My Trip in Eastern Europe A Llama on the road tag:travellerspoint.com,2005-07-21:/blog/?domain=missmadrid98 2006-10-26T01:36:26Z missmadrid img/travel-blog-feed.png Madrid tag:travellerspoint.com,2005-08-31:/blog/?domain=missmadrid98&thisblog_entryid=19&entryid=1366 2006-10-26T01:29:12Z 2005-08-31T18:20:17Z well here i am back in Madrid, i arrived on a bus from Barcelona this morning at 6:30am. i slept for a while and i have spent the entire day cleaning house and preparing for the first day of work tommorow. In all sincerity, this trip had been one of the most fantastic things i have done in my life and it came at a time when i needed it most. As we all know i have my head ... well here i am back in Madrid, i arrived on a bus from Barcelona this morning at 6:30am. i slept for a while and i have spent the entire day cleaning house and preparing for the first day of work tommorow.
In all sincerity, this trip had been one of the most fantastic things i have done in my life and it came at a time when i needed it most. As we all know i have my head always full of a million things, my soul is never quiet, it´s always moving and wanting to learn new things. But i also want to do so many things and sometimes i don´t know where to start. This trip has taught me more about myself and has taught me to understand my dreams better and what is most important to me. As we know i am planning to come back to Los Angeles for a while and i did alot of thinking about that while i was on my trip. i have also noticed how far i have come and what i am willing to sacrifice to make my dreams come true. I have met many people on my journey. I liked meeting people like me that travel around and i loved exchanging stories about places you have both been. Though most of the people i met in hostels were young students who were constantly asking me what i was studying or when i told them i lived in madrid they asked me what i was studying. I was like "no i work" and they would say "ya i´m going to have to look for a job soon one of these days" and they would ask me "how long i had been working for and i would say "12 years" and they just didn´t know what to say. i know my life has been a bit different than most of the people i met along the way, and it was hard to relate to them cause they hadn´t worked a day in their life and had travelled more than me at the age of 22. At times i would tear up inside but felt better when i really thought about it and that i did it on my own and never stopped dreaming. I was travelling and going to these places cause i really wanted to and worked hard for it and it meant so much to me to be there. i wasn´t travelling cause i was 22 and that´s what you do at that age when you go to "college" then you work and the travelling stops and so do the dreams then you retire. It was very personal to me and everyday was a dream come true.

I remember hanging out outside the hostal in Krakow listening to the guys playing guitar (the night rat boy touched my heart) and feeling so warm inside as the sound of the acoustic guitar always takes me to one of my most treasured childhood memories, listening to my father play the guitar. He would play all the time, and we would keep about our business while he played, because it was something i think he did to relax or disconnect. we never interupted him, we always enjoyed it, he always played the same songs over and over again and we would always listen attentively to the end of "Seagull" to see if he would be able to do the ending this time. He sang with all his heart, he sang with everything he had inside of him, and we would all feel it, it brought peace into the home for time he played and then it would all go to hell when Justin would have a fit cause he refused to take out the trash or Taylor would kick the nintendo cause he lost, but for that time my father would play, we were at peace. That night in Krakow, i became a bit emotional thinking about my mother and father and brothers and how much i missed them and how i missed those times of peace which were few and far in betweeen, but were wonderful. I could never live without listening to my father play guitar, the day he can´t play anymore i never want to hear one again.

The 3 days i spent in that small town in the south of the Czech Republic called Ceske Budojovice, were very instense for me. It rained very heavily and i was the only person in that little hostel. I was so meant to end up in that god forsaken town cause i did alot of thinking. i stayed in most of the time and ate and read my Pablo Coehlo books that were the best things i could have read on my trip. I would sit in my room for hours reading and thinking to myself and recapping my life. it reminded me when i first moved to El Escorial. I had 900 dollars, 2 suitcases and a dream. i found an apartment that wasn´t furnished (which is typical in spain) no t.v., radio, books, music, conversation, nothing, not a damn thing. It was very very very cold and i didn´t have hot water or heating for the first 2 weeks. i would sit in my empty living room and drink instant coffee and smoke fortuna lights and look at the monastery that beckoned at my living room window. I sold everything and left everything i had to live in this small village in Spain and was able to find an apartment with views of my treasured monastery which i also kept so close to my heart and there i was. i felt so retarded. i was like i am soooooo cold and hungry and i don´t have any working papers or friends or money. But there was a little flutter in my heart that reminded me that this was my dream and the time had come and i knew i would make it happen cause i can survive like a cat in the street, but when you are faced with your dream right there you don´t know what to do with it, because it was always a dream. I made my life happen only because i really wanted to live in Spain. If i didn´t want it as bad as i did, i wouldn´t have lasted, but i knew i would make it happen. And the time i went was the best time for me. I was younger, 23, full of dreams and tired of life (which didn´t get ANY easier). the people that have come into my life in spain all came in at the right time. If i would have arrived in Spain 1 week later than planned, my life here in spain would be completely different. I came when i was supposed to, cause it was my heart that told me it was time to go. Just like it was my heart that told me it was time to make this trip. I am a very strong believer in following your dreams and really being true to your heart and i know i live my life much like a dreamer and most people don´t agree with my lifestyle which is absolutely fine cause everyone is different but i dont´feel silly anymore being a dreamer. I ask so many people what are your dreams? and you would be amazed how many people don´t have any dreams. if they do they usually do with making money or being professionally succesful. It´s as if people have forgotten to dream, they forgot what it was that they wanted to do. So many people couldn´t give me an answer, it was as if they never thought about it. i would think to myself, wow i want to do a MILLION THINGS, i want to learn 5 languages, go to the great wall of china, go to machu pichu, visit argentina, see penguins in antartica, work in France, dance in my living room, enjoy good wine with great friends, play with children, crochet scarfs, take pictures, dance with people all over the world, taste food from countries i have never heard of, dance with an african tribe, move to sevilla, sing with strangers, have a love affair that lasts 3 beautiful days, work with handicapped children, help poor people, learn how to cook more food, blah, blah blah, blah,blah,blah i just don´t shut up, and there were so many people that couldn´t even name 3 things they like to do in their spare time. I was like "man, you´ve got to live, here lets write down what you like and what you have always wanted to do" and they were like "no, i have my family and my friends and my job, it´s to hard" and i really learned that i have to respect everyone as i want to be respected and i can´t change the world in a month. I guess i just wanted everyone to dream and work towards it and the things they truly want, but i guess they don´t want to really make it happen i guess, i still haven´t figured it out. i think it´s because most people like security and i just throw security right out that window "who needs it when you could get hit by a bus tommorow or get sick in 2 years?" I like feeling alive now. Even though i have many problems and my life is a constant bad columbian soap opera (without the make-up and tacky clothes) I guess i always remind myself i could be seriously ill, homeless,living in a war stricken country, or worst of all...be alone.

Which brings me to another point. With all the things i have done and all the places i have been to, none of what i have done would have been possible if i didn´t have all the family and friends i have, though my family has given me alot of grief and still does from time to time and it´s been nice being away from them for a while (they form part of the bad columbian soap opera), they have always been so supportive of me and never discouraged me EVER to chase my dreams. I carry a piece of everyone in my family in me, always. I want to thank everyone in my family for always accepting me just the way i was no matter how silly i dressed or how chaotic my life has been. I want to thank them all for pitching in when i was a very little girl and all forming an important part in raising me. I want to thank my mom for always encouraging me to be myself and never judging me and always defending me at school to teachers who felt something was wrong with her daughter cause she was "different" I want to thank my father for telling me when i was 12 the key to life was to never marry or have credit cards, and of course for playing his guitar and always reminding me i was a lady and i should eat like one not like a ravenous animal. I want to thank the friends that made me feel like i never left, and the ones who have made the fantastic effort to come out and see me during these past 4 and a half years (jessica holds the record, 3 times!!!) The friends who have had to deal with all the plan 9 from outer space plans i have had and have nodded their head and said "that´s sounds good" I wouldn´t be anywheres near the person i am now if i didn´t have the most fantastic friends by my side. I want to thank all of my friends in Spain as well who have always offered their heart, ear, or their couch and have tried to understand my problems the best they could and random hysterical fits, for also making my life in Spain the most spectacular 4 and a half years i have ever had and helping me pull through those very difficult first years, thank you. Thank you to everyone who has helped me become the person i am now and helping me go after all those dreams i treasure and hold so close to my heart. I am truly a very loved person and that perhaps is the most important thing in my life, all of you, because even though the spectacular firework show in budapest was beautiful, and the coffee in Austria was superb, the rising and setting of the sun in various beautiful eastern european cities, the fantastic beer in the Poland, the fantastic views in Prague and the pastries in Vienna were magnificent and the sound of nothing in a mountain in Austria were all fanstatic and soul filling, not one of those things are as important and beautiful as you. I love you.
live your dreams, laugh, follow your heart and smile!

