BelGREAT

Belgrade, Belgrade, Belgrade. This place has honestly become one of my favorite cities in Europe. It's a hidden gem, and it's an incredible place to visit. These are the basic reasons why:

1. The people here are maybe the nicest people I've come across in a single place on my entire trip.
2. It's cheap. Perhaps the cheapest place I've been to so far.
3. There's A TON of stuff to do here. Full of great sites and museums.
4. The bars and nightlife are awesome. These places are really nice establishments and there's A LOT of them.
5. It's easy to get around anywhere in the city.

These 5 things contribute greatly to the vibe of the city (especially number 1) and Belgrade has it. I had no idea what to expect when I first came here. I mean, I heard some things but didn't really know. Turns out this place just has great all around vibes. I was so impressed by this place. You don't hear about it anywhere back home but this is where I would go for vacation, and I'm sure I'll come back during summertime in the future. I actually got pretty lucky with the weather here too. I was really worried about how cold it was gonna be here during the winter because I've heard it can get pretty low in the negatives, but it turned out to be okay. Just cloudy and a little bit of rain, but overall great for this time of year.

I took a 6 hour car ride from Sarajevo (arranged by my hostel) with a bunch of locals that had a great time...if only I could understand them. I was that awkward silent guy sitting in the back middle seat surrounded by Slavic languages with my headphones on, but I managed. I got into the hostel and didn't really do much that evening, but the hostel was actually a great setup. The first day consisted of yet another free walking tour :) and this one was maybe the best one I've been on during the trip. Before the tour even began I was interviewed by Serbian national television about what I was doing here and what I know about Belgrade and what I'm hoping to learn from this tour, so I've got that going for me. Turns out I learned a ton of great stuff on the tour and the guide was this really cool dude that knew what he was doing and loved doing it. It's great when you have a guide like that, when you can tell that he legitimately loves doing what he does, and even though he's done over 800 of these things over the last 3 years he acts like it's his first time each time. I've got respect for that, and hope to embrace whatever the heck my next job will be with that kind of passion and enjoyment.

St. Sava - The largest Orthodox church in the world

But the tour was great, and of course I made a friend along the way. Danielle was a fellow American living in Russia and we spent most of the day after that tour exploring even more of the city, including a sketchy Serbian cemetery at night, which is always fun. I hadn't walked this much since maybe Rome so I definitely got some exercise while we were at it. We were extremely productive and saw wayyy more than I thought I would see in the first day which was good, and left more time to do other stuff in the city over the next couple days of my stay. It was a really successful first day and I was super happy with this place.

The second day was a rest day. Rest days are crucial to long term traveling. You always need to have at least one or two rest days per week, if not more, especially if you don't have a set itinerary. This allows you to organize where to go next, find couchsurfing hosts for those places, upload photos, update blogs, skype friends/family, work out, etc. This is what I do on rest days and these things tend to take up an entire day, so it's nice to be able to get other stuff done and try to relax at the same time. This is what I did for the entire day on the second day, then I met up with Danielle for dinner and we met this couple at the restaurant that was really nice and hilarious. We ended up going out with them later that night and had a blast.

I got to shake Mr. Tesla's hand!

I did so much the first day that I was almost nearly satisfied with everything I wanted to see in this city. The third day consisted of a visit to the Tesla museum and the largest Orthodox church in the world which I had already seen at night but wasn't able to go inside. When Danielle and I were exploring the city after the tour that first day a lot of it was at night since the sun goes down before you have time to finish breakfast up here, so I tried to pick out some places we saw on that first night to see during the day as well, and this was one of them. The church was absolutely massive and one of the larger churches that I've seen...out of the 10 million churches that I've seen on this trip. The Tesla museum was super cool too. I didn't realize that Tesla was the most underrated inventor of all time and basically invented everything important that we use today and hardly got any credit for it, so remember that. That night was spent trying to figure out where the hell I was gonna go after Belgrade so I began to lean towards Romania and try to plan it out.

Day 3 was mostly just spent hanging out at the hostel again. Actually most of the rest of my time in Belgrade was really just spent updating this stuff and planning Romania. I had originally booked 3 nights here but ended up staying for 5, so that's traveling without a plan for ya. But hey, it had been a little while since I'd stayed at a place for a few days to figure things out and I'd like to say that I left Belgrade fully stocked with updates and plans for the future travels. Aside from little food trips and a nice walk back to the big fortress to get one last good view of the city, this was all I did. But every time I went out to walk around and get a feel for this place it was awesome. Everyone here is nice and good looking and just seems happy, at least from what I saw.

The bombing of some of these massive buildings was intense...

Going back to my previous post, despite the events that have occurred here and all the things that happened during the recent wars less than 20 years ago, the people have managed to continue on with their lives and pursue happiness in a great way. It's really cool to see this and I have a lot of respect for the people here and their city. I remember our tour guide saying that Belgrade has been bombed like over 40 times in its history (that means completely leveled) and they continue to rebound. There's massive communist buildings that are still partially bombed and completely abandoned, and across the street is some nice, new, good-looking massive parliament building...it's crazy. But yea, the people here continue to try and live their lives and it's really impressive, despite the economic craziness that's still going on here.

I just have to say well done, Belgrade. I'm really impressed by your vibes, people, charm, history, (current) recovery, and ability to still show people that life goes on, so get over it and try to be happy, because I was when I was here.

Bouncing Through the Balkans

Kotor

I'm really glad I came to Montenegro, and even though we were only there for a night it was still justified because Kotor was pretty small but really cool. The "Old Town" section (of course there was one here too) was really small and quaint in a great way, and made for some great sightseeing. The whole town of Kotor is situated on a bay that is surrounded by mountains, and there's a fortress you can climb above the city that overlooks everything. I had to leave early the next morning and Zack had more time to do it the next day, so I tackled this thing solo in the afternoon and it was nuts. It was about a 40 minute climb but it takes you up a mountainside to this abandoned fortress and the views are once again mind blowing. Another recommended destination if you ever find yourself in this part of Europe (which you absolutely should) and made me realize how beautiful this unknown country of Montenegro really is.

Things get a little fast-paced at this point because I was only in Kotor for one night, then I would go to Mostar, Bosnia the next day and Sarajevo, Bosnia the day after that, so here it goes:

I had a private car take me from Kotor to Mostar the next day for nearly the same price as the bus (cheap) in less than half the time. The drive and driver were both awesome. I had absolutely no idea how picturesque this part of Europe was, but holy cow, everything here is beautiful! Mountains on mountains on mountains, and it's all just amazing. The driver was super nice and we made a couple stops on the way to see some really cool stuff, including one of the oldest monasteries in Bosnia in the middle of nowhere, where he bought me a small bottle of some of the local Rakije (the native liquor here, that's also really good). This guy was great and we had a great trip on the way to Mostar. Another notable sight as we approached Mostar was an active minefield on a nearby hill that the main road passes by. There are actually signs that warn you of active mines that still exist in this part of the country, so you absolutely cannot go for a hike here and it can actually be pretty dangerous. Why are there mines here? Well, you'll have to look into the history of the Yugoslav wars that happened during the 90's in this part of the world. I don't want to give a huge history lesson about it but it still has a huge relevance today, as this was an actual war that happened less than 20 years ago and everybody in this part of Europe has been affected by it. I've been able to learn a thing or two about it after traveling through this area and it's pretty interesting. But everyone's got a crazy story here because of it, and it's crazy to think how things were in this part of the world less than 20 years ago. A lot of the post-war effects are still extremely visible in this region and everyone here is still slowly recovering (very slowly economically).

Views on views on views

Mostar was another really small town in Southern Bosnia (Herzegovina to be exact) and it had a really nice vibe to it, but it was definitely pretty quiet. There's a really famous bridge here, probably the most famous landmark in Bosnia, and it's about 80 ft. tall and is jump-able in the warmer months. I've got some friends that have jumped it in the past and definitely have to give those guys some cred after seeing how high up it is. I for sure would have done it buuuut unfortunately it was closed for jumping during this time of year ;) Before leaving Mostar I took a quick trip with a couple random friends I met from Hong Kong, Spain, and Brazil (these things happen when traveling alone) and we went to another nearby town called Blagaj which was really nice. There wasn't a ton to do in this part of the country (again, these places are significantly slower during this time of year) but it was a nice stop on my way to Sarajevo, the capital city.

Still a lot of noticeable damage on some buildings in Sarajevo

It was yet another very scenic (and surprisingly very crowded) bus ride from Mostar to Sarajevo, which is where I would spend the next 3 nights. Again, once I arrived in Sarajevo to my hostel in the early evening there was a group of people in the lounge area playing a drinking game. After a short while I joined in and we all got acquainted with each other. It was a fun time meeting new people yet again, a few Australians and a few Americans, and we would go out with each other each of the nights I stayed here. The following day consisted of what had normally been the first thing Alex and I would do whenever we came to a bigger city worth seeing - and that was the free walking tours. It had actually been a really long time since I did one (I think the last one was Budapest before the holidays) so here I was again, back in super-tourist mode. This time was a little different because I was the only one that had actually booked a time to do the tour. So it was actually kind of cool because I basically had myself a free private walking tour through the city for the next 3 1/2 hours (which was also pretty long). But my guide, Ervin, was really, really good. He was an encyclopedia that basically knew everything, and he overwhelmed me with information about this place. He had some stories about himself and how him and his family fled the country during the war so it was interesting to get his take on how things went down, and he's not much older than me. It's hard not to notice the visible damage that you can still see in this city from that time too, and it gives you more perspective being in a war torn country that was still recovering. I don't think there's many places in Western Europe that still have this kind of visibly recent history from a war, so it was interesting to see it in this way.

But I think the most important thing about this tour was the fact that HE POINTED ME IN THE RIGHT DIRECTION TO GET SOME NEW SHOES. Because I really needed some new shoes and was struggling to find some that I liked for a decent price AND that was my size (I think people just have smaller feet in Europe). So he pointed me to a place that had some shoes I liked and when they didn't have my size, the super cool dude at this place then pointed me in the actual right direction of the place that actually had shoes that I liked AND WERE MY SIZE, SO I GOT NEW SHOES. This was the highlight of my entire trip so far and I was pretty stoked about it. I'm looking at my new shoes now and I couldn't be happier with my life.

But in all seriousness, Sarajevo was great, and one of the true highlights was the Gallery 11/07/95 which covers a genocide that occurred in the small Bosnian town of Srebrenica during the war in 1995, and the Siege of Sarajevo, which happened over the course of a few years in the mid-90's. This was maybe the heaviest museum I've ever been to (emotionally), and the place almost brings you to tears. But it's worth it to know and get an idea of what most of these people went through during this time and it's nuts. Gives you real perspective on what this city and its people have been through.

Sarajevo

I was really glad I went to that museum, and aside from a few strolls around the city and taking in the sites this was how I spent most of my time in Sarajevo. It's a really cool little mountain city, and I would for sure recommend it when visiting this area of Europe. I was happy to meet some more awesome people while I was there, and from Sarajevo I would continue my journey east to another capital city: Belgrade.

Before finishing this post I've got to point out that when I mentioned that this place was still recovering from the war, I think that's mostly from an economical perspective. From what I saw (even though I'm just a tourist) it looks like people here have actually been able to move on, at least most of them, and put the violent past behind even though it's still relatively recent. I gotta say, when you hear about what happened here and what went on and you see how many people are still able to smile and find happiness in their life regardless of what happened, it's pretty inspiring and cool to see. The people in this entire region have been some of the nicest people I've ran into on my entire trip, and it's pretty amazing to see. I think there's a special group of people in this area and they're able to find humor in any situation. One of the cooler things I've noticed on this trip and definitely worth pointing out. Post over.

Cruising Down the Croatian Coast

Plitvice Lakes!

So the plan for the rest of Croatia was to basically work my way south. The main place I wanted to see here would be my next stop, Plitvice Lakes National Park. The largest national park in Croatia and one of the most beautiful in Europe. I had seen photographs of this place years ago and knew that I wanted to come here as soon as I could. The lakes only make up about 1% of the park, but they're the main attraction and definitely worth the visit. I highly recommend looking up pictures of this place, especially during the summer, because it’s pretty incredible. It consists of a series of these lakes all interconnected by cascading falls that pour down from all sides into each subsequent lake. The pictures are pretty amazing during the summertime, but the place is open all year, and winter has its own really unique feel to it. Rather than all of the lush, green vegetation surrounding the entire area, the park is covered in snow with half-frozen or even completely frozen waterfalls still appearing like they are cascading down into each subsequent lake, but frozen in time. It was really cool to see this place during this time of the year. You get to see it in a way that most people don’t when they come to visit this place.

When I arrived here I quickly made friends with a Korean guy named Ki. We agreed to explore the park together and made our way across one of the larger lakes by ferry and continued to hike along the majority of the lower lakes to get some really good views of the area. The only issue I had about visiting this place in the winter was that because the path was mostly covered in snow and ice, which made for an interesting walk anywhere you went, much of the walking trails were closed and got pretty sketchy to walk down even if you continued on anyways. So we weren’t able to get down to lake level on most of them, and had to stay high up on the cliffs while still enjoying the view of the lakes below. I’m still really happy to have been able to visit this place in the winter as it was really nice to have almost zero crowds there and it felt more like a personal experience. I would seriously come back here in the summer time though since more of the park would be open, including the upper lakes area, which looks like it consists of about half the lakes and is closed during the winter. I was able to hike through the lower lake area pretty quickly, but had originally booked a place to stay there that night because I wasn’t sure how long it would take me to get through the park. Because it didn’t take very long at all I decided to leave that day and take a bus to Split from the lakes, continuing my way south.

A cloudy view of Split's harbor

I’m really glad I got to see those lakes and winter time is definitely still worth a visit, although I still think that summer would be better just based on the pictures I've seen and how much more of the park is accessible. So I continued my way south that day to Split and hopped on a 4 ½ hour bus to get there. I got there in the evening and booked a pretty nice little hostel for  the 2 nights that I was gonna stay there before heading further south to Dubrovnik. After walking in circles for a bit trying to find the hostel I showed up in the evening, and as soon as I showed up a couple of Americans whom I was sharing a room with invited me to go out for a drink. It was a pretty good feeling to immediately meet some new people as soon as I walked in the door, and we went out for a couple drinks that night getting to know each other. Once again, I wasn’t alone at all, and it would be this way for the next few days of my time in Croatia. Taylor and Zack were a couple of pretty cool guys from Iowa and New York who went to school in Southern California and were both on their own little backpacking trips. They both met up to travel together for a few days. Taylor was headed north after Split and Zack was headed to Dubrovnik as well. So after hanging out for a bit we both decided to visit Dubrovnik together when we left Split.

I really liked Split. It was a nice city on the coast that had a really cool old part of the city with snaking, maze-like streets to walk through and get lost in. It was really clean, and there was a really cool promenade situated right on the water near the main port of the city. I spent most of the next day walking through the streets and walking up to the top of a nearby hill, encircled by a pretty nice park that overlooked the entire city. The weather wasn’t great this day but it was still a pretty cool view of the city, and I got to see just how big Croatia’s second largest city actually was. I made my way back down to the city and spent some more time getting lost in the winding streets of the old town trying to find a new pair of shoes because I’m really gonna need some soon, but I was unfortunately unsuccessful...

I accepted my shoe defeat and returned back to the hostel. I spent some time on the computer relaxing for a majority of this day since the weather wasn’t too great and met back up with Taylor and Zack. We spent the rest of the evening going out into the town to see if there was any nightlife in the winter on a Saturday night. There wasn’t much and the place was pretty empty, but we found one bar that had a decent amount of people in it and had a pretty good time. We made a quick stop to the promenade after that and then stumbled back to the hostel to pass out and wake up wayyy too early the next morning so Zack and I could catch the early bus to Dubrovnik. I will say again, because it was winter there wasn’t much going on, but I can see how cool this place might be in the summer and there would be a lot more people out and about all around the city. I would also recommend Split for a visit. Again, summer might be better but also probably more expensive.

So Zack and I made our way to Dubrovnik which was about a 5 hour ride, but one of the most beautiful drives I think I've ever been on. As mentioned in my last post, the landscape was just stunning the entire way and it made it difficult to sleep when all I wanted to do was look out the window. On the right hand side of the bus was the incredibly blue Adriatic Sea, dotted with tons of little islands everywhere. On the left hand side was extremely tall snow-capped mountains with buildings of small villages lining the cliffs. So you had nearly all forms of landscape encompassing a single area and it was incredible.

I didn't care about sleeping at that point, and when we got to Dubrovnik we headed into the Old Town (touristy center of the city) and found our place of accommodation and began to settle in. A lot of these little towns in this area have some "Old Town" that, like I said, is basically where the tourists spend most of their time, but for a good reason. These "Old Towns" are so cool and I will admit that I fall victim to these little "tourist attractions" when I come visit these places. Dubrovnik was no exception, and the Old Town itself was truly exceptional. I'm really glad Zack found our accommodation in the center of it and it's definitely where we spent most of our time in this city. 

