All right. The last day of our 45-day trip. We woke up early and took a collectivo to Playa Del Carmen. In playa, I bought a pair of nice leather shoes. Except they are a bit small. They didn't have bigger ones, though. :D I will donate them to a charity, I guess. We did a good job getting to the airport on time and everything went on well. Sitting at a restaurant table, we enjoyed a stylish yogurt-bread lunch. The staff promptly asked us to leave :D The only thing I messed was leaving a sunscreen in my backpack. They took it.
NYC welcomed us by unwelcoming change in temperature. Funny thing happened: when I walked up to the immigration desk and handed the policeman my documents, he said "Čo tu robíš, Vojtěchu?" (what are you doing here, Vojtech?) He was Slovak. For those who don't know, Czech and Slovak languages are very similar. We spent the night at the JFK airport - we had to catch a bus to Albany in the morning. We had a truly american dinner - McDonalds followed by KFC and slept on the floor just like homeless guys do. We weren't the only ones. Next to us was camping a group of five blond girls from Sweden who were headed exactly to the places we came from! We talked a bit, I gave them an experienced traveler :P advice and we parted.
Air train, metro, waiting at Penn Station and walking to the bus for Albany.
We arrived to Albany at about 10 am. It was FREEZING! There were two options: taking an expensive train which was coming in 5 minutes, or waiting outside for the cheap bus. It was really freezing and we wanted to come to Union as soon as possible, so we decided to take the bus (good logic, huh?).
We asked some people to be sure in which direction we want to go, so it was pretty straightforward. However, it was not so straightforward after 15 minutes in the bus when we figured out we were going in the wrong direction, away from Albany and Schenectady. We got off and waited for another bus, according to the bus driver's directions. No bus was coming and eventually we got on the bus with the same driver when he was returning to do another lap. After that, it was fine. One more transfer and we arrived in Schenectady shortly after the noon and walked in the freeze to the college. I took a shower and went to upperclass, to meet aaaal the other guys :)
That's it! It was AWESOME!!
Sunday, February 24, 2013
Tulum
MEXICO!
I am about two months late with publishing this one, but anyway..:
We had last four (or five?) days for Mexico. We crossed the border quite late in the afternoon, but Mexico is almost like a different world - they have buses running even in the evening. The one that took us from Campeche to Tulum was most definitely the most expensive but it had air condition and they were showing movies. A lot of movies, to be honest. They started with one, and just as the story was getting interesting, they suddenly switched to a different movie. I didn't get it. It was all in Spanish so I wasn't paying attention anyway.
Finding a place to sleep in Tulum turned out to be quite a big deal - hostels were full! We met a Czech couple somewhere from Moravia. This was the 4th time we met some Czechs (berofe it was Granada, San Pedro, Tikal) but actually the first time we talked with them. I can't really tell why we didn't speak with the ones we met before :D. Anyway, it was cool to see someone who knew where Nymburk was.
In Tulum we did this: Beaches, Ruins, Cenotes and Beaches. The beaches were the prettiest ones from the entire trip, in my opinion.
A BIG thing happened: we were on our way to the post office to send some postcards. We were riding our bikes through the center and there was this guy sitting on the curb. I couldn't see in his face but I had a strange feeling that I knew him so I turned round, stopped and addressed him. It was Dor, the guy with whom we had climbed a volcano about a month ago! He couldn't recognize us at first because of the beards that we had :D Then he realized... Such a coincidence. We spent some time together, went to the beach and so forth... I could not believe. When you travel, you just keep meeting the same people.
We met Dor again the day of our departure. We told him before he could get to the ruins just by swimming to them and he did it, at the sunrise when they were closed. Guess what: he got there but the ruins were guarded by soldiers with attack dogs! That was too much...
The weirdest thing happened the evening before leaving mexico: I was packing my stuff and I figured out I was missing my hiking shoes! Yes, the big heavy hiking shoes with which I climbed all the volcanoes and stuff. How the heck did I lose my hiking shoes?! I could not understand... but anyway, I had to do something about it because I couldn't come to the US just with flip flops...
some facts:
In Tulum, I had probably the best-tasting smoothie of the whole trip. Delicious.
On one day, we could not buy beers because on that day, selling any alcohol was prohibited. Don't ask me why.
We bought the beer next day and drank it on the rooftop of our hotel. Classy. We were lucky not to have fallen down from the ladder. Climbing it with slippers wasn't clever but that's just me :P
The Mexican immigration fee is fucking expensive
I am about two months late with publishing this one, but anyway..:
We had last four (or five?) days for Mexico. We crossed the border quite late in the afternoon, but Mexico is almost like a different world - they have buses running even in the evening. The one that took us from Campeche to Tulum was most definitely the most expensive but it had air condition and they were showing movies. A lot of movies, to be honest. They started with one, and just as the story was getting interesting, they suddenly switched to a different movie. I didn't get it. It was all in Spanish so I wasn't paying attention anyway.
Finding a place to sleep in Tulum turned out to be quite a big deal - hostels were full! We met a Czech couple somewhere from Moravia. This was the 4th time we met some Czechs (berofe it was Granada, San Pedro, Tikal) but actually the first time we talked with them. I can't really tell why we didn't speak with the ones we met before :D. Anyway, it was cool to see someone who knew where Nymburk was.
