The Balkans! part deux

So I'm here in my hostel room in Split, Croatia and have some time to kill and am almost completely caught up on Blogging...FTW!!

So anyways, after Montenegro, me and Fettucine (Alfredo) he he...caught the bus up to Dubrovnik Croatia. The bus ride was fairly pleasant as the coastline is so amazing, and the bus drivers just go all out on the roads, making aggressive passes and speeding and braking very hard....quite the event. So one very funny moment occurred on that ride, when we arrived at border control to enter Croatia. Now, I had been given a documentary on the Death of Yugoslavia, documenting the main characters behind how it fell, and the stories of the individual countries involved. So the interviewees are all speaking in Croatian/Serbian/Montegrin but there's English subtitles....so I'm watching one interview with an old General in the Yugoslav army, and he mentions how Milonovic said that he should take in his army and "there shall be death to Croatia!", and hilariously enough, I happened to pause the film at this exact moment and dig out my passport to show the Croatian border guard....and so I'm fumbling for my passport and he's looking at my computer screen and sees that caption....so I grab my passport and look up at him, and he has this huge death stare and I'm wondering why, then I look at the computer and gasp in horror ha ha ha!!

So anyways, I get my stamp and he leaves the bus and no harm done. Later on I was discussing this incident with Alfredo and he was curious about why the security guard was so angry towards me on the bus, and that provided the solution ha ha. But anyways, we arrive in Dubrovnik about an hour earlier than expected, since the bus driver was flying. So we arrive there, change some currencies since I've been hauling around like 50 euros worth of random European currencies, and then are picked up by the girl who works at the hostel we're staying at. So we get to the place, and it offers an absolutely stunning view of Dubrovnik, as it's perched up on the hills and overlooks the city. So we get settled in, and meet some American girls who are in the room next to us, then decided to venture out into the Old Town for a bite to eat. We stopped for some obligatory photos and to admire the city, before finding a nice restaurant to sit down and chat at. Unfortunately, the old town in Dubrovnik is very pricy, so a meal there isn't so cheap, but it was still pretty nice.

After dinner we wandered around for a bit more and then tried to find a supermarket to buy some beer to hang out on the patio for the night, but it ended up being quite difficult, as most shops close around 8 pm there, but we managed to find one. So then we started walking back towards the hostel, but unfortunately we got sooooo lost because it was now dark and we didn't really know the way so well without daylight. We ended up taking the wrong flight of stairs and ending up a few streets above where we were meant to be staying, plus we didn't know the address or street name where the hostel was. So we found some girls walking in the streets and they said they knew where it was, so they walked us down towards the area where it was and just pointed up a path and said it's just up there....so we went up the path, but instead of turning right we went left....and subsequently were lost again, so we stopped some guy who had just pulled up into his driveway and asked him if he knew where the hostel was, so he runs inside, finds it on the internet, and tells us to get into the car and drives us to the hostel. Wow these Croatians are so kind! So anyways, we're pretty tired and get back to the room, and Alfredo falls asleep right away so I just chill out for awhile, and watched some tv. At one point Alfredo woke up and told me he was dreaming about polar bears, but I think he was sleep walking or something, because the next day we were talking about it, and he had no recollection of talking about or dreaming about polar bears....strange indeed!

So the early morning comes around, and the lady running the hostel comes into the room to show the 2 new people their bed, which is covered with our stuff, so I guess she was pretty upset about this and yelling, so Alfredo moved everything, but I just slept through it ha ha.....so eventually I awoke and wandered down into the Old Town for a few hours. I tried to figure out how to get up on the wall to walk around and get some good views, but then realized I had to pay like 7 euro to do that, and I didn't really care that much to have the photos, although I did try several locked doors to see if I could sneak up there or not. No luck though. So after wandering around for awhile, I just made my way back to the hostel, and got ready to head to the bus station and head off to Split.

Dubrovnik from our hostel :)

Sunset in Dubrovnik

More Dubrovnik from our Balcony

Heading into Old Town with Alfredo

Fort walls at night

Inside Old City

Enjoying the last of my Cigar and some Beer on the Balcony

and Dubrovnik by day

Kind of has a bit of a tropical feel

Entering the Old Town from a different entrance...siegeing the fort!

Getting lost in Old Town

World's Simplest Soccer Field?

Even the Cats have a playground

Wandering around back alleys

More pics of outside the Fort

So I walked down to the bus station in Dubrovnik, rather than paying the ridiculous 7 euros the hostel wanted for transportation, and battled with the grumpy saleswoman to get my ticket to Split. Eventually I had it all sorted out, and was on my way. Now, it's only 220 km to Split from Dubrovnik, but unfortunately the buses usually take 4 hrs or so, buuuuut this bus ended up taking over 5 hours, largely as a result of the driver deciding to stop for supper for 45 minutes....yes, haven't experienced that one yet ha ha. So anyways, arrived late into the evening, found my hostel, where the lady was absolutely lovely and pleasant, and met up with old Alfredo again, who was just chilling out. Since it was pretty late, he had already eaten dinner, but I wandered on over to this awesome cheap restaurant called Fife, where you get huge servings of food for a really great price. It was funny to learn that there was a newspaper restaurant review hanging on the wall that said in Croatia "Great food, terrible service!" ha ha....the owner is quite proud of this I guess! So I tried some delicious Gnocchi and Gulash, and enjoyed a nice quiet meal. After dinner, I was fairly tired, so I just returned back to the hostel for the night. 

Alfredo had a pretty quick time table on his trip, and was only sticking around Split for one day, so he was up pretty early to check out the next day, so I got up and wandered around the city with him for awhile. Split is a very nice city, although I don't think it's as scenic as Dubrovnik. But we wandered around for awhile anyways, and checked out the markets, and just grabbed some breakfast at a place on the waterfront that had pretty good food and prices as well. 

Split Harbour

Part of Old Town Split

Wandering around Old Town

A cup of Rye, goes well with Coke :)

So anyways, after wandering around for a bit, Alfredo was off to Zagreb, and I just hung out blogging for awhile, before eventually making my way back to Fife for another night of dinner. I ended up meeting a nice group of American students there and chatted for awhile, then met a cool Dutch guy and Croatian girl who were just on their way down the coast via car, so we hung out there for awhile, before eventually heading down to some cool moustache bar! They would give you free moustaches to glue on your face if you bought a drink there, and they had several different types of Croatian liquors there to try. We hunt out there for quite awhile, and then I was talking about Zagreb when some random Croatian girl came over and started asking about why I was saying Zagreb and started chatting to our group. At this point, the Dutch and Croatian girl said they were leaving for the night (I would later run into them again and the girl mentioned they left because they thought the girl was into me and it was going to go somewhere, which it didn't ha ha), so I chatted to the girl for awhile before her friend eventually stole her away from me...ah well! So I wandered over to chat to some other girls when some Croatian guys came and took them away ha ha, so then I just started talking to some other Croatian guys, who were pretty cool guys. It was quite interesting to talk to them about how the relationships are between the Balkans, and much to my surprise they told me they are alright with Serbians, but disliked Slovenians because they felt the Slovenians didn't help them at all in the war with Serbia, even though the Croatians blocked the Yugoslav army from entering Slovenia when the wars were initially starting...strange indeed. But yeah we went to some cool club, and had a pretty good time there. 

my first mo!

So after the club was closing, I started to wander back to my hostel, when I met some guy in the streets and he asked me if I wanted to come to an after party, so being random like I am, I said sure....so we went to his place which had this super dodgy attic area that smelled like cat shit and was soooo disgusting....then he told me he was in a lot of trouble and owed a lot of money, and asked if he could borrow some money...so I was getting pretty weirded out by him, but said I could give him like 8 dollars since I just wanted to get out of there, so then he decided to get me to come into his actual house area for a beer, which was even weirder, as he started playing some super crappy Croatian music on his mp3 player really loudly, which then resulted in his 70 year old neighbour waking up and knocking on the door then coming in and yelling at him in Croatian....yeah it was very strange...eventually I was just like dude I'm getting out of here, and he's telling me how we should hang out the next night and really wanted my number, so I gave it to him, but was quite sure I wouldn't hang out with him again as I could tell he was just wanting to borrow more money. 

So yeah I wandered back and crashed. The next day I just went back to the same breakfast place, and hung out there for awhile, then just walked around the city some more, and went camera shopping for a bit...nothing real exciting. Eventually it was time for dinner again, so back to Fife for my third night in a row (like I said, the food is so good and cheap) so after hanging out there and not really meeting anyone, I decided to wander down to the backpacker bar to try and find a cool Brazilian girl I had met in Kotor who was meant to be coming to Split that day. So I hung out at the bar for awhile, met some fairly obnoxious American dudes who were basically running around hitting on every single girl in the bar ha ha....interesting guys....and at this point, things got pretty funny, as there was a girl with bright red hair who kept staring at me, and I kept looking at her thinking, damn she looks so familiar! So eventually the Brazilian showed up, as well as an American girl that I had met in Kotor, and the Brazilian took me over to the group to meet some ppl who were all staying at her hostel, including the girl in the red hair. So we get to talking, and sure enough she's from Regina, and is the older sister of a girl I used to see in University ha ha ha! We hadn't seen each other since a house party several years earlier, but it was still such a cool and random meeting :) 

Near the Harbour

Running into people from Regina that you haven't seen in years is crazy

Well, it didn't mean me, as I was served here boo yeah!