It's just too difficult to put into words how beautiful Dubrovnik is. I might be too lazy to describe everything I saw here but please try to see it for yourself. Make it a goal to come here for a vacation or something or whatever. Just go to Croatia and Dubrovnik and you will not be disappointed. I'm not exaggerating when I say that Dubrovnik, Croatia is one of the most beautiful places I've ever been to. We climbed the city walls and went to the top of the nearby mountain and got one of the best views of anything I've ever seen in my life. Snow-capped mountains in the distance winding down into foothills and eventually dropping off into the bluest, island-dotted water you've ever seen. It's absolutely breathtaking and every cliche in the book applies to it. Just go there. Please, just go.

Also the sunsets...the sunsets! Okay, I'm not gonna waste any more time even trying to describe this place, so after a couple incredible days in Dubrovnik Zack and I continued to travel south to a place called Kotor, Montenegro. I had no idea this place existed, but Zack was going there anyway and I was curious about it and about visiting Montenegro since I knew nothing about this country. After looking it up I was convinced that this was a place I should probably check out so I decided to once again tag along, and Zack and I took the bus there. A couple more hours and many breathtaking views later and we were in Montenegro.

Zagreb - Where Things Begin to Feel Different

I left Torino really early in the morning on January 5^th, 2015. I went out the night before and I had too much fun so I had to wait all night for the train station to open at 4:30am in order to wait more and catch the train at 5:40am. The train was 6 ½ hours to Trieste, Italy (near the Slovenian border) and after a 5 hour layover in Trieste I would be on a 4 hour bus to Zagreb, Croatia. Zagreb was a very pivotal point in my trip for a number of reasons. First, I was finally really actually on my own at this point. Apart from the week that Alex and I split up in Italy (in which case I was only alone for maybe two days), and a few days in London a looong time ago, I hadn’t really been alone at all this entire trip. This is the turning point where things would begin to change. I was now officially traveling solo. Although even when I look back at it, it’s hard to say how lonely I really was at this point in the trip.

Trieste

I had a great layover in Trieste. This place was beautiful, situated right on the coast by the northern tip of the Adriatic Sea. Geographically it might as well be part of Slovenia, but Italy still holds on to it. Most of my layover was spent walking around while listening to music pretending that I’m in a movie (one of my favorite traveling hobbies). I also spent a lot of time writing in my journal (another new favorite hobby) on the pier over the water as the sun made its way towards the horizon. This was a good time, but there was something in the background that didn’t feel so good. It was actually a sliver of sadness, creeping into my emotions even though I refused to accept such negative emotions on this trip. It passed pretty quickly at the time though and I shook it off and made my way to the bus station.

It was a quick 4 hour bus ride to Zagreb, nearly passing through all of Slovenia on the way, including a 10 minute stop in Ljubiljana (the capital city) where I got off the bus and put my feet on the ground. But I still don’t feel like I should cross Slovenia off the list of countries visited since I didn’t actually do anything there. I met a friend on the bus, Alex, who was a really cool guy and gave me a nice introduction to Croatia, while swapping stories of traveling and growing up and all that jazz. It made the trip go by really fast and the next thing I knew I was in Zagreb.

Now it was time to make the quick 15 minute trek to my Couchsurfing host's apartment (back at it!) and I had my accommodation set for the next 3 nights. Vlado was yet another amazing host. Selfless, curious, and always welcoming new people to his place. I loved how interested he was in my culture and experience, always asking questions and trying to learn a thing or two. I actually enjoyed answering all of his questions because I appreciated his curiosity for different people and cultures. He treated me like another roommate at his place and gave me a great introduction to my home for the next 3 nights. As I was getting ready to turn myself in and prepare for this new city the next day, the sadness crept in again and I couldn’t help but notice it. Why? Leave me alone! But it persisted a little longer this time. I didn’t lose any sleep over it so I just went to bed (after being awake for almost 36 hours) and woke up the next morning feeling fine.

It's like the scaffolding isn't even there!

One thing that I really had to do while in Zagreb was go to the dentist :) I had to go to the dentist because a couple days before while flossing my teeth in Marco’s home, a cap came off of one of my molars (I guess these things still happen when you travel). It was still completely intact and it still fit, I just had to get it cemented back on. It was easy to ask Vlado about it and he told me we can get it taken care of before I left within the next two days. That was the only thing on my agenda, so Vlado had some free time and spent it with me, taking the tram from his place 3 quick stops into the city center. It was a really nice city center with Christmas decorations still remaining, as the holiday magic slowly begins to dissolve at this point in the New Year. Vlado had some things to take care of, so after a quick meal together in the city he let me loose and I was off, exploring yet another unfamiliar place with the most familiar feeling.

Quick side note: During our initial conversation when I first met Vlado, he asked me a really good question that he knew from his own experience from hosting so many people in the past. He told me how most people that travel for a while tend to appreciate the big cities a little less because they all start looking the same. “Is this the same case for you?” Well actually, it’s becoming a little bit like that, yea. I didn’t really think about this when I started my travels, and I know Alex agrees. To me, it’s just the way the mind works. In every big city there’s usually a big square (oftentimes with a statue of a dude on a horse), a river, a cathedral (with scaffolding), a main street for shopping, the biggest, largest, oldest of this or that, and “the food is amazing!” These are things we've seen and heard in just about every place we've been to, with a few exceptions. But for the most part this is how it works and your mind can tend to clump it all together and get bored of it. I try not to let this happen to me by obviously realizing what’s going on, and still trying to take everything in as a fresh, new experience…because it still is! I thought this was a valuable thing to mention since I just remember talking about that a couple times during my trip (mostly with Alex) and again here with Vlado.

The remainder of this day consisted of sightseeing and walking around the streets of central Zagreb. It was a really nice city center, and after walking around for a bit I discovered a view of the city which led me to another touristy part of town that had another really nice square and a small group of museums. One of these museums was actually something that I had already read about and really wanted to see. It was a lot different from most museums which is why I really wanted to see it. This was the museum of broken relationships. It consisted of sentimental objects donated to the museum by real people from real relationships from all over the world. Either between family members, lovers, or childhood romance, this museum had an object for most types of relationships that didn't work out for one reason or another. Is it depressing? Of course, but sometimes it’s cool to feel emotions like this when reading interesting stories about what some people have been through. I thought it was so cool because of how different it was, and trying to imagine what some of these people had been through almost made me feel like a stronger person because of it.

