actually boxing day

I thought it was kind of funny that I'm actually putting things in boxes on boxing day. I don't think I've ever done that before. Of course, it has nothing to do with Christmas and everything to do with the fact that I'm moving in 4 days.

As a side note, though, I did participate in the hysteria that is Boxing Day in north america. I went out shopping for a nice recliner and ended up buying a leather couch. It was a screaming deal, and a cool design. It's not often that I see couches that I actually like, so when I find one that's well designed and affordable, I'm all over it. We'll have it in time for our Cardboard New Years party. cool!

bms
PS: I hope everyone had a fantastic Christmas. We certainly did!

the gift of music

I just finished polishing off an updated edition of my Music Sampler DVD. I'm giving a copy to a friend at work who I think is going to really dig this stuff. I set it up as a disc with two directories: Sampler and Albums. The Sampler has about 40 songs in it that I hand-picked to be sort of representative of each artist on the disc. Then, in Albums, I have one (or more) albums for each artist in the Sampler. Hopefully it's an easy way for people to scout out what they like and dislike without accidentally tossing a great artist aside because they happened to stumble upon one of their weaker tracks. Without the Sampler, it's a bit daunting to really get into this thing, because there's 4 gigs of music on it!!!

Anyway, I love introducing people to new music. I think it's just because I personally LOVE it when someone else gets me hooked on new tunes (huge thanks go out here to my brother, Matt, and good buddy Pete, both of whom are probably my biggest influences).

So, if anyone wants a copy of this bad boy, just let me know!!!

Highlighted genres/artists on this edition of the Sampler are:
Instrumental funkiness
Greyboy-Freestylin-07-Lite_Bake.mp3
Stanton Moore-All Kooked Out-04-Blues for Ben.mp3

Can you say "modern new orleans funk?"
Galactic-Crazyhorse Mongoose-07-Change My Ways (Pt. 2).mp3

Big/Breakbeat electronic goodness
Salmonella Dub-One Drop East-06-Ez On.mp3
10-pendulum_-_hold_your_colour-boss.mp3

HipHop minus the bullshit
Jurassic 5-Power In Numbers-06-A Day At The Races.mp3

hiphop meets other genres
01 - Mind Control.mp3 (by stephen marley)
G. Love - Lemonade - 08 - Thanks and Praise.mp3
01 radio free dc (feat afrika bambaataa and king kamonzi).mp3 (by Fort Knox Five)
Bullfrog-Bullfrog-14-Nice Try.mp3

achhh... moving!

I.

Hate.

Moving.


*sigh* but it must be done. This place has been pretty good to me: it started off as an 'easy out' when my lease at the old condo on Cook became non-renewable, but it turned out to be a nice, cheap, central place to live in while I spent a year at UVic. Now that I'm back at work and trying to change things up, a move seems like a logical thing to do. Of course, sharing a place with matty is going to be cool (if weird-I've lived alone for almost three years now).

Anyway, the move is next weekend and already I'm starting to organize and do some preliminaries. Took all the empties to the depot today. I'll be giving away some clothes and starting to pack up non-essential stuff pretty soon. The landlords at this building are really nice, but they have a pretty demanding 'move-out' checklist, and it's costly if you don't comply with all the points on the list. Damn.

Anyway, I'm still in a good mood overall and looking forward to Christmas, then the Cardboard New Years party that Matt and I will be hosting. I bet that by 6pm on Dec 31st the last thing I'll want to do is host a party, but by 10pm I'll be stoked about it. Can you say Red Bull and Vodka???

bms

today...

today I feel very christmassy. I have some great friends and family around me, and seriously, what more could you want?

Merry Christmas everyone, I hope you're all having a blast these days!

cheers,
Mikey

Daily Grind

I came back from my trip full of energy and determination. I was going to change things up, get out of the old groove. Well, I just got home from a tiring day at work to an apartment that's messier than it should be. I should make dinner but I don't really have the energy. Yikes! What's going on here! This is not what I planned!

Fortunately Christmas is coming, so that means a bit of fun. Also the move to new digs will be a major change. I think matty and I are both looking to shake things up a little, so hopefully we can help each other accomplish that. Things on my list to do/try:
- find some damn shop space and get the welder going again!
- go for an indoor rock climbing lesson (I think that would be fun)
- go kayaking (this could wait for the spring maybe)

I'll keep you posted on how it all goes.

cheers,
bms

debit card fraud

There's a lot of talk lately about debit card fraud. Pin pads are being swapped out and replaced with units that transmit the card information and PIN to criminals via bluetooth. They're talking about it in the papers, on the news, all over the place. Solutions like security software, steel cable locks, etc etc are all being thrown around.

Why hasn't anyone suggested simpler solutions? One article pointed out the potential signs of tampering: popped screws and ill-fitting seams due to all the extra components stuffed into the hacked unit. So if the 'scam' pin pads are full of extra crap, why don't we simply manufacture all of these items using clear plastic???

You can't expect the Chevron kid to double check the serial numbers on the pin pad every hour, but you CAN expect the kid to notice when all of a sudden the device is full of extra electronic stuff that wasn't there the day before!

bms

I'm baa-aaack!

Hi everyone. I'm at mom's house right now talking about the Canucks and getting my head back on straight. Took roughly 38 hours to get home, but I had some sleep on the flight to Vancouver as well as on a bench at YVR, so I feel ok. I'll be playing a hockey game tonight, I've already reinsured my truck and put on a load of laundry (hope it doesn't permanently soil the machine!)

Thanks for arranging this beautiful weather today, btw. It was an amazing ferry ride home: I was comparing it to all the beautiful places I've been, and once again we find that good ole Vancouver Island stacks up with the best in the world.

cheers everyone!
bms

more Bratislava

I'm just having too much fun here in Bratislava to leave any sooner than absolutely necessary, so I've extended my stay one more time, and I'll be taking an early train tomorrow to Vienna, and then connecting directly to the airport by bus. From there, I fly to Toronto at 2pm, arriving at 7:30. My connection to Vancouver departs at 10pm, and lands at 12:30am, so I should have my luggage and be cleared through immigration by 1:30 or so. From there it's a snooze on a bench until 6 when I can get a bus to the ferry (I hope: still need to confirm that the airport PCL to the ferry goes to that early boat). --UPDATE: nope, the first bus from YVR is for the 9am ferry. Oh well, I can still make that.--

We have family friends in Delta that offered to pick me up and let me sleep after my flight, but I've decided to just tough it out and do the whole trip home in one go. It's a sort of masochistic pleasure that can be derived from doing a ridiculous stretch of travel. I think Slovakia->Austria->Toronto->Vancouver->Victoria is pretty good. I'm sure I'll count the hours up and make a big deal out of how long it took. You can all look forward to me being loudmouthed about that one!

I don't really have anything blogworthy to report from Bratislava, it's just been a really relaxed, laid back place to chill out for the end of the trip. This hostel is just awesome: their restaurant is absolutely fantastic! I've had four meals here so far, each one just amazing. Going to have another tonight after a bit of a nap (ok, ok, so I was out until 4am last night. There's a group of 12 british girls here at the moment... what can I say? ;)

This will probably be the last entry from foreign soil, unless I find a terminal in Vienna to use while I waste time. I'd like to finish up with something profound, but I think I'll leave it for now, and perhaps write up something interesting after I get home. If I never get around to that, though, let me just thank everyone who's come by here, and especially those of you who left comments for me: they really helped to keep me going a couple of times, and were a constant reminder of all my friends and family back at home. much appreciated everyone!

cheers,
bms

Bratislava

Hi everyone,

I've been in Bratislava for a few days now and I'm really enjoying it. It's a great place to finish up the trip, as there's not really that much to do here, it's just a nice place to be. The hostel is great, with a fantastic restaurant in the basement serving up excellent, moderately priced food. Some good people around too (Canadians vastly outnumber Aussies here: weird). I extended my stay an extra night (to 3) and will only stay in Vienna for the night before my flight. I'll probably leave early tomorrow morning though, so that I can at least spend the day wandering around the city a bit.

We went to a Slovakian elite league hockey game last night. It was great to be in a hockey arena again. When the players came out to warm up I got a major urge to get back on the ice myself. Can't wait to suit up for the Knuckleheads again when I get home!

The game itself was pretty ho-hum. Those europeans never finish their checks, so to my eyes it felt like a very lazy game with no intensity or effort. The home team won, though, so the best part was at the end of the game. They left the ice, but returned sans helmets and gloves, and did a big victory lap, waved to all the fans, and then went down to line up on the blue line, opposite the crazy fans in the standing room section. These fans had been going crazy the whole game, and now the players lined up in front of them, joined hands and started lifting their arms into the air repeatedly, really fast. The fans all did the same, and it was like this big fan/player love fest or something. We were killing ourselves laughing, it was so funny to our eyes. Still, it was really cool to see the players engage the fans in that way. I liked it.

I'm starting to look forward to some of the simple things of home now. Like sleeping through the night without having your bed shaken like an earthquake by the dude on the top bunk at 5am. Or going to the bathroom when you want, not when its available. Or a million other little things (knowing where you can get bacon and eggs for breakfast being one that immediately jumps to mind).

So that about catches me up I think. I'm not going to write any more Romanian stories, as there's just too many to type out. Hopefully I'll generate one or two more good ones in the time I have left, and then it'll be back to the real world. Yikes!

cheers,
bms

the big kahuna

As I prepare to write this, I'm expecting it to be the longest post on the blog. The limiting factor may be this wooden stool that I'm sitting on, as it tends to put my leg to sleep!

Where do I even begin to describe my time in northern Romania? The wild, windy mountain roads that look like they're straight out of Gran Turismo? The strange, unspoken animosity that I felt was directed my way from one of the guys? The bizzaro route we drove to get back to Cluj? The club that we went to in order to kill time before our 3am train out of Romania?

No. This story begins and ends with a single scene. It's not an action scene. It's not a love scene. It's a panoramic shot that would've made Peter Jackson proud.

On my birthday I woke up early, put on my boots, toque, gloves and a few layers of clothes before heading out for a walk through the contryside. We were staying in a guesthouse in a town called Ocna Sugatag, right in the heart of the Maramures region of Romania. I told the gang that if I wasn't back by 11am they could head out on their day trip without me. I hit the road and headed straight out of town. After the last house I spotted a thin trail heading into a huge hay field. I jumped the ditch and began my adventure.

The sun was climbing into a pure azure sky, casting long shadows across vibrant green grass that still sparkled with a fringe of frost. Beads of dew clung to the heavy grasses that parted for my muddy boots. The trail wound alongside an ancient fence made of woven branches before it veered off into the middle of the field. In the distance was a low ridge obscured by massive haystacks. Far off to my left was an a old man scything grass by hand, head down as he worked.

I wandered through the haystacks, taking a self-portrait of myself beside one of them for posterity. These stacks are really interesting: they're formed around small trees that have been topped and limbed, leaving a 15 or 20 foot post with 8" stub branches upon which the hay is piled and draped. In the end it forms large, rounded stacks of hay that sometimes have to be propped up with extra poles.

Nearing the ridge line I saw the trail disappear through a hole in a hedge that was made cattle-proof via a small wooden set of stairs. I had to duck to get through the hole in the hedge, and when I raised my head on the other side I was almost knocked backwards by the scene before me.

Stretched out as far as I could see in the early morning mist was a valley so green, so rich in detail, that I was left stunned. Within moments I had tears in my eyes. I stood there for a long time, contemplating my presence in this amazing place, thinking about what a unique birthday I was having. Words really can't describe the scene. Even the pictures that I have can't do it justice. The landscape wrapped around me like a fireside blanket on a cold night. The view to the east can't be appreciated without the hedge wall behind you. The view across the valley to the north isn't the same without the experience of having hiked a similar valley in order to see it.

After some time, perhaps ten minutes, a short, round Romanian woman of many years wandered up the path towards me. I gave her a big smile and said something about the beautiful weather and gorgeous scene that I knew she wouldn't understand. Evidently I had my arms lifted up with my palms facing the sky as I said it, because as she smiled back at me she returned my greeting by making the same gesture with a slightly confused look on her face. It was a classic moment.

After absorbing as much of the scene as I could, I began my descent into the valley. The trail wound alongside a pumpkin patch, a pasture, through a fallow field and down a horse cart path. I passed one of the famous wooden churches of Maramures on the way, stumbling upon the structure in the middle of an copse of trees. There was a small plaque on the wall that I couldn't read, but it placed the church's construction in the 1600's. Finding that church was a treat, as I was sure that it was not one that many tourists ever get to see.

From the church I followed a very rough rough that led down to the main asphalt strip that ran along the valley floor. I was intent on climbing up to the opposite ridge line, so I followed this road until I found a bridge across the picturesque little river and began the trip up the north side.

At first I followed another gravel road that quickly turned into a canyon of mud. The road wasn't a road in the way that we think of roads. This was a cart track that was so old, it had eroded down to the point where the fields on both sides were a good four feet higher than the path. Walking through it, trying to hop from stone to stone to avoid the knee-deep mud, I could put my arms out to brace myself against the dirt walls. The grass in the fields was almost at eye level at times.

Eventually the road forked and I took the less-travelled path. This petered out to a barely-discernable path through goat-cropped grass, surrounded on all sides by more haystacks, withered corn fields, seed cabbages and pumpkin patches. I was passing random people and exchanging big smiles and waves every once in a while. I kept moving on, lost in this land of wooden pitchforks and hand-scythed fields.

After a time I began to realize that I should have brought some food with me. I was getting hungry and there was clearly no chance of stopping at a shop for a bite. My cutoff time to hookup with the group was fast approaching, and I was unsure if I wanted to go back or to just push on by myself. Strangely, the decision was made for me by an irritated old man with a very sharp pitchfork.

I'd been walking up a grassy hillside when I heard a piercing whistle from down below. I turned and saw an old Romanian man standing in the field below. He waved me down, so I turned and walked down to meet him. I was surprised when he started in at me in Romanian. Not surprised because it was Romanian, of course, but because he was actually a bit angry. Maybe not angry, but irritated. I tried to sign that I was just out for a walk and didn't mean to cause trouble. He pointed at the way I was going and gave me the "nu, nu" shake of the head. Then he pointed at a hedge straight ahead and gestured that I should go that way. I tried a little more to figure out what was going on, but it was no use, so I started off in the direction he pointed.

I hadn't gone more than 30 feet before it became clear that there was no way through the hedge. I turned to him and pointed to the hedge, indicating that there was nowhere to go. He just pointed back and shrugged, as if to say "I don't care, just get off my property." Truly strange. Since there was no way through, however, I pointed back in the direction I had come and just said "Ocna Sugatag" and made a walking motion with my fingers ("I'll just go back then"). This seemed to satisfy him, so at that point I decided to head back and rejoin the gang.

As it turns out, they were just headed out when I stepped onto the main road. They literally drove past me and then slammed on the brakes as one of them recognized me at the side of the road. I jumped in and we took off for a full day of sightseeing and hiking high in the hills on the Ukranian border.

There are more stories from that one day, my birthday, than I could type here in a full week. This will do for now, because as I said at the beginning, that panoramic valley scene was the defining moment of my experience in Romania. I've now done my best to describe it for you all! (pictures to come later)

cheers,
Mike

still alive!!!

Hi everyone! I'm still alive, even after four days in a rental car in Romania. I don't have much time: I'm just jumping online to see how many people loved me from afar on my birthday (answer: lots! thanks guys). This is just to let you all know that I'm back in civilization, namely Bratislava, Slovakia. I'm going to go to a hockey game tomorrow night with some other Canadian boys and try to enjoy my last few days here.

