My host had brought his computer with him so that he could sit in a café and work while I'd go sightsee for a bit. So I walked off after having walked through the Old Town to get to the promenade. I started by walking along the harbour to a tower or fortress that was at the end of the promenade. I stepped down some stairs leading to the beautifully turquoise water to feel it, but of course it was freezing.
I headed back a different way to explore the Old Town a bit better, but it was very small. It didn't take me long to walk whatever might have been interesting to see. So I headed out again, towards the harbour, took a few shots there, then headed to the café where my host was sitting, feeling a bit guilty about how short I had let him work. But when I got there, he said he had just talked to his dad and that he was going home for lunch. After all, it was still just the second day of Easter. He asked if it'd be OK for him to drop me off downtown in Split and I could wander around there for a bit. He also said I could have the keys if I wanted to go back to his place for a while to…whatever. But I wanted to go to the Old City, and his place was far away…and I didn't have anything to do there anyway. So it sounded good.
We stopped in a store on the way back to buy some ingredients for pizza that night. We had to seize the opportunity now that we had found a store that was open on the second day of Easter. Though many cafés were open (compared to the day before), the supermarkets weren't.
I got dropped off at the harbour/promenade which was, just like in Trogir, situated right by the Old Town. This Old Town was quite different from most other old towns I had visited so far though, in that it didn't, at least from the harbour side, have any city walls that clearly defined the boundaries between the Old Town and the promenade. But it was still pretty obvious from the long row of cafés…
I found a tourist information point to ask about some tours I wanted to do; island-hopping and the Blue Cave. You should see the pictures; it looks so cool! He said they generally hadn't started that tour for the season yet, but pointed out some major agencies where I could go ask.
I've had a lot of nice views and panorama views and 91 floors and whatever on my trip, so the view wasn't exactly anything insane. The tower was hardly high enough to get me tired, but I found the tower itself to be very beautiful from the outside. Perhaps exactly because of all the 'gaps'/poles that held up the tower.
After that I wandered around the Old Town for a bit, but it wasn't very big. So I started looking for some of the agencies I had been recommended. The lady at the first agency just said: 'we start our first cave tours on Saturday'. In 5 days. That's just purely bad luck.
I stopped by a very local place I had seen recommended on TripAdvisor that had Croatian food. I thought it was my second last day in the Balkans so now I had to eat all the kajmak and ajvar I could. I got cevapi (this time with bread!) with ajvar and kajmak, though this lady seemed a bit more confused than impressed compared to the guy in Zagreb. I took my food down to the harbour where I found a place to sit while endeavouring my yummy good. The bread wasn't just pita bread but a similar bread to the one I had got in Mostar at the good restaurant; really good. And with both kajmak and ajvar - just amazing.
After having enjoyed my meal - and the sun for a bit, I found a second agency. Their very chatty and friendly guy said they started the cave tours on the 15th (I think. That'd be like..Sunday?), because it was just too cold to do the tour now. He offered me/said I could go on some other tour, for example to Krka waterfalls (yes, it's spelled correctly), but I said I had already been to Plitvice. We started talking about that, and I somehow mentioned that my 6-8 hour hiking tour had been cut short by the snow.
'What? I was there like 2-3 days ago and did the entire hike," he said.
'Well, I was there a week ago…'
Apparently 4 days can melt away a meter of snow.
So basically, I was in Plitvice 4 days 'early' for the best conditions. 2 days early for Lokrum (I could have gone while stuck in Dubrovnik the day before but I decided against it. It looks very forrested and similar to Kolocep. I think it's mostly nice for the beaches, and that's obviously not the season yet either). 5 days early for the cave tours. That must just be some of the worst travelling luck I've ever had…
I usually think it's great to have a reason to come back, and perhaps in this very case I should be thankful, because it saved me some 110€ to not (be able to) go on this trip. Despite the cheap living and food costs in the Balkans, it all adds up, and after 10 days I was really starting to realize how much I had spent just getting between all the cities, museum or sight costs…things like that. Suddenly even 5€ for a meal sounds expensive, though that has more to do with getting used to the prices down there.
After giving up on finding an agency for the cave tour, I decided to head up to another viewing spot up on a…mountain ish thing right by the Old Town. I say "ish" because it didn't feel like a mountain. I'm not even sure it was. It was more like a park, but with a peak, and a long way was uphill, but only very slightly. It depended on which path you took though. The ones on the edges (which I took) weren't very steep at all. If you took the middle paths (that were also much narrower and rockier) were more uphill, but…I think they all get you to the samt point in the end. Or don't ask me.
