After 2 months of travelling alone I had the pleasure of having Rosaline join me for 2 weeks. In this post I won’t go into detail about the countries we visited, those will come later (a lot later for Montenegro and Albania, as I won’t be done exploring them until September!). Expect more of chat about what we did together, and how the experience of travelling with a friend differs from travelling alone.

What we did

Rosaline met me in Zagreb, Croatia and after a quick coffee in the centre we caught the bus to Korenica, a small town near the Plitvice national park. We dived straight in and spent our first full day kayaking down waterfalls (read: being shoved down small waterfalls unceremoniously by the guide, where our barrel of belongings would fall out every time and every time I would fail to notice this until Rosaline reminded me to check…) and jumping from high rocks. This is definitely the sort of thing that is more fun with a friend - being able to laugh together whilst paddling down in our double kayak, sharing the experience. Something that’s a bit more special than doing it with a stranger. The next day we explored the national park itself. Then it was off to the Croatian islands, stopping off in Split for a few hours then on to Brac. An evening picnic on the beach, visiting the infamous Zlatni Rat beach, a fancy meal out on the harbour, and the first time I was able to convince Rosaline to partake in some card games. Korcula was the next stop (another island), and it surprised us both with how beautiful it was. We had a day in Dubrovnik before catching an evening bus to Kotor, Montenegro. I had been here previously with Will and Paul, and it was really lovely to be back and to show Rosaline where I’d be staying for all of August. We lounged in the sun, we did yoga, we used the paddle boards, we did yoga on the paddle boards, we cooked a delicious veggie chilli and we of course took part in the evening activities of drinking games, pub crawls and skinny dips. We had decided that we’d really like to do some horse riding and had settled on a ranch in the national park above Skadar lake. Sadly, this required us to stay in Podgorica for one night. It’s regarded as one of the worst cities ever and I’d absolutely have to agree. Do not go there if you can avoid it. It has zero redeeming qualities, it’s just a dump. Thankfully the horse riding more than made up for it, and it was quite fun to see how shit Podgorica really was. But oh wow the horse riding, definitely the best thing I’ve done on the trip so far. We had to wait around for quite some time at the ranch so it’s never as seamless and perfect as it all sounds, but once we were on the horses and ambling through fields I was quite content. The first leg was lovely, we mostly just walked, small bits of trotting here and there, as the group was mostly beginners. It was along tracks and through fields, past an old castle in ruins on a hill, eventually reaching the river entering the lake. If you’ve read Where the Crawdads Sing, it was exactly like a scene from that. The warm river with reeds on the edges, with little boats tied up and locals swimming, a shack restaurant on one side. We swam in the water and enjoyed a cold drink. The really amazing part was the way back. We rode as the sun set, the colours of the sky were just perfect, highlighting the outline of the mountains on the horizon. It was all so soft, and looking back over my shoulder at Rosaline on her horse and the other horses behind her, with the backdrop of the pink sky and mountains, I intentionally held on to the image. Oh, and there was a foal that came with us for the whole journey! The pinnacle came as we were walking through the fields. The horses’ hooves crushed the plants underfoot, releasing their aromas into the air. And so with every step fresh wafts of mint and lavender would surround you, adding a whole other layer to the sunset, the mountains, the horses and just the memory.

We left Montenegro on that high and entered Albania with our first location being Shkoder, a lakeside town. The lake was beautiful and so warm. We took an interesting day trip to the Lumi i Shales region in the north, getting a small boat from the weird ferry port up the river. It was very pretty, and looked like somewhere in South East Asia rather than Albania. That evening we were struck down with food poisoning (more below on this) so the next few days were spent mostly horizontal and asleep. Rosaline’s last night was spent in Tirana, which neither of us had particularly favourable things to say about. But I appreciated the last bit of time with her, realising just how quickly the 2 weeks had passed and how thoroughly I’d enjoyed it. We spent our last morning going out for brunch, perusing a book shop and having a coffee - we could almost have been back in Oxford if it wasn’t for the intense heat! And then it was time to say goodbye. Rosaline sped away in her taxi to the airport and it was back to travelling solo!

Travelling as a two

After travelling for 2 months alone I was a little nervous about travelling with someone, I’d gotten so used to doing whatever I wanted and deciding stuff very last minute. Luckily the nerves were ungrounded. It was really wonderful. So let’s look at the pros and cons of travelling with someone:

Pros:

• You always have someone to do stuff with, and it’s easy. No effort required to find someone to go for dinner with, or do a day trip with.
• That person is someone you already know and like, so again it’s just easier. And more pleasant!
• The memories you make with that person can be reminisced on in future years. Harder to do if you’re never going to see the person again which is often the case if it’s a travelling friend.
• Back-up for dealing with something that’s not ideal. Emotional support and a helping hand.
• They can help decide what to do, giving you a break from constantly thinking about what wonderful thing to do next (it’s a hard life I know).
• It’s of course just lovely to spend time with someone you love, and experience stuff with them.
• You learn more about the person and see them in a different light. It’s really quite beautiful.

Cons:

• Planning for someone else besides yourself is a bit more stressful. Someone else is affected if you mess up the bus times etc.
• Not quite as easy to make friends! Perhaps just because you’re putting less effort in because you already have a friend.
• Decisions can take longer.
• Long-term I’m not sure how feasible it is, just in terms of wanting different things and getting tired of one person’s company after several months together.
• You miss out on the learning experiences that travelling solo gives you.

Overall, I think the best way to travel long-term is to travel solo and have friends come and join for parts. Luckily that’s exactly what I’m doing, and it seems to be a very common way to do it, with lots of other people I’ve met doing the same.

