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Castles, crowds, and islands Hello All and Greetings from Ljubljana (bet you can't pronounce that one), The last you heard, this disgruntled backpacker was fleeing the touts, monsoons, and cold showers of Southeast Asia. Now, the cold showers remain, but I've successfully evaded the tuk-tuk drivers and torrential rains, and am currently staying in a luxurious prison - but more on that later. As a warning, I promised only one short mass email, and you've already received that one, so sit back in your favorite caffe-bar, sip a pivo, ignore the rude Slavic waiter, and enjoy. My goal for Europe was to avoid the crowds and prices of Western Europe, to see Prague and Budapest which I had heard are fantastic, and to play the rest by ear. I arrived in Prague, tired and jetlagged but very excited to see European castles, medieval buildings, and a cool backpacker scene. Prague delivered on the first two, and I could certainly visualize Cinderella, the seven dwarves, and tens of other fairy tale denizens marching their way up the stone streets to the glowing castle. The computer nerd in me could also visualize leading a pack of knights against a horde of Warcraft II ogres, clashing swords in between the rows of medieval houses. However, the social scene in Prague left something to be desired. As all central accomodation was expensive or fully booked, I stayed in a small hostel a short distance outside the city center, and was the only English-speaking guest. I was also quite surprised that the vast majority of shopowners spoke no English, as even small towns in Laos were full of mediocre English speakers. Prague was full of droves of package tourists piling in and out of buses, as well as hordes of bachelor parties drunkenly wandering between strip clubs. I spent the majority of my time in Prague lost on winding cobblestone streets, which was actually pretty cool, except when I was trying to get somewhere. The architecture definitely made Prague worthwhile, but the people left a bad taste in my mouth. In my judgement (and I expect to hear cries of protest over this), Prague is a classic example of a great city ruined by tourism. Having been generally disappointed by Prague, and having started with similar expectations for Budapest, I assumed Eastern Europe's second most popular tourist city probably would have suffered the same fate. I had also decided at this point that I would either travel northeast to Poland and Estonia or southeast to Slovenia and Croatia. Sweden was also an option, but quickly discarded due to high costs. Krakow, Tallinn, and the northern lights were big draws, but I had no desire to see anything directly related to death, and it seemed like an awful waste to visit Krakow and not see Auschwitz. (Another trip.) As a tangent, it is amazing to see how one of the major tourist attractions of almost every country is about death - killing fields of Cambodia, bombed fields of Laos, Jewish cemetery of Prague, Auschwitz in Poland, war museum in Croatia, etc - I suppose this is a reflection of human nature/history. Anyway, I ended up choosing Slovenia and Croatia based on reviews from friends and written sources. Ready to skip Budapest and fly straight to Dubrovnik, I was kicked out of the hostel on Saturday morning because I hadn't given them notice I wanted an extra day to figure out my plans. Not a problem, I trooped into town to buy my plane ticket, but every single shop was closed. At this point, it turned out the cheapest and fastest way to get to Dubrovnik was to train to Budapest, and fly from there. So eight hours later, I ended up on the overnight train to Budapest, with no intention of staying beyond Monday morning. I figured this was good, as I would probably be disappointed but satisfy my curiosity and not have to wonder if I missed anything special in Budapest. And boy was I wrong! Budapest was great, and I quickly fell in love with the city. I met a fun group of Americans at the train station, and ended up spending the next four days with them. We stayed at a hostel promoted by a lying tout, but it was almost okay because she was really cute. Actually, it was good since I had called a day ahead and they had been full. Budapest has almost as cool architecture as Prague, but is actually a planned city and therefore impossible for anyone except me to get lost. Highlights included Turkish baths where nobody spoke English and tons of bare-assed old men hanging out, saving $3 with my Thai-bought journalist ID at a museum with very cool sculptures, hiding from sudden onpours of rain in window indents from the sidewalk, and of course another great castle. Overall, Budapest just had a great atmosphere to it, and I was sorry to leave. Dubrovnik was gorgeous. Simply the most beautiful city I have ever seen, complete with marble streets, medieval architecture, and massive city walls, on a hill overlooking the incredibly clear Adriatic Sea. Yet its beauty was almost matched by the unfriendliness of the locals. They were