In Which Sarah Sees the World

Another Giveaway at Camels and Chocolate

2010-11-08T21:47:00.001-05:00

Camels and Chocolate is giving away another Hyatt vacation!

Click here to read about the contest.

Airplane Oasis

2010-08-23T22:22:00.001-04:00

After an absolutely insane week I managed to get home and get ready for my trip in about 45 minutes. Thank god I have four months of backpack packing experience. I also had about an hour to spend with Gerry before I left. Hard to say goodbye even for three weeks when we've never been apart longer than three days.

But off I go tomorrow morning. It's a very early flight. I'm hoping to catch up on the sleep I've been lacking the last week or so. And just finally have two seconds to relax.

I really hope the current seating situation remains. Nobody putting their bloody seat back. Nobody behind me. Nobody beside me. The flight isn't super jammed, so I'm hoping I'll at least have nobody beside me!

.

First stop is Seattle. Bring on the coffee!

Ride the Moose

2010-08-10T13:44:00.002-04:00

Despite saying I'd never do a tour type thing again... I've found myself signed up for a tour of sorts. Main reason being I'm not comfortable with the idea of driving myself around the Rockies. I probably should have just figured it out myself on the Greyhound and VIA Rail... but prep time is limited for this trip, and the service is a hop-on, hop-off one, not a full-blown tour. The benefit with doing a tourist bus service is that it makes the stops at beautiful spots along the way that Greyhound just blows by.

I still have my reservations, especially after seeing the photos on their Facebook page. But I'm going with the mindset that I don't have to participate in any of their tour group gimmicks, and I can easily go off and do my own thing in each place.

Anyways, all that being said... I'm going with the Moose Travel Network. This is the only company I've really found that specializes in Canada. I'm hoping I like this hop-on more than Busabout. But if not, I'm only really with them for about week. I'm meeting traveling friend Michelle in Jasper for a few days, and then using Moose to get to Banff and then I'm doing my own thing again.

So where exactly am I going?

Ottawa to Vancouver
Vancouver to Seattle
Seattle to Vancouver
Vancouver to Whistler
Whistler to Vancouver
Vancouver to Shuswap Lake
Shuwap Lake to Banff
Banff to Rampart Creek
Rampart Creek to Edith Cavell
Edith Cavell to Jasper
Jasper to Banff
Banff to Lake Louise
Lake Louise to Calgary
Calgary to Ottawa

It should be a beautiful trip. It's not as well organized as it could be, but I left things late and some legs are full already. It also works out best for Michelle if I'm in Jasper at a certain time. Flights are booked, tour is booked, hostels are booked, just have to deal with some bus trips I'm doing on my own.

Anyways, I'm looking forward to it. Shopping in Seattle, big city in Vancouver, then two weeks in the beautiful BC and Alberta mountains.

My Own Canadian Adventure

2010-08-08T23:42:00.000-04:00

After debating back and forth and back again, about whether to go and where to go... I finally made up my mind last week.

I'm taking a mini-trip at the end of August! I've had a very crazy summer at the end of a kind of crazy year. I need a holiday. But not in the sense of most people's holidays... I want a traveler's holiday.

At first I was thinking about going to California, Oregon, and Washington State. I'd still really like to go here some day, but it just wasn't sparking my imagination right now. I also threw around the idea of going to New York City and Washington DC. But I don't want to go to either of those places in the summer, even if it's late summer.

The spot that kept leaping to the forefront was my very own Canada. I met so many people in Europe who said how much they wanted to see Canada. How it was on the top of their "list". They always wanted to know where they should go. Almost any Canadian, including me, will immediately point west and say "Vancouver, the Rockies... go West!"

I did get to visit Western Canada when I was young, on a family trip. But it mainly covered Vancouver Island. While it's a stunning place in it's own right, I didn't get to see the jaw dropping Rocky Mountain vistas and turquoise lakes that abound in Western Alberta. Yet last summer I was telling everyone to go there.

So, I'm going to take my own advice and see more of my own country before I go off and see Australia, New Zealand, or even more of the US.

I'm going to Seattle for a couple of days, mostly to shop if I'm being completely honest with you (way cheaper than Canada!). Then my own Canadian adventure begins. Vancouver, Whistler, BC interior, Banff, Lake Louise, Jasper, and a few spots in between. My goal is not to party, be cultural, or try new foods. I'm going to relax and get away from my chaotic life for awhile. Sitting on the beach doesn't do it for me, so this is the most relaxing and beautiful vacation I can think of.

This time I'm leaving behind a long-term boyfriend which will be a bit tough, but he's the one that made me realize how much I needed this. And it's only a few weeks, not months!

I leave in just over two weeks. I have to figure details out and get ready to go, work, and study for my final exams. I'll be getting on that plane before I remember to blink.

Tourists and Locals

2010-06-09T18:12:00.005-04:00

I came across a really interesting link on Twitter. As well as being a traveler, I'm also a photographer. I read a lot of photography blogs and follow some photographers on Twitter.

This link sent me to Flickr, where I already store and host all of my photos. Flickr is an incredible resource for sharing your photos and discovering new photographers. One individual, Eric Fischer, has created a really interesting project. He has essentially tracked who (tourists, locals, either) is taking photos and where. There are dozens of city maps available. Maybe this is really nerdy and I'm only so interested because it's the combination of my two loves, but I think it's crazy cool.

His explanation:

Some people interpreted the Geotaggers' World Atlas maps to be maps of tourism. This set is an attempt to figure out if that is really true. Some cities (for example Las Vegas and Venice) do seem to be photographed almost entirely by tourists. Others seem to have many pictures taken in piaces that tourists don't visit.

Blue points on the map are pictures taken by locals (people who have taken pictures in this city dated over a range of a month or more).

Red points are pictures taken by tourists (people who seem to be a local of a different city and who took pictures in this city for less than a month).

Yellow points are pictures where it can't be determined whether or not the photographer was a tourist (because they haven't taken pictures anywhere for over a month). They are probably tourists but might just not post many pictures at all.

If this interests you at all, head over to his set Locals and Tourists on Flickr.

Some samples... see if you can figure out which cities are shown before you scroll down to my caption!

Las Vegas! Amazing how easily you can see the Strip.

Venice. Notice the "S" shaped Grand Canal? And the general lack of local photos?

Berlin. Anyone who has been there can pinpoint the intense red areas.

And finally, my own Ottawa. Not a ton of tourist photo taking going on here!

Go check it out! It's really neat.

Doors Open Ottawa

2010-06-07T16:43:00.006-04:00

This past weekend was another opportunity for me to be a tourist in my own hometown. Every spring, the City of Ottawa presents Doors Open Ottawa. Over the weekend, more than 100 buildings opened their doors to the public. It’s an opportunity to see parts of the city that are normally inaccessible to residents and tourists alike.

I had originally intended to take in several venues each day, but, just as when I was backpacking… there’s never enough time in the day for everything you want to visit. However, I’m not disappointed with what we saw. It was an interesting mix of old and new, industrial and ultra-modern.

On Saturday, our first stop was the Lemieux Island Water Purification Plant, located just off the Ottawa River Parkway. Sounds like a pretty boring stop, but it couldn’t have been more interesting. The plant was built in the 1930s with a marble and brass interior- not your typical municipal building. Esthetically, it’s quite unexpectedly beautiful.

The main foyer inside. The water treatment happens on the other side of the windows.

Our tour guide was amazing. He was soft-spoken, but clearly someone who had a Science degree and years of experience. Our tour lasted so long that the one behind us caught up. It was actually incredibly interesting. I had flashbacks to that Magic School Bus episode where they go through the water purification system. He explained everything from the Ottawa River watershed, to how the plant uses gravity instead of pumps, to floc. Ottawa actually has some of the best drinking water in North America (which I knew before the tour propaganda), so it was interesting to see the process in person. They even had a station where you could taste test three different waters and guess which was tap, spring, and distilled. I thought the spring was tap, but the actual tap water is what I thought tasted best. I’ve always been a big supporter or drinking tap water, so it wasn’t too surprising.

Inside the treatment area.

After taking some shots outside of the Ottawa River, we headed to the Delegation of the Ismaili Imamat at 199 Sussex Drive. It was designed by Fumihiko Maki and opened only a couple of years ago. If you’re unfamiliar with the building and group, it’s probably easier for you to read the short Wikipedia article. It’s a really stunning building. We went mostly out of interest in the architecture.

Exterior shot of Delegation of the Ismaili Imamat.

Sunday got off to a late start, but we still managed to see a couple of buildings. First, we headed to the Fleet Street Pumping Station. This had been mentioned the day before at our Lemieux Island tour, and Gerry wanted to see it. It was nowhere near as interesting as the Lemieux Island plant, but I got what I wanted… some good shooting! It was a bit tricky to find, requiring a right turn off one-way Albert Street.

Fleet Street Pumping Station

Our last Doors Open stop was the National Gallery of Canada downtown. As we arrived fairly late in the day and had to park at the (expensive) indoor Gallery parking, we decided to just do some shooting and come back another day to tour the exhibits. The exhibit we wanted to see (Pop Life) doesn’t open until later this week anyways, so we were only there briefly. This is another stunning building in Ottawa though. It’s one of the better known symbols of the capital

Ceiling in the entrance to the National Gallery of Canada.

All in all, we saw some pretty interesting things. I’ll definitely be checking out this event in future years. I know the City of Toronto hosted a similar event last weekend. There are more photos from the event on my Flickr.

Camels and Chocolate Hyatt Give Away

2010-05-26T13:25:00.003-04:00

Sometimes it's nice to drop the backpack and class things up a little. One of the best travel bloggers out there, Camels and Chocolate (Bloggies winner) is having a contest where you can win two nights at any Hyatt in the world.

These are pretty elegant hotels, so head on over and enter to win!

Changes Coming

2010-05-25T15:31:00.002-04:00

It's been quite some time since I last updated! That's mostly because I haven't been doing any traveling. I've been doing lots of reading and researching though. I've found some new travel blogs to follow. I'm thinking about adopting something along those lines until my next trip for this blog. Highlight some special cities, post some of my favourite photos... basically try to make this blog more useful than just my travel diary.

I've been re-reading my diary from last summer. I can't believe it's been a year already. It's amazing how reading over an entry, no matter how brief, can mentally take me back to the street or pub I was talking about. A specific detail that's been lost in four months of details, but that is still there waiting for recall. If you're planning a trip, I can't recommend keeping a diary enough. It gives you the opportunity to relive your trip, more than you probably think.

At the moment I am in the very early stages of planning a trip down under late next year. Very early in that... I know I'm going, and I know for roughly how long. I'm hoping to spend about three or four weeks in New Zealand, four to six weeks in Australia, and hopefully about four weeks in the US. I know it probably seems a little bit odd to combine the US with Australia and New Zealand... but it's much cheaper to fly round trip out of LA than Ottawa... and I've always wanted to see the Southern US. In particular I'm aiming for the Grand Canyon and California. Anyways, it's all dependent on finances and life... but I'm hoping it will work out. It seems far away at the moment... but I think about how fast the planning stages of my European trip went and realize that it'll be here before I know it.

If you have any recommendations for Australia and/or New Zealand, let me know!

Hopefully you'll see some changes to this blog soon!

Not life changing, but certainly the best experience of my life

2009-10-08T11:14:00.006-04:00

Home... so now what? It's been a few weeks since I've been home. When I first got back... I was really relieved. The last few days of my travels were not the best of my trip, so I ended on a bit of a low note. Initially I was just sort of like... oh, that's it. It wasn't as amazing as I thought it was going to be... I'm not sure it was worth it.

But already, just a few weeks later, I'm realizing how truly amazing my trip was. How 100% worth it it was. I look at some of my pictures and my jaw practically drops, knowing that I took that picture, that I was there. You become so used to seeing incredible history and beauty while you're traveling... you don't even realize what it is that you're looking at, and how lucky you are to be there.

I think the biggest thing that disappointed me on my trip was the people I met. There are definitely a few people that I know I'll keep in touch with, and some that have become fairly good friends. And my trip was not without romance, I did meet a guy that I quite like (Aussie, of course), and he's already come to visit me in Ottawa. But for the most part, the people I shared hostels and buses with were incredibly immature, ignorant and annoying. I know this is mostly because the methods of travel I used were aimed at budget travelers and young people. And I've learned my lesson. I can guarantee you that I will never do another Topdeck tour, and I wouldn't even consider a Contiki. I might do another Radical Travel trip... but probably not. And I definitely regret doing Busabout. A lot of the best parts of my trip were when I was completely on my own.

I also realize that I should probably have done a shorter trip, or one that included solid chunks of time in places where there's nothing to do but relax. By the end of my trip, I was burnt out. I was tired of walking. Tired of sightseeing. Tired of meeting people. Tired of drinking. I still saw some incredible things in the last couple of weeks, but I probably would have enjoyed them a thousand times more in May. All that being said, as long as it sometimes felt at the time, it went so fast! Probably the fastest four months of my life.

The one last negative thing from my trip... I am still sick. It turns out the sickness and horrible tiredness and lethargy from the last month of travel was mono (glandular fever). It took a few weeks at home before I was properly diagnosed... my doctor had narrowed it down to mono or tuberculosis. Neither were great options, but I guess it's better that it was mono.