Thank you so much for coming out to join me Rosaline, it was an absolute pleasure.
To fend off the sadness from Rosaline’s departure I started my first morning in a new place in the best way I know: sunrise yoga. (Yep I know, I have an obnoxiously amazing life at the moment).

The shit bits (literally)

To show Rosaline the reality of travelling I had to include some less ideal bits. The first was when we were trying to leave the hell hole that is Podgorica to get to Shkoder. We arrived nice and early for the bus only to be told it was sold out but we could hang around until the bus arrived in case there were spaces. We did as we were told, but when the bus did arrive the lady, very gleefully I’ll add, informed me that there was no space on the bus. The thought of spending any longer in Podgorica was so horrible I looked around for a plan B. I spotted two other people who looked annoyed so went up and asked them if they were also planning to go to Shkoder. They were, and I had the idea that a taxi between four of us might not actually be that expensive. We asked a taxi driver and it worked out as the exact same price as the bus would’ve been, so we all piled in and that’s how we ended up going to Albania in a taxi with a french couple. So it all worked out in the end (it always does).

The slightly more dire shit bit was when Rosaline and I were both struck down with pretty intense food poisoning. The suspected culprit was meat sticks from Podgorica (of course they were from that awful place). After a night of hourly vomiting and diarrhoea we were both feeling rather destroyed. Rosaline’s parents had the brilliant idea of staying in a hotel, so with our small amount of strength we set about forming a plan. Rosaline would go and try to get a room at the hotel next door. I would go to the shops to acquire fluids, hydration tablets and a lemon (the lady in the hostel assured me lemon water would cure us both). We met back at the hostel having both been successful. With our last ounces of strength we walked the 50 metres to the hotel and collapsed on the beds. I’m not being dramatic honest, it was awful. We proceeded to sleep literally all day. We got chicken soup via room service, which was a delight for me as it was my first time ever having room service. The next day we still did not feel 100% so stayed one more night in a hotel. This time we were well enough to use the spa facilities though (did I forget to mention it was a 5 star hotel?). On the third day we finally felt up for the 2 hour bus to Tirana (where I convinced myself that we were being trafficked but I’ll save that for the Albania post). Whilst the whole being really ill bit did suck, it was quite a laugh. I’m very glad to have not been travelling alone for that bit, being ill with someone is a lot more fun! We relaxed in the fancy hotel, we watched netflix, we ate room service and we wallowed in combined self-pity, comparing our symptoms. Sadly we weren’t as healed as we first thought, and spent the last days in Tirana feeling a bit off and having to make urgent dashes to the toilet quite often. Something I’m still having to do, but hopefully soon it’ll be back to normal! In the interest of integrity I’ll mention the possibility that our demise was not caused by Podgorica meat sticks, but by a bug or something else. We bumped into 2 guys we’d been friends with in Shkoder who had returned after 2 nights away, and they had also had the exact same thing as us. We happily compared our ordeals, finding comfort in the shared experience. But they hadn’t eaten the Podgorica meat sticks…

Croatia is not my favourite place. It’s been unlucky in its placement next to Slovenia, as the contrast with this wonderful country makes Croatia look more sad than it probably deserves. I don’t know what it is about Croatia, but it just doesn’t speak to me. It doesn’t make me feel excited. I just don’t love it. It has a huge stretch of coastline, lots of islands and some cool national parks that are pretty green. But it still lacks something. The people aren’t the friendliest so that doesn’t help.

Places we visited (I was travelling with Rosaline for all of these):

1. Zagreb
   I explored this city more on my journey down to Montenegro the first time around, and included a run down of it in that post. In overview, you can see it all in a couple hours. It’s fine.

2. Plitvice national park
   Okay this place is very beautiful. I can’t argue with the views. BUT you can’t swim in the water, it’s very busy at the famous pretty bits and it’s not mind-blowing in any way.

3. Split
   It’s prettier than I remembered from my last visit here 5 years ago. Nice old town. Very busy. Ferries to all of the islands.

4. Brac
   Cheaper island alternative to the crazy expensive Hvar. Zlatni Rat beach was cool, and the promenade bit there was really nice. The main town of Supetar is pleasant. Seafood was good.

5. Korcula
   The only place I’d recommend. I really liked this island. Was actually beautiful. Old town was cool, with a big bridge to get in. Just a pretty place.

6. Dubrovnik
   The old town and the city walls are impressive. But it’s crazy expensive and busy and hot. You can see the old town in a day, you don’t need to stay overnight.

I’m not going to go into any more detail on Croatia. The islands and beaches are nice if you’re looking for just beaches and little old towns. For anything else, go somewhere else.

Full Moon Check-in

(The last two months it’s been cloudy on the full moons, so this is the first time I’ve seen it.)

1. Last: Workaway in Dobrusa, Slovenia, taking the dog Siba for an evening walk.
2. Current (14th July): Sat on the beach in Kotor, Montenegro with a group from the hostel, and Rosaline of course. We watched the full moon rise over the mountains.
3. Future: In Kotor again, volunteering at the hostel. Probably sat on the same beach.

A love letter to Slovenia, and a full review

Slovenia is my favourite country out of the ones I’ve visited so far in my life. And it easily wins. I recommend visiting Slovenia so fully. If you want to hear me passionately talk about travel, ask me about Slovenia.

On my post A level trip I visited Slovenia for about a week. On this trip I spent 10 days living with a family (see my Slovenian workaway post for more on this) and 10 days travelling around. Here is my ranked list of places I’ve visited.

1. Velika Planina
   I did a day trip to this herdsman settlement when on my workaway, so all of the details are in that post. It was such a unique experience, and I really wasn’t expecting it to be as beautiful and fun as it was, so that made it even more unforgettable. It’s my favourite thing I did here.

   Details: Day trip from Ljubljana. Can be done by public transport but requires some funky logistics. Only cost is the cable car and chairlift ticket which was 16EUR for students.

   

2. Hiking Krn
   Slovenia has some truly epic hiking, and lots of people who visit are here for this. The Julian alps run through Slovenia and are in the Triglav national park. Triglav is the highest peak at 2864m. There is a great set up of mountain huts which means you can easily do a 2+ day hike, which is needed if you want to summit Triglav for example. I didn’t know about the mountain huts until I was already here so didn’t end up using them, but next time I definitely will! I still wanted to do a challenging hike, and decided to hike Krn mountain which is 2,244m (my first over 2000m peak!). It felt like a surprisingly good achievement! The views from the summit were absolutely insane, because Krn sits a bit separate from the rest of the Julian alps, giving you a great view of Triglav and the neighbouring peaks. The hike up is also easy in a technical sense, no climbing or even scrambling (just a lot of extremely steep zigzag paths). I did a loop on my way back, taking in another peak and descending down into a mountain valley, and then down the mountainside. It was all just so beautiful, and I genuinely couldn’t believe my eyes at certain points.

   Details: I stayed in Kobarid for this hike, which is a nice little town in of itself. In the summer months a small bus runs from Kobarid to Planina Kuhinja which is the starting point for Krn. From here it’s 1200m in elevation to the summit, and it took me 3.5 hours.

   

3. Bovec (and just anywhere in the Soca valley)
   My favourite part of Slovenia is the Soca valley in the North West of the country. To get there from Ljubljana the bus has to go through the Vrsic pass which is the zig-zagging road that goes up and over the Julian alps. It’s the most insane and beautiful bus ride I’ve ever done (all though I did throw up when I did it 5 years ago, luckily this time around my stomach was more used to bus journeys!). I also stopped off at Lake Jasna in Kranjska Gora on my way to Bovec which was very pleasant. The Soca valley is named after the Soca river, which is the most distinguished turquoise colour. In places it’s more of a pastel tone, and others it’s electrically blue. The water is very cold, as it’s running straight from the alps, but that makes it even nicer in my opinion, especially in the summer heat. Bovec is the main town in the valley and a nice place to stay, with two nice hostels and lots of nice pubs (one serving a beer-wine hybrid that I was not a fan of at all, but the person I was with loved). From here you can walk to the Soca river, explore waterfalls, and do all sorts of water and adrenaline activities.

   Details: Any of the towns in the Soca valley would be lovely. A bus runs from Ljubljana via Bled to all of them. It takes a few hours, but the amazing views means it flies by.

   

4. Ljubljana
   Ah the capital city. The nature and the scenery is why Slovenia is my favourite country, but I also really lovely the capital. It’s a very small city, with the old town and market on one side of the river along with the castle on a hill, and the main square and more modern stuff on the other side. The river is flanked by two beautiful streets with restaurants and cafes, lined with drooping trees. There are lots of pretty bridges over it, including the infamous triple bridge. The river is very open and creates this spacious and nature filled zone in the centre. The old town is filled with little independent shops and restaurants. The market is huge and has both indoor and outdoor areas; boasting a section for flowers, fruit and veg, meats, and cheeses and other dairy products. There are even milk and yogurt vending machines! The castle is my favourite out of the city castles I’ve visited (which is quite a few now). It’s free to enter and it’s so much more than just a historical ruin. It acts as an art space with a gallery, there’s a jazz bar and a Michelin star restaurant, a lovely open courtyard and a maze of underground parts. All of these components seamlessly sit in the architecture of the ruined castle - against the bare rock. Overall, Ljubljana is a city that I could wander around quite happily in for hours. It reminds me of Bristol in its vibe, and its plethora of arty coffee shops. I would quite like to live here at some point…

   Details: If you’re going to visit Slovenia I’m sure you’ll end up in Ljubljana just because of transport. I stayed at Hostel Celica which is an old prison. It was very cool, and had a great free breakfast buffet!

   

5. Bled
   Obviously if you visit Slovenia you should visit Bled. It’s like visiting Italy and not going to Rome. And Bled is actually very beautiful, unlike Rome, so it is worth going to! The famous island with the church in the middle of the lake is as pretty as it looks in pictures, especially with the mountains behind it. It’s fun to hire a rowing boat to use on the lake, something I did on my last visit with Sam and Louis (and it really was quite hilarious). The walk up to the several viewpoints is very pleasant. The castle seems nice, although not free to enter and I didn’t pay to do so. You can visit the beautiful Vintgar gorge easily. The Bled cream cake is delicious (but just buy it from a supermarket rather than a cafe to save money!). BUT it is very busy! Mostly with interrailers who are 18/19 years old. So just keep that in mind, and don’t forget the beautiful Soca valley which is much quieter.

   

There are still lots of places I didn’t manage to see in Slovenia that I’d love to visit, so I’ll briefly include these for completeness:

1. The coast - Koper or Piran look like great beach towns.
2. Predjama castle and Postojna cave - can be done as a day trip from Ljubljana very easily.
3. Podzemlje Pece - a cave system in the North East that you can kayak through.
4. Krajinski national park - a national park in the North East, close to Austria and Hungary.
5. Lake Bohinj - can be reached from Bled.

