A few weekends ago I went to visit Ireland. I finished work on Friday and headed to the airport and popped on the plane. It still excites me to be in another country after a one your flight.

I went to visit my friends Angela and Ronan, who are living in Dublin. Since I had seen them over New Years they are now engaged which is rather exciting. They too are heading back to Australia in a few weeks.

We spent the Friday evening in Dublin then on Saturday we headed to the West Coast. After listening to Australia disappointingly loose to England in the rugby on the radio (yes for some reason more when you are overseas it is more important to defeat England at sport, as the English love to over celebrate every time they beat Australia – because it’s so rare) we arrived in the little village of Liscannor. This is was my second time in Ireland and it was the kind of Ireland I came to see. Beautiful green rolling hills separated by stone walls.


We then went for a pint (of lovely creamy Guiness) and then for a walk along the beach where there were lots of people surfing, the waves were not very big but there were lots of people in the water. Strange as you don’t really associate Ireland with surfing. We witnessed a beautiful sunset over the water. After a nice pub meal we had a few more pints before heading to bed.

The next morning we went to visit the Cliff of Moher. Which were spectacular cliffs that dive into the Atlantic Ocean. Rohan and I plucked up enough courage to get close to the edge but it was a little scary.

Spectacular the Ireland I came to see

That afternoon we drove back to Dublin, where we had a nice dinner. Then Ronan and I managed to Rock out hard to some Guitar Hero 2 on XBox. I started out terrible and then ended up being a bit of a bass guitar superstar our grand finale was Cherry Pie by Warrant! Although I still think I should stick to drums.

Ronan Rocks! The guitar hero champion

The next day I spent a lovely Autumn day wandering around Dublin before heading back home to London

Bosnia

We caught the bus to Bosnia. I know of the country because of the war and history but I was not sure what to expect of the landscape. As we crossed the border it was flat and dull. We stopped off in a town called Mostar, which has a famous bridged. It was interesting to see the contrast with Croatia. In the outskirts of Mostar, shelled out buildings still stood in the streets, buildings still were marked with bullet holes. As we drove from Mostar, the landscape turned to beautiful green mountains split by a river. It was lovely, however apparently it is still somewhat dangerous to head to the mountains due to the possibility of mines.


The outskirts of Sarajevo are similar in that there still stands many half destroyed buildings some riddled with bullet holes.

It’s hard to explain but I really thought Sarajevo was quite a special city it had a quite lovely vibe to it, something I was not expecting. The surrounds of Sarajevo are very picturesque, it is surrounded by mountains, which makes it very pretty. But these hills are also what allowed Serbian forces to surround the city making it under siege. As people could not leave the city and there were many civilian casualties there are many cemeteries very close to in the city.(The main square in Sarajevo)

We did a walking tour with a young woman who had lived though the war, still going to school everyday. She told us how a tunnel was built under the airport, which allowed people to escape and also bring in necessary supplies during the war. Also the bridge where Franz Ferdinand and his wife were assassinated which triggered the first world war. (The Latin Bridge)

I’m mentioning so much about the war only because the marks of it are so evident in this city. While Croatia has had the money to rebuild, many of the buildings in Sarajevo including the library are still severely damaged; some of the holes in the footpath are filled in with red concrete and are called Sarajevo roses in memory of people who were killed by the shells. There is a monument in the market where a mortar killed many civilians while they shopped.


Sarajevo is a multi-cultural and very religiously tolerant city. In the same street you will see a Mosque, Orthodox Church side by side. There is Ottoman and Austro-Hungarian influence to the city. This means there is great coffee and a lovely culture around spending time drinking it as well as eating lots of yummy cakes. I fell in love with Bosnian food, especially their pies stuffed with potatoes, spinach or cheese, and topped with yogurt…….mmmm.

The next day we returned to London in the pouring rain.

Croatia

Hello all well firstly, I must apologize for the lateness of this post. But I have limited access to the internet these days. So on the 1st of September, Will arrived from Canada. We had a couple of days in London went to see a West end show etc. Also spent a lot of time waiting for Will’s bag to arrive which had been lost of the journey over here.

