Jakey Jake

Next night I caught the train to aswan , where there was a dam and some more ruins to see. This time the hotel was shit, the city was shit, the dam was shit, the people were shit and to top it off they did that annoying muslim thing where all the mosques in the area thought they would blast their prayer sessions over the city at ungodly hours. Bastards. We had to get up at 4 to catch a bus to Abu Simbel, which I had been told was THE highlight of Egypt . What a disappointment. Sorry to all those who liked it, sure it was kind of kewl the four large carvings of the kings, but the entire site had been moved there, and really it was just two big tunnels. Mmmmm anyway.. that afternoon we went back to aswan and my aunty called me to tell me that our family paint factory was burnt down. A bit of a shock, but considering no one was hurt and factories can be rebuilt, I was over it pretty quickly. That night I caught the night train back to cairo before I was to head off to south America on my way back home for a brief stop over. I was so happy to get the hell out of Egypt . Its basically a big dump with people who are friendly because they want something. Its not as bad as India , but it gets a fair way to being close.

That night I caught the train to luxor where I met a pretty kewl aussie bloke who had been traveling for ages as well. We spent the night playing Chinese chequers and he completely kicked my butt. That day we went to see some old temple, I cant recal the name, but for me it was the highlight of the Egyptian ruins. After that we went to luxor temple, where you can see where the Christians took refuge and actually created the first church and you can actually see a painting of the last supper over the ancient hyroglyphs. The next day we went to the valley of the kings and the valley of the queens. The valley of the kings is where the later kings were all buried instead of in pyramids as it clearly alerted grave diggers as to where the goodies were. Anyway I felt that they were kind of overrated. And by this stage I was utterly sick of the attitude of the Egyptians, it was the national pastime to ripoff or molest tourists.

Well I arrived at cairo airport, where I stupidly organized a tour with a guy who was grabbing people as they got off the airplane. Needless to say it was far more expensive than what I wanted to spend and way more than I could have done it on my own. But I figured that I had limited time to go and see everything so if I got it all organized then I wouldn’t have to contend with all the hassle of doing it myself. Well it turned out ok, I stayed in some ok hotels, had my own private taxis and private tour guides, but considering the amount I paid I didn’t tip anyone, and the Egyptians attitude was pretty shit and sly anyway so stuff tipping. First few nights I spent in cairo, I met a local and hung out with him for a bit and we went and got some food and smoked on a hooka, the tobacco was actually pretty good, then he showed me some bars but I didn’t really want to stick around as I felt like they were pretty dodgy people, friendly but always after your buck. Anyway the first day I was picked up and the guide was awesome, he knew everything, he was actually a guide at the cairo museum. We went out to the first pyramid which is much more square than the others but still very impressive, its difficult to imagine that 5000 years ago these were made, when most other cultures had nothing. After this we went to the pyramids at giza and the sphinx. I have to say I was mighty impressed, the sheer size of the structures is breathtaking, and to imagine that they were once completely smooth and covered in gold. The sphinx was actually much smaller than I had imagined but still impressive nonetheless. The next day we went to the cairo museum where you can see quite a few ancient artifacts including mummies and a collection of goods that was discovered in tutenkhamens tomb. Including his sarcophagus, 111kgs of pure gold and of course the ultra famous mask 11kgs of solid gold and precious gems. This was followed by a tour of the city which included the church where jesus, mary and joseph hung out to escape persecution from the romans, it was really strange to see the room where jesus grew up. Lastly we came to the giant mosque, I cant recall exactly who that one was for but it had a great view of cairo , the dirty city that it is.

well the bus left tirana at 4am this morning, they made me change to another bus at 5am and then again at 3pm, its now 7.40pm and im not sure how far off athens we are. been travelling with all these albanians, and i have to say theyre a pretty decent bunch of people. well from what i can ascertain anyway. I think ive decided to forego the syria jordan option, i think if rather not have my head removed by some rusty old steak knife on home video, that and time really doesnt permit it since im flying outta egypt on the 1st. off to lima….

Well lets just say that albania wont be let into the EU for some time, talk about a dump, reminded me of vietnam/cambodia/china, potholes in the roads, shit everywhere blah blah, but it seems so much more lively(as did the asian cities) than their european counterparts. People always out in the streets. Though the hotel i was staying at was a total dump and i was pretty wary about what was going on since it seems there are lots of muslims here and the pakistanis had just declared a holy jihad, i was fearful of keeping my head attached to my neck. found out that the bus for tirana left at 7am so i decided to stay in. The bus journey, 4 hamburgers and a packet of smokes with lots of change for 10 euro, albania is pretty cheap ;0 though its probably not the most fantastic place to visit. Id imagine if they made some nice costal villages and picked up their standards a bit this place would flood with tourists, although as it stands i think im the only tourist in albania right now, or for that matter probably the whole year!!! Everyone owns a beat up old merc that used to be a taxi in germany… anyway i have to catch a bus at 330am to get to athens by 8pm, so im looking forward to staying up late and sleeping on the bus OH YAY! Im still not sure how ill get to egypt, although i have been considering travelling through turkey, syria, jordan, and israel, after reading the travellers warnings issued by the australian government i may decide against it. Although they said the same thing about nepal and it was kind of fun and exciting that there were people fighting near us. (sounds crazy i know, but it makes you feel like your living on the edge a little in comparison to the safety of living in australia). So i guess ill see how much and how long the ferries to egypt are from athens, otherwise im going to be living large and risking my head ahh well it will make for some good stories i bet.

