The reason why the 22nd of June, Saturday, I wanted to take a train that could save me couple of hours was not a craving but because I wanted to save some energy for the next day's train trip that was going to take 24 hours.
On Sunday I woke up at 5:45 am, took a shower, collected the dry clothes of the laundry I had made the day before and packed them again in my backpack, and made a lot of sandwiches for the trip -really, a lot. I was meeting Olga, my colleague from work who's now also a close friend -I would say- , and Michal, her Polish friend that she had met in a workcamp two years before, in the main train station of Bratislava for taking a train to Budapest. I found them there, greeted them excited and bought my go-and-return ticket Bratislava-Budapest (we knew we were coming back via Budapest and, besides, the price difference between one way or both ways is only 2E, keep that in mind!).
In the train to Budapest we chatted a while about how did we meet each other and Olga went trough the agenda she had prepared for us. We arrived in Budapest, got a little confused because the metro wasn't working and finally found our way to the international buses station -Nepliget. There we met Armin, also Olga's friend from a workcamp who had come directly from Germany, his homeland. Another round of introduction, agenda and expectations took place before taking the bus to Serbia -which few remaining places made us sit appart and I took advantage of it to rest my eyes for a while.
We arrived to Belgrade and we had something more than 2 hours to explore the city. So we bought our train tickets with reservation place -it's always better to pay for reservation 3-4 extra E and have a place to sit the whole night-, and as we didn't see any cloakroom just headed to the city center with our full backpacks. Belgrade is nice and the people look lively and friendly. I've also heard that is a good place of nightlife but we didn't had the time for that. Our train was waiting for us and we came back to the station, found our wagon and finally released our stuff and chill for a while.
In our very train car we met Luke, a guy from LA that is currently teaching English in Montenegro. Funny fact, his face looked familiar and it was because he had been some days before on holidays in Budapest and was in the same bus that we had taken before. He was really helpful about what was worthy visiting and what wasn't, and we adapt our agenda according to his tips: skip Sveti Stefan, add Kotor.
I must confessed I was a little bit sceptical about this whole 24-hour trip but Balkan trains have their charm. I mean, true, each time I wanted to pee I had to pass by a group of old man drinking and smoking, and once in the bathroom both the sink and the toilet were running with pedals. But the seats were really comfortable with those parts to rest your head without bodering the next passenger, and watching the sunset with half of the body out of the window I have to admit that it felt kind of magical.
Yaaaaawn* and then it was morning. Like really early, 6 am approx, and outside the window a whole landscape of green mountains and fluffy fog was showing in front of our still sleepy eyes. It was so nice but I was so tired that I struggled for sometime to finally wake up and look around. Montenegro is a beautiful country indeed, and this was just the first sample.
We arrived in Bar -the city, not a pub :D- around 7 am and headed to the city center. Since Olga is from Ukraine and even when by night we had a passport control but got nothing stamped, she was worried about it and we decided to ask in a police station before taking a bus to Budva -our final destination. Luke had an appartment rented close to the center and he showed us the way there. We said goodbye, found the police station that said we should ask in the border police in the port, and so we headed to the beach to wait until they would opened at 10am.
The Adriatic. 8 am. 25ºC already. HELLO WATER! :D Very strange to take a bath in the sea at that time, yet very refreshing! Though the water is warmer than in the Atlantic Ocean mixed with Mediterranean -yes, I'm referring to my hometown. This was nice, the fact about rocky beach instead of sandy one I didn't like it so much, but the water, on the other hand, is so clean. Is that kind of light blue closer to the Caribbean than to the Atlantic, pretty pretty.
Ok, I'm switching to quicker storyteller version now because I can not believe I only told about 1st day so far.
Monday 24th of June, 10:30 am, 'Hello border police of Montenegro, we want our passports stamped'. 'Sorry guys, can not do that here, but don't worry, you don't need it, with stamp of Serbia is already enough'. 'Great, thanks, goodbye!'.
Bus to Budva, getting lost in Budva finding our camping, finally finding our camping, leaving all the stuff in our brand new assambled tent, buying stuff for lunch -they, not me, I still had sandwiches-, going to the beach for having lunch, relaxing in the beach. Nice relaxing time, sleeping with the sound of the ocean. Gosh, I missed that.