I plan to write up a looooong post about Romania when I have more time tomorrow. It was amazing!

cheers,
bms

Cluj, Sighisoara and one damn funny night out.

Hi again everyone. We've made it to a city called cluj (kloozh). There's not much here except for a big club scene and cheap rental cars, so the rest of the gang is gearing up to hit the club and I snuck out to spend a few hours on the internet. We had a big night out last night in Sighisoara (siggy-sho-arra) that was absolutely ridiculous. I'm actually shocked that I was relatively un-hungover this morning, but somehow your body seems to go into uber-efficient food and alcohol processing when you travel.

In any case, the last few days have been fun but somewhat wearying at the same time. We're now traveling as a group of 5 people. Mike, Jed and I invited another Aussie dude named Justin to go with us, and that would've made for a perfect 4 man road trip. Jed then got a little sweet on an 18 year old girl (from Courtenay of all places) and invited her to join us. My first thought was ~~greeeeeat~~ but actually she's been pretty cool. Of course 5 is a tough number though: we don't fit in cabs, we don't fit around most tables and its too many people to make decisions. I feel like 'dad' with these guys both because I've got almost a decade on them and because I lead them around by the nose a lot. I understand now why some of the guys would get really antsy on the COCA trips about the dickering that would go on while trying to make decisions. I'll certainly be better prepared for another trip like that in the future.

Anyway, I'd guess that these guys are probably just as ready to get rid of me as I am to drop them. That's an overly harsh way to put it... it's more of a craving for freedom that's slowly getting stronger and stronger. I expect that in 2 days, when we're finished with the car, we'll all be happy to go our separate ways.

Sighisoara was kind of a weird place. It rained hard last night and we all got soaked. Jed's walking around today in wool socks and flip-flops because his shoes are so wet. (It's 2 degrees out today). The town would be picturesque in a very Germanic-medieval way if every street in the old town weren't ripped up for some kind of sewage system repair/construction. I swear there were times when you had to inch along an ancient stone wall for fear of falling into a 10' hole in the street.

The town itself was completely dead by 10pm on a Friday night. Of course, it's only a town of 30k people so you can't expect a bustling city center, but it was eerily weird because we were, as I mentioned, inching along twisty, dark, steep cobblestone streets that were more open-pit strip mine than street.

We finally found a place that was open for food and enjoyed some good pizzas and beers, followed by more beers upstairs in the loft. An accoustic band was playing there that was pretty enjoyable, and we got started with our drinking. the entertainment was provided by an extremely drunk young woman who was with a table of Americans next to us. There were 4 guys and this girl, and she was putting on a show with ALL of them. We sat back and watched these guys competing for this girl. I won't try to describe it, but it got damn funny.

Eventually they closed down and we went back to have some drinks at the hostel next to our guesthouse. This place was full of 14 year old kids on some kind of school field trip- we had tried to stay there after getting off the train earlier. After being told they were full we asked if we could come back and drink there later. The answer: "fuck yeah... fuckin hell yeah!". The guy running the place, Andrei, was so sick of these kids that he was desperate for some normal people to keep him company. So, we came back, now soaking wet, and sent a crew out to get some booze. That trip ended up with 1 litre of vodka, a few 2.5 litre beers, and a picture of a cab driver in a huge sombrero dancing in the bottle shop.

We quickly found out that the Americans were staying at this hostel and that the girl worked there. Oh boy. We kept to our separate spaces, them in the lounge and us in the adjacent billiards room (sticky table, no tips on the cues). This worked ok, but since we spent half the night laughing our asses off at the video that we had taken of this girl "dancing" at the bar earlier, we ended up pissing them off pretty good. It never got nasty, but we eventually had to leave while the girl was yelling at us all. Damn it was funny.

Today was a sort of hazy day of sightseeing and trains. The real highlight was finding a grilled ham and egg breakfast offered at the restaurant from the previous night. I added a cappucino and a plate of cheese and ham covered toast and called it a perfect hangover breakfast. What a find: greasy eggs, toast and "bacon" after my biggest night of drinking so far. Sweet.

I should try to get my iPod and camera hooked up to this computer here so that I can transfer some more pics. Not sure how many I have now, but it's a lot. If I have some time at home before going back to work I better get my ass in gear and start sorting and editing them!

That's about it for news and events. We're still hoping to get the car tomorrow and find a cabin to rent for a night or two. It's sunday tomorrow though, so I have some doubts about whether this will be possible. Once we get out though I expect to be off the grid for a couple days. Don't expect much here until I'm back in civilization.

cheers,
bms

laaaate

It's really late and honestly I was on my way to bed when I noticed that a) the hostel computer is actually working; and, b) it was free. So here I am.

I'm in Brasov right now, considered to be the heart of Transylvania. This region is really cool, and actually feels more like home than any place I've been so far. It's cool, misty, damp, mountainous and full of evergreens. There are lots of differences too, of course, like the wide valleys (similar to the Fraser Valley), patches of broad leafed trees and a lack of ferns, but overall I like it a lot.

I joined a big tour today of the three major castles around Brasov. The first was a partially rebuilt ruined citadel that was quite cool. Great location for a castle for sure. The second was the castle in Bran, the setting for Bram Stoker's Dracula. The real person, Vlad the Impaler, upon whom Dracula is loosely based, only visited the castle once. It's really just a purely fictional link, and honestly the castle was quite lame and very touristy.

The third one was great though. It was more of a 18th C. castle with extremely grandious and expensive furnishings and decoration. There was a crystal mirror from Vienna on one wall that was 5 meters high and 3 wide. It was a single piece of crystal. crazy. Plus it had a big room full of all sorts of weaponry, including a mounted knight on an armoured horse. Very cool. The detail of the woodwork, the gold leaf, crystal, gemstones, stone inlays, etc etc etc made for an incredibly busy decor that pulled your eye in every conceivable direction. Amazing to look at, unimaginable to live in!

The tour was also fun because it was a chance to become friends with 8 other people, in addition to Mike and Jed, the guys I've been traveling with for 3 days or so now. We're having a good time here, but it's amazing how that group aspect means that I have very little time to myself, and so the blog and personal journal tends to suffer a bit. For my COCA compatriots: we went out for dinner as a group of 8 and actually managed to do it quickly and to everyone's satisfaction. Who'd of thought it possible?!?

Actually, the journal hasn't been totally neglected. On our way here from Bucharest, we managed to get on to the wrong train and as a result I had *plenty* of time to write in the journal. We paid extra for express tickets to avoid the 4.5 hr podunk-station local's train, which we ended up boarding by accident. I can't tell the story properly via this blog, but in retrospect it was a bit funny. We were almost late getting to the station, the guy I asked about platforms tried to tell me "9" but I thought he was saying "nein" in German, and we were basically too rushed to look properly at the board. Oh well, we made it, but man was that a slow train. It averaged less than 40km/hour over 160 km.

So, there may be some car rental action in the next few days, and tomorrow we may be off to Sighisoara. Hard to say at this time. I'll keep you up to date!

cheers,
bms
PS: Mom, you don't *need* the international DL here, but I have one with me anyway. And they drive on the right side. Most of the time.

Bucharest

I'm operating on a different frequency here in Bucharest. Moving with two guys, Mike the Canadian and Jed the Aussie. We're trying to decide right now if and how we rent a car for the next little while to get around the rest of Romania. It's a bit of a negotiation to try to sort something that works for all three of us.

No time to get into details right now, but otherwise everything's good.

cheers,
Mike

Veliko Tarnovo

Hi everyone,

You'd think that on a day as lazy as this one is that I'd write up a long and detailed account of my recent travels. Well, if you think that, you're wrong! Instead, you get a couple of sentences explaining that it's still raining, it's really not bothering me because I didn't plan to do anything today anyway, and otherwise things are good.

