marksabout

Travelling around

Pamplona

Leave a comment Posted by marksabout on 28 March 2010

Hola!

I have managed to safely cross the Pyrenees AND continue walking after the ordeal! I say ordeal, but the experience was spectacular. I had two obstacles that made crossing the pass a little harder than it ought to be: 1) my own fault, I am carrying far too much for this trip. 18kgs, to be precise, when the recommended weight is 10% of one´s body weight. That leaves me 11kgs over, and 2) it was incredibly windy in them thar hills. So windy, in fact that, with the excess weight of my bag, it was at times impossible to take even one step forward without waiting for the gust to ease.

Ascending the Pyrenees

Orrison rest stop, 8km in, 500m up. Closed for two more days.

Close to the top...

Getting cold on the Route de Napoléon

The view was amazing though, and I stopped up the top to make a sandwich with some roquefort and pur porc sausage that I´d bought in St Jean (on bread with little bits of fig, yum!). Photos will have to describe the rest. The Internet at the hostels can be quite expensive.

Roncesvalles was the destination after the Pyrenees, we arrived at 3 and the hostel didn´t open until 4. There is nothing else in Roncesvalles (other than some churches, a bar and a monastery- no houses?), so we sat, sore feet, sore backs, sore legs, and waited to ´check in.´ Later that evening me and the other ´pilgrims´ joined in the bar to eat the 9 euro pilgrim menu. Bean soup, beef stew, and a tub of yogurt with wine and bread… was ok.

Accommodation on the first night...

My friend "Ko from Korea" out in front.

On leaving Roncevalles, I jettisoned a baton (walking stick that I´d purchased only the day before) an airline blanket, a belt, and a copy of To Kill A Mockingbird. This was not enough, and after purchasing food for 2 days (nothing open in Spain on Sunday, I was told – have since found this not to be true).

Ko approaching Larrasoaña

I have kinda met a group of people and we have walked together for the last 2 days, still with heavy pack, thought some of them seem to be in such a rush, and tend to race each other out of bed, and then speed along at pace. In keeping up with them, I have missed a bit, and so will fall behind tomorrow. I will be posting a good deal of weight from my pack to Santiago. I will make do with a lot less, and have a much more pleasant walk I´m sure. I don´t´care how much it costs me to send my stuff on, my shoulders canna cope no more, I will be waiting at at the doors of the post office tomorrow morning promptly at 8. It´s been 62 kms with hardcore heavy bag. I feel I´ve earnt the right to wear the same pants day and night for the next 30 month.

Camp in Pamps

I am now off to check out Pamplona with some fellow pilgrims and yah. Early start tomorrow.

Love Mark

Camino de Santiago, Larrasoaña, Pamplona, Pyrenees, Roncesvalles

Du coeur du chemin…

Leave a comment Posted by marksabout on 26 March 2010

Greetings from Basque country!

Seems a little too early to write, but after a week of near perfect (for the time of year) weather in Vienna it has decided to turn and now it’s raining.

Wet, cobbled street of SJPP

I haven’t begun the Camino; I decided to rest up for the day and stay the night in St Jean Pied de Port. It’s a wonder there’s not more tourists here – I’d imagine a place like this would be heaving. Maybe all French towns are this pretty? It’s the only one (other than Paris) that I’ve been to.

The Symbol of the Camino de Santiago

I’m starting the Camino (way) in St Jean: Au Coeur du Chemin (The Heart of the Way?). St Jean is at the confluence of 3 of the main routes in France before taking the last 774km to Santiago de Compostella. This part should take between 4-6 weeks on foot. Though I have a tendency to want to linger in beautiful places (today is a case in point) and this could affect the finish date.

Tonight I’m staying in a very comfortable municipal alberge. I’m not sure that the quality is maintained along the way – it would be too easy. Tomorrow morning I’ll rise early to cross the Pyrenees. This little baptism of fire will take me on a 1300m climb over 19km to Roncevalles, crossing into Spain about two thirds of the way along.

My official starting point?

Anyway, I’ll have more to say next time I write (get access to the Internet).

I’m sorry I didn’t get to say goodbye to all of you before I left – the lead up to departure wasn’t without incident, though, and I’ll be able to say ‘hello!’ to you when I get back…

Camino de Santiago, St Jean Pied de Port

I (heart) Dubrovnik

Leave a comment Posted by marksabout on 7 August 2006

I’m now in Dubrovnik after an exhausting two days travelling on ferries packed to capacity. I made the most of touristy Corfu by hiring a car and doing a beach crawl – I managed to see a lot of the Island in a day before embarking on my first ferry for an overnight trip to Brindisi. I was greeted in Brindisi by a torrential thunderstorm followed by some extremely humid weather.

Caution: Don't drive into the water, or you'll have driven into the water.

After gathering my bearings, I found the train station and caught a Eurostar to Bari, an equally bland city. Had I not been to nicer parts of Italy previously, I’d be unable to recommend travelling there based on my brief impressions of these two Southern port towns. Having said that, I stumbled across a pretty amazing restaurant in Bari that killed about 3 hours and gave me time to sample a cross section of Italian fare – delicious!

After less than 12 hours in Italy, it was time to leave, a process made extremely difficult by an apparent lack of organisational skills at the Bari port. 8 boats left that evening, queueing was unorganised and drew a lot of shouting from security guards. It looked like a one-off disaster that had occured due to an unforseen number of boats departing. I was to find out later from other users of the Bari port that this goes on every evening. The Italians have a lot to learn from the Greeks when it comes to ferry transport.

I arrived in Dubrovnik and was greeted by one of many women offerning their spare bedrooms as accommodation. I was travelling with an Irish girl, Helen at the time and we decided to accept the room offered as it was a “5 minute walk to the old town.” The room turned out to be the woman’s loungeroom and the two beds had miraculously become one sofa bed. We stayed anyway, and had a pretty good night’s sleep. As it was a house, we were sharing with the owner, and another guest. Helen took the liberty to use the washing machine. When the woman came home from work, she heard the washing machine and had a bit of a spat at Helen, and told her it would be 50kuna (7 euro) for the washing. Helen agreed to pay.

: Surveying the coast.

: Caution: Don’t drive into the water, or you’ll have driven into the water.

: Milling about the spring

: Novi grad from stari grad.

: Lookin a little brown on the Dalmatian

: Boat

That night, the other guest came home while we were in bed, and left the front door unlocked and the veranda light on. When I woke up this morning, the woman said “no more my house. I refund you 20 euro (we’d already paid 30 for the second night) because I take 10 for washing.” I looked dumbly at the woman, and she said “I wake up, doors open, light on veranda, washing machine, no more my house. You can leave by 8 (it was 7:30).” After the initial shock, I woke Helen, and we decided there was no reasoning with the woman, and we we demanded the full 30 euro back from her and left before 8.

On the way out, I looked at her and said “you are a bad person.” I was still half asleep. Presumably her other guest will leave doors open and lights on again and she’ll feel bad for having evicted the wrong people. Helen took this omen to leave Dubrovnik and headed for Sarajevo. I searched for 3 hours for an empty room and found one in a tiny flat in the middle of the old town. I hope the owner, Clara isn’t crazy. I have decided to stay here a while as it’s just so nice! (Dubrovnik, not the flat, though it is nice too).

Croatia, Dubrovnik

Beeping Mercedes!

Leave a comment Posted by marksabout on 28 July 2006

Hello World!

Ladies behind old "Yugo.

As you’re probably all dying for an update, I thought I should fill you in. I Can’t remember where I left off though… Macedonia, perhaps? I camped for two nights by Lake Ohrid and was grateful to be away from daggy cities and back to clear water. I had my first ever hitchhiking experience in Ohrid, and managed to be picked up by a limo! Man, hitchhiking is easy.

You are now entering Albania

From Macedonia I went to Albania, after 8 different vehicles I finally arrived in Vlora. Transport in Albania is interesting, to say the least. Highways are generally one and a bit lanes wide, so if a car is coming the other way, someone has to stop to enable the other to squeeze past. The roads are generally NOT SMOOTH, and seem to be bitumened (?) in no sort of pattern whatsoever. Travelling these tracks is also an aural experience, as Albanian drivers don’t indicate with the conventional blinker, one simply notifies other drivers that they intend to do something (anything) by beeping their horn. More than half the cars on Albanian roads are old Mercedes with cracked windscreens, apparently ‘sourced’ from Western Europe at a good price. The Mercedes betray the surrounding poverty.

Vlora on the Adriatic Sea

After the all day travelling experience, I was back to my beloved Mediterranean Sea in a town called Vlora on the Southern half of the Albanian coast. Vlora is not attractive, but I could travel no further. Fortunately, the only hotel listed in the Lonely Planet – though it had changed names since – was situated on the fringe of the city with it’s own private beach, and balcony overlooking the sea and awesome sunsets. How the locals, a cast of thousands swimming only 200 metres away at main beach, failed to encroach on the beach is beyond me. I enjoyed a recuperating two days on the outskirts of Vlora before negotiating the Albanian Roads again.

Sunset over Vlora

Meandering down to the bus station at midday, I discovered that I had missed the 6am bus to Dhermi. Who knew? I managed to bargain down a cabbie who took me on the two hour drive up a seaside mountain, hugging cliffs and beeping to overtake (yes, it was a Merc). I arrived in Dhermi having crossed the beautiful Mount Llogorija (spelling?) and took to finding accommodation. But first a coffee. I don’t know why, but the old lady serving tried to butter me up by explaining that she was an “Albanian Mama” in mixed Albanian, Italian and sign language. I gave the obligatory “that’s cute” laugh and this was her cue to try to extort $30 from me for a capuccino. When I divided that by 10, and handed over $3 (bloody expensive for Albania) she stared at the cash and me and then the cash again and when she realised that she wasn’t getting another $27, she asked if I’d like to stay at her hotel.

This doesn't fully explain the steep cliffs

Needless to say, I found alternative accommodation with a pleasant Albanian Granny who had rooms to let (dhoma me qira). She had, at an earlier stage in her life, spent a lot of time in Greece, and when agreeing on the price of the room, I heard her use the Greek for ‘euro’, I asked her if she spoke Greek. The barrage in Albanian quickly became a just as complicated barrage in Greek, but she liked me more!

