europe summer 06 - week 7

Check the view.
DAY 51: We spent 4 hours climbing up to the Treskavec Monastry;(apparently 3 hours to slow, according to the locals) staying the night(free accom woohoo!) and having great fun hanging out with the friendly locals. There was only 1 monk who lived there, he was cool as.

DAY 50-51 Spent both days sheltering from the rain at lake Ohrid, Macedonia.

After paying 10euros to get in the country thought we'd get out moneys worth by staying for 2 days. Its a bit ghetto, some people a bit shady, but they're building for the future. Visit Tirana in 10 years.

DAY 48-49: Welcome to the main street of Tirana, Albania

The awesome trio.
Cool location, beautiful weather, carnival and super friendly people. What more could you want?

Carnival. see.
DAY 44-47. We find ourselves in Kotor, Montenegro. Stayed for 3 days and were lucky enough to coincide our visit with the local carnival. woohoo. you'll see what i mean.

europe summer 06 - week 6

Many reminders of the early 1990's war.

Sarajevo
Met this danish guy(army green shirt) who caned this local in 10 moves at public chess. Found out that he represented Denmark at the world chess titles. No one else would give him a match.
DAY 40-43Next destination was Sarajevo, Bosnia. Met a kiwi bloke on the bus, so was now offically traveling as a trio. Stayed in private accom, our record was 8 people staying in an old ladies living room, but it was cheap and the other people were cool as, including some spanish guys id met on the train 1 week earlier. Of course I ran into the english couple again.

Bought spiderman and sunnies combined for 75cents. ripper.
DAY 40: Arrived in Mostar, Bosnia. Met Kate a cool chick from Adelaide on the bus & also a couple from croatia who have live in aus for the last 30 years and were back for a holiday- they gave us an awesome sandwich. stayed in private accom with kate, and the english guys. 5 euro a night. what a bargain.
DAY 39: Continuing south from Korcula, i arrived in Dubrovnik. Met a cool american dude and just chilled out for the day, great weather. Saw english couple again.


DAY 38: After island hopping to Korcula, i found myself staying in a hostel set up by the 2nd place getter of South African big brother. He was a crazy but cool dude, heaps of young people just hanging out. A group of us were out walking round, and went to investigate some live music in an open ampitheatre- joined in with the locals and then found out we'd crashed a wedding reception at 4am. the locals loved us. fun times.
DAY 37: Caught the ferry from Split to Hvar, where i camped on extremely rocky ground, but the superb location next to the beach made up for it. Met a cool English couple, who i ended up randomly bumping into for the next 6 days; despite never talking about our itenary.

europe summer 06 - week 5

DAY 37: After an all night train from Bovice I arrived in Split, Croatia at 5:50am. There arn't many hostels in Croatia, but heaps of people offering accomodation in their spare room; even at 6am in the morning there were 25 old grandmas offering accom. For the spontanious traveller that is perfect.

DAY 35 & 36: Spent 2 days in Bovice, Slovenia; Canyoning, whitewater rafting, mucking around and sleeping in my little tent. The water wasn't as raging or extreme as I had hoped, but it was still a good laugh.
DAY34: After arriving in Ljubljana, Slovenia at 3am, met 4 icelandic boys and crashed in a hostel. Jumped on a bus out to lake Bled(middle of picture). Beautiful.

DAY 32 & 33. Budapest, cool city. Great Turkish baths.(above)
DAY 30 & 31. Chilled in Bratislava, wasn't heaps to do, but it was mega cheap.

europe summer 06 - week 4

Cesky Krumlov
Ruthie and cool dude.

Charles Bridge

DAY 26-30: After meeting up with my old mate Ruthie from England, we spent the next 4 days travelling a giant triangle between Prague, Brno and Cesky Krumlov. Highlights include:

- Losing 50% of my possessions in a white water canoe capsize.
- Getting lost in Brno, despite it being the smallest town in history.
- Dancing a jig on Charles bridge to local bluegrass music.
- Finding the best "free" campsite ever, after all Cesky accom closed at 10:30pm.
- Getting stung by a bee for the first time in 7 years (20mins after commenting on the fact)

- Chilling in Cesky Krumlov.

DAY 25: I was attempting another tight train journey from Switzerland to Prague, (Czech Republic) in order to meet up with a friend from England. Due to delays i missed the final connection and found myself stranded in Dresden, Germany. After valient attempts to hitchhike, i met a student from a nearby uni, padlocked my bags to a tree and went to the biggest student uni party of the year. A best day to be stuck in Dresden.

DAY 23/24: Another (almost) 24hour train ride took me from Spain to Interlaken, Switzerland. Went for a hike up a giant mountain, the view speaks for itself.

Someone who wished they hadn't run with the bulls.
DAY 22: Pamplona, Spain- the famous running of the bulls.

europe summer 06 - week 3

DAY 21: San Sebastion, Northern Spain; I slept on the beach with just my sleeping bag, was woken up at 5:30 with a sand combing tractor 20m away, and heading in my direction. That kind of thing wakes you up pretty quick.
DAY 19/20 : I eventually got to Madrid and chilled with a cool dude(Pepperami) i used to work with in England. Madrid is really hot 35C+ and dry, therefore their siestas are well earned.
DAY 18: Marathon Train journey from Copenhagen to Paris(attempting to get to Madrid), leaving at 02:06. There were no connections until the following day, decided to use my downtime to wash clothes-blackout halfway through the drying cycle, hence the primative clothes drying technique displayed in the picture above.
DAY 17: Flew over to Copenhagen, Denmark to meet up with mega cool Soren from summer camp; beautiful weather, chic city, top people.
DAY 16: Caught a ferry to Helsinki, Finland- super cool and trendy city; I fitted in really well.
DAY 15: Tallinn, Estonia. I was privilaged to share the old town with 5000 American tourists from a cruise boat.