Getting my Culture On...

There are some great things about living in the big city... more shopping, an international airport, a plethora of sporting events... and culture. 

And there is more to "culture" in Calgary than just the cowboy culture. 

Over the past two weeks, I've seen a Cirque show (Amaluna - my favourite big top show so far), the ballet (Alberta Ballet's production of Balletlujah featuring the music of kd lang) and the theatre (Theatre Calgary's production of Anne of Green Gables - the Musical).

Since I've lived in Calgary (these are what I remember anyways), I've seen stage performances of Beauty and the Beast, Riverdance, and the Lion King, the Calgary symphony, four Cirque big top shows, three Calgary Stampede grandstand shows, free concerts, paid concerts on both the big and small stage, and attended various street festivals (there is awesome food at some of these events too!). 

Now, I must admit, that although I went to three events in the past week, I've never been to a Calgary art gallery or museum - mostly because those venues don't interest me much. But I definitely try to take advantage of what the city has to offer. 

The downside? The ticket prices can add up! But it's totally worth it. 

Zoo-rific Day!

This year, my work's professional development day was had at the zoo. And you know what that means...

Penguins!

Meerkats!

Peacocks!

Oh... and of course developing professionally. 

But really...

Penguins!

Today is the day!

Well, it's my birthday, but even more importantly - Target opened in Calgary today.

Like a sucker, I had to go. I had to see if it was like Target in the States... and it kind of was.

I figure about 70% of the stuff in the sore could've already been bought in Canada. Target brought in a couple of their own brand names (Mossimo for example)... but a lot of the stuff was the same as you could've gotten at Walmart up the street.

Granted, that didn't stop me from buying myself some new birthday shoes. $20! And they even had size 11.

What I don't get were people wandering through the store like they'd never been in a department/superstore before. Watching one lady watch her cart take a different path up the escalator than her was amusing (and gave the Target employees a good laugh).

I'm just glad there's some more choices... I never went to Zellers (they were overpriced and rather scummy), so this gives me another place to look for things to spend (waste?) my hard-earned money on.

Athens... the city where my perspiration sweat

The last stop on my whirlwind trip was to Athens... mainly because I wanted to see the Acropolis.  Yes... when planning a trip it is totally feasible to go to a city to see one thing.

As I got off the metro line in downtown Athens, I was greeted by riot police... it seems that a protest had just travelled through the square (to which both Parliament and the national bank border on).  I missed this protest... but in my time in Athens, saw six more - all peaceful and rather short.  They marched down the street, around the square, and then just seemed to disperse from what I could tell.

My hostel was very central to all of the tourist places in Athens... on my first night on the recommendation of the lady working the front desk I walked (hiked?) up Likavittos hill, a hill in the middle of Athens that would give me an excellent view of the Acropolis in the evening.  The view did not disappoint!  I hung out there for an hour or so snapping pictures, and then headed back to the hostel for the evening.

The next morning I went on my last free walking tour of the trip.  George lead us past a number of the Greek and Roman ruins, and gave us some history lessons along the way.  We circled the Acropolis, saw the Temple of Zeus, Hadrian's Arch... all places that I would eventually go back to visit later on during my stay.

Have I mentioned yet that it was 34C in Athens?  And that I don't really like any temperature above 20C?  After the walking tour, I had to go back to the hostel to cool down a bit - there was no way that I'd be able to be outside all day.  And the Greeks were wearing jackets! And down vests! Seriously? I wanted to walk around naked!

George had told us the best time to visit the Acropolis was midday... the cruise ships brought all of their tours in first thing in the morning and the area was packed.  From what we saw on our walking tour, he was correct.  The tough part about going midday is that it was stinking hot and there is no shade anywhere near the Parthenon!  Luckily I remembered sunscreen (unlike a couple of girls I saw at the hostel that evening) and survived the trip.

After venturing to the Acropolis, I walked around Athens a bit... the shopkeepers aren't quite as pushy as they are in Istanbul, but pretty close.  Especially when you walked past them a couple of times!

The next day I visited the Acropolis Museum... it was nice... but rather sterile.  It was only opened a couple of years ago, and you could tell.  I'm glad I went, but honestly I'd rather see the artifacts in their natural environments rather than a huge white room full of white marble.  I wandered the streets some more, had an excellent wrap (where I could have eaten the tzatziki by the vat) and took it easy... went back to see some of the sights in the evening, and in general, enjoyed that it was far cooler at night than during the day.

