Nesebar

After taking our rest in the guesthouse we got up to find some breakfast to be overwhelmed with all the tourists walking up and down the main street. The vendors kept harassing us saying we should buy their stuff or go to their restaurant (there was this one fish place right near our house that would have a cute sailor trying to convince you to go to their restaurant, but we never ended up going there).
The places were usually selling alright knock offs of brand clothing or perfume, though we found some pretty cool stores, though I didn't buy as much as I had hoped.

Then there were the beaches. Sunny Beach is this tourist area that stretches along one of the many beaches on the Black sea. The main tourists come from Britain, Germany or Scandinavia. Tisho told us about this one hotel that holds all Swedish people, they serve Swedish food and everything is in Swedish. It is also common for people to just come fly here, as a getaway set up by their parents, bused into a hotel and have no idea where they are. Tisho had a friend who worked in one of the hotels who said one of the guests asked him where in Spain they were. haha.

The actual beach was really nice, nice soft sand but it stretched for miles so we usually had to walk a good 30 mins from Nesebar to a patch of sand we could sit at since there were so many people. There was even a small part that was a nudist beach right in the middle. Though many women were topless throughout the beach so not many people were at the nudist beach. The water was gorgeous. Probably about 25°C or so and the air temperature was about 30 but no humidity. Also there were a lot of nice waves. They seemed to get bigger each day we were there. The last two days we were there the tide had come up really high and the waves nearly went right over your head. But they were a lot of fun. (Chris would have loved them)

Sofia

On the first day in Sofia, Tisho brought us a typical Bulgarian breakfast which was a pastry with Bulgarian cheese in it (which is similar texture to feta, but the taste is stronger) and the drink called Boza which is made of wheat with a milky texture and has a small percentage of alcohol in it, it was very rich tasting and filling.

After breakfast we got dressed and walked downtown. Once downtown we walked along a yellow brick road, saw the opera house and many churches (old and ancient). We walked by a few kiosk or bazaars on the street. One of them was a row of old ladies selling their doillies and table cloths. We stopped at one of the ladies table and she was determined to sell and give us stuff. She couldn't speak any english but with body language and Tisho, we could figure out what she was saying. "10 for 2 leva!" And she gave us each a doilly free. All the other ladies were staring at us, envious of this little old lady getting all the business.

We walked a bit further and Anna Vala found an old accordian. She felt that she HAD to buy it so gave in, but only later realised that there were accordians for sale all over and the one she got wasn't very good quality. Oh well. There were also many war items for sale, pins, clothing, helmets... many from communist times.

We did a bit more shopping and touring around, then headed to meet with Annie and Tisho's friend for dinner at this vegetarian restaurant. I forget the name of the place, but it was really nice with some picnic tables outside, and a colourful bathroom. Probably was one of the best meals I had in Bulgaria.

Then we had to head back to Tisho's place to pack up for the long bus ride to Nesebar. We pack our bags, then grab a taxi to the bus terminal to catch the bus for midnight. The bus was packed and they kept the lights off so people can sleep, but it is impossible. The bus stops halfway for a pitstop and we line up for the bathroom, I share my tissues with Anna Vala and Becca, since there was no toilet paper (which seems to be a rare luxury in many parts of eastern Europe). Then back on the bus. I think I may have slept 1 hour, but once the sun starts rising you can finally see the landscape. Fairly flat prairie land and you could see the sea approaching.

The bus drops us at around 6:30am in Old Nesebar, which is on a small island attached to the main land with a land bridge. The town itself was built around 600BC, so the buildings are very old with many Roman and Greek influence. The town was quiet so early in the morning (the earliest we would see the town for the rest of the week). It took us a while but we finally found our guest house and once we were assigned our rooms we crashed on the beds.

Blagodaria Bulgaria

So Anna Vala, Tisho, Tisho's friend (I forget his name :S) and I landed in Sofia around 11pm and after customs and baggage claim, Tisho's friend's dad picked us up and drove us to Tisho's place. On the way I was actually surprised how many ads there were in English, though I guess it was near the airport and a lot of tourists come from England and Scandinavia (who can understand english quite well). We drove over cobblestone streets and by modern and communist looking buildings.

When the dad dropped us off we said goodbye and walked across the street to go to this small convenience store that is open late. The place is owned by a family with two women and a man that when you go in their store they follow you around the small space to make sure you don't steal anything. We bought some jogurt and then went to Tisho's apartment.

In his apartment there were two elevators, one which could only hold maybe 6 people standing right against each other, and the other one was regular size. I was so amazed that when you go in the elevator that there is no inside door and when you go up or down you can see the doors for each floor wizzing by and you can touch them!

