Tripping through the Balkans (pt.4)

It doesn't feel like 2 1/2 weeks, it feels much longer than that; like I lived a quasi life out here. I got my first taste of the Balkans a few years ago via Belgrade, Serbia but till now I thought that it was a Serbian thing. Well, it turns out that it isn't. I always knew that this place was special but I didn't know to what extent. 

I dragged my feet but eventually I made it out of Ohrid with an unexpected stop in the capitol of Macedonia: Skopje. I met the owner of the hostel Nena, a 6'2" broad-shoulder bearded beast of a man and aspiring actor. He gave us a tour of the city and the ridiculous amount of statues that surround the center and then he took us to a local restaurant. We broke bread and then Nena shared his dreams of coming to LA and making it big as an actor, his two daughters, and the other obscure jobs he has. It was late into the night when we began to walk back to the hostel. A tiny car pulled up behind us, I naturally tensed up but it was Nena's other job. He said his goodbye and quickly sped off into the night.

The next morning Andrew hopped on a bus to Thessaloniki and Danny and I took another to Sofia. That was 3 days ago. My time here Bulgaria has been chill but I feel like my mind body and soul know that my time here has come to an end. A few hours ago I had to say goodbye to Danny, a complete stranger I knew nothing about a week ago but now I feel like I gained a Dutch/Chinese brother, along with another French/Serbian and English brother. Can't forget about my Turkish and German/Italian sister that I left bedhind in Ohrid or my other Montenegro brothers Urosh and Danilo, and the crazy Swiss-French Sebastian who I met up with here in Sofia. 

Sofia, you seem like an amazing city but you've caught me at a rocky time. I appreciate your city and its beautiful lasagna layers of culture, architecture and people but I'm feeling a little blue at the moment. But it's Friday night and I'm planning to shake those blues away because something tells me that this isn't goodbye.

Tripping through the Balkans (pt.2)

The distance between Podgorica and Tirana is 130 kilometers, which is roughly 81 miles. Back in LA I can travel this in little over an hour; it's a different story in the Balkans. It took almost 6 hours on bus and all I kept thinking about was this.

I arrived in Tirana 4 days ago and in the course of writing this entry yesterday morning, two exhausted Aussies walked into the hostel and naturally we began to chat. 2 hours went by, we spoke of our travels and I found out why they were so exhausted. It turns out that they had just taken a 24-hour bus ride from Athens to Tirana and as our warm homecooked breakfast - omelets, fresh cheese, peach marmalade and toast - was brought to us, the look on their faces was priceless.

I began to tell them about Tirana and how originally I was going to spend only a night but then I told them how thankful that I didn't. I told them that the city is small, very walkable, nothing really that'll blow your mind; not so quite like 
Podgorica but in the same neighborhood. Having said that, again it all comes down to the people. It doesn't seem like it at first because frankly they're also looking at you in the same manner but the Albanians and Albania is still getting warmed up to tourism, which is why its such a great & exciting time to be here. People are very inviting if you give them a chance and that's what I did and what I'll continue to do.

As I begin to wrap this entry I sit on the top balcony of Sunny Lake Hostel, sipping some warm joe, seeing another beautiful sunrise over the mountains.

The location: Ohrid, Macedonia. The journey to this place involved another bus ride (not so long this time) to podgarec, then hopped on a cab to the Albania-Macedonian border where we literally walked across, and then finally waited for a city bus that took us through the mountains and finally here in the early evening.
 From the little that I've walked I can only use one word to describe this place, mystical: the lake, the mist, the thick green algae on the shore, the strewn and abandoned boats laying side by side, the tall mountains in the back, yeah mystical sounds about right and today I'll get to see the full extent of it. 

I had no idea that this trip was going to bring me through the Balkans but that's the beauty of traveling with a blank boarding pass. God is good and I'm very fortunate to be having these moments, 

God bless!

