Motofone Motofun

Simplify simplify simplify. If Thoreau really wanted to be simple, why did he say it three times? I think once would have simply sufficed.

I got a new cell phone this week. Actually, my roommate got it for me while I was at school, but she made a very good and interesting choice. I got the Motorola Motofone f3, which I don't think is available in the U.S. It was apparently made for the "harsh conditions" of sand and rain storms of India (or something like that).

How does a new phone and Thoreau belong in the same post, you ask? This particular phone seems to be made for technological morons like myself; you know, the people who need simple. When I first looked at it, it seemed pretty high tech because it's really thin and sleek looking (see pictures). Then I turned it on and saw things I hadn't seen since the pre-Window / pre-Wii days of DOS and Atari. It is extremely basic, which actually makes it kind of cool. The display is some sort of technology that never turns off but doesn't take any battery (I don't remember what it is called), so the standing battery life is roughly 300 hours, or 12 days--obviously it won't last that long if you're using it, but I don't have too many people to call these days! For anyone who remembers my phone woes of the summer with my phone that only lasted about 30 minutes before dying, you'll know just how happy I am to be the owner of a phone with such a long battery life.

The menu has exactly 6 choices--send message, read message, call history, change ringtone, set alarm, and change time. The choices are all pictures--there is no actual writing on the phone anywhere--and, once I figured out how to set the phone to English, it began announcing things to me with a wonderful British accent. There are 7 ringtones and no way to download more. There is only one line of text display (good motivation to keep text messages short!). There is no camera, no games, no calendar, no calculator, no to-do list, no mp3 player....In short, it's a stark contrast to the phone that most of us have been or are carrying around, but the features that it's lacking are things I never used anyway. Here's a pretty cool little interactive site that shows its simplicity (might be interesting to technology lovers).

All the instructions were in Hungarian, but I found an English copy online, so I've figured out most stuff, but there are just a few things I still don't get, so I think I'll make a trip to the T-Mobile store tomorrow and ask. Anyway, I love the concept of making a nice-looking phone really simple.

Here's some other pics that show you the size (I got them on the internet and I have no idea whose hand that is!):

Zagreb--Takes One and Two

I realized today that I hadn't yet posted any pictures from Zagreb, so here's a couple items of interest. Since Zagreb was on the way to the rest of Croatia, I ended up there twice, neither time really doing it justice. The first time I didn't see much besides the train station and the bus station and the road in between. The second time I arrived at 5 a.m., took the whirlwind tour of the city, then got on a train again at 7:30 a.m.

In this picture I'm in front of the Zagreb train station with my new Korean friend Ji-hyun. If you're not sure if she's really Korean, just look at her fingers...it's a dead give-away. She was really cool...lives in Russia right now. To my knowledge, she is the only Korean I've met who speaks Russian, so congrats to her!



I know you're thinking that this is a photo I slipped in from home (or maybe you're wondering why in the world I put it up here)...it is actually Croatia somewhere between the city and the coast and blurred a little by the bus window. I just thought it was so strange how much it looked like Nevada, so I snapped a shot as we were going along.


There was very little going on in Zagreb at 5:00 a.m., but I did find the big market where they were already setting everything up. This was the coldest it had been in Croatia, so I'm wearing just about every item of clothing I had taken with me--I think I have on 4 shirts.


This really non-exciting picture is the big town square. The only real bit of interest is the horse statue that you might be able to see if you zoom in, and I can't even really tell you anything about that. I thought that I read somewhere that this square was the 2nd largest in Europe (behind San Marco in Venice), but I couldn't find where I'd read that, and now that I think about it, that can't possibly be true and I'm not even sure why I would have thought that. Maybe I was reading about somewhere else...or maybe it's the largest in southeastern Europe...not sure...

Okay. I have just done a little "research" and confirmed that the whole 2nd largest thing is pure bunk, but at this link I did find out some other interesting things about the square, as well as some much much better pictures.

First Day of School

So today was my first day of class at CEU (pictured at left). Everything went pretty well, but I probably should have figured out some of the stuff last week when I had some free time because there were some very confusing moments today.

