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
31 May 2009
Vienna and Budapest
Hello again to anyone bothering to read this.
I've just got to Brasov in Romania with Michael, and he's gone to sleep for a bit, even though he got way more sleep than me on the train, but whatever, it makes a good time to do a blog post.
Vienna was nice, and that's all there really is to say about it. Lots of nice buildings with nice shops and nice horse drawn carriages with nicely dressed drivers (or riders, I don't know). It lacked a lot of personality, just really touristy and.... nice. The hostel was pretty much the same, clean and looked good.
Day one in Vienna I just wandered around a little bit then had some drinks in the bar and met a few people. In general the people were also just nice. There was a few Australians and Canadians, no Brits. The only person that I can remember having any interesting stories was a Canadian called Jack, he said that he had been on a train on the toilet as they went through border control, and because it was at the platform he didn't want to flush it. He was adamant that on this train it just dropped straight out onto the tracks, I'm pretty sure it doesn't, but he said it's more likely the more eastern you travel. I'm in Romania and still haven't seen it (he said if you pressed the flush a hatch dropped down and you could see the railway underneath, nonsense). But back to the story, the border guys were banging on the door, and he was saying "occupied, occupado" and any other foreign sounding versions of the word occupied, because he didn't know what they were saying. Eventually he just flushed, supposedly onto the tracks, and left.
Day 2 in Vienna. I had a bigger look round at the niceness of everything, unimpressed, tourists everywhere, then went to the park and chilled out for a bit. There was a weird fish swimming close to the surface of a pond, and a duck kept pecking it and the fish would swim down then swim up again and the same thing would happen, possible proof for the 3 second memory thing, I don't know, but I can't have been enjoying it. Went back to the hostel and met some of the guys from the night before and some new people. Chatted to a guy from America with a guitar that had been deported from England. He said he had told the security that he would be playing in open mic nights in bars and stuff, which isn't paid, and they asked him "If someone gave you money though, would you take it?" and he said "If someone GAVE YOU money would you take it?". I guess it's a little cheeky, but a bit silly to deport him because he'd take money if it was given to him. He was really good on guitar, he also had a thing that went around his head that he put a harmonica on, and played that at the same time. Everyone was getting really into it, but then he had to stop because the neighbours were complaining. After that I met the guys that were in my room, and we played ring of fire, but they used rubbish rules, one of which was "never have I ever", which pretty much all drinking game enthusiasts know suck. We also had 4 is whores, which means girls drink, fun with no girls even playing.....
Day 3 in Vienna, I went to the palace, which was quite good compared to the rest of Vienna, I saw a red squirrel on the way there too, which was probably the best bit of Vienna. Then it started to rain, so I got the train to Budapest.
I nicely managed to navigate a train, metro and tram to the hostel with few problems. Dumped my stuff in the hostel and went and got something to eat. Later that night in the hostel I met two French girls, who I can't remember the name of, two German girls, called Christine and Marina, and an Australian called Belinda. We kind of watched the Champions league final in the hostel, but mainly just had a few drinks and chatted.
The next day me, Belinda, Marina and Christine went up to the castle/parliment /palace things on the hill in Buda, there was a good view from the top, and we watched the changing of the guards which was silly and dragged out, like those kind of things normally are. Then we went to the top of the Basilica, which had a great view. I think all cities should have at least one thing that you can go to the top of and see everything from high up. We then went to the island in the river and relaxed for a bit, which was good, untill some kind of ninja kendo man turned up with a bag of wooden swords and made me fight him, which was pretty weird. He was hungarian, so none of us could really understand him, he asked something about where the sports club was and we pointed in the direction, but he just stayed with us for ages.... He gave me his face mask thingy and a sword and made me fight him, I wasn't sure whether to just go nuts or to be really careful not to hit him in the head. Eventually I hit his hand by accident so we stopped, yay! Then he was showing us bits of judo and all sorts, and then he gave us his life story. We understood very little, but there was three main parts:
1. Unix operating systems and researching DNA
2. Teaching the sword fighting and judo thing
3. Teaching the organ
He managed to drag them out over about 20 mins, then he asked me to sword fight or wrestle with him again, I quickly declined and he left soon after. That night us four along with three guys from essex called Simon, Simon and Paul went out to an open air concert club thingy, we drank, danced, played a bit of table football, it was a good night.
On my second full day in Budapest I went to the Monument Park in the morning with Christine and Marina. It's where they keep all the old soviet statues and stuff, it was pretty good. The girls got some good photo's which I think are on facebook now. I took a few, but I can't be bothered putting them on yet. In the afternoon we met up with Belinda, got some pizzas delivered to the hostel, then went to the market hall which had all the usual crap that you find in these places. Had a few beers in the hostel that night, some people went out after, I didn't. Christine and Marina were leaving at 6 the morning after, so we all said goodbye when everyone went to bed.
