In the last
week we’ve left Croatia and
spent a few days in Ljubljana (Slovenia) and Salzburg
(Austria).
We’re now
taking trains instead of rickety old buses which is soo much more comfy
although, worryingly in 10 mins we’re now both asleep (as opposed to just me).
I was sweating at the train station as there are certain residency requirements
which have to be met to validate your Eurail pass and I hadn’t. However, I had concocted
a complex and totally ridiculous story where I left the UK got a new job in NZ
which coincidentally allowed me to fly back to where I used to live in the UK
on a regular basis and on 2 separate occasions fly halfway around the world,
once for a weekend of car racing and then to a ‘friends funeral’ in Prague…hmm.
Rather anticlimactically she just stamped the passes, I was relieved.
I have to
admit, that I’m pretty stoked with the awesome natural sites we’ve seen. The
Plitvice lakes in Croatia
were beautiful, the water was soo clear and waterfalls were cool. We went for a
cruise around the Kornati islands. Vien and I both got tempted by the free
endless supply of wine for the day. The actual cruise wasn’t the greatest-lots
of cheesy folk/love boat music and heaps of people on the boat. We stopped at
this salt lake which didn’t look anything like the glossy pics- wasn’t too keen
to go swimming there so we went for a trek through donkey pooh and jagged rocks
(stupid me wearing flip flops aka jandals) and arrived at ‘the spot’. On the
Kornati cliffs which were over 100m high, sheer and plunged straight down into
water with 30m+ visibility and schools of fish with only a handful of people
around. The 2 hours there flew by before we had to go back to the floating
sardine tin.
Spent a day
lazing about in picturesque Bled it was great but raining that day, we’ld love
to go back on a sunny day.
We were
both absolutely gobsmacked by the Skojan caves near Ljubljana it was a place straight out of
Jules Vernes A Journey to the Centre of the Earth (Lonely planet quote).
Salzburg is where The Sound of Music was
filmed and they’re a bit fanatical. Our hostel plays it every night so we
decided to watch it with about 20 others for the first time. Now everywhere we
go reminds us of the stupid movie, for instance I saw a deer out the window of
the train the other day, cue ‘doe a deer, a female deer…’…very annoying!!!
The routine
is becoming less alien now, sorting the packs, jumping on trains, buses and
taxis, finding somewhere to sleep, remembering to check schedules for leaving a
new place when we first arrive in, counting how many days of underwear left
(don’t want to stuff that up!). We’ve even chanced our luck at finding
accommodation on the day and stayed with 3 lovely families during our time in Croatia.
Next stop
Salzkammergut lakes then Vienna.
Miss you all loads, till next time xx.