The next day I wandered around for a few souvenirs, and then went to take the bus to the airport... and of course it was not running due to impending protests... so it was to the subway and then back to Istanbul!

Belgrade... home to the largest apartment complexes I've ever seen

I arrived in Belgrade after yet another JAT flight delayed by "technical issues"... I shouldn't be surprised, JAT is part of the Star Alliance with Air Canada - the service levels are about the same.

I checked into my hostel and got my own room with a TV! That had English channels!  That I could watch reruns on NCIS on all afternoon long!

On the way from the airport to the hostel, we passed some enormous and extremely dismal looking apartment complexes.  I would guess that some of these complexes had at least 700 apartments in them - they were a couple of city blocks long, black and grungy.  Unfortunately, like most of the Belgrade I saw.

My hostel was about 2.5 km from the city centre - on the first day I walked into town, but like most cities in Europe, you have to climb a giant freaking hill to get anywhere, so after that first venture I took the bus.  I walked around the Belgrade Fortress, took a few pictures, and then headed back to the hostel for the evening.

The next morning I took part in a free walking tour (so far the only city that didn't have a free walking tour was Istanbul!) and while interesting, I felt like we missed out on a lot of the recent history.  One of the reasons that I like the free walking tours is because the guides are usually very honest with the history and will answer any questions.  Granted, this was one of the first tours I'd taken with only young people (I was probably the oldest on the tour) so maybe that's why there wasn't a lot of questions.  But apart from the mention that the citizens saved a bridge from NATO bombing, there was little mention of communism and no mention of Milosevic. 

That afternoon I wandered around my hostel a bit and down to take a few evening pictures of their new bridge... in all it was a very quiet visit.  The city itself seems rather old and rundown... which is not really what I expected from one of the party capitals of the world (not that partying interests me in the least, but I expected more).

Next stop... Athens.  And 32C heat!

Sarajevo... more than just a war city

I honestly wasn't sure what to expect of Bosnia... I mean the only thing I *really* know about the area is that my best friend's boyfriend went on a peacekeeping mission there when I was in university.  So yeah... war.  That's about all I knew.

My first impression of Sarajevo wasn't exactly the best one - I went to my hostel only to find that they'd overbooked and I didn't have a bed for the night. That, and the hostel looked like a bit of a party place.  The front desk guy called over to a couple of other places and got me a room at another hostel with the promise that the next two nights I could go back to his hostel and it would be free of charge.  But, since I liked the other hostel so much (it was quiet and I pretty much had the place to myself) I paid to stay there for three nights.  In the end the first hostel's screwup was the best thing ever.

I arranged a free walking tour the next morning, and it was just myself and an Australian couple.  We were shown around the city - it is a very long and narrow city, mainly along the river.  The city itself had three main "developments"... and older Turkish/Ottoman area, a central Austro-Hungarian area and then the new Yugoslavia area.  We learned about the history, and the history of Bosnia and Herzegovina - and how it is really divided into two areas - a Bosnian area and a Serbian area.  Where I would say that I'm Canadian, they don't associate with their country that way, their either Croat, Serb or Bosnian.  I found this sad.

While Sarajevo doesn't want to be remembered for the war, there are definite reminders.  Almost 12,000 people died, including over 1100 children just in Sarajevo alone.  They have these "roses" in the concrete... where a mortar (shot by the Serbs) struck and killed someone in Sarajevo, they filled the holes in the concrete with a reddish coloured resin.  There were about 100 throughout the city, but the tour guide said that they are in bad repair and not that many are left.

I spent most of my time in the Ottoman area... little shops, restaurants (I had the most awesome steak dinner for about $15) and mosques are all over the area.  I bought my souvenir (I try to only buy one thing per place) on the coppersmith street... buy the guy that actually made it.  I'd seen him working on the first day, and went back on the second.  He was probably my age, and the shop had been in his family for over 100 years.  He showed me some of the work that they do, and it was nice to hear his story.  And the souvenir I bought was way better than some mass-produced stamped copper piece made in Turkey!

In all, the city surprised me.  Although it suffered great tragedy only 20 years ago, the city is quite modern (I saw far less modern cities along the way!). The people were nice, and there is a definite sense that the city wants to move on.

A quick trip to Montenegro

During my stay in Dubrovnik, I scheduled a day trip to Montenegro through one of the local tour agencies.  I mean... I was already visiting ten countries in a month... why not add an eleventh for the sake of it.

I was picked up on "Croatian" time... about 15 minutes after my email said the van would meet me, but having seen the road construction the day before, I wasn't upset at all.  The roads through the Balkans are windy and narrow - for example, I can drive 250km in just over two hours on Canadian highways - in the Balkans you're looking at (at least) a four to five hour trip.

We headed south from Dubrovnik, and were at the border to Montenegro in about an hour.  Our first stop was to look at some Roman ruins (some beautiful mosaic floors) and then to take some pictures of the the scenery in and around the Bay of Kotor (which the tour guide said was really more of a fjord than a bay).

We stopped in Kotor for about an hour, and given that the walled in part of the city is so small, I actually just took the time to sit under a tree (the only shade I could find) and read a book for a bit.  We then carried on to Budva, where we passed a tunnel and an island used in the filming of the James Bond movie Casino Royale.  I now have a reason to watch my second ever Bond movie (I watched Skyfall on the flight from Calgary to Amsterdam) - to try and pick out places I saw in real life!

We walked along the city walls of Budva, and then sat down for lunch.  The German couple that was on the tour (there was just me, an American couple and an elderly German couple) asked to sit with me, and begrudgingly I said yes... no word of a lie these two smoked seven cigarettes each before lunch was served.  So gross.  They missed out on so much because they always just stayed by the van and smoked when the other three of us explored at each stop.

During the free time that we had in Budva, I found this path down past on of the hotels, and it provided me with some awesome pictures of the rock face and of the James Bond island (which is now actually owned by some Russian billionaire).  Then it was back to the van and back to Croatia...

Except the main tour guide got pulled over by the Montenegrin police for doing an illegal u-turn.  He looked really nervous, but handled it well.  The other tour guide explained the situation - the fine could actually be 100 Euro and they could have taken away the permit for the tour company to come to Montenegro.  But, with the police (and country) being so corrupt, they were able to negotiate.  The police wanted 40 Euro, but they managed to talk him down to 20 Euro.  I don't think that would fly in Canada!

On the way back we took a short ferry ride that cut off a bunch of driving time (on the way we circled the whole Bay of Kotor on a windy road... the ferry allowed us to cut right across the bay).  Then it was back to Croatia after a long stop at the Montenegro/Croatia border (but I got passport stamps!) and back to Dubrovnik.

The scenery was beautiful, and totally worth the day trip.

Next... Sarajevo!

Lost in Croatia

First off... Croatia (or what I saw of it) is a really beautiful country... but holy hell is their transit system not my friend.

I arrived in Zagreb after about six hours on a train from Budapest at 8pm.  I had simple instructions - get on the tram, go for two stops, and then find the hostel.

First time I got on the tram, it obviously changed numbers after I got on, and I ended up going in a different direction.  This wouldn't have been a huge deal - you'd think I could get off and then get a tram back in to where I started and then try again... but alas their track splits and the stations are not side-by-side.  So I walked until I did find a tram and went back to where I started.

Because I thought that maybe I'd headed in the wrong direction (they mark their trams with their starting point, not destination - very non-North American and unknown to me at this time) I got back on the same number tram and headed the other way.  Wrong again.  This time though I was able to get a tram back to my starting point fairly easy. 

Get back on the same number tram, heading in the "right" direction... and then damn thing veers off again in the wrong direction.  This time I get off right away and catch a tram back to the starting point.  I'm starting to lose it now - partially because I know that the hostel isn't really that far, but I am lacking a decent map so I don't want to just venture out into the city.

Finally I get on the (same numbered) tram I've been trying unsuccessfully to catch for the past TWO HOURS and it miraculously ends up going in the right direction!  Hallelujah!  Lucky for me I had a whole five hours of time at the hostel before I needed to be up for my flight to Dubrovnik to sleep.

Ha!  Five hours my ass... that's if I didn't have to deal with a bunch of inconsiderate, ignorant Spanish hostel mates (I'm seeing a theme with Spaniards and their disregard for anyone else).  I probably slept about two hours before they came back to the room and started arguing/yelling/acting like jackasses - so I just got up and went to catch my taxi to the airport.

Next time I have that little time in a city, I'm just sleeping in the damn airport.

The sobe that I staying in while in Dubrovnik was in the old city - and recommended in the Rick Steves guidebook.  The owner of sobe was unfortunately in the hospital, but he arranged for me to meet a friend to check in and get settled... the first thing I did was nap!

When I got up I explored the city a bit - I took the cable car to the top of the hill to get a good view of the city below - it was expensive (by the standards I've had during this trip) but I knew that it would be... Dubrovnik is a cruise ship port and the city walls filled each day with cruise ship passengers on mini tours of the city.  The views of the Adriatic were beautiful and I wandered around for an hour or so before going back to the city.

