What can i say about Odessa, it was sunny and cheap again, loads of babushkas came up to us at the train station and offered us lodging we got a room for about £6 each with 2 double beds in an out-house with seperate kitchens and tank shower. we went into town to check the boat but we got lost and ended up walking down the steps that were in 'The Battleship Potemkin' we got to the ferry terminal where the woman told us that there wasnt a boat until tuesday (i think it was a friday) so we had a sit down and decided to go to Moldova, yay! (there was a even a breif mention of georgia, but that was by me, and i was going nuts with no money) After cancelling the bulgarian hostel and booking the moldovan one. we bought our coach tickets, a fiver each and went back to our babuska, to get ready to spent the late afternoon, early evening on the beach, no topless beanies here, but i had my first dip in the Black Sea (third sea of the trip). Whilst i was out on the jetty to brusied and bloody men climbed out of the sea with a big bag of muscles. That night we checked out Arkadia, sort of like a Ukrianian seaside party mecca, and went to an open air club with an unbelievable amount of beanies, obvo didnt get with any. it was the first club i've ever been to with a half time show where the cleared the dancefloor and a couple came on and did some gymnastic sort of dancing, involving lifts etc. they were followed by two people in costumes dancing, fuck knows what they were supposed to be. for the rest of the night they were playing Ftv LATE on the big screen, basically videos of buff topless women posing for photo shoots, one after another for hours on end - it was distacting to say the least.
we had to wake up early the next day to get the bus to Chisinau (Kish-i-now) the capital of Moldova, preferably i would have stayed a week in Odessa and i was sad to leave, and to leave Ukraine in general but we had a music festival to go to, and 3 countries to visit along the way.
Tuesday, October 7, 2008
Kiev
I love russian trains, even thought our trip was during the day we still had a bed because our train was on its way to moscow from like Venice or something so every carriage was a sleeper, and thats wht i did - sleep we got to Kiev in the evening and found our hostel pretty easily wrote down the directions well, they were easy to follow as well. we also had a map this time. When we got to the hostel the hostel guy, who we couldnt tell where the fuck he came from, checked us in. 'Where have u come from buddy?' 'Lviv' 'Shithole' 'well actually it was quite nice' 'holes in the roads, lights going off, makes it shithole in my books' ok whatever.... later on we're in the common room, i go on the computer to find that FACEBOOK IS BLOCKED so i get on a proxy server and load it up... 'dont u be downloading anything or going on facebook, buddy, its blocked for a reason' cunt. of course after this whenever he wasnt in the room or he was out we would go on facebook as much as possible. He then went on to try and persuade us away from going to Odessa which is the summer party capital of Ukraine to got to Sevastapol by pointing at Sevastopol on his map overzealouslywhilst naming out randon events and leaders from history who had probably been there once. After treking around teh very hilly Kiev to find an Indian restaurant recommended in LP we found it relised cheapest meals cost more than they do in London, so we wnet to a place called Potato House which was shit, though while we were there we saw the most ridiculous weather report ever - behind the weather map was a woman slightly out of focus in a flesh coloured bikini, rubbing herself. When we got back we made the mistake of asking the hostel guy where to go that night, he told us to go to Shooters before calling us 'so fucking cheap' that we had to buy beers and drink them at the hostel, we thought the other guys at the hostel were at a bar but when we left we found they wer sitting outside cos they were trying to get away from HIM. we got a taxi to shooters, got to the door and got face controlled, i then asked some girls if they knew some good clubs locally, Arena, so we walked into town and found arena eventually to find it was very expensive, thus ending our 10 nights outs in a row streak. I got a noteably good sandwich at Mr Snack and then we went home.
Next day we had a walk around town down to independence square where teh shots from the Orange Revolution came from and then up to a park overlooking the river where we saw the beach in Kiev on the otherside of the bank which looked niiice. after posing on some communist landmarks we went back to the hostel where we met up with the other guys before going to dinner. we went to the local Ukrainian restaurant which served relitavely cheap food (for Kiev). we then and went and got a few beers and drank with the other guys on curbside before me pierre and a boy called james (who had actually just finished his first year at manchester) went clubbing. we read about a club in lonely planet that was supposedly good, we payed our 100 grivn (a tenner) to get in, it was shit so we thought we should try and leave and get our money back, and guess what, it worked. we the checked out arena which was virtually next door, but the club night hadnt started yet so we snuck into teh next door casino and used their very posh toilet and messed around with the b-day, 3 giggling boys walking out of the toilet must have seemd weird, on the way out i stole a russian playboy. we then tried our luck on shooters again. this time i got told i was allowed in but james and pierre would not be. at this point james started asking why, we were quite drunk, and asked me to explain that if they wanted tourism in there country they should stop with the 'face control' and let foreigners in. at this point the bouncers asked us to leave. i went for slash to come back and see from a far james, with pierre as amused audience, piss of the bouncers more by stating that the club wasnt allowed to have the black cab with nodding dog it had inside, if we were not allowed in. at this point a bouncer and a policemen led james down a side alley much to pierres anger which was the point i decided it wise to step in. one of teh bouncers clouted james in the neck before i got there whikst pierre was shouting at the other one 'thats fucking out of order' i explained to teh bouncer that u cant do that and he replied 'he thinks we need foreigners but i have plenty of ukrainians and russians who come here that fill my club up - fair play. we then got a cab to another club, i cant remember what it was called but we didnt get let into that either, the bouncer at least gave us a reason - dresscode - even though we saw i guy go in wearing flip-flops. we later walked hoem dejected, via McDonalds, where the woman refused to give me a large chips cos it would take her '10 minutes to fry the potatoes'.
