London

Today is my last day in London, my blogs on London will be forthcoming. I leave tomorrow morning (December 1st) at 8:45am from London to Dublin to Chicago to Saint Louis and I arrive at 6:25pm. Should make for an interesting day.

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From the Topkapi Palace

I am so far behind on my blogging that this entry will encompass the last two days of my visit to Istanbul.

On the first day I went to the Topkapi Palace a famous palace that was used by sultans for several hundred years. Outside of the palace was a list of all of the attractions inside the palace but unfortunately the circumcision room was closed. I don’t know why they needed an entire room for that it reminds me of the masterbatoriam from “Running with Scissors”. The palace was full of old valuable jewels, antiques and Islamic relics. Pictures weren’t allowed so I don’t have any included. The weather was fantastic and I sat on a marble slab in the sun soaking the rays and listening to music. If you compared my current music list to that of a 12 year old girl I have a feeling that we would have 80% of the same artists.

To get into the Tokapi Palace you have to go through a metal detector. The metal detector beeps for every person that walks though it because they have metal on them but the guards don’t care they let everyone in anyway.

I went to the Sulyman mosque but got there during a prayer session and as I am not a Muslim I had to wait for the prayer to be over before I could enter. After waiting 20 minutes for the prayer to be over I entered the mosque only to find that it was under construction and the entire mosque with the exception of a 10 foot wide strip had been blocked off.

On the second day I walked north across the river with the intention of climbing a tower to get views of the city but it was foggy again and I didn’t want to pay to only see 20 feet in front of me. Instead I wandered around and found a catholic church. I cannot imagine that there are many of these in Istanbul anymore as 99% of the population are Muslims.

I walked to another palace but I had to pay to get in and decided that I had already spent enough money entering castles and palaces and that this one didn’t hold anything the others didn’t. Instead I walked along the shore watching the fisherman.

When I got back to my hostel the owner was there. There are three people that work at the hostel including the owner and they are all amazing people. The owner invited me to join him at a local hookah bar. I went with him and we had a really good time drinking tea and smoking the hookah pipe with grape flavored tobacco.

Tomorrow (I’m already in London, but at the time it was tomorrow) I head to London and I have to get up really early to catch my flight. I have to meet a bus to take me to the airport at 7:00am.

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(NOTE I have 1 link for each day, there are 2 links)

11_23_09 Istanbul small

11_24_09 Istanbul small

Center of the Universe

Centers of the Universe
The other thing in this picture besides me was formally the center of the Byzantine Empire that they used to measure all distances from. I figured it was suitable that I, the center of the current universe, should be in a picture with the former center of the universe.

I made it safely to Istanbul without many problems, my flight was supposed to be delayed for three hours but then was only delayed an hour and a half. The plane was delayed because of immense amounts of fog in Istanbul. When I got to the airport in Istanbul there were a lot of helpful people giving me directions and being helpful without looking for money in return. The fog in Istanbul was very heavy and I just went to my hostel and to bed.

In the morning I had an amazing breakfast of eggs, bread, tomatoes, cheese, fruit, yogurt and more. I headed out of my hostel into the city to walk around and was met with some spectacular views. Just outside my hostel were the Blue Mosque and the Hagia Sofia, both are spectacular large historical buildings. Hagia Sofia was originally a church that was then turned into a Mosque but retained its pictures of Jesus, Mary and some angels. There was a section that showed pictures of famous people that have visited and there were pictures of both Presidents Clinton and Obama but neither Bush Presidents.

I wanted to get a haircut and I went to a local shop to get it done. There was a child in the corner who would bring towels and hang coats, child labor at its best. The guy who cut my hair didn’t speak English and so I showed him with my fingers how I wanted my hair to look. He cut my hair much shorter that I would have liked, I look like I am ready to join the military now. Once he had finished cutting my hair he took a lighter to both of my ears to presumably remove the hair there. This gave the entire barbershop a great burning hair smell.

After my haircut I went to a really nice park with wild dogs, cats and parrots. The parrots of course were the coolest, flying around overhead singing songs. I got a girl to take my picture by a small re-creation of a building with me attacking it like King Kong only to delete the picture moments later by accident. This is at least the 3rd time that I have deleted a really great picture and it makes me incredibly mad when I do that.

I spent the rest of the light hours of the day walking along the river watching the local fisherman. Istanbul is the only city in the world that is in two continents, Asia and Europe.

It is good that I have come to Istanbul near the end of my trip because it reminds me in some ways of the negative things about Morocco and India. Such as being hassled on the street because it’s obvious that I am a foreigner. However unlike in India and Morocco it is really clean in Istanbul. There are also wild dogs and cats here but they seem to be much healthier and friendlier than the wild animals from India and Morocco. In the park people were sitting on benches petting the wild animals and the animals were loving it.

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11_22_09 Istanbul small

Slacking

I haven't posted anything in a while and I have no one to blame this time except for myself. I have been in Istanbul for the last 3 days and I just arrived in London. I will attempt to get caught up on my blogging and posting as soon as possible.

Mad Props

Palace of Parliament

This morning was another beautiful weather day and I didn’t really need my coat unless I was in the shade with the wind blowing. Lately I have been doing better with the cold, I’m not sure if it’s because it’s getting warmer, I’m getting used to it, or because I am now fat. In the past I never really understood how people let themselves get fat but now I do. From day to day the differences are so small that you don’t even notice them, until you remember preciously how you used to look and look at yourself and realize that you can barely see your toes peeking out beyond your belly. The realization that I am getting fat hasn’t hindered my eating or inspired me to start exercising. I have decided to push all that into the three weeks that I will be in Saint Louis, before I head to the West Coast for Xmas and New Years.

I headed to the Palace of the Parliament which I had heard was beautiful and holds several Guinness World Records. I was able to use my student card to get in for free but it costs 30 LEI to take pictures. I paid the 30 LEI before realizing that it is more than $10 USD. For that I could have used some stock photos from the internet and saved the money to spend on something else. So please be sure to check out my pictures at the end of the post, I know they aren’t very good but I paid $10 so that I could have them. Currently there are presidential campaigns going on in Romania and so some of the parts that are usually shown on the tour were closed off for a debate tonight. This wasn’t mentioned before I paid my money to take pictures, similarly to places that are under construction and don’t tell you or give any kind of discount.

My hostel has a sign in the entryway that instructs all guests to remove their shoes and wear any of the provided sandals to help keep the hostel clean. There is also a large bottle of hand sanitizer that says “please use me”. If the hostel owner were smart he would be like the hostel the Aussies visited in Rome, that moved around the sick people to spread the germs and force people to stay in the hostel longer. The shower in the hostel is amazing, it is one of those with a normal shower head, an over the head shower head and faucets on the wall that shoot at your body. Not only is it the best shower I have ever used at a hostel it is the best shower I have ever used anywhere.

My hostel is pretty much empty, there is a couple or two in private rooms on a different floor from me but in my room it’s only me and one other guy. The guy in my room is the loudest snorer quite possibly ever. My room is on the 1st floor (second floor) and I was in the kitchen on the ground floor (1st floor) and I could hear him all the way down there. I also think he might be schizophrenic because he shouts in his sleep and has conversations with himself. One of the characters speaks English and I think the other guy speaks Russian. I sat up in bed the other night because I thought someone else was in the room but it was just the one guy having an argument with himself complete with f-bombs. Every morning when I woke up, I said a little prayer, thankful that the angry personality didn’t strangle me to death.

I got pizza for dinner at a shop around the corner and while I was waiting for the pizza to be made the cashier was chatting with me. He commented that my Romanian was really good and I laughed and told him I’m sorry that I don’t know anything. He replied quite seriously that my Romanian was good. I have no idea what he was talking about unless he meant the words “pizza” and “salami”.

I also want to give a shout out (I am so gangsta) to all of the guys in Romania who wash their hands in the bathroom. In America maybe 20% of guys actually wash their hands with soap, something I always do. In Romania however I have not seen a single guy who has left the bathroom without washing his hands and I have seen quite a few who have made special trips to the bathroom simply to wash their hands and not even use the toilet.

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11_20_09 Bucharest small

Social Observations

Look of Terror

I headed to the far North side of Bucharest to the Hereastrau park to look around. On the way I encountered an elderly woman who was obviously in need of help and was walking in the middle of the street. As cars would pass from each side she would turn towards them and cover her eyes. I remember when I was little and closing my eyes made things disappear. The cars were honking and swerving to avoid her. When I got to the park entrance the woman had also made her way down the street and was also entering the park. I watched as she walked up to every person she could find and seemed to ask for directions. Every person that she talked to seemed very polite and pointed in a direction that she was slowly wandering towards but kept asking every new person she saw. She tried to ask me two times and both times I informed her that I only spoke English and would be of no help.

I have noticed in Europe that there are a lot more old people wandering the streets going about their lives. My theory is that since everything old people in Europe need is within walking distance their children let them stay in their homes. It’s not like in America where you need a car to get anywhere. Without a car the old people can only hurt themselves and if they do they will be a much smaller burden on their children who won’t have to pay for years at an old folks home. Seems like a win-win situation.

The park was very large and undergoing heavy reconstruction and maintenance. During the course of the day I saw several hundred people raking leaves, planting flowers and replacing park equipment. Updating parks seems like a great way to spend those stimulus dollars. I think as part of the American stimulus package we should convert from the English measurement system to metric. Metric makes so much more sense and we could create new packaging, road signs and educate people all to stimulate the economy and move America forward.

Similarly to India there is an immense wild dog population in Bucharest. Some of the dogs seem to have ear tags which are presumably used to keep track of the dogs. If they would simply round up all of the female dogs, they wouldn’t have nearly as many wild dogs for long. If a wild dog gets someone’s house dog pregnant it’s the person’s problem who owns the dog to look after the puppies and without female dogs in the wild there would be no other way for the wild dogs to reproduce.

I went to this outdoor museum that has several hundred village homes from throughout Romania that have been brought to Bucharest to show the history of the different regions. The variety of the homes was very interesting along with back stories as to the climate in the regions and the reasons the homes were built the way they were. There was also a ferris wheel made out of wood and I walked up to it and gave it a little push and it moved. I looked around to see if there was a sign forbidding me from sitting on it and there was not. I pushed down hard with my hands and it seemed like it would hold me. I sat my camera on a bench and set the timer and then ran to jump on the ferris wheel in time. As I went to put my butt on the ferris wheel seat it let out a really loud creek and violently shot backwards. I lurched up in terror that I would break this ancient ferris wheel and be imprisoned in Romania. Luckily nothing broke and the police were not called to investigate.

Old and New, all in one

Michael Jackson Tribute
Mark Twain Statue

The equivalent of plastic on a couch?

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11_19_09 Bucharest small

I Thought This Was Going to be Easy

At Parcui Carol (Carol Park)

I had to wake up at 6:30am this morning!! I know for a normal person, who has a job or school, that isn’t insanely early, but for me, that is ridiculous. The weather this morning was really nice and the thermometer read 14 degrees Celsius (57 in Fahrenheit). I was really excited to be heading South to Bucharest where I hoped for the weather to be even warmer. Unfortunately upon arrival in Bucharest the temperature was only 9 degrees (48 in Fahrenheit) and dropping.

Whenever I book a hostel they email me and give me directions on how to get to the hostel and depending on the hostel they are either really descriptive or very vague. Here are the exact directions I was provided by my hostel “From the airport: The Express Bus no 783 from Airport to P-ta Unirii, then the subway for one station until the Tineretului station”. Sounded simple enough. When I landed at the airport in Bucharest I was bombarded by taxi drivers wanting to give me a ride. Here is a conversation I had with one driver:

Driver: Where are you going? I will give you the very best rate.
Shaun: No thank you.
Driver: You don’t even know what I am charging. I will give you the very best rate, I have official documentation I can show you.
Shaun: No thank you.
Driver: How will you get to where you are going if you will not be taking my cab with the very best rate?
Shaun: I’m taking a bus. Thank you but no thanks.
Driver: There are no buses here only taxi’s, I will take you for the very best rate.

I had been walking away from the airport while he was talking at me and away from him the whole time and finally he had gone far enough away from the airport entrance and retreated back to look for another person. As I was walking out to the main street to where I assumed the buses were, the “they don’t exist” line is 99.99% of the time a lie, I passed by at least 20 more taxis. At each taxi the driver would ask if I wanted a ride and I would say no. Then the next driver would ask me the same and I would again repeat no. It makes me wonder do some people eventually give in and take the 8th or even the 14th taxi?

I found a small street magazine store and asked about the bus. The woman pointed nearby to where some people were gathered. I inquired about buying a ticket from her and she sold them but wouldn’t accept my 50 LEI ($17 USD) for a 2 LEI ($.70) ticket. Nearly everywhere I have been no one wants to take “large” bills. I don’t know why the ATM’s don’t give smaller bills so they will be taken by merchants. I decided to chance not getting caught rather than spending a bunch of time finding change or buying enough from the magazine lady to get her to give me change.

When the bus came I hopped on and kept my eyes peeled for anyone that looked like transit authority. I was having a bit of a panic attack that I would get fined and hoped that I could spy transit authority getting on the bus and hop off and then take the next bus to avoid a fine. I had tried to buy a ticket and I would gladly pay the fare, if someone would give me my proper change. I rode the bus to the end and never saw my stop. The directions from the hostel had neglected to tell me the bus ran in two directions from the airport and that I needed to cross the street to catch the bus. As I rode the bus back past the airport, I kept panicking that I was going to get caught without a ticket and get a huge fine. When the bus reached its other end point without reaching my stop, I showed the bus driver where I wanted to go and he told me his bus didn’t go there and I would need to get off.

I asked at an information desk how to get where I wanted to go and was told to take a new bus to a different stop and then take the metro from there to my destination. Again I tried to purchase a ticket and was refused because I still only had the 50 LEI note. On the new bus I was still nervous of being caught and when the bus encountered massive amounts of traffic I decided to get off and walk the rest of the way. My luggage is a small day backpack and a rolling bag that I put most of my stuff in. Back in Morocco the rubber coating came off my wheels and now I only have one wheel left, the other has been ground away. In order to pull my bag I have to tilt it to one side so that it balances on the one good wheel or drag it on the ground which is starting to tear the bag apart.

I figured if I could find any subway entrance I could figure out the trains and make it to my hostel. I was able to find a metro sign but the entrance was blocked by ropes and signs I could not read in Romanian. I headed down the street to another metro in the direction that I believed my hostel to be in. When I got to the next metro station, I found that it was also closed. I later learned that the workers were on strike and as such the metro wasn’t running. I eventually found my hostel in an unmarked house in a residential zone after three hours of wandering around Bucharest with a bag with only one wheel. So much for an easy day of transit.


Romanian Flags

Parcui Carol Monument

Pipes on the stairs, I tripped on them and almost fell into the lake

Old Skool

New Cars

Church at Night

One of the many ad riddled squares

useless lock, it's upside down!

... And Then I Found 20 Euro

Tight Rope Walking

Jill and Hayley were leaving today to head to someplace else in Austria and I was staying the night and leaving tomorrow morning to Bucharest. Before the girls left they had a few things they needed to do around town and so I joined them on their errands. Hayley wanted to get a small advent calendar and a snow globe for a friend. Jill wanted to get a present for a friend’s birthday and as usual I just wanted more chestnuts. Fail, Fail, Fail and Fail. We wandered around for several hours and accomplished nothing. Eventually the girls decided they needed to catch their train and we all headed back to the hostel for lunch.

I purchased a frozen lasagna at the grocery store and popped it into the oven. When I had bought the lasagna, I was already hungry and didn’t realize that it said it would take 40 minutes on the box. The oven at the hostel was a small countertop type oven and the lasagna ended up taking even longer than that and it wasn’t even that good when I finally did get to eat it. I also bought some garlic bread that was amazing though.

The girls left for the train station and we said our final goodbyes for Europe, I only have 3 cities left on my trip and they are all far from where the girls will be. I had a great time with them and look forward to seeing them again somewhere else in the future.

With the girls gone I could get back to my usual antics of wandering aimlessly with my mp3 player in my ears. I went to an awesome park with all kinds of cool things to climb, walk, balance, dance, swing and jump on. I was having such a good time that I started to get evil looks from the parents there. I guess they didn’t like the big kid running around and jumping on all of the toys with their children so I left. I headed to the Schonbrunn Palace, a beautiful palace with immense gardens. I was listening to my music and looking at all of the lights from the buildings and the park. I stood in the middle of a clearing and just spun in circles and then fell down and sat on the ground laughing, it was a good time.

Back at the hostel I met an American who grew up in Saint Louis and now lives in Los Angeles. I would say he is my arch enemy, except that he was really nice and said he might know someone that could get me a job. I will keep my fingers crossed on that.

Tomorrow I head to Bucharest, not Budapest, in Romania by plane.

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11_17_09 Vienna small

Back in Bratislava

A Kid in a Candy Store

When I was in Bratislava last week I knew I was going to meet up with Jill and Hayley in Vienna and that they wanted to go to Bratislava, so I only went hiking and didn’t see much of the city. Today we took the train to Bratislava for the day. There are two train stations in Vienna, that are not connected to each other, that run to the two train stations in Bratislava that are also not connected to each other. Both train stations in Vienna are connected to both stations in Bratislava. I don’t understand why they would set things up like this but they did.

We went to the castle, which is completely closed for renovations and then wandered the streets. I was craving some chestnuts so we located a stand and I was able to buy some from a woman that only had 2 two half teeth that were both black. When she opened her mouth I wanted to walk away and buy them from someone else but I bought them from her anyway, I am that addicted.

I managed to lose the map shortly after arriving in Bratislava, which made locating sights difficult. We walked around for a while and when it started to get dark we headed back to the train station. The next train was going to the South train station in Vienna, not the one close to our hostel, but we took it anyway because the train to the station near our hostel wasn’t coming for another 2 hours. Once back in Vienna, we didn’t have that train station on our map and we wandered the streets in the direction of where we thought the hostel was. We were lucky and found the hostel without going the wrong direction a single time.

When wandering around I usually carry my backpack, which contains a sweatshirt, water bottle, umbrella and snacks. We stopped at a grocery store to look for a bottle of gluhwein to take back to the hostel with us and were able to find a one liter bottle for around €1.5. I also found a bottle of Don Simon sangria that I often drank while in Spain which brought back summer memories and made me smile. When checking out the woman behind the counter said “bag” and I told her “no”, they usually charge for bags and I always put things in my backpack to carry back to the hostel. She said “bag” again and I looked at her and realized she wanted to know if she could look in my bag to make sure I hadn’t stolen anything. I let her look inside and everything looked fine to her, even though I had a bag of chips and salsa that I had bought earlier. I guess she assumed if I was willing to show her the contents of my bag, she didn’t care what was in there.

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11_16_09 Bratislava small

Return of the Aussies

Old School

Imagine a day with great weather where you walk around eating delicious food and drinking with beautiful girls in a great city and that pretty much describes my day exactly. I met back up with Jill and Hayley(The Aussies) in Vienna and we headed out to explore the city.

I started the day with some yogurt and what I thought was a cinnamon roll but turned out to be something that tasted nothing like a cinnamon role, because it wasn’t a cinnamon roll but I have no idea what it actually was. Then we walked to the Christmas markets behind the Rathaus (that is what they call the mayor’s office in German), a bunch of temporary wooden structures selling drinks and food. I found these drinks that come in plastic bottles that I used to drink when I was a kid and bought one, it really took me back and I was quite giddy. I got some more delicious chestnuts, shared a chocolate covered apple, a cinnamon sugar waffle and had a glass of gluhwein (delicious warm spiced wine). We sat on a bench to enjoy the beautiful weather and drink our gluhwein and sat across from an elderly woman who was wearing a skirt. I don’t know if it was the gluhwein she was drinking but the longer we sat there the less modest she became.

From there we headed to St Stephan’s Cathedral and on the way I ate a delicious kebob. Kebob stands are everywhere in Europe, I wonder if I would ever get tired of eating them, they are still amazing after all the time I have spent in Europe. The kebob was salty and I needed something sweet and a bathroom break so we stopped in at McDonalds and I bought a caramel sundae.

While walking I saw a lady heading in the opposite direction of me and suddenly she started to limp for a couple of steps and then stopped and turned around. The woman had stepped out of one of her high heeled shoes but didn’t stop for several steps. I couldn’t believe that it had taken her so long to realize she was only wearing one shoe and I burst into laughter and had to walk away to avoid laughing in her face.
After the cathedral we headed towards the ferris wheel, that is the oldest in all of Europe and were thinking of going up in it until we saw the price €8.50 ($12.62 USD). The ferris wheel is on a type of permanent fair ground with lots of overpriced rides and places selling food. I was able to abstain from purchasing any food there but I did grab a beer for the road. In most parts of Europe you are allowed to pretty much drink beer anywhere that you want, on the street, in the train station, or wherever else your heart desires.

With a drink in hand we headed to the Muesum Quarter which is a collection of buildings that house a lot of museums. Playstation had rented out a space at the Muesum Quarter and made all of their new big titled video games available to play and also had a hot tub with bikini clad girls setup to entice people (guys) to play their games. We stood around watching the people and drank some more gluhwein to stay warm.

On the way back to the Hostel we bought some food for dinner and had toast with eggs, cheese and tomatoes. I also ate some chicken and chili ramen to supplement. We ended the evening with some laughs and a few more drinks.

We basically did nothing today besides eat and drink, it was amazing!

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11_14_09 Vienna small

B City Lovin

All I can think is Google

Thursday was the first really beautiful day in at least a week and maybe longer. So nice in fact that I was warm in only my coat and wasn’t even wearing my headband. Unfortunately this is the same day I planned a 6 hour train trip to Bratislava and I spent the best parts of the day on the train. The train I wanted was scheduled to leave at 11:30 and I arrived at the train station around 11:15 to buy my ticket and head out. Unfortunately the tracks in Pecs are undergoing construction and a 30 minute long bus ride needed to be taken to the next town which meant I would miss my 11:30 train and have to take the 1:30pm train instead. The 1:30pm train got me into Budapest around 4:30pm and made me miss my connection to Bratislava meaning I had to wait in Budapest until 8pm. Luckily I knew there was a McDonalds close by where I could go and use their free internet to waste time.

Once I arrived in Bratislava I was waiting for my tram to my hostel and encountered some Americans who were looking for their hostel but didn’t know how to find it. It turned out that they were staying at the same hostel as me and I told them to follow me and I showed them. I am so good with directions after all.

I have been wanting to go hiking for some time now and on Friday I was finally able to go hiking. The leaves are all changing and it was incredibly beautiful in the woods. I encountered an elderly man with both his shirt and jacket off and I could not wait to pass him so I could take his picture. I was following a trail that had information signs and one of them said “The ‘Fox Dance’ was a favorite entertainment of the nobility during baroque times. The participants stood in twos in the enclosed area, holding the end of slings lying on the ground. The participants yanked the slings as the fox ran across, thus propelling the fox into the air. The entertainment lasted until the fox died.”

My camera now how a scratch on the lens, that is visible in several pictures from today. The camera also smokes sometimes when the flash goes off. I have had this camera for a long time and put it through its paces, I should probably get a new one when I have money again.

First there was Bombay then Barcelona, Berlin, Bruges, Brussels, Budapest and now Bratislava. There is something about cities that start with the letter B that make me really like them.

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11_13_09 Bratislava small

Construction

I smell so bad the statues think it might be them

It is so unfair to judge a city when the weather is cold and rainy. Some of my best memories from cities I have been to were when the weather was nice and I would just sit on a bench watching people, enjoying the sun and relaxing. The weather in Pecs has been terribly cold, rainy, overcast and windy.