So after reminiscing about the randomness of that with Kali, we continued to hang out at the backpackers bar, and I was just chilling with the Brazilian and chatting, when she decided to leave, and I decided to walk with her, and then just kind of started making out, so she said she was up for coming over to my place, so we got into the building, and were a bit loud getting into the building, so the old lady woke up and was giving me shit for being too loud late at night....so we get upstairs, and the Brazilian runs to the bathroom, and then comes into my room and says she's changed her mind and is going home....so I was pretty surprised at this sudden change of thought...and confused, but I said okay fine, and walked her out and said goodbye...so it was still a bit early and I sat there for like 10 minutes confused, when I decided ah shit, may as well head back and try and find a club or something to go party at since I wasn't ready for bed...so I wander out my hostel and start walking towards the clubs when I spot the Brazilian girl wandering so I yell out her name and then she calls me over and tells me to come to her hostel and keep her company....sooo now I'm pretty confused...so we get into her room and hop in bed and start making out and then a bunch of drunk people wandered into the room and started saying "oh man the Canadian and Brazilian are hooking up!!" so this kind of weirded her out, and then she said nothing would happen and that I should probably leave....so I'm thinking, well I don't want to leave right now, otherwise I'll look like a complete tool ha ha, so I hung out for a bit, and then she just said ahhh stay the night....so yeah that was that, nothing else...no shave day..sigh..

So anyways, I didn't sleep much that night, and was up pretty early since some Asian dude who was in the bunk below us was up and packing his stuff up super early and very loudly....so I decided to just head back to my place but agreed to meet up for breakfast with the girl....so after getting back to the hostel, I decided to stay another two nights in case something would happen with the Brazilian girl....so I find out that my hostel is full now, but the old lady sets me up with some sweet apartment for just a bit more than I was currently paying...so that was a good deal. So anyways, I head back to the square to meet the girl at 11 am, as agreed upon, and I saw Kali (the Canadian girl) and the Aussie lads and American dude, who were all on their way to breakfast, but since I was waiting for Bianca, I just hung out...well she ended up being like 25 minutes late, but was also with the American girl from Kotor...so we wandered down for breakfast, and happened to walk by the restaurant where the others were having breakfast, so we ended up just joining them. 

And thus the random and crazy stories from the previous night began....the poor American girl was telling us how this ex-marine guy was hitting on her all night and she eventually told him that she wasn't interested, and the young American college lads offered to help her get out of the bar without him following her, so she was pretty drunk and agreed, so the one guy ended up taking her up to a room which wasn't in her hostel, and dropped his pants and was telling her she should have sex with him, and then she was thinking Oh my god, no way, and then 2 more of his friends showed up expecting to have a massive orgy or something, and she was thinking what the hell is this, so she eventually was able to escape from this, but it was pretty ridiculous. So she eventually finds her way back to the hostel. Meanwhile, the ex-marine guy got into a fight with the 5 American college kids, as they were trying to pick a fight with him since they were striking out with the girls, and he was telling them to lay off, and I guess one of the younger kids punched him, so he one punched and knocked the one kid unconscious, and then grabbed another one who was trying to attack him and went for a nasty eye gauge....so unfortunately I wasn't there to witness this all, but I guess it was pretty intense. 

So I guess after his scrap, he returned to the hostel, and woke up the poor American girl by poking her really hard and trying to get in her bed, and she said no, so he told her  "F**k you!" and went to his bed and to sleep....yeah weird, but he wasn't done. So I guess while we were out for breakfast in the morning, he checked out and took a knife and punctured all the tires on the American girl's bike, so she had a really really crappy day! Wow crazy times. 

Oh so then we get to hear the story about Kali, who apparently was very drunk and one of the hostel workers offered to walk her back to the hostel, but then I guess she woke up in some strange room with a locked door and a key in it, and then opened it up and found it was surrounded by giant crates of coke bottles....ha ha ha, so yeah I guess she didn't end up at the hostel and some strange sex lounge or something! So yeah, quite an eventful night. 

So after breakfast, and returning to the hostel and hanging out there for several hours, we were all pretty worn down, so didn't get up to a whole lot other than going for a dinner at Fife again (my 4th day in a row), where Bianca was so hungover that she ended up having to spew up her small dinner she struggled to get through! I ended up having some really tasty Deer, as the server recommended it, and vehemently suggested we don't eat the chicken there as it was "full of chemicals and steroids like North American chicken!"....quite the saleswoman she was ha ha.....so after dinner, we just had a movie night and kept it a low key night, as everyone was super tired. So early to bed to catch up on some sleep. 

Dubrovnik sunset

I got up early the next morning, as 3 of the lads had said they were thinking of going for a run, and I'm finding myself incredibly out of shape now, so I figured I would join them, so I showed up at the hostel all ready to go, and they were all still sleeping and not running....so I just went for a run on my own and checked out a bit more of the city.....I guess I'm still in decent shape as I wasn't struggling to finish the run, so that's a good thing! 

So after the run, I just wandered back towards the hostel, and met up with everyone, and we all went for breakfast to our usual spot (this restaurant was the only one that served breakfast after 11 am, and nobody really wakes up before that time so it worked out well). As per usual, Kali also got the largest omelette again! Which was occurring every day over the past few days (I think it was because her hair was a Croatian red colour). So after breakfast, we decided to wander down to the bus and train station for a bit so everyone could sort out their plans for the next day, while waiting for the guys I randomly ran into the Croatian and Danish people from a few nights earlier, as they had just returned from their trip down the coast. Since I was planning on heading to Zagreb soon, I grabbed the one girl's details, and then the rest of us wandered down towards the beach for a few hours to kill some time, while some people were waiting for buses and such. We hung out at the beach for awhile (well more like an area with cement walk ways and a tiny bit of sand, as you have to go further down the coast to find any actual beaches). We had a pretty good laugh at one of the guys in the water who was wearing some red speedo like swim suit that was so saggy and weird looking. At one point, they probably heard us making fun of them as they actually hit my with their frisbee...karmic revenge I guess! 

The chicken and the cube chilling on the beach

They were really adamant about handicaps not crossing here, hence the bar ha ha

So after hanging out there for awhile, everyone wandered back to the hostel, while I finally bought a new camera (long time coming since I couldn't change any settings on my camera due to the broken screen), and we all agreed to head back to Fife for dinner again, 5th time is a charm right! So after meeting up there, having another great dinner, we picked up some more beers, wandered back to the hostel and hung out playing some drinking games, and skyping with random people from the US since the two Aussie lads had worked at a summer camp there for a few weeks, and had a bunch of US contacts. After hanging out there for awhile, I led everyone down to the sweet Moustache bar! After having some more of the Croatian shots there, we made our way back to the Backpackers Bar, which was really quite empty since it was a Monday night after all. I met some crazy Croatian girl there, who had actually hooked up with one of the drunk American college kids a few nights earlier, and who kept insisting and unbuttoning my top ha ha, crazy woman. So eventually everyone was a bit too drunk and tired, so it was back to the hostel for the night, although I tried to convince Bianca to come stay at my place since it was my last night, but she told me she wasn't interested ha ha, shut down!

Creeper stare ha ha!

More finely moustached friends! :{)

So anyways, back to the hostel for the last night, and then waking up and meeting up with everyone for our last breakfast together, as people were all going their separate ways. The 4 of us guys were all taking the night train to Zagreb, and the girls were all heading south. We decided to take a bus over to Trogir for a few hours, as it was supposed to have a nice old town. We wandered around there for a few hours, and took some nice photos. There wasn't really a whole lot going on there, so we only stayed for like 2 hours, but it was still good to see something other than Split. So after hanging out there for awhile, it was back on the bus to Split. We ended up just hanging out in Split until it was time for the night train, said our goodbyes, and the 4 of us guys were off to Zagreb. 

Playing with the new camera features

Wandering around Trogir

Lovely Old Town

Owling on the Coast

Old Fortress

Now night trains in Eastern Europe aren't exactly the most comfortable places to sleep, so we had our 6 seat cabin, and tried to catch some sleep, but with 4 guys it's pretty hard to really lay out and sleep, plus the temperature controls in the cabins are so uncontrollable, that the heater ended up turning on and pumping out so much heat that it was quite uncomfortable in there, but oh well, I think I ended up maybe getting 2 or 3 hours of sleep in total. The most memorable part of that train ride was when someone pulled the emergency brake in their cabin, and the train came to a screeching halt....no clue who did it, but within 5 minutes train staff was in our cabin checking to see if we had pulled it, but we were in the clear...interesting stuff, probably some thieves up to no good! 