Luckily I definitely plan on coming back to Slovenia again and again, so I’m sure I’ll get to cross the others off eventually! Slovenia really does have everything: mountains, beautiful rivers and lakes, luscious green nature, great hikes, all of the water sports, and a lovely capital city.

It’s not all perfect all the time

I planned to hike Krn on a certain day, and I prepared everything the night before. I set my alarm ready to catch the one bus there at 6:35am. I woke in the morning and checked my phone to read 6:45am… I’d missed my alarm somehow and also missed the bus. Luckily I could do it the next day instead but it was quite annoying.

Not something that went wrong, but an interesting logistical note: I decided that I wasn’t going to need my jeans or jacket for the foreseeable future (or wooly hat) so sent them back to England. A potential future issue perhaps, as the post office man couldn’t seem to grasp that my house has a name and not a number and so I have little faith in the parcel ever arriving. This meant I now had a little bit of spare space in my bag… which I quickly filled with a nice dress and skirt from an independent shop and a vintage shop in Ljubljana! And a needed pair of shorts and vest top from less exciting H&M and Mango…

Bosnia and Hercegovina (I was repeatedly told off for just saying Bosnia, but will refer to it as B&H from now on because it’s too long) wasn’t in my original plan. On returning to Slovenia from Montenegro I wasn’t in a huge rush so it made sense to take a few days to see somewhere new. I’d visited B&H very briefly before, but only Trebinje which was interesting but nothing too special. I ended up spending 3 nights in Mostar, a town in the Hercegovina region, and 2 nights in Sarajevo, the capital, before catching an overnight bus back to Ljubljana. The week I spent in B&H felt very different to my previous weeks of travelling. It felt much heavier. Not exactly in a negative way though. I think there are three reasons for this: i) my personal mindset, I was running on 6 hours sleep in 2 days when I arrived in Mostar, and didn’t catch up on it for a few days, and was processing the end of Montenegro and that part of my trip, ii) it was really really hot, like 40 degrees hot, and iii) the history and reality is unbelievably heavy. A warning that this post is going to be quite history heavy as that’s mostly what I did here!

Mostar

As mentioned, Mostar is in the Hercegovina region of B&H in the south, close to Croatia. It was a really beautiful city, characterised by the Neretva river and the big arched old town bridge crossing it. It was very small, with the old town centre having narrow, cobbled streets that were lethal when wet due to their slippiness. The old town was pretty much destroyed in the siege that took place in 1993-4, but has been rebuilt exactly as it was, using the same techniques and everything. Sadly, not everything about Mostar could be rebuilt with such success. The city is still now divided, with the Croats (people originally from Croatia - in simple terms anyway) living in the west of the city, with some of them having never crossed the river in their lives, and the Bosniaks in the east. I learnt about this during a walking tour given by a 47 year old man who had fought in the siege. His insights on the war, and its impact on the community today, were so interesting, and reminded me of the thoughts I had in the Czech Republic about the lasting effects of war. This man isn’t very hopeful for B&H’s future, and thinks there will be more violence here because of how the war generation has passed their feelings of hate towards the other side to the younger generation. The ‘other side’ in Mostar is not the Serbians as I thought with my very limited knowledge of Yugoslavia and its breakdown. In Mostar, the Serbs did siege the city in 1992 but without much success, with the Croats and Bosniaks joining forces to defend it. In 1993 however, the Croats decided that they would like Mostar for themselves and fought against the Bosniaks. This is when the old town was destroyed, and this is where the resentment lies.

The walking tour itself was made more memorable by a huge rain shower half way through which saw all of us running to find cover in a cafe, all drenched to the bone. The tour guide bought us all coffees whilst we dried off and waited for the rain to stop. None of us minded so much, anything to cool us down in the 40 degree heat.

The old town bridge is definitely the heart of Mostar. Not least because it’s home to a group of divers who earn their living by jumping off the 23 metre high bridge into the river below, and helping visitors safely do the same. I saw one jump whilst eating dinner on a terrace overlooking the bridge one evening, it was insane!

Whilst in Mostar I was able to see more of the actual country of B&H by taking a little tour with the hostel. We visited a medieval house by a natural spring; a medieval town which was like being in Tatooine from Star Wars with its domed, sandstone buildings; and the biggest waterfalls in the country. We were also caught up in the pilgrimage from one town to another, as it was the anniversary of the Virgin Mary appearing in one of the towns (apparently…). On our walk down from the fort in the medieval town we enjoyed some fresh pomegranate juice - it was quite strange, not sweet at all but incredibly tort and almost drying in your mouth (can you tell I wasn’t a huge fan?).

Something else I wasn’t a huge fan of was the Bosnian coffee. I went to a traditional coffee house and the lady there gave me an explanation of how to drink it. First I was to add a few tea spoons of cold water to the pot (called an ibrik) which currently had hot water and coffee grounds inside. The cold water is heavier than the hot water so falls to the bottom, taking the coffee grounds with it. Then you take the creamy bit of coffee off the top and spoon it into the little cup. Then pour the coffee in. If you want sugar, you don’t add it to your cup but take a sugar cube and have a nibble of it with every sip. Something I was a huge fan of was the Hercegovinian wine! The red wine was called Blatina and it was honestly delicious. Like I’d genuinely choose it over other varieties. It was also cheap (2EUR for 250ml), like everything in B&H.

On the walk back from the wine bar on my last night the skies turned red. It was the anniversary of the Mostar football team doing something but I couldn’t find out what. Pretty cool though.

From Mostar I caught the 6:30am train to Sarajevo from the most abandoned looking train station I’ve ever seen. Apparently it’s one of the most scenic train journeys in Europe, but I was only able to stay awake for the first 30 minutes so I sadly can’t confirm that.

Sarajevo

The history in Mostar was still present in the division of the city, but the siege and violence didn’t shock me too much, just how recent it was. In Sarajevo the violence of its siege, lasting from 1992 - 1996 (over 1,400 days!), shocked me. Around 11,000 people died, over 1,500 of them being children. Over 3,500 grenades were dropped on the city. The assault was worse on the weekends, as Serbs would come on their days off to join the snipers in the mountains and shoot at the city. I went to the gallery 11/07/95, this is an exhibition of photographs taken in Srebrenica with an audioguide to accompany them. Srebrenica is the location of one of the genocides against Bosnian muslims. Here over 8,000 Bosnian muslims were executed by the Bosnian Serbs, mostly men but also some women and children. It was the first time I’ve ever teared up in a museum, but honestly it was such an emotional exhibition. The most shocking part is that the UN had designated Srebrenica as a safe area for Bosnian muslims, and the dutch division of the peacekeeping troops was placed there to protect them. What resulted wasn’t protection but the dutch troops watching from the safety of their base as Bosnian muslims were rounded up from outside and taken to buildings such as schools to be systematically executed. They didn’t intervene because they did not have the numbers to fight off the Serbs, and no back up from other countries had arrived. The graffiti left behind in the base by the troops suggests that there was also a dislike towards the Bosnian muslims. The Serbs buried the bodies in mass graves, and then moved them to secondary or even tertiary graves in an attempt to hide the event. This means that still now mass graves and bodies of missing people are being found and identified. In 2004 this event was ruled as being a war crime.

On the walking tour of Sarajevo we saw a different, much more positive side to the city. It serves as a great example of how one city can be home to several religions without any issues. I think it’s because they have all always been here, it doesn’t belong to one more than any other. There were lots of stories that showed how happily the different groups coexisted. For example, Roman Catholics building the main mosque for the muslims, and the muslims paying for them to first build a chapel on the site for them to use whilst building the mosque. So although there is historical tension between the Bosnian Serbs and the Bosnian muslims, there is also historical harmony between muslims and catholics. This sums up B&H quite well - the religions and ethnicities mixed up are super confusing, but the problems are from the ethnicities and want of territory not religion. But some ethnicities are vaguely based on religion… I won’t even try and cover it here, but it is very interesting if you want to look into it!

A general observation about travelling and history - they’re inseparable! The past 6 weeks I’ve learnt more about history than I have since I studied it at A level, and perhaps ever. And I haven’t even been trying to. I also feel like I’ve retained the information way more than I could ever from just reading about it. Something about being in a place and seeing the history in front of you makes it a completely different experience. And I love it! This is a big reason why I want to travel before starting my job and doing all that stuff, to actually learn more about the world.

After all the heavy history I spent my last day in B&H doing something a bit different. I caught the cable car up to the mountain right by Sarajevo and hiked up to its summit, a further 500m in altitude, with two hikers from the hostel. I was initially a bit worried about being able to keep up with them, as they both have done a lot of big hikes, but it was all fine. On our descent we stopped by the abandoned bob sledge track. In 1984 Sarajevo hosted the winter Olympics, kind of crazy when you think 8 years later it was a war zone. It was covered in graffiti but in quite good shape considering. You could walk down it for quite a way.

After Sarajevo I caught an overnight bus from a very dodgy looking bus station back to Ljubljana. And so my brief detour into B&H was over. It was interesting and I learnt a lot. But wow it was heavy! A week and a half in nature in Slovenia is just what I need to balance it out.

The original plan was to spend all of June in Slovenia, until meeting a special guest in Zagreb on 8th July. Instead, I spent 10 days in Slovenia, travelled all the way to Montenegro, and am now travelling back up to Slovenia (via Bosnia) to spend the rest of the time before the 8th. Why? I thought a little bit about how I was going to explain this route deviation but I’ve decided to just be honest… It’s not to save Schengen days! It’s to spend a few more days with a guy I met in Prague and liked a little too much. An Australian called Will. Because if now isn’t the time to travel 18 hours to see a guy you’ve known for 10 days, when is? And I’m so so glad I did. This is a big perk of travelling alone and having a very flexible plan with nothing really booked ahead.

But Montenegro round 1 - I’ve left the country with a lot of wonderful memories, less hair, more tattoos and a new plan for August.

In Budapest Will’s friend Paul joined from Australia to travel with him. Paul’s family are from Ulcinj, a town in the south of Montenegro on the coast, so this was our first stop. We stayed for two nights, in an apartment of a family friend. It was a nice little town, we spent most of our time relaxing and swimming at the beach. There was a night club on the seafront called Big Ben, where the DJ booth was at the top of a replica Big Ben tower so that was kind of strange. Our next 2 nights were spent in Kotor, another town on the coast but in the North. It was back to hostel living after almost a two week break for me! We all enjoyed the pub crawl that night, and the skinny dip to end it (with the hostel being 5 metres from the beach it would be rude not to). One day we caught the bus to Perast, a smaller town on the coast, and had our first true Balkan bus experience. Namely, there are no timetables, you just go to the bus station and hope a bus turns up. Luckily one eventually did. Perast was lovely, it reminded me of Capri or somewhere on the Amalfi coast. Whilst we were relaxing on the beach we had a view of two small islands, one with a monk’s house on it and one with a church. After some debate over whether or not it would be possible to swim out to them, Will was adamant he would do it. And so Olivia (a girl from the hostel who had joined us) and I went with him, although at a much slower pace! We got there eventually, it took 30 minutes I think. We couldn’t even stand up on the island once there, because it was sacred and we were in bikinis, but at least we had a sense of achievement from it… The swim back felt even longer. Then we started the impossible task of getting the bus back. We waited in what we believed was the correct spot for around 45 minutes, luckily the view was insane. And the bus eventually did come! When I walked into the hostel I heard someone shout “Meg!” - it was Andy and Kevin from Prague and Budapest! Europe really is a small place sometimes. Will and Paul were leaving the next day and I was unsure of what my plan was, but seeing Andy and Kevin made me decide to stay one more night in Kotor to spend time with them.

