Soviet Satellites

Its been awhile since my last post because "real" china doesn't like blogs so much but now I am in Hong Kong for a few days I shall make hay when the sun shines (read: its raining outside)

Leaving Romania meant that Martina and I went our separate ways . She caught the train to Istanbul and that evening I caught the night train to Chisinau, Moldova . If the strange looks at my passport were anything to go by not many British passports make their way out to Moldova .

I thought that I was the only one with a English tongue on the train but it turned the girl in the next compartment spoke English . She had traveled through Western Europe and she was heading to Moscow to see her boyfriend and was very helpful when it came to filling out the Cyrillic only boarder forms.

After a few hours sleep on the basic but functional sleeper train we rolled in into Chisinau . Chisinau was in stark contrast to Romania. Chisinau looked tired and tacky and was all about making money with a number of late model Merc's and BMW's rolling around amongst the poor old Lada's . With some exploring and you can a number of nice museums,bars and cafes as well as the excellent park next to the Arcul de Triumf were young and old come out and plug in their laptops or ipods to the powerpoints that line the park benches , having said that I found little reason to stay longer

That evening I was on a train to Kiev only this time I was surprised to find that there were 3 Frenchmen in the cabin next to me . I had the cabin to myself for a couple of hours before a Russian man came in with a taste for Moldovan Brandy . He didn't speak a word of English and I couldn't speak a word of Russian but it made for a interesting journey . He was a truck driver from the far north of Russia and had videos on his phone of him and his buddy's driving through the frozen north and getting stuck, pointing to the place on the map in the LP showing where their were getting stuck .

A couple of brandy's later we arrived in Kiev and I set off to find my host using the less than helpful metro system. After walking around lost for a hour I found the my hosts apartment in amongst a forest of soviet apartment blocks . My hosts Nessia and Yuri were a young couple who had just given birth to a baby girl . They were into travel and photography and had made books with their photos taken from their adventures all over Europe and it was nice hanging out exchanging travel stories 

Kiev had character which I couldn't find in my (very) short visit to Chisinau .The people while still outwardly cold but the city had charm . At the train station I befriended a Egyptian who was trying to buy a ticket to Levi and wasn't having much luck finding the right booth .He and I were marched around until eventually we found a booth that would sell us a ticket .

He was a engineer from Cairo who had been working in Kiev and Levi for the last 6 months and was going to fly home from Leiv. We went of to explore the city and made our way to the Chernobyl museum which turned out to be shut so we headed for a excellent hill top flea market with fur hats,commie propaganda,old Russian cameras and a strange fascination with Hugh Laurrie. We spent the rest of the day walking around centre with its churches,monuments and parks until it was time for him to make us way back to the train station and set off for Leiv and I set off to my hosts to say my goodbyes and set off for Moscow

I wasn't looking forward to the boarder crossing. I hadn't met a foreigner with a good word to say the Russian or Ukrainian boarder police and days before Lucas (who I will be travelling through Russia with) sent me a mail saying that his experience on the bus from Finland was less than ideal . I sat down on the train without saying a word expecting normal service to resume and little or no English to be spoken but to my amazement it turned out that almost everyone in my section of the Pleazcart spoke English to a extent .

The guys in my compartment had just come back from a tour of Chernobyl and the young girl who sat next to me was heading to Moscow to see her boyfriend. We crossed the boarder just after midnight without any fuss. The Ukrainians came aboard and checked the passport and gave the customary cold stare and half a hour later the Russians did the same thing but from the other end of the carriage while making sure I was still within their sights . The process maybe took a hour and a half but didn't involve getting off the train or walking blind folded into a gulag so if you want to get into Russia easily  take the train !!!!!!! 

Back in the (former) USSR

So I have been in the wilderness for the last 2 weeks and now its time for the now monthly catch up session

Leaving Krakow wasn't as easy as it appeared at first . The hitching spot I had chosen was a bus stop with a large bay for cars to pull in but this had been cut into pieces by the road crew who were working on it . With the Swiss CS girl (who from this point on will be referred to as Martina) we walked up the road until we found another bus stop on a intersection and after about a hour we were picked up by a Polish man who was a civil engineer . As it turned out he wanted to move to New Zealand with his wife and so we had a good chat about the why he should move to Auckland as he drove us towards the boarder and dropped us in a small village from which we could work towards the boarder

It took another 3 rides until we made it to the no mans land that is the Polish/Slovakian boarder crossing on highway 77 when we were picked up by a interesting Slovakian man and his Czech girlfriend who were driving their friends car home (it was a long story which I can't recall at this time). The Slovakian man had done his fair share of hitching in his time and it was cool exchange stories with him about hitching and life in general . He said it was rare for him to see hitchers  anymore and treated us to lunch and a beer at a cafe at the foot of a impressive Hungarian Castle where Nosferatu was filmed . After lunch he drove us close to the Hungarian boarder where we said our goodbyes

