TravelStream™ news feed for member dylanboyle on TravelPod's free travel blogs service http://www.travelpod.com/syndication/rss/dylanboyle en-us Copyright ©2009 TravelPod.com Sat, 06 Dec 2008 07:46:47 -0500 http://www.travelpod.com http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/dylanboyle/2/1228566840/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/dylanboyle/2/1228566840/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/dylanboyle/2/1228566840/tpod.html Sat, 06 Dec 2008 07:46:47 -0500 Ok let's see what this world is made of.

Jump to the full
entry & travel map

Larache, Morocco

Hello all!! long time no blog...i know.....sorry about thatWhelp no pictures but just a few stories for now! I am lazy, i know...sorry.Well I decided to head to Morocco for 6 weeks.i arrived in tangier, Morocco from Alcegiras, spain via the criminally expensive ferry (33 euros!)anyways spent one night in tangier...where the touts are alive and well in the medina. Met a cool austalia guy and we hung out for the night. Next day went to asilah on the coast, a short ride away and stayed there for two nights with these nice guys.Unfortunately they charged me too much to stay at their place, although it was a great time. One guys wife cooked us the most amazing chicken Tagine and for dinner the guy cooked another amazing dinner. I met a couchsurfer in their town who had two other americans staying with him, and my hosts invited the two over to join us for dinner. A long night of delicious food and hookah and fresh fruit. and surprisingly beer and wine.I have QUICKLY found out that here everyone is an entrepreneur and talking about prices and bargaining is everyday life. For instance on my ride to Larache, where i am now, this old woman was almost yelling at the taxi driver to lower his price before she got in. This woman had her things with her, a big cooking plate in a sack, and was headed home for the Celebration holiday this weekend where there is a whole ceremony where they kill a sheep or two and its a big feast with family and what not. She was not to be messed with, she was on her way and determined to get there! it was greatthe guys i stayed with offered to take me to their family's celebration thing....5 days for 300 euros and i was like...uhhh no thanks ;-) It would be great to see and experience but sorry dudes! No rich american here :-)so I'm staying in Larache for two nights and then i'm off to meknes or fez tomorrow.There is a french guy looking for a travel companion from marrakech onward in a week or so...we'll see if i make it there to join him for a few days.Well I didn't think my spanish would help me here, but its the first language that I use with everyone! Yes there is a good portion of people that speak english.....but for some reason everyone thinks I'm either french or spanish. I'll stick with the spanish for now seeing that my french is but a few phrases. I will be traveling Morocco here for the next 3 weeks by myself, however my friend Michelle from Madrid will be joining me for xmas and new years and a bit of traveling around morocco. Should be a good time!Prices are very cheap, food is awesome, culture different from any other country I've visited thus far. Time to go wander around the city!
]]> http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/dylanboyle/2/1218975240/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/dylanboyle/2/1218975240/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/dylanboyle/2/1218975240/tpod.html Sun, 17 Aug 2008 12:59:32 -0400 Ok let's see what this world is made of.

Jump to the full
entry & travel map

Odessa, Ukraine

Hello there again!Yup its me, and boy I've got some stories for you guys this time!  I left you all in Devin, Bulgaria where I was staying with some lovely couchsurfing hosts for a weekend of hiking fun in the mountains.  Well after that I decided to go have some fun in the mountains by myself! So I went to the Rila Mountains south ofSofia to do the "seven lakes hike" which everyone told me was the coooolest hike in Bulgaria.  Well the hike was definitely one of my top ten hikesI've ever done but definitely one of the most punishing as well.  The whole time I was hiking up barren rock trails or on the ridge line to the mercyof the punishing sun.  I'm pretty sure I got some level of sun poisoning on this trip due to the fact that when I arrived at the "seven lakes" destination Iwas dizzy, not hungry, sun burn, and extremely tired. Good fun!! Right mom??So the next day after seeing the seven lakes I hiked all the way to the Rila Monastery which was again a good 8 hours of solid hiking...phew!! I was very glad to have reached civilization again. That night I splurged and got a hotel room and slept and slept and slept and slept.... I had attempted to arrive in Melnik (apparently the smallest village in Bulgaria)which is famous for its wine (and you know i like my wine!!)  But unfortunately the hitch hiking that day didn't bring me all the way there...So the next day I started my long voyage to Romania for the Girana Jazz festival that I had been looking forward to every since I arrived in Romania and heard about it!I managed to hitch hike all the way to the capital (Sofia) of Bulgaria when I decided that instead crossing the Bulgarian/Romanian border that I'd throw a little adventure into the trip and tryand hitch hike my way through Serbia to Romania.  Well I made it all the way to Serbia via hitch hiking but as soon as I arrived in Serbia it took me two hours to get one ride which was only like 10km and sinceI was on a time budget I decided to bus it through Serbia.  Well I took a bus to the capital (Belgrade) which put me there at 5am where i then took a bus out of town to try hitch hiking again.  Well it didn't exactly work too welland so i just took another bus to the border, changed buses again and headed towards Romania.  This is the bus trip that would prove to be an interesting adventure however!Apparently in Serbia the Cigarettes and Vodka are much cheaper than in Romania and smuggling these goods is very common.  When I boarded the bus (with these other four British travelers) we didn't quite cue into the fact that everyone minusone guy our age were old/older ladies.  The one kid our age came up to us and in his best attempt at English tried to tell us that we were sitting in his seat.  We just kinda shrugged him off knowing very well that the idea of a "reserved bus seat"in eastern Europe is quite a joke and we were all happy to be sitting on the back bench together chatting each other up with travel stories etc.  However this kid kept looking back at us with this nervous look...again and again and again.We were like...damn this kid really wanted this seat...maybe its his favorite or something hehe.  But whatever we kept talking and what not.  Well everything was going splendid (passport checks, etc) until a border guard came on the busand asked to see the contents of this woman's bag.  He asked if she had cigarettes...she said no...vodka? only 5 liters which I am allowed to bring.  Ok well open it up!  Turns out there was only 5 liters inside.....THIS bag...but then in her purse was another5 and in another bag another 10.  OK EVERYONE OFF THE BUS!! Oh shit...  The ladies desperately tried to hand us bags of vodka to claim so they wouldn't be charge taxes on them but we stood firm and said no to their worried faces...sorry ladies not going to help you smuggle!!!Well 2 hours later after opening secret compartment after secret compartment (the bus driver was smuggling tons of cigs and vodka too!!) they came up with this huge pile of cigs and vodka (see the picture!!).Me and Brits were just astonished seeing every 5 minutes a new bag or box of cigs and/or vodka coming out of the bus thinking...no way not another bag!! yup another one!  10 minutes later...another bag!! Where did you find that one!?!?Well eventually they gave it all back to the ladies after they paid the taxes on the goods (they said it was taxes they had to pay...I'm sure where that money ended up...)Well we all got back on the bus and headed off to Romania.Due to our extended stay at the border we arrived in Timisoara late and I asked if we could all split a hotel room to save on money.  We did and went out drinking (i was with Brits...what else do they do??) that night and had a good time.The next morning as we were sitting down somewhere (one guy needed to cash travelers checks and whatever something else) this lonely looking traveler walked by and looked at us.  I said "hey whats up man" and in a nice Californian accept he replied with a "nothin much man where are you from?."Well about 10 minutes later I convinced him to go to the jazz festival in the mountains (i mean really who could say no!?!?) and we went off hitch hiking to the festival.Well hitching didn't work too well that day as it took us a long time to get out of the city and to a good hitching spot.  But eventually a bus actually picked us up and brought us to the nearest city to the festival where my lovely adopted Romanian family picked us up and brought us to 3 beautiful daysof music and camping in the mountains!  I saw a bunch of Bands from Romania, Serbia...i dunno other nearby countries i suppose...and also got to see Victor Wooden and Mike Stern from the USA!  They both put on fabulous shows.  Another highlight of the festival was the Balkan Express bandwhich plays traditional eastern European songs but all jazzzzed up.  They ROCKED!Ok must move on here this story is getting loooong.Well at this festival there was a self titled "american camp" which consisted of a few americans who were peace corps volunteers and I hung out with them a lot at the festival.Their camp was next to this sunken area looking like a swimming pool or old foundation to what used to be a building of some sort.  But it was perfect for football! (soccer)  We played many many games in this space...so cool.Well one of the american guys invited me to his place and after the festival we hitched to his town.  Hitching there was quite the adventure as we took i think 12 rides that day!!  Most of them were short rides and it was a loooong day.  One of our shorter rides we had was from three Belgian girls in a van.They told us it was national Belgian day and they and 6 other Belgian girls were having a small party at their volunteer camp at a local gypsy village.  However before they invited us we were telling them we were in a hurry to get home and then after they told us about the party I was like wait a minute I want to come!But they pulled over and said goodbye and my american friend got out and so did I and then they pulled away and I was left standing there...going.....wait a minute!!! why aren't we still in the van!?!? 9 Belgian girls having a party!? two traveling guys!? wait wait!!! come back!!that was a mistake *sigh*  hehe oh well we moved on!!Well I stayed two nights at this guys place before heading to the Ukraine.  I hitched from his town to the border where i walked across to the Ukraine.  Now if you have every crossed the Ukraine border by car/foot you know that it is quite the scene.  There are hundreds of people waiting in line to cross the border on either sideThey are all crossing to the Ukraine, buying cigarettes and coming back....over and over and over again!  Fortunately one of  the border guards saw me (obviously a tourist not a cigarette runner) and let me go to the front of the line.  That was super cool as all of these people were waiting for hours.I crossed over and got a hotel room which was super nice after couches and camping for the past weeks.  The next day I started out hitching (too see how it was in the Ukraine) and I made it allll the way 60km short of Lviv where this trucker ended his route.  Then it started raining and I was stuck at this gas station trying to ask people for a ride to Lviv...but nobody spoke English (well one guy did a little bit a chatted me up for a little while) but the search was fruitless.  So during a break in the storm i went to the woods across the highway and set up my tent to sleep for the night.  I set it up JUST IN TIME as it started to downpour like mad crazyand it rained and rained and rained alll night long.  When I woke up I saw the river that I was camping next to and it was raging!!! This thing was darker than chocolate milk and was wild!! Later I found out that heavy storms in this area of the country had caused this river to flood many towns in this region....oops I guess I was lucky to have camped on a high bank!!!!Well the next day didn't go so well for hitch hiking so i caught a bus to Lviv where I met these two polish travelers wandering around and together we found a hostel to stay at.Lviv was a really nice city, very western European looking due to the various occupations in their war torn history. I met some other polish couples who were staying at the hostel who were street performers!  So I joined them the next day as the girls dressed up with mime-like makeup and danced and laughed and acted and performed for the tourists as I followed them banging on a little drum.  They made a decent amount of money that day and bought me a beer for my percussion accompaniment.  It was good times!It made me really want to learn some sort of act or street performing talent to change up my travel routine.  I really don't enjoy being the tourist walking around and taking pictures and visiting museums and blah blah blah and I was thinking how cool it would be to learn some street performing talent and travel around performing for people!Money aside...I think it would make things quite interesting...so we'll see where that goes.After Lviv I took a really nice train to the capital (kiev) where I couch surfed with this awesome guy named Roma.  He showed me around the city and told me tons of history of the area...a really knowledgeable and friendly guy.  He had another american guy staying with him who was currently teaching English in Hong Kong.  We hit it off and explored the city on our own the next day.  He invited me for a place to stay in hong kong so hopefully when i get to Asia I'll go visit him!!From Kiev I took a train to Crimea, which is the peninsula in the southern part of the Ukraine.  I was told to visit a couple tourist cities there because of the beautiful scenery and what not.  However all plans changed!  My train ride again was like 18 hours long and I didn't want to sleep the entire timeand I also didn't want to just sit in my bed and do nothing so i decided to hunt for English speakers. After walking through about 4 wagon trains I found these two young guys having a cigarette and a beer in the smoking area.  Said hello and asked if they spoke English.  Well to make a long story short within 10 minutes they convinced meto go to this hard-core metal fest they were going to and that night we drank sooo much beer and vodka that I couldn't remember which train car I was sleeping in!  At about 4am I was wondering up and down the entire length of the train stumbling around trying to desperately find my sleeping area.  I could only remember that I was in bed #12...but not the wagon number!!!So needless to say I woke up a few people, walked into the wrong cabin multiple times but eventually found my bed after the 7th or 8th car....haha!  I immediately crashed and slept the best I could for the next 3 hours until the train arrived.  Upon arrival I found the guys and we set out for the rock concert!We took a bus to the festival grounds and as soon as i saw the seaside I knew I was going to have to stay for awhile.  If you ever get the chance you have to go to the black sea coast of Crimea... it is absolutely just amazingly awesome there!! Its like a desert with cliffs and rocks and mountains and sparklingly clear beautiful water...man oh man I don't have to words to explain it.Well We arrived at the picturesque festival grounds and got a room in the veeery primitive little shacks on the grounds.  It seemed a little odd that they weren't serving any alcohol on the grounds and we had to walk to this "restaurant" near the main road to get a drink but I didn't think too much of it.  To make another long story short it turned out that this was a Christian heavy metal hard-corescream until you puke music festival!  They had failed to mention this important detail to me!!  But it turned out that these christians were pretty cool and it was very interesting to see people screaming at the top of their lungs what I imagined to be "i loooove jesus!" "I will follow yooouu!!!" to loud crunching guitars.The guys i had met were in a band, and even though they were "christian" and the lyrics to their songs were all about praise to jesus and what not....they still got wickedly drunk every night.  Beer and tons of vodka under the most beautiful stars sitting on the beach at night....good times!!Well after two nights of loud loud "death-core" music I was somewhat happy to move on to new adventures.  So we took a bus to the next town where we parted ways and said our goodbyes.  I exchanged the last amount of money I had and bought some lunch and a bus ticket to the big city where i was going to try and take a train to Odessa.  However somewhere after buying the bus ticket and lunch...i lost almost all of my money..........shit!!!I had maybe the equivalent of 10$ in my pocket and oh yea I also was unable to use any of the atms in the ukraine and the money i had was money that was kindly wired to me by mom and pops.  and so now I'm super bummed out.  no money, no money for train ticket...middle of Crimea......uh oh what to doooo!!well i had my bus ticket to the next town so i figured i would get on the bus and go to the town and then try to hitch hike my way out of the country to some country where i can get money!!  Well I was standing there waiting for the bus when this girl comes up to me and starts talking to me in Russian.  I say...sorry but i don't speak russian, do you speak english?  And she says yes a little.Well when I was in kiev my host Roma had told me about this hippie camp down on the black sea in Crimea called "lisea bukta" and that if i can manage to get there i should because its a great camp filled with dread locked drumming hippies camping on the beach.  It isn't marked on any map and he gave me some fuzzy directions but i didn't think I'd ever be able to find it.  Well it turns out that this girl thought i was going there (due to my natural hippie appearance) and invited me to go along with her and her friend.  I explained to her that i didn't have any money and should probably leave the country soon as to avoid problems.  then i thought for another 10 seconds and said...ahh fuck it lets go!  And we managed to sell my bus ticket to someone going that way and we caught the next busto the city nearest lisea bukta.  Well when i arrived i realized that not only was this a rasta hippie anarchist camp but also a nudist camp!! lots of beautiful people walking around and most of them  nude! haha! awesome! so i stripped down and started showing the sun places it often doesn't have a chance to see!  I was planning on staying for only 2 or 3 nights because i wanted to go to this trumpet festival in Serbia in a few daysbut i ended up staying at this camp for two weeks! ha!  Such good times, super awesome people, lots of sunshine and communal kitchens, hikes to the mountains to get spring water, and hikes to the nearest villages to buy vegetables...Lisea Bukta I will never forget you!!!!The camp I was staying in was mostly russians from Moscow but there were also people from Belarus and Ukraine as well.  Not a lot of people spoke english (actually hardly anyone) and I was one of two americans in the whole camp. The other american guy was from hawaii and was livingin odessa teaching english and this was his second year at the camp.Well after being there for two weeks I said it was time to move on.  So i hitch hiked/took trains to odessa where I currently am!Phew!ok that was a long one...I'm tired of writing! Well I'm here in Odessa and i met up with this guy i met in Lisea Bukta who gave me his number and he's been showing me around the city and last night we went to this techno dance club on the beach and partied until the sun came up!Well I'm going to try and make it to the BEER FESTIVAL in Belgrade, Serbia which starts in 3 days...we'll see where I actually end up!!!Well I hope this finds you all in good health!adios!
]]> http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/dylanboyle/2/1215763680/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/dylanboyle/2/1215763680/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/dylanboyle/2/1215763680/tpod.html Sat, 12 Jul 2008 12:04:28 -0400 Ok let's see what this world is made of.

Jump to the full
entry & travel map

Devin, Smolyan, Bulgaria

Ok here goes, another update!!Since we've last spoke I have traveled to the Black Sea coast for about a week, and then into the interior for another week or so.  I left you last from Razgrad heading to Isperik to stay with another Peace Corps volunteer.  Ok. Got it. I made it to Isperik slowly but surely hitch hiking alone this lonely country road with few cars.  It gave me a chance to walk through a few town/villages and see some local country folk and their places of residence up close and personal.  On the outskirts of one village a conserned woman came up to me as I had my thumb flashing out in the road trying to flag a ride on the mostly old russian communist era cars sputtering by.  If you thought it was an american tradition to SPEAK LOUDER SO THE FOREIGNERS WILL UNDERSTAND YOU...you're wrong, they do it here in bulgaria :-)The woman wanted to know if I was ok, if I wanted a taxi, etc.  but pretty soon I got a ride and was on my way.  A few villages and short rides later I ended up in sorry for my memory I have no idea named village.  I was riding in a car with a friendly "turkish" guy and an old woman.  Few words were spoken after I explained I don't speak Bulgarian however English and Spanish are on the menu.  We evenually arrived in a dusty village where horse are something still of the norm and life seems to move pretty slow.  After I got out I threw the thumb out there for round 5 or something that day. However after about 10 minutes the same guy pulled up in the car with guests in the back seat.  They got out and in broken english this kid who was 16 asked me if I spoke spanish.  And I thought after all that time studying and struggling in Madrid I would never use my Spanish in Bulgaria....but I responded with the equivalent of a "HELL YEA I DO!"  Turns out this kid, his uncle (who lives in Bilbao), and his father have all spend some years in Spain.  The kid spoke about the same level of Spanish I did (but with more slang of course...what do you expect from a 16 year old going to high school in Spain?!) and his uncle more or less the same.  I tried to explain I needed to keep going if I wanted to make it to Varna that day, but they insisted on buying me a cola and chocolate and to have a chat for awhile. *sigh* worse things could happen on a scaldingly hot day in the Balkans...so I gave in.  Not 5 minutes into the conversation I was invited to their home for the night with dinner and what not.  Tried to explain I should keep going cause of schedules and what not...and they insisted further that it was dangerous to hitch hike and blah blah blah... OK so stayed the night.  What the hell.  A lot of Roma (gypsies) in Bulgaria tend to call themselves Turkish because well the Roma are one of the most highly discriminated minorities in Europe and Turkish just sounds better, even though clearly they "look" Roma.  However they speak their version of Turkish in the house (it being their 1st language) with Bulgarian being second, maybe some know the actual Roma language..and then comes russian, english, spanish, italian, etc.  I have to say I had a great time in their little village.  It really presses the idea further into my head that more than often money doesn't create happiness.  I met a good portion of the village and said "hola" and "hello" to more people than I can remember, but everyone was very happy to meet me, exchange a few words and smiles and to share the same space for awhile.  White guy, long hair, beard.  Yup stood out pretty good there.  There was no hiding.  Took some pictures with the people, the kids, and of course with the girls.  They were curious why I was 25 and not married and if I was looking and here are the ladies of the village if I am looking...hehe you get the idea.Well we got back to this kid's house and the family had to offer me something.  Juice, water, coffee, food. to which i responded no no gracias estoy contento (no thanks i'm ok).  But his mother left and came back with ice cream and chocolates anyways.  I guess no isn't accepted as an answer :-)We went out for a beer or two later to kill time while his mother prepared dinner and met some more people.  I guess he expected his mom to make something that night but when we came back there was no food...and he explained that they needed to go shopping or something.  So she gave us some money to go buy sausages and tomatoes and bread and me and the kid ate until I couldn't eat anymore....and then more...until I explained in my best spanish that I was literally going to explode if i eat more. Only then was I allowed to stop eatting!The next morning we woke up late having been out late and I was getting ready to start my hitch hiking. Nope, gotta go have lunch in the next village over to meet more family....my god!  I mean I like you guys but I gotta keep movin' here!  But leaving before going to lunch was completely out of the question and off we went!  Delicious lunch of home made "kebap" and tomato/cucumber salad, beer, yogurt drink, and of course lots of bread.  Again I ate untill I almost exploded.  Ok time to start hitch hiking.  Nope.  What now!?  "we have to drive you to the high way or you'll never make it."  Oh and the whole time I was there the only words I understood from all the converstaions were Espanski, Angliski, Americano, Autostop.  Which translate to spanish, english, american, hitch hiking.  They talked non stop about me the entire time with glances here and there and worried looks on there faces.  I tried to explain that its ok and quite safe in these areas.  Well in the end they drove me to the highway (I had NO choice beleive you me)...like 10+ miles and insisted they pay for the gas.  Its quite humbling to see a family who doesn't have a lot of money insist on driving you, pay for the gas, and absolutely refuse to accept money from you.  That memory will always be with me and remind me to always share what I have when others are in need. Which brings me to my next point.  All you rich bastards in SUV's driving down the road who refuse to pick me up because you think you're too good, don't have the time, I don't deserve a ride, blah blah blah blah.  I have gotten most of my rides from people driving the oldest cars on the road, the people with the least amount of money....but AGAIN usually with smiles and their faces and always happy to take a hitch hiker. *sigh* money, happiness, needs, comforts, wants, generosity.  Sorry just words there no sentences.Well I made it to Varna!  A nice hot shower, a walk on the beach, and dinner at a favorite spot of my couch surfing host and the scene was changed.  A new town, new people, faster life, zoom zoom zoom.  I am a person of extremes and its awesome to go from the village life one moment to the busy rush of the city and "taxi taxi! you need taxi? cheap taxi? you have dirrectioms? I take you there no problem!"  Obviously the large backpack on my back gave me away.Varna was ok, only there on my way south to Primorsko.  Well I arrived in Primorsko the next day for the "childrens folklore festival."  Which was kind of a dissapointment.  I had heard it was going to be live music and dancing but in the end it was recorded music and dancing.  Don't get me wrong it was cute, kids dressed up in traditional costumes dancing traditional dances....but after a few songs I was like.....I came all the way here to tourist land for this? oh wellOpps back up.  Where did I stay in Primorsko?  Well I was wondering around the city looking for free wi-fi with my travel companian mini computer when my bulgarian friend "Emi" whom i met in spain called me.  We proceeded to have a nice chat in spanish.  When i was finished, however, this guy came up to me speaking in itialian.  I was like...dude I don't speak italian.  Ohhh i thought you were speaking italian...nope sorry man...better get workin' on those italian cd's my friend.  Well I spoke my spanish and he spoke his italian with a few spanish words thrown in there with maybe an enlgish word every so often and we established that I was lookin' for a place to stay.  5 min later he talked to the land lord of his flat i was standing in front of and $30 later I had a room for too nights that she often rents out.  Cool.  Oh by the way this guy was a gypsy and so were most of the people living in this apt building.  Ya know from all the bullshit I've heard from the Romanians and Bulgarians about how worthless and no good and stealing cheating lying theiving the gypsies are....I have found them to be quite warming, welcoming, and eager to help someone who doesn't mind chatting them up.  Sorry bulgarian/romanian friends...just the experiences i've had...I'm sure there are whole other sides that I may never experience.Anyways two nights in primorsko was MORE than enough to tourist land that I could take but I did lye on the beach, I did go swimming, I had a beer on the beach, etc  It was cool I suppose, but i was ready to go.Off to burgas!  Now here was a good time!  Stayed with couch surfing host Elena who was awesome.  We went to kareoke the first night and then the JULY MORNING the next night! So we've got the "july morning" song by purple haze is it?  Well Bulgarian have taken this song in like it was the theme song to a cult.  Every June 30th they stay up allll night and wait for the sun to come up, hence the "july morning" name.  Oh but did i mention the beach PARTY? Live rock and roll, lots of beer, camp fires, and swimming? Oh yes my friend, this shit was a serious party and we partied seriously :-)Ok already written alot so lets see still have more to go...damn i should update more often my hands are cramping.  I hope you people enjoy this blog cause its for you! oh ok and for me too...i'm sure i'll enjoy reading all of this down the road since i can't for the life of me write in a physical journal...not my style *shrugs*.One day in Burgas i decided to check out Nesebar which is maybe 40km away and is this picturesk little peninsula with traditional houses from back in the dayssss and some ruins of churches from I don't know we'll say they were originally built in the 6th century..something like that.  Cool city...for a couple hours to walk around.  Then I saw the dive shop.. Oops thats where the wallet starts crying.  Walked in, talked to this american/british/polish mix of a sort guy who talked me into doing some wreck dives (since there is absolutely nothing else to see in the black sea for diving).  Cool.  I like wrecks.  At this point I was a little bored and thought what the heck lets spend some money.  Waste of time.  Damnit.  Winds were up, seas were rough...so we did a shitty dive in the bay the "petrified forest" which was a bunch of old stumps at the bottom of the sea and we dove on a wreck that they actually just sunk 3 hours ago...yup 3 HOURS ago....*sigh*  so much for that adventure..  I think i'll be a little more choosy and plan ahead more the next time I decide to spend a weeks travel budget on a day's dive trip.  I've got the med, thailand, and australia to look forward to diving and i think they will be much more worth the money....much more....sorry black sea but you get a thumbs down :-(Well I didn't have a place to stay the night of the diving so the dive instructor gave me a place to stay (ok so the dive package gets a little better)  which was in a hotel with hot shower, freshly made bed....and some beers on the beach...well i had to pay for those...but all in all it was ok despite the face i was in the most touristy fucked up location ever....this crazy crappy consumeristic hole called "sunny beach"  yeaa  i hope the name gave it away.check out some pictures on goggle images and you'll see.  i wanted to throw up. but free places to stay come with a free grain of salt on your pillow...so i took it.then i discovered the events portion of couchsurfing.com and discoverd an event in the heart of the rodope mountains in a town called "Devin."  the event promised hiking, biking, swimming, caving and good times.  Well lets just say its like 5 days later and i'm still here.  Well there was a day of hitch hiking that went bad (hardly any rides in remotes locations) where i was trying to get near the capital to meet a friend and that didn't work out but I camped next to a river and had a campfire and cooked over an open fire, stars, sound of river, good times, run on sentence.Well my hosts here in Devin have been amazing and suprisingly enough there is a jazz festival about 40km away that we went to last night and will return again tonight for the "international jam session"  if you know me you know i'm excited....very excited!!Tomorrow brings a long hitch hiking day to the capital, Sofia, for a couch surfing meeting which means meeting hosts and travelers and good people...should be accompanied by a few beers laughs smiles and good times.  Well I hope this update finds everyone in good health and the travel bug itching up their leg...as it should.   Adios for now,dylan 
]]> http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/dylanboyle/2/1214139000/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/dylanboyle/2/1214139000/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/dylanboyle/2/1214139000/tpod.html Sun, 22 Jun 2008 10:14:18 -0400 Ok let's see what this world is made of.

Jump to the full
entry & travel map

Razgrad, Bulgaria

Hello all!I have left Romania for Bulgaria and have been in Bulgaria now for two nights. I have decided to hitch hike most of the time from now on, not just because its a cheap way to travel but for the adventure and unknown experiences to be had. Two days ago I hitched from Bucharest to the border, walked a good 4 miles from the town to the bridge over the Danube River (a good two miles its self, because i figured nobody would pick up a hitch hiker and take them over a border for security reasons so I just hiked it. All the trucks and cars had to pay a tax to cross the bridge but when I walked up to the window they just laughed at me in a very friendly way smiled and waved me through. I also got a lot of strange looks from truck drivers and people crossing the bridge and a few shouts of which I couldn't tell if they were encouraging or yelling "what the fuck are you doing you crazy traveler!!" Anyways it was blisteringly hot, I was covered in sweat and was a really cool experience walking across this huge bridge. Ok so I don't really tend to write in chronological order...and so lets see where I left off before...Ok so after Cluj I really started my hitch hiking and went to sibiu for the TIFF (transylvania international film festival) to see a few movies (saw an excellent documentary of Bob Dylan on a temporary outside movie theatre), couch surfed with two german guys doing their required social service (i think its a really cool idea that its required to do a year of social service in germany either in the military, within germany, or as these guy's case internationally), saw germany lose to i think Turkey?? and listened to a bunch of german curse words while they were losing. Sibiu is historically a german settlement of sorts and the architecture has lots of german influence and there is a fairly large population of germans there...enough that a lot of signs are posted in romanian and german. Also due to the proximity of hungary there is a large population of hungarians in north eastern romania. After sibiu I made my way to Sinaia where I met my couch surfing hosts from Bucharest for a crazy two night excursion to the mountains! Our first attempt on the trail landed us in front of a mother bear and her two cubs...and so deeming the trail unsafe for the evening camped it in a little grassy area between some houses down in the town and decided to take the gondola up the next day with the other friends we were supposed to be meeting at the top anyways. The next 24 hours proved to be a crazy ass adventure hiking in 20m visibility fog, rain, wind, and cold. After a solid 6 hours of hiking we eventually reached the "cabana" at the top of the mountain which was a primitive cabin with bunks and a limited restaurant. However being hard core campers we put the damn tents up in a break in the rain and camped outside that night. Before bed, however, we went inside cold and wet and had a wonderful and delicious romanian dinner including sausages, beans, bread, the best pickles i've ever had, hot tea (with rum!), and tzwika (I can't find the right 't' to put there so that is spelled phonetically) which is a delicious plum brandy heated up piping hot with cinnamon! absolutely hit the spot! We crashed soon after and did our best to stay warm that night. It probably got just below freezing and my sleeping bag is rated for freezing and I had my thermal undies on and was fairly comfortable the whole night. The next day we were hoping to have good weather and continue our hike to Bran....but when we woke up it was....well....the same.....cold, rainy, foggy, etc so we decided to head 2 hours to another gondola and take it down to this small town. From there we parted ways and I headed to Brasov to couch surf with 2 spaniards and a german all on Arasmus. Good times watching euro cup game with a terrace full of romanians shouting at the television as we watched them lose to Croatia?? Sorry football isn't something I keep up on but I do remember the teams that I was supposed to be rooting for!! haha....Met a couple other Canadian couch surfers at the same host I was staying with and we had great nights of delicious romanian food, a sunset on top of a hill, and hikes to the 'hollywood' style sign that annouced you had reached Brasov....the locals think its a real eye sore and actually tore down the first one....but the city put it back up.Hmmm yes out of order story here....but on my FIRST day in Brasov I actually went to the neighboring town of Rasnov to see the 14th century Citadel. It was built in 1300's to protect the three villages from the invading mongols and eventually the turks and whom ever else attacked the country for the next 700 years. The outside wall has been preserved as well as a few houses and building but i'd say more than 60% of the place is in ruins. Still it had a great little museum with artifacts (weapons tools coins etc) and other tidbits about the area.After Brasov came Victoria, a little communist era town, where I couch surfed with Daniel, this kid who had grown up there and knew the mountains like the back of his hand so i understood. He had another french guy staying with him who was going to climb the highest mountain in romania the next morning (right in the town's back yard) and I had decided to join him....but in the morning it was cloudy and rainy and the mountain was covered clouds/fog....and I thought of my adventure 5 days previous....and said noooo way I know exactly what to expect there and decided to move on. Tried to hitch all the way to Bulgaria the next day but ended up near bucharest around 8pm and decided to call up my faithful couchsurfing friends for a surprise visit for the night. They graciously hosted me again and we went out for beers that night with the two other american couchsurfers they had and we stayed out till 5am drinking beeeers :-)Beer is of a fairly good quality and runs less than 2$ for a half litre for a decent beer....Hmmmm well the next day I hitched to the border, crossed the bridge, and then hitched to Razgrad where I am currently staying with Shaun a peace corps volunteers and for the past two days have been hanging out with peace corps volunteers from the area. Very mixed reviews of peace corps....one guy does nothing all day except read and study bulgarian and is bored out of his mind.....to a girl who is an english teacher and has a full schedule. Yesturday Shaun and his friend took me to a Roma (Gypsy) village to meet one of his kids that he works with. I met his family and they fed us some awesome turkish/romanian food and Shauns friend showed us around the town. The town was pretty poor but with interesting contrasts. For example his friend's family had a washing machine, television, and running water in the house but the toilet was a hole in a shack outside of the house. Also a lot of the villages in the area actually speak turkish as their first language, bulgarian as their second, and then maybe roma or english. Also different parts of the village actually identify themselves as turkish rather than roma (even though they are from Roma decent) but I think everyone spoke turkish.Shaun works with an organization that works with Roma children in helping them with all aspects of life from what i understand. Mostly just working on integrating them into the community. However Shaun faces a lot of problems with the Bulgarians because of his work. There is incredible prejudice here (and all over europe for that matter) against the Roma people and Shaun faces a catch 22 where he is helping the lowest people on the totem pole but is learning bulgarian and trying to integrate himself in the community.Well anyways after out lovely trip to the Roma village we came back for dinner at a fantastic restaurant which involved traditional bulgarian dancing!!! Everyone holds hands and dances in a circle or follows in a train like manner around the restaurant with steps from the simplest to quite complicated steps, kicks etc. They taught me a few of them and we joined in dancing around the restaurant! SOOO much fun!! What a great way to have dinner!! Eating awesome food (and CHEAP) and then getting up and holding hands and dancing around the outside terrace. Such a great time!Today we went to an old roman fortress from like 300BC that still had some walls and pillars standing. There was also a museum with lots of artifacts like bowls and tools and weapons and coins. Such a cool location! We had brought food and had a picnic in the fortress and were talking about how the fortress had been conquered multiple times by people from all over the region and that now we could just walk through what was left of the gate and have a peaceful picnic inside! Tomorrow i'll be heading to another town an hour away or less to stay with another peace corps volunteer and hike to a monastery in the mountains from the first centuries and after possibly to the black sea....we'll see ;-)Anyways thats about it for now!Hope everyone is doing well!dylan
]]> http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/dylanboyle/2/1213140960/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/dylanboyle/2/1213140960/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/dylanboyle/2/1213140960/tpod.html Mon, 09 Jun 2008 21:56:16 -0400 Ok let's see what this world is made of.

Jump to the full
entry & travel map

Cluj-Napoca, Romania

Hello from Romania!Sorry for not starting my blog earlier but if you know me well I'm kind of lazy at starting these things. I'll try to keep you better updated in the future....but no promises.Lets see.... I arrived in Madrid, Spain in mid February with the intention of staying for three months and studying spanish.  I ended up staying about 3 1/2 months (2 weeks over my visa! oops!).  I was studying at a language school in the center of madrid taking an "intensive class" which was 2 hours per day, 5 days per week. I think i speak an intermediate level of spanish now...enough to have a half way decent converstation.I had to leave the Schengen area because my visa was expired and so I chose Romania as my first country outside of the Schengen area to visit.  I have been here for about 2 weeks and have traveled to bucharest, piatra neamt, and cluj (where i am currently).  Tomorrow (today actually) I'll be hitchhiking to sibiu where there is an international film festival and then on to sinaia to meet my friend from bucharest for a three day hike to Brusov to see Dracula's castle and have a few pints of blood! mmmm tasty!So far I have had a wonderful stay in Romania and have found the people to be more than hospitable and friendly (aside from the guy in bucharest who tried to steal my money...bastard....but he said he was from Israel...who knows).  Bucharest was great and my couchsurfing host Dan (and friends) were great and showed me a wonderful time around the city.  Traditional food, lots of beer, walks around the park and an INCREDIBLE street theatre festival!  Piatra Neamt was beautiful with a ride on a gondola, hike in the hills, traditional home cooked VEGETARIAN meal prepared by Aneta who was a Romanian woman who I met in my spanish classes in Madrid.  Her Husband has remained in Madrid but she has returned home.  I have been staying with this wonderful couple's sons Albert and Arthur and they have shown me a great time in their respective cities.  On my way to Cluj I met a young couple on the bus and they were festival organizers that were a part of organization of a biker festival outside of cluj and so instead of making it to Cluj we stopped just outside of it to go to the biker festival! They had invited me along for a free entrance....and so I couldn't refuse a free night of live music and partying with a campground full of rowdy bikers!!The next day I got a ride to Cluj on the back of a racing motorcycle from a guy I met who was camping next to me.  FREAKING awesome! We went sooo fast on the highway....super super fun.Here in Cluj I went to a "funeral" party last night at a cafe that was being closed for health reasons....and last night was the last night it was to be open.  There was a live Gypsy band that played for hours and hours moving around the cafe and people dancing and dancing all night long.  Even after the band was finished a couple locals who had brought their instrument continued to play!  They had a hand drum and I asked if I could play with them and we jammed for at least another hour.   I didn't get back to Albert's play until around 4am...sorry man!Oh and earlier that day I met a fellow couchsurfer Raz who showed me around the city and gave me a personal tour of the Botanical Gardens.  Thanks Raz! Super cool guy.  Him and his girlfriend had traveled around europe for 6 months hitchhiking, couchsurfing and using help exchance (helpx.net) and managed to spend only 400 euros in that time!!!! That is incredible!If you don't know these websites you have to check them out if you want to travel on the cheap and more importantly travel on the alternative routes meeting locals and what not:couchsurfing.comwwoof.orghelpx.netWell we'll see when the next post comes, hopefully in the next week or so.adios from the land of Dracula!
]]> http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/dylanboyle/puerto_rico_06/1142088900/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/dylanboyle/puerto_rico_06/1142088900/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/dylanboyle/puerto_rico_06/1142088900/tpod.html Sat, 01 Apr 2006 10:13:29 -0500 My volunteering experience at the Rainforest Inn, Rio Grande, Puerto Rico 2006.

Jump to the full
entry & travel map

Old San Juan, Puerto Rico

Lea and I joined up with Shane and Genine and went to Old San Juan to party it up! We saw some great music, drank lots of medalla beer, and wandered through the hip night life of Old San Juan. We saw some really cool graffiti stencils and met some cool locals. The coolest bar by far was this one in the alley way. They had three guys jammin' out on their instruments...guitar, bass, drums, keyboard and produces some awesome music. The pictures do a better job of explaining the scenery so check them out, I've put little stories with each photo.
]]> http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/dylanboyle/puerto_rico_06/1143074520/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/dylanboyle/puerto_rico_06/1143074520/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/dylanboyle/puerto_rico_06/1143074520/tpod.html Wed, 22 Mar 2006 19:49:10 -0500 My volunteering experience at the Rainforest Inn, Rio Grande, Puerto Rico 2006.

Jump to the full
entry & travel map

Rio Grande, Puerto Rico

So we had these really cool guests that stayed here! Steve and his wife (sorry can't remember her name :-( ...my bad) came ready to play music! Steve played the fiddle and his wife strummed along on guitar. I decided to jump in and learn and tune and well the following videos are of me and steve rockin' the free world at the rainforest inn! check em out!
]]> http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/dylanboyle/puerto_rico_06/1140534120/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/dylanboyle/puerto_rico_06/1140534120/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/dylanboyle/puerto_rico_06/1140534120/tpod.html Wed, 22 Feb 2006 15:47:04 -0500 My volunteering experience at the Rainforest Inn, Rio Grande, Puerto Rico 2006.

Jump to the full
entry & travel map

Esperanza, Puerto Rico

Welcome to the beautiful island of Vieques!Me and Shane just took a three day biking trip to a small island off of the eastern coast of Puerto Rico. I rode my mountain bike, and Shane rode a single speed bike! He got one hell of a workout to say the least on those hills. I was very thankful for all 24 of my gears.The ferry ride was awesome, and the price you can't beat. $4 to bring yourself and a bike, $2 without a bike! The water was that perfect carribean aqua marine blue, and we passed many small islands and beautiful sailboats along the way. We arrived in Isabel Segunda on friday and began our ride to Esperanza, the only other real town on the island. Esperanza is on the south side of the island, and about a 4+ mile ride. We arrived around 11am, and it was HOT! We sweated out lots of water on our ride across the beautiful island. We first arrived at Sombe (sun bay) and dropped our camping stuff off (we hauled it on our bikes and backs) and went swimming. Shane brought us to this beach where if you walked along the SHARP limestone edge to a peak, you could jump off maybe 10-12 feet into the water! My first "cliff" dive. So after cooling off, we headed towards the bussling town of esperanza. Shane ran into some people he knew there and they told us a good place to camp, so after bumming around for awhile, we headed back to camp to set up our things. Now we weren't supposed to camp where we were, but we tucked ourselves back into some bushes so we couldn't be seen. However, once the sun started setting, these little black nat looking flies came out. OHHH did they piss us off!!! They just landed and started biting, and it hurt! I got completely chewed up by these guys, and came home with over 100 new bites! But they arn't as bad as mosquito bites and are going away pretty quick, but it was definetly an unenjoyable experience!We went back to esperanza and hung out at the local bar, Banana's. It was cool, a little touristy, and pretty expensive, so we grabed a six pack and hid it on the side of the building and just grabed them when we needed them...it was an outdoor bar so we got away with it. We met all sorts of people that night, and befreinded a young married couple and they invited us back to their house to take some showers, so of course we had to accept because we had no access to showers where we were. We ended up staying up pretty damn late that night talking and sharing photos with us and what not.The next day we were a bit tired from our partying and started the day off a little slow. But eventually we found ourselves on a very long bike ride around the western coast. Since the military is no longer occupying the island, that land has been opened up for tourism. We rode our bikes along this one road and happened upon a bunker that was completely dug up,...a pretty crazy scene to see. It was open so we walked in. It was completely full of bats though! I was the first to go in and was immediatly surprised to find 3-4 bats flying around with many many more seen hanging on the ceiling! Our ride took us past the oldest tree on the island too. There should be a picture of it is the photo album. What you can't see in the pictures though, is that the tree was IMPOSSIBLE to climb even though it looked so inviting. Covering the entire tree was these spikes! natural thorns that were incredibly sharp. It made the tree impossible to climb. The beach was very close to this tree and i happened upon these really weird red bugs. It appeared as though some of them were two bugs attached at the butt and one walked forward while the other one walked backwards....totally weird. after our long bike ride we were so tired that day that we hit the sack pretty early. We woke up early the next day and rode back to isabel segunda to catch the one o'clock ferry back to the mainland.We covered a small portion of the western island, but there was still much to be discovered on the island. The whole western side has been converted to a nature reserve and is perfect for bike riding...maybe next time.I think my next trip will be with my girlfriend Lea to culebra, a much smaller island to the north. We will bring some snorkeling equipment too because apparently Culebra has awesome snorkeling! Adios!
]]> http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/dylanboyle/puerto_rico_06/1138925520/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/dylanboyle/puerto_rico_06/1138925520/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/dylanboyle/puerto_rico_06/1138925520/tpod.html Wed, 22 Feb 2006 14:14:19 -0500 My volunteering experience at the Rainforest Inn, Rio Grande, Puerto Rico 2006.

Jump to the full
entry & travel map

Rio Rande, Puerto Rico

So it has taken me over two weeks to start an online travel journal, I apologize for my tardiness. I arrived here at the Inn Jan 15th and have been working ever since. So far I've build a septic system, installed electrical conduit and wiring, cement blocking, as well as helped out with the general maintenance and upkeep of the Inn. There is a lot I've done in my first two weeks here and so I'll try and recap. The past two weeks have been very exciting here. We've had a professional chef and his partner who cooked a wonderful dish for us as well as provided charming conversation and good humor. We just had a violin repair guy staying here and last night we feasted and played music till late at night. We recorded the music for a podcast, which you will be able to hear at RainForestInn.comI have met several members of my extended family, which has been awesome. I am continually amazed as to how well connected my father's side of the family is, and the relationships that have continued through time and space. My second cousin, Indigo, is a great woman and she is teaching me yoga and taking me to the beach and telling me all sorts of great stories like how she has met the Beatles, photographed the Jackson 5, worked as a model, photographer, and other awesome jobs. Her spiritual journey began in 1972 I believe and she went "as Jesus did" and traveled Latin America by hitchhiking with no money, food, plans, knowledge of the language, friends....nothing. Whenever she needed to pass a border or was being harassed by authorities, she would recite from her small vocabulary of Spanish, "no tienen cortezon?" which means, "have you no heart?" She said it got her through a couple interesting times.Jimmy and Ester Humphrey own a dog kennel and have an amazing house...hopefully I'll upload a picture or two of their house. Their two children, Mikey their daughter, and Joss their son, are cool. Mikey is a wizard on the computer doing online journals and personal websites and such, and Joss wants to be an artist and was showing me all his artwork the other night.Andrew and Eon McFadden own a house and a killer piece of property and their view from their house is absolutely amazing. The house and other structures and in their beginning stages, but the house has an incredible amount of potential.The rainforest is absolutely gorgeous here. After a few hours of good work the other day I went hiking up a small stream near the Inn here and sat and listened to the sounds of the rainforest...very serene. The pictures I have uploaded are of my room and my view off the back deck of my room. Completely open to the fresh air and sounds of the forest. Couldn't ask for a better room!Since I am practically broke (especially from paying rent in a house that I'm not even living in in East Lansing, Mi) I am very grateful to have found some short term employment building wooden storm shutters for my...I think he is my third cousin...Andrew. A little beer money and travel money will be great to have.Of course there is a whole lot of other stuff I have done and people I have met, and places I have gone, but I don't have the time to record everything. I want to update this page every so often...maybe twice a week...so that I don't have to recap such a large chunk of time in the future.I have uploaded some pictures in the photo gallery, check 'em out and of course your comments and questions are always welcome and encouraged!
]]> http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/dylanboyle/puerto_rico_06/1137352140/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/dylanboyle/puerto_rico_06/1137352140/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/dylanboyle/puerto_rico_06/1137352140/tpod.html Wed, 22 Feb 2006 14:11:48 -0500 My volunteering experience at the Rainforest Inn, Rio Grande, Puerto Rico 2006.

Jump to the full
entry & travel map

Kalamazoo, Michigan, United States

Well I am off to Puerto Rico to meet a second cousin I've never met! I will be working at the rainforestinn.com for about 4 months as a volunteer. I'm not sure what to expect but I'm excited to get there. This will be my first trip to the Carribean!
]]>