I hate spoiling the ilusion of me being off in these wonderful and exotic locations around the world, but for those who aren't aware, Shannon and I are back in Canada. We flew in on Friday, and by now are moderately rested and un-jet-lagged, yet there's still heaps that hasn't been written, plus I've got the time and ability to put up photos en masse now, so as long as you aren't too let down at the thought of all this coming from boring ol' Calgary, then stick around for a few more blogs.
After Amsterdam, the two of us took an unexpected trip to Paris. We were left with a few days of what I can only think to call "dead space" where we weren't sure what to do. The options were:
1. Work/volunteer on a farm or two in England
2. Go to Belgium to drink some chocolate, eat some beer, do some Belgian things
3. Go to Paris and see what Mona was smiling about
We took the Paris route, I can't remember exactly why but I think it had to do with cheaper buses and seeing the Louvre. I suppose there's no way to know if it was the right choice, but it made sure we got to experience:
1. Incredible amounts of artwork, sculptures and "culture" things everywhere
2. The incredible French sport of being rude to people
3. The savage inefficiency of French renovation and construction workers (or perhaps just the entire French workforce)
The first is obvious, but probably won't be what sticks in my mind longest. Sure the artwork and famous cathedrals are nice, but when you show up for dinner and told only drinks are available, then ask for coffee and told you must order food, well that's just mind-blowing.
Oh, and we stayed at a friend's parents' house for a night. Why mention this? They bought the house 3 years ago to open a B&B. After nearly three straight years of renovations, they are now, hopefully, only 3 years away from being "close" to completion. They take their time it seems in France.
We took the chunnel (the channel tunnel) to England and spent the next 5 nights in London. I apologize to all my English friends who read this only to learn that Shannon and I never got out of London, but we got caught up there and never made it out. London is a pretty cool city, though even a few days there is enough to tell that it's about as close to being "English" as an English pub in Canada. OK, maybe a stretch, but you get the idea.
We met up with some of my parents while there, which was a great way to see some of the touristy stuff Shannon and I wouldn't normally check out (like the ones that cost lots of money), plus some friends of theirs cooked us an amazing meal, a nice break from eating out.
And so, after that, it was bye-bye Europe and off to the last stop on our trip - Iceland. I think that was my favourite stop on the trip (though surfing in Indonesia was a close second), which I'll have a great time writing all about in the next few days. Later!
Tuesday, June 16, 2009
Tuesday, May 26, 2009
Dutch Lovin', Traveling Prejudices and Missed Opportunities
So Shannon and I just finished up our brief tour of Amsterdam, and I think it's probably best we did keep it brief. It's a shame that so many travelers only see the one small part of the Netherlands, especially when a good part of feel seeing Amsterdam is the equivalent of seeing the whole country. We would have loved to do more around the country, but travel times, budgets, etc. just didn't allow it. So, my apologies to all the Dutch out there and those who sympathize with their plight of being seen only as a bunch of pot-smoking-prostitute-pedaling-party-happy folk. I know that's not the case, but it's all I had time to take in.
And what did we do and see? I'd like to think we did it all, but there's far too much to ever do, and much of it I would like to avoid from ever being written down on any kind of permanent record of mine, be it a travel blog, government file, or even a cocktail napkin that might fall into the wrong hands. I will say though that we spent far too much money one fun evening out, and took in one of the live sex shows you so often hear of and think to yourself how you'd never lower yourself to watch something like that. Well, it's probably best you don't, cause while it was fun to do, I don't think the "shock" or "comedy" of the event was enough to cover it's nastily high ticket cost (and yes, I do feel the ticket price was indeed the "nastiest" part of the evening).
So what else about Amsterdam was there? Well, we saw lots of the canals, Anne Franks's house, a comedy show put on by a bunch of American improv comedians, and we went to a jazz club. I'm not sure if it was the area we were in, or if this is just how Amsterdam works, but there is a bucket-load of American tourists around town. Of the 8 other people in our dorm room, 7 of them were from the US, and I think all of them were on their first trip outside the US (or at least North America). Even the comedy show we watched was all about Americans visiting Amsterdam and figuring out the "Dutch" ways of things. Now, I know I don't want to sound prejudiced here, because every nationality could in some way be catagorized negatively on the way they travel (loud party girl? Aussie. Talking about football and being drunk? British. Naked and middle aged on a beach? German. I'm sure I've put myself in countless Canadian stereotyped situations), but when you're surrounded by a mojority of one nationality (that isn't native to that country), and there's plenty of jovial mockery already taking place of this nationality, it's hard not to jump on board and start mocking as well. Two obese people talking about how hard it is to walk around town? Silly Americans. Can't stop talking about the legality of pot and the obscenity of sex for sale? Silly (probably christian) Americans. Can't stop saying things like "yeah it's good, but in America we do it like this." Silly Americans. I dunno, maybe I'm just a jerk.
(To be fair Shannon and I met plenty of great Americans, so it's not just rude but incorrect of me to speak like this of the whole traveling population. I suppose it just makes for interesting blogging).
On our way out of town, as we headed to catch our bus to Paris, Shannon and I met a Belgian guy, who was filming a promo or application video for a reality TV show he was trying to start. Basically, the guy wanted to meet up with random travelers and travel along with them, filming them as they went and trying to get some interesting drama or humour out of their experiences. The guy unfortunately had already found a person or two heading east to Germany, and not our direction. We were pretty sure if we didn't already have $400 invested in buses and hotels we would have turned tail and hopped on board with the gang he was assembling, and I'll be heart broken to see his show on air one day and think "that could have been me!"
Traveling Tangent - Tipping
Over Christmas, I got into a slight argument with my brother over the notion of tipping. He felt it was a positive thing, and I felt otherwise (though he may just have been trying to goad me into a ridiculous argument for fun). Traveling though has further asserted my position that tipping is a terrible way to reward behaviour. Take this example:
You're at a crowded bar, you push and jostle your way to buy a beer, and after being overlooked a dozen times by the bartender, you finally get your drink.
The next day, you realize you don't want to leave the town your visiting, but it's too late to change your bus ticket. You head to the station and the nice guy behind the counter bends all the rules in place to get you a new ticket.
Who should be tipped?
I'm personally pretty tired of throwing money at folks who get tipped because their "supposed" to be, yet have no way to thank and subsequently encourage great service and work from others. And so, I've basically stopped tipping on this trip, saving us $100-$200 so far. No change in the service we get, though I'm sure a few servers have been a little peeved at us. But I mean really, do I need to start throwing money around so strangers I'll never see again feel a little better about themselves? Not on this trip.
And what did we do and see? I'd like to think we did it all, but there's far too much to ever do, and much of it I would like to avoid from ever being written down on any kind of permanent record of mine, be it a travel blog, government file, or even a cocktail napkin that might fall into the wrong hands. I will say though that we spent far too much money one fun evening out, and took in one of the live sex shows you so often hear of and think to yourself how you'd never lower yourself to watch something like that. Well, it's probably best you don't, cause while it was fun to do, I don't think the "shock" or "comedy" of the event was enough to cover it's nastily high ticket cost (and yes, I do feel the ticket price was indeed the "nastiest" part of the evening).
So what else about Amsterdam was there? Well, we saw lots of the canals, Anne Franks's house, a comedy show put on by a bunch of American improv comedians, and we went to a jazz club. I'm not sure if it was the area we were in, or if this is just how Amsterdam works, but there is a bucket-load of American tourists around town. Of the 8 other people in our dorm room, 7 of them were from the US, and I think all of them were on their first trip outside the US (or at least North America). Even the comedy show we watched was all about Americans visiting Amsterdam and figuring out the "Dutch" ways of things. Now, I know I don't want to sound prejudiced here, because every nationality could in some way be catagorized negatively on the way they travel (loud party girl? Aussie. Talking about football and being drunk? British. Naked and middle aged on a beach? German. I'm sure I've put myself in countless Canadian stereotyped situations), but when you're surrounded by a mojority of one nationality (that isn't native to that country), and there's plenty of jovial mockery already taking place of this nationality, it's hard not to jump on board and start mocking as well. Two obese people talking about how hard it is to walk around town? Silly Americans. Can't stop talking about the legality of pot and the obscenity of sex for sale? Silly (probably christian) Americans. Can't stop saying things like "yeah it's good, but in America we do it like this." Silly Americans. I dunno, maybe I'm just a jerk.
(To be fair Shannon and I met plenty of great Americans, so it's not just rude but incorrect of me to speak like this of the whole traveling population. I suppose it just makes for interesting blogging).
On our way out of town, as we headed to catch our bus to Paris, Shannon and I met a Belgian guy, who was filming a promo or application video for a reality TV show he was trying to start. Basically, the guy wanted to meet up with random travelers and travel along with them, filming them as they went and trying to get some interesting drama or humour out of their experiences. The guy unfortunately had already found a person or two heading east to Germany, and not our direction. We were pretty sure if we didn't already have $400 invested in buses and hotels we would have turned tail and hopped on board with the gang he was assembling, and I'll be heart broken to see his show on air one day and think "that could have been me!"
Traveling Tangent - Tipping
Over Christmas, I got into a slight argument with my brother over the notion of tipping. He felt it was a positive thing, and I felt otherwise (though he may just have been trying to goad me into a ridiculous argument for fun). Traveling though has further asserted my position that tipping is a terrible way to reward behaviour. Take this example:
You're at a crowded bar, you push and jostle your way to buy a beer, and after being overlooked a dozen times by the bartender, you finally get your drink.
The next day, you realize you don't want to leave the town your visiting, but it's too late to change your bus ticket. You head to the station and the nice guy behind the counter bends all the rules in place to get you a new ticket.
Who should be tipped?
I'm personally pretty tired of throwing money at folks who get tipped because their "supposed" to be, yet have no way to thank and subsequently encourage great service and work from others. And so, I've basically stopped tipping on this trip, saving us $100-$200 so far. No change in the service we get, though I'm sure a few servers have been a little peeved at us. But I mean really, do I need to start throwing money around so strangers I'll never see again feel a little better about themselves? Not on this trip.
Saturday, May 16, 2009
Breaking Down The Wall
So here we are, hanging out in Berlin. Most times I've written on the blog have detailed several spots Shannon and I have reached, but I think (other than from back in Korea) this is the first time we've stayed put for some time while on the road. In fact, we've been in Berlin for nearly 2 weeks, and I can't think of many other places I'd have liked to stay at for this long. Maybe some small town surf location in Indonesia, but I think Shannon would lose her mind in boredom there, so Berlin is probably still the best bet.
Our good friend Kris put us up for the first three nights here, which helped get a better feel for the city, though I think if you shadowed a local for weeks on end you'd still miss out on so much here. From "pay what you like" wine bars to abondoned shopping malls turned art slum turned night club, we've done our best to see it all.
Un-Yon! Un-Yon! Un-Yon! Un-Yon!
One of the strangest yet coolest things we saw was a local soccer game. It's a tier III team, which Kris described to me as the equivalent of a small town WHL hockey team, so not very prestigious. The fans however refuse to see it that way, and their stadium holds something like 10 or 15 thousand people. They cheer like madmen, not a single person doesn't wear the right colours for each game, and they have their own hooligans - the guys who enlist themselves into the position of beating the tar out of hooligan fans from the opposing teams. Oh, and when their stadium needed renovations, the fans took it upon themselves to donate time and fix it up on their own.
We caught the game where they were poised to move up to league II, which is much closer to being the equivalent of the NHL at home. They won, and so Shannon and I rushed the field at the end of the game, chanting "Union!" (pronounced un-yon in German).
The Art House (not sure if that's the actual name of it) was another pretty snazzy spot we saw. The srory I'm told is that it used to be a shopping centre, then was abandoned sometime in the communist era. Artist and other squatters settled in, turning it into a 4 level concrete graffiti-filled flop house. As the neighbourhood became more trendy, it got harder and harder for the vagabonds to stay put there, but they managed to get their stuff together well enough to turn it into a mixture of night clubs, bars and music lounges, along with a few art studios set up to keep the art guys in business. It's a little freaky moving floor to floor in what could be a rapist's favourite hangout in any other town, but once you get over the concrete graffiti interiors and toilets that have only occasional smatterings of useable light, it's quite the kitschy place.
We also made sure to hit pleny of the more traditional tourists sites, from museums and historical sites (like Nazi bookburning locations and plenty of Soviet east-west sights), plus we watched a Brahms concert performance at the Konzerthaus by the Konzerthaus symphony members. We stuck out a little bit in our backpacker-formal attire, but no one seemed to mind too much.
So yeah, Berlin's a pretty cool place. Walking along the remaining parts of the old Berlin wall, seeing some of the eerie artifacts from the Nazi era, walking through the train station at night seeing the strange mix of anarchists and punks - it's hard not to get into this place. Our next stop is Amsterdam which I'm sure I'll have plenty of fun things to say about as well, though I have a feeling it will be a little less culture-oriented, and a little more night-life related. Hmmm, should be fun.
Our good friend Kris put us up for the first three nights here, which helped get a better feel for the city, though I think if you shadowed a local for weeks on end you'd still miss out on so much here. From "pay what you like" wine bars to abondoned shopping malls turned art slum turned night club, we've done our best to see it all.
Un-Yon! Un-Yon! Un-Yon! Un-Yon!
One of the strangest yet coolest things we saw was a local soccer game. It's a tier III team, which Kris described to me as the equivalent of a small town WHL hockey team, so not very prestigious. The fans however refuse to see it that way, and their stadium holds something like 10 or 15 thousand people. They cheer like madmen, not a single person doesn't wear the right colours for each game, and they have their own hooligans - the guys who enlist themselves into the position of beating the tar out of hooligan fans from the opposing teams. Oh, and when their stadium needed renovations, the fans took it upon themselves to donate time and fix it up on their own.
We caught the game where they were poised to move up to league II, which is much closer to being the equivalent of the NHL at home. They won, and so Shannon and I rushed the field at the end of the game, chanting "Union!" (pronounced un-yon in German).
The Art House (not sure if that's the actual name of it) was another pretty snazzy spot we saw. The srory I'm told is that it used to be a shopping centre, then was abandoned sometime in the communist era. Artist and other squatters settled in, turning it into a 4 level concrete graffiti-filled flop house. As the neighbourhood became more trendy, it got harder and harder for the vagabonds to stay put there, but they managed to get their stuff together well enough to turn it into a mixture of night clubs, bars and music lounges, along with a few art studios set up to keep the art guys in business. It's a little freaky moving floor to floor in what could be a rapist's favourite hangout in any other town, but once you get over the concrete graffiti interiors and toilets that have only occasional smatterings of useable light, it's quite the kitschy place.
We also made sure to hit pleny of the more traditional tourists sites, from museums and historical sites (like Nazi bookburning locations and plenty of Soviet east-west sights), plus we watched a Brahms concert performance at the Konzerthaus by the Konzerthaus symphony members. We stuck out a little bit in our backpacker-formal attire, but no one seemed to mind too much.
So yeah, Berlin's a pretty cool place. Walking along the remaining parts of the old Berlin wall, seeing some of the eerie artifacts from the Nazi era, walking through the train station at night seeing the strange mix of anarchists and punks - it's hard not to get into this place. Our next stop is Amsterdam which I'm sure I'll have plenty of fun things to say about as well, though I have a feeling it will be a little less culture-oriented, and a little more night-life related. Hmmm, should be fun.
Monday, May 11, 2009
Czech This Out
There's so many ways to spin the Czech Republic's name into a witty title, but I think I took the best, least embarrassing way and didn't try to make anything too goofy. The country (or at least Prague) is filled with cheesy shirts saying things like "Czech Me Out", so it seemed a little fitting that I do my best to fit in.
So, after our stint in Romania spent chasing stories and ghosts of Dracula and Vlad Tepes, Shannon and I caught the train to Krakow, in Poland. We made a rather sudden and drastic change to our original plan - originally we had planned on traveling west from Romania through Serbia, Bosnia and Croatia, then traveling north into the Czech Republic. This plan, nice as it was, meant lots of short little stops, with 2-3 nights per city in what both of us felt was more of a "check that one off the list" kind of travel, rather than making the most of our time on the road and visiting places we really wanted to see. And so, we went north to Krakow so that we could see Auschuwitz.
Krakow itself is a pretty fantastic city, with plenty of that eastern-European medieval feel to it. Of course, I'm sure there's a proper way to describe this kind of big-brick pre-war architecture, but I'm completely clueless on how best to do it. I suppose it's best to think of large open squares with plenty of church towers, horse and carriages, and lots of cobble-stone roadways.
An hour outside of town is Auschuwitz, the largest of the Nazi concentration camps. It was a trip well worth the time and effort, though it's impact was extremely diminished by the hordes of high school students on field trips that same day. Most of the most imporant sights were within the basements of buildings or in crowded bunk-bed rooms, meaning you had to fight for each inch of space amongst gangs of pimply-faced boys and overly-perfumed girls, all of whom took as little notice as possible of the savage history that surrounded them and gave most of their attention towards each other or to making fun of the historical situations. I suppose I shouldn't be too hard on these goofy young kids - after all, I hardly would have been any better at their age, but it certainly took a lot away from such an emotional and significant site. Anyway, by the end of the day we managed to get a little "alone time" from the damn wiener kids and give some real appreciation for the magnatude of how many people died there. Since visiting Auschuwitz and talking about the concentration camps, I'm amazed at how many people have family so directly affected by what happened in Poland (and other places) so long ago.
After Poland, we caught a train to Prague, which prior to visiting, and even now I suppose, I knew/know so little of. I think Prague is part of Bavaria, that beer-drinking culture part of the world in both Germany and other countries, where the folks seem to be a little larger and the leider-hosen a little more out there. And based on the touts trying to sell you things, classical music sure has some strong roots in Prague.
You know, you can always get a pretty good idea of what a place is about based on what people are trying to sell you. In every town, on any busy street, there always seems to be someone out handing flyers to people or wearing a sandwich board, telling you what's for sale and what you should be visiting. I think I learned more about the Czech Republic in this way than any other, and from this, I think I would size the country up as being very into classical music, big on it's beer, proud of its communist heritage, and full of people who love making glass souvenirs. If there is anyone who disagrees with this, take it up with the tourist folks trolling the streets of Prague.
We're in Berlin now, which is one kick-ass town, and I'm pretty happy to be here. I'll take a bit more time to write about Berlin later, which I should be able to do this week, as we're staying a few more days and soaking it up as much as possible. After that, it's Amsterdam, then London, Iceland, and back to Canada. It's getting close to the end, and while I'm certainly not ready to leave, it has been getting a little tiring at times being on the road. Earlier I mentioned how most of my clothes have been somewhat destroyed from backpacking, well now I'm noticing my whole body falling apart on me. Well, not falling apart, but melting away. I've lost a few pounds on the road, but I certainly haven't lost any fat. So instead, I've developed arms that look more like fingers, and a chest that most 12 year olds would scoff at. By no means was I a monster coming out of Korea, but 6 months in the gym followed by 6 months lifiting beer mugs makes for one bad before-and-after photo spread. Fortunately the tabloid types and there "who let themselves go this month" magazine spreads won't be doing a special on me, but its something I've certainly noticed myself, and I'm looking forward to remedying back in Canada.
So, after our stint in Romania spent chasing stories and ghosts of Dracula and Vlad Tepes, Shannon and I caught the train to Krakow, in Poland. We made a rather sudden and drastic change to our original plan - originally we had planned on traveling west from Romania through Serbia, Bosnia and Croatia, then traveling north into the Czech Republic. This plan, nice as it was, meant lots of short little stops, with 2-3 nights per city in what both of us felt was more of a "check that one off the list" kind of travel, rather than making the most of our time on the road and visiting places we really wanted to see. And so, we went north to Krakow so that we could see Auschuwitz.
Krakow itself is a pretty fantastic city, with plenty of that eastern-European medieval feel to it. Of course, I'm sure there's a proper way to describe this kind of big-brick pre-war architecture, but I'm completely clueless on how best to do it. I suppose it's best to think of large open squares with plenty of church towers, horse and carriages, and lots of cobble-stone roadways.
