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By the time we got to Split I was a beginning to think that all of the towns on the Dalmatian coast was much the same - white walls, green shutters, red tiles and most importantly slippery white marble pavements of death. Little did I know the best town would be last! Although initially wary, as it is one of the biggest towns in Croatia and our arrival was in a commercial harbour flanked by the omnipresent cruise ships, Split turned out to be my favourite town on the Dalmatian coast. It is super old, having been originally built as a palace by the 51st Emperor of the Roman Empire, Diocletian (thanks Wikipeida!) in 305 for his retirement after all that exhausting ruling (the Roman Emperor way of retiring down the coast?). The town of Split ... read more

These next couple of entries will be quite photo heavy - mainly as not only are the locations really beautiful, but I did not do much at all. Although in the end I did enjoy Dubrovnik, I was quite relieved to move on to one of the islands, where the chances of masses of cruise ships was less of a possibility. After a lovely drive along a peninsula, we stopped at a town called Ston (I think), which appropriately had the largest continuous wall outside of China. Then it was more of a drive to a ferry, then 15 minutes later we were on Korcula, where immediately we felt much more relaxed. It was a small town where everything was in easy strolling distance and we were lucky enough to stay in private apartments in the ... read more

Another early start later and we were on the bus leaving Sarajevo, heading to Montenegro. Specifically Ostrog Monastery. After a gut churning ride through some beautiful Bosnian countryside, with the driver both smoking a cigarette and talking on his mobile phone most of the way, we were dropped at the side of the road near the monastry, ready to take a mini bus up for a night of serenity. And getting to know our fellow travellers better, as we were staying in group dorms. Montenegro has been surprisingly stunning. Though I dont know why surprisingly because I did not really focus that much on researching the country before I came away. The landscape turned much more arid, but still very dramatic with mountains surrounding nearly everywhere we travelled. The monastery is known as having the preserved ... read more

After writing about Vukovar I can't think of an appropriate pun to use in the title of this entry! Any ideas for this and future country/city puns please let me know. When the Vukovar visit was over, we moved on the most appropriate activity for travellers sobered by recent history - a wine tasting! Actually two different wine tastings scheduled for the same day! Still on the Croatian side, we rolled up just before noon, ready to take the edge off the day. I should probably add now that as I write this, it has been at least 35 degrees every day for the last 7 days. There is talk of a storm this weekend, but who knows when this unseasonably early heatwave will end. We firstly viewed the wine cellars and learned about the history ... read more

After spending a fair chunk of time wishing the weather would be more summery, my wishes have finally come true! It has been nearly 35 every day for the last four or so days, which although makes sightseeing a little more challenging and the local food a little heavy, does make it feel like a summer holiday. After rendezvous-ing with my new group (who have a much different demographic, I am the second youngest!), there was one more day in Budapest. Given the weather, I carefully considered my options and decided on a trip to the edge of the city to some Roman ruins. This involved a simple change to a suburban train from a metro station. Well not so simple after all, as they were doing track work. So it was on to a packed ... read more