Ok I have some more time. So here we go on.
Granada:
My second andalucian stop was Granada. For the first time in my trip I deliberately took a bus instead of a train. Spain´s railways are not developped as much as the other major European countries (still 3426% better than Turkey´s) and as a result of this; they do not have direct connections between some cities. Anyways here are my impressions about Gradana.
- I totally loved this city as well. I guess I ve been lucky in picking up my destinations in the trip. I never regretted going to some place so far and this was no exception.
- Granada was the las surviving city of the Andalucian Arabs. It still has a substantial muslim/arab population and they are still mainly living in the historical arabis neighbourhood.
- This part of the city has narrow streets, 2 storey white houses with brown brick roofs all over and stil is far from being a usual european city.
- Mehmet Abi, Ender: Pack your things, we are moving to Granada. For good... I have only two real good reasons to do that but it is more than enough: They give free tapas when you order a drink. And drinks are really cheap there.
- I ate some Mediterranian fish in a side street restaurant. By the way, in Albayzin, the muslim quarters, there are many places to have a drink or snacks.
- There is a watch-spot somewher up the hill of Albayzin where you can see the city and Alhambra. It is so beautiful there especially during the sunset. People play flamenco and a lot of people go there just to sit down and enjoy the scenery.
- All the streets around my hostel were so alike, I got lost like 100 times although I had a map all the time. I managed to get to the hostel withoiut the help of my map or a person only in the last day. Getting lost in this lovely neighbourhood was quite fun in the beginning but it gets into your nerves after spending 20 minutes wandering around only 1 block away from your hostel.
- The highlight of Granada was without a doubt Alhambra (Kalaat al-Hamra in arabic, kalaat is fortress -kale in turkish- and hamra is crimson) This was a simply spectacular and beautiful building. And not only a fortress, it has the most beautiful palaces i have ever seen: Nasrid Palaces. ´The place has gardens, fountains and pools all over and a very green haven in an arid land.
- Amazingly detailed arabic innscriptions and carvings on marbles decorate the rooms. There are fountains all over the place and the view over Granada is great. I spent all of the day there and it was really good.
- People from non-muslim countries were always asking and even whining about why the palaces did not have any paintings or frescoes like in churches. The guys I met in the hostel were also not aware of thefact that the moors see painting as blasphemy and thus they carved phrases in arabic instead of painting the buildings. This, in my opinion, gives the islamic buildings a really cool atmosphere.
- The audioguide was the worst one ever. And a funny one. There lived an american poet who wrote about the alhambra and made it famous in the modern world. The audio guide was him spekaing about how he spent his time there using really cheesy lines and rhymes. He addresses us as "my friend" and uses the phrase in every oher sentence.
- Tourist groups rule Alhambra. They are all over the place and they are enbearable. I was lucky not to have any groups during the time of my visit because people who went in amongst a group simply wanted to kill themselves.
- Granada is not as hot as Cordoba. It was even ok in the shade so I would have really enjoyed my walks there if my first real trouble in ths month long trip hadnt occured:
Lucky Cagdas:
- I was thinking to myself the other day, no really upsetting thing happened to me in this month. Of course I missed trains, stayed in the stations and etc but they were fun experiences and part of the deal when you have interrail pass. But what happened in Granada really made me angry cause it kinda ruined one of the best places I have visited.
- The fucking ATM in the bus station took my bank card on a lovely Sunday morning. Since they were not working on Sundays, I could not find anyone to talk to on the other side of the emergency line.
- I had some cash so made it through Sunday with no trouble.
- The nex morning the guys in the hostel called the bank for me only to learn that he cards eaten by the atm s are collected and broken into pieces as a measure of security and my card was also shattered. Well this news really fucked up my world since that little tiny green Nordea card is the only wy that I can access my bank account -which nowadays is running low
- I went to the bank straight away and tried to find an English speaking person. I did, but the meeting did not end very promising either. She said the card is probably gone. And Nordea does not send cards abroad, so I thought I wouldnt have any money until I got back to Goteborg somehow.
- Without any cash, travelling is not fun; believe me. At least the guys I met over there were lending some money to me with the hope I can find a solution.
- I was about to apply for Mehmet Abi grant which is only given to extraordinarily successful and bright backpackers once in every 10 years.
- But I again got lucky. The lady I talekd in the bank managed to contact the guysd who are responsible for breaking the cards on time. So when I went there the next day she just gave it to me. Out of happiness, I caught a train right away to Sevilla.
Last stop?
Well, Sevilla might be my last stop before my real last stop Lisbon. Or I can go to Cadiz or Faro in Portugal just before Lisbon. I dont know yet. Sure feels sad to come this close to the end. But dont worry, I still have Sevilla and maybe one more place to talk about, and Lisbon also. So watch out for the final post of my blog in the upcoming days.
Cagdas
Wednesday, July 30, 2008
Tuesday, July 29, 2008
Cordoba, Granada and the first real trouble (pt 1)
Hi!
I arrived in Sevilla and I have stories to tell you about Cordoba and Granada (where I finally went back to my old unlucky self). But first, some points I forgot about Barcelona:
- My friend has a crazy friend who can be described in Turkish as yavsak an English an milanese guy hitting on every girl. But this guy was somehow a funny and lovely yavsak. I witnessed the weirdest pick up strategy ever thanks to him. I mentioned the club we went in Barca. It was next to a huge swimming pool and people were swimming (among other things) in it during the party. This guy approach almost all girls passing by and asked them "I heard there is a pool here, where is it?". The surpsied girls mostly answered the questions and he tried to use this as a conversation starter. Unlucky for him, everyone around was laughing their asses off so he could not start anything.
- That guy cannot speak a word of english and he s moving to USA.
- The meat is so fucking cheap there. We bought meat for 3 people and it cost 10 euros.
Cordoba:
- My fisrt stop in andalucia was Cordoba. I arrivd ther around noon and surprised to see no one was in the streets and all shops were closed. It took 30 seconds to understnad the reaon of course; it was 40 degrees. Siesta is a must here
- Once a Moorish powerhouse, the city is quite small now. The old city area was amazing though. Very old and cool looking houses, narrow streets where you can get lost easily.
- The highlight was without doubt the Mezquita (mescit for turks). It was one the biggest mosque in Europe. The main point of interest for me is to observe it from a turkish view. As you know, the Ottomans converted all the cool christian buildings into mosques or islamic style after taking Istanbul. In Cordoba, things worked the other way around. The christians conquered the Moorish part of Spain and converted the mosques into cathedrals. This caused a really intriguing architecture and a unique mood within the building. Really loved it.
- I saw 5 people in the sreets during the 2 hours of walking I di. 1 was a homeless guy.
- The hostel was quite cool with a view of Mezquita in the background. But it took until 23 for us to sit up there cause the temperature did not go below 35 before then.
- It took a little more than 1 day for me to see all the things there and I went on with my Andalucia trip with Granda.
There is a huge queue full of angry Americans waiting for the computers so I ll get back and continue with Granada and my troubles there another time.
Hugs from Sevilla!
I arrived in Sevilla and I have stories to tell you about Cordoba and Granada (where I finally went back to my old unlucky self). But first, some points I forgot about Barcelona:
- My friend has a crazy friend who can be described in Turkish as yavsak an English an milanese guy hitting on every girl. But this guy was somehow a funny and lovely yavsak. I witnessed the weirdest pick up strategy ever thanks to him. I mentioned the club we went in Barca. It was next to a huge swimming pool and people were swimming (among other things) in it during the party. This guy approach almost all girls passing by and asked them "I heard there is a pool here, where is it?". The surpsied girls mostly answered the questions and he tried to use this as a conversation starter. Unlucky for him, everyone around was laughing their asses off so he could not start anything.
