Euro Trip 2006

Another Day in Kazanlak (26-Aug-2006)

2006-11-15T12:30:00.000-08:00

Not that I knew it before I got here, but it turns out Kazanlak is famous for a Thracian tomb, discovered just before the end of WWII while some locals were digging into a hill to make a bombshelter. This was where my Esperanto hosts took me today. I even had a guided tour through the tomb - in Esperanto. I was taken through the tomb and everything that I was supposed to notice was pointed out to me. Many times better than I'd ever thought any guided tour could be.

The entrance to the tomb. It's actually quite modern and high-tech just inside the entrance.

And a couple of snaps of the murals adorning the burial chamber. These were painted in about the 4th century BC. Certainly the best example of this sort of thing in Bulgaria. And apparently some quite remarkable artwork for the period anywhere.

We had a chat with the women selling postcards and entry tickets. They were interested in the fact that I basically had an Esperanto tour-guide. Of course by the time we left I had them saying dankon and gis revido.

Next was the ethnographic museum. Similar to ones I had seen in Macedonia but again the Esperantists pointed out things that I otherwise wouldn't have noticed.

Part of the museum is a merchants house from the 1800's and one can sit up on the balcony overlooking the superb garden and sample some rose liqueur and rose jam. A nice experience. The woman who brought the liqueur up also knew some Esperanto - her father was an Esperantist and her sister is an active Esperantist.

Here's the view of the garden from the balcony as we were enjoying a beautiful day, sipping rose liqueur. Glorious is the word. They knew how to live in the old days. Well, the ones on the balcony did. The peasants slaving away tending the garden probably wouldn't have enjoyed the sun quite so much.

Last stop was the city museum where the woman who showed people the room with the Thracian treasures had also studied Esperanto. Interestingly, these people weren't known to my Esperanto hosts. They just mentioned it because they heard us speaking Esperanto.

Well, I seem to have harped on about the Esperantists a bit, but it's a nice change from having to actually explain what Esperanto is as often happens in Australia.

Looks like the restaurant next to the ethnographic museum has rooms for about $20 per night. I might check into there for my last night here tomorrow.

Esperanto Excursion to Shipka (25-Aug-2006)

2006-10-15T19:44:00.000-07:00

In the morning we headed of to Shipka.

We caught a bus from Kazanlak which was heading into the hills. (Please note, Kazanlak wasn't going anywhere; it was the bus heading into the hills.) Here's the sort of uniform bus conductrices wear out there.

Somehow we ended up catching the same bus three times on this particular morning. I'm not sure how.

Near the village of Shipka there is a pretty impressive church which was actually built to commemorate some battle between the Russians/Bulgarians and the Turks. I think though there is some controversy as the Russians may have helped out back then but they were unwelcome when they hung around during communism. Anyway, a strange sight as it's quite out of the way and not really used as a church. It really is a war memorial, though quite an unexpected sight out in the countyside.

Here's the church from the back, the front and from a distance. It's in superb nick. I suspect that it's quite a famous spot in Bulgaria, not that anyone outside of Bulgaria would have heard of it - well Russians perhaps.

Next on the agenda was a visit to a Thracian tomb which was only discovered two years ago. I also got quite a bit of a history lesson in both places but it was all presented so well that it's a lesson in how well guided tours can work in a group of one. The knowledge of these Esperantists is remarkable.

On the way to the tomb the four of us had to walk quite a way in the countryside.

Here are my Esperantist friends marching away to the Esperanto songs that we were singing.

I had my first experience of singing Esperanto songs. I must say that the atmosphere was superb. I really enjoyed myself.

In the evening we went to a great restaurant on a hill overlooking the town. Though at night there's not that much to see as it's hardly the city of lights.

Superb evening and a great advertisement for Esperanto. Second day in town and I'm having tea with a young girl who's just started learning Esperanto, the town Orthodox priest and several other interesting people, one of whom threw in the fact that the last time the police searched her house for subversive literature was in 1986.

Here I am with some of the Kazanlak Esperantists.

And of course any Esperanto dinner should end with an Esperanto song. Well, if you happen to know one, and you happen to have the words in your pocket. This song was probably pretty well known in its day.

As promised I had a go at starting the girl on Esperanto and it seemed to work. Whether she'll have the incentive to keep it up in the modern world is another question. She's also leaning French at a French school in Plovdiv and we know how hard it is to keep them on the farm after they've seen Paree.

Whatever Esperanto is, it is also a window into a culture that existed vibrantly here in eastern Europe for many years. They don't just speak Esperanto, they also sing Esperanto songs. It's almost like being a Welsh speaker and going to Patagonia and speaking Welsh. This possibly represents the last vestiges of a dying culture. This doesn't mean that Esperanto is dying. It's not Esperanto that's dying but that perculiarly post-war communist culture that nurtured Esperanto by making it one of the few ways that people could have contact with other countries. English wasn't really an option back then for them. They had Esperanto clubs, went on outings together, went camping, sang songs, and went to international congresses - well those that weren't on the blacklist of the secret police did anyway. Svoboda told us that during an international congress in Varna, the police made her father report to them every day to stop him from attending.

On the way back down the hill, in the darkness, Svoboda, always joking no matter what, laughed as she pointed out the absurdity of the fact that over by the water park they were lighting up the sky with one of those huge searchlights, yet the town hadn't even bothered to light the street where we were walking.

Off to Kazanlak

2006-09-25T21:09:00.000-07:00

Up at ten to six to get to the train to Kazanlak.

Is the English-speaking world that much more musical than the rest of the world?! How come where-ever you go the radio is full of English pop-songs? Well it's not true everywhere but it certainly seems to be in Bulgaria. Not that there was much Australian music to be heard on Australian radio 40 years ago - hence the local content laws. It must be a phase that most countries go through.

Wow, the $55 taxi fare from the day before yesterday turned out to be $4.10 in the other direction. If I'd known, I would have gone down to the station yesterday and looked for the bloke that tried to rip me off.

The railway station is huge and full of dodgy characters that look like they're out to rip someone off, or they might live there permanently. I suspect these are the gypsies that give the rest of them a bad name. If Bulgaria's supposed to be in the EEC next year, surely they need to clean the place up a bit. Honestly, I have never seen such a bunch of shady characters.

Here's my Bulgarian host seeing me off on the train to Kazanlak

The train to Kazanlak is a bit on the dilapidated side but the compartment's nice and roomy.

Kazanlak. Town in the middle of nowhere but full of cafes and lots of girls walking around with a great sense of what to wear. Great pedestrian mall.

The square looks quite quiet and I suppose it is as all the activity is in all the streets leading off it which are are pedestrian. Great atmosphere.

A photo can't begin to convey the atmosphere of the place. Especially as a lot of the ambience has to do with the people walking up and down the street.

The local Esperantists are lovely.Just met the two that met me at the train station so far but they and very nice and very intelligent.

I'm staying in the best hotel in town. Its a bit under AU$60 per night and really is pretty classy. The best hotel I've been in by far this trip. The great advantage of going to smaller cities. It feels like a palace after what I've been through.

Went for a wander around town. They even have a casino. Just slots, video poker and an automatic roulette table. Won $60 at one of the vdeo poker games. I'd be tempted to play more but I can't believe with the pay-table it has that it's a random deal.

Met up with the Esperantists again in the evening. We headed off to church where the old bloke in the black vestments (the local priest of course), gave me a bit of a shock by coming up to me and saying 'Ho, vi estas de Tasmanio - la insulo de Auxstralio'. Yes, he's a very good Esperantist. Now known to me as Pastro Pablo.

While I was in church two young blokes walked in in t-shirt and jeans. I thought they were going to rob the place or something. Well, they ended up getting up onto the lecturn in the middle of the church but instead of running out the door with the book they found there, they started chanting. Then from behind the altar a priest started singing and they sang back-up. Quite remarkable. It turned out these two are students in a seminary. I liked it when in the middle of the chanting one of the students took the sun-glasses off the other's head. He rather rakishly had been wearing them back-to-front in church.

Yes, the priest at the back is an Esperantist and the two young fellows in jeans are student priests.

It seemed that this was in the middle of a service or something but my Esperantist said we'd better say good-bye so we wandered up to the lecturn where the Esperantist priest was singing, got his attention and waved good-bye. Also a rather strange experience.

Later on the other Esperantists turned up, including a very good-looking girl. She's not an Esperantist yet but we'll have a go at her tomorrow.

