Finding My Fix: Chronicles of a Travel Junkie

When I first arrived in Slovenia, I was unimpressed and growing more pissed off by the minute. I didn’t know where my hostel was, I didn’t know what bus to take and I couldn’t find a taxi. I finally did find a taxi in an obscure place outside the train station, and after some consultation with the other taxi drivers standing around having a cigarette, he figured out where to go. He spoke no English, Spanish or Italian, immediately exhausting my language possibilities. But he got me to my hostel for 5Euros on the meter, and three flights of spiraling stairs later, I was happy to put down my bag at Fluxus Hostel.

The following morning I was not happy. I was homesick, lonely, I desperately wanted to go home; I even started searching flights out of Ljubljana. It wasn’t the city itself, or the people. I actually really liked the city, and so far the people had been friendly. It was a walk I took up the hill to the castle under a shower of yellow leaves that triggered it. Where was the dog that was supposed to be yanking at my arm as I climbed the hill? Weeks of hiking the mountains in Maryland with my mutt, I was alone with an empty feeling in my stomach and a lightness on my arm. I was done traveling alone. I still am. As I sat and watched the dachshunds and terriers stroll by, I realized how much I love my friends and family, how attached I am to them, and how I can’t and don’t want to travel alone anymore. Of course, this is by no means the end of the travel junkie, it’s just the end of the sola travel junkie. From now on, I’m traveling with a purpose, to visit the people I love, to travel with the people I love, to work, to study, to live.

Well, one of the three Danish Michaels I know, called me at the hostel and that took care of my homesickness. Damn it, I was going to enjoy the last sola trip if it killed me! So the next morning I went to the information office and booked two tours to visit the rest of the country that weekend and then headed off to have lunch. As I sat at the window of Julian, eating my ravioli, I watched a group of boys drinking cokes outside. They were probably in their late teens and whenever the waitress wasn’t looking they would give her a quick up and down at the most crucial points, and quickly meet her eyes when she turned around. Smooth. I had to laugh and wonder how often that happens to me as one boy’s eyes followed her rear end as she carried an empty plate back inside.

And then my eyes noticed a familiar face, and I sat with my fork in the air long enough to have these thoughts… I know him. Wait a minute. Something’s weird. Oh, right, I’m not at home. So, how do I know him. Oh my god, is this someone from school in Slovenia? Who is he? What’s his name? Who’s that with him? I know that girl. Oooh, I know who he is. He’s the guy from the hostel in Zagreb! So should I run out to meet them? Wait, no, the waitress might think I’m running off without paying. Ok, I could leave my bag here, but what if it gets stolen? It won’t get stolen. Alright, I’ll leave it here and tell the waitress I’m running out to catch them, could she watch my bag…. so finally I put down my fork.

I had to run to catch up, because you might imagine with that many thoughts they had walked pretty far. So here I was running up a cobble street in Ljubljana wondering, wait, what are their names?, waving my hands and ultimately shouting Whales! to get their attention. As you can imagine, they were from Whales. So we made plans to meet at the triple bridge at 8:30…

to be continued.

I forgot to mention an observation I made at Oktoberfest while I was sitting at a table with 5 Danes, 2 Swedes and a German, so here it is…  I had the darkest eyes at the table!  So odd that my olive-green/amber eyes were actually the darkest there.  I guess that’s Scandinavians for you.  They didn’t think it was the least bit strange.

Budapest: 

I wish I’d given myself more time in this city.  I really liked it.  I actually liked it more than Prague.  Prague felt like Busch Gardens it was so clean.  Budapest on the otherhand felt lived in.  My first full day there some Aussies informed me that the Rubik’s Cube convention was going on that weekend, so I crammed into a cab with 3 Aussies and headed to the convention center where we met 2 more.  We got to meet the American entrants and watch a roomfull of people with ridiculously good spatial memories solve Rubik’s cubes blindfolded.  The world champion did 15!  We were there a day early or we would have gotten to meet Rubik (the cube’s Hungarian inventor) in the flesh.

Once we decided we shouldn’t spend all our time in Budapest watching the Rubiks wizards, I headed off to the castle with two of the Aussies and later ditched them for a dinner cruise by myself.  As I sat waiting, I began to notice an inordinate amount of couples.  Was I the only lone on there??  I sat alone at a six-seat table, waiting for the cruise to start, and 2 men who looked to be in their 50’s approached the table, asking in Magyar if they could sit.

As it turned out one man was Hungarian and the other Italian so they spoke in English together.  They were engineers on business.  The Hungarian man offered me wine saying it was rude in Hungary to toast at a table when not everyone has a drink.  I listened in as he told the Italian about the city, about how each bridge was designed, and how all the bridges were destroyed during WWII.  He said the Hungarians built their castle as a fortress, but never once defended it from within, in fact, he said, they attacked it themselves on two occassions.  The first was when it was taken over by the Turks and the second I can’t recall.  Budapest has been remarkably rebuilt considering the beatings it’s taken.

He pointed out the technical university where he used to study and he observed that it felt like only five years ago, when in fact it had been far longer.  “Time is an unbelievable substance.  It flows from your fingers and then it is gone!” he remarked.

Croatia:

Zagreb is a beautiful city, also well preserved.  It sits at the foot of the mountains, and the tiny streets wind up and down hills.  My ability to write is so rusty, I don’t think I could do it justice here in words.  I’ll post some photos when I return to the states.  But, let’s just say Zagreb is what I always imagined Europe would look like, well, aside from the American missionaries who evangelized me in the park.  If god truly loves me unconditionally, he shouldn’t need two people to trap me while I read on a bench and preach to me, thank you very much!

Anyway, Split was also quite nice, though very touristy.  I didn’t spend much time there.  The bus ride to the city was gorgeous with its classic dry, shruby Mediterranean mountains against the Adriatic.  When I arrived and saw the tourist mayhem, I considered hopping back on the bus or ferry and going somewhere else, but I decided, what the hell, I’ll give Diocletian’s Palace a chance.  It worked.  Standing among Roman architecture still in use, abutting Venetian houses, also still in use, with passageways designed for people my size, I was reminded of Barcelona so I decided to stay the night, and I decided to treat myself to a hotel overlooking the sea.  It was quite nice, the mediterranean feel without the sexual harassment that comes with some of the other mediterranean countries.

Alright, I don’t feel like writing more now.  I’m in Ljubljana, a few days earlier than planned.  I’ll explain later.

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