Around the World in 300 Days
25th Sep 2006Bob Behind the Iron Curtain Hello once again, It has been a while since I last emailed on my exit from Africa as I now have begun my exploration of Eastern Europe and all she has to offer. I have just arrived in Bucharest Romania and will try and update you (briefly) on the trials and tribulations of my latest travels. I made it to Johannesburg with just enough time to visit Soweto and Mandela’s old home before I was off to the airport for the horror stories that come out of Joburg are enough to limit anyone’s stay in the financial hub of South Africa. I flew to London via Bahrain and landed at Heathrow in a sea of disposed cosmetics and shampoo bottles as I timed my arrival with one of the biggest British terrorism stings in history. I escaped the madness of the airport and got to my cousins house in South Kensington where I set in for some R & R including many baseball games as I had missed the entire season (this was just at the beginnings of the Sox implosion so I was still very much interested). I Frequented the pubs and restaurants of Chelsea by night with my cousin and visited London’s amazing and free museums by day. I Also had the chance to visit my friend Chuck in Salisbury and a visit to Stonehenge that was short and sweet as we were thrown out of the world heritage site for hoping the fence, but not before getting a few quick photos in. My last few days in London also found the rents in Merry old England and we did some sightseeing, catching up and dining in restaurants (not just off the street eating which is what has become "restaurant" in my eyes during the last few months) before they hoped the pond back to the sates and I hoped the Channel (of course bypassing France) over to Berlin. Berlin is a fantastic city drenched in history, charm and much cheaper prices than London. The city is still rebuilding from the scars of WW2 and soviet architecture but has amazing museums, sights and incredible nightlife. The history mainly focused on The Berlin Wall and the Cold War as aside from the Holocaust little was presented of the German perspective to WW2 which may have been disappointing but I guess I understand why. The next stop was an arduous 11 hour night bus to Warsaw, Poland as I escaped from The Euro (I still can’t believe it is worth that much more than the dollar) into the warm loving embrace of the Polish Zloty. Again I was mesmerized by the history of the city from the Warsaw Uprising Museum to the completely rebuilt and magnificent Old Town Square that like so many sights in Eastern Europe as I was to find, was lifted straight out of a fairytale. I also learned that Poles refuse to jaywalk under any circumstances, prefer to park their cars on sidewalks and if they see a chimney sweep on the street they must touch a button and not let go until they see a man wearing glasses for good luck. Wandering the city for a few days I soon joined a Slovak on the southerly train to perhaps my favorite city in Eastern Europe, Krakow. Centered on another beautiful city square with churches left and right and Wawel castle perched like a protective parent on the hill above, I met some of the most friendly people in another history filled city. I also visited Auschwitz while in town, only a few hours away. An overwhelming place once you enter the gates and read above "Arbeit Macht Frei" work sets you free, yards and yards of cloth made from human hair, the train tracks at Birknau that led directly to the crematoriums, an entire room filled with all the prosthetic limbs taken from the prisoners a very depressing yet essential experience in trying to come to grips with understanding of what evils man is capable of. I also visited an ancient salt mine that later became an underground city made entirely of salt, I even tested this claim out by licking the walls and believe it or not, they were incredibly salty. On the first of September I headed out of Poland (unlike someone else 67 years previously) eastwards towards medieval Prague filled with castles, towering spires and statues of good King Wenceslas (the one from the Christmas carol) Prague was certainly impressive city though I have never seen so many tourists in such a concentrated area, so after a few days of exploring and eating potato and cabbage dumplings I left Prague and went south to Plzen, the birth of the almighty pilsner beer that we all know and love so well. A quaint city with a similar medieval setup to most of the larger European towns, its heart and soul was the brewery were some of the worlds last coopers are employed, underground tunnels for the brewing of beer and a taste of unfiltered unpasteurized Pilsner Urquell from an open oak barrel may have been the best beer that has ever graced these lips. Czech Republic was a great country and if only I had not planned for such a whirlwind tour, I would have stayed much longer before jumping on a night train to Budapest. Budapest was another fantastic city with ancient buildings, castles and city squares but with the much loved addition of a fountain that gushes sweet red wine in the labyrinths beneath Buda castle. I had to make sure it was truly the nectar of the gods by drinking