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]]> Venice tag:travellerspoint.com,2005-08-30:/blog/?domain=missmadrid98&thisblog_entryid=18&entryid=1330 2006-10-26T01:36:26Z 2005-08-30T09:30:26Z well people, i departed Salzburg at 1:38am on a night train 2 days ago on my way to Venice. My ticket wasn't a bed seat it was another chair seat because there weren't anymore beds on the train so i had no choice, but, when i found my cabin, i saw that you could lay out the chairs and make it like one big bed. Now there are 6 seats in one cabin, so technicaly 6 people could sleep ... well people, i departed Salzburg at 1:38am on a night train 2 days ago on my way to Venice. My ticket wasn't a bed seat it was another chair seat because there weren't anymore beds on the train so i had no choice, but, when i found my cabin, i saw that you could lay out the chairs and make it like one big bed. Now there are 6 seats in one cabin, so technicaly 6 people could sleep in one cabin. Well i found 3 lovely young italian guys in my cabin sleeping soundly. The train had previously come from Vienna so they had been asleep for 3 hours already. They were all spread about, cozy, warm and comfortable. Then i had to wake them up so i could kind of put my backpack away and climb into bed with them which was going to be quite interesting. They all sat up kind of upset cause i guess they thought they couldn't sleep anymore cause now i was there. i told them not to worry, go back to sleep i will sleep in the other direction. well after an hour and a half i was really uncomfortable and these guys were SOUND asleep cause they were sleeping completely streched out and i wasn't cause i was trying to sleep in a fetal position between the feet of 2 of them. Well after a while of being very uncomfortable and longing to sleep and stretch myelf out, i kind of squirmed my way in between Luigi and Vincenzo (i just gave them any name) i wiggled myself slowly in between both of them trying not to wake them up, which i did. I apologized and Luigi said no its okay don't worry, so i got my little twin star pillow and slept all cozy in between luigi and vincenzo. I was laughing so much to myself because i was thinking if the people i knew could see me now sleeping with these 3 very cute and young italian guys, it was like a once in a lifetime oportunity!!! sometimes life gives you little blessings you just have to accept and not complain. 5 hours later, some man comes in to check our tickets, when we woke up i realized i was cuddled up against luigi like he was a stuffed animal and holding vincezo arm!!!!!! i was like oh i am so sorry, they weren't really bothered and were quite tired themselves and were quite relieved they didn't have to sleep with a 65 year old stinky man with a beard. After they checked our tickets, we cuddled up again to sleep the remaining 2 hours left of the train ride. When we arrived at Venice We said goodbye and good luck and we went our seperate ways. I found my hostal and checked in. I met my new roomate who was a guy named richard from London. we decided to go and have lunch together at the restaurant downstairs that was absolutely fantastic and cheap. Then we went to The city center and walked all through venice. Venice is something everyone has to see, but not in August at 3 in the afternoon. lots of tourists and it was hot, ( i was happy about the weather, it was the first time on my trip i had seen the sun!) but venice is fantastic, beautiful, wish you were here! Well we reached the main plaza, San Marcos, and there i discovered the wonderful world of feeding pigeons. The plaza is known for an exhorbant amount of pigeons and people feeding them, they eat out of your hand and fly all over you, so i quickly bought i bag of pigeon food for a euro. Before i even opened the bag some pigeon flew over to me and was hovering in front of me like a hummingbird waiting for me to open the bag, he got so impatient, he grabbed the bag with his little pigeon claws to take it away, i was like "hey man chill out, give me a minute" well i opened the bag and there was a SWARM of pigeons that came at me, flapping their wings and eating out of my hands and wherever the seeds went flying to. i was laughing soooooooooo hard and my new friend richard took some pictures of me with the pigeons. i kept feeding them and laughing cause there were like 10 pigeons sitting on me, oh it was so much fun. i could have done that all day. then we walked around the plaza, went to the top of the tower to see the view of the city and then walked around venice some more. we stopped and had a beer and talked for a while, then tried to find our way back to the train station. Venice is like a labyrinth, if you don't have a map, you're lost! it was so beautiful, everything people said about how dirty it was didn't seem true to me, it was like an ordinary city clean wise, but i thought it was fantastic. well we made our way back to the hostal, i took a nap then we went downstairs to eat again. i had 2 plates of fantastic pasta this time, it was so good i asked for the recipe and the cook gave it to me, it's a very easy recipe, i cant' wait to try it at home. Then after dinner we went back up to our room and had a beer on the balcony where we met our new roomate Jennifer from Seattle, then we met another girl from England and we chatted for about and hour then we all went to bed. Today i fly from Venice back Girona, Spain where i will be spending one night, i will write from there. Besos, Ciao!

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]]> Salzburg tag:travellerspoint.com,2005-08-25:/blog/?domain=missmadrid98&thisblog_entryid=17&entryid=1226 2005-08-25T22:00:02Z 2005-08-25T21:32:12Z well today has been a good day. i woke up very early, the earliest i have woken up on my trip, i woke up at 7am!! i was so anxious to go out and see Salzburg, the place i have dreamed of going for over half my life. i had breakfast here at the hostal and i was out on the street by 9am. As i was walking into the city i was looking at all the mountains around me ... well today has been a good day. i woke up very early, the earliest i have woken up on my trip, i woke up at 7am!! i was so anxious to go out and see Salzburg, the place i have dreamed of going for over half my life. i had breakfast here at the hostal and i was out on the street by 9am. As i was walking into the city i was looking at all the mountains around me and i started smiling to myself thinking "im in salzburg!" i walked around the city and then stopped in the information office to see about the sound of music tours i was so desperate to go on. i decided i would go on the 2pm tour, so i walked all around the city and took many many pictures. i ran into an older woman that is staying in my room, we had lunche and talked. she is a writer her name is linda, shes 68 and lives in florida. shes travelling around the world for a year. we had great conversation about life and travelling and compared cities we had been to. well it was getting close to 2pm so i went to the information office to get on my sound of music tour bus. the tour guide was absolutely fantastic cause he would kind of make fun of the fact people get carted around salzburg to see the gazeebo leazil and rolf sang im 16 going on 17. they played the whole sound of music sound track everywhere we went which was fantastic cause i was living my dream while i listened to the music that drew me to the place. They took us out to the countryside where they filmed the scenes in the beginnig of the movie. while we were drivig out i was trying to find myself a green hill to come back to to sing the sound of music on while i would twirl around. anyways after my tour i ate a sandwich and came back to the hostel just in time to watch the sound of music which they play everyday at 8pm. while i was watching the begnning where they show the scenery of Austria, i recognized all the places, i had been there not to long ago. then when julie andrews started to sing on the green hill i started to cry, i was moved for the fact that i had been there, so many years i dreamed of that and talked about it, so many, i was emotional i almost had to leave cause it was a bit much to cry over the sound of music but it was the fact i made that dream come true, i did it, after all these years. all the places they filmed in salzburg i saw, i recognized the city and places, it was a feeling of complete happiness and accomplishment, just like when i moved to El Escorial, when i became a teacher, and when i danced sevillanas at the feria de sevilla. i have many dreams, i can do them, but some or more important than others. i want to see a lion in the serengheti and go to the great wall of china, i want to see penguins in antartica and visit buenos aires. but then there are dreams which are much more important to me, like going to salzburg and singing the sound of music on a little green hill, or moving to El Escorial, becoming a historian, or dancing sevillanas at the feria, becoming a teacher, and of course going to Machu Pichu in Peru and having my own personal llama carry my things. I love making my dreams come true, even though they are very hard to do and you have to work very hard to do them, its the best feeling in the world, i recommend it to everyone, make dreams come true, i couldnt live without knowing i will make them come true. The hardest thing to do in life is to truely do what you want to do, no matter what it is.

Ten years ago when i was living with jessica nd marissa and working at Caffe D´Amor (remember girls?) there was this calendar at my desk. and in that calender there was a picture on ever month of villages all over europe. i tore out all the pictures and kept them and said to myself i would visit all of those places one day. i still have those pictures and have them with me in madrid. one of the places in that calendar is of a town called Halsatt in Austria. Gorgeous place tucked away in the moutains and by a lake. Tommorow i am going to halstatt, i am going to my first place in my calendar, even though its taken 10 years, im going tommorow, i did it, im going to one of my pictures in my calendar, that silly little dream people would laugh at and go "yeah right" i am going damn it, i was really serious about my calendar, it just took some time.

Today was a memorable day for me cause i was somewhere i had always dreamed of visiting for the silly little reson of the movie, but i dont care, its my dream, and it fills my heart, and i look forwad to seeing my penguins one day and and visiting Machu Pichu. all in good time.

Salzburg remains copyright of the author missmadrid, a member of the travel community Travellerspoint.

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]]> Vienna/Salzburg tag:travellerspoint.com,2005-08-24:/blog/?domain=missmadrid98&thisblog_entryid=16&entryid=1186 2005-08-24T10:46:45Z 2005-08-24T10:27:44Z Well i havent had very much time in Vienna to write. I walked all over the city and it was absolutely beautiful, gorgeous, wish you were here. i met a canadian girl in my room and we went out for dinner and went to this permanent carnival in Vienna and had a great time going on roller coasters and fun houses. Then we went out for a beer on the way back to the hostal (after we were lost for ... Well i havent had very much time in Vienna to write. I walked all over the city and it was absolutely beautiful, gorgeous, wish you were here. i met a canadian girl in my room and we went out for dinner and went to this permanent carnival in Vienna and had a great time going on roller coasters and fun houses. Then we went out for a beer on the way back to the hostal (after we were lost for an hour and a half trying to find the right tram back to where we had to go) well we met 3 canadians at the bar and we ended up going out really late and i ended the night by dancing with a canadian flag while the sun came up in Vienna. after my performance with the canadian flag I went back to the hostal to pack then i took a train to Salzburg where i am at now and i am going to sleep and then i am going to wake up around 8pm to watch the sound of music which they play every night here at the hostal. i have 4 nights booked here and i am sooooooooooo doing the tourist sound of music thing, i am going soooo prepared with my camera and everything tommorow on my sound of music tour. i almost starting crying when i was on the bus on the way to my hostal and i saw the place where they sang "doe a deer" when they are on steps by a fountain and statues, i was like "oh my god look, oh jesus oh my god" anyway, i am doing EVERY sound of music thing i dont care how cheesy it is, i have wanted to come here because of that movie for more than half my life and i am not holding back. my new canadian friend, Cati, asked if i wanted to go to Romania with her, i told her i would love to but i have to go to salzburg, and she was like "ah its not that great, its whatever blah blah blah" i was like no you DONT understand i HAVE to go to salzburg its very important and its the only place on my trip that was a must see.

anyways one of the friends i made in Estonia (Mike) took picturs with his digital camera and has sent me the website where you can view them you have to click on "travelling buddies" there are pictures of me, Georg, Ana and Pambos. there are also pictures of some people i dont know and interesting characters from the hostal in Riga

http://www.flickr.com/photos/an_agent/sets/

Vienna/Salzburg remains copyright of the author missmadrid, a member of the travel community Travellerspoint.

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]]> Vienna tag:travellerspoint.com,2005-08-22:/blog/?domain=missmadrid98&thisblog_entryid=15&entryid=1154 2005-08-23T01:28:29Z 2005-08-23T01:28:29Z its almost 4 am and im having a blast im bonding with german people´in austria and drinking beer and talking about the fermentation of beer in germany and a 86 year old grandma helped me find my hostel today!! i must go to heilderberg in germany where i have been invited!!! this guy who works reception is finding informationm for me to go to halstatt, austria where i have had a picture of for 10 years and always wanted ... its almost 4 am and im having a blast im bonding with german people´in austria and drinking beer and talking about the fermentation of beer in germany and a 86 year old grandma helped me find my hostel today!! i must go to heilderberg in germany where i have been invited!!! this guy who works reception is finding informationm for me to go to halstatt, austria where i have had a picture of for 10 years and always wanted to go anyways ill write better tommrow, right now they are playing the rolling stones "paint it black" i see a white dog and i want to paint it black!!! i ove this song!!!!!!!!!!
ausria rocks!!!

