I met a couple Brits on the train to Split, Luke and Joe. They were sharing my couchette and most importantly, shared beverages of a spiritual nation with me. We hit it off quite quickly. Together, we arrived in Split and together found a woman with a guest room for three through the travel agency. The room was quite pricey (these Brits have no concept of expense nor bargaining) but very nice and the woman there was great. We wandered around the old town a bit and also hit a little bit of a beach (aka a concrete pad) but the water was oily supposedly so I didn't end up going in. It was a cool place and rife with locals however, which is very nice. Otherwise, the makeup in Croatia so far has been two Italians for every other person.
We did take our time in Split and relax, which was nice, and also found a great restaurant with a mixed grill, nice fresh fries and salad that have been the closest I've come so far to home cooking at the lake. Which, I guess, would make it lake cooking. It's really great how they've built Split into the ruins, makes it quite an interesting place vs somewhere where the ruins are just a site. They still use them here. I should mention we stopped at the market and I picked up a new towel (to replace the Athens 2004 one I'd forgotten in Budapest), a pastry, and figs. Lots and lots of figs. MMMMMMMmmmmmmmm...
It wasn't a long time there, though, really just one night, and we caught the 3:00 ferry to Hvar Island, where we were quite fortunate. You see, we ran into a woman who wanted 300 Kuna ($60) a night from each of us and pretty much spat at us when we told her it was too much. $180 a night is a rip off for a room in someone's house, let's be honest. Another lady was standing there and looked like she might have something, so I walked up to her and, indeed, she did. 150 (aka $30), and right, literally, RIGHT on the harbour. A terrific spot for a really decent price. Balcony, kitchen, overlooking the harbour at sunset. We settled for two nights and again explored a bit.
Hvar town was a nice place to be situated. We found some expensive but decent food that we somehow thought was cheap when we perused the menu from outside. The best thing was an octopus salad, really well done. Funny how eating it as a kid made me insta-ill and now I quite love it. Next thing you know, I'll like mushrooms. Well, probably not. But anyway, after our pricey meal, we decided we'd be better off doing groceries. So, the next morning, I woke up at 9 AM, read til about 10:30, and decided that I'd just go and get groceries. I got us some yogurt, deli meat, cheese, and bread for a noon brunch, sausage, salsa, and tortellini for dinner, not to mention a few beer and some juice for the mornings. Cheaper and quite tasty.
We went the next day to some of the small islands off the coast of Hvar, particularly a place called Palmazana, which was supposed to have nice sand beaches according to Luke's rough guide. At this point, I determined I hate all guide books (prior, only Lonely Planet), for not only was there no sand, but we were laughed at when we asked where the sand beaches were. Still, the water was beautiful, the weather was fantastic, and we had a great spot on the rocks. We had bought a snorkel set as well and all took turns snorkelling around, though there wasn't too much to see. We went out that night to Carpe Diem, which turned out to be rather snobbish, and left quickly enough for some more down to earthery. They had met a couple British girls on the train and we hung out with them for the evening, then all came back to our room, sat on the balcony overlooking the starlike lights on the masts below the moon, and chatted some more. It really was a great time.
Finally, today we left (we had a debate about staying/leaving, decided to stay one more night, then discovered our host had no room) for Stari Grad, a smaller town on the island. The taxi ride there revealed that the island is quite pretty and has some great beaches on the south side, which we really should've visited but didn't. The girls were with us again so the taxi wasn't too expensive, and they ate while we hunted out a room. It's quite difficult to find people willing to give you a room in their home for only one night. Most won't take the trouble, but we did find someone eventually. Then we went to a place north of town that also doesn't qualify as a beach - just a cement pad and some rocks leading into a beautiful but angry sea. But it wasn't too bad, even if the so-called Croatian beaches have been disappointing up until now.
