Balkans Route

Having put together lots of GPS tracks, and added some other info from Google Earth and OSM, we have a complete trace of our trip - measuring 2689.8km! The length is far from exact, not every wander through the city is included in the map, mostly just the station/ferry to station/ferry parts and little routes in between. If you zoom in far enough, you'll see a canoe adventure, a kayak trip and the plot of the mountain bike ride that was harder than expected. Enjoy!

Honeymoon Trip through Balkans

The best laid plans...

Alas, either we were totally misinformed or we totally messed something up - we didn't get to meet Prem. Very infuriating being in the same place as someone and having no way to meet them!

Time to go 'home'

It would seem that one of our trips is never complete unless there's a long, slightly uncertain and often rainy search for a restaurant. So it was again in Dublin, this time searching for a converted warehouse/market yard that is now a tapas place. Matt had been there many years ago, but that wasn't quite enough local knowledge! The search was in the end, however worth it.

In another piece of genius non-planning, we knew only the bus number that would get us to the hotel near the airport. We didn't know where to get it, or where to get off. We also didn't know how to contact the hotel! Matt's mum found us the phone number, the lady at the hotel told us the street where we could pick up the bus, and tried to give us an idea of where to get off, but [to Matt at least] it didn't make much sense. We found the street, but not the bus, asked a few people as we walked vaguely in the direction of the airport. Eventually we ended up on the bus route, and a short while later (and thanks to a friendly bus driver) we were at the hotel. It just goes to show how inhospitable bus travel is to the unprepared. The free Dublin guidebook kindly said in regard to bus travel that one should look things up on the internet before your trip. Quite.

I'm [Matt] writing this from something like 36,000 feet, on the way to Frankfurt. I don't have Birgit's in-transit sleeping skills. Hopefully in around an hour we'll be meeting our good friend Prem in the Goethe Café in Frankfurt airport. Assuming we make it through what is going to be a very rainy landing (which caused us to wait for 45 minutes on the tarmac in Dublin). Astoundingly, security took about 10 minutes in Dublin instead of the normal 30+. That left time for porridge for me and a croissant for Birgit, so at least we're not hungry!

A short trip back to Ireland

30 years of marriage for my parents, and about 70 days for us. With so much to celebrate, it was with the usual customary tiredness and stress that we set off for Munich airport on Friday night. Once finally on a bus up to Lisburn, all of that was forgotten, and the fun (after a cup of tea and some sleep) could begin.

Warming up by the fire

We've had a great weekend. People came from far and near for the party on Saturday night, we ate, drank, and listened to William and his son play guitar. Our relatives from Donegal, some of Matt's old friends from school and colleagues of Matt's mum made the trip all the way out to Aghalee. The rest of the weekend had its relaxing and not so relaxing parts - from sampling UK TV to planning the wedding album with Matt's uncle to walking in Lady Dixon park. But the highlight has to have been pirate golf!


Now we are sitting on the train, not far from Dublin. We were delayed almost an hour and a half thanks to some wannabe terrorists, but we had a film to watch so we coped. The next task is to figure out how to get to our hotel near the airport, and find some much needed food. In the morning we will attempt to cross paths with our good Indian friend Prem who will also be in Frankfurt airport. Excitement!

Dubrovnik, Mostar and Sarajevo

Finally we are travelling through country without mountains. We are on a mammoth train ride from Sarajevo to Munich, and will have proper beds to sleep in from Zagreb onwards. The train we're on now is heading for Belgrade, it hasn't been running all that long since it was restored after the war. We already had an interesting chat with a local only going a stop or two about life in Bosnia and the problems of religious conflict, and in an hour or so we'll change on to a train from Belgrade that goes all the way to Munich, picking up and dropping various carriages along the way. We only found this route because we were afraid our planned direct train to Zagreb would be late, as part of it earlier in the journey may or may not be being bussed as we were from Mostar to Sarajevo. Enough with the travel chaos though - we'll get to the terrible bus ride in due course.

Dubrovnik was a bit overrun with tourists like ourselves during our short time there. We paid a little too much to have a "war storytelling tour". Fortunately for Dubrovnik, there's not too much physical evidence left to show that the city was fought over, besieged for well over a year and left very badly damaged.

Dubrovnik by night...

... and by day - our apartment was on this street

We had an early start the next morning with the bus to Bosnia, arriving around lunchtime in Mostar. Unlike Dubrovnik, Mostar's scars have not healed so easily. They have only recently finished painstakingly rebuilding their biggest tourist attraction, the Old Bridge, built by the Turks in the 16th century. Mostar has always been a city divided - Muslims on the eastern side, Catholics on the west. The area in the middle alongside each bank of the river was bitterly fought over, and since the war there has been little interest in moving back in. The immediate vicinity of the bridge has been beautifully restored, but the rest is still a work in progress*. We walked through both sides and passed many empty building shells along with rebuilding work in progress. The small city quarter around the bridge, the "old town" was really fun, especially on the eastern side where we weren't harassed by everyone selling food or ice cream (this is probably not a cultural difference but rather a reflection of how hard it is to keep people on the western side which is smaller and mostly devoid of landmarks).

