After Krakow we went to Vienna for a couple of days, and overall had a pretty chill time. The city itself was pretty cool, and owing to the fact we were down the street from another hostel, had a great time with the backpackers there. Highlights include running into two great Aussies that we had met in Prague, taking over Wombar and starting a dance party, and me getting free shots of Lord knows what. On our last night there, we had people from Canada, US, Finland, Germany, Italy, and Australia, all heading out to party. Backpacking at its finest! Last Vienna note: eat at SATO restaurant...best omelettes ever!
Post-Vienna, it was time to tackle Eastern Europe - by far what I was looking forward to the most. We took a little jaunt east to Bratislava, Slovakia, just an hour away, and were spoiled by all the good food and drink that came at a very low price. $3 gets you a full Slovak meal and a pint of beer. Come on! Eurotrip was right...with a nickel, I buy my own hotel!
We then went onto Budapest in Hungary, and stayed at this great place called Backpackers Guesthouse. If you ever go to Budapest...stay there. This place is unreal. It's really just a house turned into a hostel...but somehow, there are 70 people staying in it at one time? Very chill, free shisha/hookah pipe, awesome courtyard, and good people. The outdoor clubs were one thing I would bring back to Vancouver - the atmosphere is unlike anything else! On one of the days we were there, we shelled out for a Caving trip, and climbed, crawled and slid our way through these amazing caves. One of the coolest things I've ever done, by far! I got through the Winnie the Pooh hole - photos will be more helpful. We said goodbye to Budapest and made our way down to Croatia, and it's here where we met some really memorable people, and ones that I would spend the 22nd birthday with!
Split, Croatia! Two of my favourite words. Got into town and made our way to Hostel Adriatic, which happened to be owned by an ex-Vancouverite...that was 21 years old. Say what? The girl was amazing! The hostel was amazing too, probably one of the best I've stayed at, and Split was great times. Met up with Jacob and Niels (of Backpackers Guesthouse) and then met a ton of Irish kids that were staying in our hostel as well. Had a great night out including an amazing seafood dinner, drinks at a lounge and then partying at Bacvice, right on the beach. Decided to stay an extra night in Split so that we could go on the Booze Cruise, put on by two hostels in Split. You pre-drink at a cool lounge, then get on a boat and are carted off to this crazy island, where they have some concrete cliffs setup for jumping and swimming. Then you get back on the boat to the mainland. We started at 3pm. I told them it was my birthday. Oh dear. I love Split.
Rather than spend more time in Croatia, we made our way through two of the coolest countries ever, Bosnia (Sarajevo) and Serbia (Belgrade). Torn apart by war and conflict, the people there had experienced lots and it was cool to see. In Sarajevo, we wined and dined at Park Princessa, this amazing restaurant on a mountain overlooking the entire city. Beautiful. In Belgrade, we met some great people at our hostel, and went out to the splavs, which were a bunch of restaurants, cafes and clubs all on rafts floating on the river. It was so cool! During the day we checked out some killer sights and even saw some bomb sites from the 94 air raids. 30 days. Unbelievable. Then, it was time to make our way to Istanbul to see Didem!
We went through Bulgaria (as it was the least painful way to do it) and it's quite likely our entire journey through Sofia was quicker than the journey through the Turkish border. Good Lord. In total, we had to make our way through four border checkpoints. The first was a quick passport check to make sure we weren't crazy people. Then we traveled probably 5 minutes and were then told to get off the bus and show our passport again. At this point we had to get a Visa and the guy tried to rip us off. Jerk. Then we got back on the bus and had to show our passports AGAIN. For real. THEN, finally, we stop at the duty-free (1L of Absolut, 1L of gin and 1L of Jameson 12 year old whiskey...30 EUR aka 40 CAD...oh dear). Now, we think we're home free and then our bus pulls into this random area and we have to take our stuff off the bus and open them for inspection.
Wow. Turkey is intense. But we get through just fine, have a nice little metro/ferry ride to the Asia side of Budapest, and we meet up with Didem! She takes us to her house aka a ridiculous oasis, and our trip in Instanbul is on!
