This update will be real short, mostly pictures. I just don't want to mix countries in my blogs but I stayed less than 24 hours in Croatia. But still, Dubrovnik is quite an amazing city. I arrived in Dubrovnik after dark from Montenegro and after being assaulted by the grannies I picked the first one that lowered her price to something reasonable and followed her to a room which I shared with a japanese right in front of the bus station. I walked all the way to Dubrovnik Old Town. I had some good pizza and walked around a bit before [View Full Entry]

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The overnight bus from Peja went without problem and I was dropped in Uclinje at 5AM in the bus station. I wasn't too sure if I wanted to stay as the sights in town didn't seem to be overwhelming. My question was answered for me by a bus heading northward that was leaving 3 minutes after my bus arrived. I hopped on it because it meant I could have 2 more hours of sleep and not spend hours trying to find accomodation at 5AM in Ulcinje. I arrived at a comfortable 7AM in Kotor, and after a cup of coffee in [View Full Entry]

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At around 6AM the bus dropped us in Prishtina's bus station. I was quite happy to get out as after the ripoff we had gone through 2 hours earlier (read the end of previous blog) I hadn't been able to sleep because I was too angry. It was good to get out of the tense atmosphere. The plan for the day was to go to Prizren as a day trip. We first checked in at a guesthouse where we woke the receptionist up and then went back to the bus station. On the way back, an old man started talking with [View Full Entry]

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The overnight bus from Thessaloniki wasn't the most comfortable I've ever had. Mid-night border crossing is not exactly the loveliest thing in the world as for some reason it seems that they always arrange the border to be at the perfect point to wake you up just when you were starting to have some real sleep. On the other hand, the assistant conductor had to be one of the most beautiful woman I've seen in a long time and she spoke french so I was not in the worst of company to spend a night without sleep. I had heard bad [View Full Entry]

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I lost a large part of my pictures for this update quite unfortunately, but I manage to salvage some. Marc-Andre and I took the train to Kalampaka from Athens, the village close to the famous monasteries on pillars of Meteora early in the morning. It was an easy and painless 4 to 5 hours riding during which we saw some beautiful mountains and greek countryside scenery. We talked for most of the way about travel and history (Marc-Andre is a archeology major) and broke the monotony by eating some delicious sandwhiches (his was, I'm sure) we had lovingly prepared in the [View Full Entry]

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Ahh Europe. A big part of my trip was now over. I had been in Asia for 4 months and a half but it was time to move on! The BA flight to Athens was transitting through Heatrow (so no liquid/food was allowed on board). Everything was going fine until they announced that the flight would be an hour late. This was stressing me out as I had a connection in Heatrow and I didn't exactly have a lot of time. 1 hour 40 minutes but departure was from another terminal and they recommended 70 minutes to transfer whereas with an [View Full Entry]

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We pulled by in Mumbai's Victoria Terminal (now called Chhatrapati Shivaji Terminus) about 18 hours later than planned. I somehow lost the american guy in the train station. He stopped somewhere I think to buy something and I continued and after he was just lost in the crowd. I was surprised not to be hassled by anyone in the station. Few people took notice of me and no one tried to get me a cheap ride to a very very good hotel. I had heard that Mumbai was more laidback for travellers. I got a cab to the Salvation Army, which [View Full Entry]

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Varanasi, Benares or Kashi, this is Hindu's holiest city. Whether you know it or not you've seen it before. It is one of the world's oldest continually inhabited city and was a contemporary of Sumer. It is mentioned in the Vega (Hindu holy text) as the city of temples and learning and it still seen that way nowadays. I was quite excited to be there and see for myself this bigger than life city. The bus dropped us somewhere at around 5AM. Not a nice time to arrive in one of the worst city for touts and scammer in India. I [View Full Entry]

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I managed to wake up at the earliest hour ever today, 4:15AM which is nothing short of a miracle. I had arranged transport to Jhansi with the guesthouse owner's son so that I could catch the 5:30 bus to Khajuraho. The hotel seemed to be doing quite well because his car was one of the best I've seen in India (2006 Honda something... I'm not too good with cars, but you don't see them around too much). We reached the bus station in time for me to grab the last seat and the bus left earlier than planned since we were [View Full Entry]

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It started like in a movie (or nightmare). I had a train at 6:00AM and I woke up at 5:51AM with my bag half-undone and my hotel was a good 15 minutes walk from the train station. I packed my bag as fast as I could, ran downstairs to pay for my room. The guy at check-in was busy with 2 customers so I just put 150Rs on the table and said: "I owe you 150Rs, here it is" and ran away. He tried to tell me to wait but I just shouted "Just trust me". There were no rickshaws in [View Full Entry]

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