andresworld.co.uk

Hi all,

Well this is probably my last blog before I come home. I apologise for the somewhat poor effort recently but i was half way through doing one in Montenegro and the time ran out.

Basically the last few days have seen us travel from Budva in Montenegro up through into croatia, changing our plans slightly and passing through dubrovnik to get ourselves up to Split from where we caught a ferry to Hvar and spent a couple of nights. Hvar was beautiful and i tried in a last ditch effort sort my tan out. The only problem with Hvar was that it was very expensive, the monte carlo of croatia, lots of fancy yachts and people with far too much money than sense. Apparently bill gates was there the week before. Oh, and the hostel was run by some right totalitarians: Granny Tito, Senior Tito and Junior Tito.

From Hvar we got the late ferry back over to Split and from there caught the overnight bus to Sarajevo which is where I am now. We got into Sarajevo around 5:45am after a very rough night on the bus. We hung around the bus station till it got light and then went to our hostel. I shant give a minute by minute account of our time here but I'll try to convey what sarajevo is like.

For a start its a lot cheaper than Croatia, which is nice, it means that after a week of eating in I can be lazy and be cooked for again. The city itself has been rebuilt a great deal, except many tell tale scars are still apparent. There are bullet holes in walls, great chunks taken out of buildings by shell blasts and mortar fire, there are huge cracks in the pavement where shells have exploded on teh ground, the parliament building is just a huge concrete skeleton of its former self - i though it was orginally a multi storey car park but have since seen pictures of before it was burnt out. The people here are very friendly, except for teh people who try and sell you after shave - interesting sales technique of tripping you up and then shoving boxes of aftershave in your face as your turn round to see which prick has cropping you up. Its happened to us at least twice, i got pretty mouthy with one guy, which is unlike me, but then it was the morning and I hadnt had any coffee yet.

We did a tour today and the main feature was the museaum of the tunnel that the bosnian army dug under the UN controlled airport to get to unoccupied Bosnia. The facts and details about the conflict are incredible, I'm gripped by peoples storys and what they have to say - i feel gulty almost for not knowing enough about a confluct which occured in my life time. Its quite different now, Muslims, Catholics and eastern orthodox all live side by side working with eachother. Less than 10 years ago the bosnian serbs, the bosnian croats and the bosniaks [muslim bosnians] were all at eachothers throats killing and shooting in a city under siege.

I've seen the holiday inn hotel where all the journos stayed during the conflict and the communications tower that they had to get to to transmit their storeys. I've seen the rat race they had to run in sniper alley, and footage of people walking through the same streets as me but with a rocket launcher over their shoulder or an AK47 in their hands.

Our plans are pretty tight from now on. We leave Sarajevo tommorrow at 6:30am for Zagreb, as the direct bus to slovenia doesnt run tommorrow. We get in mid afternoon and from there we hope to catch a train to Ljubljanna and stay a night and then off we pop the following afternoon to fly home to joly britain. I've heard the weather has been kind to you guys. I hope i dont bring the bosnian cold with me.

See you all soon

Andy

Hey ya'll,

Righty, not much time to say owt but here goes.

Tirane definitely does the best kebabs of eastern europe... none of this give you all chips and salad and a tiny bit of meat lark that cracks off in Bulgaria. However am a little concerned about all the men with big guns about. It seems that you only have to be the smallest of institutions in Tirane to deserve an armed policeman cradeling want if my geeky CS eyes dont decieve me is an AK47 - a real one.

Tirane is a bit like Bangkok in that its dusty, polluted and the traffic is mad. Its unlike bangkok in that every one drives mercedes. I mean everyone. Literally every 3 cars in 4 is a merc. I just didnt get it. So i asked the guy at our hostel and he said its because the albanians see it as a strong car. I said something along the lines of that we British see it as a bleeding expensive car, at which point something was mumbled about stealing and shipping from western europe.

bloody sticky keyboard.

Went to Durres today. What a dump. Ended up spending more time rying to find the beach than actually sitting and lieing on it. 10km of sandy seaside the LP says, what it doesnt say is its the other side of the port away from the main city centre and the rest of the sites and that its a good 45 minute walk. especially if you're going at a claudio mardinoli broken sandle dawdle. Mind you i'm not complaining to much when it cost us about 60p to get there and its around 40km away. Altho i dont understand why it takes an hour to get there.

Looking forward to getting out of tirane tommorrow on our now 6am bus to Montenegro, should be fun. Apparently the journey only takes 4 hrs but we're sceptical. Interesting note about montenegro, it doesnt have its own currency but uses euros. NOt sure if that means everything is going to be super expensive but we shall see. On a euro note, also interesting to note that theres so many geezas out on the streets here waving wods of cash about. We were puzzeled at first but then realised that they were money changers, who, to drum up business as you walked past would leaf thru their notes and mumble something at u. Tis all gravy.

Right. Its too hot in this cafe, the keyboard is getting on my finger tips and i need my daily dose of icecream - gotta get rid of these blumin leke somehow by tommorrow eh?

10 days from tommorrow now guys, i expect big screens with a count down to the millisecond. Youlovesit.

Andy

Dear all,

First off. Thankyou Zach, a great chap from the states studying at harvard business school, he has just been on the site and sent me some feedback on how to get from Tirane to Budwar in one easy step. Legend. You can see his big cheesy grin on the picture of 'the lads' in Brasov a little further down the page on another blog, he's in the very forefront on the right handside in a blue shirt with white dots/specks/lines.

Okay. So far. Ohrid was nice, chilled and cooked by ourselved twice - my goodness! Vick was our landlord and generally an absolute legend. Today we travelled from Ohrid up to Tirane where we have a place for a couple of nights before steaming up to Budwar. The journey was quite a long one and very hot. First off we were up around 7am to consume a box of cornflakes between us [it was a small box!] and get our stuff together before getting our collective arses down to the bus station.

We caught the 8am bus to Sveti Naum, a one hour journey for about 1 quid 20. From there we were dropped off at the Macedonian Albanian border. This meant having our passports swiped and then a 5 minute walk with our packs across no mans land to the Albanian border. This was when teh fun started. First of claudio quickly told me to put my camera away as I wanted a photo of the albanian entry sign. Not a wise idea totake photos at border crossings of all places, especially when its a country which has only smelt the sweet smell of democracy for about 10 years. That was the least of our troubles. We got to the border in the knowledge that the scabby non-EUers were going to want 10 euros off us as entry tax but we thought that we'd probably be able to pay on card or that the border would be near a place we could change money. Oh how naive we were. That left us right royally screwed until a youngish guy approached us, mid teens by the state of his bum fluff on teh upper lip, and introduced us to a guy who in the end exchanged 20 quid [of claudio's] into 28 euros.

Safe and sounds. Or so we thought. The next battle was the taxi driver. He wanted 6 euros for a short ride into Pogradec, the town from which we could catch a minibus to Tirane. Again we argued, and again we were approached by a young english speaking albanian to help us. This time a rather attractive female one. After taking me by the arm she proceeded to explain that it was only a 4 euro ride, and that we were in fact being done. We feigned the old 'we'll walk it thanks' routine and before you know it we had bruce's price.

The next task was to find an ATM to get some local dollerage. Not encouraging when its a sunday, the banks are closed, and a guy at a touristy looking place tells you no where excepts visa. Not to fear, a short walk a way and we find an ATM that lovingly takes my Lloyds TSB card and rinses me at some crap exchange rate and then charges me 2 quid for the priveledge.

Pretty much as soon as we got our cash, after a little contemplation as to whether wee can be arsed to find a loo, we are hailed by a minibus headed for Tirane and we think bugger it, lets get in. The journey, around 3 and a half hours, and 140km through some amazing mountainous terrain and windy roads was the baragin price of 2 quid 80. On the way claudio got chin wagging with a local geeza in some filthy ital language, they got on quite well, Roberto was the chaps name and he was going to Tirane with his family. We enjoyed a bit of a history lesson enroute and he even bought us both a cappacinnoo, on the grounds that albanians and italians have always been close - pretty good since theres only 25% ital between us.

Now we;re in Tirane, a small capital city and very very hot. So hot in fact one of my first purchases was an icecream followed by an afternoon nap. Tomorrow will see us go to the coastal town of Durres, probably just to sit on the beach all day and burn [of course if me mother is reading this I wont be burning as I would have applied copious amounts of suncream, block in fact]. The day after will see us travelling up to Budwar in Montenegro, thanks to Zach we can leave out all the crap of a minibus to Schodra and then a bus over the border to Podgerica and then another bus to Budwar. But it does mean I have to be up to catch the 5am bus. Great stuff.