My last day in Budapest. Michael (guy I met in Bratislava) and I had been emailing each other during our time at Budapest, which is a difficult method of conversation to use to organise a meeting time and place in another city. We were meant to have been in the same hostel, but Michael couldn't find it, so he stayed somewhere else. We'd kind of organised to meet at 11 am, so me and Belinda went to where we thought he was staying and he was at the train station he thought we would get off at, so we ended up missing each other. Me and Belinda decided to go to a park where there was a castle and stuff, when we got there we discovered there was a circus so we did the usual cheap skate traveller thing of wandering in as far as you can before you have to pay, which ended nicely with us getting to watch the second half of the circus for free, as we just happened to arrive during the interval. There was quite a lot in it, Lions, a man that juggled hats and could put them on his head in crazy ways, ridiculously bendy people, it was really good. Then we had a wander around the park a bit until it threatened to rain. That night lots of new people had arrived at the hostel as others had left, so 8 of us went for a meal, including a guy that worked for google, which sounds awesome, they have playstations and pool tables in the office. I was thinking about getting his email address and persistantly asking him for a job, but I forgot. I went to get the train that left at 23:13 for Brasov in Romania, as I had heard that Bucharest is horrible from lots of people, and surprise surprise, Michael was there, so now we're both in the same hostel in Brasov, and I think we're going to go to Bulgaria together aswell, before he goes off to Croatia and I go to Turkey.
To sumarise, vienna was nice, but Budapest was really good fun and definately worth a vist.
Also are these posts to detailed, I feel like i'm writing too much "then I did this, and then I did this, and then I did this....." I dunno, tell me what you think, it's kind of hard to cut bits out.
byeeeeeeeeee
I've just got to Brasov in Romania with Michael, and he's gone to sleep for a bit, even though he got way more sleep than me on the train, but whatever, it makes a good time to do a blog post.
Vienna was nice, and that's all there really is to say about it. Lots of nice buildings with nice shops and nice horse drawn carriages with nicely dressed drivers (or riders, I don't know). It lacked a lot of personality, just really touristy and.... nice. The hostel was pretty much the same, clean and looked good.
Day one in Vienna I just wandered around a little bit then had some drinks in the bar and met a few people. In general the people were also just nice. There was a few Australians and Canadians, no Brits. The only person that I can remember having any interesting stories was a Canadian called Jack, he said that he had been on a train on the toilet as they went through border control, and because it was at the platform he didn't want to flush it. He was adamant that on this train it just dropped straight out onto the tracks, I'm pretty sure it doesn't, but he said it's more likely the more eastern you travel. I'm in Romania and still haven't seen it (he said if you pressed the flush a hatch dropped down and you could see the railway underneath, nonsense). But back to the story, the border guys were banging on the door, and he was saying "occupied, occupado" and any other foreign sounding versions of the word occupied, because he didn't know what they were saying. Eventually he just flushed, supposedly onto the tracks, and left.
Day 2 in Vienna. I had a bigger look round at the niceness of everything, unimpressed, tourists everywhere, then went to the park and chilled out for a bit. There was a weird fish swimming close to the surface of a pond, and a duck kept pecking it and the fish would swim down then swim up again and the same thing would happen, possible proof for the 3 second memory thing, I don't know, but I can't have been enjoying it. Went back to the hostel and met some of the guys from the night before and some new people. Chatted to a guy from America with a guitar that had been deported from England. He said he had told the security that he would be playing in open mic nights in bars and stuff, which isn't paid, and they asked him "If someone gave you money though, would you take it?" and he said "If someone GAVE YOU money would you take it?". I guess it's a little cheeky, but a bit silly to deport him because he'd take money if it was given to him. He was really good on guitar, he also had a thing that went around his head that he put a harmonica on, and played that at the same time. Everyone was getting really into it, but then he had to stop because the neighbours were complaining. After that I met the guys that were in my room, and we played ring of fire, but they used rubbish rules, one of which was "never have I ever", which pretty much all drinking game enthusiasts know suck. We also had 4 is whores, which means girls drink, fun with no girls even playing.....
Day 3 in Vienna, I went to the palace, which was quite good compared to the rest of Vienna, I saw a red squirrel on the way there too, which was probably the best bit of Vienna. Then it started to rain, so I got the train to Budapest.
I nicely managed to navigate a train, metro and tram to the hostel with few problems. Dumped my stuff in the hostel and went and got something to eat. Later that night in the hostel I met two French girls, who I can't remember the name of, two German girls, called Christine and Marina, and an Australian called Belinda. We kind of watched the Champions league final in the hostel, but mainly just had a few drinks and chatted.
The next day me, Belinda, Marina and Christine went up to the castle/parliment /palace things on the hill in Buda, there was a good view from the top, and we watched the changing of the guards which was silly and dragged out, like those kind of things normally are. Then we went to the top of the Basilica, which had a great view. I think all cities should have at least one thing that you can go to the top of and see everything from high up. We then went to the island in the river and relaxed for a bit, which was good, untill some kind of ninja kendo man turned up with a bag of wooden swords and made me fight him, which was pretty weird. He was hungarian, so none of us could really understand him, he asked something about where the sports club was and we pointed in the direction, but he just stayed with us for ages.... He gave me his face mask thingy and a sword and made me fight him, I wasn't sure whether to just go nuts or to be really careful not to hit him in the head. Eventually I hit his hand by accident so we stopped, yay! Then he was showing us bits of judo and all sorts, and then he gave us his life story. We understood very little, but there was three main parts:
1. Unix operating systems and researching DNA
2. Teaching the sword fighting and judo thing
3. Teaching the organ
He managed to drag them out over about 20 mins, then he asked me to sword fight or wrestle with him again, I quickly declined and he left soon after. That night us four along with three guys from essex called Simon, Simon and Paul went out to an open air concert club thingy, we drank, danced, played a bit of table football, it was a good night.
On my second full day in Budapest I went to the Monument Park in the morning with Christine and Marina. It's where they keep all the old soviet statues and stuff, it was pretty good. The girls got some good photo's which I think are on facebook now. I took a few, but I can't be bothered putting them on yet. In the afternoon we met up with Belinda, got some pizzas delivered to the hostel, then went to the market hall which had all the usual crap that you find in these places. Had a few beers in the hostel that night, some people went out after, I didn't. Christine and Marina were leaving at 6 the morning after, so we all said goodbye when everyone went to bed.
My last day in Budapest. Michael (guy I met in Bratislava) and I had been emailing each other during our time at Budapest, which is a difficult method of conversation to use to organise a meeting time and place in another city. We were meant to have been in the same hostel, but Michael couldn't find it, so he stayed somewhere else. We'd kind of organised to meet at 11 am, so me and Belinda went to where we thought he was staying and he was at the train station he thought we would get off at, so we ended up missing each other. Me and Belinda decided to go to a park where there was a castle and stuff, when we got there we discovered there was a circus so we did the usual cheap skate traveller thing of wandering in as far as you can before you have to pay, which ended nicely with us getting to watch the second half of the circus for free, as we just happened to arrive during the interval. There was quite a lot in it, Lions, a man that juggled hats and could put them on his head in crazy ways, ridiculously bendy people, it was really good. Then we had a wander around the park a bit until it threatened to rain. That night lots of new people had arrived at the hostel as others had left, so 8 of us went for a meal, including a guy that worked for google, which sounds awesome, they have playstations and pool tables in the office. I was thinking about getting his email address and persistantly asking him for a job, but I forgot. I went to get the train that left at 23:13 for Brasov in Romania, as I had heard that Bucharest is horrible from lots of people, and surprise surprise, Michael was there, so now we're both in the same hostel in Brasov, and I think we're going to go to Bulgaria together aswell, before he goes off to Croatia and I go to Turkey.
To sumarise, vienna was nice, but Budapest was really good fun and definately worth a vist.
Also are these posts to detailed, I feel like i'm writing too much "then I did this, and then I did this, and then I did this....." I dunno, tell me what you think, it's kind of hard to cut bits out.
byeeeeeeeeee
25 May 2009
Krakow and Bratislava
I got to Krakow at about 8:30 pm, having spent all day on the train, but I couldn't find the hostel until about 10. Didn't do much that night, got a pizza, chatted to a few other backpackers and went to bed.
The next morning I got the free breakfast, it was really good because they had loads of cheese spread and bread, so I ate a lot of sandwiches. Then I just wandered around town, went to the castle and the main square. I had a kebab for tea that was pretty good, lots of different stuff on it. I had another early night because I wanted to go to Auschwitz the next day, so I had a couple of beers and chatted to people back at the hostel. I arranged to get the bus with an american called Bryon to Auschwitz, but he said he was going to set off early. Bryon had been travelling for a couple of months around Europe, he had a three month rail pass and he had been to a new city pretty much everyday, getting the night train somewhere, getting off for the day, getting the night train somewhere else. In Oslo he'd even got a night train somewhere so he could sleep, then changed trains and got another night train back to Oslo, so that he didn't have to pay for a hostel.