An hour outside of town is Auschuwitz, the largest of the Nazi concentration camps. It was a trip well worth the time and effort, though it's impact was extremely diminished by the hordes of high school students on field trips that same day. Most of the most imporant sights were within the basements of buildings or in crowded bunk-bed rooms, meaning you had to fight for each inch of space amongst gangs of pimply-faced boys and overly-perfumed girls, all of whom took as little notice as possible of the savage history that surrounded them and gave most of their attention towards each other or to making fun of the historical situations. I suppose I shouldn't be too hard on these goofy young kids - after all, I hardly would have been any better at their age, but it certainly took a lot away from such an emotional and significant site. Anyway, by the end of the day we managed to get a little "alone time" from the damn wiener kids and give some real appreciation for the magnatude of how many people died there. Since visiting Auschuwitz and talking about the concentration camps, I'm amazed at how many people have family so directly affected by what happened in Poland (and other places) so long ago.
After Poland, we caught a train to Prague, which prior to visiting, and even now I suppose, I knew/know so little of. I think Prague is part of Bavaria, that beer-drinking culture part of the world in both Germany and other countries, where the folks seem to be a little larger and the leider-hosen a little more out there. And based on the touts trying to sell you things, classical music sure has some strong roots in Prague.
You know, you can always get a pretty good idea of what a place is about based on what people are trying to sell you. In every town, on any busy street, there always seems to be someone out handing flyers to people or wearing a sandwich board, telling you what's for sale and what you should be visiting. I think I learned more about the Czech Republic in this way than any other, and from this, I think I would size the country up as being very into classical music, big on it's beer, proud of its communist heritage, and full of people who love making glass souvenirs. If there is anyone who disagrees with this, take it up with the tourist folks trolling the streets of Prague.
We're in Berlin now, which is one kick-ass town, and I'm pretty happy to be here. I'll take a bit more time to write about Berlin later, which I should be able to do this week, as we're staying a few more days and soaking it up as much as possible. After that, it's Amsterdam, then London, Iceland, and back to Canada. It's getting close to the end, and while I'm certainly not ready to leave, it has been getting a little tiring at times being on the road. Earlier I mentioned how most of my clothes have been somewhat destroyed from backpacking, well now I'm noticing my whole body falling apart on me. Well, not falling apart, but melting away. I've lost a few pounds on the road, but I certainly haven't lost any fat. So instead, I've developed arms that look more like fingers, and a chest that most 12 year olds would scoff at. By no means was I a monster coming out of Korea, but 6 months in the gym followed by 6 months lifiting beer mugs makes for one bad before-and-after photo spread. Fortunately the tabloid types and there "who let themselves go this month" magazine spreads won't be doing a special on me, but its something I've certainly noticed myself, and I'm looking forward to remedying back in Canada.
Thursday, April 30, 2009
Vlad Tepes - Dracula!
Well, I rushed through the last post on here, and this one might be a little hurried too, but we'll see. Shannon and I are at a hostel in Krakow, Poland right now, and while the internet is free, it seems today (or tomorrow maybe) is a Polish holiday, and it's starting to get a little packed and panicky as people wait for the computer. Meh, let 'em wait.
So after Turkey, we hauled off to Bulgaria for a 4 night stay to pretty much sit still for a few days in a quiet Bulgarian town and spend some time doing laundry and short hikes around the town. Quite a neat place, Bulgaria, with heaps of antique shops selling old WWII artifacts, and super cheap food and beer. We found a moderately old church too, which wasn't really much to look at, but the basement was open, and going inside we found what I'm pretty sure is some kind of human remains storage area. It was pretty old and damaged, but there were shelves of human skulls all with dates and what we thought were names on them, along with a few dozen boxes filled with human bones. Yes, I did indeed open as many as I could to check them all out, though I stopped short of actually handling the bones, since I didn't really want to be responsible for breaking anyone's skull open, whether they were still using it or not.
We caught the train from Bulgaria to Romania, which right away had a different feel to it. For starters, the 3 hours to the border cost us about $4 a person, but the 3 hours past the border into Romania cost us $20. Kinda strange. Romania also seems to have a much stronger presence of uni-brows - people (men and women) whose eyebrows fail to make any form of discernible gap between them across their forehead. Lots of facial warts too.
We went straight to Brasov, into the heart of Transylvania. We hadn't initially planned on it, but our Romanian trip quickly turned into a sort of Dracula-hunting expedition, as vehicle rentals were quite cheap, and we picked up a car for a few days. The story about Dracula, as far as I can understand it, begins with a Romanian ruler called Vlad Tepes, or Vlad the Impaler. This guy was pretty bad-ass, and had a nasty habit of a) impaling those he thought were conspiring against him onto stakes and b) assuming everyone around him was conspiring against him. He was quite a ruler too, conquering lots of land and doing well for Romania. Anyway, sometime later, Bram Stoker writes a book about vampires, calling the vampire Count Dracula, already another nick-name taken by the now deceased (I think) Vlad Tepes. (Dracula I think comes from Dracul, which means either dragon or devil, not sure which. I really should research this as I write it).
Well, all that history basically meant we spent 4 days cruising around to old castles and citadels either used by Vlad Tepes or used as a setting in the original Dracula book. Pretty cool.
After all that, we made our way to Poland, which we're staying at now. We're hanging around in Krakow, a wonderfully gorgeous city that I know very little about. Oh, except for the nutty legend about the dragon that used to live here, and the shoe-maker who killed it by stuffing a fake sheep full of sulphur, causing the dragon to explode. Lots of cobble-stone roads, old churches, fancy town squares, real nice place to be. Auschuwitz is also right nearby, which we went to see. That was quite an experience, though it was rather lessened in its intensity by the 5000 or so high school students that were also on a trip there that day. Still, despite the crowds and the youngin's acting like fools all around us, it was definitely worth the trip.
Probably time to bugger off the computer now. Next stop on the agenda is Prague, followed by Berlin, hopefully I'll have some fun things to type about then.
So after Turkey, we hauled off to Bulgaria for a 4 night stay to pretty much sit still for a few days in a quiet Bulgarian town and spend some time doing laundry and short hikes around the town. Quite a neat place, Bulgaria, with heaps of antique shops selling old WWII artifacts, and super cheap food and beer. We found a moderately old church too, which wasn't really much to look at, but the basement was open, and going inside we found what I'm pretty sure is some kind of human remains storage area. It was pretty old and damaged, but there were shelves of human skulls all with dates and what we thought were names on them, along with a few dozen boxes filled with human bones. Yes, I did indeed open as many as I could to check them all out, though I stopped short of actually handling the bones, since I didn't really want to be responsible for breaking anyone's skull open, whether they were still using it or not.
We caught the train from Bulgaria to Romania, which right away had a different feel to it. For starters, the 3 hours to the border cost us about $4 a person, but the 3 hours past the border into Romania cost us $20. Kinda strange. Romania also seems to have a much stronger presence of uni-brows - people (men and women) whose eyebrows fail to make any form of discernible gap between them across their forehead. Lots of facial warts too.
We went straight to Brasov, into the heart of Transylvania. We hadn't initially planned on it, but our Romanian trip quickly turned into a sort of Dracula-hunting expedition, as vehicle rentals were quite cheap, and we picked up a car for a few days. The story about Dracula, as far as I can understand it, begins with a Romanian ruler called Vlad Tepes, or Vlad the Impaler. This guy was pretty bad-ass, and had a nasty habit of a) impaling those he thought were conspiring against him onto stakes and b) assuming everyone around him was conspiring against him. He was quite a ruler too, conquering lots of land and doing well for Romania. Anyway, sometime later, Bram Stoker writes a book about vampires, calling the vampire Count Dracula, already another nick-name taken by the now deceased (I think) Vlad Tepes. (Dracula I think comes from Dracul, which means either dragon or devil, not sure which. I really should research this as I write it).
Well, all that history basically meant we spent 4 days cruising around to old castles and citadels either used by Vlad Tepes or used as a setting in the original Dracula book. Pretty cool.
After all that, we made our way to Poland, which we're staying at now. We're hanging around in Krakow, a wonderfully gorgeous city that I know very little about. Oh, except for the nutty legend about the dragon that used to live here, and the shoe-maker who killed it by stuffing a fake sheep full of sulphur, causing the dragon to explode. Lots of cobble-stone roads, old churches, fancy town squares, real nice place to be. Auschuwitz is also right nearby, which we went to see. That was quite an experience, though it was rather lessened in its intensity by the 5000 or so high school students that were also on a trip there that day. Still, despite the crowds and the youngin's acting like fools all around us, it was definitely worth the trip.
Probably time to bugger off the computer now. Next stop on the agenda is Prague, followed by Berlin, hopefully I'll have some fun things to type about then.
Saturday, April 25, 2009
Fairy Chimneys and Eternal Flames
Ahhh Turkey - either the stupidest bird alive, or one of the more exciting countries you could hope to visit. Shannon and I just finished up 9 days in Turkey, and I don't think we'll find much in Europe that will be as unusual as it was. It might not even be that it was all that amazing, but just that I didn't really expect much to come out of it, thinking it was going to be just another European stop with a lot of churches, historical sites and people trying to sell you stuff at drastically inflated tourist prices, often with a gut-wrenching sob story thrown in for free. Well, I suppose it was all that, but the places we stopped at along the way certainly had a lot more.
Istanbul was the first stop, and it was OK, but nothing super special. If you're into mosques, kebabs, or moustaches, then this is the place for you. We only stayed one night though, and spent more time organizing our way out of town than doing anything in it. Well, we did check out one mosque, but that took all of 15 minutes. Rather short compared to the 2 hours watching a Julia Roberts/Clive Owen movie while waiting for our bus out of town.
We took off to Cappadocia (or Kappadokya, however you want to spell it). We weren't sure where we wanted to go to at first, so we based it largely on the posters placed all over the tour agency walls we walked by. The options seemed to be between mosques, beaches, some kind of pancake waterfall bathing town, and the mushroom rocks chalk-full of caves. We chose the caves, and didn't regret it. Cappadicia was apparently home to some pretty intense volcanic activity several million years ago, and as things settled down, it left these bizarre mushroom pillars of rock throughout the region. Plus, it's all this really soft limestone rock, so the troglodytes back in the day used to make all sorts of cave dwellings and even underground cities in the soft crumbly rock. We walked for hours through valleys where the walls would be lined for kilometers with holes, windows and caves people used to live in (and sometimes still do).
We sadly chose the wrong hostel when getting to Cappadocia, and I cannot say I spent the night in a cave, but most places there have built their hotels and guesthouses right into the cliff walls, so getting a "cave room" is generally an easy thing to do, and something I hope anyone who makes it there will do themselves. We did manage to see a Whirling Dervish dance though, which is a strange Turkish religious dance, involving spinning on your left foot, one hand up to heaven, one hand down to earth. It sounds a little silly, but the show they put on was, cliche as it sounds, hypnotic. They don't even serve alcohol during it, as it's taken quite seriously by the Turks.
Following Cappadocia, we went to Olympos. Don't confuse this with Olympus in Greece, because then you'd be in Greece, and not Turkey. Olympos is one of the more unusual ruin sites I've ever seen, since there's very little done to any of them - they've been literally left right in the bush just as they were found. A few dirt paths have been cleared, and some moderately informative signage has been put up, but otherwise it feels like you're the first person to stumble onto these old Roman ruins ever. There's small water systems they build, an amphitheatre, some housing, ir's all quite impressively intact, yet still mostly overgrown and left just sitting there on the side of the path. Anyway, if you get sick and tired of ruins, you can just keep on walking down the path till you hit the beach.
Oh, running out of time here, so I gotta run. One other cool thing about Olympos - the fire. There's a small mountain that spurts out fire from its cracks. Strange. Anyway, in Transylvania now, but whao, no time. Bye!
Istanbul was the first stop, and it was OK, but nothing super special. If you're into mosques, kebabs, or moustaches, then this is the place for you. We only stayed one night though, and spent more time organizing our way out of town than doing anything in it. Well, we did check out one mosque, but that took all of 15 minutes. Rather short compared to the 2 hours watching a Julia Roberts/Clive Owen movie while waiting for our bus out of town.
We took off to Cappadocia (or Kappadokya, however you want to spell it). We weren't sure where we wanted to go to at first, so we based it largely on the posters placed all over the tour agency walls we walked by. The options seemed to be between mosques, beaches, some kind of pancake waterfall bathing town, and the mushroom rocks chalk-full of caves. We chose the caves, and didn't regret it. Cappadicia was apparently home to some pretty intense volcanic activity several million years ago, and as things settled down, it left these bizarre mushroom pillars of rock throughout the region. Plus, it's all this really soft limestone rock, so the troglodytes back in the day used to make all sorts of cave dwellings and even underground cities in the soft crumbly rock. We walked for hours through valleys where the walls would be lined for kilometers with holes, windows and caves people used to live in (and sometimes still do).
We sadly chose the wrong hostel when getting to Cappadocia, and I cannot say I spent the night in a cave, but most places there have built their hotels and guesthouses right into the cliff walls, so getting a "cave room" is generally an easy thing to do, and something I hope anyone who makes it there will do themselves. We did manage to see a Whirling Dervish dance though, which is a strange Turkish religious dance, involving spinning on your left foot, one hand up to heaven, one hand down to earth. It sounds a little silly, but the show they put on was, cliche as it sounds, hypnotic. They don't even serve alcohol during it, as it's taken quite seriously by the Turks.
Following Cappadocia, we went to Olympos. Don't confuse this with Olympus in Greece, because then you'd be in Greece, and not Turkey. Olympos is one of the more unusual ruin sites I've ever seen, since there's very little done to any of them - they've been literally left right in the bush just as they were found. A few dirt paths have been cleared, and some moderately informative signage has been put up, but otherwise it feels like you're the first person to stumble onto these old Roman ruins ever. There's small water systems they build, an amphitheatre, some housing, ir's all quite impressively intact, yet still mostly overgrown and left just sitting there on the side of the path. Anyway, if you get sick and tired of ruins, you can just keep on walking down the path till you hit the beach.
Oh, running out of time here, so I gotta run. One other cool thing about Olympos - the fire. There's a small mountain that spurts out fire from its cracks. Strange. Anyway, in Transylvania now, but whao, no time. Bye!
Monday, April 6, 2009
Unforeseen Events
Things are rolling along nicely on the world trip. Shannon and I are back in Greece for a moment now, just waiting for our train to Istanbul. And so, with not much exciting on the traveling with which to update, I'll take a few lines here to talk about other strange happenings.
Packing for an 8 1/2 month trip was a tough thing to get through, but I think I did pretty well back in October. I even was careful enough to consider my slightly excessive sweating problem (hooray for hyperhydrosis!) and pack 8 or 9 t-shirts instead of a more idealistic 4 or 5. Still, seems 8 or 9 just wasn't close to enough, and now, despite picking up and extra 4 shirts along our travels, I've pretty much ruined, to the point of not being wearable, all the shirts in my bag. Yep, between 24 hour train rides, hostels with no usable shower, long hikes in the hills and my own nasty sweaty-ness, it's reached the point where I'm just going to have to bit the bullet and purge my bag from every shirt in it and start from scratch.
