We seem to have become pretty lax with the whole blogging thing lately. Each time we find ourselves uploading photos, the process becomes so long and painful that we don't have the energy to write a blog when we're done. So- today we are multitasking! Cam is in the process of sorting through the last 4 (of 27) CDs of photos, and I will write random thoughts on where we've been for the last, oh, month or so. And, rather than the painful blow by blow of our adventures, I'll save us all some trouble and try to update by "Coles Notes". And, let's all remember that the opinions expressed here are not necessarily those of all involved. Today you get the One Side Story.
Since we wrote last, we left Berlin and headed to Prague, which is a destination we've heard much about for a long time. Prague this, Prague that... Prague nothing, I say. It reminded us a lot of Disneyland's Main Street with rows of cute little buildings in every colour of the rainbow, all meticulously maintained, and the streets were just jammed full of people. It certainly was beautiful, but the hordes of people are a constant reminder that it was a destination to be visited about 10 years ago. From Prague we went to Budapest, Hungary, which turned out to be a real highlight for us. If Prague is John Lennon, then Budapest is George Harrison- all the good stuff, but none of the hype. If you get to see both, it is recommended, but if you can only see one, well, then, "isn't it a pity" ;) Hungary's history of occupation, first by the Nazis and then by the Soviets, is apparent throughout Budapest and makes for some very interesting sightseeing. On the outskirts of the city is Statue Park, where many of the communist statues that used to line the city streets are collected in a sort of political art statement. It's hard to believe when walking through the area just how recently that "history" really is.
As a special birthday present for Cam we treated ourselves to a 16 hour train ride from Budapest to Split, Croatia. The train was absolutely sweltering, and we were crammed into a cabin with four others, two of who had staring and body odor issues. We made it eventually to Split which wasn't quite what we'd hoped for, so we didn't stay long before taking a quick detour into Bosnia to Sarajevo. The bus ride there was amazing in itself- the countryside is absolutely gorgeous, but you pass through all these small towns where the buildings are riddled with bullet holes and shrapnel damage. Almost every person you see has lived through a war- the Yugoslavian attack on Bosnia happened from 1992 to 1995. Sarajevo (which hosted the winter Olympics in 1984) is a fantastic city and, considering that over 10,000 of its residents were killed in the war and 50 percent of the buildings suffered damage, you don't feel that at all. We took a tour of a some of the key areas of the city, including the Jewish Cemetery from where the first shot of the siege was fired, and a section of the 800m long tunnel that connected the surrounded area of Sarajevo with the "free territory" in the mountains where the people could get food and supplies (ie: weapons) to supplement what they were provided by the UN. It is interesting to hear their views on the aid they received, and are still receiving, from the UN.
After only a day in Sarajevo we headed back to Croatia to the medieval town of Dubrovnik which is a really cool town, but very crowded. We capitalized on early mornings before most of the people woke up, and siesta'd during the hottest part of the day, and enjoyed some swimming off one of the nearby islands. We also enjoyed having our room be directly over a pub on the evening that Croatia was eliminated in the World Cup by Australia.
Finally it was time to head to Italy! We caught a 7 hour ferry from Dubrovnik to a port town on the south east side of the boot. It took about 30 seconds of being on Italian soil before we witnessed our first handshaking, yelling, mama mia, confrontation. It's just how you would imagine it. We had our own confrontation about 2 minutes later when the taxi driver screwed us around one too many times and I jumped out of the moving (albeit slowly) car, opened the trunk and pulled our bags out. Then he tells me "You, I'm very angry with you." Seriously buddy? I couldn't care less. Don't jack me around. And so began our sordid relationship with Italians.
From Bari we caught a train to Naples, promptly fell asleep and missed our stop, and awoke to find ourselves en route to Rome. No problem; a quick change of plans, a bit of walking around, and we had a perfect hotel by 9am and were off to the Colosseum without missing a step. This is the amazing thing with travelling- you can have your plans go completely askew, find yourselves in a city you're not prepared for, with nowhere to stay, and you don't bat an eye. But- if you get served a flat Coke or cold fries at McDonalds, then God help the people around you... We use up all our "coping" energies on the big things, and sometimes there's nothing left...
In Rome we saw all the big name stars such as the Colosseum, the Vatican and St. Peter's Basilica, the Roman Forum, the Pantheon, the Trevi Fountain, etc etc etc. And, of course, the Sistine Chapel. This is where I first decided I like Michelangelo, and also where I decided to write a book on how to be the world's most annoying tourist. We had noticed that we happened to be in Rome over the last Sunday in the month, which also happens to be a "free day" at the Sistine Chapel. Since we're on world's tightest budget, we got up early to beat the crowds for a free visit, and ended up joining a queue that took 1.5 hours to get through. So much for beating the crowds... The problem was that the line up just continued on into the museums and the Chapel, so you were essentially in line the entire way through the narrow cramped hallways and passages through which they filter you en route to old Mikey's masterpiece. So, logically I would think that this would NOT be the opportune time to push a baby stroller BACKWARDS through the line. But, maybe it's just me.
On that note, if anybody is wondering, opportune places to stop and ponder life do NOT include: the entrances or exits to escalators, the entrances or exits to doors or stairwells, or the middle of busy sidewalks or metro tunnels.
Anyway, the Sistine Chapel really is quite amazing and since it's on the roof, the absolute swarm of people actually don't disturb your view, and if you ever get a chance to see it I recommend it. Michelangelo truly was a genius, and I'm still not convinced that everything actually is two dimensional...
So, on to Naples from where we visited Pompeii, and then onward and upward to Florence. More Michelangelo (David- you know him), and more churches, museums, and palaces. At this point the "museum walk" really started to wear on me. You know the walk- hands clasped behind the back, head tilted to one side, walking ever so slowly, swaying back and forth slightly, eyes continually focused on the walls, with absolutely no awareness of anybody around. That's the museum walk, and it drives me insane. I just want to scream "Come ON buddy! I know you're not that interested! You're just looking because you think you should. Speed it up!" But, I just keep it bottled inside, and release it on Cam when we get outside.
This is also the point where the budget was starting to hurt, and we were learning the joy of buying bulk. One of my most satisfying moments in Florence was finding a 1.5L Coke for 1.85 euro! Our eyes are trained for hunting out cheap Cokes- the most expensive we've found is 4 euro for a can- even without the conversion that hurts...
From Florence we headed northwest to coastal towns of the Cinque Terre- a string of 5 amazing little towns perched along cliffs on the ocean and connected by about 10 kms of hiking trails. We arrived at 8pm on a Saturday night to one of the towns and it took about 5 minutes to realize there was no hope of finding anywhere to stay that night. Fortunately our MEC wear attracted some fellow Canadians who showed us the way to their campsite a bit out of the area where we found a tent for the night, and where we watched Brazil be eliminated from the World Cup by France. We had to move the next day as our tent was reserved by someone else, but we found a great little room in one of the towns and enjoyed some real Italian flavour for a few days. If only they didn't charge 20 euro to get some shade at the beach, we could all enjoy the ocean.
We headed next to Venice for a quick visit- it's a really neat city that merits a day of just walking around and getting lost in the labyrinth of streets. We tried to visit the main church there, but the jerk Italians got age-ist on us and made me check my bag (as it was too large) while Grandpa Chuck in front of me carried in his camera bag that I could have crawled inside. When I asked why I had to check my tiny little day pack (which had everything of value we have, and I wasn't about to leave with the 16 year old coat check attendant) while Chucky (and a bunch of other non-young looking people) could take in his bag, I got escorted out, as did Cam, and then there was some yelling (them, at us, in Italian) and one guy who was clearly insulting Cam to his face, but in Italian. We tried to file a complaint with the police, but of course they don't speak English either. The night train out of the country to Paris could not have come soon enough...
And so- le Grand Paris! I have heard many bad things about Paris, but we had a great time there. It is a beautiful city- great for just walking around all day. The people are friendly, and most of them do speak English- despite what everyone seems to say. We saw the Arc de Triomphe, the Eiffel Tower, the Notre Dame and all its gargoyles, Jim Morrison's grave, the Louvre, and some naked dude standing outside the hotel where the recently defeated French soccer team was said to be staying.
The Louvre must be the biggest museum in the world. If you work at it all day, from opening to closing, you have .9 seconds to look at each individual object. Factor in the museum walk, and you don't have a hope of seeing it all. The Eiffel Tower, despite my early reservations, turned out to be pretty cool- especially when you get caught at the top during a thunder and lightning storm with a torrential downpour of rain. Not much of a view, but a better story! Jim Morrison's grave is reputedly one of the most visited sites in all of Paris- we were there along with about 30 others during only a 10 minute window on a random day, which is fairly indicative of the kind of traffic it must see. It's pretty unspectacular, but he shares the cemetery with a few other big names like Sarah Bernhardt, Chopin, and Oscar Wilde.
We have since left Paris and are in Tours- a small town in the Loire Valley. Tomorrow we are going to see the house where Da Vinci lived for his last 3 years, which apparently has some cool models of over 40 of his inventions! Then we catch what will likely be a brutal 16 hour bus ride to Madrid. Bon voyage France- we're getting out before the long weekend!
So, we have only 3 weeks left before we meet Cam's parents for a month in the UK, and then we head home. We hit the wall about 2 weeks ago, so it's probably pretty good that things are wrapping up. I've been wondering lately if "the wall" gets positioned based on the length of time from the beginning, or the length of time from the end... I think probably the latter- we have never thought more about home and all the comforts it brings us. While we are still having a wonderful time on the road, it's just a little harder to pack that bag each time, and we need everything to just be that much more spectacular for us to be interested.
Until next time...
Kristin and Cam.