Tomorrow, we head to Brac, and specifically Bol, which (we have photographic evidence) has a nice sand beach, and we'll stay for a couple days. I may make it to Sarajevo for a few days before Dubrovnik and then Italy and then Greece, but time will tell. I'm definitely behind schedule and John arrives in Athens on Sept 4. But Croatia's been great so far, and now I'm off to join the Feast of Assumption in the city square, where we were recently passed by a big religious parade. Internet's hard to get at here, but I'll hopefully see you soon and/or reply to emails.
Alright, so first things first. That cool hostel I told you about. Well, here's the deal. Brian and I checked out of our other hostel the next morning and showed up at Celica Hostel (AKA The Cool One) at about 11. We ate a decent brekkie there, talked to the person at the front desk, who took our names and let us put our bags away until check-in time (3:00), and booked a two day adventure for us with a guy named Matic (pronounced Matice) on Wednesday. Brian & I left to explore Ljubljana, checking out the not so great castle, discovered a place of perpetual rain where they even have signs warning of rain and for umbrellas (AKA Overhead sprinkler), and grabbed a bite. We went back to the hostel and discovered that while we were there before 3:00 (in fact, as late as 1:30), we were there BEFORE 3:00. Which means, of course, we couldn't have checked in. Further, we were there AFTER 5:00, which meant they'd given our room away. So back to the HI hostel. Which would be the theme for Slovenia, though thankfully Slovenia's HI hostels are far above the current running average.
I briefly mentioned a tour with Matic, but I should say more on that now. Brian & I both wanted to do some stuff in the mountains, hiking, biking, whatever. Matic was to take us to all these spots for swimming, hikes to waterfalls, cool out of the way places we'd never get to on our own, and throw in some adventure sports on top of it. For 80 Euro, including 2 days travelling around and touring, and food, the deal couldn't be beat, especially considering we were spending between 20-30 Euro a night on our hostel. We wanted to go on Tuesday, but while he said he'd work something out for us if we could get 5 people together, we went with Wednesday and headed off to Bled. Great choice for us, really.
So, we got into Bled, hostel booked, and dumped our bags before hitting the town. It's a beutiful town surrounding a lake, completely non-exploited, at least for now. Tourism done right. Brian and I hiked up to a much cooler castle with a great view over the lake and the famous island in the middle where there is an old monastery/church. We walked down from the castle along the lake, just admiring the amazing emerald water and came across a house with a couple rowboats in front. I asked the woman that lived there if we could rent one from her and got a boat for about 1500/hr, which is 1/3 the price of a gondola there rowed by someone else and much more fun. We rowed to the island, checked out the church, I rung the wishing bell, hoping only for general luck (mostly because I thought it was called the Lucky Bell and didn't know to make a wish). The island was really amazing, with a big 100-some step staircase leading to the top.
Then we rowed to where my Lonely Planet said there was a hiking trail for "brochure quality photos". Well, you know because I used the quotes that we found anything but. We hiked for about 45 mins on some rather challenging terrain up hill to the summit finding nothing but trees. We looked around and found only a viewpoint over the side of the mountain at other mountains, which, while alright, wasn't worth the hike and certainly not brochure quality. Brian insisted, thankfully, we keep looking (though we got some photos there in case that was the best thing to see) and we did find a nice outlook, but again, nothing fantastic, looking over the lake. Still, I wanted to hike, we did, we got a bit of a reward, and it was still great. Then we rowed back, returned the boat, and hung around in Bled.
Matic picked Brian, myself, and a guy named Johnner up from our hostel a little late, but not too bad. He took us to a little river where there was a diving board and the guys (in the van already from Ljubljana were Andrew, Alyssa, and Simone) took a jump or two in while the girls took photos. It was chilly! Then, although not on the itinerary or promised to us at all, Matic made special arrangements for Brian and I to go Zorbing AS WELL AS White Water Rafting. More on zorbing later. We after took another stop in Lake Bled and another lake nearby, relaxing a little and swimming around in the beautiful scenery. The water really wasn't cold at all, but the girls insisted on not coming in.
