Day 2: Jet-lagged

First 5 mosquite bites. Check.

First minor sunburn. Check.

You’d think someone would learn after 24 years but unfortuantely not.

Besides that it was a nice day. Did nothing significant and it was great.

Day 1: Up in the air

I can now officially say I hate long flights. What a terror the last 9,5 hours were. Got a constant headache that won’t go away. Didn’t get any sleep ofcourse. I did start this blog, that’s something. And then I accidentally deleted it from my phone notes. Awesome!

Apart from the above I did watch a few movies and TV episodes, so I basically used those hours the same as I would at home hehe. But way less comfortable unfortunately. I was really impressed by the movies available, so much choice.

Luckily I survived and arrived at the hostel at 21:45 Dutch time and 15:45 local time. I am wrecked but trying very hard to stay awake.

So, my plan is to stay awake until 20:30-ish local time. Walked around the neighborhood, drank redbull and took an amazing semi-cold shower.

I am staying in a sort of ‘village’. With different accommodation types. It used to be an ice cream factory. So all the buildings have ice cream names like cornetto or split or waffle. Very fun!

I already love that Curaçao has so much color. It just looks like one giant rainbow. If I would paint the outside of my house it would probably be blue. Or yellow.

Okay, two more hours to go untill that sweet, sweet sleep. I will post this but will text you all tomorrow so you can check it out. Since I don’t want to wake you!

Almost forgot: Can you help me out with thinking of a name for my travel companion? I had 9,5 hours and could not come up with a good name. I think it’s a kangaroo but I’m not sure haha. Let’s hear some suggestions y’all.

Pic of the little rascal:

Day 64: Home again

Hi everyone,

I made it back home safely! I just want to thank you for taking the time to read about my experiences. This trip was exactly what I needed and it gave me so much. I figuered a lot out about myself and what I want for my future.

For now I will go back to working for a while until I have enough funds to go on another trip, hopefully outside of Europe! I am ready for a new challenge, a work related challenge. I am sure my love for travel will never go away and I’m sure that ‘itch’ won’t either. So when the time for a new journey comes I might do another blog, this was much more fun than I imagined it to be. I hope you enjoyed it as much as I did.

Here are some ‘End of the Game’ statistics:

  1. Driven through 12 countries in Europe
  2. Best hotel: In Greece, hotel Nevros next to the lake and with cute puppies
  3. Worst hotel: In Serbia on the drive to Greece, so gross
  4. Best to see in Greece: Meteora and its monasteries
  5. Best to see in Croatia: Plitvic national park, for sure!
  6. Things I lost:
    Shampoo, conditioner and body wash
    2 silver rings
    2 cups of yoghurt
    Phone charger
  7. Things I broke:
    Ipod (probably)
    Jeans
  8. Thing that suprisingly did not break: Car!
  9. Longest drive: From Serbia to Croatia, around 9 hours
  10. Shortest drive: To the supermarket when raining, probably 5 minutes
  11. What I also wanted to do but did not get to in Greece:
    Cyprus
  12. What I also wanted to do but did not get to in Croatia:
    Paraglading
  13. Most stressful moment: Trying to parallel park on a hill or driving in the mountains.

Until next time, αντίο, pozdrav, tschüss, bye!

Day 63: Netherland

Dear all,

Today I drove through Germany! But I did not make it without a 15 minute nap in the car. Can’t believe tomorrow I have to get back to normal, weird. Adjustment will be hard.

Hope you all had a good Sunday.

Day 62: Backtrace

Hi everyone,

Today I begun the long drive back home. It started with a hard wake up, I got used to sleeping in. Then an hour long drive through the country sight of Croatia and Slovenia. Not sure why my navigation did that, I need a ‘prefer mostly high ways’ function!

When I finally got to the highway in Slovenia, I needed to buy a vignet as soon as possible. Unfortunately it’s not available everywhere. Let’s hope I was on time because it was only a few more kilometers to the border of Austria by then. We will notice in a few weeks if I get a huge fine or not. Great.

Austria itself was pretty easy to drive, nothing special happened. I did notice it was getting busier and busier. Wasn’t used to that anymore but I’m sure I will adjust very fast.

Anyways, I made it to Germany in one piece. I was just in time before dark and saw the sun set behind the mountains. With fog going over the fields, it was gorgeous.

Tomorrow another long drive ahead. Going to sleep very early.

Hope you had a good day!

Day 61: The Last Day

Hi everyone,

Yesterday was the last day in Zagreb and ‘officially’ the last day of the journey. I used it to roam around the city and see some more cool buildings and shop a little. Since it was freezing the whole day (yes also in daylight, help!) I might have been more inside than outside. In the afternoon I had some drinks with Jordan and his fiance Ivana. They are moving from Zagreb to Berlin today! So a very exciting time indeed.

The Christmas spirit is already here in Zagreb! Today they officially open the Christmas markets around the city. Zagreb is known for winning the best Christmas market in Europe, three years in a row now (beating Germany!).

I also got to eat a nice Croatian sweet pastery today. It is called Stanigica malina vanilija which translates to a Raspberry and vanilla pastery.

So today I will be heading back to the Netherlands! Driving through Slovenia and Austria today, straight to Germany. I have a long drive ahead of me.

Hope you all have a good weekend!

Day 60: Zagreb stories

Dear everyone,

Yesterday I drove from Pula to Zagreb. It wasn’t the best weather so it took some time. The wind was so powerful that I couldn’t go full speed on the highway. The clouds above were definitely going faster than I was.

But I made it safe and sound. The Airbnb has a great location. And I finally have more warm water than for just 4 minutes, win!

Today I started the day with a free walking tour. It was, as they always are, very interesting. I saw all the big sights and got a lot of cool stories and legends about (the history of) Zagreb.

For example, Zagreb used to exist out of two villages on top of those hills. One village was the ‘normal’ people and one village was the ‘rich’ and religious people. In the end the villages grew and were merged into one big city. The remains of this are very clear all over the city. You still have an uppertown and downtown (literally) and there are old parts of the city walls visible.

The name Zagreb stems from a time when the water source dried up. Some random bloke put his sword into the ground out of anger and frustration, he luckily hit a new water source. The villagers built a well and were able to scoop up water again. Apparently the Croation word for ‘scooping up’ is similar (a rough translation) of the word Zagreb.

The Zagreb Cathedral

Fun fact: these chandeliers are from a casino in Las Vegas.

The parlement:

The next picture has a story as well. This used to be a watch tower next to the gate of the walls from the upper town. Now it serves for something else. When the towns merged there were many churches that would ring there bells whenever they thought it was time. To coordinate the bells they figured, let’s make one loud noise and after that all the bells can ring. So they placed a canon inside the watch tower. This now goes off every day at noon. I actually captured it on video and below is a sceenshot. The noise of that canon is crazy! Really freaking loud, as you would imagine. Simultaneously, I think I found my new dream job. Joking aside, this canon guy always opens the window and waves at the crowd below. Every. Day.

Unfortunately I already stopped filming by then but if you want to look it up, the canon has its own Facebook page. Every day at noon it posts ‘Boom’. How awesome is that!

If you zoom in, you can spot the canon in the first picture.

I hope you all had a wonderful day.

 

Day 58: A Walk To Remember

Dear everyone,

Today has been a sunny day, thankfully. I went to another nature reserve close to the village Premantura. I don’t think it is a National Park but it sure looked that way. It was really calm and peacefull. I only saw three other people in the time I was in the park.

I walked the Dinosaur trail, I think it was made for children. Very fun and educational! Apparantly this part of Croatia used to be an island near Africa around 65 million years ago, which gave an unusual vegetation.

The village closeby was actually a ghost town as well. It looked like most of the buildings were hotels or apartments and now empty because it is off season.

But they did have cute colorfull buildings, just the way I like it.

When I got back from the hike, I ordered a pizza and had a quiet evening.

Hope you all had a great day!

Day 57: Dry

Hi everyone,

It has finally stopped raining! So today was a good day to spend outside in the city Pula. Pula is known for having the Pula Arena, a gigantic amphitheater. It is among the six largest surviving Roman arenas in the world (according to Wikipedia) and the best preserved ancient monument in Croatia (also according to Wikipedia).

 

After checking out the amphitheater I roamed around the city a bit. I came a cross a castle, which gave a great view of the city.

The castle:

The view (you can also see the Pula Arena):

I also came across the St. Francis church but it was under construction, so no pictures. Here is a picture of another church though, I don’t remember the name.

I also checked out the Temple of August, this is one of the roman temples in Croatia.

And one of the many gates I saw in my walk through the city.

Hope you all had a dry day as well!

Day 55: The Rain

Dear all,

Today has been an inside day since it has been raining since the early morning. And not a little drizzle, no full on crazy thick water drops. So I waited untill it stopped and then went downtown to get some dinner. I found this cute little restaurant with cool graffiti on the walls outside.

The restaurant inside:

Ofcourse while I was in the restaurant it had started to rain again. In matter of seconds my socks and louzy cloth shoes where soaking wet. Luckily it was only a 15 minute walk and I could change into pyjamas when I arrived.

Hope you al had a drier day!

Day 54: The Way Way Back

Hi everyone,

Unfortuantely the weather was not good enough to go paragliding today. Hopefully tomorrow will be better! But that can only be determined a few hours ahead.

So instead I went to explore the city Rijeka a bit.

View from the balcony:

In the city center:

I have also planned my trip back home. Since the weather is getting worse and worse, I have decided to go back. If you want to know the plan, send me a message. Nothing is set in stone yet, of course. There are still a few things I want to do and see here.

Hope you all had good Black Friday shoppings!

 

Day 53: On the Road

Hi everyone,

Today was not that interesting. I basically have been driving from Zadar to Rijeka. Since most of the highway was closed off, I took the coast road. Which was very beautiful but also annoying to drive, going 60 or 40 for the corners. It took about 4 hours and of course there weren’t too many bathrooms and gas stations in sight.

But I did test the winter tires, seems good to me! I still have to think about a way to move the two tires on the passenger seat. I really miss how I could just throw everything on the seat next to me, like a little table.

Tomorrow I will get an e-mail from the Paragliding Company, if the weather is good enough to fly in. Very curious!

Hope you all have a good day and happy Thanksgiving!

Day 52: The Shape of Water

Hi all,

Today I started the day by going to Plitvic national park. This park is quite famous for the waterfalls. And it does its reputation justice for sure. The first suprise was that there was snow everywhere since this is about 2 hours inland and a bit higher up the mountains.

After I arrived I walked the 3500 m, smallest round in the park. There is so much that I didn’t see but I think I got the best part, the rest is mostly done by boat or a really long walk.

Also walked through a bat cave! Luckily I did not see or hear any though. They are scary!

I could literally here the snow melting and falling of the trees. Of course when I was eating lunch, a batch of snow fell on my head, scarf and down my neck. Awesome.

After the first snowy day I finally got my summer tires changed to winter tires! It went surprisingly well but I haven’t checked them out in daylight. Let’s hope no surprises tomorrow!

Talking about tomorrow, I will drive a few hours to the next place to visit!

Hope you all had a good day.

Day 51: Cruising

Hi everyone,

Yesterday I drove from Split to Zadar and while doing so, I visited the National Park Krka. It was really gorgeous and hopefully these pictures say more than I could write down.

The park was really mostly water, pools, lakes and a lot of waterfalls made for an interesting picture.

I didn’t really say many animals. Just some ducks, small birds, fish and of course, a cat. Eventhough there were supposed to be a lot of snakes, frogs and larger mamals. It might be for the best that I didn’t see any of those.

Today was supposed to be a rainy day, when I woke up and looked outside it actually was not that bad! So I went to explore the city a bit. I didn’t do a walking tour so I don’t really know that much about the pictures. Sorry!

Hope you all had a good weekend.

Day 49: Jurassic Park

Dear everyone,

Today is my last day in Split, so I started the day by organizing my next place to sleep. The rest I spend going to the park close by, it gave a very beautiful view of the city. I did a little picknick and enjoyed the scenery.

After this I walked around the city, there was one part left undiscovered so this is where I went. There are multiple little harbors around, this one seemed to be for the rich people with big sail boats.

In the mean time the sun is already going down, which gave a gorgeous sky. It is amazing that the sun sets so often and yet it keeps being beautiful and worth to watch every day.

Tomorrow I will go to my next destination!

Hope you all had a wonderful weekend.

 

Day 48: The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy

Dear all,

I will include yesterday in this post, since I did not do that much. I hung out with Lucas until he left for his next destination. After that I went to a cute beach, very close to the city center. Unfortuantely the weather has been getting colder and more windy lately, so the beach was not the best option.

Today I took the ferry to another island, called Hvar. It is such a beautiful island and also again, a filming location for Mama mia: here we go again. And I could see why. Firstly, I visited a town called Vrboska. It was very idyllic with many adorable houses, boats and palm trees.

In winter time the island Hvar is not heavily populated. This also has an effect on the public transport system (if you could even call it that). So the choice was: wait 3 hours for a bus or walk 1 hour to the next town over.
Of course I walked an hour to the next town, called Jesla (finally a pronounceable name). The walk itself was quite beautiful, the roast was next to the sea and cliffs but also in a pine forest. This gave a gorgeous combination in sight and smells, pine trees and salty water smells apparantly pretty amazing.

No idea if this is edible. Decided it was not worth a try eventhough it looks delicious.

In this picture you can really see the different colors the water can have. Very interesting!

When I arrived in Jesla, it was just as Vrboska, pretty silent. But pretty non the less.

I looked around for a bus station in Jesla for a good solid half hour. When I finally found it, no bus in sight. It would be another two hour wait, again. So after some consideration I decided to walk and (hopefully) catch a ride with someone. Since it was only a 15 minute drive and also a two hour walk.
On my way I come across an olive tree! Unfortuately the olives were all over ripe, too bad.

