Blogs from Croatia, Europe - page 187

............................................ You all may have noticed that the volume of blog entries in the past few days has dropped down to nil... Travelblog crashed and was down for a couple of days, and a lot of data has been lost on their part. So until I do some fixing, most, if not all of my previous blog entries will be inaccessible, and a lot of the pictures will have to be reloaded... Not good times. ............................................ In any case, we left Dubrovnik, and headed to the airport to pick up our rental car. Getting in and speeding out of the airport parking lot felt amazing. We were no longer backpackers at the whim of train and bus schedules, we were free! Dave took over the driving responsibilties, and I used my compass, travel guides, and maps ... read more

July 26, 2007 “Even that Little Kid is Doing Better than You” by Will After our getaway from Budapest we chose to take on a long drive through Hungary to the middle Croatia to Plitvice Lakes National Park. This destination was on our list to visit but it was some distance from Budapest. We just decided to go for it and take on the 7 hour drive and do it in one day. As it turned out Croatia has done wonders with their roads since the end of their war with Serbia 10+ years ago. They had a beautiful new toll road that essentially started from the border with Hungary to within 60 km of the park. We were zipping along…not as fast as all the BMW’s with German plates. They too were headed to Croatia ... read more

Well I am currently on Brac Island, in the Adriatic sea. Things are going well for Alex and I after many adventures. It has only been a few days since my last posting but it feels like it has been a long time. The bus from Kotor to Dubrovnik was awful. It was completely full and we ended up having to sit on the floor for half the trip. The bus got in nearly 4 hours late. We ended up taking a nap and deciding to stay an extra day in Dubrovnik to slow things down a bit. Dubrovnik is a cool city but way too touristy. It is still very beautiful though. The walls are incredible. The thing we liked the best though was swimming outside the gates, and jumping off the rocks outside the ... read more

We got into Dubrovnik much later than expected, sweaty, and tired. We tried our hardest to stay up for a bit and check it out, but after an hour of light touring, we were exhausted and went back to our Villa to nap, which ended up being several hours. We also discovered that it was really hot in Dubrovnik, even at night. The next day, we toured the city en force, along with hordes of other tourists. In fact, the place was tourist central. Unlike Kotor, it didn't seem like there was a single non-tourist related business set up. There were even people in medieval costumes parading up and down the city streets. As Dubrovnik was damaged in 1991 by the Yugoslavian army, it has been restored and the old walled city is in excellent condition. ... read more

I was supposed to catch a ferry from Venice to Pula, but baulked when I saw the 74€ price tag. Instead, I took a train to the border town of Trieste with my Eurail pass, and then caught a bus to Pula for the princely sum of 12.50€ (my train pass doesn't work in Croatia). Italy doesn't actually border Croatia, so the bus had to go through Slovenia, famous for being mountainous, and it's easy to see why. I can't actually say that I've been to Slovenia though, as per my own rules, I never actually got off the bus and set foot in Slovenia, so I have not officially been there ;-) You could tell once you hit Croatia though, with red earth, old clay houses and scorching sun creating a classic Mediterranean landscape. Having ... read more