Split

When I stepped off the night train that I took to Split last Monday morning, I headed for the hostel I found online and booked 4 nights. Little did I know that I would be in town for twice that amount of time.

In fact, I spent a longer amount of time in Split than any other one place in Europe. This was partly because of the warm weather and beautiful scenery, partly because of the people I met, and partly that I missed catching the bus out of town 3 times in a row.

The first thing I did in Split was climb the hill next to town, which is a giant park. From the top there were amazing views of the coastal islands as well as the city. There were also some cool ruins, but I'm pretty used to that since its common in Europe. So I started thinking about what a sweet paintball arena they would make.

The next few days (Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday) were cloudy and rainy so I stayed in the hostel for the most part and watched movies and TV shows. I spent most of my time hanging out with two guys who were working at the hostel (a New Zealander named Nick who had his last day on Tuesday and an Australian named Adam who was taking over Nick's role) and another guest named Jackson who was a chemical engineer from North Carolina that stayed there the whole time I was there. I also met the hostel owner, Dora, and was very surprised to find that she was a young Croatian girl rather than an old man like most hostel owners.

On friday I wandered out from the hostel and soaked up the first sun for days. That night I also went out with an Australian lady (who could dance really well to Smooth Criminal by Michael Jackson) and took some night photos with her. Did I mention that my hostel was in the middle of Diocletian's Palace, a 1700 year old fortress built by a Roman emporer? Split's old town lies inside this palace, and most of the stores are actually inside of the palace buildings. The streets are the same ones the Romans walked in 300 AD. It was so much cooler than Rome, becuase in Rome they don't actually use the Roman structures except as a tourist attraction.

After I got back from the night photography session, we all celebrated Jackson's birthday by going to an 80's dance club, where I broke out some swing moves and somehow tied them in with 80s disco moves to form a strange kind of unique dance. A random Croatian girl that I danced with decided she liked swing so much that she ditched her friends to dance with me the whole night. After bidding farewell to her, we went back to the hostel and celebrated phase two of Jackson's birthday by eating cupcakes that Adam (who was actually a chef) made him.

After a long and fun day, I went to sleep at the hostel, extending my stay by a day. The next day around noon I left for another adventure, and thinking I would not be back at the hostel again I said goodbye to all of my new friends.

By some crazy chance it happened that I found a Couchsurfer named Dayna Buri living in the Split suburbs who was from Duvall and had quite a few friends in common with me on Facebook (in Venice when I was searching, Abbi recognized her name). I had sent her a request before I came, and she said she could host me that weekend when she was free, so I came by on Saturday. It was the most random thing ever and we shared memories from Duvall and Seattle. That night Dayna, her boyfriend Kurt, and I all enjoyed the sunset at their waterfront apartment and fell asleep after watching a zombie movie called "28 Days Later" and sipping wine.

The next day (Sunday) I had planned to go to Plitvice Lakes National Park, but I slept through my bus at 8, and didn't even try to catch the second bus at noon since I knew I was going to be late after I took a while to pack up. I finally left Dayna and Kurt's apartment at 4:30ish to catch the local bus back to Split city center to catch another bus to Plitvice. Unfortunately the local bus was 30 minutes late so I missed the connecting bus and was stuck in Split for the night. I decided to go back to the only people I knew at Old Town Hostel. And I'm glad I did. Adam booked me for the night and told me that since I had stayed 5 nights and was staying another, I could get my 7th night for free. So I actually ended up booking 2 nights and spending more time with my hostel buddies.

The next morning Adam the chef cooked breakfast since it was the last morning for a composer (and chess master) in the hostel who had placed 3rd in a music competition on Saturday night. After eating, I lounged around in the sun most of the day while doing my laundry and visiting the local produce market. I knew the next morning I would have to slowly start heading back to Milan to fly back if I wanted to see Plitvice, Slovenia, and the Swiss Alps.

After exchanging music and saying goodbyes for real this time, I woke up the next morning and was ready to make like a banana and Split! I actually caught the bus for Plitvice in the morning and was proud of myself.

My next blog will probably be my final one since I only have a week left. Looking forward to seeing friends and family back home!

Monasteries at Meteora, fishermen in FYROM, and a visit to Venice

Wow, what a crazy trip I've had since I wrote last. The morning after I left my last blog post, I got sick with the flu in Meteora, which caused all sorts of problems. The first day I was so sick that I couldn't keep any food or drink in my body, so I got pretty dehydrated and couldn't eat anything. I was about to go to the doctor when I finally threw up one more time in the evening and felt a lot better. After that I ate a whole pound cake and was surprised to find that I kept it down.

The most disappointing thing about being sick was that I didn't get to go see the most famous monastery at Meteora, but the day before I had visited one that was pretty close to the hostel and wandered around the grounds. I also saw some of the more famous ones from a distance.

Of course, being my adventurous self, I had also climbed up to some of the abandoned cliff dwellings that I saw and explored them with a flashlight. It looked like somebody had been keeping their farm animals in there because the floor was covered with hay and droppings.

Anyways, being sick also sucked because it meant that I had to stay in Metora for 1 more day to recover, as I didn't feel well enough to be on the train. Luckily, the family that owned the hotel I was staying at was extremely nice and brought me free food and helped me out with other stuff. I think I learned a lot about just how nice people can be in small towns because more goodwill came my way during the next few days too.

Staying in Meteora an extra day meant that I missed the bus I was planning on taking to Skopje from Thessoloniki, so I was forced to either take a night bus that was super expensive and dropped me off at a random gas station outside of Skopje at 2 AM, or hitchhike. I chose the latter.

I first took a train to Thessoloniki, and decided to go to the bus station to catch a bus to a town close to the Macedonian border where I could hitchhike into Macedonia. Luckily, I met an English-speaking Greek girl named Elizabeth at the bus station who was very helpful and asked the ticket sellers in Greek where I should head to. It turned out a town named Polykastro was the closest town to the border I could get a bus to, so I bought a ticket for there, crossing my fingers that I wouldn't get stranded.

Unfortunately the town was about 5 kilometers from the main highway, so I bought some groceries and prepared for the trek. I asked the teller if it was easy to hitchhike into Macedonia, and another very nice woman overheard our conversation. She basically came up to me and said she could take me to the border, which was a good 20 minute drive away even though she was driving around 90 mph. I really couldn't believe it. On the way she explained to me that the reason why Macedonia's official name was FYROM (Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia) was because the Greek region of Macedonia felt like the Slavic people from FYROM were stealing their history and they petitioned the UN to recognize the country only if the name was changed to FYROM. When I entered the country, I realized that the "history theft" was somewhat true, because everything was named after famous people from the Greek region of Macedonia who spoke Greek and were culturally Greek.

Anyways, after she dropped me off I walked across the border and out of Greece. I tried to hitchhike there for over an hour, but people just kept pointing forwards and driving off. I was really confused. Finally some guy picked me up and drove about another kilometer and I saw why nobody else had picked me up. Over the hill there was an additional border to actually enter into Macedonia. I slapped myself in the face and then laughed. The remainder of the trip after crossing the second border consisted of a very funny conversation since he did not speak one word of English. It went something like this, I never really found out his name so I will refer to him as "driver":

I say "Gevgelija?" (the name of the next village down the highway with a train connection to Skopje)
Driver nods.
Driver points at me and says "America!"
I point at myself and say "Seattle!"
Driver looks confused.
I say "Starbucks" and then "Nirvana"
Driver looks happy and says "Kurt Cobain!"
I nod.
Driver says "Lipton?" and hands me an unopened bottle of ice tea.
I look happy and drink it.
After a while...
We get to the train station in Gevgelija. We both get out and go inside. I say "train to Skopje?"
Driver asks the ticket people in Macedonian when the next train is and points out the time on the timetable to me. He waves and takes off.

The train to Skopje was the most run down i had been on the whole trip. The electricity in the train kept going on and off and one of the lights was flickering like something from a horror movie. The seats looked like they were from the 1950s and were more like benches than seats. I think I was the only non-Macedonian on board and most of the passengers were old men who were fishing in the river that the train line follows. Even so, I enjoyed the ride since the train was warm and thought about how a year before it would have never occured to me that I would be on a train on the other side of the world with a whole bunch of Macedonian fishermen.

In Skopje, I found my way to the hostel and slept after a very long day of traveling. The next morning I woke up, ate the free breakfast, and went off to explore the city.

The first thing I noticed was the damage from an earthquake in the 1960s. Sadly, all of the buildings were falling apart and there was no money to repair them. Half were probably unlivable. The only part that looked like it had been rebuilt was the central square, which had a huge statue of Alexander the Great. T-mobile was also doing some HUGE promotion there and ads were all over the city. I think they were bringing internet into people's homes for the first time, someone told me before you had to go to an internet cafe.

I only had 3 hours to explore before my flight, and then I took a taxi to the airport since there was no public transit to get there. The airport was brand new and really nice which surprised me. After throwing out my big bottles, I went through security and they made me throw out my fork as well. Sad day.

My time in the airport consisted of meeting a guy from Macedonia who was living in Italy and then also a world traveller from Hungary who had been a ridiculous amount of places. The flight itself was a party even though it had been delayed. When it landed, everyone clapped and there was a mad rush for the aisle and the exits (I guess both of these things are normal on low-cost European airlines). I took a bus onto the main island of Venice and thought I was going to be stuck outside for the night after I got to the hostel after the reception closed. Lucky for me, my friend Abbi was staying there and I called her on Skype when I found internet and she let me in. She was pretty relieved to see me too since she was the only one in the hostel and didn't feel good about staying there alone.

Over the next few days we spent most of our time walking around the streets of Venice and drinking hot drinks since it was unbelievably cold (around freezing) and foggy. Luckily we had bought water bus tickets (Venice's bus system is a bunch of huge boats that travel the canals) so we rode the lines back and forth and warmed up inside the cabins.

We also explored the Murano glass museum which told the story of glass making in Venice and had some really old pieces, and the Palazzo Ducale, which was the historical center of the government of Venice.

One night we went out to a random bar with a girl who stayed at our hostel and had a great time listening to music from the bartender's band. We all bought his CD and got it autographed at the end of the night.

Leaving Venice, I wanted to go somewhere warm, and I hadn't gone to Croatia, so I hopped on a bus for Villach, Austria, where I changed to a train for Zagreb and then a night train to Split on the Dalmatian coast. I got my own cabin on the night train since the train was almost empty. And now I'm here in Split. Another blog to come (hopefully) soon!

Αθήνα

In contrast to my last blog, this one will be much shorter.

After getting off my ferry from Italy in Patras, I realized that I was in a place that felt more foreign than anywhere I had been yet, probably because Greece does not use the Latin alphabet. Luckily, I had taken enough math and science classes to know the names of all of the Greek letters I saw besides 2 of them (which I learned later were the uppercase versions of gamma and lambda), and I reasoned that they all made the sound that their names started with (e.g. θ is called theta so it makes a "th" sound). In this way, I was actually able to pronounce Greek words and very impressed with myself. For instance, I knew I wanted to go to Αθήνα (A = uppercase alpha = "a", θ = theta = "th", ή = eta = "e", ν = nu = "n", α = alpha = "a") because that makes "Athena" or the Greek name for Athens.

Anyways, while I was wandering around and feeling smart because I could pronounce Greek, I ran into an English guy named Jason around my age who was also looking to go to Athens. We found out that because of financial problems, the train line no longer existed, but I was delighted to find that they honored my Eurail pass on the bus that we took halfway there before transferring to a train. On the journey over, Jason and I talked about a lot of politics and realized we had the same views about quite a few things, and he ended up giving me his book on political theory to read over the course of the rest of my trip. He was meeting his dad in Syntagma square, so I just followed him there since I had no idea where I was going and thought it must be at least somewhat central and close to hostels. Afterwards, we both realized that it was probably not the best place to meet since that's where all the riots take place. Nonetheless, I was able to find wireless internet and book a hostel at the last minute.

In the morning I went on a walking tour of the city with an awesome guide. He was a local guy who knew pretty much anything we asked (and had apparently participated in the riots). I met two Irish girls on the tour that I spent most of the rest of the time at the hostel with too. To be honest, the tour was quite miserable because it happened that Greece was having a horrible cold spell (the highs were around 49 degrees F versus the normal 65) with 40 mph winds and I wasn't dressed well enough, but it was worth seeing so many cool sights like these:

Temple of the Olympian Zeus

The Arch of Hadrian (which says "this is Athens, the ancient city of Theseus" on one side and "this is the city of Hadrian, not of Theseus" on the other)

The parliament building on Syntagma square, where the changing of the guard takes place every hour. Its also where the rioting takes place, there were riot police there and there was metal lining many of the buildings.

The ancient Greek Agora, center of daily life in the golden age, where many of the most famous Greek philosophers and play writers met.

The road from the Agora to the Acropolis

I finished the day off with a gyro, the best I had ever had. The yogurt is also very good here.

The next morning I woke up bright and early to watch the Athens marathon. It was the buzz of the city the whole time I was there, and most of the people in the hostel were running in it. The thing about the Athens marathon is that it follows the original path from Marathon to Athens after which all marathons are named. According to tradition, after the Athenians fended off the Persians in a battle near Marathon, they sent a runner to bring news to Athens of the victory. After he delivered his message, he immediately collapsed and died. Anyways, the marathon was very exciting, with the finish line being in the original 1896 stadium which hosted the first Olympic games.