Vienna remains copyright of the author missmadrid, a member of the travel community Travellerspoint.

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]]> Budapest tag:travellerspoint.com,2005-08-21:/blog/?domain=missmadrid98&thisblog_entryid=14&entryid=1142 2005-08-21T22:32:09Z 2005-08-21T22:32:09Z I only have 10 minutes but i just wanted to wish my brother taylor a happy Birthday, i cant call but if my mom can please call him and wish him a happy birthday for me i would greatly appreciate it!! and also happy birthday to my aunt angie and my mother!! i leave for Vienna tommorow.. i am one step closer to singing the sound of music and i little green hill in Austria!!! ... I only have 10 minutes but i just wanted to wish my brother taylor a happy Birthday, i cant call but if my mom can please call him and wish him a happy birthday for me i would greatly appreciate it!! and also happy birthday to my aunt angie and my mother!! i leave for Vienna tommorow.. i am one step closer to singing the sound of music and i little green hill in Austria!!!

Budapest remains copyright of the author missmadrid, a member of the travel community Travellerspoint.

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]]> Budapest tag:travellerspoint.com,2005-08-19:/blog/?domain=missmadrid98&thisblog_entryid=13&entryid=1107 2005-08-19T15:49:30Z 2005-08-19T15:49:30Z Well i finally departed from Ceske Budojovice and took a train to Budapest. The train took a while and i had to change trains in Brno, south Czech Republic. Well when i was on the train from Brno to Budapest there were 3 passport controls. What the passport control people did was ride train from one stop to another, check your passport and stamp it, then get off. I guess we were going through alot of borders. Well i went ... Well i finally departed from Ceske Budojovice and took a train to Budapest. The train took a while and i had to change trains in Brno, south Czech Republic. Well when i was on the train from Brno to Budapest there were 3 passport controls. What the passport control people did was ride train from one stop to another, check your passport and stamp it, then get off. I guess we were going through alot of borders. Well i went through 3 passport controls in like 3 hours, i was like "where am i, whats going on" and i would look at the stamp and it would say "Kuty" okay, NEVER heard of Kuty before but its in some country i am going through which i have no idea what country that is, and then like and hour later more passport control people came and stamped it "Sturov" okay, NEVER heard of Sturov before either and i have no idea what country thats in. then another passport guy comes around and hour later and asks for my passport and i was like "what country am i in, and where was i before" and he was SSSOOOOO annoyed by my question that i didnt know where i was at, he didnt say anything and stamped my passport "Budapest" i was like okay, im in Hungry now, i have no idea where i have been the last 2 hours, must have been Slovakia, not sure have to look on a map, but it was pretty while i looked at it out the window wondering what country i was looking at. Well when i arrived in Budapest i walked allllllll the way to my hostel and checked in. Its another student dorm like place but way better than the crap place in Prague. Well i had to share with another person, so i went to my room to find a very nice and sweet girl from Belgium named Catrin that was looking forward to her nice evening in listening to music and drawing in her notebook. Well poor girl had no clue what tornado just entered her room. She asked me my name and where i was from and i answered like i have done 35,657 times on this trip. Anyways i asked her if i could do my laundry and she said yes they have a washer and a dryer, i was like "dryer, did someone say DRYER" i was so excited i wanted to throw myself IN the dryer, my clothes havent seen a dryer in early 5 years, so it was a grand moment on my trip. i desperately needed to wash clothes and i asked her about the money situation and how much it costs to use the washing machine and she told me it was 200 foiurguitu whatever you call it money, which i didnt have on me, i still hadnt taken out money. so she gathered some change together so i could put my clothes in right away. well when i went to the washing machine it didnt work so i went back to ask her and she came to show me how to use it. i also didnt have any soap and i was about to throw some shampoo in the washer or shower gel cant remember, but she said she had some soap for clothes, so she went back to the room and brought me some soap. i finally got it started. She told me that the washing machines spin cycle doesnt work and i had to go down to the 2nd floor and put it in a machine to spin dry it and then bring it up back to the 3rd floor and put it in the dryer. i was okay ill figure it out when the time comes. i took a shower and left to go get something to eat and take out money.(by the way, Budapest Rocks) when i came back the clothes were done but were sopping wet, so i just decided to put them directly in the dryer and skip that spin dryer thing Catrin told me to do. well i put the money in and the dryer wouldnt work. i was like "shit" so i went to the room and had to wake up catrin to ask her how the dryer worked, so she got up and went with me to the wash room, she couldnt figure it out either, but she said i had to put my clothes in the spin dryer first. So we went to the 2nd floor and she showed me a machine i have never seen in my life. It was cylinder shaped and the top flipped up. she said to put some clothes in, not alot cause it was small, and close the top. The machine starting spinning hysterically and she said i had to like sit on it and that the water came out of a little spout on the bottom and i had to aim the little spout in the drain. I was like riding a rodeo horse and trying to aim the little spout in a drain in the floor that was spitting water out from the clothes. I told her i would take it from here and she could go back to bed. i had to do that 3 times to spin dry all my clothes. It was the funniest thing yet, i swear, i was like what am i doing? why am i sitting on top of a spin dryer aiming it at a drain? how did i get here? well after my rodeo cowboy session with the spin dryer, i took my clothes back up to the dryer on the third floor. the dryer still wouldnt work. I was sooooooo dertermined to dry my clothes and finish this damn load of laundry i started to take apart the knob on the dryer cause that is why it wouldnt start, the knob wasnt catching on to the little plastic thing that had to turn the dial. so i went back to my room and rummaged through my stuff in the dark (poor catrin) and i found this nail set thing i bought in krakow that had clippers, tweezers,little scissors and so forth, which was now going to be my master tool kit. it came in a little pink fluffy case and everything. so here i find myself sitting on a disgusting half wet floor taking apart a dryer in Budapest. i figured out what was wrong and i turned the dial myself with the tweezers and metal nail file, it would start but not catch on, cause i couldnt turn it enough, finally i was like i am hot wiring this damn dryer, i ended up turning the dial just enough where it started and didnt stop, i was like "its alive, ITS ALIVE" i was so excited. i had to wait an hour for my clothes to dry and when i pulled them out i was rubbing my warm pajama shirt on my face, it was so soft and dry, mmmmmm i miss dryers. well i finally made it to bed and didnt bother Catrin anymore. The next day i spent walking all over Budapest and spent alot of time taking pictures. Budapest is absolutely fantastic. i went back to my room and read a while and took a nap, then i went out to eat some dinner. After dinner I went to have a glass of wine and the girl asked me if i wanted a deci liter or a full glass of wine, i was like, "i want a proper glass of wine, which ever of the two that may be" i swear, they measure everything, a deci liter of wine, whats that? well i made my way to bed early, im quite tired from all the travelling and i am enjoying the fact that i wake up and have no plans and i have no clue what the date is or the day of the week, no clue, couldnt tell you, not interested. i have a few more days here in budapest then i most likely am going to make my way to Viena. Still havent seen a sunny day yet.

Budapest remains copyright of the author missmadrid, a member of the travel community Travellerspoint.

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]]> česke' Budějovice tag:travellerspoint.com,2005-08-16:/blog/?domain=missmadrid98&thisblog_entryid=12&entryid=1051 2005-08-16T13:25:47Z 2005-08-16T13:25:47Z Well it hasnt stopped raining at all since i arrived into this town. It has been raining alllllll the time. anyway, i am the only one staying at the hostal so i am a bit bored but they have a t.v. there and i havent watched tv in over 2 weeks. so i made my dinner and watched Dennis the Menace in Czech. then some movie come on that i really liked with the actor Adrien Brody where he wants ... Well it hasnt stopped raining at all since i arrived into this town. It has been raining alllllll the time. anyway, i am the only one staying at the hostal so i am a bit bored but they have a t.v. there and i havent watched tv in over 2 weeks. so i made my dinner and watched Dennis the Menace in Czech. then some movie come on that i really liked with the actor Adrien Brody where he wants to become a ventriloquist, that was funny. well i stayed in my room all night looking at the wall and thinking about my life and how did i end up in the small town in the south of the Czech Republic that i didnt even know existed till like 4 days ago. I read "The Alchemist" again and was of course profoundly moved and made me think even more about what i am doing, which really is a dangerous thing for me cause i am capable or doing quite irrational things and the spur of the moment. I fell asleep and woke up at noon. it was still raining outside. i showered and got dressed and went to the train station to see how i can get to budapest tomm. well on my way over here i was on the bus and there was some guy coming around chewcking tickets, i was like, um i dont have a ticket cause tehre isnt anywhere to buy a ticket and you cant pay the bus driver and no one else has a ticket when they get on so whatever, it sthe same in italy and other countries as well. well today was my lucky day. This man comes up to me and says something and i play the "no entiendo" card he keeps speaking to me in czech and i am like hey buddy "no entiendo" so i speak broken english so he doesnt think i speak english in case he does. he was really upset and i think he asked me if i spoke german i said "nine" which was stupid cause i just responded in german. I was so muddled with so many languages in my head and this man was really pissed off and he kept speaking to me in Czech. he asked me for my passport and i said i didnt have it on me, it was at the hostal and he wrote down on a piece of paper 400 Krowns, i was like i am NOT giving you 400 Krowns. i got off on the next stop to get away from this situation and he got off too, i know he was trying to tell me that i had to pay to get on the bus which is fine i have NNOOOOOOOO problem paying to use public transportation but when there arent any places whatsoever to buy a ticket, its kind of hard and just because your system is shite doesnt give you the right to give me shit cause i am NOT the only one on that bus without a ticket buddy! He kept pointing and yelling i said "dont understand" he was poitnign at a ticket machine that happend to be there and i said "UBarku" {cause that was the name of my stop} and he was like yeah Ubarku i understand that so i was like "Ubarku as i pointed at the machine, NINE, Ubarku NINE {such as there arent any flippin ticket machines where i am at} i just walked away in the rain with my broken giraffe umbrella thats barely holding on. I was so upset, there arent any ticket machines anywhere, what do you want from me? anywaya, im gettign hungry, im goign back to the hostel and eat some food i bought and maybe watch a movie in Czech.

