This is our last stop before Istanbul, where our trip will come to an end. It's been great, and I'm even slightly excited to be going home in just over a week.

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Regardless we've seen some amazing places. I'll only give a few highlights, as there would be way too much to write about. First of all, we went to see Santa Claus. I'm sure most of you didn't know that he was Turkish, but he is. St Nicholas lived most of his life in Demre, and we got to see 'hood (church). Not to mention the tacky Santa Claus statue that's near it, and all the tacky souvenirs stores around that.

Then it was off to the ancient Lykian city of Olympos. The hostels there are super cool, as they have treehouses that you can stay in. However, because of the coldness factor, we opted for a nice heated bungalow instead. Nevertheless, the ancient city was awesome. It's still a very wild place, not too developped, and therefore you can just wander around the forest until you stumble upon a magnificent ruin or another.

Around there was another really cool sight. The natural eternal flame of Chimeara is a natural gas leak in the mountain, that has been on fire since the ancient times. They thought it was the breath of a monter underground, but I just thought it was really cool. I even made some grilled cheese on a stick. Mmmmmmm...... I then had a headache from inhaling the fumes. Fun fun.

The next stop was the beautiful city of Antalya, our last stop on the coast. Here we decided to do the whole hospitality club dealy again, so we got to stay with a local family. They were GREAT. Although only the daughters spoke english (and one was too shy to talk), they were all so friendly. We enjoyed delicious breakfasts, learned how to make Turkish coffee (even got our fortune told from the grinds, mine even ended up being true... well part of it anyways) and just generally had a good time. It's a great city too, some nice parks and cafes to smoke nargileh (hookah, shishah, hubbly bubbly or whatever you want to call it).

We've also stopped in the city of Konya. It's a very very muslim city, which is quite interesting to experience (as long as you don't mind being stared at). I even splurged out and bought myself a kilim (traditional carpet).

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Moving on, we headed to Crete. We visited Knossos, home of the Minotaur. Unfortunately, they don't let you pet him anymore, after the tragic death of 3 Germans back in 2004. However, our visit in Crete was cut short once we learned that the last ferry of the season to Rhodes was leaving in just a few days. Oh well, we'll just have a reason to come back some other time.

Rhodes was our last stop in Greece, and although it had a really cool medieval old town, it loses a lot of it's ambiance by being so commercial.

Then it was off to Turkey! Getting there was quite easy (though expensive) from Rhodes, however, I would really like to know what Canada has done to make the Turkish Government not like us. On arrival, we had to buy a visa stamp, and looking at the list, we saw that for all countries, this costs from 10-20 Euros. The one exception to this is for Canadians, where it costs a whopping 45 Euros. GAH!

From our arrival port, we headed to a little town called Dalyan. You couldn't really ask for a more beautiful setting, right on a river, and some really cool tombs carved into the cliffs behind it (see pictures in previous entry). We joined up with a few other tourists, and took a boat to a turtle nesting beach (sadly there were no turtles to be seen at that time) and then back up the river to Kaunos, an old ruined city with a really cool theatre.

Unfortunately, the weather hasn't really been the greatest here in Turkey. It's been rainy and stormy most of the time, however, this is expected to get better in the next couple of days.

The one exception to the bad weather was yesterday, when it was sunny and warm. We started the day with a oh-my-god-I'm-going-to-die hike down the side of a cliff. It wouldn't have been so bad, but we had our big packs on, which adds a lot of extra weight, and messes with your balance. Balance is especially important when going down a path more fit for a mountain goat (and there are plenty around, including in our dinner), than humans. We got down to Butterfly Valley, a beautiful place where we were expecting to spend a few days, however, just as we got there, everyone was packing up to leave. Because they were taking the last boat of the season, and the prospect of having to hike back up the cliff (probably in the rain) didn't appeal, we decided just to leave with them and continue our travels.

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More Pictures!!! remains copyright of the author moutallica, a member of the travel community Travellerspoint.

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Amorgos was amazing. It's a really long and narrow island, with mountains running all the way down. This makes for some spectacular scenery, and an excellent location for the Hora (capital of the island), on the top of the ridge. Not only that, but the landscape is full of old stone fences and terraces for crops which were really cool. The next day, which happened to be Jocelyn's birthday, we rented a scooter for the unbelievably low price of 5 Euros. This allowed us to go see a cool monastery on the side of a cliff, where the keeper gave us some Greek delight (same as the Turkish kind) and a bit of a sweet liquor, which tasted like cinammon. Miam miam. It was then off to explore a few beaches, and then a nice dinner by the port.

The next day we were off at 6 in the morning for our next island hop. The sea was angry that day, and the tiny ferry we were on was not very happy with it. Jocelyn was even less happy. But we did survive, and were rewarded with the beatiful, but tiny island of Donousa (population 110, and only about 5 other tourists). We spent time at the beaches, including a completely secluded one that was ours alone for the entire day. Clothing was optional and we took up that offer. There's just something about swimming naked in the sun.

Our next stop was another small island, Koufonisia. This one had a bit more tourist infrastructure, but not much. Unfortunately, the weather was not the greatest, in fact, a huge storm came through. We spent the whole day in our room, and the next day, when we were supposed to leave, the ferry had been cancelled. However, there are worse things than being stranded on a Greek island.

We are now on a much bigger island, Naxos. It's been a nice change, having a big town where things are still open (on all the other islands, most things have closed for the off season). We also rented a scooter yesterday to explore the beautiful interior of this island. Good times.

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Photos #2 remains copyright of the author moutallica, a member of the travel community Travellerspoint.

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Photos #1 remains copyright of the author moutallica, a member of the travel community Travellerspoint.

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After that, we headed to the island next to it, Skopelos. Although a bit more touristy and commercialised, it was still quite nice. Unfortunately, the weather was not the greatest, and therefore we did not end up going to any beaches.

We are now in Athens, and I can't say It's as great as the islands. Don't get me wrong, it was still really cool to go see the Acropolis, the Temple of Olympian Zeus, the Olympic Stadium from the first modern Olympic games, and other historical sites, but cities simply don't appeal to me the way small towns (or islands) do.

Anyways, while this might not be the most exciting post, my next post (probably in a few minutes) will contain pictures, which I'm sure you'll all enjoy.

It's all Greek to me remains copyright of the author moutallica, a member of the travel community Travellerspoint.

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After finally arriving in Prionia, we had a quick lunch (mmmmmm.... canned fish) and we were on our way. It was all uphill from this point, and the sky had gotten much worse. All the way up it was either raining, or just misting. Needless to say, after over two and a half hours, we were super excited to finally see the refuge where we would spend the night. Walking in drenched, it was nice to finally be inside. A nice hot meal added to this, even though the food itself was nothing special.

The next day we awoke bright and early (or were woken up bright and early by our roommates). Someone must have made a sacrifice to the Gods, because they were rewarding us with clear skies. A quick breakfast and we were on our way to the peak. This was much easier than the day before; no heavy packs to take with us and a nice day can make all the difference. All the way up we were blown away (not literally), by the magnificent views before our eyes. What an impressive mountain (I took over 150 pictures). We eventually got to a point where we could see across a ridge to Mytikas, the highest peak of the mountain. However, we decided not to go for the peak, partly because it looked really tough and scary, and partly because we were told the views were a lot better from the second highest peak. So we settled for Skolio, which at 2911m is only 7m less than Mytikas.

At this point some clouds were moving in, so, after saying farewell to Zeus and friends, we decided to head down. The way down was a lot easier, only hard on the knees (and toes). We decided to skip the walk across the gorge this time, and instead hitched a ride back with some friendly Russian-Americans.

Mingling with the Gods remains copyright of the author moutallica, a member of the travel community Travellerspoint.

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What's even crazier is that in about a week, I've actually gotten used to it. I can pretty much read it now with no problems (although very slowly). Of course I still don't have any clue of what it means, but it's very handy for things such as street signs or signs on busses telling you where they are going.

