The Birth of the "Gypsy Girl" (la Trottola)

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14 Countries in 4 Months!!

Trip began 16th June 2011 and took me through Italy - Slovenia - Hungary - Slovakia - Poland - Lithuania - Latvia - Estonia - Netherlands - Germany - Netherlands again - Belgium - Germany again - Switzerland - Spain - France

On the 16^th of June, with a heavy heart, I left my beloved Granada to start my tour of Europe. I had my ticket Malaga–Milano booked for around two months since I had promised Kavindi that I would meet her in Rome when she went there for Marco and Mary’s wedding; and what better place to begin my Euro trip other than Italia! I couldn’t believe that I was finally going there ... I had been dreaming of this day since high school.

It was also gona be the first time I couchsurf alone and I was a bit nervous about it. I researched hosts in Milano very carefully and chose Andrea who was like an Ambassador for the site. I also notified Ola of his details and profile name so she knew where and with who I was staying. – this anxiety about CS was very soon replaced with a deep love and adoration for the site and an inability to imagine any other form of travel.

Milano, as expected, was not the most exciting of cities. It’s not ugly and there are some cultural / historical things to see, but it’s a little too pretentious, money and fashion-focused for me. Despite that, I had a great time with Andrea! He was a fantastic first host who made me feel so welcome, was great to talk to and was kind enough to drive me around on the back of his scooter =) definitely a better way to see Milano! He even picked me up with his scooter and drove me home with my huge backpack on my back! Hahahaha... CRAZY! This had happened to me in the past in the Philippines, but my backpack was a lot heavier in Milano and I had to concentrate and put all of my energy into not falling off the back of the bike every time we took off :p

After 3 days (longer than I expected to be in Milano) , I took a train to the Liguria region with the plan to see the infamous Cinque Terre. I had arranged to stay with Edaordo in La Spezia and to meet a CS group that were going to be hiking in the area. As it turned out, my trains took forever and I didn’t meet the CS group until the late afternoon when we all reached the beach at Bonnassola. But that didn’t matter so much, I had a great time walking up a huge mountain above the town of Bonnassola and back down to the beach for a much needed swim :D The CS'ers weren’t so exciting and left too quickly to really impact me; all except for Kiril (the Bulgarian guy who is doing his PhD in Sweden but was living in Genoa at that time). K stayed on the beach longer to hang out with me, caught same train back to Sistri Levante with me, carried my luggage for me, shouted me dinner and gave me his number incase I ever got into trouble and needed his help ... awwwwww!!!

I finally reached Edi’s house at around 11pm. As soon as I met him I knew I would be ok staying there. He was so friendly and warm and welcoming – a true Sicillian! He was cooking a pasta and shared it with me and a lovely 1.5L bottle of wine. We talked til about 4am that morning – with Edo’s poetic and passionate description of his work as a mechanical engineer – seriously never heard anyone describe engineering more beautifully 😉

The next day I was up early and took the train to Monterosso, one end of the Cinque Terre towns, with the aim to walk back to Riomaggiore (the other end). I had heard how amazing this walk is ... but some things are just indescribable and it’s not until u see it for yourself that you truly understand the beauty. Cinque Terre is definitely one of the most beautiful places I’ve ever been to! I managed to complete the 9.5km walk across the 5 towns built on cliff tops with the sea on one side and mountains on the other. I had enough time to stop where I wanted to and swim at the beach, walk around the little colorful towns, buy a well deserved gelato or Granita and take photos. Lucky for me (tho I felt that I somehow cheated), the road was closed between the 3^rd and 4^th towns and I had to take a train to get there... nice little break from walking half-way thru the trail 😉

That night Edi cooked for me again and then took me to Portoverde for a nice night walk around the old town and castle on the hill. It was a great way to spend my last night in Liguria since the next morning I continued south to see the Tower of Pisa and then Roma!