i feel i should finish this post as i started it about 3 months, the only problem being that i cant remember very well what we did that day or the next, i know one of the days was spent on the beach, yes there was a beach in kiev, 10km of it supposedly and it was was white sand, with lots of topless ukrainian women as well as a couple having sex (trying to disguise it but not doing it very well), on another day we watched the euro final, a relitive anti-climax, partially cos we were in some shitty restaurant with no atmosphere, fortunately for us it went against the general trend of high kiev pricing so we enjoyed the cheap beer.
we decided against going to sevastopol like the dickhead hostel owner advised us to, so we went to the summe party capital of odessa instead with plans to get the boat to varna in bulgaria and then up through belgrade to Exit that way, this envolved another trip in plaskart overnight, james had his train and about the same time so we said our goodbyes in the station, with pierre organising with him to meet up in the balkans, me and him in bestival, neither would happen...
Next day we had a walk around town down to independence square where teh shots from the Orange Revolution came from and then up to a park overlooking the river where we saw the beach in Kiev on the otherside of the bank which looked niiice. after posing on some communist landmarks we went back to the hostel where we met up with the other guys before going to dinner. we went to the local Ukrainian restaurant which served relitavely cheap food (for Kiev). we then and went and got a few beers and drank with the other guys on curbside before me pierre and a boy called james (who had actually just finished his first year at manchester) went clubbing. we read about a club in lonely planet that was supposedly good, we payed our 100 grivn (a tenner) to get in, it was shit so we thought we should try and leave and get our money back, and guess what, it worked. we the checked out arena which was virtually next door, but the club night hadnt started yet so we snuck into teh next door casino and used their very posh toilet and messed around with the b-day, 3 giggling boys walking out of the toilet must have seemd weird, on the way out i stole a russian playboy. we then tried our luck on shooters again. this time i got told i was allowed in but james and pierre would not be. at this point james started asking why, we were quite drunk, and asked me to explain that if they wanted tourism in there country they should stop with the 'face control' and let foreigners in. at this point the bouncers asked us to leave. i went for slash to come back and see from a far james, with pierre as amused audience, piss of the bouncers more by stating that the club wasnt allowed to have the black cab with nodding dog it had inside, if we were not allowed in. at this point a bouncer and a policemen led james down a side alley much to pierres anger which was the point i decided it wise to step in. one of teh bouncers clouted james in the neck before i got there whikst pierre was shouting at the other one 'thats fucking out of order' i explained to teh bouncer that u cant do that and he replied 'he thinks we need foreigners but i have plenty of ukrainians and russians who come here that fill my club up - fair play. we then got a cab to another club, i cant remember what it was called but we didnt get let into that either, the bouncer at least gave us a reason - dresscode - even though we saw i guy go in wearing flip-flops. we later walked hoem dejected, via McDonalds, where the woman refused to give me a large chips cos it would take her '10 minutes to fry the potatoes'.
i feel i should finish this post as i started it about 3 months, the only problem being that i cant remember very well what we did that day or the next, i know one of the days was spent on the beach, yes there was a beach in kiev, 10km of it supposedly and it was was white sand, with lots of topless ukrainian women as well as a couple having sex (trying to disguise it but not doing it very well), on another day we watched the euro final, a relitive anti-climax, partially cos we were in some shitty restaurant with no atmosphere, fortunately for us it went against the general trend of high kiev pricing so we enjoyed the cheap beer.
we decided against going to sevastopol like the dickhead hostel owner advised us to, so we went to the summe party capital of odessa instead with plans to get the boat to varna in bulgaria and then up through belgrade to Exit that way, this envolved another trip in plaskart overnight, james had his train and about the same time so we said our goodbyes in the station, with pierre organising with him to meet up in the balkans, me and him in bestival, neither would happen...
