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Published: October 18th 2007
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Since Cadaques in Spain, our journey has turned to the east, and towards the distant city of Istanbul...
Before leaving Spain we went to the bizarre and fascinating Dali Museum in Figures, designed by the man himself. It was replete with sexual imagery, clever visual tricks (a room with a sofa and fireplace becomes a glamorous woman's head) and giant sureal statues. Even the building was mental, lined with giant eggs. Cool.
We drove back into Spain and the town of Carcassone. The town has a fascinating history. The Romans built a huge wall here in the 3rd century AD which is still standing. It has had another enormous wall with towers added in the centuries since by first the Cathars and then the kingdom of France. The town on the hill is therefore surrounded by the largest, most impessive series of walls you are ever likely to see my friend.
We then popped off to the little village of Guissions near Toulouse to stay in a lovely house in the countryside. There we were met by the mottley crew of kiwis and kiwi supporters. The following day we went to watch the titanic struggle of the All Blacks
vs Romania live in Toulouse, little knowing this would be their last win of the World Cup. They were in good form too, raking up 85 to 8 points. The crowd was in even better form however, with live music and Ole! Shouted out every few minutes.
After a couple of days of luxury it was back to travelling and camping. We went underground at Roquefort to see the stinky unpasturised sheeps milk cheese making process firsthand in the Society caves. The tour was in French so we loitered around the back sniggering.
Still heading ever east we checked out the little gorge town of St Guillium le Desert where there is a World Heritage Site Abbey which Charlmagne's cousin built to house yet another piece of the true cross. I have seen enough true crosses to build a house with by now. Cool place though.
We went into Avignon not knowing much about it and left thoroughly impressed. The popes set up shop here in the 14th century and with them came vast sums of money. The entire town is (still) enclosed by 4.3km of wall, there are palaces everywhere and the popes built their enormous
fortress-like Papal Palace in only 20 years despite the black plague killing everyone.
After popping up to Digne les Baines and some more weird hot pool swimming with old people, we gave our tent (boo hoo), cooking gear, towels, matts etc to a friendly english man at our final campsite who promised to give it to a good home. We then headed to Nice. After a nightmare trying to return the rental car in overcrowded Nice we were a bit frazzled and settled our nerves with some greasy Mc Donalds, much to Dot's delight. The next day Dot and I hoisted our reduced packs and said our sad farewells to Paul and Michaela, who were off to Corsica for some much deserved time alone on a sunny beach. Meanwhile our backpacking leg of the trip began in earnest.
Next stop Italy, first sunny Santa Margherita where we swam every day, then Riomaggiore in stunning Cinque Terra, which is a 12km long World Heritage coastline dotted with fishing villages hanging off the cliffs impossibly. The path between the villages was great for running.
We passed through the surprisingly beautiful city of Parma, tried some Parma ham and Parmasan
cheese (all imported from Johnsonville I was surprised to learn) and checked out the lovely Romanesque cathedral.
Dot got all giggly like a school girl when we arrived in Verona and came across Juliet's (from Romeo and Juliet, stupid) balcony. I was busy trying to get a shot of the balcony, but some enormous fat woman who definitely wasn't Juliet walked out onto it and started posing. Hideous. I swear I saw the stones starting to break away from the wall under her huge weight. We decided it was time to go. The rest of Verona was lovely, with the crenellated Scaligero bridge, huge pink marble roman arena and old town paved in more of the verona pink marble. We popped into Castelvecchio, the town fortress and discovered that the renovation had been carried out by the brilliant Venician Architect Carlo Scarpa.
We got the train to Trieste, on the far east side of Italy, discovered that it was all booked up with the cheapest accommodation more than $200 per night due to a sailing regatta (apparently very famous). So we turned on our heel and headed off to Croatia on the bus.
First stop Rijeka, where
Dot promptly lost our Eastern European guide book on the first day of its use. Luckily we found it again and then headed off for Plitvice Lakes National Park. We stayed in some dodgy guys 'private room' about 3km from anywhere, and spent the next day checking out the World Heritage site. The lakes were incredible. What used to be a river in a limestone gorge has been transformed by travertine marble forming from fossilised algae, moss and calcium. These build up into terraces, creating a series of pools and waterfalls cascading down the length of the river.
Another Croatian busride (complete with Croatian folk hits) followed, and took us through the immense and desolate region around Knin. This was the area where horrendous ethnic cleansing took place in 1993. We drove for several hours through village after village of bombed out houses riddled with bullets, many totally deserted to this day.
We arrived in Split and spent a day exploring the ancient Roman Diocletian Palace (in which decendants of the Romans still live now) and surrounds.
We decided we deserved a break after all of this hard work, so we hopped on a boat for Hvar
Avignon
That's one huge butt(ress) Island. What followed was 3 days of blissful sun, lazing about on beaches and nudist spotting. We've now made it as far as Korcula (another beautiful island with walled town), and are off to Dubrovnic tomorrow. After that, Montenegro and Serbia.
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Kathryn
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Nice pics!
Are you having trouble with croatian keyboards?