Blogs from Croatia, Europe - page 175

Dubrovnik is amazing, but it has changed so much in the last year. It has suddenly become a tourist trap! There are groups of white haired English people roaming around on their rascal scooters and it is impossible to walk around without being in someone's photo. It's kind of too bad because last year it really felt like we were exploring the undiscovered. I suppose this is what happens, but I was really astonished to see how much it had changed in just 11 months. Nate and I have a really relaxing 2 days. We're still catching up on sleep and sanity from the boat, and we've had some of the best food. Today we literally slept until 1 and were back inside at 9...I kind of felt guilty for spending most of the day inside, ... read more

We left Verona yesterday morning and took a 1 1/2 hour train to Venice. Nate and I did some talking and realized we would have to make a couple of sacrifices to our schedule to please the budget and timetable we are trying to adhere to. Unfortunately, Venice had to be a part of that sacrifice. That means instead of spending the 2 or 3 days as we originally scheduled, we ended up with 6 hours to do the reader's digest version of Venice. We walked from the train station to San Marco square (I think that's what it was called...correct me if I'm wrong), which Nate's mom told us was a must do. We basically spent the entire day map-less just getting lost amongst the canals and bridges. Venice is a gorgeous town and the ... read more

April 20, 2008--- Tonight at midnight my Eurail pass expires. It's weird to think about it and it feels like a big moment in my European experience. This weekend marks the beginning of the end. I'm ready. It's been great to see so much of the world God created for us, but now the creations I'd like to see most are the faces of family and friends back home. This past weekend was really nice though; I added my final two countries, Croatia and Slovenia, to my European semester abroad list. The grand total sits at 11 countries. Pretty awesome! ******************************************************** After a 13 hour night train (tiring!) we arrived in the seaside city of Rijeka, Croatia. Rain and large ferry boats greeted us. We didn't exactly know what lay ahead for our day-long adventure but ... read more

We woke in Split finally to rain (it was never going to last I suppose!), and the clothes we had washed previously in our cold little room were still very much damp. So on decamping to the car to drive to Dubrovnik there was various (I'll leave it to your imagination) garments hung (I use the term loosely) around the car!!! What a sight my little car must have looked! The aim was to contiune down the coast road to Dubrovnik and this we nearly achieved. The views had become even more dramatic and the sea an even more wonderful colour. We drove past Hvar, Brac and Korcula Islands and through little towns and harbours, and despite the rain it was still awesome views. Then it had to happen, the best laid plans of mice and ... read more

The first task of the day in Zagreb was to extract some money from a cashpoint, so we headed off from the youth hostel in the direction of some local shops! This was no more than a 5 minute walk which took us through typical east european housing blocks. One quite understood during the war how easily the people living here were picked out and targeted by snipers. Although we appreciate it maybe less of the case here than in Sarajevo, it does bring it home to you. So after our first attempt of getting some money out and failing on our second attempt we were a little bit more lucky! We walked to the end of the road and caught the tram back into town. We were very naughty at this stage and didn't buy ... read more