It's ironic that I created this blog to make observations about things I see, but I only update it when I travel. Perhaps I should turn this into a pure travel/food blog. Oh well.

Anyway, I'm in the Czech Inn at Prague, Czech Republic. For $50 per person per night, the room that we're staying in is easily an expensive, $2000/month loft in Manhattan. Right when you entering the lobby, you can tell that the place exudes style.

We had a bit of a bad first impression of the country. Arriving at the Prague airport, I tried to buy gum for 20 Kc with a 100 Kc note in order to get change for the bus fare, but the clerk at the airport shop refused to sell me the gum because she couldn't produce change! After getting our tickets, Pat forgets to have it validated by the machine, and just our luck a guy working for the transit agency hits him with a 500 Kc fine. Sev calls this part of the experience of traveling, but I think it's predation of tourists. I hope the Czech government doesn't jail me for this comment.

Pictures coming soon. Too nice of a day outside to stay in blogging. On deck today: Charles Bridge and Prague Castle.

Tuesday 25 July 2006: We started waiting in line at the Vatican museum first thing in the morning, and the line was already a km long! Turns out the museum didn't open until about 30 minutes later, and once the line started moving the wait wasn't too bad. We also met Dina and David, an older American couple vacationing for their 25th wedding anniversary, so conversation helped pass the time. It was only their first time visiting Europe so I felt really lucky that this was my second.

The museum itself was amazing. Halfway through, I was wondering whether the School of Athens by Raphael was in Florence or Rome, and as I rounded the corner I saw it right in front of me! Quite possibly my favorite Renaissance work. Of course, the Sistine Chapel was also in the museum, but it was a bit of a letdown because the crowd was so big. I wonder if it's ever used as a proper chapel anymore?

We left the Vatican museum (at this point there was no entrance line to speak of), and went to St. Peter's Basilica. There was a long line but it turned out to be for getting into the dome of the basilica, high above the floor, so we decided to go through the papal tombs and the basilica itself. The scale of the art inside the basilica was breathtaking, to say the least. It was pretty amazing to see the kind of art and sculpture that people created in the name of God and religion.

Monday 24 July 2006: We boarded the catamaran to Split first thing in the morning and again I was lucky enough to see a sunrise over Korcula as we were leaving. After a brief stop in Hvar (which looked much more crowded and developed than Korcula), we arrived at Split, with enough time to crawl through the old Diocletian palace a bit. Not much of the palace looked authentic- much of its ground floor was a tourist bazaar now. The courtyard of the palace is a public square, and a Croatian barbershop quartet was performing while I rested there and used the wifi!

I tried cevapcici, which was similar to a hamburger- ground meat shaped into sausages, served up in a bun with spicy sauce and onions. Decent fast food. We ate at the Bobis dessert cafe on the waterfront and had some cheesecake and chocolate pastry, and I bought a box of cookies for the lab back home.

We took the shuttle to Split airport, flew back to Rome (Croatia Airlines rules- clean plane, nice flight), got our stuff, and took the Metro to our b&b. Our hostess was Sira, a sweet old lady with a nice apartment on the other side of town. Didn't speak a word of English but that was half the fun, as usual. She recommended a restaurant just around the corner, and it turned out to be excellent, authentic Italian food for a fair price! We ate indoors, and it looked more like a family's dining room than a restaurant's dining room, so the atmosphere was there. The chef himself came out to make his recommendations, which would be unusual in an American restaurant (of a similar caliber). A great experience!

Sunday 23 July: We spent the first part of the day in Lumbarda, a nearby town a bus ride away. We actually took the wrong way to the beach and ended up taking a hike through grape vineyards, a forest, and a rockier part of the same beach before arriving at the sand. The beach there was unlike any I've ever seen. Most beaches are surrounded by shops, restaurants, and development, and are completely crowded. This beach is surrounded by vineyards and unspoiled forests, and looked like a family destination. Complete change of pace.

