OK, one of the many great things about Slovakia (and I suppose some other countries that I've been in) is the internet cafes. Why? Cos here cafe also means bar and thus one can walk into an internet cafe one morning and catch up on emails while sipping some cool Krušovice. Infinitely more developed culture, I'm telling ya. Not that its the morning, but hypothetically...

Another great thing is kofola. It looks pretty much like coke, tastes kinda like pepsi but spicier. The big dissimilarity between the special k (as I've dubbed it, ignoring references to ketamine) and either of those afore mentioned beverage giants is that special k costs approximately a quarter of the price. The same price as soda water, to put it in perspective. And people drink it like water, along with the several kilos of sugar I'm sure are in it which may explain my recently aching teeth. No fear soon I will be in the land of pivo (eg. budvar, pislner urquell) and I'm sure it will replace the k as my drink of choice.

Thridly, I had some kind of revelation concerning photography today. I am aware that my photos tyhis time round are gonna pretty weird, not at all vaguely holiday snappy as my Europe ones two years ago were. This is because I am on my own this time round. And as a result, I'm not really doing anything interesting. I rely on being made to do things I would never do myself to do exciting things: without anyone else this can't happen. So I just go and search out the things that i want to photograph, which are invariably what i have already photographed in the past, thus causing a momentous lack of anything new. Maybe i can change my ways. The only exception to the rule was Dubrovnik, and I didn't really want to be there that much, which will prove my theory if they turn out good.

I wish I had a digicam. These keyboards have a full US layout on the left of each key AND teh Slovak layout printed on the right hand side of the keys: pretty confusing.

Bring on more haikus!

Košice, Slovensk Republik. I think. Friendly, more so than I found Hungary sadly. Getting my feet back after some weariness. Its confuding stuff. Seeing too many places. Why is it that travelling always just leads you on to thinking about other places, other trips? For instace, met a Polish girl on the train, had been trekking in the mountains of Romania. That would be nice, i thought. Why? is it not enough that I'm out here anyway?? gees, i disgust myself. Still, if anyone is up for a walking holiday sometime, I reckon Romania or Croatia or any other relaxed hilly place would be fantaastic. I guess that is directed particularly at any of the family and Gaz, before anyone else gets worried.

Looking back I feel a long way from st. annes, Spain, and Norway come to that, and in fact the last time I did some schoolwork which isnt good for my anxiety. Same old.

Going for a foresty walk. later.

For all your cheap flight needs, skyscanner should do the trick. Awaiting eyesofabluedog update. Speaking of which I read '100 years of solitude' by Gabriel Garcia Marquez. Surreal, funny, don't quite know what to make of it yet. Its a sinker inner i guess. Its basically a family history of lots of people with very similar names. And lives in fact. Maybe thats significant. Will get back to you.

Now, bye

Hello. Its been a while.
Budapest. Previously Belgrade - I stayed with my friend Nenad for what turned out to be 5 days. Was only thinking of 3 tops but he had some very friendly friends and a very comfortable flat and cable TV. And pancakes. Whats a guy supposed to do? And it was very good to talk to someone I know and have an extended conversation.
The previous week had been very long, moving from Dubrovnik to Sibenik, finding nowhere to stay there and going on to Rijeka, staying there for two days, making a trip to a film festival in a tiny roman town perched on a hill called Motovun, moving on to Slovenia and Ljubljana, having a lovely 2 days there, hired a bike and got verx lost in the nearby countryside (my pain was eased by the local priest giving me a little wine from Jerusalem), moving on to the less than inspiring Zagreb, save for some cool fire eating, fire poi and fire juggliness. If only I`d had gaz`s diabolo con fuego...

Budapest is lively, enormous, grand, colossal one might say. There is a big music festival on an island in the Danube which I may head along to today, its only a tenner. I wasn`t that keen on eating today anyway..

Until next time,
R