WWOOF Hrvatska

This past winter break I went to Šverki, Hrvatska, which is Croatia in their own language, to a small farm owned by a German woman named Helga. Even though it is winter, there are always things to do on a farm. Most of the time was spent chopping downed trees into small segments that could be loaded onto a trailer and stored at the home for the wood stove to stay warm through the winter months. The wood cutting was the majority of the work, but each morning the animals need fed and their areas cleaned (shoveling shit). There were a few fields to plow and we sowed the onions, garlic, and beans.

Magi was born in NY but spent many summers in Croatia, where her parents emigrated from. She came to the farm over a year ago and bought a house, so she is no longer considered a WWOOFer, but an adopted daughter. Dani is was another WWOOFer from France who arrived a week before and left a week after me. In our free time we played soccer alongside the beach, played Uno ALL the time, and read.

I think one of the things I miss most is the great food. The majority of the food we ate was grown right there are from a nearby friend. From milking the cows came our fresh milk, soft cheese, hard cheese, yogurt, and whey. The garlic, onions, potatoes, jams, bread, sprouts, oranges, lemons, persimmons, lavender, wine (red and white and several variations of both), the best damn grape juice I've ever had and olive oil come direct from the farm. I am thoroughly impressed how many products one woman and her son (with some volunteer help) can produce. However, few products are made on a level higher than sustenance.

It is a lifestyle that I miss and hope one day to adopt, at least at some level.

CLICK HERE for pictures of the farm.

Hrvatska-Dan 1-Umag, Poreč, & Rijeka

The beginning of my travels was saying goodbye to the family I had been living with for only two short weeks. Helga and Magi drove me to the Umag library where I printed some city names in large bold font for hitching and sent a few last minute emails and made some last minute Couchsurfing requests, hoping that it wasn't too late. From the Umag library I walked to the highway that leads to the town that was first on my list, Poreč. Just down the other end of the highway was the bus station in case I didn't get picked up. I was close to going down and checking out the prices and times and then someone drove by pointing to the side of the road, which I assumed meant "I am going to pull over up the road where it is convenient." I started running down the road but that joker wasn't slowing down. So I stopped, defeated. And thought about the bus station again. I decided to be patient, it had only been 15-20 min. (Meeting Dani, a French WWOOFer, who has been traveling for two years and WWOOFing along the way, has given me courage to hitch more often, since it has been his chosen mode of transportation from Russia to Nepal to India to Pakistan to Iran to...well the list just gets longer) So I decided if Dani can do it, why can't I. A few short minutes later a car pulled over and a grumbly bearded Croatian gent got out and pulled the seat forward to let me in the back. I threw my bags in the back and climbed in. His son was in the driver's seat and luckily is younger, 27 is my guess, so he had a moderate level of English. I can't remember his name because it was something typical Croatian and started with three or four consonants. He had blonde dreadlocks with the bottom side buzzed off. We head on down the road with Zeus Faber beating down on my eardrums, a Croatian metal band. Thanks to my middle-school musical taste we hit it off quite nicely. We chat it up about KoRn, Coal Chamber, Tool, Rage Against the Machine among others that were sitting in his CD case. I asked if they thought I would have any luck hitching to Rijeka. "You'd be better off just going to the bus station," and with the sun gone and the clouds overhead, I thought "maybe so." They were very kind and took he to the bus station in Poreč so I could get the price and times to be sure I don't miss the last one.

The main attraction in Poreč is the Euphrasian Basilica because its great old golden byzantine mosaics.

After the Basilica I stocked up on bread, cheese, and fruit and went to the bus station to check the times again. Despite what my hitch-driver said I thought I'd at least give hitching a try since the bus didn't leave for 1.5hrs. Fortunately Poreč is small and most of Croatia seems to have a plethora of street signs so it wasn't hard to find a good stretch close to the on-ramp. It maybe took 20min until I had a ride and off we went to Rijeka. I forget his name too. He was a recent dentist graduate who was traveling to his grandfather's funeral. His English was good too, so conversation wasn't difficult. The countryside was nice; far more hills and mountains than Istria, the region where I had been living.

Rijeka wasn't a destination so much as it was a layover. I wandered the main strip downtown while waiting for the night train that would take me to Split. The Lonely Planet guidebook acknowledges that Rijeka has nothing to offer, but since it is an unavoidable crossroads connecting Istria, Dalmatia, and the inland near Zagreb, that you might as well make the most of it. The only intriguing place is a bar called "Hemingway's" with pictures of "The Bearded One", as the book perfectly puts it, on the walls and over priced beer.

