Kyle Healy

Sunday, March 29, 2009

Italy so far

Well when I got to Italy I was exhausted. I spent about 3 hours walking around from hostel to hostel looking for a room to stay in until Bryce got here the next day. Finally found a place with ice cold showers and a rock hard matress to stay at. It definately beat the previous 4 nights I had where I didnt have a hostel at all. I thought that when Bryce got here I would be able to relax because I wasnt going to be traveling around a lot, but I was wrong. After Bryce got here, which was an adventure in itself from what he told me, we went on a hard core mission to see everything we possibly could. As soon as he got here we got some of the most amazing pizza we have ever had, and attempted to go on a walking tour with a guide, but instead ended up doing it ourselves. We did all the ancient Rome stuff that day. My favourite was the Colloseum. Its so unbelievable the stuff that went on in there. I think what made it better was the fact that we watched Gladiator that night just by coincidence. Apparently I have gotten really good at walking because Bryce could hardly keep up with my pace. I guess thats what happens when you do nothing but walk everywhere for a couple of months. Bryces legs and feet were sore, but he kept up quite well.

The best part of hanging out with my brother in Rome was watching him experience all the weird quirky stuff about traveling that I have become used to. His first time using the subway I could see that he was really excited and unsure of what exactly to do. Crossing the street for him was a challenge and eventually he learned to just follow me like a little duckling. Not gunna lie, Im pretty good at crossing the street now. The locals even follow me; a true sign of an accomplished traveler. I also took for granted how easy EuRail pass makes traveling. Watching Bryce have to wait in lines to buy train tickets and validate them (Which he forgot to do once and got a huge fine) makes me realize just how awesome EuRail is.

The Vatican was simply amazing. The museum and the sistine chapel were breathtaking. St Peters Bastilica took me by complete suprise. The inside of it is awe inspiring, I cant describe the way it makes me feel. Bryce brought me a couple of good books to read as well, which I was desperate for.

All the churches here are amazing. The David is really awesome, which I wasnt expecting it to be, I thought it would just be another statue. My favourite though is a statue of Michael slaying Satan. Such an epic statue, I think Ill buy a mini one to put on my desk at home.

Florence and Siena are in my opinion superior to Rome. Rome of course is awesome to see the art and the history of, but the feel of the city is a bit dirty and not what I would consider authentic Italian. Florence is an awesome city, and I love how walkable it is. Siena is beautiful, has some of the most amazing views so far this trip, and the plaza that I cant remember the name of, where people are just sprawled out on the ground, is one of my favourite places so far this trip. I could lounge there for hours in the sun. Speaking of the sun its such a relief to have some warm sunny weather, even though its raining right now; at least it gives me a chance to get on the computer ;). I did get a little sunburned on my face due to not seeing that much sun in a while. I am a big fan of Italy but for the most part Im not really into the people here. The food is ridiculous, me and Bryce ate quite well while we were here. The Gelato is amazing as well, unless you get tricked into buying a cone for 9 euros. My favourite flavours are banana and melon.

My favourite part of Florence was just having a bottle of Chianti and listening to some guy play guitar and sing covers of Oasis in front of the Uffizi at night. Free awesome concert baisically. Anyway it was an awesome experience to have my brother here with me for a week, and we had a lot of good times, and good memories.

Anyway I went from Rome to Florence to Rome and now I am back in Florence. I met someone that goes to school in Florence right now so I think Ill hang out here for a bit. This is the beauty of traveling alone and with no itinerary, I wouldnt have it any other way. I think Ill day trip to Cinque Terre and then go to Nice, followed by Barcelona, try and get a plane to Ireland for cheap, then get back to London to fly home. I think it would be cool to be in Barcelona for Easter, but Ill have to check and where there are any big festivals. I have a month to do that so I get to take it nice and slow. Of course the last time I had an idea of where I was going I ended up in Bosnia, so wel see where I end up next.

Once again sorry for not posting that often, just been so busy with stuff to do and things to see. I have been meeting some really cool people which is good. There is so much I could write about Italy but simply dont have the time. Thanks for keeping me in mind

Kyle

Saturday, March 21, 2009

Dubrovnik and Ljubljana

The bus ride to Dubrovnik was long but amazing. The Croatian coast is amazing. Everything is a mix between Eastern European and Italian it seems. The food, the people, everything. The city of Dubrovnik itself is amazingly beautiful, and I dont think I could have been there at a more perfect time. The weather was sunny, and the tourist crowd was not there yet. I felt like we had the city all to ourselves. I think that when someone asks me what city they need to include when they visit Europe, Dubrovnik is on the list. Really... once I can upload pictures, anyone who hasnt seen Dubrovnik will be in awe. Its a real good place to just chill out and relax. The seafood was ridiculous the views are unbeatable. The strangest part of the city was when we ventured outside of the main area and went to a Croatian farm run by some crazy man, and when we visited the fortress on top of the mountain looking down on Dubrovnik. They show the footage of Dubrovnik being attacked at the fortress and its insane to think that the city was under siege not too long ago.

The next stop was Ljubljana which is in Slovenia. This city wasnt even on my radar to begin with, but I am glad we made the stop. It seemed like a Vienna, with some nice water walks and nice buildings.

