Nick's Adventure

Ljubljana/Bled, Slovenia

I left Croatia on an overnight train in 35 degree heat and no air conditioning, so it was a sleepless journey to Slovenia. I arrived in Ljubljana early in the morning and spent the day wandering the city centre. Ljubljana is not a large city but it has a great vibe about it. Divided in the middle by the Ljubljanica River, cafes and bars line the rivers shore, and there’s a great cafe culture. One of the coolest spots I found in the city, was the old barracks that had been abandoned a number of years prior and had been taken over by street artists and ‘free loaders’ and is now just a collection of graffiti, artists and bars in the evening. Very cool.

I spent the following morning in Ljubljana before heading to Bled. I got off the bus at what I thought was the bus stop, but unfortunately I was a few kilometres downhill from where I needed to be. So I trekked uphill with my backpack and arrived exhausted. I stayed at a great hostel which was basically just a huge house, the best kind, very communal. The first night after dinner I headed out with a few people I’d met in the hostel. We took a few roadies and walked down to the lake where there was a ‘tightrope’ festival taking place, very strange to see, but entertaining. After an evening of watching others defy gravity, I decided to walk home as I had an early morning. I decided to try a different route home, unfortunately I got somewhat lost. However, I found myself outside a large ice rink with crowds of people outside, team buses and beer tents – handing out free beer. I walked up to the door trying to look as at home as possible, and no questions were asked by the doormen as I walked in and discovered it was in fact a professional Austria/Hungary/Slovenia league game. So I joined in the beer drinking and toured the facility until I felt my presence was no longer welcome and headed home.

I met 2 Irish guys (Brian and Dave) in the hostel and had arranged to spend the following day doing a white water rafting and sightseeing tour. So early in the morning we were up and in the car. We went to a series of spectacular spots. Touring through the Slovenian mountains, hiking up a few different mountains, swimming in icy cold emerald green water (8 degrees) and finally landing at our white water rafting spot.

The river was cold, but it was so inviting, the colour was unbelievable. We set off downstream and to be perfectly honest, after a day of canyoning, rafting seemed relatively tame. The most exciting bits were when we stopped the raft amongst the rocks, and either used the raft as a slide/diving board, or climbed up the cliffs and jumped at height. It was a fun afternoon though, and at the right time of year, the river gets to grade 5 maybe even 6 (if the scale goes that high?), but it was a solid 3 so more of a calm paddle down the river than an adrenaline pumping experience. After the rafting we piled into the car with a few beers and started the drive home. We all went out for dinner afterwards, and went to check out the Bled nightclub scene – not so huge. A long day, but a great day, full of laughs.

The following day Brian, Dave and I decided to check out what Bled had on offer, so we walked around the lake, and made our way to the toboggans. Kind of like the ones they have at Jamberoo but so much cooler, we went down twice, and I could have done it 100 more times and not been sick of it. In the evening we went out for dinner, pizza, for probably the 16^th time in 6 days. We had a series of drinks again, and it was fairly late by the time I got to bed. I was supposed to be up at 7am for a bus that would take me to my train station, but unfortunately my watch alarm didn’t alarm me out of my sleep. Next train 8pm. So I went back to sleep. I went swimming in the lake and watched the clock tick by. In the afternoon I caught the bus to the station, and caught the train to Salzburg.

Salzburg/Vienna, Austria

I wandered through the streets at midnight in Salzburg trying to find my way to the hostel. I eventually made it and was standing at the check in counter when Alison and Sarah turned up out of the blue. I was supposed to meet them the following day, but they decided to continue their travels to Salzburg from Vienna a day early. So we shared stories, dinner and a beer before heading to bed.

The following day, I was the envy of every man, woman and child when I had the privilege of undertaking the ‘Sound of Music’ tour. We travelled from place to place, learning about where various scenes were shot etc. It wasn’t too bad, the scenery around Salzburg was quite spectacular. Mid-way through the trip the guide announced that the bar on the bus was now open. In unison, 13 men stood up (myself included) and made our way to the front to fight over the beers.

The following day wasn’t so feminine. We decided to give Austrian canyoning ago. We travelled into the wilderness with our free loving hippy guide and descended upon a pristine creek area with an enormous dam at one end that looked rather threatening. We made our way down the creek jumping off cliffs, and sliding down waterfalls. It was amazing. Working our way up to larger and larger cliffs. I kept asking for higher and more difficult, and he said it was coming. We made our way to a spot that was tall on both sides and very narrow at the bottom. We climbed to the top of the rocks and were told where we could land – and live. 11m, it was a little daunting but I jumped almost straight away. Sarah hesitated a little more, but she did it. Alison was a little worried that the area we had to clear beneath her, was too far for her little legs to make it. So after a brief hesitation she ran and over compensated. She landed about a foot short of the rock face and was none the wiser. All those looking on were a little nervous to say the least. It was pretty scary and the guide almost had a heart attack.

We made it out alive though, so we headed to Salzburg’s biggest beer garden to celebrate. We had a few beers outside until we were too cold and we returned to the hostel.

The following day we wandered the old town, visited Mozart’s house (and were kicked out for trying to look around without tickets), and wandered through the park where some of the Sound of Music scenes were filmed. In the afternoon we caught the bus to the Bavarian Alps to tour Hitler’s ‘Eagles Nest’. The location of the building is phenomenal, at the summit of one of the mountains, it overlook’s Austria, Switzerland and German Alps. The view was amazing, apparently it was visited only a handful of times by Hitler and hence it wasn’t significant enough to destroy, however the grandeur of the structure emphasised for me, the money and the power that he had – the building was a 50^th birthday present. We returned to Salzburg in the evening and boarded a train to Vienna.

The weather in Vienna was less than impressive, but we thought we’d take our chances and hire bikes for the day. We rode around the city ducking in and out of shelter as the day went on and the rain fell down. We came across a large international food market that kept us entertained for a while. We perused the buildings, and tried to stay dry but without much luck. We ate Wiener Schnitzel and sampled some local beers in the evening before retiring.

Bratislava, Slovakia

The following day we boarded a train to Bratislava, Slovakia. We arrived in town and made our way to the hostel. We decided to do the walking tour of the city and find out a bit of information. Bratislava itself wasn’t the most exciting city I’ve been to by any means, the buildings were fairly bland, many built during the communist era, much of the old town was destroyed during WW2, but the walking tour was by far the most interesting I’ve experienced. The aussie guide had a double degree in history and law and he had everyone hanging onto every word. I think I learnt more in a 2 hour tour than I did in 6 years of history in high school.

We lapped up the cafe culture in Bratislava, we relaxed and I once again said farewell to Alison and Sarah and they headed back to Vienna to fly to Greece, and I boarded a train to Budapest.

Budapest, Hungary

I arrived in Budapest and checked into the hostel. Tiger Tim’s – very cool if you’re in the area. They organise outings with the whole hostel every night, every night except the first night I was there. So I took the time updating photos etc, my roommates thought I was a bit of a geek because I sat on the laptop for about 4 hours that night.

In the morning I headed out to do the free walking tour, I was early so I wandered the streets and enjoyed a traditional Hungarian Goulash and a beer before kicking off. The tour was interesting, but it rained, lightly at first and super hard towards the end, which was disappointing, and cold. We saw most of the cities sights in the tour, and I spent a bit of time prior and post tour to continue looking about. I met a few people on the walking tour from the hostel and we headed back to the hostel, had dinner and started pre-drinking. The whole hostel went out to a dingy bar nearby that was absolutely packed with travellers. It was a Monday night, and you can’t move inside this place it was so packed. It was a cheap messy evening. I remember beers being about $1AU which is about as cheap as you’ll find them in Europe. The bar was smoky and the music was triple M’s playlist from 2002, but it was unpretentious and the company was good. Everyone disappeared at different time during the night, but eventually I was the last man standing so I made the walk home.

Feeling less than gracious, I awoke at about 10am. With 2 English guys (Alex and Will) from the hostel, I walked to one of the famous Budapest thermal baths. The baths was a series of pools/spas at varying temperatures, from 16 degrees to 40 degrees, plus saunas and steam rooms that reached 100 degrees. We spent the day moving from pool to pool, relaxing and unhangovering. We spent a majority of the day in an outside pool sitting in the warmth, the cool rain falling on our heads – the best hangover cure. When the pool was closing and with skin like mushrooms we wandered home, went out for dinner and prepared for the next evening on the town. We headed out this time to a club that somewhat resembled a jungle. There was vines and flowers hanging from the ceiling, along with a variety of other bricka-brack mounted on the walls, floor and ceiling. Much more chilled vibe but more expensive.

Again I awoke in the morning feeling not so sharp. Unfortunately I had to check out. Our dorm room had 6 people, 4 of which had been staying for the 3 nights I was there, 1 had been there 2 nights, and the other was me. Everyone was relatively friendly with everyone, so we weren’t too concerned with keeping our stuff contained in a locker, or in our backpacks. I had stuff hanging from 3 different beds, I found shirts on top and beneath other peoples bags, I even found some of my things in the fridge. It took 1 and half painful hours to organise myself and finally have everything packed. It was a real struggle, and I think I learnt a few life lessons, temporarily. I’m sure I probably lost some things in Budapest, I haven’t worked out what yet though.

I had already missed 3 trains by the time I was ready to leave the hostel. I was almost out the door when an English guy chucked on a DVD of Summer Heights High, so I had to stick around for at least one episode. I’d missed 4 trains when I arrived at the train station. I had 20minutes to catch the next one, unfortunately it seemed they had the ‘Special Ed’ class controlling the ticket booths that day, and so I missed that train, and had to wait another hour and half. I caught train number 6, farewelled Hungary and headed back to Austria briefly in an attempt to get to the Czech Republic.

I arrived in Vienna hopeful of catching a bus or a train to Cesky Krumlov. Unfortunately it wasn’t as easy as I’d planned. I visited the train ticket office first, they said that the next train leaving for there, was a night train – it left at 2:30am and arrived at 5:00am. I argued with the man that this was in no way a night train, rather just an extremely inconveniently timed train. So I opted against that train. I thought I’d follow the Lonely Planet’s instructions and catch a bus, so I followed the handy map, which led me on a wild goose chase around Vienna. 2 separate bus stations were shown on the map, and I couldn’t find either, and when I asked various people, they told me that there was no bus station in either area. Awesome. So it was 9pm and I was getting a little frustrated that it had taken 3 hours to get that far. So I wandered back to the train station, bought tickets to the 6:00am train and checked into a hostel.

It was like death waking up at 5am, especially because I hadn’t had a decent sleep in a number of days. However it was going to be an easy journey. 5 hours, on 2 different trains, I could sleep on both. It didn’t turn out that way though. Half way through the 1^st train leg the conductor woke me and started prattling on in German, I couldn’t understand a word but the hand gestures indicated I had to get off the train. So I got off and he pointed to a single train carriage with only a driver on board. I showed him my ticket, a single nod, and I climbed aboard. We drove one stop, maybe 3min, and the driver stopped, and said ‘boose’. ?? Excuse me ??’ Boose, boose’. Bus? ‘Yes, boose’. So I got off the train, walked around by myself and eventually found a bus, and hopped on hoping it was the right one. Luckily it was, and the journey was back on track. I arrived at the next station. I boarded yet another train and finally after 5 hours of non sleep, I arrived at Cesky Krumlov.

Cesky Krumlov/Prague, Czech Republic

Cesky Krumlov is a small town, they call it a mini Prague, and I think it’s a very fitting name. I stayed in a hostel nice and close to the edge of the old town, which was awesome, as it meant I didn’t have to walk too far. I crashed for a few hours in the room and explored the town in the afternoon. I was super excited by the bears they had in the mote outside the castle, so I sat and watched them go about the lives for quite some time. I took it easy in the evening, I was drained.

The old town is split by a winding running river, and part of the attraction of visiting Cesky Krumlov is the pub crawls that they offer – with a difference. A group of people from the hostel were driven upstream 4 or 5 km’s and let loose in a small inflatable raft, the idea is that you then bar hop down the river, stopping at several of the bars set up along the shore. It was dangerous, mixing alcohol with boats, especially when a flowing river is involved. As the day rolled on, people got more and more confident. The pinnacle of that being when myself and 2 other lads built up the courage to paddle our little raft off a 6 foot waterfall, because I had mentioned that I did a canoe course and had done it many times before (10% of which was true). We paddled hard and had quite an audience built up on a nearby bridge. As we neared the edge of the waterfall I could see the submerged rocks below arranged in an extremely hazardous manner. I saw my life flash before eyes, as we nosed over the edge. The front just escaped nose diving and digging in, and we landed safely and professionally. We continued paddling downstream without missing a beat to a plethora of applause. Dutch courage can make you do bizarre things. The day continued with more and more drinking before we made it home. We changed and all went out for dinner and partying. The rest of the night more or less blurs together, but I remember it fondly and so did everyone else, so that’s positive.

A number of the people (all except me and one other guy) at the hostel were from busabout, and they spoke flippantly about the ‘busabout bug’. I dismissed it as purely myth. The cold, poor diet, lack of sleep and constant inflow of alcohol may have contributed to my immune system failing me and I was hit with this so called ‘busabout bug’. Unfortunately it took longer than I’d like to admit to shake it. However, the morning after the raft crawl, I slept in, then walked about the town again before boarding a bus for Prague.

I checked into the hostel, inquired about a suitable place to eat. They directed me to a place that was an absolute gem. Huge pork knuckle served on a chopping board with several types of mustard, a starter and a beer = $8AU. I loved Prague straight away. They say Prague is a city where beer is cheaper than water. My bug sent me to bed early.

I woke in the morning and headed into town to check out some sights. I wandered the old town checking out the sights. I was lucky enough to catch the Astronomical Clock strike 12:00pm – wow, what an anti-climax. I wandered across the Charles Bridge and there was a small market going on, complete with miming clown, so I was entertained silently for as long as a miming clown can hold your attention. In the afternoon I visited the Salvador Dali exhibition before wandering back to the hostel. I was supposed to meet Diana and Monique at the hostel at about 3:00pm, unfortunately their flight was delayed and they didn’t get in till about 6:30. So we settled in and headed out to the same restaurant as the previous night. The girls were tired and the bug was draining me, so we called it a night early.

The following morning we all went for breakfast before heading into town, checking out some more of the sights, heading up to the Prague castle and then doing the free walking tour. After the tour we visited the Communism museum, got in some shopping and returned to the hostel. Again we headed out to the same restaurant then we headed to a couple bars/clubs in the evening. The first was one that was recommended to me, and it was a bar made entirely from junk yard scraps. Very interesting. I think we caught it on a bad night though, it was hardcore rave night, and we didn’t quite fit the demographic. So we headed to another bar in town that was recommended, however I don’t think we found the right place. this bar was a little more ‘risqué’ than I was used to, and again myself, Diana and Monique did not really fit the demographic – older married men. However we pushed on and drank the night away and had a number of laughs.

The following morning I had to checkout, I hate 10am checkout. I had breakfast with Diana and Monique before bidding them farewell and catching a train to Frankfurt. I checked into a hotel near the train station, and crashed. The following morning I went and saw the sights of Frankfurt (nothing) before I headed to the airport . I left 11 degree and rainy Germany and flew to Turkey where it was 28 and bitchin’!

Alison's Adventure

Prague

After bidding farewell to Nick and Tim and the warm Croatian sunshine Sarah and I were off on our own adventure. Stopping initially in picturesque Prague. We stayed here three nights and filled our time with the best beer I’ve ever tasted and endless meals of pork knuckle, roasted duck, dumplings, hearty soups, and pretzels. We were in Heaven. During the day we explored the old town by the Danube River, we walked across the Charles Bridge to the Castle and got stuck with two Irishmen and for the life of us could not understand a word that came out of their mouths’ no matter how hard we tried. We witnessed the medieval astronomical clock that performs every hour on the hour. All in all Prague, its people and it’s food were gorgeous.

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Cesky Kromlov

Following Prague we jumped on a bus and headed south to Cesky Kromlov. We picked this destination based on word of mouth from other travellers that Cesky was where the famous river pub crawl took place. We arrived at our hostel at 11.50am by 12pm we had commenced the pub crawl. Of course it was full of bogan “bus a-about” aussies which initially put a dampner on our expectations but as the day progressed we were quite amused by their company.

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Basically the pub crawl involves a group of willing people, a raft, some spare pocket change for the copious amounts of cheap beer about to be consumed and the less rafting knowledge you have the better the experience. We started at one end of the river after some very brief instructions outlining that the pubs will be situated on the side of the river, when you see one you need to paddle really hard to get over to it otherwise the current will take you down and there’s no turning back, it’s impossible to paddle against the current. Seems easy enough but with a few beers under your belt the task can prove to be quite difficult. Sarah and I opted for the raft with the most male presence we figured that the more man power we had the less paddling we had to do. It turned out to be a very messy day.

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Budapest

From Cesky we hopped on a 7 hour bus ride, and headed to Budapest for three days. Our time was spent wandering the streets and strolling along the Danube. We spent one day at the bath’s which was amazing. The buildings were a canary yellow which was a beautiful contrast against the blue pools. We jumped in and out of 40 degree waters and soaked up some sun and treated ourselves to a massage. That night we embarked on a wine tasting tour with the kids from our hostel and jumped on a boat that sailed down the Danube. We ended up at a club that resembled a jungle inside.

After Budpest we met Nick in Salzburg where he’ll fill you in on.....

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Greece

After Bratislava Sarah and I once again left Nicholas behind and went back to the Mediterranean to soak up the sun in Greece. From Bratislava to Athens and from Athens to our first island Mykonos. Excited about the warm weather we spent the days bathing at the beach and checking out the greasy Greek men. Our hostel had a great pool area with a Dj playing constantly so we spent a lot of time there. Mykonos was okay but it wasn’t great, unfortunately my camera got stolen and the Greek police were fairly incompetent so it put a dampner on things. We did have a funny night that involved a few drinks, a trek over a mountain of rocks to find the night club, not finding the night club but running into five Frenchmen that were not only unable to speak English but were deaf. They asked us to take a photo of them swimming in the dark, we agreed and were shocked when at the last minute they pulled their pants down and we were faced with 5 naked Frenchmen in the middle of nowhere at 2am. They turned out to be really nice guys. Are conversations didn’t really go anywhere, Sarah claimed to know some sign langue and decided to try it out. Her sign langue capabilities were poor and only knew “hi my name’s Sarah” and “do you want to have sex with me”. Two phrases that didn’t come in so handy.

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From Mykonos to Ios, where we finally came to learn what the Greek Islands were all about. Once again we stayed at an awesome hostel and met up with Tim who was friends with some handsome fellows. No words can describe how awesome Ios was but we spent our days hung over at the beach and our nights dancing on bars and tables. It was truely epic and we met some awesome people there.

Santorini was a little less crazy and a little more laid back. We hired quad bikes and cruised the terrain of the Island ending up at some beautiful beaches. Tim, Sarah, Matt and I witnessed some magical sunsets and tasted some delicious Greek meals that were to die for.

Croatia

We flew into Dubrovnik on Friday afternoon, and were super excited. We organised a transfer to our hostel so it was nice and trouble free getting to our place. We booked a 4 bed room which turned out to be a 4 bed apartment with views over Dubrovnik harbour. Alison and I made ourselves at home and waited for Sarah and Omit. Omit was due about 5, and Sarah at about 7. We decided to cook dinner, and stock up the fridge and get ready for their arrival. 5 came and went. 6 came and went. 7 came and went. 10 came and went and still no sign of them. At about 11 we were a little concerned that we hadn’t heard from either. Just after 11 Sarah almost busted down the door and it was a happy reunion for all. PLUS Sarah came carrying our laptop, fixed and now back online after 8 weeks off line (thanks dad, and Sarah). Still no sign of Tim though. Not 5 minutes after Sarah’s arrival Tim came trudging up the stairs, beer in hand, looking like death. The story goes that Sarah’s plane was delayed, and her transfer was nowhere to be seen, so she had to catch a bus, and had little to no idea where she was – and of course we didn’t have a phone. Tim, well his 8 hour bus – took 15 hours. Sorted. We drank away the evening catching up on all sorts, and finally when it hit 2:30 we thought we should head to bed.

We spent the following few days hanging out on the beach in Dubrovnik and drinking heavily. The hostel owner had let us know that there was “big party” on the beach on Saturday night. So after an afternoon of relaxing seaside with several pints, and dinner and drinks at home, we walked down to rock out with the Croatian pop stars along the beach. Omit and I stood nursing our beers admiring the singers and dancers and watching as 400 Croatians sang along to all songs, bar one, which was by Whitney Houston, and 400 Croatians watched on in silence as the pop star, one American and one Australian belted out the tune. After our performance we thought that the girls had been gone for quite a while. We found them chatting at a table nearby. We drank a few more beers. End scene. Next scene, 4 naked tourists in the water only metres from the pop concert. End scene. Next scene, somehow at home.

We had a slow afternoon but made our way into the old town, which was really beautiful. We took it easy, and had an early evening. We had decided that the best way to see Croatia was to take a cruise around the Islands. So we searched hard around Dubrovnik, around the marina, asked people in the know – and got nowhere. So we hopped on a bus and made the journey to Split, where we thought we’d have more luck getting a cruise.

The hostel was terrible, and Split didn’t really appeal to us much. We searched and searched for 2 days for cruises, but to no avail. So we decided to just head out and island hop ourselves. We caught the ferry from Split to Korcula, one of the larger islands off the coast of Croatia. We landed, and the hostel was directly in front of the port, which was ideal. Super cool hostel run by a South African guy. We noticed that we could hire a boat through the hostel for 400 kuna which is about $50 AU, split between 4, included all fuel, snorkelling gear, and we could have it till the sun went down. Bargain. So we locked it in for the following day.

KO-315

KO-315 was the name of our boat, and our relationship with the boat spanned 2 days.

We were escorted to our boat, and frankly thought it looked like a piece of junk. We loaded it up with booze, were given brief instruction, we were asked whether we had experience boating – of course we had (of course we hadn’t), and we set off towards the islands. Omit and I had purchased Captains hats and so naturally we took charge. We set off at full power, and we could feel all 4 horses propelling as along. Our first stop was about 30min from Korcula. It was a small barren island with only one bald fat naked man sitting on his beach chair, and other than him, it was just us. The water was crystal clear, a picture straight from a postcard. We were all alone (almost), in calm waters, surrounded by a huge amount of fish and sea urchin. The sun was shining, and there was nowhere else in the world I’d rather have been. We snorkelled around, swam about, went diving for sea urchin, sun baked, relaxed – and cracked our first beers. After a couple of hours, we decided to set sail to somewhere new. The freedom was amazing, no one else in sight, hopping from island to island, no way a cruise could have been better than this. A number of times during our journey, we were cruising along at full speed and we decided to just dive off the boat. We found a new spot, anchored, ate lunch, and just kept doing what we did best. We hopped and hopped all day. Gradually getting more and more drunk as the day went on. At one point the boat ran into the rocks slightly and all of a sudden the motor wasn’t right. In fact it was stuffed. But we continued on. The sun was starting to drop, along with our co-ordination and motor skills. We were heading back towards Korcula harbour, but we decided to stop somewhere about 15min out and watch as the sun set. So we watched in awe, jumped in and out of the boat continued to drink then drive the boat back. When we arrived back in the harbour, it was well and truly dark. The motor was stuffed such that when full throttle was applied, the propeller would spin freely, and the engine would SCREAM. So with me at the controls, we tried to discreetly pull in the boat without drawing attention to the broken motor. No such luck. I can count the number of times I’ve driven a boat on one hand, in fact, on one finger. So pulling the boat in to a mariner, dark, motor stuffed, and 4 litres of beer and ample vodka in the system, did not go so well. I almost smashed into about 46 luxury cruisers (albeit at 1.5km/h) motor screaming, everyone else screaming, and everyone emerged from their cabins to see what all the commotion was about. Eventually another boat had to tow us in. The ultimate moment of shame. We confessed to the boat owner (let’s call him Nikola) that we ‘may’ have had some trouble with the engine. But we played dumb. What took place next will stick with me as some of the most awkward and yet hilarious moments of my life. Omit and I helped Nikola remove the motor from the boat. He had unscrewed it and commanded us to ‘lift’, and as we did, we may or may not have crushed his hand (and sliced it open) oops. But we took it inside the mechanic shop and set it up. Nikola told us that we had busted the propeller, and we would need to pay to replace the part. We were drunk, stubborn and in no mood. So we started to debate the point that we felt the product was faulty when he gave it to us, and it was merely wear and tear that caused it to break, and we therefore didn’t feel that we should be required to pay for the damages. We were inside the mechanic shop when the shop owners wife came out with a broom and chased us out telling us to have our arguments outside. So we went outside. Nikola was starting to get a little worked up, and he all of a sudden started changing his tune. He said “I have a family” and “this makes me very sad”. We watched as Nikola started to breath heavily, start to tear up, and then turn around and start coughing. “Are you ok Nikola?” “Yes, I’m just very sad of this.” He then proceeded to throw up in front of us, several times. What would you do in this situation? Very awkwardly I gave him a pat on the back and said “........it’s ok, everything’s fine”. It worked though on his part. We paid up, fixed the boat, shook hands and said “same time tomorrow Nikola?”

The following day we rocked up at 11am and there was KO-315 sitting in all her glory fixed and ready to go. Plus we got a 50% off discount. So again we loaded her up and made our way out to sea. The day started a little slower than the day before, we headed to our first spot from the previous day, and unfortunately there was a bunch of boats sitting there, slowly we muscled our way into the little cove and the other boats gradually began to leave. We had learnt from the previous day that we needed a knife to go diving for Sea Urchin, plus we brought along some lemon to accompany. Not really my thing, but Omit gutted one sea urchin, whom became the KO-315 mascot ‘JOE’.

The day followed the same basic pattern as the previous day, and we somehow managed to get ourselves as drunk, if not more so then the previous day. I remember at one stage drinking vodka shots out of Joe. The day came to an end as we slowly, slowly cruised back into the harbour, docked perfectly and tied up the boat. I don’t recall but I’m told as I was standing on the edge of the boat, unpacking it, I started to ever so slightly lean back towards the water, in slow motion my arms started to wave, then wave faster and gradually I tumbled backwards into the water. I climbed out, beer still in hand, hat still on, being yelled at by the harbour master for swimming in the mariner. I don’t recall this.

We sadly bid farewell to Joe and to KO-315. Much of the evening was a blur from here, we went for dinner somewhere. We have footage of Omit and I riding around on toy cars. We apparently offended an elderly Croatian man enough for him to call the police (at least he pretended to). My recollection was that we were talking to loud. Old people.

The worst part was the 6am ferry we had to catch the next morning. Sarah came to wake us at 5:30 and simply from the smell of Omit and I, it caused her to be physically sick in the toilet. The boat ride was rough, crowded and the longest hour of my life. We arrived in Hvar, made our way to the hostel, where we passed out on beach chairs all morning. We spent the whole day getting our lives back in order, and having an evening without alcohol.

Hvar is generally known as the party island in Croatia, but we definitely treated Korcula as our party island. So in Hvar we lazed on the beach, roamed the old town and the castle, visited a couple of the islands during the day on a water taxi and just enjoyed the hot weather. We did one evening decide to take a trip to Carpe Diem – a club on an island; the only thing on the island. Unfortunately for us, boats didn’t even start heading over there till 1:30am. So we had some drinks with dinner, and tried to maintain a high level of excitement but all were a little too relaxed. However, it hit 1:30 and we walked down to the wharf and made our way over to the island. It was really cool, to be on an island, and have a huge outdoor club, swimming pool in the middle etc. We spent a few hours there before deciding we didn’t have the energy to keep going, so we headed home.

We enjoyed some great times in Croatia and it is definitely one of my favourite countries. I decided after Croatia to go off and travel by myself for a few weeks, and let Sarah and Al do their thing. So early in the morning Alison and Sarah caught a bus, a ferry and a plane to arrive in Prague. Omit and I slept in, caught a ferry in the afternoon, then I caught an overnight train to Slovenia, and Omit an overnight ferry to Italy. So we had all gone our separate ways, and started our next chapter.

Italia

Rome: Nick and I spent 3 days in beautiful Roma and it blew our minds. Having heard so much about Rome we were expecting the ancient city to be ruined and overrun by tourism but we were surprised at how taken back we were with its beauty, history and relevance.

We stayed at a camping ground approximately 30 minutes outside the city which was a nice retreat away from the hustle and bustle of the crowds. Our days were spent walking for hours to fit in all the sites, only stopping for some of the worlds tastiest pizzas and pastas. We spent hours inside the Vatican city and was blown away by St Peter’s Basilica. The church stands 120 metres high and no words can describe its architectural brilliance so I won’t go on. The colosseum, the Vatican museum, and Michelangelo’s Sistine Chapel are just a few of the things we can cross off our “things we must see before we die” list.

We spent hours wondering in and out of Piazza’s and ended up eating gelato’s on the Spanish steps. Many gelato’s were consumed at the Trevi Fountain (our favourite people watching spot in Rome). We jumped on the band wagon and threw a coin over our shoulder to ensure we would make it back to Rome some day. At this very point Nick and I came to the conclusion that Italians produce some of the finest looking men and women in the world.

Amalfi coast: Sorrento: From Roma we caught a train to the Godfather’s playground Napolia and jumped straight on a boat to Sorrento. We left gloomy, sad looking Naples and floated into Sorrento’s beautiful harbour with the sun shining and everything looking up. We made our way to our hostel, a little B&B and settled in. It was a great little spot because we were outside of the touristy area and in amongst the locals – so we were able to sample real Italian food and real Italian culture – bellisimo.

We made our way on the bus to the most famous town of the Amalfi Coast – Positano. A beautiful town on the side of a mountain stretching down to the beach below. We wandered down through the winding pathways admiring the sights and smells. Eventually when we hit the beach, the view was spectacular. Pastel buildings perched on the mountain overlooking crystal clear blue water. The price of everything and the designer labels surrounding us, ensured we couldn’t get to comfortable and sadly had to return to Sorrento but we enjoyed Positano for a short while.

We’d originally planned to make it to Capri, but our laziness mixed with disorganisation meant that we weren’t ready in time. So instead we decided to head to Pompeii.

Pompeii was a bit of a letdown for me. Nick was only slightly more interested than I was but he pushed on while I waited for him in a beautiful garden with a great book. Unless you’re interested in archaeology or a huge history buff Pompeii can look like a huge rock pile. I understand the significance of the site but it didn’t tickle my fancy. The site itself didn’t offer any information that described what was being looked at and the boring audio guide needed a massive update, so to us it looked all the same. I did end up finishing my book so it wasn’t such a waste of time.

Florence: From Sorrento we caught a train to Naples and from Naples another train to Florence. We spent three days in Florence wandering around the city and leather markets, taking in the architecture and admiring the culture and cuisine. We stayed at a very social hostel so we got to met some great people. Another “thing to see before we die” was crossed off our list when we went to see the western world’s most famous sculpture, Michelangelo’s David at the Galleria Dell’Accademia. The marble sculpture was flawless to our eyes, once again we were taken back by it’s beauty.

The next day in Florence we indulged in a wine and food tasting tour where we got to sample some of Tuscany’s finest drops and devour delicious cold meats, olive oils, jams and cheeses. We got to see some of the beautiful Tuscan country side and visit gorgeous chateaus.

Pisa: From Florence we hopped on a train with another couple (John and Amy) we met in Florence. We were here only for a few hours as Pisa doesn’t have a whole lot to offer besides the leaning tower and it was on our way to our next destination. We had seen numerous photographs of the tower and wasn’t at all expected to be surprised at the sight of it. Once we came closer the building looked more and more out of place. Construction of the building began in 1173 and was never complete because of the layer of shifting soil beneath the tower. The tower continued to shift at a rate of 1mm per year, in 1990 it had reached 5.5 degrees beyond critical point. In 1998, 8 years later, the Italian’s decided to do something about it so today it is stable at almost 4.1m off the perpendicular.

We spent a good hour trying to take ridiculous photos in all sorts of positions. It’s quite an amusing scene watching hundreds of other people doing the same.

Cinque Terre: A train ride later on the same day we ended up in Cinque Terre. The most picturesque dramatic stretch of coast line Nick and I have seen in Europe. We spent most of our time in the Parco Nazionale delle Cinque Terre a national park that contains five towns (hence the name... Cinque meaning five, Terre meaning town) all linked together by a mildly challenging trail that allows you to hike between the towns (takes approx 5 hours). In between the towns to cool off we stopped for a swim and sunbaked and took in the beautiful surroundings and blue water. Words can’t describe the beauty of this place, so again, I’ll stop here.

Venice: We arrived in Venice via train and stayed at a camping site on the outskirts of the main city. Venice is a beautiful, surreal city catered mainly for tourists. When Venice was built it wasn’t designed for the 20 million visitors that come every year so flooding is a common problem and we could see why. The architecture and grand canal were gorgeous, we opted against the 70 euro 15 minute gondola ride but watched in ore from the bridges as the gondola drivers manoeuvred around missing each other by millimetres. Most of Venice was sightseeing and walking around trying to avoid the copious amounts of hustlers, tourists and dirty pigeons which was impossible.

Canyoning: In the middle of our Venice trip we hired a car for the day and headed two hours east to Slovenia for the day. A fellow traveller had recommended that we give canyoning a try. We arrived in small little town called Kobarid, had a small bite to eat, was handed a steamer wetsuit, a pair of booties and a helmet. We drove a little out of town and ended up at the bottom of a mountain. After a half hour trek up the mountain with all our gear we made it to the top, looked down and saw a beautiful canyon. The only way to go from here was down but not the same way we came. After suiting up and a little instruction that went something like this... step carefully and slowly some of the rocks are deceiving you could slip and break your leg or worse you could fall over a ledge and die.... we were off sliding down waterfalls and jumping off rocks. We were definitely pushed to our limits when we jumped 12 metres from a cliff edge into what seemed like a small pond. It would have been less threatening if we were in a diving pool and we knew we probably wouldn’t die if we stuff up the jump, but in this case we were told if we landed an inch too far one way or the other we would seriously hurt ourselves, oh, and make sure you take a big enough jump over the edge because there’s a bit that protrudes and you can’t see it from here. All in all we had a great day, probably one of the most memorable days of our trip so far.

Milan: From Venice we ended up in Milan for a night for a flight the next day to Croatia. Not a very exciting place unless you had thousands of euros to spend on designer clothes. We did wander around the expensive shops and window shop and took some photos outside the famous Milan Cathedral. Within an hour we had seen all that Milan had to offer. The next morning we said goodbye to Italy and the beautiful people and was excited for our next destination.

French Riviera

After a few trains and a long day of travel with upset bellies we finally arrived in the playground for the rich and famous...Cote d’Azur or as we know it the French Riviera. We based ourselves in Nice and blended in with copious amounts of sun-seeking tourists hoping to get a glimpse of the life some only dream about.

Our first night in Nice was fairly uneventful, after an awful Chinese meal we ventured through the main square and made it to the famous beach front promenade des Anglais. We sat uncomfortably on the pebbled beach sucking down a slurpy and entertained ourselves with our favourite activity..people watching. After a long day of travel we called it a night and headed back to our hostel which was full of our most disliked people in the world, busabout, loud, obnoxious Australian’s. We had the best kind in our room two Aussie girls that didn’t mind sharing their dorm bed with a few different fellas and making sure the whole room knew about it.

After interrupted sleep we decided to head to the beach. We asked the hostel guy if there were any beaches with sand nearby or did they all have pebbles the size of soccer balls? His reply was “yes, very beautiful beach with lovely sand” and pointed to it on the map. We arrived at the beach after a short train ride and was excited to see at a distance that the beach was covered in sand. As we got closer we realised that the sand was actually tiny pebbles that didn’t resemble sand in the least.

