Merhaba from Turkey

Gemma, Josh and I, first met back at the hostel in Vileko Tarnovo. They had been traveling together for a short time now, but have only known each other for the same amount of time. Although, they are both from the land of Oz (Australia), they met just less than a few weeks ago while both traveling through Europe. The couple met, when Gemma went to visit a couple of friends who were staying at the same hostel as Josh. They ended up going out as a large group, and as they say the rest is history. The pair planned to travel through Turkey together for the next couple weeks, after which Gemma, will meet up with her brother for a few days before heading home, and Josh will likely land in the UK for a few months to find a job, and do some traveling on the weekends.

Ok, so after being dropped off by my new shoe buddy, we hopped on our overnight train bound for Istanbul. When we previously reviewed our tickets, as luck would have it, Gemma and Josh, and I are were designated for the same car, with cabins next door to each other. This was actually exciting for me, as till now, all my overnight train experiences, entailed off: getting in the cabin, and lights out till we made the destination in the morning. Thats when the most random series of events happened.

After hopping on the train, we immediately went in search of our respective cabins, these sleeper cabins don’t leave much room in the aisle from cabin to cabin, car to car, especially when strapped with a large backpack, literally there is no room for another person to pass when a backpacker is headed down the aisle. We had stepped on the right car, and found our cabins immediately, only problem was that all our cabins were already fully occupied. Thats when the lady conducter arrived to check our tickets, and noticied the problem. The people already in the rooms, made no effort to get up and show their tickets, as they were settled in for the night, and had no interest in sharing their cabin. Than all heck broke loose, three half naked men (actually more than half, as they really only had their briefs/underwear on) jumped out of the cabin next door, and took the tickets from the lady conducter’s hands. Then a series of yelling ensued, where the only words I recognized, was “Romania good, Bulgaria no good.” It appeared that one of the half naked guy, figured out that the train sleepers were double booked, once by the rail offices in Romania and the second in Bulgaria, and since the train was in Romania before ever arriving in Bulgaria, then the Romania tickets were valid, and ours were not. A couple of the half naked guys started to yell at each other, the lady conducter, than took this oppurtunity to scurry away, which left us, along with a couple other travelers uncertain of our seats/bed for the night. Uncertain of the situation, and who were the band of half naked guys, Josh tried to grab the tickets back, which made one of them raise their voice, and request us to drop our bags, in an attempt to clear a walkway down the aisle. Thats when half naked guy no. 1, inspected all the rooms, with half naked guy no. 2 still yelling: Romania good, Bulgaria no good. We could still not figure out what the heck was going on, and where the lady conducter went, then the third half naked guy started to yell at us to get out of the way, and wanted to see our tickets. At this point, you can understand our confusion, as I thought we had hopped on the Twilight Zone Train, but than finally out of desperation, half naked guy no. 3, yelled out: get out of the way, we are the train conducters. Whew, now we really feel relieved, NOT. They made us collect our bags, and asked us to move to the car next door in search of a vacant cabin, at this point, honestly a seat or small vacant square on the floor would suffice for me. At the end of the next car, there were two vacant sleeper cabin, where a couple of ladies took the one on the end, and Gemma, Josh and I shared the other. So in the end, it worked out just fine, actually better than okay, as we spent the next couple hours, chatting and playing cards, before calling it a night.

For those that have not taken an international train in Europe, as you pass through the borders of the respective countries, the train stops and a passport control officer hops on. Most of the times, the train is completely stopped, while for some it continues to move, and the officer hops off at the actual border. In many cases, these is accomplished on both sides of the border, and in some in happens concurrently, as two passport control officers review your passport one after the other. Than there is Turkey, where you are required to leave the train, purchase an entry visa, and than get your passport stamped. We arrived at the Turkish border around 3 am, and jumped off the train in search of the visa office. Most of us knew of this pending stop, and visa purchase, but many did not. The issue, is that depending on where your from (or rather your passport), determined your visa fee and the currency required. Generally, the only accepted currency are the US dollar, the Sterling Pound, and the Euro. For citizens of: Australia, UK, and USA the equivalent of $20 USD was the cost. Whereas for the Canadians the cost was $60 USD, which surprised all of us, as generally everybody liked the Canadians. The process took approximately an hour and half, but passed fairly quickely as it provided an oppurtunity to chat with others, and more to people watch as many did not know about the visa purchase, and there were no ATMs available, and especially any that had the required currency. This was when I witness some impressive, acts of human kindness. There was a guy from the UK, that knew of the pending problem, so he brought along multiple Sterling Pound bills, without thinking twice, he lent the visa fee to a group of four or five backpackers who had no cash on-hand, and whom he had never met before. They exchanged phone numbers, with the backpackers promise of getting him the money, the minute they arrived at Istanbul. Then the girl next to me, did the same, when she came across a couple who had the same problem. Very impressive.

We arrived in Istanbul, mid morning, and along with some other backpackers, set off for our respective hostels, in Sultanahmet (Old Istanbul), where Hagia Sophia (aya Sofya) and the Blue Mosque are also located. Unlike many other large destination cities, the hostels are located in the heart of the City, as many apartment type housing complexes have been converted to hotels or hostels. To get ot Sultanahmet from the train station take the metro (tram) to Zeytinburnu to Sultanahmet (two stops). The cost is only 1.30 YTL (conversion $1 USD equals 1.28 YTL), the metro token can be purchased at the kiosk at the tram station.

