activities… and massages from burly men

in a lot of ways, i think that traveling is really more about the things that you *do* than about the things that you *see*. of course, sightseeing is important. there are many incredible things out there to check out, but i think that in some ways the activities that you try give you much better memories. yesterday after sightseeing, and for most of today, we had a lot of memorable experiences:

as i’ve mentioned, this month is ramadan here. although turks dont seem to be narly as hardcore about it as moroccans, still a lot of people here are fasting during the day. at night though, they are having this huge festival here in the old part of town (along the hippodrome). there are all sorts of different street venodrs selluing different kinds of food, and surprisingly, all sorts of typical carnival attractions like bumper cars, cotton candy, and different carnival games. at one point, i saw this huge crowd gathering and i heard some turkish singing, so i walked up to see what everyone was gawking at. i expected some turkish singers, or maybe some traditional dancing… but shockingly enough, it was actually someone riding one of those mechanical bulls that try to fling you off!! so random!!

we spent several hours just wandering around and sampling the different goods. we tried this ground meat burrito-looking type things, a sausage-like sandwhich, these squishy donutlike pastries, and this absolutely enormous baked potatoe. when we got the potatoe, they asked us if we wanted everything on it, and we said yes. here’s what they put on: butter, cheese, olives, hot dog slices, peas, couscous, potatoe salad, pickles, beets, carrots, corn, ketchup, and mayo. random eh?? surprisingly, despite all the really weird random ingredients, the potatoe tasted hella good! also, i dont know if i’ve mentioned this before, but so far in every single country that we’ve been to on our trip, there have been people selling roasted chestnuts on the street. i keep wondering what they taste like, but haven’t ended up buying any until finally last night i tried them. they were actually really good!


chestnuts roasting.. not on an open fire

today we got up and there were a bunch of activities we wanted to do, but we decided to check out just one sight first… and we ended up being sooo glad that we did. they have this underground area here called the basilica cistern. the guide book didnt seem to say much about it, but online i kept reading that people were super psyched on it, so we decided to check it out. you walk down some stairs and descend into this darkened area, filled a few feet deep w/ water and there are hundreds of columns spread out through the water. it’s kind of hard to explain, but it was really really cool down there… you felt like all of a sudden you weren’t ni the city anymore, but had been transported somewhere unearthly. currently, they have this art project going on down there, so there are tons of ballons hanging in between the columns at different heights. hrm, well, seeing as i cant really describe it that well, i guess a picture is worth a thousand words.

one of the things that turkey is famous for is its turkish baths (hammam). caryn and i had both really wanted to try one out since we’re here, but have been a bit apprehensive about it. would it be weird?? what is the protocol there? what exactly do you do when you’re there? well, we decided to go for it. we wanted to try this experience together (heh, safety in numbers!) but most traditional turkish hammams have separate areas for males and females. we briefly considered just going to a touristy place that is co-ed, but then decided to go traditional.

so, all in all the experience, although ab it confusing, was actually pretty cool. so, you first change and go down to the steam room wearing nothing but a towel. it’s hella hot in there, but gets even hotter when you go to the next room. there’s a huge circular slab of marble in the middle of the room, and you’re told to lay down on it for a while. well, a while turned out to be like half an hour!! so, i’m just chilling there, laying on my back staring at the ceiling and it’s helllza hot. after a bit i started wondering if the people had forgotten about me, but it was actually really really relaxing to just chill there. so after that, this burly turkish dude, also wearing nothing but a towel, comes in. yikes!! so, first he pours water all over me that is practically scalding hot. then the dud like scrubs you down w/ this super scratchy sponge and gives you a massage. it was definitely pretty weird, but what the hell, gotta try everything once, eh? after that he sits you up and pours more water on you to rinse you off, and that’s about it. you then go into a separate room, and sit under some new towels for a bit, before going back to your locker room to dry off and change. i gotta say though, after i was done, i really did feel super relaxed!!

after the hammam, we took a ferry across the bospherous strait. this strait runs right through istanbul, and separates europe from asia. the ferry is super cheap (60 cents) and the guidebook called this “the poor man’s sunset cruise”.. and we really did get to see a spectacular sunset. it was cool to be able to just chill and watch scenery go by on the boat for just a buck twenty roundtrip!!

