Post # 11: Bucharest and England

Been in England for a few days now, Bucharest was pretty interesting, but was the least lively leg of my trip. So, Bucharest….another booming city. Taxi cab drivers complain of all the foreign dollars coming in as investments in the city. I assume they prefer to go back to the old days when nobody was investing/building, and thus, not taking cabs anywhere. In their defense, there is a lot of construction and street renovations are everywhere. Hotels, casinos, office buildings, you name it. Again, mostly foreign banking and service related industries coming here to eastern Europe to take advantage of the cheap labor market. The younger generation is clearly having a field day with all the opportunity, not so for their parents’ generation. The 50-70 year olds are the getting left behind due to no English language knowledge….not just in Bucharest but all over Eastern Europe. Quick thought: biggest thieves you will encounter in any of the countries I have visited are the cab drivers. Not once was I in imminent danger of being robbed or accosted in any way, at least that I’m aware of….but the cab drivers will take every last penny off you if given the opportunity.

I've written and rewritten this post 5 times and can't seem to come up with anything too interesting to say. Right about the time I was planning where I should go next, I received notice from back home that there are some things cooking on the business front that need my attention. After roughly 40 days of conversations in broken English as well as many other languages, I decided that it was best to head to bloody old England and refamiliarize myself with the Queen’s English before heading home. I have a friend there, in Colchester actually, and I reached out so I could share some of this damn happiness I’m experiencing. I started out with a day in London, took a Thames River tour and have photos to load later, then to Nottingham with my friend, then back to Colchester where I am now.

These Brits are a very cool bunch, significantly cooler than us Americans. They use words like opulent, brilliant, and sterling in every day conversations. Some of my British favs: cheers (thanks), way out (exit), wanker, cheeky fellow, bugger off, piss off, fuck off, and my all time favorite, blowy. “Let me know if it’s too blowy back there”. Now, THERE’S a sentence I haven’t heard nearly enough in my life….only it would have been better served if it didn’t come from my cab driver.

I am booked on a flight back to NY this Monday, and will be staying in a hotel for a few weeks until my sublet is up. Kind of a pain, but I did rent my apartment out to my neighbor and his wife while their unit is being renovated. I’m trying to swing the use of his Shelter Island house for July weekends so we’ll see what happens.

There is someone I would really like to see in Estonia but I don’t know if I have time to get there and back in time. I may try to fit in a quick bullet train to Paris or Brussels before I return home, but outside of that, my Euro 2008 is coming to an end.

I really appreciate the emails from everyone and I will try to post again either before I leave or once I am back home. See you all very soon...

emails

If you haven't read post #10 on Chisinau yet, you should read that first as for this post won't mean much.

I originally posted something else here but removed and shortened it. The main purpose of this post was to share some of the emails I received and not to clarify my previous post.

Anyhooo, without further ado, I give you the top 2 emails (names have been hidden and identifying comments removed to protect the innocent):


EMAIL # 1:
Subject: Emotional
Body of email:

"I wept openly as you commented on your longing to find self and happiness. It was an extremely emotional moment for me. Did you consume any bad shellfish??"



EMAIL # 2:
Subject: jesus christ
Body of email:

"i come to this blog to live vicariously thru your adventures because i am up to my eyeballs in "shared happiness" and you reward me with this ultra introspective yackity-yack about missing home and feeling incomplete?? FYI - i thought you just missed cigarettes...

I must say that the intro to the new section was quite nice and the tongue ring well-placed for maximum pleasure only to have it all quickly fall apart into complete chaos.

However, i must admit to sharing some of the same feelings when i left the USA to live in XXXXXXXX at age XX.

these questions are bound to happen to the lone traveller, but don't sacrifice the tremendous journey you are undergoing now to try to answer these life questions now...enjoy the moment...then come back and figure it out = just my 2 cents....
"

So, there you have it...great stuff.

Also, thank those of you that have emailed me as well as posted comments (Marnie, Leslie, and the fellas at AD). I appreciate all of it...even the Wah burger with a side of cries. You forgot the extra heaping of humble pie.

I am in Bucharest now, let the journey continue...

Post # 10: Chisinau

After a long week in Odessa I was starting to get way too comfortable there (thus, time to go). My roommate Kevin was great, and his girlfriend had even tried to set me up with a few of her friends. The language barrier was too great to overcome so I packed up my things and hit the road. Getting out of there wasn't that easy however. After deciding that I wanted to go to Bucharest, the easiest way was to take a bus to Chisinau, then fly to Bucharest. I had heard a lot of good things about Chisinau, some info here, and decided I should go and check it out. For those of you that know me well, my entrepreneurial mindset never really shuts off. Moldova, as it was explained to me, has a very young and hungry English speaking workforce. The average monthly salary there is only $230, unreal. So, by having an American business, employing the people of Moldova, (customer service, tech support, etc), one can really do some damage.
Anyhow, I quickly found an apartment to rent for a few days and off I went. Five hours on a circa 1960 bus with nothing but farms as far as the eye could see, I ended up at the Chisinau bus station. Here was one of the first sites:
Gotta love the yellow shoes. So, it turns out Chisinau is a booming city, buildings being erected (giggle) at an alarming pace. The Italians seem to have discovered this place as a fertile ground for cheap labor and are seen everywhere wheeling and dealing. There are beautiful little parks everywhere, and, just like Odessa, one of the most popular restaurants in town is....yep, you guessed it; McDonalds. I'm talking about PACKED, all day and night...these Eastern Europeans love their MickeyD's.
During the days, I found myself reading in a few of the parks as well as hopping on and off the $0.10 tram rides that took me from one end of the city to the other. I went by the main university and got some contacts in the guidance counselors office in case I decided to build a nice little business at a later date (by the way, the same holds true of Odessa, only the English there is not nearly as prevalent). At night, I visited some of the more popular lounges and a few American type bars/mini-discos. I didn't hit any night clubs mostly because the people I had met at these lounges said they weren't any good. I left the camera at the apartment most of the time because I was tired of looking like a tourist but couldn't resist bringing it out one night. It must have been after the 19th email from friends saying "enough with the apartment videos, show us the girls!!" that convinced me to bring the camera out and about.
I had become a regular in this little American-friendly bar that turns into a mini-disco at midnight. The bartender and I had become friends and should I come back for business, she promised to get me to the right people in town. Here she is (the blonde with the tongue ring) and here's a photo of Massimo and his lady friend.


He's an Italian banking guy I met who was in town with some high-up Italian politicians setting up more business between the 2 countries.
Here's a video of my bartender friend (Oksana) dancing behind the bar...so cute...and a photo of the 2 girls she sat next me...this place sucks:





And finally, a video of one of the Italian banking guys (probably about 50 years old) that got caught walking by the shot girl...big mistake.




Did you happen to notice the very hungry girl seated to my right? I swear I thought she was going to eat me...too bad she was so shy.


So, the rest of my stay in Chisinau, I took a few tours of the city and visited a museum or two...tourist-ish things that I had all but avoided until now. It wasn't until I walked outside the last museum that I started to get homesick...and this was the culprit:


It was right there, at that moment where it all hit me square in the face...I miss home. WTF am I doing traveling around Europe, by myself, in the middle of summer, when everything I know and have ever known is waiting for me back in the states? Was I running from something? Was I looking for something? Was I looking to just get outta dodge and break free? The questions just kept coming; I had no answers other than a resounding "NO" to every one of them.

