T+134: CATCHING UP

disembarked the train in prague on sunday 9.10 around 8pm-ish into a very unwelcoming train station, definitely built under communist rule. as always, i was a little nervous arriving in a new city and not knowing the lay of the land, but more so here in prague because i had read quite a few reports that the area around the train station is fairly dodgy, especially after dark. i managed to navigate my way to the tram stop without incident and made it to my hotel which, although not in central prague, was easily reached by short tram ride.

spent a nice few days in prague, but really didn't do too much. some sightseeing of the usual suspects: charles bridge, prague castle, astronomical clock, etc. i did not go to any opera in vienna but i did see don giovanni in prague - at the national puppet theatre. very interesting and entertaining production. for some reason, i'm having trouble writing about prague. please do not misunderstand: prague is a fantastic city and much to commend it, not the least of which is the delicious, plentiful and cheap food and beer. i think i'm just getting medieval-city-castle-churche-ed out at this point. they are also mad for mucha here, prague's favorite son alfons mucha is everwhere and i visited the mucha museum with some incredible examples of his art nouveau poster art for la divine sara bernhardt. i also toured the prague municipal house which is home to the largest concert hall in town and was the setting for the proclomation of the independent state of czechoslovakia in 1918. it is the most prominent art nouveau building in prague and includes the mayor's hall, a stunning room designed completely by alfons mucha, right down to the beautiful tapestries around the doors. unfortunately, no photos allowed on the tour so you will just have to see it for yourself. which i do recommend highly. they are also kinda hot for some guy called franz kafka in prague. apparently he was some kinda writer or something.

saskia and greg mentioned that there is a small town nearby called kutna hora with an incredible ossuary - bone church - that sounded suitably macabre: a 15th century church erected in a cemetery which took the bones from the abolished graves and deposited them under the chapel. the half blind cistercian monk charged with the task in the 16th century took to arranging the bones - of some 40,000 people - in various sculptural forms, including a chandelier which contains all of the bones of the human body. there are organized tours to kutna hora and i had planned to take one but i found out that they only spend maybe 15 minutes at the ossuary before they herd you to the other sights in kutna hora. i looked into just going by myself on public transport, which is actually pretty easy, but by this time it was my final day in prague before taking the night train to zurich and so being a 'travel day' i was in major anxiety mode and had all kinds of nightmares that the train back from kutna hora would be delayed or if i took the bus, it would breakdown, or some other combination of horrors would conspire to make me miss the night train. so i didn't go to kutna hora. instead, i had a very relaxing day wandering through prague and got a much-needed haircut and instead of a photo of a creepy bone chandelier, you, my loyal and devoted readers, are rewarded with a photo of me and my new do by phil of prague :)

and so i caught the night train to zurich without incident and wound up having a few drinks and chatting with the conductor until about 2am so was even more tired than i usually am after a night on the train. i had thought that i would spend a few hours wandering around zurich before heading to luzern but it was raining so i just pressed on and wound up spending the night in jail. well, former jail, actually. that i had reserved. the former lowengraben jail in luzern is now a boutique hotel and for 69CHF you too can spend the night in a cell. no phone. no tv. no internet. i was unusually grumpy from lack of sleep so was quite peeved when the guy at the front desk told me i wouldn't be able to check in until 3pm, especially since i had already emailed them that i would be arriving early and requested an early check-in which they said wouldn't be a problem, provided my room was ready. this guy didn't even ask my name to check if my room was ready. anyway, i was hungry so i went for a rather expensive lunch and had a wander before coming back around noon and was finally able to check in (but not before having to summon the manager) and pass out.

luzern is a pretty sleepy swiss town and not much to do except spend a night in jail so hopped on the train early in the morning and headed for my real swiss destination, the tiny alpine village of gimmelwald. enroute, i met janna, leif and eric from spokane (formerly from bend of all places!) who were also going to mountain hostel and hiked up to muerren with them to get groceries and a bite to eat - as well as a couple of well-needed beverages. weather was perfect but unfortunately, did not last and the next two days were cold, grey and fraught with some mild cabin fever.
after two days of grey weather, the sun finally showed itself for most of the day so everyone was able to break free of the hostel confines to enjoy the fresh air and mountain trails. i headed out with a val & steve, a brother & sister from philly, to check out main street gimmelwald. main street didn't take long and we soon found ourselves enroute to nearby muerren so steve & val could get some groceries and a bite to eat. steve was pretty bagged so headed back to the hostel with the groceries while val and i ran into another girl from the hostel, alison, and decided to take the 5km circle hike to winteregg and back. not too strenuous which suited me - and my non-terrain-suitable footwear - just fine. that night, a blues jam session broke out with a young kid from australia on guitar and a pensioner from white rock on piano. fantastic stuff! the house was full, not only with hostel patrons but also people staying at nearby b&b's and the 'sleep in the straw' authentic barn up the road.

wednesday morning, my last day in gimmelwald, dawned without a cloud in the sky. enfin!! the perfect weather to head up to schilthorn and partake of the views from piz gloria, aka blofeld's secret lair in my favorite james bond film 'on her majesty's secret service.' joy! janna and i went up, enjoyed some hot chocolates and watched the alps go by from the revolving restaurant. the rainy weather of the previous days had deposited some snow and after some mixed weather the day before, it was a little icy and still quite cold and we had inadequate footwear so we headed back down after seeing the james bond display. a few clips of the movie but nothing special. there was also a panorama film of the alps which was quite stunning, but the james bond stuff was weak at best. we decided to stop at the next station down the mountain, birg, and were treated to having the station all to ourselves without any snow and some pretty warm sun. i lay like on a bench and soaked it up like a little cat. meow!! :)

took our time getting back down to gimmelwald where there was more laying about in the sunshine before i reluctantly left gimmelwald and the very friendly mountain hostel wednesday afternoon and headed for interlaken to catch the train to basel and connect with the overnight train to utrecht. i was concerned with the 8-minute connection window at basel; however, the chap at the ticket window assured me that as they were connecting trains, it would wait at basel if my train was late. as promised, i made it on time to basel and was safe in my bed in no time. my two other roommates, had gotten out earlier at german stations so i had the place to myself and awaited my breakfast. the conductor informed me that we were stuck at the station waiting for another locomotive to take us from the german border town into holland. and unfortunately, there would be no coffee or breakfast as promised because without the locomotive, there was also no power. alore!! as they say in italy. after trying so hard to get to germany from switzerland and not being able to find anywhere to stay, all of a suddden, i found myself unable to leave. oh well, i was able to move into a nicer compartment to wait it out. eventually, some breakfast bars were provided and at last, we were herded off the train and onto another intercity because we would not, in fact, be getting the locomotive promised. the train was already fairly full but i managed to find a seat and made it to utrecht to see saskia & greg again and enjoy some more cakes!!

