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 :)
Wednesday, July 23, 2008
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.
Friday, July 11, 2008
Venezia, Napoli. Pompei
Yes! Oh yes! I start by summarizing what I did today and you have to be so jealous of me:
I went to Pompei, I listened to Pink Floyd at the exact same spot where they were playing 37 years ago, then came back to Napoli and ate the best margarita ever.
I thin I dont have to say more. I mean this is enough. The pleasure I had today will be enough for me for the next decade or so. Mehmet, sorry, I wish you were there with me to, it was such a moving experience I cannot describe. But dont worry we'll put you in the photo using Photoshop. I'll talk about it more but let me tell you what happened since the last time I wrote.
Venezia
Well, it was a weird trip there. I got the night train, but since I m so lacking in funds; I didnt book a bed. (I have to pay around 20-30 euros as a supplement even though I have the global pass for the couchettes and those stuff) So, my hostel for the night was a small cabin for 6 people, 3-3 facing each other. So practically, the guy in front of you out his feet in your mouth and you put yours on top of your head. But for the first time I got lucjy and the guy in front of my seat did not show up. So I extended the both seats and had a little, cozy and uncomfortable as hell bed. I arrivedat Venezia early morning and slept for the first time in this trip in the tain station. It was cool though, Venezia is quite safe and the station was full of backpackers ike so no problem. Then I walked accross the city all day long. Wow, what a city. It s almost as beautiful as Hamburg. Ehee. But really, everyone should go and see the place. Every fucking corner is like an art piece, I m totally amazed. But a downside is, there a alot of Italian dudes with fancy sunglasses, belts hanging around, some accesories hanging... But tourists outnumber them so it s not as bad as Milano I suppose. We have to ask Michele for conformation :)
After walking 11 hours and seeing every inch of the city I caught my next night train to Napoli. Again booked a cabin, and again I went lucky that the guy in front of me did nt show up. The 2 backpacking couples were really jealous of me that I got to have some sort of a bed.
Naaapoli
What a chaos! Crazy town. Now I see why Michele is like that. Here are some notes_
- The traffic reminded me of Turkey. Althou this is worse. These mopeds are everywhere including the sidewalks. I almost got overrun twice. But I remembered my Turkish roots quickly and I ve been more than ok since then.
- There is no trash problem anymore. The mafia and Michele's uncle solved the problems it seems. But streets are really dirty, I must add.
- Everyone was talking and writing about how dangerous Napoli is but I must say it s not. After IStanbul and other cities in Turkey, it wasnt too though for me. But I cant be sure how safe a girl or a Scandinavian guy would feel in alleys at night. Watch out from the pickpocketers by the way if you ever make your way to Napoli. I saw 2 attempted pickpockets but the Italian ladies in both cases replied with a 1313 db vaffanculo and the guy ran away.
- There are more black guys ion the streets than Harlem.
- Everywhere is full of "bars" that sell snacks and stuff and I tried many rthings and liked most of them. Dont ask the names; cause I dont remember.
- Then... Da Michele... Oh my god. The simplest pizza: tomato, mozzarella the green stuff I forgot the english name (bir adet nane yapragi) and olive oil on the top. I cant still beleive how good that pizza is. The dough itself is unbelivable. The best ever, as the locals also agreed with me. And as a note, I payed 4.5 euros (40-45 SEK, 20 lower than Mossens price) for the best pizza ever. And the pizzeria itself is very small, cozy and old fashioned too. Nothing fancy. But people have to wait 30 45 minutes to get in. I ordered a take away and ate mine sitting on the sidewalks in front of the people waiting to get inside :)
- I also tried marinera and some other one with more ingredients at other placves. They were also awesome but Da Michele's margarita kicks their ass.
Pompei
This place was crazy. I m running out of time so will go over quickly.
- Imagine a 25000 town suddenly getting rid of all organic material. The buildings are incredbily well preserved under the pyroclastic shit.
- It is huge and takes 4 5 hours to go to every corner.
- The arena weher Pink Floyd played is 25000 big. Not that big but the atmospehere was incredible. I sat down and listened to Floyd for osmre time and an Australian girl was so touched with my emotions she took 10 pictires of me sitting at the exact spot where David Gilmour played 37 years ago!
Time is out.
Now I m in Rome and will report back soon!
I went to Pompei, I listened to Pink Floyd at the exact same spot where they were playing 37 years ago, then came back to Napoli and ate the best margarita ever.
