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Welcome to my travel log! You will find here a lot more than in the travel reports, stripped from political correctness. Enjoy! 
Nov 13, 2010 09:00 PM Warszawa (PL) - Still here
Today, Warsaw enjoyed superb weather. There was plenty of sunshine and the temperature climbed to 19C. This is very mild, considering it is middle of November. It would not be unusual if there was snow in the streets, as it had happened in the past at this time of year.
I took a stroll to check the revitalised Grzybowski Square. It looked great. There was plenty of open space, views towards the city's complex architecture - the odd-looking Palace of Culture & Science, an old church, and a group of modern glass-and-steel skyscrapers. The square had a little pool and a clever fountain, one could walk on. Plenty of seats and nice little trees. It looked fine in daylight and after sunset. If the old church got some clever illumination at night, the square would look fantastic. The authorities promised that in the spring, when the flowers will blossom, the square might be one of the prettiest in this part of the city. I do not think I will be in Warsaw this long, but who knows, if my project overruns...
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Oct 16, 2010 06:00 PM What is this?
Countless times I have been in the air, yet only tonight have I noticed this amazing phenomenon - the moonlinght crawling on the surface of out planet. It was incredible! As if a spotlight or rather searchlight was trying to identify something on the ground. It investigated the ponds, the lakes, the motorways, the roofs and people's backyards. But it did not manage to penetrate the forests. Now, I shall look for it every time I fly during the hours of darkness and when the moon is up. Perhaps I will manage to photograph it one night.
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Oct 01, 2010 06:00 PM Above Warsaw (PL) - Flight LO281 to Heathrow.
It rained for the entire week, and then on the day I was taking a break from Warsaw, weather decided to clear a little. Forecast, as of today, is that sunshine should prevail for the entire next week. We will see.
This is an early flight. The sun was just rising, but the view of the city (easterly) was fine. It showed what an urban mix the Polish capital is. It has great green areas, terrible grey areas full of drab block towers with hundreds of tiny flats inside, and an up and rising downtown, growing its glass and steel skyscrapers.
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Sep 27, 2010 06:00 PM In Warsaw (PL) - u Fukiera restaurant
The u Fukiera restaurant at the heart of the old town is a long established superb restaurant serving Polish (the Greater Poland considered, as some dishes are now native to Poland's neighbours), run by one of Poland's best known restaurateurs. She has a number of different restaurants in Warsaw.
I am not sure what her trick is, but everything she cooks is fantastic. The zurek (sour soup with sausage and egg) is matchless, and the incredible barszcz (beetroot soup) is even better. The schabowy (breaded pork cutlet) is giant and served with surprising (oops, it will not be anymore) sour cabbage.
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Sep 20, 2010 06:00 PM In Warsaw (PL) - for a few weeks... working.
This is a business trip. It has been a while since I was in Warsaw for more than just a few days. I will have a chance to explore. A few good hotels, well, at least two of them. A good number of various restaurants - at least some of the reputable, long-established eateries with Polish traditional and modern cuisine, and perhaps some of the new ones, serving in style and taste of the socialist past. Maybe a few bars and clubs if I stay over a weekend or two.
Well, Warsaw has changed a lot. A few new skyscrapers appeared in the skyline. The old town has been well scrubbed and the pedestrians' experience upgraded along the Royal Route.
But it all also means that I might not be very active on globosapiens in the next 3-4 months...
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Sep 13, 2010 06:00 PM Split, Supetar, Trogir (HR) - the last day...
I am sometimes so lazy, I think. I set an alarm clock at 07:15am last night, so I would make the 09:00am ferry to Supetar. The alarm rang. I put it out, rolled on the other side and thought whether a) I should go to Supetar at 11:15am instead, which would give much less time for exploring and could complicate or rather inconvenience the last leg of my journey to Trogir later this evening, or b) should I go to Brač at all? I am known to have done things a) and things b) before with various consequences to my psycho-structure. At about 07:20am, I frightened myself to have thought about b) so, I pulled myself together, got up, took shower and ejected myself from the hotel. As I walked along the seafront towards the ferries as the streets of Split were being washed, I was proud of myself again.
