Archive for October, 2009

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Dan and moody Bob

11/10/2009

My brekkie consisted of a Swedish buffet, apparently. It looked like a continental breakfast to me, but it was a bloomin’ good one.

As I will be back in Western Europe soon prices will be a risin’, so it’s necessary for me to start making concessions when and where appropriate. An easy one is to demolish any breakfast with the word free before it to avoid paying for that meal and also making only a snack required for the following one.

So that being said I had 2 large slices of bread with jam, 2 slightly mini (but not on taste!) chocolate croissants, 2 slices of bog standard buffet cheese, a slices of bog standard buffet ham, 4 slices of bog standard buffet salami, a Dairylea like triangle of cheese, a bowl of cereal and a glass of orange juice. My lunch will be a tin of tuna I smuggled out. That’s cricket mate.

I’m feeling a bit zombie like this morning as by the time I checked in and got to bed last night it only left me with 3 or 4 hours kip time. I’m in a positive mood though so will plough on regardless and get out and see what Podgorica is all about before getting a bus to Kotor this eve (though I need to get back down the station and figure that out).

So what’s Podgorica like? Not got a clue. No sooner was I ready to leave and have a butchers than an almighty storm had broken out. I borrowed an unmbrella to go back to the bus station to get money to pay for hotel (you have to pay cash to get the discount) and I still got completely soaked in a matter of minutes. From the look of the sky it’s going to be here for the duration so there’s not really anything to do but get outta town. I would stay another night but I can’t justify another €55. A shame eh.

If this was to happen anywhere Podgorica is probably the best place. I certainly can’t make a full judgement on the place from what I’ve seen, but from what little I have (and have read and heard from others) it looks like there isn’t too much going on anyway.

The buses are pretty much every hour and it’s 20 past 12, so I’ve bought a ticket for the 14:23 to give me a couple of hours to sort some things out on the internet in the hotel.

I do hope the weather in Kotor is improved, it’s only 2 hours away though so I’m not holding my breath. I’ve got 2 night’s there though so hopefully the weather will be okay tomorrow at least.

On route to Kotar we passed through Budva and the coast of the town (which I got a view of from the surrounding mountains before entering it) looks beautiful, I expect likewise from my destination.

There now and the weather still looks a bit humpty but it has stopped chucking it down for now at least. Let’s go and find the hostel then.

Kotor is lovely. A pretty little old town surrounded by the sea one side and mountains on the other. No sooner has it stopped than It’s pouring down again, I hope it subsides in the morning as I’m really looking forward to exploring.

The hostel seems okay too though it is inundated with mosquitos. I’m all repelled up this time though and have already killed 2 of the sods with my shoe, payback.

I’ve just handed over €2 to have my washing done, much needed I can tell thee. This means I’m going to have to squat round here for the next 4 hours or so though unless I fancy a walk about in the rain in my shorts.

It will give me time to try and figure out my transport to Tirana at least. There’s no direct bus, I think it might involve 2 or 3 changes but trying to find out the schedules beyond the first bus is pretty much an impossibility. I might be best going back to Podgorica and trying to get a train from there maybe. At worst I’ll just have to get the bus to Ulcinj (which is the furthest point I can get a bus to in the right direction) and then if I’ve missed whatever connection I need I’ll just have to try and find accommodation there. Cripes.

I know it’s Saturday but i will likely take it easy tonight, I am operating on 3 and a half hours after all. Maybe just a few cans or somet.

Crystal Stilts ‘Alight of Night’ is the album I’ve been listening to today. Okay it’s not particularly original, but who cares, it sounds great. Lots of fuzz, lots of distortion, lots of wall of sound type stuff, lots of miserablist fun. Super I say.

The rain eased off eventually so I ventured out to get some supplies in. On my return I still couldn’t get WiFi access (I hadn’t been able to since I arrived) so I asked the fella working here if he could reboot the router, christ he’s a miserable sod. I wasn’t impressed with his aloofness and lack of info offering at check-in, you get more words out of this guy. Anyway router, he was just like “It works for me”. This lead me to suspect the DHCP server on the router wasn’t working (a reboot would likely fix!) so I went down the static route and asked to quickly check the settings on his laptop, grudgingly he let me and a minute later I had WiFi. Apologies for the tech mumbo jumbo, but the point was that the guy wasn’t very friendly and made things more difficult than need be. Poor staff rating on Hostel World I reckon.

Would anyone like to hazard a guess how much dosh I’ve accrued from Google AdSense on the Lonely Planet pages so far? Closest to gets a KitKat chunky courtesy of moi.

That reminds me of a KitKat related joke:

Gerald is feeling peckish and goes to a 24 hour garage late at night, he says to the girl at the window “Get me a KitKat chunky”.

The girl twoddles off and returns with a KitKat chunky.

“What the hell’s this, I wanted a traditional standard KitKat you fat cow” says Gerald.

Oh dear. Claire Roberts told me that, blame her.

I’m now sat roun waiting for my washing and wanting to get some kip. The girl said 3 hours and we’re on 5 now. Mr personality is at the controls so I think he’s doing his best to extend my misery. Goit.

Montenegro brings us up to country number 20, if you include Transinistra (which I do). Well there you go eh.

Favourite search this time round, ‘the north face vespa backpack’. Wowzers, I’d be interested in that myself!

Lastly, I like this.

PS The photo is actually from Sofia, I did take a few of Kotor but none came out up to scratch.

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Posted in Montenegro | 4 Comments »

Beirut in Kosovo

10/10/2009

At about 2 in the morning I finally managed to find and book a hotel for Podgorica, I had to ring them as it said there was no availability online.

It costs €55 (and that’s the cheapest in town) which is a bit annoying as that’s not far off a week’s worth of hostels but I didn’t really have any other choice. There’s only one hostel there as I’ve mentioned earlier and that has an 11pm curfew (one of many daft rules they implement) which is no good to me when my bus won’t get in until well after midnight.

At least the hotel is right near the bus station apparently, so I’m not going to have to faff about with directions or taxis.

Podgorica isn’t actually supposed to be that good but I like to see a country’s capital city and I don’t think I could have got to Kotor (near the Montenegro coast line) direct from here anyway. I’m looking forward to Kotor, it should be a chance to relax after what’s been quite a hectic few weeks.

Bloody hell, how annoying. I just had to hand over €4 (which lets face it, is pretty much 4 quid these days) to ‘The Professor’ at checkout as I’d borrowed one of the city guides and left it in the bus station while rushing about yesterday. It’s only a crappy small magazine, one that in most cities would be free, so I thought he was trying it on at first (and maybe he was and did get them free or cheap, I can’t have seen him forking out €80 for 20 as he said) but it does say in tiny letters on the front €4. This is fastly turning in to an expensive week.

I just stopped for a lunch time pint at a place where I saw there was a wireless network and before ordering I asked if it was their’s and the barman confirmed it. Then after I’ve got the pint of Peja they give me the password which is wrong and it transpires they don’t know the right one, great. I wanted to stock up on my podcasts for my imminent 7 hour bus journey. I guess I’ll just have to find another pub, oh the hardship.

I know I’ve not said much about Pristina as there isn’t really much to say, it’s not done anything for me. To be fair it is a city in what is in effect a new country which is changing fairly rapidly so in another 5 years who knows what it will be like.

The only thing I can think to mention is that Bill Clinton appears to be pretty big over here, streets and shops named after him and bill-boards (geddit?) with his swede plastered on. The Kosovan government even subsidises the cost of cigars. I presume all of this is because he was the American commander-in-chief when NATO bombed Serbia to get them off Kosovo’s back.

The mozsters got me again (8 bites is the count) as I forgot to apply the repellent last night, blighters to the end they are.

I just had a very early tea at XIX only 90 minutes after my lunch as I had to fit it in before my bus ride. It was my first ‘Full English’ in 2 months and it was ruddy gorge’.

Crikey, I’m dying for a haircut but with still the best part of 2 months to go I’m likely to look like Pat Sharp on my return.

On the bus now, goodo. I just got a bottle of water and a bag of crisps before embarking and the shopkeeper said to me “Where you from?”, “Manchester” was my obvious reply. “Wayne Rooney!”. “No, Carlos Tevez”. “Ah, Manchester City”. That’s more like it fella.

Oh boy this is going to be a long journey. They’ve just switched the ‘entertainment’ on. Some DVD of people (Albanians I think) singing and dancing to that awful tuneless Turkish sort of music. It’s penetrating and therefore ruining my Mayo and Kermode (though he’s not on it this week as he has swiney) weekly film reviews podcast.

I’d honestly rather listen to drum ‘n bass than this, it’s the most horrific sort of music on the planet and every ruddy song is exactly the same. I could make a killing (pun intended) selling cyanide capsules to fellow passengers.

I’m going to have to switch to something louder to drown out this assault on the ears out. Cue my thoughts on Beirut’s ‘March of the Zapotec and Realpeople Holland’. Well it’s almost a companion piece to their first album ‘The Gulag Orkestar’ with the powerful horn section and graceful synths present again. I really like it but it’s not quite at the standard of Gulag (granted, a very high standard that was), I’ll need to download the album imbetween now.

Over 2 and a half hours in and that stuff on the box is still going, they’ve turned it down a fair bit now though so I can bare it. Oddly, currently on screen is a tall and skinny Albanian man in a suit who is a great lookey likey for Matthew Kelly.

On the way out of Kosovo the customs man who boarded the bus was looking for my inbound stamp, I knew I should have got one when coming from Macedonia. Luckily he just gave it me back and that was that.

Very strangely there was no Montenegro customs at all, that’s a new one on me. Another stamp goes begging. I’m telling ya, it’s an international conspiracy to deprive me of the travelling badges of honour that are righly mine.

Actually I take it back, there is a Montenegro customs, but it’s a good 5 miles I reckon from the Kosovan border. That’s a new one on me. Got a stamp though, whoo!

They’ve turned the sound back up. Boo.

Well it’s gone over 7 hours and still no Podgorica. I don’t think it’s helped that the driver has stopped for ages loads. I hope we get there soon, I’m dying to collapse in my bed. The good thing is that my hotel is supposed to be 200 metres from the station.

Also, I’ve just yawned and my ears have popped. That’s made the travesty of sound even louder. Not pleased.

Another bleedin’ stop. The driver has the bladder of an infant guinea pig. Onwards I say, onwards!

This is ridiculous. This numpty has more breaks than a Spanish builder, they last ages and ages too. I’m not sure what I hate him more for, his music taste or his laziness. Nearly half 1 in the morning, I’m not going to get very long for my €55.

I’m finally there readers, thank Jehova.

The hotel is really nice, 10% off with my ISIC too which will save me a fiver. Night.

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Posted in Kosovo, Montenegro | Leave a Comment »

Spumoni!

09/10/2009

I caught the 2nd half of ‘A History of Violence’ last night. I remember seeing it at the pictures and thinking it possibly the worst film ever made. My opinion hasn’t changed. How Mark Kermode (who is a hero of mine!) can rate it I’ll never know.

There are indeed some very strange channels on this cable setup. One called 21 Junior just has weird and awful Eastern European songs sung and danced to by little brat kids 24/7. It’s very bizarre and a bit disturbing. Oh for Sky Sports News.

This morning I had a mini-adventure to find an ATM so I could pay for another night in this guesthouse. Apparently the nearest one is just 10 minutes up the hill. Well it’s right back down the other side again and the road splits numerous times without a clear obvious route to take, I got there in the end though and at least I now have an idea of the route to town. I’m hoping there will be some sort of travel agents there to get my next bus ticket rather than having to go on a right mission to the central (or not so central) bus station.

To make up for rising accommodation and transport costs I picked up some supplies while I was out. For €4.40 I got 2 croissants, a carton of apple juice, pasta, pasta sauce, some meat for the pasta and pepper. That’s my next 4 meals taken care of, not bad eh.

I got back to the hostel and paid ‘The Professor’ the dosh for the room no probs. The Professor is what the fella who runs the place calls himself, he’s a bit of an old character and delighted in telling me that he studied in Newcastle-Upon-Tyne between 1971-1975.

‘Solaris’ has just come on telly now and I should really be getting out and hunting for a bus ticket but I’ve never seen it and it’s only 90 minutes so it has to be done, i don’t half miss my films. Mini review of sorts here as always.

I see on the news that Bazza O has won the Nobel Peace Prize. Ridiculous if you ask me, what has he actually achieved yet? I hope he goes onto do something that warrants such an award but all he has done so far is talk (very well I might add), all politicians can do that.

In the end I did have to go to the main station to get my ticket. I walked into town and had a look about but couldn’t find any travel agents that would sell tickets. So then I got a taxi to the station at a pre-arranged (I always do this as so many of the taxi drivers in these parts try it on) price of 3 Euros and tried to pay attention to the route so I could walk it back (which worked a bit, kind of, well I had to go back on myself a couple of times but it was dark by this time so that didn’t help!). I got the ticket and it was 16 Euros leaving tomorrow at 17:45 and taking about 7 hours.

So as I’m not going to be getting the bus to Montenegro in the morning at I thought (there is one but it’s at 7 so I’d have to be up at 5ish and I’ve not had much sleep lately as it is) I’ll have most of the day to have another look round Pristina. I’ve not been very impressed so far but granted I’ve not explored that much yet. What has been doing my head in is the roads here, cars are always parked on the pavements so you have to walk in the road a lot constantly avoiding traffic and often having to crisscross. Red lights and green men don’t seem to mean much in these parts either. The ying to that yang is I’m liking using the € again.

The fact that I’m here all day tomorrow also meant I could eat out this eve and use my remaining supplies for lunch before I leave the guesthouse. I found a cheap little place called Pizziera Rona. 3.50 for a decent pizza and a bottle of the local pilsner, Peja (very nice).

I’ve listened to another couple of albums today offline with Spotify (will ya shut up already about that!). ’200 Million Thousand’ by Black Lips was first up. It’s very much in the same garage-rock vein as their previous outing, ‘Good Bad Not Evil’ and it’s reasonable enough but the killer tunes that it’s predecessor had just aren’t there this time round, so ultimately it’s a disappointment for me. The other album was ‘Dropping the Writ’ by Cass McCombs. It’s appealing to me more with every listen so far, reminding me of Elliott Smith in a lot of ways. Goodie gumdrops is the initial verdict.

Another film was also somehow squeezed in earlier, ‘Semi-Pro’ with Will Ferrell. My thoughts are in the same place as my ‘Solaris’ ones. I will say that Will Ferrell could make me laugh reading the dictionary though, genius that fella.

I’m currently sat trying to sort a hotel for Podgorica for when I arrive at about 1 in the morning tomorrow night (that’s a paradox right there that is), is a ball ache and taking ages (to do it cheaply anyway). I’ve just booked 2 nights at a nice looking hostel for Kotor afterwards though. It’s not very far from Podgorica so it should be pretty easy to get to, that’s what I’m hoping anyway.

Today’s best search ‘buy a jar of gypsy tears’. Maybe I should start floggin’ them on here?

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Posted in Kosovo | 2 Comments »

Spotified

08/10/2009

Somedays I end up eating very little and some quite the opposite. Today was the latter.

I started with 2 full boiled eggs while waiting for my 4 slices of bread to toast, 2 of which I put butter on and the other 2 chocolate spread. Yum. More grub to follow later.

Before brekkie I was speaking to an interesting Norwegian bloke who’d very much been travelling off the beaten track. He’d followed up a year in Shanghai by making his way home in a rather indirect fashion, I’m talking about all the Stans for starters. You know, Kazak, Tajik, Uzbek, Turkmen etc. Impressive.

I didn’t get very long at all to see Skopje today as I didn’t leave the hostel until well into the afternoon with trying to sort stuff out for the next leg. I’ve got a hostel (of sorts, which is unlikely to have WiFi so it may be a while before I can actually post this) for tonight in Pristina but beyond that my plans are a bit sketchy.

I’ve been unable to figure out online, what buses run from Pristina to Podgorica in Montenegro and also to find a hostel there. Hopefully there will be some info at the station tonight. There is actually one hostel but it looks bloody awful and it’s relatively expensive for it too. I eventually had to give up on the planning as there was a power cut, that kind of took the matter out of my hands. I’ll have to try and get net access in Pristina somewhere and sort out a cheap hotel if I can.

Whenever I’m on the net I tend to multi-task a lot to stop boredom setting in. So while trying to figure out my travel logistics I also signed up to Spotify’s premium service. Warning, you may want to skip the next 4 paragraphs if this sort of stuff doesn’t appeal to you in the least.

When this first came out a month or so back (or actually that’s when the iPhone app came out but that’s the bit that makes the premium service useful to me in my current circumstances) I initially thought why on earth would I want to pay a tenner a month for music that I won’t actually own. But when you look at it closer, what you get for the price of a pint a week is pretty damn fan dabby.

You can listen online to pretty much anything you want without any advertising interruptions or any other obstructions. But the really cool bit is that you can also download the music to play it offline as much as you want (as long as you maintain your subscription obviously) too and you can do all this directly on the iPhone (or a PC).

For example, earlier I downloaded some albums I had on my ‘to be purchased on the cheap via eBay’ list and I’ll listen to them later on the bus without any internet access. The very first 5 albums I searched for were all available and as the artists were Adem, Beirut, Black Lips, Cass McCombs, Crystal Stilts and Cymbals Eat Guitars they aren’t exactly mainstream.

It’s pretty impressive stuff and means I’ll get to listen to a huge amount more of music I wouldn’t have had access to before. I know you can listen to the tunes online via the free version of Spotify anyway (and I did used to back in my working days) but the offline feature together with the iPhone is just so liberating and perfect for travelling too. 10 quid well spent.

Anyway, Skopje. When i got out in the end I made my way across the River Vardar (over a bridge like, I didn’t swim it) to the old town and I liked it a lot. There’s lots of very narrow old rustic streets and it’s not touristy at all. It does get a bit skanky towards the back where there is a massive Market though.

I got a touch lost on the way back as it’s a right labyrinth. Luckily I found some high ground to spot some landmarks (like this) to get my bearings again.

After that I had a look round the fortress which isn’t particularly impressive but it’s worth a gander if you’re about anyway and it gives decent views of the city.

Ohh oh, here comes another Spotify paragraph, I’m not participating in an affiliate program honest. While wandering around I listened to all of ‘Takes’ by Adem and I don’t know how it made my list in the first place, it’s wishy washy nonsense and incredibly dull. Amazingly the songs are all covers. A real shame as I loved ‘Homesongs‘. So Spotify has probably saved me a fiver or so already as that’s what I’d have eventually paid for the album on eBay. Splendid. The only downside so far is that you have to run it interactively so you can’t do anything else on the phone (like compose stupidly long blog posts) whilst listening, but this is a restriction Apple apply to all 3rd party applications anyway.

Food was needed by this time and a little bistro called Trend looked decent and reasonably priced. I had the Pesto Genovese and it was okay, a little bit bland though. On the plus side the portion was rather large and I liked how they put Parmesan around the edge of the deep bowl rather than all over the pasta. Not bad really for 3 and a half €.

Then it was back to the hostel for a quick recharge of batteries (both the IPhone’s and my own) before making my way to the bus station.

My last meal was the unhealthiest of the lot. After a bit of messing about I ascertained that I didn’t need to pay to put my bag in the bus luggage hold so this left me with 130 local currency to get rid of with 7 minutes before the bus departed. I went back into the depot and spotted a fast food place doing burger, chips and a can for exactly 130, well that’s a sign isn’t it. The chips were rank but the burger was surprisingly tender.

This journey takes between 2 and 3 hours I think and the bus has plenty of leg room so it will likely go quickly.

Skopje is near the Macedonia/Kosovo border so it wasn’t long before the customs malarkey, it feels like I do this every day at the moment. The bad news is I didn’t get a stamp again and I don’t know why, man.

I’m in Pristina now and I think I’ll have to get a taxi as I’m in the middle of nowhere, it’s getting late and there’s no walking directions anyway.

The hostel said it should cost €3 and he wanted €8, I got him down to €5 by just walking away when he wasn’t having it, though I’m not sure where I was walking to as there were no other taxis about!

As expected, this gaff is much more a guesthouse (I suppose the clue is in the name) than a hostel. It’s okay though, for 15 Euros I’ve got my own room with cable TV (with loads of channels in English) and a fridge.

I’m enjoying just veging in front of the box, after so long travelling I could lie here for days. I watched a little bit of the World Cheer-leading Championships on Eurosport 2 and it’s the cheesiest thing I’ve ever seen, there’s even some blokes doing it, the gymnastics levels are pretty impressive though. Now I’m watching some rubbish Bruce Willis flick where he’s an army geezer in Africa. It’s cheesier than the cheer-leading stuff.

I may well have to stay another night here as it was all closed up at the bus depot when I got there tonight and by the time I get there again tomorrow (having also sorted a hotel) my bus may have left or at the least I won’t have time to see this city.

بطاقة الطالب is the most unusual search of the day. WTF?

Okay, I suppose I’d better reign this one in then. Time for tubby bye bye.

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Posted in Kosovo, Macedonia | 2 Comments »

Billy no amigos

07/10/2009

Last night I had an epic pool session with a chap from Suffolk. We’d had one the night before until 3 in the morning (powered by 9 pints on my side) and I’d been pipped 6-5. This time round I found myself 4-0 down so took a little break to give myself a one on one pep talk and then mounted a valiant comeback to tie the score at 4 a piece. It went right down to the wire on the decider with palpable tension aplenty, you could have heard a pin drop (if you’d have turned off the TV, microwave, stereo and everyone in the room had of stopped their conversations). A black ball game it was and cruelly I was beaten by a hit and hope winner, a soul destroying blow to lose the entire contest on a fluke. Ah well.

I was awoken at not long after 6 this morning by an Aussie fella turning the light on in a bit of a panic. He wanted to know if anyone had a first-aid kit as apparently a mirror and fell on someone and split their arm open, white stuff and muscle visible and everything. Lovely. I do and provided him with it. I was very much awake by this point.

I reckon the Aussie who made the request might be a vampire. Every night I’ve been at the hostel (which happens to be the first one I’ve ever given a 100% rating, I must be getting soft) he stays up all of it and will then go to bed and not get up to 3 or 4 in the afternoon. Vampire.

Customer service in Bulgaria (and other countries in the region) is quite odd and takes some getting used to. This morning when putting my bag in the luggage hold on the bus I noticed that the other bags had labels on them. So I went to enquire about it at the office which the bus was parked in front of. The woman looked busy doing paperwork stuff and talking to another bloke behind the counter so like a proper Englishman I setup a queue and waited for her to make eye contact or express in some other manner that it was business time. A few minutes passed and then someone else walked in and flanked my newly formed orderly line and proceeded to get dealt with in seconds. Did the counter lady think I was just stood there mulling over her poor complextion? This country.

Anyway, all sorted now. In 7 hours or so I should be in Macedonia.

It occured to me earlier that I’ve not seen a Vespa (or Lambretta) in weeks and weeks. I’m really looking forward to getting to Italy, surely there is somewhere there I can hire a geared scooter (and if a vintage one all the better)?

I’m gonna try and get some bus kip now. This is a nice song to fall asleep to.

We’ve just gone through customs and I didn’t get a stamp on my passport, man . As far as I know Macedonia isn’t in the EU so I’m not sure why not.

The bus took an hour less than I was expecting (including the hour gained from switching back to GMT +1) so that was good.

Unless I arrive really late, the weather is bad or it’s stupidly far away, I like to walk to the hostel. The Art Hostel where I’m staying isn’t very far away but the directions that are always included in the Hostel World booking confirmation email consisted of “Head in the direction of Vodno Mountain for 20 minutes”, completely useless. It was only the equivalent of than €2 in a cab though.

I’m staying here just one night, while at the bus station earlier I booked a seat on a bus to Pristina for 18:00 tomorrow, it takes 2 hours. So that give me all day to scope out Skopje. I’ll have a little look tonight while trying to find some decent grub, but I’m abut knackered so am just taking it easy for now.

The hostel (actually it looks more like a budget guesthouse) I’ve booked for Kosovo doesn’t seem very good, though as it’s the only one I didn’t have much choice!

There was an Aussie bloke in the room at the hostel who was ambling for having a look about the city as a group and suggested seeing if anyone else was interested. I semi-politely got myself out of it by kind of not really saying yes or no and leaving by myself 20 minutes later. One I wanted to sit down and eat and didn’t fancy doing so with a load of people I don’t know watching having likely already ate themselves. Two, I often prefer wandering around a new city on my own.

So when I finally dragged myself onto the Skopje streets it was around the 21:00 mark, nosebag was needed greatly. I found Amigos pretty soon and even sooner afterwards I’d placed my order for chilli con carne and a bottle of Skopsko I think I might have over done the super hot habanero sauce judging by the severe burning sensation in my mouth and lips. It was very nice though. It came to just under €8 (I’m not even going to get involved in explaining the currency as it’s one of those daft ones with too many zeros in the denominations).

I’ve not seen nearly enough yet to judge Macedonia’s capital. That will have to wait until tomorrow.

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Posted in Bulgaria, Macedonia | 2 Comments »

Home and Away

06/10/2009

After last night’s hi-jinx I feel a tad groggy. I declare I will actually see Sofia today though.

Now I don’t mean this in a horrible way, but strewth I’m getting sick of Aussies (despite meeting plenty of them that I like). The number of them travelling is just ludicrous. I reckon it’s a stealth invasion and at some point soon the Australian Prime Minister will order an all out attack on the EU. Mark my words.

My hangover was a bit worse than it I initially seemed, but I knew what had to be done. Large chicken McNugget extra value meal, double cheese burger and 3 barbeque sauces. It’s the first time I’ve actually ate a full meal in McD’s for months (though I do nip in for the odd milkshake), damn did it do the trick.

While in Smacky’s I had my first direct experience of the Bulgarian reverse shaky head thing. It’s pretty similar to what a lot of people from India are prone to doing. In a word, hilarious.

Right, I feel better now so let’s see what your made of Sofia.

So I walked for around 5 hours and saw a variety of things like the Statue of St. Sofia (like fighter pilot’s thumbs aren’t they!) and the Alexander Nevsky Cathedral. I also sat and watched a load of skater kids in a park trying tricks on a ramp, with lots of painful looking tumbles occurring regularly.

Then I done something I probably shouldn’t have done, I bought a pair of Ben Sherman sunglasses. To be fair though I have been after a pair for ages and also as I’ve been pretty frugal lately, I’m under budget. I like ‘em ‘n all.

I’ve liked Sofia. It’s not really that special but it is just quite a nice place to walk about. I’d recommend dropping in if you’re in the area.

Skopje tomorrow then and country number 18 with in. Blimey.

My favourite search of the day is ‘the andorran model museum’. How this brings someone to my site I have no idea. As yet I haven’t been to Andorra never mind the model museum. Truth is stranger than ficiton eh.

Lastly, much kudos for Richard Dunne for the classy aftermath of his goal against us last night.

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Citizen Teriyaki

05/10/2009

This morning over breakfast (running to the much more sociable hour of half 10, meaning a 10:25 rise for me) I had a most Interesting chat with a Melbourne lad with Greek parents. There was a joint discussion on SEO, I explained the Blogsherpa program to him and he TEFL to me. TEFL is something I’d heard of before and I may well try and complete a quick online course in it when back in Blighty in December. It could prove useful post Australasia adventure, i.e. Asia.

I saw a Twiiter post (tweet to the initiated) yesterday from the fellas over at Hey! Manchester raving about the KEXP Music That Matters podcast. They are usually on the money so I’ve given it a whirl and have not been disappointed. If like me, you like lo-fi indie and Americana, fill your boots.

I’m having a bit of trouble working out my route at the moment. But I’ve just sat down for an hour and had a go, here’s the latest draft:

Sofia-Skopje-Pristina-Podgorica-Kotor-Tirana-Ohrid

Or in country form:

Bulgaria-Macedonia-Kosovo-Montenegro-Albania-Macedonia (again)

After that I’ll be heading south, ultimately to Athens and then a ferry crossing from Patra to Italy. Route yet to be formalised!

It’s a very overcast day here in Sofia but I’m not going to let that daunt me and shall shortly be going on a heavy duty walk around the city. I’m armed with the excellent Hostel Mostel map that has pretty much everything you could want on it detailed. Jobs a good ‘n.

The sun has come out now and I’ve just sorted my bus ticket to Skopje, 32 Lev with my ISIC. It’s 16:00 and I’ve not ate since breakfast so time to grub up now.

While looking for somewhere to eat I nipped into a supermarket to get some apple juice (which is pretty much as close as I get to fruit nourishment on my adventures). There were 3 kids who were definetely no older than 14 all stocking up on beer, the checkout lady didn’t bat an eyelid. Bulgaria eh.

I’m sat in Cactus and have ordered the Teriyaki duck fillet with coriander rice noodles. I nearly opted for the pork chop and potatoes with barbeque sauce but decided to leave my comfort zone just a little. A pint of Zagorka is the accompaniment. The food was a posh portion (i.e. not that large) but absolutely lovely. The main was about half as much again as it said on the menu, I’m not sure why. I didnt say anything as for what I ate and a beer it came to the equivalent of less than 8 quid anyway, which isn’t bad at all for what I got.

Plus it’s a free beer and pasta in the hostel tonight. Geordie joy juice.

Bugger, I have just realised I’ve got teriyaki sauce on my City shirt. Classy eh. Those noodles do tend to lead to a bit of splash back though. Bugger. To disguise my shame I’ve whacked my North Face jacket on but it’s far too hot to be sporting such clothing, 15 minutes to the hostel and with a quick change all will be right with the world again.

I’m a little bit worried about catching the The Villains vs The Citizens game this eve. Hopefully I’ll just buy some cans in and watch it at the hostel but it’s quite a busy place so someone could scupper my plans by whacking a DVD on at half 8 or something, it’s a 10 o’clock KO local time so in theory I’d have to guard the telly from about 8 which would be a right pain.

My plan is to guard from about half 9 and then if someone is already watching Saw VIII I’ll have to leg it to one of the Irish pubs on my map. This in itself is risky as the game won’t finish to getting towards midnight and I think they’ll want to chuck out before then. If it does come to that maybe they’ll take pity on me and let me see it out, especially if Martin Petrov is having a blinder.

Okay, I’ve just made an executive decision; I’m not going to go to Rila Monastery tomorrow. I’m sure it’s very nice and everything but it will save me €20 and give me the chance to do the full on tour of Sofia I intended to do today as it’s a bit late in the day for it now. Also it will give me the chance to have 3 consecutive decent night’s kip in a row for a long long time as I won’t need to get up early. Although I’d really like to see the monastery (and shall do one day), that’s a rather hefty plus column in my book.

To celebrate this decision I’ve just bought six 500ml bottles of different brand beer while listening to British Sea Power. The running order shall be Stella Artois, Zagorka, Becks, Kamenitza, Staropramen and Apuaha.

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We gotta get out of this place

04/10/2009

Disaster, the ISP the hostel uses is bobbins and the connection is still down. I haven’t found an open hotspot anywhere else either, not even in Smacky D’s. I feel so isolated!

In other news I managed to crack my nose on the taxi door frame last night while getting my bag out in the dark and with it pissin’ down. It looks like I’ve been in a ruck.

Now apologies to all Plovdivians as what I’m about to say will likely offend them, Plovdiv is an absolute sh*thole. It’s the worst place I’ve been in over 2 months and I’m very glad to be on a bus out of here now.

I wandered round for 5 hours and saw nothing worth writing about. Now obviously it’s possible that I’ve missed some hidden gems, especially as I only had the rubbish map in my rough guide covering the Old Town (pretty much a non-entity in itself), but I suspect not. After Veliko Tarnovo I had high hopes for Bulgaria ‘n all.

Let’s hope Sofia has more about it, though it’s had poor reviews from every other traveller I’ve discussed it with. At worst, I know the hostel where I’m staying has a pool table.

I opted for the bus over the train even though it was 13 lev (between 6 and 7 quid) vs 7 lev as the next one was at 17:00 against 17:25 and it’s only 2 hours against 3 on the bus anyway.

I’m in the hostel now and as expected, it’s very good. I think I’m going to stay an extra night as I’ll use tomorrow to explore Sofia and then the day after I think I might do the day trip to the Rila Monastery as it looks pretty impressive. Then come Wednesday morning I can get an early bus to Macedonia. Great.

Search of the day – ‘bugger fest denver’.

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Rockin’ all over the world

03/10/2009

I’ve kind of had the same night for 3 in a row now and am getting a bit bored by it, so I’m happy to be moving on today.

There was one difference from previous night’s though as they had a belly dancer for a short while at the hostel. I reckon she was silicon enhanced as despite a tremendous amount of violent shaking overall, those bad boys were more static than the Maginot Line.

I was mighty relieved when it was all over as she was getting up people watching as participants, luckily I got away lightly.

There was a bloke from Prestwich (and amazingly he wasn’t Jewish) last night who lives in London and sounds about as Mancunian as Boris Johnson. I was having a rather heated debate with him about City and United. To think they call us bitter, he couldn’t hide his vitriol and hatred for our new found status. Apparently we (and Chelsea earlier) have no right to upset the status quo. I like it.

This morning I actually made brekkie, I had a couple of slices of bread and nutella and then went back for 2nds but by 09:31 they had cleared everything away. Breakfast fascists.

It was the usual chaotic, sweaty and slightly hungover rush to make it to the bus on time, as ever I did by a couple of minutes. Phew.

After I’d got my bag checked into the hold a fella rudely beckoned for me to help him with a very heavy box he was trying to carry, which I did. This wasn’t followed by any verbal or physical display of thanks. I should have kicked him in the nads.

I’ve just spent my last 5 TL on a sandwich for later and some Fruitella like strawberry sweets, I’ve munched the lot in one go and consequently feel a bit, what my Mum would describe as, ‘yeaky’. On a more positive note, I have just seen a man at the service station who looks like a Turkish Jim Bowen, (I would like to put smashing, super, lovely in Turkish here but it doesn’t really translate).

The customs stuff went without a hitch. I think ‘Mr get help but don’t thank’ wanted me to get him some cigs at duty free, not ruddy likely matey. If he keeps this up he’s going to get a kick in the nads.

Tired, tired, tired. All I want to do is get to my hostel, post this, check the footy scores have a quick bite to eat and then get to bed.

There now and it’s absolutely chucking it down. If it’s like this tomorrow I won’t be seeing much of Plovdiv.

This hostel isn’t very good at all really. The family running it are nice enough but the place is untidy (though clean just about) and other than a bed and acces to a bathroom, there is nothing else that other hostels offer for the same price. The Internet connection isn’t working as well so I probably won’t get a chance to post this until tomorrow. At least as no one else is staying, I have the room to myself so can get a decent sleep.

Night night.

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Posted in Bulgaria, Turkey | 2 Comments »

To bath or not to bath

02/10/2009

I’m not really sure what the score is here, but my dorm is in the basement and there is a window from which you can constantly hear the noise of men speaking loudly at any hour you care to imagine. Then every now and again you hear a funny sequence of beeps followed by the sound of a walkie talkie. Maybe it’s an outdoor taxi office?

Man, I missed brekkie again this morning. Doh.

Ohh oh, here comes another extremely loud Islamic prayer call. Time to listen to a podcast, this one in fact.

Shortly I’m going to go in hunt of bus ticket to Plovdiv (which I’ve now decided to visit after all) for tomorrow. I know there are plenty of buses going that way but I can’t find the times or prices. I don’t want to get a night one if I can help it as my plan is to arrive in Plovdiv Saturday evening (probably quite late) and then see a bit of it in Sunday before taking a bus to Sofia which should be 3 hours or less I’d have thought. Then the Sunday and Monday (Villa vs City!) night there before moving on to Macedonia.

There are bus ticket bureau type places round the city but I think they may be difficult to find. It looks like I’m going to have to go on a right mission to the station where I came in at as there are literally around a hundred different ticket offices there. I’ve a feeling this is going to be a right ball ache.

Actually it turned out to be pretty easy. I found a travel agents round the corner and 40 TL later I’d purchased a ticket for 12:00 tomorrow. It takes about 7 hours which is perfect.

Right now I’m just waiting in Kosk Restaurant with my Efes Pilsen for my spicy sausage omlette to arrive. I nearly opted for the Turkish Ravioli but then I saw a picture of it and it looked like a right veg fest.

The omlette was nae bad but the bread with yogurt sauce before it was beaut. It was like a really soft and warm pita, that is hollow and over filled with air. Yum.

I’ve just booked my hostels for Plovdiv and Sofia so that’s all my immediate planning out of the way.

Now I’m toying with this Turkish bath thing. I’ve heard good and bad tales so am in 2 minds.

I wouldn’t say that Istanbul has been one of my favourite cities of the trip but I am glad I came. It’s been very different from everywhere else I’ve been so it’s been worth it for that alone. I’d definetely come back at some point.

The Turkish bath didn’t happen in the end, it’d have cost the best part of 40 quid which is a bit extravagent on a traveller’s budget. I’m going to give it a go one day though.

So back to the Bulg tomorrow. I’ve heard good things about Plovdiv and not so good about Sofia. I’m not worried though Sofia though as Bucharest wasn’t exactly raved about by others and I liked it, also I’m in a Hostel Mostel so I know that side of things will be good.

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Posted in Turkey | 2 Comments »

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