The journey from Budva to Split was beautiful, pretty much the whole of the route was on coastal roads, we had asked for a bus that went on a ferry as this would have cut an hour out of our journey but this was misunderstood, however the journey we so gorgeous that it really was not an issue. The actual journey had to be done in 3 parts, we had to travel from Budva to Herceg Novi and from there we could pick up a coach to Dubrovnik and then from there we could get a third and final coach to Split, quite complex to plan, do basically we didn´t, we also hadn´t bothered booking accommodation as we weren´t sure if we´d actually do the trip in one day.
As it happened though we were really lucky, we had a two hour wait in Herceg Novi and at Dubrovnik we only had a ten minute time gap, which turned out to be just enough time to get cash, buy tickets and pop to the loo. All the buses were comfortable and all the bus drivers seemed to run two side businesses, the first is there discretionary charge for carrying your luggage, which generally got slung next to the spare tire and therefore got covered in oil, and the second seemed to b e a courier service. We`d stop out side a market place, a bloke would come and hand a bag overflowing with vegetables and a few Kuna to the drive and we´d then set off and the bloke would phone the recipient. Two hours later we¨d pull over in a random lay by and another chap would take the bag and give the driver some more Kuna before calling the initial bloke to confirm delivery. Think the service they offered is probably a lot better than Royal Mails at the moment.
As we got close to split we decided it was a good idea to flick through the Lonely Planet and try and sort a hostel our, we had absolutely no luck there, the hostels were either full or two far away from the centre, we were therefore left with the daunting prospect of arriving in Split at 9 in the Evening we nothing sorted in the way of accommodation whatsoever. We need not have worried though, when we got of the bus there were at least 10 people offering rooms, including one amazingly polite local who spoke perfect English, he told us his room was 5 minutes away, we through caution to the wind and went with him, and yes amazingly we landed on our feet again he basically had only just finished renovating the place, on route he gave us a full low down on where to go and the room itself was totally self contained and very cheap, we even got a discount for staying 3 nights, bonus!!
Split itself was lovely, much like Durbrovnik it had marble floors every where and also had its own walled city, however unlike Dubrovnik it lacked the mass influxes of tour groups and it had sunshine constantly, we decided that one day will definitely have to be a beach day and were both delighted when we found a proper Beach as we knew this meant unlike Dubrovnik I could get in and out of the water without the risk of ending up crippling myself again.
As we arrived so late on the first day we only really had energy and time to go to a restaurant and went direct to one (Bufet Fife) helpfully pointed out by our host, who advised they had the cheapest prices, best fish and largest portions in town. Sadly by the time we got there half the fish had sold out however what we had was still divine and we knew this would be a regular haunt for us whilst in Split. On the way home we also found another place we decided would be a regular haunt and that was Cocktail Bar which had a terrace over looking the entire Harbour and Cocktails that were loaded, suddenly we found a bit of extra energy from some where and stayed for a few.
The following day after waking quite late we decided we were explore the town a bit, this turned into a bit of a Market fest, on our doorstep was the mane Market in Split, known as the Green Market where hundreds of Croatia women vie for your business at there carefully chosen pitch (this cleared up the confusion caused the previous night when we walked past 4 or 5 women sitting next to dozens of crates of lettuces), we ended up going to this market every day we were in split, mainly because it was such a nice way of getting into the walled city. At the opposite end of the town is the fish market which we spent ages looking around, a particular highlight of mine was a Croatian man who was cutting a recently arrived Tuna into steaks and in the process of one big chop manages to spray Ninas arm with Fish guts, safe to say Nina was less impressed. We later got the fright of our lives as we continues browsing and was having a good look at a pile of dead fish on one stall when once of the fish (clearly named Lazarus) suddenly flipped himself over, we both let out audible gasps much to the amusement of locals, we took it as our cue to leave. That night we went back to the same restaurant as the previous night and both ordered the grilled and fried fish dishes we wanted knowing exactly how fresh the fish were and stabbing them once they arrive on our table just to make sure they were dead.
The following day was our beach day, we rose late and hit the beach around 2 oćlock after having a bite to eat. The beach was busy but not crowded and there were dozens of games of hand ball going on, great to watch but there was no way we were going to get involved these guys were way to good and seemed to have built up a resistance to getting salt water in their eyes. We also saw what we have both voted the funniest moment of our trip so far (yes even funnier than the Russian lady, and my personal favourite of when Nina advised me ´1984´was written by Roald Dahl), basically it was this guy that seemed to us to be pretend swimming on the shore side, he was doing it for some time until we realised he was actually warming up, he was doing it for a bout 10 minutes whilst his mate was already in the sea pretty much begging him to get in. Eventually it was time for him to get in the sea, we couldn´t resist watching, expecting some major swim, but no he was in for about 5 minutes and swam about 20 meters his action as along with his ridiculous speedos, had us looking out for a hidden camera, but no this guy was for real.
On our last day we decided we would go and visit the city towers and vaults before leaving, both were pretty impressive and the views from the top of the tower were as ever beautiful although the steps virtually killed us and had Nina sliding down on her bum. That evening we took a bus to Zagreb which was a 5 hour journey, we again didn,t bother with booking accommodation as we knew there would be people at the bus station offering rooms.
At 9:30 that evening we arrive at the deserted bus station, tried our hardest at looking like helpless tourist but not a single person was there offering rooms, turns our Zagreb is a very different kind of City, we decided to stop for a drink and figure out a plan of action, be it sleeping in the train or coach station or chancing are luck and heading into the City to find a hostel. We decided we would do the 1.5 k walk to the station to see what was available there, on our way we walked through the bus station one last time but still there was no one with a room. After about 2k we found the station (i apparently had taken the scenic route), at about 10:30 we found a hostel right by the station and shuffled in and asked if they had any beds expecting the worst. However they did have beds and they were very very cheap, we thinks this was because whilst the beds were comfortable the hostel itself had the feel on a metal institution and was pretty creepy, still it meant we could put are bags down finally. We decided to book just for two nights and if we liked Zagreb we thought we would move to another hostel and stay for a little longer.
As it turned out whilst we liked Zagreb and it was very pretty we knew we only really needed a day there. Unless you really liked Museums Zagreb needs no longer that around 8 hours to fully explore and after seeing the stunning Cathedral and going up what seemed like the worlds smallest and most pointless funicular we found ourselves twiddling our thumbs a bit, we had both had enough of Museums so ruled those out and it was too miserable to go to any of the parks. We ended up spending about an hour and a half in a book store and another hour in a Lord of the Rings themed bar which was actually pretty naff, it simply had a few swords on the walls and some posters of Lord Of the Rings.
We left for Ljubljana the following morning, the train Journey was only two hours long and was just enough time for me to ring the hostel we wanted to stay at to find that they were fully booked, Oh joy this all sounds very familiar.
The plan ... well really there is no plan, but there is a good reason ...
Watch out Europe here we come. After working in travel it's time to put in action what I've learnt!
I can't take you all with me but here's the next best thing - share our travel highlights and fun experiences as we check out as much of Europe as possible over the next 10 weeks.
