A blog about Sweeney and I backpacking around Costa Rica...but we're not doing that anymore...so now it's a blog about me studying abroad in Hungary...actually I'm not doing that anymore but I'm backpacking around Peru for a month before I start work
I took an overnight bus last night to Huaraz. The bus ride was a little rough even though I got a semi-cama. It didn't help that they played two movies! I just wanted to sleep.
Huaraz is at an altitude of 3,031 meters (about 10,000 ft)! The interesting thing was that most of the bus ride was flat but the last couple of hours (the only ones during which I was sleeping) we did almost all of the ascent. When I woke up I really felt the altitude. I'm glad I took some decamethasone before leaving. It felt like something was holding back a more full-on altitude sickness.
Huaraz is actually quite a dirty city. I knew it wasn't going to be the most beautiful city ever since most of it was destroyed in an earthquake in 1970 but I was actually kind of suprised by how dirty it was. It's still pretty in its own way since it's nestled in the hills. I like it here. It kind of reminds me of Sarajevo, one of my favorite places of all time.
The river I'm NOT going to go rafting in!
Also, it's interesting to note that the people here speak Quechua (the indigenous lanuage) in addition to Spanish. About 45% of Peruvians are purely indigenous (Lonely Planet - Peru) which is very high compared with other countries in Latin America. About 13% of the population speaks Quechua (wikipedia).
This is a photo of a typical indigenous outfit (from wikipedia, I didn't want to hassle anyone for a photo of themself).
After a few days of resting in Huanchaco it was time to move on. It was sad because I don't think that I have ever liked a hostel so much nor have I stayed at a single one so long, around 6 nights.
Next I am planning to go to Huaraz, a small town in the Andes where you can go on treks through the Cordilleras Blancas
Here's some more shots of Huanchaco. It's such an awesome place
Lots of things have happened lately, I'm going to just briefly summarize them:
Getting sick
Something I ate made me incredibly sick. It was either the lunch at Otra Cosa or the fish that we ate that night (since I started to get sick late that night/early next morning). I don't think that fried fish and rice would make me sick so I'm guessing it was something in the food I got from Otra Cosa. Either way, to make a long story short it kept getting worse and worse until the point where I needed to see a doctor. I took a taxi from Huanchaco (small beach town we were at) to Trujillo (big city 20mins away) and went to see a doctor at the Clinica Peruano-Americano (Peruvian-American Clinic). Since I was vomiting pretty hard and losing water fast the doctor hooked me up to an IV to give me water and medicine and kept me there in a hospital room for two nights. Thanks to Sweeney for all of his help and for getting a picture of me passed out in the hospital bed (below)
Sweeney left
Chris had to fly back on the 9th so he left toward the end of my hospital stay. It was great to hang out with him and it was unfortunate that he spent a bunch of the time we had together taking care of me! He's a great friend.
Huanchaco
I went back to the hostel that I was at (Naylamp). I can't say enough good things about Hostal Naylamp. The lady in charge, Ivonne, helped me so much when I got sick. They also have a restaurant right there so while I was resting for a couple of days I just ate there. The food is great and I knew that it was clean so it was the perfect place to recover.
Here's the campground part of it we stayed at the first night
The vibe in the courtyard at Naylamp
Some of my buddies at Naylamp (Gene, don't know his name, Jaime, Paúl, Me, Milagros, Ivonne, Andy)
We woke up around 6:30am when the bus arrived in Trujillo. Despite the fact that I randomly woke up in the middle of the night with my mind racing (mostly about the awesome trip ahead of me!) for a couple of hours, the bus ride was perfect. I'm really exicted about being able to overnight so much of my travel here. In Europe, we would overnight trips like the bus ride to Prague or the train ride to Belgrade, both maybe six hours, practially upright or crunched in a train cabin. You would end up only getting a couple hours of sleep. It was pretty pretty much pulling an all-nighter which I don't like to do unless I have to. When you borrow sleep from your body you have to pay it back at a high rate of interest.
When we got into Trujillo we were starving so we went and ate breakfast...actually two breakfasts
Breakfast in Peru is quite light.
Next, we hopped in a taxi and went to Huanchaco. It's a small town about 20 minutes outside of Trujillo. Trujillo seemed all right, but Huanchacho sounded like a nicer beach town.
We checked into a place called Hostal Nylamp. They only spots left were for camping. Not ideal but they did provide the tent and it was cheap. The camping area was pretty nice
Next I went and took a swim at the awesome beach while Chris went for a run. It's a very nice beach and the water isn't too cold.
After swimming we walked around a little and ate some food at a place called Otra Cosa nearby. I mention it by name because it will be important later. Stay tuned. (These posts are backdated as usual).
