18 Hours Until My Flight, I Hope!

Last night got prettz stickz there at the end. Between Cameron and mzself, we took the whole "donát want to be left with Bulgarian currancz" idea a bit too far. After i completelz whiped out mz account at the ATM, we still werenát sure if we would have enough for the hostel and cab fair. Thez wouldnát take credit cards or US dollars, and the nearest ATM (that Cameron could have used) was prettz darn far awaz. But the cab was a bit less then we though, so, bz the time we got the to airport and bought a cheap snack and two drinks (we were both almost sick from hunger and thirst, it was not reallz a luxorz at that point), we had something like .4ö left, and i donated it to charitz. So, that worked out. Almost everzone at teh hostel went out that night at midnight, and multiple women asked me of i was OK and/or if i wanted to go. I must have looked that pathetic, that completelz strangers (well, i guess we had known each other for a few hours bz then) would worrz about me like that. Even after i explained that i had no monez left, thez still didnát care. It was funnz, or at least i chose to look at it like that. And if zou havenát picked up on it bz now, since iám back in Budapest again, iá back to a Budapest kezboard. Something tells me zou can still figure out what iám writing.

As luck would have it, the time iám facing the longest lazover of mz life, over 23 hours, the flight is not onlz on time, but leaves 1ó minutes earlz. So ironic. We arrive in Budapest at 1ó,3ó, but since we gained an hour, i had zet another hour to kill at the airport. I suppose i had previouslz agreed to not onlz paz the hostel and cab fair, but also for Cameronás train tickets home. However, when it came time to buz tickets into the citz, i almost freaked out. I had kept going back and forth as to weather i should just trz and save some monez and plaz it safe and read and sleep at the airport, or go into the citz, walk around some more, and staz at one last hostel. But when it finallz dawned on me just how much monez i had left, i experienced a small panic attack. When Cameron attempted to convince me to go with him, i basicallz snapped at him for the first time this trip. But as thez saz in court, it didnát even feel like it was with me. It didnát even sound like mz voice to mz own ears. So, Cameron, this is zour public apologz. I reallz started to loose it at the end there. Sorrz about that. Zou know full well i exceeded mz limites on this trip.

Just how far gone was i? Well, let me tell zou. Even i laughed at mzself. The airport is split into two seperate buildings about 5km apart. I had to take the bus to the other building, so i bought it, got on teh bus alone (as Cameron took his bus to the train station), and the next thing i know is that i was possitive i had just missed mz stop for terminal 2. So i got out at the enxt stop and walked aback, about 1.5km, onlz to discover that i had walked back to where i had just come from. I think i must have almost blacked out the first time and actuallz lost some time. I donát know how to explain it otherwise, other than extreem sleep deprivation and complete mental exhustion. So i repeat the process and actuallz make it to mz departing terminal. I had been mentallz preparing mzself for the 2ö hour wait. I was going to listen to mz iPod, read, work on mz blog, and sleep. Zes, i had it all worked out. Expect for one thing...I had to check in before i was able to do anz of those things. And then i learned zou can onlz check on 2 hours before zour flight. After all that, i had no choice but to leave the airport and find somewhere to sleep. So i bought another ticket and set out for the same hostel that Ben and i sazed at what seems like months ago. Mazbe even even zeas. I knew where it was, it wasnát so expensive, and it had plentz of vacancies last time, so whz not this time? I make it to the train station without a hitch, and even help out a ladz from Kurdastan who is just starting out her vacation. She kept asking me questions, full of spirit and energz and excited to see the citz, and all i can reallz tell her is that all i want to do is go home. I just want to go home. But, as bad a conversationalist i was to her, i did keep her from getting of at the wrong stop. I was stil able to do that much.

Here is where things start to go bad. I remember that when Ben and i made this journz, we had a map with destination names. I, of course, did not, having thrown out all those old useless papers to save space and weight. Zeah me! But how hard is it to ask for a round trip ticket to downtown, to the citz? I mean, itás where most people probablz want to go, and certainlz all travelers. I cantá imagine thez arenát asked that everz daz, even if thez donát otherwise speak english. The information ladz, who spoke prettz good English, said that all i had to do was ask for a ticket to downtown. After standing in the ticket like for 25 minutes because a student of Oxford was insisting on her student discount, and no one was giving it to her, it was finallz mz turn. I asked for mz ticket, and she tried to give me something that cost more than 1ó times what i knew it should cost. Itás onlz a 2ö minute train ride, after all. And here i go thinking that this should all be easz because i had done it before. But at that time, i guess i wasnát thinking about it in such a waz that i would need to repeat the steps, not unlike when two people part their car at the mall and both assume the othre will paz attention to where itás parked. Iáve been there, too, manz times, but let me tell zou, itás waz worse when zou are Budapest. Oh, i should also mention that iám fullz aware that iám using manz more words to talking about trzing to get home than i often used to describe what i actuallz did and saw on this trip. The explination is a simplz one, iám about 2ö times more focused on and care more about getting home right now than anzthing else iáve done in a long, long time, including sight seeing. Zou just canát understand how bad it is. Or mazbe zou do. Iáve bee told that iám not to bad at expressing mzself. If zouáve been pazing attention at all, then zeah, zou might have some idea of how much i want to go home. Leáts just saz that the entire purpose of this blog has transformed from a chronicle of mz adventure to a simple outlet of mz international suffering and insain desire to return to all that i know. (On an unrelated note, who out there thinks i should use mz English degree and inate sense of adventure to write travel books for a living? Anzone?) So, iám holding mz stamped ticket, standing on the platform, with 5ö/5ö chance of picking the train going in the correct direction. Then again, i think the woman sold me subwaz tickets instead of train tickets anzwaz, so iám sure thez both would have been wrong. At that point, i was more than a wee bit tired of doing things wrong, so i went to talk to the same woman i had talked to before, the one who told me all that i would need to do is asked for a round trip ticket downtown, and iád get one. This time, however, she didnát see to understand me. What he heck? She was the same woman. And NOW she doesnát understand me. OK Jim, i was thinking to mzself, keep it together. Zouáve got all the time in the world before zou flight leaves, and zouáre not leaving this station until zouáre sure zou know whereáre zouáre going. (Wow, this kezboard reallz mangles some of these words, especiallz if it has a "Y" and an apostrophe). Oh crap, now what? Iáve got to go.

Just 6 More Hours of Hostels...EVER!!!!!!!

As i might have said before, we missed our opportunity to take a tour of this city, so our options were very limited. We all piled into the hostel van at 11AM and headed to the beach. In many ways, it was the best beach i had been to in a long time. It was topless, but not full nudity. And it was very full, perhaps thousands of people were there. Cameron isn't much of a water guy, so after walking around for a while, i headed to the beach and he continued to walk. I played in the water with up to five foot waves, which were fun. The beach was over a mile long, and i walked it a few times. It was pretty good but, of course, i could only think of one person the whole time. It didn't help that the last nice beach i had been on was Montego Bay, Jamaica, for our honeymoon. I was worried about finding Cameron again on the huge beach, but we managed. We ate, walked around some more, and eventually found the van agan to take us back. But that was a
bit of an adventure in of itself. The van was designed to fit 10 passengers, max, if they are packed in tightly. We drove back with 17. I'm not going to tell you how we did it, but i'll say this much; it wasn't comfortable. Once back, we just hung out, watched a movie, and hung out some more. And that takes us to right now. It's really pretty boring but, as cool as this place probably is (i'm too numb to notice), it's not near anything, so there's no where to go and nothing else to do.

