Frankfurt

After Venice I flew to Frankfurt to visit Vicky from Frankfurt, whom I met in Tofo Mozambique. She studies business, plays professional basketball and is easy going. Frankfurt is a big German financial city. It is a modern, buzzling city, that tries to find a middle ground between its past and future. The weather is even a bit more moody than Switzerland.
I arrived late at night and rang her doorbell at 4 o'clock in the morning after figuring out the public transport system. She had vacation from school, but worked part time in a small cafe. I got to know her friends and we went out together. Since I also love to play basketball - but at that point haven't played in years - we were eager to face off. Both desperately wanted to win. At a critical stage of the game I made a flagrant foul and later on deserved to loose. She is very fast and has a very decent jump shot.

We talked a lot and visited parks and so on. I even helped paint an apartment of a friend of hers, that was moving to a new location. That was the first time I did anything productive in several years.
At the last day of my stay, we went to a water park nearby and had a splash. The concept of a water park is something that should only be found, far away from the Sea.
After a about a week I flew on to Sarajevo to follow the sun. Thanks to Vicky and maybe see you in India soon.

Venice

One of the most beautiful cities I have ever seen. The Renaissance architecture is overwhelming and behind every corner. Traffic is limited to boats, that are also noisy, but less annoying then cars. The famous center along the Canale Grande is truly amazing, but tourists (probably myself included) are a pain in the ass. Whole cruise ships send their passengers into the city, while the crew most likely sighs in relief once they are on their own.

The Italians have made this once famous trade link into a little Disney Land. But if you walk a bit out of the city's heart you'll find real Italians that actually live there, instead of commuting daily from the mainland. They hang their clothes into the narrow alleys, shop at a tiny, local shop and use the vaporetto to get around. The city is clustered with museums and churches of which I visited quiet a few. But the amazing part in my view is the absence of cars. There is no city worldwide of that size, with so few cars - as far as I know. And since I truly hate cars, it was quite an experience. 

There are also other islands worth visiting. Murano is the center of the ancient tradition of blowing glass into all different shapes. Unlike the industrial version that we got used to, every glass is unique. But the colorization is usually kitsch. Isoala di San Michele is the Island of the dead. The whole Island is a cemetery. Walls surround it to make sure, sea water doesn't bring back the dead. Since sea levels are rising the Italians are building levees to save their future. Land prises are as high as water levels. Venice already now regularly suffers from corrosion of building foundations. Sea waters intrudes the canalization and affects air quality. Another Island I visited is Lido. There is a beach and it had a bit of a vibe like I assume Californian beach towns to be like. But there is nothing special about the place since cars are allowed. The Island I slept on was Guidecca. It has wonderful views of the city, ships passing by and sunsets.

In general I strongly recommend this city, but avoid the money hungry, back stabbing restaurants, use the vaporetto, and get ready to walk.

Bled

In the north of Slovenia, merged into the mountains of the Julian Alps lies the little town called Bled. It is just next to the glacial lake, which has a small island in the middle with a castle on top. Most surrounding hills are covered with forests, which invite people to hike and get lost in the seemingly endless nature. Wild bears, dears and elderly naked hiking couples still roam the area. Of which I have seen the later two.

I stayed in this lovely town for one week and hiked on about 5 days and partied in the Irish pub every night. It is a meeting place for ill behaving locals and drunk tourists who want to let loose in an atmosphere of a smelly toilet.

I took some fairly risky hikes that took me to the edges of cliffs and civilization. But the most memorable one is a touristy gorge north of down with a nice wooden walkway constantly switching sides. The water is as clear as possible and the nature mostly left to its own. A place that reminded me of Lanquin in Guatemala or the Kuang Si waterfalls in Laos.
I met a rather uninteresting Israeli women in one of the hostels and had to switch to another one in order to avoid her.
After that I was of to Venice. I decided that the best way to get there must be from the capitol city Ljubljana, but once I arrived there I had to learn that I have to take a train back to Bled and a bit further to catch a train that would take me to Gorizio, from where I could get all the way to Venezia Santa Lucia. When I got the news in Ljubljana that I lost 4 hours of my life I saw a fist fight in the open street between apparent good friends and ate a kebab.

