Mandy's Movements

Photos: Zagreb

dimanamandy — Thu, 11 Oct 2012 06:30:00 GMT

Photos: Zadar and Plitvice Lakes

dimanamandy — Thu, 11 Oct 2012 06:09:00 GMT

Zagreb

dimanamandy — Thu, 11 Oct 2012 05:40:00 GMT

If you had asked me anything about Zagreb before I went on holidays probably the only thing I could tell you is that it is the capital of Croatia. After spending a couple of days here I do have to say that it is on par with Prague and Budapest for its architecture and culture. In fact, they have much better and bigger parks in the city centre and, for a city of 800,000, it has a fantastic selection of cafes and other entertainment venues. The tourism industy is quite young here so I suspect they will soon be seeing the huge volume of tourists that visit Prague and Budapest.

This is a lovely city to walk around and admire the architecture, the most beautiful being from the Austro Hungarian times. The old part of Zagreb is divided into two sections depending on when settlements were first established - upper and lower old town. I spent about 6 hours yesterday walking through both sections taking photos, admiring the buildings/view, reading about the history, etc. I think I´ve got a bit shorter over the past few weeks because of all the walking I´ve done - might need to get that leg stretch surgery in China!

Today I finished any bits I didn´t get to do yesterday :P and doing a little bit of shopping. This is my last night in Croatia before moving on to Slovenia. I feel a bit sad as I have really, really enjoyed my time here. Croatia is a fantastic country to visit. There is something here for everyone, whether it is culture, architecture, history, islands, beaches, wine, the list goes on. I can understand why it is the flavour of the month. Make sure you all add it to your lists of places to visit!

Zadar

dimanamandy — Tue, 9 Oct 2012 23:01:00 GMT

Zadar is a lovely old town that sits on the coast of Croatia in northern Dalmatia. It is a gateway to a number of islands in northern Croatia but it also is a great place to visit in its own right. It dates back to prehistoric times and there remains evidence of the Roman era that dates back to around 300 AD. There are also a number of buildings (mainly churches) that are several centuries old so it makes for some interesting viewing.

One of the main attractions of the town is the Sea Organ which is a musical instrument built into some stone steps on the foreshore. There are a number of tubes below the steps and random musical sounds are played when the sea waves and wind go through these tubes. The sound is hard to describe although some people have compared it to whales. I wouldn´t quite describe it like that myself due to the lack of whales in the vicinity - in fact I think any whales in the area would stick their fins in their ears and get the hell out of there...

Whilst in Zadar I also went to Plitvice Lakes which is a national park about an hour and a half away. It is known for its waterfalls and colourful lakes ranging between various shades of bright green and blue. It was a lovely day but as it is autumn there wasn´t a tremendous amount of water in the waterfalls. I suggest it be visited in spring instead when the snow has melted and there is plenty of water in the rivers and lakes. Saying that the colour of the water in the lakes was pretty amazing.

I took a bus to Zagreb yesterday which was a public holiday in Croatia. They were celebrating the proclamation of independence from Yugoslavia in 1991. Being the end of a long weekend the bus was absolutely packed but I arrived ok and now have a couple of full days in Zagreb before heading to Ljubljana on Thursday.

I only have 7 days left in Europe. Where has the time gone?!

Photos: Split and Trogir

dimanamandy — Sun, 7 Oct 2012 06:24:00 GMT

Photos: Kotor

dimanamandy — Sun, 7 Oct 2012 06:00:00 GMT

Split and Trogir

dimanamandy — Sun, 7 Oct 2012 05:55:00 GMT

With a heavy heart I left Montenegro and took on the challenges of the land border crossing between Montenegro and Croatia. I don't know what they do at that crossing but it's take about one hour to go through both immigrations. Maybe they handwrite every detail of everyone's passports??? It was further delayed by Croatian police deciding to search the bus from top to bottom, including in the ceiling and underneath the bus. I don't know what they were looking for but I think cigarettes have quite high taxes in Croatia so people try to smuggle them in from neighbouring countries where they are much cheaper...

Anyhow, for the last time I returned to Dubrovnik, got a connecting bus to Split and rocked up there late afternoon on Thursday. I wasn't sure what to expect of Split but I really liked it. I never realised how old it is. It dates back to before year 0 - the place is one big open air museum and has a lot of atmosphere, particularly at night when the street cafes are crowded and musician play their music.

The next day (Friday) I got up quite early and did a self-guided tour through the Diocletian's Palace. The Palace was built around 300AD (by the Roman emperor Diocletian) and there are still some of the walls from that time. The current layout of the city dates from when the palace was built so it is a labyrinth of streets that are enclosed by the original city gates. It a fascinating place to wander through (like so many of these old cities in Croatia!)

I then headed over to Trogir island to see Kate, Anne and Mark who had been parked there ever since the day I left Korcula. Kate gave me the guided tour of the old town (another lovely place) and then we all finished the day sitting on the bay sipping on our pivo (beer) while watching the sunset - a hard life but someone has to do it... Needing to return to Split I left them with their $1.50 beers purchased at the supermarket while I took the bus back to my temporary home and my last night in Split...

Photos: Korcula

dimanamandy — Sun, 7 Oct 2012 05:27:00 GMT

Kotor

dimanamandy — Sun, 7 Oct 2012 05:17:00 GMT

I heard about the Bay of Kotor from one of work colleagues. Having never heard of it I googled it and ever since then have always wanted to visit. As a result, I went in a different direction to the others and headed south to Montenegro while they ventured on to Split. This meant I had to get a boat/bus back to Dubrovnik then change to another bus to Kotor. Fortunately the connections were pretty good - I arrived in Dubrovnik 20 mins before the bus to Kotor was scheduled to depart. As it turns out the bus arrived an hour late anyway (I found out later this was due to the slowness of the Croatian/Montenegro border but that's another story). It's not very far from Dubronik (approx. 1hr 45 min) but going through Croation and Montenegran immigration does add a bit of time to the trip...

The drive on the Montenegran side of the border is lovely. The mountains get higher and higher, the bus drives next to this beautiful enormous lake and through several small towns that date back to who knows when. Kotor itself is beautifully located - carved into the side of the mountain and surrounded by mountains that plunge directly into the lake. The old town itself is very interesting, a great place to get lost in it's winding streets - every corner holds a new surprise, whether it be another church or a building that is 600 years old or just a beautiful scene. The streets in the old town don't have names so the owner of the apartment where I was staying met me at one of the gates to guide me to my room.

I spent the first night in Kotor roaming the streets and getting my bearings. It is a really lovely place. There are a lot of package tourists during the day but the nights are much quieter, some streets you have to yourself...

The next morning I got up reasonably early to walk up to the old fort that sits above the town like a local version of the Great Wall of China. This is a must do for anyone that visits the area as the views are great and the fort itself if really interesting to wander through. It hasn't been restored (yet!) which makes it so much better to walk around although the OHS&W people wouldn't like it!

One the way down I found a path that led to the valley behind the fort where there was an old church (no idea how old) and some abandoned buildings. After bumping into a couple of donkeys (which aparently are everywhere in Montenegro) I noticed a walking path snaking up the mountain that was too tempting to not climb. I didn't walk all the way to the top but I did go a far way up (continuously stepping around huge mounds of donkey poo) and was rewarded with some of the most amazing views. It really was what I call a choir moment, you know, when you can hear the choir music before the scenery is so beautiful. I eventually made the decision to head back down to the town which turned out to be the right one as I found out later I was on a path that was a six hour walk to Lovcen National Park! I managed to fit in a four hour walk that day - I would have loved to have done the whole walk but was not prepared and didn't want to do the whole thing by myself.

The next day I visited Perast, a town on the lake famous for two man made island featuring a monastry and church. The place was lovely but the most eventful bit was the bus ride there. I took a local minibus (1 euro for 1/2 hour each way - cheap huh!) and I think the driver was an aspirational formula 1 driver - Montenegrans have a reputation for being rather careless driving; quite surprising considering the country is mainly mountains with lots of winding roads...

The final day was spent in Centinje, a town that was once the capital of an early Montenegro empire and is now more known for its museums. It was a bit of strange place but the best part was the drive, a bus meandering through the mountains overlooking the bright blue of the Adriatic. Can't really ask for any better scenery really.

I wasn't able to spend more time in Montenegro but I would have loved to have spent a couple more weeks there. It is a seriously beautiful country with it's wild mountains, beautiful lakes and gigantic piles of donkey poo. There is a lot to see there even though it is a small place. I have vowed to return...

Photos: Dubrovnik

dimanamandy — Sun, 7 Oct 2012 05:09:00 GMT

Photos: Budapest & Pecs

dimanamandy — Sun, 7 Oct 2012 03:30:00 GMT

Photos: Berlin

dimanamandy — Sun, 7 Oct 2012 01:16:00 GMT

Photos from Berlin and surrounds

Korcula

dimanamandy — Sun, 7 Oct 2012 00:34:00 GMT

Getting frustrated with the crowds in Dubrovnik we travelled to the island of Korcula to have a few days of rest and to try to ignore that day I reached a particular milestone. We really could not have chosen a better destination for my coming of age. Despite the beaches being rocky the waters in this part of the world are crystal clear and not yet too cold to have a dip. This is against a backdrop of mountains on the Croatian mainland and boats sailing on the Adriatic. Hard work but we were willing to make the sacrifice.

My birthday started quietly but later in the day the guys whipped up this amazing fruit cake for me which, you guessed it, was made of fruit! And it had candles stuck in the bananas on it too! Best birthday cake ever because, as some of you are aware, I´m not much of a sweet tooth. The owners of our apartments also left us a couple of bottles of their red wine for my birthday which was lovely of them. That night we went to a lovely restaurant on seafront (so posh the table had a tablecloth!) and I got my much wished for fish for dinner and it was absolutely beautiful. The others happened to mention that it was my birthday so the restaurant also gave me a piece of cake complete with a candle. See the pic! The final destination for the night was a cocktail bar in a turret. This required us to climb up a step ladder to get to the top. It was hilarious! While sipping our Sex on the Beaches we watched the bartender retreive and return orders to a pulley that was steered up and down the turret from the bar below. As you can imagine it is not a good idea to have a few cocktails before climbing back down...

We spent the next few days in Korcula going for walks, swims and sleeps. On one day we dragged ourselves to a town nearby to visit their beaches and just have a wander... Korcula is a beautiful place to have a few days, weeks or months rest. We all absolutely loved our time there. After six nights however we did have to consider our next moves as there is so much to see in this part of the world...

Dubrovnik

dimanamandy — Tue, 25 Sep 2012 19:33:00 GMT

Woh. This place is absolutely chockers with tourists. I would hate to be here in July and August when tourists are at their peak. Dubrovnik is a lovely city (and restored very, very well) with a beautiful setting on the Adriatic but it is very hard to move amongst the crowds! There are a lot of packaged tourists as well as cruise ships. If you visit, do it in the winter!

We've have spent a couple of days here after arriving from Sarajevo but are looking forward to a few quiet days on the island of Korcula just off the coast of Croatia. As you can see we've cover many miles in three weeks so we are looking forward to a few quiet days of resting, swimming, reading, etc...

This is a quick one. One of these days I'll get around to uploading some photos. Hopefully I'll be able to do it when I'm on Korcula...

Sarajevo

dimanamandy — Tue, 25 Sep 2012 19:18:00 GMT

We arrived in Sarajevo after a long train ride from Pecs. In Bosnia you can pretty much smoke everywhere except inside restaurants and that includes the corridors in trains. I know some people at home who would love the country for that reason alone!

Sarajevo is a city with a fascinating history and very friendly people. I think it's easy to just think of the war in the early 90s when you mention the name "Sarajevo" but there are many more layers to the city, and country, than that terrible time. It is a very old place and it has a great Turkish section that dates back to the Ottoman times. We did a tour with a guy called Neno (no, not Nemo the fish!) and it was absolutely brilliant. I would strongly recommend anyone who visits Sarajevo to do it. He was so enthusiastic and was a wealth of knowledge about a place that has a 1,000 year plus history. Better than any other tour we have done.

I should also add that they have done an amazing job rebuilding the city after the war despite it's lack of money - to give you some idea of their economic problems the youth unemployment rate (25-35) is around 65%. Europe is struggling as a whole but you do notice how much poorer Bosnia & Herzegovina is when you cross the border.

And I can't get my head around how and why the divided the country up they way they did in the 90s. And they have three presidents - one Bosnian, one Croation, one Serb. Crazy and complicated...

Krakow & Budapest

dimanamandy — Thu, 20 Sep 2012 04:51:00 GMT

Ok, ok. I haven't been too good keeping this up to date have I?! I know I'm more than a week behind but I'll do what I can to provide a reasonably comprehensive update minus the boring details...

I'm currently in a town in southern Hungary called Pecs. The pronounciation of this town is something like "Paech" with a Kiwi accent. After several attempts at making ourselves understood by the locals we still can't seem to get it right. Fortunately it is easy for us to write it down so we managed to get here ok. This is just a one night stopover before we get the train to Sarajevo - a 8 1/2 hour train journey with four lots of passport control!

To backtrack... We ended up travelling to Krakow on the planned day. It was on an overnight train which was ok although I did struggle to sleep due to the noise of the train (and that was with earplugs). Krakow is a really lovely town with architecture dating back to the 13th century although there is evidence of settlements going back hundreds of years earlier than that. The first day there we did the free walking tour of the city. To explain what the free walking tours are they are all the rage in a number of European cities at the moment. After a 2-3 hour tour all you need to do is tip the guide the amount you felt the tour was worth. If you aren't happy with the tour you don't tip at all. They are a great intro to the city you are visiting and the guides often not only give you valuable hisorical information but also great tips on where to get a cheap feed, where the good bars are, what museums/galleries/churches/mosques/ synagogues/etc are worth visiting, and so on. I don't have any complaints about any of the tours we have done yet.

Anyhow, we did the tour of the old town in constant drizzle/rain & the cold but it was still a great intro to the town. We also learnt some handy Polish words/phases for "good morning/afternoon", "thank you, "cheers!" and "you have shapely buttocks". Will provide you all with lessons when I get home... The next day we visited Auschwitz & Birkenau - not exactly a cheery day but it is a valuable and eye opening experience to visit the camps. Something everyone should do in their lifetime. The exhibits are very powerful and help give you some idea of the numbers that were murdered there (more than 1 million). A very harrowing place...

Our third and final day in Krakow was spent doing some shopping and then going on the free tour of the Jewish part of Krakow including the area that formed the Krakow Ghetto during WW2.

In addition to the above, there is one other thing you should do when in Krakow. Get a kebab. They are the size of houses & absolutely delicious! And all for approx. AUD3!

From Krakow we got the overnight train to Budapest. Whilst waiting to check in to our apartment we went on a boat cruise on the Danube which is the best way to see the best bulidings in the city and one of my favourite buildings in all of Europe - the Hungarian parliament. It had been 15 years since I was last in Budapest and I couldn't get over the changes to the city. They have done a lot of work repairing a lot of the buildings and it is absolutely beautiful in the city centre. It has a great cafe/bar lifestyle and combined with an amazing history/culture makes it a great place to visit. Saying that it has been hit hard by the financial crisis and a lot of Hungarians are struggling. Government workers get approx. $500 per month salary which isn't much for the cost of living there.

We met up with Sarah that first night (last Sunday) and caught up on the stories of her travels in the UK, Brussels and Munich...

On Monday we joined the free walking tour for Budapest and I spent the afternoon on the Buda side of the river following a Hungarian lunch. For those not in the know the Hungarian diet is not exactly the most healthy diet out there. They love sour cream, bread, lots of meat, deep fried food and cooking everything in lard. Yes, that's right lard. One of their favourite snacks is the good old lard sandwich... And their servings of food are huge. Tonight I was fascinated by this guy in a restaurant who had what looked like 3 or 4 schnitzels on his plate. And that is a normal size serving here. And they have side servings of pototoes or cabbage or noodles. Thank goodness I've been walking alot otherwise I would be the size of a house by now!

We also visited the Terror House which is where the Nazis then the communist Hungarian secret police interrogated and executed Hungarians during the Stalin era. A depressing place but very well put together and quite mind boggling what was done by some Hungarians to their own people. I strongly recommend a visit to this museum should you ever get to Budapest...

Reluctantly we pulled ourselves away from Budapest earlier today and arrived in the historical town of Pecs in the early afternoon. The weather has been pretty good over the past few days but turned bad a few hours ago so I've had no excuse to not update this journal! ;) Tomorrow night we'll be in Bosnia & Herzegovina. Another country, another city! Looking foward to a few quiet days on one of the Croatian islands!

Berlin & Prague

dimanamandy — Wed, 12 Sep 2012 04:29:00 GMT

I'm sitting in a lovely hostel in Prague after a great day in this beautiful city. Prague is jam packed with tourists but it is easy to understand why when you have a look around this place. Despite the numerous tacky souvenir shops and the hordes gathering around the old town square, this is one beautiful and unique city. It has to be my favourite European city to date...

However I do have to backtrack a bit as I've been slack and haven't been providing any updates about this holiday. It's hard to believe that I've only been in Europe a week as, in some ways, so much has happened although in other ways the time has passed quickly.

So let me start from day one...

Kate and I arrived in Frankfurt on 5 September after flying for 26 hours via Hong Kong. We then had to navigate our way to Frankfurt's train station to catch a train to Berlin, a 4 1/2 hour journey. All up we figured we travelled for 35 hours to reach our final destination and a most welcomed shower! Considering the journey we pulled up pretty well and didn't seem to suffer jet lag.

We spent five days in Berlin catching up with Tracy, Markus, Anne and Mark. Aside from the family/friend reunions I spent some time exploring this interesting city with such an incredible history. There is a lot to see in Berlin so I recommend anyone spend at least 3 days there to do it justice. To name a few of the sights I went to the Brandenburg Gate, Holocaust Museum, Checkpoint Charlie (very, very tacky), the DDR Museum, Chalottenburg (a summer palace for one of the Prussian royalty - an impressive palace but a tad small for my own use). Tracy and Markus also took me out to the countryside for some schloss hunting and to see some German villages. It's an easy city to get around with a good transport system that is easy to decipher and a language that is ok for English speakers to have a go at!

I have discovered the joy of 1/2 litre beers and was extremely delighted to find a Coopers Pale Ale in Tracy's local bottle shop. I should add that this shop was located in east Berlin, not in a tourist area, so this was very impressed and excited with this finding. I would have taken a photo if I had the courage to do so!

Kate and I hopped on a train to Prague yesterday (Monday), a 4 1/2 hour journey from Berlin. The section between Dresden and the border is very scenic and is one to add to the list of places to explore in the future. We walked a sweaty 30 mins from the train station to the hostel in Prague - the weather has been great last couple of days, 28/29 degrees. We managed to land ourselves in a great hostel (Czech Inn - thanks to Anne for her recommendation) and managed to locate a great place for dinner with $1.50 half litre beers and pizzas the size of small nations! This is my kind of town! Today we did a free tour of the city which was a great introduction. Suggestion - do the free walking tours in Europe. They usually show you the key sights over 3/3.5 hours and all you have to do is tip the guide at the end of the show.

This is one amazing place and you can understand why it is so touristy when you come here. Apparently it was saved from large scale destruction in WW2 because it was Hitler's favourite city (the only time I have agreed with the man!) I don't believe my photos will ever do it justice but it really is a beautiful city. The architecture is amazing. You could get lost in it's windy streets for hours on end and there are countless places to stop for your 1/2 pint when you get tired and thirsty! There are a lot of bars hidden in alleyways and in basements of centuries old buildings. This place has so much character. I could spend ages here!

We are supposed to be going to Krakow on the overnight train tomorrow night but we are going to try to change our booking so we can stay here another day. Fingers crossed we can do but if we can't, then we'll have to try to come back another time.

Enough for today. I'll post again soon and will post photos when I find a computer where I can download some from my camera. Tomorrow - another day in beautiful Praha exploring the palace and surrounds...