I explored the old port, and wandered the city a bit - the walled section isn't very big - lots of shops and restaurants - and prepaid my trip to Montenegro for the next day.

Montenegro will get it's own post... so I'll skip to day three in Dubrovnik.

I got up late (this was the first place I had my own room - not just an empty hostel room, but my own actual room - so I took advantage of being able to sleep in.  I walked the city walls - it's about 2km around, and got some great views.  I wish I'd been counting the number of stairs that I have walked during this trip - I'm sure I'd be close to a million by now!

The rest of the day was spent relaxing by the old port, eating ice cream and just enjoying some down time.  By this time I was more than halfway into my trip, and honestly I was starting to slow down.  I'm still seeing what I want to, but I'm not feeling the need to see everything at warp speed!

The next morning I packed up and headed to the bus station to buy my ticket to Sarajevo.  Yet another transit mishap... they don't mark the stops in Dubrovnik (either on the bus or at the stops), and I didn't get off at the bus station (in hindsight I'm not sure why as the bus station would have been right in front of me!).  Sadly, I realized this (I knew if I turned the corner of the road I'd gone too far) just a little too late - and of course the next stop wasn't for like 3km!  I got off, expecting (so North American of me!) a return stop to be on the other side of the road... but there was nothing.  I started walking in the direction of the bus (thankfully I'd left lots of time to get to the bus station!), and all of a sudden a car pulled up beside me and the gentleman motioned for me to get in.

And I did something I've never done before... I got in the car. With a guy who barely spoke English, and trusted my life in his hands.

Thankfully I did get in... turns out the next stop wasn't for about another 3km or so.  Since you're reading this post, you know that I wasn't kidnapped or sold into slavery... and I'm thankful that the man took pity on me and dropped me off so I could catch the city bus back to the bus station!

We're not even going to go into the fact that the bus to Sarajevo was almost an hour late and even though I crossed the Croatia/Bosnia and Herzegovina border three times on the way I didn't get a single passport stamp.

Next post... Montenegro and then Sarajevo!

Budapest... it's "pescht" not "pest"!

My train ride to Budapest was quite nice... I sat with a girl from Australia that had actually been on the overnight train from Krakow with me as well... she's travelling around after spending almost two years working in London.  Those Aussies really have it right travelling so much!

Budapest is a great city - lots of history, and they're not afraid to make fun of their currency (I, for example, had 20 1000-zloty notes, so 20,000 zloty - and that was worth less than $100 Canadian.  I felt rich!) - comparing it to monopoly money at times.

My first night in Budapest I went to a folklore show that I found out about on the internet.  The ticket was less than $20 and I was treated to almost two hours of dancing and magnificent Hungarian music.  Every member of the band played the whole evening's music by memory, there wasn't a piece of sheet music to be seen.  There were ten dancers in all, and they put on quite the show.  It was like Lord of the Dance, Hungarian style!

The next morning, I got up and went on my first of two free walking tours of the city - this was a basic tour of the history of the city and some of the buildings.  We finished the tour by walking up to the Royal Palace on the Buda side of the river which overlooked the Pest side, and the Parliament buildings (the Europeans really like their stats - the Hungarian Parliament building is the fourth longest building in the world).

That afternoon I had to choose between taking a free Jewish walking tour, and visiting the Holocaust Museum (since the museum would be closed the next day). I chose the museum, and it was very well done, and while watching the final video of when the concentration camps were liberated it took everything for me not to cry.

The next day I spend the morning being pampered at the Szechenyi Bath and Spa.  It was also nice that I could wear a bathing suit and not have to be naked in front of everyone!  I treated myself to a massage that I wish could have gone on forever.  It was a great treat in the middle of the trip!

In the afternoon I managed to take my jelly-like self on another free walking tour - this one was about Communist Budapest.  We stayed on the Pest side of the river for this one, and it was nice to get the perspective of two people that actually lived during the Communist regime.  Hungarians actually had it pretty "good" (all in relative terms) during communism as they weren't sensored like many other countries were... they were allowed to travel to non-communist countries (albiet with a different passport than if they were travelling to a communist country), but they had TV, they had radio, and as one of the tour guides said, they got to wear jeans!

Budapest was a great city to visit... I highly recommend it!

Next stop... Croatia.  How many times can I get lost on public transportation in Croatia?  Find out next post!!