Dubrovnik, ,Split and on to Budapest

Info coming later... when im not tired...

Well the bus ride was ok... unless you count being stuck inbetween two very large and very sweaty individuals, yes, lots of fun... However the second half of the coach ride got better... minus them charging a euro to put my bag on the bus (what was a 23 euro ticket not enough) anyway it took us around a very large cove and some time later we caught our first sights of Dubrovnik and its old quarter... little did we know what was coming next...

Dubrovnik and its old quarter.

Leaving the bus we spotted a celebrity x cruise ship, one id seen many a moon ago in athens, but before i could get off the bus i was jumped by a rtaher large blonde lady with a deep voice promising the cheapest rates for rooms in Dubrovnik... How could we refuse. So, jumping into her little white car we were whisked rather swiftly off to her home, a ten min walk from the harbour (where the bus stopped) and a 20 minuite walk to the old town, not to bad really. Entering her home, it was definately very homely... her father was even cooking some form of broth over the stove and the smell was soooooooooo appealing. Anyway after so long on the bus we were itching to head off and explore, and thats what we did... But when we got to the old quarer we found it over run with over seven cruise ships worth of tourists!!!!

exactly what we felt like saying

Wandering around the old quarter till about 4pm we finally had our fill of the packed streets that felt more like a rat race than a picturesque place to roam, time for a swim i guess, dont get me wrong we loved the old quarter... it was just WAY too busy to even try to get around!

Dubrovniks old town main square!

Hey, im sure everyone gets a wedgied now and again!

Random side street.

Following on from our swiming on what was a poor effort of a beach, the only real amusement being watching a pair of dirty lurkers flirt away and swim into an even dirtier cave, wonder what they got upto. Heading back to the hostel, we grapped some pizza and again ran across a wedding procession for about the seventh time in our time in Dubrov so far, each of the seemingly 30something long procession honking their car horns as if theres no tomorrow... obviously they were rather extatic about the occaion! We returned from our swim back to the old quarter by night, such a nicer experience, the very venician streets were almost empty, but the atmosphere was that of a very casual and almost romantic one with lights reflecting of the worn marble floors... Even as we sat eating ice cream along a small harbour we felt like we could stay there forever listening as the waves crashed over the lower reaches.

The next morning we were off again however, destined for our next croatian destination, Split, however this required catching a ferry between the two places, which was great really and the sun made it all the better... we even met an english couple who lived in a town twinned with 24 of the 27 eu countries... theyd also gate crashed the queens birthday party dont you know... Such rebles eh! but alas, the ride gave us all chance to relax... Dean more so than the rest of us!

Dean after a hard day aboard the ship.

Arriving in split we checked into our hostel, the Silver gate, where in which as soon as we did recieved an invite to a neighbouring hostels birthday celebrations for the night, which started as a few drinks round at their hostel, then off to a new club, origionally pulse in the old roman ruins by the silver gate, but then ended up being along a treck down a barely used rail track, then a beach to the bar... Great night, although Dean and Miika left early, i stayed on drinking Jagermeister (excuse the spelling), and jagerbombs.... Lots of fun, and even better when there all free!!!

The next morning our watre rafting trip didnt quite work out as we didnt recieve the info we needed in time, so, day free we set off to explore the rest of what split had to offer! Mainly small market stalls selling all manner of items, and the old roman palace complete with underground chabers and art museums...

Ancient roman art was truly ahead of the times!

The museum was alright, not really much to see, sewer pipes, a bath, a table, a dozen or so pillars and a stone bloke, which Dean took a liking tooo... But hey, we got a free postcard!

(sorry deleted the pic by accident, will get it back eventually)
Dean became strangely fixated with this rock...

Once the night drew in we packed up our stuff and made way to the station for our overnight train to Budapest, grabbing more pizza along the way. (This was going to prove to be an eventful journey)

The station.

Im gonna finish the rest of this later... Deans fallen asleep on the floor behind me...

And now to continue, boarding our overnight we settled down on the train, offered the chance to continue our journey in a couchette we declined, and were also then informed of a spate of thefts that had occured the previous year, anywho whislt munching my way through pizza, realised that two of the random american girls id met at the beach bar the night before were also travellin on the same o/n train, this equalled out to a night of drinking games in their compartment centered around a bottle of red wine and eventually talk and exchanged stories of embarasing stories being told. Some rather amusing tales too!

Eventually the night drew to a close for me, dean and the two girls Chrissie and Erin, we retired to our own compartments to sleep and awake in the morning hopefully in time to make a quick detour via the massive hungarian lake, lake Bálaton... or so we had thought. It turned out that the conductors warnings of theft were to be headed, recolectiojhns of someone trying to gain entry to our compartment exist, but the individual in question was foiled by the well positioning of my knee as a door stop... However the two other brits from manchester (and yes they rave away in 42s too) had the contents of their bags, well the money anyway taken by a rather snake like thief (he slid under their seats and the brits themselves to get their bags, then he pushed his look a third time in the american girls cabins, only to have Chrissie wake up in time to realissse what he was doing... This then in turn woke the other brits (Mike and Katy) who then managed to reclaim ALL of their stolen money... What random Croatian carries round a wad of English notes on an overnight train anyway. Crises averted, and the thief vanishing amongst the train, we all eventuall settled down to sleep the night.

The following morning the other brits decided to continue on too Budapest to spend some extra time their, whilst our party of three became a fivesome as the two american girrls joined our forces to invade lake Balatonm for a quick 2ish hour dip in the very, very, picturesq lake. The water felt so unbelievably refreshing after spending all night on an overnight train with no windows!

More later, continuing the free touur of berlin!