"He doesn't even KNOW what calories ARE! He has that wonderful metabolism and me, I LOOK at food and I get FAT! But here he is trying to give advice on dieting and eating and he doesn't even know what he's TALKING about!"

Yea…compared with Vienna, there were almost no American tourists in Slovenia or Croatia. I didn't realize how much I was enjoying their absence until I got to overhear this lovely conversation while I was trying to enjoy my Sachertorte this afternoon. I was sitting in this really fancy, really delicious bakery, Demel while I was overhearing this woman.. And 'overhear' is the wrong word, the 60 or so woman was, extremely rudely, yelling this conversation to her table. It was so incredibly inappropriate that it was funny, but also disgusting. As a fellow American tourist I have to work so much harder to make a good name for myself among people I meet thanks to women like this one.

 

Vienna is the most beautiful city I have ever been to. I only get to spend 2 days here, but I can tell that I would have a great time for at least another week. There's just so much to see! And all of it is beautiful. I don't usually think much about Austria in my every day life, and so I had forgotten that this has been a very wealthy country for a very long time. And not just wealthy, also very concerned with aesthetics. Rich, image-conscious people have been building huge mansions here for thousands of years! And shopping in expensive shops. And going to the opera and theater. Oh, and eating decadent desserts. Seriously it's probably a good thing I'm only spending 2 days here, because I could eat indefinitely, and have been. I think there's a line in Eat, Pray, Love about having a relationship with your food, and I'm SO understanding that right now. I have been enjoying some of the other decadences though. I went to the opera yesterday!! I'd never been to an opera before, and it was about as comical as I thought it would be, but also kind of beautiful. Everyone was super dressed up, except for me who showed up in ripped jeans…, and was there to listen to these elegant opera singers perform La Boheme reeeeeally passionately. So beautiful, but also funny to think that a few thousand wealthy, sophisticated people are gathered in a theater to listen to a couple singers wail.

Anyway, I guess I should soak up as much sophistication as I can, because I'm headed to Oktoberfest tomorrow, and I'm just guessing it won't be quite as elegant.

My last stop in Croatia was Pula, on the Istrian peninsula. I was only going to go for two nights, but ended up staying three because I was at a great hostel run by the most adorable old lady ever. Gordana was around all the time, making coffee for us, chatting, sharing knowledge about fun places to visit or about politics in former Yugoslavia. Also, I finally found some sun!!! The beaches around Pula are stones (not nearly as good as sand...maybe if the stones were very small pebbles it would be nice, but but stones are just hard and uncomfortable to lie on). They are on the incredible Adriatic sea, though, so they are obviously gorgeous.

Because a lot of the beaches are kind of secluded, they are very popular with naturists. I'd never seen a nude beach before this, but I have now seen my fill of naked people sunning themselves. And not just young, attractive people either. That's kind of what is so awesome about it - old, kind of ugly people freely bare all. So, confession, I tried it! And unfortunately (or maybe fortunately??) I'm too conditioned against public indecency. It was not freeing; lying in the sun naked felt uncomfortable and much less relaxing. My swimsuit will remain on and firmly tied.

I also got to visit the town of Rovinj, a 40min bus ride from Pula. And it was the cutest place I've ever been. It felt a lot like parts of Italy I visited in 2008 - stone streets lined with tall shuttered buildings hung with the day's washing. There were small cats that ran around everywhere, and a huge fishing port, mounds of gelato for sale in every shop, and art galleries hidden between cafes and huge window boxes of flowers. Really, Rovinj is my idea of idilic. But it's also kind of gross. Like, it walking around the streets enjoying ice cream and taking way too many photos, it seems so easy to forget that any thing else in the world exists. Outside this perfect bubble of self-indulgence people are starving or fighting for their lives. So I find myself struggling with a familiar conflict between enjoying life and feeling guilty that my life is so good. Does everyone struggle with this, or are most people just better at having a good time than I am? Anyway, the point is that Rovinj is incredible.

Kind of related to that last thought is the book I just finished reading: The Spirit Level by Richard Wilkinson and Kate Pickett. It's about inequality and its damaging affects to society, and it's the best, most inspiring book I have read in at least a year, maybe EVER. The authors present all of their research about how much better societies function, in every aspect, when people within a country (not between countries) are more equal. And it just makes so much sense; there's no way you could argue against it unless you are selfish and evil. But the gap between academia and popular thought is so frustrating! Aaaand I'll stop with the tangent, because it would only be remotely interesting if one had read the book.

Next stop: Ljubljana, Slovenia!

So I wrote this post on September 13 but have been too lazy to actually put it up...

 

I haven't had internet, or the connection has been really slow for the last few days which is why I haven't posted in a while. I've been in Zadar and then at Plitvice Lakes National Park, both of which have been fantastic! And once I left the super touristy beach towns, there are many more actual Croatians to be people-watched so I feel like I'm getting a slightly better idea of what Croatians are actually like. First of all, they smoke A LOT and drink A TON of espresso. Not even just coffee, but strong, delicious espresso all day long.
 

 

Zadar old town

They also see to be very friendly. I haven't made much of an effort at speaking Croatian. I've decided that I really don't even know if I'm pronouncing the few words I know - thank you, please, good day - correctly, so it might be less insulting to make it known that I am an english speaker upfront. But regardless, most Croatians have been very helpful and gone out of their way to do nice things for me. The woman in the information station the other day came running out of the office a few minutes after I left to tell me that she had forgotten to mention the place to stay that was just down the road. And the man who's house I stayed in two nights ago had to go to Zagreb for the night, so just left us alone in his house, trusting that we wasn't going to burn it down or something.

The Sea Organ in Zadar - there are pipes under these stairs and the waves push air through them making a really cool sound

Probably the best thing about Croatia is that there is food growing ALL around. You walk down the road and pass at fig trees, walnut trees, plum trees, olive trees, and the occasional almond and apple trees. You could almost get a whole meal just walking around! Most people also seem to grown a bunch of vegetables in little gardens next to their house, but obviously I haven't taken food from them...

I haven't figured out where I'm going to next, somewhere north! Maybe the coast, in an attempt to find warmer weather. Croatia has been surprisingly freezing. But I love this kind of traveling where I can wake up in the morning and catch a train to wherever I feel like.

Yesterday I fulfilled a major life goal: I rode a motorized scooter!! It was way more exhilarating that I thought it would be, and also much scarier. Going fast seems way faster when there's no car door protecting you from the pavement below. But it was also such a movie-perfect moment that I had to keep reminding myself that I WAS actually speeding through the olive tree-lined hills of the Croatian island Hvar, watching the perfectly clear blue water smash against the white stones on the shore below. GAHH!

 

I love it when unexpectedly good things happen. Last night at about 6pm I was all set for a long, boring night of waiting. I had dinner at a vegan, Indian restaurant called Spicy Spices (not very Austrian, I know, but the lack of vegetables in my life is really getting unacceptable). It was pouring rain so wandering around the city, my usual evening plan, was not sounding so appealing. I figured I would just go back to the hostel and surf the web or something until my 1:30 am night train to Croatia. But then luck struck!

 First, I decided to read rather than surf the web. I finished my last book, Animal Dreams, a few days ago, and so bought a new book from the limited English selection in the oldest bookstore in Austria in Altstadt Salzburg. It is called "Watching the English" and is a hilarious ethnographic study of the distinctive aspects of Englishness. Being American is kind of hard in Europe because I feel like the butt of everyone else jokes, so this book is helping me by providing fodder to laugh at someone else for a change. Anyway, I bought a glass of red wine, and lay on a couch listening to the rain and laughing at the English for several hours.

By 11:30, it was time to catch the last bus of the night to the train station. I walked to the stop, but, since I can't read German, hadn't realized that the last stop of the night didn't apply to Saturday night. Oops. But again, luck struck!

A guy walked up, checking the timetable for his train, but realized his train was done for the night as well. I asked him if he could read German, and he explained that I needed to go to a different stop, and it was on his way so he would take me there. I then had one of the most interesting conversations I've ever had with a stranger. He told me he is 24 and he bakes cakes at Tomaselli's, a fancy cafe in Salzburg. He and his brother were from Bavaria, but were both living in Salzburg, he as a pastry chef, his brother as a cook. He had just gotten back from dinner with his brother and brother's girlfriend, where his brother had cooked and he had made dessert. (How adorable is that?!) So we walked through the 500 year old buildings and across the Salzach river and he asked if all Americans thought that Germans were Nazis (apparently he had been asked if he was a Nazi by the last American he met). I asked him what Germans thought of Americans, and he said they thought Americans didn't learn enough history about the world. I don't know if I can deny this…He wasn't really happy making cakes; he felt like he wasn't doing anything important with his life, and asked what I was studying. I gave my now standard answer, which is "Studying the social sciences, but I don't really know what I'm doing with my life, haha." Maybe someday I'll end up making cakes. Then we reached the stop, and wished each other well, and went on our way. I have no idea what his name was but this nice stranger is now forever documented in my travel experience.

I reached the train station around midnight, and was prepared to sit for an hour by myself in the only open building, the Mc Donalds. But wouldn't you know it, luck struck! First I met a man who had just returned to Austria from New Zealand, where he was a chef for Formula 1 racers. He now lives near the the Slovenian border, in Austria, and since I'll be coming back through the country in a few weeks, offered me a place to stay on a lake in the mountains! Then, a few of us in the Micky D's realized that we were all on the same train to Croatia, and so spent the rest of the wait talking about our travels, past and future.

Seven hours later, I stumbled off the train and into sunny Croatia! I walked through the town to the produce market in an old square, where I loaded up on fruits and veggies for the next leg of my trip, and then found a pleasant cafe with patio seating where I had a cappuccino and some kind of Croatian pastry that the waitress recommended (although it was also the most expensive thing on the menu, so I can't be sure if she was recommending it for its taste or its prices).

Now I'm on the train again, riding through the Croatian countryside to the town of Split. I've only been in the country for several hours but I think I already like it.

The last few days, I have succeeded in looking German, and I am now paying for it in foot pain. I've been asked for directions in German 3 times, and been asked several other things but since I don't in fact speak German, I can't be sure what they've been wondering about. When I walk in to shops and hostels, no one thinks twice about what language they should begin with. My secret: German shoes. I noticed the first few days I was here that the most accurate way to pick out Americans from Europeans was by their footwear. And given my Euro-envy, I naturally have worn my German shoes out almost everyday. For the first few days my feet were fine, even happy, because they were cushioned on some high quality leather. But as the kilometers add up, the American tendencies of my feet can be suppressed no longer. They crave the tennis-shoes, which I think they will get tomorrow when I walk up to the Festung Hohensalzburg.

I spent my first days on my own in Heidelberg, which was such a fun place to be. The first thing I bought was a bar of chocolate, and the second was some German tofu. I don't know if it's all the meat I've been eating, but this was some of the most delicious tofu I have ever had. The hostel I stayed at was great and there were plenty of friendly people to hang out with. Since I'm not that aggressively outgoing, I don't usually meet people I don't have to meet. But traveling alone, and especially at hostels, is such a nice atmosphere. I don't even feel forced to strike up awkward conversations - I want to!

One particularly great thing about this hostel was that they had bikes to borrow for free! So on my second day I rode one to the next town along this hill side over looking the river. This is the view of Heidelberg from the bike path across the river:

I also walked all around the altstadt and up to the castle that overlooks the town: