I caught a train from Switzerland to Bruges, with a few changes along the way. i always freak out when i have to change trains, i always think i'm going to miss the stop and be stranded somewhere. anyway, as you can imagine, Switzerland to Belgium is a bit of a hike and i didnt end up getting into Bruges until about 2am. but if you've been wondering whatever happened to the guy from the band 'simply red', i'm pretty sure he is now a train conductor.
my plan was to come to Bruges to get closer to Amsterdam, because i'm meeting my friend Sarah there at the end of the week, but also for a bit of R&R, i think i've been burning the candle at both ends for the last month, especially in Switzerland because it was so expensive to stay there, i got into my room, and just my luck, 2 guys (who later turned out to be an Aussies) were snoring there heads off. it looked like R&R was going straight out the window. i was laying there for a while, praying something mysterious would happen to him like a giant magic cork would appear out of no where and plug his mouth. after a while he turned over and stopped snoring long enough for me to fall asleep. problem was, i was woken up at the crack of dawn to the sound of drilling and banging hammers. the people at reception forgot to mention that they were having renovations. but i did see a light at the end of the tunnel. the hostel provided breakfast, and not a crappy breakfast, a half decent one. i havent been eating that well of late so i couldnt get enough of this. also when you ate at the hostels resturant you got to sample some of the beers. you can't come to Bruges without sampling beers, theres something like 160 of them to choose from. so that was a bit of a bonus. i tried one of them that was cherry flavoured, it brought back bad memories of when i had a cold or something when i was a kid, becuase it tasted a bit like medicine. i couldnt finish it.
The first day i was here i didnt really think much of it, i think it was mainly because i was tired and restless. but after the second day i started to get into the swing of things. Bruges is a cute little medieval place, its got some canels that run through it, sometimes its called 'the Venice of the north' but i dunno about that, its a pretty big call. all the things to see an do are in the old town, there isnt much out side of that. On a wednesday in the 'Grote Markt' which is big square in the centre of town, they had a food market, they roast chickens and waffles, chocolate, cheeses, fries with sauces, all the vices in life. this is where i started to enjoy being able to afford things again. actually, getting back to fries for a second, they are so mad about there fries here, they even have a museum about the humble potato and how to make the best fries, supposidly the trick to making great fries is to fry them twice
They have this Church here called the 'Basilica of the Holy Blood' which is where they supposidly keep a vile of Jesus' blood handy just in case of an emergency blood transfusion... kidding. i went there, and i'm constently amazed how the church will screw money out of people. to actually see the vile or blood you have to pay something like 20EURO's. i couldnt really give a rats behind, but its the people that really believe in God that actually pay the money that i feel sorry for. but it made me think, if we 'have' Jesus' blood, have the church allowed scientists to do DNA samples on it? and would they consider letting Jesus 'rise again' through cloning?
another churchy thing they are quite proud of here, is a Michelangelo statue of the Madonna and child they say it 'is to Bruges what the Mona Lisa is to the Louve', again, really MASSIVE call, and i didnt think it was that great but they love it.
But overall, i think Bruges is just a nice place to chill out for a bit, i did a fair bit of walking around here, they have some nice little quaint parks here where the canals run through, its seems to be where all the swans hang out. so that was nice, also the buildings here are so old and have quite a lot of character with there high pitched roofs and ornate carvings. while i was walking around i noticed a funny looking post sticking out of the ground, when i got closer i noticed it wasnt a post, it was an old cannon sticking up out of the ground. turns out it was left behind by dutch troops in the 1600's but nobody really knows when and how it got stunk in the ground like that, and why it was left there. crazy!
after a couple of days i was a bit sick of Bruge, it was nice and all but a little on the boring side. also i wanted to catch up with Celine, who i stayed with when i was in Brussels towards the start of my trip (click here to check out the Brussells post) she had just begun moving to Gent when i was in Brussels so i wanted to see how she was getting on.
first of all i forgot how nice Gent is, its kind of like it has a fascade of an old town but its got plenty of cool stuff going on around it. i think theres a arts university there so it has a studenty feel to it. i really like it there. anyway, back to Celine. Celine came from Brussels and only spoke French so moving to Gent (even though is under an hour from Brussels) is a pretty big move becuase she had to learn a whole new language, Flemish. she said learning the language was coming along, but tricky at times because she was limited in explaining herself, but her house mates sounded pretty cool and they helped her by speaking french some of the time. also she still worked in Brussels and so i imagine it would be hard to practise. but was looking at getting some work in Gent to help her use the language more.
but it sounded like she was keeping busy, she is designing some hats for a fashion show which is great news, and some of her illustration work, that she was doing while i was there last, got given the go ahead and was given some money to create it. it was really lovely catching up with her for lunch, shes such a nice person and it was great to have a conversation other than 'hostel chat'. another great thing about catching up with her was Celine has a sweet tooth and took me to an amazing cake store for some cup cakes. they were so good!
so decided that after having lunch with Celine i would head up to Antwerp and stay the night there. i'm so glad i did. from the moment i got out of the train i knew i was going to like this place. the station was really beautiful, with a massive glass arched roof. and right next to the station is a zoo, which turns out is one of the oldest in Europe. i was pretty sick of lugging my bag around by this point so i went and found my hostel. the guy that owned it with his wife, was so lovely and helpful, pointing out areas to check and what not. there place was more like a home than a hostel, that evening i sat down and watched a couple of DVD's 'Coffee and Cigarettes' which was ok, a bit hit and miss at times, but the part with Steve Coogan was gold. and the other guy in the hostel wanted to watch 'Monsters Ball' which i'd seen before but, whatever. it was great to zone out for a while and not do too much for a change.
the next day i ventured out to explore the city. and was soon kicking myself that i stayed too long in Bruges and didnt come here earlier. there were plenty of great bars, nice street art and clothing shops, supposidly some great fashion labels come from here, but i mainly checked out the vintage clothing stuff. i pretty much spent a lot of the time doing my best to get lost to try and find things that werent on the tourist map. i found a little make-shift auction that was in a market place, some of the stuff they were selling was quite good but i particulally liked the auctioneer yelling 'do-i-hear-four-euro?-four-four-four-five-euro-five-five-five-six?-once-twice-three-times-SOLD! to the man in the brown jacket" but obviously he said it in flemish, but it was cool. but, on the tourist side of things there is a couple of things to see, the house of master painter Rubens is one of them. you can see where he painted thousands of paintings (with a little help from others) as well as see a couple in the flesh. i'm not sure a huge fan so i didnt bother going in, plus a didnt have much time here because i needed to get to Amsterdam to check-in to the other hostel.
at the moment here in Belgium there is a big discussion on whether or not to devide the country between the Flemish and French speaking. one of the main partys behind this movement is from up this way and there are a few people that say that people in Antwerp at quite racist. i found that really quite hard to believe becuase i found the place extremely mulitcultural, esspecially in the 'diamond district' which is, funnily enough, where they have a big diamond trade, but its also extremely jewish part of town.
it was a pain that i spent too much time in Bruges and didnt come here earlier, i wish i spent another day or so here, there was so much more to explore. but in someways its like a little Amsterdam and i was heading to the real thing, so not to worry. i love hearing funny laws and stuff like that, while i heard while i was here that its actually legal to carry 3 grams on pot on you along as your coming from Amsterdam.
Something i found a bit annoying was i didnt meet anyone at either of the hostels that i would consider keeping in contact with. i met one american guy who was constantly googling topics in our conversation on his iPhone. and of course there were the two Australian guys who were bogans, if i were to rate them out of 10, 10 being the most bogan, i would probably give them about an 11, maybe even a 12. i just had nothing in common with them, it didnt help that we didnt get off on the right foot when they interupted my sleeping. but also they were a bit younger than me (straight out of school) so i think that might have made a difference
but i'm really looking forward to going back to Amsterdam, its easily one of my favourite places i've travelled too, but most of all i'm looking forward to seeing Sarah. i've kind of found it a little bit tricky the last couple of months being by myself, so i think hanging out with a friend will be just what the doctor ordered, more when i get there.
Switzerland
This is another one of those 'before you start grab a Cup of Tea' moments. its a pretty long one, maybe to fit in with the theme of Switzerland you should crack open a block of Toblerone too.
well i hit a little bit of a hiccup when i got on the wrong train. but it wasnt entirely my fault, the train i got on wasnt meant to pull into that platform and becuase i was told my train would be pulling into that platform i just got on without thinking to double check. the train pulled out and started heading the wrong direction so i asked the 50 something year old man in front of me where the train is going. he filled me in and i freaked for second because i thought i might have to buy another expensive ticket and also the train im on might be on an express train, lucky for me it wasnt and i didnt have to get another ticket. the guy opposite me ended up being helpful and showed me what i had to do to get on the right track. so after a bit of a delay i got on the RIGHT train this time and headed off to Switzerland. the surroundings outside were nothing short of amazing, the mountains were so big, they made me fell incredibly small.
i thought about heading to Innsbruck for the day but with the mishap i decided against it, i'm kind of glad i didnt go too, i only really wanted to go to see the Swarovski factory, sounds riviting doesnt it? but i didnt want to go for the diamonds but for the way they had been cut. i heard that there is one exhibition of a diamonds that are cut like a sun and moon dancing togther, which sounds all sweet, but if you take a photo with a flash the reflection creates a skull over the face of the moon. how cool is that!? anyway, i never saw it, but i think that now i heard about it, thats enough for me. i love concepts like that, it doesnt matter if i didnt see it.
Zurich a really pretty city, not very big and the buildings are a bit of a mix of old and new but all very classy and well looked after. I stayed in the old town which was cool, they had some cool shops not far from my hostel. but they are generally really expensive and well out of my price range, though i had to say goodbye to my Nudie Jeans while i was here, they had lasted me well. I had begun to wear 2 massive holes in my croutch and i feared that at any moment my junk may be out and about for all to see if i wasnt careful. i love my Nudies and i've been trying to find a pair to replace them for a while, but without much luck, (i thought that you could get them everywhere, not so) but i found a place in Zurich that sold them, when i converted it, they cost the same as they would in Oz so i bit the bullet and brought some.
I had a bit of a funny experience while i was here in Zurich, i was sitting at the computer minding my own business when this guy-slash-girl sat next to me, well, at this stage is was slash-girl because i wasnt really paying any attention to her, um, him, errr... whatever. i was typing away minding my own business when he said 'hi, i see your on facebook...' 'yeah, i am' i replied, i had now realized that she was infact a he. i wasnt being rude just because because he like to dress like a chick, he could've been wearing a chicken suit for all i cared, but i was in the middle of checking my email and it was costing me a small fortune, so my attention was on the computer. he kept chatting away at me for ages telling me he was originally from Brazil but was living here for a while and was a make up artist. i kept giving similar responses. anyway, my time had run out on the computer so i was stuck with this guy. he asked me if i'd been out to bars much in Zurich and i said 'Nup', and he said 'well theres this really great little bar around the corner from here, do you wanna grab a drink?' i dont want to sound like i didnt want to have a drink with him because i thought he was gay, but the gaydar was going off and i dont think it was JUST for a drink, if you know what i'm saying. so i had had to think of something quick 'err... i... um, don't really drink. but thanks'. poor guy, i felt terrible but i think it for the best for both of us. i dunno what it is, but guys always think i'm gay, like the old bloke in Japan (click here to check out the Japan blog) at least this time it was less awkward.
having said that, there are a couple of good bars here in Zurich (incase your wondering i didnt go to the one the guy had recommended), i met a guy from Argentina (not gay by the way) while i was here. he was great, he was so funny but i think it was mainly becuase his english wasnt so great so the words he used string sentances made his conversation so much more interesting. we came across one bar that had a band playing blues, so i couldnt help but go in. i dunno what it is, ive never really got into the blues before, but the last couple of years ive kind of started to get into it, my old house mate would play it a fair bit so it proberly came from there. anyway, the band were pulling out all the tricks. i noticed in the corner of the bar there was this big black guy who was sitting drinking who looked like he had emerged from the muddy banks of the Mississippi river just to grace us with his presence. they called him up to sing one song before they finished and this guy brought the house down. he was doing everything ad lib and im pretty sure at one stage he ripped out the line ¨your gonna be my hoochy-choochy-smoochy-woochy woman!¨ it was so funny.
Zurich is nice but to be totally honest there really isnt a lot to do here, they have a big lake but so does Lilydale, and i would say that Lilydale is a must see. its all very business here so i was quite happy to move on. I had heard a lot about Luzern while i was in Zurich. i was heading to Interlaken and Luzern was on the way so i dropped in for the day. Luzern is a small little place, but full on character. and i must have gone on the right day, when i was there there were these big brass bands dressed up as animals and other strange costumes marching down the streets playing music. sounds lame, and i think if i saw that in Melbourne i would head in the other direction but i becuase i was somewhere other than where i live, i was interested.
there most famous attraction here is a wooden bridge here called the Chapel Bridge that crosses over the Reuss River, supposedly europes oldest wooden bridge, it was built in 1333, it was actually pretty interesting they had paintings inside of it that depict Luzerns history dating back to the 17th century. connected to the bridge is a tower that originally was a torture chamber but had a few other uses. probably there second biggest drawcard is a thing called the Lion Monument, which is a 10 meter by 5 metre sculpture of a stabbed lion, left to die, that was carved out of a rock face. its The carving commemorates the hundreds of Swiss who were massacred in 1792 during the French Revolution. its quite amazing, even Mark Twain thought so, they had a quote by him about the sculpture in the tourst guide. apart from being quite nice, thats about all to see there, it was well worth the stop on the way to Interlaken.
So from there i headed off to Interlaken, which was a pretty little little train ride that wove its way around the mountains, and right by a huge lake, it was so beautiful, its blue rivaled the blue sea i saw in the south of France, just a little more icey. there really isnt much in Interlarken, its not very big, but its pleasent. But its Interlarken's surrounds are what i was here for, i'm not much of a skiier, apart from doing a bit of skiing at school, i've never really done it. but i heard you can do some intense tobogganing here infact its tobogan run goes for 15km. so i got up early and after a bus ride, a train ride, another bus ride i was at Grindlewald. but there was a catch, first you had to trek up the hill pulling the toboggan behind you (the lifts only went up so far) and it took 2 and half hours to climb it. it was one of the most grueling things i think i have ever done, i was with a couple of american guys who were playing pro basketball in France (dont ask me how i keep meeting these professional sports people) and even they were struggling. there was a restaurant at the top of the mountain (i heard it was extremely expensive because they had to fly in there supplies in with helicopters!), so i was thinking at least when i get to the top i can chillout for a bit, i think i got about 3 quarters of the way and it began to really struggle. i was so high up, above the clouds in fact, then i asked some people walking down the hill if the restaurant on the top was open, trying to keep my hopes alive, but they said 'no', as soon as i heard that i couldnt be bothered climbing another 45 minutes to get to a restaurant that wasnt open, i'd been climbing for about 2 hours by this stage and i was so hot, i never expected that considering how high up i was. my shirt was drenched in sweat, so i thought, bugger it. i sat down for a moment and took in the view, it was really quite something. and i can officially say that i have heard silence. its was dead quiet up there, just me and a million dollar view. once i had caught my breath i began sledging down, and it was worth the climb. i came off a couple of times but it was fun. when i got to the second stage i stopped and had some lunch, it was possibly one of the great experiences ever. there was some party going on, people were dressed up, they were selling local food and music blaring (what is it was Europeans are that song 'heeeeeey baby (oh ah) i wanna knooooow, will you be my girl?' they love it!) and i got caught up in a conga line. the food i had was brilliant. i got this plate with pickles, baked potatoes and melted cheese, i was so good. i was thinking to myself, im at a party in the middle of the Alps eating melted cheese, does life get better than this? all in all it was a brilliant day, except that i got really burnt, and i was so sore from walking up the mountain, i found muscles that i didnt even know i had. it turns out that Interlarken is meant to be extreme sports capital, because of hits hot air pockets its meant to be a really good for paragliding, because you stay up for ages, maybe next time.
fom there i was heading to Geneva but to get there i had to change at Bern, so i figured i'd have a look around. it was snowing heavily and it was a Sunday, which translated into Europe speak means: 'Nothing open', so i didnt really get to see it in its best light. one thing that saved me from the snow was they have arcades everywhere which i thought was so clever forward thinking from when they built this place, considering how much it snows. Bern is actually the capital of Switzerland which suprised me when i saw it, it was pretty small, too small to be a capitial. the Bern town logo is of a bear and they keep one in an encloser here, he didnt want to come out and say 'hello' while i was there, it was pretty chilly and i wouldnt want to get in the way of the whole hibernation thing, i was thinking of having a sleep too after all that treking the day before.
it was hear in Bern that Albert Einstein created the famous formula E=MC2, they have a Museum about him here but it was closed so i didnt get to go. one thing i think it funny about Einstein, it seemed like the smarter he got, the crazier his hair got, maybe someone should do a thesis on that... ok, maybe not. supposidly old Einstein was a bit of a ladies man, and had a couple of illegitament children. cheeky bugger! here i am thinking he is this nice old fella who played with numbers, when it turns out he's a dirty old fella playing the field.
while i was hear i managed to find a chocolate shop open, i couldnt leave Switzerland without sampling some of the finest chocolate in the world. i had a white chocolate, one with caramel and a milk chocolate with orange. i'm usually a white chocolate person myself but the orange was my favourite, but lest face it they were all delicious! anyway after a couple of hours i had to bid farewell to Bern and catch my connecting train to Geneva.
you may not have noticed, but i've been trying to find really stereotypical things about a place and see if it really exsists or not, ie: are the french really that rude? turns out, the majority are pretty good. another one for France was, do you see mimes? and sadly i have to say, no. its kind of like Myth Buster's but without blowing shit up. for me Switzerland's stereotype that i wanted to bust is, are there really Saint Bernard with barrels under there chin? turns out i didnt find any along my travels. Stereotype: BUSTED! but i didnt get very high up in the mountains so they might hang out around there.
Your probably wondering 'why did Trent make one big blog about Switzerland rather than do posts about each town he visited? well its because Switzerland is so freaking expensive that i couldn't afford to fully write each post so i had to wait until i found a place with more affordable internet. sorry about how long it is, i was doing so well too. i can't really put my finger on why this place is so expensive too, its really just another country. anyway, time to say see ya later to the Swiss and head to Bruges
well i hit a little bit of a hiccup when i got on the wrong train. but it wasnt entirely my fault, the train i got on wasnt meant to pull into that platform and becuase i was told my train would be pulling into that platform i just got on without thinking to double check. the train pulled out and started heading the wrong direction so i asked the 50 something year old man in front of me where the train is going. he filled me in and i freaked for second because i thought i might have to buy another expensive ticket and also the train im on might be on an express train, lucky for me it wasnt and i didnt have to get another ticket. the guy opposite me ended up being helpful and showed me what i had to do to get on the right track. so after a bit of a delay i got on the RIGHT train this time and headed off to Switzerland. the surroundings outside were nothing short of amazing, the mountains were so big, they made me fell incredibly small.
i thought about heading to Innsbruck for the day but with the mishap i decided against it, i'm kind of glad i didnt go too, i only really wanted to go to see the Swarovski factory, sounds riviting doesnt it? but i didnt want to go for the diamonds but for the way they had been cut. i heard that there is one exhibition of a diamonds that are cut like a sun and moon dancing togther, which sounds all sweet, but if you take a photo with a flash the reflection creates a skull over the face of the moon. how cool is that!? anyway, i never saw it, but i think that now i heard about it, thats enough for me. i love concepts like that, it doesnt matter if i didnt see it.
Zurich a really pretty city, not very big and the buildings are a bit of a mix of old and new but all very classy and well looked after. I stayed in the old town which was cool, they had some cool shops not far from my hostel. but they are generally really expensive and well out of my price range, though i had to say goodbye to my Nudie Jeans while i was here, they had lasted me well. I had begun to wear 2 massive holes in my croutch and i feared that at any moment my junk may be out and about for all to see if i wasnt careful. i love my Nudies and i've been trying to find a pair to replace them for a while, but without much luck, (i thought that you could get them everywhere, not so) but i found a place in Zurich that sold them, when i converted it, they cost the same as they would in Oz so i bit the bullet and brought some.
I had a bit of a funny experience while i was here in Zurich, i was sitting at the computer minding my own business when this guy-slash-girl sat next to me, well, at this stage is was slash-girl because i wasnt really paying any attention to her, um, him, errr... whatever. i was typing away minding my own business when he said 'hi, i see your on facebook...' 'yeah, i am' i replied, i had now realized that she was infact a he. i wasnt being rude just because because he like to dress like a chick, he could've been wearing a chicken suit for all i cared, but i was in the middle of checking my email and it was costing me a small fortune, so my attention was on the computer. he kept chatting away at me for ages telling me he was originally from Brazil but was living here for a while and was a make up artist. i kept giving similar responses. anyway, my time had run out on the computer so i was stuck with this guy. he asked me if i'd been out to bars much in Zurich and i said 'Nup', and he said 'well theres this really great little bar around the corner from here, do you wanna grab a drink?' i dont want to sound like i didnt want to have a drink with him because i thought he was gay, but the gaydar was going off and i dont think it was JUST for a drink, if you know what i'm saying. so i had had to think of something quick 'err... i... um, don't really drink. but thanks'. poor guy, i felt terrible but i think it for the best for both of us. i dunno what it is, but guys always think i'm gay, like the old bloke in Japan (click here to check out the Japan blog) at least this time it was less awkward.
having said that, there are a couple of good bars here in Zurich (incase your wondering i didnt go to the one the guy had recommended), i met a guy from Argentina (not gay by the way) while i was here. he was great, he was so funny but i think it was mainly becuase his english wasnt so great so the words he used string sentances made his conversation so much more interesting. we came across one bar that had a band playing blues, so i couldnt help but go in. i dunno what it is, ive never really got into the blues before, but the last couple of years ive kind of started to get into it, my old house mate would play it a fair bit so it proberly came from there. anyway, the band were pulling out all the tricks. i noticed in the corner of the bar there was this big black guy who was sitting drinking who looked like he had emerged from the muddy banks of the Mississippi river just to grace us with his presence. they called him up to sing one song before they finished and this guy brought the house down. he was doing everything ad lib and im pretty sure at one stage he ripped out the line ¨your gonna be my hoochy-choochy-smoochy-woochy woman!¨ it was so funny.
Zurich is nice but to be totally honest there really isnt a lot to do here, they have a big lake but so does Lilydale, and i would say that Lilydale is a must see. its all very business here so i was quite happy to move on. I had heard a lot about Luzern while i was in Zurich. i was heading to Interlaken and Luzern was on the way so i dropped in for the day. Luzern is a small little place, but full on character. and i must have gone on the right day, when i was there there were these big brass bands dressed up as animals and other strange costumes marching down the streets playing music. sounds lame, and i think if i saw that in Melbourne i would head in the other direction but i becuase i was somewhere other than where i live, i was interested.
there most famous attraction here is a wooden bridge here called the Chapel Bridge that crosses over the Reuss River, supposedly europes oldest wooden bridge, it was built in 1333, it was actually pretty interesting they had paintings inside of it that depict Luzerns history dating back to the 17th century. connected to the bridge is a tower that originally was a torture chamber but had a few other uses. probably there second biggest drawcard is a thing called the Lion Monument, which is a 10 meter by 5 metre sculpture of a stabbed lion, left to die, that was carved out of a rock face. its The carving commemorates the hundreds of Swiss who were massacred in 1792 during the French Revolution. its quite amazing, even Mark Twain thought so, they had a quote by him about the sculpture in the tourst guide. apart from being quite nice, thats about all to see there, it was well worth the stop on the way to Interlaken.
So from there i headed off to Interlaken, which was a pretty little little train ride that wove its way around the mountains, and right by a huge lake, it was so beautiful, its blue rivaled the blue sea i saw in the south of France, just a little more icey. there really isnt much in Interlarken, its not very big, but its pleasent. But its Interlarken's surrounds are what i was here for, i'm not much of a skiier, apart from doing a bit of skiing at school, i've never really done it. but i heard you can do some intense tobogganing here infact its tobogan run goes for 15km. so i got up early and after a bus ride, a train ride, another bus ride i was at Grindlewald. but there was a catch, first you had to trek up the hill pulling the toboggan behind you (the lifts only went up so far) and it took 2 and half hours to climb it. it was one of the most grueling things i think i have ever done, i was with a couple of american guys who were playing pro basketball in France (dont ask me how i keep meeting these professional sports people) and even they were struggling. there was a restaurant at the top of the mountain (i heard it was extremely expensive because they had to fly in there supplies in with helicopters!), so i was thinking at least when i get to the top i can chillout for a bit, i think i got about 3 quarters of the way and it began to really struggle. i was so high up, above the clouds in fact, then i asked some people walking down the hill if the restaurant on the top was open, trying to keep my hopes alive, but they said 'no', as soon as i heard that i couldnt be bothered climbing another 45 minutes to get to a restaurant that wasnt open, i'd been climbing for about 2 hours by this stage and i was so hot, i never expected that considering how high up i was. my shirt was drenched in sweat, so i thought, bugger it. i sat down for a moment and took in the view, it was really quite something. and i can officially say that i have heard silence. its was dead quiet up there, just me and a million dollar view. once i had caught my breath i began sledging down, and it was worth the climb. i came off a couple of times but it was fun. when i got to the second stage i stopped and had some lunch, it was possibly one of the great experiences ever. there was some party going on, people were dressed up, they were selling local food and music blaring (what is it was Europeans are that song 'heeeeeey baby (oh ah) i wanna knooooow, will you be my girl?' they love it!) and i got caught up in a conga line. the food i had was brilliant. i got this plate with pickles, baked potatoes and melted cheese, i was so good. i was thinking to myself, im at a party in the middle of the Alps eating melted cheese, does life get better than this? all in all it was a brilliant day, except that i got really burnt, and i was so sore from walking up the mountain, i found muscles that i didnt even know i had. it turns out that Interlarken is meant to be extreme sports capital, because of hits hot air pockets its meant to be a really good for paragliding, because you stay up for ages, maybe next time.
fom there i was heading to Geneva but to get there i had to change at Bern, so i figured i'd have a look around. it was snowing heavily and it was a Sunday, which translated into Europe speak means: 'Nothing open', so i didnt really get to see it in its best light. one thing that saved me from the snow was they have arcades everywhere which i thought was so clever forward thinking from when they built this place, considering how much it snows. Bern is actually the capital of Switzerland which suprised me when i saw it, it was pretty small, too small to be a capitial. the Bern town logo is of a bear and they keep one in an encloser here, he didnt want to come out and say 'hello' while i was there, it was pretty chilly and i wouldnt want to get in the way of the whole hibernation thing, i was thinking of having a sleep too after all that treking the day before.
it was hear in Bern that Albert Einstein created the famous formula E=MC2, they have a Museum about him here but it was closed so i didnt get to go. one thing i think it funny about Einstein, it seemed like the smarter he got, the crazier his hair got, maybe someone should do a thesis on that... ok, maybe not. supposidly old Einstein was a bit of a ladies man, and had a couple of illegitament children. cheeky bugger! here i am thinking he is this nice old fella who played with numbers, when it turns out he's a dirty old fella playing the field.
while i was hear i managed to find a chocolate shop open, i couldnt leave Switzerland without sampling some of the finest chocolate in the world. i had a white chocolate, one with caramel and a milk chocolate with orange. i'm usually a white chocolate person myself but the orange was my favourite, but lest face it they were all delicious! anyway after a couple of hours i had to bid farewell to Bern and catch my connecting train to Geneva.
just as i was getting used to calling roads 'Strausse' and people speaking Swiss-German they had to go and change everything to 'Rue', thats right, in Geneva they speak French.
Geneva is quite different to the rest of Switzerland, i think Geneva is definately has a lot more french flavour to it, the architecture and food in particular but even the pick pockets, i saw one guy get something taken out of his pocket while i was here, i was too far away to yell out, i never had a problem but you've got to be so careful. it seems that every man and his dog has openned up a world wide organisation here, UNICEF, United Nations, Red Cross, there all here. out the front of the United Nations building is a giant wooden chair, but with only 3 legs, the other one looks like it has blown off. its meant to be a reminder to the people in Government who visit the UN of land minds. i was surprised to hear that while i was in Bosnia, that there are still a lot of land mines around, because its 'too expensive' to get rid of them, i thought that it would be more costly to stitch a kids leg back on than it would be to remove a bomb.
i had a bit of a walk around the city, its probably a little bit bigger than Zurich but not much more, but i think they may have sprun a leak while i was here becuase there was this massive jet of water coming out of the lake area... kidding! thats the Jet d'Eau, you've probably seen it before, its one of Genevas famous landmarks. The old town is quite nice full of expensive stores and churches blah, blah, blah! you know the drill. i was looking around at all these expensive shops and walked past a few people dripping in jewelry and i was thinking to myself, i dont need any of this. money to me really isnt that important, sure its nice to have nice stuff, but i wouldn't be breaking my neck to buy a Rolex. to me money just allows me freedom to do what i want, like travel, i hate asking for money or owing people money its just not me at all.
Oh, i ran into my Argentinian friend while i was here, he was flying out of Geneva so he was staying at my hostel for a night. such a great guy, i have never laughted so much. Geneva was nice but overall it was a very business-y kind of place and after a couple of days i was quite happy to move on.
since i've been traveling in Switzerland i noticed that a lot of there buildings, mainly there homes are almost intirely made out of timber which look amazing, they really fit right in with the surroundings. some of the bigger buildings are more solid, and its not uncommon to see a fesco on the side of them. but it was the newer building i really liked. the way theyre built is almost a formula. for instance the train stations i saw were either painted white, had stainless steal somewhere, had heaps of glass, and if there was writing, it was in Helvetica or in some other nice sans serif typeface. then they would paint a part of it a bright colour like an orange or something. noticed this in Austria and Germany too, they all looked might cool by the way. but you know what, i dont think i saw a single exposed brick house, they were all rendered.
I spent alot of time in furniture and book shops while i was here, i really love good design and being here is little walking around a trendy store like 'Space' but on a really large scale. it seems like everyone here has a Charles and Ray Eames creation, mark my words, one of these days i'm going to get me an Eames Lounge Chair and ottoman thingy. some other Swiss design that you cant ignore while your here is, the Swiss army knife, they flog them everywhere, even in every hostel i stayed in! while i was here i also found a shop that sold vintage advertising posters, just like the ones i saw in Cannes, so spent plenty of time in there.
you may not have noticed, but i've been trying to find really stereotypical things about a place and see if it really exsists or not, ie: are the french really that rude? turns out, the majority are pretty good. another one for France was, do you see mimes? and sadly i have to say, no. its kind of like Myth Buster's but without blowing shit up. for me Switzerland's stereotype that i wanted to bust is, are there really Saint Bernard with barrels under there chin? turns out i didnt find any along my travels. Stereotype: BUSTED! but i didnt get very high up in the mountains so they might hang out around there.
Your probably wondering 'why did Trent make one big blog about Switzerland rather than do posts about each town he visited? well its because Switzerland is so freaking expensive that i couldn't afford to fully write each post so i had to wait until i found a place with more affordable internet. sorry about how long it is, i was doing so well too. i can't really put my finger on why this place is so expensive too, its really just another country. anyway, time to say see ya later to the Swiss and head to Bruges
Salzburg
the bus ride to Salzburg was nothing short of epic. it was so painful dunno if i want to talk about it, it was a good couple of days i will never get back. put it this way, i finished my book earlier than expected. anyway, i got into salzburg about 11:30pm and boy was i glad to find my hostel, i couldn´t wait to hit the hay. i think i´m coming down with a cold, but i figure if i keep ingnoring it, it might go away.
Salzburg gots is name from its salt mines (supposedly 'Salz' means salt) you can do a tour of them, i didnt bother because i saw some saltmines in Poland and i figured how different could they be. Salzburg is famous for a couple of reasons, Mozart came from here and you see a number of coffee houses, resturants and hotels named after him. the funny part is Mozart hated this place and couldn't wait to get out of here so i think its funny that people here are trying to make a quick buck out of him. the guy who invented Red Bull came from around here, supposedly he is one of the worlds richest men and considering he's in his late 60's he's one of Austria's most eligible bachelors. just be carefull what he puts in your drinks ladies. i wonder why red bull gives you wings? But of of course its 'The Sound of Music' that is probably its biggest darw card. I feel a bit embarresed to say this, and i know that my friend Iona (who might add here obsession with the movie is a little unhealthy) would kill me for saying this, but i´ve never actually seen 'The Sound of Music', i know, i know, its a classic but it never walked passed the whimsy section at the video store so its never crossed my mind. luckily for me, the hostel i stayed in played it daily so i had the chance to get filled in. while i was watching it, obviously a lot of the songs were familiar but it kept thinking of 'Chasers war on everything' and the segment they used to do called 'if life were a musical' god i love that show. but also i was reminded about how there is a part where the Nun is talking to Maria and it sounds like she drops the C bomb. the line is 'what is it you can't face?'. you fill in the blanks as to what it sounds like (click here if you wanna hear it for yourself.). now that i had watched the film, (by the way, i think i felt my manhood shrivel the longer i watched it) i was ready to do the tour. to be honest, i really wanted to do the tour, mainly because i'd heard about how many crazy fanatical people (people like Iona) go on the tour. it sounded like a bit of a laugh so i signed myself up. there were a couple of wierdos on the the bus but not as many as expected, but they did sing along with all the songs, actually the tour guide was the worst affender. we saw the main point of interest in the movie like the house, which is actually two houses, they were shot in a way to make it look like they were one house, ah the wonders of Hollywood. one of the houses is now owned by Harvard University, up until recently they still had the gazebo from the film there, but it became tricky to study due to the amount of tourist going there, so it was relocated to a park up the road a bit. the gazebo is locked these day becuase some woman tried to re enacted the scene from the movie and fell and hurt herself (Iona, was this woman you? i'm putting nothing passed you) all in all it was a pretty good trip, i got to see that 'Sound of Music' fans are a different breed and i also saw a bit outside of Salzburg too because the wedding scene in the movie was done in a church elsewhere, i thought it was kind of strange because the church in Salzburg is quite nice and in someways better. who knows why? i think, the funny part about this whole 'Sound of Music' thing is, i was speaking to the girl that worked at the hostel about it and she was saying that hardly anyone in Salzburg has even seen the film, her included, and they play the film every day.
Salzburg itself is really pretty and not very big at all, quite walkable actually. it was snowing while i was here which gave it that little bit of magic (oh my god, did i just write magic? i'm sounding more and more camp by the minute, look what the sound of music has done to me!) its streets are really beautiful. the old town is full of shops (some of which are actually built into the side of a rock face) they mainly sell tradional stuff like hand made shoes or really big names. but in the new side of the river i found a couple of shops that were really cool. in one of them they had heaps of quirky items, one in particular caught my eye. it was a toaster that doubled as a lamp, who knows why you would want a toaster lamp, but it was interesting.
There a huge fort up on the hill and from what i can gather it was built for the Archbishops here becuase they pretty much governed this place, so what they said goes. its really quite massive, i think i heard that it was one of europe's biggest. becuase it perched right on the top of the hill the view from the top is stunning, while i was here Salzburg was covered in a blanket of snow. i found out while i was there they had a giant organ in the fort that was pretty much used as a giant alarm clock. it would ring out in the morning to wake everyone in the town up, and at night it would ring out to tell everyone it was bed time. hows that!? all i could think of was whether or not it was loud enough to cause an avalanche. getting back to the Archbishops for a second, one of them didnt really take to the whole celibat thing too well and his 'lady friend' ended up having 14 children to him. he ended up having a place called Mirabelle built for here, the gardens of Merabella are meant to be quite nice, at the moment it looks like a field of white. i saw photos and in summer they do look beautiful, they also feature in the 'Sound of Music'.
I noticed that there mad about puppets here, i saw a couple of puppet shops. i thought it was funny when i heard that the puppets that were in the 'Sound of Music' were doing a tour of the states at the moment.
I've noticed the longer i go, the shorter my blogs are getting, some people probably thought this day would never come. i can hear them now 'finally, Trent has written a blog that hasn't got a word count of 10,000'. maybe i'm running out of interesting things to say, or maybe I'm getting lazy. it could be a combination of the two, hopefully its still worth your time to read it.
i really enjoyed it here, in fact, combined with my memories of Vienna i really liked Austria, even though i thought Vienna was a little bit straight. but overall i think its a really beautiful country, i'd love to come back here one day. so i think the plan is to go to Switzerland next, unless a better offer comes up. i think my trip in Switzerland may be a quick one due to how expensive it is, but i'll just have to wait and see. more soon!
Salzburg gots is name from its salt mines (supposedly 'Salz' means salt) you can do a tour of them, i didnt bother because i saw some saltmines in Poland and i figured how different could they be. Salzburg is famous for a couple of reasons, Mozart came from here and you see a number of coffee houses, resturants and hotels named after him. the funny part is Mozart hated this place and couldn't wait to get out of here so i think its funny that people here are trying to make a quick buck out of him. the guy who invented Red Bull came from around here, supposedly he is one of the worlds richest men and considering he's in his late 60's he's one of Austria's most eligible bachelors. just be carefull what he puts in your drinks ladies. i wonder why red bull gives you wings? But of of course its 'The Sound of Music' that is probably its biggest darw card. I feel a bit embarresed to say this, and i know that my friend Iona (who might add here obsession with the movie is a little unhealthy) would kill me for saying this, but i´ve never actually seen 'The Sound of Music', i know, i know, its a classic but it never walked passed the whimsy section at the video store so its never crossed my mind. luckily for me, the hostel i stayed in played it daily so i had the chance to get filled in. while i was watching it, obviously a lot of the songs were familiar but it kept thinking of 'Chasers war on everything' and the segment they used to do called 'if life were a musical' god i love that show. but also i was reminded about how there is a part where the Nun is talking to Maria and it sounds like she drops the C bomb. the line is 'what is it you can't face?'. you fill in the blanks as to what it sounds like (click here if you wanna hear it for yourself.). now that i had watched the film, (by the way, i think i felt my manhood shrivel the longer i watched it) i was ready to do the tour. to be honest, i really wanted to do the tour, mainly because i'd heard about how many crazy fanatical people (people like Iona) go on the tour. it sounded like a bit of a laugh so i signed myself up. there were a couple of wierdos on the the bus but not as many as expected, but they did sing along with all the songs, actually the tour guide was the worst affender. we saw the main point of interest in the movie like the house, which is actually two houses, they were shot in a way to make it look like they were one house, ah the wonders of Hollywood. one of the houses is now owned by Harvard University, up until recently they still had the gazebo from the film there, but it became tricky to study due to the amount of tourist going there, so it was relocated to a park up the road a bit. the gazebo is locked these day becuase some woman tried to re enacted the scene from the movie and fell and hurt herself (Iona, was this woman you? i'm putting nothing passed you) all in all it was a pretty good trip, i got to see that 'Sound of Music' fans are a different breed and i also saw a bit outside of Salzburg too because the wedding scene in the movie was done in a church elsewhere, i thought it was kind of strange because the church in Salzburg is quite nice and in someways better. who knows why? i think, the funny part about this whole 'Sound of Music' thing is, i was speaking to the girl that worked at the hostel about it and she was saying that hardly anyone in Salzburg has even seen the film, her included, and they play the film every day.
Salzburg itself is really pretty and not very big at all, quite walkable actually. it was snowing while i was here which gave it that little bit of magic (oh my god, did i just write magic? i'm sounding more and more camp by the minute, look what the sound of music has done to me!) its streets are really beautiful. the old town is full of shops (some of which are actually built into the side of a rock face) they mainly sell tradional stuff like hand made shoes or really big names. but in the new side of the river i found a couple of shops that were really cool. in one of them they had heaps of quirky items, one in particular caught my eye. it was a toaster that doubled as a lamp, who knows why you would want a toaster lamp, but it was interesting.
There a huge fort up on the hill and from what i can gather it was built for the Archbishops here becuase they pretty much governed this place, so what they said goes. its really quite massive, i think i heard that it was one of europe's biggest. becuase it perched right on the top of the hill the view from the top is stunning, while i was here Salzburg was covered in a blanket of snow. i found out while i was there they had a giant organ in the fort that was pretty much used as a giant alarm clock. it would ring out in the morning to wake everyone in the town up, and at night it would ring out to tell everyone it was bed time. hows that!? all i could think of was whether or not it was loud enough to cause an avalanche. getting back to the Archbishops for a second, one of them didnt really take to the whole celibat thing too well and his 'lady friend' ended up having 14 children to him. he ended up having a place called Mirabelle built for here, the gardens of Merabella are meant to be quite nice, at the moment it looks like a field of white. i saw photos and in summer they do look beautiful, they also feature in the 'Sound of Music'.
I noticed that there mad about puppets here, i saw a couple of puppet shops. i thought it was funny when i heard that the puppets that were in the 'Sound of Music' were doing a tour of the states at the moment.
I've noticed the longer i go, the shorter my blogs are getting, some people probably thought this day would never come. i can hear them now 'finally, Trent has written a blog that hasn't got a word count of 10,000'. maybe i'm running out of interesting things to say, or maybe I'm getting lazy. it could be a combination of the two, hopefully its still worth your time to read it.
i really enjoyed it here, in fact, combined with my memories of Vienna i really liked Austria, even though i thought Vienna was a little bit straight. but overall i think its a really beautiful country, i'd love to come back here one day. so i think the plan is to go to Switzerland next, unless a better offer comes up. i think my trip in Switzerland may be a quick one due to how expensive it is, but i'll just have to wait and see. more soon!
Split
i took another bus ride to Split. courtesy of my new book purchases it was less boring than normal, in fact i read half of the Syd Barrett one, and so far hes coming across as a bit mental, surprise surprise. anyway, i came over the hill i saw Split in my sights, it felt a little bit like déjà vu, because it reminded me so much of the south of France. actually, the longer i was here, the more i felt that. there were palm trees along the water, labyrinths of streets, really relaxed, etc. i think if you wanted to go to the south of France for a holiday, but couldn't afford it, i would recommend coming to Croatia, its so cheap here. I'm getting side tracked, anyway, i got off the bus and i got hounded by a little old lady, telling me that she had a room i could stay in that i had supposedly booked, i had no recollection of this, but then i remember, as i got out of the old guys car in Dubrovnik he said he had friends in Split, he told me that they were cheap, i said 'oh yeah, that's ok i think I've got somewhere'. he clearly didn't take that as a polite, thanks but no thanks. i tried to explain to her that i had somewhere to stay but she wouldn't take no for an answer, and i hated doing it, she was looking at me like he life depended on it, but i really didn't want to stay there. eventually she let me go on my way to the hostel i had in mind. on the way there i got hounded by other people asking me to stay with them, geez, i knew it was low season, but these guys are really desperate. i ended up finding my hostel, which was in such a good location, right in the heart of the old town.
Split is the same deal as Dubrovnik, its more of a summer destination, but oh well. but i enjoyed it a bit more than Dubrovnik, i think mainly because of the location of my hostel, actually, i think where you stay plays a big part in whether or not you like a place. my hostel was pretty good, newly renovated and had some cool people staying here too. meeting cool people are always a bonus too. but think the main reason was that the weather here was better and that there were more people around, giving the place a bit of a vibe. they had a couple of good bars here too but you had to go searching for them.
the main thing to see here is Diocletian's Palace, which was built for, yep you guess it, Diocletian, who was a Roman Emperor, it was built for his place of retirement, maybe they didn't have meals on wheels back in those days? anyway, he lived there right up until his death and was buried there. this Diocletian guy killed more Catholics than any other Emperor so after time, probably when it was ok to be a catholic, as a pay back they built a church other top of where he was buried. the bell tower at the top is supposedly the towns symbol, and has a great view over the water and the city. the palace is massive and is built as a fortress. its changed shape over compared to what it would've originally looked like, today everything you would want is within its walls, shops, markets, squares etc. actually i lie, just outside of the walls is a market of this and that, mainly crappy clothes and stuff, but i found stalls of food, there was raw meat there just sitting in the sun and carcasses hanging up, i could practically taste the food poisoning, it always astounds me to see stuff like that and how people still buy it and manage not to die, they must just get used to it after years of eating it. I'm up for trying stuff wherever i go, but i'm pretty sure if i tried some of the food from there, i would be getting well acquainted with a toilet bowl not far after consumption. another thing outside of the walls that i did while i was here was i walked up Marjan, which is a hill here in Split. its quite pretty with it being densely covered in pine trees etc. Up the top you get a great view all around, they have a zoo about half way, but it looks like its fallen into disrepair.
i saw a photography exhibition while i was here, some artist from the Czech republic who, funnily enough, took photos of the Czech republic. he was pretty good too, they were all in black and white but i felt it suited the landscape, they were shot in the winter and having it in black and white made the shots really moody. it made me want to explore more of Czech i really loved Prague when i was there. i planned on heading back to Czech soon actually, Kate and Josh are living there and working at a hostel, (for those who have no idea who they are, I began traveling Europe with Kate and Josh) and its Kate's birthday at the end of the month. i felt really torn, because it was either, i go and see them, or i continue on my original plan and head to Switzerland. i really wanted to see Switzerland so i made the tough decision of not going to see them also because im meeting my friend Sarah in Amsterdam at the end of the month, so travel wise it would've been quite tricky. im keeping an eye out for cheap flights, so who knows, hopefully i might be able to do both. at the hostel, for some reason. they always had the discovery channel playing on the TV. i saw this show where they had a camera that would take something like 20,000 frames a second and they put it in slow motion to watch what happened when, for example a boxer gets punched in the face or when you burst a balloon. i sat there glued to the TV, it was fascinating! click here to check it out.
something that had got to me while I've been in this part of the world is EVERYONE smokes, you can't escape it. because its illegal to smoke in pubs and clubs in Australia, i totally forgot what it was like to be in a bar full of smoke, i hated it. i hated smelling of smoke all the time and i would end up with these massive head aches, it was horrible. i remember when they introduced the ban in Australia and people said that it was going to kill bars and clubs, if anything i think its made it better. but i don't see it changing here anytime soon.
I'm heading to Salzburg next, which turns out it isnt as easy as it sounds. i dunno what it is, but i found public transport here really quite difficult. you can't just jump on a bus anywhere, you have to go through all of these detours to get anywhere, which is why i've have to do a big loop. i think it might have something to do with certian countries not getting along with each other. which is why, to get to Salzburg i have to go all the way to Zagreb then back out to Salzburg, its a bit of a pain but what can you do? hopefully the hills will be alive with the sound of music when i get there.
Split is the same deal as Dubrovnik, its more of a summer destination, but oh well. but i enjoyed it a bit more than Dubrovnik, i think mainly because of the location of my hostel, actually, i think where you stay plays a big part in whether or not you like a place. my hostel was pretty good, newly renovated and had some cool people staying here too. meeting cool people are always a bonus too. but think the main reason was that the weather here was better and that there were more people around, giving the place a bit of a vibe. they had a couple of good bars here too but you had to go searching for them.
the main thing to see here is Diocletian's Palace, which was built for, yep you guess it, Diocletian, who was a Roman Emperor, it was built for his place of retirement, maybe they didn't have meals on wheels back in those days? anyway, he lived there right up until his death and was buried there. this Diocletian guy killed more Catholics than any other Emperor so after time, probably when it was ok to be a catholic, as a pay back they built a church other top of where he was buried. the bell tower at the top is supposedly the towns symbol, and has a great view over the water and the city. the palace is massive and is built as a fortress. its changed shape over compared to what it would've originally looked like, today everything you would want is within its walls, shops, markets, squares etc. actually i lie, just outside of the walls is a market of this and that, mainly crappy clothes and stuff, but i found stalls of food, there was raw meat there just sitting in the sun and carcasses hanging up, i could practically taste the food poisoning, it always astounds me to see stuff like that and how people still buy it and manage not to die, they must just get used to it after years of eating it. I'm up for trying stuff wherever i go, but i'm pretty sure if i tried some of the food from there, i would be getting well acquainted with a toilet bowl not far after consumption. another thing outside of the walls that i did while i was here was i walked up Marjan, which is a hill here in Split. its quite pretty with it being densely covered in pine trees etc. Up the top you get a great view all around, they have a zoo about half way, but it looks like its fallen into disrepair.
i saw a photography exhibition while i was here, some artist from the Czech republic who, funnily enough, took photos of the Czech republic. he was pretty good too, they were all in black and white but i felt it suited the landscape, they were shot in the winter and having it in black and white made the shots really moody. it made me want to explore more of Czech i really loved Prague when i was there. i planned on heading back to Czech soon actually, Kate and Josh are living there and working at a hostel, (for those who have no idea who they are, I began traveling Europe with Kate and Josh) and its Kate's birthday at the end of the month. i felt really torn, because it was either, i go and see them, or i continue on my original plan and head to Switzerland. i really wanted to see Switzerland so i made the tough decision of not going to see them also because im meeting my friend Sarah in Amsterdam at the end of the month, so travel wise it would've been quite tricky. im keeping an eye out for cheap flights, so who knows, hopefully i might be able to do both. at the hostel, for some reason. they always had the discovery channel playing on the TV. i saw this show where they had a camera that would take something like 20,000 frames a second and they put it in slow motion to watch what happened when, for example a boxer gets punched in the face or when you burst a balloon. i sat there glued to the TV, it was fascinating! click here to check it out.
something that had got to me while I've been in this part of the world is EVERYONE smokes, you can't escape it. because its illegal to smoke in pubs and clubs in Australia, i totally forgot what it was like to be in a bar full of smoke, i hated it. i hated smelling of smoke all the time and i would end up with these massive head aches, it was horrible. i remember when they introduced the ban in Australia and people said that it was going to kill bars and clubs, if anything i think its made it better. but i don't see it changing here anytime soon.
I'm heading to Salzburg next, which turns out it isnt as easy as it sounds. i dunno what it is, but i found public transport here really quite difficult. you can't just jump on a bus anywhere, you have to go through all of these detours to get anywhere, which is why i've have to do a big loop. i think it might have something to do with certian countries not getting along with each other. which is why, to get to Salzburg i have to go all the way to Zagreb then back out to Salzburg, its a bit of a pain but what can you do? hopefully the hills will be alive with the sound of music when i get there.
Dubrovnik
There was only one bus that went from Sarajevo to Dubrovnik and it was at 6:30am. now, mornings and i are a little bit like a knife and a toaster, you probably shouldn't put the two together. but after some struggle to get up on time, i finally make it to the bus station and headed off to Croatia. i slept for a fair bit of it, which i think is a skill i have acquired over the past 6 months, getting sleep on the bus is not that easy. but i still manage to see some of the country side to, as we were getting closer to Croatia i noticed it got a lot greener which was quite nice. after a 6 hours on the bus, oh and this i packed some lunch so i didn't starve, i finally made it to Dubrovnik. i heard that people from hostels will hang around the station trying to get you to go to there place, i had a place in mind but i had to get a bus there and wasn't really in the mood. this old guy said he had a hostel and said he'd drive me there, he showed me photos and stuff and looked pretty legit so i figured why not, he was pretty old so if he attacked me i was pretty sure i would be fine. it ended up being fine but i was just cautious. the hostel was really nice, really cheap and i got a room to my self which was nice. the old guy was really friendly and one night even gave me some dinner that his wife had made, Mussel's in a sauce, it was delicious, i'd hit the jack pot!
i think everyone in Australia is aware of Brit Lapthorne, the Australian girl that was murdered here in Dubrovnik recently, because I've been away i have found it a little hard to keep up with the news and this story in particular, but I'll be honest, it did make me a little bit wary. The guy at the hostel mentioned her to me and was very clear that Dubrovnik is very safe, saying that unfortunately that was a one off incident and that 'he is a 70 year old man and has never had a problem' and i have to say i kind of agree with him, i felt really safe here. but the guy that worked in the hostel in Sarajevo told me that there have been problems here in the past with a group of guys posing as Police harassing girls. its very hard to know who to believe, either way, you've got to be careful wherever you go and be aware of whats happening around you. but for the old guy to tell me that, it must be crippling the tourism industry here.
Dubrovnik is more of a summer destination, i knew that before i planned to come here, because i probably wasnt going to see it in summer and it was on the way. too bad for me it poured pretty much the whole time i was here, i got totally drenched, but when it wasnt raining i had a good look around. Dubrovnik has a really pretty old town, i totally understand why its world heritage listed. the tiny little streets are so beautiful i didnt mind getting lost down them at all. the old town has a giant wall around it which was built in, something like, 1450 to keep other countries from invading it, you can you walk around it these days, i had some great views from up there of bell towers punching through the canopy of terracotta roofs, very pretty. also you get some really nice ocean views from up there. Dubrovnik is known for its beaches, but unfortunately for me no nude sun baking, as i said, way too cold. but there is not only beaches here, as i said earlier, it got greener as i came closer to croatia and there are plenty of forest around, i sometimes forget how nice it is to have trees until i come to a place like this.
just a few observations I've had. since I've been in eastern Europe i keep getting told by people 'there are lots of pretty women in ' i got it here, and from a taxi driver in Sarajevo. either, the woman are a tourist attraction or i must look like I'm in the market for a mail order bride! oh, and I've decided i wouldn't want to be an old person and live in Croatia. from what i can understand, they don't get a pension at all and so its not uncommon to see them around town collecting bottles to exchange them for money, its pretty sad to see.
i brought a couple of books while i was here, because I'm beginning to go brain dead, also because I'll be doing some long trips too, but mainly its because i found a shop that sold books in English. i brought George Orwell's classic 'Animal Farm' which I've wanted to read for years but have never got around to it, i think the concept for the book is brilliant. and the other book is on the life of Pink Floyd founder and former front man Syd Barrett. I'm not a massive fan of Pink Floyd, but i like a couple of there songs, anyway, I've been intrigued with Syd Barrett for a while, he went totally mad from taking drugs and became a totally recluse, and ended living with his Mum (you know you've lost your mind when your end up living with your mum at 40 years of age), i know that he died a couple of years ago and the author of this book supposedly tracked him down and had one last interview with him. should be a good read. best part of it all i got them cheaper for some reason, the guy told me that tourists get certain things cheaper this time of year, i wasn't complaining.
i liked Dubrovnik, but it was actually a bit strange being here after being in Sarajevo and Belgrade, it seemed too nice, if that makes sense? i dunno, i found it really boring compared to the other places i've been. i think i kind of got used to seeing blown up buildings and began to get excited by them. i'm pretty sure this place was bombed during the war, but have done quite a bit to repair the city. supposedly there are markers where the bombs were dropped but i didnt see any. also, as i said earlier i came at the wrong time of of year so I'd like to come back either this summer or another summer to get a real feel for the place, i think this place would be heaving if it was hotter. i think i would make more of an effort to visit some of the islands if it were hotter too, i heard they are pretty dead this time of year. next stop, Split.
Sarajevo
at the hostel i was staying at in Belgrade, they had a van service to Sarajevo. i figured it would be a lot easier to get that than but up with another hellish train journey. and it ended up being really good. the scenery wasnt that pretty, and the bus driving kept calling me Aaron, i think when he looked at my passport he thought my middle name was my first name, no matter how many time i said my name was Trent, to him, i was always going to be Aaron. on the bus i met Dunja and Nemanja, a Serbian couple who were also on there way to Sarajevo. Dunja was studying law and her boyfriend Nemanja was studying violin. we got on really well we ended up hanging out quite a bit in Sarajevo. they were here to visit Dunjas step brother, Ogi. because he lived here, he knew the town better than all of us so him and his girlfriend came along for drinks too. first thing i noticed about Ogi was when he spoke english he spoke with an American accent. it turned out that he had got a scholarship to play basketball for a college in Philadelphia and lived there for 4 years. it was pretty funny to hear him speak because i think if you closed your eyes you could've sworn you were talking to a black guy, every second word was "Dawg" and would finish was "ya know what i'm sayin'?". Nemaja was telling me that Ogi plays basketball professionally over here and is one of Bosnias best players. it was really great having locals taking me around. i found Ogi was a quite an interesting guy, he told me a little bit about the war and how his father is Muslim. but during the war, to escape, his father and mother had to pretend that all there paperwork (ie passport or birth certificate) was burnt or destroyed so they could change there names, then they pretended that they were Jewish so they could flee the country, the way i'm telling it doesn't give it much justice, it was quite an amazing story when he told it. its really good to speak to people that live in a place because they can honesty tell you what life is like here, so often, as a traveler, i feel you can sometimes just float in over the top of a place and not really get a full understanding of it. Dunja and Nemanja have invited me back to Belgrade in the summer so they can show me around Belgrade and see it from there perspective, hopefully i get back there, i'm sure it would be interesting.
Sarajevo and interesting history seem to come hand in hand. it was here in Sarajevo, not far from the old town and just across from the river, that Franz Ferdinand (not the band, the guy the band got its name from) was assassinated, it was this and a chain of events that eventually triggered WWI. originally they had foot prints in the pavement of where the assassin stood, but they were destroyed in the war and were never replaced.
Of course, Bosnia is known for the Bosnian War in the mid 90's. i was in a book store here and they had a book on Sarajevo full of photos of what it was like during and just after the war. the place was such a mess, it was a little hard to believe it was the same place, today you do see quite a few reminders of the past like bullet holes, boarded up buildings, some even missing half there sides etc but when i compared it to the photos, Sarajevo is looking pretty good. well the main centre anyway. the further out of town your go the worst it is. the hostel i'm staying in is a house in the old town. the owner was telling me the upstairs area, which is where i'm staying was bombed with grenades on 9 seperate occations. he was saying this house and the surrounding area only looks this good because everybody help each other out, otherwise it would still be a mess. he told the libary in the old town was hit with a bomb and something like 3 million books were lost, some of which cannot be replaced. something i've noticed while walking around here, they fill some of bomb blast holes in the street with red cement which are called 'Sarajevo roses', i later found out that its probably the place where a number of people may have lost there lives so i guess its kind of a mark of respect for the innocent lives lost.
something quite interesting is during the war they built a tunnel under the airport so people could smuggle in supplies and ammunition into Sarajevo without getting caught. The entrance to the tunnel was hidden in the house of a civilian, the guy, whose house it was still lives there, and hes created the downs stairs areas into a museum. i found the tunnels really fascinating, originally they went for about 800m but these days the majority of it has collapsed, but you can still walk about 30m of it, it was really small probably only about 1m wide and 1.5m high, i had to duck my head the whole way, i can only imagine what it would've been like to walk the whole way carrying supplies, the tunnel would also leak so you would have to contend with the water too.
Sarajevo is a tucked away at the bottom of a valley. in spite of what has happen here, the old town is the closest I've been to stepping back in time. it looks taotally different to Belgrade with its stone roads, small shops with people making, what looks like, copper teapots and plates all by hand and they have heaps of thrift shops here so thats kept me pretty entertained. but i think ive been entertaining the locals too. i bought a toffee apple because i hadn't had one since i was a little kid. problem was i forgot how messy those things are and i got it all over my face and hands, people were looking and laughing at me and i think i nearly lost a tooth in the process. it was SO sticky, but i think thats half the fun of eating a toffee apple.
this place is probably a lot more multicultural than other cities, and I've heard at times it can be quite a tense place because of the different religions here but i didn't witness anything. I've noticed that there are a lot of mosques here, and something i haven't experienced before was in the morning, noon and nightfall, they have a call to prayer, where an Arabic voice sings over a loudspeaker for about a minute or so, the first time i heard it, i didn't know what it was, it was quite loud and no matter where you are, you could hear it. i have to say, even though I'm not into religion i did enjoy hearing it.