Ljubljana

A quarter of million people live in the the capitol city of Slovenia. It has a medieval heart with some new additions of Roman and Soviet Architecture. But the most obvious attraction is the castle on top of the cities hill.

The Ljubljanica river slopes through the city center and trees on both side make it a beautiful sight. Tourists and locals alike love to sit down in cafes along it.

While waiting for a train, I witnessed  a funny scene. In the morning I saw two guys and one girl sitting in a cafe drinking beer. Obviously they have been drinking all night and now sat along side with working people that ate breakfast. They were playing their own music, drinking more beer and the girl was kissing one fellow like a dog would eat a big chunk of meat. It was apparent that everyone else in the cafe was disturbed and annoyed. The scene went on for some time until the two guys got into a loud argument culminating in bottles thrown, screams and punches. The waiter tried to kick them out, but one guy was already on top of the other one and gave him punches into the face. The girl disappeared. The winner of the fight also walked of, leaving the looser with blood in the face next to the breakfast eating folks. One cigarette later the winner showed up again and walked towards the looser. He helped him up and they shook hands and walked off.

Zagreb

From Budapest I took a bus to the border because I was convinced that it would be cheaper if I would split up the journey at the border. When I arrived I had to note that there was no bus to Zagreb and only one train a day. It was the same one I avoided in Budapest. After waiting 5 hours at a miserable train station I got into the train. Because the train lines were occasionally suspended we had to switch into a bus midway.

Zagreb is the capitol of Croatia and has a bit more than one million people. Trams go throughout the city and are easy to use. Supermarkets have many products including 2 liter plastic beer bottles. I found a nice place to stay and walked extensively throughout the city center and beyond. There is some nice architecture to be found and shady parks. Very civilized place.

At the border between Hungary and Croatia I was hassled by the border police because my Passport was ripped on the page of the picture. She let me through, but told me very clearly that she could have denied me access easily.

That's why I went to the Swiss embassy and got a new temporary Passport. It set me back 100 CHF, but it was worth it because in the old Passport there were only 4 out of 38 pages empty.

After 4 days of fooling around town I went on to Slovenia to kill some time because I had some spare time until I had to catch my flight from Venice to Frankfurt.

Bratislava

After two hours of walking around to find a hostel that made any sense, I found a bed. I needed to do laundry and I was sweaty. I didn't like Bratislava much and decided that I am going the next morning. Eastern European cities in general look pretty similar and I missed exotic places. And that's when I made the decision of leaving Europe earlier than initially planned. Turkey for the next 4 weeks was what I called the "Promised Land". But I still had two promises to keep. Meeting Victoria in Germany and meeting my brothers in Kosovo.

I took a short stroll around the city in the evening and one by accident in the morning and wanted to by a bus ride to Zagreb. But there were no direct buses. Option one was to go back to expensive Vienna and look for a train or bus, the other option was going over Budapest. I choose the lather and slept one night in Budapest.  

Enns

In the city were Josef Fritzl raped his daughter throughout her youth locked up in the basement I was picked up by Christina. A girl I met in Mombasa a year before. She just finished her education and had vacation. So we had a lot of time to spend together. We often went out with her dog Evan. The weather during the week I was there was terrible at best and we weren't able to go out a lot. Her parents lived close by and I got the rather unexpected privilege to go to her moms place almost daily.

She was nice and was happy to host me. Her other daughter had a little baby. I usually never play with babies, but Mathilda was agreeable.

Next to watching TV and drinking beer we also made some day trips. Once we went to the city of Linz which looks like you would expect a city like Linz to look like. Old town, a modern district, the Donau and cleanliness. In the city center we visited a temporary art exhibition which was sophisticated.The Hoehenrausch 2.0 takes place on the roof tops of a whole street block. We also visited some friends of her, but because during my whole stay there was terribly loud music playing I didn't understand them. Austrian German can be thick as well.

On another occasion we went to Steyr, beautiful little university town with two merging rivers. There we met a friend of hers who we ate lunch with. He is my hero, because he quit his job just an hour ago, because of a loud dispute between him and the boss.

We also went to Christinas parents country house which was beautiful. It is pretty much in the middle of nowhere, but that is exactly the reason why it seems like in a pristine state. Just next to the house we saw some dears.

I had a really nice stay and thank you Christina.

Vienna

The first time in the first world since 14 months. The Golden Apple as the Ottoman empire called it has been the center of the world from 1867 until 1918. The city has a population of 1.7 million people and is rich in Baroque architecture. The St. Stephansdorm is at the center surrounded by the old town. Subways, trams, buses and river boats make it easy to get around. But since they are costly I walked to most of the places. The first time during my journey I visited a country where people more or less speak my language.

The hostel kind of sucked and was expensive (20 Euro). The commercialisation has visibly reached every part of life and people seem busy earning money or are spending it most of the time. Shops line every street. Vienna also attracts many foreigners from Asia or Africa.

The United Nations have a branch on a Island of the Donau. The IAEA is based here. I tried to get in, but I was to late.

The main attraction though is the splendid architecture throughout the city center. Roman, Baroque, Renaissance and modern buildings seem to coexist very neatly. Vienna generally seems to translate into modern times with a lot of ease.

Last day I was off to a town called Enns in Austria's middle to visit somebody I got to know in Mombasa. The 1 hour train set me back 20 Euro...

Budapest

The mighty city of Budapest has a rich history that reached its peak during the Austro/Hungarian empire. I was dropped in the suburbs, but the efficient subway takes you to the city center. I got welcomed in the hostel by some dodgy looking, but very friendly people and a free bottle of wine and other goodies. I took two very long strolls through the city and marvelled at the Hungarian Parliament, Castle Hill, the wide Danube, the Great Market, the Jewish District and more broadly the city's architecture.

The Hungarian language is not related to any other language in the world. Oddly only Finnish has some similarities. But people speak well English or German as a second language. Thus they cater their international tourists very well.

Buda and Pest separated by the Danube river. Many luxuries river boats go all the way from Germany to the Black Sea. After 2 nights I left towards Vienna, but 2 weeks later I came back for one more night as a stopover.

Cluj

After a short ride I arrived in Cluj Napoca. Soon I found out that there was the Transylvania Film Festival that will start the next day. It lasts for 12 days and features low budget movies from throughout the world. There were playing maybe 20 different movies in one day in the many cinemas/ rooms with projector in the university city. I decided to take a holiday from the holiday and do something else than the usual stuff. In the 12 days I watched about 40 different movies and documentaries.

There were many students out in the streets and good concerts and parties in the evenings. Cinema culture during the day and concerts in the evening. I got to know many people who were travelling, but also very polite Romanians. The attitude of the locals is different from the capitol, most evident in the amount of smiles you get.

I got to know a delightful lady which is studying psychology in Cluj and we met every evening to go out. Sadly she was in the middle of exams, but I still very much enjoyed her company. She made me feel like a teenager again. We went to several concerts together which were very different from what mainstream culture in Switzerland has to offer. Once we went to a gig of the Turkish band called "Babazula". The energy of the singer sweating, singing and playing some odd looking guitar was overwhelming.

Some other time we went to the "Hungarian Theater" where a friend of her was performing in art mix between video, live classical music with a DJ mixing in the beats. Probably should be best observed with some kind of influence. Truly great stuff.

Apart from others I met one other guy that sticks out. He was claiming to be from Jordan and now being a fashion designer in London. He was gay and unorthodoxly dressed so it made sense. He slept in our hostel without checking in, he had a tab at my favoured bar that he never paid, so the poor student behind the bar had to work a day without salary, he burrowed 800 USD from a South Korean (apparently the SK was not aware of how much he actually gave to this guy) and many more free cigarettes and beers while going out. Eventually the South Korean got suspicious and confronted him outside a club, where the "fashion designer" was arguing with some locals about a separate money issue. Afterwards he claimed that he doesn't have any money left and the South Korean snapped and hit him several times and found 400 USD in his pocket. The police later on explained that he is a famous Roma, who goes from city to city and scamming people. Not even the Romanians noticed that he was Romanian. I am sightly impressed by his performance that lasted several days involving about a dozen people.

Finally my camera broke again (this time the lens) and I bought my 6th camera of my trip. Then I was on to Hungary.