The following day we decided it was our time to rub shoulders with the rich famous and headed to Monaco. When we arrived we were greeted by a marina full of boats that one would only dream of owning. Nick decided that just this once it would be okay if I seduce an owner of one of boats just for a look on one of them. He was actually encouraging it. After being mesmerised by these boats each one just as grand as the next, we headed up the hill to see the longest running Monarchy. Beautiful grounds and beautiful scenery. We met Tom and Tim for a quick bite to eat as they were passing through with their Contiki group. Afterwards Nick and I decided to check out the Monte Carlo Casino. It was like we just stepped into Hollywood, we people watched for a good hour or two. The people that arrived were so stereotypical it was laughable. 70 year old men turned up in their Ferrari’s, Lamborghini’s, Bentley’s and Rolls Royce (just to name a few) with their plastic 23 year old girlfriends next to them. The older women that did turn up usually were alone and were covered in diamonds and plastic surgery. We felt a little out of place with our beach clothes and thongs on.

After another painful sleep we awoke the next morning to a great surprise. As we sat down to breakfast deprived of sleep and ready to commit murder, we saw a familiar face walk by and it was our American mate Tim (Omit). After three months apart we had loads to catch up on. Another day was spent on the pebbly beach but a few beers helped ease the pain. That night we once again went out to hit up Monte Carlo and show Tim the sights. It’s been Tim’s dream to head into the Monte Carlo Casino and play roulette so we dressed up in our finest and accompanied him. The building itself was grand, the casino itself was fairly unexciting. Nick decided to play the pokies and after his first hit and 20 euro down the drain he decided that was enough. We watched Tim lose 100 euro and decided to get the hell out of there and go somewhere where we felt comfortable...the pub.

The next morning we said good bye to Tim over lunch, made plans to meet up again soon and headed to the train station. Next stop Rome.

Back in Spain...

We caught a series of buses to arrive in Granada, which made it a total of 23 hours in transit. Granada was beautiful, and probably my favourite Spanish city. A small city centre, surrounded by snow capped mountains and the Alhambra sitting above the city skyline. We’d heard good things about it from a number of travellers, and I was more than sold when I was told they gave away free tapas. Yes, free. Every time you buy a drink, you are given a free plate of tapas. Still no idea how they make any money out of it. Whilst in Granada we did the free walking tour, visited and toured the Alhambra, and did a tapas tour. After the tour, Al decided she’d had enough and retired to bed, but I was keen to kick on. So a bunch from the tour went to a shot bar – 150 different shots, all 1€. After a messy number of shots, we continued to a club just below the Alhambra next to the university. It was 2am when we arrived and it was dead. At about 3:30am there was an influx of about 400 people, I have no idea why because it was a Wednesday night, don’t people have jobs in Spain? I got home, around 6:30 and woke Alison and started telling her stories, which at 6:30am apparently she wasn’t interested in. Check out was 10am. There was no way that was happening, so Al made me get up and go downstairs to sort it out with the hostel people. So we had one extra day in Granada, which was great. We had a chilled day, did some shopping and watched the world cup games.

Next stop Madrid. I’m not going to waste much time writing about it though. It wasn’t terribly exciting. We walked around for a few days, mailed some things home, was far too hot, and counted down the days till we arrived in Pamplona.

We left the hostel in Madrid and headed to the bus station. Because I like to arrive early for things, we got there 45mins prior – and just as well, apparently there’s more than one bus depot in Madrid, and we were at the wrong one. So we rushed to the bus, hopped aboard and made our way to Pamplona. We arrived in the afternoon of July 6^th (opening ceremony), and tried to arrange to meet John, Tom, Tim, Phoebe and co. We called when we were at the bus station, and they said they were at the fountain. So we walked from one fountain to the next, looking for familiar faces. There must have been 20,000 drunk people and 19,900 of them were Australian. All covered in sangria. We tried to negotiate our way through the streets with our backpacks on, trying desperately to not get covered in Sangria. We couldn’t find anyone, so we called and called and called, finally Tom answered the phone and said that they had moved on, and everyone had passed out on the grass. He came and collected us, and walked us to meet everyone – passed out on the grass. When they all awoke we made our way to the campsite a few km’s outside of Pamplona and we set up camp in the dog kennel. That evening most people decided to take it easy, rest up, and make sure they were fine and dandy for the following days run. Not us though. John made the executive decision at about 11pm that we should catch a cab into town and stay out all night, drinking. So we did. We drank till about 4am, which is when we found a park to sleep in for an hour or so. We awoke with the sun, and made our way to a good starting point for the run, barely any sleep, still drunk – dangerous combination.

We crammed in like sardines at the starting line, and waited patiently for the gun to go off. It went off at 8am sharp which signalled the release of 6 smaller bulls (by smaller I mean only 600kgs), half the crowd stared to run, the other half stayed put. I stayed and waited for a while. As the bulls started to get close, that’s when we started to run, we stuck to the sides and watched as the bulls trotted past minding their own business. We chased them up the street and soon realised that another batch was yet to come past. Another 3 or 4 ox’s came charging along and cleared the path behind. Again we moved to the sides and let them pass, before again chasing up the street. We ran at full pace and missed out on getting into the stadium by 5 seconds or so, very disappointing. I lost everyone somewhere along the way, and didn’t think I’d find them again, so I headed back to the tent. Alison, Phoebe and Tom went into the stadium to watch it all unfold, and said it was horrific – and I would have loved to have been there. Words can’t explain it, only videos. By the time I returned to the tent it was too hot to sleep, so we spent the day trying to find the coolest spots to rest.

In the afternoon after a few hours of rest, we decided to head back into town to watch Spain take on Germany in the world cup semi-final . Beers in hand we made the journey in. We wandered about, and the soccer took somewhat of a back seat to the amount of drinking and partying taking place on the streets. We each bought bottles of Sangria and partied outside of bars and clubs (much cheaper this way – and the music was still plenty loud enough). It was a messy evening, and all ended up with Sangria soaked clothes by the nights end.

The following day we all packed up and made our way out of the campsite. Al and I made our way to the bus depot and tried to arrange transport to Valencia. The only bus was an overnight bus that left at 11pm that evening. It had been a heavy few days, so we rolled out our mats, inflated our pillows and crashed out on the floor of the train station all day. We arrived in Valencia at 5:30am feeling pretty shitty, but we were able to get into our room and we slept till some ridiculous hour in the afternoon.

Our time in Valencia was marred for 2 reasons. The sickness I was feeling, and resulting lack of energy I had; and the theft of our camera and the 2 weeks of photos that disappeared with it. This more or less summed up the time we had in Valencia. We had no real interest in the sites at that point. We could see it had a lot to offer, but one full day was spent trying to get a new camera and fix the computer (oh, that was broken also), and at the same time I was feeling pretty awful. We were glad to leave Valencia – not because we didn’t enjoy the city, it was just good to turnover a new leaf.

What better place to put all your worries behind you, than Ibiza. We met up with the Pamplona crew and relaxed in our rooftop pool. We spent the days on the beach and soaking up the rays, and the nights were spent drinking and partying down. Watching the World Cup final in Ibiza – was great, but I think there’s only a dozen or so Spaniards that live there, but still an experience. We spent our second night drinking in the room till all hours then heading to Privilege night club to see Tiesto play. The club was like nothing else I’ve seen. It was the size of the superdome; 15,000 people inside, pond in the middle, acrobats flying high above, the light show was incredible. Almost equally incredible was the cost of everything – you’d have to be seriously rich if this place was your local watering hole.