The empty nightlife on a Sunday night

We had another roommate coming in to stay for the second night, so I returned back to the apartment to meet her and then go out into the city center for a couple drinks. Harpa is from Iceland and she was on a little trip through Eastern Europe to write music. She was extremely well-traveled, and had a great mindset on traveling and people. We had a really great conversation about traveling and the types of people you meet and just the overall mentality that we share from our experiences. It was one of the better conversations I've had with a stranger on this trip, and I was really happy to be able to talk about those kinds of things with someone. She was also the only person I've ever met from Iceland, which was interesting enough by itself.

Before I continue, I need to mention that I’m writing this right now on a bus from Split to Dubrovnik and HOLY COW, this is one of the most beautiful drives I think I've ever been on. I’m for sure coming back to Croatia in the summer with my wife and renting a car and driving on the coast everywhere…just wow.

Puppy and I

...Okay, oh and also when I returned to the apartment that day just before Harpa’s arrival, there was yet another roommate that I had to meet. This roommate was a six week old puppy that Vlado bought to surprise his girlfriend when she returns from Sweden in a few days. The puppy was as cute as a puppy, and it would poo and pee everywhere and cry a lot, much like you might expect a puppy to do. I've never come across many puppies in my time, or my travels, so it was fun for me to get to know this puppy. It didn't have a name yet, since his girlfriend couldn't name it yet because she didn't know it existed yet, so it was just called puppy, it was a female.

Harpa had to take off early the next morning and the last full day I had in Zagreb was mostly uneventful. I spent most of the day on the computer trying to plan more of my trip. In the evening Vlado took me to the dentist which was fun. I got my crown put back on and everything for only $15! Then I got a really good meal after that to test it out. After the successful dentist visit and meal I headed back to the apartment and spent the rest of the night there.

Over the course of most of this day and this evening the sadness hit me pretty hard. I miss Torino a lot, it’s that simple. I had so much fun there with my friends and Italian family and I didn't want to leave yet, wah wah wah. But that’s basically what it comes down to. In case you haven’t figured it out yet, I really love that city. My personal experiences there and the people I know there are the sole reason why I love that place, and Torino will always have a special place in my heart. It’s easy to justify why I had to leave though, since I left on my 90^th day of my tourist visa, but I really wish I could have stayed. I don’t know when I’ll be back in Torino again, but I will return and I hope it's sooner rather than later. Don’t be surprised if that’s the city that I end up living in down the road. I know I sound like an emotional little boy right now but I want to share with you what I’m going through on this trip, and this is it.

Alas, don’t think that I’ll let this little sadness put a damper on my trip though and where I’m at now. But now that I've got that off my chest I can end this post by mentioning how I left Zagreb early the next morning, and it was off to the famous Plitvice Lakes National Park, which I was looking forward to the most on my visit to Croatia.

Pesto New Year

Susa Valley

With another great Christmas in the books it was time to prepare for the next awesome holiday, New Year’s. The plan for New Year’s was simple: celebrate the New Year in Marco’s family’s cabin in the mountains – and that’s exactly what we did. The town was Chiomonte, about 45 minutes from the family’s house, and it sure was a small town. There would be about 15-20 people in attendance at the cabin, and Mattia and I were the first ones to arrive. We had to run some errands and buy some “supplies” for the New Year at a supermarket in nearby Susa, and while we did that we did a little bit of sightseeing as well. Susa is the big town nestled in the self-proclaimed Susa valley, surrounded by the Italian Alps and absolutely stunning. It had all the cool little rivers and cathedrals and Roman ruins that you could want in an Italian town tucked into the mountains. So we enjoyed ourselves walking around for a bit, Mattia showing me all the main sites, and then we made our way back to the cabin.

When we made it back to the cabin we made a fantastic Pesto Pasta lunch (I love Pesto more than most things), enjoyed a couple drinks, and played some poker while awaiting for the arrival of the others. When the others arrived it was time to begin the festivities with some amazing food that everyone brought (always way too much food) and of course, some drinks.

When the clock hit midnight we all left the cabin and walked around town, setting off little fireworks, making a ruckus, and having an awesome time. Later in the night as I continued having drinks, my Italian became fluent and everyone had a lot of fun.

The following day, on New Year’s Day, the partying continued and I don’t even think we left the cabin. There was a lot of Italian spoken at this cabin and my listening skills continued to progress which I was thankful for. However, sometimes it made it difficult to have good conversation, but anytime we played a game or something like that there was no language needed and we always had a blast.

I finally got to go snowboarding!

There’s not much else to say about New Year’s Day, but the following day was fantastic because we got to do something that I needed to do, and I finally got my fix of it while I was here: we went snowboarding! I wish we had woken up earlier that day because by the time we got on the mountain with all of our gear rented and everything, it was already about 2:30 in the afternoon and the place was going to close in 2 hours. We went to the small town of Cesana, which is connected to the entire Via Lattea ski system, the largest in Italy and possibly one of the largest ski areas in Europe. This is where they had most of the Winter Olympic events back in ’06. I wish we had more time to explore this area, and I also wish that there was more snow (there really wasn’t much here unfortunately, and it was already January!), but I’m still happy that I finally got to go. It was a great day overall, and after snowboarding we got back to the cabin, went to a bar, went back to the cabin again, ate more Pesto pasta, then Marco and I left the cabin back to Pianezza, took a shower, then went out on the town and arrived there at about 12:45am. We definitely got a late start to the night and I’m not entirely sure why we did that, but it was still a lot of fun as usual. The following few days were spent relaxing and hanging out in Pianezza, still enjoying plenty of home-cooked Italian food and basically just loving life. We went out a couple more nights but nothing crazy, just a few drinks with good friends and improving Italian listening skills.

