Maximus

Home sweet home

2009-06-17T09:53:00.000-07:00

After some grueling travel back, I'm home. It's good to be here. Here's the breakdown of the final push to get home from Dubrovnik:
inter-city bus to the bus station
bus to airport
plane to London Gatwick
sleep at the airport on a very uncomfortable chair, hoping the guys patrolling with automatic rifles don't bother me
take a bus, then the underground to London Heathrow. Crazy traffic on the M1, so this took 3.5 hours
flight to Houston
flight to San Francisco
bart to Millbrae
Caltrain home

37 hours of traveling; not too fun, and I stink.

As I entered the US, I tried to keep my traveler's prospective, viewing it as a new country that I hadn't yet been to, in order to see what the US is like to a foreign traveler and see how we compare. Being around so many Americans, and being in a place where people speak English is strange after so many weeks of being away. The people here are certainly different. Perhaps it was just my personal elation at returning to my home country, but the atmosphere here is more casual and less frenetic than in Europe. Americans are friendly, people abroad will tell you. We can be proud of that and many other things here. We, for the most part, have the right checks and balances that are so lacking in some other countries, particularly in the Balkans. There is no need for a violent revolution. We have the systems in place to disseminate information through peaceful demonstrations and other means so that, when the time comes, the informed people can vote in fair elections.

Perhaps this is all easy to say in a country geographically isolated from conflict. We have drug cartels in Mexico vying for power and territory and causing some fear around the borders. But that's not a very big deal when you compare it to tensions on borders in the Balkans where Orthodox and Roman Catholic and Muslim people intersect, particularly the still-disputed Serbia-Kosovo border where Serbia (mostly Orthodox Serbs) doesn't recognize the Republic of Kosovo (mostly Muslim ethnic Albanians). There are tensions and border disputes in many other places as well. Even in Spain, where some Catalans want an independent Catalonia, and some Basques want an independent Basque Country.

The US has two borders for 300 million people. That's easy to deal with. European countries are small and most have borders with many countries, so there is a lot of room for tension. Also, there is more history, which means more historical quarrels to bring back up. Every nation wants to have the power that it did when it was at its zenith. Does that mean that Austria should have control over Croatia? And what about Macedonia, where territory has shifted between some six nations throughout history? Greece wants it back, but so do others. Maybe it will stay independent. It's interesting to note that these borders are purely political and often don't define where one culture or ethnicity ends and another begins. There is often a continuity across a border.

I used to think of Europe as so old, and the US as so new. Sure, there are old buildings and a lot of history in Europe, but the current governments and borders are relatively new. Borders are constantly in flux and there are often new countries being created. Italy, Germany, Belgium, and most European countries are technically newer than the US. The most recent thing to happen to the US is the statehood of Hawaii, and perhaps some things will change with Puerto Rico or various islands that we protect, but I can't see any hostile disputes and the borders with Canada and Mexico seem set in stone.

You really have to visit a place to get a healthy perspective on it. Reading the wikipedia article on a country, while a good place to start, won't allow you to feel the vibe of the place. Being in a new place, hearing the new strange language all around you and trying to use some of it, eating the food, talking with locals. These are all invaluable. And traveling is fun too! You get to meet lots of kinds of people and see cool stuff.

Everything here seems like a luxury after living the traveler's life. Sleeping in my big, soft bed. Shaving in front of a big mirror (bathroom mirrors in Europe are tiny). Being able to put my wallet in my back pocket and not worry about being robbed. Having a car. Knowing, every day, where I will sleep that night. Not having to pay to use the toilet. Being able to request a glass of water at a restaurant without getting weird looks. Buying food at reasonable prices. Eating well-rounded meals (no bread and cheese for months, please!). I got used to all these things, and could have, probably, gone on indefinitely as a travel bum as many do. But it's nice to be back.

There are many experiences I'll never forget. Eating tapas in Spain. Drinking home-made wine with an Estonian in Romania hearing crazy stories of her days working on a cruise ship. Sitting in the stands of the colosseum, like a Roman citizen. Traveling on a dilapidated communist-era train through Romania. Exploring the remote parts of a Greek island on an ATV. Getting caught in a protest at the G8 summit in London. Seeing a rave erupt around the old town in Milan on May Day. Swimming in the hot, steamy baths in Budapest while the cold rain came down. Looking, carefully out of the corner of my eye, at the devastation caused by the war in Mostar, Bosnia. Swimming in the clear, calm waters in Croatia. Walking through the meadows of Slovenia. Drinking with travelers from all over the world in various hostels. Walking, barefoot, through the Blue Mosque in Istanbul. Saying "thank you" in ten different languages. Trying, in general, to figure out all the forms of public transit through language barriers and all. It's been a long, crazy trip. Happy travels!

Dubrovnik

2009-06-15T05:48:00.000-07:00

Here it is, the last destination. Dubrovnik. After this, it's time to go home.

Ston, which was on the way to Dubrovnik, has a wall similar in function to the Great Wall of China, but much shorter. It's sufficient to see it through a bus window.

Dubrovnik was also hit by the conflicts here. This was earlier than the Bosnian War, though, when Croatia fought for its independence. The old town is beautifully restored; I didn't see any traces of damage at all.

Once again, we're staying in someone's living room, but it's okay. They are a bit over-hospitable. They are very nice, and keep trying to wash our dishes and feed us, but sometimes you just want your privacy. Their green beans and potatoes hit the spot though. The place is a short bus ride (or a medium walk) to the old town or to the beach. One of the women living here speaks French and not English, so it's nice to practice that a little.

Here's my favorite swimming spot on the whole trip. It's right next to the casino's hotel, so there's a knife-edge pool right up the stairs. If you look like you might be a guest, they don't bother you. The local kids know how to work the system. One will try, and get kicked out of the pool, but they hang out close and keep an eye on the lifeguard. One by one, they test him and jump in the pool and run away quickly. When more arrive, and the number of kids reaches critical mass, they are emboldened by their numbers and mob the pool. The lifeguard then gives up, and it's chaos with a bunch of kids splashing around in the pool. I think this happens every day after school. Even if you can't swim in the pool, there is nice, clear, deep water to swim in, rocks to jump off, and warm rocks to lay out on, if they aren't a bit sharp and uncomfortable. Right down the path is an actual beach as well. The kids play picigin there.

This enclosed saltwater lagoon was also nice. It's on the island of Lokrum. There's a little cave, and a rope swing, and some cliffs to jump off.

Also on the island are some nice looking cliffs. As I have said before, they seem to have a liberal definition of the word "beach" here. This place was marked as a beach on the map. You have to risk your life to get down to the water.

Here's a view of the city from the island.

Within the walls is the old town.

There was a sea of tourists there. This is the bridge going into the north gate. There's a drawbridge at the end.

This is the main street. It's full of shops, but the day we arrived, everything was closed due to a religious holiday. Even the grocery stores were closed.

I'm not sure why this arch is here over the water. That would be cool if the water cave extended underneath the city, and if there was a secret passageway in!

The harbor looks great. I keep thinking it would be awesome to rent a sailboat and sail around the Mediterranean, stopping in at these ports. At a lot of ports, the people who sail around all get together at night and party on someone's boat. They have their own culture, kinda like backpackers at a hostel.

I thought about going to Montenegro on a day trip to get one more country in (I'm at 13 on this trip) and to see the different (Serb-like?) culture there. But I decided instead on relaxing in the sun. Elaina is continuing on to Montenegro for her travels. I'm heading home.

War-torn Mostar

2009-06-15T03:06:00.001-07:00

We wanted to first go to Mostar in Bosnia-Herzegovina, but were told that we shouldn't try from Korčula - it would involve waiting on the side of the road in the town of Ston vigilantly watching for the right bus to flag down, which might not come at all. So, we came to Dubrovnik. Mostar, then, we did as a day trip. Let me talk about that first; you'll hear about Dubrovnik later.

Mostar is not really a day trip destination, though, and I think the driver was a little confused at our lack of baggage. It's 3.5 hours each way on a bus. We got up early and got back late, and spent more time on the bus than actually at Mostar, but it was worth it. Staying longer than we did wouldn't have been fun; I think we saw what we needed to see.

Our passports were checked seven times, without a single stamp. I wanted a Bosnian stamp! We had to cross six borders today because there is a thin stretch of land that belongs to Bosnia-Herzegovina that extends to the sea. You have to cross it on the way through. Croatia wants to make a bridge around, from the peninsula. The small bit of Bosnian coastline is all developed (it is all they have) while the surrounding Croatian coastline is relatively undeveloped.

Bosnia-Herzegovina is most definitely still recovering from the war fifteen years ago. There are some destitute looking houses along the road. Some of the people look pretty sad, and some of the beggars on the street appear to have been injured from the bombardment here during the war. Or possible since from leftover landmines.

Mostar, along with Sarajevo, was a battleground during the Bosnian War. The city is strictly divided along the river, which was the front line during the siege here. The east side is Bosniak and the west side is Croat.

Here is a simplification of things, as I understand them. Religion divides people here. Roman Catholic, Muslim, and Orthodox people don't always get along. They seemed to during Tito's rule when they were all united as Yugoslavia. But there is historical resentment between the cultures. As nationalist sentiment formed and the countries wanted independence from Yugoslavia, tensions arose between the different groups. Croats (Roman Catholic) and Serbs (Orthodox) live in parts of Bosnia-Herzegovina along with the Bosniaks (Muslim). A Croat is not necessarily a Croatian, but does identify with Croatia. Croatia wanted the parts of Bosnia-Herzegovina where Croats lived, so as to not leave them as a stranded minority, and Serbia wanted the parts with Serbs. Bosnia was just trying to hang on to its territory.

So, Mostar was both Bosniak and Croat, and still is. They live in a tense coexistence. It is, for all purposes, two cities divided by the river. The stoplights on the Croat side look more modern. The kiosks on the Bosniak side look rounded, like mosques. The schools are segregated. People stay on their side of the river, and usually don't have business on the other side.