Until the next blog ladies and gents, as I am off to find some grub which will probably be pizza [or past if i'm feeling healthy - come on! its pizza or local cuisine in these places, and there aint a great deal of the latter and its twice the price!].

Later

Andy

PS Dan, wheres me map! I'll be on my third country before you get round to a map update! You'd have thought you'd have got ure own life to lead...

Dear all,

This is day 2 in Macedonia... I think. Everything is all a bit messed up because we came over on an overnight coach will decided to get in about an hour and a half early which meant we were in Ohrid around 3:30am [GMT+1] local time. Luckily a kind old geeza had a place for us to stay and he said he even wouldnt charge us for that early mornings stay. Which was jolly decent of him.

Yesterday was fun and games. After waking up from very little sleep we gathered our stuff to go for a bite to eat and a wander, except claudio had some how managed to lose his ATM card. Fun and games. The rest of the morning was spent rummaging around our personal posessions before checking the ATM claudio withdrew from yesterday the finally making it to an internet cafe to find the number he needed to call to cancel it. Nevertheless by 11:30 it was all sorted and we lived hapily ever after.

The rest of yesterday was spent wandering around the old town of Ohrid - lot of white washed little villas perched on a hill side below a rebuilt citadel at the summit. We went to the citadel which gave great views of all these little terracotta rooves hugging a small bay which led out to lake Ohrid - a magnificent tectonic freshwater lake which sparkled in the distance and was clear as tap water at shore.

Last night was a quiet one. We went and bought some pasta for tea, eating in for only the second time in almost 4 weeks - yes we've been living it up slightly. Although the likeylyhood is we'll be doing that again as claudio didnt withdraw enough cash. For most of the night we drank wine and played cards while listening to some local radio. What a way to spend your friday night eh? Well, the accomodation we're in doesnt really lend itself to being sociable with other travellers, for example, we were the only people in the house for the majority of last night, and I mean the only ones - not even the landlord. Tonight might be a bit more eventful, we said we'd meet up with an ozzy couple who we bumped into yesterday in the street - it was pretty strange since the first time we saw them was back in brasov about 11-12 days ago, then again in Bucharest a day or so after that; to be fair most people are on a similar journey through eastern europe, just depends whether you clockwise or anti-clockwise.

Not much else to report to be honest. I'd say more about Ohrid but its only a small place. I will say however, that the Macedonians we've met so far have been very friendly. Most young people speak good english, and on the coach from sofia we were minor celebrities as a couple of chappies struck up conversations with us and asked questions our fellow passengers were wondering about us, a nice chap called Mickey - he even offered for us to stay the night at his house in a town around 60km from Ohrid [bit too far away so we declined]. Another chap was from Bulgaria travelling with the group of YMCA peeps on the bus, he'd spent some time in Britain and was a very excitable person who jumped for joy at the use of colloquial/slang British English [even the word 'mate' he found most interesting]; the best bit though was he enjoyed pub quizes [in common with Martinoli] and drinking Green King IPA [top marks from me].

The rest of today we'll spend on the shore line; i'd day beach but there isnt one. Its all gravy.

Hope everyone is well whereever they are in the world doing whatever they're doing. I'm home a week on thursday, but have Albania, Montenegro, Croatia, Serbia and Slovenia to tackle first.

Ta ra

Andy

Hi there,

Just a quick post to say that we've arrived in Sofia and that I'm pleasantly suprised. The journey down was relatively uneventful although me and claudio were cutting it fine getting the coach from Veliko Tarnovo, since we got to the ticket office just a few minutes before the coash left and we just about got the last two spaces on the vehicle. That morning we'd been on a hike to a monastry which was nice.

Sofia seems to be quite a modern city and a fun place to be, its a shame we're only here one night. We're staying at hostel mostel who give us an all you can eat breaky, free pasta and a beer everyday and goodness knows what else. Luckily we've found details fo a bus that will take us all the way into Macedonia to Ohrid. Its an over night affair starting at 7pm tommorrow night, taking 11 hrs and getting in at 5am local time in Ohrid. Fun fun.

