Zagreb - is Croatia just its coast?

Everyone goes to the coastal cities, but Croatia has more to offer

Well, I haven't been to the coast so far myself, so can't really say much about how that part of the city is, but Zagreb should be on the list for everyone who is backpacking through Europe.
Safe, easy to navigate, warm, cheap, packed with nice resturants on the sidewalks and the city is close to so many other exciting places to visit.

My first day was a bit of a hassle, got up early and got to the plane in good time. Had an Underberg of course, got to Amsterdam, had another Underberg there, and got to Zagreb where the airport pick-up didn't show up. After looking for him/waiting for about 25mins I called the hotel who said he had left as the plane was delayed - something it wasn't, but they should send another taxi which should be there in 2 minutes. 2 minutes never mean 2 minutes of course, but after 35mins and still nothing I called back to the hotel and met a guy who barely spoke english. Found another cab and got to the hotel where they had now changed their story to the first taxi having waited for me, but someone else had claimed to be me and taken it - and being driven somewhere else. Annoying, but in the whole story of my trip here it didn't set me back much more than an hour, and I didn't really have anything or anyone waiting for me.

Took a stoll up the mountainside which is exagerating it massively, but a least it was a small hill where the old city had been before they moved it down to the plains. Small narrow streets with resturants all over. Found "museum of broken relationships" which was a hugely positive surprise. The museum was built on things ordinary people have to remind them of some relationship they've once had, and a short - or relative short - story behind it. One being an old love letter which was never sent, a guitar return when the x moved out, an axe used to destroy all the furniture of the x who just left or the pc game football manager who remineded the girl who had donated it of the x boyfriend who had kept her awake numerous nights playing the game. I know the game all too well myself, and know how many hours one could get lost in it. Thankfully I've not played it in many years, and hopefully it'll stay like that.
By far one of the most inovative and original museums I have visited so far, and apparently it has more visitors than the larger museums in Zagreb

Finding the cathedral on my way also gave me the oppurtunity to get a nice shot of a saint on a pole.









For day 2 I had booked bicycle guiding which I'd tried in Buenos Aires back in january, and was extremely happy with. The tour I'd found here offered two different paths, old and new Zagreb. Or both combined in a longer tour, which became the obvious choice for me. There were two others along for the ride, Gordon and Carol from New Zealand, so quite the opposite side of the world than me.

The trip offered a nice overview of the city, as it was supposed to, both of historical places, information of what could be found where and some hidden gems. The national theather in the picture to the left is not among the hidden gems, but still beautiful.

Tonight I'm meeting the group for the main trip around the Balkans. So far I know we are six travellers and one guide. Looking forward to meeting them.

Armenia, why wouldn't everyone want to go there?

Armenia?

Why would you want to go there?
This was the most common response I got before I left when I told people where I was going.
I believe most people do not know much about Armenia, but I do not agree that they should automatically be negative towards the unknown - as I believe that is the main reason why so many do not even concider going to Armenia.


Armenia and Yerevan is at least not well know to Norwegians, and there is in fact one negative part with travelling here - the plane can either arrive at 01:25 or 04:45 (we choose the first), and leave at 06:00.
That is of course given you do not wish to stay too long at a transfer airport.
The positives however are so many more, good food, friendly people, rich history, an easy accessable city and prices lower than anything I've experienced other than south-east Asia. There's lots of other positives that I am sure I will scratch into while I write.

I myself didn't have much knowlegde of the country myself, neither about prices nor more or less what to expect other than the weather forecast telling us it would be about 20 degrees and thundershowers everyday, the weather was however excellent except for one morning which meant we had to walk in the rain for almost 5 minutes - in total over 4 full days. Most of the time it was 25-30 and perfect weather.
I had looked up a tour company online and booked daytrips through them from 10 to 15 everyday before we left. Hyur service prooved to be an excellent choice, and for the cost of about NOK 1000 / €110 for airport transfer both ways and the four days of touring the countryside for two persons was a much better deal than the local guy my brothers friend knew, this guy knew no english, but could drive us where ever we wanted for €100/day. Well, again it pays off to do some research.
If anyone who reads this is concidering going to Armenia/Yerevan, I can strongly recommend Hyur Services. Very reasonable priced, great mix of local and in-house guides, lots of destinations and there were no stops at some place where they just wanted us to buy some things. The later part could of course be good, but often it's just a drag.



On the first day we had booked a trip inside the city with a visit to Erebuni and the Erebuni

Tsitsernakaberd

museum as the first stop. This is an old fort where the city first was built. Not the most exciting, so in a way it was okay that it was the first part of the trip and not the last, then to Tsitsernakaberd, the memorial site for the genocide in 1918 as well at a visit to Matenadaran where they kept most of their old scriptures. There was supposed to be a "short city sightseeing" as well, but this was very short as it was purely done from the bus. On this tour we met some girls who was doing their practice with Hyur before becomming guides themselves.

Cascade

On the evening we took the expected walk around the city and found the Cascade, which I of course had to climb. That prooved to be about twice as long/high as expected, but what a view of the city it presented. We also visited a local market where there were mostly handmade items. The prices were very friendly and the craftmanship was good. I ended up buying an old russian winter hat, a pin-roller and some minor souvenirs. Not really what I had expected to bring back home, but at least the pin-roller should come in handy as my current is near dead.
 

one of many churches

The 2nd day we went out to Echmiadzin, also called the church-town just outside Yerevan. Armenia being the first country to accknowledge Christianity as their state religion in 301 did of course have a lot of old relgious history to show.

Zvartsnots

At the end of the day trip we went to Zvartsnots, ruins of an old church where there was a beutiful view of the biblical mountain Ararat in the background.
Zvartsnots has also given the name to the local airport.

view of Mt Ararat

Day 3 was probably the highlight where we left for Garni and Geghard.
On the way there we stopped at a view point of Mt Ararat which really was worth the minutes we took there, as seen on the picture to the left.

Garni

Garni is a spectacular old temple which had been left by the many wars the country has endured as this is more a regal building than a religious.
The monastary of Geghard further up the countryside is still in use, but was also open for tourists. Not that there are a lot of tourists in Armenia at all, but we had our minibus with 10-15 people and there were a few others there as well.

Khor Virap

After the arranged tour we also booked a private tour to Khor Virap where Gergorian the illuminator who had brought Christianity to Armenia had been imprissoned in a deep pit for 13 years, the name Khor Virap means "the pit", but the building was older and was converted to a monastary after Gregory had been there. Khor Virap is placed just on the border to Turkey, barely 100 meters from the neutral zone and did also display a great view of Mt Ararat. The local guide we had booked was a mountain enthusiast and had a lot of info on both these mountains as well as the others in Armenia, and even some from the rest of the world. He himself had scaled mt Aragat (highest in Armenia with 4090m) about 40 times, but due to the bad relations with Turkey he had yet to climb Mt Ararat.

Saradarpat

On our last day we woke up to heavy rain and feared the worst, the streets were almost flooded some places, and the 5 mins walk to Hyur would have been enough to get soaked if we hadn't brought decent clothes. The rain did however, as written earlier, stop during the ride to Sardarapat which was our only destination for this day. A bit longer from the city than the other places we visited, but at least for the Armenians among the by far most important historical sites. This is where the armenians fought off the turks when they invaded Armenia just after WW1. A sentence we heard many times during this day was that Armenia as a nation would probably not have excisted if they hadn't succeeded defending Sardarapat.
After this final showdown Armenia was so broken that they view the inclusion in the Sovjet union as their only chance of further survival. The monument and museum was built in stages from the 50yrs aniversary until the 60th.

This dog was just about to wake up when I took the photo, I love how she stretches her legs just before opening her eyes - quite surprised to find me laying to be ground with my camera.

The city also had lots of great buildings and statues, mainly erected during the Sovjet period. Statues like this one made an impressing view, we even went down to the south of the city purely to take photoes of this.

One of the quite interesting pieces of art displayed while walking up the cascade

It's on my list

Susan Sontag

"It's on my list" is something you hear a lot of people say, but how many really have a list and how many uses this as another way of saying that something sounds interesting - but that they usually will never get to it.

One of the first things you learn on how to reach your qoals in any part of life, but still quite few pay attention too, is that visualizing a goal makes it easier to reach. Telling others about your goal makes it harder to break than if keep it to yourself, and just let down yourself. Dividing a goal into smaller pieces makes it easier to reach as you don't have to chew over such a large piece of the pie every time you take a bite. Might also help you savor the taste and get a greater overall experience.


An example that easily comes to mind was back in Angkor - one of the most amazing places in the world - but we even got a bit filled by looking at these spectacular temples day after day. Still one of my favorite places in the world and one I am quite sure I will return to one day.

There are so many saying about travelling and experiencing things, but all are individual. If someone wants to go the same island in every year, stay at the same hotel, eat at the same resturant and go to the same bar and place on the beach, then that's their choice. It's not for me, but for some this is exactly what they want.

Personally I would like to visit at least one country where I haven't been before every year. Quite close to Dailai Lamas famous quote "Once a year, go someplace you've never been before". There are lot of similar translations of the same quote, personally I prefer the "as often as possible" start to the quote. Why set limitations and of course it's not correct to stop exploring the world for almost a year if you've visited a new country in january. You have still reached your goal and can be happy with that, but there's always more out there.

there are lot of very similar translations of the same quote as well

Back to the list. I did write down my list some time ago. My list is however not just fixed entries I absolutely have to do. It's ever expanding, and it's not really something I would like to ever complete. The worst thing would be if there is nothing more I would like to do, but I can't really see that happening. I am also allowed to write down things I've done which were amazing, just to remind myself of them later. After all, my list, my rules.

1 Visit 100 countries
2 Akropolis - Athens, Greece
3 Angkor - Cambodia
4 Swim in a warm lagune - Iceland
5 Swim with dolphins
6 Reach the summit of the highest mountain in Norway
7 Reach the summit of a famous mountain abroad
8 All seven continents
9 See a concentration camp
10 Visit one of the worlds 15 least visited countries
11 Bowl a strike
12 Drink bourbon from North-Korea
13 Christ the Redeemer statue - Brasil
14 Colosseum - Rome
15 A game of cricket (in one of the countries where they actually know how to play)
16 Cruise in the Carribean
17 Disneyland/world
18 Dive in a coralreef
19 Deepsea fishing
20 the Eiffel Tower
21 Go on a rivercruise that lasts some days
22 Go to a game in the worldcup or european championship (football/soccer)
23 Spend a week or more without cellphone or internet
24 Be an extra in a Bollywood-movie
25 Be an extra in a Hollywood-movie
26 Go to a F1 race
27 Parachutjump
28 Fishspa
29 Fly on first class
30 Galapagos Islands
31 Eat gellato in Italy
32 Geysir
33 Giza pyramids
34 Gondol in Venezia
35 Great Barrier Reef
36 Eat a steak in Argentina
37 Go to the bathroom in a "hole in the floor"-toilet
38 Helicopter-ride
39 Hurtigruta (see the norwegian coastline with one of the cruises)
40 Whales (in the sea)
41 Get to an altitude higher than Norways highest point
42 Walk on a glacier
43 Icefishing
44 Jetski
45 Sing karaoke in Japan
46 Karneval in Rio
47 Great wall of China
48 Buy a ticket to a plane without knowing where you're going
49 Drive a car that is worth more than 3x your salary
50 Go to a concert with a world star within classical music
51 Louvre
52 Make dinner for more than 20 persons
53 Hot airballon
54 Machu Pichu
55 Madagaskar
56 Eat streetfood in Bangkok
57 NHL game
58 NBA game
59 NFL game
60 Northern light / southern light
61 Northpole
62 Southpole / Antarctica
63 Charter-vacation
64 Octoberfest - Germany
65 Olympic games
66 Spend a night in a castle
67 Perta - Jordan
68 Pizza in Italy
69 Portwine in Portugal
70 Premier League game
71 Publish a text in a national/interantional paper
72 Publish a picture in a national/interantional paper
73 Camping in Antactica
74 Easter Islands
75 Travel for a month or more (in one trip)
76 Ride an elephant
77 Ride a camel
78 Resturant with 2 or 3 stars in the Michellin guide
79 Drink rum in the Carribean
80 Safari in Africa
81 Drink Sake in Japan
82 Eat sushi in Japan
83 Salar de Uyuni - salt dessert in Bolivia
84 Go to an active vulkano
85 Drink snakeblood
86 Drive a snowscooter
87 Solar eclipse
88 Gamble away money in Las Vegas
89 Spitsbergen
90 Stand-up in USA
91 Beachfootball
92 Bungeejumping
93 Swim in the Atlantic
94 Swim in the Pacific
95 Swim in the southern Icy Sea
96 Taj Mahal
97 Waterski
98 Monstertruck rally
99 Universal Studios
100 British Museum
101 Vatican City
102 Van Gogh museum
103 Vodka in Russia
104 Whiskey in Scotland
105 Trainride for several days
106 Ha Long Bay - Vietnam
107 Cu Chi tunnels - Vietnam
108 Terracotta-army - China
109 Stonehenge - England
110 Mount Fuji - Japan
111 Killing Fields - Cambodia
112 Arashiyama -  bamboo forest outside Kyoto
113 Neuswanstein Castle
114 Grand Canyoon
115 Icehotel
116 Firework festival
117 Bonfire season - Nara 
118 Demilitarized zone between North- and South Korea
119 Giants Causeway