Some Americans (the girls) we met who were volunteering in Peru with the Presbyterian church. They were just passing through before going back to the US. The other guy is Andy. He was also staying at Nylamp. Nice guy.
Next we went back to the beach to check out the awesome sunset, which I have to admit, is second to the ridiculous, fire-in-the-sky Arizona sunsets. I don't know if you can beat those.
We met a pretty cool guy at the beach named Bart who's also staying at Nylamp. He's an actor in Spain and so he came to get away for a month. I think that he might be kind of a big deal there and doesn't want to get bothered everywhere he goes. We took some pictures of the beach and then got some food.
Ghost picture! (Chris, Bart, Me)
While we were eating, we saw this cool parade-like thing in the street. It has something to do with the three wiseman and the week after Christmas...not totally sure. I didn't totally understand what the waiter was saying. I'll post the video once I find a really fast internet connection.
Chris and I got up a little late. I was pretty tired since I had to take an overnight bus to Chicago the night before leaving for my 8:30 flight out of Chicago.
We decided that we would head up to the north coast of Peru so after eating some lunch, we went to the bus station to book a ticket for Trujillo, the largest city on the coast.
Notice anything funny...look at how many milileters each is :)
We bummed around Lima for most of the day until it was time to take the bus (10pm overnight bus).
Lima
Plaza in Miraflores, Lima
The coast of Lima.
Getting some cerviche, a common Peruvian seafood dish
The bus we took (Cruz del Sur) was incredibly nice. Far nicer than anything that I've ever taken in the U.S. or Europe. Chris said that most buses in Peru are overnight buses since it's a pretty big country and if you're on a bus for a while you're going to be sleeping anyway.
The seats were semi-camas (semi-beds) and reclined most of the way.
I got into Lima, Peru around 11:30 on 1/5 and met Chris in the airport. We grabbed a taxi and went to the hostel, which (I wish I had a better picture to show it) was pretty much just someone's house. Here's one picture (below). By the time we got out to find food it was pretty late...1 am or so and the only thing still open in Miraflores (the suburb of Lima we were staying in) was McDonalds! Oh well, McDonalds is better in other countries anyway...still trying to figure that one out. More to come...
The first place we went this morning was to a flea market that Sarah had heard was really cool. It was pretty awesome. I still can’t believe some of the things you could buy!
Quite an awesome place. I only bought one thing. It is a portable fork, spoon and knife set. This is nice for when you are traveling and you need utensils.
Lazy Day
Today was kind of a lazy day. We were still tired from the biking and just wanted to enjoy the nice weather. We grabbed some coffee from the McCafe at McDonalds and lay around in the city square. We eventually got up and walked around the rest of the city. Later, we just got ice cream and hung out outside until it was time to take the train back to Budapest.
An awesome weekend!
This weekend was a lot of fun. It was great to see the countryside and Hungary outside of Budapest. Lake Balaton is beautiful and Sarah and Elin are awesome girls who are always fun to be around!
Jannick knows a lot about about bikes and this morning we were able to fix Elin’s bike tire. It has kind of weird road bike-like tires and it turns out that you are don’t take the tread off when replace the inner-tube.
Hévíz
Jannick and Tiffany brought bikes with them (they are planning on riding back part of the route we took down to Keszthely later today) so we all rode together to Hévíz, a thermal lake a couple of miles out of Keszthely. Hévíz was pretty cool. The lake isn’t hot but the water is comfortably warm. It did smell a little weird but I don’t think that it was because of being unclean or anything. Supposed the water is totally replaced every by the natural springs every 85 hours. Hévíz is also supposed to have medicinal benefits. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hévíz_Spa
Back in Keszthely we picnicked again near Balaton.
Tiffany and Jannick had to leave to start biking so Elin, Sarah and I went and hung out down by the lake until our train left at 5.
Train to Pécs
The train ride to Pécs was really pretty.
Pécs
We got into Pécs around 10 and went to the hostel which was on one of the main streets (Kíraly Utca). It was a very fun and happening area with a lot of outdoor restaurants. Since it was kind of late we just went to get some food, took some pictures and then went back to the hostel.
Today started out with me missing the train. I got there as it was leaving. I rode after it on the path next to the tracks but was stopped by some guy working on the tracks and yelled at in Hungarian. I kept riding until a loudspeaker came out of nowhere and started yelling at me again in Hungarian. I went back to the station and got a ticket for an indirect train through Székesfehérvár that left in an hour and would get me to Balatonfüred one hour after Sarah and Elin.