Croatia bombarded the Bosniak side heavily during the siege. It is eerie to see these buildings, with obvious craters where they had been shelled, and lines of bullet holes riddling the plaster. When I first saw the buildings, it took a moment to sink in. I didn't want to stare, or have a local catch me looking. I tried to sneak some pictures, but it felt wrong, so I didn't get many. The locals seem to have gotten used to their presence, though the buildings seem like the "elephant in the room". No one talks about them. Or maybe they do; I didn't ask. Having this constant reminder must not help the tensions between the Croats and the Bosniaks. Or perhaps the Bosniaks want it that way: as a memorial. The first one I saw looked like it could have been a five-star hotel at one point. It was mostly destroyed, and the steel skeleton of the awning out front was still there, charred from fire. It looked like something from a movie. It was just fifteen years ago when snipers where perched on rooftops, and people had to sneak across the Old Bridge at night to get their supply of water. Here are some of the pictures I did get.

The Cejvan Cehaj Mosque, I think.

The only carefully restored structure in town is the historically significant Stari Most (Old Bridge). It's the only real tourist attraction in town. It was built by the Ottoman Turks. During the siege, the Bosniaks tied old tires to the bridge to try to protect it, but it didn't survive. Here it is. There's a nice swimming spot on the right (Bosniak) side, though the water is fast moving and very cold!

I didn't expect the trip to be so focused on the war destruction. I wasn't sure what to expect, but that's what caught my eye there. We're back in Dubrovnik now, though. It's not as hot here.

Island life

2009-06-10T10:05:00.000-07:00

We took the fast boat, the catamaran, to Korčula. That was probably a mistake. The departure was almost cancelled due to the storm, but the boat sailed as scheduled. The white-caps in the sea weren't encouraging. Once out of the protected harbor, the relatively small boat immediately began pitching and rolling around. The crew did his best to navigate the aisle and hand out barf bags without hurting himself, and he warned us all to seriously stay seated. We all tried to keep our spirits up, but it was extremely unpleasant, and I couldn't believe there were three more hours of it left. The boat was rising and falling like a roller coaster. We took bets on how many people would throw up. Just one, from our vantage point. It is good to be on stable land again!

Korčula is awesome! I seem to say this about every new place I get to, but I think Korčula is my favorite place yet. I have been wanting a relaxing place where I can sit out in the sun, and check out some sights in a new culture and be able to return to a relaxing room. That's what we got in Korčula. We got off the boat and were immediately mobbed by the people renting rooms. We told them all that we had a room in order to get them of our backs. Than, we approached the one we liked the best on our terms. She showed us to a great room. There is honestly no better location. Kitchen, internet, terrace, view. All for cheap. We ended up staying five nights. It was a great way to wind down the trip; it will be ending soon, which is sad, but I miss the states.

Korčula's old town is like a small version of the one in Split, minus Roman ruins. It's crammed into a peninsula. Within the walls and narrow, cobblestone pedestrian roads, people live and work. Restaurant tables spill into what little room there is in the street, and laundry hangs between buildings overhead. The clock tower rings every half hour, and the town's activity seems partly determined by the ferry schedule. You see the same people around town, most notably the hippie-looking guy that goes into the grocery store barefoot and runs the town hostel.

We went to beaches, which weren't great honestly, walked around a lot, and cooked some great meals. Though we want to stay longer, we better be off to Dubrovnik because there is still lots more to see and only four more days.

Walking around old town at night is great. Here's the church

I like these narrow streets.

Looking at old town, from the coast north of town.

The view from our window. This square is near the bottleneck of the peninsula.

This was supposedly where Marco Polo grew up. Croatia was part of the Venetian Republic, and Marco Polo probably came from this area, likely Korčula, but if you research it you will find that this house was built 100 years after he died. It's a tourist trap! They charge 15 kuna to get in. Many of the restaurants and shops are named after Marco Polo, and sell touristy merchandise based on him.

We splurged and went to see this dance called the Moreška. The dance dates back many years to Moorish influences in Spain. Scenes are acted out, depicting a chieftan winning a battle, and subsequently winning the girl. The dances between scenes, representing the battles, are done with swords, and they swing and hit them hard enough for sparks to fly off! It was pretty cool, but was ridiculously touristy. My favorite part was probably the singing at the beginning by a local choir.

Not a whole lot happened in Korčula, for spending five days here, and that's just how I like it.
Next, to Dubrovnik.

Split

2009-06-06T10:04:00.000-07:00

We arrived in Split yesterday morning, and checked into our "accomodations" which consisted of someone's living room. It wasn't very private. Behind the TV were some live rounds, presumably left over from the war. I'm not sure I would want these around with kids in the house!

Split has two main things: the beaches and Diocletian's Palace. Split was Roman emperor Diocletian's hometown, and he built this palace here around 300 AD.

Along with the remains of the palace itself, the inner core of the city within the palace walls is also full of other buildings that have been constructed since. It's a living, breathing city in there, full of shops and houses, with laundry hanging up between buildings. Walking around, I am reminded a bit of Venice by the narrow pedestrian streets and maze-like layout. I suppose this may be because Croatia was part of the Venetian republic, and this area was influenced by their culture.

And, this reminded me of San Marco Square in Venice.

Here's the boardwalk.

There's a great market next to the palace, where we bought our produce. The arugula was really spicy! I've been snacking on a bag of figs I bought here.

It was too cold to go swimming at the beach, but we showed up for a picigin tournament in the morning. Picigin is a casual, fun game played in shallow water in Croatia. I found a picigin ball, and I'm bringing it back to the states to see if I can get some people to play! Though, the waters in California might not be calm enough. Here's how it's played. The ball (like a soft tennis ball) is hit with the hand, and it can't touch the water. It's like hackey sack. Sometimes you have to dive for the ball and make a dramatic save and a big splash. That's where the fun comes in. Show-offs make an overly dramatic dive and splash every time they get the ball. Having a tournament is a bit strange though; I'm not sure how they judge it. The game is just a casual fun thing that kids go down to the beach and play for a bit after school's out.

So far, most of the Slovenian words I learned are exactly the same in Croatian. The language was called Serbo-Croatian, and was the official language of Yugoslavia. It was really a mix of all the slavic dialects spoken in the Balkans, officially compiled into a language that could help unify Yugoslavia. Since Croatia's split with Yugoslavia, they have tried to distance themselves and take the language back to its Croatian roots, so it was renamed Croatian. Words were artificially changed and there are new words that have been injected into the vocabulary. I'm not sure who makes these new words up.

Croatia's nice. I've heard people say it's laid-back, and like the Hawaii of Europe. I don't know if it's possible to get as chill as Hawaii, but I can see the connection. There also seems to be an Italian influence here. We'll see how the atmosphere changes on an island. The island of Korcula is where we are headed next.

Another night train

2009-06-05T10:01:00.000-07:00

We didn't stay long in Ljubljana, but stopped through it on the way to Split, Croatia. We also had a layover in Zagreb, Croatia on the way. These night trains really save on accomodations costs! The first leg of the journey was a bus to Ljubljana. The city is small enough to have an intimate feel - there are only 250,000 residents. It's strange to have such a small city as the capitol of a country. We would our way along the river, crossing over each bridge, in order to explore the city.

The most interesting bridge is the Dragon Bridge, which has statues of dragons on each side, guarding it. The dragon is the symbol of the city, and appears throughout.

I was told that one thing I had to do here was eat a horseburger at Red'n'Hot Horse. It was ok.

I think this is the Triple Bridge...?

Then, we went up the hill to check out the castle and the view from up there. It rained hard for about a half hour, so we took shelter in a playground under some trees for a while. It's a nice city; I'm glad we stopped here.

The next stop was Zagreb. It was a similar situation as in Salzburg: a quick layover at night. We lugged our packs through town, which is thankfully near the train station.

Here's the cathedral, close up. You can't tell, but it's an impressive structure with tall gothic spires.

Here's the main square.

There was a traditional music and dance competition, so we watched for a while. It looked Irish-inspired. There were lots of people out and about. After the competition ended, people filed into the nearby bars.

Then, back on the train to Split, where we are now.

Lake Bled

2009-06-03T10:01:00.000-07:00

The train options from Budapest to the next place we decided to go, Bled, Slovenia, were very limited. So, we had to take a train to Salzburg, Austria and change there. The train was very nice, since it was an Austrian one. I've been used to busses and rickety Eastern European trains. I was actually able to get some sleep. Not all the cars on the train go to the same place, and we found out the hard way. I became concerned when everyone got out of the car and we were the only ones left. It was the end of the line for that car, it turns out. We had to scramble off the train, with our belongings loose in our arms, and find the platform that the other, disconnected, cars had gone to. It all worked out, though.

When we got to Salzburg, we decided to take full advantage of the two hour layover and explore some. Four hours would have been much nicer. All we could do was run with our fifty-pound packs from the train station towards the historical center. We made it to the bridge, where we could see the castle and other old stuff lit up at night in the distance. Then, after five minutes, we had to run back to catch the train south to Slovenia. The people in Salzburg obviously have a lot of money; it's very nice. I'm not really going to any of the expensive countries on this trip, but this is what I imagine it's like elsewhere in Austria, Switzerland and Germany.

The place we're staying at in Bled is an old, drafty hotel. The heater looks like it's from the 1900's. This is a good budget option in this expensive tourist destination, though. It's a picturesque town in the Julian Alps on a lake with an island - the only island in Slovenia actually. The island has a church on it. Europeans sure have a knack for putting churches in inconvenient locations. This is not the first one I've seen alone on an island.

There is a castle on the hill, overlooking the lake as well as the surrounding meadows on the other side.

Here is the castle from the other side.

