Monday, July 27, 2009

You pay more for the adventure

We finally found summer in Croatia!  We spent the first few days relaxing by the ocean in a small town called Bajnice, marveling at being hot again (it was about 36C) and jumping into the spectacularly clear water at the front of our hostel to cool off.  We also ventured into Split for a day of sightseeing, but were soon keen to be back in the water.  Then we were given an offer we couldn’t refuse.  The hostel is new and the owner Nikola is FULL of ideas.  One of them is to set up a trip to his father’s old house in the middle of the countryside, quite near to the border of Bosnia and Herzegovina.  He’d run it once before a year ago and this was his second attempt.  We left a few hours later than planned as we first had to  disassemble 6 of the hostel beds and pack them into the trailer along with the dishwasher, our lunch and a wine bottle big enough for me to get in!  There were 6 of us going, which meant 2 cars.  Nikola with his and Sonja (his niece) driving us, but for some reason not in her car.  She was having difficulty with the car from the getgo and before we had got 5km the car gave up completely and we had our first adventure – pushing the car to the nearest turn off!  Some theatrics later (not quite sure how jumping on the car bonnet was supposed to help) we were off this time in her car.  The drive along the Croatian coast was spectacular to say the least, looking like all the tourist brochures you’ve ever seen.  Lush green hills rolling down to crystal clear turquoise ocean with the occasional town with white walls and red roods completing the colour palette.  Then Nikola spotted some backpackers who were trying to hitch to Mostar (in Bosnia and Herzegovina).  He offered to let them join us going to the National Park and getting to the border sometime that night, but they did not have enough time so we drove them only 2km to a better hitching spot. 

Our first official stop was a National Park.  This was a beautiful spot and the views from the top of the mountain were amazing.  But, we were starting to get hungry.  We made it to the top about 6pm, and hadn’t eaten since 10am.  The sandwiches, you may remember, were put in the trailer which we’d left at the bottom of the road. It was a very narrow winding road and trying to pass was at times exciting.  One spot in particular where there was no barrier we had to drive right to the edge of the cliff to let the other car pass.  From Sonja’s car we had watched Nikola drive right up to the edge without a millimeter to spare.  But we had to get there too.  All four of us jumped out of the car not wanting to risk that Nikola would not be able to pull it off twice in a row (Sonja was not even going to try) and proceeded to take pictures of what was happening instead! 

We made it to the old stone house about 8pm.  It was a charming house and the whole community came to be part of dinner.  Not many people live there now as they had moved down the valley to the village.  But we were joined by the ‘old lady’ (a next door neighbour who was 99 years old), the ‘cowboy’ (Nikola’s brother, Anti) and the ‘indian’ (another neighbour).  There was also Sonja’s sister and her boyfriend who had come up from Split.  The old lady and the cowboy were in charge of cooking dinner, all with food from Anti’s ranch.  First up was the bread.  A fire was built on the stones and once it had burned itself out to coals and heated the stones it was moved aside, fig leaves were put down and the bread placed on top of them.  A lid was put over it and hot coals placed on top of it.  The result was some of the best bread I’ve ever tasted, particularly dipped in the home made olive oil and garlic.  Yum!!  We were all consuming copious amounts of Anti’s home made wine which came in three bottles.  The largest was good, the middle size was better and the smallest (the bottle was a pumpkin!) was ‘very special’ and much higher in alcohol content.  And we can’t forget the homemade spirit of somekind which was incredibly potent, plus the shots of raki that we’d been given by an old man in the National Park that we bought some honey off.  It was a great night with conversations in Croatian, German and English all happening simultaneously.

The next day when we finally stirred we explored a bit more before we headed off to Bosnia and Herzegovina for a beer.  It was the most laid back border crossing ever as Nikola explained what we were doing and so our passports were not even looked at in either direction on the Croatian side and only a quick glance as we entered Bosnia and Herzegovina.  Afterwards we swam in the blue lake before heading back to Split for a well deserved sleep.

