The Bartiski blog

Good bye!

2008-09-07T17:04:00.006+02:00

I think it is time to sort of close this blog. I am tempted to delete it, but will not do that, however I will not post anything new here.

A special somebody motivated me to take up photography more seriously than before. No jokes ;) So I started posting pictures on other sites. If you are interested you can follow the links below: my flickr page, and my fotocommunity page.

And also, if you are interested in the anonymous blog that I was writing during my field mission in South Sudan follow this link: in south sudan.

Good night and good luck!

Cheers,

Pictures from South Sudan

2008-02-06T15:59:00.000+01:00

Sri Lanka

2008-01-11T08:46:00.000+01:00

Here are some older pictures from Sri Lanka that I was always lazy to upload. The pictures were taken in Arugam bay, a school in Ampara district and Nuwara Eliya.

My favourite beach hut

Georgia

2007-07-13T16:21:00.001+02:00

Transnistria

2006-10-23T19:01:00.000+02:00

A tank in one of the main squares of the city.
"For parents" it is written on the tank. A couple of meters away
are the monuments of those who died in the armed conflict with Moldova.

Familiar:)?

We could not guess what is it and did not feel so safe taking
photos of this building. Quite likely it is the headquearters of the Supreme Soviet.

A board for excellent eployees on the wall of a factory.

A Transnistrean shopping centre.

Bilingual: Romanian and Russian, but Romanian
written with cyrillic.

The poster of a democratic party.
I can't help wondering what Che is doing there...

The train station in Tiraspol looks amazing, it was just recently
finished. This is the schedule of the trains.
Too bad that no train ever left the new station:
Transnistria is landlocked between Moldova and Ukraine.

We've visited Transnistria a couple of days ago when we were in Moldova. It is worth to say, that it was quite an experience to be there. When we will have a bit of time, we'll write a short description about how it was to cross a border that doesn't exist and about other interesting experiences in the de facto state.

Garden on the top of the University Library

2006-06-14T17:52:00.000+02:00

These pictures were made at the Warsaw University Library.

Bicycles and canoe

2006-05-13T06:44:00.000+02:00

The church in Wigry

Our "horses"

Swichting means of transport. From now on we are travelling
in a beauty called Ania. Is it a coincidence? :)

Having a morning snack

The Czarna Hańcza is full of swans

"Commercials" on Czarna Hańcza

On the shores of a lake

Diary is coming soon!

Trip in the Tatra mountains

2005-11-06T11:34:00.000+01:00

28 October 2005

In the evening we took an all-night train to Zakopane. The train was quite full, but ok. Unfortunately, the window of our compartment did not close very well, so Ervin got a bit cold. This will have its effects later:)

29 October 2005

We arrive to Zakopane early morning and in front of the station we find a minibus, which is heading to Polana Palenica, exactly where we want to get. No idea anymore about the price of the ticket, but it must have been somewhere between 10-20 zl.

After we arrive to Polana Palenica we start our hiking towards the Dolinie Pięciu Stawów Polskich shelter (a bit long name for a shelter:)). The hiking is not difficult and it should take around 4/4 and a half hours. The shelter is beautifully located on the shore of a small lake called Przedni Staw Polski. The shelter has numerous facilities and you can also sleep here. If you visit this place, remember to try the Szarlotka (apple pie), which is delicious.

After a tea and a bit of looking-around we continue our way to the Murowaniec shelter. We are not in hurry; we enjoy the cold and sunny autumn and the beautiful afternoon. In the meantime, we climb the highest peak of the day, which is the Swinica (2.301 m). It is starting to get dark and we are still not at the shelter, so we made not very correct calculations… We decide against putting up our tent (which, by the way is illegal on the territory of the national park) and continue our way in the darkness, which is a bit problematic because we have only one headlight. It is totally dark, by the time that we reach Murowaniec and seeing the shelter does not make us very happy because it is full of people, who almost drew up all the way. A couple of minutes later it turns out that in the shelter there are no free beds and they offer us a place in the corridor, for around 20 zl. We can pay this amount, but the way that they propose these places (in most shelters sleeping on the floor is free or just some symbolical amount of money) makes us decide to rather sleep in tent. 40 minutes from the shelter, there is a camping for alpinists and we decide to sleep there. We even find a truck, which drives us down. Bumpy ride it was!

In the freezing coldness we put up our tent and we are just happy that we have sleeping bags for extreme temperature (down to minus 12-15 degrees). At night, we are warm and sleep like babies.

30 October 2005

The morning is a bit of a shock: getting out from the warm sleeping bag to the minus temperature, which is outside, is not exactly our favourite.

After we pack out tent, we walk up to the Murowaniec shelter, where we drink tea and continue our hike. From the shelter we head to the Kasprowy Wierch (1.987 m) and along the Polish-Slovakian border, we walk towards Kondracka Kopa. Before reaching Kondracka we descend and reach the Kondratowej Hali shelter, where we will sleep for the night. We look around and rest a bit, and have supper. The shelter is extremely nice, good atmosphere and a typical “mountain guy” owner. There is a common shower and there are two bathrooms and of course hot water, but only around 18.00-19.00.

31 October 2005

We have a good night sleep and in the morning as we look out the window, we see a huge deer grazing grass in front of the house. Later we have breakfast and this is the moment when Ervin feels quite bad and with fever, so we need to decide if we are going to hike today or simply just descend and catch a train to Warsaw. Eventually we decide to go on for one more day and reach the Ornak shelter by late afternoon.