In just over six hours, we will be leaving to go to the airport to take a Wiz Air (you gotta love that name) flight to Budapest. From there, i have no idea what comes next. Orbit sent me an email telling me that everything changed, and that i sould call the provided number, but they wouldn't tell me what changed in the email. Amy called them for me to discover that they had cancelled my return flight. Then they didn't. But i'm sure the times are changed. I don't know. I have no idea what to expect when i finally get to the airport. But if they change it too much, i'm in trouble, because i alreadly have my flight from NY. The old me would be more worked up, but the new me, the one who endured these last 22 days, isn't that concerned. I'll figure something out. I think it took me at least 19 days, but it finally hit me. None of these little things matter. I used to be the type of guy to get worked up about things even when i didn't want to, but not any more. This adventure might have been an expensive exercise in suffering extreem discomforts, but it's certainly tought me more than a few lessons.

So, that's about it. I will probably write a number of retrospectives of my entire experience of all the countries i've visited at the airport with my 20 hours of extra time (I hope not more than that), but i don't think now would be a good time. As always, i'm sweating pretty badly just typing this, and i will once again sweat myself to sleep in a noisy room on a terribly uncomfortable bed, but i'll know i'll be starting my long journy home the following day, and that should keep my dreams very good.

There's no place like home, there's no place like home, there's no place like home...if only it were that easy.

The Lost Part (kind of)

It looks like i'm going to have to improvise. Last night i wrote what could have been my best blog entry yet. I spent almost 45 minutes trying save it or post it, but it simply would not work. I couldn't even cut and paste the words. Some of my best writing, gone. And in that obvious sea of amateur crap writing that is my blog to date, it really sucked that something introspective and personal was lost. Hell, i can't even get gmail to work here, so i've been reduced to writing it in yahoo mail.

So far, so good, it just saved what i wrote so far. I can't even get to my blog now to see where it left off. OK, i just got in. I'll try to finish my thoughts from last night.

It was during that song [We're Not Gonna Take It] jumping around on the bleachers to keep warm in the unseasonably cold weather, in a rainstorm, that i first told Amy that i loved her. But since the music was so loud, i knew she couldn't hear me, so it was safe. Still, most people can read the lips of someone saying, "i love you." Either way, i thought it was interesting that Twister Sister had been playing just about the same number of years we had been alive, and that they were one of the first bands i ever knew. And to think, about 22 years later, this was happening. I made sure that song was an important part of our wedding reception as well. The point is, no matter how miserable i was on that train, i listened to that song and tried to put myself back in that moment, shivering in the rain. Or later that night, while our cloths were in the drying machine, i finally worked up the courage to tell her that i loved her, for real. I was on the edge of telling her for almost 20 minutes. I knew she liked me, a lot, but i didn't know if it was too early to tell her that. Those three big words. But i did it. And my life has been so much better ever since, to this day, i can still hardly believe that i'm living the life i'm living right now. No matter how much goes wrong, as soon as i remind myself that i'm married to Amy, i start to feel better.

This adventure has been so hard on me. I was going to try to keep everything positive in this public blog, but i'm a terrible liar. I can't go around pretending i'm having a great time when i'm not and more desperate to go home then you can imagine, and i can't lie about it here. But, as i said before, i never imagined this to be some kind of pleasure cruise. I never billed this as a vacation, it was always an adventure. It was always going to be, for me, and exercise in endurance, in perserverance, and in simply seeing and experiencing parts of the world that most Americans never will. On all of those counts, i've succeeded. But what i underestimated what the huge potential benifit this trip could have on my already very good marriage.

Made it to Varna! Just Two More Hostel Nights!!!!!!

After waiting around the hostel for a good long while for Cameron to do whatever he was doing, we finally headed out to the train station to catch was i though was our 1:30 train, and what he thought was our 1:40 train. When we got to the station, i would looking for what i though was the time, as was he, and neither one of us found what we were looking for. The reason we couldn't simply look for the name of the destination, Varna, was because the names are in syrillic, and don't look at all like "Varna." Then we finally figured it out, we were both wrong. Our train left at 1:20, and it was 1:15 when we figured it out. Then we found that the platform was on the other side of the station. We're walking as fast as we possibly can without running, because he thinks you can get in trouble for running, and i wasn't going to take the chance. When we finally find what we think might be the train, we're still not sure, because nothing seems to match up wiht our tickets. We're sweating like hell and just a bit paniced, although Cameron is way to cool and hardened by the Peace Corps to ever actually be paniced by anything. But we finally get on with one minute to spare, which is one minute more than Ben and i had leaving Budapest. You know, i can't recommendly strongly enough avioding near misses in foreigh trainstations. Seriously.

My previous train ride from hell was four hours long. It was the most miserable travel experience of my life up until that point, and it almost made me physically ill to the point of puking. However, it was time to do it agian, and i was determined to be stronger this time. Imagine being on a train in a very small compartment with six or seven other people in 95 degree heat with almost no airflow and terrible body oder. Yeah, well, i was prepaired for another four hours of that, and did pretty well for the first half. I watched the movie "Shooter" on the tiny screen of Cameron's music player, listened to my iPod, and walked up and down the narrow hallway a bit when i felt too closterphobic. I even listed to songs like "We're Not Going To Take It," which they played at the Twisted Sister concert at the MI State Fair Grounds, the first show i ever saw with Amy.

(The next 5 paragraphs were lost)

Just Thee More Days (I hope)

Wow, that was strange. I was just typing away at this blog 15 minutes ago, and the power went out. The water went out too, i guess they are connected. Well, here i go again. I'm going to have to save a bit more often now, i think. I just reread my last entry and, i just have to tell you, i'm fully aware of how terrible my writing is. So many typos and clunky sentences. Heck, i'm even too lazy to capitalize my "i"s. I guess you'll just have to get over it. Its always been my full intention to rewrite story of this entire trip when i get home, from a more holistic perspective, rather than just as a list of things we did or endured. But that would require some amount of thinking, which is way beyond me in my current satate of perpetual exhustion and heatstroke. Not too much has happened since i last wrote, well, actually, nothign has happened. but since i have absolutely nothign to do right now other than type, you're going to get teh details of the last 12 hours, whether you want them or not.

After we got home from our awesome dinner (it was so much fun that i hardly noticed sweating the entire time i ate) we hung out in the office, which doubles as a social area. Our actual beds are .7km down the road. Very strange setup. Oh, one more thing i want to tell you about the meal. We paid just 50Luv for the entire meal, including tax and a good tip, which might be about $40. Considering how much we ate and drank, and how nice the place was, i wouldn't be surprised to pay $100 to $200 for teh same sort of meal in the US. I wouldn't go so far as to say Romania and Bulgaria are super cheap for Americans, but the converted dollar goes so, so much farther than it does in Greece. We missed the bargins in Greece by about 15 to 20 years. Oh well. So, what was a saying? Oh, yes, i was relaxing and sweating on this bench with a thin padding on it, waiting for my chance to blog, which i got. Eventually i got my spot back. I'm not sure where Cameron was this entire time. I think i thought he was outside like he was once before. I just kept waiting for him to return because he has teh only key to our room, and knocking would do no good, because you have to unloce two solid steel doors before you can even get close to teh bedrooms. There is simply no other way in other than with key. (Boy do i miss my cell phone, i think many of you have forgotten how reliant you've become on it). I just keep waiting and waiting for him to get back, because i simply can't go to bed with out the. We got back around 8:30, and i had been waiting, bloging, talking, and resting until about 10:30. The next think i know after that is waking up and checking my watch. 4:30AM. I had fallen asleep, and everyone just left me alone, possibly thinking that i had passed out or something. My back hurt terribly from sleeping on something that was not much better than the floor. Not that the beds are so great here, but they were much better than this bench i was on. I had a terrible taste in my mouth, my teeth felt fuzzy for lack of brushing, i despertly wanted a shower, but everything i owned or could use was locked away in another building far away. What could i do? I simply waited, and waited, and waited, until they served breadfast at 8:30. Even though we've only been here for two days, i feel like i've gotten to know the workers and guests here better than anywhere else, and it feels like i'm been here for weeks. I think the passage of time as lost all meaning for me. Breakfast was actually pretty nice. We all felt like we knew each other, and had some very nice conversations about everything under the sun. After that, i just started writing this, waiting for Cameron to wake up. I don't know how he can sleep so late in this heat. If i fall asleep, as soon as i wake up, i'm just too uncomfortabe to fall back asleep. There's actually a guy still sleeping in this room, despite the terrible racket i'm making with this crazy noisy keyboard with sticky keys. We're supposed to check out within the next 20 minutes, but i can't do anything or go anywhere until Cameron eventually saunters in.

