Posted by Emily
Back in Chiang Mai after a short trip 3 hours north of here to a small town called Pai (pronounced "pie"). It's sad that we couldn't spend more time there but we have a flight to catch tomorrow morning down to the south of Thailand.
We left for Pai at about 9 am yesterday morning in a minibus and I must say, I think those were the curviest roads I have ever been on! It was tight curve after tight curve and I had to hang on to the seat in front of me in order to avoid smashing into the girl sitting next to me. I think Nicki and I are both lucky that we didn't get sick (we are both very prone to motion sickness, especially when it involves curvy mountain roads).
Get to Pai in the early afternoon and basically just explored the city, even though it is really tiny. It's a very relaxed place with a beach town feel. Dogs plop down right in the middle of the road to take a nap because there is so little traffic. There also seems to be a lot of art going on, with little art shops all over the place and many people making jewelry to sell. We tried to walk out of town into the countryside a bit but it was way too hot yesterday. Instead we sat down near the river and admired the scenery and were jealous of the girls floating a long in inner tubes.
This morning we got up semi-early to check out the temple on the hill before it got too hot to move. However, it was very cloudy and rainy today so that wasn't a problem. It was a nice walk to the temple, I think about 2 km. The temple itself was nothing spectacular but it gave a very nice view of the town. We spent the afternoon reading, hopped on another minibus back to Chiang Mai and here I sit now.
Tomorrow morning we fly to Bangkok and then to Surat Thani, which is basically just a transit hub city. We will stay there for the night and then catch a morning ferry to Ko Phagnan, an island known for its huge party scene. We, however, will be heading to the quieter side of the island and hoping to find a beachside bungalow to spend a few days in. After that we hope to spent a few days on Ko Tao, an island known for its spectacular snorkeling and diving. After that, we fly back to Bangkok and then on to New Zealand. Don't know if we'll have internet access on the islands, so that's your update for the moment!
Tuesday, May 30, 2006
Saturday, May 27, 2006
Over the River and Through the Woods
Posted By Nicki
Back from a trek in the Thai jungle…and all in one piece! Just one very, very achy piece.
We just got back today from our 3 day 2 night adventure into the wilderness of northern thailand, and it was quite an experience. But a good time overall.
The first day we set out, 13 of us in all, all crammed in the back of a songthaew (large pickup truck with benches on both sides of the back part). Please note: there is not really room for 13 people in the back of a songthaew, especially 13 people with 13 packs. But, it worked, I suppose. In any case, all excited to be in the middle of nowhere in some peaceful jungle, after a brief stop at a market for food, we end up at this little hut and what do we hear…? Loud, pulsating KAROKE! In the middle of the jungle! What? Yes, I’m not really sure about that one either. This kind of put me off at first, what did I get myself into? However, after that, we luckily were not forced to endure anymore thai pop.
On to the trekking. When Em and I signed up for the trek we figured ourselves decently inshape girls. I realize now I, at least, am not in that category. It was HARD! Although we started on decent road, our guide suddenly turned up some crazy hill, and didn’t stop going uphill for the next three hours. Now, for those of you who know me, you know how much I love hills…or really how much they are the bane of my existence. I seriously thought I was going to fall over and cry. Add to this the fact that it began to pour down rain, and now we are soaked and climbed through little tiny sort of paths that aren’t really paths that are straight up and now completely mud. Awesome. Im going to cry some more. Plus, I’m slow, and in the back…they wait for me to catch up, and then go again, I don’t get a break! Oh man.
But, eventually we made it to camp, I was needless to say, extremely excited about this. At the end of the day though, it was worth it. Once I managed to catch my breath, I could see the view, and it was fantastic. Lush green hillsides towering up the clouds, beautiful valleys, the trees along the top of the hills made for amazing sillouettes at dusk. And luckily, no more karoke.
The second day was probably my favorite of the three. Although I was frustrated at first at the pace our guide took, we only hiked with the group for about an hour…then those of us staying on for three days split off, making only four of us. I have found I MUCH prefer small groups. It ended up being em and I plus a girl from australia and a guy from ireland. Very fun people who were really enjoyable to hang out with, and were willing to go slower and enjoy the views. We had a good time talking, and the hike the second day was much less strenuous. We got to stop at some waterfalls and swim, and the falls felt fantastic on a sore back. After the falls we made it to our second camp, much smaller then the first, but pleasant with a river rushing below. We had dinner and enjoyed playing cards and a version of scattegories well into the night. The night of our second day almost deserves an entry on its own, as it was one of the most beautiful I have seen in some time. Unlike the first night, there were absolutely no clouds, and being in the middle of the jungle made for incredible stars. It seemed as though the whole sky was lit up. Add to that the fire flies. Thousands of them. It was almost as if there was some sort of fireworks show going on for us in our little jungle hut. If you can picture a darkened stadium when some great superstar walks in and all the flashbulbs that go off at once, you would have about what it seemed to be.
Our third day involves all the tourist gimics of the trek, but it was still a good time. We rode elephants, which I was hesistant about at first, but was ok with after I saw they seemed to be treated well. They were much nicer then camels in morocco, and we got to feed them bananas as we rode, which was really entertaining as the animals reach behind with their trunk to nab the fruit out of your hand. After the elephants we did a bit of white water rafting, although there really wasn’t any white water, maybe one rapid total. Then they put us on bamboo rafts for a bit in some really grungy river water, and then we were done. Lunch was had, and then back to chang mai.
I’m very glad to be back, and very excited to spend the next couple days letting my body recover. We will be off to Pai, further north, on monday, and then hopefully catching a flight south after that to have fun on some beaches. I hope you all are doing well!
Back from a trek in the Thai jungle…and all in one piece! Just one very, very achy piece.
We just got back today from our 3 day 2 night adventure into the wilderness of northern thailand, and it was quite an experience. But a good time overall.
The first day we set out, 13 of us in all, all crammed in the back of a songthaew (large pickup truck with benches on both sides of the back part). Please note: there is not really room for 13 people in the back of a songthaew, especially 13 people with 13 packs. But, it worked, I suppose. In any case, all excited to be in the middle of nowhere in some peaceful jungle, after a brief stop at a market for food, we end up at this little hut and what do we hear…? Loud, pulsating KAROKE! In the middle of the jungle! What? Yes, I’m not really sure about that one either. This kind of put me off at first, what did I get myself into? However, after that, we luckily were not forced to endure anymore thai pop.
On to the trekking. When Em and I signed up for the trek we figured ourselves decently inshape girls. I realize now I, at least, am not in that category. It was HARD! Although we started on decent road, our guide suddenly turned up some crazy hill, and didn’t stop going uphill for the next three hours. Now, for those of you who know me, you know how much I love hills…or really how much they are the bane of my existence. I seriously thought I was going to fall over and cry. Add to this the fact that it began to pour down rain, and now we are soaked and climbed through little tiny sort of paths that aren’t really paths that are straight up and now completely mud. Awesome. Im going to cry some more. Plus, I’m slow, and in the back…they wait for me to catch up, and then go again, I don’t get a break! Oh man.
But, eventually we made it to camp, I was needless to say, extremely excited about this. At the end of the day though, it was worth it. Once I managed to catch my breath, I could see the view, and it was fantastic. Lush green hillsides towering up the clouds, beautiful valleys, the trees along the top of the hills made for amazing sillouettes at dusk. And luckily, no more karoke.
The second day was probably my favorite of the three. Although I was frustrated at first at the pace our guide took, we only hiked with the group for about an hour…then those of us staying on for three days split off, making only four of us. I have found I MUCH prefer small groups. It ended up being em and I plus a girl from australia and a guy from ireland. Very fun people who were really enjoyable to hang out with, and were willing to go slower and enjoy the views. We had a good time talking, and the hike the second day was much less strenuous. We got to stop at some waterfalls and swim, and the falls felt fantastic on a sore back. After the falls we made it to our second camp, much smaller then the first, but pleasant with a river rushing below. We had dinner and enjoyed playing cards and a version of scattegories well into the night. The night of our second day almost deserves an entry on its own, as it was one of the most beautiful I have seen in some time. Unlike the first night, there were absolutely no clouds, and being in the middle of the jungle made for incredible stars. It seemed as though the whole sky was lit up. Add to that the fire flies. Thousands of them. It was almost as if there was some sort of fireworks show going on for us in our little jungle hut. If you can picture a darkened stadium when some great superstar walks in and all the flashbulbs that go off at once, you would have about what it seemed to be.
Our third day involves all the tourist gimics of the trek, but it was still a good time. We rode elephants, which I was hesistant about at first, but was ok with after I saw they seemed to be treated well. They were much nicer then camels in morocco, and we got to feed them bananas as we rode, which was really entertaining as the animals reach behind with their trunk to nab the fruit out of your hand. After the elephants we did a bit of white water rafting, although there really wasn’t any white water, maybe one rapid total. Then they put us on bamboo rafts for a bit in some really grungy river water, and then we were done. Lunch was had, and then back to chang mai.
I’m very glad to be back, and very excited to spend the next couple days letting my body recover. We will be off to Pai, further north, on monday, and then hopefully catching a flight south after that to have fun on some beaches. I hope you all are doing well!
Jungle Adventures
Posted by Emily
Back from our trek! It was so much fun but I'm glad to be back in a city where we can take showers and do laundry. Trekking in Thailand involves lots of rain, sweat and mud, none of which combine to make a very good smell. As much as I would have liked to continue hiking for more than 3 days, I think it might have gotten pretty disgusting!
We started out from Chiang Mai at about 9:30 am on Thursday morning. We were picked up in a truck and taken to the company's main office to meet up with the rest of our group. They originally told us that there were going to be a total of 6 people in the group but there turned out to be 13. I guess some people changed groups at the last minute. We drove for about an hour to a market, which I think might exist mainly to cater to foreigners going on treks. Then drove about 40 minutes to a little hut in the woods where we had lunch while listening to people sing karaoke. Yes, there was a karaoke machine in the middle of nowhere. So strange.
We set off for the trek after having lunch. It started to rain soon after we started, which wasn't necessarily a bad thing because at least it kept us cool. The day was very grueling because it involved A LOT of uphill walking, and we're talking steep uphill. Plus it was muddy and therefore slippery. We also had some steep downhills, one of which I slipped on, ripping my pants and allowing me to add to my collections of scratches and bruises on my legs. The hiking was a mixture of paths through the woods and gravel roads.
All the time we were surrounded by beautiful greenery - all types of trees, lots of bamboo. When we came to a clearing we could see far off into the distance across the valleys to the other mountains. I think the forests (or jungle?) we were hiking in could have been considered cloud forests because clouds descended onto the tops of most of the mountains. It kind of makes the entire place look mystical. After about 3.5 hours of huffing and puffing, we came to the village where we would spend the night. The village visit wasn't as intrusive as I thought it might be, which made me very glad. We pretty much just stayed in a large bamboo hut on the edge of the village and didn't disturb the everyday life.
The second day made up for the difficulty of first day. We started out with the large group, but since most of them had signed up for only 2 days of trekking, we slit off after about an hour into a group of four. Two others who had signed up for a 4 day trek joined us - Katie from Australia and Camilus from Ireland. The hiking was a lot easier so we could actually enjoy the scenery, and the group was a lot smaller and more enjoyable to be around. We saw more beautiful forests and swam in 2 waterfalls (at the bottom so no chance of falling off!), one before lunch and one just before arriving at our second camp. It was quite hot and sunny so this was perfect. Also helped to wash our clothes out a little bit!!
We stayed at another small village last night and had a lot of time to relax. We were really enjoying the laid back nature of the day and the beautiful beautiful weather. The night was also lovely as the clouds cleared and we could see the stars for once. There were also hundreds of lightening bugs in the forest around us giving us a light show that looked like many camera flashes.
This morning we slept in and only had a short hike to where we went elephant riding. I was a little unsure about this at first because I know many animals used for these things are abused. I felt better when I saw that they were treated nicely. Nicki and I sat together on the back of one elephant but unfortunately Katie has those photos on her camera. I really hope she sends them like she said she would! Being the marketing geniuses as they are, there was a place where you could buy bananas to feed to the elephants. They knew it was coming and kept putting their trunks back to be fed. We of course bought some bananas and had a very good time feeding our elephant. Nicki has those pictures.
Next was whitewater rafter, which was actually quite tame since the water isn't very strong at the moment. There were a few good rapids though and we had fun going down those. Otherwise it was just fun to float along and see the pretty scenery go by. Last, we went on a bamboo raft, which is a bunch of bamboo tied together. We all sat down and were pushed along by our leader using a long bamboo pole (looks like the same way gondolas are rowed). Sadly, the river seemed pretty dirty so I wasn't too sad to get out.
It was a lovely time! I'm a little sad to be back in the city but as I said, we are happy to be clean again!
Back from our trek! It was so much fun but I'm glad to be back in a city where we can take showers and do laundry. Trekking in Thailand involves lots of rain, sweat and mud, none of which combine to make a very good smell. As much as I would have liked to continue hiking for more than 3 days, I think it might have gotten pretty disgusting!
We started out from Chiang Mai at about 9:30 am on Thursday morning. We were picked up in a truck and taken to the company's main office to meet up with the rest of our group. They originally told us that there were going to be a total of 6 people in the group but there turned out to be 13. I guess some people changed groups at the last minute. We drove for about an hour to a market, which I think might exist mainly to cater to foreigners going on treks. Then drove about 40 minutes to a little hut in the woods where we had lunch while listening to people sing karaoke. Yes, there was a karaoke machine in the middle of nowhere. So strange.
We set off for the trek after having lunch. It started to rain soon after we started, which wasn't necessarily a bad thing because at least it kept us cool. The day was very grueling because it involved A LOT of uphill walking, and we're talking steep uphill. Plus it was muddy and therefore slippery. We also had some steep downhills, one of which I slipped on, ripping my pants and allowing me to add to my collections of scratches and bruises on my legs. The hiking was a mixture of paths through the woods and gravel roads.
All the time we were surrounded by beautiful greenery - all types of trees, lots of bamboo. When we came to a clearing we could see far off into the distance across the valleys to the other mountains. I think the forests (or jungle?) we were hiking in could have been considered cloud forests because clouds descended onto the tops of most of the mountains. It kind of makes the entire place look mystical. After about 3.5 hours of huffing and puffing, we came to the village where we would spend the night. The village visit wasn't as intrusive as I thought it might be, which made me very glad. We pretty much just stayed in a large bamboo hut on the edge of the village and didn't disturb the everyday life.
The second day made up for the difficulty of first day. We started out with the large group, but since most of them had signed up for only 2 days of trekking, we slit off after about an hour into a group of four. Two others who had signed up for a 4 day trek joined us - Katie from Australia and Camilus from Ireland. The hiking was a lot easier so we could actually enjoy the scenery, and the group was a lot smaller and more enjoyable to be around. We saw more beautiful forests and swam in 2 waterfalls (at the bottom so no chance of falling off!), one before lunch and one just before arriving at our second camp. It was quite hot and sunny so this was perfect. Also helped to wash our clothes out a little bit!!
We stayed at another small village last night and had a lot of time to relax. We were really enjoying the laid back nature of the day and the beautiful beautiful weather. The night was also lovely as the clouds cleared and we could see the stars for once. There were also hundreds of lightening bugs in the forest around us giving us a light show that looked like many camera flashes.
This morning we slept in and only had a short hike to where we went elephant riding. I was a little unsure about this at first because I know many animals used for these things are abused. I felt better when I saw that they were treated nicely. Nicki and I sat together on the back of one elephant but unfortunately Katie has those photos on her camera. I really hope she sends them like she said she would! Being the marketing geniuses as they are, there was a place where you could buy bananas to feed to the elephants. They knew it was coming and kept putting their trunks back to be fed. We of course bought some bananas and had a very good time feeding our elephant. Nicki has those pictures.
Next was whitewater rafter, which was actually quite tame since the water isn't very strong at the moment. There were a few good rapids though and we had fun going down those. Otherwise it was just fun to float along and see the pretty scenery go by. Last, we went on a bamboo raft, which is a bunch of bamboo tied together. We all sat down and were pushed along by our leader using a long bamboo pole (looks like the same way gondolas are rowed). Sadly, the river seemed pretty dirty so I wasn't too sad to get out.
It was a lovely time! I'm a little sad to be back in the city but as I said, we are happy to be clean again!
Some Photos
Cabbages and Condoms
Alex and Nicki at Cabbages and Condoms
A not very exciting picture of the Grand Palace....Nicki has most of the good ones
Reclining Buddha
Trekking!
View while trekking
View from first night's accomodations
Second night's accomodations
We were the coolest people on the trip!!
We went elephant riding....this is Katie and Cam on their elephant
Wednesday, May 24, 2006
Emily and the Motor Bike: Together At Last
Posted by Emily
Well, yesterday was quite the exciting day as it involved renting motor bikes and finally finding a use for my gauze and bandage scissors! Just kidding Mom! Well, at least partially. See story below....
Near Chiang Mai, there is a lovely temple on a mountain with very little public transit that goes there. Both our guide book and the hostel where we are staying suggested that the best way to get there was to rent motor bikes. That way you can take your time and pull off the road whenever you want to check out waterfalls or other sites. I was very apprehensive about this at first, for very obvious safety reasons, but also because motor bikes just really scare me a lot because they are crazy, all over the road and seem to narrowly miss hitting me quite frequently. Nicki was also apprehensive at first, but since Alex was SO excited about the idea, we both agreed to try it. I with the least enthusiasm.
We rented the bikes through our hostel in the morning and the guys drove them right over for us and gave Alex a quick lesson on how to work them, which he then gave to us. We had automatic bikes so it was pretty simple. After getting all of our stuff together, we put on our helmets (there was no way I was getting one without a helmet!) and set off. It was pretty simple, but oops, after not too long we were in traffic. Pretty exciting. I think we did very well for having only 2 minutes of experience. We were somehow able to maneuver between lanes and find our way to the main road that we needed to be on.
Then it was a climb up the mountain, but luckily it wasn't too steep or too curvy, just a little. Once we got out of town there was much less traffic, which made the driving a lot easier. Our first stop was by a rocky, foresty river that turned into a small waterfall. There was also a nice view of the city. Very beautiful. Next stop was a little more troublesome as it involved driving down a large curb to get off the road and then driving over gravel that sloped down and then up. Nicki almost had a little trouble when she gunned it over the curve and went flying much too fast onto the gravel. This spot was further up the river and had a flatter rock area that Alex decided to climb onto. I walked onto it a little ways but not as far as him. He took quite a fall, not too surprisingly, because he was wearing flip flops and walking on slippery rock. (Interjection - a monk just sat down at the computer next to me. That seems quite strange!) I, on the other hand, was wearing shoes and still managed to slip, giving myself quite the scrape up the front of my shin (hence the gauze that I used to cover it for a little while last night. It was not a motor bike injury!)
The really fun part was trying to get the bikes back over the sloping gravel and the large curve. Nicki and I both managed to drop our bikes on their sides, but I won the grand prize for genius motor bike moves when I accidentally gunned the engine and the bike went flying forward, without me on it, and landing in the road on its side. It also managed to give me a nasty bruise on the back of my leg. I almost turned around at this point because I was quite shaken up but I decided to keep going.
