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to nowhere in particular
  • Jonathan Supertramp

to nowhere in particular

no idea where i'm going, but i'll get there Okumaya devam et
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  • Jonathan Supertrampto nowhere in particularGezgin

    montegretto terme

    11–12 Kas 2023, İtalya ⋅ ⛅ 5 °C

    the train ride was a huge clusterfuck. a customer service lady inspected my tickets and told me i could get onto another train and just connect from its final destination. exactly that i did, ending up in the middle of nowhere half way to my actual destination. [pic 1]

    there, the guy in the ticket booth mumbled some insults at me, presumably because there was nothing to do. had to board an intercity train and got kicked out one stop later because my tickets obviously didn't match the train i was on. found some other connections to take me to my hostel just outside padua, where i arrived with the last night bus just half an hour before the reception closed.

    when i opened the door to my 4-bed dorm and looked through the curtains of my bunk, someone looked back at me. alright, just take another one then. or don't, because there is already someone sleeping in each bunk. went back to the reception and explained the situation. apparently, the guy sleeping in my bed should've checked out the night before but just decided to stay instead. (pic number two was take around midnight and shows the entire staff absolutely befuddeled trying to work out what is going on)

    thanks to the chap in my bed, i was awarded with a free upgade to a single bed hotel suite for the night, so no hard feelings.

    the next day, i took a bus to padua and met up with muzammil, a student from pakistan libing there that had offered to show me around town. it was good fun and we found put about our common passion for techno. he proposed taking me to a rave on wednesday if i stayed in venice until then, and i just couldn't refuse.    Okumaya devam et

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  • Jonathan Supertrampto nowhere in particularGezgin
    unc went hard on this one, and singing along in italian gets easier with every spritz consumed.
    introducing the best of the best from 10 different erasmus countriesfirst evening in venicegone are the hobo daysfucked up the burger so bad i wasn't even allowed to take a picjaycedon't askmet the pope at a gay bar

    venezia

    12–15 Kas 2023, İtalya ⋅ 🌙 9 °C

    venice, or rather mestre, the mainland counterpart, had the best (and biggest) hostel i've visited to so far. accomodation for hundreds of people, a huge common area and events every night. at a price of less than 20€ per night, this was the perfect place to wait until wednesday and explore venice in the meantime.

    i expected venice to be hard to navigate, but it was a real maze. pretty too. i'm taking so many pictures at this point that i'm having trouble keeping up with posting them. i still have a lot of untouched footage from the us that i maybe wanted to make a real from, but there is always else to do.

    on monday, i checked out the karaoke in the main area and grabbed a kebab with some people afterwards. also, my debit card declined for the first time. i'll be using the credit card from here on anyway, so no problem. had a bumble date on tuesday which required me to finally shave, and i immediatelty felt a lot more confident with that excuse of a beard finally gone.

    with 1 hour of sleep i met jayce and lauriane again by pure luck on wednesday. we went out to venice again together before i made my way back to padua in the evening. met up with muzammil and got going to the bar area where a lot of erasmus people hung out.

    queue the most chaotic and fun night of this trip so far. a lot of people and a lot of places were involved, but in a nutshell: bar, flunkyball tournament, karaoke bar, mcdonalds, gay club, techno rave, home at 7:30. i'll let the pictures speak for themselves.

    again with 1 hour of sleep, i got onto the bus to ljubljana, finally leaving italy behind after more than a month there. it was great, but towards the end i really did get hungry for some change.    Okumaya devam et

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  • Jonathan Supertrampto nowhere in particularGezgin

    ljubljana

    16–18 Kas 2023, Slovenya

    arrived in ljubljana and finally felt a bit like home again. the city seems like it could well be part of germany (setting aside that it once was). once again, i didn't explore that much of the city and kept myself busy with making plans for the next days and weeks. i had two locations that i definitely wanted to visit, so that's what i did.

    the next day, i took a bus to bled (the 1.30pm one because time management) and basically ran around the lake and up the nearest hill to catch the sunset. 10/10.

    in the hostel, i met saeed from tehran, i might pay him a visit in a few months time. the second night i had to move from a 5 bed room into a 10 bed one and it was the most agonising night i have ever spent in a hostel. one person was basically barricaded in their bunk, 24/7 coughing their lungs out. very thoughtful of them to book the dorm with the most people to infect. next to me, there was a guy snoring in a way that i can't even begin to put into words other than the bed was shaking. and then, there were multiple instances around 3am where someone just picks up a call on their phone or puts the lights on, and i was awoken twice in the same night by the hostel manager asking me about the guy in the bed below me who i had never seen. i wanted to share this so you don't get too jealous reading from home.    Okumaya devam et

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  • Jonathan Supertrampto nowhere in particularGezgin

    skuta

    18–19 Kas 2023, Slovenya ⋅ ⛅ 2 °C

    i managed to catch some sleep on the bus to the austrian border, where i planned an overnight stay in an unmanned mountain refuge. because the bus only goes twice a day, i arrived way too late, but still somehow managed to climb the 1.4k in three hours before the sun set. had to pay in full two days later by sore legs.

    the way up, the shelter and the view along with the sunset were honestly my biggest highlight of the whole tour so far (at least of what i can share here). made me realise again that i didn't embark on this trip for the cities, but for the nature. also, i met some really nice people up in the shelter, famous travel blogger bobby dalton and his attaché among them. i didn't recognise them until we exchanged instagrams. thought about asking for a ride along or an insta push, but that's not me.

    sadly i didn't bring food to stay more nights or equipment to reach the summit, so i woke up at dawn and enjoyed the mountains until 2pm and made my way back down to the mountain village with the bus stop. my legs were literally shaking from the descent, i really need to hike more. was very thankful when the bus eventually arrived, for it was the only one scheduled for two days. also saw firefighters cleaning up a pretty brutal car crash on the way back with the empty bus.    Okumaya devam et

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  • Jonathan Supertrampto nowhere in particularGezgin

    ljubljana again

    19–21 Kas 2023, Slovenya ⋅ ☀️ 11 °C

    came back from the mountains more exhausted than i would've hoped, but suddenly all the more optimistic. i have way to many plans, way to many choices, so i had to take some time to really think everything through. i could continue down the balkans the way i had done it in italy: spend one or two nights in a hostel, then take a bus to the next city. but that isn't what i came for and i wanted to start actually hitchhiking again.

    i could go straight east to zagreb, the capital of croatia, or further south towards rijeka and the mediterranean. ultimately i decided for the latter, but wanted to take a smaller road through the mountains instead of a highway. in hindsight, some would call it a mistake.

    i was in the same hostel, but in yet another room. this time, the vibe was way better, i met guys from slovenia, france, spain, the us and kasachstan. i might meet the frenchman again, he's going to athens, but bikepacking.

    also finally got my phone battery replaced for 70€. so far (3 days after) i don't notice any improvement, but at least the guy didn't break it. either, the battery isn't running at full capacity yet, i misjudged that the battery should be better, or another phone component is faulty and eating up all the power. i really hope it's the first, but i'll probably have to buy another powerbank anyway.

    i'm now also thinking about buying microspikes and perhaps even an ice axe. it really bummed me out not to be able to reach the summit of skuta just a couple hundred metres above the shelter and it was certainly neither the last nor the highest mountain i'll climb in the future. brown bears, stray dogs and the like are also becoming way more common now and as dumb as it sounds, i'd feel a lot safer with an ice axe now that my knife has been taken by the french.

    oh yeah and also i might just get a mullet    Okumaya devam et

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  • Jonathan Supertrampto nowhere in particularGezgin
    maybe i should take on of these signs to be more convincingel trainstationel empty ass busel hostel

    kočevje

    21–22 Kas 2023, Slovenya

    here's a guide on how not get from ljubljana to rijeka.

    first, go to hitchwiki.org and read that it's far easier to go to zagreb first and then to the coastal towns from there. you'll also find a list of good hitchhiking spots. igonore all that.

    then, when it's just 4 hours to sundown, take the bus to the outskirts of the capital (which isn't much bigger than chemnitz btw) and walk for an hour to some gas station. get picked up by a chain smoking elderly couple after ten minutes. drive for an hour, then asked to be dropped of at a gas station in the middle of nowhere because you saw pictures of a bear there on google maps.

    third, inspect said bear (seemed to be in a trance or hibernation or something) and think of the things peta would do if they found out about this. stand in the rain trying to get a ride for two hours.

    finally get picked up and driven to a the same small town that the elderly couple was going to just before sunset. eat dinner (toast and chocolate spread) at what looked like a homeless shelter and give up hope for the day. walk another half hour through the freezing night until you find a spot at a lake where you can set up camp. watch two movies because it's still just half past five, then have a chat with your parents.

    if you haven't died of hypothermia yet, wake up at eight and realize that you picked a really decent spot last night. start packing up and be a approached by a slovenian man on a bicycle. ideally, this man should be the clingiest, most racist, antisemitic, unreflected individual you've ever layed your eyes upon. be given his email, because cell phones emit dangerous radiation.
    finally lose him after an hour and try to find a semi doable hitchhiking spot.

    next step, be picked up by a much nicer man, but be sure to go an hour northeast instead of southwest, where you planned to go. arrive at a border town and cross into croatia. try to get a lift for two hours, give up and then go back across the border to go catch a bus to the next city. almost get a pity lift from slovenian border control.

    walk half an hour, arrive at the bus station (or at least the spot where there should be one) and wait until twenty minutes after alleged departure time. decide to just walk the way that the bus should've driven you and jump some barbed wire and cross the border for the third time, this time not so legally via a closed train bridge (this will save you two hours of walking time).

    lastly, arrive at the train station and notice the overgrown tracks. be informed that an autobus now operates this line. watch another movie to pass the time and finally step foot into an empty bus that brings you to the next city. take the (only) train from there to zagreb, book a hostel, almost get caught without tickets in the tram and finally arrive in your room. where someone is puking out their soul.    Okumaya devam et

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  • Jonathan Supertrampto nowhere in particularGezgin

    zagreb

    22–24 Kas 2023, Hırvatistan

    the temperature difference from ljubljana to zagreb was immediately noticeable. if i can make my way to split soon, average temperetures will be above ten degrees again. i had two nights booked, so i was able to spend a full day exploring the city. it's really decent, comparable to dresden.

    after a quite lot of searching, i was able to find the right croatian flag patch for my backpack. also bought a new book, moby dick - i've always wanted to read it and the five herrings wasn't really my thing. it's a huge book, so good thing i don't give a rat's ass about packability. i now have to bear the consequences, as my backpack (that i'm taking trail hiking now) weighs in at about 25 kilos.

    made half a kilo of pasta on the morning of check out, wrapped it in some plastic bags and threw it in the food bag. meal prep can be so easy. an hour later, i was already on the bus to rijeka. (i will hitchhike more, i promise)    Okumaya devam et

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  • Jonathan Supertrampto nowhere in particularGezgin

    rijeka, pt 1

    23–24 Kas 2023, Hırvatistan ⋅ ☀️ 13 °C

    glancing out the bus windows, i was greeted with an amazing view of rijeka, the mountains and the sea. i already liked this place and couldn't wait to see it up from the mountains. but first i have to get there.

    for today's hitchhiking adventure, i came prepared. i had looked up good spots in advance and was determined to make good use of them. the best case scenario would be me in a mountain shelter before the end of the day.

    sadly, i underestimated winter again. by the time my bus arrived, the sun was already scratching the horizon. i decided to find a place to sleep first and try again with more time tomorrow. after half an hour of walking along the shore, i found an abandoned section of beach that condisted more of rubble and building parts than anything else. i think there was a mudslide of sorts and a building collapsed there, but for all things i care, it was perfect. also, it was right next not only to the picturesque port, but also to the hostel i would've stayed in if i hadn't found a camp spot. i managed to set up my hammock in between two big pieces of debris.

    the sun was already down and i was optimistic about spending a night like this, that is until i checked the weather again. obviously, google expected a good bit of rain. i didn't give up just yet and managed to somehow secure my tent floor mat as a makeshift tarp above the hammock. then, some heave wind came in and i could feel that my little construction wouldn't last the night. after hours of consideration, i finally packed up, checked in at the hostel and devoured the rest of my premade pasta.

    although the hostel was pretty cheap, i still felt beaten because i had literally just decided not to throw any more money into the wind and go proper low budget. it was either that, or to spend the winter working, probably in austria as a kitchen porter or lift boy or something. i decided against it though, because that would mean crossing the central asian desert in summer instead of spring.    Okumaya devam et

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  • Jonathan Supertrampto nowhere in particularGezgin
    don't judge the hair please

    rijeka, pt 2

    24–25 Kas 2023, Hırvatistan ⋅ ☁️ 11 °C

    i've decided that hitchhiking in winter is shit. the time frame you've got to secure a lift between sunrise and sunset is so short that sometimes it doesn't even feel worth the try. also, apparently croatians don't like hitchhikers much either. i'll attach a heat map if i still have it saved.

    anyhow, as much as it hurts to blow up my spending limits further, i need a new powerbank if i want to go on a mountain tour for a couple of days without electricity along the way. the battery life of my phone hasn't changed at all, so the 70 i spent on the replacement were for shit.

    headed to a nearby tech store and bought the beefiest one they had. 30000 mah should be enough to charge my phone at least 6 times, so that should be more than enough. i hope it actually holds as much as it says, because my other powerbank obviously doesnt.

    i made it to the gas station i had scouted out earlier around noon, made a sign and started holding out the thumb. two hours and zero lifts later, i realized that i was in the wrong place because i confused two gas stations because of their almost identical names. headed to the actual spot, waited well past sunset, but nothing. at least my music and the panoramic view were great, so i had a great time all things considered.

    set up my tent right next to the highway, read some moby dick and watched some netflix and listened to some music. living the life.

    went to try again early the next morning (after a dog had found my tent and nicked one of my boots, which the owner kindly brought back), stood waiting for 30 minutes, within which a grand total of two cars passed. i realized that i might be stuck for good. the next shock was watching albus' story (the bikepacking french guy from ljubljana that was now well ahead of me in mostar) of pretty heavy snow in bosnia. the place where i was heading because i thought it would be warmer there. the frustrations of the last days and weeks were starting to take hold of my mood.

    i went back to the mcdonalds right next to my waiting spot and sat there for a couple of hours trying to organize my thoughts. i wanted to take my time through the balkans, but winter was pushing me. i wanted to hitchhike the way, but it was both illegal and, more importantly, more tedious than i ever could've imagined. i wanted to head to the mountains but lacked the equipment, time and backpack weight. all in all, pretty fucked. bored out of my mind at this point, i just wanted to get away.

    so, i found the cheapest connection for the longest distance, and that was a 40€ flixbus to sofia, bulgaria. it took a lot of fighting what's left of my ego, scince i was once giving up on my plans and taking the easy way, but once i saw the hostel prices there, i couldn't bear the thought of wasting more of my time and resources here. i promised to come back another time when the time was right and finish what i started here.    Okumaya devam et

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  • Jonathan Supertrampto nowhere in particularGezgin

    night bus to sofia

    26–27 Kas 2023, Sırbistan ⋅ 🌙 -1 °C

    i was extremely lucky and got a double seat all to myself. slept pretty alright, all things considered. the two border crossings stressed me out a bit because i had forgotten to throw the weed away before boarding the bus, but everything was chill and i finally got my first passport stamps in serbia. i won't count it as visited though.

    watching the sun rise over the snowy bulgarian landscape was enjoyed thoroughly. from the first moment of arriving in sofia, i absolutely loved the city. people are super nice (and as i found out later on bumble they also look great), the snow-capped mountains are in the backdrop and everything has like a soviet flair to it. here's also the first time where i'm having trouble reading sings. it wasn't a problem a year ago, i'll just have to refresh my cyrillic.

    i did some forum research and found a great rave on saturday, so i think i'll stay for a bit, which, for the first time, doesn't hurt because the hostel is only 15 лв/ 8€ a night.    Okumaya devam et

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  • Jonathan Supertrampto nowhere in particularGezgin

    sofia, pt 1

    27–30 Kas 2023, Bulgaristan ⋅ ☀️ -1 °C

    having skipped an hour because of a new time zone (wohoo), i arrived at the hostel at 9am. had to wait 4 hours in the common area before check-in, but no problem at all - it's a really cozy place with good internet and super friendly people. in terms of sleeping situation, you get exactly what you pay for. a long room just under the roof with 9 beds on each side.

    the only thing i did that day was finding the next grocery store and buying some pasta bolognese. ate the whole pack. i slept really well considering the conditions. in the bed next to me, there was a brazilian girl who volunteered at the hostel in exchange for lounging. definitely something i'll consider if i want to stay for a longer time period in some place.

    the next day, i did a big calorie haul in a nearby lidl. the food prices are really good, maybe even better than in germany, i even hear rumors of a 3€ kebab. next to the supermarket, there was a fair that was shut down due to the snow storm two days earlier. must've been pretty rough, i heard one ot two homeless people even froze to death. that storm was also the reason for all the uprooted trees and fallen branches on the streets and sidewalks. back to what i was saying, the fair was abandoned and surrounded by huge soviet housing blocks. it was a great contrast, felt a bit like the photos i've seen of pripyat (some day, i swear).

    i also explored the city a bit. i think you can describe it as chemnitz-like, but if chemnitz was the capital and had some nicer buildings in the center. highlight of the tour was of course my best friend, decathlon.

    i went there to get some rudimental winter gear because in a couple of days, i was planning to summit musala, the highest mountain of bulgaria, as well as of the balkans. apparently it's more of a hike with a bit of scrambling at the top rather than any serious mountaineering. i could get to the trail head by bus from sofia and there was even a perfect wheather window from thursday to friday. still, it's not to be underestimated.

    there were still a myriad of problems ahead of me, but i was somehow able to solve them all. i had now entered a more analogue part of the world, and i had to figure out most things without much help from the internet. the plan was to wake up early on thursday, hop on a metro to yug bus station, from where a bus should leave to samukov, from where a bus should leave to borovets, from where i should be able to start the 27 kilometre 1600 vertical metre tour. i would have my tent and sleeping bag with me and set up camp just below the tree line. depending on time and exhaustion until this point, i would either make the four hour summit push the same or next day and descend back down on friday.

    back to the decathlon, i bought some light microspikes, a face mask and some rubber winter boots, only spent about 50€ altogether. after trying out everything, i felt confident to give musala a shot.    Okumaya devam et

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  • Jonathan Supertrampto nowhere in particularGezgin

    musala

    30 Kas–1 Ara 2023, Bulgaristan ⋅ ☀️ 1 °C

    everything went to plan, and even better. i woke up before 7 and was at the trail head before 10. against my expectations of being almost alone on the mountain, after a couple minutes of walking, i ran into vladimir. he was romanian and here with 4 friends to do the same thing as me, but all in one day. he invited me to tag along, and i was happy to do so.

    going with the group was more comparable to trail running than hiking. turns out these guys were the real deal - vlad told me that he had summited aconcagua just a month ago and was now in preperation for ama dablam. most of them were also ultramarathon runners, which explained the pace. i was really impressed by all this and eager to keep up, but the camp gear in my backpack made it hard. i ditched most of it after 7 kilometres, halfway up the mountain. alone, i wouldn't have dared to do the whole tour all in one day (meaning descending in the dark), but so far, the pace worked well for me and i thought it possible.

    that changed just a couple of minutes later when the snow depth went from ankle to hip. we were the only ones ascending that day, so the trail wasn't stomped out and we had to wade through the snow. it was hard, hard work and it took us two and a half hours to cover 3 more kilometres. the video i have on instagram shows adrian, the most seasoned of the team, plowing his way through the snow and making a path for us. without him, i would've surely turned around at this point. thanks to roxy giving me her spare pair of snow gaiters, i still managed to stay dry.

    after about four hours, we arrived at musala hut, which was, to the surprise of everyone, open. i had called two days earlier to see if i could get a sleeping place there, but nobody answered, so i had opted for the tent. it was now just 3 hours until sundown, so it would've been foolish to attempt a summit push. because of this, after resting for a couple of minutes, the romanians unfortunately had to turn back because some of them had to work the next day. but i had no problem staying the night and attempting the summit the next day. roxy actually insisted for me to keep the gaiters, because i'd need them. i also got an invitation for them to show me around the romanian mountains. what can i even say, just amazing people.

    i was the only guest - apart from me, there were just two women, one man, one baby and two cats up there. i was dead tired and went to bed at six, slept two hours and was wide awake by eight. through the window right next to me i could see right up to the summit, where a light shone from the weater station. watched some netflix to calm my nerves (i can't lie, i was quite excited) and slept four more hours before waking up at 3:50. packed up and was out the door by 4:15.

    the following hour was by far the hardest of the tour. this time, there was nobody to follow, no tracks, just deep snow. i had to go on hands and knees for hundreds of metres because i would've disappeared into the snow otherwise. if the terrain hadn't changed after that one hour, i would've had to give up. luckily, i didn't, and finally laid eyes on everest shelter 300 vertical metres below the summit. from here, i scrambled my way to the top across an exposed ridge. the wind was picking up a lot, but there were cables to hold onto.

    i finally reached the summit after 3 exhausting hours of climbing, just in time to watch the sunset. took videos and photos, met the guy from the weather station, ate my summit snickers and fucked off as quickly as possible, because with daylight came even more wind.

    on the way back, i chugged down a can of monster energy at the everest shelter. it took me 3 more hours to get all the way down to borovec again and i was completely in zombie mode for the last part. almost fell asleep standing while waiting for the bus, but was back in the hostel just 3 hours later.    Okumaya devam et

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  • Jonathan Supertrampto nowhere in particularGezgin
    these two brought immaculate vibes

    sofia, pt 2

    1–6 Ara 2023, Bulgaristan ⋅ ☀️ 15 °C

    back in the capital, i stopped by the lidl again and took a couple hours of rest eating and sleeping. while making dinner, i talked to florida man garret, who i had met earlier and he decided to join me for tonight's rave.

    we headed out together (he was in the most business casual outfit ever, but i mean whatever you're comfortable in) and somehow made contact with a bunch of bulgarians in front of the club who all started to speak broken german upon noticing that i was from there. very common reaction in the balkans and you'd be surprised by the amount of "gutte tag" and "eins swei drei" i have to endure every day.

    after grabbing some drinks (finally got to try somersby blueberry) with a couple of the guys, we went inside as soon as the beat went from trap to more four-to-the-floor. the venue was a nice little dark basement club behind a record shop with really great music and crowd energy. met some great dancers.

    before i knew it, it was 7 am. i went back to the hostel, threw a pizza in the oven and went to bed. the next week i stayed put spending my days more or less in bed recovering from a cold i had caught at some point. on monday i got my hair cut (mullet-ish, i think i like it) and on tuesday, i was feeling pretty good and joined a group of travelers from the uk, greece, chile, italy and germany for a drink and a night out.

    one of them mentioned she had a car and was going to see the buzludzha monument the next morning and if anybody wanted to give her some company, so i was more than happy to join. after finally finding use for my month-old weed with lilia, valentina, margherita and gabe, i managed to squeeze in 5 hours of sleep and set off in the morning.

    (didn't take many pictures, so i'll substitute with snaps)    Okumaya devam et

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  • Jonathan Supertrampto nowhere in particularGezgin
    pictures from here get pretty shitty because the lens kept freezing

    kazanluk

    6–7 Ara 2023, Bulgaristan ⋅ 🌧 7 °C

    i tried to leave the dorm as silently as possible and met lilia and margherita in the lobby. took a metro to the airport, said goodbye to lilia (who was going back to germany after 3 months of travel) and headed to the car rental. turns out margherita is a horrible driver but a great conversation partner, so the 4 hour drive was pretty chill.

    on the way to kazanluk, we saw a huge monument from the highway on the outskirts of stara zagora and went to check it out. we were both into brutalism, so we were absolutely amazed by this find. finally made it to our airbnb, got a 2,50€ kebab and called it a day.

    woke up at 5:45 to catch the sunset and drove another half hour to the monument site. it was foggy as hell, so we couldn't see more than 20 metres. not great for getting photos of the while thing, but perfect for setting the atmosphere. this monument had been on my bucket list for years and years now, so it was exciting to finally make it there. i'll let the pictures do the talking.

    it was insanely cold, so we had to get back to the car after just an hour to defrost. got back on the road, this time on a route that took us even deeper into the bukgarian countryside. the people here look almost turkish in complexity and facial features and most are very poor, living either in run down houses in small villages or endless commie blocks in the bigger towns. i'd say here i had the second big culture shock after the one in the us, especially after the perceived normality of sofia.    Okumaya devam et

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  • Jonathan Supertrampto nowhere in particularGezgin

    thessaloniki, pt 1

    11–18 Ara 2023, Yunanistan ⋅ ☀️ 13 °C

    after four more days of waiting in sofia (nothing worth mentioning really) my departure date to greece finally came around. had to hurry to the bus station in order not to be late, but the bus was nowhere to be found. there were other travelers as confused as me there and we had to wait an hour until it finally arrived.

    i'm getting really good at killing time on coaches now, the five hours to thessaloniki flew by like nothing. luckily no border controls again, but a girl from norway told me that the last two bus rides she took across balkan country borders had both been searched and one time, the serbian police dragged an american out of the bus because they had found some weed traces in his bag. "enjoy being naive as long as you can", someone once said.

    walked uphill to the hostel and received my first impressions of greece. especially the poorer quarters already feel very strange, if you were blindfolded and put there, you probably couldn't discern if you were in cairo, thessaloniki or ankara.

    checked in at the hostel, a small, cozy place with just a handful of people, half of them volunteers. everyone was super welcoming, i got great vibes right away. the supermarket however, gave me very bad vibes. the food is expensive as hell, especially given that greek people only earn like 700€ with minimum wage.

    i still stayed for way longer than i had planned. the weather window for mount olympus had closed, and after some research and seeing some videos of people climbing the peak in winter, i wasn't sure if i could do it at all. that was until a pair of two australians came into the hostel and told us they had just been up there a week ago. i got some great info from them and apparently, the snow situation is wayyy better than on musala. one of the french volunteers, estelle, even decided to join me for two days.

    in the meantime, we (an american, two french and a nother german) spent a lot of time hanging out together in bars, squatter houses and at the hostel with movie nights, chess and weed. finally, it had found its destiny. the other german guy, salomon, was also a great guitar player and kind of got me hooked on playing again. also had a tinder date and she got way to attached, oopsies.

    went to a museum for the first time in three months, i'll try to do it more in the future. can't just let my brain rot away. i started to tryhard chess again as well, playing at a better level now than ever before.    Okumaya devam et

    Çeviriyi gör
  • Jonathan Supertrampto nowhere in particularGezgin

    olympus

    18–19 Ara 2023, Yunanistan ⋅ ☀️ 4 °C

    (and the yapping award of 2023 goes to me, apologies)

    due to me laying down on my phone and overhearing the alarm i had set for 6am, me and estelle had to leave the hostel an hour later than planned. in about half an hour, we made our way to the main bus station, bought round trip tickets to the trailhead near litochoro as well as two sandwiches and some proper gloves and set off.

    after a smooth 90 minute ride, we arrived in the little town just below the mountain. it was as off season as it gets, so most mountain hardware shops and all info points were closed. we still managed to find an open tour guide agency, where we were told that all the shelters were closed and the snow would be too deep and the distances too long. we were happy to ignore most of this advice, as the young girl behind the counter frankly didn't look like she had ever set foot on that mountain anyway.

    we did however, due to it being 11am already, decide to hire a taxi to get us all the way to the trailhead further up the mountain, saving us almost 2 vertical kilometres. after having a look at the local monastery, we bought two silver-gold emergency foils and called a taxi service. the driver brought us as far as he could with summer tires and we started walking.

    the hike to the planned mountain shelter was surprisingly hard, but the four days worth of rations on my back might have played a role there. after two hours, we managed to find an unfrozen wayer spring where i bottled a couple litres for later. some time later, we arrived at the shelter. it was indeed closed, but had an emergency room, just like we had suspected. take that, front desk lady.

    temperatures were super mild, but after (a beautiful) sunset it got frosty pretty quickly. we smoked out the entire room in an effort to get a fire going, which to our own surprise, actually worked. had some dinner and luckily didn't die of carbon monoxide poisoning in our sleep.

    we were in bed by 6, so i had plenty time to make plans. originally, i had wanted to do a four day tour, each day going 10-25 kms with at least 1.5k vertical distance. although estelle would accompany me for two days, she would have to turn back the next day to pick up her shift at the hostel. because we hadn't seen a single soul on the mountain and the exhaustion of the first little section put my planned hikes into perspective, i decided to play it safe and leave with estelle after just two days on olympus.

    we got up at 6 and started walking in the dark. there was a singular pair of tracks leading the way, the only sign of life we encountered for two days. soon, the horizon around us got brighter and turned scarlet red and we switched off our head torches. the sunrise was the most vibrant i have ever seen, in the distance across the bay you could even discern thessaloniki and the three peninsulas of mount athos.

    snow got deeper quickly and we realized pretty quickly that we wouldn't make it to the summit plateau and back if we kept this pace. estelle decided to turn around two hours in and meet me back at the shelter. in order to be quicker, i drank as much water as i could, ditched the backpack and went onwards with only three chocolate bars, an emergency blanket and good spirits. the sun was scorching down at this point, so i didn't expect many complications.

    just an hour of ridge walking and a short scrambling section later, i already found myself on the plateau just below the summits. never thought i would be almost 3000m up a mountain in late december and only need to wear a base layer, but here we are, with sunburn being the biggest danger of the trip. i followed the tracks to the top refuge. i had been faster than expected, so i decided to just push up the rest of the way to the next best summit (turned out to be toumba, the sixth highest). a stunning view awaited me up top, took plenty photos.

    i was back down at the shelter before the clock struck 12. met estelle, who had spent her time drawing the landscape, munched down 5 sandwiches and started the descent back down to the trailhead. to our surprise, we immediately found two americans taking a driving break there, they agreed to give us a lift back to litochoro. arrived there two minutes before the bus and ran to the station just in time.

    in conclusion: awesome trip, no issues at all, kinda surprised myself with how well we did the second day, but i will be back some day to make the proper summit.    Okumaya devam et

    Çeviriyi gör
  • Jonathan Supertrampto nowhere in particularGezgin

    thessaloniki, pt 2

    19–26 Ara 2023, Yunanistan ⋅ 🌙 11 °C

    spent another week in thessaloniki with the people from the hostel waiting for christmas to come around. the typical day didn't change much from before.