Amy told me in her last email that she sees the value of couples spending some time apart to see how they really feel about each other. I think we both knew that before i left, considering how much we missed each other when she went to Utah or DC for work. Even one night apart was something to deal wiht. But this near month apart remind me of fasting. It's like i'm denying my body food for a week to completely purge all the toxins and everything from it. But in this case, i'm purging all the little negative aspects of our relationship. I can't help but think of some of the stupid and insignifcant things we fought over our last year together and, even though they were all water under the bridge just hours or days later, this month has put it all in a new perspective for me. I'll be the first to admit that i'm a pretty emotional guy, and i can get worked up over some things sometimes more than i should. In many ways, my wife can be much more level-headed then myself. When we don't react the same way to certain situations, i sometimes found myself getting frustrated and worked up. And yes, i understood the errors of my ways soon after teh situations themselves, but this is different. It's much more powerful. I can examin everything from afar, all at once, all together, and the effect it's having on me is massive. This adventure might have gone overbudget, things went wrong, the terribly hot sun knocked the life out of me on so many occasions, and many times did i wonder why i did this to myself at all. Why spend so much money to suffer so often? But despite all the wonderful things i saw and experienced, perhaps the single greatest aspect of this whole ordeal is that it will make me a better husband for years to come. And i know what Amy is thinking right now, and what she would write back to me with, "but honey, you are a wonderful husband already." Yes, thank you. She will think that and write that because she is such a great wife. But i know myself pretty well by this point in my life, and i know i have it in me, after this adventure, to simply be a better husband than i was before, however i was before.

Ok, that was probably all to personal to publish in a public blog. Maybe it's my heatstroke typing, or maybe it's the fact that i think Amy and maybe two other people are the only ones who read this at all, but i think it's important that i "publically" hold myself accountable to a higher standard. I know my mom would go crazy if she knew i wrote such personal stuff in a blog, as she is such a private person, but considering she could no sooner access a blog as as she would stay in a hostel on Bulgaria, i think i'm safe. (And if you read this and know her, don't mention it, OK?) In fact, my mom is "reading" this through Amy, and i believe she does a pretty good job giving her the version of my adventures that my mom wants to hear. Oh, how i love my family.

It's a good think that Cameron finally returned (he says he thought i had my own key. OK, that's reasonable), because i think i might be able to go on darn near forever at the rate i'm going. That's it. Next stop: Varna. Our last city, YEAH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Full day of Plodiv

I woke up at 7:30. Cameron didn't wake up until i woke him up at 9:45. I was afraid that we would miss our opportunity to find a tour of the area, but we couldn't find one anyway. We got some information at a tourist center, walked a mile to the bus station, and found out that we had no way of asking for our tickets to the monistary in Bulgarian, so we walked all the way back and got more information. This is the story of this vacation: walking miles and miles in extreme heat with blisters on my feat and wishing i was anywhere else while Cameron takes everything in stride and every inconvenience and tragidy is just water off his ducks back. I might want to be that way, but what can i say? I'm so not. Anyway, eventually we got on the bus and found this ancient monistary. It wasn't actually anything that special, or at least not as this point, for me, now that i'm completely burnt out. We the hicked up a mountain, whitch was pretty cool, but increadibly difficult. After waiting another long while, we foudn a bus back home to our hostel. I hung out at the main room while he took a nap, we met up, and ate at an awesome restaurant named Diana's, which serves food on swords. It also has what might be the most secure restrooms in the entire world. I walked though four doors, between three and five inches thick of solid steal, wheighing something like 500 to 1000 pounds each. It must have been some kind of bank vault at one time. Either way, we had a great time at this place, which might be the most special and unique restaurant in this city. I have no idea where Cameron might be at this point while i type this, but by getting up, i lost my place on the couch, which kind of sucks. But this is the sacrifice i'm willing to make to update you on my journy. And by "you," i of course mean my wife, because i'm starting to believe that no one else at all reads this. But that's OK, because even if Amy was the only one, it would still be more than worth it.

Tomorrow we're leaving for our last city. I can't even begine to express how happy i am that it is my last city. I am out of my mind missing my wife, which might be the most valuable aspect of this entire vacation. Sure, i knew i would miss her, but i didn't know it would be this bad. It is so bad. Just four more days. I can't wait.

Santorini, Athens, Plodiv

It's pretty hard to concentrate right about now, considering i'm typing this at my hostel in a general area where about 10 people in various stages of drunkenness are watching an important football (soccer) game and discussing various topics rather loudly, but i'm going to try. Where did we leave off? Oh, yes, on the end of the best day of this vacation.

We all met up and walked to our first bar. While most of the girls started drinking, Cameron and I, and one of them found a great place to get our last chicken swharmas. We eventually made our way to a dance club/bar that was advertised at our hostel called the Full Moon. Things started slowely, but eventaully the music got very good and the seven of use danced the night away. We had so much more fun there than at "one of the worlds great dance clubs" at Mykonos. The music was so good that i think i would have done much better to get that DJ to have played at my wedding reception than the guy i got, who couldn't even play our handpicked music. I thought at least 80% of the music was just great. I can't remember the last time i sweat so much. Even during a sweaty vacation, i sweat an unatural amount. It was so hot, and we were dancing so hard, but i wasn't thinking abou the heat because we were having so much fun. It was just a great and surprising end to a surprisingly great day.

We only got about three hours of sleep that night because we had to wake up early the next day to catch the ferry to Athens. After about five busses passed us by at the top of the mountain, we started getting very nervous, because if we missed the ferry, everything would fall apart. We finally payed a cab to take us to the bottom. The ferry was only supposed to take seven hours and arrive at Athens at 4PM. But, as it turned out, it was terribly late, and didn't get to Athens until 7:25, which meant we missed our opportunity to really tour the ruins, one of the thing i most looled forward to this vacation from the very beginning. We could only take some pictures for afar, which was depressing, but what can you do? We were supposed to spend two more nights in Athens, but we moved up our flight to Sofia a day to save some money. Well, we screwed up. But i wasn't about to write off Athens entirely. As you must know by now if you know me at all, one of my hobbies is visiting as many Hard Rock Cafes around the world as possible and, after much searching and asking for help, we eventually found it. All i really wanted to do was take pictures but, i was so pessimistic about finding it, i promised Cameron that if we did finally find it, i would treat him. So i did. But it was much better than the only in Romania, i took some great pictures of some hard to find bands (bands i love that aren't well represented by HR Cafes in general). Once again, by the time we finally got to our hostel, the only hostel on this entire trip with actual AC, we were only there for a few hours before we had to leave very early once again. Between the two days we stayed there, we were there less than 12 hours. That sucked.

The next morning we found the airport without too much trouble and flew to Bulgaria. Amazingly enough, even though the flight was only 90 minutes, we still got fed. I couldn't believe it. All things considered, even though Sofia is the capital and a major city in every sence of the word, there really isn't anything to do there. Once again, we walked and walked and walked around, taking pictures and walking some more. Even the hostel worker admited there was little to do there. But that's why we were there for only one night.