As we start to ascent strong winds hits us, in the beginning, it is very uncomfortable, but later we get used to it. The wind does not stop all day, but maybe this is what made the day special. We climb Kondracka Kopa (2.005 m), Krzesanica (2.122 m) and Ciemniak (2.095 m) and then we start our descent to the Ornak shelter, where we arrive early afternoon. The shelter is huge, but quite empty and Ervin’s theory is that it belongs to Swedish owner:).

The shelter is very nice, with two common showers, bathrooms, and hot water in the evening, but lack the warm atmosphere we experienced last night in the Kondratowa Hala shelter.

1 November 2005

After a goodnight sleep, tea and breakfast we start our way to Zakopane. On the way down, we look into some of the caves, but we cannot go deeper because of our backpack and due to the fact that we have only one headlight.

As we reach the main road, we take a bus, which takes us to Zakopane. In Zakopane, Ervin starts feeling very bad and with high fever, so we rush to a pharmacy and buy enough medicine to last until Warsaw. We get back to the capital around 23.30 and it is needless to say that Ervin will spend the next couple of days in bed recovering from a very stubborn flu.

Acordeon

2005-10-26T09:33:00.000+02:00

During the summer our Finnish friend, Elina was visiting us. We took her to the Old Town in Warsaw and in front of the Palace we saw a very beautiful scene: a man playing on the acordeon while a girl sitting on her sandals was listening the music with closed eyes. Unfortunately we didn't have our camera with us, so Elina took the picture. The picture above was digitally modified by Ervin, meaning some parts were cut out and the image made sepia.

Poland

2005-10-18T12:43:00.000+02:00

The top of a building in Gdansk

Gdansk

In the Malbork castle

Building in Torun

Old Hala in Warsaw

Prozna street, Warsaw

The Wawel

Wedding in the Wawel

Lublin

The pictures above were taken while traveling with friends who visited us in Poland, namely: Attila and Zsuzsa, Michele and Daria.

With Daria and Michele we traveled to Toruń and then to Gdańsk. It is really worth to visit both places. Toruń is a small city with a very nice downtown, which includes the Mikołaj Kopernikus house (Nicolaus Copernicus) which is now museum. Gdańsk is famous in the world because of the Solidarnośc movement, which had a lot to do with the fall a communism in Eastern Europe. If you are there, please visit the Solidarnośc Museum in the Stocznia (shipyard). We did not visit it but according to Daria and Michele, you should not miss it. The downtown of Gdańsk is beautiful, sometimes because of the architecture you might feel like you are in Netherlands or Germany.

The Malbork castle is simply amazing and the direct consequence of this is that the castle is full of visitors. After a while, it might get annoying… So if you can, visit it early morning. When we were there the entrance fee was around 10 euros, but if you have a student card, you can get a discount.

Ervin “escorted” Attila and Zsuzsa to Kraków. It is useless to insist here about the beauty of this city (there are sites that do this “job” better). The pictures were taken in the Wawel.

It is interesting to mention the picture taken in Próżna Street. For a while we lived in this neighborhood and this is how we discovered the street. The territory where the street is used to be part of the Warsaw Ghetto. If you walk down the street nowadays, you will feel like in a time machine because the buildings from that time are still standing and probably they were not renovated at all after the end of the Second World War.

Bicycle trip in Poland

2005-10-18T10:58:00.000+02:00

After we arrived to Kazimierz we found out that there is a
folk music festival going on in the main square.
The following photos were taken with this occasion.

In June, after we bought two bikes we decided to “hit the road” and explore the Eastern part of Poland. Between 25-30 June we were biking mainly in the Lubelskie region, sleeping at night in our tent, at times cooking our own food, but mainly living on maślanka (very similar to yoghurt) and fresh rolls. In total, we did more than 400 kilometers: driving through small villages, talking to people (mainly Ania) and just simply exploring the rural Poland. If you do not like the fact that traveling with car creates a border between you and the outside world, then traveling with bike it is a very good alternative. On the other hand, a bit of physical exercise is always welcomed:).

25 June 2005

At 6.45, we take the train from Warsaw to Puławy where we arrive at half past eight. Of course, the first thing that we do is go and get a coffee. Later we bike to Kazimierz where we leave the bikes at a small shop and we go and explore the city. In the main square, there is a traditional fair along with a folk music contest. We hang around listen to the music and take photos. The atmosphere is great, the people happy and smiley: this is all what we need! Kazimierz is small but very nice and definitely, it has its own atmosphere. After a couple of hours we leave and take a sandy “off-road” which is a bit to much for our bikes, but eventually we make it to Wiklów. Next to Wiklów, we notice that people are picking strawberries in the field so we go there and buy some. These are the best strawberries, which we ever ate! Later we pass through Zagłoba, Łaziska and late afternoon we arrive to Kaliszany where we spend the night in our tent.

26 June 2005

We start the day at 7 and we are on the road by 8. In a rainy weather, we bike through Jozefów, Prawno, Dzierzkowice. In Kraśnik, we stop for a double coffee and try to explore the city a bit, but in this rainy weather, we rather bike on. Late afternoon we arrive to Zdriłowice where we ask a family if we can put our tent on their land. Of course, they agree and when we visit their house to ask for water for tea they show us the real Polish hospitality: sausage and bread on the table along with chrzan (spicy horseradish) and tasty cakes. The daughter of the family gives us quite a “show”: she is singing old Polish songs and playing on the electric org. Strange but funny experience:)!

27 June 2005

After breakfast, we get on our bikes again. We bike through Tokary, Gilów and Nadecznica. The weather is great for biking and it is even a bit sunny. We see amazing landscapes, small quite villages and after Nadecznica, we again buy strawberries from the producer. Yummy! In Szczebrzeszyn (if you are not Polish do not even try to read it:)) we try to find a coffee house but we end up making our own coffee. Early afternoon we arrive to Zwierzyniec, a city with great local and independent beer! We put up our tent in the courtyard of a hostel, eat a bit and then go to the pub of the beer factory. One of the best beers we have ever had! The city is small, but nice and it is a good place to explore the nearby national park.

28 June 2005

We leave the bags in the tent and start to explore the region. We drive through the following villages: Guciów, Krasnobród, Susienec, and Jozefów. On the way back to Zwierzynec, we take a new track and pass through the national park. Ania’s bike is on the verge of breaking down and makes horrible sounds. After we get back to Zwierzyniec, we find a bike repair shop so Ania’s bike recovers. Of course, we close the day in the pub of the beer factory:).

29 June 2005

We pass by Guciów again and have a coffee and a beer at a traditional pub and we start our way to Zamośc. After we arrive, we leave our bikes with a shop assistant and explore the city. Zamośc is full of renaissance wonders and according to urban planning criteria, it is a “perfect city” (just like the downtown of Barcelona). You will find here many coffee houses, restaurants and in general, it is quite touristy. After a couple of hours, we head to Rejowiec Fabryczny from where we supposed to take a train to Lublin the next day. Before it gets dark, we reach Zawody where we put up our tent on the shore of a small lake. The memorable moments of the evening are the cold shower and a can of Zwierzyniec beer:).

30 June 2005

We really have to push hard to make it in time for the train. We arrive just a couple of minutes before the train so we even manage to get tickets. An hour later, we are in Lublin where it is a bit difficult to find the Old City, especially on bike. However, it is really worth the effort because we are amazed by the old part. The architecture is very nice, the atmosphere intimate so we really spend four nice hours in the city. Late afternoon we take a train back to Warsaw.

Morocco: Asilah pictures and diary

2005-10-18T10:11:00.000+02:00

Each year Asilah hosts an international meeting
for artists. During the meeting the artists create
and sometimes they paint all walls in the medina.
This was one of the grafitti (?) which we liked a lot.

Diary: coming soon!

Morocco: Marrekesh pictures and diary

2005-10-18T08:22:00.000+02:00

Entrance to the mellah

Cooks downtown Marrakesh

Restaurants downtown Marrakesh

In the mellah

Diary: coming soon!

Morocco: Sahara pictures and diary

2005-10-17T18:13:00.000+02:00

January 17, 2005

We wake up around 5 a.m., pack our bags and go down to the reception to wait for our ride. In the meantime Mehdi shows up too, so we chat a bit. He is a true example of the Maroccan’s good sense of humor. Our car shows up a bit later: we are a bit surprised that there are already 5 people in the car… How will we fit? Well, minutes later we see that it is possible to fit and (nota bene) it is possible to survive even for 6 hours! Now we really know what does it mean to take a ride in a “grand taxi” :-) Because of a girl who doesn’t take the ride so well, we have to stop 2-3 times, but we are just happy to stretch our legs a bit and take some pictures.

Around 2 a.m. we arrive to Rissani and leave our bags in a shop and go for a walk, but there is not much to see here. When we go back to the shop our driver is still not there, so we have a mint tea with the owner of the shop and we almost buy some jewelry :-) It is quite hard to resist if you start the bargaining game: rarely there is way out!

Eventually our driver shows up and after a 30 minutes ride we arrive to Auberge Lahmada. We can see sand everywhere and the dunes are just 300 meters away. But instead of showing us our accommodation, the owner of the auberge wants to trick us to take a camel ride. We tell him no way, it is too expensive. Let’s just say that we weren’t his favorite clients for the rest of our stay. We decide to stay in tents, probably we won’t have many opportunities to stay in berber tent. The most surprising thing is that in all Morocco you have to pay for each shower, but here on the edge of Sahara the shower is for free!! After a shower and a café au lait we head to the desert. It is amazing to walk, roll down or just lie in the sand. We walk almost for two hours and in the meantime it gets dark. Let’s just say that walking in the dunes in the moonlight can create strange sensations, including orientation problems. But sooner or later we make it back. At night we sleep like babies.

January 18, 2005

We wake up around 9 in the morning and we have breakfast on the roof on the roof of the auberge. Just as usually, we make our own breakfast: we still have fresh vegetables and a lot of bread. After breakfast we drink 4 cafe au lait, so it is a perfect morning!

Around 10 we leave the auberge and we had for the dunes. It is really hard to describe what we see... we hope that the pictures will be able to give back a bit of the beauty that we see here. Warm yellow world, so quiet and so beautiful. Simply no words... Just like in Bertolucci's "Sheltering sky", which by the way, was shot here. We climb the highest dunes and simply the view is amazing. Climbing on the dunes it is very similar to climbing in snow, maybe even a bit more difficult and exhausting. We are in the dunes for six hours and we reach the auberge after 5 in the afternoon. Both of us are phisically good condition, but after several hours in the dunes we are terribly tired. After we get back we cook our food: cous-cous with fish and fresh salad. Later shower and of course again cafe au lait :-) In the evening we go for another short walk and later just sit around and play dices which attracts most of the local guys.

January 19, 2005

On the second morning in the dunes we start again with cafe au lait and later go for another walk in the desert. Before we leave we meet a nice American couple, Barbara and Todd. They are doing a trip around the world and we don't know it yet, but we will travel with them for a couple of days.

Our walk in the dunes is the same great as the day before, though we make it a bit shorter. In the evening we rest a bit, drink cafe au lait and play dices. It is our last night in the dunes, which makes us a bit sad.

Morocco: Fez pictures and diary

2005-10-17T09:21:00.000+02:00

A boy taking the family's bread to a baker

He is the Chef, waiter, manager but also cleaning personnel.
This is a Moroccan restaurant for locals.
Remember: eat where the locals eat and not where the tourists eat!!

A peak through the door of a mosque

Boxing club in the building of a former synagogue

The view from our terrace

January 15, 2005

Foolishly we are in a rush and we jump in the first bus we see. Small mistake. Later we realize that we need to change bus twice to get to Fez. After some nervousness we relax and enjoy the adventure. We change bus in Sauk el Abea and we head to Sidi Kacem. Here we have to wait for half an hour, so Ervin decides to go to the coffee shop near the station. He just wanted to buy two coffees in some plastic cup, but the waiter seems to know how to do things properly. A bit of “arguing” but the waiter is stubborned. So the following happens. Ervin leaves the coffee shop as a gentleman, behind him an extremely elegant waiter in black suit and white shirt carrying on a tray: two caffe au lait in exquisite china, two spoons, and sugar. Ervin and the waiter go through the open air station full of sheep, staring people, and shouting kids. The waiter behaves like he would do this everyday. Maybe he does.

From Sidi Kacem we take the bus to Fez where we arrive after 16.00. We are looking for the medina and eventually we enter to a part of the city which seems quite old. With some help we find a hotel: Hotel Parc. After a long shower we hit the city trying to figure out where are we. We think that we are in the medina, but not quite. Things are not matching. Later we ask other tourists: they say that yes, we are in the medina. But things still don’t match.

On one street we get into conversation with a bit drunk guy: he tells us that he is Jewish and the head of the team which restores the mellah (Jewish district) and could take us for a tour. We agree and five minutes later we are walking on small, dark streets. A bit scary… We bump into some friend of our “guide” and he asks for a donation. He smells alcohol, so no “donation”. Our “guide” says that he will take us to an amazing place. After a couple of minutes we reach a building that does not “promise” much and we enter. The first thing we see is a boxing ring in the middle of the hall, guys and girls training. We are thinking: what is so special here? When we look up we understand: the building used to be a synagogue! The decorations are still visible, in some places there is still some writing in Hebrew, while the place for women is “home” to the couch. We ask our “guide” how he feels seeing this. He says that soon the American Jewish community will buy the building which will be restored as it used to be. We ask the boxers how they feel doing sports in a building which was synagogue. They just shrug shoulders and smile. They don’t care.When the tour ends our “guide” asks for a “donation”. Seeing our doubtful faces he lowers his request to a pack of cigarettes. We buy him Marlboro for 40 dirhams. This means 4 euros!!

We return to our hotel, we sit on the balcony, listen to Maroccan radio and have a nice supper. As we sit we hear the call for prayer. The voice of the muezzin vibrates in the air and for a moment only this voice exists. The sounds of cars, scooters and other noises disapper. Only for a moment.

January 16, 2005

The first call for prayer wakes us up. The sound echoes throughout the empty city. It’s a bit after five. The morning is chilly, so we make a tea and with our blankets go out on the balcony. While we have breakfast we watch how the city wakes up.

Later we hit the road again and try to find the medina. After 2 hours of fruitless tries we “hire” a 6-7 year old kid to take us to the famous tanneries. The kid may be 6-7 but he speaks 4 languages and has all sort of tricks for us. When we start our way to medina we realize that until now we’ve been in the wrong place. We reach the tannery 20 minutes later and pay our small guide: he wants more money, but we just give him the amount that we agreed on before.

The tannery is full of unbearable smells, those who have stomach problems watch out!! After some minutes we get used to the smell so we walk around: the sheep skin is prepared in the same way for the last couple of centuries. It really worth to check out. When we leave the tannery we go to a small workshop where we try to buy a wallet. Eventually we end up buying other stuff too, but they don’t have wallet which could fit our European size money. But that’s no problem! Under our eyes they just make a wallet in the size that we want, with the pattern we choose. In the afternoon we walk around in the medina, take photos and do some small shopping: spices and bread.

When we get back to our hotel, we meet Mehdi, the owner and he tells us that we have a good possibility to reach Sahara the next day. His brother has a small auberge near Rissani and we could do reservations through him. We could leave Fez the next morning with a “grand taxi” which goes to Rissani and from there his brother would take us to the Sahara. We like this idea quite much, so we seal the deal with a cup of mint tea. Ervin buys a huge tuareg scarf which might come handy in the desert. We hit the bed late in the night thinking about the yellow Sahara.

Morocco: Chefchaouen pictures and diary

2005-10-15T10:09:00.000+02:00

January 6, 2005

At four in the morning we started our trip from Gyergyoszentmiklos (in Romanian: Gheorgheni). Around half past eight we arrived at the train station in Brasov from were we rushed to the bus station which is in a different part of the city. Here we waited for a bit more than half and hour until our bus arrived from Bucharest. After “boarding” we started our long way to Spain from where we planned to cross to Morocco.

January 7, 2005

Early morning we had some problems at the Romanian-Hungarian border, while the rest of the day passed more or less eventless: watching American movies dubbed in Spanish, listening to “manele”. Somewhere in Austria during a stop we met a Polish truck driver. We were long planning to hitchhike through Spain, so here was our best opportunity to ask for some valuable advices. He suggested that we should go to La Jonquerra, which is very closed to the Spanish-French border, though a couple of kilometers from the highway. Here, he said, we will find many truck drivers heading south and definitely we will find somebody who would take us.

January 8, 2005

Early morning we arrive to the Spanish town of Figueres. We found transport to La Jonquerra, but we have a couple of hours to wait, so we go around the city and buy a Camping gas cartridge. Figueres proves to be an unexpectedly charming city with helpful and friendly people, small streets and a nice open-air market.

Around 12.00 we leave for La Jonquerra, where we arrive after half an hour. We are amazed by the number of the trucks: there are at least 3-4 huge parking lots in the town and more thousands of trucks. Looks like this is the main income for the town. We start going around and asking drivers for advices. Of course, first we look for Polish, Hungarian or Romanian drivers: maybe speaking the same language will help.

Eventually we find a Polish driver who takes us to the biggest parking lot and here we start looking for somebody who could take us South. We spend 3-4 frustrating hours with no result. We are getting more and more tired, but then Ania notices a Polish truck. It turns out the Artur, the driver, is going until Valencia and he would take us. The happiest moment of today!! Half an hour later we get into his truck and start our way to Valencia. Ania talking and Ervin just listening and sometimes sleeping. Artur is from Lublin and it turns out that he knows a lot about Spain, about the season of picking tangerines and oranges and so on. So we spend good time in his truck. The best is when he plays on his stereo good old Polish rock.

Around 20.00 we pass by the city of Barcelona and we stop at a gas station. Here Artur has to take his compulsory rest, so we decide to put our tent in some bushes near the gas station. We fall asleep exhausted, since we barely slept in the last 3 days. We wake up around 23.00, we are freezing and trying to rush the night to pass. Around 24.00 the coldness is almost unbearable and then Ania “jumps” into Ervin’s sleeping bag. This seems to help and we actually fall asleep again.

January 9, 2005

We cannot take the cold anymore, so we get up a bit after four, we pack the tent and get ready to go. First we go to a restaurant where we have hot morning coffee and it feels like heaven. Artur supposed to get up a bit after six, but we start our trip only after seven. Again beautiful landscape, interesting infos from our driver and early afternoon we reach the place where Artur and we depart. We are trying to hitchhike for a couple of hours, but without much success. People with caravans and going to Morocco pass us by and they tell us that they don’t have any place in the car…

Eventually a car stops and three Spanish youngsters with a very broken English try to explain that we have no big chances to get a ride from here. They offer to take us to a small city from where we can take train to Valencia and then a night bus to Algeciras. We are already exhausted, so we take on their offer. In the afternoon we arrive to Valencia, we get our tickets for Algeciras. Then we walk a bit around the city, which seems very nice. Later in the park we see two Muslim homeless men drying their clothes. Later they turn towards Mecca and start praying. It is amazing to see how they do the ritual cleaning before praying with imaginary water… we are just speechless.

Late afternoon we head to the bus station and get on our bus. In the last three days reaching Algeciras seemed almost like a “mirage”… but now we are on our way!

January 10, 2005

Early morning we arrive to Algeciras. We try to look for the cheapest ferry, but they are almost all at the same price, except the fast ferries. Around nine we get on board and we are almost burning with excitement. We spend most of the time on the deck and we are just waiting finally see the shores of Africa.

At half past 11 we reach the port and finally put a feet on African ground. We were a bit worried about the hustlers in the port, but a couple of “Non, merci” is good enough and we rush to the bus station. We hope that our bus, which supposed to be at half past eleven is still there… A kind policeman tries to trick us: he tells us that the bus station is far and we need to take a cab, but we find out that the station is just a 5 minute walk away. If you will be in the same situation, don’t let yourself be cheated!!

We arrive at the station and our bus is still there! It is a bit confusing how they handle our luggage, but eventually we get everything right and get on the bus. The first surprise is that the bus has air conditioning and is extremely comfortable. Back then we didn’t know that CTM has the most luxurious buses.

We forget all our tiredness as we drive through Tanger and later the countryside. Everything seems so strange and new at the same time. The bus ride takes 3-3,5 hours and finally we arrive to our first destination, Chefchaouen. We find our way to medina quite fast, and using our guide book we try to locate some hostels. Usually we don’t have orientation problem, but in the medina the map seems useless. Everybody wants to talk to us, take us to a good hostel or offer us a smoke (meaning: marijuana. It is good to know that the Rif mountain region is a small heaven for marijuana growers). The stalking gets quite irritating, the backpacks heavy and we just want to find our hostel. Eventually we bump into a Canadian guy (whose name we don’t remember) who takes us to Ibn Batuta hostel. The conditions are not the best (especially the bathroom), but we get a double room for 50 dirhams and we have access to the terrace (in Morocco and in other Muslim countries the roof is used as a terrace). We unpack, take a shower and head to discover the medina.

After a couple of minutes of walking around we are simply stunned and dazzled by the beauty of the medina. The city has an interesting history: it was founded by Jews and Muslims, whom had to escape from Spain. In the beginning of the 20^th century when Spain conquered this part of Morocco, the Spanish soldiers were amazed to find that in the city most of the inhabitants still spoke an old form of Castellano. The mixture of the Muslim and Jew architecture and culture created a town with a unique atmosphere. Almost all the house are painted in a shade of blue, the small streets make up an interesting and in the beginning confusing labyrinth, which finally lead to bigger squares. We just fall in love at the first sight with this small town.

Our walk ended in the “Dalia Snack Bar”, which is not really snack, neither bar. The Lonely Planet guide writes that here you can find good hamburgers, but this is not true. Here you can find amazing home made Moroccan food. The place is not fancy and it has only 2-3 tables, but we follow the rule “Eat where the locals eat” (they know why they eat there!) or at least we try to eat in places which look a bit more local. Going to a fancy place only for tourists can be an unpleasant experience.

So, returning to “Dalia”: the owner only speak French, but he is extremely friendly (in the positive way). We want to eat tajine, but he tells us that making a real tajine takes at least three hours, so if we will come back tomorrow we can try his wife’s tajine. So we eat kefta, which is great and indulge ourselves with two cups of “café au lait”. Later we buy bread, cheese, dates and orange and after nine we go back to our hostel and we almost literally pass out of tiredness.

January 11, 2005

We wake up after 11 and eat our breakfast on the roof. Amazing bread, home made cheese, freshly picked orange and olives: these are the ingredients of our first Moroccan breakfast. Our laundry was just piling up in the last couple of days, so we are looking for some solution… the Canadian girls at the hostel tell us about a place where the Muslim women wash clothes. The girls also tell us that a couple of days ago, a guy (obviously tourist) was washing clothes and all the Muslim women were laughing at him. So Ervin decided to walk Ania to the “washing club”, but decided not to take part in the activities. Of course, all this for understandable reasons.

The local women in the beginning look quite suspiciously at Ania, but when she takes out Ervin’s trousers to wash, one of the younger girls who speak English asks her: “Your man’s?”. When Ania answers with yes, all the women start nod their heads and smile: “So all these stories of women emancipation in Europe are a lie”, they are thinking.

When we are returning to our hostel with the clean clothes, we are “kidnapped” by a carpet seller. He takes us to his shop and what is amazing is that we simply are not able to refuse. He kissing us almost all the time, showing carpets and blankets. Of course we don’t want to buy anything, but eventually we end up buying a blanket. The original price for the blanket was 1200 dirhams, but we manage to bargain it down to 420 dirhams. Though is still not sure that we made a good deal.

At least we have a good initiation on how to bargain in the Muslim world. Bargaining is a rule here ! But be careful: if you really don’t want to buy anything, don’t even enter the bargaining “game” because then you will end up buying something!

After getting back to our hostel, we walk around the medina and take pictures and later we do shopping outside the medina. Next day we are planning to go for a couple of days hiking in the Rif mountains.

Early evening we go back to “Dalia” and have a great tajine and cous-cous. It really worth to try it!!

January 12, 2005

We get up at 7 in the morning and we pack for our trip probably waking all our neighbors… Sorry! We struggle a bit with getting out of the town because there are no marked paths and we try to “navigate” by using the Lonely Planet guidebook. Eventually we find the right 4WD road and our ascent begins. We are not beginner climbers, but the full backpack, the burning sun and the non-stop 1200 meters ascent simply is more than exhausting. Yesterday we were thinking that this will be an easy hike, but clearly we underestimated the mountain. After noon we reach the top and from there it seems a lot easier. On the way we pass by small Moroccan villages with only two-three houses and people living in extremely harsh conditions. Of course, everybody offers us a “smoke”. In the late afternoon we reach another small village called Azilan, here we could find accommodation with excellent conditions, but the price is too high. We try to bargain, but for some strange reason bargaining doesn’t work now. We decide to go to the next small village, called Afeska.

At the first house in Afeska we ask for some bread. When the young girl understands us, she goes inside the house and brings out a half bread. It is obvious she took it from their own… but she simply doesn’t want to take any money. Later the mother arrives, but she also refuses to take money. We are simply amazed by the poverty this family lives in and even then they don’t hesitate in sharing their own bread without taking anything in return. Then we pull out stickers and pencils from our bag and we hand them to the kids.

We cannot find accommodation, so we are ready to put up our tent next to a small football ground. We make some tea and take a rest before putting up our tent. But we get company quite soon: Hameed joins us and he wants to rent a room in his house. Since the weather is getting chilly and we remember the frozen streams which we saw before, we decide to take on the offer. With a bit of bargaining we manage to go down from 100 to 50 dirhams, so we start our way to Hameed’s house. He walks fast and we are struggling to keep up with him, but at times he has to wait for us. When we arrive to the house he asks us to wait outside and he rushes in to clean the room. After some strange noises the door opens and we are invited in: the room has a low ceiling, two beds, a table and a lot of blankets. While Hameed disappears we draw the conclusions: it looks strange and it smells funny, but still better to be inside then outside. We prepare fresh mint tea and then Hameed joins us again and we start our long and difficult conversation: we speak a bit of French and Spanish while Hameed a bit of Spanish and Berber. Regardless the language problem our communication seems to be ok and we find out Hameed’s story: he is 23, father of two kids and his family is living in Chefchaouen while he lives here, takes care of the animals and does business. What kind of business? – we wonder but when he offers us a “smoke” we realize what business. His brother is living in Spain, somewhere in Ibiza and selling marijuana. In Hameed’s eyes the brother is living the high life and as soon as he will get a visa he will join him. After three “smokes” Hamees is quite wasted so he leaves us.

