Venice, Italy: Part 2

Let's see... For sure the first full day was the most epic, merely because of the walk that Rae and I went on all day. Another activity we performed was taking the 'bus' from the beginning of it's run all the way out to the island of Lido. The bus was of course a boat and we picked it up at its first stop so we were able to get seats up front. The number 1 goes along the whole Grand Canal and then out through the bay to the island of Lido. There were about 15 stops and it was a nice day on the water. This is probably the most frequented boat since it ran every 10 minutes or so, but there were still a ton of people all the time. Thank goodness we had seats up front. The stops criss-crossed the canal so if you wanted a particular side, you might have a bit of a walk from your stop to where you need to be.

We had been told also that Johnny Depp and Angelina Jolie were at a particular section of the Grand Canal filming a new movie called the Tourist. Unfortunately, we did not find or see them. Oh well. The island of Lido is pretty much a strip of land that separates the island of Venice and it's bay from the Adriatic. As such, we walked the entire width of it and visited the Adriatic. My sisters and Rae actually took their shoes off and waded. I'm told it was very cold.

On the way back from Lido, we got off the boat at San Marco and braved the extreme mass of humanity that inevitably goes to the famous places. I'd like to draw your attention to the lamp stands and their pink glass. Interesting. San Marco was quite large and our search for an exchange place for my sisters led us up an alley, which then sent us on some exploration of the surrounding areas of the San Marco neighborhood. We made our way down to the Rialto bridge and had an early dinner. And then we had more gelato. *thumbs up*

That dinner was the only time I had a pasta dish while in Italy. All my other meals were pizza and gelato and beer with crisps. Yes, here in Venice we found the most delightful pub to frequent and frequent it we did. I had my choice between a Martin's & Gordon Red or the 9% Carlsberg Special Brew. Oh mercy! The last time I had a beer I enjoyed this much was in Scotland in November and before that it was August in Seattle. The beer came with free crisps and our relationship became so good that we even got free sandwiches one time, no charge (plus more crisps). Huzzah! Rae was enjoying Campari spritzers that were very tasty. When we weren't having beer at this pub, we were enjoying the extreme variety of pizza toppings that Venice had to offer. One such topping I must recount. Fries (or chips since I seem to be using UK versions of potato foods). Yes, fries were placed on top of a cheese or pepperoni pizza slice. Astounding. I will be trying this at home. I had never even imagined what potato and pizza would taste like but it works. Try it.

Our last few hours in Venice were spent at a Irish pub (they were heavily advertising football and Guiness) people watching. Espressos or lattes all around and all four of our seats were facing out to the walkway. The pub came with a very cute guard dog who did not want to be petted at all. I let him be and we named him Max.

We watched as street peddlers vended phony high end bags, sunglasses and such. One time and quite suddenly, 7 of them came tearing from our left through the crowd with about 3 bags on each of their arms. It was like a scene from a movie. My head casually followed them from left...to right as they kept glancing back. Another person in uniform shortly came tearing after them. Wow! About 20 minutes and another espresso later, we see some of those guys come moseying back. I can only assume the weaker of the herd was taken down.

Venice is a city of wandering. No cars or buses, except for boats, means you're walking everywhere. It was nice to get off the beaten paths and away from the people. That way you get to see some of the more interesting things and even to try and imagine living there. I'm glad I visited. It certainly was a sight to see.

Venice, Italy: Part 1

A little over a week ago my sister and her best friend came out to Germany to visit me.  For the first two days, we wandered Giessen and visited Marburg.  After that we went to Venice since we reasoned it would get really boring for them to be in Giessen for a week.  Train travel being expensive if you don't have a pass, we planned a trip to a place we all had been wanting to visit.  All parts of the plan to get there went off without a hitch.  We flew Ryanair again which means flying into an out of the way airport.  In this case, it was Treviso.  An hour bus ride and a very long bridge to the island and we were in Venice.  

"Ah...Venice."  I just had to quote Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade when I got off the bus.  We quickly followed the directions to our hostel and left the realm of cars and buses behind us.  There was the Grand Canal right off the bat!  A huge bridge too, which consisted entirely of steps, but we were not to take that bridge.  Let me just say that the streets had us licked from the very beginning.  We didn't have a good map with us yet and the word 'street' means something very different here.  Alley would be the more appropriate word.  Thankfully Sarah, my sister's friends, isn't afraid to speak so we asked a restaurant proprietor where the street was that we sought.  We kept an eye on our surroundings and saw that there was a bakery and a pizzeria right next to our place so our first night involved having pizza and a little wandering around.  

There is a lot more concrete and roadway than I was expecting.  I pictured canals between every block and sidewalk-like walkways on each side.  But there were entire sections where you could walk 5 or even 10 minutes and not see any water.   There was also a persistent odor that was very slight and I could imagine that in the summer it would be worse, thus confirming the smelly Venice I've also heard about.  Thankfully, the temperatures were cool enough that I never noticed it again.  Moreover, an army of gnomes appears to have been unleashed with spray cans because there was graffiti everywhere!  No joke.  I was astonished.  We wondered if they paint over it in tourist season, but then thought this town is a year round destination.  Oh well.  I got over that quickly too.

Our first full day found my sisters (my sis' best friend is practically another sister) wandering by themselves while Rae and I took to the city like madmen.  By madmen, I just mean that we were going out and had no intention to come back until our 5 pm rendezvous time.  Two of my goals for this city were to find the Church of San Pantalon and the Church of San Barnaba.  At San Pantalon, there is  The Martyrdom and Apotheosis of St Pantalon by Gian Antonio Fumiani, a massive ceiling painting.  Fumiani died painting it when he fell from the scaffolding.  I wanted to see it because it was mentioned in a book I recently read, The Solitudes by John Crowley.  It described the painting's way of going up into infinity and it certainly did.  Here is a link to a Wikipedia picture of the ceiling.  My next place was actually in the line from our hostel to Pantalon so we continued walking and eventually (I say eventually because we zigged instead of zagging and came around the long way) arrived at the Church or San Barnaba, the outside of which was used for the library in Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade.  Here is a picture of me in front of the structure.  

The inside was hosting a da Vinci inventions thing.  They had about 50 miniature versions of his inventions on display.  I glanced inside and can say for sure that the interior shots from the movie were a set.  Whatever, I liked the outside.  