I got up at 8:30 expecting Bryon to have left, he hadn't, so I got some cheese spread sandwiches and expected to head out. Bryon spent ages faffing around and we only left at about 9:45, then we were rushing for the bus and he was walking as if he had his shoe laces tied together, the smallest steps i've ever seen anyone take. We just about managed to get the bus, but I abandoned him shortly after arriving at Auschwitz, he was a pain in the arse and his stories about night trains were starting to annoy me. Auschwitz was as shocking as I expected it to be, I wont talk you through it all but there's one bit where they have all the hair of the female victims, and there's tonnes of it, and although its behind a glass wall, you can still smell it.
When I got back I met a guy called Henrik from Sweden. I destoryed him in two games of connect 4 and he decided he didn't want to play anymore. Then came the hostel's "shot night", me, Henrik, a Californian called Steve, two girls called Laura and Toni, and an older couple called Bob and Anne. After a few drinks I couldn't resist telling Bob that I had a dog called Bob, thankfully he took it the right way. After the shots me, Henrik, Steve, Toni and Laura went to a few bars, Toni and Laura left part way through, we had a couple more drinks and then Steve and Henrik had a Kebab, I was waiting so I could cash in on the cheese spread the next morning.
My last day in Poland. Steve had told me about Couch Surfing. It has a website like facebook, with profiles and pictures and stuff, but then If you ever go anywhere you can send a request to other surfers asking if you can stay with them, and others can do the same with you. Saturday happened to be the day of a big couch surfers picnic, so we went to it along with some other couch surfers that were staying in our hostel and had come to Krakow just for the couch surfing events. The picnic was incredible! There was about 150 people there, all chatting to each other, drinking and eating. There was also one Couch surfer who had earlier been to a supermarket and bought 200 quids worth of food and beer for everyone, I didn't get his name but I shook his hand. There was a barbecue, also paid for by the supermarket guy, someone else had brought a tight rope that you can put up between two trees, which everyone was having a go on, I only managed about 3 or 4 steps maximum whenever I tried it, I was rubbish. People were playing other games too. After that some couch surfers went to a party, I had to get the train later so decided against it. Me and Steve and a few other surfers went to a soup festival and got free soup, then we had a beer before I had to pick my stuff up from the hostel and get the train to Bratislava.
I actually had a bed this time on the night train, it cost about 8 pounds (I dunno where the pound sign is on this keyboard) to reserve it. There were 6 beds in the room, but only me and an Australian guy in it. Amongst the things he'd done were work in a pub in England and work in a restaurant in Bordeaux. I slept ok in the train this time, but it arrived in Bratislava at 5:40 so I had to get up early. As I knew nothing about Bratislava and had some time to kill, I saw something on a hill and decided to head towards it, I quickly went the wrong way and ended up just walking around the city untill a cafe opened so I could have breakfast, it was Sunday, so everywhere was pretty dead. At about 10 I dropped my stuff off at the hostel and headed towards the centre for a look round. It's a really nice place, and the castle is good, a lot better than the one in Krakow. Now that I had a map I also found my way to the thing I saw when I got off the train, it was a WW2 monument, not massively interesting, but had some good views of the city around it.
I wandered around the town at night to see if there was much going on, there wasn't, just lots and lots and lots and lots of couples, boring. I went back to the hostel and talked to a guy called Harry from Milton Keynes, then we both talked to a guy from Seattle, called Michael, and two Finnish guys who told me "Mita Vittua" which means W.T.F. in Finnish. After a few beers the Finnish guys decided we were all, along with a couple of british girls, going to a Karaoke bar. It was closed, Sunday, so we went to another bar they liked, it was closed, Sunday.... We all went back to the hostel, and one of the Finnish guys got a Guitar and played songs, he was really good, then Harry played Wonderwall, everyone sang along.
Today I checked out and got the train to Vienna, I hadn't planned on going to Vienna, but the train ride was only an hour. I'm here for two nights, then I go to Budapest, where I meet Michael again, as he is going there straight from Bratislava and we are in the same hostel.
And once again I can't put pictures on, I have to pay for the internet here, which sucks, and they have some really limited version of Linux on it that doesn't really give me access to anything apart from Firefox. I think the Budapest hostel has free net, so i'll try to do it there.
Mita Vittua
The next morning I got the free breakfast, it was really good because they had loads of cheese spread and bread, so I ate a lot of sandwiches. Then I just wandered around town, went to the castle and the main square. I had a kebab for tea that was pretty good, lots of different stuff on it. I had another early night because I wanted to go to Auschwitz the next day, so I had a couple of beers and chatted to people back at the hostel. I arranged to get the bus with an american called Bryon to Auschwitz, but he said he was going to set off early. Bryon had been travelling for a couple of months around Europe, he had a three month rail pass and he had been to a new city pretty much everyday, getting the night train somewhere, getting off for the day, getting the night train somewhere else. In Oslo he'd even got a night train somewhere so he could sleep, then changed trains and got another night train back to Oslo, so that he didn't have to pay for a hostel.