Colonia del Sacramento and the way home

As I wrote in the previous post the plane from Ushuaia to Buenos Aires was delayed by about 5 hours, for me this didn't mean much more than less sleep thankfully.
I got to my hotel about midnight, booked the taxi to the airport for last night and got to sleep as soon as I could - after connecting everything I needed to charge during the night.
Got up the next morning at 6:15, packed, checked out and headed for the port where the boat to Uruguay was docked.
Short queue and no real problems, quite amazing how much you are able to do and get through without really knowing the language. I do know the important words like "frog" and "goat" in spanish, but none of these had been very usefully so far.
The boat wasn't very impressive, it was more or less like a large buss on water, but as it would only take an hour I didn't need anything else than a seat.

Colonia del Sacramento was one of these cozy and lazy, small cities by the sea where life runs slowly and nothing is really important. I was probably still a bit off after the impression overload from  Antarctica and some days of travel without much sleep.
I booked a ticket on a hop on/off buss so i would be able to get to all the places that might hold something interesting and was shipped to the centre of the city. As it was sunday and the breakfast at the hotel hadn't opened when i left, breakfast was a priority.
The meny was in spanish, everyone spoke spanish, and as i didn't want to eat either frog or goat i just picked something that have the word "huevos" (egg) in it, and what i got was ok.

A small walk around the bricklaid streets in the centre led me to some souvenirshops, a church, a small fortress and some local fishers as well as a yatchclub. I later took the bus to the bull-fighting arena which was abandoned a long time ago, but could still be seen from the outside as well as a nice walk around in the neighbourhood area where I actually saw lot of dead frogs on the ground. A bit strange, and haven't figured out why there were so many yet.
At the pier to get back home I got in touch with an english traveller who was also unsure if we were at the right place as everyone else had a different ticket than us.
Back in Buenos Aires we arrived a few minutes later than scheduled, thankfully I'd taken a seat in the boat so I was first one off, and thus first in the taxi-queue.


Back at the hotel at 20mins prior to pick-up, my ride to the airport came in the doors at the same time as I did, so instead of reading some news/mails I just changed quickly and went with him.
Having arrived late last night, I'd not been able to check in on my plane, and thus not being informed that the terminal was A and not C, so I asked to be dropped off at C where KLM has their flights, but soon found out that I had to change terminals.

Back on the ship from Antarctica, we left early in the morning and of course there were some I'd not been able to say goodbye to. One in particular, but here's where fate gave me a nice surprise. At the exact same time as I passed by terminal B on my way to terminal A. A place I really shouldn't have needed to be at all, she came out three steps in front of me, on her way to Terminal A to look for a charging-station for her cellphone.
After checking in my luggage we sat down for some time before it was time to leave for the plane. Having 1hour 40mins to get through security I though I had more than enough time - I was wrong.
About 20-25mins to get through security and then well over an hour for passport control. At the time I was through the screens were already screaming "last call" for me, of course the gate was at the farthest end of the terminal, but as I ran past some others with KLM-stickers on their carry-ons I felt quite sure I would get there in time, and I did. The plane was thankfully just about 20mins delayed, but this meant that my plane for Oslo had already started boarding before I was off the first plane in Amsterdam. A LOT more efficient airport and passport control made it fully doable eventhough I ran most of the way here as well.
Touching down at Gardermoen just about 15 hours after I left Buenos Aires is however quite remarkable, although a bit too close for comfort espessially in BA.

The cold never bothered me anyway

One of Cierva Cove's massive icebergs

For our last day of expeditions we weren't told where we would go the day before, the schedule had always been posted on the main screens the evening before, but not this time. My gut feeling told me we would have one zodiac cruise and one landing, most likely with some gentoo penguins to round it off with our fellows who had been there for us the whole journey.



We got up and had breakfast at 7:30 as usual before the first zodiacs were ready to take us on the, not so surprising, zodiac cruises.
This was mostly to look at icebergs in Cierva Cove, but there were also several whales and of course some penguins around. I was a bit unlucky with the guide for this cruise as I got one that doesn't say much, but she was probably a bit under the weather with the cold half of us had been hit by as well.
One of the other boats actually had a humpback whale swimming towards them, going up for air, then going beneth their boat and then coming up on the other side for air again. Would have been cool, but that's not really something you can plan in advance. And for the record, the argentine navy was still following us....

The day's second stop was a Mikkelson Harbour where there were to everyones surprise gentoo penguins. I was the first one in the zodiacs and on the last boat back to the main ship. There really wasn't anything groundbreaking on this island compared to some of the other stops, but penguins are and will always be cool.
There was also one chinstrap penguin on this island, I suspect him to have been a spy from a close by colony to see it there were some good pebbles there, or the more probable reason - he was just lost.

Icebergs in our way at Spert Island

The surprise trip of the day was that we got a third trip with another zodiac cruise. A lot of people didn't care to go on this as they thought it would be similar to some of the other cruises we've been on - they were horribly mistaken.
We drove around these amazing cliffs, not too different from Ha Long Bay if you picture them as Antarctic, but with massive, rogue, icebergs floating around. Large openings in the mountains we could drive through, lots of birds, and the trip's first fur seal.
An great last trip on maybe the most amazing journey I've even been on.

Mikkelson Harbour and our last footsteps in Antarctica

Weddell seal at Mikkelson Harbour

The emergency lobster suits did as they were
supposed to, so we couldn't stand the heat for too long

We now had about two days and three nights before we would see land again, the first night most were quite tired after a long day. The first day was my birthday, so there was cake and later drinks in the bar. The next day was a bit more difficult, the sea did not behave a nicely as it had done the earlier sea-days and more than half of the passengers just stayed in their room, this included myself who was ok if I lay down on my bed, but not if I started walking around. We did however finally get to squeeze in the lobster-party I had been craving since the first day of travelling.
3rd day we arrived early in the morning, but were screwed by our flight out from Ushuaia being 5 hours delayed. For me this only meant less sleep in Buenos Aires as I had taken an extra day there just in case something like this would happen, as well as not having the time to check-in on my flight home the next day. For lots of others it meant that they missed their connection, but from what I've heard from them later it did work our the next day. Very annoying at the time, but in retroperspective not really anything more.

More penguins, more spectacular views and a very quick bath in the southern icy sea

Pléneau Island

Lemaire Channel, spectacular view

Well, it kind of had to happen. After a few days with a cold brewing where I had been on all  activities, gone camping outdoors etc, it came out in full bloom overnight.
The fact that one of my cabinmates moves the
temperature to the highest temperature all the time as well probably doesn't help either.

An early zodiac cruise around the icebergs at Pléneau Island was what I had to skip, but a few pills and a (maybe not so) healthy appetite for adventure was all I needed to be ready for our trip to Palmer Station. Before that I did get to see the Lemaire Channel with it's spectacular view from the boat, the channel had actually been froozen just a few days earlier, so that was another
nice bonus.

Palmer Station is an american research facility where there are room for 44 persons, usually full in the summerseason and about half during winter. They let on about 10 ships every season, so we were quite lucky to be one of the few choosen few. We took one of them with us on the way back, so that was probably the reason why we were choosen. We were however never told if he was a POW, a deserter or just a guy who was going home.


The facility in itself was partly selfmaintained, but they did of course bring supplies like food and diesel from the mainland.
It was interesting to hear from our guide, the onsite mechanic, that he himself couldn't phantom a life where you had to commute to the same workplace every day and then just get a few weeks off every year, when he now worked for 6 months and then got 6 months off. Personally I couldn't stand having 6 months off every year, usually the two weekend days are enough for me before I feel I need to get back to work and do something.

On Torgersen Island on the other side of the bay of Palmer Station there was an adelie penguin colony, these are smaller and a bit more  agressive than the chinstraps and gentoos we've seen a lot of earlier.
The chicks here was almost fully grown, or maybe not fully grown, but at least enough for the parents to leave them. The parents was clearly making them ready as they pushed them into clusters with the other chicks so they should understand that they should be dependent of each
other and not the parents any more.
The parents will most likely move to sea in a few days leaving the chicks to themselves, they will then wander around without any real clue to what they should be doing, but after a while when they get too hungry they will move to the water. This is usually the same time as the seals will move to the shores to pick off the easiest prays who hasn't understood how this works yet.
In some ways I'm glad I don't get to see that.

Polar Plunge, just do it

Back on the boat we were informed that they would give us the opportunity to do the "polar plunge" later that day. In short this is were you jump off the boat into the freezing water and get back up as fast as you can, mostly to be able to brag that you've done it. For me it was a bad day they'd picked for it as my fever was still lurking, so I did it anyway and have absolutely no regrets that I did it. Woke up the next morning without a voice, but it loosened up untill midday - worth it!


After the plunge there was yet another amazing dinner, the food on the boat was maybe one of the biggest positive surprises, being at sea for 1,5 weeks without any fresh supplies and creating 5-stars dinners day after day is highly impressive. I will however not continue the 5000kcal-a-day diet when I get home.
Desert being topped this day with a chocolate buffet.



At night we were visited by some humpback wahles moving in very close to the ship, one of my fellow travellers took the short movie shown below. Probably better to watch the short clip than whatever I can write about it.

Awesome Adélie Penguin not really ready to swap places with his/her mate after a few days of feeding

Adélie Penguins

Camping in Antarctica and the (in)continental landing

Camping in Antarctica, not something everyone can say they've done

The weather held and the outdoor camping was on.
We were shipped to land on a small island at 21:00 and could start dig our grave to sleep in/on the snow for the night.
I guessed I would be the one with the least experience with camping, but thenagain I might be one with the most experience with snow. I found a nice place close to a small hill and dug about a meter so I would have nice coverage for the wind - which it prooved to be none of.
Most just wandered off and sat down in the middle of the plain, stepped a few times on the ground and placed their gear down. A lot looked a bit confused and didn't seem to know what they were supposed to be doing, kind of like the penguins we'd gotten to know very well these last days.

Finally got the chance to do something other than eating and
going where I was supposed to, so I dug tunnels all over the place

The sunset was beautiful, eventhough it doesn't not really set, it sun just hides behind a mountain for a short while before it returns, it still gave a beautiful view.
More or less as expected I had a hard time sleeping, but managed to steal a few hours of on-and-off sleep.

Next morning we were picked up at 6:30 for a swift return to the ship, an even swifter shower and a tad slower breakfast before the first continental landing at Neko Harbour.

As the greatest surprise of the trip there were gentoo penguins waiting for us on the shore, more nesting close to the beach and even a weddell seal a bit further down the beach.
There was also a small hike up the mountain ridge to a viewpoint were we could get some pictures of ourselves with the Antarctica flag.
Most likely there will be more interesting sights on the islands than on the mainland, but of course to actualy set foot on the continent is an important part of the trip for most of us and now that goal has been reached. For me this means that Oceania is the sole remaining continent to set foot on, and for surprisingly many of us traveling here either Oceania or Africa is still missing to get all seven.

Before every landing there was, of course, an announcement that we should get ready to disembark at 9:00 or whatever time the first zodiacs would leave the mothership. There were also some other announcements, as e.g. dinner, lectures, the store is open etc.
From time to time during these announcements there would magically appear a jar with some strange words, if this was to appear the announcer had to pick a word from the jar and find a way to get it into their announcement. This is why we were told there would be an "incontinental" landing and not the ordinary continental. We did get a bit wet, but I think the worst problems are gone by now.

More Gentoo Penguins

It didn't feel like it was much of a hike when I was there, but the picture kind of proves otherwise

Most made it to the end of our hike at Neko Harbour