Slovenia, Croatia and Sarajevo

So after our 5 days in Bordeaux, Ange and I checked back into Peckham Rye for a night before flying to Ljubljana for a 2 week trip round Slovenia and Croatia.

We spent our first 5 days up in the Julian Alps, along the Slovenian-Italian border, amongst some of the most breaktaking mountains I have ever seen. As part of the 'Adrenaline-Chek' multi-adventure package we signed up for we stayed in an ecocamp (minimal impact, all building materials sourced from the local area, no electricity - we got given head lamps upon checking to our tent!) over the other side of the famous 1600m Vrsic Pass and it's 50 hairpin turns. And it was brilliant. Run by 25 year old best friends Matic and Simon, they took us hiking, mountain biking, white water rafting and canyoning - what a buzz!

Ange and I ready for white water rafting

Canyoning was the best, we worked our way down about 7km of river with swims, slides and jumps. One slide dropped us 7m down into a pitch black cave, but the highlight was the almost vertical 12m drop at the end, the one we'd all said "yeah no way" to at the beginning of the day, when Simon pointed it out and told us that was the last element of the canyoning. This was the only slide where the guys wouldn't guarantee our safety. And I must admit I was pretty nervous, but it was 3-2-1 GO as Simon let me drop, and WOOHOO!!! Huge buzz!
Our Canyoning group, with part of the final 12m slide in the background!

Night times were spent round the camp fire with other backpackers, drumming sessions, BBQs and of course a few good Slovenian ales. It was so peaceful up there, and so pure. All our drinking water came straight from the river running through the campsite; the Julian Alps is one of the last remaining places in Europe where you can drink directly from the rivers.
Ange takes the plunge, the glacial melt water was ice cold!

We spent a couple of unexpected hours in this cafe half way down the Vrisic Pass. Our bus driver announced "they´ve closed the road for 2 hours because of an important meeting between Russian and Slovenian politicians" so there was nothing for it but to drink hot chocolate and look out over the mountains!


We also spent time in the mountain towns of Bled and Bohinj, famous for their glacial lakes, the turquoise water so clear you can see to a depth of at least 10 metres. In Bled there's a small island in the middle of the lake with a beautiful church on it. We rowed out there one day. And from Bohinj we took a cable car then a little chairlift thing up to around 1700m, and the views over the Alps were stunning. We got to see Slovenias highest peak, Mt. Triglav. And we also saw 3 French men run off the side of the mountain! With their paragliding equipment - something I would love to try I reckon. One day we hired bikes and rode to the gorgeous village of Studor, famous for its hayracks and its cheese.
Fairytale Slovenian villages

Headed then to the capital Ljubljana. I didn't really enjoy it - a bit dreary and drab. Not sure if that was due to the rain that had settled in, or whether I'd been spoilt by the mountains. But by chance it was the first day of the TRN Summer Festival, so we got to see the brass band opening in the town square, and an African song-dance spectacular for free. Both excellent. And Ljubljana was the only place in 2 weeks we slept in a bed! Other nights were in our tent, on the beach and in one case on the banks of Lake Bled with our packs stashed under a park bench!!!

And then we headed down towards Croatia. We were planning on catching the ovenight ferry from Rijeka, which involved 3 trains from Ljubljana, one of which deposited us for 2 hours at the non-descript border town of Ilirska Bistrika, which was literally so drab that it's claim to fame was the postcarded Old People's Home! Arriving into Rijeka we discovered that the ferries only ran twice a week, contrary to the daily service promised by the Lonely Planet, so we were then faced with an 8.5hr overnight trip in a cramped bus, with no ventilation, the temp at least 34 degrees and with nothing but episodes of Friends - in Croatian - to keep us entertained!!

So it was a huge relief to arrive in Split and get on the 5am ferry out to Hvar Island, the cool breeze and the sunrise all pinky and soft melting away the stress of the bus ride. Hvar town is a pretty swanky upmarket sort of spot, with it's harbour full of yachts more expensive than the average persons house, and tourist central with a very ritzy 'south coast of France' type feel, all the bronzed mediterranean woman draped in their expensive beach wear and dripping with jewellry. We bussed it out to an earthy campsite, and after finding out it cost as much again to actually pitch our tent as it did for us to stay there, we decided to sleep on the beach.
Spent the day on nearby Jeronimo Island, which, according to everyone we spoke to, was beautiful. Ange and I were imagining glorious white sandy beaches and the like, but upon doing a circuit of the entire island we found nothing but jagged rocks and lots of naked people. Yes, we'd stumbled on the nudist island, and were stuck there for 6 hours, on the rocks, till the next boat came to take us back to Hvar!
Local Croatian women work on their embroidery

Only stayed the one night, caught the ferry the following afternoon to Korcula Island, a couple of hours south of Hvar, where we set up camp in the beautiful little fishing village of Lumbarda, on the east coast. It was just magic, and in total contrast to Hvar. We jumped on the local bus and arrived into this tiny village right on the coast, with barely a tourist in site, just all the local villagers going about their daily lives - making wine, fishing and preserving olives. The night we arrived, Friday night, was 'Fisherman's Night' in the main square of town, and there were all these little stalls set up with families selling their various seafood dishes - BBQ'd squid, calamari, fish stew etc, very tasty. The island is covered in vineyards, and is famous for its Krk wine, which we got to sample quite a bit of..as well as their home made brandy in all sorts of flavours, including chocolate and carrot???!! Odd, and very strong! Fire breathing stuff. Was lovely to immerse ourselves in amongst the locals, under the fairylights on a warm balmy evening by the sea, listening to Croatian folk music.