For those of you breaking into a sweat over the lack of a map from our dan, he's got exams so don't worry I'm sure it'll be up soon.

Bye bye for now

Andy

Dear all

Well, I've left the fun fun sea side resort of Varna and am now back on the road. Its official, I'm on my way home. The total length of the trip is 39 days and we're on day 23. Whats more Varna was the most easterly place we'll go to, so suppose coming back westward singnals the second half of an eastern europe tour. Nevertheless we will head a little further south before we head back up north.

The next two and a bit weeks are going to be pretty manic. As it stands we've travelled from Varna to Veliko Tarnovo in the heart of Bulgaria and tommorrow we will continue on to Sofia, the capital ,after some hiking around VT tomorrow morning. We'll spend a day exploring Sofia, and end up spending 2 nights in the city most likely before heading for Macedonia. The plan is to get into Skopje the capital as early as possible so as to get a bus out of Skopje to Lake Ohrid in the south. Here we'll spend a couple of nights - just lazing on the beach and swimming in the fresh water probably.

From now it gets tricky. We have to cross teh border from Ohrid into Albania and then get a bus up to Tirane. From here we'll base ourselves to do a couple of days trips to neigboring towns. Somehow we need to get up into Montenegro through the northern border where apparently there is only one crossing. Into the capital to get out again as soon as possible because its a dump. Timing maybe difficult because I'd like to arrive into Budwar on the coast at some reasonable time in the evening so we're not struggling for accomodation. From Budwar we make our way to Dubrovnik, which doesnt look to far on the map but the border crossing is another bugger because there are no busses that take you nicely from A to B [Futureheads].

From Dubrovnik its not too bad, we'd like to get up to split on the same day to spend one night there before spend a couple of nights on the island of Hvar. From Hvar its back to split to then race to get to sarajevo where we'll spend one night. Sarajevo to Zagreb and the Zagreb to Ljubjlana are pretty straightforward recognised routes - but its expensive.

There you go, thats our way home, a little modified from our original plan, but hey, thats the beauty of backpacking. I hope thats enough to keep Dan occupied. I expect some nice maps ASAP [even with exams!]

Later

Andy

Dear all,
Well, the journey from Bucharest was an interesting one. First off we were cutting it pretty fine getting to the train station but then when we arrived we found that our train was 50 minutes late. Thats not too bad tyo be fair when you consider that there was a train going to Belgrade that was 800 minute late. Fun fun. Life got a little interesting when we were on the train because it happened that we gt lumbered in teh really skanky carriages. That I could have handeled, what was a bit of a culture shock to me was the smuggling. It looked as if around a dozen greecy greek guys had bought out a compartment on the carriage and except for using that to sit in they then proceeded to fill it up to the rafters with rugs, trainers and table clothes. So much for the people who had seats there. What really was cheeky was when they came to show their ticket, unlike we very polite do good British one of the chaps just passed a 100k lei note to teh she-man conductor [about a third of the price we had paid] and she put it in her top pocket. I'd witnessed bribery first hand.

The next joke in our journey was the immigration geezas, it took ages. They were radioing in all our passport details to a satelite office before they'd let us off the train. And another thing, I almost pissed myself when customs came round. A well spoken bulgarian geeza asking if we had anything to declare when we all new there was about 50 cubic feet of bootleg merchandice in the carriage next door. Depite setting off late from Bucharest we got to Ruse the border town in time to catch the next train to Varna. This took around 3 hrs or so and it was nice to pass through the bulgarian country side where there seemed to be train stops for places that wouldnt even qualify for a bus stop in the UK. A big difference between romania and bulgaria. Romania looks more forested and a richer green than bulgaria, it is just as u'd expect transylvania to be like. Bulgaria on the other hand just looks like the south of england. Lots of rolling countryside with hedge rows, if maybe a little dryer and a hint of orange in there.

The transport fun and games didnt stop when we hit Varna. Depsite the advice given to us by a wondefully attractive bronzed peroxide red local Bulgarian lassy, we decided to get the bus and not the taxi to the hostel. What we didnt take into conideration was that we had no idea what stop to get off at, but just that it was 3 km along the route and just up the road from a maccy d's. Upon realising that our TNC spotting wasnt up to standard it then occured to us we had no idea how long 3 kms was on a bus. However a very friendly bulgarian girl asked where we were going and when we told her where smiled and told us to get off at the next spot and catch the bus back into town. After hearing that we just though 'sod it' and we caight a taxi. Although this wasnt as easy as it sounds since the internationally accepted method of shouting whistling and general flapping about to hail a cab doesnt seem to be recognised here. Even when in the cab we drove straight past the hostel since its less of a hostel and more of an Ozzy expat sharing his apartment.

