Adventures in the Balkans

Here is your update on our Spring Break Trip to the Balkans! Sorry it has taken a week, but I came back to St Andrews slammed with work. Seems like I’ll be head under in work for the next month, that’s for sure! On to more exciting things…THE BALKANS!

The six of us started off our trip in Zadar, Croatia. We were so excited for warm weather, sunshine, and the Adriatic Sea! But the next morning we woke up to the pouring rain, and not-so-warm temperatures…a bit disappointing!

We went for coffee that morning, walked around in the rain with no clear skies in sight, visiting at the tourist attractions in Zadar. We could only handle the rain for so much, though, so we decided to go for an early lunch at a restaurant that had been recommended to us. One thing Croatia is known for is seafood. We decided to order an appetizer of calamari and one or two other types of fish to share between the six of us, and we each ordered a main course. We had a bit of trouble communicating successfully what we wanted with the waiter, but thought by the time we had finished he understood us. We got a little confused, though, when our main courses came before the starter. It wasn’t until our “starter” arrived that we understood why he looked at us like we were crazy when we ordered the appetizer. The appetizer was a humongous plate of all sorts of cooked fish – heads, eyes, and tails still attached!!!!! And note, we got this AFTER we had eaten most of our main courses. We were stuffed, and thinking we were just getting a wee plate of food to share, when indeed, it was enough for all of us to eat for a main course! And then we got the bill – that plate of fish certainly wasn’t what we had ordered – it was 30 British Pounds!! First faux-pas of the trip!! But something to laugh about as well!
After lunch, we walked to the bus station in the rain to board a 3-hour bus ride to Split, which is south of Zadar on the Dalmatian Coast. As soon as we got on the bus, the sun came out bright and clear! The drive was absolutely gorgeous, with the bus driving right next to the coast the entire way. As we arrived as the harbor-side bus station in Split, we found the little apartment we rented for two nights. Although hostels are nice and fun to meet new people, it was really nice to have a flat to ourselves, where we could cook ourselves and have a common area to hang out in. The next day in Split, it was another rainy day. We went through Diocletian’s Palace (which takes up a huge part of the city center in Split), and then some of the group went back to the flat just to relax and read in order to avoid the rain. Others of us continued to walk around and later stopped for a coffee in an outdoor café (sitting under an umbrella, of course). It cleared up late afternoon, and we had a nice home-cooked meal that evening, sitting outside on the patio enjoying each other’s company and chatting.

The following day, the majority of our day was spent on a five-hour bus ride headed south to the very southern tip of the Dalmatian Coast to the city of Dubrovnik. In Dubrovnik, we had found online and booked a lovely apartment on the top story of a housing building with a huge terrace overlooking the Adriatic Sea. Let me tell you, the weather was perfect – sunny and about 70 degrees, the company was great, and the view was out of this world - Dubrovnik was absolutely paradise! I couldn’t wait to wake up the next morning and have a cup of tea on the terrace. The next morning, we enjoyed a slow morning of sipping tea, the warm weather, and a nice cooked breakfast on the terrace before we headed into the Old Town. It was a beautiful day filled with sunshine, history, and a boat ride around the islands surrounding Dubrovnik. Such a great day!

We were in Dubrovnik for three days before heading over to Bosnia-Herzegovina. Our first stop was Mostar, which is in the North. Mostar was a beautiful city and very interesting. The city is split into two by the Neretva River, as well as split by two different religions. One side of the river is the Muslim side, while the other side is inhabited by Orthodox Christians. It is one of the most interesting cities I’ve ever been. We spent the day wandering the city, having a very nice lunch at an outdoor riverside restaurant, where one of my friends tried “breaded brains,” just as they appeared on the menu. Bosnians eat a TON of meat….everything ordered came with just meat on the plate – no sides!

We caught a train at 6:30 that evening down to Sarajevo, where we would meet Una, the girl who lives beside me in Deans Court. Una is from Sarajevo, and met us at the train station when we arrived. For the next 36 hours, we needed to do nothing – Una was a great tour guide and took very good care of us! The following day, we sat down for a coffee that morning – Bosnian coffee that is – and then Una guided us around Sarajevo. Her Bosnian grandmother cooked us a lovely traditional Bosnian meal, which included meat pies, spinach pies, and sarma (minced meat wrapped in cabbage and in a sauce), and then a very nice cake for dessert. We had this for a late lunch, and we were all struggling to move once we finished! So much meat!!!

The next day, we boarded a train at 6:30 in the morning for a twelve hour adventure up to Budapest, Hungary. At each country’s border, we would have to stop twice – once for the current country’s border patrol to come and look at our passports, then twenty minutes down the track, we’d stop again for the next country’s border patrol to come in and do the same thing. This happened three times! The trip wasn’t as bad as I expected – luckily we were able to claim a little room with just six seats in it, which was nice for it to be just our group for the twelve hours, rather than having to share a cabin with many different people. This made it possible for us to have conversations (because the trains were loud, not airconditioned, and old.
Budapest was absolutely wonderful and such a beautiful city! I think it may be one of my favorite European capitals that I’ve seen this year! We had a great small hostel that was really clean and spacious! The first full day we were there, we had a nice breakfast and coffee at another outdoor café in the 75 degree weather – I loved it! We then took a 3-hour tour around the city. Budapest is split into two parts by the Danube River. Buda is on one side of the river, where the old town is, and Pest is the new part of town. We had great food while we were in Budapest, and it was fairly inexpensive! The last night we were there, we found a Jazz festival and enjoyed just listening to the jazz while sitting in the grass, sipping wine, and watching the sunset. A perfect way to end our trip to Eastern Europe!
This trip was so different from any other trip I’ve taken so far this year. Each place we went was very different, almost to the point that it seemed like every country we went to was a like a completely different holiday. The company was great, and we are still talking about how we’d rather go back to the lovely weather in Croatia rather than the murky weather in St Andrews!

Although the weather’s been cold and wet this week, it’s so nice with long light days now! It doesn’t get dark these days until after 9 p.m. In the mornings, the haar has started to come in. A little Scottish lesson for you, the “haar” is the coastal fog that comes into land off the North Sea in the mornings. It’s a very dense fog, and you can hardly see fifteen feet in front of you…and there’s definitely a mist that falls on you all morning before the haar lifts. It can look like at 9 a.m. that it will be a very cloudy, wet day, when in all actuality, it can be gorgeous and sunny by 1 p.m. Guess it’s something to look forward to all summer! Sorry to bore you with such a long blog, but I hope you are still enjoying the updates!