Croatia

As I sit on the floor, alone, in a flat in London, I am realizing the significance of the past five weeks. I traveled alone, but I was never alone. I think in backpacker traveling you have to either try pretty hard, or be an asshole if you want to be alone. I instead met wonderful people from around the world to share my experiences with. My days and nights were packed with newness and excitement, so much of it that two days ago felt like a year ago, yet I still can't believe how quickly the time has passed.

But this blog is not meant to be an insight into the psyche of a backpacker. This entry is to tell you about my time in Split, Croatia!

Emma and I traveled together from Vienna to Split. We had to take one 6 hour day train that left at 4pm, and a 6 hour night train that arrived in Split at 7:15am. God I hate night trains. We even spent 22 euros extra for a sleeper car, but I felt like I was in a coffin. I was on the top of a three story bunk with the ceiling 2 feet from my face. I suppose it is better than sitting straight up afraid your bags will be stolen during the night though.

We arrived in Split on the 4th of July. We stayed at a small little hostel, and I told everyone before leaving for the beach that day that there was going to be a 4th of July party on the roof at 8pm. Emma is so sweet, she was just as excited about throwing a party for this American holiday as I was, even though she is Swedish. That evening we cooked hamburgers, corn on the cob and ate watermelon. People asked if they should bring anything, and I told them beer, because 4th of July celebrations always have a lot of beer. Those Europeans/Aussies came through that night. I think we ended up with about 15 2 liter bottles of beer (yes, they sell beer in 2 liter bottles in Croatia). It was a tremendous success, and people at the hostel talked about the celebration for days to come. I was the only American there, and I think that is the first time that has happened to me on the trip. It was nice to be the only one, especially on America day.

The next day I went biking with two Swedish boys. I think the Swedes are my new favorite nationality. Sorry Irish.... I've met quite a few Swedes this trip, and every one of them is kind, down to Earth, friendly and just lovely. I recall being in a group of 5 or so Swedes, and instead of talking Swedish, they spoke in English purely for my sake. Anyway, we went biking through Park Forest Marjan. It is a park on a peninsula on the west side of Split. It isn't very big, but it had nice beaches and mountains. It actually reminded me a lot of Big Sur in California. Half way in the Swedes made me ride up a hill for a long time. That sucked, but I suppose it is worth is when you reach the top and see the view.

The next day Emma, two Spaniards a Canadian guy and myself all took the ferry over to the Island of Broc. Broc is known for the beach of Bol, supposedly the most beautiful beach in Croatia. So we bought tickets, were walking to the ferry, and it pulled out right as we were walking up!! Ok, so we go to the beach and kill an hour and a half waiting for the next one. We finally made it and got over to Broc. We were immediately bombarded with asshole taxi drivers trying to rip us off to drive us to the beach. We actually ended up renting our own car, which ended up being cheaper than had we taken a taxi or even rode the bus! It was even a convertible! So we drive to Bol and lay on the beach some more. I get even more sunburned...

The sun here is so hot, and bright, and burning. It doesn't matter how much sun screen I apply, I think much of my time in Croatia was spent trying to outsmart the sun. The Spaniards told me to get burned one day and then I am brown the next, but I don't think that applies to people as white as myself. That night we had a really good dinner and I somehow ended up at a really shitty club at 2am wanting to shoot myself.

The next day Emma and I spent at the beach. Then in the evening we met up with some of our hostel friends and cooked dinner. It was nice, we all did a cheers to eachother. We had Sweden, England, Spain, Canada, and America represented at that table. I don't know, it's weird, but I know that I am not the only one with this opinion. With this style of traveling, 50% of the joy comes from seeing a new and exciting country, and the other 50% comes from meeting interesting people from all over the world. I mean, it would be great to meet locals too...but it's a little bit more difficult to do that when they are in real life, not on holiday.

I caught a flight this morning from Split to London....quite a long day of travel actually. I think the public transportation to get from London Luton airport to Drew and Amy's flat took longer than the actual flight across the continent. I'm sad to have left the East side, but I know I'll be back.

