Officially

Erasmus in Istanbul is the worst hostel I have ever been in. 
Dirty, hot, smelly, and bugs everywhere.  I am also sure that several things have died in the fridge and it reeks when opened.
And the guy who runs it?  Wore the same dirty clothing for five days, even though he was covered in mortar from putting up a wall in the gaping hole.  Now if only he could do something about the holes in the floor or take out the trash or SOMETHING.
So gross.

Tomorrow, night train to Greece.  No plans yet to speak of.  Am in possession of phone numbers of hostels in Athens and the islands I want to go to, but nothing past the first train is known.  Who knows how long I will wait to transfer to Athens.  Book is very good, thank God.

Not Constantinople

Not anymore.  Churches that became mosques that are now museums.  Stuff like that.

I got permission to visit some synagogues here in Istanbul.  Not realizing I could basically go to all of them, about 20, I only asked about 4.  I should have asked about the Italian Synagogue, too.  Tomorrow I will have an adventure to find the last of three that I have permission to see.  I have no idea how to get there.  It is not on my map and the guy at Information who was so good my first day, was a total asshole today.

I saw the AyaSofia and was kind of unimpressed.  Dont get me wrong, Maggie, it is big and impressive.  But kinda boring inside.  I liked the random mosques I went into instead.  Though the idea of making that thing all out of marble is ridiculous!  I guess I expected too much.  The Blue Mosque was also nice, but I expected it to look much different than the others, and it was about the same just more blue and bigger.

Today at the Ashkenazi Synagogue, the guy who let me in did not speak English and I did not speak Turkish or Hebrew, so Spanish was badly settled on.  I think he was angry I only had 5 Lira to donate.  I went to get change before going to the Neve Shalom, but they did not ask.  I thought it was very weird that the guy offered to open the ark for me to take photos.  Like, no big deal.  No prayers or anything, he just opened it.  They have like 30 Torahs.  Saw the Jewish Museum, too.

Chelsea, the girl on the bunk below me, left today and I dont know her last name to find her on facebook.  We had a lot of fun and weathered what is the worst hostel I have been in together.  And now two days without her.  Boo.

She is 28 and I am fully aware that everyone I have really hung out (and liked every minute) with has been my age or older.  On my awful night train from Bucharest to Istanbul I was stuck in a car with three 18 year old British boys who were, ugh, Tories.  And boy what an obvious age gap that was.  My Eastern European Experience really peaked with that train ride because,

There were no toilets, just holes and nothing to hold onto while using them
Intense rocking back and forth
No dining car or food available
An awful smell
A guard with a gas stove making soup in his compartment, no really
A leaking car, we had to move
An electrical failure...on an electrical train
An hour where we stood in the forest watching them attempt to fix the train
An hour stop at the Bulgarian exit border
An hour stop at the Turkish boarder for visas and passport stamps
An hour and a half bus ride to finish the trip because the rails are washed out
And all in all, a 23 hour trip.  I think I should have shelled out the money to fly.

Approved!

I have been approved for a visit to three synagogues and the Jewish Museum in Istanbul! 
So excited.

Tomorrow, bath!  Be jealous, Litza!

No real internet in hostel often, so updates may not be until Greece.

The full Eastern European experience

And here's what it involves (Melanie style):

Meeting a Quebecois couple in my train compartment who was also staying at my hostel

Getting lost finding a synogogue

Finding video of a communist dictoator`s execution

Ugly Communist Blocks
Seeing German summer palaces in Romania
Throwing up on the side of the road
Getting caught in a rainstorm in Translyvania
Taking cheesey vampirey photos at Bran Castle which may or may not have inspired Bram Stoker and may or may not once have housed Vlad the Impaler (or Dracula) for a while

 

The photos are the obligatory Dracula based photo of Marie-Eve biting me, and the entry I left in the guestbook because I love Gabe so much.

Soup

Today for my last day in Budapest I went to the Kazinczy Orthodox Synogogue.  I was the only one there until a family and their guide came.  It is beautiful, but no one visits.  Connected is a girls school, a boys school, apartments, and a Kosher resturant.  I got a private tour from the main guy as I was the only one.  Afterwards I had lunch at a Jewish resturant known for being vegetarin-friendly across the street.  I had Cold Strawberry Soup and it was amazing!  I could taste cinnamon, but I dont know what else was in it.  For my main I had Saffron risotto with vegetables and fresh grated parmesean cheese.  Oh so good!

Then I tried to find the flea market in the park and got lost.  Wandered in the park for an hour and a half before somehow finding myself back at Heroes' Square. 

Yesterday I spent the day being Jewish.  I went to see the Dohany Street Synogogue, so named for the street name which means Tobacco.  So the Tobacco Synogogue.  I kid you not.  It is the second largest synogogue int he world, after New York's Temple Emanu-El.  But this one can actually seat more than the one in NY.  It is gorgeous, too.  It is too modern for the orthodox because they use music and let men and women sit together except on High Holidays.  Otherwise, the services are the same as Orthodoxy.  But they are considered liberal.  I could have laughed. 

Out back is the Raoul Wallenberg Memorial Park.  Raoul was the Swiss Embassay dude during World War II and he issued thousands of fake ID papers for Jews to help them escape the Holocaust.  I took some gorgeous photos there.  And my favorite part of Jewish Budapest?  JEWISH STAINED GLASS WINDOWS!!!!!  Yes, Meredith, Lilia and Melissa, I finally own photos of awesome Jewish stained glass not just lots of Jesus window pictures!  So stoked.  Took a ton of photos.  There are windows at Dohany Street's Jewish Museum that depict all sorts of Torah stories in detail.  I took massive amounts of photos.  I also saw the coolest Sedar plate ever. 

Budapest is shockingly metropolitan.  It was massively bombed at the end of the war and so every building is new and very citylike.  In fact it is like ever other major city excpet I dont speak the language.  Nothing sterotypically Eastern European about it.  It is modern.  Except smoking.  People still smoke everywhere, even around their childrena nd pregnant women.  I was eating dinner alone somewhere (it was the only place open besides McDonalds) the other night and a couple asked if I wanted company and moved to my table.  The woman, Hungarian and pregnant, and her boyfriend, Welsh, were so nice.  They are having a girl in a few months.  When the woman was in the bathroom I asked Mike what he thought of the smoking around children and he was just as shocked as I.  He said he would not be above telling people to smoke away from his kid.  But they are raising the kid in Hungary because in Hungary women are gaurnteed TWO YEARS OF MATERNITY LEAVE and can sue if their employers give them a worse job or less money when they come back.  I SHIT YOU NOT!!!!  It was three years before the last election. 

I went up to the Buda Castle last night to see Pest lit up (thanks Randall!) and found a group of about 25 people Tango dancing on the balcony of the palace with some speakers.  I watched for an hour.  It was magical.  I wrote a poem about some girl's ass.  She danced like Christine.

The other day I treadted myself big time to a 20 minute Swedish Massage at the baths, which I sat in for 4 hours.  It was amazing.

In two hours I am catching a night train to Bucharest Romania.  I splurged for the sleeper car (a whole 40 Euros more) since it looks like Istanbul to Athens and maybe even Bucharest to Istanbul will be bus rides.  Fucking flood washed the lines in Romania out and Greece is still ahving all sorts of strikes.  So that will be an adventure. Ugh.  Night train.  Got a middle bunk.  No bottom ones left.  But at least not a top bunk.  I guess I will see if I get all dizzy like last time.  I think I will take a tour out to the countryside one of the days are go see Bran and other places that are only remotely related to Dracula at all.  But if I go, I promised to find something terribly tacky for Gabe.

Oh, Anne Rice part 2

are (that says "square" when read together.  no idea why it sent half of the entry) and park.  Everywhere.

I am mainly having a good time, not really planning.  I feel like I am playing with play money.  Honestly.  There are 200 HUF coins.  And one USD is 223 HUF.  Play money.

I bought a few things at the Market Hall today.  I was sad that I didn't have 35 USD or 9000 HUF to throw around on a hand sewn traditional shirt.  Ah well.  Got a few cute things for other people, even though I said I wouldn't.

Things left to do: Go to the baths, Jewish Budapest, be on Castle Hill at night to see Pest lit up, see the Fisherman's Bastillion, drink apricot brandy, and hopefully go on an underground cave tour.  I have the rest of today, tomorrow, and the next day until about 6 pm, as I am night training it at 19:15 to Bucharest.

Oh, Anne Rice

Well I have finally found a bookstore with English books in it.  HAving finished The Vampire Lestat back in San Sebastian, I have been bookless.  I am still carrying around the book, hoping each new hostel will ahve a book exchange.  But no more.  I will leave Lestat here on the shelf for whoever is next. 

I was in the store all ready to throw down a mere 800 HUF for a slim copy of Through the Looking Glass.  When I stumbled upon The Chronicles of Narnia.  Aware I was now in the fantasy section I made a half-hearted attempt to find Rice amongst them, expecting to fail.  Well down goes my cheap Carrol, in favor of a 2300 HUF fat copy of The Queen of the Damned, praying it was book three.  And it was!

I expect the night train to Bucharest will not be so bad now.

Budapest is beautiful, in an industrial way.  This town fucking loves statutes.  And I love statues.  But they are EVERYWHERE.  In every sq

Am officially in Eastern Europe

And the letters are in weird places on the keyboard.

And I have a sharp bit of Italy embeded in my second toe and it hurts like a bitch to walk.

A girl named Federica and funky tan lines

I have so much to write about.  Especially about Rome and how I didn't give it a chance, my epiphany, and what Pisa and Lucca has been.  But I just don't feel like it right now.

 

Why?  Well because the past two days have been amazing.  I had my frist experience with Couchsurfing.org.  I found a girl named Federica that I met yesterday for "coffe or a drink".  Instead, she showed me all of Lucca, we walked around the wall of the city, went up a tower with trees up top, and then got some gelato (free from the couch surfer who had to cancel).  Then Federica got her car because she said I had to see the country.  Drove me to the aquaducts of Lucca to this beautiful area, and then to a small town on a hill for panoramic views.  And when I said I was gonna spend Sunday at the beach, she called a friend and took us today.  And we spent all day on the rocks near Livorno Beach.  All day.  I am super tan, except where my vintage swimsuit with shorts was.  So werid tan lines.  And I'm a little burnt for about an inch along my back.  No big deal.  Mesquitos are my big deal.  In three days in Pisa I have more than 25 bug bites.  First thing in Budapest, I am buying bug spray and a razor.

 

And now I am going to eat my last night of North Italian Pasta.  Be jealous, Mom. 

 

Tomorrow is an all day travel day.  Boo!  1145 train to Milan, 2.5 hours to find the bus to the airport, a 2 hour wait at the airport, and then a 2 hour flight to Budapest to find a hostel that has some unclear directions about public transportation.

 

Yup.  Just another glorious day.

Heat.

That is the prevailing theme of Europe thus far: being hot as all get out.  Ugh, gross.  Rome is a new level of constantly sweaty.  Air conditioner in this hostel, also broken.

 

Arrived at my hostel to find Amy form my Madrid hostel.  I took a shower and out we went to the Trevi Fountain and the Pantheon, then dinner.

 

Today we got up way early. Went to the Colloseum when there was almost no one there.  Didn't think it was possible in Rome.  We did the Forum and the Palatine Hill, too.  Then we went to the Jewish Quarter had breakfast at noon and walked back past the Circus Maximus, which I didn't realize is completely gone except the shape.  Boring. 

 

Been vegging in this awful heat and freaking out about travel.  Not really.  Being mildly aggitated.  While waiting for Tia's dad to say yay or nay on her traveling with me, the flight to Athens from Milan went from 46 Euro to 80 Euro to now 136 Euro.  Hell naw!  Also, no hostels in Bologna, just expensive hotels and shit too far and frankly, not interested enough.  Same with Verona.  So I'm cutting Italy short after Pisa and Lucca.  On Monday the 19th I will fly from Milan to Budapest.  I am getting in at 10 pm and planning on doing 4 nights and five days with a night train to Bucharest, hopefully.  Bucharest for three days and a night train to Istanbul and probably five or six days in Istanbul.  Shit is dirt cheap after Spain and Italy.  4 nights of hostels in Budapest, should I use them, is roughly 43 US dollars.  4 nights in Pisa would be 116 US dollars.  Yeah.  Then I'll do Greece before going off to the Fringe.  If this ticket ever goes through.  My session timed out and when I tried to redo it it said I had booked it.  So waiting for an eTicket. 

