Dubrovnik to Hungary

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After our long trip through HOSTILE territory, we arrived at the seaside of Dubrovnik which was a beautiful seaside town and a hotel with pools (2 and cold) saunas, and steam rooms. The sea was cooold, even colder than Port Phillip Bay!!! The town has ramparts erected during the time of the crusades. It was incredibly hot walking on the cobblestones, but very beautiful - Betty, Michael and I decided to buy some supplies and head back to the hotel. I spent the afternoon in the spa, they even had dark relaxation rooms to lie down, and lounge rooms with herbal teas and fruit.

The following day we went to Montenegro, some of the most beautiful coastline yet - an expensive playground for the rich and famous. We stopped at a town called Kotor, which is a medieval town which has world heritage status ad is protected by UNESCO - then on to a seaside village of Budva and to a fish café for lunch - the quickest service ever, I think we had four courses and coffee in around half an hour - talk about bloated! The wine was included and undrinkable, although they did give me a beer instead - the boats outside!!!! Most would have been valued at 300,000 ++ and most in the millions (where does all this money come from?). I did not bother walking around the old town; I sat in the shade in the park and watched the world go by.

The next day we drove to Plitvice - a beautiful national park which has limestone ponds, with forest and waterfalls everywhere. I loved a place in Turkey called Kirshenlu Falls, and this was almost as beautiful. If they had proper walkways it would have been even better. Although the walkways were natural looking being made out of fallen timber, it was a nightmare to walk on - it detracted from my experience.

The following day we arrived in the capital of Croatia, Zagreb - again we had an afternoon sightseeing tour of both areas, which included more palaces, gates, parliament squares etc. I think I even got a picture of the female head of state looking glam... When we arrived, we found that the pool at the Westin was under reconstruction - boy what a disappointment, however, they paid taxi fair both ways to another hotel when you wanted to go for a swim. I did go, and while there, had forgotten my book, so they rustled up a book about the journeys of Marco Polo (which in fact questioned if MP had actually been to areas of China or did he just report on other peoples journeys). I needed to read whilst on the gym bike (so boring, but necessary). That night after we went out for Dinner, I decided to venture out - I felt distinctly uneasy, a fairly seedy part of town. I bought an ice-cream and was walking back to the hotel, only to run into Michael who had walked the opposite direction and was heading back for exactly the same reason so our opinion was this was the seedy side of town.

The following day we returned to the town, spent more time at the market, bought some more lace and souvenirs. Betty, Michael and I had a coffee and muffin for lunch, found a litre bottle of red for some ridiculous price (around $4) and headed back, the wine was a distinct find - it was great!

On the road again, now we are leaving Croatia and entering Hungary. For Lunch, we stopped at a place called Lake Balaton and walked up the hill (there were too many tourists here) Took some pictures of Tihany Abbey and then left for Budapest.

The hotel in Budapest had three thermal pools, spas, gyms and steam rooms. Betty Michael and I headed out to look for a supermarket to buy our traditional dinner (biscuits or bread, cheese and tomatoes) - only to be told that we had gone so far away - and that there was one just around the corner!! We toured both sides of the river Buda on one side and pest on the other, both so different, but beautiful, the bridges, (in particular the chain bridge), the tunnels and the river is magnificent. They have a heroes square which was built to open a world expo (centuries ago) and was an impressive opening! We had a disappointing farewell dinner, but the group made up for it by taking off to the ‘local pub’ for some farewell drinks. A great group of people, half of whom were heading home to work, and a select few were continuing with us on the boat trip. Then it was only left to say Viszla’t and Karsarnarm to everyone for such a good trip. (Goodbye and thank you in Hungarian)

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Comments

[anonymous]

You will have enough photos to keep you scrapping for the rest of the year.

[PD]

lots of detail!

[aquariantravelbug]

congratulations1
Wow, number 6! congratulations to you all. Yes it seems like we are passing through so much in the way of places ABC (another bloody country, cathedral, castle, church)