I met another Canadian guy named Mike (go figure, it had to happen eventually). I think we're going to head into Romania together. Not sure how long that will last, but he's a cool guy and we'll at least do Bucharest as a team. I'm going to wander down to town to sort out the bus ticket right now. Hopefully I can locate a barber somewhere so that tomorrow I can get the head shaved and beard trimmed up. Feeling pretty scraggly at the moment! It's sunday though, so no chance that the barber will actually be open today.

k, that's it for now. See you all later!
bms
-PS: I kicked ass in my hockey pool last night and am now in first place. Nice.

a proper posting from Istanbul

I figured I should put up a proper posting from here in Istanbul. Despite the negative tone of my previous posts, I'm actually having a good time here. For one, I feel quite a bit better today, so I'm confident that I'll be close to 100% again soon. On top of that, I've had some good days filled with cruises, museums, mosques and all kinds of wondrous sights. Today I spent probably 4 hours in the Archeological Museum. Wow! I met a historical geography prof last night who told me about this place, and he was right. it was truly an impressive collection, and it was displayed in an outstanding setting with excellent lighting and full English placards for everything. It was really cool.

Stuffed with Roman and Greek statues, sarcophagii, pottery, jewelry, etc etc, it was a feast for the eyes. There was one sarcophagus in particular that was just spectacular. It must've been 14' long and 8' high. The relief carvings of Alexander the Great an his men slaughtering the Persian army was unbelievable. Each figure was probably 1' tall, but it had to have been 1' deep as well. It just had layer upon layer of detail. It even had some remnants of the original colour left on it. To make it all the more spectacular, the entire sarcophagus was carved out of a single block of marble. It was so astounding that I sat on a benchin front of this thing and just got lost in it for about 15 minutes. Fantastic!

Another really cool experience here has been the time around sunset (7pm specifically) during which I've gone down to a huge food bazaar that's been setup in the old Hippodrome for the month of Ramadan. You see, since nobody can eat or drink anything all day long, they all celebrate the end of the day by gathering together to have a huuuuuuge outdoor picnic that starts with the 7pm call to prayer. It's a treat to watch and to participate in, so I always time my dinner for 7 and join the locals down there. My favourite is the monster baked potato that they whip up for you and then add more toppings than you could reasonably expect a potato to hold. Brilliant!

I'm not sure if I'll have any spectacular photos of Istanbul, but I've got a good range of fairly intense emotional and experiential memories. I've gotten up 2 days in a row quite early to get a proper shot of the Blue Mosque, but both times its been cloudy. It was also cloudy for my trip up the Bosphorous, so no amazing shots there either. Still, I'm sure a couple of them will turn out well. Good enough for the monster photo album I'm going to have to make of this trip. How will I ever pare the pics down to one album? I filled an album during a 2 week trip to Tunisia for crying out loud!

OK, I think that covers all the basics here. I'll be on another overnight train to Veliko Tarnovo in Bulgaria tonight. I even have a reservation and a pickup from the train station there, so it'll be one of my more well-planned arrivals (actually, it'll be one of my *only* planned arrivals!)/

cheers,
bms
PS: a second thanks to you all for the support. It helped!

Movıng on

Thanks for the ınput everyone, I really apprecıate ıt.

I took a cruıse up the bosphorous to the mouth of the black sea today and really enjoyed ıt. It was very relaxed and I hıked up to an old fort at the top of a hıll at the mouth of the channel. Man ıs there a lot of boat traffıc ın the Bosphorous! Imagıne a channel about 2x the wıdth of the Burrard Inlet and about 35km long. Then put 8 tankers, 40 large fıshıng vessels, a dozen passenger ferrıes and hundreds of small boats ınto ıt. Stır.

Ive got a tıcket to Velıko Tarnovo ın Bulgarıa for tomorrow nıght, so one more day to spend ın Istanbul. I'll probably relax ın VT and try to get over the last of thıs cold.

Thıs keyboard ıs so stıcky I can barely type on ıt, so thıs wıll be short. Thanks agaın to those of you who commented or emaıled me about my last post. I needed the outsıde perspectıve.

cheers,
bms

The Psychology of Istanbul

Fırst thıng's fırst- they don't belıeve ın dottıng theır i's around here. Although there ıs an i on the keyboard, the key ın the usual place ıs the same just wıthout a dot. So ıf thıs looks really weırd on your computer, well, too bad for you!

Istanbul has been an ınterestıng experıence. After my tıme ın less tourısty (or even non-tourısty) countrıes ıts been a shock to stay here. There must be a dozen large hostels wıthın 3 blocks of thıs place. The streets are lıned wıth rıpoff restaurants full of non-turkısh patrons ıgnorıng the fact that ıts Ramazan (wıth a z not a d ın Turkey). I at least try to be dıscrete when I eat durıng the day here.

In any case, I may have hyped thıs place up too much ın my head. I don't want to say that ıts been a dısappoıntment, but ıts not been the hıghlıght of my trıp. I found myself ponderıng thıs poınt earlıer today whıle wrıtıng ın my journal, and I came to an ınterestıng conclusıon- I realızed that I have come to a poınt where for some reason I belıeve that the hıghlıghts of my trıp have come and gone, and that quıte lıkely I am just "playing out the game". Now, I don't really want to have thıs attıtude, but ıt perfectly descrıbes the way Ive been feelıng for the last 3 or 4 days.

Most of thıs emotıonal and psychologıcal stuff I've been keepıng to my journal rather than postıng here, but thıs ıs somethıng I'm goıng to share ın case anyone has any comments, suggestıons or has perhaps experıenced the same thıng. You see, lookıng back now ıts quıte clear that people lıke Tım (the Aussıe I traveled wıth for a week) and Hanna (the Swedısh gırl from Budva) are few and far between. Most of the people I've met sınce have somehow been gettıng on my nerves. I have no real ınterest ın spendıng any more tıme wıth the two guys I met here ın Istanbul. I had to move on after a couple days wıth Dave ın Macedonıa. I was entertaıned by, but not frıends wıth, two guys ın Plovdıv.

I thınk that part of thıs ıs drıven by the fact that I'm fıghtıng a cold and am stuffed up, achy and low-energy. I've been shocked and a bıt annoyed at how expensıve everythıng ıs here, and I'm wonderıng how much I really want to spend 4 days, possıbly alone, ın rural Romanıa. I'm just feelıng tıred rıght now, and hope that I can recharge for the last 3 weeks here.

It's not all grım news and bad tıdıngs though. I've seen some great stuff here, and tomorrow I'll take the Bosphorous ferry up the straıght and do a lıttle wanderıng ın Asıa. The Aya Sophıa really *ıs* amazıng. The Grand Bazaar ıs crazy. Its been cool, but ıts also been a bıt of a struggle to keep myself goıng. I may take a traın out of here tomorrow nıght just to try get ınto a dıfferent headspace.

cheers,
bms

a few pics

I had a little time to kill again here, so I thought I'd post up some of the pics that I left on the machine yesterday.

Here's the painting that I really enjoyed. I think I mentioned it in one of my earlier posts.


This is inside that weird cement momunent thing.


Here's one of the statues that lined the interior of that monument. I couldn't get any great shots, because I was peering down from the elevated platform in the middle into the shadows.


And finally, the pod-like dark glass thing is the internet joint that I used on my arrival here. Note how it's built into a concrete structure that was built on top of an old Roman amphitheatre. It's so weird to my Western eye to see this kind of history being consumed by such modern work. I suppose this was built in the communist era, when they just worshipped cement.

Plovdiv: Day 2 1/2

I suppose this is technically my third day in Plovdiv, given that I've paid for two beds so far. I've only slept in one of them, however, as last night I got to drinking with the two other guests here and the girl that runs the place. We were still going by 6am, and since I had to be on the internet at 8am so that I could kick my buddies' asses in our annual hockey draft, I decided to just stay up and push right through.

My host, Nailie (sp?), offered to let me nap for an hour while she made breakfast and coffee, so I did fall asleep briefly from 6:30 to 7:30, but I never took my pants or shirt off, so it counts as a nap rather than a sleep.

Today was a bit of a blur of more naps, a HUGE tasty lunch, the draft itself and a little more hazy wandering. It's about 6:30 now and I expect we'll be organizing a dinner outing pretty soon. I'm writing this posting up as I transfer another batch of photos from my camera onto the iPod. Not sure how many pics I've got so far, but it's a LOT. I mean, a ~L~O~T~. I'm going to have 3 days of editing to do when I get home!

So what else has gone on here? Well, after the evening that I described in the last posting, I spent an entire day going for a long walk through town. The highlight was a crazy huge concrete communist monument that was just way too cool/weird. Although the gates were locked, I was able to climb up one angled face and then down another into the middle of this structure. From there I snapped some way cool pictures of the full-on soviet-style statues that lined the interior of this place. I'm not going to do a full picture post here, but check this place out:



After that monument/hall, I kept wandering through a huge urban park, coming out (finally) at the canal that I had read about. It's a 2.5km long stretch of river that basically goes nowhere. God only knows what they were intending to use it for, but it's been turned into a rowing course, with a big stadium set up at one end to witness the finishes. Of course it's all fairly decrepit, but still cool. Evidently this canal was the last major communist make-work project in Bulgaria, so that was kind of cool to see. It really was quite immense, and must've been a huge undertaking.

Otherwise I've been chilling with Jann and Stephen, a french guy and american expat (now living in Buenos Aries). They're two real characters with a million and one stories to tell, so it's been pretty much nonstop since I sat down last night to hang out.

OK, go Bloody Knuckles! -my hockey pool team
and go Canucks! -my NHL team

Looking forward to coming home to watch some hockey. I got both Sedins in my pool this year, so here's hoping they take another step up. Wouldn't it be sweet if they both cracked 100 points! (that's sure to get a few comments from my buddies who read this!)

cheers,
bms

...the most bizarre things

Sometimes, on the road, you just find yourself in situations where, if you step back and ~really~ look around, you can only shake your head at the absurdity of it.

Last night, after my somewhat down-and-out posting, I did go wander around. I discovered that the throngs of people are here for Plovdiv's annual art and history festival. All of the galleries and museums are open late and for free, everyone had a drink in hand (although I'll be damned if I could find anyone selling or giving away the stuff!!!) and so I just wandered around checking out different art galleries and street displays. There were some really, really great paintings on display. One, in particular, was just excellent. It was of Daedalus (sp?) falling from the sky with his burned-out wings. Amazing.

What was so weird about this, you ask? Well, there's a local historic manor house that has ethnographic displays of clothing, tools, etc etc, including some armour and weapons from the medieval and later eras. Outside of this place, however, was the bizarre scene that was so funny I was actually getting a lot of funny looks myself because I kept laughing out loud.

On a balcony overlooking a large garden there was a band, decked out in medieval knight, monk and priest's outfits (except the drummer, who looked like George Carlin stripped naked to the waist with a cigarette hanging out of his mouth). This band also happened to be playing bad Zeppelin covers, sung in English despite the fact that the singer didn't know all the words. There were five people on stage, but it was a three piece band. The other two were conducting bad mock battles: knight vs monk, two daggers vs short poleaxe.

So there I am, wandering into this courtyard because I can hear Whole Lotta Love starting up somewhere, and I end up watching this scene unfold. It was absolutely hilarious.

I've got a few pictures from the evening, but I don't think any of them will really do it justice. I did take a short video of the band, but I think the microphone on my camera is screwed up, because I don't think it captured any of the sound. Oh well, I can show you the band later, at least.

I'm going to head out and hike up some of the hills here in Plovdiv. They're quite odd, actually, because this city is built on a massive plain. There just happens to be six distinct hills that jut up out of nothing around here. There used to be 7, but the communists dismantled one of them for materials to make cobblestones. You can now visit the "7th hill memorial site" if you want. I'll probably check it out. Maybe I'll take a picture of nothing to show you all. ;)

cheers,
Mike

PS: that bed last night was the *worst* one of the trip, and I may have to sleep in it again tonight. I got up halfway through the night and put down about 3 inches of heavy blankets to sleep on top of. I'll add a couple more inches of blankets tonight, I think.

PPS: I forgot to add that I finally figured out (in the daylight) why i was SO confused by the layout of this city. It turns out that the main street goes through a tunnel underneath the old town, which is built on a long narrow hill. That explains why I would periodically find myself on the other side of this road, despite never crossing it. Man that had me screwed up last night!

a little disappointed, really

I'm now in Plovdiv, and to be honest I'm a little disappointed. There's some kind of festival going on here and the city is PACKED with people. I couldn't get a bed at the hostel that I wanted to stay at, and although I did sort one out, it's at a place that's quite small and has no common room or any sort of 'meet people' kind of feel to it. On top of that, the bed is horridly hard and lumpy.

On the plus side, the lady that runs it, Svetla, is doing a load of laundry for me for free. That'll be nice, as it was getting pretty ripe. Actually, I wish I could wash my shoes. God they stink!

I suppose I should calm down a little and try not to pass judgement on this place until tomorrow. It was dark by the time I got checked in and showered, so again I'm allowing my tired, alone, hungry, lost in a dark city attitude to get the best of me. I'll just wait until tomorrow before I decide how long I'm actually going to stay in town.

Ha, I just realized that this post starts with "I'm a little disappointed. There's some kind of festival going on here". Clearly I HAVE taken on the wrong attitude! OK, it must be time to turn that around. I think it's just after 9pm right now, so I'll wander down to the newer part of town, where it's easier to keep your bearings and where I saw them setting up a big outdoor stage on my walk into town. Must be something interesting going on there. I could use another piece of pizza, or maybe some other kind of street food to fill the stomach.

As a side note, if I do decide to stay here tomorrow night, then I'll be committed to doing the hockey draft from this city. Might even be this internet joint, if it's open early enough. I'll have to ask the guys before I leave when they open this shop up. This part of the world really doesn't seem to start until 10 or 11am in most cases, although everything IS open quite late.

Finally, I've just setup a skype account, and next time I come over I'll maybe add a little credit to it. If you have Skype, you can find me by searching for Mike Schmitz, or my "bms" shaw email address. I can call normal phones for 2 euro cents per minute using it, so maybe that's how I'll start making calls home. It's much easier to find a computer with headset/mike than a phone these days!

that's it for now. later!
bms

Sofia, Bulgaria

Again, I want to get outside and explore Sofia instead of sitting inside on the computer, so this is short. Dave and I will be parting ways here, and I'll go on to Plovdiv while he goes direct to Istanbul.

Skopje was a great city, really glad I detoured through Macedonia. I'll update you all tomorrow from Plovdiv!

cheers,
bms

no time

Hi everyone. i'm in Skopje and enjoying it, but I have no time to post a long update. Suffice it to say that it's ironic that I put up the food rant before getting here, because this is easily the best eating of the trip so far.

Amazing how Greek Salad is so good once you get to Greece (ok, Macedonia is not greece, although the two of them are fighting over that fact right now, so it's close enough)

bms

Random update

Just waiting to go back to the Macedonian embassy to get my passport with its shiny new entry visa. I'll be traveling with a fellow Canadian named Dave, who unfortunately thought he could get a visa at the border. you can't, so he had to taxi back to Pristina in order to wait around at the embassy. We met outside the gates. He had north american style sunglasses on so I wasn't surprised when he spoke English. he's from TO.

Anyway, I should be on the 2:30 bus to Skopje without any trouble. Time to go get some lunch here soon, hit the embassy, kill another hour and then make our way to the bus station.

cheers,
bms

Theme: Food

(there's a new post below this with more pics!)

Traveling and food experiences go together like peanut butter and jam. Like bees and honey. Like stink and shit. There are so many aspects of eating that you take for granted at home that become mountains of anxiety or inconvenience on the road.

Sometimes food is a highlight. I still count my meals at the One Love Juicy Jerk hut in Negril, Jamaica as possibly the best I've ever eaten. Contrasting that, the breakfast I had in Port Antonio was one of the worst. Here in the Balkans, the food is not quite so distinct, but there have still been some experiences.

In Sarajevo I had an AMAZING shrimp and rice risotto that literally knocked my socks off. It was excellent.

On the bus to Novi Pazar, I considered myself rather clever for managing to not starve to death. I took a three hour trip to Podgorica at 9am, before which I had a light breakfast. I expected to have lunch in Podgorica, but found out upon arrival that my best connection left in exactly 1 minute. I had to beg the driver to let me visit the toilet before pulling out! Some quick thinking on my part saved the day, however: I had a bag of honey-flavoured cereal in my backpack which I pulled out just before they loaded it into the cargo hold. Mmmmmboy, that stuff was good! I had dry cereal and water to hold me over, but it did the job. (btw, that cereal would go over great at home. It was a honey flavoured combo of Harvest Crunch and puffed wheat).

Other times you're wandering around, getting hungry, but you have to weigh your desire to eat immediately against your need to find a place that actually has a toilet. That can be a bit interesting in some of the slummier areas that you visit, where the 'restaurants' are just street vendors moved into concrete block shacks. When was the last time you chose your restaurant based on the criteria that it must have at least a squat toilet in back?

These considerations are balanced, however, by the joy you get in biting into something totally foreign and being delighted by it. The food is not overly exotic here, but a staple on the street, called burek, is pretty good: potatoe, cheese or beef in filo pastry. They do it in long cords and then coil them up like ropes on old sailing ships to cook. They come out like a coiled snake from the oven, and sometimes you get a slice like a pizza. That allows you to pull off ridges of the stuff and eat it with your fingers. Yum!

Another plus is the price. Today I had a hamburger for 1 euro (about 1.50) that was loaded with cucumbers, tomatos and cabbage, plus ketchup, mayo and spices. It also came on one of the best kaiser-style buns I've had in a long time. All the baked goods around here are always fresh, and always excellent.

Finally, as I mentioned to many of you before I left, you need to make sure that you have something normal to start your day. I've gotten into the habit of having muesli or dry cereal on me at all times, and I always buy a medium-sized container of yogurt to keep on hand in the communal fridge of the places I stay. This has worked out really, really well so far. It was also the reason I had that cereal that saved my life on the bus trip. The upside of yogurt is that it's basically the same everywhere, and I trust it more than milk. (I drink skim milk: try finding that anywhere outside the western world). It also keeps better and travels better. The downside is that it's ~almost~ the same everywhere, which implies that there are differences. Sometimes you buy a container and open it up to find that it's almost solid! Crazy! It still tastes fine and does the job, but its weird when your cereal just sits on top of your dairy product of choice, and requires some solid mashing to submerge. ha!

Finally, there's the joy of coffee. One of my favourite memories of Tunisia was the capucins, which Craig later explained to me are similar to the proper european macchiato. I don't know my coffee terminology, but they're basically a shot of espresso topped with some very thick milk froth. And they are meant to be LOADED with sugar. You don't think of these as coffees, you think of them as a sugary treat that will just happen to give you a caffeine buzz. Well, they're back again, but under the proper 'macchiato' name. I grin every time I drink one.

OK, that's it for my food rant. cya!

bms

Another massive picture posting

I'm killing some time here at the internet joint again. I've realized that one of the main reasons this blog has stayed so up to date is simply the fact that there are always times during the day where I have nothing to do except seek out a little contact with all of you back at home. If I was traveling with a friend, we'd probably be out at a cafe drinking coffee or beers (probably beers) right now!

When we last left off with the photos, I had put up some images of Budva. Well, from there I traveled to Novi Pazar, which was (so far) the worst day of the trip. I don't have any photos of that day that I want to post, but when I woke up and had an unexpected chance to explore Novi Pazar during the day, I actually had some fun. Here's a couple of examples of the crazy Yugoslav architecture found there:



After a bit of wandering, I met Adis and his less-fluent-in-English friend whose name I've forgotten. Here we are posing in front of the cafe they were 'running'.


On my way to the bus station I passed these guys 'chopping' wood. Storing wood for the winter is the major occupation for most of the men around here these days. Can't say I'd want to be this guy. I can't believe he still has all his fingers. It made me nervous just passing behind him on the sidewalk!


This one's a shot of the scenery often encountered in this part of the world. Red clay tile roofs predominate, and the lightly forested rocky hills are everywhere.


As I think I mentioned earlier, this bus trip represented a bit of watershed point for me. Well, actually, the day before and then this one bundled together are the watershed point. Anyway, I was feeling absolutely euphoric on this trip from Novi Pazar to Pristina. It's impossible to really explain: I think only those of you who've traveled like this will really understand. Suffice it to say that it's a heady mix of the thrill of the unknown, pride of accomplishment and excitement to explore. Here I am trying to capture the feeling as best I could in a picture.


Shortly the "excitement to explore" was stoked up by this stark realization that I was now in Kosovo.



Shortly after that pic I thought we were close to Pristina, but the road just kept going and going and going through this long valley of houses and factories and nuclear reactors (ok, only one nuke). Finally we made it to Pristina bus station, which is to the southwest of town. It's actually off the page of my map, but I knew roughly where I was. Enter the trusty compass again! Here's a shot of the massive communist apartment blocks that I walked through on my way into town.


Once I made it up into the houses in the Valenia area, I came across this 'new' subdivision. I love this stuff!


Today I took a taxi out to the Gracanica monastery. This is one of the oldest and most important of the Serbian Orthodox monasteries. It's presence 13km from Pristina in Albanian Kosovo goes a long way to explaining why the Serbs are so against any kind of Kosovan independence. Here's the monastery, followed by one of the shots I snuck while inside. (I wasn't going to take any, but then I ended up totally alone inside for about 10 minutes, so I thought "what the hell". -pun intended)



After visiting the monastery I had about an hour and a half to kill before my taxi driver was going to come back to pick me up. I had arranged for that before I realized that the monastery was smack in the middle of an urban area, where finding a cab would've been easy. Oh well, it worked well, because I had a chance (and a reason) to wander a bit and check this area out. I liked this picture, taken from a bridge over a small creek.


Back in Pristina, I had a sunny afternoon to kill. I decided to wander around the city and check out some of the parts I hadn't seen yet. Here's a big statue that was pretty cool. It's set in a sunken white concrete circle, and illuminated by lights mounted on crazy pincer-like piers. Cool.



While wandering around I decided to enjoy some macchiatos on nice looking outdoor patios (god I love both those things). How content do I look in this picture?


OK, that's it for this photo exposition. Hope you've enjoyed the show!

cheers,
bms

visa update

Turns out there's a new Macedonian consulate here in Pristina where I can get a visa within 2 hours. Who ever heard of such fast service from a bunch of diplomats?!?

Anyway, I'll do that tomorrow at 10am and be ready to travel out by the afternoon. Perfect (I hope).

cheers,
bms

Visa Madness

How do I even begin to relay this story? I'll start with dinner.

I found the local expat bar here in Pristina, and got to talking with an older English guy who works as an engineer for the UN. He was meeting friends who were going out for dinner, and I mooched an invitation to go with them. Over dinner they began asking me about my next destination, and I explained how I'd somehow gotten into Serbia without an entry visa, and was a bit concerned about trying to go east from here on my way to Bulgaria.

Unfortunately, they confirmed my fears: I AM SCREWED. The Serbians will not allow me to leave the country, and may even detain me as an 'illegal visitor' for being in the country with no entry visa. Damn that border guard on the way to Novi Pazar! (I think I told the story of the guard who waved his finger at me and said "Ne, Ne, Ne" when I made a stamping motion on my passport).

So, I now have two options. I can try to figure out how to get an entry visa for Macedonia, or I can go back west to Albania, dip down south into Greece and make my way through that country to Bulgaria or all the way to Istanbul. The folks at dinner strongly recommended both Macedonia AND Albania, so it looks like I can't really lose. However, the Albania-Greece route is a bit of the "long way around". The Macedonia route, while more direct, is certainly more expensive (80 Euro visa plus 20 Euro border tax). Also, it requires sorting out the visa, and while there is an official Canadian presence in Pristina, it is not a full embassy due to the fact that Kosovo is not recognized as an independent country.

Where does this leave me? Well, my new friend Don is going to call the Canadian office tomorrow morning. He used to know the guy that ran the office, although that was 6 years ago and he's unlikely to still be there. In any case, he's going to ask them about my situation and see what can be worked out. If I can't get a Macedonian visa, he's offered to drive me to the Albanian border, where I'll walk across and then get a taxi to the nearest town. Should be interesting eh? I've never walked across a border before!

Tomorrow I'll get an email from Don with some news, and I'll probably spend the rest of the day heading out to one of the most important religious sites for the Orthodox Serbians: Gracanica (Grach-a-nitsa). It's nearby and an easy day trip. I'll do a little wandering and picture taking in the afternoon, and then if the visa won't work, Don will drive me on Tuesday morning. Apparently, since he's the regional manager for all the Engineering works in this region, he can just tell his boss that he's off to check on the warehouse near the border and he can drive me in his UN truck. I've GOTTA get a picture of that, somehow!

OK, it's 10:30, I'm a little buzzed on rakja (rah-kia), and it's time to head 'home' and get some sleep. Not sure how to get to Gracanica, so that might take a little detective work in the morning.

cheers,
bms

Pristina

OK, let me first say that Novi Pazar turned out to be not such a bad place after all. It's obvious, in retrospect, that one shouldn't judge a place simply by the people you meet at the bus station and hotel. I got up this morning in time to catch the 9:30 bus that the hotel receptionist said went to Pristina, but when I got to the bus station it was clear that the bus was at 6am not 9. The next one was at 12:40, so I had some time to kill. I took my bag back to the hotel to drop off for a few hours and then went wandering in the daylight. I've got a few pictures of some of the bizarre architecture in the city, which I'll try to post some time in the next few days. It's pretty hilarious.

When I got a bit tired, I decided to stop for a cappucino, so I randomly picked a spot where I could lounge in the sun. The two young guys running the shop had absolutely no other business to attend to at 10am on a Sunday, and one of them spoke basic English so we got to talking. It turned into a pretty funny conversation that went on for about an hour and a half. In the end, we took a few pictures together and they had their friend who worked at the photo place next door print us some 5x7s. They signed and dated my copy. it was pretty funny! Oh, and they wouldn't let me pay for my coffee or fizzy water. Cool eh?

The whole minor experience really helped put me back into a good mood though. I wasn't the least bit concerned about missing the bus, but it did seem like everything about the town was going to be a bit negative. In the end, I had a good time and was glad I stopped there. I also learned another good traveling lesson: if you show up somewhere without prebooked accomodation, try to go to a cafe or restaurant, find someone who speaks basic English, and then make friends with them before finding a hotel or room. They'll probably have a good suggestion that will save you time and money. These guys laughed at the price I paid for my room (not that I was surprised) and said I could've stayed at a place across the street for 15 euro. Hah.

So after excusing myself from the conversation, I wandered back to the bus station and got on the right bus with no difficulties. We stopped at a border control point on the way in to Kosovo that I wasn't expecting, and I now have an official UN-sanctioned entry card with UN stamps and stuff on it. I hope I get to keep it! I'll certainly take a photo of it just in case they take it back when I leave.

The trip to Pristina was pretty neat. Scenery was nice, changing from fairly rugged, forested mountains to a rolling, open plain in a wide valley. The valley itself is quite densely populated: I thought we were entering Pristina about 3 times before we finally got to the city proper. I walked from the bus station into town (about 2 kilometers) and then from town up the hill to the guest house where I'm staying. Again I thank my trusty compass, as my map of this city only shows the major roads, but I knew the bus station was southwest of the center, so I just took turns going north and east until I hit a major road. Of course, figuring out the NAME of any particular street is a chore in itself, as there are no street signs here. You have to hope to find an address plaque embedded in a wall on a building somewhere. They're not always easy to spot.

The major street that I ran across first was, fortunately, the one I was looking for: Bulevard Bil Klinton. Yes, "Bill Clinton". Crazy eh? Passed through some pretty huge Communist-era apartment blocks on the way to town, and then up the hill through a very random collection of brick houses. The guest house is a 3 story building across the street from the owner's house. It looks pretty ramshackle from the outside, but it's perfectly decent inside. There's no common room where people hang out, but there are a couple of communal kitchens. I only saw one guy in the halls who didn't seem much interested in talking to me, but maybe tomorrow morning there'll be more people about. It was, after all, about 4:30 when I was there and I suppose most people were out doing things.

I'm in an internet cafe just down the street from my place right now. This thing is huge: there are 40 stations in a big room with next to no light. Each has a webcam, headphone and mic for internet calling too. If I was here for the hockey draft this would be a perfect place to connect with the boys. Too bad I'll be long gone by then.

I'm on my way back into town after changing and dropping off my stuff. I read in the lonely planet guide about an English pub that does a roast beef dinner on Sunday nights. I thought that sounded pretty damn tasty, so I'm going to go try to find it. It's almost 6:30 now, so maybe I better get going so I can arrive around dinner time. Hopefully this place will attract some of the other English speaking people in this town and I can meet a few people there. There's UN vehicles everywhere here, and the place is across the street from the main UN headquarters (UNMIK: UN Mission in Kosovo), so I would guess that it's pretty likely.

cheers,
bms

where the hell am I?

OK, so it's Novi Pazar, but it might as well be the moon. Such a major difference between touristy Budva and gritty, real world Novi Pazar. Almost nobody speaks English here, the guy at the info booth included. However, he did walk me to a bank machine so I could get some money, and then walked me to a hotel. Unfortunately he didn't approve of my hotel suggestion and took me to another place that's way more expensive. Honestly I should've just said no, but I've been on a bus for 8 hours and haven't really eaten in that time. I just needed to put my gear down and settle.

I'm just going to stay here for one night and then move on to Prishtina in Kosovo. The Lonely Planet book lists a guest house run by a local professor that might be a place where I could meet a few fellow travellers.

Just to make my tired, hungry, culture-shocked visit a little more distressing, I just realized that I left my phrase book on the bus. I'm now totally illiterate just as I'm about to head into a new language zone (Albanian in Kosovo, and then Bulgarian afterwards). Dammit!

OK, so today's not been a good day. I guess I had to expect something like that sooner or later.

well, I'm out to find some food. I have no map of this town and no way to orient myself. Should be interesting.

UPDATE: I found a cheap place to get a hamburger and pop, and did manage to make it home again. I'm going to get up early, have my free breakfast, and then hop on the bus to Pristina in Kosovo. I'll be happy to get away from this town.

bms

moving on... *sigh*

It seems that I've reached a point where I must either move on, or stay and try to hold on to something really special that probably wouldn't last. I never expected to find myself in this position, and now that I'm here it's bittersweet. Suffice it to say that I'll never forget my time in Budva.

Tomorrow morning I'll be leaving early for Podgorica and then on to Kosovo via Serbia. I've said my goodbyes already and now I'm trying to refocus on new adventures. I remember going through vaguely the same thing in Sarajevo, where I met such cool people and it was hard to leave, but not to the same extent.

So... talk to you again from... Novi Pazar? Pristina? I don't exactly know yet. Depends on how many bus connections I can make tomorrow.

cheers,
Mike

Pictures from the last week

Hi everyone. I've got a little time here on the computer so I thought I'd move all my pics onto my ipod to clear new space on the camera card, and while I'm at it, I'll post up some of the highlights for you all to check out.

First up, Dubrovnik. I took over a hundred pictures just on the walking tour of the walls. I don't have time to ~really~ sort out the best, so here are a few highlights.