Tripping through the Balkans (pt.1)

Sleep has been something of an elusive chase as it usually is during these kind of trips. The 13-hour flight from Los Angeles to Istanbul went smooth but things got crazy in Turkey as I only had less than 40 minutes to connect to my gate to Montenegro. If it wasn't for the kind kelp of the Turkish Air transfer desk lady who gave me my seat but also gave me that dreaded look, the one which I've come to know of very well I probably would've slept in the airport that night. She looked at her wrist watch, made a call, heavy Turkish was exchanged and then she said "go, fast!" She took me to the front of the security checkpoint, wished me luck and waived goodbye.

 All that mess seems like such a lifetime ago. 

It's currently morning and I'm sitting inside a living room in Tirana, Albania after spending the last 4 days in Podgorica, Montenegro. When I tell other travelers how long I stayed in PG they give me a strange look "4 days, really?!...in Podgorica?" Yep, 4 days. 

The truth is that nobody should ever stay longer than 1-2 day in Podgorica. There's really nothing to note, nothing that'll have you blowing up your instagram/snapchat other than a few raggedy old dogs, a futuristic looking bridge, and the delicious burgers from Rostilj Perper.
I say this and yet it only took a few human connections to make it a great place to break bread with the locals and find that it takes but a few Beatles and Fleet Foxes jams to relate and enjoy laughs together. 

This is when Urosh and his younger brother Danilo came into my life. 

I cant honestly tell you how i came to meet Urosh. I had already befriended Sebastian, a Crazy Swiss-French who was staying at my hostel. It just so happened to be the eve of Montenegro's 10-zear independence, Sebastian and I were both coming out of Berlin and we somehow caught wind that the next place to be at was District. We never found it but being the loud Swiss-French that he is, Sebastian began to make friends along the way. the next thing I remember is this gentle Sasquatch of a man walking alongside giving us a tour of the city at 3am. We walked so much but it didn't matter, we kept cracking jokes till the sun rose and promised to hang later that night. Hours later I woke explosions and for a second I wasn't quite sure where I was. It slowly came to me as I saw the fireworks overhead 

Sebastian and David came downstairs shortly after, then we headed back to Berlin, where Urosh's younger brother Danilo was DJ.It was a repeat of the night before this time with a bigger crew. we were invited to a friend's apartment in the outskirts of town.

Things got a little dodgy as some of the guys in the group brought out their favorite recreational drug of choice; at one point of the night we were also waiting for a drop? I don't know, it all got kind of cloudy but we ended the night as we hung from the 5th story of an incomplete balcony as the sun rose behind us and the moon set behind the mountains and hills in front. 

Danilo began to strum the guitar and played a few ballots, then we began to walk back to our hostel. Urosh and Danilo took us to eat breakfast and then we said our goodbyes.

Sadly it was to be the first of a string of many goodbyes I've already made on this trip but that's the nature of traveling. You meet people, you get thrown into these crazy, fish out of water situations and you quickly build bonds. Urosh and Danilo, you've made a Mexican brother and you will always have a home in Los Angeles. 

Now to get a home in Los Angeles...

bangalore to los angeles via hong kong

today is tuesday

november 24th, 2015

im currently debriefing inside a starbucks a few blocks from home after a long long day of traveling from bangalore, india back to los angeles, california. 

the day began yesterday but technically yesterday is still today from the point from where i started.

ok,
moving forward...or backwards? 

bangalore time: monday nov 23th

we hopped on a cab at 9pm monday night. 2 hours later, after a bloc of akon and eastern european dance music along with close calls dissecting through the horrific evening bangalore traffic we made it to the airport. it was 11pm and the flight to hong kong was scheduled at 1:15am the next day.  