I don’t have an excuse. I have a problem. I am sick of being late for everything. It’s not fair to everyone who is a victim of my tardiness. It’s personally embarrassing and obscures my better qualities from people who don’t know me well. I can’t tell you how stupid I felt watching the train leaving with Sarah and Elin and without me. So I am saying it here-this is the end. I’m done with my “show up late for things” lifestyle. It would be ridiculous to say that I will never ever be late for something again in my life. I know that it will happen. But I am done with being a “late person.” I know that I have said this before but I mean it this time. I’m actually a little glad I missed the train because I know that this will be the catalyst for a change in my life. Though Sarah and Elin weren’t really mad at me, I was furious at myself and was quite embarrassed. Seriously, it will be different from now on.
Biking to Keszthely
When I got in at 10 we started biking toward Keszthely. One of the early stops we made was in Tihany. The view there was beautiful.
At first the trail was pretty close to Lake Balaton but after a while it went way out into the country. It was a little hilly but not too bad. Plus the weather was great so we had a picnic.
Most of the day was spent just riding bike. It was a really long but fun ride and the countryside was absolutely gorgeous.
About 6 or 7 miles outside of Keszthely Elin’s front tire went flat. I tried fixing it but couldn’t get the tread off. Ya, I know, I wasn’t quite firing on all cylinders this weekend...maybe it is time for a little break from so much traveling (this being the 7th weekend in a row). Anyway, luckily there was a family nearby that had a truck and was able to fit the bike in it. They drove both Sarah and Elin’s bike to Keszthely. Very nice people! Elin and I rode to Keszthely and got in around sunset. After riding all over the whole town trying to find the hostel (and getting directions from several people pointing in several directions) we all met up again. Jannick and Tiffany took the train to Keszthely and met us at the hostel.
After cleaning up and relaxing a little (we probably rode around 45 miles or so) we went to an outdoor pizza/bar place. Lake Balaton is mainly a summer vacation place for Hungarians and Germans so there are a lot of outdoor areas to eat and drink. Also, many of the people who live there speak German because of all the German tourists in the summer. I think that, without really thinking too much about it, we came at the perfect time. It wasn’t that crowed since it was just April but the weather was still great (70-75 degrees).
The Brazilians went to bed early last night since they had to catch the bus at 8 from Centraal Station to Eindhoven Airport. I decided that I would wake up at the same time and go see some other parts of the Netherlands, most specifically the tulip fields the guy had told me about at the hostel the day before. I went to bed early too but couldn’t fall asleep because I was so excited about the next day. I really love those days where you are always moving and see a bunch of things and I knew that today would be one.
The Plan
The plan for today was to take the train to Haarlem. The guy at Bob’s Hostel who told me about the flower fields said that from here I could take a bus to get out to the flower fields. However, someone else told me about renting a bike and riding there (maybe 15km). This is what I was planning on doing. After visiting the fields I was planning on riding back to Haarlem and maybe taking the train to Rotterdam (or some other Dutch city) to see what the Netherlands are like outside of Amsterdam.
Haarlem
After a large breakfast (how big days begin) I took the train to Haarlem (about 15 minutes from Amsterdam). I planned on just renting a bike in Haarlem and biking to the tulip fields but Haarlem was actually a really pretty town and I spent a while roaming around checking out some of the cool buildings and such.
Off to Lisse
The town that the Keukenhof Gardens are in/near is called Lisse so I started biking in that direction. Biking is really popular and easy in the Netherlands. There are a lot of bike lanes and people bike everywhere. Also, almost everyone speaks English (usually pretty well) and there are a lot of friendly people so it is easy to get directions.
The Dutch countryside is beautiful. It is very green, which reminded me of Ireland.
Planning on just grabbing some food and leaving, I stopped in a restaurant Hillegom (a small town on the way to Lisse). The only people in the restaurant were the person working there (Tinakay...I don’t know about that spelling) and a guy who was sitting by the gambling machine named George who was either her husband, a regular or both. I never asked. They were really friendly. When I ordered a second coke (I couldn’t resist, it was from a glass bottle!) George bought it for me. I stayed and talked with them for a hour (or two? I don’t know; time flies). George told me some intersting things; one is the words in Dutch and German are the same (spelling and pronounciation) but have different meanings. Also, he told me that he thinks more Americans should learn foreign languages so that they can be more accomodating to tourists who visit. He said that in the Netherlands they learn English and try to accommodate for English-speaking visitors. In America they do not. I agree with him that it would be good for more Americans to learn foreign languages but not for that reason. The chance that you can use a foreign language other than Spanish in the U.S. is very low. It just doesn’t make sense to learn Dutch and sit around waiting for some Dutch tourists to come so you can use skills. Also, so much of the world speaks English and tourists who come to the U.S. will probably come speaking English. It’s rare that you will be walking down the street and hear a little Dutch and be able to jump in. Also, I think that George has a huge economic benefit in learning English and that this is probably the main reason he learned it. Either way, nice guy. Keukenhof Tulip Gardens
The tulip gardens were really beautiful.