I got up at 8:30 expecting Bryon to have left, he hadn't, so I got some cheese spread sandwiches and expected to head out. Bryon spent ages faffing around and we only left at about 9:45, then we were rushing for the bus and he was walking as if he had his shoe laces tied together, the smallest steps i've ever seen anyone take. We just about managed to get the bus, but I abandoned him shortly after arriving at Auschwitz, he was a pain in the arse and his stories about night trains were starting to annoy me. Auschwitz was as shocking as I expected it to be, I wont talk you through it all but there's one bit where they have all the hair of the female victims, and there's tonnes of it, and although its behind a glass wall, you can still smell it.
When I got back I met a guy called Henrik from Sweden. I destoryed him in two games of connect 4 and he decided he didn't want to play anymore. Then came the hostel's "shot night", me, Henrik, a Californian called Steve, two girls called Laura and Toni, and an older couple called Bob and Anne. After a few drinks I couldn't resist telling Bob that I had a dog called Bob, thankfully he took it the right way. After the shots me, Henrik, Steve, Toni and Laura went to a few bars, Toni and Laura left part way through, we had a couple more drinks and then Steve and Henrik had a Kebab, I was waiting so I could cash in on the cheese spread the next morning.
My last day in Poland. Steve had told me about Couch Surfing. It has a website like facebook, with profiles and pictures and stuff, but then If you ever go anywhere you can send a request to other surfers asking if you can stay with them, and others can do the same with you. Saturday happened to be the day of a big couch surfers picnic, so we went to it along with some other couch surfers that were staying in our hostel and had come to Krakow just for the couch surfing events. The picnic was incredible! There was about 150 people there, all chatting to each other, drinking and eating. There was also one Couch surfer who had earlier been to a supermarket and bought 200 quids worth of food and beer for everyone, I didn't get his name but I shook his hand. There was a barbecue, also paid for by the supermarket guy, someone else had brought a tight rope that you can put up between two trees, which everyone was having a go on, I only managed about 3 or 4 steps maximum whenever I tried it, I was rubbish. People were playing other games too. After that some couch surfers went to a party, I had to get the train later so decided against it. Me and Steve and a few other surfers went to a soup festival and got free soup, then we had a beer before I had to pick my stuff up from the hostel and get the train to Bratislava.
I actually had a bed this time on the night train, it cost about 8 pounds (I dunno where the pound sign is on this keyboard) to reserve it. There were 6 beds in the room, but only me and an Australian guy in it. Amongst the things he'd done were work in a pub in England and work in a restaurant in Bordeaux. I slept ok in the train this time, but it arrived in Bratislava at 5:40 so I had to get up early. As I knew nothing about Bratislava and had some time to kill, I saw something on a hill and decided to head towards it, I quickly went the wrong way and ended up just walking around the city untill a cafe opened so I could have breakfast, it was Sunday, so everywhere was pretty dead. At about 10 I dropped my stuff off at the hostel and headed towards the centre for a look round. It's a really nice place, and the castle is good, a lot better than the one in Krakow. Now that I had a map I also found my way to the thing I saw when I got off the train, it was a WW2 monument, not massively interesting, but had some good views of the city around it.
I wandered around the town at night to see if there was much going on, there wasn't, just lots and lots and lots and lots of couples, boring. I went back to the hostel and talked to a guy called Harry from Milton Keynes, then we both talked to a guy from Seattle, called Michael, and two Finnish guys who told me "Mita Vittua" which means W.T.F. in Finnish. After a few beers the Finnish guys decided we were all, along with a couple of british girls, going to a Karaoke bar. It was closed, Sunday, so we went to another bar they liked, it was closed, Sunday.... We all went back to the hostel, and one of the Finnish guys got a Guitar and played songs, he was really good, then Harry played Wonderwall, everyone sang along.
Today I checked out and got the train to Vienna, I hadn't planned on going to Vienna, but the train ride was only an hour. I'm here for two nights, then I go to Budapest, where I meet Michael again, as he is going there straight from Bratislava and we are in the same hostel.
And once again I can't put pictures on, I have to pay for the internet here, which sucks, and they have some really limited version of Linux on it that doesn't really give me access to anything apart from Firefox. I think the Budapest hostel has free net, so i'll try to do it there.
Mita Vittua
21 May 2009
Night Train and Berlin
The night train sucked. There's three types of carriages, 1st class, which has beds in it but I think costs roughly $1,000,000 to reserve. There's also Couchettes, which sound lovely, and normal carriages. I didn't specify when I reserved my place and ended up with a couchette, this is just a room with two rows of seats facing each other, impossible to sleep in, there's no where to put your head, I think they designed them with pointy bits on all the edges that you could lean on. When we first set off I started talking to two american guys and a dutch girl that were in another couchette, we discussed how Holland was so flat and the Dutch girl said around half of it is below sea level, I said "is that where all the cheap houses are then?" she asked what I meant and I said "with part of them being underwater", "No, they're dry" came the response, she really didn't get my crap joke and stopped talking shortly after.
