Coca's Best of Portion 2 Awards!

And the vote(s) are in! The best photos of the greatest portion names after the illustrious 2nd digit of the positive sector of the number line are in. Let's see the results below.

Best Patriotic Photo! - me displaying my Bulgarian pride during the reunification day ceromonies. Beats the rain soaked, scared running photo from the Hungarian National Holiday earlier.

Best Attempt at American-ness! - Nothing says American better than a Hot-Dog from a cart with the god-almighty Confederate Flag! Long live the Confedaracy!

Best Meal! - Home cooked Vegetarian delight with Romanian veggies costing pence on the dollar. Look at the enthusiastic crowd! Sighisoara, Romania.

Best View! From the train crossing Romania to Bulgaria on the Bospor express. All aboard!

Nithin: Update from Thessaloniki, Greece

Time for a more traditional entry. The past two days I've been Couchsurfing with a extremely friendly Greek couple, Antonia and Cristos, who live in the hills of Thessaloniki, Greece. Thessaloniki (or Salonica) is the 2nd largest city in Greece, and not frequented by tourists.

Maybe its a normal Greek thing, but this city is filled with ruins. And so casually, as you walk down the street, next to the shopping mall, and even in allies. People sleeping on ruins, drinking on ruins. And no mention of these Ruins by Lonely Planet, or by my hosts. Though I assume if I lived here, I probably wouldn't notice the ruins either.

Last night, I met up with another Couchsurfer, Tilemahos, who was nice enough to take a break from studying (its exam time for Greeks) and take me to his favorite Taverna, a tiny place tucked between two narrow steets halfway up the hills of the city. It was exactly the kind of place one would never find on their own, but here I was, sipping Greek white wine with a local, eating food that he had specially choosen for me, but the names of which I didn't know. We talked about politics, culture, girls, and languages, the meaning of friendliness. He admonished me for pretending to like anything that I was given to be "polite", telling me that lieing was a greater insult.

I wish I could spend more time in Greece. The atmosphere, the openness of the locals, is something I've only gotten a taste off. And therein is one problem with travelling - even one year is not enough. You never have enough time to see everything. But I promise you, Hellas, I will be back! Tomorrow, I head to Meteora, then after that, Turkey by some means.

My Bulgarian Mother

NCoca

No country has given me the first impression as Bulgaria.

The train ride into the country was amazing. It was like Kansas, but painted, red, orange, brown sunflowers, an empty countryside on the Bosphor express. It was small train, the conductor took all our tickets and kept checking to make sure we all knew when to get off. Most people were heading to Istanbul, me and a few others, to Veliko Tornovo. Heard of it?

I had no accomodation, and Bulgaria is my first illiterate country (AKA - country where i can't read anything, as they use Cyrillic, like Russian). Others on the train told me that the hostels in the city were completely booked up.

Of course, when I got off, a friendly lady was there to offer a private room. She was small, 5-5, old, but energetic, and took me on a walking tour of Veliko Tornovo, one of the oldest cities in Bulgaria, teeming with history. The room was amazing, 3 beds to myself, a fantastic balcony and view of the city, so amazing that I'm still here.

I became her son, in some sense. She wrote down the address, told me not to go out, told me who I should not hang out with. Later when I was out with some fellow travellers who were on the same train as I, she showed up randomly and forced me to go home, saying my new friends were, quote "narcotics". I had no choice but to agree, she was my mom. She then walked me to my room, which I soon snuck out of. Just like high school!

Velicko Tornovo has made my heart warm, and I'll be sad to leave tomorrow morning. Photos and more stories to come!

From Szigit to Szeged

Everywhere I go, a festival follows me.

In Budapest, we got to spend a night at the largest music festival in Central Europe (now, what actually contitutes Central Europe?), the Sziget Festival.

Prodigy was the main act the night we went, Radiohead had played a few days before. Festivals here are pretty crazy, as many people just camp for a week at the festival.

Now in Szeged, there is another music festival, similary named but not big acts. Also a camping festival, with tons going on in the city. and far cheaper! The festivals never end around the world.

The city of Szeged is in the southeast of Hungary, not too far from the Romanian border. A classic college town build with mediterranear flavor, I highly reccomend it. The people here are the friendliest that I've met in Hungary, and very open.

More next time...from Romania!

Nithin

St. Stephens is MAD

I've ran with the bulls. But nothing prepared me for last night.

Yesterday, August 20th, was the Hungarian National Holiday, St. Stephens day. St. Stephens is the founder of modern Hungary, and the country's patron saint. He is supposed to protect Hungary.

In celebration of St. Stephens day, there were festivities all day, including a arts and crafts fair, a Air Race across the Danube, and in the evening a spectacular fireworks show, when fireworks would be launched from 4 different places along the Danube river, for 25 minutes. I love fireworks, and I actually stayed in Budapest for 2 extra days just to see this fireworks show and the air show.

The air show was interesting, the weather fantastic (look how blue the sky is in the photo). But this post isn't about the airshow, its about the fireworks.

At 9PM, I met with Mike and Paul, a Californian and a Englishman, near the Danube to see the show. As we were walking, we noticed some flashes of light, and assumed they were fireworks going off early. As we got closer, we realized it was lightning. But me and Mike both had lived in the Midwest for many years, we know thunderstorms.

The fireworks started on queue, launched from the bridge literally 50 meters in front of us, and from the castle on the hill across the river. For 5 minutes we watched in awe, surrounded by thousands of people all along the river. Then, it began to get windy.

"It's gonna rain! This is gonna be awesome", I told Mike and Paul. The wind was pushing the fireworks directly over us, and distorting the explosions.

"Holy shit...look over there", said Paul. I turned. A wall of rain was about to descend on us. At least, I thought it was rain.

Ensuing was chaos. Within 5 seconds, I was competely soaked. The wind picked up, chairs started flying, and everyone started to scream and run. A stampede, of thousands of people, all running away from the walls of hail and pounding rain. The trees were bent sideways, people were being flung against building. Time to get out of here!

We ran. The water was already ankle deep, in two minutes, and the hail was stinging my skin. All around me, children were crying, women screaming. It looked like a hurricane had hit, and for a moment there, I wanted nothing more than to hold onto someone or something. I was completely terrified. I was the scene from Godzilla, with everyone screaming and running across the bridge.

The fireworks from the castle went on.

Benches were being uplifted. We lost Paul as we ran towards Mike's hostel, the wind pushing us in different directions. We had no idea where we were, or where we were going, but somehow, we got to the hostel.

We were lucky. 6 people were killed, over 250 injured, and more are missing. Budapest castle was damaged, as were numerous carts and cars. Trees toppled. The streets after the storm were eerily silent, Hungarians are still in shock. The strongest storm to hit Budapest in years, right on the eve of the national holiday. I still can't believe what I saw last night, five minutes of pure terror, from a thunderstorm, something I though I was used to, living in Kansas. But I can say, in all my years in Kansas, I have never been in a storm that strong or that violent before.

BBC has a video of the chaos.
More on the storm.

4 Months Already?

Posted by Coca

Can't believe it. It's already been four months that I've been on this trip. In commemoration, I sent a email blast out yesterday to my friends. Here is the censored and embellished version!

Gutentag!

So, yes, this is my tri-annual "I'm still alive!!!" notice, either to your joy or dismay. You being the folks who I've, for some reason or another, haven't talked to much since I departed. Chances are, its my fault, judging from the 2 months long queue of emails I still need to respond to.

Today is officially my four month anniversary since I left. Its hard to believe that It's actually been that long since I boarded that plane to Italy. And in four months, I've made it all the way to!...Germany. Not quite as unimpressive as it sounds - in between were two months in Spain, Portugal, Morocco, a run with the bulls in Pamplona, the Love Parade, not to mention other adventures and misadventures. The questions I get the most are what what your favorite (fill in the blank). So, below, are a few of my favorites to appease you question people.

Favorite...
1. City - God, that's hard to say...Granada, Berlin, Bordeaux, Marrakesh, Seville, Porto and Lisbon were all awesome!
2. Drink - Porto Wine...and Belgian Beer!
3. Museum - The Prado in Madrid was manageable and great, the Vatican was just too crowded. The Jewish History Museum in Berlin is amazing if you want to spend a day and learn a ton!
4. Sights - Cinque Terre National Park. Breathtaking beauty!
5. Food - Italian was actually kinda disappointing...i think its cause Italians eat at home, so the restaurants are meant for tourists which means (bleh). Still delicious though. Moroccan food, on the other hand...damn! Berlin was fantastic for its amazing diversity and actually having Vegetarian, Indian, and Thai food.

There, hope you're happy! Now, I've told you what I've been up to, now its your turn. I read all my emails, and eventually, you will get a response. Chances are, you might get a postcard (must more fun to write than emails!) reply. Wouldn't that be something.

Some of you may have forgotten that I have a website, one that definitely needs to be updated more often. check it out! Photos come free!

The End

Nithin Coca

And a photo for your enjoyment!


Bike Riding in San Sebastian, the cliffs of the Cantabrian Sea

Portion 2: Eastward Adventure

Portion one ended as the plane took off from Santander Airport, Spain and lifter off into the air. My first flight in 3 1/2 months, departing from Spain, my grateful host country for almost two months. A tinge of sadness was overwhelmed by the excitement of what was to come - Germany! Eastern Europe! Spain was nothing but a distant memory when the Ryan Air flight touched down into Frankfurt Hahn airport, and officially, Portion 2 was born.

What fantastic people, beautiful memories, and near death experiences will Portion 2: The Eastward Trek bring for the five trippers? Will language barriers become our demise, or will it be our stomachs that let us down first?

Portion 2 ecompasses all of Eastern Europe, until we split off after Greece (me) and Oktoberfest (Everyone else). Ready for adventure? Lets go!