i don't know what "amichevole" means, but when I typed an "a" into the title field it popped up as an option. I took it because I can't think of a better title.
Currently in Greece, Santorini to be exact, lazing about on the beach and doing almost nothing at all. Yesterday I walked for three hours along the edge of the caldera from Fira/Thira to Oia. Every day as the sun goes down the western edge of Oia fills with tourists who come to witness this little known and rare phenomenon called "sunset".
A greek/canadian used car salesman tries to pick up every women who walks past, using the unique approach of commenting on her apparel.
"Nice Pumas."
"They're fake."
"Where you from? Want to get a glass of wine?"
I spent about a week in Istanbul - it took all of 12 hours to fall in love with the city and decide that I want to live there one day. I stayed with the brilliant Marion who put up with my ever expanding stay (and yes! was the inspiration for the fishing rods photo!). Marion showed me a side of the city I never expected to see, namely the side where enormous blond tranny prostitutes mace small men and then run away on impossible stilettos.
In Istanbul my digestive woes began, and lasted for the remainder of my time in Turkey. I don't know what it was - brushing my teeth with local water, bad mayonnaise on a doner kebap, the ayran? It culminated in Antalya with me wandering around town in a daze, clutching a bag of vomit and searching in vain for a trashcan.
Monday, September 17, 2007
Tuesday, August 28, 2007
new photos
finally i've had some photos developed. you can see all on flickr, but my favourites are here:
in Romania:
in Istanbul people fish off the bridges over the Bosphorous. In the background is (i think) the New Mosque.
This is the beach and sunrise at Sulina, in the Danube Delta. I spent several nights here in my tent, but didn't get any photos of the wild dogs chasing cows down the beach, pity.
Cemetery, Sulina, Romania:
Romanian train:
Lviv Ukraine, Opera House
Outside the train station in Chernivtsi, Ukraine
in Romania:
in Istanbul people fish off the bridges over the Bosphorous. In the background is (i think) the New Mosque.
This is the beach and sunrise at Sulina, in the Danube Delta. I spent several nights here in my tent, but didn't get any photos of the wild dogs chasing cows down the beach, pity.
Cemetery, Sulina, Romania:
Romanian train:
Lviv Ukraine, Opera House
Outside the train station in Chernivtsi, Ukraine
Friday, August 17, 2007
oh god what happened to August?
Honestly? I think I lost a few days.
Since last post:
-met some cool Germans in Sighisoara and hitchhiked with one of them to Sibiu (macho jackass driver listening to the worst music I have ever heard - Bad Boys Blue? After reading the wikipedia entry I know why I was thinking about Milli Vanilli the whole time.), where we went to a really fun free Goran Bregovic concert and danced and danced. Also in Sibiu I smashed my toe against a doorjamb and seem to have dislocated it. Anyone have any idea of the possible ramifications of leaving this untreated? It doesn't really hurt anymore...
-then to Brasov where hung out with a cool Australian, Sara...we climbed a hill, ate a lot of food...I went to Bran Castle which is nice in itself (though really too full of tourists and tat) but has practically no relation to Dracula so if that's what you're looking for you can probably skip it. I regret the money I spent to go there if that tells you anything. The place is much more forbidding in photos and drawings.
-then Bucharest where I hostelled and CouchSurfed for a few days with a really nice couple (and their absolutely hilarious dog, an enormous [to me] St. Bernard who greets guests by flopping at their feet and rolling on her back). I have to recommend the Peasant Museum in Bucharest, it's full of beautiful things and they're presented in a really innovative way, I think. The only thing I would ask for is a little more information about various traditions, for example styles in embroidery and egg decoration, and also some English translations of the stuff on communism in the basement. This is really minor however, I spent 3 or 4 hours there as it is.
-finally a slow train/ferry combo to Sulina, on the coast in the Danube Delta, where I camped on the beach with the stray dogs, cows, and a few other campers. Nightclub or party on the beach with bad dance music for a couple of the nights, but last night for some reason it was all quiet. Gorgeous clear skies to stare at the stars and Milky Way all night. Strong hot sun to sunburn my back with all day (some very VERY unfortunate tan lines).
-now back in Tulcea, looking forward to tonight in cheap hotel with a real bed, a real toilet, and Turner Classic Movies before I get on an overnight bus to Istanbul tomorrow.
Since last post:
-met some cool Germans in Sighisoara and hitchhiked with one of them to Sibiu (macho jackass driver listening to the worst music I have ever heard - Bad Boys Blue? After reading the wikipedia entry I know why I was thinking about Milli Vanilli the whole time.), where we went to a really fun free Goran Bregovic concert and danced and danced. Also in Sibiu I smashed my toe against a doorjamb and seem to have dislocated it. Anyone have any idea of the possible ramifications of leaving this untreated? It doesn't really hurt anymore...
-then to Brasov where hung out with a cool Australian, Sara...we climbed a hill, ate a lot of food...I went to Bran Castle which is nice in itself (though really too full of tourists and tat) but has practically no relation to Dracula so if that's what you're looking for you can probably skip it. I regret the money I spent to go there if that tells you anything. The place is much more forbidding in photos and drawings.
-then Bucharest where I hostelled and CouchSurfed for a few days with a really nice couple (and their absolutely hilarious dog, an enormous [to me] St. Bernard who greets guests by flopping at their feet and rolling on her back). I have to recommend the Peasant Museum in Bucharest, it's full of beautiful things and they're presented in a really innovative way, I think. The only thing I would ask for is a little more information about various traditions, for example styles in embroidery and egg decoration, and also some English translations of the stuff on communism in the basement. This is really minor however, I spent 3 or 4 hours there as it is.
-finally a slow train/ferry combo to Sulina, on the coast in the Danube Delta, where I camped on the beach with the stray dogs, cows, and a few other campers. Nightclub or party on the beach with bad dance music for a couple of the nights, but last night for some reason it was all quiet. Gorgeous clear skies to stare at the stars and Milky Way all night. Strong hot sun to sunburn my back with all day (some very VERY unfortunate tan lines).
-now back in Tulcea, looking forward to tonight in cheap hotel with a real bed, a real toilet, and Turner Classic Movies before I get on an overnight bus to Istanbul tomorrow.
Monday, July 30, 2007
red blood
this evening, as i sat on a wall overlooking Sighisoara (steps away from the house where Vlad Tepes aka Vlad Dracul aka Vlad the Impaler aka Dracula was supposedly born) I was approached by a drunk young man with piercing green and bloodshot red eyes and a plastic jug of white wine. he introduced himself as a poet, bemoaned the fact that I couldn't speak Romanian (apparently if I could understand him he would make me fall in love with him by the power of his words), and told me "you have such white skin....but your blood, it is red in your veins....and your heart", baring his teeth a little at the mention of blood.
shivudder.
shivudder.
eating perogies from a jar at the Moldovan border
it's a labour of love, boiling up bowl after bowl of perogies when it's 35C outside and 41C in the kitchen. but you see, i knew i was leaving the country soon.
so in Odessa I would have perogies for lunch, then go to the beach and swim and watch the characters (an old woman standing around with seaweed carefully smoothed over her nose and chest...an old man with Einstein hair, two teeth, two pairs of glasses - one over the other - standing with his hands on the waistband of his shorts as though he's getting ready to tear them off at any moment), and then come back and eat some more.
in Kiev and Lviv i was able to go to cheap restaurants and point at a vat of dumplings or cabbage rolls and get what i wanted, but in Odessa i decided to go a different route (more adventurous or less adventurous? can't decide) and buy them frozen at the grocery store.
problem of course is I can't read the writing on the package (ok, i've mostly figured out the Cyrillic alphabet and could sound out the words, but wouldn't know what they mean).
day 1 - brought home a package, boiled it up, got REALLY excited, smothered them with butter and sour cream and...bit into a dumpling filled with ground beef hearts and potato.
day 2 - another try, this time they were stuffed with sweet cottage cheese. more acceptable than the vile beef heart variety but still not the potato and onion goodness i was hoping for.
day 3 - third time's a charm! it's the GREEN package. that's all I can tell you.
my last night I boiled up a full bag and stuffed the leftovers into an empty pickle jar, and took it to eat on the bus to Moldova the next day.
My neighbour on the bus was looking at me a bit funny, but he turned out to be the kind of guy who isn't allowed into the country even when he hides 70 griven in the back of his Georgian passport and slips it to the border guard. we left him behind at the Moldovan border.
Luckily I was able to get through no problem as I took a bus that bypasses Transnistria (daily at 11am from Odessa->Chisinau) in order to avoid the bribe shakedown and hours of wasted hours at the border. It still took about 6 hours (for two cities that are less than 200km apart).
then of course i was supposed to meet my CouchSurfing host, Irina...unfortunately my cell phone was dead and there was no internet around so i tried to get to the centre on my own. normally this isn't a problem but for some reason i missed the centre and ended up at the end of the minibus line. so the drivers put me back on a bus in the opposite direction and seemed to say they would tell me where to get off this time. but then, after we'd been driving for about 5 minutes the driver got off his cell phone, stopped the van, took my bags out and put them in someone's driveway, and gestured vaguely toward the garage. then drove off while i stood there gaping like a fool in the middle of nowhere for about 5 minutes, waiting for something to happen. finally another bus came by.
so in Odessa I would have perogies for lunch, then go to the beach and swim and watch the characters (an old woman standing around with seaweed carefully smoothed over her nose and chest...an old man with Einstein hair, two teeth, two pairs of glasses - one over the other - standing with his hands on the waistband of his shorts as though he's getting ready to tear them off at any moment), and then come back and eat some more.
in Kiev and Lviv i was able to go to cheap restaurants and point at a vat of dumplings or cabbage rolls and get what i wanted, but in Odessa i decided to go a different route (more adventurous or less adventurous? can't decide) and buy them frozen at the grocery store.
problem of course is I can't read the writing on the package (ok, i've mostly figured out the Cyrillic alphabet and could sound out the words, but wouldn't know what they mean).
day 1 - brought home a package, boiled it up, got REALLY excited, smothered them with butter and sour cream and...bit into a dumpling filled with ground beef hearts and potato.
day 2 - another try, this time they were stuffed with sweet cottage cheese. more acceptable than the vile beef heart variety but still not the potato and onion goodness i was hoping for.
day 3 - third time's a charm! it's the GREEN package. that's all I can tell you.
my last night I boiled up a full bag and stuffed the leftovers into an empty pickle jar, and took it to eat on the bus to Moldova the next day.
My neighbour on the bus was looking at me a bit funny, but he turned out to be the kind of guy who isn't allowed into the country even when he hides 70 griven in the back of his Georgian passport and slips it to the border guard. we left him behind at the Moldovan border.