I got to Berlin at about 6 am and couldn't work out the train system, so I just got off and headed towards the tv tower. I got a few cool pictures of places that would normally be really busy but because I didnt have a map I couldn't find the Reichstag or brandenburg gate, which I was a bit sad about, because when I did go back to the brandenburg gate they were setting up some big celebration (I think it was 40 years of something), so it was really noisy and there were cranes about and stuff. My hostel was awesome, it was called generator and was huge, i think it had floors, it had a massive common room, bar, free breakfast 7 euros a night. Oh and the bar had happy hour between 5 and 7 so I could get bottles of Schofferhofer Black (Kind of like Newcastle brown) for 1.25 Euro's.
On my first night in the hostel I met a lot of people, first I met two guys from Georgia (U.S) called Slaton and Jake. Then we all started talking to an Australian (there were lots of Australians). Slaton asked "Hey you're from Australia, do you know a guy named John Cantor", "Yeah we ride the same fuckin Kangaroo to school" came the response, aparently everyone from anywhere knows someone from australia, and when they meet another australian a lot of them ask if they know them, pretty silly when australia is as big as it is. I didn't ask if he knew my relatives. Slaton (who hadn't drank for a month and a half and was keeping up with me and quite drunk by this point) also asked "do you guy's have Outback?", "we have THE outback yeah", "No Outback the australian themed restaurants, they do these things called Bloomin' Onions and they dip them in Ozzy sauce" , "Whats Ozzy sauce?", "Sauce that you Australians eat". Needless to say, when I saw Slaton the next day he was feeling a little hungover. Also on the first night I met some Canadians, and also after everyone had gone to bed I had a beer with Macca from behind the bar, Felix, who was massive and did the night shift on reception and a girl who was just starting and did the breakfasts.
Monday morning, I woke up to late to do the early free walking tour, so I had a look round then did the later one. It was really good, not as humourous as the one in Amsterdam, but contained a lot. I went to the place where Hitler shot himself, but its just big buildings and a patch of grass where people don't pick up their dog's poo. Also went to the Berlin wall, my Grandad wanted me to bring a piece back for him, but there was a fence around it to stop people, kind of a blessing in disguise, would have been silly carrying a bit of concrete around the world. On the tour I met a guy called... I can't remember, but he was alright, we went and got some food after, then I went back to the Hostel to make happy hour.
Karaoke night..... A large group of Australians enjoyed it at least, and a few times I heard "The next song will be sung by John Cantor". I met some Americans that had been studying in Sweden, and were now traveling bits of Europe. And later the guy who was in the bed below me came over, his name was Sam. After we had all talked for a while a girl turned up who knew Sam from school, but they didn't know each other would be in Berlin, Sam didn't seem pleased. I also met a girl from Edinburgh called Katie who does that kind of stop start animation but with glowsticks, she showed me some on her Camera, they were pretty good. Later Sam and Katie got their Ipod's or whatever out and we listened to music each other liked, I've left mine at home to make sure I didnt just sit and listen to it on my own all the time, otherwise I would have showed them some Animal Collective or something.
Tuesday, rented a bike and bombed it down the hill to get to the TV tower before there was a big queue. From the top you can see everything, it's really cool, I think all citys should have something big that you can look out of. I went up another floor to the rotating restaurant, and ordered a small and overpriced orange juice. I drank it really slowly and waited for the restaurant to do one full turn, while the waitresses were coming over and asking again and again if I wanted to order breakfast. After the TV tower I went to the Reichstag, there was already a big queue, so I had to wait for about 45 mins, was pretty cool though. I also had a ride round the park and went to the Holocaust memorial. That night I tried to go on a pub crawl organised by the free tour people, but I missed it so I ahd a few beers and chatted to some Gremans, but not much of interest happened, so I went back to the hostel and met up with Katie who had met some new people. We all talked for a bit, there were a couple of Americans that had just arrived from Krakow, which was quite cool because I was going there the day after (yesterday). I got Katie's email address and went to bed.
Yesterday I got the train to Krakow, 9:40 to 20:00, but wasn't to bad, slept a little bit, I think I only averaged about 5 hours a night in Berlin. The hostel here seems really good, a lot smaller than the one in Berlin though.
Yes Nutter I just go up to people and talk at them, sometimes they respond, never has anyone said sod off. Was a bit weird at first, but getting better at it, only got one photo of people so far though, seems strange taking them of people I don't know.
I'm running out of net time now though, so I'm off.