Another very important thing that I should mention which I don’t think I’ve mentioned previously: For the sake of random fun and embarrassment, Alex and I played a game that was introduced to us by some of his Australian friends way back near the beginning of the trip. The rules of this game were simple: if you said the number “10” and someone playing the game caught you, then you would have to get down and do 10 pushups. It sounded easy at first, so we made the mistake of trying this out. We continued to play this game throughout the rest of our trip and we’ve done pushups just about everywhere. I never thought how many times I would say this horrible number, but sure enough we would continue to embarrass ourselves place after place. We ended up getting pretty good at it near the end, always saying “9+1” as a safe substitution, but occasionally we would still screw up and embarrass ourselves yet again.

The location of my New Year's celebration, in the small town of Chiomonte

I’m really surprised I’m mentioning this now and I wish I mentioned it earlier because of all the embarrassing and hilarious situations that have manifested from this “game.” But the reason why I mention it now is because we decided to play a variation of this horrible game with myself, Marco, and Mattia, and I figured it’s worth mentioning. When we all spoke English with each other it was hard not to notice some of the common words we found ourselves constantly saying all the time. So it was actually my horrible idea to make a game out of this. Because Alex was gone I had no means of doing pushups anymore which meant that I had to find an alternative solution in order to stay physically fit. This resulted in me introducing the game to Marco and Mattia and collaborating to determine which words were appropriate for each of us. For Marco, it was “Hey” (he often said this at the end of his sentences too, as if he was prepping himself for Australia – while doing pushups at the same time), for Mattia it was “yea, yea, yea” (he was often enthusiastic about his agreements with things), and for me it was “I mean” (I mean, it’s just a good filler when I’m having a conversation with someone). I’m going over this extensively because this is the impact that it had on our daily lives, not just with Alex but so much with Marco and Mattia as well. It was really mostly Marco and I that suffered, me in particular. The first night we really started playing this game I swear I must’ve done around 150 pushups. Mattia became too good at never saying his word, but Marco and I would constantly embarrass ourselves on a daily basis. From the train station to the supermarket to just about every bar we went to when we went out…at least we kept in shape I guess.

Enough of that crazy game…now I guess I don’t have to worry about it anymore because after two weeks of some of the best moments of this trip I finally had to leave Italy (and the entire Schengen zone of 26 countries for that matter) because I was on my 90^th day of my tourist visa and preferred not to risk overstaying. If I want to go back to any country in Western/Central Europe, I’m gonna have to wait until the end of March until I get a new 90 days. But that’s traveling for ya, and I guess it’s time to move on with the trip. I was honestly pretty sad to be leaving Torino. I was so comfortable for so long in such a familiar place. But there’s always more to see, and the adventure must continue…

Before closing this post I’ve got to give a HUGE shout out to Marco, Mattia, and their friends and family. Your family is awesome and I am beyond thankful for their hospitality and incredible food and memories. You guys gave me an amazing time during the holidays and I couldn’t have asked for a better way to spend them away from my own family. You guys became my Italian family and you always will be. Thank you, thank you, thank you! 

Pizza Christmas

So as mentioned in an earlier post, my good friend Marco from Torino invited me to spend Christmas and New Year’s with him and his family. This was an absolutely incredible experience for me, possibly my favorite part of the trip so far.

I had a pretty good idea that I unfortunately wasn't going to be able to spend the holidays with my family this year.. so I didn't have much planned originally, and when Marco invited me back to Torino for this, I was really, really excited. I got to experience how a completely different culture celebrates these holidays, and I saw a lot of similarities and differences. But the one common factor in all of this was family. Although I was apart from my family during the time of year where family is often celebrated the most, I actually had a family here. Marco’s family took me in and treated me like one of their own, and although they didn't speak any English, there was still a special bond created here and they hosted me and fed me more than I could imagine. We didn't need language to feel this sense of family, nor to eat some amazing home cooked meals almost every day for the entire two weeks that I was there.

Marco’s family lived in a suburb about 25 minutes outside of Torino called Pianezza. In the beginning of my time here, days were spent in the city. Because Marco had work during the week, in the mornings his Father (who we called "Babbo Natale," or Santa in Italian, because he was) would drive me to the closest metro station and I would take the metro into the city. I began to spend the days in the city writing in my own personal journal. I brought this moleskin notebook with me for the trip and I hadn't used it at all yet during the trip. Now that I was traveling alone I had found some time to start writing in this thing and turns out it’s actually awesome. I would sit down in the park and just write down thoughts that I’d have about the trip and about my life in general. I would definitely call it my new hobby, and I definitely plan on doing this more often.

Sat by this cute couple while writing in my journal.

So there I was, sitting on a bench in beautiful Parco Valentino, writing stuff down in a notebook. I felt like an artist for the first time in my life! And maybe I sort of was? It was all new to me, but I really enjoyed it. Anyways, that’s something new, but aside from that I would also try to meet up with some other friends I had in the city while I was there and try to catch up on stuff while just having a good time. I would meet back up with Marco when he got off work and we’d take the metro back to the burbs and Babbo Natale would pick us up in his sleigh and bring us back home. We would eat amazing food and drink wine for dinner every night and then we would usually go back out into the city to a bar or something to meet up with more of Marco’s Italian friends.

Not all of Marco’s friends spoke English, so it was always fun and interesting for me to basically look like I understood what they were saying, but meanwhile I would be listening for key words, trying to figure out what the hell they were all talking about. I made a very enjoyable game out of this, and I definitely got better at it by the time I left.. and I played this game a lot. Marco and his brother Mattia, who is also a great friend and spoke great English, would translate for me anything their Father, Stepmom, or 90-year old Aunt would have to say to me, then I would respond and they would translate back. This is how most of the conversations took place during my stay with the family and it ended up creating some very memorable and funny conversations.

On Christmas Eve, a very strange and hilarious conversation took place between myself and Babbo Natale. The topic of conversation was about what I had to do in order to become the next Santa when he retires. There were a lot of erroneous and hilarious details, and requirements included anything from beating him at a game of Pinacola (a card game that he taught me that was really complicated and fun and involved A LOT of cards), to obviously growing a white beard myself, to running and jumping off the roof at different distances to try and fly without the sleigh first. There was another really strange one about getting the reindeer to fly that involved chili peppers that was way too weird for this blog, but it was hilarious. And Marco was sitting there translating and having his mind blown every time we continued the conversation…it was awesome and we couldn't stop laughing. I should also add that one of the funniest things I've ever heard was when Marco was teaching his 90 year old Aunt how to say something very inappropriate in English but all too funny to pass up (something along the lines of “wassup mother ______? < I’m sure you can fill in the blank) and it was the best. I couldn't stop laughing at this either, and I think I’ll just remember that one for the rest of my life, especially when I’m feeling upset or unhappy about something.

Marco's father, and my new friend - Babbo Natale

On another evening we had a BIG family dinner at a really good pizza place somewhere in the burbs and met up with A TON of Marco’s cousins and aunts and uncles. I think there must have been over 20 people there, and I met every one of them. I had never met that many Italian people at one time and it was definitely a little overwhelming, but it was a lot of fun. None of them spoke very much English, but I was sitting by Marco so it was okay. We actually had this big gathering not just because of the holidays but because Marco is actually off on an adventure of his own, moving to Australia for a year to work and live abroad for a while. I’m really happy for him taking that step for a life changing experience, and it’s cool to be going through a similar situation. So the family had a big get-together to say goodbye and celebrate since he’s leaving very soon.

This big family dinner actually took place just before Christmas (sorry I’m a little out of order). But in Italy, most of the families do the big Christmas dinner and everything on Christmas Eve. So on Christmas Eve we had another amazing dinner and home cooked meal thanks to Marco’s stepmom, and we opened some gifts! Marco and Mattia even got me a gift! It was really nice of them, and the best way I can describe it is a build-it-yourself straw to drink from a glass (preferably alcohol). It was a touching little gift and it was small enough to even fit in my bag, so I've got that added to my inventory now. We nicknamed it the Straw-nzo, which is funny if you know any bad Italian words (Mattia’s great idea for the name). I got them a nice beer from the city and we shared it after our dinner (and during the crazy conversation that Babbo Natale and I had as previously described).

After Christmas Eve dinner (and of course drinking) the festivities are followed by Christmas Day lunch. So we did that, and the food was once again incredible and all too plentiful. I was still completely full from dinner the night before, but it would be rude not to indulge, right? So I met some more family that joined us later that day and we had a great time. Christmas night usually marks the end of the Christmas festivities in Italy and it’s popular to go out to the bars there and meet back up with friends, discussing how everyone’s holidays were. So we did just that and that was another great night in the city with Marco and friends.

Skyping the family for Christmas!

So Christmas was a great success, and one of the best parts about it was when we returned home that Christmas night (after a few drinks) at 3:30am Italian time, because I Skyped my real family for their Christmas dinner, Santa hat and all. It worked out perfectly, and I was able to see so much of my family that came over to my parents’ house for Christmas as they proceeded to pass me around on the computer like some kind of baby. This was something I knew I wanted to do once I realized that I wouldn’t be home for the holidays and it worked out perfectly. It was so great to see everyone after so long, and it really meant a lot and capped off the rest of the holiday for me in the perfect way.

Another story worth noting was when we visited yet another friend of Marco’s not far from his hometown where we were staying. He warned me that they were a loud bunch and there were going to be a lot of them, and both pieces of information were true, but these people were hilarious. After a few drinks some of them could speak a little bit of English and we played a pretty fun game that involved auctioning off cards of animals and other objects to try and win some actual money. I didn’t win anything, but they made me the center of attention being the only foreigner there, and they had a lot of fun with it. Marco told them of my story and they really liked it, and I think they appreciated what I was doing and why I was there, which was a really cool feeling. We had a lot of fun there, sometimes at my own expense, but as usual it was great to be out of the comfort zone and having a great time with good people.

Budapest is the Best/End of an Era

Now this is a cool city. Honestly one of my favorite cities of the trip so far. We had a nice setup here too because I have a good friend that moved here a couple months ago who was able to host us for the week that we spent there. The story of how I met this guy is crazy enough by itself, but the fact that we were able to stay and hang out with him in Budapest makes it that much better.

Quick background story of how I met this guy: We actually met playing Xbox Live about 10 years ago..no joke. Back in my Xbox gaming days I would play with people online from all over the world, and we just met playing some game together and becoming friends on Xbox Live. After meeting up online from playing video games, we eventually just kept in touch every now and then through the use of social media when it started to get popular, and during my first trip to Europe after studying in Torino, I met him and his family for the first time in person when I took a trip to Sweden, and it was a blast. Yes, he's a real person and it was so cool and bizarre to actually spend time with him and his family and friends. It ended up being an awesome trip, and we've obviously kept in touch since then as well, so when I mentioned to him that I was taking this trip I knew we would try to meet up again. After he recently moved to Budapest it was an easy decision to visit this city while also meeting up with him and staying at his apartment while we were there.

This part of the trip worked out great, as he was able to host Alex and I for almost a week, and we spent a lot of time together catching up and taking advantage of the cheap and extremely impressive nightlife that Budapest so graciously offered us.

Nice little pano of the Danube river looking over into the Pest side

The first couple days of the trip were spent doing some sightseeing and getting familiar with the main sites of the city. While my friend had to work during the day for the first couple days, Alex and I took this time to see the main sites of the city and do yet another "free" walking tour of the city. I think this was probably our 50th "free" walking tour and it satisfied our expectations. We learned all about the history of the city and its Hungarian inhabitants, as well as the main sites of the city and the general layout of everything. We were satisfied with the tour and spent some time after that hanging out on the Buda side (because the city is split in two halves by the Danube river - Buda on one side and Pest on the other - fun fact) enjoying the views of Pest as the sun came down. Call it romantic but Alex and I have had enough of these hilarious moments together where we've joked so much about being a couple and how funny it must look to some people when we travel together.

To be honest, this was one of the busiest days we had in the city, knocking out a lot of the main sites with that tour. After that day the following few days were spent carefully observing the nightlife and the historical significance of Budapest's ruin bars, which are old abandoned city blocks renovated and embellished to accommodate a lot of young people on most evenings. I would have to say that the Szimpla ruin bar is the coolest bar that I've ever been to, with so many different rooms with crazy themes and decor, and the layout is reminiscent of an abandoned rustic space with old antiques from who knows where or when scattered throughout. Definitely a bar that I'll actually remember, and would highly recommend for anyone looking for a night out in Budapest.

We went to a few other awesome historical, educational, and of course cultural bars and clubs the following few nights, with a few great times in between. Including filling our physical bodies to capacity at an all you can eat and drink restaurant for the equivalent of 15 Euros, which kept me full for the rest of my time in Budapest. I'm not entirely sure why we ate at all after this meal over those next couple days, because I don't remember being hungry again for maybe a week or two after our time there...the name of this country is awfully deceiving.

Fisherman's Bastion

Another thing worth noting here - one of the most popular things to do in Budapest are these really cool looking underground caves on the Buda side, not very far from where we were staying. It's rated as the top thing to do here in Budapest on Trip Advisor, so we thought it would be worth checking out. There's this funny story of how Alex and I tried to book a tour for this place about three different times and completely failed to do it for a number of reasons. The first time we tried to book was a simple email to the website to schedule a time. We found a time in the afternoon on a Friday and decided to give that a shot, so when we made our way to the place we were running late and tried to catch a bus. The bus never came and it was going to be too late if we would continue to wait for it so this put us in a tight spot. We tried calling the tour group to let them know we may be late, but this resulted in an extremely broken English response of "no caves, no caves," which led me to believe that I had the wrong number and would not be able to carry on this conversation successfully. I hung up and we debated getting a cab when we were already running 10 minutes late and we were still 15 minutes away by bus. 

At this point we gave up, and as we started to make our way back to the apartment to just laugh about the situation, we saw a woman completely lose control on her push scooter as she hit a crack in the sidewalk and nearly flipped over her handlebars onto the ground. She ended up being okay but it was this event that basically confirmed to us that something out there didn't want us to go to these caves and it was just time to go home. We continued to basically laugh off the situation and sent a follow up email apologizing for the fact that we just stood up our reservation. We asked for a reschedule, and when they said how early the tour was the next day, we again asked if we could do one the day after, on Sunday. Fortunately, they were having an extra tour on Sunday morning so there was still a chance! We didn't even go out on Saturday night, yet we still managed to sleep in the next day and fail once again at these caves...it was at this point that we decided to just quit while we were ahead and save the caves for the next time we find ourselves in Budapest...so that's still on the to do list.

Filip and I in Hero's Square

As a substitute for the failed caving attempt, we decided to do another popular thing on the tourist to do list, and this was the baths. Budapest is pretty famous for their public baths, and they have A LOT of these things around the city. By far the biggest and most popular one is the Szechenyi thermal bath, located in the center of the city park. This place was HUGE and very, very relaxing. It's basically a giant public pool facility. Aside from the enormous 3 outdoor pools, they have a ton of other, smaller indoor ones that range in temperature as well as a number of different saunas that you can use. We spent a few hours there hopping in and out of hot and cold baths and saunas and just really enjoying ourselves the entire time - another highly recommended experience while visiting Budapest.

We had some other great times in Budapest and it was hard to believe just how cheap this place was. I got a haircut for less than the equivalent of 5 euros (a good one too!) and just about every meal we paid for was under 5 euros as well. Also, Budapest loves Christmas, and because of this I love Budapest. We spent some time in the city center walking around and enjoying the Christmas atmosphere created by all the manger-style shops selling local crafts, food, hot wine, and any other Christmas-type food and drink you could want - all so overpriced, and all so worth it. The lights and trees and music and cold winter air made me so happy, and if  it had been snowing I probably would have just decided to stay there for the rest of my life, but the trip must continue...

Budapest is Christmas town

With that being said, the end of our time in Budapest was quickly approaching. But it wasn't just the end of Budapest for Alex, it would be the end of his trip and the beginning of an entirely new type of trip for myself. I've gotta give a shout out to Filip and Linda for being amazing hosts for us in Budapest and I'm looking forward to running into them again in the future.

This has been one hell of a ride for both of us, and we both did extremely well traveling with each other. We got along great for the entire trip and it's easy to say this trip has changed both of our lives for the better. Alex will be heading back to the States for the holidays and moving on to bigger and better opportunities for his future career, which I couldn't be more excited for. I'm looking forward to seeing how much of a positive impact this experience has had on him, and how he will improve his quality of life wherever he is to be successful at everything he does. No doubt he'll go on to do great things, and I couldn't have asked for a better travel buddy. Big shout out to Alex for making this trip as amazing as it was for the both of us.

As for me, my plan is to continue traveling for now. After assessing my financial/life situation at this point, it looks like I can continue to travel and continue my adventure. I'm not entirely sure where I will go, but I have some crazy ideas in mind. To be honest, this wasn't even the original plan from the beginning, but it became a more and more realistic afterthought during the course of my travels over the last few months.

Things will be much different now as I will continue the majority of this trip solo, but I'm really looking forward to it. It's gonna be extremely difficult at times, as I expect temporary lapses of loneliness to eventually ensue, but I will obviously continue to meet more amazing people and I'm really looking forward to getting to know myself and the rest of this world along the way.