" MAFIA...YOU UNDERSTAND?"

Some Will say that Moldavia is probably one of the poorest countries in Europe, You just wouldn't say the same ıf you walk along the streets of Chisinau, the capital.
Well dressed people, flashy lights and plenty of BMW and Mercedes decorating its parking places.
As our friend says " - This country mafia, you understand?". Octav explains us that he belongs to S.İ.S, the secret police of Moldavia, and after sitting by his side ın a cheap restaurant he offered us his protection for only 30 Euros per day.
For us it's just hard enough not to laugh while he gives us his telephone number and ask us to give him a cal next day so he can protect us from the mafia outside.

Before reaching Moldavia, we payed our visit to the painted monasteries of the Romanian region of Bucovina. Four days waiting for a sunny day and a rented car are the best option to enjoy these unique and fully working monasterıes with its well respected moody nuns that take care of the place.

İn our minds we had just Odessa (Ukraine), because we knew that was the last stop before Istanbul where we where gonna be arriving by sea as old pirates used to do...
Leaving Romania and stopping overnight in Moldavia we follow our plan and we go across into Ukraine heading to Odessa, famous for the stairs in the movie called "battleship Potemkin".
Once in Odessa we manage to book our ferry that won't be leaving in five days.
This city use to be really important for the WW II, now is famous for its...

İf you ever come to Ukraine you will know what İ am talking about

100% ECOLOGIC

Some people say that it hasn't changed at all in the last century ... well they are not far from the truth when they describe Maramures!.

Located in the northern part of Romania, just in the border with Ukraine, Maramures has been our destination for the last few days after visiting the student city of Cluj-Napoca.

In this region, formed by a sum of small villages with names impossible to remember and pronounce, you can find traditional clothing , horse pulled carts, animal markets and curious graveyards with colourful painted crosses.

In the town of Sieu, no pension or anything like it to be found at this time of the year, so after asking some locals and not getting more than the expression in their faces of " who are you?" and " what the hell are you doing here when not even us leave the house because it is way to cold?", an old interesting couple took us in their home, offering a bed and traditional food... all just for a reasonable price of course.

We spent two days visiting many villages , enjoying their hospitality and the nice tradition to pick up hitchhikers.

Curiosity is a big thing in this people...some of them stop and ask where are you from, others just smile back when you say hello, and the most adventurous ones, invite you over their places for a hot milk or a shot of their home brewed "palinka" to warm you up!. They are just happy to tell you their stories in mixture of Romanian, french, German or even Spanish.

Feels really good to have "proper food" at least for two days. In the house of Gheorghe and Doca we happily enjoy part of their culture, a lot of palinka ( medicine, as Gheorghe calls it) and excellent food " 100% ecologic" as they laugh proudly letting us know that everything on the plate is home grown.

We learn that Gheorge has to buy a cow , so we decide to go with him to the animal market before catching our bus. Once in the market, the freezing cold, the mud everywhere, the wrinkled faces of the people and the noisy squealing pigs makes of it a memorable experience.

Our next stop is Suceva,in the Bucovina area, world known for their hand painted frescoes on their facades.

Definitely looking forward for it!!

FAMILY RESTAURANT: CASA DRACULA

Across the border we go where Oradea is our first stop in the peculiar Romania.
Many expectations created about this country, we are definitely sure to find much more that its ancient history of blood sucking lords.
-" this place has really changed" affirms Jorge as he compares the way of living nowadays with the one he saw ten years ago in his last visit.
In the road from Oradea to Sibiu (European cultural capital this year) and after eight hours of stop and go, get frozen and squeezed in the minibus, we can observe that wooden carts have been replaced for the famous Dacia Logan, the"best selling" car in Romania since this one was built.
Looking around we have the feeling that this country has been rushed into the wealthy and tempting European community category... few examples.

* You can see how some Roma people ( gypsies ) are brave enough to explore the world of the Internet without knowing that mixing your fizzy soft drink with the keyboard is not a good idea.

* traveling through their road you can realize that they spend more money in the signs to inform you of the bad status of the road ahead that actually bother in fixing them.

*Also you can enjoy a tasty but expensive "rare" cooked meat in the family restaurant that they have done from the original birth place of Vlad Dracul, I'm sure he will be turning in his grave!
As i said before, quite a peculiar country, but so far it is the one I like the most.

After Sibiu and capturing a few shots from the nice locals , we head to Brasov, in the heart of the famous Transylvania. Four days there teach us that the myth of Dracula is a merchandising machine and also a good excuse to make up stories like the one of the castle where he lived or how many turks he impaled carrying name of the church.
Snow is to be seen everywhere, which give us the perfect excuse and scenery added to the full moon, to pay a visit to an old church and its graveyard pursuing the perfect creepy shot.
Definitely worth it to try in this region of the world.... Scary!

ICE ON YOUR HOT TUB?