We stopped to see another waterfall. Quite pretty and the stop was uneventful. Continued up the mountain to the temple. Saw the temple and got more lovely views of the city. Continued up the mountain to see a place but discovered that it closed at 3:30 pm so we couldn't visit. Took funny pictures on our bikes and then headed down the mountain. Also very uneventful except for the fact that EVERYONE was passing us because we were quite slow. Oh well.
The real fun began when we got back into the city and entered into rush hour traffic. Now, this wasn't just any rush hour traffic, this was crazy traffic as many of you would have experienced in the larger cities of developing countries. Lanes are kind of arbitrary and motor bikes zig back and forth between cars. Also, I didn't really know where we were going and Nicki and Alex were quite a ways in front of me. This resulted in me missing a turn and getting lost. Not the end of the world. I decided that I would pull over, park the bike and take a taxi back to the hostel. However, I was right on the edge of the old city where we were staying and this part of the city is surrounded by a canal, hence there was nowhere to pull over because there was water. I finally found a curved in lane, stopping and thinking that I would be able to drive across the road to park when the traffic thinned. Wrong. It was rush hour and traffic never thinned. I ended up having to restart my bike, merge back into traffic and take the next right turn that I could. I saw another bike parked on the sidewalk over there. I successfully merged and turned the corner, but still need to get my bike up onto the curb to park it. I guess I thought I had turned the bike off because I used to handle bars to try to life the bike over the curve, resulting in me gunning the gas again worse than the first time I did this on the mountain. This caused the bike to shoot forward again, knocking over a huge potted plant, spraying dirt everywhere and missing falling into the canal by about 3 feet. Woah. This pretty much did me in. I was about to start crying right there. I locked the bike up, took a taxi back to the hostel and forced Alex to go get the bike for me later because there was no way I was getting back on it!
So friends and family, there is no need to worry, I will not be getting on another one of those stupid things again. In fact, this experience has only served to reinforce my hatred of the little machines. I passed a very lovely day today thinking about how I wasn't on a motor bike! Also, I think that I was very lucky to only get a few bruises!
Alex just left on a bus headed for Bangkok to catch his flight tomorrow morning. Tomorrow Nicki and I head out for a 3 day trek through the jungle. Not quite sure what to expect but I'll give a full report when we return.
Well, yesterday was quite the exciting day as it involved renting motor bikes and finally finding a use for my gauze and bandage scissors! Just kidding Mom! Well, at least partially. See story below....
Near Chiang Mai, there is a lovely temple on a mountain with very little public transit that goes there. Both our guide book and the hostel where we are staying suggested that the best way to get there was to rent motor bikes. That way you can take your time and pull off the road whenever you want to check out waterfalls or other sites. I was very apprehensive about this at first, for very obvious safety reasons, but also because motor bikes just really scare me a lot because they are crazy, all over the road and seem to narrowly miss hitting me quite frequently. Nicki was also apprehensive at first, but since Alex was SO excited about the idea, we both agreed to try it. I with the least enthusiasm.
We rented the bikes through our hostel in the morning and the guys drove them right over for us and gave Alex a quick lesson on how to work them, which he then gave to us. We had automatic bikes so it was pretty simple. After getting all of our stuff together, we put on our helmets (there was no way I was getting one without a helmet!) and set off. It was pretty simple, but oops, after not too long we were in traffic. Pretty exciting. I think we did very well for having only 2 minutes of experience. We were somehow able to maneuver between lanes and find our way to the main road that we needed to be on.
Then it was a climb up the mountain, but luckily it wasn't too steep or too curvy, just a little. Once we got out of town there was much less traffic, which made the driving a lot easier. Our first stop was by a rocky, foresty river that turned into a small waterfall. There was also a nice view of the city. Very beautiful. Next stop was a little more troublesome as it involved driving down a large curb to get off the road and then driving over gravel that sloped down and then up. Nicki almost had a little trouble when she gunned it over the curve and went flying much too fast onto the gravel. This spot was further up the river and had a flatter rock area that Alex decided to climb onto. I walked onto it a little ways but not as far as him. He took quite a fall, not too surprisingly, because he was wearing flip flops and walking on slippery rock. (Interjection - a monk just sat down at the computer next to me. That seems quite strange!) I, on the other hand, was wearing shoes and still managed to slip, giving myself quite the scrape up the front of my shin (hence the gauze that I used to cover it for a little while last night. It was not a motor bike injury!)
The really fun part was trying to get the bikes back over the sloping gravel and the large curve. Nicki and I both managed to drop our bikes on their sides, but I won the grand prize for genius motor bike moves when I accidentally gunned the engine and the bike went flying forward, without me on it, and landing in the road on its side. It also managed to give me a nasty bruise on the back of my leg. I almost turned around at this point because I was quite shaken up but I decided to keep going.
We stopped to see another waterfall. Quite pretty and the stop was uneventful. Continued up the mountain to the temple. Saw the temple and got more lovely views of the city. Continued up the mountain to see a place but discovered that it closed at 3:30 pm so we couldn't visit. Took funny pictures on our bikes and then headed down the mountain. Also very uneventful except for the fact that EVERYONE was passing us because we were quite slow. Oh well.
The real fun began when we got back into the city and entered into rush hour traffic. Now, this wasn't just any rush hour traffic, this was crazy traffic as many of you would have experienced in the larger cities of developing countries. Lanes are kind of arbitrary and motor bikes zig back and forth between cars. Also, I didn't really know where we were going and Nicki and Alex were quite a ways in front of me. This resulted in me missing a turn and getting lost. Not the end of the world. I decided that I would pull over, park the bike and take a taxi back to the hostel. However, I was right on the edge of the old city where we were staying and this part of the city is surrounded by a canal, hence there was nowhere to pull over because there was water. I finally found a curved in lane, stopping and thinking that I would be able to drive across the road to park when the traffic thinned. Wrong. It was rush hour and traffic never thinned. I ended up having to restart my bike, merge back into traffic and take the next right turn that I could. I saw another bike parked on the sidewalk over there. I successfully merged and turned the corner, but still need to get my bike up onto the curb to park it. I guess I thought I had turned the bike off because I used to handle bars to try to life the bike over the curve, resulting in me gunning the gas again worse than the first time I did this on the mountain. This caused the bike to shoot forward again, knocking over a huge potted plant, spraying dirt everywhere and missing falling into the canal by about 3 feet. Woah. This pretty much did me in. I was about to start crying right there. I locked the bike up, took a taxi back to the hostel and forced Alex to go get the bike for me later because there was no way I was getting back on it!
So friends and family, there is no need to worry, I will not be getting on another one of those stupid things again. In fact, this experience has only served to reinforce my hatred of the little machines. I passed a very lovely day today thinking about how I wasn't on a motor bike! Also, I think that I was very lucky to only get a few bruises!
Alex just left on a bus headed for Bangkok to catch his flight tomorrow morning. Tomorrow Nicki and I head out for a 3 day trek through the jungle. Not quite sure what to expect but I'll give a full report when we return.
Tuesday, May 23, 2006
Chiang Mai Thai
Posted by Emily
The next day in Bangkok involved more visiting of temples and adventures around the city. We first visited Wat Tramit, which houses the largest solid gold Buddha in the world. Quite impressive really. I was quite large, maybe 4 ft tall? We then took a walk through China Town, very crowded and busy, to the river and caught another water taxi to go way up the river. From there we had a very long walk in the heat to visit the largest teak mansion in the world, which used to be the favorite house of one of the former Thai kings. It has 72 rooms. The complex is quite impressive but the inside is painted, which I wasn't expecting. When I heard teak mansion I was imagining beautiful woodwork.
The weather in Bangkok ranged from cloudy and a bit cool to rainy to sunny and hot. It was most often cloudy but on this particular day it was HOT and we quite a distance to walk. From the mansion to our next destination of Wat Benchamabophit, or the Marble Temple, we took a lunch break by some food stands and at first had trouble finding anything that we wanted to eat. Nicki and I finally settled on spicy papaya salad, made from grated unripe papayas, peanuts and an array of other lovely ingredients. Alex found some sort of grilled skewer and then some sort of soup, that we later discovered was chicken blood soup. Apparently they steam chicken blood until it coagulates into a tofu like blob and use it for cooking. This time they happened to use chunks of it in a soup. When we asked Alex if the soup was good he said "Goodish." Like tofu, I guess the chicken blood absorbs the flavor of whatever it is cooked in. I think he is very happy he didn't know what it was at the time!
That evening we decided to have our first Thai massage experience. I think it was about 10 dollars for an hour and a half massage. Thai massage turns out to be about one part deep tissue massage and one part acrobatics as they twist and stretch your body all over the place and massage you with feet, elbows, knees. Quite the experience but actually very nice. Massages are so cheap here that we are going to keep trying them out!
On Saturday, we took a trip to the Chatuchak Weekend Market and had quite a good time finding gifts and skirts and whatnot. Thailand has an abundance of comfy clothing so we have done a lot of shopping for that! That evening we hopped on the night train to Chiang Mai, in the north of Thailand, about a 14 hour trip which was made much better by the fact that we had sleepers. It makes a big difference when you can sleep on a bed during the night instead of sit up the whole time, like in a bus. We arrived quite refreshed even though the trip was quite long. It saved us from having to nap for half a day when we got in.