There is also a ski resort here in the winter, which turns into what they call "summer tobogganing" in the summer. It's a downhill rollercoaster right on the ski slope. You get to the top via ski lifts.

The country of Slovenia is tiny. The capitol, Ljubljana, is the only real big city. By the way, the letter J is pronounced like a Y in slavic languages. Almost all industry is in Ljubljana, and it is within commuting distance of the entire country. So most people that live outsive the city commute in; I hear the rush hour traffic is pretty bad.

The iconic image that represents Slovenia is the ever-present hay racks, used for storing and drying out hay.

It's a beautiful, relaxed country. I'm told it feels just like Austria except for the slavic language. It is very western here. They are part of the EU and use the Euro. They were the wealthiest, most western (literally and figuratively) part of Yugoslavia, and split off first, and peacefully.

Walking through the meadows with the alps in the background is amazing. There are many hiking trails through the forest. We walked north across the plain to the next town, which is on the river at the mouth of the Vintgar Gorge. A wooden footpath was built to allow people to walk through this gorge. There are waterfalls and some nice swimming holes. I'm reminded of the Yuba river back home.

We took a trail to a remote farming villiage, and walked around a bit.

They seem to live very simply, except for the very nice tractors and farm equipment that are parked in front of even the most modest of homes. That's a change from Romania, where they still use horse power.

The individual beehives here are painted different colors, supposedly so the bees can find their way home.

We took a different route back to Bled, over the mountain, with a nice view of the surrounding towns.

More from Transylvania

2009-06-02T12:31:00.000-07:00

I forgot to talk about all the day-trips in Transylvania. We saw some cool castles and stuff.

Rasnov is pretty close to Brasov, and has an old fort at the top of a hill beyond a nice hike.

Bran castle here is the biggest attraction. It is most famous for being Dracula's castle in Bram Stoker's book. The historical person that Dracula was based on, Vlad Dracula Tepes, also known as Vlad the Impaler, lived elsewhere, but was actually imprisoned in Bran castle for a year. The castle is interesting now because it was remodeled in the 1920's when Queen Marie started living here. It's a nice plane, and the new plaster was artistically placed to allow you to see the old stone underneath so you cal see what it used to look like.

It's up in the hill behind this cottage.

This cross in front of the castle has cyrillic text. I was confused until I later learned that Romanian used to be written in cyrillic until fairly recently. That's interesting, I think. After the language's separation from latin, it must have gone through a period where people spoke it, but did not write it. The region is almost completely surrounded by slavic countries, so they adopted the cyrillic alphabet from them. They shifted back to the latin alphabet, maybe to distinguish themselves from the slavic countries. They do take pride in being latin-descended and not slavic.

The town of Sigiosoara is where Vlad the Impaler grew up. The gothic buildings give the town a very old look.

This clock tower has seven statues on a rotating drum near the bell that each represent a day of the week. It rotates so the appropriate one faces outwards. On the hour, when the bell rings, the statue animates. The one I saw was a boy banging a drum.

Scary street!

The cemetery was interesting to walk through. Many tombstones are covered in vines, and the text was worn off on many.

The local trains in Romania are in pretty poor shape. Everything is broken. The window, which rolled up with a crank, was stuck down, so the ride was cold and drafty. The door of the train only closed half-way, so you could easily fall out if you weren't careful. There were no lights whatsoever, so when we went into tunnels, it was pitch black. There were some tunnels that lasted for minutes, which seemed like an eternity, so you just have to hang on to your bags so nobody steals them and wait for the light to come back.
There was an American guy in the train who had bicycled across Romania in November of 1989, just a month before the revolution. It would be a great place to bike across. But I'd be afraid of the secret police that year. He says there was a law that Romanians, if they talked to a foreigner, had to report a transcript of the conversation to the police within 24 hours. And they were forbidden to house foreigners. So, he camped and had a hard time getting locals to talk to him. Under Ceausescu's communism, The farms were forced to collectivize, and the only things you could buy at the store were mostly bread and jam, so he survived on that. All the good stuff, the farmers kept for themselves or sold on the black market. Most people subsisted on very meager food and barely survived. Christmas day that year, after the revolt which lasted ten days, is when the people executed Ceausescu on national television. The following brief period of freedom, I think, would have been a far better time for a bike ride through the country, when the people would be eager to talk to an American.

The castle at Sinaia looks like it's from a fairytale.

Inside, where you have to pay a lot to take pictures, it's a museum. This is the coolest castle I've seen yet. It was built fairly recently, so doesn't have a whole lot of history, and castle is as appropriate a term as it is for Hearst Castle, but it looks great. Inside, the walls are decorated with paintings and carvings and intricate inlays and the furniture and architecture are amazing. The spiral staircase, carved of some expensive wood, is particularly memorable to me. The "moorish room" is modeled after the Alhambra in spain. The "turkish room" is themed with comfortable pillows and has hookahs set up. The place is very worth the entrance fee.

Pelesor castle, up the hill, is a little more modest. King Michael, who owns both castles, allows them to be museums at the moment. He intends to take Pelesor back as a royal residence this year.

Awesome labrynth!

2009-06-01T13:38:00.000-07:00

If you go to Budapest (which you should!), you totally have to go to the labyrinths underneath Buda castle. They were originally natural caves, and were extended to be the basement of the castle. If you go late in the day, which we did coincidentally, they turn off all the lights, and leave the place partially lit by lanterns. They also give you a lantern, which is necessary because there are parts of the labyrinth that are not lit and are pitch black! It started out very creepy! They set up the whole place to give a chilling mood. Weird noises emanate from blocked off portions of the maze, and there are strange statues throughout. One of the first chambers has some pre-historic cave paintings.

It was fun to experiment with time-lapse photography here. Using a flash just destroys the natural flame light.

Some parts of the cave are obviously modified to be part of the tourist attraction, but are very cool nonetheless. In this chamber is a red wine fountain. There is actual red wine flowing through and vines growing all over. The place is very chilling. At this point, we were a bit lost in the cave and wish we had laid down a string leading back, like we did in the cave in Iraklia.

The final segment of the labyrinth is unapologetically new and fake. It was a bit hard to see in the pitch black, but there were what looked like uncovered fossils, with dates and descriptions. As you progress, you start to realize that there are fossils of things like coca-cola bottles. It is as if a future race of people is uncovering the remains of our civilization. It seems a bit contrived, but was actually pretty cool and thought provoking. Then the final room has a sort of spiritual poem giving meaning to your trek through the labyrinth. It reminded me a bit of the text in the game Braid.

Outside, the rain was pouring down, and we ran to the nearest metro stop and headed back to the hostel. It was good to be underground while the weather up top wasn't so good.

horses

2009-06-01T12:47:00.000-07:00

Hosok Tere (Heroes Square) is a square on the main street in Budapest where there is a monument to the founders of Hungary. They were warriors called hussars who rode in on horseback from Asia over 1000 years ago and founded Hungary. The Hungarian language, as well as the race, has roots in Asia. There is a statue of the hussars on horseback in the middle of the square.

Right now, there is a big temporary horse race track in the square. Truckloads of sand were brought in, and a stadium was set up. It's a new annual tradition (this is the second year) called the national gallop. Each town in Hungary sends a horse and jockey to compete for the trophy and the honor of being the fastest. It is modeled after a historical race among the warriors. The event is accompanied by a festival where all the towns bring local food for people to try, and there are rides for the children. We attended the opening ceremony, where riders dressed in traditional costume paraded around. Each of the (nine I think?) founders of Hungary were represented in their traditional costume, and they did tricks on the horses, and shot arrows at small targets while moving fast.

The hussars had to shoot a small target while riding fast. The target was a little gong-like piece of metal. I would hate to be the guy holding that! They missed about half the time, but always away from the guy holding it. When they were on a roll, it was cool to hear the clang, clang, clang of the metal as the riders circled the ring shooting the arrows.

Each town was represented in the race, and each town has their own crest. I liked the crest of Oriszentpeter best, so I rooted for them. How awesome, a lion holding a sword!

The event drew a huge crowd. There were booths set up all throughout the streets surrounding the square. This seems like their national fair. Actually, there always seem to be public events happening in Europe. Everywhere you go, there is something happening out in the streets, whether it be a protest, demonstration, concert, party, or government organized festival. At first, I thought I was just lucky to be at the right place at the right time, but there truly are events happening all the time, especially now that summer is here. Walking through the Buda castle, even, there was a band set up in an archway that had nice acoustics, and a large crowd had gathered. It just seems like this sort of thing does not happen much in the states.

baths

2009-06-01T11:44:00.000-07:00

I wish we had bath houses in the US! The one we went to is the largest bath house in Europe, Szechenyi Bath. A thermal spring feeds the hot water into the ornately decorated building, into many different pools - about twenty. They range in temperatures from freezing cold (supposed to be healthy) to 38 degrees celsius, so you can find the perfect one for you. There is a sign next to each pool with its temperature.

It's cold and rainy now here in Budapest, which I'm told is the best weather for a bath house. Most of the pools are indoors, but the coolest one is outdoors in a big courtyard, surrounded by statues. You have to run shivering to the pool, but when you get in it's all worth in. There was a layer of mist over the pool because it's so warm and the air's so cold. There are areas of the pool with little waterfalls, bubbles, and there's a whirlpool that turns on occasionally and takes the people in the center of the pool for a ride.

There are a few chessboards at the pool, and these old guys in speedoes gather around every day to challenge each other. I watched a young British guy challenge a local and get beat easily.

We spent four hours in the baths and got nice and wrinkly. I got in every one of the pools, even the freezing one. I can see why the locals keep coming back, this place is great!

One of the other sights in town is the opera house, and we wanted to go see a show. It's only five dollars, which is way cheaper than tours of the opera house, and you get to see a show too! But, the only thing playing was a children's play in Hungarian. I think it would have been a little awkward to see that. Though we did go see a movie in Turkish, while in Bodrum. That was kinda fun. The people working in the theater didn't quite understand why we'd want to see it, but they let us. It was a comedy about a group of school kids who play pranks on their eclectic teachers, as far as I can tell.