Yes, Zorbing, I haven't forgotten. Zorbing is, effectively, getting into a big rubberish ball 3m in diameter, and getting kicked rather unceremoniously down a mountain. We had to do it, of course. It was a lot of fun, though you get quite dizzy, and in truth the mountain slope was a little on the short side. Still, we got our Zorgonaut certificates, so I'm pretty happy. Rafting was fun, though White Water was largely a misnomer, we made it fun by doing some crazy stuff. A massive bridge jump into the river, a little body surfing, and almost flipping the raft. Brian & Matic also dove into a glacial lake that was the source for the Soca river, but I had done my time in Mo I Rana and the Arctic Ocean, so I passed. Then he drove us across the quite scenic Vrsic pass before arriving at our campsite nestled in the Julian Alps, cooking up a dinner which featured some Slovenian specialties, not least of which was horse sausage (surprisingly decent). We drank some beer and some pear schnapps that Matic gratiously provided, and called it a long day.
The next day, the girls went rafting, and Matic took us four guys Canyoning again. It was quite a different experience from Switzerland, but I love this sport, it's just always so great. I could see doing that everyday for a living... at least until, you know, you push your luck and hit some rocks. It wasn't as intense as Switzerland, but there were some crazy things anyway, like jumping from 3m high into water that was just barely past waist deep and remaining surprisingly unhurt. The slides started smaller, 1m, 2m, 4m, and were less technical, but it was more fun in some ways, even if less of a rush. The last slide was plenty of a rush though, 15m high and REALLY steep. We drove to a castle, the Napoleon bridge (20m high where Matic told us we could jump if we wanted to, but he'd only heard of people doing it and had never seen anyone). Naturally, no takers. 20m is quite high. We stopped at a lower 12m bridge where he & Brian jumped, though, and also hiked 30 mins to a waterfall. The thunder started rolling about halfway there and we got trapped in a wicked downpour which flooded a lot of the trail and we had to force our way back in, but that only added to the experience. Then he drove us back to our hostels and the tour was over, but I cannot recommend Matic and his little startup company highly enough (email me if you want more info), it was a great time and well worth every cent. The guys and girls on our trip all agreed.
The next day, i.e. today, I left for Zagreb, determining, sadly, that I was financially unable to join some friends in Spain for La Tomatina (a tomato throwing festival) on my birthday, but now at least I know I'm heading to the south of Croatia and then Italy and then Greece. In fact, I have an overnight train leaving from Zagreb in just over an hour. And, on that note, I should get moving. But I should say once more, Slovenia is DEFINITELY worth a couple days in any itinerary.
Indeed, Budapest, Queen of the Danube, is also referred to as Paris East, and I think with good reason. It's beautiful here for one, and the arts and vibe in the city are very much on par with a city like Paris. Friday was a good day. I got a little walking around did and bought my first non-necessity for myself today, a new shirt. I just needed something different. Three months of the same four or five shirts has gotten tiresome. I strolled up to the Parliament buildings, to the castle, and through a little on the Buda side of the river (Budapest is or was actually three cities, one called Buda, one called Pest, and one called something much like Buda. So now you've learned something from my blog, and I've set a new milestone for myself.
So... I met Jess and her friend (whom I'd met the night before), Melinda, and we went caving. There are vast limestone caves beneath Budapest, formed by volcanic heating of the water which forced it up through the limestone and eroded it nicely. This, incidentally, is the same water that is used in their renowned mineral baths. Caving itself was a good time, I kept thinking that my mom would not quite have enjoyed it, however. A lot of the spaces we went through were really, really small. Places with names like the Birth Canal, the Sandwich (you're the meat between two crusty layers of limestone), and Pooh's Place (a hole named from the time that Winnie the Pooh gets stuck in his house). The latter was optional, but I gave it a try and managed to squeeze through it, though with great difficulty (put it this way, it was too narrow to get my shoulders through unless I put both arms ahead of myself). We had a great time, and afterwards, as is surely tradition by now with Jess, we bought a watermelon from a farmer. The intent with this one was to fill it with vodka, leave it overnight to soak in, and eat it tomorrow.