For example, I picked up my "readers" (which I assumed were the "texts") last week, but apparently you have to read things from the copied-and-spiral-bound readers--which, by the way, probably break all sorts of copyright laws--AND you have to read things from textbooks, which you check out in the library. (Needless to say, I didn't have my assignments read for today.) I tried to go in the library this morning, but was told I could not take my book bag into the library. Seriously...you can't take a book bag into a LIBRARY? Anyway, I later discovered that I got my own locker in the school and just had to go pick up the key, so that solved that problem. I also wondered how 40 students would be sharing one textbook in the library, until I was able to actually get into the library and found that it's kind of like elementary school/high school where they have a whole class copy in the library and you can check one out for the entire semester. Works for me!

I should have checked the classrooms, also. When I went to find my classrooms, I found they had funny codes, but no key, and no real pattern. So it would say: MB/202 ("Main Building"--I didn't realize that there was one main building); N11 ("Nador 11"--the address of the building); etc. I guess it makes as much sense as JSB, MARB, RB...

Also, no one here uses laptops, which is a good thing since each classroom only has 3-4 power outlets. And when I say outlet, I mean a spot for one plug, not two. One professor actually told us we're not allowed to take notes--instead, only one person is allowed to take notes each day and that person is supposed to distribute the notes to the entire class. I'm not sure how I feel about that...I kept itching to write stuff down through the whole class...especially when I knew something was important and I looked over at the designated note-taker for the day and he wasn't writing ANYTHING! I know I'm going to get his notes and there are going to be only like 10 words. I guess everyone is in the same boat.

Classes all last 2 hours each, and I had 4 classes today. The schedule changes from day to day and week to week--it all depends when the professor is available. I guess most professors have other jobs. So, for example, I have one class where I meet everyday this week and everyday next week, but then only one day the week after that, etc. I think I have 34 hours of class this week, the same the next week, then only 12 hours or so for the following weeks.

The most difficult part of the day was switching my ears between accents. As soon as I'd get used to one, someone else would start talking and I couldn't understand a thing until my ears adjusted 30 seconds later and they were done talking. I guess I'll get used to it. In my last class today there were 19 people and I wrote down where people were from as they introduced themselves. The 19 people (including myself) came from: United States, Sierra Leone, Poland, Brazil, Estonia, Israel, Nigeria, India, Argentina, Romania, Pakistan, Azerbaijan, and Ethiopia. Fun.

The professors seem cool so far, although one of them either has no idea how offensive she is or doesn't care. Oops...I gave away that it's a she. Well, she seems very brilliant, but she had no shame in telling people with thick accents (quite rudely) that she couldn't understand a word they were saying, telling people their questions were stupid and they were apparently not listening (when she wasn't the easiest to understand herself), and making other similar comments. I mean, it was the kind of stuff that would make you self-conscious for life. I'll just keep my spot in the back...

I should be studying right now, but I'm wasting time watching a High School Musical concert on a German Satellite TV station. It's great...except there's a stand-in for Zac Efron.

25 Cents Short

If you ever travel to Croatia, be forewarned: there are NO public restrooms (that I found anyway). In general, you can count on a free and relatively clean restroom at McDonald's or Burger King, but neither of these exist in Croatia--okay, well, they may exist, but I didn't see any outside of Zagreb.

The bus stations have pretty clean restrooms for which they charge 3 Kuna per use--roughly 58 cents. I have no problem paying to use a restroom with toilet paper where I don't have to hold my breath the entire time I'm inside.

Near the end of my trip to Croatia I was waiting at the bus station in Dubrovnik with a 10 hour bus ride ahead of me (7 p.m. to 5 a.m.). I have to preface this dilemma....Once I was on the bus, I knew that getting off would be risky business--they don't make any announcements on the bus in English, so you don't know if they are stopping for one minute for the driver to have a smoke, or if they are stopping for 20 minutes--especially at night. After seeing a Canadian girl almost get left at a rest stop in Bosnia at 3 a.m., there was no way I was getting off of that bus until we were safely in Zagreb. Thus, I thought it would be wise for me to use the restroom before getting on the bus and being deprived of the opportunity for 10+ hours.