    one day, i decided to go up chortiatis, the highest mountain next to thessaloniki, for sunset. took a bus as far up as possible and had to walk cross country through fields, forest and brambles until i actually found a path that wasn't made up by my gps. some stray dogs creeping around me, but they stayed cool. only some shepherd dogs got a bit upset at me and i had to flee.

    made it to a great little spot to watch the sun go down but decided to turn around before reaching the top because my phone was dying and i could see rain coming in.

    i also sent a post card to my family, but i haven't heard anything about it so i probably fucked the adress or something xd

    some of us were sitting in a bar on the 23rd when the clock hit midnight and i said merry christmas. the others were as confused as me when we finally realized that celebrating on the 24th is apparently just a german thing, so all i could do was call some friends and family and entertain myself walking along the shore. i was a bit sad for about five minutes, but managed to knock it off really quickly.

    however, the 25th made up for it. the italians cooked a bunch of stuff, we watched a movie, played a round of chess and then went off to a little free rave in the city. the music selection was a bit off, half way through, a guy just started rapping. still good fun.    Okumaya devam et

    Çeviriyi gör
  • Jonathan Supertrampto nowhere in particularGezgin

    kalambaka

    26–27 Ara 2023, Yunanistan ⋅ 🌙 8 °C

    ups and downs

    i felt it was time to leave, i had lingered around for too long again. the one last thing i really wanted to see in greece was meteora, huge rock formations with a bunch of monasteries on top.

    taking the bus there was already an adventure, but after about five hours i made it. i did, however, forget to charge my powerbanks, but oh well, why do i carry around a solar panel with me. it was already 9pm and dark and i wanted to sleep in my tent to offset some of the bus ticket costs. after a bit of searching, i managed to find a good area behind a freeway in construction, using a drainage tunnel to get there.

    every household here has at least one dog, and they're not trained to be friendly. walking though the village, you always have dogs barking at you from at least 3 angles, so i was happy to find that very secluded spot next to the highway. the signs were even already there, so i climbed one of them and had a great view of the huge rock walls towering over the kalambaka. tomorrow, i'd surely wake up with a good view.

    set up my tent, ate what was left of my rations. grocery stores are closed for 3 full days during christmas, so said rations included nothing but an apple and some water.

    woke up for sunset, took some pictures, then went to get some groceries. on the way back to the town, i had to cross an area where there are just a couple farm houses and workshops with nothing much in between. except stray dogs, as i had to find out the hard way. all of a sudden, i found myself surrounded by a particularly unfriendly pack of five barking dogs trying to bite my legs. thankfully, it wasn't the last thing i expected, so i already had a stone in hand. thankfully, i kept my shit together pretty well and managed to get out of there. from that point on, i always had to take a 15 minute detour around the open area.

    went for a hike the same day, and the landscapes in meteora absolutely blew me away. definitely top 3 of everything i've seen so far. it's like the saxonian alps, just way bigger, more culturally important and with snow-capped mountains in the background.

    after walking the whole day, i got back to my tent extremely exhausted because of the intense sun exposure. it was so warm that i went shirtless for a couple hours. my powerbank had also charged very well in the sun. i looked into some connections back to thessaloniki and istanbul and realized that i could leave the same day and be in istanbul by noon the next day, so i started packing up. i had pretty much seen everything on my tour and to be honest, i did get a bit paranoid about the dogs, because i had noticed lots of tracks in some mud close to my tent and also some construction workers close to the highway. no need to get busted by the police so close to turkey, where it'll finally be completely legal.    Okumaya devam et

    Çeviriyi gör
  • Jonathan Supertrampto nowhere in particularGezgin

    night bus to istanbul

    27–28 Ara 2023, Türkiye ⋅ 🌙 13 °C

    i managed to get the last seat on the bus to thessaloniki at the local ticket office, got onto the bus and everything went smooth and i arrived in thessaloniki happy and well. except i didn't. as soon as i got onto the bus and off the phone with my mum, i realized i had symptoms for a sun stroke. started shivering, got super hot and pale in the face, ice cold everywhere else and pains in every conceivable part of my body. by the time i was i thessaloniki, i was fighting the urge to pass the fuck out and miss my connection to istanbul. also, i had found the room key of the hostel in my pocket, so i had to go and return in within the two hours i had before the next bus.

    somehow stumbled to the hostel (midnight at this point) and got back to the international bus terminal. the ETA came and went, no bus in sight. was super lucky to have a lady from the bus stop tell me that this particular company didn't use this terminal, so i ran over to the other side of the building where the bus, to my even bigger luck, was still waiting for me 7 minutes after it should've departed. the turkish attendants really weren't too happy with me, but it was so worn out at this point that i couldn't have possibly given a single fuck. fyi, the description of the bus gate on my ticket read "close to the main station". thanks for nothing.

    spent the next 11 hours in zombie mode, but luckily felt much better by the time we hit the turkish border, so i was actually able to appreciate the experience a bit. the turkish border post is huuge and pretty neat, and while waiting to get my passport stamped, i heard the typical religious chanting from a mosque located on the premises for the first time. that's when realization kicked in that i was going to a very different place now.

    driving into istanbul is equally impressive. it's probably the liveliest city i've been to so far, and some of the buildings along the way are mind blowing. just getting off at the bus station was already chaotic as hell, bunch of vendors shouting from their shops, people trying to lure you into a conversation with the typical "how's it going bro" and taxi drivers almost dragging you into their cars. managed to find a trustworthy mobile shop to sell me a prepaid sim card for some internet and got my first turkish dürüm from a super friendly restaurant owner. 2€ well spent.

    after some more complications, i got to my hostel, fell asleep immediately and didn't wake up until late in the evening. travel days are no joke man    Okumaya devam et

    Çeviriyi gör
  • Jonathan Supertrampto nowhere in particularGezgin

    istanbul

    28 Ara–8 Oca 2024, Türkiye ⋅ ☀️ 11 °C

    that first evening, all i could manage was a shower, a short walk outside and a çaj tea with the hostel worker, then i fell right back into bed. i did however bump into mike (i probably didn't mention him earlier) from the hostel in thessaloniki, just on a random street in the middle of istanbul.