T+123: 4 MONTHS TODAY :)

greetings from beautiful prague! i arrived here sunday evening from vienna where i spent 3 days. i arrived early wednesday morning on the overnight train from venice and was thankfully able to check in early to my fairly swish apartment, right in the thick of downtown vienna and right across from the sacher hotel, home of the famous torte and former hq of british intelligence in postwar vienna. sleeping on trains is not as restful as one might think, even if you do have a compartment all to yourself, so i had a wee rest before going out in the afternoon to tour the city. i also had a quick peek at viennese tv and what do you think the first music video i saw was? anyone? yes sammy, you get the gold star. der kommissar by late great austrian rock star falco. alles klar, herr kommissar? :)

the meat of the city of vienna (or wien) is really concentrated within and around the ringstrasse, which is the circular road constructed on the site of the former city walls. around the end of the 19th century, the emperor franz joseph I decreed that some outlying districts be incorporated into the city of vienna which meant the walls created an impediment to traffic, so he decreed that they be demolished and the ringstrasse boulevard built in their place.

just inside the ringstrasse at albetinaplatz is the monument against war and fascism. on first glance, it looks like some sculptures in the plaza and of course, they remind us of the horrors that took place in the war and to remember all the victims; however, the most powerful thing about albertinaplatz, i thought, is that this plaza is in fact a mass grave. during wwII, people would flee to the cellars during air raids. the house at albertinaplatz, a private dwelling, was hit directly and the 300 or so people hiding in its cellars were trapped as the bomb also destroyed the connecting tunnels which normally would have allowed them to escape through another building connected underground. there was neither the manpower nor the machinery to rescue them so they had to be left there, many presumably still alive. and perhaps the worst thing about it is to think that virtually the same thing still happens to this day.

there's really no way to segue from that sobering thought so i'll just throw the completely warped and gaudi-esque hundertwasserhaus in here. it's an incredible block of council housing that was transformed by austrian artist friedensreich hundertwasser in (obviously) the 1970's and is based on the philosophy that "the straight line is godless." it's a complete riot of colour and texture that reeks heavily of powerful drug use during conception and most likely all through the pregnancy as well. residents were apparently quite surprised and none too happy when hordes of tourists began knocking on their doors so he also created a shopping arcade across the way. there is also another conversion called kunsthauswien which also houses a permanent gallery devoted to hundertwasser live & works as well as a cafe serving very tasty fare.

i discovered a very cool tour that i put into my calendar for friday which appealed greatly to the (albeit minor) film geek in me: vienna in the footsteps of the third man. i hadn't seen or even thought about this movie in years and although i remembered it was an excellent film with orson welles, some (literally) shady characters and a ferris wheel, i had to struggle to recall anything else. i had forgotten completely about the soundtrack until rich reminded me: all zither, all the time!! the tour is fantastic. the guide, christopher timmerman, comes from a family obsessed with the film, so much so that his mother (a professor) has even written a rather large tome on the subject and devised the tour, complete with live zither performance in a viennese cellar. joy! :) of course, there was no venturing into the depths of the sewers because these were a complete british sound set fabrication. the actual sewers of vienna are barely 5' high and 3' wide and not the maze-like caverns seen in the film. friday night's big plans? the 10:45pm showing of the third man. and for anyone reading this who hasn't seen it, i suggest you do. it's been voted the best british film of the 20th century. 'nuff said.

i also ventured into the viennese royal treasury which had a lot of what you might expect: crowns, sceptres, royal vestments and the like. it also containes two choice items that made me happy i spent €8 getting in.

the first is a huge shallow bowl made of translucent brown agate reputed for centuries to be THE holy grail. agate is, i was surprised to learn, harder than steel; therefore, this bowl is a marvel if only for the fact that it was carved around the 4th century from a single stone and is the largest carved stone bowl in the world. there is also an inscription of the name of christ in greek letters that is neither engraved nor painted but is apparently in the natural veining. it is not visible to the naked eye, but there is a nearby photograph which shows it. because of this, the sons of ferdinand I decreed in the 16th century that it (along with a unicorn horn, actually a narwhal tusk) should be inalienable heirlooms of the house of habsburg. i didn't know about this before i went in and had only gone over because it is a truly beautiful and surprisingly simple thing amidst the gaudy "treasure" pieces. the form as well is almost art nouveau which makes the fact that it was created in the 4th century also quite surprising.

the other is the largest cut emerald in the world, a whopping 2,680 carats. the gem came from colombia and was in the possession of the habsburgs for many years before ferdinand II commissioned a gem cutter to cut the stone in 1641. obviously, this guy had an impossible job before him and he took 2 years doing it but was ultimately successful. in order not to lose too many carats, he used the material excavated from the vessel to form the lid and followed the natural, irregular shape of the stone engraving leaves into the sides. even so, many carats were still lost in the cutting. the finished object is larger than my fist.

after the treasury, i headed out to the heldenplatz and volksgarten park area behind the hofburg and came upon a big fall festival full of beer, schnitzel and music. and yes ladies, i know it is difficult to see but trust me: those are lederhosen and he is holding a whip. i love austria!