Pisa was so surreal. You spend your whole life hearing about this tower, seeing pictures of it and suddenly it just appears there in front of you. It’s a small city with not much else to see or do other than walk around and enjoy great Italian food and absorb the warm Mediterranean vibe of the people. But there is that tower – gently standing on its awkward angle, as you would expect it to be – and there are all those 1000s of tourists from EVERYWHERE taking the same photo with the same pose (everyone wants to hold the damn tower up!). My 4hrs in Pisa were up and I was ready to take my train to Roma where I would meet Paola (who Ola had met in Melbourne a few months earlier and who agreed to host Kavi and I for a couple of weeks) :D

If going to Pisa was surreal then arriving in Roma was phenomenal ... I had a mental reminder that pinched me every half an hour to tell me “I’m in Roma!” What a city!!!

Paola met me at the McDo at Termini Station as planned – this wasn’t as smooth as hoped since I went to the wrong McDo, but we eventually found each other and luckily she didn’t get fined or towed away for parking illegally to come and find me :p She was as sweet and friendly as Ola said she would be and I could tell that we would get along! Wonderful to add yet another CS host to my list of friends that I’m making during my travels =)

I arrived in Roma one day before Kavindi. Paola took me to her place which is one hour out of the city in a cute small town called Cecchina. That night we went up a huge hill to a place which is famous for its cold meats. We ordered too much food, drank great wine and talked for hours. The next day Kavi came to join our little party =) It was so great to see her again! I hadn’t seen her for 1.5yrs and hadn’t seen anyone from home since my family left Lebanon in October 2010!

From that day, Kavi and I set out to “do Roma”. It was fantastic and sooo easy to travel with K! She was super easy going and we agreed on where to go, what to do, how to do it, etc. Paola would meet us every night after work and show us different parts of the city, like the cool suburb called Pigneto where we had apperitivo and Roma’s Gay Village which runs every summer from June to Sept. Unfortunately the night we went there was super crowded and so difficult to get in. I tried to get the girls to follow my suit and use some of my tricks to sneak in, but they were both reluctant and in the end we stood outside the gate and hassled the bouncer just for fun (well I did anyway while Paola caught up with her buddies :p)... “Ciao, come stai?” hihihi ... another highlight from Roma during this time was the 3am tour of the city we had with Marco. It was the only time I could’ve met him and Mary and we didn’t want to miss the opportunity. Plus he rightfully made the claim that Roma in June is much better at night. It was magical seeing this city without dying of heat, not being cramped up against a billion other tourists, in the absolute silence and stillness of the night. One of those memories that becomes deeply embedded in your mind – the views, the sounds, the smells, the emotions... thank you Marco for this truly magical experience.

A few days later Kavi left us to attend M & M’s wedding and I flew to Palermo to catch up with my buddy Kate from Melbourne and her friends. It was cool to see Kate again after so many years!! She was half Italian by then, having lived in Italy for so long, but still maintaining her ozziness too! Palermo was amazing!! I fell in love with Sicilly and vowed to come back there since 2 days was definitely not enough time! Kate’s friend Chloe knew a couple of guys there who were from Trapani (north west of the island). They drove down to Palermo the Sat night to hang out with us and the next day took us to Capo de St Vicente for a great day on the beach. The following day the girls and I went up to a small town above P, known as Monreale where there is a famous Duomo – turned out to be one of the nicest churches I had ever seen and a great panoramic view of Palermo and the coast line =) and then it was time to fly back to Roma for one night =)

The next day K and I went to Napoli to visit Kate and Chloe there (where they were living). And ofcourse we needed to eat a Napoli pizza! :D Napoli was nice for 2 days. Not the most riveting city in the world. Our fave part was the Quartieri Espagnoli – apparently a very dangerous area – but K and I loved the old housing, tiny streets and the most amazing lunch ever! Kate and co took us out at night to have the best pizza in Napoli, drink Grappa and look out over the city at night. ... and then it was back to Roma =)

K had to fly out to Melbourne the next day and I had to plan my life! Haha... as always I had no plans for where to go next and decided to contact my friend Beatrice in Verona to visit her there. Paola kindly said it was ok to stay with her a little longer til I sorted out my plans and so I spent one more weekend in Roma with her and some of the craziest / wildest people ever! Haha... let’s just say it was a “great party” 😉

Highlights of my first time in Rome:

- Seeing Kavi and meeting Paola

- Paola’s great tour of the city and showing me the “secret place” and ofcourse introducing me to POMPI (the world’s best Tiramisu)!!

- Roma by night

- The Sistine Chapel and St Paul’s Cathedral

- my last weekend there, hanging out and partying “Roma style”



Verona ... the city of poetry and love, the city of Romeo and Juliet!

Beatrice picked me up at the train station after a very uncomfortable night train ride there from Roma. She went off to work and left me home to catch up on some sleep. Later that day we met in the city centre and picked up another guest who would be staying there, Eglé from Lithuania. Eglé had decided to live in Verona for the summer to work and learn Italian (a decision she soon exchanged for a return home). Sadly B was super busy in that time and I mostly saw her briefly in the night time when we would all have dinner together. Lucky for me Eglé was there and kept me great company while touring the city. We also spent a day at Lago di Guarda with “Jesus” – one of B’s friends who truly looks like Jesus, hence his nickname. B had mixed up some dates on her CS and ended up hosting another 2 Mexicans at the same time. I spent a day visiting Venezia with them, which we followed by a wonderful Mexican dinner with B and a few of her friends. Overall, Verona was amazing! I loved the city centre, visiting Juliet’s house (never found Romeo’s), the lake trip and hanging out with Eglé.

My day in Venice was ofcourse amazing and felt like I had been to another planet. There is no city in the world that can compare to Venezia (how is it that so many remarkable places are all in Italia!?) ... I’m glad I only spent one day in Venezia, only because it’s so touristy and crowded and expensive... but apart from that, I’m so glad I had the chance to see this fascinating and super special place!

To leave Italia, I decided to take a train from Verona to Treviso (small town near the border and near the major city of Trieste). I had arranged to couchsurf with Sara. I had a couple of hours to kill in Treviso and spent them walking around the city, by the canals, checking out the cute little streets, summer festival music shows and some shopping and ofcourse a gelato! :D

Sara eventually picked me up from the train station and took me up some hill to a gorgeous place with sandstone houses where we had a snack and spritz. We got along from the first second and talked all night. Both being Librans, it was inevitable that we would hit it off. My time with Sara was short (since I left her the next morning to embark on my journey across the boarder to Slovenia), but sweet!



Leaving Italia ... Heading East!

Back in the Balkans (or former Yugoslav). I had first seen photos of Slovenia from my family's travels there and immediately fell in love with it. I also knew it was connected to a close friend of mine's family and another good friend I had met in Melbourne. So for all these reasons, I was sure NOT to leave Slovenja off my travel list - and THANK GOODNESS for that! The European continent is infamous for its great holiday destinations and rightfully so! But some places just aren't given enough credit / recognition and Slovenia is one of them.

Once again I had organised to CS with Bobby from Skofja Loka (20km out of the capital Ljubljana). I took a train from Treviso to Trieste with stunning views of the hillside, Trieste and the sea. From there it was a bus to Ljubljana and another to SL to meet Bobby. SL was one of the most beautiful little towns I've ever stayed in! surrounded by green hills and forrests, with a central river / "beach", old churches, cobble stoned and medieval looking streets. Once again, I had absolutely no plans of what to do, where to go and how long to stay. Bobby and I (and his friends) got along so well that I ended up staying 10days, with the last couple of days in Ljubljana and a day in Maribor.

Bobby had organised a CS dinner in the town at one of the best pizza restaurants. It was attending mostly by his friends (it's a small town with a tiny CS community). They were all such nice people. We ate an amazing pizza (I felt guilty for liking it more than the pizza in Italia) and drank a Lot of beer! We then went to Bobby's fave pub which became a hang out place for me in that week 😉

Every day Bobby and I would go to his parent's place for lunch (& sometimes dinner too). They were the most gorgeous people who spoke no English... So every day I would learn a new slovenian word to say to them =) Bobby's friends Marko and Ana and I also got along really well. Marko took me to the beach one day (2.5hrs away) where we also rode bikes for about 20km. The three of us went to the amazingly beautiful Lake Bled 3 times!! haha and swam the 500m or so to the island in the middle of it, with Ana kicking our butts in the swim! Lake Bled is one of those picture book stunning places. It's waters are emerald, it has a small island in the middle with an old church built on it; it is surrounded by high mountains with a giant castle on one side that is visible from almost every part of the lake.

