31 July 2005

One final souvenir...

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IMG_0729,
originally uploaded by Fred Jala.
So I get home and there's a message on my machine about a car accident...I figure it's old or a followup to one of the ones (yes that's plural) from a few months back. I get up this morning and find this. Any post-vacation buzz is completely gone, and I haven't even been in town 24 hours.

Fuck fuck fuckety fuck-more insurance hell.

Edit/Update 8.12.05: Got a call back from Progressive; the repair estimate came in at about $4200. Whoa!

30 July 2005

I'm back, biatches!

IMG_0685
IMG_0685,
originally uploaded by Fred Jala.
I've returned to the land of Wal-Mart and man-boobs, a little worse for wear after a long day flying. Looking forward to some real sleep.

Even though my trip is over, I'll keep adding to this, some stories that I wanted to tell but didn't have the time, observations, questions, etc...

28 July 2005

London

a quickie, at a free teminal at my hotel just off piccadilly
circus...even after being in central europe for the last 3 weeks, i
have never feared for my life as much as i have in the last 3 hours
here...keep forgetting abour the driving on the left side thing,
nearly run over by several taxis on more than one occassion...noticed
they paint 'look left' and 'look right' in the crosswalks for idiots
like me...i'll buzz thru the main sights tomorrow and call it a
july...see you back home.

27 July 2005

Dubrovnik

Woke up yesterday morning early, there was already someone waiting for my room, plus a couple more on the way from the train station. So I settle my bill, gather my stuff and head to the bus station to hang out. 5 hot, crowded, sweaty hours later, we pull into the bus station just outside of Dubrovnik. (An aside: theres a discontinuity of about 10 miles of Croatian mainland, where Bosnia & Herzegovina claims a sliver of coastline, so technically, thats another country Ive been to-hopefully its not under dispute). I haggle (ok, not really-more like look like Im thinking about it, but end up agreeing to the initial price) for a sobe and we catch a ride up to the hills above the coast. This one is one of the licensed ones, and is more like a small 6 room motel with shared bathrooms. Accommodations are veeeerrrryyyy basic, but works. Its a little further away from the Old Town than I hoped, and its all downhill (which means all uphill coming back) but I eventually find my way there.

Dubrovnik feels more Italian than anything, even the Serbo-Croatian has a bit of Italian lilt to it. Its fun to stroll the strada in the evening just people watching, or catch some live music in one of the many outdoor cafes. Whats great is that the locals mix with the tourists, and the whole place becomes a sort of giant outdoor night club. Very romantic, I guess. Today, Ill catch a few more sights and try to stay out of the sun (got a nice burn in Split), then its off to London tomorrow before coming home Saturday. I think Im ready to come home; its been fun, but im tired and missing Seattle.

25 July 2005

Split

Split is a coastal city about 100 miles north of Dubrovnik, a nice stop and jumping off point for exploring the Dalmatian coast. Unfortunately, boats to Dubrovnik run only on Sundays and Mondays, so I have to shitcan that idea and just take the bus. Hopefully I'll have a nice window seat with a view of the water.

I took the night train from Zagreb, my last train leg for this trip. I had high hopes of fulfilling my fantasy of sharing a compartment with 5 cute coeds (boom chick-a bow-wow!) in search of themselves; instead, I get 3 sweaty Croats (dudes, of course). It didn't take long before that compartment started smelling like B.O., bad breath and moldy dog ass, my contribution to which being more than I care to imagine. We arrive in Split at 6 this morning, so I stow my bag and hit the sights before the city wakes up. The main attraction of the city, besides being on the Adriatic, is the Roman Emperor Diocletian's retirement home, a 600x600' palace right in the middle of the city.

Here in Croatia people don't greet you with "Hello." Instead, they say "Sobe?" which means "room." An underground industry of renting out private rooms to backpackers seems to flourish here, so I decide what the hell. I talk to an old lady, we agree on a price (160 kuna, about 25 bucks) and follow her home, about 5 minutes outside of the town center. I thought it was her home, but I think she's just a runner, because the owners of the home have already prepared their living room for me. Just like staying at grandma's house.

24 July 2005

Ljubljana

Until I met Tracy (the receptionist at the office), I had never even heard of Slovenia; of course, it didnt really exist (in its current form) until 1991, when it seceded from the Yugoslav republic. Everything has been a bit of a suprise, from the old world charm of its capital, Ljubljana, to the modern and sleek transportation infrastructure. So, Ive been living la dolce vita here in Ljubljana for the last 24 hours and while it has plenty of the old, theres a remarkable dose of modern. Most of that comes from Joze Plecnik, sort of the Gaudi of Ljubljana. Ive covered the sights (castle, some squares, bridges, market) in just a few hours; the rest of the time is spent sitting in some riverside cafe just people-watching, or strolling down the promenade, gelato in hand.

Tonight, Ill take the train back to Zagreb, then connect with the night train to Split. Beaches, here I come!

Budapest

Now heres a city that I would like to know better. Forget about that earlier post that claims Krakow is the next Paris; I think that crown belongs to Budapest. That said, Im gonna stop trying to compare cities like this-for one thing, I havent even been to Paris and every city has its own character that gets lost in those comparisons. Budapest is complex and subtle, cosmopolitan, conscious of its history yet forward looking, basically everything you expect of a world capital. I hope to return sooner than later.

Wednesday: I always have about an hour of frustration when arriving in a new city-getting my bearings, getting money (and getting small bills), figuring out transportation, etc. Budapest is no exception. So again, I find myself humping my stuff over to my hotel, which is just off Andrassy Ut, one of the main drags thru town, in the diplomatic section of Budapest (the Chinese embassy is a few buildings away). Its also 2 blocks from a metro stop-Budapests underground metro system is, well, charming. Its pretty shallow, the stations are small, tiled and clean, and the trains run about every 3 minutes. I explore the downtown reaches of Andrassy, head down Vajza Utca-the tourist shop gauntlet and stop in the Great Market Hall at the southern end. The hall is a giant arcade with ground floor produce, meat and bread vendors, with souvenir stalls and a few street food joints up above. Sounds a little like Pike Place, but not really. There dont seem to be any of the individual producers and doesnt have the street fair vibe of Seattle. I got a big plate of goulash and a coke for about $4-great place for a quick lunch. For dinner, I hang out with my fellow yuppies at one of the trendy eateries along Franz Liszt square.

Thursday: Ride the funicular to the top of Castle Hill. Nothing too remarkable, except that theyre excavating what was a former Jewish settlement. I grab a burger at TGI Fridays-western restaurants are everywhere and I hear thats what people around here do. Besides, Im in the mood for a burger.

Friday: Visit the House of Terror, which documents the reign of two separate, yet equally harsh regimes-the Arrowcross (sort of like a Hungarian Gestapo), and the AVO, which was the Communist secret police. The museum is in their former HQ, and features a Soviet tank atop a reflecting pool, with pictures of victims lining the walls of the atrium. Powerful. Later, I toured the Hungarian Parliament building and strolled along the Danube.

Prague

I wanted to like it more than I did; dont get me wrong-its a wonderful city and I will return someday, but I think the focus on tourism got to me after awhile. I know, Im a tourist, but that machine works a little too well, I couldnt really get a feel for what the city is really like. Despite the horror stories of naive tourists getting ripped off left and right, I think I came out relatively ok. The highlights:

Saturday: I was >< that close to selling my body just to get 80 crowns to buy a transit ticket-the bankomats (ATMs) only give out big bills and the small vendors around here freak out when you try to buy a coke with a 10,000 crown bill. So I walked to the Old Town and took in the sights: Wenceslas Square, Kings Walk, Charles Bridge, Town Square. One interesting sight off the beaten path is the Mucha Museum-featuring works of the Art Deco artist famous for his Parisian posters. The hotel is way out of the way in one of the neighborhoods, but right on a tram line so getting there wasnt too bad.

Sunday: More wandering around...

Monday: Hiked up the hill to Prague Castle. A lot of the major sights in Prague are being restored, which is good, but didnt make for good photos.

Tuesday: Side trip to Cesky Krumlov, a little town about 4 hours south by train. Toured the Castle grounds (what self-respecting medieval town doesnt have a castle?) and watched tourists float down the Vltva river. Theres one little section with some rapids where the kayakers and rafters try to make it through; some did, most didnt. Then back to Prague for the night train to Budapest.

Pics Pending

Sorry I´m not posting more pictures; those summabitches are huge and take forever to load, and the connections here are a little slow...I´ll upload the whole shebang when I get home...

21 July 2005

Astronomical Clock, Prague

IMG_0438
IMG_0438,
originally uploaded by Fred Jala.
At the top of the hour, Death (to the right of the upper dial) turns over the hourglass and pulls a cord which rings the bell, his head nodding as if to say "I see all of you, and you'll meet me sooner or later." Figures on the other side shake their heads to the contrary. In the windows above, the twelve apostles march by. I was walking by here the next day and the window above and to the right of that large doorway on the left fell out, leaving glass all over the street.

One Pivo, Two Pivo, Three Pivo, Floor

Where I'm at (Prague in particular), beer is cheaper than Coke. You can get a half liter of brew for about a dollar, soda is maybe $1.50. And it's good, good stuff. This is a good place to make your travel dollar stretch; I've had a good steak and beer dinner in Prague for around $10, and stuffed myself silly at a Polish milk bar for maybe $4...

Pay to Pee

Central Europe has found a way to piss off (so to speak) us tourists-namely the pay WC. In almost all cases, this involves handing a few coins to the old lady (and it's always an old lady) sitting by the door. #1? 2 zloty. #2? That'll be 5, please. Oh, and for you guys with shy bladders, I suggest avoiding the WC in the bottom of Cloth Hall in Krakow. The attendant's station is a little closet directly across from the urinals, with full view of the goings on. Just swallow your pride, do your bidness, and move on.

Old Town, Warsaw

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IMG_0348,
originally uploaded by Fred Jala.
During WWII, Warsaw was completely levelled, so everything here is a reconstruction, yet seems to have all the same charm and character as Krakow.

18 July 2005

Unieow Castle

IMG_0232
IMG_0232,
originally uploaded by Fred Jala.
The tower-a 13th(?) century castle along the Unieow River, about 20km from Kolumna. K's parents met here during a young Socialist's singles weekend (no kidding) and married about 6 months later. The castle is a hotel as well, reportedly haunted by the White Lady.

Catching Up

I'm more than a week behind, so I'll hit the highlights:

Saturday: Wedding. Ceremony started 16:30, left reception 0700 the
next morning. Drunk waaaaay to much (their hand signal for "let's
drink" is similar to our "cut this guy off." Seriously.) But David
drank more and, well, ask him for that story. Tons of fun.

Sunday: Backyard BBQ. A common misconception is that Poland is
Eastern Europe, which is what I've been calling it all along. I stand
corrected: Poles consider themselves Central Europeans. Russia is
eastern Europe. Going to spend the night at Unieow castle.

Monday: Toured the castle, grounds and nearby town. Got into a
little fender-bender (everyone's ok, but this deserves its own
entry-some other time). Spent some time up in the rafters of a little
church in Lask. Had pizza with corn-strange to me but it wasn't bad.

Tuesday: Drive-thru tour of Lodz before we catch the train to Warsaw.
About 30 minutes into it we stop and are told there's a derailment up
ahead, so we backtrack a little and get off, supposedly so a bus can
take us around the crash. We end up getting back on the train and
continuing on, arriving 2 hours late. I am bad transportation karma
personified. Tour Warsaw (hard to believe this place was completely
levelled 60 years ago), spend the night at K's friend's mom's
apartment. Oh yeah: Polish women-FIIIIIIIINNNNNEEEE! I think I have
whiplash.

Wednesday: Krakow. I split up from Dave and Cheri, who try to find
their way to the salt mines. I hang around the Jewish quarter before
meeting them for dinner-I am craving something besides cabbage, so we
go for Mexican, which comes with-yup, coleslaw. Goddamn. Have a
drink at a jazz club before they head off for Prague. Yikes, now I'm
alone.

Thursday: Auschwitz/Birkenau. Not much new to be said but just a
real palpable sense of sadness. It took a lot of willpower for me
just to stay and see everything.

Friday: Hanging around Krakow some more, just people watching, then
the night train to Prague. shared a sleeper compartment with a
Brazilian and two Germans (who ended up nearly naked-ha! What did I
tell you!).

Saturday/Sunday/Monday: Prague. Hotel is far from the city center so
I get familiar with the transit system, which works beautifully.
Beautiful narrow cobblestone streets, large squares, churches, the
whole nine. Tomorrow I'll visit Cesky Krumlov then off to Budapest to
meet up with my friend Tibor, an architect in Seattle.

15 July 2005

Male bonding, or "How do you say 'testicles' in Polish?"

IMG_0096
IMG_0096,
originally uploaded by Fred Jala.
No matter what language you speak, men, being men, will talk about the same things if you leave them to their own devices: sports, babes, alcohol and their balls. No big suprise there, but in this case David and I managed to spend a few enjoyable hours with Krzystof with only a handful of words, communicating with sign language and lots of pointing at things. We found ourselves alone with him after everyone else left to finish the setup for the reception. Our task was to help make glabki (stuffed cabbage rolls) for the BBQ Sunday. We watched as Krzystof patiently walked us through the steps. Before long, David was over a pot of boiling water, peeling leaves off a head of cabbage and I'm wrist deep in pork. Awesome.

Between steps, we found a way to talk about families, food, volleyball and she-devil women who keep their men's testicles in little boxes (since they don't need them anymore). By the way, the glabki was a hit...

Answer to question above: "ja-ja," which is also "eggs."

11 July 2005

Dzien dobry!

I'm several days behind, so I'll try to keep this updated in small
chunks: The trip over was uneventful, save for a couple tense moments
during the layover in Copenhagen, where we first learned of the London
bombings. From where I stood, everything was business as usual, which
is much different than the reaction I expected from the US, which is
to go on high alert.

We landed in Warsaw during a thunderstorm, which makes for a
convenient yet cliched metaphor for what we were to expect for the
next few days. JM and KW, along with JM's mom LM (who had arrived a
few hours earlier) and KW's dad, KW (let's say Chris)-LM's checked
baggage had been "delayed," which was the one kink in what was
otherwise a smooth arrival.

We piled into Chris' van and headed out. Now, I've heard that driving
in some foreign countries can make the most hardcore atheist find
religion, but while I wouldn't call the drive to Kolumna relaxing, it
wasn't white-knuckle either. To us Ameriyki, the technique seems a
bit aggressive, and shoulder driving is common (2 lane roads are
effectively 3 lanes, the middle one for passing). Needless to say,
you don't see many bikes on the busier roads.

4 hours later, we're in Kolumna, which is a small district outside of
the town of Pabianice (pah-bee-a-NEE-tsay). At this point I've been
up for more than 24 hours. Here's our hotel:

www.hotel-unia.pl

05 July 2005

Krakow, the Paris of Eastern Europe

The city of Krakow, Poland, has that alchemic mix of history, architecture, art, and laid-back cafe culture that so many foreigners look for in Paris—but for a quarter of the price and with none of the attitude. I've lived in Paris for the last 10 months, so I barely knew what to make of Krakow's cheerful and attentive waiters. Even stranger was the opportunity to eat an excellent meal for two, with wine, for $20.
Another article in the Slate series.

Prague Preview

Here's a recent Slate article on Prague.

04 July 2005

Get your Gmail invites!

Not as scarce as they used to be, but I've got 50 invites just sitting there needing a new home. If you want your own Gmail address, let me know.

Flickr + Canon

I've also signed up for a Flickr account for posting photos. I'll be uploading my trip photos there, so feel free to take a look at them, as well as a few others I've taken in the last few years. I've looked at the other photo sharing websites; Flickr is unique in that it is more of an amateur photographer's community than just a place to post the usual pictures of your nephew's birthday party or your dog, though there's plenty of that that there as well. What I like most is the group feature, which allows you join any number of interest groups, where you can add your photos to a group pool and participate in any discussions.

I went ahead and bought a fancy new camera as well; I wanted to document the trip as best I can, and felt I could do that with the 20d better than my G2, which is now in AT's capable hands. I've always had an interest in photography, what better way to further develop those skills than with a nice camera? Unfortunately, I've also rendered the rest of my equipment obsolete (an AE-1 Program circa 1985) because it's so old, so I've got to start over with the filters, lenses, etc. I always pick the expensive hobbies. Know anyone who would be interested in a starter SLR?

On to the business at hand

My friend JM met a lovely girl, KW, on one of his trips to Europe a few years ago (for now I'll stick to ID'ing people by their initials) and eventually married her in a small ceremony here in the States. Now, they'll do it all over again, this time for her side of the family in Poland. A few of us from the US, including our friend DG (my regular drinking buddy), his wife CG and myself were invited and will be attending. How could I pass up the opportunity to see this part of the world and experience a little culture? Here's the itinerary (subject to change) - travel between cities will be via night trains, so as to maximize my sightseeing time.

July

6-7: Seattle-Warsaw. J and K will pick us up at the airport and we'll hang out in Warsaw for the evening.

8: Head down to Kolumna (I think-that's where the wedding is anyway and I hear the whole town's gonna be there), a couple hours outside Warsaw. Reception is in Pabianice.

9: Wedding. JM says that he's ordered a buttload of vodka, basically a bottle for every person. Pray for my liver.

10-11: Castle side trip and Lodz, which is the center of the Polish textile trade, and a beautiful town in it's own right.

12: Back to Warsaw to see off J's mom, more sightseeing in the city. Maybe the Treblinka concentration camp, then to Krakow.

13-15: Krakow/Auschwitz. DG, CG and I will go down to Krakow. They'll be there a short time before they head off to Prague, while I'll stick around for a little while longer to see the city and visit the concentration camps of Auschwitz and Birkenau. From what I hear, Krakow is the new Paris, with better value for the dollar and no snotty French people (just kidding, I love zee French).

16-19: Prague, perhaps a side trip to Cesky-Krumlov or the town of Pilsen (think beer).

20-23: Budapest

24: Ljubljana, Slovenia

25-26: Split, Croatia. The Dalmatian coast-time to work on that tan.

27-28: Dubrovnik, Croatia. No, I won't be stepping into the middle of a war zone, though this area didn't escape the recent conflicts.

28-30: London and home. Europe by Air (link) offers links between cities for only $99US per leg.

That's enough, no?

Welcome

Enough people have asked me about this European trip that I figured: why not blog it? But why go to all the effort? First, it'll be a record of my first real international experience (of my adult life anyway), equal parts travelogue and journal. I'll add entries as often as I can find internet access (which isn't that hard anymore). I'm looking forward to the experience of seeing new places and cultures, maybe live like a native for at least a short time.

Secondly, I want to go beyond the dry accounting of my day to day activities; my intent is for this to continue as a place to dump any thoughts, profound or otherwise, that run through my head before I forget them. Basically it'll be a measure of where I'm "at," literally and figuratively. It's a bit scary putting myself out there, again literally and figuratively, but I think it'll be good for me to share more of my life with friends and family (it's taken a few years of therapy to get to this point, so I have that going for me-thanks RS!). I'll apologize in advance if the content gets a little edgy, or the language coarse, but those of you who know me well (and that's most of you reading this) know I'm as likely to drop an f-bomb as I am to drop some knowledge on your ass (oh yeah, I'm also quite fond of the parenthetical aside). So, bookmark this page (extra points if you set up an RSS feed instead), check in once in awhile, and feel free to leave a comment. Stay tuned.