Running Away From Christmas

Over the course of my time in Slovenia the moments of having that gut wrenching homesick feeling have been remarkably non-existent.  Sure I’ve missed things about home; my friends and family, the simplicity of knowing where everything is and how to get it, and Kraft Dinner, just to name a few.  But not once have I wished I was home, let alone ever entertained the thought of giving up this incredible experience of living in Ljubljana in favour of the aforementioned niceties.  However, even before I set out on this endeavour I knew that if there was ever going to be one time where I felt that longing for home and the familiar it would likely be at Christmas.  I had images in my head of calling home on Christmas day while sitting alone in my cold, bare cubicle of an apartment, all of my friends having already travelled the short distances to their homes while I’m left here on the opposite side of the world from mine.  So with this horrible scenario in mind, I set out to avoid it from happening.  I was gonna go somewhere so exotic and different that turkey dinner and presents would be the last thing on my mind.  As it turned out, I found that place and it was Morocco.

It’s not as though I just threw a dart at the map and decided to go wherever it landed (although that probably would have made for a better story), there was some logic behind my decision.  I know a few people who have been to Morocco before and all of them had great things to say about it, so I’ve been interested in visiting the country for a while.  I also wanted to go somewhere warm but not so much because the Slovenian winter is so unbearably cold (because it’s not) but because spending Christmas with a view of sun and palm trees is just about as far as you can get from the snow and gloom of December back home.  So I booked myself a flight and a space on an 11 day tour and almost before I knew it I was jetting off to spend my holidays in the ‘Orient’.

A man walks outside a mosque wearing the traditional Moroccan Jalaba.

There are many words one could use to describe Morocco but perhaps the most accurate of them all is ‘enchanting’.  The whole country is a myriad of vibrant sights, sounds, smells, and colours which together are all an assault on the senses but at the same time and in some unexplainable manner leave you wanting more.  Even the names of the cities, like Marrakech, Fes, or Ourzazate, sound like they've been ripped out of the pages of some tale of adventure in far off lands and have an allure to them as captivating as a mirage in the Sahara.  My first destination, Casablanca, was of course no exception.  

Almost immediately after arriving there was an undeniable sense that I was somewhere different; different than my home in Canada, different than my adopted home in Slovenia, different even than my former home in Kuwait.  All that was required to find a taxi to my hotel, for example, was to simply walk down the street and let them come to me, which they did in droves.  When I didn’t like the quoted price I just had to threaten to go with another taxi and suddenly the price was about 70% lower.  In a way, this exchange with the cab driver in my first minutes in the country was indicative of everyday life in Morocco, where everything is negotiable.  After agreeing on a price I piled into the 1970 something Peugeot, a “Petit Taxi” as they are called, and went along for the ride.  Now I’ve had some interesting experiences on roads in different countries, but none of them quite compared to that first drive in Casablanca.  My driver wove around obstacles on the road, some visible some obviously in his head, at different points he would floor the gas and slam on the breaks, all the while speeding through intersections without so much as glancing at the traffic lights.  As Youseff, one of the guides, later explained, “Traffic lights in Casablanca are just decorations.”

Hides are hand dyed in these pools in Fes just like they've
 done for hundreds of years.

From Casablanca we continued on to Fes.  Famous for its medina, or old town, and leather industry which seemingly runs in the same fashion it did when the old town was young.  You can still see men working away in their stalls treating the hides and scraping off the fur with blades by hand.  Then the tanned hides are loaded onto the backs of donkeys to be transported through the maze of alleyways and passages that make up the medina.  The clamour of everyday life engulfs the entire place, but the words, “belek, belek!” stand out.  Roughly translated, they mean get out of the way.  Tanners frequently yell them out as they guide their caravans of donkeys through the city to hand off the hides to be dyed.  The dyeing station is a burst of colour in an otherwise monotonous place.  There are dozens of small pools and each is filled with a different vividly coloured natural dye.  However, you can only enjoy the magnificent site if you can get past the revolting smell.  A combination of the ingredients in some of the dyes and fat residues left on the hides make for a pungent odour which can be hard to take.  But as one local assured me, “thank God you came in winter, because in summer it can be quite unbearable.” 

Our guide, Rachid, takes a walk amongst the rolling sand dunes
of the Sahara.

After Fes we carried on south over the Middle Atlas mountain range into the Sahara.  Of course, there really is only one way to truly experience the desert; by camel.  Riding on a camel watching the last rays of the orange sunset dip below the horizon in front of the sea of cascading sand dunes is something I will not soon forget.  Unfortunately, that moment couldn’t last forever and quite soon the warmth from the last glimmer of the sun was replaced by the biting cold of the desert night.

After the night in the desert the scenery only grew in spectacle.  From the rocky outcrops of the imposing Todra Gorge to travelling back in time through the Valley of a Thousand Kasbahs and finally through the snow-capped peaks of the High Atlas range.  It was some of the most contrasting yet beautiful landscape I have ever seen.  Arid desert and lifeless mountains are only broken up by the infrequent oases which seemingly support all life in the region.  The peace and serenity was a far cry from our final destination in Marrakech.

The fortified village, or Ksar, of Ait Benhaddou, a UNESCO World Heritage Site and popular backdrop for movies such as The Mummy, Gladiator, and Prince of Persia.

Marrakech is the quintessential Middle Eastern city, or at least, its everything you imagine the Middle East to be.  The main square, Djema el-fna, is a dizzying din of snake charmers, musicians, animals, food stalls, and millions of people. It’s enough to make your head spin and it’s the type of place that based on all of my past experiences I should hate.  I hate crowds, I don’t like it when people try and put their monkey on my shoulder, and I definitely do not like the chaos of the entire scene, yet for some strange reason I couldn’t get enough of it.  I’d slowly make my way around the square and into the surrounding souks and occasionally stop to haggle with some shop keeper over some item or try to explain to him that, no, I don’t need that huge carpet, even if it is for a "good price for you, my friend."  Marrakech was like nowhere else I’ve ever been before and no matter how hard I try to describe it, I will never be able to do it justice.

Sunset over part of the souks of Marrakech.  This is the time when the whole place comes alive and the main square becomes full of food vendors.

So, my trip to Morocco had come and gone and with nothing but a call home and the odd seasonal greeting, so had Christmas.  Come Christmas day I wasn’t sitting in my cold apartment all by myself, and I definitely wasn’t missing home, there was too much to do and see to even think about that.  At first I kind of thought I would go to Morocco to run away from Christmas.  I thought it would be easier to be away from home if there wasn't any Christmas at all.  But what I realized as I made my way through successive medinas, deserts, and kasbahs, was that I really wasn’t running away from anything.  I was running towards adventure and excitement and the unknown.  And what's really exciting, is that over the next few months I'm going to have a lot more running to do.  

From Frigid Ljubljana to Sunny Croatia and Beyond

As I sit here on my bed and stare out the window at the dense fog shrouding the city and the stubborn frost that remains clinging to the ground, I find it hard to believe that just one week ago I was revelling in the warmth and sunshine in some of the most beautiful places I have ever been.  It seems like those places are a world away and yet, in true European fashion, you really don't have to go far to find a place that is completely different.

From left to right: Me, Nicole, Lukas, Marcel

Looking back, it really was a whirlwind trip; about 1,800km altogether, seven different border crossings, and four different countries.  From Ljubljana we went down to the southern most point in Croatia and then we kept going into Montenegro and eventually made our way back through Bosnia and Herzegovina.  We spent a lot of time on the road and we were almost constantly on the move and yet I hardly noticed it. This probably had something to do with the awesome weather, and also just the excitement of being in a new place with more ahead of us.  A large part of it though, was the people I was with.  There were four of us altogether; Marcel and Lukas, two German guys, and Nicole, a fellow Canadian from Toronto.  Together, we piled into our rented Nissan something-or-other and just went along for the ride, not quite sure what to expect about any of the places we had planned ahead of us.  We all got along great, got to see some of the less visited places, and had a ton of fun in the process (this is from my point of view of course, but I'm sure they'd all agree with me).  Had time not been a constraint, as it almost always is, I would have gladly pushed on with them in that Nissan for another 1,800km.

Dubrovnik's Old Town as it looks from the outside.

