Vaduz, Liechtenstein

Taking a bus into the capital of one of the smallest countries in the world is an experience, it only takes a few minutes to drive across the country. The land was very green and mountainous. It looked as if I would enjoy it in the winter time, skiing along the ridges and slopes of the gorgeous range that plows through this small country. One of the interesting things to notice about this country is that it is ruled by a monarch who still lives in an old castle up on a hill.

(just a really colorful truck)

The country is known very well for skiing and banking, the areas that I saw certainly looked very affluent. In the heart of the capitol you can’t help but notice the strange statues and fountains that ornament the main drive.

(this was a fountain)

But the water was inside!

(I liked this one, it looks like a sink the water from it runs through the intersection into another part of the fountain.)

There was a beautiful church that I saw. Nice doors.

Another thing that they are known for is people sending post cards home with a stamp from Liechtenstein. I of course had to have this little novelty, so I sent one home.

After I ate my tuna out of a can on a park bench I headed out of that country towards Switzerland.

Salzburg, Austria

Because I have a Eurail pass I can basically jump on any train I want. I desperately needed to go to the bathroom and since almost all of the bathrooms require a fee, I decided “Hey, I can just use the one on the train!” So I jumped on a train headed from Graz to Salzburg. I arrived in Salzburg, after of course using the facilities on the train, and had only 2.5 hours to see the town. With my lonely planet book in hand I followed the streets to the heart of the old town. Briskly walking and taking photos of every interesting building along the way I finally reached my destination across the river, the heart of town. It had narrow cobble stoned streets lined with shops and tourists, several bustling squares and many areas with concentrated amounts of tourist food under the obligatory beer company umbrellas. Several streets were closed due to live performances. I saw a bit of a theatrical performance and heard a bit of another musical performance on a different street. Walking through the narrow streets you can’t help but hear classical music, namely Mozart. As this is his birth town. The town has a beautiful castle adorning one of the nearby hills, even though I was pressed for time, I decided to run up the countless stairs to the top of the monstrous hill and up through the castle for a glimpse of the beautiful city below. At the top I was exhausted, sweaty and panting taking as many pictures as I could of the castle in the darkening light and the views of the city with the river snaking through it. After only a few minutes of being up there, I ran down the hill and tried to make my way back through the hordes of tourists to the train station. I stopped briefly at a fountain that was marked “okay to drink” and took a giant gulp and continued with my near-run walking pace to be stopped by a crowd in the middle of the street watching a street performer, darting down another alleyway I avoided the bulk of the crowd and continued toward the train station. I made the train by the skin of my teeth, but I am certainly glad I went to Salzburg, it was one of the prettiest and most interesting places I have been, I wish I could have spent more time there. 2.5 hours just wasn’t enough.

Krakow, Poland

Amazing Ice Cream!

We got into Poland in the morning and walked around the town aimlessly for a bit because we didnt sleep much on the night train. But, all was well when we found Ice Cream!!! It was soft serve, but it was hands down the best soft serve Ice Cream I hav had! I got the small, pff look at that! They know how to dish it out in Poland!

We wandered through the old town, which was beautiful, there were a lot of birds…

Very pretty buildings and churches in the main square. We spend the majorityof the day walking around taking pictures and seeing the sights.

We kept walking around the old town and we went up to the castle and cathedral atop one of the nearby hills.

At the top of the castle

Courtyard

We wandered around the streets until we found some of the traditional food of Poland, it was very tasty.

We then met up with our couch surfers later in the evening. We actually got on the correct bus but the name of the stop we were supposed to get off at had been changed, and so we rode the bus all the way until the end of the line, and then tried to ask the bus driver about where the stop was. He was very nice and let us stay on the bus and he told us where to get off. Our surfer met us at the bus stop and we went almost directly to sleep once we walked back to the flat.

In the morning we met his wife an d talked with her for about 30 minutes, so all in all we saw our couch surfers for about an hour, maybe less. They were very nice and it was great to have a place to stay.

All in all a very nice day in Krakow

Bratislava, Slovakia

Getting off the train in Slovakia we are greeted by Michal Rajcan, one of my friends from UNR who is a native of Slovakia. It was nice to see yet again another familiar face so far away from home. He picked us up and we whisked into town where we had a fantastic meal near the Danube River.  I enjoyed some amazing food and one of the first dark beers I had seen in Europe. It was really good, almost “Amazing”, one could  say. From there we went walking around the old town of Bratislava at night. It was beautiful, they have very pretty buildings and a lot of colorful lights on some of them.

Apparently Bratislava, because of their cheap beer prices sees a lot of Brittish tourists who come for the weekend or their “Holiday” and stays a night or two, get trashed and wander around the streets at night being very disorderly and somewhat rude. I saw a few of them while I was there doing all of the above it was interesting to be told about it, and then seeing it a few minutes later.

Bratislava is quite interesting, they have several old communist style buildings around, many renovated old buildings, and 4 funny statues.There is one of just a guy standing “presenting” a building, another of a man leaning over a bench in the middle of town, another of “man at work” where a guy is coming up from the man hole in the ground, and one called Paparazi, where a guy is creeping around a corner, wearing a trenchcoat, hat and taking a picture of someone.

Man at Work

That evening we headed to an office building where we were sleeping for the night. Yeah, staying in an office building. At first I was a bit confused, but Michals mom works for the govt and they have an arrangement where people coming from one town to another can stay in these buildings, it was nice to sleep someplace for free

In the morning we went to the old castle in Devin. It was very old and crumbling which made it even cooler. On the way up to the castle there was an area that had very old and traditional Slovakian middle aged “stuff” one girl was dressed in animal skins, there were stocks, a small area for chickens, and one for sheep, and my personal favorite, chain mail and swords! Mike and I of course needed to try it on and take pictures.

Mike

Along the way up the castle Mike was trying his hand at being a tourguide, telling us how advanced the early Slovakians were

After Devin, we went back to the main town of Bratislava and saw the castle on the hill. It was very pretty, unfortunately it was under construction/ renovation and the entie place was covered up. But from up on the top we could see Austria on the other side of the river, all of Bratislava including their UFO bridge. We walked down to one of their biggest cathedrals and again through old town to see it by day. When passing souviner shops our friendly tourguide, Mike would ask “Want some crap?” Avoiding the crap, we hustled through Bratislava and headed to Banska Bystrica, his home town in the middle of Slovakia.

UFO Bridge

Along the drive we stopped at a small place which had traditional Slovakian food, Holy Cow it was soo Good! Sauerkraut Soup, Schnitzel, Sauerkraut, Potatoes, Chicken, and this drink called Kofla, it is a soda that tastes like Licorice, the food made me very happy.

Upside down building

Ljubljana, Slovenia

After exploring Rab for a few hours we headed back to Rijeka, and not long after arriving, we hoped on a train for Ljubljana, Slovenia. We got in to Slovenia very late, the town was fairly quiet until we reached the university. Once we were near others our age, we certainly saw people out and about late at night. Our hostel was nearby the campus, it was reasonably priced and included a breakfast. I was very excited about getting breakfast also, the rooms were surprisingly nice. That night it rained a lot, and the lightning was relientless, the sky would light up far more than I had ever seen in the Western U.S.

In the morning we set out to see as much of the capital as we could in the few hours we had to see it. Ljubljana is very pretty, the old town square is very nice and the buildings and architecture are gorgeous. They have an old castle on the hill, which we saw from afar, a bridge across the river in the center of town which is actually three bridges, ornate statues and fountains. It was a very pretty capital, which we saw in only a few hours, save the castle. We headed to the train station to go to Bratislava, Slovakia

Budapest, Hungary

Arriving from a night train to Budapest we started looking for our hostel, we walked from the train station to the hostel which was quite a walk, but as most everyone knows, I am very cheap and dont like to spend money on public transportation plus I just prefer walking, you can see more cool buildings that way. Speaking of cool buildings, Hungary has a lot of them, it seems that every time you turn a corner you will find a statue or a very ornate building with many statues on it, which makes Budapest superb for sightseeing. In addition it has several bridges over the Danube which at night light up and just turn the city ON. The whole of Budapest looks like a gem at night, the vibrant colors of the buildings and the lights reflecting off the water make it one of the prettiest cities to photograph.

