It's Sunday night, and I'm sitting in my hotel room in Budapest, reflecting upon the last few minutes of "freedom."
Early tomorrow morning (around 3:30am), I will head to the airport and by the time most of you read this, I'll be well into my 15 hour journey from the future, heading back to Austin (Budapest -> Frankfurt -> DFW -> Austin)...
This is a very bittersweet time for me. I'm looking forward to doing some of the things I've missed -- hanging with everyone again, playing soccer, getting on my motorcycle, eating fried catfish, having great Tex-Mex food, and moving into my new downtown apartment (for those that don't know, yes, I've left my place of the past 5+ years for a spankin' new place closer to downtown).
However, I feel like I'm returning a changed person, and I'm returning to a monotonous existence, which scares the shit out of me. For now, I take solace in closing my eyes and floating back to Berlin, smelling the Delphi air, or seeing the foreign faces in the Bangkok skytrain. I'm just not sure how long those memories will satisfy me (though I'm optimistic that my permanent "memory" will help). I've felt more alive on this trip than I have in countless years. There's a bigger (and better??) world out there after-all...
Over the past 8 weeks, I've traveled to 12 countries and 14 cities: Australia (Sydney), Thailand (Bangkok x2), Vietnam (Ho Chi Minh City / Saigon), Hong Kong (Hong Kong - airport only), England (London), Belgium (Brussels & Namur), the Netherlands (Amsterdam), Germany (Berlin), Egypt (Cairo), Greece (Athens & Delphi), Hungary (Budapest), and the Czech Republic (Prague). Two destinations were eliminated (Tokyo and Vienna) with one added (Berlin).
I've met more great people than I imagined possible. I've met people from all of the countries on my trip + Canada, Finland, Brazil, Argentina, Sweden, Italy, Spain, Portugal, South Africa, Latvia, France, India, Laos, Poland, New Zealand, and of course, the United States. I've been mistaken for being Australian, Belgium, Canadian, Dutch, French, German, and Czech.
I've been on 11 flights (soon to be 14 with the trip back to Austin); 5 train trips exceeding an hour; 6 bus rides exceeding an hour; multiple boat rides; countless subways; walked the equivalent of Austin to Ft Worth; scaled one bridge; hiked two large hills; swam in the Pacific Ocean; rode an elephant; rode a camel; drank countless alcoholic drinks in countless bars, pubs, and clubs; ate tons of amazing food; visited a couple of museums; went to one movie; got scammed once (that I'm aware of); used 8 different types of currency; took 1,500+ pictures, and traveled 33,000+ miles across 4 continents.
I have no way of seeing who specifically has accessed my blog, but I can run some basic statistics...As of today, the site has 75 posts and has had over 1,750+ unique page views since it's inception. The most popular postings were the Tokyo posts and the Thailand Red Light District #2 -- Soi Cowboy post (not sure why that one was so popular, I'd figure the ping pong balls post -- Red Light District #3 -- would've been more viewed, but I won't try to read minds).
My travel essentials have been: my trusty $120 refurbished netbook (Asus Eee PC); my Android phone (Samsung Galaxy S -- all pictures were taken with my phone's camera); my $6 universal power plug adapter (a total life saver); my $2 mini spiral notebook; my $20 Timex Ironman watch with alarm; my JVC $99 noise canceling headphones; and my Manhattan Portage man-chel; and, of course, the backpack that Brian graciously lent me. Though I brought my Kindle, I haven't read as much as I thought I would. I'm only about half-way through the only book I started -- "Catch-22," though it's very good (I've never read it previously).
My passport looks like a band of confused ostriches picked at it for several hours. Almost every customs officer has commented on how amazing it looks. I've kept it in my front left pocket (with my credit cards and phone) for the duration of my trip. Cash resided in my right front pocket, and maps in my back pockets. Though signs warning of pick-pocketing exist all across Europe, I've had no hint of being pick-pocketed.
For the majority of the trip, the weather cooperated. It rained much of my time in Sydney, a day in Bangkok and Budapest each, plus three days in Prague, but overall, most days were really sunny. In Asia, the days were 85-90 degrees while in most of Europe they were 65-70 degrees. Athens was the coldest (??!!!) and Giza the hottest.
