HELLO!
As you all know, we are home, and have been for 2 weeks now. But upon request, Im finishing off the blog for those of you who are interested in our last 5 weeks of the trip.
I believe the last place we left you was in Croatia, before we headed to Budapest? Am I right? I’ll go check now…. lemme get back to you..
okay, yes! we left you in Croatia, the photos for the rest of the trip have been uploaded, so you have a rough idea of what we got up to.
It starts with a 6 hour train from Zagreb to Budapest.. the hottest..hottest..most filthy, stuffy train that I have ever been on in my whole life.. for a whole 6 hours. It was rather unenjoyable, but all the same, we made it to Budapest, Hungary. You always know when your gonna like a city while travelling.. because you see something like Maccas, or KFC.. or H&M.. and you know that everything is gonna be okay! Budapest has it all, and more. The city captivates you, swallows you then spits you out at the end, leaving you wanting more! It’s got something for everyone, history, future, bars, clubs, street food, hummus cafes, shisha, jewish quarter, museums, thermal baths, monasteries, palaces, parliament buildings, food markets, shopping centres… you want it, you get it, all in Budapest! We spent our 5 days there, meeting up with Seb (one of Toms mates from Anglesea who he grew up with), Jess (Sebs girlfriend), who we travelled with for our last 5 weeks, and their friend Sam (who turns out is one of our friends from Bendigo’s cousin.. small world), seeing the city, visiting the House of Terror (where hundreds of Jews were punished, just floors under the ground of the main street in Budapest), thermal baths in the iconic Szechenyi Bath and Pool (until the lightening storm kicked in and we were rushed straight back out of the water), eating as much street food as possible, going to Ruin Bar Szimpla, where old apartment blocks are turned into amazing 2-3 story bars filled with different sections and bars.. theres a spot for everyone, depending what kind of drink you feel like, or a shisha, and of course some building sightseeing occurred and plenty more eating… and shopping. Budapest, next to and equal with Berlin, was my favourite city in all of Europe!
After Budapest, we got an 8 hour train to Slovenia. This train was filled with games of celebrity heads and eating. We arrived in Ljubljana by about 9pm, where we got a taxi straight to our hostel and hit the hay.. travel days are tiring, no matter how little you do!
Ljubljana, Slovenia, turned out to be awesome! This wasn’t a place that Tom and I had even considered going to while planning our trip, but somewhere that Jess and Seb had suggested along the way. So, why not? We had no expectations, and although it poured down rain on us aaaall day on our first day, after that the sun shone and we couldn’t have fallen in love with Slovenia anymore than we did! Its a mix of Switzerland, Austria and Germany.. and it is so beautiful! Although not on the top of many (anyone’s) list, it truly should be unmissable if your heading that way. The scenery is stunning and theres something about driving through the country side that makes you want to skip through the sunflower fields holding hands with your whole family *awwwww*. Photos, don’t quite do this place justice, but it gives you a small insight of the beauty we witnessed. We visited Lake Bled (the beautiful, big touristy Lake to visit) and then we visited Lake Bohinj.. half hour up the road from Bled, but smaller..prettier..and quieter.. woooow! Not only is this country beautiful, but Ljubljana, the city itself, is small, but big, cool and quirky, busy but quiet.. make sense? We loved it! We also made a day trip to Piran, for a beach day, where we literally laid in the sun all day and did a whole day of sun baking.. ahh bliss.
Next stop was Bosnia-Herzegovina! Little did we know, the trip from Slovenia to Bosnia, was a long ass, sweaty, painfully draining 12 hour train ride. Booooo! When we eventually made it, we were rewarded with an upgrade at our hostel and given a private 6 bed apartment room, private kitchen and bathroom included, ah the small things! They must have known we had a long day. Bosnia was another country we weren’t planning to go (in fact, all of these countries, aside from Turkey, were unplanned until a couple months ago), and yet again we were pleasantly surprised. Bosnia, to us, was an introduction to Turkey. Our first stop was Sarajevo, the place where Franz Ferdinand and his wife were assassinated, and there leading directly to the First World War (sharing the fun fact that you probably all know, just because i didn’t know this). Sarajevo was another interesting city, with plenty to do, but as usual not enough time! We walked around, did some shopping (cheap cheap), ate Bosnian food (pretty much Turkish food), and drank Bosnian Coffee (Turkish Coffee). Then we hopped onto a bus (thinking it was about a 2 hour ride) and made our way to Mostar (turns out its 4 hours), where the famous 24 meter high Mostar Bridge stands. Mostar consisted of, bridge jumping (on Sebs behalf, google Hamish and Andy Mostar Bridge, thats what Seb did!), waterfall chasing, eating, relaxing, exploring and river swimming. The history is still very raw here, and the bridge itself was only finished being rebuilt in 2004, after it was destroyed in 1993 by Croat forces during the Croat-Bosniak War. Another (I know i keep saying that, but i can’t help it) amazing city. Can I say, highly recommended?!
After Bosnia, we got on another bus and made our way to Dubrovnik, Croatia, where we had hired a house for 2 nights where we would meet more friends of Seb and Jess, going from a group of 5, to a group of 11! This bus ride was also only meant to take 2.5 hours, but make that 3 hours, and then add in a 2 hour stop at border control, and you have yourself a 5 hour bus ride, with no food (because it was only meant to take 2.5 hours!!! ahhh). When we finally arrived, and thought we were dying, we made it to our house with stunning views of the old city and all bus rides were forgotten. We enjoyed 2 nights in another favourite city of ours, relaxing and just enjoying being back there. We tried to hire a car to drive to Montenegro, but turns out that to leave a hired car in another country will cost you over 600 euros, but the best part about this country, is that if they can’t give you what you want, they will sort something else out.. so the car hire lady, calls up a mate, that used to drive a mini bus, and for 200 euros, between 11 people, he drives us all from Croatia to Montenegro, and even takes us through the quiet border control, where you buy the police a bottle of coke and they let you through, no passport check required.Ta-daaa!
ENTER MONTENEGRO! Our first stop was a car ferry that took literally 5 minutes but takes off an hour and a half of driving, after that the next stop was BUDVA! A lively place, filled with a mix of backpackers and albanians, with a cute Old Town, a beach, plenty of restaurants, and a beautiful island a 20 minute boat ride (tinny ride) out from the mainland. We stayed at a cool hostel, that welcomed us all with a glass of beer..much to the boys disgust who all had a rather large night the night before in Dubrovnik..
Budva consisted of exploring the Old Town, finding a nice beach, which was sadly hard in that area with all of the albanians holidaying there on their sun beds that cover every inch of beach, and dirty ocean (have you ever seen a tampon float past you in the ocean? i have), and eating seafood. On our last night, our hostel organised a bbq on a secret beach on the island off the mainland.. they took us out in their tinny boat, cooked us up veggies and meat on a fire they made in the rocks, caught fresh fish there and then and cooked them up too.. and we sat on this amazing island, with beautiful clear water, and watched the sun set over Montenegro. Amazing.. The next day, we hired cars and started the drive to our next destination.. stopping at the famous Sveti Stefan, where it costs thousands of dollars to stay a night on the gorgeous island, and a casual 75 euros to use the beach.. we moved on pretty quickly from that pit stop..
The next stop in Montenegro, was Ulcinj. Tom and I don’t regret any part of our trip, but if there was a place that we wish we didn’t go to, its pretty much this place! Think Caval Avenue (GC) mixed with Kuta (Bali) and chuck in millions of Albanians and local Montenegrens selling their children on the street.. this is Ulcinj. It was dirty and about the only good thing to come out of this place was that we had booked a nice hotel where we could get away from it all. We spent the days trying to find a nice beach (tricky), and one day we made a road trip to the beautiful Skadarsko Jezero National Park, where we drove on the most dangerous one way windy road around half of the lake, drove through an (i thought) out of control burning off, and ate a terrible meal at what was supposed to be a good restaurant.. BUT.. this lake was beautiful and we drove straight towards the albanian border before making a turn and heading back to our hotel. We had one amazing night in Ulcinj.. and that was for Lauras birthday, where her partner Andy found an amazing place to go for dinner. It was called Miško, and it sat, literally, on top of the Bojana River. Owned by a local couple, who knew exactly what running a restaurant and good service was all about. Good service is hard to find in europe, the last time i think we had excellent service was Ireland…. 5 months earlier.. they brought out freshly caught fish on a plate and let everyone choose which fish they would like… and with an opportunity like this, Tom and I finally saw it fitting to spend large, and get ourselves our first proper whole lobster! We got to go up and choose which lobster we wanted.. then they even took one of the boys into the kitchen and showed him how to cook it.. close your eyes if you don’t want to read about how they did it.. They picked up the lobster.. took it into the kitchen, fed it a slice of cucumber.. then they stabbed it in the head and cut it straight down its guts! ahhh! then chucked it on the grill plate! apparently thats the most humane way to do it…. questionable, but hey at least it got a slice of cucumber before its death. The food was amazing, the best fish and lobster that I’ve ever had.. ever.. if you ever end up in Ulcinj.. which i don’t recommend.. but if you do.. You must go here!
The next day we made our way to the capital of Montenegro for one night before we flew out to Bulgaria the next day.. Podgorica was a shit hole.. don’t go there either.. unless you want to sit in 48 degree heat which makes you feel like you are melting in your own sweat.. the best thing about that city is that there was a good Zara store and a cute sausage dog lived at our hostel.
Montenegro was definitely a different experience, but its all apart of the adventure..
