Hvar and Co.

The Ferry Four
Naill has dubbed himself, Eimear, Simone, and I the "ferry four" as the four of us met crossing over on the ferry from Bari to Dubrovnik. In a repeat performance the four of us headed off to the island of Hvar. Beautiful beautiful place!

Upon arriving at our little island paradise we were "treated" to a horde of room hockers fighting for our wee pennies. Bit weird actually, having 6 different people argue over you. One woman was especially alarming. All the more so because at first glance I thought she had a small sea urchin clinging desperately to her upper lip. Closer inspection (she insisted on talking a whole 2 inches from my face) revealed that it was instead a particularly gruesome hairy mole.

After finding a nice place (not with the urchin woman) we dumped our gear and headed into town. Craving meat we treated ourselves to some pretty good steaks. I say pretty good, because as far as I can tell there aren't a lot of cows on Hvar. Still the night was good. Even more so because we also treated ourselves to 3 litres of potent house white. Having become quite jolly, the evening began to degrade from there. Simone wanted to check out diving centers and I joined her, but in the process we lost Naill and Eimear. Then Simone and I headed into a club (apparently extremely drunk female tourists don't have to pay cover on Hvar!) and then I lost her too after she headed out to find water at the bar. At this point I found myself completely alone in a strange club with double vision. Yikes!

Still, I managed to work things out. After several fantastically unsuccessful attempts to find the appartment in the pitch black streets, I managed to cajole an American guy into being chivalrous and walking me up and down the dark streets. Still no luck in finding the place though. 3am in the morning showed up and I still couldn't find any of the others or the appartment we were staying in. But the manager of the club took pity on me and after showing him the business card of the woman who owned the appartment he grabbed a buddy's motorcycle and gave me a lift up the hill to the door. So weird being driven around in almost pitch black streets, in a town you don't know, clinging to some strange man's back. That's one for the record!

Once I got back I found Simone and the others in bed. Soo glad to have found Simone. We basically spent the next 30mins appologizing for losing and abandoning each other. Apparently she'd spent a stressful night as well desperately trying all the dark stairwells that lead up the hillside in vain hope that one of them would be the right one. We had a huge hug. :)

So let that be a lesson to you. ALWAYS remember landmarks for where your room is!

Rakija
After Hvar the Ferry Four headed up to Zadar and connected up with Verity, Corinna, and Jinny who we'd met in Dubrovnik. (The boys showed up a day later.) The plan was to head to the Paklencia national park and do some hiking. For some reason I had it in my head I'd be hiking in leafy green woods, but instead was transported to the scortching hot surface of Mars. I swear even the tree sap was bubbling. The aim of the hike was to reach this cave and see the stalagtites and stalagmites. Now I had always imagined that caves were near the bottom of mountains. Not so! This beastie lay at the very top of the bloody mountain. Ugh! I nearly died! Still, such a sense of achievement for having done it and not copped out. Go me!

On the way back we passed a stand where a woman was selling home brewed wine and something called Rakija. Now, my friend Marenko had told me a little bit about this particular beverage. So when the crew asked what it was I had his words echoing in my mind. "Sarah, seriously. This stuff is Croatian moonshine. It'll make you go blind." Funnily enough, having passed on those words of wisdom, the warning instead became a selling point and two 1.5 litre bottles were bought. (I say bottles, but really they were reused plastic juice bottles with coca cola caps. So reasurring.) Over the course of the next two nights we came to call this golden pink liquor "magic juice" and as far as I can tell it's basically a grape brandy. But damn is it good! Though Marenko's warning was not without merit, for the guys who indulged severely in the newly monikered magic juice woke up with a hangover which only a quick trip to the guillotine would be sure to cure.

On a completely different note, Corinna the super genius showed me how to upload pictures through Blogger. Apparently it's got it's own photo storage and resize capabilities. So tomorrow I'll treat you all to a select few pictures of the last 2 months.