Once into his flat, we were reunited with Becca, and the first sight we see is he do Tisho's roomate Annie's makeup. Back to the good old days. After showering and getting dressed, we all decided to go downtown to check out a Bulgarian bar. We took a taxi, which probably cost us $3 total, to go downtown and pumped into 3 Canadian guys who were on their way to Greece to visit family of the one guy, and we all went to this Mojito Bar. There weren't many people at the bar since it was after midnight when we got there on a sunday night, but there ended up being this large group of russian dancers there. They bought a bottle of vodka and were having shots and chasing it with orange juice. Then they showed their stuff on the dance floor. They were really interesting to watch. One guy was really giving it, jazz figures and all. We asked for some more drinks and the waitress shook her head. In Bulgaria they shake their head for yes and nod their head for no. Got pretty confusing. After a little while, and we were getting pretty tired, we headed back to Tisho and Annie's place to sleep.

Buda and Pest

Last I wrote on my blog I was leaving Vienna on my way to Budapest. I spent a little over 24 hours in Buda and Pest. The first day, Saturday I believe, I met 3 English guys (who had just graduated high school and were now on their big trip around Europe) at the hostel and we all went out for dinner, on a mission to get Goulash. We ended up at this Mediterranean restaurant that had a few Hungarian specialities but I ended up being the only one who got Goulash. It was really good but intense with spicy flavour (though not hot spicy). After dinner we wandered towards the river Danube and crossed over the Pest. We walked by some magazine stands and one of the magazines is called Fanny and the English guys thought this was hilarious and took pictures of themselves in front of the large poster. The maps of Budapest are some reason really hard to grasp because none of the streets are parallel so we had a few detours before finally getting back to the hostel. I was exhausted so I decided to go to bed and the two other girls in my room were already sleeping when I got there. But oh not for long! It was around 11:30pm when I got back and I got into bed but my roommates had just had a nap and were now on their way out to party! They invited me along but I prefered to sleep. Though didn't even get much of that. The girls seemed to take about an hour or so to get ready to leave, then there were some Italians down the hall partying kind of loud, and then in another few hours the girls came back and took them another hour to get ready for bed. I have no idea how much sleep I actually got.

On Sunday I decided to do the grand tour of Budapest. My friend Csaba gave me some ideas of places I should see and I think I got to most of them, even though I was as exhausted as I was. I walked to Pest along the river. I was heading towards Andrássy the the big beautiful street that leads up to the Heroes' Square. I took the metro on the cute underground train (which I found out later used to be one of the earliest tram lines but then they put it underground). I saw the Heroes' Square and walked around the garden behind it (I had a disposable camera so will have pics up once I have developed the cameras). After walking around there a bit I headed back towards the river, deciding I should take a boat cruise along the river. By water you can get a better view of the Parliament, the Castle, Matthias' Cathedral, the university buildings, the Chain bridge, the Margaret bridge among many other buildings on the bank.

After the boat trip, I headed towards Buda over the Chain bridge, which is a pedestrian bridge, with kiosks, and there was a school brass band playing on one side and a rosk type band playing on the other side. I then walked up the hill towards the castle, Matthias' Cathedral, and the Fishermen's Bastion. I wandered around here for a while, on the hill you had a great view of Pest and the river. It was midafternoon now and was fairly hot and I was pretty tired so decided it was time to head to Gellért the hotel but also is one of the many famous hotspring baths in Budapest. The bath reminded me of the Roman Baths I saw in Bath, England, though this time you were actually allowed to swim in them. I only stay a short while, sat in the hot pools and the swimming pool (which was actually cool, but refreshing) and the sauna, and then had to head back to the hostel in order to get ready for my trek to the airport.

I packed my things up and took the tram to the subway all the way to the end of its line and then the bus to the airport. I checked up and sat around the lounge for a little while before Anna Vala, Tisho and his friend appeared. Then we were on our way to Sofia.

hop, step and a jump to Bulgaria

Since I last wrote I spent about 24 hours in Munich, where I didn't really meet any Germans. I was staying at a hostel which had mostly Americans and one other Canadian, and even from the airport I travelled with a Norwegian, a Swede and a Greek by subway to the hauptbahnhof. After finding the hostel I wandered around alone for a few hours, seeing the Marienplatz and had some dinner (I am really loving the deep-fried Camenbert, sooo good) then went back to the hostel to go out to a beer garden with my new found North American friends, Andrew from Toronto, Stephen from Seattle, Pat from Alaska, and two New Yorkers who I don't remember their names. The beer garden we went to was probably all tourists since everything was stereotypically Bavarian, the women in traditional dress, litre mugs of beer and a German band playing (while the Asian tourists were crowded around them singing and dancing along). Then we went to another beer garden where we had some cake, I had a bite of Andrew's Black Forest cake, he got that last slice. It was pretty good but I always though Black Forest cake was more chocolatey and darker, this one had a cream icing and like chocolate cake.