Turkey is unbelievably beautiful. I was expecting a country that had no infrastructure, lots of conflict, and was a little dirty...very much like Morocco I suppose. But it so wasn't like that! Beautiful scenery (lots of coastline), amazing sights and really great people! And while the Muslim thing might have been an issue in Morocco, it wasn't in Istanbul so that was kind of nice.
Got the full Turkish experience with Didem - shisha, every kind of amazing Turkish food imaginable, and some serious clubs. Everything is on the water, and class. Although...not too much fun when drinks are 30 YTL (10 CAD...ish) but that's what the pre-game is for. Lots of fun, met a lot of cool people through Didem, and we were definitely really sad when we had to leave for Mykonos.
But knowing Bernard and I, there is no way that we could get anywhere (flying) without some drama...we arrive for our international flight 40 minutes before takeoff. Ooops. First words when we get to the desk - "we were waiting for you". Ahhh well, we made it on the flight, got two meals (haha we are beasts) and landed on some amazing Greek soil!
Mykonos...Paradise Beach...absolutely amazing. Blue skies, water, white sand...so much fun! We stayed right on the beach and really had no reason to leave it - a little strip mall, lots of restaurant-type deals, and tons of beachfront clubs, including Club Paradise. We end up spending Saturday night in Mykonos, and who should grace the presence of Club Paradise but...BOY GEORGE?! haha we nearly DIED when we saw the posters. We had an afternoon at Club Tropicana which is this huge open air beach bar, and where dancing on tables is kind of expected. Bernard was nursing possibly the largest night+hangover combination I have ever seen (you're a star) so we spent the day on the beach, and finally ended the night at Tropicana. Early wake-up to get to the ferries on time (7am, snap) and as we arrive at the ferry terminal, we meet these two guys who are pissed that they spent the night at the ferry and then missed their boat...ahh the pain of missing the boat. Literally.
We made friends, and turns out the guys are from Coquitlam! Had a great ferry ride with those kids talking about Vancouver in general...it made me really miss home. Turns out they might be transferring to SFU soon, so that was pretty cool. Definitely had to keep in touch with them. We arrived in Athens after some serious waves for the last two hours of the trip (I've never seen so many people run to the bathroom in such a short amount of time) - we must've been hitting 10-15 foot swells.
Athens was beautiful. Lots of fun to see the amazing ruins in the city, and eat some delicious food. Oh my. We also stumbled across a brand new pair of Raybans, still in their case and in their protective cloth...some poor soul lost them on the road to the Acropolis. Tragic. P.S. guess what? I have a new pair of Raybans...
To keep you up to date on the timeline, we were in Athens until August 28th. And we all know what was on August 29th...LA TOMATINA!! The only problem was, with the fires and the fact that everyone is flying in and out of Greece for holidays, finding a flight was unbearably difficult. We managed to find a connection to Valencia through Frankfurt. We had to fly first class (oh yeah) from Athens to Frankfurt, then catch a RyanAir flight to Valencia. Perfect. Not a problem. Wrongo. We get on our Olympic Airlines (yes, it's a real airline), first class flight to Frankfurt, and after a 30 min delay on the tarmac (just a tech difficulty, no big deal) we get word an hour later that we can't leave, nor can we fly this plane. What?! Now we are missing our flight from Frankfurt to Valencia, and have wasted money on this flight to get to Frankfurt when we don't even want to be there. Perfect. Time to bitch.
We get our money back on the Olympic flight (thankfully) but now are stuck in the Athens airport with a flight from Frankfurt to Valencia that we cannot use...oh man.
We know two things. 1 - we want to get the hell out of Athens that day. 2 - we don't want to lose the Ryan Air flight. So, we got on the phone with Ryan Air and attempted to change our flight. Problem 1 - Ryan Air does not fly to Greece. At all. So we still had to get out of Greece. Success! Easy Jet flight to Milan, and from Milan to Dublin on Ryan Air. Perfect! Wait...the Easy Jet flight only has 1 seat available. Are...you...kidding. We went at this for about an hour, with the Ryan Air lady on the phone...
Bernard: 'do you fly to this location?'
Ryan Air Lady: 'no sir, we don't. you've already asked me that'
Jess: 'keep stalling Bernard!!' *frantic online search for flights at the same time
The ending to this story is possibly the funniest part...we end up getting on the EasyJet flight because another seat opened up, but only 5 hours later. We are awesome!?