After checking in and grabbing a bite to eat (Turkish style pizza, open pita with cheese, vegtables and meat), I met up with Gemma and Josh to visit the site. We visited the Blue Mosque first, followed by Aya Sofya. When visiting a mosque, men and women, you shoulders and legs down past your knee cap, must be covered, and you will have to take off your shoes before entering, some may also require the women to cover their head.

At Aya Sofya, which is now a museum therefore dress code not enforced, but as a trade off admission fee is required, we ran into Ericka who met at the Turkey border while purchasing our visa. Ericka, was also the girl next to me, who lent a random couple the money they needed to purchase their visas. Still impressed by her act of kindness, we invited her to join us for sightseeing the rest of the day, which she glady accepted.

Next we visited, the Basilica Cistern, basically an underground chamber supported by columns, which was used to store water for summer time use, and during times of siege. The most interesting thing, is how it is lit, which gives it a relaxing quiet library feel, and the fish that swim in the water of the Cistern, It is said, that the fish is there, to verify that the water is still fresh, and has not been poisoned. the other notable feature of the Cistern, which to be are overblown and barely worth mentioning, is that at the base of two columns, there are carvings of Medusa’s head. Cistern is cool for a 20-minute visit, but okay if you want to pass on it. Next we stopped at the spice market, which should be more named as the: Spice, leeches, and pet/animal market. Next door is a mini Bizarre (swapmeet) which we spent the next couple hours. The Turkish Bizarre/swapmeet is quite the ordeal, not sure I should give you too much details as eveybody should experience without too many expectations, but just be prepared for some aggrevise salesmanship. They seem rude and overbearing at first, but then you realize it is just part of the experience, and they are doing what they need to set themselves abit a part. The girls especially loved, the many offers for apple tea, as they brought you into their store, to have a drink and so that they can show of their goods. In the end, do not feel compelled to buy anything, just because you had their tea, but also do not feel compelled to enter their store. As, if they sense the littlest amount of interest, they go for the kill. Just remember, their goods, are no different than the other guy’s five stall down, literally. So be prepared to walk away multiple times, and you can get a pretty good price.

The four of us than returned to Sultanahemt, where we met Ahmet, a university student and part owner of a travel agency, who would become our local friend for the rest of our stay in Istanbul. The four of us went our seperate ways, back to our respective hostels, then met up later for dinner and a night out on the town with Ahmet and some of his friends. The night out was fun, but very similar to every other big city, the only difference this time, was that we had a local guide. We wrapped up the night, when the bar closed, and decided to meet up for dinner, as it was my last in Istanbul and we all wanted to do different things.

Now I had my mission, with my flight from Istanbul to Cairo set for just before midnight that night. I figured it was one of my only oppurtunities to be on three seperate continents within 24 hours. So just before noon, I headed to the ferry for the Asia side of Istanbul. The ferry leaves approximately every 40 minutes and cost the same as the metro tram, where the token can be purchased at the entry of the ferry station. The ride is only half an hour and is scenic more on the Europe side than Asia. I arrived on Asia, sometime afternoon, and walked the streets for abit of sightseeing and grabbed some lunch, then returned on the next ferry back to Europe. There wasn’t much on the Asia side, at least that I saw, but the ferry ride is well worth the two bucks for the round trip.

Back in Europe, I walked the streets, visited a couple more mosques, and stopped by the Grand Bizarre. The Grand Bizarre is basically a swapmeet on crack, it is made up of over 4500 stalls/shops in one spot, but you really see the same things over and over again, and you hear the same things over and over again (see above for agressive sales). I flew through the Bizarre as fast as I could, and decided to stop by Ahmet’s agency before getting ready for dinner. Gemma and Josh were already there, hanging out with Ahmet and his friends, we hungout and learned how to play backgammon, which to them is almost a national sport. I got a couple games in, and did okay, but it was funny to watch them, as us rookies made our moves, they would grimace and talk smack, if we took too long or bad what deemed to be a bad move.

Later that evening, we went to dinner, with Ahmet’s friend who owned the bar we went the night before, and he got us into the top floor of a hotel, where they would bring us dinner from the resturant next door. The view was magnificanct as we could see The Blue Mosque, Aya Sofya, and the Bosporus River. Unfortunately, I had to eat and run, as it was going to take 45 minutes to get to the airport and a couple hours to check-in, so we said our goodbyes, and wished each other safe and happy travels, and I set off for Egypt.

To get to Ataturk International Airport from Sultanahmet via public transport is very easy: take the metro to Zeytinburnu, exit at Zeytinburnu and get on the metro to Havalimani (airport). The switch will require a second token, so just purchase two when you buy the first metro token. In all the trip takes under 45 minutes, and kicks you right out to the airport, with departures on the third floor. By the way, i needed just about every minute of the two hours for check in, so please plan accordingly, especially when flying Turkish Airlines, as it seemed everybody was. See you in Egypt.