Chiang Mai is the second largest city in Thailand, with a population of about 170,000 (Bangkok has about 10 million) and the area we are staying in is very quiet. It's a very nice change from constantly busy streets! We walked around and saw a few of the 300 temples that are found in this city. In the evening we went to the Sunday Market and found more things to buy! It must sound like we shop all the time but it's not true! There is just a great abundance of cheap markets and walking through them is always quite a good people watching experience as well.
Yesterday we spent the day at a cooking school learning how to make several WONDERFUL Thai dishes, on of which involved setting the wok on fire. We took pictures. It was some very exciting cooking! The group we were with was very cool and the instructors were super funny. I just hope that I will be able to recreate the dishes when I get back to the US because they were so good!
The next day in Bangkok involved more visiting of temples and adventures around the city. We first visited Wat Tramit, which houses the largest solid gold Buddha in the world. Quite impressive really. I was quite large, maybe 4 ft tall? We then took a walk through China Town, very crowded and busy, to the river and caught another water taxi to go way up the river. From there we had a very long walk in the heat to visit the largest teak mansion in the world, which used to be the favorite house of one of the former Thai kings. It has 72 rooms. The complex is quite impressive but the inside is painted, which I wasn't expecting. When I heard teak mansion I was imagining beautiful woodwork.
The weather in Bangkok ranged from cloudy and a bit cool to rainy to sunny and hot. It was most often cloudy but on this particular day it was HOT and we quite a distance to walk. From the mansion to our next destination of Wat Benchamabophit, or the Marble Temple, we took a lunch break by some food stands and at first had trouble finding anything that we wanted to eat. Nicki and I finally settled on spicy papaya salad, made from grated unripe papayas, peanuts and an array of other lovely ingredients. Alex found some sort of grilled skewer and then some sort of soup, that we later discovered was chicken blood soup. Apparently they steam chicken blood until it coagulates into a tofu like blob and use it for cooking. This time they happened to use chunks of it in a soup. When we asked Alex if the soup was good he said "Goodish." Like tofu, I guess the chicken blood absorbs the flavor of whatever it is cooked in. I think he is very happy he didn't know what it was at the time!
That evening we decided to have our first Thai massage experience. I think it was about 10 dollars for an hour and a half massage. Thai massage turns out to be about one part deep tissue massage and one part acrobatics as they twist and stretch your body all over the place and massage you with feet, elbows, knees. Quite the experience but actually very nice. Massages are so cheap here that we are going to keep trying them out!
On Saturday, we took a trip to the Chatuchak Weekend Market and had quite a good time finding gifts and skirts and whatnot. Thailand has an abundance of comfy clothing so we have done a lot of shopping for that! That evening we hopped on the night train to Chiang Mai, in the north of Thailand, about a 14 hour trip which was made much better by the fact that we had sleepers. It makes a big difference when you can sleep on a bed during the night instead of sit up the whole time, like in a bus. We arrived quite refreshed even though the trip was quite long. It saved us from having to nap for half a day when we got in.
Chiang Mai is the second largest city in Thailand, with a population of about 170,000 (Bangkok has about 10 million) and the area we are staying in is very quiet. It's a very nice change from constantly busy streets! We walked around and saw a few of the 300 temples that are found in this city. In the evening we went to the Sunday Market and found more things to buy! It must sound like we shop all the time but it's not true! There is just a great abundance of cheap markets and walking through them is always quite a good people watching experience as well.
Yesterday we spent the day at a cooking school learning how to make several WONDERFUL Thai dishes, on of which involved setting the wok on fire. We took pictures. It was some very exciting cooking! The group we were with was very cool and the instructors were super funny. I just hope that I will be able to recreate the dishes when I get back to the US because they were so good!
Monday, May 22, 2006
The Sound of Music!
Posted by Nicki
Currently in Chang Mai...but here's some catch up.
Vienna! Alex and I finished up Europe with a stop in Vienna. Really wonderful city, and truly full of music of every kind. First thing we heard as we left our hostel for the afternoon was a woman practicing opera…only in vienna.
We wandered our way through the streets and parks, amazing architechture at every turn. Beautiful churches, parliament building, statues, and opera houses.
Three major highlights of our time in Vienna: Boys Choir, Hueriger (Wine Tavern), and an opera at the Statsoper.
Boys Choir: Alex and I managed to catch a performance of the world famous Vienna Boys Choir, and it was fantastic. Man can they sing. It was not anything at all like I thought it would be however. First, we got to the church at the crack of dawn, not quite as necessary as our guidebook made it out to be…but we were first in line. We ended up with standing room tickets, which was perfect for us as we were right in the front and center, and didnt pay a dime. I think this may have irked the man who was in line to pick up tickets with us, he was very proud at buying his 6 months in advance for 39 euro.
The boys sing in a little tiny chapel, nothing grand by any means, but its a packed house. You have to actually endure a mass in german, which ended up being more of a cultural experience for me as I a. dont speak german b. am not catholic. The boys also are heard but not seen. They perform from high up in the choir room which is located where an organ normally would be in a cathedral, behind the people in a little balcony. Although it was odd not to see the mouths creating the song, it was almost as if the music was drifting down from the heavens (sorry cheesy, but really it was). At the end of the mass, the choir was brought down front for one last number, and I had to laugh at how dopey the boys were. Just greasy haired, really little, goofy kids, but their voices were truly incredible.
Huierger: One of my favorites of our vienna trip. Alex and I took the metro and then a tram way out of the city center to get to one of these little wine taverns. They are little places tucked away on tree filled residential streets, many known only to the neighborhood people they serve. I felt like I was walking into someones backyard, and basically I was. Lots of trees and picnic tables spread all over the lawn and we walked through the little porch to get into the quaint dining room run by two little women who didn’t speak more then a few words of english.
The idea behind the wine taverns is that everything served there must be made at the house by the family. All the food, wine, meats, and bread are homemade. We got plates of potatoe salad (but not like the american kind, no mayo), fresh roast meat slices, and fresh bread with various spreads of cheese and garlic that put cafe latte spreads to shame. We also had lots of the house wine which was delicious and instead of being served in a wine glass is given in more of a beer mug, lots of fun. The women running the place were incredibly sweet and were thrilled to have some young tourists. They even gave us little chocolates as we left.
Last but not least: The opera. Although originally I had wanted to see Romeo and Juliet, we found the line for standing room started before 11am for a 7pm show. Umm, yeah, not so up for that. So we decided to go the next night which ended up being two small operettas. Osud and Le Ville. We got there a couple hours before the show, and got standing room, with bars to lean on, on the main floor in the center for 3.5 euro a piece, awesome deal.
It was my first time at the opera, so I didn’t quite know what to expect, but it was a fun experience. The first opera was WEIRD. An opera about a guy writing an opera. I had more fun wathcing the titles on the screen then the actual opera. The words used were pretyt ridiculous and beyond over dramatic…Worth a snicker. The second one was great. An opera by puccini of madame butterfly fame. The music was fantastic and the story much better to follow. The singers were also incredible. Although the background was of a lot of guys bodies repeating wearing tree covered tshirts and boxers and combat boots (didn’t really understand that part). But hey, you can’t understand everything in art I suppose.
Currently in Chang Mai...but here's some catch up.
Vienna! Alex and I finished up Europe with a stop in Vienna. Really wonderful city, and truly full of music of every kind. First thing we heard as we left our hostel for the afternoon was a woman practicing opera…only in vienna.
We wandered our way through the streets and parks, amazing architechture at every turn. Beautiful churches, parliament building, statues, and opera houses.
Three major highlights of our time in Vienna: Boys Choir, Hueriger (Wine Tavern), and an opera at the Statsoper.
Boys Choir: Alex and I managed to catch a performance of the world famous Vienna Boys Choir, and it was fantastic. Man can they sing. It was not anything at all like I thought it would be however. First, we got to the church at the crack of dawn, not quite as necessary as our guidebook made it out to be…but we were first in line. We ended up with standing room tickets, which was perfect for us as we were right in the front and center, and didnt pay a dime. I think this may have irked the man who was in line to pick up tickets with us, he was very proud at buying his 6 months in advance for 39 euro.
The boys sing in a little tiny chapel, nothing grand by any means, but its a packed house. You have to actually endure a mass in german, which ended up being more of a cultural experience for me as I a. dont speak german b. am not catholic. The boys also are heard but not seen. They perform from high up in the choir room which is located where an organ normally would be in a cathedral, behind the people in a little balcony. Although it was odd not to see the mouths creating the song, it was almost as if the music was drifting down from the heavens (sorry cheesy, but really it was). At the end of the mass, the choir was brought down front for one last number, and I had to laugh at how dopey the boys were. Just greasy haired, really little, goofy kids, but their voices were truly incredible.
Huierger: One of my favorites of our vienna trip. Alex and I took the metro and then a tram way out of the city center to get to one of these little wine taverns. They are little places tucked away on tree filled residential streets, many known only to the neighborhood people they serve. I felt like I was walking into someones backyard, and basically I was. Lots of trees and picnic tables spread all over the lawn and we walked through the little porch to get into the quaint dining room run by two little women who didn’t speak more then a few words of english.
The idea behind the wine taverns is that everything served there must be made at the house by the family. All the food, wine, meats, and bread are homemade. We got plates of potatoe salad (but not like the american kind, no mayo), fresh roast meat slices, and fresh bread with various spreads of cheese and garlic that put cafe latte spreads to shame. We also had lots of the house wine which was delicious and instead of being served in a wine glass is given in more of a beer mug, lots of fun. The women running the place were incredibly sweet and were thrilled to have some young tourists. They even gave us little chocolates as we left.
Last but not least: The opera. Although originally I had wanted to see Romeo and Juliet, we found the line for standing room started before 11am for a 7pm show. Umm, yeah, not so up for that. So we decided to go the next night which ended up being two small operettas. Osud and Le Ville. We got there a couple hours before the show, and got standing room, with bars to lean on, on the main floor in the center for 3.5 euro a piece, awesome deal.
It was my first time at the opera, so I didn’t quite know what to expect, but it was a fun experience. The first opera was WEIRD. An opera about a guy writing an opera. I had more fun wathcing the titles on the screen then the actual opera. The words used were pretyt ridiculous and beyond over dramatic…Worth a snicker. The second one was great. An opera by puccini of madame butterfly fame. The music was fantastic and the story much better to follow. The singers were also incredible. Although the background was of a lot of guys bodies repeating wearing tree covered tshirts and boxers and combat boots (didn’t really understand that part). But hey, you can’t understand everything in art I suppose.
Wanna Bangkok?
Posted by Emily
Sawadee from Thailand!
Yes, it's true that I haven't finished updating about Europe so I will do that very quickly as Europe is not my favorite continent and quite frankly I'm tired of writing about it. It's about time to move on to the exciting world of Thailand.
The last stop on the European tour was Vienna, not my favorite city so I won't dwell to much. It involved lot of meat and beer, a few art museums, some walking around, some shopping. It was a fine time but really just another big city to me. Our organized tour ended there too so we split off from the group and got to do whatever we wanted. It was very nice.
Last Tuesday, my mom left Vienna for Minneapolis and I left, with Nicki and Alex, for Bangkok. I must say that I very highly recommend Qatar Airways. They do say that they pride themselves on 5 star service. Our first flight was to Doha, Qatar and involved some of the best airline food I have ever had and free wine, and of course, even more exciting was the short lay over we had in Doha. So I've kind of been to Qatar....so random. Our second flight to Bangkok was even nicer and involved more wonderful food and free wine and our own personal video consul (?). I love these and the last time I had one was on Air France. You could choose from more than 20 movies, TV shows, news, video games and music, much of it very new, and you could even create your own personal playlist. This was very exciting for us and kept us quite entertained for a very long time. I watched Brokeback Mountain. So good. I wanted to watch more but then got too tired. Our next flights to New Zealand are with Emirates, which is supposed to even better.
We got into Bangkok at about 7 am and took a taxi to our hostel. No one ever told me they drive on the left side of the road here! I wonder how that happened. It's quite strange to see until you get used to it because if there are no passengers it looks like there is no one driving the car. The traffic in Bangkok is pretty intense and we got caught in a few traffic jams. In some ways the city reminded me of Dakar at first, mostly the heat and humidity in the air and the infrastructure that could probably stand to be in better shape. Bangkok is SO much bigger and that becomes obvious after spending more time in the city, getting caught in crowds and admiring the lovely (air-conditioned!) metro and sky train (like a monorail). You're think if Bangkok could do it, so could Minneapolis!!
Anyway, we spent the morning sleeping to make up for the fact that we hadn't really slept on the plane and the jetlag. I think we got up after about 6 hours because we decided that we wouldn't sleep that night if we didn't. We had dinner at a restaurant called Cabbages and Condoms, a place that was in our guidebook but was also visited by some of my coworkers from the Epidemiology Dept at the U of M (where I TAed). The restaurant was either started by or is operated in conjunction with the Thai Population and Community Development Association. In addition to having really good food, they have the mission of promoting condom use, birth control and prevention of HIV. Every diner gets a condom after the meal instead of an after-dinner mint. I was super impressed with how large and well-managed the restaurant was. One of ways that Thailand has cut down on their HIV rates is by destigmatizing condom use and that tactic is very obvious at the restaurant where everything from lamps to flowers to models of ships are made out of condoms.
The next day we had a lot more energy and explored the city a bit more. With some advice from the receptionist at our hostel, we went on a mission to find the Grand Palace and Wat Phra Kaow, or the Temple of the Emerald Buddha. We took the Sky Train to the last stop, where it ends by the river and then took a water taxi to our desired destination. This was a very good tip from the receptionist because it allowed us to get around easily and cheaply without getting stuck in the traffic. After a few misunderstandings, we finally figured out which water taxi we needed to take and which dock we needed to take it from. After this, it was smooth sailing...no pun intended :) The water taxi was quite interesting because it allowed us to observe the life that takes place in and around the river, such as the lining the water (if you can call them that) and the businesses run near the water taxi stops.
The Grand Palace was amazing and almost beyond words because it is incomparable to anything I have ever seen. There is building after building ornately decorated in gold and colored mirrors with details that are mind-boggling. Every door, window frame, railing, etc. has tiny details. Hopefully I can post some pictures eventually, but even those don't really do it justice. If you ever thought cathedrals were impressive, they've got nothing on this place! The Temple of the Emerald Buddha was another very impressive site to see. The Emerald Buddha is actually made of jade that was mistaken for emerald. It sits on an elaborate pedestal in the temple and is dressed in different outfits depending on the season (summer, winter, rainy).
After checking out the rest of the grounds, we got some lovely fish ball soup (better than it sounds!) from a street vendor and set off to find Wat Pho, the Temple of the Reclining Buddha, a HUGE golden statue of Buddha reclining (obviously). Very interesting but we have done ourselves a disservice by seeing the Grand Place first as nothing really can compare to it.
We then took another water taxi across the river to see Wat Arun Rajawararam (Palace of the Dawn). This one is supposed to be especially impressive when viewed from across the river at dawn or dusk. Unfortunately, we never saw it at either of these times but it was still quite nice. It has large pillars (I'm sure that's not the correct term)and terraces that our guidebook says that you can walk around for a good view of the city, but sadly they were closed when we were there.
After heading home and resting for a bit, we checked out the Suan Lum Night Bazaar, a market that is run only at night. We had dinner there at the food stalls where we realized that the place really isn't for tourists because none of the menus were in English. We got dinner from the first guy who said "Pad Thai?" (wonderful fried noodle dish that is all over the place) to the confused looking foreigners! We walked around to the stalls but didn't really buy anything. It was very interesting to see though because it was definitely the cleanest marker I've ever been to! The stalls are all in a covered building with white tile floors and many stores are playing music and have fancy, beautiful lights. It seems almost more like you are walking around in a mall that has very small shops that are open on both sides. I was also impressed with the items that were available. They had really nice furniture, pottery, etc. Things I'm not used to seeing at markets!
Well, that's almost all about Bangkok but the cyber cafe is about to close so I will finish later and add more about Chiang Mai, the city we are in right now, in the north of the country.
Sawadee from Thailand!
Yes, it's true that I haven't finished updating about Europe so I will do that very quickly as Europe is not my favorite continent and quite frankly I'm tired of writing about it. It's about time to move on to the exciting world of Thailand.
The last stop on the European tour was Vienna, not my favorite city so I won't dwell to much. It involved lot of meat and beer, a few art museums, some walking around, some shopping. It was a fine time but really just another big city to me. Our organized tour ended there too so we split off from the group and got to do whatever we wanted. It was very nice.
Last Tuesday, my mom left Vienna for Minneapolis and I left, with Nicki and Alex, for Bangkok. I must say that I very highly recommend Qatar Airways. They do say that they pride themselves on 5 star service. Our first flight was to Doha, Qatar and involved some of the best airline food I have ever had and free wine, and of course, even more exciting was the short lay over we had in Doha. So I've kind of been to Qatar....so random. Our second flight to Bangkok was even nicer and involved more wonderful food and free wine and our own personal video consul (?). I love these and the last time I had one was on Air France. You could choose from more than 20 movies, TV shows, news, video games and music, much of it very new, and you could even create your own personal playlist. This was very exciting for us and kept us quite entertained for a very long time. I watched Brokeback Mountain. So good. I wanted to watch more but then got too tired. Our next flights to New Zealand are with Emirates, which is supposed to even better.
We got into Bangkok at about 7 am and took a taxi to our hostel. No one ever told me they drive on the left side of the road here! I wonder how that happened. It's quite strange to see until you get used to it because if there are no passengers it looks like there is no one driving the car. The traffic in Bangkok is pretty intense and we got caught in a few traffic jams. In some ways the city reminded me of Dakar at first, mostly the heat and humidity in the air and the infrastructure that could probably stand to be in better shape. Bangkok is SO much bigger and that becomes obvious after spending more time in the city, getting caught in crowds and admiring the lovely (air-conditioned!) metro and sky train (like a monorail). You're think if Bangkok could do it, so could Minneapolis!!
Anyway, we spent the morning sleeping to make up for the fact that we hadn't really slept on the plane and the jetlag. I think we got up after about 6 hours because we decided that we wouldn't sleep that night if we didn't. We had dinner at a restaurant called Cabbages and Condoms, a place that was in our guidebook but was also visited by some of my coworkers from the Epidemiology Dept at the U of M (where I TAed). The restaurant was either started by or is operated in conjunction with the Thai Population and Community Development Association. In addition to having really good food, they have the mission of promoting condom use, birth control and prevention of HIV. Every diner gets a condom after the meal instead of an after-dinner mint. I was super impressed with how large and well-managed the restaurant was. One of ways that Thailand has cut down on their HIV rates is by destigmatizing condom use and that tactic is very obvious at the restaurant where everything from lamps to flowers to models of ships are made out of condoms.
The next day we had a lot more energy and explored the city a bit more. With some advice from the receptionist at our hostel, we went on a mission to find the Grand Palace and Wat Phra Kaow, or the Temple of the Emerald Buddha. We took the Sky Train to the last stop, where it ends by the river and then took a water taxi to our desired destination. This was a very good tip from the receptionist because it allowed us to get around easily and cheaply without getting stuck in the traffic. After a few misunderstandings, we finally figured out which water taxi we needed to take and which dock we needed to take it from. After this, it was smooth sailing...no pun intended :) The water taxi was quite interesting because it allowed us to observe the life that takes place in and around the river, such as the lining the water (if you can call them that) and the businesses run near the water taxi stops.