Luckily I was able to get through no problem as I took a bus that bypasses Transnistria (daily at 11am from Odessa->Chisinau) in order to avoid the bribe shakedown and hours of wasted hours at the border. It still took about 6 hours (for two cities that are less than 200km apart).
then of course i was supposed to meet my CouchSurfing host, Irina...unfortunately my cell phone was dead and there was no internet around so i tried to get to the centre on my own. normally this isn't a problem but for some reason i missed the centre and ended up at the end of the minibus line. so the drivers put me back on a bus in the opposite direction and seemed to say they would tell me where to get off this time. but then, after we'd been driving for about 5 minutes the driver got off his cell phone, stopped the van, took my bags out and put them in someone's driveway, and gestured vaguely toward the garage. then drove off while i stood there gaping like a fool in the middle of nowhere for about 5 minutes, waiting for something to happen. finally another bus came by.
Sunday, July 29, 2007
it is HOT here.
it was hot in Lviv.
it was hot in Kiev.
it was extra hot in Odessa.
it was hot in Chisinau, and it's freaking crazy dry sauna hot here in Iasi.
unfortunately photos from all these places will have to wait till i get them developed but some fragments:
Lviv - very beautiful. full of weddings on summer weekends, hordes of gleaming new brides roam the pretty parts of town, chased by frantic photographers and bewildered husbands.
old men play chess on the benches in the park, small crowds gather around the exciting games.
as an added bonus the guy who runs the hostel (the big hostel not the small one) is frequently intoxicated (frequently in the early morning), and might let you do your laundry for free. while showing me the machine he ashed his cigarette inside of it.
Kiev - i really liked Kiev although the accommodations (an HI hostel, no hot water, none of the advertised amenities like internet, train ticket office, etc etc) were too expensive and a bit dreary. it's a big city, a real city, you can walk forever. The Saint Sophia Cathedral is impressive (and 1000 years old!). I drank a lot of coffee, walked 7 hours every day, sweated.
Odessa - first off i got very nerdily excited about seeing the Odessa Steps (aka Potemkin Stairs) due to 4 years of film studies and repeated viewings of the Battleship Potemkin. I just kept seeing that baby carriage careering down the stairs....
Later met some people at the hostel and spent the next several days wilting in the heat or rejuvenating in the sea.
it was hot in Kiev.
it was extra hot in Odessa.
it was hot in Chisinau, and it's freaking crazy dry sauna hot here in Iasi.
unfortunately photos from all these places will have to wait till i get them developed but some fragments:
Lviv - very beautiful. full of weddings on summer weekends, hordes of gleaming new brides roam the pretty parts of town, chased by frantic photographers and bewildered husbands.
old men play chess on the benches in the park, small crowds gather around the exciting games.
as an added bonus the guy who runs the hostel (the big hostel not the small one) is frequently intoxicated (frequently in the early morning), and might let you do your laundry for free. while showing me the machine he ashed his cigarette inside of it.
Kiev - i really liked Kiev although the accommodations (an HI hostel, no hot water, none of the advertised amenities like internet, train ticket office, etc etc) were too expensive and a bit dreary. it's a big city, a real city, you can walk forever. The Saint Sophia Cathedral is impressive (and 1000 years old!). I drank a lot of coffee, walked 7 hours every day, sweated.
Odessa - first off i got very nerdily excited about seeing the Odessa Steps (aka Potemkin Stairs) due to 4 years of film studies and repeated viewings of the Battleship Potemkin. I just kept seeing that baby carriage careering down the stairs....
Later met some people at the hostel and spent the next several days wilting in the heat or rejuvenating in the sea.
Friday, July 20, 2007
the trains in Ukraine are mainly a pain
actually the trains themselves are fine, a little slow but very cheap for 2nd class and pretty comfortable.
however I have discovered one of the outer circles of hell, right here on earth...it's the main hall of the Lviv train station. It looks great from the outside (as all gates to hell probably do) but then you walk inside and are trapped in the sort of nightmare where you have a task to perform but you can't read any of the signs and you can't communicate with any of the people, and you know you want to get a ticket for the 8:11 train to Kiev and you have it all written down on a piece of paper in Cyrillic even so you go to a cashier and wait in line for a long time and then she looks at your paper with disdain and pokes at her computer and shakes her head and writes 8:54, but you can see the 8:11 listed on the departures board so you go to booth #2 and try there and she says No No No so you go to information and wait in line and they say "go to #2" so you go back and she says no, and points at some sign you can't read, so you go back to information and they look at you like you're a complete idiot moron and say NUMBER TWO so you go back to number 2 and she won't even look at you anymore so you give up on the 8:11 and decide to get a ticket for the 8:54. so you go to the booth you THINK should sell tickets for the 8:54, because that seems to be what the sign taped up on the glass indicates, even though you can't actually read it, and you wait in line for a long long time and an old man tries to sidle in front of you in the queue, like you won't notice, and then you get to the front of the line and the ticket seller won't sell you anything for the 8:54, and writes down 12:33, and you start to feel like you are losing your mind so you go back to the first booth, and wait there for a long time, and ask for the 8:54 and wait for what seems like an eternity before the woman behind the glass nods and ACTUALLY SMILES and you feel like crying you're so relieved. and of course because this is a nightmare you are carrying a 25kg weight on your back the whole time.
however I have discovered one of the outer circles of hell, right here on earth...it's the main hall of the Lviv train station. It looks great from the outside (as all gates to hell probably do) but then you walk inside and are trapped in the sort of nightmare where you have a task to perform but you can't read any of the signs and you can't communicate with any of the people, and you know you want to get a ticket for the 8:11 train to Kiev and you have it all written down on a piece of paper in Cyrillic even so you go to a cashier and wait in line for a long time and then she looks at your paper with disdain and pokes at her computer and shakes her head and writes 8:54, but you can see the 8:11 listed on the departures board so you go to booth #2 and try there and she says No No No so you go to information and wait in line and they say "go to #2" so you go back and she says no, and points at some sign you can't read, so you go back to information and they look at you like you're a complete idiot moron and say NUMBER TWO so you go back to number 2 and she won't even look at you anymore so you give up on the 8:11 and decide to get a ticket for the 8:54. so you go to the booth you THINK should sell tickets for the 8:54, because that seems to be what the sign taped up on the glass indicates, even though you can't actually read it, and you wait in line for a long long time and an old man tries to sidle in front of you in the queue, like you won't notice, and then you get to the front of the line and the ticket seller won't sell you anything for the 8:54, and writes down 12:33, and you start to feel like you are losing your mind so you go back to the first booth, and wait there for a long time, and ask for the 8:54 and wait for what seems like an eternity before the woman behind the glass nods and ACTUALLY SMILES and you feel like crying you're so relieved. and of course because this is a nightmare you are carrying a 25kg weight on your back the whole time.
Friday, July 13, 2007
i'm not sure how I ended up in Ukraine already...
I'm travelling with Franck from France, the CouchSurfer I met in Budapest. We met up in Cluj two and a half days ago and since then we've:
1. hitchhiked from Cluj through northern Transylvania and the Carpathians to Borsec...originally planning to go to Sovata and then head south, it was raining off and on all day so we decided to stay in the truck as long as we could.
We drove through incredible valleys filled with gorgeous little villages, orthodox churches, silver scaled rooftops and women in scarves.
2. spent 5 hours in Romanian Orthodox masses and slept at a monastary...In Borsec another trucker picked us up, we were planning to have him drop us off at a lake about 60 km away, but again the rain intervened. the trucker was saying something about monastaries and how we could sleep at one. So we said "ok", thinking he was going to drive us there.
The rain was pretty biblical and every village we passed featured people standing outside, staring at the river in concern. Then he stopped the truck and let us out, pointing down a road and saying "two kilometers". It was getting dark and we had no idea where to go. Plus we were at the edge of the forest and had been talking about bears all day. This was a small dirt road in the middle of nowhere so we stuck our thumbs out at the next car that came by and miraculously she stopped. A very well dressed woman in a very nice car filled with flowers and garment bags and all white interior STOPPED for a couple of muddy hitchhikers and offered to drive us to the monastary. We didn't even know which one we were going to go to, so she said she would take us where she was going and see if they would let us stay.
We drove up to Sihastria in the rain and twilight and as we got out of the car were struck by the sound of drums and chanting monks. Franck and I just stared and grinned as Florica pulled an extra headscarf out of her car and tied it around my messy head.
She went in to consult with the priest and eventually we were called in to meet him, a man all in black with a long black beard. They spoke and spoke in Romanian and asked us if we were hungry and conferred some more. The priest blessed us and then held onto my arm with an iron grip. We had no idea what they were talking about but finally the priest gave Florica a key and she took us to our room so we could change.
Then dinner, wonderful simple soup and bean stew and wine and vegetables all from the monastary, and then the mass.
By this time it was already 10pm but the mass would continue until 11:30 or 12. It was still pouring rain so Florica pulled me under her umbrella (poor Franck was exposed to the elements) and we walked through the dark and cobblestones toward the basilica and the sound of the chanting. We walked around a corner and suddenly saw one of the most cinematic views i've ever seen with my own eyes...a vast white courtyard under a black sky, illuminated by the light coming out of the basilica.
This is the place. Imagine it at night in a flooding rain.
We sat in mass for an hour or two, kneeling on the floor, I trying to keep the scarf on my head (a constant struggle). It was very beautiful but I had no idea what was going on so just tried to blend in as much as possible.
Next morning, same thing. Florica and her friend told us to be at the basilica at 9 am (while they didn't show up till 10!) and again we sat through the multi-hour Byzantine sort of mass. Again, fascinating watching the monks come and go, old ladies kneeling and praying, young girls scratching their noses and looking around and obviously wishing they were elsewhere...
Then more amazing food, all made at the monastary - vegetable and cheese soup, bread, polenta with soft mild cow's cheese and cream, their own white wine, turkish coffee.
Then Florica and her friend took us for a tour of a couple other famous monastaries in the region, Secu and Manastirea Neamt; bought us souvenir picture cards and small icons to carry with us; and took us to the bus station in the nearest town.
Did I mention that nobody charged us a penny for all of this?
3. Hitchhiked across the Ukranian border, not sure about visa requirements...
From Targu Neamt we hitched to Suceava, and from Suceava to the Ukranian border. Incredible luck with our rides, both times it was the first car that passed that picked us up.
We had no idea what the visa requirements were for Ukraine (my LP from a couple years ago said i must have a visa, but an american guy i met last week said he thought the rules had changed). No internet anywhere, frantically texting anyone we thought would be at a computer to see if they could check, finally just ended up getting in the car and seeing what happened.
And they let us through, no problem, no visa, no money, no nothing. A very long line at the border but we were allowed to ride through with a Ukranian family who then drove us to a 'hotel' (see: Everything is Illuminated) in the nearby town. 3 Euros a night, each.
4. Trying to get to Lviv...today we jumped on a small local bus bound for Chernivtsi (still very near the Romanian border) and I thought we were going to get lynched for taking up two people worth of space...just when i thought they couldn't get one more stout old lady on the bus they managed to cram one on.
So we are now in Chernivtsi, waiting for the next bus to Lviv, looking forward to perogies for lunch. It's pretty nice here, but the language barrier is a serious problem. We're still pretty intimidated by the Cyrillic, but people are generally nice.
I can't access gmail from here but hopefully will be able to get to it in a bigger city.