We were starving afterwards, and my hostel guy as well as several co-inhabitors, recommended a place called Paprika. Big plates, good food, that sort of thing. So we went (really, the word is voyaged) there only to find it full and a 45 minute wait! But we convinced them to open the patio and we sat outside. The goulash wsa terrific and not one of us finished our plate despite a great effort. We went to Hero's Square afterwards, and more importantly, didn't climb a certain statue, before checking out a cool outdoor billboard exhibit with a bunch of fake ads. It was pretty cool stuff. They also had a section on war propaganda with lots of Russian ones like the one on the left (hold your mouse over for English translation)which were very interesting too. Given our tiredness from the tonne of food, the caving, and general malaise associated with the weather, we called it a night early (though I was up til 3 uploading pics and reading).
I stayed yet another day, and so on Saturday, I met with Jess and Melinda at about noon (after missing a meetup at 11:15, 11:30, and 11:32), and we checked out the Basilica, walked back to the Parliament, and also checked out the Museum of Modern Art. In a warm and sunny Budapest. Happiness! The Museum had some really cool stuff in it, one of the better ones I've seen (especially compared to the weak-at-best-if-you're-English Museum of Terror), though the highlight might've been the toilets that automatically wipe the seat, which I had thought up some time ago but sadly not gotten around to inventing. Thieves!
Then, we got our train tickets and headed for the baths. Ah, the baths. They were well worth the 4 hours spent in there, that's for sure. Terrific stuff, and I had my first ever professional massage. Anyway, after caving and all the walking around, it really hit the spot. We ate dinner at a grill around the corner from my hostel, ate the watermelon for dessert (finally!) and went out to this really cool bar that was kind of inside a warehouse district, off the street but in a courtyard, if you will, between warehouses and industrial buildings. They used the walls of the buildings as giant screens, and Jess has some pictures she'll be sending me soon (ahem!). After some red bull and vodka, Melinda and I were quite gung-ho to go out, but Jess was sleepy, so we said goodbye at 3AM and Melinda and I went out and closed the bar down at 6. Being so late, and with a train to catch at 8:35, there was no point attempting to sleep, so we checked out the sunrise on the Danube and said goodbye there.
I just made it to the train to Zagreb after getting back to the hostel and getting packed up. I think I even slept about 30 mins to an hour on the train. I met some more Aussies who had all bought these awful sandwiches where they had put little pieces of what was supposed to be inside them at the edge of the bun. They shared their food with me since I had no local money and hadn't eaten since the watermelon 12 hours ago. Zagreb was a little light on things to do, and raining, and the one good hostel was full, so I walked around a bit, got some food in me, and left for Ljubljana, where I am now. I may stop by there when I go to the Croatian coast, for another few hours, if the weather is better. I met a Canadian, Brian, on the train and some locals who told us all about Slovenia for the entire "2 hour" three and a half hour train ride. So I have a good idea of what I want to do here. Brian and I got a hostel last night (and also a bite to eat after an exhaustive search for a Plus interac machine and then some place that served food or a grocery store), and tonight we're moving to a good (i.e. not HI affiliated) hostel called Cecila, which is a converted prison and looked really cool when we were there checking for availability last night. It's in a Christiana-of-Copenhagen style area, should be interesting. Then we're off to Bled and Bovec for some really great scenery in the Julian alps and some good times.
As for photos, many are up in the gallery, but I've not gotten around to adding them to my posts or captioning them yet, will do that soon. You can check the gallery in the meantime if you're so inclined...
My last day in the Tatra mountains, the weather got nice, but nevertheless, I took off to Poprad, one of the few places I was able to get to in Slovakia from Zakopane. But, because of the timetable for getting there and the fact that there was only one train to Budapest, I could either try to find a place and stay another two days (to make it worthwhile) or just go. As you can guess from the title, go I did.
