Nice
Once we were up and ready to go in Milan we headed down to the station, for once organised enough to have already booked seats for the train we wanted to get. The journey took us from Milan, down to Genoa and then along the Mediterranean to Ventigmilia where we had to change onto a domestic French service that would take us into Nice. On the train we found a group of drunk French teenagers, one having an argument with another passenger as to why he didn’t feel he needed to get off the train to enjoy a cigarette. The rest of the journey continued without issue and we arrived in a very hot, bustling Nice. My first impression of the city was that it was strikingly reminiscent of Varna, only this was clearly a wealthy city. We made our way to our hostel-come-hotel and unloaded our stuff before heading down through to the old town where we foolishly decided to grab some dinner. The food itself was nice, nothing out of the ordinary but the price tag was a shock despite the warnings that eating in the old town would be expensive. Still, it’s nice to be able to say “yeah, I’ve eaten out in the Nice’s old town.”

The following day we decided to check out the Museum of Modern Art; often abbreviated to the MOMA. This was the first time we’d been to a gallery since Amsterdam and it was certainly worth the visit. The guidebooks all claimed that Andy Warhol’s Campbell’s Soup Can was in the MOMA but David and I never found it. Fortunately I found myself pleasantly surprised and inspired by the eccentric and impressive Shooting Paintings of Niki De Saint Phalle and David enjoyed the more simplistic, minimalistic paintings of Hans Hartung. It was safe to say that we enjoyed the MOMA and for a free gallery it holds quite the impressive collections including some household names. That evening we met the girls we would be sharing our room with for that night and ended up spending much of the night drinking wine and playing cards before heading down to the beach. The beach in Nice is a rocky, uncomfortable place to consider falling asleep so I just sat and chilled out with our new friends. David, simply because he just cannot get enough of the sleep, had a nap. Later on we staggered back to the hostel and crashed out for the night.

The next day David and I struggled to get out of bed, eventually deciding we should see some of the city and in typical style ended up in one of the local parks with a variation on our favourite theme of meat and cheese. Whilst in the park we met some of the locals and shared some of our food with them and decided that that it was more likely that they were nomads than locals as many of them had backpacks and the companionship of scrawny dogs. We spent the rest of the afternoon strolling around the city taking a few photos before returning to the hostel and hitting up an American style restaurant for a delicious burger before a quiet evening of playing cards and preparing to move on once again.

Lyon
The next morning we were up early and on our way to Lyon, the weather still treating us well and the views out across the French riviera to Marseilles continuing to give me the impression that the Mediterranean coast line is without a doubt one of my favourites. The TGV in France is an impressive indicator of how train travel should be as we managed to cross half of the country in around five hours. We had undertaken many shorter journeys that had taken a significantly longer time to complete, not that I need remind you of the Dubrovnik Challenge. Upon our arrival in Lyon we had to trek into the centre of the city to find our hotel. For some reason Lyon only has one hostel and it was fully booked, which we soon realised was due to Bastille Day, and we ended up in what turned out to be a basic but pleasant hotel.

David had some friend from University who had spent a year in Lyon and he used these sources to gather valuable recommendations on where to eat, where to hang out, what to drink and how to make the most of our few days in the city. My immediate impression was that we’d found ourselves in a smaller, quieter, less touristy version of Paris, it was like everything I dislike about Paris had been taken away and we had been left with what would become my favourite French city. For the rest of the day we mainly chilled out in to the hotel room, three months on the move really takes it out of you and by this point we spent a lot of time feeling tired. When the evening eventually came around, we headed out to St. Jean where the old town resided and the restaurants tumbled out onto the narrow streets.

The following morning we planned a route around the city, taking in as many of the sights as we could, starting in St. Paul and heading up a hill that was comparable to the one that Prague Castle is situated upon.

Once at the top we found ourselves stood next to a scaled down version of the Eiffel Tower and the Notre-Dame de Fourviere. What was it I was saying about Lyon being like Paris but better? Lyon’s Notre-Dame had some pretty interesting architecture, I took particular interest in the winged beasts that covered the front facade. We then moved on to the reason for making our climb, the viewpoint. From such a great height we had a magnificent view back across the sprawling city, joking that we could see the Alps in the distance. In all seriousness, it could have been the Alps.

We then took a less direct route back into the city, where we walked past the hostel we could have stayed in, had we been more organised or more aware of other countries national holidays, which probably had it’s own excellent views across the city. Eventually we found our way back to St. Jean where we opted to stop for coffee, finally taking the time to pretend that we were European hipsters.

Our journey through Lyon continued as we progressed towards Parc de la Tet d’Or, where much to both of our surprises we found a zoo which normally we would pass up, but this was better than usual, it was a free zoo! In the middle of a park! in a huge city! We strolled through the park, watching the animals as they chilled out by the pond, or grazed on the trees. We then made a very typical decision to walk around the boating lake in the park, fortunately this didn’t take nearly half as long as it had taken for us to get round the Alster lakes of Hamburg. We eventually made our way back to our hotel, picking up supplies in a supermarket to enjoy bread, cheese and Beaujolais, which David informed me was necessary to drink while we were in Lyon.

