Mark's "quit my job now I'm traveling" thread

Haha thanks! I've done nothing but party and ski since moving to Jackson so updating anything has been sloooow

 

Need to change your screen name now.

 

El Chorro/Camino Del Rey:

After spending 4 days in Lisbon I decided it was time to keep moving on. At this point in the trip I was beginning to feel quite unsatisfied, which is strange considering all of the amazing places I had been...but i just dont give too many shits about big cities or fancy castles or meuseums. So I told my self I would start avoiding such things. I had heard a lot of good things about a city called Grenada in the southern region of spain, that was heavily influenced by muslim culture and such. So I said why not and began the long train/bus rides to get out of Portugal and into Spain.

Pro tip: there are no direct train routes from Lisbon to any major city in southern spain without going through Madrid, so I had to take a train to the bus station, take a bus to Faro for an over night stay, then Another 2 connecting busses to Grenada. At about the third connecting bus station while I had about a 2 hour wait, I still felt like I was following the cookie cutter blah blah safe trip through europe. I remembered looking up dangerous hikes in europe while I was trip planning in the US. I knew the Camino Del Rey was somewhere around here, so I looked up where it was compared to where my current bus stop was and it found it to be just a couple of hours away.

I might never be back in this part of the world again, so it was either go change my ticket real quick and wing it or go see another stupid palace. With that I bagged Grenada and changed my ticket to Malaga, the closest major city with a 45 min train ride to El Chorro, the Camino Del Rey stop. There were a couple more speed bumps however...

The Camino del rey used to be one of the most dangerous hikes in the world, a pathway built into the side of sheer cliffs in the 50s that had fallen into a state of decay and you had to use climbing gear and saftey lines the entire time to prevent falling to your death (my kind of fun). In 2015 they totally rebuilt it and erected a completley safe (and boring) wider walkway a foot on top of it so now everyone can see the route and the canyon. Because of this though you had to have a ticket to get in, which can be booked full.

Well I found one ticket left in the entire week I had available but it was for 3:30. The hike said it takes about 3 hours, and the last train left the El Chorro station at 5:30...problem. The town of El Chorro is tiny, and pretty poor, and is centered around mountain biking and great climbing. But its tiny, so at the time I was booking my ticket I had no idea where to even sleep. So my options were to finish the trail and try to hitch hike back to Malaga (where i knew there were hostels) or sleep in the train station. So with no idea where I was going, or where I was going to sleep I hoped on the bus to Malaga.

I found a cheap hostel, spent a day in Malaga doing a bit more research about the hike, and stumbled accross a small guest house in El Chorro that was pretty affordable. It took 3 hours to get ahold of the owners but they had a bunk bed available for the 2 nights I would be there! That afternoon I loaded up on the train and headed to El Chorro.


Upon getting off the train, literally 5 steps from the tracks, I see these 3 older guys with a mountain of wine glasses and beers at the station's patio bar, obviously having a good time. I Head over and start chatting with them, turns out they are english. I get shit for donald trump, they get shit for brexit, they give me intel on the hike im doing tomorrow, we buy many more beers and hang out until it got dark. Turns out they too are staying at this pension guest house that im trying to find. So naturally i just head back with them.

When I get to this place im immedietely happy and stoked on my decision. Totally my kind of place, just a big ol place full of climbers and hikers and mtn bikers and general out door people, exactly the kind of atmosphere I like being around. Had a great night meeting everyone and playing pool on the beautiful patio and drinking many more wines.

The next day was hike day, still with no idea what to do i head back to the train station to catch a supposed bus to the top. I find the bus stop, and ride the bus up a mountain to the top of the hike. Tie my shoes, take some pics of a beautiful lake, and begin the trail. I couldnt find anyone to do the hike with, so I was on my own, but for about the first time I didn't care and was totally happy with the tranquility. Upon getting to the trail entrance i find out as long as there is an open spot i can use my ticket for any time slot, so I went in at 10:30 and not 3:30. This used to be one of the most dangerous trails in the world, and since they refurbished it there is now a god damn wifi hot spot and charging port at the trail head where the control gate is...fucking disgusting.

Anyway we all get hard hats and head in. Hiking through this canyon is stunning, and the original trail is still intact beneath it so you can try to imagine what it would have been like..I was there just a couple years too late. A picture it worth a thousand words so ill let those describe the hike. I hate that when you upload pics it doesent keep them in the order you uploaded them in...so there are pics of malage next to pics of the pension followed by pics of the hike then more pics of some sailboat...

After 3 hours on the trail i get back to the train station and have about 3 more hours to kill before heading back for dinner. So I walk around the area above the pension and watch some people climb, get chased by a wild dog, and generally just soak in the area. El Chorro is well known for great mountain biking...and if I wanted to stay another day and pay 80 euro for a mtn bike Im sure i would have had a kick ass time, but i had to be Frugal.

In the pension dinner is cooked, drinks are shared, and the night is spent yet again with everyone recounting the days adventures climbing hiking, biking, and generally just feeling stoked. I wish my entire trip was filled with places and atmospheres like this one. One of the most fun, most adventurous parts of my trip thus far had been an absolute shot in the dark, beginning on shitty bus station wifi where I didnt even know if i would have a place to sleep, and ending with a place so far off the beaten path but yet feeling so close to home. This is what travel is supposed to feel like.

 

Barcelona/Monaco:

Following my hike through Southern Spain I was itching to keep heading up the coast the get into southern France, but not before making a stop in Barcelona. My Aunt has Barcelona on her bucket list so i figured id make a stop and take some pics to tell her about it.

I only spent about 3 days in Barcelona. While there I enjoyed one of the chillest hostels on my trip. Nightly dinners and drinks provided on an honor tip system, cheap and delicious breakfast that was available "until the last hungover guest woke up" and a social atmosphere that was always active. We spent a day hiking in the hills above the city, and were graced with some incredible views. For lunch we wandered into a random restaurant that was packed so we figured it must be good. we were right.

Between the 6 of us we ordered 7 different dishes ranging from tomato and pesto bread to octopus. We all drank sangria and sampled the best dishes we could imagine. During this time we got to know our hearty and round waiter who we could tell enjoyed our tourist level of enjoyment for his restaurant. At the end of the meal they give you a traditional shot of what tastes like alcoholic horchata. Well, he just brought us an entire bottle on the house and said enjoy. Darn was it a fun meal.

Like most big european cities they have an impressive market, so i did my usual procedure and bought some weird ass food for lunch and continued to explore the city. I wandered around the olympic stadium just up the hill from the hostel, and stumbled upon a tunnel full of rocks bolted into the wall and belay points all through the tunnel with people climbing on ti into the late evening.

Moving on from Barcelona I wanted to stop into Monaco/Nice france. My plan from the beginning had been to try to find a boat to sail back to the US on. Seeing how Nice had some half of the worlds yachts based out of there I figured why not give it a go and wander around. It was also a good stopping point on the trip over to the Cinque Terre in Italy.

When I got to monaco and found myself a hostel to stay in I got my stuff in a room and proceeded to go back out to enjoy the town, big surprise. After exploring the town and watching it shut down we all headed to the beach for a guitar jam session and a skinny dip into the ocean.

The next day I teamed up with some aussies a brit and an american brother and sister team to take the bus to Monte Carlo and explore the iconic town. We wandered up the escalator of monte carlo (a long ass set of stairs to the palace), got lost in a shopping mall so fancy we got kicked out of, and peeked into the monte carlo casino. I found the best post card ever to send to my parents who always bitch that I dont share enough with them (the monte carlo at night post card) and then wandered around the harbor. Even the buildings here looked like yachts. We finished off the night by going to a fair they had set up right on the water and all drove bumper cars as the sun went down over Monte Carlo.

While at the hostel I met a couple of gals who was also planning to hike the cinque terre, just not together. So I suggested why dont we all go and do at the same time. Anna (one of them) was leaving a day early and making a stop in another town for no reason so she left that afternoon, and the brittish girl and I left the next day to head to La Spezia by bus.

 

This looks like an amazing time!

 

Sub'd

 

Wow. I'm 22 and accounting and I don't do cool things

 

Cinque Terre:

Off to the Cinque terre, this stretch of my trip has to be one of my favorites. The cool blonde britt and I head out of Monaco on a bus to Italy, where we would transfer to a train to take us to La Spezia, base camp for the cinque terre. My new British friend had a weird internal crisis and decided she didnt want to go on the hike...but I met up with the other gal from the hostel in Monaco, anna, and we made a few more friends at the hostel and assembled a crew to head out to the hike the next day.

All while this was going on the elections were happening, and trump just won the election. It was my first night in this small italian town, everything closed early and I just wanted some dinner so i found a pizza joint with a bit of food left...so i get the last of the pizza and as soon as the 3 guys there realize im american, in english so broken they probably couldnt hold a conversation they ask me "trump of clinton? comb over blonde hair, you look like trump". Side note here, i have read hair that has been a mess since walking from the train station. So these guys with almost no english want me to explain my political preference. At the time i was certainly not a fan of clinton and didnt like trump but was still playing devils advocate. In this pizza shop if i had said anything but clinton i wouldnt have gotten dinner and probably would have been kicked out. This happened all over europe and was the most annoying part of being there.

Any way, the next morning the group gathers and we take the train up to the first of the 5 towns along this famous hike. We very quickly hit a road block as the trail from the first to the second town was closed and a 250e fine was imposed if you hiked it...and the alternative trail was a 4 hour hike vs the normal route which was 25 min....so we waited for the train to start from the second town. Needless to say, these little towns were beautiful and perfect, they just kept getting better and better. In the next town I was exposed to my next dream job...being a farmer on the cinque terre and driving around the mountain roller coaster thing they have snaking around the cliff side farms to gather produce. one day i want to come back and ride one of these fun trains and farm the cinque terre. In this town we also got some italian gelato...and one of the girls we were with dropped her keys in a storm drain then it started to rain. Luckily i being the creative guy i am rummaged through peoples gardens, back alleys and porches to find some sticks to fish out the keys from the drain in the street.

While in this town I got my buddy a post card and my dad some locally made olive oil. Between these next 2 town the girl anna and I started to talk a lot more and shared a lot of the same personality traits and sense for adventure and love of the out doors. We talked a lot about life motivations, relationships, blah blah blah. we started to hang back from the group further and further as we took in the beautiful and mind blowing scenery more. Eventually we fell so far behind we just lose the other 3 people in our group, but didnt mind. We figured they would find their way back. So with the sun setting we keep on hiking through the cinque terre in our now playfully flirtatious attitudes.

Some how after the sun set we all met up back together in then second to last town. With a head lamp and smart phones with lights we decide to tackle the last hike, which is pretty short...until there is a fence blocking this trail too. Apparently there was a huge rock slide the took out the trail, which is a bummer because this is the most beautiful stretch running right over the ocean. Anna and i decide that we want some more adventure and jump around the fence to enjoy the last hike lit only by the moon reflecting on the ocean. We tell the others we will meet them back in town and we can grab dinner, as they wanted no part in our shenanigans. We kill the lights as to not attract attention, and start walking the dark path as our friends head back to the train station. The trail was indeed beautiful, and humbling as we get to the destroyed section with boulders the size of ATVs and a destroyed saftey railing over the edge of the cliff. This section of trail really was short, and we got the end after just 20 minutes. One last hurdle though...another fence to scale around. This one was much more ornate and had spikes sticking out around it, and the way around also happened to be over a 100ft cliff to the ocean.

I climb out and around the gate and grab the back pack, then help anna around, who asked if it was a straight drop. I told her no of course not, which was a lie. After she realized she was dangling over a cliff her eyes got huge! Needless to say after a day of adventure and bonding over the unknown we got really close there on the edge of the cliff. The cherry on top of this all...is that we were able to run down to the train station and catch the train that was heading back to la spezia with our friends on it. The look on their faces when we walked through the train and joined them after jumping 2 fences and hiking a trail in the pitch dark was priceless.