Dhermi Beach

The beaches in Albania are stunning. But they are dotted with bomb shelters.

The room was 1 km up from the beach, a nice walk down, but not so on the way back. The beach was amazingly set at the bottom of a the Mountain I had just crossed to get to Dhermi and had the clear blue water that I’d left behind in Greece and Turkey. Dhermi was a place in which to linger, despite it’s only offering being the beach – the town was small, and had one shop, and frequent black outs meant that, well nothing really, I was mainly at the beach.

After a few days at Dhermi I took a 20 seater bus – with 35 passengers – to Saranda with the intention of getting a ferry to Corfu the same day. Unfortunately, I took the advice of some ill informed english tourists that I’d missed the last ferry to Corfu that day and would have to stay the night. On the upside, this meant that I could visit the ruins at Butrint. Await photos, this was fantastic!!!

Butrint

Mosaic in Butrint

I caught the half hour ferry to Corfu this morning and made my way to the Internet cafe after carting my bag through searing heat to find a hotel room. Everyone is here, and I had to settle for a cute little 60’s style room without an amenity of any sort. Still, it was cheapish.

Bed in Corfu.

I had no intention of being in Greece, as I wanted to travel up to Croatia. Though I couldn’t bear the idea of having to travel the length of Albania again, so I’m heading to Dubrovnik on ferries. From Corfu to Brindisi, then Brindisi to Bari overland, then Bari to Dubrovnik! Tres cool!

Albania

Istanbul – Bulgaria – Macedonia

Leave a comment Posted by marksabout on 19 July 2006

Zdravo!

Mother Theresa of Skopje

I am currently in Skopje after having travelled across Bulgaria from Istanbul.

On the bus from Istanbul

On my last day in Istanbul, and Turkey for that matter,. I was gonna have a Hammam and a Turkish shave with the really sharp razor. But people say I look better with a beard (5 weeks!) and I decided to keep it. I got a hair cut though, and they used the razor on my neck. WHOAH if I didn’t fear for my life then! After the razor bit, the bleeding bits get a nice dab of buring alcohol!!!

If that’s not enough, they then light this ‘torch’ kind of thing and blow the flame in your (my) ears to remove the unsightly hair in there. Very interesting.

Driving up the Black Sea Coast

The boarder crossing from into Bulgaria took a leisurely 2 hours. It is amazing the differences on either side of the arbitrary line. Sealed Highways became pot-holed roads, cars gave way to carts pulled by horses, the farms became smaller and more ‘rustic.’ I think the average salary halved too.

Absolutely everywhere.

Having said that, Bulgaria is a very green country, where the people shake their heads for yes, and nod for no. Quite funny, and a little confusing! My first stop was the former communist holiday resort of Varna (BAPHA in cyrillic), unfortunately, clouds were prevalent and this beachside city wasn’t at it’s radiant best. I would have left the following day, had I not realised that I would have forgone my only chance on this trip to swim in the black sea.

On the Black Sea

From Varna I went to Veliko Tarnovo, a cute medieval town on a hill, and former Bulgarian capital. Other then an old citadel and the odd large communist statue, Veliko, quoted as “Europe’s next big thing” had little else to offer, but I’ve already had my share of medieval towns, so perhaps I’m being a bit harsh. If you’re in the area, pop by…

Sudden deluge caused slight inundation, preventing ascent.

Plovdiv was next on the list, and it’s Old Town was pretty cool – wonderful cobbles streets and nice cheap food. Cheap beer should get a mention too. 2.5 litres, in large brown plastic bottles cost the equivalent of $1.50. Perhaps this is why Bulgarians were generally quite happy.

From Plovdiv I went on a Hostel arranged tour to Perperikon, an archealogical site that is currently taking form. So far they have uncovered an 8000 year old fortress atop a mountain, and there are wheel barrows off to the side where the diggers are uncovering the much newer Roman remains. If I understoon the guide correctly, Perperikon was where Alexander the Great received a divine directive to conquer the world.

I didn't mention this in the text. Rila Monastery, Bulgaria. Beautiful.

Took my first train (of the trip) from Plovdiv to Sofia and stayed in a cool, appartment-like hostel, that offered a pretty cool walking tour of the city, which covered everything in 4 hours. The highlight of Sofia was studentski Grad, a part of the city with cheap rent, loads of cafes and bars, all reserved for students. And it was cheap, and cheerful. Sofia also had a Mosque a Church and a Synagogue all within a city block.

Checking out the mosque in Sofia.

I am now in Skopje, Macedonia. The border crossing wasn’t without incident, and I held the bus up half an hour because I was without a visa. This cost me 33 euro, and it was lucky I had kept that much from Greece 5 weeks ago. Macedonia is cheap too, and Skopje has very good, greek style coffee – capuccinos that resemble capuccinos, and capuccino freddos! I’ve been hanging out for one since leaving Athens… It’s also 1/5 the price it was in Athens. Ahh… It’s a good thing too, as there doens’t seem to be much else in Skopje.