we had heard that you can get some bomb fish sandwhiches next to the ferry dropoff. after seraching around a bit, we found some stands, where they grilled you a whole fish filet wihout bones (well, mostly without bones!) and throw it in a baguette w/ salad and onions. the cost? a buck thirty! we hung out next to the water and enjoyed the sandwhich.

another thing that is popular here is smoking flavored tobacco out of a hookah… except here they call the hookah a negillah. we found a cafe that had them, and tried an orange one along w/ some apple tea. it was pretty fun, but honestly, i dont think it was either as strong nor as flavorful as the ones i’ve tried in SF at kanzaman. heh, also, we were the only ones in the cafe that were smoking one, and it bubbled hella loudly, so we definitely attracted some looks from the people around. i felt a bit sheepish, but whatever!

so, it was a really fun day. we didnt see nearly as much stuff as we did yesterday, but i think i had a better time today regardless.

oh yeah, one more random thing. does anyone remember spirograph?? that kids toy where you have colored pens and these little disks that end up drwaing trippy patterns when you keep writing in them in a circle?? well, there are guys here that just sit on the street and draw using these spirographs and sell them!! i cant believe people would actually spend money on a spirograph picture!!

oh, and one last random thing… yet another shoeshine guy came up to me begging to shne my shoes… but i was wearing my *sandals*. why the hell wopuld anybody want their sandals shined!!??

*v

exploring istanbul

today we set out to explore the city. we started out by having a hellza good breakfast consisting of sanwhiches w/ grilled meat and freshly squeezed pomegranite juice. it looks like there are hella places around town selling the pomagranite juice, and it’s so damn good!!

after breakfast, we found out about a new scam. a guy comes up to me and asks if i want a shoe shine. i tell him no, but he keeps asking me over and over and i keep saying no reapeatedly. then he asks if he can just have a cigarette. well, unfortunately, i made the mistake of giving him one. at this point, he says that he just cant accept a free cigarette, and that it’s no good, and so he’ll give me a free brushing in return. i tell him my shoes are sneakers… they really dont need brushing, but he insists on giving me a free brushing so i sit down. he brushes my shoes, saying over and over that it’s free, and then starts puting this wax stuff on my shoes. i really dont need any wax on my shoes, but what the hell, it’s too late now. and then the kicker. he starts saying that the brushing was free, but i have to pay for the wax!! HUH?? so basically, even though i said over that i didnt want to pay for this shoeshine, now he was insisting that i pay him money. well, i wasnt going to crumble. i just got up and walked away despite his protests. there was no way in hell i was gonna pay for that!!

anyways, afterwards we went to go see some of the stuff in our area (we’re in the old part of town next to most of the important stuff!). first we checked out Topkapi palace, a huge palace that has was used by the sultans of the ottoman empire for years. this place had 4 enormous courtayrds, and each of them were lined w/ tons of rooms w/ interesting museum pieces. one room that was particularly interesting was room that contained alleged relics from the prophet mohamed. this room contained a tooth of his, some hair from his beard, and other old artifacts such as swords that were owned by him. turks from all over come here to see this relics that have a huge religious impotrance for them. it was interesting to see all the people coming up to the relics and praying to them. there was even a worker from the museum, singing verses from the koran over a loudspeaker. i really wonder what makes people think that these relics are really from the person they are supposed to be from (there was even a staff supposedly owned by moses). i mean, it would be truly amazing if any of these items were really from moses or mohammed… but i guess i’m just to skeptical to believe they really are.


a gate to the palace


caryn took this photo of me in a tree in the palace grounds

after the palace we went to go check out Aya Sofya, an ancient church that was later converted to a mosque, and also the blue mosque… one of the most famous mosques in the world. both were extremely impressive. we actually went inside the blue mosque, and the stained glass and architecture inside was really amazing.