First, the walls and views from the walls:
More walls:
Now, the blasted out ruins of an old Communist tourist attraction, including cable car station on the hill above Dubrovnik:Inside the 'tourist attraction' (whatever it was):
This is also from inside the 'tourist attraction'. This is probably my favourite picture from the trip so far. What do you think? Click it for a larger version.

The view of Dubrovnik from the 'tourist attraction'. (you can see why they built the cable car!)

And finally (for this city anyway), the trail to the Temple of Doom! Tim and I took an alternate route down the mountain and got a little lost. This was an old trail, formerly well built and maintained, that had been left to decompose and become overgrown with bushes and shrubs. These, in turn, were burned out by a wildfire a month ago, so it had this bizarre, ruined, desolate 'path to hell' kind of feel to it.

Next up: Kotor
This is a small church in the central square of old town Kotor, Montenegro. Above it you can see the old fort that climbed to in later pics.

Here's the top, where you can get a sense of the how far I had to climb.

And here's the spectacular view down on the old town and harbour.
To wrap up Kotor, here's a night pic of a dark alleyway that's much scarier-looking here than it was in real life.
Budva: the beach!
Here's where I really started to get lazy. Perhaps you can see why!
The first two are the old town and the beach beside it.


Here we have Hanna and I enjoying Budva's beach.

And finally, this is the only semi-decent pic I got of the canyon we rafted in. The bus had brutally bad windows and the driver never stopped to let us take pics. Disappointing.

Okay, that's a wrap for today. I've been on the computer a long time putting this together and I should move on with my day.

cya!
bms

not much!

Today was a 'do nothing' day. I spent it at the beach with a cute blond Swede named Hanna. Not bad eh?

Got soaked, twice, in two separate thunderstorms. I think that because everything is now so wet, I'll stay here both tonight and tomorrow. This place is really, really comfortable and fun. I could stay much longer, I'm sure, but eventually I have to get out of here!

Finally I think I've found a route through to Kosovo and then on to Sophia and eventually Istanbul. There's a town called Novi Pazar that's in Serbia, just north of the Kosovo border. There should be a bus from Podgorica to Novi Pazar, and then apparently the city is a major access point for Prishtina in Kosovo. That route would give me a proper Serbian entry visa, which would then allow me to leave Kosovo via Serbia to the east. The only down side is it means no UN stamp in the passport, but that little treat will have to be sacrificed to the reality of the situation. On the up side, Novi Pazar sounds pretty interesting in itself, so it might warrant a night of its own. I'm guessing that it'll be about 8 hours to get there (3 to Podgorica, 5 more to Novi Pazar).

Not much else to report here. I'm going to play tennis on some beautiful clay courts tomorrow morning. Thought that would be kind of a neat thing to do.

later!
Mike

Budva

OK, I got into Budva yesterday afternoon and immediately went to the beach. It's hot and sunny here in this resorty town, and the beach is still hopping even this late in september. Although it's got nothing on the beach at Negril, this one is still enjoyable. It's quite pebbly, but I aquired a bamboo beach mat from a girl in Sarajevo and its been great. There's a string of fast food and other cheezy businesses all behind the beach walkway, so everything is close at hand.

While I was at the beach I arranged a rafting trip for today through a small travel agent. I was up before 6am to catch the bus at 6.20. It was about 4.5 hrs up and the same coming home for a 3 hour river rafting trip. The ride was interesting for the most part, although the trip through the Tara River canyon near the raft point was spectacular. Very, very cool stuff. This whole country is incredibly mountainous. I guess that's why its name literally means 'black mountain'.

The rafting was fun but relatively uneventful. There's been a long drought here so the water levels were really low. I knew this beforehand, so I wasn't expecting too much. I really just went in order to see the canyon and the mountains. I got what I wanted out of it, and I also caught a few little thrills on the raft. I had a spot at the front - I think they put the strong paddlers at the front, as its the only place on the raft where you can get a good strong stroke in. We smashed into a couple good swells and all got wet. Minor note: when someone from the Mediterranean tells you that the water is "really, really cold", what they mean is: it's cold, but not as cold as the San Juan River. I went swimming during a break and everyone thought I was nuts. ha! We had shorty wetsuits on and it was hot and sunny, how cold can you really get?

Anyway, this hostel is another gem. The owners are a young couple, one American, one Russian, and they've bought this house and fixed it up for people to stay with them. There's a separate entertainment room with a big tv, nintendo, dvd player and rack of movies, plus a big outdoor patio, barbeque and a nice, proper communal kitchen. Everyone's quite friendly, although I haven't really had much time to spend around here as I've only been inside the place for a couple hours since checking in yesterday. Tomorrow I may lounge around and take a 'do nothing day'.

My plans to travel east through Kosovo are looking a bit sketchy at this point. I realized after looking further into it that Kosovo does NOT actually share a border with Bulgaria. That's a big problem, because apparently if you enter Kosovo from another country, you have to leave it via a foreign border: you can't go up through Serbia and then out. So, I may have to backtrack, enter Serbia normally, then decide whether to dip into Kosovo or not. I have NO idea how the bus connections are going to work trying to move around between the small towns that I'd need to go through in order to follow that path. Another option would be to backtrack all the way to Belgrade, which is a city I decided to skip on my way to Sarajevo. From there I could easily make my way to Sophia in Bulgaria and then east to Istanbul. In terms of distance it would be quite a haul, but it might be the simplest and possibly the fastest and cheapest way to go. Maybe I can find a half measure where I head for Belgrade but stop short, and then re-route to Sophia. Hrmmmm.

Anyway, I'll look into it more tomorrow. Right now I'm just tired and worn out. I think I'll pull my book out and just spend a little quiet time this evening. Or I'll walk 30 feet to the 24 hr shop across the road and buy a couple 1/2 litre bottles of beer for 60 cents each. They're even refrigerated!

cheers,
bms

Theme: Gear

(there's a new blog entry about my current plan below this)

I think I'm going to start writing some topical posts, covering a specific aspect of my trip. These won't go into day to day detail; instead, they'll be about something more specific that's been a common theme throughout my travels.

Today's topic: GEAR

As you wander about with all your earthly possessions strapped to your back, you begin to settle into a routine in which you rotate through socks, wear certain items for certain tasks, and stash useful odds and ends in handy to reach pockets. As this routine settles in, some of your gear really begins to stand out as totally essential to your enjoyment of the trip. Under the category of 'Essential Gear', I'd list the following top three:

#1 - Pocket Compass
This has been absolutely brilliant. Obviously I'm extremely comfortable using maps and interpreting things in terms of spatial relationships (oooh, geography speak!). I am, however, utterly useless when it comes to maintaining my orientation as I follow twisty old-city passageways and unfamiliar roads. (Greg and Claire, do you remember how useless I was trying to figure out the trail system at the dump?) With my trusty compass, however, I am never lost. These old-world cities are almost always laid out around a river or on a bay. If I know that I am on the west side of the river, then my compass will always get me back there. That allows me to find a landmark (usually a bridge) to figure out where I am. I am really, really glad I brought the compass, it's clearly Brilliant Gear Item #1.

#2 - Travel Safe
Most of you know about this. It's a nylon and canvas stuff-sack with an interior stainless-steel cable mesh and a cable drawstring that allows you to close it off and lock it to an immovable object. It's basically slash-proof. You'd need bolt cutters to take it, and heavy wire cutters and some time to get anything out of it. I use it in hostels that lack lockers, in hotels that I don't really trust, on trains when I might fall asleep and yesterday, at the beach when I was in the water. I love it.

#3 - Rubber sink stopper
I read a suggestion on some web site about this, and thought it sounded good. Man, what a great idea! All the sinks I've found are either missing a plug or suffer from brutal leakage. When you're trying to shave or wash clothes, that's a pain in the ass. Enter the magic rubber stopper. It's the kind that's just flat and lies over the drain, making it useful for all different shapes and sizes. It's not perfect, but it does a passable job in almost all situations.

I was going to do a top three things I wish I'd brought, but I'm going to save that for another post, as this has gotten rather long.

cheers,
bms