6.7.2011 hungry and Croatia


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Europe
July 6th 2011
Published: July 6th 2011
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Hi everyone,

After Vienna we went to Budapest. 
Budapest uses the hungarian frank as their currency. The change in currency meant that we had to find an ATM some where in hungry to obtain cash. Once we passed the border we started pulling over at the petrol stations looking for money. At one of these stops Luke jumped out of the car and all the windows were down. Two guys came up to the van and started washing the window, amiralee said no, but they said that my husband said to do it. After luke returned and had no luck with atm's these 2 fellas expected to be paid. We offered 1 and two euros but they said that they couldn't exchange coins and wanted any notes we had. We both thought that they are scam artists and Luke cleverly handed them a snickers chocolate bar and we escaped without being robbed.

We decided that it was time to stay in a hostel and meet some more travelers. With the help of deirdre (gps) we drove towards a hostel in the middle of the area where all the bars and clubs are. We spent ages walking up and down the street looking for the hostel. All the time we were parked in a disabled bay, with no parking ticket as we still didn't have any money. In the end we found the smallest sign on a door bell saying that the hostel was 3 levels up. We went up, and it was the dingiest hostel we had been in. We asked the guy about parking the hoot, and he mentioned that there was free parking at the end of the street near the city park. So, we got back into the hoot (luckily we didn't get a parking ticket) and started driving to the end of the street. However, the end of the street was about 5km away, and we really didn't like the thought of walking the 5 km with our back packs. So decided to stay with the hoot on the edge of the park.

It took us a few days to work out exactly how big this park was. It had it's own castle, massive lakes, a few museums, hot springs and every sporting ground that you could think off. We spent a lot of time running through the park exploring the area.

After Budapest we weren't really sure where we wanted to go. We had the option to go to Slovenia or Croatia. We had crossed off Croatia on the list as we would once again have to obtain another currency, but the chance to sit on a beach and go swimming won out, so we gave Slovenia the flick and made our way to croatia.

After 3 hours of driving we made it to the border. We showed our passports and realized that it was a checkpoint to leaving Hungary, we then crossed a bridge and came to the Croatian border checkpoint. We were asked to show passports and also paperwork for the vehicle. We were able to produce the vehicle on hire (VOH)'papers but that wasn't good enough because they still didn't know if the vehicle is actually registered.... We started to realize that our dreams of beaches were coming crashing down. After 15 minutes of the border patrol discussing the situation they stamped our passports and said next time please have registration papers.

We were so excited that we didn't have to turn the hoot around and adventure elsewhere but we did have a bit of a dilemma, we had no idea where to go or what to do. We didn't have enough time to go down to split and the lonely planet guide wasn't being very helpful (it's been amazing every where else). We managed to change our minds 5 times but finally decided to visit the capital Zagreb. We spent a few days then we moved on to the plitvicka jezera national parks, stopping at an ancient roman archeology site on our way.

The roman site dates back to the 1st century, and we only found out about it by accident, when we were talking to the tourist information centre. It is in a small town about 20km out of Zagreb. We drove into the town, and saw that a fair was on, so we parked the hoot and decided to walk around town to try and find it. We were walking through the fair looking at the kids toys when we managed to walk right past it. Effectively the site is in a park on the side of the one and only road in the town. There were no signs and no fences blocking entrance, it was open to anyone. The ruins were discovered in 1969 and extensively examined until 1980, when they decided that they were finished and filled in the site with river stones. Now, you can still see a lot of the walls particularly the bathing area and the way they used to heat the water. The most amazing thing about the site was that it was not touristy, there was no entrance, no signs, it is just there in the park. We walked around the town and found another site, it was roped off and a sign said that it was being dug up, however we don't think work has been done on it for quite a while, particularly since kids rides were set up surrounding it. Afterward our discoveries we got back into the hoot and continued on our way to see the national parks.

While visiting the park we decided that it was time for a shower, and that we should book into accommodation. We searched wotif and booked some accommodation, not really knowing what it was, but being very excited at the prospects of a shower. we followed our gps into the backstreets of a little country town, turning down roads which we thought were driveways, but actually lead to large paddocks and houses. after a while we found our goal, which was a lovely little bed breakfast situated on rolling hills surrounded by chickens and almond trees. The owner was lovely, and they feed us none stop.

The national park is amazing. It is full of lakes and water falls, which are a bright blue colour, and so clear that you can see the bottom. You can choose to walk around the lakes, and they have different paths to follow. We choose a 4 to 6 hour hike. The first part was quite peaceful, as most people choose the smaller walks. It wasn't till we were further down the mountain that the tourist started flooding in. We finally made it to the end of our trail, very hot and tired. We were amazed that no one else was looking quite as bad as us, until we saw the tourist busses pull up, spew out the tourists, so that they could walk 500meters, see the biggest water fall and then walk back to the bus. We were so glad that we had the option to do whatever we wanted, that we decided to keep soldering on and hike further. All up we spent 7hours exploring the magnificent lakes. Luke was very disappointed  that he couldn't sit down and fish or at least jump in and go for a swim, but overall it made the beer at the end of the day even sweeter.

The next day we said goodbye to our lovely hosts and started making our way to the coast to go for our swim and sun bake on the beach. The only problem was, it was raining and cold.

Guys, we need some loving and stories from home. Please keep  posting us and tell us everything. We would love to hear everything and anything! 

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