The next day we slept in a bit, even though it was so hot, found the train station, and took the most miserable train ride of my life to Plodive, where is where i'm at right now. The train must have been at least 95 degrees, lasted about 4 hours, and was very full. I almost got sick. Although we arrived at 4PM, we haven't really done anything of note today. We basically just hung around the hostel, and ate. I'm still way overheated, i'm exhusted although not sleepy, and much to weary to be creative. I'm well aware of the fact that i'm simply providing a general laundry list of the significant events of this journy. If i didn't think it was significant, i failed to mention it. I'm so tired of being uncomfortable and living in unbelivable unsanitory conditions, i really just want to go home. The airport took my soap and i'm still too upset to buy new soap so i'm quite dirty. I'm taking showers without soap and my clothes havent' been washed since, well, Romania. I must smell pretty bad at this point, but so do everyone else, so i don't really stand out. About 12 people in this room are drinking vodka and cheering to something or another, but i'm all out of cheer at the moment. I miss my wife terribly. If i think about the situation i've put myself in too much, i might not easily recover, so i'd better stop thinking about it. I have no idea where Cameron is at the moment, and he has the keys to the room. Not sure what i'm going to do about that. This is supposed to be an absolutey beautiful city, and we're thinking about taking another tour tomorrow. I dearly hope it goes well, because i'm not sure i can easily take too much more going wrong at this point. I'm trying to stay positive, but i'm on the verg of failing. I'm also not doing a very good job of lying. Please pray for me. I wonder what i've gotten myself into, and all i want to do at this point is go home. Once again, i'm sweating as i type this. I miss you all. I think i'm going to be done traveling after this. Please pray for me.

The Best Day of this Vacation

Our one full day in Santorini has been the best day of this vacation so far, and is very unlikely to be beaten. After a decent nights sleep, we got some pastries from our favourite bakery, and tried to decide what to do for the day. We didn't know too much about the island, other than what the very nice internet cafe lady told us about, but we figured a good place to start would be the bus stop. It worked in Mykonos, why not here? As we were waiting, and waiting, and waiting for the bus to arrive, i got board, and decided to read some of the travel information i brought with me. Just by chance, i came across something called Pelecone Tours, which seemed to cover most of the highlights of the island. The reason i go into such detail about how we came across this tour is because it came so very, very close to not happening, which would have meant that the day would have been like any other of this adventure; long walks though confusing cities hoping to stumble upon something interesting. When we got there, the lady said they were about to leave in 5 minutes, and that we'd need a towel, sandals, and bathing suit. Of course, we had none of those things with us, but our hostel was close. Although the room was full of tourists waiting for the bus, she motioned us to 5 women in particular (with very broken English) and told us to stick with them, and not to let them out of our sights. Oh, if we only could have known...

We rushed back, packed out stuff in one bag, ran out, and the bus picked us up. It was a full bus, at least 40 people. It drove us down to the docks where i assumed we would all get on the huge ferry waiting for us, along with a few other bus loads of people. This is where things got strange. The driver seemed to play duck-duck-goose with us. He tapped some people on the shoulder and said, "you go." To others, he would say, "you stay." He did this over and over, but with very few going. As it turned out, out of a full bus, and a ferry that could have easily held between 500 and 1000 people (or twice that, who knows), along with 20 cars and trucks, only 9 people and one ice cream truck boarded the ferry, and we were off. We had no idea what to expect, and i (who likes to understand things), could not wrap my mind around this situation. It must have cost 10 times as much in fuel alone then they could have gotten from the tour company. Cameron and I sat near the women and started talking to them pretty early on, although he was doing about 90% of the talking for the first half. I guess i wasn't in the mood to be social.

Our first stop was a volcanic island. There were long paths cut though the volcano, with steep and slippery stairs carved out of the rock. The air was dusty and dry, the sun was blazing (it pretty much blazed the entire week we were in Greece, around 90 to 100 degrees), but the landscape was so otherworldly that even i hardly minded the hostel conditions. We took tons of pictures, and figured that the tour was just about worth it already, even if the other stops were lame. After we walked the entire path, we all (5 women and us) got back to the boat about 30 minutes early and talked some more.

Our second stop was the hot springs. I was a bit upset that we only got 30 minutes at that stop, because it was in may ways my favorite, but i still had a great time. I spent the entire time in the water, and i got to know the women a bit better. The water has very high levels of sulfer, which meant three things; it turned you red, it stunk like rotten eggs, and it made you float more than water. About five feet down, the water was very cold. But as we swam to the springs, the water started to make me feel like i was in a hot tub, with rotten eggs nearby. Only some of the women and i managed to swim all the way in, which is why i was able to talk to them so much. But, thinking back, i can't even remember which two i talked to most. I find that funny because, by the end of the night, i would never forget any of them.

Our third stop was to one of those villages built right into the top side of a mountain. As awesome as it is to see them from the water, they are even more fun to walk though. There was quite a lot of activity at the docks, and a few places to eat, but we decided to ascend the dreaded stairs. The offered donkeys to help people us, just like at the Grand Canyon, but of course we hiked it. Although there are only 150 actual stairs, some of the stairs are 15 feet long and go up 4 feet just on their own. If it was built like a real stair case, like in a building, it could have been 700 stairs. We walked up what was most likely a centuries old "stairs" made almost entirely by cutting rock out of the side of the mountain. It was very hot, and we got very, very sweaty, but it was loads of fun. At the top was a cool looking reastaurant, but we decided to continue along the path though the village. Let me tell you, it was absolutely surreal. All the buildings resembled each other, and looked the same as they did Mykonos--whitewash cement cube-like rooms, with blue doors and windows--the difference was that this felt like a ghost town. We were the first ones up the stairs, so there were no other tourists (there were many other tourist boats docked at the bottom, but they apparently contained a bunch of wimps) , and there were no locals. The only living creatures we saw were lizards and cats. We'd walk for 500 feet and see nothing, and then a cat. Walk another 1000 feet, and see a lizard, then a cat. We must have walked two miles up there, though what could have been private property, now that i think about it. Eventually we figure it out. Every single able-bodied individual in the entire village was at the docks attempting to profit from the tourists. Tourism must represent their entire economy. It all makes me so curious. We ended up eating at a restaurant right at the top of the stairs (that's as far as anyone seemed to get) and had some great food. But the food was the least of it. I knew right then and there that was i was experiencing was the greatest scenery i would ever enjoy while eating at a restaurant. We could see the ocean and mountains and other mountain villages. I took plenty of pictures, of course, but i can't imagine they will do it an ounce of justice. Of anyone who reads this, possibly only Zoe will fully understand.

Our next stop would be our final stop. It was similar to the landscape we had just left, with a busy dock at the bottom and hundreds of stairs to get to the top, only this was the deluxe version. This time, EVERYONE climbed to the top, or maybe they got there from the other side. But the village up there was actually more of an outdoor super-mall. There must have been at least 50 small shops and 20 restaurants and bars, many of them very high-end. So this is where the rich people go, i though to myself. Since this was our last stop, we were going to have to find the bus on our own that evening, and we had almost 4 hours to kill with small shops that didn't really interest us. It was fun walking around, and it was stunningly beautiful, but even that gets old after a couple of hours.

