How Did I Get Here?

Living on a sailboat rent free in the Mediterranean isn’t so bad. Add home cooked meals in exchange for some light handyman work and it makes for pretty good living.
My main task was to build a greenhouse out of as much of the remodeling debris piled up around the yard as possible.

Just a pile of junk and some imagination

Ready for planting

Except for some 2×4’s for framing, the plastic roof panels and the gutters, this is what a pile of construction debris gets you. I know it doesnt look like a typical greenhouse. That’s partly why we painted it green. Just in case there is ever any question. It does get hot in there though so I call it a success.

That was the last of the big jobs that I could do. I was leaning towards overstaying my usefulness. It has been a very light snow year back at the property so it was time to start thinking about getting back anyway.

A flury of last gasp road trips around Sardinia before I left gave me a good view of what the Island has to offer. And with $8/gallon gas prices, a new found respect for how good I have it back home. Sardinia is scattered with small towns and ancient ruins. It’s surprisingly mountainous interior is ringed by Mediterranean beaches. It really is a pretty place. People are nice and live to be 100.  Costs are low. Hopefully the pictures linked here capture a bit of it. Here are progress pictures of the greenhouse build.

As nice as it is to not be, it was good to be on the road again. No plans really other than see a few cities that I have somehow missed in previous trips over here. A quick flight off of Sardinia and a connecting train from Milan, had me in Venice by sundown.

I didn’t have any real interest in Venice. I have always heard that it was a crowded over priced tourist trap with a bad smell. (True on all accounts, by the way) But when in Rome….you might as well check off Venice.

My expectations were met to varying degrees. A quick Expedia search showed my budget did not fit a canal side stay. I found a hotel near the train station a few miles out, in Venice’s growing Chinatown. The locals are complaining that the Chinese have come in and bought up a lot of the tourist restaurants and shops, lowering quality but with higher prices. As I have never been to Venice before, I can’t really judge. But my slices of Pizza were fine.

Hoping you avoid the crowds, I hopped a train over the seabridge and roamed around after dark. It was pretty quiet on a pleasant Thursday night. I was hoping that it would be that empty the next day. That would be a bit boring though.

I got up early and caught a train back over. I didn’t know what there was to see while I was there so I just started walking. I did see a tourist brochure showing some prettily painted houses along a canal so I made it my goal to find where it was located. I ended up on two different passenger ferries that took me to a couple far flung islands. One was Murano. It is known for glass blowing artistry and is a pretty stroll around in itself. The second was Burano. Judging by the shops, it was big on linen goods. And it is where the picture I saw was taken.

Expectations

This is what I saw

Except for my hazy day and their cranking up the color saturation, the marketing photo is pretty close to the real thing. A successful adventure. I hopped back on the ferry for Venice. 

It was now late Friday afternoon and the weekenders were arriving in droves. All dragging their wheelie luggage clattering behind them. The thinner streets (there are many) were becoming clogged as people and luggage tried to pass in opposite directions. Not to mention the stroller jams. I was glad I only had this one day here. I wouldn’t have liked a full on Saturday crush.

The council is implementing a tourist tax this spring in the hopes of reducing traffic. It’s only a few dollars so won’t deter many. It will be interesting to see where the money goes though.

I am glad I stopped by and took a look around. It’s a pretty place and a lot bigger than I expected. In my day and a half there, my GPS watch recorded 23.5 miles of walking.

My Venice night walk path

A full day stroll and some boat rides

 

It a nice flat walk other than up and over countless bridges but that is a lot of miles. I think I saw enough in those few hours to check Venice off. I headed back to my little Chinatown hotel room to plan my next journey just as it was getting dark.

Venice Pictures:

https://photos.app.goo.gl/pcJyJTHfxiKyjsW5A

I have heard good things about Trieste, Italy. A three hour bus ride away from Venice. Its on the border with Croatia so was on my way to my next stop. A quick visit was in order. That quick visit turned into a window view as the bus drove through. There weren’t many rooms and none in my budget available. Seemed like a nice enough place but a visit for another day. I rode the bus all the way to Zagreb.

I was in Zagreb about 15 years ago and I liked it from just the bit I saw walking around during a long train layover. I was excited to see it for a longer stay.

Zagreb doesn’t have an old town as is common in Old Europe cities. It has a very busy shopping district  and a little party street. Neither of which keeps my attention for very long these days. I was there St Patrick’s weekend and there were a couple of Irish bars trying to take advantage but it didn’t seem to pick up any steam as the day wore on. Then again, drunken college kids listening to loud thumping  sounds they call music these days kept me at a good distance. Like back in my room distance.

I stayed busy walking around town and further a field to a ski resort that had already changed over to downhill biking. I cheated and took the gondola up but it was a full afternoon of hiking to get back down to the base. No one seemed to miss the snow.  The apris ski bars at the top of the mountain were packed.

I was happy that I was in a city that served up the spicy sausages called Ćevapi (pronounced [tɕeʋǎːpi] ….like that helps). I haven’t had them out side of the Balkans so I tend to over indulge when I roll through. 

I didn’t really have a travel plan but figured three nights there would be plenty. It was and was ready to hop the bus to the next place. 

Zagreb pictures:

https://photos.app.goo.gl/CE2Q5kuX6xBZEYJt5

Vienna and Bratislava were 2 cities I haven’t been to so wanted to include then in this trip. They are only an hour apart by train and was half tempted to just go to Bratislava and day trip over to Vienna. In the end I did 2 nights in Vienna first. That was more than enough since I didn’t have the clothes or budget for the high culture activities it’s famous for. I didn’t have the budget for much of anything there. I filled up on kebab wraps and candy from the hotel reception desk. 

It’s a high brow town. Fine dining, classical music and high high high fashion shopping. Out of curiosity I went into a Five Guys Hamburger franchise. Just their basic burger was $14. I went online and compared the same menu in an Atlanta store. 7.99!!! I looked at a cigar store window display. $130 for a single cigar. I don’t smoke but I wouldn’t pay that if the tobacco was wrapped around a $100 bill. 

Vienna is a nice enough looking town but not my thing. Packed with tourists too. The trams are fun to ride around on and they go everywhere for a reasonably priced pass.

I ran out of things to do in Vienna pretty quickly and was happy to climb on board the train to Bratislava.

Vienna pictures:

https://photos.app.goo.gl/KHgtoWtoc9AvK6Kx9

It is a nice city that few people visit. It’s just far enough off the tourist routes that it doesn’t make the 13 cities in 7 days tourist packages that most first time Euro travelers sign on to. Being the setting for the gory horror movie “Hostel” didn’t make the tourist bureau’s job any easier either.

 I liked it. It’s got a smallish old town section. Lots of coffee shops and restaurants. A little more reasonably priced than Vienna. No crazy high end fashion shops that I saw either. The rest is sprawling residential 5 story apartment blocks and office buildings. The bus station is in the basement of a really nice mall wiyh a nice food court that I appreciate. No bus station food or pay toilets to contend with. In short, I definitely liked Bratislava over Vienna.

Bratislava pictures:

https://photos.app.goo.gl/zKHvZhwaqcu9P2jk6

For some reason, I get Krakow, Poland and Warsaw, Poland confused. I don’t know why. I have been to Krakow and liked it. It’s a pretty old town even with its proximity to WWII holocaust sites. I took all that in the last time I was there and once in a lifetime is plenty. So I figured I would just head up to Warsaw. In the throes of travel dyslexia I guess. I booked a bus and a non refundable hotel in Krakow instead. So Krakow it was.

I think I read that Krakow’s main square is the largest in Europe. It is big and filled with food and souvenir stalls. Its interesting to walk around and see what’s on offer. There was a steady rain falling for most of my time in Krakow so no dry place to eat outside. Really no reason to be outside at all. I ended up roaming the mall for most of a Sunday looking for a cheap rain jacket. Hoping if I waited long enough, sunny days would return and I could save the luggage space by not buying a rain jacket. But the rain settled in and I now have a rain jacket. The effort filled the day though. I was pretty much out of stuff to do and still had a day left. I saw an expensive guided tour to a salt mine in a nearby town. I immediately hopped on the internet to see how I could do it for cheap. By figuring my own transportation i turned the $60 day into a $2 train ride and $12 cave admission. It was ok enough. Killed an otherwise rainy afternoon at a huge discount so I was happy. 

I think I have about 3 months of travel in me before I lose interest. That might be exaggerating a bit because the first 2 months, I had something to do. The old towns are starting to run together and as I write this, I am having a hard time remembering anything that sets them apart. The sound of wheelie luggage clattering over cobblestone streets is starting to sound like fingernails on chalkboards. My eyes are sore from rolling them at instagram selfie photographers. I would say my tongue is tired from trying to get a few words out in the local language but I don’t even try because any effort would be unintelligible. English is pretty common though so that helps. 

In short, I am tired and it’s time to start working my way home. But first I have to correct my Krakow mistake. 

Warsaw was pretty much leveled during the war. It’s was totally rebuilt.  The new old town is pretty nice. Very small though. I was Glad I only stayed one night. 2 nights would have been a stretch.

I was up early to catch the train to Gdansk in the North. There is one at least every hour. Sometimes more. My train was running a few minutes late but not too bad. When the Gdansk train showed up, it was one of the fast looking sleek ones so I was sure that it would make up the lost time. It was nice and empty. I got an uneasy feeling and turned to get off to figure out why but the whistle blew and the door closed. I just grabbed a seat and waited for something that surely was going to happen. Just didnt know what.

Took a while for my error to come to light. The conductor finally got to me and scanned my ticket and said we had a problem. We being me of course. The delayed train was overtaken by the ontime one. Same platform and everything. So I was on the wrong train. The nicer faster train. It was non stop so I had to buy a new ticket. He did give me the old age discount so that was nice. Too bad the free drink cart already went by. I could have recouped my losses in complimentary bottled water.

Gdansk gets high praise but rarely makes it on American’s travel itineraries. I think that should change. It is really one of the nicest cities in Europe. It was rebuilt after the war so everything to a mix of classic Northern Europe and modern architecture nicely mixed together. It looks very much like Amsterdam without so many canals. There is shopping and restaurants but I didn’t see many high end fashion or chain mall stores. At least, in the old town. Public transportation is really good. And the nearby beach towns have a lot of charm. The water is bone chilling so I expect beach sports are more of a thing. English is pretty much a second or maybe third language. Its pretty easy to  communicate. So it was an easy 4 days there of just walking around and listening to wheelie luggage clattering on the cobblestone. 

Even though I had been to Krakow, I really wanted to see more.of Poland. So I was pretty happy to have time this trip to see Warsaw and Gdansk. Now that I have it under my belt, I can call this trip good. Now I just need to figure out how to get out.

Poland pictures:

https://photos.app.goo.gl/T3VaMqmZ5xEL1REn7