Budapest

2009-06-01T09:56:00.000-07:00

In a hurry here, so just a quick one. The culture here in Budapest is alive and well. It's I think my favorite city so far in Europe. There seem to be lots of hip little bars and cafes, and the people seem nice. If you go, here's a great restaurant... from the Oktogon, go west away from Andrassy and go down the stairs between the tattoo parlors. Awesome tomato soup!
Here are some boring pictures of buildings to get them out of the way. Don't worry, there will be more about Budapest in a bit.

A corner of the Buda Castle

St. Steven's

Chain bridge, view of Pest. This was the first bridge to connect Buda and Pest.

Parliament

Transylvania

2009-05-27T10:27:00.000-07:00

The town of Brasov is our home base for exploring Transylvania. It is a ski resort in the winter, and I imagine is quite picturesque with snow. There is some cool gothic architecture, like the "black church", here in the distance behind the town square.

There's a hill with a hollywood-style sign spelling out "Brasov" that you can take a cable car up. We took it up, and hiked down back to the town. Here's a view from up there. The "white tower" here provided defensive look-outs for the walled-in town. You can imagine them defending against the invading Turks here.

In the square, there was a protest against embedding RFID chips in passports, as far as I can tell. They handed me a flyer, and I accepted with a "multumesc" (thank you), but it's in romanian and I can't read it.

One of the tourist stops in town is "rope street" here, which they say is the narrowest road in Europe. Perhaps. It's wide enough for two people to pass each other.

We hung out last night with our hostess, who fed us some homemade wine and liquor. Apparently everybody around here makes their own wine. And many make palinca, a very strong liquor. It's pretty tough to shoot! She's a real world-traveler, and she loves being a hostess to people from all over the world.

Romania's a great place. It's off the radar of most tourists, which is kinda nice. Less people! Outside of old town, if you don't hear anyone speaking, you could imagine that you are in the US. Though there are some obviously communist-era apartment buildings. Things look like they are improving for the Romanian people. It's hard to imagine a bloody revolution just twenty years ago, or the roller-coaster ride of government changes they have had since then. Things look positive now.

Then, farther out from the towns, it gets very rural. I mostly witnessed it from the train. It would be interesting to see about staying in some of the rural areas. There are farm towns with very basic houses, and only dirt roads. They still use old-fashioned farming methods. You can see men using scythes, and people plowing their fields with horse power. Some people still use horse-drawn carriages as transport. It all seems a bit Amish.

It's nice to relax here. That's difficult to do in a city, or in an expensive place where you feel like you need to move on to keep the budget in line. We're gonna stay here longer than planned for sure.

24 hour journey

2009-05-25T23:56:00.000-07:00

Arrived in Brasov, Romania today after taking transportation for a full 24 hours... ugh.
We had just a few lira left, and didn't want to go to the ATM again because we would be changing to a new currency, so we tried to get by with what we had. That meant two loaves of bread and two liters of water for the 24 hour journey. And we had various things in the food bag left over. I never thought a single packet of honey would be so valuable to me. The only thing left after arriving in Brasov was a bag of sugar, a packet of salt, and a bottle of olive oil. I'm malnourished and tired. Anyway, we're here now in Romania and it's awesome!

Here's me in the couchette car.

The train went through Bulgaria, though we didn't stop and explore anywhere. The only thing I can tell about Bulgaria is that their language uses the cyrillic alphabet and the landscape is nice. It seems to be mostly forests, which is a drastic change from the dry land I've seen for the last few weeks in Greece and Turkey. Romania is similar. After crossing the Danube, we were in a new country, and my passport is getting full of stamps!

Many tourists stay away from Romania because of its reputation for crime, but I feel much safer here than I have at most places I've been. Granted, I'm not in Bucharest. It just seems more comfortable here. Maybe it's the place we're staying, which is great. Sometimes the room you are staying in colors your experience in a new place, and this room is perfect. It's the guest house of a family that lives here, and they have a pool (though it's not filled yet.. too early). Also, there is the atmosphere of a small town here, though it's 200,000 people.

This is the first place since London that I would fit in as a local. There are more diverse ethnicities here, and some have light colored hair. Also, they're taller here. It's nice to have people attempt to talk to me in the local language rather than assume I'm a tourist. They also dress very casually here (kinda like 80's USA), so that's closer to me than the styles of, say, Italy where they are very concerned with fashion.

Here are my pre-conceptions of Romania:
There's lots of crime, and gypsies sometimes gas entire trains to steal all the wallets.
There are packs of stray dogs that roam around together, so stay away.

The crime thing is an exaggeration. And gypsies just look cool. The men wear old-fashioned suits and flat-brimmed hats. All black, almost amish. And the women wear long, colorful dresses and seem to walk in very long strides, with confidence. And some of them really are nomads that live in gypsy camps and roam with covered wagons. Check it out.

The other thing that surprised me is that I can decipher the language. It's a romance language, and very similar to Italian. It sounds like Italian spoken with a slavic accent.

I'm excited to check out the sights and see more of the culture here. I'm in Transylvania, with Dracula and all that. And I hear there's some awesome hiking around. Till next time.

Istanbul

2009-05-22T23:56:00.000-07:00

Istanbul is an interesting city. It is physically and culturally divides Europe and Asia. The people here are progressive relative to the rest of Turkey, from what I've seen. Not all the women wear headscarves, and some walk around by themselves. The other side of the river here is technically Europe, while the picture's taken from Asia. The lower part of the bridge has businesses all along. You can see the fishing poles sticking out above. You have to be a little careful to not get hooked!

There are many mosques around town. Here is the Blue Mosque, the most important one, with the tomb of Sultan Ahmed I in the foreground.

Here it is inside.

I'm not really sure what this is, but people were taking pictures, so I did. The small thing in the foreground is called the serpent column.

The entrance to Topkapi Palace. This is the nicest part of town. There is a big park with lots of grass where people go and picnic.

And, here is the grand bazaar. It's crazy. People have been trading here for hundreds of years. There are a ton of shops inside the main area. It's strange to see street signs inside a building. Though it's not quite a building, just a covered market. This is probably the most hectic place I've ever been.

Shops spill outside the covered market, and people are selling things all the way up the hill and down the other side to the ocean, near the spice market. There are stores for everything. There was an entire store devoted to plastic eyes for putting on stuffed animals, right next to a store that sold nothing but jean buttons. Honest.

Spices at the Egyptian spice market. It's just called that; they sell tons of stuff there, not just spices.

Ephesus

2009-05-20T23:54:00.000-07:00

We took a bus to Selcuk, our home base for exploring Ephesus, an ancient city is fairly well preserved. Selcuk is nice. All the old guys in the city gather at a few spots and play rummikub every evening. Women seem to be absent, which was also the case in Bodrum, come to think of it. Except for the tourists.

Here are the ruins of the temple of Artemis, one of the seven wonders of the ancient world. It's my second in two days!

It was destroyed and rebuilt a few times. The final time was by a christian saint who said it was evil and pagan. The stones were used to build, among other things, the basilica of St. John here. You can see, in the foundation, sideways greek letters. I imagine these stones were part of the temple originally, but I'm not sure. You can see an upside-down omega and a backwards epsilon here.

This mosque is pretty cool. Here's the courtyard, and Elaina in a headscarf. Women should wear them inside out of respect.

One of the cupboards in the hotel shad some random silly posters. We swapped them around with the ones already hanging, and the horses ended up in the hallway in a prominent position.

The hotel was pretty sweet. All-you-can-eat barbecue dinner! All-you-can-eat is unheard of over here.

K, on to Ephesus. In Turkey, there are mini-busses called dolmus. They are like shared taxis, and are the cheap easy way to get around. You flag one down, like you're hailing a taxi, and jump in and pay the driver a few lira. They operate on fixed routes. This one was supposed to go to Ephesus, but it let us off about 3 km away. I guess his other passengers, going to the beach, were his priority. Walking there was fine, but the walk back didn't start out very good. Right when we were done looking around the ruins, it unexpectedly started to rain. Then, it started hailing huge chunks of ice. Very strange weather here. We hid under a tree, to see if it would let up. It didn't, so we started running, trying to protect our heads from the ice cubes falling out of the sky. We ended up hitch-hiking back to town with some people from Istanbul, so it ended up being a cool experience.

At ephesus, my favorite thing is the inscriptions on the rocks. There is a combination of greek and latin. The first one here is a milestone. You can see latin on the top and greek on bottom. The roman numeral "V" says where we are along the road.

Ephesus was a port town, but is now five miles inland because the river silted up.

Looking down the main road.

Library facade

Gate of Augustus

New country, new culture

2009-05-18T10:01:00.000-07:00

Everyday, I'm farther east than I've ever been before. And farther south than the day before. It's getting hotter. I was cold a week ago, as I remember. I finally bought a sweatshirt in Naxos when I was there because I was tired of being cold. I had lost mine somewhere in Spain. Now I don't need it at night even, and I need to search out shade in the day. BTW, here's a list of the things I think I've lost so far:
sweatshirt
nalgene water bottle
camera
wallet and all the stuff in it like my old student ID
contact case/solution
towel (I used a shirt for a week, then stole one from a hotel with a mean receptionist, then lost that. I'm towel-less again)
sunglasses
shampoo
about a third of my clothes (I don't know where they all go, but it's okay 'cause I'm accumulating new ones here)

To get to Bodrum, we took a ferry from Kos in the morning. It was supposed to go to Bodrum. It instead kicked us out at Turgetreis. A miscommunication? False advertising? I dunno, but it took us about 20 minutes to figure out that we weren't in fact in Bodrum. Turkish and English are pretty much not related at all, and most people don't speak a word of English here. Not even the words "yes" or "no". They don't even nod and shake their heads here for yes and no. No is tossing the head back and clucking your tongue. Yes is, I'm told, shaking the head like our "no", though I haven't seen it yet. It'll be worse in Bulgaria. It's completely reversed there. Shaking the head is yes and nodding is no.
The Greek word for "yes" is the Turkish word for "what?". I bet that's caused it's share of confusions.