Now, perhaps because I didn't take advantage of the weather there, or perhaps because of air currents, ocean currents, and something called meteorology, the weather here hasn't exactly been warm. Well, no, that's not true. It's warm. But it's wet. Which makes it humid. And likely to thunderstorm. With this in mind, I set out on the town. And that's really all the weather I've seen here, other than the night I arrived, which was hot.
Ah, the night I arrived. I remember it well... I arrived at 10:40, thanks to my train running almost an hour late, thinking that I'd be out of luck for a map or place to stay. Lo, the Tourist Info was open until midnight. Budapest - 1, Zakopane - 0. They got me a hostel and even a shuttle there, which took me across the Danube river and really got me excited to be here; it's beautiful! Budapest took an insurmountable lead over Zakopane. Or did they? Yes they did. Coming up next, did they really?
The answer may shock you: yes. I loved Budapest and I'd only been in it for an hour. My hostel was across the street from a garden bar which was hopping even at midnight on a Tuesday, the city was beautiful, and the Tourist Info guys were actually very useful. It turned out that my hostel was garbage, though, the Hostel Bakfark, dirty showers, no shower curtains, a pillow that doubled as a heavy duvet, and as nice as the proximity to the bar was, well, it was loud. Even with the windows closed, which just made the room all that much hotter.
But I left there the next day, found a better hostel (Prima) and, since they were full on Wed night, I stayed in a guest house across the street for the first night, which was pretty much like staying in some cool young guy's house. With 12 other people. Good times! The guy at the hostel told me about this cool show on boat A38 on the river, outdoor, very alt/indie rock Hungarian band, and best of all... free. So I set out on the town until then, just sort of walking around in the rain. My rain jacket had come in handy, but I thought the show would be cancelled.
I went out that night with plans of doing a little shopping/looking around, and then heading to a pub the guy from the guest house recommended for live music. The rain had stopped and I thought myself in the clear (so much so that I left my rain jacket at home), so I decided to give the boat a go. As did many others. It was too full to even get on, but looked very cool (sad I couldn't get in), and I met a couple Hungarians living in France and a guy from Paris, all young film directors, and after a little chatting, we decided to give up on the line (the boat was already beyond capacity according to the bouncers) and head out. So we went to a little garden pub which was quite cool and there's NO WAY that anyone there was a tourist aside from me. Because you'd never find the place. It was behind an unmarked anonymous door, but full of Hungarians. I don't know why the camera didn't come out while we sat there, but sadly it didn't - it was a good time.
It had begun to really pour while we were in the garden part of the bar, so we went inside and sat some more, and the rain had let up a bit. I caught the tram home but decided to miss my stop; I wanted pictures of the river by night. So, I got off on the opposite side of the bridge and snapped a few. I was crossing towards the middle of the bridge and the rain really started to pour again. But I had to get my picture. So I stood there shielding my camera, drying a spot of railing, and trying in vain to get a good night shot. Finally, I had to give up and hug the lampposts for dryness. I ran across the bridge, stopping for breath here and there on the lee side of the lamps, and getting soaked all the while. Finally, the bus came and I grabbed it back towards the hostel, where it REALLY started to come down. In the end, I was drenched but I made it back.
And today, imagine my surprise when, once again, it's raining. So I didn't get to the statue park but am instead posting this lengthy update on my activities and looking around in indoor museums and a bit outdoors. Jess emailed me late last night that she had arrived in Budapest, and we went out for a drink tonight. Tomorrow, definitely some sightseeing, maybe one of those famed Hungarian baths (Turkish bath avec bathing suit) and caving under Budapest. Rain or shine, I'm loving it here and could easily spend a week in this city. There's so much to see and to do and to have done to me. And with that, I leave you.