Goodbye, Spain

Time was too short.  I was so excited for Barcelona.  Turns out I like it less without Jillian Wagman.  I like it less without a native, or close enough, who speaks Spanish and knows the area.  And I like it less in summer than in fall because of the weather and turists.  I think San Sebastian was much more amazing than I thought it would be. 

More thoughts to come.  For now, goodbye, Spain. 
Hello Rome, I am prepared to hate your turists.

WEDDING!

I crashed a wedding at the Church of Santa Maria del Mar today.

In other news, Barcelona you are too fucking hot.  Stop it.  Rain or something.  Thank you.

From the feet of Jesus

That is hwere I am standing.  At the feet of a giant Jesus statue that overlooks San Sebastian, Spain.

¡You are so gay, I don´t even know what to do with your football team!

Oh, Madrid, you are so awesome.

 

So last you all heard, I was complaining about the heat.  Well, just to show me, Madrid decided to catch me in a thunderstorm on the way out of the Prado Museum.  Oh yeah.  So I went looking for flip flops, was too picky, and failed.  Ate lunch, then went back to the hostel for a shower.  The tendonitis in my ankles had been flared non¡stop since the tour, so I was in a lot of pain in most of Madrid. I skipped the Egyptian Temple and walked down to the Prado.  Spent time in El Parque del Retiro, but I didn´t do it any justice.  My feet hurt to much.  Went tot he CaxiaForum and saw photos displays I sort of with I hadn´t.  There is only so long I can look at photos of women in iran who have had their faces deformed by acid attacks. It´s awful. 

 

I breezed through the Prado in about an hour with two girls from the US.  We sat in front of one painting of some men being executed and I noticed a Robert Downey Jr. look a like in it.  So we cast it as a movie.  Good cast.  They continued on and I chose to walk back to the hostel.  And thunderstorm.  I ended up sitting on a dry ledge on Calle Lope de Vega with a women.  I figure out how to get home and waited for a bit of pause in the thunder and lighting.   Tired, wet, and in pain, I skipped the Flamenco Carmen, becuase I thought I might fall asleep during it.  I napped until about ten thirty pm and then went for dinner with Enza.  Then we wandered Chueca and saw a bunch of aprties and concerts in every plaza as aprt of the two weeks of Pride.

 

Saturday I bought flip flops that are okay.  I then walked past the Royal Palace to Temple del Debod.  A legit Egyptian Temple moved to Spain as a thank you to Spain for heling save some other temples in a Nile Flood int he late 1960s.  It was totally cool.  Then I grabbed the metro then lunch and then went to the Reina Sofia.  Again, gave it less time than I probably should have.  But I saw the Guernika and really, that´s what it´s all about.  Besides, I had more pressing matters.

 

Went to the hsotel, met the new roommates (joy the loud French girls were gone!), took a shower, and a 10 minute nap.  Then Enza and the new girls--an Austrialan named Amy, and three Belguims--and I headed out to the Gay Pride Rally on Grand Via!  Rally, because their parade isn´t so much floats as it is people marching and then 18 wheelers with so many peope dancing on them you think they´re gonna break.  We climed up into the construction sites scaffolding to watch.  we got to the middle of the parade route on Grand Via at about 18:00.  Unlike Pride in SF or probably anywhere int he US, the streets were not blocked off.  People just walked in them, taking photos, mixing alcohol in the streets, and holding up the parade whenever they felt like it.  The big to do in this pre-parade was water throwing from balconies.  People would gather in the heat under hostels and apartments chanting ´agua agua agua´ until people threw buckets of water on the crowd.  Someone in our scaffolding took control of the construction hose and went crazy.  But it leaked and got me soaked.  Eventually, the other girls went wandering, and then Enza and I were over being wet.  We wandered toward the parade and finally found where the front was. 

 

We watched for a long time next to this guy wearing underwear painted to look like jeans.  He had two tattos.  One on his calf said "I´m too sexy" and the one on his hip said "touch me".  After about four hours we got hungry and went into a cafe ont he street so we could watch both the parade and the football game.  HOLY SHIT!  I don´t even really like sports and I cheered at the spanish goal.  It was fucking crazy.  People went ape shit.  I looked around a people cheering and screaming and right otside the door was half naked men dancing on a truck.  It was kind of amazing.  Some things werea bit political.  Spain banned Israeli groups from Pride because of the flotilla situation.  Well, in the parade were a few men, no idea from what or where, had cardboard men cutouts in nooses.  Each with a flag of countries like Iran, Iraq, Saudi arabia, etc.  I´m not sure what it was about, but it was just Islamic countried.  Also the painted naked man with some protest about the Euro written on him, most interesting for his refusal to smile or make any facial expressions.  He was pissed.  But you know, blankly. 

 

After the game we wandered out toward Plaza de España to see Kylie Minogue.  The streets were trashed.  Somehow and I have no idea how, Enza and I got up very close to the stage.  Enough that when people on the raiing in front of us were sitting, we could see Kylie.  We made friends with nice Spanish men and Italian men, one of which was Jewish.  Because we´re so little, they were okay with us standing in front of us against the railing, because they can see right over us.  Our little section was vigilant about getting the people on the rail in front of us (seperated by a declined driving area) to sat seated on the rail so we could see.  Throwing coins and empty beer cans.  At one point, people kept climbing up to stand and one guy we were with threw and empty vokda bottle and there was almost a big old fight.  Kylie came on and it was awesome.  Also there is this song that´s very popular, Diva by Dana International, the Israeli Transgender singer.  The song is awesome.  They played it a lot.  Enza and I are way into it.

 

Kylie was done around 2 am and the party was moving back to Chueca, the gay district.  Enza and I made our exit and got back to the hostel and to bed around 3 am.  I can´t even explain everything I saw (and neither will I, knowing who may be reading this).  Left our stuff at luggage storange after breakfast and went to El Rastro, the sunday flea market.  I bought myself a rainbow fan, because I passed on one that first night in Chueca.  Also, I got myself a €3 necklace.  I now have jewlery for this trip.  Go me.  Lunch then I headed off to the bus station by metro (oh love you metro!) for my 6.5 hour bus ride to San Sebastian.  Met a Irish guy named Owen who was very nice and funny.  The ride was pretty.  Except the bit I fell alseep for.  Spain looks so differen than one in the US supposes it does.

 

Chema, Evan´s friend, picked me up and took me to the beach to show me the route, then we had dinner that his mom made.  She doesn´t speak English at all, so after some much needed sleep, finishing my book, and a shower, I am writing this while listening to spanish phrase podcasts on Chema´s computer.  When he is home tonight I´m gonna see if I can download some in a few languages and plug in my ipod without wiping it to get them on my iPod.  Gonna eat lunch soon with his mom, and later Ahian will pick me up and show me around.  Tomorow is Chema´s day off and we´re gonna go eat Tappas!  Yay! 

Fatty blisters and English girls who say "Twat" often

Both of which are things I am experiencing here in Madrid.  My stupid shoes gave me a stupid blister.  and my stupid shoes are also making it hard to heal my heels which got all ripped up in the airport.  Am off now to find cheap flip flops or strappy girl sandals without backs.  Thin and cheap. 

 

Madrid is godawfulhot!  I took a 4 hour walking tour yesterday with Free Tours.  It was very good.  Then lunch with Enza at the vegetarian resturant Artimisa II.  €11,25 for a three course fixed lunch.  SO GOOD!  However got some very bad heat headache and slept for three hours.  Still feeling dehydrated, and I drank 5 bottles of water during the tour and lunch.  So, hot.

 

Hopes for today: shoes, see Temple de Debod (an actual Egyptian Temple), lunch, siesta, wander Parque del Retiro, maybe go in the Botanical Gardens or the free art spaces near the park, go to The Prado during free hours from 6-8 pm, and maybe decide to shell out €20 to go with Enza to see the National Ballet Flamenco version of Carmen at the theatre a block from the Hostel.  Then go out the Cheuca, the gay district, and see more concerts--a different one in every plaza in the district.  They do this for the two weeks of Gay Pride in Madrid.  Man, they know how to celebrate.  Enza and I are heading down there on Saturday for the official parade and concert headed by Kylie Minogue. 

 

Saturday is also my day to go to the Reina Sofia for free; Sunday I will got to the flea market and eat something/wander before getting on my 15:30 bus to San Sebastian on Sunday for some much needed beach time in this weather. 

 

Madrid is expensive.  But I mostly blame that on the lack of anything I can eat in the grocery stores.  Man they love their bread here.  Oh, Tesco, how I miss thee.

 

Well, it´s now 10 am, which is when things open.  So.  Shoes.