By the time I was at the bus station, I had amazingly spent nearly every Kuna I had...after paying to get my backpack out of the luggage storage, all I had left was 1 Kuna and 70 lipa (100 lipa is a kuna)--33 cents. Simple math shows that I was 1 Kuna and 30 lipa short of a restroom ticket (yes, they actually give you a ticket, and I'm not sure why...you give the lady your money and she gives you a ticket that you just put in your pocket and never use for anything--I guess it is a souvenir of the bus station restroom). I tried to show the restroom lady that I didn't have enough money but I needed to use the restroom, but she seemed to have lost any sympathy for my type long ago. Hmmm....my options were slim. I didn't want to use the ATM because I didn't need to buy anything else in the country and my bank charges a $5.00 fee every time you use a foreign ATM, so then the 58 cent bathroom trip would be turning into a $5.58 bathroom trip (more actually, because you can't just get 25 cents out of an ATM, so I would have gotten more, then inevitably spent it somehow) and that seemed like a bad option by principle alone. I was actually desperate enough to go around and check the return slots and underneath of all the pay phones and vending machines--nothing.

I was about to resort to the ATM, when I remembered that I had some Hungarian forint in my bag, so I went to the exchange counter at the station and told the girl I wanted to exchange 200 forint (the smallest bill--about $1.15). She looked at me like I was crazy and asked if I was sure that was all I wanted. I said that it was and she gave me 5 Kuna and 33 lipa...adding that to my 1 Kuna and 70 lipa, I had enough to use the restroom there AND at the bus station when I arrived in Zagreb!

Pros and Cons of Traveling Alone

After traveling alone quite a bit over the past year--be it by plane, car, train, bus, or ferry--I've compiled in my head some of the pros and cons of traveling alone, and I thought I'd try to put them down here. I feel like I should note that I realize that, depending on how you look at it, many of the pros could be cons and the cons could be pros.

PROS:

• You go where you want to go
• You do things when you want to do them
  
• You talk to and meet lots of interesting people that you probably wouldn't meet if you weren't alone (this may be the biggest pro)---In Vienna and Croatia I met really cool people everywhere I went...locals, Americans, Koreans, Japanese, Israelis, Canadians...
  
• You never have to carry anybody else's stuff
• You learn to do lots of things that you may have otherwise relied on others to do, such as:
  
• read maps (never been a strong point of mine) and schedules
  
• rent a car
• buy train, bus, plane tickets
• be in the right place at the right time--not necessarily true when it comes to ferries :)
  
• use public transportation
• get out of tough spots and just generally figure stuff out
  
• You get good at spotting great places to set your camera to get a timer shot
  
• You learn a lot about yourself--how you react in situations when no one else is around to see your reaction, for example
  

CONS:

• You have to make all the decisions alone
  
• You end up with lots of people-less pictures and extreme close-ups (product of the extended-arm-shot)
• You can't share the cost of a hotel room
• It's not very fun to go to a restaurant alone
• There are so many moments that can't be captured and you want to share with someone else--it's kind of sad when you have no one to share the memory with
  
• There are some things you just can't do because it's not very safe, like going out when it's dark or hiking in more remote areas...this is obviously more of a concern for girls
• Sometimes you just need someone to talk to who you know you can trust
  

Anyway, this is just the start of a list--there are lots of other things that could go on here as well. I tried to keep the lists pretty even because I don't mean this to be a biased post one way or the other. If you've ever traveled alone, I'd love to hear your additions to the list :)

Favorite Croatian Tourist Pamphlet Quotes

I swear that I am taking these word for word:

1. "The island's other renowned cottage industry is lace making. Since, once upon a time, there was nothing better for the women of Pag to do than keep an eye on a few sheep, watch salt dry and wait for hubby to come home with the day's catch, they kept idle thumbs at bay by lace-making. Over the centuries they evolved a style so ethereal that it is considered one of Croatia's most highly prized products."
   
2. "The market's been here since the Middle Ages, but the large open space dates back to WWII, when many buildings were flattened in this part of town....Little old ladies sell home made olive oil, rakija and cheese."
3. "To one side [of the forum] a 'Pillar of Shame' still stands, where naughty people were chained and pilloried."
   
4. "No signs forbid you to touch or sit on the stones [in the old Roman forum]. Take time one evening to sit and imagine the bustle of the traders, the grandeur of the pagan temples and the horrors of the blood sacrifices that took place on the very altars you can see on this spot." no thanks
5. "Gotham: Decked out in futuristic Batman style, a complex including a cafe, club and the only cinema we've seen that gives you cushions. Wheeee!"
   

Lopud Island and Torrential Rain

On Wednesday morning in Dubrovnik there wasn't a cloud in the sky. I decided to try Ferry Excursion #2 and hoped to be successful this time. I chose an island called Lopud about 50 minutes away that is famous because it has all sandy beaches, whereas most beaches in Croatia are rocky. The ferry ride out was great, but I noticed that clouds were starting to blow in. Within 10 minutes of arriving at Lopud, it started pouring rain--I had no umbrella or poncho and there wasn't one for sale anywhere, so I ducked into a little cafe and drank hot chocolate--well, more accurately, hot NesQuik--while waiting it out. After it let up, the sky continued to look threatening, so I went and got on the next ferry back. It rained like crazy the whole way back, and when I got off the ferry in Dubrovnik it was still pouring. I sprinted from the ferry to the nearest overhang across the street, managing to get soaked to the bone! After the rain let up again, my first stop was back to the bus station to get my bags (which I had left in the station storage earlier that morning) and get dry. I guess I'm just not meant to go on ferry trips! The rain made it interesting, anyway!

"Pirates of the Adriatic":


Approaching Lopud...weather still looking okay:


Lopud island after a 40 minutes downpour (first rain of the summer); you can see the sandy beaches, at least:




Streets of Dubrovnik after the second downpour of the day...by this point I look like I had just taken a shower with my clothes on:


Good thing I was wearing flip-flops. Crossing the street...no other choice:


Photo taken from the bus station where the electricity had gone out during the third huge down pour:

Why Fig Newtons are Disgusting

I know that I should have made this connection long ago, but it didn't really click until a few days ago: the reason fig newtons are disgusting is because figs are disgusting. I like all newtons except fig newtons, so the logical conclusion is that I don't like figs, but I guess I had to discover that first hand.

Every little stand in the Dubrovnik market was selling dried figs in little bags. They looked kind of appetizing and so I bought some.... The flavor itself wasn't so bad and the texture alone was bearable, but the flavor and texture together was just too much. And I'm not sure what the purpose of the leaves in the bag is...

Dubrovnik

You may have heard the quote where George Bernard Shaw wrote: "Those who seek Paradise on earth should come to Dubrovnik." (go to Dubrovnik and you'll definitely hear that!) Well, I'm not sure how true that is, but Dubrovnik is pretty cool.

If you look on a map, you'll see Dubrovnik is the very southern tip of Croatia, and that to drive there from anywhere else in Croatia you have to go through Bosnia--they even stop and check your passports. The old city is completely walled in and you can walk all the way around on top of the wall, which was one of my favorite things. I arrived in Dubrovnik before 6 a.m., so when I got to the old city there was no one there--just people cleaning the streets and setting out their shops, etc. I walked around that wall at 8 a.m. when it opened and it was great. I had no idea that by 10 a.m. the place would be PACKED with tourists arriving by both bus and cruise ship.

I decided to stay overnight in Dubrovnik and found a room with an old lady named Klara right down in the old city center. Klara didn't speak English, but she loved having me stay there and would give me a big hug every time I came in.

Here's some pictures from Dubrovnik:

View of the old city from up on the hill:


Picture hanging on the wall of the room I stayed in:


The city glowed at night with all the light reflection:


Entrance to the old city:


Empty streets early in the morning:






On the wall listening to the audio guide:


City wall:

Unexpected Trip to IZ...

Not to be confused with "Oz", although it felt like it! I had a free afternoon in Zadar and thought it would be fun to take a ferry to a nearby island and explore for a few hours. I found out that there was a neat little town called Preko that only took about 25 minutes to get to. Perfect. I bought a ticket there and back, and the ticket lady told me that the next ferry left in two minutes from port 6. I ran out to port 6, gave the man my ticket, and got on the ferry that I thought was going to Preko. After about 20 minutes of enjoying the ferry ride, it started to look like we were passing the place I thought I was going. I figured that the port must be to the side of town or something. However, after 10 more minutes passed, it became apparent that we were not stopping at Preko. I started to get pretty nervous--there weren't many people on the ferry, and it was clear that I was the only non-Croatian. After a little bit of German and lots of pointing and charades, some older ladies were able to communicate to me that we were indeed not going to Preko, but we were going to a little place called Iz, which took about 2 hours to get to. Well, at this point I started getting more nervous because a lot of these little islands only have ferry service twice/week or something, and I was picturing myself getting stuck on a little island overnight with nothing but the shorts, t-shirt, and flip-flops I was wearing. I was able to find a crew member and somehow communicate with him the mix-up (which he seemed to find quite funny), and he said that the ferry was going to be returning to Zadar at 5:15 (about 1 hour 45 minutes after arriving). I felt lame for getting on the wrong ferry, thus spending most of my afternoon on a boat, but I felt better knowing that I could get back to Zadar and I decided to just make the most of it. We arrived at the port at Iz, and it looked like a deserted island. I walked up the road about 10 minutes, though, and found a quaint little town perched on the side and a cool little church on top of a hill that I was able to hike up to. I only saw a few other people the whole time--all old ladies--and only a few cars--all rusted out Yugos. It was a good little adventure that could have ended up much more disastrous! I think I can safely say that I am one of a very few number of Americans who have been to Iz!