So we arrive in Zagreb in the early hours, and wander around for a bit, since the guys had 4 hours of time to kill, so we just found some cafe and walked around for awhile. Eventually it was time for them to leave, so I was off to my hostel and said our goodbyes, since they were going to Budapest, and I'm not allowed back in the EU :(. So I found my hostel, and just crashed hard for a few hours. Eventually I awoke and wandered around the city for a few hours and went and checked out this interesting museum called the Museum of Broken Relationships. It's a really interesting premise, as it was started by a Croatian couple who had broken up but had several articles acquired together that they couldn't decide what to do with, so they figured they would start an expose of them. Over the years, the museum has become a traveling attraction around the world, and acquired new items from other break ups around the world. It was a pretty interesting exhibit, and I would definitely recommend checking it out if you're ever in Zagreb. Here's the link for the museum http://new.brokenships.com/en  There's various parts of the exhibit, including a section where the gifts were completely awful such as edible underwear, to parts that included sad reminders of loved ones who passed away which caused the relationship to end. 

Trevor being a homeless bum in the Zagreb train station

The new age of breakups...Skype!

Zagreb from above

After wandering around there, I made my way back and found out there was a couchsurfing meeting that evening. Since my friend Hana (who I had met in Split) wasn't up to anything that night, and my hostel was completely empty, I decided to go wander down and check that out. It was a drink and draw night, which was a pretty fun experience. Now I'm an absolutely terrible artist, and can't draw a straight line, so it was a bit interesting to go to such an event, but it was still cool. I was an hour late, so I missed the cartoon drawing session, but I was there for the part where people would write down a random topic, and then you would fold it up and everyone picked the topic. So my topic was "Robbery of a sex shop"...interesting indeed....so I just went for it, and this is what I came up with.....

So after the meeting ended, I wandered over to a place called Funk Club, where I had a ticket for a free shot since my hostel is owned by the same owner of the club. So I get in there, thinking that it would be a backpackers bar, and heard nothing but Croatian, so I knew I would have to just wing it and try to meet people. I ordered a beer and presented my free shot token, thinking I would get a shot, but the barkeeper just gave me a beer and didn't charge me for it, so I sat there waiting and waiting for the shot that never came, and eventually came to the conclusion that he substituted the beer for the shot....that's a win! 

So I decided to wander downstairs to see if there were any English speakers, but again, all Croatian, so I just started wandering into random groups of people and making conversation, and found that the people were really quite friendly and talkative....it was super easy to meet people and make conversation! I made friends with a few guys, but then noticed a pretty woman with a tattoo on the back of her neck in Asian characters, and I noticed her looking my way at one point, so I figured I would go talk to her when I had a chance, and once the other group of people I was conversing with, I was able to make my way into their group and have a nice little chat with all of them. It was pretty funny coincidence that one of her friends had been in Canada for a dance competition when she was younger, and lo and behold, it was in Regina of all places ha ha...another crazy small world occurrence! I also ended up meeting one of the guys playing in the band at the place, and he was a pretty cool French dude who was a doctor and jazz musician.....I was able to practice speaking French for a bit, which was good times. Eventually it was getting late, so we all started walking our separate ways, and I walked the one really cute girl most of the way home, and told her that I would like to meet up with her the next day, since she said she was going for a run, and as I said earlier, I'm in such bad shape, so she gave me her email. 

I ended up back at the hostel and chilling with the girl working at the front desk, sharing life stories until like 5 am, then it was off to sleep. The next day I had a sudden craving for Indian food, so after lingering in the hostel for a bit, seeing if the girl emailed me back, and not seeing anything, I decided to go on my wander over to what I thought was an Indian restaurant. The place was called India House, so I found the little alley way to the place, and started walking towards it, but then there was two signs, which lead to some confusion, as one was pointing towards the store, while the other one was pointing towards some small building off to the right. Seeing that the one building was a clothing shop, I started wandering over to the other building, thinking that this whole India House thing was a clothing store/restaurant combo, so I'm about to enter the building, and then two ladies come out of the India House place, yelling something in Croatian, so I asked them if I was entering the restaurant and in the broken English they said "no no, restaurant out and to right", so I asked if there was an Indian restaurant to the right, and they said yes yes. So off I go back out the alley to the main street, and begin walking some more, and after about 15 minutes I realize that there definitely is no Indian restaurant ha ha...oh well. So I find some other nice looking Croatian restaurant, and enjoy a nice salad and pasta with truffles....you always hear about truffles, but I've never tried them before, so I gave it a go, and it was quite delicious I must say. 

mmm great pasta with truffles

So after catching some food, I decided to wander back down towards the city center, and check out some of the cool churches and squares in the city centre. As luck would have it, I wandered by an Indian restaurant, so I made a note of the location, and figured I would check it out for dinner that night. Eventually I was able to check my emails and found that the girl from the night before had finally messaged me back, so we agreed to meet up at 5:45 pm for a run in the park. Again, I haven't really been very active, so I figured a run with a cute girl wouldn't be so bad after all. So Marta and I met up at the park near my hostel (which I actually found by not paying attention while riding the tram and missing my stop by two stops) and went for a nice 45 minute run, and much to my surprise, I was barely winded, and actually pushed a fairly good pace or so she said. It got dark really fast, and we took some path that is off the main lit path, and it kind of felt like a horror movie, with me chasing her in the trees for a bit ha ha, if I was a single woman, I probably wouldn't feel comfortable running alone in some of those areas! So the final tally was almost 7 kms and I guess I'm still in okay shape even after all these days of lethargic behavior and drinking he he. So after our run, I asked if she would be interested in joining me for dinner, and although she wasn't interested in eating because of the large lunch she had, she agreed to meet me and hang out. 

Sweet street art

The cathedral from afar

A nun makes her way to work

Wondering what happens to old American vehicles? They end up in Croatia as personal vehicles!

Main Square of Zagreb

Pondering Life

Croatian Soccer Stadium

Nice park we went for a run in

So since she's a girl and takes forever, I had to kill almost 2 hours until she was ready to meet up, and then I missed my one tram I needed to get there on time, and I was 10 minutes late...bad I know....but then she ended up being 20 minutes late...women I tell ya, but she looked quite amazing so I gave her a free pass for that ha ha. So we eventually found the Indian restaurant, which was empty, so Marta was telling me it must be sketchy since no one was there, but it ended up being rather tasty. We had a nice quiet dinner date, and then were eventually forced to leave since they were shutting early. Unfortunately they didn't take credit card, so I had to actually borrow some cash from her to pay the bill...ha ha I'm the worst date ever! So after stopping to get some more money, we wandered down to a small music club, where a Croatian singer named Jacques was singing that night. He put on a pretty good performance, playing all English music, with the obligatory Croatian conversation with the crowd in between songs. I guess he used to be extremely fat, but has lost a fair bit of weight, but is still quite rotund. Marta and I debated over whether he was gay and whether he was hooking up with his background singers (who were all hot Croatian girls), and then debating over which one of them was the best looking, etc. All in all, a really great date, and lots of fun. 

So after the performance was done, it was time to walk Marta home, and hope for a fun end to the night, but unfortunately she told me that her brother was an MMA fighter and that he didn't want any guys other than her gay friends over at their shared apartment, so I was left to settle for some making out and then had to wander home alone ha ha...but oh well, still fun to meet and enjoy a fun night of music, food, and company. Unfortunately, Marta had to leave the next day for 5 days back to her hometown too, so there were no opportunities for a second date, since I didn't want to hang out in Zagreb too much longer, but c'est la vie. So since I was returning to the hostel so late, and didn't really want to wake up early to check out, I decided to book one more night, and much to my surprise, I was given the third night for free since it was low season...FTW!

So I was up relatively early the next day, and agreed to meet up with my friend Hana for a coffee in the afternoon, and for a bit of a walk around the city. After having our coffee and catching up a bit, and wandering around a bit more, she had to run off to her home and get ready for work, so I wandered around a bit more, and then found the botanical gardens. Unfortunately, I had drank a lot of coffee and milk, and wasn't too sure if the gardens would have a toilet, and didn't feel comfortable going in the bushes in case I got fined ha ha, so I wandered down to the train station, where I had to pay to use a toilet....now I've griped about this before, and I'll do it again, as I really dislike having to pay for toilets!!! But anyways, side tracked, so I wandered back to the botanical gardens, which were really quite nice, since it's autumn now, so there was many brightly coloured leaves, and interesting species of plants. So after wandering around there for a bit, it was back to the hostel, with a stop at a grocery store, and I decided it was time to make my own dinner for the first time in a really really long time! Yes, at my estimate, it was the 4th time in the last 7 months of travel I actually made myself dinner ha ha...so after dinner, I agreed to meet up with Hana and head out for a night on the town.  