Train Station

After arriving at the hostel, we set our bags down and headed to one of the famous bath houses nearby. It was amazing, we bought admission to the swimming pool and wave pool area, the wave pool area was outside and was the size of a normal wave pool but it had old statues surrounding the entire grounds, also there were statues peering into the pool, it was absolutely breathtaking stepping out of the locker room and seeing the detail surrounding a swimming pool. The pool on the inside was even more amazing. It was surrounded by columns and there was a second story balcony looking over the pool and an open glass ceiling. It was very relaxing to float on my back and look up at the beautiful blue sky while inside surrounded by decadent statues. After spending about 5 hours in the complex we cleaned up and walked around outside at night, walking along the river taking pictures every few feet of the bridges, the buildings the water etc. We arrived at a nice dinner restaurant that was about to close, but got in just in time to eat a delicious meal, they are known for their dishes with goose meat, which I of course needed to try, it was fantastic!

(Parliament)

The next morning we walked up a  nearby hill to the citadel it was quite a hike up to the top, but the views of the city were well worth it. We also walked to a nearby castle and explored the castle and the grounds of the national art museum, under the castle there is a labyrinth of passageways, we went in and explored a ways, it was very cool but unfortunately you could only go in so far before you had to pay, at which point we turned around. We explored the city a bit more and went back to the hostel to grab our bags and headed to the train station.

THE TRAIN STATION

The train station in Budapest is very nice on the outside just like all of the other buildings in Budapest, so we were very happy going in, and were just generally happy being in this city which is good. We bought a ticket to Beograd, Serbia, which they were having a special for which was great, so the ticket price was greatly reduced, awesome! We even found a place inside the train station that sold amazing gyros and raspberry fanta, the gyros were so good I decided to go back and get another one, and another one, and another one.

While we were eating and drinking we noticed that there were a plethora of young backpackers at this station, which was very unusual because typically I dont see too many others, and most of these people were Brittish and almost all of them were making “Beer Runs”, going to the grocery store down the street and coming back with armfuls of beer and other alcohol, we were wondering where the heck are these people going? We figured they wern’t going to Beograd.

When we got to our train platform we saw between 200-300 backpackers filling up the platform, ah crap! All these drunk backpackers were going to be on our train! This was a night train and we were looking forward to getting some sleep, we knew now that this was probably impossible. When the train arrived people just rushed the train like it was filled with gold. People were pushing and shoving people out of the way, pulling people off the train, and after one or two people from a group got on they would open the window and yell “we got a carrage!!!” following which we heard loud cheering from a small group. I knew this was not going to be pretty. Originally I thought, okay, we have tickets which ensures us a seat, no big deal we are in a civilized society they likely have these things worked out, HA! was I wrong. We got on the train and ended up in a hallway standing for most of the journey. All of the seats were taken, most people were sitting 2 to a seat, people were on the floor the cabins, and I was sitting in the hallway with my backpack and an unpleasant look on my face. There were people sitting and standing in the hallways of the entire length of the train. Sitting on the disgusting floor, thinking back to the reduced ticket price, HA Beograd Special, JERKS!

I ate 3 of these

So we sat next to a Canadian who was originally from Novi Sad Serbia, which apparently all these drunk people were going. There is a huge music festival there called EXIT several days of big name bands playing and 100,000 people from all over head to this concert in this small town. Hence the reduced fair on the train, and all the drunk people.

Throughout the night there were all these people walking over us trying to get to the bathroom and because they were drunk I dont think they understood that we were fairly upset with them plowing through us every 5 minutes, most all of them were Brittish so we heard ’scuse me, sorry love, sorry mate, etc. Although they kept calling me their mate, I certainly didnt feel like it, considering they were stepping on me and my stuff. It was very nerve-racking having the drunk people smoke a few windows down because the smell and the ashes would blow right into my area where I was sitting and attempting to relax. Later at the stop where the border police boarded to check passports two really drunk British guys were wandering around the train looking for old beer bottles and drinking what was left in them. It was really disgusting seeing them finish off other peoples backwashed beers. They were talking to each other about getting through the crowd of people in the hallway to get to their bags in a different train car to get their passports. We tried to tell them that they couldn’t get through the hoard of people in the hallway because there were already people standing there plus there were people waiting to get off at that stop (mostly older people). After we told them we couldn’t get through they said, “what? I can’t understand her” after several times trying to convey the message we were told the same thing, “what?” They decided to just plow through us anyway, they didnt get very far, just to the other side of me and then stopped. One of the guys was leaning out the window looking like he was going to ralf everywhere the other one was a bit more spastic and was talking a lot “this is so boring we’re just standing here, its just so boring, we need to get moooving” the other one a bit more reasonable retorted “no no no we cant go anywhere there are all these people in the way, lets just wait until they get off and then we can go” “no no, we need to get mooving this is so bloody boring, I can’t believe it” “what do you want me to do? there is an old bag in the way” “well just push the old bag out of the way, just step on her, we need to get mooving! I dont care, I’m going” and he crawled under him and then started falling on everyone and pushing people out of the way “scuze me, scuse me, sorry coming through” They plowed through everyone including the “old bag” they got off the train, and we didnt see them again. I suspect they got off the train, took a nap on the pavement and then woke up in Serbia at the station dazed and confused. Later after a few people got off we managed to squeeze into a cabin so we had a seat, two other Brits jumped in with us and one of their friends was singing and carrying on and was told to shut up by another guy… one thing led to another and they almost got into a fight, the two Brits inside the cabin with us were absolutely shocked at what their friend called the other guy. They were both British and speaking English, but we had no idea what they were saying. It all sounded like jumbled up English. So we are sitting there stunned that we couldn’t understand any of their insults. Later the two drunk Brits inside the cabin with us asked the serbian guy about Novi Sad, “Are there Rostels there” “Whats a Rostel?” Pronunciation of “Hostel” was a bit difficult for them. Later he asked where I was from I said “America” he replied “I can’t understand you.”

Later when all the drunks got off the train we acquired a cabin to sleep in for the hour and a half we had left on the train ride. On the floor of the cabin were all sorts of beer bottles, and every time the train would speed up or slow down or stop, they would go crashing from one side to another, startling us and waking us up. Later when i got up to go to the bathroom I had to walk through the rubbish that was left of the train, there was trash everywhere, all over the train, beer bottles, etc, in the bathroom someone took their poo and flung it on the walls and ceiling, yes thats right poo on the ceiling, it was so gross. It was the worst experience I have had on a train. But I got a good story out of it We arrived in Beograd utterly exhausted.

Beograd Special… HA! real special

Thessaloniki, Greece

I arrived in Thessaloniki late in the afternoon met my couch surfer and went back to his house, while he was studying his cousin and her two friends invited me to go with them to see a Greek play. I thought that was pretty cool because I think the Greeks invented Drama. The play I saw was called “The Lady” apparently it was about a band of robbers trying to steal a painting I think, but I am not 100% sure. I could not understand any of it, but it was fun to see a play in a different language. When we got out of the play it was raining really hard, it was crazy, the streets were overflowing in places and there were bits of loose trash flowing in the current down the streets. I was with  one of the girls who couldn’t get her arm brace wet due to an injury, so it was pretty difficult for us to keep it dry while everyone got soaked to the bone. The girls made spaghetti it was really good. While we were eating two girls from Iceland came to the house too. My couch surfer was hosting me and two girls from Iceland at the same time. It was really cool staying in a house full of people to talk with and learn about one anothers cultures. The next day we took a walk to the castle on the top of the hill and saw a beautiful view of the city and of the Gulf of Thessaloniki further down the road was an old city wall tha protected the city a long time ago, at one end there was a castle, in the middle was a rotunda with frescos depicting Jesus Christ and other religious symbols and at the very end near the sea was the beautiful White Tower which is not white. After relaxing at the waterfront for a while we walked to a great Greek resturant where we got a smorgasboard of food it was of course, amazing.

The next day I hoped on a train to Sofia, Bulgaria. I was really excited that I had an entire room to myself and that it was a non-smoking train. Then I realized that no one pays attention to the signs and it makes me very upset. Those of you who know me know that I cannot stand smoke/ing and it was coming right into my area so I had to put on a mask to try to give myself some decent air to breathe, which of course didn’t work as well as I wanted it to. I really wanted to go to the cabin next to mine and throw them off the train, but of course I refrained.

(not happy)

I arrived in Sofia at 11:30PM and I wasnt sure if it was Sofia or not, so I went out to ask someone, and there was no one on the train. It was dark in this seedy looking train station at midnight and I didn’t hear anyone get off the train, yet there was no sign of anyone and only a few people outside the train, not a trainload thou. I gathered my belongings and steped off the train into what felt like dozens of peering eyes, a big disgruntled man saw me and started to follow me into the train station I was walking toward what looked like a security guard just in case, but as I figured he was a cab driver following people around. I tried to call my couch surfer but for some reason I didn’t have the exit code right and couldn’t get ahold of him. Great, stuck in a train station at midnight and I can’t get ahold of my host while a bunch of seedy people lingerd about. Then I saw a man who looked clean cut and like he spoke English, he let me use his phone and my host said he would meet me at the station in 20 min. I told my new friend that my ride would be here in 20 min. We started talking a bit more as creepy guys came up to us asking if we needed a cab. He turned to me and said you really shouldn’t wait here. So we moved inside just as a lady was locking the doors. While inside we got kicked out because the train station was closing. So, outside on the freshly rained pavement my new friend told me that this area was really not safe for either of us, so we walked across the street to get away from who knows what. He was kind enough to wait with me until my ride arrived, relieved I got into a cab with him and headed home.

I hadn’t eaten in quite some time, so we walked to a 24 hour restaurant where I ordered a Bulgarian style pizza and my couch surfer ordered a salad, which was just a bowl of cut up tomatoes. It was pretty funny.

Bulgarian Pizza

I’m Alive!

After venomous Snakes, spiders, falling rocks jungle creatures, ancient burial grounds, haunted buildings, ancient castle ruins, razor sharp rocks, open tombs, windy narrow mountainous village roads on a bike, and blood I am happy I am alive!

Today I rode a bike across the island to the other side. I took one of the wrong roads, which ended up being a curvy road winding up through a mountainous village. On the other side of the island my destination were the castle ruins, it was a beautiful old ruins area of a once gigantic castle and compound.

So, after exploring the castle, I headed to an old abandon hotel construction site, rumor has it, that it was built on an ancient burial ground, workers started loosing their lives quite frequently. Because of this no one wanted to work there and finish building the site became empty. Now it is said to be haunted Walking through it was very freaky, being in an unfinished hotel that is haunted.

It reminds me a bit of the cyanide mill in Virginia City, NV

Once it got too dark in the building I decided to go outside, I started taking a road that turned into a path in the Jungle, I kept going and I saw these beautiful butterflies, 4 times as big as the ones in the states.

I kept walking along realizing that I was in fact in a real Jungle, not a forest like I a used to. Unfortunately there are poisonous snakes, and spiders, with venom that not only immobilizes, but eats through flesh.

Continuing on my journey into this hazardous land I come across several tombs. Then I see one that is open, I decided to get a little closer so I could take pictures of it. However, I couldn’t get too close because there was a fairly big spider in the way. I decided I would jump off of a rock and land in the center of the area surrounding the tomb. I felt like Indiana Jones, I had a sling satchel, there was an ancient tomb whose door had been broken in to, I jumped over a spider but the area I was standing on collapsed out from under my feet. I landed safely in the middle and tried to take a few more pictures before the bugs in the area devoured me.

After that little adventure, I headed back down toward the castle remains, it was beautiful, you could see from one side of the island to another, and the views of the Pacific were astounding.I next headed to a well for the castle…

After getting back to the gate house where I left the bike, I ate my sandwich and took advantage of the fact that everywhere in Japan has a vending machine, I had some Pocari Sweat, which is like an electrolyte replenishment drink, similar to Gatorade but different at dinner.

I then rode my bike back to Rons house, I was traveling at about 30 mph going down a steep hill. When I arrived, I left almost immediately with some of their friends to go rock climbing, and bouldering. We went to an island and off the coast we started to climb on some of the razor sharp rock/coral. One of the guys I was with was climbing upside down and the rock he was holding on to came out and hit the other guy in the head, blood everywhere.

This was an amazingly gorgeous place to go climb around at.

The guys I was with both climbed out on this overhang as far as they could and then decided that a nice dip in the ocean would suit them best…

Here is a picture of me trying to boulder around this rock.

After a day of Jungles, Ancient places, and rock climbing, we saw Terminator on the military base, fairly good movie.

But after all of that I am happy to be done with my 20 mile bike ride, and I am happy to be alive!