Aya Sofya

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Istanbul, not constantinople

last night we took the bus from bulgaria to istanbul. it was a long long bus ride, but the toughest part of it all was the passport control between bulgaria and turkey. first, we go to the bulgarian border, and everyone had to file out of the bus in the freezing cold and have their pasports stamped one at a time. then, next stop was the turkish border, and we all had to get out again. after getting a turkish visa (20 bux on the spot), we all waited in a really long line again to get our passports stamped by the turks. it seems like everyone has been watching the US elections, and the guy asked us whether bush won the election. *sigh*. but wait, the ordeal wasnt over yet. next, everyone had to pull their bags off of the bus, and open them for inspection. the inspection wasnt much of an inspection at all really… the guards just briskly walked by and peeked at our bags, without really digging into them. but, at this point, our bus was gone!! we still have no clue where our bus driver drove off to, but he was gone for hellza days. and it was FREEZING! everyone was standing outside shivering like crazy. finally, eventually the bus driver returned and we all climbed aboard. the whole process start to finish had taken *3* hours!!

after sleeping the rest of the way, we arrived finally in istanbul. we ended up napping for most of today, so we still havent explored the city enough yet, but here are my first few impressiopns of istanbul:

1. first off, it’s *huge*. no, i mean *really* huge. we took a metro forever, followed by a tram for a bunch of stops, and we hadnt even covered that much of the city. the city just goes on forever! from what i’ve read, there are more people living in the city of istanbul than there are in all the cities of greece put together!!

2. second off, it’s way more modern than i expected. i guess i had expected it to be similar somewhat to morocco, but it’s nothing like it. modern transport everywhere, everyone is walking around wearing very fashionablle modern clothes, tons of stores selling cell phones and other high tech stuff. hardly any of the women here wear the traditional head covering at all.

3. the city is super vibrant and thee is tons of hustle and bustle everywhere!

4. the other thing about istanbul, is that there are soooooo many mosques. literally, there is a mosque around every corner. if i threw a stick oin any direction, i woudnt be surprised if it hit a mosque.

5. despite that, it doesnt really seem like people here are very religious. wheni did hear the call to prayer, nobody that i saw even batted an eyelash. no one stopped, no one went inside the mosque, nothing. it was as if the call didnt even happen.

6. the city has really really good food! the dinner caryn and i had was absolutely delicious, and all the food we’ve seen and smelled looks really really good. i think we’ll definitely be eating well here!!

7. their money is ridiculously high numbered. the money they use is the turkish lira, and one dollar is equal to 1.5 *million* lira. so to take out 60 bux from the bank, i had to get out 90 million lira!! the money is especially confusing, vause you laways end up counting zeros. you dont want to mistake a 1million (6 zeros) for a 10 million (7 zeros).

well, that’s all i have to say about istanbul for now. the other thing that’s been occupying my thoughts, is where we will go next. we bought a LP guidebook for the middle east today, and there is soooo much to see. they have a sample itinerary that we’re thinking of doing but that would involve 5 countries in just 7 weeks. it would be a really aggressive plan, and would mean prettyt much 2 days for most of the cities we will see. so it’s a tough call…. should we do it?? on one hand, i really want to see as much as i can see. but on the flip side, i really dont want to be constantly rushing around, and not have time enough to really get the feel of a place and absorb it. i dont want to rush from sight to sight and monument to monument, just to check them off of a list. i dont want to look back on this part of my trip later, and not be able to remember what i saw cause everything is blurred together… but at the same time, how often am i really gonna have a chnace to explore here?? i dont want to skip any out of the 5 countries recommended in the LP. *sigh*. well, it’ll definitely be a tough call.

*v

dammit

last night, after wandering around sofia, we decided to buy a bunch of snacks, beers, red bull etc, so that we could wake up at 4am and watch the presidential election. i’ve been reading newsweek and time for a bit now and was getting more and more worried about bush’s lead in the polls. well, unfortunately, all my fears came true. when i sat down, tired and bleary eyed, in front of the tv, it was already pretty clear that kerry wasn’t going to win. the map of the us was practically bursting w/ red colored states. unbelievable. i am just shocked that he was elected again after the totally horrible way that he ran this country for the last 4 years. clinton lied about monica, and the whole country shat themselves for the next year. bush lied about weapons of mass destruction, sending our country to war… but hey, that’s not as important right? *sigh*

anyways, after watching all this on tv, we checked out of our apt, and spent some more time checking out sofia. there’s some pretty cool stuff downtown… a bunch of really old churches, an old mosque and even a synagogue. we ate at this bulgarian reastaurant and were totally psyched as to how cheap it was!! our meal cost only like 5$ for both of us together, and that was for a soup, salad, 2 main courses and a 22 ounce beer. shweet!! all of the food was really good too. it was pretty funny, 2 of the dishes we ate were *exactly* like dishes that my mom used to make when we were kids. i began to wonder if my mom was hiding in the kitchen, and cooking up a storm! it definitely made me nostalgic for back home.