With my milk in front of a church in Old Town

Croatian Parliament

Nice stroll down from Old Town

National Theatre

Get out of here Dragon!!!

Paper cranes hung in memory of Hiroshima 

Wandering the Botanical Gardens

I met up with her and two of her friends and they took me to some small bar, where they had some bottle service. So her two friends were in the top 5 of Croatia's top model contest last year, for what that's worth, so they were pretty sweet to hang out with, while Hana is just kind of the laid back and mellowed out one of the group, but we all had a good time enjoying the very cheap vodka and red bulls. After hanging out there for about 2 hours, the one girl was ready to move to some other club, but Hana's other friend and Hanawere cool with continuing to hang out at the place we were at, so we let the other one go, but then ended up heading her way shortly afterwards. We found our way to the trams and met some young drunk Croatian guys who were trying to teach me dirty Croatian phrases to say to the girls ha ha...but the girls weren't a big fan of the guys since they were kind of young idiots, and they eventually ended up getting off at the wrong tram stop according to the girls...ah well. So we get close to this club area which is by a lake, and the one girl is insistent that she knows the way, meanwhile Hana is fighting with her because she felt she knew the way to the place...so we end up going different ways, and the other girl ended up in some corn field, breaking over fences ha ha...interesting times...so we finally get to this club and hang out there until like 4 am (where I tried to make a move on Hana, and she wasn't exactly receptive of it ha ha but oh well) and then they get me to leave with them and take me to some small club that only plays Balkan music (it's nickname is turbo folk, youtube it sometime), so we hang out there for awhile, since the girls know the owner and his son, and they're giving us free drinks, and end up there until like 6 am. 

Trying to take a sneaky photo of the dude with the largest head I've ever seen

Photobombing couples making out, my specialty!

Eventually it's time to leave, since my train for Sarajevo leaves at 8:50 am, and I still haven't packed or booked a hostel yet....so I walked Hana to her tram station, tried to convince her to take me with her, but wasn't able to ha ha...so I took my lickings and found the tram and got back to the hostel, with only about 15 minutes of spare time to book a hostel and get back to the train station. So I booked some cheap hostel with terrible reviews, and attempted to wake up the hostel staff member to get my passport, which proved to be a very difficult proposition, as he was out cold! So finally the dude woke up, and I was on my way to what proved to be the most interesting train ride of my trip! So I get onto the train, and am obviously exhausted and prop myself against the wall and am out cold quite quickly. After about 2 hours of sleeping, I wake up as everyone in my cabin is leaving, and I hear one of the guys say to some train staff member that I'm English, as they leave...I'm slightly confused, but figure I'll just go back to sleep, but then 10 minutes later, some other train staff member enters the cabin and starts saying things in Croatian again...and I am confused, and figure out that he's trying to tell me to leave the train...so I get off the train, and find we're in some tiny train station, and that everyone from the train has been exited. So I some other dude in a backpack, and he asked me if I was also a backpacker, and I told him I had no clue what was going on, so he told me that the trains in Bosnia aren't so reliable, and that we were probably going to have to take a bus to the next station....so sure enough, a bus pulls up, and it's meant to accommodate the entire train, which is really not going to happen, since the bus could hold maybe 40 people, and there was probably about 70 people on the train at least.....so it was a giant battle to fight people to get on this bus in the first place, and eventually I was able to get my way onto the bus, and found there were no seats, and that I was cramped in with many other people in the aisle....fun times. Here's a brief video....http://youtu.be/AOcAdid_WMs

So after the arduous 45 minute bus ride, with many awkward stares from the locals....we arrive at some small town, and a bunch of people get off the bus, so I follow suit. I'm not too sure what is going on again, as people are saying and yelling things and arguing, so eventually some girl tells me that if I want to go to Sarajevo, I need to start walking, but then some other person points towards the bus and says Sarajevo is that way...so confused...the French guy I met earlier, was also quite confused, and eventually we figured out we had to actually walk over the border crossing and then catch a bus to the next train station, so we start wandering that way and it took forever to get through the border crossing.....partially because I was trying to get this damn tax free thing sorted out from when I bought my camera (I had went to several post offices trying to get it, only to find out that I needed a stamp at customs to get the refund), so I finally had my stamp, and hung out chatting with the border crossing agent, when the French guy came back and told me that we missed the bus....damn!

So I figured we could maybe try and hitchhike, so I got out a nice piece of paper and wrote Sarajevo on it, and then started showing it to people who were driving past....at one point, one guy actually just started laughing at the thought of going to Sarajevo! Apparently, in northern Bosnia, it is still a pro Serbian area that doesn't really like Sarajevo because of the Muslim population down here! So I walk over to the Bosnian border, and show my passport and cross through, but don't get a stamp. And I ask the French guy (Maxime) if he had received a stamp, which he had....now a few years back I had a fair bit of a hassle with German police when they woke me up while sleeping in the airport in Munich, as I didn't have a stamp showing my entry to Germany, so I like to always try and get a stamp to make life easier, so I run back to the customs agent, and ask for a stamp, which eventually I get. 

So happy to be off that awful bus

So at this point, we are hanging out near the border and I am holding up our Sarajevo sign, and one of the border guards actually starts laughing and yells "no one goes to Sarajevo!!" ha ha ha...it's like it's a wasteland or something, and no one in northern Bosnia wants anything to do with it! So we sit there for a bit, until another one of the Bosnian guards calls me over to the station, and gets some girls to explain to us where the bus station is, as they figured that's the only way for us to get to Sarajevo. So we get that explanation, but it makes no sense...all they told me was that I needed to go up and then take a left and walk....nice! So we're sitting on the street with our Sarajevo sign, when one guy pulls up and opens the door, so we're thinking yes, we found someone to drive us...but nope, he just wanted to drive us to the bus station, which ended up being like 5 kms away ha ha, so the previous directions would have been useless really!

So we get dropped off at the station, and enter and find that no one speaks any English of course, and this of course presents a challenge. Fortunately, Maxime did speak a tiny bit of Serbian and was able to figure out that the next bus to Banja Luka (the place where we could switch onto another bus to get to Sarajevo) left in 2 hours time. So we agree to take that bus, but of course are faced with the dilemma that we don't have any Bosnian money on us to pay for the ticket, and the nearest bank is back in the city centre which was again, like a 4 km walk...but fortunately they accepted Serbian Dinar and Croatian Kuna, which I still had some left over...so we buy our tickets and wait in the nearby coffee shop, while showing the staff our various currencies from around the world, and battling with the language barrier! http://youtu.be/_3eo4JyJm50

Northern Bosnia is still pro Serbian, as evidenced by this Milosovic portrait

Novi Grad 

Classic Eastern European bus station

So finally time comes to get on the bus, and we're on our way. I was so exhausted that I basically slept the whole way to Banja Luca, where we arrived and found out that we had another 1.5 hour wait. It was another battle to buy a ticket, as the people at the ticket counter didn't speak any English either, but Max found a guy who spoke some English and helped us out. So after hanging out a bit more at the Autobuska Stanica (good thing to learn in Serbian for when you're having a taxi ride), and witnessing some very strange and drunk Bosnian/Serbian singing some weird music, it was time to get on the bus. So I find the back unoccupied and settle down there to sleep for the next few hours. Before I managed to fall asleep, I did notice the drunk guy pop on the bus, and then have some weird discussion with Max where he appeared to be getting in his face and then making fun of his nose piercing or something, I later found out from Max that he had misplaced his ticket, and saw one across the aisle so he grabbed it to check if it was his, but I guess it ended up being the drunk dude's so he came running back down the aisle and had his little drunk confrontation...fun times. 

So I just basically slept the whole way, and we finally arrived in Sarajevo around 10:30 pm, it had been a very very long day by this point, and I couldn't be bothered to try and figure out where my hostel actually was, so I just went with Max to the hostel that was owned by his friend, and ended up being right below a hostel that had been recommended to me by my friend Pancho, but was booked full. While on the walk there, we noticed that the American Embassy was surrounded by police cars, but didn't really think too much about it, until later finding out that some Muslim extremist had opened fire on the embassy with an automatic weapon earlier in the day and was subsequently shot by a sniper from the roof of the embassy...crazy times! Also, on the way to the hostel, of course being a small world, we ran into Bianca and Kristy from Split who were on their way to some club, so they invited us to come join them after we got settled, but I was already feeling quite tired and just wanted to get to the hostel and rest a bit. I actually thought it was the actual hostel that Pancho recommended when we arrived, so when we got into the hostel, the staff immediately greeted Max by name and told him there was a room available for him, but I was unsure if there was anything available for me since I thought it was booked full, but then of course I found out it was a different hostel, so all good. After getting settled in, we decided to wander over next door to the pub called Cheers for a beer, and hung out there for a bit, then we wandered over to the next good pub in Sarajevo called City Pub. As we were passing in front of it, we stopped to chat with some girls who were friends with Max and noticed some girl inside the pub feverishly waving at us, so now we were curious if we knew her or not. The girls that Max knew told us they weren't going to go inside the pub because it was too much of a hipster crowd ha ha...win! 