Another cunfusing thing about Bulgaria has to do with how they say yes and no. Unlike most of the world, Bulgarians nod their head to say no, and shake their head to say yes. It hasn't been much of a problem, and most of the time we don't even notice. I assume they are well aware of their backwardness, and don't expect tourists to do the same. But I first noticed it at a restaurant when a man at another table called for the waitress. She was in the middle of something, so she just looked at him, and (to my perception) gave him an very mean look and shook her head to say no. Of course, with it all being reversed, she was actualy saying "Yes, I'll be there in a second".

Other than that, today we went to Rila Monastery. It was amazing. It's set in beautiful mountains, and it's painted with stripes all over it, giving it a great look. It was also huge compared to the monasteries that we saw in Romania. The funniest thing happened as we were exploring around and we were heading into a random room. Other tourists were coming out, and one of them, said in broken english to us "this is the chicken!". She was all proud that she could say that, but it just left Jocelyn and I really confused. My first thought was that maybe this was where they used to keep the chickens (weird). But after a second it all became clear when her husband corrected her. He kind of laughed, and then said "this is where they made soup... the kitchen". We started cracking up at this slight (and I guess quite easily made) mistake. She noticed too, and laughed at it too with her group. Good times.

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Bulgaria has been pretty cool, although maybe a bit touristy (but that's probably just because we've picked the touristy places to go to). The Black Sea coast was nice. We stayed in a nice little guesthouse right in the old town of Sozopol (we could even hear the waves from the window). The beach was really nice, but don't be fooled. The water is not black at all, it's quite clear.

We've decided to skip the capital, Sofia, because it sounds like just another big city. So we've come to Plovdiv, Bulgaria's second city, instead. It's cool because we're now starting to see ancient Roman ruins lying around. This city was called Phillipopolis way back then, and there's a really cool amphitheatre (still in use) and part of a huge stadium (that continues under the pedestrian mall), where no doubt countless gladiators fought each other to the death!!!

Beaches, Ruins and Yogurt remains copyright of the author moutallica, a member of the travel community Travellerspoint.

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The problem was that after a little while, the bus was suddenly not very full. This seemed a little strange, and then just a few seconds later, I felt my pocket, and noticed that my wallet was gone. It all fell into place and made perfect sense at that exact second. All those people had been working together, pushing and shoving so that we wouldn't notice. I didn't know what to do, but we quickly got off the bus (it still hadn't left), and sort of looked around. Of course, they'd gone by then and there was nothing to do. We found a police officer, but there's nothing that he could do anyways. Apparently, these people 'work' the train station, and they are very good at what they do. That officer gets reports of this every couple hours, and countless others don't realise until they are in town. Of course, it didn't help that I've gotten very comfortable around here. At the start of the trip, I would always keep my hands in my pockets in those situations. I was also stupid to havemy camera in my cargo pocket, which is something I never used to do, but it's convenient. I won't be doing that again, though.

While the situation does suck, there's really nothing I can do about it. I'm glad that Jocelyn is with me (and that she didn't have anything taken), so I'll be OK money-wise until I can get my cards replaced. I'm also happy that pretty much every other Romanian we've met has been extremely friendly and nice, although this would probably also contribute to why I didn't suspect anything.

Bad Luck in Brasov remains copyright of the author moutallica, a member of the travel community Travellerspoint.

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We decided to stay in a little village called Vama, and use that as our base to explore all the monasteries around the area. This town was great, as it wasn't touristy at all. Just a few guesthouses around. The next day it was off to see the monasteries. The thing is, that the busses here suck. The good thing is that it's very easy to hitch hike, so people just do that instead. We always manage to get rides quite quickly, and you're just expected to pay the bus fare (although sometimes they won't accept that). Anyways, we got to the monasteries, and they were awesome. The insides and outsides are completely covered in frescoes. Cartoon Jesuses and other important biblical people are great to see. It's really strange because the insides always seem to have one room that's completely covered in gruesome images. Saints heads are being chopped off (and the halo remains around the head) and blood is gushing everywhere.

