italy: rimini

Upon arriving back in rimini, i dropped my bags at the information office, just outside the train station...the lady told me the next bus to san marino wasn't for another hour or so, so i walked a bit into the city centre just to kill time...i learned a lot of people rent bikes to get around the city, i suppose i could've done the same, but walking always feels good to me:)...

rimini is now mostly known as a beach/resort town, but it used to have some importance in roman times...there are still a couple roman ruins to be seen...

there are families who come for a week or more and do nothing more than walk from their hotels to the beach, and back...i didn't spend enough time in rimini for this to happen, oh well...from the photos i saw, the beach here isn't anything special, but the economy of the town definitely depends on beach tourism...

i walked into an old cathedral, i think it was called a temple...it wasn't fancy inside, and felt pretty calm, and real...(if that makes sense)...i liked the feeling of quiet, even though there were a few other people wandering around inside...

after arriving back in rimini, the lady at the information office gave me back my bags, then told me which local bus i needed to get to my hotel...the hotel i'd booked was a street back from the beach, i think the entire street is dedicated to hotels and restaurants...i used the map function of my iphone to keep track of how far down that street i needed to get to find my hotel...

i checked in, then relaxed for a while...(and tried to get rid of the motion sickness feeling that wasn't leaving me as quickly as i would've liked)...eventually i went out walking down the street...

i was looking to see how far i could walk, and find a place to eat dinner...i figured out the answer to both questions :)

the next morning i was up early so i could take advantage of the breakfast included in my hotel price before walking around more of the old city centre...the breakfast was mostly carbs, argh...a croissant, various breads, etc...(this is italy, that's how they do breakfast)

i left my bags at information again, and continued walking...i passed the cathedral/temple from the day before, and made a left at a bigger intersection...

a few blocks down from there i came to one of the old roman sights in the city...an arch...it was pretty, but not hugely impressive...there was a small platz on one side of the arch, but it was early enough in the morning that there werent many people hanging out in the area...i wondered if it ever gets crowded...

i walked through this platz and a couple others on my way to the other roman sight in town...a bridge...still in good shape, cars drive over it all day long...it isn't huge, but i liked it...all the postcards with pictures of the bridge show it at night, when it's lit up...i should've stayed out late the night before!

After the bridge i stepped into a big church...big and airy, a bit darker than i usually like, and quiet...i love the feeling of comfort i get wheneva i step into any religious building, whether it's a synagogue, temple, mosque, church, etc...

from there i went back to the train station and caught my next train :)

san marino

The next morning i was up early so i could start making my way to another town (and country!) ...my first train left meran at 0602...it left on time, thank goodness...it was a tiny little regional train that runs pretty regularly to the closest 'big' city, of bolzano (known as bolzen in german)...from there a train to bologne, then a train to rimini, a city on the coast...

i dropped my bags at the information office close to the train station, and asked questions...they told me how to get to san marino, which was my real goal for the day...

san marino is the world's oldest republic...according to lonely planet it has a very high GDP (over $50,000 i think)...san marino is the only former citystate that didn't get swallowed up by the formation of modern italy...how it survived as independent and the others didn't, i don't know...if i didn't actually KNOW i was in san marino, there was nothing to give it away as being somewhere different from italy...they speak italian, and use the euro as currency...

anywho, there are a few small towns within the borders of san marino, but there is only one place people actually visit...it's the area on top of a hill...to get there you take a bus from rimini, and its putting it mildly to say the road is not straight...i was quite motion sick when i finally got off the bus...the chance to walk the rest of the way up the hill was a welcome way to get rid of that feeling...there are tours offered on a little train, i was very keen to walk...

i was a bit disappointed when it seemed that almost everything i could see was geared toward tourists...there were plenty of shops, but nothing 'local'...lots of electronics, or souvenirs, or things along those lines...there were heaps of restaurants, and hotels for those who want to say they slept in such a tiny country...one thing i did like was there were no touts trying to get me into shops or tours or restaurants...

i'm shallow enough to admit that the biggest reason i came to san marino was to get another passport stamp...and to add another country to my list...

it's hard to get stamps from countries in the schengen zone...it says in the guidebook that you can get the san marino stamp by going to the information office and paying for the stamp...i did so, cheesy as that is...i've been to a fair number of countries, but getting a new passport stamp never gets old...i don't think it ever will...

there are a few castles/fortresses/protective towers on this hill, all of them have entrance fees...i paid to go in just one, since they all seemed the same...not a lot to see, but the views over the surrounding area were pretty awesome...

the changing of the guard takes place in front of the justice building (i think) every 30 minutes...(geared toward tourists obviously)...the guards are willing to have their photos taken, but i'm guessing they don't love the russian tourists who go for sexy poses next to them...it looks tacky...i wonder if these guards have physical requirements for the job just like other well known guards do around the world...

the bus ride back to rimini wasn't great either, but i made it through :)

there isn't much to say about san marino...if i had a car, i would go back so i could stop in one or two of the other towns, just to see what 'real' people live like...i have no idea what you call someone from san marino...are they san marinese?

italy: meran/merano

there are a few cities in the northeastern area of italy known by two names...this is because this area of italy used to be part of austria, so german is still spoken...i wish proper names around the world would be consistent, and this is an example of where they are not...the city in which bo lives is either meran, or merano, depending on which language you are using...
we drove from verona to meran (bo drove, i fell asleep, ooops!)...the weather turned crappy, with low hanging clouds, and some rain, so even if i hadn't been asleep i still would not have been able to enjoy the beautiful scenery...it was also much cooler than i was prepared for, ugh..

we walked into the city centre for dinner, though i hate that kind of weather...windy and rainy, yuck...we went to a brewery for dinner, which had typical sudtirolean food, (think german, not italian)...yum, but probably not terribly healthy as it was pretty heavy...
before falling asleep we watched the netherlands/mexico football game...(the world cup had moved into elimination stages)...everything exciting happened in the last three minutes of the game, i felt so bad for mexico...

merano is in a long valley filled with trees...apples, pears, apricots, cherries and more...plus there are a heap of small vineyards...there is no reason to eat storebought produce...
the next morning after a fantastic breakfast that included homemade apricot marmelade, we went for a short hike a little above meran...continuing with the austrian habit of creating trails for hiking and other outdoor pursuits, there are hiking trails all over the area...i would love living in this area, it's stunning! i kept stopping just to take it all in (and the weather was fantastic, which was another reason to enjoy myself)...

oddly enough the postcards i bought in the village we passed through were half the price of the postcards in downtown merano...i would've expected the prices to be the same...in this same village we stopped for a snack, mainly because i will take every chance i get to have an himbeer becher...YUM...this is when bo told me that radlers in this area are made with lemonade instead of sprite...(a radler in bayern - southern germany - is made with sprite and bier...think of it as the perfect refreshing drink after a hike up a mountain)...

on the way back down into town my legs felt like jello...am i really that out of shape? more motivation to spend more time in this area, hiking to get back to being fit...might as well do it in a beautiful place, right?
merano in the sun and a bit warmer is awesome...it still feels like a small town, though there are about 50,000 people there...it doesn't feel like 'italy'...it felt a lot like being back in garmisch-partenkirchen...it felt like home :)
we went to the library, bo uses the library for wifi, which keeps his online time to a reasonable amount of time...

we also went to the train station so i could get tickets for my next destination...we stopped at a non touristy place for more gelato (totally unnecessary, but so good!)...we stopped for dinner at a cheap place serving falafel, my meal was HUGE...i was unable to finish everything on my plate, hee hee...(probably because we'd just had gelato)...
while doing all that walking we walked past the therma, the sight of one of the baths in meran...this town is known for it's stunning scenery, and the thermal springs...these were first developed by the romans way back in the day, and have been redeveloped a few times since...

i think the latest reincarnation opened just a few years ago? we didn't have time to enjoy them during this trip (but probably would've if it had continued to rain, as i hate being outside in the rain) but they made it on my list of reasons to come back!
on the way home we stopped at a grocery store and picked up snacks for the hike bo planned for the next day...so many choices of yummy food i don't get in ukraine...
another great breakfast the next morning (apple/pear marmelade this time, i wondered what the next day was going to offer)...