Friday night we arrived at our first destination in Dubrovnik, Croatia to a downpour of rain but woke up the next morning to perfectly clear skies and bright sunshine.  Now, I've seen some pretty beautiful places in my 20 years, but Dubrovnik is something else.  The warren of alley ways that make up the Old Town are hemmed in by a fortified castle wall which juts out into the crystal clear waters of the Adriatic Sea.  Getting lost in the forest of terracotta-roofed buildings is a real possibility, and an exciting one at that.  The highlight though was walking along the top of the wall around the Old Town.  One of the benefits of travelling this time of year is that there aren't too many other tourists, in fact I probably could have been convinced that we were the only ones there had it not been for the others staying in our hostel.  This was the case when we did the wall walk.  For just under two hours we meandered around above the city and didn't run in to anyone else except for the guy who came to kick us out and lock up.  While on top of the wall, it didn't matter which direction you looked there was something to 'wow' you, whether it was Old
Town itself, the harbour, sections of the old stone wall, or the sun sinking into the horizon.  Sitting on a ledge with the warmth of the sun and the faint sea breeze, enjoying the view and the peace and quiet was an experience I will not soon forget.  As much as I would have liked in that moment  to just stay in Dubrovnik forever, it was just the beginning of our journey and I was equally excited to see what lie ahead.

Tightly packed buildings in the Old Town

From Croatia, we followed the coast into neighbouring Montenegro.  I really had no idea what Montenegro would be like.  Its not really a typical destination in that if you weren't already in the region you'd probably never think to go there.  Its only been an independent country since 2006 when it split from Serbia and a little over 20 years ago it, along with Slovenia, Croatia, and several others, was part of Yugoslavia.  Despite this last part, it was quite apparent that Montenegro is a different country.  In some instances the Cyrillic alphabet is used, giving a distinct Eastern European appearance to many signs and streets and it gave me the impression that the country was altogether different, although the Montenegrin language actually has a lot in common with Slovenian so most of these differences were likely all in my head.

A small section of Budva's beach.

While in Montenegro we stayed in a coastal town called Budva which, while nice, was clearly a summer resort town and not a popular destination in December.  It had a great looking beach with all kinds of restaurants and bars dotted across it, and had an Old Town similar to the one in Dubrovnik but far smaller.  We also spent half a day in the nearby town of Kotor which is located on a large bay that is a UNESCO World Heritage Site based on its natural beauty.  We hiked up to the ruins of a fortress on the hillside and got a view of the city and the surrounding mountain range which abruptly plummets into the waters of the bay.  It reminded me of what a Norwegian fjord must look like.

The Bay of Kotor

Eventually it was time to turn around and head back to Ljubljana but the drive, at least the first part, was a show in itself.  We decided to take a different route back and go part of the way through Bosnia.  Now, I'm talking about rural Bosnia.  The type of place where you shouldn't wander too far off the road because theres a good chance there's still some unexploded land mines out there.  I remember listening to a cousin of mine, Mike, tell stories about being a Peacekeeper in Bosnia during his time in the military.  This was quite a few years ago but in the big scheme of things its pretty recent.  The whole time we were in the country I couldn't help but think how weird it was to be a tourist in a place that was about to tear itself apart only a few years ago.  Despite this, from what I saw, there was nothing to give you this impression although Bosnia certainly lags behind its neighbours in terms of development ("highways" of varying condition which will occasionally turn into one lane without notice and ruined buildings everywhere).

We stopped in Mostar, Bosnia which is kind of a little Istanbul

Probably the biggest downside of travelling this time of year is that it gets dark before you know it, leaving you with a limited amount of time to actually do things.  Despite the fact that we left Budva early in the morning most of our return trip was in the dark, making it seem as though it took forever.  After a full day of driving we finally arrived home in Ljubljana in the evening, and it definitely felt as though we were home, which is a pretty cool feeling.

Thanks for reading,
Mitch              

Prague - Living up to its Hype for 1,100 Years

Over the last few years, and as I have visited more and more places, I have come to notice that there are two very different ways to go about seeing the sites.  The first option is to go on a 'big bus tour'.  The second option is to not go on a 'big bus tour'.