After that, it was off to Transylvania, the home of Dracula. We wanted to break our long journey up by spending a night in a city called Cluj-Napoca. We thought that this would be a smart idea, but man, were we wrong. We had the intention of camping, and since that was a bit away from the city, we had dinner first. We then followed the direction from our Lonely Planet, and that's when things went wrong. It told us to take a bus to the end of the line, from where it would be an easy (and marked) 2km walk. nope. It turns out the end of the line is way past where we wanted to get off, and the 2km turned out to be a lot more. There were no signs either, so we relied on friendly locals. We arrived after almost 2 hours, at about 11:00.

The next day wasn't so great either. Our plan was to take an early bus to Sibiu, so that we would have the whole day to explore that city. However, the only bus that we could find (it turns out the bus station has been moved, so it was not in our book) was at 4pm. We then arrived to Sibiu in the late evening, and went to the hotel that our guide recommends. However, this was full, as were any other hotels that we managed to find around town. We started joking about sleeping in the park, but once 10 o'clock came around, it started to sound like a good idea. Our saviour was when we decided to check the internet, and found that a hostel had recently been opened, and it turned out they had room for us. Yippee!

We're are now in Sighisoara, birthplace of Vlad Tepes. You may know him better as Dracula. We saw the house where he was born, which has now been turned into a tourist trap restaurant, where the waiters dress up in capes and everything. But at least the town is really nice, even if it is a bit too touristy.

Travels in Transylvania remains copyright of the author moutallica, a member of the travel community Travellerspoint.

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Picture Time! remains copyright of the author moutallica, a member of the travel community Travellerspoint.

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2. Get on train in Sighet, Romania. Do not bother buying a ticket.

3. When ticket collector comes by, give him half the regular fare. Do not bother being inconspicuous about this.

4. Wait on train for Romanian immigration officials to take their sweet time to stamp exit stamps on passports.

5. When train arrives in Ukraine, make your way to the door in order to be the first one out.

6. As soon as door opens, jump off train and sprint towards the small open gate (step 1 of this list should not stop you from doing this).

7. Crowd and push around the gate in order to get to the front where the Ukranian border guard in randomly handing out immigration cards to be filled out. Grab one, get back away from the gate, and fill it out as fast as possible.

8. Go back towards the gate, where guard will let you in a few at a time. (be sure to push and shove, it will get you through faster)

9. Wait in line again, show passport to the official, get stamp, and proceed to searhing room. Guards may ask to look into your bags, or ask how much money you are carrying (at this point, if possible, it would help to be a confused looking Canadian. It may lead to some laughs and smiles, and a pat on the back from the guards).

10. Arrive in Teresva, Ukraine, where the large market is right next to the border.

11. Find your local connection at the market, who will gladly sell you very cheap cigarettes at greatly reduced rates. Buy as many as you can.

12. Make sure to buy other things as well, this will make you not look as suspicious when coming back into Romania. All household goods are available, as well as groceries, clothes, and anything else you can think of. I recommend the raw meat sitting on tables in the sun (the flies seem to like it, so it must be good), particularly the pig heads (go for one that's smiling).

13. When the time comes to head back, proceed to train station.

14. Again, proceed through Ukrainian immigration. Do not worry about this one, they don't care what you have.

15. Get back on train. As it is at the station, and as it crosses the river back into Romania, be sure to start hiding your cigarettes. There are strict limits on how many you are allowed to bring back, so hide the throughout all the things you have bought during the day. Then proceed to shove them down your pants, shirt, and anywhere else you can think of. Tip: elastic clothes will make sure that stay where you want them to. Your bra strap is good for that. Just be sure to wear baggy clothes over top of that layer.

16. When Romanian officials come on board, give your passport to be stamped. Do not worry yet, these ones aren't looking for your cigarettes.

17. Wait around nervously as other carriages begin to be searched. If possible, get a little kid to wander around to see which border guard is on duty today.