I paid for the ferry with a credit card (HRK66 rtn) and sat on the sun deck. It looked like weather today was going to be nice again. The ferry took 50 minutes.
Supetar was very relaxing. Three pebble beaches attracted a few swimmers and topless ladies, but it was not much. It was clear that Supetar, the capital of Brač island, was either just for hanging or an intermediate point for travellers en route to Bol, close to the famous Golden Horn Beach. A rare large sandy beach in Dalmatia. I stayed a few hours watching people go about their business, school children skiving of school and religion classes. I spotted an hilarious episode - I will write about it in a report on Split or Supetar.
After a big lunch of shrimps and seafood pasta, a stroll here and there, I made my way back to Split. As this was my last day of this holiday, I decided to chill it to the max. I sat at the seafront at the southern wall of the Diocletian's Palace, drank white Croatian wine and lager.
Then I hopped on a small boat to Trogir. I could not inflict myself another bus #37 ride. The boat took less time and cost the same. Plus the experience was immensely different. Views, sea breeze, etc.
It was good to be back in Trogir, although more expensive than on Brač or in Split. Surely, I was paying for the ambiance! And it was worth it, oh yes!
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Sep 12, 2010 06:00 PM Split (HR) - Finally here again.
Now, this was a trip! By the end of it, I started having thoughts 'am I travelling in Africa on a chicken bus at the speed of dung beetle?' The aged coach by Neoplan must have taken a strange route via backwater villages as it took it five hours to travel 180 kilometres. The procedure at the Herzegovina/Croatia border only took about 3 minutes, so this could not have been the factor. I think the problem was that the route plotted by the coach company avoided the motorway and I had to travel on the costal highway, whose frequent bends meant that the driver had to slow down to 40 km/h (25 mph)! For sure the views were much, much better than those the motorway would allow. I saw those views, however, so it was not that crucial to me. I would have preferred speed. And air-conditioning! Please!! The anaemic air vents, which were apparently designed to blow cool air on the passengers could not cope with the weather. So, by the forth hour into the trip, I felt a little sticky! Uff! And I did not care for Makarska, Ploče, Čaplina where the coach called en route.
Well, eventually arrived in Split. Again. But it did feel good to be back in somewhat more civilised place, hehe. Nah, I am joking of course. But being Croatia's second largest city, Split definitely offered certain qualities, which Jajce, Sarajevo Počitelj, Blagaj or Mostar did not offer. And its location by the sea also had a number of aspects that appealed to me. Not the rough and sharp smell of the sea (eg fishnets), though.
I stayed at the old town for convenience. The old town being the ruins of Diocletian's Palace, so awfully and brutally overbuilt by mostly ugly residential buildings. So little of it remains that it is hard to understand what the hoo-ha about it is, actually. It indeed must have been amongst the grandest residential palaces in the ancient world, and its site is a significant spot on our planet, but people who expect to see anything that at least remotely resemble a palace are going to be deeply disappointed. I know that I was, when I visited Split for the first time in 1998. Then, I did not know that I was going to see Diocletian Palace, and frankly I did not remember remembering (huh?) it. On this trip, I realised why I could not remember seeing it.
I did climb the bell tower of the cathedral again (HRK10), and memories rushed right in that it was not much. I remember that a pal of mine, back in 1998, who is afraid of heights struggled on the rusty iron steps loosely fixed to the inside walls of the tower going around the empty centre. The view from the top is not worth HRK10 (£1.14, €1.37, $1.77). Unless there is a nice sunset like today. The old town or the built over interior of the palace is clearly visible for sure, but that is not very pretty, actually.