Sunday, July 6, 2008
Lovin Lviv
We got dumped off teh bus at the train station, which, because of my Lonely Planerts very vague Ukraine section with no map for the second biggest city, meant we didnt have a fucking clue where we were. after getting a bus vaguly into town cos the tram we were told to get was terminated cos there had been a hurricane or summit. after relying on my mental map we evntually got lost, through a combination of russian and wrong street names, 3 people and about an hour later we arrived at our hostel which was actually quite nice and cheap. the woman tried to charge us more than hostel world had said but we argued and she put up no resistance, so we got our room for 4 quid a night, the cheapest since mongolia. we were in a rush cos the Germany Turkey match was coming to end so we just went straight to the first pub we saw got to pints and watched the last 2o minutes. much to our dismay turkey were 2-1 down, almost immediately though, they equalised, yaz we think, extra time, until Phillip Lahm wenta bit mental and scored an amazing goal in the 94th minute. when the game finished we went down stairs and as soon as the barman told me the 2 beers cost a quid in total i realised i loved thios place, there's nothing better than good, cheap alchohol to take awaz all the stress. when we got back the hostel owner and his friends invited us to drink with them. a few funnz broken russian stories, vodka shots and glasses of moldovan wine later we decided to go to the club. we had a chocie of 3, Millenium which would be expensive, Picasso which was quite far away and metro which was close, cheap and full, easy choice. Well saying that we had actually been persuaded to go to Picasso but Metro was on the way so we went there instead. we got in and the main dancefloor was packed, unfortuanately they were playing cheesy russian dance music. we had a few beers (Staropramen were a quid each) and then had a look around. we checked out the hiphop and the house rooms and then jsut cut our losses and went back to the main stage, the next 3 hours or so are very hazy so i'll keep it simple: I met some young ukrainians with union jack t-shirts cos their nicknames are 'Hooligan', i danced with some girl who told me no, but later while i was talking to pierre said good dancing in my ear, in russian konyeshna. pierre left, i'm not sure when but it was because his feet were 'cunted' basically i went over to the table where she was sitting and did another russian chirps and got off with her, when we left the club though, with her mate i was like, ok back to yours? (she was actually well on it) but then she goes and shows me her ingagement ring - 'im getting married in 3 months', 'err... cool' we shared a cab cos apparently we lived on the same road, or at least i thought i did. in the cab she was stroking my leg, which in my opinion was a brutal form of torture. the cab pulled up at 'my address' but what actually happened was teh hostel is on schevchenko avenue not schevchenko street. i was like 'i will sleep on the floor i just need to sleep, please, actually on the floor' after telling me that she actually lived with her fiance, her friend sent me home and even payed for my cab, i had 50p on me, the cab was 2 quid....
Next day i woke up with up at about 2 in teh afternoon to the hostel girl asking me why i was still in bed, we decided to go into town and ask about train times at the tourism office, get some food and pierre to get a haircut. the tourism lady was dumb and wrong saying we could get a train to moldova in 3 hours (would actually take 17) which perked us up for a about an hour or so until we checked online. something usful she did tell us was a barber shop where pierre could get his Andre Arshavin hair cut off it ended up costing about a quid. while he was having his haircut i went and had a look around the nearby market, where a few stalls were closing up, why so early i thought, me not even having lunch yet, oh wait its 5.30. atre Pierres haircut we went to a fancy yet popular pizzeria where u chose ur own toppings, pizza and a drink cost about 2 pounds, by now we were actually realising how fucking cheap lviv actually actually was, pizza was delicious and all. After that we went to the Internet Cafe to find the real train times we found that the train to Moldova was an overnight, so, with our plan to have as many consecutive nights out as possible in our 'dash to EXIT' we decided to head further into ukraine and skip moldova completely as well as romania and end up getting a ferry to varna from odessa. Later that evening we found a seat in one of the cool outdoor shisha bars we saw the night before on teh mainstreet to watch the football, spain russia, if i remember correctly, everyone was supporting Spain, eastern Ukraine, are very patriotic and therefore anti russian, Spain won 3-0, absolutely demolishing the russians, Arshavin was quiet all match, partly due to the deity that is Marcos Senna. during teh game we got some shisha the man was like 'what flavour' peach please 'and what would u like inside?' err peach? 'no, inside, wine cognac, milk?' err... well aparently milk was the best bet and we got it cos it was cheapest as well, but apparently it acts as a filter, what resulted was a shisha pipe that tasted like peach yogurt, honestly one of teh buffest things ever. we also got chatting to a guy called Vladimir who studied english at Uni and has since kept in touch, he was a cool guy. when we got back to the hostel tank up before the club we met a scouse bloke who had just arrived. his mates were asleep and he was in his pants but a few minutes (beers) later he was persuaded to come to Metro with us. On this night in Metro the tallent wasnt up to its best, they were all very young so we went on a mission to get drunk. there were some pretty hot strippers on the podium so thats where all the young boys were cameras out, recording. this night fades away in my memory i did end up getting off with some girl she gave me her number but i didnt remember her name so i saved something ridiculous in my phone, just check it now.......Juv.... (i tell u 2 weeks on when i'm actually writng this that cracks me up soooo much).
