Going Solo II

Last August, immediately after a whirlwind 10 days return visit to Singapore, I took off with my backpack to Romania and began a 3-weeks travel in a region which I had thought was Eastern Europe. It was only on my trip that I found out from hostel acquaintances that I had not traveled east enough to be in Eastern Europe. In fact, I was in a region Lonely Planet recognizes as Central Europe.

Central Europe does not work up the same magic for me as Eastern Europe does. Central Europe does not conjure the communism, under-developed or romantic images that I so often associate with Eastern Europe, and that I so wanted to experience for myself. I was always under the impression that Europe was separated only into West and East, developed and less-developed. And then there's the Scandinavian region that people tend to forget at times because only countries with problems make the news. The Scandinavian people, who can fill their plates with meatballs even when they are out of work, thanks to their welfare system, do not seem to generate much news-worthy problems.

I suspect that Central Europe is a region thought up by the folks working at Lonely Planet, instead of cartographers, so that they can publish more books and generate more profits despite already underpaying their travel writers. 'Lonely Planet - Central Europe' is selling for US twenty dollars on amazon. Like I always believe, money divides the world.

That August trip was special for me as it was the longest trip that I had done alone, which don't say much since I have only traveled alone twice in my life, not taking into account the many day trips I Eurostared to London for my interviews last semester. However, it was not the most fun trip I have had because 'no friend with me means less booze means less fun'. It was also not exactly memorable because nothing exactly memorable - nothing can be too exact according to Heisenberg - happened to me.

I returned from the trip in September, transferred the photos from my camera onto my laptop, and school reopened. School reopened even before I could digest the trip, digest the memories. I have thus yet to share the trip with anybody except Yeejia, when she was here last December. I have decided to post up a photo of each city I visited during my Central (read Eastern if you think Lonely Planet sucks) Europe trip and some other day, I will share the stories of my trip with you, hopefully over a pint of booze.


Bucharest, Romania: Between see-saws in front of the Parliament Palace - which is, as claimed in Wikitravel, the world's second largest building after the Pentagon.




















Brasov, Romania: Some people say, "Why bother coming to Romania if you're not going to see Brasov." Some people also say, "Why bother coming to France if you're not going to see Noisy Champs."





















Bran, Romania: At the Dracula's castle, where you have to pay to bring your camera in. I didn't pay=)




















Rasnov, Romania: Trekking up to a citadel with my roommate for this leg of the trip. He once backpacked for 2 years. Rich.
















Sighisoara, Romania: Newton.




















Sibiu, Romania: European Capital of Culture 2007. European Capital of Culture 2008 is Liverpool (and one other leng3 men2 Norwegian city)















Timisoara, Romania: Stayed over at the train station for a night



















Belgrade, Serbia: Undeniably the city, out of all the cities I visited on this trip, with the most number of eye-catching girls.














Pristina, Kosovo (or Serbia?): The UN HQ is the biggest attraction here.















Prizren, Kosovo (or Serbia?) : This town, isolated as it is, has United Colors of Benetton, Mango and Zara shops. A shop near the bus station serves good goulash.
















Podgorica, Montenegro: This is the capital of Montenegro.
















Skadar lake, Montenegro: When no one's looking...
















Kotor, Montenegro: Reaching the summit of the fort is by no mean easy.




















Dubrovnik, Croatia: They don't call it the 'Pearl of the Adriatic Sea' for nothing. Lovely town.
















Split, Croatia: Where I learnt about Tommy Emmanuel.




















Plitvice National Park, Croatia: It rained, it fogged and I trekked.
















Zagreb, Croatia: I lost all my Croatian kunas here from betting on football.





















Budapest, Hungary : The best way to spend your time in Budapest is at one of the public baths, not posing with the statues left behind from the communism era.
















I don't think there'll be a 'Going Solo III'. Sequels don't sell. I don't think I'll be going solo again.