Farewell Porsche, Gruss Gott Salzburg.

We drove from Bled to Ljubljana this morning (pronounced lee-you-blee-yawna in case you were curious) and dropped off our Porsche at the main train station. As we rounded a corner, there was a man in a white t-shirt who waved to us and pointed to the curb. It was surprising that it was that easy to find the rental car rep since there is no official drop off in Slovenia. Either that or we were victims of the nicest car jacking in history. The Ljubljana train station was a bit . . . rough for lack of a better word. It was fairly bare bones.

I went to the ticketing office to get our tickets printed out since I only had a confirmation number from ordering the tickets online. The woman said we wouldn't be able to print it until getting to Austria, which also happened to be our destination, so this was not exactly problem-solving. She kind of shrugged her shoulders as if to say, "not my problem" and we boarded the train without them. This greatly upset the Slovenian guy checking tickets on-board, who referred to the situation as a "catastrophe." Nicole and I thought that was a bit much. A train going off the rails and into a bayou is a catastrophe... or as some call it, Amtrak. We ended up going all the way to Salzburg without ever having our tickets officially scanned.

We arrived around 2pm and walked from the station to our hotel. This coincided with the finish line for the Salzburg Marathon so reaching our hotel was met with much applause and music. It did seem like quite an accomplishment in a way to have driven through the Balkans without having the Porsche dinged, nicked, or ticketed. The weather in Salzburg was a bit dismal -- rainy and chilly. Not a good day for a long run. It wasn't a downpour, however, so we were able to walk around without too much discomfort.

We walked a bit around the old town and where Mozart used to live and so on. We had tea and strudel for an afternoon snack and later had schnitzel for dinner. It was a nice change from the pizzas we've been eating almost every night save two. Tomorrow we have another train in the afternoon to go to Munich. I checked this time and see that I can get tickets to show up on my phone. This is a German rail company, so efficiency is something they pride themselves on. The Austrian rail could learn a thing or two, like maybe have a method of retrieving tickets purchased online without using a kiosk that can only be found at your destination...

I dragged Nicole back out at night to take some more pictures before it began to rain again, so we went back to the room to call it a night. I have been carrying our free wine from Bosnia for the last four days, so I opened it up to celebrate France's decision to not elect a Nazi. This, ironically, is likely to greatly upset the French, who are not known to respect the fine wines of famous Mostar region of Bosnia-Herzegovina. It's a 2013 so you know it's good. Has good legs and tannin. Gute Nacht.

And on to Slovenia

It was a slow drive through the mountains of northern Croatia on very winding roads. After a couple hours we arrived at the border crossing to Slovenia. It has a few different rules regarding driving, including the requirement for vignettes, or a little sticker that acts like an EZ-pass for tolls on the highways and such. Now, this isn't said anywhere. You are just supposed to know. Despite the requirement, it took me three gas stations to actually find a place that actually had them in stock.

Eventually we made our way to Lake Bled. It is a sort of tourist resort area featuring a lake that has a church on an island in the middle of it. There is also a castle overlooking the lake. Beyond that, it's just a series of chalets, restaurants, and shops. The architecture has markedly changed since leaving the coastal area of Croatia. The buildings are looking more alpine and German.

From lake level, you can't really tell that there is actually an island in the middle of the lake because you don't really get any depth. We set out to remedy this problem, but first things first. Cake. Lake Bled is apparently known for a special kind of custard cake called Blejska Kremsnita. It's nothing terribly unique and it's a taste I've had before in French pastries and sweets, though they insist you can only get them here in Bled. I ate it in its entirety, so it's not really a complaint, just an observation.

After finishing the cake, we began our venture to find a vantage point overlooking the lake. It is harder than you'd think it would be. Each time the streets went up a hill, trees would block the view or a building would be in the way. We are convinced it was planned this way.

The only way to get to a point looking down on the island is from Bled Castle. This required walking up a series of switchbacks until reaching the entrance to the castle, which was charging 10 euro per person to get in. And of course, you still couldn't look toward the lake from the switchbacks, because they figured out a way to block it the entire time... unless you went into the castle. We were able to use our old student IDs to get a small discount, so that helped a bit.

Our efforts and money paid off to finally verify that there is indeed an island down there. I couldn't honestly tell you why the castle is there since our whole focus was just to get in to find an edge to take pictures from.

It was quite windy and as you can tell not exactly warm out, but manageable. After the long journey back down, we did a wee bit of shopping, got our Slovenian ornament and relaxed the rest of the evening. We had pizza again for dinner, which has become our dinner basically every night for a week. Perhaps Austria will bring some variety when we arrive tomorrow evening. Hopefully everything with the car drop off goes smoothly since a guy has to drive up from Zagreb and meet us at the train station in Ljubljana by 9am. Wish us luck as we bid our final adieus to the Porsche.

Plitvicka Jezera

After an unusually good night's rest in Split, we gathered our things and I maneuvered the Porsche like a surgeon between cars parked on the sidewalk, construction vehicles parked in the middle of narrow streets, and showed the roundabouts who's boss. About halfway into our journey north, it began to rain. A car spun out and went into a ditch next to us. I think this was actually an instant where they weren't trying to find a parking spot.

Eventually we arrived at Plitvice Lakes National Park. The night before, Nicole had shown me a picture of the wooden pathway and it was jammed with tourists. Fortunately, the rain appears to have helped  clear them out for us. The host at our guesthouse helped explain that there are two main entrances and most people go to the first one because it has a bigger waterfall or something like that. Our decision was made. We went to the other entrance. Nothing was marked out well and the process of getting around was a bit confusing.

After parking, we had to walk probably 1km to get to a tram to drop us off at another spot. It's set up a bit like Zion in the U.S. where no cars are allowed inside the park itself. From the tram, we began our hike. While Nicole was afraid the lack of sun would not showcase how green and clear the water is, the lack of harsh lighting made it easier to achieve some slow shutter shots like the one here. The falls and cascades we saw may have been smaller than what the other tourists see, but I think we made the right decision.

The path continued for a few kilometers and sometimes forked off in different directions without signage. We ran into a dead end trail that was marked closed for flooding, so we did end up doing a little bit extra, but we also saw more by doing this. The whole thing took us about three hours of walking on uneven wooden steps and muddied pathways in the rain. It should also be mentioned that it is a very different climate in this part of Croatia. While it may have been 70 in Split this morning, it was maybe 50 in Plitvice.

We saw a few of these kinds of lizards on the path. It seemed like it would have been too cold for such a creature, but they seemed comfortable. Our host said there was snow on the ground last month. So there's that . . .

Finally we reached the end...sort of. We had to take a ferry across a lake back to an area that was somewhat close to where we initially caught the tram. Keep in mind, none of this is described well so it was a minor miracle that we made it out before dusk.

Toward the end, the sun did make a brief appearance as well. We ended up getting dinner at a restaurant down the road, and went back to our guest house to rest after our day of hiking.

Tomorrow we have another long day of driving up to Slovenia to a place called Lake Bled. Though the rain worked in our favor today, I'm hoping it is good weather tomorrow to support a safe drive to the north.

From Herzegovina to Croatia

We spent the morning walking around Mostar for a bit again. We tried to get some new vantage points on the bridge. I got a couple of postcards and mailed them from a Bosnian post box. Good luck everyone! If you did your reading on the Bosnian War, you would know that Mostar was under siege for over nine months during which time every bridge in the city was destroyed. I now realized that the large pieces of stone that were on the beach below the bridge were in fact the original bridge.

The town is now a UNESCO heritage site, so hopefully the new old bridge doesn't get shelled again. You can still find ruins if you look for them, but nature (and graffiti artists) have all but consumed the remains. It was hard to imagine on this sunny May day that there was once a really horrific war going on here involving mass-rape, ethnic cleansing, and starvation. On our way out of Mostar, we made a brief stop near the Mostar airport which was once an air base. I wanted to see an abandoned underground aircraft hangar from the Tito era. If you have more time to kill, research Josef Broz Tito and Yugoslavia.

We continued up the mountains of Herzegovina on our way to Split. Herzegovina you ask? Why not Bosnia? Ah, see that's all part of the confusing fun that is Bosnia & Herzegovina. Bosnia is the casual name for the whole country, though it is still partitioned with unofficial borders based on historical ethnic divisions. Considering this was considered a failed state not long ago, it seems to be working for the most part. Maybe Israel should take notes.

High in the mountains, we stopped at Kravica Falls, a set of several waterfalls plunging into clear green water. It's the kind of site you don't expect to see in Bosnia... or Herzegovina. It was a nice little retreat in the countryside. We saw a few people swimming in the waters, but it is evidently pretty frigid, so I wouldn't last long. We then continued on our way toward Croatia. And unlike yesterday, the border was quick and easy to cross. We were the only car. Shortly after coming down the mountains on the Croatian side, we encountered our first real highway.

The speed limit was 130kph and the Porsche was flat out and doing about . . . 110. With the help of a little downhill, I made it to 130. It was like a whole different style of driving, which changed again once we got into Split. Cars were driving onto the sidewalk to park. Two-way streets would only have space for one-way of traffic because everyone just parked in the middle of the lanes. Clearly Split needs more parking spots. We were miraculously able to find our airbnb, even if it may have entailed reversing down a one-way street the wrong way. I was just trying to blend in...

We got settled and walked into the old town. The main site is the Roman Diocletian Palace from around 400 AD. There's a pantheon-esque building just behind it and the entire area has been repurposed as cafés, restaurants, and jewelry shops. Even the underground region of the palace has been converted into a market for religious icons and other tchotchkes. It is a very bustling city. Dubrovnik was small potatoes by comparison (and I already mentioned how difficult parking was there, so now you know why everyone in Split is parking on the sidewalk). One other detail should be shared about Split and it is that the entire waterfront smells like egg salad -- or more accurately egg salad that has been left out for a month. It is a key part of Split's identity along with parking on the sidewalk.

We had dinner at a pizza place in the old town that was tucked away in an alley. Then we went out to take pictures at night. It was still just as bustling. Tomorrow we drive to Plitvice Lakes, which after doing some research, is probably no better with the crowds than Split. Wish us luck.

 

Four Border Checkpoints, a Road Block, and into Bosnia.

We woke up in Albania (words that most Americans would probably dread on a vacation) and went down for our breakfast which consisted of many mystery substances - most smelling of figs or cheese. We ate the bread. I then attempted to drive us to a souvenir store because we are trying to collect ornaments from every country, but the traffic prevented us from getting a parking spot -- more specifically bicycle traffic. If there wasn't a bike taking up an entire parking spot, they were paralleling me as I drove and I had to keep dodging them. I then made an executive decision to just get out of Albania.

It was relatively quick getting through the Albanian border control and the Porsche breathed a sigh of relief knowing it had made it out of the high-theft zone. However, as we sprinted across Montenegro, our pace slowed as we neared the western border. Montenegro likes to put up police stops to arbitrarily flag down drivers when they're least expecting it. I was glad that the oncoming traffic would flash their lights to warn me since the speed limit of 60kph is impossible to maintain. But as we neared the Bosnian border, we came to a literal standstill.

We were very confused for many reasons. We figured it had something to do with construction, but why were people physically getting out of their cars and shutting off the engine? What was the timeline on this thing? Because we were on a road going to the border, all the cars were from different countries and spoke different languages. What we could gather from a Slovenian family in front of us was that the situation was "interesting" and that the road would open at 2pm. It wasn't really practical to drive around to another checkpoint, so we waited it out like every one else in line. As 2pm came, we all got in our cars as if the Indy 500 was about to start. The horns began at 2:01 and by 2:02 a car from the back had given his obligatory two minutes and had no more shits to give. He gunned it in the oncoming traffic lane and essentially just drove past the fence. That was the queue for the next guy to gun it and everyone was now like, "Well, if they're going I'm going.

We flew by the fence and excitedly drove about 800m until we stopped once more at the Bosnian border. Now the confusing thing about all this is that there was a flag flying that almost looked Russian. Furthermore, the checkpoint pillbox was labeled "Republika Sprska." Great, we've driven to the wrong country. I looked this all up later and it is and isn't Bosnia at the same time. If you want a good history lesson and want to be thoroughly confused, just research the Bosnian War of the 90s if you have a few hours to kill.

There are little reminders of the war here and there, but not out in the open. You have to look for them. Our final destination was Mostar in Bosnia. (Bosnia Bosnia, not this sprska nonsense). Mostar was a town under siege during the conflict, but it's kind of hard to picture that now. It has been transformed into a cute old town with shops and restaurants that cater to tourists. Didn't know Bosnia had a tourism industry did you? The bridge in this picture is called Stari Most (literally translated as old bridge).

That's a bit of a lie because the bridge itself was shelled into oblivion during the Bosnian war and was reconstructed fairly recently and looks very much like a new bridge built to look sort of old. Our B&B place has a nice room overlooking the bridge and is where I shot this photo. After getting settled we walked into the town where we had dinner. I had some sort of beef/pork/lamb hybrid thing called pljeskavica with a pita. It was a hearty meal that I washed down with an inexpensive local beer. We were also given complimentary rakia, but it was like drinking cough syrup.

After dinner, we went on a shopping spree. Nicole got some magnets and other gifts and also picked out a Turkish-style lamp to adorn our abode. They seem to be very popular in the Balkans and she's been eyeing them up since the beginning of the trip. I also got a Bosnian soccer jersey for 10 euro. They had them priced based on who the player was on the back. I naturally went with the cheapest one. I suppose it's like parading around with a jersey that says, "Johnny Manziel." In any event, we are enjoying the power of the almighty dollar and the overall cheapness of this trip. Unfortunately, we will eventually reach Austria and Germany, and I will not be making jersey purchases since they will probably be like 80 euro. As we finished up walking around Mostar, we caught the overcast cloud layer separating enough to let a little bit of color in from the sunset and made our way back to our B&B. But that's all from Bosnia for tonight. More on that tomorrow as we make our way back to Croatia and the city of Split.

Taken to Albania

 After getting up and grabbing some pastries at a bakery within the old town, we went to the Porsche and began our drive south. After about 30 mins or so, we arrived in Budva, another coastal town with an old walled city. This one, however, was somehow even more popular with the tourists. We managed to snag one of the last parking spots. A Mercedes was on my left and the driver motioned with his hands that there wasn't a lot of space for the Porsche, but I know the car well and it is quite easy to fit in small spaces.

We walked around the beach area briefly and then down a walking path along the coast. We found a statue called, "The Dancing Girl," which I expertly emulated in this picture. It seems to be a fairly wealthy area. We saw lots of very large yachts, one evidently from Delaware according to the writing on its stern. After a stroll around the town for a bit, we agreed that Kotor was the better place to spend the night, even if there were a couple of cruise ships parked there. From Budva, we journeyed on to the Albanian border. The border guard smiled at me and said something that I could not understand. We will assume it was friendly and positive.

We stopped off at a fortress just outside the city of Shkoder. We walked up to the gate, but they were charging 200 Lek to get in. We as of yet had not been able to get Albanian currency, so that's as far as we got. From the fortress, it was a short drive to the hotel in the city center. There has been much written about the Albanian driving experience including the lane divider being rocks instead of a dashed painted line. Others remarked that Albanians were the worst drivers they'd ever seen. Is any of this true? Meh. Not really. The road was fine and the drivers were no worse or better than what we'd experienced in Croatia or Montenegro.

After settling in to the Hotel Tradita, we walked to find an ATM. I asked at a hotel lobby where I might find such a machine. Bear in mind, this was a fancier looking hotel than ours, had an American flag displayed at the front entrance, yet the desk clerk looked at me like, "ATM" was the most foreign sounding thing she'd ever heard. I thought ATM was a universal name, but apparently not in Albania. I walked literally around the corner and found an ATM on my own. Then we walked down a pedestrian street called Rruga Kole Indromeno. It extends about half a mile from the main mosque.

On the street were about 10 more ATMs in case I needed one. It's like Santa Monica's 3rd Street Promenade, but in Albania. It was pretty warm in the sun, so I ordered a beer at a small café. It was .5 liters for roughly the equivalent of $1. Things are pretty cheap in Albania. We later went into a store where we bought a magnet, an Albanian soccer jersey, a hand-knit bag, and a soccer ball for roughly $15 total. As we made our way back and had dinner at the hotel's restaurant, I ordered 4 shish kebabs and some potatoes, while Nicole had pasta and fries. We also had some bread and cheese along with two glasses of wine and this also totaled up to be about $15. Not bad. As the sun began to set, it actually got quite cold. The climate is very similar to Los Angeles. Warm in the sun, but brisk in the shade. After a hearty meal, we went back to our room to relax and prepare for our longest day of driving tomorrow. We will have multiple border crossings to get to Bosnia, so we are going to try and get an early start. 

Kotor

What began as a fitful night of sleep somehow ended in oversleeping until 1015. This gave us a later start than anticipated. I thought perhaps it would be easier to find a place to park near the old town on a Monday morning, but evidently today is also a holiday. There was no parking to be found. Crawling behind other desperate cars looking for parking was less than ideal. As we drove around, we saw all kinds of groups marching into the old town -- students, tour groups, and others. It had to be packed inside. None of this seemed fun, so we just drove to a spot where we could see it from above and called it good enough.

Our little VW Up had a chance to take a rest before we continued on to Montenegro. As I gathered the vehicle documents for country crossings, I noticed the little car was purchased from a Porsche dealer in Split and had Porsche plate holders. I therefore find it fitting to hereby refer to our car as "the Porsche." We went through two border checkpoints which took us about 35 mins or so.  After another hour or so of driving we got to Kotor in Montenegro. Traffic was a mess. While we did eventually find a spot, the guy who booked the room for us called and was trying to guide us to parking.

After walking about 3km in vain, he called again and said, "I'm wearing pink shirt!" and appeared seconds later. From there he guided us via scooter to a special parking lot. Somehow the traffic had now dispersed and it was like following Moses through the Red Sea except it was man in pink shirt on a scooter riding through the streets of Kotor. We are staying in an apartment in the middle of Old Town and were given a free bottle of local wine. Not too shabby. After getting settled, we walked around town for a bit, checking out the shops and various food options.

The streets were a bit crowded with tourists because a cruise ship had docked there. Sometimes we could find a back alley or square that wasn't as crowded, but as a whole, it was a bit difficult to navigate. Also, there are no street names, so we ended up finding our way around by referencing shops and other landmarks. The interesting thing about this place is that nobody really thinks anything about Montenegro, yet here were all these tour groups and cruisers mobbing the town.

We got dinner at a pub in the square and watched one tour group after another enter and exit. I heard one group mention that 730pm was their meeting time. I looked at my watch. 700pm. Soon enough... It became quite apparent when the groups had taken off because the atmosphere was a lot calmer. As the sun set, we went back out to take more pictures at dusk.

While there were still a fair amount of people, most of the groups had departed, so it was much more relaxing. We have pretty adequately seen all of the old town by this point, at one time even walking on the city walls themselves. There is a path leading up to a fortress, but it seemed a bit ambitious. You can sort of make out the walled path in the previous picture as it winds it way up the hill. 

 After walking around the whole town again, we returned to our room and settled in with a glass of wine out on the attached terrace. Perhaps as a result of our oversleeping last night, we will be back on some sort of normal schedule. We will see. The Porsche has another border crossing ahead of it tomorrow as we go into Albania, a country with a reputation for theft of high-end German cars. The Porsche will no doubt be highly sought after. Good night from Montenegro. Yes, I know you don't know where that is. Neither did I. Apparently it was in cahoots with Serbia for a while, so it has only been an independent country since 2006. The more you know . . .