so, tonight we take a bus to istanbul and we’ll be spending roughly two weeks in turkey. i’m pretty excited to once again be going to somewhere that’s extremely different from back home. i definitely enjoy traveling around europe etc, but i am much more excited by the more exotic and different places.

*v

Russia!!!

ok, so maybe we’re not *actually* in russia… but we’re here in bulgaria and n so many ways, it’s extremely similar. first off, the language is very similar. if i talk to people in russian, the often will more or less understand what i’m telling them. it’s interesting how similar a lot of the languages are around here. first off, croatian, serbian and bulgarian are extremely similar. it looks like people from any of those countries can understand each other, but not exactly perfectly. out of the three, bulgarian is similar to the other two, but kind of leaning towards russian. also, a lot of people here actually speak russian, so i’ve been using my russian a lot! who knew that my russian would come in useful outside of russia? also, other than the language (and the fact that everything is written in cyrillic), this place just has a russian kind of vibe to it. i’ve really been enjoying that.

yesterday, i got into sophia, the capital of bulgaria, and after traveling like crazy for 2 days straight, i was really excited to have a place to just chill for a while. i rented an apt from this nice bulgarian lady and then waited for caryn to get into town. there was some craziness trying to find each other since the original plan was to stay at this other apartment which fell through… but eventually, finally caryn’s taxi pulled up! it was so cool to be reunited! dont get me wrong, traveling on my own was hella fun and i had a really good time, but i was hellza psyched to see caryn again.

we’re both pretty exhausted from all the buses and trains, so we’re just gonna take it easy for a couple of days before we head on to turkey. heh, today we went out to chinese food which was actually really good and pretty similar to the chinese food we have back home. chinese is one of my favorite foods, and i was really craving it.

tonight we plan to wake up around 3 or 4 am so we can watch the lection coverage on our tiny little tv. to our surprise, the tv actually gets cnn in english, so we’ll be able to understand it. i guess we’ll see what happens…

*v

more randomness in serbia

like i mentioned in my last post, it took me about 2.5 hours to find the interent place i was at. and now i had no clue as to how to get back! so i asked the guy working there for directions and they turned out to be crazy complicated, but then it turned out that his friends wre walking that way anyways, so i was told to jut follow them. these people were really nice and we talked about a bunch of random stuff. i was telling them about my travels, and they said they really wish that they could do the same… but unfortunately, if you live in serbia or croatia, it’s nearly impossible to get a visa to go anywhere. other than travel to a few neighboring countries, they are basically stuck there. how sucky is that?? i had never really given much thought as top how lucky i am to have an american passport. it opens up so many doors!

so, as usual, at some point, the conversation veered towards our election. i was preparing to agree w/ them when they started bashing bush… but to my complete surprise, they actually wanted bush to win!! in fact, they said that pretty much most of serbia supports bush. i guess they dont trust the democrats since clinton ordered serbia to be bombed years ago. shit! i had totally forgotten about that. that would explain why the policeman on the train was insulting america. duh. the guy went on to say that he was actually serving in the army when all this stuff went down. sheez. i asked him if most serbs didnt like americans, and mentioned my encounter w/ the passport control guy. he said that no, people realize that its the government, and that serbs have no problem w/ us americans in general… but honestly, it was hard to tell if he was just saying that to make me feel better. well, it ended up being really interesting talking to these people and getting their points of view. i’m glad that i happened to leave the net place just at the right time!!

i had some serbian money leftover, and i didnt want to end up stuck w/ it like w/ the croatian money, so i bought a bottle of wine at the station to get rid of the money. and chips. and soda. and candy. finally all of it was gone.