Lille
The following morning we prepared for the last journey that would finish on foreign soil and our final destination, Lille. We left Lyon in torrential downpours, the likes of which we hadn’t seen since being caught out in a hailstorm in Budapest and the bad weather continued until we arrived in Lille and things dried out just long enough for us to find the Novotel that we had been forced to book into due to the lack of other options. The change in weather to a very British, overcast, dreary grey outlook made it very apparent how close to home we were both in terms of distance and in time. Still, this would not prevent us from enjoying our return to the familiar styles of Northern Europe, in particular the Flemish architecture that lined the cobbled streets.

The constantly unpleasant weather made it difficult to enjoy being out and about, and a bitterly cold wind constantly swept through the old town regularly forcing us to find somewhere to escape and enjoy a coffee, but things eventually brightened up long enough for us to explore the Citadel of Lille, which had what seemed like a never ending series of walls and moats which probably provided a significant amount of defence in the past and made it increasingly difficult for us to find our way back out.

After the constant losing battle against the weather we finally retreated back to the hotel to pack our bags for the final time and prepare for what would be one of shortest journeys; the journey home.

Venice
We left Ljubljana early, hoping to get to Venice in the early afternoon. For some unknown reason it was not possible to get a train directly to Venice, or anywhere in Italy from Slovenia so we first had to go back to Austria, stopping in Villach where we had ten minutes to locate the bus station, buy a bus ticket and find the bus to Venice. Obviously we failed. Eventually we discovered we had to buy tickets in the train station, and on attempting to get tickets for the next bus we were informed it was already full, so we had to get a later one, giving us four hours to kill in Villach. David and I spent the best part of the afternoon sat on a bench, watching the people of Villach come and go through the station doors until we were finally able to get on the bus. We had separate seats and both enjoyed the company of other travellers for the journey; myself with a Brazilian student doing a tour of central Europe, and David with an American art student tripping around most of the continent. We eventually arrived in Venice early in the evening and headed across the lagoon to the island where we would be staying in Ostello Venezia. The hostel was vast and unreasonably hot and we weren’t to happy with things but we grabbed some spaghetti and settled down for the night.

The next morning we hoped that Venice would impress us as we set off into the main city. The plan of the day was to wander along the canals and down the back streets, trying to avoid the hordes of tourists while also seeing what kind of place Venice was. It soon became apparent that Venice isn’t like anywhere else David or I had ever been to; apart from the fact that it’s built in the middle of a lagoon, Venice is quite unremarkable. Beyond the tourist filled Grand Canal, the gondolas, the Venetian masks and the bustling bridges Venice is a very plain city. It is beautiful in a unique way, but if you were to replace the waterways with roads it would lose almost all of it’s appeal.

We spent much of the day trying to find another side to Venice, a seedy underbelly or some local charm without much luck. We stopped for lunch off one of the city’s few squares and found we didn’t have much to say about the place. We soon continued our ambles throughout the smaller canals and residential areas, hoping for something to change. Soon enough we ended up back on the edge of the island and decided that we may as well take the taxi boat back through the city and return to the hostel. This turned out to be one of the better ways to see the city, it doesn’t cost anywhere near as much as a session on a gondola and you follow the Grand Canal and the south side of the island.

We returned to the hostel grabbed a pizza and decided that as we would be heading off to Rome in the morning we should indulge in some local wine, four bottles of it, along with some card games. Over the course of the evening we played some English gents who had just been at a Croatian festival, and some ladies from London who were just beginning a tour of Italy. As the night drew on we decided we’d better get off to bed before we consumed any more alcohol.

Rome
The following morning we woke up feeling like we’d had two bottles of wine each. The boat across down the canals to the train station was a particularly unpleasant experience, but once we’d made it to the station and sorted out some reservations we were both feeling somewhat more stable. The train to Rome was a brief four hours and we arrived in the afternoon to a million degree heat. We quickly made our way to the hostel, which was fortunately not too far from the station and spent some time cooling off before finding out whether there was anywhere good to eat in the local area. David and I were sent to a local pizzeria where we were unable to eat al fresco due to our lack of reservations but enjoyed tomato and mozzarella bruschetta before enjoying a pizza each. We returned to the hostel after eating and spent the night trying to sleep in spite of the heat.

The next day we enjoyed breakfast on the roof terrace, all too aware of how hot the morning already was before planning a route of the major sites in the centre of the city. Minutes away we found ourselves at the Colosseum. This was a first for me, David had been to Rome before and was acting as my tour guide, and I was suitably impressed with the preservation and scale of the arena.

We decided not to bother with going in as the queue crawled past us and we felt the day would be better spent seeing the rest of the sights. We proceeded around the rest of the ruins heading towards Trajan’s Column. On our way we came across several other landmarks that were unknown to us, and perhaps because of this left the largest impression. Of most interest to me was the Monument to Vittorio Emanuele II, one of the most inspiring marble structures I had ever seen.

We continued our stroll through the city to the Pantheon and Piazza Nova, stopping to top up our water bottles in one of the many drinking fountains that litter Rome’s streets. Hunger had begun to stir and for a while we considered stopping for something to eat but continued on to Piazza del Popolo and the Spanish Steps before finally taking a break to enjoy more pasta and pizza. We then made the executive decision to call into the highly recommended San Crispino for the most delicious gelato I have ever had. There are few things greater than pistachio ice cream, but one thing that certainly is would have to be cinnamon ice cream. We took our tubs and scoops and headed down to the Trevi Fountain where I opted not to throw a coin over my shoulder as I was already sure that with what I had seen of Rome I would need no guarantee to return. I would be back regardless. After a long day in the heat we retired to the hostel where I spent the evening researching whether or not I would get away with wearing shorts to the Vatican the next day.

The Vatican
After some research it seemed that I would be best not to risk wearing the shorts for our trip to the Vatican and I pulled on a pair of jeans and complained about the oppression of the Catholic church upon my rights to expose my inoffensive knees. We walked across Rome to reach the Vatican and were surprised to find no border control or passport checks. After a short while in the queue we entered St. Peter’s Basilica; a worthwhile trip just to see the interior of the building. However, at this point I was annoyed to find people inside with shorts on. If only I’d known the rules were optional! After spending several hours walking around the basilica we headed on to the Vatican museums where we followed the large crowds and never ending tour groups through to the Sistine Chapel, which again was well worth the visit even though I had been wearing jeans the whole time. From the Vatican we headed back towards the hostel and prepared ourselves for the final stop in Italy; Milan.

Milan
Before leaving Rome we had to book a reservation for a train, and in our typical style we missed the train we had planned to get and spent an hour hanging around the station but eventually we were on our way. A few hours later we rolled into Milan, where the heat continued to be extreme. We soon rolled into our hostel/hotel depending on who you talk to and sorted out a map and a plan for something to eat. A recommended cheap restaurant where we would find ourselves eating for the duration of our stay simply because of the excellent value. We spent the first night chilling out in the hostel, only, it wasn’t very chilled and we were doing all that we could to try and reduce the temperature.

After a long and hot night of trying to sleep David and I got ourselves together, grabbed some brunch and headed towards the other side of the city for a tour of the San Siro Giuseppe Meazza; the home of Italian football.

The museum held all kinds of things, some obviously related to the two teams of Milan and some other things that seemed to just be related to football, but it was all interesting. Unfortunately the night before there had been a Take That concert in the stadium and the pitch was covered and the remains of the stage took up most of one set of the stands. Regardless of this, the stadium tour was pretty interesting as well as learning the history of both Inter and AC Milan. After spending the early afternoon at the stadium we headed towards the center of the city to see the impressive Cathedral and shopping precinct.

We also decided we should check out the prices of some of the restaurants and quickly found ourselves heading back towards the restaurant near our hostel to enjoy our dinner before our journey carried us into the final leg.

The train ride from Zagreb was trivial in length when compared to some of the journeys we had undertaken in previous weeks. We arrived into Ljubljana early afternoon and checked into Alibi M14 hostel. After dropping our stuff we headed out into the city. Like many other places we had visited it had a beautiful old town and a magnificent castle.

The city was one of the smallest we had been to and decided we could probably cover the whole thing in the afternoon. We wondered around for several hours, making our way up to the castle and checking some fantastic views of the Slovenian landscape and hideous architecture.

From the castle we returned through the old town crossing the river by the Dragon Bridge, home to the city’s mascots. We then followed the river out towards one of the cities large parks, with the exceptionally European name of Tivoli; almost every city has a park with the same name.

After ambling about in the park for a while we returned to the hostel to prepare ourselves with a dinner plan and headed to a quiet Bosnian style restaurant, Harambasa, where the recommended dish was a variation on meat and cheese and the dessert was a kind of flapjack. After we ate we strolled back through the town towards the hostel.

Lake Bled
The following morning we planned to visit Lake Bled. Many people we had met in the Balkans had recommended that we go there, and having seen most of Ljubljana already we decided we should do our best to get there. We headed down to the bus station and booked a seat on the next bus. With a few hours to wait, we found a cafe on the river, ordered some croissants and did a spot of people watching. We then got on the bus and headed out through Slovenia towards the lake.

On arrival it was very quickly clear why people suggested that we visit. The water was beautifully clear, and the lake itself was tucked in between huge mountains, on one cliff stood a castle and in the middle of the lake was an island with a church on it.

We spent the day walking around the lake, stopping every third step to take another perfect photograph. After we had completed our circuit we stopped for some food, with David ending up with half a chicken before heading back to Ljubljana to prepare for the next leg of the trip into Italy.

The Dubrovnik Challenge
The journey to Dubrovnik was always going to be an interesting one. As we had paid for our Inter Rail passes we wanted to use the train as much as possible to avoid having to pay for other methods of transportation. We began by getting the train from Sofia to Belgrade which we knew, as it was going through Serbia, would be delayed. Fortunately we were sharing our cabin with another American traveller, David, a German who worked in Belgrade and spoke English, Yorke and later on another American, Matt. The conversations flowed pretty easily and the journey and delays were largely ignored in favour of the exchange of stories and plans. Once we arrived in Belgrade, we stopped off in the Backpackers Lounge once more. The next morning we got up early, grabbed some supplies and got on a train to Bar on the Montenegrin coast, again we expected serious delays and this turned out to be our worst train ride yet; stopping on three separate occasions for over an hour on either side of the border. The only consolation was the stunning mountain scenery that we passed through.

We arrived in Bar around midnight and walked across the town to the Yu Hostel to find everyone, owners included, out. Fortunately two other guests came back from the bars just after we arrived and let us in, showing us to an open room where we crashed for the night. After a few hours sleep we were up and ready to roll out once more. We had believe we would be able to get a bus straight to Dubrovnik from Bar, but we were informed that we would have to get several buses, going to Podgorica, Herceg Novi and then to Dubrovnik. We were also told that this would be simple and buses ran all the time, which was true up until Herceg Novi where we found only two buses that went to Dubrovnik and we had missed them both. After brief hesitation we approached a taxi driver, who told us he could drive us the rest of the way for a minimum of 40 Euros, which we accepted. The drive was a pleasant one and we were dropped at the main bus station and only charged what was agreed, which pleased David and I greatly. From the station we found ourselves only a short, but seriously uphill walk to the Begovic Boarding House and I don’t think either of us had been happier to arrive at a destination. Four countries, three days, two trains, two buses and a taxi later and we were finally in Dubrovnik!

Dubrovnik
Once we had settled into our room we decided it would be best for us to get some dinner as we hadn’t managed to eat anything substantial since Sofia. We headed down to the promenade in Lapad and stopped at the first place we came to where I indulged in steak and chips, and David enjoyed chicken stuffed with ham and cheese and both were washed down with a refreshing lager. We opted not to stay out late as the 1000km journey had really taken it out of us and we retired to our room with the intention of getting up early to see the Old Town before the cruise ships rolled in.

We began the following day in terrible form. Proper beds combined with a lack of sleep to keep us resting long into the morning and we didn’t make it out until after many of the cruise ships had already dumped their passengers onto the shores. Still, we got our things together and headed across the peninsular to Stari Grad. Fortunately, it wasn’t as bad as we had expected; there was plenty of room to move about it without walking on pensioners toes.

We ambled about for a while, before finding something to eat. The owner of the apartment we were staying in informed us it would be very expensive to eat in the old town, but we found a small place tucked away on a back street where things weren’t to bad and enjoyed a light lunch a some old town beers. After eating we continued to explore the old town, visiting the harbor and checking out the 6m thick walls. Having done the rounds, we decided it would be necessary for us to hit the beach seeing as David had missed out on the excellent sands of Varna.

We returned to our apartment, dropped our things and for the first time on the trip David put on some shorts. He was serious, he would definitely be going in the sea. We headed down to the Lapad promenade and followed it down to the beach, which was fairly packed despite having an unpleasant covering of stones and pebbles. Based on the poor quality of the beach itself we headed immediately into the sea which turned out to be the best decision. The sea was impossibly clear, pleasantly refreshing, and for one reader, yes; it was wet. After bobbing about for a while, we headed back to the apartment once more to freshen up before heading out for some food.

David and I had been informed that Levanat was the place to go for fresh sea-food and as it wasn’t too far from our place and overlooked the bay where we had been swimming we thought it would be pretty good idea to check it out. We ordered mains only, and were then presented with what we assumed were complimentary starters of a very pleasant tuna pate. It would later turn out that we were only supposed to look at it, once we’d eaten it we’d have to pay for it. I then enjoyed a plate of prawns, despite not knowing how to peel them properly and ending up in a bit of a mess. We then took a stroll back along the bay and returned to the hostel for another long night of sleep.

Another late start, and we made the most of the relaxing environment provided by our own apartment. After much debate we decided we should go for a walk around the Lapad peninsular, but we only managed to get halfway around it due to resorts putting up fences and walls to keep people from leaving. We were forced to wander on back to the city, picking up a couple of postcards and an ice cream on the way. We then spent the rest of the afternoon chilling out around the apartment before heading to check out another recommendation for dinner, this time staying off the beach and visiting Bueno, where we enjoyed some delicious soups followed with the standard of meat and cheese.

Split
The following morning we awoke early to give us enough time to pack, get complacent about packing, pack some more and then leave. We took the long walk back to the bus station, bought a ticket to Split, got on the bus and then enjoyed four hours of the most impressive coast line I have ever seen. I didn’t take any photos due to the windows being filthy, but if you’re ever in Dubrovnik take a bus to Split, sit on the left hand side and thank me later.

David and I got off the bus next to the harbor late in the afternoon, prepared ourselves a map and consequently got lost in the UNESCO listed old town before we eventually arrived at Split Booze and Snooze hostel.

We dumped our things, I jumped in the shower and we headed out to find some food, ending up just off the waterfront in Buffet Fife, recommended by Lonely Planet for it’s unique brand of hospitality. Our waiter, on discovering we were English spent much of his time talking about football and the somewhat militant support of HNK Hajduk. He even informed me that the Croatian word for Newcastle, the magpies, was Svraka; some of the only Croatian I’ve managed to remember. We took in some pretty good soup and some Dalmatian delicacies and a couple of beers before stopping back at the hostel to use the facilities before heading out to Charlie’s Bar. Apparently, this was a place where travelers came together to get drunk, but for the large part of the evening we were some of the only people in the place. Sounds familiar, but this was nothing like Vienna. After a few hours a pub crawl arrived, with some patriotic English drinkers in tow. Fortunately we managed to avoid them and ended up chatting with a couple of guys from Ireland who were traveling around the Balkans for a month. After just enough to drink we headed back to the hostel and crashed out.

We took a relaxed approach to getting on with the following day. The hostel had recommended a juice bar called Tonik for breakfast, and despite the time we thought this would be an excellent first point of call and after some more confusion in the old town we eventually sat down for a near perfect BLT and a smoothie each. Feeling much refreshed we headed to a view point to get some panoramic photos looking back across the city and it’s harbor.

From this high point we headed back into the old town to see the incredibly well preserved remains of Diocletian’s Palace. Having planned to get up early the following morning to catch a train to Dubrovnik, David and I decided we should grab an early dinner and an early night and stopped off at the traditional restaurant Apetit and enjoyed yet more excellent soup. We then took ourselves back to the hostel to get plenty of sleep.

Zagreb
After a night disturbed by a group of girls trying to decide whether or not they were drunk enough to go to bed we got ourselves on a train that dragged itself across Croatia. By this point I was starting to long for the high-speed rail connections of Western Europe. After too many hours of going too slow we rolled into Zagreb and it was clear to see that the culture was changing, as was the strength of the economy as we traveled further north, up the Balkans. Once we’d found Buzz hostel, just outside of the city centre, we were once again driven by the need to eat and found a small pub not too far from the hostel where we enjoyed one of Europe’s culinary masterstrokes; meat stuffed with meat stuffed with cheese. We then headed back to the hostel and spent much of the evening relaxing, supplied with entertainment from a group of Asian travelers who couldn’t decide whether or not they wanted to stay in a room where two of them would have to share a double bed.

The following morning we enjoyed a breakfast of winners; bananas and Snickers before we headed out to see what Zagreb would have to offer us. Our first stop, before we had made it into the city was the effortlessly cool Booksa. it had been some time since we indulged in a coffee and having discovered this place was also a bookshop, it seemed like the perfect place for two aspiring hipsters to grab a latte. From here we went into the town, taking in many of the recommended sights including the Square of Ban Josip Jelačić and Zagreb cathedral which, typically for anything worth seeing Europe, was covered in scaffolding.

We then took a stroll through Dolac market and the upper town eventually coming to what David and I decided was perhaps the best church in all of Europe, or at least of all the ones we had seen so far, St. Mark’s Church.

After taking in much of the city, we decided it was time for lunch and found our way to a small restaurant called Tip Top where David enjoyed an octopus goulash and I devoured more meat stuffed with meat stuffed with cheese. We then returned to the main square, where we found a lot of people in military gear who looked less than in shape for any kind of serious duty. At this point, David decided it was finally time for him to replace his socks, so we did a spot of shopping before returning to the hostel just in time to avoid getting wet. Having eaten a pretty large meal earlier in the day, we didn’t much fancy anything too heavy for dinner, so found ourselves a pizzeria and accidentally ordered a large pizza each. David still managed to eat all of his, where as I found myself defeated just over half way through. We returned to the hostel to find ourselves in another empty room.

The following morning we were woken up at stupid o’clock by guests checking in. This was not only hugely inconvenient but also frustrating as at various points on our trip, we had arrived at hostels early and had been told we would be unable to check in until four, or found doors locked and nobody about until the middle of the afternoon. After a couple more hours of trying to sleep we woke up to find five English girls who were partying there way from Berlin to Italy to celebrate their graduation. In the course of about two hours they had managed to cover the floor in bags, clothes, and shoes and we decided we’d better get out of their as quick as we could.

The plan for the day was to hang out in Maksimir park which immediately impressed by having a large boating lake that had not only ducks and fish but turtles! You certainly wouldn’t find that back in the UK! We spent a good few hours watching the wild life and laughing at a bunch of Croatian boys who struggled wildly to navigate a canoe around the lake, regularly crashing into the shore. Sadly they didn’t capsize in the middle despite making several attempts to tip it over.

According to our appalling city map one of the major sights of Zagreb is the Mirogoj Cemetery, so we thought we’d take a trek through the suburbs to find it and have a wander through the graves. Unlike cemeteries I have been to in the UK there was nothing terrifying about Mirogoj. However, it was strange to see several names listed on each headstone and distressing to see that some names had been added despite the fact they were still alive. The cemetery is also home to the grave of the first President of the Republic of Croatia, Franjo Tuđman so we thought we’d better stop and admire his memorial before heading back to the hostel.

Much to our surprise, the girls had managed to make it out before we got back and they rolled in just after we did and all climbed into bed for a nap. We decided we’d leave them in peace and headed out to find something to eat and stumbled upon a gem where I enjoyed the most amazing and large steak I could ever imagine to find. After enjoying a couple of beers, we returned to find the girls pre-drinking at eleven. They informed us that they had to get up the next morning to catch a train at 07:50, which we found impressive and hilarious. They stuck at the drink for another hour and a half before deciding to hit the town, promising on their way out that they’d keep quiet on the way back. We knew better, and took advantage of the quiet hours to get some sleep.

Sofia
David and I had our earliest start yet from Belgrade, rumour had it that the train would be leaving for Sofia at 07:50 and as we waited at the station we quickly realised that there was no substance to this claim. After an hour and a half the train turned up and the race was on to grab a seat which we failed to do. It was becoming apparent very rapidly that this could be the worst experience of our trip so far. After around four hours of standing in the aisle, leaning out of windows and attempting to enjoy the scenery every time the train stopped for no known reason we eventually found ourselves with seats. We were sharing a cabin with a Serbian couple and it seemed the wife hadn’t spoken to another human being in six months. Fortunately we were also blessed with the companionship of English traveling veterans Eric and his partner. They were interested in our trip and travels so far and we were impressed by their age; 80 something and still touring the continent by train. Eventually, around five hours later than expected we crawled into Sofia and after avoiding taxi drivers and people trying to escort us to Istanbul we found ourselves at Hostel Mostel. After a quick introduction to the city map we were relieved to find the city had several 24 hour restaurants and grabbed a quick bite before crashing for the night.

The following morning we headed out into the city to see the sights, starting off with the Communist Party Headquarters which are looked down upon by the Statue of Sofia. We then continued on to Sofia’s best known sight; the St. Alexander Nevsky Cathedral which unlike many in Western Europe wasn’t ruined by scaffolding but instead a sprawling car park.

On street corners around the city there were small booths, relics from the Soviet occupation where soldiers once kept any eye on the streets now seemed occupied by redundant traffic wardens. Driving in Sofia is popular despite the fact that nobody seems to know what they’re doing.

Our tour of the city then lead us to the Monument to the Soviet Army, which while pale in comparisson to Budapest’s Heroes Square was still reasonably impressive simply because it had outlasted the Soviet occupation; we had heard many stories of destruction of other Soviet sights.

We took a break from the sights and stopped in the city gardens, where another monument was either being erected or dismantled. After a few hours people watching we found ourselves under the shadow of Mount Vitosha and decided it was time for lunch. We dropped some stuff off at the hostel and then headed to a traditional Bulgarian restaurant where I enjoyed what was called a wolf’s appetiser but I could only describe it as “all the meats” and David bravely went for tripe soup. After filling up we decided to head back through the city and find the Ladies Market, which spread across several streets, most of the stalls selling the same seasonal fuits and vegetables.

In the evening we were surprised to find the hostel offered a free beer and bowl of spaghetti as well as being offered a shot of Rakiya at the hostel’s partner bar. After a few beers we remembered we that we would have to catch a train the follwing morning and following “the Belgrade incident” we decided it would be best not to be carrying a hangover.

Varna
We awoke feeling fine, grabbed a breakfast and a guy from Sweden and headed to the train station. Sofia’s station is pretty confusing, everything is in Cyrillic and there are no obvious signs to follow. Fortunately there are plenty of guys about who will show you where to go and even escort you to first class, with the guarantee that everythng will be fine for a small fee. We hung around in first class until the ticket inspector moved us along and we ended up in a cabin with an American-Bulgarian family heading out to Varna for a summer holiday. As well as having two young children for entertainment, the scenerey as we passed out of Sofia topped the Elbe Valley and Sweden. The route follows a small river as it flows towards the Black Sea arving between huge mountain ranges and small villages that were sprinkled across the lower valleys. The journey was a breeze in comparisson to the one coming into Sofia and we arrived at the Yo Ho Hostel in the early evening. In our room we found Rob; this guy could easily become a cult figure for the travel scene. He’d sold everything, runs a fantastic blog and has no idea when he’ll stop travelling; he had been going for nearly 21 months when we met him. After our encounter with Rob, David and I headed immediately out for food and several beers at one of the beach bars; Atmosphere where we had some of the worst food of the trip so far but some pretty tasty beers, so it wasn’t all bad.

The next day we missed breakfast and decided to check out Bulgaria’s most popular chain restaurant; the Happy Bar & Grill; the prices were reasonable and the food was ok and we had found ourselves another restaurant where they had very strict rule when it came to how attractive their waitresses had to be. After our food we headed down to the front and walked throughout the bars and clubs until we reached a jetty where people were fishing and throwing themselves into the sea. decided we should probably head back, grabbing a salad from one of the restaurants and passing Rob as he headed out to explore the city for himself. We chilled for a bit at the hostel before heading back towards the beach to find a place to grab some dinner. We stopped in Bistro Europe, David ordered some mussels (which I believe he would later regret) and I ordered some lamb meatballs which apparently meant fried fish in Bulgaria; who knew? After the confusion we enjoyed our meals and headed back for much needed sleep.

The following morning I left David in bed as he claimed not to be feeling very well and grabbed some breakfast and hung out with Rob and was introduced to Austrlian veteran traveler Wayne and the eccentric, hilarious Shakespeare-professor-in-training Avi. David emerged and we were taken to a soup house, with Avi convinced that it would be just the thing to sort David out. Sadly, the soup left us all underwhelmed and we went back to the hostel, David to bed, Wayne and Rob to the bus station to head to Romania and Avi and I to the beach. On our way down we stopped by a secondhand book store, where, to my delight I found a copy of Chuck Palahniuk’s Rant, Avi grabbing a copy of Shakespeare’s notorious Titus Andronicus. We got down to the sand dropped our stuff and got stuck into our respective books. The weather wasn’t ideal and ominous clouds passed over several times and so we headed back to the hostel.

That evening Avi had informed me there was excellent food to be had in the hostel restaurant and that there would be a band playing in the hostel basement. We first enjoyed the Bulgarian Shopska salad and fried sprat before checking out some very talented young hip-hop artists who also humiliated us at table football, which we took as our cue to leave.

The following day David had taken a turn for the worse and didn’t emerge at any point in the morning. Avi and I decided we should try and do something cultural and the guys running the hostel took us and a couple of other travelers out to the impressive Stone Forest and the less than inspiring Aladzha monastery which was little more than an open cliff wall.

Still, we felt good that we had managed to see some of the sights around Varna. When we returned to the hostel, we got David up and convinced him that he would need something to eat and returned to Atmosphere. It became apparent that everything was not ok after David failed to finish his meal and so we headed back to the hostel. Upon our return Avi and I left David to bed and we headed downstairs to see what was happening. We found Australian hockey player-come-teacher Mitch and lone Dutch traveler Mae. After grabbing a beer and sharing a few stories we called it a night, agreeing we should meet up to go to the beach the next morning.

Another day, and another no show from David. I met up with Avi and Mitch, the three of us heading down to the beach and going straight into the Black Sea. After taking the plunge we dried out in the sun, Mitch left us to watch his beloved Queensland lose the second match of State of Origin. We met him again as we were heading back to the hostel, leaving Mitch to spend more time on the beach. Back at the hostel we found Mae and began making plans for the evening, and once Mitch joined us we headed down to the hostel restaurant and enjoyed zucchini fritters. After this we headed out down to the water front, leaving Mae in charge of finding somewhere for us to drink. Having had a craving for Latin music earlier in the day, it came as little surprise for her to lead us into a salsa bar, more surprising was that all three of us agreed and went in without complaint. That’s not entirely true, I complained about the price we paid to get in and then again at the price of the beer, but I enjoyed myself despite not being able to dance and sitting out of the way watching with Mitch. Avi and Mae looked like they might have hit the floor, but much to our disappointment they didn’t. After a few hours, we decided we should find somewhere else and after walking the length of the beach in one direction without luck we thought about calling it a night. We first took a detour onto the sand, picking up a stray dog on the way and spent the rest of the walk back to the hostel trying to lose it with Avi being convinced it was trying to eat us.

The next day promised more of the same; no David and plenty more beach, we picked up South African Dan and his Scouse traveling friend. After another day packed with sun, sea and sand Mae decided she would cook us all dinner and we enjoyed zucchini, chicken and pesto pasta. David even managed to drag himself from bed to get involved. That night we said farewell to Mitch and his two new traveling companions as they were off to Bucharest. Avi then informed us he would be leaving the next morning, finally deciding it was time to head to Istanbul after many days of putting it off.

Yet another day and David still didn’t emerge. I made it downstairs early enough to see Avi fully loaded and heading out and found Mae already enjoying breakfast. David once again declined to join us on the beach but he seemed like he was feeling better. Mae and I spent another few hours on the beach again, before heading back to the hostel where we spent the afternoon playing Rummikub. That evening we headed out together, David included to grab a meal and some cocktails which could have turned into a disaster considering David and I were heading back to Sofia the following morning, but depsite Mae’s best efforts we didn’t stay out too late or drink too much.

Sofia
The following morning we were finally ready to leave Varna, we packed up, grabbed a quick breakfast, said goodbye to Mae and got back on a train to Sofia. On this journey we were in a cabin full of Bulgarians which gave me time to finish Rant and David time to listen to a lot of incredibly angry music. Once we arrived in Sofia we returned to Hostel Mostel to find they were hosting a stag party and we would be sharing a room with some of these “lads on tour”. Fortunately, the only real disturbance occurred when one of them decided that it would be much better to enter the room via the window than the door next to it.

The day was a write off, the two of us were lethargic and failed to build up any motivation for anything and bummed around the hostel for the entire day. Whether this was to do with the fact that we’d stayed put for so long, or whether fatigue from our trip had finally caught up with us I don’t know, but we sure wasted a day.

The next day we felt much the same but forced ourselves out into the city to see the famed yellow-brick roads. We thought we had missed them on our first stop and were somewhat excited, but once we had found them the mood quickly changed. We had seen the paving before, and you can even see similar stuff at home in Basingstoke.