Anyways, on a more positive note. Getting back to reality makes you truly appreciate how awesome traveling is. Every single day you're traveling, even if something goes wrong, people are annoying you or you sit in the hostel all day... it's far and away better than even a good day in your real life. I already have a thousand ideas about where I want to go next. I'll never do a four month trip again... unless it includes working abroad... but there are places to see, people to meet! Top of my list are New Zealand and Australia, especially since I now have friends in pretty much every inch of Australia. Turkey is still at the top, after seeing Bosnia I'm all the more gutted about not experiencing Turkey. Russia is now up there as well. And Morocco has jumped quite high up the list. And other parts of Africa. As well as South America. So basically, I still have the travel bug! Stay tuned... I'm sure I'll be doing more traveling very soon.

In summary... I had the experience of a lifetime. I met a lot of amazing people (mostly Aussies... they're taking over Europe!), I saw all the sights I wanted to, I drank way too much, I spent a fortune (but about as much as I expected) and I came back a slightly different person. It wasn't lifechanging, but it was certainly the best experience of my life. No regrets. :) Do it if you can.

And finally, to end this gigantic post, some of my top fives:

Five places I know I'll return to
1. Ireland
2. Bosnia
3. Norway
4. Switzerland
5. Hungary

Five places that really disappointed me
1. Rome, Italy
2. Croatia (both Split and Dubrovnik)
3. Prague, Czech Republic
4. Nice, France
5. Klaipeda/Nida, Lithuania

Five biggest surprises
1. Paris, France
2. Poland
3. Riga, Latvia
4. Munich, Germany
5. Vilnius, Lithuania

Lived up to/exceeded expectations
1. Ireland
2. Bosnia
3. Budapest, Hungary
4. Venice, Italy
5. Norway

Best Hostels
1. Vilnius Old Town Hostel – Vilnius, Lithuania
2. Naughty Squirrel – Riga, Latvia
3. Rowan Tree Hostel – Ennis, Ireland
4. Hostel 99 – Český Krumlov, Czech Republic
5. L' Imbarcadero – Venice, Italy

Worst Hostels
1. Klaipeda Travellers Guesthouse – Klaipeda, Lithuania
2. Plus Alba D'Oro Camping – Venice, Italy
3. Ullapool Youth Hostel – Ullapool, Scotland
4. Plus Prague – Prague, Czech Republic
5. Valley Hostel – Lauterbrunnen, Switzerland

Five Best Foods
1. Italian gelato – Italy (duh)
2. Stroopwafels – the Netherlands
3. Ćevapi - Bosnia
4. Burek – Bosnia
5. Paulaner weissbier - Germany

Five Best Nights Out
1. Berlin
2. Munich
3. Stockholm
4. Amsterdam
5. Ullapool (it's what you make of it haha, right Kaitlyn? :P)

Also, to rank the tour operators I used
1. Shamrocker Adventures (7 Day All Ireland Rocker)
2. Eastern Trekker (Balkan Trek > Classic Rhapsody Trek)
3. Haggis Adventures (Island Explorer)
4. Busabout (3 Day Italian Adventure > North/South loops)
5. Topdeck (Northern Exposure)

If you're curious about other top fives, or have any questions about my trip, feel free to comment!

Home At Last

2009-09-02T11:09:00.000-04:00

My last morning in Europe... sad but mostly excited to go home. My lovely roommates took as long to get ready as they did going to bed, making even more noise beginning at about 6 am.

Off to the airport and picked up my bag. Leaving it at the airport was an A+ decision. It took me about a year to find the Air Canada check in desk... they had stuck it down in the very furthest little corner of the airport. Screaming Canadian kids abound... North American brats are the worst.

Getting onto a flight at Frankfurt is a bit of a mission. First they check your ticket. Then your passport. Then through one security check where you're free to wander the duty free. Most people would assume the next step is getting on the plane, right? Not in Frankfurt. For my particular gate I had to go through security AGAIN. Tell me ladies and gentlemen, how does it make sense to encourage people to shop duty free if they have to throw out all liquids? Please... I'd like to know. Never mind the fact that these people already went through security and tossed all outside liquids there. Granted, I only had a Fanta... but if someone had purchased liquor, perfume, cosmetics, et cetera... that's pretty lame for them. They could at least warn you that you have two security checks to go through.

Time to get on the plane right? Nope! Now they want you shuttled into a secure waiting lounge. Pretty much an hour before boarding. I thought I had given myself way too much time for the airport, but not at all. I had just cleared security check two when they started paging passengers into the lounge. Ridiculous.

Anyways, the flight was pretty bad. Full of kids, including one who screamed the ENTIRE eight hour flight. I'm not exaggerating. It was hellish. Customs at Ottawa is always a treat... they never have enough people on duty, and usually have all International flights landing at the same time. It's a clever scheme.

After about an hour or so there, I finally grabbed my bag and made it up to meet my parents. Home at last!

The Last Day

2009-09-01T11:06:00.000-04:00

I was woken up very early by my roommate who departed at about 4 am for his flight. Ugh. I tried to sleep for awhile but eventually gave up and got ready. When I went to check out... there was nobody there! I tried calling the numbers on the front door... the woman who answered didn't speak English... awesome. I was getting pretty annoyed, but finally the mother (it's a mother/son operation) showed up so I could pay her.

I made my hot way over to the bus station, where I caught the local bus to the airport. I juuust missed one, but they leave every 20 minutes or so. I got on with my pack. The ticket guy was a bit rude (as were most Croatians I met). He also let this drunk bum on who didn't pay. Who had been kicked off another bus, partly for not paying and partly for touching a young girl all over the place.

Well, he continued the trend. He sat down next to a pretty, probably teenaged girl. And over the next hour proceeded to wrap himself around her, stroking her hair, whispering to her, while everyone on the bus snickered and stared. I was absolutely shocked and disgusted. If not for the fact that nobody on the bus seemed to speak English, I would have been up complaining to the driver or something. And why didn't the girl DO anything? Get up and sit elsewhere, there were plenty of seats. Get off the bloody bus. SOMETHING. It was really upsetting. She was on the verge of tears the whole time. I just felt so helpless. A really unpleasant way to end my trip.

Anyway, eventually I got to the tiny airport. I hadn't had anything to eat and assumed there would be restaurants or something inside the departures lounge. Wrong! Oh well. I was just so happy to be leaving Croatia. Onto the Croatia Air flight to Frankfurt I went. Frankfurt Airport was overwhelming. I stowed my bag in luggage storage and went to catch the S-Bahn into town. The system at Frankfurt airport is really confusing, and all the employees in the station were pretty rude. One girl working for Deutsche Bahn (the people who run the S-Bahn) was incredibly rude. I got off at the wrong stop, bad directions from the hostel. But eventually I made it to the hostel, located in the heart of Frankfurt's Red Light District. I had known about that, so it was all good. Up to my room... quite a comfy bed but some brutal roommates. Figures that I'd end up with that on my last night in Europe. I chatted with a lovely Scottish girl for some time before settling down to a movie. Which I managed to watch ALL of while the roommates from hell got ready for bed. We're talking over two hours here. By the time they were finished I was absolutely seething. So I ended up taking my laptop into the stairwell where I could get wifi and vent to someone.

It was really a horrible last day in Europe. But,as someone reminded me, even if the end wasn't great, I really had an incredible, once-in-a-lifetime adventure... most of which was absolutely amazing.

Four months on the road... bring on the bed bugs!

2009-08-31T11:00:00.001-04:00

I was up veeery early in the morning. There was no way I could leave Dubrovnik without walking the famous city walls, especially since I have NO desire to return to that place. So I was the first one up the steps and around I went. It really is quite a lovely walk. I definitely recommend going early in the morning though! It was cool, light was good for pictures and most importantly I ran into less than a dozen other people.

After that I ran back to the hostel, grabbed my bag and made for the bus station. Which actually involved a hellishly hot walk through the now cruise passenger loaded Dubrovnik and a ride on local transport to the bus station. This incredibly rude old guy jumped from his seat over to mine before I managed to get out of the seat. With my pack on, this resulted in me barely getting off the bus in time. What a jerk. Even the other locals on the bus were yelling at him to let me get off first.

I made it to the bus station just in time to catch the next bus to Split. Woo hoo! It was a comfortable enough bus but disgustingly hot. And it's a LONG ride. I highly regret my decision to go back to get a quick look at Split before flying home from there. The ride was quite pretty though. We went through Bosnia on the way, but no stamps as it was just in transit.

Back to Split. I went to the wrong hostel at first... I thought I had booked at the Split Hostel (the Eastern Trekker departure spot) but apparently not. I eventually found the right hostel. Or rather the manager found me... wandering up the road a bit too far haha. He was incredibly nice although a little unaware of the personal bubble concept. I dropped my stuff and went for a wander. Split was as dirty, smelly and crowded as I remembered. I honestly couldn't be bothered to do any of the “sights.” I went back for a breakfast sandwich at the place from the pervious week, and was pretty disgusted with it... the bacon was filled with bone of some sort. I was pretty grossed out.

I also discovered that I was covered in bed bug bites. HURRAY! I made it over four months without bed bugs only to get them three days before going home. That's luck. I was also exhausted and still feeling quite sick. So off to bed early. Pretty much the last real night of my travels, ending on a low note. I just wasn't feeling up to it though, and I don't have any regrets about it. I had planned the extra few days in Croatia as an actual holiday... and while I didn't really like Croatia, I did get a chance to relax quite a bit.

The Overcrowded "Pearl of the Adriatic"

2009-08-30T11:56:00.002-04:00

After waking up slightly hungover and saying goodbye to the majority of people I wandered my way back down the stairs and into the crush of tourists to find my new hostel. I was sweating SO much. Disgusting. I maintain that a guaranteed way to stay warm in Ottawa this winter is to throw on a pack full of clothes. Anyhow, made it. There was a bit of a delay checking in... slightly annoying. Ran into a bunch of people from my last tour... they had just got off Croatia Sailing. I then climbed into my bed in the rafters and slept/did nothing all day. My very poor health of the last four weeks was once again catching up with me. It was a cute hostel though... being in the attic provided a 360 view over the Old Town, up the hill, over the walls, out to the sea. Not the most comfortable accommodation, but different.

The next morning I decided to brave Dubrovnik again. Ugh. I just was not getting a good vibe for the city, which was very disappointing as I had been really excited for it. It is one of those gems that has been absolutely destroyed by mass tourism. I mean, Paris and Rome are also mad with tourists but... it's possible to get around. Dubrovnik is a seething mass of cruise ship passengers with nowhere to go. Once the cruiseliners depart, it's an entirely different place. But during the day... you can't move. And no offense to cruise passengers... but they aren't exactly real travelers. They're just so ignorant and such easy prey for the occasionally shady locals.

Anyways. I picked up some souvenirs and then headed to the War Photo exhibit. It was pretty amazing, one of the only things I liked about Dubrovnik. Most of the space is dedicated to current and more recent conflicts, but there's one very overwhelming room dedicated to the former Yugoslavian countries and what they went through. I think most, if not all, of the photos were from Ron Haviv, who has a book and documentary about the Balkan war called Blood and Honey. After that, I eventually had to head back to my hostel. I just couldn't handle the crowds anymore. So I crawled back into bed. I ventured out again in the evening... hoping to do the city walls walk, but it had clouded over and I wanted pictures! I did run into two people from my tour on two separate occasions though haha. Finally I headed back to the hostel and climbed into bed. There was a bit of a thunderstorm out over the Adriatic... lovely. I love storms. My roommates that night were rather irritating but I got a decent enough sleep.

Tired and Wine-y

2009-08-28T11:51:00.000-04:00

Today was the last day of the tour... we were up at the crack of before dawn to get to the Croatian border early (as mentioned previously, the border guards there can be a hassle). Upon arrival in Dubrovnik, we were all extremely tired and I was particularly cranky. I was pretty miffed that the driver didn't stop on the beautiful lookout over Dubrovnik. The sun was at the perfect angle... it would have been a glorious photo. Oh well. Then we had an epic climb with our packs up to the apartment. I found the new landlady to be extremely rude. But anyways.

We were forced down into the town for a walking tour we were definitely not in the mood for. It was disgustingly hot. It was disgustingly crowded. And our tour guide was TERRIFYING. I know it's not nice to judge on looks, but she looked like a drag queen gone really, really wrong. It was just too much for our tired brains.

After the hellish walking tour a few of us grabbed a quick bite at an Irish Pub. I then headed back up (we're talking hundreds of steps) to the apartment and proceeded to climb into bed and sleep for several hours.

Upon waking I joined the others for a bit (okay, a lot) of wine before heading down to dinner. I definitely had too much wine haha... it's a common theme from my trip. Apparently I was highly entertaining. They seem to think I don't remember the evening, but I do for the most part. I was actually rather well behaved compared to some of my other nights over the last four months. The only slight issue was accidently snapping a plastic lamp post. Anyhooow. The night ended fairly early and I climbed up those hellish steps once again.

And that was the end of my second Eastern Trekker, the Balkan Trek. It was completely different from any other tour I've done. I liked how small the group was, and how relaxed our guides were... not to mention the local factor. The group itself wasn't *awesome*, but that's not the tour operator's fault, and it wasn't even close to the worst I've been on. To be honest it was mostly just one person. But anyhow! Once again, I have to highly recommend Eastern Trekker. And all of Radical Travel's non-Busabout products that I used (Shamrocker and Haggis). They're very different from Topdeck and Contiki, while still having a lot of fun, attracting young people and seeing the sights.

Into Europe's Newest Country

2009-08-27T11:48:00.000-04:00

Leaving Sarajevo, we had mostly a travel day. We stopped for about an hour and a half in Mostar on the way back. I was so happy to be back haha. It's amazing how quickly you learn to love a place. We took a quick walk back down the “front line” in the daytime, then did a bit of wandering.

Then it was back onto the suffocatingly hot van... easily the worst part of the entire tour. Who uses a van that doesn't have air conditioning when it's over 30 degrees and you're basically in the bloody desert?! It was a long, long ride.

We eventually make it to Kotor in Montenegro. I knew very little about Montenegro to be honest. It's Europe's newest country... only separating from Serbia in 2006. My first impression of Kotor was... rich! Big yachts out in the harbour. Kind of Monaco-ish.

I was feeling extremely ill (possibly the Sarajevo Special) so I actually tucked into bed and skipped dinner.

After a quick morning walking tour of Kotor, we headed to Budva... beach and party capital of Montenegro and a bit fancier than some of the other Adriatic hotspots it seems. It was a very lowkey day... we (Sheryl, Regan, Kristy, Dave and I) grabbed some lunch and then hit the beach. Or rather the sea. It was so gorgeous... perfect turquoise, clear, incredibly warm... perfection. Except for the fish. I'm a little... paranoid about fish. But anyways. It was an enjoyable couple of hours in the water.

We headed back to Kotor and decided to hike the city walls. Or at least half way. It took major self-convincing for the girls to drag ourselves up haha. We were tired and mostly sick. One of the guys was actually struck down by the Sarajevo Special the previous night. But we made it... hot trek that it was. It actually wasn't that bad, and the view was pretty nice. We had a bit of fun trying to self-time five or six cameras to take a group photo. Eventually we got some passerbys to take them haha.

We straggled down to the apartments and discovered the water was out. :/ Yikes. Not good after a day at the beach and then a sweaty walk. It did start semi-working, at least enough for me to shower haha. We met up for dinner, which was again, fairly average. I had an awesome mojito though. At dinner Armel informed us that we'd have to be on the road at SIX the next morning, to better deal with the ever difficult Croatian border. At that the girls decided to call it an early night while the boys decided to head back to Budva to party it up.

Sarajevo Special

2009-08-25T12:03:00.001-04:00

The next morning we were off to Sarajevo, capital of Bosnia. We stopped at this random spot on the way, where the Bosnians destroyed a bridge trying to fend off the Nazis. There was a bit of a random museum there that we went into. Then onto Sarajevo. I was starting to feel a bit run down (again) from my ongoing illness. We went for lunch, traditional ćevapi. Think kebab, but with the tastiest pastry, beef mince sausages, onion and cheese. I struggle to imagine why it hasn't caught on the way kebabs have. It's a hundred times better.

After lunch Amela gave us a tour of Sarajevo. I had been highly anticipating Sarajevo... but to be honest, I was kind of disappointed... it's just another big European capital city. Some pretty buildings, churches and mosques... the mosques were interesting as I haven't seen that many on my travels. We also stopped at the place where Franz Ferdinand was shot... starting WW1. I ended up heading back to the hotel with Sheryl and Regan fairly soon after the little tour... I wasn't feeling great. After resting up a bit we all headed out for dinner. The ongoing joke was that John and Dave were a couple. Dinner was so so... average Italian. I headed right home after dinner, stopping for ice cream on the way with Kristy.

Day two in Sarajevo started with the news that two of our group mates had been horribly ill in the night... spending most of the night throwing up. The rest of us went on a trip to the “Sarajevo Tunnel”... the only way that people could get in and out of Sarajevo during the siege. Our tour guide had enlisted in the army when he was 17 and actually ran through that tunnel fully loaded up with guns and whatnot. Unlike our other tour guides, he was not at all objective about the war and the siege. He slammed the Yugoslavian forces (understandably), as well as some very harsh words about the action of UN forces in the area at the time. It was very interesting to hear his stories and see the tunnel, but maybe not worth how much it cost.

I once again headed back to the hotel afterwards with Regan and Sheryl. We grabbed some more burek on the way. Regan and I stayed in, neither feeling that well, until it was time to go visit the cemetery for soldiers during the siege. It's quite a beautiful place... a lovely monument in the middle of all the white stones. I was absolutely gutted to have forgotten the SD card for my camera. The lighting was perfect. Oh well. :( We also went up on this hill overlooking Sarajevo, which was a very nice view. Unfortunately Regan ended up being hit with the “Sarajevo Special” on our way back down and was quite sick.

We then walked a very long way to the new part of town and had dinner at a Mexican place. One annoying thing about restaurants in Bosnia is that the item you want off their menu is rarely available. I ended up having another average meal. Afterwards though, we went to this cocktail place with 5 BAM cocktails! Woo hooo! And wow were some of them potent. Dave had one called (I quote) “Adios Motherfucker”. I only had two cocktails but I was definitely feeling it on the walk home.

Overall Sarajevo was a bit disappointing, but a nice city nonetheless. Bosnia and Bosnians are 100% lovely.

Take the Leap

2009-08-23T11:21:00.000-04:00

Our full day is Mostar was quite leisurely... around mid-morning we set off for Blagaj, where there is an old shrine of the whirling dervishes. It probably isn't a trip I would have made had it not been included, but mildly interesting nonetheless. All the ladies had to put on long skirts and head scarves. The house is located right at the source of the big river that runs through Mostar, and it's quite lovely. You can drink the water right out of the river (which I did... refreshing). We went to a little cafe afterwards and I somehow ended up with a Bosnian coffee (like Turkish but... Bosnian) despite not ordering one. Which was alright. I'm not a fan of coffee, but I figured I'd give it a try. It was actually surprisingly tasty. As was the fresh Turkish Delight.

The afternoon was spent wandering around the Old Town in Mostar. Shopping, to be quite honest. Regan, Sheryl and I wandered down off the main street a bit and met the most lovely shopkeeper. He chatted with us and ended up giving the other two pretty decent discounts and in the end gave me a free scarf that I'd been eyeing. We actually saw him later in the evening, quite randomly haha. I guess Mostar's that kind of place... so small that you run into the one person you do know.

Anyhow, jewelry and whatnot was purchased, as well as the most delicious meat pie called burek. They're crazy cheap and absolutely delicious and filling. We wandered down to a big balcony overlooking the river and bridge... it looked like someone was going to jump from the bridge, but alas it was not so. But then one of those random quirks of travel happened. Two people came down and looked a little lost, we overheard them and he asked how to get to the bridge. It turned out that he wanted to jump from it haha. So we said we'd show him the way and go to watch haha. The random bit was, he was Canadian! And from the same city as me. Considering it had been months really since I met another Canadian on my travels, it was all quite random.

Anyhow, we got a bit separated but ended up sitting down on the beach. After going through a bit of training, which we unknowingly watched, he walked up to us. Took everyone a second to realize who it was haha. But then he went up to the top of the bridge and jumped. Well, first the training guy jumped, then he did. It's a hell of a leap... 25 m fall into a rather quick current. He seemed to hurt his leg a bit, but not too much the worse for wear. We parted ways and said we'd meet up at the cave club (Ali-Baba) later that night.

We wandered back to the hotel and ended up in the hot tub! Which was more like a cool tub! Haha. Well I was the only one in it, the Aussie girls weren't willing to fully submerge. It was really amazingly refreshing though, considering the heat of the day. It was so hot that the hills around Mostar were filled with little fires set off in the sun. After the lovely cool down, we went off for dinner. I wasn't nearly as impressed with this one... kind of yuck little sausages. Although I did get this popular Eastern salad (Sopsov)... which is absolutely delicious! Basically just cheese, tomato and cucumber with olive oil and garlic... simple but great. Finally we headed off to Ali-Baba... which was basically empty haha. It was still cool to take a look around though. The bridge jumper and his friend showed up awhile later and we all had a few drinks before calling it a night.

I absolutely loved Mostar. Much like Derry, although completely different, I fell in love with it right away. The people are easily among the nicest I met on my travels. It's difficult seeing all the damage and hardship they've gone through, but they're rebuilding. I definitely hope to return some day!

Across the Bosnian Border With Bruno

2009-08-22T19:28:00.000-04:00

For my second Eastern Trekker tour, the Balkan Trek, I already knew two people, Dave and Sheryl. The three of us met up in the morning and went to sit in the square, back to where we had dinner the night before. My pasta salad the night before was average, but the brekkie sandwich was incredible. A lot of the tour ended up there, as Carlos had said he'd be hanging out there in the morning. Around 9ish, after a sad goodbye to Carlos and Vlad, all of those doing further Eastern Trekkers headed to the meeting point. The only way to describe it is chaotic. The check in was done by one guide for three trips, and he was a bit of a tool... openly hungover and not just slightly rude. To add to the chaos, Radical Travel had managed to stuff up Dave's booking, putting him on the previous week's trip (even though he started another of their tours as the same time, duh...).

You'd think this wouldn't be a major problem, buuut it was. The Balkan trek tour is different from Eastern Trekker's other tours... very small group sizes, and it's handled by a Bosnian tour company. They had only brought a small van, big enough for the number registered (seven). The first suggestion was to stick Dave on a train to Mostar, Bosnia. He wasn't having any of that. So it was decided that he would take a taxi, which would follow the van's route. As we were about to set off, Armel (our guide) asked if anyone wanted to go with Dave in the cab to keep him company. Sheryl and I decided to head off with him and the cabdriver Bruno, since we already knew Dave. So, that is how I ended up driving 200 km from Croatia to Bosnia in a cab haha. Footed by Radical Travel. Our cabbie had loads of random classical type music, and a Bob Marley mix... so we listened to Bob most of the way haha.

On the way we stopped in a really lovely little beach town called Makarska. The drive from there through to Bosnia was really cool. The scenery is like no place I've ever been before. Very scrubby hills, deep turquoise rivers... very pretty in a totally different way. In Bosnia we stopped at Počitelj. Which was extremely hot... I'm not totally sure why we stopped there... there were some old buildings, a mosque, et cetera. Then finally, our last leg to Mostar. We were dropped at the hotel (yees, hotel, all accommodation on this tour were HOTELS) and sort of left to our own devices until that evening when our local guide would come and pick us up. For myself and Sheryl, that time was spent in our lovely air conditioned room doing pretty much nothing haha. Randomly, when we were checking in, this British couple went absolutely bananas at the incredibly lovely front desk staff. They had meant to book a different hotel apparently (that's uh, sort of your fault, idiots). I don't know what their problem was... the hotel was brand new and absolutely beautiful.

Later, we met up with our guide, Amela, who gave us a tour of the Old Town. Mostar was hit extremely hard during the wars here in the 90s. The destruction was still everywhere to be seen. Amela asked us to try to group our questions about the war together, because it was upsetting to talk about it all the time. Understandably so, she's only a year or so older than me, so she lived through the war as a kid. Mostar is famous for it's bridge, and it really is quite a beautiful landscape with the dark turquoise river, old buildings and the beautiful white bridge. The thing you can't tell from the pictures is that the bridge is extremely slippery haha. There's absolutely no grip on it, it's like sheer ice. And it's not flat. Getting up is reasonable, though not easy, but getting down is a real trick. Anyhow, we all had dinner at a beautiful place on the river, looking towards the bridge. I lucked out and got the last serving of cabbage rolls. That's not what they're called there, but that's what we call them. They were delicious. I also had a local wine, which was not as good. All the local wine I had in Eastern Europe had a very different taste to it... I'm not sure how to describe it. I love wine, but some of this stuff was a tough swallow.

After dinner we went to a youth club, which was a bit random. The place was pretty dead so we left after a couple of drinks. We then wandered towards a rave... nobody was that impressed (the people were really young) so we didn't go in. But it was an interesting walk... the entrance to get in was a path between the obliterated (by bombing) library and this massive hole that was to be the basement of a new building. There was absolutely no lighting, and no fencing around either the hole or the ruins. Safety first!

After leaving there, we walked along the street that was the “front line” during the war. This is where the most destruction still is. We were walking along and there was a massive old building. A complete wreck. It hit us all really hard when Armel casually said “Oh, yeah, this was my primary school.” I think it really hit us then how recent this war really was, and how young the people are that lived through it. To be talking to someone close to my age who walks pass the bombed wreckage of his elementary school every day... it hits home.

After making it back to the old town, half of us decided to head home. One thing to note about Mostar, it is incredibly hot. Even at 23:30, it was close to 30 degrees. During the day it's almost unbearable.

Classic Rhapsody Comes to an End.

2009-08-21T17:46:00.000-04:00

Yikes. The morning after was not a pretty sight. I personally had the worst hangover of my trip (just because of the huge variety of drinks consumed), and the majority of people were looking slightly the worse for wear. Our bus was also a disaster. Vlad (our driver) apparently had to get it professionally cleaned while we were off in the park.