We had started the journey with the women, climbing the stairs with them and hanging out with them in the first few shops, but eventually lost them. We did our own thing for about 30 minutes, when i decided the best way to make things interesting would be to attempt to find them again. There could have been a few thousand tourists up there by then, so finding them would be difficult, but not impossible; a fun challenge. And that's what it turned out to be. After we found them that time, we wouldn't part ways again until a very late night, drunken and emotional (them, not us) parting of ways after 3AM in what is now one of my favourite clubs in the world (but we'll have to save that for later, as Cameron just returned and is waiting for me to finish so we can go eat). Although we felt like we were being dragged to silly jewellery stores one after another to listen to them fawn about mermaid pins or something, it was actually more fun then if it were just us. And if we hadn't found them, i would not have found what i consider to be one of the greatest pieces of jewellery i've ever purchased (considering circumstances, beauty, and more) for my beautiful wife. All 6 of them waited patiently for me as i considered my options, and they though it was beautiful too. Of course, that's also when i started talking about my wife, and when i do that, sometimes i can stop, especially when i'm missing her like crazy. (Remember, up until that time, Cameron had done must of the talking to them.) We watched the sunset together from a great little secluded place while we drank wine and ate grapes and snacks. We talked and ate and drank for hours. Eventually we found our bus, made it back to our respective hostels (there were only one block apart), and agreed to meet up later for a night on the town. And that's when things would get crazy...

Santorini!

After my last post we took a bus to another part of Mykonos which provided me with some awesome picture opportunities. We had a great a cheap dinner of the best gyros of our lives, bused back to our hostel and, while Cameron napped in preparation for our big night out, i hung out at the beach some more. When we met up again, we pre-partied on the beach for a while, then went to what is supposed to be one of the greatest clubs in the world. Well, it wasn't exactly packed, but we still had fun. I thin Cameron and i danced enough or the hundreds who were just hanging around. Once he left, i forced myself to stay until 3AM, just to get my moneys worth and to say i did, even though i was pretty much done by 2. When i left, the crazy part was that there was still a line to get in. People wanted to get into a club at 3AM! How insane is that? The next morning i hung out at the beach one last time in all my glory. It was a bit cooler, and it was great. What really sucked was the ferry we had to take to Santorini. First of all, we had to buy first class tickets, because that was all that was left. Then they were over an hour late. Finally, it was a much small boat and it rocked like crazy, which made me feel queasy. Then to make it even worse, they played terrible 50-year-old Greek sitcoms. Who came up with that one?

As soon as we landed, i started feeling better. We were greeted by building lining huge mountains, which we later bused to the top of with dangerous looking switchback roads. Our hostel here is super cheap, and even has a pool, which i'm going to take advantage of before trying to sleep in another sweat lodge. (It's even really hot in here despite the two air conditioners on the wall.) We walked around town, I enjoyed my first black sand beach, had a very nice and inexpensive dinner, and walked back. And that's when stuff got weird.

First of all, our keys didn't open the main gate. Turns out, you don't need a key. Only took us five minutes to figure that one out. Then it came time to find our room. Our keys didn't open our first choice, or our second. Why were we having so much trouble, you might wonder? Well, first of all, we were stone sober, so it's not about that. Its about the fact that none of the rooms are labeled. What's the point of having keys labeled "17" if there is no room 17? We kept trying rooms and attempting to figure it out on our own, all to no avail. The owners were no where to be found, so we tried next door, an internet cafe connected to the place. The good news: he spoke English and was very helpful. The bad news? He couldn't figure it out either. Eventually he called the owner, who later appeared on a 4-wheeler. As soon as he saw us, he said, "they're in the dorm." Well yeah, we knew that. What we didn't know was that there is apparently only one dorm. Upon hearing that, the helpful guy showed us exactly where it was. Sure, maybe between the two of us, we should have remembered where we dropped our stuff. But were were tired and hungry, and assuming we wouldn't have to memorize the location. What kind of place don't label any of the rooms? Anyway, my time here is almost up and i've become a sweaty mess just from typing, so i think i'll jump in the pool and stay there until my body temperature drops to a healthy level. Please let me be able to get some sleep tonight.

A Better Day In Mykonos

So far this has been a great day, one of the best of the vacation so far, made even better by the fact that i'm finally chatting with my wife though gmail as i type this. It's just one of these days where thing tend to work out. Even though it was super hot, i was exhausted enough to fall asleep and get almost a full nights sleep, which helped me feel good this morning. I walked to the beach and hung out there for about 90 minutes, taking full advantage of its possibilities, had breakfast, figured out a plan of action for the day with Cameron, spent more time at the beach, taking advantage again, then took the bus into town.

This town is so cool looking. For years i remember seeing these awesome pictures and painting of hundreds of small white buildings with blue doors and windows lining the sides of mountains. Well, i'm seeing that in person now. The town, or village, has narrow winding passage ways that were actually originally designed to confuse invading pirates. Seriously. Now they confuse tourists. Its unlike anything i've ever seen or experiences. I also chatted with my Greek friend who told me about some things to see and do on this and the next island we're about to see. Very exciting. As i already basically knew, this island is known around the world at one of the greatest places to party. We're going to the Paradice Club tonight, which is a very short walk from our box (where we sleep, it's just a wooden box, basically. it's no room, i'll tell you that). The guide book says between 3000 and 5000 people dance in the open air venue to world famous DJs, and that it's easily one of the top clubs in Mykonos. It doesn't even open until 11PM, and stays open until past dawn. How about that?

I'm very grateful that today was the super hot day, and today is just very hot with a strong wind. The really funny part is that yesterday the ocean was very warm, and today it wasn't. Heck, at one point i was almost cold. It was a truely wonderful feeling, after being overheated for so long with little to no hope of relief, to finally be a bit chilly again, even if only for an hour. Well, my time is almost up. Next entry, Santorini!

Melting in Mykonos

The day we left Romania (for me, for the last time) was pretty slow. We ate at the Beer Factory, which was very cool. It was the first building in Timisoara, way back in 1713. Of course, i'm pretty sure the building has gone though a few changes since then, but it's still cool. We drank beer make only, and i experienced the last true Romanian meal in Romania in my life. We made it to the trainstation with time to spare, and i experienced my first sleeper train without incident. Of course it was hot, but i did manage to sleep a bit.

In Bucharest, the largest city and capital of Romania, we basically walked around a lot. We walked around The Parliment Building, the second largest building in the entire world. The Comunist leaders thought it would be a good idea to show how great a building they could build, so they invested up to 35% of Romania's entire GDP in the 1980s to construct it. Of course, it was a terrible mistake, only a third of the rooms are even used, but it dose look damn impressive. From there we walked back to the Peace Corps building where he stashed our bags (i had to wait outside because i'm not in the Peace Corps) and walked, and walked, and walked in search of Hard Rock Cafe, Bucharest. What he thought would be a 45 minute walk turned out to last for hours. Never in my life have i worked so hard, or burned more calories (or sweat more liters) in pursuit of a restaurant, but i guess it was worth it. It wasn't a great HRC, but it was a good one. They still charged for water and refills, which totally sucked (the awesome thing about HRC London was that after 3 weeks of paying for water and crap in Europe, i enjoyed an American restaurant experience), but we still had fun. After so much more walking, and the sweatest bus ride in history, we made it to the airport with plenty of time. As we got on the plane (less than a two our flight to Athens), i joked about our meal. Well, no joke. We actually got a small dinner on a super short flight. And the plane was nice and cool, too. I love that airline. We found our hostel in Athens without too much trouble. On the way, we met guy named Jim who was looking for our same hostel. The differenct was that he knew where it was, and we had a English map and all the signes were in Greek. We got lucky. The hostel was amoung the most interesting i've ever seen. It was a real party place, with a bar in the basement. It had an air conditioner, but i couldn't figure out how to turn it on. I asked, and the guy said that it was 1E for each person in the room, or 8E. Cameron was about to forget it, which i thought was totally insain. Sure, we were only going to be there for 6 hours, but i wasn't about to have my 6 hours be in hell when 8E could change it. As it turned out, not only did i not get stiffed by our roommates, i actually made money on the deal. Once again, i was the only one willing or able to take charge, everyone was grateful that i had. While Cameron was down at the bar (i was down there just for my complimentary "welcome shot"), everyone else came back and i felt like i was at a slumber party. We were all talking and excited for what was to come and making jokes and stuff. I was resting in my top bunk with my hat on my face because the light was still on, but every once in a while i would chime in with something funny, and they would laugh. It was actually pretty fun.

