Sarajevo, Lake Bled, and then Home!

Soo, my last days interrailing!

After three days in Mostar, I went to Sarajevo. The train went 07:30 in the morning, and lucky as I am, I sat next to a chain-smoking guy in a pretty neat suit, drinking beer.

When I got there I eventually found a hostel, after following some girls that had the same backpacker feeling around them as me (read: dirty and a bit bad smelling.)

The hostel was really good, and I wish I could have stayed there for longer. Met some pretty cool people there, amongst them, two icelandic girls (Go scandinavia!) more aussies, some americans and went out with the bunch, having a really good time. The next day I went to the historical museum in Sarajevo, and that was a really good museum, I learned a lot about the history of Bosnia and Herzgovina, and a lot about the war in the nineties.

I decided to go to Lake Bled in Slovenia for my last days, because some of the others really liked it, and why not, right. Had a pretty good overnight to get there, and half the way I traveled with an aussie girl. Nice to travel with somebody for a change.

Lake Bled was absolutely amazing. The lake is so nice, and with mountains, the castle and the island with a church it is a huge tourist magnet. I am really glad I got there when the tourist season was out. Half the city is old and really nice, and half is full of new ugly tourist hotels.

Met really nice people here as well, hanging out in the hostel bar. First day I walked up to the castle, and saw the city, second day I and yet another aussie walked up to a lookout spot in one of the mountains, and the view was amazing! third day I went on an adventure tour!

The adventure tour contained:

Seeing Jazna Lake
Hike on top of the highest mountain pass in Slovenia

Hike to the karst spring of the River Soca

Rafting on the river Soca

Swimming in the beautiful Kozjak Waterfall

Jump from a 12m high bridge

Beer and car train to yet another Lake - Bohinj

End of day. - alltogether 11 hours, and we were eight people.

The rafting was really fun, it was also completely different from last time, in Equador.

The first part of the river was very calm, and our guide told us to sit on the rail, with both feet on it, one hand on our head, and one in the air. Then, he made the boat go around, really fast, screaming that we could not change posititions. When we had kind of mastered this, he ran and pushed all of us in the water. Fun. We also stopped twice, once he turned the boat around against a rock, so that we used the backside of it as a slide into the water, and the second we climed up a rock 5m high, and jumped from it! (Jump long, not hit rocks!) In the end of the raft he almost made the boat go round, (photoshoot time!) as you can see in some of the photoes!

Also, I actually jumped from 12m! I was shit scared, but did it anyway.

The tour was really worth it, so much fun!

Also, it is worth mentioning that the water had the nice and warm temperature of 5C.

That was really the last day, used the nights in the bar, playing darts and boardfootball with the other ones. And I had a 8 dorm room all by myself, so i had things everywhere, wich was nice!

The way home was really quite ok, never mind the the 35 hours on trains, it went fast.
So, now I am back home, going to wash all of my clothes twice, and looking forward to see everybody home:)

Until next my next travels!

Last pictures from Interrailing 08!

Adventure tour























Lake Bled

Pics from Mostar

Mostar

Hello!
I ended up in Mostar anyway! There is no trains going south here, so a bus took just 4 hours.
Driving on the coast made me fall a bit for Croatia after all. On the way we passed the boat "Karina", the restaurant "Kuk" (For real), and a big wood fire, there were about 10 planes going from the ocean to the wood with water and back again. A bit scary, we drove straight through it, and could see both trees and the ground burning.
Anyway, got to Mostar, and it is really nice here, a lot of buildings are old, a lot of them renovated after the war, and this place kind of represent the history of the country.
Mostar is famous because of its bridge, one of the oldest of its type. The bridge was destroyed during the war, but with Unescos help they rebuilt it.
Yesterday I went to a place outside of Mostar, Blajed or something, where they have a spring coming out of a mountain, and its the biggest in Europe! The water was totally clear! Also, they have the ruins of a big castle, deserted after a big earthquake that ruined all of it. The castle/fortress was buildt by Herzog Stefan Vukcic, and Herzegovina named after him.
Today I have just walked about some more, the city is very diverse, and I have seen a Mosque at one side of the road, and a church at the other. Because of the many mosques here you can clearly hear the call to prayer, and I really like it.