I arrived in Rijeka at about 6pm and i met up with some guys that were on the train and we trundled off to look for accomodation. After walking a few kms, the tourist information sent us back to were we came from, and we found lodgeing in what seemed like a hotel that hadnt been maintained in 30 years, lets just say it was a shithole but nonetheless it was a place to sleep. We hit the town and went to a few bars, one especially nice one was the hemingway!!! i managed to steal one of their menus as a souvenier for mei-ge. The next morning i looked around town but there wasnt a whole lot to see, so i was off again, down to split. arrived in split at 9 or so and was taken to a nice little house where i had my own room and satellite TV… what a dream Unfortunately the weather was terrible so i stayed in, although i had a delicious meal in a little restraunt around the corner… mmmmm seafood walked around town the next day with my brand new 50 cent umbrella…. didnt take me long to realise why it was only 50 cent, the wind was blowing a gale and it turned the brella inside out, breaking a few of the arms… GREAT!!!!! took a few happy snaps and decided i would head to dubrovnik ASAP before i became pneumonic. It was about that time that i realised i had lost my credit card…. SHIT, what a pain in the butt. oh well what can you do??? so looks like ill be on the phone to visa international for a few hours again. On the way down to dubrovnik, which took an extra few hours because of an overturned truck, you could see how heavily the wind was blowing(a la the truck) there were trees blown over everywhere, flooded backyards and schools etc, it was pretty messy. Dubrovnik was pretty much the same way, i managed to find accomodation straight off the bus with a pushy old woman with missing teeth and a lazy eye. But the room was pretty sweet and there were some canadians and an irish guy. looked around town the next day with an american guy john, we walked to the old town where they showed how heavily it had been shelled in the war not so long ago and pretty much all the people that lived in the area lived in the old town. Its pretty scenic, although the weather wasnt that great. We went out that night because it was Dans birthday (the irish guy) and we eneded up at the irish bar, but everywhere was pretty much dead, nevertheless we had a good night out. The next day i caught a bus to montenegro (formerly part of yugoslavia) the bus stopped about 1 hour from the border and i was trying to get to tirana in albania so i could get the bus to athens. the bus driver said he would drive me to the border for 15 euro and a mate of his would drive me from the albanian border to shkodra for another 10. That was all fine and dandy so i went with it. The guy was a bit dodgy though, stopping the bus right next ot his beat up old merc where he syphoned off about 10 litres of petrol from the bus and put it in the back of his car. Everything worked out ok though and i managed to get to shkodra.

arrived in bled after a pretty long train journey, i was about an hour late as the train had to stop because there was so much snow on the tracks. It was bucketing down!!! really made me want to stay and do some boarding. I managed to find accomodation in a nice little place in bled run by a lovely old couple. I was the only one in the hostel and they served me breakfast lunch and dinner for only 15euro… They also drove me everywhere… it was so homely and nice walked around bled for a while, theres not much going on there at this time of year so i pretty much had the place to myself, the views from the castle were spectacular when the fog finally lifted. Its a very beautiful little town, but you can cover all the ground in a few hours, so i caught the train to lublijana in the afternoon. I spent the night in jail….. well actually it was an old jail that was renovated into a hostel/art gallery. It was pretty kewl, but there wasnt that much to see in lublijana, again the castel had some pretty good views, but that was about all there was, so that afternoon i caught the train to rijeka in croatia

on the way to bled, the train was delayed so i had an overnight stay in innsabruk, where the winter olympics have been held twice. Its quite a pretty little town, and i met a few nice people from bavaria and sweeden. They were all there to work on the ski fields, and i have to say that i wouldnt have stayed in that hostel for too long. They put me in a row of beds (6 in all) all next to each other, with just blokes…. not the nicest way to wake up. ALthough Balmers had been pretty similar, but it was only 2 beds ajoined and i managed to get it on my own for 3 nights… kinda strange waking up next to a bloke you dont know….. anyway i eventually headed back to the train station and was on my way to country number i dont know…. Slovenia.

After an 11 hour train ride i ended up in interlaken having no idea where to go or stay, no matter, its pretty normal, except that it was bloody freezing. anyway i ended up walking about 15 minutes and found a youth hostel called balmers, and it was totally full of americans. Well having not seen too many americans, except for when i was in rome, i was pretty amazed. There were very few aussies, new zealanders or canadians, strange as it seems. I had a great time there even though the weather was really crappy for the most part. I stayed 4 nights and it was only on the morning of the last day that the weather cleared up enough for me to go to a place called “the top of europe”. Its about 3500m up with stunning views across the swiss alps. it was about -18 out on the mountain so i pretty much ran out took some happy snaps and ran back in.