Author Archives: wanderingwelshie95

I am a qualified nurse who has worked in the NHS for the last five years. Pre-covid, I would travel whenever I could, whenever I had a few days off together. For the past two years, I have not travelled at all (like most if the world) but now I have quit my job in order for me to travel freely for awhile. I have always been passionate about travel from a young age and was lucky enough to have gone abroad with my family as a kid. Here I will write about my experiences and observations in various places.

Painting in Pula

28/6/22

Today was my final moving day until I headed home, and I was off to Croatia, Pula to be precise. I hadn’t heard of Pula before but it had more flights to London per week than Ljubljana so that was that! I headed off from Bled on a very early bus before grabbing breakfast in Ljubljana and then switching buses to continue on to Pula, via Trieste in Italy!

On the Italy border all documents were collected in and the word ‘Ukraini’ was said. All the documents were given back to us and then we waited quite some time. There was mention of a taxi. Maybe forty minutes later the word ‘Ukraini’ was said again and the Ukrainians were ushered off the bus. When I looked to see who was sidling past me, first came a small boy bobbing along with a small rucksack on his back, maybe aged three or so and then came a mum in her twenties with a baby in arms. Of course, there was no dad with them since he would be stuck in Ukraine fighting. It was hard to see first hand. Presumably, they were taken off the bus to be registered and helped.. Shortly after they got off, we continued on.

When we arrived in Pula, I tried to get an Uber to my hostel since it was way too hot to walk twenty minutes withy biiig backpack! Sadly, the Ubers kept cancelling or saying they’d take 30 mins to arrive so I tried to get a normal cab. The drivers wanted to charge me €15 euro for a three minute ride just to punish me for trying to get an Uber! I got one guy to put it on the metre but then he put it on the max tariff so I complained and then he got two others taxi drivers and shouted about Uber… I went to a nearby cafe to ask what to do. The lady recommended getting the bus and told me which bus to get and from where. I thanked her and headed over the road to get the bus. It arrived shortly afterwards and was a third of the price of an Uber.

The journey didn’t take long and I quickly arrived in an old Roman square. I checked in toy hostel and then headed out since I was starving. I sat in another cute square and ordered a toastie and an Aperol. I chilled and read my book. The long and early bus in the heat had tired me out!

After awhile, I wandered through the town, walking down bustling cobbled streets, into various tacky tourist shops as well as a couple of beautiful boutiques. Then I headed to the nearby colosseum. I was pretty gutted that a few days later Disclosure would be playing there but I would be back home – so close but so far!! After my wanderings, I got an ice cream and then headed back to nap. I planned to nap for an hour or so and then go back out but I slept past my alarm and woke up at 22.00 and then decided I wasnt hungry and was still tired! Sleep it was!!

29/6/22

Today I woke up fairly late and headed straight to the beach. I had hoped to stop for breakfast on route, but sadly Croatian coffee shops only serve coffee, no food at all! One of the coffee shop owners explained this to me and sente to a shop where I bought burek (a spinach and cheese pastry) and an iced coffee. I continued walking to the beach and then sat and tucked intoy snacks by the sea. I basked in the sun for an hour or two and read my book before resorting to cowering in the shade for the next couple of hours! The sea was pretty violent and every no and then the waves crashed against the harbour style wall and splashed me. I enjoyed the refresh! When I swam I was thrown about a fair amount and I was quite pleased to get out in one piece! This place was wild!! I headed back via the nearby shopping centre and window shopped before heading to the food court today get a burrito. Mmmm.

After walking the rest of the way back and showering, I headed back out to see sunset from the castle. I sat on a wall and watched the sunset over the industrial coast. Then I headed to a recommended pizzaria for dinner. I had a pizza and an Aperol – of course! (Since being in Europe, I had switched out the margarita for an Aperol!). After dinner, I headed home, via a large square with music being played loudly via big speakers. It was cute although there didn’t seem to be any sign of live music which seemed like a waste to me!!

30/6/22

My final day. After six months, I had one day left. Madness! Where had all the time gone?

To make the most of my final day, I had arranged to do a seaside watercolour class. I packed up all of my stuff, checked out the hostel and then left. I narrowly missed one bus to the sea, so sat and watched two workmen replace the shattered glass sides of the bus stop before getting the next bus. I met my teacher, Renata, at 08.30 and then we walked to our rocky sea side spot in the shade. We chatted while Renata set up and then we started painting. I was mildly stressed since I find watercolours nigh on impossible – you start with paint too dark, correct it and your paper is falling apart!! I tried anyway, and with renata watching over me, it all turned out okay!

I chilled at the sea a little while longer, sunbathed, read my book and swam before packing up and getting the bus back to the centre. I stopped for a final glorious lunch in a cute square – homemade gnocchi with prawns and a small glass of wineand the I headed back to the hostel to shower. Afterwards, I chilled in the hostel a good few hours until it was time for my flight. I met a cool French speaking Canadian lady in her fifties as well as a German guy wearing full on leather lederhosen in the thirty degree heat – absolute madness!! I chatted to both of them a while before it was time to head to the airport!

I got a unnecessarily large taxi to the airport and used one seat out of nine before arriving at what appeared to be an abandoned airport! When I went inside there were only two flights due to leave that night so I guess the quietness mad sense!! I got through all the checks fairly quick, but was annoyed that the security lady stamped in the very middle of one my three remaining blank passport pages – whyyyy?! (Now I can only go to two more countries requiring proper visas… Arghh!).

I got a coffee and a baguette using up my remaining kuna and waited. My flight was announced as delayed, at first with no time frame. Then the next flight was announced as being entirely cancelled. I was suddenly glad that my flight was only delayed! It ended up being just under two hours delayed which since I would have had to wait ages for a bus to Cardiff wasn’t so bad anyway!!

Byes in Bled

25/6/22

Today was moving day. I had a final hostel breakfast and then got the tram to the bus station. I was heading to Ljubljana, the capital of Slovenia. The bus wasn’t too long and I arrived around lunchtime, checked into my hostel and then walked along the river into town.

The town was beautiful and I wandered around a bit before heading to a large local park to sit in and read for awhile before I went to the 3pm walking tour. I stopped for a bit of lunch in a local bar and rested for thirty mins before starting the two hour walking tour.

The tour groups were pretty big so we split into two and began. There were gorgeous buildings everywhere, a mix of gothic and art deco. I met two lovely girls on the tour, both solo, who had met before in Bled. Brittnee, 21, from Aus, and Aina, 19, from Spain. They were younger than me but very cool and I was impressed they had both dared to solo travel young. The tour was good and included a surprising story about a newly built, but so far empty library that threatened to be used by Nazi’s which were heading to Slovenia to occupy it. To prevent the new library becoming Nazi HQ, the local people made a human chain to move books to the new library for over 48 hours to save Nazi occupiers from using it for the war. To make the story better, when the occupiers arrived, they assisted in moving the books since everyone was treating it so seriously, they thought it must be important!

After the tour, I went to a pretty courtyard with Brittnee and Aina before Brittnee left and Aina and I wandered around a little longer. Then we went back to Aina’s hostel and chilled a little before remeeting Brittnee and going for dinner. We had asked our tour guide for recommendations and headed to a busy local restaurant. We sat in the street and enjoyed the bustle and the Slovenian food. I had venison goulash, which the waiter clarified to me was Bambi!

After dinner, we headed up to the castle by funicular to watch the sunset over Ljubljana. It was beautiful. Afterwards, I said my goodbyes and walked home back along the river. I was pleased to find that the free coffee vending machine in the hostel car park also did hot chocolate so I enjoyed a free hot choc before bed.

26/6/22

Another moving day. I got up, packed up and headed to the station. A guy was packing as I was and when I asked where he was going he said he didn’t know. When I said I was going to Lake Bled, he said he had been meaning to go there but hadn’t found anyone to go with. This seemed to me a strange excuse for a solo traveller, but I had met the like before. He asked if he could join me on the bus, which I obviously agreed to. We got the 09.30 bus from Ljubljana and arrived two hours later. The guy, Ahmed, was Egyptian and wa studying a Masters in Germany. He had come to Ljubljana for a course and had hoped to see Bled while he was in Slovenia. This explained the reluctance to travel alone! We checked into the hostel before hatching a plan. I had agreed with Amanda that we would do the lake together the following day so I wanted to do the nearby gorge instead.

We decided to first go tobogganing and then head to the gorge a little later since the hostel guy said it would be busy earlier because it was the weekend. We walked around a small part of the lake, stopping at a bakery on route for an exceptionally late breakfast (since I had completely forgotten that we had not eaten!!), before walking through a wood and getting a chair lift to the top of a hill. We went for a short walk with lovely views before coming tobogganing down again. We watchedany people go down before we did, some cautious and others out of control! The joy a toboggan brings an adult is wondrous!! After our thrill, we went for a drink in a festival style cafe bar at the bottom. I ordered an Aperol, which came with free peanuts and then Ahmed was tempted, and then we got a second round! By this time, it was nearly 4pm, and we needed to head to the gorge since we thought it closed at 6pm.

We grabbed our swim stuff and set out towards the gorge. We needed to be quick to make it!! We set off mildly in the wrong direction on a longer route. I had forgotten about the time restraints and since I do not like going back on myself, we continued on our longer route chatting. We would arrive just before 6pm!! It was a pretty walk through countryside before we rejoined a road and I power walked with Ahmed behind me! Luckily, when we arrived at 17.45, we were told that the gorge closed at 19.00 so we had plenty of time. We walked through the beautiful gorge, which went on forever. When we eventually reached the end, I got a snack at a cafe before we went to swim in the glacial waters of a waterfall. The water was 9 degrees but we were doing it!! Since the air temperature was around 30 degrees, and the walk had been fairly long, we were looking forward to the cool off. Strangely, noone else was swimming. We changed and went in. It was certainly refreshing!! It was sooo cold, I could barely control my breath! Madness! I did one lap before climbing onto a rock to warm up. Later I braved it a second time, which surprisingly wasn’t as cold. I swam more leisurely this time and a man told Ahmed that his woman was hardcore. What a compliment!! Us Welshie’s are used to the cold I guess!! To me, it was more impressive that an Egyptian could tolerate it!!

After swimming, we changed and started walking back through the woods to Bled town. We stopped on the way for dinner. Then we walked the rest of the way to the hostel. We got back just before 10pm – a long day!

Back in the hostel, I said good night to Ahmed and went to my dorm. In there, there was one guy, Ryan, who was from Nottingham but sounded northern and was very nice. We chatted for ages before going to sleep.

27/6/22

Today I was meeting Amanda for the final time (this trip at least!). I headed out for breakfast with Ahmed first since Amanda wasn’t arriving til later. Then we headed to chill lakeside. Ahmed went for a swim while I lay by the lake and read my book. When he returned from his swim, we had a relatively heated discussion about cultural and societal roles for women. Unsurprisingly, his view was more typically Arab and mine more typically Western. We left our discussion unresolved before saying our goodbyes and parting ways.

I briefly went to the hostel before going to meet Amanda at the bus stop. I wasn’t too sure what time she would arrive so I had gone early. While I was waiting, I got chatting to a German Vietnamese girl who was waiting for her own bus to the mountains. She loved hiking and had gone on many solo trips! She was also studying to be a paediatric GP. We had a good chat before I waved her off. Amanda arrived shortly after this.

We headed towards town for lunch and stopped at a local cute cafe for sandwiches and smoothies. Then we continued on to walk around the lake. The perimeter was apparently 6km and unsurprisingly, it did take quite some time to walk around the whole thing, especially when you stop every five minutes that you think is even better than the one you took five minutes before!! The view was stunning. We stopped around halfway for a swim. We swam in front of the church on the island but not too close to it since its apparently disrespectful to be in a bathing suit near the church. When we got out, we went to sit in a nearby park area to dry off in the sun. We watched people playing frisbee, burnt people resort to wearing a tee far too late and best of all, we watched a dog chase and attempt to catch splashes made by his owner – it was so joyous!!

After awhile, we left there and walked further round. We stopped for a drink and a famous Bled cake and then Amanda went to toboggan, while I stayed lakeside to read. When she came back, we hired paddleboards. Typically, although the lake had been calm all day, as we went to hire the SUPs, the wind picked up and the lake became choppy somehow. After thirty minutes of struggle much like the storm Liz, Jess and I faced on Edgbaston Reservoir, the lake finally settled and I found paddleboarding much easier than I originally thought!

It was fairly late by this point so we walked around the rest of the lake and got dinner – a pizza slice each, a G&T for me and a kombucha for Amanda. The two guys working in the deli were very friendly indeed! After our pizza, we headed to the bus stop. This was goodbye! After meeting in floor-length shapeless clothing with hijabs in tow, Amanda and I had spent our last day together in bikinis paddleboarding – what a journey!!

I headed back to the hostel after Amanda had left and went to my dorm to find Ryan chilling out and two name badges ‘Stan’ on the two free beds. Awhile later, the two Stans arrived, although disappointingly, only one of them was called Stan. He was Dutch while the other guy, Charlie, was Mexican. They went out for food and Ryan and I slobbed. Later Ryan headed out too and shortly after Charlie and Stan returned. We chatted awhile before I went to sleep.

A, B, C – (country) air, brunch and a concert

23/6/22

Since we’d already done our city day, today was a hike day. We moved our stuff to a local hostel Main Square, since Chloe was leaving in the small hours and I was going to stay an extra night. Then we returned to our fave brunch spot for pancakes before getting various trams to the bottom of the hills, to then get a cable car to the top of the mountains. We found out as we bought our tickets that in the winter you can ski from Zagreb – mad ayyy?! The cable car was new and fancy and yet we saw about three other people using it!! The views over Zagreb were lovely. We were on the cable car quite some time and geared we would soon be hungry when we arrived at the top! Nevertheless, we cracked on with our walk!

We hoped to walk from the top down to a castle halfway down before continuing to the bottom. The path was not quite so established as it appeared on the map, and we shuffled/slid down many a loose gravel bank and climbed over various road barriers to stay on the so-called footpath. Eventually, and with a much needed fudge stop, we made it to the castle to find the ticket office closed but the gate wide open. We could see the castle for free – yay!!! We wandered in and walked past some people filming to the back to admire the view of the city. There were some large flat stones at various heights at regular intervals which we climbed on to get a better view. About five minutes later, a woman came to shout at us. Not only did she shout, but when we apologised and Chloe continued to apologise, she continued to shout. She said we had come in when it was clearly closed and we were climbing on things we shouldn’t be. And yet, there were no signs for either, which as she continued to shout at us, I couldn’t help but point out. We left and I briefly talked to a solo travel gal from Manchester who had also been thrown out by the angry lady! Ayeee! Never mind. We headed down and were pleased to find that the path down Wilfred m the castle had clearly been used before and was well established! We walked back down to meet the tram, stopping for lunch with a view on route, and then got baked goods on our walk from the tram home.

We chilled awhile at home before heading out for dinner. Our farewell dinner had come so fast!! We went to another glorious restaurant and I think I ate more gnocchi, since I can’t get enough of the stuff!! Then we headed to the park to watch a free open air classical concert. It started off pretty enough but dull with far to much Mozart, but the performance became infinitely better once Beethoven and Vivaldi’s Four Seasons was played, better still when the Ukrainian soloist playing violin, played two songs she had specifically selected by Storyk, a famous 20th century Ukrainian composer. The emotion not to mention the less predictable nature of the piece was wonderful and surprisingly, the soloist (yes a violinist!!) gave me shivers! It was beautiful. After the second Storyk piece, the concert ended with energetic cheer and you could feel the emotion in the air. We returned to the hostel and chilled in the common room awhile with a guy from Leeds and his French mate. I said my goodbyes to Chloe and off to bed I went. Sadly, Chloe would be gone when I woke up!

24/6/22

I was meant to be getting an early bus today to Ljubljana, but I had decided to spend one further night on Zagreb since Paulo had recommended a small town to visit nearby and Chloe had said I wouldn’t need more than a day in Ljubljana.

I got up and had the hostels breakfast which wasn’t bad as it had good coffee, cereal with fruit and best of all, a toastie maker!!! I chatted to the Leeds guy awhile – he was only 19 which was mad since he both acted and looked older! He was moving today so we said bye and off he went. Then I got chatting to an older Irish guy, Chris. He’d been travelling a long while and had seen a lot.

After breakfast, I sadly had to pack since I had to move rooms for my extra night. Then I headed out, to get the tram to the bus station to then get the bus to Samobor, a place I had moreorless been told to go to merely to try it’s cake! It was enough of a reason for me – I had googled it afterwards and it looked cute, so off I went. I picked one of four ticket queues and of course mine was predictably the slowest. I ended up missing the first bus since one guy stood at the front for precisely seven minutes and then proceeded to leave the queue without any ticket, when everyone else took thirty seconds! Bizarre ayy?! Luckily, the next bus was in twenty minutes so it wasn’t major!

When I arrived in Samobor, I walked into the town centre and had a mooch about. I was pretty hungry so got a spinach burek from a bakery before going to a bar for a margarita. I was allowing myself a more chilled day today and I read my book in the bar awhile. Behind me, people poured out of a wedding and photographers were snapping pictures as the guests appeared. Afterwards, I headed on a short walk to a nearby castle (or remains of one!). On my way, I past another two wedding parties and some guest were even having photos up at the castle despite the slidey and stoney walk (which of course I did in my final nest new flip-flops with sweaty feet, making it quite tricky!). The castle wasn’t in bad nick and it was a nice place to sit awhile.

After walking down, I went to get the famous Samobor cake in the recommended cafe if choice. Just as I was tucking into my cake, (despite being landlocked), a whole cruise ship worth of people descended on the cafe shouting. They took all the free tables and then filled up any free seat. Reading my book was not quite the same after that, so I paid and moved on to have a nose in the church. I walked back along the river to the bus station and very annoyingly watched my bus leave early, only to later find out that the next one was not for an hour and a half. ARGHH! I eventually took a different bus, and suggested to three other ladies to do the same and then we all got a longer tram into the city centre. They were grateful to me for telling them. Two girls got on the tube with small cafes. One rested the cage on a seat and sawdust spluttered out of it – they had just bought new hamsters, and they were very cute! The ladies said bye as they left the tram and then the girls said bye toe as I got off and I felt we had got a lovely little tram community going on!!

It was late by this point so I headed straight out for food. I went to the same restaurant Chloe and I had been to the night before but this time ordered pizza. It was pretty good! Afterwards, I quickly back to the hostel and showered before heading out to the park for classical concert number two that week. I had high hopes for this one as it was meant to be music from musicals. Sadly, I hadn’t quite thought it through because of course, Croatia has its own musicals so I didn’t know a single song! The crowd did rather enjoy a few though and many people swayed and sang along which was nice to be a part of.

Chloe in Croatia 💛

20/6/22

I arrived at 18.20 after getting on the bus at 08.00. The bus ride was very pretty and thankfully had excellent WiFi that I could use for Netflix and blogging. Nevertheless, I was pretty pleased to be off the bus and finally in the right place, having stopped at various places on route including Split and Sibernek, the stop for the National Park. I got a taxi (oh I love Uber!) to the centre of town and met Chloe – eeeeeep! So lovely to see a home gal! I hadn’t been with a home friend since February when I met Nancy in Jordan! We got a drink and had a brief catch up before I ditched my bag at our Airbnb and we headed out for dinner! All the streets were filled with outdoor seating and everywhere was bustling with life. Zagreb is a beautiful city. After dinner, we headed back since Chloe had been up since 3am and I had barely slept the night before and was up at 6am!

21/6/22

Today Chloe was roadtripping to Slovenia. I had decided ahead of time not to join as it was quite expensive and I had the time to go and stay afterwards. Instead, I had a low key day of a lie-in, a breakfast in a cute cafe with an iced coffee and a cruffin and then navigated the buses to reach a local park with a lake in which people swam. It was fairly busy, especially with school kids who had finished school forever. They all had different coloured tops on depending on their class and of course they had all been signed by each other – when the tops were full, they signed each others arms and legs instead!! They were high on life and I enjoyed watching them muck about!

I sat by the lake, read my book and eventually went for a swim. After my swim, I went to the local park cafe and got an Aperol and watched the world go by. This was slightly less relaxing than it sounds as some of the school kids were setting off fireworks even though it was light. The dogs sitting in the cafe were not happy! Afterwards, I headed back into town on the bus to re-meet Chloe and her two day tripping pals, Monique and Munir for dinner.

We met in the main square and headed off, guided by Monica who had been in Zagreb for three days and had been on at least four tours! (She was solo travelling for the first time and liked the structure of all the tours, which was good for us as she knew about all the best places to go!). First we stopped by a truffle, cheese, hot sauce and liquours shop to get free samples. Bizarrely, the shop assistant was very happy to give out lots of free samples and she kept asking if we wanted more – what a shop! While we were in there, there were two Singaporean girls who wanted to try the 10/10 hot sauce. They said they eat the noodle from the hot noodle challenge for fun so we were interested to see how they managed. Impressively, they didn’t even break a sweat!! Then Munir, from Oman, decided to try it and he didn’t do quite so well! Afterwards, we asked the friendly shop assistant for food recommendations. She sent us down a longggg (and mildly claustrophobic) tunnel which was historically used to connect the two old towns and was since used as a bomb shelter before being revamped to a very civilised tunnel again. Once we finally made it out the other side, we arrived at a cute diner reminiscent of Prague to me!

Of course, Monique turned out to be a nurse (we’re everywhere), and Australian (they travel as much as us Brits!!), while Munir had spent the last ten years living out of Dubai. We talked about Dubai and I mentioned that I thought it has a double standard, one for westerners and another for its own UAE people, even more so for women. He disagreed, but also said that most people living in UAE are not from there, which may be true. Munir then spent forever trying to convince us that UAE women were free to live independently. While I obviously don’t know about these women’s lives, Chloe later told me that Munir has a wife and kids, and yet he is very regularly solo travelling and she never travels. Hmmmmm..! Monique talked about nursing in Australia and we exchanged our best nursing stories! After dinner, we said our goodbyes and headed home.

22/6/22

Today was our city day. Today we would roam around. We would roam very freely since it was a Bank Holiday and nearly every Croatian had headed for the beach! This meant that sadly the cute street market was closed, but that we had loads of space to move about without crashing into people!

First stop was brunch. I had looked for a cute place online and found a pink cafe called Melt. It did not disappoint. We got glorious breakfasts with a slightly sad coffee which I could overlook! After breakfast, we headed on the Horseshoe walk through Zagreb’s main green spaces, including a botanical garden which we ended up walking round the entirety of the outside before eventually finding the entrance! Then we got a refreshing drink in a fancyyyy bar before heading to a park.

After the park we got lunch (falafel) and then we started on the museum hype. There are dozens of museums in Zagreb and we picked just two to go to. Out of various art, history and other miscellaneous museums, we went to the Chocolate Museum followed by the Hangover Museum. The Chocolate museum talked about the discovery and globalisation of chocolate and importantly hadany tasters along the way. It also referenced Mr Cadbury many times which I was pleased about as an adopted Brummie! Maybe predictably, the Hangover Museum was filled with drunken stories fromessy nights out along with various objects relating to said stories including an alarming number of dolls’ legs!! After the museums we went back to chill out our Airbnb awhile.

We headed out to dinner an hour or so later and Chloe selected another fab restaurant. We ate glorious fish with €1.50 wine – fabulous before heading to sit in a nice square with a drink.

Holding on for dear life! 🛥️

18/6/22

Today, we were heading a short way down the coast to Kotor. I didn’t really know what to expect of Kotor – the pictures looked pretty nice but Amanda’s housemate had told her it was overrated so we were unsure.

The road from Budva was rather pretty since it was coastal all the way. We arrived in a cute town with an insane view of the bay, Kotor Bay. We ditched our stuff in our apartment and headed straight back out to the beach.

On the walk along the bay, we were stopped by a boat man selling tours of the bay. We agreed to get a tour in a few hours time, stopped for a coffee with a view and then continued on to the beach. We chilled and read there until just before 3pm and turn went to get our boat.

The boat was was quite the ride! While it was fairly small and cute and fitted seven of us with just a bit if extra space, when the driver accelerated, it was incredibly bumpy! We lost two hats along the way, having to double back to fish them out the water and at some points, we had to cling on for dear life!! If not, you’d bounce so much you’d be knocked sideways and probably bruise! My right arm got quite the workout just from holding me in place!!

We stopped at an artificial church island and past a few pretty towns, before we drove past an old prisoners island, and a submarine bunker before reaching the famous blue cave. Three out of seven of us went swimming in the cave with Amanda leading the way! It was very clear and oh so blue in the water! Beautiful! We dried off in the wind on the way back before being dropped off in the old town so we could get some dinner.

We sat on a cute square and ate, before wandering round the old walled town. We started walking back towards our apartment and then I stopped for pudding, while Amanda continued on home. I got a glorious homemade chocolate and cherry lava cake with a cup of coffee, which was delicious! My good was enjoyed with a sunset over Kotor Bay in the background – perfect!! After waiting for sunset to finish while sitting on a boardwalk, I headed home to sleep.

19/6/22

Today we packed up our stuff before heading back to the beach. We got a beaut salmon toast breakfast (with fries – wild!) and then chose our sunbed spot. We swam, sunbathed and most importantly, I FINALLY finished my six-hundred page book, A Famished Road, which I picked up over two months ago in Sri Lanka I think!! What a success!

Around 4pm, we walked back to our apartment, grabbed our stuff and got a taxi to the bus station. We were moving to Dubrovnik.

The bus journey was maybe a couple of hours plus a while for the border control to leave Montenegro and to enter Dubrovnik. A guy on front of us told Amanda that he didn’t feel well, and then she told him I was a nurse. He said his left side felt tingly and he thought he was having a stroke. He looked grand so I left him alone. Later he was still worried but he could talk, his face and smile was equal so I told him not to worry – it was probably just heat exhaustion and dehydration, (and maybe stress from thinking he was having a stroke!). At the border crossings, the three of us got talking. He was Daniel, from Glasgow and travelled a fair bit.

When we arrived in Dubrovnik, we all got in his taxi before splitting off to our separate accommodation. Daniel and I headed through the old town and Amanda carried on in the taxi. The old town was even more beautiful than I remember from over ten years ago when I had gone with my family. I was pretty sad that I was only there for less than 12 hours!

I found my hostel, showered and then headed out. I had been going to the beach in trainers for a few days and was in desperate need of decent flip-flops. I asked the owners of the hostel, but it was a fairly tall order since it was past 7pm on a Sunday. They gave me a few places to look and after going to the right area and asking in one shop which only had crocs (have I missed the fashion memo here?!), a guy on the till in that shop recommended next door, not for Havaianas, but another (hopefully legit) Brazilian brand, Ipanema. I bought some flip-flops, ditched my nasty trainers at the hostel and then went for dinner with free toes.

First, I raced to a bar through a hole in the old town wall for sunset that I had been to with my family ten plus years ago. It was still beautiful. Then, I went to a bar that I could ring my dad from since it was Father’s day. I sat down in a bar down a quiet alley and rang him. Of course, as soon as I had begun, a pianist came and started playing very nicely but also very loudly next to me! I moved away and chatted and drank Aperol Spritz. I briefly spotted Amanda roaming around, also dressed nicely for Dubrovnik’s vibe. She headed for food and then returned to her hostel. Daniel from the bus, came to meet me after my phone call and we went for dinner. He had been to Dubrovnik and said he knew a good place. I ate squid risotto with the ink and continued with another Aperol – it was delicious. Then we headed to another bar with another pianist, this time a woman. We chatted and had a final drink, before the pianist finished and Daniel went to grab pastries from across the road and we munched while the bar staff cleared away the tables, until ours was the final one remaining! Daniel showed me a famous water fountain but it had been shut off for the night. Then I headed to bed since somehow it was already 1am and I had to be up early!

A long bus and Budva

16/6/22

Once we left our guest house, we had stopped at the local shop to get lunch snacks for the bus and after eating a banana I had gone to put the skin on the bin. Sadly, the car park gravel was too much for my beloved Havaianas, which got cut by a rock. I was shoeless for the rest if the journey including stops since my trainers were buried at the bottom of the 22 people’s luggage in the boot!

We lost nearly the whole day travelling, because there was such a big gap between our first bus which arrived around 3pm and our second one which left Shkoder for Budva at 7.50pm. In this time, we ate lunch, sorted our second bus ticket and then waited with coffee and cake in a fancy hotel next to where the bus would come. The hotel was a dream – it had AC, comfy chairs, WiFi, cake, coffee and even charging ports – what more could we want?! We even got savoury pancakes just before the bus!

When we were waiting on the road for our second bus, a man came up to us and asked if we wanted a taxi. We said ‘no’ and he said that we should run and get our bus which was over the road unannounced and with a very small sign in tow! We thanked him and hurried on our way!! The bus driver was meticulous in checking tickets and bags and all the rest of it. Therefore the bus was delayed, everyone in the bus was ground down but had bonded and we were therefore welcomed and warned about the driver when we got on!! We watched the sunset from the same road we had left hours before when we had riven back from the mountains – arghhh! We stopped for a break thirty minutes after we left Shkoder before carrying on! I got chatting with a Turkish guy and then a German couple and we all laughed at the chaos of the bus! Most people got off in Podgorica, but we headed straight on to Budva. We arrived late and we were pleased to have the owner of the guest house waiting to pick us up. What a lovely surprise!! She brought us tea (and even offered us raiku!), and then we slept!

17/6/22

Today we were going to go for a glorious brunch and then we planned to chill at the beach. We went to a place called Garden Cafe, which made me think of Kings Heath, and we had delicious omelettes. Then we headed down to the beach, looking for anl hat for Amanda and flip-flops for me. A hat wasn’t too hard to find but there was a wild shortage of flip-flops. Apparently all of Montenegro is slider mad, with absolutely no appreciation for flip-flops!! In fact, the only other thing they sold was crocs – what is wrong with the world?!

We got sunbeds on the beach and enjoyed a few hours of sunshine with a few interruptions of thunder and the occasional thunderbolt. Eventually, the storm won, and the rain took over the beach, causing a mass exodus from the beach. I wanted to wander towards the Old Town, so we did. We headed through the gate in the old walls and into the heart of the old town. There were many pretty streets, squares and a surprising number of churches next to each other. We sat in a square and enjoyed a drink. Then Amanda had to head home to work and I wandered back through the old town and then back to sunbathe on the beach since the weather had cleared up a bit. I even got a swim in before once again, the heavens opened and everyone’s beach days were done for the day!! I got a delicious banana ice cream on the way back and continued (but failed) to search for flip-flops – really I wanted Havaianas!!

I chilled awhile while Amanda finished working and then we headed out for dinner, going back to the Garden Cafe since the morning had been so good! Afterwards, we walked home, chilled and slept.

When you order two dishes and they’re both massive mains!!!

Waterfalls and the fear of falling

14/6/22

When we arrived in the beautiful village of Theth, we decided we needed to stay two nights. We wanted to relax and enjoy being in such a beautiful place as well as doing a couple of walks. When we arrived, we dumoed our stuff in our very cute room, before heading out on a short walk to a local waterfall, Gruna’s. We walked along riverside and were amazed at just how bright blue the water was, with fresh white foam – it was glorious!! We walked along before starting to climb up the rocks a short way so we could cross the river and then hike up a steep stoney bank to reach the waterfall. It was beautiful! We chilled there awhile before going back a different way (because noone loves a ‘there and back’ walk, am I right?!). On the walk back, I was hoping to find a cafe since I was rather peckish. Sadly, good old maps.me let me down on that front and the cafe that was marked was a long destroyed hut with no signs of life. Just past there though was a gorgeous canyon which was definitely an added bonus on our walk – it was bloody glorious!! After the canyon, we headed back towards the village riverside to find somewhere for a late lunch.

We had a somewhat frustrating lunch, frustrating due to the fact that the guesthouse we went to seemed to hate tourists and at first they didn’t want to serve us and then they avoided us entirely once we had our food – crazy! Then we headed back to our own guesthouse and I chilled on a balcony and read, enjoying mad mountains views simultaneously, while Amanda worked. I chatted to a Dutch American couple who were living together in Netherlands now, but had met in Indonesia, cuteeeee! They were fun! When Amanda was fine with work, we ate dinner – I had chicken soup followed by a stuffed pepper, all of which was rather good! Then we chilled and I slept relatively early since we had a pretty big hike to do the next day!

15/6/22

Today was hike day. The typical Theth hike takes you over Mt Valbone to Valona village, but it is then quite a mission to get back from Valona, so we decided to clb the mountain before retracing our steps back to Theth. This way, we didn’t need to carry big rucksacks nor did we need to move from our cute guesthouse or endure a long and complicated journey back to Shkoder.

We set off after a guest house breakfast of bread, cheese, eggs, tomatoes and cucumbers, with snacks and a sandwich. We stopped at the local shop to pick up more water and lemon soda and then we set off, over the river, up the valley and then cutting up into the hills, past guest houses and then into the woods. The scenery was very pretty. We crossed a couple more streams and I filled my LifeStraw each time. We stopped in a meadow for snacks and then stopped again near the stop to admire the mountains and eat more biscuits.

Towards the top, it became rather cliffy and I was not a big fan. I started my slow and cautious walking since the path wasade of grit and small stones and a school group and their teacher watched me bemused. I made it past the cliff edge thankfully to enjoy the views of the Valbina side. Then we climbed higher on more sketchy ground to the summit.

Of course, as I was going up, I was wondering how on earth I would get down! I sat at the top with cliffs on three out of four side of me and tried to enjoy my sandwich with a large dollop of vertigo on the side. Amanda found it amusing until I had spread the fear of falling of a cliff to her too! Soon she was also bum inching along to get down off the cliffy summit! A man asked if we were okay, which we were, but he also offered his poles, which I could not resist! I only needed one but he gave me both which was nice. Turns out he was an Albanian tour guide who did the walk between Theth and Valbona every week in hiking season. Since he was an expert, I only felt a little bad for stealing his poles! He shouted down to his German tour group that he was coming but he was helping the ‘junge madchen’. I was pleased to be described as such. Once off the sketchiest bit, I returned his poles, thanked him and we headed off back to Theth, while he continued with his group to Valbona. The way down was surprisingly quicker even with me being a bit of a wuss! I think I’ve become less of a wuss since all my travel hiking though, which is nice! We stopped to cool off on a stream once we were back at the bottom. We arrived back at the guest house around 4pm, showered and chilled before dinner. Then we ate and slept early.

16/6/22

We had a final guest house breakfast before packing and waiting for the minibus to take us back to the city. I waited for the bus on the upper balcony, read my book with a coffee and admired the view.

Wild swimming in Shkoder’s lake

13/6/22

We got to the bus station early, bought bus tickets and grabbed a bite to eat before boarding our bus to Shkoder, Albania. We hoped to travel all the way to Theth in one of Albania’s National Parks, but it didn’t work out. When we got to Shkoder, we were dropped randomly at the side of the road and when we walked to the bus station, we found it to be a car wash, with two men, a young boy and absolutely noooo buses! We asked in a nearby restaurant how to get to Theth and they told us it was impossible! We knew there was a minibus but not quite how to get it other than via a hostel, so we booked a night in a hostel and asked for a taxi into Shkoder from the restaurant. One of the punters in the cafe called a taxi for us and off we went. We checked into Wanderers Hostel (built for ‘wandering welshie’s’ I think!), left our stuff in the room, before Amanda did laundry and worked, while I headed to Shkoder Lake. It was early afternoon and I wanted to do something for the day!

I walked through a very cute pedestrianised, tiled street and then headed past a mosque, then a second mosque, before going down some country lanes, and eventually reaching the lane that would lead me to the lake. Down the lane was an old man who stopped at a farm gate, and told me ‘six close’. Another old man came from the direction of the lake carrying a long stick with a curved blade on the end, a tithe maybe?! He pointed me down the lane and said ‘swim place’. I passed a fisherman who was contending with cows while fishing since they were cooling off in the ponds, a few frogs and a cuckoo.

When I arrived, there were three men swimming and a few fishermen dotted about the lake. As I got closer, the three men turned out to be a dad and his two boys playing lots of games in the water! Ideal swimming companions for a solo gal – what a win!! I got in to find cool, but not cold water and many reeds! Initially every reed that brushed me I thought was something creepy, but I got used to it and was able to enjoy both the water and the beautiful mountain views on all sides!!

On my walk back, I saw an old guy ride a bicycle while pulling a horse along as well as a cat and a chicken have a standoff in the street! How bizarre!! I stopped for a coffee before going to a well rated pizzeria for pizza and local wine. The streets were absolutely packed out in the evenings with throngs of well-dressed people milling about. I met Amanda back at the hostel since she wasn’t feeling so good.

14/6/22

Another move day! Today we were heading for the mountains! We got an early bus from the hostel after the usual breakfast of bread, cheese, a boiled egg and some tomatoes. We were told that the ride was meant to take one and a half hours, but sadly that was not true. Four hours later, with many a windy road, we arrived in Theth, in the middle of the National Park! It was very beautiful and looked remarkably like Georgia!!

Kosovo’s kind men!

11/6/22

I arrived in Kosovo in the small hours and someone had stayed up at my hostel to let me in. My taxi driver had asked why I was in Kosovo and when I asked him if he liked it, he said he did not because the people were bad. He then clarified that the people without money were bad! A strange ewelcome into a country but hey!! I hit the sack immediately when I arrived. In the morning, I chilled a bit before heading to a cafe for breakfast along side a longggg and much overdue catch up call with my parents! We stayed on the phone two and a half hours since it’d been quite a while since we had last spoken! I tried to pay my way in the cafe but even after buying breakfast, two coffees and cake, I had somehow still only spent €7! Madness!

Afterwards, I went for a mooch about the town, down the main pedestrianised street named Mother Teresa Boulevard. I wandered down the road which had streams of bunting in the form of line of Kosovan and (bizarrely) Albanian flags! The street seemed very European with all the cafes flooding the street and I walked down the full street, stopping in a lovely bookshop, with bookshelves floor to ceiling with the propped ladder before reaching a square at the end with a fancy hotel with ‘brutalist’ architecture. I had a mooch in a secondhand shop, which was huiiige and mainly sold used Nikes and handbags.

Afterwards, I walked to a nearby church, which was apparently the cathedral and then up a hill, past a road called Bill Clinton Boulevard (why?!), past a music venue like St David’s Hall, where kids were all coming out of, having finished piano recitals in cute outfits. They stopped to pose while their parents took photos of them with the banners advertising the day and I walked up towards the university. The chemistry block had a great mural on the side!! I bought snacks and a drink from the shop and then sat in a park on campus and read my book. Then I walked back to the hostel to chill.

Amanda arrived late, around 9pm. It was lovely to see her again, although strange for it to be in a place where we could talk and dress freely! Who knew we had legs and hair?! We chatted and chilled before going to bed.

12/6/22

Today we went back to my cafe from the day before for another Kosovan breakfast – it looked a bit liked Israeli shashuka except instead of tomato with eggs, it was eggs with cheese and peppers. It was yummy! Then we headed back to the main boulevard to do a walking tour. There were many different nationalities attending the tour: US, UK, Australians that Amanda had met on a previous tour, three separate Brazilians, a Croatian with a Taiwanese and German.

The guide began the tour with a little history before saying that most of Kosovo’s beautiful old buildings were destroyed by Kosovans just so they could build new ones – how bizarre! He also explained a bit about the civil war and how most Kosovans thought of themselves as Albanian but that it was too complicated to join Albania as a country because it would upset the Serb/Montenegro minorities that lived there. Therefore, while most people would say they were Albanian, they were also Kosovan. We walked through the new and the old town, past a few mosques, one of which was 600 years old, through a market and to see an old traditional house that looked and smelt like St. Fagans!

After the tour, we headed for lunch on the main boulevard – I ate mushroom risotto and we watched the world go by. We got the local bus to a park and meandered along and people watched before going to the hostel for a bit. There was an awesome pool which sadly wasn’t on

We headed back out for drinks and then a late night dinner at the same place as lunch. This time I got pasta! (Nice to be able to get Italian food when you have only been eating Georgian food for a whole month!). We sat at a table under a tree and nearly got hit by a falling pinecone! The waiter apologised profusely and asked if we wanted to move. Later when we has gotten a little to much into people watching causing us to stand up to nose, he came over again and asked if he could do anything for us!

13/6/22

We left the hostel early to reach the bus station in time to get the first bus to Shkoder, Albania. Our taxi driver was very sweet – he helped carry our bags, was friendly and wished us safe travels before he left!

Batumi’s boats, beach and boulevard

8/6/22

After a breakfast of tomatoes, cheese and bread, we headed out in the opposite direction from the day before along the beach. We were eventually going to go to the fish market to eat at a fish restaurant. It was only an hour or so in the hot sun along the beach front to get there! We stopped at a Ukrainian beach cafe for iced coffee before continuing on. We past a few bar/restaurants and then a whole lot of boats in the harbour and then ships in the port. We seemed to have left the city centre and started walking over a flyover with very fast cars before we eventually reached the fish restaurant, Taverna Balagan. The fish market was big, but by this point we were starving so we headed straight into the restaurant and ordered a glorious fish platter with veggies and wine. It was divine!

After a very late lunch, we got a Bolt taxi back to the centre to a coffee shop much like Damascena for coffee and cake. Then we had a mooch around the old town. It had beautiful architecture, some old, some new and some very Soviet!! I bought some baklava and we walked through Europa Square, which had both an indie market going on as well as a ‘save Ukraine’ protest and then we arrived at a square that looked very Venetian, only to find that it was called Venice Square and that they had purposefully copied Venetian architecture in the noughties because they liked it!

From there, we walked back along the beach homeward bound. We walked through a bustling park, filled by evening strollers, ping-pong players, snooker souls and general moochers. It was thriving! There were various street vendors selling things as well as stalls with things to punch and kick to win prizes. We passed by some fountains that were dancing in colourful light before I heard live music featuring saxophone in a fancy looking bar. Paulo was pretty tired sand carried on home while I went to sit at the bar (after being vetted by security and being escorted to a seat) to watch the band. I drank a margarita and enjoyed those tunes. A girl was happily dancing on her own in front of her group of friends who were all seated. After a couple of sets, I headed home.

9/6/22

Today we had another tomato ‘tostada’ breakfast before heading out towards the old town. We went for a mooch about, got a very Georgian lunch of khinkali (dumplings), with a tomatoey sauce and Adjurian khachapuri, which is cheesey bread with a egg baked on top. I had tried one before and thought it was rather unpleasant, but someone had told me to retry it in Batumi since it is from the region that Batumi is in. I’m glad I re-tried it as it was infinitely than the first one, and actually pretty darn delicious! Afterwards, we mooched round an Orthodox church and then headed off to another mosque which you could supposedly visit. From the outside, it didn’t look anything special, so we didn’t try to go in. It was interesting to walk there though as it was surrounded by a few Turkish streets giving it a different feel than the other areas of Batumi – you could almost be in Istanbul, with its many bustling cafes and baklava shops! Afterwards, we went to an artisan coffee shop for great coffee and cake.

Since we had spent our day eating, we decided to go on a boat to wake up a little for the afternoon. In the end, we decided to hire a boat privately, since the big boats only did thirty minute tours and we wanted at least an hour! Since it wasn’t Western Europe prices, we went for it and even enjoyed wine onboard as well as a combination of our songs and some Georgian classics from the driver! The views back over Batumi were lovely, along with the views of the distant mountains round the bay and, best of all, the jumping dolphins, playing in the waves. Paulo swam from the boat, but I just basked in the sun on deck! After our boat trip, we sunbathed on the beach before beginning to walk home along the beach.

We stopped at a bar for sunset cocktails and snacks, watched a fountain light show timed to music, and then got a curry at a curry house that smelt glorious and at which many Arab people were eating. I assumed that both of these things would mean that the curry would be good, if not highly delicious, but ohhhhh, how I was wrong!! Our ‘butter chicken’ arrived looking like vomit and it tasted like Heinz cream of tomato soup, which is one of the few foods in the world that I strongly dislike!! The paratha did not look right and the naan was very thin. It was not worth eating for me. Paulo was hungry so ate it anyway, but I would’ve gladly sent it back – it was worth than school dinners (before Jamie Oliver had a pop at them too!). We headed home after that and I was sad about how crap the curry was, alongside the thought of how good a curry I can get at home in Birmingham! Maaaaan!

10/6/22

Today was my final day in Georgia before I flew to Kosovo to meet Amanda, my Coloradan friend, who I had met while we were both volunteering in Edna’s hospital in Hargeisa.

Two dolphins and a boat!

For my final day with Paulo, we were first going to go for brunch. Paulo had found a place that did Eggs Benedict and it did not disappoint! Afterwards, we headed to the beach to chill for a few hours. I swam, read and watched the dolphins jump about once again. After a few hours, we went for a last coffee before I headed to the airport. We past some street art on the way to get my bag.

I got through check-in and security toot-sweet and then I sat in a bar eating truffle and parmesan fries after trying to order them off the menu. They told me it was an ‘either paramesan or truffle’ situation but unfortunately for them, their menu stated ‘truffle + parmesan’ which I pointed out in true Vinestock fashion! This benefitted me as then I was able to order the extra delicious combo fries. I thanked them before leaving and boarding my flight.

My stopover in Istanbul was pretty ordinary aside from the fact that one, they are now so tight that no WiFi is free anymore, (not even one hour!), and two, an adult had a very lifelike toy cat on a lead. I was so intrigued that I took a photo!!