I am hitting the town tonight. There are plenty of places to socialise after sunset. Which is excellent!
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Sep 11, 2010 06:00 PM Počitelj (BA) - picturesque little place on the mend
Yes, passport arrived last night. This saved me applying for a new one, which would cost at least two nights of accommodation. And all that hassle! I knew I was right not to turn back to Sarajevo and to simply make the hotel realise that it was their mistake. And they surely did. The boss took to his car and brought my document and did not charge me a penny for the service! The hotel in Mostar told me that this was exactly what they would have done if it had happened at their hotel.
Today, I am going to Počitelj. I enquired at the hotel about the coaches, but despite my suspicion that the girl was not terribly organised (not to say not very competent), it is Sunday indeed so public transport slowed down considerably. She however suggested that her friend could take me there and bring me back for €25. That actually sounded quite fair, so I took the offer.
Počitelj was one of the clearest examples of how much unnecessary damage and destruction the Balkan War of the 1990s had caused to the region. And how much of this destruction was still visible so much, so very sadly. For only five years ago, the village's 550 years old mosque was still toppled, and many grand houses were ruined beyond repair. When I visited, positive signs o reconstruction and repair indicated a move in the right direction. Yet, much remained to be done. Perhaps one day, Herzegovina will look as pretty as it had looked before this mindless and uncivilised war, fuelled by blind hatred, fanatic extremism, raw racism and an absolute lack of tolerance and acceptance.
Anyway, I took a stroll around this little place, even getting lost a little. I climbed on the ruins of the 15th century fort and its northern tower. I thought that I could take a good photograph from one of the tower's windows (holes for windows), but I was not sure how far to climb the narrow stairs. The ruins were completely wild, which had an advantage of being completely free to visit, and a disadvantage of being completely unprepared for visitors. So, if one fell inside the tower's narrow winding stone stairs and broke something and lay there then only the next adventurous tourist would find them. And who knows how long that would be. I also wanted to climb the southern ramparts, but I could not find the way. I kept ending outside the walls rather than within them, on the towers and former royal quarters.
But it was a good trip. I would have, however, got really bored had I stayed there for the night. It was good to be back in Mostar for the action after sunset.
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Sep 10, 2010 06:00 PM Mostar (BA) - the famous bridge is lovely again
So, I wanted to take a train from Sarajevo to Mostar, as the views were supposed to be spectacular. Yet, the problems on then line meant that the train only went to Konjic, then there was a rail replacement coach service to Mostar (and further to Čapljina, then back on the train to Ploče on the Croatian coast). Not ideal, but hey - this way, I could experience both...
The train was. clean and comfortable, six people to a cabin. But the windows could have been cleaner for the views.
So, I was steaming to Mostar while my passport remained in Sarajevo. The receptionist did not give it back to me and I, in all this rush with a taxi to the train station, and unused to leave passports at hotels anyway, forgot to check and ask for it back. I emailed both the hotel and the booking.com service to courier it to my hotel in Mostar, as I already knew where I was staying. I got response quickly. First from some non-intelligent person at booking.com, who said that they did not return lost items and that I should contact the hotel and let them know what the item was (sic!) what room I was staying and what my name was! Despite this rather sticky situation (I had my other passport with me, so I was not particularly stressed) this made me lough rather loud. Luckily, there were just two other passengers in my cabin. Then an apologetic email arrived from the hotel. They just needed to know how long I was going to stay in Mostar, so they would arrange for something.
The train stopped in Konjic and a couple of coaches took all passengers farther en route. They were not too bad. The train travelled for 90 minutes, so the coaches were to take about 60-70 minutes. They actually took about 90 minutes. I managed to find my hotel with little difficulty. As I arrived, the very friendly receptionist called the hotel in Sarajevo and it turned out that they already had a plan and I was going to get my passport next morning for sure.