Will and Paul’s bus was at 8am, but Will and I woke up at 4:30am to hike to the fort half way up the mountain that loomed over Kotor, to watch the sunrise. It’s my favourite memory so far. The walk was unbelievably sweaty, despite the sun not being up yet. But the view was 100% worth it. There was a sea mist over the bay, and the colours were so soft. The company was pretty great too. Thinking about it makes me smile. It was a perfect way to spend our last morning together. The goodbye was sad, but I guess that means it really was worth me coming down to Montenegro in the first place.

I felt a little lost after their bus departed, so I bought a slab of cherry tart and enjoyed it with a coffee in the old town. Then I went to see if I could get a haircut, and I now have a true french boy style going on. This is the first time I’ve had really short hair, but I like it a lot, and am happy to have braved it. I spent the rest of the day chilling with Andy and Kevin and some other people from the hostel. A tattooist was staying at the hostel and doing tattoos. His style was exactly what I was wanting for my next tattoo, so it seemed like fate and I got this year’s birthday tattoo a bit early! At 11pm in the hostel kitchen. Olivia then got a spontaneous one on the beach, which is a pretty cool place to get a tattoo. Even cooler that she got the year of my birth (and the year of her birth, but I’m not sure that’s relevant…).

After getting a total of 6 hours sleep over the last two days I was proud to make my 7:40am bus to Mostar, Bosnia the next morning. So it’s goodbye to Montenegro for now, but not for forever. I liked Kotor and the hostel so much that I’ll be volunteering there for the month of August!

When deciding to do this slow, land travel route I knew I’d have to get used to long bus journeys. I got used to them very quickly, and now I’m finding a way to even enjoy them. This is how I managed to do that for my journey from Ljubljana, Slovenia to Ulcinj, Montenegro (total bus time: 18 hours, total travel time: 30 hours).

I first got the local bus from my workaway host into Ljubljana. I left myself a couple hours in Ljubljana to run some errands, buy a nice lunch for the bus and relax with a coffee. The first bus journey was only 2.5 hours to Zagreb. I ate my egg and kidney bean salad whilst listening to some music and watching the scenery. I tried not to nap to save my sleepiness for later, but I honestly can’t help myself on a bus so I had a little one.

Stop 1: Zagreb

Once in Zagreb I saw that the luggage storage at the bus station was only £2.50 so decided to leave my bag there for the 4 hours I had before my next bus. I walked into the centre and found the old town, seeing the main sights of the Cathedral and the church with the cool roof. I then went into the Museum of Broken Relationships - somewhere I’d read about online ages ago and thought it sounded cool. It was a really good way to spend some time. The museum was filled with possessions that had been donated, each with a little story about them. All around the theme of broken relationships. Mostly romantic relationships, but others included lost boobs after breast cancer, and parental relationships. I took photos of my favourite stories, and my most favourite was the skydiving one. I walked down some steps into the city centre and stopped at a burger place for dinner. I managed to wash my face in the sink in the restaurant bathroom (step one of my skincare routine done). I walked back to the bus stop via the shop, where I bought some milka. I finished off my skincare in the bus station and got on the 9 hour overnight bus to Dubrovnik.

I started this bus journey by watching some netflix and eating the chocolate. When I felt sufficiently tired I turned in for the night, putting on my eye mask and using my sleeping bag as a pillow. Luckily the seat next to me was free so I was able to sort of lie down. I slept fairly well, but never deeply. Croatia is split by Bosnia, so we had to cross the Bosnian border and then back over the Croatian one. I’ve not had to cross a border half asleep before but it all went smoothly. It was around 6am at this point, and I’d missed watching the sunset (damn my too effective eye mask). We arrived into Dubrovnik an hour later.

Stop 2: Dubrovnik

I had 4 hours before the next bus, and a few hours until the people I was meeting here would be awake and ready. I felt like a shower would be wonderful so decided to walk to the closest beach for a morning swim, and perhaps a shower if there was one. The walk was 30 minutes which would usually be a breeze, but was slightly less so in the already too hot temperatures and with my big backpack on. It was also mostly uphill, which I knew wasn’t a good sign seeing as I would eventually have to go back down to sea level… As expected, there were a lot of steps to get down to the beach. Once there I was unbelievably sweaty and the water looked so inviting. I chucked my bag down in the shade, found my bikini and changed into it, rushing into the sea. It was my first sea swim of the trip. I swam for a while, stretching my body after a night uncomfortably laid on bus seats and just enjoying cooling off. Wonderfully there was a shower, so I used the tiniest bit of shower gel to freshen up and even got to use my face wash. I brushed my teeth and felt very refreshed. I ate an apple for breakfast whilst I dried off. I got changed into shorts, repacked my bag, attached my wet bikini to the outside using my carabiner and headed to find Will and Paul (the people I was meeting) at a cafe. I was very happy to see them again. I enjoyed an iced coffee once there and then we went to the bus station. The bus was 1.5 hours late, and took much longer than expected to get to Ulcinj. The border crossing into Montenegro took a while, and we were pulled over by the police I think for some time. But travelling with other people meant I wasn’t too worried about the delays, and was just happy to be with them. Eventually we got to Ulcinj bus station, and Paul’s family friend picked us up to take us to where we were staying, and I at last reached my destination.

