Split - Roman Occupation

Hi all,

Well I'm off the islands now, took a ferry to Split, Croatia's second largest city. From the ferry, I can for the first time in Croatia, see downtown business high rise above about 10 stories, this is a big city.
I'm arriving a bit late, mid day, but I have time to drop my backpack in "Left Luggage" for the day and see the main site here, visible from the harbor, Deocletian's Palace. Mr. D was the Roman emperor that occupied this region several years B.C. That makes all this palace over 2000 years old. The palace is humbling, walking through meeting rooms, hallways and courtyards with the classic Roman columns and stone. One sphinx statue (robbed by the Romans) was 1500 B.C.

This is a UNESCO world heritage site for a good reason. I had a picnic lunch complete with red wine, sitting on a corner stone in the center courtyard visuallizing the activity here 2000 years ago "Et tu Deocletian"...cheers dude

I jumped on a bus for a 25min ride west to see the ancient city of Trogir, it is amazing, out on an island, surrounded by a channel full of multimillion $ yachts from all over the world. This is an ancient walled city, with upscale shops and restaurants. Interesting here in Croatia how business' are nested right inside these sacred historical sites, kinda like having a McDonalds inside the White house at home.

Trogir is also a world heritage site, thats a record, two in one day.

Well I stay in Trogir tonight, then fly off to Vienna for the return leg home.

This has been an incredible adventure in Eastern Europe, a look at life in Poland, Hungary, Austria, the Czech Republic, and lovely, amazing Croatia. I have a new respect for the people here, young and old.

Till next time on the road,
Yours in travel,

Bill Wilson
billwilson@pocketmail.com (While away on travel)
email2bill@cox.net (When home)

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Dalmation Islands

Hi All, Wed June 1- Sat June 4,2005

Found out no ferries on Wed to Korcula, so took a bus later in the day from Dubrovnik. The coastal countryside north from Dubrovnik was spectacular. The bus driver was a real businessman. He knew everyone on break stops on the way, we stopped on hwy at someones house, guy ran out with a bag of mussels, they were later traded for something. Then coolers full of fish...

Korcula was my favorite, again walled city, narrow alleyways, dating back to the 1200's, but incredibly perfect weather, views along the sea wall 30 steps from my pensione. I was greeted by Peter and Lenna, who owned a beautiful place right in the walled city. A "Mr. Wilson" sign, displayed by Peter at the bus station got us connected, people on the bus loved it..a reservation call paid off this time. A historic, incredible stay in the walled city for $15/night.

Went to show one night to see the historical dance of the swordsmen, a dance dating back centuries to the invasion by the Turks, amazing display.

Then took ferry further north to Hvar Island. On board had an increible discussion with 5, 10 and 11 year old school children on a field trip. Croatian children take many extensive field trips each year. At this age they also average about 6 years of english. We laughed over the map spread on my table, they were being my tour guides. They each signed my map, I signed my name for them.

Hvar was interesting, actually stayed in a private home in Stari Grad, 1/2 hour away by bus. Very layed back city, it grew on me. The Croatian People are wonderful.

On to Split, 2nd largest city in Croatia to see Roman emperor Deocleation Palace, then a day trip to Trogir down the coast. These two sites are both UNESCO World Heritage sites.

Will be back to you one more time before this amazing trip ends.

Yours in travel,

Bill

Bill Wilson
billwilson@pocketmail.com (While away on travel)
email2bill@cox.net (When home)

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Dubrovnik - Emerald of the Adriatic

Hi All, Mon May 30, 2005

Flew from Zagreb to Dubrovnik on Monday, wow what a terrific city. Unbelievable
history, coblestone..no, large carved stone streets, narrow alley ways, I mean
really narrow as in 8 feet wide. Incredible old city with a protective wall
around and entry gates. Dubrovnik maintained its independence over many years,
then Napolean invaded..and in late 20th century it became part of Croatia.
Amazing place, tech difficulties in uploading pictures, few sites have the
capability or I would show you.

Went to a concert, 30 piece symphony orchestra, Beethoven and Mozart. Inside a
high ceilinged 100 by 100 foot room, the Rectors hall, with Renaisannce
columns, etc. Audience right next to the symphony orchestra. Wonderful
experience, the European musicians are incredibly good.

I stayed in an old home or flat right in the old city. Places are difficult to
get there, but I snagged one.

Had a great fish dinner. Down here fish swim three times, once in the ocean,
once in the olive oil, and once in the wine in your mouth. :)

Off to the Islands off southern Croatia for the rest of the week. First to
Korcula for two days then Hvar for two days.

