Always behave at the border

The time came to finally hitchhike my way out of Austria and take the Croatian direction... I had spend the last couple of days in Graz where there was an strange, yet amazing, several days long party. Against all wise thoughts I left on a Monday morning, public holiday and I was waiting at the highway entrance of an industrial/commercial zone.
My good feeling about this proved to be correct and some 250 cars later a nice Croatian family brought me to Maribor in Slovenia.
Another Croatian stopped fairly fast but since his English and my Croatian where both very bad, we had some serious problems to understand each other. I understood he wasn't going to take the highway but he came from Zagreb, so I decided I should just jump into the car. What I didn’t' understand was that although he lived in Zagreb he was staying in Slovenia, and instead of bringing me in one line to the Croatian border we took many small roads (I got totally lost but I enjoyed the view) to a point close to the Slovenian/Croatian/Hungarian border where he literally dropped me at the border.
No other choice than to walk through it I suppose. Although they were looking a bit surprised at the Slovenian border to see me leave the country that way they let me pass and I continued the road to the Croatian border. There it was another story of course. I was looked upon as a vagabond and they kept aggressing me with the typical border questions. In the meanwhile there was a lonely dog that was, just like me, trying to cross the Croatian border, but he had less luck I guess. Two guardians rushed to him and try to "shoo" him back into Slovenia. The whole scene was tremendously funny. It gave such a cartoon-like impression that I started to laugh at the laurel and hardy scene (because one was a fat guy while the other was small and skinny). Without thinking about it I took my camera and was ready to immortalize the whole scene. BIG BIG error. Not only was I stopped in time to take any picture but my enjoyment of their problems was not taken so well. The result? Well they disappeared with my passport for a long while, checked out my bag, asked many other unrelated questions and made sure I paid my joy with almost 2 hours of pure boredom. When they finally let me go they said I had to take the regional way and wasn't allowed to hitchhike in the vicinity of the border. Like the good hitchhiker I am I didn't listen and put my thumb up right before the highway (there is a big board there that says hitchhiking is forbidden..such boards usually indicate it is good place to do so actually) and some 20 cars later a nice Turkish guy and his colleague took me to Zagreb. He was one of the nicest people that took me so far and had a bag full of cloths for poor people. He offered me a very good looking sweater from it that I turned very fond of. It is warm, fun to wear and is probably one of my favorite pieces of clothing now. We shared stories; he gave me advice and said I had to look up his company in Istanbul if I was in need for work.

We all understand the moral of this story right? Never ever laugh or make jokes at the border! I knew this already, but it can happen so suddenly and in an unexpected way that the danger is always present. I am grateful this happened now already, and not at some other border where more problems in such a case would be unavoidable.

Once again, thanks Omar...I really cherish this new sweater and the memory attached to it.

Shortly about Italy

Most of you heard a lot of stories already from Italy one way or the other, so i am no more going to write about it too much, but:
In one word; it was fan-tas-tic!

One day in Rome
A lot of time spend in Puglia
Some trips here and there that where more than worth it
A couple of days in Napoli and Pompei

Thank kind of sums it up.
Of course, there was a lot more to it. But i noticed i always end up talking about food when i talk about my time there.
When you know my love of that subject (food) and how great it was over there (i truly met the Beethoven of the kitchen) it is completely understandable. I ate an incredible dish that will forever stay in my top 5 dishes for sure. (don't laugh now, but i forgot the name...will update this very soon to add it).
I ate the most magnificent ice i could dream of.
When i talked about it, a lot of people responded they ate very good ice too. Or that they know a place with good Italian ice. I regret hearing that, because it makes me understand that i couldn't share my feelings about this specific ice
It was not just good Italian ice. It was simply perfection. It was like the ice you would search your whole life for. Exactly how ice should be. Not a mixture of sweetness and colourful additives, but pure taste with great composture. Aahhh...memories. Pistache is really not my favourite taste but the one i tasted there was impossible to compare with any very very good ice I ever tasted! After the ice melted in my mouth i swallowed and nothing...really nothing left. Not the most subtle sense of thirst or sugar, no sticky feeling, no aftertaste...only pure pistache. Incredible. Impossible.
I just hope it wasn't a dream...

Other things are well worth talking about too. Like incredible places. I often looked at Caribbean dream islands and their clear beaches, but i never would have expected them to be found in Europe. There should be pictures of it on my Picassa by now, but even though i find the pictures amazing, it only is an insult to the beauty of the reality that we found there. The water was pure and the sun was clear. We where close to a field of oregano, so a very nice perfume blew into our nose every time we inhaled. And on top of everything...there where only a handful people. When swimming in the sea, you only where disturbed by the fishes that came close to you out of curiosity.

I could fill pages and pages of this blog only by talking about Puglia. There where good things, many many of them, but less good things too. (I prefer talking about the good ones, but don't get too many illusions...there are quite some problems there too)

I just want to say, that i am very glad i have been there. That is was great being in company of all those magnificent people. That it opened my eyes to see all those different places and that it felt good being embraced by the kind sea and the warm people over there.
Whatever i might see on this trip, whatever i might experience, The region of Puglia will always stand out on its own way between all the other places.

ps: If you ever go to Napoli, don't drive there with a car...it is suicide for sure!

pps: Really, i am not kidding, don't try it!