I probably walked in that park for around two hours. It was very nice to just get away from the city buzz, and the sun made me wish I had running clothes on and no backpack with a huge camera - yet I hate running! It was just such a perfect park for leisure activities somehow.
It was around 7PM by the time I was back at the Old Town. At that point, I hadn't sat down since…my lunch at around 2-3PM so I was getting pretty damn tired, and my feet were aching. So I found a place to sit at one of the cafés at the promenade and ordered a lemonade. The sun was getting low and most people had left by the time I had paid and got up. My host had just written that he was back home after that lunch of theirs, and told me how I could get home by bus.
I first headed to the Ferry ticket booth though. I couldn't perhaps not do island hopping - but I could do one island, and I had wanted to go to Hvar. So I went there to ask when the ferry was, when and if I could get back the same day…costs. Transport between the harbour and the city/town of Hvar… She said the boat would leave at 7.30, and take one and a half hour. I'd be in Stari Grad at 10, and the last ferry would be at 5.30 in the afternoon. I'd have to get a bus between Stari Grad and the town of Hvar.
This all sounded fair enough to me, so I got a return ticket for like 78 Kuna. I'd have to be there 15 minutes before departure. Then I headed towards the bus stop, as instructed by my host. Found some postcards on the way; one for my wall, one for my grandparents.
The first thing I did at the bus stop was of course to check if my bus would be coming any time soon. It was still a holiday, so it only went once an hour, at like 20:15. That was in half an hour. I messaged my host to let him know that I was considering walking home since I couldn't be bothered to wait for half an hour - if the timetable was to be trusted. He said they weren't. So then I asked if I could take any other bus, but all the ones he mentioned had just driven by a few minutes before he'd send the message… He asked me to send photos of the timetables so that he could 'calculate' when the bus would arrive - whatever that meant. But I lost patience and started walking. He offered to come pick me up, but Google maps said like 40 minutes to his place, and despite having walked a lot that day, it didn't feel so bad anymore. 40 minutes sounded like nothing to me. So I started walking.
Most of it was along a big avenue where lots of people were walking their dogs. I followed where to go on Google maps. After maybe half an hour walk, I was finally supposed to turn off the main street. The street lights became more sparse and the cars fewer. I could hear a small river or stream (or gutter?) along the street. I kept on walking.
Eventually, when I had about 12 minutes (according to Google maps) left to walk, I reached a street with no street lights whatsoever. The street didn't have any pavements either. It was grassy or goodness knows what on both sides of the road, so it's not even as if you had any lights from surrounding houses. It was just pitch dark. I looked at the map if this was the only way I could go. There was another way, though it'd be somewhat of a detour. But I thought to myself that rather safe than sorry.
So I continued on a lit street, past a Radisson hotel, when I reached another pitch dark street. I looked at the map again. This time I'd have to walk considerably further if I were to take any other route, and there wasn't any guarantee that that street would be lit either.
At home, I wouldn't have given it much thought. It's all safe (but then again, I can't really recall any unlit streets…) Even the dodgy shortcut - which isn't very dodgy because there are surveillance cameras since it's right up against both the American and the British embassy… But again, there comes a point where common sense says that a solo female traveller in a pitch dark street might not be a very good idea. It felt like the kind of thing that if anything would happen, people would be like: 'told you so' - even though nobody told me not to walk there. But you get the point. It just wasn't very smart.
I messaged my host who, after all, had offered to pick me up in town. He was quite quick at offering to pick me up now, like a minute's drive from the house. So I waited by the lit hotel. He arrived so quickly that when I noticed a car pull up while on my phone, I thought it was a taxi that wanted to ask if I needed a ride.
My host seemed to think my 'fear' had to do with being run down since there were also no pavements on the unlit street, but I mean, they have both lights and I have a moose reflector on my jacket (gift from a Finnish organization…) It was mostly because when you lived in the UK… There were certain episodes there involving unlit streets and waves of purely physical attacks (no rape nor robbery). In Edinburgh they involved rape. Of course I really doubt any of that would have happened here, but like I said, something just told me 'no'. I also think my parents think I'm a bit too adventurous for their taste sometimes (maybe not this trip, but doing South America and Africa partially on my own, things like that), so in this very case I just felt like I owed it to them not walking those streets somehow.
I don't know what time it was when we got back. 9PM maybe? At least we hadn't finished eating until 10.30PM, but admittedly we made the pizza from scratch. It rose a lot in the oven so it turned out gigantic. He said I could take a piece for my excursion to Hvar the next day. We also checked up when I'd have to leave, and he showed me where the bus stop was that would take me down to the harbour to catch the ferry in the morning. Since I had to be there 15 minutes before departure, that meant I had to be there 7.15AM. The bus only ran three times an hour, and he said the pier was so big that if I found out the ferry would leave from a different dock, I'd have to walk 10-15 minutes just to get there. So we decided I should take the 6.30 bus that would get me there at around 7. Then I'd have half an hour to find the right ferry and departure dock. So I went to sleep straight after dinner.
It's a dumb joke. 'Hvar' means 'where' in Icelandic. I kept sending really stupid messages to my mum that read like. 'Guess HVAR I am…!'
So, as I told you, I had to get up really damn early.I left the house at 6.15 in the morning. I arrived to the harbour at 6.50. Went to the ticket booth where I had bought the ticket and asked where to go. She pointed further out towards the dock, and told me to wait for a ferry called Zadar.
Around 7, I could see it coming into the harbour. It took a really long time to dock it though. It was also a pretty big ferry but no ferry terminal so I was bit confused because at home we have a ferry that's much smaller…but the cars drive off the deck, but people cross an airbridge, much like on a plane, right into a terminal building. But because the ferry was so huge, there was no way they could even have a bridge all the way up to…where they'd get off. It's only because there's this one ferry to my grandparents that I'm so used to taking, that I had forgot all other 'systems' of ferries; the people just exited on the same platform as the cars.
At 7.30, it seemed everyone was off the boat, so I approached one of the skippers or whatever his exact role was, and asked if I could board. After all, we were supposed to have left at 7.30. I wanted to just get into the warmth. Considering how many people had come off the boat, both walking and in cars, there were confusingly few people around to go to Hvar.
'We don't start until 8,' the guy said.
Start? Or depart? I wasn't sure. But so I sat down and waited a bit more.
Considerably more people had arrived by the time they started boarding at 8. I first saw some nice seats but not a single person was sitting there, strangely. But then I saw a sign that said the seats cost extra. So I walked upstairs where they had some sofas, and it seemed free to sit there. The trip itself would be one and a half hour, and we hadn't even left yet. I had actually brought the postcard I had bought the day before, so that I could write it on the ferry, but I completely forgot about this. I was also quite chilly after having just sat outside for over an hour, and tired from having woken up so early, so I decided to just take a nap.
I woke up at some point and looked at my clock: 9.30. That meant we'd arrive in half an hour. But then I remembered we had been an hour delayed. So one and a half hour. But wait…the journey time was supposed to be one and a half hour??? It wasn't until that point that I realized that the ferry hadn't been late. I had been early.
In a way, it's dumb, because she had said I'd arrive at 10, and that the journey time would be one and a half hour. But she had also said the ferry would leave at 7.30! Even my host had checked the ferry times the night I arrived, and when I told him in the evening, he was like: 'but…when I checked online, I'm also pretty sure it said 7.30.' So…we were basically both confused.
We arrived to Stari Grad (meaning Old City) where two shuttles were waiting. One going to the city of Hvar and one going to the other two towns on Hvar island. It's very silly that they only had a shuttle since there were so many people going to Hvar. That's where all the tourists go.
I thought I was lucky to get a seat on the shuttle. But then they started filling the shuttle so that people had to stand up. Lots of people didn't get onto the shuttle and had to wait. I thought they'd send another shuttle for them…but no…
After having waited like 15 minutes or so for the driver to charge everyone for tickets, we drove off towards Stari Grad city centre. I thought it'd go there first, and then to Hvar, because it was like a 5-minute drive. But instead it drove into a parking space, where we were all told to get off the shuttle and get into the big coach parked next to us. Once everyone was on the big bus, we drove back to the harbour…picked up the rest of the people, and then drove to Hvar. My God!
Though Hvar is a big tourist destination in summer (I've seen lots of friends that have been there during the summers on Facebook), it clearly had a lot less 'traffic' this early on in the season. There were of course tourists around, but very few compared to Split (and of course Dubrovnik). Many restaurants, bars and even a museum were still closed for the season. Some didn't open until May.
I walked along the small harbour for a tiny bit, just enjoying the view of the sea and the small islands just off the Hvar. It was a sunny day, albeit somewhat windy, but it was enough to enjoy the colours of the water. I started walking uphill in the small streets of the city, heading up to the fortress.
It wasn't nearly as far to this fortress as Srd in Dubrovnik or the fortress in Kotor. It felt like quite a short and easy walk. The path was even laid out in concrete. A few nice benches on the way, where I thought I'd sit down and eat my homemade slice of pizza on the way down.
Not quite as I had expected, the fortress had an entrance fee of 40 Kuna. But now that I had walked all the way up here, I decided to pay. The fortress was of a decent size, so as soon as I got inside, I also felt like it was a bit justified that they had charged.
They had a nice view up there over Hvar; some really nice church towers down there. Not the cathedral, but some other church that I was mesmerized by for whatever reason. It was really windy up there though, so despite the 15 degrees and sun, I put my jacket back on. There was also a prison dungeon, that I went down into. Some French people were on checking it out, but when they saw me come up, they decided not to go down there. I don't know why. I think it was one of the most interesting things about the place; to see just how 'deep' down into the mountain or fortress the prisoners were held; how little day light they got in there and just the slightly creepy feeling of being in a dungeon.
I think I spent max 30-40 minutes at the fortress. Then I headed back 'downstairs'. There were some benches on the same level as the fortress but it was just too windy there to enjoy it. So I continued down, still in my jacket. I heard some Swedish women with two kids who were walking in the opposite direction in just (long) skirts and short-sleeved blouses; no cardigans, no tights… I was thinking to myself that it looked really cold to me. I don't even think Icelandic people would dress that way in this wind.
I found a bench a bit further down where you could sit decently protected from the wind. There was another bench close by, though the structure of the path made the other bench almost invisible from where I was sitting. On that bench, an older couple was sitting and reading a book each in the sun. It looked so cute, idyllic… Like the perfect retirement activity; travel, then find a bench with a nice view, and read.
I felt quite privileged in a weird way eating homemade pizza in Hvar. A bit like when you have the best lunch at the office and everyone is looking at your food. Except people didn't have food around there of course. But that's how I felt every time some people passed by.
After having eaten, enjoyed the sun for a bit, replied a few messages, I headed down to the town again. After my Easter day 'trauma' of being short on food, I decided to buy a snack in the local supermarket even if I had just eaten. But I was out of all my snacks, and having travelled as much as I do, I know that you never know when you're going to need something to eat. Either because you're stuck on a bus or a boat for hours…or on a hike with an hour until you get back into town or…there are so many things that could happen. So it's always good to have a back-up in your bag. I bought a croissant and a cereal bar; the croissant because it was 2PM ish, and I wouldn't be back in Split until 7-8 ish, and I had told my host I'd make dinner, so we probably wouldn't eat until 9 ish. So I'd definitely need a snack at some point during the day. The cereal bar because I was leaving the following day, and either airport food is really expensive, not good or you don't have time to eat it - or a combination of the three.
Then I just started wandering around a bit. There wasn't much else to see to be honest. I went to the Franciscan monastery and they had a museum, but it didn't open until 1st of May. I looked at the map but it indicated there wasn't much else to do. I looked online, from which I gathered that the most popular activities in Hvar were actually just its various beautiful beaches. But I had neither a car to get there, nor was it the right season. So I found a bar where they had some ice cream, which I had meant to get since the day before. They didn't have a lot of options that tempted me, so I only went for one scoop.
As I was sitting there, still with over an hour to go until the bus would head back to the harbour, a big group of people with suitcases walked past heading in the direction of the bus stop. I looked at my watch. Went online to check the ferry time; calculated and remembered the bus would leave an hour before the ferry departure. Saw a couple more people with bigger bags heading towards the bus stop. The tourists around me however sat quietly. I wanted to sit there for a bit longer, having nothing else to do, but the group of tourists had scared me, and I couldn't afford to miss the last ferry back, and consequently my flight the next day. So I went to the bus station.
Of course it had only been paranoia. The bus driver wasn't even there yet. Where all those tourists had disappeared to though, I don't know. Having lost my "right" to sit at the cafe by the harbour, I decided to walk around the tiny streets of Hvar for a bit. However, I very quickly reached a dead end, and there wasn't much going on or cute little decorations or whatever in the gardens anyway…so I decided to go back to the bus station and just wait there. Blogged in the meantime.
I started talking to a guy as they boarded the bus. He was also American, very talkative like most of them, and probably a few years younger than me. He had asked if anyone remembered how much the fare was, but the tourists (amongst them the Swedish women with the kids) didn't seem to understand/realize what "fare" meant; they seemed to think he was asking how far it was to Stari Grad…so I interrupted all their wrong answers saying I thought I remembered it to be 17 Kuna.
We sat together on the bus, which was completely full anyway, talking a bit about our different trips, though probably mostly his when I come to think about it. He was on his way to Split to catch the ferry back to Italy from where he's fly back to the US.
He had taken a speed boat to directly to the city of Hvar, so he hadn't been on this ferry before. So I led the way upstairs and found us a seat in some of the sofas. We talked a bit more but then I got my grandparents' postcard out that I had been meaning to write the night before. He got to borrow my pen for two of his cards as well.
I had told him about the island where my grandparents live, and showed it to him on a map. I don't know why, but he thought it was really cool when he saw I was actually writing to the island. Asked if they had a postal crevice. It's not Africa I thought to myself. I don't judge him though. I just think it's interesting or funny to see how exotic other people find us.
When he had finished writing his postcards, we continued talking about a variety of things. In the middle of our conversation, a middle-aged man who looked very sporty interrupted us saying he had to join the conversation because he couldn't help but to have listened in and he had lived in the places we had been talking about and tried the drinks or foods we had introduced to each other. So the three of us talked for the remainder of the journey. It wasn't as long as in the morning; only an hour. It was some sort of faster ferry.
My host said he was already out so he'd come to pick me up. I waited for a bit on a bench while partially writing, partially watching the sunset. When my host arrived we drove to the store, as there had been some things he hadn't been able to get for the dinner I had promised to cook. We needed sundried tomatoes and some other stuff I've forgotten. I asked if he wanted to get something for dessert as well; this one was one me - and it was my last night after all. Apparently they don't really have baklava in Croatia, so after a while he suggested he could make pancakes. I don't really remember how or why, but by the time we had decided on what to get in the pancakes, we were already in the car.
'Oh, yes, we should make pancakes with plazma!' I suggested cheerfully.
'Plazma?' he asked confused. 'What's that?'
I looked at him. He couldn't be serious. It's a Balkan biscuit. Everyone knows it…
'Plazma…you know!'
'You mean the biscuit?'
'Yes!'
We came to the conclusion that he had never heard of plazma in pancakes. And he had no idea it could be bought pre-grinded, ready to be put on pancakes. He was even pretty sure they didn't have it. So we drove past his house to another store to get nutella, or eurokrem ish, which is like one of the many Balkan equivalents to nutella…and then the moment of truth. We went to the biscuit section, found plazma and…
'Here!' I cried when I saw the grounded plazma cartons right next to the normal plazma, and grabbed a package.
He kinda stared at it and couldn't seem to believe it. I don't know if he was amazed at grounded plazma, or at the fact that I knew this when he didn't, having lived there his entire life. Either way, it was quite hilarious.
With a little bit of help, I made turkey-based meatballs with feta, sun-dried tomatoes and arugula (I have started working on a food page here on the site, but I find myself very busy so I can't exactly promise when it'll be up - or if I'll end up publishing it at all…But if I do, I'll put the recipe there.) I meant to make an avocado dip but the avocados looked too brown when cut open to be eaten. So it'd have to do with sour cream. I had also asked him to buy kajmak though since I thought it'd probably go well. We made cauliflower rice. So a very healthy dinner (all to be ruined later on of course).
The chili he had bought weren't spicy at all, so that aspect was a bit better when I had made them back home. But we had kajmak. And nothing beats kajmak. It was like heaven with kajmak. Sooo nice. It was nice with sour cream too - and I love sour cream, but as I said…kajmak. I never realized what was so great about kajmak when I was first introduced to it in Serbia years ago. Now I pity myself for not living in the Balkans (almost).
I got extremely full even though I had only had five meatballs, but because I had almost eaten kajmak with meatballs, rather than meatballs with kajmak. It fills you up quickly. My host had really liked my recipe so he also ate too much. Basically, we just weren't quite in the mood nor had the energy to get up to make pancakes. But around 11.30PM (no kidding), I decided it was a pity that we'd bought plazma without it getting eaten. Plus it was my last night and last chance to have plazma pancakes. And since I know the recipe by heart, it only takes a few minutes to whip up the batter.