So we wander into the pub and grab a beer, and then head over to the table where the waving girl was, so I start chatting her up and asking her if we know her or not, and we didn't, she just saw Max and thought he was really good looking so she waved to us ha ha...damn guy. So we chatted with her for awhile, but she had a bunch of guy friends who were kind of cold towards us talking to her, so it didn't go anywhere. Eventually they all just left and we hung out for a bit longer, and then just headed over to Cheers for some of their awesome pizza...if you ever visit Sarajevo, I highly recommend the Bosnian pizza from there, so good! Unfortunately the service was a bit slow this night, but c'est la vie! 

So back to the hostel for the night, where we ended up chatting with some German girl for awhile, who was complaining about the crappy nightlife in Sarajevo, which is really a shame, considering the average Sarajevian (sp?) only earns about 500 euros a month, which really doesn't leave a lot of free cash for going out drinking and partying every night, but Germans can be somewhat picky about things often ha ha, so oh well! 

So the next day I was hoping to get on this Sarajevo walking tour, but it wasn't running that day unfortunately. I did receive an email from a couchsurfing girl who was up for meeting that afternoon, but I had asked to delay our meeting by an hour and she mentioned that she would meet me at 15:30 pm (but I didn't read closely enough, and she actually had changed it to the next day), so to kill some time, Max and I headed down to the local Sunday market, so we hopped on a tram without buying a ticket, and of course this was the day that the Karmic revenge would strike. After several months of not really paying for public transportation, I was finally dinged with a 13 euro fine! The tram itself was an interesting ride, as there were girls behind us smoking away (which is apparently forbidden), and then when the ticket inspectors entered, they were being very casual and not really checking tickets for the locals, but as soon as they got to us, Max mentioned to them we didn't have tickets, much to my chagrin, so here comes the fine! After they wrote us up, I noticed they walked further back and the girls behind us didn't show them any ticket, and they let them go ha ha...eventually while the tram was running full speed, the girls actually opened the door and jumped off between stations....yes these trams are old and the safety features are non existent! Another couple came on shortly after and sat behind us, and heard us speaking English about the fine, and mentioned that the ticket inspectors typically only target the foreigners for fines, ahhh to be a tourist! 

My first fine for skipping paying on public transportation

So we get down to the market, and find that it's filled with stands selling pretty much everything you can imagine, although most of it was junk. We browsed around for a bit, and eventually found a food stand selling Cevapi (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/%C4%86evapi) which is soooo good! We were having a hard time finding the entrance to this food stand though, and actually crossed over into the area where only vendors were supposed to be, much to their surprise, but eventually found our way into the place. And we found that the people there didn't speak any English, so it was a pretty interesting time. When we ordered our food, the server was saying something that almost made me think that there was no more Cevapi left, as she kept rubbing her stomach and saying no no, as if she had eaten the last plate or something...so we get our coffee and wait and wait, and then she returns with a plate of food, and I'm thinking it's ours, but no, she sits down and starts mowing down on her own food ha ha....so now I'm really confused and we're asking if there is any food for us or not, and she just laughs and continues speaking in Bosnian to her coworkers and us....but then suddenly she runs away and comes back with our plates....and it was so good...and the whole bill only came to 6 bosnian marks for us combined (like 3 euros). So after mowing down, I'm in a bit of a rush to get back to meet this girl, and just miss the tram needed to get back in time, so I'm stuck waiting for a bit, and finally catch the next tram...which ended up being quite another adventure!

mmmmm so good

First of all, two foreigners came on board near the bus station tram stop, and of course on came the ticket inspectors and nailed those guys, who apparently must not have had money or something, so they stopped the whole tram while they were sorting out things, until they eventually took the guys off the tram, but not before delaying the thing by 8 minutes...making me further late. Then after that mess, at another stop the tram started going when someone in the back started shouting something, and it looked like someone had tried to get on but was jammed in the door, and so this further delayed the tram again, so I finally get down to where I'm supposed to meet this girl and I'm over 30 minutes late. So I try and find an internet cafe to message this girl, and finally get to sending her a message apologizing. I later heard back and realized that I was mistaken, so all good. So Max and I just wandered around for a bit after that, and checked out the old town, which is a great part of Sarajevo. There's lots of great shops, where blacksmiths have created numerous trinkets, including pepper grinders and pens from left over shells from the war....a sad reminder of how much ammunition was expelled on the city, but also unique how locals have taken a sad part of their history, and managed to find a creative use for the remnants. 

Old town Sarajevo, lots of Ottoman influence

Capturing the afternoon crowds

Laying down a "Tebow" 

Saw this fellow on several street corners

Old ruins

Cheers pub!

So after wandering around there for a bit, we wandered back to the hostel to hang out for a bit, before heading out for more pizza at Cheers! After that, I was feeling pretty ill, so I just decided to hang out at the hostel for the rest of the evening, and watch some American Football since the hostel provided free satellite tv...that's a win! Highly recommend HRC Hostel in Sarajevo to anyone going there :) Free Wifi, Free Satellite, Free Laundry, and a great staff! 

So after relaxing that evening, I had to get up fairly early for the day tour of Sarajevo that I booked, so after like 4 hours of sleep, due to this damn head cold I've acquired from one of the Croatian girls, I could barely sleep. So I went and met up with the tour guide, and we began our tour of Sarajevo, by first visiting the Tunnel Museum. This is the last remaining part of the infamous tunnel that Bosnians built to transport food and supplies from the Bosnian free territory into Sarajevo, as the city was surrounded by Serbian forces and snipers during the early 90s. During this time, Serbians were shooting at basically anyone who was in the streets, including children and civilians. After doing a quick walk through the tunnel to get a feeling for how small and cramped, not to mention dangerous it was (since they had run electrical lines through it and water would leak into the tunnel from the ground), we got back outside and sat down for a 20 minute lecture of sorts from our tour guide Haris. Haris never left Bosnia during the war, but has a fair bit of resentment over the whole way the UN handled the situation. His entire house was destroyed by 9 grenades from Serbian soldiers during the war even though him and his family were simple civilians. Also, he mentioned that Bosnians were pleading for the UN to intervene during the beginning of the war, saying that Serbs were only killing civilians, but the UN told them that it was a civil war and that they wouldn't interfene....well eventually they came to their senses and came in and secured the airport and the Holiday Inn in downtown Sarajevo....they also brought a plane full of medicine for the Bosnian people, which ended up being medicine for malaria which didn't exist in Sarajevo...very frustrating for the people. Then the people were pleading to come to the airport and be flown out of Sarajevo, but the UN wouldn't have any of that as well....all in all, some pretty frustrating times for the locals, and you can tell they still bear ill resentment towards the UN a bit for how they handled the situation. 

Classic Communist architecture

and then it's contrasted with new modern architecture

Tunnel Museum...not the bullet holes in the building

A Bosnian theatre...sit on ammunition boxes!

Imagine carrying 70 to 80 kgs of supplies to your family through these tunnels

Location where Serbs detonated a grenade, killing 9 Bosnians at the Tunnel entrance

Again, note the bullet holes...Serb forces didn't like this tunnel so much eh

Anyways, so after our little sit down lecture on the history of the war and the tunnel, and a survivor's first hand experiences, it was time to move on with the tour up to the Bobsled track built for the 1984 Olympic games. It was a nice drive up the hill, and it was neat to see the big track, but also sad due to the fact that Serbians had used it to set up sniper vantage points to kill the Bosnians, and both parties had planted land mines all over the area, so now you can't really stray far from the bobsled course, or else you could end up killing yourself. In fact, during the tour we found out that the previous day a hanglider from Slovenia had left the top of the hill and landed in an area that he didn't know was filled with land mines, as he hadn't consulted locals, and ended up stepping on one and losing his leg, and almost his life...scary stuff. 

I can only imagine the Hipster clothing you can get here!