Well for the last 2 days I have taken an 11 hour bus ride, a 5 hour train ride, another 5 hour train ride, and a 6 hour train ride so that I could get back to Rome. I havent stayed in a hostel the last 2 nights, slept a little on the transportation as well as in the train stations. I stink, I need to shave, I need some sleep. But thought I would do laundry first and blog while that is going on. I am in Rome now, just waiting for Brother to get here in the morning. Im sure I missed a ton in the last couple posts but it had been soooo long since I said anything so I decided to just throw some stuff down. I am not going to be traveling like I did the last couple weeks, so I shouldnt have any more of those gaps like that.

Eastern Europe Tour

The last couple of weeks have been exhausting to say the least. I got a nice rest from snowboarding when I was in Vienna, and while there ran into a couple people I had met earlier. I went to the Opera and walked around the city a lot. There is a lot to see in Vienna but unfortunately it was really windy the whole time I was there. I think thats normal for Vienna though. Staying in my room was a guy from Australia named Sean and we seemed to get along quite well. Eventually we made plans to go to Budapest together.

Budapest-
What an amazing city. There is so much to do and see here, its overwhelming. Budapest is one of the places that I would tell everyone I wanted to go, and almost everyone would say how much they loved it or how many good things they have heard about the city. So my expectations were high to begin with. Budapest is full of amazing statues, lots of history, massive monuments, and of course the weird public baths. I spent a good 6 hours in the baths in total, which are these large thermal pools, each pool containing different minerals and different temperature water. The majority of the people in the baths are old men with giant pop bellys but there are a good amount of younger people as well. Everyone is so relaxed in the pools and the saunas it was definately a cultural experience. Budapest has some of the nicest, most beautiful people I have seen as well. Everyone is willing to help. There are also some really cool bars and places to hang out, that have a great vibe to them. Its not a city full of pretentious snoody people that go to their expensive hang out places to feel better than others. Its a great town. Eventually after talking with Sean we decided that we had a good time together and should travel all through Eastern Europe until I had to be in Rome and he had to go back to Prague, where he was working.

Next stop was Romania, not much to say specifically except that there were stray dogs everywhere. The people are typical Eastern European. We stayed the night there and decided to pack up to Serbia the next day.

Serbia was an experience. The bus ride took so long to get to Belgrade, and once again we had no idea what to expect. We kind of just assumed we would figure out what we wanted to do and see in Belgrade once we got there. We ended up staying 2 nights in total, and were pleasantly suprised with the city. Luckily my friend Mina who is from Serbia told one of her friends that we were coming to the city and she was nice enough to show us around. There is nothing like a local tour guide, and Slavika did a great job showing us around. The coolest parts of the city are the giant white church that you can see from almost every part of the city. St. Slavas is the worlds largest orthodox church and our hostel was about 25 meteres from it. The other part of the city is the fortress, which is nice to visit. I did notice that the Serbians dont talk that much about the war compared to the Bosnians and Croatians. The weirdest/coolest part of Serbia though was that when me Sean and Slavika walked into the ? Cafe which is the oldest in the city, I heard my name full name called out for the first time in a while. "Kyle Healy?" I turned around and Colin O'Leary my cousin. I was in shock, first of all I am lucky if I get to see him once every couple of years because he lives in New York and goes to school at Yale, and secondly I had no idea he was going to be in the Balkans. Unfortunately he was getting ready to leave Serbia and we had just got there. It was still a pretty cool experience though. Next stop was going to be Bosnia.

Sarajevo was not what we were expecting, but we didnt really know what to expect. First we had no idea that it was in the mountains, oops. We also didnt know that it was so dangerous. I had never had so many people ask me "Why are you here". Like we were crazy for being in Bosnia. The first thing you notice is all the grave sites packed full of grave stones. Over 11000 people died in Sarajevo while the city was surrounded by the Serbian army. We learned alot about the war and how no one could go out during the day because of snipers. There is a part of the city called sniper alley where there are still bullet holes from them. The apartment buildings look like they were just under attack, holes in them and massive caliber bullet holes in them. It was a freaky site. There are still so many buildings that are in ruins and have not been repaired yet. The city seems to be doing well despite the war but the people are still a little cold. The food was good as well. There were a couple of scary experiences including every time we crossed the border in and out of bosnia, a total of about 9 times, for various reasons. The worst one was when we got our passports checked the guy got a real strange look on his face. He made the bus stop for about an hour and called in reinforcements. We got our backpacks disassembled and the contents layed out in front of them, and they went through everything we owned. They then had the dogs come and smell everything. While this was going on the soldiers still had our passports and seemed like he wasnt going to give them back. Eventually he did though and we were on our way. It was freaky because they carry some pretty big guns with them and I had a really bad vibe that he was going to plant some sort of drugs on us or something. It was creepy. Another situation was when we were just exploring the ruins of one of the buildings, and looking at shrapnel on the ground, just wandering around, we stumbled into a mine field that still had not been cleared of mines. The only thing telling us this was a thin line of yellow tape that looks like it had been there for ages. Some local man started yelling and waving his arms at us to get out, but of course we had no idea what he was saying so we walked closer to him, he freaked out more, and somehow we got the message that we should go out the way we came in. Pretty strange experience. Anyway we decided to go to Dubrovnik as soon as possible.. knowing that would be a nice oasis away from the crazyness.