Chiquita was even there giving out free bananas (you know its a big deal if that's happening). This resulted in all of the trash bins for a mile radius around being overloaded with banana peels.

After the marathon I met up with the Irish girls again and we went to the Acropolis museum and then the Acropolis itself. The winds ridiculous on top but I managed to hold my camera and get some pictures of the Parthenon and the city like these ones.

The rest of the day I hung out with the nice Greek girl at the reception and taught her how to swing dance. This morning I caught a train to Meteora, which is where I am now. To say the least, it is amazing and I haven't even seen much yet. Photos to come in the next blog.

Italia: A land of both ancient history and new experiences

(written on the ferry to Greece, Nov 10)

I believe this is the longest I have gone without posting a new blog during my trip, and so much has happened.

My trip through Italy started in Ventimiglia when I crossed the border from France. It was dark by the time I reached Genova, where I had a short stopover and took some night photos. After that, things took a turn for the worse.

First off, my train from Genova to Pisa stopped in the middle of nowhere. Nobody I was sitting by spoke good enough English to explain to me what was going on, the train announcements were only in Italian, and it was pitch black outside so I couldn't see anything out the window. After about an hour of just sitting in the same spot, not at a station or anything, I became agitated that I would miss the last train of the night from Pisa to Firenze (Florence in English) where I had a hostel for the night, and got up and asked around. Finally I heard in broken English from a lady that the train was stopped because of "the weather," which was strange because (naturally, being a weather man) I had checked the satellite images before I left Nice and the sky was completely clear everywhere and looked like it would stay that way. I reasoned that it had to be an a flood or mudslide of some sort caused by rain a few days before. When the train started moving again I looked out the window and saw (in the dim light around the next station in Monterosso) a bunch of emergency vehicles and then further along I looked down when we were crossing a bridge and saw that the river was full of debris and almost at the level of the tracks. Luckily, my train made it to Pisa just in time for me to catch a connecting train to Firenze. Using the internet in the hostel, I realized that I had just witnessed the aftermath of one of the worst recent disasters in Italy (which you can read about here: http://www.nytimes.com/2011/10/27/world/europe/mudslides-and-flooding-ravage-areas-of-scenic-beauty-in-italy.html) and was lucky to make it to Firenze that night.

Second, Firenze was filled with rich American girls wearing expensive designer clothes who were studying abroad and looking to hook up with Italian guys (according to their conversations). I know this sounds judgemental, but its just astounding how many there are. I'm pretty sure they outnumber the Italians, at least in the city center. I met about 20 American girls from all over during my time in Firenze, and all of them were ditzy. In the same time, I didn't meet a single American guy who was studying there. I think they scared all the American guys away.

Third, I got sick; not as bad as Amsterdam, but I had a fever overnight and naturally there were drunk American girls screaming and slamming doors until 8 AM. Go figure.

Fortunately, my last few days in Firenze were much better thanks to some awesome Argentinians and Mexicans who checked in. One of the guys who worked at the hostel spoke Spanish too, so we all had a mate party together on Halloween, complete with dancing and Spanish-style acoustic guitar. For those of you who don't know, mate is a loose leaf herbal tea that you drink from a hollowed out gourd or similar object. It was an understatement to say that the party, taking place in the hostel's kitchen, was a blast.

The next day I went out and explored the city, seeing sights like these:

Dante Aligheri's house. He was famous for epic poetry like the Divine Comedy which describes how he envisioned heaven, hell, and purgatory. I had to read the part about hell in high school, and it was quite good and creative.

The Duomo, which looms over the city with its ridiculous size. I met a nice old lady from New Jersey in line who refused to let me pay the entrance fee and then invited me to dinner with her family. She told me that she had some connections at the Vatican and I met up with them again in Rome to go on a personal tour, more on that later.

Ghiberti's bronze doors, located on the front of the Duomo's baptistry. (Shh... they are only copies, the real ones were taken off and put in some museum thanks to a generous donation from the country of Japan)

The Palazzo Vecchio, where lots of important Renaissance-starting people lived and worked.

And of course, David.

That night I went out and got some of the best night photos yet on my trip of the Ponte Vecchio, a bridge which has shops lining the sides.

The following day I decided to take a day trip to Pisa to meet up with a Couchsurfer who invited me over after we talked on one of the the trains. He was busy so I hung out with his German flatmate for most of the day and she showed me around town. We spent quite a bit of time at the tower and again I was surprised to find, like the Eiffel Tower, that I was taller than it.

Anyways, some interesting facts about the leaning tower of Pisa:
1) Its not the only thing thats tilted, everything around it is too because the ground is moving
2) As it was being constructed, the builders noticed it was getting tilted and tried to compensate. Thus the top part is not as tilted as the bottom part
3) It could fall at any time with an earthquake and the people who live there are somewhat scared of this happening
4) Its a bell tower for a church nearby

After eating gelato and talking a lot about European languages (my new German-Italian friend could speak all of the major ones well: English, Spanish, French, German, and Italian), I headed back to Firenze, slept, and took off for Rome in the morning.

I will always remember Rome. The hostel I stayed at was amazing; it was a great place for backpackers but had lousy internet. I met so many people in that hostel, some of whom made me reflect on my life and the world in general. In particular, I met a girl from Latvia who was a supermodel but also one of the most humble people I have ever met. At the end of the week she told me her life story and it was pretty rough, but she looked at it optimistically. She told me that if she hadn't been through everything she went through, she wouldn't have the kind heart she has today, and I agreed that this was probably true.

I ended up not leaving the hostel very much while I was in Rome, just because there were so many great people there. Besides the Latvian girl, I met an Australian guy, two Dutch girls, an Argentinian, a South Korean girl who slept all the time, a Californian, a crazy Egyptian, an awesome guy from Cuba who was just starting a year-long trip around Europe, and David Tennant from Doctor Who's old manager, among others.

Although the hostel was fun, I also started getting extremely homesick. Part of this was because I didn't have internet except for brief periods of time, but I think it had been building up the whole trip and it just all came to the surface in Rome because of a few things that happened back in Seattle. I was very grateful to at least have some people to talk to about this in the hostel - thanks Latvia and California! (fyi everyone called each other the country/state/city where they came from - I was Seattle.)

On the days I left the hostel, I went to the Colosseum and the Roman ruins around it, the Pantheon, and the Trevy Fountain. The Pantheon is a big dome with a hole in the top which is 2000 years old. Trevy fountain is very beautiful and apparently if you throw one coin in with your right hand over your left shoulder you will have a good time in Italy. If you throw 2 coins in you are supposed to meet an Italian and if you throw 3 in you are supposed to get married to an Italian. I threw 2 coins in for good measure, but I'm sure my mom would have wanted me to throw in 3, since she always jokes that I should get married to an Italian woman.

I guess one of the guys in the last photo has already met his Italian woman.

So now for the Vatican tour with the lady from Firenze I was talking about. It turned out she was very involved with the Catholic church, so two guys studying to become priests at a nearby seminary gave her family and I a personalized tour of the Sistine chapel and Saint Peter's Basilica. I learned so many facts about the chapel that I can't list them all here. One of my favorites was that although the Catholic church had to approve everyone that Michelangelo painted in heaven in The Last Judgement, he had the freedom to put whoever he wanted in hell. So when one of the cardinals started accusing Michelangelo of being immoral for painting nudes, Michelangelo snugly responded by painting him burning in hell with donkey ears. I couldn't get any pictures of the chapel but it was beautiful. And you have to walk down like a mile of decorated hallway before you get there.

The basilica is very large; it is about the length of 2 football fields and the ceiling is much higher than that of other cathedrals. Notice the size of the person in the first photo below. The Jesus' disciple Peter is apparently buried beneath the altar,  one of the popes decided to excavate it a few years back to make sure and there was a grave marked "Peter is here," with human remains nearby.

Also, the pope was home when we were there, as can be seen by his apartment windows being lit.

After a week of craziness in Rome, I took the train to Bari in the south to catch a ferry to Greece. Unfortunately I missed the ferry and got stuck in Bari for a night. Luckily I checked into a hotel with good, free internet and used it until 5:30 AM, mostly talking with friends. I decided to book another night in the morning because I wanted to keep sleeping after the check-out time of 10 AM.

And now I am on a ferry on my way to Patras, Greece, using satellite internet. Kind of cool. Even cooler is the fact that because its not completely booked, I don't have to sleep on the floor like I'm supposed to with "deck passage," but I get a reclining seat. Or I guess I can have a whole row of seats. Sweet.

Future plans:

Take a train to Athens
Take a train to Thessoloniki
Hitchhike or bus to Skopje, Macedonia
Fly to Venice to meet Abbi on the 17th

In some future post I will talk about the food in Italy, but for now lets just say I've eaten a lot of pizza, pasta, lasagna, and gelato. I didn't think it was possible to get tired of pizza or gelato, but I have proven myself wrong.