The next day I walked to the big park (don't remember the name) in the middle of the city with the two New Yorkers. There was some nudity (an old man getting some sun) and even surfing. At one of the bridges there is a strong flow of water where people go surfing. Was pretty cool to see.

Then in the afternoon I took a train to Vienna. I have been staying with Florian who has showed me around to most of the sites in town. The first night we went to the cityhall where they have many stands with food from all around the world (India, Croatia, Spain, Hawaii, Japan...) was really neat. And there were also bign screens showing ballet, with classical music playing in the background. Then yesterday we walked around the city centre, saw the opera house (they love opera here), the royal palaces, th big cathedral and went to a museum with the exhibition "Why Pictures Now". It had some really interesting, some beautiful some grotesque photos and video. We got some icecream at an Ice Cafe and in the evening had some dinner at a Turkish restaurant (all across Europe it seems all everyone eats are Kebabs. Kebab house's are as common as Tim Hortons in Canada). The food was really good, and like most European (at least central/eastern European) cuisine it was mostly meat.

Today I will be heading to Budapest and then tomorrow head on a plane to Sofia, Bulgaria. I am really looking forward to seeing Tisho, Becca and Anna Vala again and relaxing on the beaches of the Black Sea. For most of our time there we are staying in this town Nessebar, which is suppose to be one of the oldest towns in europe, established in 6 century BC. Then we will travel north to Varna and then south to Bourgas. My goal is to get a tan on my pasty white legs. I have been trying to bear them to the sun some of my trip but they just don't want to tan. But luckily, so far, I have not been burned at all, so at least hopefully that remains true.

Jeg elske norge

I am in Norway right now and wow... it is absolutely gorgeous. It reminds me of all the most beautiful places in Canada but concentrated in one place. I could see me living here (now I just need a norwegian boy..), it is beautiful but you don't feel isolated. Some of the plants are similar to Iceland, but there are so many trees. Sverre told me that I think the forest has been increasing about 10% per year (a lot of people are getting annoyed with the trees blocking the view now). It is also very mountainous and many lakes. Sadly my digital camera called it quits at Roskilde, but I have been collecting postcards and bought a disposable camera, so hopefully those photos turn out alright.

I started in Oslo which is a very beautiful city which is situated on the water surrounded by many huge hills, and of course trees. I was visiting Frode, he was in Iceland for the first semester, and he drove me to the top of one of the hills, pass the big ski jump, and the richest houses in Oslo, with an amazing view of all of Oslo and the surrounding area. On thursday, when I had the day to myself, I wandered around the city, walked by the royal palace, though didn't see any of the royalty (funny thing in Sweden was they had postcards of the royal family... the son was kind of cute). Then I took the ferry to one of the islands where a lot of the museums are and went to the Kon Tiki museum. This is the museum of Tho Heyerdahl who first conducted the expediton to sail across the Pacific from South America to Polynesia on a a reedboat raft (an made it) to simulate the possibility that Polynesia was populated from the east. Then in 69 and 70 there were the expeditions to sail from Africa to South America, the first attempt the boat fell apart after 2662 miles, and the second time they reached the reefs of Barbados... so it was possible.

Then on friday I took the train north to Åndalsnes, where Sverre would pick me up. the ride up was to beautiful and I met a really friendly norwegian woman named Sigrun. We chatted about Norway, and her time in the US and names (about how when people move around their last name or first name can change, but some norwegians were proud to have american sounding names). Then we parted ways and it was my long journey through the mountains. We passed by a stone bridge (actualy 3 times, the track zig-zagging down the mountain and one of the times over the bridge) then we passed the highest stone face in Europe. When I was united with Sverre he drove us to Trollstigen, this impressive widing road that climbs one of the mountains. they are continuously trying to improve it because tour buses get stuck on the turns sometimes. A really amazing view as well with waterfalls scattered among the rockface and a large one in the center.

Then we were off to Molde, which is known for jazz and roses (the city of roses). I miss the big jazz festival, it is on the weekend of the 17th, when I am in Bulgaria, but maybe I can come back for it next year. (So many places to come back to). On Saturday Sverre and I drove around the area, driving around the mountains towards the sea. We went by sandy beaches along the ocean. Then we crossed the famous bridge, which is a road which is connected to a series of islands. A lot of older men fishing on the edge. Then it was back to Molde to watch the bronze world cup game (Germany won, and they are very happy with being 3rd). Then sunday, Sverre, his friend Aurora and I hiked up the hills near Molde. Was a bit wet but was a lot of fun (again a stunning view from the top).

