Jakey Jake

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.

I met up with some canadians in cinqueterre and we headed towards nice. I was going to meet damo there the next day so i hung out wiht the canadians for the trip and we stayed in a hostel together, mik and j were really good guys and we had a good time together. When damo didnt arrive we decided to day trip it to monaco, it was definately a money city, with massive Yachts, expensive cars, hot young women with old men. It was a bit poxy though with a lot of old 70s style buildings etc. but i loved the yachts. ive decided that im going to own one!!!! (yeah yeah i hear you say…. well its a nice dream!!). That night it was raining, which it did most of the time i was in nice, so we started playing drinking games at mik and js hostel. We started with 5 people and in the end pretty much the entire 30 or so people in the hostel were playing, and we were all rather hammered!!!! Next day damo arrived and the canadians left, so damo and i wandered around nice having a good look around, it wasnt a very busy time of year although you could imagine that it would be much more fun in high season. The beach wasnt all that much, it had rather large grey stones instead of sand. The next day we went to monaco and we went into the casino. It was pretty much dead empty, perhaps only 30 people in there. I have to say it was a stunning casino, very lavishly decorated and you could imagine that it too would be awesome fun had there been more people around. We walked around the marina again and a lot of the yachts were having maintenance done on them. Seemed like there were a lot of Australians as crew memebers on the yachts although none of them let us on One guy had a remote control helicopter and he was trying to show off in front of the crew girls only he slammed it into a kayak and broke one of the rotors, although he didnt seem to care!!! We eneded up watching the movie wimbeldon, i have to say it was a pretty good movie and Kirsten Dunst is looking mighty fine. Same cant be said for me, im packing the kilos on, yep thats right im turning into a fatty!!!! hehehehe must have something to do with the 8+ meals i have a day!!! Anyway damo left the next day and i went to milan which was on the way to switzerland, the train left at 6.09 so in the meantime i went looking at the shops and playing on the internet. Funnily enough i thought the train left at 6.50 and when i went to catch it, it had already gone, so i ended up staying another night in nice.

heading down there today. Cinqueterre is a set of 5 towns located along the north west coast of italy. It is known for its stunning location, im sure youve seen photos of the 4th town. Its actually a national park, the people that live there have over time built numerous terrarces on the hills so they can grow their olive crops. Unfortunately the land is slowly being reclaimed by the mediterranian. Anyway there is a stunning walk that spans the length of the 5 towns. It took me about 3 hours to walk them, although i was doing it quickly as the weather wasnt so great. I have to say though that i really like the quiet pace after having been to so many major cities. Although after the walk i caught the train that i was told 5.13 to return to the first town, only it flew past all the stations and stopped at la spieza. arriving at la spieza at 5.30, the next train according to the timetable wasnt until 6.50. SO i asked at information to double check and he said to catch the 6.05 train, so i did that. Only it flew past riomaggio, and all the other stations, when it flew past monterosso, i started to get a bit worried. it stopped an hour later at 7.15 in god knows where. The train back was at 7.45 so i caught that, and about 30 mins into the journey it just stopped at this station for a good 45 minutes… hehehehehe then we finally took off again after a period of stress and finally got into my destination at 9.15 pm, 4 hours after i had left monterosso, for what should only have been a 15 minute journey… oh well!!!!!

Arrived in florence after a two hour delay on the train… The city is much smaller than i had imagined it, although it was certainly very beautiful. The birthplace of most of the famous renaisance artists, and clearly the birthplace of the renaisance art movement itselt. Much like rome there is a plethora of art and sculptures scattered around the city. It would definately make for a very entertaining and informative scavenger hunt (probably also very costly if everyone had to be flown over from australia). MMMmm so anyway, starting to get the hang of really travelling on your own, and i actually am finally starting to really enjoy my own company again. did all the touristy things, went and saw michaelangelos david (as in david and goliath) quite impressive as to the intricate detail of the body. waited for hours in the queue for the uffizi museum and wasnt all that impressed by the works insides, even with the likes of raphael, donatello, michaelangelo, leonardo da vinci etc. I have been taken by a painting called la premiere bacio (the first kiss) with two child angels and the boy is kissing the girl on the cheek but i have no idea where its being shown ahhh well. Its such a small world, i was staying in a hostel with a couple of girls and one of them was studying medicine at melbourne and she happens to be good friends with andrew weickhardt, an old friend of mine…. anyway!!!

Rome is full of history and full of archaeological ruins. Went crazy with the happy snaps again. Loving my new camera. Cant beleive im here walking around the sistene chapel, the ancient roman ruins, the vatican, the trevi fountain, the pantheon (etc etc). its pretty hard to comprehend all ths things that have occured around these seven hills. I did the old toss the coin over the shoulder into the trevi fountain. The first one is so youll return to rome, the second is so you will meet/fall in love with an italian girl/boy depending on youre gender (or should that be youre persuaision??) and the third is that you will marry them. Cant say im really hoping to meet an italian, theyre pretty fiesty and i dont think it would suit my personlality too well, but hey who knows??? Was reading the last dan brown novel, angels and demons (when i say last i mean the last one i needed to read) all set in rome, and decided to go and check out some of the locations in the book, all the churches are there, although not in exactly the right places (well one of them anyway) You know theres a book out now which says which parts are fact and fiction through the da vinci code!!! theres also tours that go to all the locations in the books and would you beleive it, these locations are now the most visited places in europe??? he can certainly write a decent and absorbing book, but c’mon!!! (and before you say hypocrite… its only cause i was there anyway ). So anyway ive been gone what 8 months now…. i have no idea whats happening back at where i used to call home…. occasionally ill look on news.com.au to check up on the goss, but seriously