In the shadow of Vesuvius

I thoroughly enjoyed my time around the Amalfi Coast. I spent 5 nights in Sant' Agnello, a suburb of Sorrento. It rained 2 of the days I was there, but it was still good. I spent a couple of afternoons in Sorrento, took a crazy bus ride down to Amalfi (during which the bus driver totally rammed a parked scooter into the wall - it had to be physically pried out from between the bus and the wall before we could continue on) and, of course, went to Pompeii & Herculeneum. In the end, though, I just couldn't be bothered to head out to Capri or Ischia; I opted for a day lounging about and reading in the hostel garden instead. (Believe it or not, you sometimes do need a vacation from your vacation...)

For me, the Amalfi Coast was too touristy - full of sunbirds with money to blow, like I imagine Miami to be. Pompeii was amazing, though. I spent much longer at Pompeii than many (~5hrs) & then went through Herculeneum rather quickly (~1.5hrs) because I was in full sensory overload. It's hard to put into words how I felt walking through those streets or standing in the Pompeii amphitheatre, but it was very powerful. I also loved that there was greenspace where I could escape the throngs of tourists and just be by myself, appreciating the fact that I was actually at Pompeii after all the years I've spent dreaming of going there. (It also didn't hurt the overall experience that I kept running into the very attractive Swedish art teacher from my hostel...) I think the thing that suprised me about Pompeii and Herculeneum, though, was just how far they are from Vesuvius; seeing the distance with my own eyes allowed me to better appreciate just how strong the volcanic explosion must've been...

More than anything, though, my time in Sant' Agnello convinced me that those living in the shadow of Vesuvius are the "forgotten Italians" - if there be such a thing. I rode the Circuvesuviana train a fair bit, and the towns between Sorrento and Naples are in rather "interesting" shape - more like Tijuana or parts of Romania than you'd expect to find in Italy. There are towns like Via Nocera where young children get on the train for a few stops & play cheap plastic accordians trying to get $$ from the tourists; they do this every day, all day - and they're school age children. So, what, maybe they make 1-2 Euro/day? Is it worth it? Scenes like this are definitely what they try not to have the tourists see - or at least what they hope we don't remember. Then again, maybe that's part of the distinction between tourists and travellers: tourists likely won't remember scenes like that, whereas travellers will. Just a thought...

Napoli!

Ciao from Napoli (aka Naples). I arrived at my hostel around 1pm, got a free map and some advice (including the tidbit about it being some kind of a municipal holiday so museums were free), and set out on the town...

Everyone says bad things about Naples. It's dirty; it's not safe; it's ugly. (I could go on.) However, I actually think Naples isn't bad. To me, it's less sketchy than some parts of Tijuana...

Anyway, the one things I really wanted to do here was visit the Museum Nazionale (which houses all the artifacts that have been removed from Pompeii). Getting in for free was a bonus. There were some stunning black marble statues with haunting white eyes (not from Pompeii), amazing Pompeii mosaics, a special phallic/sexual art archive section, and what was the most interesting to me...busts and statues from the temple to Isis (who knew?) and a gorgeous icon of the Hindu goddess Lakshmi (again, who knew).

I also got into some Palace for free - and need to do some research to understand what exactly I was seeing. :) Other than that and general photo snapping (e.g. of Mt Vesuvius across the bay), I just had time for some genuine Napoli pizza. Good stuff. :)

Tomorrow, I'm off to Sorrento (or, actually, someplace slightly outside it) where I plan to base myself for 5 nights so I can see Pompeii/Herculeneum, the Amalfi Coast, and Capri...

Tuscany, O Tuscany...

On Thursday, I took a daytrip to Siena by bus. Siena (and the Tuscan countryside we drove through) is beautiful, no question about it. I went w/a German girl from my dorm and we caught the last bus back to Florence that night because we were busy seeing so much... Everything we did was pretty much religious in nature: a combined ticket got us into the cathedral, baptistry, crypt, and museum. We also walked around & visited others churches that were free.