česke' Budějovice remains copyright of the author missmadrid, a member of the travel community Travellerspoint.

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]]> česke' Budějovice tag:travellerspoint.com,2005-08-14:/blog/?domain=missmadrid98&thisblog_entryid=11&entryid=1022 2005-08-14T18:03:21Z 2005-08-14T18:03:21Z Well i am currently in this town české Budějovice because there wasnt anywhere else to go in all of eastern europe. since i kind of plan things as a go i was left with no rooms anywhere. i was planning on going to either, Bratislava or Budapest next but there werent any rooms availible at all in either of these places. I tried looking in neighboring countries and couldnt find a damn thing, not in even in small towns in ... Well i am currently in this town české Budějovice because there wasnt anywhere else to go in all of eastern europe. since i kind of plan things as a go i was left with no rooms anywhere. i was planning on going to either, Bratislava or Budapest next but there werent any rooms availible at all in either of these places. I tried looking in neighboring countries and couldnt find a damn thing, not in even in small towns in Hungry,Slavakia, Austria or Slovenia, and none in Prague, so i had to leave cause i coudlnt stay there, so i remembered, thank god, of a small village in the south of the Czech Republic that these guys mentioned to me in Krakow that was fantastic and gave me the name and number of the hostel where they stayed, so i called the hostal and they had a room so i caught the next train to this village. Well on the train on the way over here something verz verz very funny happened. i was sitting in the cabin with 3 other women, a very old woman, a middle aged woman, and a young girl, all Czechs. anyways i am sitting there reading my book and the other women are talking and this man comes into to the cabin and looks at us and closes his eyes and FARTS!!!!!! Then he left. I couldnt understand the old woman but i swear she must have said something like (did he just fart?) we started laughing so hard, we didnt understand what the hell that was all about, i mean i laughed for like 5 minutes, some like random man walks in farts and leaves (im laughing again just thinking about it) anzÿway that was just so random. well i arrived in this town 2 and a half hours later and almost got harrased by some gypsys who i knew were plotting to rob my backpack as i waited for the bus to take me to this hostel. Anyway, i make it to my hostal and ring the doorbell. This little old grandma sticks her head out of the window and starts speaking to me in Czech and im like "dont understand" and she said "maria" and i said zes that was me. well she opened the door and she spoke nothing but czech. she was explaning everzthing to me in Czech and using hand gestures, i kept answering "ya" like as if i was german was like "ya" "ya" everztime i understood something she was trying to tell me. its amaying how you dont need lamguage sometimes just hand gestures, expressions of the face and a simple "ya" to confirm you understood. its a quaint little room and hostal and its costingm me 6 euros a night so im okay now. im not quite sure how long i will stay even though i paid for 3 nights. I tried to find the town center, only to find it empty and no one on the street (these are the times i wish most places were like spain where on sundays, everyone is out having canas and tapas). well there isnt anyone around and i found this internet cafe and i ordered a beer. the beer cost me like 40 cents and its a STEIN of beer, i was like "wow thanks" I have learned that this town is known fo rthe beer cause this is where budweiser was first brewed, hence the name Budějovice, but the german way of saying this town is Budweiser. Now i dont know what the hell to do, its cold and rainy outside, like it has been on my whole trip. you know i havent been able to wear a tank top nor a skirt on my whole trip? i know when i get to italy ill be boiling, but for now i have to keep the sweater on which is fine, i rather be in places like this in the summer instead of suffoctaing from the heat down in the sounthern countries like spain or italy (damn this is good beer, am i rambling?)

česke' Budějovice remains copyright of the author missmadrid, a member of the travel community Travellerspoint.

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]]> Prague tag:travellerspoint.com,2005-08-13:/blog/?domain=missmadrid98&thisblog_entryid=10&entryid=1017 2005-08-14T18:08:23Z 2005-08-13T16:00:07Z I am so sorry that i haven't written i'm just having a fantastic time. Anyway I have been in Prague now for 3 days. wow it is reallz difficult for me to write this casue the keyboards in every country are arranged differently because they have different letters i have to really look at the key board and write and all the number keys are different look this is +ěščřžýáíé, that is 1-9, yeah confusing, and the y is where ... I am so sorry that i haven't written i'm just having a fantastic time. Anyway I have been in Prague now for 3 days. wow it is reallz difficult for me to write this casue the keyboards in every country are arranged differently because they have different letters i have to really look at the key board and write and all the number keys are different look this is +ěščřžýáíé, that is 1-9, yeah confusing, and the y is where the z is and vice versa, anywho, the night i left Krakow i ended up staying up till 5am. I hung out outside and drank fantastic polish beer and listened to people play acoustic guitar, after the polish police came out and busted up the party, we had to go inside and keep singing. Well i don't know where he came from, but suddenly rat boy was sitting there hanging out. after a half an hour of playing he asked if he could play a few songs. there were 2 acoustic guitars going around so he grabbed one and started playing the most BEAUTIFUL song, called "She was right in front of me" i've never heard of it before or the songwriter but i swear i almost cried. He sang the whole song and played the guitar beautifully as if it he made no effort to play, it came so naturally to him. He played for an hour and i sat there next to him and watched him play and i swear rat boy touched my heart, i was thinking, this is one of those stinky guys in my room, and all of a sudden i saw him in a whole new light, as the universe always shows in her good time, you really never know someone. At the end of the session he sang a song to me and i swear i blushed, i couldn't believe rat boy made me blush. anyway, at 5 we all went to bed and i expressed to johnny (rat boy that i thought he sang beautifully and i loved his guitar playing. All he said was thank you and smiled and he made his way off to bed. The next morning I set off for Prague, i took a day train and i arrived at 8:30 at night only to find myself completely lost and it was almost night time. i was walking around trying to follow the directions the hostel gave me i couldn't find anything, luckiy this angel of a boy helped me to find the bus and the address and everything, he was so incredibly helpful, thanks to him i found my hostel. When i found my hostel i wanted to unfind it. When i started walking up the place i was already horrified. there were like 10 huge student housing block building things and nothing around. they looked like they were built 85 years ago i couldn't even see nor here the city anywhere. when i walked up to building number 4 i went to reception to be greeted by some kid with a HUGE afro. luckily some girl came out to help me who spoke broken english. i told her i reserved 4 nights and i would like to see the room before i paid. the room was on the third floor and the floors were just loooooong hallways with doors on both sides, it looked, sounded, and felt horrible. the room was fit for small rodents and circus animals, i wanted to cry. It was now 11:30 at night and i had no idea where to go and i didn't want to walk around Prague with my backpack that time of night so i decided i had no choice but to stay. I paid for my room and went up to my death chanber. there was broken furniture and crap written all on the walls in Czech, i think i was staying at student housing or something cause there were a bunch of young kids who lived there. i went down to reception to ask where i can buy something to drink, preferably a beer or something to help ease my nerves a bit. there was a local liquor store next to the building where i bought a very tasty and cheap Czech beer. i went back to my room and drank my beer and tried to figure out what was written on the walls. the showers looked like prison showers where everyone showers together and there is one drain, oh it was horrible, i almost cried i swear. i unpacked and tried so hard to be more positive and that everything would be okay. the next morning i got up and was ready to explore the city. Well on my way to explore the city i realized the city was verz far away, way far down the HUGE park i had to walk down. The park was beautiful and BIG and it was all along the hill that had a fantastic view of the city, but all i kept thinking about was how far i was from my hostal and i would have to walk aaaalllll the way back up the hill when i wanted to go back home which would most likely be late at night, so i was just a bit preturbed for a while. then i made it to the famous bridge that was PACKED with tourists, i couldn't even walk, i was getting a bit frustrated, i tried to find somewhere where there weren't any tourists and i didn't have any luck. i finally got myself something to eat and just statred walking and walking and walking. I walked out of the city and there were't any tourists anymore. I found a Yoga place and an organic grocery store, my spirits were changing. I finally made it down some little street and found the best bar in the whole entire world. The bar is called "Louis" after Louis Armstrong the bar was small but decorated so perfectly. They had the best music playing the whole time, they played Louis Armstrong, Billie Hoilday, Etta James, and Frank Sinatra to name a few. I drank a beer and listened to the music and looked at all the decorations around me and thought to myself "I'm in Prague" i spent some time there thinking to myself and appreciating everything i had in life. Then i walked around some more till i jumped on a tram, not knowing where it was going to take me but it took me through a fantastic tour through the city and it ended up dropping me off at right at the foot of the park i had to hike through to get to the city. so i popped in a bar and had a beer. I saw a pool table and i wanted to play but i am by myself so i asked this young man and older man sitting at the bar speaking english if they wanted to play, they looked at me and then looked at each other and decided to play. You will not believe where the young guy was from, his name is Bergen and he's from Long Beach and he's on vacation for 2 weeks, i was like no way, what a small world. He's a Dallas Cowboys fan, i tried not to think about it or judge him, after all look what happened to rat boy. Well Berger, Amon, (the older english man played pool for 2 hours talking about all kinds of stuff. Then Amon had to go and Bergen asked if i wanted to go to some bars where he knows some people so i was like sure i have nowhere to go and nothing to do for the next 2 and a half weeks. so we ate a kebab then found the bar he was meeting friends at. i sat there for a while and talked with a few people and then moved from one bar to the next. I had so much fun, we ended up staying out quite late and i was able to catch a tram back to my comfy prison cell. While bergen and i walked across the bridge he stopped and said, "you know, you just don't get a view like this back home" and it was nice to have someone there from home to share that with, someone who knows that's it's nothing like this back home. anyways, i awoke the next day with over 50 bites all over my body and one on my eyelid that makes me look like Rocky Balboa. I went to the Pharmacy and they sid i should go to the emergency room that it might be an allergic reaction, i freaked out and went to the emergency only to find i couldn't communicate with anybody and they wanted to give me an injection so i ran out and never went back, i think i just got bit all over,probably from bed lice or something, i am sure there are many creatures living in my room with me. I walked around all day and rented a bike and rode around like as if i were "Amelie" riding around Paris. I went to the Communist Museum and tried to go to the movie theatres, but nothing interesting was playing. well i am going to go now cause i only have 5 minutes left an i have to correct all my mistakes i made typing this.