It didn't help my trip that the USD was battered by most foreign currencies -- it was slightly below par with the Australian dollar (WTF??), dominated in Asia, and then got crushed in London and most of Europe.
London was the most expensive city, followed by Amsterdam. Saigon (1 USD = 1,000 Vietnam Dong), was the least expensive city, followed by Bangkok (1 USD = 30 Thai Bhat). Prague had a weird phenomenon where drinks were really cheap, but everything else was the same as it would be in the States.
I've been asked a couple of times if I would've preferred to do this trip a few years earlier, and my answer is a resounding, "No." I felt like doing the trip when I did was perfect timing -- I had the financial resources to live a trip of "No Regrets," whereas had I been a broke student, or just out of school, I would've had a much different (i.e. limited) experience.
I feel that this trip was exactly what I needed to feel alive again after spending several years paddling in a pool full of syrup. I absolutely feel positively changed by the experience, yet at the same time, I feel more confused than ever when I think about where I belong. Of course, I have now been tainted by the stank of the traveling bug, and though I miss Austin, I'm sure within a month, I'll be ready to go somewhere else (Hellooo, Bogota!!).
Time for some special props:
Thanks to:
- Paul for letting me store the bulk of my crap at your place.
- Liz for looking after my mail, handling random things that I couldn't address, and taking care of some of the crap for my new place.
- Jeff & Rach for letting me ship some crap to your place and looking after some of my new place's furnishings.
- Shawn for babysitting the Space Ninjas in my absence (though we need to discuss the results). ;p
- and, there were too many to name individually, but thanks to everyone who sent me notes, gchatted with me, encouraged me to continue blogging, etc. I appreciate it!!!
Also, I know, I know, I haven't finished all of my postings yet. I will finish them, even if it means doing the last few when I get back to Austin (that's pretty much unavoidable at this point), so keep checking the site. You'll know once I'm done (I'll also give you my rankings on the destinations & give you the opportunity to vote for your favorites).
Finally, one of my new resolutions is to complete a book on my experiences during this journey. If you've read this entire blog, you've experienced roughly 65% of my misadventures. I've tried to keep this site as much as possible within the PG-13 realm. The other 35% is much more "R" orientated and makes for some enteraining reading (at least I think so -- some seriously crazy shit happened). At any rate, my goal is to be done with a book that includes an expansion on the 65% + the "missing" details by Christmas time. Of course, I'll keep everyone updated on my progress.
I'm shutting down for the night...Good night and see you in Austin!
America, I'm coming home.
Sunday, May 1, 2011
Oracle at Delphi
The prior day, I had tried to catch a bus to Delphi, but this adventure failed miserably...I took an "interesting" cab ride to the bus station. The cab driver, a 60's ish guy who spoke broken English at best, drove through the streets, beating his fingers on the steering wheel in rhythm to some folk sounding Greek song (I made a joke about Yanni that he didn't understand). Everything seemed peachy until we got into north Athens neighborhoods. He looked around, and upon noticing the presumably non-Greek people, started on a 232 second tirade in almost perfect English bashing the Turks and Arabs, and complaining about what they were doing to the city (I guess hating "immigrants" isn't isolated to just ignorant people in the US).
We arrived at the bus station, and I learned that the bus for Delphi was standing-room only. D'oh! I wasn't about to take a 3hr bus ride standing the entire time. I bought a ticket for the next day, and went outside to grab a cab back to my neck of the woods.
The cab driver I hailed was a "suave" 50ish Greek guy wearing a suit and pimping sunglasses. Again, English was a challenge (I utilized the tried and true practice of pointing to a location on my map), and we drove off. To my utter surprise, as we entered into the same, predominately immigrant neighborhoods, this guy went off about the Turks and Arabs in perfect English, too!! WTF!! Do the cab drivers sit around and rehearse this stuff??
I returned to the hostel and discussed my plans with the ever so helpful Gary at the reception desk. We talked for a bit, and after doing some research (I debated staying overnight in Delphi), I decided the best option was to take a half-day tour there. It was pricey -- about $125, but as it turns out, worth every penny, and I'm exceedingly happy that I chose to do it.