It took a while to recover from that night, and the following night we took it pretty easy and wandered around the area John was staying, which was close to Cafe Del Mar and similar. Great spot down near the water.

We left Ibiza and flew to Barcelona. We had a great time in Barcelona, detoxing for a few days. We were based just off Las Ramblas, nice and close to the action. We mailed home our tent (what a relief) among other things, which was actually very exciting. We spent our days, walking about, sightseeing; the Gothic Quarter, some of Gaudi’s architecture, we went and saw a water fountain show one night which was great, I went to the Picasso museum, we laid on the beach, ate amazing food and absorbed everything Barcelona had to offer. We decided to splurge a little and bought a grilled seafood platter for 40€ and were overwhelmed by the mountain of prawns, oysters, mussels, scampi, calamari and various fish that were given to us, it was more like a seafood platter for 4.

On our final night in Barcelona, we tried to meet up with Dom and Belinda (brother and sister duo from Sydney) that we met the night of the water show, but the phones weren’t connecting for some reason. So we decided to go for a drink somewhere anyway. Walking through Las Ramblas and passed the crowds of thousands, we bumped into Dom and Belinda and their cousin Byron. Bizarre. They were on their way to another shot bar. So we tagged along for ‘a drink’. We decided to do a round each – 5 drinks per person. Not enough. 2 rounds – 10 drinks per person. 45 mins down and we were pretty wasted. Before we knew it, it was time to go as we had to wake early for our 7am train out of Spain.

It was hard work, but we got up. Bid farewell to Barcelona. Bid farewell to Spain. But it was cya l8a Spain, not goodbye forever.

Morocco

The ferry to Morocco was short, but it felt like we had travelled to another world. Such a culture shock. We had been travelling in Western Europe for a while, and Canada and the US prior to that, all of which are fairly closely aligned with Australia in terms of politics, religion as well as living standards. We felt somewhat out of our comfort zone – which was great.

It took an overnight train ride to arrive at Marrakech, and we arrived early in the morning. We caught a cab to the central square in the medina Djemma el-Fna, to try and find our nearby hostel. It was 7:30am and the place was a mad house. We made our way through tiny side streets, pathways and archways to a door at the end of a dark hidden pathway. The secret knock, and we were inside. The hostel was beautiful. Huge open outdoor central area covered with cushions. A great way to escape the rat race outside the door. We spent the day walking around the medina, being harassed and taking it all in. In the afternoon we decided to try out a Moroccan hammam, which was quite bizarre. We opted for the slightly more westernised variety. We were given paper underpants to put on, lead into a steam room and steamed to within an inch of our lives. When we were cooked, the Moroccan lady came into the room with soap and scrubbing glove in hand. One at a time we got scrubbed violently and watched our hard earned Portugese tans disappear down the drain. We were scrubbed and cleaned, before having an hour of massage – it was heaven.

The next day we were up early and disappeared through the Atlas Mountains on a mini bus enroute to the Sahara desert. We drove in and out of beautiful scenery, stopping at various places to shop and see the sights. We finally arrived in Zagora after a long day of driving. We popped on our fancy headscarfs, climbed atop camels and rode into the desert. We were incredibly uncomfortable for about 2 hours before finally arriving at our campsite as the sun began to set. It was incredible. An evening of traditional Moroccan food, and music. One thing we’ll never forget, was sitting on the warm sand watching the moon rise, before retiring to sleep under the stars.

In the morning it was up early back onto the camels and back onto the bus. It was a long day of driving, and loads of stops to buy useless touristy stuff before we arrived back in Marrakech. We had the best showers of our lives, before heading out to the central medina to see it transformed into a bustling night food market. We enjoyed incredible food, cooked in front of us and walked around to see some of the several street performances taking place. I finally convinced Alison to get a henna tattoo, so she did – pricey, but very cool looking, plus the lady gave me a little drawing on my arm as well, cute.

We planned to catch the overnight train the following day, so we had the day to wander the sites, visit the Jewish quarter and some of the parks. I decided it was time to visit the snake charmers to prove I’m really not scared of snakes at all. As we approached the 5 or so men sitting on a carpet surrounded by a dozen malnourished cobra’s, I was a little bit sceptical. A young man beckoned me to come and sit down and have a photo, so I did. 2 men placed snakes around my neck and instructed me to hold their heads – because they’ll bite otherwise; awesome. The snake charmer sitting adjacent to me, reached over to move a cobra closer (to optimize the photo op), as he did – it lunged at him, nearly missing his arm. He then reached for his stick and used his stick to push it next to me; double awesome. I sat there, unable to move my arms or legs, for fear of death. However, I’m sitting here writing now – so I obviously survived somehow.

In the evening we made our way to the station, hopped on the train and arrived 12 hours later in Tangier. We boarded the ferry and couldn’t wait to get back to mainland Europe. Morocco was incredible, and we can’t wait to get back to tour more of it, but it was certainly draining being there, and next time we’ll be more prepared. Back to Spain we went!

Portugal

We arrived in Porto at about 11pm after a long days travel, we hadn’t booked accommodation but had general directions to a hostel that was close to the train station. We wandered aimlessly trying to decipher the directions, when a knight in shining armour came to our rescue. A young Portugese bloke asked if we needed any help – which we clearly did; and rather than pointing us in the right direction he walked us up and down streets trying to find it. 20min later and having asked a dozen different people, he lead us to the front door, and with a wave he disappeared into the darkness. Such a lovely change from the northern Spaniards.

The following day I decided it was time to get a haircut. Of course, you can only find hair dressers when you don’t need them, so now that I did, it was quite the task to find one. A solid few hours sightseeing and shopping all the while keeping our eyes open for a hairdresser and we landed in a cool market. The amount of birds in cages (for eating) was a little off putting for Alison, and as I was in the middle of my birds are harmless speech I got shat on by a pigeon.

In the evening we wandered down to the main square and watched Portugal play their first world cup game which was exciting and great to be a part of, yet at the same time one of the most boring games I’ve seen in my life. Later in the day Brazil played, and the entire Portugese-Brazilian community flocked to the main square. The Brazilian fans were going crazy, banging drums, playing trumpets, dancing and screaming through megaphones. The world cup in 2014 is going to be epic.

The next day we did some more sightseeing in the morning, and more shopping, and then POW! we found a hairdresser and I was able to shed much of my mop. I was happy as Larry. Alison had been eyeing off “clown pants” for the preceding few days and finally mustered up the courage to buy her first pair. We named them ‘travellers pants’ but that was just a euphemism for clown pants.

We both really loved Porto, but we decided to head South to Lisbon to see what all the fuss was about. So we hopped on a train and headed down. We were on one of the super fast ones, that have a TV screen telling you the speed – so I kept myself amused by saying to Alison every few minutes “what speed do you think we’re doing?”. After 20minutes of this, I was given the evil eye. So I kept myself amused by asking myself (in my head) “what speed do you think we’re doing?”. Time flew, sometimes at 220km/h.

We arrived and made our way to the greatest hostel. Upon arrival we were given shots of some variety and then fed dinner. The place was spotless, had free breakfast (and dinner) with pancakes, free internet and a huge projection screen set-up for watching world cup games. I was overly impressed with the place which was one of the top listed in the country - although Alison said (and justifiably) that the place was too perfect, and the staff tried so so hard, it was almost fake, and you couldn’t feel completely relaxed there. Having said that – it was super nice and only 12€ a night.

It had been a long wait, but finally we had; A) sunshine, and; B) a beach nearby. So after getting vague instruction we disappeared on the search for the beach. We ended up finding some people with towels in hand, and followed them. Some would say ‘genius’, others ‘stupid’. I’d say genius because we arrived in one piece. We lazed in the sun, and splashed in the icy water (it was unbearably cold) before making our way to the bus stop. Unfortunately the people we had followed on the way to the beach were nowhere to be seen, so we had to work this one out on our own. We eventually did, but the bus stop was a 5min walk in another direction, so it wasn’t a smooth process. We still have no idea which beach we were at.

It had been a few days since our last drinking session, so we thought we’d test out the pub crawl. Can I just say firstly, that all pub crawls should start at 9pm. We got home from the beach at 5:30pm. We bought food, made dinner (then got given dinner) and by 7:30 we were sitting there waiting. The pub crawl started at 11:30. So we thought we’d make an early start with a few others. By the time 11:30 rolled around, (and I emphasize rolled) Alison and I had polished off 2 bottles of red – I say Alison, but really it was 80% me. I was hammered. We were taken to a number of spots, given drinks and shots left right and centre. After a few bars and only 6€ spent, it was home time for me. We opted against the 8min walk and caught a cab.

It was a slow start to the day. An equally slow finish. We slept in, then woke up and made an impressively good batch of spag bowl. Then went sightseeing through Lisbon in the afternoon. We walked around, went up to the castle where I got yelled at by security for walking on top of the castle walls, the other 47people doing it were ok though. We got ourselves a handful of some of the Portugese egg tarts – awesome, then headed home for an early night.

We awoke and caught the bus further south to Lagos in the Algarve district. We arrived and checked into our hostel quickly because Australia was about to take on Ghana in the world cup. We were starving so we thought we’d go down for a quick bite somewhere along the promenade. Quick bite. We arrived and sat down at a restaurant in front of a TV, still 15min before the game started. We ordered quickly (set menu) and had our first course come out almost immediately. Next course 5min into the game. Next course and last course, I requested as the half time whistle blew. We waited. As the second half started we received our coffee. At which point I requested the bill. 15min into the second half, I re-requested the bill. 30min into the half I re-re-requested the bill. (I wasn’t going to watch the game anywhere else now, it was simply out of principle). 40min into the second half, I watched as 2 tables adjacent whom had arrived at half time – received their bill. I was fuming, Alison was laughing – this didn’t help. As the final whistle blew, (including 5min of overtime) one of the nearby tables had alerted the waitress that perhaps our table would like the bill. At about 11 separate occasions murder was almost committed. But we received the bill for our ‘Quick Bite’, and I was on edge. It took Alison a few minutes and a few drinks to calm me down. In hindsight, it was hilarious. The comedy of errors could not have been scripted better. One day I’ll make a movie about it.

In the evening we went to Monkey bar and bumped into a few of our Aussie friends from San Seb and drank on with them. We also met some other cool travellers Katie and Henry. We had another Portugese style drinking session, cheap and hard. We ticked bar after bar off the list. Joe’s Garage, DC’s, Monkey Bar, Moon Rising. I have photographic evidence showing Alison dancing on the top of the bar shamelessly. Having said that, I was earlier sprung pole dancing on top of the bar – but that was cool. At about 2:30am, Alison agreed that the booze cruise the following day was a top idea.

I woke Al at 11am and informed her that we were to meet Henry and Katie in 30min, as she had agreed to a booze cruise. She had no knowledge of this. With her head hanging low, she begrudgingly accepted and we got ready. When we met the others, it was a unanimous decision that perhaps today wasn’t the best day to do a booze cruise. So we made our way to the beach. A beautiful secluded beach surrounded by rock formations and caves. It was our ‘spot’ for the next 5 or so days (looking back, I wish I was there now). In the evening we met Henry and Katie and went out for a traditional Portugese meal – I had steak and chips. After dinner we went back to Moon Rising because Henry had a mate working there, so although they were practically giving away booze, we thought we could get it cheaper. And we could. We hinted that the bar tender should play drinking games with us, and in exchange, no money was to change hands for our drinks. I discovered yet another thing that I was really bad at (or good at depending on how you looked at it). So I lost 3 games consecutively, and had to drink 3 beers – free. This game continued and Henry and I got a little wasted. I went to bed. In my bed.

Somehow (and I still have no explanation for this) the following morning I awoke in another poor travellers bed. It took me a few minutes to work out where I was, and how I got there. A few months on – I still haven’t worked it out.

After a few messy days and nights, we had a detox day at ‘our’ spot. The following day was also spent at our spot. I decided I’d had enough of watching all the other lucky punters with their mini racquets and balls, so I forked out 4€ and bought my own. Alison and I played enthusiastically for about 6min before my paddle snapped in half. Heartbroken we continued (somehow) with one paddle. 2 more minutes past before Alison’s paddle broke. Gutted we sat down. However, on the bright side, we still had the ball, and still do have the ball which has provided many hours of joy.

In the evening we made an Australian friend in the hostel. Frank. Frank was super cool and from Melbourne. We decided we would go out for a drink with Frank. However at about 10, Frank decided that he needed a nap for a minute. Frank was not seen again that night. However, Frank had some sidekicks that we met and hung out with. We went out and Alison went a bit crazy. We went to a bar and Alison ordered a cocktail (caipirinha). It was 2 for 1 cocktails, so rather than asking what I wanted, she ordered 2 for herself (a long island ice tea). You also got a free shot with your first drink. We’d been out for 20min and Al had smashed all three. The following two bars had a similar outcome. Al was drinking like it was going out of fashion. Eventually we headed home and Al was a little worse for wear.

The next morning Al was feeling a bit rough, and unfortunately we had to change hostels. So we moved on out and checked in. I went to a take away store up the street to buy Alison some food, I ordered fish and chips. I got chips, and a cold piece of fish – what the hell was I supposed to do with that? After eating Al’s chips, we went to the beach. We decided again to have a bit of a detox. So we chilled at home in the evening and recovered.

Next day was spent at our spot. We tried to do a kayak tour of the grotto’s but it was too windy. I didn’t notice any wind, but it was apparently there. We had another detox afternoon, although I went out to the bar to watch a bunch of the world cup games.

We opted to do the kayak tour the following day. It was a little overcast which was disappointing. The first overcast day since leaving Spain. The tour was amazing though, and kayaking was the best way to do it. We could have been taken in a speed boat, but that’s nowhere near as fun, plus we were able to go in and out of tiny little caves inaccessible to bigger boats. The formations were spectacular, and the photos don’t really do it justice. In the evening over a few glasses of wine, we decided maybe it was a good idea to keep on travelling. So we went to sleep early so we could catch the early bus in the morning. Unfortunately some unruly Australian neighbours made sure we didn’t get much sleep at all.

When we awoke at 5am to catch our bus, we’d only had 3 hours sleep. Tired, and cranky but ready to hit it. Made our way to Seville on the bus. Upon arrival used our Spanish skills to work out our next bus to Tarifa was at another bus station 15min away; and our bus left in 20 min. So we sped through the streets admiring Seville as much as humanly possible before arriving and hoping on our bus. Upon arrival in Tarifa, we walked through the town to the Port where we boarded a ferry. We were leaving Europe temporarily, and heading to Northern Africa.