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Archive for September, 2005

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Plitvice Lakes: The Other Dimension

Sunday, September 25th, 2005

After a night in a dogdy Zagreb hostel, Bec and I caught a bus to the Plitvice National Park, about 2.5 hours South West of Zagreb and home to the spectacular Plitvice Lakes. The bus made its way out of the city, and gradually the landscape turned from industrial to mountainous. We moved further and further up into the dense forest and fog, and once again saw the mountains playing hide and seek with the clouds.

I looked out the front of the bus and saw nothing but white, before the two yellow eyes of a truck came roaring out of the nothingness and whizzed by. I’m not sure if it was because of the fog, but after two hours of travel, when the conductor pointed in our direction and quickly blurted out something that sounded like Plitvice, Bec and I nearly got off the bus too early, as did an Aussie solo traveller named Ross who was also headed to the National Park. We got to chatting, and shortly after did arrive at our stop, and the three of us walked through the misty rain to a house advertising a room, and got ourselves an apartment with a double bed, and a fold-out couch.

[read on]

Bosnia: Bec breaks another Bosnian heart

Sunday, September 25th, 2005

After some amazing days in Sarajevo, Bec and I caught a 10am train to Zagreb. During those amazing days, we did actually manage to work out what curreny they used, a Bosnian Mark, worth a little bit less than an Aussie dollar. But unfortunately, changing Bosnian Mark is a very difficult thing, and we were stuck with the problem of trying to spend every last Mark we had before boarding the train.

At the ticket counter, we were unable to pay in Euros, and didn’t have enough Mark to pay for our two tickets, so we asked the attendant how much the tickets were, and headed to the Bankomat to get the 110 Mark he had indicated we would need. We came back cashed up, and asked for two tickets to Zagreb.

“That’s 89 Mark” replied the attendant.

Uh, we’d just loaded ourselves with 120 of these bloody things, and so afer buying the tickets were stuck with 30 Mark, about 25 Aussie dollars. We had ten minutes before the train left, and 25 bucks to spend in a dingy train station. I left Bec on the platform and ran into the station to offload as much of this cash as I could.

[read on]

Sarajevo: How I sold my girlfriend to the Bosnian ‘Big Boss’

Sunday, September 25th, 2005
Sallie and Fiona, as well as being awesome chicks to hang out with, also led to one of the more bizarre afternoons I'm sure Bec or I will ever experience. They were staying at the cheap hostel right in the ... [Continue reading this entry]

Sarajevo: Living and Breathing

Sunday, September 25th, 2005
From 1992 to 1995, Sarajevo was, literally, a warzone. It was completely surrounded by Serbian troops, who relentlessy shelled the city. Snipers picked off civilians as they tried to go about their lives. The majority of the city had no ... [Continue reading this entry]

Sarajevo: 20 Thingies

Saturday, September 24th, 2005
Because we knew so little about Bosnia and Sarajevo, we had made sure to book in advance the hostel we had been recommended back in Rome. The hostel website had given us directions on how to get there from the ... [Continue reading this entry]

Bosnia: Expectations

Saturday, September 24th, 2005
When Bec and I were back in Rome, we shared a short bus ride with a couple who lived just near my home town of Ballarat, back in Australia. We got to chatting, as you do when you come across ... [Continue reading this entry]

Dubrovnik: Themepark

Saturday, September 24th, 2005
15th of September, and we'd had our fill of doing bugger all in Korcula. Three hours down the coast lay the city of Dubrovnik, often talked up as one of the most beautiful coastal towns in the world, and it ... [Continue reading this entry]

Korcula: Fresh

Saturday, September 24th, 2005
Now Korcula, this was our kinda place. After dodging tourists in Hvar, Korcula was bliss. Our original plan of staying three nights turned into five, yet when I think back to what we did - not a whole lot stands ... [Continue reading this entry]

Hvar: Balcony, anyone?

Saturday, September 24th, 2005
The ferry ride across the Adriatic from Pescara to Stari Grad, on the Croatian island of Hvar, was fairly uneventful. It did, however bring back flashes of a nasty childhood memory. As the boat began to rock back and forth ... [Continue reading this entry]

Pescara: What….the f*ck…..is that!?

Monday, September 19th, 2005
From Rome, Bec and I were travelling by bus to Pescara, on the west coast of Italy, and from there catching a ferry across the Adriatic Sea to the Croatian island of Hvar. It sounds so easy, doesn't it. The bus ... [Continue reading this entry]