Observations so far in Croatia:

1. Lots of wild cats all over the citys
2. People are wonderful, very family oriented. Stores close early and start late
just to accomodate family life. What a concept.
3. No breakfasts around, glad there are markets.
4. Many speak excellent English, kids 10 years old have had 6 years of english
5. Lowest crime rate in Europe.
6. Very few American Tourists here.
7. At a restaurant, you own the table. You never get they check unless you ask.

See you on the islands, in a few days

Yours in travel,

Bill

Plitvice Lakes - Croatia

Sunday May 29, 2005

Hi All,

Got up early to do a tour of Plitvice Lakes National Park. This is another world
heritage site. If you took Niagra Falls at about 6 different levels, added a
dash of Grand Canyon and put it in the forest you have Plitvice Lakes.

It took a 2 one half hour bus ride down to the center of Croatia. On the bus
ride saw evidence of the war in this area, now 10 years away. Typical Croatian
2 story houses pockmarked with bullet holes and obvious burned structure marks.
This was only in a relatively small region near the lakes, most of the Croatia I
travelled had little signs of the 1991 war left showing. The first shots were
actually fired at the national park. The first casualty was a park ranger.

Plitvice is a series of lakes at different levels pouring into one another. They
are ?bowls? of very emerald blue water, the color coming from Calcium
carbonate deposits. The lakes are in karst limestone ground, pouring over each
other thru the forest. They have set up cut log pathways along the lake,
creating a beautiful effect.

I spent about 3 or 4 hours on a self guided tour. You can only buy one way
tickets from Zagreb, then you flag down the bus on your way back. Well this
works except on a holiday weekend, which this was!! tried for 3 hours, then
gave up. I got a hotel at the park, had a wonderful stay there, turned out for
the better :) Flagged down an early bus back, no problem the day after the
holiday.

Im off to Dubrovnik tommorrow (Monday). Ill fly down from Zagreb to Dubrovnik,
its only a $60 flight.

See you in Dubrovnik

Zagreb - A surprise city

Hi All, Saturday, May 28, 2005

Saturday was up early and took train from Budapest to Zagreb.

The train ride down, normally about 5 hours, was a beautiful ride thru the
Croatian countryside. I decided to go first class, only $15 more, but worth it
to splurge. About an hour out of Zagreb, the conductor said we must transfer to
a bus for the last hour!! hmmmm...I argued a little, he kept saying
?Everybawdy goes!! Everybody goes!!? A dutch group and I had fun repeating
that on the bus...?Everybawdy goes!! After awhile, the conductor was my buddy,
?a Amerikanski? my brother is in Chicago, he kept saying.

Zagreb is the capitol city of Croatia. A shot of the cathedral in downtown is
shown here. Yep, I have run into a lot of scaffolding, oh well.

Zagreb has a nice downtown square, large market area and old city walls. I
strolled around the city and found then main district, caught some pizza and
beer. It was a surprise town, most tourist just pass through, I had the chance
to takek some time to see it.

I?m staying at the youth hostel just out of town, a 20 minute tram ride through
the outskirts of town. The hostel is a great one, located in a small village,
and family run. The village Im in has the classic socialist era housing, high
rise apartments. Small market and restaurant. Its a contrast to the new,
booming Croatia.

I will stay here two nights, visit the Plitvice lakes National park, and fly
down to Dubrovnik on Monday to begin island hopping up the southern Dalmation
coast.

I?ll be back with report on National park tour next blog

Yours in travel,

Bill

Budapest - Hungary is alive!

Hi All,

I arrived in Budapest on Wednesday. Took another night train from Krakow. The
jury is still out on night trains. You don't get the sleep you expect' so you
spend time making up for sleep on the day you plan to travel. If you are seeing
some strange letters in this posting, its the Hungarian keyboard. The Z and Y
keys are exchanged on the keyboard, wow it is tough for this old brain'

I had to also kill one day doing what I call "Maintenance" activities, no
touring. This means doing a wash, finding groceries, calling to make Itinerary
changes, buying transportation for the next leg. Should take another day here
just to catch up.

Budapest is a city alive!! Went to hero's square, near where I am stazing (
see there is that darn Z vs Y kez again!!!)

It's like our gas lamp in San Diego, the chic, in place to eat, relax and drink.
Restaurant row, outdoor cafe tables 3 deep on both sides of the sidewalk.
Techno/Salsa music blaring. Ok, fashion trend, look out California. Mid calf
pants are IN for the guys!! I'll try to get pictures. The young women wear
midcalfs too, but they have a roll up cuff, about 4 inches. Cute.

But you wouldn't detect a post-communist economy here!! Restaurants are
buzzing, upscale shops on Vaci utca street (the Rodeo drive of downtown
Budapest), its alive here!!