    the next day, i moved to another hostel, which was a bit more pricey but way bigger and more spacious, located in the nightlife district taksim. i wanted some good company to celebrate new years with, so i figured it'd be worth it.

    the next days consisted of eating cheap turkish food and exploring every corner of the city, while the nights were reserved for a pinch of partying and not so much sleep. i stayed there for a full week and was able to attend breakfast a grand total of two times.

    i knew that i would be in istanbul for a while, so i got onto tinder and bumble again. among others, i met ipek, who turned out to be a fellow couchsurfer. she promptly invited me to stay with her for a couple of days, and so i did.

    i had a bunch of new impressions i could talk about, but that would take ages, so here's the low down:

    - first time (except the us) where i experience things that are truly new to me, not just recycled european cities
    - istanbul has like 25 mil population, so it's an insanely big, lively, at times very chaotic city
    - everywhere you look, you see gigantic turkish flagpoles or huge illuminated mosques in the distance and you hear muezzins singing from the minarets all the time
    - super friendly people, but in a genuine way and not obnoxious at all
    - lots of stray cats, some are insanely big and people care for them well with food and shelter
    - no more 18yo 1 month europe travelers to be seen in the hostels like in italy / france
    - government and police are very keen on image and security (also, police drives ferraris and bentleys they confiscated in some big razzia and park them in the touristy areas)
    - 1 in 4 wears women wears a hijab, a couple even full niquab
    - there were no fireworks on new years eve, everybody just took to the streets and cheered

    fantastic city, can only recommend 👏    Okumaya devam et

    Çeviriyi gör
  • Jonathan Supertrampto nowhere in particularGezgin

    bolu

    8–9 Oca 2024, Türkiye ⋅ ⛅ 7 °C

    time to leave istanbul behind. on hitchwiki, i had heard of a great hitchhiking spot where people would offer to take you to basically anywhere in turkey in a matter of minutes. because i myself couldn't really decide where to go next, i figured i'd just stick the thumb out and see where it takes me.

    by the time my clothes were dry and i was ready to go, it was already 3pm. just getting to the rest stop in the first place would take almost 2 hours, by which time the sun would almost be down already. ipek invited me to just stay another night and go early the next day, so i did.

    i had a great view over all of istanbul crossing the bridge to the asian side for the final time, leaving europe behind for good now. i arrived ar the alledged super rest stop just to find the gas station closed. there were just a couple of truckers taking a break there. i decided to give it a shot anyways and was picked up after about 20 minutes by a truck driver.

    he spoke just enough english and german to understand that i was trying to reach a big city. he said he would take me to a good spot where it would be super easy to catch a ride. i climbed up into the cabin and we drove for 15 minutes. then all of a sudden, he just pulled over to the emergency lane and stopped. in the middle of nowhere.

    i explained that it would be dangerous here and that nobody would stop, so he drove me a couple of metres more to a toll station. i had to cross the highway to get to the right side, but luckily the police and toll units didn't mind. hitchhiking really seems to be hassle free in turkey. i got a lot of smiles and greetings from the personnel there.

    even here, there were almost exclusively trucks coming through. i started waiting. an hour went by, nothing happened. , one of the toll station staff came up to me and handed me a bag with water, cookies and fruit. he made my day. i hadn't packed any food at all, so the guy really saved me. spirits went from low to high again. after a bit more waiting, finally a car with swiss license plates stopped. it was going to istanbul, i declined and mentally prepared to spend the night somewhere in the nearby woods.

    finally, just minutes before sunset, a pretty young truck driver picked me up. he was going to düzce, halfway in the direction of ankara. i jumped in and he gave me wifi and dj privileges. the drive was way more scenic than expected. after two hours, we stopped at a rest station and he invited me to join him in the truck driver cantine. i was very much out of place, but finally got some real food in me.

    shortly before eight, we arrived and he dropped me off in düzce. i had no idea what to do here and just decided to check the bus terminal for any rides to bigger cities. here, google maps and other travel apps aren't reliable anymore, so you actually have to go there and ask around.

    after some complications and with a lot of help from google translate, for a couple of euros, the lady behind the counter sold me a ticket to bolu. waiting for the bus, i met a man that had lived in germany for a couple of years, who had somehow managed to figure out my nationality just by looks and started speaking to me in german, helping me with the boarding.

    arrived in bolu pretty late when shit went sideways. getting off the city bus from the bus station to the center, i noticed that my credit card was missing. checked my pockets multiple times, nothing. froze it via the app and already contemplated what my next steps would be. turns out it had slid into my passport, huge relieve.

    still no idea where i'd sleep that night, so i just went to the cheapest accomodation i could find. neither was it a hotel, nor a hostel, nor an apartment building. more like an actual old-fashioned guesthouse. i had to knock on the wooden door of an old house with one of those metal door rings. didn't have much confidence that the place would still be open, but then a tiny, old babushka opened the door and welcomed me in.

    she didn't speak much english, so i spoke to her daughter over the phone. just 5 minutes later, i was already in my room, more specifically the toilet of narnia.

    for 16 euros, i had not only a three person room to myself, but also a breakfast included. i was served a huge platter with vegetables, bread, cheese, honey and more. the old lady even made eggs and çaj for me. 10/10 recommend.

    the only problem was the weather. it was already rainy and almost freezing. also, i had been warned that there would basically be snow storm that week, with temperatures dropping below -15°C. i wasn't really up for that, so i started looking up bus connections. when i found out that i could take a night bus southwest to izmir for a couple of euros, i couldn't withstand.

    now i just had to spend the day somehow. went to the grocery store, where a group of kids were very interested in me and my backpack, then checked the iranian embassy website to find that i was finally online again. filled in my visa application right then and there, agreeing to go to the embassy in ankara sometime soon to get the paperwork done.

    then, i decided it was finally time to get all my flag patches onto my backpack. managed to find a couple ladies in some basement that agreed to sew them on there. now, i really, really stand out. i no longer look homeless, but like an actual traveller, and the staring from others went crazy from that point on.

    many tried to start a conversation, i got two fee çajs in a matter of minutes and a shop owner dragged me into his kebab place to make me a free dürüm. these turks man, i love them. then finally, i met some turkish rapper and his mates, i was with them for a good hour. i was taught various turkish slurs and we even took shots from my leftover jäger. very halal. but all good things come to and end, it was time to head off to izmir.    Okumaya devam et

