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

ciao, Kotor

Kotor was so much fun. I think this will be my third post from this internet cafe. It's not the cheapest in the world, but it's comfortable and convenient, plus I've just had so much to say from here!

This town has been a blast. Last night I decided to go out and make an effort to find someone to eat dinner with. I got all cleaned up (the water was on, yay!) and then hit the street. I had resolved to wander the old town looking for anyone who was obviously sitting at a table by themselves. I was going to go up and ask if they spoke English, and if so, explain that I was on my own, looking for someone who'd enjoy some company over dinner. It took a few minutes to find a likely candidate, but I spotted a young guy staring into a solo beer, so I went up and asked about English. "yes," he responded in an Aussie accent (there's a surprise). I explained what I was doing and he just said, "oh, I've already eaten." No attempt to continue the conversation there, so I thought I would move on, but the older couple at the next table leaned over and asked "oh, where are you from?". I said Vancouver, to which the woman said, "I lived in Vancouver for 10 years!". Turns out they were Canadian ex-pats now living in Cabo san Lucas. We got to talking and I eventually joined them for dinner. We must've chatted for almost 4 hours over dinner and then later over coffee and dessert that they insisted on buying. It was great! I even have an invitation to visit them in Cabo if I ever felt compelled to go to such a place.

Anyway, there are buses to Budva ever half hour, so I'm going to wander over to the bus station and grab one. The travel agent hasn't been in her office all morning, so I'm going to go to Budva for now and look into the rafting trip once I get there. I realized after looking at a map that Budva will actually be closer, as the bus drives, to Durmitor Park than Kotor is. The bus will also go through the capital, Podgorica (Pod-gor-itza), on its way, so there should be easy connections. I may stay in Budva tonight and then travel on to the park tomorrow. If I arrive in time I could go for an afternoon hike and then the day after go on a full day rafting trip. It should only take an hour or two to get to Budva, so I should be able to spend this afternoon on the beach. Sounds like a decent plan, doesn't it?

cheers,
Mike

Kotor, part deux

Fortunately I did manage to get a room at the hotel that I mentioned. It was, in fact, their LAST room, but a room none the less. Bed was comfy, room is tiny but a private bathroom is quite the luxury at this point. Fortunately I've had showers at the right time, because they turn the water off here somewhat randomly. It's a very dry region and it's late summer now, so water shortages abound. Still, the shower I had was beautiful. I hope the water will be on when I get back after this post, as I've just spent the day hiking up to the old fortress above the city and then about three hours lazing away on the beach, swimming and reading. Since it must be 28 or more today, this means that I am sweaty, salty and sunscreeny, all at the same time. Lovely!

I washed most of my clothes last night and hung them around the room to dry. (I pinched a bit of detergent at the place we stayed in Dubrovnik) It wasn't until this morning that I noticed that there are laundry lines hung outside my little window. I moved the still damp stuff to the lines this morning before going out. I've brought two pairs of pants with me, one jeans the other a very light nylon, and they've worked perfectly. I wear the jeans at night when I'm relatively clean and non-sweating, and the other pants for everything else. They were getting pretty nasty, but they dry in about 4 hours in the sun so they're relatively easy to clean. The two nylon North Face buttonup shirts I brought are worn ~constantly~ as they too are easy to clean and are pretty much indestructible, unlike regular tshirts that rip and stretch and get gross really quick. The shirts are nice also in that I can unbotton them for ventilation in a breeze while maintaining some degree of protection from the sun. Overall I'm pleased with the gear that I brought with me. Oh, that reminds me. The superlight Merino wool boxers I bought are GOLD. I won't get into nasty details, but lets just say that they remain wearable for much longer than one might expect, and they are still washable and dryable overnight. Brilliant.

Kotor has been fun and interesting. I like the place. The old town was just JUMPING last night (it was Saturday) with music of all kinds booming out of the various little squares in the old town. I found one small square with two outdoor cafes and a single guy playing guitar, singing some ethnic songs that sounded very latin. He had a nice amplified system that projected a nice, clean sound (Matt and Craig: you would've approved). I sat down to enjoy a beer and just soak it up. The live aspect made it easier to sit there by myself without feeling like I was staring at nothing. I thanked him after he was done and he seemed to appreciate it. Interestingly, he had no guitar case or other coin collector out. I think the two cafes in the square pay him to perform there to attract guests.

The views from the old fortress were very cool. I'm sure some of them will make it into my album when I get back. There's no access to the actual computer here at this internet joint, so I can't upload anything at this time. I'll have to make sure to do that at the next opportunity, although I am carrying plenty of camera memory, so its really not a big issue.

Since today is Sunday, none of the travel agents are open. Tonight is supposed to be my last night here in Kotor, but tomorrow is a mystery. I will get up early(ish) and visit a travel agent in the morning in order to find out more about the river rafting trips up in Durmitor National Park. If they recommend it and can give me a fairly straightforward itenerary that isn't overly suss (that's Aussie slang for 'suspect', ie dodgy or sketchy) I will head up that way. If it seems overly complicated, with poor bus connections, multiple nights' stays and such, then I may not. If I don't go into the mountains I'll continue south to Budva, the beach resort here in Montenegro. I'll probably only stay there for a night, maybe two, before going on to Albania. I'll have more research to do before that part of the trip begins. There's a hostel that gets good reviews in Budva, so I'll probably head there in the hopes that I might run into someone else who'd like to go through Kosovo.

Although I've enjoyed myself today, and could probably get used to being on my own, I'd still like to find someone else to travel with for a bit. Its the evenings that are the weirdest, where you're sitting alone in a square with people all around, feeling isolated. A few of the local business people speak a bit of English, but few of the travelers do. Most are German by the sounds of it, or some other similar-sounding region. Anyway, I've only had maybe 3 nights without company on the whole trip so far, so perhaps I'll just get used to it. Any advice from the other travelers reading this would be appreciated.

OK, I'm going to go hope for some water out of my shower before I try to find somewhere to eat dinner. Breakfast was SALTY bacon and eggs with bread (included with hotel room), while lunch today was a piece of pizza for 1 euro and a chocolate-covered raspberry-swirled ice cream treat, also for 1 euro. For dinner I ought to have something with some substance, perhaps even a vegetable or two!!!

cheers,
Mike
PS: I've gotten into my book, "Balkan Ghosts", which is turning out to be very interesting. It's quite right-wing interventionist, but well written and engaging nonetheless. Wish I'd started it earlier, before getting into Bosnia. Lots of interesting background that helps to explain the tensions and recent hostilities that I experienced there.

post Dubrovnik, now in Kotor

Everything was so expensive in Dubrovnik that I elected to skip my post from there. We were in a private room with a local family instead of a hostel, so there was no in-house computer and the net shop was 4 euro/hr. Ridiculous!

Although prices were WAY higher in Dubrovnik than elsewhere, its easy to see why. The city is an absolute gem. I was looking forward to it, as I had a basic understanding of the old town and its massive, perfectly preserved outer wall, but wow. WOW. It was absolutely stunning. It took us over 2 hours to walk the perimeter, and I took over a hundred pictures in that time. This was pure, unadulterated medieval fairytale castle-style wall building, soaring above red-tile roofed houses on crooked, narrow little alleys. Fantastic!!!!

Right now I'm in Kotor, Montenegro, where prices are a little more reasonable (ie half). I have to get out of here quick though, as the sun is going down and I need to try to find a place to stay tonight. This is the first time I've arrived in a town with no pre-booked accomodation, but I've got a recommendation from a guy I met in Sarajevo. It's a proper hotel, with double bed, AC, tv, private bath for 20 euro/night. That's a little more than a normal hostel but not a lot more than what I'm used to. I expect that it might lead to a couple days spent by myself, but frankly I kind of need that.

The weather is now exceptional. It's clear blue skies and 27 degrees during the day since I arrived on the coast. I went for a swim today, and although the water is cool its certainly not cold, and it feels great to freshen up and then to dry out in the sun. Ahhhhh, summer is finally here!

My big decision will now be whether or not to go inland to Durmitor National Park and try to get in a day of whitewater rafting. It's quite a long way to go and may be fairly costly. It's really tempting, though, so I'm going to sit down and count out my remaining days and work out a rough schedule. Up to now I've been bumming along as I feel the need and haven't really worried much about scheduling.

ok, off to find a place to sleep!
bms

Mostar wrapup

Hey everyone,

This is just a quick wrapup post for the town ofMostar. Its a beatiful, haunted place. Here's another pic of the Mostar bridge, at night, with Tim, Elly and Jenny (two youngAussie girls that we met here).

Talk to you from Dubrovnik next!

more pics

This is the second of back-to-back entries. See below for the first. These pics are from Mostar. Check out the trees growing out of the ruins in the last pics.

Click this pic and look carefully at the building in the background.

more mostar, more pics

ok, were back inside because of a thunderstorm that just rolled in from out of nowhere. fortunately we found solace in a fancy italian restaurant where i got a great chicken alfredo for about 5 bucks, plus a couple of $2 beers. we were hoping that the rain would just give up, but it seemed to be going steady. finally, after about two hours we simply caved and went outside, only to find the rain actually letting up and nearly stopping. a bit of luck there.

Mostar is kind of a sad place, simply due to the ubiquitous ruined buildings. This area was hit particularly hard during the war in 1993. Evidently the Serbs attacked first, but were driven off by combined Croat-Bosnian Muslim forces. Unfortunately, the Croats then decided that they wanted the area for themselves, and set to shelling the old city and the east side of the river incessantly. They destroyed the Old Bridge (Stari Most) with artillery, which was actually caught on tape. we saw a video of it on a big projection tv in one of the museums, which I surreptitiously filmed with my camera. crazy stuff. So theres just bombed out buildings everwhere in this city. in one central square theres a brand new, shiny glass modern building right next to a three story, shelled out stone building. its all incredibly interesting, but I almost feel guilty about how fascinated I am- these people had to live through this, while I am here feeling as if Im being entertained by it. Of course thats the shallowest possible interpretation. Really it can only be good for the world to come and see the true destruction that a war leaves behind. You can see it on tv, but the simple things that TV ignores are whats more powerful - walk down a flight of stone steps thatve probably been around for hundreds of years, and suddenly you have to step very carefully because theyre half destroyed.

Despite the destruction, this city is gaining steam again. The bridge has been rebuilt (its the center photo in my blogs mosaic pic) and is just beautiful. The people are friendly and trying to enjoy every day. If you thought there were a lot of coffee shops in Victoria, you would not believe how many cafes there are around here. its as if people spend all their time sitting around drinking coffee. Its actually a little frustrating when all youre really looking for is some food (they dont serve any food at a cafe).

Ill post up some pics here again. These ones are from Sarajevo, where we went out for FANTASTIC dinner at a restaurant called To Be (or not) To Be. The -or not- is crossed out on their sign. The tower is the minaret in the central old mosque in the old town of sarajevo.

I really cant say enough good things about sarajevo. The city was not exactly beautiful in a classic sense, but it was so interesting and full of life, with an old town that is actually still the pulse of the city for the locals. Its all cobbled streets and low, old buildings, with cafes, restaurants, shops and all manner of goods. At first we thought it was all touristy, but in fact the locals use it just as much as we did. That really changes a place. Mostar, for example, is clearly a city where the old town is now completely dedicated to tourists.

mostar

now in Mostar, just heading out to get some food. took a morning train from sarajevo through the mountains. very nice country around here, lots to look at. cant afford to delay the food run though, so i gotta go. travelling with my friend Tim from sarejevo for a couple days.

bms

pics

this takes forever, but here are a few pics. all but the cityscape are budapest, the city is sarajevo

details

ok, ive stopped in to an internet cafe so that i can use a proper keyboard. the hostel has this weird rubber pad with touch buttons that basically have to be pressed one at a time. its awful.

ill sum up the time in budapest first. it really did rain there the whole time i was around. i went for a few walks, and on the last day actually got in a good tour of the central part of the city. i was out with a guy named robert, and we put in a full day walking tour of the castle hill district, then across the river to tour around the cathedral and the parliament. theres a building across the street from the parliament where there was a machine gun massacre many years ago. theyve filled all the bullet holes int he building with these large steel balls, so that you can walk around there and actually tell where the shooters were by the placement of the holes in the walls and pillars. very interesting.

another highlight was a place called Heroes Square. the statues here were unbelievable. it took a million phots. matt, youre going to love some of them. the central area has this hugely tall spire with a statue on top of it, but at the base, on an elevated platform, are 7 medieval horseman outfitted in hungarian battle dress. these things are like 20ft tall weathered bronze (meaning theyre green and black), and theyre all carrying huge axes and maces, swords, armour, shields, etc. one of the horses had these stag antlers strapped to the side of its face, and man did it look bad ass. it was bamf. hope those pics turn out well.

otherwise budapest was ok but not brilliant. sarajevo, however, is brilliant. the hostel here was, as i mentioned earlier, a little overwhelming at first. looking back, i can understand why - weve all become good friends in a matter of days, so new people walk in a feel like theyre imposing themselves on an established crowd. the beauty is that you can -establish-yourself in a matter of hours.

by the way, theres no apostrophe to be found on this keyboard, but otherwise its nearly normal. the only other weirdness is the z and y are reversed. when it gets weirder ill start using my magic keyboard translator, but at this point its not necessary.

so, Sarajevo. wow, this city is amazing. the people are very nice and the old town is brilliant. its not exacty the most beautiful place youve ever seen, but its picturesque and macabre at the same time. There are still many, many signs of the war that was fought here. the city was under seige from the serbian army four 4 years between 92 and 95, and the evidence is everywhere. theyve rebuilt the majority of it, but the patchwork is still evident and there are bullet holes all over the place.

today we took a tour of the city with Haris, the host of our hostel. we went to the tunnel museum, which is the old house from which the Sarajevans built a tunnel underneath the UN-held airport to open territory on the other side. the Serbs had them boxed in except for a narrow route through the north, and the airport blocked access to that escape. the UN would apparentlz not allow them to cross for fear of losing their impartiality, so the serbs built an 800 meter tunnel. throughout the war over 3 million crossings were made to bring in food and weapons to the 250000 people that remained in the citz. they had a movie that they played for us that had footage of artillery shells landing amidst cars dodging and weaving down the street, and sides of buildings being blown off while people tried to escape by climbing down the rubble. crazy.

Haris himself is actually only 19 years old. he and his parents decided to open a hostel in order to pay off the loan they had to take out in order to rebuild the 2nd storey of their house. Haris is the only one that speaks English, so he basically runs the place while the family lives downstairs. i understand that theyve almost paid it off, which is pretty impressive given that they had over 40000 Marks to pay. thats 20000 euro or roughly 27000 CDN. theyve done it in three years, at the same time aquiring a nice van to do tours, modern laundry, vacuum, etc etc. The only downside is they have to put up with 25 rowdy travellers every day!

the old town is very neat to walk around, and its particularly cool because all the locals frequent the shops, cafes and restaurants too, so you dont feel like your getting ripped off by buying and eating there. A .5 liter beer is around 2CDN and a basic meal is about 4. a nice meal at a nice restaurant where you sit down and are served can be had for less than 12 CDN with a couple beers. sweet!

So far Im way under budget, so im going to try to do something interesting in montenegro, like head up to their national park and go whitewater rafting or something. the weather appears to be breaking, as the clouds are randomly parting today and letting through some very strong sunshine. its pretty much off and on still, with bits of rain, but it should get hot and sunny again soon.

people here seem to think that my plan to hit northern albania and then go into kosovo is a good one. i hope itll be relatively easy to figure out. more on that as it develops.

next ill be going to Mostar and then Dubrovnik, where i want to do a sea kayak tour if the weathers nice. One more full day here in sarajevo before leaving, and ill be traveling to Mostar with a friend named Tim. We may go on to dubrovnik together too, although well be splitting there as hes booked ona one week cruise of the dalmatian coast, while ill be going south into montenegro. anyway the train to Mostar is supposed to be beautiful, so were going to get up early and take the morning train isntead of the one at 9pm so we can do it during the day. ill try to update again once im there, but i am planning a shorter stay in mostar, so it might not happen until dubrovnik. i guess that will be thursday or so. man, its hard to keep track of which day it is. i love it!

hope all is well back home. thanks for all the comments thatve been left, its a treat to read them!

cheers,
bms

sarajevo

hi everyone, im in sarajevo now and really enjoying it. staying in a crazy hostel. walked in to this place to find 25 drunk, screaming people. hard to take after a 12 hour train ride... but no options. anyway, as those of you who have travelled a lot would guess, its turned out to be a great place to stay. been hanging out with all these people all day- nearly all of them are traveling by themselves.

this keyboard is just bizarre so i cant go on too long. town is fantastic- very very interesting. still waiting for the rain to end, hopefully in a couple days.

cheers,
bms

big walk - i'm outta here

today I went for a LONG walk with a kiwi named Robert. I'll fill in more details when i have some time - hopefully - but for now just a quick post to say that Budapest was good and this hostel was great. The weather was a real downer, but at least today was ok.

tomorrow I have a 12 hour train trip to Sarajevo. it leaves at 930am so i should be up by around 7 so i can eat, shower and get to the train station by 830.

i managed to get my banking sorted out, so that was a major plus. Mom, i tried to call home using the same borrowed calling card but it didnt work. not sure why. i'll try again from sarajevo.

cheers,
bms

big summary of events

ok, things are rolling here now and I'm feeling like i'm hitting a groove. it's my second full day in Budapest, and even though its been pissing rain here and quite cool the whole time, i've been enjoying myself. met an Aussie guy named Mike (hey, I can remember that) who in turn introduced me to another girl, and from there a couple of English guys named Paul and Andy. Today I spent the morning and early afternoon with those two at a Hungarian bathhouse. man am i relaxed now! We didn't spring for massages, but hit a bunch of different temparture pools and a sauna in various sequences. One warm pool had a water spouting statue that was gushing warm water in a heavy stream. sitting in front of that, letting it pound you in the back and neck, was like a mini massage in itself. it was great. The building itself was amazing, and fortunately i was able to snag some pictures of it from the inside. i may try to post one or two here later, but i'll finish this and save it before i try such a radical experiment.

The rain has been a bit of a bummer. i really haven't done as much wandering as i normally would, just because it's so difficult to stay dry, and once you get wet, drying clothes and shoes is pretty tough. I am pleased that i brought both my jeans (for heading out at night) and these super light nylon pants (they dry almost instantly once you're in from the rain). It's also hard to take pictures in the rain. Despite all tihs, i did go for a hike up the hill in Buda and saw this cool cave-church. Yes, it's actually a church built inside a cave, with little rooms branching off in all weird directions. Very neat.

Still having a bit of trouble with the time zone shift. I get tired around 4pm and have a hard time sleeping soundly past 5am. I think it's getting better though. Today's jackhammering road constructing at 7am didn't help though, let me tell you!

One thing I've been enjoying is some good breakfasts. i made a poiint of buying eggs and veg at the market and so i've been having omellettes with hostel-supplied toast in the mornings.

After this post i'm going to try to figure out where to go next. my original plan was Belgrade followed by Sarajevo, but i was thinking that i might just go where the sun is actually shining. unfortnately, a quick search shows that its raining throughout this entire region right now, with sun returning around Sunday. i may just go directly to sarajevo and then try to hit the coast by sun or monday. stay tuned for further details on that front.

Well, i'm going to go make some food and then probably have a nap. i'm meeting the guys at 'half seven' to go out for beers. i'll probably grab another bite later in the night, so now's a good time to eat. oh, i almost forgot, i have to get myself to a phone to call CIBC and have them unlock my online banking. somehow it got locked out and i can't get in there to transfer money from my line of credit to my chequing account, which of course is where all the atms try to draw money from (there's no option to select account). hopefully this does not turn into an ordeal.

iPod emergency

OK, I'm back in the hostel after a quick wander around town. It's not exactly pouring rain here, but it's definitely a steady shower. I've wandered around a park over in Buda (on the other side of the river) and climbed the hill there. Found a shallow little cave to hang out in during a particularly strong downfall.

I thought I'd tell the ipod story, since it really had me stressing out. Basically I noticed the symptoms of a dying hard drive starting up again the day I met Rico in TO. Most of you know that I had previously fixed just this problem by opening up the 'pod and putting a paper shim on the hard drive spindle. I figured that since it was starting up again, though, that there was no way I could fix it again. What would I do, put in a thicker shim? So, I asked Rico to drive me to an electronics store (ended up being future shop. lame eh?) I bought a new 80 gig video iPod, briefly felt like shit for spending that much money, and then set to the task of getting my music on it.

Now, let me make it clear that facing two months on the road, alone, with no music was not only a shitty prospect, it was into the 'unthinkable' realm. This is a project I was strongly committed to finishing, to say the least.

So, first thing: find a computer we can use. Rico hasn't moved his from his old place yet, and even so it's really old and has USB1.0. That would pretty much make it impossible to move all 30 gigs of my tunes. Instead, Rico said I could use Morgan's computer, even though Morgan wasn't home to approve it. I figured that this meant I should find a way that didn't involve installing software.

So, the process: plug the old ipod into the machine. Error, cannot read. Shit! Plug it into the USB port on the keyboard: error, USB hub does not have the power required to run device. Uh oh, i'm starting to freak out. Finally I crawled under the desk, moved a few things around and plugged it directly into the back of the machine. -pause- Sucess! It mounts as a new drive.
OK, this is the part where I'm glad I know my way around a PC. I went into the hidden folders on the ipod drive, found all the music files (they're just numbered mp3 files on the ipod) and then started a huge file copy to the PC. This ran for about 40 minutes, so Rico and I went for a cruise on the boardwalk at the beach. Nice.

Get back and the copy is done. I figured out how to launch iTunes using a new, empty library and then imported all the mp3s that I had copied. It ignored the numbered file names and pulled all the info from the id3 tags, just like I hoped. Again, success! Finally I plugged the iPod in, formatted it and then started the sync. This also took a while, so we went for late lunch-early dinner. Got back, and bingo: new ipod, same music! I recreated a few of the 'word find' playlists that Matt had suggested and we were off.

Crazy eh? At first I was pissed that it happened, but later I realized that it could have happened 24 hours later and I would have been totally screwed. So, in that way, it was perfect.

update

Ive eaten now, at a cheap chinese food place. uhmmm, thats all i have to say. gnight

erk

OK, it's almost 8:30 and I'm absolutely starving. I'm in my hostel in Budapest and will be heading out for some food in just a moment, but i noticed that the computer here was free so i figured i'd post this first. i'm dead tired, hungry (worth repeating) and totally disoriented and pretty much alone. There's a bunch of people around here, yes, but i'm so whacked out right now that I can hardly stand straight never mind hold down a conversation. I'll leave that for tomorrow. not sure how long i've been awake, but its gotta be over 36 hours now. I did manage to scrape up the energy to have a shower. that was nice, even as it alternated between scorching and freezing. yes, I know i'll have to get used to that.

Lots of weird things happening so far; maybe I'll be able to describe them in more detail later, but they involve an emergency ipod replacement and subway evacuations due to suicides on the tracks in Toronto and a steep fine for misunderstanding the Budapest metro system (there's no transfer from one subwayy train to another on a single ticket, apparently)

k, that's it for now. Rico's good, btw. his new place is cool.
bms