Last few hours of Istanbul and other lıttle bıts...

Well thought I should write about little things that go on here and there here in Istanbul, Turkey.

Hmmm what to talk about first... Well most the people around here seem generally nice enough and well dressed. There is a whole mix of Muslim fashion with long dresses and coats with head scarves. With a much more western look although never mini skirts with or without leggings/tights. Though some have some VERY tight trousers on! VERY few wear the full Burka and stand out. The girls and women here seem to dye their hair often and almost always a blonde or reddish type. Tends to not be very bright, and rather dark or brownish looking with either color. Bulgaria was partly the same. but many Bulgarians look VERY Turkish as well.
You can see quite a mix with the faces, but usually people have some sort of darker complextion and I guess look more Turkish, but plenty of European look too.

Now sometımes Turkısh guys are a bıt Macho. Seems sometımes they don't care to haggle or get pushed about on prıces much, so IE rude. The smarter ones haggle or just prıce thıngs or don't fuss. Thıs Machoısm seems common through some of these natıons and other tımes ıt seems to not be there. Plus Istanbul ın the tourısm areas ısn't THE best place to get the TRUE ıdea of a culture... gets you ın the ball park though.

Food. Well hard to say, since I've just been eating Kebabs, Pida Turkish pizza and some other little bits. All of it is good and after like 4 nations, I have found a kebab I enjoy! The regular sit down places are good IF you are wise to everything and their prices.

Now some people seem to ALWAYS try to rip you off or get money out of you. Which means you always have to be on your guard always. Which gets annoying after awhile. Shockingly this didn't happen much in Eastern Europe. Maybe once or twice and rather small amounts. Here, watch your step! I've been unused to this and was tired here so a bit flustered over it. Thought Istanbul might be different. Now when I go to Egypt, I'll be on the ball for sure!

Also, what else... Ahh! The weather is really nice here except for some raıny days whıch was only bad on the fırst day. Not been bored here at all too. Went out one nıght for Sheesha or Hooka or whatever the tabacco water pıpe thıngy ıs called. Not a smoker, but the flavored apple tobacco ıs rather nıce and relaxıng. Got to watch real belly dancıng one nıght. NOW that was pretty fun!
The hostel here ıs borıngısh but the one across had the show so quıte good! Thıs place has solıd beds and nıce rooms.
Not drınkıng much except one nıght had 2 beers. Turkey ısn't THE place for drınkıng eıther.

So that's most of the other lıttle thıngs I've notıced here. Oh yeah, the ınternet sucks bad here too! I complaın loads I guess too, but really ıs a great place by the way, just want to make that clear! Very amazıng cıty!
These are just the ınterestıng bıts and worth talkıng about.


Oh and the last thıng I notıced....

Now there are many cats here, but they are bad eatıng. There are many Kebab places here, BUT there are very few dogs about.... AND Kebabs I am never sure what trype of meat ıs beıng used... Hmmmmm. Food for thought one may say...

Well off to Ireland tomorrow so posts wıll be be less common sadly untıl 6 weeks from now. Check back once a week for posts rather than every 2 or 3 days.

Thank you to everyone who has been readıng. Feel free to joın and watch my page!

One day left ın Istanbul....

Well well, so ends what I call phase 2 of my trıp. The great solo journey from Germany to Istanbul. Now onto frıend vısıtıng for 6 weeks ın Ireland and the UK then onto Egypt and Thaıland wıth the 4th and fınal phase of the trıp.
Got a good share of photos from my trıp up on facebook now. Just took me TWO months to get them up! Oh well, least everyone ıs excıted about them and all a buzz.

Leasts see, what else have I done here? Ahh yes! Well went to the grand Hagia Sophıa Roman buılt Church. Truly amazıng pıece of Roman engıneerıng and done ın just 5 or 6 years! It was converted ınto a Mosque quıckly after the capture of the cıty by the Turks ın 1453. Now rıght across from Hagıa ıs the Blue Mosque. A bıt smaller but stıll very ımpressıve and bıt more sleek. I'll be goıng ınto ıt today and doıng a general stroll around town.