In between some of this Sverre and I were watching this DVD of a tv show of the norwegian Lars Monsen who travelled across Canada. Though, unlike most people who cross Canada, he was going along the north. He dog sled and canoed most of the way with some walking as well and it took him almost 3 years (he took rests in the peak summer months). Even though it was mostly in Norwegian it was really cool to watch. I hope they have it in Canada with english subtitles. I think Tom would really like the show. Sverre and I then checked out the map of Canada and I was so surprised that Toronto is actually equal with south Italy, and though Norway is equal with Baffin Island, it is much more temperate than northern Canada. While I have been here it was actually in the 30s (though I was told that was rare) and the winters never get insanely cold, and is more like Iceland, where is can be windy and rainy. This is due to the warm Gulf Stream, while central/northern Canada is just ridiculously cold.

Another thing i love about Norway is their brown cheese. Might sound weird, but it is actually really good. I don't know if it would be in Canada. Sverre told me his friend Emily who is from Canada saw some in the scandinavian restuarant she works at in Kingston, but it might be just for the restaurant, but if I can find it, that'd be awesome. Also, Molde has their own soft drink. My favourite is the pear flavour but they also have lime and pineapple (haven't tried those though).

I am really going to be sad to leave Norway, and Europe in general actually. It has just been amazing everywhere I have been. Everyone I have visited and their families have been so generous and kind to me. I will definitely bring back some of this with me to Canada. I have learned so much. (and it is not over yet, 16 days more, though I don't want to countdown).

I am back to Oslo tomorrow and then fly to Munich on Wednesday. Hopefully then will meet with Florian in Vienna on the 13th, then Budapest on the 15th and then flying to Sofia, Bulgaria on the 16th. 9 days in Bulgaria with Tisho, Anna Vala, Becca and friends of Tisho. Relaxing on the beaches and staying in Nesebar, one of the oldest towns in Europe.

I don't know if when I'll have time to write again, but bye for now.

Roskilde Festival

Well I survived the Roskilde Festival. I got there on June 25th and left July 3rd, so a whole week of living out of a tent, portapotties, cold showers or paid hot ones, garbage everywhere, warm beer and crazy 24 hour parties. The whole week was just one big party. Most people were drinking all day everyday. And the bands hadn't even started yet. The night I got there (after 2 hours trying to find my friends among the chaotic camp ground. I had no idea how big the thing actually was) it poured and then rained heavily on and off for the next two days. A big mudfest. Rubber boots became very fashionable throughout the festival. Luckily my tent was waterproof but I couldn't believe how could it would get at night. After getting rid of all my winter clothes in Iceland and travelling around with 30+ weather I wasn't prepared for that.

By the time the bands started though on the 29th, it had dried up and warmed up a fair bit too. On the first day the highlights were Guns 'n Roses, which I thought were pretty good considering Axel had to take a 10 min breather between each song, he still runs around the whole stage, and they were an hour late starting. I felt kind of bad for the band members though because they can never be original, they have to always play the old GNR hits and when the band members tried to play something, like their own solo there was little feedback from the audience. Since GNR were an hour late, which I didn't realise, I ended up missing half of Sigur Rós, which I was hoping to get to early so I could get in front row but had to be satisfied with being squished on the edge and barely able to see. At least the sound was good, and I have seen them twice before (though still..).

The 2nd day there was the Kaizers Orchestra (from Norway) who were amazing. There was so much energy and crazy tunes, they beated metal barrels with crowbars and bats. So much fun. Then there was Bob Dylan, which was really disappointing and I felt really bad for him since so many people waited to see him but after a few songs most of the people left. He just had no energy and didn't play any of his hits. also the camera was set to about 20 meters away from him and the band for the whole show which was really boring to watch. The main highlight of this day was seeing the Scissor Sisters. Wow they were so crazy and so much fun. Even though I was exhausted at this point (they started at 1am) it was so much fun to dance with everyone else to their songs.

The 3rd day the big bands were Deftones and Tool. They were both good but when tool was on I was really tired and still had to wait another 2 hours till HIM came on at 2am. I decided to go back to the tent to have a nap but my clock was wrong and I only got to see the last 10 mins of HIM. Was still good.

The last day was probably one of the best performances. I saw Placebo, a bit of Franz Ferdinand (then went to the Balkan Beat Box) and at 9pm, the last band, was Roger Waters... wow.. that was amazing. The first hour he played random songs from their albums, including one song he wrote about the war in the East. Roger told the story about when he was 17 or so he was hitchhiking in Lebanon and this one family took him in and took care of him. The song was really powerful. Then the second half he played the Dark Side of the Moon. Brilliant. Was so amazing. A perfect ending to the festival.

There were many other bands I saw but I will insert them later when I have more time.

I really enjoyed the music part of the festival though the partying part was a bit too much for me. I couldn't believe how people could go on for so long. Though by Sunday people were starting to slow down and more people were drinking water than alcohol.

I will be going to the Hillside Festival in Guelph when I get back and it will be interesting to see the difference between music festivals in other countries.

Right now I am in Stockholm, Sweden and will be heading to Oslo and then Molde Norway. So I will try and write next in Norway.

Bye for now.
Kelly