Detour: Running of the Bulls

When I first decided to do this trip, and found out that the Running of the Bulls would take place, at the time I would be on the same continent, I was set on going. As you know, I did not make the Running of the Bulls in Pamplona, but instead I did make my own Running of the Bulls. Enjoy the attached slideshow.

http://www.kodakgallery.com/I.jsp?c=78ky293.32ptete7&x=0&y=1d60zn

Goodbye Belgrade, Hello Bulgaria

After five days in Belgrade (with one in Novi Sad), sadly it was time to say goodbye to Serbia. I finally decided to book my Egypt trip and had now received confirmation with the touring company, that they could place me on my desired tour, which was starting within the week. Originally I had planned to visit Egypt in mid to late August, but it seemed that much of Eastern Europe and the Middle East was experiencing higher than normal temperatures, with no end it sight, so I decided to move the trip up. The temperature in Egypt, is expected to be in the high 40s to 50 degree Celsius, which converts to around 115 to 120 degree Farenhiet.

The last couple days in Belgrade, were fairly chill, as I just hungout with Srdjan (my Serbian little brother from another mother), Nema and Dragana, the terrific girls that work/own the Green Studio Hostel, and some of the other hostel-mates. However, I did finally take in abit more sightseeing, as Srdjan took me on a walking tour of his City, and promised to tour me through New Belgrade on my next visit. Even had a chance to get my first haircut since I left home, which was a great experience, and long over due as I usually get one every three weeks at home, and over 5 weeks had passed since my last. Side story: Srdjan has been growing out his locks for over a year now, and is real picky about where he gets his haircut, but even at that its well less than $10 US (Conversion is $1 USD = 58 Dinars). So, when I asked him if he could find me a place to cut my hair he was excited and wanted to find the perfect place, we walked through town and stopped by at least four or five places, from a hole in the wall to some fancy chique salons. The prices varied from about $4 to $15 US. I told him, that it didn’t matter to me, but I wanted a true Serbian experience, not one that was trying to be western, which I could get at home. So we came across this hole in the wall that charged about $5 US, it seemed okay with me, but Srdjan was worried, he made us leave, before we went back in, then he explained to the stylist in detail how to cut my hair. It was pretty funny, he was so worried, he stood over the stylist as she buzzed me, until I told him that he is going to freak her out and make me go almost bald again. The two stylist got a good kick out of the experience too, as they were giggling and talking about me, but not behind my back, since I couldn’t understood it anyways. It turned out to be a good haircut and great fun, and that in sum was the type of experiences that I had during my whole stay in Belgrade. I have nothing but great things to say about that City, not much to see, compared to other European cities, but the people are truely awesome. Just remember, if you visit, you have to leave your shyness at home, and talk to plenty of the locals. Ciao Belgrade, I will miss you.

On Monday night, I caught the night train to Sofia, Bulgaria, as I had roughly five days to get closer to Egypt, so that I can find a flight to Cairo. It seems that not many airlines fly to Cairo on a daily basis, so I figured that I would head in a southeast direction toward Istanbul and should be able to fly to Cairo from there. Previously, while in Belgrade I booked a reservation on-line for a flight from Istanbul to Cairo, and notified them that the ticket must be paperless and of the “E” (electronic) type, as I would not have any mailing address to recieve a paper ticket. The agency continued to drag the process for a couple days, before cancelling my reservation, the day I was leaving Belgrade. Just something to keep in mind, in case you do a back packing trip of your own, with no defined timeline and flight itinerary. 

Arrived in Sofia, in the morning, checked into the hostel which I booked on the overnight train via the Blackberry (BB), which has truely been a lifesaver. (By the way, I think most everybody has it, but just in case, you can e-mail me directly at: ocglobetrotter@yahoo.com as I can respond on the BB.) I then went through the City to search for a travel agency to buy my Cairo flight ticket. With the assistance of a local business man, I was able to locate a travel agent who was able to purchase a flight from Istanbul to Cairo on Friday at apx midnight to Saturday early morning, the cost was higher than expected, but what can you do. So I said the told the travel agent that I would take the ticket and slide her my credit card, where she than said: “No, cash only.” Luckily for me, I had my second ATM card handy, as I had to use the ATM a total of three times to get enough cash out to pay for the ticket: first, capped by limit of the withdrawal amount per transaction by ATM (card 1); second, capped by my daily limit of card 1; third, card 2 the remaining amount. So another word of advice, when traveling for prolonged periods, bring an extra ATM card from a different bank, another credit card, along with color copies of your passport and credit cards, in case you lose those items, or in my case need more money than one card may allow you for that day or the weekend. (You also need to notify your bank of your intentions to travel overseas, so that they can unblock your card for such use).

 With the most expensive two hour flight ticket, I have ever purchased in-hand, I returned to the hostel to freshen up. The rest of the day turned out to be fairly un-eventful, as I rested and took in the sights. Sofia, is fairly average for a large capital city, with it has its share of: historical buildings, churches, and monuments. The highlights are a couple of the larger and historical churches. But for me, the most interesting was the Soviet Monument. Not the monument itself, but rather the state it has been left in. Like many other former Eastern block countries, they would rather forget and remove the monuments, but that takes alot of money, which they don’t have. As a result, it has become a skate and grafitti park for teenagers.

Later that night, I went for dinner and drinks with a few hostel-mates, and this was the first time during my whole trip where I just didn’t get along with one of the backpackers. There was a group of four of us, and two of them were cool, and pretty chill, but one of the guys from Norway, seemed to be fairly abrasive. I know that seems strange coming from me, as I can be so at times as well, but this guys had to put down almost anything and everything, and especially (from my perception) the good ole USA. So finally, I had a few words with him, it was diplomatic from both sides, but needless to say, dinner was over and it was time to call it a night. 

In the morning, I woke up bright and early and caught a bus for Vileko Taranovo (VT), based on the recommendation of Pete (Canada, I met while in Belgrade). Ok, if even after my warm and glowing review and description of Sofia, and you still decide to visit, a word of warning from my personal experience: Stay away from the dodgy information guy! I arrived at the bus station, around 6 am to catch the 6:30 bus to VT, the problem which I should have realized by now, is that departures and arrival areas are generally located in different parts of the station. Usually the same station, just possibly opposite ends. So when I arrived back at the station, where I had just been the day before, I had a bit of a problem finding the bus stops for departures. Of course with my 18kg pack on my back, I stood out like a sore thumb. Thats when a guy came up to me and said that he can take me to the ticket office, and flashed his dodgy Information Officer ID card, but when I noticed that he was in slippers, I new something was sketchy. I followed him abit to see if I would pass an official kiosk on the way. Then I turned the corner and ditched him. Unfortunately I couldn’t find anyone else and any open offices so early, so I went back and figured that I would just tip him an extra couple bucks (conversion $1 USD equals 1.44 Bulgarian Levs), and get what info I needed. Turns out he works for a ticket agency, which sells bus tickets among other things, but with their comission added on. The ticket lady took her sweet time writing up my ticket, and charged me an extra buck comission, but then they wouldn’t point me to the departure station. Instead she said that the Info Officer had to lead me. With minutes before the bus departure, I asked him to just point the way, and I would be off. But no, he with his ragged slippers had to slide through the bus terminal, so that he could lead me, in hopes of getting that extra tip. All in all it worked out, I gave him a buck, but I did almost miss the bus, cause when I got there, the bus was loaded and I turned in my ticket. The bus driver looked at it, and asked for the second half. Turns out that I was suppose to receive the carbon copy, which the bus driver would keep. The bus driver called the station manager over, who requested me to return to the ticket office, to get the second half. I gave him a look, like are you crazy, and explained to him that I did not want to miss the bus, and the guys that sold me the ticket was seriously sketchy, and did not want to deal with them again. He actually seemed like he knew what I was talking about, so he just let me on. So the next tip of the day is: when arriving, and you know that you will be leaving from that same bus or train station, spend a couple extra minutes and figure out where you will catch the departures.

Upon arrival in VT, and the recent lessons learned, I took a bus to the train station where I would catch the overnight train to Istanbul later that night, buy my sleeper ticket and get the lay of the land. The problem was that the VT train station was tiny and a bit away from the City. Upon arrival at the station the ticket lady, couldn’t speak a word of English. Not her fault, after all I was in Bulgaria, the problem was that when she realized I couldn’t speak Bulgarian, she started to yell at me, I mean yell, she seemed to rant and rave for 30 seconds. I still couldn’t help but raise my hands and shoulders as to say, no matter how much you say/yell, I still don’t understand. Finally I just told her Istanbul, where she charged me less than $10, which I knew was not right. So I started to get fustrated and tried to explain that this could not possibly be the right ticket, I could only point and ask: Istanbul? Thats when a guy stepped in line behind me, and offered to help, he said that the ticket lady said that she sold me a ticket that would get me on the train whereby I can buy my remaining leg and the sleeper cabin. This of course was not consistent to the other trains I have caught to-date, and told him that sounded funny, and would feel better to just purchase the full fare here. She ranted and raved for another 30 secs, he tried to keep a straight face, as she was probably bagging on me, and told me that I needed to go the office in VT’s city center ticket office, where I can upgrade my ticket.

I then caught a couple more buses to the sister hostel of the one I stayed in Sofia, and negoitated a small fee for the full use of the premises but no bed needed as I was on the night train. The rest of the day, I walked the town (really small) with Tim (from Ireland), and we visited the fortress and church which are the main attractions in VT.

Back at the hostel, I had a couple of hours of hours to chill before the train, and had a chance to hangout with a lot of cool backpackers, restoring my faith in the open arms that the back packing community generally has to offer. VT is a bit off the beaten path, and as a result attracts a different crowd. It is definaltely more suited for the appreciation of the outdoors with good oppurtunity for hiking and a nice quiet dinner rather than: pounding the pavement and a raging night at the bar or club. I would have liked to stay in VT for a night, but was not going to trade it for a day in Istanbul, for it. So the hostel offered to take me and a couple others to the train station. The other two turned out to be a couple, that I would end up seeing Istanbul with, for the next couple days, but more on that in the next entry, as I must share my shoe story. So as we are ready to leave, the hostel manager, a 20 something University student, says: “you want to sell me your shoes?” I laughed, and he said: “no, seriously.” I looked down and said that we aren’t even the same shoe size, we was a 11.5, and I, a 10.0. He told me that he really liked my runners, a white (at least it use to be), Nike Air Max cross trainers. He said that he spotted them the time I walked in and wanted to ask me about them, as he can’t get those type of shoes, here in Bulgaria, and considers himself somewhat of a shoe collector. This off course caused me to laugh, and I told him of my own personal collection/problem. We ended up talking shoes the whole way to the train station and as we waited for it to arrive. I gave him my e-mail and told him to e-mail me in 6 months, and that I would try to hook him up, as it I was my duty to help a fellow shoe collector. Who knew, too funny.

Oh, by the way, I did end up buying my full ticket to Istanbul on a sleeper, but the ticket I got at the station was all wrong. I had to get a refund, but only a partial, and just purchased a new ticket.

See you on the train.

Eureka?

What a week! I am writing to you from Belgrade, Serbia, and as you may be able to tell, I have had a chance to upload a few pics, and write a few blog entries. There are lots of blanks to fill in, especially the bulk of my tour group from Scandanavia to Russia to Germany, but I wanted to let you know what I am up to, as it has been a week of ups and downs, maybe just alittle of what I was expecting to experience on a journey such as this. You may be asking: I never heard you speak anything about Serbia, how did that get on your list. Well, after spending 4 days in Budapest, it was time to go, and I went to the bus station to find a location in Croatia, either the capital of Zagreb, or the coastal towns of: Zadar, Split or Dubrovnik. It turned out that there would not be a bus to Croatia for another couple days, and the only one available did not stop at Zagreb, so it would be a very long ride. Therefore, I elected to catch the tram to the train station to just buy any ticket to Croatia for the next day. But, when I got there, the station was packed wall to wall with backpackers: outside, inside, everywhere you could see. The line for international tickets were also out the door. I knew that Budapest was a major hub, but this was crazy. Standing in line, I started speaking with the guy in front of me, and he said that he was so excited and that he couldn’t wait. He than asked me, if I was stoked, assuming that I was in the know. I told him that I had no idea, why the station was so packed, and what was going on, and was just here to buy a train ticket to Croatia. It turned out that much like Budapest, major train stations throughout Eastern Europe was packed and would be for another day, as tens of thousands would hop for a train to Novi Sad, Serbia for the EXIT Festival. This music festival will have over 20 stages, and 400 acts over the course of 4 days. The guy than told me, that you have to go, and he has been planning for this, for most of the year. We discussed the music that would be played and the acts, then he said two words, and I said sign me up: Lauryn Hill. I have been a fan of Lauryn Hill’s Miseducation CD for years, and have heard that she was notorious for no-shows and cancellation in the States, and thought this may be my only opportunity to see her, as she has been somewhat MIA the last 5+ years.

Since I was only interested in going to the concert on one of the four days, I decided to stay in Belgrade for a couple days, to get a feel for Serbia, leave my bags there and go to the concert. Then the unexpected happen, I met some of the friendliest people that I have ever met, previous distinction held by Costa Rica. Since day one, the locals were extremely helpful and welcoming, and most actually speak English. When I try to say thank you in Serbian, they smile and want to actually help more. I am also staying at a great hostel (Green Studio Hostel, just a 5 minute walk, if that, from the train and bus station), where they bend over backwards to help, and entertain. With little sites to see, a couple of of my hostel-mates and I, just hangout and joke with staff and locals. While walking back on the first day after visiting the Castle with Pete (aka Pierre from Canada), I met Srdjan, and he was so excited to hear that I was from the States and California no less. Since that initial meeting he has taken a few of us from the hostel out clubbing, and downloaded us on the local culture. I will meet Srdjan, again, for dinner tonight, but I justed wanted to share with everybody his excitement for life and the world. He is 18 years old, and just less than 10 years ago, him and most of the country were unsure of their future, as Belgrade was being heavily bombed. With that behind him/them, but not forgotten, it is amazing how much they love life, and appreciate what the world outside of Serbia may offer. The unfortunate thing is that, they need Visas for much of the world, and we and other countries do not make it easy for them. For Americans, Russia is probably one of the most difficult countries to get a Visa, as you need to have a specific itinerary, with confirmations of hotel reservations for each night, along with letter of invitation, plus a fee. Now, imagine that this is the process for almost all countries, as that is the case for Serbians, and that is only if its allowed, which it generally isn’t. Also keep in mind, that they are relatively poor, in terms of income, so not only would the Visa fee be expensive, but imagine the trip itself.

I will write more, but just wanted to share this with the group, as it has been a heart warming few days in Serbia, but then again it may have to do with the fact that I met a special someone. Unfortunately, I had to say goodbye to her earlier in the week, my hope is that it was more of a see you later, and not a goodbye…

By the way, I went to the Exit Festival last night, was standing room only, and was 10 rows from front center, when Lauryn Hill and Snoop Dogg preformed. I am planning to leave Belgrade tomorrow night on a night train to somewhere south, maybe Sofia, Bulgaria, as I need to be in Cairo Egypt on Saturday July 21st, where I am meeting a tour group for a 15 day tour, and hopefully figuring a way to see the Petra in Jordan. From that point I will have to figure out the rest.

I promise to fill in the blanks of my trip, later. Hope all is well.

Scandanavia-Kobenhaven

The 14 hour bus ride actually went by fairly quick, keep in mind that I am writing this entry much later, and probably forgot about any of the discomforts. The only real hassle was that you couldn’t get a peaceful night sleep, one that I was desperately hoping for. There were the usual number stops at key Cities, namely Germany and Dresden, border stops for passport checks, a dinner break, and the one on the ferry taking us into Denmark. The ferry ride was the unexpected part of the ride, as you need to actually exit from the bus and hangout in the foyer/lobby/common area of the ferry for apx an hour, in the middle of the night/morning, between 3am to 4am. Of course the ferry trip took place, just when I was completely passed out. However, the ferry ride did provide some form of entertainment, in the form of people watching, as many took this oppurtunity to purchase some duty free alcohol. With little else to do, some people decided pop open brew and have some barley for breakfast.

The bus arrived at Central Station in Copenhagen at 5am, right on time. The City was still much asleep, so I hungout at the station for awhile, packed my bags into a lockers, ate some breakfast, and watched some people returning home from a night of partying, this again made for some entertainment, but I won’t bore you with the antics of Kobenhaven’s best partiers. With sometime to kill before checking in with the tour group, I set out into the City to get the lay of the land and to see some of the notable landmarks. Copenhagen is fairly easy to navigate as most of the streets are close to perpendicular, with the exception of some of the shopping areas, but fairly easy overall. I was able to see a good portion of the City, but the most interesting of which is Christiania. The is an area which previously served as an army barrack, but have since been taken over by people who would like to disassociate themselves with the rest of society and “the man.” Many travel guides will mention Christiania, but not sure if they recommend a personal visit. Upon entering Christiania you know that you aren’t in Kansas anymore. There is grafitti everywhere, broken down shacks, what appeared to be scrap yards (one man’s trash, is another one’s treasure), political statement fliers, and just random sheds and buildings. Within a few minutes in the compound, I was approached twice regarding pot, and it still wasn’t 8 am yet. The highlight of the walk through Christiania is the exit sign you walk under, whereby it reads: you are now entering the EU. The citizens of the compound have deemed it to be its own country and not under the jurisidiction of Denmark and ultimately the EU. After walking the city for a few more hours and just when the sun disappeared, I returned to Central Station. The rain started to pour as I caught my metro train and bus transfer to our group hostel. The main grip with Contiki go-ers is that many of our hotels/hostels are in BFE (aka really far away, clean verision). At the transfer station, I met my first tour co-member, Cassie, who is originally from Australia, but has been traveling non-stop for more than a year. She was one of the more traveled members of the group, and I believe could be blindfolded and dropped into any City in the World, and would have no hesitation and problems in getting around. Unfortunately for the remainder part of the trip, I did not get to know Cassie too much, but she is somebody who just loves to travel and soak in the culture, not someone who is checking off a list of things to do and see. I find myself still in the checklist mode and hope that may change, but who knows. Upon arrival at the hostel, it was pouring, and the tour group members were slowly coming in. For the first night we had a group orientation, namely to describe the pace of the tour group and the expectation/guidelines because of Russia. Dinner followed, and then a group of us (roughly half) trekked into town for a night on the town and an oppurtunity to get to know each other, after all it was Saturday night. One guess as to which part of the group was the heavy partiers and drinkers, of yeah of course they had their own personal designated walker. My roommates for the first night were Tom (from Cardiff, Whales) and Troy (from Australia). The three of us developed a strong bond throughout the trip, but it did not start that way. As this is how, I met Tom: I was taking a nap when Tom walked and said “Hi, I am F’n pissed.” (Pissed means drunk) We tried to exchange formal introductions and pleasantries, but then he decided to tell me how much he dislikes California and especially Southern California. If you had to bet at this point, there was a good chance that Tom and I were going to get into it at some point during the trip. Our second conversation, was later that night when we were hanging out with a larger group and he started with his anti this and his anti that, it turned out, even by his own admission that Tom just makes bad first impressions sometimes because he doesn’t express himself correctly. What he really meant was that he didn’t care for his trip to Southern California as it was not easy for the common backpacker to travel around. I would be the first to agree with that. After awhile Tom really grew on me and I started to understand his Tom-ism, I started to tease him that he only made bad first impressions because many of his statements were interpretated to be negative, but he sincerely didn’t mean it that way, example: “I didn’t mind Seattle.” Believe it or not, that was a compliment, and a good one at that. Tom was very well travels, having visited 44 States in the US, I don’t know many Americans who can beat that. After we had some discussions regarding our first couple meetings, Tom and I got along great.

For our first full day of the tour, we were driven into Copenhagen and given a bus tour of the City, before being dropped off for the remainder of the day. Erin, Stacy and I broke off from the larger Sat Night Brew Crew, as with any large group it was going to be potentially a lot of in-decision and namely they wanted pizza and we didn’t. It turned about to be a real nice day, with some heavy showers later in the afternoon, but we were able to get many sites in: Round Tower (a spiral ramp takes you up, instead of the common stair system), Rosenborg Slot/Castle (where the Crown Jewels are stored), and the canal lined on both sides with Cafes and souviner vendors (my count still stands at zero). We finished the day, with my guided tour of Christiania and dinner by day, as the sun did not set till after 10 pm.

Pictures

I will now periodically include a couple pictures on the Flickr link, on the right side when possible, as its really slow to upload. And provide a link to Kodak, which you can view the greater group of pics. Let me know what you think, hope this works, as it has been a laborous process getting these pictures uploaded, I think I need to downsize the memory (pixal count) of these pictures. If you have any suggestions, please let me know.

 Prague at Night:

http://www.kodakgallery.com/I.jsp?c=78ky293.c58xrxcn&x=0&y=-41fafk

Dzien Dobry

Dzien dobry from Poland.

Ok, things didn’t go as planned on the night train. Everything was fine, but the night train is comprised of cabins, and only cabins, at least to my knowledge, there are no common areas and diner cars. My cabin included 6 beds, three on each side of the cabin with only the smallest space in between the triple bunks. The bottom two bunks could be made into seats, for people to hang before calling it a night, but upon arrival, my cabin was already dark and one of the cabin mates was fast asleep. So after many nights, of staying up into the wee hours, it was bedtime before 11 pm. In all the night train worked out well, as you are able to cover good ground, and save on a room for the night, but the trade off, is a fresh shower, and the tight quarters.

I arrived in Krakow a half hour late, and had to make up sometime, as I was meeting a couple friends from the tour. They had arrived in Krakow a couple nights before, but saved the day trip to Auschwitz, to take with me, as its not something you generally want to do alone. Where do I start with Auschwitz, as most everybody knows, it is one of the most notorious concentration camps. Located just one and half hour bus ride from Krakow, Auschwitz and Birkenau: were the site where one to one-and-a-half million people were murdered. (Quick info: there are buses from the main bus terminal that leave almost every 15 minutes, 7 Zloty ($1USD = 2.8 Zl) each way, entrance into the camps are free, with the English tour costing only 26 Zl. You would be crazy not to do the guided tour.) The tour took around 4 hours, but time seemed to stand still. Its hard to explain, as I do not mean that it seemed to last forever, or that it flew by, its just the thoughts that went thru your head as you heard the stories and saw the images, the bunkers, the personal effects, the gas chambers, the places of tragedies, you are left speechless, and in shock by what the human being is capable of, and time ceases to exist. Overall it is estimated that over 11 million people were killed by the events of the Holocaust, most of them Jewish, but also included: political prisoners, prisoners of war, handicapped and crippled, and homosexuals. The average life of the prisoners in the camp was only 2 to 4 months, before they were murdered. Many of which, were killed within hours of arrival. If you were deemed to have no value as a worker or to be experimented on, you were then killed immediately. One of the most interesting facts that I was not aware of, was that the events at the concentration camps were not well known, during the early 40s as millions were being murdered. Either many countries looked the other way, or were unaware, but many of the inmates of the camp were none the wiser, as well. The Nazi would murder thousands of them at a time, by sending them to the supposed showers or bathroom, but it was really the gas chamber. I think the trip to Auschwitz will affect almost everybody in a similar way, but the item that may affect you the most will be different. For me, it was the personal effects, there were rooms of some of the items that were salvaged. As the people arrived, their personal belongings were confiscated. The Nazis kept it, and distributed some for their own personal use, including: clothing, glasses, brushes, shoe wax, shoes… For me, the room that included the clothing and shoes for kids, was tough to swallow. Behind each of these individual articles of clothing, was someone who was still too young to even learn how to dream. If you are ever in the same time zone, you should really consider the trip, as it well make you appreciate all the freedom that we do have. Many thanks to Laura and Jennifer, my favorite Contiki sisters, for waiting for me to go to Auschwitz, I do not know how I could have done that trip alone.

After getting back to Krakow, we grabbed dinner at the Old Town Square, which is the largest medieval square in all of Europe. I finally had my first Pierogi (hope I spelled it right), of course I had been in Warsaw already, which I will write about later, but for some reason I missed the Pierogi experience. The Pierogi is basically a Polish dumpling, with a variety of fillings, most common being cabbage, mushrooms, or cheese. Of course I had the meat Pierogi, and yes I am a fan. After dinner, I had to bid a temporary farewell to the ladies as they were catching a night train to Budapest, but we planned to meet up there in a couple days. Finished the night by walking through the town and stopping by the base of the Castle.

