I arrived in Amsterdam on Wednesday afternoon and the crowds were insane. The plan was to catch a shuttle bus to my hostel in Noordwijk, but I had a couple hours to kill before it left, so I wandered around for a bit. Honestly, I was not that impressed with Amsterdam. It's not that it's a bad city, it's just that people talked it up a lot and it didn't really live up to the standards I had formed. At this time of the year at least, Amsterdam is very crowded. The only real attractions of the city are its "coffee shops", head shops, and the Red Light District. I guess I didn't stay in the city, so I didn't really get to experience the nightlife, but I could party hard in almost every city I went to, and Marijuana is legal in Oregon now, so I don't think I would've been that impressed.
Noordwijk was a nice, small, coastal town. The hostel I stayed at was very relaxed and I was able to make trips each day into Amsterdam and back. On the first night there I hung around the hostel and met some new people. The problem with this hostel was that everyone was staying for only one night, while I was staying for four, so I was unable to really form any good friendships.
On Friday I went back to Amsterdam and wandered around checking out the shops and such. I was going to go to the Anne Frank house, but the line to get in went all the way around the block, so I decided not to go in. I went to the Body Worlds exhibit, which was a museum full of skinned and preserved cadavers in different positions. It made me a bit uncomfortable. I didn't do much else that day. I went back to Noordwijk, got some dinner, and took a walk on the beach before going back to the hostel for the night.
The next day I went back to Amsterdam and visited the Heineken brewery. It was fun tour, but it was mostly like walking through a giant Heineken advertisement.
The beer was good. I had been told that Heineken tastes best in Holland, but I didn't believe it. The beer they gave us at the brewery was actually much better than the Heineken I've had out of the bottle back home. After that I walked around a bit and found myself in Vondel park. I spent some time walking around and hanging out there. It was a really nice park and there was some sort of musical festival going on. After that I headed back to the hostel.
On Monday I decided to go into Amsterdam one last time to do some last minute gift shopping. I was unsuccessful and headed back to Noordwijk a few hours later. I spent much of the afternoon on the beach and even took a nice nap on a sand dune in the sun. That evening I packed up and made sure I had everything in order for yesterday.
The flight to Vancouver was fine, but I was exhausted when I got here. The strangest thing about getting here was that everyone automatically speaks English.
I'll be back home in Eugene this evening. I'll see you all soon!
Wednesday, July 1, 2015
Amsterdam and Noordwijk
Friday, June 26, 2015
Three Months is Almost Up...
I've had so much fun on this trip, and now its almost over. I have 3 days in Amsterdam before I catch a plane back to North America.
These last couple of weeks have been some of the best. On the 16th I took a train about an hour outside of Munich to Gunzburg to visit Legoland. It wasn't as big as I had expected and was obviously set up for younger kids, but I had a good time there and spent most of the day wandering around the park and going on rides.
When I got back to Munich that evening, I found the surf spot of Munich. In river, no more than 30 feet across, there's a huge rapid just below a bridge. The rapid acts as a never ending wave and people were taking turns riding in on their short boards. I spent a while watching them and wishing I could join in.
The next day I took a train to Fusen to visit the Neuschwanstein castle. This castle was build some time in the 1800s and is what Disney modelled the famous Disneyland castle off of. It was pretty cool, and there was another nice castle just below it, but what most impressed me was the natural beauty of the area around it. I spent much of my time wandering around some of the hiking trails there.
That evening I went to the English Gardens in Munich to find a beer garden in the center. I ate some greasy food and, of course, had some beers there before heading back to the hostel for the night.
The next morning I caught the train to Cologne. The train ride was really nice and for much of it we traveled along the Rhine river which was very beautiful and spotted with hill top castles and small port towns. The first thing I saw when I walked out of the train station in Cologne was the the immense cathedral which was overwhelming large and complex architecturally. There wasn't much else is Cologne. That evening I walked around a bit and crossed over a bridge that was literally covered in "love locks". I made dinner and went to bed a bit early.
The next day I walked around a bit more and went inside the cathedral. After making lunch back at the hostel I made my way to the science museum. They had a really cool exhibition with a lot of props and costumes that were used in the Star Wars films. It was interactive and throughout the exhibition each person formed their own Star Wars identity. I felt like a nerd, but I thought it was pretty cool. I didn't do much else that evening.
I caught a train to Brugge the next day. Belgium was one of my favorite countries to visit. As soon as I got to the hostel I met some people and we took a walk around the city center. We checked out some of the chocolate shops, had a Belgian waffle, got some food, and took some pictures. That night I hung out at the hostel bar and tried some of the many Belgian beers. Belgian beer is great!
The next day I rented a bike and rode to the coast. It was a really nice ride, although the coast was very windy and cold. I took some time to ride along the beach front, and watched some of the many kite boarders, before riding back to the hostel. That night I went on a pub crawl and had a great time.
The next day I met up with a guy from California and we explored the city some more. We climbed the tower in the center, got another waffle, and went to see the blood of Christ. I also visited a Salvador Dali museum while he did some souvenir shopping. We got some ingredients to make sandwiches and went back to the hostel. When were were there, we met up with some other people and went out in search of a bar that some of the people wanted to visit. It was closed, so we walked around the city a bit more. We decided to get some dinner and ended up meeting up with another group from the hostel. I hung out with various member of this new larger group for the rest of the night and played some drinking games at the hostel before going out and getting into shenanigans around the city.
The next day I decided to hitchhike to Gent with an English girl I had met the night before. Our plan was to catch a ride to the main highway where we would try to catch another ride to Gent. We ended up getting super lucky and got picked up within a few minutes by a really nice guy who was going all the way to Gent.
When we got to the hostel in Gent it was too early to check in. We were both pretty hung over from the night before, so we took a nap in the hostel lounge. We ended up meeting an English guy who happens to be from the same town as the girl and we all went down to the river to meet up with another group of people and hang out in the sun. The next day, the two people from England and I did a walking tour of the city. It was a great tour. After that we got some food and ended up back down by the river. Later we went to some bars and drank more Belgian beer.
The next day the three of us went to a museum in an old mental institution. It was really interesting. The girl had to leave early to catch a bus, but she missed it, so I ended up hanging out with her and her Australian friend for the evening. We hung out for a bit in a park and watched some live music in the hostel.
Today I caught a train to Amsterdam, my last stop on this Euro-journey. I'm actually staying at a hostel outside of Amsterdam on the coast in Noordwijk since all the hostels in Amsterdam are fully booked or super expensive. It seems nice.
Tuesday, June 2, 2015
Oh, The Places You'll Go!
Wroclaw was great. I'm glad I decided to make a stop there. The city was beautiful and I met some great people there. Wroclaw is somewhat known for its 240 dwarf statues that are hidden around the city, so I spend some time searching for those. I don't think I found more than 15.
After Wroclaw I went to Prague. When I was in Athens I made friends with someone who lives in Prague, so I was able to stay with her during my visit. I spent a lot of time hanging out with her and her friends. On my first full day there I walked for about 5 hours around the city and saw all the sights. In the afternoon I had some drinks near the river with my Prague friends and later took in some of the nightlife. The next day we all got breakfast together and spent most of the day just hanging out in a park. The next day I walked up a hill and climbed a tall observation tower, went to a mirror maze, and spent some more time walking around the city. I also went to a couple breweries, including one that was an old monastic brewery and was in what felt like a cave. That night I went to a fancy cocktail bar to try out some real absinth. Then I wandered around trying to find some cheap food and got caught in a rain storm. I had walked a lot further than I thought and was completely soaked by the time I got back.
On Tuesday I caught a train to Berlin. I had a great time in Berlin and was especially excited to have some great German beer. On Wednesday I explored the city a bit. I visited the Berlin Wall memorial and museum, the natural history museum, Check Point Charlie, and the Berlin Wall art gallery, which is a long section of the wall where people have, and continue to, paint all different things. On Thursday I caught a train about an hour south to the Beelitz military hospital, which is a large complex of abandoned hospital buildings used in WW1 and 2. Hitler was even treated there near the end of WW1. I went alone and there was no one else there. It was one of the creepiest places I've ever been. After that, I headed back to Berlin and visited an interactive museum that showed how life was on the east side of the Berlin Wall before it fell. I explored some other areas of Berlin before I went back to the hostel to make myself some dinner and plan for the next day. I decided to catch a train to Nuremberg.
When I got to Nuremberg I checked into my hostel and then walked into the historical center of the city. At this point I've seen far too many historical centers with cobble stone streets and giant cathedrals. I ate dinner at a brewery and got the taster tray of beer. It included some beer schnapps. It was strong. After dinner I walked up to the castle in the center and took in a great view of the city. It was getting dark, so I headed back to the hostel. I decided to go up to the rooftop bar of the hostel to see what was going on, but when I got up there, I decided that it was not my scene. I went to bed. I didn't get much sleep because the room was so hot and humid.
The next day I caught a train about an hour north to Bamberg to visit a brewery there that brews rauch (smoke) beer. It was delisious, as I had expected, and I had a meat stuffed onion with mashed potatoes for lunch. After that, I wandered around the city for a bit, which was nice.
When I got back to Nuremberg I checked into a hotel near the train station since the hostel was full for the night. A few minutes after I checked in I walked back down to the train station to meet up with my mom's cousin's son, Gregory, whose in the army and is stationed just outside of Nuremberg. I hung out with him and some of his friends for rest of the day. We got dinner, checked out some video game and toy stores, had some drinks, including some cocktails in plastic cups with dome lids, which we carried around a department store, and basically had a good time.
Yesterday I took a train to Munich. The hostel I'm staying at is huge and seems more like a hotel. The majority of the people here are 12 and younger and they keep running around the courtyard, lobby, and lounge area screaming in German. Last night I tried to go play pool downstairs, but when I walked into the room there was a huge group of them playing DDR and they all turned around and looked at me and it was weird.
When I got here there was a huge festival going on for the 187th anniversary of the city. I went to the city center to check it out and had a couple bratwursts and some beers. There were a lot of musical and dramatic performances going on and a lot of people. I happened to meet a Californian who invited me to hang out and drink with him and his English buddies. I ducked out of that one and caught the metro back to the hostel.
Today I did a, sort of, beer tour of the city on my own and ate plenty of sausages. I even caught a regional train 40 minutes north of here to Freising to visit a brewery there. It was a good day. I'm back at the hostel now, relaxing.
Everything I Need Fits In This Backpack
I arrived in Poprad, Slovakia last Monday and spent the afternoon walking around the center, buying postcards and groceries, and making myself dinner.