We get back to la spezia and have a traditional italian dinner with wine and rabbit. In the restaurant we asked the owner waiter (who spoke basically no English) for a menu, and he brought in the hand written display poster from outside on the sidewalk and proudly presented it. We got such a kick out of this small restaurant's style. After ordering I took the display poster back outside....until an asian family came in and was seated at a table near us and they received the same treatment with the menu. They however were so confused they ate their entire meal with the menu display right next to them haha.

Growing close anna and i decided we wanted to have some more adventures together. I had no set plan for anything, and she had nothing planned aside from being in rome about a week from this point. So we decide to stick together for a while longer. I had done some research on cool hikes in europe before leaving the states and remember reading something about the Frassasi caves. With almost no idea where we were going I found a hostel in that area of central italy that looked like it was in a town that could be a good home base. It just happened to be a hippie commune farm with live animals and little campers to sleep in....I had no idea the rad shit thay lay ahead of us.

 

wow beautiful (sub'd)

 

Parco Naturale Regionale Gola Della Rossa Di Frassasi/Serra San Querico

With about a week to kill and an appetite for adventure anna and I leave La Spezia and head out to Perugia to check out the Farm House Hostel, with the animals and rvs and cabins. It was a cozy and unique little place. The trip there was adventurous as always as got on a bus heading out of town and watched the gps and hopped off when we thought we were close, then walked down a long dirt road.

When we got to the farm we were greeted too entheusuasticailly by the the 3 girls taking care of the place. Apparently they hadnt had a guest in the last week or two and were craving some other human interaction. Sadly for them anna and I had to eat and plan out where we were actually going. Oddly enough at this place the lights just shut off at 11pm...we were not dont at 11 pm. So to see we lit a bunch of candles in the common area as we drank some wine. Well the candles and wine glasses were about the same shape...so i went to tip over a candle to light it and ended up trying to light a glass of wine instead and dumped it all over the place. Twas hilarious. Without much research done we went to bed to try again in the AM.

I woke up early and hit the internet again to figure out where to go. A couple of hours later I realize we are in the wrong city and too far away from the frassasi caves, so I wake up anna and say lets go, i found a town in the middle of nowhere by a national park that may or may not have any places for us to sleep. She responds with an "ok!" and we tell the weird hosts we are taking off early. This new town, near the Frassasi caves had a hostel that may or may not still exist, so we decided to wing it and see what happened. At the train station I decide we have to sit in the back of the train so we could watch it wind and twist its way through the mountains. Throughout buying the tickets and boarding the train NOBODY knew that this town we were going to even existed. That was a great sign.

While on the train we notice a guy with a big cooler open it up and pull out some bread. He spoke zero english, but upon noticing us watching him he gave us an entire bag of home baked italian bread. At the same time 3 guys behind us coming back from a rugby game in rome gave us the last half a bottle of proseco they had, along with some cups to drink it out of. This was the best damn proseco we have ever tasted. I guess they thought we were super adorable youths traveling together. So we enjoyed bread and proseco as the train twisted through the mountains.

We get to the town as the sun starts to set and hop off with all of our belongings on our back. 50 feet from the train station i go into the first bar I see and try to ask about the hostel i found on the internet. Again nobody spoke any english. After a few gentures the bar tender did spout out the only english words she probably knew "bed and breakfast". Anna and I look at eachother and say why not, point us in the direction. The bartender writes some things down that make no sense to us. We stare at it helplessly before another old italian guy in the bar offers to give us a ride to the B&B. With the sun already down were glad for the ride as he drives us up a 2.5km hill to the most beautiful village on the crown of this hill top.

We are dropped off at the front door and I head in to talk to our new host, Fausto. Fausto is as classic an italian man as you can imagine. Hes short, fat, and wore a track suit 90% of the time, with a classic thick italian accent to complete it. He tells me 75 a night for the room, and on a back packer budget anna and I want to try to find other options. Fausto bargains with us, and says 60 a night and he will give us breakfast AND drive us to the caves in the morning. That sounded like a deal. So we take it. Thank god too, after spending the night later on wandering around the little town we realize there were almost no other options any way.

Fausto leads us out to our room and our jaws drop as we realize our room is literally built into the city wall. We ask fausto how long this city (and the wall) has been here, and his casual response is "oh about 1000 years" as we lose our shit. This was the most amazing random chance place to end up imaginable. We soak in our new room, clean up, and head upstairs to faustos restaurant to have a superb dinner in an empty dining room except for one other couple from Naples getting happy drunk with wine like us. We all become friends quickly.

The next morning we rise, eat a traditional breakfast, and Fuasto drives us to the Frassasi caves. My intention through this was to go hiking and go spelunking in caves not developed for tourists. However not knowing the area and only having a gps map on my phone we elect to start with a guided tour of the Frassasi caves, one of the 7 wonders of italy. Turns out we were there in the off season so the place was almost empty, and unlike the parks in the US there were ZERO maps of info on the place. So we had to guess everything.

We bought our tickets and took a bus up to the first cave. It ended up being a worth as we saw the beauty and magnitude of the cave system. It was so impressive it could only be appreciated by going there. Sadly pics werent allowed so I dont have may shots of it.

After the cave tour we set out on our own down the road further to find a dotted line that I assumed was a hiking trail on my GPS. We hit the trail and begin the adventure we came for. Within 45 minutes we stumbled accross one of the coolest sight id seen to date, on a church built into the mouth of a huge cave, Undeveloped and un touristy. Perfect. I knew the church existed from seeing pictures, I just didnt know where or how to find it.

We head into the cave to poke around. We get far enough back that natural light disappeared entirely and Anna started to get concerned as I giggled with glee. Considering it was already afternoon and we had an entire hike to do and minimal caving supplies we decided to put the cave on hold until we came back the next day with more food, more lights, and some saftey supplies. Heading out of the cave we hit the main trail again and continue on. The trail got more and more grown in and reclaimed by the mountain. Pretty soon we hit spots with no trail at all as I picked the best route along the mountain side. All while climbing higher and higher. Copious pictures were taken as the views got more and more impressive.