Sarajevo, Nis, Skopje are big cities so you expect some night-life but the small size of Kazanlak and the huge amount of pedestrian streets and cafes is mind-boggling. This town might be the best yet.

Five kilometres from here, just after the war, they found the remains of some important Thracian city. But very soon afterwards a dam was built and the city was submerged. Well, apparently there's a plan to reconstruct the city, or part of it, on some sort of high-tech island in the middle of the man-made lake. Well, not really an island. They want to build a wall around the Thracian city and pump out the water to create something for which I'm not sure there's a name it's so unusual. I'm predicting that if that plan goes ahead, Kazanlak will become famous.

Day in Sofia

2006-09-23T23:07:00.000-07:00

Went for a walk in the park.

Parks are the same all over the poorer parts of eastern Europe - nice and big but really tatty. Grass is crappy looking. Trees are boring and of course there's even a bit of a litter problem in the parks - especially along the lesser used areas.

Happened to spot a tennis court; turned out to be a tennis centre. They've got seven coaches and a head coach who just organises coaching. His coaches are away playing in tournaments but he's organised a coach for me from somewhere. He'll be here in 15 minutes. Trouble is the surface is clay and my clothes are probably going to get ruined.

English speaking but I suppose you have to expect that from tennis.

I still seem to be able to play tennis a bit. Quite a nice venue with a nice bar overlooking the courts.

My tennis coach finished by extolling the virtues of Bulgarian archeological sites and monasteries etc. I wanted to tell him to be a proper coach - from my experience in Australia - you have to tell jokes and talk about the week-end's footie.

Nice spot for a beer. Lots of activity planting new vegetation. Obviously making a fair bit of an effort to get things looking good. This will be a great city again eventually.

Huge square near my bus stop back to my current home (until tomorrow morning). Here's a typical soviet style monument which isn't faring too well under capitalism. I suppose it won't be here much longer. They've already blown up the monument to some major communist figure.

The square is however a huge meeting-place for the young.

I even got to kick a foot-bag around for half an hour with an appropriately hippie looking bunch of people. They definitely need some more practice though.

The main street which runs passed the square towards Mount Vitosha. Appropriately named Vitosha Street. A few weeks ago the mayor declared it to be a pedestrian mall - though the with trams running down the middle, it's not quite as pedestrian as it should be.

Bus to Bulgaria

2006-09-18T07:07:00.000-07:00

Bus to Bulgaria. The young Pom I chatted to at the bus station had been to Albania before Macedonia and he reckoned he'd never been so happy to leave a country. I'll have to move it even higher on my list of countries to go to.

On the way to Sofia there were more rolling hills, valleys, babbling brooks... Lovely.

And at least here there's a proper border - that's what traveling's all about. Passport control - all that sort of stuff out of the old spy movies. Thet's when you know you've had the proper travel experience.

Interesting taxi trip from the bus-station. I couldn't find a meter in the taxi but finally I saw one but it was just about impossible to read. We hadn't got very far and the meter was already showing over 35 dollars! Thinking something must be wrong I rang the Esperantist and he reckoned the cost to his place wouldn't even be ten Lev! The fare ended up being over 55 dollars! Anyway, first he dropped me off in the middle of some block and said he couldn't find the address. I told him I thought something was wrong and refused to pay till my Esperantist said everything was ok, So now he puts my stuff into the taxi after I'd rung the Esperantist and arranged to meet him at such and such a place. Again he drops me off and when I again refused to pay he suddenly knew where the bloke was waiting. Anyway, my 70 year old Esperantist told him that he was trying to rip me off - but he'd take his details and if he came with him he'd pay him. When we got to his place his mate was there waiting and although he's 74 he looks like he wouldn't put up with crap from anyone. We ended up settling on a ten dollar fare. These two Bulgarians declared the taxi-driver to be a gypsy. So my gypsy cab-driver was a real gypsy.

Here's the Esperantist's friend who saved me from the robber taxi-driver.

The Esperantist is a former Mig and helicopter pilot, and his mate graduated from the same flying school in the same year and used to fly Tanzanian politicians around. Quite interesting. And no joke - he has an African accent when he speaks English.

What I remember from 7 years ago is still there. A boulevard of absolutely magnificent buildings. Paris but without the crowds.

The Russian cathedral which so impressed me years ago when I was here. Absolutely eerie when you approach it on a deserted Sunday morning with the choir singing inside.

Apparently this is where the king used to hang out when Bulgaria still had one. The current bloke in line to the throne apparently wants his house back - I can't really see it happening.

And yet another impressive building nearby. This time I think it's the parliament.

Bus Back to Skopje

2006-09-13T03:04:00.000-07:00

Bus to Skopje.

Here are a couple of rather interesting and unusual pics from the airport in Ohrid...

The first seems to imply that guns are ok - just declare than them and you're ok.

The second poster seems to show a party and someone firing into the air. I'm going to have to find out from an Esperantist in Macedonia to be sure, but it seems to be a community service announcement against random firing of guns at weddings etc. (Due to the alarmingly high number of people that get hit when the bullet comes down).

Here's a pic I took of one of the streets back down to the water from the church. Very pleasant.

Ended up with a really good taxi driver in Ohrid. Well, he had a bit of a bluff. He said he could use the meter but that I shouldn't complain if the price was higher than he offered. I knocked him down by 50 denars and took the offer but out of curiosity I should have gone for the meter.

He did a great job getting me on the three o'clock bus just as it was leaving but I'm not sure whether I got ripped off there either. I suppose I should give him the benefit of the doubt.

Bus trip was terribly cramped as usual.

I ended up at the same hotel that I complained about before. It might be crap but it's reasonably cheap and it's close to the bus station and the centre of town.

Eight in the evening and 33 degrees.

I think I'm ready for a new country.

My Russian Esperantist traveling companion has already moved on - she caught a plane from Ohrid to Moscow this morning. Some problem back home apparently. Or perhaps she just got sick of me - no that couldn't be it surely...

Ohrid

2006-09-04T06:43:00.000-07:00

View as I was walking into town.

Met up with the one of the local Esperantists. She has rooms to let at her home but seeing all the rooms have en suite and she has 8 them, one could say that she has a small hotel.

The view from the front garden where the paying customers were was glorious. One could sit there all day having a beer just looking out over the water. Definitely the best spot of the trip. And a hundred times better than my hotel.

I eventually met another couple of Esperantists. One of these is my first hot-pants wearing Esperantist. She works in a bar so it was a nice touch to wander into a bar and have someone greet you with saluton.

I couldn't resist it, Just bought myself yet another t-shirt. Sitting having a beer in front of a pretty impressive church overlooking the lake. Bit touristy but at least they all seem to ba locals or at least Slavs. Well it all comes down the the fact that if they humour me and speak to me in Macedonian they're cool and so are the souvenirs, but if they insist on English then it loses its attraction.

Ohrid even has an ancient amphitheatre ...

... and a pretty impressive looking castle.

Sat outside this picturesque church having a beer. That's what Australia needs - more churches with accompanying bar.

No doubt about it, Ohrid is a great spot.

(What about my complaints from yesterday? The mosquitoes aren't so bad if you turn off the light and close the window, the rubbish is collected each day, I haven't heard anything from the other side of the lake after yesterday and it's so warm there's no need for a blanket.)

'bye to Prilep

2006-09-04T06:37:00.000-07:00

Prilep is on a plain, a long way from the sea and the temperature's over 40 degrees - in fact it's one of the hottest days of the year for them so it's a scorcher. Wish I could just sit back in Prilep for another couple of days and relax and have a few drinks in one of their many cafes, but I have to move on.

Three of the youth group came to see us off at the bus station. Very pleasant Esperantists they are too. As long as we have the likes of them Esperanto deserves to survive.

The bus broke down three times on the way to Ohrid. We ended up having to walk the last couple of hundred metres and I suppose it would have been more if there hadn't been a huge long down-hill stretch which we were able to coast down engine-less for several minutes.

We arrived at night so I haven't seen anything of the town but so far I'm not impressed. The hotelroom is a bit run-down, they have weird Soviet style blankets with some strange diamond-shaped hole in the middle of the sheet, the sheet over the mattress is too short.

I asked for directions into town and the way turned out to be through a badly lit wooded area so it was an impossible task, the litter for a change seems to be in or around the litter bins but they don't seem to have been emptied for a while, the amusement park on the other side of the lake is so loud I can hear it from here, and there are mosquitoes in my room - but apart from that Ohrid is great.