By the time I went back to the ferry, the entire crew knew who I was and thought it was pretty funny, but felt bad for me at the same time. They made me a big sandwich with bologna and salami (unfortunately the two sandwich meats I dislike the most) and wouldn't take my ticket.

Where I thought I was going (Preko):


Where I ended up (Iz):


The town of Iz (after climbing up and over the hill from the ferry port):


The church I climbed up to:


Every single grave in the entire cemetery had fresh flowers--and the garbage can behind the church was full of old flowers. I thought that was awesome:


Some of the Yugos--they probably brought in a ferry load of them 30 years ago and they haven't left since. Every car on the island looked like this, pretty much:




View from Iz--wild olives and the Adriatic. I kept thinking about how this is probably what it was like back in New Testament days when they traveled across the Mediterranean and Adriatic from Jerusalem:


On the ferry with my meat sandwich:

Zadar

Zadar, a larger town in Northern Dalmatia, was beautiful. I arrived around 6:30 p.m. and was treated to a wonderful sunset over the Adriatic. At night, entering the old city on the end of a little peninsula, the entire city seemed to glow in the street lights. In the city squares there were lots of people gathered to hear music. Interestingly, I didn't meet any other native speakers in Zadar. I loved that the town didn't seem to revolve around tourism. I stayed overnight in the Youth Hostel in Zadar, spent the next morning poking around the city, then spent the afternoon on a ferry to a not-so-nearby island.

View of Zadar from a hill:














Entry to the old city:














Old Roman Ruins (love the care they use to protect them!):














Sunset over the Adriatic Sea:














Adriatic Sea with islands in the background:














Sea organ--the water coming in and out made a constant organ sound!:














View of the city and the sea from on top of the church tower:














Performers in the city square at night:

Adventures in Hrvatska

I just got back from Croatia today...had a great time. I never imagined I would end up visiting Croatia, but I'm glad I did and I definitely recommend it as a great place to vacation. In fact, Croatia was National Geographic Adventure's Destination of the Year in 2006.

I started out taking a train to Zagreb on Sunday morning, then taking a bus from Zagreb to Zadar, where I stayed overnight on Sunday. Monday night I took a night bus from Zadar to Dubrovnik, arriving around 5:45 a.m. After staying in Dubrovnik 2 days, I took a night bus back to Zagreb Wednesday night, looked around Zagreb a bit, then took the train back to Budapest on Thursday. The weather was great until Wednesday, when it rained for the first time of the summer in Dubrovnik.

Off to Croatia

Well, I'm planning to leave for Croatia tomorrow morning. (Can I say I'm "planning" on something when I don't really have much of a plan?) I reserved a place in a hostel in Zadar for tomorrow night--and I'm hoping that I can get there by taking a train from Budapest to Zagreb and a bus from Zagreb to Zadar all in one day--but other than that, I'm pretty free to suggestions. Hopefully I'll have internet access at some point along the way and can check in. Right now my "plan" is to go from Zadar down to Dubrovnik, then back up to Zagreb before heading back to Budapest around next Thursday. I am considering stopping in Split in between Zadar and Dubrovnik...if anyone reading this has ever happened to have gone to Split (or anywhere in Croatia), I'd love your opinion :)

A Little Asia in Vienna

Vienna was the last place that I'd find little pieces of Asia, but--sure enough--here's some of what I found:

A large proportion of people going on the carriage rides that are all over Vienna were Asian, as seen in these 1st 2 pictures:





Anyone else recognize this what this bit of "trash" is that I found on the ground?



This was a great find! It is in Naschtmarkt in Vienna. I went in and bought a can of Mango juice and chatted with the Korean man who ran the place: