Crusing the Captivating Croatian Coast

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First things first: I apologise for the blatant alliteration in the title - that's just a corny, clichéd crack at comedy.
So, from Budapest I took a train ride to Zagreb. I really don't know what i was thinking when i thought I'd just jump on the train at 5pm. I didn't know exactly how long the trip would take, but i knew it wasn't going to be a convenient arrival time to Croatia's capital. Nevertheless, i jumped on the train, and rocked up to Zagreb at the ungodly hour of 12 midnight. Naturally, everything was closed - I've had enough travelling experience to expect this anyway. Luckily i wasn't the only one without the initiative (or a credit card in my case) to pre-book accommodation. I found two Scottish girls who also didn't really think things through before jumping on the train. So for the first time I spent the night at the train station with company that did not fall into the catergory of bored police officers going around and waking all the sleepers for fun, and drunken hobos. We went for a bit of night time sightseeing of Zagreb, before heading back to the train station for a relatively undisturbed sleep. After we got the 6am wake up call (in the form of a copper nudging us with his foot) we saw the a little bit more of the city by daylight before the girls caught the train to Sarajevo and I the bus to Bihac.
Bihac is in Bosnia and Herzegovina, close to the Croatian border. It is a small town, the major attraction being the river Una. Because of it's size and lack of much of a tourist industry, there were no hostels to be found in Bihac. So, grudgingly, i set off to scout out the cheapest hotel i could find. After inquiring at all five of them i was ready to settle for a relatively cheap single room, when all of a sudden I hear a great big crack of thunder and look up to see that out of nowhere a huge storm has appeared above me. I was just about to bolt across to the other side of town to get to the cheap hotel, when a girl walks out into the street and asks me if i need a room. Half due to my unwillingness to get saturated in the storm and half due to the fact that this girl was gorgeous, i decided i'd settle for this private accommodation whatever it costed me. To my absolute delight, it turned out to be a third of the price of the cheapest hotel room - and the room (situated on the second storey of their house) was a big room, with a double bed and a television!
My spirits lifted, i was ready for whatever Bosnia had to throw at me. As luck would have it, i didn't see a drop of rain again after the first night. Unfortunately, the storm had flooded the river and white water rafting and canyoning were out of the question. So much for my "extreme" adventure. I settled on the next most extreme thing i could find - mountain bike riding. I woke early to a beautiful sunny day. After making my way down to the hire shop (and by shop it was just some guy's place who could speak broken english), I set off following a vague itinerary the man and I had managed to piece together. The first 15km's would have been a beautiful, leisurely cruise along the river Una - but for my willingness to make the whole day as extreme as possible. I rode through every puddle i could find, took dirt roads whenever possible and rode at a cracking pace - little did I know just how much this wasted energy would cost me later on in the day. After the first 15km's i reached the first major hill. If i had of known it was going to be 10km's of steep ascent I may have paced myself better. By the time I finally reached flat ground (exhausted) I was several hundred vertical metres higher then I was at the start of my trip. With amazing views everywhere I looked (except to the ominous signs on the side of the road containing skull and cross bones and Bosnian words to the effect of "KEEP OUT, LAND MINES!") I branched out from the main road into the complex maze of bicycle tracks all over the mountain. Eight hours later I was in bed, aching all over, and had decided I was never going to get on a bike again.
Highlights of the day included:
- Finding a tiny mountain village and having the school children chase me down the road
- Discovering a waterfall, right off the beaten track with tiny hermit's hut right next to it
- Hurtling down loose gravel roads at what seemed like terminal velocity for a guy on a bike
- Finding my way back
- Surviving
Lowpoints of the day included:
- Getting lost on multiple occasions
- Exhausting myself so badly I had to lie down... twice
- 3 counts of losing total control of the bike and closing my eyes and just hoping for the best
- Taking a wrong turn that brought the total length of my trip to well over 60km's

Satisfied that I led an extreme enough couple days in Bosnia and Hercegovina, it was off to Split.
Split is the main Croatian harbour, on the coast of the Adriatic Sea, and where i would begin my week long cruise. Finding accommodation, for once, was no hassle at all. I jumped off the bus and was swarmed by a huge group of people all trying to sell me a room for the night. I picked one at random, bargained him down to a good price, and he walked me to the apartment building a good 2 minutes from the centre of town! Split's main attraction is Diocletian's palace - an ancient Roman palace built by the retired emperor Diocletian. It was a strange experience walking through an ancient palace that has been converted into the main part of town. Corridors have become narrow streets, large rooms have been turned into public squares even dungeons have been made into souvenir markets! The sole remaining tower from the palace resides in the biggest square where, at night, people gather to sit around drinking coffee and watch live music.
The morning of the third day in Split, i boarded the Providnost - the sailing ship which was to become my home for the next week.
The week long sailing cruise along the Dalmatian cruise is definetly one of the highlights of my trip so far. What can i say? - A week of swimming, sunbaking, basking in the glory of the marbled streets of Ancient Roman civilisations and partying all night in funky night clubs is right up there in my definition of a good time. My daily routine consisted of:
- awaking to the sound of the ship rumbling out from the harbour,
- getting up for the all-you-can-eat continental breakfast,
- heading up to the top of deck for a morning sunbake
- the ship dropping anchor in the middle of the ocean for a mid-morning swim
- Heading down to a three course lunch
- Early afternoon arrival to the next island on the itinerary
- exploring the ruins of ancient Roman or Greek civilisations
- Dinner with everyone in a carefully chosen restaurant (usually overlooking the ocean, or with great sunset views)
- Finding the funkiest night club in town (often built into ancient castles or Roman towers)
Everyday brought with it a new island or coastal town and a new place to explore - what a wonderful way to spend a week. The basic itinerary included Makarska, Mljet, Dubrovnik, Slavos, Korcula, Hvar and back to Split. As hard as it is to pick my favourite, Drubovnik was just a cut above the rest. Completely surrounded by enormous walls, Drubovnik has to be one of the most picturesque places on the planet. The 2km walk around the top of the city walls brought with it what I think will be some of the best photos I've taken all trip. From the views out to the scattered islands in the Adriatic, or the mountain range immediately to the north, or even to the red roof-tops of the city below it, there's not an ugly thing in sight. After the 2km scout of the city, it was a short stroll to a "hole" in the city wall which led to a bar situated on the side of the cliff. Watching the sunset whilst sipping a beer, and swimming in the rocky waters just below is just about paradise if you ask me.
After a whole week of this sort of thing, it was with great reluctance that i stepped off the boat at 7am this morning to catch a train back to Zagreb. So now I'm writing this while I await my train to Ljubljana, Slovenia - and i just can't wait to see what experiences yet another new country brings.

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Photos

Scary Sign
This was the incentive to not accidentally run the bike off the edge of the tracks.

River Una
View of the river just after i set off.

Hidden Waterfall
Take notice of the little hut on the other side of the river.

Diocletian's Palace
4th Century palace - come bustling inncer city suburb.

Makarska Sunset
The first of many amazing sunsets I got to see on my cruise.

Dalamatian Coast
Taken from the ship one morning

Drubovnik
Taken from the top of the city walls.

Drubovnik Sunset
Taken from the 'Sunset' bar, where you can sip cocktails and swim in the ocean to your heart's content.

Hvar Port
From the castle.

Panaramic Hvar
From the top of the Castle

Group Picnic
Our group from the cruise having a picnic dinner whilst watching yet another beauty sunset.