i had gone to the train station before my third man tour to get my ticket to prague. i've got a eurail pass but czech republic is not included so i asked if there was perhaps a discount because i had the pass, as is sometimes the case. the ticket seller said not so i said no problem, just sell me a one-way ticket from vienna to prague. what he gave me was a ticket from breclav, the czech town at the austrian border, to prague and said i should use my pass to the border. i couldn't make this guy understand that i would rather pay €16 more for a ticket from vienna to prague rather than "spend" a day of my pass and as i had to get to the tour, i decided to leave it and show up early to sort it out the day of departure. it's a good thing i showed up early to sort that out because what i didn't realize is that the train to prague left from a different station as well!! luckily, i had given myself lots of margin for error as i have discovered that i am quite obsessive on "travel" day, always checking my ticket to make sure that i have the right day, haven't mixed up the time, etc and would much prefer to be bored at the station to sweating it out enroute with only minutes to spare - which i wound up doing anyway!! but here i am, safe and sound in sunny prague :)

ps to steve: the book recommended by audrey niffenegger is 'ursula, under' - not to be confused with ursula andress who, as you know, is another kettle of fish altogether.

LA DOLCE VITA: LAGO MAGGIORE & VENEZIA

caught the train from florence to milano without incident and went back to casa di spigna to meet paolo and go on to his house in cerro on lake maggiore. paolo wasn't home from work yet and as i hadn't yet been able to have my ear looked at, his wife alessandra very kindly drove me to pronto soccours (first aid/ emergency) at a nearby hospital and waited with me until a doctor could see me. typically, it took about an hour before i finally saw someone and it would have been longer too if alessandra hadn't managed to somehow jump my case ahead in the queue. turns out, it's not an infection but i have somehow managed to catch a cold in my ear so have to take an anti-inflammatory & nasal spray for it and hopefully it will clear up in a few days. now, in vancouver - and yes toto, i do know i'm not in vancouver anymore - the doctor would have written the prescription right then & there and we would have been on our way; unfortunately in italy, the doctor types it all in the computer and my file has to go somewhere else to get a signature or something and thus involves further waiting. in fact, it took another hour and again, would likely have taken longer if alessandra hadn't managed to speak to someone and get them to print it off the computer! at last, we were on the scooter back to the house and onto cerro in no time.

unfortunately, we arrived in the dark so i wasn't able to see anything; however, i awoke saturday morning to an incredible view of lake maggiore from my room. i was also treated to meet paolo's princess, the lovely caterina who has been spending the summer on the lake. later that day, alessandra arrived with giovanni and vittorio & anna also came up for the day so we had a very pleasant afternoon lazing around poolside before vito & anna had to go back to milano.

sunday, alessandra drove me to santa caterina to have a look at the monastery there, built right into the cliffs over lago maggiore. according to legend, a rich merchant was caught out in his boat on the lake during a storm. he trusted in santa caterina to deliver him and promised to do penance if he survived, which he did and as penance lived as a hermit at the site of the monastery which was built some years later.

from there, i hopped a lake boat and toured the borromeo islands: isola bella, isola superiore & isola madre. the islands have been in the borromeo family since the 12th century and contain stunning palaces and gardens, although each island is quite individual. isola bella, named for isabella, countess of boromeo was originally a mostly barren rock but was made into a garden paradise by importing vast quantities of soil to make a formal garden to complement the ornate palace. isola superiore (aka isole pescatori) is the only inhabited island and is home to fishermen, hence the name "pescatori". finally, isola madre (my favorite) also houses a grand palace and gardens, but is far less formal than isola bella and, imho, more relaxing and welcoming. unfortunately, my camera battery died a rather sudden death as i arrived so no photos :(

sunday night, we returned to milano and i spent monday wandering around a little more before departing for venice and the film festival. thank goodness for dark sunglasses because as soon as i arrived, it was paparazzi central - "what really did happen at lago como?" they all wanted to know - NOT!! i was, in fact, embarassingly unapproached on that front. not mistaken for scarlett johanssen. at all. not even once! is it really so much to ask, she implored?

arrived in the dark and although i had printed off the directions to my b&b from the internet, i realized upon arrival that they were shockingly poor so called them for clarification. "i'll meet you at the rialto bridge" came the reply and thank goodness for that i realized in short order as we wound through the tiny streets and over the bridges to the unmarked (aside from the address) residenze del doge. it is a (an? i'm never really sure which article to use in front of a(n) "h") historical building quite central to most sights in venice, but certainly not at all easy to find without a very accurate map or a guide. as we wandered through the narrow alleys and over the countless bridges, i was struck suddenly with the thought that i should really be reading daphne dumaurier's "don't look now" which is set in venice, if i remember correctly. or watching the italian job on dvd on my computer.

[for the record, i am reading "the historian" by alex kostova - another recommendation by steven. he is my new book guru! btw steve, i'm finished it now so need another selection pronto ...]

woke early tuesday morning to a delicious breakfast of pastries, juice and coffee and headed off to get lost in the city. the great thing about getting lost in venice is that it's an island so there really isn't too much trouble you can get into or too far you can really stray. the day had dawned with a damp mist covering the city which gave a spooky but atmospheric outlook over the canal from my window; however, my hostess assured me it would be gone by 10-ish and she was true to her word. until then, i wandered vaguely through the mists happening upon various sights rather than actively seeking them out.

once i had a reasonably good measure of the city, i boarded a vaporetto, one of the water buses which ply the grand canal (literally "little steamer" referring to the original vessels which were steam powered). as the rest of the tourists sardined their way into the open-air sections, i settled myself into a window seat next to a signora who, as i opened my tourist map to get my bearings, chatted away to me explaining all of the sights and areas of the city - tutti italiano, of course. my vague knowledge of italian extends about as far as lasagne, ciao and grazie, but i believe she gave me a complete history of venice as well as advising me which sights are not to be missed and which ones not to bother with. i said "buongiorno i grazie mille signora" as i got off at galleri accademia, one of the essential sights, and took a fascinating tour through venetian art from the medieval byzantine period through the renaissance to the baroque and later.

had a quick - but incredibly tasty - lunch at a pub near the accademia and then wandered some more through the now hot & sticky venice before taking a guided tour (in english this time!) through the grand canal in one of the water taxis. normally, 90 minutes in a venetian taxi would be more than a gondola ride (which are prohibitively expensive) but as part of a guided tour of 8 people and including a bellini or two, i was under the impression that it was reasonable. i certainly learned a lot and i also asked the guide about lido, where the film festival was taking place. turned out that she lives on lido and she said that it really isn't that expensive and it has a great beach and definitely recommended that i go over to catch the sunset and have dinner, so i did. i caught the special lido vaporetto that they have running to the casino during the film festival and wound up in the middle of black tie, spotlights and security. had a quick gawk but didn't see much and headed to the "real people" part of the island for something to eat. had a very tasty lasagne, a few glasses of chianti and a tasty tiramisu at a surprisingly reasonable price before heading for the barn.

my train to vienna didn't leave until almost 9pm on wednesday so i still had all day to see more sights. i headed to the doge's palace to get tix for the "secrets of the doge's palace" tour which takes you thru rooms not normally open to the public, including casanova's prison cells. tour didn't start until 12:25 so got my ticket and headed to see the peggy guggenheim collection which has some truly incredible modern art from the likes of pollock (of whom she is credited with discovering), dali and picasso and made for a refreshing change from all the classic, traditional religious-themed paintings and portraits of nobles that, while certainly beautiful and not without merit, positively overflow from the many european galleries. the building itself is also very interesting as it is her former residence in venice (peggy died in 1979) and the villa has its own history. the palazzo venier dei leoni, as it is called, dates back to 1748 and is an unfinished palace. the original plan called for a great palace; however, legend (aka gossip) has it that the rich and powerful corner family across the canal blocked the completion as it would have been a grander palace than their own. after spending much time, effort and money to try to complete the palace, the owner finally gave up but to spite the corner family, it is said that he kept a couple of lions (leoni) in the front yard which faced the corner villa.

back to the doge's palace to check out the secret rooms. the tour was great and i especially like being able to see a place without having to compete with a whole bunch of large tour groups which is usually the case; however, the most interesting thing about the tour was the guide. i don't know if this description will do her justice but the best way that i can think of describing her is to picture dieter from sprockets. now picture him as italian. and now as a middle-aged woman. got it? a middle-aged, italian, female dieter. now add just a dash of the costume designer character from 'the incredibles' - including her hair but not the glasses, although i do rather suspect that guide wears contacts and has a similar pair of glasses at home. i wish i had a picture of her but she forbade cameras on the tour and believe me, you did not dare step out of line with this woman!!

had a quick trip after to the island of murano to have a look at some glass but unbelievably, the prices there for murano glass were higher than anywhere else in italy, including elsewhere in venice. but it was still nice to look in the shops, etc. and then off to the train where once again, i had a nice sleeper compartment all to myself :)

T+111: FLORENCE, ITALY

pronto from bella italia! so far, it's proven pretty difficult to find budget hotels in italy hip to the wifi phenom (not as advanced here as they are in the baltics on that front, i find it curious to note), internet access points are heinously expensive (€4/hour or €20 for 6 hours here in florence), and cafes seem never to have heard of this "internet of which you speak." yet still, gentle reader, i persevere to bring you the news of me that you crave so much ;)

arrived at the check-in counter at olu deniz airport and was mildly perturbed to discover that they had never heard of me. this despite the fact that they had already charged 200 euros to my credit card. oh well, turned out that they had in fact heard of me at last and i was seated on a very cramped dutch airline bound for holland. i was actually quite surprised to find that an airline based in the country which has the tallest population in the world had such cramped quarters. oh well, never mind. i watched ice age 2: electric bugaloo (or whatevere), arrived amsterdam safe and sound around 1am and after a €25 taxi ride, was tucked into my €8/ hour hotel room (€80 per night and i would be spending less than 10 hours there ...) near the airport by 2am. quite a shock to the pocket book after spending only $50/night in olu deniz!

next morning, i caught the free hotel shuttle to the airport. i would have taken it when i arrived but unfortunately, it only runs between 6am and midnight. is it me, or isn't one of the main purposes of airport hotels to provide accommodation to people who arrive at very late/early hours in which case, wouldn't a 24-hour shuttle be in order? oh well, never mind. i caught the train from schipol airport to utrecht and was safely at greg and saskia's house just after noon.

saskia and greg started the sweet things bakery about 2 years ago and since then, it has been growing like mad. they are having a tough time keeping up with the demand and finding competent staff so have taken to working in shifts: saskia during the day and greg during the night which meant that greg was at home to greet me. and, of course, so were bruno, frankie and little louie :)

had a very relaxing time in utrecht with greg & saskia, albeit not with the two of them together. on friday, greg and i went to amsterdam for the day and took a canal tour of the city. of course about halfway thru, the rain started. it came down in absolute buckets but luckily, the boats are covered with glass tops so we were protected from the elements. the funny thing was, i hadn't realized until then that i had actually really been missing the rain. i quite enjoyed being on the water in the rain, safe and warm and dry, but still able to hear the rain pounding on the windows and see it punishing the sea. you can take the gal out of the rainforest ...

next day, i wandered around utrecht a bit more and then caught the night train to milano, where the coffee comes from the gods and supermodels really do roam free, and met up with my friends vittorio and paolo and their families. i arrived early sunday morning, checked my bags at the station and toured the duomo (cathedral). it is italy's largest gothic structure and one of the world's largest cathedrals with 135 spires and over 2000 statues. it was open to the public; however, it is still an active church and being sunday, services were taking place so i didn't feel all that comfortable gawking inside and instead headed up the elevator to the roof to take in the incredible architectural masterpiece up close.

monday, i went into the offices of incisa & bernezzo (paolo & vito's company) and at last, after about 8 years, met my friends enrica & liliana face to face. it was great to put the faces to the names after such a long time.

tuesday was a day trip to lake como. what a majestic sight. the villas must be seen to be believed. i really have no idea how some of the places could ever be constructed, even with today's techniques and machines. paolo's wife, alessandra, grew up around lake como and gave me some great tips. instead of stopping at bellagio, which most people seemed to do, i continued on to varenna where i had a delicioso panini and a glass of moretti and then wandered through the narrow streets to villa monastere, a former private villa that is now a convention centre with a beautiful garden. the one sour note is that i did have quite a hard time shaking george cloooney. it was getting embarassing. every time i turned around, there he was trying to seduce me. i almost had to call the polizia he was bothering me so much!

wednesday morning, vittorio had to go to tuscany on business so he picked me up early and took me to pisa and lucca. unfortunately, we could not get an early enough time to go up the leaning tower so only viewed it from outside; however, it is still an incredible building to behold. it is built on silt and began its lean right from inception and continued to lean through the ages. the inclination became so pronounced that it was declared unsafe and has only reopened to tours fairly recently after extensive foundation work to reduce the inclination by about 30cm. it now leans only 4m 2cm from vertical now which is still quite significant. and here, of course, you see me crushing the tower of pisa!!

vittorio dropped me in the sleepy tuscan town of lucca where i spent the rest of the afternoon wandering through its quiet streets and climbing one of the towers for a better view of the town before hopping a train to florence for a couple of days.

T+111: CIAO!

pronto from beautiful florence, italy! i am here, safe and sound but having trouble finding a wifi connection to update the blog. will update as soon as i can but in the meantime, thanks to everyone who emailed to check on me after the recent events in turkey. i can feel the love all the way from the other side of the world :)

xoxoxo
bk :)

T+103: OLU DENIZ

(NOTE: i spent the morning creating a whole bunch more albums on the photo site so there are loads more pics to view :)

arrived olu deniz about 30 mins late on the afternoon of monday aug 14 and was greeted by a wall of heat as i stepped onto the tarmac. istanbul was hot, but this was HOT. had no idea what time rich & steve's flight actually arrived so headed over to the international terminal to check the board. luckily, his flight was just arriving. unluckily, they only allow passengers into the international terminal, even for arrivals so had to wait outside in the heat. and wait. seemingly took forever for them to get their bags & clear customs but in the end, they came out and we hopped in the van to the hotel.

got to the hotel & checked in. not bad for ₤20 a night: clean room, air conditioning, breakfast included and a pool. a note on air conditioning: air conditioning here, i've noticed, is quite different from ac in north america. although my room had ac and i put it on high the whole time, the room never really got that cold. it was cool to be sure, but not the cold storage temperature you get in north america. same in cars.

after we were all checked in, we strolled down to the town to meet rich's friend ismail who owns a shop there selling shoes, bags, watches & sunglasses. first night was predictably late, and the following day was spent loafing on the beach, drinking beer & mojitos & swimming in the ultra salty and intensely blue mediterranean. most days were spent in similar fashion, just different locations on the beach and lagoon.

the following night, steve took us out for dinner at the white dolphin, a very nice seafood restaurant on the cliffs overlooking the ocean. it reminded me vaguely of the restaurant that we went to in puerto vallarta for cheryl & gunther's wedding. excellent food and although the turks think it's expensive and we were crazy to spend that much, it certainly isn't at all by western standards. we feasted like kings on the likes of langostines and grouper with plenty of wine. the fish was fresh, you choose your prey and they cook it up. yum! yum!

thursday, ismail took us to a restaurant called cim bals in the countryside for turkish bbq. we had the most unbelievably tender tandir lamb which was cooked in the big clay ovens followed by delicious lamb chops cooked table side on a small grill as we loafed about on cushions under the shade of the grape vines. we also checked out the 'ghost road': a portion of road that would appear to be a downhill slope but a car left in neutral will roll uphill. steve is firmly convinced that it's an optical illusion but rich & i are skeptical. i think it is ghosts pulling the car back up the hill.

friday, ismail's wife gave birth to a beautiful little girl. unfortunately, she is in germany so ismail couldn't be there for the birth, but he was grinning like a fool when we saw him that day. much celebrating was done that night at the bars along the beach.

saturday, steve and i went paragliding. neither of us had ever done it before so were slightly apprehensive, but ismail said it was a reputable place and got us a good deal. sky sports is apparently the only company in olu deniz that jumps from the highest point on the mountain, some 1900m above sealevel. steve was slightly delicate that day and the 45-minute ride up the mountain along a winding and very bumpy road in the back of a truck didn't do him any favours. i rather suspect that perhaps most people who paraglide simply see it as preferable to taking the return journey down the mountain in the truck!

i took off first and although i was quite nervous, it was really pretty easy. it's an incredibly free feeling soaring up in the air at around 2000m. my pilot, onur, and i took off and we swooped around waiting for steve & his pilot to go. for whatever reason, steve's pilot never went as high as mine and he was down on the ground well before me. onur took me out over the bay and the lagoon and did a few swoopy maneouvers before setting me safely down on the ground. it was a total blast and i even have a dvd of the whole flight to bore people with when i get home :)

that evening, ismail had us over to his house for dinner with his mother, sister and niece. his brother-in-law (i will not even attempt to try to spell his name) cooked an incredible kebap dinner, served it, and then went back to work in the store. poor guy!

sunday, steve and i booked a day trip to the surrounding bays and islands. temperature had been getting absolutely riduculous at this point, a steady 45+ for the past few days, so i hoped that a trip on the water would offer some respite. unfortunately, it didn't. it was just as hot out there so as soon as we hit the first stop, butterfly valley, it was into the water. butterfly valley is a bit hippie/ backpacker with lots of people camping. i can't imagine being in a tent in this heat. we made a few more stops, including st. nicholas island which was quite interesting but entirely too hot to explore properly in the limited time that we had for the stop. at every stop, small little motor boats would pull up selling ice cream and gozleme (thin pancakes with various fillings). the gozleme boats were very interesting, one guy piloting the boat and doing the selling and a woman rolling out (pancakes are made of dough rather than a batter) and cooking the pancakes on a big griddle.

monday night was my last night so we headed down to the beach to relax in the bean bag chairs and partake of the hookahs and the following day, more lazing on the beach, a nice dinner and then off to the airport for me where, upon check-in, the airline claimed not to have me on the flight. needless to say, this did not impress in the least; however in the end, they accepted my bags and i flew to amsterdam. arrived around 1am so booked into an airport hotel and then took the train to utrecht the next morning and am safe and sound at saskia & greg's lovely house beside the river :)

T+95: BUDAPEST TO ISTANBUL

i left budapest last tuesday evening and took the overnight train to bucharest. this time, i booked a sleeper car instead of a couchette. at only about $12 more than a couchette, you get a compartment with half the people. a no brainer! and when i got on the train, the conductor looked at my ticket and told me that i could have a different compartment all to myself. sah-weeeet!! :)

arrived bucharest on time wednesday morning and heeding advice from the hostel regarding unscrupulous taxi drivers, i hopped on the bus. i was shocked to discover that bucharest is more like a latin american than a european city. i met a nice group of travelers at the hostel - 2 americans, 1 brit, and 2 australians - and wandered through the city with them on wednesday. we hit the palace of parliament, reportedly the 2nd largest administrative building in the world and egomaniacal self-tribute to nicola ceaucescu. he shanghaied the country's best builders and craftsmen as well as romania's natural resources to build it and all other activity in the country basically stopped. it was begun in 1984 and still only about 80% completed at the time of his execution in 1989. after the overthrow, romanians debated whether or not to continue with it because to many it represented some of the worst parts of ceaucescu's regime, but in the end they did i think because it also represented the best craftsmenship of the romanian people. today, over 15 years later, it is still only about 98% complete.

had a great dinner in the town that night and was again reminded heavily of latin america. the town has been declared a unesco heritage site and will likely be heavily restored soon, a la the baltic cities. i, however, quite liked it as it was, with real dogs roaming the streets, real people people squabbling, and real children playing soccer. for better or for worse, things will change here quite soon i think.

thursday afternoon, i hopped the overnight train to istanbul and hoped my luck would hold out and i would get a sleeper car all to myself again. unfortunately that was not the case; however fortunately, i shared with two very nice girls one of whom was from burnaby! the journey is a long one - more than 18 hours scheduled trip which was delayed another 3 so took over 21 hours - and there was no bar car. plus, there are 2 border crossings (romania/bulgaria and bulgaria/turkey) so 4 passport controls in the middle of the night as well as having to buy a visa at the turkish frontier so no chance for an uninterrupted sleep. luckily, i knew this and brought some snacks, as did my compartment mates so the time passed pleasantly if not particularly quickly.

arrived istanbul around 11:30am and my compartment mates helped get me in a taxi to my hotel and was there by noon. unfortunately, my room was not ready yet so had to hang around for an hour or so until i could check in and get cleaned up. my hotel in istanbul is without doubt the best deal yet: 36 euros per night including breakfast in a 4* hotel very close to all attractions in the sultanahmet district. met up with my friend sarp and he took me over the bridge to the beyoglu side and we had a nice lunch at a cafe beside the bosphorus and then went for some turkish coffees.

the following day, i hit the blue mosque and topkapi palace before heading over to sarp's house to hang by the pool for a bit. that night, we also went for dinner with a friend of his who also had a friend visiting her. we went to a great outdoor restaurant complex beside the bosphorus and had an incredible turkish dinner with all kinds of different dishes and, of course, plenty of raki, the local drink.

next morning, i went up for breakfast and met up with a very nice couple, robert & arleen, from toronto who i had met at breakfast the previous morning. we got chatting and i said that i thought i might go to the bazaar to see if i couldn't get a carpet. turns out that a very good friend of a friend is a carpet seller so robert took me to see him and i bought a very nice carpet! buying a carpet really is quite an experience, lots of sitting and chatting and drinking tea and having carpets brought out. it took about 5 hours i think.

later, i visited hagya sofya and had a guided tour with a very knowledgable guide named neshe. the tour was only of the main floor of hagya sofya but there were four people left after the tour ended who were interested in seeing the upper floor as well and neshe agreed to take us. we also got talking about carpets and she offered to take us to a carpet seller she knew. i had already bought my carpet so wasn't interested in getting another one but i was interested to see this carpet seller so went along and afterwards, wound up having dinner with neshe and another woman from the group, margaret, who is a history professor from florida specializing in the ottoman empire and in turkey researching a book.

we had a great dinner at a small local restaurant around the corner from the carpet seller and neshe offered to take us also to see the cistern the following morning if we were interested. margaret was interested but couldn't do it so i met neshe and although she tried to get some others to join (it is her job after all) it was just me. of course, i met neshe at 10am which gave me loads of time to visit the carpet seller, baki, beforehand and pick up 3 more carpets. ay carumba! my poor credit card!! but they really are beautiful and i am very pleased with them and can not wait to see them when i get home :)

the cistern was also an incredible sight, as are most things in istanbul. i didn't go into much detail about topkapi and blue mosque but they were both totally fascinating. there is a column in the cistern which has a hole in it and the saying is that if you put your thumb in the hole and turn your hand all the way around, it means you will come back to istanbul. of course, i did it! there is so much more i want to see but just did not have the time at present.

sarp came and met me afterwards and we had a nice lunch beside the sea of marmara (it is impossible to eat anywhere that is not beside water! ;) before he dropped me at the airport and i flew to the mediterranean resort town of olu deniz to meet my friend richard. i'm here now and there isn't much to do but sit in the sun, drink mojitos, and swim in the warm and incredibly blue and salty mediterranean sea. it really sucks - NOT!! :)


xoxoxoxo
bk :)

T+87: KRAKOW, BUDAPEST

arrived budapest this morning on the overnight train from krakow. my first overnight train experience! i was a little nervous because i had met someone earlier in the day yesterday who said "oooh, overnight train from krakow to budapest? be careful ..." and didn't really elaborate, but it was totally fine.

anyhoo, after warsaw, i went to krakow. krakow's old town is authentic having never suffered the destruction that warsaw did in wwII. i got in a little late friday so saved exploring for saturday morning. first off, i went to the tourist info office and booked a couple of tours, one for that morning to the salt mines just outside of town and the other for auschwitz the next day.

i had never heard of the wieleczka salt mines before but it seemed a big draw so why not? there are apparently some 200km of passages and over 2000 caverns of various size. the tourist route starts 64m below the surface and ends 135m below. not on the tour is a sanitorium (health spa) which is more than 200m below the surface. apparently the salty air is good for people who suffer from asthma and allergies. who knew!! the highlight of the tour is the chapel of st. kinga which is completely carved by miners. even the floor, which looks like shiny black tiles, is carved out. apparently they get about 4500 people per day through there so that salt really stands up to wear & tear!

on the tour, i met a nice english couple so we hung out in the afternoon and went to see some very good jazz at a few clubs in krakow in the evening. next morning, i confess that i was a little hungover (that polish beer!) which was not helped by the bus ride to auschwitz/birkenau. the road was long, bumpy and our driver got lost several times (?!? - don't you pay for a tour to avoid this?) and so we were almost 2 hours late. when we got there, he couldn't find our guide and we had to wait another 30 minutes or so. finally, we got our guide - who was excellent - and started the tour. i confess that it was too much for me. i couldn't take it and had to leave at one point. i recovered and rejoined the group when they went to the second portion of the tour to birkenau.

i knew auschwitz would be heavy going so i had booked myself another tour for that afternoon with a company called crazy guides who take you through the nowa huta district of krakow, a perfect soviet realist city and one of only 2 such places in the world, the other being in moscow. and they take you on the tour in a vintage trabant! unfortunately, the bus driver on the auschwitz was such an idiot, he got me back to my hotel almost 2 hours later than expected so instead of being about an hour early fro the crazy tour, i was 45 minutes late and missed it completely.

needless to say, i was quite pissed off. anyway, i had a nice dinner and headed for the night train. unfortunately, my bad luck wasn't over. i boarded the tram to the station but couldn't figure out how to get a ticket from the driver. before i could get one, i got nabbed by the krakow transit cops who dinged me for 175PLN - about $75!!!

well well, i made it on the train and it was fine and spent the day prowling around budapest. unfortunately, i'm only here for one night though. it's such a big city and there is so much to do. i wanted to hit one of the baths today but time just got away from me so didn't get there in time. oh well, i'll be in istanbul soon and where else to enjoy turkish baths but in turkey? walking tour of the city tomorrow morning and then overnight train to bucharest in the early evening.

T+83: RIGA & WARSAW

arrived warsaw yesterday afternoon from riga where my tour of the baltic states finished. it really was quite astonishing how different each of the 3 main baltic cities - tallin, vilnius, and riga - are from each other. tallin is medieval, vilnius is gothic and classical, and riga is jugendstil (art nouveau), mainly designed by russian architect mikhail eisenstein. by visiting the cities in that order, you really travel through the ages.

the old town of riga is still quite medieval but not so well preserved as tallinn, and there are a lot of soviet touches throughout which can be very disconcerting. it's when you move out of the old town and into the surrounding neighbourhoods that you are absolutely surrounded by the most amazing jugendstil architecture. i had a very hard time controlling myself with the camera. and keeping my mouth shut! i must say, flies really are not so tasty. blechh :(

one of the more interesting buildings i saw was home to the Janis Rozentals and Rudolfs Blaumanis Museum. yes, the outside is beautiful art nouveau, blah blah, but it was the interiors that i found so incredible. there is a winding staircase that goes up the centre and the walls and ceiling of the stairwell have amazing art nouveau frescos. unfortunately the actual museum was closed so i could not see the artist's salon where the latvian intelligentsia of the 20th century apparently thronged :(

from riga, i flew to warsaw where i am staying at a charming b&b near the citadel and just north of the old town (stare miasto). i took a tour today through the city and learned that pretty much the whole of the stare miasto had to be rebuilt after WWII. the nazis tried their best (worst?) to bomb it into complete oblivion so that there was no chance for rebuilding, but the poles proved them wrong, so much so that stare miasto is on the UNESCO world heritage list. although there were not enough building materials available after WWII to rebuild so apparently they wound up demolishing buildings in stettin to provide materials for warsaw, a fact which i found an interesting tidbit but the warsaw poles, it seems, are a little sheepish about ...

T+79: THE BALTICS

greetings, gentle reader, from somewhere on the road in lithuania enroute to riga. i'm almost finished my tour of the baltics and have enjoyed it tremendously.

my 'funky' bike tour of tallinn was very interesting. the tours (there is also a walking tour) are run by students who are very passionate about their country and the exciting time they are going through now. our guide, a young french-estonian called rene, was excellent. he took us thru a little of the old town and pointed out some of the expected tourist sights, but also added a few (i think) lesser-known tidbits. one of the more interesting sights, i thought, was a small part of the old wall with a door and a barred window which was a jail and more lately as a KGB detention (i.e. torture) cell. we also stopped at a church which is opened irregularly by a preist who will invite you in if he's in a good mood (watch out if he's not!) and sometimes do paper-making demonstrations. it is also home to tallinn's smallest window and has a small mail slot for:

the church of the blessed virgin with three hands. she is the protector of the innocent who have been wrongly convicted, deceived and sinned against. you can describe your problem and put a letter in the box. the priest will pray for settlement for your question.


we left the old town and wandered through some of the poorer areas of tallinn to a former-jail which is now an art gallery. it looked very interesting and i would have liked to go back. we also rode through a small park which rene said at one time had been a graveyard but the soviets did not want people to remember the dead so they bulldozed all the headstones away and it was forgotten until after estonia broke away and someone was going to build on the land and dug up some bones. when they were discovered, development stopped and the land was made into a park. rene said there are many such parks in tallinn.

next stop was a maritime museum which is home to the only estonian submarine, lembit. rene apparently also volunteers there and although it wasn't officially on the tour, said we could pay (15 eek - nothing) and he would take us thru, which of course we did. apparently the lembit had a sister submarine called kalev but that was unfortunately sunk.

