Ok, Kenya. First off, I am typing this in word and then will hopefully be able to paste it into the blog later or tomorrow, or when I can be bothered faffing with the really slow internet cable. So any references to today or yesterday may be inaccurate, I am writing this on 25th June.
When I first got to Kenya I was picked up from the Airport by Zack and Edith (Geoffrey’s brother and wife, Geoffrey is the owner or manager or founder of the organization). They drove me to the orphanage, about 1 hour away. First impressions of Kenya were not good as we drove through the outskirts of Nairobi, slums everywhere, the roads were in a state, in some areas it was common practice for all the cars to drive on the pavements (just dirt and gravel, not pavements like at home) because they were in better condition. The area surrounding the orphanage, probably similar to most of Kenya, is amazing though, just farmland everywhere, the people are all really friendly (mainly because we are white I think). Any kids that you walk past on the dirt roads will say “How are you?” constantly, not looking for a response as they keep saying it after you reply, I think they just like to say something that they think we will understand.
The orphanage has about 25 kids, I know most of the names now, but I still get confused between some of the girls. The kids are all great, if a little bit spoilt. It’s strange that they can have so little and yet still come across that way, but I guess that some volunteers give them everything they want. A few nights ago I made the mistake of making a paper plane, then I was bombarded with requests for more from other kids, and no matter how many I made I had to stop at some point, so I was always going to come across as the bad guy that stopped making planes.
There are a few buildings on the compound, the boys dorm, the girls dorm, the volunteer rooms, an office, a hall and a kitchen. There are two classrooms, one of which has recently been completed apart from the windows. The toilets and showers don’t really count as buildings. Or even as toilets and showers come to think of it. The toilets are just holes (think more permanent Leeds fest toilets, but without a seat, not that anyone wants to sit on one here or at leeds fest anway) and the showers are just rooms with a drain in one corner and you use a bucket of water.
On Saturday I think it was, we completed a biogas project that was started a few months ago, basically we had to mix cow poo and water together and then let it drain into a hole into a huge room underground where it produces methane, which is then piped into the kitchen for cooking, which until now had been done on wood. Now that the biogas chamber is full, the idea is that the four cows (one of which I helped to buy and walk back to the orphanage on my second day here) will produce enough manure to sustain it.
Aswell as helping with the biogas and painting the classroom, I’ve helped at the farm, which is about 10 mins walk from the orphanage and grows a lot of the food that the kids and volunteers eat. Which brings me onto the food. Its not the best. Lots of beans and maize. The best day is Friday because we have this bread, called chapatti, which is flat and tastes good. There’s also this stuff called ugali which we have some days, it’s just white stodgy empty carbs, I think its made of flour.
The nearest village is called Pundamillia, which has a few little huts, sells a few fruits and vegetables and doesn’t have any fridges, which seems to be how the volunteers rank villages. Next closest, about 30 mins walk away, is Makuyu, has 3 fridges, sells a few more fruit and veg, has a market on Sundays. Then there is Thika, 3rd largest town in Kenya after Nairobi and Mombasa. That’s where the internet café is. To get there you have to get a Matatu, which is like a little bus. I think they have 14 seats, but that doesn’t matter, my first trip to Thika had 21 people in the Matatu.
I’ve also discovered that I’m apparently quite good at volleyball, I guess I had to be good at some sport.
At the moment there aren’t too many volunteers, which is good as it means there is more to do. There are 2 Germans called Hannes and Maria. Americans called Amanda, Ashley, Angie, Doug, Alena. A Canadian called Sabrina. And the two Boss volunteers Devon and Anne, who are here for a year with their two kids Naya and Kai, and only recently took over from Aaron and Kaitlin who were here for nearly 2 years. We’ve been told we get 4 more volunteers on Friday, 2 boys and 2 girls, one of which will be you Jarka, unless you meant next Friday as in next week.
I think that’s all for now, I’m trying to avoid doing day by day as it’d take me ages to catch up.
On the day Aaron and Kaitlin left, James, one of the orphans, managed to hit a bird with a rock, stunning it and then picked it up and carried it around for a while. That was weird.
Ok, byeee
26 Jun 2009
21 Jun 2009
Istanbul
Hello,
I know i've not updated for a while, but internet is pretty sparse in Kenya.
First I've got to think back to Sofia, which seems like ages ago, but in reality was only about 2 weeks ago. It was pretty boring, I found a nice hotel and wandered in to get a map and other freebies, standard practise by now. I walked to a few of the churches and other sites, quickly tired of the place and went to an internet cafe and did the last big blog post. Got the train out of Sofia at about 7 pm of the same day that I got there. By this point I'd decided it was a good idea not to reserve places on night trains, but instead sit in the ordinary seats, which were often the same as a couchette (the awful train ride from Amsterdam to Berlin) but without curtains, and usually with no one else in them, so you can spread yourself out a bit. This seemed to have worked well again, untill I was awoken by a ticket inspector who told me I had to move to another carriage. I asked where the other seating carriages were and got the response "No". Not in the mood to make him elaborate I just got on the next carriage, a sleeper, and found another ticket inspector. He spoke better English, or was less ignorant, hard to tell with the first guy, and told me that they didn't have anymore seating carriages, but would pick one up at the border, 30 mins away, untill then I should stand in the corridor. I wandered down the train a little until the corridor got warmer and then waited. Through the window I saw Brandon, an American that me, Michael and Paris had met on the boozy night train from Brasov to Varna. Brandon and Jeff had stayed on the train to Sofia, while we had changed to Varna. I chatted with them and some guys from Singapore, who I had also met on one of the trains from Brasov to Varna. At the border we all had to get off the train for passport control, it took ages, and I forgot I'd have to buy a visa, luckily Jeff saved me from a lonely walk back to Bulgaria and paid for mine as I had no money, it cost $20 US. Then I got back on the train, found an empty bed and lay in it, they hadn't added a seating carriage. 30 seconds later a man came and asked for my reservation. I just moaned at him for 5 minutes and he eventually just went away.
In the morning I met up with Jeff, Brandon and the guys from Singapore (Singaporeans?), as the Singaporeans (I'll just run with it and wait for the comments to correct me) had a map with all our hostels on, and they were all very close together. I also paid Jeff back with dollars that I realised I had in my bag all along from my Grandma at the airport. We all met up for lunch and then went to the Blue Mosque, an Underground Cistern thing (I know, culture vulture or what!) and the palace. They were quite good, the underground thing had fish in it, which was a nice surprise, as far as I can make out it used to be a reservoir, don't know why its a tourist attraction. That night we ate and drank, and drank, in a bar near the hostels.
I woke up the next morning and realised that I had spent way too much the day and night before, so I took most of the day off and just wandered around a bit. Michael had decided that he too was coming to Istanbul, so I met him and a guy called Nick from his hostel, and we went for a beer. Then me and Michael met Jeff and Brandon and went to a Turkish Baths, it was pretty weird, you wear nothing but a towel, and then lie on the floor of a big sauna type thing and then you lie on a slab of marble and a turkish guy cracks all of your joints and gives you a painful massage then you lie on the floor again. Afterwards we got some kebabs and went for a couple of drinks.
The next day the four of us went to Asia, it takes about 20 mins on a boat from Europe. The asian side was a lot less touristy than the Europe side, which has the blue mosque etc. We just had a wander around. That night we had a few beers in the bar below Brandon and Jeffs hostel. A girl reminded me how to play backgammon, then I beat her 2-1. I got some lucky rolls but I'll take the victory. A Turkish guy then tried to teach me some more basic strategys and I beat him in that game, although technically he was playing himself, because he told me what moves to make, but i'll take that win aswell. We said fairwell to Jeff and Brandon, they were leaving early in the morning.
The next day Michael and I went to the only bit of Istanbul that we hadn't seen. We went up something big, can't remember what it was. Then we walked to the main area with all the bars and shops. We got lost on the way back until eventually a guy from a sports club guided us to where to get the bus from, but I could see where to go from there so we walked. On the way back we stopped and got a fish sandwich next to the river, everyone was eating at patio furniture. After a while a big boat came and caused a wave to come up onto the side where everyone was sat. It was awesome, everyone screamed, picked up their backs and ran away from the edge.
