Slovenia
Today I'm in Koper on the Adriatic Coast of Slovenia. In the previous "The
Nomad Speaks" I was spending my final days in Budapest. I tried a Turkish
Thermal Bath one morning. It's several large pools filled with water from
the thermal springs below. I was a bit disappointed as the water only
reaches 37-38C. I stepped into the sauna which was 70C! I only lasted
about 30 seconds before I had to get out. The last night I was there (on
the Buda side) was the St. Stephen's Day festival. Fireworks, people
filling the streets, and cheap beer flowing in copious amounts. Here's a
link about St. Stephen's Day if you're interested:
http://www.travelnotes.org/Travel/aug20.htm
When I first arrived in Hungary I was desperate for reading material.
English language books/magazines can be difficult to come by, so I stopped
by an English-only used book store and picked up a book on Prehistory.
Great read that covers early man in Europe through the early-Roman period.
It's been interesting to read about the prehistory of a region and then be
able to see artifacts in a museum. Hungary and Slovenia both have
fantastic history museums.
The last few days in Budapest I stayed at a guesthouse called "BackPack."
It's a cool hippy hangout with pictures from around the world, wall murals,
elaborate paintings inside and out. In the backyard they have some
hammocks and chairs, music and travel journals from the different people
over the years. I was in the "Bob Marley" room. It's a basement room
shared with 10 other people. I met a nice Aussie couple while I was there.
One thing I've noticed. In general, the people that speak very little (if
any) English are more helpful and friendler than the people that are fluent.
After Budapest, I took a long hot train ride to Ljubljana (pronounced lube-
yawna). It has a colonial feel to it. Very clean town with easy access to
pubs and the river. After a couple of days in Ljubljana, I went to Bled in
the northwestern part of the country. This part of Slovenia has beautiful
mountains and crystal clear lakes. The Slovenian people are friendly and
enjoy interacting with you, even if you don't speak their language. Trying
to speak a couple of words/phrases in their language goes a long way. They
seem to appreciate any effort you give -- but most of them will start
speaking to you in English when they see you struggling. The hostel in
Bled was clean and very nice. It's an old cottage that's been converted to
a guesthouse. I stayed in a room with a group of six other travellers. I
now have an invitation to Portugal, Ireland, Uraguay and Argentina.
I started planning a rough timeline for this trip. I've set a tentative
deadline for the end of my journey, which allows me to get a better idea
for what countries I want to visit and for how long. It's still open-
ended, but having some sense of a finishing point lets me fill in the gaps
a little easier.
Starting today, I'll be following the coast for a while. After tomorrow,
I'll be in Croatia and I plan on following the Croatian coast from Rijeka
to Zadar to Split to the island of Hvar to Dubrovnik. After that I head
east across Bosnia-Hercegovina (Mostar and Sarajevo) to Yugoslavia
(Belgrade and Pristina) to Macedonia (Skopje and maybe Lake Ohrid) to
Bulgaria (through the mountains to Varna on the Black Sea) where I plan to
ferry to Istanbul, Turkey. Bosnia, Yugoslavia and Macedonia should be
quite interesting. Mostar has been in the news recently. They rebuilt a
bridge that links the Muslim and Croat districts.
Nomad Speaks" I was spending my final days in Budapest. I tried a Turkish
Thermal Bath one morning. It's several large pools filled with water from
the thermal springs below. I was a bit disappointed as the water only
reaches 37-38C. I stepped into the sauna which was 70C! I only lasted
about 30 seconds before I had to get out. The last night I was there (on
the Buda side) was the St. Stephen's Day festival. Fireworks, people
filling the streets, and cheap beer flowing in copious amounts. Here's a
link about St. Stephen's Day if you're interested:
http://www.travelnotes.org/Travel/aug20.htm
When I first arrived in Hungary I was desperate for reading material.
English language books/magazines can be difficult to come by, so I stopped
by an English-only used book store and picked up a book on Prehistory.
Great read that covers early man in Europe through the early-Roman period.
It's been interesting to read about the prehistory of a region and then be
able to see artifacts in a museum. Hungary and Slovenia both have
fantastic history museums.
The last few days in Budapest I stayed at a guesthouse called "BackPack."
It's a cool hippy hangout with pictures from around the world, wall murals,
elaborate paintings inside and out. In the backyard they have some
hammocks and chairs, music and travel journals from the different people
over the years. I was in the "Bob Marley" room. It's a basement room
shared with 10 other people. I met a nice Aussie couple while I was there.
One thing I've noticed. In general, the people that speak very little (if
any) English are more helpful and friendler than the people that are fluent.
After Budapest, I took a long hot train ride to Ljubljana (pronounced lube-
yawna). It has a colonial feel to it. Very clean town with easy access to
pubs and the river. After a couple of days in Ljubljana, I went to Bled in
the northwestern part of the country. This part of Slovenia has beautiful
mountains and crystal clear lakes. The Slovenian people are friendly and
enjoy interacting with you, even if you don't speak their language. Trying
to speak a couple of words/phrases in their language goes a long way. They
seem to appreciate any effort you give -- but most of them will start
speaking to you in English when they see you struggling. The hostel in
Bled was clean and very nice. It's an old cottage that's been converted to
a guesthouse. I stayed in a room with a group of six other travellers. I
now have an invitation to Portugal, Ireland, Uraguay and Argentina.
I started planning a rough timeline for this trip. I've set a tentative
deadline for the end of my journey, which allows me to get a better idea
for what countries I want to visit and for how long. It's still open-
ended, but having some sense of a finishing point lets me fill in the gaps
a little easier.
Starting today, I'll be following the coast for a while. After tomorrow,
I'll be in Croatia and I plan on following the Croatian coast from Rijeka
to Zadar to Split to the island of Hvar to Dubrovnik. After that I head
east across Bosnia-Hercegovina (Mostar and Sarajevo) to Yugoslavia
(Belgrade and Pristina) to Macedonia (Skopje and maybe Lake Ohrid) to
Bulgaria (through the mountains to Varna on the Black Sea) where I plan to
ferry to Istanbul, Turkey. Bosnia, Yugoslavia and Macedonia should be
quite interesting. Mostar has been in the news recently. They rebuilt a
bridge that links the Muslim and Croat districts.