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| A blurry image of the crazy route, over the 28 day trip |
I left off in Rome, I believe. Followed by the bustling and ancient capital city was the breath-taking Venice, which had to be one of my favourite cities. Put this on your bucket list - PLEASE. We had a canal ride, the weather was wonderful, and I bought waaay too much - including a Venetian mask which I'm sure I'll be utilising every weekend with all the Masquerade ball invitations I receive.... (?)
But seriously, it was a nice mask.
Next was Pag Island in Croatia, which if I'm honest, was a little over-hyped. Our tour guide likened it to a tropical paradise much like Fiji, and on arrival I reasoned that he had never actually been to Fiji. It was quite lovely, but it was no tropical island. The beaches were rocky, the land was desolate, but the little village centre and the people were terrific. Also things were quite cheap there and I felt rich with my $500 in Croatian Kuna which is more like $100 NZD. It is also known to be very much party central, and by this point in the trip I hit a wall, I think. Not only had my body finally succumbed to what has been dubbed "Cough-deck", I was also completely over the whole get-drunk-and-be-stupid vibe present throughout the trip. Luckily my wonderful roommate had the same attitude. I didn't go out to the club once in the three nights we were there. I don't regret it either. Also I remember being absolutely relieved not to be served pasta again, and instead getting cabbage (YAY) and other nummy vegetables. No one else seemed as enthusiastic.
Oh, and one of the guys on our trip took some random drugs he bought for the equivalent of $2-5 NZD from a stranger, and, well, he got quite messed up. I only know because someone took a video and posted it to our tour page. People are stupid. He was okay the next day though.
Ljubljana, Slovenia (Loob-lee-yana) was absolutely gorgeous and I can't believe of all places we only had one measly night there. Also, they have vending machines for fresh unpasteurised milk and cheese dotted around the streets. Casual. Another memorable thing was their city's main square; in the centre there is artificially engineered rain pouring 24 hours a day. However it was rendered pointless when we were staying there as it was raining anyway. I really didn't get it at all.
The Austrian Alps were another one of my highlights and my absolute favourite optional* activity, canyoning, was there. If you are like me, and don't know what that is, I can only describe it as a combination of abseiling, cliff jumping, and rock sliding. Oh, and water that was surely of arctic temperatures. First we kitted up in TWO layers of special wetsuits, one of which covered my whole head like a hoodie, and a sexy yellow helmet, plus special socks and boots for grip. I honestly felt like I was wearing one of those super suits from The Incredibles. It was both terrifying, adrenalising, and oh-my-god-I'm-going-to-die-of-hypothermia-cold. I only braved the 5m cliff jump (the higher ones were 6m and 9m), and while I think I could have eventually braved the 6m, I am proud of my effort. (And I would have been far to freaked trying to clear the rocks that jutted out of the 9m jump.) The abseil cliffs were 20m and 13m. The worst part was always hitting the water at the bottom; it was the kind of cold that makes your teeth chatter and your brain feel like it isn't getting enough oxygen so you make all these stupid panicky breaths. As our hands were the only extremities not covered, they were always on the edge of feeling like they would seize up.
I realise I'm making this sound like it was quite horrible, but rest assured I'm just trying to create a little drama. Don't get me wrong, it was fantastic - but I'm not exaggerating about the cold. Need I remind you I was already sick and up half the previous night with a horrible cough.
Also the "rock sliding" was literally sliding down the rapids on the smoother parts of the canyon rocks. I don't really know how to properly describe it but I hope you can get a bit of a mental picture.
I'm sad I couldn't get photos, because I didn't have a water-proof camera, but I'm going to sneakily borrow these ones from Facebook. (Thanks Sam...)
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| Canyoning (I'm first on the left) |
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| With our banana yellow harnesses for abseiling, uncropped for view (!!) |
Austria also has this delicious herbal lemonade that is *supposedly* good for you called Almdudler and I'm so addicted to it. I wanted to take some home but don't think it would have travelled very well. Also this was easily our best accommodation of the trip. It was a large country homestead in a small town, with a cute little bar and felt very homely - a huge contrast to the low-budget hostels and "hotels" we had been growing used to. Plus the staff there were so lovely.
EDIT 21/8: I somehow lost a few paragraphs regarding Mauthausen, Prague and Berlin so I'm going to try and summarise what I remember typing.... Before arriving in Prague, we stopped at Mauthausen, an Austrian concentration camp. It was absolutely mentally shattering. I stood inside a real gas chamber. I walked the death stairs, and I heard stories from survivors and American soldiers at the onsite museum. I have long been interested in the horrors of the Holocaust, but this personalised the tragedy so much for me. This was definitely the most moving part of the trip. At this point the places begin to blur...but Prague, Czech Republic truly has some stunning architecture. Lots of castles, cobblestone streets, and a famous ice cream, berries and chocolate stuffed pastry called trdnelik (I still cannot pronounce this). Personally - and this is unpopular opinion - I thought trdnelik was a little overrated. It tasted very similar to funnel cakes which are often at pop up food markets in Wellington. Berlin is a quirky city with the most adorable green man traffic light. Pink tubes weave around the streets, transporting...faeces? There are lots of pubs, lots of historical museums, and on our walking tour we even see the hotel where Michael Jackson dangled baby Blanket over the balcony.
The things I remember are random and mundane, but I have already written a novel already, so moving on.
We finished in Amsterdam, which unsurprisingly reeked of pot. We went to the Red Light District and I was baffled to discover not only tourist kids wandering around with their parents in the evening, but there is actually a kindergarten there. Also it was an odd moment returning back to our hostel, walking past a small group of Christians worshipping on one of the bridges in the district. I wondered if they were planning on evangelising the sex workers.
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The next day we did a bike tour, which was beautifully scenic, before I gapped it to the airport. And there my travel story ends, I suppose.
It's good to be back in Bahrain a few days, and only now do I realise how much I'll miss Si and Annabelle. I'm so happy to go home of course, but it feels weird that I won't see them for a long time.
Tomorrow I have a full day, and I leave on Monday. Let's do this.