The Grand Palace was amazing and almost beyond words because it is incomparable to anything I have ever seen. There is building after building ornately decorated in gold and colored mirrors with details that are mind-boggling. Every door, window frame, railing, etc. has tiny details. Hopefully I can post some pictures eventually, but even those don't really do it justice. If you ever thought cathedrals were impressive, they've got nothing on this place! The Temple of the Emerald Buddha was another very impressive site to see. The Emerald Buddha is actually made of jade that was mistaken for emerald. It sits on an elaborate pedestal in the temple and is dressed in different outfits depending on the season (summer, winter, rainy).
After checking out the rest of the grounds, we got some lovely fish ball soup (better than it sounds!) from a street vendor and set off to find Wat Pho, the Temple of the Reclining Buddha, a HUGE golden statue of Buddha reclining (obviously). Very interesting but we have done ourselves a disservice by seeing the Grand Place first as nothing really can compare to it.
We then took another water taxi across the river to see Wat Arun Rajawararam (Palace of the Dawn). This one is supposed to be especially impressive when viewed from across the river at dawn or dusk. Unfortunately, we never saw it at either of these times but it was still quite nice. It has large pillars (I'm sure that's not the correct term)and terraces that our guidebook says that you can walk around for a good view of the city, but sadly they were closed when we were there.
After heading home and resting for a bit, we checked out the Suan Lum Night Bazaar, a market that is run only at night. We had dinner there at the food stalls where we realized that the place really isn't for tourists because none of the menus were in English. We got dinner from the first guy who said "Pad Thai?" (wonderful fried noodle dish that is all over the place) to the confused looking foreigners! We walked around to the stalls but didn't really buy anything. It was very interesting to see though because it was definitely the cleanest marker I've ever been to! The stalls are all in a covered building with white tile floors and many stores are playing music and have fancy, beautiful lights. It seems almost more like you are walking around in a mall that has very small shops that are open on both sides. I was also impressed with the items that were available. They had really nice furniture, pottery, etc. Things I'm not used to seeing at markets!
Well, that's almost all about Bangkok but the cyber cafe is about to close so I will finish later and add more about Chiang Mai, the city we are in right now, in the north of the country.
Saturday, May 20, 2006
Fairytale
Posted by Emily
From Rovinj, we got picked up in minivans and driven to another small town (forget the name) where they pick their own truffles (the mushrooms) and therefore they are very cheap. Bought some of those and had some AMAZING hot chocolate that actually more like pudding. Continued on to the Slovenian border where we visited a cave with one of the largest underground canyons. Pretty amazing.
Then it was on to our final destination of Blad, Slovenia, which was very aptly described to be as seeming to be out of a fairytale. It's set in the Julian Alps so everywhere you look there are mountain peaks. There is a beautiful lake in the middle of town bordered by a large cliff, on which is situated a castle. We spent a lot of time walking around the city lake/park area. One day we went on a beautiful hike DOWN a mountain to Lake Bohinj (?)...Bohemian Lake in English. So beautiful. Set in the middle of the mountains and on the edge of a forest. We had lunch right across the street.
We also explored the castle, which sadly, is much prettier from a distance. It was quite intereting though because they had some historical relics there and some people dressed up in old fashioned outfits (I kind of felt bad for them) pretending to be a printmaker and a wine bottlers (or something like that). I guess many people get married there and supposedly the bride walks up the hill. That would be quite a feat because it's a pretty steep hill. But there's also a road so I doubt that's actually true.
Anyway, very relaxing lovely city. I wish we could have stayed longer. Unlike many of the cities, this is one that I would definitely go back to, especially in the winter. lots of skiing!
From Rovinj, we got picked up in minivans and driven to another small town (forget the name) where they pick their own truffles (the mushrooms) and therefore they are very cheap. Bought some of those and had some AMAZING hot chocolate that actually more like pudding. Continued on to the Slovenian border where we visited a cave with one of the largest underground canyons. Pretty amazing.
Then it was on to our final destination of Blad, Slovenia, which was very aptly described to be as seeming to be out of a fairytale. It's set in the Julian Alps so everywhere you look there are mountain peaks. There is a beautiful lake in the middle of town bordered by a large cliff, on which is situated a castle. We spent a lot of time walking around the city lake/park area. One day we went on a beautiful hike DOWN a mountain to Lake Bohinj (?)...Bohemian Lake in English. So beautiful. Set in the middle of the mountains and on the edge of a forest. We had lunch right across the street.
We also explored the castle, which sadly, is much prettier from a distance. It was quite intereting though because they had some historical relics there and some people dressed up in old fashioned outfits (I kind of felt bad for them) pretending to be a printmaker and a wine bottlers (or something like that). I guess many people get married there and supposedly the bride walks up the hill. That would be quite a feat because it's a pretty steep hill. But there's also a road so I doubt that's actually true.
Anyway, very relaxing lovely city. I wish we could have stayed longer. Unlike many of the cities, this is one that I would definitely go back to, especially in the winter. lots of skiing!
Monday, May 15, 2006
On To Croatia
Posted by Emily
We left Sarajevo early in the morning to catch a bus to Dubrovnik, Croatia. This was a beautiful ride except for the fact that it involved so many border crossings because of the strange ways the land was divided after the war.
Dubrovnik is a beautiful city with and old town and new town (I think this exists in many touristy cities....old town pretty much means tourist area). We stayed very near to the old town so had very easy access to this charming area. It's surrounded by stone walls and all the streets and most of the buildings are made out of the same stone. One side is bordered by the harbor. We walked along the city walls one morning, which actually took quite awhile because everwhere you look is picture-worthy. Not sure not many pictures I took but I'm quite sure it was over 100!
Other than that took in some cool exhibits, both involving photographs but in different ways. The first was an exhibition called something like "Women War Photographers" and featured women, professional photographers I believe, who have taken an interest in various war-torn regions of the world, have moved there and have documented what they have seen. I can't even imagine how they could have photographed the images that they did. Not only did they actual witness these horrible tragedies in person(there were many funerals, wounded and bloody bodies, and just generally disheartening scenes) but they were close enough to take the pictures. Other than being glad they they could do this to show the rest of the world the realities of the conflicts and thinking that they are incredibly brave to undertake the work, I can't help but thinking it might be a little intrusive.
The second exhibition we saw was one room that featured the photographs of the 200 men in Dubrovnick who died defending the city when it was attacked in 1992. It was very simple with the photos on three walls, memorabelia in the center and a few flowers placed about. Despite this, it was very haunting to look into the faces of the people who have died. It is one thing to see graves and statistics and whatnot (depersonifying in a way....global studies anyone??) but seeing actual faces is pretty unforgetable.
Other than that it was pretty much beautiful views, a visit to a lovely island with a botanical garden, beaches and peacocks, and LOTS of great seafood and ice cream!!
After Dubrovnik, it was up the coast to Split, a port city. It wasn't my favorite city but there were some great things going on while we were there. We got there on a Saturday and the day after was the yearly celebration of the city's patron saint. Saturday night we had dinner at a wonderful local restaurant and while we were wandering home, we happened upon an AMAZING concert of a Croatian group that consisted of a violin player (she rocked!) drums, a keyboard, other random instruments and even an electic guitar at points. The style of music was kind of a modern fusion with Central European folk. So so good. PLUS, there were fire dancers, women with flaming things on the end of chains that they spun around. While leaving, we even caught a fireworks show. Such a good night.
The next wasn't too exciting. It involved walking around the crowded streets of the town and getting a little annoyed by that, but we also wandered through some quieter areas and sat by the waterside at the port where we could hear the mass that was being broadcast through the entire city. I couldn't understand it but the music was beautiful.
That night we took an overnight ferry even further north. This was quite an interesting experience. It was a bit like a cruise ship with a dining room, bar and duty-free shop, but not as nice I am told. The evening was quite uneventful except for a crazy game of cards that only became crazy because one of the other passengers kept forgetting the rules to very simple games. SUPER funny but also annoying.
Next day, took a few buses even farther north and ended up in the small town of Rovinj. Very beautiful, but again, not much going on. We mostly wandered around the little winding streets, many of them uphill. Lovely, quiet city but I'm glad we only spent a day there. It would be great for a vacation when you can really just lounge around, but when you are in travel mode and want to see things, it gets to be a bit dull.
Then it was off to Slovenia, but that's a story for another time!
We left Sarajevo early in the morning to catch a bus to Dubrovnik, Croatia. This was a beautiful ride except for the fact that it involved so many border crossings because of the strange ways the land was divided after the war.
Dubrovnik is a beautiful city with and old town and new town (I think this exists in many touristy cities....old town pretty much means tourist area). We stayed very near to the old town so had very easy access to this charming area. It's surrounded by stone walls and all the streets and most of the buildings are made out of the same stone. One side is bordered by the harbor. We walked along the city walls one morning, which actually took quite awhile because everwhere you look is picture-worthy. Not sure not many pictures I took but I'm quite sure it was over 100!
Other than that took in some cool exhibits, both involving photographs but in different ways. The first was an exhibition called something like "Women War Photographers" and featured women, professional photographers I believe, who have taken an interest in various war-torn regions of the world, have moved there and have documented what they have seen. I can't even imagine how they could have photographed the images that they did. Not only did they actual witness these horrible tragedies in person(there were many funerals, wounded and bloody bodies, and just generally disheartening scenes) but they were close enough to take the pictures. Other than being glad they they could do this to show the rest of the world the realities of the conflicts and thinking that they are incredibly brave to undertake the work, I can't help but thinking it might be a little intrusive.