So. I still wasn't feeling so hot yesterday, and I decided that wherever I went, I didn't want to have a hassel of a trip. The weather for Zakopane (pronounced the way it's written in the title) was to be light rain, so I thought maybe I'd better abort that. Straight to Bratislava, then. Except that the overnight to Bratislava left at 11:00, had a switch at 4, and arrived at 6:30 in the morning, which sounded like it wouldn't exactly leave me feeling better. But I didn't really care whether I saw Bratislava or not anyway, I've heard some very mixed and predominantly negative reviews from other travellers. So, genius that I am, I decided straight to Budapest. The overnight train leaves at 10, a switch at 11, and arrives at 7 AM. Enough time for a good snooze at least. I even bought a ticket for it before realizing that I had not received a bed/couchette. So, back in line to double check, nope, no couchette, none available. Cash refund. Zakopane it is.
The bus to Zakopane was right through a heavy fog (as we reached altitude) in parts and also a thunderstorm, so that stayed exciting. You could look over the thin guardrail and see nothing but white in places. I knew that accomodations in Zakopane were rather thin, and that most people would have luck with private rooms, which I would have to hook myself up with once I arrived at the bus station.
I didn't count on the fact that we would be unceremoniously dumped at some random bus stop in town instead. I was stuck there with no idea where anything was alongside two equally (perhaps even moreso) perplexed doctors from Iran, in the pouring rain. One of them tried to appeal for help but came across as quite rude, so I got the next young couple before he could scare them off (by shouting "INTERNET!" into their faces) and they were quite nice and spoke English just fine. They pointed me at the bus station, which turned out to be just down the street. Regretfully, there were no people with accomodations signs in the bus station. I was looking at the shop in there and debating getting myself a map when the couple walked by, must've seen me inside, and came to check on whether I'd found someone. Which, if you think about it, was really incredibly nice of them.
Anyway, long story short... well, less long than it could be, they helped me chat with an accomodation guy over at the train station and got me hooked up with a private room for 50 zl, which is 5 zl less than I payed for a dorm bed in Krakow. Sure, it's 4km from the city, but hey, it's a bed and I can stop searching. We got in his car and he drove me there, pointing out in Polish where the bus (BOOHS) was to "Zakopane Centrum", a bar on the corner which may or may not have been a nav aid for me, and then the house.
I caught the bus into town the next morning, which was indeed cast in a fog and not so picturesque as it would be in good weather I'm sure. But looking around and finding the main street, I discovered that it was actually a nice albeit touristy town, reminding me a lot of Banff. I was looking for the tourist info place and instead stumbled across a cable car up one of the mountains. I wasn't going to pay to go up there and discover that I couldn't see anything but fog, but there was a pathway along it that I thought I'd climb partway up. Of course, once you start, you can't turn around, so I scaled the whole mountain to the top, about 1000m high, and by then the fog had begun lifting a bit.
In a stroke of good fortune, they had one of those Sesame Streetish (or should I say Sesame Park) cars on tracks, so I took one down (you know I had to) and then back up again. Believe it or not, it was actually pretty fun and they got going at a decent clip. I walked along the trail across the mountain and it, even in the fog, was fairly beautiful. I walked a couple klicks up there and then headed back down, finally discovering the train station/tourist info (no thanks to the woman of questionable parentage working at the infamous HI youth hostel here - but that's another story).
Everyone here seems to be of the opinion that the only way to Bratislava or Zakopane is through Krakow, but I'm going to find another way. If the weather's nice tomorrow, I might stay and rent a bike and take a nice trip to some mountainous lakes just to make my trek here a little more worth it. Otherwise, goodbye Zakopane and good riddance. While some people here have been really nice, there certainly is no shortage of rude people. One of which (yeah, the H.I.-hate-my-life woman) I had some not so pleasant words with as a result. But it could be worth staying if I get away onto the mountain trails. Or have some opportunity to chase after her with a broomstick (which I will borrow from her, provided it doesn't fly off with me).