But yes, the park. We had actually camped just outside of Plitvice Lakes National Park so that we would be the first ones through the gate. If you're not familiar with Plitvice (which I definitely wasn't before), it's this series of lakes running through beautifully lush mountains (/hills). The water is an incredible colour though, and it changes depending on the time of day/year, the weather, et cetera. I spent the whole morning with Kim. We hiked all the way up to station four (the last one). I think we took a wrong turn though. Well not a wrong turn per se, but the route we took wasn't quite as stunning as the other one some people took. Either way, it's an incredibly beautiful place. Definitely try to go early though, as when we were leaving at noon, there were hundreds, maybe thousands, of people pouring into the park. It was a little rough with the hangover, but the physical activity helped things considerably after the first hour.

After our morning of hiking, it was back on the bus heading for Split. The woman who took us to all of our apartments was INSANE. She was drunk (and said so frequently). Loud. Obnoxious. And all over Dave. Funny maybe, but not when you've walked a few blocks in 30+ weather with a backpack on. Ugh. I was ready to kill her. Our apartment was quite nice though... I ended up with a room to myself, although it had the TV and kitchen in it as well. After a quick settle in, we went for a short orientation walk, stopping for smoothies at the crazy woman's juice bar (they were good...). I was pretty unimpressed with Split... it's dirty, smelly, expensive and brimming with tourists. After a rather unsatisfying pasta salad for dinner, we were given an hour or so before meeting up to go out. I headed for an Internet cafe with Sheryl... easily killed our time there. Then back to the group... there was this adorable little girl running around the main square. Adorable until Carlos stepped on her and she started crying. Bahaha.

Off we headed to the “Red Room”. A lot of people left quite early... either because they had to be up early or they were too tired from the night before. I had plans to go home early... but that rarely happens. So I waited until Dave headed home since we were in the same building. We Rubbed the toe of the Grgur Ninski statue for luck. And then finally I went upstairs and was able to close the door to MY room. You have no idea what a luxury that is after three and a half months of shared accommodation.

And so ends my first Eastern Trekker, the Classic Rhapsody. I would very highly recommend it! Carlos, our guide, was absolutely fantastic, as was our lovely driver Vlad. I had a great time. It was a fairly good group. Interesting stops (except Zakopane). All in all, totally worth it.

Fines Night

2009-08-20T17:38:00.000-04:00

After Budapest we were off to Croatia. On the way we stopped at Lake Balaton, or “Hungarian Sea”, the biggest lake in Hungary. Unfortunately it was a national holiday in Hungary so there was nowhere for us to get groceries for a picnic. Massive scavenging was done. A few people swam, others sat in the sun. I was in the mood for some quiet time so I sat by myself under a tree (and more importantly, out of the sun). Carlos came over after a little while and we had a good chat.

Back on the bus, we played the dare game where everyone is supposed to dare their seatmate, with the twist that you have to do the dare as well... but you don't know that at the beginning. Unfortunately (or maybe fortunately) our group wasn't that into it. We had some singing... including the Aussie anthem whilst jumping like a kangaroo down the bus by John. There were pushups by Dave... a run down the bus in his skivvies by Mark. Olivia chugged a beer. Chris mooned oncoming traffic. You get the point.

Anyways, Carlos had told us quite a few horror stories about crossing at the Croatian boarder... they take themselves a little too seriously, and have too much time on their hands... a lethal combination. Apparently Carlos was there for five hours once. We were told to keep quiet, sunglasses off, et cetera. I think we were there for about 45 minutes or so, which I guess isn't too bad. They did want to take a look at the luggage compartments but didn't dig around in our bags. Some girls elected to sunbathe... maybe not the best idea given the border problems, but it all worked out.

That night we were in Plitvice! A part of Croatia that a lot of backpackers probably don't get to simply because it's so difficult to get there. Lots of other tourists of the camper van and German coach variety. Anyways, in Plitvice we had a big barbecue with sausages and some amazing salads whipped up by Sam and her helpers. Plitvice was also “fines night”... basically, anyone can nominate anyone for a “fine”. You can be given a fine (shot of vodka) for anything... carrying a man bag, eating a dirty kebab, snoring, et cetera. I was doing alright at the beginning but then they all stacked up at the end. We totalled all the vodka provided by Carlos and were shooting wine, cherry brandy, et cetera by the end. And pretty much everyone was also drinking their own beverages all night. Needless to say, everyone was ready to get their dance on... but, horrors! The campsite had a 23:00 (more like 22:30) curfew. The only solution was to turn our coach into a nightclub. And we did so quite effectively. It ended up being a pretty early night because everyone had drank so much... but an extremely fun one.

Hungary For More (keep the corny titles coming!)

2009-08-19T19:14:00.001-04:00

Our next stop was Hungary... Budapest to be exact. The drive through Slovakia was quite lovely... and we stopped for a picnic lunch at a ski hill in the middle of the nowhere. Obviously no skiing going on at the moment, but a pretty place.

Budapest... a place I was very excited to go to, but absolutely gutted that I only had one day and an evening there. I kind of arrived with the mind-set that I would be back, so I wasn't going to try to see the whole city. In fact, seeing the city wasn't my first priority... I had booked my particular Eastern Trekker tour to coincide with the Red Bull Air Race in Budapest. I was only there for the qualifying day, but it was still super exciting.

But, I'll start at the beginning. For our first night in Budapest, we had an optional group dinner. I decided not to go. I ended up with Sheryl at a really lovely little Hungarian pub. There was basically us, two locals and the owner. The guy was such a sweetheart... trying to teach us a bit of Hungarian and chatting with us. We had some homemade goulash... not something I'd generally go for, but I had to try it, and it was actually quite good. I also had a bit of traditional sour cherry brandy or grappa or something. Man that stuff was potent haha. A massive shot too. Not bad though. We also grabbed a quick dessert at McDonalds... but not just any McDonalds... the first one to open behind the Iron Curtain!

After dinner we met the rest of the group for a really lovely nighttime boat cruise. I know it's touristy, but I have to recommend it! It's an absolutely stunning city all lit up. There was quite a lot of beer and wine consumed by all. A lot of us ended up going out afterwards as well. I had a great night. Redbull mojitos are huge in Budapest (for whatever reason), and they are just delicious. At one point I was talking to these guys from a Hungarian stag party. One of them was telling me all about the St. Stephen's Day celebrations taking place the day after we left that I was absolutely gutted to be missing. Really nice guys though. As were all the Hungarians I met. It was a pretty solid night. Another late one though. The night ended up at yet another dirty kebab stand around 4 in the morning. Then home and to bed.

I had to be up pretty early the next morning to go on my walking tour. We could do either walking or biking, and I opted for walking so I could take pictures... and from what I heard with the biking tour, I'm happy I picked that one. There was only five of us, and we had a really nice guide. It was kind of cool... a lot of practice sessions were going on for celebrations the following day. So even though I missed St. Stephan's Day, I still got to see some of it! Unfortunately the bridge closed for the Red Bull races before we could get across to see the castle... so I never actually made it over to the Buda side... next time!

The air races were SO cool! Try to go and see one near you if you can. It's so exciting to see in person, and the air show portion is decent. While sitting there I had this really delicious pastry... deep fried, covered in garlic butter and heaps of cheese.

After the races finished, I wandered to another part of the city and poked around some local designer shops... really neat stuff... I kind of regret not buying this bag I saw. Ah well. After that I headed back to the hostel. I was absolutely shattered. Very little sleep, hungover, over four hour walking tour, three hours standing in the scorching sun, and still sick... I was just done. I stayed in for the night. I had no Hungarian money so I never ended up having dinner haha. I had intentions of it, but fell asleep before I could deal with it. Speaking of money... Hungarian money is crazy... about 270 Forints to a Euro.

Anyhow, Budapest is very cool and I can't wait to go back and actually see more. Maybe go back for St. Stephen's Day because it sounds wicked fun.

Zakopane-ful

2009-08-17T18:40:00.000-04:00

My last stop in Poland was Zakopane... a ski resort town type place. I'm going to be honest... I hated the place. It was pretty enough, but not stunning. The entire place felt like a carnival... ice cream, nuts, corn on the cob, an unbelievable array of tacky souvenirs and thousands of tourists. European tourists, but still, tourists.

Coming into town took hours (or at least one) due to a massive traffic jam caused by a bloody roundabout. It was crazy. People were walking way faster than our coach was moving. After making it to our hotel, I was put in the very top room in the building... you'd think the top floor would be it.... but no, they had a room stuck up in the eaves. Good times. The whole group headed out to the main drag (/carnival). I grabbed lunch with Hayley and then we wandered. Hayley tried one of waffle things that I had had already in Gdansk. We eventually decided to go up to the top of the mountain. Did the metal toboggan run (like in Germany)... fun times! I managed to convince Hayley to do it despite her fears, and she loved it! More wandering... we ran into a bunch of our group mates and took some silly photos on the hill. On our way back to the funicular we grabbed these crazy ice cream cones. They're like... sherbert ice cream almost, but they come out of a swirly machine... they're really solid, almost like popsicles. And insanely tall haha. Anyways, hard to describe, but really good.

We got a little bit lost trying to find the hotel. And then we had to run down to the Tesco to get groceries for our picnic lunch the following day. We were exhausted by the time we got back to the hotel. Then up to my room in the eaves. That night we were off to the “meat palace.” As the name suggests... there was heaps of meat to be eaten. I kind of wish I had gone for the vegetarian option, or at least ordered off the menu. The group meal was just too much meat that I didn't like... I felt a bit ripped off.

All in all, I'd give Zakopane a miss.

A Mostly Lazy Day

2009-08-16T18:26:00.000-04:00

Day number two in Krakow... I decided to have a quiet morning, and it was such a good idea. My roomies all left so I just chilled out, had a shower, took a bit of a breather really. Then I headed out to slowly wander towards the meeting place for our bike tour. On the way I ran into this random little festival with a rock band playing and all the local restaurants had booths selling perogies and other Polish food. I had some killer perogies... more like the ones I'm used to, with the crunchy outside. Wandered over to the bike place and we were told that our bike tour had to be postponed due to an emergency of some sort.

So a bunch of us wandered up to the castle to take a look around. It was kind of boring. Not the prettiest castle I've seen. It was also grossly hot. We eventually ended up crashed on the grass by the river. It was actually a kind of boring afternoon and I wish I had just gone off on my own to see a bit more and then chill out in a park. At five we headed to the bike place again and off we went. The bike tour was pretty good, although the guide spoke very, very quietly. I think a walking tour probably would have been better.

A bunch of us ended up at this rooftop Italian place (random, I know) for dinnner. I wasn't keen on having Italian in Poland, but went for it. Good choice! Possibly some of the best Italian food I've ever had.

All in all, I quite liked Krakow... although maybe not as much as I thought I would. It's very, very touristy. I'm not sure I'll ever go back, but I did enjoy my time there.

Back to Poland

2009-08-15T00:21:00.001-04:00

After a phenomenal breakfast we headed off for Krakow. But before that we had a half day stop at Aushwitz-Birkenhau. If it had not been included in the tour, I wouldn't have done it. I very strongly disagree with the touristization of all the former camps. At Aushwitz there are heaps of restaurants and whatnot and it just disgusts me that people are making money off of it. I also hated the tourists. The disrespect was incredible... trying to sneak photographs behind the guide's back of the shoes or hair that was part of somebody's body. Or posing with a big grin in front of the barbed wire. I know that they remained open so that people wouldn't forget the past, but a large number of people visiting these camps couldn't care less... it's just a tick box and a photograph. I did take a couple of shots, but mostly at Birkenau where it was outside and more just of the actually layout of the thing. And definitely not in the gas chambers or anything. Like thousands and thousands of people died there, have some respect. Anyways, sorry for that rant.

After Aushwitz we were in Krakow in short order. The hostel wasn't super, but not the worst I've been in. We had a bit of time to get cleaned up then headed out for dinner. We went our separate ways, and Hayley and I ended up going for perogies and pancakes. Quite yum. Then the whole group met up in the square for an illegal vodka tasting given by our guide Carlos. One of the vodkas was honey flavoured, and actually quite good. The other was a bit burny haha. In our happily buzzing state we headed off to Diva nightclub and hung out in VIP for awhile before heading down to dance. Watching Eastern Europeans dance is amazing. They just go for it with all limbs flailing. It was a fun night though. I ended up staying til the end and leaving with Vicky, Kris and Anthony. Vicky decided she wanted to keep dancing at another club so we left her there and Anthony and I grabbed some dirty kebabs. Best kebab I have EVER had. Wow. He actually had two haha. Then finally, home.

Eastern Trekking

2009-08-14T00:19:00.000-04:00

Good start with the new group! Our first stop was Kutna Hora, to see the bone church. It was pretty cool... although I don't know whether I would make a special trip just to see it. After grabbing some groceries for the road we headed off to our final stop for the night... Olomouc. The driving on the way was a bit of an adventure! Czech drivers are INSANE. Two lane road became three lane as people dodged up the middle to get around other people. It was like an extreme sport. Highly entertaining for us in our massive, indestructible (almost) coach.

We had a couple of hours to chill at our hotel (hotel!!!) before meeting up for an orientation of town. There wasn't a whole lot shaking in Olomouc... it's a university town that is currently empty for summer holidays. It's pretty enough, but nothing special. The entire group (41 people with guides!) had dinner at a traditional Czech restaurant (read: meat). I went for the potato options. The best was these potato dumplings that were more like hashbrowns cooked with egg in bacon grease (Czech food is not the healthiest stuff...).

After dinner there was a party at this plane bar (literally an old plane that has been turned into a bar). Hayley and I decided to pass on that and headed back to the lovely hotel.