We had some pretty funny experiences on the island. Decided to book in for a 1/2 day glass bottomed kayaking trip with a local guide. Right from the start we were dubious about the price (300 kunas, which is £30/$70), but apparently it included a visit to an ancient monastory and a fish picnic with unlimited wine, so that swayed us! Anyway, we arrived at the beach and met our guide, and the 5 other people on the trip....and those dubious feelings just got worse as soon as the guide started talking. This is along the lines of what he said:
"So I think we will be using the single paddles, as they are easier than the double ones. And we will paddle out to that island over there (which was about 200m away) and we will paddle around, and you can look through your glass bottoms to see some fish, but you may not be able to see any fish because of the weather and the traffic (????) And then we will paddle to that island over there, where there is a monastory. But it may not be open. If it is not open, we will paddle back to the other island and I will tell you a story about it (dubious feelings very strong at this stage). And then you have free time for one hour to swim, while I prepare lunch (and he indicated his small esky nearby. Certain the esky did not contain a seafood lunch and unlimited wine for all 8 of us, and with the dubious feelings at an all time high, we decided to can it and see if we could get our money back! So as the guide was talking about how to handle the ripples when a ferry comes past, I did a runner! Back to the tourist office to try and get a refund. Ange was left to explain to the guide, and it was classic! On the spot she made up a story about me being scared I was going to fall out of the canoe from the ferry waves, and that we didn't want to go any more. And he was like "no, no no! If you fall out I give you money back!" and the other old people on the trip were like "oh, the poor dear, scared of the waves". If only they knew what I do in the Aussie summer!!!! Ha ha. Needless to say we got our money back and spent the day lying on the beach!

Another funny story involved a bakery. We went to try and find the 'hamburgers of yumminess' we discovered on Fishermans Night - basically a hollowed out scone filled with a sweet, nutty mixture that the islanders seem to love. We disturbed the woman from her seafood risotto lunch, which she was eating on the bakery balcony. Saw the hamburgers of yumminess sitting there in her display, and so we asked for one...and she said "no". What? So we tried again...and same answer! "No....no fresh" or something like that. There was this whole display with at least 100 different pastries out, and she wouldn't sell us anything! Found out later that they were over a year old and she wasn't making them any more, but just kept them on display! Ha ha.
On our last night in Lumbarda we went to a tiny church in the middle of some vineyards that we'd discovered on a run. They were having an evening service type thing. There were 4 wooden pews set up at the top of the steps, and Ange and I were among only 6 people there! A violinist, guitarist, and local Croatian people telling stories and giving readings as the moon shone out over the landscape. While we couldn't understand anything, it was beautiful.
Fishing boats at sunset, Lumbarda

So then it was back to the mainland, where we headed all the way south to the medieval, walled city of Dubrovnik. Totally car free inside the walls, it's beautiful; the main streets are made of marble! I got ambushed by hundreds of pigeons in one of the main squares when somone threw corn down, but the highlight was walking the 2km circuit on top of the walls. Ange´s highlight: finding her longed for 'hamburgers of yumminess'!!

We only had one day in Dubrovnik, catching the 10pm bus to Sarajevo that night, the first of 3 overnight bus rides for me. Ange got chatting to an Aussie guy from Woolongong who was heading to Kosovo to shoot a cow with a bazuka! Weird. So we arrived in Sarajevo at 4.30am to cold morning drizzle. Hung out at the bus station till it grew light with bazuka guy and Tom from England. Then spent the day in the war torn city. The evidence of war is still so fresh...buildings full of bullet holes, parts of churches blasted away, 'sarajevo roses' (where shells have blasted away the pavement in the shape of a rose, coloured in red to represent blood shed) all over the place.
A 'sarajevo rose'

We went on the hostel tour and walked a section of the 800m underground tunnel, connecting the city to the outside, which for 4 years was the only route into and out of the city whilst it was under seige by the Serbians. All food, weapons etc had to be brought in through this 1.6m high/1m wide tunnel, to feed the entire city population who, in the worst times, had to survive on 300g of food a day. Pretty full on.
But the old town of Sarajevo was amazing, and the 4 of us spent hours wandering the little narrow streets, mixing with the locals (thankfully hardly any tourists) and trying out all their interesting foods.

We also checked out the Sarajevo brewery and had a couple of their famousish dark ales. Not quite Coopers standard but still very tasty!
Ange in the Sarajevo Brewery

Then it was back to the bus station...an overnighter to Zagreb...don't ask me why it takes 3 guys at 3 separate times to do the passport check thing, but hey, we got our stamp and it was back into Croatia for a few hours before home to London!

Brilliant trip.