i stayed too late at the club and drank too much especially as i had to be up at 8 the next morning when the alarm went off i seariously have never felt so bad, Pierre can vouch for it, he saw the state i was in, that morning is a bit of a blur but i still managed to get the train to Kiev.
Lviv was seariously up there with St Pete and Beijing as one of the favourite places i went to. If we wern't in some mad crazy rush, i could have easily stayed there another 3 days or so, would have done well for my finances too...
Next day i woke up with up at about 2 in teh afternoon to the hostel girl asking me why i was still in bed, we decided to go into town and ask about train times at the tourism office, get some food and pierre to get a haircut. the tourism lady was dumb and wrong saying we could get a train to moldova in 3 hours (would actually take 17) which perked us up for a about an hour or so until we checked online. something usful she did tell us was a barber shop where pierre could get his Andre Arshavin hair cut off it ended up costing about a quid. while he was having his haircut i went and had a look around the nearby market, where a few stalls were closing up, why so early i thought, me not even having lunch yet, oh wait its 5.30. atre Pierres haircut we went to a fancy yet popular pizzeria where u chose ur own toppings, pizza and a drink cost about 2 pounds, by now we were actually realising how fucking cheap lviv actually actually was, pizza was delicious and all. After that we went to the Internet Cafe to find the real train times we found that the train to Moldova was an overnight, so, with our plan to have as many consecutive nights out as possible in our 'dash to EXIT' we decided to head further into ukraine and skip moldova completely as well as romania and end up getting a ferry to varna from odessa. Later that evening we found a seat in one of the cool outdoor shisha bars we saw the night before on teh mainstreet to watch the football, spain russia, if i remember correctly, everyone was supporting Spain, eastern Ukraine, are very patriotic and therefore anti russian, Spain won 3-0, absolutely demolishing the russians, Arshavin was quiet all match, partly due to the deity that is Marcos Senna. during teh game we got some shisha the man was like 'what flavour' peach please 'and what would u like inside?' err peach? 'no, inside, wine cognac, milk?' err... well aparently milk was the best bet and we got it cos it was cheapest as well, but apparently it acts as a filter, what resulted was a shisha pipe that tasted like peach yogurt, honestly one of teh buffest things ever. we also got chatting to a guy called Vladimir who studied english at Uni and has since kept in touch, he was a cool guy. when we got back to the hostel tank up before the club we met a scouse bloke who had just arrived. his mates were asleep and he was in his pants but a few minutes (beers) later he was persuaded to come to Metro with us. On this night in Metro the tallent wasnt up to its best, they were all very young so we went on a mission to get drunk. there were some pretty hot strippers on the podium so thats where all the young boys were cameras out, recording. this night fades away in my memory i did end up getting off with some girl she gave me her number but i didnt remember her name so i saved something ridiculous in my phone, just check it now.......Juv.... (i tell u 2 weeks on when i'm actually writng this that cracks me up soooo much).
i stayed too late at the club and drank too much especially as i had to be up at 8 the next morning when the alarm went off i seariously have never felt so bad, Pierre can vouch for it, he saw the state i was in, that morning is a bit of a blur but i still managed to get the train to Kiev.
Lviv was seariously up there with St Pete and Beijing as one of the favourite places i went to. If we wern't in some mad crazy rush, i could have easily stayed there another 3 days or so, would have done well for my finances too...
Saturday, July 5, 2008
Border crossing
Ok for some reason after beeing in the safety of the EU for about a month, we decided to leave it again. we also wanted to keep up a consecutive string of night out so we didnt get the train from krakow cos it got in at midnight and it was too much hassle - Ukraine, ex-USSR, different wheel gage, hours on the border etc. So, as the travel blogs the night before had suggested we got a train to teh main town near the border, which took about 3 hours, then a local bus to the border town - we actually go the bus to the centre of the town rather than the border section so had to SAS it 2 km down the motorway - and then cross the border by foot.
