My European adventures may be over, but I plan to keep this going for a bit. Still to come: A hiking trip to Cuyamaca mountains in eastern San Diego County and a surf trip to Scorpion Bay in Baja.
After that, I plan on blogging about grad school (by request), either at this location or another, but I'll post details later.
Monday, August 18, 2008
Breaking the Bank - London
As if I didn't spend enough money on my haphazard trip to Ludlow, London turned out to be the most expensive part of my trip, and it was only 2 days!
Happily, I managed to get a youth rail card in Ludlow, so the train ride down was only about 20£ (if you click the link, note that I left England on the 1st of August, and look when the dollar starts surging... coincidence?). Tickets for the underground cost more money, and then we got to the hostel and it turned out to cost twice what I had expected; The cost I was thinking was per person, not total :-(.
Despite the fact that our train was an hour late, we got there pretty early and weren't able to check in right away, so we grabbed lunch at a local pub... probably my cheapest meal there. After that, we were able to check in, and headed down to one of London's many parks to wile away the afternoon.
That night we grabbed dinner at a pub with Kate's boyfriend Ben, his brother, and a random US Airforce pilot on his way back from delivering an F-16 to Pakistan.
The next day we saw several typical touristy London sights such as Tower Bridge, The Tower of London, Big Ben/Parliament, and Buckingham Palace.
We also got to go to the Natural History Museum, where they give Darwin the respect he deserves, unlike the clowns in this country.
We finished off the London experience by catching a production of Les Miserables.
The next morning I caught a ridiculously early flight home to LAX via Dublin. The lay-over was about 3 hours, so I figured I had plenty of time... I was wrong. US customs and Immigration has a station at that air-port which is remarkably inefficient. It took about 2 1/2 hours to clear, and I had to run to another plane.
Thus concludes my European adventures.
Happily, I managed to get a youth rail card in Ludlow, so the train ride down was only about 20£ (if you click the link, note that I left England on the 1st of August, and look when the dollar starts surging... coincidence?). Tickets for the underground cost more money, and then we got to the hostel and it turned out to cost twice what I had expected; The cost I was thinking was per person, not total :-(.
Despite the fact that our train was an hour late, we got there pretty early and weren't able to check in right away, so we grabbed lunch at a local pub... probably my cheapest meal there. After that, we were able to check in, and headed down to one of London's many parks to wile away the afternoon.
That night we grabbed dinner at a pub with Kate's boyfriend Ben, his brother, and a random US Airforce pilot on his way back from delivering an F-16 to Pakistan.
The next day we saw several typical touristy London sights such as Tower Bridge, The Tower of London, Big Ben/Parliament, and Buckingham Palace.
We also got to go to the Natural History Museum, where they give Darwin the respect he deserves, unlike the clowns in this country.
We finished off the London experience by catching a production of Les Miserables.
The next morning I caught a ridiculously early flight home to LAX via Dublin. The lay-over was about 3 hours, so I figured I had plenty of time... I was wrong. US customs and Immigration has a station at that air-port which is remarkably inefficient. It took about 2 1/2 hours to clear, and I had to run to another plane.
Thus concludes my European adventures.
Sunday, August 10, 2008
Ludlow
My flight from Istanbul landed in London at 7:45pm, and I had to sprint to catch the last train of the night up to Hereford, the nearest station available to Ludlow where my friend Kate lives. I was scheduled to arrive at 1:20am, but I guess no one thought it necessary to tell me that I was supposed to change at Newport station. Consequently, I spent the night on a bench at Cardiff station. They normally close the station after the last train (around midnight), but the station manager was really cool, telling me "as long as you're sober and respectable" that I could stay there to wait for the 5:10am train to Ludlow. On the bright side, I got to see Wales.
Kate showed me around her quaint little town, the highlight of which was climbing all over the walls of the ruins of the keep (sorry mom... Kate tried to stop me).
I also got to try real fish and chips, and had a ridiculous amount of English tea (with milk!). Kate's parents were very gracious hosts, and we got a chance to talk politics (people in Europe generally seem to hate Bush... go figure).
We finished off the last night in Ludlow with a few pints from the Church.
The next day we caught an early train to London...
Kate showed me around her quaint little town, the highlight of which was climbing all over the walls of the ruins of the keep (sorry mom... Kate tried to stop me).
I also got to try real fish and chips, and had a ridiculous amount of English tea (with milk!). Kate's parents were very gracious hosts, and we got a chance to talk politics (people in Europe generally seem to hate Bush... go figure).
We finished off the last night in Ludlow with a few pints from the Church.
The next day we caught an early train to London...
Istanbul (was Constantinople)
Every gal in Constantinople
Lives in Istanbul not Constantinople
So if you've a date in Constantinople
She'll be waiting in Istanbul
(forgive me if this is a bad link, I can't actually look at it since youtube is banned in Turkey)
I was up at 4am to get to the Dubrovnik airport by 5, so that I could catch a flight to Zagreb (1 hour) and then wait in the airport for 7 hours to take the flight to Istanbul. I was a bit apprehensive about this leg of the journey, not knowing how I, as an American tourist would be perceived, especially considering an American Consulate building had been bombed less than a month ago. However, since arriving I have not had any reason to worry. Everyone is extremely friendly (especially salesmen trying to get you into their stores) and I don't stand out nearly as much as I expected (I'm clearly a tourist, but there are plenty of tourists here).
My first day I did a walking tour of the Byzantine heritage of the city, beginning with the Mosaic Museum, displaying what remains of the beautiful Mosaic works discovered in the grand palace under centuries of rubble, and painstakingly restored and preserved. Looking from far away, they look like decent, but mediocre paintings, but close up, you realize that the images are formed by hundreds of thousands of tiny stones.
My next stop was the grand church (now a mosque) Aya Sofya (Church of the Divine Wisdom). Built in the 6th century by Emperor Justinian, it was the largest church in Christiandom until it was converted to a mosque in 1453 by the Ottomans. The outside is a bit disappointing. Sure it's big, but it's kinda squat and ugly.
The inside is magnificent though, sporting one of the largest free-standing domes in the world. The grandeur was a little dampened by the massive scaffolding in the center, but it was still pretty amazing.
(note: that ceiling is a mosaic)
The next stop was the Basilica Cistern, a Roman-era water storage house that has survived remarkably intact for 1500 years. You could probably spend about 15 minutes down there and see everything you need to, but i spent over an hour (it was a great place to escape the stifling heat).
Lives in Istanbul not Constantinople
So if you've a date in Constantinople
She'll be waiting in Istanbul
(forgive me if this is a bad link, I can't actually look at it since youtube is banned in Turkey)
I was up at 4am to get to the Dubrovnik airport by 5, so that I could catch a flight to Zagreb (1 hour) and then wait in the airport for 7 hours to take the flight to Istanbul. I was a bit apprehensive about this leg of the journey, not knowing how I, as an American tourist would be perceived, especially considering an American Consulate building had been bombed less than a month ago. However, since arriving I have not had any reason to worry. Everyone is extremely friendly (especially salesmen trying to get you into their stores) and I don't stand out nearly as much as I expected (I'm clearly a tourist, but there are plenty of tourists here).
My first day I did a walking tour of the Byzantine heritage of the city, beginning with the Mosaic Museum, displaying what remains of the beautiful Mosaic works discovered in the grand palace under centuries of rubble, and painstakingly restored and preserved. Looking from far away, they look like decent, but mediocre paintings, but close up, you realize that the images are formed by hundreds of thousands of tiny stones.
My next stop was the grand church (now a mosque) Aya Sofya (Church of the Divine Wisdom). Built in the 6th century by Emperor Justinian, it was the largest church in Christiandom until it was converted to a mosque in 1453 by the Ottomans. The outside is a bit disappointing. Sure it's big, but it's kinda squat and ugly.
The inside is magnificent though, sporting one of the largest free-standing domes in the world. The grandeur was a little dampened by the massive scaffolding in the center, but it was still pretty amazing.
(note: that ceiling is a mosaic)
The next stop was the Basilica Cistern, a Roman-era water storage house that has survived remarkably intact for 1500 years. You could probably spend about 15 minutes down there and see everything you need to, but i spent over an hour (it was a great place to escape the stifling heat).
I then headed down the Hippodrome, a wide avenue that was once used for horse racing, now the sight of several obelisks dating back to Roman times. One was brought from Egypt in 390 AD by Theodosius, but it dates to 1490BC. Despite being almost 3500 years old, the hieroglyphs look like they were carved yesterday.
The next day I went with some folks from the hostel past the Topkapi palace to the Spice Bazaar.
I bought some tea and some various spices, then we headed down to the grand bazaar. Bartering is awesome. People have been trading in this city for thousands of years, so they're pro, and most of the prices they quote are about 4-10 times what you should actually pay for them.
That night at the hostel we got the privilege of watching a belly dancer. She was probably not very traditional... but that's ok. Unfortunately, no one really had any change, so she didn't get tipped at all, even though she did quite well.
I kind of squandered the rest of my time in Istanbul I thought I had plenty of time, so I dithered around a lot and then didn't have enough time to see everything I wanted. I did meet a lot of really cool people though, and will definitely be back again.
After I got on the plane to London, a bomb exploded in a residential neighborhood, and I'm told you could hear it from the hostel I was staying at... scary.
Saturday, August 9, 2008
Interlude
I have been back and safe in America for about a week now. Still need to post about Istanbul and england, but i got a bit busy (and yes, lazy).
Coming soon...
Coming soon...
Wednesday, July 23, 2008
Madness? This... is... DUBROVNIK!!!
Yeah Frank, I stole your allusion; deal with it.
In Dubrovnik I stayed with a lovely man named Božo (the "z" is pronounced as the "s" in "pleasure") and his family. I learned of them from my friends Frank and Jessica. They had come through this way last year and told me about it. Hostels are nice for meeting people when you're traveling on your own, but it can be a real relief to have some privacy for a change.
The first thing I did was head over to the old town. It's beautiful, a medieval Mediterranean town, still with its wall still intact. I decided to avoid the main road and took random turns down narrow side streets, just running into random sights.
I then payed to walk along the main wall surrounding the city. There were some quite beautiful views but it was terribly hot, and there was nowhere to escape from the noon sun. Luckily, I had just filled my 1.5L water bottle from the town fountain... I drank all of it.
I also went and checked out the aquarium built into a space underneath the wall. It was not very impressive. Maybe I'm biased growing up in such proximity to Monteray Bay Aquarium, but the exhibits were tiny, and not very numerous (considering the price), and I'm pretty sure the lone sea turtle was dead (I watched him for about 20 min and he never moved). Additionally, at MBA, there is a focus on conservation, but at the end of each description in this place, there was a little blurb about the different methods of catching the critters for consumption (excuse the alliteration). Still, it was a nice way to escape the heat, and I spent over an hour down there.
I hung around to watch some folk music, then wandered out a hole in the wall and down to the rocks to watch the sunset.
I spent almost the entirety of the next day on my ass. I slept in until about 11, then turned on the air conditioning and just sat around reading my book. I did some exorcising too, but it was nice to have a day to just relax. I made it down to the beach briefly around 4pm to go for a swim, too, but that was just as good.
My last day in Dubrovnik, I took the tour of the old fort that Frank had told me about. My host was a citizen soldier in the Croatian army during the war, and he and tiny band of guys held of the vastly superior (in terms of numbers and equipment) invading Serbian forces for months. It was fairly sobering to see the damage wrought by gun fire and artillery, and to hear him talk about exchanging fire and grenades across short hallways. But the views from the fort were incredible.
Artillery hit the wall here, about 2 m from where Božo was standing
Next stop: Istanbul
In Dubrovnik I stayed with a lovely man named Božo (the "z" is pronounced as the "s" in "pleasure") and his family. I learned of them from my friends Frank and Jessica. They had come through this way last year and told me about it. Hostels are nice for meeting people when you're traveling on your own, but it can be a real relief to have some privacy for a change.
The first thing I did was head over to the old town. It's beautiful, a medieval Mediterranean town, still with its wall still intact. I decided to avoid the main road and took random turns down narrow side streets, just running into random sights.
I then payed to walk along the main wall surrounding the city. There were some quite beautiful views but it was terribly hot, and there was nowhere to escape from the noon sun. Luckily, I had just filled my 1.5L water bottle from the town fountain... I drank all of it.
I also went and checked out the aquarium built into a space underneath the wall. It was not very impressive. Maybe I'm biased growing up in such proximity to Monteray Bay Aquarium, but the exhibits were tiny, and not very numerous (considering the price), and I'm pretty sure the lone sea turtle was dead (I watched him for about 20 min and he never moved). Additionally, at MBA, there is a focus on conservation, but at the end of each description in this place, there was a little blurb about the different methods of catching the critters for consumption (excuse the alliteration). Still, it was a nice way to escape the heat, and I spent over an hour down there.