That was the question we kept hearing in our minds as the snow flakes tainted our hair in white while we were enjoying one of the popular thermal baths of the city.

Well... Budapest is a great place. Turkish, German, Venetian, Jewish and Magyar culture all mixed in a city divided in two by the not so blue Danube.

Seven days relaxing in the thermal baths, Psycho Mutants concert and traditional Hungarian food can do no harm to anyone.

For one week we are two more within the big tourist movement in Budapest, even when at this time of year you can nearly freeze your hands trying to get a decent shot from the bridges...

As tourists we also "enjoy" scam by the fake lost guy in the middle of the city and his friend playing the role of the good police... Unfortunately for them, it did not work out after we asked twice to see his identification batch and the only thing that we could see was his video club membership card.

Ready for the move and with our back feeling much better after a few days not having to carry the backpacks from A to B, we say goodbye to Buda and Pest with its seven bridges to unite them.

Our next stop, Eger, With its famous "Valley of the beautiful women"...hey! nothing to cheer about! it is only its origin denomination for their famous wine.

THE " MOSQUE-CHURCH"

Straight streets and elegant architecture on each side of the street as we stroll around Szeged kicking golden Autumn leaves in our way. Szeged is considered a college town and grateful for that we are able to find accommodation for the night before heading to Pecs, where unknown friends are waiting for us.

Kata, Jan and Sarah ( sorry for the misspelling!!) are a beautiful family whom used their own hands to build their home, where little Sarah learns Hungarian and German without realizing it.
This small town is well worth it to be the next European Culture Capital in 2010. Plenty of festivals when is not too cold, Turkish ruins, Churches and a nice Synagogue are only a few of the things this place has to offer.
They even use an old Mosque as their main Church!!. Definitely not many of those to be seen anywhere.

Thanks to our friends we can learn and enjoy a bit more of the local way of living and also we are introduced to the "Psycho Mutants", a local band that hopefully we will be enjoying their concert in Budapest.
Meeting people like them makes travelling easier and thousand times better....
Thanks again guys!!

DRAWINGS IN OUR PASSPORTS

We leave Mostar not before having a big scary moment when I crossed the whole city thinking that I had left my hard drive with all my pictures forgotten in a Internet cafe already closed...
Luckily this time i was wrong.

Rain takes over our steps as we pass Sarajevo and Belgrade, it seems like the weather is trying to tell us something...like if we were taking the wrong route.
Not willing to risk much and following the Nature advice we change our minds and we decide to go to Hungary, hopping to find warmer people that just could smile when you are trying to buy a train ticket or answer something different than " no information here...search on the Internet!" when you are asking something in the tourist information office.

For a few days we enjoy the good OZ company of Suzie and Andrea ( I hope they are written properly).

The city of Novi Sad is in our way north and definitely gets the prize as the ugliest city of the month...I have to say that the weather and the name did not help at all.
We do our last stop before Hungary in Subotica, where the whistle of the train remind us that we are happy to leave Serbia behind.
Just a couple of hours separate us from Hungary, and with rain enjoying the ride with us again, we make it to Szeged, where in the border, we can see trough the window the funny faces of the immigration officers as they look the drawings in our passports.

Just crossing the border and the people seems to have sense of humor'

WAKE UP!

" It wasn't a real war.... only brothers fooling around with each other pretending having a war"
-affirms the biker that we met in Zadar...
Of course he only went as far as Dubrovnik and through the Croatian coast.

Once you leave Croatia and arrive to Mostar (Bosnia and Herzegovina), you just need to look around to realize that the "adventurous" biker was completely wrong.

WAKE UP!!! The nice days travelling comfortably around Europe are over!!
That is the feeling through our minds as we enter this city.
Shattered schools, offices, Mosques, Churches, and other buildings everywhere are the scenery that locals can see everyday since 15 years ago. I guess that i gets to a point that you forget how it was and get used at how it is.
The old town, with it new bridge as jumping point for the brave divers, is where more or less you can not see many crumbled buildings and where if you do not look around much, you would think that it is just a nice old city with a peculiar variety of cultures and religions.
No beautiful pictures to be taken here, just enough to witness what happened and what is probably happening right now in many places in the world that we do not hear about in the mass media.
Who is wrong and who is right I guess is a matter of opinion. This land and its people is a chess service controlled by few.

THE PEARL OF THE ADRIATIC

According to the opinion of some people, in Zadar you can enjoy the most beautiful sunsets in the world, even the famous Alfred Hitchcock fell under the spell of one of them.
The expectations created by the popular thought led us to the city piers...
We waited, we watched, and finally felt the disappointment crawling up to our fingers ready on the shutter of our cameras.
The show was alright, but even giving an extra chance the next day we couldn't stop thinking of the one in Angkor Wat, Campeche, Sydney, Antarctica or even our home town!
Dubrovnik was our next stop and we were not willing to wait forever until the said became true.

It was a long ride following the gorgeous coastline that even on a rainy day can make you forget the amount flags along the coast to identify what's yours and what's mine between Bosnian and Croats.
The Pearl of the Adriatic, Dubrovnik, heals slowly its wounds with tourists that every day arrive from cruises and buses to conquer with their cameras every single withe stone that form this city.
It is certainty a magic place, quite impressive specially at night, where the artificial light of its street lamps can take you to times when Venetians ruled this part of the world.

NATURE AND TAXES SHOULDN'T GO TOGETHER

We jump on the busy early bus, and after pushing our way out of the city and its contaminating traffic, we arrive to the countryside.

Trough the window I can see small villages with black spots on their facades that makes wake up ans tart to imagine how horrible war can be, specially is if between your own brothers!

The ride is short and after three hours and once steeping out the bus I can hear the noise of the falling water against the stone. Magic forests and pristine waters are worth the Word Heritage category of this place, unfortunately for most of their visitors,that condition needs to be paid.

Nearly 14 Euros leave a bad taste in my mouth and also the thought that nature and taxes shouldn't go together.

A nice room in the quiet village of Mukinje is the perfect combination together with nice conversation and flavoured vodka, to fight the cold and the pouring rain outside,

With our backpacks gain in our shoulders we say goodbye to the Spanish from Alicante and the Indian-American with the ability of reading hands specially if there are nice girls around. I think this guesthouse is not used to the loudness of my culture.

A SMILE WILL DO THE TRICK

In our way back, after flashing our thumbs again with no luck this time, we extend our our return to Ljubljana all the way to Zagreb where a new country is wrapped up for us and ready to be open.

Two days exploring the peaceful labyrinth give us the chance to realize that maybe this city has a lot more to offer and we have the feeling that is trying to break free from the shell that war left over its people.

Beautiful fruits markets are the perfect spot to taste the flavour of it people ans also the perfect scenery to steal that people from the grumpy old ladies in their stands aware of my camera.

Maybe less concentration on my photos and more smiling would the trick for me!.

The capital has a busy night life and the smell of roasting chestnuts spark our curiosity to try to immortalize the main square and its never stop tramways.

Next morning we hear about the national park of Plitvice, where turquoise lakes give us a nice chance to stop for two days in our way to the hopefully coast of Zadar.

TWO NIGHTS IN JAIL

Once in Ljubljana we realize that it looks better in our guidebook than it does in the real life.

A bunch of streets clustered beneath the castle save the city from being an unattractive destination.
Leaving the bus station our steps lead us to prison, we have to spend two nights!!.
Luckily for us Ljubljana's old prison has been turned into a nice a curious youth hostel where pay can taste what it feels like sleeping in jail.
After all we don't enjoy our convicted status and feeling the pull of the mountains,we take a bus to Bled where mountains, a floating church and the clanging colours of the Autumn await us.

In Bled the Julian alps tell us that we are a bit far away from the original Marco Polo's route, but hey! we have to follow our own!.
We try our lick showing our thumb without flashing any hairy leg and we manage to cath a ride to the feet of mount Vogar where we hike just enough to dust off our boots

NARROW STREETS FIT LESS PEOPLE

After three days thinking in the long way trip we head to Trieste with Piran as our destination.

note: ( do not jump on the train in Italy without validating your ticket... it could cost you up to 50 euros, 1000 euros or even up to 2000 euros all depending on the mood if whoever is coming to check your tickets.)

Once in Piran, peace takes control of our souls after wondering the bustling streets of Venice.

We enjoy the narrow streets but enough is enough and there is not much more to do here than fool around with our own shadows and to be honest, we didn't come here for that. So we decide to pay visit to the capital City.

LIFE IS TOO MUCH SHORT TO SIT AND WONDER

The floating city awaits the first stop of our trip and welcomes us with its charm . History and beauty are breathable in this place. At first sight it has that magic smile which keeps attracting thousands of curious eyes every year. That makes very hard to find a decent room without having to scratch too much our small pocket.

I can see giant staples keeping together every single bridge just to fit one more person because it seems that October, tourism and culture are sharing the ride in the same gondola.

Canals of people walk around this city just to make harder to find that perfect spot and inspiration to get the precious picture that will make me fall in love with Venice like everyone seems to do.
The " Gondolieri" perform their best sing along like mermaids did with Ulysses just to attract one more well to do Japanese. Catching a ride with gondola is not affordable for those who carry backpacks... I don't want to think about how hard for your pocket has to be to catch that Saturday night easy ride home with the zaxi when you had a few extra beers.

So we walk and walk, go up and down with the as well expensive Vaporettos, because swimming is forbidden, and our legs get tired of following directions to the "Piazzale San Marco" or " Ferrovia"

This is only the beginning!!!