Rusty Tractors

A hot walk from the bus stop which was at the Split Ferry Terminal through the UNESCO listed 4th century Diocletian's Palace in the Old town of Split. An overwhelming number of people and tour offices as well as busses and ferries. From the drive in to Split it looked like a disaster. Over crowded decaying concrete high rise apartments everywhere and ugly scars mined into the surrounding hills. I decided that I would hate this town but then some of that was possibly due to the anxiety that had arisen from having to leave Sibenik earlier than I wanted to. I had carefully researched the route we had to walk to find our new accomodation but stopped in the old town losing confidence of where I should go as none of the pedestrian laneways were ... read more

After a 4.5hr bus trip to Zadar we arrived at our accomodation at about 6pm. We had chosen a hostel for our first night and for the next 4 nights we were moving to a room that we booked on Airbnb that had yet received no reviews and had been newly listed, so we had no idea what to expect and had taken a bit of a gamble. This was the case for most of the travels. We had no idea what to expect and most of it was a surprise: good or bad. Anyway the hostel was a good surprise. We had a lovely room in a boutique type place and it felt friendly and relaxed from the moment we checked in. Another guy from our bus was also checking in ahead of us and ... read more

The bus leaving Bratislava didn't arrived for the scheduled 4pm departure. The Austrian girl we were sitting, waiting with said she had got a text saying that there was a 90 minute delay so we sat under the shelter of the outdoor bus bay surrounded by lightning and thunder storms waiting for its arrival. It arrived at 5pm and after the poor, exhausted driver checked everyone's passports and loaded their luggage we ended up leaving at 5.20pm, only 10 minutes before the next bus service was scheduled to leave for Budapest, making it even more frustrating for the driver in explaining to most of the people waiting that it wasn't their bus. I felt for him. Christina, the Austrian girl who lived in Budapest, helped us get off at an earlier stop in Budapest called Kelenfold and showed ... read more

After the night on the bus; leaving wet Krakow at midnight we arrived in Bratislava to sun at 7 am. Our airbnb was a short walk from the bus station and we were invited to check in before our host went out at 8.30 am, eventhough her official checkin time was 4pm. This allowed us to recover from the overnight before going out to explore. She was 60 and lived in a huge, very stylish apartment with high ceilings. We later found that she had many stories to tell and we learnt how it was for her to live here under Soviet occupation. Her brother had escaped 2 years before independence and it resulted in her father getting a demotion and losing his and the rest of the family's travel privelages that had come with his ... read more

Rain, rain, rain! from the moment we arrived and at almost every crutial moment. Although maybe I am being a little harsh as we had some thankful breaks in the clouds. We couldn't check in until 1pm and arrived at 6am, so sat in a cafe at Centralia until 10am and then risked the weather for the 10.30 am old town walk.   Together with the long walk from Centralia we gave up before it finished and made our way towards the airbnb. Warsaw's Old Town has been completely reconstructed from old photos as it was completely bombed by the Nazis as punishment for the Poles in Warsaw trying to protect the Jews. Everywhere you go in Europe there are reminders of the horrors of World War II. Weronika and her huge dog Peggy greeted us ... read more