I'm hoping it looks better during the day. Oh, and I phoned one of the local Esperantists and she doesn't seem to speak Esperanto at all and said I'd have to speak English. Does that mean English is ok but Bulgarian (which is mutually comprehensible with Macedonian) is not? I'm obviously not impressed so far.

I'd better reserve all further judgement till the morning - if the mosquitoes haven't sucked me dry.

Krushevo

2006-09-04T06:06:00.000-07:00

First thing in the morning we took a bus to Krushevo.

Krushevo is a village of about 5 or 6 thousand people on the slopes of one of the mountains that surround Prilep.

Apparently it's the highest village in the Balkans. Apart from that it's famous for having been an independent state for ten days in 1903, before the Turks came in and suppressed the independance movement. In a way it was the start of the modern Macedonian state.

Apart from the beauy of the alpine landscape Krushevo has five museums including a rather impressive and unusual memorial to the Krushevo Manifesto in the shape of a mace.

Inside the memorial. All very minimalistic with special symbolism that probably needs to be pointed out by a local. Well it was but I didn't really understand it properly. It's unusual enough and plain enough that it's quite impressive.

Our friendly caretaker sliding closed the door to the museum.

Our local Esperantist from Prilep got the caretaker to open up the museum with the strange shape for us after which we went on a long treck with some local historian to the other museums.

Even Krushevo with it's 5 or 6000 people has a vibrant cafe culture to rival that of Hobart.

The only church that wasn't destroyed by the Turks - they thought it was a Vlach (Romanian) church and didn't want to have to fight them too.

It's fortunate that the Turks left it alone as it would have burnt pretty well considering the whole interior is carved wood. Apparently one of the largest such carved alters in existence.

Traditonal photo of Esperanto excursion. Note the Esperanto pennant in front. Also note the huge key I'm holding. The caretaker even has a special handbag that he carries it home in. He says it would otherwise make a mess of his pocket.

Nunnery

2006-09-04T05:56:00.000-07:00

We started the day by walking up to the top of one of the nearby peaks on top of which are the ruins of some famous fortress - well, famous amongst Slavs anyhow.

Also nearby were ancient graves that had been hewn out of the rock. I thought I'd try one for size.

Pretty uncomfortable though - I wouldn't want to be dead for long in one of these.

This being Macedonia, on the way back down round the other side, we came across one of those monasteries built into the mountain-side.

There was a young woman nun outside (she was rather pretty but I didn't think I should be asking for a close-up) ....

Our Macedonian asked whether we could get permission to view the nunnery side. She said she'd go and ask but the answer was no. Not surprising seeing I had shorts on. That's the last thing the nuns need - to see my legs. Or maybe mother superior had spotted me trying on a fig-leaf for size and realised we hadn't come to pray...

Around Prilep

2006-09-04T05:41:00.000-07:00

Besides tobacco a lot of vegetables are grown in the district.

Also heaps of watermelon.

A watermelon costs about one dollar. It must be a bugger to prrduce something that big and have to sell it for so little.

We were wandering around and saw some people threading tobacco so our host stopped and started up a conversation so we could have a look.

Basically they have long needles and spear the leaf onto the needle through the thicker spine of the leaf, gradually pulling the thread through as they go. Presumably the metre long needles are so they don't have to lose time pulling the thread through all the time.

The whole family including two children were sitting around threading tobacco.

Near the main square I even came across a bust of Zamenhof - the inventor of Esperanto.

Skopje to Prilep

2006-09-04T05:28:00.000-07:00

Had a quick beer for breakfast then caught the bus to Prilep. It was a pretty small bus and pretty uncomfortable. At one stage we were pulled over by the police and had to sit in the heat for ten minutes while he got booked or something.

Prilep is certainly a pretty remote town. About 70,000 people with a few Esperantists among them. After checking into our hotel (the best room of the trip so far), I gave one of the Esperantists a call and within ten minutes he and his father were at our hotel.

Had a bit of a chat with the son while his father went off to take the Esperanto class. There just seems to be such a gap now between western European Esperantists and places like Prilep. The big pity is that fellows such as this bloke in Prilep are such passionate Esperantists and they have students but it's hard to keep them inspired because people just don't have the money to travel, which should be one of the main points of Esperanto.

Door to the Esperanto club.

Today was Esperanto class day and we got a tour of their phenominal Esperanto library and museum of Esperanto memorabilia. This stuff deserves to be in a proper museum. There was even a picture there of another Australian that had visited, who also happens to be just about the only Australian Esperantist I've met - Marcel.

I managed to get a photo of the Esperanto class. That's looks like a pretty eager student down the back. Looks like he's keen to show he knows the answer.

Turns out Prilep's main industry is the preparation of tobacco. You can't go very far in Prilep without seeing tobacco hanging out to dry.

It really is everywhere. The leaves are threaded onto string then hung up in the sun for a week or so. So every leaf gets handled individually a couple of times in the process of making tobacco. With that sort of intensive labour involved, just imagine how much cigarettes are going to cost once they start paying these people a proper wage.

After Esperanto we went to the house of one of the students ...

... and had a drink of home-made loza with the girls father while discussing the process of making tobacco. Like just about everyone else in town, they too go out into the fields, pick tobacco, take it home to thread onto string then hang it up to dry outside at home. The next day they were off to bring home some more tobacco.

Later we got a bit of a tour through the centre of town. I know this is going to sound familiar, but the place is packed at night. Just like Nis and Skopje - the streets are packed in the evening. People just love to wander about at night or sit around with a drink and chat. Obviously part of the culture. And it helps to have streets designed for it.

Misc from Skopje

2006-09-04T05:10:00.000-07:00

As seems to be the norm in these cities, there's a long row of back to back cafes by the river.

All the old churches must have been destroyed by the earthquake, which is quite a sobering thought - how much history must have gone in that one moment. Here's the main church in town in a modern style. It's rather strange to see an orthodox church with these modern lines.

Here I am leaning on Mother Theresa.

Well if she can support all those orphans in India then she won't even notice me leaning on her.

Why Mother Theresa in Skopje? Well, all you used to hear is that she was Albanian but she was actually born in Skopje.

In the meantime I've been accumulating a few too many books. Here's my friendly post-office bloke and there's my package behind him.

To think that somehow it will find it's way to Hobart, to my front door even. It always amazes me.

I found a wonderful restaurant in the courtyard of an old house in the old Albanian quarter.

The river's quite big but not terribly interesting. There is a bike and walking path along one side which gets used by a lot of inline skaters. Always nice to watch, especially as most of the skaters seem to be female.

After such a hard day of sight-seeing of course I have to include me with the local beer - Skopsko.

More from Skopje

2006-08-31T05:11:00.000-07:00

They have a pretty civilised way of making phone calls here. You go into the post-office and just pick up one of the phones and dial and there's a meter next to it which tells you how much it's costing, then you pay at the end. I took a photo of one of these phones then as we were going out the door a woman called us back. I suspected what was coming and if I'd been by myself would have just kept walking to see what lengths she'd go to to protect the secrecy of their phone system. Yes, she wanted me to delete the image. How stupid can you be! Of course I started carrying on and demanded they call the police. That would have been funny - the police turn up...
- What's the problem
- Arrest him, he took a photo of one of our public phones!
In the end I just deleted one of the several pics I'd taken. So of course I must now include a pic of the phone in my blog.

Nine o'clock at night and 28 degrees. I think that's the reason for all the outside drinking - the weather is perfect for it. Here and in Niš there is beer everywhere but no drunks. What's wrong with these people!

I'm now sitting outside at some cafe/bar in the suburbs. It's great. Would it have been the end of the world if in Hobart people could sit outside in Landsdowne Crescent or somewhere and enjoy a beer and a chat without all the licensing regulations?

Off to Skopje

2006-08-30T05:43:00.000-07:00

Early start as we had an 8:10 bus.

Bloody oath these Nis buses are cramped. There's basically no leg-room at all. I don't know how I'd cope without an aisle seat.

It was already bad enough with the bus being full but at some stop half-way to Macedonia about thirty people got on the already full bus - so they all had to stand in the aisle. Unpleasant for them and also unpleasant for me.

The border was fun. I was asked by the border guard whether I had a visa. I thought I didn't need one. So off the bus it was for me. I had to go 200 metres to pay for my visa - it cost me 35 Euros plus a very bad swap. He made me swap his pen for mine. I wonder whether he'll be able to swap up to a car someday? (cf. www.oneredpaperclip.com)

Then back to pick up my passport with visa in it, then off to yet another window to have it stamped. Typical (ex)socialist efficiancy - no wonder they always claimed to have no unemployment.