The second exhibition we saw was one room that featured the photographs of the 200 men in Dubrovnick who died defending the city when it was attacked in 1992. It was very simple with the photos on three walls, memorabelia in the center and a few flowers placed about. Despite this, it was very haunting to look into the faces of the people who have died. It is one thing to see graves and statistics and whatnot (depersonifying in a way....global studies anyone??) but seeing actual faces is pretty unforgetable.
Other than that it was pretty much beautiful views, a visit to a lovely island with a botanical garden, beaches and peacocks, and LOTS of great seafood and ice cream!!
After Dubrovnik, it was up the coast to Split, a port city. It wasn't my favorite city but there were some great things going on while we were there. We got there on a Saturday and the day after was the yearly celebration of the city's patron saint. Saturday night we had dinner at a wonderful local restaurant and while we were wandering home, we happened upon an AMAZING concert of a Croatian group that consisted of a violin player (she rocked!) drums, a keyboard, other random instruments and even an electic guitar at points. The style of music was kind of a modern fusion with Central European folk. So so good. PLUS, there were fire dancers, women with flaming things on the end of chains that they spun around. While leaving, we even caught a fireworks show. Such a good night.
The next wasn't too exciting. It involved walking around the crowded streets of the town and getting a little annoyed by that, but we also wandered through some quieter areas and sat by the waterside at the port where we could hear the mass that was being broadcast through the entire city. I couldn't understand it but the music was beautiful.
That night we took an overnight ferry even further north. This was quite an interesting experience. It was a bit like a cruise ship with a dining room, bar and duty-free shop, but not as nice I am told. The evening was quite uneventful except for a crazy game of cards that only became crazy because one of the other passengers kept forgetting the rules to very simple games. SUPER funny but also annoying.
Next day, took a few buses even farther north and ended up in the small town of Rovinj. Very beautiful, but again, not much going on. We mostly wandered around the little winding streets, many of them uphill. Lovely, quiet city but I'm glad we only spent a day there. It would be great for a vacation when you can really just lounge around, but when you are in travel mode and want to see things, it gets to be a bit dull.
Then it was off to Slovenia, but that's a story for another time!
Thursday, May 11, 2006
Welcome to Sarajevo
Posted by Emily
The night train to Sarajevo was quite an interesting experience as it involved late night border crossings and ticket checks, and a train change (this was unintentional...one of the cars broke down in the middle of the night and since we were the only 9 people going to Sarajevo, they transferred us to a first class car. It was not really different than the regular compartment). We arrived to the city very early in the morning and took a tram to the center of town where we were picked up in a tiny car by one of the owners of the hostel that we stayed at. It was quite comical to watch him load our huge bags into the little car! The hostel was at the top of a very steep hill so it would have been nearly impossible for us to make it up there carrying our own luggage.
After settling into the hostel for just a bit (we didn't want to stay too long or we might have fallen asleep and missed the city!) we walked down the hill over cobblestone streets, past bakeries and little shops, past a huge graveyard (probably for victims of the war...there are random graves all over town because during the war they buried people wherever they could) and finally down into a central square, aptly called "pigeon square" because of the SWARMS of them there. We had breakfast at a local bakery where they serves a pastry called burek (just like Jon!), which is a flaky pastry filled with meat, cheese, potatoes or spinach. Kind of like Greek spinach pie but much better. It was the perfect thing to fill our tired bodies.
We spent the rest of the morning walking around the town looking in little shops and just generally getting a feel for the city. It's quite strange to be in a city that has gone through a war so recently. It seems quite surreal and hard to imagine. Later in the afternoon we were taken on a tour of the city by one of the owner's of our hostel. He and his family decided to stay in Sarajevo through the war so he was able to give us a first-hand perspective of what happened and what the people went through. Quite inspiring. Unfortunately, he saw that we were all quite tired and cut some of his usual stories short. However, we stopped at a pub along the way and I listened to my chatty mother ask him questions. That was the most interesting part. We also saw the place where Archduke of Austria Franz Ferdinand (not just a band!) and his wife were assassinated by a Serbian nationalist, all of which began the chain of events that resulted in World War I.
Overall, Sarajevo was a beautiful city set in the mountains with lovely old streets, a church, mosque and synagogue (quite unusual) and an amazing, resilient history. I was very glad that I got a chance to visit with this tour because I'm pretty sure it's a destination I would never decide to go on my own.
The night train to Sarajevo was quite an interesting experience as it involved late night border crossings and ticket checks, and a train change (this was unintentional...one of the cars broke down in the middle of the night and since we were the only 9 people going to Sarajevo, they transferred us to a first class car. It was not really different than the regular compartment). We arrived to the city very early in the morning and took a tram to the center of town where we were picked up in a tiny car by one of the owners of the hostel that we stayed at. It was quite comical to watch him load our huge bags into the little car! The hostel was at the top of a very steep hill so it would have been nearly impossible for us to make it up there carrying our own luggage.
After settling into the hostel for just a bit (we didn't want to stay too long or we might have fallen asleep and missed the city!) we walked down the hill over cobblestone streets, past bakeries and little shops, past a huge graveyard (probably for victims of the war...there are random graves all over town because during the war they buried people wherever they could) and finally down into a central square, aptly called "pigeon square" because of the SWARMS of them there. We had breakfast at a local bakery where they serves a pastry called burek (just like Jon!), which is a flaky pastry filled with meat, cheese, potatoes or spinach. Kind of like Greek spinach pie but much better. It was the perfect thing to fill our tired bodies.
We spent the rest of the morning walking around the town looking in little shops and just generally getting a feel for the city. It's quite strange to be in a city that has gone through a war so recently. It seems quite surreal and hard to imagine. Later in the afternoon we were taken on a tour of the city by one of the owner's of our hostel. He and his family decided to stay in Sarajevo through the war so he was able to give us a first-hand perspective of what happened and what the people went through. Quite inspiring. Unfortunately, he saw that we were all quite tired and cut some of his usual stories short. However, we stopped at a pub along the way and I listened to my chatty mother ask him questions. That was the most interesting part. We also saw the place where Archduke of Austria Franz Ferdinand (not just a band!) and his wife were assassinated by a Serbian nationalist, all of which began the chain of events that resulted in World War I.
Overall, Sarajevo was a beautiful city set in the mountains with lovely old streets, a church, mosque and synagogue (quite unusual) and an amazing, resilient history. I was very glad that I got a chance to visit with this tour because I'm pretty sure it's a destination I would never decide to go on my own.
Wednesday, May 10, 2006
About Budapest
Posted by Emily
Hey everyone! Just a quick update to let you know that I have't completely disappeared! We are currently in Bled, Slovenia, a BEAUTIFUL city near the Julian Alps. We spent the day hiking down a mountain and then had lunch overlooking the lake. Lovely. But more on that later. I'll do a quick run down of what we have been up to.
We started in Budapest, Hungary, as I'm sure you know from the only previous post. Again, LOVED the city. It's quite a large city but managable on foot because we were staying near the center. We say the large and beautiful Parliament building that overlooks the Danube, checked out the Museum of Ethnography which had exhibits on traditional Hungarian daily life and also, randomly, an exhibit on musical instruments from around the world. Continued walking and found St. Steven's Basilica, which was beautiful but at this point in the journey it's kind of just another church (and I haven't even been traveling that long!). One unique thing about the church is that it contains the mummified hand of St. Steven. It's in a gold and glass box and if you put an offering in it lights up. We waited until someone else did it. Also saw the opera house. Saturday afternoon we met up with our tour group and had dinner at a very local Hungarian restaurant where we tried some local alcohol shot thing (it was my mom's idea!) and had some lovely food.
Next day was a bike tour with most of the group. It was luckily a beautiful day and it was wonderful to explore the city on a bike. It's a lot faster than walking and much better than being on one of those stupid tour buses! The afternoon was spent at the one of the large thermal baths located near the city park. It had 3 warm outdoor pools, one for swimming laps and one with a whirlpool type thing in the middle (literally) because once you entered the entire group was pushed in a circle by the current. There were also several hot, warm in cool pools inside the building and a sauna. Very relaxing.
On Monday, pretty much everything was closed due to May Day and there was supposed to be a large celebration and parade put on by the socialist party who had just won the elections but unfortunately it was raining HARD. That didn't stop us from trying to see the castle district at first, but then after walking for quite a while and almost making it there, we decided it was too wet and miserable out. Sadly, we took the metro to the mall and walked around there. There was no where else open where we could stay dry! All the stores were closed though and we just ended up having lunch at a restaurant there.
That night, it was the overnight train to Sarajevo.
Hey everyone! Just a quick update to let you know that I have't completely disappeared! We are currently in Bled, Slovenia, a BEAUTIFUL city near the Julian Alps. We spent the day hiking down a mountain and then had lunch overlooking the lake. Lovely. But more on that later. I'll do a quick run down of what we have been up to.
We started in Budapest, Hungary, as I'm sure you know from the only previous post. Again, LOVED the city. It's quite a large city but managable on foot because we were staying near the center. We say the large and beautiful Parliament building that overlooks the Danube, checked out the Museum of Ethnography which had exhibits on traditional Hungarian daily life and also, randomly, an exhibit on musical instruments from around the world. Continued walking and found St. Steven's Basilica, which was beautiful but at this point in the journey it's kind of just another church (and I haven't even been traveling that long!). One unique thing about the church is that it contains the mummified hand of St. Steven. It's in a gold and glass box and if you put an offering in it lights up. We waited until someone else did it. Also saw the opera house. Saturday afternoon we met up with our tour group and had dinner at a very local Hungarian restaurant where we tried some local alcohol shot thing (it was my mom's idea!) and had some lovely food.
