Slovenia: The Long Way to Italy (and our first mini video montage!)

The original plan was to take a ferry from  Split, Croatia to a city outside of Venice, Italy for our next stop.  To be honest I was pretty excited about the ferry ride, but when we saw a note posted on a bulletin board at our hostel in Split we knew we had a better adventure ahead of us.  A girl named Shosh had been traveling in her van for 3 months and was leaving Croatia on October 6th heading towards South France and would be passing through Northern Italy and would love to share the ride with hitchhikers willing to pitch in for gas.  October 6th happened to be the exact day we planned to leave Croatia and the idea of road tripping through Croatia and Slovenia to get to Italy with someone crazy enough to live out of her van for three months sounded awesome!

So we called the number she left on the note and made it happen.  She picked us up the morning of the 6th and we just started driving.  Her van was totally a home on wheels equipped with a kitchen and a bed in the back!  Robby felt right at home and loved what she had done with the place...him being a fellow van-habitant at one point in his life.  All three of us sat in front and got comfortable fast.  Shosh was such a cool person, was our same age and was from Brighton England but raised in Chicago til she was 13 and then lived in Australia for two years before her family moved to Brighton.  Her accent was a mix of everything and by the end of our trip together she was saying things like "totally" and "dude" and I was saying words like "proper" (english people use that one a lot!) It's amazing how fast you become friends with people you meet while traveling, you just have this instant bond and soon we were talking about everything including dating advice and life theories. It was also cool to be able to Talk about each others countries and learn different things about them, politics, social norms, types of cookies...all the major bases.  We didn't have a set agenda of where or what we were doing, but we just wanted to be in Italy by the 9th.  

The van!

All of us in shotgun! PS her van is from England so the drivers wheel is on the right side...but where we were driving it's American style with drivers side on the left but driving in the right lane.  Shosh was used to it but it was hard for us to get used to being on the left side of a car and in the right lane but not driving! Every now and then Robby would be like "I just freaked out thinking I was driving but not paying attention to the wheel!" haha 

The interior...full kitchen and bed in the back!

To be honest I had heard nothing about Slovenia, I'm not even sure I even knew it was a country.  Yes, I'm horrible at geography and my dad still makes fun of me for thinking that Boston was a state and not a city for far too long in my life! Haha Robby hadn't heard much about it either but we definitely thought it would be cool to see another country...why not!? you know what they say..."When in Croatia..."

The country through Croatia and Slovenia was beautiful! reminds me of Sound of Music or Storybook land with green rolling hills and sporadic small towns painted red and white.  Total farmland.  i cant help but wonder how all those people live so far from any kind of downtown area! the city girl in me doesn't know how its possible, but the other part of me thinks it must be such a nice, simple life and probably a little more carefree! I just wonder what they do all day but I guess the farms probably keep them busy or maybe back-to-back Monopoly games. 

For miles and miles 

Storybook land!

Anyway the drive was gorgeous and after about 5 hours we made it to the capital city of Slovenia, Ljubjiana!  After all this countryside we figured it probably wouldn't be that big of a city so we planned on maybe staying one night and then heading out again.  But after getting in late the first night and waking up to one of the cutest cities with so much to offer we couldn't leave! We ended up staying two days and nights and still would've loved more time to explore there.

Ljubljana!

Very unique buildings!

Every city we passed - big or small - had a clock tower 

They had these old statues everywhere...they love dragons!

First of all it was a lot bigger than i thought it would be but still Had small town charm with cobblestone roads and farmers markets everywhere.  So you have that feel but then you walk a little further past really old buildings, lovers bridge, and a clock tower and you step into another side that's full of high-end shopping and more modern buildings.  It was really interesting to see the mix!  But it didn't end there, Shosh had heard about these old war bunkers that were turned into some really cool graffiti art buildings and were now used for music venues, clubs and cafes and typically had live music every night! So you walk a little further and suddenly you are in this anarchist little niche of the city with the old run down buildings but fresh new spray paint and a trendy vibe livening up the place! It wasn't ghetto at all, the graffiti was all intentional and commissioned by amazing artists...well most of it.  It kind of reminded me of places I've seen in Portland but maybe even more extreme.  It was really cool to see all the different contrasts within the relatively small city of Ljubljana. We loved this little artsy corner we found and stayed there for a while and went back at night for some live music! 

Lovers bridge...they say if you and your lover put a lock on the bridge and throw away the key in the river then your love is locked forever!

Lovers!

The artsy area we loved!

So gangsta!

Another reason I loved Slovenia...the people there are so much nicer than people in Croatia! People in Croatia won't even look at you on the streets so when Slovenians smiled and said hi to us I was so happy!  It was such a wonderful change of pace.  Oh and not to mention the food was delish!! The first time we had a good meal since before Croatia...it's amazing what crossing just a hundred or so miles can change.

The best way to describe Slovenia is that it's a Storybook-land thats been hit up with a little graffiti...haha and not in an East LA graffiti way at all, but in a very artistic way. 

I am so glad we had a chance to see this place and that we could add a surprise country to our itinerary! And that we got to make an awesome friend while doing so!  We still had plenty of time in the car together to talk and check out scenery (which there was plenty of since we always took the long way, back roads to avoid tolls). Venice is about 5 hours from Ljubljana taking our long route and much of it was spent karaoking to U2s greatest hits. I won't ever be able to sing With or Without you and not think of Shosh hahah such a fun adventure!

On the road again

Here is a short video clip of our time in Slovenia.  It's pretty crappy, but don't be fooled..it took me HOURS to make and figure out how to post.  Not bringing a laptop is our biggest regret so this is brought to you by an old ipad with not much memory and an iPhone.  The beginning was our attempt at making a cool time eclipse video that didn't go well but our camera died so we couldn't try again! It was funny though we did it in a busy square and people gathered around watching and thinking something cool was going to happen like we were going to break out into a synchronized routine! And you'll notice an old Slovenia man come in in the middle trying to show me the right way to do push ups.  Now that I know how to post these hopefully we can get more videos together, we definitely have taken plenty of footage for it! Enjoy!

Under the bridge, Bosnia edition

Red Hot Chili Peppers? Not quite, but follow me for a minute....

Imagine two worlds separated by one bridge. On one side Christian church crosses are raised into the air while on the other side, Muslim mosque steeples reach towards the sky.  A beautiful cobblestone path takes you through a medieval feeling city with Turkish influenced architecture singing from the houses along the path. The cobblestone path stretches from one side, to far across the bridge on the other side. Walking along the cobblestone path, there are occasional stone buildings that have been abandoned and wear the appearance of a war that was not too long ago.  Yet friendly, warm faces of the people who live here greet you along your walk on this enchanting path. This is Mostar Bosnia. And this was one of our favorite stops!! Mostar Bosnia was a completely unplanned visit.  We rented a car in Dubrovnik Croatia and decided to visit Mostar on our way up to another city in Croatia called Split.  We were so incredibly glad that we did!! Although our time was very short (just a half day) we felt like we were the only tourists over there and we were so in love with the charm of the city and authentic feel that Mostar has.  Thank you for your beautiful bridge, delicious food, kind people, up-close views of a recent war, charming feel, and wonderful supermarket Mostar. We will be back again some day!!

Mostar, Bosnia

Mostar bridge in all it's glory!! During the summer time they have traditional Mostar divers that dive from the top of the bridge 70 feet down

Ice cream and introspection

A little excessive on the bridge pictures? Maybe...but only cause its awesome!

Medieval feel to it right?!

A breath-taking bum on the night time cobble stone streets

The abandoned houses from wartime

Dusk view of the bridge with two pigeons

Most succulent meal we've had up to this point.  Seriously the best sausage links I have Ever eaten, they make me drool just thinking about them...

Mostar...well done, we tip our hats to you fine sir

C-R-O-A-T-I-A : A poetic tribute

In the words of the ancient Greeks, 'poetry is the unwritten language of nature'. Or maybe that was Samuel L Jackson that said that? Regardless of who said what, Croatia is a beautiful place that deserves an even more beautiful poem.  I entitle this one, C-R-O-A-T-I-A

Catastrophically cannonballistic crouton-like food

Really really ridiculously good looking land

Odor

Adriatic Sea

Tourist trap

Insatiable history

All-in-all a Must See!!!!!

K, like all poetry, there is a reason these words were chosen specifically for this exact poem. Please, allow me to expound. Also, I'm going to go out of order here so the poem might end up more like TIAROCA (which they should highly consider adopting as their new country name)

Tourist trap - our very first impression of Croatia was Not a good one. We flew into Dubrovnik (southern Croatia) from Barcelona and took a shuttle from the airport in to Old Town Dubrovnik.  Old Town Dubrovnik is the #1 hit in this area according to scholars but apparently everyone from every country has heard that as well. We stepped off the shuttle bus to be greeted by 5 filled buses unloading tourists from cruise ships and groups of every ethnicity with a tour guide. It was almost impossible to maneuver to the castle wall entrance and once there we gazed upon a sea of tourists. We talked to an info desk who said weekends were the worst (it was a Sunday and 5 cruise ships were docked around this small city) so we decided to call it a day and head to our sobe (contrary to what we know in the states, sobes are rooms Croatians rent out of their houses to tourists). We had a beautiful view of the water from our room. The lady who was hosting us was very energetic and very talkative in her broken English and was a great critic on how Wendy was looking each day. The next morning we woke up and got ready and as we were leaving we saw our host and she said to Wendy, 'Wow! You look gorgeous today! Yesterday you didn't look like this at all!' haha it was still a compliment though, or maybe she was hitting on Wendy? Either way we stayed there for two nights and ended up really liking Dubrovnik. The next day was not Nearly as crowded in the castle walls of Dubrovnik and we were able to explore all the beautiful parts of this city. Most of the houses in Croatia have these cool red tiled roofs (most with newer roofing, more to come on that) and it really makes the cities look that much more unique and pretty (as was the case in dubrovnik). 

As the sun was setting we hiked up to the top of the city walls and watched as the sun cast its gold rays on the city below and slowly the city of Dubrovnik lit up with nightlife and lights within the castle walls.  

It was really awesome to see and we were the only people left up there at the end which made it even more magical!!!

Cool view of the castle

Insatiable history  - Alright I already kind of foreshadowed above that I was going to talk about the newer red roofs so here goes the history lesson.  Croatia was a part of Yugoslavia (Yugoslavia was formed after WWI and consisted of Serbia, Croatia, Bosnia, Slovenia, and a couple other smaller countries) and in the 1990's some of these areas wanted their independence back.  So a war broke out with many different sides fighting against multiple enemies (however, mostly Serbia due to their support of Yugoslavia vs everyone else).  After a couple years of a bloody war, the outcome resulted in most of these countries regaining their independence.  From this war, Dubrovnik was surprise attacked and shelled with many bombs that blew up a lot of homes within the old town castle walls (hence the newer red roof tops).  But the cool thing about Dubrovnik is that they have had a passion for fighting for independence and to be a republic for the last 600 years!  Also, apparently they were the very first place to recognize the US as a country way back in our independence days! Cool stuff huh! Very insatiable indeed!!

Adriatic Sea - Breath-taking? Majestic? Mythological? Mariah Carey? All of these words or at least some might come to mind when you hear about the Adriatic Sea, but can you blame them once you've already seen this magically splendid display of water? I mean come on, look how blue this water is!!

It's mind blowingly blue to even the smallest admirers of blue water! Also, we are in this picture for dramatic effect! This stretch of water along the coast of Croatia is seriously some of the most beautiful scenery out there. We rented a car to drive from Dubrovnik to Split (and side trip to Bosnia (next post)) and as we drove up the coast on this beautiful coastal highway it felt like we were in another world, like a mix of Hawaii meets Fiji islands meets glacier blue water meets boy meets world. I couldn't take my eyes off the view which led to some dangerous driving:/ But we made it and loved every single bite of the Adriatic Sea!

Really really ridiculously good-looking land! - Croatia definitely has a Lot going for it in terms of natural beauty. Beautiful cities, beautiful islands, and beautiful national parks make this place...very beautiful!! Two special notes in particular- Hvar and my favorite place...Plitvice Lakes.  Quick talk on Hvar. It is an island just south of Split, we took a ferry to it from Split and spent a day there.  The water is literally see through and so pretty! We just hung out on the island on the "beach". The beach there is just island formed rock (no sand:(, but you can lay out on the sun chairs they so conviently provide you with) which is exactly what we did all day:) 

Now on to bigger fish. Plitvice Lakes. Wow. Seriously that's all you can really say after experiencing it. The following pictures will help you to understand. 

Fern Gully?

We heard from a nice kid from Denver at our hostel in split that the weather was gonna get bad soon so we quickly made a run for Plitvice Lakes early the next morning before it got bad. We got there around noon, dropped our bags off and went exploring in this incredible national park on a beautiful sunny afternoon. We were able to get through the upper lakes (hike C and H if you're familiar with it). 

The entire hike had our jaws dropping with amazement at what a wonderland plitvice is. We got so lucky too cause it's fall time and the leaves are just starting to change colors which added that much more unrealness to an already unreal park. 

By the end of the day we made it to the sobe we were staying the night at and although we both were soo stoked with what we had just seen, we didn't see the view that you think is straight out of a fairy-tale book that's advertised on all their magazines and pamphlets. So we knew we had a lot of work to do the next morning. We researched online how to find that view and got up really early to find it. The lower lakes at plitvice were just as amazing (if not even moreso!, they definitely had the best viewpoints).  We hiked on a trail along the upper ridge and near the biggest waterfall we finally found what we had been looking for! It was very tricky to find (and took a little bit of off-trailing) but we found our view and were so stoked about it!! 

So amazing!!!!!

Enjoying the view?

After that, we quickly headed back and made it to our bus to leave just as it started to rain! We even beat the weather, boo yeah!!

Now That's some really really ridiculously good-looking land:)

Odor - If you're still reading at this point you might be asking yourself, what does he mean by odor? If you haven't asked yourself that, then please do right now. Odor. Googles dictionary defines odor as 'a distinctive smell esp an unpleasant one'. Although we only have a few shirts to change in to and a handful of underwear (literally), we were still able to maintain a low profile body odor due to the cooler temperatures when we arrived and we reused many of the same clothes for the majority of our stay (try not to notice that I'm wearing the same thing 3 days in a row, it's all an optical illusion (premium feature on our canon camera!))

Catistrophically cannonballistic crouton-like food - Croatia has many many strengths in it's favor, but good food is not one of them. Bland, even inedible, were the choices for cuisine during our stay. After a few strike outs we stuck strictly to a diet of bread, Nutella, and these peanut chips called flips. And we never looked back.

We literally lived off of grocery store snacks for the full week in Croatia

All-in-all a Must See! - Let's weigh the pros and cons. Cons- bad food and Croatians aren't super friendly. Pros- Sights like you've never seen, Bluest of all blue water, Cities that are unique and uncomparable to anything else and a National park that makes fairly tale lands look like they are real. Furthermore and in conclusion, Croatia is a MUST SEE attraction and you will Not be disappointed if you should ever decide to visit. We loved it!!!!

I Left My Heart (and Fanny Pack) in Barcelona

I've always wanted to go to Barcelona, somehow I knew I would love it there. And that was definitely the case. This city stole my heart in just two days thanks to my awesome tour guide.  Robby had been there before on another quick trip so he knew some of the must sees and we hit them fast!  

Bam! My two favorite places...the magic fountain and Park Guell!

Our first night in Barcelona was spent curled up comfortably in a dark corner in the airport. Our flight from Morocco got in around 1am so why spend money on a hostel?? The airport is quite accomodating actually.  this one was spacious, really nice and super clean- especially in comparison to places we had just been.  I was more than happy to use the free bathrooms there with flushing toilets and hand soap! Surprisingly or maybe not- finding good real estate to sleep in at the airport was difficult mainly because the good spots were already taken by other travelers sleeping in the airport! Haha I was surprised at how many there were!! We found a spot though (pretty close to this other girl that was dead asleep) and busted out our sheet sleeping bags and eye masks and got cozy homeless style.

Don't try and tell me that this doesn't look like the lobby of a five star hotel

Somehow feeling refreshed in the morning and pulling a Mexican shower with doubling up on deodorant and perfume we were ready to hit the city.  The morning started off amazing - after checking into our hostel we discovered the best bakery right next to it that was having a 2 for 1 sale.  Did we end up buying eight different pastries? And did we go there Three more times before we left Spain the next day? That's none of your business.

That face is pure ecstasy he was so happy!

First on the list of sightseeing was checking out the different Gaudi architecture which was amazing! He is a very famous architect who constructed a lot of unique and edgy buildings I think in the 18-1900s.  I love his style- everything is a little eccentric and overboard.  We got a pretty good tour of the whole city walking to different buildings he designed and I couldn't help but love the feel in the city.  I don't know what it is but it's full of culture, yet laid back, extremely beautiful, but still kind of rugged and natural.  

Gaudi #1

Gaudi #2 - you just don't see stuff like this at home!

Gaudi #3 and a perfectly ripened nectarine minutes away from being eaten. Although this was designed decades and decades ago it's still under construction and will probably be for another x10 years Atleast!

Theres some Intricate detail on this bad boy!

To keep on the theme of Gaudi for the day we had to go to Park Guell (Gaudi park)! This park overlooks all of Barcelona and has an incredible view!  The park is full of Gaudi arctecture as well as natural gardens. Alot of his stuff actually reminds me of something you'd see in a Dr. Suess book. Maybe an inspiration?  Gaudi originally intended on these buildings now at the park to be used for high income housing, but it didn't work out.  So now it's just a beautiful park with lots of beautiful natural surroundings splashed with rad architecture.  Add to that the view and it has everything!  We spent hours up there exploring! 

View Of all of Barcelona from the top of the park!

Zoomed in view of the view.  Recognize this guy from earlier- its Gaudi #3

Man in nature 

Woman in nature 

In front of Gaudi buildings in the park - totally Dr Suess-esque right??

More Gaudi stuff in the park 

Gaudi-licious

Gaudi Gaudi Gaudi! 

The park is super high up above the city- so Barcelona conveniently installed a few escalators to spare you from pulling a hammy on your hike up. Just a random escalator in the middle of a city.  Why aren't there more of these? I asked myself that everyday in Italy. 

After Park Guell we went to Plaza Espana to watch the magic fountain! It was so amazing and the show went on for over an hour!! It was made for me because the beginning was set to Disney songs (all in Spanish of course) and then the last half was all dance music like David Guetta.  Dance party at the fountain?  The place is loaded with people who come to watch it - and it's right in front of this amazing building I think it's an art musuem we didn't go in but it is the perfect backdrop behind the fountain.  The street leading up to the magical fountain has small fountains to each side of it that light up too.  I just kept thinking about how cool it was that the city puts this on and how it seemed like such a cool hang out!  The streets in general were packed with people out and about enjoying the city.  I love the way the streets are set up there, everything kind of leads to different large plazas that all have specific events and entertainment.  I can't explain it, it is just so cool!!

The streets I love!

Mini fountains that lead to...

This!

Cool building behind it!

We were there for 1.5 hours and the party was still going when we left!

The next day we wanted to hang out on the beach and explore without a plan. Remember our friend Marcos we met in Morocco? Well he is from Barcelona and was back home so we made plans to meet up with him that night! But first beach time..we made our way to the beach which actually remimded me a lot of Santa Monica and Venice.  A cool boardwalk with all sorts of random weirdos on it and cool shops and entertainment nearby.  Unfortunately it was a little cloudy- we used the hot and sunny day the day before to hike around town. Wish we couldve switched them!  It was ok though the sun came out and we got our tan on in attempt to get rid of some strong farmers tans forming.

We started to hear this super loud music that sounded like a live band playing 80s music.  well thats an obvious magnet for me so we had to know where it was coming from! Walking along the boardwalk we saw all these banners for "Barcelona Fitness Challenge." little did we know that this fitness challenge would almost kill us that day..

Literally, we were walking past this huge sign held up by massive metal poles and suddenly the wind got so strong that it knocked the whole thing down just steps in front of us!  The huge metal poles crashed down right where us and an old lady were about to step. Everyone came rushing probably afraid of a lawsuit.  Whew those fitness challenges can be brutal! As we kept walking we found out that the band was playing at the fitness challenge -  awesome!! I thought it had to be like one of those 10ks where live bands play as you run so we walked over to scope it out and found this:

Hahaha the band was playing to a bunch of people on stationary bikes! We thought it looked sooo funny! How awkward would that feel as a band to be playing to a bunch of people stationary biking in front of you? They even had people on the bikes join in with clapping - it looked so funny!  Of course we tried to join but we got in trouble.  At least Robby got on it long enough for a picture!

That night we met our friend Marcos to walk along Las Ramblas and eat Tapas.  Las Ramblas is a huge street area that goes down the center of Barcelona and its just for pedestrians.  They have shops and vendors, restaurants and entertainers all along the way.  It was so cool to be hanging out with our Morocco buddy in Spain too! 

Us and Marcos at Las Ramblas 

PS we learned at dinner that their "hamburgers" are literally hamburgers. I'll save my next burger for In-n-out.

 His friend Alba met up with us after dinner and we explored the night life of Barcelona a little.  She took us to the Placa Reial where lots of young people hang out at night.  This place was so cool with of course beautiful architecture and cool lit up lanterns.  The lamposts there are actually our man Gaudi's oldest known work (Gaudi central out there!) We walked under this bridge where she said the story goes that if you walk backwards underneath it and think of something that has been weighing on you, when you get to the other side of the bridge you turn around and have to leave that trouble behind and never think of it again.  I love old wives tales like that! 

The bridge you walk under 

Hangin out with no cares now!

Then she took us to the oldest part of the city called Gothic Quarters where there's an old and dark plaza there where you can see bullet holes all over one wall which were sustained during the Spanish Civil War.  One of my favorite things about these old cities is how history is just in your face and you can't help but learn as you explore. 

A door I liked!

Bullet wall

Spanish speakers 

We were sad to leave the next morning, it was a mad dash to the airport to make our flight like each and every flight has been so far on this trip! Stressful but worth any extra minute in Barcelona which now ties Sydney Australia for my favorite city in the world! We will for sure be back!