I was expecting Macedonia to be all steep and hilly but it turns out to be all flat. How wrong can you be! Podgorica didn't look like a capital city and Skopje is just as un-capital-like. But it does have a nice big central square which is full of people in the evening.

A Macedonian girl whom we'd met at the IJK met up with us at the bus station and she showed us round town. It made a huge difference to the ease of getting around and knowing what to see. Another great advertisement for Esperanto.

Skopje has a castle of which only the walls and a bit of a turret remain.

This is the view from inside.

Well, there's almost nothing old left in Skopje. The whole city was destroyed in an earthquake in the early 60's. From the few pictures I've seen it was a beautiful city before. Slav quarter, Albanian quarter, Jewish quarter... it obviously makes for an interesting city, but alas it is no more. Now the main interest are the outside cafes everywhere. Architecturally there's almost nothing of interest at all.

Well, the Albanian quarter is full of small alley-ways that have the potential to be a tourist draw-card, just as they are in Sarajevo. This is not one of them!

But this is!

I suppose it's just a matter of time before the tourist hordes make it to Skopje too. As other cities get clogged with tourists people are always looking for somewhere new, fresh.

An old Turkish bath-house that's been converted into an artgallery. Also in the Albanian quarter which wasn't damaged so much by the earthquake.

Day in Niš

2006-08-25T14:02:00.000-07:00

Went jogging. The quality of the air was a disappointment. I'm out from the centre but there are a fair few trucks on the road.

Decided to slowly walk to town. Purely by chance came across the Tower of Skulls.

It's enclosed inside something resembling a mini orthodox church. But the so-called tower itself is made up of skulls of lopped off Serbian heads after some battle.

I'd like to say 'Don't get too close, they bite, as I found out', but that would be too disrespectful.

Must have been pretty impressive in it's day. Especially as it was in the open air. Now it probably is an icon to Serbian victory over the Turks. No wonder there's all this animosity over here. Yes, it's good to have memorials but they do do just that - make it hard for people to forget and forgive past injustices. Well, in this case it's the Turks that built this one against themselves.

Checked out some cevapcici at a street-side cafe. Unlike the Croatian and Bosnian ones, the Serbian ones are huge.

Here's the waitress bringing me my beer.

Statue from the skull tower park. No doubt some leader in battle.

For such an old city there don't seem to be many interesting old buildings around. Here's one of the few. Perhaps Nis was always pretty small and the buildings were never here?

Check this out ... a mix of old and new ...

The Nis outside drinking street is about the longest I've ever seen. Certainly several hundred metres.

Down by the river there are more drinking spots.

I discovered that it's possible to get up onto the walls of the castle. Well how else would you be able to pour boiling oil onto the attacking hordes?

Here's a photo looking back to the city across the bridge. I hope I kept the camera still enough.

And the obligatory statue in the main square.

Never did find out who the bloke on the horse is or how many Turks he killed or how long the Turks tortured him before cutting off his head for a souvenir. Certainly though it's a popular meeting spot as there seemed to be quite a few girls nearby waiting for their late boyfriends.

It's now 10:30 in the evening and the number of people on the street is phenomenal.

Don't these people have a home to go to? Have all tv transmissions been cancelled? And where are they going? There's no end to the stream of people. Or are they just walking from one end of the street and back again? Now I'm going to have to hang around here tonight to find out when the crowd starts to thin out.

Stopped off for a pljeskavica on the way home. Pick your style of meat and choose what you want over the top. All in some pita bread. Looks like a huge flat hamburger but with a big choice of toppings.

With it being about one in the morning I was starting to regret my decision to walk back to the hotel - especially in view of the types of films they were showing on the bus - but even on a Monday night there were always enough people around most of the time that it mostly felt pretty safe. But I wouldn't try it in Hobart!

Sarajevo to Niš

2006-08-23T07:09:00.000-07:00

On bus from Sarajevo to Niš. Not the most comfortable. Seems to be standard that you pay for the luggage separately when you put your suitcase into the luggage compartment.

Less than an hour out of Sarajevo and we stopped at Pale where I was surprised to see just about all signs in Serbian Cyrillic which was basically not to be seen anywhere in Sarajevo. I asked the woman next to me whether we were in Serbia already and she told me we were not in Serbia but some other region, with Serbia in the name. Must be some sort of buffer zone where the locals would be happy to be part of Serbia. Probably something worked out to bring an end to the war.

I might as well include the photo that I took from my seat on the bus. Perhaps it will give some feel for the mood of the trip.

Scenery on the way to Niš was nothing short of breath-taking. High steep mountains covered in green trees. Just when I was thinking that the slopes are so thickly wooded and steep that it must be pretty difficult to climb these slopes - we turned a corner and half-way up one of these slopes was a picturesque house standing in a clearing - glorious!

Stopped for 20 minutes at some small village. Just to reinforce the stereo-typical image of Australian travellers being everywhere, here's a pic of me with the two fellows who were sitting behind me on the bus.

Note the proliferation of Australian t-shirts - and yes, all three of us had an Australian accent. It's not the bus that's proof I was there but the Australians I found.

Here are my Esperanto travelling companions - a Russian and a Macedonian.

I seem to know half the bus. More than I'd ever know on any bus to Sandy Bay... but then again I'm not likely to run into any of my Mercedes/BMW/Audi driving friends on any bus in Hobart.

Finally turned up in Niš. The worst part of the ten hour bus trip were the three back to back American movies they showed and the last hour when about ten people got on the already full bus. It became suffocating and a bit claustrophobic. As for the movies, I must have been subjected to about 2 rapes, about 15 murders, 25 maimings, one torture and 12 beatings. Yes, an extremely harrowing experience. The Serbs must be hardening their children in readiness for another war. Or perhaps they've been watching these movies for a long time and are partly responsible for the atrocities that were committed.

Niš is a bit run-down but there is a huge pedestrian mall that is one long outside drinking area from one end to the other.

Unlike Florence which was all tourists and no-one could afford to enjoy themselves,

and Sarajevo which was mainly a touristy downtown area and mostly male in the drinkeries, Niš is bubbling with life at night. And again, no drunks.

Sort of what might happen in Hobart if people were given the chance. All in all a rather refreshing scene.

Misc from the last day of the IJK

2006-08-21T13:40:00.000-07:00

On the last day I discovered the 2 litre bottles of local beer.

Here I am trying it for the first time. Not bad for a beer out of a plastic bottle.

Discovered the spot where Gavril the anarchist assassinated Archduke Ferdinand and his wife.

Somehow I didn't feel inspired to ham it up and act like an anarchist wearing a cape and throwing a bomb with a burning fuse.

I wonged in on some guided tour of the city that had just reached this spot. So I picked up quite a bit of extra info. Plus I had access to a few other tourists to take this photo for me. It's actually quite sobering to stand on that spot and consider what happened there. Though I had thought that everyone was lining the route where royalty was passing but it turns out that there had already been a few assassination attempts that day and the Archduke was off to visit the wounded and the driver took a wrong turn and Gavril just happened to be there at the right time.

Checked out the local park in the centre of the city.

Nothing spectacular. The grass could do with a bit of a trim. There was a fair bit of coupling going on and there were a few blokes with those spinning things on string between two sticks. Someone asked them what the point of it is... something I've sometimes wondered myself.

A game of chess in front of some huge sculpture.

I wonder whether the sculpture inspired them at all? I doubt it. I think that huge sculptures amongst pretty impersonal housing is not a good combination.

Snap of the number 3 tram.

This tram which went from the congress venue to the old town was free for all congress attendees. Considering the low cost of the congress and the high cost of the tram tickets, I don't think it would be too difficult to make a profit out of it all by riding the tram heaps. I think if anyone tried to ride for nothing the chance of getting caught would be about 50-50. I've never seen so many ticket-inspectors. Someone pointed out to me that it might actually be the high rate of ticket-inspection that has created such a high ticket price.

I had to include a pic of these two.

I chatted with them most days. I'm not sure whether the others were under instructions not to talk to anyone not wearing the official I am an Esperanitist sign around their neck but if they were these two certainly disobeyed orders. I'm sure we'll run into them again in Australia or Korea or France or somewhere.

Not sure that everyone's ready for this pic but it's a typical Bosnian toilet.

A porcelained hole in the ground. Probably removes the temptation to take a book or two with you to the bog. You wouldn't want to get too engrossed in your book and forget where you were and relax and fall backwards - engrossed indeed!!

Saturday at the IJK

2006-08-20T03:21:00.000-07:00

Now trying to juggle my money so I don't get stuck with a heap of Bosnian money. It's bloody annoying as they take Euros at the constant exchange rate of 2 to 1 which would make things very convenient - provided one had the forethought to leave oneself with some Euros. Well I've get a 100 Euro note but if I use that I'll get the change in Bosnian Marka which will defeat the purpose of the exercise.

Even made it into the evening concert and the so-called international evening. My Bosnian teacher is apparently a famous Esperanto singer - I had no idea. Weird to see him up on the stage.

The international evening was a bit of an open-mike sort of event. The Japanese did the usual thing with kimonos and samisen. A couple of sketches went on for a bit too long. I suppose James and I are going to have to learn Waltzing Matilda and I Still Call Australia Home... or maybe Tie Me Kangaroo Down Sport (if I can find a wobble board in Vietnam) for the next IJK.

Friday at the IJK

2006-08-20T03:18:00.000-07:00

The sun's back out.

Good day to wander down to the railway/bus station to find out about buses to Macedonia. Always a bit of a pain in the neck after the efficiency of Germany. Who know's what confusing info I'll get.

Well, the info turned out to be pretty straight-forward. Bus goes twice a week, Fridays and Tuesdays.

I'm not sure whether I should be surprised at the large number of smokers here at the IJK or expect it. Just part of the scene perhaps.

Language festival today. Esperantists from different countries and languages set up tables outside and presented their country and their language. Quite interesting but I'm a bit against these watered down presentations of languages. The Esperanto community probably sees this as a big affirmation of cultural diversity, but I see it more as similar to what happens in Australia - the diversity is supported but few learn any foreign language. Well, in retrospect there's probably more of the language presented here than in some school curricula in Australia. So perhaps I shouldn't be so harsh. It's still interesting and generates a huge amount of interest. In fact I think that a similar thing in Australia would also generate a lot of interest but in Australia this sort of event seems to be confined to food festivals.

Here's Finland's contribution to the language festival.

A flag and a Finnish beer. Maybe we can present something similar for Australia next year in Vietnam.

I'm not sure whether this was France or the Netherlands. In any case, both of them had one one of those funny bikes that you lie back on to ride.

Some were more successful at it than others. The bloke with the hat and beard next to the bike also did a great job representing France on guitar.

Japan created a lot of interest of course with girls clad in kimonos. Here I am having a samisen lesson.

The samisen player also had a foldup or inflatable keyboard. That also generated quite a bit of interest.

Korea's exhibit was a woman in hanbok and my friend here who was press-ganged into writing up a quick display of the alphabet.

All in all, the language display afternoon was one of the events of the IJK which generated the most interest. And it was all a lot of fun too. Congrats to the organisers.

Thursday at the IJK

2006-08-20T03:06:00.000-07:00

Wandered high into the suburbs surrounding Sarajevo.

The views of the hills and valleys that make up Sarajevo were magnificent. But the reality of those picturesque red-tiled houses is that when you're amongst them you see that just about all of them need a fair bit of renovation.

And everywhere there are these big, ugly yellow boxes on the front wall of most of the houses. Probably gas metres. A terrible eyesore.

After a bit of a listen around the café in the evening it seems there's quite a bit of non Esperanto being spoken. A table of Germans speaking German, a Catalan speaking table, French heard at another table, and Korean at mine.

Food and Drink in Sarajevo

2006-08-18T08:29:00.000-07:00

Wandered into a bar in Sarajevo where the beer is less than one dollar and a huge shot of grappa is less than 50 cents. No wonder it seemed to be populated by drunks.

Followed that by finding another similar bar but this one had an accordionist in one corner and sitting opposite him was a bloke singing.

They played and sang for about three hours non-stop with the whole pub joining in at times. The style of singing was that strange muslim style that sounds similar to the call from the mosques several times a day. Quite remarkable.

Here are a few of my drinking mates.

There was no menu but the woman running the place went out the back and cooked me a couple of dishes.

I started with what I think were stuffed onions and followed that with an omelette.

Great presentation too.
Two beers, two shots and the two meals - about 14 dollars. Pretty good value I think.

Wednesday at the IJK

2006-08-18T08:25:00.000-07:00

Here's a view of the student dorms where most of the Esperantists are staying. At least all the rooms have toilet and shower - unlike in Tasmania where the bathroom is in the corridor. On the other hand, in Hobart they are all single rooms whereas the room I saw here was for two and I must say, if you weren't close friends when you arrived you probably would be when you finished school.

Today was set aside for excursions at the IJK.

Spent some time in an internet café. I was rather alarmed to see some very young boy (probably not 10 years old) playing a computer game next to me.

At one stage he received a message sorry, you can't do a drive-by shooting - for that you have to have at least an automatic weapon.

Next time I looked over he was wielding a chain saw and there were body parts and blood everywhere.

Tuesday at the IJK

2006-08-14T10:57:00.000-07:00

Decided to go into town. Wandered past the congress venue to see what was going on and ran into a German woman who was also heading into town so we went in together. Pretty handy for me as she knew which bus to take and had some idea of the things to look out for.

Here I am tentatively leaning into the street to have my photo taken. This is the pose I adopted after the first time I ventured into the street a tram very nearly ran up my arse. Unfortunately my photographer didn't recognise the good photo opportunity. The minaret nearly sticking out of my head is just one of a huge number in Sarajevo.

The old town is pretty small with the inevitable proliferation of souvenir shops. But then again even in Hobart we have the same thing in Salamanca which is pretty much for tourists. After all who says to himself Ah, I've got some time to spare today, I think I'll go and buy myself a Huon Pine letter opener? We accept that but are a bit more intolerant when we find something similar overseas.

We'd just started walking uphill to check out the suburbs when the call to prayer started from the minaret. Luckily I happened to have a skull-cap in my back-pack so I simply gave into the urge to prostrate myself - not sure in which direction Mecca was though.

We wandered into the suburbs. It really is amazing how many mosques there are here. Some just a few blocks apart. I suppose when it's this hilly you can't expect everyone to treck into town to pray.

Concert by a famous Esperanto singer at 8:30. I was intending not to go as I felt it over the top to not sign up for the IJK and then still go to the concert.

Well, it turned out the concert was in an outside venue where I usually sit and drink, so I really had no choice but to listen.

The singer, JoMo is French I think and is one of the most well-known Esperanto singers. I'm not convinced that as a singer he's that remarkable, but he certainly belts out a good rhythm with his guitar and above all his repetoire is chosen extremely well. His repetoire seems to contain all the catchy songs from all over the world. He certainly had everyone dancing and joining in. I hope they pay him plenty because he deserves it.

All in all one of the highlights of the IJK. I'd definitely pay just for the concert.

Esperanto Youth Congress

2006-08-09T06:40:00.000-07:00

Strange vibe here.

Lots of people with no shoes or strange hair-styles or both.

Apparently when we turned up the solemn opening ceremony was going on.

Small group sitting on the ground boiling themselves some tea. They seemed to have one giant bowl which they were handing around. I can't work out whether this is some big hippie get-together or what it is.

Certainly a shocking venue. Old Marxist venue with no grass to be seen. Just a couple of benches outside and the asphalt to sit on. Though they do have a cafe that serves beer and has outside seating. Unlike what I'd heard it certainly is a youth congress so I'm not sure how I'll fit in.

I was rather sad to see some fellow from Bangladesh get turned away. It seemed he was short money and the fellow signing him in decided he couldn't help. I think there are too many professional Esperantists at these events. Professional Esperantists that don't seem to go out of their way to make newcomers feel comfortable.

I tried to sign up for one day but instead they gave me a free pass for one day and said if I liked it I could sign up for the rest tomorrow. Ironic after what happened to the Bangladeshi. Well, he couldn't speak Esperanto... Don't know whether that was the difference. Plus it was a girl that gave me the pass - they are always kinder than blokes.

I thus took the opportunity to go the Bosnian language course and the lecture on Braille given by a blind Esperanto professor. Both were in a classroom much, much too small.

Caught the last 15 minutes of the aligatorejo. That's where you wear a post-it-note - or in my case, several - with your languages other than Esperanto and your native tongue and you wander around the room practising them. Bloody good practice it is too.

Spent the late evening till two in the morning at a table with Esperantists from Israel, Korea, Spain, Croatia and an extremely good looking Finnish girl.

When you see all the activity it really is remarkable that it's all in Esperanto.

I suspect that most of the days unfold in a similar fashion. Lectures or talks in the morning, lunch, more lectures or activities, dinner, then a lot sitting around drinking, chatting, then disco till three in the morning.

Montenegro

2006-08-09T06:26:00.000-07:00

New country for me... New country for all of us I suppose.

We arrived at Bar at about 2:30 in the afternoon. A very long trip indeed. The Albanians are probably actually Kosovans. They slept absolutely everywhere.
In every corner and corridor of the ship they just set up camp.

Getting off we had the same problem with the inability to queue. An incredibly tight squeeze down the stairs with everyone trying to get down at once.

The classic was when there were two stairways to take, one three metres further on and it was a struggle for the ship's personel to explain that one side was going to have to go an extra 3 metres and to have everyone going down the same stairway would be madness.

It turned out we'd already gone through immigration in Italy. I suppose that stops the problem of someone getting on and eventually being not wanted by either side and being stuck on the ship forever a la Orson Welles in Ferry to Macao.

We caught a taxi to Podgorica, the capital of Monte Negro. Next bus out was at half past ten in the evening so we had about five hours in which to see the city.

The view from the bridge in the middle of town. Looks ok but actually it probably is flattering. The town wasn't really this lush or impressive.

Admittedly it was a Sunday but it really did look dead. But then again it's only been a capital city for a few months. But still, it looks pretty poor.

Here's the proof that I was here. Me outside the Podgorica post office.

A fancy toilet for such a quite capital. In fact this public toilet is probably the most modern looking building in town. I think though that the tacky WC on the glass detracts from it a bit. I would have taken a photo of it during the day but I had no idea that these glass pyramids were public toilets.

I had intended to spend a night there but was not that displeased to have to leave after only a few hours.

The bus to Sarajevo was a bit of a torture trip. The bus was smaller than the ones you normally see make international trips and the seating was incredibly cramped.

I don't know how, but I did manage to drop off to sleep only to be woken up at the border crossing. One of the Koreans had a bit of trouble leaving Monte Negro and even more trouble getting into Bosnia. They took him to an office where he had to do some kind of test of Korean, to prove that he was actually Korean and not Chinese with a false passport.

The road from the border was horrendous. If another bus was coming the other way someone would have to back up till they found a spot to pass.

We finally made it but what a long trip!

Ferry Trip to Crna Gora

2006-08-09T06:11:00.000-07:00

The ferry terminal in Ancona turned out to be chaotic. We were supposed to catch the ferry to Split but the evening sailing was sold out. As usual, the internet timetable was wrong. Well, one should always try to find some fancy interactive page - any static HTML is always suspect.

So it looked like we'd have to overnight in Ancona and catch the morning ferry. But then I spotted the counter for Montenegran lines. As that borders Bosnia I thought I'd make a few enquiries; the result being that I'm not sitting on a ferry with Croatia just visible to the left.

Getting the tickets was a nightmare. Why can't the rest of the world learn to queue??!! There must have been about 50 Albanians crammed up against the ticket windows and this must have gong on for about an hour, with me in the middle there somewhere. The annoying thing is that I should have been served first as the rest of them had cars and were waiting to go stand-by.

Well, I can say I've had a Montenegran beer. With the tongue-twisting name of Nikšiċko.

Along the way we've been joined by another Esperantist; a Korean woman also going to Sarajevo. She's an older woman and like something out of a movie. In some movies you'll see some English woman travelling through Asia and Africa seemingly in all sorts of danger and when threatened will be oblivious and just say don't be silly, pu t that knife away or such. Well, this woman has exactly that style.

This is basically the ferry we took. I took this when we arrived in Montenegro from our ferry, a twin of this one.

Saturday, 5-Aug-2006, end of the UK

2006-08-09T06:01:00.000-07:00

Ended up going to the closing ceremony after all. The classical music interludes were, in my opinion, uncalled for.

Other than that, the speech by the grandson of Zamenhof was interesting and always a nice touch. (That's him up on the big screen in the pic.) The rest went in one ear and out the other. I just wandered around at the back of the hall and outside to get my last feel for Esperantujo.

The day before, I got the nod that the trip to Sarajevo by ferry and bus is the way to go so I met up with Katja and Yun, the Korean, at about twelve to head off to the station to find out about tickets.

The queue was a mile long but we eventually got served and we headed off at 14:14 by train to Ancona to catch the ferry.

We had to change trains in Bologna and nearly missed our connection because some Italian Esperantist tried to tell us we needed a reservation. I decided we hadn't been told so how were we supposed to know. Well, in a way he was right as we ended up standing the 2.5 hours to Ancona. No wonder no-one checked our tickets - or was that why the train was so full?

There wasn't even room for us to stand in the corridor. We ended up standing in front of the toilet - five of us and a dog.

Once we hit the coast it was amazing to see the beach. For about ten kilometres or maybe more, there was nothing but beach umbrellas. These, however, were not something brought along by people at the beach. They were all set up with a table and four chairs and in perfectly symmetrical rows. And don't think there was just one row facing the beach. They were about ten deep. That seems like such a strange concept of going to the beach to me.

Friday at the UK

2006-08-09T05:56:00.000-07:00

I'm surprised at the number of foreigners here - no, not the tourists. There seems to be a large number of Africans, Chinese, Sri Lankans and Pilipinos. Or at least they are very visible, either running shops or sitting around in parks in great numbers. The Africans all seem to be involved in selling watches and sunglasses in the markets.

At about midnight a couple of young Esperantists without congress badges stopped us to chat. It's strange that even though they were here for the UK, just the fact that they weren't wearing their badges around their neck gave the encounter a completely different feeling. And one of them was from Switzerland and one from Iceland of all places - a nice touch.

Last day of the UK for me as tomorrow is just the closing ceremony and I've been given the tip that it goes for two hours and is boring.

For some reason this bridge is famous and attracts tourists like ants to sugar. Why? I've got no bloody idea. And when you see the crappy souvenirs being hawked on the bridge, and the crowd, it becomes even more of a mystery.

Best drinking place in Florence? Outside in the park on Piazza de Indipendenzie.

Presided over by my mate here. An absolute character - so friendly - knows everyone, calls out to everyone, like something out of a film. Cheapest beer in Florence besides out of a supermarket and served in the friendliest manner by far.

Thursday at the UK

2006-08-09T05:49:00.000-07:00

Listened to one of the lectures in the afternoon. Something about statistics and frequency of certain words in certain languages. I find it hard to believe that anyone understood anything. And certainly the ones that I saw fall asleep won't have understood much.

We needed to have David there to point out some obvious flaw in, or the inappropriateness of the Zipf formula or whatever it was that this bloke had up on the transparency.

Typical scene at the UK. Someone with some instrument or other and a group gathers to listen or join in.

Well, here we have another example. Japanese girl playing the samisen.

Out drinking in the evening with the German Esperantists. Great sense of humour and a great advertisement for Esperanto.

UK Day 4

2006-08-04T02:16:00.000-07:00

The day set aside for excursions.

I just wandered around the city here while many of those at the congress went to Pisa or Rome.

After wandering around and seeing a few hundred people queueing up to get into the cathedral, and an absolutely huge crowd of people at the ponte vecchio I'm more convinced than ever that it's just absurd.

People say that Florence is a cultural city etc., but there's no way these people being jostled in crowds are getting anything out of it. Add to that, the unbearable heat, with basically no breeze to give relief and the high prices at the outside cafes. Sitting down and having a drink really is something that people hesitate to do. In my opinion the system is not civilised.

And the food is nothing special either. Well, certainly the risotto and spaghetti and pizza. Or is it because they don't have to rely on repeat customers so they just cook up crap...

Met up with some Esperantists in the evening.

These girls made the mistake of sitting down at our table at some sort of food fair. They basically got an Esperanto lesson with their meal.

I suppose people come to Florence to appreciate views such as this. But when you're there it loses something, just as it does when you attempt to capture the moment with a crap camera. Even trivialities such as a waiter addressing you in English detracts from the experience. Probably there are restaurants in Melbourne that are more Italian than most of the restaurants in the touristy spots in Italy. And at least in Australia they understand what people want. Something of an Italian experience, which is something you don't necessarily get in Italy! It's one thing to watch a movie with the romantic music in the background while you're sitting comfortably in your armchair - and another thing to be there/here and have to (inevitably) pull out your camera, take ten shots to get the exposure right, have to negotiate the African street-walkers on the way home, wondering how often you can say no before they start shouting after you - are you a poofter of something!?

UK Day 3

2006-08-04T02:14:00.000-07:00

Well it finally happened. For some reason someone at the entrance to the main congress area decided to have a look at my id thingo - the one that everyone wears round their neck - and he wouldn't let me in.

He seemed to be at the door all day. Seems like a lot of trouble to go to to stop one genuine Esperantist from hearing some Esperanto. Luckily just about all that interests me happens on the lawn out front.

In any case I did manage to sneak in later. It was some sort of quiz. Absolute crap! A lot of it had to do with finishing Esperanto sayings. Plus between rounds the quizmaster told jokes. Jokes that were so bad and old that it would have been pretty easy to finish the jokes as well. So we only lasted about 15 minutes there.

In the early evening I went to one of the theatre events. Some one man play that seemed to mostly take place below eye-level in a venue without tiered seating so that was a disaster too. I think I lasted about 5 minutes but I wasn't the first to leave either.

UK Day 2

2006-08-04T02:12:00.000-07:00

Another lecture in the morning. It was pretty interesting and the bloke giving the lecture spoke amazingly good and fluent Esperanto.

Spent some time on the lawn where a young Hungarian bloke was leading a group of Russians in singing Russian songs. It sounded superb. Better than those crappy Esperanto songs that usually sound like gospel songs.

The banquet and the ball were both in the evening; the banquet went so long that it was impossible to go to both. I'd heard that the banquet is usually pretty boring. In any case I was never going to fork out the 100 or so dollars that it cost to take part.

The ball was completely informal with no-one dressing up for it or anything. I popped in for a while intending to come back after something to eat but by the time I got back it was over.

Here's one of the churches that brings the tourists in droves. Yes, it is impressive; in fact all you can do is stand there and stare - it is breath-taking. Must have been even more impressive in the days when you could appreciate this and still afford to eat and drink in the vicinity.

Opening Ceremony

2006-08-04T02:10:00.000-07:00

The so-called solemn opening ceremony of the Universal Congress of Esperanto. Somehow I got in even though I haven't signed up for the UK.

One particularly boring speech which was impossible to follow. A couple of ok speeches and some boring piano music. The final bit was a greeting, one by one from a representative of each country present. That would have been ok but some of them took the opportunity to make a mini speech.

I snuck in to listen to one of the lectures later on and finished off going off drinking with the Germans. Somehow, somewhere, I ended up paying 15 dollars for a beer. No, it wasn't a round, it was one beer. Insanity!

Padua to Florence

2006-08-04T02:02:00.000-07:00

In the end I ended up spending the night in Padua.

Quite a pretty city with a nice laid back feel to it.

The food I had was very similar to what you might get in Australta but there was a huge basket of bread on the table and wine only comes by the half-litre - unless of course you order a bottle.

In the morning I had a wander around town - had a beer in one of the sguares - 9 dollars or so for a beer.
------------------------------
Headed off in the train to Florence. Unlike in Germany they don't give you the info about when the train leaves and from where. In fact when I asked he said at two but the timetable had three minutes to.

My fellow passengers were pretty friendly.

The train didn't go to the main station so I thought I'd have trouble with my luggage as I'd have to find out how to get into the centre etc. all the time shleping my bags around but I spotted a couple of Asian girls who also had luggage and seemed to be going in the same direction. They turned out to be Korean so I was set. They looked after the bags while I went off in search of info about the bus and tickets.

Later, on the bus, I felt my pocket pc move in my pocket and the hand of the bloke standing next to me darted back under the towel he had draped over his arm. Not much I could do really. He hadn't been able to take anything. Bit of a scare though.

The Esperanto Congress is right next to the station so I had the strange experience of being able to ask directions to my hotel in Esperanto.

I checked in and wandered back to the congress area where all the activity was taking place on the grass outside. Lots of booths set up with info about different events and Esperanto groups. I spotted an Esperanto t-shirt with a kangaroo on it so I wandered over and the Australians started handing me the brochure for the upcoming summer school in Hobart. I told them I didn't need it but they weren't taking no for an answer. I wandered off and came back half an hour later and told them who I am. I probably should have dragged it out a bit longer.

Basically here we see a few Esperantists milling around and getting to know each other during the get-to-know-each-other evening.

Other than that I latched onto the only group that seemed to be drinking alcohol. Four Germans with a great sense of humour.

Germany to Italy

2006-08-03T02:39:00.000-07:00

Crowds of tourists in Venice.

Ah - the lengths I go to for the blog. Including a bus ride with 45 Russian Esperantists from Munich to Padua via Venice. And in the interests of research I even signed up for the Esperanto tour - though in this case the best they could come up with was a Russian tour guide.

On the bus I had the seat directly behind and above the driver. On the one hand it meant that in an accident I'd go flying through the window, on the other hand it was a great seat because of the huge front window I was looking through with no-one to block my view, plus it was interesting watching the interaction between the Polish driver and his side-kick and the Russian (Esperanto) tour organisors. The Poles just spoke Polish and the Russians Russian and they seemed to understand each other.

Esperanto tour through Venice with that aweful green flag.

Venice is a pretty spectacular city when viewed from the water but once you get off the ferry the extent to which everything has been taken over by tourism is pretty overwhelming.

All the main squares are wall to wall people with any empty spot taken over with stalls selling postcards and we won the world cup t-shirts. As for hearing Italian!

There is constantly a huge number of tours being conducted. Basically these tours consist of up to fifty people following someone around holding up a flag (the language of the tour). It was so hot the day we were there with no wind, but for two hours it's on and on. Brief stops for the guide to give an explanation about something, make sure no-one's got lost - then onwards, criss-crossing with other tour-groups now and again. It really is a mystery to me how anyone could enjoy this sort of thing. It really is a case of being able to say you've been there.

Oh, by the way, I've been to Venice - a wonderful city!

Here I am enjoying Venice...

Onwards from Venice we took off to Padua where they had arranged to stay the night in a youth hostel whereas I'd decided to push on by myself to Florence by train. Getting to Padua turned out to not be so easy. We kept on circling the area on the autostrada like a plane coming in to land but we kept being on not quite the right bit of freeway.

I had to laugh though when at one truck-stop we stopped for directions and the first bloke to wander over to give help was a Polish truck-driver. As we're driving off our driver says to his side-kick - 'They and their Esperanto! You can get by anywhere with just Polish!'

Still from Munich

2006-08-02T03:59:00.000-07:00

Munich, 27th July

I tried to extend my room but got the usual rubbish about it costing more so I decided to check out and rely on getting a lift to Italy with the Russians

We met up with our German Esperantist contact in town at six. From there we went out to the new Soccer Stadium to await the bus with the Russians.

Two other Germans turned up in the meantime and we stood around the subway station holding placards especially made up, reading Esperanto through Munich. The funny thing was that there had been a demonstration in town that day so there was a huge number of people coming back through the station and we decided that this was a great advertisement for Esperanto. Although I was the only one of us greeting everyone going past with a nice loud Saluton!

One bloke stopped to chat who used to go out with the daughter of the Italian Esperanto league.

We finally got word that they were running two hours late so we retired to a nearby tennis club where the cost of a round for five was less than what I'd been paying for two.

Finally the Russians turned up and after organising parking for the bus we headed into town, divided up into groups with each group leader holding an Esperanto sign up high. It was a bit embarrassing for me how long they spent settling on who was in which group in case the ticket inspector got on (which is pretty rare).

Anyway, we took a night tour of Munich, a city which does come up well at night. There's still a lot to see and there are plenty of people around.

No Swiss + Correct Beer Drinking Procedure...

2006-07-28T19:14:00.000-07:00

I didn't make it to Switzerland after all. Couldn't find any reasonable hotels and the train to the French-speaking part takes a bit too long so I'm now not too convinced that it fits in so well.

It was strange to turn up unannounced at the local Esperanto club.

They were having their annual general meeting. It was all pretty interesting and afterwards I got a lift back to the city centre.

Turns out the bus with the Russian Esperantists going to the Universal Congress will be in Munich on Thursday so I might hang around for that. I'll probably get a free city tour with them and I might be able to get a cheap lift to Florence.
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Couldn't resist taking a photo of the Zeljko sign of course. It has a certain ring to it.

As good as place as any to park your bike I suppose.

Take note of the correct technique for drinking from a litre glass. Anything else will lead to a sore wrist so not at all condusive to a long drinking session.

BMW...

2006-07-28T19:13:00.000-07:00

Interesting snippet overheard in a pub today. An American from some smallish city was explaining to a German why he couldn't buy a BMW. There is no BMW dealership in his city so he'd have buy one from somewhere else and he'd never live that down - not supporting his city.