On the bobsled course

Sarajevo from above

So after the bobsled run, we were on our way back into town to stop by Sniper Alley, where the first Bosnian civilian, a young female medical student, was shot while crossing a bridge while going to get some supplies. This sniper alley was considered one of the most dangerous places in Sarajevo, yet we would walk another 200 m over and arrive at the Holiday Inn, which due to the UN presence, was considered the most safest spot in Sarajevo. And it was about this time that my camera died, fml...idiot....but anyways, we then toured by the Bosnian gov't headquarters, and Haris pointed out the ridiculousness of how there were 4 new shopping centres all being built within a few hundred meters of each other, especially since the average Bosnian only makes around 500 euros a month....Haris also pointed out the unfairness of how Bosnian politicians make around 5000 euros a month, and due to the unique and precarious nature of Bosnia, there's a Serbian, Bosnian, and Croatian gov't who all make up the Federal gov't, so there's many many politicians who are taking in high salaries. Also, he mentioned that after the war, Bosnia was given $11 Billion USD for war repairs, and that they had spent around $5 Billion of that, but the remaining $6 Billion was nowhere to be found....interesting indeed. 

So after touring around these two areas, we wandered on down to the Old Town again, and checked out a traditional Bosnian house, where an affluent Muslim family lived in the 17th century. After touring around there, we then wandered down to a restaurant to have another serving of Cevapci, although this serving wasn't nearly as good as the previous day's serving at the market. So after eating there, we went for our last stop, which was at the point where Franz Ferdinand, the heir to the Austro-Hungarian throne, was assassinated, and which lead to the beginning of the first World War. After hearing the story behind the assassination, the tour had come to an end, and it was time to wander back to the hostel to have a nap, since I was soooo exhausted. I arrived back to find Maxime a fair bit drunk already from having hung out having drinks with the hostel owner, and since it was Halloween, he was wanting to go out that night. So after having a nap, we went out to Cheers for a few drinks, and chatted up some locals when we could find people who would speak English, which wasn't always easy. At one point, there was a group of 8 girls at a table, and we needed a reason to go talk to them, so Max put on my onesie, zipped up completely so he couldn't see anything, and then I guided him into the table to meet the girls. They ended up being a pretty fun group, but since it was a Monday, they were heading home early as were mostly everyone else. So we found a few more interesting groups of Bosnians, had some good laughs, and that was pretty much it for the Halloween...a pretty low key night for the first time in quite a few years! 

Max running amok in the streets

He walked around the entire bar like this unable to see...people were having a good laugh

So the next day, I had found that there was a bus I could catch to Macedonia, and since there were only two running per week from Sarajevo, I figured I may as well catch it, so I just wandered around the town  with Max for a bit, eating some more Cevapi, drinking lots of coffee, and just chilling out. I wanted to wander around and take some more photos of the areas I missed the previous day, but only managed a quick photo at the Franz Ferdinand site. Eventually it was getting close to time for departure, so I said my goodbyes, enjoyed some delicous free soup at the hostel (again, great hostel staff!), and then was off to the Autobuska Stanica. Hopped on the bus, and here I am in Skopje, Macedonia after a brutal 14 hour bus ride, with numerous stops at border crossings, toll stations, bathroom breaks, restaurants, etc. 

Site of Franz Ferdinand's Assassination

One last Cevapi..mmmm

Those long bus rides really take a lot out of you, especially when you're sick like I am but oh well. So I arrived in Skopje, and found my hostel after battling with the Cyrillic symbols on the Street names....I really need to learn that damn alphabet, but it's starting to come along a bit now. So after getting to the hostel and lounging around a bit, I went on an afternoon walk around the city with 2 Aussies and a Brit, which was quite nice. Skopje is a city undergoing a lot of change, as there's numerous construction projects going on all around the city. I actually didn't realize it but Skopje was also the birth place of Mother Theresa, so we ended up touring a house that was built on the location where she was first baptized. We also just wandered around to the fortress overlooking the city, but it was unfortunately closed due to restorations or something. Skopje also has the largest statue of Alexander the Great in the world, or so I'm told, so we wandered around that, and it really is quite a majestic sight! 

Welcome to Macedonia, where tape cassettes still exist!

Kind of reminds me of the Bundaberg Bear

Skopje is undergoing lots of construction

Alex the Great

Near the Bazaar...on one side you have wedding dresses in every shop

And on the other side, you have carcasses!

Mosque

Sneaky Owl at the Fortress

Macedonian Sunset

Approaching Macedonia Square...Alexander looms large

Inside of Mother Theresa house

Mumly the hostel dog

So after roaming around for awhile, we retired back to the hostel for a few hours, and then did one last night walk, which really shows off Skopje, as it is a very lovely city by night as well. We also stopped for some food at a Brew pub, and I was able to start to figure out some of this Cyrillic alphabet, based on translating the beers from the menu...yes beer is good for everything! After that it was just back to the hostel for the night. 

The next day I had planned to try and make it to Matka Lake, which is just an hour outside of Skopje by bus, but of course I overslept a bit, and then missed the bus I was meant to take. I could have taken a combination of other buses, but just figured I would roam around the city a bit more. I found the City Museum, where the clock on the wall still shows the time that a huge earthquake struck the city in the 1960s...they never did fix the time on the clock, to serve as a reminder of that catastrophe. After wandering around for a bit more, I just hung out drinking coffee, learning Cyrillic, and listening to French audio tapes, as I'm going to try and spend a bit more time each day working on languages, to try and make something out of all this spare time! I was meant to try and meet up with a couchsurfing girl that night, but by the time she messaged me to come to a concert she was at, it was already kind of late, and since the concert was going to be so big and I didn't have a phone to figure out a meeting spot, I just decided to hang out at the hostel with some of the staff members, and have a chilled out night. 

Stone bridge at night

Yes life is still somewhat simple in the Balkans :) Only one horsepower in this bad boy!

Poor Yugo had a rough day

A bottle shop that's a library? interesting indeed

Nice spot for a cat to have a nap...the cat slid off the car shortly after this photo, much to my delight

Old railway station that is now turned into pubs

One of these clocks has the correct time, can you guess which one?

Good old Cyrillic....hotel starts with X

Interesting statue

Mother Theresa House

The cube and chicken hanging by Alex the Great

The next day I awoke just barely in time to catch the bus that I had missed the previous day, so I ran down to the station and managed to get on just a minute before it left. I was sitting there when I heard my name called, and turned around a bit confused, and found that the Spanish and Japanese girl that I had dinner with 2 days earlier were on the bus, so I went and sat with them, and we got to Matska Lake. We were dropped off, and there wasn't really any information area, but the bus driver spoke some English and was able to point out where we should go to see a monastery and where the lake was. So we wandered over to the monastery for a bit, and found one lady just sweeping leaves and who spoke very little English. There wasn't really much to the monastery, so we just wandered about for a little while and then decided to go find the boat to this cool cave. So we wandered over and found the place where you can get the boat, and they even gave me a sweet Captain's hat, win! So we hopped on the boat and chatted with the guide who was from Albania and gave me some tips on where to visit and gave us some cigarettes. I ended up breaking his lighter on accident ha ha, felt kind of bad about that, but oh well. So we went for our little drive around, then stopped at the restaurant to warm up and have a beer. Time got to be a bit late, and we nearly missed the bus, as we were running in the darkness and I was flashing my flashlight to try and make sure he would stay for us to get on board. 

Kayak course

Walking towards the monastery

crazy chickens with puffy feet!

Walking towards Matska Lake

First dam built in Macedonia in 1932 by the Germans

Great shot of the tourist cave boat coming in to dock

I'm your Captain for today!

Hilarious smoking ad....if you smoke, you will go to jail!!

Cave entrance

Location where Skopje Phiharmonic Orchestra played a concert once! Imagine the accoustics

More cave photos

pretty cave

Dared Smiley Kylie to try and roll a cigarette with her giant mittens on...she failed

So after getting on the minibus, we finally arrived at the last stop where we were meant to transfer to another bus, but the driver didn't let us know that it was the last stop, so we just sat there on this mini bus doing nothing until I noticed that another bus pulled up that we were meant to get on, so we rushed off the still parked mini bus and hopped on the other one just in time to get back into the town. So we get back to the hostel, and I figured I would go for dinner with the Spanish and Japanese couple, but then they said it was their last night and they wanted to have a romantic dinner, so I was rejected! I ended up meeting a few new people, including 2 Aussies and a Frenchman, who were in for one night and wanting to go out that evening. They wanted to buy some alcohol, but unfortunately all shops have to stop selling at 7 pm here in Macedonia, but the boyfriend of the reception worker gave us two places to go where we could illegally purchase some, win! So we wandered down to a small corner shop that was actually owned by his mother and sister, and they were happy to sell to us, but of course gave us the warning to hide the alcohol so that the police wouldn't see it. So we took our contraband, and made our way back to the hostel, hung out there for awhile, and then went to this great and cheap restaurant near the hostel called Kaj Zlate, highly recommended! The food and the price combo is unbeatable! So we chilled out there with a group of 6 of us, and we all ate and drank for about 20 euros...win! The only downer was that there was no room in the restaurant for us, so we had to sit outside, and it's starting to get cold here, as it was like 2 or 3 degrees...although that's not really all that bad for me. They did have an outdoor heater thing, and at one point I tried to turn up the gas supply to make it warmer, but I apparently turned it off, much to the chagrin of the group ha ha...all good fun...so after freezing for awhile outside, and not being allowed to go into the restaurant since we didn't have a reservation, we eventually settled our bill and wandered back to the hostel, where we just hung out playing music and chatting for the rest of the night. 