I got up early on Tuesday to visit the Spis castle. I caught a bus to the town just beneath the castle on which a homeless man spent a good several minutes trying to convince me to do something for him in Slovak, despite how much I tried to assured him that I didn't speak Slovak. The castle was awesome, and more like a hilltop fortress. I got there early and was able to see the castle with almost no one else there. By the time I was leaving, a few huge tour groups had showed up. I thought I would head down the hill and check out the town a bit. I walked around for a couple minutes, but it was very quiet and something about it made me quite uncomfortable. I headed to the bus stop to catch the next bus back to Poprad. By the time I got to the bus stop, it was pouring rain.
Despite the incredible amount of rain and how soaked my pants and shoes already were, I decided to check out Poprad's "historical center". There wasn't much to see other than a block of old buildings. After that I went to a brewery in the town center and had a couple beers, including the Slovak version of an American pale ale, and also tried some Tatratea. Tatratea is a very strong and thick liquor made from herbs found in the Slovakian Tatra mountains.
The next day I set my sights on the Slovak national park known as Slovak Paradise. I should've planned my visit better instead of just showing up in a tiny village nearby the park on the 10:30am bus. Slovak Paradise is a huge region of hiking trails with waterfalls, forests, rivers, gorges, and overall beautiful scenery. I found myself there around 11am with only about 5 hours to spare due to the bus schedule. I set myself back a bit searching for a trail head. I finally found it and realized I only had 4 hours left. I power-hiked way up into the beautiful Slovak wilderness for about 2 hours and then quickly hiked back. I didn't want to find myself stranded in that village. Perhaps someday I'll make a trip back there and be better informed and prepared. Everything aside, I really enjoyed the hike.
When I got back to Poprad I walked to a shopping complex to do some laundry in the laundromat. They don't speak English there and it's not self service...I walked back with dirty laundry.
The next day I caught a minibus to Krakow. I decided to check myself into a party hostel for the weekend. I had a lot of fun there and at some clubs in Krakow, and met a lot of great people, although I could've done without so much free, watered down cherry vodka.
On Friday I visited Auschwitz. I was going to go alone, but a Canadian convinced me to go with him on a tour. I'm glad I did because I got a lot of information that helped me understand better what really went on there. It was a pretty emotionally intense experience to actually be there. The next day I explored the city with a Taiwanese guy and a Polish girl. Krakow is a beautiful city.
On Sunday I took a bus to Warsaw. I felt pretty haggard from my party weekend. I didn't do much on Sunday evening. I got some Mexican food at a restaurant near the hostel. It was he first Mexican food I'd had in awhile and it was great. I miss the variety of food I can easily find at home.
On Monday I walked around Warsaw, mostly in the old town, but also around the center and near the river. That evening I met up with Aleksandra, my distant cousin who I'm related to through a marriage somewhere in the past. I was able to stay at her apartment for a couple nights. I met her sister, Natalia, on Monday night and we had a beer at a pub near the apartment.
Yesterday I explored the Royal Gardens of Warsaw as well as the university's botanical gardens. Later in the evening Aleksandra and I met up with her sister at a really nice string of outdoor bars on the river. It was a really nice place to hang out, talk, and drink beer.
Now I'm on the top of a double decker bus heading to Wroclaw (pronounced vrots-wav) and listening to Iron Maiden... Excellent!
Monday, May 25, 2015
I Must Be Movin' On
It took me all week to finally get used to waking up at 6 am, and now I'm heading east, back on my own.
On Thursday I took a train to a tiny village called Mnichova Lehota in search of a hiking trail. I thought I had my bearings straight and would be able to find it no problem, but when I got to the village things were different. I crossed over the main highway and walked down it for a bit, back the the way I had come from, looking for the trailhead. I started to think maybe I had walked the wrong way, but was not in the mood to walk all the way back, so I started walking up a muddy gravel road just to see where it lead. It was sort of in the area that I thought the trail would be, so I had the slightest inkling of hope that it might lead me in the right direction. I walked a ways, passed fields and houses, and over some train tracks. After walking for about 45 minutes, the road became more of a foot path. I started to think that maybe I had, in fact, found the correct path, but I still wasn't convinced. Further up, the path turned back into a very muddy road before it split into two very muddy roads. I took the one to the left and it led me to a paved road. I walked back to the other road and it lead me to a gravel service road under some power lines. I kept walking and, after crossing over another paved road, noticed a small foot pah that veered off to the left. I followed it and had a very nice hike up a hill through a maple and beech tree forest. After hiking up this path for about an hour, I came to another gravel service road. By then I had ascended to an eerily quiet and misty altitude. I followed this road to where it was intersected by another road and turned right. Basically, I followed this road up until I came to a very misty meadow. I'm not really sure where I was or if I had even found the path I was originally searching for. I walked back down to the village. I got back to the station too early so I decided to explore the village. The village was quiet. I ended up walking past a family of goats up an old logging road. There was nothing up there.
When I got back to Banovce, I walked to Janka's parents' house and they fed me a massive amount of food.
The next day I explored Banovce a bit. There's not much there, but I was able to take a nice long walk along the Bebravou river to another nearby village and back. After that I went to some more classes at the high school. I spent much of the afternoon trying put together a family tree in order to better understand how I'm related to Janka and her family. I'm still a bit confused. I know that Janka and I have a common great great aunt. On Saturday I went on a nice walk with Janka and Ebby. In the afternoon we went to Janka's parents' house to celebrate her father's birthday. Then we went to a really nice town in the hills and took a walk around a park for about an hour.
