one hell of a year

So. I’ll just do the one post about Montenegro and Albania- because I don’t have too many photos, there’s more to explain.
So i went straight from sail croatia to this ‘Balkan road trip.’ As it was the first tour of the season there were only 3 of us on tour- luckily it was two other girls i knew from sail Croatia. We had a really nice little Albanian man as our guide who was excellent with history and numbers. He also liked to repeat things and we got the drift he didn’t want other people to talk to us. Very entertaining and cute in a way ha. We learnt heaps about the area, and even more about Albania. It’s crazy that they only just came out of communism 20 years ago. Meaning they also only got cars then! There are heaps of signs of this- many unfinished buildings in the countryside as families run out of money, and the cities full of what our guide rightly jokingly called the ‘ugly communist buildings.’ A strange thing we noticed about the unfinished houses were teddy bears or skulls hanging on the front- and sometimes garlic in the doors of even restaurants and such. They are a very superstitious country too it seems. The people were always very friendly though and my god it was cheap! They still used ‘lek’ but a meal for four with beers usually worked out about 12-15 euro equivelent! I got out 40 euro and had too much for 3 days! Because our tour was so small we also got to stay in 4 star hotels- I guess they must have been cheap too! It was amazing after a week in the small cabin below decks sailing! Though it did take two days and nights to stop feeling like I was swaying! Worst feeling. Anyway I didn’t have any big nights out- saved myself for Greece ;) but we did some great tours including one of a town that was inside castle walls on top of a hill- we even went to a local restaurant there which had no menu and no one spoke English- we pointed at the food we wanted and had no idea how much it would be- but of course we needn’t be worried, it was about 3 euro each. Inside there was an amazing church with hand carved wooden walls. This is where I took this photo of Jesus apparently.. Doing what seems to be a gang sign. I found it interesting and a little entertaining that he does it in all the pictures of him depicted by the orthodox church. The whole country was very religious- about half orthodox half Muslim I think it was. Sometimes they even live in separate parts of towns! Lastly we toured a whole island of roman ruins- as impressive as rome’s own purely because of how much there was!
That’s about all I have to share with you about Albania. Montengro we passed through on the first day and it was just as nice and cheap as Croatia. It was great to learn so much about Albania though and see somewhere with nearly no tourism!
One last thing I remember - our guide was explaining/complaining about the fact they had a fixed tax of 10%! We started to say how good that was, but turns out he believe the richer should pay more etc etc. Which i don’t believe, but oh well, let’s hope one day he maybe get a lower tax than 10% ha!

Now I’m upto Greece- but speaking of Greece, I’m going to leave my spot by the side of the road and go get a gyros ;)

And actually lastly- a bit of the ghetto, obviously. Ha

A super hotel I wish I can go back to one day in Hvar

Lauren, nat, Sarah and I in Dubrovnik :)

Ok I lied here’s a couple more - the amazing concrete beach ;)

Lastly- jo, nat and I in Hvar. Expect more soon… Otherwise I will have way to much to write about. Oh wait, I already do!

When we went buggy driving- very crazy, especially with Croatian safety standards and driving on the wrong side of the road!

The one sandy beach! Dubrovnik

This being one of the cruise boats - and I have seen so many more in Greece! But Dubrovnik was the last stop in Croatia, and therefore you’ll have to wait to hear about my next stops on the way to Greece- it’s time for me to go out. I’ll post a couple more Croatia photos and write soon. Just for the update- i’m now in santorini :)

This is the outside of dubrovnik- a big city of Croatia which had massive cruise boats and lots of people everywhere. Lovely inside the city walls though- and amazing discounted ice cream- another bonus of tours ;)

An unexpected sign I found in the national park! Europe isn’t supposed to be like this! Never mind though, around the corner I saw 3 older ladies flaunting their naturism fully. Ha

This was another notable place- probabaly my second favourite. It was a place that I’ll only ever remember as ‘Midget’ as that’s what we called it. The spelling seemed to say that I swear! Anyway the whole island was a national park- and I was lucky/accidentally sneaky enough to not pay the entry fee- although I would have been happy to. As you can see its amazing- the water was even more blue in real life! I wondered all the way around the lake (yes in flip flops of course,) and got a bit of heat rash. But it was excellent. Sometimes it was nice to get away from a big group of people too. I love meeting new people but I’ve discovered I also enjoy some me time every now and then. After I joined everyone for a swim in a part which was sea netted off like a swimming pool area, and had the best dinner of seafood spaghetti- it even has baby octopus in it… Which I ate :o

This is a lucky shot I got of the jäger bombs being presented to us. The main benefit from being on organised tours I’ve found seems to be the amazing amount of free shots you get… Every night.