the train ride to bulgaria was one of the more confusing train rides i’ve ever taken. i asked the conductor which compartment i need to go into, and he said it was one of the two he pointed at so i went in. i kept going from room to room, but people would just say that the room was reserved or just wave me away. wtf? i didnt know if they really had reserved stuff, or if they were just lying to get the rooms for themselves. finally, i founf one room w/ 2 guys, and asked if i could sit. the guy sighed heavily and grumbled while pointing for me to sit. great. now i was in a room w/ people who really didnt want me there. a little while later, two more guys came into the room, and the angry guy started full on yelling at them. i think he really didnt want them there, but they insisted on staying and asking him something to the effect of “whats it to you?”. well later, when the conductor came by, i’m not sure how, but the angry guy got the other 3 guys kicked out! the conductor made them leave and they yelled up a storm when leaving. the conductor then tried to explain something to be in serbian, buit i had no clue what it was.

i was no so confused. why were the other guys kicked out? why did angry man not have me kicked out too? what did the conductor want from me? why did the police keep walking by?? hmmmm.

well, it turned out that angry guy wasnt that mean afterall, and eventually he showed me how to put my seat down to sleep etc. he was really nice! and i fell asleep… until an hour later people were pounding on the door. two new people wanted to sit in the room. they argued w/ angry guy for a while, and finally we all put our seats up when the angry guy made a “fine, suit yourself” kind of gesture. well, then the conductor came in and told them to leave. but then one of them paid more and got to stay. and then the other one came back, but the conductor came again and told him to scram. finally i figured it out. for some bizarre reason, even though this compartment said second class, all of the rooms were actually first class. the problem was… i only had a second class ticket. the train was totally packed, and i gog the feeling i’d end up sleeping on the floor.

at this point, the guy who got kicked out twice, came back (lets call him turkish man). turkish man starts gesturing wildly and yelling the names of different nationalities and banging on stuff after angry man tells him that i’m an american. he’s not doing this *at* me, but i think the point he was making was that if you’re bulgarian or croatian or have darker skin (like him) the authorities dont even give you a chnace and tell you to scram, but if you’re an american, french, or german.. no problems. *sigh*. i was getting more and more uncomfortable and confused, but luckily by this point angry man was being nice to me. he tried to tell me that i needed to pay more, and i dug through my money and i was sure i wouldnt have enough. when the conductor came back, he asked me for money and i asid i had none. so he gestures at my backpack and gestures for me to grab it and leave. crap! but when i started reaching for my stuff, he and angry man start totally laughing and motion for me to stay. huh?

so in the end i have no clue what happened. i guess i was let off the hook somehow?? and then, in the end, everyone in my room ended up being hella cool and friendly. without speaking their language, talking was actually 95% pantomime w/ just a few key words thrown in. it was actually really really hillarious trying to communicate.

so that was my whole experience of serbia. what started off in a very awkward way, actually ended up turning out hella good. despite the bullshit from the cop, i had lots of fun interacting w/ the people i met today. it just really shows that sometimes you just have to chill and not get worked up about a situation. after the cop incident, all i wanted to do was get the hell out of serbia and never come back… but now i definitely have a very different view of things. i gues thats what traveling really is all about. expanding your mindset.

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travel hell

the last two days have been utter hell. i’ve had to do sooo much traveling, and have had so many problems!

first off, there’s only one ferry leaving Vis on saturdays… and its at 5:30am! OUCH!! so i set my alarm, but slpt through it since my earplugs were in too tight! luckily, i woke up anyways at 5:20, and running as fast as i could, i got to the ferry on time. after the 2.5 hour ferry, i got on a 3.5 hour bus to dubrovnik, a town near the south tip of croatia. dubrovnik is a really cool looking old walled city. unfortunately, due to travel plans, i only got to spend a few hours there before i had to catch the 10 hour bus back to zagreb. that makes 16 hours of travel time in just one day… but it doesnt end there.

the reason i had to go back to zagreb, was that i was trying to catch a bus from there to bulgaria. it was a 8am bus, and i got into zagreb around 6:30am. when i go to the info desk and ask the lady, she says no buses to bulgaria. WHAT!!! when i had called the bulgarian bus companies number the previous day, they assured me there would be a 8am bus today, and to call the zagreb station to confirm. i tried calling the zagreb office the day before… no answer.. so i called the mian bulgaria office again, and once again they assured me that there was indeed a bus from zagreb. so now, today, once i got told there was no bus, i tried both numbers again, and no answer. CRAP. what do i do now??

so i try another approach. i go all the way to the train station, but when i arrive there it’s pitch black. huh?? i follow people inside to find out there is a power failure and that they are running things by candlelight!! sheez. i ask at the window, and they tell me there are no trains to bulgaria either. now i’m totally screwed. i spent a jillion hours getting here, and i’m completely exhausted, and now i’m stuck!! on the off chance i can just find the actual bulgaria bus, i go back to the bus stop and end up finding this tiny office that coordinated the bulgaria buses… and its closed. when i go to the main bus info desk this time…. it turns out that this person *does* know about the bulgaria bus.. unlike the other lady who assured me it didint exist.. but, still, it doesnt run on sundays. so i’m still screwed.

so i go back to the train station, and once again, turns out that the lady who said i couldnt get to bulgaria by train was wrong. the lady i talk to this time says i can take a 6 hour train to belgrade and then take the 11pm train tonight for 11 hours to bulgaria. thatll make 33 hours of travel in two days… but what other choice do i have?? so i buy the ticket and get on the train.

at the boder to serbia, a police man comes by to check passports. he asks me something in serbian like 7 time.. and i keep saying i dont speak serbian. finally he says “passport!” in english. ohhhhhh. so i hand him my passport. he sees that i am american and he says (in serbian) “ohhhh an american!” and then laughs and turns to the other passengers and says something inulting about america. the thing is, a lot of serbian words are very similar to russian… so i could undertand what he said. i couldnt believe he was talking shit about me. then he sees that i was born in russia from my passport, and goes “oh, you russian! why does a russian not understand serbian??” and i explain that i only lived there for 3 years. so, my passport has a big crease across the whole thing from being bent ni my money belt. he looks at it, and says “see, look what you have done to your eagle” and when i shrug, he continues w/ “from my point of view, it doesnt deserve aything more”. i was so shocked. i couldnt believe it, and i had no clue how to respond. i really wanted to say, that he has no room to talk looking at the recent history of his own country… but i wasnt about to start shit w/ a cop from another country. he then continued “dont you agree?” and wheni shook my head, he says “oh well, you’re just young”.. and walks away.

i swear… i was so shooken up. i really hadnt been expecting anything like that at all. how rude is that???!

so anyways, eventually i finally made it to belgrade. it was near impossible to find an internet place,a d spent literally 2.5 hours searching. well, it’s now time for me to take my train ride outta here and go to bulgaria.

hope everyone is having a good halloween back home.

*v

Vis

as i mentioned before, the coast of croatia is full of islands. there are tons of them, ranging from really big to absolutely tiny, and a lot of croatia’s tourism is at these islands. one of the things i definitely wanted to do while here is to check out one of these islands, and i chose one called Vis to go to. According to lonely planet, vis is one of the least touristy of all of the islands here. it’s really small, like 13 km across and is made up of pretty much just two tiny little towns, each of them only having around 1,500 people. although the tourism industry here does ramp up a bit during the summer, i think that during the end of october, there are pretty much no tourists here. the beaches were empty, as were the roads. a lot of the time that i spent walking around, i really felt like i was the only one on the island. i really rnjoyed the relaxed vibe here. there’s definitely something really cool about a place that’s so small and has so few people like here.

i read in my guidebook that the view from the top of the island is absolutely amazing. this island was considered a strategic spot by the ancient greeks and then by the british in WWII because from the top, you can see all the way to italy in one direction, and all the way to the coast of croatia on the other. according to the book, you could reach the top by either scrambling up a tiny path behind this monastary on the hill, or you could walk this long stretch of road. i decided to try the path. the monastary is up a hill, and i guess every year, the people here haul a fishing boat all the way up the hill to the monastary and light in on fire. weird eh? the monastary itself was really cool looking, and like everything else on the island, completely deserted. on the way up to the monastary, i passed all of these agricultural terraces.

