The Big Trip

Reallyy haallenging keyboard this time. im stnding up in a bar at an internet point. basicaly the keyboard is at chest height and you feed coins into a slot. the keyboard is metal and you have to hit the keys rellz hard......so apologies for any mistakes. And I was going to do a long entry as well but nnot sure if i cn.

wéll ive sid goodbye to croatia and now in pecs hungary. i had a few days in zagreb (flew there from dubrovnik). it was zmy first experience of an eastern european city and i liked the atmmosphre. first impressiosóns....buildings were huge. there was lots ofspace and it was very old fashioned. i stayed prettz up market at the palace hotel which is one of the oldest hotels in europe. it was verz old worldz.

the first day,i did a self walking tour throughout old town. very well explained via booklet. the church was amazing and huge. the old part of town was verz different from the coastal towns and had a differenet atmosphere.

funny thing... there are heaps of cafes where you can get coffee, wine etc but no food. hard to find a restaurant. also millions of shoe shops but not many clothes shops. also quite a few perfumaries. so everzone smell great and have great shoes...

croatian food is difficult to find. its a mixture of lots of countries. italian strong... so ive had heaps of pasta. so mz first night inzagreb i found a restaurant and had a kebab (grilled pork9) and ordered a verz plain salad. there is also lots of pastry stuff and bread. (Kris, youd have problems)

Next daz in zgreb, i went to one of the best museams. it was huge and had some fantastic displazs of venetian glass, roman statues -all sorts of stuff.

but it was the paintings that were the ebest. again, all the masters. but what made it better than florenve, was that there were onlz one or two other people there. so i was able to stand before a renoir for ages and just take it in.

all croatians holidaz at the coast so zagreb was emptz.

HUNGARZ

3 train changes to get to pecs and all on local trains, that is, inner town trains, not anz big ones. as usual, had platform problems. you would think that there would be 2 platforms to a set. one onleft and 1 on right. no.... there is 2 a and 2 b and platform 3 is actuallz the 4th platform.... anywaz, solved it but quite stressful. then i onlz had 5 minutes between train changes aand was readz for the big dash.... so got off the train, ran to the first uniformed person with the towns name written down and then got back on the same train.....it kept going.... so no need to panic. i was even 3 minutes earlz......

then 3rd train change, ended up 3 hours at hungarian border station, with noone speaking english and then the onlz person on the train....quite spooky. thank goodness to the timetable that the person printed out for me in zagreb. it had all the station names.

then got to pecs and found my pension was quite a waz out of town so caught taxi and didnt have enough hungarian florint. so taxi got paid in croatian kuna and got a lot of money... oh well. you learn....

so todaz have been finding closer accommodation and move tomorrow

i will trz and do another entrz in daz or two. i am running out of coins plus verz frustrated with this keyboard. talk about advanced rsi.

see ya..

kaz

Wow is this keyboard different. The y is where the z is, I couldn't find the apostrephe for a while.... (I just tried to log in to bigpond and because mz password has a y in it, I couldnćt work out why it didnćt go in. Now Ićm locked out for 3 hours. Bloodz convenient.

So if I tzpe incorrectlz then, zoućll have to put up with it....

Well its the last day here in Dubrovnik and Ićm moving on to Zagreb in the morning. Decided to fly there rather than having to do the 6 hour windy bus trip again back to Split and then another 5 hours to Zagreb. So, I'm flying. Its onlz costing me about $140 so I think that' pretty reasonable.

Had a great day yesterdaz, went out on a 3 island tour. The first two islands, we onlz had about 1 hour on each ' enough thought to have a coffee or a walk around. Then the last island, we had about 3 hours - so had some lunch and then a swim.

The trip was great - there was an English speaking guide who had a lot of knowledge about the history of the areas and made it intersesting and whilst on the boat, there were 3 musicians who played tzpical Dalmatian music. Gave it atmosphere.