I toured the castle district up on the hill above the Danube river today. The
picture you see here is a shot of the "Chain Bridge" looking across the Danube
at the St. Stephens Cathedral. Have had 3 days of sun here, beautiful weather.

I'm staying in the theatre district, its a great location. Close to market,
internet cafe, MAV (transit store) place to buy train tickets, and the Metro.
The Budapest metro is another, although old, but very efficient and effective
system. I bought a 3-day transit card, unlimited travel on all mass transit for
3 days for $10.

The city is about 3 times the size of Prague, and is more of a real city. Most
streets in my area are tree lined, tall green trees on both sides, a moderate
amount of traffic, and people moving about quite late. Dinner time here looks
like about 9PM.

Well I'm off tomorrow for Zagreb, Croatia. A new country and new currency!! That
has been a fun challenge on this trip, with 5 countries. Five languages and five
different currencies. I have had a little Russian, so the Czech and Polish
language had Slavic similarities, but Hungarian is totally different.
Interesting.

Take care, will catch you in Croatia

Yours in travel,

Bill

Krakow-Hey I'm in Poland

Sunday night I took a night train to Krakow Poland. Arrived early, went straight to Hotel. Decided to get a hotel here, cost comparable and could get close to the town center.
Went exploring early. Krakow has a small old city, surrounded by a narrow park, which was a city moat that was filled in and old city wall destroyed. Up high above the city is the Wawel castle. The city has one main entrance gate. Amazing place. In the center of the city is the largest medieval town square in Europe (200m x 200m).
Krakow is alive with tourism, a huge difference from the years prior to 1989. Also the city square is the gathering place for locals to chat, teens to meet, and many school field trips. I think the kids get out here more.

I took a tour of the salt mines outside of town. A huge working salt mine 60m below the surface, over 700 years old where since the 1800's the miners have carved statues, meeting halls, and a mini lake, all below ground. The horses that were used as beasts of burden, never saw the light of day in their lives. Met a couple from Denver and kids from Canada and Ozzieland. Great tour.

On Tuesday night, I took another night train to Budapest. Ran into a professor and students from Heritage College in El Cajon, small world.

The train ride was interesting, wake up at 2:30AM for border crossing, but got about 5 hours of light traveling over the Slovakian and Hungarian countryside. Beautiful farmland, small villages with town center cathedral. Near bigger cities, huge complexes of high rise housing, old Soviet style of living.

On to Budapest, big city, will get backon that in a few days.
Yours in travel,

Bill Wilson
billwilson@pocketmail.com (While away on travel)
email2bill@cox.net (When home)

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Prague - An Amazing City

Hi all,

I arrived in Prague Friday May 20, stayed till Sunday.

What an amazing city. I guess the principle reason it is so well preserved here, buildings dating back 100's of years is there was no bombing of this city during WWII. Thank heaven, so many beautiful sites.

I went to the usual principle sites during my stay, the main square was amazing. A large square with a cathedral, and lined with buildings all ancient architecture. Narrow streets and cobblestone where ever you turn. Its a great experience just wandering thru the old town, down the streets and finding a restaurant that suits your taste. Great food too.

The city is feed by a modern metro system, so its easy to get around. What is more fun to ride are the electric trams, similiar to our trolley system in San Diego. You really see the city this way.

On Sunday, found out that the international Prague Marathon is being held. This really bogged down the tram system, and closed a lot of streets. But it was fun to watch.
While eating lunch in a sidewalk cafe, watchin the marathon runners come in the final stretch, saw a female runner in a full playboy bunny suit running the race... boy she must have lost a big bet to somebody. Was hilarious, she got a lot of cheers.

Up above the old city is the Prague castle, with a commanding view of the city and a dominant cathedral in the center of it, it makes an amazing view. I will try to upload some pictures here when I get the right connections. Most internet cafes are not yet geared for this yet.

I went on a tour of the Jewish Quarter as well. The jewish quarter became a sort of ghetto for the Jewish people during the war years. In the Jewish cemetary since they were limited to one grave yard, literally thousands of people were buried in layers, the gravestones were on top of each other and leaning all directions. In a building near, 77,000 names were listed, those who had found their deaths in concentration camps in Prague at the hands of the Nazi regime. Very profound to see and contemplate.

Well I'm in Krakow Poland now. Got here on a night train from Prague Sunday night. This is an incredible city, its Prague without all the tourists. Finding it to be wonderful, will give you a report on it next time.

Yours in travel,
Bill

Train tickets to Krakow

Hi All,

I'm here at the moment at the train station in Prague. I just bought a ticket to krakow for tomorrow night, the night train, elated to find out you need to buy tickets the day before, they book up fast on the sleeper train. Just wanted to test posting a blog from my pocketmail pda on a pay phone in the station. Damn, technology works some times. More on Prague in a few days.

Yours in travel
Bill

Bill Wilson
billwilson@pocketmail.com (While away on travel)
email2bill@cox.net (When home)

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Arrival - Vienna and Cesky Krumlov

Hi gang!

It's taken me a while to get my blog started! The first few days of the trip have the most hectic transportation connections.

I'm in Eastern Europe! Flight went very well. A post 9/11 note. On the flight from London to Vienna, an older couple believed they fell too ill to travel so they took them selves off the plane. Well, now your luggage must go with you. We all watched as the whole plane's luggage was unloaded outside, took awhile, then they found old George's bags. Then repacked it all. Then the couple decides to get back on the plane! to the moans and groans of all the passengers. Their luggage reloaded, and 45 minutes later the plane is off.

Vienna, is my hub city. I will be coming back here to fly back home. I haven't alloted much time to see it, but I'll catch Vienna on another trip. I arrived on Tuesday and have had rain for the first few days. Despite the difficulties touring in the rain, I managed to see a little of Vienna.
I had a little trouble navigating in Vienna. I kept seeing the same street. EinBahn. Man there are alot of Einbahn streets. Then noticed the arrow background on the sign. Einbahn in Austrian is "One way"...haaaaaaaaaaa. So much for language barrier. I better get used to it, I'll be in 5 countries :)

The over all plan in the first part of the trip is to travel from Vienna up thru the Czech Republic, stopping by the city of Cesky Krumlov on the way to Prague, the capital city of the Czech Republic. After a hectic, crazy day travelling from Vienna by train, shuttle train, then bus, I arrived in Cesky Krumlov on Wednesday. Wow. This is an amazing city. Google it and check it out! It's a Medieval village, built around a beautiful picturesque castle on the hairpin bend of the Vtlava river which also goes thru Prague. It is a world cultural heritage site for a good reason. The architecture and wall finishings of all the homes and buildings in town are incredible. Red tile roofs with various detail designs, wrapping around a lazy slow river with trees and parkside walks. I stayed here Wed and part of Thurs. Woke up to a beautiful sunny day Thurs. Finally some beautiful tour weather. Many many pictures. Wish I could share them. First off, Inet cafes have been hard to find at the right time in touring agenda, and no facilities for uploading pics yet. I'll work on that. Cesky Krumlov is a beautiful Czech City not to be missed.

The impact of the newly found freedom of the Czech Republic was evident on the way up. Trains in Austria were modern, nice wide seats and newly decorated. As you cross the border, the trains become old, small, and the villages around just beyond the border show a lack of maintenance, and appear old compare to their Austrian counterparts. I'm sure this will change as I get near the tourist driven cities. But the countries behind the old 'Iron Curtain' have found a new freedom since 1989, and I'm sure are quickly getting accostomed to this new economic existence. More on this later in the trip. And the difference in the two economies are amazing. I spend about $30 on a nice dinner in Vienna. The comparable meal, with some of Europes best beer 9 (Budvar..hey, this is the place where Budweiser was born) was about $10. Difference of about 1/3

Friday I left this lovely Idyllic town and headed for Prague. The bus system here, although many older buses, is punctual and efficient. It was a nice ride over the Czech countryside. Many fields of yellow mustard plant, (grown commercially I guess)...small villages surrounding a cathedral tower, with a real Slavic looking cupola at the top. These closely resemble the churches I saw all over Russia. Interesting Slavic architectural trend. Nice highways, many small cars. No SUV's here...well just a few. And gas prices are around $4.50 per gallon.

Well I'm in Prague now, got around for a couple of hours at the end of the day to quickly see the city. The hostel I'm in is terrific, fairly new modern interior and free Internet...whoo hoo!

A walk thru town, the old main market square and stroll along the Vtlava river reveals an amazing city that survived the bombing of World War II. The architecture of ALL the buildings, cathedrals, bridges is spectacular. I'll be on visual overload here for 3 days!

I'm off to tour Prague , just wanted to say hi. I'll be back after visiting this amazing city for a couple of days.

Take care,
Yours in travel,
Bill

Eastern Europe 2005 - I'm off!!

Hi Family and Friends! You found my blog spot. Well I'm off again to see some of the world while I still can. This year its Eastern Europe. I hope to visit the Czech Republic, Croatia, Hungary and Poland. Come along with me, I'll enjoy having you along. Trains, Planes, boats and buses will be my mode of travel for a few weeks.

I'll try to post some pictures this year while on the trip. If they appear, click for a larger view.

All the postings will be found in the "archives" here on the blog. Last year's trip postings are still here, wow, has it been a year already?

Talk to you on the road!!

Yours in Travel,

Bill