Prague remains copyright of the author missmadrid, a member of the travel community Travellerspoint.

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]]> Krakow tag:travellerspoint.com,2005-08-09:/blog/?domain=missmadrid98&thisblog_entryid=9&entryid=963 2005-08-09T22:40:51Z 2005-08-09T22:32:58Z Well yesterday i slept 24 hours!!!!!!!!! no really well i went to bed in the wee hours of the morning after i danced the night away at a place where they play a great variety of music including, footloose, grease, U2, and the song from the movie life of brian!!! "look on the bright side of life" how funny is that, they even played Led Zepplin and Janis Joplin, it was great. i went out with people from the ... Well yesterday i slept 24 hours!!!!!!!!! no really well i went to bed in the wee hours of the morning after i danced the night away at a place where they play a great variety of music including, footloose, grease, U2, and the song from the movie life of brian!!! "look on the bright side of life" how funny is that, they even played Led Zepplin and Janis Joplin, it was great. i went out with people from the hostal, mostly irish and scottish girls who called me "the cool american" and the stinky guys from my room, and some other people. well anyways, i went to get in bed and found the blond dread lock guy from australia in my bed. not only was he in my bed,his head was on the wrong side which sounds better except that his disgusting stinky feet were on my pillow!!!!!!!!!!!!! yes once again my poor little tavel pillow has been violated. he was like all passed out on my poncho thing and pajamas. i'm like dude!!! get up!!! he was soooooo passed out and i was NOT about to jump into his gross bed or any other gross bed around. So i was pulling on his dread locks and poking his face, it took a while to wake him up, finally he's like, oh is this your bed? i am getting tired of that flippin question, it's like yeah man, obviously, it doesn't stink does it? NO is it all cute and clean? YES, out out out out, so he gets his drunk butt off my bed, and JUMPS from my top bunk his top bunk, i have no words to express my feelings at that moment. anyways i go to bed. wake up at 12 noon, go get some fruit, go back to bed, wake up at 6, to go get something to eat, go back to bed. i spent the whole day in my bed, reading and relaxing it was nice and the stinky boys weren't in there cause they were probably out drinking somewhere. Well it was night again and starting at 2:30 am, the boys start stumbling in 1 by 1.

first guy: The blond dread lock australian, comes in kicking his way to HIS bunk because tonight i was in my bed and NO ONE was getting in my bed tonight. He climbs to the top and just throws himself on his bed with shoes and clothes on, and in 30 seconds starts snoring.

second guy: comes in 20 minutes later, you see i am wide awake cause i've been sleeping all day and this was fantastic evening entertainment. Okay now second guy is really funny cause he comes stumbling drunk, very very drunk, and he doesn't even make it to his bed! he lands like half way. The guy is like 21 yrs old and is like 6ft tall wearing shorts, shirt and chanclas (flip flops) he's huge and from his waist down, he's hanging of the bed, the other half is asleep on the bed, i was laughing so hard i thought maybe i should help him get on his bed cause his back would hurt the next day, then i thought, well i'm sure his friend will come in soon...which leads to third guy

third guy: third guy is kind of short, british i believe, not sure, i know his name is johnny but among the stinky boys they refer to him as rat boy. so rat boy flings the door open like 20 minutes after second guy and sees his friend COMPLETELY passed on on his bed and half on the floor and second guy was really snoring at this point. so third guy like tries to shove second guy onto his bed somehow cause he's really big and this rat boy guy is quite small. he pushes him into a fetal position and then like shoves all the blankets and pillow on his friends head to muffle the snoring!!! i was like dude he's goiong to suffocate, rat boy was like, no he's fine, he does that all the time. so then third guy sees that first guy had all his clothes and shoes on and decided to take his friends shoes off which i wasn't happy about cause his feet stink. anyways third guy goes to bed.

fourth guy: fourth guy comes in like 5 minutes after third guy. fourth guy was easy cause he has a bottom bunk (below mine) and just had to walk 2 steps just to be able to fall right in to bed

fifth guy: some poor lost spanish guy travelling alone who didn't speak any english trying to find his bed, i offered to help at that moment

so there i was with all my stinky roomates. well next day i finally peeled myself out of bed at 11:00am, i had spent a whole day relaxing. When i woke up, the other guys starting waking up as well and asked me how i felt. I asked why are you asking me that, they were like "are you hungover" i told them i didn't go out last night i stayed in bed. well i went to the train station to buy a ticket to prague and see if i still had enough time to go to visit Auschwitz, which i did. I visited Auschwitz and got back into Krakow at 8:00pm. i met a guy from seattle on the bus back from Auschwitz and he had to catch a train to budapest in 3 hours so we decided to have dinner together, after we finished eating, we exchanged e-mails, as everyone does and hopes to maybe see each other in Salzburg where he was going to be in 2 weeks time like me. I walked back to my hostal and said goodbye to the scottish girls that i had met the night before, they were off to budapest. Well i went to my bed to get my Little Twin Star book i carry with me with all my information written in it, like all the hostals i stay at and my laundry details so i make sure i get all my laundry back, anyways i left it on my bed with other stuff and to my surprise, my lovely and mature roomates that stink wrote on the page that the book was left open on "FUCK THE BULLSHIT" i was like oookkkaaayyyy, what's this? i swear i felt like their mom, i was like "i am going to find those boys blah blah blah and punish them for 10 minutes blah blah blah" until i was like, whatever, i'll leave it in the book to always remember them. I found the blond dread lock guy and i showed him the book and he said "yeah man....funny" i was like alright. I took a picture of the room with all the stinky crap everywhere so all of you can see. Anyway i leave for prague tomm and i have a very CHEAP hostal where i have my OWN ROOM!!!!! i am sooooooooooooooo happy. it's 13 euros a night, i have to share a bathroom, which is fine, whatever, just give me my own room and bed. okay bye for now!

Krakow remains copyright of the author missmadrid, a member of the travel community Travellerspoint.

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]]> Krakow tag:travellerspoint.com,2005-08-07:/blog/?domain=missmadrid98&thisblog_entryid=8&entryid=919 2005-08-07T15:49:34Z 2005-08-07T15:44:50Z Well last night i decided to go for a walk around the city and go for a drink. i popped into this very cool bohemian bar. There weren't any tables available or any free bar stools at the bar so i sat at the end of the bar where there was only bar stool that was left which was situated right next to the red bull fridge dispensar thing that was on the bar. There was also a rotating fan ... Well last night i decided to go for a walk around the city and go for a drink. i popped into this very cool bohemian bar. There weren't any tables available or any free bar stools at the bar so i sat at the end of the bar where there was only bar stool that was left which was situated right next to the red bull fridge dispensar thing that was on the bar. There was also a rotating fan right next to it. The bartendar couldn't see me because the fan and the red bull fridge were blocking his view. i tried to get his attention but was unsuccesful, everytime i raised my hand the fan blew in my face, i was like this is not fun. finally some woman saw me struggling to get his attention and she pointed at me. he asked me what i wanted and i asked for a glass of wine. then 2 minutes later i see i glass of wine pop up from under the fan, i guess he couldn't bother finding me and knew i was around there somewhere behind the fan and the red bull fridge. after making a bit of a nuisance out of myself, i sat there and enjoyed my glass of wine. There was some guy at the other end of the bar that saw i was alone and was trying to make eye contact with me through the fan, i was like no buddy, sorry, ain't gonna happen. After i finished my glass of wine i walked around the city and popped into a cafe to have a beer. it was a small cafe so it was obvious i was alone and a foreigner. i asked for a beer and grabbed some magazines they had on the shelf for people to read while they drink. well i sat down with my beer and read a Cosmopolitan magazine 2002 front to back in Polish. It was obvious i didn't read polish i was kind of just looking at the pictures. I think everyone in the bar knew too. i really studied the pictures in detail cause i couldn't read the magazine. Has anyone ever noticed how long Naomi Campbells legs are? Damn they're long! i think i learned how to say mascara in polish. anyways after 45 minutes of instense polish cosmopolitan reading i left the bar and watched some street performers. I was extremely moved by one of them. He played the guitar and harmonica and none of his songs sounded like cover songs, they sounded orginal. I sat there for a while and listened to him play. I hung around a bit more and ate a falafel at some kebab stand, then i made my way back to the hostal. There was of course a bit of a party going on in the hostal. i was thinking why are you partying in the hostal, you're in Krakow, go have a beer out there. anyways, i walked into my room and turn the lights on and found all the guys in their beds and the room was STINKY! it wasn't like armpit stinky, it was like foot stinky, like when i shared a room with all my brothers, that is exactly what it smelled like. i just ignored it. i washed my face and tried to read my book in the common room, but there was so much noise and the funny part was that there were like 7 people asleep on the floor, i was like, okay i'm going to bed. I went to my stinky boy room where half of them are snoring and letting their stinky feet hang everywhere, it's so funny when i think about it now. anyways today i just wandered around and read my book in the plaza. now i am on my way to a cafe to have a coffee and read my book.

Krakow remains copyright of the author missmadrid, a member of the travel community Travellerspoint.