1. hitchhiked from Cluj through northern Transylvania and the Carpathians to Borsec...originally planning to go to Sovata and then head south, it was raining off and on all day so we decided to stay in the truck as long as we could.
We drove through incredible valleys filled with gorgeous little villages, orthodox churches, silver scaled rooftops and women in scarves.
2. spent 5 hours in Romanian Orthodox masses and slept at a monastary...In Borsec another trucker picked us up, we were planning to have him drop us off at a lake about 60 km away, but again the rain intervened. the trucker was saying something about monastaries and how we could sleep at one. So we said "ok", thinking he was going to drive us there.
The rain was pretty biblical and every village we passed featured people standing outside, staring at the river in concern. Then he stopped the truck and let us out, pointing down a road and saying "two kilometers". It was getting dark and we had no idea where to go. Plus we were at the edge of the forest and had been talking about bears all day. This was a small dirt road in the middle of nowhere so we stuck our thumbs out at the next car that came by and miraculously she stopped. A very well dressed woman in a very nice car filled with flowers and garment bags and all white interior STOPPED for a couple of muddy hitchhikers and offered to drive us to the monastary. We didn't even know which one we were going to go to, so she said she would take us where she was going and see if they would let us stay.
We drove up to Sihastria in the rain and twilight and as we got out of the car were struck by the sound of drums and chanting monks. Franck and I just stared and grinned as Florica pulled an extra headscarf out of her car and tied it around my messy head.
She went in to consult with the priest and eventually we were called in to meet him, a man all in black with a long black beard. They spoke and spoke in Romanian and asked us if we were hungry and conferred some more. The priest blessed us and then held onto my arm with an iron grip. We had no idea what they were talking about but finally the priest gave Florica a key and she took us to our room so we could change.
Then dinner, wonderful simple soup and bean stew and wine and vegetables all from the monastary, and then the mass.
By this time it was already 10pm but the mass would continue until 11:30 or 12. It was still pouring rain so Florica pulled me under her umbrella (poor Franck was exposed to the elements) and we walked through the dark and cobblestones toward the basilica and the sound of the chanting. We walked around a corner and suddenly saw one of the most cinematic views i've ever seen with my own eyes...a vast white courtyard under a black sky, illuminated by the light coming out of the basilica.
This is the place. Imagine it at night in a flooding rain.
We sat in mass for an hour or two, kneeling on the floor, I trying to keep the scarf on my head (a constant struggle). It was very beautiful but I had no idea what was going on so just tried to blend in as much as possible.
Next morning, same thing. Florica and her friend told us to be at the basilica at 9 am (while they didn't show up till 10!) and again we sat through the multi-hour Byzantine sort of mass. Again, fascinating watching the monks come and go, old ladies kneeling and praying, young girls scratching their noses and looking around and obviously wishing they were elsewhere...
Then more amazing food, all made at the monastary - vegetable and cheese soup, bread, polenta with soft mild cow's cheese and cream, their own white wine, turkish coffee.
Then Florica and her friend took us for a tour of a couple other famous monastaries in the region, Secu and Manastirea Neamt; bought us souvenir picture cards and small icons to carry with us; and took us to the bus station in the nearest town.
Did I mention that nobody charged us a penny for all of this?
3. Hitchhiked across the Ukranian border, not sure about visa requirements...
From Targu Neamt we hitched to Suceava, and from Suceava to the Ukranian border. Incredible luck with our rides, both times it was the first car that passed that picked us up.
We had no idea what the visa requirements were for Ukraine (my LP from a couple years ago said i must have a visa, but an american guy i met last week said he thought the rules had changed). No internet anywhere, frantically texting anyone we thought would be at a computer to see if they could check, finally just ended up getting in the car and seeing what happened.
And they let us through, no problem, no visa, no money, no nothing. A very long line at the border but we were allowed to ride through with a Ukranian family who then drove us to a 'hotel' (see: Everything is Illuminated) in the nearby town. 3 Euros a night, each.
4. Trying to get to Lviv...today we jumped on a small local bus bound for Chernivtsi (still very near the Romanian border) and I thought we were going to get lynched for taking up two people worth of space...just when i thought they couldn't get one more stout old lady on the bus they managed to cram one on.
So we are now in Chernivtsi, waiting for the next bus to Lviv, looking forward to perogies for lunch. It's pretty nice here, but the language barrier is a serious problem. We're still pretty intimidated by the Cyrillic, but people are generally nice.
I can't access gmail from here but hopefully will be able to get to it in a bigger city.
Tuesday, July 10, 2007
now in Cluj-Napoca. just saw a woman at the market unapologetically walking around with a wet cabbage leaf on her head (well, it is hot). i bought half a kilo of tomatoes from two old men and they threw in a handful of peppers and a couple of smiles.
the little girl sitting beside me is staring at me and threatening to throw a tantrum.
more soon.
the little girl sitting beside me is staring at me and threatening to throw a tantrum.
more soon.
Sunday, July 08, 2007
the end of Budapest, hello Romania
it's 10 pm in Oradea, Romania. i'm in a small, somewhat hard to find, exuberantly friendly hostel - 60 minutes after i arrived last night i had already been presented with two shots of palinka, a portion of some house painters' dinner, and was down in the wine cellar drinking a red aszu dessert wine called Cadarissima (fantastic). not only that, but the hostel was actually full so one of the guys who works here gave me his bed (he slept elsewhere).
so far, so good. (okay except for the part where a weird Hungarian guy I can't communicate with just wandered into my room in his underwear and stared at my back for a while...he didn't want to use the computer...I'm locking the door tonight.)
still, it was hard to say goodbye to Budapest and all the amazing people who have befriended me.
if i could split myself into two or three parts i would leave a piece there.
the last two weeks were incredibly hectic and my plans for lazing about the city, visiting museums etc were way too optimistic. packing, cleaning, figuring out trains, deciding where to go (last possible minute), writing reports (last possible minute), recovering from a typical weekend with Sergio and Frederico, cooking up a feast featuring the random remnants of our freezer and pantry (thanks Natasha and Natasha's mum and everyone who ate!), doing all the administration involved in eventually getting paid and trying to send a package home without spending all the money I've earned (UPS wanted several hundred dollars. i've gone with the dodgy postal system instead.) took up all of my time. At least the time that was not being spent at West Balkan and Szimpla Kert. Four nights in a row at the same club? What do I think this is, 1995 at Zaphod's?
On my way home from this evening (Night#1 at West Balkan, with some very fun French Couchsurfers who were crashing at our place):
I saw this view of Andrassy and just had to stand in the middle of the road to capture it. This is Budapest.
so far, so good. (okay except for the part where a weird Hungarian guy I can't communicate with just wandered into my room in his underwear and stared at my back for a while...he didn't want to use the computer...I'm locking the door tonight.)
still, it was hard to say goodbye to Budapest and all the amazing people who have befriended me.
if i could split myself into two or three parts i would leave a piece there.
the last two weeks were incredibly hectic and my plans for lazing about the city, visiting museums etc were way too optimistic. packing, cleaning, figuring out trains, deciding where to go (last possible minute), writing reports (last possible minute), recovering from a typical weekend with Sergio and Frederico, cooking up a feast featuring the random remnants of our freezer and pantry (thanks Natasha and Natasha's mum and everyone who ate!), doing all the administration involved in eventually getting paid and trying to send a package home without spending all the money I've earned (UPS wanted several hundred dollars. i've gone with the dodgy postal system instead.) took up all of my time. At least the time that was not being spent at West Balkan and Szimpla Kert. Four nights in a row at the same club? What do I think this is, 1995 at Zaphod's?
On my way home from this evening (Night#1 at West Balkan, with some very fun French Couchsurfers who were crashing at our place):
I saw this view of Andrassy and just had to stand in the middle of the road to capture it. This is Budapest.
Wednesday, June 27, 2007
new budapest photos
some more photos posted up at flickr...
this is me in Heroes' Square, early Sunday morning. part of a truly epic weekend which included wheelbarrow races in the park (i sustained mild injuries when my face met the dirt) and saw the indefatigable Natasha and I stay out all night, then make a breakfast picnic to eat in the park, then go to the flea market. we stopped along the way to take some photos.
many other general photos of the city too, including:
tram in front of parliament
our favourite gyros place:
etc etc.
in other news, only 2.5 more days of work left before i can go back to being a full-time loafer. i must say I can't wait.
the weather here has finally cooled down a bit. excited about friends coming in for the weekend.
nowhere near being packed. have no idea where i'm going next.
this is me in Heroes' Square, early Sunday morning. part of a truly epic weekend which included wheelbarrow races in the park (i sustained mild injuries when my face met the dirt) and saw the indefatigable Natasha and I stay out all night, then make a breakfast picnic to eat in the park, then go to the flea market. we stopped along the way to take some photos.
many other general photos of the city too, including:
tram in front of parliament
our favourite gyros place:
etc etc.
in other news, only 2.5 more days of work left before i can go back to being a full-time loafer. i must say I can't wait.
the weather here has finally cooled down a bit. excited about friends coming in for the weekend.
nowhere near being packed. have no idea where i'm going next.
Wednesday, June 13, 2007
how time flies
June is speeding by and my date of departure is looming. I will be leaving Budapest at the beginning of July and heading east - to Romania, Ukraine, and then wherever I decide to go from there.
I am receiving conflicting messages from my students re: Romania and Ukraine...most of them seem to be concerned for my safety but it's a 50-50 split on whether I'm to meet my end in Romania or Ukraine. I hear "Ukraine is safe, no problem. But you need to be very careful in Romania.". Then a couple of hours later I hear "Romania is very safe, it just has a bad reputation...but I don't think you should go to Ukraine."
This is the advice equivalent of matter meeting anti-matter.
I have started researching and getting ready, tearing the relevant portions out of the massive Lonely Planet Europe guide I inherited, trying to once again think in terms of weight and bulk. Last night I went on an insane "test-pack" kick at 10pm when I should have been going to bed. The "test-pack" involves me looking around my room (which I have lived in for 5 months) and thinking, "i am not carrying this shit on my back for the next four months.", then trying to see what will actually fit in said backpack. Not a lot. I'm feeling ruthless these days, hence the book surgery.
Still, it could be worse. The only good thing about being terminally broke/not getting paid for two months/etc. is that it is impossible to accumulate much stuff.
I am now faced with the dreaded carry-it-on-your-back-or-lose-it-in-the-mail dilemma.
For example: film negatives. Do I really want to carry around 5-10 little canisters of negatives + CDs of scanned negs? Or do I want to send them home in the mail and risk losing them forever? I feel like I have already tempted fate enough when it comes to the post...like sending stuff to Carrie and Josh's place with the wrong postal code. and having it end up at the home of some fantastically kind stranger who eventually (usually after I have given up the package as lost) brings it to their front door. THREE TIMES.
I am going to buy that guy a present and I am going to stop tempting fate (first step - get the right postal code).
Also, the Hungarian postal service is notoriously....umm...how should I put it. Takey? Pinchy? Lossy? Some stuff I'm not so worried about - if someone really wants my CELTA notes and teaching materials they can have them. But currently broken/potentially fixable digital camera? Pricey boots? Souvenirs? Apparently irreplaceable CELTA certificate? Not so much.
I am receiving conflicting messages from my students re: Romania and Ukraine...most of them seem to be concerned for my safety but it's a 50-50 split on whether I'm to meet my end in Romania or Ukraine. I hear "Ukraine is safe, no problem. But you need to be very careful in Romania.". Then a couple of hours later I hear "Romania is very safe, it just has a bad reputation...but I don't think you should go to Ukraine."
This is the advice equivalent of matter meeting anti-matter.
I have started researching and getting ready, tearing the relevant portions out of the massive Lonely Planet Europe guide I inherited, trying to once again think in terms of weight and bulk. Last night I went on an insane "test-pack" kick at 10pm when I should have been going to bed. The "test-pack" involves me looking around my room (which I have lived in for 5 months) and thinking, "i am not carrying this shit on my back for the next four months.", then trying to see what will actually fit in said backpack. Not a lot. I'm feeling ruthless these days, hence the book surgery.
Still, it could be worse. The only good thing about being terminally broke/not getting paid for two months/etc. is that it is impossible to accumulate much stuff.
I am now faced with the dreaded carry-it-on-your-back-or-lose-it-in-the-mail dilemma.
For example: film negatives. Do I really want to carry around 5-10 little canisters of negatives + CDs of scanned negs? Or do I want to send them home in the mail and risk losing them forever? I feel like I have already tempted fate enough when it comes to the post...like sending stuff to Carrie and Josh's place with the wrong postal code. and having it end up at the home of some fantastically kind stranger who eventually (usually after I have given up the package as lost) brings it to their front door. THREE TIMES.
I am going to buy that guy a present and I am going to stop tempting fate (first step - get the right postal code).
Also, the Hungarian postal service is notoriously....umm...how should I put it. Takey? Pinchy? Lossy? Some stuff I'm not so worried about - if someone really wants my CELTA notes and teaching materials they can have them. But currently broken/potentially fixable digital camera? Pricey boots? Souvenirs? Apparently irreplaceable CELTA certificate? Not so much.
Tuesday, May 22, 2007
this afternoon
mid-afternoon, a thunderstorm is blowing in to compensate for this morning's 30 degree heat...class in an hour and I'm drinking tea and trying to polish up a lesson on future tenses (how many can you name?).
this pre-storm light is really lovely.
trying to decide whether to take advantage of the current easyjet sale and book all my flights for the rest of the summer/fall in advance. which would mean knowing exactly where i'm going to be on specific dates. which gives me a headache.
a conversation from earlier in the day has sparked dreams of running away to south america and learning to dance.
this pre-storm light is really lovely.
trying to decide whether to take advantage of the current easyjet sale and book all my flights for the rest of the summer/fall in advance. which would mean knowing exactly where i'm going to be on specific dates. which gives me a headache.
a conversation from earlier in the day has sparked dreams of running away to south america and learning to dance.
Monday, May 21, 2007
new photos
new photos up on flickr. i've been experimenting with cross-processing slide film but should have done my homework before using Fuji Sensia 100, which makes everything red. oh well.
some samples:
Liberty Bridge (Szabadság híd), Budapest
the roof outside my door
birthday cake
pedal car in the park
Ibolya and her feast
the Hungary/Slovakia border
Esztergom, Hungary
some samples:
Liberty Bridge (Szabadság híd), Budapest
the roof outside my door
birthday cake
pedal car in the park
Ibolya and her feast
the Hungary/Slovakia border
Esztergom, Hungary
Thursday, May 17, 2007
accents and stumblers
it was great to see James and Yasmin on the weekend, we went to some of my favourite bars and drank beer until they succumbed to jet lag (hey, they made it till about 3:30 - that's a trouper in my book). I wish I could say I then went to bed but no, I sat up till 5 am eating tortilla chips in bed and reading a book about wizards.
apparently J and Y have powerful magic as well because a few days later a friend told me that my Canadian accent had "come back". where had it gone? to be honest I feel a bit like Madonna these days, I hear myself speak and think "why the hell did I say it like that? what, do I think I'm English or something?"
on the tram the other day a large elderly businessman fell on top of me. I thought for one terrified moment that he was having a heart attack - then I smelled the booze.
apparently J and Y have powerful magic as well because a few days later a friend told me that my Canadian accent had "come back". where had it gone? to be honest I feel a bit like Madonna these days, I hear myself speak and think "why the hell did I say it like that? what, do I think I'm English or something?"
on the tram the other day a large elderly businessman fell on top of me. I thought for one terrified moment that he was having a heart attack - then I smelled the booze.
Wednesday, May 02, 2007
the unbelievable truth
i just read today (in a review for Waitress) about Adrienne Shelley's completely senseless murder last year. I had no idea.
for various Hal Hartley related reasons I have a very soft spot for Adrienne Shelley (see: Trust and The Unbelievable Truth).
i am sitting here on the verge of tears over the death, 6 months ago, of someone i didn't personally know.
for various Hal Hartley related reasons I have a very soft spot for Adrienne Shelley (see: Trust and The Unbelievable Truth).
i am sitting here on the verge of tears over the death, 6 months ago, of someone i didn't personally know.
Thursday, April 26, 2007
completely exhausted, nothing interesting
apologies for the lack of exciting updates but this whole getting-up-at-6:30-thing is really starting to get me down. Maybe I'm getting sick too because by the end of each day I'm completely wiped out. I've been under the covers before 10pm not once, but TWICE already this week. Those who know me know that this is simply not right.
on the bright side one of my classes was observed by my employer and she gave me some really encouraging feedback. i've got a few more classes on my schedule, starting this week, which means i will definitely be able to pay the rent, and eat, and maybe - just maybe - drink some beer next month too.
i am completely at a loss as to what to do after June. stay here for a few more months and teach some more (not gonna save much money though - maybe a little bit, but nothing substantial)? look for a contract elsewhere in Europe? travel for the summer (the thought of living on a Greek beach is appealing)? go home for a little while (probably going to save that for the fall or winter though)?
on the bright side one of my classes was observed by my employer and she gave me some really encouraging feedback. i've got a few more classes on my schedule, starting this week, which means i will definitely be able to pay the rent, and eat, and maybe - just maybe - drink some beer next month too.
i am completely at a loss as to what to do after June. stay here for a few more months and teach some more (not gonna save much money though - maybe a little bit, but nothing substantial)? look for a contract elsewhere in Europe? travel for the summer (the thought of living on a Greek beach is appealing)? go home for a little while (probably going to save that for the fall or winter though)?
Wednesday, April 18, 2007
learning dirty Hungarian words from a middle aged woman
So our housekeeper/cleaner is back this week, frying up some pork balls on the stove. When I got home from class around 10 am she was already finished with the soup and creamy potatoes and I must have accidentally told her I was hungry cause she served me up a big old plate of lunch at 10:15.
Now she's cooking up the aforementioned pork balls - pronounced "fashult"...don't ask me for a spelling because when I looked up the spelling she provided me it seems to translate as "fascist". Fun as that would be, I don't think she's frying up any fascists today.
The entertaining part was when I, trying to pronounce the name of this food, said "fass" (i think the Hungarian spelling is fasz) and she started giggling and waving her arms, "nem! nem!". Clearly this was a dirty word so I would just say it every so often to make her laugh.
Finally she said "puszi, angolul" (puszi means "kiss", but sounds like "pussy"). so I told her, "puszi means kiss".
"igen igen, something something puszi angolul"
"puzsi in english is kiss"
this went on for a couple minutes till it finally became clear that she was saying "yes yes, i KNOW that it means kiss, but...".
I still couldn't figure out what she was talking about. Maybe fasz was a really specific word for some sort of dirty kissing activity?
Finally I turned on the computer and discovered that fasz translates to "prick, pizzle, pintle, dick, cock, pecker" (PINTLE? I have never heard of a pintle).
She brought out the fried fascist balls and we sat at the table and nibbled at them. I said, with a knowing look on my face, "Ah, fasz...nem yo." (ah, fasz is not good). She laughed and said "igen, ferfi" (yes, man) and pointed downward. Then she said "puszi? angolul?".
Aha! Finally I understood. She was getting cats and chickens confused.
I said, "pussy, angolul...two things. meow meow!"
"Nem!" she gasped, a shocked look on her face.
"Igen! meow meow! And also...noi"...and I pointed at my lap. (noi means woman)
"Ah!" she said, laughing again.
Then she got serious.
"fasz, angolul?
"fasz in angolul is..um.....cock."
"COCK?"
"igen. um......also....um...dick."
I was deliberating whether to also provide the more formal "penis", but decided that two new vocabulary words were good enough for one day.
Now she's cooking up the aforementioned pork balls - pronounced "fashult"...don't ask me for a spelling because when I looked up the spelling she provided me it seems to translate as "fascist". Fun as that would be, I don't think she's frying up any fascists today.
The entertaining part was when I, trying to pronounce the name of this food, said "fass" (i think the Hungarian spelling is fasz) and she started giggling and waving her arms, "nem! nem!". Clearly this was a dirty word so I would just say it every so often to make her laugh.
Finally she said "puszi, angolul" (puszi means "kiss", but sounds like "pussy"). so I told her, "puszi means kiss".
"igen igen, something something puszi angolul"
"puzsi in english is kiss"
this went on for a couple minutes till it finally became clear that she was saying "yes yes, i KNOW that it means kiss, but...".
I still couldn't figure out what she was talking about. Maybe fasz was a really specific word for some sort of dirty kissing activity?
Finally I turned on the computer and discovered that fasz translates to "prick, pizzle, pintle, dick, cock, pecker" (PINTLE? I have never heard of a pintle).
She brought out the fried fascist balls and we sat at the table and nibbled at them. I said, with a knowing look on my face, "Ah, fasz...nem yo." (ah, fasz is not good). She laughed and said "igen, ferfi" (yes, man) and pointed downward. Then she said "puszi? angolul?".
Aha! Finally I understood. She was getting cats and chickens confused.
I said, "pussy, angolul...two things. meow meow!"
"Nem!" she gasped, a shocked look on her face.
"Igen! meow meow! And also...noi"...and I pointed at my lap. (noi means woman)
"Ah!" she said, laughing again.
Then she got serious.
"fasz, angolul?
"fasz in angolul is..um.....cock."
"COCK?"
"igen. um......also....um...dick."
I was deliberating whether to also provide the more formal "penis", but decided that two new vocabulary words were good enough for one day.