I said goodbye (again) to Michael the day after and got a bus to the airport. Something I haven't mentioned yet is that my uncle sent two suitcases to Istanbul for me to take to Kenya, mainly full of clothes and books etc. for the kids at the orphanage, but also with sun cream and other things. I'd managed to cram everything into one suitcase and my rucksack. At checkin the woman said my suitcase was 15kg over the limit, and my rucksack was 5 over the limit, and that each kg over would cost an extra 39 euros. I smiled and said "I'll be right back". I went to some seats and sorted through everything, putting slightly less necessary stuff in plastic bags. Sun Creams, some toiletries, sweets and biscuits. I went back to the check in, knowing I would still be over weight. The woman that looked like the boss had gone, so I went to the same girl I went to earlier, she seemed nice. Before putting my stuff on the belt thing I explained where I was going, helpeing kids in a orphanage etc. Talked about how little they had. I also tried to be as charming as possible, something I struggle with in normal life. Eventually I put my suitcase onto the belt, 8.5kg over "That's ok" she said smiling. Get in! Next my hand luggage. 2.5kg over. "That's fine too". I could tell I could still get more out of her. I carried on talking and smiling, there wasn't a queue. I offered her some of the Jammie Dogers that I had taken out of the suitcase, she laughed but declined, then looking around for the boss woman she said "but maybe you can add one box of sweets and biscuits when you leave this desk" she said winking. I thanked her and walked around the corner, then crammed as many in as I could and pulled the straps on my rucksack to make it appear smaller. The woman from the front desk met me again at the gate. "Did you get much more in your rucksack?" "Just the one packet of biscuits" I said, and winked back. She smiled, and I got on the plane feeling like James Bond or something, it was great.
I had to change planes at Doha, Qatar. From the plane it looked awesome, very flat and dusty, but I couldn't explore because I didnt have a visa. I got a free meal, but otherwise it was a very boring 14 hour change over.
I may try my best to use the limited internet at the orphanage later to do a bit on Kenya, but we have to leave the internet cafe soon to get back to the orphanage.
More to come.....
I know i've not updated for a while, but internet is pretty sparse in Kenya.
First I've got to think back to Sofia, which seems like ages ago, but in reality was only about 2 weeks ago. It was pretty boring, I found a nice hotel and wandered in to get a map and other freebies, standard practise by now. I walked to a few of the churches and other sites, quickly tired of the place and went to an internet cafe and did the last big blog post. Got the train out of Sofia at about 7 pm of the same day that I got there. By this point I'd decided it was a good idea not to reserve places on night trains, but instead sit in the ordinary seats, which were often the same as a couchette (the awful train ride from Amsterdam to Berlin) but without curtains, and usually with no one else in them, so you can spread yourself out a bit. This seemed to have worked well again, untill I was awoken by a ticket inspector who told me I had to move to another carriage. I asked where the other seating carriages were and got the response "No". Not in the mood to make him elaborate I just got on the next carriage, a sleeper, and found another ticket inspector. He spoke better English, or was less ignorant, hard to tell with the first guy, and told me that they didn't have anymore seating carriages, but would pick one up at the border, 30 mins away, untill then I should stand in the corridor. I wandered down the train a little until the corridor got warmer and then waited. Through the window I saw Brandon, an American that me, Michael and Paris had met on the boozy night train from Brasov to Varna. Brandon and Jeff had stayed on the train to Sofia, while we had changed to Varna. I chatted with them and some guys from Singapore, who I had also met on one of the trains from Brasov to Varna. At the border we all had to get off the train for passport control, it took ages, and I forgot I'd have to buy a visa, luckily Jeff saved me from a lonely walk back to Bulgaria and paid for mine as I had no money, it cost $20 US. Then I got back on the train, found an empty bed and lay in it, they hadn't added a seating carriage. 30 seconds later a man came and asked for my reservation. I just moaned at him for 5 minutes and he eventually just went away.
In the morning I met up with Jeff, Brandon and the guys from Singapore (Singaporeans?), as the Singaporeans (I'll just run with it and wait for the comments to correct me) had a map with all our hostels on, and they were all very close together. I also paid Jeff back with dollars that I realised I had in my bag all along from my Grandma at the airport. We all met up for lunch and then went to the Blue Mosque, an Underground Cistern thing (I know, culture vulture or what!) and the palace. They were quite good, the underground thing had fish in it, which was a nice surprise, as far as I can make out it used to be a reservoir, don't know why its a tourist attraction. That night we ate and drank, and drank, in a bar near the hostels.
I woke up the next morning and realised that I had spent way too much the day and night before, so I took most of the day off and just wandered around a bit. Michael had decided that he too was coming to Istanbul, so I met him and a guy called Nick from his hostel, and we went for a beer. Then me and Michael met Jeff and Brandon and went to a Turkish Baths, it was pretty weird, you wear nothing but a towel, and then lie on the floor of a big sauna type thing and then you lie on a slab of marble and a turkish guy cracks all of your joints and gives you a painful massage then you lie on the floor again. Afterwards we got some kebabs and went for a couple of drinks.
The next day the four of us went to Asia, it takes about 20 mins on a boat from Europe. The asian side was a lot less touristy than the Europe side, which has the blue mosque etc. We just had a wander around. That night we had a few beers in the bar below Brandon and Jeffs hostel. A girl reminded me how to play backgammon, then I beat her 2-1. I got some lucky rolls but I'll take the victory. A Turkish guy then tried to teach me some more basic strategys and I beat him in that game, although technically he was playing himself, because he told me what moves to make, but i'll take that win aswell. We said fairwell to Jeff and Brandon, they were leaving early in the morning.
The next day Michael and I went to the only bit of Istanbul that we hadn't seen. We went up something big, can't remember what it was. Then we walked to the main area with all the bars and shops. We got lost on the way back until eventually a guy from a sports club guided us to where to get the bus from, but I could see where to go from there so we walked. On the way back we stopped and got a fish sandwich next to the river, everyone was eating at patio furniture. After a while a big boat came and caused a wave to come up onto the side where everyone was sat. It was awesome, everyone screamed, picked up their backs and ran away from the edge.
I said goodbye (again) to Michael the day after and got a bus to the airport. Something I haven't mentioned yet is that my uncle sent two suitcases to Istanbul for me to take to Kenya, mainly full of clothes and books etc. for the kids at the orphanage, but also with sun cream and other things. I'd managed to cram everything into one suitcase and my rucksack. At checkin the woman said my suitcase was 15kg over the limit, and my rucksack was 5 over the limit, and that each kg over would cost an extra 39 euros. I smiled and said "I'll be right back". I went to some seats and sorted through everything, putting slightly less necessary stuff in plastic bags. Sun Creams, some toiletries, sweets and biscuits. I went back to the check in, knowing I would still be over weight. The woman that looked like the boss had gone, so I went to the same girl I went to earlier, she seemed nice. Before putting my stuff on the belt thing I explained where I was going, helpeing kids in a orphanage etc. Talked about how little they had. I also tried to be as charming as possible, something I struggle with in normal life. Eventually I put my suitcase onto the belt, 8.5kg over "That's ok" she said smiling. Get in! Next my hand luggage. 2.5kg over. "That's fine too". I could tell I could still get more out of her. I carried on talking and smiling, there wasn't a queue. I offered her some of the Jammie Dogers that I had taken out of the suitcase, she laughed but declined, then looking around for the boss woman she said "but maybe you can add one box of sweets and biscuits when you leave this desk" she said winking. I thanked her and walked around the corner, then crammed as many in as I could and pulled the straps on my rucksack to make it appear smaller. The woman from the front desk met me again at the gate. "Did you get much more in your rucksack?" "Just the one packet of biscuits" I said, and winked back. She smiled, and I got on the plane feeling like James Bond or something, it was great.
I had to change planes at Doha, Qatar. From the plane it looked awesome, very flat and dusty, but I couldn't explore because I didnt have a visa. I got a free meal, but otherwise it was a very boring 14 hour change over.
I may try my best to use the limited internet at the orphanage later to do a bit on Kenya, but we have to leave the internet cafe soon to get back to the orphanage.
More to come.....
7 Jun 2009
photos
Ok my camera ran out of space yesterday so ı trıed to upload them to the ınternet today. I sent them here:
http://picasaweb.google.com/david.j.bramwell
But ıts not uploaded them ın good qualıty. Plus ıt took about an hour to do ıt...
Does anyone have any ıdeas how where I can upload them or how I can send them to anyone? Theres too many for an emaıl.
http://picasaweb.google.com/david.j.bramwell
But ıts not uploaded them ın good qualıty. Plus ıt took about an hour to do ıt...
Does anyone have any ıdeas how where I can upload them or how I can send them to anyone? Theres too many for an emaıl.
6 Jun 2009
Little bits i forgot
Hello again,
In Turkey now, and thıs keyboard ıs a lıttle bıt weırd, and ıt makes the ı look funny. Just a bıt ı mıssed out.
Sınce Romanıa all traıns have had the lıttle flap flush onto the tracks type of toılets. So sorry to Jack ıf he every fınds thıs.
I had more on the traın that ı`d forgotten, but ı cant remember now.
Ill do a bıgger post at the end of Istanbul on a better keyboard.
Oh, and ın a month from now ıll be ın Kenya, ı leave for kenya on 10th june and wıll be there for 2 - 2.5 months. Possıbly Indıa after that.
Byee
In Turkey now, and thıs keyboard ıs a lıttle bıt weırd, and ıt makes the ı look funny. Just a bıt ı mıssed out.
Sınce Romanıa all traıns have had the lıttle flap flush onto the tracks type of toılets. So sorry to Jack ıf he every fınds thıs.
I had more on the traın that ı`d forgotten, but ı cant remember now.
Ill do a bıgger post at the end of Istanbul on a better keyboard.
Oh, and ın a month from now ıll be ın Kenya, ı leave for kenya on 10th june and wıll be there for 2 - 2.5 months. Possıbly Indıa after that.
Byee
5 Jun 2009
Brasov and Varna
Well, my time in Europe's nearly up. I got to Sofia on the night train at about 7:30 this morning, it wasn't too bad, I was pretty tired and there was only me and a Bulgarian chap sharing a room with 8 seats, for and four facing each other, so we could lie across them and sleep, untill about 5 in the morning (thats a guess, I lost my phone so now have no concept of time, more about this later, not much to tell though) when six guys decided to add themselves to our compartment. Mita Vittua! But I slept a little bit sat up too, so I got a few hours all together. Sofia is pretty boring, hence i'm in an internet cafe doing this and listening to the pixies.
Ok, Brasov. As I may or may not have said in my last post, I was going to go to Bucharest, but I'd only heard bad things about it, ugly, nothing to see, not dissimilar to Chorley. So I decided on Brasov instead, and it was beautiful. Huge hills on all sides, small interesting buildings, very green, infact from the train most of Romania looked untouched and very green. On the first day there me and Michael just chilled out after the night train. We met a girl in the hostel, but I can't remember what she was called, and we all went to the supermarket to buy food to cook in the hostel, which surprisingly turned out to be very nice, it was pasta and we put some veg and chicken and for some reason eggs in it (I think that's an american thing, never seen it done in the UK before). Then we had a few beers, met a few people, including someone else from "Manchester". I explained that I wasn't actually from Manchester, I had just gotten tired of explaining where Bolton was. He explained that the same had happened with him and Wigan. Then we went to bed.
Our only full day in Brasov. We got up around 10 ish, got ready and headed for the bottom of a big hill that had a sign on it saying BRASOV, in the style of that Hollywood sign. The path snaked up the hill because it was so steep, but after a while we decided to try to go straight up for a little bit. This was silly, because my shoes are from Sainsburys and cost approximately 12 pounds, so I was dragging myself up with my hands, although Michael wasn't fairing much better. I don't think this method was faster than just going around the path, so we continued like civilized human beings to the top. The view was fantastic! By far the best I have seen from any high objects in Europe on this trip. We took the cable car back down because Michael said "Where's the challenge in walking down a hill". After that we walked around the town a bit, then went back to the hostel. We also met a girl called Paris in the hostel, who was an absolute brain box, knew 4 or 5 languages well enough to hold conversations and sometimes fluent, and she's only 19, very clever. She decided to come with us to Varna the next day.
On the last day in Brasov we went to Bran, or Bran's Castle. It's meant to be where Dracula lived, it was pretty rubbish. It had a few boards up saying who actually had lived there, and the history of the castle, but they didn't seem interesting enough to warrent me spending my time on them. They should have played up to the dracula thing a little bit more, it's make an excellent haunted house, with people dressed up and jumping out at you and stuff. So we took the bus back to Brasov again, then tried to get a bus back to the hostel, but got the wrong one, so we got off again and walked.
We got the train at 16:03 to Bucharest, then we had about 20mins before we had to get the next train, so we found a little shop, I opened the fridge, got some bottles of beer, closed the fridge and went to pay. Michael tried to open the fridge, accidentally snapped the handle off, balanced it back in place, even though everyone heard it and was watching him, and then walked quickly to the platform. The woman didn't say anything to me or Paris about it, so I don't think she was too bothered. After all the beers had been drunk, me and Michael fell asleep, I'm not sure if Paris went to sleep or not, but thankfully she was awake when we got to our next change and just about managed to wake up me and Michael. I went to try to get some food, and returned to find Michael doing single handed press ups for some taxi drivers.... I'm not sure why, but they seemed impressed so whatever. I went inside, and Michael said he was going to look for food, he returned with vodka, most of which he gave to me. We then all fell asleep on the next train untill we arrived in Varna.
I've been doing a kind of hap-hazzzard unorganised kind of travelling, and I assumed that we were doing this stop the same way, so when we got to Varna at 8:30 I intended on going to the beach with our stuff untill a reasonable time, then finding a computer and getting the directions to the hostel. It worked fine in Berlin and Bratislava, except you have to replace beach with city centre. But Michael had the biggest bag in the world and Paris had a suitcase, so it wasn't really practical to go to the beach. Paris had a guide book that had the hostel marked on it, we got the bus there, even though I wanted to walk, and had a look around for it. After a while I asked in the shops and one girl said it had moved location but she didn't know where to. We asked a few places where an internet cafe was and eventually found it but it was closed. Then Paris was trying to get a connection on her laptop. By this point everyone's conflict of interests was starting to show, I made clear that I was bored of hanging around, went on my own, got some cash, found a map in a hotel, found an internet cafe and marked on where the hostel was. I arrived at the hostel and the owner answered the door in a towel and said he'd be with me shortly. About 20-30 mins later, he answered the door to Michael and Paris, still in his towel. After a while he gave us our keys and our beds, we all apologised to each other for moaning earlier on, and we rented some bikes and rode down towards the sea. It was a good day, we had a ride around, got some food, went in the sea. I had a sleep on the beach, and when it was going to start raining Michael decided to wake me up by jumping on me, so that explains those photo's on facebook! That night Paris went out for a meal with the hostel, me and Michael went somewhere else, and just asked the waiter to bring "3 different things that are good". He brought pizza, can't remember what was on it, chips and cheese, and some chicken thing. It was all very good, we also had 2 pints each and the total came to a whopping 21 Leva, about 10 quid. Then we bought some beers and went to the beach. We went back to the hostel for a trip to a bar and a hot spring natural bath thingy, it was pretty good, even if the water was a little bit slimey and there was a guy that lost his wallet/got it stolen. We got back about 4 in the morning.
I awoke with a bit of a hangover, but there was free vodka at breakfast as long as you drank it through a funnel, and this was my only morning in this hostel, so I had no time to waste. It was pretty disgusting, and the guy pouring it into the funnel managed to get some in my eye. Anyway, the day before the three of us had decided we would go on the hostel guided trip to the most easternly point of Bulgaria, Cape Kaliakra, or something to that effect, but we were told that the driver had called in sick, so Dave, the hostel owner asked a guy called Paul, who had arrived last night and I had briefly spoke to, if he would drive us and Sylvia, another American, because Paul had said that he used to be a coach driver. Paul said yes, so Dave gave us his car for a day and told us the rough direction to head in "keep the coast on the left". We drove for a bit, and saw a monestary, so we stopped and had a look around. Then we moved on a bit more and went to another beach, called golden sands, got something to eat and had a swim. Then we moved on again to the Cape. It was really impressive, huge drops on either side down to the ocean, got some good photos, or Sylvia did with my camera anyway, then we had to head back because we were meant to be back at 6. We got back to Brasov at 6:30 but we couldn't find the place where we had taken the car from, so eventually we just put it back somewhere else and got back to the hostel at 7, just in time for free beer, Dave wasn't bothered at all. I said goodbye to Michael and Paris, as I had to get a night train to Sofia, and they went out to get something to eat. It was fun travelling with other people, but I think because of my complete lack of organisational skills I should be wary of doing it again, I think I could cause a lot of people to get stressed out. It's great being with people when you're just doing the fun stuff, drinking, seeing the sites, etc, but for the boring necessary bits, like finding the hostel, it becomes a problem if there are other people there and no one knows where it is.
Oh yeah, my phone, i'm not entirely sure what happened to it, I noticed I didn't have it when we got to Golden Sands on the car day, but I thought I may have left it at the hostel, when I got back to the hostel it wasn't there and no one had seen it, so I either lost it or got pickpocketed at the monastry I think. Either way its gone now, at least it's one less thing to look after untill I decide to get another.
Tomorrow is the last day of the rail pass, so i've done the hardcore thing of night train to Sofia, day in Sofia, night train to Istanbul. There doesn't seem to be much in Sofia anyway.
Cheers for the comments, keep them coming so that I don't feel like i'm boring everyone.
bye bye
Ok, Brasov. As I may or may not have said in my last post, I was going to go to Bucharest, but I'd only heard bad things about it, ugly, nothing to see, not dissimilar to Chorley. So I decided on Brasov instead, and it was beautiful. Huge hills on all sides, small interesting buildings, very green, infact from the train most of Romania looked untouched and very green. On the first day there me and Michael just chilled out after the night train. We met a girl in the hostel, but I can't remember what she was called, and we all went to the supermarket to buy food to cook in the hostel, which surprisingly turned out to be very nice, it was pasta and we put some veg and chicken and for some reason eggs in it (I think that's an american thing, never seen it done in the UK before). Then we had a few beers, met a few people, including someone else from "Manchester". I explained that I wasn't actually from Manchester, I had just gotten tired of explaining where Bolton was. He explained that the same had happened with him and Wigan. Then we went to bed.
Our only full day in Brasov. We got up around 10 ish, got ready and headed for the bottom of a big hill that had a sign on it saying BRASOV, in the style of that Hollywood sign. The path snaked up the hill because it was so steep, but after a while we decided to try to go straight up for a little bit. This was silly, because my shoes are from Sainsburys and cost approximately 12 pounds, so I was dragging myself up with my hands, although Michael wasn't fairing much better. I don't think this method was faster than just going around the path, so we continued like civilized human beings to the top. The view was fantastic! By far the best I have seen from any high objects in Europe on this trip. We took the cable car back down because Michael said "Where's the challenge in walking down a hill". After that we walked around the town a bit, then went back to the hostel. We also met a girl called Paris in the hostel, who was an absolute brain box, knew 4 or 5 languages well enough to hold conversations and sometimes fluent, and she's only 19, very clever. She decided to come with us to Varna the next day.
On the last day in Brasov we went to Bran, or Bran's Castle. It's meant to be where Dracula lived, it was pretty rubbish. It had a few boards up saying who actually had lived there, and the history of the castle, but they didn't seem interesting enough to warrent me spending my time on them. They should have played up to the dracula thing a little bit more, it's make an excellent haunted house, with people dressed up and jumping out at you and stuff. So we took the bus back to Brasov again, then tried to get a bus back to the hostel, but got the wrong one, so we got off again and walked.
We got the train at 16:03 to Bucharest, then we had about 20mins before we had to get the next train, so we found a little shop, I opened the fridge, got some bottles of beer, closed the fridge and went to pay. Michael tried to open the fridge, accidentally snapped the handle off, balanced it back in place, even though everyone heard it and was watching him, and then walked quickly to the platform. The woman didn't say anything to me or Paris about it, so I don't think she was too bothered. After all the beers had been drunk, me and Michael fell asleep, I'm not sure if Paris went to sleep or not, but thankfully she was awake when we got to our next change and just about managed to wake up me and Michael. I went to try to get some food, and returned to find Michael doing single handed press ups for some taxi drivers.... I'm not sure why, but they seemed impressed so whatever. I went inside, and Michael said he was going to look for food, he returned with vodka, most of which he gave to me. We then all fell asleep on the next train untill we arrived in Varna.