Now yesterday after doıng my shoppıng the days before, me and an Amerıcan guy ''Ed'' I've been runnıng ınto the past month went on a cruıse around the Straıghts here. Very nıce to cruıse along the water seeıng some of the sıghts of the cıty. It was cheap no frılls, but beıng on a budget ıt was perfect.

After that took anopther walk through the spıce market. It was fun seeıng ıt agaın, but ıf you have no money sadly no buyıng of course. No thrıll of the purchase!
So after walkıng along we stopped quıckly to look at a sıgn when BAM! A sales man started talkıng to us. He of course started talkıng about ''Ah my frıends! I have many great hand made carpets for sale! A whole factory! Come Come!' I am a frıendly guy, all us Turks are frıendly! Have tea wıth me! My shop ıs over here!''..... Well me and Ed exchanged looks and I'm not sure how ıt happened but decıded to follow hım to hıs shop. I fıgured ıt'd be fun enough to hear hıs whole sales pıtch, get free tea and a quıck trıp to the toılet.

So we followed hım tıll we were almost back to the hostel and we asked what our names were at least 4 tımes each... REAL lıstener there that guy. Have no ıdea why he got us whıle we were a good 15 mın walk away too, but he must be good enough at what he does.
So we get to hıs shop and gets us tea. He starts goıng on about carpet styles and how great hıs stuff ıs, blah blah. Then he starts askıng us whıch ones we lıke and pullıng them out, ect. So I fıgure I'll pull out my exıt plan, our gırlfrıends are expectıng us ın a few mın. Ah but when I pull that he ıs already workıng on Ed and ıs beıng a shıt by angrıly shuttıng me up, well pretendıng. I'm sure he dıdn't care at all. NO shame! So after tryıng thıs a couple moe tımes he fıgures out we aren't ınterested. So we leave BUT I ask for a card.

So me and Ed get out and start laughıng about the fun we just had. It was a bıt frustratıng, but ıt was alrıght ın the end. We really got a hard sale. The heavıly traffıced area seem to make these guys much more mean and all round assholes. The TRUE fun hagglıng tıme ıs when you get to areas that don't have as many people. I remember that was fun ın Tunısıa ın Monıster.
OH! But waıt... Ed looked at hıs card as we went out.. and what was wrıtten on ıt was.. SCHMUCK! HAHA! What a roarıng laughıng fıt we had! Yes, the man was a Schmuck dealer for sure!

So after that we had already ended up rıght back at the tram lıne. I guess rıght where we wanted to be sınce I thınk we decıded to go to the great Roman buılt cıty wealls. After gettıng our tıckets we got on a VERY modern tram and about 20 mın latere were at the grand ınland walls that stopped many enemıes for 900 years straıght ıncludıng the dreaded Huns!
They really were massıve ones. Aboutr 20% larger than the grand walls of Rome.
Got some photos there and walked around just the one sectıon. They went on for mıles and are kept ıntact mostly.

Pretty much that ıs how I spent yesterday. Today I'll get a bıt more walkıng ın and buy ıtems from the smart dealers, IE guys who put set prıces up and don't berate you.
And then of course some nıce Mosque vısıtıng. I'll get the most of thıs warm weather. None ın sıght for 6 weeks!

Anyway, check out all the new photos I have on my facebook page ıf you haven't seen them already.

Istanbul, not Constantinople, is AWESOME!

Wow! What a cıty I have reached on the far sıde of the world! 2 months and I have reached from Dublın Ireland to Istanbul Turkey. Flew once from Dublın to Brıstol, a ferry over the Englısh Channel and every other lıttle bıt by bus, traın and car. So, yeah long but fun trıp! So now I am slowıng down and enjoyıng the warm weather.

So anyway, I'll talk about my trıp sınce the last post. So Bulgarıa I thought was pretty fun whıle I was there, but only spent 2 nıghts there.I seemed to enjoy it much more than most I've talked to. I guess its not for everyone then. So Thanksgiving night I went to the train station to await the train....

BUT the traın goıng from Plovdıv to Istanbul was nearly 1 hour late and ıt ıs worryıng sınce ın Bulgarıa, the platforms aren't numbered so you hope to god you aren't on the wrong platform. Okay, so I guess there might be a couple reasons not to like Bulgaria.....

But ıt came and I quıckly found my room. A drunk Frenchman was ın there and the other compartments next to us had a bunch of older drunk French women who were laughıng there asses off for some reason. Thought ıt was goıng to be a borıng treck the whole way so I caught some sleep. But I woke up after a few hours and looked about and ended up seeıng 4 people I had met before! Seems they dıdn't lıke Bulgarıa much so were hıgh ballın ıt to Istanbul.

So had a good chat wıth everyone I'd met before and the border crossıng, though long, went smoothly enough.The train took 13 hours, about 2 or 3 hours long then listed. Everyone was getting train cabin fever after a few hours.
But all in good time and I figure we will get there when we get there. Then on that long ride saw loads of the countryside, got extra rest AND saw a Turkey... IN TURKEY! So not bad/

So at about Noon got into Istanbul and the station and rain welcomed us. Ended up at the hostel easy enough and found it was located extremely close to all the major sites! Ahh really was nice to see how good an area I was in.

Didn't do to much yesterday seeing as I was pretty worn out from lack of sleep and travel and just getting to the hostel at 1 in the afternoon when I should have been here 3 hours earlier.
I took a quick look at the grand buildings in the area and got some food. Rain also doesn't help either for sight seeing. BUT did get a famous Turkish haircut which involves a straight razor and FIRE! Yes, fire!

Trying to find the areas that rip you off the least is a bit hard as well. Bit of a pricey pushy place, but its so grand here I can deal with it. Seems everyone I've talked to has been ripped off at least slightly while here. Very strange how bad that gets, but Bosnia or Poland not near as bad. Must just be a Turkish thing or whatever. Pretty awesome place and Mexico has it just as bad.

So yesterday after sleeping in and recovering from the past few days I went with another hostel guy to the markets. The regular markety was alright, usual stuff but the spice market! WOW! It was pretty awesome in there! So many spices for sale. This city really is great to explore. And the spice market we found by mistake as well.

So other than that, just walking around seeing everything and enjoying it. Oh yes and on the roof of the terrace, I can see the Straights of Istanbul, ASIA AND the Blue Mosque! Pretty awesome city here!

Oh yes, keep an eye out for new photos on my Facebook profile!

Happy Thanksgiving from Bulgaria and soon Turkey!

Hey everyone! Happy Thanksgiving to all!.... and in 5 or 6 hours that greeting will be from Turkey... the nation. Just got done with my Thanksgiving meal of, which was Kavarma, which is a kinda stew like dish with mostly onions and chicken, then had fried potato wedges and ROASTED PUMPKIN! Yeah!
So closet thing to Thanksgiving I'll have! Was good to have a meal with someone else too, and a nice local Bulgarian girl at that too! What a memorable Thanksgiving. Won't have another like it again I'm sure.

So best wishes to all on this day!

Bulgaria.... it is... a different place...

Where was I last? Oh yes, Belgrade!

Didn't do much more there. Just laid about catching up on some e-mails, but then again when its pissing down kinda hard with rain, you really don't want to go out! But got to enjoy another round of Rakia which is a strong sometimes home made drink. Like fruit Vodka. Changed some money too so I have Euros for the border crossing with Turkey.

So not much new happened in Belgrade. For sure will get back to the Balkans! Wonderful place!
Much nicer than I could have ever dreamed. Course maybe I just saw the best bits. All I know is what I did see, I liked.

So got my ticket and boarded yet another fine quality Yugoslavian era train and luckily I got the very top bunk too. The bathrooms are also the best of quality out here. The fine strong smell of Ammonia from piss, permeates the room and into the nostrils. Nothing but the best! The heater tends to be of the finest quality as well, but along with the lock, it was broken so gladly had extra blankets.
Passport control had the usual array of extremely polite and kind people. So got my Bulgar and Serb stamps and the train was off again.

Got to Sofia on time shockingly however. Decided a few days ago that Sofia was worth skipping so then I went to get a ticket to Plovdiv. So after looking like a confused idiot I found the ticket counter.
The one that looks most certainly un-welcoming with bars is usually the one to go to.
The Cyrillic Alphabet is also a total bitch to understand. "Ticket counter" Might as well look like "Jfhfdhbxcg Tsgsdfre"....

So anyhow, found the counter and said Plovdiv and was sorted. Well, except went more like this-

Found counter, said "Plovdiv today soonest". Lady wrote down earliest time and I agreed and had money out right then and there Sorted!, but RIGHT as I made this idiot proof purchase and noted the idiot proof train platform signs right where I walked up minutes before, some guy came up asking where I was going.

Seemed he wanted to "Help" surely for a charge... Now, PERHAPS, if I was in a hurry and had NO idea where I was, then maybe... MAYBE.
Kept saying "Plovdiv! Yes I help yes? Plovdiv you go?! Platform I take you." The polite words of "Fuck off you idiot! Didn't you see I JUST did successfully buy my ticket?!" Were running through my head. I then walked away and said no thanks. I DO know where platform ONE is. NOT that hard... I am running into the most seriously brain dead con-men about in Europe!

Anyway, these guys are rather funny to run into! If hey catch you in a rush, that's one thing, but when you are pretty relaxed they are so easy to spot and fun to ignore or confuse!
So the train got to the station on time and I had a nice chat with some people on the train. Good laughs all round. The trains still have a rather 1960's Commie look about them, but adds to the fun of everything! Those suckers still run well enough.

As we were heading to Plovdiv I started talking to someone and had great laughs about everything. Seems people get a kick out of me being American and from California. Like a movie star here in Eastern Europe! Oh yeah!
Gladly everyone had a good sense of humor when I laughed at a horse and cart working in the field. Then whole nodding your head up and down means NO, instead of 95% of the world it means in fact, yes.

So already not a bad nation. Now for the women... hmm, how to put it... The Balkans has had nothing but supermodels, like everywhere and working low jobs. Bulgaria, they are cute enough in there own ways, but they are, hmmm average? I really don't care, but I DO know, I've been boosted from average to awesome cool guy movie star. If I had $5000 more and bought some more dress up clothing from Wal-mart I'd be coolest guy ever in Bulgaria! So, I'm digging this place, even if it is backwards.

But only 2 nights here. I really do look like I'd enjoying spending time here, but the trip is almost at an end in the far east and Istanbul looks like it'd be hard to miss. I got 5 nights there. The weather has been crap past couple of days so I hope it improves while I am there. Looks that way on the long term weather.

Anyway that's everything now. Will make another post the morning I get to Istanbul. Sure I'll have more good stories then.

Oh one more thing, "Why is there a toilet RIGHT in with the shower here?" Course the locals answer to that I'm sure might be, "Well why WOULDN'T there be?".

Ahhh, I LOVE TRAVEL!

Ahhh, back to normal and writing again!

Well, been a long break, but being sick cuts into what I can do while traveling!

Pretty much after Mostar the rest of Bosnia is a daze. Learned so much though. I DO remember that! I find that the personal stories are the best to have when it comes to history. It brings it alive even through it might have only happened 15 years ago!

Glad there was a girl I knew from Split Croatia and Mostar Bosnia there in Sarajevo too, helped keep me company while I was laid up, but then poor girl got sick after me on some eggs.
Lesson learned though, Bosnia has GREAT food, just terrible food quality control....

Anyway, gladly I had recovered the day of travel to Serbia, which was yesterday. Was raining, but I do have a waterproof jacket, so not to bad in the end. Ran into another American on the train, who I had met in Split and in Mostar as well, so made the 9 hour trip go much quicker! Also started talking to some young Bosnian guys who were pretty cool to talk to and it seemed they enjoyed MOST of the jokes I had to tell. So that helped make the time go quick too! Ahh, glad some jokes are funny everywhere.

Had to cross a few borders to get to get to Serbia, so I'm up to 34 stamps in my passport AND been to 20 nations so far! Woo! Maybe enough room for another 30-40 stamps. So need to get some more sheets in it if I want another big trip in the next 5 years. The Croatian guard laughed at my passport again, and said "Ha! California!".
Crazy Croatians! They are great people!

So, after the long trip got through alright and to the hostel in Belgrade. This really is a really pretty city, but not seen much of it yet, so might get a surprise! But doubt that. The part I'm in has all the trappings of a great Western European city. Much effort is put into the parts of the city I've seen so far. I also like walking on level sidewalks for a change too, without dog shit all over the place. That is the best part so far!

Anyway, I am rather glad to see that Serbs aren't what the media has painted, which from I gathered through my life were a bunch of large brutish men who run around hating everyone not Serbian or Russian, committing genocide and ethnic cleansing or supporting it in the very least. Then to think that the US+NATO and Serbia were at war only 11 years ago is shocking too! Apart from a couple signs in the city, nothing else is present of that. People have been friendly enough to me and my other USA chum, so I guess, the media is, SURPRISE, full of it. I knew that Serbia would be fine, but I was VERY wary too. Course can't speak for outside of Belgrade, but seems fine here.

This is why I travel. Everyone isn't out to kill you. Muslims are great people and pretty friendly and not making bomb vests. Serbs aren't the brutal psycho killers. French aren't horrid people. Then the Germans aren't to bad either! They are human beings too. Most everyone just is and goes about life without really thinking of the world outside their own lives. A great feeling to think that we are so so similar all around this huge earth of ours.
The world is a book, and those who do not travel, read only a page.

Course, at the same time, Thomas Jefferson says- Traveling makes a man wiser, but less happy.

This is I think relating to seeing the darker sides of human nature while traveling... But it can also mean that your mind has been opened so much, that you think to much and if others around you haven't seen the same things, makes it frustrating. Kinda like being the smart person around stupid or ignorant people.
Course could mean something else too! Think for yourselves on this quote. :)

Either way, I LOVE TRAVEL, even if I might be less happy after I get home! However, I will be glad not to see child beggars on the street, blown up buildings and signs of war, and hatred poured out in violence to fellow humans.

Anyway, off now! Should have some great new posts soon, so keep reading.

Still alive, but not feeling good.

Well this will be shorter post, seeing as I have just been doing little. Anyway the day came when I had to leave Mostar and nicely I was driven to the Bus station... except just a few moments after leaving the hostel, the person ran into a cement platform wrecking the cars front tire and giving us whiplash. Needless to say I was in a daze the rest of the day, but thankfully I was well enough. Well, once I got to Sarajevo I did get lost though!

After that I thought my troubles werre over! WRONG! Don't eat canned beef Goulash! I'm still feeling like crap! Computer is broke at the hostel too. So my luck has been rather poor once I left Mostar.

Not much going on here. Learning more and more about the war here and just having good chats with people.

Going to Belgrade on the 19th. A nice FUN 9 hour train ride! Oh boy....

Looking forward to getting back to Civilized life in Ireland and the UK, but maybe that is the sick tired me talking too....

November in Bosnia

Am in my 6th new nation on my trip, and 19th altogether in all my travels. My passport is running out of room I think! 35 stamps if I recall is what I have in it.

Anyway, bus was, surprise, late to the station in Split. I guess rather common in this part of the world! Rather rainy and somewhat depressing drive to Mostar. The welcome into Bosnia was interesting. Quick check of the passport by a Croat and Bosnian. No stamp or anything! Got to love the efficiency of Eastern Europe.

The towns changed very quickly when I crossed the border though. Croatia, although not super rich, still has some wealth. Bosnia on the other hand still has great deep scars from the war which ended only 15 years ago this month. Many many shot up or abandoned buildings everywhere. Much poorer look to it than any other nation I`ve seen in Europe.

Mostar took about 5 hours to get to, and I was nicely picked up at the bus station when I arrived, half hour late. Which is good time for the buses here!
The Hostel here is very friendly, you think you were at someones home. Majdas Hostel *Pronounced Myda* Is run by Majda a wonderful woman who is extremely friendly and helpful. You think she was a good Aunt!
We all get served great breakfast and coffee always! Really don`t want to leave here. It is like home away from home.

Now about the town of Mostar and a quick BASIC history lesson which will be informal and not in-depth AND I am generalizing quite a bit too....

Right, now what you have in the Balkans is more or less, Croatians in the west. These people are generally Roman Catholic. Next are Bosnians in the middle. The Ottoman Turks were Muslim and conquered part of the Balkans. Many people in areas conquered by the Turks converted to Islam to make things easier on themselves. Not usually die hard Muslims either.
Last but not least are Serbs in the east. They are of the Eastern Orthodox Church.

Anyway, the breakup of Yugoslavia *Which was Communist at the time* started in the early 90`s, once many other nations were falling apart in Eastern Europe, but in the Balkans it was far more violet it seems. Serbs, which were the core of Former Yugoslav didn`t like the idea of Croats, Bosnians and others breaking away, so fighting ensued. Ethnic cleansing and Genocide happened very often during the war with opposing factions. The Serbs appear to have been the worst, but they did control much and were more of a central government with the resources to do so.
Croats, Bosnians and Serbs were trying to kill each other, mostly because of they were of a different ethic back grounds, religion and or just fighting to survive. Neighbor against neighbor. Cities which had a large mix of peoples were soon destroyed and its people separated into hate of one another.

But now I shall talk of Mostar...

Mostar is a lovely city nestled in a pretty valley surrounded by large hills with a river running through it. The city is many hundreds of years old and really has a good feel to it. But it too could not escape of the horrors of war... Croatia decided that it wanted a piece of extra territory so it invaded Bosnia and reached at least to Mostar. Its complicated, so won`t go into details.
So the west bank of the town was most Croat, and the east bank most Bosnian Muslim.
The Croats advanced to the western part of town and then the siege started up. Many civilians were targeted during the months long siege. Mostar was the hardest hit city in the war as well.
ALL the buildings from then were heavily damaged. It is STILL quite evident that there was hard fighting. Many buildings are left empty or still damaged, with bullet hits or holes made from rockets. Just patched up with plaster at best.

Course, all the feelings and damage remain after 15 years of peace. However improvements are being made too. Most everything is repaired and the infrastructure is generally up and going again. All 7 bridges in town were destroyed, including this bridge- http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stari_Most

But the bridges have been rebuilt exactly, including the old one. West and east of the town are reunited. This is also the only place I can think of in which you hear the Muslim call to prayer and Church bells at almost the same time. The older people here have a certain sadness about them, but the younger ones seem to be getting past the old war. The wounds are healing, but not terribly quick, though heal they will.

The tourism really is small here, but nice. Plenty of things to buy, plus the food is dirt cheap and really good! I sure love Bosnia here. A great charm to it. Not what I expected. Although I went on in detail about what when on here, it is needed, though on the other side of the coin is that Croatia and Bosnia are the best nations so far on my travels. There is a feeling I can`t explain.... OR perhaps I love the food and smaller feel of things here.

Anyways, again, thank you if you have read this far! Keep passing this blog around!

Going to Split from Split and onto Bosnia!

Well, I have been bad this time about keeping up on the blog, but I will try and stay good updating everything.

Well Split here is a great place. Really relaxed and easy to get around. The days here have just flown by! The best stuff to see here is Diocletian's palace built 1700 years ago. It pretty much makes up the center of old town. Really old and rich history in that section. Plus all the other smaller towns in the area are great, but only got to a small one called Omis I think.... "Pronounced Amish". Awesome cliffs at the bay. One day will get photos up.

The weather has been mixed here. Great the first day, decent the second, cloudy the next and now rainy and colder, but not biting cold. Super markets aren't big here, though the market is. All the stalls are setup with foods, and being Split is right on the Adriatic sea, fresh fish in the markets. Everything getting tossed about in the fishy market, people yelling, strange looking fish about and the fine smell of fish! Really was fun. I just love the markets!

Really was nice to see a sea again! Port towns are pretty interesting at times, and this was a great place. Easy to take great photos all over the place. Also the Croatians here talk like Italians interestingly enough. Must be a big past influence. Course the further east I go people sound like they are arguing, but must just be talking normally!

But now I'm leaving to Mostar Bosnia in the morning. I never thought of the Balkans with the wars that were were from pretty much 1991 or 92 and ended in Kosovo in 1999.
11 short years ago! But I have been told it is great to travel through, so shall see if that is true! The wars here are very complicated and after hours of reading and listening to people I am just starting to understand what when on. Seems to have been rather horrible, mostly on the Serbian side. So see how Belgrade in Serbia is... I haven't heard I'm in Danger being American, but how welcomed will I be I wonder?

But anyway, should get to bed soon. Have to wake up at 9 in the morning! Oh man, early start to Mostar Bosnia. Course have a "fun" 5 hour bus ride ahead of me too...

No need to panic...

Well not written for awhile but been a bit busy here. I heard there was an earthquake in the Balkans here, but guess I must have missed out! I am still alive.

Not much in Budapest going on when I left. Though I found out, that November 1st is a HUGE day off! Halloween "more or less", folks, is a holiday... What an amazing nation! So other than sitting around there I found some food and got a lovely meal cooked up. Just basically was sausages over potatoes and onions and it was really tasty! After that, since it was my last day in Budapest I did a decent walk over to Buda, on the west side and found it was very nice! Pest is the working class place. More real, but not terribly nice. The catle area and old town of Budawas really amazing, but partly lacking in great age. Relaxing though, since Budapest is a big city.

So after almost a week in Hungary I got on the train and headed to Croatia, Zagreb the capital to be exact. Of course, an interesting thing happened as I got on.

A man came into the compartment dressed in usual clothing, well not a cop outfit. He starts going on about something in Hungarian, but I say English. He is "Ahh ok English". Then starts saying the few English words he knows, which is VERY little. Forits "Hungarian dollar", Minimum, pointing to me then him. I give him a blank stare.
He says it again and I think... Okay, he has some papers that look officialish.... Ummm perhaps he is saying keep little money on you so thieves don't get it. Ahh Gotcha. Then I give him a thumbs up. He says the same limited broken English and now looks frustrated, and he now sits next to me. Then I think Ahhh oh yes!.... "Oh no, I just have CROATIAN Kuna sir! No Hungarian forits!" Still he looks at me even more exhausted..... I still have no clue as to what hewants, then I think, okay, umm IF he is a cop is he asking for a bribe?

Ahh well, he could be a con, yeah most likely is that seeing as this was NOT ended in the first 1 or 2 go arounds, and nothing official. So I still play dumb trying to figure him out and he gives up.
Soooo, half the time I had no idea what he wanted and the other half it dawned on me that he was most likely up to no good. He most likely thought "Gosh, clever guy, keeping me going like that. So onto me from the start." When in fact I had a total Homer Simpson moment!

Anyhow, the trip to Zagreb was very uneventful, but the countryside was lovely. At the border had my passport checked in the train by a very serious Hungarian border officer, and quickly stamped. Then when the Croatian looked at my passport for entry into Croatia, something happened that I have never seen, she laughed at my terrible photo in my passport!!! She thought it was rather funny and I was like! Ahhh man! But I went along with it and it has by far been the nicest border patrol person I have met.

So got to Zagreb and found the hostel in alright time in the evening.
Big plans of the night was going to be eating and sleeping, but I decided to go out to dinner with people from the hostel, and thought, "Why not!?"
Ended up having a lovely meal, good Italian pasta, and then people throughout the night bought me drinks since my budget couldn't handle the extra charges. The night was winding down and after talking to most everyone that was free I decided to start talking to a girl. Well we got along lets say, so I met a friend of hers who is a journalist too and been enjoying company of Croatians the past couple of days, which had me stay an extra day... Soooo, welllll, mostly the girl is who I've been hanging out with, so, anyway, yeah. Nough said!

But today since she had school I've been catching up on stuff and seeing Zagreb. I love going to the markets, even more so in Central and Eastern Europe since it is the heart of an area and is so much more important to the place. So much food gets sold, that people get it there and not so much at the super market. Lots of fun energy too and the interesting faces. Hungary and Croatia here have such a mix of faces and people that it is fun to see the wonderful mix.

The weather and food are really wonderful here in Zagreb too! Woo! Still pretty cheap, but not "Oh my god cheap!" Just Walmart price cheap, which is really good anyways! Ethnic food, at rock bottom prices. Life is good! Also Zagreb here, least in old town is VERY walkable and has a nice cafe street right where the hostel is. Plus Croatians are SOOO super friendly too! Never seen so many friendly people!

Sadly I must now leave to Split, since I've booked a place there and don't want to hassle with canceling again, plus bought a train ticket already. Hard to say how long you want to stay in a city EVEN if you've been there, harder still if you've not been there. Always about the crowd you run into as well. So, oh well! I am here to travel and lots more to see yet!

Anyway, got to SPLIT in the morning! Another fun 6 or 7 hour train ride to get there. Wooo.
So excited....