The gang on Charles Bridge
 (From left to right: Marcel, Florentia, George, Joris, Me, Julian)

By big bus tour I'm talking about those groups of 50 plus people that are chauffeured from city to city in those huge chartered buses and then are herded around like sheep to see the most famous sites.  I've seen them everywhere (they're pretty easy to pick out),  large groups of people ambling along after their guide who's almost always waving a big flag with the name of the tour company emblazoned on it, so that pick pockets and con artists have to do as little guess work as possible I assume.  Occasionally the guide stops to shout some facts into the crowd of generally uninterested tourists before shepherding them all back onto the bus in order to make it  to the hotel in time for their pre-paid lunch.

The main facade of the St. Vittus Cathedral. Located high above the city in the castle complex.

 Don't get me wrong, I can see why this would be attractive to some people.  It offers you the opportunity to meet MANY fellow travellers and the convenience is unparalleled.  Its just not for me.  That's why even I was surprised when I signed up for one of these trips myself. A University run weekend in Prague with a group of friends.

Rear view of St. Vittus Cathedral

Yes, I feel like I spent most of my time on the bus (its about a nine or ten hour drive from Ljubljana), and yes, everything we did had to be negotiated between the fifty or so people on the trip.  But all in all it was a good weekend, although I think that was mostly just because Prague is such an awesome city.  Its a place that I have heard lots about and have wanted to visit for some time.  My brother Jordan spent a couple of weeks there on a school trip when he was in high school and so I think my interest in the city stems from  his many stories and memories, in addition to those of many other friends of mine.  All of them had nothing bad to say about Prague.  In fact, most of them fell in love with the city.

Prague's very famous Astronomical Clock

There were many things that impressed me about Prague; the history, the architecture, the cheap beer, just to name a few.  But what surprised me the most was the scale of the city.  I had one full day in Budapest, and while I didn't see everything, I was able to get a good grasp of the city.  After two days in Prague, on the other hand, I still feel as though I only saw  a tiny fraction of even just the Old Town.  I guess I'll just have to go back, for longer next time.

It's crazy to think that in the past few weeks I've been in five different countries, even if just for a few hours in a couple of them.  Its even crazier to think that in the coming weeks I'll have been to who knows how many more.  I don't know exactly where or when, but that just makes it that much more exciting.

Thanks for reading.
Mitch

Clock tower looking over Old Town Square and just above the Astronomical Clock

  

Hitch Hiking to Budapest and Other Fun Weekend Activities

Well, as the title suggests, I spent last weekend in Budapest, Hungary, although this trip wasn't so much about the destination as it was the journey.  Hitch hiking is something I've always wanted to do but for obvious reasons never actually got around to doing it.  But last Wednesday as I listened to my German friend Julian tell me of how he hitch hiked around France a couple summers ago, I actually gave it some serious thought, if only for a split second.  Before I could stop myself and without any hesitation I said, "We should hitch hike somewhere.  How bout this weekend?"  We met Thursday afternoon to sketch out a rough plan and the next thing I knew It was Friday morning and I was standing on the side of the highway holding a cardboard sign with "Budapest" written across it and my thumb sticking out towards the traffic.

After waiting for a ride out of Budapest for two hours I was seriously questioning our decision hitch hike in the first place.

I could go into great detail and spend hours describing our foray into hitch hiking (by the way its now called Mitch hiking), but I'll save your time and just say that it was an adventure to say the least.  It was an ambitious undertaking; over 800km round trip, about 20 hours of travel/waiting time, seven different rides, three different countries, and most of the time we had no back up plan.  If we hadn't have found rides we likely would have been stuck in that deserted rest stop at the Hungarian border, or left standing in the pouring rain and hurricane force winds at that gas station outside of Zagreb (where we eventually got a ride into the city and opted to throw in the towel and take a train the last leg back to Ljubljana).  We met countless people along the way, some young, some old, some spoke great English some spoke none.  We even got a ride from a convicted criminal who was just awaiting his sentencing (thats another story in itself).  But through all of it, I met some of the nicest people I've ever met and what's even better, is that Julian and I both made it the whole way without being murdered or abducted.  Oh and except the train at the end it cost us nothing.

The Hungarian Parliament buildings sit prominently on the east bank of the Danube river and are modelled after the British Parliament.

Of course, the whole point of this crazy endeavour was to visit Budapest, which, in case you're wondering, is a pretty amazing place and one that I will certainly have to go back to in the not too distant future.  A day and a bit is not nearly enough time to see and do half the things there are to do in the city.  We walked around for hours and covered a ton of ground but only just scratched the surface.  Although, the main attraction in Budapest is the architecture, which includes basically every different style from every period.  I'm no expert on the subject, but I can appreciate a nice looking building.

Due to the grey, overcast weather that we had the city looked much better at night.  Most of the buildings are impressively lit as well.

We did take in one of Budapest's famous bath houses.  The mineral waters from natural springs around the city are said to have the power to cure any pains or ailments and after walking around literally all day we had some of those ourselves.  At first, all you can think about is how weird the whole thing is.  Inside the bath area its hot and muggy, smells terrible, and you can't help but notice all the half naked old people walking around.  But after you try out the different temperature pools, the saunas (one of which is 72 degrees celsius!), and the steam rooms, you're more comfortable than that 70 year old Hungarian guy walking around in his speedo.  Just to leave you with a nice image.
 
I've wanted to see Budapest ever since I first saw the movie I Spy with Owen Wilson and Eddie Murphy when I was little.  The movie is set in the city and as I walked around quotes from the movie were stuck in my head.  It was hilarious and awful at the same time.

The spire of the Matthias Church lit up at night.  The sky had been grey and bleak all day but at sunset it was finally clear and blue.  Bad luck I guess.

Anyway, that's all for my impromptu Mitch hiking adventure to Budapest.  While it wasn't exactly a resounding success it was a trip I will never forget.  Things don't always go the way we plan, but then that's where the adventure really begins.

Thanks for reading,
Mitch

The Much Anticipated (and highly delayed) Inaugural Post

Well since I've been away from home for a month already I guess its about time I actually got the blog going.   I guess the rather mundane tasks of getting settled in a new place and starting at a new university have kind of taken over the first few weeks of my time in Ljubljana and now, in what seems like the blink of an eye, a month has gone by.  In all honesty its a little scary that its gone by so fast. I feel like I haven't yet accomplished anything noteworthy in my time here which makes days like today feel especially wasted.  You could've ran a marathon before I was up and moving today (literally though, today was the 18th Annual Ljubljana Marathon).  But I guess thats the difference between living somewhere and just visiting somewhere, there's no need to run around and do everything right away.

  Looking down the Ljubljanica River to the main square with the pink Franciscan Church of the                    Annunciation.

  That being said, I have explored Ljubljana extensively.  Its not hard to do as its a fairly concentrated city, but I have done a lot of walking in just about every direction, through the more touristy centre and many of the more residential outlying areas.  The Old Town is particularly interesting.  It is a network of mostly pedestrian streets and winding alleyways set in the shadow of the hilltop Ljubljana Castle.  Exactly the type of thing you imagine when you think of a Eurpoean city.  The slow moving Ljubljanica River flows through the Centre and is crossed by several foot bridges and lined by innumerable bars and cafes on both banks.

View of part of the Old Town from atop the castle.

Last weekend I took the bus out to the nearby town of Bled to check out the lake and castle which together make up one of the most popular tourist attractions in the country.  It ended up being a great day to go as it was one of the rare sunny days I've had over my time here and I got to use my new camera and took some good pictures of the impressive castle and the nice scenery.

The church on the small island in the middle of the lake.

The impressive castle on the sheer cliff overlooking the lake.

So yeah.  Other than these few touristy things i've just been busy getting settled and adjusting to school and life in Slovenia.  Having classes with people from all over the world, while interesting isn't exactly new to me thanks to my time going to school in Kuwait.  Even UBCO for that matter has a fairly diverse population.  The overwhelming majority of the other international students are from other European countries and are here on what is called an 'Erasmus' exchange.  It is a program where citizens of European countries get government funding to do a semester in another EU country.  While just about everyone I've talked to tells me that Ljubljana was not their first choice (everyone wants to go to Rome, Paris, London, etc) they all seem to have a positive attitude towards being here and aim to have a good time regardless.

I guess thats all for now.  I'm not sure what i'll use the blog for or how often I'll post, but I think I can set it up so that you can subscribe to get email notifications when I do make a post.  Also, feel free to comment and know that even If i don't reply your comments will not go unnoticed nor unappreciated.

Thanks for reading!
Mitch