Thursday, April 05, 2007
good. soup.
yesterday our housekeeper (a very nice lady who comes in once a week to clean, so I guess housekeeper is a good enough word, that or cleaning lady) made an enormous Hungarian feast - goulash soup, vegetable soup, pork schnitzel or something, french fries, fried cauliflower, rice, noodles with lard. the common ingredient is lard or oil. i came home from a class to find her halfway done everything but I got to help out with the dumplings for the soup.
we had a long conversation while I rolled out the dumplings. unfortunately since I don't speak Hungarian, I have no idea what we discussed. but at the appropriate pause I would say something like 'jo leves!' or 'uborka?' or 'ah, paradiscom!'.
to put this in context, imagine you have a foreign visitor. conversations consist of you saying intelligent things, and your companion responding with 'soup good!' or 'cucumber?', or 'ah, tomato!'.
we had a long conversation while I rolled out the dumplings. unfortunately since I don't speak Hungarian, I have no idea what we discussed. but at the appropriate pause I would say something like 'jo leves!' or 'uborka?' or 'ah, paradiscom!'.
to put this in context, imagine you have a foreign visitor. conversations consist of you saying intelligent things, and your companion responding with 'soup good!' or 'cucumber?', or 'ah, tomato!'.
mother may i? duck duck goose?
tonight i begin tutoring two little boys (6 and 8). i don't even know what a 6 year old is. as in, I couldn't pick a 6 year old out of a line up that included a 4 year old and a 5 year old.
and I can't remember ANY children's games.
they lived in Canada for a couple of years so they should have some language, my job is to keep them from losing it. and, today at least, it's to make sure the parents ask me to come back for a second lesson!
and I can't remember ANY children's games.
they lived in Canada for a couple of years so they should have some language, my job is to keep them from losing it. and, today at least, it's to make sure the parents ask me to come back for a second lesson!
Monday, April 02, 2007
it's not that i don't respect you...
dear Slovakia,
i'm sorry about the way i keep using you and then throwing you away.
love,
a
i'm sorry about the way i keep using you and then throwing you away.
love,
a
bird meets head
yesterday a bird flew into the side of my head.
this morning I got up at 6, to go to a 7:30 lesson in the middle of nowhere. the guy didn't show up so I spent 90 minutes sitting in the lobby of an insurance company.
this afternoon I'm going to Slovakia. again.
this morning I got up at 6, to go to a 7:30 lesson in the middle of nowhere. the guy didn't show up so I spent 90 minutes sitting in the lobby of an insurance company.
this afternoon I'm going to Slovakia. again.
Sunday, April 01, 2007
imperium
spent most of this beautiful weekend reading Ryszard Kapuscinski's wonderful Imperium, about the Soviet Union. Imperium in one hand, a small atlas in the other...you can now add Georgia, Armenia, Azerbaijan, Kazakhstan and Uzbekistan to the list of places I want to visit.
wanderlust also triggered by Gina's recent blog entries....that passport! those photos! my god. what am I doing in Budapest, working for The Man?
because that's what I'm doing now - freelance english teaching, for anyone with any sort of 'business' background in their previous life, means Business English. and that is all about going into oil companies, insurance and finance corporations and government agencies....
wanderlust also triggered by Gina's recent blog entries....that passport! those photos! my god. what am I doing in Budapest, working for The Man?
because that's what I'm doing now - freelance english teaching, for anyone with any sort of 'business' background in their previous life, means Business English. and that is all about going into oil companies, insurance and finance corporations and government agencies....
Thursday, March 29, 2007
my eyes!
this afternoon i think i saw a man...um...touching himself as he walked down the street. and when I say street, i mean extremely busy major street. and when i say touching, i mean it looked like he was trying to milk a cow. but fast.
i didn't see any flesh but he had that "i'm a pervert, you wanna see?" look in his eyes as I passed.
in other news, my schedule is practically full although I probably won't make enough money this month to cover my expenses, and I had another interview today with a school who wanted to know if I had my bachelor's degree handy. like here in Budapest. like the physical piece of paper.
like I keep that in my backpack?
not much else of interest. i am trying not to spend any money. therefore, I am very boring.
also, addicted to stupid facebook.
i didn't see any flesh but he had that "i'm a pervert, you wanna see?" look in his eyes as I passed.
in other news, my schedule is practically full although I probably won't make enough money this month to cover my expenses, and I had another interview today with a school who wanted to know if I had my bachelor's degree handy. like here in Budapest. like the physical piece of paper.
like I keep that in my backpack?
not much else of interest. i am trying not to spend any money. therefore, I am very boring.
also, addicted to stupid facebook.
Wednesday, March 21, 2007
boring dream blog entry
this morning i dreamt i was late for a flight - i was going somewhere like Brazil and just stuffed a bathing suit and towel and a few other things into a bunch of bags. for some reason ending up with three different bags of stuff.
then i realized i had 30 minutes before the plane left and i was still at home. so i called someone and changed to a later flight.
i woke up and checked the clock; it was 5:30 so went back to sleep.
unfortunately, in my dreams i still had to catch that plane. i now had 3 or so hours to get to the airport. it took an hour to get out of the house and another hour to get to the place where i could catch the bus to the airport.
i tried to ask someone at the bus station which one would take me to the airport, but they didn't speak english. i did know the bus number though. Bus number 134.
things were falling out of my bags. it was snowing heavily. i walked into the bus station and
saw that there were hundreds of bus stops, in no particular order.
by this time the plane was leaving in 40 minutes and the airport was 45 minutes away.
i sat down on my bags.
then i woke up again because it was time to go teach my very first real lesson! the stupid plane dream being some fairly obvious anxiety about sleeping in and not getting to class on time (class is at 8:00).
turns out what i should have been worried about instead was where to go. i went to this huge office building, arrived a little early, but then realized that i didn't know which floor the class was on or who to ask for. it was in an email that i had forgotten to print out. the receptionist let me in to the first floor where i wandered around looking for something that looked like a class. (something like wandering around looking for bus 134).
a guy tried to help me out (also i'm sure he was somewhat concerned about this
random stranger wandering around the office), and then the receptionist let me use her computer to check the email.
i finally made it to the right floor.
late.
the class is great though.
then i realized i had 30 minutes before the plane left and i was still at home. so i called someone and changed to a later flight.
i woke up and checked the clock; it was 5:30 so went back to sleep.
unfortunately, in my dreams i still had to catch that plane. i now had 3 or so hours to get to the airport. it took an hour to get out of the house and another hour to get to the place where i could catch the bus to the airport.
i tried to ask someone at the bus station which one would take me to the airport, but they didn't speak english. i did know the bus number though. Bus number 134.
things were falling out of my bags. it was snowing heavily. i walked into the bus station and
saw that there were hundreds of bus stops, in no particular order.
by this time the plane was leaving in 40 minutes and the airport was 45 minutes away.
i sat down on my bags.
then i woke up again because it was time to go teach my very first real lesson! the stupid plane dream being some fairly obvious anxiety about sleeping in and not getting to class on time (class is at 8:00).
turns out what i should have been worried about instead was where to go. i went to this huge office building, arrived a little early, but then realized that i didn't know which floor the class was on or who to ask for. it was in an email that i had forgotten to print out. the receptionist let me in to the first floor where i wandered around looking for something that looked like a class. (something like wandering around looking for bus 134).
a guy tried to help me out (also i'm sure he was somewhat concerned about this
random stranger wandering around the office), and then the receptionist let me use her computer to check the email.
i finally made it to the right floor.
late.
the class is great though.
Tuesday, March 20, 2007
lots and lots and lots of new photos
because the digital camera died, i've been using film for the past couple of months.
not very happily either, since I haven't used film in almost a year...all the photos I took were complete crap and I was worried i would have the same problem this time.
so i took three rolls in yesterday, and for less than $20 had them developed and scanned onto cd in less than 3 hours.
i'm way WAY happier with the results than i expected to be...
this is National Day
this is Parliament
these are Hungarian skaters
this is the flea market
this is cake
this is the thermal lake at Heviz
this is the lock fence in Pecs
this is the train station at Tokaj on a foggy night
this is a wine tasting
see all of these and MORE in full technicolour glory on flickr.
not very happily either, since I haven't used film in almost a year...all the photos I took were complete crap and I was worried i would have the same problem this time.
so i took three rolls in yesterday, and for less than $20 had them developed and scanned onto cd in less than 3 hours.
i'm way WAY happier with the results than i expected to be...
this is National Day
this is Parliament
these are Hungarian skaters
this is the flea market
this is cake
this is the thermal lake at Heviz
this is the lock fence in Pecs
this is the train station at Tokaj on a foggy night
this is a wine tasting
see all of these and MORE in full technicolour glory on flickr.
Saturday, March 17, 2007
this is what you get when you google yourself.
i had completely forgotten about this. i'm not sure what i said but i'm pretty sure i didn't say it in french! click here and then scroll down for hyper-flattering photo and silly quote.
Friday, March 16, 2007
some things you should check out
my friend Doug is a holistic nutritionist (you won't believe how much trouble i just had trying to spell that) and has recently started up a fantastic (you could even say....super-fantastic) nutrition blog and newsletter. check out Radical Nutrition. and don't eat artificial sweeteners.
my friend Josh is currently blogging from South By Southwest in Austin, where he has just seen that little kewpie Lily Allen perform. seems she's just started her takeover of North America. you lucky sods, you haven't been overexposed yet? seriously, i'm going to barf if i hear 'Smile' one more time. though i did see a pretty cool video mash-up of that song + the cure's lullabye.
my friend Josh is currently blogging from South By Southwest in Austin, where he has just seen that little kewpie Lily Allen perform. seems she's just started her takeover of North America. you lucky sods, you haven't been overexposed yet? seriously, i'm going to barf if i hear 'Smile' one more time. though i did see a pretty cool video mash-up of that song + the cure's lullabye.
Thursday, March 15, 2007
nothing to see here, ma'am
so around 8 i finally left the apartment and when i opened the door to the street, was relieved to see the police were dismantling the barricades. whew! and i congratulated myself on great timing.
then i turned the corner and saw that that had merely MOVED the barricades. so i followed a wee squad of riot police down toward the new and improved barricade and when i was approached by one of them just pointed at myself and then pointed at the street past the barrier...as in "me go out? yes?"
as i tried to pass another cop said something to me in Hungarian and i replied "nem maygar, angolul?" which means something like "no hungarian, english?" this came out extra-meek without my even trying...heavily armed people just do that to me i guess.
so they let me pass and i walked down to the main avenue, through some old-ish clouds of tear gas. it wasn't so strong anymore but the air tasted like shit and my eyes were watering. at that point i was a little past Oktogon already and couldn't see many police anymore, just people out in the street. the street was shut down and there were lots of people with flags, some wearing balaclavas....one large garbage bin was on fire in the middle of the street and i passed some people in the process of lighting another one on fire as well. there were also plenty of people who just looked like they were out for a stroll.
just as i was turning the corner toward Phil's place i heard "pop-pop-pop" and the rushing sound you get when a lot of people start to run. turned back to see several tear gas canisters start to steam and a big crowd of people heading toward the train station. it felt a bit undignified to run, especially since i was on a side street and more especially since i was clutching a package of paper napkins in one hand. but i sped up. two men dressed in waiter-style tuxedos stood outside of a doorway, watching what was going on.
then i went up to watch Benedicte make crepes (which were impressively delicious). other arrivals spoke of seeing a car on fire, people being sprayed with water cannons...however this was apparently much much better than the situation back in October, and it would probably be over by midnight.
sure enough, when i walked home 5 hours later there was no sign that anything at all had happened. the sidewalks were cleared of debris, the street was being sprayed down and cleaned, and i had no trouble getting back into the apartment.
then i turned the corner and saw that that had merely MOVED the barricades. so i followed a wee squad of riot police down toward the new and improved barricade and when i was approached by one of them just pointed at myself and then pointed at the street past the barrier...as in "me go out? yes?"
as i tried to pass another cop said something to me in Hungarian and i replied "nem maygar, angolul?" which means something like "no hungarian, english?" this came out extra-meek without my even trying...heavily armed people just do that to me i guess.
so they let me pass and i walked down to the main avenue, through some old-ish clouds of tear gas. it wasn't so strong anymore but the air tasted like shit and my eyes were watering. at that point i was a little past Oktogon already and couldn't see many police anymore, just people out in the street. the street was shut down and there were lots of people with flags, some wearing balaclavas....one large garbage bin was on fire in the middle of the street and i passed some people in the process of lighting another one on fire as well. there were also plenty of people who just looked like they were out for a stroll.
just as i was turning the corner toward Phil's place i heard "pop-pop-pop" and the rushing sound you get when a lot of people start to run. turned back to see several tear gas canisters start to steam and a big crowd of people heading toward the train station. it felt a bit undignified to run, especially since i was on a side street and more especially since i was clutching a package of paper napkins in one hand. but i sped up. two men dressed in waiter-style tuxedos stood outside of a doorway, watching what was going on.
then i went up to watch Benedicte make crepes (which were impressively delicious). other arrivals spoke of seeing a car on fire, people being sprayed with water cannons...however this was apparently much much better than the situation back in October, and it would probably be over by midnight.
sure enough, when i walked home 5 hours later there was no sign that anything at all had happened. the sidewalks were cleared of debris, the street was being sprayed down and cleaned, and i had no trouble getting back into the apartment.
not some guy with a loudspeaker
so i was wrong. that wasn't some bozo with a loudspeaker and a truck, it's a demonstration outside the House of Terror. I have no idea which party or political 'wing' this represents as I can't understand what they're saying. However I did see several Arpad flags.
Hungarian politics are too complicated for me to comment on.
Anyway, my block has been barricaded and there are probably 40-50 riot police at the end of the street. I have been watching from my bedroom window and it's hard to tell what's happening - sometimes it looks like the crowd is dispersing and then a chant rises up again. Then they fall silent, then they chant again. The crowd has definitely moved back from the barricades but it doesn't look people are leaving (also it's hard to tell how many people are actually out there because i can't see around the buildings).
I'm supposed to go over to Phil's in about an hour - really not looking forward to walking through a cordon of mini-Darth Vaders to get there. I hope this is all over by the time I come home too because I don't know how I'm going to talk my way through a barricade.
**update**
when I looked again most of the protesters appeared to be gone but there were even MORE police. why? while i was pondering this, they opened the barricades and about 15 cops ran out and out of view to the front of the House of Terror. A cat came streaking across the street in the opposite direction (cats are smart). a police car pulled up on Andrassy, followed by a large group of even more riot police. I'm not sure how many, maybe 30 maybe 50, but they looked pretty beetly and intimidating with the lights flashing off their helmets and shields. Then they all ran off to the front of the Terror house too, again out of my sight.
now i can't see any protesters at all but there are even more police than before, even on the 'calmer' side of the barricade which just leads out to a quiet side street. there's a line of riot police three deep standing about 5 feet behind a barricade. two freaked out looking backpackers hurry past. a guy holding a Hungarian flag stands in front of the barricade and his friend takes his photo against the backdrop of police. i can hear some people laughing but i can't tell if it's onlookers or police.
Hungarian politics are too complicated for me to comment on.
Anyway, my block has been barricaded and there are probably 40-50 riot police at the end of the street. I have been watching from my bedroom window and it's hard to tell what's happening - sometimes it looks like the crowd is dispersing and then a chant rises up again. Then they fall silent, then they chant again. The crowd has definitely moved back from the barricades but it doesn't look people are leaving (also it's hard to tell how many people are actually out there because i can't see around the buildings).
I'm supposed to go over to Phil's in about an hour - really not looking forward to walking through a cordon of mini-Darth Vaders to get there. I hope this is all over by the time I come home too because I don't know how I'm going to talk my way through a barricade.
**update**
when I looked again most of the protesters appeared to be gone but there were even MORE police. why? while i was pondering this, they opened the barricades and about 15 cops ran out and out of view to the front of the House of Terror. A cat came streaking across the street in the opposite direction (cats are smart). a police car pulled up on Andrassy, followed by a large group of even more riot police. I'm not sure how many, maybe 30 maybe 50, but they looked pretty beetly and intimidating with the lights flashing off their helmets and shields. Then they all ran off to the front of the Terror house too, again out of my sight.
now i can't see any protesters at all but there are even more police than before, even on the 'calmer' side of the barricade which just leads out to a quiet side street. there's a line of riot police three deep standing about 5 feet behind a barricade. two freaked out looking backpackers hurry past. a guy holding a Hungarian flag stands in front of the barricade and his friend takes his photo against the backdrop of police. i can hear some people laughing but i can't tell if it's onlookers or police.
no rioting yet
Everything seems to be pretty calm on National Day so far. i went out for a walk and saw a lot of people walking around with flags, but that's about it. I didn't go down to where the rallies were happening. There's a pretty strong police presence around some places i went past - the Synagogue and the US Embassy and the Terror House (a museum which is in a house once used as a prison by the Arrow Cross Party and the Nazis and then the Soviets. It's down the street from me.).
I can hear some people shouting things out on the street right now, but it's probably just some guy with loudspeakers and a truck.
I can hear some people shouting things out on the street right now, but it's probably just some guy with loudspeakers and a truck.
robots
How cool is this?
check out Bennett Robot Works. I think I have the fixings for a least a couple of robots sitting in a box back in Toronto.
check out Bennett Robot Works. I think I have the fixings for a least a couple of robots sitting in a box back in Toronto.
Tuesday, March 13, 2007
googlicious
a small but increasing number of people are finding this blog via web searches such as:
heviz sex show
picking up hookers
hookers getting filmed
picking up prostitutes
not exactly sure why since, before today, I mentioned prostitution like one or two times. This post effectively triples the hooker wordcount on this blog. I look forward to the increased traffic.
Hello whore seekers! You won't find what you're looking for here. Try searching for something more specific.
heviz sex show
picking up hookers
hookers getting filmed
picking up prostitutes
not exactly sure why since, before today, I mentioned prostitution like one or two times. This post effectively triples the hooker wordcount on this blog. I look forward to the increased traffic.
Hello whore seekers! You won't find what you're looking for here. Try searching for something more specific.
Monday, March 12, 2007
a jumped up pantry boy, who never knew his place
interviews! i got interviews. unfortunately there's a national holiday on thursday which means everyone's either taking the whole week off or thursday, friday, and monday at least.
the holiday is 'National Day' which commemorates the 1848 Revolution. i'm not too clear on what exactly is going to go down but we've been warned to expect lots of protests. stories like "police will use rubber bullets when it is deemed necessary on March 15" or "Jews advised to stay at home (holocaust denier guest of honour)" are not promising. There were some anti-government protests last fall, which turned violent, and it seems like something similar is expected again this time. And it's going to bring out all the right-wing fucknut wack-jobs.
watching MTV2 - Fall Out Boy (btw - does anyone else get 'this ain't a scene' in their head for days at a time? how do you make it go away?) doing a countdown of their top 10 favourite Smiths and Morrissey videos....the oldest ones i'd never seen before. god he was hot. i guess he's still kind of hot now but those old videos were just....distracting. man.
the holiday is 'National Day' which commemorates the 1848 Revolution. i'm not too clear on what exactly is going to go down but we've been warned to expect lots of protests. stories like "police will use rubber bullets when it is deemed necessary on March 15" or "Jews advised to stay at home (holocaust denier guest of honour)" are not promising. There were some anti-government protests last fall, which turned violent, and it seems like something similar is expected again this time. And it's going to bring out all the right-wing fucknut wack-jobs.
watching MTV2 - Fall Out Boy (btw - does anyone else get 'this ain't a scene' in their head for days at a time? how do you make it go away?) doing a countdown of their top 10 favourite Smiths and Morrissey videos....the oldest ones i'd never seen before. god he was hot. i guess he's still kind of hot now but those old videos were just....distracting. man.
Friday, March 09, 2007
good ol' Mustapha...remember him?
Remember Mustapha?
Remember the time he got arrested, or the second time he got arrested, or the time he took Steph and I to a whorehouse, or the time i realized just how full of shit he really was...?
Well, every so often he sends me an incomprehensible sort of update email.
The latest one is pretty good. I think it came from space.
salut ca va bien arndisデビュー30周年を迎えた浜田省吾の“I am a
father”にインスパイアされた「キャッチボール」と “Thank
you”にインスパイアされた「君と歩いた道」の2作品の本編に加え、
Disk2には出演者はもちろん、浜田省吾も登場するメイキ今年始め大阪･広島をはじめ全国各地で
cava bien 上映された映画 「TWO
LOVE」が待望のDVD化ングを始め、予告編、プロダクションノok
beyートなど盛り沢山の特典映像を収録！ mustapha
Remember the time he got arrested, or the second time he got arrested, or the time he took Steph and I to a whorehouse, or the time i realized just how full of shit he really was...?
Well, every so often he sends me an incomprehensible sort of update email.
The latest one is pretty good. I think it came from space.
salut ca va bien arndisデビュー30周年を迎えた浜田省吾の“I am a
father”にインスパイアされた「キャッチボール」と “Thank
you”にインスパイアされた「君と歩いた道」の2作品の本編に
Disk2には出演者はもちろん、浜田省吾も登場するメイキ今年
cava bien 上映された映画 「TWO
LOVE」が待望のDVD化ングを始め、予告編、プロダクション
beyートなど盛り沢山の特典映像を収録！ mustapha
Thursday, March 08, 2007
procrastinating
blagh.....not sure how i went from being hyper-motivated to brain-dead but i can't even respond to email let alone write a CV today. now i'm just obsessed with the Geotagging feature on Flickr - when did they put this up? what a great way to spend a beautiful day in Budapest. Indoors shuffling virtual photos around.
Wednesday, March 07, 2007
i'm a teacher! gimme some cake. is that gin?
it's done, it's over, and I passed. actually i did better than I expected to, though i don't know if that will actually make much of a difference when looking for jobs.
it's wednesday today and i've spent the last 5 days 'celebrating' the end of the course which means any excuse to eat cake, drink coffee, sit in bathhouses, buy stuff at flea markets, drink gin, eat too much food or watch movies has been exploited.
sadly, all binges must end. today i will start looking for a job. a few classmates have already found work so I'm feeling good about my prospects.
budapest is gorgeous right now, yesterday was 20 degrees t-shirt weather and today looks to be the same. i have a mild sunburn - not what i expected from budapest in March.
depending on the work situation i may be here indefinitely, i have a great living situation (it involves british sattelite television) and it seems like every corner of this city holds something new and cool. definitely staying till the end of the month anyway.
I have posted some new photos on flickr...they're two or three months old but it's some stuff from vienna and krakow. working on getting some hungary photos up there soon.
it's wednesday today and i've spent the last 5 days 'celebrating' the end of the course which means any excuse to eat cake, drink coffee, sit in bathhouses, buy stuff at flea markets, drink gin, eat too much food or watch movies has been exploited.
sadly, all binges must end. today i will start looking for a job. a few classmates have already found work so I'm feeling good about my prospects.
budapest is gorgeous right now, yesterday was 20 degrees t-shirt weather and today looks to be the same. i have a mild sunburn - not what i expected from budapest in March.
depending on the work situation i may be here indefinitely, i have a great living situation (it involves british sattelite television) and it seems like every corner of this city holds something new and cool. definitely staying till the end of the month anyway.
I have posted some new photos on flickr...they're two or three months old but it's some stuff from vienna and krakow. working on getting some hungary photos up there soon.
Wednesday, February 14, 2007
whew!
i actually have a few minutes to spare. let me tell you about my world these days. this is my general daily schedule:
get up around 7:30
8:30-9:00 am: walk to school
9:00 - 11:30 : work on lesson plan or other homework
11:30 - 5 pm - input sessions and feedback on previous lessons. at lunch, try to finish lesson plan for tonight.
5-6 pm : desperately try to finish printing materials for class at 6, read over lesson plan so I know what i'm doing
6-8:15 pm : teach a class (not the whole class, three of us - out of our group of 5 - will each teach a 40 minute lesson...so i don't teach every day but still have to attend the class and take notes of everything)
8:30 - 9 pm : walk home
9 - 9:30 pm : eat dinner
9:30 - 2 a.m : work on next day's lesson plan or other homework
2 - 7:30 a.m. : sleep. dream about teaching class and trying to explain the meaning of words like 'represent'
by the end of day last Thursday we were all completely exhausted. There are 16 people in the course and we're split into three groups of 5 or 6 people, and each group has its own class of students. Sometimes there are lessons which are unassessed which means that our tutor/observer leaves the room and we teach without being graded on it. Last Thursday, while poor Krista was teaching an unassessed class, three of us trainees in the back completely. lost. our. shit. I mean hysterical, uncontrollable laughter, for no apparent reason. There was mascara all over my face by the end of it. Thank god the tutor wasn't there. Students were very confused.
We teach a pre-intermediate class, which means they can communicate fairly well but simply and their grammar isn't very clean. Our class is fairly small (only around 8-10 people show up) and quiet so it's hard to get them to speak up in class. Also we have a set of identical teenaged twin boys...at the beginning of each class we have to ascertain who is who.
So far I've taught 4 classes....the first two were painful (you remember Charlie Brown's teacher? wa-wa-wa-wa-waa-waaaaaa.....that was me. Ugh.), the last two have gone fairly well and been really fun. What I've learned is that if you want to bring things up a notch, you should try to incorporate a picture of a ham into your lesson. I like pointing to ham and making people tell me what it is. Ham. It's just fun!
However I'm lucky because I haven't had to do a grammar class yet. How on earth can you make a grammar class interesting? Hopefully I will be able to use a pork product of some sort.
It's Wednesday of the second week already and so far I'm less exhausted than I was last week...I think it's because last night I made an effort to get at least 6 hours of sleep. It's amazing what the body can get used to. Oh....maybe all those large lattes I've been drinking have something to do with it as well. I'm going to enjoy this feeling of well restedness as long as I can because I know it won't last. I have two assignments due next week plus a class every couple of days to teach.
Ham!
p.s. if anyone has tried to call me and left a message on the answering machine...I'm sorry but I don't know how to access the voice mail yet so I haven't got the message...will hopefully figure that out on the weekend.
get up around 7:30
8:30-9:00 am: walk to school
9:00 - 11:30 : work on lesson plan or other homework
11:30 - 5 pm - input sessions and feedback on previous lessons. at lunch, try to finish lesson plan for tonight.
5-6 pm : desperately try to finish printing materials for class at 6, read over lesson plan so I know what i'm doing
6-8:15 pm : teach a class (not the whole class, three of us - out of our group of 5 - will each teach a 40 minute lesson...so i don't teach every day but still have to attend the class and take notes of everything)
8:30 - 9 pm : walk home
9 - 9:30 pm : eat dinner
9:30 - 2 a.m : work on next day's lesson plan or other homework
2 - 7:30 a.m. : sleep. dream about teaching class and trying to explain the meaning of words like 'represent'
by the end of day last Thursday we were all completely exhausted. There are 16 people in the course and we're split into three groups of 5 or 6 people, and each group has its own class of students. Sometimes there are lessons which are unassessed which means that our tutor/observer leaves the room and we teach without being graded on it. Last Thursday, while poor Krista was teaching an unassessed class, three of us trainees in the back completely. lost. our. shit. I mean hysterical, uncontrollable laughter, for no apparent reason. There was mascara all over my face by the end of it. Thank god the tutor wasn't there. Students were very confused.
We teach a pre-intermediate class, which means they can communicate fairly well but simply and their grammar isn't very clean. Our class is fairly small (only around 8-10 people show up) and quiet so it's hard to get them to speak up in class. Also we have a set of identical teenaged twin boys...at the beginning of each class we have to ascertain who is who.
So far I've taught 4 classes....the first two were painful (you remember Charlie Brown's teacher? wa-wa-wa-wa-waa-waaaaaa.....that was me. Ugh.), the last two have gone fairly well and been really fun. What I've learned is that if you want to bring things up a notch, you should try to incorporate a picture of a ham into your lesson. I like pointing to ham and making people tell me what it is. Ham. It's just fun!
However I'm lucky because I haven't had to do a grammar class yet. How on earth can you make a grammar class interesting? Hopefully I will be able to use a pork product of some sort.
It's Wednesday of the second week already and so far I'm less exhausted than I was last week...I think it's because last night I made an effort to get at least 6 hours of sleep. It's amazing what the body can get used to. Oh....maybe all those large lattes I've been drinking have something to do with it as well. I'm going to enjoy this feeling of well restedness as long as I can because I know it won't last. I have two assignments due next week plus a class every couple of days to teach.
Ham!
p.s. if anyone has tried to call me and left a message on the answering machine...I'm sorry but I don't know how to access the voice mail yet so I haven't got the message...will hopefully figure that out on the weekend.
Monday, February 05, 2007
what have I gotten myself into?
I'm staying in Budapest for a while...I have a room in an apartment and a phone and everything. It feels so weirdly permanent, even though it's only for a month (i think).
The reason I'm staying is that I've enrolled in an english teacher training course (the CELTA certificate if that means anything to you). Today was the first day and I teach my first class (a 30 minute lesson) tomorrow night. I bought a grammar book yesterday which only proved to me how very little I know about English grammar. I probably know more about French grammar. Actually, I think the course is going to be great but I'm apprehensive about the 'teaching a real class' aspect of the whole thing. Feels like I'm heading for a root canal or something.
Apologies as well for the lack of new photos but my digital camera is still broken. I'm using film now but haven't had any developed yet.
Have I mentioned the thermal lake yet? About 3 hours south of here there is a town called Heviz which boasts a thermal lake. That means the water is warm all year, and generally filled with elderly people looking for a 'cure'. It's medicinal (read: mildly radioactive among other things). I arrived in Heviz not knowing where I was going to stay, but luckily I ran into Yi Ling on the bus...she offered so share her room with me! Sweet! We went to the lake and hung out...the water's warm. Ish. I wouldn't take a bath that cold. It was cool being outside at this time of year in a lake but not the most comfortable experience. Later, inside, an older Hungarian man started talking to us in english so we had a conversation with him for a while. In the dressing room after the lake had closed a woman started jabbering at us in Hungarian with a very intense expression on her face. After about 10 minutes we figured out she was telling us to stay away from the bad man. Basically what I could understand was "man", "no", and "sex". Clear enough!
The reason I'm staying is that I've enrolled in an english teacher training course (the CELTA certificate if that means anything to you). Today was the first day and I teach my first class (a 30 minute lesson) tomorrow night. I bought a grammar book yesterday which only proved to me how very little I know about English grammar. I probably know more about French grammar. Actually, I think the course is going to be great but I'm apprehensive about the 'teaching a real class' aspect of the whole thing. Feels like I'm heading for a root canal or something.
Apologies as well for the lack of new photos but my digital camera is still broken. I'm using film now but haven't had any developed yet.
Have I mentioned the thermal lake yet? About 3 hours south of here there is a town called Heviz which boasts a thermal lake. That means the water is warm all year, and generally filled with elderly people looking for a 'cure'. It's medicinal (read: mildly radioactive among other things). I arrived in Heviz not knowing where I was going to stay, but luckily I ran into Yi Ling on the bus...she offered so share her room with me! Sweet! We went to the lake and hung out...the water's warm. Ish. I wouldn't take a bath that cold. It was cool being outside at this time of year in a lake but not the most comfortable experience. Later, inside, an older Hungarian man started talking to us in english so we had a conversation with him for a while. In the dressing room after the lake had closed a woman started jabbering at us in Hungarian with a very intense expression on her face. After about 10 minutes we figured out she was telling us to stay away from the bad man. Basically what I could understand was "man", "no", and "sex". Clear enough!
Tuesday, January 23, 2007
water and wine (hungarian rhapsody)
Budapest was fun, and Hungarians are great...where else can you hang out at a crazy painter's apartment drinking Jim Beam till the wee hours and being served goulash (which I believe was supposed to be somebody's lunch the next day) at 2:30 in the morning by an exceptionally drunk, middle-aged William Shatner lookalike with a major Grand Canyon obsession? Shat had some pretty complicated porn on his video-playing cell phone but he couldn't figure out how to dial a US number. I wish I spoke Hungarian so I could have listened in on the conversation he had with the phone support guy. I wonder if support people get a lot of drunken late night calls. Does it alleviate the boredom?
I have now got a recipe for really good goulash written out in shaky Hungarian...we will see if I ever manage to get it translated.
Also great was the opportunity to hang out with Phil and Benedicte again and check out a serbian gypsy brass band (and kick some major butt at foosball, though I can't take any credit for that. James is a foosball hustler.).
Finally we decided to get out into the country and headed to Eger where we were intercepted at the train station by Margaret (Margit?) a sweet widow who rents out her spare bedroom for the best deal in the country. Eger was all about too much red wine (the home of Bull's Blood) and partying with long haired youngsters who took us under their wing and down into the Eagle club which I think was under a basilica. The recovery phase was aided by Eger's thermal baths which allow you to sit outside in a steamy warm pool and enjoy a water massage.