The pinnacle of the hike occurred when we had to traverse a ledge with a steel wire bolted into the rock, then scale down a narrow rock ledge that appeared to lead to nowhere except for off of a 500ft cliff. I was hopping and skipping down the steps high on adventure, anna not having any climbing experience was so scared she made a video diary in case she died. With the worst of the trail behind us and a relatively straight forward trail ahead we sit down on the top of the this mountain and have our lunch of fresh bread, cheese and prosciutto (we ate a shit ton of prosciutto that week). The whole moment and adventure was pretty impactful as anna was on the verge of tears.

After our mountain top meal we descend back down into the forest and finish the last 2 mies of hike. We end the trail as the sun sets and we hike another mile and a half back to the train station down a twisty mountain road. Finally off our feet and on a train back to Serra San Querico we look at the pictures and reflect on what a bad ass day we had. We get back to the bottom of the town and stop in a little store for some groceries. We really dont want to hike all the way up the hill, and fausto said we could call him and he'd get us when we were back. Too bad he gave us a wrong number, and when the lady at the store realized who we were trying to find she called him but never got through (he was having a 30 min long conversation with his sister). After waiting around in the store for 20 min a local musician over hears our conversation and offers to drive us up the hill to the city wall B&B. Im really liking this small town business. We get back to the B&B and without a place to cook we head back up for Fausto dinner round 2. This delicious traditional meal was a perfect way to cap off a long day exploring.

Sadly the trip into the Parco Naturale Regionale Gola Della Rossa Di Frassasi was cut short when the following day we weren't able to go back and go hiking because anna had to get to rome for a doctors appointment that got bumped forward a few days due to a scheduling conflict. It was bitter sweet, that we weren't able to go back and explore the caves but it had been such an amazing experience thus far I guess going to rome a day and a half early wasn't the worst thing. We get one last ride down to the train station from Fausto and say our good byes. Realizing at the last moment, once it was too late, that we never got a picture with our picturesque italian.

 

Another fantastic post Mark!

 

Rome:

With a mission and some friends to meet up with Anna and I hop on the train and make our way to one of the oldest and most famous cities in the world; Rome. With a generic and affordable hostel picked out the train ride was comparatively uneventful, though even the most "boring" train rides are entertaining with the beautiful scenery and endless people watching opportunities. The whole train and bus travel everywhere thing is really really fun btw. We get to the hostel, check in, and almost immediately we are befriended by this american gal in her late 20s, who has had a rough spot of luck already (getting her small bag with valubles lost/stolen) within her first week being in europe. At this point anna and i seem like seasoned vets when talking to her. So being weary of venturing out in rome alone she asks to join up with us, though were really only killing time on this "down day" while we run errands and wait for annas friends.

Still, we go out and see part of the city, get our bearings and accomplish the main goal, stop at a drs office. That night after dinner we set out to find some music! First stop was the SOFA sessions 2 blocks from the hostel, where the jazz band played their show...on a big sofa. We met a big group of asian tourists and showed them our pictures from the frassasi caves and their eyes got huge when they saw what we were hiking on. We took their picrutres for them, because asians have to absolutely have pictures taken of everything every where, and moved onto the next venue. I only found this place because i searched online dilligently. It was about a 15 minute walk from the hostel, down a side street, and it was a small square building with no windows covered in graffiti. Normally not the place youd just stroll into but there were people out side so I said fuck it and we headed on in. ended up being totally worth it, the band was rocking, and we were all dancing the rest of the night. I talked to a couple doing some impressive west coast swing and they informed me of a dance club/studio in town. So I had to check that out the next night.

The following day the sight seeing begins as we check out the "top 10" things to see. Spanish steps, trevi fountain,blah blah blah. This city was seriously so over run with tourists i was starting to think nobody actually lived there. At this point being one that was sick of big touristy cities...this was the holy grail of big touristy cities. We did spend a good portion of the day in the vatican, and saw the sisteen chapel which was very powerful to see. Also at about this point Anna realized we were going to part ways soon and our little italian romantic tour was coming to an end. She was headed south with a friend and I wanted to head east. Probably a good thing, because one on one we were fine, but as soon as she got around her friend and her cousin (who was also living in rome) she became 100% more crazy liberal femanist.

When it was just us we had great discussions on current events and gender equality...then as soon as she had other women to vent to she went off on a tirade about one time she accidentally bumped into a MP officer in the train station and almost touched his rifle "OMG IT TOUCHED ME, SO GROSS! What if that ak-47 went off and started shooting". It of course was not an AK, it was a Baretta ARX. At that point i decided it was a good time to part ways. Following dinner that night I headed out to check out the Italian swing dance scene, and went to that dance bar the couple from the previous night told me about. I didnt know the kind of dance they were doing but I got some lessons from some locals and had a great time seeing one of my favorite hobbies done in another country.

I originally didn't want to spend more than a couple of days in this huge crowded touristy city, but something about the historical significance and impressive architecture compelled me to stay another two days. I just hadnt given the city enough time and justice. So setting of on my own again, to see the city in my own world I hiked the appia antica (original road into and out of rome that was about 1500 years old), toured the largest under ground crypt in the city, toured the Colosseum, and palatine and capitol hill, saw the pantheon, and had a cannoli and a latte while sitting in a cafe on a busy Italian square. All of the impressive sighs I saw were worth staying there extra days no doubt. There is not much to tell about them, only that the feeling of being in and around these structures and imagining what life in ancient rome was like is a feeling unlike anything else.

 

ducati cafe ftw

 

When we went to the Trevi fountain a few years ago it was closed completely and under restoration

That fountain in front of the Spanish steps had some great tasting water!

Crazy thing with Rome, every time you turn around you find something new to see. They're constantly finding new ruins or other historic sights over there. The Mrs and I want to go and spend a week just in Rome and explore.

 

ha the ducati shop and ferrari shop were pretty sweet. I didn't actually eat there though I passed it like 5 times walking around and enjoyed the bikes at least.