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]]> Krakow tag:travellerspoint.com,2005-08-06:/blog/?domain=missmadrid98&thisblog_entryid=7&entryid=911 2005-08-06T19:22:08Z 2005-08-06T19:16:11Z I just accidentally erased everything i wrote and now i don't have time to write it all out again so i am just going to have to sum it up now, sorry. You know i just want to mention how difficult i am finding it to write in english, i have to go back and correct so much and i find myself speaking like a pigeon or speaking the way people speak english that don't speak it very good, it's ... I just accidentally erased everything i wrote and now i don't have time to write it all out again so i am just going to have to sum it up now, sorry. You know i just want to mention how difficult i am finding it to write in english, i have to go back and correct so much and i find myself speaking like a pigeon or speaking the way people speak english that don't speak it very good, it's horrible, i've been gone too long where i speak like crap, either that or like a british person anyways, I caught a train this morning to krakow which is in the south of poland. I had a hard time buying the train ticket cause i can't speak polish (once again) so some girl saw me struggling and asked me if i needed help, i told her i wanted to catch the next train to krakow, but i wanted a cheap ticket, the cheapest if at all possible. So she explained everthing to the woman and i got a ticket leaving in the next 2 hours for krakow. While i was in the train station i saw an ad for Paulo Coehlo's new book called "The Zahir" I read his book last year called "The Alchemist" It was the first and only novel i have ever read, the only books i have ever read are history books (besides hitchhikers guide to the galaxy, Basil goes to Mexico, which is a fantastic book by the way about a mouse detective that goes to mexico to crack the crime on who stole the mousa lisa, a must read! and most Beverly Cleary books) So anyway The Alchemist is by far the best thing i have ever read and i personally consider it my bible, if anyone wants to ever try to understand me, read this book, it's like about me, it's amazing, i read it in 4 hours, i couldn't put it down, i felt this book was written just for me. anyways so i bought his latest book thinking it's got to be good. i've already read half of it on the train and it's great. anyways after reading the book and contemplating life which i love to do in my free time on my 4 1/2 hour train ride, i arrived in krakow. I tried to find my hostal which was nowhere nears the train station, i checked in and dropped off my stuff. i'm getting tired of this room sharing thing, cause nearly everywhere i go it's a bunch of kids like in college partying and talking bullshit, it's getting annoying, i feel like an old lady around them, but it's a cheap place to stay even though i have to share with like 7 frat guys drinking beer. anyways i freshened up after walking into a naked man prancing around in the bathroom (very interesting) i swear man i need to get my own room one of these days on my trip cause i am just getting annoyed now, and am i the only girl travelling out here? So i set off to walk around the city, i grab a bite to eat and walk around. It's absolutely fantastic and beautiful, i have 4 nights booked here so i have plenty of time to walk around and take pictures. While i was walking some guy, like a young guy started speaking to me in some language i didn't understand, he had a box under his arm like he was trying to sell soemthing, i said (no entiendo, no entiendo) i always play the part i don't speak english that i speak spanish cause the possiblities of that person speaking spanish are very very slim compared to speaking english. well he busts out this little book that has whatever he wants to say translated in all kinds of languages. He told me in spanish that he is from the ukraine and is selling ukranian arts and crafts items to raise money for college, ( i swear i have a face of a sucker) i asked him what he was studying and he told me he was studying geology. well i took a look at his stuff and it was all wooden made crafty things. i saw one of those russian dolls where you keep opening them up and more poeople are inside and he sad "no, those are NOT russian dolls, they are ukranian, look open, you have first father, then mother, then son, then cat, then the family CHICKEN! i was like oh yeah, i've got to get me one of these!!!!!!! they have the family cat and chicken, this is the bomb, how much you want? he said "30 Zlotys " i was like oh mannnnnnnnnnnn i can't i really don't have any money either and i don't know how the hell i'm going to finish college, so i bought a braclet. I asked him his name, he told me his name was Yura, i told him my brother middle name was similiar, it was Yuri, he said there was a russian version of that name and Ukranian. anyways after he left i felt bad cause i really wanted the ukranian doll family thing with the chicken, so i turned around like 5 minutes later contemplating whether i should get it or not. i walked back hoping to find him and did, i saw him and i'm like hi, it's me the girl that wanted to ukranian doll family. I told him i wanted the doll family, so i gave back the bracelet and gave him 20 zlotys. he was amazed and laughing at the same time. i was like what are you laughing at, he's like "you're funny, you came back to buy the doll family" i'm like "yeah" he told me i was super and that i hopefully we would see each other tomm. i was very happy with my doll family thing and the money went to a good cause. i haven't bought anything on this trip anyways cause i have to carry everything on my back and i can't carry anymore. Well now i have my ukranian fimly doll in my purse and now i am here writing this cause it started to rain. i have 10 minutes left on the computer so i gotta go, bye!

Krakow remains copyright of the author missmadrid, a member of the travel community Travellerspoint.

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]]> Poland tag:travellerspoint.com,2005-08-05:/blog/?domain=missmadrid98&thisblog_entryid=6&entryid=894 2005-08-05T17:03:47Z 2005-08-05T16:53:11Z Well i finally decided to go to Warsaw, Poland. I skipped Vilnius, Lithuania cause i heard nothing but bad things about it. nobody had anything good to say about it and that it was very very boring and no one was out on the street afer 10pm. I am very eager to get to Krakow, Poland which i only hear fantastic things about, so i skipped lithuania and went straight to poland. I took a bus from Riga to Warsaw ... Well i finally decided to go to Warsaw, Poland. I skipped Vilnius, Lithuania cause i heard nothing but bad things about it. nobody had anything good to say about it and that it was very very boring and no one was out on the street afer 10pm. I am very eager to get to Krakow, Poland which i only hear fantastic things about, so i skipped lithuania and went straight to poland. I took a bus from Riga to Warsaw which took 12 hours.......not fun. It left at 6pm and arrived at 6am in Warsaw. luckily the bus wasn't very full so i was able to lay down across the 2 seats. We had to pass through lithuania and let me tell you, everyone was right, oh my god there wasn't a soul out on the street and all the lights were off in all the houses, actually it was very spooky, i'm glad i didn't go there. Well i tried to sleep but didn't, i was very uncomfortable. when i arrived in Warsaw it started to rain and it was 6am. i had to catch a bus to my hostal and i knew i had to catch bus #127 to... are you ready......Swietokryska, yeah have fun pronouncing that, so i couldn't ask anybody where it was cause i couldn't pronounce it, but then i would show them what i had written down and they couldn't read my writing, so i'm like whatever, i got on the bus only to slowly realize that the bus was taking me out of the city, so i thought maybe i am going the wrong way, so i got off and got on the bus going the other way. It took me a while to find everything cause the street names and everything were very difficult to read. the cross street i was looking for was Marszalkowska, and to me all the street names looked the same and i couldn't tell the difference and not sleeping for 24 hours after a 12 hour bus ride and carrying around a huge backpack i was not in the mood. I was looking for the Oki Doki Hostel, that's right, Oki Doki. well i finally found the Oki Doki hostel walked up the 3 flights of stairs only to find that no one was at reception, there was no one to talk to or anything and i saw a sign that said check-in 3pm, i was like what! oh no i need to go to bed now and this is defintely not oki doki with me. i couldn't believe no one was at reception. so i sat in a corner with my stuff and ended up falling aleep on some chair. i woke up and found myself drooling on my sweater with my glasses falling off my face, i quickly composed myself and went up to reception and was like "hi, i have a room reserved" i'm sure i looked horrible cause he looked at me a bit strange then asked me for my passport. he said that my bed is ready and i could go to bed now, i thanked him. I took a shower and went to bed. It was pouring rain outside so it was a good day to spend in bed. when i got up i freshened up and decided to find a supermarket to buy some food, well you think that sounds easy but no no no no,i walked all over that sweitorskasjkj whatever street and all around my hostal, and could not find a damn place to buy food. well i found a little delicatessen, but i can't speak polish, they can't speak any language i speak and sign language wasn't working, so i kept walking. it was pouring rain outside, like pooooouring rain and it was freezing and windy, my poor little purple giraffe umbrella was giving it everything it had to shelter me, but the wind kept flipping it upwards, oh it was horrible. i finally bought some fruit off some street vendors and found a little local market by my hostal where i bought some bread and cheese and what i hope was turkey. i didn't have enough Zlotys (polish money) so i had to go take out money. Well when i was at the atm machine my umbrella flew away, like flew into the air, i was like noooooooooooooooooo please noooooooooooo my UMBRELLAAAAAAAAAAAAA and my card was in the machine and i had a second to figure out what to do so i tried to cancel the transaction i was making but couldn't make out which button i had to press cause it was all in polish, so i pressed the red one and it gave me my card back and then i ran after my umbrella, i chased it down screaming, MY UMBRELLLAAAAAAAAA HELP ME, and it was pouring down rain, well i finally caught up to it and went back to atm machine to take out money, i just wanted to cry, but didn't. I got back to the hostal, ate and then i decided to go visit the old jewish ghetto. Now my impression of warsaw at this point was very sad. It is a city that was nearly destroyed during WW2, The nazi's wanted to burn it to the ground and quite frankly succeded, Warsaw looks very post WW2 you can see that everything was built within the last 55 years or so. I didn't feel very safe either. Well i went looking for what were the remains of the wall that was built around the jewish ghetto. It was difficult to find, and isn't well marked. There isn't much wall left and it's tucked away in an apartment structure, very hard to find. There was only one guy around and it was very quiet. It was so so so sad, i didn't feel comfortable there so i left, it was so hard to stand where thousands and thousands of people died of starvation and exaustion. There was one more place where there are remains of the ghetto, and i wasn't sure if i wanted to see it, but i thought, i won't be coming back to warsaw anytime soon, so i'll go. This time there weren't just remains of a wall, they were the remains of the aparments where the jews lived. They were left just the way they were. The building was half gone but you could still see chairs, tables, personal items hanging from the windows that were shattered and broken. I couldn't even take a picture, i felt it was disrespectful and just wanted to leave. I felt ill. I could feel thousands of screaming voices everywhere, it's somewhere i prefer never to visit again. After visiting these 2 places i went for a long walk and decided to see a movie. i went to see batman begins. Then when the movie was over i was walking back to the hostal and heard some jazz music, so i walkled in this cool jazz bar and ordered a glass of wine. after the band finished i sat outside and watched everybody talk to their friends as i finished my wine. i then went back to the hostal and talked to the irish couple that was sharing a room with me. Then i decided to go out a bit and found a club where i danced for like an hour. Then i went to a little bar where they were playing flamenco rumba music and salsa, so you know who got her groove on that night, i was a little dancing machine. i got back to the hostal around 4:30am I woke up,well let's say, i finally left my room at 3pm the next day, ate lunch and went for a walk. I got lost, which was great cause i stumbled upon the old part of warsaw...BEAUTIFUL. WOW, warsaw is BEAUTIFUL, the old part is absolutely breathtaking. i sat in the plaza with an old man who gave me bread to feed the pigeons. It was alot of fun. He was talking to me in polish forever. Then he asked me what languages i spoke, and i told him english and spanish so he spoke to me in italian which was probably a good medium for both of us. The pigeons were getting really close to me and starting walking on my feet,i was like oh my god how cute, and they kept looking at me saying "hey lady throw some more bread" So anyway after the pigeon feeding session I walked around until i found this internet cafe and started to write this. You know i have to condense so much, cause i already spend and hour and a half writing all of this, and sometimes it's hard to find a computer and the time to write this so, there is so much more that happens and so much more detail and feeling but i guess i'll just have to share it personally with everybody cause i couldn't possibly write everything. well i want to go have a coffee or something, i've got more pigeons to feed!

