Katie_Louise

Serbian Borders, Kosovo cakes and alot of waiting... Fail

katie_louise — Sat, 21 Nov 2009 23:56:00 GMT

OK Kosovo...We managed to not stay to long (thats the best and worse thing about Kosovo is that it feels so homely that you can end up staying for 2 weeks or more if you are not careful).
We had a fantastic time there catching up with friends and exploring some more of the country. Driving around the country with Mr Peter Fox in Honda honda Jazz Jazz (suprisingly still in 1 piece after our previous tips into the nature with it in the summer where it drove through rivers and over mountains).
We did however run into problems when we tried to leave.
The day started off bad and then got alot worse from there.
Firstly I was getting a taxi from in town to the guest house (been to collect the breakfast =P )to see the girls. I got in the taxi and then the driver, who was a sweet 60 year old man, attempted to take me out for coffee. After explaining that I didnt want to go for a drink with him he finally started driving me in the right direction...We chatted for a while in a mixture of french and german and I explained that me and my 2 friends were hitching to Sarajevo, Bosnia that afternoon. To this the taxi driver offered to drive us for "no money money, no problem, is good".
I politely refused his offer but when he dropped me off at the guest house it became quite clear that the drive was in exchange for something else (ahem).
Immediatly I ran inside (after urgently texting jenny to come and let me in) and just settled with taking his card from him, then we all ate croissants.
The day got progressively worse, first hitchike to Metrovice we were in the car with a creepy "face stroker". This is the name of a man who likes to stroke your face for no reason. Unfortunatly it was my face he happened to be stroking and he even hit Lissa at one point when she tried to comfort me *exit car quickly*.
After hitching in quite a few more card to the Serbian border we were quickly informed by the Serbian border police that "no you are not coming in to Serbia today".
It turned out that because we had entered Kosovo through Macadonia and had not received Serbian entry stamps (quick lesson, Kosovo is not part of Serbia anymore...Unless you are Serbian, in that case you think it is!) we were not allowed into Serbia.
After this we went and sat with this Kosovo police men at their border and they gave us cakes and coca cola.
We decided the best thing to do would be go back to Prishtina, night bus to Podgerica, Montenegro and then bus to Bosnia from there. At this point we had already wasted a day nearly, pissing about at borders and were having issues so the hitching in that area was not working.
The bus was your classic Kosovo bus trip which meant a video of a man and woman singing in a park played at full blast for 5 hours whilst the bus driver occassionally brings you biscuits and drinks! This bus also happened to have random oddballs on it. A couple who decided to watch me. I mean they just sat opposite me for an hour and stared. SO much that I had to move seats to the back of the bus. Also an old French man who was trying to take photos of me ón his camera phone whilst chatting about Princess Diana.

Unfortunatly the buses were night buses. and in the end it took us 32 hours of traveling from when we left Prishtine to when we got to Bosnia .
We spent 7 hours alone at a bus station in Poderica just drinking Turkish coffee, chain smoking and attempting to keep our eyes open !

By the time we arrived in Bosnia I think all 3 of us wished I had taken the 60 year olf taxi driver up on his offer.

Great time had in Sarajevo though. Went to see New Moon (because yes we are geeks) and ate lots of Cevapcici, although didnt fill up suitcases with the stuff as me and Jenny had originally wanted to !

Turkish police, Turkish Universities and Roma Gypsies

katie_louise — Mon, 16 Nov 2009 18:00:00 GMT

Hello all.

Apologies on the lack of writing on this blog. The last time I wrote I was in Paris. Since then I have been to a music festival in Leeds (classy weekend ladies). Home. Amsterdam (again, classy times. CAF). Then back to Paris for a week because I couldnt get enough of it for the first time. Since then my travels have taken me through Northen and central Italy for a month...Riding scooters through the streets of Florence at night, Taking Italian lessons, looking at alot of renaissance art (where we discovered a woman who looks alot like me was present at the death of Jesus according to alot of renaissance artists...odd)flying to Sofia, Bulgaria then hitched to Bucharest, Romania to go to a Halloween party and hang out with a friend for a week.

This new section of my blog is for the last part of my trip. Its a mission of mine to hitchike from Istanbul, Turkey to Copenhagen, Denmark. Going through about 11 countries in less than 2 months to revisit friends I have made.

So far it is proving to be a rather eventful mission.

Had a fantastic time in Istanbul. I really want to move there ! Me and Jenny were staying on the Asian side with a rather lovely Turkish fellow who happened to be a male model. We met some very nice couchsurfers and had some pretty crazy nights out in Taksim (which then led to playing guitar next to lakes at 4 in the morning and sleeping on strangers sofas) and a rather amusing/terrifying encounter with a 50 year old Turkish woman in the Turkish Baths...I feel violated...Violated but clean.