    Çeviriyi gör
  • Jonathan Supertrampto nowhere in particularGezgin

    night bus to izmir

    9–10 Oca 2024, Türkiye ⋅ 🌧 5 °C

    i walked back to the bus terminal, where i spent the remainder of my time journaling and catching up with my family. the bus arrived just as the snowfall began, and this time one of the staff actually spoke a bit of english. he must've been around my age and acted as my personal attendant for the rest of the ride. chill dude.

    the bus ride was one of, if not the best ones i've had so far, with big, comfy seats, personal entertainment screens and food and drinks included. i had the whole back bench to myself for the whole 10 hour ride. can't complain.    Okumaya devam et

    Çeviriyi gör
  • Jonathan Supertrampto nowhere in particularGezgin

    izmir

    10–15 Oca 2024, Türkiye ⋅ ☁️ 6 °C

    the bus arrived in the early morning, so i still had lots of time to kill until i could check in at a hostel. i had heard many good things about izmir, but my first impression pretty much consisted of garbage, potholes and poverty.

    nonetheless, i was able to scope out a potentially good spot to watch the sun rise above the city and got on my way. busses here are even cheaper than in istanbul, you pay just 6 lira (about 20 cents) for a ride. i walked up a hill through a very dodgy neighbourhood, until i arrived at a castle-like structure at the top, where i froze my ass off for about an hour waiting for the sun to come up.

    i was at the hostel by 9, luckily able to check in right away. took a big nap, went grocery shopping. 700g of schnitzel for 2€, i think i'll stay.

    the first day, i went out to explore the city. everything looks very southern again, with palm trees and everywhere and everything looking a bit beige. one of my gloves flew away in the strong winds the day before, so i decided to take a trip to the outskirts of town and get new ones at the decathlon.

    izmir is a bay city, so taking ferries is often the easiest (and nicest) way to get around. arrived at the probably most luxurious shopping center i've ever been to. i don't know if i already mentioned this in earlier entries, but everytime you enter a public place, like bus terminal, mall, or museum, all your belongings get x-rayed first. looked around the store and ended up buying a trekking pole as well.

    the next day, i went out with a elias, another 19yo german i had met at the hostel and talked to for hours about anything end everything. we spent one or two hours at the bazaar trying not to get pickpocketed or scammed, then went to an archeological museum. also paid a couple cents to shoot a pellet gun at some baloons in the water.

    elias had to go to istanbul the next day, but he planned to go to pakistan and even afghanistan, so we decided to keep in touch so that maybe we could meet up in the future to go there together. that day, i tried to go to the izmir zoo, but the shuttle that was supposed to take me there never came, so i went to a chill spot at the shore and ended the day early.

    on sunday, i wanted to get out of the city a bit so i took the cable car up a mountain and went for a little hike. turns out that from the looks of it, the turkish aren't big hikers, i only saw 2 people in the hours i was up there. had a stunning view across the city to one side and untouched forest hills to the other. after climbing a transmission tower, i went off the beaten tracks and onto a small trail down to a nearby lake.

    the trail abruptly ended in what appeared to be a landslide, so i climbed up to a small road that was conveniently right beside. that road also ended soon, though, but this time, a house with a big fence just was blocking the entire path. i had to scramble up two hundred metres of rock face and scree (very happy about the trekking pole investment), but finally made it back to the proper road and decended safely back to the city.

    on monday, i had planned to hitchhike down the coast towards antalya, but a rain front came in, so i decided to just take a bus to fethiye instead. i feel like this time i really nailed the perfect amount of days to spend in one city, maybe it's because i have the deadline of having to be in antalya by the time my parents arrive.    Okumaya devam et

    Çeviriyi gör
  • Jonathan Supertrampto nowhere in particularGezgin

    fethiye

    15–18 Oca 2024, Türkiye ⋅ 🌧 9 °C

    i thought the bus from izmir to fethiye would take three to four hours, thurns out it's more than eight. i wrote an e-mail to the hostel staff to please wait for me after the 10pm check-in deadline and took an overpriced taxi to the hostel. arrived there just 15 minutes late.

    the hostel is a really nice, friendly place. apart from two cats and two great dogs, there were only two volunteers and robert, the only other guest, there, but we got along great, even cooked together.

    the weather the next day was warm and very rainy and stormy, but i still had to go out to buy some groceries. one of the guys informed me that i could take the bike, and so i did. not having been on one for months now, i had an unexpected amount of fun, even in the pouring rain. felt a lot like i was in vietnam, with the palm trees, the humidity and the lush green hills all around.

    later, i checked out the beach, took a walk up one of the coast rocks and took the bike downtown. fethiye and the surrounding are are perfect tourist destinations, maybe i'll come back someday and trek the lycian way.

    i stayed one day longer than originally planned, because i didn't want to waste great weather on a travel day. me and robert realized we were both planning to do a hike, so we teamed up to hike the first couple of kilometres of the lycian way. we had to take some minibusses to get to the trailhead, and for the second time in turkey, the police stopped to do a passport control. guess i'll have to get accustomed to it from here on.

    the weather couldn't have been better, i zipped off my pant legs and went in shorts for the first time in ages. the sea had turned from murky brown to the most vibrant turquoise i have ever seen in nature. the trail was pretty nice with great views, we even met a guy that planned to go all the way to antalya.

    booked a bus for noon the next day, said goodbye to everyone and reached antalya less than four hours later.    Okumaya devam et

    Çeviriyi gör
  • Jonathan Supertrampto nowhere in particularGezgin

    antalya, pt 1

    18–20 Oca 2024, Türkiye ⋅ ☁️ 17 °C

    got off the bus and checked into the hostel. super good vibes there. met another german doing the lycian way and a german-iranian guy from isfahan. and by the way, the rumors are true, you can substain a diet of nothing but freshlt picked oranges walking around the city.

    i figured my parents would drag me around to every sight in the city anyways, so i decided to take a day off and just stay in the hostel. we had a really fun jam session in the evening, superb vibes, everybody was great. even met one of the hostel guests from izmir again. maybe i'll come back another time, but first, a little vacation is in order.    Okumaya devam et

    Çeviriyi gör
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