we went back to the train station to catch a local bus to the starting point of our hike...from that point we rode a 'disney chair' type of lift halfway up the mountain...AWESOME...i loved being able to look down the valley, it's beautiful...
the hike itself was an over and down sort of route...we could've skipped the ride up, but that would've made the hike longer and harder than either of us was prepared for...the across part was 90minutes plus, with plenty of smaller ups and downs...we found wild raspberries, which i love...
the way down took us back into the village of yesterday, coming very close to a couple castles on the hill...i loved it...toward the end the trail took us through an apple orchard, how awesome is that? we saw people raking hay/grass by hand, as it's too steep for any machinery...we walked past a few cherry trees with GIANT cherries, we seriously considering climbing up to pick a few :)

of course as we got to a village we stopped for gelato, at a different place...yum...(i'm in italy, there is no such thing as too much gelato)...
dinner was back in merano, cheap pizza this time...when we got home both of us were a bit sore from two hikes in as many days, so we did a bit of yoga/stretching on the balcony...it felt fantastic :)...this is the life! that night argentina beat switzerland again in the last few minutes of the game, (i didn't know who to cheer for, i've got friends in both countries) in the 2nd overtime, we both fell asleep when the USA/Belgium game was still tied 0-0...

italy:verona

the next morning, i took a train from milano to verona...it was a single train ride, and only supposed to be 90 minutes...somehow it was 30 minutes late, argh...bo met me at the train station in verona, he'd driven down from his home up north...

we dropped my bags in his car, since it was still too early to check into our guesthouse...we turned around and started walking...both of us had been to verona before, we used it mostly as a convenient place to meet up...

we started with a morning snack: italians would call it breakfast, but both of us had already eaten breakfast...croissants and a drink...there are little cafes all over every italian city so everyone gets an easy breakfast...

we walked along the river, then across one of the many bridges...soooo many tourists, eeek...even though i'd seen them all in milan the day before, i was still overwhelmed...since i live in ukraine and travel to small towns most of the time, i'm really not used to crowds...i'd totally forgotten how popular italy is as a travel destination, and verona is full of sights...we wandered a bit, figuring out where we might go later in the day, if we felt like paying entry fees...

around 1300 we walked back to the guesthouse and checked in, then had lunch at another nearby cafe...pasta, of course...mine was supposed to be spicy, but wasn't...at all...

walking back into the city centre, we found the roman arena...every summer this arena hosts the 2 month long verona opera festival...it's a fantastic venue, and nothing matches watching an opera under the stars with 30,000 of your best friends...we took a look at the schedule and saw that aida was scheduled for that night, so we bought the cheap tickets...there are super cheap tickets, then they get really expensive really fast...some people pay more than 200 euro for a single ticket! those expensive tickets don't get you anything super special, just a better viewpoint from the folding chair!

Our next stop was a coffee machine, which had a darn good hot chocolate for .50 euro...yay...

from there we walked further down a street, and into the castle...we opted not to buy tickets for any of the museums, we didn't care enough to learn anything...hee hee...

since we had tickets for the opera which started at 2100, we headed back to the guesthouse to rest and clean up...(verona was a lot hotter than kyiv, i wasn't dealing very well with the heat)...we had dinner at a random cafe, which allowed us to arrive at the arena at 1945...

when we bought our tickets we were told that the arena opened at 1930 for people like us who had unreserved seating, we knew we needed to arrive early...we arrived just 15 minutes after the doors opened, but already many of our possible seats were taken...great fun to watch people as they arrived; fun to see what people were wearing, and how they behaved...we chatted with our neighbors, as you tend to do in these situations...mostly, or probably all, tourists (at our level anywho, probably a few locals in more expensive seats)...

the rain started at 2045...ugh...i had an umbrella, we tried to avoid getting too wet...(it didn't work, as water collected on the rows and soaked into our clothes...some people took cover in hallways, some people pulled out ponchos or umbrellas...nearly everyone who had one of the expensive seats went to the hallways, those of us in the nosebleed seats stayed out in the rain...there was one row of people in the expensive seats who didn't move...they all had blue ponchos, bo and i referred to them as the smurfs :)...

the announcement came over the loudspeakers almost immediately, that the performance would be delayed as the rain would injure the instruments...it stopped raining after 30 minutes or so, everyone cheered and the people with squeejies came out to clean off the stage...just as they finished, the rain started again...everyone started cheering again, we joined in, laughing...

the rain finally stopped for good, more cheering of course...the performance ended up starting about 45 minutes late but time moved slowly, so it didn't feel that late...

it was a modern interpretation of aida, with great costumes and scenery...the voices were strong, choreography smooth, etc...neither bo nor i could remember the synopsis, so we were a bit lost...since the interpretation was modern, we kept thinking aliens had come from another planet and decided to sing a few songs...we got home quite late...

the chocolate croissant i had the next morning had waaay too much chocolate inside...(not something i ever thought i would say)...maybe i felt that way because of the giant slice of nutella covered pizza dough i'd had on the way home from the opera the night before...

our first sight of the day was 'juliette's house'...juliette of romeo and juliette...even though the story was made up, this house has been decided to be juliette's house...there is a small courtyard inside, with a small balcony where people come out to have their photo taken...there are a lot of people, it's difficult to get a decent photo...

i decided to go up the tower, bo decided to wait...the entry fee was 8euro!!! crazy...the view over the city was nifty though, i was glad to do it once...in an effort to burn a few calories i took the stairs going up and down, my legs were burning...

we opted not to pay to go in the duomo, we could see most of the ceiling from the door and that was supposed to be the greatest part of it...i was already getting really tired of the idea of having to pay to go in every church we walked past...argh...

we had lunch at yet another random cafe, nearby which was a shop where i bought postcards...before heading back to the guesthouse we stopped by the drink machine again, i wanted more hot chocolate :)...from there we collected bo's car, then made our way out of the city...

italy: milan

My summer holidays started with two weeks in italy...i flew into bergamo airport, near milan, simply because i'd never seen milan before...i found the bus that took me to milano centrale, which was an hour long ride and would've been a lot faster if traffic had been moving...as it was, it was a lot of stop and go, which didnt make me feel very good...

i took the subway to my hostel, and tried to check in...unfortunately, i was too early, and my room wasn't ready...so i dropped my bags, then walked to the nearest supermarket to get lunch...from there i walked into the historical center of the city, ready to explore...

my first side was the duomo of milano...the outside is super impressive, to say the least...really really impressive...apparently i'm not the only one who thinks so, as there were heaps of tourists wandering around the platz in front...i went inside the church, and wasn't nearly as impressed by the interior as i was the exterior...(the inside was still very nice, just not as awesome as the outside)...

the galleria was the same as the one i'd seen in december in napoli, i'm guessing they were each designed by the same person or group...

i shopped that day, a lot more than i usually do...it is something a lot of people do while traveling, but i'm not usually one of those people...i bought three dresses in a single day! I also picked up a lonely planet guide for italy...

from the duomo platz i walked toward the castle...while walking i realized the sun felt really good, but i was sooo tired...so tired that when i walked into the castle i sat on a bench and sortof dozed for about 20 minutes...i could hardly keep my eyes open, eeek...the inside of the castle was made up of several museums...

on the other side of the castle i found a big park...filled with paths to walk, and people...

i enjoyed wandering to the other end of the park where i found an arch modeled after the arc de triomphe in paris...i wanted to sit on another bench, but all of the benches in the shade were taken, and i didn't think i could handle more sun by that point...whoops...

i stopped at a random cafe on the way back to my hostel for dinner...since i was in italy, i figured i should go with a basic italian meal...spaghetti bolognese, bruschetta, and sparkling water...the food revived me a bit, thank goodness...

dessert was from a gelato place near my hotel...YUM...of course i ate too much, but i didn't care, i was starting my holidays :)

ukraine: lutsk

susannah, marina and i got up early saturday morning so we could catch a 5.5 hour marshrutka ride to lutsk...lutsk is in the volhyn region of ukraine, in the northwest area of the country...i ate breakfast, and had some food while on the ride, but i still ended up pretty carsick, and felt awful when we got there...fortunately, susannah had a sandwich for me, and i felt better as soon as i ate...
marina had arranged the flat in which we were staying, so she called up the lady and arranged for us to meet...the lady took us to the flat, showed us around, told us where to find a supermarket...we got ourselves arranged and settled in...

we realized one of the things we wanted to see would be closed the next two days, so we tried to hurry into the historical center of town to see it before it closed...unfortunately, we weren't able to see the tunnels for two reasons...one, they are temporarily closed for renovation of some kind...and two, even if the tunnels had been open, we didn't arrive until just after closing time...oh well...
the tunnels are located right next to a huge cathedral, (called st peter and paul) which was neat to step into...plus, it was hot outside so stepping into the cool church felt good...

there is polish history in this church, so some of the signs were in polish, others were in ukrainian...(this is typical of a lot of towns and sights in the west of ukraine)
just across the street from this cathedral is the city castle...we explored as much as we could, of course...the castle walls are still standing (and have been rebuilt) but the middle area is almost completely open...there used to be a church in the middle of it, but it seems as though the church has sortof been buried, as the ground floor layer was raised...regardless of the reasons, the church entry was closed, we weren't able to peak in at all...booo...

we walked all the way around, even going into the bell museum...some of the bells were small, but there were a few bigger bells as well...not surprisingly, we weren't allowed to ring the bells...(can you imagine how much employees would hate life if visitors were allowed to ring the bells?)...
after the castle, we found a map on the street, showing different sights in the area...we followed the streets to something called st brigits monastery...according to the sign telling the history (in ukrainian and english, yahoo!) of the monastery, it has also been a convent, and a prison, and more...

it was the sight of a massacre by the nazis during WWII...it was tragic to think of how many people lost their lives there...
our next sight had us walking a little more, another church...st dominican, i think...we bumbled into a service, ooops...marina and i didn't feel comfortable staying for long during the service, but susannah was a happy camper...i'm always nervous about intruding in a church service, i don't want to disturb anyone's worship time...i did have my headscarf, so at least i was dressed appropriately...

we had dinner at a place that had rave reviews in both lonely planet and on trip advisor...a place called vitovt, right next to the castle...unfortunately, none of us thought our meals particularly amazing...oh well...maybe i wasn't thrilled because i ordered carp, which is apparently not very tasty...
walking back toward the flat, we realized we were out during sunset...we got to watch a beautiful sunset from the bridge going over the tracks at the train station...the sky was a beautiful range of pinks and reds...
on the way home from dinner, we stopped at tam tam, the huge supermarket our landlady had told us about...it was HUGE...we bought breakfast and snacks for the next day, water too...we bought too much, oh well...
this was when the fun started...we couldn't find the flat!!! eeek...it was dark, but that wouldn't normally be a big problem...we weren't able to find the correct entrance to the correctly numbered building...it is not a good feeling to not know where you are when it's dark outside...we (marina) asked a couple people who seemed to live in the buildings, but none of them knew the answer to her question...
i should point out that these apartment buildings are big, and all look the same...it's really easy to get lost and/or confused...we'd only gone in once and out once so we didn't really know...
we ended up calling the lady, who told us where to go...not surprisingly, we were really close, hee hee...due to the late arrival home, we didn't go to sleep until after midnight!
the next day we went to klevan for most of the day...
after returning from klevan, we walked back into the historical center of the city...

on the way, we saw a man selling honey, i tried three different types...i didn't taste a huge different between the three, but i did buy one of them...i'd like to think it was organic :)
there is a giant church in this area of town, and since it was a holiday weekend, there was a holiday service...(the holiday is trinity, which is religious)...there were flowers laid out on the ground in front of the church, absolutely lovely...lots of people going to church, most were dressed in their sunday best...absolutely amazing people watching time!

we had dinner at a cafe on a pedestrian street near this church...normal ukrainian food, we were all happy...this cafe listed calories on its menu, the first time i've seen that in ukraine!
on the way back to our flat, we explored more of a memorial park we'd seen the day before...there were several graves, several memorials (including the huge WWII memorial, which we expected) and the grave of someone who had died during the craziness of Maidan, in February...that particular grave was covered in flowers, both real and fake...very colourful, and tragic...

the next morning we all woke up late, and were not ready to go when the landlady showed up to take the keys from us...to be fair, she did come early, but we should've been ready...
we dropped our bags at the train station, then walked into the city center again...(by this point, we knew the quickest way to go, since we'd done this several times)...we walked further into the historical area, finding a couple more churches, one of which was evangelical baptist...susannah and i tried to explain to marina what that meant...(the normal options in ukraine are orthodox or catholic)...

we found a place called the sculptor's house...we thought it would be a museum, but it was a private house, inhabited by a sculptor...he had created sculptures all over the house, and it's outer edge...very unique looking, though not my style :)
we also saw the old synagogue, as lutsk used to have one of the largest jewish populations in europe...the synagogue building was a combination synagogue and fortress when it was built, so it still retains aspects of each...there is no longer a congregation in lutsk, so the building is now home of FC Dynamo, a football club...boooo...

from there we walked toward a big park...a BIG park...on the way, we picked up sandwiches at a small shop, with the idea of having a picnic...
the park was full of people, we kept laughing at the fashion, or photos being taken...one one side of the park was a river in which people were swimming...it didn't look great, to say the least, but it wasn't awful either...we ended up eating our sandwiches while sitting on a bench in the shade...we also used our umbrellas to block the sun...i don't think i've ever done anything like that before, but i could feel my shoulders getting tender from the sun i'd had earlier in the weekend...

after the park we walked down a street we hadn't yet seen...not much there, but we did find a plaque on a building which said a massacre had taken place there during WWII...sad...on this street was a strudel cafe, another branch of the chain i've seen in lviv and kyiv...YUM :)...i convinced susannah and marina (it didn't take much)
when we got to the train station that evening there were more mozzies waiting for us, argh...the mozzies were the only thing any of us didn't like about the city of lutsk...(or the entire region, for that matter)...the train to kyiv got us back to the city in the very early morning :)

ukraine: klevan

from kyiv, susannah, marina and i took a marshrutka to a city called lutsk...we spent the first day of the long weekend in lutsk, but this post is about klevan, where we spent our second day...
we bought tickets for an electric train to klevan, it was the only way to go between the two cities...the ride was quite smooth, but there was very little air circulation in the train compartment, so it wasn't super comfortable...the aisle between the seats was quite wide, something i haven't seen previously...for some of these folks, it was clearly a regular train ride, they knew how to entertain themselves...kids, sang, old men played cards, people walked and talked with different groups of friends or family...

when we got off the train in klevan, (the interior of the train station was really nice, especially when considering how small the town is!)we initially started walking in the wrong direction, on the wrong side of the train station, oops...fortunately, we figured that out pretty quickly...
we switched around, and followed a path along the train tracks...soon enough we came along a very small cabin, the guy inside was some sort of guard...i don't know what kind of guard...marina asked him where we could find the so called 'tunnel of love'...

the 'tunnel of love' isn't a real tunnel...there is a set of train tracks going through the forest, and trains used to go very regularly along these tracks...over the years, the trees grew over the space where the trains went, tying themselves together...sortof...i don't know when, but at some point the trains stopped going on those tracks, but the formation of the trees stayed...
it's now called the 'tunnel of love', and is quite picturesque...this tunnel of love is mentioned on a couple 'top natural sights in the world' type of blog posts, so i wanted to see it, so did susannah and marina...what is not mentioned in any guidebook or blog post is the MOSQUITOS...they are EVERYWHERE in this tunnel...if you stop moving for just an instant, they attack you...even when you're walking, they still try to attack...is there anyway to prevent being attacked? i wonder if long clothes would've helped us much...hmmm, something to think about...

our original plan was to walk at least half the length of the tunnel (the full length is 6-7km!!) but all the mosquitos changed our plan...i'm not sure we even made it 1km...ugh...we did manage to take a few photos, but it was tough...standing still was a challenge for both the poser and the photographer...as we got out of the tunnel area we realized it was susannah who had been favoured by the mozzies...
from there we walked into the area of town in which we'd first headed...we followed one street until we got to the center street, and eventually found a couple cafes...

klevan is NOT a tourist town, most people only go to the tunnel and there aren't even many of those visitors...we waited for one of the cafes to open, then had lunch...soooo cheap! while waiting, we took a look at the memorial that was put up 30 years after the end of WWII...a bit strange to see a memorial marking the 30 yr anniversary of the war, but it was as big as we've come to expect in this quirky country...
our server at lunch told us of a church and a fortress we could also visit, but we realized we didn't have enough time...(there was only one train back to lutsk, we knew we had to be on that train)...we walked toward the fortress, just to see how far we could get in 20 minutes...the walk back went faster, for whateva reason...
that was our trip to klevan...we all decided we want to go back, but would prefer to do it when there are no mozzies...which probably means in the dead of winter, when there is heaps of snow on the ground...