Chilling in Croatia

G’day all,

Well after a hectic past few months of fast pace travel I decided to have a bit of a chill out week in Croatia and just hang out with Alex and Tom. Croatia isn’t the cheap place I was hearing about years ago when I was travelling Europe but is still cheaper than Western Europe. We arrived in Spilt on Monday night after a long enough bus ride from Sarajevo and decided to indulge a little at a budget restaurant. As much as I tried to indulge my cheap traveller instincts couldn’t go away as a left over half bottle of red wine from the patrons before us ended up being our little drinks for the meal. We had a pretty wild thunderstorm on Monday night and had a nice sleep in before heading out to the island of Hvar on Tuesday afternoon. Our last mission before heading to Hvar was to find a much awaited Mcdonalds meal which we were craving and talking about for days beforehand. We only had a few hours in Split and spent a good 2 hours of it searching for Mcdonalds which we eventually found to our delight. We arrived in Hvar late in the arvo on Tuesday and found our hostel before walking around for a bit and going back to cook up some dinner. Tom was feeling quite sick as he had been all week so Alex and I decided to head out and see what the much talked about night life was like on the island. Hvar is supposed to be the “Ibiza of Croatia” however we must have gone there at the wrong time of the year as there were about 5 people out in total. On Wednesday the three of us rented scooters for the day and we had a ball cruising around through the little villages scattered all over the island. The scenery was amazing in every sense of the word with the roads weaving in and around mountains following the coast line of crystal clear blue water. We ended the day watching the sunset over a horizon of small islands and just went back to relax in the hostel for the night. We were so tired after our big day of riding we only had energy to eat breakfast cereal for dinner and had had so many bowls I was almost spewing up milk for the night. The next few days after Hvar the weather really picked up nicely and it’s been in the mid 20’s and sunny every since. On Friday I sadly parted ways with Tom and Alex for the last time as they were flying back to England and I headed south to the beautiful town of Dubrovnik. The bus ride down the coast of the Adriatic Sea was something special and really gives you an appreciation of Croatia’s beauty. I arrived in Dubrovnik late at night so I just located my hostel and some cheap pizza then had an early night. On Saturday I had a bit touristy day walking around the old town of Dubrovnik taking many photos. Dubrovnik is so pretty it’s actually breath taking but the swarms of annoying ‘tourist tourists’ really gave me the shits and I decided to shoot back up to my favorite Bosnia again on Sunday. I did enjoy myself in Dubrovnik but it was quite overpriced and way too touristy for my liking. The one great thing I did do however was walk around on top of the 2km of city walls surrounding the old town and it was brilliant. With under 3 euros worth of Croatian Kuna left to my name I took to the supermarket with my cheap calculating brain on fire and ended up leaving with 1L of red wine, 2 packets of crisps, a packet of pretzels, and a dip. I spend Saturday night watching “Wolf Creek” and drinking wine with another fellow Aussie staying at the hostel and had a nice chilled night in. Sunday morning was an early start for my bus to Mostar in Bosnia and I pretty much slept the whole way. Alex and Tom told me about this fantastic hostel they stayed at in Mostar called “Majdas Rooms” so I decided to stay there. The hostel has only been around for 18 months and is run by this really nice lady Majda and her brother Bata and their mother. Bata picked me up from the bus station and before I knew it I was drinking Bosnian coffee and eating cake then I was straight onto a full day tour of countryside around Mostar. Bata is one of the funniest guys I’ve ever met and the tour was more like a stand up comedy performance than tour. It was an action packed day where we went to a fort, then horse riding, then to a huge waterfall, then to some town where the Virgin Mary was seen, then to a cave where this river runs out of before having a feast of a meal at this nice restaurant. When I said a feast I meant it, this “Bosnian mixed grill” was a vegetarian’s nightmare. It had basically every type of meat in the world you can think of thrown onto one huge platter. Yesterday the weather was perfect and I had a really nice day walking around Mostar relaxing and taking in the beauty of this town. Mostar is very war damaged just like Sarajevo and equally if not more beautiful. The old town in Mostar is so pretty with dozens of turquoise coloured streams flowing under and around the cobble stoned streets down to this amazing river. The highlight of this small town is the bridge ‘Stari Most’ and it’s just so visually impressive you could stare at it for hours and not get bored. It’s only a small bridge but it sits 27m above the river and people jump off it for money into the 6m deep river (as in video). Apparently it’s pretty dangerous to jump off it and many people get injured or even die if you don’t know how you jump perfectly. Every year ‘Red Bull’ hosts a diving competition off the bridge as an extreme sport and it is supposed to draw the crowds in. I had a great time in Mostar and the hospitality and fun generated from the hostel really made my time so fun here. This morning Majda found out they won the award of “Best hostel in Europe 2007” and she was very excited but it was also well deserved with all the extra effort they put into this hostel. I think Bosnia is Europe’s best kept secret but I can see tourism taking off 10 fold over the next few years so if you want to see this place at it’s peak GET HERE NOW!! It’s everything you would want in a destination it’s beautiful, cheap, historical, has nice weather, and the people are so friendly and hospitable. I’m currently heading to Zagreb in Croatian before zipping through Slovenia to meet my friend Christine in Venice on Friday.

Update ya soon,

Woodsy