Sunday was pretty laid back. I was able to play quite a bit of guitar. I took a bike ride around to some other villages and then, later in the afternoon, took a long walk to a dam and a small lake with Janka, her two daughters, and her parents.
Today I got on a train to Poprad. I'm still on that train. It has free WiFi. It feels like I'm kicking off the last leg of my Euro trip, and I have high hopes.
Tuesday, May 19, 2015
I Feel More at Peace Than I Have in a While
Last week was almost completely filled up by the Angloville program, which was good. It gave me a chance to break away from the "one hostel to another" routine I was in. The program was quite mentally exhausting. I spent almost 10 straight hours every day talking to native Hungarian speakers in English and trying to help them understand me and understand the English language as a whole. The program also gave me a chance to talk to all sorts of people from different walks of life and hear about their lives, their experiences, and their views on the world. The motel that we stayed in was out in the Hungarian countryside on a small farm. Their were several goats, some chickens, some geese, a pair of turkeys, a few sheep and a lamb, horses, a dog, and a cow with her calf. I spent my free time playing ping pong, playing cards, listening to music, writing, lounging in the jacuzzi and sauna, walking around the farm and down the road a ways, and drinking palinka, wine, and beer. The week went by very quickly.
On Friday we got on a bus and headed back to Budapest. I decided to stay one more night there. That night I went out with a couple of others from Angloville and went to a couple pubs. I was able to try some really great Hungarian craft beer, including a smoked IPA, which I thoroughly enjoyed.
The next day I caught the train to Slovakia. After a few hours on 3 different trains, I made it to my Slovak family's house in a small village on the outskirts of Banovce nad Bebravou. They are one of the nicest and happiest families I have ever met, and they have a great dog. When I got here on Saturday they fed me dinner and then we went for a short walk around their village. After that we headed to the center of Banovce nad Bebravou to get some ice cream. They really like to feed me ice cream.
On Sunday we took a steep hike up a tall hill. At the top was a great view of the valley below. After that we went to Trencin to visit the castle there. We took a tour of the castle and then went back their house. The rest of the day was pretty mellow.
On Monday I got up early to go sit in on the high school English classes that Janka teaches. That was a fun and interesting experience. Since I am a native English speaker, I was the main subject of most of the classes. The kids that were brave and confident enough asked me all sorts of questions. The main questions, though, always concerned college parties in the states, and women. I had a good time, although Janka was worried that I was bored. I think that's just how my face looks...
After school I spent an hour or so alone with Janka's parents, who dont speak any English. We spent that time mostly sitting around and trying to figure out ways to communicate. Although we are unable to have a conversation or really exchange any thoughts, it's easy to see that they are incredibly nice people. Just before Janka came back to get me, they gave me a couple shots of their home made plum brandy that had 52% alcohol. It was quite strong. After that they took me to the bar up the street and we had a couple beers.
When Janka's husband, Rasto, got off work, we headed back to their house and had some really nice dinner. After that we took their dog, Ebby, for a walk around the neighborhood. Their village is surrounded by hilly farmland and we took Ebby up a hill to a field and let her off the leash. The surroundings here are so open and beautiful. If you find yourself even a little way up any of the surrounding hills, you can see for miles.
Yesterday I got up early again to catch a bus to Bratislava. I spent a few hours there just walking around. After all the places I've been, I was pretty unimpressed by Bratislava. Its a really nice city with a really nice center, but its very small and there's really not much to see. I walked up to the castle and then found a book store that sells books in English. After a long train ride to Salzburg I realized that I really needed a book to read. I found a bookstore in the train station there, but realized that all the books were in German. Since then I have been searching for something to read in English. I found it in Bratislava. I thought I might buy Game of Thrones, since everyone at home is watching it, or maybe Lord of the Rings, since I've never actually read the books. Both of these books looked far to thick and I thought to myself, "I'll end up reading half the book and by the time I get home I'll be bored of it and never finish it". I settled on a much shorter book by Charles Bukowski called Post Office (I know, it sounds boring). I ended up reading half of the book on the train ride home, which is strange because I'm not known for my tenacity in book reading. I should have gotten a longer book...
Somehow I ended up missing my train stop. That was the first time I've done that, and hopefully the last. I tried to speak to someone who worked on the train but she only accosted me with the Slovak language. Fortunately, I was able to find a girl who spoke English and in the end I caught a bus back to Banovce.
Today I couldn't decide what to do with myself, so I stayed at the house while everyone else went of to work and school. I ended up borrowing one of their bikes and taking a really nice ride around the village and in the hills. I found some really great views of the village and of the surrounding valley and hills. I made my way up a street behind a church, to a cemetery at the end of the pavement. I spent a few minutes loitering there before I decided to venture up the dirt road behind it. I followed it through a massive field next to a mass of shrubbery and brambles until I came to something that surprised me. It was another cemetery. This one looked quite old and unkept, and was in disrepair. The headstones where the stereotypical shape of those you would expect to find behind a church in an old black and white horror film. None of them were standing up straight. They leaned over precariously between low lying bushes and dead branches. Almost every one had nothing but Hebrew writing on it and only a few were another language, which to me looked like German, but was probably Slovakian. These were the only ones with legible dates on them with two from the 20s and another from 1915. After a few minutes a car drove up the rode and its passenger spotted me as it passed. I started to think about how nobody except for those two strangers in that car knew where I was, and how that could be a bad thing. I headed back down the hill and made my way back to the house where I played guitar for a bit and am now writing this blog entry.
I have no clue what I'm going to do tomorrow. I'm just taking it day by day. I've started to realize how much of a luxury that can be.
I'm not going to post any pictures. At this point its just laziness. There is a certain amount of effort that goes into putting pictures on this blog, and I don't feel like exerting that specific type of energy right now.
I think I'll stay here for the rest of the week.
Monday, May 18, 2015
Photos 4/29-5/7
Thursday, May 7, 2015
Vienna and Budapest
I wrote half a blog three days ago, but for some reason I'm not able to open it to edit it, so I got frustrated and decided to write a new one another day.
This last week has been a good one. The hostel I was staying at in Vienna had its own bar with a pool table, so I spent the evenings there playing pool and getting to know other travelers. I met a lot of really fun and interesting people there.
On Monday I took a free walking tour of the city. It was pretty boring and long, but it gave me a chance to meet some more travelers. After that I went to Saint Stephan's Cathedral in the center of Vienna's old town. The church itself is amazing architecturally and I was able to climb the 330-some steps of the spiral staircase to the top of its southern tower. There was a great view from the small gift shop at the top. I also decided to take a tour of the catacombs beneath the church. The first part of the tour went through the older part of the catacombs that looked newer because they have recently been renovated. Inside were the coffins of Vienna's bishops and royal family with all of there organs taken out and put in many metal urns. The next part was the newer section of catacombs. They were much darker, colder, and creepier because they have never been renovated. We entered into an arched hallway of old bricks lit only by very dim industrial style lights. The tour guide led us into a large open space and informed us that the catacombs had been the location of many mass graves during the outbreak of the bubonic plague in Vienna. There was a pit and several rooms literally filled with scattered human bones. In one, prisoners had been made to clean and neatly stack the bones of hundreds of bodies. I left the catacombs feeling a bit dark for how fascinated I had been with them. I spent the rest of the day wandering around Vienna and admiring the architecture before returning to the hostel for a night of pool and drinking in the bar.
The next day I went to the Schonbrunn palace. It was huge and I decided not to pay to tour the inside. Instead I explored the vast gardens that surround it. After walking around the gardens for quite a while I ventured into the palace's three separate labyrinths. From there I went to the palace zoo. It was a very extensive and well laid out zoo and I spent a few hours there. After that I headed to Vienna's central cemetery. It was massive and had every sort of crazy head stone you could imagine. Then I went back to the hostel. My feet were quite sore after that day.
The next morning I went to a museum with a couple others from the hostel. It was a museum that focused on music and sound and how we perceive it. There were also some sections on different famous composers. It was very interactive and I enjoyed myself very much. After that I parted ways with the other travelers and went to the Shmetterlinghaus (butterfly house). It was a large greenhouse full of tropical plants and many different types of butterflies. It was a really nice and relaxing place to hang out for a while. From there I went to a couple other museums. One was like three smaller museums in one. It had a section with weapons and armor, one with historical musical instruments, and another with artifacts from ancient Ephesus. With the purchase of a ticket to this museum I was given admission to the nearby art museum, so I went there next. It was huge and also had artifacts from ancient Egypt and Greece.
On Thursday I took the train back to Budapest. I had quite a bit of fun in Budapest and met some really great people. The hostel I was staying at had a guitar that miraculously had all its strings and tuning pegs, so when I got there in the afternoon I spent some time just relaxing and playing it. Later on I took a walk around the Pest side of the city (Budapest is made of of two former cities, Buda and Pest, that are separated by the Duna river). I found a store that sold exclusively Lego's, which was exciting to me...
Later that night I did a pub crawl with several different people from different hostels. The night was pretty fun and crazy. We spend a lot of time in some of the ruin bars, which are old run down soviet era buildings that have bars/clubs in them and often have no ceilings and many random rooms. They are definitely a thing to experience when in Budapest, especially one called "Instant". I got back to the hostel as the sun was just coming up.
The next day I walked all around the Buda side of Budapest. That evening I met up with some people from the night before. We went to a ruin bar and there was a rockabilly band playing. We spent some time there and then went to another pub before things sort of spiraled out of control again. It was another fun night.
I'm participating now in this program called Angloville about an hour and a half outside of Budapest. I met another guy in the hostel I was staying at in Budapest who is also participating. On Saturday we were given a tour of Budapest and lunch by the program coordinators. The rest of the day was pretty laid back.
Yesterday we got on a bus to a motel out in the Hungarian countryside. So far the program has been good. I have one-to-one hour long talking sessions with at least four Hungarians a day and we discuss different topics. Their English abilities vary from one person to the next and its mentally exhausting to hold a conversation with them and help them to understand new English terms and phrases. It is enjoyable though, to talk to so many different types of people, including the other native English speakers. We have periods of free time throughout the day and I spent the yesterday evening playing ping pong and cards with other participants.
I'm on my midday break now and so far the day has been great.
Sorry, still no pictures...
Sunday, May 3, 2015
Osterreich
I, again, will not be posting any photos because it costs to use the computer here, and I'm trying to save money (I'm not doing a great job of it). Everything costs about twice as much here as it did in Eastern Europe.
I'm staying a few nights in a hostel in Vienna. So far I have really enjoyed Austria.
Wednesday was really just a day of traveling. I spent most of the day on a train from Cluj to Budapest. I stayed for a night in Budapest and didn't see much of it. I'll be back on the 7th and, beginning on the 10th, will be participating in a 6 day program where I will help native Hungarians developed their English language skills, so I figure I can see this city then. Hungarian currency, forints, is very confusing. Every 300 forints is equal to 1 euro (fairly close to the US dollar at this point) so its very difficult to get used to. I ended up going to an ATM and taking out 4,000 forints, only to realize later that I had withdrawn the equivalent of less than 15 US dollars. Everything is super cheap in Hungary, so I only spent half of that in the time I was there anyways.
On Thursday I caught a train to Salzburg, Austria. The train itself and the station I arrived at was such a contrast to what I had experienced with trains in Romania. The train was clean and comfortable and very fast. The station was well kept and clean and the people there looked like they were happy to be there. I found my hostel very easily and basically just hung out there for the rest of the evening.
The next day I caught a bus, just over the German boarder, to visit the salt mines. The hills around Salzburg are so beautiful and the Alpine mountains are incredible and often reached into the clouds. The mines were very cool and I had a lot of fun on the tour. Later that evening, when I got back into Salzburg, I was hungry and decided to seek out the Augustiner Brewery for some food and beer. I found it just below a huge Gothic style church in the city center and ventured inside. I was expecting the bar type atmosphere that I'm used to in the breweries back at home. The first door opened into a large and quiet hall and this made me a bit uneasy. I walked a ways in and approached a set of large wooden, double doors and could hear the muffled roar of a crowd of people. I opened one of the doors and found myself in an all out Austrian beer party. There where people dressed in lederhosen drinking beer by the liter out of ceramic mugs. It was a large area with different places to buy all sorts of traditional Austrian food. Around the corner I found myself in front of a rack of ceramic mugs in half and full liter size. I grabbed a half liter mug, paid a few euros, and got it filled from a tap out of a barrel. I had a few beers and some schnitzel and then headed back to the hostel. There I met and English and an Australian guy and we made our way back to brewery to play some English drinking games.
I spent the next day exploring Salzburg. I went into some awesome churches, saw some Christian catacombs, climbed up to the fortress in to center of the city, saw Mozart's birth place, explored some of the trails up in the hills, etc. I really liked Salzburg. It was the first city I've been to so far in Europe that I felt like I could really live in.
Today I caught the train to Vienna. It seems nice so far. I went to a really cool brewery called 1516 that reminded me of home. Tomorrow I'll take the free walking tour of the city through the hostel and see what I can see.
That's all I have for now...
Wednesday, April 29, 2015
So Long, Romania. I Doubt If I'll Ever Return
It's strange to think that I've been gone for a full month now. I have definitely covered a lot of ground, and still have a whole lot more to see.
I got to Sibiu on Saturday around 4 pm. The hostel was very close to the train station and easy to find. I spent the evening wandering around the old town of Sibiu. There are many churches and lots of medieval architecture to check out. I happened to stumble upon what I believe was a very beautiful Evangelical church just as they were beginning some sort of Saturday evening mass. As I walked into the courtyard of the church I saw a young priest holding a board and hitting it, in rhythm, with a wooden mallet. While doing this he walked the full circumference of the church until he reached a small structure on the left hand side of the front of the church where the rhythm became faster and more complicated. Tourists gathered around with their cameras to watch this ceremony as locals began to arrive from all directions and funnel into the church. The rhythm continued getting faster and more intense until, abruptly, it stopped. A fraction of a second after it stopped, the church bells began ringing. The young priest slowly walked away, grinning with satisfaction. I walked into the church. It did not have pews up and down the center as I expected it would. It was very large and open inside, like a gym, with a few wooden seats along the edges. Visitors walked around to effigies of different saints cast in gold and silver, touched them, kissed them, and made the sign of the cross on their own chests. I, along with many others stood around the edges of a central large, circular area and observed as a priest gave a sermon in Romanian. I wish I could understand all of the sermons I have heard in churches so far, but alas, I am from the US and can only speak English.
The next day I just wandered the town some more. I went into a Roman Catholic church and saw part of their mass, climbed a tower in the center of old town, and tried to find some craft beers. Unfortunately the term "pub" in Romania doesn't necessarily mean that the establishment has any kind of selection of beer. Trying to find a pub that did turned into an adventure of its own, but in the end my craving was not satisfied. I went back to the hostel and took a nap after having three different very light and cheap European beers. I spent the rest of the evening doing a little planning for the next few days.
On Monday I took a day trip to Sighisoara. Sighisoara was really nice and had a very well preserved medieval center. I spent a few hours there and had some lunch before returning to Sibiu for the night.
The next day I ended up carpooling with a Romanian and two other Americans to see the Corvin Castle in Hunedoara and the citadel in Alba Lulia. Both were very cool. I especially enjoyed the medieval feel of the Corvin Castle. They ended up dropping me off at the train station in Alba Lulia so I could be on my way. That was not the best train station to be at as a lone English speaking backpacker, but everything turned out alright. I took a train to Cluj for the night, just as a pit stop before heading west, out of Romania and into Hungary.
I'll post some pictures when I get a chance.
Saturday, April 25, 2015
Vampire Country
On Wednesday I went to the Village Museum in Bucharest. It,s an open air museum where you can see different historical styles of households around Romania. After that I walked quite a ways to the train station to catch a train to Brasov. I really enjoyed the scenery on the way as we traveled between steep forested hills, overshadowed by misty mountains, with occasional quite and sleepy towns into Transylvania. When I got to Brasov I checked into a hostel and took a free walking tour of the old town. Brasov is a really nice town and I really enjoyed hearing about its history through the tour guide. In the morning, I went with a few others from the hostel to the Bran "Dracula's Castle" and the Rasnov Fortress. Honestly, the Bran Castle wasn't very impressive and seemed like just a tourist trap to me. I had heard this from other people before I visited, so I wasn't expecting anything more. The Rasnov Fortress, on the other hand, was very cool. It sits on top of a hill outside of the town of Rasnov and many of the buildings within its walls are still intact. After that, we all headed back to Brasov and got lunch. I climbed Tampa hill in the middle of Brasov. It was a strenuous hike, but it was worth the amazing view at the top.
Tuesday, April 21, 2015
Sofia to Bucharest
Yesterday morning I went on a free walking tour of Sofia. There are so many beautiful churches in Sofia along with a huge mosque and synagogue. There are also a lot of other interesting buildings and the tour guide gave us a lot of good historical information on all of them. 
I decide to catch the 12:30 bus to Bucharest last night. It was close to an 8 hour ride and we arrived around 8 am this morning. I hardly got any sleep so as soon as I got to the hostel I took a nap for a couple hours. When I got up I decide to go for a walk in the city. There is a lot of really cool architecture here, especially in the old town area. I walked around for most of the day, and got a bit lost when I was trying to get back to the hostel(it seems I never fail to get completely turned around in a new city) and ended up walking for about a mile in the wrong direction. Now I'm back at the hostel and trying to decide what to do with myself for the rest of the evening. I'm still exhausted from the night of travelling. I think I'm going to head to Brasov tomorrow. There's just not much to see or do in and around Bucharest and if I go to Brasov I can make a few day trips to some nearby places.
Sunday, April 19, 2015
I Guess I'll Keep On Ramblin'
I arrived in Thessaloniki on Friday afternoon. I walked quite a ways from the bus station to the hostel. When I arrived I saw two Australians that I had met in the hostel in Trikala. It was nice to know some people from the start. For the rest of the evening I hung out with them and an older Australian man with a lot of stories. We drank some beers at the hostel before a Swedish man joined us and we started playing a word association drinking game. Later that evening, we all went to dinner at a tiny restaurant down the street. When we got there it was full of locals playing music, singing, and having a good time. The five of us shared several different plates of Greek food some wine, and plenty of raki, a Greek liquor. The next day I walked around the city for a few hours. Thessaloniki is a really nice city and I felt very comfortable there. I went to the waterfront and visited the White Tower. From the top of the White Tower I saw a castle on the hill and made my way up to it. There is an old wall around much of Thessaloniki that connects to this castle. After that I headed back to the hostel and spent some time just sitting in the sun and talking to some of the employees there.
The next day I caught a bus to Sofia, Bulgaria. I got here around 10:30 last night. This morning I, along with a South Korean and an Egyptian, got a ride from a Bulgarian man in his minivan to the Rila Monastery. As soon as we pulled out onto the road, we were side swiped by another car. The drive was a bit long and we went way up in the hills outside of Sofia. On the way we passed through a town where on almost every roof there is a stork's nest. Apparently the storks come to Bulgaria in the spring and summer and then fly down to Africa in the winter.
The Rila monastery was really cool. We also walked up a trail to a small church that was right next to a cave where a monk used to live around 1700 years ago. Now I'm back at the hostel. I'm going to stay here for another day and then head to Bucharest.
Thursday, April 16, 2015
Meteora
Yesterday I got up early and got breakfast at a local bakery before catching a bus to Kalambaka. Kalambaka is situated just below Meteora. Even on the bus ride there, I could see the huge rock outcroppings from the highway. When I got to Kalambaka, I walked over to an old Byzantine church. There were so many old paintings inside telling different stories, mainly of the martyrdoms of different saints. This seems like a common theme in many of the churches here in Greece. From there I set out in search of an old footpath that was originally used by the monks in the region. There were a couple times that I thought I had found it, but both times I was led to a small shack with a yard full of chickens. I kept walking until I left Kalambaka and came to the nearby town of Kastraki. I decided to take a side road that lead off of the highway just before entering the town. This road led up a rocky hill and past some caves. As I walked further I noticed, high in one of the huge rock formations, some caves with old wooden platforms built outwards from them and a little ways down, a monastery built directly inside the rock. I took another road that seemed to lead to the area and came upon a small church. I kept walking until I reached the wall where these cave hermitages were located, but was unable to reach them, so I just looked from below. I couldn't go any further because the road was blocked off, so I headed back to the road I had been on before. I kept walking until the road led me into a neighborhood of Kastraki. I found another church here and next to it was a set of decaying wooden stairs that led up the hill and into the forest. I figured that this was the path I had been looking for, so I started up the stairs. A little ways up was yet another church and then a small, but well worn path leading deeper into the forest. I followed it until I came to the top of the hill and to the other side where the vegetation opened up and and I was in a sort of valley in the middle of a circle of four or five huge rock formations. It looked like there was a way to get out through a narrow passage between two of these rocks, so I headed up a steep, rocky hill in its direction. After climbing a ways, I realized that there was no way I was going to make it through, so I headed back to where I had come from. After backtracking all the way to the church below the stairs, I found another small path. I walked down this path, past some emaciated, but vicious looking dogs into another part of the neighborhood. Here I came upon a narrow cobblestone path that lead up another hill. It was a beautiful area to hike in. The there were flowers of every color blooming, light green trees, and epic rock formations everywhere. Many sat precariously on thin bases on which balanced a much larger and heavier looking top. As I got deeper into the forest, the path split several times and I was never sure if I was on the right path, or if any of the paths really led anywhere. Finally, I arrived at a road just below the monastery of Saint Nikolaos Anapafsas. I took a brief rest before climbing the stairs to the monastery which is perched on the top of a smaller rock outcropping. After seeing the inside of the monastery and enjoying the view from the top, I headed back down to the road. I walked the wrong way down the road for a bit before realizing it and heading back the other way to another path. This path was the most strenuous of all. It was made almost completely of stairs made of poorly placed cobblestones, so with every step I was worried I would twist my ankle. I was already exhausted from all the hiking and from the heat of the sun, and by this time was realizing I had bit off a little more than I could chew, originally expecting that I could easily walk to all the monasteries. I finally arrived at the top of the stairs where the Megalo Meteoro monastery is. I was out of, water, hungry, and over exerted. I made my way up the steps of the monastery. This monastery is the highest and most popular of the six monasteries in Meteora, and is very nice inside. Its set up like a museum showing what the life of the monks who lived there would have been like (there are no monks living in any of the Meteora monasteries anymore, although monks from surrounding monasteries often visit and perform liturgies). There was even a room filled with the bones of all the monks who had lived there before. After that I decided I was done going inside the monasteries and I headed down the scorching highway. I took in some amazing views near the Varlaam monastery and continued walking down the road past the three other monasteries until a found myself back on the path that had originally led me to the monastery of Saint Nikolaos. I headed back through Kastraki to Kalambaka where I ate a gyro and caught a bus back to Trikala. When I got back to the hostel I spend some time talking to an Australian couple and then walked over to a nearby Turkish Mosque. After that I went back to the hostel and spent the rest of the evening drinking cheap Greek beer and watching soccer with a Brazilian and a Czech. Today I am going to Thessaloniki. I was going to catch a bus at 10:30, but its full, so I have to catch the one at 1:30. Now I'm sitting in a smokey cafe that's attached to the bus station, watching a Greek man smoke his fourth cigarette in a row and listening to a mix of Greek and American pop music.
I'll try to post some pictures and write more later today or tomorrow, but I can't make any promises.
Tuesday, April 14, 2015
Lechaina
On Friday I caught a bus to Isthmos to get picked up by my uncle's friend's Greek family, Dimie and her parents. Isthmos is near Corinth and is characterized by a deep canal that connects the Ionian sea to the bay on the other side. We walked out on the bridge that crosses it and looked down. After that we made our way to Dimie's great aunt's house in the small town of Lechaina on the west coast of the Pelloponese region of Greece. Neither Dimie's parents nor her great aunt speak any English besides two or three words here and there, so there was quite a language barrier from the beginning. As soon as we reached her great aunt's house, we sat down to eat. The first thing was a soup that was a bit like minestrone, but different. After that, they continued to put more food in front of me: more soup, bread, bread sticks, marinated olives, feta cheese, and two different kinds of salad. All of this came with a couple glasses of home made wine. Just when I thought it was all over, they pulled out some peanuts. We ate those and when they were almost gone, out came the fruit. First an apple, then an orange, and finally a pear. For dessert was some chocolate with almonds in it. I was so full, but in a good way. Friday was a day for honoring the dead, so we went to the cemetery to see the graves of some of their family members and light some candles. Then we headed to the church to pay our respects to some of the saints. After that we headed back to their house to watch a bit of TV before going to another church on the other side of town (the town is very small. You can walk from one side to the other in 10 minutes). At this church they had a sermon and procession in honor of the dead. We, along with a huge crowd of people holding candles, followed a group of boys dressed in church garb, carrying staffs, banners, and a cross. They led us back to the cemetery where just outside they where having a symbolic burning of Judas with a large bon fire fuelled by wooden pallets. There were so many firecrackers and some mortars going off all night. After that, we headed back to the house, watched some TV, and drank cognac before going to bed.
That evening at midnight was the resurrection celebration. We all walked over to the church, lit some candles, and listened to a sermon. Then the priest brought out the "light of Israel", a flame that is supposed to have been brought all the way from Israel, and we all lit our candles on it so that we all had a little bit of the "light" to take with us. We walked back to the house and at around 1 am we began the resurrection feast. The first course was a stew made up of some vegetables and the organs of a goat, including the liver, the spleen, and the brain. After that we ate the goat and some beef. We spent another hour or so after that hanging out and watching TV.
On orthodox easter Sunday, we went over to Dimie's uncle's house to eat more. I really wish I could've communicated with everyone better, but I still had a good time. I learned a few Greek words, and they learned some English, and it all went well. In the late afternoon, we took a walk around the outskirts of the town. The countryside was nice and the air was fresh.
The next day we went to the island of Zakinthos. The ferry trip was short and we had a pretty relaxed day walking around the island.