The Eastern European chapter of my trip has come to a close. Now I revisit normalcy in London at Drew and Amy's for two nights, before heading over to Ireland, the last stop on my trip.

Vienna

Vienna...old world meets the new world.

As I got off the train from Budapest to Vienna, I was instantly hit by the feeling of not being in a post-soviet country anymore. There were stores, chain stores, lots of chain stores. People dress in alternative styles here and are willing to start conversations on the street. Things look newer, and not everybody is white.

As someone just traveling through, I kinda miss the feeling of being in a country of the former Soviet Union, it has a feeling of otherness to it. A different feeling from that of Latin America or Asia, something solely itś own. The former soviet union is also cheaper, much cheaper. Ex-communists havent quite figured out how to profit off of every.single.little.thing...like Austria has.

Vienna is great in itś own way though. When I talk about the stores, on the way to the old city of Vienna, you walk though a very long avenue of shops, nice shops. Capitalism is bustling in the city of Vienna. They have Forever 21, H&M, perfume shops, makeup shops, everything shops. But when you reach the end of the avenue, you reach a big black gate where you enter the old city, and when you walk inside it transports you into 18th century Vienna. Vienna wasnt badly damaged during WWII. The theory is that because Stalin went to school in Vienna, he established ties with politicians here and fell in love with the city. This kept him from allowing the soldiers to do much damage during the liberation of the city from the Nazis. Austria continued to be occupied for 10 years after the end of WWII, but never made it part of the Soviet Union, because of the political ties. This explains why Austria is so much more modern than the previous countries I have visited.

Honestly, upon my arrival in Vienna, I was beat. I was exhausted, and Vienna has been more of a place to recharge my batteries than anything else. I havent been busy every second of the day like I had been for the past month. This is not to say that I havent done anything though. I did a walking tour of the city, which was sub-par to the free walking tours that I took in the other cities. I went to the Catacomb tombs under the St. Stephens church and saw lots of bones from people who died during the black plague. I had to go inside the church to take the tour, and I am not much of a church/cathedral person, I could take it or leave it, but the inside of this one was stunning. I also visited the Albertina art museum where I saw original Monetś and Picassoś.

An amazing thing happened my second day here. I opened up the door to the dorm I was staying in, and there was Bee! I met her in Budapest and we went to the thermal baths together. I texted Emma the Swed to tell her what happened, and she decided to come down the next day! So when Emma arrived, the next day all of us, plus two new girls, Sarah from New Zealand, and Sophie from Connecticut all went to the Danube River Valley. We took a train an hour outside of town and explored the beautiful mid-evil city of Melk for a bit. We then took a bus to the town of Spitz which is known for itś wine tasting. We went to about three different wineries and tasted. All of the tastings are free, and buying a bottle is quite cheap, about 6 euros. The country side is much cheaper than Vienna. One woman had had the winery in her family since the 1700ś. She was self-conscious about her English, but I thought she did just fine.

It was great having a girls day out. Honestly, some of the men I have met traveling so far need a good punch in the mouth. For instance, there was a guy I met who was travelling from Texas. At first I was impressed that someone from Texas was outside of Texas....but then the things he started saying to the Europeans in the group!!!! He just kept being the American stereo-type talking about shooting guns and his gas gussling SUV (his words). I ended up telling somewhat jokingly, but seriously at the same time that he was giving Americanś a bad name, and he is a representative for his country! Americanś already have a bad enough reputation world wide, we dont need this douche adding to it.

But all in all Vienna has been nice. I do stick to my guns and vote Prague as the most beautiful city over Vienna and Budapest. Prague has itś own kind of beauty that I dont think these cities can match. I guess that may be why Prague is constantly over-run with Tourists.

I am catching a night train today leaving at 4pm. Emma and I are going down to Croatia, and we will be celebrating the 4th of July there! Maybe I can track down some fireworks somewhere.