Serbia - Belgrade and Novi Sad

Serbia is a strange mix of everything. They're not greatly liked by their surrounding countries since the break up of Yugoslavia, but have the best food you could want, women that are so attractive men come from overseas just to see them, and the cheapest food in Europe - one dinar, the Serbian currency, is worth 1 Eurocent. Vicki and I checked into an amazingly good hostel in Belgrade, called Green studio. 5 minutes walk from the bus station, it has everything... free laundry, a free welcome beer, the nicest staff anywhere, and comfy beds. I have the nastiest flu, so Vicki went out while I stayed at the hostel and got an early night.

The next day, we went out to see the Nikola Tesla museum. I was excited to see it, as I knew he had invented a bunch of cool stuff, not least the Tesla Coil. On the way, Vicki got a coffee and I got an ice coffee at a groovy looking cafe. However, it turned out to be iced glass, as the barrista had (accidentally, I hope!) put glass in the blender with the drink. I only realised this when I got to the bottom of the drink, but I'm sure it wasn't good for my already sore throat. Hopefully I didn't ingest any, and the glass I found at the bottom of the glass was all of it! Even worse, it turned out to be an ice chocolate instead of an ice coffee!

The Nikola Tesla museum was so cool. Despite not having a gigantic tesla coil that made lightning jump 10 metres (my hopes were high!), they had various smaller coils, and one that was powerful enough to light flourescent rods mid-air as we held them. After holding rods, and letting lightning jump to our fingers, and all the fun things you can do with Tesla coils, as well as a healthy induction (get it?) into the many electrical innovations of Nikola Tesla, we left, headed for the ruined Roman fortress on the other side of town. It provided a good viewpoint over the city, and we had a peek over the walls before heading to Princess Llubjana's house. Unfortunately, it was closed, but we found multiple cocktail bars on the way that waylaid us so by the time we reached the final tourist destination, we weren't too bothered that it wasn't open.

We wanted to see a small town in Serbia as well, so went to Novi Sad - not exactly small, as it's the second biggest town in Serbia, but still. The main shopping street was lovely - all the towns in Serbia have such nice big old buildings.

Bosnia and Hercegovina - Mostar and Sarajevo!

These two are a traveller's mecca, I am not sure why everyone doesn't travel here. Mostar was the first stop on the trip, and was so interesting... grafitti about the Red army lined walls, a short walk from buildings ridden with bullet holes, and our apartment was next door to a wall with more bullet holes than wall. When we arrived at the bus station at 10pm at night without any prebooked accomodation (by my recommendation) I was a little worried... sleeping in car parks isn't really my thing. We were taking a bit of a risk, as we weren't sure whether there would be sobe grans, as there are down the dalmation coast and montenegro. Luckily, one gran was still awake, and we secured a room for 10 Euros pp/n. Our sobe gran (the host of the accomodation, usually an extra room in a house that is rented out to travellers) was the kindest yet - she offered us a mint tea with biscuits before dinner, and when we came in at lunch time the next day, offered us some of her honey-roasted capsicums and fresh fish. Amazingly, fish is the cheapest meat here, at about 5 AUD per kilo. In Montenegro, there were mussels for 1.50 AUD per kilo... ridiculous!


Mostar has an amazing old town section. The Stari Most, the most famous tourist attraction, is a tremendous piece of Roman architecture, 25 or so metres above the river below. Young men used to jump from the bridge at their coming of age. It sounded like fun; I really wanted to do it; and was revved up to take the jump when a Scottish traveller advised me that one side was shallow and the other was deep. I thanked him for that, but then realised that I had forgotten which side was the shallow and which the deeper, so didn't jump that day. Lucky I didn't, as it turned out, as my girlfriend told me the next day when I was talking to her on the phone that shallow divers practice diving off the bridge as the water is only 15 feet deep on both sides - only 2 and a bit lengths of my body! Breathing a sigh of relief at my near-death of my own stupidity, we checked out the markets. The Islamic influence of the markets is palpable, with beautiful tea sets and daggers being sold, with a fug of sheesha steaming through the air (although we never found where we could get some!). The old-town, cobblestoned feel of the place, along with the semi-hippy markets were brilliant, and it's been one of my favourite places to travel in the whole 8 months of world-visiting thus far.

Sarajevo, a short train ride away, has similar Islamic influences in the marketplace, although it is much bigger than Mostar. They sell the same things, so you just have rows of tea sets and etched metal to peruse. It was almost as interesting as Mostar, and also had some interesting historical icons. The most famous historical icon in Sarajevo is the bridge where Franz Ferdinand, Archduke of the Austro-Hungarian empire was shot, which precipitated World War I. You get a strong sense of history standing on the bridge, thinking how this assassination was the beginning of hundreds of thousands of deaths worldwide.

Kotor, Montenegro

Our host in Debrovnik told us that Kotor would be 8 hrs away by bus. When we arrived after 3 hrs, we were surprised and relieved. I don't like buses! Kotor is like a scene from the Lord of the Rings, with a hilltop fort, with walls that stretch down the mountain ridge an hours strenuous walk away to envelop the old town. I took some great shots from the top of the fort after getting up early to miss the heat, then went for a swim in the water to cool off. The bay harbours water as clear as Croatia's, if not as azure-blue. Our next step is north-west, to the Balkans! Should be interesting!!!

Debrovnik

Travelling by bus has to be my least favourite forms of travel. Travelling by bus with my cousin is worse. On our third day together, she lost her lonely planet and camera on a bus. This time, I lost her. After we left Hvar at mid-morning, we arrived in Jelsa, ready for a connection to Securaj, all the way across the island. I had been feeling blessed today, because the travel fairy I have kicked in once again - we found out only that day that the bus only runs twice a week, once on Friday and once on Monday - and it turned out to be a Friday! So we're in Jelsa and Vicki says she needs to get some water. I say "Okay", and start looking for our connecting bus while Vicki goes off to look for water. Having found the connecting bus, I put my bag in and wait for Vicki. Minutes tick by, and no Vicki appears, but the bus driver does. I ask him to wait for a second while I run and find my cousin, and he rolls his eyes and nods. Off I go, looking in every store around town - no Vicki. Despondent, I returned to the bus. The driver raises his eyebrows, and I take my bag out of the bus. "When's the next bus?" I asked him. A real joker, the bus driver checks his watch, snorts, and looks up at me with a peircing stare... "Next bus Monday" he says. Now I'm really worried. I beg him to wait for another few minutes, while I take another run around town. This time, I find Vicki in the checkout queue at one of the stores. I shout "the bus is leaving NOW!" and run out of the store, just as the bus driver starts up the engine. We jumped on just in time - I was so happy we weren't stranded in Jelsa until Monday!

After arriving at Securaj, we took a scenic ferry across to Drevnik on the mainland. After a delay, the bus came to take us to Debrovnik at around 6pm. Arriving at 10pm, we were fed up with travel. It was well past dusk, and we quickly realised that we had only copied down half of the directions to the hostel. Knocking on a likely candidate, we came upon a 70+ year old couple in their bedclothes, who assured us that they did not rent out rooms. The other possible candidate street was on Radnick street. But no-one knew where Radnick Street was, or if it even existed. Luckily, the old lady was poor of hearing, and thought I said Rad-nitch-ka. She gave us directions there, and it turned out to be the right place. We fell into bed, so glad to have a place to sleep for the night.

The next morning, we explored Debrovnik's old town suburb, Pile. Pile has to be the richest place ever seen, with white marble flagstones and beautiful buildings wrought from the same rock. We explored the town for a few hours until we threw it in for an early night.

Split and Hvar - Heaven

Unfortunately, Vicki lost her guide book when we left the apartment in Zadar. Then, in her optimistic way, she said "At least it wasnt my camera". Only seconds later, her next words were "Hey, where is my camera?". She'd left it on the bus. To relieve her depressed emotions, she went out for some retail therapy, and bought a lovely blue and white striped sailor shirt. Transeversely, plans were made to celebrate the first losses of the trip (Vicki is reknowned for them), and Vicki started with a bottle of local Vodka, while I had a delicious lemon radler beer I'd discovered in Zadar. Our hostel in Split is amazing. The friendly owner showed us up to the hostel, where we met Americans and Irish and too many Australians. We got on so well with the Irish that the night started off with lots of dancing in the hotel room, and moved to the only club open on a Monday night, where we only realised there were dancers in lingerie after about three hours. I taught Kate, one of the Irish girls, to dip, and we all danced until the floor was burning. To cool off, we went for a dip in the water, before returning to the dance floor soaking wet for some more, slightly more slippery dancing. After another dip and more dancing, we headed back to sleep. The next night Vicki and I had a quiet one while the Irish went out again. A new Irish girl called Anna joined the Irish conglomerate, and was just as fun as the other two. We all made plans to meet in Hvar the next morning. Unfortunately, one of the Irish girls woke up with a strange allergic reaction that required medical help (apparently it was the Vodka, which tasted horrible, so it might have been true), and couldn't come to Hvar.

Little did we know that they would be on the ferry over the next day. Them being Irish and us being Australian, the night couldnt help turning rowdy, where we danced and drank in our apartment until late in the night. When one of the Irish girls threw up and Vicki passed out, our apartment host threw us out, so we went out on the town. The clubs were a bit dissapointing, however, and after picking up Vicki an hour later, we took a free boat ride to a club called Carpe Diem on a little island near Hvar. It turned out to be quite as bad as the mainland clubs though, so we left before even going in. The Irish girls stayed to party, and came back to the apartment at about 6am. All the Irish went back to theirs to sleep, and Vicki and I continued sleeping.

Hvar itself is amazing. Once you've seen the ocean at Hvar, crystals dont seem so clear anymore. The days are blissful, with weather hot enought that taking dips in the clearer-than-crystal water is compulsory, while at night the lights at the top of the masts on the moored yachts create their own constellations, swaying drunkenly in the night sky. Lavender scents flow to you from the markets in the town centre at all times of day, and theres little else to do but take walks along the beach and go for swims. You can find a beautiful spot on the beach at night, perfect for a midnight dip, and watch the city lights as you dry off.

The buildings in Hvar are an old-age Tuscan style that put the buildings in Italy to shame, with stained shutters and sone walls, while the pavements are made from the same stone. The buildings are all similar, with orange ceramic roofing tiles. While one building looks good, seeing the whole city by day from afar, combined with the crystal clear water, makes a composition that is not to be missed. If you only go to one place in Croatia, make it Hvar!

Croatia - Zadar

Thinking we should see somewhere a tiny bit off the tourist track, we next headed to Zadar after Venice, taking the night train to Zagreb and from thence a bus to Zadar. After not sleeping at all because the customs people kept waking us up hourly in a kind of sleep torture as we passed through multiple countries (but we got stamps!), we didnt get seats on the bus, so I slept on the floor - which is probably the most comfortable way to sleep on a bus, anyway. Contrary to being off the tourist track, this place was well known to Germans, and almost everyone spoke Deutsch, and looked surprised when we didnt know any of it. Everywhere was ridiculously expensive and booked out anyway, and our options were looking thin. Luckily, on a visit to a campsite to see if there were any tents for rent, I met two Chilean women, who were also looking for a place. We buddied up and quickly found an apartment which we shared, which worked out at 15 Euros a night with a kitchen, bathroom, and view of the ocean - deal! We beached it up the first day, and had great fun. We didnt even know there was more to Zadar until the next day, when Vicki and I found a maze of alleyways, as all good European towns have, lined with marble pavestones and buildings. The Pekaras (bakeries) are amazing, and we discovered burek, which is a delicious feta-filled pastry that resembles a quarter of a gigantic pie. Zadar has some great beaches with crystal clear water, as well as a sea-organ, that blows sound generated by the motion of the waves against the shore. It sounds as peaceful as an Enya song, and imbues the shoreline with a magical element. At night, solar panels that have been charging all day unleash their power, transmitting an amazing light show on the ground under your feet.

Cousins reunite - Venice, birthdays, and cocktails

Catching a 3pm train from the eastern side of Italy, I thought "this is a narrow country, surely it wont take long to get to Venice". I was in Venice at 9.30pm - not as short a trip as I had thought, and that's after I had to pay an augmentation to my ticket on the train. Arriving at night, I waited for a bus for an hour, and then found the timetable - the last bus had left at 9.20. It just wasn't my day. Anxious to meet Vicki, I grabbed a taxi. Taxis in Italy are expensive - I watched as the meter rose constantly, and shelled out 20 Euros for a 5 minute cab ride (ouch!). To my consternation, I found out that there was a different bus line that I had accidentally purchased a ticket for that ran to my destination. Oh well. To make the night better, I found a cheap bottle of wine at the campsite where we were staying in Venice and spoke to a nice Australian who was travelling for a few months. She gave me tips on going to Croatia and Hungary which were great, and a half an hour later my cousin walked in. It was so good to see a familiar face after more than a month meeting new people but no old ones.

Vicki took part in the drinking of the wine, while we had a quick dinner of cucumber, tomato, and focaccia bread. We talked late on into the night, catching up on all our latest thoughts on society, politics, philosophy, the whole deal - Vicki and I think so similarly that its great to compare notes on all our most recent thoughts. The next day we woke up at a reasonable hour, excited to see Venice. It has to be the best of the Italian cities; it has such charm in the narrow alleyways webbed throughout the city, and the canals interspersed with pathways. Getting lost is a must, and we did it as much as we could, not bothering with maps or anything. On my last day there, a call to my parents informed me that there were arrows on top of the buildings pointing to the main bridge, which would have been useful to know earlier on!

The next day, it was my birthday! My 22nd, and the first where I didnt get depressed for days before hand for being old. I figure there's no point now, as I definitely am old, so might as well just enjoy birthdays. After talking to my family and girlfriend, Vicki and I found a cute cafe, where we had cocktails - I tried a coffee kahlua something and a Vodka martini and Vicki had various fruity things. Vicki spilt the best part of both my drinks, so we decided to move on, and I decided to keep a close hold on my drinks. We found a wine bar later, where I had a couple of glasses of Pinot Grigio and we shared a cheese and olive and salami platter, which was far too big considering we were supposed to be having a two course meal for dinner. After looking around for a nice restaurant for a while, we found a place that looked decent and sat down. Vicki had camembert with walnuts and honey for primi piatti, and I the smoked ricotta and seafood Gnocci, and for secondi piatti, Vicki had a vegetable pizza loaded with vegies, while I had a platter loaded with seafood - far too much for my now shrunken stomach to hold! A great night, topped off with getting lost again. A friendly Russian-sounding family showed us the way to the bus station, and we got home very late and so full we both exploded and died.