In the late evening we made Budapest after a Polish couple in a transit van who were on their way to Croatia picked us up from the Hungarian boarder and dropped us off a couple of blocks away from the train station where we could get our bearings where we found a hostel to crash in . I had visited Budapest last year but it was Martinas first time so we walked around the town centre and waterfront  in the morning (with all our kit because the hostel had a 1000 forint fee for baggage storage !!) before hitting the indoor market for some cheap grub . Budapest is one of my favourite European cities and the locals don't appear to be jaded by tourism yet . It would have been nice to show Martina around but time was of the essence and we wanted to get to Romania quickly so she could visit a friend in Istanbul and I could travel north towards Russia

Getting out of Budapest was troublesome to say the least . We aimed for the E60 and we used the metro but it took us some time to get the correct bus with the language barrier and when we got to the spot it was less than ideal . The "önramp" was two slip roads from the intersection which merged into one and then became the motorway so we took a side each and hoped for the best . We didn't have to wait to long and got a ride to the closest petrol station and with the ball rolling we made it to Oradea about 11pm . Although it was dark Oradea didn't appeal to any of the senses so we took the train to Cluj-Napoca

There was no heating and it was a cold night with 6 other people crammed into the small compartment so sleeping wasn't really possible but the when we arrived in Cluj-Napoca in the early morning. We basked in the warmth of the train station waiting room until the guard threw everyone out and we made our way to the city centre on a tram that was covered head-to-toe in German, perhaps it spent its youth in another part of the world before ending up in Cluj-Napoca ?

We were tired so after making our way around the city at noon we made for a park which overlooked the city and slept for a couple of hours . From the park you could see the new and old with the new cafes and bars mixing with the traditional bright blues and yellows for which Eastern Europe is famous for and a somewhat unique method of arranging power lines ! . In the park there were two Roma Gypsy men who were throwing sticks and stones at a large apple tree and after a couple of hours they collected the fruits of their labour (sorry) and marched off into the distance. I was stuck by how dark they were and didn't appear to be releated the Gypsy people in Ireland or Britain

We walked back into town to by a ticket from the ticket office (this isn't always part of the train station in Romania) for Bucharest that night . The train to Bucharest to had the same layout as the Oredea/Cluj-Napoca
and wasn't again sleep wasn't an option .

Our first morning in Bucharest didn't go to plan. The two hostels that the Lonely Planet guide had suggested no longer existed so it was only with the help of a friendly local that we found a hostel to call our temporary home . Bucharest is a crazy place to visit (in the best possible way) and is full of contradictions . The neighbourhood our hostel was in was a poor area where the streets have a dirty/sandy look to them stray dogs roaming around (and waking you up at 6 in the morning) but walk a few blocks away and you are in the modern metro or on a new Mercedes bus . Even the huge Parliament building impressive as it is has cracked tiles in the parking lot .

Worryingly what remains of the historic district is being tarted up in a way suggest's that Bucharest could possibly be the next Ryanair staghole and the character of this wild and eccentric place will be steamrolled by weekend warriors and their pint of cheap Australian beer . I hope this isn't the case and that Romania will become a modern European country but keep some of its wild west type character

Travelling through the Eastern Bloc has been a challenging at times but it has been very rewarding . Its a great feeling having total freedom in where you would like to go. With a thumb and a map you can get almost anywhere and it was nice to see that in the Eastern Bloc young people will pick up hitch hikers which isn't always the case in Western Europe.

Now it is time to leave Romania and head up towards the heart of the beast that was the leader of the pack  but thats  enough rambling here is some eye candy

The Wall and Beyond

My time in Paris was short but it was now time to move on and start a somewhat ambitious atempt to hitch to Berlin . I started with my usual sign and thumb at the petrol station on the motorway that hitchwiki suggested but the locals took a more direct approach and went up to anyone with German or Beligum plates and were having more success,it was time to change methods .

30 Minutes later I had a ride from a Belgium business man in a flash Audi who took me to Antwerp and from there I was picked up by a Dutch cheese maker and he took me up to further north where I got stuck for sometime . I was waiting for some time and the light was fading when a guy with a old Opel Kadett rocked up with steam pouring from the bonnet .

I asked if he needed a hand and it turned out that he was going up north get a bike for his friend and he would take me up the road 30 km. When we pulled into the next petrol station the car completely cut out and wouldn't start again . Something pretty serious had died a horrible death and so the roadside repair man was summoned and he worked his magic on the Kadett

Getting to the boarder from this point wasn't to difficult but making progess from here was . The petrol station I was dropped off at was not 24 hours and had shut with only truck drivers coming in to sleep . I rolled out my sleeping bag and slept beside the bathroom with my Germany sign and at something like 2 in the morning a Polish driver came along and said he was leaving for Germany at 0600 .

After many hours of Polish techno,food and limited Polish/English conversation we made it to a petrol station about 30 km south of Potsdam . From here you can take the motorway underpass and walk for 30 minutes until you come across a train station which you can take to Potsdam then catch the S-Bahn into central Berlin

Berlin has a huge reputation at the moment and it didn't disappoint . It was worlds apart from the Munich I had visited the year before . It has a food scene (Sri Lankian cafe & Turkish were the highlights) with lots of variety and won't be beaten in price anywhere in Western Europe .Most meals at these places were no more expensive than a Big Mac meal in London . It is full of history, museums,parks,cool bars and people partying on the trains ! . I really hope I can go back there someday and spend time to get to know the city better

Next stop Krakow . I made my way to the same petrol station at Potsdam and tried my luck with a P (for Poland) sign . After a hour I got a ride from a man driving a van who spoke no English and a little German but he was going to the boarder . A few hours and after much Polish techno we made it to the boarder and I tried to get a ride down the western highway 29 .

I was soon picked up by a German who was heading down that way and he was able to take me 50 Km past the mushroom pickers and prostitutes  who lined the forest roads and he dropped me off in a small town where I was picked up by a young couple who dropped me off at Zielona Gora .

Armed with a sign for Wroclaw I was picked up and dropped at a petrol station 5 km out of the city . A Audi with 3 Polish men pulled up saying that they were heading that way . We jammed all my gear into the car and we speed off with the 2 in the back knocking off Vodka and Beer and the driver who I cannot tell if he had been drinking or not but he was driving like a man on a mission and after a couple of  brown pants moments and 3 hours later they dropped me off in the middle of now where just outside Krakow

There was a bus that supposedly went somewhere near central Krakow on the opposite side of the road but I had no Slotti (Polish money) so walked into the petrol station to see if they could help. Turned out there was a ATM around the corner but it didn't like my debit card so I had to barter with some kids and traded 5 euro for 15 which wasn't the best bit of negotiating ever but it was money for the bus . I eventually made it in Krakow and my host directed me to her place on a night bus and we had fun hanging out with another CSer from Switzerland.

The next day I made it to the Wieliczka Salt Mine which funnily enough was 1 bus stop away from where I was dropped the night before . The tour guide was wooden but it was still a interesting experience walking through a mine that is century's old and to go to a man-made tourist attraction that has been open since medieval times . That evening my host took  me on a tour of the central city and the Jewish area and checked out some bars while admiring the exploits of the Ryanair crowd who had assembled in the old market square

The next morning I got up early and made off for the hitching spot but this time I had a companion  . The Swiss CS girl wanted to come along and hitch down south which was funny because she had a Interrail pass but maybe she had a taste for hitching or maybe she wanted some company which was cool because having a girl sidekick can make it allot easier to get picked up !!!

As usual here is the end of post photo dump, next up Hungary

Parisian Sunsets

I left Lille late in the afternoon so it was going to but 50/50 if I could make it to Paris in time or not . As long as you can get on the A1 it is a easy ride to Paris but with the Flea Market there was allot more traffic and the motorway on ramp suggested by hitch wiki wasn't ideal. There wasn't much room and traffic was travelling allot faster than I expected . After 30 minutes my Paris sign wasn't getting much love so I readjusted my sights and my sign for the nearest petrol station and sure enough 10 minutes late I was on my way with still a hour or so of daylight .

At the gas station I met a travel traveler who had just come back from Amrina and wanted to surprise his girlfriend by making it to Paris that night . We exchanged story’s and even though he was there first he let me have first crack in the fading light and before I could even get my sign out 3 girls in a tiny Smart car offered me a ride. One of the girls spoke perfect English and the others could understand but not speak it but it made for one of the best rides I had so far . 

They were going to Paris to party for a couple of days before flying out to a party Island off the coast of Spain which name escapes me at the moment . We talked about travel and talked music and travel then we had a quick tour de Paris at night going down the Chan de lise had a quick glimpse of the Lurve, Arc de Triumph,Effil Tower and then they dropped me off at the metro . I was the first hitch hiker that they had picked up and they were byfar the youngest people who had picked me up at this point and so before they drove off we took photos and shook hands and went our separate ways

The Paris metro system is fairly easy to use and it was easy to get to my hosts place but finding her apartment in a ocean of highrise apartments wasn't so easy , it was lucky that this was one of the rare occasions where I had credit on my cell phone . When I eventually found my host she was very accommodating and we stayed up all night drinking tea and listening to some very cool French music

I don't really see the point of describing Paris as everyone has their own opinion on it and France as a whole (Rainbow Warrior much ?). I had low expectations of Paris but having lived in England for the last year it would have been a shame not to at least take a peek .I really enjoyed my short stay there but instead of rambling on as usual I will just let the photos do the talking tell the tell that was Paris