So the travelling isn’t always without hiccups or delays, but that isn’t a reason to stress or not enjoy it. I’m learning to make the most out of the journeys, and I really enjoyed this one. But yes, a little insight into the logistics of not flying!

After a hectic two weeks of city hopping and party hostels I was very ready to chill out for a bit. I needed to recharge. Especially as I had lost my voice and come down with a cough. I had organised (via workaway of course) to stay with a family in Slovenia for two weeks. And now I’m leaving I can see how much of a success it was - I feel completely refreshed and re-energised. I truly loved my time there. My work was more like chores than proper work, I would muck out the horses throughout the day and muck out their pasture in the evening. I would walk the dog twice a day. I would play with the youngest child while the older two were at school. The rest of my day would be filled with sunbathing, reading, blog writing and calling friends to catch up. It was the most wonderful way to recharge.

I felt so calm there, and really part of the family. Jolene, the youngest (she’s 4), was such a crazy kid and we had a lot of fun together. She didn’t speak any english, although I’m certain she understood a lot of what I said to her, so it was fun trying to communicate and play games with no verbal communication. We still managed to create huge playmobil worlds together, even if I was told off for doing stuff wrong a lot… I would use my phone to find pictures of animals for us to make with playdoh (please see my beautiful otter below). We were both very sad to say goodbye to each other.

The family are vegan, so the food was a welcomed change to the heavy meat diet of Czechoslovakia cuisine! Although it was a lot more bread heavy than I imagined. All very delicious though, and I feel full of vitamins once more.

One evening the family took me to a “village party”. I was imagining a small fete. It was more like a mini festival or even a rave. The music began with traditional Slovenian and Croatian songs, and ended with rave music, with the flashing lights to match. It was a fun evening, and reminded me of the weirfest back in Porlock.

On my day off I wanted to visit Velika Planina. It seemed tricky to do with just public transport and I saw that two girls I’d met in Bratislava were also in Slovenia so I asked them if they were planning on going, and if they’d worked out a way to do it. Turns out they were planning to visit the same day I was, and had a car with a spare seat which they kindly offered! So I ended up driving over and visiting with four dutch students which was lovely. Our trip had a rocky start however, when we went to their parked car in Ljubljana we discovered that someone had locked the parking space with a chain and padlock, meaning we couldn’t get the car out. They’d been told it was okay to park there by the guy whose space it apparently was, so we’re not sure why it was locked! We went to find help and a very helpful Slovenian guy came to our rescue. He found the number for owner of the neighbouring car and rang it. This guy was equally helpful and came straight away to move his car, allowing us to escape through his space. I’d heard that Slovenians were really lovely people, and this interaction confirms that (with the exception of whoever locked the space to begin with…). We finally headed off on the 1 hour drive to the cable car. After a short cable car ride we caught a chair lift up to the summit. This was really fun, great views and very relaxing. Once at the top we wandered through the herdsman huts and village. The cows were roaming around free, with the calfs looking extra cute. We stopped at one of the huts where the man sold cheese he’d made from fresh milk from his cows. I bought a rosemary one that had been made that morning. It was so creamy and soft and delicious. Once we’d explored the whole village we caught the chairlift and then the cable car back down. The whole place was really beautiful and strange. It wasn’t busy at all, but it’s somewhere I’d definitely recommend visiting. The mountain views were insane, the village was really cool, and the whole experience was something a bit different. The guys dropped me off in Kamnik on their way back to Budapest. I was going to catch the bus straight to Ljubljana but spotted a cool looking church on the hill and decided to climb that first. I’m glad I did - the actual building and the views were well worth it. I eventually caught the bus to Ljubljana and ambled my way to a pizza restaurant on the side of the river. I sat and ate dinner alone - the first time since Paris! I listened to music and just soaked up the city - the sun was setting and hitting the buildings on the other side of the river so perfectly. I felt very warm and happy and full. After I’d paid I walked along the river to the main square, sitting on the statue that was slightly off-centre and in the direct path of the setting sun. A man was playing an accordion. I once again soaked up this beautiful city, this time eating some of the very melted chocolate biscuits I’d bought earlier.

My time here was restful and everyday ended with a beautiful sunset. I left a few days early because of a change of plans, but will be returning to Slovenia for another week and a bit soon. So expect more Slovenia content!

I’ve been to Budapest before, four years before with some friends from uni. This meant I didn’t feel like I needed to see anything, as I’d already done the main sites, and was more looking forward to socialising with the people from Prague again. I actually bumped into Will on the street when I was walking from the bus to the hostel - Europe can really feel like a small place sometimes!