Anyway, they're friendly here, and pointed us in the direction of the bus station. So, we made our way to Bodrum. It is the site of Halicarnassus, an ancient Greek city. It was under Persian rule by king Mausolus starting the 4th century BC. The mausoleum here was built in his honor, and is one of the seven wonders of the ancient world. The word mausoleum comes from this place. It was unfortunately destroyed in an earthquake about 400 years ago, and only ruins remain.
20 years later, Alexander the Great captured the city from the Persian Empire in a battle that destroyed most of the city.

Crusader knights built the other main historic attraction here: the castle. There are about 250 carved coats of arms on the outer wall of the castle representing important people of the time. I wish I had a coat of arms!

People are ruthless about hassling tourists here for their business. It was the same in the touristy parts of Greece. It's worse than in Mexico. There, as you drive up to an intersection, guys run at your car, squirting bottles of soap an your windshield, then jump on your hood like they're training to be in the army or something. They wash your windshield even though you're yelling "no, no, it's clean already". Then, when you drive off, they cuss at you and threaten to key your car because you didn't pay them. Nice. And at the next red light, it happens again. The guys trying to get you into their restaurants here in Turkey are worse. They pretend to be nice at first, but they're not. I don't know why the city allows it. If they banned those guys, it would be an incredibly more pleasant stay. Here's my routine for selecting a place to eat: Walk past the candidate restaurants and determine which one hassles less. Then go back to that one that passed the test.

From a distance, Turkey looks just like Greece. The languages even sound similar to my ignorant ear. At first, the main difference was that the blue Greek flag frown everywhere was replaced with the red Turkish flag, which is also flown everywhere. People fly their country flag more in Greece than any other country I've been to so far. The religion makes a big difference in the feel of Turkey. Muslims pray five times a day, and the prayer time is announced by a recording of chanting from the mosques around town. This place seems like a good way to ease into the culture. It's far enough west that they accept westerners, and the government is secular, but it certainly feels middle eastern.

This town is where many turks vacation. The beaches are questionable, but the weather's warm. People lounge on pillows on the beach smoking hookahs and drinking. At night, the main street along the beach is crammed with people looking at the shops and ending up at some club or restaurant. The other activity to do here is to take a traditional turkish bath, but I think having some guy rubbing me down would be too much of a culture shock.

Here's the view off the rooftop terrace of the hostel. Everyone here has these solar powered hot water heaters, just like in Greece.

Cats love ruins

2009-05-15T12:48:00.000-07:00

Arriving in port at 4am, I first noticed the castle that seems to guard the harbor. At night, it is lit up and the view of it reflecting off the water is nice. The castle was once on an island, with the sea as a natural moat and a drawbridge connecting it to the mainland.

It was great to take the night ferry and not have to pay for a hotel for one night, though it is a bit tiring traveling for such a long time and not having the "home base" of a room somewhere. Ferries are really slow, but I like taking them because you can always go up to the deck and look around to see what islands are near. Islands are packed into the Aegean sea. At any point on my travels, I could see at least four islands just by looking around. The sun never set over water because there was always the next island in the way.

The castle, with Turkey in the background.

Kos has it all: ruins, beaches and nightlife. If there weren't hundreds of people employed to annoy you into looking at the menu for their restaurant, and if the beaches had nice sand, it would be perfect. I suppose I didn't experience any real Greek culture here either, though, because Kos Town is so touristy. But, you can just rent a quad or something and head off to the more remote parts of the island if you want to see what laid-back island life is like.

My expectations for beaches in Greece (and the Mediterranean in general) were far too high. I've only found one so far that has nice sand. It's on Naxos, south of town. Isn't Greece supposed to be full of beautiful beaches? I must be spoiled. The people here lay out on the rockiest shores, with sharp things poking through their towels and plastic trash all over the beach. Better than the beaches in England I guess. Not idyllic enough for me! Anyway, the beaches in Kos aren't THAT bad.

People seemed surprised that Americans made it all the way to Kos. It's a German and English tourist destination, but I guess we don't make it a point to go there. And it's not really on the way to anywhere unless you do a weird trip like mine. In any case, there is a lot of English spoken here on Kos, perhaps more than back home even.

The ruins here are awesome. They aren't the most historically important, but they are so unkempt and free of people that you feel like you are discovering the ruins yourself for the first time. They are overgrown with weeds, and you have to forge your own path through. You will often come across columns on their side or decorative reliefs hidden in the weeds. There are certainly not any plaques describing what you are seeing.

Here is the Xystos, which was a gym. It seems strange that the floor mosaics are left out in the elements. They are half covered with gravel, and it seems that people stepping on them would slowly destroy them.

Ruins of the public baths.

The odeon.

Kos' main historical claim to fame is that it was where Hippocrates lived. He was perhaps the first real doctor.

There is a complex of temples up the hill called the Asclepion built on the site of a sacred spring in a cypress grove. The water from the spring is said to have healing powers. Sick people would bathe in the water and drink it, then sleep in the temple until they received a vision from Asclepios, with instructions on how to get well. This is where Hippocrates studied and defined modern medicine.

Here's me in the sacred spring. I seem to have a lot of pictures of me in dank dark places, don't I? This spring is down a stairwell at the back corner of the temple of Asclepios, and if you crouch down you can see that a tunnel goes east and a tunnel goes north. They are almost too small for a person to squeeze through. I didn't explore enough to see where they went. Too many spiders.

This is my buddy "three-out-of-four". He likes to explore the ruins too.

What we call grilled cheese, the Greek call toast. Looks like Mickey-D's caught on.

Looking at a map of Kos Town.

Ferry hoppin

2009-05-13T12:16:00.000-07:00

The plan is next to try to get to Turkey. It seems the best way is to take ferries. Iraklia to Naxos to Santorini to Kos to Bodrum, Turkey. No sleep till Kos!
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Fira, Santorini

I'm glad we didn't stay a night in Santorini. It's an island chain where there was a huge volcanic eruption about 4000 years ago that destroyed civilization all around and probably caused a tsunami that wiped out the civilization as far as Crete.
We had a layover there. The outgoing ferry left at midnight, so we had to kill some time. There is a great view of the volcanic islands from the main town of Fira, though I don't see why the place is touted so much. It's way too expensive there. I would have liked to descend the cliff from Fira down to the water, and take the cable car back up or something, but we were lugging our huge backpacks around the whole time in Santorini, so that would have been a little too much for the back. We found a bench where we could hang out and mooch unsecured wireless off someone, and we booked rooms and blogged.

A view looking out from Fira over the caldera.

Yogurt and honey. This kind of yogurt in Greece, with honey and walnuts makes a great breakfast or dessert. The yogurt is so rich it tastes like cheese.

Caving on Iraklia

2009-05-09T12:13:00.000-07:00

We picked a random little island that looked interesting. Iraklia. It's in the chain called the small cyclades. Unlike Apollon, it was easy to get a room here even though it is relatively deserted. In the summer, it probably has its share of tourists, but there are maybe a total of six here now. And the number of residents on the island is currently somewhere around sixty, and everyone knows everyone. I don't think anyone locks doors. You can count the number of children on the island: eight I think. And there are six cars, one "island truck", a few scooters and four dogs. Plenty of stray cats though. Families of goats roam the island, and whenever they are needed, I imagine a herder goes out and scrounges one up. The cars and scooters are used to get between the port town and the inland town, though it's in walkable distance. There is only one open restaurant now, and it seems to be the local hang out. Locals lounge on the veranda and play backgammon drinking coffee. The other town, Panagia, has the bakery, which is also the shop and taverna and post office.

There seems to be a church here for every five people.

There is a huge cave system on Iraklia, and the main entrance is a hike to the far other side of the island. We went there yesterday, and I think I hiked more than I ever have in my life in one day. On top of exploring the cave, we explored almost the entire island on foot, starting in the morning and arriving back at the hotel a little after sunset.

The cave entrance is small; you have to crawl through.

Here is the main chamber. Every year, there is a festival held here. There are the remains of lots of tea lights here. I wish we had bought a bag. I imagine the look of the cave lit by many little candles would be awesome and spooky.

There are many interesting formations in the cave.

I had a spool of string, one end tied to a tree outside. As we descended deeper, more string was let out from my backpack. I'm pretty sure we would have gotten lost and disoriented without this.

There are many chambers in the cave. Sometimes you can see a hole between the rocks and make out a chamber below, though there is not always an easy way down. The deepest chambers have no oxygen, so we turned around after we had enough.

The other side of Greece

2009-05-06T04:10:00.000-07:00

Arrived in Naxos. Blue Star Ferries has internet on board!

The ruins of an old Temple of Apollo are here on a peninsula that used to be an island. Only an arch remains. Naxos Town is in the background.

The town is charming. The color scheme on all the islands is pretty easy. What color should you paint your house here? Easy, White with blue trim, just like the flag. I don't even know if you can buy any other color of paint here.

We rented a quad to explore the island freely. We strapped all our stuff to it and set off on the beast with no front brakes and loose lug nuts. More on that later. The plan was to find a room on the other, more remote, side of the island.

There are lots of cool old ruins on the island if you brave the dirt trails. Our vehicle was perfect to check it all out! Here's the temple of Dionysus on a hill in the middle of the island. This site was used for spiritual purposes long before the construction of the temple.

The tower of Agias.

This trip was perfect for seeing the remote part of Greece. There were some remote beaches, and lots of goats and goat herders.

There were several small towns, and I felt a little self-conscious driving the huge loud quad through those quiet places. It seems wrong to disturb that peace.