 

 

Friday, July 24, 2009

Speeding trains, friends relatives, and sightseeing

London was one of the most jam-packed weeks we have managed on the trip!  We landed in Heathrow at a reasonable time of day (we will just ignore the 30 hours spent in airports and on planes prior) where we made our way to see some friends in London.  Revelling in the long daylight hours (9:30pm?  of course it's still light) and the fact that our jetlag made staying up late easy we chatted until past 1am.  Getting up the next morning however was excruciating!!  We made it to Cambridge where after nearly a year we finally managed to meet Claudine.  The one activity we were eager to do in Cambridge was punting.  So we made a plan - bad idea.  At the appointed hour to meet beside the punts the heavens opened, in a way that shouldn't happen in England, being more reminiscent of a tropical storm.  Within seconds we were soaked through and the streets were flooded.  So Andrew, Jason and I ducked into the pub where Claudine was sensibly waiting and all took off our shoes and poured out the water to  create our own paddling pool under the table.  Of course the weather wasn't finished yet and within an hour the rain was replaced with hail!  After a lovely couple of days catching up we jumped on the train to Exeter to see some of the Northcott side of the family and to show Jason where I lived for the first few years before we very sensibly moved to Australia.  We toured the sights, strangely my cousin who lives there hadn't been to many of the places we saw either, before heading back to Louise's house for a nice dinner and more chat.  The next morning we were off to Salisbury to be proper tourists!  We jumped on a tour bus to Stonehenge and Old Sarum quite enjoying the spiel about the area.  The next morning we were off to Banbury to see my brother and after a night sharing  a couch.. slightly smaller than a single bed... we were back on the train to London.  In London we headed out to the Body Worlds exhibition, which was fascinating, before catching an evening performance of Les Mis!! "Do you hear the people sing?"  The next day we met up with my great Aunt for lunch, spent a couple of hours in the Tower of London where we were thoroughly entertained by our Yeoman guide, before heading out to Gatwick.  Phew!  I'm tired just writing it.  So to summarise, we spent one night in London, two in Cambridge, one in Exeter, one in Salisbury, one in Banbury, one in London before heading to the airport!!  Now it's time for some rest and relaxation -to Croatia we go!

Tuesday, July 14, 2009

Conclusions from South America

The best from South America:

  • The night sky – whether gazing at it from the bus window, the catamaran in the Galapagos or some town in the middle of nowhere it was spectacular. 
  • Activities – this is a continent where there is always something to do in every town and travelers are kept busy and on the move. 
  • The Andes – absolutely spectacular scenery from geysers to lakes to snow capped peaks or jaw dropping canyons. 
  • Buses – particularly in Argentina where luxury buses are an experience in themselves.
  • Spanish – we’ve loved challenging ourselves to learn a new language and been pleased at being able to get by.

 

The worst from South America:

  • Activities – this is a continent where there is always something to do in every town often with ridiculously high prices and travelers are kept busy and on the move with very few places that are good for a few down days. 
  • Toilets – specifically having to put toilet paper in the bin, not the toilet. 
  • Opportunistic theft – if you leave something anywhere (like a hostel) it will be gone within five minutes even something like prescription glasses. 
  • Buses – it’s a big continent and distances are long we found ourselves thinking that 24hours is doable 7 hours is a short jaunt.
  • Spanish – getting frustrated at not being fluent and when locals do the talk louder thing in the hope you’ll suddenly get it.
  • Cold – oh why oh why did we not bring the ski jackets from Canada?

 

 

Monday, July 13, 2009

Tired, sick and ready to move on

We haven't written a blog for awhile as there's not been much to say.  After Uyuni we took a bumpy bus ride to Tupiza where we had ideas about horse riding through canyons, but Jason's stomach had other ideas and he spent a night sleeping on the bathroom floor and still only just making it to the toilet in time.  After a couple of days of recovery we decided to leave Bolivia and go to Argentina where hopefully the hygiene would be a bit better and our stomachs would thank us.  Three more hours on a bumpy, dusty bus got us to the border where we were incredibly grateful to board an Argentinian bus.  Only semi-cama, but in Argentina that still means a very comfortable trip and the road was sealed - a great improvement from Bolivia where we went off road as often as on!!   Arriving in Salta we discovered Jason hadn't had food poisoning as we'd assumed, but a bug and it was now my turn to get comfortable in the bathroom.  After a full week in one spot we splurged on the fanciest bus imaginable with a flat bed, hot meals and champagne on tap.   After a surprisingly good nights sleep we arrived in Buenos Aires where we're currently relaxing before flying to England!