On the trip home, they asked most of the passengers what country thez were from and then sung a song from that country. I never thought I'd hear Irish eyes are smiling sung in Croatia, on a boat, my croatian people. Fantastic.

Water was beautiful. A bit cool to get in but once in - very refreshing. Its exceptionallz clear -there was a lot of sea grass around so that's probably why. Didnćt see much sea life but their seafood here is pretty good. NOt that I know by first hand. But people seem to be diving into lots of mussels and prawns.

Had some fish for lunch -really fresh. Whole fish grilled, with garlic butter. Lovely. Went reallz well with the cold Croatian beer.

Tonight - Ićm going to trz and staz up late (I know, I sound old) but its verz difficult when zou are on the go all day. By 9 pm, I've eaten and ready to relax. Last night watched The Juror on TV so that was good.

Ićm also going to try and get up earlz as well so that I can get out there before the tourist hordes to get some great photos. I've been doing mz insomniac stuff the last couple of nights and waking about 3 pm. And reading. I-ve been going back to sleep about 5ish so I might just stay up. Depends.

Reading a great book ' Bill Bryson, Down Under. Very funnz.

Well better go... got to get somewhere to staz for tomorrow night. Left this one a bit late I think.

So, farewell from the Dalmatian coast

Cehers Kaz (new nickname??)

If I do, there is a concert in one of the squares. Doesnćt start until 9though.

Not sure how long Ićll staz in Zagreb - depends a lot on the cost of accommodation - about to work that out now.

So... I

Well...where do I start.

Am in Dubrovnik and its is absolutely fantastic. So picturesque. Every street is a photo opportunity, the buildings are great and the view of the ocean is spectacular.

I ended up finding this fantastic apartment right smack bang in the middle of the old town. Its a ground floor apartment (no steps to haul suitcase up) that has a TV, microwave, fridge, shower toilet and washing machine. I'm so impressed. The furniture is 60's kitch but who cares. All for 55 Euros.

Remember that laundromat I told you about in Split. Well it ended up being owned by an Australian. I was finding it difficult getting any accom in Dubrovnik and she knew of someone who had apartments. Anyway, his was full but he knew of someone who had a vacancy. Again, I was shown into the place so didn't have to find it.

Its only 10 metres to a great Pizzeria. Round the corner, is a tiny supermarket. Very handy.

So, I'm staying here 5 nights which will be lots of time to see things.

Today, I spent 2 hours climbing the fortress walls (the circle the whole old town) and you can walk around the top. Boy was it hot!!! But I made it....

Then I had a nice cool couple of beers (Croatian beer is lovely) and then had a siesta. And now I'm here at an internet cafe which would have to be the trendiest I've seen. (Plus keyboard is exactly like the one at work so I feel very comfortable)

So...as you can see, I'm impressed with Dubrovnik. On Friday, I have booked a trip out on a sailing yacht (big one) it takes you to three islands plus has an English guide on it.

The only thing bad about Dubrovnik is that Liza's song hasn't come true (yet). Only Kris will really know what that means!!

Bit of overview on the general trip....

Only hassle really is getting from place to place....

Florence to Ancona
Two trains - Florence to Bologna, then Bologna to Ancona (Ferry Port). Bloody Bologna!!! As I've mentioned, Italy doesn't tell you the platform until about 10 mins prior and then its a mad rush to the platform. Well on the TV screen it said platform 6 which meant hauling case down flight of stairs, plus up flight of stairs. Then they went and changed the platform twice. However they only made the announcements in Italian. So I had to keep going down the stairs, checking the screens, going up the stairs, going down the stairs ...you get my drift.

Then to top it all off, the aircon on the train was busted and I had 6 sweaty italians to share it all with!!!

Bus - Split to Dubrovnik
6 hours instead of 4.5. Very windy roads, traffic jams, crowded bus, with mix up of seat allocations and a very grumpy bus driver who didn't speak a word of English. Then I was supposed to get picked up at the bus station and got a phone call saying catch number 1 bus to the Pile Gate. They don't seem to think that this would faze you a bit. So, I then have to find a number 1 bus (which was fairly easy). Luckily the pile gate was the last stop and then I was met!!