- That guy cannot speak a word of english and he s moving to USA.
- The meat is so fucking cheap there. We bought meat for 3 people and it cost 10 euros.
Cordoba:
- My fisrt stop in andalucia was Cordoba. I arrivd ther around noon and surprised to see no one was in the streets and all shops were closed. It took 30 seconds to understnad the reaon of course; it was 40 degrees. Siesta is a must here
- Once a Moorish powerhouse, the city is quite small now. The old city area was amazing though. Very old and cool looking houses, narrow streets where you can get lost easily.
- The highlight was without doubt the Mezquita (mescit for turks). It was one the biggest mosque in Europe. The main point of interest for me is to observe it from a turkish view. As you know, the Ottomans converted all the cool christian buildings into mosques or islamic style after taking Istanbul. In Cordoba, things worked the other way around. The christians conquered the Moorish part of Spain and converted the mosques into cathedrals. This caused a really intriguing architecture and a unique mood within the building. Really loved it.
- I saw 5 people in the sreets during the 2 hours of walking I di. 1 was a homeless guy.
- The hostel was quite cool with a view of Mezquita in the background. But it took until 23 for us to sit up there cause the temperature did not go below 35 before then.
- It took a little more than 1 day for me to see all the things there and I went on with my Andalucia trip with Granda.
There is a huge queue full of angry Americans waiting for the computers so I ll get back and continue with Granada and my troubles there another time.
Hugs from Sevilla!
Sunday, July 27, 2008
Barcelona
Hi again,
I realized it s been a while since my last entry, and I have to tell you about Barcelona. I am in Cordoba now soaking the lovely heat. It s 43 degrees outside and I cant get out of the building.
Barcelona:
That was one of the longest stops I had during my trip; 3.5 days. And it was worth every second. I really enjoyed my time there. LEt me tell you:
- It s a quite big city and of course the capital of Catalunya.
- You can see signs and graffitis and stuff everywhere saying "Catalunya is not Spain".
- My friend Ali who s been living there told me they speak Catalan in the daily life but it was impossible foir me to tell the diference between Espanish and Catalan. They both sound the same way; the speaker has a flu and cannot say h, s and a couple of more letters.
- In the first night I stayed in a hostel in the biggest street of the town close to all metro stations so it was cool. The second and third nights I was in my friend s place.
- Ali gave me a warm traditional Catalan welcome. We drank the famous Catalan drink Raki and ate some Catalan food: mangalda bonfile, cacik, biber, tomtez.
- Gaudi was also a crazy dude I supose. All around the town there are buildings of him -all really different and spectacular- and it really gives the city a cool atmosphere.
- La Sagrada Familia of course, is his masterpiece and the place to go when you re in Barcelona. I was really amazed with the level of detail in every piece and aspect of the building. They be been working on it for mopre than 150 years and it s still half wasy done. They hope to complete it by 2020 but noone beleives it s gonna happen. You have to go see for yourself this incomplete church. Amazxing. The audio guide given there was the best I have used so far and the tourists there are the worst. It s impossible to keep walking when 50987 people ahaed of you take photos on each and every step.
- My other grand visit was to Camp Nou! I took a tour of the staduim and the club museum. I ve been to all floors of the stands, locker rooms, press rooms and the muesum full of european cups. It was really cool. And it is a big ass stadium i should add. Weird thing is in Camp Nou there weer more tourists than in Sagrada Familia! I considered getting out because of the stupid crowd! I cant imagine how much money the club is making from these touristic visits, it s really a major attraction in a city full of hundreds of places to visit.
- There are Pakistanis selling cheap beer in the streets 24/7. The beers are somehow cold, we dont exactly know where they keep their stash but they always have cold beer in their hands.
- They obviously do not just sell beer. While we were standing in a corner in the "prostitution street" whichi is 10 meters away from one of the busiest and major streets of the town, a guys came to us trying to sell beeer although we already had one each. He didnt accept no as an answer and kept pushing and gradually increased the level: He moved on to weed, then offered pills, then 2 minutes later he came back with the idea of selling us cocaine, Before he moved up to LSD we left the place.
- It s really weird that the streets are full of dealers and everyone knows about this.
- Drinking in the streets is prohibited, but noone really gives a shit
- Ali is a pretentious entel architect so he gave me insight and fancy information about the buildings around, which was really cool actually.
- He also took me to the places where tourists dont go. so I had the chance to get some local snacks and food. And also he took me to the backstreets like the one I described just abov. Might be a little dnagerous for non turks to go there at night.
- By night, I mean after 2 am. The night life doesnt start there until 2-3 o clock and this is really interesting. The bars and clubs are almost empty before that time and people drink at home or in the streets before going to a place. We also did the same, and after a shit load of alcohol Ali tried to take me to a pure non touristic club in the middle oif nowhere. We got lost and spent 1 hour wandering around but finally found the place.
- I witnessed the craziness of the infamous Barca night life. It s really a mess, in a good way of course. The partying went until 5 6 in the morning and we left the place around 6.
- That was the time when I remembered that I have a train at 8 o clock! As you know I am totally prone to and ok with missing my trains. But I paid 20 euros for that train (details to come) and it was my only shot to go to Andalucia in the following 2 days. So I got scared (gotum atti) and since I am an extraordinary lucky man, we couldnoit find the metro station nor any cabs. AFter half an hour we managed to find a cab and went home. I packed up in 5 mins and ran for the metro to the station and (surprise!) caught my train.
- The train was really cool. I have to tell you about it. I travelled in the Spanish fast train AVE in business class. eeheh. The tivket actually cots 188 euros and I paid only 20 as a suplement. This trip alone means I almost gained my interrail pass money :) By the way, they gave me a breakfast, some snacks and lunch and 2 small bottles of wine on the train for being in the business class. My outfit was kind of out of fashion thre though: People were dressed up and wearoing siuts of at least nice clothes and I had my bakpakir shorts and messy short on :)
- I arrived in Cordoba as my first stop in Andalucia.
I am here for more than 1 day now and I ll leave for Granada soon. I ll write about Cordoba the next time. But very shortly:
- Now I know why there is thing called siesta. It s impossible to do anything here durng the day cause it s so hot.
- Nonone is in the streets during the day.
- My hostel has a terrace where you can see the Mezquita sitting on the couch.
- Very beautiful yet different city.
- I entered the last week of my trip and it feels really sad.
All to come in the next post. Take care!
I realized it s been a while since my last entry, and I have to tell you about Barcelona. I am in Cordoba now soaking the lovely heat. It s 43 degrees outside and I cant get out of the building.
Barcelona:
That was one of the longest stops I had during my trip; 3.5 days. And it was worth every second. I really enjoyed my time there. LEt me tell you:
- It s a quite big city and of course the capital of Catalunya.
- You can see signs and graffitis and stuff everywhere saying "Catalunya is not Spain".
- My friend Ali who s been living there told me they speak Catalan in the daily life but it was impossible foir me to tell the diference between Espanish and Catalan. They both sound the same way; the speaker has a flu and cannot say h, s and a couple of more letters.
- In the first night I stayed in a hostel in the biggest street of the town close to all metro stations so it was cool. The second and third nights I was in my friend s place.
- Ali gave me a warm traditional Catalan welcome. We drank the famous Catalan drink Raki and ate some Catalan food: mangalda bonfile, cacik, biber, tomtez.
- Gaudi was also a crazy dude I supose. All around the town there are buildings of him -all really different and spectacular- and it really gives the city a cool atmosphere.
- La Sagrada Familia of course, is his masterpiece and the place to go when you re in Barcelona. I was really amazed with the level of detail in every piece and aspect of the building. They be been working on it for mopre than 150 years and it s still half wasy done. They hope to complete it by 2020 but noone beleives it s gonna happen. You have to go see for yourself this incomplete church. Amazxing. The audio guide given there was the best I have used so far and the tourists there are the worst. It s impossible to keep walking when 50987 people ahaed of you take photos on each and every step.
- My other grand visit was to Camp Nou! I took a tour of the staduim and the club museum. I ve been to all floors of the stands, locker rooms, press rooms and the muesum full of european cups. It was really cool. And it is a big ass stadium i should add. Weird thing is in Camp Nou there weer more tourists than in Sagrada Familia! I considered getting out because of the stupid crowd! I cant imagine how much money the club is making from these touristic visits, it s really a major attraction in a city full of hundreds of places to visit.
- There are Pakistanis selling cheap beer in the streets 24/7. The beers are somehow cold, we dont exactly know where they keep their stash but they always have cold beer in their hands.
- They obviously do not just sell beer. While we were standing in a corner in the "prostitution street" whichi is 10 meters away from one of the busiest and major streets of the town, a guys came to us trying to sell beeer although we already had one each. He didnt accept no as an answer and kept pushing and gradually increased the level: He moved on to weed, then offered pills, then 2 minutes later he came back with the idea of selling us cocaine, Before he moved up to LSD we left the place.
- It s really weird that the streets are full of dealers and everyone knows about this.
- Drinking in the streets is prohibited, but noone really gives a shit
- Ali is a pretentious entel architect so he gave me insight and fancy information about the buildings around, which was really cool actually.
- He also took me to the places where tourists dont go. so I had the chance to get some local snacks and food. And also he took me to the backstreets like the one I described just abov. Might be a little dnagerous for non turks to go there at night.
- By night, I mean after 2 am. The night life doesnt start there until 2-3 o clock and this is really interesting. The bars and clubs are almost empty before that time and people drink at home or in the streets before going to a place. We also did the same, and after a shit load of alcohol Ali tried to take me to a pure non touristic club in the middle oif nowhere. We got lost and spent 1 hour wandering around but finally found the place.
- I witnessed the craziness of the infamous Barca night life. It s really a mess, in a good way of course. The partying went until 5 6 in the morning and we left the place around 6.
- That was the time when I remembered that I have a train at 8 o clock! As you know I am totally prone to and ok with missing my trains. But I paid 20 euros for that train (details to come) and it was my only shot to go to Andalucia in the following 2 days. So I got scared (gotum atti) and since I am an extraordinary lucky man, we couldnoit find the metro station nor any cabs. AFter half an hour we managed to find a cab and went home. I packed up in 5 mins and ran for the metro to the station and (surprise!) caught my train.
- The train was really cool. I have to tell you about it. I travelled in the Spanish fast train AVE in business class. eeheh. The tivket actually cots 188 euros and I paid only 20 as a suplement. This trip alone means I almost gained my interrail pass money :) By the way, they gave me a breakfast, some snacks and lunch and 2 small bottles of wine on the train for being in the business class. My outfit was kind of out of fashion thre though: People were dressed up and wearoing siuts of at least nice clothes and I had my bakpakir shorts and messy short on :)
- I arrived in Cordoba as my first stop in Andalucia.
I am here for more than 1 day now and I ll leave for Granada soon. I ll write about Cordoba the next time. But very shortly:
- Now I know why there is thing called siesta. It s impossible to do anything here durng the day cause it s so hot.
- Nonone is in the streets during the day.
- My hostel has a terrace where you can see the Mezquita sitting on the couch.
- Very beautiful yet different city.
- I entered the last week of my trip and it feels really sad.
All to come in the next post. Take care!
Wednesday, July 23, 2008
Bordeaux, trains, train stations and finally Barcelona
Ola,
Finally I managed to get my ass in Barcelona. Took some time but i thin it s gonna worth it. As I wrote in the last post, I was about to decide where to go in France before leaving for Spain. I chose Bordeaux. After missing my train as usual, I arrived in Bordeaux but a "a little late"
Bordeaux:
- I was expecting to meet my friend from college who s been there for a couple of weeks. But he did not bother to tell me that he s not staying in the city but a village 1 hour away from it by train. And he forgot to mention that the trains to the village stop at 6 pm. Considering that I arrived at 10pm and learned all these after my arrival, my Bordeaux trip started really bad.
- After learning that there is absolutely no way for me to get out of Bordeaux and deciding it s impossible to find a place to stay, I went for the 5 star accomodation for the second time in my trip: train station floor
- I slept on top of my mat for about 5 hours before the guys woke us up to clear the waiting room. My back is still sore from that night.
- After leaving my backpack to the left luggage office (pay attention here to the times) which is open between 0700 and 2230, I left for the city.
- No need to say that I did not call my friend this time I guess. I shall be alone during day trips , remember?
- The city is really great. I m very surprised to see such a beautiful city. The buildings are really old and the gothic mood is all around the town -a mood which is enhanced by the 4 huge gothic cathedrals in the city.
- The city has a river flowing by (bok rengi) and the coast is a very social area. Among all the cool parks and builduings and cathadrals my favorite place in the town was the "Water Mirror". Right in front of two huge old buildings next to the coast they built a 100x25 meter long "thing". It fills up with 2 cm high of water then after 5 minutes or so, it drowns and this time water vapor is sprkinled thorough the holes in the bottom. Towards the night you can see the perfect reflection of those 2 bulding on the water mirror. Other than that it s place where tourists and kids walk on bare foot. Really cool.
- The wine there rocks! I drank 2 bottles of some time gold medal awarded wines; one for 4 € and the other for 7€. A regular bottle of wine does not cost more than 2 euros. Great place for wine lovers :) Memet abi bi gidip kafa cekelim orda nasipse; cok pis kayyo sarap.
- After a huge city tour and a cool drinking session with 3 turkish girls i ran into, I got back to the station for my night train to first Montpellier then to Barcelona leaving 0008. I got back at the station 2350, totally forgetting about the closing time of the luggage office. I was just about to start to cry but I went and asked the French railways night guys and they simply said no problem and gave my backpack to me. This brings me to the next point:
French People
- I wasnt expecting to be saying this but I m incredibly pleased and surprised by the good attitude and countles amoount of help I got from the French. Every single one of them was kind and tried to help even if they did not speak a word of English.
- Especially the railways guys. Yes they are very slow, but they were very helpful. And French trains are so good.
Trains:
- I spent around 20 hours of my past 48 hours in trains and 6 in the stations. So trains are good frineds nowadyas.
- And dont you dare to make fun of me for spkeaking to much about trains. Keep in mind that I bascially live in trains.
- I d like to dedicate one of my favorite songs by Porcupine Tree to my huge, heavy, fast in France slow in Spain, shitty, shaky, noisy, loud and uncomfortable friends- Trains that is:
Train set and match spied under the blind
Shiny and contoured the railway winds
And I've heard the sound from my cousin's bed
The hiss of the train at the railway head
Always the summers are slipping away
A 60 ton angel falls to the earth
A pile of old metal, a radiant blur
Scars in the country, the summer and her
(http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GXkEPk9ibX8)
After officially becoming the first human being to be friends with trains and dedicate a song to them, I d like to move on with my other experiences during my short time in France. (4-5 days almost, not that short actually)
My French
- This is funny. My French sucks and sometimes it does not suck at all.
- Sometimes I can say a ratherly complicated sentence then I cant remember the simplest thing. how to say where I come from; for example.
- My French is a unique lingual thingy. It is a weird hybrid of English, French and Swedish. Yes, sometimes when I was trying to remember the words, I used the Swedish word instead.
- I decided to work on first my Swedish and my French but then I thought I m too lazy to go to a course or something. So we ll see what happens in the future.
Barcelona Day 1:
- Today after arriving at my hostel, I went out right away to do some walking and sightseeing.
- I just tooka quick tour without going in to the museums and Gaudi s weird houses but I went to just look at Sagrada Familia. This is an awesome and weird as hell building. Tomorrow I m digging into it among other buildings by Gaudi.
- I m also giong to pilgramage to Camp Nou and FC Barcelona museum.
- I ll stay with my best friend from high school whom I havent seen in years for 2 nights.
- I m going to spent 3 days in total here then I m going to Cordoba to start my Andalucian trip which will last 7 days.
- Anna -or anyone with expeirnce in Andalucia- you said Malaga is boring and not worth a full day right?
I ll write my Barcelona experiences in total in my next post. Till that time; take care. Thanks again for the comments, sorry for not addressing them one by one, but keep them coming :)
Finally I managed to get my ass in Barcelona. Took some time but i thin it s gonna worth it. As I wrote in the last post, I was about to decide where to go in France before leaving for Spain. I chose Bordeaux. After missing my train as usual, I arrived in Bordeaux but a "a little late"
Bordeaux:
- I was expecting to meet my friend from college who s been there for a couple of weeks. But he did not bother to tell me that he s not staying in the city but a village 1 hour away from it by train. And he forgot to mention that the trains to the village stop at 6 pm. Considering that I arrived at 10pm and learned all these after my arrival, my Bordeaux trip started really bad.
- After learning that there is absolutely no way for me to get out of Bordeaux and deciding it s impossible to find a place to stay, I went for the 5 star accomodation for the second time in my trip: train station floor
- I slept on top of my mat for about 5 hours before the guys woke us up to clear the waiting room. My back is still sore from that night.
- After leaving my backpack to the left luggage office (pay attention here to the times) which is open between 0700 and 2230, I left for the city.
- No need to say that I did not call my friend this time I guess. I shall be alone during day trips , remember?
- The city is really great. I m very surprised to see such a beautiful city. The buildings are really old and the gothic mood is all around the town -a mood which is enhanced by the 4 huge gothic cathedrals in the city.
- The city has a river flowing by (bok rengi) and the coast is a very social area. Among all the cool parks and builduings and cathadrals my favorite place in the town was the "Water Mirror". Right in front of two huge old buildings next to the coast they built a 100x25 meter long "thing". It fills up with 2 cm high of water then after 5 minutes or so, it drowns and this time water vapor is sprkinled thorough the holes in the bottom. Towards the night you can see the perfect reflection of those 2 bulding on the water mirror. Other than that it s place where tourists and kids walk on bare foot. Really cool.
- The wine there rocks! I drank 2 bottles of some time gold medal awarded wines; one for 4 € and the other for 7€. A regular bottle of wine does not cost more than 2 euros. Great place for wine lovers :) Memet abi bi gidip kafa cekelim orda nasipse; cok pis kayyo sarap.
- After a huge city tour and a cool drinking session with 3 turkish girls i ran into, I got back to the station for my night train to first Montpellier then to Barcelona leaving 0008. I got back at the station 2350, totally forgetting about the closing time of the luggage office. I was just about to start to cry but I went and asked the French railways night guys and they simply said no problem and gave my backpack to me. This brings me to the next point:
French People
- I wasnt expecting to be saying this but I m incredibly pleased and surprised by the good attitude and countles amoount of help I got from the French. Every single one of them was kind and tried to help even if they did not speak a word of English.
- Especially the railways guys. Yes they are very slow, but they were very helpful. And French trains are so good.
Trains:
- I spent around 20 hours of my past 48 hours in trains and 6 in the stations. So trains are good frineds nowadyas.
- And dont you dare to make fun of me for spkeaking to much about trains. Keep in mind that I bascially live in trains.
- I d like to dedicate one of my favorite songs by Porcupine Tree to my huge, heavy, fast in France slow in Spain, shitty, shaky, noisy, loud and uncomfortable friends- Trains that is:
Train set and match spied under the blind
Shiny and contoured the railway winds
And I've heard the sound from my cousin's bed
The hiss of the train at the railway head
Always the summers are slipping away
A 60 ton angel falls to the earth
A pile of old metal, a radiant blur
Scars in the country, the summer and her
(http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GXkEPk9ibX8)
After officially becoming the first human being to be friends with trains and dedicate a song to them, I d like to move on with my other experiences during my short time in France. (4-5 days almost, not that short actually)
My French
- This is funny. My French sucks and sometimes it does not suck at all.
- Sometimes I can say a ratherly complicated sentence then I cant remember the simplest thing. how to say where I come from; for example.
- My French is a unique lingual thingy. It is a weird hybrid of English, French and Swedish. Yes, sometimes when I was trying to remember the words, I used the Swedish word instead.
- I decided to work on first my Swedish and my French but then I thought I m too lazy to go to a course or something. So we ll see what happens in the future.
Barcelona Day 1:
- Today after arriving at my hostel, I went out right away to do some walking and sightseeing.
- I just tooka quick tour without going in to the museums and Gaudi s weird houses but I went to just look at Sagrada Familia. This is an awesome and weird as hell building. Tomorrow I m digging into it among other buildings by Gaudi.
- I m also giong to pilgramage to Camp Nou and FC Barcelona museum.
- I ll stay with my best friend from high school whom I havent seen in years for 2 nights.
- I m going to spent 3 days in total here then I m going to Cordoba to start my Andalucian trip which will last 7 days.
- Anna -or anyone with expeirnce in Andalucia- you said Malaga is boring and not worth a full day right?
I ll write my Barcelona experiences in total in my next post. Till that time; take care. Thanks again for the comments, sorry for not addressing them one by one, but keep them coming :)
Sunday, July 20, 2008
The French Riviera
Hi again!
I am now in Nice in Cote d'Azur in France and managed to spare some time for my blog. Here we go. Oh, before we go, a little note for those who read the previous entry: I told there that I was in a hurry and did not want to miss my third train in the same day. I missed it! With 5 minutes because I remembered the time of the train wrong. So if you think missing 3 trains in the same day is a record listen to this: I missed another one since the train I took from Genova to France border was 10 minutes late. So 4 missed trains in a row is my personal records and I m gonna call Guiness (not the beer company) to ask about it.\
As I mentioned earlier, these 3 days were just for relaxing and recharging for my upcoming Spain tour. So I did not do a lot of going around, but I still have good stuff to tell you
Nice
- Nice is a beatiful city located on the mediterranian coast of France as we francophones call Cote d'Azur. Very lovely and vivid city. It s really hot here. I cant believe Daniel did not die from heat in his 1 year employement here.