That evening, I went to see our landlord to pay for the room and also to ask them to sign my Croatian flag. Petar hadn't come back yet so I was taking Croatian lessons for Kosa in the meantime. After a while, Petar as well as his daughter Dragana and son-in-law Dario joined us, and we had a spirited discussion about Croatian politics, what was wrong with the country, and what needed to be done. Dario was promoting the HRP political party, which he thought was what Croatia needed, because it wasn't as corrupt as the other parties but only had 10% of popular support. We also talked about the globalization of the economy and how that was harmful to Croatian farmers, fishermen, and other workers. It was an amazing experience- one of my dreams while traveling is to be able to have conversations with locals about issues that matter the most to them. To have had a discussion like this, especially in a tourist destination like Korcula, was both unexpected and really rewarding.

It's been a while since I've had enough time to update this blog. I know some of my readers are getting afraid for my safety but I'm alright. Maybe a bit wiser :) I'm going to write about some of the stuff that I remember.

We slept in booths inside the cabin deck, and it was like sleeping in a refrigerator since neither of us brought blankets, sleeping bags, or even heavy sweaters, and the A/C was on full blast right above us. At the first daylight, we went to the top deck and watched the sun come out over the horizon, which was a decent reward for enduring bad sleep.

I'm now in one of the private cabins borrowing the electrical outlet on the ferry ride from Dubrovnik to Korcula. We're now docked at Sobra, the port of Mljet Island, picking up passengers. We only had enough time in Dubrovnik to see the area near the port, but the ride into the Dubrovnik harbor was spectacular. Green, wooded islands and coastlines everywhere. We weren't able to see the old, walled part of the city but perhaps next time.

In the ferry office, we met Katie and Niki, a pair of American twins on a 2-month vacation after graduating from college, who were also spending 2 nights on Korcula.

We arrived at Bari discovering that people didn't really speak English there, and I had a good time trying to communicate with my hands and the roughly 20 Italian words I knew, all of which I was probably using incorrectly anyway. We managed to arrive in town around 11:30pm on Thursday, but surprisingly both Michelle and I felt safe in this town, even at this hour. Even the local women were walking alone in the street, which was a good sign. We walked around town for about a half hour trying to find the best deal for a room, all without a sense of urgency or insecurity, and finally found a cheap, well furnished place. We had our first Italian pizza- a carryout with mozzarella, prosciutto, and peppers. Thin crust, wood-fired oven. With 2 bottles of water it was only 6 euro, and an interesting hand-waving/broken Italian exchange. An improvised happy ending to a chaotic day.

The next morning, we explored a city a bit before arriving at the ferry dock to purchase our passage to Dubrovnik. We passed by Caffe' Catullo and had our first Italian cappuccino there. On the way back, we tried the gelato at the same place, which was incredible as always. Cioccolato, bacio (had hazelnuts in it!), and stracciotella (chocolate chip). We spent most of the afternoon catching up on email (and this blog!) at another gelateria/caffeteria down the street, where I tried the caffe' freddo (iced coffee), a prosciutto and cheese panini, an espresso freddo, and another gelato (hazelnut, stracciotella, and something else). We had dinner at Carpe Diem, near the waterfront. There was a special of a margherita pizza and a beer for 5 euro, which made the perfect quick dinner before catching the ferry.

And now, we are on the way to Dubrovnik, sleeping in the couches in the cabin... right after watching the stars come out on the deck.

On Thursday night, we stayed in the apartment that we were moved to, which we were told is in a slightly safer area of town. Mauro, the driver who took us to the new apartment, recommended a gelateria near the apartment, and thus began my gelato addiction. During the day, we toured the Colosseum and the nearby ancient ruins, and took in the view without spending a dime. I thought the fact that so much of the ruins were so preserved was incredible. We saw the monument for Vittorio Emanuelle II, a former king of Italy, which was an accumulation of multiple artistic styles. It also housed the Italian tomb of the unknown soldiers, and the guards maintained the solemnity of the place by forbidding visitors from sitting on the steps or (as I found out) from removing their shoes to relieve their blisters!

We returned to the train station after making a gelato stop. I left Michelle alone for 5 minutes while I was shopping in a supermarket and came back to find a man talking to her about train tickets. He led us around the train station for about 10 minutes before I realized he was trying to scam us '10 euros for information'. I told him to f**k off in Italian (a useful phrase I learned from listening to Tool- Message to Harry Manback).