after lembit, we went through a few more soviet-era neighbourhoods where rene told us a little about the hard life under soviet rule and arrived at our final tour destination, the crazy flea market near the train station. you can buy almost anything here and rene gave us a quest: he gave us each 5eek (nothing) to go forth and see what we could find. i hit a second-hand store with high hopes but nothing. fortunately, there was a booth not too far away where a man was selling soviet-era memorabilia. i asked him if there was anything he would sell me for 5 eek and he pulled out some pins. i got a fantastic babushka pin, but i couldn't stay away from the soviet stuff which was more. i got a couple of lenin pins which are terrific for 15eek each. while i was there, another guy from the tour (a canadian by way of armenia) horned in on my find. oh well. life is short. he got a great communist party member book, where you write in all your dues, etc. this guy had all kinds of great stuff like passports and uniforms - and for virtually nothing.

i also popped in later to pull a couple of pints at depeche mode. please note that i am flying the morrissey colours :) but as the tour didn't start until wednesday, i headed to the town of kuressare on the island of saareema for some sun, sand and spa first.






T+72 - SUN JUL 23: KURESSAARE
as i had to wait until wednesday to start, i went to the tourist info & asked them to recommend a good place to go for sun and sand and relaxation so they suggested kuressare on the island of saareemi. sounded good to me and they suggested a guest house right near the beach for only 300eek per night (about $27) so i took it. the cheapness here would help defray costs of the tour ...

in the morning, i went to the architecture museum in the old rottermani salt storage. it's not a very big museum and really only for those who have an interest in architecture, which i do so i enjoyed it. afterwards, i checked out of the hotel and headed for the bus station. the buses i had seen looked quite reasonable. of course, my bus was less than appetizing but the 4-hour tour thru the estonian countryside was nonetheless very pleasant and included a nice ferry ride.

the next day, i headed for the beach but also took a jacket with me as the clouds seemed to be massing in the distance. sure enough, by about 11am, the winds were picking up so i headed in to tour the castle. it is a fairly small affair, but it's been quite well restored and had a very interesting exhibit covering the war years and subsequent soviet occupation on saareema. these years were very hard on saareema and both the population and land suffered cruelly at the hands of both the nazis and the soviets.

the weather still had not cleared up by the time i finished so i headed over to spa row and booked a facial which was the only thing i could squeeze in because they were fully booked. unfortunately, the weather did not cooperate at all so i spent most of the day hanging around the very pleasant cafes of kuressaare.

tuesday morning dawned spectacularly so i spent the morning lazing at the beach and (finally) having a swim in the baltic. the baltic sea is unusually un-salty having initially been a large inland freshwater lake and only becoming a sea as the glaciers melted connecting it with the rest of the oceans. later, i headed over to the spa for a very relaxing (and cheap!) facial. the same facial would easily have cost me probably $85 in vancouver but here, $35!

wednesday i headed back to tallinn and joined up with my tour. i was going to check out some anarchist poetry and alt-rock at a student-type culturehouse but i was just too tired so crawled into bed and watched tv.

T+76 - THU JUL 27: SIGULDA, by way of TARTU & CESIS
the tour set off early and we drove to tartu, the second-largest town in estonia and home to the university. tartu is a charming town and like tallinn, has undergone a great restoration. our guide, ona, took us on a great tour and was very knowledgable about all sorts of people, places and events. after a quick lunch, i popped into a gallery and picked up a nice lithograph for mich and then we were off to cesis and sigulda, quite a long trip. along the way, ona periodially pointed out interesting sites and told stories of life in estonia and the baltics. we stopped briefly in cesis to see the church, etc and then on to sigulda.

the trip was quite long and as i had not had too much of a lunch (coffee & a pastry), i was quite hungry. i had originally thought to go to kaku maja which lonely planet categorized as 'artsy and modern' but then changed my mind and headed ot pilsmuiza serving traditional latvian fare and overlooking the castle ruins. i arrived just behind 3 of the germans with whom we were sharing the tourbus and as there was only one table available on the patio, invited myself to share it with them. there were only 8 tables and 2 waitresses who were rushing rushing rushing around and yet it still took forever to get some service. after about 30 minutes we ordered food, got beer and i ordered what sounded delicious: chicken with bacon in beer sauce. the reality was disappointing, although i do rather suspect that something was amiss in the kitchen and the 2 waitresses were having to do everything ... oh well, the company - sandra, andreas and wolfgang - was delightful and now i have tour guides if i decide to visit hamburg :)

the following morning got off to a rocky start: no water. at all. oh, that happens on the third floor when other people on the lower floors are using the water at the same time. riiiiight. anyway, finally got a trickle, brushed my teeth and headed down to breakfast. in the morning, we toured the ruins of nearby sigulda castle, had a brief jaunt to gutmani's cave in guaja valley park which is covered in carved graffiti going back hundreds of years, and over to turaida castle which also has a beautiiful sculpture garden.

arrived vilnius around 7-ish and headed off for dinner with alan & judith, the couple from birmingham. we went to a restaurant called tores recommended by the lonely planet guide and were not disappointed in the least. tores is in a bohemian quarter of vilnius and situated on a hillside overlooking a lush park with a panoramic view of the city. the food was quite nouvelle and very delicious so i went to bed with a happy tummy at last :)


saturday we did a city walking tour of vilnius. our guide for the trip, ona, was excellent. she is very knowledgable about the baltic states and especially lithuania and vilnius, her home town. in fact, there are information plaques in front of the major sites of vilnius which she wrote, although she said she had quite a hard time limiting herself to only 1000 plaques! after the tour was over, she also offered to take anyone who wanted to visit another church which is a particular favourite of hers. unfortunately, we had already seen so many that morning i just couldn't do another one so begged off and headed up to gediminas tower with alan and judith.

saturday is the day for weddings in vilnius and the city was crawling with
wedding parties everywhere. amazingly enough, no one minds if you tour a church while they are getting wed. in fact, it's almost like vegas because the wedding parties would go in to the church, the priest would say a few words, and then they would hurry out and the next party would come in. i kept looking for the 'take-a-number' machine. throughout the rest of the day, there were brides and grooms running around the city having photos taken. very festive!