- I saw 5 or 6 French people. The rest are either imigrants or tourists
- Very expensive city
- The hostel I m staying is named after the famous writer St Exupery who wrote the novel Le Petit Prince. Very big abut still cozy hostel and I met a lot of great people again. Mehmet abi sana bu konularla ilgili raporu bilahare ozelden verecegim. Duygu insani dedigim icin de ayrica ozur dilerim, sen bir orman hayvanisin ve sana seviyorum.
- I absolutely did nothing in 3 days. I just went to a 1 or 2 different beaches everyday, lay down and swim in the med. I just went to a nearby village, to Monaco and that s it. I only took a short tour of the lovely old city center.
- A very important aspect of my trip that I forgot to tell you about is my farmer's tan. "Amele yanigi" in turkish. My skin has an embedded white tshirt, a white short and a pair of socks which represent the areas that were covered during my hours of walking. My arms and legs are black. So what I tried to do here was to get rid of my ugly farmer's tan and I guess I succeeded.
- Everyone is talking about how beautiful the sea and beaches over here and they even call them the best in the world. I got to see a substantial part of the coast and drove through a number of beaches and swam in a couple but I must say that it is overrated. Of course it s great to have clean beaches very close to the cities but if you go to Datca or Marmaris and drive for 15 minutes in any direction, you are gonna find much more beautiful places.
- There is a jazz festival going on here and there are concerts in the streets again. So i just sit down in the shade and listen to the bands for a couple of hours everyday. But the big thing is Return to Forever (arguably the best fusion band ever) is playing here 3 days from now on. Unfortunately the tickets are very expernsive and i m not gonna be in Nice at the time. So i m mossong the chance to see Chick Corea and Al DiMeola live. Shit...
- Another thing about the Americans. They call Nice like the english workd nice and read it like "niiiice". They also read Cannes as in english. Every single one of them.
- I think there are more Australians here then French people. At least half of the people I meet andf hang around with are Aussies. I really like their attitude by the way.
- In our hostel there is a 70 year old guy! Must be the oldest backpacker living, Backpacker Forever as we called a guy in Copenhagen with Ender. He hangs in the bar for a while and then disappears :)
- I am finally sleeping in a normal bed noew but the room itself is again crappy. The room is actually a depot right under the bar and it s so loud at nihts until they close the bar down. It doesnt matter for me cause I always stay up late but the smell and decoration of the room is really weird.
Monaco
- I did my only trip to Monaco in my first day here.
- This is a ridicilous place. I saw more than 20 ferraris in half an hour. Everyone is somehow trying to show off.
- People actually queue in front of the famous Monte Carlo casino to get in there for free and watch people gambling.\
- People sit down in front of famous hotels with the hope of seeing a celebrity
- My opinion is: they are really stupid.
Other shit:
- I heard Levent is leaving Sweden and going back to Turkey -actually he already did. Here we lose another member of the turk group in Gothenburg.
- Kudos to Memet Abi for the job.
- Memet abi subat taili opsiyonlari neler bana da soyle ufaktan ayar yapalim
- Ender sen napiyon gozum var mi bi seyler?
- Michele, I loved Italy so much. I m gonna wrote a post only about my thoughts on the country but I must tell: it is so beautiful that I m definetely going vback there again.
- Tomorrow I m on the road again to Barcelona. I plan to make a stop somewhere in France but I dont know where yet. I ll decide tomorrow morning in the train station.
Take care all, I ll be back soon.
I am now in Nice in Cote d'Azur in France and managed to spare some time for my blog. Here we go. Oh, before we go, a little note for those who read the previous entry: I told there that I was in a hurry and did not want to miss my third train in the same day. I missed it! With 5 minutes because I remembered the time of the train wrong. So if you think missing 3 trains in the same day is a record listen to this: I missed another one since the train I took from Genova to France border was 10 minutes late. So 4 missed trains in a row is my personal records and I m gonna call Guiness (not the beer company) to ask about it.\
As I mentioned earlier, these 3 days were just for relaxing and recharging for my upcoming Spain tour. So I did not do a lot of going around, but I still have good stuff to tell you
Nice
- Nice is a beatiful city located on the mediterranian coast of France as we francophones call Cote d'Azur. Very lovely and vivid city. It s really hot here. I cant believe Daniel did not die from heat in his 1 year employement here.
- I saw 5 or 6 French people. The rest are either imigrants or tourists
- Very expensive city
- The hostel I m staying is named after the famous writer St Exupery who wrote the novel Le Petit Prince. Very big abut still cozy hostel and I met a lot of great people again. Mehmet abi sana bu konularla ilgili raporu bilahare ozelden verecegim. Duygu insani dedigim icin de ayrica ozur dilerim, sen bir orman hayvanisin ve sana seviyorum.
- I absolutely did nothing in 3 days. I just went to a 1 or 2 different beaches everyday, lay down and swim in the med. I just went to a nearby village, to Monaco and that s it. I only took a short tour of the lovely old city center.
- A very important aspect of my trip that I forgot to tell you about is my farmer's tan. "Amele yanigi" in turkish. My skin has an embedded white tshirt, a white short and a pair of socks which represent the areas that were covered during my hours of walking. My arms and legs are black. So what I tried to do here was to get rid of my ugly farmer's tan and I guess I succeeded.
- Everyone is talking about how beautiful the sea and beaches over here and they even call them the best in the world. I got to see a substantial part of the coast and drove through a number of beaches and swam in a couple but I must say that it is overrated. Of course it s great to have clean beaches very close to the cities but if you go to Datca or Marmaris and drive for 15 minutes in any direction, you are gonna find much more beautiful places.
- There is a jazz festival going on here and there are concerts in the streets again. So i just sit down in the shade and listen to the bands for a couple of hours everyday. But the big thing is Return to Forever (arguably the best fusion band ever) is playing here 3 days from now on. Unfortunately the tickets are very expernsive and i m not gonna be in Nice at the time. So i m mossong the chance to see Chick Corea and Al DiMeola live. Shit...
- Another thing about the Americans. They call Nice like the english workd nice and read it like "niiiice". They also read Cannes as in english. Every single one of them.
- I think there are more Australians here then French people. At least half of the people I meet andf hang around with are Aussies. I really like their attitude by the way.
- In our hostel there is a 70 year old guy! Must be the oldest backpacker living, Backpacker Forever as we called a guy in Copenhagen with Ender. He hangs in the bar for a while and then disappears :)
- I am finally sleeping in a normal bed noew but the room itself is again crappy. The room is actually a depot right under the bar and it s so loud at nihts until they close the bar down. It doesnt matter for me cause I always stay up late but the smell and decoration of the room is really weird.
Monaco
- I did my only trip to Monaco in my first day here.
- This is a ridicilous place. I saw more than 20 ferraris in half an hour. Everyone is somehow trying to show off.
- People actually queue in front of the famous Monte Carlo casino to get in there for free and watch people gambling.\
- People sit down in front of famous hotels with the hope of seeing a celebrity
- My opinion is: they are really stupid.
Other shit:
- I heard Levent is leaving Sweden and going back to Turkey -actually he already did. Here we lose another member of the turk group in Gothenburg.
- Kudos to Memet Abi for the job.
- Memet abi subat taili opsiyonlari neler bana da soyle ufaktan ayar yapalim
- Ender sen napiyon gozum var mi bi seyler?
- Michele, I loved Italy so much. I m gonna wrote a post only about my thoughts on the country but I must tell: it is so beautiful that I m definetely going vback there again.
- Tomorrow I m on the road again to Barcelona. I plan to make a stop somewhere in France but I dont know where yet. I ll decide tomorrow morning in the train station.
Take care all, I ll be back soon.
Friday, July 18, 2008
Florence, Siena, Pisa, Cinque Terre and stuck in Genova
Hi again!
Wow, I do have some readers it seems. Puts pressure on me :) Anyways thanks for all the comments. I usually have very little time so I cnat answer to each individual comment; sorry for that. I ll try to touch upon the points brought up in the comments somehwhere appropraite in the text. And excuse me for the spelling mistakes, no time for a spell check.
I visited a lot of places since the last entry and I'm past my half point mark a couple of days ago. I m a little behind my overall plan but I dont give a shit. This post will be sohrt cause I dont have that much time. Weird thing is, I missed my train from Genova to Nice so I m stuck here for some time but not long enough to go out and visit some places. Instead I ll be sitting in an internet cafe and writing my super-duper-cool blog.
Firenze:
- As I said I stayed in a shared tent when I was in Firenze. And my sleeping bag really saved my ass
- My "tentmate" was a mexican guy who did not look like a member of Apachi, he was more of a Luis type mexican. He did not steal anything from me.
- Firenze is just beautiful. I really liked the place and the people (italians i mean) were somehat different (in a good way) than the other places i visited
- Michelangelo was not human. If he was, must have been really sick. Besides all the statues all over the city; the famous David is really amazing.
- Speaking aobut statues, I am tired of seeing statues and paintings.
- The Duomo (cathedral) of Firenze is extremely fancy outside and has an extremely simple interior. I guess the pope did not want it to match the greatness of Vatican. It took 30 mins for me to climb to the top of it (i had to kill approximately 50 people to get there) and the view was really cool. I thought about trying to spit to the head of people below but than decided it wasnt a good idea.
- I am very surprised to see that there are no statues of Fatih Terim in the city although he is the smartest, coolest and most succesful human being ever lived there.
Siena
- I went to the nearby Siena for a day trip.
- I just loved it. They saved all the buildings and all the city looks like 500 years old. One of my favorite stops so far.
- The only emplyer in the city seems to be Montepaschi di Siena bank which also sponsors a cool basketball team. Ergin Ataman calistirdiydi ordan aklima geldi.
Pisa
- Another day, I went for a day trip to Pisa.
- I did nopt really like the city itself but the square where the duomo and the tower is located ios just amazing. But again I did not like it. It is totally disconnected from the city and feels like Venice: Very beautiful but as much touristic.
- Oh boy! The leaning tower is leaning. So much.. The idiot engineers. ehehe. When I first saw it I had to laugh because the tower is leaned too much. It s worse then Veli Gocer's buildings in Turkey.
- Dont worry, I did not do the clichè snapshot of pushing the tower. Instead I took pictures of tens of people doing the same thing.
Cinque Terre
- My next stop was Cinque Terre, an area consisting of 5 small villages on the sea side.
- The italians are saving the area so good. It s a natural park and unesco site so very well preserved. It is getting a bit touristic but still has the feeling that you are visiting somewhere really unique.
- Here comes the best part: I rented a couch! As usual I just went there without any bookings and found out that absolutely no bed left in the site. (of course there were some but I d like to kindly remind you that I can spend a little more than a Faktum guy on accomodation.) So after searching for somewhere to stay for 30 mins under 35 degrees and a 20 kg (it grew Ender, it is heavier now, i dont know how it happened) I wnet to a hostel I talked previously and offered them to stay in their garden. It turned out that they did not have a garden :) So after a lovely conversation and heated bargaining in Italian I got the couch in the 12 bed dorm for 10 euros! (A bed costs 30) ehehe.
- I had so much fun in my only night there. I met a group of party animals and drank for hours. Even jumped into the mediterannian in the middle of the night from the cliffs nearby and other cool stuff too.
- The nature there is simply amazing and the hand made food and fresh fruits groiwing in the region are really goood.
Genova
- Then I moved to Genova which is my last stop in Italy. I was planning to come here early in the morning and stay for some hours and catch a train to Nice for the second leg of my journey
- But since I really had a hangover, first I messed my tran Fromn cinque Terre to Genova. Then because I messed it, I missed the train to Nice. And since I missed it and since I did not reserve a seat in the good train now I have to sit in the cafe for the next crappy train which will take me to Nice.
- On my bus ride, I saw Genova is really lovely but I m gonna skip here and leave it for another time. The turks would remember Genova as "Galata", they onced held ground even as far as in Istanbul.
Other shit;:
Here come some weird experiences in no particular order of level of irritation:
- I decided to skip Bologna too. I want to spend a little more time in Spain, especially in Andalucia.
- money is gonna be a problem :)
- I m sick of seeing churches. But this time I did not see Jesus that much. The weird thing in Italy, espeically in Vatican, is that they pratically worship the popes and saints. They mummify them, save their bodies in churches, draw shit about so called holy people and popes everywhere, build statues of them and etc. Jesus is present only in the awesome dome of Vatican, nowhere else in the St Peter s but you can see almost all popes somewhere.
- I hate kids. I hate travelling kids more. They always scream, they are little so I can smash them with a single hit of my backpack and they are so many.
- I also hate tourist groups. There are so many groups and they enter everywhere together and the guide starts speaking with the irritating tourist guide voice and there is no space of silence left for me in the place.
- But I really like freeriding the tourist groups. When the place is crowded the guide has to speak up and if I m around I can listen to the stuff for free :)
- I feel that I have to expalin how I m visiting the cities a little bit better. When I say "I saw everything" I dont mean just walking like crazy and going to everywhere on the guide and taking photos like Japanese. I usually try to spend as much time as possible anywhere I go and try to get a feeling of the place. I read almost anything I can find about the places before I go. I usually sit down doing nothing in places I like. For exampole I could have finished the ancient Rome site in 5 hours but it took 8 hours just because I sat down and try to imagine the place as it is used to be.
- To gain more time for this kind of sightseeing, I walk really fast and in a high tempo. My left leg is practically dead now. My knee injury (jumper's knee) got worse and my ankle and hip are hurting cause they have been compensating for the knee. I really need a rest and that s what I m gonna get in Nice. No walking, just lying and swimming, and drinking and socializing at nights of course :)
- Another rule I have is, I always am alone during the days. I never take company with me when I m walking and seeing things. This way I have a lot of time to think and talk to myself and it s very benefical, I beieve. At nights though, I m never alone. That s why I try to stay at hostels even though they are not the best places to sleep in. I meet hundreds of backpackers like me everyday, drink woth them, get to know them and etc. That s the best part. I had a lot of friends and liked a lot of people but every single one of them comes in, and goes the next day. This part of the journey is very helpful, a personal therapy for me as a person who has attachment issues. Changing places every day also helps in the same way. Wow got really serious, I ll get back to the original mood immediately
- Itlaian trains are really bad. They are slow, dirty and really low quality. I even rode one fast train from Napoli to Rome but it was way behind its German counterpart in terms of comfort and quality.
- Italy has great food. Although I cant eat good food that much bevcause of budget issues, I try to go for the specialites in each town and so far I m just loving it.
We have a winner of the first "Where the heck is Cagdas faithful reader" award. Mehmet Abi wins this special prize which did cost me no more than 2 euroes. It is a 2 piece gift and I hope you ll like it. Please write me your address so I can post it to you. Until the day you receive it, i m gonna keep it as surprise:)
So I now have to leve or I m gonna mioss my 3rd train in a day which would likely to be a world record. Now the next stops will be Nice, somehwew too on the Cote d'Azur, Toulouse, Bordeaux, Barcelona, Valencia, Toledao, Granada, Sevilla, (Morocco, if I have time) and finally Lisboa. Just as a note -both to myself and to anyone interested, here s the list of places I stayed, visited, or really spent time in: Dusseldorf, Koln, Munich, Salzburg, Fuschl, Innsbruck, Venezia, Napoli, Rome, Firenze, Siena, Pisa, Cinque Terre.
I ll keep you posted.
Take care!
Cagdas
Wow, I do have some readers it seems. Puts pressure on me :) Anyways thanks for all the comments. I usually have very little time so I cnat answer to each individual comment; sorry for that. I ll try to touch upon the points brought up in the comments somehwhere appropraite in the text. And excuse me for the spelling mistakes, no time for a spell check.
I visited a lot of places since the last entry and I'm past my half point mark a couple of days ago. I m a little behind my overall plan but I dont give a shit. This post will be sohrt cause I dont have that much time. Weird thing is, I missed my train from Genova to Nice so I m stuck here for some time but not long enough to go out and visit some places. Instead I ll be sitting in an internet cafe and writing my super-duper-cool blog.
Firenze:
- As I said I stayed in a shared tent when I was in Firenze. And my sleeping bag really saved my ass
- My "tentmate" was a mexican guy who did not look like a member of Apachi, he was more of a Luis type mexican. He did not steal anything from me.
- Firenze is just beautiful. I really liked the place and the people (italians i mean) were somehat different (in a good way) than the other places i visited
- Michelangelo was not human. If he was, must have been really sick. Besides all the statues all over the city; the famous David is really amazing.
- Speaking aobut statues, I am tired of seeing statues and paintings.
- The Duomo (cathedral) of Firenze is extremely fancy outside and has an extremely simple interior. I guess the pope did not want it to match the greatness of Vatican. It took 30 mins for me to climb to the top of it (i had to kill approximately 50 people to get there) and the view was really cool. I thought about trying to spit to the head of people below but than decided it wasnt a good idea.
- I am very surprised to see that there are no statues of Fatih Terim in the city although he is the smartest, coolest and most succesful human being ever lived there.
Siena
- I went to the nearby Siena for a day trip.
- I just loved it. They saved all the buildings and all the city looks like 500 years old. One of my favorite stops so far.
- The only emplyer in the city seems to be Montepaschi di Siena bank which also sponsors a cool basketball team. Ergin Ataman calistirdiydi ordan aklima geldi.
Pisa
- Another day, I went for a day trip to Pisa.
- I did nopt really like the city itself but the square where the duomo and the tower is located ios just amazing. But again I did not like it. It is totally disconnected from the city and feels like Venice: Very beautiful but as much touristic.
- Oh boy! The leaning tower is leaning. So much.. The idiot engineers. ehehe. When I first saw it I had to laugh because the tower is leaned too much. It s worse then Veli Gocer's buildings in Turkey.
- Dont worry, I did not do the clichè snapshot of pushing the tower. Instead I took pictures of tens of people doing the same thing.
Cinque Terre
- My next stop was Cinque Terre, an area consisting of 5 small villages on the sea side.
- The italians are saving the area so good. It s a natural park and unesco site so very well preserved. It is getting a bit touristic but still has the feeling that you are visiting somewhere really unique.
- Here comes the best part: I rented a couch! As usual I just went there without any bookings and found out that absolutely no bed left in the site. (of course there were some but I d like to kindly remind you that I can spend a little more than a Faktum guy on accomodation.) So after searching for somewhere to stay for 30 mins under 35 degrees and a 20 kg (it grew Ender, it is heavier now, i dont know how it happened) I wnet to a hostel I talked previously and offered them to stay in their garden. It turned out that they did not have a garden :) So after a lovely conversation and heated bargaining in Italian I got the couch in the 12 bed dorm for 10 euros! (A bed costs 30) ehehe.
- I had so much fun in my only night there. I met a group of party animals and drank for hours. Even jumped into the mediterannian in the middle of the night from the cliffs nearby and other cool stuff too.
- The nature there is simply amazing and the hand made food and fresh fruits groiwing in the region are really goood.
Genova
- Then I moved to Genova which is my last stop in Italy. I was planning to come here early in the morning and stay for some hours and catch a train to Nice for the second leg of my journey
- But since I really had a hangover, first I messed my tran Fromn cinque Terre to Genova. Then because I messed it, I missed the train to Nice. And since I missed it and since I did not reserve a seat in the good train now I have to sit in the cafe for the next crappy train which will take me to Nice.
- On my bus ride, I saw Genova is really lovely but I m gonna skip here and leave it for another time. The turks would remember Genova as "Galata", they onced held ground even as far as in Istanbul.
Other shit;:
Here come some weird experiences in no particular order of level of irritation:
- I decided to skip Bologna too. I want to spend a little more time in Spain, especially in Andalucia.
- money is gonna be a problem :)
- I m sick of seeing churches. But this time I did not see Jesus that much. The weird thing in Italy, espeically in Vatican, is that they pratically worship the popes and saints. They mummify them, save their bodies in churches, draw shit about so called holy people and popes everywhere, build statues of them and etc. Jesus is present only in the awesome dome of Vatican, nowhere else in the St Peter s but you can see almost all popes somewhere.
- I hate kids. I hate travelling kids more. They always scream, they are little so I can smash them with a single hit of my backpack and they are so many.
- I also hate tourist groups. There are so many groups and they enter everywhere together and the guide starts speaking with the irritating tourist guide voice and there is no space of silence left for me in the place.
- But I really like freeriding the tourist groups. When the place is crowded the guide has to speak up and if I m around I can listen to the stuff for free :)
- I feel that I have to expalin how I m visiting the cities a little bit better. When I say "I saw everything" I dont mean just walking like crazy and going to everywhere on the guide and taking photos like Japanese. I usually try to spend as much time as possible anywhere I go and try to get a feeling of the place. I read almost anything I can find about the places before I go. I usually sit down doing nothing in places I like. For exampole I could have finished the ancient Rome site in 5 hours but it took 8 hours just because I sat down and try to imagine the place as it is used to be.
- To gain more time for this kind of sightseeing, I walk really fast and in a high tempo. My left leg is practically dead now. My knee injury (jumper's knee) got worse and my ankle and hip are hurting cause they have been compensating for the knee. I really need a rest and that s what I m gonna get in Nice. No walking, just lying and swimming, and drinking and socializing at nights of course :)
- Another rule I have is, I always am alone during the days. I never take company with me when I m walking and seeing things. This way I have a lot of time to think and talk to myself and it s very benefical, I beieve. At nights though, I m never alone. That s why I try to stay at hostels even though they are not the best places to sleep in. I meet hundreds of backpackers like me everyday, drink woth them, get to know them and etc. That s the best part. I had a lot of friends and liked a lot of people but every single one of them comes in, and goes the next day. This part of the journey is very helpful, a personal therapy for me as a person who has attachment issues. Changing places every day also helps in the same way. Wow got really serious, I ll get back to the original mood immediately
- Itlaian trains are really bad. They are slow, dirty and really low quality. I even rode one fast train from Napoli to Rome but it was way behind its German counterpart in terms of comfort and quality.
- Italy has great food. Although I cant eat good food that much bevcause of budget issues, I try to go for the specialites in each town and so far I m just loving it.
We have a winner of the first "Where the heck is Cagdas faithful reader" award. Mehmet Abi wins this special prize which did cost me no more than 2 euroes. It is a 2 piece gift and I hope you ll like it. Please write me your address so I can post it to you. Until the day you receive it, i m gonna keep it as surprise:)
So I now have to leve or I m gonna mioss my 3rd train in a day which would likely to be a world record. Now the next stops will be Nice, somehwew too on the Cote d'Azur, Toulouse, Bordeaux, Barcelona, Valencia, Toledao, Granada, Sevilla, (Morocco, if I have time) and finally Lisboa. Just as a note -both to myself and to anyone interested, here s the list of places I stayed, visited, or really spent time in: Dusseldorf, Koln, Munich, Salzburg, Fuschl, Innsbruck, Venezia, Napoli, Rome, Firenze, Siena, Pisa, Cinque Terre.
I ll keep you posted.
Take care!
Cagdas
Tuesday, July 15, 2008
Roma
Hi again. I've been in Rome for 3.5/4 days and did not have even 5 minutes to spend in the internet. I am now in Florence and got some free time so here comes my blog about Rome:
- I walked 10 hours per day on average, no kidding. I tried to see everything there is in the city again but this time it was imposible. Even a full week is not enough for Rome. It s so full of great places to visit and things to see and do
- Highlights of the trip was walking in the forum, sitting in a corner in Pantheon, visiting what s left of the Temple of Saturn, sitting in the stairs of the Curia (senate of Rome) standing in the exact spot Julius Caesar was assasinated and of course visiting his "grave". People (fascists i suppose?) still leave flowers and candles in his temple.
- All policemen, the municipilaty guys etc, all muniucipal builindgs etc have the letters SPQR carved on them. Looks really cool.
- Colosseum is incredible. I justimagined how it would look in its heyday. Tried to remember the scenes from Gladiator as well. And a sad thing is, the Circus Maximus, where the big games and horse races were held (once let 250000 people in) is now just a pile of earth and grass.
- The Vatican basically fucked up the remnants of the greatest civilization of all times. They used all the marble coverings, other stuff, gold, bronze, whatever you can think of to decorate thir huge churches.
- Which brings me to the next point: Vatican is a prime example of I-m-so-rich-that-I-need-to-show-off-so-bad attitude. The st Peter's basilica is just unbeleivable, probably the greatest building I have been to.
- That Michelengelo dude was definetely crazy. Unbeleivable work by him especailly in St Peters and in the Sistine Chappel. His frescoes there are simply amazing.
- All the churches have painting or frescoes from Raphael. He must have painted 1 thing a day to meet the demand.
- Metro is worse than Ankaray. Finally Melih Gokcek did something better than someone else.
- I stayed in a really boringhostel this time and really got bored until I met some company in the last day.
- Also, there are 2 guys from US that I keep running into. I just saw thenm in Florence too. The funny thing is we are not supposed to be in the same places for a time but obviously we keep changing our travel plans and they somehow coincide.
Now Im in Florence and the next stops are Pisa, Siena, Bologna, Cinque Terre and Genova. Then I ll leave Italy.
I m again running out of time but I need to tell you one thing: I stayed in many shitty places, I shared my bedroom so many times but this is on a different level. I am now staying in a camp site just outsideof town and I am staying in a SHARED TENT. "Shared accomodation"da son nokta budur amina koyim.
Hugs,
Cagdas
PS:
My English speaking readers: If you exist at all, make a sign, or I ll write in Turkish :) Feels really weird to talk only with Basak, Levent and Mehmet in English. Adam olun gozum...
Mehmet abi, tam duygu insanisin. Benim sevinc ve nes'e kaynagimsin. Kovaladikca kacan, ates bocegim misin?
Levent, ellerin dert gormesin. Iflasin esiginden dondurdun beni.
Ender, amina koyayim. Best Ender oldun heralde gene, ne mesajlara cevap veriyosun ne aradigimda aciyosun. Kustuysen soyle. Kustuysen de kusmediysen de taamina koyim.
- I walked 10 hours per day on average, no kidding. I tried to see everything there is in the city again but this time it was imposible. Even a full week is not enough for Rome. It s so full of great places to visit and things to see and do
- Highlights of the trip was walking in the forum, sitting in a corner in Pantheon, visiting what s left of the Temple of Saturn, sitting in the stairs of the Curia (senate of Rome) standing in the exact spot Julius Caesar was assasinated and of course visiting his "grave". People (fascists i suppose?) still leave flowers and candles in his temple.
- All policemen, the municipilaty guys etc, all muniucipal builindgs etc have the letters SPQR carved on them. Looks really cool.
- Colosseum is incredible. I justimagined how it would look in its heyday. Tried to remember the scenes from Gladiator as well. And a sad thing is, the Circus Maximus, where the big games and horse races were held (once let 250000 people in) is now just a pile of earth and grass.
- The Vatican basically fucked up the remnants of the greatest civilization of all times. They used all the marble coverings, other stuff, gold, bronze, whatever you can think of to decorate thir huge churches.
- Which brings me to the next point: Vatican is a prime example of I-m-so-rich-that-I-need-to-show-off-so-bad attitude. The st Peter's basilica is just unbeleivable, probably the greatest building I have been to.
- That Michelengelo dude was definetely crazy. Unbeleivable work by him especailly in St Peters and in the Sistine Chappel. His frescoes there are simply amazing.
- All the churches have painting or frescoes from Raphael. He must have painted 1 thing a day to meet the demand.
- Metro is worse than Ankaray. Finally Melih Gokcek did something better than someone else.
- I stayed in a really boringhostel this time and really got bored until I met some company in the last day.
- Also, there are 2 guys from US that I keep running into. I just saw thenm in Florence too. The funny thing is we are not supposed to be in the same places for a time but obviously we keep changing our travel plans and they somehow coincide.
Now Im in Florence and the next stops are Pisa, Siena, Bologna, Cinque Terre and Genova. Then I ll leave Italy.
I m again running out of time but I need to tell you one thing: I stayed in many shitty places, I shared my bedroom so many times but this is on a different level. I am now staying in a camp site just outsideof town and I am staying in a SHARED TENT. "Shared accomodation"da son nokta budur amina koyim.
Hugs,
Cagdas
PS:
My English speaking readers: If you exist at all, make a sign, or I ll write in Turkish :) Feels really weird to talk only with Basak, Levent and Mehmet in English. Adam olun gozum...
Mehmet abi, tam duygu insanisin. Benim sevinc ve nes'e kaynagimsin. Kovaladikca kacan, ates bocegim misin?
Levent, ellerin dert gormesin. Iflasin esiginden dondurdun beni.
Ender, amina koyayim. Best Ender oldun heralde gene, ne mesajlara cevap veriyosun ne aradigimda aciyosun. Kustuysen soyle. Kustuysen de kusmediysen de taamina koyim.
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