We reached the airport, and I discovered that I read the itinerary wrong and we had missed the flight to Split, Croatia. In short, Michelle nearly hanged me by my esophagus. Fortunately, the flight pass I would have used to go to Split could also take us to Bari, Italy, where we can catch a ferry to Dubrovnik. The net result would be that we traded a day in Dubrovnik for a day in Bari, and that our flight from Split to Dubrovnik was lost (with me footing the bill for the f**kup).

On Wednesday, we got up early to visit the Acropolis and completely beat the crowd. The view from the top of the hill was spectacular, but the Parthenon itself and the garden of caryatids was somewhat disappointing, because much of it was being restored/preserved and therefore covered with scaffolding. It turns out that some of the reliefs that used to line the buttresses of the Parthenon were now set in the museum, which is somewhat sad because they're now taken out of their archaeological context.

We left the top of the hill just as the crowd was starting to get oppressive, and had the chance to see the ruins of the temple of Zeus across the street. On the walk back to the hostel from the Acropolis, we saw the ruins of an old Roman bath that was discovered during the construction of the Athens metro. After getting lunch at the awesome gyro place we got to the airport and got on a plane to Rome.

Rome Fiumicino Airport had to be the worst airport that I've ever gone through. Hot, dirty, hard to get around, crowded buses from the planes to the terminal building. What's more, the ride from the airport to Rome's central train station cost 9.50 euro. The neighborhood around the train station was filled with sketchy people and neither of us felt safe. I did have my first taste of the famous Italian gelato, which was fantastic. Cioccolato, nocciolato, and cioccolato bianco. For how ghetto the area was, the hostel room was really nice. Maybe I'll like Rome better tomorrow.

On Tuesday, we woke up too late to see the Acropolis without a big crowd, so we decided to split up and explore the city separately. I explored west of Monastiraki station, where there was another big open-air market filled with touristy junk, but also saw a bit of an industrial district of Athens.

Before we left, we stumbled on a small gyro stand on Aiolou called Kosta which had the most amazing gyros that I've ever had! And all for 1.50 euro each. The gyros were simple: souvlaki, tomatoes, onions, paprika, french fries, but the tomato/pepper sauce that it was topped with was killer.

I went north from Syntagma square and strolled through the Attica department store. 7 stories of shopping mall, mostly filled with stuff that's too expensive for me. I did find a colorful 'European' shirt that I later bought with Michelle's approval. From the mall, I continued further north and took a walk through the Athens Archaeological Museum and saw the famous Greek pottery and sculpture. I went back to our hostel and met up with Michelle for dinner and snacks, and returned to Syntagma to see the changing of the guard at the presidential palace.

On Monday, Michelle, Kat, Nicole and I met up at Paradise and made it to Mykonos New Port- except that Michelle and I needed to pick up our actual tickets using our printed confirmations. However, there was no ticket office at the new port, so I needed to return to Mykonos Town and get our tickets from the ferry operator office. The driver from Paradise Beach even offered to drive me back to the town and wait for me while I secured the ticket.

Everything cool, right?

I, the king of travel f***ups, was leading the trip.

The ferry operator clerk showed that I had made the reservation, but had no record that I had pre-paid, but he spent nearly 30 minutes before he told me that. It wasn't his fault, but that of the ferry company, and he suggested that I contact the ferry operator for a refund later, but buy a ticket now so I don't miss the boat. Tickets in hand, I sprinted to where the PB driver left me, but didn't find him anywhere! With no time to waste, I began sprinting toward the New Port, stopping every few minutes to catch my breath, and soliciting hitchhikes while catching my breath (I asked about 5 cars and no one offered a ride). Finally, after running about 1.5 miles toward the ship, I found the PB driver going back toward the town, hopped in, and made the ferry with about 3 minutes to spare.

Total cost: about 8 euro in appreciation of the driver's effort. Expected cost of missing ferry: 100+ euro for one more night stay, 40+ euro for another pair of ferry tickets.

