Livin the outdoors life

It's been a few days since I last posted anything, and for that, I'm sorry. I had access, but it was in a smoky, nasty pub with swarms of flies, and I just didn't think it was worth the hassle. I'm currently in the far northwest corner of Slovenia in a village just outside the town of Kranjska Gora, only a couple of km from both Italy and Austria (I was actually in all three countries at some point yesterday). Where I am, the forested mountains dominate the landscape, with the farmhouse I stayed in last night perched against one side of the valley and the other side of the valley sitting a mere couple hundred metres north of here....it's amazing. It's funny, but I've realised on this trip that I really do enjoy the 'hiking in the Alps' part as much as the 'wandering around grand and interesting cities' part (and I thought I was just coming for the cities!). So far, it's been a really nice balance of the two, and, although I'll soon be out of the mountains, I hope to be able to keep it going with the upcoming 'swimming in the Adriatic' part. I'll let you know how it all turns out... =)
I've posted some more pics on the flickr site, and maybe when I get to Croatia tonight, I'll try to put up a few more on here, now that I think I have this 'posting pictures' thing working (it's hard to figure it all out when everything on the screen is in Slovene!).
I had a great time in Ljubljana. The first night there, I stayed in an old villa and met some really great people. It was mostly Canadians and Americans staying there at the time, and weirdly enough, I was hanging out with the Americans to avoid the really annoying Canadians....what a bad state of affairs! Anyway, I was there on their Day of Independence, so we managed to check out part of a free outdoor concert with some decent Czech rock and some really awful rap. We were probably the oldest people in the crowd, and all the high school kids seemed to really dig it, but....
The last two nights there were spent staying at an old converted garrison barracks (military prison, essentially), which they've redone into a pretty awesome youth hostel, in an old squatter's section of town. The hostel itself was fun, but even better was the section in behind....go around the corner and you find these underground bars/clubs in these abandoned buildings where a bunch of interesting Ljubljana youth hang out. So, needless to say, we got some beer and homemade schnapps, and pulled up a log and/or Persian rug in the middle of the parking lot, and got the night started! After a while a couple of girls and I went in search of some music we heard, and stumbled upon a gay dance club, where we proceeded to dance the night away. I'll try to post a pic of us with our froofy girly drinks (the only thing they really served). All in all, good times in Ljubljana!
From there, it was off to the beautiful town of Bled, further north in Slovenia. Great town, terrible hostel. But I was hanging out with the same girls, so all was good. A couple of us went on a walk in Vintgar Gorge, and it was one of the most beautiful places I've seen, with this crystal clear water pouring through ancient rocks, cutting its way through the mountain. I'll get some pics up of this too, to get some idea of what it was like. Oh, and there's a diving world championship going on there now, so we got to watch people hurl themselves from a 23 metre board. You must be CRAZY to want to hit the water from that height. It was intense.

Ljub-a-dub-dub

So here I am, a new post, a new country....From what I've seen so far, Slovenia is a beautiful place - really lush, with lots of tree-covered mountains. And, from the top of the Castle Tower, you can actually see some Alps in the distance, in addition to the green foothills (aka the Tatra mountains, but they look like foothills compared to the giants behind them!!) that surround Ljubljana. This city is great. I'm not entirely sure why yet, but I'm just enjoying it here....I'll let you know when I figure out why. Stayed at an old villa last night, and I'm in an old army garrison/prison tonight and tomorrow. They've redone this prison, and gave 80 artists free rein over the decorating/designing of the rooms, so each cell is set up and decorated differently. There's also an artist's commune behind here, and some pretty wicked graffiti in the surrounding area...all in all, quite cool.
So, after talking to some guy on the street today, standing in front of his makeshift gypsy carava/snake oil salesman hut, I'm supposed to be spreading the word about Big brother and 1984 and George Bush...any takers? No? Think about it, get back to me.
Also, I have created a flickr account to upload a small fraction of my pictures, just so that you all don't think that I've been lying all this time, and have in actuality been living in the endowment lands or something....I think you can access the few pics at http://www.flickr.com/photos/jawmack/ .....I think. Try it, let me know. I won't be putting a lot up there, cause it takes forever on all these central european computers/hostel computers, but hey...it's better than nothing. More and more, I've been realising that I tend to take pictures that probably won't interest anyone but me, but hey, then again, I'm not forcing anyone to look......hm.
I'm really quite happy to be out of Austria, actually, cause I was getting a really weird feeling in Vienna....that one following incident wasn't the only one, so after it happened again (this time with some greek guy trying to get me to go to his restaurant, I think), I decided it really was my time to leave. But Slovenia is awesome. And yes, T - ALPS! No airplane bars here though....haha.. thank god. but there WAS some pretty bad 2 euro wine last night.
hmm....lots more to tell, but I think that's it for now....

Who turned the sun up? Just when you thought it couldn't get any hotter....

here I am in Vienna....I've been here for a day and a half, and feel like I haven't done much, but I think that's only in relation to how many things there are to do here! If you really wanted to hit every museum here, you'd be here for weeks, methinks. Checked out the Kunsthistoriches museum today, and it was pretty cool...think I only saw the picture gallery, and was there for hours, but it was amazing.
Been meeting loads of interesting folk, some wanted, some not so much....one guy today started off trying to hawk me concert tickets and then told me if I wanted a 'real' tour of Vienna, to call his cell phone number....oh, I should have prefaced this by saying he was dressed in a satin vest and tights, basically (or whatever they're called....his mozart type costume). Needless to say, I decided against going out with the sleazy ticket salesman, and hung out with my roommate instead.
I guess I never posted about Olomouc. It was a cool place, but not as great as people had made me believe. Still a lot of fun, and the people in the hostel were great folk, with whom I hung out for the couple days I was there. My last night there was pretty funny. We started out with dinner, moving on to a microbrewery, on to a bar that is in an old soviet airplane (yes, you heard me, AIRPLANE), at which point the Czech/Russian guy convinced us to go play darts with him and his friends (we were a group of 5 or so, but we were a little scared about losing our kidneys!)....so we went, and it was fun. They spoke no English, and we know no Czech, so it was an interesting night in all!!
It's odd, being back in a big city again. It's so funny to think that most people only go to the big cities, and from what I've seen, it's the smaller towns that I enjoy most. Don't get me wrong, Vienna is awesome, as are the other places I've been (and, being an art nerd, I'm in heaven here), but it's just such a different thing to go to the smaller places.
Anyway, this hasn't been such an interesting posting, but I just wanted to let everyone know I'm still alive and kicking. Tomorrow is Vienna still, then on to Ljubljiana, capital of Slovenia (then BLED! wooot mountains, aka Alps! maybe I'll be able to get away from this absolutely oppressive heat/humidity!).
oh, and mum - sorry bout getting cut off, my phone credit didn't really last as long as planned....

Meandering down the Vltava

Wow, Cesky Krumlov rocks. Seriously, this town is freakin awesome. I went river rafting yesterday with two Aussie girls I met on the bus out here, and it was so beautiful. The hostel I am staying at is so much like a home....its this great eco friendly cozy place with wonderful management. Sorry about the lack of punctuation in this post, but this keyboard is kind of messed up, and has four different options for each key, and I havent figured out how to access some of them yet.

As for your question, Dan, I passed through Budvar town on my way here, and I may stop there for a couple hours on my way out (whenever that may be, since the plan was to leave tomorrow, but no trains or buses really run on sundays, so it may be monday), but no stays there, methinks. I havent read the book, but zevi and I were just talking about it when we were together in Prague!

Anyway, this was just meant to be a short post to say how much Cesky Krumlov rocks, and to tell anyone planning on going to southern Bohemia to come stay at the Krumlov House hostel here in town. It is by far the best hostel I have ever stayed at.

Still no picture posting.....sorry.

Tourists + Bones = Prague and its environs!

So, it's been a while since I wrote, and here it is again, as I'm leaving yet another city. From Leipzig, I took the train down to Prague via Dresden. Prague is an absolutely beautiful place, even despite the hordes of tourists swarming its streets. And I really mean hordes. It's wild, how many tourists there are here....if you think someone is a local? They're not. Tourist. It's funny to get used to hearing English being spoken again, after Germany. Anyway, I've had a great time here.

Oh, and I've had people say that they can't subscribe to the blog via email...I'm sorry, I must have screwed it up somehow, but until I get one of my friends to help me fix it....(Andrew? please?) you'll just have to suffer through checking it on your own. Sorry!! And thanks to all of you who are reading it! I'll try to keep the posting up to make it worthwhile.

After walking in circles for days on end (for any of you that have been here, or seen a city map of the old town, you know what I mean!), I finally got my bearings and have managed to see some pretty cool things. Prague has some pretty cool cellar jazz clubs, so my dorm roommates and I checked out a jazz/blues band last night - it was rad. Also, the other day I went up to the castle, like any good visitor to the city must do, and gawked at the beautiful high gothic cathedral up there, like any good art history major must do. The rest of the castle was very cool, but I didn't realise when I went up there that everything closed in two hours, so it wasn't really a leisurely visit, trying to see as much of it as I could. Most of my days have been much more relaxed, however, with bouts of walking and picture-taking interspersed with lots of hanging out in the park or on the riverside, watching all the fascinating people here.

Yesterday I went to the Kampa Museum, which was showing an exhibit of Mondrian and Krupka, two interesting artists from the 20th century. It turned out that this is an absolutely fabulous contemporary art museum/gallery and I actually enjoyed their permanent collection of central european modern art more than the exhibit I was going to see. Definitely worth the 100Ck I paid for it. Oh, and the other night, I happened upon this outdoor film festival on an island in the river, and ended up drinking good Czech beer, watching a crazy Czech animated film outside, in the middle of the Vltava river. It was a great night. The animation was truly weird. Who knew the Czech were so messed up? And the next night, while sitting on a fountain ledge, weird things were happening to me....a large group of brits was wandering past, with one of them dressed in a fairy princess/sumo suit, and obviously, I had to get in the picture with them....it was very weird. There were other things too, one of them having to do with a ferret, but I'll leave it to the princess/sumo story.

Finally, for the stories this week, anyway, I went to this place about 60 kms from Prague called Kutna Hora. It's this cute medieval town with this crazy ossuary just outside town. Basically, what I'm saying here, is that it's a church that is entirely decorated with human bones (skulls, ribs, femurs....you name it, it was there). Sounds kind of creepy, but I really thought it was beautiful. I mean, for sure it gets you thinking about your own mortality, and apparently some people couldn't take it, and have left in a hurry, but it's just a really interesting place. When I figure out how to post pics, I'll put some up here.

So, heading to a town called Cesky Krumlov, in southern Bohemia (still the Czech republic, for those of you who need to brush up on your geography), and I have no idea what to expect. It's WAY smaller than Prague, so I'm kind of looking forward to it! Until then......

So, here I am in Bach's hometown (ok, maybe not hometown, but I think he lived here for a good chunk of his life), Leipzig! It's actually a wonderful city, and a nice break from the rampant tourism that was occurring in Berlin (both by myself and all the other millions of tourists in the city). I took the train here yesterday, and really have just relaxed ever since, getting up early to get to the marketplace (like a farmer's market) before it got crowded, and just lounging around in one of the park-like squares. It's been great!

Before I left Berlin yesterday, I went to the crazy big zoo and, after waiting in line to get in, I waited in another line to see the cute and cuddly Knut. Wow, have they ever realised they have a market for Knut souvenirs....so many people walking around with stuffed polar bears or with polar bear t-shirts....it's wild how crazy everyone is for him. I'm not going to lie - he is absolutely adorable, but I felt pretty bad for him....I was sweating like crazy, so I can't imagine this weather being good for a polar bear!

I've had some interesting conversations with people in the last few days....but just not really with other hostellers. One thing I'm realising is that there are really two types of people who stay in hostels: those who are here to drink, and those who keep to themselves. Ok, that's a generalisation, but it's been pretty close to the truth, it seems. It's been a super interesting experience so far, and I'm sure it'll only get more interesting!

Since hostel computers seem not to have access to usb ports, I think in Prague, I'll try to find an actual cafe that will let me connect and upload some pictures.

Polar Bears in Germany?!

OK, so here's the first post, and it's going to be a short one. For everyone I haven't spoken to (which is almost everyone), I arrived in Germany safely, after a long, cramped flight (is there any other kind?). I've been staying in Berlin for the last few days, and am heading out to Leipzig this afternoon for a day or so, just for something different to do. I think the plan afterwards is Prague, hopefully to meet up with Zevi. Berlin has been super interesting and, as always, I found the most interesting bits while I was wandering aimlessly. There was some abandoned amusement park called Pompen Duck or something....I'll post pictures as soon as I can, but this computer doesn't allow that sort of nonsense. Anyway, my time is about to run out, and it's free museum day, so we all know where I'm heading today! Oh, and I may pay a visit to that controversial polar bear we've all seen on the Colbert Report....Knut!