Outside is already dark and silent and we see the most amazing sky: we spend more than half an hour just “exploring” the starts and then we hit the bed.

January 13, 2005

Outside is freezing so it was good decision to stay inside. Hameed brings us coffee and after we pack we tell him bye and hit the road again. We are walking on small paths, river beds and all the time checking the map since in the Rif mountains there are no marked tracks. The Lonely Planet guidebook warns that we shouldn’t use the map for navigation purposes, but we have no other choice. We pass by small villages where we give away stickers and pencils (it’s a pity that we don’t have any pens…). The hiking is not hard, rather finding the good track is stressing.

Eventually around 17.00 we arrive to Akchour and we head to the first restaurant. We are not happy meeting a group of shiny and pinkish Spanish tourists who just came here with a minibus… We are quite tired we order a soup and we get into conversation with some locals. They tell us that in 15 mins a minivan is going back to Chefchaouen and we might go along. After 5 mins of “family council” we decide to go back.

We arrive at Chefchaouen early evening, wee check in at Ibn Batuta and after shower we go for a walk. We feel like at home!

January 14, 2005

We get up around half past seven and for more than one and a half hour we walk around observing things, taking photos, trying to have some conversations. It is fascinating how the town wakes up, how the shops open and soon the small streets of the medina will be just a river of people. At approximately 9 the “Dalia Snack Bar” opens and we start a day with a double “caffe au lait”. Probably the caffe au lait and the pastry products are among the few good things that French left. If you have possibility start your day with a “caffe au lait”! Obviously, the best is when done with espresso and hot milk. Try it!

After breakfast we go to see the “modern” part of the city and we also check our bus to Fez. We just hand out all day walking, doing some laundry and in the evening again we are at “Dalia” where we eat tajine, drink three caffe au lait and play dices. Before we leave we say bye to our guy and we go for a “good bye” walk.

The Danube Delta

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We've visited the Danube Delta at the end of September. It was quite off-season and quite cold but it was a nice experience. First we went there with a Polish friend but eventually she had to leave earlier but we hang around for two more days.

From Bucharest we took train to Tulcea where we arrived late evening. At the station we met a lady who offered us acomodation. Next day around 11 we took a boat to a village called Mila 23, which is more and less in the heart of Delta. After a two hour ride we've arrived, put up our tent and took a walk. It was interesting to see how water defines everything here: if you want to go to your neighbour you don't jump in car or take your bike but take a boat. Next day we rented a small boat and it was hard to get used to how to row. Ervin made a fool of himself, meaning: the locals were laughing at his new (?) technique (?) of rowing. Later things got better and we actually got used to be in a boat. We went to small channels and lakes where just floating you could observe a lot of birds. We are not really specialists, but our favourites were the pelicans. After all day in the boat on the sun a couple of beers went down easily! And we also needed some strong spirit to take the cold night. Next day we took boat at 5.30 a.m. and from Tulcea we took train again.

It is good to know that the Delta is called the "lung of Europe" and it is a UNESCO World Heritage Site. The site is home to more than 300 migratory and bird species.

The Romanian mountains

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Autumn in Piatra Craiului

On the terrace of the Curmatura shelter

Mountain goat in Fagaras mountains

The Caltun refuge

The Avrig lake

The best climbers

Romania's highest point - the Moldoveanu peak, 2544 m

The Podragu lake along with the shelter

Near the Vistea refuge

On the way to Romania's third highest peak (Omu)

The Romanian Sphinx

While we lived in Romania we used every opportunity to "escape" the hot Bucharest and go to the mountains. Together we climbed in three mountains: Bucegi, Fagaras and Piatra Craiului. Out of these three the Bucegi mountains are the most crowded, Fagaras is the biggest and perhaps the most wild. Piatra Craiului is simply amazing especially in the autumn.

The Bucegi mountains are beautiful but a bit crowded because of the cable-car which functions between Sinaia and the Omu peak. Near the peak you can find people eating chips, drinking coke and partying in their brand new training trousers and white sweatshirts, so if you climb up it is not very rewarding to see those who took the easy way. A good alternative is to start your hiking from Busteni and head towards the Malaiesti shelter. The hike might take 6-7 hours so you can rest for night in the shelter but you can also use your tent. No need to get scared but at times there could be bears around the shelter. The shelter looks very nice and probably you will get a friendly welcome. Next morning you can head to the Omu peak, the track will be quite easy. Before you get to the peak you will spot a shelter in an amazing place. The shelter is called Caraiman but unfortunately the guys who own it are not the nicest. If you want to sleep in the shelter you might end not sleeping at all because of parties. Here you cannot use your tent. The Caraiman shelter might seem heaven if you start you hike from Busteni and head directly to the shelter: the track is quite hard especially in rain. The Bucegi mountains are nice but if you want the "real thing" maybe choose the Fagaras mountains.

The Fagaras mountains
We climbed in the Fagaras mountains three times. Each time we were simply amazed. Those who have been there know why. We hope that the pictures show at least a bit the beauty of these mountains.
When we climbed in the Fagaras for the first time we started early morning from a small city called Avrig. By early afternoon (or maybe it was noon?) we reached the Barcaciu shelter where put put up our tent and went to explore the surrounding, including the Avrig lake. The shelter has very nice owners and it is located in a beautiful place. Next day again we started early and we wanted to climb the Negoiu peak (third highest) and make it to the Balea lake. Our calculations proved to be too optimistic. The track from the Barcaciu shelter is easy in the beginning but later it turns harder and quite slow. Unless you are very experienced, don't try this track in rain or snow: it might be fatal. There are huge rocks over rocks, like some giant would have played Lego. Early afternoon we made it to the Negoiu peak which was quite a reward. We realized that we won't be able to reach Balea on the same day so we headed towards the Caltun refuge, which is amazingly located. To our surprise we met here quite an international crowd: Czechs, Slovaks and Polish. Next day in 2-3 hours we reached Balea: going down to the lake and see the tourists who drove here with buses was was quite of a shock.
Other times we started from Victoria. One good advice: if you start from Victoria head to the Turnuri shelter, and from there to the Podragu lake. The other track is exhausting: in the beginning there is barely some elevation but later in the day you need to climb 1.100 m in altitude. From the Podragu lake/shelter the Moldoveanu peak is quite close (2 hours). In the Fagaras mountains we always slept in our tent, so we don't have much experience with sleeping in shelters, nevertheless we would recommend the Turnuri shelter. The owners are extremely nice, the place is very "homeish" and it is well located. The Podragu shelter is also very well located, but probably this is the only positive thing about it. In case that you get stuck around the Moldoveanu peak, it is good to know that on the Eastern side of the peak you can find a small refuge called Vistea. It is very basic: four walls, a roof, and some place where you can put your sleeping bag (the capacity is around 20 persons). We spent in tent one night next to the refuge. All night we had storm and lightings but we stood it bravely. Our courage lasted until 5 a.m. when we decided to leave our tent and make a run for the refuge. Because of the heavy storm, clouds and rain we didn't see the refuge at all even if we were 40 m from it. We were never so happy to be under a roof!
In short, if you prefer remote places, scary rocks, beautiful green then Fagaras are your mountains.

The Piatra Craiului mountains
We were only once in Piatra Craiului, middle of October 2004. We started from Zarnesti and it was a bit hard to find the track going out from the city. After a couple of hours we reached the Curmatura shelter. We thought that it will be too cold to sleep in tent so we rented a room for two persons in the shelter. The room was simple and great: two beds, a fireplace and a table. It was so good to listen at night the fire burning and watch the shadows on the wall. The couple who runs the shelter are very nice and the food is also very good. Next two days we were just hiking without backpack and coming back each night to the shelter. On the forth day unfortunately we had to head back to Bucharest.

Some advices. In general Romania and the Romanian mountains are cheap for the budget of a "Westerner". Cheap but there are a lot of amazing places that you can visit. If you head to the mountains you should get yourself a good map even if the tracks are well marked. The standards of the shelters are below the EU standard, meaning: you won't have shower and bathroom inside the shelter. But if you can get over these small inconveniences a great experience is waiting for you! Just write us if you need advices.

Bucharest

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During 2004 we lived in Bucharest. We fell in love with this city. Most of our friends hate it, would never move there. We also understand their point of view.

Bucharest is beautiful and ugly, sometimes is gentle at times harsh, you can love it and hate it. Probably loving-hating is a lot stronger than just loving or liking. At the end of 19th and at the beginning of the 20th century Bucharest was called "little Paris". It really deserved this name: almost all middle class was speaking French, at times even French was preferred over Romanian. Amazing buildings are all over Bucharest and speak of a time when this city was a pearl. Thanks to the communist rule many old buildings and churcher were destroyed and instead of them block of flats rose like mushrooms. If you look carefully you can still discover the "little Paris", but in decay. The corroding arhitecture of old buildings, the streets transport you in a different time. As one of our American friends put it: "Bucharest is similar to an Indian city."

If you've read the works of Mircea Cartarescu or Mircea Eliade you understand all this.

These pictures weren't taken to give an objective image of Bucharest. This pictures rather serve the purpose of showing a "different" Bucharest with its "different" inhabintants.

If you visit Bucharest as a tourist you might not like it. But if anyway you decide to go there simply write us and we can give some advices.

The pictures above were taken by Ania.

About us and about this blog

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Welcome!

This is a blog dedicated to travelling and photography, two of our big passions. On this blog you will find diaries of our travels along with photos.

We are Ania and Ervin, husband and wife. Ania is Polish while Ervin is Hungarian but born in Romania. We've met in 2003 in Zagreb, later Ania spent half a year in Azerbaijan and Ervin in Slovenia. In the beginning of 2004 we got married and lived for almost one year in Bucharest, Romania. Currently we live in Warsaw, Poland.

Both of us graduated law and work with refugees. We dream of working in the field somewhere in Asia or Africa. Maybe this is the reason why we are not so fascinated by the developed Europe.

Hope you'll enjoy the stories and the photos!

Ania and Ervin