The thing about the border between Poland and Ukraine is that there is a big cigarette smuggling trade, so teh border is full of Poles making easy money. the first thing we noticed starnege was that a few had US dollars tucked into there passports but we turned a blind eye. when they saw our Passports they were like go to the front, go to the front, ok. we went to teh fron where there was still no movement and put our bags down and waited. For some unknown reason there wasnt any passport control person working so we had to wait for a while in the sun, i was listening to my music in one ear when suddenly i head a loud cry. I turn around and see the 300 people behind me charging the border. SHIT. grab my bag and get crushed to death - only joking - but it was highly uncomfertable. eventually teh one border guard sorts it out and eventually about half an hour later we get to the passport control even though there are only 10 people infront of us. the passport woman said i had to fill in a immigration card but held onto my passport which was helpful it took me 3 turns to fill it in right she only gave me my passport to fill in my passport number on teh third time of asking. Eventually we got the stamp and walked into to Ukraine. on teh other side we got a not-so comfortable, but reletively cheap and reliable bus to Lviv.
despite this, the whole palava, was still 4 hours faster than getting the train.
The thing about the border between Poland and Ukraine is that there is a big cigarette smuggling trade, so teh border is full of Poles making easy money. the first thing we noticed starnege was that a few had US dollars tucked into there passports but we turned a blind eye. when they saw our Passports they were like go to the front, go to the front, ok. we went to teh fron where there was still no movement and put our bags down and waited. For some unknown reason there wasnt any passport control person working so we had to wait for a while in the sun, i was listening to my music in one ear when suddenly i head a loud cry. I turn around and see the 300 people behind me charging the border. SHIT. grab my bag and get crushed to death - only joking - but it was highly uncomfertable. eventually teh one border guard sorts it out and eventually about half an hour later we get to the passport control even though there are only 10 people infront of us. the passport woman said i had to fill in a immigration card but held onto my passport which was helpful it took me 3 turns to fill it in right she only gave me my passport to fill in my passport number on teh third time of asking. Eventually we got the stamp and walked into to Ukraine. on teh other side we got a not-so comfortable, but reletively cheap and reliable bus to Lviv.
despite this, the whole palava, was still 4 hours faster than getting the train.
Friday, July 4, 2008
Krakow
When we got to krakow we found that we were truley back on, what my friends in south america would call it, the gringo trail (i dunno if ive spelled that right but who cares). Anyway when we got there we had finally hit teh Eastern european tourist trail proper, people 'interailing' from switzerland, norway, england, estonia, all the corners of europe and we were now properly amonst it. Our hostel was a really cool place designed to be as socialble as possible (you had to walk through the common room to get in and out and through the dining room to go to the toilet). On top of that it was so well located, literally a stone's throw from teh main town sqaure. We had read about a really good indian restaurant in the lonely planet but unfortunately it didnt exist so we went to a vegetarian diner style place that provided a very hearty meal for cheap cheap price. we went back to the hostel and watched the italy spain game - boring - over a few beers and got chatting to some italian german swiss guy called... forgot, oh well, italy lost, thankfully, cos they are shit, despite it being on penalties, and me and pierre, because we had started drinkins so late (we got to krakow itself at 8pm, then check in dinner etc) went to the club alone. we went to a club recommended by the hostel, we did teh split price entry thing to see if it was good it was, so then pierre came in, actually for free cos he remebered he had some free entry pass, so it worked out at about a quid-50 entry each. we got in and unfortunately teh house room was emptying, the smaller hiphop room was full though and we danced there for the night, their were lots of girls, slightly younger than us bu7t we still didnt get any play, resulting in Pierre declaring, 'we are shit!' which is true. we stayed there for a few hours and then gave up, i left slightly earlier. when i got back i raided the breakfast cupboard and had a bowl of cereal on the balcony with my t-shirt off (what i failed to mention was that it was hot! especially in the club) and then retired to bed where pierre had already crashed out on the bunk below.
The second day i woke up late, like 3pm and we planned to go to a lake near the centre that people were talking about but we dawdled so much that eventually the heat gave into thunderstorms which produced probably the biggest hail stones i has seen in my life, about teh size of a large marble and this is in mid-June! later on some english guys from the hostel - Tom and harry - said they knew a place where they were selling litre beers for a quid-50 we still had some bottles so we arreanged to meet them later. when we were about o leave we invited a group of 18 year old guys from northern Ireland - who were doing what me pierre and the rest of the train crew did last year - if they wanted to come with us, using the cheap beer as a selling point, 'sorry lads ur talking to the wrong people' my gosh. eventually we started walking to the bar with 2 other english guys from leeds, sam and joe (joe was a yiddo!) but pierre didnt remember the way, we asked some girls and they knew where the place was but then they were like 'its her birthday, do u want to come drink with us?' we were like yeh ok, there were 4 of them too. as we walked back to the main square pierre was talking with one of the hot ones while the other 3 of us were being shit and walked seperately from the three others. In fairness Joe and Sam were telling about their dipping into sex tourism, which was quite jokes but at the same time a bit creepy. about 5 minutes later the girls were like actually we have to work tomorrow so we're going to sleep, they were coming to london at the end of august so the birthday girl asked for my email adress and will se what happens, potentially 1 of me, 4 of them... we eventually found the bar which was closing tom and harry came out to meet us, and tom - who was doing a paper on stag culture and had been to krakow a few times - took us to a shisha bar/club. as a club it wasnt the best of places but we did get a shisha pipe which was cool.i ened up paying the most cos one of the guys thought it was my treat, who does he think i am?? we ended up dancing in a small room which played funk, but some of teh tunes the DJ brought out were so bad. after a few hours of not being able to take it anymore we left. when we got back i repeated the same cereal routine but this time i didnt feel at all tired so i bought an Ice Tea at reception and blogger until the early morning, i was feeling quite nocternal in Krakow.