I don’t really know if it is worth it to pay the 13.50 or whatever it is to go in the gardens. Inside, it is just a bunch of different flowers. I was all about seeing the big rows of tulips (like you see above). These are outside of the gates so you don’t have to pay for this part. Inside is this kind of stuff:
Probably worth it for people who are really hardcore about flowers. Rotterdam
When I got back to Haarlem it was maybe 7:30 and after I turned my bike in I went to the ticket counter at the train station. Rotterdam was about an hour away from Haarlem and a little more from Amsterdam. Going to Rotterdam would cost at least 15 more Euros and I would only be able to spend a couple of hours there if I wanted to come back at a reasonable hour, which I determined was 1am since I had to wake up early the next morning. I walked around and debated it for a few minutes but finally just said, “What the hell!” You only live once, right?
Rotterdam wasn’t that exciting and I only ended up staying for maybe an hour and a half.
Rotterdam is a very nice, new and modern city but the downtown was kind of dead. Either way I am glad that I went because it was totally different than Amsterdam. Actually, out of all of the places I have visited I think it felt the most like a U.S. city. I don’t know why but it just felt that way.
Two interesting things did happen:
-I met a Hungarian working at McDonald’s who, when I told him that I lived in the Astoria area of Budapest, said, “oh man, that isn’t such a great area.” He also said that he hasn’t been back in so long that he “doesn’t know his country anymore.” Wow, things must really change around here because I have to say Astoria is definitely considered a pretty decent area here. Nothing fancy but pretty fun and safe. It’s interesting because it kind of reminded me that we are living in an area of the world that is still rapidly changing. It couldn’t have been that long ago that he was here since he didn’t look very much older than maybe 25 or 30 and he grew up in Hungary.
-I met some Greek girls by the statues in the above picture. They were studying abroad in Rotterdam and asked where I was from. I told them to guess. I gave it to them after four guesses because they were getting close with Great Britain. I still can’t believe the guesses they made:
1) The Netherlands 2) Germany 3) Sweden 4) The UK
For a guy who always sticks out as American this was pretty funny :)
Back to the Hostel
Tired and ready to get a goodnight sleep. As I am about to get ready for bed, one of the three Spanish guys staying in the room asked me what kind of music I like. I told I really like just about everything except really dramatic, middle-schoolish R&B. He then randomly asked me, “do you listen to the Killers?” This was the end of my chances of getting to bed early. These three Spanish guys were obsessed with the Killers and we spent almost an hour and a half talking about exclusively about the Killers (we talked about Green Day for a couple of minutes). They went to a Killers concert in Spain and showed me some video of it. Too bad they are playing in the U.S. right now and will be in Europe when I am back in the U.S.
We woke up today at about 9:30 so I ended up getting around 9 and half hours of sleep! Wow do I feel great!
There was a Mexican guy staying in our room who was pretty cool and he told me about a place with some awesome tulip fields. He said that him and his girlfriend (she’s Italian but they both are currenlty living in Spain) went there and it was pretty nice. He told me basically how to get there and I think that maybe tomorrow, when all the others fly back, I will go there.
At breakfast I talked with a German guy and he seemed surprised when I said I think it is interesting how Europe is such an old place but Germany is kind of new as a country (have been fragmented until the late 1800s). He said that he thought that Americans don’t know anything about history (or anything for that matter). Sure there are some Americans who don’t know anything about history and such. Is that sad? Sure it is. It’s almost as sad as when someone from Europe thinks that the American tourists they meet and the actors they see on t.v. are what all 300 million of us are like. Seriously, there are so many great people in America. How come more of them don’t go and visit Europe?
We had to check out of Bob’s Hostel because we had a place booked for tonight. I didn’t want to leave. That bed was amazingly comfortable and more importantly, warm! Supposedly we were supposed to leave our mark in our room:
Shelter City Hostel
Next we made our way to Shelter City, which was one stop out of the city center on the subway. It looks like a pretty nice hostel. Here’s a view out of the window:
Another hot shower...finally...I am warm!
I need to find the name of this park
Next we went to a big park in Amsterdam that some people told us was cool. It was a pretty large park and so we just walked around for a while and relaxed.
Nemo Science Museum
We then walked through the Waterloo District (people told us this was supposed to be cool but actually it didn’t seem so special) to Nemo Science Museum.
It was pretty cool but it was mainly a kids museum. I wouldn’t pay 15 Euros or whatever to go there. More Pictures
We walked around for a few more hours taking pictures. Here are some of the best:
