In Cluj, Romania as another month passes me by. Here is a quick recap of things that have stood out on my way from Brno, Czech Republic to Maramures in northern romania. I usually struggle with the classic modern architecture I visit, questioning if the building acting more like a museum than it’s intended function, is good grounds for evaluation... but Villa Tugendhat was amazing. I met some great people through Couchsurfind in Daniel (Brno), and Iva and Lukas (Olomouc). Finally getting to the outdoors in the Tatras Mountains in Zdiar, Slovakia. The unexpected hike over the pass blew me away (not literally), and spending time at the hostel there was great. I intended on 3 days and stayed 6! Resuming sketching felt really good in Banska Stiavnica. Back to Budapest... what a city. Leaving felt like a brand new adventure, as it would be all new destination for the next 7 months. Hungarian dancing in a wine cellar in the early morning hours in Eger while drinking the ‘Bull’s Blood’ in the Valley of the Beautiful Women. Finally showing my passport again on a lonely, but entertaining Thanksgiving day, drinking red wine out of a plastic bottle. Finally Maramures. A highlight for sure... meeting wonderful people and slowing down life for a while. Thanks Rada, Maria, Lenutza, Ion and Alex.

Random thoughts. Slowly getting into more of a routine, somedays feel very rushed, and some feel very slow. Somedays I need to take the day off and relax, and some I am up for getting out and exploring all day. Somedays I really don’t feel like drawing. It is hard with the weather. People are often asking me if I am homesick, or missing home. The honest answer, as a whole, is no, at least not yet. But there are definitely a few things I really miss. Going from one temporary place to the next, it is a lot of the same conversations with new people... I miss dinner parties with friends. Lets see if I can tie those two statements together. I miss the absolute comfort and familiarity that accompanies a dinner party with the people you are close with. I also miss reading a hard copy of the New York Times on Sunday mornings. Nothing better than that.

In this month of November I have visited new countries: Slovakia and Romania, and returned to a few old favorites in Czech Republic and Hungary. I’ve also made my way to lots of new cities and places in the Czech Republic: Brno and Olomouc and Hungary: Pecs and Eger. I guess if the list is not too long, I am doing a decent job of slowing down the travel.

I have not weighed myself in a while, so I am not really sure how I am doing on that front. I have confirmed with Daniel in Brno that my reading of 73kg’s, or 160lb’s, was in fact off... The scale get thrown off when used on a carpet... perhaps this is intentional Daniel! I still haven’t done a lot of serious hiking, mostly as it is late in the season and the weather doesn’t necessarily cooperate. All that will change down in Africa though!

No real breakthrough’s on the music scene. Still listening to a lot of Townes van Zandt. It has been too much effort to try to figure out what to listen to, so I’ve been putting the itunes on shuffle, which makes for a great soundtrack as you move across the landscape (I am typically listening while traveling by train). Through it I’ve found a lot of pleasure in some songs that I didn’t necessarily seek out before. Here are some of the latest.

More Townes van Zandt, Fraternity: This song just makes me laugh.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IuaLS1TZNxI

Sharon van Etten, Serpants (if you have a ‘van’ in your name, maybe you’ll make it in here).
Good rocking driving music from this Brooklyn artist:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hYgyQ20TJAs

Wilco/ Billy Bragg, Remember the Mountain Bed. From random shuffle. This one played at the right place and right time... makes me think of someone:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UXJBcjDMyvE

And finally! Snow, Informer.
Because it has played three different times in three different cafe’s in three different cities:


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=skrPiEY9udM

I continue to track money with my fancy spreadsheet. Still doing OK, and trying to stick to $50/day, but Hungary was kind of a bust. I am not really sure what happened there. Reporting for the last four countries. Czech Republic: $34.86/ day, but I managed to do a lot of couchsurfing here. Slovakia: $49.66/day, this included all travel and accommodation with no couchsurfing, all hostels. Hungary: $81.02/ day. This one is an anomaly... not sure what happened. And to date in Romania: $49.67/ day, with hotels, hostels and all travel. Even with the bust in Hungary, I’ve managed to bring the average down from $97.57/ day through the end of October, to $68.52 through the end of November. (This number is actually probably like $93.00/day if you include the $1000 dollar flight down to Capetown, and the $700 flight to Kilimanjaro, but I will include those costs when I get to those places).

Some more random thoughts:

I lost a bag with camera stuff at the hostel in Budapest (OK, I left it in the kitchen). In it was a polarizing filter and a couple of 4GB compact flash cards, and 35 Euro. Luckily I had my charger and all important equipment (8GB and 4GB compact flash, card reader and charger) on me at the time. It left a bit of a dilemma. It wasn’t worth the money to go back to Budapest to get it, and the cost to send it to me (even if I had an address) was more than the money left in the bag. So I asked them to tuck it away, and maybe a friend passing through could pick it up... The sketchbook debate. Drawing in a little sketch book vs. big one. I am being a little too precious drawing in the big sketch book, trying to be too perfect... but that is not the point... the small book sketches have more character and reveal more. I need to transfer the small sketchbook mentality when working in the big one. There is a difference in how you draw in them though, beyond the preciousness... it is easy to be faster in the smaller book, because you can draw standing up. With the large book, you need to sit down and keep it on your lap, which causes you (me) to feel like the act of drawing is more serious.... My fake student ID that I worked on prior to leaving hasn’t revealed the savings I expected. I promised Alex (the source of the original ID) 10% of the savings... so far I owe him about one dollar.

Finally, here is an awesome conversation I had while at the hostel in Budapaest. There was a couple checking in about the same time as me. We chatted a bit, and I introduced myself:

Me: Hi, I’m Denis (extending my hand)

Response: We’re Canadian.


Really Canada?


And here are the Instagram pics from the past month.