I thin I dont have to say more. I mean this is enough. The pleasure I had today will be enough for me for the next decade or so. Mehmet, sorry, I wish you were there with me to, it was such a moving experience I cannot describe. But dont worry we'll put you in the photo using Photoshop. I'll talk about it more but let me tell you what happened since the last time I wrote.
Venezia
Well, it was a weird trip there. I got the night train, but since I m so lacking in funds; I didnt book a bed. (I have to pay around 20-30 euros as a supplement even though I have the global pass for the couchettes and those stuff) So, my hostel for the night was a small cabin for 6 people, 3-3 facing each other. So practically, the guy in front of you out his feet in your mouth and you put yours on top of your head. But for the first time I got lucjy and the guy in front of my seat did not show up. So I extended the both seats and had a little, cozy and uncomfortable as hell bed. I arrivedat Venezia early morning and slept for the first time in this trip in the tain station. It was cool though, Venezia is quite safe and the station was full of backpackers ike so no problem. Then I walked accross the city all day long. Wow, what a city. It s almost as beautiful as Hamburg. Ehee. But really, everyone should go and see the place. Every fucking corner is like an art piece, I m totally amazed. But a downside is, there a alot of Italian dudes with fancy sunglasses, belts hanging around, some accesories hanging... But tourists outnumber them so it s not as bad as Milano I suppose. We have to ask Michele for conformation :)
After walking 11 hours and seeing every inch of the city I caught my next night train to Napoli. Again booked a cabin, and again I went lucky that the guy in front of me did nt show up. The 2 backpacking couples were really jealous of me that I got to have some sort of a bed.
Naaapoli
What a chaos! Crazy town. Now I see why Michele is like that. Here are some notes_
- The traffic reminded me of Turkey. Althou this is worse. These mopeds are everywhere including the sidewalks. I almost got overrun twice. But I remembered my Turkish roots quickly and I ve been more than ok since then.
- There is no trash problem anymore. The mafia and Michele's uncle solved the problems it seems. But streets are really dirty, I must add.
- Everyone was talking and writing about how dangerous Napoli is but I must say it s not. After IStanbul and other cities in Turkey, it wasnt too though for me. But I cant be sure how safe a girl or a Scandinavian guy would feel in alleys at night. Watch out from the pickpocketers by the way if you ever make your way to Napoli. I saw 2 attempted pickpockets but the Italian ladies in both cases replied with a 1313 db vaffanculo and the guy ran away.
- There are more black guys ion the streets than Harlem.
- Everywhere is full of "bars" that sell snacks and stuff and I tried many rthings and liked most of them. Dont ask the names; cause I dont remember.
- Then... Da Michele... Oh my god. The simplest pizza: tomato, mozzarella the green stuff I forgot the english name (bir adet nane yapragi) and olive oil on the top. I cant still beleive how good that pizza is. The dough itself is unbelivable. The best ever, as the locals also agreed with me. And as a note, I payed 4.5 euros (40-45 SEK, 20 lower than Mossens price) for the best pizza ever. And the pizzeria itself is very small, cozy and old fashioned too. Nothing fancy. But people have to wait 30 45 minutes to get in. I ordered a take away and ate mine sitting on the sidewalks in front of the people waiting to get inside :)
- I also tried marinera and some other one with more ingredients at other placves. They were also awesome but Da Michele's margarita kicks their ass.
Pompei
This place was crazy. I m running out of time so will go over quickly.
- Imagine a 25000 town suddenly getting rid of all organic material. The buildings are incredbily well preserved under the pyroclastic shit.
- It is huge and takes 4 5 hours to go to every corner.
- The arena weher Pink Floyd played is 25000 big. Not that big but the atmospehere was incredible. I sat down and listened to Floyd for osmre time and an Australian girl was so touched with my emotions she took 10 pictires of me sitting at the exact spot where David Gilmour played 37 years ago!
Time is out.
Now I m in Rome and will report back soon!
Monday, July 7, 2008
Vaffanculo, Italiano!
Alright, here comes ny next post. I am on my way to Venezia, and I would have said "I'm crossing the Rubicon" if I intended to look pretentious; so you're lucky I'm not.
But here comes the latest news. Thanks to Mehmet's nice wishes for my tripI'm always having small shit tangling up my very short term plans. The latest one was thanks to Italian workers:
The Italian Railways Workers "Strike" Again:
Yes, I am a lucky guy. The italians were on a strike as usual. But this time it started exactly the same hour that I planned my journey to Italy! Thanks to them, I had to cancel a couple of bookings and got stuck in Austria for 1.5 days more. Actually that wouldn't be that bad if only the weather went crazy and rained like hell for the last 1.5 days which "coincidently" clashed with my extra 1.5 days in here. So I basically lost 1.5 half days thanks to Michele's brothers and of course thanks again for your support Mehmet Abi, keep it up :)
Weird and fun experiences so far:
- I went to the mountains yesterday and was so amazed. The scenery is great here, and I even got the chance to get a swim in a lake 1000 meters above the sea level.
- The Alpine Milka cows do exist. Except they are not purple and cannot speak in real life.
- I went to Inssbruck to hike in the mountains but it was sooo rainy. Actually the clouds were like 15 meters above my head that I could not even see the top of the buildings -let alone seeing the mountains and stuff.
- It was 10 degrees so I had to wear 2 tshirts to keep warm. (I didnot take anything warm; thankfully I m going to Italy whre it s supposed to be 65 degrees)
- There are about a million Americans in Austria
- They dont talk to people from other countries and hang out altogether.
- I have to stop drinking this much beer or I'll have to end the trip in 1.5 weeks. Pfff...
- One Japanese guy in my dorm room was so Japanese that whenever someone entered the room while he was asleep (8 bed room) he woke up and said "Hello" to the other guy and went back to sleep right after. I and a couple of guys even made some experiments on the Japanese dude, it alway worked. Dont know why...
- I am so exploiting my railway pass. If the authorities see the number of trains I jumped in the past 6 days they would probably stop selling Interrail passes.
- My best friends here are Burger King, beers, my backpack and the dude in the hostel who gives free french fries to me after ordering my 10th beer in a row.
- So many Turks live here in Austria too that one of the most common words I keep hearing are "amina koyim" which roughly and politely means "I want to have sexual intercourse with you" in Turkish.
- I cant reach the gypsy called Ender. I just saw his comment to the previuos post so at least I know that he s alive. Are you still wearing your best basball cap? I need one...
- I decided to postpone my Slovenia and Croatia detour. First I'll complete the Italy leg and then I'll decide what to do next.
- I#m sorry that I didnt mention about you in the previous post, Levent. You are right, you are at least as famous as Moyart and I should have mentioned about your birthplace. Forgive me :)
Going to Italy
- In 2 hours I'll get on my train to Venice. I dont plan to stay there, and I have so cool ideas. I think I'll go straight down to Naples (Naaaapoli) to taste the best pizza in the world and go do my pilgrimage to Pompei where Pink Floyd played live. I'm so excited that I can summarize my feelings only in Turkish: Götüm karincalaniyo adeta aminakoyum
- Then I'll move up step by step visiting all the cities along the way. I heard there is a touristic city called Rome. I plan to check it out and spend at least half a day there. Something tells me that it must have something to do with the Roman Empire.
So far everything has been great. Of course I missed Ender and his green best shit but I can live without it for a couple of more weeks. I'll try to write more often here. I end my post with a quote from the one-time-turkish-hero Internet Mahir: I kiss you.
Cagdas
But here comes the latest news. Thanks to Mehmet's nice wishes for my tripI'm always having small shit tangling up my very short term plans. The latest one was thanks to Italian workers:
The Italian Railways Workers "Strike" Again:
Yes, I am a lucky guy. The italians were on a strike as usual. But this time it started exactly the same hour that I planned my journey to Italy! Thanks to them, I had to cancel a couple of bookings and got stuck in Austria for 1.5 days more. Actually that wouldn't be that bad if only the weather went crazy and rained like hell for the last 1.5 days which "coincidently" clashed with my extra 1.5 days in here. So I basically lost 1.5 half days thanks to Michele's brothers and of course thanks again for your support Mehmet Abi, keep it up :)
Weird and fun experiences so far:
- I went to the mountains yesterday and was so amazed. The scenery is great here, and I even got the chance to get a swim in a lake 1000 meters above the sea level.
- The Alpine Milka cows do exist. Except they are not purple and cannot speak in real life.
- I went to Inssbruck to hike in the mountains but it was sooo rainy. Actually the clouds were like 15 meters above my head that I could not even see the top of the buildings -let alone seeing the mountains and stuff.
- It was 10 degrees so I had to wear 2 tshirts to keep warm. (I didnot take anything warm; thankfully I m going to Italy whre it s supposed to be 65 degrees)
- There are about a million Americans in Austria
- They dont talk to people from other countries and hang out altogether.
- I have to stop drinking this much beer or I'll have to end the trip in 1.5 weeks. Pfff...
- One Japanese guy in my dorm room was so Japanese that whenever someone entered the room while he was asleep (8 bed room) he woke up and said "Hello" to the other guy and went back to sleep right after. I and a couple of guys even made some experiments on the Japanese dude, it alway worked. Dont know why...
- I am so exploiting my railway pass. If the authorities see the number of trains I jumped in the past 6 days they would probably stop selling Interrail passes.
- My best friends here are Burger King, beers, my backpack and the dude in the hostel who gives free french fries to me after ordering my 10th beer in a row.
- So many Turks live here in Austria too that one of the most common words I keep hearing are "amina koyim" which roughly and politely means "I want to have sexual intercourse with you" in Turkish.
- I cant reach the gypsy called Ender. I just saw his comment to the previuos post so at least I know that he s alive. Are you still wearing your best basball cap? I need one...
- I decided to postpone my Slovenia and Croatia detour. First I'll complete the Italy leg and then I'll decide what to do next.
- I#m sorry that I didnt mention about you in the previous post, Levent. You are right, you are at least as famous as Moyart and I should have mentioned about your birthplace. Forgive me :)
Going to Italy
- In 2 hours I'll get on my train to Venice. I dont plan to stay there, and I have so cool ideas. I think I'll go straight down to Naples (Naaaapoli) to taste the best pizza in the world and go do my pilgrimage to Pompei where Pink Floyd played live. I'm so excited that I can summarize my feelings only in Turkish: Götüm karincalaniyo adeta aminakoyum
- Then I'll move up step by step visiting all the cities along the way. I heard there is a touristic city called Rome. I plan to check it out and spend at least half a day there. Something tells me that it must have something to do with the Roman Empire.
So far everything has been great. Of course I missed Ender and his green best shit but I can live without it for a couple of more weeks. I'll try to write more often here. I end my post with a quote from the one-time-turkish-hero Internet Mahir: I kiss you.
Cagdas
Friday, July 4, 2008
Tough times in Zermany and good times in Austria
Hello my dear friends,
Here comes my first real entry to this awesome and internationally appreciated blog. I am now in Salzburg, the lovely city of Austria, almost drunk writing my experiences so far. I'll write ibn bullets to make it easy to folow. This way, even Ender can understand what I write. Here we go:
Zermany and ze Zermans:
- I flew to Frankfurt-Hahn (dont believe if someone says the airport is in Frankfurt. Takes 1.5 hours to get there) with Ryanair
- I "tried" to go to Köln (Kölün in Turkish) by flygbuss but the fate stroke upon me the first time: The airport shuttle was involved in an accident. A motorbike (with the rider on) got under the bus. He merely survived with serious injurues: A scratched leather jacket! On the other hand, his bike blew out our tire and we had to wait for almost 2 hours for the repair guys to come and replace it. Luckz strike!
- I barely caught the last train from Kölün to Düsseldorf (düüüzillldooof in turkish) where my friend lives. The train stopped for 1/2 hour in the middle because the railway has been slightly flooded.
- My chain of good luck ended when I put my head in rest safe and sound and got a good sleep.
- There is a german keyborad with z and y switched places.
The next day I walked around in Düsseldorf and Köln:
Kölün:
- First of all, believe it or not; the Germans in this area speak English and dont get angry at you when you ask questions. They even have announcements in English in trains!
- The bullet train ICE (makes 260 kmh regularly) was totally included in my railway pass so I rode it 4 times in 2 days happilly. Nice trains...
- Köln has a nice old town and a huge cathedral "Dom". 1-2 hours of walk ius enough to see the old town and more is unnecessary - of course I walked for 4 hours to see everything that has been ever built in the city
- Don't ever climb up the 1750 stairs of the Dom. You have to pay 1.5 euros and even athletically build, wonderfully conditioned, strong men (like me :P ) can get exhausted on the way up. And it's not worth it.
Düsseldorf:
- Very lovely city, looked and felt a lot like Göteborg to me
- There are smiling and happy Germans in the town (not kidding)
- Cool local beer, but they offer them in RAKI glasses (narrow and long and thin) so I had to drink 10 glasses to get tipsy
- Bener and Ipek, my friends living there, are great
- 1 day at least is needed to see what the city has to offer
Then I rode another pre-paid-thus-free fast train to Munchen and without staying there (my basic travel plan was to stay as little as possible in Germany) Salzburg:
- This might be the most beautiful city I have ever seen! Wonderful scenery, great architecture, amazing nature...
- Mozart was born and lived here, everything has to do something with him.
- There is an open air music festival running here today and tomorrow. Great bands are playing on the stages set up in the streets. Imagine the musicianship when I say a fusion band was playing in fornt of one of Mozart's former residencies. Chick Corea Band minus Corea himself played for free in the street for 1 hour. I could not move!
- I think I'll spend at least 2-3 days here just to see what the city has to offer and to visit the nearby wonrderful Alpine area
- The highlight of my day was the Beatles band that played in one of the streets wher Mozart lived. There were at least 500 people on the street singng along my favorite songs. They even played the less knoiwsn songs like My Bonnie, Lucy In the Sky With Diamonds, You've Got to Hide Your Love Away and even one of my personal favorites Happiness Is a Warm Gun. They were wearing wigs and suits and spkeaking in Liverpool bad-ass accent! Perfect!
I'll get back to writing in a couple of days!
Take care and keep on commenting :)
Cagdas
Here comes my first real entry to this awesome and internationally appreciated blog. I am now in Salzburg, the lovely city of Austria, almost drunk writing my experiences so far. I'll write ibn bullets to make it easy to folow. This way, even Ender can understand what I write. Here we go:
Zermany and ze Zermans:
- I flew to Frankfurt-Hahn (dont believe if someone says the airport is in Frankfurt. Takes 1.5 hours to get there) with Ryanair
- I "tried" to go to Köln (Kölün in Turkish) by flygbuss but the fate stroke upon me the first time: The airport shuttle was involved in an accident. A motorbike (with the rider on) got under the bus. He merely survived with serious injurues: A scratched leather jacket! On the other hand, his bike blew out our tire and we had to wait for almost 2 hours for the repair guys to come and replace it. Luckz strike!
- I barely caught the last train from Kölün to Düsseldorf (düüüzillldooof in turkish) where my friend lives. The train stopped for 1/2 hour in the middle because the railway has been slightly flooded.
- My chain of good luck ended when I put my head in rest safe and sound and got a good sleep.
- There is a german keyborad with z and y switched places.
The next day I walked around in Düsseldorf and Köln:
Kölün:
- First of all, believe it or not; the Germans in this area speak English and dont get angry at you when you ask questions. They even have announcements in English in trains!
- The bullet train ICE (makes 260 kmh regularly) was totally included in my railway pass so I rode it 4 times in 2 days happilly. Nice trains...
- Köln has a nice old town and a huge cathedral "Dom". 1-2 hours of walk ius enough to see the old town and more is unnecessary - of course I walked for 4 hours to see everything that has been ever built in the city
- Don't ever climb up the 1750 stairs of the Dom. You have to pay 1.5 euros and even athletically build, wonderfully conditioned, strong men (like me :P ) can get exhausted on the way up. And it's not worth it.
Düsseldorf:
- Very lovely city, looked and felt a lot like Göteborg to me
- There are smiling and happy Germans in the town (not kidding)
- Cool local beer, but they offer them in RAKI glasses (narrow and long and thin) so I had to drink 10 glasses to get tipsy
- Bener and Ipek, my friends living there, are great
- 1 day at least is needed to see what the city has to offer
Then I rode another pre-paid-thus-free fast train to Munchen and without staying there (my basic travel plan was to stay as little as possible in Germany) Salzburg:
- This might be the most beautiful city I have ever seen! Wonderful scenery, great architecture, amazing nature...
- Mozart was born and lived here, everything has to do something with him.
- There is an open air music festival running here today and tomorrow. Great bands are playing on the stages set up in the streets. Imagine the musicianship when I say a fusion band was playing in fornt of one of Mozart's former residencies. Chick Corea Band minus Corea himself played for free in the street for 1 hour. I could not move!
- I think I'll spend at least 2-3 days here just to see what the city has to offer and to visit the nearby wonrderful Alpine area
- The highlight of my day was the Beatles band that played in one of the streets wher Mozart lived. There were at least 500 people on the street singng along my favorite songs. They even played the less knoiwsn songs like My Bonnie, Lucy In the Sky With Diamonds, You've Got to Hide Your Love Away and even one of my personal favorites Happiness Is a Warm Gun. They were wearing wigs and suits and spkeaking in Liverpool bad-ass accent! Perfect!
I'll get back to writing in a couple of days!
Take care and keep on commenting :)
Cagdas
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