By sheer luck, we happeneded to be there during the short time of year when the mosaic floors of the duomo are uncovered. Very, very cool. It was really interesting, too, to look around the duomo and realize how much pre-Christian symbolism was present; it was all over the place. (Side note: There's also pre-Christian and Judaic symbolism on the exterior of the Duomo here in Florence. I spent a while just walking around & looking at it last night. It's kind of like they intentionally included the symbolism of other traditions so that they would feel included/welcome in the new tradition.)

Yesterday, I got up early and got to the Uffizi before 7:30am to start standing in line so that I could get in reasonably. (They open at 8:15am.) I was one of the first 20 people to buy a ticket & get in, but that would not have been the case if I was a few minutes later - by that time, there were literally a few hundred people in line. Crazy. That said, the sacrifice of getting up early (and the high 9.5 € price tag) was totally worth it; the artwork & sculpture was amazing. There were, of course, highlights such as Boticelli's "Birth of Venus" and assorted works by Da Vinci, Michelangelo, Raphael - and even Rembrandt - but I really found that I enjoyed the lesser known (to me) artists. ...and I was smart enough to start writing down their names so that I can research them later... :)

Today, I've just been wandering around visiting churches that are free, sitting in the park watching little Italian grandmothers play with their grandchildren, and generally just relaxing. That's part of what makes a trip like this enjoyable, I think - having the time to be able to do that.

I also booked my train down to Naples for tomorrow morning & actually made reservations for my remaining destinations in Italy. I'm reaching the somewhat surrealistic point where thoughts of home, and of the end of this trip, are starting to manifest. ...but I'm doing my best to block out those thoughts for at least another week :)

Venice & Florence

I took the night train from Vienna to Venice. 12hrs. It was, hands down, the nicest night train experience I've had. The train was mostly clean, had toilet paper, had only 4 people in my 6-bed couchette, required no passport check (since both countries were EU countries) and even had little extras (like mini water bottles when you boarded and coffee/rolls for breakfast). After spending so many of my train rides outside the EU, I think I've gotten used to lesser quality; these days I'm easy to impress :)

That said, it was raining in Vienna when I left - and raining in Venice when I arrived w/out reservations. Not good for a cold. I bought an umbrella tried some hostels (which were full) and then got a recommendation for a 1-star hotel that also had a dormitory for 20€/nt. I jumped on that because I needed someplace to stay. The rain let up a bit, so I went out for a walk - and then proceeded to get caught in a major downpour. I bought a geeked-out raincoat/poncho, huddled under an overhang, and watched how the Venetians dealt w/ the weather. (Actually, I think that's when I fell in love w/ Venice.) People were so good natured about the weather - laughing and smiling and singing and playing accordian; it was great.

Only stayed two night in Venice (because that "hotel" really was a pit - I'll have to describe it when I get back to do it justice), but had a great time. I went to the Guggenheim museum, Palazzo Ducale and a couple other museums. I walked across a flooded Piazza San Marco & went into the cathedral. I also walked into a variety of small churches, and got myself lost in the back alleys of Venice. Good fun.

Venice seems to be a place that hit or miss among travelers; for me, it was a definite hit. If I have then opportunity (and make actual reservations for something not crap), I'd love to return...

This morning, though, I caught a train to Bologna and then another to Florence (arriving at 3pm). Again, I didn't have reservations. This time, however, I hit gold on my first attempt. I'm staying at the Novella Inn for 20€/nt. Clean, spacious dorm, great bathroom w/ hot water - again, I'm easy to please these days. I've booked 5 nights here so that I have time to really see Florence. So far, I love it - and I've just walked about with a German dorm mate.

I didn't really intend to have internet time, but I got stuck chatting/walking with a seemingly nice Indian guy, but I didn't want him to see where I'm staying and internet here is comparatively cheap. So...

Vienna wrap-up

I never really found that part of Vienna that I loved - though I really liked the subway. : ) I made a fairly decent attempt at seeing the sights, though, for being sick. (Somewhere between the cold nights in Cesky Krumlov & the warm weather in Vienna, I got quite a cold - which has continued through for a while.)

I felt fairly proud as a psychologist that I made the effort to visit the Sigmund Freud museum. It was his Vienna house and office (not terribly exciting, but still obligatory for me) and then saw a very interesting exhibition upstairs that had all kinds of different couches, some scary looking paraphernalia from old sanitariums and even a video clip from Star Trek TNG (where Data is psychoanalyzed by Freud on the holodeck). Very surreal to be watching Star Trek (in English) in Freud's house in Vienna... Of course, you'll get no complaints out of me...