Our first hitch was a disaster. We were aiming to go from Istanbul up to Sofia, Bulgaria in the day but it didnt happen.
It basıcally went lıke thıs -
9.00 - me and Jenny left Gokhans house to go to our hıtchıng spot on the cıty outskırts.
12.00 - We arrıved on the cıty outskırts and stood next to a road leadıng to Edırne (whıch ıs a town exactly on the border).
12.05 - Picked up by a man who says he ıs goıng to Edırne.
12.15 - Thıs man took us to see 2 nıce polıce men... We dont know why. Next thıng thıs man drıves away and leaves us wıth these 2 polıce who are shoutıng at us ın Turkısh...Possıbly askıng us what we are doıng hıtchıkıng. We try and explaın that we enjoy hıtchıng. It all gets very confusıng and the man wıth the machıne gun phones the Brıtısh consulate. They tell us to go see them and that they wıll gıve us money for a traın or bus goıng to Edırne or Sofıa. We explaın that we enjoy hıtchıng and have done ıt all over europe wıth no problems. They laugh and tell us the polıce are beıng nıce.
Stıll confused by what ıs goıng on, the polıce put us and our bags ın the back of the van and gıve us bottles of water.
We speak to the brıtısh consulate agaın and ask them why on earth we are ın a polıce van and why we cant go back to our road and contınue hıtchıng agaın?
The polıce are fascınated by my Turkısh vısa ... We later fınd out that we dıdnt need one and ıt was just a border offıcıal beıng moody and makıng us get one !
1.45 The polıce say goodbye to us and put us ınto a car wıth an old muslım lady that we have just watched them pull over.
2.05 The muslım lady drops us off at a petrol statıon on the road to Edırne.
start hıtchıng agaın.
2.10 Pıcked up by a man who we assume ıs goıng to Edırne as he nods at the sıgn. After speakıng to thıs mans frıend on the phone we dıscover that he ıs goıng to Edırne ... But not tıl tomorrow. He drıves us to the bus statıon and offers to buy us tıckets to Sofıa.
2.40 - After refusıng hıs offer of a bus tıcket he hands us over to hıs frıend.
3.00 - we actually reach the moterway and arrıve to a few KM down the road from our actual startıng poınt !
3.30 - Thıs man drıves us for a whıle. Buys us water...Accordıng to hım 'Katıe ıs many sweet' and 'Jenny ıs many beautıful'
3.50 - We get out of hıs car as he ıs goıng another way.
4.00 - Pıcked up by a lorry. Drıver Turkısh delıverıng bottled water to Azerbaıjan. He speaks no englısh and has an extremley hıgh pıtched voıce. He ıs also obsessed wıth germs and makes us take shoes off and offers us many hand wıpes and germ kıllıng gels !
5.00 - The Turkısh man drops us off on the road to Edırne where we are then pıcked up by 3 men ın a movıng van. There ıs no room for me and Jen ın the van so 2 of the men move to the back lorry sectıon and me and Jen get to sıt up front.
7.00 - We arrıve ın Edırne and go to a mall to hıde from the nasty thunder and lıghtnıng storm whıch ıs ın full swıng !
7.10 - We are sat ın cafe drınkıng caramel coffee and usıng wıfı to emergency search a sofa on couchsurfıng. Joın a last mınute Edırne group and gıve Jennys phone number out.
7.11 - We get a reply from a man called Fatıh who tells us ıf we fınd no where else we are very welcome wıth hım. It turns out that he ıs actually a frıend of a frıend . Our Sweedısh frıend Magnus stayed wıth hım a few weeks ago, and emaıled to tell us how lovely Fatıh and hıs frıends are. Also turns out our Turkısh frıend Ozan who we met wıth Magnus ın ıstanbul goes to unı wıth Fatıh and they are studyıng for an exam together ! We decıde stayıng wıth Fatıh wıll be a good move sınce he comes so hıghly reccommended lol.
7.15 - Jenny gets alot of phonecalls on her mobıle from a Turkısh number.
7.20 - 2 Turkısh men show up at the mall and say they saw our emergency post and they can host us. We tell them to go away and they do. However contınue to text jenny wıth ınformatıon such as 'we have a car'.
8.00 - We eat alot of chıcken at the mall

It all worked out for the best in the end though. We had a fantastic time in Edirne. We even ended up teaching a class at a Turkish University. We had to speak to a class of about 30 20 year olds about our travels. Tell them all about Couchsurfing (www.couchsurfing.org for more information) and hitchiking. Then answer any questions they may have such as "what football team do you sipport?" That was fun to explain Nottingham Forest, then listen to the teacher translate to the class that Forest used to be good but no so much anymore =P

When we finally left Edirne the hitch to Sofia was alot more successful. We met 2 unemployed Bulgarian teachers whose job is now to drive to Turkey often to get cheap ciggerettes and sell them back home. A lovely truck driver who gave us oranges. Then finally an obese man dove us into Sofia city.

When we were in Sofia we met up with Lissa who has flown out to join us for the last month of this trip. It was amazing to see her again! Wifeyyy!

Once the 3 of us were ready we hitched from Sofia to Skopje, Macadonia. Fun trip. Met a cool man who drove quick, spoke english and was blasting Limp Bizkit. Crossed the border on foot. Were told by the Macadonian border police that we need to register our stay with the police in Skopje. We decided against this as once we arrived in Skopje we would be staying with a charity organisations house in a friends spare bed...We decided against the police and took the risk of the 1000 euro fine.

The last lift into Skopje was with 2 mental driving yet charming Macadonian boys. They needed to stop the car every 5 minutes to pee at the side of the road. Just before we entered Skopje they got a flat tyre. Instead of kicking us out to find a new lift they actually called up there brother to drive out and pick the 3 of us up and take us to where we needed to be, was very thankful to them and hope they got their tyre sorted !

First stop once we arrived in Skopje was to a party. Very multicultural. There was a rather crazy Estonian boy there who spent the whole night trying to teach us how to speak in "broken English" I was rather good and progressed to level 2 =P ("I am a retard...What are my options ?")

We were staying with a charity group in Skopje who publish magazines for young people about life in Macadonia for the youth and help out with Roma Gypsies. We had some great nights drinking wine at an ancient fortress and hanging out at the house jamming and drinking Rakia (lethal).

Skopje itself has a lot of character. Its so pretty but at the same time an eye sore with lots of building work.
On sunday we were ambushed by a group of 5 Roma children begging for money which of course we didnt give them. After this they followed us for a while trying to get into our handbags and pockets. Luckily my hand bag was to well protected for their sneaky little hands. Unfortunatly one of them managed to get in my pocket and take one glove. Just one.
It was later given back to me though (bless the little horror). I guess they have no call for gloves. It makes thieving harder !

Today we left Skopje and hitched to Kosovo (Prishtina, home away from home). Its so great to be back here even though its strange not to be with all the same people. We had no trouble passing over the Macadonian border despite not registering. We hitched with a speedy german man who spent pretty much the whole trip on the left side of the road (wouldnt have been a problem except that in Macadonia they drive on the right!). Then once passing through the Kosovo border we got a lift with a woman with a prosthetic leg. We stated to them from the beginning that we had no money and were hitching. However we did run into some difficulty when trying to leave the car, the woman wanted money from us . After a rather heated confrontation we walked away giving her the equivilent of 2 euros in macadonian denar.

Wow what a post. Will try my best to update the blog until I get home in December.

Yes, I am still alive and currently in Paris

katie_louise — Thu, 20 Aug 2009 14:25:00 GMT

So sorry I havent wrote in ages !

The last few weeks have been fairly chaotic. There was the problems getting out of Kosovo ... The main one being we didnt actually want to leave. Then missed trains in Bosnia and 24 hours worth of frantic training across Europe yto arrive in Krakow to arrive for Jennys pa and nephews visit.

Krakow was if course as fun as it always is. Met some right characters including a rather racist Romanian man and the legend that is Crazy Java (he is a bad man who keeps you out til 5 in the morning dancing and drinking vodka).
There was some fun cross country hitching from Krakow to Warsaw, where me and Jenny began couch surfing... Many fun nigts out with hosts and lovely breakfasts!

Horrible over night bus to Hamburg ! But Hamburg was fantastic... Beatles museum inparticular is amazing if you ever get the chance to go there !

Successul day of hitching to Dusselforf then onto Paris with a Polish trucker (we ctually got to sit up front with him...It was rather fun) then a drugged up morrocon who was quite terrifying butr got us to paris safely (suprisingly)

So now we are in Paris, sightseeing, lazing in parks on sunny days and picnicing at night with french folk who play guitars whilst we all eat cheese and baguettes and drink wine.

Sorry this is so brief but internet here is frightfully expensive and there is far to much to do here and not enough time.

Kosovo...The worlds frienliest country

katie_louise — Thu, 23 Jul 2009 16:01:00 GMT

So since last week in Mostar its been pretty none stop.
We went onto Sarajevo to stay in the much hyped up Haris Hostel (ran by Haris who opened the hostel when he was 15 and has been running it for 6 years now). Whilst there we met up again with Dave (American actor/TV host who has also appeared on Korean reality TV and has done voiceover work on The Wire) and the Slovenian Boys (Dr Yetta and Peter Pigeon). We also met a fabulous Australian man called Nick who we persuaded to join us in Kosovo!

So Kosovo...We got an 11 hour night bus there on Sunday night with the lads and booked into stay with the nutty professor in his Guest House.

I forgot to mention that we met a charming young American man called Spencer in Sarajevo for all of 2 minutes who in that time span managed to give us the names of everywhere we had to visit here in Kosovo along with taking my number to get us in touch with his Kosovar friends. Sure enough on the morning we arrived I heard from his friend Maria.
Since meeting Maria it feels as if we have been introduced to everyone in pristina, including marias house mate Agon, who we have now moved in with because we have decided to stay in Kosovo for longer.
The people here are so overwhelmingly friendly ! Everyone is willing to help with directrions and speak to you if you have any questions.
It doesnt look like you think it would neither. From what I have seen so far its not like in Bosnia where you can see the effacts of the war everywhere, however it still seems like a sensative subject and you see the Peace keepers (KFor troops...usually handsome italian men or friendly Americans who pose for photos) around the place.
Agon is possibly taking us to Northen Albania this weekend and to stay with his family in his home town. Its all very cool and feels quite unreal still that we are here.

Must go - Its warm and the ice cream is calling me

PS. This country is down as world wide simply because this website doesnt recognise Kosovo as a country (which it is in its own right) and I am not putting it down as Serbia !

Bosnia ... My new favourite country !

katie_louise — Fri, 17 Jul 2009 18:28:00 GMT

We arrived in Bosnia yesterday. My clothes were stuck to me. Its actually reached 40 degrees mid day now. Thats not right at all =(

Bosnia is awesome to drive through for all the wrong reasons. When you look out the window on the bus you can see signs of the last was everywhere. Houses which have been abandoned with caved in roofs and bullet holes and shrapnel marks along the walls of most houses. Its fascinating to look at but so sad.

We are staying in Mostar for a few nights. This town is of course famous for its 25m high bridge which mad men dive from into the cold waters for money.
The hostel we are at is fantastic. Hostel Dino. Its ran by Dino who likes to wake you up in the morning by bringing you coffee and water in bed.
Its really clean and so so friendly.

last night we went out for some food with 2 Slovenian lads (one is easily the funniest person I have ever met in my life and has memorised whole sections from Trainspotting with a perfect accent) and an American man who works as a TV presenter in germany.
After food it was onto a bar where I finally managed to finish that litre of beer i couldnt manage in Munich...fair enough I may have spent a number of hours on this one but I finished it !
We met up with various other folks, a swede and a bloke from Lebanon and moved on to a club. The first one was so packed that you dance in the street to Bosnian pop hits. That was a strange experience.
After that it was onto this place called Open Sesame which is a cave with a club in it. The water from the roof of the cave drips on you and you sometimes bang your head but apart from that its awesome.
We danced until four and then attempted to walk back home along the killer cobblestones which are here !
The club was filled with various maniacs...There was the man in a "Gigolo Latino" T shirt and bum bag. The scary Arabic man that danced on his own. The best was the Bosnian with the strongest Dublin accent. Although that was fantastic ! I thought he was actually Irish until he started speaking to his friend.

Today has been filled with much lazing about complaining of the heat but we did get to see some men jump off the bridge and a Mosque. That was cool.

I am off now, its not air conditioned in the computer room so I have once again started to melt.

"Do you find me sexy ? In America they find me sexy"

katie_louise — Wed, 15 Jul 2009 01:43:00 GMT

After Croatia Montenegro seems like a pretty obvious place to come. Just a short bus away (well 2 hours, that's short compared to most trips we have taken)and we were in the town of Kotor.
Kotor is a small walled town on the side of a fjord. Its stunning.
It was 34 degrees whilst we were there and me and Jenny for some unknown reason decided to climb 258 metres (which technically qualifies as a mountain) in this heat to a fortress. Whilst doing this climb Jenny even discoverd that it is possible for your eye lids to sweat...

There isnt much to do in Kator except swim in the water, eat ice cream in one of its many cafes or climb to the fortress in rediculous heat. So on day 2 of our stay in Montenegro we went on a little trip to a town (which i cannot pronounce the name of let alaone spell) whos claim to fame is that a church there is the home of John The Baptists mummified hand. Its kind of gross.
After seeing this we again realised that there wasnt all that much to do in this town except for look at the shrivelled, rotting black hand of John. So it was back on the bus back to Kotor.

