Eastern Europe on Speed

It has been so busy and fast paced that actually finding time to write about my travels is becoming increasingly difficult. Eastern Europe passed in a blur, partially because a lot of the time we were merely passing through and other times I was just too sick to enjoy it.
However, in the interests of keeping up with the blog I will outline each place and my impressions.

First up after Istanbul (bye bye Turkey) was a quick trip into Bulgaria where we just stayed the night. I have

never been so grateful for a hotel room as I was sick as a dog and vomited off and on most of the night. I would have hated to be in a camp site in the freezing toilets worshiping the porcelain seat. I did get to see a few things in Bulgari before the hotel. We were staying in a place called Struga. There was the most beautiful and humble church there. I have been to a lot of churches this year but that is by far my favourite because of the simplicity and peacefulness of the place. It was not opulent or gaudy, it just was what it was. I am gutted that I couldn't take any photos inside. Out on the streets in Bulgaria was interesting for another reason. There was protests on the streets and a lot of closed streets which we avoided. I know for certain that my insurance does not cover me if I blithely walk into a protest.

The next day we were up and off to Macedonia. We stopped in the capital city of Scopja which was a work in progress. Parts of the city looked to be still being built. What had been built though was lovely and the bridges were decorated in statues. There was also this huge statue of Alexander the Great in the main square with a fountain at the base that shot jets of water up in the sky in a uniform fashion. I could appreciate it but I was still feeling like crap, given that I didn't finish throwing up till 4am that day. I was on a strict diet of dry bread and sips of water.

From Macedonia we crossed borders again into Albania this time. Albania is unlike anything I have ever experienced and I didn't feel entirely safe while I was there. The children are feral and a lot of them seem to travel in packs. We stopped in a small town in Albania which was not great and we had to scoff our meals down as they arrived 5 minutes before we needed to be back on the bus. Some of the kids hanging around the bus (they only looked to about 10) had tattoos and were brandishing fake (we could only hope) guns.  In the end some of the local male adults that were at the restaurant actually came up to the the kids and told them off.
The other thing that there was a lot of in Albania was stolen Mercedes Benz cars. They were everywhere. Inb Albania, to register a car as yours you don't actually need to a VIN number so there were a lot of stolen cars driving around with UK plates. I even saw a Porsche like Uncle Jim's. Hope his is still in the Lakes otherwise I know where it is in Albania. I couldn't believe how many car-strip shops were just blatently out on the streets either.
Albania also has a lot of unfinished houses and roads. They just have no money, so a lot of the time the road
we were travelling down was the main street and that was the only one with tarmac on top, the rest being a series of potholes and gravel and dirt.
Driving in and out of Albania I also noticed how many of the farmers do everything by hand. They were out getting in their crops with scythes and horses with wagons. I think in the entire drive I only saw one farm that actually had a machine tractor for the crops. It was another world all together. It is safe to say that we had no intentions of staying in a camp ground in Albania. We stayed in a hotel on top of a hill in a place called Stirna with high walls and security guards and guard dogs on the grounds at all times.

Leaving Albania the next morning we left Albania and travelled through Montenegro which was so different from Albania it was amazing. As soon as we crossed the border the houses were built and finished, the place safer and cleaner and the roads completed. We didn't actually stop in Montenegro that night, but travelled on to Dubrovnik where we set up camp.

Dubrovnik at night

Finally, after a lot of single night stops we were in Croatia, in Dubrovnik where we stayed for three nights. It was so refreshing to stay in one place. The weather was still warm and apart from a torretial down pour on
the first morning, the heat staying up.
Dubrovnik is a very cool place. We arrived in the evening and headed back out after dinner to a few bars for a bit of a crawl. We started in a bar called the Sky Bar which is also called a Bucket Bar because you can buy your cocktails in a beach sand bucket. HUGE! We didn't end up actually crawling that far and I wasn't drinking so it was just fun watching everyone else go crazy and I just danced.
Dubrovnik is a UNESCO world heritage site too so I can tick another one of the list. It is also where they
shot the series Game of Thrones. How cool is that! The town is a walled city made of smooth lime stone. It is something out of a fantasy book with the white stone streets and buildings. On the first day in town, I went for a look around the town and got caught out in the down pour. I managed to stay mostly dry by ducking into a couple of shops. I ended up buying a handmade bracelet in one of them because it was so pretty. I also had lunch in town with Marissa and Felicity. Fish and chips. It was fresh and not battered. Panfried and crispy bottom, cooked with garlic and olive oil. Mmmmmm.
That afternoon I bought a ticket for the walls and walked the 2kms, stopping often to take photos and do the odd sketch. It was incredibly hot on the walls and I ended up stripping off my shirt on the wall and wrapping a scarf around my self like a halterneck because it was so much cooler.
That next day we were out on a boat cruise to a few of the islands off the coast. It was a bit cooler today
and while I had intentions of going swimming, it didn't happen. The waters are cooling. One cool thing I did do while on the cruise though was to buy a little back with a necklace and an oyster. I had to crack open the oyster with a knive and get out the pearl which is now in a little basket of metal. I got a cream one with means happiness.
What I found interesting about the city itself was the history of the place and they way it portrays its version of history in the war with Serbia. Basically, it is all Serbia's fault and Croatia were not at fault at all. I bet if I went to Serbia I would hear another version of history. I went to a museum room that had pictures of what Dubrovnik looked like after the bombings.All the roofing on the buildings is pretty new when you look at the photos. None of the buildings have roofs there.

We left Dubrovnik reluctantly and stopped off at another UNESCO city called Split in Croatia. Split is very unique. We went to the Diocleasian palace which was built a looooong time ago by the emperor Diocleasian but he never saw it completed and the locals didn't really want to live in it as it was too big to heat etc. The locals only moved into it to defend themselves when they were being raided by other countries. Now there are heaps of markets and shops inside but they cannot be changed as when it gained heritage status it had to stay as it was. Neat.