"I'm so glad they built this bridge so I can make a quick getaway from the ice cream seller"

Picture Perfect

Plodding onward

The Muslim side of town with restored bridge and tower. In the background, an as-yet unrestored building - we weren't able to figure out what it is/was

Ruins along the Eastern front line

It must also be said that compared to Croatia, Bosnia is CHEAP, and this in an area almost 100% occupied by tourists and tourist-targetted businesses. We had a good meal, saw the bridge, of course, and took the tour of the museum. It must be one of the few museums in the world that is situated both on many levels of a tower and underground. The former is completely set up with boards and exhibits, and the latter allows you to see the archeological remains uncovered underground on one side of the bridge, followed by minute details on the civil engineering behind the area's restoration. Price? About €1.50. Nearby there is also a photo exhibition on the bombardment of Mostar and the bridge which is free and very interesting. We finished up with some proper Turkish coffee (Matt's first) and then it was off to the station to buy our ticket and watch another World Cup game whilst we waited.

Getting the train was more than a little complicated. When we arrived by bus at lunchtime we learned from a sign that the ticket office was closed till 4, and from a local that the train that evening would be partially bus substituted and we'd be better off taking a proper bus the whole way. We've been a bit wary of over-willing locals because almost everywhere we stop we've been greeted by people agressively trying to rent us a place to sleep. But in this case we should have heeded his advice. There wasn't enough space on the buses - we stood for the ~1.5 hour trip, and had a short but terrifying experience where we broke down and lost all power (including lights!) in the middle of a tunnel. After 5 minutes of hoping the cars behind would notice us, the driver got enough clear space behind him to do a hill start, in reverse. Off we went again, soon to be joined by a group of drunk passengers who seemed to be the only ones enjoying the journey! The scenery made up for the misery though, and it got even better once we reached the actual train. Finally in Sarajevo, a tram and a few helpful people got us to our hotel. Finally we could put down our packs and a very sweaty Matt could take a shower. We hadn't found a left luggage in Mostar, and as we weren't staying anywhere there, we were stuck with our very heavy bags all day. It was tempting to sleep, but we were both famished. The only area still providing food was the party centre of the old city. We had very noisy fast food!

Sarajevo train station

Some late night internet research showed up the alternative train connection, so after a wonderful early breakfast this morning it was off to the station to see if they'd sell it to us, and then a quick sight seeing tour (in the rain) before checking out and heading back to catch the train. We haven't really seen enough to make a reliable recommendation, but we liked Sarajevo very much. Especially the people are so friendly, and the city is charming, even in the rain. Most of the buildings damaged in the war have been restored, and Catholics and Muslims live side by side - their mosques and churches mixed up together in the city centre.

Photos of Sarajevo. The last, the Latin Bridge, was right by our hotel and is the site of the spark that set off World War I, where Archduke Franz Ferdinand and his wife were assassinated.

In the time I've been writing this we've been stamped by Bosnian and Croatian border police (its quite exciting to have your passport stamped in Europe these days), and left the train to wait for 50 minutes in Strizivojna-Vrpolije for the train to Zagreb.

Border control Bosnia-Croatia

Amusingly, despite everywhere we've been, this waiting room is the first place we've had to use the insect repellent...

*The source of this explanation is here

Sea Travelling

Things got markedly more exciting after yesterday's entry - we had our on the rocks by the sea, then rented a double-seater kayak and took to the ocean. We didn't go too far beause of the limited time, but we did find a good beach for swimming. Afterwards, ice cream was agin in order, and we clambered up the long gangway to board the car ferry for Mljet. Dinner on board was better than expected (I'm getting really bored of chips, but these were possibly the world's best - it's something about the oil they have down here...) and soon we were on Mljet. Unlike Korcula, this island is very different from Hvar. We journey along winding roads along the sides of steep mountains, completely covered in trees. People who think Ireland is green probably need to pay a visit. Half of the island is a national park, and in this half we eventually reached our hotel. It looked like it was once a great place, these days it is a little rough around the edges. No matter though, after sleeping and breakfasting it was time to get on the water again, this time in a canoe, which required a little more skill and coordination than a Kayak. The island has two connected lakes - little lake and big lake. In the big lake there is an island with an abandoned and partly maintained/restored monastery. We stopped there twice - once on the way out for coffee and once on the way back for a swim and some lunch. Back on the coast we amused ourselves attemping to swim against a small connecting stream within the lake (both failing, miserably, but enjoying floating down it in the other direction!). Finally, it was time to move on. We're on our last boat, to Dubrovnik. After that it's on to Bosnia and then home.

The adventure begins

Birgit recovers with a glass of local wine on the ferry. Our wonderful (ahem) team of waiters approaches from behind

Birgit considers how to get from her rock to my rock while not being dressed for swimming (pictures of how this challenge was solved not available for publishing...)

Matt tries (in vain) to swim against the current

Korcula

The journey continues today, in the unrelenting sun. Our hotel in Korcula was brand new and fabulous. In our brief stay we had time to enjoy the pool, restaurant and a wonderful breakfast. There wasn't much else to do in Vera Luka except catch the bus this morning as planned to Korcula town. To save weight, Birgit left her credit card with the desk at the hotel after paying! The bus ride was stunning if also at times bumpy and terrifying - the driver seemed keen to get us here on time whilst efficiently catching up on business on the phone and catching a smoke out the window. We now have our tickets for the next trip to Mljet and have had a coffee looking out on the ocean, and explored the old city, including a walk to the top of Marco Polo's tower. We thought we were brave embarking on a two week adventure - this guy spent 24 years on his trip away from home. I write this sitting on a corner waiting for Birgit to complement her hotel breakfast leftovers with something for me from the supermarket. It may be time to reapply the sunscreen.

Ye Olde Entrance to Korcula

Birgit doing her best Bond Girl impression

Matt refusing to show Marco Polo's tower due respect

Birgit at the top of the tower

Struggling to get down the tower (visitors attempting to get past Matt not shown)

Mountain biking including real mountains

We had our sport yesterday, and got a little more than we bargained for. We rented a couple of bikes, endured about 8km of hill climbing until we reached Velo Grablje, a tiny village nestled at the top of a valley. Failing to find lunch, the next challenge was to find the right path downwards to Malo Grablje, an abandoned village, but apparently also with a restaurant. No one had warned us that this was an "Extreme" mountain bike route (although thankfully it was a bike route, with nice encouraging sign posts along the way). We had the right bikes, but our extreme skills (and gloves, and helmets) were somewhat lacking, but we got safely down without any injuries. We couldn't find any food in the abandoned village, but we were also lacking the energy to conduct a thorough search, or take such fantastic photos as you will find here. Civilization, good food and swimming beckoned in Milna at the bottom. After this enjoyable pitstop, it was onwards for another, albeit shorter hillclimb back to Hvar, though this time the sun had come out in full force. A sleep, dinner, a football game and yet more trip planning for the rather complicated itinerary before us (two more islands, Dubrovnik, Mostar, Sarajevo and Zagreb in 5 days) followed. Today has been more relaxed, a stroll along the coast, a dip in the sea (for Birgit only this time) and leisurely waiting for our ferry to Korcula (there is, after all, another World Cup game to keep an eye on!)

Birgit doing some pro-bike modelling

The view from the top

A chapel at the top

Utterly lost in Velo Grablje

Proof

Big rocks

Approaching the abandoned village

The view from dinner

Walking up and out of the old town, this is the tower of a ruined monastery

The view from further up and out

Onwards to Hvar

We've found a free sofa by the harbour, bought a couple of drinks, and are awaiting the Germany vs. Austrailia demolition to begin. Today was spent mostly travelling and hanging around in between, and planning more travelling. The bus to Split got us there early enough to find some lunch and coffee, followed by a boat to our first proper island stop - Hvar. The place is amazing, beautiful little streets, stairways and houses, and not just in one "old quarter" but really the whole city. There is still a lot we haven't explored, but really our point in coming here was to do a little sport rather than site seeing. The current plan is to rent a couple of bikes in the morning and hit the road to the beach... We have another night here, afterwards is still under discussion!

Zadar!

The 'relaxing' part of our holiday now over, we made the trip early this morning to our next stop, Zadar, the gateway to the Dalmatian coast. That meant a 6am bus into Pula to catch the 7am ferry. We called at the islands of Unije, Lošinj and Ilovik on the way, arriving at Zadar around midday. We've spent most of the time either eating, drinking or hiding under shade whilst trying to see the sites leftover from years of Roman, Venecian and Austro-Hungarian rule. Tomorrow holds another, slightly less early start - a 7.30am bus out to the bus station to try and find some breakfast and a bus to our next destination Split, and onward to the island of Hvar.

The timetable

All aboard...

Lošinj

Ilovik

Made it!

Many centuries ago, this was a courthouse

And this was the city guard, we think

Franciscan Church

St Donac Church, from the 8th century

Sitting on top of the sea organ, and listening to it at night

Experimenting with the giant solar installation

Zadar by night