I hung around to watch some folk music, then wandered out a hole in the wall and down to the rocks to watch the sunset.
I spent almost the entirety of the next day on my ass. I slept in until about 11, then turned on the air conditioning and just sat around reading my book. I did some exorcising too, but it was nice to have a day to just relax. I made it down to the beach briefly around 4pm to go for a swim, too, but that was just as good.
My last day in Dubrovnik, I took the tour of the old fort that Frank had told me about. My host was a citizen soldier in the Croatian army during the war, and he and tiny band of guys held of the vastly superior (in terms of numbers and equipment) invading Serbian forces for months. It was fairly sobering to see the damage wrought by gun fire and artillery, and to hear him talk about exchanging fire and grenades across short hallways. But the views from the fort were incredible.
Artillery hit the wall here, about 2 m from where Božo was standing
Next stop: Istanbul
Thursday, July 17, 2008
Swindlers and Sea Urchins
Split is nice, but after the sheer magnificence of Plitvice, it was a bit difficult to appreciate the beauty mere man can create. I checked out Diocletian's Palace, one of the largest preserved vestiges of the Roman empire, which is now just narrow streets lined with shops surrounded by an old wall.
Outside the main gate, there is a statue of Gregory of Nin. Supposedly, you can get a wish granted if you make it while rubbing his toe, and that part of the statue is polished to a shine.
My last day in Split, I took a day trip to the nearby island of Brač with a couple guys I met in the hostel. We rented a scooter and a quad and drove around the island looking for beaches. It was a lot of fun, and it would have been nice to have the whole day there, but we got a late start because we were searching for a sailboat.
(I relied mostly on them taking pictures, but for some reason my computer wouldn't read his data card so I'll have to wait to get them).
The following day I headed off to Hvar. It was a lovely little town with not a lot to see, but beautiful weather and some nice beaches. A lot of the beaches are rocky, and a few feet out into the water there are copious sea urchins, but the water is so clear you can see them and avoid them (and I wore my sandals into the water anyway).
Unfortunately, my experience on Hvar was spoiled by my messed up hostel situation, and I cut my stay to 2 nights. I booked a place called CroParadise, but the directions were really bad, and I had to call someone to come pick me up in the main square, then I was driven off to the location. It was not as advertised. There was no internet, no ocean view, and it was about 15 minutes from the beach (it was advertised as 100m from the water).
Turns out, they over-book the main location and just shuttle people to alternate properties without actually telling you what is going on. The only reason I found out is because I noticed the pictures didn't match up. I was pretty irate, and I ended up bitching out the owner and getting a %20 discount. I almost left without paying, but the woman caught me with my massive backpack on. Bastards.
Oh well, I'm back in Split now and will catch a bus to Dubrovnik.
Outside the main gate, there is a statue of Gregory of Nin. Supposedly, you can get a wish granted if you make it while rubbing his toe, and that part of the statue is polished to a shine.
My last day in Split, I took a day trip to the nearby island of Brač with a couple guys I met in the hostel. We rented a scooter and a quad and drove around the island looking for beaches. It was a lot of fun, and it would have been nice to have the whole day there, but we got a late start because we were searching for a sailboat.
(I relied mostly on them taking pictures, but for some reason my computer wouldn't read his data card so I'll have to wait to get them).
The following day I headed off to Hvar. It was a lovely little town with not a lot to see, but beautiful weather and some nice beaches. A lot of the beaches are rocky, and a few feet out into the water there are copious sea urchins, but the water is so clear you can see them and avoid them (and I wore my sandals into the water anyway).
Unfortunately, my experience on Hvar was spoiled by my messed up hostel situation, and I cut my stay to 2 nights. I booked a place called CroParadise, but the directions were really bad, and I had to call someone to come pick me up in the main square, then I was driven off to the location. It was not as advertised. There was no internet, no ocean view, and it was about 15 minutes from the beach (it was advertised as 100m from the water).
Turns out, they over-book the main location and just shuttle people to alternate properties without actually telling you what is going on. The only reason I found out is because I noticed the pictures didn't match up. I was pretty irate, and I ended up bitching out the owner and getting a %20 discount. I almost left without paying, but the woman caught me with my massive backpack on. Bastards.
Oh well, I'm back in Split now and will catch a bus to Dubrovnik.
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