No regrets. Pancakes with nutella (ish) stuff and plazma are just a-ma-zing. I didn't dream about them, but I sort of did. I woke up early the next morning and was just still thinking about those pancakes. My host liked it too, now having been introduced to a Balkan 'recipe' by a foreigner. I still have plazma (not grounded) in my cupboard that I bought in Macedonia last year, so I'm making it again next weekend with a colleague of mine. She's never tried it, never even heard of it, but I've just talked so much about it that neither of us can wait until Saturday.
My host drove me to the local bus station in the morning, because the timing wasn't right for the shuttle buses from the main bus station. I almost missed the bus, not because we were late (or at least I thought we had more time than we apparently did), but…I walked around slowly trying to find the bus because I didn't think there was any stress. I had to ask where the bus would leave from, and thank God for that, because as soon as I got onto the bus, the driver reversed from the space.
I was a bit surprised at how little ajvar they had at the airport; only one brand, only one size. On the other hand, they had loads of olive oil and other fruit tapenade or whatever they even were. I had to get an ajvar. I spent the rest of my Kunas (except the ones I had saved for my coin collection) as well as 2€ which I luckily had from my day in Montenegro on that small jar of ajvar. It hadn't come as a surprise that they didn't have kajmak. It's not a delicates in the same way. Now I'll have to wait for a good opportunity to eat it. I know they have frozen cevapi in a nearby foreign-owned shop - but I won't get kajmak and the bread won't be as good as in Split or Mostar.
I've been home a few days now and made a very rough calculation of the money spent on the journey. Though it's cheap to live and eat in (most) of the places I went, though the only shopping I did was those small…wallets ish and earrings for maybe 7€ in total, then I have spent a painful amount of money. I don't know where it's all gone. I imagine most of it has been spent on transport between various cities and/or excursions (though I only did two). Quite a bit on museums and entrance fees. And I guess the food adds up in the end, even though a lunch of burek could easily cost only 3€. Thankfully I spent very little in February, so despite my non-paid job, I should come out even.
During my trip, I have walked an average of about 14 km per day, and in the last 7 days I climbed an elevation of +70 floors on average. The highest elevation was in Kotor, where it claims I climbed 143 floors. But it only claimed 91 when we were at the fortress, and I don't remember mounting anything else after that, so of course it's not always 100% reliable. But that's still a lot. So maybe I don't need to feel so guilty about not having cycled to work for over a week; I've kept in shape anyway.
It's been a great trip. Amazing views. Nice food. Great hikes. Decent weather, though I couldn't make any use of my bikini. The trip has made me realize, even more than before, that…not that I belong in the Balkans, but that I could definitely spend some more time there. I have re-gained interest in the language, since I felt like I understood surprisingly more contexts than expected, and more easily picked up on new words, or words that I knew once upon a time but had completely forgotten. When in Montenegro, I even understood a rather lengthy sentence the host and one of their other guests were saying in Serbian word by word, and I found myself nodding along to their conversation. I was less lost in Montenegro than I was my first day in Chile for crying out loud. Though I'd love to go back to Croatia to fully explore the things I missed, I think it'll be a while, but some day soon I'll definitely go back to the Balkans, wherever it'll be exactly, to enjoy the food, all the friends I made last year, and to revisit the language.
A few more last things to say: 1. I enjoy travelling on my own. I'm sure I wouldn't have met those people from the US if I had travelled with someone. I wouldn't be able to make endless stops to take all those photos. I had over 370 photos from my trip (though after deleting and going through them, I'll probably have around 300 - which is still a lot! However, you also end up having very few pictures of yourself, and this can sometimes be a pity. I for example really wanted to have a shot of me doing a split in Split… Oh well.
2. I said in one of the posts early on during the trip that I'd now have visited all the Balkan countries. I realized a few days later that I've never been to Slovenia. So I'm sorry about that. I don't have any close friends in Slovenia, so it'll probably be a while before I go there. And it's good to have something left of the Balkans too.
3. I can't stress how nice it was to get away from my normal, daily life for a bit. I think I really needed that. Why, I don't know, but I needed that. Now it's less than three weeks before I leave again, this time for a bit more friend-quality time but also some sightseeing of course, since it'll also be my first time to that part of the world: Romania and Moldova. You'll be able to follow me here then as well. (And I might also post some more photos on my photo page...eventually).
But for now, I thank you for reading, and hope you'll continue to follow me on my next trip!