Rusty Tractors

Hard to believe it had only been a week since we arrived in Istanbul. Everything felt so familiar and comfortable in such a short time and we also felt that we have seen all that we needed to. Although a trip back was scheduled on our return in just over a month. We woke at 6am so that we could leave by 7:00 for the airport to fly to Dalaman. It was already light. It took most of the day to get to Kas. We hadn't expected it to take so long. The flight to Dalaman was meant to leave at 10:00 but it wasn't until 11:30 that we arrived and then the bus to Fethiye which left at 12:00 didn't get there until 1:30. That bus cost 80TL and then another bus for 100TL ... read more

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