Tomorrow I am going to Sarajevo, there I will be for two nights, and then go on to Slovenia again, but now to Lake Bled. Its really beautiful there, and I think they still do kayaking! :D
Stay there for 3 days, and then go home.

M

Ljubljana and Split

So. This will be a long one.

I spent the last day in Vienna at the Leopold Museum, and my new favourite painters are Egon Schiele and Gustav Klimt. A really good museum, and so many good paintings.
Then, I went on an overnight to Ljubljana (Slovenia) , a terrible night i can confess, as I slept something like two hours, all cramped up in a seat with people snoring (every f'ing time) and when the train got there, six a clock in the morning I was a mess. After walking as a mess for about 90 minutes, with my backpack, I found a hostel, and got right to bed. Got up a bit later and saw the old town, it looked a bit like Prague, but way smaller. The next day was due for seeing the castle (fun), shopping (only found a pair of shoes) , swimming (more like bathing really) and cinema (Kung Fu Panda rocks).
The same day I planned the next days : go to some caves in the south, and then catch another overnight to Split in Croatia. The next day I was up and ready, and got on the train to Koper, where it should be easy to get a bus to the caves and be back before 7 to take the next train. Or so i thought. The only bus there went at three, and did not come back until five in the morning. So I was stuck, and decided I wanted to go straight to Split Instead, because I obviously was wrong about how to get to the caves, and it was freezing in Slovenia. And I wanted sun and sea. Spent 7 hours reading 'how to be good' by Nick Hornby, then got on the train to Split, and after waiting and sleeping and getting up and changing and waiting for trains, and so forth, I got there 17 hours later.

Split is nice, and the old town pretty, but not as hot as anticipated, and its quite windy. Yesterday, (the day i got here) I walked around and ate and saw the castle/fortress, and went to bed early. Today I have been to the City museum and the etnografical museum, and neither was really any good, and I went to the beach. Might go back later and actually swim if it stops to be so windy.

I had a big plan to go both sea kayaking and rafting, but seems like everything is closed down since it is just out of season. Dont seem to out of season though, as there are tourists absolutely everywhere. In big fat groups of americans, scandinavians and the slimmer japanese, and thats why I am leaving tomorrow. But I have no idea where. I wanted to go to dubrovnik, but it is basically impossible to find anywhere to stay, and its expensive, so right now im looking up other alternatives. I also wanted to go to Mostar in Bosnia, after a hot tip from Marina, but im totally afraid of more overnights. I only have about one week left now, and I want to make the most of the last days!
So stay tuned 'til next time, when my next destination will be revealed.

Vienna first 5, Cesky last 5!

Random pirates from Cesky Krumlov

Vienna

'ello.

I was very lucky in Vienna, because I got to stay at Adas place, she was just in Vienna for 3 days to get some of her stuff, because the lucky girl is moving to London.
Ada has been great, showing me around the tourist places as well as some more hidden places.
Vienna is definetly in a class for itself when it comes to how incredibly beautiful the buildings are, and the massive amount of art, exhibitions and culture in general. Its really nice to see how much they put into the whole art scene, and Norway could learn a thing or ten.
Friday I met up with Ada, after getting completely lost a couple of times. We went to meet some friends of Ada, and I got to see some of the nightlife here. Saturday we walked around, and saw the city, and then we went swimming, and that was fun! Sunday we walked some more, I went to see the movie "Wanted", and we went out again, at a place called the bat, and drank champagne. Today is all about the museums, Ada went to London earlier, so im going to check out the Leopold museum, and I might go to a couple of others, if im not totally fed up with art after the first one. So, thats Vienna in short for you. Might also say that the weather is bad now, raining and quite cold. A good day for museums!
Later on I am going to Ljubljana, the capitol of Slovenia. Its another over night train, and I will have to change in the middle of the night, but thats fine. All used to not sleeping, and getting my back stuck in wierd positions after trying to sleep in the trainchairs.

M

Its thursday, and im in love

.. with Cesky Krumlov!

I have now been here 4 days, since monday morning, and i have had such a good time!
All I have been doing is sitting around in the sun (atleast 30 degrees here as well), reading,
chatting with people and it has been great. This is one of those places where people just stay,
and never return home. There is actually a norwegian here, working, and its been ok to speak a bit norwegian again, after a couple of weeks without it. He has even donated a recipe for waffles, so in the deli here, they sell Norwegian waffles. Funny.
The only big things that has been happening is a big rafting/bar crawl on tuesday, where we all dressed up as pirates and with a boat we travelled from bar to bar on the river. So much fun, some pictures will come later, because this computer is shit.
I have met so many Australians here, beacuse they have a busabout thing a bit the same as interrail, but with buses, and one of the stops are here, at Hostal 99. But they are all fun, and i can not say it enough, this place rocks. I dont think I have ever been this relaxed and completely chilled out.

Tomorrow I am going to Vienna, and I am looking very much forward to it!
In Vienna I am meeting Ada, and she lived there for a whole year and will hopefully show me a bit around. Not sure how long I will stay there, but atleast over the weekend.

So long - Markus

Krakow

Summary of Krakow:

30C every day, hot as in hard-to-move hot.
Saw it was 15C and raining in Oslo. (Heeeeheee)

Went to a museum called Muzeum Czartoryskich , where a princess many years ago started collecting paintings, egyptian art, and armoury amongst other things to show the people.
Now it contains a lot of paintings, among them "Lady with an ermine" by Leonardo Da vinci.
A very cool museum. Went on a guided tour to Auschwitz and Birkenhaus, a really good tour, Im glad I went, even though it was very disturbing to see how bad the conditions actually were.

Krakow has has a big festival going on these days, with parades and a lot of funny things going on. Enjoyable! They have the biggest medieval sqare in all of Europe here, and a cool castle, a bunch of nice churches, and a lot of history. Also met some nice people here, and im in general very happy with my stay here.

Tonight im going to a small medieval town in Czeck republic called Cesky krumlov, with castles, towering mountains and very nice scenery in general.
Here are some random pictures from Krakow, notice the Norwegian "nettbuss"!

More Poland

Yesterday I went to see a museum before I left for Krakow, the Warsawa Rising Museum. The Museum was dedicated to the struggle of the people in Warsaw during WW2, and how they fought against both germans and russians, both in the fight, and after, to tell the real story behind what really happend. I went there with Naomi, Millie, and Lisa, girls I met at the hostel the night before.
Then, I took a train to Krakow, and thats where I am now.
At first, (and second) glance, I liked Krakow better than Warsaw. Guess its unfair to say it is because of the old town, cus nothing here was destroyed in ww2, but really, its beautiful here.
And, if you belive the fables, the town was founded on the grave of a dragon, killed by Prince Krak. Way cool. (But really the word Kraken means something like crowe, and Krakow means many crows)

Anyway, tomorrow Im going to auschwitz. Think it will be a very special experience, but it will be very interesting to see, and to have seen it. On sunday im going on againg, this time to Czeck republic. Not sure quite where, but have talked to some travellers at the hostel, and they told me about a really old town, so im going to check that one out, and maby go there.


Here are som pictures from the last days, the two first are Saskia and Sarah, doing YMCA, and the second is the highest church tower in Holland.
The rest is Warsaw, and the two war pictures where taken at the museum "Warsaw rising".
Sorry about them being the wrong way, cant seem to get them straight..