rude. And mean. Shopowners refused to answer questions in English, then spoke perfectly to collect their money. Locals refused to acknowledge tourists, except when money was involved, and I was kicked out of a caffe-bar for not ordering a drink while eating a sandwich from what appeared to be an attached shop. I was also harassed for going the wrong way around the city walls, when I in fact wasn't. I felt like the city was best summarized by the presence of an ice cream shop and postcard shops on top of the city walls exploiting tourists. It was also quite entertaining to sit at the bus stop and watch the local vultures descend on unsuspecting travellers, in a hypercompetitive bid to sell private accomodation. Dubrovnik fell squarely into the category of Praguified cities. It didn't help that my host was a terrible scooter driver, and I fell off (but was padded by my backpack) on the way to his guest house, and on the way down to the bus station as I was leaving he managed to scrape several holes in my sleeping bag case. Random fact of the day: US 50 dollar bills are not durable enough to survive six months of intense hiking inside of a shoe. The bus drive to Split was beautiful, but in typical post- communist goon fashion, I was harassed for switching seats on an almost empty bus. Split looked like a cool portside city, but short on time I went straight to Hvar Island. This was probably one of the highlights of my trip, and one of the most friendly towns I've been in outside of New Zealand. I met a ton of fellow travelers as well as a few locals, explored the fortress, drank an amazing $10 pina colada, and actually was able to relax for a couple days. But the real highlight was scuba diving in the crystal clear Adriatic - cave diving was an amazing experience, even though I struggled to avoid bouncing off the walls, and approaching the wooden shell of a wrecked trading vessel now host to a coral colony was truly surreal. Like Budapest, it was very difficult to leave Hvar. I stopped in Plitvice for a day, and was immediately amazed by the clean alpine air. The hundred or so lakes were beautiful, and as the saying goes, if a picture is worth a thousand words, the 250 photos I took there are worth one hell of a lot of words. Luckily for you, I've chosen just a few to share: http://share.shutterfly.com/osi.jsp?i=EeBMnLhq0aNWHx I also visited the Postojna Caves, the world's premier underground destination complete with trams, lighting, tour guides, and enough crowds to make a Disneyland addict feel right at home. In the mayhem of a few thousand sheep (I mean tourists) being flocked around the entrance cavern, I managed to not find the English group, and was able to achieve a peaceful tour alone between the French and German groups. (See pictures in above album.) I spent today exploring Bled, an alpine lake with gorgeous views and a magnificent castle on a rocky outcropping. I also managed to be the only traveler alive able to get lost searching for a giant castle directly above me, but found a couple secret back entrances. I briefly contemplated trying to scale the walls, but figured the original designers might have built the castle with that in mind. Eventually I found the completely obvious main entrance on a road, felt cheated at having walked up the substantial hill, and was rewarded by sweeping views of the valley below. I'm in Ljubljana now, and staying in a former Yugoslav army barracks prison that's been converted into a hostel. Incidentally, it appears they kept the original staff, and I waited with 2 other travelers for an hour in the middle of the night for the receptionist to have a cigarette break in order to prepare himself for another half hour of insulting travelers before giving us keys to a room. The cells were full unfortunately, so we had to take one of the original staff rooms instead. After three days in the country, Slovenia seems like a mini-New Zealand with all the backpacker community adrenaline sports (but not in season yet) and beautiful scenery, but of course not quite the friendly atmosphere of Paradise (as New Zealand will be referred to from this point forward), and instead castles. On June 23, I will be flying to London, visiting family in Washington DC on June 25, and returning to California on June 28. Anyone in London should feel encouraged to get in touch quickly, as I'd love to see you all. It's been great to get back on the backpacker trail and have a chance to finish my trip. Overall, the last six months have been amazing, and aside from the typical "all I need is one more week" syndrome, I feel ready to return to the comforts and connections of home. Of course my mom's recent passing has had a major impact on the last 2 months, and the modified last month of my trip has allowed me to finish my trip much more closely to how I envisioned it originally. I'll catch up on photos when I get home, and expect to write one more tome. Otherwise, thank you all for a wonderful trip, and I look forward to seeing many of you back in the US.
Regards, |