I also saw the Schonbrunn gardens (and the exterior of the palace), Karlskirche (and a very cool bear buddy exhibit), assorted street fairs, etc.

First Thoughts on Vienna

Getting from Cesky Krumlov to Vienna was easy. I took the shuttle bus to Linz and the caught a train to Vienna. My hostel here is cheap (13.5 €) and pretty decent for a mega-hostel (i.e. it isnt a party hostel the way some others in the area are). I can't say that much positive yet about Vienna. I extended my stay to 4 nights because I'm feeling somewhat sick (weather here is still summer-ish, whereas Cesky Krumlov was closer to SAN winters in the evenings) and because I really want to try to find some part of Vienna that I love...

So far, I've just walked around town and gazed at the amazingly ornate buildings from the outside, visited a handful of cathedrals (which are free, yay!), hung out in Sigmund Freud park, and visited a few local bars. Don't get me wrong, the architecture here is quite nice; however, it's so much that I find it overpowering and really quite difficult to appreciate much of anything. Even the Stephansdom cathedral (which some American ex-pats living in Vienna talked up when we met in Prague) isn't that impressive to me. Oh well; you can't win 'em all, I guess.

Side notes: The € is my 6th and final currency on this trip. I'm glad to be able to stick with something for at least a couple of weeks... I leave for Venice Saturday night. (Affordable accommodation in Salzburg just isn't available, no matter how much I might like it to be - presumably due to people heading this way early for Oktoberfest.)

Cesky Krumlov

I took the bus from Prague to Cesky Krumlov. It was very easy & cheaper than the train; it also did not require changing in Ceske Budejovice, which was good. As I was walking up from the bus station in Cesky Krumlov, all I heard was Pink Floyd wafting through the trees that obscured the town. Odd, but welcome - one of those little things that lets you know you're in exactly the right place at exactly the right moment. (It turns out a Czech tribute band was putting on an open air Floyd concert that night. I didn't even have to pay because I could watch from a lookout point near my hostel.)

The hostel I'm at right now (Krumlov House) is really more of a communal living situation in a regular house. I love it. The people are amazingly friendly & it's a welcome dose commraderie. I went mushroom and berry picking in the woods the other morning with a few people and we made a mushroom cream pasta sauce w/our findings. (The guy working the hostel first reviewed the mushrooms to ensure they weren't poisonous, but I was still a little nervous; the mushrooms turned blue when you cut them and then a little red when cooked down. Interesting...) There's also great vegetarian food in Cesky Krumlov & interesting/affordable bars (e.g. Horor Bar). Overall, this town has been a welcome respite from Prague and Croatia - just a quiet place to chill by the river, in the forest, or wandering about the old buildings; it just gets cold here at night, which is really bringing home the message that it's basically Fall now and that I may have to think about buying warmer clothes and/or actual shoes... :)

Tomorrow, I take a shuttle bus to Linz, Austria (450CZK or ~$18USD, only 1.5hrs) and then a train to Vienna (another 1.5hrs). I wanted to go to Salzburg, but the hostel situation was not looking good (i.e. most affordable things were booked). We'll see how Vienna goes... So far, I've only booked 3 nights there...

Kutna Hora ossuary

Yesterday, I went to the ossuary (i.e. bone church) in Kutna Hora. A nice gay guy from my dorm at the hostel (who was curiously from Denton, TX - of all places) tagged along because he also wanted to go and had no idea how to get there on his own. We walked to the Prague Florenc bus station, caught the bus to Kutna Hora w/minutes to spare, and had an easy 1.5hr trip for the bargain price of 76Kc. Fortunately, once in Kutna Hora, there was an information map at the bus station and we figured out how to get to the ossuary on foot. (I had no idea about where it was in relation to the bus station; I just chose the bus because it's cheaper and, frankly, I prefer buses to trains because I'm strange like that.)