So now, we have a foolproof flight to Milan, and then from Milan we connect to get to Dublin. But the stress didn't end there. We arrive at one of three Milan airports, and our outgoing flight to Dublin leaves from the airport that is 100 km away. Beautiful. We hash out a master plan. We need to catch two buses - one from Airport1 to the city center, then from the city center to Airport2.
Bernard: 'just go see when the bus leaves'
Jess: 'i can't, if i leave i can't come back to get my stuff'
Bernard: 'okay i'll grab it for you'
Jess: *outside, seeing Bernard* THE BUS LEAVES RIGHT NOW!!
Bernard: *sprinting with two 20 kg packs on his back...you trooper*
We make the first bus. But unless the bus cuts some time off the route, we are not making our connecting bus, and will have to take a 50-75 EUR cab ride to Airport2. As we pull into the city center, we see that our bus to Airport2 is still there! Yes! We can make it...wait, the driver is shutting the carriage doors...no, you can't leave when we're this close!
Bernard: 'okay, i'll get your bag, run for that fu**in bus'
Jess: *sprinting through Italian people thinking I'm insane
Driver: oh...did you want to get on this bus?
Jess: *gasp* YES *gasp* my friend is coming right now
Driver: 'well...I don't see him...are you sure he's coming?'
Jess: 'yes, please, just let me buy two tickets'
Driver: 'he has one minute'
Bernard is at this point about 20-30 metres away, and this driver is serious about leaving in one minute. Bernard again, rolls around the corner with two 20 kg packs on his back...SPRINTING. It was one hell of a scene. I can't even handle it. He is the only reason we made that bus to Airport2.
After that, it was fine. Made it to Dublin and made another friend with a guy from Wisconsin.
Dublin was amazing!! Such a beautiful little city, with such friendly people and such a great atmosphere. Tons of pubs (obviously) and even some clubs. We stayed at Avalon House, which was interesting, but good times nonetheless. We frequented our favourite pub there, the Hairy Lemon (this obnoxious green and yellow building) with one of the best servers I've ever had. Discovered a tasty beer called Smithwicks (pronounce it Smiddicks or you'll never hear the end of it) and I fell in love with Ireland.
Decided to do a pub crawl that night and met our crawl leader Emma, this crazy Aussie girl who took us around to pubs and got us smashed. Fun group for sure on the Crawl! Found out she was going west to Galway at some point but didn't make note of it.
Bernie and I decided to try and conquer Dublin the next day, so we did most of the sights, and found...TIM HORTON'S DONUTS. No for real. We did. It was unbelievable. The sign said 'so fresh, they must be Canadian'. It was unreal.
We decided to do a day trip out to Galway, this town on the west coast, and what a beautiful place. We did a bus/walking tour and had an unbelievable time. The Irish hillsides are so gorgeous!! We start partying at our hostel when who do we see, the guy Patrick that we met at the Dublin Airport. What a crazy scene. We head out that night with some people from our hostel, and who do we see...EMMA! She is on the street with her friend and I pretty much tackle her. What a girl. We have a great night partying it up and it's a great way to end our little trip in Galway.
Last night in Dublin, we head to the Guinness and Jameson factories, and drink the day away. Head out to an awesome little pub, end it with some curry fries and hamburgers, and we are prepping for the flight to London in the morning...boo.
Make our way to Heathrow, which I've never been in, and find the bus that will take us to Gatwick for our *sigh* flight home. We make sure to take as long as possible, stalling, trying anything not to go to Gatwick. But we end up on the bus and get there in record time (damn). We check in for our flight, and play the waiting game. We eat an overpriced meal (oh London), use some overpriced Internet (oh London), and make use of the ever-prevalant duty free (oh Bernard). A litre of C. Morgan, two cans of Coke, and we're ready to get on our flight. Same Italian crew working the flight, but they are much less outgoing so Bernard and I take matters into our own hands and have a good flight home.
We are slightly delayed though and thus land on Canadian soil at 7:30pm on Sunday, September 2nd, 2007. We get off the flight...and that's it. The Euro Trip is officially over. Happy? Sad? A lot of both. It was a great time, and the best three months of my life!
EXPLORATION CAN ONLY LEAD TO DISCOVERY
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