Less than six hours later we were up and out of the place. We waited for a few of our new friends, then all headed to the subway to get to the docks. The boats that farried us to Mykonos were huge. I think it was my favorite part of my journy so far. Nice and cool in the inside, and windy and fun on the top deck. It took about 6 hours to get here. Our hostel is unlike any i've ever seen. We all arrived together, had a mass check in, then shown where our rooms are. It's a tiny box with two beds. That's it. It's about 95 degrees in side, with hardly any ventillation at all. Sure, i'm super exhusted, but i'm not sure hot i'm going to do tonight. Once we changed, we headed to the beach. Cameron asked me if this was "one of those nude beaches" he'd read about. I didn't know, everything looked pretty normal at first. Oh, but wait. That fat guy lacks trunks. And it got worse from there. All together, out of the 500 or so beach bums, 10% or so lacked some sort of bathing suit part. After some guy came by looking to extort 8E for each of us just for sitting there, we left, caught a bus to downtown, and that's where i am now. It's an amazing looking city, but that's all i can say for now. We've got to try and book our next hostel from here. Ciao.

Last Full Day in Romania

I had my first experience getting totally lost in a foreign country by myself since I walked around searching for my hostel with luggage in London about five years ago. I left the mall with plenty of time, walked back to our meeting place near downtown with ten minutes to spare, and figured that I might as well explore a bit more because I would look silly just standing at that particular place. So I walked a few blocks with the obvious intention of turning around and walking right back to where i started. Well, that didn't happen. After i walked those two blocks, i came upon one of the main plazas, where i've been a few times before. I figured i'd walk once around that, then walk back. The problem was that there must be at least ten or more streets that lead to that plaza, and i had no idea which one i took. I also had no way of communicating with Cameron, who was going to be waiting for me on a very busy intersection, for who knows how long. I didn't panic, but i did walk very fast. I didn't know the name of any street, but i recognized a number of landmarks. Remembering their locations relative to each other was the trick. Eventually, after race-walking for who knows how many miles, i successfully retraced my original steps, and found the spot. Sure enough, he was still waiting for me. And that was supposed to be my day to relax! At least it wasn't too hot.

That night we had a few beers at his favorite bar, he talked up his favorite server, and we had some good, long, insightful conversations about politics, world events and economies, friends and, of course, women. This might sound terribly corny, but when i started to talk about my wife, how much we love and trust each other, i almost started tearing up. (And by almost, i mean that i did:-) I'm not nearly as homesick right now as i thought i would be when i was in NY. Heck, i was terribly homesick in NY. But taking in so much information and culture, and knowing that if i fail to keep my wits about me for even a moment, i could be in trouble.

Today we are meeting a friend of his (one of the many we already ran into by chance) to print out some important information about Greece, and to chat, then head to the mall again because it is near his place. I'm treating Cameron to The Hulk (the prospect of a free show being one of the only things to get him in that superfluous monstrosity, and i couldn't get home by myself).

Speaking of the mall, i think i'll report my findings from my first official consumer sociological experience. As i've said before, if one doesn't look too closely, one could believe one to be in any large mall in the world. Almost everything is available, from CDs, DVDs, flat screen TVs, computers, stereo systems, and video games. I thought it was interesting how some items, like computers and TVs, were about the same price in America. The PS3 and XBox were about 25% more expensive, while the Wii was more than twice as much. Air conditioners were at least 400% more expensive for some reason. At least 75% of all stores were related to cloths, most of them very nice. Blue jeans were 100 to 300% more expensive, but i don't know about any other apparel (i mean, who cares about cloths? Romanians do, that's for sure). One big difference was that there were many, many more places to sit down and order drinks, and alcohol was always an option. Unfortunately, the biggest difference between one of our malls and this one is that shopping at a mall in America would be a realistic option to at least 80% of the population, whereas the the reverse would be true in Timisoara, with less than 20% . And Timisoara is one of the richest cities in all of Romania. Less then 10% of Romanians, in general, would have any responsible possibility to shop in a place like that. In many ways, i'm getting as realistic view of Romania as someone would of the US by only seeing Manhattan. But Cameron has talked to many, many people who know the country well, and is, in turn, doing a great job of educating me about its history and current state. I've heard so many great stories, i can't even begin to recount them.

Blogging From the Super-Mall

Just finished watching The Happening. I didn't think it was bad, I loved the plot but I'm not sure the entire thing worked. The fact that most of the main characters were married made me think of my wife quite a bit, and if I got all emotional at times, it was because of my love for my wife, not the "acting." The movie experience itself, however, was worth the price of admission, which was 12L, or about $4.50 for a day show. When I bought the ticket, I bought a specific seat. You can only use the bathroom once they take your ticket. They use super-stadium seating and, when the movie finished, everyone left toward the front, which is the opposite way we entered. Some guy stood up there to make sure we left that way. I found myself in a long, empty hallway with large arrows pointing out which direction to take. When we were finally ejected back into the Mall, I was nowhere near the movie theatre, which was a bit of a problem, since I wanted to burn some more time with a second show. Not meant to be, everything was sold out. Since I'm meeting Cameron somewhere in the city (I think I can find it) at exactly 9PM, and neither of us have cell phones (like the old days), I have 2.5 hours to kill here.

This morning we were supposed to meet three of his friends for lunch, but none of them showed. They could have cancelled, but he would have had no way of knowing, since his internet is down and, well, his cell was stolen. We walked around and found some great areas to chill out and have a great lunch. The main reasn I had such a good time was because today was unseasonably cool. It looks like some of my prayers were answered. I have no idea what's in store for us tonight, but I'm looking forward to it.

The End of Ben

The mici was quite good, the chicken part was pretty good, and the third part was fatty and gross. After dinner and trying a number interesting beers we bought at the grocery store (one of them, Lief, was just awesome), we walked back to the main city square to meet up with some of Cameron's Romanian friends for a night of clubbing. The first thing he did upon meeting us, however, was to shake his head in disapproval. It seems that Ben, who walked 25 miles around NY City in 98 degree heat in bluejeans, decided that in Romania (a very style conscious country), it would be a good idea to try and wear shorts to a fancy club. (Yes, I warned him before we left.) Paul, Cameron's friend, didn't think they would let him in, so Cameron took him back to change, and left me to talk to Paul. At first I was a bit pissed, but it turned out to be great for me. Paul went to college in the US and speaks English very well. We had a fantastic conversation about what we both admire and find unfortunate about our two countries. I could write pages about what we talked about while drinking great bear in the wonderfully cool weather (about time), but I must go on.

When they finally returned, we took our first cab ride to the club. This is the type of club rich Romanians and foreigners would go to. Very large, with hundreds of tables, booths, and VIP areas surrounding a massive dance floor. The music was great--high energy--and made you want to dance. Unfortunately, even though it was already past 12:30, the dance floor was dead. We hung out for a while, but Paul insisted that things didn't really pick up until after 1:30, so we walked to this cool college student area and found a place that was crazy with dancing and drinking Romanian students. Enjoying our beers outside, we witnessed what could have been a serious fight. The cops came and everything, and Cameron says that never happens. An hour later we tried Club Heaven again, but it felt more like purgatory. If anything, it had even less going on. Oh well, it could have been awesome, but it was still a fun night.

This morning we woke up late, walked to one of Cameron's favorite swhorma stands, and carried our food to eat at a the side of a river. I had a great time simply eating the exotic food, watching Ben consume his three beverages (which he did again later tonight, which earned him the nickname Three-bev Ben, because both times they were three unique beverages, not just a bunch of beers and a water or something. Trust me, it's funny. And Ben, when you read this, you know we love you, right?), learning more about Romania, and just relaxing. After lunch we toured an Art Museum, hung out at his favorite bar (where he met Paul, and many other friends), when home to change into something a bit nicer, and went to a Romanian Ballet, my first anywhere. Afterward, we ate Romanian pizzas and rushed home, as Ben had to pack up and get on the train by 11:45. About an hour from right now (assuming everything goes according to plan), he will be out of the country, as most of the distance he will have to cover is in Hungary. I dearly hope that he makes it back to Detroit in a less stressful fashion than we left. So many things could go wrong, and his buddy-pass from NY to Detroit flight may or may not work. Although part of me feels like we left home years ago, the other part feels like we just got here, and now he has to leave. It might sound strange, but I'm really going to miss the guy.

We've been going at a pretty hard pace since we left home, and I'm planing on making tomorrow my day to relax. I'm finding a way to make it back to that super-mall on my own, and chilling out there by myself all day. The plan is to see The Happening, The Hulk, and maybe even a third movie. I'll walk around the mall, people watch, and continue to learn what is available to Romanians, and for what price. It will also give Cameron a chance to get some work done in his apartment; basically we will both get much needed alone time.

On a side note, I must comment on some coincidences I find to be amazing when combined with each other. While the three of us where walking around this city of 330,000 inhabitants, Cameron has run into six--count'em, six--, people he knows, but complete chance. A very attractive lady walked by within hours of us getting here and said, "Hi, Cameron." He ran into someone at the super-mall, and we all talked for a while. We ran into someone else buying some food, we talked, and he informed me that the Celtics were up 3 games to 1 over the Lakers, which found to be great news. (Inside joke: Ben Huber, did you do that?) A woman driving a car stopped to say hi. He knew the people who sat next to us at the ballet. And we ran into the mall guy again at the small mall. It takes me a month to run into that many people walking around the neighborhoods I've lived in for 28 years. Oh well, I just found it to be crazy.

Cameron just returned from dropping Ben off, and things didn't go so well. First, the train Ben needed wasn't even on the list, some guy just said which train it should be, so he got on it. Needless to day, Ben will really be in my prayers tonight. I can't wait to check his blog when he writes it from the safety of his home. Worse than that, Cameron got robbed on the way home. The good news is that all they guy got was his cell phone. It's not terrible, and we should be grateful that we are safe, and harder to replace things weren't stolen. Noapte buma (goodnight).

For A Different Perspective of the Same Event...

Check out Ben's blog, http://www.theonlybenblog.blogspot.com/, for a completely different perspective. I don't know how often he will update it, and he will be returning in two days anyway, but he's a very smart and creative guy, and long after this adventure, his pontifications can still be enlightening.

Romania, At Last!

What a comedy of errors, escaping Budapest. After a pretty serious subway mishap that I won't mention here, and trying to buy tickets at the wrong window, by the time we finally purchased our train tickets for the 11:45 to Arad (where Cameron met us in Romania), it was 11:43, and we were no where near the train. We couldn't even find the train at first. When finally boarded the train we were soaked in sweat, with our hearts beating furiously, but happy to have made it. It left the station 2 minutes later, which was 2 minutes late. The train ride was fine, and we got to see plenty of country side. Our next scare came when someone took our passports and walked away (shortly after someone else had already stamped them at the previous stop). For what seemed like forever, but couldn't have been more than 25 minutes, I was playing out a new travel scenario where we our first stop would be the American Embassy. We drank together in the train station for the first time together during the trip, Cameron found us, we caught up a bit, then it was off to his apartment. It rained terribly on the way there, and our taped up luggage (they broke the zipper while inspecting it between Detroit and NY, so they just did a bad job taping it with "inspection tape") was beginning to really fall apart. But we made it, ate at a cool place, talked, and went to sleep. Ben and I both had to sleep in the floor, it was my first time. Even though it wasn't comfortable by any means, and I listened to at least two hours of Harry Potter, Book 7, it was cooler than in NY, and I eventually fell asleep.

Today we really got to see Tiisoara. We must have walked about 15 miles around town, including two very important areas: Piata Unirii (which had very expensive apartments, restaurants and bars, and everything else, the Times Square of Romania), and Victory Scqare (the coolest part of town to hang out in, and where the fall of Communism basically took place in Romania. We also walked around and ate at Lulius Mall, which is like the Troy Summerset Mall, if that were the only super-duper mall in the entire country. It's not just the biggest and most expensive mall in the country, but the entire region. Camerson told us many times how self conscious Romanians are, or leaving a favorable impression of themselves, that they hang around at the mall just to be seen, or buy one thing, then tell everyone where it came from. It's not even common for them to take extra food home from a restaurant, because they think that would make themselves look poor in the eyes of others. But as I wandered the mall, I didn't seem many people with stuff. They were actually just walking around like us. From there we did some grocery shopping at a huge and modern grocery store. With both places, I found it amazing how different and similar products were in both countries. I think the biggest difference is that stores like these would be considered more normal in the US, and within the average American's means, while hear, they are extraordinary.

Right now, Cameron is cooking us up some mici, a traditional meat dinner. Tonight we're going cubbing late into the night. Oops, dinner's served. No proofreading here.

We Finally Slept! Yeah! And the Vacation Finally Started, in Budapest.

Like i mentioned before, Ben insists he had some fun in NY, whereas i found the first two dazs to be the worst beginning to any vacation Iáve ever been on in my entire life, let alone a major one. But last night is when our vacation finallz began.

Budapest is reallz quite an amazing city. We took the subwaz (much nicer than in NY), to just north of Castle Hill, walked around lost until i finallz asked for help, then assended the 300 or so steps up to the center of it. Itás hard to describe how one can fail to find such a huge area, but trust me, nothing is made easz here. The Castle district has been razed and rebuilt three times over 800 years, most recentlz in 1945 after the Red Army destrozed most of it. The Matthias Church looked cool, but closed before we got to it. We mainlz just walked around, taking it all in, and taking a bunch of pictures on mz old 2.1mb digital camera, which used to be prettz good the first time it saw Europe what seems like a lifetime ago. One attraction we did manage to take full advantage of were the Castle Labrinths, which extend 1200m underground, and were created naturallz bz the thermal springs. Once home to prehistoric humans, the labzrinths were used more recentlz as bomb shelters and militarz barricades. Now itás just a sweet tourist attraction, but verz hard to find from the street. In one room, there is a fountain of red wine. I was going to drink it, but Ben warned me that it might be a little earlz in the vacation to make mzself sick. I guess it wasnát worth the risk. But the pictures we took made it look like we were drinking it.

On the way back to our hostel, I took manz more pictures, including the Parliament, a massive 692-room structure that, upon construction, required more electricitz than the entire rest of the citz. We ate at our first (and possiblz last) fancz restaurant, although we didnát reallz realize it at teh time. I thought it might be smart and fun to eat at a place mz book recommended, so we chose Marquis de Salade. The book called it "an elegant cellar restaurant with a huge menu of offerings from Azerbaijan and Rusia, such as jalancs doima (which i ordered, and was good, but not as good or big as described). Not onlz was the bill much more than we expected, thez even charged us for items we didnát order. Not the best end to what was our first good daz, but at least we were full.

And now, fuled with 8 hours of sleep (I'm still not nearlz caught up, but itás a good start), we are off to brakefast, then the trainstation, to find a ride to Arid, where we will finallz get to meet up with Cameron. Thatás when things are reallz going to get crayz...