Nevertheless Varna is all good and I'm enjoying it thoroughly. Its been nice to forget about the world and not have to worry about where we have to catch the next bus or train. Whats more the food and drink here is rediculously cheap. Its 50 p a beer even in the clubs and meals will cost you no more than a couple of quid. Breakfast tends to be juice, an omlette and a coffee for 1.50, and dinner time is a feast of great food and fresh salad washed down with a couple of bevvies for no more than three quid. Varna is party town. There are open air clubs that line the beach and even a 24 hour bar which pumps music onto the sands all day and all night, great when you want to chill in the sun with a beer and some funky house.

We've been out a couple of nights so far. Claudio pulled out the first after feeling too tired, even after endulging in some coctails at 1 pound a pop. Good job he did really since the club we went to was tech house and neither of our cups of tea. Yesterday was spent chilling on the beach fnally catching some rays whilst waiting for our very very smelling laundry to be done next door to the hostel. Last night saw us attend a much classier establishment - this means the music is better, the drinks are a little more expensive, its on the beach as oposed to just off it, and the women are much more attractive [i'm sure the blokes are too, but I just dont look for that sort of thing - you know what I mean]. Today has seen a late lie in and another day on the beach.

Life couldnt be better, we've decided this is our week of part and our week of chill. We can stop in one spot to just take it easy and do nothing, like you'd do at any beachside resort for a week away.

Some other news. My watch is buggered. And I'm on to tooth brush number three, as I left my new one which I bought in Brasov, in Bucharest. Fool of a took. Feet are getting better. Salt does em good. I hear the weather is good in the UK, thats nice, I'm glad its good hear otherwise I might have had a few more things to say about that. Coming up me and claudio want to go to a DnB festival which is cracking off on a beach up the road somewhere, its this friday and saturday. Not sure what the deal is but it all sounds good and rather cheap.
Nevertheless, true to irony, i seem to be spending more in places that our cheaper. Possiby a consequence of being lulled into a false sense of security. I bought some swimming short boardies from town the otehr day as well. They were desperately needed, since my old shorts were deemed about 5 sizes too big at the baths. That wasnt a fashion statement, just that they had a a habit of coming off in th whirl pool. Only problem is, is that they seem to be ver fashion concious here in Varna. Lots of bootiques selling clothes which are far too expensive. I saw one pair of boardies for 30 quid! I also find these shops very intimerdating, which is why i was probably bullied into buying the hideous pair of shorts I am currently the new owner of.

Claudio pulled some russian lass last night. Well, he got talking to her and they've met up this avo. Thats one sign of the differences between me and him. AS I was walking to back from the beach with a football under my arm like a nine year old at blackpool, he was off to the hostel to tart himself up for his date. I'm not gay.
Anyways, I've pretty much run out of things to say about Varna so now I'll leave you some picture to do the talking. This place has a memory card reader so I've managed to select one piccy from each place to give you an idea of where I've been. So here they are...

Beautiful Prague

The back alleys of Bratislava's old town

Our day trip to vienna, eventually the weather perked up.

Me and the budapest parliament in the background, taken from the citadel in Buda overlooking the Danube and Pest

The Baths in Budapest, open until the late night.

The university town of Pecs in the early morning dawn light. Gorgeous.

Chilling with an icecream, enjoying the sunshine in the square of one of Hunagrys other uni towns, Szeged.

The murial adorning a communist style block of high rised flats. One of my first impressions of romania.

An old beggar lady in Brasov's old town square. A sign that poverty is still very much rife in this part of the world

The boys on a night out in Brasov. Chaoe.

A view from the mountain tracks looking down onto brasov

Ceacescu's 'People's Palace' the communist dictator demolished one 6th of the city to build the second largest building in the world [next to the pentagon]

Varna. The black sea, sun and sand. And of course wonderful scenery

Hope thats all cool, ta ra.

Andy