On our last full day i woke up slighly earlier, about 2 and we went straight to the lake, the lake was basically a filled in quarry so it had good opportunities for cliff diving:
i was showing off a bit to some 14 year old boys and they responded by calling me a black something i'm not sure but the word for black in polish is the same in Polish as in russian so i understood half of it. we then hit the 'beach' of the lake - basically the old ramp into the quarry. we met the Estonian bikers who were staying at our hostel and then went to TESCOS to buy some food for dinner. that night i had elaborate beans on toast, kidney beans, fried with onions on cheese on toasted baguette, i nearly had a coronary. That night 4 stunning norwegians turned up, nice one. Tom and harry were like we're thinking about going to a micro-brewery and we were like 'ok cool we'll just finish our beers and-' 'ok, we'll see you later, come on girls' they didnt go to the micro brewery, we checked. we ended up going to a club night called 'House Forever' the door lady was like 'ID please' so we gave it to her 'OMG u guys are sooo young (*sigh*) ok this is the last time...' err ok then, we were following some girls that had passed us on the street and when we got in we couldt actually find any house, one of teh girls came over to dance with us but again teh club was so hot, i went to the toliet to air my balls and when i came back Pierre was pulling her. fair game. after a while of dancing with by myself in line with fan her friends came back from whatever and i started dancing with one, for some reason she was happy to grind and stuff but whenever i went to kiss her she pulled back or shook her head, then went away talked with her friends as if discussing something important and then coming back to dance with me, the twist is everytime she came back i got further, first a kiss, then she got some ice in her mouth and transferred it to my mouth then eventually we got off. we went and sat down and she was like where are u from, england, 'oh i thought u were foreign! - cool.... anyway after a while sitting down and getrting offd she 'had to' go home. i sat down for a while then went to the dancefloor where pierre was still getting off with his bird, i decided to leave, but on the way out heard some pumping house! i finally found the house room but could only dance for a bit as i was tired and my feet hurt - i know, pussy'ole. when i got back and had a bowl of cereal and harry and teh norwegians got back. one of them was giving me searious eyes, seariously, and when all her friends went to bed i was waiting for teh internet that she was on. finally she gets up and i catch her eye, and say excuse me - her eyes light up - is the internet free now, 'err, yes' ... i know, i am shit. Pierre came back later and his girl was also staying with a friend so 'had to' go home, we checked a few travel blogs about what was the quickest way yto get to Lviv in Ukraine from krakow, i blogged for a bit and then went to bed.
in the morning i got a few snaps of the main square as i ahdnt actually had a proper look around town, partly because Krakow was wicked. If we didnt have our EXIT tickets i think i could have easily stayed there a week.
The second day i woke up late, like 3pm and we planned to go to a lake near the centre that people were talking about but we dawdled so much that eventually the heat gave into thunderstorms which produced probably the biggest hail stones i has seen in my life, about teh size of a large marble and this is in mid-June! later on some english guys from the hostel - Tom and harry - said they knew a place where they were selling litre beers for a quid-50 we still had some bottles so we arreanged to meet them later. when we were about o leave we invited a group of 18 year old guys from northern Ireland - who were doing what me pierre and the rest of the train crew did last year - if they wanted to come with us, using the cheap beer as a selling point, 'sorry lads ur talking to the wrong people' my gosh. eventually we started walking to the bar with 2 other english guys from leeds, sam and joe (joe was a yiddo!) but pierre didnt remember the way, we asked some girls and they knew where the place was but then they were like 'its her birthday, do u want to come drink with us?' we were like yeh ok, there were 4 of them too. as we walked back to the main square pierre was talking with one of the hot ones while the other 3 of us were being shit and walked seperately from the three others. In fairness Joe and Sam were telling about their dipping into sex tourism, which was quite jokes but at the same time a bit creepy. about 5 minutes later the girls were like actually we have to work tomorrow so we're going to sleep, they were coming to london at the end of august so the birthday girl asked for my email adress and will se what happens, potentially 1 of me, 4 of them... we eventually found the bar which was closing tom and harry came out to meet us, and tom - who was doing a paper on stag culture and had been to krakow a few times - took us to a shisha bar/club. as a club it wasnt the best of places but we did get a shisha pipe which was cool.i ened up paying the most cos one of the guys thought it was my treat, who does he think i am?? we ended up dancing in a small room which played funk, but some of teh tunes the DJ brought out were so bad. after a few hours of not being able to take it anymore we left. when we got back i repeated the same cereal routine but this time i didnt feel at all tired so i bought an Ice Tea at reception and blogger until the early morning, i was feeling quite nocternal in Krakow.