So, why's this worth mentioning? Well, purchasing a new upper-body wardrobe wasn't really on the budget agenda at the start of this trip, so if in my photos (that I will one day upload) you notice a sudden switch to rather tacky-touristy shirts that no self-respecting person would wear, well that's just me pinching pennies in an effort to smell a little better.
There was a big earthquake in Italy last night, happening just hours after Shannon and I left the country. Like the Mumbai attacks in India and the airport closure in Thailand, we were close to this incident and had somewhat planned to be traveling through the area, but I don't think realistically there was much of a chance of us being there when it all went down. Still, it's neat being so much closer to all these freaky big events as they're actually happening.
On our big trip here, Shannon's applied to do her Masters in Environmental Resource Management, which she just got accepted to the other day. Pretty good on her too, since she basically put the application package together while tinkering at internet cafes in various countries.
Hmmm, seems I've got time to kill now, rather than my usual rush-rush get-it-done kinda blogging. We're catching the night train to Istanbul, in a sleeping car too. A little more costly than the 2nd class one, but we've spent a few crappy nights on trains and boats, so it's time for a treat. Oh, but speaking of train tickets, I've got a little beef to rant on about here. We were traveling from Patras to Thessaloniki in Greece (check it out on a map http://www.greece-map.net/images/greece-map.gif) and the bus was rather expensive, 40 euro a ticket. So, I figure the train, while longer, will be a better deal. Turns out it is, only 20 euro a ticket, and so I try to book it, but I have to speak to a different lady to book, and she tells me there's no cheap seats available. This doesn't seem right though, as it was one of those times you just know you're being lied to. So I leave the train station and tell Shannon to go try, cause the lady's being horrible to me. Shannon heads to the train station, finds a nice lady to deal with, is about to have the tickets booked, when bitchy lady shows up again, and the nice lady and bitchy lady start bickering about things in Greek. Who knows what exactly was said, but now the nice lady has to apologize for the fact that there are no cheap tickets available for us. And so we bought the expensive bus tickets. I hate, hate, HATE losing money when people are being jerks to you. I don't mind getting ripped off sometimes, or splurging on a meal or dessert I want, but when someone just refuses to help you when you need to get something done (generally transportation), I lose my mind.
All right, I think I've had enough computeral diarrhea for a while now. Hope everyone out there's doing well!
Packing for an 8 1/2 month trip was a tough thing to get through, but I think I did pretty well back in October. I even was careful enough to consider my slightly excessive sweating problem (hooray for hyperhydrosis!) and pack 8 or 9 t-shirts instead of a more idealistic 4 or 5. Still, seems 8 or 9 just wasn't close to enough, and now, despite picking up and extra 4 shirts along our travels, I've pretty much ruined, to the point of not being wearable, all the shirts in my bag. Yep, between 24 hour train rides, hostels with no usable shower, long hikes in the hills and my own nasty sweaty-ness, it's reached the point where I'm just going to have to bit the bullet and purge my bag from every shirt in it and start from scratch.
So, why's this worth mentioning? Well, purchasing a new upper-body wardrobe wasn't really on the budget agenda at the start of this trip, so if in my photos (that I will one day upload) you notice a sudden switch to rather tacky-touristy shirts that no self-respecting person would wear, well that's just me pinching pennies in an effort to smell a little better.
There was a big earthquake in Italy last night, happening just hours after Shannon and I left the country. Like the Mumbai attacks in India and the airport closure in Thailand, we were close to this incident and had somewhat planned to be traveling through the area, but I don't think realistically there was much of a chance of us being there when it all went down. Still, it's neat being so much closer to all these freaky big events as they're actually happening.
On our big trip here, Shannon's applied to do her Masters in Environmental Resource Management, which she just got accepted to the other day. Pretty good on her too, since she basically put the application package together while tinkering at internet cafes in various countries.
Hmmm, seems I've got time to kill now, rather than my usual rush-rush get-it-done kinda blogging. We're catching the night train to Istanbul, in a sleeping car too. A little more costly than the 2nd class one, but we've spent a few crappy nights on trains and boats, so it's time for a treat. Oh, but speaking of train tickets, I've got a little beef to rant on about here. We were traveling from Patras to Thessaloniki in Greece (check it out on a map http://www.greece-map.net/images/greece-map.gif) and the bus was rather expensive, 40 euro a ticket. So, I figure the train, while longer, will be a better deal. Turns out it is, only 20 euro a ticket, and so I try to book it, but I have to speak to a different lady to book, and she tells me there's no cheap seats available. This doesn't seem right though, as it was one of those times you just know you're being lied to. So I leave the train station and tell Shannon to go try, cause the lady's being horrible to me. Shannon heads to the train station, finds a nice lady to deal with, is about to have the tickets booked, when bitchy lady shows up again, and the nice lady and bitchy lady start bickering about things in Greek. Who knows what exactly was said, but now the nice lady has to apologize for the fact that there are no cheap tickets available for us. And so we bought the expensive bus tickets. I hate, hate, HATE losing money when people are being jerks to you. I don't mind getting ripped off sometimes, or splurging on a meal or dessert I want, but when someone just refuses to help you when you need to get something done (generally transportation), I lose my mind.
All right, I think I've had enough computeral diarrhea for a while now. Hope everyone out there's doing well!
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