The end of my walkabout

Sadly, everything has to end, and although I know I’ve learned more about life, history , art, and geography in these nine months of travelling than I did with 16 years cooped up in a classroom, it’s time to go back and start a new chapter in life – student hood is over, and the working life is nigh!

While on this trip I have lost half my clothes, bought new ones and lost them again, walked through two pairs of shoes and a pair of thongs, broken a laptop, lost my hat, a raincoat, at least 10kg of weight, and my girlfriend.

I have gained so much, too – friends all over the world, practical knowledge, new views on politics and a million memories, in photos, in my mind, and in this blog. And the whole trip only cost a total of 12,000 AUD including flights, accommodation, food, travel, sightseeing, and drinking – that is, including everything! So if you’re thinking of having a gap year, do it! It’s probably even cheaper than living at home, depending on where you travel, and now is the perfect time to do it, with such a strong Aussie dollar. Best of all, like John Butler would say, it gives you a chance to go out and ‘see what’s shaking in the real world’.

Paris!

My first day in Paris, I wasn’t impressed. I woke up early and grumpy from little sleep the night before – after catching a late flight from Prague, I arrived at my hotel at 1am, where, despite the fact that I had received an email telling me that my booking had been confirmed, they had cancelled my booking at 2pm on the day of my arrival. Although there were still beds free, the American guy at the counter made me wait an extra 15 minutes before he checked me in – despite the fact that he was waiting on two people who also had been cancelled for no reason. They were a no-show, so I got the bed, although I was pissed off at having to wait, and that my order had been cancelled. Finally, I found there was some sleep in the night, until someone’s phone alarm woke me up in the early morning. Phone alarms are the most insidious evil of the dorm room (probably almost as bad as babies on night flights!), as the person with the alarm rarely even wakes up, while everyone else wakes up every time it goes off every ten minutes.

So I was awake, poorly slept and grumpy – probably not the best start for a day in Paris. I walked to the Eiffel tower, then to the Arc de Triomphe, and down the Champs Elysees to the Louvre. While the Eiffel tower certainly was a big tower and the Arc de Triomphe certainly was on a big roundabout, and the Champs Elysees certainly is a long road, I wasn’t able to appreciate their charms properly in my grumpy, half-asleep state of mind. Passing through the Jardin des Tuilleries on the way to the Louvre, I stopped to munch on a tuna baguette and admire the gardens. Next I entered the Louvre. Even in my grumpy state of mind, I couldn't fail to be mightily impressed by the magnificence of the Louvre. The amount of world history they have amassed is amazing, from whole Egyptian tombs, statues of Ramses, and Assyrian fertility statues to great works by Greek, Italian, and French masters. I couldn’t help thinking that the museums in other countries could be much more interesting if the French hadn’t taken these articles from them.

That night, I went to bed early and woke up late the next morning, fully refreshed. Happier, I met some Canadian, American and Aussie travellers and we chatted over breakfast. Then I rested for a bit longer before starting my walking around Paris again – this time, ostensibly to see some vintage markets. I never made it, as they closed before I arrive, although I did see the Hopitale des Invalides, and the gardens and palace of Luxembourg, before heading towards the city centre and checking out the Notre Dame. It looks good from the outside, although I didn’t bother entering as the line to get in stretched beyond the black stump. Next I dropped by the flower markets, and then jumped on the metro to the Sacre Coeur. Although I did go inside this church, it’s just a normal church. It’s what’s on the outside of the Sacre Coeur that’s important. I checked out the artist’s quarter, where there are rows of painters and artists sketching portraits, as well as some very cool cafes and restaurants. As the Sacre Coeur is on a hilltop, there is a perfect view of the Eiffel Tower from one point. The best view, however, is from the steps of the Sacre Coeur, where entrepreneurial masterminds were selling ice-cold beers for two Euros each. I passed a perfect twilight watching the sun sink over Paris, drinking my beer. After the sun had fallen sufficiently, I walked down the hill to nearby Pigalle, Paris’ notorious night life district, most famous for the Moulin Rouge. Sex shops abounded, with interesting costume displays outside and even some specialty ones, like ones especially for lesbians.

I decided to see more of Paris at night, so walked from there back to my hostel (about a 4 hour walk), passing by Opera, Madeleine, les Galleries Lafayette, the Palace, a short stretch of the Champs Elysees, and back via the Eiffel tower, perfectly lit up at night. This whole day, Paris had been weaving its infectious charm over me, until by the time I reached the hostel, I was punch drunk in love with this amazing capital city. My last day in Paris was a perfect end to my trip, and when I woke up early the next morning, I was very sad to say goodbye to the last city on my travels, especially one so full of charm. It was still night as I walked to the metro station, and above the tops of buildings as I was going down the steps to the metro, I caught a final glimpse of the top of the Eiffel Tower. Goodbye Paris, and Goodbye travels!

Bohemia - Cesky Krumlov

If you think you’re in the middle ages when you’re in Prague, nothing could convince you of this further than a visit to Cesky Krumlov. A leaf ripped from a fairytale about knights, princesses, and dragons, this place is built of stone around a rapidly flowing river in a valley. The cobblestones lead you to boutique gift stores and old hand-made wooden toy stores the like of which Pinocchio was born from.

For dinner, I had an Old Bohemian feast that consisted of roasted rabbit, potato dumplings, millet, corn cakes , boiled potato and cabbage, along with a big slab of ham in case you weren’t already full. You really can get everything you want for ten dollars! Afterwards, I had local spiced mead with cloves and cinnamon, which ensured that I felt cosy. After two enchanting days in Krumlov, Vicki and I headed back to Prague, sad to put our backs to the most fairytale of villages.

After one more night in Prague, my adventure with Vicki was sadly over. It all passed so Quickly – Venice, Croatia, Montenegro, Bosnia, Herzegovina, Serbia, Slovakia, Austria, and the Czech Republic all in a month – only four or five days to a country on the dust-devil adventure – springing up, taking us all over the place and then ending just as suddenly. Thanks, Vicki, for a great month!

Bohemia - Prague

Going to bohemia is like stepping back to the middle ages. Some places, like the Old Town Markets, have an atmosphere that has you checking what year it is on the calendar. The markets are smoky from all the wood-burning used to roasts pigs on spits that are everywhere, while other stalls sell grilled cheese and still others; Burcak; a half-fermented wine. I loved Burcak, it probably tastes better than fully fermented wine or unfermented grape juice, and it’s pulpy. I’ve never seen the like of these markets before, and likely never will again except perhaps at some medieval fair.

There are lovely cafes on Tyn Road, where Vicki and I spent hours admiring the cafe we were sitting in before getting on to more serious matters, like what sort of cafe we would like to open. There are beautiful royal gardens near the castle, as well as a formidable church.

Slovakia and Bratislava

Departing from Budapest, a short train ride and we had arrived in Bratislava. We quickly found out that there wasn’t a great deal to see in Bratislava. The top three tourist attractions are different activities with Slovakian strippers, so it seems that Bratislava is selling itself to tourists as a buck’s night destination. Our hostel was really cool - it was horror-themed, with a blood-stained bath, a headless woman on the menus, and mannequins locked behind bars. The old town is quite nice, although we have seen so many beautiful narrow alleywayed, cobblestoned towns that the charm was lost on us. They do seem to be a specialty of Eastern Europe, in which all the towns have a more charming, old-town feel. While in Bratislava, we checked out nearby Devin Castle, which has some of the coolest towers on the castle walls that I have seen. The castle has been built atop a cliff, so it totters on top of the cliff, looming over the bars below. After our second night in Bratislava and a visit to the world’s largest pub (and probably the world’s emptiest pub), we headed to Vienna.

I found it hard to work out Vienna – it seems to be mostly about classical music and dances, although credit to them for also inventing the Sacher Torte.
I got us a bit lost in Vienna, taking Milfergasse instead of Milferstrasse, two main roads that head in perpendicular directions. Milfergasse lead us to a seedy section of town in which every second building was a strip joint. Milferstrasse, as it turned out, was a lot more interesting, with lots of boutique shops. Vienna sells a lot of gentleman’s clothes – coats, vests, and fob watches, and evening dresses for women.

Budapest, Hungary

So many things to see in Budapest! After checking into our groovy hostel called Flow hostel, which had the computer up a ladder in a little birds nest above the hostel, as well as the coolest bunk beds I've seen, we went out to look at the town. Vicki and I found a cafe and, as we are wont to do, chatted for hours before finally realising the time and rushing around trying to see things - the main street, Andrassy Utca, and the parliament building, as well as the chain bridge. The first day there we went on the Jewish walking tour, which was very interesting - I had no idea that Hungary was so badly off in the war. The next day, we got up early so that we could see more of the city, but once again got waylaid at an Eco Cafe after seeing the museum/palace on the Pest side of the river (the same side that we were staying on). Just in time, we speed-walked to the Fisherman's Bastion, which is one of the best things in Budapest, such amazingly beautiful architecture. Poor Vicki had walked her legs off by then, so I explored it alone, then we headed down for another walking tour, this time the Communist tour. This was even more interesting than the Jewish tour, and had such great information about how the Russians invaded Hungary and drove out the Nazis, but replaced their Fascism with their own government and Communism, which was in place up until the 1980's. My feet are so blistered from walking over the city that I'm going to have a non-walking day tomorrow while they recover. I thought by now that blisters would be a thing of the past, after walking every day for 9 months!

Serbia - Belgrade and Novi Sad

Serbia is a strange mix of everything. They're not greatly liked by their surrounding countries since the break up of Yugoslavia, but have the best food you could want, women that are so attractive men come from overseas just to see them, and the cheapest food in Europe - one dinar, the Serbian currency, is worth 1 Eurocent. Vicki and I checked into an amazingly good hostel in Belgrade, called Green studio. 5 minutes walk from the bus station, it has everything... free laundry, a free welcome beer, the nicest staff anywhere, and comfy beds. I have the nastiest flu, so Vicki went out while I stayed at the hostel and got an early night.

The next day, we went out to see the Nikola Tesla museum. I was excited to see it, as I knew he had invented a bunch of cool stuff, not least the Tesla Coil. On the way, Vicki got a coffee and I got an ice coffee at a groovy looking cafe. However, it turned out to be iced glass, as the barrista had (accidentally, I hope!) put glass in the blender with the drink. I only realised this when I got to the bottom of the drink, but I'm sure it wasn't good for my already sore throat. Hopefully I didn't ingest any, and the glass I found at the bottom of the glass was all of it! Even worse, it turned out to be an ice chocolate instead of an ice coffee!

The Nikola Tesla museum was so cool. Despite not having a gigantic tesla coil that made lightning jump 10 metres (my hopes were high!), they had various smaller coils, and one that was powerful enough to light flourescent rods mid-air as we held them. After holding rods, and letting lightning jump to our fingers, and all the fun things you can do with Tesla coils, as well as a healthy induction (get it?) into the many electrical innovations of Nikola Tesla, we left, headed for the ruined Roman fortress on the other side of town. It provided a good viewpoint over the city, and we had a peek over the walls before heading to Princess Llubjana's house. Unfortunately, it was closed, but we found multiple cocktail bars on the way that waylaid us so by the time we reached the final tourist destination, we weren't too bothered that it wasn't open.

We wanted to see a small town in Serbia as well, so went to Novi Sad - not exactly small, as it's the second biggest town in Serbia, but still. The main shopping street was lovely - all the towns in Serbia have such nice big old buildings.

Bosnia and Hercegovina - Mostar and Sarajevo!

These two are a traveller's mecca, I am not sure why everyone doesn't travel here. Mostar was the first stop on the trip, and was so interesting... grafitti about the Red army lined walls, a short walk from buildings ridden with bullet holes, and our apartment was next door to a wall with more bullet holes than wall. When we arrived at the bus station at 10pm at night without any prebooked accomodation (by my recommendation) I was a little worried... sleeping in car parks isn't really my thing. We were taking a bit of a risk, as we weren't sure whether there would be sobe grans, as there are down the dalmation coast and montenegro. Luckily, one gran was still awake, and we secured a room for 10 Euros pp/n. Our sobe gran (the host of the accomodation, usually an extra room in a house that is rented out to travellers) was the kindest yet - she offered us a mint tea with biscuits before dinner, and when we came in at lunch time the next day, offered us some of her honey-roasted capsicums and fresh fish. Amazingly, fish is the cheapest meat here, at about 5 AUD per kilo. In Montenegro, there were mussels for 1.50 AUD per kilo... ridiculous!


Mostar has an amazing old town section. The Stari Most, the most famous tourist attraction, is a tremendous piece of Roman architecture, 25 or so metres above the river below. Young men used to jump from the bridge at their coming of age. It sounded like fun; I really wanted to do it; and was revved up to take the jump when a Scottish traveller advised me that one side was shallow and the other was deep. I thanked him for that, but then realised that I had forgotten which side was the shallow and which the deeper, so didn't jump that day. Lucky I didn't, as it turned out, as my girlfriend told me the next day when I was talking to her on the phone that shallow divers practice diving off the bridge as the water is only 15 feet deep on both sides - only 2 and a bit lengths of my body! Breathing a sigh of relief at my near-death of my own stupidity, we checked out the markets. The Islamic influence of the markets is palpable, with beautiful tea sets and daggers being sold, with a fug of sheesha steaming through the air (although we never found where we could get some!). The old-town, cobblestoned feel of the place, along with the semi-hippy markets were brilliant, and it's been one of my favourite places to travel in the whole 8 months of world-visiting thus far.

Sarajevo, a short train ride away, has similar Islamic influences in the marketplace, although it is much bigger than Mostar. They sell the same things, so you just have rows of tea sets and etched metal to peruse. It was almost as interesting as Mostar, and also had some interesting historical icons. The most famous historical icon in Sarajevo is the bridge where Franz Ferdinand, Archduke of the Austro-Hungarian empire was shot, which precipitated World War I. You get a strong sense of history standing on the bridge, thinking how this assassination was the beginning of hundreds of thousands of deaths worldwide.