Hrvatska and Hungary

    My next stop after Slovenia was Zagreb, the capital of the country we call Croatia, but they call Hrvatska.  I don't know why the words are so different.  But I had a pretty uneventful stay - I explored the town, ate some good food, saw some of the best graffiti I've ever seen, and chilled at the parks.  Zagreb is much more of a city that any other place I've been to in Europe, but the parks at the heart of the city are beautiful and full of teenagers making out.  The last night, I got dinner with an Australian mine worker, an English biker going around the world for 3 years, a freelance travel writer from Florida, and an English girl who was touring Europe with some company promoting some kind of cleansing diet.  That's the best thing about hostels - the people you meet.

The start of a half mile of street art on a wall.

Bears in a pool of pencils.  Obviously.

First thing you see off the train, and one of the best parks in the city.

Me, freelance writer, restaurant owner, cleansing diet girl, biking guy, and Aussie miner (left to right)

Playing with mirrors in the train with Uruguayans

This was actually in Slovenia, but the dude was killin it.

    But today is the 100th day of my travels.  I left February 4th and started day 1 of my trip on February 6th, forever losing a day thanks to the international dateline.  However many days I've actually been gone, I consider this to be day 100.  So, I wanted to make a list of some superlatives and statistics!

Total flight time:  49 hours

Total intercity bus/boat/train time (rough estimate):  133 hours

Colds:  2

Food poisoning:  4 or 5

Staph:  1

Pancakes (REAL pancakes, not crepes):  11 (6 from McDonalds)

Books:  12  (Hyperion Cantos 1-3, Weavers of Saramyr, Chronicles of Narnia 1-6, A Clockwork Orange, and Cat's Cradle)

Texans met: 1

Country with best food:  Malaysia

Country with worst food:  Nepal or New Zealand

Best coffee shop:  Kapai in Wellington, NZ or Vudu Cafe in Queenstown, NZ

Most frequented restaurant:  Chicken Mamas, Tonsai, Thailand

Best meal:  pancakes, eggs florentine, eggs benedict, and bottomless coffee at Mike's Restaurant, Pokhara, Nepal

Best beer:  Export Gold from NZ or Rauchbier from Bamberg

Best new food:  chicken tikka masala with nan bread

Best new drink:  lime juice or 100 Plus, both from Singapore

Weirdest food:  goat skin, Kathmandu, Nepal or cow tongue sausage, Bamberg, Germany

Best hostel:  Kang Traveler's Lodge, Cameron Highlands, Malaysia

Worst hostel:  Pushpa Guesthouse, Pokhara, Nepal

Best experience:  ice climbing, Fox Glacier, NZ

Worst experience:  food poisoning in Kathmandu, Nepal

Most weight gained in:  Malaysia

Most weight lost in:  Nepal

Best scenery:  Lake Bled, Slovenia or Fox Glacier, NZ

Best hosts:  The Reeds and Abby in Singapore

Most annoying voice:  Thai women

Best souvenir:  badass laser in Bangkok, Thailand

Dirtiest city:  Kathmandu, Nepal

Country I was most ready to leave:  Nepal

Country I wanted to stay longer in:  Thailand

Country I wish I had visited:  Israel or Turkey

Best city to move to:  Wellington, NZ

Worst city to move to:  Kathmandu, Nepal

Worst hair style:  mullet-dreads (typical of Spaniards)

Cutest girls:  Croatia (I'm not even kidding)

Biggest bro culture:  New Zealand, hands down

    Even if nobody reads or cares about that list, it was fun for me to look back on the last 100 days and think about the highs and lows.  It reminds me of one of my favorite parts of a book by Henri Nouwen, The Return of the Prodigal Son:

"I have a friend who is so deeply connected with God that he can see joy where I expect only sadness.  He travels much and meets countless people.  When he returns home, I always expect him to tell me about the difficult economic situation of the countries he visited, about the great injustices he heard about, and the pain he has seen.  But even though he is very aware of the great upheaval of the world, he seldom speaks of it.  When he shares his experiences, he tells about the hidden joys he has discovered.  He tells about a man, a woman, or a child who brought him hope and peace.  He tells about little groups of people who are faithful to each other in the midst of all the turmoil.  He tells about the small wonders of God...  He keeps saying; “I saw something very small and very beautiful, something that gave me much joy.”"

    There have been countless small and beautiful things, but 3 have really stood out.  I saw the first one the first day I left home, in the LAX airport: a family gathered around a son and praying over him, no doubt before he left on a long journey.  It made me stop in my tracks and reminded me of what a great God we have.  The second was seen over the course of four days while I stayed with the Reeds and spent time with Abby and her friends in Singapore.  Seeing a community of believers in action, halfway across the world, gave me a lot of joy and a lot of hope.  The third was a couple reading the bible over breakfast in Pokhara, Nepal.  I was nearby and it was clear that they were reading about the Faith of the Centurion, and just hearing that girl read those words renewed my spirit on the spot.  That, and I was eating the best pancakes I'd had in the last 100 days that morning.

    I've seen a lot of things that were very small and very beautiful, and I thank God for them, but those are pretty much the only three times I've seen people seeking the Lord in the last 100 days.  Like Nouwen's friend, I've seen a lot of pain and upheaval in the world, but just a hint of Jesus has changed how I look back on it.  

    Anyways, now I'm in Budapest, Hungary, staying with a girl that I met through Couch Surfing.  It's a really, really beautiful city and it's the first city in a long time that I've noticed a strong hipster scene. It's pretty dirty, but the architecture and buildings well make up for it.  It's been a pretty uneventful stay - my host is busy most the day and I explored most of the downtown area the last two days, and that's about it.  

Big church on a big hill

Parliament building

Cool bridge over the Danube

One of my favorite sculptures I've ever seen!  The back is a bunch of square, rusted iron pillars.

Don't know the name of this, but beautiful.

This kid was killin it too.

Parliament building from the front.

Huge basilica.

Tomorrow I leave for Bratislava, Slovakia and will stay there 2 nights, with a day trip to Vienna.  Then Prague after that!  Since travel season has started, all the good/cheap hostels get booked up quickly for the weekends, so we'll see what happens...  This post was way longer than I meant it to be.