Bobby also took me to Lake Bohinj and the waterfalls nearby that come out from the centre of the cliff. We swam a couple of times at the SL beach with his buddies, went for a walk in the forrest and had a great bbq with his friends at their house. My 10days in slovenia felt like a life time. The air was fresh and clean, the people were so beautiful and warm and hospitable, the country is stunning and so humble! I adored it and could've easily stayed there longer....

I spent my last weekend in Ljubljana with Ana who took me out and showed me the alternative culture there. We stayed out til 5am one night and bludged the next day. She helped me organise a lift to the border town of Maribor where I would spend my last CS night before heading off to Hungary (Magyarorszag). Maribor was also a cute medieval city. My host was a nice older lady who was very welcoming. She didnt feel like taking me out so I hooked up with Marco, another CS'er, who shared dinner with me and showed me the whole city in one night =)



Off to Margya... where?! Oh right, it's Hungary (Magyarorszag)

The next morning I made an executive decision to have a go at hitch-hiking across the border and to Budapest. I had heard that hitch-hiking in Slovenia was very normal and safe. And in attempting to do it I soon found out that this was very true! My first "driver" agreed to take me closer to the border as long as i didnt mind making a short detour to Austria first where he had to buy a part for a truck. Ah Europa!!! Unfortunately, hitching takes up more time than i counted for. Whilst slovenians were more than happy to take me places - one woman made herself late for work trying to get me close to the border; and I even got a free ride with a bus!! however, by the time i reached the border it was already around 4pm. I finally got a ride with my first hungarian driver into the border town of Lenti. He couldnt speak any English and I immediately got a sense that my experience in Hungary would be different. This smiling nice driver seemed to think I was super cool to be hitch-hiking (i assume by his continuous smiling glances at my backpack and thumbs up as he said "autostop" repeatedly). He insisted that I continue to "autostop" to Budapest adn dropped me off at the major roadway going to the next town in that direction.

It was already 5pm in this tiny town and I was still at least 200km away from Budapest. So I decided to check out the local bus station for a direct bus to Buda. As it turns out there weren't any left for the day and I didnt feel like staying in that town, so back to the highway I went. I was soon to discover that IT IS NOT OK to hitch in Hungary!! To cut a long story short, my next driver looked like a bushpig, had a weird vibe, spoke no English - apart from the word "sex". Somehow, I made it out of his car safe and sound, 20km or so down the highway at a bus stop (with no more buses stopping there) and completely surrounded by forrest. Trying to remain calm I made some slight calcuations and realised:

- I have roughly 2hrs before sunset and dark

- I can't walk anywhere from there

- there are no buses coming

- I have to hitch again =(

With much reluctance, I went close to the road and got back into "autostop" pose. The first person to stop - half an hour later - was a trucky who looked almost as unappealing as the first guy. With a sigh and a prayer I opened the door and told him the name of the town I was going to. He also spoke no English, but was very obviously disapproving of me hitching. I realised that he was speaking to me in a very fatherly tone and clearly telling me not to hitch... the rest, I had no idea what he was telling me. But soon after he dropped me off 30km down the road at a bigger bus stop with a bus in it =) yipee!!!

Another pathetic conversation later with the driver (noone here speaks English!) I managed to exchange some of my euros with a passenger and get a ticket to God knows where! at around 6:30pm I arrived in a much bigger town called "Zalaegerszeg" (yes I had fun pronouncing it too!). To my dismay there were no more buses or trains going to Buda that night (apparently it was late...). I managed to run into a romanian gypsy who helped me look up the buses and trains, informed me that he had been kicked out of Canada and never allowed back and then offered me to stay with either of his 2 or 3 girlfriends that night (if not at his place). Full of adventures for one day and really craving some piece of mind, I asked this gentle soul with a cheeky grin to just drop me off at the closest hotel; and reluctantly, he did.

As it turned out it was a very nice hotel (55€ per night) and I just loved having my own space! I managed to meet two men while checking in who were very kind and friendly and staying there on a business trip. Since the receptionist also couldnt speak English (and these men were fluent), they helped me check in and coincidently were staying right next door to me. So they insisted I join them for dinner. This was a great end to my "eventful" day. These guys were educated, friendly, gentle and happily married!!! =) They helped me find the best way to Budapest the next day and offered to give me a lift with my luggage to the bus station the next morning. One of them, Ferenz, also invited me to visit his little town near Budapest later in the week.