Came back to the camping and realizing we had it for ourselves since the kid's group we had found in the morning were gone. Took shower and headed to the old town, with new energy to discover the city. And wow, it was this beautiful.
Anyway, this 'new energy' didn't last long so we decided to get back to the camping not very late, even though before we stopped by the same spot we had been in the beach during the afternoon and Michal found the courage to take a bath with the moonlight while we watched and enjoyed his 'spontaneous' impulse.
Next day was already 25th of June, Tuesday, and we woke up around 9 not with alarms but because of the heat. You see? This was a dreamy camping with grapeyards in our head covering from the direct sunlight, but still it is summer and it was terrible hot -more if you're 4 people sharing a tent that should be for 2 or 3.
After buying some stuff for breakfast and taking it calmly we went to the bus station and ask for tickets to Kotor -this was going to be our first UNESCO Heritage place to visit. Let me give you an insight also on Eastern-Europe buses: they do not care so much if you are sitting or not as long as you fit on the bus. This trip was only 1 hour and we got the last -standing up- places. I had also experienced this before in Slovakia, in a 3-hour trip going to the mountains -luckily we had our tickets bought in advance and we were sitting, this is something I strongly recommend you, to buy in advance and arrive early to the bus to have a seat.
Where were we? Aha! 25th June, Kotor. I will let pictures talk by me because I was speachless about this magnificent medieval town and its path to the ancient city walls at the top of the hill.
Came back to Budva, shower, dinner, old town, concert, beer, camping, sleep. And good morning, 26th! Breakfast, bus station, Cetinje. Cetinje was the former royal capital of Montenegro and I really can not understand why. I mean, is a nice town, don't get me wrong, but is really town-size. Most interesting spot there? An ortodox monastery of some centuries before where you have to wear clothes that cover properly your body. This was the place and that my improvised outfit -yap, I'm wearing my towel with the flag of Montenegro as a long skirt. Close to that place there is also a small hill and a nice viewer on the top.
Afternoon, same-old same-old. I think we even went earlier to bed, we were exhausted indeed. Michal woke up around 6:30 to take the bus to Zadar (Croatia) because he had a flight back to Poland the next day. Armin, Olga and me rested a little longer in the tent, woke up and packed lunch to take it in Jaz beach, only 10 minutes by bus from Budva. After two intensive days making tourism we had this day off just for chilling ang getting tanned. Funny fact, Olga -I insist, she's from Ukraine-, was more tanned at the end of the trip than I was -we joked a lot about this, that maybe I was Slovak and probably she was from Africa. Ah, melanin, you little senseless thing.
Anyway, we worked hard in our tanning, so even when after 3pm we took a bus back to Budva and Armin went to get some shadow-shelter in the camping, we decided to explore some new beach after the old town and stayed there for couple more hours.
Relaxation was that day's point. You see, next day (28th) we woke up 5:45 am, shower -very important, it could had been the last of the trip-, dismantled the tent, packed our stuff and took bus to Dubrovnik. Arriving almost at midday we were surprised by the rush of crowds of tourists waiting in the bus station for taking historical busses to the old town. Instead of joining them we took our time to change money -they have kuna there-, left our luggage in the cloakroom, buy our tickets for later in the afternoon, and finally took a normal urban bus to the old town -almost 2E the ticket, gosh it hurt after Montenegro.
Dubrovnik's old city is splendid and yet suffocating because of tourists. We took our time to explore it without getting into the high city walls that surrounds it -freeking expensive, aka 'European price'. Still we got some nice shots, a reasonable price fast-food restaurant and then we walked out the old city and headed to the beach for a little rest before taking the next bus. Here we dipped in the Adriatic for the last time and had a quick shower with Armin's Nivea for Men shampoo plus shower gel in the public showers of the beach -though you have to pay 1 kuna per 2 minutes shower, but it's nothing and it was totally worthy.
Friday 28th, 6pm, bus from Dubrovnik to Plitvice, arriving at 4 am. That's it, it was dark night and, as an extra, it was raining when we arrived. And as I'm not use to this other climate yet I didn't took any raincoat, not only because I don't have one but because it's still feels strange in my mind to have actual rain during summer -'come on, it's summer!'. Yeah, well, welcome to the East!