We reached Athens after a 6-hour ferry ride and met up with Kat and Nicole in their fancy hotel room and then went out to dinner at a place near the shopping district on Ermou. I tried something called stifada, which is a beef, tomato, and onion stew, along with sagamaki, which was a loaf of fried cheese. That, along with a greek salad made a surprisingly fulfilling and cheap last meal with the ladies before they headed out. After dinner, the ladies had some fun taking pictures with cows and presidential guards, while I enjoyed the beer/tequila buzz in their hotel room.

With the night of heavy drinking out of the way, the plan was to go to Mykonos Town and take a boat to check out the ruins at Delos. At the PB bus station, we met Kat and Nicole, a pair of Americans who were also headed to the town to see some of the beaches. Unfortunately (or fortunately, since it was expensive), we missed the last boat to Delos by a half hour, so we didn't end up spending 15 euro each to check out some ruins. Instead, we got lost in Mykonos Town, which was actually very charming and not what one tends to associate with party island Mykonos. Lots of locals, beautiful harbor, colorful houses lining the alleys and harbors. It seems that in Greece, there are many small chapels that seat perhaps 10 people, instead of large churches like those in the States.

I'm glad I saw what the more 'normal' part of Mykonos was like. It was in line with the lifestyle that I expected on the Greek islands. Life seemed to flow at a slower pace here. Aside from the times that the tourists ferries arrived on the island, when the alleys were packed, Mykonos Town was very calm and relaxed. We often saw large groups of Greek men sitting at cafe tables in the public plazas, having cigarettes and chatting with each other. We were lucky to catch a quiet sunset on Mykonos, and noticed some of the locals doing the same, in an area somewhat removed from the more bustling area of town.

We met Kat and Nicole for dinner at Taverna Kiouria in Mykonos town. Earlier in the day, they had met a billionaire and were hanging out with him on his yacht. Great dinner- the waiter was in love with Nicole when they had dinner there the night before. We were given a glass of booze called 'tedouras' which tasted like After Shock- a little like cinnamon. After dinner, Michelle wanted to have another wine and cheese party with our new friends. I 'negotiated' a block of feta cheese from a sandwich guy at Paradise for 2 euro, bought some mixers, and had some relaxed drinks on the balcony outside our room. The ladies wanted to use our shower because they lived in the barracks area in the campsite, where there were only shared showers that required 'sandals and a chastity belt'.

Good enough of a reason.

We took the FlyingCat4 hydrofoil (!!) to Mykonos, with stops in Santorini, Ios, and Paros. Michelle's volunteer leader dropped us off at the ferry terminal several hours before the departure, so roommate Michelle and I explored the city a little bit and bought some cheap convenience store food so we didn't have to settle with expensive ferry food. When we arrived on Mykonos, of course we were greeted by the crush of tourists clamoring around the ferry dock. It was such a far cry even from a hotel district of Crete-- there, Greeks were still in the majority. Here, nearly everyone was Italian, German, English, or American.

I've never been to a typical 'spring break party destination' such as Club Med or Panama City Beach, so the Paradise Beach resort was a bit of a culture shock. For a moment, I had a sinking feeling that we were too old for this kind of hedonistic partying. My fears were confirmed while leaving the registration desk. I overheard a girl telling someone that she was only 21 and she was the baby of the group because her friends were 23 and 24. Most of the partiers at the beach were camping in the resort area, but we were actually staying in a nice room in a complex overlooking the resort itself, which was a welcome relief-- when we were taking a nap at 5:30 in the afternoon, techno music was BLASTING from the resort about a half mile away. Imagine what a nap would've been like down there. AND there were mosquitoes everywhere.

Just when I thought that I would be miserable, Michelle had the great idea of having a wine and cheese party! I had brought a bottle of wine for making friends, and Michelle went to buy cheese and crackers at the store. When we returned from the store we were invited to drink with a group of Aussies that we ended up hanging out with for the rest of the night. When I told them my name, they began spouting lines from Anchorman and the Big Lebowski, and so the party began. Lesson learned: don't buy from the bar in Paraside Beach because no vodka tonic is worth 10 euro. Even if it cures all known forms of malaria. I started waiting for the hangover around 3:30.