Last Day In NY, EVER! (Other then my blessed return)

I ate near the United Nations building, just took subway around town to kill time, nothing else to do. Found our way to JFK, hung out there for a long time. Very nice place. The flight to Rome went well. Rome was cool. Made it to Budapest today. Finding our waz into the citz from teh airport was like one of those compuer games where zou have to solve a bunch of puzzels. The good news is that we did. The problem was that I was going off Cameronás calander (verz hard to tzpe on this Hungarian kezboard, bz the waz, the "y" and some other letters are in different places), which said we would be in Budapest on the 10th, which didnát account for the fact that we lost a daz in the air with the time change. When we got to our hostel here, we had to paz for zesterdaz, and it was all booked up todaz. Also, it was on the fifth floor or something. Ben almost had a heart attach toating Cameronás suitcase full of goodies up all the stairs, and i almost did on the waz down. Fortunatelz, we kept cool (emotionallz, not temperature wise), and found another place. Itás not too bad. We are about to explore the citz as soon as Ben is readz.

I am now going on mz third daz straight without sleep. Couldnát sleep on the plane last night. But i caught mz fifth wind, and iám keeping it together right now. Iám prazing that tonight is mz night to finallz sleep.

(A side note to mz awesome wife: look under the spot you miss me most each day, zou will find a surprise will come zour waz.)

One Day Finally Over, Soooo Many More Left

With only 4 hours left before heading off to to JFK, the NY leg of our adventure is almost at an end. Here are the highs and lows so far.

Highs: I still have my health and my belongings. I've accepted Jesus as my savior. I love my wife and my wife loves me.

Lows: I feel like I'm in the 9th level of Hell, and I'm already fanticizing about going home.

The effort it takes to press the keys to type is is causing me to sweat terribly, and it's only 7:20AM. But let me back up. After about 90 minutes of sleep my last night in MI in what seems like forever, I left the house at 3:45AM to meet up with Ben and Cindy, who drove us to the airport. After waiting in line to check our bag for a while, we were informed that our names were not in the system. Pretty much the entire reason we planed to spent an extra day in NY was to build in buffer time if something went wrong with our standby buddy tickets that Ben got though his flight attendant friend. Needless to say, the adventure was off to a rocky start when, after about another hour of calling said friend and pleading with the lady at the counter, we were left with just one option: purchase full price, last minute tickets right there. I'm not going to say how much they were, but I will say that it took all my concentration on all the things I have to be greatful for in my life, for be to make peace with the situation and get over it.

We managed to get to the subway in NY without much trouble, but navigating the subway? Let's just say that a deaf, dumb, and mute George W. Bush could have stumbeled upon our hostel without the aid of an advisor, before we did. It was terrible. After we checked in, we wandered aimlessly around Manhattan for 4 or 5 hours, in 96 degree heat, just assuming we would sumble accross something interesting to do or see. It's amazing how much less interesting everything is in that kind of heat. The one high point of the day was after we finally met up with my long-time NY friend (12 years), Lisa. We checked out the Natural History Museum, then found this great reataurant with very good and reasonably priced food. I felt so much better after having finally eaten and cooled off. After walking her to her car, we headed back to our little hellhole, er, I mean hostel. I'm going to trash this place pretty bad when I finally get home. It was advertised as having internet access and air conditioning. Well, some rooms have air, ours does not. And not only was the internet down last night, none of the "employees" would help me with it at all. I use the term loosly because there isn't anyone here who actually works here. They are just guests who stay free and take your money. They said the owner comes in once or twice a week. They were rude and helped with nothing. This is the worst hostel, in the worst area, I've ever been in in my life. The perfect end to perfectday.

To be fair, Ben isn't having nearly as miserable time as I've had so far but, then again, he isn't doing this for 22 days either. I've also already done every major thing in NY a few years ago with Lisa. The most useful thing I got from this experience so far is that I never want to come back to NY again and, hell, I don't think I will want to go on vacation again for a long time. When I finally get home someday, I'm going to become a shut-in. Where's Jim? Oh, he's in the basement, and I don't think he's coming out.

I've got an idea for a drinking game. Wanna hear it? OK, it goes a little something like this. For every spelling mistake and type in this entry, you have to take a drink. Oh, wait, you might die. Yeah, this is the first time I think I've ever typed something before in my life that doesn't have a spell check. I'm running blind here. But that's not the best part. The best part is that since 3:15 last night, I'm not sure if I've slept. I went to bed at 9PM last night, was just about to fall asleep when Ben woke me up to ask for my watch, and I never fell asleep again. I listened to about 5 hours of Harry Potter, Book 7, a half-hour thing on meditation, and another 4 hours of a book about food. And that pretty much brings us up to speed. Oh, but the best part is that i'm actually paying money for this. I'm paying for the opportunity to sweat like a pig at 7:45AM in front of an open window typing this. However long and un-interesting this might be, if you take nothing else away from the experience, take this: you are doing better than me right now. Maybe you're at work, or about to go to work. Maybe you don't like your job, but you are doing something to earn money. I'm actually paying money for this experience. And today i have abuot 18 hours of flying and waiting to fly and traveling to fly. And the scary part? It could be a better day then yesterday.

Now, don't get me wrong, you must understand, this blog is all i have in my life right now, and i'm going to keep typing until they pull me off this computer. This is only the begining. No, just kidding (sort of). Actually, I also spent quite a bit of time last night praying and working on my attitude, trying to focus on only the positive. I may be incredably uncomfortable, but i really don't consider my vacation to start until tomorrow morning at 11:35AM, after the time changes. When we get to Budapest, that's when things will start to get interesting. Unlike this place, we staying in what my travel book says is the best hostel around. Everything we see will be new and interesting. I just have to survive the next 16 hours, and my REAL vacation will start. I'm going to make it. I'm going to be OK. See? I'm smiling right now. (I really was, but I couldn't hold it.)

I'm going to wrap this up for today. Since I have now gone 12 waking hours wihtout eating or drinking, my first priorty will be to find a cool place to eat a long and relaxing breadfast. The only problem is, I don't know where i'm going to find a place like that around here. But I've got time. I've got nothing but time. Meanwhile, Ben is making his way to the World Trade Center site with my camera. I couldn't go because I had to stay and type this.

You know what? Who am i kidding? How many people do i think will actually read this? About 200 people who know me know what i'm doing and that there is a blog, but who is actually going to read it? I've had this blog for over three months, and i think about five people have read it so far. But you know what? It doesn't matter. Even if only Amy reads it (and she can then provide a much watered down version for my mom, who won't go online, and who shouldn't know how bad this all is, just that i'm safe so far), that's enough. Because, although i haven't taken a sinle picture so far, these words i type right here and now validate this experience for me. The fact that i'm recording this mis-adventure as it happens, for better or for worse, gives it meaning, it gives a purpose (even if only in my head) to the whole ordeal, no matter what happens. So, as bad as this place is, at least I am able to enjoy an hour of productivity recording the whole mess.

As for my next real vacation (roadtrips excluded), this is what I can tell you: it will be with my wife, it won't be for at least two years, it will be to a place that connects directly with DTW, and it will probably be all-inclusive.

Not Much Time Left Now

I walked around for 8 miles with my fully packed backpack.  My iPod is almost ready.  Money belt still hasn't come in the mail.  Just reserved my NY City hostel, but my friend in NY says it's in a terrible part of the city.  Hmmm, maybe I'll never even make it to Europe.  We have most of our various tickets by now.  I've been on the computer since I woke up, almost four hours ago, haven't eaten yet, can't think, organizing my dramatic "Final Email."  Why do I do all of this to myself?  Why do I care so much?  I'll better update you from NY, if I don't get mugged on the way to my hostel.