The next day I was meant to leave for Albania in the evening, so I just caught up on sleep, and found everyone from the previous night was hanging out in the common area, and wanted to go for some afternoon beers, so I figured why not, as they were all pretty cool. So we wandered down to the Irish pub, and after a few beers, I figured I would just stay another night since it was Saturday and all, and I wanted to go out partying at least once in Skopje. So we hung out there until about 4 pm, as the Aussie girls had a flight to catch back to London, so we walked back to the hostel and said our goodbyes. After saying goodbye, a few of us wandered back to Zlate for another dinner there, which basically was the beginning of an absolute gongshow!! We arrived, got our food and drinks, and were chilling out, when one older local man asked to come sit down with us for a bit, and tried to speak some English with us....he was a pretty nice guy named Tomy and after hanging out at our table for a little bit, he wandered back over to his table but then bought our table a round. So I decided to go over and thank him for the round, and then they offered to have me sit at their table...there was 4 of them, all older guys, and Tomy was the only one who could really speak English, although Zolan could understand English but not speak it.....so we hung out at this table which also included the owner of Zlate, but he spoke no English so we really didn't get to know him.....so every time I would try and buy the guys a beer, they would make me put my money away, and continued to buy us round after round after round after round!! These guys were relentlessy kind! So after several beers there, the place was closing, so Zolan said he would take us somewhere else...at this point, Stef the Swiss guy and Arthur the Frenchman had enough and were ready to go back to the hostel, but myself and the Canadian girl from Toronto decided to continue on with the night. 

Stef the Swiss, me, and Zolan!

Tomy wearing my hat!

Turbo Folk bar!

So we hop in the car with Zolan, who is probably not in the best shape to be driving, but it's the Balkans and things are just a bit different here! So we get into his car, and find the windows are caked with frost, as it's getting quite cold here, so there's no real visibility. On top of that, his vision is likely blurred from all the beers he had been drinking, so basically it was a double blur! I later discussed this with Stef, and we came to the conclusion that it was likely a double negative, which meant that with all the bluriness going on, he likely could see absolutely perfect! http://youtu.be/YIbfemG-l38 So he takes us to this cafe that plays Turbo Folk and continues to buy more and more beers, and every time we try and pay, he just says no, this is Macedonia, you don't pay, I do! And then he starts making us have cigarettes as well! So we spend probably about an hour and a half at this restaurant/turbo folk place, until the music ends and the places is shutting down.....so at this point, we're really really drunk and thinking it's probably time to go home, but no, Zolan wants to take us to a nightclub! Now he really really shouldn't be driving at all at this point I'm sure, but hell, he's gotta get around somehow, so we're back in the car and off to this nightclub....things are pretty foggy there, but all I know is that if I either didn't have a cigarette or a beer in my hand, he was getting pretty upset ha ha ha....just unbelievably friendly and wild...so eventually the nightclub is shutting down and we're pretty much ready to pass out, so he says he'll drive us to our hostel, but I really have no clue how he found the place. I guess Emily had given him the address or something, and he couldn't find ti for awhile, so he ended up taking us to his house and said we could crash there, but Emily convinced him to continue trying to find our hostel, and he eventually did! So we arrive back at the hostel, and it was time to sleep, but alas, Emily had other plans and decided she wanted to keep me company in bed for the night....so yeah....ha ha. Too bad I've now given up on this shave day rule, since Movember has started! 

Speaking of which, if you're reading, please check out my Movember page and donate! http://mobro.co/internationalmoustacheofmystery

So anyways after that night of shenanigans, of course the next morning/early afternoon was one of nasty hungoverness! Also, I appear to have found in my collection a pair of women's underwear and socks...I guess Emily couldn't find them in the morning when she woke up, so now I don't know what to do with them ha ha, as she's gone to Turkey now. So after laying in bed wondering what the hell happened last night, I finally made my way downstairs to hang out with the guys and share our hilarious story from the night. Being a Sunday, I didn't really feel like making much of a move, and also being an NFL Sunday, I figured I'd stick around one more night in Skopje to try and watch some football. So if you're ever in Skopje and are an NFL fan, the place to watch games is St Patrick's Pub, as they have ESPN America. So I wandered down there and the Swiss and French lads joined me later on for a few beers and to catch some of the games. Stef used to live in Aspen, so he became an American Football fan during his time there, but Arthur didn't really know anything about the sport, but he just came to tag along. The pub actually has really really good food as well, highly recommend the Indonesian dish, yum! So after chilling out there for a few hours, we just wandered back to the hostel and called it a night. 

The next day I woke up a bit later than I wanted to, as per usual, and didn't really know what exactly I wanted to get up to. One British girl from the Hostel was going to Ohrid, which is pretty much on the Albanian/Macedonian border, and is a UNESCO heritage sight. I was contemplating going there, as it was close to Albania, although I was also kicking around the idea of going to Tirana as well, but I just kind of made a last minute decision to head off to Ohrid, and so we were on our way. It was an amazing time at Shanti Hostel, as they are such amazing hosts and run an absolutely fantastic hostel...if you're ever in Skopje, I highly highly recommend you stay there!!! So anyways, the British girl had booked into a hostel in Ohrid and I just decided to tag along and stay there too so we arrived in Ohrid a few hours later, and were picked up by Djoko, the owner of Sunny Lake hostel. He was an awesome dude, and walked us back to the place and pointed out places to check out the next day, as well as places to eat. Another great great host, and hostel. So after grabbing a bite to eat and meeting a cool Kiwi couple from the hostel who told me about their 10 month excursion across Africa (which has now given me an idea for how to explore Africa in the next year or two), we wandered back to the hostel and hung out with Djoko and a few of his friends until the wee hours. 

The next day I got up on a bit more sleep, and then enjoyed a nice leisurely breakfast at the hostel since it was free...another win! I then decided to go wander around the city a bit, as Djoko was nowhere to be found, but had told us that he would take us for a car ride up the mountain and do a tour, but I figured I had slept in too late and missed that opportunity. So I just wandered around the town a bit, checked out the Basilica, tried to sneak into the fortress without paying, like the British girl did, but was run down and forced to pay (although I didn't have any money on me so I wasn't allowed to check out the fortress period!), and then just wandered along the lake a bit. It only took about 2 or 3 hours, but it was still a very pleasant day, and good to get some sun! After getting back to the hostel, I found out from Djoko's brother that he had been waiting for us for awhile to take us on the trip, but had left so I guess we kind of missed out but oh well! So after hanging out for awhile there, the British girl wanted to go for dinner, and Djoko recommended this fish restaurant to get some cheap and tasty seafood, so we wandered over there, and that's where she became a tad bit annoying. It was like 4 euros for a big meal, and she was complaining that it was too expensive...and I"m thinking oh god, you just spend 10 euros for the hostel, and had free breakfast/lunch there today, it's not that expensive, but she was pretty adamant about leaving, but I decided to just stay there. Eventually she just caved and decided to stay as well, so we had some tasty seafood there. One shocking moment during the meal, was watching the news program on the telly, and noticing during their presentation they put up a video of the embattled Greek Prime Minister George Papandreou, and in big huge white and bold letters they wrote "F**K YOU GEORGE PAPANDREOU" ha ha ha ha.....there's really no censorship in Europe it seems..great fun. 

Hot Dog!

Ohrid Lake

Great contrast

An old theatre

Great contrast, love the eyes!

Huge restoration project :)

Christian Basilica

The Fortress I couldn't enter since I was broke!

Not too sure what these Soldiers are up to, but it's no good I'm sure!

Looking out towards Struga

For the Muslims out there...it's the Koran!

Ohrid beachfront :)

Still trying to find my sing...not too sure where it is!

Not all buildings are built to code ha ha

Main square of Ohrid

Oldest tree in Macedonia!

So after dinner, we wandered back to the hostel and Djoko told us that he was going with some friends to a stand up comedian at a local nightclub, and that we should tag along with him, so we ended up doing that. It was a pretty interesting scene, since it was all in Macedonian, and I had absolutely no clue what was going on. Djoko would occasionally try and translate for us, although it was kind of hard to get the context of the jokes, but the comedian had great body language and seemed genuinely funny. At one point he had asked some question in Macedonian, and I saw a few people nodding their heads and saying no, so I just blurted out "Definitely Not" at a very quiet moment, so everyone in the bar could hear, and the comedian kind of had a quiet awkward look towards me, and then continued on. I later found out his joke that he was telling was about your best friend being a mosquito, and whether you would kill him or not if he was to bite you ha ha....so I guess my dislike of mosquitoes actually would cause my answer to change, but ah well. So after hanging out there for awhile, we wandered back to the hostel since it was a Tuesday night, and not a whole lot happens. So after hanging out, having some beers, I decided I would try and make my way towards Saranda, Albania the next morning, so I had to get up super early. Djoko gave me some tips on what buses and taxis to catch to try and make the trip, and so I was off to bed. 