hong kong time: tuesday nov 24th

our flight landed at around 10am and the connecting leg was scheduled at 1:35pm. we walked around the airport for a bit and grabbed some some iced tea/coffee along with some pastries and waited for the flight. we found a good spot with chairs down at arrivals and relaxed a bit. the exhaustion was beginning to show in brianne's hair and eyes and in me through my speech; i tend to slur and not make cohesive thoughts when i dont get enough sleep.
we got our seats late so we had to move fast. when we reached the gate i noticed that boarding had just begun. we took a breather and i looked at my boarding pass, seat 72E, the middle seat at the last row on a boeing 777-300ER. i dreaded the flight at this point, which was estimated to take a little over 12 hours. before take-off, as i sat on my seat, i said a quick prayer to my Maker and off we were.

los angeles time: tuesday nov 24th

we landed at around 9:35am that same day, 4 hours before our flight took off. i got around 4 hours of sleep on the flight, not nearly enough. my shoulders were soar, i felt a bit groggy but we were back. i got home at 1pm and what was to be an hour nap became five. my shoulders didnt hurt as bad and the warm white chocolate mocha that sits comfortably in my right hand is taking a little of the edge off. the journey back home was long but when youre traveling with good friends while make new ones, there is nothing else id rather be doing. 

now back to the grind. i think

last days in kerala, india

originally i began writing this post a few days ago back when i was still in kerala but ive been in bangalore for three days now and alot has happened since.

but back in kerela, before hopping on our houseboat in kochi, our days began with 4-hour road trips across southern kerala. we drove from munnar to thekkady in the morning and if it weren't enough, munnar sent us off with even more breathtaking views of its tea covered hills and countryside. the fluffy clouds hovering right above munnar's peaks placed a huge accent everything. it was sad to leave

but off we were and finally arrived in thekkady. we stayed at the spice grove hotel where the lobby staff greeted us with some fresh lemonade and then proceeded to place something like clay on our foreheads. the hotel staff upgraded us to a family room, which we didnt need but didnt mind at all. an hour later and we were on the road again headed to the thekaddy tiger reserve where hopped on a river boat hoping to spot a tiger, preferably chowing down on some nice tender deer or monkey or human, or whatever; the entrance to the park was riddled with monkeys so yeah, why not monkeys. 

after some drama trying to get our tickets, we finally got on the boat and went around the refuge. a little under 2 hours later and my report includes a flock of weird looking deer, a pair of horny miniature komodo dragon looking lizards, some colorful birds but sadly no tigers. 

we grabbed early dinner then walked around the uneven streets of thekkady. it was a busy night, the shops were mostly full of locals going about their normal business. we walked for about an hour, got lectured on the difference between pashmina and cashmere and then we heard thunder; the rain began shortly after. luckily we were close to our our next stop, the rangerwood hotel where we had scheduled massages earlier in the day. 

the experience? memorable

i began to write the experience on this entry but it got a bit long so i made it into its own. 

the next day we drove to kochi and caught an overnight houseboat that i still cant believe was just for us. we spent the night cruising down the narrow alappuzha straits and backwaters of southern kochi. we saw young children diving into the murky waters, ladies washing and beating their clothes on the stone walls and the countless other houseboats that trailed behind. we passed the time lounging and re-telling stories of earlier travels. the experience was heightened by the sheer beauty of the landscape around us; it was simply surreal. the morning after we took to the sights and explored fort kochi and saw the medieval looking chinese nets that hung next to the river, the jewish quarter and synagogue, walked around hill palace, got close to deer and a huge t-rex, then headed back to the hotel.

we said our goodbyes to our cab driver, sumesh, who had been with us for the past 5 days. we flew the next morning to the big city of bangalore and just like that kerala slowly became just another beautiful memory.  

kyoto, japon

in order to get to kyoto from osaka's kansai airport we needed to hop on a train; easier said than done. once you narrow down all of your options and decide which rail pass makes the most sense, you quickly realize that none of the train ticket kioks take credit cards. i brought some american cash and converted to yen and we were on our way. a little under 2 hours later and we were in kyoto.

