the croatian experience
i dont have my journal in front of me, so ill have to remember what seems like months worth of stuff. i hope i wont leave anything out.
i stayed at the hostel in budapest with the french guys. we went out and wandered for hours (apparently, its impossible to find a good turkish piyya in budapest. who knew). finally we break down and settle for pizza hut, which turned out to actually be really good and better than anything in america.
after we got our piyya fireworks started going off. we followed the fireworks and they were shooting off behind a beautiful old church, st. istvan's basilica. in the park down some steps a band was playing hungarian folk songs and people were dancing. i have no idea what the celebration was for but we sat and listened to the music and watched the fireworks and ate pizza and drank wine. it was absolutely beautiful. we hung out in the park for a while after the music was over and then walked back to the hostel. charles, the french guy with a british accent, went to bed and thibault and i stayed up really late talking outside and smoking. it was a really good talk and i got to know him really well. so far, some of the best nights ive had have occurred when i got "stuck" somewhere unexpectedly.
i got the train to zagreb. then i had to wait from 10 till 1 in the rmoning to get another train to rijeka, croatia. at the train station i met some old croatians who didnt know english very well but were very nice. they bought me beer and we talked broken english sentences for an hour or two. im not sure exactly what he was saying, but i think he was telling me that he was in the croatian war of independence. he had a healed over hole in his skull i think he said was from a serb. but he said he felt very badly about being in the war,he has no problems, and he loves everyone, even though im american (haha).
so i get into rijeka after 15 hours of train riding and no sleep. now i find out that the town im meeting the guys in is 50 km down the coast. ugh. i hop on my bike and go. it turns out croatians are very bad at judging distances, because i made it to medveja after only an hour of biking. it was 7:30 by then, so i relaxed on the beautiful croatian beach until 11 when the guys were waking up in the campsite (it was easy to find. the whole town is the siye of my childhood neighborhood).
croatia is the most beautiful country i have ever seen. hands down. beautiful mountains meeting clear blue ocean waters filled with coral and fish. unbelievable.
that night me, the norwegians, and the english all got invited to mariahs (one of the norwegians) family reunion dinners they have in this town every year. it was a ton of fun, i met more norwegians and croatians, drank lots of beer, and went swimming in the wee hours of the morning.
the next day mariahs family invited us out on a cruise. we went out into the sea and boated to a beautiful island where we had freshly caught fish. on the way back i left the "young poeples" boat and hopped on the "geriatric" boat. damn, those guys know how to party. they were playing guitar, chugging wine, laughing, dancing, stumbling, singing. it was so much fun. they were all so nice. one man, a local, told me about lots of small towns around that i should bike to. im trying to squeeze them into my trip. but he said rovinj, my final destination in croatia, is absolutely gorgeous and i made a very good choice. i cant wait.
unfortunately, during our boat ride, the weather got rough and it rained on the mainland. i forgot to put my rainfly on my tent that mroning. all of my shitz got soaked. luckily, none of it is ruined, it can all dry. but my book and my journal are now wrinkly, and it was a damp and smelly nights sleep.
last night we went out to some bars. one of mariahs cousins worked in one a few summers ago so we were allowed to stay until almost morning.
this morning i said goodbye to the norwegians. everyone is going further south to split. dave, one nof the english guys, is bussing and following me around. i really miss the norwegians. i feel liken i got really close with them very quickly and i made very good friends. im going to try to meet up withz kristian and veigard in italy. the girls left for norway this morning. ive decided i will move to norway and marry one of them. and our children will be very, very blonde.
im in medveja one more night. dave and i got a hotel so we can actually get a good nightsm sleep and we did laundry. thank god. i was stankin. but tomorrow, pula! after that, rovinj. then italy. where hopefully i will see the norwegians again.
i stayed at the hostel in budapest with the french guys. we went out and wandered for hours (apparently, its impossible to find a good turkish piyya in budapest. who knew). finally we break down and settle for pizza hut, which turned out to actually be really good and better than anything in america.
after we got our piyya fireworks started going off. we followed the fireworks and they were shooting off behind a beautiful old church, st. istvan's basilica. in the park down some steps a band was playing hungarian folk songs and people were dancing. i have no idea what the celebration was for but we sat and listened to the music and watched the fireworks and ate pizza and drank wine. it was absolutely beautiful. we hung out in the park for a while after the music was over and then walked back to the hostel. charles, the french guy with a british accent, went to bed and thibault and i stayed up really late talking outside and smoking. it was a really good talk and i got to know him really well. so far, some of the best nights ive had have occurred when i got "stuck" somewhere unexpectedly.
i got the train to zagreb. then i had to wait from 10 till 1 in the rmoning to get another train to rijeka, croatia. at the train station i met some old croatians who didnt know english very well but were very nice. they bought me beer and we talked broken english sentences for an hour or two. im not sure exactly what he was saying, but i think he was telling me that he was in the croatian war of independence. he had a healed over hole in his skull i think he said was from a serb. but he said he felt very badly about being in the war,he has no problems, and he loves everyone, even though im american (haha).
so i get into rijeka after 15 hours of train riding and no sleep. now i find out that the town im meeting the guys in is 50 km down the coast. ugh. i hop on my bike and go. it turns out croatians are very bad at judging distances, because i made it to medveja after only an hour of biking. it was 7:30 by then, so i relaxed on the beautiful croatian beach until 11 when the guys were waking up in the campsite (it was easy to find. the whole town is the siye of my childhood neighborhood).
croatia is the most beautiful country i have ever seen. hands down. beautiful mountains meeting clear blue ocean waters filled with coral and fish. unbelievable.
that night me, the norwegians, and the english all got invited to mariahs (one of the norwegians) family reunion dinners they have in this town every year. it was a ton of fun, i met more norwegians and croatians, drank lots of beer, and went swimming in the wee hours of the morning.
the next day mariahs family invited us out on a cruise. we went out into the sea and boated to a beautiful island where we had freshly caught fish. on the way back i left the "young poeples" boat and hopped on the "geriatric" boat. damn, those guys know how to party. they were playing guitar, chugging wine, laughing, dancing, stumbling, singing. it was so much fun. they were all so nice. one man, a local, told me about lots of small towns around that i should bike to. im trying to squeeze them into my trip. but he said rovinj, my final destination in croatia, is absolutely gorgeous and i made a very good choice. i cant wait.
unfortunately, during our boat ride, the weather got rough and it rained on the mainland. i forgot to put my rainfly on my tent that mroning. all of my shitz got soaked. luckily, none of it is ruined, it can all dry. but my book and my journal are now wrinkly, and it was a damp and smelly nights sleep.
last night we went out to some bars. one of mariahs cousins worked in one a few summers ago so we were allowed to stay until almost morning.
this morning i said goodbye to the norwegians. everyone is going further south to split. dave, one nof the english guys, is bussing and following me around. i really miss the norwegians. i feel liken i got really close with them very quickly and i made very good friends. im going to try to meet up withz kristian and veigard in italy. the girls left for norway this morning. ive decided i will move to norway and marry one of them. and our children will be very, very blonde.
im in medveja one more night. dave and i got a hotel so we can actually get a good nightsm sleep and we did laundry. thank god. i was stankin. but tomorrow, pula! after that, rovinj. then italy. where hopefully i will see the norwegians again.