The Crew

As I mentioned before, Naill, Eimear, Simone and I have crashed at the impossibly awesome appartment. But what makes this appartment so much more great is that we've connected up with Corinna, Verity, Jinny, Alf (short for Alfred), and Alistair. And just like some crazy japanese sci-fi together we combine to form THE CREW. (Over the top posturing included).

Strangely enough we're all travelling in vaguely the same direction to Zadar. Although we'll break off into smaller groups and take slightly different routes to get there. From there the plan is to head off to some of the national parks in Croatia for some woodsy-ness.

But a recap of the past couple days:
I melted. Literally there are parts of me left in puddles all over Dubrovnik. GOD IT'S HOT. Way hotter than Rome. Still we managed to do some pretty heftz atheletic things: walking to and from the old town (we're too cheap to take the bus), walking around the entire length on top of the old city walls (really drives home how much of the city was destroyed during the war), and swimming like fishes (and desperately trying not to be skewered by sea urchins). We've also had some pretty freaking gormet meals cooked up in our wee kitchen. Last night was probably the most extravagant with red wine cooked prawns, whole cooked fish straight from the fish markets, and spicy tuna chili (The chili's mine. See Dad, I CAN cook! :D). All for pretty damn cheap.

The war thing is a bit weird. You can see it on the relentless construction going on in the city to repair the damage and reinvigorate the city. But it blows my mind to think that the people I pass on the streets were alive and here during the war. They have had friends and family directly affected by it and it's marked on their lives forever. I've never been in a place where war has happened so recently. Very heavy, but important to absorb and remember.

Tomorrow the crew breaks up and we scatter on our way up to Zadar. Simone and I are catching a ferry to the luxury island of Hvar. It'll be expensive but I'm looking forward to seeing the sights and sounds of the rich. Should make for some excellent photos. And with luck some rich fellows will invite us onto their yacht for dinner!

Dubrovnik at last

I have been waiting to arrive here for the whole trip!
And I can safely say that it's awesome!

Hurtled my way to Bari and off the train to the ferry terminal. On the way bumped into a bunch of Yanks and an Aussie who were headed to Patras in Greece on their way to the greek islands. (Funny how you can tell New Yorkers instantly). Had a good time with those guys until they left and I went off to buy my passage. Once I had my ticket in hand I ploughed my way onto the boat in search of "deck" passage. Luckily that just means any seat without a number, so a spare spot of carpet is fair game. In the process I met up with Naill, Eimear, and Simone who once we disembarked landed an appartment together for 120 Kuna a night each (not actually that much, about 19 euro). Our place is awesome! It's in a residential neighborhood called Lapad, which is leafy, green, and filled with flowering vines. And it has a kitchen! My god, a real kitchen! Bacon and eggy breakfasts here I come!

We arrived this morning so I haven't seen much of Dubrovnik yet (Simone and I are headed to the Old Town and then the beach later today). But what I have seen is beautiful. I love the vibe here. For instance: we asked the tourist office where the nearest internet cafe is and she said straight down such and such a street is the internet park. So we trundle off looking for some building labelled "Internet Park". But what we found instead was literally a park filled with computers on tables, litered throughout the park under dappled shady trees! SO COOL!

Travel Agents

Italian travel agents can kiss my ass!
After visiting several different agencies in 3 different major Italian cities (Venice, Florence, Rome) NONE of them could help me book a ferry ticket to Dubrovnik, Croatia. And one of the last guys wouldn't even help at all, he just said "No, no ferry tickets" and I said ok, well is there somewhere else I can go to get my ticket and he snorted, SNORTED!!! and said "No!" and ran off to get a coffee. Jerk!

Soooo mad, so so mad! I have steam shooting out of my ears, threatening to scald the girl on the computer next to me. I have flames bursting out of my mouth, melting the monitor. Lightning bolts are sparking from my eyes. Claws are raking the keyboard to shreds. I am MAD, MAD, MAD!

After visiting 5 different agencies today I finally went into one (ironically the same agency as Mr. Jerk, but a different location) and a very apologetic woman explained that her agency wasn't able to process tickets for Durbrovnik, only for Zadar or Split. She suggested that the best course would be to buy it directly from the ferry terminal in Bari and that I should have no trouble getting a ticket that way. Finally some help! Even if it wasn't exactly what I wanted.