The bus arrived at 7:45am and headed to a centralize meeting place. We boarded another bus, and I observed that other than a group of four (two guys and two girls), pretty much everyone was middle-aged. Sadly, this guy didn't show up. I assumed that the lack of younger peeps was due to the expense -- unlike the tours in SE Asia, this cost more than what I'm assuming most backpackers would want to pay.
We headed off, and I slept the bulk of the trip (I've learned how to sleep on any moving vehicle at any time of day -- I'm a little concerned about how this will play out when I drive again ;p). I was awake long enough to shoot these.
I'm soooo glad that I took the tour -- Delphi was bigger than I had imagined and I had a taken a bus by myself, I have no idea where the bus would've stopped. If it stopped in a certain location, it could've taken an hour walk to get to the ruins...
Before moving forward, it's worthwhile to take a quick look at this.
My tour bus dropped us off right at the base of the ruins, where a musuem stood. The museum held mostly artificats excavated from the nearby ruins.
Our guide was a crazy, long-winded Greek woman who would instruct us that we had an hour to get up and down the Delphi mountainside, but then would drone on another 10 minutes about some random nonsense. Knowing that I had limited time, I almost sprinted to the top of the mountain. I'm more a "mountain" person (easy on the beard jokes) than a "beach" person, so the views to me were more impressive than those in Sydney. Without a doubt, these were the most amazing views on the entire trip.
As I made my way down the mountain side, one of the guys from the group of non middle-aged people asked me to take a pic of the group. I did, and we exchanged a few words -- this group was from Brazil.
I continued my way down and a military American from Amarillo talked with me for a bit as we alternated taking each other's photo (NOT in the nude, you sick bastards). Once I got to the bottom, it was time for lunch. We quickly drove to a quaint restaurant and played the "pick the table with the cool kids" game. I had a decision -- I was staring at two options: either sitting with the Amarillo guy or the Brazilians. Naturally, I chose the second option.
That decision was a total home-run. The five of us instantly hit it off -- well, as well as things can go when speaking in limited English. Three of the four Brazilians -- Raphael, Andres and Maria knew each other from Brazil and decided to take a tour of Istanbul and Athens together. The fourth member, Tatiana, was traveling alone on a similar tour, and met the three while traveling and decided to continue her travels with them. Things went so well with all of us that we decided to meet that night (the night before Easter).
On the drive back, I got some more pretty good pics -- can you tell I enthusiastically enjoyed this part of the trip??
We headed back to Athens (and actually drove through a nice part of Athens -- I swear, it existed!!), and I got ready to meet the Brazilians. Chris was gone for the evening, so I met them alone...
They showed on time and we headed off to a Greek restaurant that offered all of us a free shot. It was ouzo (disgusting -- for those of you not privileged with a Greek friend, Ouzo is a disgusting black licorice tasting liquor native to Greece). On the bright side, the wine, company and food was delicious.
We then went to one of the larger churches in the area to see what goes down for Greek Orthodox Easter ceremonies (their idea, not mine, but I had a few drinks in me, so why not??). This was a HUGE holiday for the Greeks, and the next day, the entire city shut down.
The next morning, I headed to my trip's last leg -- Budapest.
We arrived at the bus station, and I learned that the bus for Delphi was standing-room only. D'oh! I wasn't about to take a 3hr bus ride standing the entire time. I bought a ticket for the next day, and went outside to grab a cab back to my neck of the woods.
The cab driver I hailed was a "suave" 50ish Greek guy wearing a suit and pimping sunglasses. Again, English was a challenge (I utilized the tried and true practice of pointing to a location on my map), and we drove off. To my utter surprise, as we entered into the same, predominately immigrant neighborhoods, this guy went off about the Turks and Arabs in perfect English, too!! WTF!! Do the cab drivers sit around and rehearse this stuff??
I returned to the hostel and discussed my plans with the ever so helpful Gary at the reception desk. We talked for a bit, and after doing some research (I debated staying overnight in Delphi), I decided the best option was to take a half-day tour there. It was pricey -- about $125, but as it turns out, worth every penny, and I'm exceedingly happy that I chose to do it.
