World Trip - Stats

We did it! 10 months and a loop (kind of oblong) around the planet earth!  No need to tell you we had a blast and our 'stat man' Colin wanted to share some numbers with everyone:

Weight:   Colin -17lbs    Renee +5lbs

Mosquito Bites: Colin ~1200    Renee ~300

Band aids for scrapes & cuts: Colin  0    Renee  58

Umbrellas broken or lost: Colin  0    Renee  3

Pairs of Sunglasses broken: Colin  0   Renee  4

Shirts / Pants / Shorts Purchased: Colin  4    Renee  12

Attempted thefts on our luggage that we know of  (1)

Times we paid more for a good or service than a local would pay - (Thousands!)

Bed Bug Incidents: Colin  1    Renee  0

Emergency Room Visits:  Colin  2     Renee  0

Total photographs taken - ~15,000.....(Colin  1200) (Renee  13,800)

Number of days the high temperature was above 35 C - (~45 days)

Best Food: Thailand

Worst Food: Peru

Most Beautiful Accommodations: Bali

Most Under-Rated Country: Slovakia

Number of air planes boarded: 15

Evolution of taste buds: Colin - Dark Beer, Olives, Extra Spicy; Renee    Dark Beer

Greatest communication challenges: France, Slovakia, Czech

Times we thought we were going to die: 3

Czech Republic

Our final destination, Czech Republic the land of beer, beer and more beer!  We left busy Krakow for sleepy Olomouc where we met up with our new found friends from The Ginger Monkey in Slovakia.  It was a quiet little city but we had a blast cooking breakfast together, lazying in the sun, drinking beer, eating pork knuckle and visiting it's many (literally) underground pubs and tea houses.  It was hard to say goodbye to the homey little hostel but with only a week left in our travels we felt the need to carry on and see some more of Czech while we had the time. 

Our next stop was the city of Hradec Kralove.  We arrived by train and Colin took over the navigating duties to find us a hostel in this not so touristy town.  With great excitement Colin announced that he had found a pedestrian foot bridge that we could take over the tracks avoiding the long way round, perfect.  When we got to the bridge there was a clear as day sign saying 'Do Not Enter' but Colin insisted that he saw people cross it.  So up the creaky and wobbly steps we went which then led us into a small building with a very confused man who we assumed told us we weren't supposed to cross the bridge but we figured we're here now so might as well keep going.  We soon learnt what the man actually was saying was that we were in an industrial rail yard with no exit forcing us to weave through multiple factory lots and rubble to eventually walk along the tracks to a opening in the huge wall to get out.  As a result Colin's navigating privileges have been temporarily suspended.


From Hradec Kralove to the busy city of Prague.  The city is fabulous with Gothic architecture as far as the eye can see. We saw the usual suspects, the astronomical clock, the castle and Charles Bridge.  And then headed to the fortress Vysehrad to explore the inside of it's fortress walls.  It's not a well advertised tour and so few people take it but it was extremely impressive to see the massive walls built so long ago and at the end of the tunnel we entered a secret meeting hall that now houses the original Statues from the Charles Bridge as they are venerable to the elements outside.  We drank some more fine beer as we caught some of the Olympics before heading to the town of Plzen.

If you haven't guessed it already, Plzen is the birth place of what we know as Pilsner style beer.  The Pilsner Urquell brewery invented the light coloured beer many years ago and is now one of the leading producers of beer in the entire world (producing Miller, Molson, Grolsh...) .  The factory is the highlight of the town and they offer a top notch tour showing the producing, packing, storing of then and now and of course no tour is complete with out a proper tasting.  The highlight for me was our guide who was dressed in period clothing complete with top hat and tails giving the whole experience a Willy Wanka feel.

After the tour we went on another beer related adventure with a few of our hostel mates to a pub where you tap your own beer at the table.  While this is fun in it's own right it's even funner because they have a screen showing you how much beer each table is drinking...you can see where this is going.  We were the leaders for a while but stopped in time so we were able to make the walk home.

From Plzen we took a day trip to the town of Marianske Lazne. We knew nothing of the town before going other than people said it was nice and found out on arrival that it is a long time spa town.  Pretty much opposite of every other town we've been in, instead of drinking beer and eating pork and potatoes they sip on spring water and nibble on wafer thin treats.  The centre of the town has a "singing" fountain for your entertainment and there are Roman style baths on every corner. We indulged in some healing waters which Colin thought tasted like poison and then spent an hour (all we could afford) in a spa where we were the only patrons and swam in pools and relaxed in saunas.  A refreshing break from all the beer that our bodies probably appreciated.

We are now back in Prague feeling baffled that our trip is almost at an end.  We have another day to soak up what we can before saying goodbye to the lifestyle we love so dear.


R

Slovakian Mountains & Poland

Sorry for not posting for awhile, but our beer intake has been very high this last week taking away from our evening posting time. Beer is so cheap around here, you can't afford not to drink it!

Our visit to Slovakia ended with one last stop in the High Tatras mountains near the Polish border. Over the previous few weeks we had many many people tell us we MUST go to the Ginger Monkey Hostel in a tiny mountain village called Zdair, Slovakia. It did not dissatisfy as it was one of the (If not THE best hostel) we have ever visited. They have a friendly hostel dog named Wallie who is the luckiest dog in the world recieving between 200-300 belly scratches per day from all of the guests. The hostel took some effort to get to, therefore all of the 18 year old "children" who stay along the rail lines within the big cities were not present.

We went on a terrific 4 hour hike the first day coming across lots of fresh bear tracks, and great views. The next day nearly the entire hostel (10 of us) undertook the 8 hour hike up and over a mountain range. It started rough as a couple of group members were smokers requiring a smoke break 150 m into a 20 km hike....nonetheless we made it to the top resulting in amazing views. The evening reward was playing fetch with the hostel dog (Wallie) followed by a few liters of cheap beer and 12" pizzas for everyone. The hostel keeps 1980's one-piece snow suits available for sitting around the fire. Made for great fun!

In most of these Central European countries communism only fell 19 years ago and as a result several things still remain from that era.  Some of them are sombering while others quite intriguing, our favorite is 'Kofola'.  During Slovakia's Communist time some outside products (especially western ones) were not allowed into the country.  Well apparently the people were envious of what little they saw of the outside world as westeners relaxed with a refreshing Coca Cola and to appease the people the country developed their own version, Kofola.  It tastes nothing like Cola but is dark and fizzy (The tourists call it "Communist Cola").  I taste jagermeister while Renee says it's like ice tea; others say medicine, either way it's kinda grown on us.

We were sad to leave but needed to carry on to Poland. We crossed the border, 10 km from Zdair into Poland leaving our tiny, quiet village behind. Our bus passed through the crazy mountain town of Zakopane, which essentially is a Banff on radioactive steroids. Lucky for us our stop was the beautiful city of Krakow. The city was very lively, but crawling with tourists. The best part of Krakow was the affordable food...we pigged out; perogies, cabbage rolls, polish sausages, potato soups, and more perogies! Krakow was also a great place to grab a beer on the patio.

Our last day in Poland was a sombering experience as we visited a very sad, but important part of world history, Auschwitz.

Poland was a quick visit, as our next stop is central Czech Republic. We have a very highly regarded Hostel to visit off the beaten track run by some of the guests from the Ginger Monkey Hostel, so we are looking forward to meeting up with the same group of great people.

Colin

Small scale Slovakia

Slovakia has been a real treat.  Before coming here we spent a lot of time in cities and getting to see more rural spots was a bit of a hassle but since leaving the quaint capital of Bratislava we're been seeing the quieter side of things and really liking it.

From Bratislava we took a train (and then a teeny tiny train) to the hill town of Banska Stiavnica which used to be the mining capital of central Europe back in the day.  Since being in central Europe, Slovakia is one of the first places we have had a real language barrier which proved to be interesting when we took the guided mine tour. We were given trench coats, flashlights and helmets (I thought the helmets were a little overkill until we got inside and I smacked my head every 30 seconds, you'd think I'd learn but no) and then we listened to our Slovakian speaking guide give what we assume were some pretty important safety instructions.  We figured if we just made sure we stayed in the middle of the group (aka surround our selves with people who did understand the safety instructions) we wouldn't get lost.   We were in the mines for over an hour and were happy to take some deep breaths when returned to the world of sun and fresh air.

As our tour of the mine was only in Slovak we figured we'd go check out the mining museum to see what we missed. We bought our ticket and were led into the museum only to noticed there was no written explanation on the displays.  It was then that the women who showed us and a few other guest in started her tour of the museum...in Slovak.  From both tours we gathered that they have mined the area for a long time and but not any more.

Wanting to get even further away for it all we decide to do some hiking in what is known as Slovak Paradise.    We took the train to a tiny little town in what felt like the middle of nowhere and as the rain looked looming we decide to hike the next day.  We woke up early, checked the forecast, ate a hearty breakfast and set out on a 6 hour hike into the mountains were you need to use ropes and ladders to scale rock faces.  We made it 500 meters from hostel.  An absolute downpour started and we took refuge in a bus shelter (more of a tin shack).  We kept thinking it would clear  up but ended up staying in the shelter an hour and a half before it got decent enough to walk to town and warm our cold bones with soup and tea.  The rain stayed all day so back at our hostel we hunkered down with a bottle of wine and played several rounds of Monopoly near the fire place, not too shabby of an alternative if you ask me.

We been having quite a bit of rain while in Slovakia but the good thing about the cold weather is that it makes the Slovak food taste so much better.  Slovaks eat a lot of dishes that are different variations of potatoes, sauerkraut and sheep cheese, lots of sheep cheese.  On a hot summers day it's not really the kind of food your craving but when it cold and wet outside a hot plate of potato dumplings smothered in sheep cheese accompanied by a pint of dark beer it really hits the spot.

R

Austria & Slovakia (Schnitzel + Hockey)

Our original plan was to avoid Austria, but how can you skip Vienna when your right beside it? Lucky for us the "Tour de Austria" was finishing up its final stage while we were there. Following these guys whizz by, you almost get dizzy! Vienna is full of culture and history but the thought of visiting another church wasn't getting us too excited so instead we opted for the not-so-famous "Sewer Tour" deep below the city of Vienna. The rainwater from the streets, along with the...ummm "waste" from the homes mixes together and funnels its way through a series of tunnels which are  one of the most sophosticated sewer systems in the world. It sounds gross and it is gross, but the complexity of the tunnel system is truly amazing. And yes, many brown floaters cross your path.... 

Following the tour we took in a movie called "The Third Man" made in 1947, staring Orson Welles. The movie takes place in post war Vienna, with many scenes shot within the sewer system where our tour took place. Later in the evenings we took in the free film festival at the Parliament square where thousands of locals gather to drink and watch an outdoor movie on a huge screen. Once again we were a bit under dressed, but after a couple of beers, everyone is the same.

We found Sunday in Vienna to be very strange as almost everything was closed, the city got very quiet. We couldn't get groceries so settled on some giant smokies from the hot dog stand, tough life I know. To escape the rather quiet city we took a bus up a hill outside the city and treked down the big hill overlooking the entire area through forests and vineyards, back into the city. We loved Vienna for it's great public transit but Watch Out! In Vienna they have transit police (young boys - mid 20's) checking tickets wearing street clothes. Fine for free-riding is 100 Euro cash on the spot, if you cant pay, you get off and walk to the nearest ATM with the officer. Tough love eh?

 Next on the hit list was Bratislava, Slovakia. The country also uses the Euro, BUT prices here compared to Austria are cheap cheap cheap. We went to the most famous (for good reason) pub in town, ate 2 mains of potato dumplings with sour cream and goat cheese along with a couple of pints of beer for 8 Euro. Slept like a baby after that meal.

We took part in a 2 hour walking tour of the city with a very charismatic tour guide full of knowledge. The history of this area of the world with WWII, Czechoslovakia, Soviet Occupation, Iron Curtain, Czech/Slovak separation, etc is fascinating making North America seem quite boring in comparison. As part of Czechoslovakia, under guidance from Prague, they built a bridge across the river within Bratislava. The great idea was to put a big "UFO" (complete with two green aliens sitting on it) on top of the bridge because they thought it would look cool. The Bratislava people thought this was absurd, but Prague held the power and so the UFO was built. It was events like this that led Slovakia to separate and form its own country.

COLIN