Sarajevo hasn't always been attached with doom and gloom, which i think sometimes people forget. this year was the 25th anniversary of Sarajevo hosting the winter Olympics. i didn't realize it was on and heard what sounded like gun shots, it scared the living day lights out of me, but it wasn't until i looked out the window i saw fireworks. its crazy but because of Sarajevo's history i instantly thought it must be gun fire. but in truth I've never felt so safe, and not only here, but in Belgrade and Zagreb, i was actually bracing myself for this part of the trip but its been a pleasant surprise.
while i was here i tried lots of great local foods, like Cevapi which is slices of meat in a roll, with cheese and raw onion which was pretty good, and there was this swirly pie thingy made or pastry and meat in the centre, that was pretty good too. i tried some Bosnian coffee while i was here too, i was worried i would be up for the next 3 days because of the amount of caffeine they put in it, but it ok. something i found out about the coffee is there are different types for different times of the day or occasion. theres even one that politely asks you to leave the house. crazy! i found a lot of there stuff is very sweet, which i imagine is the Turkish influence, its like everything is made with sugar! i wouldnt be surprised if i left this place a diabetic.
while i was here i has 'Miss Sarajevo' by U2 in my head, i dont really like U2 that much except for a couple of there songs, mainly because i think Bono is a wanker. anyway, the song is about the Bosnian war. i did a bit of research and found that the song was written for a Doco, also called 'Miss Sarajevo', that was made about the Miss Sarajevo pageant that was held during the war. i did get thinking about what daily life during the war would've been like, it turns out that to keep some sort of normality in the peoples lives that not only did they have a Miss Sarajevo pageant they had bands that played quite often too, it sounds a bit crazy that people would just carry on like that, but i suppose it was a good thing too, something to look forward too.
i met a brother and sister traveling duo while i was here in Sarajevo, Jamie and Kirsty were from Wellington in England and were making there way across the globe to Wellington in NZ. get it? they are also doing a travel blog so click here to check it out. they were pretty cool and we got on quite well. we did a day trip out to Mostar which was pretty eventful. we had to catch a train at 6:45am to get there because there aren't many trains that head out there. i feel asleep and slept the whole way, it was amazing that i wasn't touched up by a gypsy. anyway, Mostar is pretty similar to Sarajevo, just a smaller version really, there main feature here is the Stari Grad which is a bridge that was built back in the 1500's, during the summer local boys jump off it into the water below for tourist, well, maybe not for the tourists, more likely for there money. you wouldn't catch me jumping off it, its roughly 30m above the water, which isn't so bad, its the water that scares me, it flows VERY quickly and i don't think my doggy paddle would be enough to save me. funny story about the bridge, the architect that built it never saw its completion, he did a runner towards the end because the King said that he would be killed if the bridge collapsed, so the architect didn't hang around to find out. it actually wasn't his handy work that made the bridge fall, it was a bomb from the war. but it was a no-brainer decision to rebuild it after the war had finished.
but it wasn't the stari grad that was my favorite attraction of Mostar, not by a long shot. it was the bronze statue of Kung Fu legend Bruce Lee. now your probably wondering 'why is there a statue of Bruce Lee in Bosnia?' and to be honest, so was i. there are a couple of stories floating around. the first is that Mostar is quite divided by religion and originally they wanted to put a statue of religious figure in the spot but they couldn't make a decision so they asked everyone who was someone that they all liked and they came to the agreement of Bruce Lee. the second is he was chosen by the organizers as 'a symbol of the fight against ethnic divisions', huh? i'm pretty sure Bruce Lee just used to kick the shit out of everyone. anyway, in the end i didn't see the Bruce Lee statue because vandals had pulled it down, i was pretty shattered, i don't think my life will ever be complete.
I enjoyed it here in Sarajevo, not only did i see some really interesting stuff but i met some really interesting people too. now i'm off to Dubrovnik, more when i get there.
Sarajevo and interesting history seem to come hand in hand. it was here in Sarajevo, not far from the old town and just across from the river, that Franz Ferdinand (not the band, the guy the band got its name from) was assassinated, it was this and a chain of events that eventually triggered WWI. originally they had foot prints in the pavement of where the assassin stood, but they were destroyed in the war and were never replaced.
Of course, Bosnia is known for the Bosnian War in the mid 90's. i was in a book store here and they had a book on Sarajevo full of photos of what it was like during and just after the war. the place was such a mess, it was a little hard to believe it was the same place, today you do see quite a few reminders of the past like bullet holes, boarded up buildings, some even missing half there sides etc but when i compared it to the photos, Sarajevo is looking pretty good. well the main centre anyway. the further out of town your go the worst it is. the hostel i'm staying in is a house in the old town. the owner was telling me the upstairs area, which is where i'm staying was bombed with grenades on 9 seperate occations. he was saying this house and the surrounding area only looks this good because everybody help each other out, otherwise it would still be a mess. he told the libary in the old town was hit with a bomb and something like 3 million books were lost, some of which cannot be replaced. something i've noticed while walking around here, they fill some of bomb blast holes in the street with red cement which are called 'Sarajevo roses', i later found out that its probably the place where a number of people may have lost there lives so i guess its kind of a mark of respect for the innocent lives lost.
something quite interesting is during the war they built a tunnel under the airport so people could smuggle in supplies and ammunition into Sarajevo without getting caught. The entrance to the tunnel was hidden in the house of a civilian, the guy, whose house it was still lives there, and hes created the downs stairs areas into a museum. i found the tunnels really fascinating, originally they went for about 800m but these days the majority of it has collapsed, but you can still walk about 30m of it, it was really small probably only about 1m wide and 1.5m high, i had to duck my head the whole way, i can only imagine what it would've been like to walk the whole way carrying supplies, the tunnel would also leak so you would have to contend with the water too.
Sarajevo is a tucked away at the bottom of a valley. in spite of what has happen here, the old town is the closest I've been to stepping back in time. it looks taotally different to Belgrade with its stone roads, small shops with people making, what looks like, copper teapots and plates all by hand and they have heaps of thrift shops here so thats kept me pretty entertained. but i think ive been entertaining the locals too. i bought a toffee apple because i hadn't had one since i was a little kid. problem was i forgot how messy those things are and i got it all over my face and hands, people were looking and laughing at me and i think i nearly lost a tooth in the process. it was SO sticky, but i think thats half the fun of eating a toffee apple.
this place is probably a lot more multicultural than other cities, and I've heard at times it can be quite a tense place because of the different religions here but i didn't witness anything. I've noticed that there are a lot of mosques here, and something i haven't experienced before was in the morning, noon and nightfall, they have a call to prayer, where an Arabic voice sings over a loudspeaker for about a minute or so, the first time i heard it, i didn't know what it was, it was quite loud and no matter where you are, you could hear it. i have to say, even though I'm not into religion i did enjoy hearing it.
Sarajevo hasn't always been attached with doom and gloom, which i think sometimes people forget. this year was the 25th anniversary of Sarajevo hosting the winter Olympics. i didn't realize it was on and heard what sounded like gun shots, it scared the living day lights out of me, but it wasn't until i looked out the window i saw fireworks. its crazy but because of Sarajevo's history i instantly thought it must be gun fire. but in truth I've never felt so safe, and not only here, but in Belgrade and Zagreb, i was actually bracing myself for this part of the trip but its been a pleasant surprise.
while i was here i tried lots of great local foods, like Cevapi which is slices of meat in a roll, with cheese and raw onion which was pretty good, and there was this swirly pie thingy made or pastry and meat in the centre, that was pretty good too. i tried some Bosnian coffee while i was here too, i was worried i would be up for the next 3 days because of the amount of caffeine they put in it, but it ok. something i found out about the coffee is there are different types for different times of the day or occasion. theres even one that politely asks you to leave the house. crazy! i found a lot of there stuff is very sweet, which i imagine is the Turkish influence, its like everything is made with sugar! i wouldnt be surprised if i left this place a diabetic.
while i was here i has 'Miss Sarajevo' by U2 in my head, i dont really like U2 that much except for a couple of there songs, mainly because i think Bono is a wanker. anyway, the song is about the Bosnian war. i did a bit of research and found that the song was written for a Doco, also called 'Miss Sarajevo', that was made about the Miss Sarajevo pageant that was held during the war. i did get thinking about what daily life during the war would've been like, it turns out that to keep some sort of normality in the peoples lives that not only did they have a Miss Sarajevo pageant they had bands that played quite often too, it sounds a bit crazy that people would just carry on like that, but i suppose it was a good thing too, something to look forward too.
i met a brother and sister traveling duo while i was here in Sarajevo, Jamie and Kirsty were from Wellington in England and were making there way across the globe to Wellington in NZ. get it? they are also doing a travel blog so click here to check it out. they were pretty cool and we got on quite well. we did a day trip out to Mostar which was pretty eventful. we had to catch a train at 6:45am to get there because there aren't many trains that head out there. i feel asleep and slept the whole way, it was amazing that i wasn't touched up by a gypsy. anyway, Mostar is pretty similar to Sarajevo, just a smaller version really, there main feature here is the Stari Grad which is a bridge that was built back in the 1500's, during the summer local boys jump off it into the water below for tourist, well, maybe not for the tourists, more likely for there money. you wouldn't catch me jumping off it, its roughly 30m above the water, which isn't so bad, its the water that scares me, it flows VERY quickly and i don't think my doggy paddle would be enough to save me. funny story about the bridge, the architect that built it never saw its completion, he did a runner towards the end because the King said that he would be killed if the bridge collapsed, so the architect didn't hang around to find out. it actually wasn't his handy work that made the bridge fall, it was a bomb from the war. but it was a no-brainer decision to rebuild it after the war had finished.
but it wasn't the stari grad that was my favorite attraction of Mostar, not by a long shot. it was the bronze statue of Kung Fu legend Bruce Lee. now your probably wondering 'why is there a statue of Bruce Lee in Bosnia?' and to be honest, so was i. there are a couple of stories floating around. the first is that Mostar is quite divided by religion and originally they wanted to put a statue of religious figure in the spot but they couldn't make a decision so they asked everyone who was someone that they all liked and they came to the agreement of Bruce Lee. the second is he was chosen by the organizers as 'a symbol of the fight against ethnic divisions', huh? i'm pretty sure Bruce Lee just used to kick the shit out of everyone. anyway, in the end i didn't see the Bruce Lee statue because vandals had pulled it down, i was pretty shattered, i don't think my life will ever be complete.
I enjoyed it here in Sarajevo, not only did i see some really interesting stuff but i met some really interesting people too. now i'm off to Dubrovnik, more when i get there.
Belgrade
my train ride was a bit of a pain, but it was my fault, i kind of left my run to the train a bit late and i didn't get to buy some food for the train trip. at first i didn't think it would be a problem, sometimes there is a food carriage where you can buy stuff, but unfortunately for me, not on this one. the train to Belgrade was meant to take about 6 hours but it ended up being about 8, i was STARVING by the end of it. the trip to Belgrade was a real eye opener, not because of the lack of food, but what i saw out my window. its nothing to see a shell of a car or a old washing machine left to rust on the side of the road, not to mention the amount of litter, it was like a rubbish dump. but the most disturbing part was seeing the shanty towns. they were so many little make shift houses. it was pretty sad to see people living in those conditions, especially the little kids who were waving at the train as it went by, they were probably about the same age as my niece and nephew and they were dirty and had runny noses. it was really sad and put a lot into perspective for me. especially when i saw a great big billboard above them. for people that don't know, when im not traveling, my day to day job is being an art director at an advertising agency. seeing that billboard about all those shanty houses made me think, i help brands make millions of dollars by selling product to target markets, but what i really should be doing is using my smarts to give back to people rather than become a statistic in an annual review. i mean, to buy that advertising space for a few weeks would be enough to send quite a few kids to school.