The ossuary, itself, was impressive, curious, and much smaller than I expected. I suppose it could be viewed as controversial (i.e. exploitative), but I choose to look at it from an artistic perspective that expresses the impermanence of life and tries to create something beautiful out of death. So, I loved it. It seemed fitting that I light a candle there, amongst so many others that have died, for those that have passed away in my life this year...

Getting back from Kutna Hora was mildly interesting. We caught a 5pm bus for 70Kc...that dropped everyone off at a metro station on the outskirts of Prague, rather than at the Florenc station. I also didn't have change to buy metro tickets and there's no means of getting change, unless you find a nice person who can break something into small coins. I didn't. Anyway, we hopped on the metro sans tickets and had to switch metro lines at the main station to get back to the hostel. Not a big deal in the sceme of things, but I was mildly paranoid that the "black rider" ticket guy was going to catch us w/out tickets & fine us the 400Kc (~$16USD)...which would've sucked... (I mean, come on, 400Kc is like 1-2 good classical concerts...)

Prague - quick thoughts

Prague is lovely. The architecture is beautiful and the city is so compact that walking almost anywhere a tourist/traveller would want to go is not a big deal. It's just...different for me than Budapest (which is much bigger).

I've walked around and seen most of the "usual suspects" (got to take photos on my 2nd day, since it rained the 1st). I went to a classical concert in the Church of St. Nicholas in the old town (which is, to my amusement, different than St. Nicholas' Church/Cathedral) and was actually able to appreciate "lighter" classical music (flutes/harps) for the first time; I think the excellent acoustics combined w/the visuals helped. I went to a somewhat cheesy little Renaissance Faire in old town sqaure, etc., etc. I also visited the most beautiful church (St. Vitus' Cathedral) I've ever seen - hands down - and climbed the 287 steps to its lookout tower.

Other tidbits: I was eating street food in front of a sex shop on the main "square" and overheard a couple of 40-ish men haggling w/a "vendor" over the price of girls for 30min or 60min. Mmm. Yeah. I get it, but it would've been nice to have at least a 5ft radius of non-smut-talk while eating. ;-) I definitely love countries where you can buy good beer for less than $1USD...

One Month "On the Road"

Today marks my "one month-aversary" for physically being in Europe. Yes, travel is tiring; yes, the unexpected can (and will) happen. However, it's really been an amazing month. Travel can (and will) change you in unexpected - and somewhat inexplicable - ways.

Now that I'm in Prague, I'm getting my sense of excitement and adventure back. I can't wait to see what the next month will hold. ...and I really don't know what it will hold. I have no reservations anywhere else; all I know is that I need to be in Rome in October to fly home. ;-)

Hooray for Budget Airlines!

Last night I flew from Split to Prague on one of Europe's new budget airlines: SkyEurope. The plane ticket cost me ~65 Euro, including taxes (expensive for budget airlines, frankly, but I timed my purchase wrong - still very cheap by U.S. standards), and cut a journey that would've taken ~3days by train down to a 1.5hr flight. Awesome.

Finding the airport was interesting. In the end, it really wasn't that big of a deal, but...no one told me how long it would take to get there, so I was kind of stressed out... Instead of taking an overpriced taxi to the "Split airport" (which is really not in Split, and is closer to Trogir), I opted to take a bus for the bargain price of 15Kuna (2Euro). I had to find the local bus station in Split, take the bus headed to Trogir and figure out where to airport stop was with enough time to still make it off the bus w/my backpack. Well, it turns out that it's ~45min bus ride from the transit station to the airport. That little tidbit would've been good for the information people in Split (who told me what bus to take) to pass along, so that I didn't spend the entire ride scanning for signs of an airport. But I digress...

The SkyEurope team was great. They were young (early 20's, maybe), multi-lingual, and efficient. The plane was a newish Boeing that made a few odd noises in-flight, but landed all the same. My only complaint - being 5'9" tall - is that the seats were made for midgets (i.e. there was no hope of comfortably resting my head). Thankfully, however, it wasn't a full flight - so I had a bit more room. Overall, I would definitely fly them again.

By the time I got in to Prague, collected my luggage, found a toilet and an ATM, etc., it was ~11pm. There was no way I was going to futz w/public transportation to find a hostel in an unfamiliar city where I don't speak the language at that time on Saturday night; instead, I sprang for a taxi (519 Koruna, or ~$23-25USD). In my mind, it was totally money well spent.

I'll write about Prague, later, but... This is, easily, the nicest hostel I've stayed at yet; they certainly have the best breakfast. ...and that's important! :)

The Dalmatian Coast

I just got through spending 8 days on the Dalmatian Coast in Croatia (5 in Dubrovnik and 3 in Split - I'd planned to go island hopping, but decided to just be mellow instead). First, yes, Croatia is beautiful. I wouldn't trade gazing out over the Adriatic (or swimming in it) for anything, but Croatia wasn't at all what I expected...

After a week in Bosnia - and having such an intense reaction to / love of it - Croatia is so starkly different that it was difficult for me to tolerate. Hands down, Croatia is the most touristy place I've been yet - and I mean that in a bad way. There were hordes of rude, photo-snapping people locked into tiny streets and overpriced souvenir shops in "famous" old buildings. I don't know. Apparently the Italians love that kind of thing - because Croatia is a big Italian vacation spot - but it just didn't do it for me. I keep wondering whether I would've had a different reaction if I'd gone to Croatia before going to Bosnia or Romania, but I'll really never know...

To get from Mostar, BiH to Dubrovnik (where I had "reservations" at a hostel service), I wound up taking a very bizarre route. The sobe gals who picked me up at the bus station in Mostar told me that buses to both Medjugorje (pronounced "med-you-gore-ee-ah") and Dubrovnik left at 10am the next morning. Okay. So, I get to the Mostar bus station at ~9:30am & try to by a ticket to Medjugorje with the intent to make it to Dubrovnik by late that night. No dice. The bus to Dubrovnik left at 7am; there was another one that would leave at 10PM (and arrive in Dubrovnik at ~2am). There was, indeed, a bus headed to Medjugorje (and then on to Split) at 10am, but I'd have to cross my fingers about getting a bus back to Mostar to make the late night Dubrovnik bus. I didn't much like that option, either. So, I decided...since I'm not Catholic...to skip the 2nd largest Catholic pilgrimage site in the world (oy vey!)...and head to Split and then down to Dubrovnik from there. It wasn't a very efficient approach (i.e. I wound up spending 10hrs on the bus), but I got where I wanted to go in the end; I also got what I choose to view as a Dalmatian Coast sightseeing tour on comfy air-conditioned buses for very little money. Yes, folks, travel is all about "spin" and perspective ;)

When I finally arrived in Dubrovnik at ~10pm, I tried to get in touch w/the hostel service where I had a reservation. No dice - just an answering machine. So, since it was late and starting to rain, I wound up going home w/an old Croatian sobe guy from the bus station. The next day around noon, he drove me over to the address of the hostel service (for free) so I could get things sorted out; however, the hostel service was closed (and only had hours of like 2pm-5pm posted on their door). Using his mobile phone, and talking to a neighbor of the hostel service, we tried calling 4 different phone numbers to get a hold of someone. Still no dice. We even left a note wedged in the door w/a phone number - and never heard a word. So...I stayed with Josef and his wife while in Dubrovnik, and had a beautiful ocean view from my bedroom. I can't complain too much (though I'll be angry if I still get charged by the bogus hostel service).

Ironically, I much preferred Split (the 2nd largest city in Croatia) to Dubrovnik; I expected the opposite to be true. I stayed with an old German sobe guy & his wife (who didn't speak English) in a "separate" bed/bath (ooh, ahh) within easy walking distance to the beach & ~20min walk to Diocletian's Palace. It was the most expensive bed I've had yet (@ 25Euro/night) AND the worst bed I've had yet. Go figure that one. I was also rather unceremoniously kicked out at a 9am yesterday morning...

If I ever do go back to Croatia (which is conceivable if I make it back to Bosnia, which I hope to do), I'll make a point to island hop. I really wanted to go to Korcula and Brac, but there's just not enough time to do everything. C'est la vie.

Final thought on Croatia: As an outsider, there seems to be a single word there that's as popular and has as many different meanings as "Aloha" in Hawaii. The word "Dobro" was used all over - and seemed to mean things like "good / okay / yeah" and probably a few I'm forgetting.