Good thing about that trip was that I got to have a pee in Bosnia. It actually goes through Bosnia for about 1 hour and we stopped at a rest station.

All the fun of travelling.

John and Kris will really emphathise with me on this....

Greg - thanks for the joke (loved it) Pls send me your email address. I've only got it on my memory stick which is back at the apartment.

Thanks for all the comments - glad to see that people are reading it.

So.... see ya from Dubrovnik - I think I may go and see a couple more old buildings and then have another beer or two....

Cheers Kay

Howdy all

Well I'm now in Croatia at a city called Split. Its a lot larger than I thought - over 300,000 people. I found an accommodation via Travellerspoint and ended up in a room in the old part of town.

They offered free transfer from the ferry so I phoned and organised and got a lady that spoke perfect English so was very pleased. She even gave me a bit of a guided tour.

The accommodation is nothing fancy and is owned by an old gentleman who doesn't speak much english. Its clean though and in a really good location. Just round the corner is a small shop, down the road is a laundromat (with internet) which is where I am now and not far to restaurants etc.

Today spent most of the morning walking (feet are getting a bit of a thrashing - elastoplast everywhere)through the palace which is really an old fortress style area with roman walls around a part of the town. The original buildings are 400 AD but it was destroyed a few times and then rebuilt around 1300s. Amazing really because you have people living in houses amongst these fantastic ruins. Apparently they are some of the best preserved roman ruins in the world.

Its quite laid back and lots of tourists around. I think its the place where Europeans come for holidays. Its much nicer than the Italian coast line (what I saw) and much more touristy.

Well, better go. I've got to find some accommodation for Dubrovnik yet plus how to get there so a bit to do...

(Don't know how to say hooray in Croatian)

Cheers Kay

Very quaint. Lots of cafes (fantastic coffee) nestled among the streets. You turn the corner and there is another one. Each as quaint as the other. So this morning, I had a hot coffee and then about 2 hours later, a iced coffee. Its very hot at the moment so the iced coffee was refreshing.

Its been a bit difficult to find out what to do though because tourist places are closed on Sundays. Tomorrow I'm either going to go to a historic town Trogir (UNESCO) or over to one of the islands. Then the next day off to Drubrovnic.

Well, I'm off to Ancona tomorrow and then over to Croatia on Saturday via Ferry. First stop Split. Booked an apartment via the internet so we'll see. Bit of a rush job so I'm not sure. I think though, that I have to be a bit more trusting - the world isn't full of rip off artists - its amazing how sceptical I sometimes look at things and have to realise that there are lots of genuine people!!

Well, I've had a great time in Florence and really think that there is so much art and talent out there. I'm amazed at how many statues etc I've seen. I saw another 4 Michaelangelo scuptures today!!! Amazing. I don't think there is any marble left untouched in the Earth today. Its all been sculptured!!

Also got out to Chianti for a wine tour which was good. We went to a privately owned castle and got to tour it - then had quite a comprehensive talk about the wine and how its made etc. It was very interesting. Lots of wine buffs on the tour - one guy was an actual wine dealer from NY.

Bought a bottle of super-tuscan (Nick Skinner mentioned that they were the best). And yes, it was yummy (haven't finised it yet - plan to have a couple of glasses later on after my meal)

Also bought a bottle of extra virgin olive oil and hope to transport it safely back to Australia!! Yes, I know - a bit of a challenge. This stuff was spectacular. You could taste the freshness in it. Anyway, its only a small bottle.

Gotto go...only got 4 mins 30 secs left and then it just logs you out. Doesn't wait to see if the mail has been sent or anything.

Thanks for all your comments etc. Love reading them (And Greg - no I won't be going to Lebanon!!)

Better go...now 3 mins 40 secs. Better get my typing speed up.

Ciao from Florence

Kay