So it's fly by the seat of my pants time. I have no ferry booked yet and no hostel booked once I arrive. (All the available rooms online are private, meaning I'd have to buy out all 3 beds in order to stay. Expensive!) This is partly tremendously appealing as it's really what backpacking is all about. But on the other hand I'm totally freaking out as it feels like I'm stepping out into an abyss. Woo! Fun times!

Hot Showers and Clean Laundry

Ahhh... there's nothing quite like a good clean hot shower. Is there anything that can't be solved by a steaming spray of aqua? I think not!

Especially if while squeaky clean you are surrounded by the voluptuous scent of clean laundry. Mmmmm... Clean laundry, how I missed you so! Though it is mildly depressing to think that my entire travel wardrobe (save what I'm wearing of course) can fit into a plastic safeway shopping bag with room to spare. :P

Lair of the Unicorn

So Sherry and I whilst thoroughly enjoying our stay in Siena went for a stroll amidst the winding tall medieval walls. At random we picked a twisting path with a delightful arch and discovered a cute park packed with the most random collection of reject modern art I've ever seen! After farting around a bit, two guys came out from an adjacent house with huge medieval flags and started practicing throwing them in the air and leaping overtop of one another. Sherry and I had stumbled upon two contrada guys practicing for the August 16th Palio! After watching them for awhile (they dropped their flags a lot, keep practicing guys!) we made our escape. On the way out we noticed that all the buildings around the park were covered with the Unicorn contrada crest. We'd discovered the "Lair of the Unicorn" as we came to call it.

I'm farting around Rome these days and have seen a fair few of the sites (Vatican Museums and the Sistine Chapel are tomorrow. Stupid closed on Sundays... grumble grumble). If it thought it was hot in Siena, I was ignorant and foolish. Rome beats the pants off that temperature. (Not sure how temperatures can have pants, or even what they'd look like if they did, but if they can and do, they're beaten!) Still so awesome to see the Roman forum, the Coloseum, Bernini and Boromini's fountains, and of course St. Peter's Basilica. Beatiful. And plenty of water fountains for thirsty tourists! (If the whole of Vatican City is considered holy ground, does that make the water fountains there holy water? Here's hoping. I need a good blessing on my travels!)

Either on Tuesday or Wednesday I'll be leaving Italy behind for Croatia. Feels very weird to think that I've been here a whole month. And I still can't speak Italian!

Burnt Siena

Bloody hell it's hot here. It seems like the whole city is one giant jiffy pop and we're all gonna explode soon. Medieval cities were not constructed with wind channels in mind!

But besides the temperature Siena is soooo neat. It's days after the Palio but the different contrades (city factions, probably totally spelt that wrong) are still throwing parties. I just love that every district in the city has it's own coat of arms posted on the walls. Even the street lights change colours depending on which district you're in. Our hotel is staying in the swan one (forgot the name sorry), but there are 17 others. I'm trying to get pictures of them. It's a bit like Pokemon, "gotta catch them all!".

Siena is beautiful and low key with TONNES of wine shops and pastry shops. Showcasing specialties of the region of course. Was trying to figure out how to do a wine tour of the Chianti region, but apparently they don't really go for that sort of thing here. At least certainly not for those on a budget!

I have one more day here then Sherry departs for Vancouver and I head off to Rome. God was it hard to find a place to stay. Seems like the whole city is booked up. Still, I managed to find a place not too far from the Vatican. Score!

Land of the Medici

So school finished up on Friday with one last field trip to Pisa and Lucca. Bit bummed about the "leaning" tower. In my opinion it's not leaning nearly enough! It was also covered in scafolding which always ruins the effect.

Lucca was fabulous. A smallish town still enclosed in it's medieval walls and filled with delicious shopping. Most of my classmates went totally wild and filled their bags with all sorts of finds. We also discovered that Eric Clapton was playing a concert that night so a few of us engineered a plan to head back to Lucca later that evening. And after some brief drama involving thefts by the cleaning staff (police had to be called, even the Mayor of the town showed up!) we packed ourselves off in a wee Italian car and trundled off to Lucca. Rem and I decided not to spend the money on the tickets, but instead found ourselves a restaurant near the stage and dined to Eric while we slurped our pasta and guzzled our wine.

Saturday, Allison and I booked it to the train station and headed off to Venice. We met up with Sherri later that evening at the campsite/hostel. I LOVE VENICE!!!! In my humble opinion it's far more romantic that Paris. With music buskers around every curving street, maze like passages, and twisting water ways this city is pure magic. Throw in some amazing buildings and a fetish for 18th century masks and I was sold. Venice thus far is my favorite Italian city.

After that the 3 of us made our way to Florence. Ah Florence, so much to see and so little time. Today I'm determined to see the Duomo, the Accademia, and the Ufizi (probably spelt that wrong) gallery. Also have to figure out how to send a package home because I'll be damned if I have to lug those stupid textbooks around with me to another city. Damn near broke my back coming here!

World Cup-age

So Italy's in the final. Bummer, I was kind of rooting for Germany after Brazil crapped out. Losing to the French, disgraceful!

But on the other hand I'm in Italy when the games are happening so I get to party with the home crowd. And it's neat to see everyone from babies to white haired old grandpas getting into it. There was this one old fella who was running around the town square with the Italian flag as a cape shouting "Italia! Italia! Italia!".

I should be in Venice when the final game goes down. Craziness!

Sun and Lemons

Ok, it's been awhile and it's time for a recap.

Thursday was a weird night for me. Had a bit too much to drink and ended up being taken care of by 14 mothers (my classmates. Thanks guys!). This of course made it a bit difficult to get up a 4am in the morning in order to board our bus for Sorento / Capri. But thanks to gravity I was able to quite literally hurl myself out of bed and down the stairs of the castle. Our bus ended up being not only an hour and half late but also appeared to be the smallest vehicle carrying the name "bus" that I've ever seen. Clown cars have more room than we did.

But we arrived more or less intact and managed to stumble around Pompeii without too much difficulty. Though I do think we set a new record for water consumption. It was BLOODY hot!
After that we were carted off to a lovely hotel with... gasp!... a bath! Oooo loveliness. Capri was beautiful, if a bit too touristy. Still neat though to see all the wealthy Italian homes. Sorento at first seemed to be a sleepy little town. That was until Brazil played France and the whole city become packed with people. However my classmates and I were well practiced in the arts of cramped spaces we handled the situation marvellously. Sorento at night was so much fun!

The Amalfi coast is a rocky craggy plethora of beautiful seaside villages. Similar to the Cinque Terre but much more rugged and tropical. They also have this "minor" obsession with lemons. Lemons, lemons, lemons. Lemon liqueur. Lemon candies. Lemon soap. Lemon candles. Lemon printed fabrics. And just plain lemons. A bit overpowering at times, but still neat to see citrus stuff everywhere.

This week has been like a flashback to first year uni. Studying and studying and studying. Dang! Who'd have thought that I'd actually have to work while at school!

The next couple weeks will probably be a bit slower in terms of updates. And I'm still trying to work out the photos thing. (May have to send them home on CD and get someone to crop and upload for me). I'm headed out to Venice on Saturday. And after Venice is Florence. After Venice is Sienna (sans Palio :( ). After Sienna is Rome. And after that I'm not quite sure. I've got it scribbled in as "Croatia" in my mental timetable. But wheter that means I head to Split first or Dubrovnik I don't know. But either way things could be a little less frequent on the ol blog.

Dad told me about this amazing week long music festival in Obudai (or something like that) just outside of Budapest in Hungary. Soo many of my favourite bands are playing, though unfortunately none of them are playing on the same day. Philistines! Still, even if I can make it to Radiohead on August 12th I'll be happy as a pig in mud. Stay tuned for how it turns out!