Venice to Albania

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Venice was the "Vacation of our Vacation." Here we met up with our friends, Pete and Fallon, who were honeymooning in Italy. In Venice, we enjoyed the pre-Lent festival of Carnevale. We spent the time strolling the streets, shopping for masks, admiring the amazing costumes, and eating fantastic Venetian seafood. The festival ended with a huge reggee concert in St. Mark's Sq. (Kirstin felt like she was back at the Bob Marley festival in Ethiopia!)

Saying goodbye to Fallon and Pete and Venice, we took the train back to Ljubljana, where we continued on to Zagreb, Croatia. After having a blast in Venice, being tired from Carnevale, experiencing the "don't care attitude" of the people (aka "The Croatian Shrug"), the too high prices, and the lack of unique attractions...unfortunately, we were rather unimpressed and disappointed in the Croatian capital.

There were a few highlights including a cafe decorated in Lord of the Rings memorabilia called Tolken's House. Our number one highlight over those days, however, happened 2 hrs. outside of Zagreb when we visited Plitvice Lakes National Park.

Plitvice Lakes National Park is the Niagra Falls of Croatia. It contained several different tiered lakes all connected by waterfalls. Normally the park is packed out in the summer but since we went in the off season not only was the park empty but we got in the park for free when it was normally $10. We spent the next 6 hours wondering around the lakes, hiking the trails and the boardwalks underneath the falls. The highlight of the park is the "Big Waterfall", which we enjoyed viewing from all different heights.

After Zagreb, we took a day long train through BiH all the way to Sarajevo. Sarajevo is one of the most unique cities we have been to because of the large turkish influenced and muslim population. We enjoyied walking the old town streets hearing the sounds of blacksmiths at work, drinking turkish kava and visiting our first mosque.

We also had the privilege of meeting up with the father of Kirstin's family's foreign exchange student, Bernd and his wife, Anita. They treated us to a wonderful Bosnian dinner, with good conversation. Additionally, Bernd drove us around the entire city. He showed us good viewpoints as well as the former frontlines, including the famous Sarajevo tunel.

Additionally, we were able to meet up with Anita's cousin and his girlfriend who showed us Sarajevo's nightlife. We also had an opportunity to meet with a faculty member as the Islamic Department of the University. It was very interesting to hear the history of the country - including the recent war - from his perspective.

After Sarajevo, we got up super early to catch the train to Mostar, another beautiful town in BiH. The train trip itself was a highlight as we traveled through landscape rivaling the Alps. The day was unseasonably warm, so we sat outside a cafe in t-shirts all afternoon.

Not letting Zagreb be our final destination in Croatia, we traveled to the coastal town of Dubrovnik. Rick Steves says this is the #1 place to visit in Croatia and now we would definitely 2nd that opinion. Everything from the warm hospitality and family atmosphere of our zimmer hosts to the breathtaking sea views from the old town wall was wonderful. If Venice was our "vacation from our vacation," Dubrovnik was our lazy 3-day weekend. We spent our time sleeping in, walking along the water, and enjoying the Mediterranian cuisine.

After Dubrovnik we took a bus to beautiful Kotor Montenegro. We spent the day climbing the city wall up a super steep mountain to an ancient old town fortress. The next day it took a bit longer to get to our next destination but our long stop over allowed us a chance to explore another Montenegrian town called Bar. The highlight was waiting for a city bus for 45 minutes that never tried to show up, even the locals started hitchhiking with friends that drove by.

We spent the night in the border town of Ulcinj, at the beginning of the 15 km stretch of beaches that run all the way to Albania. Today we traveled on two Minibuses arriving this afternoon in Tirana Albania. Tonight we had a wonderful Ottoman meal presented to us by the chef himself. Against all stereotypes, Albania is actually great!

Tomorrow we will spend the day exploring Tirana, maybe going to a 2 dollar Opera, before leaving the following day for Greece.

We've got about a month left. We've really enjoyied the ex-yugoslavian countries (don't be scared, you all should go) but we are excited to move on to the sities of Greece and Istanbul before working our way back up to Budapest. Hope you have enjoyed the blog. Sorry, but no guarantees we will add anymore entries until we arrive back. (Too many sights to see!) 😊

See you soon!
Kirstin and Daron

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Comments

[Katie B.]

wow!
Hey, I finally found your blog! Sounds like you guys are having an amazing trip. Hope you all missed the worst of craziness post-Kosovo-declaration of independence.