During my second day in Krakow, I started by visiting the Salt Mines, no need for details as it seems to be in almost every travel book. But in sum, a tour through the underground salt mines of a town 10km from Krakow. To get there you take a minibus at the designated stop, each way 2.5 Kc, travel time 20 mins. The english guided tour is 63Kc and last for apx 2 hours, taking you down from 65 meters below to apx 130 meters. there are 9 levels in the salt mine, and you only explore a portion of level 1 and 2. The attraction are the statues that the miners carved out of the salt. The real attraction is the chapel, which still holds services on Sundays, and includes a relief carved into the wall of the chapel/mine of the last supper. Overall, as quoting Rick Steve “a bit over-rated” (inside message: thought you might appreciate this), but I would say that you can easily pass on this, unless you have run out of things to do and have to spend the 70Kc before you leave town. But one interesting story, there is a legend of a Polish Queen who was originally from Hungary, Poland was short on salt, which at the time was very expensive, so she asked for a wish, for Poland to have salt like her homeland Hungary, then she threw her engagement ring into a Hungarian lake. Later, upon her request a hole was dug in the location of the salt mines, where obviously the salt was discovered, along with her ring. So the legend says, that the salt traveled from Hungary to Poland, carrying with it, her ring. Salt was so valauble back then, that it was used as money, and could have bought you a whole village. Its even where the word salary comes from.

The rest of the day, I walked around town and visited Wawel Castle. The Castle grounds is free to roam, but admission is required for access to the museums in the buildings. I just walked the ground, and for good luck chilled at a corner of a wall that in Hindu faith is one of the only seven Chakra points in the whole world. I wasn’t the only one, as there were a few people waiting to stand in that same location. A story about the Castle, legend has it that Krakow and the location of the Castle was occupied by a dragon. Being close to the river Krakow was growing, but the hill could not be built upon because of the dragon. Prince Krak with the help of a shoemaker, fed the dragon something whereby the dragon needed to drink the water from the river, it drank and drank until the dragon finally exploded. Then the Castle was built, when you visit Wawel you will find kids with dragons everywhere, even a dragon statue and dungeon.

Later that night, I caught my second night train. This time I paid a small premium to book a cabin with only three bunks, of course I got stuck with the top most bunk again. I seriously think, that they measure you up to see who will get the top bunk. I guess I will take it as a compliment, and luckily I usually don’t have to use the facilities in the middle of the night. See you in Budapest.

One Month

Hallo from Germany. Today marks the completion of my first full month since leaving Southern California. I am writing this from a train station in Berlin, where I will take an overnight train to Krakow, total trip is apx. 12 hours. Alot has happened since my last entry (Cesky Krumlov and Prague), but hopefully I can write a few drafts on the train tonight. It has been much harder to write the blog entries than e-mails, as e-mails are free flowing thoughts and summaries, whereas I feel that I must treat the blog entries as stories with facts and some level of entertainment. Many of you have written to me expressing your intrigue and enjoyment of the stories, so hopefully I can keep it up. This entry will be some what different, as it will be in the e-mail free flowing form, and I will add back-dated entries with stories at a later time. At least, this way I can let you know where I am and where I have been.

The tour group ended for me a couple days ago, but officially it ended today in Copenhagen. A few of us dropped off during the last day in Berlin, instead of riding up north, to only find a way back down to our destination of choice. Since then I have spent the last couple days in Berlin for some sight seeing. The tour group lasted just short of 3 weeks, covering: Copenhagen, Denmark; Stockholm, Sweden; Helsinki, Finland; St Petersburg, Novogrod, Moscow and Yartsevo in Russia; Minsk, Belarus; Warsaw, Poland; and Berlin, Germany. There were 30 of us (including the tour manager and bus driver) through the first leg covering the Scandanavian countries, then 16 people joined us from a different group as we embarked into Russia. Overall the trip was great, I had a chance to see some countries that was not on my radar (namely the Scandanavian countries), and Russia which would have been very difficult to accomplish as a solo backpacker, plus I had a chance to hang out with a great group of people, from all walks of life, literally. The rough breakdown of the group was: mostly Australians (or Ozzies, not Aussies as they like to refer to themselves), Kiwis (New Zealand), England and Whales, a few Canadians, and apx. 8 Americans; the group was actually predominately women (little less than 2 to 1 ratio), which surprised me but not others who have done more Contiki than myself; average age was probably 25 to 26, with a few 18 & 19 year olds, and a handful 33 and 34 y.o. As with any group, there are the loud and social ones, and the quiet ones, I will let you guess which group I fell into. In general most everybody had a oppurtunity to hangout with everbody at least once, but as with everywhere else cliques obviously formed. I will save the stories of some of the great people that I met for later, but I was very impressed by the worldly experience of some, and it really brought home the cliche that age is really just a number, of course this also cuts both ways. But again I will save what I saw, and experienced for later. In the end, I have mixed feeling about being solo again. There are definate pros and cons to traveling as a solo backpacker versus a travel group. It really depends on the experience and amount of work that you want to put into it. But at least for now, to some extent, I am enjoying setting my own pace and itinerary again.

My itinerary for the next couple weeks, has not been defined, but I am feeling somewhat comfortable now, with not booking to many days ahead, if any at all. I am sure that it will at some time bite me in the butt, but that will just be a painful learning experience. I am planning to stay in Krakow for a couple days, then off to Budapest, to catch up with someone I met on the tour group, for a day or so. From there, I will slow down the pace, and hopefully find a place that just feels right where I can set up as a hub for 4 or 5 days, not sure if I will find it in Eastern Europe, but will have fun trying. Goal is to visit: Croatia, Greece, Turkey, Egypt and Jordan. May change the order, but we will see. Got a train to catch, so bye for now.

Hope you had a good 4th of July, and had a hamburger for me. Cheers.