My friends assambled the tent with their raincoats while I waited in the bus stop shelter. But to make things worse, one hour later a well-intentioned local woke us up and told us we were very close to the path and we should move just a little bit deeper in the forest. We did so -it was still raining but moving the tent from the inside I managed to stay dry- and we slept until around 9, when the rain finally gave us a break.
Dismantling, breakfast, bathroom, buy tickets, left luggage and enter the Natural Park of Plitvice Lakes -under UNESCO Heritage. We paid around 11E (student price) and entered one of the most wonderful natural places I've ever been. This lakes are formed like cascades, which means they have different height levels and they flow into others in breathtaking waterfalls. Besides, the water is so clean you can see the bottom most of the time, and other times you can see a light blue colour similar than the Adriatic. Outstanding.
However, this is the biggest atraction in Croatia, which means that it was even more crowded with tourists than Dubrovnik, haha. We were confident that we could finish a route that could take from 4 to 6 hours in the minimum time, but in fact there were moments in the begining when we couldn't even move because we were stucked in the line you have to follow. In any case, after a while they appeared different routes and the journey turned more enjoyable.
It was around 5 pm when we left the natural park and got into a bus to Zagreb, final destination of the trip. We arrived at 7 pm -yeah, it's rather close- to the bus station and walked to the train station. It's only one avenue but if you're tired and have a heavy backpack in your back it makes you wonder why didn't you take bus or tramp. Still, this avenue is full with very original graffitis and I tried to focused on that while slowly approaching also the city center.
We entered the train station and realised that our train to Budapest was not at midnight but at 3 am -'grrreat!'. Nonetheless we were lucky, because due to Croatia joining the European Union the following day we attended the simulation shows that were going to take place the next night, for the big celebration. I especially enjoyed the folk dancing and singing performance, with folk costumes and swords and all that.
Besides, Zagreb is a very nice city. Just when we went out of the train station with our tickets -automatic lockers available, bingo! later, luggage!-, we found ourselves with a huge square with a great young atmosphere. There were groups of young people everywhere with their guitars and their booze, just having a good time. It attract my attention a group of -perhaps Turkish- people, singing with that magical spirit I could compare to some gypsy's singing back in Spain. Mystic.
And, pleasant surprise, Zagreb is not expensive at all! We had dinner the three of us for around 11E, right in the city center and with good quality food, in fact not bad. But well, after the walking and the dinner and the performances, we said goodbye to Armin -he was staying two more nights there- and came back to the train station with plenty of time before our train.
Here's a little tip. If you're in a country with different currency than yours -and of course you prefer to spend all the money or give it to your friend that's staying longer-, save at least like around 50 cents of E so you can pay the entrance to the bathrooms in the station. Geez, we didn't have more kuna left, I'm glad the dull woman in charge of the paying accepted 60 cents instead -the train wasn't coming so soon for me to wait.
Then a period of time passed when I was more a zombie than a person. Since it was only 1:30 am, I tried to sleep before the train came -late, at 3:30 am. Get in the train, sleep in the train, sleep in your sleeping bag because air condition is just crazy freezing, wake up several times for passport controls -got last lifetime stamp of Croatia as a non-EU country-, and finally arrive to Budapest. Waited some time in Budapest until our train to Bratislava arrived, got in it as quick as possible to seat in the few seats without reservation fee, got sleepy again and finally arriving to Bratislava.
I could almost hear a kind of 'Halellujah' hymn when I was walking into my flat at 2pm of 30th of June, Sunday. I found my flatmates and chatted a little with them before deciding to take a well-deserved shower and a long restorative nap.
Later that day it was a sad moment because we officially said goodbye to Stephanie from our flat -the owners came to check that everything was allright-, but actually we had further opportunities to meet her before she finally at the beginning of this week. And, looking on the bright side, Sarah moved to her room, Matiss to his previous room and I got my little one back -I had missed it.
After such intense trips it's always a little hard for me to readapt to 'normal life' activities. Going to work, cooking, making the same route two days in a raw, it just feels strange for me during some space of time. Anyhow, I'm already use to daily work again, though I really should think about investing some more time in cooking proper meals. Hm, collateral effects -eventually everything will get back to normal, even when you won't exactly be the same person you were before. Because for a short period of time you have seen things, you have done things and you have experienced things that enlarges your vision of what is normal, what is reality or what is life and how is it supposed to look like.
Tomorrow never knows.
Good night, mis pequeños capullitos de alelí.
Ali
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