18. Switch seats with a couple of Canadians. (we are not sure why, but give it a try, even if it's just bfor fun)

19. Have a border guard come and start going through your bags. She may yell at you to go open things up for her, but you can yell back.

20. Once train starts to go again, look out the window, and smile and wave at all the poor people who got caught. Be glad that your not one of them.

21. Sell cigarettes on the streets in Romania.

22. PROFIT!!!

23. Rinse. Repeat.

24. Wipe hands on pants.

How To Smuggle Cigarettes Across the Romania/Ukraine Border remains copyright of the author moutallica, a member of the travel community Travellerspoint.

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That same day, we came back to where we spent the night before, and took another bus to a really small town, Abony. The town was really nothing special (although it had a great restaurant with amazing goulash), but it's where Jocelyn's step-grandpa is from. We even saw the house where he lived.

It was then off to Eger, famous for it's wine. It's too bad that my stomach was not feeling very well while there, but we still managed to drink some good wine. There's a little road, in what is called the "Valley of the beautiful women" (or as one translation put it, "nice women valley"), that is just lined with wine cellars. Pick whichever one looks good, and go ask for a glass of wine (starting at about $0.25 per glass). You can also bring an empty plastic bottle, and have it filled for really cheap (about $4 per litre). Good times.

Our next stop was really interesting fo me. It was where my grandma (on my mom's side) grew up, a town called Nyiregyhaza. The town has pretty much no tourists at all, so it was quite hard to find a place to stay. But it was really cool to see it, even visiting the street where my grandma lived (sadly, the address where her house was is a new building).

At this point, we are now in Romania, the land of the gypsies. Getting here was tough though. ALthough the place we wanted to get to was very close on the map, busses and trains don't go where you want, and it takes forever. It even involved spending a night in what is considered the ugliest city in Romania, simply because it was getting late, and we needed to sleep.

But we are now in a great little town called Sighet, in the northern part of the country, the Maramures. It almost feels like we've gone back in time in this country. Certainly not as developped, but full of charm. We found a great little hostel, run by a british guy and his romanian wife. The mattresses are even full of hay, as i guess other matresses would be hard to come by around here (although it's not too good for my allergies).

One thing that's great about Romania, is the language. Since it's a romance language, it is quite similar to french ans spanish, which means picking up a few key words is fairly easy. The confusing part is the money though. The Lei has recently (6 months ago) been changed. Because it was worth so little, they decided to take off 4 zeros. However, people are not yet used to it, and when prices are quoted, it can get a little confusing. Also, since the old bills are still in circulation, you have to think about it for a second. a 10,000 lei bill, is actually 1, and 100,000, is 10, etc. I think I'm getting the hang of it, and since we're liking Romania so much, we may be staying a little longer than we thought.

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So weve had a few exiting days here, the craziest being our last day in Budapest. We were really lucky to be in town just as a big event was about to take place. The Red Bull Air Race was on sunday, and it was great. Imagine planes flying a few meters above the river, while manuvering through some big inflatable slalom gates, while the start and finish line was underneath a bridge. Very impressive, and even better because it was free. The banks of the river were completelz jam packed, but we managed to get earlz to get a great view, including the cool airshow before the race.

After that, we were able to go to a very fancy restaurant. We dont normally get the chance, but this was courtesy of mz verz lovely grandma. With her being hungarian, when she heard that we were headed here, she wanted to treat us to a nice dinner, so she put some money into my account. Isnt she great? and my roast goose dinner was fantastic too.

After dinner, we were to be treated to a special treat. Because it was the national holiday, the was to be fireworks launched from a couple bridges. So it was back to the river bank (and to the massive crowd of people) for the show to begin. When we got there, there was what I thought was a pre show to the fireworks. The sky behind the castle was getting lit up in a spectacular way. It looked like lightning, but the bolt was not visible, and there was no thunder. I later learned that this was actually the start of the craziness, as i heard that this is a rare kind of lightning (I think its called sheet lightning). Anyways, the show started, and all was well and good for the first 10 minutes. Then the wind started... suddenly it was so windy that things were flying everywhere. I thought it was all pretty cool at that point, even as the rain started. But a couple minutes later it all changed. The clouds suddenly just opened up, and the water just poured down. This is the hardest rain Ive ever experienced... we were drenched in a few seconds. This caused the crowd to suddenly turn to sheer panic. It was then a stampede to try to find some cover. You can just imagine the thousands of people that had been watching trying to run away through some narrow streets... it just doesnt work. Jocelyn and I just held on to each other in order to not get separated. We did manage to find some cover where we could wait it out. The crazy part about all this was that even during all the panic, the fireworks continued to go, which made it a sureal experience that wont be forgotten.

The aftermath of the storm was pretty intense. Our walk back to the hostel was full of debris all over. There were even some bricks on a street that had been ripped off of a building... scary stuff. I later heard that many boats had collided on the river too with all the wind and zero visibility.

In other news, my jeans were stolen. The night of the storm, my all my clothes were hanging in a laundry room at the hostel. Obviously, some guy had been soaked that night, so he wanted some dry clothes, and helped himself to my jeans and one of my shirts. Bastard!

P.S.: read Jocelyns blog for other that have happened if interested. http://jocelynpreece.travellerspoint.com

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We went to Prague and spent a few days there. What can I say? Great city with one major problem. Hoards and hoards of tourists. Sure, there was some amazing sights, and it really is a beatiful city, but take the tourist away and it would really be a magical place. Instead I just got sick of it quickly.

It was then off to the fountainhead of one of the best beers in the world. Plzen (Pilsen in german) is where the first ever lager was brewed, and Pilsner Urquell remains the king of beers. Even Jocelyn, who can't really tell one beer from the next, could tell right away that this was a special brew. We took a tour of the brewery, and then enjoyed a few glasses right next door.

Our next stop was Cesky Krumlov, and it involved a change of busses in the town of Ceske Budejovice (Budweiss in german). This is where the original Budweisser is brewed, and while it may not be as good as Pilsner Urquell, it is nothing like the budweisser at home. This one is actually good.

Cesky Krumlov was also really nice, but again overrun by tourists. It's a nice little town, with a river going around it like a horseshoe. The highlight of that town for me was renting some inner tubes and floating with the current down the river. It was a little cold (the rental guy didn't even want to give them to us, he said we better rent a boat instead), but well worth it.

After a night in the quite town of Telc, it was back to Slovakia, to Bratislava. This was a refreshing break. Although it's a big city, it is almost devoid of any tourist activity (maybe not quite, but nothing compared to the Czech Republic). Nothing too special about the city, but i liked it.

Now, as you can tell by the title, we've arrived in Hungary, in Budapest. I love this city, it's really great. Even though there are quite a few tourists, it doesnt feel so bad. This is probably just because all the sights are fairly spread out around the city.

After a day of sightseeing yesterday, today was really a magnificent day. It started with a lazy morning around the hostel, followed by a walk to a park where a picnic lunch was had (mmmmmmm....... hungarian salami is sooooooo good). It was then off to the baths. These are simply awesome. It's a great old building with a few outdoor pools, and then a whole bunch of indoor baths. It's great to go exploring all the way through. Different rooms have baths of different temperatures, steam rooms, or saunas. After a few hours of that, my muscles are feeling really relaxed. I love Hungary.

I'm So Hungary remains copyright of the author moutallica, a member of the travel community Travellerspoint.

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Anyways, this has been a decent city. It's nice to be in a city that's not completely overloaded with tourists. In fact, the streets were completely empty yesterday morning. We then went to what must be one of the most morbid and creepy tourist attractions in all of Europe. It was a crypt below a church (the name escapes me), and it was just full of dead bodies on display. It went on to explain that because of the ventilation system down there, that caused the air to keep fresh and dry, bodies here were naturally mumified. Nothing was done to the bodies at all except leave them down there. Some still had teeth and nails....... gross. So we walk in and along different rooms are coffins where the original lids had been removed and glass ones had been put in place. You could get a really close look, and see all the shrivelled skin and bones. The creepiest part of this whole crypt, was one room where a whole bunch of friars were laid to rest. The thing about this is that they were not in any coffins. Just resting on the ground, with a couple of bricks as pillows. There must have been over 20 of them lined up on both sides and the creepiest ones were still wearing some sort of hood over their heads. The room looked like it was right out of horror movie. I can just imagine the main character waking up in the middle of this room and starting to panic (I would too) as the all came alive. Very scary.

Before that we were in Slovakia. We spent a few days around some towns, seeing some cool castles along the way. We also spent some time in a national park, where I got us lost. We were trying to get to a trail that goes up along a stream with waterfalls, but I took a wrong turn, and we had no idea where we were anymore. It took hours of trying to find another way there, before we just decided to retrace our steps and head back. We did eventually get to do that trail (and it was awesome) but it meant almost 10 hours of walking around that day. Our legs were tired after that.

What I loved about Slovakia is just the scenery. We took a train between two towns, and it was simply beautiful. Hills full of trees, cliffs, and castles the whole way. I love it!

Czech It Out! remains copyright of the author moutallica, a member of the travel community Travellerspoint.

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That's polish for hi, and we've been using it a lot in the last few days. We've been hiking in the Tatra mountains, and whenever we would pass somebody on the trail, we'd say "cheshch" (I'm not quite sure on the Polish spelling of the word, but that's how it sounds)

We started off at Zakopane, which is pretty much the Whistler of Poland. Hoards of tourists as far as the eye can see.... I'm not a huge fan. But we then took a bus into the national park, and it quickly started to get better. The first part of the hike was on a road (only for horse carriages taking people to lake Morskie Oko and service vehicles), so that wasn't too special. But once we turned off, it got really nice. We started to see the peaks, and man, did they look cool. There's something about these mountains that are different from the ones back home. While around Canada, we have either very green mountains, or very rocky ones, these manage to be both at the same time (as the pictures below can show). It seems that grass and shrubs manage to find a way to grow, even on almost sheer cliffs.

Anyways, after a bit of a climb with our packs (we had left most of our stuff at the hostel in Zakopane, but brought with us some clothes, sleeping bags and food), we reached a mountain refuge. These are great little places that offer beds and food, and we would call it home for the next two nights. Places like these are a great idea, and I wish we would have them in Canada. They are scattered around the national park, and I like the fact that they are not allowed to refuse anyone, even if it means sleeping on the floor (although I am happy that we got there early enough to get a bed).

After getting set up, we decided to go for more of a hike. There was a peak we could reach, and it looked interesting. It was a very hard climb up there, but it was well worth it. The view was simply amazing. I also find that I get a really cook feeling whenever I'm at a peak of a mountain. On one hand, I feel like I'm the king of the world for conquering the mountain, but as I look out and see the huge size of these mountains, I feel like an insignificant speck among it all. It's weird having both those opposing feelings at the same time.

The next day, we decided to do a big loop around. It started off with a bit of a hike to get to that big touristy lake, Morskie Oko. While it was kind of nice (but not as nice as other places we had just seen), it was completely ruined by the masses of people there. It sort of reminded us of Lake Louise in that sense.

A bit after leaving that lake, we began to hear thunder and not long after, the rain started. Of course, I was stupid enough to not bring my fleece with me so I was stuck in my T-shirt. I was alright, and the rain later passed, and the sun came back out. This was perfect timing as we were getting to a peak on the Slovak border and I'm not a huge fan of standing on a mountain peak during a lightning storm. Anyways, the peak offered more amazing views, and it was back down the other side of the mountain on the way back 'home'.

With probably about 45 minutes left on our hike, and just as we were almost dry again, we start to see more grey clouds. Suddenly the clouds just opened up and it was pouring down on us. The were huge drops of water that quickly soaked us to the bone. Then came the hail. Pretty big pieces of them, that stung quite a bit as the hit my bare arm. We were happy to get back to the refuge, and quickly got out of our wet clothes.

This morning we had to get back down the mountain. The only problem was that it was raining, with no end in sight. So we trudged down, getting completely wet again. Then, as if to spite us, just as we could see the parking lot where the busses went, the cloud opened up again and let out all of it's fury. We were definitely not happy campers at that point.

But all is well now. We head to Slovakia tomorrow, and I'm really excited.

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Edit: Jocelyn actually took the time to write comments for each pictures, so check out her blog if you want... http://jocelynpreece.travellerspoint.com

More Pictures remains copyright of the author moutallica, a member of the travel community Travellerspoint.

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We then headed down to the old town, which is much praised by everyone as being one of the nicest in Europe, due to the fact that it was not destroyed during the war. While it was nice, what really took away from it is that all the old building are now the home of international chain stores. It felt like we were walking through a mall. An attractive mall, but a mall nonetheless.

The next day is the day that we shall never speak of again. We were staying in a little apartment dealy. It just a room with one bathroom and two bedrooms. Anyways, we were ready to check out and move to a cheaper hostel (we can't afford a place like that all the time), but there was a slight problem. We were locked in. Let me explain the stupidity of Polish locks, and you can understand how this happened. It seems that on most Polish locks, if you lock it fully from the outside (there's a half lock and a full lock) you are simply not able to open it from the inside. We weren't too worried about it at that point, because since we were supposed to check out, we thought they'd come by to clean it soon and let us out. This was not the case as we later found out. We then thought that the other couple in the room would come back soon.... but that was not the case either. We avoided starvation by finding some brown rice in the room, and managing to cook it in the kettle.

At around midnight, the couple came back and we rushed out to find something to eat. We found some ice cream and kebabs, and we then felt much better. Let me tell you, being trapped in a tiny room for a whole day is no fun at all. However, in order to ease our pain, we have decided that the day simply did not exist. July 25, 2006 was by some magical way, simply skipped over. That is all.

Anyways, today we managed to get out of that place, and we went to visit a salt mine south of here at Wieliczka. While it was slightly pricey, it was well worth it. We went down underground and it was really cool. Everything was carved away from 98% pure salt.... you could even lick the walls. mmmmm.... salty. It was cool because the miners have carved some amazing things under there, such as some amazing cathedrals and ballrooms. I can also now say that I have peed 130m underground. How many of you can say that?

Prisoners in Krakow remains copyright of the author moutallica, a member of the travel community Travellerspoint.

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We spent our first few days in Poland in Warsaw (Warszawa, pronounced vah-shaw-vah). The great thing about that was that we were staying with locals. We met them through a website called Hospitalityclub.org, which we were told about by another traveller. Basically, people sign up and offer free accomodation. We messaged a few of them, and had a few offers. It's really cool because you get to experience the real locals, as opposed to a hostel full of other travellers (which can be fun too). Not to mention all the money you save on accomodation. Our hosts (Monika and Chris) were really nice, but they worked a lot, and were always very busy.

One thing we have noticed is how nice people are here compared to the Baltic states. This was noticed as soon as we arrived in Poland. We were standing in a line, and we happened to leave a small space in front of us. Then somebody asked us if we were in line, instead of just going in front. I know that seems like common sense, but not for Lithuanians. There, if you leave even a few inches between you and the person in front of you, you'll lose your space in the line.... very annoying.

Anyways, we are now in Krakow, further south. We haven't really explored the city much, although we have found an awesome pierogi restaurant. Yesterday we went to Auschwitz. I'm not going to discuss everything, but I will say that it was quite impressive and that people can be horrible. That is all that needs to be said right now.

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Also, just wanted to let everyone know that you can also check out Joce's blog. It will have some of the same things as mine, but many different things as well. If you're interested, the address is jocelynpreece.travellerspoint.com. Check it out.

Pics remains copyright of the author moutallica, a member of the travel community Travellerspoint.

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