Then we decided to see Boldogkő castle at Boldogköváralja (this country has many things in common with Iceland - thermally heated pools and unpronouncable place names being among them). For an approximately 160 km journey we had to take 4 different trains and one bus. Then we learned that Boldogköváralja has no accommodations at this time of year and since it was getting dark and the last train was in an hour, we had to forego seeing the castle up close and personal and start walking to the nearest train station (2 km away). The train 'station' was in the middle of nowhere, guarded by two possibly feral dogs, but we eventually found it and the train eventually came. James gamely tried to interact with the giggling teenagers sitting behind us and at one point a woman came over with her cell phone and stuck it in his face...she didn't speak english but her friend on the phone did and they wanted to make sure we were going to make it to our destination intact. They were very kind and very concerned and she must have brought the phone back to us two or three times so her friend could provide more information.
On the next train (the 6th? 7th? of the day? it's so hard to keep track...) we met a Canadian and a Brazilian girl who were in Hungary on a Rotary Exchange for their last year of high school, which brightened the last leg of a very long day considerably as they gave us their pins and cards and helped us get off at the right station and bonded with J over mutual exchange experiences.
In Sarospatak we ate delicious italian food and also delicious hungarian food (an enormous soup and plate of chicken and potatoes and some mysterious but tasty green sauce for $3!).
Next on the agenda was Tokaj, wine country, where we landed after dark and were taken around town by Sylvester and Istvan, a couple of 14 year old men-about-town who helped us find a hotel and entertained us with very broken english. We still can't figure out why Sylvester started to undo his pants at one point, but a firm "stop" and a stern look put a stop to that weirdness right away. Then they looked embarrassed like we had misinterpreted something and said "Sylvester, stupid boy!".
If you ever go to Tokaj, do yourself a favour and go do a wine tasting. I don't even like white wine but Tokaj is something special, especially the sweet 6 Puttonyo Aszu.
A little buzzed, we hopped on the next train or two for Debrecen which is Hungary's second largest city but frankly not all that exciting. Perhaps something to do with it being the middle of the week in low season. Still, the Hungarians proved themselves once again as what started as a quiet drink in a little bar turned into an extravaganza of fun and weirdness courtesy of Joe who blew enormous smoke rings and pretended to be in love with me. Bonus: I can sort of blow smoke rings now.
Debrecen also has thermal baths, some of which are dark brown and small of coal tar - highly theraputic I am certain. The best was the hot and cold dipping pools, where you can slip from 20 degree water into 40 degree water...stingy!
And finally, on to Pecs (pronounced Paich), where I am now...Pecs was once again all about smelly thermal baths (in Harkany, near the Croatian border) and italian food. We didn't have time to go out to the thermal lake in Heviz before James had to go home (stupid work!;) but I am going to hang out here for a couple more days and then check it out on my own.
I have now got a recipe for really good goulash written out in shaky Hungarian...we will see if I ever manage to get it translated.
Also great was the opportunity to hang out with Phil and Benedicte again and check out a serbian gypsy brass band (and kick some major butt at foosball, though I can't take any credit for that. James is a foosball hustler.).
Finally we decided to get out into the country and headed to Eger where we were intercepted at the train station by Margaret (Margit?) a sweet widow who rents out her spare bedroom for the best deal in the country. Eger was all about too much red wine (the home of Bull's Blood) and partying with long haired youngsters who took us under their wing and down into the Eagle club which I think was under a basilica. The recovery phase was aided by Eger's thermal baths which allow you to sit outside in a steamy warm pool and enjoy a water massage.
Then we decided to see Boldogkő castle at Boldogköváralja (this country has many things in common with Iceland - thermally heated pools and unpronouncable place names being among them). For an approximately 160 km journey we had to take 4 different trains and one bus. Then we learned that Boldogköváralja has no accommodations at this time of year and since it was getting dark and the last train was in an hour, we had to forego seeing the castle up close and personal and start walking to the nearest train station (2 km away). The train 'station' was in the middle of nowhere, guarded by two possibly feral dogs, but we eventually found it and the train eventually came. James gamely tried to interact with the giggling teenagers sitting behind us and at one point a woman came over with her cell phone and stuck it in his face...she didn't speak english but her friend on the phone did and they wanted to make sure we were going to make it to our destination intact. They were very kind and very concerned and she must have brought the phone back to us two or three times so her friend could provide more information.
On the next train (the 6th? 7th? of the day? it's so hard to keep track...) we met a Canadian and a Brazilian girl who were in Hungary on a Rotary Exchange for their last year of high school, which brightened the last leg of a very long day considerably as they gave us their pins and cards and helped us get off at the right station and bonded with J over mutual exchange experiences.
In Sarospatak we ate delicious italian food and also delicious hungarian food (an enormous soup and plate of chicken and potatoes and some mysterious but tasty green sauce for $3!).
Next on the agenda was Tokaj, wine country, where we landed after dark and were taken around town by Sylvester and Istvan, a couple of 14 year old men-about-town who helped us find a hotel and entertained us with very broken english. We still can't figure out why Sylvester started to undo his pants at one point, but a firm "stop" and a stern look put a stop to that weirdness right away. Then they looked embarrassed like we had misinterpreted something and said "Sylvester, stupid boy!".
If you ever go to Tokaj, do yourself a favour and go do a wine tasting. I don't even like white wine but Tokaj is something special, especially the sweet 6 Puttonyo Aszu.
A little buzzed, we hopped on the next train or two for Debrecen which is Hungary's second largest city but frankly not all that exciting. Perhaps something to do with it being the middle of the week in low season. Still, the Hungarians proved themselves once again as what started as a quiet drink in a little bar turned into an extravaganza of fun and weirdness courtesy of Joe who blew enormous smoke rings and pretended to be in love with me. Bonus: I can sort of blow smoke rings now.
Debrecen also has thermal baths, some of which are dark brown and small of coal tar - highly theraputic I am certain. The best was the hot and cold dipping pools, where you can slip from 20 degree water into 40 degree water...stingy!
And finally, on to Pecs (pronounced Paich), where I am now...Pecs was once again all about smelly thermal baths (in Harkany, near the Croatian border) and italian food. We didn't have time to go out to the thermal lake in Heviz before James had to go home (stupid work!;) but I am going to hang out here for a couple more days and then check it out on my own.
Saturday, January 06, 2007
one year anniversary!
i can't believe it's been exactly one year since i left Toronto with a raging hangover and landed in Paris, drooling with jet lag. But it's true. i celebrated here in Budapest with my friend James over big bowls of goulash soup and thick dark beer, after being given an impromptu tour of the city by Leslie, James' drinking buddy from the night before who we had just run into on the street.
i have also just set an unbreakable record for myself in the category of 'least amount of time spent in one country' - i went to Slovakia for 36 hours. I don't think i can beat that (passing through in transit or layover of course doesn't count). Bratislava was nice though!
i have also just set an unbreakable record for myself in the category of 'least amount of time spent in one country' - i went to Slovakia for 36 hours. I don't think i can beat that (passing through in transit or layover of course doesn't count). Bratislava was nice though!
Monday, January 01, 2007
happy new year
happy new year everyone! i rang the year in here in krakow at a hostel party featuring free beer and wine and champagne and food all night (all night means till well after 6 a.m.), and approximately 7 men for every woman. it's a good combination.
we went to the town square at midnight to watch the fireworks with a bunch of Scots in kilts and if you haven't wandered around an eastern european city with a man in a kilt on new year's eve then you haven't lived. everybody loves the Scots! People would come up to them and just give them cans of beer. Everyone wanted a photo. Drunk middle aged women giggled hysterically and tried to look up their kilts.
i went to bed at 6 but woke up again around 9 to the sound of a drunken australian who had lost the keys to his locker shouting HAPPY FUCKIN NEW YEAR in the middle of the room. he had to board a plane in a couple of hours. the receptionist couldn't find extra keys for the lockers. someone came in with a crowbar and tore the doors off two of the lockers. so that's 2007 so far.
as for other krakow events...so that night i was supposed to go back to the bar to meet the Canadian and the Belgian i either was too late or they didn't show because they weren't there. but I did discover that the drunk english guy is the sort of alcoholic who ends the night with his fly undone and mysterious stains on the front of his trousers, as he tries to convince you to get in a taxi with him to go dancing at another club. your refusal will elicit comments like "why? i dont....i don't want to SHAG you!" well honey, that is really beside the point. when i arrived anyway he was on the verge of being kicked out of the bar but he did introduce me to some people before he was tossed. one of them was Olga who said 'i am going to some other bars, you can come with me if you like'. okay! she took me to awesome places i would never have found on my own.
The next morning Keith took me off on a walking tour of the city, but unfortunately it was so foggy there was almost no point. Still it was really nice and he also introduced me to the fine dish of potato pancakes with goulash.
So far i have managed to eat perogies every single day without fail.
Finally, mystical energy and planned obsolescence have teamed up to destroy my camera. I think the warranty expired three days ago. Yesterday I went to Wawel castel which apparently hosts one of the 7 great energy chakras of the earth in one corner of the courtyard.
All i know is that my camera was working 5 minutes before i went in there, i stood in that area of the courtyard for about 5 minutes, and then 30 seconds later as i walked away and tried to turn the camera on it started screeching and beeping like R2D2 in a microwave.
Which is why i have no photos of the madness that was last night. major bummer.
we went to the town square at midnight to watch the fireworks with a bunch of Scots in kilts and if you haven't wandered around an eastern european city with a man in a kilt on new year's eve then you haven't lived. everybody loves the Scots! People would come up to them and just give them cans of beer. Everyone wanted a photo. Drunk middle aged women giggled hysterically and tried to look up their kilts.
i went to bed at 6 but woke up again around 9 to the sound of a drunken australian who had lost the keys to his locker shouting HAPPY FUCKIN NEW YEAR in the middle of the room. he had to board a plane in a couple of hours. the receptionist couldn't find extra keys for the lockers. someone came in with a crowbar and tore the doors off two of the lockers. so that's 2007 so far.
as for other krakow events...so that night i was supposed to go back to the bar to meet the Canadian and the Belgian i either was too late or they didn't show because they weren't there. but I did discover that the drunk english guy is the sort of alcoholic who ends the night with his fly undone and mysterious stains on the front of his trousers, as he tries to convince you to get in a taxi with him to go dancing at another club. your refusal will elicit comments like "why? i dont....i don't want to SHAG you!" well honey, that is really beside the point. when i arrived anyway he was on the verge of being kicked out of the bar but he did introduce me to some people before he was tossed. one of them was Olga who said 'i am going to some other bars, you can come with me if you like'. okay! she took me to awesome places i would never have found on my own.
The next morning Keith took me off on a walking tour of the city, but unfortunately it was so foggy there was almost no point. Still it was really nice and he also introduced me to the fine dish of potato pancakes with goulash.
So far i have managed to eat perogies every single day without fail.
Finally, mystical energy and planned obsolescence have teamed up to destroy my camera. I think the warranty expired three days ago. Yesterday I went to Wawel castel which apparently hosts one of the 7 great energy chakras of the earth in one corner of the courtyard.
All i know is that my camera was working 5 minutes before i went in there, i stood in that area of the courtyard for about 5 minutes, and then 30 seconds later as i walked away and tried to turn the camera on it started screeching and beeping like R2D2 in a microwave.
Which is why i have no photos of the madness that was last night. major bummer.
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