From Rijeka I took the over night train to Split. The train ride soon became obvious why it is considerably less that the bus line, it takes longer, stops everywhere, is less cosy, and has three transfers, but cheaper is cheaper.

CLICK HERE for pictures of Poreč.

Hrvatska-Dan 2-Split & Plitvice NP

Split's main attraction is that the inside square is built in the remains of Roman emperor Diocletian's palace. It was kind of sad to see the remains now into shopping strips and fashion stores everywhere, but I am assuming there have been merchants there since day 1.

For the afternoon I caught a bus to Plitvice National Park, known for it's cascading emerald green and blue lakes. I wasn't sure how long it would take, and wasn't expecting to arrive in the park at night not knowing where I was going to stay for the night (although it is kind of hard not to arrive anywhere at night when it is dark at 4:30). I debated staying on the bus and going straight on to Zagreb. The ground was snow covered, it was night, I didn't know where things were, and figured it wouldn't be very much to look at and the lakes were probably frozen, however, I was determined to see Plitvice and I got off. There ended up being several private guest houses and I finally got the third one I talked to down to an affordable price since I wouldn't be eating their food.

CLICK HERE to see more photos of Split.

Hrvatska-Dan 3-Plitvice NP & Zagreb

Usually, you can take ferries across the lakes to walking trails and see the lakes from high to low, but the bus to Zagreb was leaving at 10:45 so I could only see the first and lower lake.

Zagreb was a bust. I arrived Sunday afternoon and gave thought to just catching the train the Budapest that night. I decided to stay the night and visit "Tolkein's House", which isn't literally his house but a small pub in his honor that serves the best hot chocolate in Zagreb according to the guide book, however, it turned out to be an abandoned building under construction. The second reason I thought I would stay is to see a few art museums. I later found out that all of the museums are closed only on Mondays, so that didn't happen either. Monday morning, before the train to Budapest, I went to the fruit and vegetable market and spent my remaining Kunas and stocked up on apples, tangerines, clementines, pears, and walnuts.



To see more Plitvice photos CLICK HERE.

Magyarország-Day 4, 5, & 6-Budapest

While in Budapest I stayed with Andrea, Italy, and Marcos, Barcelona, through couchsurfing, which was great. Free housing and a few meals. They were fun guys and showed me some of the cooler night spots in Budapest. Day 1 I walked through City Park which has several museums, a bath house, a zoo and a castle. The Museum of Fine Arts had an exhibition called In The Wake Of Jesus, El Greco's Saint John. I haven't been a fan of El Greco but I think he is growing on me, especially his piece of Saint John. The permanent gallery was just some more tired old portraits of wealthy types with a small redeeming section of French Impressionists-Gaugin, Monet, Manet, Renoir, and Toulouse Latrec.

Hungary is well-known for vast amounts of geothermal mineral springs underneath it's relatively thin crust and if I get the history right, Turks love their communal baths. So when Hungary was under the Ottoman empire, those Turks threw up a bath house where ever they could. I took a dip in Széchenyi, which looks cool from the outside, but sterile on the inside. What the guide books had said and shown of the Turkish bath houses was different than the Széchenyi experience. I was hoping for the old dusky chamber of columns and archs. From City Park I walked down a main drag and visited St. Stephan's Basilica, a Synagogue and the Parliament.

Day 2 there was less time to see things because I had to catch a train in order to make my flight back to Sevilla from Bergamo. In the morning I made it over to Memento Park to see the statues and monuments leftover from the Communist region. It had teh run of the mill Lenin, Marx & Engles, Stalin's boots, and various other compatriots. It was cold as hell and slightly snowing, but come on, it's a communist park, "conditions were perfect." It wouldn't have felt authentic on a warm tanktop weather day. I also made sure there was time for the Rudas bathhouse on the Buda side of the Danube (Buda is west of the Danube river, Pest is the east). The Rudas bath house is the experience that I sought; sitting under 16th century Ottoman architecture in 42°C mineral springs wearing naught but the key to the locker.

Unfortunately, there wasn't time for the many other features Budapest has to offer; the Palace and the Citadel, Terror House (a museum dedicated to the victums of two different Jewish holocausts) the zoo, the Contemporary Museum, among many others. Another day perhaps.

The best thing about Budapest: Kebab/Gyro/Hummus places EVERYWHERE, and very cheap, like a Gyro, a feta salad, a slice of Baclava, and a coffee for under €5.

To see all of the Budapest photos CLICK HERE.

To see the Communist Statues CLICK HERE.