Unfortunatly we got stuck on the bus with a group of 18 year old boys who speak very little English with a bus driver who looked like Karl Kennedy from Neighbours.
That 2 hour bus passed in no time thanks to their entertainment.
Besides asking our names the most they could say was basically "Katie la la la Katie la la la Katie" over again. or shout at "Kenny" which is what they thought Jenny was called.
One lad however was a bit special. He started undressing himself and talking about how attractive Americans found him. I dont think the fact that me and "Kenny" were laughing so hard we crying helped because he got really angy and shouted at us in Serbian then which just made us laugh even more...Poor him, he was left topless,confused and angry.

On the mosquito bite lookout...There are still many on my left arm. some on my legs and one really itchy one on my ankle.

Croatia...Where the melting began

katie_louise — Thu, 9 Jul 2009 01:24:00 GMT

Croatia has grown on me. Its like a fungus.

I liked Zagreb very chilled and laid back but then I really had my hopes high for Pula (which is in istria ... The new Tuscany apparently) and although it was a beautiful little town it just didnt really meet my expectations.
We stayed in a private room and for some reason the beds had towals on instead of sheets...The temprature could have something to do with it. It hit 30 degrees whilst in Pula and it hasnt dropped since then.
One day we even sat in a bar refusing to leave to sight see until the temp went down to 30 at least !
Zadar was when Croatia started to get really interesting. If you ever go there for a short time you should just head straight to the sea organ. You just sit on the steps next to the sea with your legs dangling in the cold water listening to the waves play the organ noises. You cant leave it. Its hypnotic !
Also we discovered that Zadar is the perfect town to head to a square. Grab a drink and watch a jazz band play.
After hearing good reviews about many of the islands along the dalmation coast we headed to one named Dugi Otok (the long island).
Its perfect there.
Every one has at least 2 jobs on the go. The post man is also in charge of renting out boats and selling tickets for the catameran. The woman in the dive shop also works at the supermarket and everyone knows each others phone numbers. Its all very Local Hero.
Another sunny day in the 30s so we decided to hire a boat out and sail aound the coast.
It was lovely. Just dropped the anchor when ever we felt like swimming! There was a brief panic when we realised that we couldnt climb back into the boat after jumping out but after much kicking and bruised arms all was well again.
Last stop in Croatia was Dubrovnik.
Its beautiful. The old town is gorgeous. All cobbled streets and red roof tops with little ally ways and passages everywhere. The best thing about it though is it has a breeze!
I have now realised I am not made for hot weather...Its no good unless you are near the sea or in a pool. I will never complain about an overcast day ever again!

The worst thing about Croatia though is the mosquitos. Oh how they love me.
I look like I have leprosy or something. Jennys bites are few and huge where as mine are little and EVEYWHERE on my arm . You should see my left arm. I have counted 30 on one arm all the way up...just one arm and like a couple on my feet. I dont know what is so appealing about that arm!

Lake bled, Bon Jovi and a cocktail ban

katie_louise — Wed, 1 Jul 2009 23:48:00 GMT

Dobardan, I am currently in the hostel in Zagreb. I am listening to Zane Lowe online because I broke my ipod the other day and am missing music so much! Also I am wearing my dress because pretty much every item of clothing I have brought with me has gone into the hostels free washing machine and tumble dryer.
There was an incident with some bug bites earlier today so me and Jenny have had to move rooms. I don't have any but think Jenny has some nasty ones... Apart from that this hostel is pretty awesome. There is a man who works here called Igor, I didn't realise anyone in the world would actually name their son that !

Since Ljubulana we have done quite a bit. We spent lots of time and money and the skeleton bar. It was an incredible little bar where you got to dissapear through a secret door in the bookcase to get to the bathroom and the cocktails were called things like "skeleton granny" and "sex in the disabled toilet".

Left Ljubljana to head to Lake Bled. Its gorgeous. Very quiet. There isnt really much to do there except walk around the lake. Walk up the hills next to the lake to get a better view of the lake. Row accross the lake. Eat in restaurants next to the lake...But that made for 2 nice days.

First day we were very healthy and ate fresh fish (and spinach) and walked around the lake in the rain. Then walked up a big muddy hill in the rain to get a great view of the lake. Anyone who knows me will know that if i spend about 5 minutes outside I will manage to get myself covered in mud...I was quite successful in avoiding it this time, I thank the big wooden stick I insisted on carrying around with me...My "gandalf" stick for walking purposes.
That night to ruin our healthy day me and jenny drank far to much wine and then hit a cocktail bar (mistake). Jenny fell over a number of times. I took up night jogging and we both had awful hangovers the next day that only chocolate croissants could cure. That morning we made the decision that from now on cocktails will be limited to weekends and special occassions.
we hired a boat after the hangovers passed and sailed out to an island on the lake. I discovered from this that I am actually good at rowing and docking boats. I felt like Noah from the Notebook rowing along in the rain.... To pass the time whilst rowing we recited poetry to one another. When we realised we didnt know many poems by heart we changed to song lyrics instead. It was whilst doing this that we began our obsession with Bruce Springsteen's song "The River" but replacing river for "The Lake". There is nothing that will spoil your peaceful trip to Lake Bled then bumping into 2 manx girls singing "We went down to The Lake, and into the lake we dive".

We took a trip to Lake Bohijn one day (otherwise known as lake Bon Jovi). Its probably more spectacular to look at then Bled but not in a pretty way. In a "wow look at nature" kind of way. We spent a good 4 hours walking round the lake ( I think i would have enjoyed it nore if I had a gandalf style stick again).

After consulting MSN weather we were shocked to see that Croatia had storms forecast so we would stay in Slovenia longer. We went to a town called Postojna. The only thing in this town was a cave that takes about 2 hours to see...So of course me and Jenny booked ourselves in for 2 nights to avoid storms. We stayed in a lovely hostel where we were the only people in an 8 bedroom down which had an en-suite bathroom with hairdryer and towals (no travel towal needed there). A huge double bed and a tv (you have no idea how excited we were by this TV).
We didnt find anything to do in the town. We ate ice cream in the rain. We washed everything in our bags and were shocked that it took nearly 2 days for everything to dry. We watched alot of MTV because of course Michael Jackson died so MTV played Thriller and Black and White on repeat.
The caves took all of 2 hours. Most of that time is spent on an underground train whizzing about the cave. When we went in it was a sunny friday morning. When we left there were grey ominous clouds everywhere. We started walking back to the town as quick as humanly possible but we werent quick enough. We managed to get the pack-a-macks on just as the thunder started followed imediatly by frighteningly close lightening . The rain was pouring and the hill we were running up was mid calf deep in rain water. My sandles finally got clean again !
The rest of that day was spent drying and watching Michael Jackson videos in bed.
Not ready at that point to leave Slovenia yet we headed to the coast to a little harbour town called Piran.
It is beautiful there. Little harbour filled with colourful boats. Bars and sea food restaurants along the waterfront. Lots of places to go swimming in the sea and the streets are cobbled winding streets filled with hidden bars.
The cheapest option for us there was actually to rent an apartment for a few nights. So we stayed in a little one with a gorgeous balcony where we ate breakfast abd drank wine on.
After a gorgeous sea food meal on the waterfront we ended up at a cocktail bar (it was the weekend so its allowed)where a mariarchi band showed up. I shouted Jesus (pronounced Hey-Zeus) at them all but none of them answered to that name. Or Normando for that matter.
After spending the rest of the weekend swimmibg and eating ice cream we finally left Slovenia for Croatia.

First stop is Zagreb. All we have done here is drink Croatian beer in streetside bars and people watch.
We made our own ice creams at this shop we now seem to visit everyday. Went to a zoo today and watched the Meercats and less superior animals before heading off to a waterpark/swimming pool place.

Tomorrow is to be spent walking around a national park exploring various waterfalls.

Then who knows. Maybe to the coast ?

The Shalom Girls return to Budapest then escape to Slovenia

katie_louise — Sun, 21 Jun 2009 18:04:00 GMT

After spending a day in the hell hole which is Luton (no offense Luton...For those who have never had the pleasure its basically a concrete block filled with old men . It wasn't to awful though as we did go for some cocktails at Yeates then to see Drag me To Hell which is a fantastic film. Go see it ! ) we finally got back to Budapest.

It was just as we left the place except this time there was only the 2 of us.

We were at the Backpackers Hostel in the same room. There is a new staff member whose job appears to be to lounge around the hostel in a toga all day doing yoga.

We went back to the thermal baths but this time in the evening so all the lights were on outside and it all looked very pretty and then onto the restaurant we had went for my birthday and had the hugest plate of Goulash I have ever seen in my life.

Me and Jenny a the day exploring the Jewish quarter and had this loud extremely Jewish tourguide (Picture this - in a beautiful synagogue and all you can see is this little bald man in sunglasses walking round shouting at folks in hebrew then speaking english in a thick new york accent). He was impressed at our one word we knew in Hebrew "Shalolm" so now we are nicknamed the shalolm girls...

That night at dinner we bumped into him in the restaurant ("Shalolm girls"...errr "tour guide") and it actually felt like we had a local friend ha ha

On the saturday we wallowed in the dark because it was rediculously hot outside, unfortunatly the dark happened to be of a Holocaust museum. It was a brilliant museum though, all audio visual with tons of imformation and I managed to get in for free because of my handy student discount card (gutted that it expires in July).

I also attended the opera (and I didnt even get bored and listen to my ipod!) It was a Verdi opera (with a name i have forgotten) about Scicilly and France and revolutions and secrets it was all suprisingly exciting. We managed to get our tickers for under 5 quid as well. However me and Jenny have decided not to go to another opera until we can afford a box, and a designer dress and those little binoculars on sticks that people seem to use...That could be some time). Also before the opera we bumped into the Jewish tourguide again... I think he is stalking us.

We decided to leave Budapest before it sucked us in and kept us there forever so hopped on a train to Ljubljana in Slovenia.

It was a 9 hour train ride. Passed the time by reading, staring out the window (then once reaching Slovenia hanging out the wondow with a camera taking pictures of all the gorgeous scenery) then eventually me and Jenny had a rave in our cabin to the Slumdog Millionaire soundtrack.
Once we arrived on Ljubljana we found out there were no hostel rooms available anywhere (panic) however after some time wandering out the city at 10 at night with our back packs we found a lovely little hostel that took us in.

Ljubljana is incredibly pretty however there isnt much to do here. We have explored the castle and walked round parks. Spent this morning walking along the river looking at an antique market and eating ice cream.Like most european capitals you will find lots of scaffolding and building work)

We went for a milshake at a riverside cafe where a mad waiter served us... All he could really say in English was "I love you" and after asking us where we were from he replied with "I love you... Ahh England, David Beckham ... I love you"... I would havse said the Isle Of Man but people get confused.

We are off out now to a traditional slovenian restaurant then to this bar covered in hanging skeletons to drink cocktails (should be interesting).

Gallery: "This shop ... It blows my mind"

katie_louise — Fri, 5 Jun 2009 20:31:00 GMT

First stop on the trip - Berlin. Also possibly the greatest city in the world where I now want to live and become a Graffiti Artist.

Budapest ... Its no New Jersey

katie_louise — Wed, 3 Jun 2009 18:51:00 GMT

I realise I am writing this entry a week to late but there is possible way I can fit everything that happened in Budapest into this blog so I will just write down the random things that I will forget if i leave this any longer

- arrived by train from Bratislava, fun train ride that included being stared at by many Hungarian folk (me and Jenny were wearing sunglasses and painting our nails in our carriage)
- Got the wrong bus to the hostel.
- Got the right bus but got shouted at by an angry blind man.
- Met a flat faced Hungarian man who wanted to practice his English...He basically told us that Budapest is a dive that we shouldnt of come to and we should have gone to New Jersey, USA instead (he has never been to NJ...I think he is a big Springsteen fan).
- Lissa came out to meet us ... quality GT time.
- Missed the night bus home nearly every night because it stopped at stupid places (blame Europes constant construction work)...so walked around alot.
- We did a free tour ... Its no New Europe tour but I did learn some pretty intersting things about Budapest and got excited about the 1956 revolution.
- Went to the most fantastic (although very distressing) museum about the Nazi's and Communists called the House Of Terror.
- Jenny nearly had her handbag stolen one day whilst we had lunch. Luckily a Canadian girl was very observant and shouted "what the heck do you think you are doing?" at the scabby little kid (kudos to the lad though, his excuse was that he was just trying to photograph a wedding that was happening outside ... his camera wasnt even on ...cunning).
- Brought a Hungarian gas mask from the 1950s, from a hospital in the rock (Lissa looked on disapprovingly whilst me and Jenny tried on gas masks and acted like 7 year olds)
- Ate really nice goulash and as a result have now become obsessed with wanting to put Paprika on everything.
- went to a late night showing of The Wrestler and now love Micky Rourke again (been watching him when he was still attractive in Diner and Angel Heart since I got home)
- Rode around on trams with appropriate tram music (because thats what we do in new cities)
- Failed miserably in our attempts to find a community centre where they taught traditional Hungarian dance. Instead we found an amazing cocktail bar where we met a scary little dog/rat and a man called Ray (who is a musician/film maker) who spent the night telling us stories about Bob Marley (who his dad was friends with) and drinking pure rum cocktails.
- After running away from Ray we caved and had lattice fries at a certain fast food establishment which we're not meant to eat at.
- went to the Thermal Baths....Heavenly ! Boiling hot pools then freezing ones (my skin feels lovely) Saunas, healing waters, a whirl pool...fun times.
- Freaked out a Hungarian woman in the showers with "wet shower hugs" (she doesnt understand our GT ways)
- Spent an afternoon exploring on my own...very eventful. Went to Statue Park and met an artist who was doing an exhibit there so she showed me about the park, explaining the pieces to me ! Statue park was fantastic, filled with all the soviet artwork from the communist times.
- Then met 2 men who will be spending the next few years riding moterbikes around the world ... They havent been to the Isle of Man yet though (its not exactly like the Long Way Round, these 2 fellas will be riding up through South America)
- Found a church built into caves ... It was beautiful inside and I listened to Janis Joplin in there for a while on my Ipod whilst looking round ( I am sure god loves Rock N Roll).
- Walked up to the Citadel and to the statue that symbolises liberty for the Hungarian people. Amazing views from the top over both sides of the Danube)
- Turned 21 ... celebrated by eating lots of ice cream in the sunshine, drinking beer in the sunshine, eating goulash and drinking wine. Was a great birthday !

I am already forgetting loads that happened . So I have learnt my lesson...In the future write Blogs when I am actually at the place.

I am currently back home on the Isle Of Man for TT.
But I plan on leaving next week to go back to Budapest (I still need to watch some Roma bands!) then to the Balkans...Maybe.

Bratislava and your basic red neck town

katie_louise — Fri, 22 May 2009 20:27:00 GMT

I already decided I liked Bratislava as soon as we arrived, because it was sunny and not raining and this is always a good thing.

The only things I have ever seen or heard about Bratislava were bad things from Hostel (tourists being tortured with blow torches etc) and Euro Trip (dodgy communist blocks with red necks and creepy children). It wasnt at all like either of ther above. Instead its a small but pretty town which serves the greatest beer in the world (Czech beer Pilsner Urquell) and only fault is the dissapointing standard of their ice cream.

Me and Jenny were far to excited about the fact that they sell Pilsner there so spent much of our first day sat in the sunshine drinking Pilsner whilst attempting to translate a Slovakian menu so we could eat. In the end we gave up and the only thing we could recignise was Carbonara...so pasta it was.

We met a lad from NZ called Simon whose birthday it was ! Me and Jenny decided that this lad must be mothered so spent the night making sure he will use sun cream in the future and bring out jackets at night in case he gets cold...I dont know if he appreiated all our advice.
We were also gutted that it was his bday and he didnt even have a Colin the Cattapillar cake to eat =(

The next day we explored the city with 2 Americans. we went up to the castle which would have been awesome if it wasnt covered in scaffolding ... Everything in Europe has building work going on at the moment, shame.
The old square is very pretty with some random statues scattered around (like a french admiral fella leaning on a bench).
Then me and Jenny went out for dinner ( I had Schnitzel yum yum and jenny had the "Gordon Blue").
That night was extremly fun. We found this cool little cellar bar called the KGB and its filled with Lenin memorabillia and we sat in there for many hours drinking vodka and malibu(with milk to be exact which is a tasty combination) and we were under the impression that the drinks were sharpening our minds so we ended up very drunk discussing the NHS and benefits,BBC travel documentries ... Then I knocked over a glass all over the floor =(

We didnt have all that long in Bratislava but there isnt all that muc there. Its just quite pretty and cheap .... Might go back to Slovakia at some point and explore smaller towns though.

On the train to Budapest we were sat in a carriage with a man called Peter ... he was a bit of a character.
He must have been in his early 30s and he was telling us all about how he could never live in flats in Bratislava, He lives in a small town and commutes. That way he can grow his own vegetables in his garden (and think he may possibly be growing something else judging by his conversation about Bob Marley). He was also obsessed with fresh fish and doesnt like to eat fish in his land locked country.
One of the stops was his town , which in his own words is "your basic red neck town... I come home some nights and all I can hear is Meeh ... Meeh...(which me and Jenny thought was some strange call of the chavs) which is the goat next door needing milking or something"

He was a nice fella.

Welcome To Fritzl Country !

katie_louise — Tue, 19 May 2009 17:23:00 GMT

Hello, I know I start everything like this but again, I dont have long....Got to get to Bratislava today.

So basically we left Munich just under a week ago to venture to the great land that is Austria.
I have never wanted to come to Austria before nor know anything about the place but I have had a suprisingly great time here.

Salzburg reminds me of Bruges...Its incredibly pretty (The mountains look stunning and the whole town is incredibly picturesque) but hella boring. After a few hours I was ready to leave.
We stayed in a hostel there where they showed the Sound Of Music every day because Salzburg is the place where it was filmed.
My highlight of the place was being in a church where people were shooting me evil looks because my shoes clicked a little, then the priest in there pulls out his hoover and just starts cleaning up the place....Its nice to see a preist hoover...Cleanliness is next to Godliness.

We headed to Vienna in the pouring rain. First impressions were not good. I was soaking wet, Everything looked so so grey and we were staying in a crap hostel (crap...well I was on the top bunk...However the bunk beds had no ladders, they were some fun times) But the morning after we relocated to a better hostel. Everything had dried...Vienna must have done something right cos I am still here 6 days later.
The city is not as young and happening as Berlin or even Munich, but its more entertaining then Salzburg and We have had some great days seeing the place.
We went for Sacher tort on our first day...Its this world famous Vienese chocolate/sugar cake. We went to an extremely posh hotel/cafe to eat this and it was delicious.
We saw The Third Man at the cutest little cinema (Set in Vienna about conman Harry Lime) and for days after watching this me and Jenny are still singing the theme music and debating whether or not its wrong to fancy Orson Welles (?)
We have been to some traditional little Austrian bars...They are usuallv in cellars (or gardens in nice weather) and you basically just drink mugs of wine in them and eat schnitzel. tasty.
We have visited quite a few art galleries...some interesting, some not so interesting. We acted all intelligent at the Belvedere and examined brush strokes on Monet´s from close then afar. I had no idea what I was talking about though however its nice to soud knowlegable about art.
We went to tha palace (Where one day I shall live!) and played in the Labyrinthe ...We also sat in the gardens and watched this woman who looks like dead soul singer James Brown, doing her exercises.

The people here are also suprisingly nice. I had heard that austrians are usually quite gruzmpy people but on the first day I started coughing on the U Bahn and this little lady came over to give me a cough sweet then chat to us about directions and how we´re liking Vienna.

One thing I have noticed about Austria though is that the graffitti is rubbish....Not a patch on Berlins...where are the 6s and the El Bocho´s ? Best bit of graffitti is from when we just came over the border and some one had simply wrote ... "Welcome to Fritzl Country"

"Prost"

katie_louise — Fri, 15 May 2009 06:16:00 GMT

Not long to write cos my time is running out (and this keyboard sucks).

Am now sat in the hostel in Vienna. My feet are soaking because I have been walking round in the rain in sandels (because I am that much of a moron...But mainly to give blisters a break). Our time in Munich basically went like this -

Munich -
Went on one of the lovely free tours that New Europe where we had this really over enthusiastic guide called Kari who found everything there completely "Awesome".
Stayed in a strange hostel ... Well it was ok but there was a slight incedent one morning... The hostel had dorm rooms of 40 (there were 4 sections of 10 beds each seperated by a mini wall)and one morning me and Jenny awoke to hear the following being said in a very loud American accent -
"Well, it must have been you because you were running around without your clothes on"
"No, cos you were the one puking everywhere"
"yeah but you are naked! Look its all over the floor!"
Well to cut a long story short one of the lads had (I know this is gross) shit himself...on the floor somwhow. Wrong.

We met some very nice Australian people and went for some drinks with them. It was cool because one of them is the only other person i know (apart from my dad) who has ever seen the castle ("we´re off to Bonnydoon").
We had an epic fail day which basically consisted of us having all these plans to go out and be German (well eat german food and drink alot of beer etc`) but we ended up going on a mini shopping spree and eating pizza and ice cream (which of course Jenny "2 spoons" Elliott spilt all down herself)

We also went on this amazing "Beer challenge". This was basically a tour of the biggest Beer halls in Munich where you learn some traditional songs and get some free drinks etc. But it turned into a pretty mad night.
We went to the Haufbrahaus(SP) and attempted to drink a Moss (which is a litre of beer). Now i cant drink a litre of any liquid let alone beer but I did really well, got 3/4 through before we had to move on so I gave the rest to the Norweigan lad who downed it. (Kudos to Jenny who finished hers)

The rest of the night gets quite hazy from there but it basically ended with many drinks being broght by the nice Canadian couple (Who also invited us to Calgary next year for something called Stampede which is a huge festival apparently...which of course we plan on going to)
Attempting to build a human pyramid in the bar.
Some rubbish attempts at brak dancing.
Alot of shouting "The North" or "Scotland" at people.
Dancing on the bar to the German version of 99 Red Balloons.
The Norweigen lad getting off the train at the wrong stop to be sick ... Then not being seen after.
A glass smashing which may or may not have been me.

The next day was awful though. I felt like death.
We decided that we would leave Munich and hitch to Salzburg (because Austria seems a good option because is on route to Budapest). We seemed to run into slight difficulty though.
We got a lift to a station good for hitching from a lovely man called Christophe (Who was a mechanical engineer). He even waited whilst Jenny went to get Ice Cream sundaes from Burger King to cheer us up.
At this service station we had very little luck because no one was heading in our direction. But we did meet some very nice people and we even made little signs up that said "Salzburg oder Wien Bitte" .
We did meet a very nice couple who drove us some more of the way.
Then eventually this nice man who was in the Army who drove us down to this town on the border (hze was lovely but he couldnt speak very much English and just attempted to tell us about Bavarian lakes).

After a 10 minute train journey we arrived in Salzburg.

Oops must go.

"Hi, me and my friend are trying to get to München"

katie_louise — Mon, 11 May 2009 05:03:00 GMT

So, arrived in Munich (München) about an hour ago with the help of 6 very nice Germans.

Following advice form Lewis (the love child of Caemen) about hitchiking round Germany being easy we decided today that instead of playing €120 for the train we would head to a service station and hitch our way down.

First 5 minutes we were picked up by a very nice old German couple who spoke very little English and agreed to take us third of the way. Its quite easy to do . None of this walking along roads with signs. More chatting to folks at service stations seeing of they are heading in your direction.

After this it was a family (a bearded man child, The dad and the mum who looked like she had been to a garden centre judging by the state of the boot) who drove us another third of the way. Again speaking very little English. But they did have the radio on so we could appreciate the fine German pop music.

After these guys though we got picked up by a very nice man called Steve whose birthday it was today. He was possibly the nicest man ever and dropped us off right outside the hostel cos he was awesome...Even if he did make some rather bizzare comments about Hitler and the Autobhans (which are fantastic by the way...Its basically foot down all the way with no one having to worry bout speed limits unless there is roadworks). So here we are now at a hostel in Munich which plays Reggae constantly (which isnt't a bad thing).
I dont know when we will leave here or what we will actually do here. I assume the next few days and nights will be filled with lots of drinking in Beer halls (umpapa and all), beer gardens, exploring the city and hopefully visiting some castles (cos they look so fairy tale like).

From today we have learnt that hitchiking is free so therefore cheaper than the train...also quicker then the bus and a hell of a lot of fun ! (and safe as we were texting Katherine with reg plates...or at least inteded to do but we really didnt feel a cute old couple would abduct us...but hey, no one thought anything like that about Fritzel)

So long Britain ... Hello Berlin

katie_louise — Sat, 9 May 2009 09:54:00 GMT

So, I havent had much time at all to get online and write in this thing but this is basically what has been happening -

I left the island to head off to Nottingham to visit family...Which I did. Also to watch Forest play Southampton in their last game of the season.
They won 3-1 ... Valuble lesson I learnt is that you dont want to be stuck infront óf a group of "Special people". Particularly one man called David whose mission was to shout "kick him" (to no one inparticular) for the entire match.
On Monday afternoon after many more hissy fits over repacking my bag (sorry Mum and Dad) I flew to Berlin to meet up with Jenny (aka Schnugglepuff)...
The only thing to do on your first night in Berlin is to go out to a techno club at midnight (even that is considered early) with a group of people from Finland...
This night can only be described as "magical" ... Finish people are rather strange and all on journeys to find them selves!

Tuesday was spent exploring Berlin - Did the free walking tour (in sandles as I forgot my trainers) which was great and like a recap of GCSE history. We had an incredible guide called Lewis who reminds me of the love child of Ceaman. He was incedibly dead pan and told the most amazing stories about revolutions which made me squeel and fall in love with East Berlin.

Probably my favourite thing about Berlin is how exciting and new and cutting edge everything seems...We did this alternative tour and learnt all about the graffiti around the city and the impacts of the wall coming down on the art scene etc. It was a great tour, really interesting and now I have developed an obsession with a German graffiti artist named 6. Everyone here seems to be so political and all the art is about things like suveillance and government monitoring etc...But this guy ´6´ basically walks around with a big can of paint doing 6s on the walls...Then when the can is done he will draw a big smiley face on it and stick it to the wall.
It was a great tour but we learnt a valuble lesson ... Never pretend to be a student to get discount if there is a small chance that the guide will continuaously ask you all about uni.
Thanks to that web of lies my name is Katie, I study Classics at Leeds Uni and live in the Hyde Park area. I have never paid attention to the graffiti there and dont plan on staying there after uni finishes. I am having a last break before final exams...Oh the lies.

On another note that day we met an Argentinian man named Mattais whose job is to study the menopause in female monkeys or as he calls them "grandma monkeys"

After that me and Jenny went exploring round the Kreuzberg and Freidrichstein areas and ended up in this awesome little bar having sheesha and rum cocktails (along with our new favourite beer and lemon drink)

Agghh Internet time is running out so the following basically sums up the week -

Thunder storms in Berlin are scary, especially when your caught outside run screaming accross bridges because the lightning is frighteningly close.

I have been mistkan for a Jamaican (yes me, Vanilla ice) because apparently my accent sound like a kingstonian accent.

German cinemas are awesome because you can drink beer in them - which we learnt last night at a random late night screening with an Austalian man who dressed like a tramp cos all his clothes are covered in Rum.

Berlin zoo is incredible even if all the animals in there seem a little bit special...Think baby elephants that cannot figure out how to eat their food.Picky female pandas that refuse to mate with the male there. Donkeys who dont like me (this makes me sad as I like them...in a none sexual way before anyone thinks anything).Show off brown bears and a lazy polar bear.

The Reichstag has the longest queue ever but is kind of worth it to get up there to see the views.

Must go because we are trying to arrange a way to get to Munich tomorrow morning.

Sorry about spelling mistakes

1 More Sleep !

katie_louise — Thu, 30 Apr 2009 18:13:00 GMT

Hey Everyone.

This is the last time I will get to use the home computer. Who knows when I will manage to get on the internet.
I am so not ready to leave. I was meant to pack this morning but instead threw a hissy fit because I have far to many clothes and toiletries and went for milk shake with Rachel instead. Now the clothes are laying in a pile on the floor next to my to do list (which is basically filled with important things like update CV, make sure I have all insurance details) instead I think it is more important to make sure I have all my CDs on my ipod... Making sure I have all Pixies albums on there seems far more important then insurance right now.

Tomorrow we (me, mon pere and ma mere) shall be going to Nottingham to visit both the Kitchener family and the O'Boyle family. So I figure that will be just a weekend spent in various pubs and completed by the Nottingham Forest match on sunday.
After that the first proper stop will be Berlin on Monday night to meet up with Jenny aka Schnugglepuff...We have only been planning (or not planning)this trip for a year now since that one night in the prospect before the pub quiz when Jenny, Miss Lissa and I decided that traveling around the world would be far more fun then Uni, and now I finally get to leave and do all the fun and exciting things we talked about like ... Hitchike from NY to San Francisco ala Jack Kerouac style, go to colourful Indian festivals, Busk when we are broke, swim in the blue Nile, Visit Amnon & Din etc

Anyway I must go now and have more leaving drinks.

I will try and be good and write in this regularly or at least make sure I facebook/text quite regularly (more than Jenny) so that you know we're still alive.

auf wiedersehen (practicing)

4 AM

katie_louise — Wed, 1 Jan 1964 00:00:00 GMT

" Whats brown and rhymes with Snoop ? "

"Dr Dre"