Just when my feet start to hurt, I can hitch a ride from a local. After about 7 minutes (of course, going way over speed limit) he drops me off at the ferry port. Since now I have taken my two hour trip in way less minutes I have about 1,5 hour to spare before the ferry arrives. The port is about 2 kilometers from another village, so maybe I could spend my time there?
Before I could think of it, I came across the cutest dog ever, named Black Betty! And her owner, Ivana, was nice company so we chose to sit in a cafe to relax a bit.

When I stopped petting Betty, she gave me this look. How can I resist? She was basically a warm blanket.

In the mean time it is getting colder and colder on the island as the sun goes down. We are very happy when we can get on the ferry.

Winter has finally come for Croatia and so has the task of finding my car some winter tires.

Hopefully on Monday I can go to a garage where they can change them out. Will keep you posted. Have a nice weekend!

Day 46: The Big Short

Hi everyone,

Today I took a ferry to the island Vis. Since there was only one trip today with the ferry I had quite a short time on the island. The ferry also took longer than I expected unfortunately. So the ferry left at 11:00 and I arrived on the island at 13:00. During the ride to the island I met a guy named Sarent from Albania. We chatted all the boat trip and when we arrived on the island he showed me around. In the end I only had 2 hours on the island, including a 30 minutes bus ride.

We went to Komiza because there was a restaurant there I wanted to checkt out. Apparently that is where the bar scenes were shot in Mama Mia here we go again. Also Vis was the inspiration for the imaginary island in the film. So it was nice to get an impression of the island and its scenery. Unfortunately the restaurant was closed and since I hadn’t eaten lunch yet we got something to eat somewhere else.

And a kitten came to try to steal our food.

In the end I missed the bus back to the port. The chef from the restaurant offered to give me a lift back, very sweet (and fast). I made it to the ferry on time and saw the sunset from there (through a dirty window though, sorry).

In the end I was on the boat for 5 hours and on the island for only 2. Totally worth it though! I will have to go back once again in spring to see the gorgeous surroundings once more.

Check out these beautiful images!

When I got back to Split I got drinks with Lucas, from the USA. We talked and he is doing Croatie North to South, so the opposite ai am doing. I hope I convinced him to check out Dubrovnik. He gave me some advice about what to see as well.

Overall a really good day. Hope you all had a nice one as well.

Day 45: Little Miss Sunshine

Hi all,

Today I went to explore Split by myself. I tried looking for a Free walking tour but did not find any. So unfortuately I do not have that much information for you about it.

This an art gallery.

Next to the art gallaery was a monastery.

I also passed the Palace of Diocletian. This is a huge complex in the city with inner and outer walls, as well as mulitple gates. Really interesting but kind of hard to figuere out without a bit more information.

I just saw on Wikipedia that it is also used in Game of Thrones. Apparantly it is where the dragons are kept underground in season 4 and 5.

Some other cool buildings and pictures!

Since today was the last day that the weather was really nice (21 degrees and sunshine) I decided to do a slow day and relaxe in the sun mostly. Worth it!

Tomorrow will be a more active day.

Have a nice night.

Day 44: Split

Dear everyone,

Today has been quit uneventful. But I don’t mind.
I woke up and drove to Split, this went pretty smooth. I then went to a nearby beach to catch the last sunshine of the day. After this I went to get dinner in the city center. Finally some nice food for a good price again, looking at you Dubrovnik.

I’ve been having a headache all day so it will be an early night.

Sleep tight, all.

Day 43: Eagle Eye

Hi everyone,

Today was not the best day for my fear of hights. Non the less it was really cool to see Dubrovnik from a higher view.

I started the day by walking the city walls. Dubrovnik has more than 5000 steps of stairs and the city wall has about 1000 of these. Since I did the whole circle, my calves were not happy.

Here are pictures of the city and surroundings with different angles:

I also encountered this little guy.

After the city walls I went to fort Imperial up on the mountain. Here is a picture of the fort from down in the city:

You can get up the mountain two ways, with a bus + an hour long uphill walk or with a cable car. Got to say, both are not my cup of tea. After careful consideration I did chose the cable car. It was only a few minutes luckily.

On the way back I even convinced myself to look outside for a second!

The trip up was totally worth it though, look at this view! Absolutely gorgeous. I could see the whole city and the old town within. On the other side was a mountain and the sea.

I even encountered two cute fluffy donkeys. They ignored me completely and even walked towards me at some point.

The fort also has this solar panel benches where you can charge your phone, Dubrovnik being smart agian.

In the evening I organized my next destination. Tomorrow I am leaving Dubrovnik. As sad as that is, I look forward to a more quiet place. Where I can at least find a spot to be alone with my thoughts.

Happy monday!

P.S. I told you that I would get back about donating to an stray animal rescue organization in Greece, I finally did. Feels good to do good!