From there, Rae and I continued east, I believe, and began a very large loop around all of Venice.  We wandered to the San Marco area, out to a peninsula point that had some sort of art museum, around the point, up and over the Grand Canal, out to a Bastion wall, back up to another bend in the Grand Canal and down to the Rialto Bridge.  We sat finally and had some beer at a table on the water right next to the bridge. 

There was a very amusing guy on his boat directly in front of us while we were drinking. He was on his cell phone, gesticulating wildly (I gather as Italians do, no offense), and walking up and down the length of his boat. His pacing was the amusing part as he appeared to be quite drunk. I kept expecting him to tumble overboard. He would walk right to the edge and lean out and then lean back all while talking and moving his arms. Eventually, he started up his boat, his buddy got on and they took off. His pal barely missed hitting his head on the bridge as they went under. Yes, the other guy was still on the phone. I was sad to see them go.

There was also much gelato to be had while in Italy and we definitely had a lot.  If it wasn't pizza, it was gelato.  So it goes.  Our first day ended with going for pizza and gelato.  I shall tell more in a subsequent post shortly.  Out.

Concluding thoughts

Addendum: I have uploaded photos from all the places we went on our Balkans trip. The captions I've put have a few extra thoughts and I hope you enjoy the selection. Thanks for reading and traveling with me. As always, should you have specific questions about these places, just comment and I'll get back to you.

Hello all.  As you can see, the current (as of 3/17/2010) posts are all about the trip I took through the Balkans region.  I am planning on posting about 5 pictures per place that have a story or are simply pretty after I get back from visiting Venice on the 21st.  Of course I'll also be posting thoughts and pictures from there as well.  The pictures will come with captions that will tell more than I could in a quick blog.  So until next week, cheers!

Photos: Bratislava, Slovakia

Picture 1: A square in the old town. It sucks that it was such a dreary and rainy day. I think this place would be nice to see or hang out in during a sunny day.

Picture 2: The Photographer. Of the 3 famous statues I mentioned in the blog post, this guy gets the picture here since he is the picture taker. I like the angle that Rae got but if you’d like to see the Watcher, he is there, down by the door on the corner.

Picture 3: The feast we inadvertently ordered. Looking at the menu of the place I picked, the three of us decided to share a combo meal since it would be just as expensive as individual meals that we would have shared bites of anyway. But then this plate comes out with a layer of french fries on the bottom, a huge hunk of meat on the bone in the middle, calamari rings, toasted cheese bread, sandwichs, wursts, chicken wings, and a variety of dips/sauces. Amazingly enough we cleared this plate that was made for 4-6 people.

Picture 4: The UFO bridge. Rae has told me that the Soviet regime dismantled one of the oldest cathedrals in the area to get the materials for this bridge. It is the creepiest bridge I’ve ever seen and I would not want to drive over it. That’s all.

Bratislava, Slovakia

Whew!  We have made it to the last place on our journey before our return to Germany.  Bratislava met us at the train station with a blast of cold air.  Rain was brewing and it wasn't long after we got off the train that it was lightly sprinkling or drizzling.  We were again disoriented and wished desperately that large street maps came with compass roses on the ground.  With that said, our wish to get to the old central area was confounded by street turns and our path was more circuitous than we intended.  But because of that we again got to see a part of the city that a normal traveler wouldn't have seen.  I remember remarking to myself, "how hard can it be to find a cobblestone old town next to a river?"  I guess pretty hard.  All of us were quite hungry and so I snagged a local travel guide and looked up Slovakian cuisine.  A pub popped up that looked promising for beer, but something caught Rachel's eye before we could get there.

We were in the square with the Frenchman, a statue of a man leaning on a bench (I will include the picture).  Let me say now that Hungary and Slovakia, along with the Czech Republic since I've been there too, are statue addicts.  If you were a sculptor, come sell your stuff here.  Anyway, the Frenchman is, I guess, a famous statue along with the Watcher and the Photographer.  I suggested we search for the other two after eating, but on the way to the pub, I spotted the Watcher.  He is half a guy leaning on the edge of a manhole in the street.  Seriously, it is an interesting sculpture just because of its positioning.  He is facing towards the Frenchman down a street.  Making a 90 degree angle with the Watcher at the vertex, one can spot the Photographer down a different street.  He is leaning around a building with a huge camera pointed in the general direction of the Watcher.  The cafe/restaurant at the corner he is at is appropriately called Paparazzi.  Scratch three famous statues.  On to food!

The pub was a nice respite from the relentless drizzle.  Inside we found the local beer to be quite delicious and decided to share a combo meal designed to feed 4-6 people, not 3.  Out comes a huge chunk of meat on the bone still surrounded by various dips, cheesy and garlic bread, various sausages (one wrapped in bacon), mushroom and cheese sandwich halves, calamari rings and fries filling the rest of the space and acting as a blanket for the plate.  It was the most incredible display of food I'd seen in a while.  We ate our fill, needless to say, and enjoyed two beers each.  It was a good way to stave off walking in the rain, which let up while we were in there.  

We walked along the river, snapping photos and people watching.  We came upon the UFO bridge, which was built with the stone from a synagogue the Soviets tore down.  It was a strange looking bridge, specifically the cable supports, and it did not sit well with me although it was an epic bridge.  I think it was the UFO part.  Anyway, we felt that we might as well head for the airport and so we turned and followed the map up the way we should have come in the first place.  Just a quick little stopover before our flight back to Germany.  I won't go into boring details of the flight and what not but I will say that we were able to catch the last bus from the Hahn airport to the Frankfurt main train station.  Unfortunately, and as expected, the last train to Giessen had already left.  It was 1:30 in the morning 18 days after having left Giessen and it was probably -3 degrees Celsius in the bahnhof.  But we persevered and were napping a siesta by 0800.  Cheers to a successful ending!

Photos: Budapest, Hungary

Picture 1: The incredible tomato basil soup I had the first day in Budapest. It had smoked cheese in it and the toasted white bread had melted smoked cheese on top. It was amazing and everybody should have soup this good.

Picture 2: Another statue that comes off the pedestal. This one had the figure of a woman fawning over the bust. This statue is in a park of statues next to the river.

Picture 3: The Parliament building. This picture does not do the size and grandeur of the building justice. It is so elegant and decorated that I can’t believe people actually work inside. I wish we could have gone inside to see.

Picture 4: An image of Buda from the Pest side of the river. The clouds this day were doing incredible things. I wish the ambient temperature had been a little warmer, that way when the Sun was covered up it wouldn’t have gotten so cold. After this pic was taken, we wandered over the bridge and hiked up and around the whole riverside Buda, from the government buildings on that side to the Fisherman’s Bastion.

Picture 5: From left to right, Palinka, Hubertus, and Havanna Club 7 year. The Palinka was amazing and I have definitely come to love Balkan brandys. The Hubertus was a bitter and Rae really likes bitters. She enjoyed it quite a bit and Jeff of course had to have some rum. Since we were splurging a little, he went with the 7 year.

Picture 6: Jeff and I walking around the Great Market of Pest oblivious to Rae’s camera. As I think I said in the blog, the stores repeated themselves after every 4th stall or so. It continues to baffle me how every stall in a touristy area stays in business when they all sell the same stuff.

Picture 7: The tank on a pool of nearly still oil in the Terror Museum. The images on the wall are of victims of the Nazi and Communist regimes in Hungary. This was the only place we could take pictures. The mirroring pool of oil had two sources underneath the tank and the oil very slowly pooled over the edge and fell down to the basement. It was a strange effect.

Picture 8: The Heroes Square. Very, very large. If you look closely near the center, you should be able to see Jeff and me. Rae was so far away to take this picture. The 14 statues along the back range from the 10th century up to, I think, the 19th century. There were large gaps in the dates but I guess the other leaders or guys didn’t make hero status. It was very interesting to walk along from right to left and see the change in clothing on each statue as the years went back.

Budapest, Hungary: Part 2

We were still pretty exhausted, especially since our trip had been going on for a bit.  We only did the market and walked around the river up to the massive Parliament building the second day.  The second night there, we were going to try and have another stab at the soup at the bar but it was completely packed.  Apparently Tuesday night is the night to go this bar.  Instead, we decided to attack one of the various Western eateries we had seen on our walk in which included BK, Mickey D’s, Subway, Pizza Hut and KFC to name a few.  Burger King was also packed for some silly reason and prices seemed high.  We settled on Pizza Hut and were soon terrified.  Pizza Hut in Budapest is like some sort of sit down place!  I couldn’t even glance at the menu in the huge room for the prices before I was being ushered to a seat and encouraged to take my jacket off for the coat hanger.  I didn’t even know if I wanted to eat here but it seems we were trapped.  We each ordered a medium and three guys (yes, 3) came out with our pizzas and served the first slice onto our plates for us.  I can’t say anymore, the experience was just bizzare.  I fear for any Hungarian who goes to a Pizza Hut in the States expecting all that.

The third day there we visited the Terror Museum, a building that is now a monument and the previous headquarters of two different terror regimes: Hungarian Nazis and then Soviet Communists.  Walking through was pretty rough at times.  They had movies of people telling their experiences and images from both regimes.  The museum even reconstructed the old holding cells in the basement and gave people a chance to experience what prisoners experienced including a room filled with 2 inches of water, a room that had a ceiling 4 feet off the ground so you couldn’t stand up straight and a room barely larger than your body so you couldn’t even sit let alone lay down.  We were there for several hours just absorbing everything.  We even sat for 15 minutes and watched the tapes from the war crimes trials.  It was hard to believe of course that this building had been the headquarters but it had been and instead of tearing it down, the people preserved it as a legacy and a reminder of how things should not be.  

We grabbed a bite to eat and then took a brief siesta before traveling up one of the largest roads in Budapest that led to the Heroes Square.  This giant pavilion area looked like it could host two farmers markets every Saturday.  14 huge statues commemorating the heroes of Hungary partially encircled a central pillar that stood watch over a tomb to unknown soldiers and heroes.  I’ll include the large picture soon.  Two museums, for art I believe, mirrored each other at each end of the pavilion.  It was already dark by the time we got there so we did not stay out long.  We grabbed food stuffs again from the market and had a snack dinner of cheeses, bread and meat with the remainder of some palinka and wine we had picked up earlier.

The next morning, we were already packed up and ready to go to the train station.  Interestingly enough, it had snowed and was still snowing as we left for the walk.  I’m certainly glad it waited because it was cold and dreary.  It’s probably a given that we will try to return to Budapest in the future and this time in a better time of the year.  I will say it was nice to not have a whole host of tourists around and that has been a defining aspect of our trip.  The train station greeted us as it always does and we got on what was the nicest train so far.  It was warm and had comfy seats.  We bid farewell to Hungary and continued to the final location in Slovakia.  More as always in the pictures once they’re up.  Cheers!

Budapest, Hungary: Part 1

Another night train out of Belgrade brought us to Budapest.  We arrived quite early and, amazingly enough, the folks in charge of the hostel/apartment were going to be up already at their bar next door.  We take the quick walk through downtown Pest to the spot on the map and find our host.  He takes us up through what seems a maze of building hallways and multiple keys to a nice room for the three of us.  Exhausted from two night trains in a row, we crash for a few hours with plans to take it easy the first day by visiting the Terror Museum and eating downstairs in the bar.  Turns out the museum is not open on Mondays so instead we did what we had planned to do on Tuesday and that was to wander the other side of the river in the part of town known as Buda.

A beautiful and partly cloudy day was with us as we headed towards the river.  Of course, we got a beer first at the bar along with some gulash and tomato soup with smoked cheese.  I think my tomato soup was the most amazing thing I’d ever tasted in a soup.  I think it was the smoked cheese.  Anyway, we wandered the river side on Pest a bit, admiring the river and view of government buildings and Fisherman’s Bastion on the Buda side.  We crossed the river and decided we didn’t want to spend 4 euro on the funicular up the hill and instead hiked up the side.  It sure was higher than it looks and the view was amazing.  Of course it got extremely windy and chilly way up high but we wandered all along the castle through the business/touristy area (1 euro postcards, bleh) to the Bastion and then back down.  Several hours later, we crossed the river again and swung by a market for some food stuffs for dinner and breakfast the next day.  We had access to a kitchen, computer and a TV!  So over pasta with tomato sauce and bread, we watched American television with German dubbing.  Wow.