I like Budapest, but it’s nothing too special. The streets aren’t so beautiful, it has it’s nice buildings but they aren’t every building like in Prague. That being said, the baths are something pretty special. I went to the baths with some friends, and we bumped into more people from the hostel there. We had a delightful few hours swimming and just enjoying the sun. Less delightful is the fact we couldn’t find anywhere to buy a metro ticket on the way there, so took the risk to ride without one. When we got off at our station we were stopped by ticket men and made to pay a fine, oops. Luckily it was only £17, but beware that there are a lot of people checking metro tickets in Budapest! We visited the Fisherman’s Bastion, and it was as pretty as I remember. The white bricks against the blue sky were just beautiful. We also went to a ruin bar, so managed to tick off all the main attractions again. The rest of my few days was spent wandering around with people, happening upon some traditional dancing, playing cards, reading my book, catching up on my diary entries, and taking a moment of stillness over a morning coffee. Oh and frantically searching for insect bite cream as I’d been eaten alive at the castle in Bratislava, and the first two days were public holidays so all of the pharmacies were closed. I’d also run out of my face spf, which is even more dramatic if you’re into skincare (I am). On our last night we went out for traditional Hungarian food to a restaurant chosen by someone else from the hostel. When we arrived I realised it was a restaurant that I’d been to four years earlier on my last visit!

I encouraged another British guy who was also going to Ljubljana next to get the flixbus rather than the train, as it was cheaper and quicker. We were catching the same one so I somehow became responsible for getting us both to the station. We got there with plenty of time. I checked the ticket for the platform information and saw with a sinking feeling that the bus was going from an entirely different station. Oops. I blame some sad goodbyes that morning for my slip-up. I raced across Budapest to the correct station, with the poor British guy in tow, and we made it with 10 minutes to spare, plenty of time!

Items I’ve lost so far

For a pinch of reality I thought I’d share the items I’ve already managed to lose:

• My favourite lip balm (luckily I have 5 alternatives).
• My travel washing line. I used it once to dry my pants after a desperate sink wash and just left it hung up at the hostel.
• The bag for my travel towel. Left it at the baths in Budapest, not sure what distracted me here.
• Pack of cards. No idea where these went, disappeared from my hostel bed.
• Trainers. Left these at a hostel in Bratislava when I moved to a new hostel. Luckily I could go back and get them when I realised, so not fully lost!

After my discussions with Stanley in Brno, I was expecting Bratislava to feel quite poor and shabby. As I got off the bus into a super modern shopping mall this was not what I was met with. I even saw a robot barista making coffees. I met up with Will from Prague and we explored Bratislava together that afternoon and evening. We wandered around the old town, it felt more open than Prague, a lot quieter and a lot smaller. Perhaps a little bit prettier, but that might have been the better weather. We crossed the Danube river, walked through an averagely nice park where I realised how useless my biology degree really is when Will had to teach me that the pretty flowers in the park were in fact roses. We crossed back over an adjacent bridge and saw the blue church. It’s probably the most famous site in Bratislava, and it really was beautiful. It made me excited to see more blue churches in Turkey and further east. This one was originally orange, but when an inside wall was painted blue the Priests liked it so much they ordered the whole church to be painted the same colour. I bet the painter cursed them all.

That night I was staying at the Wild Elephants hostel, one I’d heard a lot about as a bit of a crazy place. My room was the worst dorm room I’ve ever seen, but the pub crawl was cool. Some others from Prague were also staying there so that made it even more fun.

The next day I walked up to the castle with the people from Prague. The view was pretty good but we couldn’t go into the castle because there was some political conference going on. We spent the afternoon on a Communist walking tour which was extremely interesting. I really love communist Russian history after studying it during my A levels (not an Alex Cleere Falklands level obsession, but I do listen to a lot of Russian history podcasts), so I thoroughly enjoyed it. One titbit is the design of the large square and fountain in the communist city centre (it isn’t the city centre anymore). It was designed with the purpose of looking pretty in pictures for propaganda, but not really being suitable for use and especially not for use as a place to protest. For example, mounds of grass were included to prevent formation of crowds, and benches were left as unpainted metal to make them too hot to sit on in the summer, and too cold in the winter (your skin would literally freeze to it). There’s also the famous UFO soviet bridge of course, which Will is modeling beautifully.

On my last full day, Greg and I went to Devlin Castle which is just a short bus ride away. The castle was only ruins but had a great view of the Danube. As we wondered back down the hill we saw some medieval stands so went to explore. We stumbled across a medieval re-enactment festival sort of thing. There were knights and princesses and horses and a jousting set up. We sat down, I was excited to see some real life jousting! The games began and it turns out it wasn’t real jousting, but different competitions to pick up hoops with jousting poles whilst on horseback, or pop balloons, or smash fruit with swords. I felt silly for thinking they would actually joust. But then they did! It was very exciting, and they really did smash into each other, their joust poles splintering and the losing knight very dramatically sliding off his horse to be helped by the peasants. It was really wonderful to watch, especially as we had no idea it was happening.

Once we got back to the city we showered and wore our smartest clothes as we were going to the opera. It was a small opera production, in the rehearsal space rather than the main stage. We had no idea what was going on, it was all in Slovakian (or perhaps german?) and seemed strange anyway. But the singing was wonderful to listen to, and it was a very pleasant 1.5 hours. Letting the strange language wash over us like a pretty painting. I’m not sure I’ll go out of my way to go to another opera though, I’m glad this one was only 12 EUR. As we walked back the skies opened and it poured with rain.

Beautiful Bratislava

Bratislava really surprisied me. It was peaceful, but had a great nightlife. It was cheap (I paid 3.20 EUR for 2 pints of beer), but it also had bougee brunch places. It had a beautiful old town sqaure and wonderfully ugly communist buildings. The communist walking tour was the best tour I’ve done so far. I loved walking around the town with friends from Prague. Devlin castle and the jousting were a delightful surprise. Because the city is much smaller than Prague, I do feel like I know it in the way I didn’t with Prague. I recommend Bratislava with my whole heart, for a slightly different European city break.