Posts for October, 2014

In case you have been wondering what has happened to us, Nina and I just want you to know that we are in Zagreb, we have been here since the 30th of September and we look like being here until at least the end of the coming week (17th October). Why I hear you ask? Zagreb is a nice enough city but that seems like a long time in one place. Well you will have to read the rest of the entry to find out.

So the day we were schedule to get the visa for India finally arrived. In the intervening days Nina had phoned the consulate a few times and been told "you will get them on the 17th at 4:00pm" so we had a degree of confidence that these long awaited stamps in our passports would materialize. We planned the journey to the consulate with meticulous care deciding in advance what trams and what bus we needed to catch to be there by 4:00pm (" and don't be late we close at 4:30"). So what happened, read below.

First stop on this mornings drive was Zagreb Arena Mall. We had passed by this place each time we caught the bus into the city but it was only late in our stay that we decided to get off and investigate; we should have done that much earlier. The mall (as distinct from the Arena) was a really good up-market modern shopping mall but even more importantly it had a really great super market. That supermarket was this mornings goal, we wanted to stock up.

One of the perpetual and sometimes pleasant things about travel is finding out "how things work". Today was a good example of this phenomena. We had learned (through Nina's researches) that there was a bus from the Autocamp to the national Park at 9:00 in the morning, that inside the park there were a variety of walks that one could take and that in addition there was a boat ride possible and a a "train" service provided transport within the park when one did not want to walk. But exactly how that all worked was a mystery. One that we soon started to unravel.

This morning we retraced our route back along the D1 towards Zagreb as far as the little town of Slunj. We passed through, and noted this town, on our way from Zagreb two days ago as the place seemed to be built in the middle of a river with water flowing in, around and under the houses and buildings. So this morning we went back for a look. Sure enough the towns geology was similar to the Plitvice park with the river widening into a series of pools and cascades and thats where the town was built. Certainly picturesque, but also difficult to build and maintain and also noisy.

Todays route to Sarajevo was approximately 300km in length and for the first 100km we continued south on the excellent Croatian motorway through a picturesque landscape of wide valleys and distant mountains. To our surprise (and the surprise of our GPS) the motorway continued all the way to and across the border into BIH (Bosnia Hercegovina).

This morning we woke to find it raining and sometimes very heavily. This was disappointing but not surprising as we had looked at the weather forecast before deciding on this side trip to Sarajevo. So in anticipation of the days exploration of the old city of Sarajevo in the rain we dressed in our best Washington rain gear, light clothing under Gortex jacket and pants.

You can see from the gaps between blog entries that the relaxed pace of travel, and somewhat quiet uneventful days are having its effect on us. Some days it just feels like there is not much to say. On the other hand our travels through Croatia and Bosnia (and now Montenegro and Albania) are interesting in a quiet sort of way. Croatia is proving to be a much more first world country than we had expected with great roads and clean towns and cities. So, going back to the gaps in the blog - this entry will bring you up to date since the last entry in Sarajevo.

We left Dubrovnik this morning heading south towards Montenegro and Albania. The mornings drive was along the coast, firstly through Croatia and them into Montenegro. It was a really pretty drive with bright sunshine and the blue waters of the Adriatic. Again generally good roads with light traffic. Very pleasant.

Another gap in the blog, I must be getting old and or lazy. Well we hung around the camp ground on Shkodra Lake for a few days, did a few chores and I worked on the software project that I am trying to do with Brendon (the campground had good wifi, that was the incentive to stay). While we were there a smattering of other travelers dropped in. A German guy on motor cycle and sidecar, a couple of European motorhomes and two Landrovers with slide-in campers. But this morning it was time to move again. So today we headed for the capital city of Albania - Tirana.

We had planned for today to be another short day and for it to end at the Albanian coast just south of the port and resort town of Duress. Via the internet we had located a beach front hotel and campground and thought that if it was "OK" we might spend a day or two there. Well as it turned out we never did get to it. The problem was exiting from the coastal multi-lane highway. Every time our GPS showed us an intersection at which we should turn/exit we were confronted by a highway edge with no way off. After this happened a few times we gave up on our beach side camp and headed to the next destination on Nina's list the town of Berat, a UNESCO world heritage site.

Today we headed towards the Macedonian town of Ohrid situated on a lake of the same name. As it turned out the route we chose followed a series of narrow country roads through active farming areas. There may have been a more major road to our destination but it would have required us backtracking almost all the way to Tirana.