Pecs has been selected to be the 2010 cultural capital of Europe and as such is under heavy construction in 2009 at the time of my visit. The entire square is fenced off and being dug up as are all of the main streets that go to the many museums in town and as such the museums are closed. I headed to the cathedral because it is the only cultural spot that seemed open that was out of the rain and cold. As a “student” I had two choices, for 500 HUF I could go to the cathedral, crypt and treasury or for 600 HUF I could go to those three plus a stone exhibition and get a glass of wine from the winery. The exchange rate to USD is approximately 170HUF to 1USD, so of course I chose the second option and got some delicious church wine.

I also went to the nearby Cella Septichora, early Christian relics and a UNESCO World Heritage site. At Cella Septichora there are a bunch of old buildings and a few crypts that were unearthed and now are housed in a building. For some strange reason there is also a display of the fall of the iron curtain but rather than this display being confined to one area it is on all of the walls throughout. The best part of all of this was a touch screen where I got to play the game where you slide around tiles to complete a picture. One of the workers came over to me and told me that his best time in completing the puzzle was 1 minute and 23 seconds, he seemed very pleased with himself over this.

Despite the bad weather I decided to climb the hill that overlooks the city in hopes that it might clear up for a view. This was by far the largest, steepest and most difficult hill I have had to climb in any city. I was so hot climbing that I had my sweatshirt off and my jacket open and I was still sweating. I imagine I was ¾ of the way up when there was a lookout and I did lookout but it was so rainy and dark by then that I decided to head back to town and look for an umbrella to replace mine that was falling apart.

I went to the local mall and walked around and found an enormous grocery store that nearly resembled those in America with different departments. I was able to locate a reasonably priced umbrella and bought it. Once outside it was still raining and I opened the umbrella only to have it flip inside out and then have the handle fall off. I was able to get it turned right side out and get the handle back on but I don’t think this umbrella will last me very long.

Tomorrow I head to Bratislava by train, hopefully I can get on the correct train this time!

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11_11_09 Pecs small

Pink or Purple?

I need your help. I am involved in a very high stakes wager over the color of this sweater. Please make a comment over whether you think the sweater in this picture is pink or purple. Those are your only two choices. Thank you in advance for proving me correct.

Train Mastery

Filler picture from Mostar

When planning how to get to Pecs I had two options both of which got me to Pecs at the same time but one left earlier in the morning. Normally I would opt for the shorter trip, leaving at a later time but there were more connections and 1 connection gave me 10 minutes while another gave me only 2 and they were near the end of the trip so I was worried I would not make them and my already lengthy (11 hours) trip would be even longer. As such I woke up earlier and got on the 8:15am train instead of the 8:40am one. I was supposed to exit the train at 10:30am but before 10:00am the train terminated in Villach, Austria. I was not supposed to be in Austria, I was supposed to be in Croatia. Somehow I had managed to get on the right train, but in the opposite direction that I wanted to go.

I had walked to the platform and saw Zagreb on the sign and got on, but the train had already stopped there and was heading away from Zagreb. Luckily in Austria the train service is great and I was able to go to the ticket window and tell them my mistake and they were able to make a new itinerary for me. The new itinerary didn’t put me in until after midnight making my total travel time nearly 16 hours.

While waiting in Villach I found a power plug and plugged in my laptop to charge so I could use it on the train. I was looking across the train station at a family that looked like they were beggars. After some time the teenage daughter crossed the train station to me and stood in front of me making eye contact, I looked at her and waived my hand from left to right and said “no”. I didn’t want to give her any money. The girl reached into her pocket and I continued to express “no” with increased vigor. Out of her pocket the girl produced a cell phone and a charger. She wasn’t asking for money, she wanted to charge her phone and I was using the only publically available outlet.

I took the next train to its end and then quickly got on my next train as it was pulling out of the station. When the third train arrived at its destination a couple of minutes early I looked at the departure board to see if I could catch any more direct or earlier trains to Pecs and saw that a train had just left going directly to Pecs. I jogged to the platform anyway to make sure the train was gone and it was still there. The train was having electrical problems and all of the lights in the second class car were strobing on and off. I boarded the train and sat in the car with the strobing lights. I put my blindfold on and pulled my hood over my eyes, but I could still see the strobing lights, it was very annoying. The train finally took off and the lights couldn’t be fixed so the train employee moved everyone up to first class where I got my own private extremely hot compartment. I ended up making it to Pecs by 9:30pm, not to bad considering I took my first train in the wrong direction.

Swan Song

Hello Swan

Today we hopped on a train to the nearby town of Bled for a little day trip. There are two train stations in Bled, one that is more centrally located but less frequently visited and another that has many trains but requires a bus ride into town. We opted for the station that is more frequently visited and upon arrival headed to the bus stop across the street to wait. The next bus wasn’t for 20 minutes and there were two other tourists waiting with us for the next bus. A taxi driver approached us and told us he would take us to town for €2 each and we all agreed. While heading to town I chatted with the driver and he asked when we were heading back to London (none of us are English). I told him I didn’t know where I was headed next and asked him for some suggestions and he wrote down three other cities in Slovenia that he thought I might like.

Once in Bled we headed towards the Lake, the most obvious attraction in town besides the mountains. We walked along the lake snapping pictures like paparazzi of the mountains, the lake, boats and the wild life. There were lots of ducks and a couple swans. I was playing with the ducks chasing after them and trying to catch them and then I was telling the Aussie’s about how evil and dangerous swans can be. I tried to convince the Aussies to chase a swan and see what would happen but they wouldn’t do it. Finally I approached three swans very apprehensively and one of them started to walk towards me, so I backed up. A more accurate description would probably be that I screamed like a girl and ran behind the Aussies for protection. I kept approaching them to see what they would do, but I was really scared and when the largest of the three swans started to make angry sounds at me, I decided that I should leave them alone and we walked on.

We climbed the enormous hill up to the castle in hopes of getting a panoramic view of the city but the castle was blocking the really good views. To enter the castle was €7, something none of us wanted to pay. I tried to see if we could go to the restaurant inside the castle without paying the entrance fee but they didn’t allow that and we never did get to see the good view from the other side. I talked with a guy back at my hostel later that night and learned that there is a way to crawl around the back side and get the great view without paying for it. In Bled I bought some more delicious street chestnuts and writing about it makes me wish I had some now.

I spent the entire night trying to figure out where next to go. The Aussies are headed to Budapest, where I have already been, leaving me to make my own decisions. The problem is that I need to find both good train times and reasonably priced accommodation in the town once I get there. After mixing and mashing for several hours I was able to come up with the plan that I posted Tuesday morning.

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Lost in Translation

Dragon Bridge

From Zagreb we took the train to Ljubljana (the j is silent), Slovenia. In the same compartment of the train was an older couple was from somewhere in Eastern Europe. The couple was fascinated with us and kept trying to speak to us, but we couldn’t understand what they were saying. (Information that will help make this story make sense, the Aussies I have been traveling with are named Jill and Hayley) Hayley was eating a cup of yogurt on the train and the man pointed at the spoon she was using and indicated that he wanted to know the name of it in English. Hayley informed him that it was a spoon and he said “spoon…spade, spade, spade”. Then the man talked with his wife and told her it was a spade and then wanted Hayley to try to pronounce spoon in their language and said a word that sounded like cash-e-cow. Hayley repeated it to the man and both he and his wife bounced up and down with jubilation that she had pronounced it correctly. The man then looked at Jill and repeated the word to her for her to repeat and what she said sounded nothing at all like what the man was saying and the man burst into laughter. Whatever she had said apparently meant motorcycle helmet.

The hostel in Ljubljana was formally a prison that has had a facelift. It was a very large hostel complete with its own bar, restaurant and art gallery. The former prison cells were converted into rooms where two people sleep with an external privacy door and a prison gate on the inside for tour groups to admire. I was not given a former prison cell room but instead was put in a room in what used to be the attic, complete with a slanting roof that made rolling over in my bed nearly impossible.

Ljubljana has a castle on a hill high above town that is supposed to have really great views of the city, but the weather was really foggy, rainy and cold so we never actually made it up to the castle. We wandered the streets for a while but got wet and cold and decided to head back to the hostel to relax and get warm. While wandering however we did come across a group of Japanese tourists and when the clocks struck 12 and started to play some music, the group of Japanese tourists broke out into an accompanying hushed song.

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