it was overcast, a bit chilly, and the train station was crowded AF. it didnt take long to get oriented and we quickly found our way to our airbnb. the place was tiny but comfy. all i wanted to do was nap, which would've been a wrap on the day but i was also starving. brianne and aron weren't quite at the same crossroads as i so we began to walk towards kyoto's main rail station, which is also a massive underground shopping mall filled with delicious restaurants. we had something that i really cant recall, i was exhausted and hungry and everything was a blur. after dinner we kept walking through the mall then headed back to our place. sleep quickly settled in 

the following morning i felt like a new man. i was well rested and after surviving the tiniest shower in my life, i felt like i could take the world. aron on the other hand was not. aron stands at 6'3 and if the shower was too tiny for me, i could only imagine what kind of cirque de solei moves he had to bust in order to get things properly washed... 

also, i apparently have a snoring problem, which was never that bad but by the morning looks of my travel mates its taken a turn for the worse as...the trip would prove later on.

a cloudy, chilly and now rainy morning greeted us, you mix that with hunger and chemistry tells that you automatically get ramen for breakfast; you just cant disupute the science. and we just so happenned to find thee best ramen spot in kyoto: daiichi asahi.

totally unassuming and a few blocks away from the beehive of kyoto railstation.

we must've gotten there a few minutes after they opened. the patrons were mostly locals, the place was small and intimate with a rectangular kitchen in full view with one cook manning the dull pans sitting on the burners spewing steam like locomotives. put simply, it was the best damn ramen i've ever had. there were no pieces of paper to fill, the only choice to be made was the type of meat you wanted and then it was brought to you. ive never not finished my ramen, in fact i usually order extra but not this time. there was a point when i didnt know if the ramen would end. the broth had a great balance, not too thick and not too thin. the noodles were thin but hearty and had a fresh quality that i really cant describe.

the rest of my eats in kyoto can be described the same way. everything tasted fresh and there really wasnt anything i didnt like.  

after ramen we spent the next 2 days hopping from cab, bus and trains to the many temples and shrines all strewn across kyoto prefecture. brianne, being the planner that she is already had a list of the best temples we should hit like enko-ji, kinkaku-ji, tenryu-ji along with the bamboo forrest, and fushimi inari-taisha just to name a few. every single temple was beautiful in its own respect (my favorite being fushimi-iinari), some more grandiesque than others, but each one had its one serene and tranquil vibe that everyone needs from time to time.  

one thing that you will find yourself doing alot in kyoto, besides the eating of course, is walking. unless you're a baller and have money to spend on cabs from shrine to shrine, temple to temple, it would be wise to buy a local kyoto bus day pass. its not that expensive and they go pretty much everywhere in the city. the local subway does not as we later found out. also, if you're american or if you're using an american debit card, the only places that you'll be able to take out cash will be in two spots: 7-eleven and the japanese post office. 

in short, my stay in kyoto was great. it was sad leaving all of that serenity behind but something tells me that ill be back.  

un poquito de quito y lo demas: pt. 1

things really picked up on day 2 and haven't stopped since. we walked downstairs and a few steps from the hostel we randomly met cleve, a real chill taxi driver who would eventually become our taxi driver for the day.

our first stop was the teleferico. it was about a 10-minute ride up the mountain on the cable car. 
once on top, the view of the quito city/valley left our jaws on the floor.


the altitude definitely played a role in the amount of exploring we did, which at this point was not going to be much. we hiked for about half an hour. the more we hiked the more beautiful the views became. the sun, the clouds, the rays, the peaks, the valleys; quito at this point seems more like a dream.

when we finally made it down the mountain, cleve was there waiting for us. 
our next stop was el medio del mundo but not before cleve deciding to take us up to another set of mountains and valleys where we came to the ancient town of pululahua, which is situated on an active volcanic crater. 

the crater is massive and indigenous people still live and work the mineral rich soil to grow crops.

shortly after we drove down those mountains and arrived at el medio del mundo, which is kind of a rundown town with dirt roads and dilapidated homes and shops. we went into the museum of the equator where we did cheesy equator experiments and learned a bit of the indigenous culture. 

according to the museum, if you looked at the gps, the exact point of the equator cuts through their lot. of course, bryson brought up the point that according to the military gps, the equator was about 20 meters away. whatever, its close enough was my thinking.once we were done trying to balance eggs on nails and walking on the "literal" equator line, cleve took us to grab some chow, which in this case came in the form of a rodent: the cuy 

it wasn't bad actually, kind of in between rabbit and duck? it was a pain in the ass to get meat out of it though, which is mostly concentrated on the shoulder blades, neck, spine, and legs. would i eat it again? yeah, sure if i were in a ecuadorian quinciañera and it was free. 

ok, after annihilating this american house pet, we went to another equator monument that was built to honor and remember the french scientists who pinpointed the spot of the equator in the 1900's.

unfortunately that monument is also off, by a few hundred meters actually, but it was still cool to go.

i dont remember the cab ride back. i was so exhausted and the 
cuy definitely put me over the edge. when we finally made it back to the hostel, we thanked cleve and i went straight to bed. an hour later, bryson and i woke up and took a cab to the night-life center of quito, el fosch, where we grabbed a pizza and a few beers. 

0 degrees latitude 0 degrees longitude

at the moment im trying to remember the word for shadow in spanish but i cant quite make it out. it makes me sad that i cant come up with it on my own but im too prideful to look it up on google. 

i've been in quito ecuador a little over a day now. i didn't expect much from quito, it was going to simply serve as kind if a layover city to plan the rest of our time in ecuador. it wasn't until a few days ago that my friend bryson and i decided to come here and it hasn't disappointed me in the very least.

at this point of my life alot of what i seek has to do about the people in specific and not about what the people have to offer. the importance is really not about the city or the amount of unesco sites it has but really more about what its history does to me and how i treat my fellow humans moving forward.

i feel like every city has a secret and the keys are held in the people; in the eyes of its inhabitants, going into their markets, eating their food, laughing at their jokes, feeling their sorrow. 

quito is snuggled by lazy hills and a bashful volcano and in between you get the ecuadorian people, who are somewhat soft to speak yet you get the feeling that you don't want to cross them. i wont say more because anything else would be coming out of ignorance but i'm enjoying my time here and i cant wait to climb a few volcanos, cram into a few crowded busses, and eat some fat cuy. 

the winner: ecuador

sorry bolivia but you will have to wait. can't say what was driving force in choosing ecuador other than having met a few more ecuadorians versus bolivians.

i am 4 days away from flying to ecuador and i have no idea what i'm getting myself into. its not like im going into a country that has an ongoing war or anything. but regardless i should probably do my homework. its not like i do it anyways when i travel but for some reason i feel especially inadequate on this trip.

for example, last night i found out that ecuador uses american dollars as currency. i also found out that ecuador has one of the largest inca ruins in the americas. what else...

i guess that's it for now. stay tuned

brasov departures: bryson you're 30!

a few years ago back when bryson was still in his 20's, we took a trip and backpacked across two continents. we wanted to explore south america and western/eastern europe and so we hustled all summer of 2009 and saved enough cash and made our trip a reality. the plan was simple at the time: one month in south america and one month in europe.

things didn't pan out to be as easy as i thought. this 2-month odyssey had us in some interesting situations. we were stranded overnight inside a bus in the bitter-cold of the peruvian andes, abandoned by our tour guide in machu pichu, distressed and living in panama tocumen airport, detained at the argentinian/chilean border, lost in some sketchy malls in bogota, supported each other through painful dry heaving in barcelona, missed busses, trains and flights throughout spain and italy, navigated through shady bucharest trying to find housing in someone's makeshift hostel/living room, and avoided black bears on our hike through brasov's forrest. we flew to 8 different countries and our journey took us as east as romania and would've taken us south through bulgaria and finally to istanbul. sadly though one of us wouldn't make it that far.

i ended up taking a train north to budapest and continued to prague ending in dublin. being the coward that i was i didn't even say goodbye to bryson and i can still remember that morning as i nervously paced back & forth through the bathroom corridor. in the end i opted last minute to tell a new friend i'd met in our hostel to relay the message that i was leaving.

i used to look back at our trip and all i would see were the things that went wrong, the things that didn't go according to plan. the truth is that i was to blame for a lot that happened; the choice was mine and i chose wrongly. my childish anger and selfishness blinded me from seeing all of the beauty and kept me from remembering the amazing experiences we had during our trip.

the educational videos we made in machu pichu, the old man we saved on our bus ride to santiago, chilean independence day in valparaiso, being personally escorted to the correct bus stop by a concerned stranger in bogota, enjoying the gentle fall breeze in barcelona, wandering aimlessly through roman ruins, hanging from the side of a moving train and smelling the transylvanian countryside and countless other moments heavily outweighed what i deemed as "bad"

it took some time but we were finally able to hash things out. since then we've been solid and even though we don't work together anymore and happen to live thousands of miles away from each other, i know that he'll always be there; he's just that type of guy. friends like bryson are a rare breed and i can only thank God that i still have the privilege to call him a friend.

bryson, today you enter a new and strange chapter in your life. a time when you'll probably start wearing wrangler jeans, start hanging out with random cats, and pick up bird watching as a hobby. i just want to say that i had a blast getting to know you these past few years and i look forward to what our thirties have in store for us.

love you man,
feliz cumpleaños güey!

vienna: not a cure for eastern european withdrawals

this will be my second day in vienna, austria and during my short stay i've made a few observations.

pizza and kabobs are taking over the world!

okay, but seriously. 

in vienna alone, pizza and kebobs are at almost every corner. and they're doing some serious work. 

you won't hear me complaining though. bring it. 

i'm not really sure what to say about vienna at this point. the weather hasn't been the best, it's been somewhat of a challenge to converse in english (i know i know we're in austria!)

still! a few days ago, in belgrade! out of all places, i did not have a single problem.

and

i was always under the impression that western european countries were tri-lingual, right? anyways...

i'm slowly shaking my belgrade blues away. it hasn't been easy 

yesterday we went inside belvedere palace and wow! the place is one massive and magnificent piece of work. 

not just structurally but the whole garden and landscaping aspect of it all.

my mexican side definitely sees the beauty but also cringes at the tough work of the upkeep.

to our luck, a massive spanish tour group was entering the palace, so naturally my friend phillip and i turned on the spanish, and brianne turned on her new-mexican, which pretty much includes the entirety of the taco-bell menu and in we were. 

once done fantasizing about what it'd be like owning a palace such as belvedere, we headed back to the city, but through a different corridor. apparently we found ourselves at the first district and from the euros that we saved at belvedere, libations were ordered.

ok, it's a bit of blur after that...

today, hopefully after a better breakfast than we had yesterday, we'll make our way to another museum or two and hopefully hop on another subway, get lost, and discover something new.

serbia, i miss you

today i woke up in a bed that wasn't perched on the highest part of a five-story building. the roof didn't have quirky looking slanted roof windows, and when i woke up i didn't find my arm and back riddled with mosquito bites. 

no, this new room had none of these features. 

yet

still, i miss it. 

i miss the turkish coffee in the morning.

i miss the faint rumbling noise of traffic from down below

i miss the random conversations of earlier former yugoslavia 

i miss the fact that a half liter of beer was never more than $2

these past 4 days spent in belgrade were great. nobody really treated us like tourists. maybe because hardly anyone comes here. if i'm right, i sure hope it stays that way.  

if you ask me, i can't really say why i came to belgrade other than my friend brianne being an insane novak djokovic fan and wanting to visit his cafe; which is amazing if i might add. 

the specifics of choosing a city are never set in stone. 

it's rare to find a city that once done circling and prodding, you'd come back to. 

belgrade, is one of the few exceptions.