Next day was a bike tour with most of the group. It was luckily a beautiful day and it was wonderful to explore the city on a bike. It's a lot faster than walking and much better than being on one of those stupid tour buses! The afternoon was spent at the one of the large thermal baths located near the city park. It had 3 warm outdoor pools, one for swimming laps and one with a whirlpool type thing in the middle (literally) because once you entered the entire group was pushed in a circle by the current. There were also several hot, warm in cool pools inside the building and a sauna. Very relaxing.
On Monday, pretty much everything was closed due to May Day and there was supposed to be a large celebration and parade put on by the socialist party who had just won the elections but unfortunately it was raining HARD. That didn't stop us from trying to see the castle district at first, but then after walking for quite a while and almost making it there, we decided it was too wet and miserable out. Sadly, we took the metro to the mall and walked around there. There was no where else open where we could stay dry! All the stores were closed though and we just ended up having lunch at a restaurant there.
That night, it was the overnight train to Sarajevo.
Tuesday, May 09, 2006
City of Gold
Posted by Nicki
So, at the current moment I am Budapest, and have some blog catching up to do…however, some of the keys, specifically the z and y are switched up, so if I make some typos, apologies in advance.
Ill start things off with prague…Alex and I stared our brief eastern europe tour as I think I mentioned in the last blog in Prague…absolutely awesome city! We both loved it. It did manage to warm up a bit, and the city was just so pleasant to walk around. The architechture of the buildings is beautiful, the streets are cobblestone and colorful, and everyone seems to have a very positive outlook. The only downside I would say is that prague is VERY touristy. If you can get off the main streets its great, but main town squares and bridges are packed with tourists.
But, we managed to make the best of the crowds and had a great time. We walked a TON, and therefore saw quite a bit in the time we were there. We climbed up all the towers and hills we could for great views of the city, explored the grounds of the prague castle, a beautiful hill of flowering trees, made a wish on the five star cross on charles bridge, and even walked through a house of mirrors. The inside of the cathedral in prague castle was absolutely breathtaking, the most amazing stained glass Ive ever seen, period. The city is full of amazing sculpture, and it seems like everything is accented with gold in some way or another…hence the title.
We also made our way through the jewish quarter, which turned out to be really interesting. There is a spanish synogouge, modeled on the alambra, the moorish palace in granada…just gorgeous. All gold and amazing patterns on the ceiling and and covered in moorish arches. After that we went to another synagouge, something pinko (I dont recall the name). This one was much more powerful in its statement. It was a memorial to the many thousands of czech jews killed in the halocaust. The walls of the building were done in a vietnam memorial fashion, covered ceiling to floor in verz small print with all the names of the 80,000 jews killed in the world war II atrocities. It was extremely powerful. The names seemed to blend together and just go on forever.
At the top floor of the synagogue was a collection of childrens drawings done by children living in the czech jewish ghetto of terezin during the war. Apparently a teacher at the time had discovered a coping strategy of some sort that encouraged children to express themselves and the despair thez felt through art. Although she eventually was sent to one of the concentration camps, she left behind two suitcases with over 4000 drawings from the children of the ghetto. Many of these were what we saw. Its amazing how a simple childrens sketch can truly express so much.
After that synagouge we also visited the jewish cemetary, which was really incredible to see. Apparently its 12 layers deep, they had run out space. The grave stone are in a complete random state looking as though theyve fallen out of the sky…although some are pushing there way up through the ground. They are piled up against each other, leaning this way and that, many areas resemebled to me a crooked mouth of teeth. I wished I had taken photos, but I felt like it would have been disrespectful as photos werent allowed in any of the other places.
In any case, this blog is getting quite long, so Ill end it there. I hope you all are well! I sent a bunch of postcards from prague, but I dont know if the lady gave me the right postage, so hopefullz they will make it!
So, at the current moment I am Budapest, and have some blog catching up to do…however, some of the keys, specifically the z and y are switched up, so if I make some typos, apologies in advance.
Ill start things off with prague…Alex and I stared our brief eastern europe tour as I think I mentioned in the last blog in Prague…absolutely awesome city! We both loved it. It did manage to warm up a bit, and the city was just so pleasant to walk around. The architechture of the buildings is beautiful, the streets are cobblestone and colorful, and everyone seems to have a very positive outlook. The only downside I would say is that prague is VERY touristy. If you can get off the main streets its great, but main town squares and bridges are packed with tourists.
But, we managed to make the best of the crowds and had a great time. We walked a TON, and therefore saw quite a bit in the time we were there. We climbed up all the towers and hills we could for great views of the city, explored the grounds of the prague castle, a beautiful hill of flowering trees, made a wish on the five star cross on charles bridge, and even walked through a house of mirrors. The inside of the cathedral in prague castle was absolutely breathtaking, the most amazing stained glass Ive ever seen, period. The city is full of amazing sculpture, and it seems like everything is accented with gold in some way or another…hence the title.
We also made our way through the jewish quarter, which turned out to be really interesting. There is a spanish synogouge, modeled on the alambra, the moorish palace in granada…just gorgeous. All gold and amazing patterns on the ceiling and and covered in moorish arches. After that we went to another synagouge, something pinko (I dont recall the name). This one was much more powerful in its statement. It was a memorial to the many thousands of czech jews killed in the halocaust. The walls of the building were done in a vietnam memorial fashion, covered ceiling to floor in verz small print with all the names of the 80,000 jews killed in the world war II atrocities. It was extremely powerful. The names seemed to blend together and just go on forever.
At the top floor of the synagogue was a collection of childrens drawings done by children living in the czech jewish ghetto of terezin during the war. Apparently a teacher at the time had discovered a coping strategy of some sort that encouraged children to express themselves and the despair thez felt through art. Although she eventually was sent to one of the concentration camps, she left behind two suitcases with over 4000 drawings from the children of the ghetto. Many of these were what we saw. Its amazing how a simple childrens sketch can truly express so much.
After that synagouge we also visited the jewish cemetary, which was really incredible to see. Apparently its 12 layers deep, they had run out space. The grave stone are in a complete random state looking as though theyve fallen out of the sky…although some are pushing there way up through the ground. They are piled up against each other, leaning this way and that, many areas resemebled to me a crooked mouth of teeth. I wished I had taken photos, but I felt like it would have been disrespectful as photos werent allowed in any of the other places.
In any case, this blog is getting quite long, so Ill end it there. I hope you all are well! I sent a bunch of postcards from prague, but I dont know if the lady gave me the right postage, so hopefullz they will make it!
Monday, May 01, 2006
Łöók ât ăłł thęsě cóöł áččénts!!
Posted by Emily
Hello from Budapest! And let me say, what a lovely city! I arrived here last Thursday evening, my mom joined me on Friday evening, and we joined up with our tour group on Saturday evening. We have been having a wonderful time so far. Our tour isn´t very ˝typical˝ I guess you could say. The group is small (about 7 people), there is NO bus and we have leaders, not ˝tour guides˝. Our main leader is a Hungarian woman who is amazingly hip and friendly. She has been taking us to her favorite restaurants, which are AMAZING, and giving us insider tips into the city and culture. I don´t really think you can ask for a much better set up! We will be traveling with another mother/daughter duo from Australia, a father daughter duo from LA (although they are Chinese and the father doesn´t speak much English) and a Greek woman who now lives in Australia. Very interesting mix and I think we are going to get along very well. There is only one other girl around my age and I think that we will also get along well, which I am excited about. Our leader, Enikő (?) even took us on a little unoffical pub crawl last night!
Well, more on our actual experiences here later. We don`t have much Hungarian money left so, sadly, we can´t pay for much internet. I will say though that we have really enjoyed our time here and wish we had more. As Enikő told us, it isn´t a city that you love at first sight but it gets under your skin. She has known many people who have come to visit and have never left. I can see why. It seems to be a very laid back, livable city.
We are taking a night train to Saravejo (?) tonight, which I am very excited about because it`s not a place I would probably have the guts to go on my own. However, I have heard nothing but good things from the people who have visited before.
Hello from Budapest! And let me say, what a lovely city! I arrived here last Thursday evening, my mom joined me on Friday evening, and we joined up with our tour group on Saturday evening. We have been having a wonderful time so far. Our tour isn´t very ˝typical˝ I guess you could say. The group is small (about 7 people), there is NO bus and we have leaders, not ˝tour guides˝. Our main leader is a Hungarian woman who is amazingly hip and friendly. She has been taking us to her favorite restaurants, which are AMAZING, and giving us insider tips into the city and culture. I don´t really think you can ask for a much better set up! We will be traveling with another mother/daughter duo from Australia, a father daughter duo from LA (although they are Chinese and the father doesn´t speak much English) and a Greek woman who now lives in Australia. Very interesting mix and I think we are going to get along very well. There is only one other girl around my age and I think that we will also get along well, which I am excited about. Our leader, Enikő (?) even took us on a little unoffical pub crawl last night!
Well, more on our actual experiences here later. We don`t have much Hungarian money left so, sadly, we can´t pay for much internet. I will say though that we have really enjoyed our time here and wish we had more. As Enikő told us, it isn´t a city that you love at first sight but it gets under your skin. She has known many people who have come to visit and have never left. I can see why. It seems to be a very laid back, livable city.
We are taking a night train to Saravejo (?) tonight, which I am very excited about because it`s not a place I would probably have the guts to go on my own. However, I have heard nothing but good things from the people who have visited before.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
