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Hi.
My camera suddenly stopped working on Mljet today. So the pride of 1999 (my camera is "old") will soon be laid to rest, but worry not as a backup has presented itself! At least for the near future. So another addition with no pictures, at least for now.
If you thought the last entry was sloppy and writting quickly, you haven't seen nothing yet.
Quick travel update:
I'm sitting in Dubrovnik on what will be my final night here, after a daytrip to the national park and island of Mljet (just TRY to pronounce that!). I have met two French Canadians that I've adventured with these days and we just rented a car for a week so we'll set out north tomorrow! Around Plitvice National Park, we will part and they will go back to Dubrovnik. I'll continue to Trieste (gradually). The plan between here and there is somewhat undefined but tomorrow we will head towards the Peljesac Peninsula and purhaps the island of Korcula.
Stories that kick complete and total ass and will probably make you cry:
Ok, so last I left you I had a day of exploring the "old town" portion of Dubrovnik, mostly solo along with the other scores and scores of tourists. My friend Nick (from Montreal) and I set out the second day to the nearby island of Lokrum. You can actually see it from virtually everywhere in the region. The boat was all of 15 minutes but the island offered enough to satisfy the entire day.
So what did we do? For starters, Nick's big hobby is scuba diving and that's the main purpose of his travels here because supposedly the dives nearby are breath-taking, as are the people (who are more-or-less all supermodels, some more than others for example). This just meant that for the day he came equipped with a snorkle and a mask that we were able to share. I kind of suck at it compared to a pro (he does this for some of his work as well) but I manage.
After walking by the manditorily nude beach (denoted by the signs) completely clothed, we stumbled across a completely hidden cove lined with red rocks on the sides and facing the open sea. We searched for about an hour for a way down to the bottom, it's isolation tempting us. So we shifted into makeshift rock climbers and eventually made it all the way down (maybe 30 m or 100ft?) to the waterlevel! Once there, we were rock stars; every day-trip tourboat circleing the island waves furiously at us (or the people on it). The water there itself wasn't as good as our previous swimming spot elsewhere on the island but it was the achievement that we made it there that made it better to us.
We ate lunch in a monestary and then came across some peacocks. Oh my God, do peacocks make HILARIOUS noises. From a distance, we thought it was just some funny people making mock animal noises. Silly us, it was actually these turquoise and black birds with 6 feet long feathers! They sound like what a cat would do if it was panicing in a more human voice, mixed with a slight trace of bird-ese in there. This sound has haunted my days and nights since.
I have actually seen my first people traveling from Ireland here (strangely I hadn't met any in Turkey). To celebrate, we went to the Irish bar where we met a lot of travelers. In fact, our posse consisted of a person from each English speaking country, except South Africa. The Scot told me of hostels to come, the Aussie told me of hostel adventures, where the Kiwi told me a little bit about life and it's mysteries. It was a fun night of letting loose; I even borrowed the bartender's phone to sneak off some text messages, although I'm not sure if they actually go sent since even though I am Croatized, I still speak like 5 words (one being my name, Bradimir).
Today we went to
Mljet, one of most famous islands in the Adriatic. A large portion of it is national park so it took a lot of effort to cover it, especially in the 5 hours the ferry allows you if you don't want to camp or stay in the islands one hotel. It was still worth it.
Even arriving to Mljet was an adventure. My friend Nick had another friend June who was on a world voyage and was meant to arrive in the morning. He hadn't come yet, so we decided to go without him. Nick forgot something at the last minute so we were a little late for the ferry, it seemed. Then, as we left, in walked June, who just arrived on a 6am flight from Zagreb. Just meeting him, I demanded he change and prepare for this adventure he knew nothing about. He did and 20 minutes later we made it the ticket counter and eventually onto the boat.
The island itself is about 37km long and very rememberable. It is noted in tales of Ulysses and St. Paul, and they share this opinion. The highlight is the national park that contains two lakes within the island. On one of the lakes, there is an island. On this island, there is a monastery. In this monastery, there is a church (and a swanky restaurant, of course). I'll let you fill in the blanks regarding the title of this entry.
The awesome part of the island adventure was transport on the island. Wondering how we'd make it from the ferry terminal at Sobra to the island on the island with the church in the monastery (don't you hate when you have this dilemma?), we looked at the local buses which weren't going to cut the mustard. This led us to the prospect of renting a "car", but not just any car, a MINI BRUM!!!!! When the pictures of the MINI BRUM are posted, this will make you laugh and cry at the same time. How awesome was the car? Well, this think made the Smart car look like an SUV. It had to have been the smallest car ever. So small, that powering it only required something on the order of a lawn-mower engine. This means we had to start the car by abruptly pulling a string (a lie) but not before pushing the choke (not a lie) to give it a little extra kick. Another awesome feature was the lack of the reverse gear. Who needs it anyway? A much more logical approach is to just have someone push the car backwards. Duh.
Our MINI BRUM had a red coat of paint. Some other more classy couples had the luxury of rollin in a zebra skinned model. Regardless, red is faster so we motored up and down the hills and made it to the ferry to the island on the island with the church in the monastery. Alas. But as misfortune would have it, my camera died. I simply used June's as a backup, so no worries. And I learned later that I can borrow Nick's for the remainder of my trip! These guys are so adventurous and trusting and fun!
On the return trip, we pondered our near-futures. We settled on the idea of renting a car, leaving tomorrow, and going North for a week towards the various coastlines and attractions. So that's what we'll be doing, and I even have a proper posse! So that's the plan, Sam! It just made sense because we all wanted to see more of the national parks, and having a car will be a plus for all of us. It's amazing how things like this come up in the backpacking world. For example, I just showed my Japanese roommate the netcafe and on the way passed the Aussie and the Scot who just bought a car and met their British friends destined for Serbia (or Montenegro, who knows now!??) for whom I gave my bus schedule to (I'm rollin in a Fiat now, beyotch!!!). Fun fun.
So I'll be going North from here, probably towards Korcula first and later to some national parks like Krka and Plitvice. Stay tooned!
Thanks again for all the comments, encouragement, help, and updates. I hope everyone is well.
Bradimir
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Kan Kicks
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what a title?!
Nice blog, Bradimir! You certainly have a better summer than I do :D! Get ready for the world cup, and buy a new camera soon too! krazy Eyes!