After arriving at Kazantzakis Airport in Iraklion, I took the bus to Amoudara, a suburb of Iraklion to the west. Amoudara has many hotels and apartments, but it's surprisingly not as touristy or tacky as I expected. There were a lot of tourists around, who I (and probably the locals) can pick out as the ones who aren't tan and dark-haired. They seem mostly German, although I've heard some British and American English as well.

I met up with Michelle, her friend Jorg, and her roommate, also Michelle, at the Saloon pub on the main drag late that evening. It was a tacky cowboy bar, complete with mechanical bull, but it was a lot of fun anyways. The bull showed us who's boss at the end of the evening. I had ouzo for the first time in years and it was quite good.

This morning, I got up at 8am to buy tickets to the ruins at Knossos and noticed that more than half of the stores were not yet open. In fact, when I left the internet cafe at 10am, most of the stores were still closed. In a way this seems strange to an American, but at the same time it made me realize how laid back Greek culture was. While wandering the Iraklion city center, I spoke with a few locals who asked where I was from, and I was also pleasantly surprised at their willingness to converse with outsiders.

On the ride to Iraklion, the bus filled up with about 30 Belgian high school students on a graduation trip. I spoke with the one that spoke the most English and learned a little about what to expect in Belgium: beer, chocolate, and statues of boys pissing. We talked about Croatia because he's been, and when I asked him about Croatian women he was at a loss of words because his girlfriend was standing right there. As he was leaving, another girl from his group taps me on the shoulder and whispers, "He doesn't know about Croatian girls because he's gay." Hilarity ensues.

I arrived at Knossos and managed to get in free because I walked along a pathway that happened to be against the tide of people who were leaving the site. Knossos is the site of a great palace built by the Minoan civilization, a race predating the Mycenean Greeks who inhabited the island as long ago as the Neolithic Age. While following the trail of tourists, I noticed an English-speaking tour guide describing the ruins, so I listened in. The guide was telling the story of Theseus and the minotaur, and selected people in the tour group as 'actors' to play the parts in the story. She noticed me sitting at the edge of the group listening in and gave me the part of King Aegeas, and asked me to simulate his jumping into the Aegean Sea when he thought that his son Theseus was dead.

From another tour guide, I learned that the Minotaur story is likely an extended metaphor describing the Mycenean/Athenian conquest of the Minoans. The seizure and sacrifice of 14 young men and women represents the bull-jumping sport where the participants risk being gored and trampled by the bulls they are competing with. Theseus' slaying of the minotaur and ascension to king of Athens represents the conquest of the Minoans and the ending of their cultural game. I followed another tour group but got busted by the tour guide, so I returned to Iraklion and had some Greek fast food at Savodor (their savodopita). After lunch, I visited the Heraklion Museum, where the original artifacts recovered from Knossos are housed. For some reason the museum didn't carry the same thrill as the ruins. Perhaps it's because everything in a museum is somewhat out of context and has to be taken at face value, whereas ruins are incomplete but the gaps can be filled in with your imagination.

I spent some time on the beach near Hotel Handakas, where I'm staying. The air and water temperature was perfect, and the water was clear and blue. The crowds were to the left and the right of the spot that I chose, and considering it was 7pm, everything was still warm. Try saying that about Santa Cruz.

I had dinner at Petousis Taverna in Amoudara while Michelle was out with the volunteer group. Tried the Mythos beer, which was mostly crap. The main course that the waiter recommended was the Lamb 'Kleftiko', which was flame grilled lamb served with french fries and rice, with some bread on the side. For dessert I had kataifi, which is a stringy pastry stuffed with nuts, pistachios, and honey, and served a la mode. The waiter threw in some cheese pies called sfakianopites on the house, which he said were Cretan specialties. One type was topped with sugar and nuts, and the other with cinnamon and honey. Very delicious meal for a fair price, even after comping the waiter for giving some free dessert.

Everyone bailed on going out tonight so I'm just doing some storytelling instead and sleeping early.