Walking the length of the Alps with the Via Alpina Trail

by Neil Woodburn on

One of the world’s greatest hiking trails has finally opened. And if you’re a backpacking glutton, you can take it all the way across the European Alps.

And how far is that you ask?

Well, if you start in Monaco, work your way up to Chaminox, and then cross over into Italy, Switzerland, Liechtenstein, Germany, Austria, and then finally, down to Slovenia, you would have covered 3,100 miles.

Via Alpina officially opened in 2005 after many years of effort to link together the numerous trails crisscrossing Europe’s most fantastic mountain range. This would never have been possible prior to the formation of the EU since the trans-Alp trail crosses borders so often. The section known as the Red Trail, for example, crosses back and forth 44 times–backpackers would have filled up an entire passport with stamps just hiking the trail 20 years ago.

But now, all one needs is a warm sleeping bag, some gorp and donkey-like endurance to travel the same distance. The best thing about stitching all these trails together, however, is that the Alps are extraordinarily user-friendly thanks to a series of huts where backpackers can spend the night during their journey. In addition, large swaths of trail pass through villages and resort areas where trail blazers can stop for a beer and schnitzel instead of eating dehydrated food for 44 days straight.

If you’re considering such an adventure yourself, check out the trail’s official site, Via-Alpina.org, where you can download maps, read trail descriptions, and even hook up with hiking partners.

My night with the Balkans’s beloved Rakia

by Justin Glow on

Aaron’s post on the Czech alcohol Becherovka had me thinking about the Balkans’s beloved drink, Rakia, which I had the displeasure of tasting on my recent travels in Slovenia. Rakia (?ganje), you see, must be the complete opposite of Becherovka (of which I’ve never tried), at least in terms of Aaron’s “gingerbread and Christmas” description.

Long ago I stopped taking shots of hard alcohol because I couldn’t handle it. Beer is my friend, but one too many Jagers or Rumplemintz has turned me off the bottle entirely. But one evening while knocking back a few Union beers in Bled, Slovenia’s only Irish pub and hostel combination, George Best’s, I was confronted by an old man carrying a tray of shot glasses filled with clear liquid. “Rakia,” he mumbled. “For you!”

I suppose I should back up a bit. A few minutes before this, I had set my beer down on a table to grab something out of my back pocket. When I looked back down at the table a few seconds later, my beer was gone. I knew it couldn’t have gone far, and sure enough, the older Slovenian gentleman with whom I had just been sharing a drunken conversation, was holding it in his hand. “Hey,” I said, getting his attention. “You’ve got my beer!”
I expected a confrontation. I spoke absolutely no Slovenian, the man barely any English, and our prior communication didn’t amount to much in the way of actual conversation. It took 15 minutes, for instance, for him to explain to me what he did for a living which, as far as I could tell, involved replacing o-rings on toilets. Instead of confrontation, I got the most heartfelt apology I’d ever received. It was obvious that the man had no intentions of swiping my beer, he was just too drunk to know that it wasn’t his. He apologized profusely, handed my beer back, and disappeared into the crowd.

This is when, only a few moments later, I saw him heading back in my general direction with a tray full of shots. “No, no — really, it’s OK!” I pleaded. I really didn’t want the shot, but in line with typical Slovenian hospitality, he insisted. And in the interest of maintaining diplomatic relations, I obliged.

The taste of Rakia could be described as a mix between brandy and rubbing alcohol, or “lighter fluid and Halloween,” if forced to link it with a holiday as Aaron did. The subtle hints of fruit promised by the labels on popular brands were nowhere to be found, probably because what I was drinking was distilled in a dirty bathtub somewhere. “Gee thanks!” I said, downing the first one. I put my hand up in protest for the second. The way I saw it, there was absolutely no chance I’d be drinking another shot of Rakia without ultimately ending up face down in the bathroom. Luckily, a friend with a higher tolerance and more hair on his chest stepped in and took the last one for the team — a selfless act I will never forget.

And that was my one and only night with the Balkans’s beloved Rakia.

Want a cheap way to travel to Europe? Check out a “positioning” cruise

by Jamie Rhein on

A friend of mine is writing a memoir about her mother’s life. Part of it includes details about her mother’s work as a “ladies maid/companion” of sorts for an alcoholic, wealthy woman. My friend is British– and her mother died when she was well into her 80s living an ordinary life through a world rife with change.

Sprinkled throughout the memoir are historical details to set the place and time. I find it a fascinating read, particularly the details about her mother’s travels on a cruise ship. If it weren’t for her job, my friend’s mother would have never taken a cruise–or seen the world past her working class roots. Cruises were not part of her station in life.

These days, of course, cruises are such great deals that you don’t have to hire on as a companion to someone to make a trip across the ocean. Ed Perkins, travel writer commentator suggests another way to score the cheapest option. According to Perkins, “positioning cruises” can get you to Europe in 13 nights for $599 if you don’t mind a non-ocean view cabin. If you want to see the ocean, the cost is $900 more. These are the prices he found from Miami to Barcelona from Hotwire.com. There are many, many options.

If you are flexible, prices go down the closest you get to the time the ship pulls away for shore. If you run with your suitcases flying behind you yelling “Wait for me! I can leap across” as the ship is starting to pull away, the price is almost free. Just kidding. I made that part up.

It is true that prices go down the closer to the departure day, though. These cruises aren’t the type that go from port to port to port. This is a trip across the ocean with the amenities on board. There may be a Bahamas stop, but, that’s it. The scope of the amenities depend on what sort of cruise ship you are on–mass market vs boutique.

As Perkins points out, since this is a one-way trip, you eventually need to have a one-way flight back to the U.S. if that’s where you are heading. One-way flights can be arranged, and are often cheaper if tacked onto your cruise deal. I wonder if you waited long enough, you could find a similiar deal for the return trip?

If I were having a “gap year” that Neil writes about, I think this would be an excellent way to start it off. While you’re staring out across the waters, pondering, letting your mind wander, you can imagine all the places you could go with days, weeks, months of exploring the world and meeting folks before you.

The article I read was in yesterday’s Columbus Dispatch, but there isn’t a link to it. Here is another article, also by Perkins from last September. He makes the same suggestions, although, the prices are lower this time of year.

In another article I found, this one by Arthur Frommer, Frommer suggests contacting major cruise lines to find out about this type of cruise deal, although, I think the deals he is referring to are on the ships that are coming back the other way. He calls them “repositioning” cruises.

Here’s a link to AffordableTours.com which may be a place to start whether you are “positioning” or “re-positioning”. The major cruise lines are listed.

Photo of the day (01/14/08)

by Iva Skoch on

Here is a cool picture of the Dragon Bridge in Ljubljana, Slovenia. The author, pirano, says that according to the legend, the dragons that sit atop the bridge wave their tales when a virgin crosses. Apparently, no wavings have been seen since the bridge was constructed 1901.

Well, that is certainly a legend that will keep the planeloads of drunken British tourists coming! One day, maybe one day, the dragons might just wave.

***To have your photo considered for the Gadling Photo of the Day, go over to the Gadling Flickr site and post it.***

Naples, city of garbage

by Iva Skoch on

Naples has had a problem with waste management for the last 15 years. it is entirely controlled by the mafia and politicians feel like their hands are tied. And, in a lot of cases, they might literally be.

In the latest crisis, collectors stopped picking up garbage in Naples and Campania before Christmas because there was no more room for the trash at dumps. Dumps are overflowing and local communities have blocked efforts to build new ones.

According to AP, cargo boat laden with 500 tons of garbage from Naples docked at the island of Sardinia on Thursday as the government worked to undo a weeks-long trash emergency that left heaps of waste piled up on the streets of Naples.