We took a bus from Split to Mostar in Bosnia & Herzegovina. Upon crossing the border, we immediately noticed the damage done to this region in the fairly recent war. There were plenty of abandoned buildings covered in bullet and bomb holes. Mostar itself was one of the hardest hit cities in the country and was under siege for about 3 years. All of the medieval bridges were destroyed and many of the old buildings. Despite all of this happening only 15 years ago, the city and the people have bounced back remarkably well. The Bosnians are well known as being the friendliest people in the Balkans. This was immediately evident as we were unexpectedly welcomed by the hostel owner as we came off the bus. The hostel we had contacted was officially closed for the ... read more

Zadar is an ancient Roman town and is still very well preserved to this day. We stayed at the only hostel, a soul-less, hospital-like YHA about a half hour walk out of town. We try to avoid the Youth Hostels but we were stuck this time. During the day we made the walk into town along the waterfront. It was a beautifully sunny day where we even took our coats off while walking around town. That's saying something for the middle of November. The old town is on a peninsula that makes it feel like an island. The city is still walled in by the ancient Roman wall and most of the streets are pedestrianized. There was a great market but we didn't have a kitchen at the hostel so we just sat and had a ... read more

We'd heard Ljubljana was a really cool town so we decided to spend a couple nights there and check it out. We stayed in the Metelkova area at the infamous Celica Hostel. This place used to be a Yugoslavian military jail and is now owned by the city and renovated into a really funky looking hostel. There are several former prison cells you can stay in and every room is decorated by different local artists. The only downside to travelling Slovenia was the banking system. Our RBC bank card (containing all of our money) is not accepted anywhere in the country. The bank machines said they worked on the system that our card uses and Royal Bank even recommended places for us to go to but after a full day of searching for cash, we were ... read more

We've made it to Venice. We can cross another 'must-see' city off our list. We booked a hotel room in the city of Mestre as cheap accommodation in the city can be hard to get. Mestre is just across the pond from the city and was only 15 minutes away by bus. By the time we checked into the hotel it was already dark (it's getting increasingly harder to arrive in a new city before nightfall) but after some food we were itching to explore Venice. The first thing you notice when you cross the big pedestrian bridge across the Canal Grande is the lack of vehicle noise which is always constant in big cities. It is remarkably quiet especially if you get off the main tourist routes. We're not usually the type to follow the ... read more

We still haden't heard from Passport Canada and had a few days to kill. Some Aussies back in Rome recommended a hostel in Florence called Dany House that was cheap and served three squares a day. We got in late and it was full. But they booked us in for the next couple of days and sent us to a bed and breakfast upstairs so we didn't have to walk far. It rained in Florence most of the time we were there. But that didn't stop us from roaming the streets. Michelangelo's David is there, but it was surrounded by scaffolding so we didn't really get to see it. But judging by the scaffolding, it was a lot bigger than I thought it would be. The traffic in Florence was crazy, perhaps it's only rival in ... read more