Bummer! For how crowded it was, sure was a cool looking feature both during the day and at night. I didnt actually drink the water from the steps...guess I didnt know that was a thing to do! I could spend a whole week in rome again easily.

 

Lets get weird! Eastern Europe: Slovakia

After my stint in Rome I knew I was just not down for big cities, and I was on a mission to do some weird shit. So i started to plot my path to eastern europe. To stick it to my well traveled friend I wanted to go somewhere she hadnt, so i made it my goal to get to Ukraine. On the way there I started to pick my must sees in eastern europe. I wanted to stop in venice and see the canals. After much searching I couldnt find any affordable hostels and after a while I just gave up and decided to leave Italy. To maximize my travel time I hoped on night train to Vienna for an over night before heading out to Slovakia and Slovak Raj National Park!

This began an even new phase of "i dont know where the fuck im going or how to get there but ill figure it out". After some internet searching I found some amazing pictures of the Slovak Raj national park and the hiking trails and I decided I had to go there. The weather looked managable (sunny and 10 degrees Celsius). I didnt see much accommodation, but I did manage to find a guest house that looked open. I sent an email the day before going and got a response so I figured it was going to be open. Keep in mind all these eastern european places have websites that are a far cry from western europe. That means they arent designed well, buttons dont work well, languages dont translate, viewing them on a phone is almost always a disaster...so researching only goes so far. The train beers were super cheap though...

So I begin my train rides from Vienna to the closest city: Poprad. By the time I got to poprad it was dark, and I didnt know where the fuck to go to find this other little town by the national park entrance, called Hrabusice. I made it to the bus station...where everything was posted on paper in a dimly lit up display...and no english. I ask about 15 people where this town is and where the bus is, and nobody speaks enough english to understand me till one young guy shows me the correct schedule, and I update my google maps so i can watch the bus progress on the ride. Since the bus driver and nobody on the bus could speak English either. With some free time i walk to the grocery store, stock up on food for a few days, buy this shitty orange juice syrup that i mistook for regular juice, and got on a bus to who knows where to find a guest house that may or may not be open.

After a worrisome ride to the country side I make a judgement call on my stop and hop off the bus close to the address of the penzion. I made a decent call and only had to walk 1/3 km. To my dismay I get there and there was just one tv on and no cars or lights and the door was locked. I start banging on the door and eventually a giant of a man with a stereotypical ivan the terrible eastern european accent opens the door and I try to get a room. Thankfully he is able to line me out and get me a room set up, and even breakfast the next morning!

I loaded up my day pack, got a GPS download of the area, ate my free breakfast, and set up to walk to the park. After about 1.5km I hit the entrance to the park...and it was a ghost town. This was the shoulder season in a national park in slovakia...I found the trail head to the route I wanted to hike, and left a note at the entrance in case anything happened, maybe they would find my body eventually. I hit the trail,at about 10am, which follows a creek up the entire trail. I was just in my nikes...so i spend the entire hike hoping over rocks to avoid getting wet. It made it way more fun. Also within 5 meters of hitting the trail I found my first wood bridge...which set the pace for the rest of it. I knew what the trail had in store for me, as I saw pictures online. However I didn't know just how many rad features there would be, and how unmarked this trail actually was. The first trail, the Dry White Gorge trail, was only denoted by green marks on the trees and the sparce wood logs holding up some eroded gravel trail. Much of the time I was wandering around scanning trees and back tracking to find the right route.

The rest of the time I was climbing crazy sketchy metal ladders and crossing slippery sketchy wooden brdges up the creek. This is seriously some of the coolest hiking ever. There were no safety lines or harnesses, and no body on the trail. If you fell off, or hurt yourself you were fucked. Just dont be an idiot. It was amazing. I climbed these ladders and scaled this creek and took these bridges all the way up this raving for about 3 hours until I got to the top of the mountain where they all converged. It was getting dark by about 16:30 here, so after reaching the top by 2 I knew I had to get down. Or be stuck. Luckily there was an asphalt path that only took 45 minutes down.

I ate some prepared dinner in my room and that evening set out to find any signs of night life in this town. I walk from the guest house into town (3km) and see one bar that, after a white car full of sketchy youthes pulled up to, I decided not to go to. I saw on my gps map that there was a grocery on one of the side streets, so with no other signs of entertainment I figured might as well go see when it was open and where. I got there and it was closed of course, but I found another bar that wasnt on my map. There was a pool table, 1 bar tender and 2 guys in there. At a minimum i drink a beer and practice my pool shots. I order a beer from the nice polish gal at the bar, who miraculously spoke english. We chat a bit, about what shes doing in this little slovakian town, and I find out im her first american customer ever! She had only been there for about a year but still! Thats pertty cool, exactly what I was looking for. I sign another american dollar for her to pin up in the bar. The other two guys dont know a lick of english but she translates and they want to play pool with me. So i say sure. Patrick and I (one of the drunk slovakians in the bar) start shooting a few games of pool! In the mean time the bar tender is bringing us beers and telling me about local traditions, and making me traditional polish shots. At some point in the night after I try communicating with patrick and vice versa, he comes out with this painting of two trees on a wooden plaque. The bar tender translates for me, that patrick is thankful I am playing pool with him and he wanted me to have the painting of the trees that he made. I was completley touched, so cool! Small town mannerisms and humanity can be found all over the world! I left around midnight to get some rest before the next days hike.

Setting off knowing where I was going and going to do another bad ass metal bridge hike I enter the park again and pass a single rope tow for a ski hill up this little field, guess there is skiing here in the winter. The park freezes enough they do ice climbing routes as it is! I find the next trail head which begins on a metal bridge along a river. It snakes back to a canyon and the bad assery continues. Somewhere along the hike I take a trail to a ridge and find a crazy ruined gypsy camp...where these stone buildings are crumbling and being reclaimed by the earth. I found a sign that tells the story of the village...and it ended up being 700 years old! As also noted by the big "700 years old" painted on the roof of a building.

At some point on this hike i actually pass another human, coming down a trail that one would not ever really come down...so im assuming he hit the first metal ladder and turned around, or just got lost as the trail disappeared into the creek. He laughed at my cloth nikes...i laughed at him turning around on the trail. The pictures below speak for the trail, it was even more intense than the first one...scaling along rebar shoved into the rocks above a flowing creek over a water fall. The entire thing was just incredible and so peaceful. Everything I was looking for in my adventure. I get back to the guest house and the owner offers me free dinner! It was a delicious grilled chicken and salad and veggies and fries! So heart warming! I wanted to go back and see my friends in the bar but I was so exhausted.

The next day I packed my things and headed back to poprad where I would stay another night before heading to poland. I found out after staying in poprad that it was a pretty well known slovakian resort town, with ski resorts and greak hiking right up from the town. Apparently the mountains are known as the "little apls" or something like that. It was too early to go skiing, but I would certainly love to go back there. The hostel owners (a young couple) were so nice and accommodating and their story of buying the hostel and trying to turn it around and make it a successful business was beautiful to hear!

The next day I hop on a bus and head out the Polish border! As im finding out with many of these countries there arent many trains that actually link them in these small towns, so the easiest option is to take a bus to the border and walk across, then take another bus to a bigger town. So with that as the plan...the wheels on the bus went round and round as i headed to poland. The slovak raj national park was easily one of my favorite stops of the whole trip!

 

Fantastic man !

 

Poland/Auschwitz:

From Slovakia I then headed north to check off one of the most important stops on my to do travel list: See the Auschwitz camp and go to Krakow Poland, where part of my family on my moms side is from. Leaving Poprad in Slovakia armed with some google intel I hop on a bus that takes me north to the Slovakian/Polish border. I get off at the last stop, walk 200m accross the border, and wait for a bus that is supposedly coming...after waitig for a while all I see is a car with some surveyer type people measuring something on the road. I ask is there is a bus and they have no idea, so they gesture me to the car with my bags and offer to take me to the next town, sweet! I get there, and i realize I told them the wrong town. So now im in this tiny town that I dont have a map of and i realized I dont have any polish currency. There is no atm, and when I tried to get change back from the small grocery store it declined to give cash back on my card. Luckily I had euros still so i convinced the young lady at the store to exchange me just enough for the bus.

I had no idea if the bus schedules I was reading were even accurate in the off season...so I sat and ate some snakcs that i bought from the store and waited for a mini bus to show up. I get lucky and the mini bus to Zakopane (closest train hub) shows up. Once I get to zakopane i notice just how much of a change of scenery Poland was. Gone are the immaculately reconctructed small towns and cities of more western europe. Things in ths town look weathered, used, and about 10 years behind. It had a still in progress feel that would be a consistent theme for a while now. I tried to buy a train ticket only to find that the train to Krakow isnt running due to track maintenance. So I head to the bus station accross the way and grab a seat on a huge double decker coach, the 4.5 hour bus ride cost like 12 euro...not bad!

The bus snakes its way through the polish country side and I see the rolling hills and tired towns...its a very beautiful ride. We pull into the Krakow main transit station built into a large modern shopping center. The first thing I notice is just how smoggy and over cast and gloomy it looks. Its a factor of the just that, smog and pollution, and normally cloudy weather. It certainly looked like a place of sadness out of a movie. The hostel is less than a mile down the main road from the train station. An easy walk and I ask if they have a bed for a few nights, luckily the answer is yes. Its an affordable hostel, with "family" dinner every night, breakfast every morning, and they party and give out drinks like crazy...so well worth 20 dollars a night.

After strolling around the shopping mall and that section of town I got to experience just how many drinks they gave you. They really like their sweet mixed drinks, and after my first family dinner the drinks and shots of liquor kept going until I couldnt handle the sweet mixers any more. On a mission to find some live music I head out toasty and find the Chicago music bar. I get one of my favorite "sip and relax" cocktails, and old fashioned and enjoy the music. I dont know what the hell happened after, but I got back around 3am and woke up early the next morning to go to Auschwitz hung over as fuck. To have enough time to see it all myself (i sure as hell wasnt paying 50e to have somone walk me around. I got on an 8:30 bus that goes out to the camp. At the bus station I bought what I thought was a blue gatorade, turns out it was some off brand. Not that I cared though it did the same thing. It was so hot in the bus I had to lean my head against the window to feel the coldness, and I just slept the whole 45 minute bus ride trying not to vomit.

After leaving the bus I started to feel better, and even met up with a cool aussie girl from the hostel who was also just winging it. We decide to check out the camp together, and luckily get a ticket for a narrated/guided tour from one of the employees for 15euro or something. Way better than the 50-60 euro "all inclusive" trip everyone else tries to sell you. Having the guide to narrate and point out everything was essential.

We take the tour, which in total is about 3.5 hours. Seeing all of the important sights in Auchwitz 1 (the first camp) and 2 (the barracks and gas chambers). It certainly goes without saying that the feeling of being in that place is surreal and saddening. We walked into gas chamber 1, where tens of thousands of people we re murdered, we toured the building where zyklon b was first tested by just dropping it into a basement full of people and closing the doors and seeing what happened in a few days. There were rooms full of shoes, glasses, and personal belongings of the prisoners...

The craziest room was had a 30 yards long, and 5 yards deep, 5 yard tall display case with 4 tons of human hair that was cut off the prisoners before sending them into the gas chambers. This hair was stuffed in bags to be used to make wigs. The sheer amount of hair, all cut off of people that were taken there and killed, was too difficult to fathom.

We took a bus to Auchwitz 2, the barracks, and saw just how mind blowingly massive this place was. It could hold 90000 people at one time, all destined to work of be exterminated. We saw the infamous train tracks, guard tower, and sorting area. I didnt leave until they closed at 6. My friend from the hostel left a little while before me, but just spent an hour or so walking along the remains of the fences and barracks imagining what it would have been like to be herded through that shit hole. Insane.

That evening, as tradition, I set out to the christmas market to see how it compared to the others. At this point too I realized I was desperate for christmas and travel presents so I had to find some things. Also as per usual I loaded myself up on gluwein and enjoyed the festive hot booze drink that is a staple of Christmas markets. There was a really cool laser holiday music light show following a singing trio. I also picked up a gift for my mom, a creamic mug with a base that you put a candle in, to do what else but keep your gluwein warm at the table.

Ironically enough the following day was thanksgiving. A time when families gather together to feast and begin the holidays, I meanwhile, after spending the day touring the city was eating hostel dinner with everyone, recounting the things learned from auschwitz. Us Americans toasted eachother and were thankful to be enjoying this experience. I set out again that night to explore the downtown Krakow scene. I stumbled across 3 scottish guys celebrating in this bar, and the one was friendly enough he asked me to join them. I agreed and we spent the rest of the night together telling stories and screaming out soccer chants, and drinking heavily. Eventually we wander to another bar and befriend this mid 20s polish guy who gave us a great look into the mindsets of the polish people.

He was so patriotic, and hard working, and spirited, it was inspirational. Poland had been devastated multiple times, attached and conquered many times over, but they keep coming back and fighting to rebuilt. This guy loved his country, he wanted us to go back and speak of how nice poland was, to bring more people to visit. Moral of the story is, I wish I saw more of that pride and patriotism and drive to work hard in our own county. But we have taken for granted how easy we have it, so we lose the sense of pride and hard work since we dont have to fight and rebuild just to have that chance.

My stay in Krakow was not very long, only 3.5 days, but I had to keep moving if I was going to keep moving east. And I wanted to go as far east as i could. So that next day, with another border crossing on foot ahead of me, after a stop to the currency exchange, I boarded another train to begin my trip to Ukraine.

 

Ukraine:

With my goal to head as far east as possible and see less frequently visited places in europe, along with the realization that you need a visa to travel to Russia, I made Ukraine my final goal before turning around to head back to Frankfurt for my return flight back to the US. For all of these eastern European countries crossing the border in the cheapest way is the first hurdle. There were a couple of websites that helped me with write ups along each border crossing. The ukraine crossing was no exception. After a quick read I set out on a train to the closest border town to find a bus that I had no clue where it stopped or when it showed up. I tried to ask some people in this small town at the end of the train line but there was almost no english spoken so I had to just wait by the closed bus depot and wait for a bus with the town name on it. Eventually it rolled by and I waved it down and got on, and it was packed. The bus headed off to the actual border crossing and I walked along this long fence to the customs office.

It was all standard procedure, no strange questions. As soon as I was through the border I had to walk to the next bus stop to catch another bus ti Lviv, the closest town with a rail hub. When I was in the bus station it was of course all in Ukraine and I couldn't read any of it. Luckily I met this great couple who helped me out and taught me a few ukranian phrases that I forgot very quickly. I boarded the bus and made my way to Lviv where I planned to stay for a day in a hostel then head to Kiev, the capital. When I got there I walked about 1.5 miles until I got to the hostel and decided I didnt want to spend a day in Lviv, I would rather go to Kiev and have a few extra days. So I headed back to the train station to find an over night train. Sadly there was only a first class cabin available...for about 750 hryvnia, which came to 22 dollars.

While waiting for the train I killed some time in a cafe right by the train station that looked like a space ship. I bought a coffee and a ukranian desert and killed some time. I would be revisiting this cafe a number of times in the future. I boarded the train into a nice 2 bed compartment, that ended up being all mine. It was a nice relaxing ride.

I get to Kiev about 6 in the morning, and luckily had my gps loaded with the city so i could find the hostel. I set out to find Kiev central station hostel and like usual hoped they had a bed available. I made the mistake when I looked up the hostel info I didnt read the full directions to the hostel and couldnt figure out the code to open the 3 different doors in this appt building. Luckily someone came by and let me in or I would be standing outside for a while.

Like always I got lucky and they had a bunk for a few nights. And like always I met some pretty interesting people there. There was an aussie girl managing it who was studying in Kiev, there was a foreign war photographer/reporter writing a story on the russia/ukrain conflict in the south east part of the coutntry, as well as a local ukranian girl there also working. They drew me a map of the cool points of the city and I set off to explore the capital of ukraine.

While touring the city I climbed a clock tower, checked out the eastern orthodox churches, a very well known steep street lined with vendors selling soviet era novelties and home made trinkets. I ate ate at a restaurant that fits my basic white girl style. It was called "Pumpkin" where pretty much everything was pumpkin based and the whole place was pumpkin themed. It was a really cool quaint little log cabin looking place. That night, as they do every night, the hostel crew headed to an underground hard to find local bar. In this bar they do the classic shot where you put on a military helmet and hit you on the head repeatedly while you take a sequence of shots. Pints of beer were under a dollar, and were delivered all night long, along with ukranian cuisine or dinner.

The next day I set out to explore the city with some friends from the hostel and discovered 4" of snow on the ground. Walking around the city got a bit more interesting. Our plan was to see the soviet outdoor gym, a creepy abandoned water park and the Soviet War monument. We headed out to the subway and I saw this very large lady selling coffee and hot cocoa from a cart outside in the freezing cold and snow. I wanded to support her plight to make a living so I bought a coffee for 30 us cents, and it was the most pathetic coffee ever haha. It was powder dumped from a packet into the smallest flimsiest cup I have ever seen with hot water. None the less I stirred it and enjoyed my Ukrainian coffee. We descended down the subway, which is the deepest station in europe, seriously this escalator, actually two, went down forever. On the train we headed to an island in the middle of the river where the amusement park and soviet gym were. Our first stop was the seemingly abandoned water park and amusement park. It was as creepy as youd imagine, with weird music playing and all the rides and buildings were decrepit looking.