it in and suffice to say I was pleased with the results (despite the slight antifreeze taste, but as of yet I`m not blind!). From getting lost in the Pest suburbs, going 2-1 in an impromptu early morning Hungarian arm wrestling tournament and enjoying the The city at night with the ubiquitous collection of Irish, English and Australian backpackers, Budapest rivaled Krakow as top town. The relative cool temperatures and seemingly constant drizzle from above left me with but little option to head for the former Yugoslavia as I continued my journey behind the once imposing Iron Curtain. It began with Zagreb before reaching the sun bleached shores of the Adriatic. The capitol of Croatia is a non descript little town with not too much to do but relax and people watch in the city square or walk through the castle dotted mountain that towers above the city. So after a few days I went south to Split and relaxed within the ancient walls of Roman emperor Diocletian’s palace by night and explored the craggy beaches and painfully sharp sea urchins by day. I took a ferry to the island of Hvar for more exploration of another old walled city perched above the azure waters of the Adriatic and explored the nearby islands with a boat I hired along with some Irish before island jumping further south to Korcula. Here summer decided to disappear and I enjoyed what would become a week of rain that followed me further a field to the beautiful yet tourist choked walls of Dubrovnik and deeper into the Balkans. A bus brought me across the Croatian border into the Mountains of Herzegovina where border control decided my passport must be checked at least five times. I stayed in the recently rebuilt city of Mostar at a family’s apartment who seemed to get very upset if I did not have a glass of Juice in front of me that they had provided at all times. The scars of last decade’s war are clearly visible as bullet holes pepper almost all of the buildings and the abandoned ones still have huge holes blown into them by mortars and RPGs. Famous for her bridge and stunningly fast and green waters, it really was one of the most attractive towns I have come across with mosques, orthodox and catholic churches around every corner. A superb mountain train ride full of mist and switchbacks brought then brought me north to the Bosnian capitol of Sarajevo. Sarajevo is another neat city drenched in history from The arrival of the Turks and Islam to the Assassination of Franz Ferdinand precipitating WW1 to the tragic events of the Serbian siege of Sarajevo. I Visited the museums, the old tunnels that became the lifeline of the city and the Holiday Inn over sniper alley where civilians would get picked off whilst attempting to cross the streets. The old cobble stoned Turkish quarter has much more of an Eastern feel than any other city I have run across in Europe though still scattered with the Soviet Blockhouses that let you know you know that communism had its way here in the decades past. I got an up close look at these concrete suburbs when to buy my bus ticket to Belgrade I had to travel nearly 40 minutes by bus to where the Serb population of the city lives. The Bosnians still do not want much to do with the Serbs and this animosity between the groups is evident by the still large contingent of blue hats scattered throughout the country who will remain for another 10 years. Wandering through the hills streets and war ravaged buildings of Sarajevo I also ran into Richard Gere. He was filming a movie called Flak jacket and since I saw Sara in South Africa his has been the only face i have recognized on my travels (though for some reason he failed to recognize me). After a few great days in my filthy hostel I joined a pack of Australians for the bus ride into Serbia. Buses are not as easy to sleep on then trains in Europe for on trains, everybody simply takes the sleeper cars though I take sitting class and spread out in compartments I find all to myself anyways, but I digress. Belgrade is a much larger city than Sarajevo and much cleaner with only minimal bomb damage from us at home and NATO. The military museum actually displays as trophies pieces of a downed US fighter and the uniforms of captures US soldiers. Alongside these exhibits are weapons captured form Kosvo "terrorists" and pictures of the Serbian dead killed by "illegal" NATO cluster bombs. Apparently the whole ethnic cleansing thing has slipped their mind, very interesting. The city itself spreads out deep across the horizon and the river is filled with party barges playing Serbian pop music until the wee hours of the morning. All in all Belgrade seemed more of a place to live than to visit and so the next day I grabbed my 16 hour train ride into a new time zone and new country, Romania. I hope all is well for everyone back home and if anyone would like a postcard, drop me your address. If not write me back an email about what is going on at home without mentioning Sundays crushing defeat at the hands of the Bungles (though it appears Steel City bungled that game away) as I always enjoy hearing what is going on at home. With that, I bid you all adieu. Cheers, Bob
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