I struggled to wake up the next morning so early, but managed to get up in time to pack up and run out and find a shared taxi to a nearby town called Struga. There I was dropped off a bit of a walk from the actual bus station, since the rest of the occupants of the shared taxi were going to the university, so I had to struggle and find my way to the station, which I finally did. There I found a "restaurant" or at least it said that on the door, but it ended up just being a small cafe that served absolutely no food, bummer! So after grabbing a water, I wandered over to where the bus was meant to leave from and hung out there....and then the time it was supposed to leave came and went, and then I started to wonder if the bus was actually meant to be leaving from the street outside where there were other buses parked...and then the other people that had been waiting grabbed all their stuff and left the platform area...ha ha...so yeah now I'm really wondering what's going on! But eventually the bus shows up, and I'm on my way to Elbason, where I was meant to be switching to another bus to another town and then switching to another bus to my final destination Saranda....buuuut now after talking to some nice dude from Kosovo at one of the stops, he then spoke to the bus drivers and they said I should go to this other town and catch a mini bus from there, so I took that advice. 

So I get dropped off at this petro station near the town of Rrogozhine, where the one guy on the bus who could sort of speak English spoke with the drivers and they told him to tell me to wait on the other side of the highway and that a mini bus would come by at some point. So I wander over to a petro station to try and find a cash machine, but there's none to be found. So I figure well I'm stuck on the highway, I may as well just try and hitch hike, so I get my sign out and wait...and wait...and wait....I think I must look really sketchy, or else I just have really bad hitch hiker karma from a few years back when I didn't pick up two people that I totally should have picked up...anyways....so eventually this old guy shows up in a mini bus that says Sarande on the destination, so I hop in and am on my way, but first we stop at some small stand to get some corn and some strange and very sweet fruit. Of course I don't have any Albanian money, so the driver just pays for the things for me, and then tries to speak with me, but I speak no Albanian, and he speaks no English...so this is just the start of a very strange ride. About 20 minutes later we pick up a woman near a round about, and her and the driver have some banter, and I hear something to do with English and Canadanski, so I know they're talking about me in some manner ha ha....so we drive on through the Albanian country side, all the while they're trying to speak to me in Albanian and it's not going anywhere. 

We passed several very interesting sites during the first 2 hours, including a stand on the side of the road that has a bunch of live turkey and chickens just hanging out (no shopkeeper or anything in sight), a bunch of old pumpjacks and drilling rigs littered all over the countryside as well as out dated mini refineries (reminds me of my oil patch days, love the small of those aromatic compounds!), some badly polluted water bodies where oil has run off from these oil wells, a woman with a giant herd of turkeys walking on the highway (with a giant stick to keep them in line), a man selling giant bunny rabbits underneath an overpass, men walking in suits on the highway, giant containers and numerous other things that have Shiten written on them, a schoolyard playground completely overrun by chickens and turkeys, and the driver not letting me put my safety belt on, even though he had his on! (I later found out from a Canadian/Albanian guy I met that if the police see the passenger wearing the seat belt, they know they are a foreigner and will stop the van to try and force a bribe out of you ha ha ha ha, gotta love Albania!!) Then, it got really really extra funny and weird after that, as the driver kept making this gesture with his hand to me...

And then motioning with his head back towards the girl....this went on for like an hour or so, and I had no clue what he was trying to get at. Finally, I turned around to her, and asked her if she knew what the symbol meant, and then that was the beginning of the strange end to her journey with us, as it appeared to start some sort of verbal argument with her and the driver, with escalating voices, until we got to some point in the middle of some construction zone, with no houses or anything in sight, and the driver pulled over, and the lady gave him a small amount of money and got out while shouting, and into the pouring rain with no umbrella or anything! So then the driver starts driving, and gets a phone call (one of 40 or 50 during the 5 hour trip), and he's yelling something then hangs up. Then I'm looking confused about the woman leaving, and he motions to me (in a simulated fellatio gesture) while pointing back in her direction and getting all worked up......I have been looking back at this whole situation, and am seriously wondering if she was a prostitute and he was trying to hook me up with her or something ha ha ha! So we continue on, and he keeps getting more phone calls, and some of his phone conversations are seriously one word, then he hangs up....soooooo strange. So we continue driving on our way, and eventually get to Saranda, but it's dark and he wants to know where I need to be dropped off....so I tell him the bus station, but he doesn't understand. Fortunately, we picked up some other dude who spoke a tiny bit of English and was able to translate. I was meant to be going to try and stay at this hostel that I had a flyer for, but hadn't booked, and the driver was telling the other guy that it wasn't open, and that he would take me to some hotel owned by a friend of his...so now I"m starting to get a bit weirded out, thinking I'm going to get scammed. Also, the driver wanted money upfront for the hotel room, before I could even see it, so now I'm really worried about getting scammed, but the translator dude told him to take me to the place, and it ended up being an alright place. I still had my doubts about the hostel, but I just wanted to get over the hassle with dealing with the driver, so I just took the hotel room. 

At this one point, the highway had disappeared due to a mudslide, so they made some dodgy path around it

Getting into Albania

Many houses have no windows, it's odd!

My lunch in the mini-bus...burned corn and mysterious fruit!

Ridin' shotgun!

Man on a stroll on the railroad tracks

My crazy driver!

The prostitute? or just some woman, who knows!

Badly polluted water body, fix this Ryan Tulloch!

After settling in, I wandered down to find the hostel I was meant to stay at, and sure enough, it was actually closed. It actually appears that Saranda is pretty quiet and basically shut down during winter season, so now I'm stuck in a city with nothing to do really ha ha...bummer! So I will mention two very noticeable trends in Albania before I continue on....there's a ridiculous amount of petrol stations here...like more petrol stations than anything else combined I'd say! Also, Albanians seem to love their car washes, there are so many of those everywhere too! Crazy stuff. Anyways....

So after sleeping in I managed to find a bus to the old historic city of Butrint. The bus was absolutely packed full with a bunch of students and what not, and I had a young Albanian kid who spoke some English sit beside me. I had to laugh as he had a better moustache than I have ha ha.....but anyways, we chatted for a fair bit, and then I arrived at the old city. I later found out that I paid the "tourist" price for my entry, but it was still only 5 euros so not too bad. I wandered around there for a few hours, and saw some really incredible remnants of several dominant world civilizations, as Butrint was an important trading port, so the Greeks, Romans, and Normans all had control over it at some point in time. Randomly enough, I ran into an older Japanese fellow that was staying in my hostel in Skopje a few days earlier, while walking through the ruins, small world! Here's some photos from the day. 

Remains of old Villa

Centre of the Town

The Theatre

Chicken and the Cube have front row seats, well almost!

guard dog to the Triangle Castle

The chicken directing the cannons

Triangle Castle

Amazing marble statues they uncovered during excavations

View from above

Old Baptistery...has the world's largest mosaic on the ground

Old Basilica

Self take photos!

Locals fishing life away

After wandering around the place, I made it back in time for the last bus of the day back to town, and then met this cool Albanian guy named Idlir, who moved to Canada when he was 13. He was also there with a girl from Japan that used to live in Canada for a bit, and she was quite surprised to have met two other Japanese people on the bus. I guess the two Japanese guys had found a hostel here in Saranda, but they were the only two people staying there, so it's definitely a slow town! So we chatted most of the way back to the city, and at one point Idlir answered his phone and spoke to his Grandparents in fluent Albanian, and it was hilarious to watch at least 5 of the locals on the bus turn theirs heads and look in shock at the fact that he wasn't just some stupid tourist ha ha....He also informed me that him and Megumi (the Japanese girl) only paid the "local" price to get into the ancient city...damn! So unfortunately they were heading back to Tirana on a bus when we got back into the city, so I didn't really have any new contacts to hang out with, so I just wandered back to my hotel (which is a fairly strange place by the way, as the owner locks the door in the evenings and I have to ring a doorbell and wake the poor old man up so he can let me back into the hotel). I just had a shower, and then wandered out to find a coffee and some dinner. As luck would have it, I stumbled into a restaurant on the Sea, and lo and behold, Idlir and Megumi were sitting there having beers. So I sat down with them, and we enjoyed a few beers, and some dinner and had a nice few hours together, as they couldn't catch a bus until 10 pm. After dinner, they were off, and I've now decided I"m going to try and make a crazy trip back to Macedonia or Bulgaria in the morning....should be interesting! 

Nice last meal

Only in Albania can you buy Petrol and a Wedding Dress at the same place!

So I'm done here, off on my next adventure :)

Ciao, 

Rye