Balkan Trip 2010

After my 5 months in Budapest, I got the chance to go on a little trip through the Balkan countries.

This time not by myself like you´re used from me, no this time with Nicole. I knew her from the time in Budapest and we became good friends there. And so why not try to go on a trip together…

So we started to hitch hike from Budapest, got a first ride within 10 minutes close to the Croation boarder…well but then we got stuck on a quiet gas station and we had to try to get to the next city and take a train from there to Zagreb our first destination…

Here after several hours waiting in the burning sun next to the highway finally in Nagykanizsa at the train station where we caught the last train to Croatia…

Zagreb, Croatia was a good city to spend two days, there we also met up with two fellow students from Budapest.

I was so looking forward to these markets in the Balkan countries, fresh veggies and fruits for a good deal…

 

Next stop was the Plitvička Jezera National park. Lots of small lakes connected by hundreds of waterfalls…

We were even brave enough to swim illegaly in one of these lakes…

Zadar, Croatioa

Our daily coffee ceremony in the morning…this time next to the Adriatic Sea.

One of the small towns on the way down the coast to Split…

Split, major transportation hub in the region with tons of boats going out to the islands…also a nice old town here with (hungry) tourists all over the place!

  Next morning we took a ferry out to Hvar Island. Here in Stari Grad we did a short stop over before hitch hiking to the town of Hvar…

To have your coffee in the morning is part of the culture down here…and you see a lot of locals sitting in these coffee shops in the morning.

Lots of old buildings here and it was great fun to roam through the alleys and get lost in there!  

Seems like in Hvar you shouldn´t be kidding with the local wheelchair mafia….

crystal clear water just perfect to spend a 39°C hot afternoon…

Little work out after dinner up to an old castle with nice view over Hvar and the smaller islands out on the coast.

 

Hvar Castle at night

From Hvar we took the ferry down to Dubrovnik, the last city in Croatia before Montenegro and also a major tourist attraction with its old town.

along the way down the coast…

Dubrovnik old town

After two days in Dubrovnik a bus brought us into Bosnia and Hercegovina.

First stop on the way was Mostar, famous for its bridge that was destroyed during the Kosovo war and later rebuilt to connect the two sides of the city.

also first visible signs of the Muslim religion

 

probably my favourite beer in the Balkans…”Sarajevsko Pivo “

Next and final stop from our trip was Sarajevo, the capital of Bosnia and Hercegovina.

For me it was the best city on the entire trip, people are friendly and generous. Food is great and the Turkish old town has a magic character where you can roam through the cobbled stone streets, have a Bosnian style coffee, eat some delicious dishes and just chill away with a Sisha and some tea…yes you could say it´s a backpackers heaven! And then in the evening to go one or two of the fun little bars with outside seating in inner courts with a good mix of locals and foreigners…

11:30am on a weekday, locals standing on one of the squares watching a chess game…guess one way to spend your lunch break!

little street market

watching the Soccer World Cup game Serbia – Germany… 1 : 0, at least the sisha was good!

Bosnian style coffee

Sarajevo city

Nicole and Karlo

local kids playing

Nicole trying to catch the perfect shot of Sarajevo

memorial for the massacre that happened here just a little more than 10 years ago while the Nato troops stood next to it watching the whole massacre… (1998-1999 Kosovo war)

Raki…sweet liquor

outside of Sarajevo on the way to the tunnel museum, which was closed and so we ended up buying some ice cream where we got to know a nice and friendly couple from there. we even got invited for delicious coffee and some sweets. they told us their story and their picture of their country, europe and how they see western europe from their perspective… This afternoon was definately one of the reasons why we should get out there and try to get in touch with some locals!

old women sitting in the Sarajevo train station

 

Last picture before we took the train back to Hungary…great trip and fun times! Thanks to Nicole, Karlo and all the other people along the way that helped us to make this a special experience!

I´ll miss the Balkans…