In Tulum we did this: Beaches, Ruins, Cenotes and Beaches. The beaches were the prettiest ones from the entire trip, in my opinion.
A BIG thing happened: we were on our way to the post office to send some postcards. We were riding our bikes through the center and there was this guy sitting on the curb. I couldn't see in his face but I had a strange feeling that I knew him so I turned round, stopped and addressed him. It was Dor, the guy with whom we had climbed a volcano about a month ago! He couldn't recognize us at first because of the beards that we had :D Then he realized... Such a coincidence. We spent some time together, went to the beach and so forth... I could not believe. When you travel, you just keep meeting the same people.
We met Dor again the day of our departure. We told him before he could get to the ruins just by swimming to them and he did it, at the sunrise when they were closed. Guess what: he got there but the ruins were guarded by soldiers with attack dogs! That was too much...
The weirdest thing happened the evening before leaving mexico: I was packing my stuff and I figured out I was missing my hiking shoes! Yes, the big heavy hiking shoes with which I climbed all the volcanoes and stuff. How the heck did I lose my hiking shoes?! I could not understand... but anyway, I had to do something about it because I couldn't come to the US just with flip flops...
some facts:
In Tulum, I had probably the best-tasting smoothie of the whole trip. Delicious.
On one day, we could not buy beers because on that day, selling any alcohol was prohibited. Don't ask me why.
We bought the beer next day and drank it on the rooftop of our hotel. Classy. We were lucky not to have fallen down from the ladder. Climbing it with slippers wasn't clever but that's just me :P
The Mexican immigration fee is fucking expensive
Wednesday, February 6, 2013
Caye Caulker
Caye Caulker is an little island in Caribbean. We spent here a couple of days, including the new year. It was a bit crazy. I spent a lot of time practicing hammock swinging and reading a book and I feel like I should keep this post in the same lazy way that the island was in, so this is it :)
Belize city
English speaking country at last, I thought! The bus driver played some cool reggae on the way to Belize city and a young woman sat next to me. After a while she started talking to me and I was shocked because I could understand nothing. Later I figured people here speak two languages: English and Belizean English, the second being not understandable at all.
The hostel was cool. Nice people ran it - Mitch, the owner who was from the US and Donna (hope I spelled it correctly) who took care of running it. Our next destination was Caye Caulker where I wanted to do snorkeling. The problem was that I had just glasses so I needed to get contacts. Donna took me and Mitch to an eye doctor (Mitch also needed a pair of glasses/lenses). He bought glasses and I got the contacts. We talked about why scissors, jeans, glasses and lenses are always in a pair (pair of scissors etc.). Guess what saying "You have a nice pair!" to a girl could mean. :D On the way back we went through a neighborhood I would never set my foot in but Mitch apparently knew what he was doing. He bought a cell phone from a street vendor there. I so regretted not having my camera with me.
In the evening we went to Princess to play bowling with Mitch and Tara (an american solo traveler doing a trip around the world. I hope you are doing great, if you are reading this! Tara had a cool story of her own - she was camping somewhere in Mexico and one day, when she came to the place where she built the tent, there was no tent. Instead, a stream was making its way through.). I won both the bowling games :) This was actually our second visit to Princess - the first time we went there we wanted to go to the cinema and see the Hobit movie. Guess what! They only had movies that were out for about 6 months and the cinema had just one screen. You may say, "try another movie theater" but there were no other movie theaters. Belize City has only one. On the way back from bowling we entered a hotel and pretending to be guests, we took a bath in the hotel's whirlpool. Like a boss ;) Then we had a beer in a bar (again, I probably wouldn't enter such a bar if Mitch wasn't with us. :D)
The hostel was cool. Nice people ran it - Mitch, the owner who was from the US and Donna (hope I spelled it correctly) who took care of running it. Our next destination was Caye Caulker where I wanted to do snorkeling. The problem was that I had just glasses so I needed to get contacts. Donna took me and Mitch to an eye doctor (Mitch also needed a pair of glasses/lenses). He bought glasses and I got the contacts. We talked about why scissors, jeans, glasses and lenses are always in a pair (pair of scissors etc.). Guess what saying "You have a nice pair!" to a girl could mean. :D On the way back we went through a neighborhood I would never set my foot in but Mitch apparently knew what he was doing. He bought a cell phone from a street vendor there. I so regretted not having my camera with me.
In the evening we went to Princess to play bowling with Mitch and Tara (an american solo traveler doing a trip around the world. I hope you are doing great, if you are reading this! Tara had a cool story of her own - she was camping somewhere in Mexico and one day, when she came to the place where she built the tent, there was no tent. Instead, a stream was making its way through.). I won both the bowling games :) This was actually our second visit to Princess - the first time we went there we wanted to go to the cinema and see the Hobit movie. Guess what! They only had movies that were out for about 6 months and the cinema had just one screen. You may say, "try another movie theater" but there were no other movie theaters. Belize City has only one. On the way back from bowling we entered a hotel and pretending to be guests, we took a bath in the hotel's whirlpool. Like a boss ;) Then we had a beer in a bar (again, I probably wouldn't enter such a bar if Mitch wasn't with us. :D)
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