Bowling in Slovenia

Nothing like showing up in the bowling alley to hear great American oldies music. And to know that the brand of bowling ball the world over, is American. Here are the beautiful American ladies having a little taste of home!

Croatia

Trying to remember what you´ve done the past few days - getting harder and harder.

Piran, Slovenia
Very cute coastal town, built on a hook out into the Adriatic Sea. Great Venetian buildings, and good gelato.

Split, Croatia
Shipping city with a Roman history. Diocletian had his retirement palace here, when everything was owned by the Roman Empire. He was the beginning of the end, by partially things off to four sub-emperors.

Dubrovnik, Croatia
The pearl of the Adriatic, at least according to Lord Byron and he wasn´t too far off. The old city was gorgeous, with great gelato! We walked the city walls, where you get wonderful views of the Adriatic.
In Slovenia and Croatia, the locals rent out rooms in their houses almost everywhere you go. There are signs labeling the ˝sobe˝ in every neighborhood, so we found a great on up on the hill, and were able to make ourselves some great pasta dinners!

Plitvice National Park, Croatia
This is a waterfall wonderland! Hiked it for a few hours on our way back north.

Venice, Italy
Well, its Italy, so of course its amazing! We spent the day there today, and felt like we were on vacation from our trip. Had some amazing gelato (are we seeing a pattern?), great pizza, and pigeons!

Back in Slovenia tonight, with free internet, which is a small piece of heaven and home, when you`re on the road. I can´t really check people.com when I´m paying 4 euro an hour!

We are headed to Ljubljana, where we will drop off my friend Kristen at the airport, and our beloved little car, and get on the train for Vienna.

Put Out to Pasture

The Lippizaner horses were bred here in Slovenia, when this was part of the Hapsburg Empire to supply Archduke Charles with stallions for his court. They are a beautiful white, with short stocky legs, and have incredible strength and intelligence. We went to the stud farm yesterday, and saw the mares and all the new colts. However, we were in a group with 15 retired British folks, who only wanted to know what happened to the horses when they could no longer work! Ironically, these horses retire at 27 and just graze the fields and enjoy life for another fifteen years or so. The Brits thought that way okay, and we find it pretty nice too. Retire at 27 okay, done!
I had been telling Lauren for a while how beautiful and white the horses would be - trying to pump up her enthusiasm. So, I read her part of the book and the line, "They are born a dark black ... " sort of threw me! But the sentence finishes, "then turn a mottled gray in adolescence before becoming white in adulthood."
We had a wonderful time touring the farm, and seeing the show. I love a good show! The horses side-stepped, and side-strutted, and stood on their back legs. I don't really remember that being a positive trait in horses, but when in Slovenia...!

We drove out to Piran yesterday afternoon, which is this cute little Venetian coast town. Our next week involves lots of Croatian beach time - tough life!

Catch Up

So, my last post apparently scared my mother into believing someone hacked into my blog and something had happened to me, so just to clarify - Mom, its me and Im fine! In fact I just beat my friends good in a game of Slovenian bowling!
We have had some great adventures since Budapest:

Eger, Hungary
This quaint little wine town in the heart of Hungarian wine country. We accidentally ended up renting a great apartment overlooking the square of Eger. This place was HUGE and beautiful, and since we´d been sleeping on the floor in Budapest, it was our own Hungarian castle! The owner of this place also happened to be the wine engineer for the Eger Vin Winery, and offered to host a wine tasting in his cellar the next night so we gladly accepted and got to try his 1983 vintage! The next day he gave us a tour of the cellars at his company and at the friends winery across the street. It was a great few days!

On to Slovenia - We spent one whole day on the train from Eger to Budapest to Ljubljana, where we were met at the train station by Katja our next Couchsurfing host. She is 24 and lives in the upstairs apartment of her parents house outside the city and we think she hosts couchsurfers because she needs extra stimulation. She showed us around the city at warp speed in her little bare bones car! She was wonderful and her house was awesome. Out in the country so we got to see a real Slovenian family, and their home! She even took us to a party/concert thing up on the mountain, and we tried a Slovene delicacy - wine and coke together! Just pour out half the coke in your bottle and fill it with wine!
Ljubljana was a great little city with a castle and an old town, and a nice Russian consulate who gave us our Russian visas after four trips to the embassy in two countries. We got denied in Hungary flat out, and Slovenia was much kinder. That is after we filled out job applications, complete with questions about our connection with biological warfare, and our experience with the military. Don´t worry I didn´t tell them I use to be a whiz with a bb gun!

The real fun started when we picked up our car on Friday - a little wagon of sorts, that fits all five of us and our bags nicely! (My friend Kristen joined us in Ljubljana!)
We headed to Bled, where Tito vacationed, and to Lake Bohinj - gorgeous alpine views and great hairpin turns!

A Mothers Day Tribute

To my dear mother: You have given me feet established in a firm foundation but wings to fly wherever I dream of going. You have loved us but not fettered us to your apron strings. Your wisdom is boundless and your wit the same. Your physical beauty is only surpassed by your internal beauty. When the sun shines, it shines only on you! What a JOY it has been to have you as my mother, and now I call you friend. Love, Your oldest child, Jayme

Another Normal Day

My trip home from work in central Budapest requires several buses and a tram, but I like living in the country so the hassel is worth the effort. The view of the mountains from my back door is worth every bump and jostle from the city. Plus some days things happen on a train that you just never want to miss.
Today I got on the #47 tram, and was followed by four girls, probably American, guide book open. They were chattering about the difference between a tram and a bus, and whether they needed a tram, and was this a bus. I knew it did not matter, so I didn`t say anything. They stayed on the bus and were talking about that damn statue park. Why we let that man put all those statues up again is beyond me, but at least it was far out of town. I`m still not sure what the attraction is, not too many people make that trek, but these girls were in for a ride. The bus we were on ends, and to keep going now you have to get on the tram #47. Too bad this is my stop, I`d love to see how they do.


I boarded the tram #47 to head out to my village. I had come into Budapest to do some shopping. There were some tourists on the bus, and I thought wow, they are far away from the sights. I listened in to their conversation to see where they were going, and they mentioned the statue park. I chuckled to myself, all we wanted to do was get those bad reminder statues down, and now people come from all over to see our trash basically. I wasn`t sure how they were going to get there from the tram though. At the end of the line, just a few stops down, I was passing these girls on the tracks, when I heard, "Do you speak English?". Okay, I wanted to get home but these poor girls were in trouble! I walked them across the square and down to the bus stop. I thought they needed bus 3, until they could connect to #50, but I confirmed this with another Hungarian woman at the stop. I showed them on the sign and the map what they wanted and told them where to get off - I hope they make it. I told them to take the red bus to the yellow bus home, that will be much faster. I don`t know who told them to take this route but it was bad information.

I drive route 50 from the mall out into the country and then back to the shopping mall. Mostly I just have country folk coming into town to pick up some items at the big mall, and then heading back out to their farms, so when I pulled into the station and saw four tourists waiting at my next stop, I was intrigued. Especially since that stop was the next to last and I the bus did was go to the station, unload, turn around and head back the other direction. But, they got on rode one stop and got off. They unloaded with confused faces, but then just started laughing histerically. They started walking circles around the station, like they were looking for a sign, or some sort of information. When I started to turn around to wait at the stop they came running across the street. I knew then they must be headed up to the statue park, nothing else for foreigners to do in this area. So, they got back on the bus and rode up to the park. They got off at the park stop, and headed in the right direction. I sure wish I knew how to tell them the park is closed this time of day in English!

Party like it 1896

We have been in Budapest, Hungary for a few days now. We have mainly been hanging out near the Chinese and Russian embassies patiently attempting to get our visas. The Chinese goverment accepted our payment of 95 dollars and we scored entry to the country. The Russian consular has not been open since Monday so HOPEFULLY Friday will be our lucky day.

Today, I led a walking tour of Pest and Buda. We strolled the Vaci Utca, seeing the National Museum and the Great Market Hall, where we refrained from buying nesting dolls of the Soviet leaders. We crossed the Danube and visited Castle Hill with the Royal Palace, St. Mathias Church, the Hilton (built in 1976 - still trying to figure out what comrades needed a Hilton) and the Vienna gate (only a 10 day walk from Vienna). The Hungarians celebrated the centenial of the Magyars, their ancestors, settling in this area in 1896 so almost every building on the tour was built then. If it was not blown up in WWI or WWII, it was 111 years old. We had a interesting historical tour, even if it was a very recent history.

Tonight we went to the Opera, or at least the first act of the opera. The building was beautiful and the opera was in German, and translated in Hungarian. After some great music, and a little nap, there was a curtain call and the audience walked out. We thought it was a short opera, but enough of singing for us.

Are you sure this is my train?

Somehow we booked ourselves into the nice train last night. Duvets, hardwood paneling, window shades, beautiful fluffy pillows! We booked our tickets from Brasov to Budapest, with an overnight stop in Sighisoara and ended up with a nice ride. The only problem being the ride was too short, and interrupted by border guards wanting to stamp my passport.
We got to Budapest this morning, and we are once again Couchsurfing, with Nick and Jaco. They are both American students studying in Budapest for the year, and they have an unfurnished living room! We will definitely be able to repay our 23 year old hosts with some sweeping and dish cleaning.
We walked along the Danube today, checked out the Parliament and St. Istvans Church, where they still have St. Istvans hand!
Tomorrow we attempt to get Russian visas - Bring on the fun!

Transylvania

Brasov is a small town with a medieval history set in the Carpathian Mountains of Romania. It has a beautiful square, with a great church and good gelato! After exploring here, we took the train to Sinaia yesterday. About an hour back down the valley, where the highlight is Peles Castle. The little town is covered in gorgeous trees and the views of the mountains are hidden because of how deep you sit in the valley. The walk from the train station was up lots of stairs and then through the gauntlet of gypsy stores where you can buy anything from a crochet tablecloth to a homemade boomerang (the man colored the popsicle sticks himself!) to knives and guns! Pretty much a Romanian Target! At the end of this street there was a gypsy man with a lion sitting on a park bench. We're not quite sure what he did with the lion, or what the tourists were supposed to do either, but I think the lion would do about anything that would earn this man a dollar! After walking backwards to stare in disbelief at the lion, I flipped around, turned the corner and up the sweeping hill was the amazing castle. The initial view is breathtaking, the interesting building, which doesn't exactly fit into the traditional definition of castle, had a stunning clock tower and lots of intricate paintings. There were several spires with detailed iron crosses topping them, pointing up at these gorgeous craggy peaks. As I spend most of my time talking too much, I don't often run out of breath, but this sight almost did it.
We took the English tour with our German dictator of a guide, who only made the trip more fun. "These are Murano glass chandeliers, from Venice, from Italy" she barked in her interesting English diction. It felt like she knew how to label each piece in several ways, so just to reduce confusion she used them all. "These are silver candlesticks, they are metal, they are from Amsterdam, from the Netherlands". After being released from the castle without incident, we strolled the town and then headed back to Brasov. Don't worry the evening was not without incident, as we met another drunk Romanian man who English was bad probably on a sober day, but drunk was even better! Romania actually feels like a whole country of gypsies, as they all want something, and just go around whopping each other on the head. Moms grabbing ears of children, Grandpas slapping children on the neck - always entertaining!

Three Snotty Americans

I have made a serious personal discovery on this trip - I am allergic to cigarette smoke! In fact we all have some reactions to the incessant smoking that is Eastern Europe. Smoking on trains, in restaurants, on buses, at the Internet cafe - everywhere! So, we all have runny noses and clogged sinuses, which means we buy Kleenex in bulk, and blow our noses in public (which is not very feminine!) and get lots of stares.
We've also decided that the best way to combat this congestion is ice cream - a good reward for being sick.

We took a bus to Brasov this morning, and have spent the rest of the day discovering this wonderful little town. Lots of Baroque style buildings, interspersed with lovely Communist construction!, set in this valley of Carpathian Mountains. We climbed up the hill today and got a good aerial view of the town. We picked up a map/guide at the tourist info office and were given really great info such as, "Black Tower - Built in 1494 the Black Tower has been blackened by fire."! Needless to say we're learning a lot, no historical stone unturned!

Catch up

Veliko Tarnovo - The cultural capital of Bulgaria, we toured the fort and its chapel, and saw the great light show that night. The rainbow lights flashing around the fort walls were quite entertaining!
Varna - Mid-size city on the Black Sea, we were about the only people standing on the beach on this cloudy and overcast day. So, we were making our way back to our hostel, which was this great place in a smaller village not too far away, with a great movie collection, and we had to take the bus. We knew the stop and the bus number but not the times, and so we sat down on the bench to wait, next to an older Bulgarian woman with a black scarf over her head and a few teeth missing. She started talking to us rather loudly in Bulgarian, which we don't understand, and we laughed and shrugged. Then her friend, with no teeth joined us, and then they were both talking to us, not getting any responses, they started hollering at us, because as we all know that works - just say the foreign words louder! We were cracked up laughing, and finally we got through much acting and sign language that our bus wouldn't come for 45 minutes and they were trying to save us the wait!
Bucharest - We left Varna at 8:45 am on a train for Bucharest. We had to change trains at the border, which resulted in four hours of waiting. Luckily we found a restaurant serving our favorite snack, french fries with white cheese! We boarded the second train, to be yelled at by the Bulgarian man who ran the train. He was only wearing a blue track suit, and so Jen kept asking to see his badge, which made him really happy. He got the Romanian policewoman, who looked intimidating with her purple hair, and official uniform, but wasn't when she talked to us. She told us we'd have to deboard on the other side of the border because this was not our train. The train we were on was the 1:30 and we needed the 3:30 - it was currently 4:00 - who knew. So we stood in the middle of nowhere eating our Lion candybars, and waited some more. Our train showed up, we got on and an hour later we were in Bucharest - drama!
We are couchsurfing here in Bucharest, which means were staying with Irina, this girl we met on the Internet. She is great, she just bought her little apartment, and we are on the oldest most uncomfortable couch ever, but its free, and we're loving it.
We had to call Irina once we arrived in Bucharest, and at the payphone were accosted repeatedly by an old man with a bottle of beer (on a Tuesday evening) who kept assuring us that he doesn't drink regularly, this is just a holiday! And that he loves America, and that we shouldn't be afraid of Romania because of what we've seen on the movies!? Don't worry though, the nice boy who ran the sex shop just near the phone helped us out!