Lithunia (Vilnius, Si Hill of Crosses) August 2013

Vilnius

I am very surprised that Earnest Zacharevic was not as popular as he did in Penang, Malaysia. Robertas had no idea who he was. I love Lithuania name, so may ‘as’, for example Robert becomes Robertas, Tom becomes Tomas etc.

I joined Vilnius free walking tour. It was a small city. One day tour was enough. Chatting to Robertas was a great experience. He had introduced a new hobby to me, Worldwide Radio Station. Robertas and his wife had many interesting stories but since he was going to publish his travel stories so I should not mention his interesting experience on web. They bought me a dinner and enjoyed the pink, sour and cold traditional soup very much. The taste of the beer was a little bit strange.

Karriam was the Turkish living at Trakai. Kanibus (something like kalipas) was the most famous cuisine. I took a bus to Trakai which was a small island or town. It was very relaxing area. The castle was not astonishing but favourable. It was nothing special but a quiet town along a very beautiful lake. It was apple season so I just plucked the apple along the road. It was small but crispy and sweet. 

 Siaulial

Siaulial was not a major tourist centre but Domantai was famous for Hill of Crosses. It was a wonderful and weird scene. There were millions of crosses there. It was worth for a visit. Some crosses were good in art. You will read many Korean languages and many nation languages there. Crosses were from Catholic, Methodist and many different churches. Many were from tourists too. It was an amazing view. I wrote my name on a very old cross too. haha

People that I met

Robertas had visited many countries and very rich experience in backpacking and hitchhiking. He had many interesting experiences. He also had a wide range of interests such as collecting coins, notes, sugar bags, beer coasters, QSL  and so forth. I was quite interested in collecting  QSL cards (I acknowledge receipt) too. I decided to start my new hobby after going back to Malaysia.  

Get a lift with Rolandas, his wife and son. We decided to eat Amenies food. The waiter kept pushing me to order expensive food. I only order some desert 4 litas bus she told bla bla and made me embarrassed and Rolandas also advised me to order some meals. The waitress introduced the most expensive 35 litas (RM40+) for the main dish. I rejected. She still keep saying the desert was too small to me, I told her that I have lunch already though. Her way to sell her products made me feeling bad. I ordered 15 litas Dalma. After finishing the lunch, she gave us separate bill but Rolandas decided to buy the bill for me and she expressed impolitely. On the way back, Roberdas stopped his car in front of an apartment, I thought it was where my host, Ugne stay. Before I get out the car, the mother of his son suddenly saying good bye to me and get out from the car. I was quite shock. Then he sent me to Ugne’s house. I visited their studio again on the second day and we had taken few good and professional photos.

Ugne was a capable woman. She cooked traditional food to me and her son, Paulius was well-educated. Paulius was very generous, he asked his mother to buy an ice-cream to me and gave me a lot of candies while I was leaving. 

Vilnius

town hall

A country in Vilnius created by artists

Street Arts

Traditional Lithuanian Soup

Trakai

Hill of Crosses

Poland (Krakow & Warsaw) August 2013

Krakaw

Cracow Castle

Auschwitz-Birkenau concentration camp

Warsaw

Warsaw Stadium

Warsaw

Cracow was a great city. I love it very much because it was a story full of history. 15 August was a public holiday at Cracow, Catholic celebrated St. Mary Day.

I joined free Kazimierz walking tour and learnt many about Jews in Poland and Europe. Dumpling was the famous cuisine but it was too oily. Joanna told me that the fat was not olive oil and mostly from pork. I visited Schindler’s factory with Wolly. I was surprise that Schindler’s list and the Pianist were shooting in Cracow and Warsaw. The castle of Krakow also beautiful and it was free if you do not visit the museum.

Auschwitz-Birkenau concentration camp was the major tourist attraction and it was worth to pay a visit. If you arrived Auschwits before 10am, it was free without a tour guide and shuttle bus from or to Birkenua was free. I joined 1130am English tour, the tour guide lost his enthusiasm. He was very Iazy to explain and I really despised him. After the trip, I joined another group again to listen to the explanation of  Auschwitz-Birkenau concentration and it was great. The Bus service was poor. Many of us waited for one hour and the bus came late. The driver told us there was the last bus and wants us to took us taxi. We have waited one and half hours and we (13 of us)  walked 2 kilometers to catch a train. The ticket was cheaper only 9.50zt. The bus service in Polland was really poor: did not follow schedule, cancelled service without acknowledge; always full house and passengers had to squeeze.

Warsaw was beautiful but I prefer Krakow. Warsaw had been destroyed during war time and many heritage building were reconstructed according to the original architect. These kinds of reconstruction of heritages were very popular at Eastern and Southern Europe.  

People I met

Joanna has applied healthy lifestyle, she believed in acupuncture. Martina was her only daughter. She was independent, young though. Martin was Joanna’s friend; we had some short conservation at my arrival evening.

Ulrich was a German who I met at Kzimierz walking tour. He came to Cracow to join chess tournament. I believed he must be very clever. He bought me a lunch. hahah

David has lost his job due to economy crisis. Therefore, he decided to leave Krakow and went back to his hometown Radom while waiting for the latest news of his company. At the same time, he was going to attend his friends’ wedding. I was so excited to know the traditional Polish wedding. However, he told me that there was no more traditional wedding. The wedding party was just a modern and simple party.

Małgorzata Brzuchalska and her husband were very hospitality. We had dinner together at a Turkish restaurant and it was a good time to exchange culture. They used to work in US but her husband missed their hometown very much and decided to move back to have better life. Earning US dollar didn’t bring the quality of life and he just wanted to live in his lovely country. I was really touched by his patriotism.

Czech Republic (Prahu & Tasov) August 2013

Prahu

Prahu most famous Gothic architect

Tasov / Trebusin

Prague was not suitable for cycling because I hate cycling up and down. It was an amazing city and got many beautiful architects. Prahu palace was wonderful. The gothic architect was wonderful. The river was not as clean as Balkan rivers. I like strolling the island in the middle of lake. It was a big and rich heritages city and worth for two full days visit. 

I had a terrible but expensive dinner in a Meditereanan restaurant. The bread was cold and hard, the food was bad.

I joined a farewell party of Patrick’s friend. She was going to serve Scotland church. I was surprised most of the family who attended the party have 5 members. Patrick admitted that Czech family usually had two children only. They were surprised most of their friends had three children and they were expecting the third baby too.

There was a Czech asking me about the economy of Malaysia. I told him that the economy of Malaysia was quite good, not as good as Singapore though. However, while I told him that Malaysian economy was quite similar to Romanian. His response was Romanian economy was poor. If compared to European country, Malaysian economy was bad, while comparing to South East Asia, Malaysian economy was top three. After my explanation, he immediately apologized to me. It remind me what Christian Mikkelson ( a backpacker that I met in Mongolia) expressed his deep sympathy to the poor in Malaysia. I was not rich but I never thought we were so poor. 

People that I met

Tomas had travelled to South East Asia for two years. He climbed up and down Mount Kinabalu and reached the peak within one day. It was amazing. He was a Slovakian. However, Czech and Slovak ‘s language were similar so there were plenty Slovakian working at Prahu.

Actually I met Patrick during hitchhiking trip from Amsterdam to Berlin. Since he invited me visiting his lovely hometown, I kept contacting with him. I visited Czech after three months and we met again. Patrick and Hana’s family was wonderful. They built their own house. Patrick still kept his enthusiasm to his wife, family and jobs. I helped him to clean the kitchen early in the morning and he intended to make Hana happy while she woke up to see a clean kitchen. Patrick was an very understanding husband, he understand the need of a wife. I hope they will live happily ever since. They honeymoon was hiking at Romanian mountain. It was strange but amazing too.

Slovakia (Bratislave & Piestany) August

Brastislava

Bratislava Castle

Cycling to Lake and meeting some farmers

Piestany

Bratislava was a small city. The price was what I like most. Everywhere was walkable. I went into a restaurant for toilet at city centre, the young waiter just showed me the direction without asking for fee. It was so wonderful. Bratislava was celebrating summer festival so there were many culture events every night. While the choir wearing traditional costume, many tourists and I quickly took picture. Nevertheless, after I chat to them, I just realise they were wearing German costume since their culture were deeply connected to German’s.

The Donau (Danube) river was cleaner than Vienna’s. I just realize Donue and Danube were the same river with different names. Someone jumped from Most SNP at that evening. Miguel says it must be German, they were crazy.

Czech –Slova were deeply connected. Their languages were similar.

Attending CS meeting, there was a participant driving his car from Croatia to Slovakia (6hours drive) just for the meeting and bought many of us a drink.

I cycled to Lake Rusovske and saw many 50s people nude. This was my first time to see naked men but not a very good experience. Haha

Piestany was a great town. Lubomir and I cycled around the river, spa island and city. The scene was wonderful. We entered a prohibited area. I witnessed how Lubomir settled the problem with his wisdom. I admired his social skill. The second day, I had breakfast with Lubomir family at the park Kuku and I went to swim in the lake in the late afternoon. There was a hot sprint water for drinking but the smell was just as rotten egg. Lubomir explained that it was mineral.

People that I met

Miguel is an optimistic host. He has taught the way to happiness such as emphasizing on small pleasures; he is one year younger than me though.

Lubomir and Kuku was a strange couple. Their relationship was very free. They are free to each other from traditional relationship. They are free to have other relationships. Even though they have a son they were not bound to each other. They were free. Lubomir had wonderful changing lifestyle stories. He changed his lying habit to be honest. While he started to be honest and told his wife about his relationship with others, his wife just rejected him He quitted his job as a higher officer to be a freelance healthy lifestyle promoter. I think he should write a book of himself. Kuku told me that she lost nothing while Lubomir had more than one girlfriend. I had no comment but blessed her. Nevertheless, Lubomir told me that Kuku had other affair with another man too. These were their lifestyles. Kuku cooked Haluski for dinner and it was simple but delicious. 

Peter, the owner for the Zytel bar offered me Slovakia typical drink (quite similar to Coke). He has travelled a lot but now was ‘jailed’ by his bar. hahah