And so it was, refreshed and feeling a lot better, I woke up early, had breakfast with Ferenz and went off to meet my next host in Budapest. Gergely, was another great and wonderful host and person that I met, hung out with and became good friends with =) He lives in the centre of Budapest (on the Buda side) and was so easy to hang out with. He helped me with some IT issues (since my little laptop was my bestfriend and needed some TLC at that time). We watched movies together, had some great dinners and walked around the city - which I also did a lot of in my own time. G also took me to some of the coolest bars I've seen called "bar in ruins". They are set up in some very old abandoned buildings and decorated with a whole bunch of stuff left over from the Communist era, including being able to sit inside the shell of a Trabi car to have ur drinks =)

On my second last day in Budapest, I took up Ferenz's offer and caught a bus to Eger to visit his little town. As he promised, this was a super cute little place with a castel on the hill, some hot springs (a common feature in Hungary) and other stuff to see. The city centre is quite small and I saw all of it in about 3hrs. Just in time to meet Ferenz for lunch and a visit to some nearby wineries. We bid each other farewell in the late afternoon and I caught a bus back to Budapest.

Stupidly, I didnt book my bus ticket to Poland that night and woke up the next morning to find I'd missed it! So G and I spent most of Sat arvo (luckily it was raining, dark and cold) looking at internet pages with a map of Europe open, accom sites and bus and train timetables. After 3hrs, it was decided. I would take the bus early next morning to Bratislava in bordering Slovakia and from there continue to Krakow, Poland.



Where on Earth is Bratislava!?

Many people ask that question. I had been attracted to it by its name long before I knew that it was in Slovakia - a country I'd especially wanted to visit after going to Czech (since they used to be siamese twins and were separated in 1993).

It was actually by default that I ended up visiting Bratislava, but I'm so happy I did - thanks to that crazy afternoon in Budapest with Gergely looking up best possible routes to Poland. And thanks to (name?) who agreed to host me at last minute =)

I arrived in Bratislava main station in the afternoon - after a long train journey - and wondered around the streets looking for a pizza bar that had closed down, before finally meeting up with my host ...? and ...? the English guest that would be co-surfing with me that night. (English guy) was cycling from England to Balkans and back. He was on his way back when I met him and had some interesting stories to share. We also bumped into some yankee who had sold everything back home, grabbed a push bike and starting cycling around the Balkans too. He had fallen in love with a Serbian woman and was on his way to meet her and start a beautiful future together.

So we finally walked back to ....'s place, dumped our stuff, ate some food (pizza and birra), bid the yankee farewell and went back to ...'s house for a rest. We watched a movie (can't remember which one) and when it got dark and really cold, we went out for a speedy tour of the city centre and an amazing hot chocolate!!

The next morning English boy and I both headed off - me on a train to Krakow and him on his bike to ... somewhere towards England :p Tho very short-lived, my time in Bratislava was very enjoyable, with good company, good food and the beauty of Eastern Europe. I would definitely like to go back some time and see more of it.



Polonja - Poland - Polanda

Krakow Austwich Warsawa

I arrived in Krakow quite late at night after taking a train and a bus to get there. I stopped at a town on the border of Slovakia & Poland thinking that I'd try hitching again, but the terrible weather & my lack of suitable clothing quickly put me off. I found a very nice lady who spoke absolutely NO English but understood that I was looking for the bus station to go to Poland & she kindly walked me to it & pointed to the ticket office & relevant bus 😊 awwww!!! people can be soooo sweet!!! 😊

I had organised to couchsurf with a Turkish guy in Krakow & he gave me very good instructions how to catch a train, then a tram to get to his area. It was out of the centre & very dark & wet when I finally got there. Didn't see him at the tram stop, so I walked over to a petrol station (the only thing around with another human in it) and politely asked to use the guy's phone to call my host to fetch me there. In my very diplomatic way, I found some bits of junk & some water to buy to make up for the phone call. This seemed to please the guy & he handed over his cell phone after dialling my host & having a bizarre convo with him (I later found out that I had really confused him) :p

Turkish host was nice. He lived in a cool appartment with 2 other Turkish guys. This did feel a bit weird, but I was only there for a night - slept on the couch and only stayed from 1am til 6am since I had to wake up at "teez el daw" to leave the house with them when they went to work 😞 next day I caught a train to Austwich (felt I should see it) - was a very interesting day!

Met a woman - Flemish/Dutch - who's grandfather had been one of the jews killed in one of the Nazi camps - not Austwich. Hung out with her all day and listened to her talk about how hard it was for her to see the camp and how she'd fallen for a married Polish man living there and had a date with him later. We ended up walking back to train together, missing the train & inviting an old lady to have a cup of tea with us as we waited for the next train back to Krakow. It was cool meeting this woman, her name was Katherine. We talked for hours non-stop & both felt that we had a "special spiritual connection". It wasn't till we almost reached Krakow that she asked me for my background. I contemplated lying coz I didnt want to ruin our interaction, but decided not to. When she heard I was Lebanese, I saw her face configuration change a little. & although we'd exchanged details & promised to stay in touch, we never contacted each other again. Still, it was a beautiful encounter 😊

Back in Krakow, I met my host, who walked me around the city centre, showed me the main sites & took me out for a traditional dinner... then I had to rush off to catch a night train to Warsawa - to arrive there at midnight and meet my next hosts. UUFFFAAA!!!

Another exciting train ride!

I had my Espagna sombrero attached to my backpack as always ... and this guy sitting across from me on the train started speaking to me in Spanish (asked if I was from Spain). His name was Fernando and he said he was from Barcelona - a true Catalan man! 😊

We talked for the entire 5hr train ride - half in Spanish & half in English - my Spanish not so good :p I ended up being super late to meet my hosts & didnt have their number on me or a way to contact them. F was super kind & carried my backpack all the way to his hotel (a km away from train station) - he was fascinated by my travel story & wanted to be a part of it 😊 haha ... & he was definitely my "hero" that night! He allowed me to use the internet on his "smart" phone to get into my CS site & find my host number, then to call my hosts from his phone! awwwwww!!! another sweet human! :D

Then he waited with me while my hosts drove back to pick me up & we agreed to find each other again via CS website. (more on this later...)

My hosts were a gorgeous young married couple who were soooo friendly and warm & kind 😊 since it was late that night & they had work the next day, we just went straight to bed. they were nice enough to let me sleep in the next day & I went out to explore Warsaw alone in the cold rain without my jacket 😞 for some reason the most memorable part of my day was going into the big Catholic Church in the city centre & watching a service. I was touched and surprised by how devout the Polish were - it was a huge cathedral and it was packed on a week night!!! & full of all ages too! This was extra surprising since Poland had been under communist Russian rule for years!!

We met after they finished work & had a traditional dinner. Then they invited me back to their place & we watched a cool Polish DVD about the war in the 80s ... it was an awesome film (sadly i forgot the name of it) and it taught me so much about the history. The guy host was touched by my interest in Polish history, particularly the Nazi & Communist occupations & offered to take me to the War Museum the next day. This was super cool coz he was soooo passionate about the topic & explained so much to me. The museum itself was also very nicely designed, interactive & very informative - one of the best museums I've ever been to!! On that day, which was my last day in Poland, I also managed to get kicked off the bus for not having a valid ticket & outsmarted the inspector from giving me a $110 fine! hihihihihi ...

My hosts did kindly offer to take me to their family farm on the weekend (I was due to leave on the Sat morning) ... it would've been such a cool experience! I would've seen rural Poland, had local homemade foods & met their family ... Usually as a rule of thumb I made sure to take these opportunities when they presented themselves (hence the travel without a plan), but sadly in this case I had to miss out coz my friend was already waiting for me in Lithuania & she only had the weekend free. Ah well ... next time 😉





The Baltics - Lithuania, Latvia and Estonia

Egle's town

Vilnius with Simon

Latvia - Riga and town

Estonia - Tallinn



Weekend in Amsterdam / Den Haag (Netherlands)

meeting Ana and her friends

cycling to beach and sunset swim

Gay pride parade in amsterdam

1 night in ....? town name?



Deutschland!!!

Hamburg

Berlin

Aachen



Netherlands again - this time with Amber

Utrecht

Amsterdam

Arnhem

Breda



Belgium

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