Europe Interrail 2004

  1/09/04 (the end of summer + the final month...) (aka Day 60) A ten hour sleep should have been enough really, but I still woke up exhausted. Breakfast in bed was followed by a half-baked attempt at a shower and finally at around 10:30 we felt ready to discover Ohrid. With our trusty LP in our hands we headed up the main pedestrian street tired with clothes shop and pretty much everything else up to the 900 year old 'traveler's' plane tree. As helpful as the LP is, it doesn't quite get the order right so we walked back down the street up another street with having over the 2nd floor hangs over the pavement (nice in York), in the style of...? We don't know - Tudors? Stuarts/Edwardian/Victorian (we would look this up when we get home). Yet another old town but not as quaint as nice others. The museum was archaeological so we gave that a miss. Instead we saw 4 and a bit churches and didn't go in any of them. The outsides were probably the most exciting aspect - i...

  31/08/04 Day 59 As my return to Britannia was a prelude to Europe, so I think was today a taste of my her next travelling style. For that reason alone it could rate as my best day, let alone the Albanian scenery, the method of transport, Tirana and the number of currencies in my money belt by the end! The sky was just beginning to redden when the mini bus-taxi pulled up, being driven by an Albanian Muslim (complete with white flat and call but full with mainly young Albanians and one 'old' German traveller with us in the back seats. In many ways we were already in Albania, Ulcinj being 90% Albanian, 20% Serbia, and the countryside already beginning to differ from Montenegros' gorges and coast line. The road to the border was a narrow winding affair, brushing its way gradually around small, white-labbing hillols of dark-green soft scrub and small trees and rocks. The inhabitants were small-holders; to my inexperienced eyes, substance farmers, living insmall, rural houses b...

  30/08/04 Day 58 Here beginneth the first day of what seemed like a week, but was actually just 3 days, of "Question mark" travelling. We got too early, but the bristly balcony was still grey, although not nasty enough to supply Heathers daily morning sugar hit, and we were waiting for our bus, listening to the winds of change (for the 2nd time at that bus station) at 8:30. The bus followed the coast for a bit, before heading inland, and then coming back to the coast on the Southern side of the fjord. Then things got a bit beautiful. The best bit was about half way up, where the road took a sharp turn to the right, creating a huge flat expanse of water backed by a beautiful curving cliff face on the far side. The hazy morning mist added to the serene & stillness, making the whole place seem very idyllic? Another appealing aspect was the road along which we drove: a small, windy, picturesque road? far too small for our huge bus (as most of the cars flashed!) and lined wit...

  29/08/04. Day 57. (- not easy as Heather thought!) Well yes, seems like a long time ago as we have got a bit behind with the old diary writing, so I'll probably be a very brief account of our day in Budva. We managed to annoy our fellow backpackers by hogging the bathroom all morning due to showers, baths (yes my second!) and hand washing. We finally headed about 3 steps down the road to the bakery/cafe where I had the nicest jam croissant ever. The morning was spent searching for a tourist office - we walked down the main street into town, observing the many fish extravagant along the way I passed the quay observing the not-so-swimming - as - Croatian boats observing a hill which Brian was not impressed by (because it had a cross on it). We wandered into the old town, which we are big chair and we excitedly during a stretch of the city walls just to get some perspective. After asking for direction twice we eventually found the tourist info. It was shut (of course). So we ended u...

  28/08/04 Day 56 (on a rickety bus on a wobbly road.) So Belgrade, in our opinion, was not really all that great, in fact, Serbia in general rates pretty low. The final straw was the train station breakfast - fat, oily disgusting, and being surrounded by smokers and begging children, only to escape onto a train that could have sustained an entire eco-system, for all we knew - seriously!! But Montenegro?, a very different story. The train ride was long, but as we neared the end the dull Serbian plains progressed to rolling green hills - very Hampshire - the steep lush Valleys, and then, deeper into Montenegro, mountain ranges. The train line really is an awesome feat of engineering, hugging the cliff face, hundreds of metres above the valley bottom (and more sensible road) and quite possibly consisting of more tunnel than open track. The highlight was the gorge where the drop was so close and steep that cab emerging from a tunnel, felt like we'd driven straight off the edge and wer...

  27/08/04 Day 55 I feel that day 55, the Belgrade day will go down as a pivotal day in our travels. Only time will tell, but it seemed to be a day of extremes. Having not felt like eating last night (after a day of pastry munching), I was a bit non-plussed to find myself still anti-nourishment this morning. So after almost 24 hrs without eating, we dived straight in with a half pig for lunch, in the form of a huge minced pancake-like thing. It was most delicious, and by luck turned out to be on LP recommended delicacy very representative of the Serbian meat fascination (It even decoded me. The third from last bite bringing me within inches of my life - although to be fair, I had eaten 2/3 of Heathers too.) As if this salty, gristly, monstrosity were not enticingly enough, dinner was a huge, and oh so beautiful chocolate cake!. Despite a long search, and the eventual settling on the expensive option, it was worth it for the location: Belgrades main street window seat, candle...; an...

  26/05/04 Day 54 I shall skip the functional details & of todays a two bus torture, and move right on to poignant thoughts concerning these two fascinating central balkan countries. I only wish I could speak 'Balkan', as it is impossible to gauge the general public's opinion between the two. Are there no hard lines between the two because they don't like each other, or it is it the mountain ranges & lack of finance? They have just taken our passports to check electronically (not the lords - Bosniam or serbian I don't know), and although not as 'secure' looking as the Croatian-Bosnian border, there is a distinct feeling that any attempt to get off the bus would remove a few guns from holsters. I think our names have gone into a book as well. But moving on... The last fast of Sarajevo city was far more mountainous than that which we had already passed and the gonng was slow - winding over way up,only to wind back down many times. This gave some good v...

  25/08/04 Day 53 How is it possible that Heather could sleep through that blood-curdling, soul-destroying dog that got barked all night, occasionally being accompanied by the echoes of dogs across the city, reminiscent of that all time classic scene in 101 dalmations. That I believe should be re-done to show consideration for the pain suffered by those humans asleep at the time. We roused ourselves in fairly good time and descended into town, purchasing some confusingly cheap patisseries on the way. I later calculated that on a one pound a meal budget, I could buy no less than 12+ items for brekky & lunch! Our first stop was the cinema box office, which turned out to open at 11, not 9, so we headed further west to the History Museum to try and add to our slowly growing knowledge of Balkan history. The museum was a strange building, like a school complex only more run down, with an array of military machines scattered around the grounds, although completely stripped out and van...

  24/05/04 Day 52 Another peaceful waking up lesson where I have never head been so reluctant to do anything before by carefully preparing our breakfast the night before it was all very straightforward and Brian managed to eat about 6.80 loaf of bread like all (and a reasonable size king container) loaf of bread like quite to the least walls down the staircase we said, Spencer, because George Daddy? made the effort to come out and say goodbye. It must have been a cramton tortoise. At gravel no 7 the bus was open and buses full as ever (reminiscent of concentration camptransportation, as Brian noted). There were in fact enough tickets left for us, and our ridiculously small packs fitted in the overhead lockers so we didn't have to pay extra. Another benefit of having nothing clear to wear... (working out whose seat was whose caused much amusement as the croatians sat in their 'allocated' seats and kicked people out of them if they were in the wrong place whilst the English (...

  23/05/04 Day 51 The day of taking stock, catching up, sorting out and filling up. When we awoke at 9:30 (our longest lie in yet), from (my) dreams of sandy beaches, swimming and four guides (my first 'travel dream') we heard the sound of bacon being fried. On entering the kitchen we were greeted by 2 very chatty English (we think, one Essex) people, eating boiled eggs, bacon and bread. They were very excited in that they had bought eggs for breakfast and then found another 10 plus bacon plus (we, plus yoghurt plus tomato sauce, mayonnaise, pasta..!! (catsup on), which we had assumed belonged to the Dutch and wanted go with them on the ferry to Split - the Bridge/Lucky for us they were also leaving today, leaving us a fridge full of food. Scrambled eggs, bacon, bread and fruit juice here we come! (with an English newspaper to top it of - admittedly a Daily express). And so we pushed breakfasting at around 11:30, after sitting at the fridge. And the others went to feed George w...

  22/05/04 Day 50 Slave over a hot stove? Everything feels like slaving over a hot stove in Dubrovnik. After our extravagant (and rather good, I might say) veg stew, we thought a bacon same I brogfast would go down very well. Which I did. While I was attacked by a 8 ft fit of exhaustion, Heather prepared our sardine samples (which later turned out to be our only fish-dish in Croatia), and then we set out for the old town. Our route was pre planned, so it was only about an hour before we had ticked off no less than 6 churches (none of any particular note), an old pharmacy, a so-called palace (containing a memorial to the 'Dubrovnik defenders' who died during the war - with a very informative historical summary clarifying the issue of Bosnia's role, although neglecting to mention Croatia's aggression against the serbs in the North) and a fair number of very quaint side streets. It was all remarkably like Split, only less beach-tag hurtsch, more 'fragile' tourists,...

  21-05-04 Day 49 It was gone midnight before I had washed my T-shirt, washed my body, packed my bag, and fallen thankfully into bed, and it was a mere 5 hours later when my new and hated early alarm pulled me from my restful slumber. We struggled down to the port, buying provisions enroute, where we boarded our ship and took up position on a prime spot on the port deck, which is where you find me now. Although a flat calm in the adriatic today, I am finding it as hard to write as any train ride due to a wind of about force 8 equivalent that, if I don't end up red from sun burn, threatens to leave me blue and purple from its constant buffeting. Yet I do not complain as it has created the rare and much cherished situation (circumstances in which I can sit and enjoy the sunshine without getting hot and bothered. Loads of the flying sundacks and a good ration of seven pillows, interspersed with regular sun tan lotion sessions (nursed precisely by my much hated 'really skip' st...

  20-08-04   Day 48 (on the big brother ferry) Our waterfall quest seemed destined for failure when the anticipated train was not mererly late (as is to be generally expected in balkan countries), but completely failed to even exist. Never fear though, $5:20 -two-bus-journey - dehydration - and - heat - stroke - later we were gussivig for a boat into the refreshingly green National Park.I had had about 4 hours sleep as I couldn't cool down properly until 2am and so the travelling became more stressful as it went on. The first thing that we learned was that Croatia does not have a queuing system - the bus station is small enough as it is and nobody could tell us which of the 4 stands our bus would leave from as everyone was milling around and as soon as a bus arrived everyone rushed to it and pushed and shared as if it was going to leave without them, until they realised it wasn't the right one and went back to milling again. The bus driver was a tad edgy and so I spent mu...

  19-08-04  day 47.  The day of lost and broken belongings "Let's get up early," she says. "I'll want to hot at 10 am," she says. The only positive thing that can be said of the scorching, head pounding, soul destroying heat today is that it reminds us of Budapest. By the time we had counted up the money, matter of yesterday, walked to the (huge huge huge) market to buy breakfast, browsed the disgusting sally-watch collection (mine having packed up yesterday alive and, as we had hoped, returned through the night) and did battle with the gong system. It was says forget to finish that sentencea nasty shock to be told we couldn't get the ferry to Dubrovnik until Saturday, but to cut a long story short, we reformulated extra days and day trips and resolved to day trip tomorrow, ferry the day after that and stay 3 nights in Duby. I also lost the most irreplaceable item in my possession - my spending sheet. It was but great and oh-so-luckry chance that I calcu...

  18-08-04   Day 46 Dear Diary, As Heather lies next to me trying to combat skin cancer I take it upon myself to recount the journey to Split and our first day here. The train - it seemed that everyone in Croatia was going to Split that night, and we ended up crammed/crammed into a compartment with the Spaniards AND another backpacker, and proceeded to get a ground total of about 3 hours sleep,interspersed with cremp and suggestion. But I caused myself just in time to see the Eastern sky redden frozen over the towering cliffs and mountains, revealing a stunningly clear blue sky, a crystal sea and a smelly, industrial city sprawled between all three. Heather decided now would be a good good time to be stubborn, so refused to pay 30pence for a toilet, resulting in a miserable 90 minutes listening to, and then sitting outside of, Mac'Donald's. Our Split experience was not shaping up that great. Things only got worse when the information place tried to charge us £16 for a roo...

  17-08-04   Day 45 It had seemed last night, a good idea to get an extra hour in bed and cut our change in Pula rather fave. It seemed an even better idea considering my good failure to fall asleep despite the disco ended there, and I spent nearly all night awake listening to the noise progress through the stages of enjoyment and drunkenness until, at 5am the last party-goers dispersed (loudly) and the cafes started to open. It turned out, though, that it wasn't. Six minutes late leaving Roviny gave us 5 minutes in Pula. We finished on a mad dash, me with all the bags, Heather suggesting a minor stoke in the rear, within 50 m of the train as it chugged arrogantly out of the station. "But never mind" we said, now we can see Pula... so in scorching heat we trudge around the Amphitheatre (all well and good) and then proceed to discover that apart from said Amphitheatre, Poo-la is a smelly hole. (Interestingly, our Spanish travel companions disagreed, havingnot sampled the d...