The 3 day rule...

2006-07-28T19:12:00.000-07:00

One of my fellow travellers once said - you have to stay in each place you go to for at least three days because it's only after three days that you get to know it. And this is proving true for Munich. My perception of it has changed a bit the last few days and I like it more now.

27-7-06

2006-07-28T19:10:00.000-07:00

I went for a wander around town after lunch, just seeing how people live, stopping off at a few pubs along the way.

After a couple of minutes in one of the pubs I noticed a huge wooden phallus sticking up (excuse the pun) next to one of the beer-taps - a quick look around - aha, gay bar.

Maybe the firehose on the sign should have tipped me off?

While I was finishing my beer, the only other person in the bar asked me where I was from and of course this bloke had been to Australia. I say of course because it does seem to be true that just about half of all Germans have been to Australia, and whereas one in a thousand Australians has been to Alice Springs - all of these Germans have been there. And it's also universal that for whatever reason, Germans just rave about Australia.

Anyway, this bloke (in English), starts telling me that he couldn't go to Darwin because the air is too dusty - no, no, there is too much water in the air. To show that I understood I wanted to throw in the German word for humid. Only problem was that it immediately occurred to me that the word for humid and the word for gay are only a diaresis apart - namely schwühl and schwuhl respectively. Who knows, perhaps you just don't use the word for humid amongst gays. Anyway I couldn't resist showing that I knew the word for humid. He came straight back with Ja, genau, schwuhl ok, schwühl nicht ok. Then we both laughed - me, politely - he, rather lasciviously.

Monday 24th July 2006 - Munich

2006-07-24T13:26:00.000-07:00

Well, the hotel's not so bad. Huge room but no need to pay extra just because in theory the room could hold 6 people.

Got thrown out of my first place today. I was at an outside beer place for breakfast (of course) and Katja was waiting for her chair to be cleaned and when the waitress came over and started cleaning the table I just mentioned to her that she might clean the seat as well and she went off and said 'I can't do everything at once blah, blah, blah' so I mentioned something about her being in a bad mood. If she hadn't thrown me out I would have left with a flourish anyhow. When I saw that the other places were packed and hers was empty of course I pointed that out at the top of my voice.

Beer for breakfast seems to be a common thing in Germany. How on earth is it that those German cars keep running? Maybe they're all made in China or something?

Checked on hotels and it seems the cheapest hotel is just under $100 Australian - and that's with the toilet and bathroom in the hall. Needless to say I'm leaving tomorrow. Probably I could have found something on the internet but we live and learn.

Did nothing today but wander around and check out the three suburbs that got a big write-up in the Munich in your pocket guide. Apart from some really interesting Persian restaurants nothing lived up to the hype.

Oh, we've got an appointment tomorrow morning at 8 o'clock. We had to share a table at one of the many meals we had this evening and a bloke we had to share with decided he'll show us Munich tomorrow morning before we head off for Switzerland. Should be interesting.

Sunday 23-Jul-2006 - Poland and Germany (again)

2006-07-24T01:19:00.000-07:00

Poznan railway station turned out to have a pretty sleepy feel to it. I found the Russian Esperantist I'd arranged to meet there and we decided to wander into town before heading back to Germany to take advantage of the travel anywhere in Germany for 30 Euro's up to five people week-end ticket.

The girl manning the hotel info counter at the station didn't speak Esperanto nor did the drunks sitting outside whom I asked directions from. I'm probably lucky they didn't.

Poznan city on a Saturday was pretty dead. It has a slightly run-down, should be busier than it is, eastern European feel to it. Well barely eastern European as it no doubt used to be part of Germany.

I'd read huge praises of it's old town so it was actually that that we were looking for. The old market square is absolutely huge with the usual restaurants/beer places all the way around it. It's strange when you think that every similar square in all of Europe has the same purpose - marketing tool for beer. So while the rest of the city was very quiet, the old town was where all the people were. And yes - it is just like Krakow - but without the kebab shops on every corner. It just had a couple of the usual old-fashioned touristy stalls - the ones selling postcards and souvenirs. And the obligatory for these places, horse-drawn carriage ride.

So after a quick beer it was back to the railway station. No beer in the station super-market - as good a reason as any other to leave Poland.

On the train back to Germany I asked the conductor about getting to Munich on the weekend ticket (not so straightforward as no super fast trains are allowed with it). I was surprised to see her type something into her German Rail hand-held computer and she then wrote out the entire itinerary down to Munich with about 6 train changes.

Much discussion at the station with some locals as to how to buy tickets for the local city network from a vending machine (we had to get to the main station). Glad it's not just me that has trouble with these things. The machine also dispenses the week-end ticket which was pretty handy at midnight.

So, just after midnight, still no bed, we're waiting for the first of about five trains that will take us to Munich by ten thirty in the morning.

The trains might stop at just about every stop but they are beautifully modern, are on time like clockwork - and above all - are full of a kaleidoscope of characters. Well what do you expect at after midnght on a Saturday. And being Germany it didn't matter how drunk they were, they were perfectly well behaved.

On one train I was mesmerised by some young bloke with the gift of the gab entertaining his friends with a complete run-down of the photos on his digital camera - complete with slide-show. He had a delivery unheard of during nine years of German study in Australia.

On another train a group of four nearly 18 year-old girls got on. They went from being bubbly to all falling asleep. But in the meantime the train's air-conditioning was on full so it became freezing cold. Not a good combination when you're falling asleep. One of them had shorts on so she was really suffering. She ended up pulling her knees up, putting her head through them, and cascading her long hair over her legs to keep warm. The one opposite with bare feet opened her handbag and put her feet in as her strategy.

I had a coup at Leipzig station. In Berlin I'd got carried away after working out how to use the ticket-vending machine and bought two of the week-end tickets by mistake. I was most distaught when I realised later, but Katja spotted some Asian bloke buying a ticket on the platform in Leipzig and I managed to stop him as he was feeding in the last five Euros. It took a while to convince him that I wasn't trying to rip him off but we both went away happy.

Several trains later - Munich. The beer is looking pretty inviting but the first priority is a hotel. We were pointed in the right direction by a taxi-driver. But there's always the problem that if you just look around the station, the hotels are either super expensive - or crap and just a bit expensive. We're in the latter.

All in all, a long trip from Hobart but great to look back on now that it's over.

Frankfurt - 22-Jul-2006

2006-07-23T09:19:00.000-07:00

Absolutely amazing weather. That sums up Germany. Or perhaps it's just that we've had such bad weather in Hobart recently?

Anyway, as predicted I had no sleep at all the night before I left. That meant that I did get plenty of sleep on the three legs to Germany.

Air China? Pretty ordinary. I was tempted by the food but I was mostly disappointed. And well, a plane full of Chinese can be a bit trying. They can tend to talk pretty loudly and the bloke next to me seemed to be using something in the seat-pocket as a spitoon. I tried not to look too closely though.

It turned out Shanghai to Peking was a domestic flight and I did't have a visa. But it seems they expect that now and again and give you a free one on the spot - but it does take them about 15 minutes.

Immigration out at Peking took ages. If it's like that during the Olympics they'll be queueing up right back to the Great Wall.

Plane to Germany had a bit of a cattle wagon feel to it. Seats were five abreast in the middle. I'd hate to be sitting in the middle of one of them.

Deathly silence on the train to Berlin. Children are quickly shooshed if they get even a bit worked up. Beautiful light falling on the countryside. It's just struck me that it was six a.m. when I arrived - and probably daylight saving time. Could mean that it could get pretty hot later on in the day.

The concept of just hopping on to one of these trains and heading off to some strange destination basically anywhere in Europe is dizzying. And yet Germans come to Australia and think it's great - well they also watch Eurovision...

Berlin

Bloody oath, they're confident of their trains. At Berlin Ostbahnhof I made my connection by 2 minutes and about the same in Berlin-Lichtenberg. You wouldn't want to dawdle.

Train to Poznan is the Warsaw Express but so far it hasn't gone very fast. Very long carriage on a very hot day and packed with people. The person sitting next to me doesn't seem to speak Esperanto.

Thursday 20th July

2006-07-19T18:46:00.000-07:00

Well, I've got my blog spot up and running. Pretty straight forward. Bloody nice concept.
Catching the bus at 04:30 Friday morning. Not much point going to sleep before that so it's either - extra time for packing - or more likely - extra time for not packing and still just having the one hour before I'm due out the door to actually pack.