On our last full day i woke up slighly earlier, about 2 and we went straight to the lake, the lake was basically a filled in quarry so it had good opportunities for cliff diving:
i was showing off a bit to some 14 year old boys and they responded by calling me a black something i'm not sure but the word for black in polish is the same in Polish as in russian so i understood half of it. we then hit the 'beach' of the lake - basically the old ramp into the quarry. we met the Estonian bikers who were staying at our hostel and then went to TESCOS to buy some food for dinner. that night i had elaborate beans on toast, kidney beans, fried with onions on cheese on toasted baguette, i nearly had a coronary. That night 4 stunning norwegians turned up, nice one. Tom and harry were like we're thinking about going to a micro-brewery and we were like 'ok cool we'll just finish our beers and-' 'ok, we'll see you later, come on girls' they didnt go to the micro brewery, we checked. we ended up going to a club night called 'House Forever' the door lady was like 'ID please' so we gave it to her 'OMG u guys are sooo young (*sigh*) ok this is the last time...' err ok then, we were following some girls that had passed us on the street and when we got in we couldt actually find any house, one of teh girls came over to dance with us but again teh club was so hot, i went to the toliet to air my balls and when i came back Pierre was pulling her. fair game. after a while of dancing with by myself in line with fan her friends came back from whatever and i started dancing with one, for some reason she was happy to grind and stuff but whenever i went to kiss her she pulled back or shook her head, then went away talked with her friends as if discussing something important and then coming back to dance with me, the twist is everytime she came back i got further, first a kiss, then she got some ice in her mouth and transferred it to my mouth then eventually we got off. we went and sat down and she was like where are u from, england, 'oh i thought u were foreign! - cool.... anyway after a while sitting down and getrting offd she 'had to' go home. i sat down for a while then went to the dancefloor where pierre was still getting off with his bird, i decided to leave, but on the way out heard some pumping house! i finally found the house room but could only dance for a bit as i was tired and my feet hurt - i know, pussy'ole. when i got back and had a bowl of cereal and harry and teh norwegians got back. one of them was giving me searious eyes, seariously, and when all her friends went to bed i was waiting for teh internet that she was on. finally she gets up and i catch her eye, and say excuse me - her eyes light up - is the internet free now, 'err, yes' ... i know, i am shit. Pierre came back later and his girl was also staying with a friend so 'had to' go home, we checked a few travel blogs about what was the quickest way yto get to Lviv in Ukraine from krakow, i blogged for a bit and then went to bed.
in the morning i got a few snaps of the main square as i ahdnt actually had a proper look around town, partly because Krakow was wicked. If we didnt have our EXIT tickets i think i could have easily stayed there a week.
Thursday, July 3, 2008
Warszawa
3 trains later we arrive in Warsaw were we are picked up by the guy we were doing couchsurfing with, called Michal 'u can call me Mike'. we had originally planned to stay with some other guy but when Mike replied to our request 'good idea coming on the weekend 150 clubs await you' we had no choice but to make up an excuse and ditch the other one. we got chatting about poland and frisbee and festivals and also how he was quite the avid couchsurfer, in fact he had hosted over 60 sets of people last summer including 9 people at one time! he was also quite a paty animal and hadnt slept for 3 days but a few beers later he was ready for the club. On the way he got us some special recipe vodka which was quite drinkable. In poland they use mixers also but instead of it actually being mixed u take the mixer aftrewards, so in this case we were going vodka and then coke and the vodka etc etc etc i also got a bottle of Tiskie, instantly reigniting myt love for Polish beer. eventually we hit the club which was called Balsam. It was Mike's favourite club cos it played funk music, unfortunately House and techno werent his things. The club wasnt full but not far off and teh clientelle were of a slightly older age but this didnt ward me off. a few pints later i was dancing with these 2 women, not the best lookers, but i got if with both of them one after another, literally taking turns. I thought i was in there but later on after Pierre and Mike had gone home we were playing foosball, on what was probably the worst foosball table i have ever played on (one team had 8 players, and teh other's keeper had no legs!), and then the bouncers said the club was closed, the girls turned around and said 'nice to meet u' hopped in a cab and went home. on the walk home i was talking to some guys and we bumped into a girl who had just graduated from secondary school that day and was waiting for the first metro. i started chatting to her but there was some big guy with a bruise on his eyebrow who just wouldnt leave. eventually i got fed up and was like 'you know the metro's started' and so i took her down the subway' - Mike's flat was on the otherside - and she was like do u knopw that man, whilst holding my hand, 'no i said' but then she went into teh metro and i never saw her again... she was butters though.
After sleeping on the floor, for a reason i cant remeber we went into town to see the Warsaw Rising museum which Mike had recommended, on the way i had proberly the worst felafel of my life. The museum was cool if not a little depressing really showing how much Stalin fucked over the Poles by not helping them fight against the germans to get back an Independent poland and instaed waiting another year to do it himself and take all the glory. we then had a walk around the old town where we saw the bears , one from evry country in the world, my favourites included Cuba, Ireland, America and Moldova's which was basically a plea for tourism. we went back and changed and then went back into town to watch the football. And after missing Turkeys miraculous win over Croatia, we wernt going to miss Russia - Holland, in which the Dutch got thrashed - Arshavin again! we then met up with Mike who went into a club to get some Pills without telling us and then took us to a shitty club where his mate was DJing, after her set we went back to Balsam and this time the clientelle was strangely young, i was dancing with this girl who was quite fit but then she smiled and i saw her braces, not haps. i stumbled home in the morning light and managed to get some potato wedges in slad and pitta for about 60p at the kebab shop. i was lsitening to music on my phone ehich ran out of power jsut before i got back. Whats a matter with that is that the door code was on my phone. After a few meek atempts at climbing into teh secon floor window i gave up and had a little doze on the doorstep until Mike came back.
The next day we were off to Krakow but we had a good lie in, as the train was in the afternoon and only took 3 hours. we eventually said fairwell to Mike, and almost missed our train but once we got on we were properly on our dash to EXIT.
After sleeping on the floor, for a reason i cant remeber we went into town to see the Warsaw Rising museum which Mike had recommended, on the way i had proberly the worst felafel of my life. The museum was cool if not a little depressing really showing how much Stalin fucked over the Poles by not helping them fight against the germans to get back an Independent poland and instaed waiting another year to do it himself and take all the glory. we then had a walk around the old town where we saw the bears , one from evry country in the world, my favourites included Cuba, Ireland, America and Moldova's which was basically a plea for tourism. we went back and changed and then went back into town to watch the football. And after missing Turkeys miraculous win over Croatia, we wernt going to miss Russia - Holland, in which the Dutch got thrashed - Arshavin again! we then met up with Mike who went into a club to get some Pills without telling us and then took us to a shitty club where his mate was DJing, after her set we went back to Balsam and this time the clientelle was strangely young, i was dancing with this girl who was quite fit but then she smiled and i saw her braces, not haps. i stumbled home in the morning light and managed to get some potato wedges in slad and pitta for about 60p at the kebab shop. i was lsitening to music on my phone ehich ran out of power jsut before i got back. Whats a matter with that is that the door code was on my phone. After a few meek atempts at climbing into teh secon floor window i gave up and had a little doze on the doorstep until Mike came back.
The next day we were off to Krakow but we had a good lie in, as the train was in the afternoon and only took 3 hours. we eventually said fairwell to Mike, and almost missed our train but once we got on we were properly on our dash to EXIT.
Monday, June 30, 2008
Dash to EXIT - An Introduction
After we booked our exit tickets we were officially in a rush. we didnt need to be, of course, but we wanted to go through about 7 countries getting there, which included: (the previously planned) Lithuania and Poland and then on top of that, Ukraine, Moldova, Romania, Bulgaria and then finally Serbia, all in 24 days.
We were supposedly rushing in Lithuania but we would have only spent more time in Vilnius, which was a disappointment anyway, so in Poland the dash was really starting.
Of course the mad rushing is synonomous with the Eurotrip me pierre and 3/4/5 others did last summer, so of course it evrything has to be a lot more intense, drinking, going out on the pull actually seeing sites - maybe even a bit of Nazi tourism, anyway i'm looking forward to it.
We were supposedly rushing in Lithuania but we would have only spent more time in Vilnius, which was a disappointment anyway, so in Poland the dash was really starting.
Of course the mad rushing is synonomous with the Eurotrip me pierre and 3/4/5 others did last summer, so of course it evrything has to be a lot more intense, drinking, going out on the pull actually seeing sites - maybe even a bit of Nazi tourism, anyway i'm looking forward to it.
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