Byeeeeeeeeeeeeee
I got to Berlin at about 6 am and couldn't work out the train system, so I just got off and headed towards the tv tower. I got a few cool pictures of places that would normally be really busy but because I didnt have a map I couldn't find the Reichstag or brandenburg gate, which I was a bit sad about, because when I did go back to the brandenburg gate they were setting up some big celebration (I think it was 40 years of something), so it was really noisy and there were cranes about and stuff. My hostel was awesome, it was called generator and was huge, i think it had floors, it had a massive common room, bar, free breakfast 7 euros a night. Oh and the bar had happy hour between 5 and 7 so I could get bottles of Schofferhofer Black (Kind of like Newcastle brown) for 1.25 Euro's.
On my first night in the hostel I met a lot of people, first I met two guys from Georgia (U.S) called Slaton and Jake. Then we all started talking to an Australian (there were lots of Australians). Slaton asked "Hey you're from Australia, do you know a guy named John Cantor", "Yeah we ride the same fuckin Kangaroo to school" came the response, aparently everyone from anywhere knows someone from australia, and when they meet another australian a lot of them ask if they know them, pretty silly when australia is as big as it is. I didn't ask if he knew my relatives. Slaton (who hadn't drank for a month and a half and was keeping up with me and quite drunk by this point) also asked "do you guy's have Outback?", "we have THE outback yeah", "No Outback the australian themed restaurants, they do these things called Bloomin' Onions and they dip them in Ozzy sauce" , "Whats Ozzy sauce?", "Sauce that you Australians eat". Needless to say, when I saw Slaton the next day he was feeling a little hungover. Also on the first night I met some Canadians, and also after everyone had gone to bed I had a beer with Macca from behind the bar, Felix, who was massive and did the night shift on reception and a girl who was just starting and did the breakfasts.
Monday morning, I woke up to late to do the early free walking tour, so I had a look round then did the later one. It was really good, not as humourous as the one in Amsterdam, but contained a lot. I went to the place where Hitler shot himself, but its just big buildings and a patch of grass where people don't pick up their dog's poo. Also went to the Berlin wall, my Grandad wanted me to bring a piece back for him, but there was a fence around it to stop people, kind of a blessing in disguise, would have been silly carrying a bit of concrete around the world. On the tour I met a guy called... I can't remember, but he was alright, we went and got some food after, then I went back to the Hostel to make happy hour.
Karaoke night..... A large group of Australians enjoyed it at least, and a few times I heard "The next song will be sung by John Cantor". I met some Americans that had been studying in Sweden, and were now traveling bits of Europe. And later the guy who was in the bed below me came over, his name was Sam. After we had all talked for a while a girl turned up who knew Sam from school, but they didn't know each other would be in Berlin, Sam didn't seem pleased. I also met a girl from Edinburgh called Katie who does that kind of stop start animation but with glowsticks, she showed me some on her Camera, they were pretty good. Later Sam and Katie got their Ipod's or whatever out and we listened to music each other liked, I've left mine at home to make sure I didnt just sit and listen to it on my own all the time, otherwise I would have showed them some Animal Collective or something.
Tuesday, rented a bike and bombed it down the hill to get to the TV tower before there was a big queue. From the top you can see everything, it's really cool, I think all citys should have something big that you can look out of. I went up another floor to the rotating restaurant, and ordered a small and overpriced orange juice. I drank it really slowly and waited for the restaurant to do one full turn, while the waitresses were coming over and asking again and again if I wanted to order breakfast. After the TV tower I went to the Reichstag, there was already a big queue, so I had to wait for about 45 mins, was pretty cool though. I also had a ride round the park and went to the Holocaust memorial. That night I tried to go on a pub crawl organised by the free tour people, but I missed it so I ahd a few beers and chatted to some Gremans, but not much of interest happened, so I went back to the hostel and met up with Katie who had met some new people. We all talked for a bit, there were a couple of Americans that had just arrived from Krakow, which was quite cool because I was going there the day after (yesterday). I got Katie's email address and went to bed.
Yesterday I got the train to Krakow, 9:40 to 20:00, but wasn't to bad, slept a little bit, I think I only averaged about 5 hours a night in Berlin. The hostel here seems really good, a lot smaller than the one in Berlin though.
Yes Nutter I just go up to people and talk at them, sometimes they respond, never has anyone said sod off. Was a bit weird at first, but getting better at it, only got one photo of people so far though, seems strange taking them of people I don't know.
I'm running out of net time now though, so I'm off.
Byeeeeeeeeeeeeee
16 May 2009
Amsterdam
So, I've been on my trip for 4 days, getting a plane and train on my own was hard work, but I managed to do it without making any mistakes, which should make Davies proud.
My hostel while staying in Amsterdam has been pretty rubbish, as far as I can tell it only has one massive room full of beds, and no proper lights. It also has a reception area with two sinks in it and two toilets and two showers behind thin doors. The main problem with it is not having anywhere that people can just hang out and meet each other.
On my first night, I saw the hostel was crap and just went to a bar up the road, got myself a pint of Jupiler and started talking to a guy called Paul. He was here with his friend, but his friend didnt drink so he stayed in the hotel. Paul said he'd been and done it at the red light district about an hour before, but he didn't seem like he'd enjoyed it. He was a bit weird so I left him after a while, met some Canadians in another place and then went to bed.
I spent most of my first day there just wandering around soaking up the atmosphere of the city and nearly being killed by cyclists. I watched some street performers in Dam square, one of them was absolutally turd, it was a fat man in a rubbish spiderman costume stood on a ciclre of carpet, i've got a picture of him but my camera cable is in my bag in the hostel, so can't put it on yet. The other I watched was a guy that basically just shouted abuse at people and did a bit of juggling with an apple, knife and stick thingy that was on fire, he was pretty good. I went to a few more bars that night and spent most of my time with a guy from Hampshire and two guys from Belgium.
The next day I went on a free walking tour, but I gave a donation because it was really good. Some of the more interesting things the tour guide said were that pot actually isnt legal here, it's just that if you're smoking it and not causing any trouble the police look the other way. He said he once saw someone smoking a joint, drinking and pissing in the redlight district shouting "whores, whores, whores" and the police came and fined him for drinking, smoking, pissing and being abusive in the street, but he then said the police look away if you aren't causeing problems for others. I went and had a look round the red light district that night, it's a lot weirder than i'd imagined it, I thought they'ed be high up and set back a little bit, but they're right next to you in some places, and some of them are really good looking. The tour guide said earlier that some of the really good looking ones get a lot more money doing this than they would do in a modelling career.
Yesterday I went to the Ann Frank Museum, I found it really interesting but I think i'd have got a lot more out of it if I knew more about the war. Her diary is the second most translated book after the bible. Went to some bars later, met a post man who moved here 24 years ago from Ethiopia, he was pretty cool, bought me a pint when he left aswell.
Today I've just had another wander, found a market and bought some fish things, I don't know what they were, but they were quite good. I'm getting the night train to Berlin at 7 so that'll be interesting.
byeeeeeeeeeeeee
My hostel while staying in Amsterdam has been pretty rubbish, as far as I can tell it only has one massive room full of beds, and no proper lights. It also has a reception area with two sinks in it and two toilets and two showers behind thin doors. The main problem with it is not having anywhere that people can just hang out and meet each other.
On my first night, I saw the hostel was crap and just went to a bar up the road, got myself a pint of Jupiler and started talking to a guy called Paul. He was here with his friend, but his friend didnt drink so he stayed in the hotel. Paul said he'd been and done it at the red light district about an hour before, but he didn't seem like he'd enjoyed it. He was a bit weird so I left him after a while, met some Canadians in another place and then went to bed.
I spent most of my first day there just wandering around soaking up the atmosphere of the city and nearly being killed by cyclists. I watched some street performers in Dam square, one of them was absolutally turd, it was a fat man in a rubbish spiderman costume stood on a ciclre of carpet, i've got a picture of him but my camera cable is in my bag in the hostel, so can't put it on yet. The other I watched was a guy that basically just shouted abuse at people and did a bit of juggling with an apple, knife and stick thingy that was on fire, he was pretty good. I went to a few more bars that night and spent most of my time with a guy from Hampshire and two guys from Belgium.
The next day I went on a free walking tour, but I gave a donation because it was really good. Some of the more interesting things the tour guide said were that pot actually isnt legal here, it's just that if you're smoking it and not causing any trouble the police look the other way. He said he once saw someone smoking a joint, drinking and pissing in the redlight district shouting "whores, whores, whores" and the police came and fined him for drinking, smoking, pissing and being abusive in the street, but he then said the police look away if you aren't causeing problems for others. I went and had a look round the red light district that night, it's a lot weirder than i'd imagined it, I thought they'ed be high up and set back a little bit, but they're right next to you in some places, and some of them are really good looking. The tour guide said earlier that some of the really good looking ones get a lot more money doing this than they would do in a modelling career.
Yesterday I went to the Ann Frank Museum, I found it really interesting but I think i'd have got a lot more out of it if I knew more about the war. Her diary is the second most translated book after the bible. Went to some bars later, met a post man who moved here 24 years ago from Ethiopia, he was pretty cool, bought me a pint when he left aswell.
Today I've just had another wander, found a market and bought some fish things, I don't know what they were, but they were quite good. I'm getting the night train to Berlin at 7 so that'll be interesting.
byeeeeeeeeeeeee
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