On the 3rd we flew to a small town on the Croatian coast called Zadar. We arrived late, found our hotel and had a beautiful seafood dinner at a lovely restaurant by the sea. The next day up early to have a look at the town, however some rather nasty clouds were looming and we retreated to the hotel just in time. We sat out a huge thunderstorm for a few hours, gave up on seeing the town and headed to the bus station to travel down the coast.

We arrived in Split after a diverted bus ride due to grass fires. After finding some accommodation, Croatia is lacking in youth hostels so the local women have jumped on the gap in the market for cheap accommodation and rent out rooms in their homes. So we stayed in a room of a lovely young family. It was so nice to be by the sea and in a warmer climate. I jumped on my chance to indulge on getting some Gelato. We wandered around the old town to see Diocletian’s Palace an old Roman ruin. The rest of the evening was spent running from more torrential rain and eating yummy pizza.

Up early again! What is this a holiday with early starts and rain!!! We took a ferry to a little island off the coast called Hvar. On the ferry a woman offered us a room in her place, which we accepted, however she still decided to follow us around the boat making sure we didn’t talk to any other woman, and kept asking us if everyone was ok. She’d arranged for her husband to meet the ferry. As we left the ferry she was barking at the other woman waiting and herded us to her husband who drove us to town in their little commi car (for some reason we both would have been disappointed if it was a flash car).

Hvar was a beautiful island. The water is an unbelievable clear blue, and the town has lovely historic little buildings and with a large castle on the hill above. Our first day we wandered around town and then after lunch took a little boat out to one of the other tiny islands to do a spot of sun-bathing European style ;) The next day more rain I couldn’t believe it!!!!

Hvar receives 2724 hours of sunshine a year, it’s one of the sunniest islands on the coast. But we had to sit it out in miserable rain, our waiter told us that it was the first time it had rained in 3 months. Why or why on my holiday. The rain did clear and my spirits brightened. We walked to the castle for some spectacular views. That night I lifted my spirits more with some more Gelato (I can’t believe I ate the whole thing)!

The next morning we took the ferry back to Split and then took the bus to Dubrovnik. Unfortunately we sat in front of the two most annoying Aussies I’ve come across on my travels. They spent the whole bus ride complaining about Australia, what a racist bunch of people we are how, education in Australia sucks, I could go on like them but I won’t. Needless to say they were travelling on Australian passports, had super Aussie accents. They were actually told to shut up by a few people on the bus tired of their complaining.

Aside- Shock two tourists kidnapped in Dubrovnik!

Now I have mentioned how we have been staying in spare rooms of people’s homes. In Dubrovnik we wanted to stay in the old town so a nice lady met us at the bus station and showed us pictures of her home and it was in a great location. While we were waiting to go with her to the bus station her phone rang. She informed us that her son would pick us up and take us. A few minutes later a young guy rolls up in his flash Audi nearly knocks a pedestrian. He was huge with a shaved head and designer sun-glasses. We hopped into the car to the blaring tunes of gangster rap. Then the woman announced that she would met us in the old town and the son drove off. Will and I looked at each other. What the hell was going on? Had we been kidnapped by the local drug dealing king-pin? What did he want with us? How were we going to escape we managed to communicate to each other with our eyes.

He drove like a maniac he basically drove on the wrong side of the road pushed his way into the traffic, however people seemed very willing to let him in and were even nice to him. Whilst doing this he kept getting waves and honks from all his friends on the road. Near the old town we come to a halt. Will and I sprang out of the car to find our driver with another big burley man. He then helped us with our bags, had a chat with us and gave us flyers for the posh nightclub he was a bouncer at. Then another lovely woman showed us to our great room!

We felt like silly tourists and both had a secret guilt for being so untrusting but you have to admit it was kind of weird!

So Dubrovnik, it is a stunning city. We stayed in the old town, which is the heart of the city. It was severely damaged during the war however it has been beautifully restored and is now a tourist Mecca.

There were 4 cruise ships in town when we were there, this meant there were tourists everywhere, but it still manages to keep its charms. The old town is paved with white marble and is enclosed with stonewalls, It is full of street cafés as well as beautiful monuments. We ate well, drank at a bar with a beautiful view. We walked around the walls of the city and I also got to fulfil my holiday wish of going swimming.