The town of Apollon seemed like a good choice to find a place to stay. It's the low season, and we're probably the only tourists outside of Naxos town on the island. There should be plenty of places to stay right? Old Greek ladies doing their best to convince us to rent their rooms?

That wasn't quite the case. We couldn't find anywhere to stay. There were plenty of places, but I guess everyone's in Athens or something because it's the low season. It was a bit deserted. I think everyone left in the town heard about the tourists visiting though. I parked the quad in a bad spot and created a bit of a "traffic jam", which may have been the highlight of the week there. We found a hotel called Kouros that looked promising, but there was no one there. A house connected to it might be the right place to go to ask? The very old woman opened up the door and let us in... to her kitchen. And they didn't speak English at all, and "domatia" didn't seem to make sense to her. We left awkwardly. After asking some more locals, a guy made a call to the hotel Kouros to secure us a room. It turns out the old lady was the right person to ask... With about five people trying to figure it all out, we ended up with a great view in a room that clearly hadn't been cleaned since the last guest nine months ago. As was the case with all rooms. And no electricity or hot water, but like nine blankets. We were the only people staying there clearly.
Anyway, off to collect the quad and our stuff. The hotel is across a little stream, so you have to cross a makeshift footbridge. It's unnecessary later in the summer, as the stream dries up and access to the hotel is easier. I didn't think the quad would have any problem crossing, so I headed down to the beach to cross on the most stable terrain. That's when it decided to bog down. All the locals were watching as I tried to unstick it, hoping I wouldn't have to ask for a winch. The quad shouldn't have problems; it was meant for this, right? And why is the tire all crooked and way off axis? It turns out some of the lug nuts came out of each of the back tires. I managed to get it back up to the road after some trouble. Look at the back left tire.

A local guy there got his tools, and without saying a word to me started working on it as soon as it came to rest. He was extremely nice and wouldn't accept any help or compensation. I sure felt like the ignorant tourist. About two hours later, he communicated to me with gestures that I could take it back to Naxos Town, but take it easy.

The story behind the hotel is a little colored. Apparently, this local party guy won the lottery and made his dream come true by building a beach hotel. In the seventies, it was the hedonistic party spot, as you can see from all the old pictures pinned up on the walls. It's past its prime, the hotel. The guys wife now tries to run the hotel, as he is in bad health. We were warned about his "noises", and we were put in the room farthest from where he and his wife live.
The next day we woke up to his noises. And we couldn't leave the hotel because the front door was stuck. A little creepy. We stood there for about 15 minutes hoping the door would open so we could get the heck out of there. Hesitantly, we knocked on the door where the noises were coming from. Eventually, the lady came out and helped us with the door.

On the drive back to Naxos town, a lug nut came out again, so we had to stop and call the rental place. We sat there for three hours waiting on someone's roof.

I tried to read some of the graphic novel "Wanted" in greek. This is my amusement here.

The guy finally came. We had to lift the quad into the truck.

The next days were relatively uneventful. We found some awesome beaches with no souls around. Here's the calendar I made in the sand for the coming weeks.

Lem, WTF are you doing in Athens???

2009-05-03T00:36:00.000-07:00

So, the craziest thing happened this morning. I went into the common area of the hostel to see if the book exchange had something interesting, and who's there but Lem, my roomate back in Santa Clara? Seriously. I knew he was traveling, but our schedules didn't coincide, so I thought. He was on his way through Athens, up to Croatia with a group of people that he met that included none other than the guys I played drinking games with back in Barcelona. What a trip! It would have been fun to join them, but I had plans already laid out for some Greek islands. Lem was freshly tanned from hanging out at the island of Ios for a while. He used up all the sun, 'cause it's cloudy in Greece now.

Anyway, out to the old stuff. We checked out the ruins of the ancient agora. Socrates taught there.
There is a ton of reconstruction happening in Athens right now. The plus side: free admission! Here are some pieces of old columns they are calaloguing.

The area below the hill of the Acropolis has some interesting stuff, like an old spring with ruins of a spring house.
Here is me in the cave of the god Pan. This cave is where they used to worship him. It's strange that they allow you to just explore here. It seems like something they would rope off. And there were no people there. I guess it is hard to get to.

Most of the people around seemed stuck in a geography problem. They couldn't find the parthenon. It's up the hill, past the construction. Here is it.

Temple of Athena (I think)

Theater of Dionysus.

The parthenon itself somehow didn't inspire me as I thought it would. Maybe it's the scaffolding.

I bought a camera today. It's the exact one I want, waterproof up to 10 meters and everything! I didn't think I'd find one at a reasonable price because they were really expensive in Italy. Greece is much cheaper. I can even eat things other than cheese and crackers.

Tomorrow, to Naxos! It's one of the islands in the Cyclades that seems to have the right number of secluded beaches, people, accomodations, and sun.

Athens

2009-05-02T14:35:00.000-07:00

The first thing you notice in Greece is the language. I heard that you can get by fine here if you only English, but most of the signs are just in Greek, and I like it that way. It all seems like gibberish at first, but you can pronounce things after studying a little. And many words are the same as English. It really is a big help to be able to sound out words so you know what you're buying or what that store across the street sells. Τζατζίκι, γυρο, βιβλία, οπτικα

I quickly went to the first euro joint in Athens I saw, and it didn't dissapoint.

I ate there for lunch the next two days as well. We were in a bit of a dodgy neighborhood (north Omonoia), so decided to call it an early night and blog for a while, especially after the experience the night before. This is why you're all getting a flood of blogs here. It's nice to catch up. And prepare for a full day of exploring the Acropolis and all the other ancient stuff.

Stressful day

2009-05-02T12:34:00.000-07:00

We haven't had internet for a while, so didn't have a place to stay in Milan. But we needed to get there to fly out to Greece. I don't like the idea of arriving in a city without a place to stay, because I imagine that might involve sleeping at the airport, or worse, on the street. I had no idea where in Milan the hotels were. So, yesterday morning involved frantic searching for an internet cafe and booking a room before almost missing the train to Milan. Apparently there was a fashion show recently, and it was Friday, so it was a little difficult to find a place to stay. The hotel wasn't bad, but was a distance from the city center. When we arrived, everything seemed to be relaxed again, but we decided to go out. It was already late in the day, but I shouldn't pass up an opportunity to see the sights in another city, right? So we went out and saw the gothic duomo.

And Galleria Vittoria Emanuele II. The most prominent thing in there is unfortunately McDonalds.

There are mosaics on the floor of all the signs of the zodiac. It's a tradition to stomp and grind your foot into the testicles of the bull here. There's now a crater several inches deep from so many tourists doing it.

This mosaic on the floor seems to depict Rome. SPQR is the city motto. It can be seen all over Rome. Not sure why it's here in Milan though. It means Senatus Populusque Romanus. "The senate and people of Rome." The picture is of Romulus and Remus suckling on the she-wolf that raised them. This is an iconic symbol seen all over Italy. Legend has it that Rome was created by Romulus (its namesake). The town of Siena, where I was some 5 days ago, was, according to legend, created by Sienus, the son of Remus.

At the piazza down the block from the duomo, we saw and heard some kind of party, so we checked it out. There was a parade of floats going down the street, and ravers dancing behind them. It's May Day here. A kiosk sold these sweet pastries called frittelle. They're a little like funnel cakes, and really good.
Then, we decided to go to the castle in town, so we took the metro there. As ascended to ground level, we once again heard the thumping bass of the floats. Apparently, this was the destination of the parade, and the floats were arriving. They circled the castle, and tons of people swarmed around, at the float of their choice. We sampled the music of most.

After we had enough, we decided to get back to the hotel and not stay out late. We had an early flight the next day to Athens, and I was tired and sleep deprived. The gate to the metro was closed, though. A paper sign, saying "chiuso". Hmm, this could be a problem. Maybe they just closed this station because of the party. So, we walked to the next station, right outside the train station. Closed, too. And a ton of people milling about, wondering what's going on. It turns out, they close all public transit except for one bus line on this holiday after 9pm. Every bus stop had a large group of people sitting there, looking angry. They'd probably been there for a while, and would be walking home. At the train station, there was a line of people at the taxi stand about 100 people strong. This is probably what Paris is like when the workers go on strike. Families with kids, just in from a train, were desperately trying to get taxis and avoid the ravers. We went up the street a distance, and intercepted a taxi before it could get down to them. We didn't want to spend 15 euro on that, but it's better than sleeping on the street. It was a relief to get back to the hotel.

Tomorrow, to Athens!

cinque terre

2009-05-01T11:39:00.000-07:00

It's nice to be back in a town where you don't have to look out for cars running you over. Vernazza is one of the five little towns dotting the coast of Italy in cinque terre (five lands). The towns are built into the hillside, and the roads mostly consist of narrow alleyways with tons of steps. No need for a map; you can get to know the city after just walking around it, which takes about 15 minutes. In Vernazza, where we stayed, it seems like every local has an extra room they rent out. We stayed in a room right next to the bell tower, visible here on the other side of the harbor and the town piazza.

There are hiking trails with great views linking all the towns. This is taken on the hike from Vernazza to Monterosso.

It's up this street at the end. I had to communicate in a combination of Italian, Spanish, and English to secure the room.

There's a monorail system for gathering grapes in the vineyards (I think). It winds precariously down the hill here. You can't tell in the photo, but it drops off a cliff.

Elaina on a safer one.

The monorails are necessary because these vineyards are on the terraced hillside. The farmers hundreds of years ago made use of the only agriculture land available. They formed these terraces by making thousands of retaining walls all over the land.

Manarola, town number 2.

Riomaggiore (I think)

Lucca

2009-04-28T01:08:00.001-07:00

The little town of Lucca was on the way to Cinque Terre, so we stopped for a night, which turned into two. Which was easily deserved. The town and the hotel were amazing. They had free internet, and brought us breakfast right to the room. The city walls are still completely intact, which is unusual. Usually, cities build into the walls or tear them down for parts. There is a wide path on top of the walls that provides a city park, and the locals use it as a jogging trail. Along the path are planted trees: different types for each of the four sides of the city. It's an easy city to get to know. The walls keep it confined, the streets and alleys aren't too much of a maze, and there are many tall distinct towers that provide convenient landmarks. We walked around the walls, learning the layout of the city. There are beautiful views from the top of the walls.

We climbed one tower (guinigi) which has trees growing at the top. Here's a view.

This is the tower. You can see more of these "putlog holes", and other evidence of the type of construction where they built the scaffolding right into the wall.

The towers at the corners of the city walls have underground passageways. I'm not sure what their purpose was, but I managed to get into one. Here's me in the dungeon.

The city had an amphitheater during roman times, and the only evidence left of it now is the Piazza Dell'Anfiteatro, a strangely circular piazza. You can see where the boundaries of the amphitheater used to be.

Lucca is far more laid-back than any place I've been yet. I don't imagine there is any crime at all there, and locals and tourists mix in the streets while taking walks. Lucca seems like a place that is becoming a tourist destination, but has not yet reached mainstream attention. I hope not, but I imagine it being overcrowded in 15 years.

Doing laundry in the sink with hand soap.

Siena

2009-04-26T01:03:00.000-07:00

The guidebooks say that Siena is divided into 17 distinct districts that are fiercely competitive. The district you grow up in supposedly defines your identity. I didn't see any evidence of it though. I was hoping for banners in each district identifying them, and locals talking trash about the neighbor districts or something. Perhaps it's just something they tell the tourists. Or maybe the tradition is still alive, but not visible to tourists. Us tourists, we do take over Siena in hoardes. We found a spot in the crowded Piazza del Campo, and had a picnic. I had a hotdog sandwich with cheese and pesto. It hit the spot. Meat is expensive here, so I'm getting creative.

Here's my foot in front of the town hall.

Scaling a castle wall.

We kept seeing these holes in the walls of all the old buildings, and couldn't figure out what they were for. After looking it up, it seems they are "putlog holes". They were built into the wall in order to hold the scaffolding beams as the wall was built.

I'm getting better at Italian. I might be spending too much time looking down at the dictionary than up at the sights though... Gotta watch the stop on the cobblestone streets.

Florence

2009-04-25T00:55:00.000-07:00

The street vendors here love it when it rains 'cause they peddle in umbrellas. And they've probably been doing pretty well lately. Luckily, I'm usually on a train when it's pouring. Took one to Florence the other day, and met up with Elaina, who I'll be traveling with for a while. This is the place the renaissance started. Lots of art. I happen to be in Italy during "culture week", so all the state-owned museums are free, so I've saved quite a bit on that, and have checked out museums I normally wouldn't have. We went to the Uffizi museum. I think statues are my favorite form of art. And we saw David at the Academia. I always thought he was standing in a strange posture, but never realized that it's because he's holding a sling (that he just used to kill Goliath). It hangs down his back, and isn't really visible in front. It surprised me.

Covering most of one of the main piazzas (piazze?) in Florence was a huge canvas that an art group had set out along with cans of paint and brushes. There was a crowd milling around the perimeter, wondering what it was all about. A few people had started to paint pictures and graffiti. I wandered out there, dodging wet paint, and drew a picture worthy of a kindergartener's fridge. Later in the day, the whole canvas was covered with layers of questionable artwork. As a whole, it was an interesting piece though. And an interesting social experiment.

Some people soaked their feet in blue paint, and walked around the canvas. There were many phrases in various languages, some cryptic messages, and some true artwork.

Florence has a great public market. No need for Walmart when you have great bakeries, butchers, and vendors selling all kinds of stuff under the same roof! I had a really good roast beef panini there.

The duomo is huge. It was near the hostel, so we used it as the main landmark when getting around the city. Here it is from a view across the river, on the biggest hill around.

And the river Arno from the hill. With the Ponte Vecchio (old bridge). It has a separate passageway that was built in the 16th century by the Medici's so they could freely walk between their palaces and offices without mixing with the locals.

Here's the mural at the end of the day.

I've never seen such a difference in the price of food at a grocery store and at a restaurant than in Italy. It's not just tourist restaurants, I think. It seems like the only option for the locals is to cook and eat at home. And for travelers on a budget. Here's a grocery store feast.

Venice

2009-04-23T09:13:00.000-07:00

The Italian countryside, as seen from the train, is beautiful. I'd like to stop at one of these small towns to see what the more relaxed side of Italy feels like. One of these days, I want to use couchsurfing.com to stay with a local and have them show me around. I think that would be a great way to see how the locals live, and to experience the local culture. I wanted to try it in Venice, but was too lazy. So I'm staying at a cozy little hostel with a Malaysian, an Australian, and a Brazilian. I think I want to go to Borneo some day; sounds nice. The hostel's actually nice. Fridge and everything. We checked out the city, which is easily walkable. It's easy to get lost, but it's an island so you can't really get too far. Going in a straight line isn't really an option here. You have to zigzag through the city, finding all the correct bridges to cross the canals. Otherwise, you'll find yourself at a dead end looking at a canal you can't cross, and you have to backtrack. When I got into town, I took the water bus along the grand canal, checking out all the main sights along the way. There is an old historic building around each bend. But the most interesting thing to do in Venice is to just walk around the narrow streets getting lost, looking at shops and wondering how this city flourished so well in such circumstances. Transporting cargo seems to be an issue here. But it is very nice to know that you won't get run over by a car, or even a bicycle. Only pedestrians for miles. So, there's a shop across the canal from the hostel where an old guy sells wine by bulk. He has old recycled liter water bottles (hopefully washed), and you pay 2 Euro to fill one up with wine. It's not the greatest, but not the worst either. I can't help but wonder how sanitary it all is. The wine is in a big glass bottle. He blows on a little tube into the bottle to get the siphon started, and fills up the water bottle. Last night, we all filled our bottles up and headed out to Piazza San Marco. There were several bands playing old classical music. Then we hopped onto a vacant gondola moored at a dock to say we've been in one, 'cause they cost 70 euros.

The French

2009-04-22T18:00:00.000-07:00

I seem to be learning more about every other culture except Italian while in Rome. A guy that works at the hostel organized a group to go out last night. It was about 30 French students and three "others" including me. The French students were a rowdy bunch, and had a song for everything. They take shots, and they all chant something in French. Someone comes back from the bathroom, and they all sing a little song. One of the two tables would sing something, and the other would try to sing it louder, and on and on until one table won. I'm told they used a ton of slang, and often would slip into "verlan", which is like our pig latin. I think you take the first syllable and put it at the end. The word verlan is itself verlan for l'enver, which means inversed. They were a bit difficult to get to know, as the French are private people who don't ever make superficial friends, I'm told. So they stuck to themselves mostly. Though a few of the more drunk ones chatted us up a bit. Making three-day friends is, it seems, a big part of the hostel culture. It's surprising how you can make good friends in so few days while traveling. Most you will never see again, but I imaging some of the friends I've made I'll see at some point. I may take them up on an offer to stay in a strange new country, or they may take me up on mine. It's a bit strange, because I usually only make close friends. Anyway, they all went out to a club after the restaurant, but I went back to the hostel because I had to get up early the next day to take a train to Venice.

Old ruins on the hill

2009-04-20T10:47:00.000-07:00

Took a day trip to Tivoli today. It's a little hill town situated on the bend in a river, overlooking some really beautiful countryside. It's where Roman emperors and other rich Italians through the years built their vacation villas. I tried to go to a Renaissance-era one, the Villa d'Este, but it was closed 'cause it's Monday. I guess it has a water powered organ.
There is a spot on a hill with a spectacular view of the waterfall and the surrounding countryside where there are the ruins of ancient temples. They themselves are built on the ruins of the even more ancient (13th century BC) city of Tibur. It's not hard to see why they picked the spot.

Roma

2009-04-19T04:18:00.000-07:00

Well, I managed to book two party hostels in a row. I don't think I did it intentionally. At the hostel in Barcelona, the first thing they say .. can't tell if it's a disclaimer or their way of saying get ready .. is "this is a party hostel". And they take it seriously. Here, in Rome, there was no such warning, but they do like to have fun! Every night, they start it out with a bunch of free alcohol in the kitchen. The first night, it was a big bowl of sangria. I guess that's Italy's way of welcoming me from Spain. The places we went out to haven't been very Italian though. An Irish pub, and a bar with a band playing rock music in English. I've been trying to get over being sick, so I thought I would take it easy today. But they kicked us all out at 11 am from the hostel. I guess there's a daily lock-out for "cleaning". So, I walked through the rain to an internet cafe here.

The sights in Rome are amazing. The first day, I walked all around to get my bearings, as usual. I was walking down the street, and looked up from the map, and there in front of me was the colosseum! I'm a sucker for all the old roman ruins, even the little remnants of walls that can be found in most old cities. But, the colosseum is still intact and has so much history! It's amazing to see. Inside, I just stood for a while up in the seats drinking it in. Their architecture and technology was incredibly advanced. I bet that in roman times, for a foreigner, it would have been even more amazing to see the colosseum than it is for me. At least I've seen pictures, and I know that such a structure is possible to build.

I wish the roman forum was more intact. It's just ruins now, much worse than the colosseum. The pantheon is mostly intact, though, because the christian church decided to use the existing structure rather than pilliage its materials for another. The marble that faced the outside has been taken though, so it doesn't look as shiny as it would have in roman times. The oculus, the hole in the top of the dome, lets light into the pantheon and seems to naturally light the whole thing perfectly.

And I saw St. Peter's Basilica, an amazing building. Inside, every wall has some masterpiece sculpture on it. I can imagine that, if you were catholic, that having mass there could be quite emotional.
The sistine chapel is alright, though I like the "School of Athens" fresco better, which is in a much less crowded room that is on the way to the sistine chapel. Though it's interesting to see a room that has frescoes painted by Raphael, Michelangelo, and Bernini.
The Trevi Fountain is really beautiful. It's at the site where an aqueduct historically ended in town, and they built a fountain there in Rennaissance times to celebrate the water's arrival. It's one large sculpture. The bottom, where the water flows, is like a riverbed and waterfall, and above that, rock and trees and other natural forms. Then, above that, the stone morphs into a scene of humans, and greek gods and horses in front of the facade of a building with corinthian columns.

The pizza's different here, BTW. The dough is more like ciabatta bread. They're rectangular, not round, and it's by-the-slice. You pay by weight, and when you get it to go, they cut it in half, and fold it so it's like a sandwich. Delicious! Every place I go, I gotta find the cheap eats. It was tacos in Mexico, bocadillas in Spain. Pizza here. Beer's expensive here, but wine's cheap.

There's a korean girl here in the internet cafe singing American pop songs. She's been doing it for an hour and its really annoying, but no one here seems to think it's weird. I think she's playing a karaoke game on the computer. This is a very hectic internet cafe.

Barcelona sucks

2009-04-14T07:10:00.000-07:00

The beach was ok actually. The weather did turn around, and it's sunny now. The historic gothic quarter has some cool history and an interesting grid of narrow lanes. Also, there was an eccentric architect, Antoni Gaudí, that built these weird structures here around the turn of the century, including Park Guell. It's a little fantasy land where all the buildings look like fluffy cupcakes. A group of us from the hostel had an epic picnic there. We spread out all our food in the middle, and it looked like a feast for an army! I wish I could show you pictures, but sadly you will be without for a while. And I lost most of the pictures I've taken so far. I got jumped on the way back from a club last night, and they took my wallet and camera and left a few bruises. That was fun. At least they didn't find my passport. My wallet had only 10€ and no credit or atm cards. I love my money belt right now; it kept everything safe. I think I'm not going out tonight.

phone

2009-04-11T15:52:00.000-07:00

Here's my phone number here. It's gonna change to an Italian number on the 16th though.
+34 633260960

Valencia

2009-04-10T04:34:00.000-07:00

I kinda wanted to explore the castilla area of spain more and see a bunch of castles, but it seems like it's not so easy to find a place to stay. I thought about heading out there and asking around for a cheap place to stay... but I kinda doubt it would have worked. I probably would have ended up on the street... or spending 60 euro for an expensive hotel. It's semana santa (holy week) so many people are traveling right now. So, I headed to Valencia. This place is much more relaxed than Madrid. And I'm told Barcelona is very much a rushed atmosphere. It's interesting how the locals everywhere have a ton of pride in their regions and have feuds with each other. I've been told by several locals that the people in Barcelona aren't very friendly. I was sitting next to an old guy on the train over to Valencia who had a stroke or something four months ago, and he was relearning how to speak. He lost most knowledge of words. This actually made it easy for me to understand him. Most of the time, the locals speak too fast and use words I don't know. I had a pretty good conversation with this guy though. He whispered to me about the rude Barcelonians after looking around to make sure there weren't any there. Spaniards have more pride in their regions (Valencia, Catalonia, etc.) than in Spain itself. There isn't a strong central government. The provinces themselves are pretty much autonomous and are represented in the European Union.

The Valencians even have their own language, so they say. I think it might just be a dialect. But since Spanish is spelled phonetically, a different dialect should be spelled differently, and I guess be a different language. The street signs here are in Valencian. And stores with Valencian pride also write their signs and menus in Valencian.

Anyway, I explored the city here, then went to the park with some people and drank on the lawn. Then got some tapas.

Exploring new cities

2009-04-10T04:07:00.000-07:00

When I get to a new city, it seems to be my tradition to... buy a map, walk around and get lost, then gradually learn the layout of the city and stumble upon my hostel. Toledo was different though. I got lost about a hundred times and still have no idea what the layout is. It's a maze, with a ton of little narrow streets that wind aroung. Beautiful though. And, like many things here, it dates back to Roman times. It was the capitol of Visigothic Spain, and has a long religious history.

Segovia was much easier to navigate. It's my favorite historical city so far. It's an old walled city that has an aqueduct running to it, originally built by the Romans. It's on the right in this picture of the plaza mayor, looking down from inside the city walls.

There is also a very cool castle in Segovia. It's perched on a peak at the edge of town, right on the wall. You can climb a trecherous spiral staircase all the way to the top of the tower and look out over the land.

The other night, I went to an electronic music festival outside of Madrid. Most of the people there didn't speak very good English, which was kinda nice. I've gotten to the point where I occasionally run across people who know less English than I know Spanish. At this party, it was actually unusual to be a foreigner, unlike downtown Madrid. Also, there was a fog machine at the party that was malfunctioning and kept freezing people's heads.

Crazy night

2009-04-05T06:58:00.000-07:00

Madrid seems like the LA of Spain. This is where the wealthy socialites party. I found that out last night thanks to Alejandro, guy whose job is, apparently, to schmooze and promote clubs. He´s a friend of a friend. He took us out to two of the nicest clubs in Madrid, one of which (Buddha) is the preferred hang-out of the famous people here. I´m glad I brought a nice shirt! The girls here got all dolled up, and we met up with Alejandro, who paid for absolutely everything the whole night! We partied in the VIP area, and they kept bringing carafes of liquor and mixers out to the table. The Buddha is an amazing club. The floors and walls are made of some kind of aromatic hardwood, and that´s the smell that hits you when you enter. There are buddha statues everywhere. The lounge area has really nice alcoves, and they serve hookahs. We hung out with a foolballer for the Real Madrid team (these guys are big celebrities here), and met a guy they said is the Donald Trump of Spain.

Also, I checked out the Sofia museum. Not much interesting, except for Guernica by Picasso. It was free today.

Madrid

2009-04-04T02:29:00.000-07:00

Got up really early, and almost missed the flight to Madrid because the public transit isn't perfect. Stansted airport is totally not in London, btw. If you're ever there, plan extra time.

Got to Madrid, took the metro to the Ópera station. Same situation here. I can't help but look around and notice how incredibly European it all is! I don't know why I'm surprised. The plazas here are really beautiful. I found the hostel, and walked around most of the city to get my bearings. My calves are killing me!

In the afternoon, everyone takes a stroll here. The most important streets here are pedestrian only, and are very well used. Calle Arenal, where the hostel is, was packed with people chatting and taking a paséo (walk). When people get hungry, they pop into a bar, grab a beer, and get a small plate of hamón or something. People seem to snack all day instead of having dedicated meals. Then, later, people go out to the bars, drink and have tapas. I love this culture! People are always socializing. It's a ritual to hang out with your friends and have tapas every day. The people here seem very content.

The next day, I went to the Prado museum with a friend from the hostel. The highlight, for me, was the ¨garden of earthly delights.¨ It has some very dream-like imagery and an almost abstract style for a painting of its era.

I took a long nap after that, then met up with some people at yet another hostel to go out. The party here doesn't start until 2 or 3 am, and goes until 6 or 7! There was a huge crew of us from the hostel, maybe 30 people, all walking down the street in a pack. I was able to practice spanish quite a bit today. I still can't understand enough to join a conversation and not be a drag, but I'm getting better.

K, it's the next morning, and I'm hungry! This hostel aparently doesn't provide breakfast.

Jet lag, communism, etc.

2009-04-02T10:46:00.000-07:00

We'll see how this blogging thing goes. I'll try to keep it up, but no promises!
Got to London yesterday. That was mostly a let lag recovery day, as is today actually. Hopefully tomorrow won't be. Anyway, I walked around Hyde Park which is right next to the hostel. It's amazing walking around this city with all these old buildings. There's so much history here, and the locals walk past it all without thinking about it. Pretty much every building has some history.

Here´s "speaker´s corner" in Hyde Park, the northwest corner, where people historically have ranted about politics. The building shown is just a place where you can buy ice cream I think.

Today, I took the tube to the east end of London, at the London Tower, and walked back through the whole old city. I got off the tube, and right there in front of me is a midieval castle! And it´s build right on an old Roman wall that dates to about 200 AD I think. I'm still definitely getting used to all this. William the Conquerer built the initial tower soon after he conquered, and various kings down the line added more and more walls around it, and a moat. You can almost imagine knights on horseback crossing the bridge over the moat, and archers defending the castle through the arrow slits.

The original tower built by William the Conquerer is the tallest part in the back with four towers.

I checked out all the sights on the way back. The architecture of Westminster Abbey and the houses of parlaiment is particularly interesting.

The G20 summit in going on in London, and the whole city is bolstering its defenses against the protesters. There are a whole lot of cops here, though none are very intimidating. They wear bright yellow reflective coats, don´t have any weapons, and are not exactly physically intimidating. The meter maids are invariably more intimidating. Anyway, near the banks in the old city, the protesters gathered. I walked down there, and there were two concentric circles of cops shoulder to shoulder around the demonstrations. I squeezed through to check it out, being careful not to talk so as to give away my American accent. It was a little crazy in there. Apparently, communism is the answer to ending the recession.

When trying to leave, the cops wouldn't let me. You can get in, but you can't get out! So a group of us were walking around the perimeter, trying to escape the fray. We eventually found a way out. I guess the cops wanted to control people leaving.

On the other end of the spectrum, as I arrived at Buckingham Palace to check it out, a crowd had formed with thousands of people on the street. They were waiting for Obama's motorcade to maybe catch a glimpse of him. Definitely a different crowd. Obama´s in that car.

2009-04-02T10:42:00.000-07:00

Just trying out posting with photos.

Testing

2009-04-02T10:36:00.001-07:00

Does this blogging thing work? Where's the question mark on this keyboard?