Belgrade is an interesting place, it didn't take me long before i came across a couple of buildings that had been bombed. it was pretty strange to see them, i found out later that they had been bombed by NATO back in 1999, which when you think about it wasn't that long ago. the reason they hadn't been torn down and built over was because they are kind of a tourist attraction, which in itself was weird, and because the government created a law saying that if you buy the land that was bombed, the building that stood there had to be rebuilt, this one in particular because it was done by a famous Architect. so, imagine being me for a second, i just got off the train from seeing all the shanty towns and then i see all of these bombed buildings, all before i have even got to my hostel. i felt like i walked into a 3rd world country. it was pretty crazy.
the guy at the hostel told me to check out a couple more bombed building just up the road from the ones i saw. you could look inside these ones (well, through the windows, not actually inside them), there were still books in the offices and bits and pieces of furniture.
while i was here i went an checked out the National bank of Serbia, sounds pretty boring huh, but one of the best things about traveling outside of the EU is checking out the designs on the money (because all you use is EURO when your in the EU), the currency they use here is called Dinar and some of the notes are pretty cool. but that wasn't the only reason i went there. Serbia was effected by hyperinflation in the early to mid nineties, so they had some notes there that were 5,000,000,000,000 Dinars, which is absolutely crazy. i spoke to the woman that worked there and was asking about them, she said for Serbs, they are times they would rather forget, so i didn't asked her too many questions. its funny, in the exhibition they had coins, but i have not been given a coin the whole time I've been here, only notes, and the notes they use here are still really high numbers so, if your ever here, take money out of the bank and get a receipt, for most people its the only time you'll be a millionaire on paper. they also had an exhibition on forgery which was pretty interesting, i could hardly tell the difference between the real stuff and the fake stuff. something cool that was there was you can get your face put on a Dinar note, so i got one done, its pretty funny, the photo of me was pretty bad so it looks like a criminal on a bank note.
something im really enjoying here is there alphabet, i find it really interesting, mainly from a font perspective. the letters are really sharp and sometimes they don't have tales then sometimes they have extra tails, for instance 'Belgrade' in the native alphabet turns out looking like 'Београд'. even though you can kind of make out what it says, it does make it a little tricky to get around, mainly because the map you get when you arrive here is written with the english letters, so when you walk around the street and try to find signs to get your bearings, you cant compare the two. but i managed.
i wouldn't say Belgrade is a beautiful city, you'd be kidding yourself if you thought it would be, but its not all bad, occasionally you see a nice building or a park to wander through. theres a place called Kalemegdan which has a garden and the remains of a castle and a big fortress which is quite nice, its pretty old and like most things in Europe, was added to over time. its worth a look. i think they have a military museum in there too, but i wasn't interested so i gave it a miss. supposedly the night life here is quite good but i didn't witness any of it, I'm boring.
i took a bus across the river to an old town called Zemum, it was a bit different compared to the rest of Belgrade mainly because, it used to be owned by Austria but after the war became part of Belgrade. it was a small little place with a market selling, well, rubbish really, nothing worth buying. but it had a cool tower thing amongst the poky little, colourfully painted homes, in its own way it was really cute. a good thing about Zemum is its built right along the Danube river so it had a bit of a view as i walked back, its nothing spectacular, most of the boats looked like they were more likely to sink than float, but the sun was shining so i made the most of it. something i found interesting while i was out was the amount of people walking around, i was here during the week and people were just shopping, having lunch, doing coffee, it was like no one had a job and no one cared less.
where i was staying was pretty good, the people here were really friendly and extremely helpful, pointing out things on the map for me to check out and giving me a brief run down of what it is and its history. also the breakfast that was included had home made jams made by the guys mum and other local foods, really nice. but the best thing about staying there was they had a guitar. i hadn't played in months and i was pretty rusty, but it was great to have a play for a while. the only off putting thing was i went to get a drink of water from the tap, when i looked at the glass, i found the water was REALLY cloudy, i could hardly see through it! i asked the guy if it was ok to drink and he said it was, and he took a sip, come to think of it, i haven't seen that guy since... not really, i'm only kidding! but i decided to pass of drinking the water. my hostel was right near a giant church which ended up being really handy because you could see the church wherever you are in Belgrade so it was easy to find home. if you've been reading the blog you would've noticed that i'm not a huge fan of the church, i think it might have been the 13 years of catholic education that might have done it, but thats another story. there was something i did like about this church, was the chime the bells made. it was pretty crazy, it sounded exactly what a church in a communist country would sound like, i don't know how to describe it maybe like something straight from a propaganda film or something. pretty funny.
Belgrade's a bit dirty at times, but its been through a fair bit, bombs, hyperinflation, all mainly because of Milošević, i did a wikipedia search of him while i was here, geez, he sounds like a nasty piece of work and thats putting it lightly, one of his past times seemed to be kidnapping political opponents just for kicks! but i felt quite safe here and the people here are great, while i was here i ate at a little shop around the corner from the hostel, i got talking to the people that worked there and the customers and they were all really lovely.
i think if i was going to describe Belgrade i would like to think of it as a pair of old shoes, you know they have holes in them, but they are really comfortable, so you don't throw them away. i dunno if that makes sense, but i know what i mean. its been an interesting stay, originally when i was planning this trip, Belgrade wasn't on the list, but when we couldn't get a ferry across to Dubrovnik from Bari i had to rethink what i was going to do, it kind of threw my plans up in the air BIG time. i hate saying this because its so cliche but, i guess everything happens for a reason. I've seen another side of Europe, and in a way, another side of life. anyway, next is Sarajevo.
Belgrade is an interesting place, it didn't take me long before i came across a couple of buildings that had been bombed. it was pretty strange to see them, i found out later that they had been bombed by NATO back in 1999, which when you think about it wasn't that long ago. the reason they hadn't been torn down and built over was because they are kind of a tourist attraction, which in itself was weird, and because the government created a law saying that if you buy the land that was bombed, the building that stood there had to be rebuilt, this one in particular because it was done by a famous Architect. so, imagine being me for a second, i just got off the train from seeing all the shanty towns and then i see all of these bombed buildings, all before i have even got to my hostel. i felt like i walked into a 3rd world country. it was pretty crazy.
the guy at the hostel told me to check out a couple more bombed building just up the road from the ones i saw. you could look inside these ones (well, through the windows, not actually inside them), there were still books in the offices and bits and pieces of furniture.
while i was here i went an checked out the National bank of Serbia, sounds pretty boring huh, but one of the best things about traveling outside of the EU is checking out the designs on the money (because all you use is EURO when your in the EU), the currency they use here is called Dinar and some of the notes are pretty cool. but that wasn't the only reason i went there. Serbia was effected by hyperinflation in the early to mid nineties, so they had some notes there that were 5,000,000,000,000 Dinars, which is absolutely crazy. i spoke to the woman that worked there and was asking about them, she said for Serbs, they are times they would rather forget, so i didn't asked her too many questions. its funny, in the exhibition they had coins, but i have not been given a coin the whole time I've been here, only notes, and the notes they use here are still really high numbers so, if your ever here, take money out of the bank and get a receipt, for most people its the only time you'll be a millionaire on paper. they also had an exhibition on forgery which was pretty interesting, i could hardly tell the difference between the real stuff and the fake stuff. something cool that was there was you can get your face put on a Dinar note, so i got one done, its pretty funny, the photo of me was pretty bad so it looks like a criminal on a bank note.
something im really enjoying here is there alphabet, i find it really interesting, mainly from a font perspective. the letters are really sharp and sometimes they don't have tales then sometimes they have extra tails, for instance 'Belgrade' in the native alphabet turns out looking like 'Београд'. even though you can kind of make out what it says, it does make it a little tricky to get around, mainly because the map you get when you arrive here is written with the english letters, so when you walk around the street and try to find signs to get your bearings, you cant compare the two. but i managed.
i wouldn't say Belgrade is a beautiful city, you'd be kidding yourself if you thought it would be, but its not all bad, occasionally you see a nice building or a park to wander through. theres a place called Kalemegdan which has a garden and the remains of a castle and a big fortress which is quite nice, its pretty old and like most things in Europe, was added to over time. its worth a look. i think they have a military museum in there too, but i wasn't interested so i gave it a miss. supposedly the night life here is quite good but i didn't witness any of it, I'm boring.
i took a bus across the river to an old town called Zemum, it was a bit different compared to the rest of Belgrade mainly because, it used to be owned by Austria but after the war became part of Belgrade. it was a small little place with a market selling, well, rubbish really, nothing worth buying. but it had a cool tower thing amongst the poky little, colourfully painted homes, in its own way it was really cute. a good thing about Zemum is its built right along the Danube river so it had a bit of a view as i walked back, its nothing spectacular, most of the boats looked like they were more likely to sink than float, but the sun was shining so i made the most of it. something i found interesting while i was out was the amount of people walking around, i was here during the week and people were just shopping, having lunch, doing coffee, it was like no one had a job and no one cared less.
where i was staying was pretty good, the people here were really friendly and extremely helpful, pointing out things on the map for me to check out and giving me a brief run down of what it is and its history. also the breakfast that was included had home made jams made by the guys mum and other local foods, really nice. but the best thing about staying there was they had a guitar. i hadn't played in months and i was pretty rusty, but it was great to have a play for a while. the only off putting thing was i went to get a drink of water from the tap, when i looked at the glass, i found the water was REALLY cloudy, i could hardly see through it! i asked the guy if it was ok to drink and he said it was, and he took a sip, come to think of it, i haven't seen that guy since... not really, i'm only kidding! but i decided to pass of drinking the water. my hostel was right near a giant church which ended up being really handy because you could see the church wherever you are in Belgrade so it was easy to find home. if you've been reading the blog you would've noticed that i'm not a huge fan of the church, i think it might have been the 13 years of catholic education that might have done it, but thats another story. there was something i did like about this church, was the chime the bells made. it was pretty crazy, it sounded exactly what a church in a communist country would sound like, i don't know how to describe it maybe like something straight from a propaganda film or something. pretty funny.
Belgrade's a bit dirty at times, but its been through a fair bit, bombs, hyperinflation, all mainly because of Milošević, i did a wikipedia search of him while i was here, geez, he sounds like a nasty piece of work and thats putting it lightly, one of his past times seemed to be kidnapping political opponents just for kicks! but i felt quite safe here and the people here are great, while i was here i ate at a little shop around the corner from the hostel, i got talking to the people that worked there and the customers and they were all really lovely.
i think if i was going to describe Belgrade i would like to think of it as a pair of old shoes, you know they have holes in them, but they are really comfortable, so you don't throw them away. i dunno if that makes sense, but i know what i mean. its been an interesting stay, originally when i was planning this trip, Belgrade wasn't on the list, but when we couldn't get a ferry across to Dubrovnik from Bari i had to rethink what i was going to do, it kind of threw my plans up in the air BIG time. i hate saying this because its so cliche but, i guess everything happens for a reason. I've seen another side of Europe, and in a way, another side of life. anyway, next is Sarajevo.
Zagreb
After some thought i figured i would head to Zagreb. The train ride to Zagreb ended up being a really good experience, the train was running an hour late and i ended up speaking to this young guy who was from Croatia, we got on quite well so on the train ride there him and a girl who was in our carriage filled me in on a few interesting facts about the area and the people, like how Croatia and the surrounding areas were once called Yugoslavia and filled me in on the Bosnian war. it was a little hard to take it all in but it was all really interesting to hear it from a the point of view of someone who lived here and had friends that grew up amongst it. he was saying that now Slovenians and Croatians don't really get along he was saying its quite common to get group emails telling them not to buy Slovenian products and when Croatia tried to join the EU Slovenia protested to slow down the process, well that's what they believe anyway, crazy huh!
it was funny, i was asking them what they were doing while in Ljubljana and it turned out the girl was visiting her boyfriend who is Slovenian. i asked her if it is hard to date someone that's A) in an different country to you and B) is technically her enemy. she said it was hard especially because she is a bit torn as to what she wants to do. she wanted to stay in Croatia and help rebuild her home with the knowledge shes gained from studying but then on the other hand she wanted to be with her boyfriend and earn the EURO so she could get ahead. by the sounds of it Croatia is in a strange situation of 'there damned if they do, and there damned if they don't' because there currency is pretty weak but if they join the EU they have to close 4 of there 5 ports because of an agreement in the contract which means the loss of many jobs. i think interesting times lay ahead for Croatia. another little fact they told me that i like was the currency they use here is called Kuna which i think the rough translation means fur because that's what they used to trade in. on there 2Kuna coin they have a little weasel kind of thing which is the animal they used to skin to trade with.
they asked me where Ive been traveling, so i told them about where i had been and what my plans were, they couldn't get over it and said that they couldn't even dream of doing a trip like that. it wasn't until then that i realized how lucky i was to be doing this trip and that i shouldn't really be complaining about how tired i was from traveling, because so many people don't get this opportunity. anyway, they were both really lovely and helpful, the guy even walked me to my hostel. i didn't think of it at the time but i didn't even catch there names.
the security at the border was a little over the top, both Slovenian and Croatian border police checked our passports and it was all very serious, i was a little surprised, through out all my traveling around Europe hardly anyone had checked my passport and now they were being really thorough but i suppose this was an exception, it was the first border to and from the EU.
first observation was how religious Croatians are, they had a small church kind of area inside the train station! while i was walking around i found a little spot under a bridge that had a fresco of the virgin Mary with candles all around it and people praying, because it was dark and it was only lit with the candles it was quite an interesting place. there was another church that had the Croatian coat of arms in the tiles in the roof which was quite interesting and there was a big cathedral, but i didn't really rate it much.
second observation was there are so many Museums here, they seem to have a museum for anything and everything its a bit ridiculous really.
third observation was how they park there cars here. they don't have any parking so they just drive as close as they can to the side of the road, stop there car and put the hazard lights on.
there's not really a hell of a lot to do here in Zagreb so i just wandered around and saw a bit of the town. the area starting from the train station up to the main square is nice, the majority of the buildings were quite old but still well looked after but in parts are a bit run down and have graffiti on the walls. it was nothing to rave about, i felt it wasn't until i went behind and beyond the main square that it started getting interesting. there was a mix of really old and really new. the old buildings were better looked after and it looked like they had just built a big shopping centre with all the big names in it, like Chanel, Dior etc. i was a little bit shocked in some ways, after what i had seen before, i didn't expect to see brands like that at all. the neighborhood seemed to be in a transformation, i wouldn't be surprised if i came back here in a couple of years time and they had converted the old factory's into apartments, it could potentially be a different city, which i think is a good thing, but i hope it doesnt change so much that it loses its idenity.
the second day i was here i found out that Croatia were in the final for the European Handball Championships against France. the streets were buzzing and there was a sea of white and red checked shirts (the same as Croatian flag) in the main square. the place was going off, over night they erected a huge screen and stage, it was nothing like the place i walked through the night before. so a few of us from the hostel braved the snow and watched the game on the big screen. there were a couple from Brazil who were really into it, the girl actually used to play professionally for Brazil. part of the group were 2 girls from New Zealand that have Asian background, i get the feeling Zagreb doesn't get too many tourists from Asian because everyone stared at them, it was quite incredible (more about the two girls later). the atmosphere was really amazing, the crowd were jumping up and down and chanting stuff that sounded a little bit like this. unfortunately for us Croatia lost. it was strange because to me its just a game, sure it would've been nice to win but it wasn't the end of the world, but to the Croatian people it must have been, i spotted a few people crying and everyone was really silent. a bit extreme don't you think?
Zagreb is built at the bottom of a mountain range and because of the weather at the moment a couple of us from the hostel went up to check out the snow. we originally wanted to go skiing because its pretty cheap to do it here, but we couldn't find a store that would hire out wet weather gear. it didn't really matter, we found a toboggan when we got up there so had heaps of fun falling off that. i couldn't get over how white it was up there, there was a huge dump of snow and everything was covered, it was really pretty. up the top of the mountain was a little restaurant where we had lunch, we found out later that the place we went its one of the best places to get really good Croatian food, which was lucky for us. we asked a local guy who was sitting near us what to have and he pretty much ordered for us, the food was brilliant! we had a sausage thing that was wrapped in cabbage with a sour sauce with mashed potato. it kind of reminded me of the food i had in Hungry, which is not really surprising considering how close the two countries are. as some of you may or may not not know, before this trip i used to be a Vegetarian, but i decided that while i was overseas i wanted to try foods from all over the world so i unvegetarianised (is that even a word?) myself. im actually glad i did, especially here, mainly because i think i would've been hard pressed to find a food without meat in it.
now i mentioned the two New Zealand girls before, i have never met anyone with this much bad luck. while they were traveling in Spain one of them got there wallet stolen, so they canceled her card and used the other girls card until they got there new one. but then on the over night train to Vienna they both fell asleep and the other one, the one that had the bank card, had her whole bag stolen. so they ended up getting stuck in Zagreb because that's where they had to change trains to go to Vienna. so they have been stuck here in Zagreb for a week waiting for there cards to turn up. luckily for them, they arranged with the hostel that they would pay for there stay once they get there cards, which were being sent to the hostels address.
but then one night the guy that was working her got incredibly drunk and i believe, even though he denies it, ate some of our food that we had all brought together for dinner and threw a lot of it in the bin, we asked him what happened and how it got like that, and he had some pretty lame excuses (at one point he kind of sounded a bit like Vicky Pollard from Little Britain) because he was drunk he totally lost his shit and told the girls that they had to leave in the morning because he thought they said that he did it (even though we all thought he did it, we never said that he actually did) at one point i thought it was going to get violent, thank god it didn't but it put a whole dampener on the evening and the time we had spent there, up until that point it was a pretty fun place to stay because the other owner of the hostel was really cool, but after that i was kind of glad i was leaving the next day. anyway, the next morning the guy apologized to the girls and told them they could stay on, obviously after that instance they didn't really want to stay but did anyway because of there bankcards.
before i got here i heard that Zagreb was voted 'Europe's most boring capital' and i could see how it could be normally, but Christ, after everything that happened while i was here, for me, Zagreb was far from boring. Next stop Belgrade.
it was funny, i was asking them what they were doing while in Ljubljana and it turned out the girl was visiting her boyfriend who is Slovenian. i asked her if it is hard to date someone that's A) in an different country to you and B) is technically her enemy. she said it was hard especially because she is a bit torn as to what she wants to do. she wanted to stay in Croatia and help rebuild her home with the knowledge shes gained from studying but then on the other hand she wanted to be with her boyfriend and earn the EURO so she could get ahead. by the sounds of it Croatia is in a strange situation of 'there damned if they do, and there damned if they don't' because there currency is pretty weak but if they join the EU they have to close 4 of there 5 ports because of an agreement in the contract which means the loss of many jobs. i think interesting times lay ahead for Croatia. another little fact they told me that i like was the currency they use here is called Kuna which i think the rough translation means fur because that's what they used to trade in. on there 2Kuna coin they have a little weasel kind of thing which is the animal they used to skin to trade with.
they asked me where Ive been traveling, so i told them about where i had been and what my plans were, they couldn't get over it and said that they couldn't even dream of doing a trip like that. it wasn't until then that i realized how lucky i was to be doing this trip and that i shouldn't really be complaining about how tired i was from traveling, because so many people don't get this opportunity. anyway, they were both really lovely and helpful, the guy even walked me to my hostel. i didn't think of it at the time but i didn't even catch there names.
the security at the border was a little over the top, both Slovenian and Croatian border police checked our passports and it was all very serious, i was a little surprised, through out all my traveling around Europe hardly anyone had checked my passport and now they were being really thorough but i suppose this was an exception, it was the first border to and from the EU.
first observation was how religious Croatians are, they had a small church kind of area inside the train station! while i was walking around i found a little spot under a bridge that had a fresco of the virgin Mary with candles all around it and people praying, because it was dark and it was only lit with the candles it was quite an interesting place. there was another church that had the Croatian coat of arms in the tiles in the roof which was quite interesting and there was a big cathedral, but i didn't really rate it much.
second observation was there are so many Museums here, they seem to have a museum for anything and everything its a bit ridiculous really.
third observation was how they park there cars here. they don't have any parking so they just drive as close as they can to the side of the road, stop there car and put the hazard lights on.
there's not really a hell of a lot to do here in Zagreb so i just wandered around and saw a bit of the town. the area starting from the train station up to the main square is nice, the majority of the buildings were quite old but still well looked after but in parts are a bit run down and have graffiti on the walls. it was nothing to rave about, i felt it wasn't until i went behind and beyond the main square that it started getting interesting. there was a mix of really old and really new. the old buildings were better looked after and it looked like they had just built a big shopping centre with all the big names in it, like Chanel, Dior etc. i was a little bit shocked in some ways, after what i had seen before, i didn't expect to see brands like that at all. the neighborhood seemed to be in a transformation, i wouldn't be surprised if i came back here in a couple of years time and they had converted the old factory's into apartments, it could potentially be a different city, which i think is a good thing, but i hope it doesnt change so much that it loses its idenity.
the second day i was here i found out that Croatia were in the final for the European Handball Championships against France. the streets were buzzing and there was a sea of white and red checked shirts (the same as Croatian flag) in the main square. the place was going off, over night they erected a huge screen and stage, it was nothing like the place i walked through the night before. so a few of us from the hostel braved the snow and watched the game on the big screen. there were a couple from Brazil who were really into it, the girl actually used to play professionally for Brazil. part of the group were 2 girls from New Zealand that have Asian background, i get the feeling Zagreb doesn't get too many tourists from Asian because everyone stared at them, it was quite incredible (more about the two girls later). the atmosphere was really amazing, the crowd were jumping up and down and chanting stuff that sounded a little bit like this. unfortunately for us Croatia lost. it was strange because to me its just a game, sure it would've been nice to win but it wasn't the end of the world, but to the Croatian people it must have been, i spotted a few people crying and everyone was really silent. a bit extreme don't you think?
Zagreb is built at the bottom of a mountain range and because of the weather at the moment a couple of us from the hostel went up to check out the snow. we originally wanted to go skiing because its pretty cheap to do it here, but we couldn't find a store that would hire out wet weather gear. it didn't really matter, we found a toboggan when we got up there so had heaps of fun falling off that. i couldn't get over how white it was up there, there was a huge dump of snow and everything was covered, it was really pretty. up the top of the mountain was a little restaurant where we had lunch, we found out later that the place we went its one of the best places to get really good Croatian food, which was lucky for us. we asked a local guy who was sitting near us what to have and he pretty much ordered for us, the food was brilliant! we had a sausage thing that was wrapped in cabbage with a sour sauce with mashed potato. it kind of reminded me of the food i had in Hungry, which is not really surprising considering how close the two countries are. as some of you may or may not not know, before this trip i used to be a Vegetarian, but i decided that while i was overseas i wanted to try foods from all over the world so i unvegetarianised (is that even a word?) myself. im actually glad i did, especially here, mainly because i think i would've been hard pressed to find a food without meat in it.
now i mentioned the two New Zealand girls before, i have never met anyone with this much bad luck. while they were traveling in Spain one of them got there wallet stolen, so they canceled her card and used the other girls card until they got there new one. but then on the over night train to Vienna they both fell asleep and the other one, the one that had the bank card, had her whole bag stolen. so they ended up getting stuck in Zagreb because that's where they had to change trains to go to Vienna. so they have been stuck here in Zagreb for a week waiting for there cards to turn up. luckily for them, they arranged with the hostel that they would pay for there stay once they get there cards, which were being sent to the hostels address.
but then one night the guy that was working her got incredibly drunk and i believe, even though he denies it, ate some of our food that we had all brought together for dinner and threw a lot of it in the bin, we asked him what happened and how it got like that, and he had some pretty lame excuses (at one point he kind of sounded a bit like Vicky Pollard from Little Britain) because he was drunk he totally lost his shit and told the girls that they had to leave in the morning because he thought they said that he did it (even though we all thought he did it, we never said that he actually did) at one point i thought it was going to get violent, thank god it didn't but it put a whole dampener on the evening and the time we had spent there, up until that point it was a pretty fun place to stay because the other owner of the hostel was really cool, but after that i was kind of glad i was leaving the next day. anyway, the next morning the guy apologized to the girls and told them they could stay on, obviously after that instance they didn't really want to stay but did anyway because of there bankcards.
before i got here i heard that Zagreb was voted 'Europe's most boring capital' and i could see how it could be normally, but Christ, after everything that happened while i was here, for me, Zagreb was far from boring. Next stop Belgrade.
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