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Published: September 8th 2011
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We left Sofia and started what seemed to be a week long train/bus/car/ferry ride. After all was said and done I really think the time from Sofia, Bulgaria to our campsite in Dubrovnik, Croatia took around 37 hours. Our route consisted of the following: an 8 hour train ride from Sofia Bulgaria to Nis Serbia, followed by a 7 hour layover, and then a 16 hour overnight bus ride to Montenegro, followed by a 4 hour layover, and then a 2 hour car ride into Dubrovnik Croatia, followed by a 30 minute bus ride to our camp site. The travel was gruesome, but we did save some money by not having to book a hotel one night because we had to sleep on the bus. The bus portion of our trip was so long, that our bus even had to take a break by riding up onto the car ferry and sailing up the river for a while.
We finally arrived in Dubrovnik, Croatia and we decided to camp because a couple of Australians we met in Istanbul gave us two sleeping bags and Ali thought it was a sign from God that we needed to go camping. Anything to
Hotel Pool next to Campsite
We were able to use the hotel ammenities even though we were cheaping it at the campsite next door. Great deal! save a couple bucks on this two month escapade was good news for me, so we bought a cheap tent and starting our camping part of the tour. Dubrovnik was pretty cool and our camp ground had access to all the amenities of the nearby hotel and resort. We spent a couple of days walking around the “old town” (if you’ve seen one, you’ve seen them all) and then we spent a couple of days lounging around the beaches and pools. Dubrovnik looked like a pretty wealthy place and things were kind of expensive, but I do think the recession still affected them because most of the females couldn’t afford to buy bathing suit tops and at a couple of places the elderly people couldn’t even afford tops or bottoms.
We then took a cruise over to the Island of Hvar where we found another camp ground. This time, our camp site was in a shaded area overlooking a beautiful topless beach. When I say beach, I think of the white sandy beaches from back home, but these beaches consisted of rocks and sea urchins. They did look pretty, but you can’t compare them to the soft sandy beaches
in my opinion. We met some very friendly Hungarians and Americans (who lived in Germany) and they let us share their grill, so we got some home cooked meals for the first time in a while. I also discovered 2 liters of beer on this island, which I don’t think Ali was a big fan of. The problem was that the 2 liters were in plastic bottles with a twist off caps, so I had to finish the whole thing in one sitting every time I opened one. Besides lounging around the beaches on the Island of Hvar, we also rented a little 5 horse power puddle jumper (a boat) and scooted over to all the other nearby islands to look for the nudist colonies. I don’t know if Ali knew that’s what we were looking for, but we just found a bunch of old naked people on boats instead. When in Rome …
AM: I have come to realize that Will has an affinity for naked people. He sees them everywhere, even when no one else does. He has a gift.
Next, we cruised back to the main land and then bussed it to Plitvice Lakes, Croatia.
We stayed in a little wooden bungalow that looked really safe and secure. We later noticed every morning we had more bugs and spiders in our bungalow than when we were camping. Plitvice Lakes was a pretty amazing hiking area made up of thousands of waterfalls. You can see some of them in the pics. We saw so many waterfalls that by the end of three days we were actually all waterfalled out. It was a very peaceful place and Ali and I even used one full day to just sit under one of the larger waterfalls and meditate. Ali lasted about 3 seconds on her meditation and I think I made it to at least 10 seconds. Meditating and clearing your thoughts is a lot harder than it seems, even when you are in a natural sanctuary.
AM: Serenity Now.
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Rebecca & Terry
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Will, love the beard!!! Ali, you look so tan!! Miss you guys. Sorry we can\'t come visit. Malachi would not be happy about the trip there by plane.