Heading west

So this my first blog in a few days, covering Rome, Pisa and Nice.

Anyway, so we ended up on a train that got to Rome at 11pm, with the intention of getting straight on an urban train to the campsite we are staying at. We were thrilled, however, when we arrived in Rome and found out the urban trains had shut down for the night, so we hung out under a doorway in the center of Rome, in one of the biggest thunderstorms I’ve seen, until about 2am when we had to suck it up and fork out 40 euros for a cab. Seeing as we’d slept on the roof of a ferry the night before, it was fair to say that we were pretty wrecked, and treated outselves to a small sleep in the next day.

Come early afternoon, Soph and I ventured into the city of Rome, to get our tourist on. We saw the must-sees like the Colloseum and the Vatican (which was a lot more impressive than I though it would be) – but apparently isn’t very beater friendly so we had to buy cringeworthy tourist shirts to cover ourselves with. Anyway, we got on a trian back to the campsite, and as I was just outside the station someone pointed out that my bag was undone. A quick check revealed that I’d been robbed; they’d opened my bag while it was on my back and taken my camera and ipod. While both were covered with travel insurance, I was pretty annoyed; I’d lost a day worth of photos. As it turns out, it ended up being extremely lucky, but more on that later.

So I hit up the police station the next morning before we left Rome, played shirades with the policeman for half an hour (he didn’t speak a word of english) and did whatever I needed to do to get my police report, then we got on a train to Pisa. First thought was ‘christ, it REALLY does lean’. No joke, someone screwed up pretty bad, that’s one crooked tower. Looks nice as well, Pisa is a pretty asthetic city, we went out for dinner and an evening walk around, loads of tourists. Bloody tourists. We had planned to visit La Spezia the following day, but we decided to chill out a bit in Pisa, fill out my insurance claim, and then find a place to buy a new camrea. What we ended up finding was the best/worst check out chick. Ever. I decided to lash out on a $350 camera that looked the bees’ knees, and found a case and memory card. Was all good, bought them at the checkout, went back to our room and got the receipt to put in my ‘safe’ folder, and.. The receipt said 22 euros. 1 camera bag, 1 memory card. Not a word about the camera. No joke, the lady at the checkout took the security tag off the camera, but must have forgotten to swipe it. I just scored $350 worth of camera for absolutely free. This has put me in a good mood ever since, I still can’t really believe it happened.

Soph and I awoke the next morning feeling remarkably average. There was a fair bit of whinging untill we realised it may well be due to the fact that we have not eaten anything other than Margharita pizza for the last 4 days; we hadn’t so much as looked at a piece of fruit or a vegedable. So we desperately hit up a supermarket, and feasted on watermelon, grapes, bananas and fruit juice. Worked like a charm - lesson learnt.

We left Pisa, said goodbye to Italy, and made our way up to Nice in the south of France for a night. Very pretty town, very touristy and pretty expensive, we met up with Hugh once again there, and went for a wander. We reall immersed ourselves in french culture as we ordered KFC for diner without a word of french being said, and went for an evening ‘wasp’ around the city, watching a pretty entertaining breakdancing show amoungst other street performances. We’re hoping to see somebody famous, but no luck so far. Now we’re on a train to Marseille for a night, before making our way to Spain, and from there Morocco. Europe is nearly over...

Serbia, Macadonia and Kosovo.

After about 20 hours of travel, we got to Belgrade, Serbia. Man that place was cheap, we could eat anything we wanted, buy pretty much anything we saw, so naturally we had a good time. That night Soph and I decided to try and find a boat party we’d heard about, but I managed to get us spectacularly lost (being lost in alleyways at midnight in Serbia is heaps of fun), so we settled to have a beer and watch a live rooftop band near the hostel. After another day of exploring Belgrade, we caught an overnight train down to Skopje, Macadonia. ‘Overnight train’ is apparently a symonim for getting drunk; we had some beers with some Dutchies, a couple of English backpackers and a swiss guy, was good fun, we were pleasantly surprised. Anyway, as soon as we ditched out bags in Skopje, we jumped on a bus to Kosovo for the day. We were expecting a war torn city, still half reduced to rubble, but we were pretty wrong. The city was alive, contruction everywhere, hard to tell that 7 years ago it was in a heavy war. There were a few telltale signs though, like speed limits for tanks alongside the limit for cars, a few ruins, and some NATO military presence still in the area. Hugh gave us all a lesson in the history of the area and the story of Yugoslavia, and me and Soph learn’t a fair bit. Then we had a restaurant meal and beer when we got back (came to about 3 euro’s each), and hit the hay.

They next day we explored Skopje (surprisingly more run down than Pristina in Kosovo), and then jumped on a train to Thessaloniki – Greece. A couple of German guys taught us a new card game that we have been playing ever since, and are getting near obsessed with. Anyway, got there at around 11pm, and it was still stinking hot, it was around 37 degrees throughout our time in Greece. Thessaoniki had a few cool sights that we saw the next day, including a fair bit of history and some cool markets, but we had only 1 night there before we went down to Athens. A big city, pretty dirty, but some interesting sights there, like the Akropolis and the first Olympic stadium, we enjoyed wandering around. But the heat drained us pretty bad, didn’t have a whole lot of energy for evening ‘activities’. We parted with Hugh the next afternon, as we got on different ferries; we went on an overnight ferry to Bari, Italy, where I am at the moment. The ferry was an experience, being backpackers we got our free deck pass included with our rail pass, and ended up playing cards with a few other Aussies until it was time to sleep, and we opted to sleep under the stars, on the helicopter pad on the roof of the ferry. Pretty windy, and cold at times, but there were some pretty good views. So now I’m at a macas in Bari, Itay, trying to connect to the internet but failing miserably due to Italys stringent anti-terrorism laws. Unfortunatly, the train we thought we might catch is booked up, and we have to now catch a train that gets us into Rome about 11pm. It’ll take serious effort to stay up until then…

So, Croatia...

We came from Budapest and spent 2 days in the capitol of Croatia, Zagreb. Not a bad city, but not particularly exciting; bit of a chill out and relax. In an effort to make eating on a few euro’s more fun, we decided to play ‘Backpacker Mastershef’ – we gave ourselves a budget of 3 euros and went supermarket shopping to see who could make the tastiest lunch. Of course I won, but apaprently due to a minor technicality I was disqualified (about 10 cents over budget). I still regard myself as the masterchef champion.

After a couple of nights there, we started the 11 hour journey down to Dubrovnik which we were all pretty excited about – we’d heard it was amazing. 6 hours on a train, followed by possibly the most amazing bus ride of my life. 5 hours hugging the south Croatian coastline, winding around the hills and cliffs. We now can also say that we’ve been to Bosnia, after driving through for about half an hour, which included a 10 minute food stop.

So we were deperately hoping that Dubrovbnik wouldn’t turn out to an anti-climactic touist trap. No way. Although there was no shortage of tourists and a few big cruise ships in the bay, Dubrovnik turned out to be one of our favourite cities. The authentic old town, surrounded by the original castle walls, was amazing, both in the day and at night. To make things better, the cheapest accomodation I could find was to get our own private appartment 10 minutes out of the town, meaning that we could cook for ourselves, which of course came in handy the following day... I don’t think I’ll be able to forget this birthday anytime soon. We first found a supermarket and bought a small cake, candles and party hats, to kick off the celebrations (yeah, we party hard), and soon after hit up the beach. Small and overcrouded but with an amazing backdrop, it was our first beach hit in 8 months, we’d all missed it. After Hugh and Soph managed to get themselves a nice sunburn, we went for another walk around the old town untill we went once again to the supermarket to stock up for a birthday fry up. I’m still not really sure what we ate, but it was delcious. Google translator said one of the words on the packet of meat was ‘neck’, but that’s all we could make out, but we weren’t fussed. Then of course that evening we went into the old town where Hugh and Soph shouted me a couple of drinks. We decided it was a good idea to get a yardglass of cocktail, but luckily made some friends to help us finish it. We then hit up a street party in the old square, before heading back to bed. Good as birthday.

So we embarked on the 5 hour bus ride once again, untill we arrived at Split, the half way point, and decided where we were going to stay that night; the options were a night there, or the overnight train. We opted for the overnight train in the end, and it payed off, with out own cabin and fully reclining seats. Now I’m sitting on the connection, on the way to Belgrade, which is our stop over on our way down to Greece. Hopefully this’ll give us a chance to do sume much needed washing, and to catch up on a bit of sleep. I’ve uploaded pictures, so you can check them out if you’re keen.

Budapest...

Coolest, hostel, ever. We stayed at a place recommended to us called Grandio Party Hostel. The online description starts with ‘You can sleep when you’re dead, so don’t expect to get any here’, and it held up to its description pretty accurately. With an on site bar, and the most relaxed atmosphere I’ve come across yet in a hostel, we got there at 9ish and were hitting the less-than-1-euro beers half an hour later. Then they took us around Budapest, visitng a few different places including a club with a live big band (which was surprisingly awesome). A few of the guys were getting quite loose, including an Aussie from perth. Anyway, so we got back in the early hours and went to bed. Untill we got woken up.

“KNOCK KNOCK, IT’S THE PIGS”. Nah they didn’t actually say that. But we did get woken up by 3 Hungaian police coming into our room and arresting said guy from Perth, who apparently ripped a number plate off a car that night. It was pretty interesting, a talking point for the rest of the day. The guy had made himself pretty unpopular that night, and was being pretty roudy so we were all quite relived when they popo took him away at 8 in the morning so we could all get some sleep.

So we had decided, as much fun as Party Hostel was, that it’d be good to get some sleep the next day, so we changed hostels to nice quiet boring place, and then spend a few hours walking around Budapest. Untill then, we hadn’t realised how great a city it is – it really is one of the more beautiful cities I’ve ever visited. The old town is amazing, with a combination of huge monuments, huge parks, huge olden style buildings, all with a really genuine and not so touristy feel. We liked it so much we decided to delay the rest of our trip by a day to spend another night there. So that night we once again met Hugh, and spent the next day sightseeing. The sherrin made an appearance at a park, which is always good. Last night was quiet as well, a couple of good nights sleep has helped us feel a little better, I’m not even a third through my travels yet, so I’m trying not to be too wrecked.

So as per normal I’m writing this on a train, this time on the way to Zagreb, the capital of Croatia. We’re all pretty excited; Croatia has been built up to be something special. We’re spending 2 nights there, then heading down to Dubrovnik for another couple of ngihts, where we’ve got our own small appartment for 2 nights, and is where I’ll be spending my birthday. Should be tops.