The bus arrived at 7:45am and headed to a centralize meeting place. We boarded another bus, and I observed that other than a group of four (two guys and two girls), pretty much everyone was middle-aged. Sadly, this guy didn't show up. I assumed that the lack of younger peeps was due to the expense -- unlike the tours in SE Asia, this cost more than what I'm assuming most backpackers would want to pay.
We headed off, and I slept the bulk of the trip (I've learned how to sleep on any moving vehicle at any time of day -- I'm a little concerned about how this will play out when I drive again ;p). I was awake long enough to shoot these.
I'm soooo glad that I took the tour -- Delphi was bigger than I had imagined and I had a taken a bus by myself, I have no idea where the bus would've stopped. If it stopped in a certain location, it could've taken an hour walk to get to the ruins...
Before moving forward, it's worthwhile to take a quick look at this.
My tour bus dropped us off right at the base of the ruins, where a musuem stood. The museum held mostly artificats excavated from the nearby ruins.
Our guide was a crazy, long-winded Greek woman who would instruct us that we had an hour to get up and down the Delphi mountainside, but then would drone on another 10 minutes about some random nonsense. Knowing that I had limited time, I almost sprinted to the top of the mountain. I'm more a "mountain" person (easy on the beard jokes) than a "beach" person, so the views to me were more impressive than those in Sydney. Without a doubt, these were the most amazing views on the entire trip.
As I made my way down the mountain side, one of the guys from the group of non middle-aged people asked me to take a pic of the group. I did, and we exchanged a few words -- this group was from Brazil.
I continued my way down and a military American from Amarillo talked with me for a bit as we alternated taking each other's photo (NOT in the nude, you sick bastards). Once I got to the bottom, it was time for lunch. We quickly drove to a quaint restaurant and played the "pick the table with the cool kids" game. I had a decision -- I was staring at two options: either sitting with the Amarillo guy or the Brazilians. Naturally, I chose the second option.
That decision was a total home-run. The five of us instantly hit it off -- well, as well as things can go when speaking in limited English. Three of the four Brazilians -- Raphael, Andres and Maria knew each other from Brazil and decided to take a tour of Istanbul and Athens together. The fourth member, Tatiana, was traveling alone on a similar tour, and met the three while traveling and decided to continue her travels with them. Things went so well with all of us that we decided to meet that night (the night before Easter).
On the drive back, I got some more pretty good pics -- can you tell I enthusiastically enjoyed this part of the trip??
We headed back to Athens (and actually drove through a nice part of Athens -- I swear, it existed!!), and I got ready to meet the Brazilians. Chris was gone for the evening, so I met them alone...
They showed on time and we headed off to a Greek restaurant that offered all of us a free shot. It was ouzo (disgusting -- for those of you not privileged with a Greek friend, Ouzo is a disgusting black licorice tasting liquor native to Greece). On the bright side, the wine, company and food was delicious.
We then went to one of the larger churches in the area to see what goes down for Greek Orthodox Easter ceremonies (their idea, not mine, but I had a few drinks in me, so why not??). This was a HUGE holiday for the Greeks, and the next day, the entire city shut down.
The next morning, I headed to my trip's last leg -- Budapest.
The Acropolis
The next day, affectionately known as Acropolis day, I moved to another hostel. Not gonna lie -- the name had a lot to do with me staying there.
I stayed in a four bed hostel that far and away was the crappiest place I've stayed (it only cost 12 Euros a night ;p), but, had far and away the best staff. I really bonded with a couple of guys working the desk, and one helped me get to Delphi; without his advice, I'm not sure I would've made it there.
I roomed with a fairly cool cat -- a stoner / musician named Chris from Portland (via Denver). More on that later; let's head to the Acropolis first.
At the base of the Acropolis, the agora lined the grounds. I wandered around for a bit before I found an entrance. Right outside the agora, I counted 8 homeless people chilling, and one guy peeing in the bushes (no, it wasn't me). Classy.
I did see this cool statue (I like the way the light hit it in the picture -- oh yeah, I meant to do that ;p)
I paid my money and entered the agora. Here it comes -- lots and lots of pics. There were tons of ruins, statues, and other buildings. Interestingly, high school and college aged artists littered the grounds armed with their sketchbooks, and they drew either the landscape, ruins, or both. I remained in the agora for an hour or so before I started to make my way to the Acropolis.
