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| Bryan's route |
Just about to leave for the train station here in Lyon. I couldn't find a hostel for a second night unfortunately because it's pretty nice here. I'm going to Clermont-Ferrand for 2 nights. They have some buildings there and a dormant volcano overlooking the town so it sounds like there will be enough to do.
I had a pretty interesting first experience of Lyon yesterday just before dad called. There were these gypsy kids hanging out by the ticket gates in the metro by the train station. When they hear the ticket machine give you change they run over and ask for it. One boy runs over to me, he's probably about 8-10 years, and tries to grab the change before I can. I reacted fast enough and grabbed both his hands with one of mine then grabbed my change with the other. When I let go he follows me to the gates pretending to punch and kick my legs, I was giving him looks. Then I put my ticket through the machine to open the gate and he tries to grab it as it comes out the other end, but I managed to beat him to it (it was a 24-hour pass ticket so I needed it still). Then I'm through the gate and I turn around to give him a cocky smile and he spit in my face. It wasn't anything nasty just a few drops but a really weird experience, he didn't say a word the whole time.
Then as soon as I got on the metro 2 ladies got into a huge shouting match over one bumping the other with a stroller. It lasted a good 10 mins. It was awesome.
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| Clermont-Ferrand from google images |
Got in at six this morning its been good so far maybe going to one of the big beer gardens tonight, lots to do here. Google the tent in Munich, that's where im staying its awesome.
Also I'm grilling up some mean sausage right now. Bought it straight from the butcher today.
Going to Lyon Sunday.Don spoke to Bryan today so we know he arrived in Lyon. Only a few days left in the gadabout.
On a train to the Slovenian capital. Only spending tonight and tomorrow there then night train to Munich.
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Photo from Belgrade to Ljubljana train |
Hostels have been decent so far on average. Some are really good for making friends. Others are more difficult but I think it depends more on the people staying there than the actual facilities. I've noticed that the cheaper the hostel, the better the people are, usually more solo travelers or just interesting people traveling on tight budgets. So I've been booking the cheapest hostels I can find for the past few weeks and it's been great. The biggest room I've stayed in so far was in Sarajevo, there were 21 beds in my room all were occupied. Also most have a checkout time of 10 or 11 and a check in time of 2 or 3. But the enforcing of those rules varies, I've been in hostels were they slam on doors to wake people up to checkout and others where you can sleep until the next person checks in.
Sarajevo was a lot of fun and a bit more recovered than Mostar. On train to Belgrade now for 3 nights, then starting to go back west.
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| Here's one of the bridge in Mostar, the main sight here. The river is so blue and so cold, there is a group of local divers that dive off the bridge for money. |
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| This is on the top floor of a huge abandoned building ruined by the war in the center of town. This was a popular place for snipers to sit because of the vantage point. These are the windows they would look out from. |
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| View from the hole on the left in the previous picture. |
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| Roof of that building. Guy in the yellow is from Walnut Creek, CA. |
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| This is what about a fourth of the buildings look like here. Covered in bullet holes and half abandoned, you can see that people have moved back into the top floors. Despite how rough the city looks the people are some of the nicest I've met on the trip. |
"Good morning, almost just two weeks left for my trip it's gone so fast. Just thought I'd let you guys know I changed my mind about Dubrovnik. I'm taking a bus to Mostar today if I can get on cheaply enough then after a couple days there I'll go to Sarajevo. I've heard it's very interesting and very safe to visit these places right now as long as you avoid the mine fields and abandoned buildings. That should bring my to next weekend then I'll start heading back to Paris hitting a few places along the way."I asked about going to Budapest since it is nearby ...
"I actually went to Budapest for a few days before I went to Split. It was awesome I wish could have had more time there but I was meeting those friends on Hvar. I stayed in a really small hostel there and met a lot of cool people. They have some really cool bars there that are built into the ruins of communist era buildings. I also went to one of the many bath houses there just to try it out since the weather was bad. Jumped from hot water to cold water an stuff like that."And back to USA where we are still in Florida. I worked today, while Carolyn & Don tried out jet-skiing in the intercoastal. Said it was amazing.
"These beaches are nice but I think the sandy beaches of Florida are better. The rocks just make it fairly uncomfortable and there are sea urchins everywhere. But the water is extremely blue and the views aren't bad, plus you can go nude. (Huh?)
After an entertaining day on the party island, I had with two friends from Krakow I'm back in Split at a hostel for 4 days. Yesterday I got into Hvar around 2pm and was picked up in the harbor by my friends who rented a boat. Not before they did donuts in the middle of the crowded harbor banging on a tambourine. But the interesting thing that happened was later on in the day. I was on a different boat at the time and they were following us in theirs. One of the guys decided to do donuts when the other wasn't hanging on. He flys out of be boat and his foot got all cut up on the propeller. It was the most blood I've ever seen, 2 deep cuts along the outside of his foot. After a trip to the hospital filled with tourists who have drunkenly injured themselves, he had six stitches, he got pretty lucky I guess.... to say the least. Glad to hear the guy is going to be okay. Egads. Good times.
They flew back home this morning, as was their plan not because of injury. This hostel in Split is fairly quiet so far which is nice it's been an exhausting couple weeks."
"At a bar in Vienna I thought this was your name at first look."
"The England team is staying in Krakow in a hotel just across the square from my hostel. I saw them going on the bus yesterday to fly to their game today. Here's a pic of Gerrard."
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| Steven Gerrard - Captain |
"I'm enjoying my first night in Poland. Hanging out with a couple of English guys at the fan park tomorrow."Hey, we're happy for every little tidbit we get but I won't be combining his notes into a novel.
"One more night in Prague then the next night I'm taking the night train to Krakow. Here's a picture of the big screen in the main square with the England-Sweden game on."
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| "Found this outside of the castle in Prague" |
"Got into hamburg yesterday afternoon not much for wifi access here but I found a tiny bit of service. I think I'm only staying for one more night then I'm taking a train to Prague to meet a friend from school who emailed me yesterday saying he was there."
"It's really fun however my roommates aren't as fun as in Brussels and Paris so I've kinda been doing stuff more on my own. I still think its my favorite place despite that though. I love the bike riding aspect of it. You'll see families going out to dinner but instead of in a car they're on bikes. I spent yesterday walking through the main tourist traps' Today I'm resting and watching soccer at a bar since Holland is playing in ten mins. Tomorrow I'm renting a bike and going to the further away sights, then on Monday I plan to do the museums since it will be considerably less busy.
My main observation of this place is everyone seems to be extremely happy and friendly as long as you give bike riders the right of way as a pedestrian. And it's like the exact opposite of Brussels as far as diversity goes. The game is about to start it should be on espn if you are at home today."In an earlier email he said he's waiting for better weather before taking and sending photos.
"Ya Brussels is pretty awesome I really enjoyed the past two days here. The public transportation is really good. The whole city is extremely diverse.
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| Grand Place - Brussels |
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| Grand Place - Brussels |
It's almost midnight here so I'm going to bed, I'm catching a train to Amsterdam tomorrow. I'll be there for three night until Tuesday morning, but that may change if i like it there."
