I’m bound for Norway tomorrow…Did I mention I’m the worst packer ever 🙂
My boss is also travelling with me and it makes me realize I’m probably the worst traveller ever…She was going over important details about the trip that I wasn’t really concerned with :)…as is my normal travel procedure.
One of these days being too laid back will bite me in the ass, but it hasn’t happened yet 🙂
Back Saturday night…This page will probably be dark until then.
So I’ve uploaded some videos to YouTube…first 2 are from Croatia, 3rd one is Sarajevo and the last 4 are from the sailing trip to the Netherlands we took a couple years ago…
Danucci’s boat was much faster than ours 🙂
The weather here is great…it rained way too much in November and December, but since I’ve gotten back we’ve had about 1 rainy day!!! The days are getting longer (in case you hadn’t noticed) 😉 and it almost feels like spring.
My mom is checking my page about 10x a day, so I guess it can only mean she’s unemployed or something 😉 hi mom.
I finished another Murakami book! one of the best! I also figured out that pretty much the only girls who speak english here are from Eastern Europe…I shall be focusing all my attention on figuring out accents from now on 😉
I’ve used 3 smiley faces in 3 paragraphs…
I got Bergers photos from the first half of the trip…should be below. Berger took most of these (he may have passed me the camera for one or two)…I have lots more, but I’ll put them on the proper pages (links on the right side) this weekend or something…
I suppose I should review my ‘Balkans/Budapest trip a bit before I forget…in concise points
That’s all I can remember right now…Berger, did I miss anything?
As the subject says it’s a really nice day today. Must be about 16° and gorgeous. I’m loving this weather.
Last day to Budapest. My plan was for New Years and the 1st in Budapest then to Romania for a few days, but I just decided to stay in Budapest for a few days and relax since we had travelled so much the past few days…
Berger had to leave on the 1st, so I was alone the last few days. I do have to give Berger a medal for taking a VERY large bullet for the team on New Years eve 😉
Strangely, I met a couple girls who spoke German, but no English. My Deutsch came back in a hurry 😉
Train to Belgrade and just enough time to meet Zoya and have a drink or two before hitting the rails again the next day…
Next day catch a train to Sarajevo…Spent 2 nights there. Was OK…actually not so interesting, until the day we left when a tram driver got stabbed outside the train station…ummmm…yeah!
We asked at the station what happened and someone said it was just a fight, but on the train we asked our fellow travellers and they said it was a stabbing.
this is only funny cuz Sarajevo seemed to be the safest city we went to in the Balkans…
So I got up on the 26th, planning to take the bus to the station and hop on…Unfortunately after hanging out at the bus station for 20 minutes I realized the bus wasn’t running that day (or that morning) (expletive!). Walked to the bus station and arrive about 2 minutes after my planned train leaves (expletive!).
Go to the ticket counter for assistance, and she seems to give it to me. I pay her 28€ - which is about half of what the website showed. Cheers lady! You’ve been very helpful (take back on expletive!).
hang out for half an hour and catch the next train.
Text Berger to tell him I missed the train and we can either meet in Mestre (original plan) or just go to Trieste. He’s on time so will decide later.
About 6 hours later I get my ticket checked…dude informs me that I am not holding a ticket, but just a timetable (double expletive!). Telling me that I only have to pay for the ticket and no fine (“no fine. It’s Christmas. See, I am nice man”)…so I shell out another 18€ for what was the remainder of the trip.
Finally arrive in the evening and meet Berger in Trieste…It’s really cold.
He immediately informs me that he screwed up and our plan to leave in the morning to Zagreb is no longer valid. There is only a night train (more expletives!) and it arrives at 4:20 in the morning…(do’h)…so here’s lesson number 1…the timetables shown on the train websites are not always accurate.
We just hang out around the Trieste train station as we have about 4 hours to kill….it’s about 7pm. We go to a pub near the station and after sitting there for about 15 minutes we hear a loud noise and think nothing of it…about 2 minutes after that some dude staggers to the toilet with blood running down his face. Apparently he had just taken a bottle to the head…it’s 7:30pm and even though we’re still in Italy it’s starting to feel like eastern europe. Great! This is just the thing we’ve been warned about by friends for the last few days (Pete: “Keep a low profile” and “don’t step on any land mines”). There are only 6 people in the pub. Berger comes up with the genius idea that if we run into trouble we should just knife fight each other to distract whoever is giving us problems.
We eventually catch the night train and arrive on time…Step off the train and realize I haven’t felt cold like this in a very long time. I just started shaking after being outside for 10 seconds. The train station isn’t really open yet, but we can go in and there’s one room that’s semi-heated.
Stuff opens up at 5am so we didn’t have to wait long to get something to eat and drink. Our host is going to pick us up at about 8. We chill in the station and long for some sleep…
Andy picks us up on time and takes us home. Have some tea. Meet Poppy (his father in law) and then lay down for about a 4 hour nap.
Wake up with a headache and we all decide to catch a bus and go to the top of a mountain. Bus drivers in Croation are a bit crazy. Especially when driving up a snow covered mountain…but I guess he knew his chicken cuz we made it.
Walk around…take pics, have some gluhwein…then end up in the ski club restaurant…Andy knows the owner so he ends up sitting at our table for a few hours…When he finds out we’re going to Budapest he says (with thick Croation accent) “In Budapest anything is possible…heheheh…..ANYTHING…hehhehheh”. I assume he’s not talking about getting stabbed on the street…
We made friends with the staff…got lots of free food and drinks and then at the end we’re late for the bus and have to run to catch it…ummmmmm….never make the cripple run. My legs were sore for about 3 days after this. I would be creaking like an old man for the rest of the trip 😉
My favourite part of the run is when Berger decided to take a shortcut and run through the woods…I just saw some dark figure in the woods…wasn’t sure who it was until later.
After all that we went to meet Barbara (andy’s missus) at an Irish pub and then some late night food…was quite an eventful 24 hours.
Didn’t do much today. Kind of boring. Doesn’t really feel like a holiday.
Took care of more hostel bookings for the trip…
So it looks like 1 night in Trieste, IT
1 night in Zagreb, Croatia
2 nights in Sarejevo
1 night in Belgrade
2 nights in Budapest…from there I’m pretty open.
Am thinking of going to Brasov Romania (Translyvania) and/or Bucarest Romania…then find a stop for night somewhere between there and here before coming home…
if I don’t show up in a couple weeks will someone plese call the hospitals in Romania 😉
My boss mentioned today that I will probably be going to France for a business trip next February or March…I find that only about half the time someone mentions me going on a business trip it happens…but I have a good feeling on this…Haven’t been to France in a while.
So the trip is coming together nicely…Trieste for one night…Zagreb, Croatia 1 night…then some combination of Sarajevo, Belgrade and/or some other Random city before Budapest on the 31st and 1st…Then Berger leaves and I’m probably still going to Romania or some such Warsaw pact country… 🙂
Here’s the massive snowstorm of the year!!!
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