i went around the back of ther monastary and started up the path… if you could call it a path. it was actually more like a tiny 8 inch wide stretch of dirt in between high grasses, flowers, and thorny bushes. the way uphill was a bit steep, but it was really cool. i think there was lots of lavender or some other flower around, so the air smelled awesome, and tiny lizards and butterflies scrambled and fluttered across the path every few minutes. i would also see a few snakes and these weird large birds w/ long tails (pheasants?) every once in a while. as i got higher and higher, the view back down towards the ocean and beach became more and more impressive. unfortunately, after a bit, i reached a gate blocking my way. now, most people would be satisfied w/ just putting a *sign* w/ skull and crossbones on their gate, but these people had an actual cow skull hanging from the gate!

so now i had a decision to make. do i just give up, or do i head all the way back down and take the road up? the problem was that i wasnt sure i had enough time. i only had about 6 hours before the last bus from komiza (the town i was near) left to go back to vis town (where i was staying). the road was about 8km uphill until it split off for about 5 more kilometers to the top. so basically, i would have to walk about 26km in 6 hours. i quickly did some math in my head, and seeing as i had no clue how fast i walk, and no clue how steep the road was, and at this point i didnt know that the extra stretch was 5km( i found this out later), i figured that i had no way of predicting whether i could make it or not. but whatever, i decided to go for it.

after scrambling back down the path i had just walked up, i strated walking up the road armed w/ just one tiny bottle of water… and walking… and walking… and walking. the walk itself (other than it being rough going uphill), was really awesome and scenic. in fact, it was hard to decide what looked better, the green lush mountains one one side, or the views down to the beaches below. as i kept walking, the beaches got farther and farther and farther… but somehow, the top just didnt seem all that much closer. hrm. eventually, i got to the split in the road. this was several hours later, and i was starting to feel pretty tired. should i keep going? i decided to press on up the mountain.

as i walked, i went past sevral tiny villages (so small they had like 10 or so houses and thats it). as i got farther and farther, i realized that there was one big problem. the weather wasnt that great, and the clouds/ fog were rolling in. the more i ascended, the closer i go to the fog, and eventually the fog was just above the treeline. at this point i realized, that at the top, not only would i not be able to see italy, but i probably woud hardly be able to see the beaches below… but there was no turning back now. i wouldnt give up.

at this point the road started getting steeper. i mean *really* steep. it was getting difficult to walk, and i was exhausted. not to mention, that i was extremely thirsty, and my clothes and hair were totally wet from walking through fog. i kept thinking to myself that i should just turn around, but i just wouldnt let myself do that. finally, i made it to the top. at the top, it was ridiculously foggy. i couldnt see anything more than like 15 yards ahead of me. there was this eerie looking chapel on top of the hill, and other than that, there was nothingness as far as the eye could see.

so i started going back down. i was starting to get sore. i looked on the tiny map i had, and only then realized that it was about 5km from the split in the road to the top. i had alreday gone a whole 13km, and now i had to do 13 more. i started plodding downwards. when i got to the split, i formed a new plan. instead of walking 8km back to komiza to catch the last bus, i may as well, just keep following the road the other direction for 10km and just walk back to Vis town. this would add another 2km to my trip, but i wouldnt have to waste time and money on the bus. so i turned and walked towards vis town.

eventually, by the time i had walked about 22km total and was completely worn out, i had a new problem. it was starting to get dark. there were no cities or lightposts, and w/ all the cloud cover, i was sure there wouldnt be any moon. i would end up walking in utter pitch black. i decided that at this point, i had no other option except to hitch. car were very few and far between, but every 10 minutes or so, one would pass by. i’ve never hitched alone before, and i was a bit nervous about what i would talk about w/ a croatian stranger, but i decided to go for it. soon enough, this guy pulled over and gave me a ride. sweet!! the guy was a sailor who lived on vis his whole life, used to work for the navy, and now is a harbormaster in komiza. i told him how much i liked the island, and he was so psyched. he talked about Vis w/ such pride! well, it ended up being a very cool ride back.

all in all, i’m really glad that i did the hike, despite not getting to see any view, and despite being very sore the next day. exporing the island was very fun, and i was pretty bummed that i had only one day here….

*v