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Hola from Mexico,
The weather is hot the beer is good and the food is amazing. What else could you expect from Mexico. This is my now second attempt at this blog entry as after 1 hour of slaving over the keyboard the other day all my work was lost. Meaning this is going to be a much more compact account of the last month of my life since I last left you when I was stranded in Croatia. I would like to welcome all the first time readers of my blog, as thanks to STA my blog is now Facebook compatible. Now enough for the introduction. It has been a busy month so let me start with a recount:
Last time I wrote I was stranded in an unidentifiable bus station in Croatia after getting off the bus to get food after being inforemed there was to be a 15 minute break, which I later found out was only 5 min... My Argentinian friend who I was travelling with was indeed waiting for me in Dubrovnik at the bus station which was very lucky but he did inform me that he did not realise til over an hour later that i was not on the bus as he was fast asleep!!! We stayed in a unit in Dubrovnik for a few days which was amazing and the first time I got to go swimming in 3 months. So all the more spectacular depite the iciles that developed due to the low water temperature in the Mediterranean.
From there we were headed to Istanbul, but due to the great distances it included a few stopovers. We travelled through Montenegro in 5 hours but were tempted to give the bus driver a trip due to the spectacular scenery we encountered (note to self, go back to Montenegro one day). The last stretch was quite impossible as there were no connections to the Albanian border so we had to get a taxi to the border which we shared with 2 American Peace Core volunteers and then walk the no mans land into Albania. We felt like refugees and more ironically the first refugees trying to seek asylum into ALBANIA. We went on a suicide ride in a van drivin by a maniac who insisted at driving at 100 km an hour through winding roads and overtaking on blind corners believing the dull beep of his horn would sufficiently ensure our safety... We made it to Tirana at nightfall... Tirana, what can I say, one night sufficiently had us sufficiently ready to leave and to move onto Greece. If that wasn't enough we encountered our first dead body, the first of 2 we would observe in the coming week. He had been hit by a car and despite the onlookers attempts to beat life back into him, there efforts proved fruitless.
The trip to the Albanian border was a lazy one, much resting and little talking. Again we were forced to walk across the border... This time we decided to hitch from the border to the closest town where we could get a train to Thesaloniki for a reasonable sum of5 euros. However as luck may have it we were picked up by some young guys bound for Thesaloniki. We agreed to pay a share of the petrol price asthe distance was considerably further. It was a crazy ride with the speed rarely going below 150 but peaking close to 200km/h. We asked half way how much he would like but he said he didn't know. This should have set the alarm bells ringing, when we arrived in Thessaloniki we were asked to pay him 60 euros or to not get our bags back... We were sure taken for a ride...
Thesaloniki had not so much to offer in terms of attractions and we were bored after one day, that is until we met the guy we were to couchsurf with on the second night. The city has a great student atmosphere so once we had met some students it was a ticket to good times. The first night involved a small gathering in what could only be described as a shoe box of a dorm room but the night was fun and the only interesting thing to happen was for me to lose my shoes... but thats another story. The second night we went to an Arasmus student party (like an exchnage student program between European countries). Another highlight was the free food the university provides to students, well to anyone who shows up really, including me an d Martin.
All good things must come to an end so before we knew it we were destined for Istanbul. The train ride was uneventful apart from the fact that about 100km from the border the conductor came and told us that the train is running late and will miss the connection at the border and therefor we need to get off at the next station and get a taxi to the border at the expense of the train company...OK!!! Especially seeing as I was using my train pass and did not actually give the company any money yet they paid the final fare on the taxi meter of 110 EUROS!!!!
We spent close to a week in Istanbul. It is an amazing city and I will definitely return one day. We spent a few days exploring the sites and the markets and taking in the local vibe. I even reentered Asia by taking the ferry accross the river which divides the city into its Asian and European halves. This is where we saw our second dead body, disembarking the ferry we noticed a police boat guarding a bag which we soon identified as a body bag. The police had just fished a body out of the water. Maybe Istanbul isn't a safe city after all...
My personal highlight of the week was exploring an untouristic part of the city which I will not name so as to keep it personal. It had an amazing street market full of amazing colors and fresh produce, the street hawkers were there in force and the mix of people was extremely diverse, including a large amount of women in full coverings due to the huge Mosques in the area. The streets were straight out of photos and the people going about there daily life was a great sight from our position sipping Turkish tea and eating Baklava in a little street side tea shop.
<>My plan was to go from here to Marseille to visit Jeanne, the girl I travelled with in Vietnam. Now if anybody knows a small part of European geography they would realise it is an extremely long distance between the 2 places. Flights seemed too expensive so I planned to get a combination of trains, and ferries to hopefully arrive in Marseille on Thursday, that is, if I left Istanbul on Monday. However I found out on Friday that I needed to be there by Sunday or risk not seeing her at all as she was planning to be in Paris on Thursday for the weekend. So after a day of searching cheap flights I managed to find a flight to Berlin, equally far from Marseille but having the luxury of high speed trains and not having the Balkans in between. So I flew to Berlin where i waited til 5.30 am before catching a train to Mannheim, Germany, then Basel, Switzerland, then Geneva Switzerland, then Lyon France and finally arrived in Marseille at 9.30 at night to a welcome reception at the train station by Jeanne and her fiance Gontran.
Marseille was amazing, definitely one of my favourite places in Europe, we explored the city by velo (bicycles you rent from stations on the street) one day and then another day went and explored some of the coastline which is best described as spectacular. I was introduced to many great wines and cheeses (one meal consisted of 7 types of cheese with Baguettes) and I was brought into the debate as to which wine is best, that from Bergundy or from Bordeax, they both taste the same to my uneducated pallette...
After 4 days there I set off destined for Dublin to visit Sarah, (a girl from Ireland who lived in Australia for a few months). Again if you know geography you know that I would have to get a plane. So I got the TGV to Brussells (5 hours away and only cost 3 euros with my rail pass) where I revisited some couchsurfing friends from when I was there last. I spent 2 nights there before flying to Dublin....
<> I will have to leave it there for now as I have to go meet up with some friends from Australia in central Mexico city... I will continue from that cliffhanger whe n I get a chance and continue with my journey from Dublin to my location now in Mexico Distrito Federal... Hope you enjoyed reading...
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