Ascending the hill to the Acropolis required a certain amount of fitness. It was surreal to think about an ancient Athenian making his way up this path in his toga and sandals. I stopped about halfway up to enjoy the views from Areopagus (named after Ares) or Mars Hill (named after Mars).
The wind whipped around on this particular day, and at one point, I had to walk hunched over to fight the wind. I think Zeus was pissed. Once I got on the hill, a group of 32 really annoying American bible thumpers that appeared to be missionaries of some sort, huddled around a speaker spewing some tale about Jesus or Paul or blah.blah.blah. I stepped away from them and took my pics. The most annoying thing was trying to keep them out of the pictures.
I made sure to speed towards the Acropolis ahead of them; I didn't want to get caught on the stone stairs behind a slow, slovenly American wearing thermal wool socks with sandals and huffing and puffing while trying to ascend the steps.
Right before the Acropolis, a theater was cut into the side of the hill. Truly amazing to see and imagine that people used this thousands of years ago...
The peak of the Acropolis beckoned...I continued my way up the Acropolis, and said, "Hello" to the Parthenon. Unfortunately, scaffolding and other construction supplies dotted the area, but it still amazed me to see it in person...
[Of course, the Parthenon is the crown jewel of the Acropolis]
Again, there were stray dogs and cats on the grounds -- seemingly oblivious to the people all around.
[The cat in the center of the picture was about to pounce another cat who was trying to hide. They didn't do a very good job of staying still for the camera. Boo.]
I can confirm however, that none of these roamed the Acropolis.
Also amazing were the views of Athens. Truly spectacular -- Athens was one of those cities with virtually no skyline, so nothing impeded the view of the hills and mountains in the background.
I made my way down a different way than the way I had ascended (a path wrapped around the hill, so it was possible to walk completely around the hill). I stumbled across random caves and nooks that had interesting stories. Some caves were used by strategically, but most had random purposes like being places where servants entered.
After descending the Acropolis, I walked a bit through Plaka -- one of the older parts of the city. Who's ready for some graffiti??!
I loved this image -- so, naturally, I had to take a pic. Read the brown-ish sign and then check out the blue sign; uncomfortable! Gotta love them Greeks ;p
The ol' stomach growled at this point, so I settled at a cafe (somewhat of a mistake -- it was freakin' 50 degrees and when the sun went down, it got really freakin' cold). I was entertained by a cat, though, he set he beady little yellow eyes on my lamb souvlaki. He actually would put reach his front paws onto my table and try to knock off a piece. It was comical and petrified the waiters.
I eventually headed back to the hostel and met up with Chris. We decided to grab some food at a nearby Greek place and he shared some of his crazy travel tales. He had been traveling up and down India for the past 3 months and decided to try Athens and then Istabul before going back to Portland (Oregon; not Maine). He was 28 and described his work with what I thought to be a classic phrase, "nothing of signficance" -- isn't that true about 93% of us??
We got along well, and hit up a bar for some Mythos. While we were hanging out at the bar, an Argentinian guy performed a really bad "fire show" in the street that included throwing a flaming stick in the air and subsequently missed catching it. This happened a couple of times before I gave up on him and adverted my eyes. I did hear some laughing and sympathy applause later, so I can only guess that he actually caught one toss...
When we got back to the hostel, we went to the hostel's roof and met a couple of really funny guys from Holland (they were quick to say not Amsterdam). The guys cracked me up, and we decided to grab some more Mythos, hang and play some random Holland card game (I sucked tragically at this game).
Eventually, we were joined by a hilarious Australian guy and his wife, a Brit, and two Americans (one from Tennessee ) -- I'll let you guess who was the most annoying out of the bunch ;p Overall, it was an entertaining bunch, and we had a great time!
I stayed in a four bed hostel that far and away was the crappiest place I've stayed (it only cost 12 Euros a night ;p), but, had far and away the best staff. I really bonded with a couple of guys working the desk, and one helped me get to Delphi; without his advice, I'm not sure I would've made it there.
I roomed with a fairly cool cat -- a stoner / musician named Chris from Portland (via Denver). More on that later; let's head to the Acropolis first.
At the base of the Acropolis, the agora lined the grounds. I wandered around for a bit before I found an entrance. Right outside the agora, I counted 8 homeless people chilling, and one guy peeing in the bushes (no, it wasn't me). Classy.
I did see this cool statue (I like the way the light hit it in the picture -- oh yeah, I meant to do that ;p)
I paid my money and entered the agora. Here it comes -- lots and lots of pics. There were tons of ruins, statues, and other buildings. Interestingly, high school and college aged artists littered the grounds armed with their sketchbooks, and they drew either the landscape, ruins, or both. I remained in the agora for an hour or so before I started to make my way to the Acropolis.
Ascending the hill to the Acropolis required a certain amount of fitness. It was surreal to think about an ancient Athenian making his way up this path in his toga and sandals. I stopped about halfway up to enjoy the views from Areopagus (named after Ares) or Mars Hill (named after Mars).
The wind whipped around on this particular day, and at one point, I had to walk hunched over to fight the wind. I think Zeus was pissed. Once I got on the hill, a group of 32 really annoying American bible thumpers that appeared to be missionaries of some sort, huddled around a speaker spewing some tale about Jesus or Paul or blah.blah.blah. I stepped away from them and took my pics. The most annoying thing was trying to keep them out of the pictures.
I made sure to speed towards the Acropolis ahead of them; I didn't want to get caught on the stone stairs behind a slow, slovenly American wearing thermal wool socks with sandals and huffing and puffing while trying to ascend the steps.
Right before the Acropolis, a theater was cut into the side of the hill. Truly amazing to see and imagine that people used this thousands of years ago...
The peak of the Acropolis beckoned...I continued my way up the Acropolis, and said, "Hello" to the Parthenon. Unfortunately, scaffolding and other construction supplies dotted the area, but it still amazed me to see it in person...
Again, there were stray dogs and cats on the grounds -- seemingly oblivious to the people all around.
I can confirm however, that none of these roamed the Acropolis.
Also amazing were the views of Athens. Truly spectacular -- Athens was one of those cities with virtually no skyline, so nothing impeded the view of the hills and mountains in the background.
I made my way down a different way than the way I had ascended (a path wrapped around the hill, so it was possible to walk completely around the hill). I stumbled across random caves and nooks that had interesting stories. Some caves were used by strategically, but most had random purposes like being places where servants entered.
After descending the Acropolis, I walked a bit through Plaka -- one of the older parts of the city. Who's ready for some graffiti??!
I loved this image -- so, naturally, I had to take a pic. Read the brown-ish sign and then check out the blue sign; uncomfortable! Gotta love them Greeks ;p
The ol' stomach growled at this point, so I settled at a cafe (somewhat of a mistake -- it was freakin' 50 degrees and when the sun went down, it got really freakin' cold). I was entertained by a cat, though, he set he beady little yellow eyes on my lamb souvlaki. He actually would put reach his front paws onto my table and try to knock off a piece. It was comical and petrified the waiters.
I eventually headed back to the hostel and met up with Chris. We decided to grab some food at a nearby Greek place and he shared some of his crazy travel tales. He had been traveling up and down India for the past 3 months and decided to try Athens and then Istabul before going back to Portland (Oregon; not Maine). He was 28 and described his work with what I thought to be a classic phrase, "nothing of signficance" -- isn't that true about 93% of us??
We got along well, and hit up a bar for some Mythos. While we were hanging out at the bar, an Argentinian guy performed a really bad "fire show" in the street that included throwing a flaming stick in the air and subsequently missed catching it. This happened a couple of times before I gave up on him and adverted my eyes. I did hear some laughing and sympathy applause later, so I can only guess that he actually caught one toss...
When we got back to the hostel, we went to the hostel's roof and met a couple of really funny guys from Holland (they were quick to say not Amsterdam). The guys cracked me up, and we decided to grab some more Mythos, hang and play some random Holland card game (I sucked tragically at this game).
Eventually, we were joined by a hilarious Australian guy and his wife, a Brit, and two Americans (one from Tennessee ) -- I'll let you guess who was the most annoying out of the bunch ;p Overall, it was an entertaining bunch, and we had a great time!
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