The second day greeted us with seemingly fairer weather although it was still chilly.  We decided to head out and mingle at the large market that is well known.  I love markets and Rae was interested in hitting it for some paprika.  We tramped down a different way through downtown and found the huge building with the market in it.  Inside it looked like it should be a train station.  Huge paned ceiling with multiple stories and walkways crossing over from side to side had me wondering if a train would come through.  The market was a little repetitive in that every fourth stall would start the pattern of stores over again.  First was the alcohol (various brandy’s, palinka, vodka) and paprika store, second was the meat seller, and third was the actual fruits and veggies stall.  Interspersed, but with much less frequency, were baked goods or cheese/pate stalls.  Downstairs in the basement was where they hid the more aromatically potent stalls, which seemed counterintuitive since the stench was overwhelming.  We didn’t stay down there long.  The second floor held the trinkets and fast food stalls.  We partook of Langos which is a deep fried bread with various toppings.  So good with just garlic butter and cheese but you could also have it with the works.  Let’s carry on in Part 2....

Photos: Belgrade, Serbia

Picture 1: Some of the castle grounds. From this side we could see the intersection of the Danube and Sava rivers.

Picture 2: A sandwich that is one of the most incredible things a person could ever eat that is fast food. It is called Pljeskavica and I have no idea how to pronounce it. The patty is as big as your heart and it was a chore to eat it but oh so worth it.

Picture 3: The friendly waiter at Le Petit bar and our free homemade rakija. This guy was awesome and I hope he gets that job on the cruise ship that he wanted.

Picture 4: The largest orthodox church in the world. The inside was so vast that I still felt like I was outside. You know that difference you get when you’re inside? Maybe for me it’s a very minor form of claustrophobia but inside this structure, I didn’t feel it at all. I think the couple pigeons soaring through the inside felt the same way. I’d like to go back and see it when it’s finally finished someday.

Picture 5: The remains of a building that was bombed by NATO. The residents have not torn it down but instead have let it be. It just has a fence around it but it does mean something since they haven’t demolished the building. Perhaps they are planning to turn it into a memorial.

Belgrade, Serbia

Jeff was so hyped up after his encounter at the border that he spent the next 3 hours smoking and chit chatting with some other smokers in between the train cars (the only place you can smoke, which by no means helps the other passengers if the door is left open).  There he made several friends, most notably a Serbian who was returning home from studying in Montenegro to work in a casino.  Well, this individual offered to show us around and he only asked that we give him a chance to shower and change.  We asked if there was someplace with free wi-fi and coffee and he led us several blocks away from the train station to a coffee shop that was probably the Starbucks of the region.  On the way, some other associates of Jeff were directed to a eating place that our friend insisted was awesome.  This is important to mention since we'll come back to it later.  Recall also, this was Sunday.  

So for the next 2 or 2.5 hours, we sat at this coffee shop enjoying the largest mocha I have ever seen.  Yes, they had mocha on the menu and it came out in a giant soup bowl thing with two handles.  Wow.  Internets at last again and I was able to see all the birthday wishes on my facebook which lightened my spirits since I was pretty tired and down.  We hung out for some time past the meeting time for our friend (yes, you can tell I never caught his name) but eventually we decided something either happened to delay him or he wasn't coming because he was already late and he thought we wouldn't have stayed.  Either way, 40 minutes after the meet time, we headed off on the pedestrian way to explore ourselves.  We walked towards the castle or fortress thing which turned out to have a great many statues in and around it.  There was also a military museum and there were enough various artillery batteries on display outside to wage a war.  We were pretty hungry by this time and recalled where our friend had sent the others.  Since nothing else was open, this would be it anyway and let me tell you something!  This was a monstrosity of meat and flavor and you'll have to wait for the picture.  I couldn't finish and if I had, it would have been bad.  

We stumbled our way in the opposite direction now from the initial coffee shop and went deeper into downtown looking for a bar or something for a beer.  Our end goal was the huge orthodox temple at the end of the road.  But first, the bar for a break.  Inside Le Petit Bar we met a very nice waiter who is hoping to work on a Danube river cruise ship.  We talked with him for most of our beer, during which he gave the Lucky Strike brand ashtray to Jeff (just for kicks), and after our beer he asked if we knew what rakija was.  Well of course we said yes and he gave us free shots of the owener's homemade rakija.  He even had one with us.  It was very cool to still be meeting people like that.  We said our goodbyes and kept walking to the temple.  In our Lonely Planet this temple is labeled as the largest orthodox temple in the world but there was no mention of when it was completed.  I pointed this out because I was curious how long it took to build.  When we walked in and saw a great host of construction, we realized it wasn't renovation work, it was still under construction.  National Socialists and then Communists coupled with a lack of funding had delayed and is still delaying construction.  Still, it was a sight to see and I invite you to look at some pics once they're up.  

We took a different street back down the hill by the advice of our friend at the bar.  He said there was a ruined building still standing from the NATO bombings that took place.  There were two buildings, one on each side of the street.  I'd never seen a real bombed building.  It was pretty heavy being there and looking at the damage.  With several hours to go until our train for Budapest departed, we went and bought our tickets, saw what funds we had left and decided to go have coffee again at the coffee shop we started the day at.  We stayed and read for many hours and then just after it got dark went back to the train station.  There we discovered a train where our train should be but it was dark and scary looking with no identifiable marks to show it was going to Budapest.  We waited in a heated waiting room.  

This room was for lack of a better word uncomfortable.  It was large and square with one ceiling light, one heater in the corner and seats only along the walls.  Smoking seemed to be allowed inside and there were homeless arguing near the heater.  Some other youths opposite us were listening to their conversation and laughing at their responses to each other.  3 police officers came in about 5 minutes after we did looking both tough and menacing, two things I dislike cops to do.  They chatted with the homeless folk and escorted them out and then went and chatted with the youth group and they got up and left too.  I was terrified they would talk to us so I kept my nose in my book.  They passed us by.

Finally, tired of being in that room and with the train still parked at platform 1, I went out to examine the other cars.  There, I saw lights on and signs on the windows that indicated this train would be going to Budapest.  The back two cars had no power I believe, though they were connected, and I believe this was what several people were investigating as they continuously made rounds about the train with flashlights.  We decided to get on and just sit in the dark, if there was a problem and the train started moving before it was supposed to leave, we would know we were on the wrong train and we'd jump off.  Other people joined the train in the dark and we eventually received power but no heating.  The time of departure came and we were off.  Thus was our day in Belgrade.  

Border Crossing into Serbia

So we had just been to Kosovo the day before heading to Serbia and right now there are some tensions between the two entities.  Rae had definitely done her research and in hindsight, trying to go from Kosovo to Serbia would no doubt have resulted in our being turned away at the border.  Going through Macedonia first though was still charting unknown waters and I think it is safe to say we were all very interested to see how this was going to go.  This trip had my first land border crossings and everywhere else I’d been so far in the world outside the US didn’t really check the passport thoroughly.  I was not accustomed to the border guard actually thumbing through and looking at where I’d been.  Every time I felt they were going to call me off the bus and ask me questions.  How much more so for Serbia!

So we’re on the night train from Skopje to Belgrade and we know that most of the trip will be through Serbia.  Only an hour or so into the trip and we easily pass out of Macedonia, the exit stamp clearly made.  A little ways more down the track and we reach the moment of truth.  It’s late but we’re wide awake.  I think the best way to picture the guard that we got is a guy of bulk build but not fat, gruff to the point of irritated and angry but not quite.  This is my interpretation and he might just have been tired or recently lost a game of poker.  Who knows?  Well he takes Jeff’s passport, glares at it and him, stamps it (I think he stamped it right then) and then makes a vague motion suggesting he needs to check something and put it in his pocket!  The same went for Rae and me.  Another guard goes by and they jabber something and I swear there were glances our way.  Well the guard continues checking everyone else and is gone for about 5-10 minutes.  It could have been shorter but when you’re trying to pass into a country that has some tension with your own plus one you just came from, it makes you nervous.  The same guard comes sweeping back in and, to my worst fears, taps Jeff on the shoulder and motions him to follow him off the train.  Rae and I start to get up thinking to follow but he says we should stay.  Hoo-boy.

Another 10 minutes or eternity goes by in which we wonder what they asking Jeff.  I imagined questions pertaining to politics that I’m not comfortable answering in a relaxed and friendly atmosphere.  Jeff comes back smiling then chuckling and then laughing quietly out loud while handing our passports back to us.  He tells us that he followed the guard a ways down the station as he met up with two other guards.  They proceed into a guard hut of some kind but when Jeff tries to follow, they say he should stay outside.  He has no coat and another person is there and Jeff merely says, “passport?” and they nod.  Jeff says the guards were inside not really doing much and then they were laughing.  Near the end of the time frame we were waiting in the train, the original guard just opens the door and hands the passports back to Jeff and motions to go!  Wha?!  Jeff thinks it might have been some sort of joke or game they were playing.  After he told the story to us, it did seem that was probably the case.  We were still strung up on adrenaline but the train was moving and we were in Serbia.  Our passports that had both an entrance and exit stamp from the Republic of Kosovo now had an additional stamp over them – the nullification (in the Serbians eyes) of the stamp and our having ever left (or entered I guess) Serbia before then.  I’ll include a picture when I have it.  So there you go.  The rest of the trip involved trying to get some sleep as we made our way to Belgrade.

Photos: Skopje, Macedonia

Picture 1: A view from the castle grounds. The visibility was amazing and the valley that Skopje is nestled in made me think of Middle Earth. I’m not sorry that makes me out to be a nerd but its the best way to convey the way I felt.

Picture 2: Another view via a great hole in the outer wall. I think that yellow building was some sort of museum, but unfortunately I can’t confirm that.

Picture 3: This stone bridge is over 300 years old. This is where we were when the gypsy kids accosted poor Jeff. While exploring down along the river, Jeff and Rachel spotted the bronze statues of divers. If you look, you can see a pair of feet in front of the other diver. Sometimes the river covered them up and it took us about 10 minutes to see them.

Picture 4: An interesting statue near the stone bridge. Something I would notice later in Budapest as well is the tendency for statues in the area to come off the pedestal. Most statues I’ve ever seen are confined to the base they are placed on. This particular one is of a human form with its arms becoming branches and one leg becoming a root that encircled the pedestal. Very interesting.

Picture 5: Rakija from the Rakija bar we discovered nearly by accident. Good stuff. Nice people.

Skopje, Macedonia

The bus ride from Prizren to Skopje began as I said with frigid temperatures and snow and ice on the ground. The bus station was miserable and though there were a great many buses waiting, none said Skopje. None that is until I figured maybe it is spelled completely differently from what we’d expect and sure enough the bus was already there waiting. O blessed warmth! All of the border crossings, by the by, have been easy as pie but of course we still had the difficult one ahead, but I digress. Macedonia greeted us with yet another abrupt change in scenery. Every country’s border has been a natural border between different climate/scenery/feel/look. It was a little unnerving since to my eyes it was as extreme as changing from a blue room to a yellow room. Well, maybe more like a dark blue to a light blue room...but still way different right after the border. Ack! Alright, to Skopje we go.

We were completely turned around when we reached the bus station. We had no idea which way was downtown nor which way we had come in. The Lonely Planet map we had with us was only giving a rough idea of landmarks and we didn’t even know if we were on the map. Our first course was to identify the train station since our travels would now be exclusively by train. After walking back and forth around the blocks surrounding the bus depot trying to follow some signs that said “Railway Station,” I reached another snapping point in shyness and just up and asked for the Railway Station. Turns out it was directly behind and above the bus depot. I had seen the tracks but didn’t know where the station was. I wish I had space to describe how different and yet the same each station or depot was from each other. After getting our bearings, we headed for the river to explore the large bazaar, fortress, and surrounding river area.

At the fortress, Jeff was accosted by a man selling knee braces and perfume/cologne. He literally followed us up two set of steps up into the outer grounds of the fortress stating that he knew English well and so we couldn’t say we didn’t understand him. I ignored him all the more after this since his snobbery would not help his sob story inspire me to buy things I did not need. After escaping, we were treated to beautiful views of the valley we were in. It was a partly cloudy day and quite comfortable. We wandered down through the bazaar again towards a stone bridge which had been there for some time. Across the bridge we found an ice skating rink set up and a host of people skating to music. We explored the river’s edge for a bit and then on our way back up from the edge to the bridge, two gypsy kids, aged 8-10, were suddenly among us, invading my personal space like nobody’s business. Their single phrase “give money” still haunts my ears since it was practically said with harsh, demanding anger. Poor Jeff. The kids were centimeters away from putting their hands in his pockets. I guess Rae got away because she’s a girl and I am pretty tall. They finally left us alone as we crossed the bridge again. I tell these two instances, not as a negative review of Macedonia, but because I want the reader to understand that our day trip to Skopje was not going so well and we were not having a good time. What can cheer up a not good time? Coffee and beer. Or in this case, coffee and rakija.

We hesitated outside a cafe on the edge of the bazaar area for the briefest of moments and in that moment, the owner came out and invited us in. We decided we might as well and were treated to a stone, brick and wood beauty of a bar and floor area with an upstairs that was just as nice. To describe the place with a word, we chose ‘comfortable.’ It felt like it belonged in Seattle. We sat upstairs and started with espressos. Later, we decided to try some hard alcohol since we had nothing else we really wanted to see and still had 4 hours to kill or so before we needed to be at the train station. Turns out we had entered a rakija bar. We told the owner some things we thought we’d like to try and it was amazing! We stayed for an hour and a half or so and on our way out, it seemed it was a dead time since the waiters, owner and I assume some of the owner’s interest partners were having dinner and drinks. Well, one of the partners said to us out of the blue if we’d like anything on the house - food, drink, whatever. Tongue tied briefly, we replied that we would but wanted to go get a postcard before any of the places closed. Less than 5 minutes later we walked back in and sat downstairs at a table next to them all and were then treated to a carafe of their homemade rakija (2 5cl shots each), not one but two helpings of incredibly seasoned potato slices with a kind of local goat cheese on top and fun conversation. All free. Turns out this place had been open for a week. Basically when we started our Balkans trip, this place opened. If I lived in Skopje, this is where you would find me. If you visit Skopje, I recommend this place and their potato slices to you. I’ll include a link if I find one.

We said our goodbyes and headed back to the train station, but the hidden generosity of Skopje was not quite done. While waiting for the train at the station, we entered a pastry store to order some tea. We sat outside so Jeff and Rae could smoke and the lady behind the counter came out and made conversation, asking why we were sitting outside (there was nobody in the small diner). So we went in, talked with her a bit, and then (I’m not sure how it happened) were given a pastry each, wrapped up for eating later! Well I left Skopje with a better impression than I would have otherwise. But now came the hard part of the journey: the border crossing into Serbia.

Photos: Prizren, Kosovo

Picture 1: This is a view across the river that was right outside of the hotel we found to stay in. The cafe that we would frequent is just past the mosque. There were a great many eateries that way as well.

Picture 2: The hill above Prizren had interesting ruins. I have no idea what it used to be since it was just walls and they were very nearly gone as well. Lots of space though. It also snowed during our walk up there and this was the pretty sweet view that we got on top of a thick portion of wall that was still there.

Picture 3: A public fountain. You can occasionally see people cupping their hands and drinking out of it. I’m not sure I would have only because it was really cold and my gloves were always on. This square was also very near the cafe we went to a lot. While people watching, we were astounded by the number of young people that went by in both directions. I joked that it may be the same group of people going around and I may have been right. It felt like the entirety of Prizren’s teenage population had gone by us.

Picture 4: The local beer of the area. I include it because it wasn’t half bad. Because I seem to have a problem with German beer and desperately miss my microbrews of the Pacific Northwest, this beer is honored with a photograph because it was awesome in comparison. Should you go, order a Peja.

Prizren, Kosovo

So I was pretty nervous about Prizren after Pristina. It wasn't that I disliked Kosovo, it just didn't seem to be ready for 'tourists' (I hate that word) just yet. Prizren was very different from Pristina. Imagine something like a turkish quarter or two to three story buildings with many alleys and narrow streets with markets and meat vendors dotting the storefront along with open markets at central locations. That was what the whole city was like. Quite a difference from the city we came from of skyscrapers, large streets, and a university. Upon arriving in the bus station and not finding any hint or tell of hostels or even hotels in the area, I reached a breaking point in my shyness and began asking anybody for information because I didn't want to wander what appeared from the bus to be an even more confusing town. Hostel? Hotel? That's how it went and finally one guy in a travel agency spoke English well and advised us to try the Hotel T*****. He said it was about 20€ a night which was better than nothing and as I said before, it seems Kosovo wasn't ready for travelers yet so they might not have hostels at all. We headed for city center and every 500 meters or so I would ask a person for the hotel and we would receive additional directions...that weren't working. Jeff noticed a lot of people delivering tea, just like we would see mailmen or pizza delivery people on foot. Having come from a background like that, he suggested we snag the next delivery guy we see and sure enough, the directions from him were impecable. Kudos to Jeff the Idea Man.

We see the hotel sign and walk hesitantly up the steps and into a room that has tellers sitting at stalls with a few people talking to them and a man in a suit at the door. "This is a hotel," I say haltingly as we look around and the man at the door says, "no, this is a bank." Seriously, the dialogue and rhythm of speech was right out of a movie. We chuckled, apologized and the man told us it was the next door over. To be fair, the hotel sign was directly above the room we were in but also over the bank sign. We get to the hotel, speak with the gentleman, who we believe in retrospect spoke better German than English, nail down a price and get 3 beds for one night, later to be two nights. It was raining now outside so we took a late siesta and hoped the rain would stop. It didn't really but we went out later anyway and found ourselves at a little café run by a very nice gentleman. We settled on machiatto's with Bailey's regardless of price because we were tired and wanted some alcohol and caffeine at the same time. Friends, right now, a large coffee with alcohol is 1€ I kid you not. We got another one and then headed to a pizza place for dinner which had an amazing calzone and the Kosovak beer for 1€ (I mean the beer was 1€). Thus ended the first day in Kosovo (don't forget Pristina). This day was also my birthday and I turned 27 while drinking and eating in Kosovo. Cheers!

The second day, it was snowing. I prefer snow actually over rain only because it is easier to deal with. Your shoes stay perhaps drier than stepping in puddles and you can dust yourself off when it accumlates too much on your jacket. As such, we braved the weather and climbed the hill to the fortress ruins above Prizren. It was a nice hike and quite peaceful in the snow. There weren't a lot of people about and the visibility was not too hampered by the snow. Afterwards, local lunch and a dessert followed by more coffee. Since traveling always involves a budget, I was pleased with how cheap things were. We wanted to try some brandy but they said they only had whiskey. Whiskey all around then while watching dubbed Discovery channel! We splurged and ate out again at the pizza place and had the same waiter. After eating, paying and tipping him, he came back less than a minute (seriously that fast) to ask if we would like anything on the house, espresso...whatever. A little confused at first, we politely replied that we could go for an espresso. So again we were blessed by the generosity of the people here. We shook hands with him on the way out and thanked him heartily.

Saturday morning comes around and there is now ice on the ground. Our hotel host advises that it is better to take a taxi to the bus station for our 0845 bus to Skopje. It was only 2€ but the problem was the taxi driver didn't seem to know what a bus station was. I guess I thought that was a universal phrase like coffee (kafé, kaffee) or beer (bier, bire). We tried "bus, skopje" and another taxi driver tried interpreting and eventually they figured out where we wanted to be going. A little later and we're on a comfortably warm bus, heading out of Kosovo and into Macedonia. Pictures to follow.

Photos: Podgorica and Pristina

Picture 1: This was a park in Podgorica. It was just outside of and across the street from the Mall of Montenegro. We sat and enjoyed the view of a school packed with kids and the peacefulness of being off the bus. We also ate some Jaffa brand cookies that tasted a little like the smell of lemon dish soap.

Picture 2: I just had to include this. It is somewhere on the way to Pristina on the night bus. This was the overnight bus that decided people don’t need or want to sleep on a bus that travels all night. The loud music played all night and the lack of any kind of ventilation gets a 7 out of 10 for uncomfortableness. But at the second of two bathroom breaks, the establishment had a little display up. This little guy was in there along with some deer and an enormous bear.

Picture 3: In Pristina, they have the main university for Kosovo and this is their library. It’s pretty much a normal building but the outside has additional metal work that makes for a really cool effect. I imagine it as being a product of a grad students final project in metal art or architecture or both.

Picture 4: Also in Pristina, and one of the primary reasons we stayed so long since we couldn’t find lodging, is a monument to Bill Clinton. Yes, the former president of the US. Not only is there a monument, but there is also a huge billboard with his face and the street is named Bill Clinton Boulevard. It was amazing. He is honored due to his role in the independence of Kosovo.

Pristina, Kosovo

So our first stint in Kosovo was the capital, Pristina and unfortunately seemed to be a continuation of the capital syndrome first observed in Podgorica (e.g. not a lot going on here). There was one thing we wanted to do here since it was just a stop over on the way to Prizren, but during the trip we decided to try and find a hostel for the night. The one thing we knew we had to see here was Bill Clinton Street. Yes, thanks to our former former President's actions with regards to Kosovo, he got a street named after him here and it was a must that we find it. Well let us start with Pristina was a little hard to navigate. And on top of that, for all the pomp and talk about it, there was not a lot of english or german being spoken around here and communication was dicey. There was also no map of the city available at the bus station. So we picked a direction and started walking. This isn't exactly a travel blog so if some traveler is reading this just comment that you'd like more info and we can email.

It was a nice enough day in that it wasn't freezing and there wasn't a strong cold wind. We walked for a spell heading towards what appeared to be Lady Liberty on top of a squat cube shaped building. On the way we passed many US flags. It was quite interesting. Liberty was sitting on top of an international hotel that looked too expensive for our meagre budgets, so we pressed on and found another hotel that looked shoddy on the outside but the inside turned out to be lovely...and expensive. Discussion ensued and it was decided we should find Bill Clinton Street and then proceed to Prizren that day. Recall please we have no map. And we're looking for a street and we hesitate to try and talk with anyone. Errrr. Let's keep walking this way! (Have I mentioned yet that eastern Europe enjoys not putting up street name signs?)

Down the street, some interesting graffiti leads us to the University of Pristina's library...which when I walked inside had an "American Section!" Rae and I stay outside and elect Jeff to go in an try to find a map. He is gone so long that Rae and I begin planning what the rest of the trip would be like without him. Little did we know he would come back in sparkling triumph. Ok, so he wasn't sparkling for real, but he was triumphant at getting a map, information about the possibility of student housing...and the location of Bill Clinton Street! The student housing thing sounded iffy from the beginning so we only gave it a half-assed attempt because we were already in the mindset to get to Prizren that day (which turned out to be good, but that's told later). We looped up and around the block and came down to Bill Clinton Boulevard (yeah, not a street). Jeff really wanted a picture next to it but when we passed the first sign, which was tiny and in the middle of the road, we kept walking past and didn't see another street sign again. We did however find the statue of Clinton which was backed by a ginormous poster of him on his street. Then we saw (finally) another street sign and now have photographic proof there is a street named after him in Kosovo.

We headed back to the bus station via a neighborhood and more of downtown and that's really all I have to say on Pristina. We hopped on a bus in the early afternoon and headed for Prizren and hopefully a place to sleep. I admit that with the first city in Kosovo down and all that I'd heard from Rae about this place, I was thinking that I wasn't going to like it here. Let's get to the next blog to find out why I was mistaken.

Busing to and out of Podgorica, Montenegro

We left Kotor in the morning, catching a bus to Podgorica, the capital of Montenegro. It is a town that is on a plateau/valley in the mountains and I think the only reason anything is there is because they needed something to be there on the way from the coast to somewhere else inland. Podgorica, as of the time of this writing, is unfortunately not a very exciting place. The bus ride there had some final beautiful views of the Adriatic coastline and then a windy path up into the mountains. Once at the bus stop, and seeing that there may not be a whole heck of a lot to see, we began walking with the intention of getting cold medicine (since Rae and Jeff finally got what I got) and a new memory card for Rae's camera. We swung by the apothecary and had fun trying to describe a head cold so we could get medicine. We kept walking wherever our feet and pictures took us since our bus to Kosovo was not for several hours.

The walking eventually led us to what looked like a mall, but which was in fact an unfinished mall. The Mall of Montenegro, while largely incomplete, had a working Target-like store where we procured a new card for the camera and some munchies for the road. There was also a large indoor market/bazzar going on with an entire room devoted to eggs. There will be a picture. We wandered just a bit more outside and then settled at a coffee place for cheap espressos while we waited the next few hours.

Making our way back to the bus station, we took a different turn (since we hate exploring the same way twice) and found that the streets of Podgorica are not very nicely linked. We wound up walking past the bus station one block down, probably half a mile down we get to cross up and past the street the bus station is on, then double back all the way down past the bus station again only this time a block above it. There was no other way to the station then the path we took leaving it the first time. Anywho, who should we spot at the bus station restaurant but the two gents from our Kotor hostel! They were waiting for a 2330 bus to Sarajevo. We chit chatted a bit more while waiting and then hopped on our night bus for Pristina. I was secretly hoping that we'd be able to sleep, but that was not to be. The bus was more packed than I thought it would be, was quite dusty leading to allergy problems, and apparently (after a vote which we didn't understand) we would be listening to music the whole time there. All night long.

The border crossing into Kosovo was amusing. I believe we were the only Americans on the bus and when the passports were being handed back out (since they collect them all for stamping off of the bus) Rachel got hers back near the beginning and Jeff and I were handed ours back last. The guy distributing them was all the way at the front of the bus acting really confused. The guys behind us were laughing at him and making motions towards us probably saying things like "dude, they're right here." We chuckled as well. Several hours and a couple rest stops later and we arrived in Pristina, Kosovo.

Photos: Kotor, Montenegro

Picture 1: This was a hole in the wall at the top of the big hill we hiked. It was the only opening from the way we came up to the other side of the hill. As soon as we passed through to the other side, all the sounds of the city down below were cut off. The deep valley we were looking into was quiet and peaceful. The small church or chapel was down below and we hiked over it to it next.

Picture 2: A look at the Montenegro flag and Bay of Kotor. It was a great day for a hike even if it turned to misting a few times. We were very nearly within the cloud level.

Picture 3: A view of the walled city (where we stayed) during an early part of our hike up the hill to the ruins.

Picture 4: The street outside of our hostel. That is the hill in the background we hiked up. The streetlamps were very pretty especially with the wet ground and cloudy dusk. The mist on the hill was also beautiful to watch.

Picture 5: One of the first sites we saw when we arrived in Kotor. The crystal blue-green pond water looked clean enough to drink. The vastness of the hill was also in the first impressions. I think I would definitely enjoy coming here again.

Kotor, Montenegro

After the wonderful 3 days in Croatia our little crew made its way down into Montenegro. I had never seen a fjord (nor do I even know how they are defined) before, but I always imagined it would be beautiful. I was not disappointed. The bus into Kotor, which itself sits at the end of the fjord, follows said fjord for a long time. A deep water channel with steep mountains on each side that disappear up into the clouds...it was like being sent into some sort of fantasy world. A normal person shouldn't ever get to see something so cool. Our hostel was located within the walls of the old city and unfortunately our arrival coincided with some lower clouds that brought rain. A brief tramp from the bus station to the hostel gave us a chance just before the rain started to get a feel for the city. It seems that the car horn is used differently in ever place we'd been so far. Frankly it was irritating as hell in any form now but I would eventually get used to it. When we got to the hostel, I finally saw what I had been expecting a hostel to look like the whole time: a single hallway - two rooms on either side of the hallway with 4-6 beds, a bathroom on one side, a kitchen on the other - that ends with a common room with couches, main desk and a computer with internet. The girls working there were very nice and I was excited to use the computer, as the posts from Sarajevo and Dubrovnik were written there. But, about the layout or image if you will of a hostel in my mind, this place finally fit the bill. Sarajevo didn't have a common area or computer and the main desk was a city block away and Dubrovnik we were actually living with a family. Moreover, here in Kotor we met two guys (one from Pasadena and the other from New Zealand) who then shared our room.

Due to the inclement weather, we started just by wandering around the Bay of Kotor. I loved seeing the deep water and all the boats moored there. It got me wishing that I owned a boat. Since it isn't tourist season at all, we found a small restaurant on the water that was open and had a coffee machine as well. We sat down, ordered what turned out to be a crap load of meat *giant thumbs up* and then sampled some of the local beer. Speaking of which, I will be posting separately all the different beers and food we tried since I think it would get out of hand here. Anyway, something odd happened afterwards. We tipped, because that's what we do, and then stepped outside to where it was still drizzling to have a smoke. Basically you could say we were loitering. Not one minute in and our waitress comes out again and in her pretty good english asks if we'd like an espresso. We had money so we naturally said yes and thank you. We sit down outside and start petting the local kitties when out comes a fantastically pulled shot and some sort of gelatin dessert. It was quite tasty. When we tried to pay, she said no it is on the house! Thus we were first introduced to the generoisty of the area. I don't know if it's because we tipped, tipped to much, they're bored, or they really are that generous, but it was much appreciated.

Moving on, the next day was a nice morning, partly cloudy and we decided to climb up to the old fortress at the top of the hill that the old city is built at. Mind you, this isn't to the top of the fjord, but it was still pretty stinkin' high up there. It was quite the trek but the view as we continued to ascend was amazing and I can't wait to post pictures. Once we made it to the top and had explored the ruins, we discovered that this hill was separate from the real fjord mountain and so on the back side, there was a steep drop that led to small valley before proceeding vertically again. Nestled in this valley was the remnants of a small cloister or chapel (I'm not sure on the word) and the ruins of what could have been a village. We climbed down, explored and made our way back to the bay by a different path that zig zagged down behind the first hill. It began sprinkling and raining again by the afternoon and so our exploration of the Kotor was limited to the old city.

Earlier that morning, before the trek up the hill, I had inquired of our hostess if there was a bakery nearby for some breakfast. She told me of a place that had just opened, was cheap and really good. She was not lying! We walked into this hole in the wall place and our glasses instantly fogged up and our nostrils were blessed with the savory aroma of fresh bread. Our breakfast was so good, we decided to come back in the afternoon for lunch. The couple who owned the bakery were from Slovenia and they were so nice to us. The owner visits New Jersey every year to visit some family so his English was great. We talked to him for a bit while having our lunch and he up and gave us a free beverage from his cooler! If you should ever go to Montenegro, contact me and I will tell you how to get there.

Although our stint in Kotor was only two nights, we felt that we had seen what the old city had to offer. Had we stayed longer, we would have explored some of the other small towns along the fjord and perhaps hiked more up the mountains. I left with a good feeling since we were blessed with two free items from different establishments. Pictures and more specifics to follow.