the devil´s backbone

this morning i got on the bus from Mazatlan to Durango without having done my homework. most of the 6.5 hour ride is through mountains which I´m sure were beautiful but since I spent most of the trip with my eyes closed trying desperately not to throw up, i´ll have to take your word for it. The driver was taking switchbacks and hairpins at 80km an hour and passing semis on blind curves (another good reason to keep my eyes shut).

i got on the bus with a large yogurt and an even larger chocolate muffin (as an aside, is there really any such thing as a chocolate muffin? isn´t it just a giant cupcake?) and settled in, looking forward to the ride and to my breakfast. Three hours later the yogurt was steaming hot fresh from my stomach in a clear plastic bag (why do i have to keep barfing into plastic bags on or near public transportation?) and the muffin had either rolled off the edge of the seat or been nicked by the dodgy old man sitting behind me.

By the time we got to a rest stop (after I had been holding the bag of vomurt in my lap for about 40 minutes) I was such a mess I had forgotten the word for "garbage" (basura) and was pestering the lady behind the counter for a bag (bolsa)..."where is the bag?" "is there a bag here?" finally she figured it out, told me what the correct word was and then.....gave me a bag.

some new photos from Mexico

i'm having a lot of trouble lately with Flickr (Yahoo won't accept my credit cards and I've lost my Pro account) but was able to upload a few new photos from Mexico:

Sea Lions in Guerrero Negro:


Also saw lots and lots of grey whales in the lagoon there but they're not quite as photogenic...

Hummingbird in Baja:


Vanna White in Mazatlan:

(the van I've been staying in)

One of the Carnival floats in La Paz:



More on Flickr.

you can take the girl out of the trash, but you can't take the trash out of the girl

so I live in a van. yes, I live in a white cargo van, this week and last.
I'm in Sayulita, north of Puerto Vallarta, with an old friend I met in Spain 2 years ago and who just happened to be in Baja when I was there. So we travelled together to the mainland.
The van is actually pretty cool, much bigger than you'd think...if I'd seen more Dr. Who I could make an appropriate reference here.

I have more freckles than I've had since I was 12.
I'm not a very good surfer.
Today went snorkeling for the first time and saw a variety of fish and dolphins and even a humpback whale. We accidentally caught a pelican with a fishhook (that part was not so cool). The pelican survived to see another day.

We'll probably be here till Monday at least, then I might catch a ride a little bit north (Ira is heading home).
Battery is out, more soon.

sunburn already

mexico. yes.

currently in Baja California where the days are nice and warm and the nights are colder than expected.

apparently there are whales around here someplace but all I see are eagles.

amichevole

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.

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

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.