http://www.travelblog.org/Bloggers/Caroline2007/ Travel adventures in journals and photos from Caroline2007 en-us Thu, 20 Nov 2008 13:24:39 UTC Thu, 20 Nov 2008 13:24:39 UTC I'm officially done traveling for the next fourteen or so months. I barely readjusted to East Coast time before heading to California for the holidays. My body still doesn't know what time zone it's in but it did pack on a few pounds of See's candies chocolatecovered macadamia nuts and my brother's cooking. Good thing I'm starting school in a week.I still have Montenegro to write about but http://www.travelblog.org//North-America/United-States/Georgia/Atlanta/Midtown/blog-231775.html MerhabaAfter finding that my first choice for a hostel was now the Grand Palace Hotel I found success at the Mavi Guesthouse. Out of the dorm window is the Aya Sofyaand the Four Seasons. Can't beat that. It can get chilly at night but the common area is warm and it's a great place for meeting fellow travelers. Turns out several arrived the same day as myself and were staying for a while. F http://www.travelblog.org//Middle-East/Turkey/Central-Anatolia/Cappadocia/blog-223529.html I spent less than 24hours in Serbia. Took the night bus from Sarajevo to Belgrade and arrived around six AM groggy and cramped. We came to our senses in the train station cafe with some tea and Turkish coffee a remnant of Ottoman occupation. One of the benefits of being awake that early is that you get first dibs on the fresh pastries. Had one of the best chocolate croissants of the trip at http://www.travelblog.org//Europe/Serbia/West/Belgrade/blog-223517.html From very European Croatia I headed into Bosnia and Hercegovina. The border guards check passports but they never stamp them. I crossed their border six times and not one stampIt's absolutely nuts how obvious it is that you've crossed a frontier. One second you're in modern Croatia. The next you see bombed ut buildings and a mosque. Even the trees and hillsides look battered. Weeds grow u http://www.travelblog.org//Europe/Bosnia-and-Herzegovina/blog-219057.html YasaBack in the land of the almighty euro. A bank in town showed the euro at 1.47 to one US dollar. Go Bush You are successfully sinking the US dollarOn a brighter note I got to see one of my top ten 'places I have to visit before I die'Meteora. And it was everything I thought it would be and more. I wish I could go back for another visit before leaving for Rome.The best way to see Mete http://www.travelblog.org//Europe/Greece/Central-Greece/Delphi/blog-219038.html MireAlbania is a hard country to peg having only been there four nights. The people are friendly but an expat Englishman I met in Sarande gave me his take on the people friendly but always looking to see how they can benefit from your friendship difficult to really know with a hard inner core. I suppose 500 years under the thumb of the Ottomans is bound to make you tough.The country itself http://www.travelblog.org//Europe/Albania/blog-219036.html Dober DanThe Slovene and Croatian languages are similar enough that I can used my few words here too. Love it.I am a legal visitor to Croatia. I took the train from Ljubljana to Zagreb. When it was time for passport check I played it cool and didn't say a thing. I started sweating a little when the policewoman asked for another photo ID and whipped out her gem lens. Yikes She peered at my http://www.travelblog.org//Europe/Croatia/Dalmatia/Dubrovnik/blog-214984.html Dober DanI can now lay claim to having been an illegal immigrant. I got to the ItalySlovenia border around noon. I took the local bus to the crossing but immediately realized this couldn't be it no fence no border guards no razor wire no German Shepherds on short leashes. What to do I walked across the street to the train station to find someone who could tell me where the real crossin http://www.travelblog.org//Europe/Slovenia/blog-214983.html I thought it would be a nice way to ease into traveling. It was nice visiting some of the hill towns but it would have been better if I'd just jumped into an entirely new country feet first instead of warming my toes in panini and gelato. I went immediately to Orvieto which is not a backpackers' haven. Translated that means there's no hostel or anything resembling my level of cheap accomodat http://www.travelblog.org//Europe/Slovenia/Upper-Carniola/Ljubljana/blog-212842.html Hey GangI'm trying this site in hopes that it will make it easier for me to post and for you all to read at your leisure.Thanks to SkyMiles I've been saving since before the millennium I'm flying into Rome Italy. Visiting cities in the Umbria I'll head north around the Adriatic into Slovenia. One of the cons of traveling in the off season is that transport evaporates once the crowds too h http://www.travelblog.org//North-America/United-States/Georgia/Atlanta/Midtown/blog-207306.html