I dropped my bag and went on a photo shoot of the old Mostar. I already passed the famous bridge on the way looking for my hotel, so I knew that I was in the right place. As I descended to the river's level, a young guy stood on the bridge in his black speedos trying to convince visitors to do a whip round so he could get enough cash to jump off. He failed. I was not having that! I got on the bridge, found him and asked him how much he needed to collect. Within two minutes we had enough cash for him (in different currencies) and he jumped off the bridge. It was not the most spectacular dive I had ever seen. He bent his arms and legs and jumped in a sitting position. Oh well, at least I co tributes to his happiness and his family's too.
I sat down for a drink just below the western side of the bridge with a sun warming up my neck and my back and my eyes examining the bridge from below. By lunchtime, the guy was back on the top of the bridge trying to collect for another jump.
For lunch, I went to Restaurant Labirint with a nice terrace at the east bank with a nice view if the bridge. But I was made aware that I was not allowed to have anything from grill as they expected a group of 40 people and the kitchen was busy. What a cheek! So I had some water and decided to go somewhere else. I crossed the bridge and a girl from the Babilon Restoran found me promptly. I saw their terrace from the other side of the river, so without much protest, I agreed to be shown the table. It was cool - right below a large tree and with a view of the northern side of the bridge. I asked for a glass of local red wine (small 0.2l glass BAM5 (€2.50)) and a plate of mixed grill (BAM17(€8.50)), which came either with chips or potatoes. It was definitely potatoes for me! I thought they'd be baked but they were boiled. Anyway, better than fried. The mix included grilled steak, pork skewers, sausage, flat burger, small kebabs, and liver. It was yummy.
The day was nice, so far. The sun came out completely, clouds disappeared almost completely and the temperature climbed above 25C. Such a better day than yesterday! Sitting by the bridge drinking beer and watching the guys jump off the bridge every now and again while the incredibly green river flowed along.
In the afternoon, I went to Blagaj, a little place by tye river with a massive fortress (ruined) and a lovely villa by a river cave in the mountains. I strolled a little there and then waited almost two hours for the bus to come. Eventually, a guy working at the House of Culture in Blagaj, right by the bus stop, offered me a lift. So I still made it for the sunset in Mostar.
In the meantime, I got an email from the hotel in Sarajevo that the boss of the hotel got in a car and is bringing my passport back. Jolly nice!
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Sep 09, 2010 06:00 PM Sarajevo (BA) - not so pretty anymore
Today, I am moving from Jajce to the capital city of the federated Bosnia and Herzegovina. I would have stayed in Jajce longer, but it was raining badly. First two hours on the coach, I had to stand. It was not a pleasant ride. Oh well, that's life of independent traveller visiting a poor country with weak infrastructure. Weather in Sarajevo was not great either. Low hanging grey clouds were producing showers and rain with few intervals. Not an ideal aura for visiting. Sarajevo did not impress me much on the first sight. It was chaotic, paralysed by traffic and the Balkan War left the city visibly damaged. I did appreciate the city's great location, amongst the green rolling hills, but I did not care for the wild reconstruction effort leading to less than pretty filling of the gaps in the urban structure. Very small part of the old town did retain a special ambiance, if a bit commercialised with a string of souvenir shops selling silver pots and colourful fabrics. Actually, I expected lesser number of mosques in Sarajevo, and more mix of religious temples. I mean more balanced combination. It was not so. The minarets definitely dominated the skyline. Many postcards showcasing Sarajevo's qualities were outdated. For example, the incredible old town hall built in Moorish style was damaged beyond recognition. Yet, as a positive sign, it was covered in scaffolding and a crane stood by it, indicating that it might be soon restored to its former glory.
So, with rain falling on my head like a tragedy, I am exploring with many intervals, hiding in cafes and bars to dry myself a little. I have been considering buying a brolly from many vendors on foot, who appeared promptly along the streets of the old town. But I resisted temptation. For I am a traveller, and I am supposed to suffer. :)
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