I've been doing a kind of hap-hazzzard unorganised kind of travelling, and I assumed that we were doing this stop the same way, so when we got to Varna at 8:30 I intended on going to the beach with our stuff untill a reasonable time, then finding a computer and getting the directions to the hostel. It worked fine in Berlin and Bratislava, except you have to replace beach with city centre. But Michael had the biggest bag in the world and Paris had a suitcase, so it wasn't really practical to go to the beach. Paris had a guide book that had the hostel marked on it, we got the bus there, even though I wanted to walk, and had a look around for it. After a while I asked in the shops and one girl said it had moved location but she didn't know where to. We asked a few places where an internet cafe was and eventually found it but it was closed. Then Paris was trying to get a connection on her laptop. By this point everyone's conflict of interests was starting to show, I made clear that I was bored of hanging around, went on my own, got some cash, found a map in a hotel, found an internet cafe and marked on where the hostel was. I arrived at the hostel and the owner answered the door in a towel and said he'd be with me shortly. About 20-30 mins later, he answered the door to Michael and Paris, still in his towel. After a while he gave us our keys and our beds, we all apologised to each other for moaning earlier on, and we rented some bikes and rode down towards the sea. It was a good day, we had a ride around, got some food, went in the sea. I had a sleep on the beach, and when it was going to start raining Michael decided to wake me up by jumping on me, so that explains those photo's on facebook! That night Paris went out for a meal with the hostel, me and Michael went somewhere else, and just asked the waiter to bring "3 different things that are good". He brought pizza, can't remember what was on it, chips and cheese, and some chicken thing. It was all very good, we also had 2 pints each and the total came to a whopping 21 Leva, about 10 quid. Then we bought some beers and went to the beach. We went back to the hostel for a trip to a bar and a hot spring natural bath thingy, it was pretty good, even if the water was a little bit slimey and there was a guy that lost his wallet/got it stolen. We got back about 4 in the morning.
I awoke with a bit of a hangover, but there was free vodka at breakfast as long as you drank it through a funnel, and this was my only morning in this hostel, so I had no time to waste. It was pretty disgusting, and the guy pouring it into the funnel managed to get some in my eye. Anyway, the day before the three of us had decided we would go on the hostel guided trip to the most easternly point of Bulgaria, Cape Kaliakra, or something to that effect, but we were told that the driver had called in sick, so Dave, the hostel owner asked a guy called Paul, who had arrived last night and I had briefly spoke to, if he would drive us and Sylvia, another American, because Paul had said that he used to be a coach driver. Paul said yes, so Dave gave us his car for a day and told us the rough direction to head in "keep the coast on the left". We drove for a bit, and saw a monestary, so we stopped and had a look around. Then we moved on a bit more and went to another beach, called golden sands, got something to eat and had a swim. Then we moved on again to the Cape. It was really impressive, huge drops on either side down to the ocean, got some good photos, or Sylvia did with my camera anyway, then we had to head back because we were meant to be back at 6. We got back to Brasov at 6:30 but we couldn't find the place where we had taken the car from, so eventually we just put it back somewhere else and got back to the hostel at 7, just in time for free beer, Dave wasn't bothered at all. I said goodbye to Michael and Paris, as I had to get a night train to Sofia, and they went out to get something to eat. It was fun travelling with other people, but I think because of my complete lack of organisational skills I should be wary of doing it again, I think I could cause a lot of people to get stressed out. It's great being with people when you're just doing the fun stuff, drinking, seeing the sites, etc, but for the boring necessary bits, like finding the hostel, it becomes a problem if there are other people there and no one knows where it is.
Oh yeah, my phone, i'm not entirely sure what happened to it, I noticed I didn't have it when we got to Golden Sands on the car day, but I thought I may have left it at the hostel, when I got back to the hostel it wasn't there and no one had seen it, so I either lost it or got pickpocketed at the monastry I think. Either way its gone now, at least it's one less thing to look after untill I decide to get another.
Tomorrow is the last day of the rail pass, so i've done the hardcore thing of night train to Sofia, day in Sofia, night train to Istanbul. There doesn't seem to be much in Sofia anyway.
Cheers for the comments, keep them coming so that I don't feel like i'm boring everyone.
bye bye
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