Afterwards we went across the river to the outdoor soviet era gym. This place was pretty crazy. The free weights and benches were chained to the ground, and the cable machines had weights made up of old valves and motors. There were all of these people outside lifting weights in the snow and -8c temps. I got a few sets of bench press in while feral cats roamed the park. On the walk back we watched a guy emerge from the frozen river and casually dry off bare ass naked still in the snow. On the way back we went to the soviet war memorial. It is a giant metal statue that was built specifically to be 10ft taller than the statue of liberty. We couldnt climb to the very top because it was too cold. So we went up to the first observation platform and got a great view of the city. While up there enjoying the view we met a couple from portugal and ukraine. The guy from Portugal told us about this incredible restaurant in the main town square under an arch that you have to tell a password to go in through a secret door. Sounded like an adventure to me, So Myself, a friend from the hostel and the Portuguese guy head off in an uber to the town square for a bad ass dinner.

To get in we had to go down to an underground mall, to a gift shop, where we told the gals at the desk a secret word and they led us down a hall to a wall covered in lamps that looked like hands, we pulled a specific hand off the wall and the door opened. We were told a brief history of the restaurant as we sat at a bar, we placed a drink order then the while bar slid sideways through a wall that parted and we entered a totally new section of the restaurant. We were then seated at a table and placed some real drink orders and had a duck pate appetizer and I ordered pountine for dinner. After dinner I took the train back to the hostel and had a conversation with the gal from ukraine about ski resorts. Apparently there are a few ski resorts in the country. I started looking them up and one of them was open. My ankle was feeling pretty good so I figured what a better way to begin the ski season and close off my eurotrip than by shredding ukraine! So with that seed planted in my head, i had to figure out how to get to the resort.

To get to the resort I had to get back to Lviv, then take another combination of busses to the town at the base of the resort. I spent the next day before my night train back to Lviv casually walking around the city again, went to the Chernobyl museum, and found a huge pet graveyard by an abandoned train station. This pet cemetary was pretty crazy. It had intricate tomb stones with the pets faces and names. Knowing I was going skiing in Ukraine (and also austria afterwards) and knowing I did not have any winter clothes, I visited a ukranian thrift store. I found a medium weight winter jacket, a pair of mint green pants, and a pair of mittens, Also at the store I found a red lucky strike motocycle jacket I really liked, it matches my ducatti. My shopping spree cost about 800 hyrvnia, or 25 usd. It was a pretty casual day, and in the afternoon I got back on the train for an over night ride to Lviv on a mission to shred Bukovel resort.

 

If anyone is still around: wrapping up my Europe trip, and the adventure continues as I move to the mountain paradise of Jackson WY

Ukraine Part 2:

While at the Hostel I learned from a Ukrainian girl that there were a few ski resorts in Ukraine. I researched them (which didnt provide a ton of info) and found out that at least one was open. Not wanting to miss the opportunity to kick off my winter shredding in Ukraine I set off to make this happen. My alternative choice for a ski resort was a more remote and "local" mountain, but im glad I didnt end up going because you literally have to pay a local to drive you up in a military style pick up truck because the road is so bad. If I went with that route im sure i would have been confused and stranded in the cold Ukrainian night by the time I got there. I settled on Bukovel, the nicest resort in Ukraine, an all season destination type of place. I mapped out what I thought was a good route to get there quickly, taking a few mini busses vs the train. I traveled back to Lviv on another night train and hung out in the Same space ship cafe for a few hours before getting on the mini bus adventure. Along the mini bus adventure a number of strange things happened. At ever stop people would get on the bus and walk through either soliciting a church, or pan handle for money. One dude jumped in with his acoustic guitar and a black beanie that just had "BITCH" stitched in it with red lettering and played us a nice ukrainian song. I tipped him.

Somewhere along the minibus route I found a guy who knew english and asked where and if i had enough time to use the restroom before the bus left. He showed me where it was and we struck up a conversation and it turned out he was also going to the same resort but to work for the winter. Thank god I found him because if not im sure I would have missed the last mini bus connection up to the resort. Upon getting there (at about 8:30 at night) I say bye and try to find a place to stay. It was cold and snowing and dark and i couldnt even find a coffee shop with wifi to check out places to stay. I had done as much research as I could on trying to find a hostel or something reasonably priced but it was a difficult endeavor. I stumbled on a nice lodge that was newly rebuilt about a mile from the ski hill. I didnt want to wander around the cold for another hour looking for a place to stay so i said fuck it and splurged. Being the nicest resort in Ukraine I was afraid of what the rates might be, but for a nice twin bed room my bill was just shy of $25 a night...fuck it ill take 2 nights. I also had a great home made ukranian steak dinner for like, 5 bucks. Score.

I woke the next morning to a fresh blanket of snow and couldn't believe I was starting winter off with a powder day in ukraine on my still recovering broken ankle from Oktoberfest. I had to pay a taxi driver to take me to the resort, apparently these people dont pick up hitchhiking skiiers like we do in the us. I had to also rent a snowboard there. I opted for the "pro" model....which was a joke, but hey what can u do. The part that wasnt a joke was that they wanted a $200 usd deposit on the damn thing, or 4000 hyrvna...i told them hell no im not pulling out 200 usd from this atm in ukraine, they let me leave my pass port as collateral instead. The rental and day lift ticket was about 25 as well. big whoop

Shredding in ukraine was pretty wild. It was a pretty cool resort, reminded me of my home mountain, Brundage, In idaho. They played ameican pop music from the speakers on the chair lift, which i thought was odd because most people didnt speak that much english...oh well. After a day of getting sendy I stopped at another round UFO shaped restaurant for dinner before heading back to the hotel to relax and figure out where I was going next. It was about time to leave Ukraine and go skiing some more, but this time in Austria! I wanted to go to St anton but there just wasnt enough snow, So i settled on Innsbruck as a hub and decided i would get some local intel on the best snow when I got there.

There isn't much to write about using the public transport specificially, other than that it was just really difficult. Some stations and terminals didnt have english spellings below them, so i just had to match up the wacko russian spellings and symbols and hope I got the town right. The street cars basically gave me hypothermia each time, they weren't sealed at all, so there was always a crazy draft that came through. On the bus ride back to Lviv from the resort the mini bus just broke in a random city, and we had to all pack onto the next mini bus that happened to drive by and pay another full fare. You want a refund? ya fuckin right.