touched down in London.
Okay, I take all that back about adventure. I think I have set the world record for running across Heathrow Terminal 1. Barely caught my flight, which said Flight Closing by the time I was able to get to the connecting flight area to even check the status. I briefly saw a sign that said "Allow 10 minutes for walking to Gates 5, ..." anyways, i am pretty sure I did it in less than a minute. I looked for Anissa's gorgeous lookalike at Coach and Burberry in passing, but alas she was not there. Probably quit since last time I saw her was last October for the Rwanda trip.
Chilled the fuck out on the plane to Frankfurt as I was exhausted and I still haven't gotten a solid 8 hours of sleep in the past 2 weeks. Chatted with the man next to me briefly as we descended. Turns out he was coming back from a business trip and get this, the business deals with vineyards so he had some nice wines from Brasilia and England with him. One day I will probably start a mini-brewery, wine has to grow on me more before I contemplate operating a vineyard, well that and having $XX. Anyways, he mentioned how the weather was going to be a lovely 24C which would be fantastic for hanging out in the beer gardens ;-)
Tuesday, May 17, 2011
So it begins AKA bored at the airport
Blogs. Damn, haven't written an entry in one since having a Xanga in 10th grade. Anyways, I felt like starting this one up so people might hear about the strangers->friends I meet, their lives, and local cultures. Along the way I'm sure to accumulate some great stories, learn what pubs are the best, and party it up etc. ;-)
I have my aunt to thank who has more money than she knows what to do with for getting me this amazing iPad 2 with 3G as a graduation gift so I won't have to journal by hand and transcribe to a blog.
For those of you who don't know, I decided back in March after coming back from my two week stint in China to go backpacking in Europe, meeting up with people along the way. Don't know if the latter part of that statement will be true BUT I will be Couchsurfing (see profile) all the days I'm not with my sister which are just a few days in Germany and Denmark (maybe Sweden) at the beginning and end of the trip. CS is a network of people across the globe who open up their homes to others and share each others' cultures. Experiences vary greatly, the most raucous parties ever to a chill stay filled with intellectual conversation. I have heard nothing but great things so I knew this was something I had to do. I have informally couch surfed Stateside on both coasts but this is sure to be something else.
Hopefully, through this blog I can keep my mind occupied during the countless hours I will spend sitting on trains and at train stations. That is when I'm not chatting it up with other passengers or more likely, sleeping to make up for hardly ever sleeping ever :-P
I'm off to Europe! Cant believe it. Just last week I was frantically scrambling how to fill the 10 days that was set aside for Egypt and lengthen my 15 flex day Eurail Global Pass. Too bad that fell through... And oh yeah, graduated from college 3 days ago. Feeling a lot better after last night when I had hosts in Zagreb, Salzburg, and Prague confirmed they could host me.
So here goes my life savings and an adventure of a lifetime. Hoo ah!
My relatively set itinerary (well, at least the first half): http://bit.ly/hja8M5
Monday, May 16, 2011
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