Poland remains copyright of the author missmadrid, a member of the travel community Travellerspoint.

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]]> Another night in Riga tag:travellerspoint.com,2005-08-02:/blog/?domain=missmadrid98&thisblog_entryid=5&entryid=842 2005-08-02T19:15:35Z 2005-08-02T19:11:34Z i'm staying longer in Riga than i thought i would stay. I'm enjoying myself alot here. yesterday i went out for a drink and played pool with this dutch guy i met at the hostal. we had fun, he's into good music and photography. Today i walked around the city and got invited to a spa! Irena, pambos's friend booked a massage for me cause i mentioned earlier in the week that i wanted one. well we drove in her ... i'm staying longer in Riga than i thought i would stay. I'm enjoying myself alot here. yesterday i went out for a drink and played pool with this dutch guy i met at the hostal. we had fun, he's into good music and photography. Today i walked around the city and got invited to a spa! Irena, pambos's friend booked a massage for me cause i mentioned earlier in the week that i wanted one. well we drove in her car to the spa and i had a full hour massage, very nice. For some strange reason there was a bowling alley in the same building as the spa, and so since Irena wanted to learn how to bowl we went bowling for an hour. Then i came back to the hostal and had a siesta and i just woke up a half hour ago. I think tommorow i am going to Lithuania.

Another night in Riga remains copyright of the author missmadrid, a member of the travel community Travellerspoint.

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]]> Latvia tag:travellerspoint.com,2005-08-01:/blog/?domain=missmadrid98&thisblog_entryid=4&entryid=824 2005-08-01T16:47:42Z 2005-08-01T16:47:42Z Well my friend Georg (not gayorg) Ana and Mike (guy from top bunk)have made a little group of friends. We walked around Tallin and went for a coffee, took pictures and just basiclaly hung out with each other. We decided to go to the movies where they saw Mr and Mrs. Smith and i opted for Hitchikers guide to the galaxy (which i have read like 10 times and still have the book my aunt Ana gave me) Anyways we ... Well my friend Georg (not gayorg) Ana and Mike (guy from top bunk)have made a little group of friends. We walked around Tallin and went for a coffee, took pictures and just basiclaly hung out with each other. We decided to go to the movies where they saw Mr and Mrs. Smith and i opted for Hitchikers guide to the galaxy (which i have read like 10 times and still have the book my aunt Ana gave me) Anyways we were all thinking of going to Riga the next day and Georg thought it would be best for us to get on the first bus to Riga which was at 6:00am. So we all agreed and made plans to get up at 5:30. Mike and i went out to dinner cause i was really hungry and i wanted a real meal. We found a fantastic italian restaurant and had a 3 hour dinner. We went to bed at 2:00am, then woke up at 5:30am, packed our stuff and took a taxi to the bus station. it was a 4-5 hour bus ride and we all slept on the bus, we were so tired. I for one was very tired and hungry which seems to be a constant thing for me. Well when we got to Riga i had to seriously go to the bathroom. My friends waited for me while i ran into the bus station only to find that you have to pay 10 lat cents to go to the bathroom. i had Estonian money on me and that was it, so i had to find an ATM, go back to the bathroom only to find you need like exact change or something, not sure cause i don't understand Latvian and the old woman seemed very bothered i gave her a 10 lat bill, i was like take whatever you want, i'ļl pay 5 bucks just to use the restroom. she gave me my change and muttered something else. well i ran to the bathroom only to find like a gazillion people in there (men and woman)using the bathroom. when there was finally a stall free i went in to find there was no toilet paper anywhere, not even like a toilet paper holder, weird. luckily i had tissues in my bag. well when i finally got out i saw there was like this flouresant pink toilet paper roll next to the window where you pay, i think that was what the lady was telling me to get toilet paper before i went in. it was so funny cause everyone was paying and then taking a little bit of toilet paper with them. Well after my stressful visit to the toilet,i made it back to my friends who were patiently waiting for me, Georg was chosen to lead us to the hostal so we all followed him and found it fine. It seemed like a cool place so we dropped off our stuff and went for soemthing to eat cause i was really hungry. Mike was staying at another hostal so we helped him find it then went back to our hostal and tried to take a nap which didn't happen cause Georg and I talked for 3 hours about Austrian politics and tried to teach each other German and Spanish. After our nap we went for a walk. Before we went for a walk i noticed that the sky was cloudy and it looked like it was goign to rain. I asked them if they thought i should bring my umbrella and mike was like "no, youļl be fine" well like 2 minutes into our walk out of NOWHERE it started to pour! It was like terrential downpour, so we ran under a doorway and huddle together watching the rain pour down, it was amazing how much it was raining. So we kind of just stood there looking at each other and taking pictures while we waited for the rain to clear up. I thanked mike for suggesting i leave my umbrella at the hostal. Then we all decided to go into the mall next door to kill sometime while it rained, after we did a few laps we went back outside where it was still raining, so we went to a cafe and took pictures and drank tea and coffee. Then Georg and I went back to the hostal so he could use the free internet they have there. There was like 15 people in the common room all drinking beers and talking i was like (hey party over here) well i met a ton of people including and indian man who praticed indian medicine and who is also a numerologist and told me my lucky number was 2 and that i was a natural born teacher. i met a guy from Ohio who works for the U.S. government or something and lives in Brussels, then i met an australian women whoš 43 years old and looks like sheš been around the block a bit to many times. there were a few more characters around which made the next 5 hours very interesting. Well i had already made plans with my little group of friends to go out to a place mike suggested. so i got ready and we all met at mikeš hostal where i met 3 spanish guys and found out one of them is my neighbor! then we all walked down into the old part of Riga. We went to like a bar/disco/restaurant where we ordered some food and hung out a bit. i was feeling very very tired so i decided to go back to the hostal. well the next morning ana was trying to wake me up and kept asking me if i was okay cause i was still asleep i said "I'M FINE. I'M SLEEPING" Georg was like "we better let her sleep" anyways we made another friend in the hostal, his name is Pombas and he is from Cyprus. so we all went out for lunch then walked around Riga. I decided to go to the movies and see Madagascar and then bought tickets to see War of the Worlds later on that evening. I needed a bit of a break from my little group and just wanted to be by myself. That night we all saw each other at the hostal and then i suggested we would go out for a drink. Pombas met a girl, her name is Irena, sheš really cool, sheš from Riga and wanted me to teach her how to bowl so i told her we would go bowling tommorow. Anyways i just wanted to go out for a drink so Ana, Mike, Pombas, Irena and I went out for a beer. Georg met 3 french girls so he was like sorry guys i'm staying here with these girls. so anyways we went out for a drink and to make a long story short i came back at 10:00am! I just wanted to go out for a beer and ended up dancing all night and met some russian girls and then somehow ended up on the roof of the tallest building in Riga and saw the sunrise. It was fantastic, those moments when i think "how did i get here" Well after i walked along the river i went back to the hostal showered and went to bed. Mike and Georg were leaving today and i wasn't able to say goodbye. Georg tried to wake me up and i wasn't cooperative which was sad cause i wasn't able to say goodbye to neither of them. Georg had to go back to Austria where i am goign to meet up with him later in my trip and mike only had a week left of vacation and wants to see more places. Well when i woke up i found pombas, ana, and Irene in the common room and Irena wanted to know if i wanted to go bowling, so i was like okay thatš sounds like fun, but i went for something to eat first and then i came here to type this. well i am going to go now cause i have been here at the internet cafe for quite sometime.

Latvia remains copyright of the author missmadrid, a member of the travel community Travellerspoint.

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]]> Estonian night life tag:travellerspoint.com,2005-07-29:/blog/?domain=missmadrid98&thisblog_entryid=3&entryid=778 2005-07-29T12:36:08Z 2005-07-29T12:16:48Z Well yesterday i walked around the city and took some pictures and tried to find a place to have a glass of wine and damn it if i couldn't find a little bar to have a glass of wine in that was away from the tourists, it was impossible. Tallin is very small and very very touristy, i thoguht it would be less touristy then other places but i thought wrong, and i couldnt get away from the tourists at ... Well yesterday i walked around the city and took some pictures and tried to find a place to have a glass of wine and damn it if i couldn't find a little bar to have a glass of wine in that was away from the tourists, it was impossible. Tallin is very small and very very touristy, i thoguht it would be less touristy then other places but i thought wrong, and i couldnt get away from the tourists at all so i ended up going to a bar across from my hostal called "Tapas y Vinos" which was an obvious spanish place but i knew they would have a glass of wine in there for me, so i went in and had a glass of wine and sat outside on the chairs and tables outside and made friends with the local pigeons that kept flocking to me for some unknown reason. after i finished my glass of wine i went back to the hostal and gayorg was there talking to a girl sitting on a bottom bunk. So i hung out for a while and we were talking about all kinds of stuff then decided to go for a walk around the city and go for a drink. The girls name was ana though her real name is "Chaka Wula" which means white cloud. she's mongolian and currently lives in New Zealand. so me and my 2 new friends went for a walk then went to this super cool modern estonian bar/restaurant where all the locals hang, it was cool we ate and had something to drink. then we went back to the hostal to change and to get ready to go out. We went to some cool places then ended up in a flashy cool disco that played a mix of hip-hop and techo and then out of nowhere they played the jackson 5, i was in the bathroom when i heard the song and came flying out of the bathroom and nearly slid across the dance floor on my knees ready to get down. Everyone was dancing on the dance floor, it was a nice change from Spain where few people dance, especially the women, here everyone was dancing and didn't care about what people thought. They played "summertime" from DJ Jazzy Jeff and the Fresh Prince, i was so happy i was like aaaahhh yeahhhhh summertime baby woo hoo, because i was like it's summertime i know i'm not cruising in my ride with the top down and i'm not looking fly from the beauty salon, i was in estonia, but it was summertime to me and i was having a great time. after a while we left and ana went back to the hostal, she was tired. So me and Gayorg went out for another drink and discovered that the crepe place around the corner from our house is a stripclub at night, very interesting, we also discovered that our hostal is underneath a stripclub, that was also interesting as well. anyways we came back to the hostal went into the kitchen and gayorg had some food so we ate and talked and he told me all kinds of stuff about a professor he had in college that was really mean to him and we exchanged stories and laughed. little did we know what was about to happen next. We went up to our room where there are 3 bunk beds, each bunk bed has 3 beds, okay, get the picture, well i sleep on a bottom bunk and gayorg sleeps on the bunk above me, and above his bed is another bunk. well we walk in our room and find 2 stinky jamaican guys sleeping in our beds. i mean stinky, like armpit stinky. now i left my bed made with my mickey mouse pillow case over the hostal pillow and my little twin star travel pillow on top of that and my pajamas and bottle of water on the bed, well this stinky jamaican guy was asleep on all my stuff and had his stinky nappy head on my beloved little twin star pillow. the guy on gayorg bed was like is this your bed mon? and gayorg's like yeah mon that my bed. and then the guy on the bottom bunk asked me if this was my bed? i was like "ummmm do you own a little twin star pillow and a mickey mouse pillow case and wear penguin pajamas, well I do that's why they are on MY bed. there was only one spare bunk in the room and they both jumped in the bed together, and the WORST part was when they got out of our beds one of them was naked and the other one was wearing his briefs, it was like oh no buddy, naked stinky jamaican man in my bed, with his stinky nappy head stnkin up my treasured little twin star pillow my beloved brother gave me. i was livid, then some guy from the top top bunk, the one above gayorgs bed sticks his head out and says "that's what happens when you stay in a hostal" i was like "Who are you man from the top bunk that was not invited into this conversation and has nothing to do with anything?" so i went down to reception to get some new sheets and give the stinky ones back, i go back to the room, get my toothbrush and stuff and go to the bathroom and gayorg was in the bathroom laughing his ass off, he's like man okay i know we have to share showers and stuff but at least for 15 euros a night, i shouldn't have to share my bed! i was sooo pissseddd off cause now my pillow was all stinky and now i have to find a dry cleaners to clean it. I went to bed all mad and trying to ignore the intense odor of B.O. surrounding me. the next day i stayed in bed till 11:30 and Ana was still in the room working on her laptop when i woke up. she had to go down to the internet cafe so we decided to meet in an hour to have lunch. i took a shower and went out to meet ana, we had a nice lunch then ran into gayorg who was buying a newspaper in the plaza. we all decided to go to Riga tommorow together cause we all wanted to go but at different times and ana was going to go to russia but is now going to riga tommorow. so we are trying to work out the details on where we are all going to stay. so anyways Ana tells me that one of the guys in our room is goign to Riga tommorow and knows of a really cheap hostal. so we all go down to the internet cafe so i can write this and find a place to stay. and it turns out the guy who is knows of the cheap hostal in Riga is the Smart ass fromt the top bunk who is now sitting next to me and seems like a nice guy.

Estonian night life remains copyright of the author missmadrid, a member of the travel community Travellerspoint.

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]]> 2 days of travelling tag:travellerspoint.com,2005-07-28:/blog/?domain=missmadrid98&thisblog_entryid=2&entryid=764 2005-07-28T12:14:43Z 2005-07-28T12:05:10Z SWEDEN First impression: "Damn look at all these white people! Last impression : Damn look at all these white people! ESTONIA First Impression: "Feels like you are walking through a Disney Fairy tale with cone shaped tops on all the old buildings" Well i have been travelling for 2 days and i have finally made it to my destination. I left Madrid on a train to Girona, it was an overnight train and i didn't have a bed, there were seats, it was horrible and ... SWEDEN

First impression: "Damn look at all these white people!
Last impression : Damn look at all these white people!

ESTONIA

First Impression: "Feels like you are walking through a Disney Fairy tale with cone shaped tops on all the old buildings"

Well i have been travelling for 2 days and i have finally made it to my destination. I left Madrid on a train to Girona, it was an overnight train and i didn't have a bed, there were seats, it was horrible and the trip took 10 1/2 hours!!! my ass was flat as a pancake when i got off the train. i had to sit with 5 other people, they were all nice and we talked about where we were going and so forth. Then there was a man who got on and sat in our cabin and somehow we found out he was into crystals and rocks and he busted out all these rocks and was telling us how they heal or whatever then somehow we found out he reads tarot cards and he had them on him so there was a tarot reading card session in the cabin, it was all very interesting. then from Girona i had to take a bus to the airport where i caught a flight to Stockholm, when i got to Stockholm i had to catch a bus to Stockholm cause the airport i landed at was no where near flippin Stockholm, was like AARRGGHH i'm so tired i hadn't eaten anything since the day before and now i have to sit on a bus for and hour and a 1/2 to Stockhom (by the way countryside in Sweden...beautiful, and there are Volvo's everywhere)when i got to Stockholm i had to find a way to get to the harbor to catch the boat to Estonia, i didn't have any swedish money on me cause i thought sweden was using the euro....guess not..... so i had to first ask a taxi how much it would it be to the harbor and he said 160 swedish crowns, okay i went to change my 20 euros and i got exactly 160 swedish crowns, perfect, so i went back to where all the taxis were and i asked a driver to take me to the harbor and he said it would cost 260 crowns, i was like no no, this is all i have and your little friend said it was 160, i don't have anymore money, if you want these 160 crowns you can take me to the harbor, so he agreed. when i got to the harbor i went to buy the ticket and they wouldn't accept my card, i freaked out cause the boat was leaving in 40 minutes and i didn't have enough cash on me for the boat ticket and i didn't want to get stuck in stockholm cause it's really expensive. the lady told me there was an ATM like 15 minutes away so i ran with my HUGE backpack uphill to an ATM that took me forever to find and ran back to the harbor, paid in cash and i was one of the last ones on the boat, i was sweaty and stinky my back and knees hurt from my trek to the ATM with my HUGE backpack. They took a picture of me before i got on the boat which i saw later and i looked like a disheveled rodent, all i wanted was to shower eat and sleep lying down not in a chair. The boat was huge it looked like the love boat, i was hoping to find gopher so he could whip me up a martini. anyways they showed me to my cabin which was the lowest deck next to where they park the cars. it was small and quaint. i took a shower and changed. now i had to figure out how to get around this boat thing and find food. i found a cafeteria and ate a veggie pizza. i really wanted a whole pizza to my self cause i was soooooooooo hungry but i didn't really know how much anything was cause they were using two types of currency on the boat, neither of them being euros, so i got the cheapest thing. i walked around and went to the bar and had a beer and participated in a quiz game they had going at the bar. then i sat at the back of the boat for 2 hours and watched the sunset behind the thousands of islands in the Baltic sea. I just listened to the water turning through the rudders and watched all the islands dissapear into the horizon, it was very nice. i thought about where i was on the map and thought about how i got there and how cool it all was that i was cruising through the baltic sea on my way to Estonia. well i was very tired and went to bed. i didn't sleep very well cause my room was next to the engine room nd i kept freaking out cause there were all these horrible noises and the boat would start to really tip and i kept thinking we were going to sink and i kept hearing water rushing everywhere and i was just waiting for it to come under door and i would be trapped like the people on the bottom floors on the titanic. I would wake up and forget where i wast or if i was with anybody and kept thinking i had to get the kids to safety still thinking i was working with the kids still, it was horrible i kept dreaming about the kids and getting them to safety i was still being pursued by the Segovia Camp kids. anyways after all my late night sinking scares i woke up like an hour and a half before we docked. i had breakfast and packed my stuff. when i got off the boat i asked a taxi driver to take me to the street where my hostel was at and he said it was like a ten minute walk which was very nice of him cause he could have charge me all kinds of money to take me 10 minutes away but didn't. i walked (much further than 10 minutes) and i finally found where i was staying at. i couldn't use my card again so i have to call my bank and see what's going on. i paid cash for the room and took my backpack to my room where i am sharing with 5 other people! not to keen on that idea but it's affordable so i have to share. i met a guy in the room whom i asked if he knew an internet place and he said that he was going in 2 minutes and he would go with me. We walked to the internet cafe and i sent an e/mail to spain regarding my card not working. My new friends' name was Gayorg and he's from Austria. I nearly fell to my knees when he told me that i was like oh my god austria, i love austria, one of my dreams is to go to austria, and he was like why? but i was to embarrased to tell him it was because of the sound of music. we went to have lunch where I asked him about Salzburg and he said it was full of japanese and american tourist buying sound of music t-shirts and staying at sound of music hostels and how annoying it is, as he keeps expressing his love for people visitng his country because of that movie, he said something very interesting which i didn't know. He said no one in Austria has ever seen that movie, including himself, that nobody really knows who the von trapp family were. As i kind of sank into my chair debating whether i should express my deep love for that movie he asked me if i ever saw the Sound of Music i was like "Okay I loooove that movie and that's why i want to go to Salzburg, because i want to run on a little green hill and sing the sound of music, it's one of the best movies EVER, i watch it every month and i know all the songs!" he couldn't believe it, he starting laughing and he asked me what the movie was about, i vaguely explained it and I mentioned that captain von trapp's name was gayorg like him. he's really cool anyways we had a laugh and then he went to do some shopping and i came here to write this. i am going to explore the city of Tallin now. i'll get back to you tommrow

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]]> leaving in a few hours tag:travellerspoint.com,2005-07-26:/blog/?domain=missmadrid98&thisblog_entryid=1&entryid=703 2005-07-26T16:37:02Z 2005-07-26T16:36:03Z well i leave soon, i just finished packing and am trying to get everything sorted. i am departing tonight at 10:00 from Madrid to Girona, then catching a plane from Girona to Stockholm, then catching a boat from Stockholm to Tallin (Estonia), very excited!!!! can´t wait!! Bueno me voy pronto, acabo de terminar de hacer la maleta (bueno la mochila) y me voy esta noche de Madrid a Girona, luego desde Girona voy en avion hasta Estocolmo, y luego voy desde ... well i leave soon, i just finished packing and am trying to get everything sorted. i am departing tonight at 10:00 from Madrid to Girona, then catching a plane from Girona to Stockholm, then catching a boat from Stockholm to Tallin (Estonia), very excited!!!! can´t wait!!

Bueno me voy pronto, acabo de terminar de hacer la maleta (bueno la mochila) y me voy esta noche de Madrid a Girona, luego desde Girona voy en avion hasta Estocolmo, y luego voy desde Estocolmo a Tallin en un barco!! no puedo esperar!! que aventura!!

leaving in a few hours remains copyright of the author missmadrid, a member of the travel community Travellerspoint.

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