Believe me, the last thing I would have ever expected in my life was to wake up one day...40 and single...and in Chisinau?? Am I tired of being alone? That's one question I'm starting to have to answer with a Yes. Maybe that is what's eating me and prompted this trip. I was too busy working and living to realize that I was truly alone. I was too busy planning to see the forest for the trees (whatever the hell that means). Didn't someone once say that life is what happens while you're busy making other plans? All this is probably going to sound sappy as all hell and I'm sure I'll hear it from the boys via email, but it just has to be said. Maybe Christopher McCandless was right, although he realized it too late; Happiness is isn't real unless it is shared. Or maybe I just simply missed Bond Street sushi?


It was then that I decided it was time to leave and head at least in the general direction of home...and planned my trip to Bucharest in hopes the questions would subside.

Post # 9: videos I never uploaded

This first video is the final video of Kevin's apartment (where I'm staying)...I uploaded the first two videos the other day.



Next up I was invited to go sail the Black Sea by my roommates' friend Ben. Ben has been living in Odessa for 2 years as an English teacher, and is originally from the UK. I think he served for their royal army. In the video I am untying the sails before we set off.




Here we have Ben trying to figure out the issue with the sails...see if you can spot the dummy tangled up in the lines and my roommate offering much help (narrating).



And finally the onset of a full blown panic attack. a) I'm not so good with heights; b) The only word I could muster was "hmmm". 4 minutes later, we were moving again...good thing I had wodka with me.



I have more stories and things to post but it's getting late here and I'm trying to plan my next leg of the trip. I think I've learned about as much as I can here in Odessa and it's about time I hit the road before I get too comfortable.

Post # 8: Odessa with Borat

It has been a very interesting 3 days here in Odessa...the first 2 days in the hotel, and the last 24 hours at my new roommates' apartment. Life here has been very challenging to say the least, but it's all part of the experience and I'm doing the best I can with it. My jew-fro was acting up a bit so it was time for a haircut. Only one issue, they have 2 hairstyles here: Ukrainian army short, and something that I can only describe as shorter than Ukranian army short. There was no shot I could have explained to "take a little off here and there" so I did what any self-respecting new york princess would do....bought a pair of scissors on the street for $0.60 cents and trimmed my own hair in the hotel bathroom. It was either that, or ending up looking like my new friend Slavo who is pictured below. Oh, here are videos of my new diggs:






As far as happenings...hmmm, the futbol match I watched was probably one of the best matches I have seen. Here's a photo of my new friend Slavo who I met at the sports bar while watching the game. Turns out he was once one of Ukraine's seamen (giggle) who has been to the states several times. He loves Baltimore and Houston (probably because that's all he's seen) and can't wait to get back to there. Problem is, he's no longer a seaman (giggle), so getting back to the U S and A will be werry werry difficult. It was all I could do not to giggle when he told me he was a seaman (giggle) and I can't help myself every time I hear that word.
My new roomie and I went out last night, first to a Ukrainian restaurant, then to a lounge, then to another lounge. For dinner, I ordered the veal stew, which was absolutely delicious...if it weren't for the fact that it had more garlic per kilogram than any dish in the world, it would have been perfect.
The lounge scene was really quite interesting. Most of the people sadly do not speak English, and if they do, it's more of "Hi, my name Natasha, I secretary". The more educated Ukranians realize that in order to have the better opportunities, learning other languages is crucial. I have met several Ukranians that fall into this category, including Eugene pictured here in the Height Ashbury sweatshirt. He speaks perfect English, just LOVES san francisco and will make it to NYC in October where he will be my guest. He's a smart tech guy who creates a sort of anti-spam software...i believe it's for a company that may be a subsidiary of Cisco but who knows. He's smart, funny and just loves wwodka, Wayne's World, and especially Borat. He must have called me fellow 17 times (clearly meaning buddy or pal).."hey fellow, more Wodka?"..."hey fellow, when I come to the U S and A, we will have excellent time". Funny stuff.
So, the rest of the night last night and during the day today we strolled through the busier streets of Odessa. To give you an idea of what the style is like, take a look at what's hot on the streets of Odessa this season....(photos taken off the internet and not by me):



It's now Friday night and I expect to go to a nicer restaurant/lounge type place and really get to see how Odessians spend their weekends. I hope to post more over the next few days, and I also hope to get out of here and on to the next destination...just not sure where that is yet.

Post # 7: Odessa

Ahhh, sunshine and 73 degrees...a gorgeous day here in the Ukraine! Getting past customs was a little shaky and my first impression was that the language barrier is going to be very difficult here. After filling out the immigration form 3 times, access was granted to their new friend from the U S and A. My driver picked me up at the airport and drove me to the hotel. Apparently, traffic signals are optional here, and most intersections don't have stop or yield signs on any corner. It's sort of like a game of chicken, he who flinches first gets to stop at the corner and wait as the cars go by.

My hotel is average at best, but it's 10 blocks from the main street (Deribasovskaya). I'm only here 2 nights as for my apartment search started and ended in 3 minutes. Using the site hospitalityclub.org (another page out of The 4-Hour Workweek) I got in touch with an ex-patriot who gave me a large list of things to do. A phone call to him on my way to dinner last night resulted in the two of us meeting for a bite. Kevin turns out is from California and living in Odessa for a little over a year. He speaks Russian and gave me a few lessons that actually had me reading signs in about 3 minutes...cool! I can't understand a lick of it, but maybe I'll take some lessons while here.

In any event, dinner for two consisted of a sort-of Philly cheese steak sandwich for him, we split potato croquettes, and I had a chicken kabob dish...washed down with a coke for him, 2 waters for me, and a mini-carafe of vodka that probably poured a total of 3 or 4 vodkas each. All that was $26.00. Yikes, I'm a super magnate here....look out or I may just tip you 25%!

Ok, so Kevin...he's a real nice guy, one helluva host, probably 30 years old, and reminds me a lot of myself at that age...as for I, like him, was a jack of all trades, master of none. By the time I had reached that age, I had: a car wash/pressure clean/yard cleaning/moving furniture business during summers of college (called Nice College Kids), dabbled in sports gambling, had a short-lived sports-focused 900# business, owned 2 bars on south beach, had a minority interest in a start up telecom company that I later became more involved in, and for my day job, was VP of a family parking lot/garage business.

This guy's pretty much been all over Europe, and is currently working on: document translation services, business consulting, marraige consultant (uh oh), real estate broker (although not licensed), english teacher (again, not licensed), self improvement workshops similar to tony robbins stuff but more related to getting europeans to open up and smile, as well as a few other things. So, in our discussions about apartments, he gave me several options, most in the $95-$150/night range, then saved the best for last. A $70/night room in a 2 bedroom penthouse...as his roommate. I told him it was the best price I had seen, but I would have to see it first. I will get a video of it at a later date, but it was a cool place, probably about 2,000 square feet, and this guy speaks English AND Russian. Sold. I move in tomorrow afternoon...open ended. My guess is it'll be about a week or so, possibly longer, but we'll see.

I have photos and videos to load, but internet slow in the hotel...will do them soon. Tonight I'm off to watch the Futbol Champions League final match between 2 of my favorite teams, both from England. I'll be rooting for Chelsea. This is sort of the Super Bowl of Europe as for it's the final game of a competition between the top teams in each European country. Very rare that 2 teams from one country are in the final...sort of like 2 teams from the same state making the super bowl or world series, although it does happen (mets/yankees) so it's a pretty big match.

Again, great emails I'm receiving and glad that my typing is not falling on deaf ears. Keep them coming.

Nostrovia!

Post # 6: Ljubljana

It's now Monday the 19th and tomorrow will be 2 weeks since I left NYC. I'm back at my Slovenia apartment/hotel to pack up and move on. To clear up some confusion (mom), I only stayed at that 6 bedroom suite one night. I had made reservations at Vila Minka (one of the 3 places recommended by that email I posted earlier) for Friday - Tuesday. Since the World championship for Belgian Shepherds were held here last week, everyone was booked, thus the hostel (not hostile) situation. Vila Minka is run by a very hospitable, wonderful family who took care of me like I was their own son. They have a daughter who is studying hospitality management in Fort Lauderdale...when I mentioned that I grew up in Florida the mother had so much to talk about it was great. I assured her she was safe there and if she needed anything, to please get in touch with me and I'd send a Florida friend to help out. Ok, with that out of the way, my second night out in town. I ran into several of my 6-beds-in-a-suite mates down by the river and we had a few drinks while discussing our travels. One guy's from Jersey City, the other Canada, and the third was a girl from Finland. They were quite younger and thus on a very serious budget...when I recommended we go to another spot, they went bargain hunting. We ended up in a scene right out of the Lost Boys...punk rock city in a dead end street. That wasn't my bag, so I feigned sickness and made a beeline back to planet earth. On my way back I went into a karaoke bar...the highlight of the evening...



and there's this one:



As for the rest of the trip, it rained today and most of yesterday, so I took advantage and actually started to plan out the rest of my trip. The internet connection here at Vila Minka is great, so I've been taking care of some things that I didn't finish before I left. But to summarize my 5 days here in Ljubljana...Slovenians are a very friendly, hard working bunch. I notice that their office day starts pretty early, 7:30 or 8 am I think. Everyone under the age of say 40 speaks English fluently, and most of them speak at least 3 languages. It was quite impressive to have the Ipod store guy speak Slovenian on the phone, assist me in English, help the next guy in French, and I'm sure he speaks Italian as well. Due to their proximity to Italy, ice cream or gelato is HUGE here and a lot of locals speak Italian.


Slovenian food was significantly better than Spanish cuisine; the only issue I had was their confusion of some English phrases. Most evident was actually the best tasting dish I had since I left the states. It was sea bass, served with some kind of potato and either broccoli or spinach mixture. It was amazing but its name...wait for it...."Pretty Fishy". I tried to explain to the waiter that they probably meant to name it Pretty Fish because when something is "fishy", well, it's usually not so good. Needless to say, this was not fishy at all, and actually quite pretty since they braided the sea bass fillets into a pie-like formation. I ended up speaking to another solo traveler who was seated next to me, a brown-haired, librarian-type Swedish girl who was in Slovenia for a conference. She's essentially the equivalent of a PHD student who's working on a project (ex-swedes who moved away and are working abroad). I told her I knew such a person in the states (hi Angelica) and I'd get the two of them in touch.



And finally, the dollar-euro thing again. Your euro goes significantly further here (all comparisons I'm using 1.5:1 euro to dollar even though it's a few pennies more):


A local beer: 1.50 euro = $2.25

vodka soda: 3.00 euro = $4.50

pasta dinner: 7.00 euro = $10.50

a cappuccino, an ice cream, or bus ride: 1.00 euro = $1.50

ham and cheese sandwich: 3.00 euro = $4.50


Basically, I saved a fortune by being here instead of NYC this week. If you are planning on coming to Slovenia, I highly recommend staying at Vila Minka and I also recommend renting a car.


Now for what will surely be the least expensive leg of the trip; Odessa, Ukraine. I was headed to Italy this week, but it's supposed to rain there and most of central europe all week long...crap. I have a friend going to Italy for 2 weeks so if the rain clears up, I'll be there. After another quick check of the weather forecast, the only clear skies were Bucharest or Odessa...so that's where I'm headed. I'll make it back to Italy next week when the weather clears up or possibly hit Bucharest and Budapest first.

Also, the emails I have received are great. The more I receive, the more inspired I am to keep posting and it's nice to know people are actually reading this thing. Feel free to email me some thoughts or just a simple hello! Oh, and Mom, I have a hotel booked, a ride picking me up at the airport, and a local guide for the first 2 days to show me around...so no more "you're too old to be staying in a hostel" texts!
;-)