Bern, Switzerland

Arriving in Bern Switzerland I met up with my couchsurfers’ (from Zurich) cousins’ friend named Beat. A nice young man with good knowledge of the city. We waited at the train station during a downpour for our bus back to his apartment. We chatted for a bit and I was fortunate enough to write a bit on my blog. Once the rains subsided enough he took me for a tour of Bern. A beautiful city with a lot of history and gorgeous buildings. There were several funny statues around, including a pair of legs and a fountain with an ogre eating children.

While waiting in the Train Station I took a picture of their “Royal with Cheese”. Right after I took the picture a polite French speaking McDonald’s employee yelled at me.

One of my favorite signs

There were many great viewpoints along the way to the “Bear Gardens” an area where bears are kept for public display. Fortunately their original concrete prison was being renovated to be a much more pleasant living environment closer to the river. We stopped in at the resturant for a drink and headed home. Luckiliy for me he really enjoys cooking, and I was fortunate enough to eat another fantastic meal.

In the morning I headed for Zermatt, gateway to the Matterhorn.

Varna, Bulgaria

On my last night in Sofia my couch surfer took me to a good resturant where he had been before. The menu was Bulgarian with a little English. He made a mistake and ordered something a bit strange, “what is it” I said… “fried yellow cheese”. It was pretty funny seeing him eat cheese for dinner, so I of course gave him some of my meal which turned out to be some strange combination of meat and salad and french fries. Also the cheese they have in Bulgaria is either Cheese (meaning white cheese) or Yellow Cheese.

Fried Yellow Cheese

Train Station in Sofia

Creepy dimly lit underground area near the train station

After my visit in Sofia I hopped on an evening train to Varna, Bulgaria which is on the Black Sea coast. I slept on the overnight train and wandered around the city trying to follow my couch surfers directions, finally I found a taxi driver who was taking a Bulgarian, a Russian and an American (me) wherever we wanted at a reduced rate, the Russian girl helped figure out where it was that I wanted to go, which was great considering I had no clue as to where it was I needed to go.

Upon getting to wherever it was I needed to go, my couch surfer met me and we immediately went swimming in the Black Sea. It was beautiful, the Sea was very calm and the water was astoundingly clear! It was really nice. I saw a few small jelly fish a few bottom feeders and this strange fish that kept trying to follow me around it was very small and swam on the top of the water. Becasue it took an interest in me I didnt want any of it and kept trying to get away from or spash it away from me.

In the Black Sea

Fish that wouldnt leave me alone

After basking in the sun we headed to find some traditional Bulgarian food. I started off with a “Shopska Salad” not sure how its spelled, and this baked chicken and mushroom dish. It was fantastic. I also found some of the first dark beer I had seen in Europe. As we were talking about couch surfing two Australians called him about his couch which I had intended on sleeping on, up until a few hours earlier when I decided to take the night train out of Varna to Bucarest, Romania.

We met up with the Australians and walked around the city for a few hours and had a nice leasurely time strolling through Varna.

Next to a light house with St. Nick

PS the z and the y on this keyboard are switched making typing verz difficult, please ignore anz and all errors

Sofia, Bulgaria

Arriving late put a bad taste in my mouth for the city because unfortunately the night highlights the negative aspects of a city just right and as you all know, first impressions mean everything, even for a city. On my first real day here in the city, I wandered around trying to find cool things to look at. I of course tried really hard to avoid any museums or churches that required money.  Which by now most of you know that I am fairly good at it. I wandered to one of the grandest churches in the city, Alexander Nevsky Cathedral, and I saw St. Sofia Church, the Russian Church “St. Nikol” and I saw a government area which is the administrative headquarters for Bulgarias presidency, every hour on the hour the guards changed. I was very hungry walking around and wanted to find some food, unfortunately the alphabet here is Cyrillic which I of course do not understand, at first I was a bit worried that I was going to have to point to something in the middle of a menu and hope that it was good. But at a stand selling kebaps and burgers I met a man who spoke English, he gave me a hambuger type thing. There was a lot of stuff on it, and it was amazing! It was like a cross between a Burger, a Gyro and a Turkish Doner Kebap, there were french fries on it, taziki sauce, mayonnaise, meat, ketchup, more mayonnaise cucumber, chili powder/sauce not sure which, and some other stuff, it was amazing.

I walked back to my couch surfers apartment, which I found after wandering through some neighborhoods that looked a bit sketchy. I finally found the National Military Museum, which is next to his house. Its great, you can wake up and look out the window and see a Mig, or a tank looking at you, or trucks with rocket launchers on them.

After Simon returned home we went out for a bite at a local ale house, it was very clever in that they had poor spouts for the beer at each table with a meter that measures the amount you drink in liters, at first we thought it was measuring in money, so we were mislead and unfortunately did not enjoy the end result of that. The food was great! Fairly inexpensive but delicious. Later we took a crazy cab (the driver must have been from India, because he had a total disregard for the lanes) to a student area of the city where after a while we went “cosmo” bowling, it was a lot of fun, bowling in Bulgaria. After bowling we walked by another stand that sold the crazy burgers, I of course needed to get one of them and man was it good!

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

Its all Greek to me…

On my last day in Turkey I went from Izmir to Selcuk, to Ephesus, which was a beautiful ancient city, it was very nice…

I arrived on the island of Chios where I met a friendly American traveling around, we had a nice cheap dinner together, of course it was amazing Greek Slouvaki. I bought a ferry ticket to Athens and later that evening , after spending about 3 or 4 hours on the island I left. I bought a cheap ticket which doesnt really mean you have a seat. I bought a deck seat. Which are plastic chairs outside in the crisp Agean windy air, or I had the option of finding a hallway or unoccupied couch in a somewhat smoky hallway inside the ship to sleep on, which I was lucky enough to find one of these. However, the couch was too short and I woke up several times with a stiff neck or cramped legs and feet. I think the floor would have been better. So, after a terrible night of “rest” I arrived in the port of Athens at about 7:3o AM. From there I took a metro to the city center and hiked up to the Acroplolis to see the Parthenon and of course many other great sights. The experience was really cool, seeing and touching marble that had been constructed into something so beautiful so many centuries ago, it really was quite an experience seeing them.

Me on the ferry to Athens

I explored the city all day, finding things from centuries past, while I was on my way to Ancient Agora I stopped by a cafe and asked the guy if they had dolmathes, he said sure I can make you some. They were delicious. Although according to my couch surfer in Athens, he probably just got them from a can, which is okay because they were still fantastic! Unfortunately my couch surfer in Athens had to work late and was not able to meet me early, so I spent all day with my pack on looking at the monuments. I ran into an American who was speaking at a convention for nuclear physicists and we had a nice walk and talk and he showed me to the arena where the first olympics were held, it was beautiful and made of marble.

At one of the places I visited there was a museum inside the area you paid to get into. I pulled a Larry Schnell and walked in the exit of the museum, I realized later that you had to pay extra to get in. The museum was great!

The next day I went to the Acroplolis Museum, which was brand new. I went on the first day it was open to the general public. I got there fairly early too which was nice. The best thing about the museum was that it cost only 1 Euro to get in, because they were running a special promotion period for one year. The museum was amazing! Brand new, perfect everything it was great! They had 3 floors of stuff to see, and the first floor has a glass bottom, and you are walking over an archeological dig site, so there are ancient ruins below you and gorgeous marble statues inside the museum. They were everywhere. Oh, a quick note to all women who may potentially go to this museum… the second and third floors are glass as well and you see the first and second floors below you in some parts, so do yourself a favor and do not wear a skirt.

After visiting the museum I hopped on a bus to Trikala in the Meteora region of Greece. This area is where the monastaries are high atop the cliffs. It is a beautiful area. My couch surfer in Trikala works for a telecommunications company and is on call and was planning to go with me to hike around the monastaries, but he was called into work while we were driving up there. This was okay because he dropped me off and I hiked around fo a while. The monastaries were closed, but I got a lot of great pictures of them from the outside along the cliffs. I was expecting Mike (the Couch Surfer) to call me soon, but being that he works with computers and things of this nature, they can tend to be a bit time consuming, so no call. It was fine so I just kept walking. I could have stayed in the nice town by the mountains, but I decided to just keep walking. I figured that okay, it will be less farther he has to drive. About 3 towns and 11 miles later he called me and he found me walking along the road. He couldn’t believe how far I walked. After he picked me up, I was of course exhausted, and starving. We went back to his place for a quick shower and then headed out for dinner. He took me to a great cafe, where he of course took care of the ordering. We were two people sitting at two tables pushed together and 6 chairs, both tables were filled with food! It was amazing! It was one of the best meals I have had. It was great because there were so many differnt foods in front of me, and none of them were “mine” or “his” they were ours and so it was great, just great Im salavating just thinking about it .

The next morning he took me back up to the monastaries early enough so I could actually go in before they closed. They were beautiful. I went to Great Meteoria, it was amazing how they were able to build such a beautiful building on the top of a cliff. The inside had a few museums and displays, it was really cool. I think I pulled another Larry Schnell here, and got in for free. I saw no sign to pay, but when I went to another monastery they asked 2 euro to get in, unfortuantely it was not worth 2 euro.  I continued to walk around the area until Mike picked me up again from the top of one of the mountains. I decided to go with him to his next job. Like I said he is on call for a telecom company. He is a “maintenance guy” doing all sorts of things at the base stations at the top of mountains. So, we started driving to the middle of nowhere, and he even let me drive his car for a while, I certainly miss driving, nice car too. We started up a dirt and gravel road and kept going up until we were on the top of a mountain. Once we got to the base station there were a few wild dogs up at the top, 2 were fairly cute, and the other 2 not so much, once inside the gated area he said “hey go look over there in the corner” there was a dead cow rotting against the fence. It had likely fallen down part of the bank and broke its leg, after being unable to move for several days it likely died of starvation, the skin and “meat” surrounding its head was gone, and all that was left was the skull. It was pretty nasty looking.

I learned a bit more about telecommunications, which was really cool because it applied to what I studied at UNR, and I got to help him work on telecom equiptment on a mountain in Greece while the dead cow rotted away. The stench from the cow was terrible, the entire top of the mountain smelled terrible. Unfortunately the air conditioning vent in the equiptment room was taking in the awful smell and there was no escaping how awful it smelled. The dogs were busy tearing apart the cow, which opened up new pockets of abhorring stench. While working with computer equiptment in a tiny smelly room, obviously something is going to go wrong with the electronics and it did, forcing us to stay longer in the smelly room. Once we were done, we ran out of there and got in the car, while the dogs chased us down the mountain. Because the dogs were A.  Stray and B. eating a smelly cow they brought the stench with them. We were yelling at the dogs and driving fast down the dirt road hoping we could evade them and the stench but no such luck, at least for a while, when Mike got out and chased them with a squirt gun.

On the way down the mountain he called and ordered food at a small cafe he knew of in a small village. The food was ready when we arrived, and again we had fablious Greek food, a lot of food. It was amazing, the meat (beef was actually sheep and cow in a patty, among other things, the lamb chops were very fresh. Amazing food! The Greek salad is amazing too, very simple, but unlike the Greek salads served at resturants in America, I would say the closest thing to them is the one my mom makes . (and I aint just sayin that cuz shes my mom).

Falling asleep on the car ride home we got back well past midnight and I slept for a good 10 hours that night. Woke up had some Spanikopeta, and ran out the door and caught the train for Thessalonaki where I am now staying with another couch surfer. It is pouring rain and I just got back from seeing a play with his cousin and her friends. I couldn’t understand any of it, and like I said, “its all Greek to me”…

PS: my host is playing miserlou on his guitar right now…

Antalya, Turkey

I arrıved in Antalya Turkey at about 7:00am trying to figure out where to go and what to do. I found a bus to the city center where I began wanderıng around. A young man spotted that I was a tourıst and started tryıng to converse wıth me, and of course I naturally threw up my “ım not goıng to buy anythıng” block on. He was sellıng tıckets on a boat around the area to see several waterfalls ınto the sea, after havıng talked hım down ın prıce from 50 Euros to 20 Lyra I decıded to go along wıth ıt. The tour lasted about two hours and ıt went past some beautıful coastlıne. The rocks and clıffs were amazıng! There were several small waterfalls goıng ınto the ocean and at the end of the boat trıp there was one huge falls that was amazıng, also he drove the boat a ways ınto a “cave” type thıng, the rock formatıons there were wıld as well.

Later I walked around and found the maın beach and swam there quıte a bıt. I had a great tıme swımmıng ın the medıterranean sea for the fırst tıme. It was a bıt cold at fırst but all ın all warm. Later I started walkıng around the beach boardwalk area. There are many nıght clubs along the beach that play dance club musıc durıng the day. Makes everyone a bıt more energetıc and upbeat I thınk (no pun ıntended). I found myself sıttıng on a nıce park bench under a tree dozıng off a bıt. The last tıme I slept under a tree was ın Göreme on a bench ın the cıty center, when I woke up I had a bunch of tıny green bugs all over me. Thankfully ın Antalya thıs was not the case. Instead I was awoken by a woman handıng me an orange ıcee drınk. Beıng totally parched I drank ıt and accepted theır offer to sıt wıth them under a tent. They had ordered lunch and had me joın them for that. Next we sat and conversed quıte a bıt and then they even ordered dınner ın whıch I was theır guest. Turkısh food ıs amazıng! Also the hospıtalıty ıs quıte nıce as well. The two gırls wanted me to joın them later as well but I declıned as I had to meet up wıth my couch surfer.

I have found that Turkısh food great and many people can help fınd plaes and and locatıons. I have notıved how famılıes sı10 all. Further ınnext  Goreme whıle pıckıng berrıes wıth two New Zealander couch surfers we spotted chıldren who wanted some berrıes. When they realızed that we were bıgger you cancall us and move the decs I wısh we had those ın Europe. They wanted us to spın them around so for courese we dıd…

Tokyo!

By far the biggest city I have ever been to. Tokyo is amazingly huge! We rode the subway all over the city to see the kings palace, a shirne / temple for the god of thunder and god of wind, a huge market, and the times square of Tokyo, it looks just like the pictures from the NYC times square, except everything is in Japanese. Lights people and huge buildings. There are stores lining the streets and resturants everywhere.

For lunch we went into a Japanese fast food resturant, it took less than a minute to get a beef n rice bowl it was about 3.50, very cheap, and the food was excellent. People in resturants who are working there are very gentle and very nice, making sure you have the best customer service.

We also went to one o the tallest buildings in Tokyo and took pictures from the observation deck, we could see the entire city! We saw city in all directions for as far as the eye could see.

This morning I woke up and broke the screen door oops, its okay i fixed it.

It is raining today, which is very nice because it has been very hot here.

Pictures of Tokyo from the top of one of the tallest buildings in Tokyo.