So we went out for lunch to forget about another wasted morning. That afternoon we returned to the hostel and decided to get involved with a tour to the Rila Monastery the next day, most people we had met who had been had informed us it was not to be missed.

An early start and a full breakfast was followed by a 117km drive out to the Rila mountains and the monastery. There were just four of us going out there, but our driver informed us the following day he would be taking a minibus full and we were relieved that there wouldn’t be so many people around. On arrival we were taken to the Cave of St. John of Rila, where St. John lived for twenty years, even throughout the winter when temperatures dropped far below zero.

Through the back of the cave is a gap in the rocks and legend has it that those who crawl through it emerge free of sin, so we all crawled through it. Whether or not we are sin free remains to be seen. We then went down into the Monastery which is situated in a valley within the Rila mountains.

It’s surroundings make it very clear why it was decided to set up a monastery in the area, the location is not only beautiful but without a car, very difficult to reach. After spending several hours marvelling at the frescoes and the mountains we returned to the hostel. David and I preparing ourselves for what would be our second epic journey; the Dubrovnik challenge.

After making a reservation for the journey from Budapest to Belgrade David and I found ourselves sharing a cabin with three young Swedish guys who were embarking on their own shorter tour of Central Europe. We spent the journey discussing the finer points of Europe’s most important religion; football. After several hours too many on the train we finally arrived in Belgrade, a city so popular it was battled over 115 times. We emerged from the station and took a short walk to the Backpackers Lounge hostel. On arrival we were given a brief overview of the city before passing out from fatigue.

The next morning we woke up and headed out at a reasonable hour to check out what could have been the largest or one of the largest Orthodox Cathedral’s in Europe, or Eastern Europe or the world depending on who you spoke to, regardless it was a very impressive structure.

We then headed towards the city centre passing the parliament buildings and ending up on Skadarlija; Belgrade’s bohemiam quarter. As breakfast had not been included we checked out a restaurant and ordered the recommended Karađorđeva šnicla which consists of a rolled sheet of breaded meat stuffed with cheese.

After lunch we hit the city’s number one attraction Kalemegdan; the Fortress of Belgrade. Within the towering walls is a vast park, The Victor statue that overlooks the city, and several museums.

During our stroll around the park large drops of rain began to fall and we took shelter within the Military Museum which houses weapons from as far back as the Roman ages up until the captured weapons of the Kosovo resistance fighters.

As we approached the end of the exhibits we found that military history stopped rather abruptly in the late 90s. As the day drew on we headed back to the hostel to clean ourselves up and head out to a restaurant so hip it didn’t even have a name, it was simply known as “?”. We enjoyed some more authentic Serbian food and tried the local Rakija, which is a fruit based brandy that tastes mainly like fire. We then returned to the hostel just in time to avoid a soaking as electric storms moved in over the city.

We left Bratislava feeling more comfortable than when we arrived, relieved that we wouldn’t be spending the long train ride with an agonising hangover. The journey itself was largely uneventful and we pulled into Budapest late afternoon. After a short walk through the outskirts of Pest and a slight confusion with the keys we found ourselves being shown into our room, which turned out to be more like an apparentment, by Pal of Pal’s Hostel. We found ourselves with a large living area, kitchen, bathroom with a bath and most importantly a balcony that overlooked St Istvan Basilica. We chilled out for a bit, taking advantage of the luxurious space.

After long enough we made it out into the city on the hunt for some food. David had marked a Lonely Planet recommendation on the map and after a few wrong turns we found Klassz. We sat down at a table, flicked through the menu and went to order some beers; the waitress looked at us as though we had done something terrible and then she asked us if we wanted some wine. We politely declined, and once she had left we looked around the restaurant to find that everyone was sampling and drinking various wines; turns out we were doing it wrong. Still we enjoyed a great meal and substandard beers. We then headed back to the apartment and enjoyed balcony tea before heading to bed.

The next morning we decided that at some point during our stay it would be necessary to have balcony bacon sandwiches and finding some became part of the day’s plan. We headed out to the Buda hills, crossing the Chain Bridge to check out the Buda castle quarters; home to many museums, galleries and several churches but the two focal features are the view across the Pest plain and the Fisherman’s Bastion.

While we were enjoying the view we were able to watch a storm cross over the hills and drop an almighty sheet of water down upon us. We took shelter for the worst of the weather before heading back to Pest via the impressive Parliament Building which is an equal to Westminster in terms of appearance.

We then continued back to St Istvan’s Basilica and and to our appartment. The next few hours were dedicated to a search for Bacon, and we eventually were greeted with success and stocked up on enough to give us balcony bacon for the remainder of our stay.

That evening we headed out to Menza and this time we decided we had better order some wine. I left this down to David due to my complete lack of knowledge, he later informed me after we discovered we’d ordered a dessert wine that he also suffered from the same lack of knowledge. Regardless, the wine was enjoyable as was the meal.

The next morning an almighty bacon sandwich was enjoyed before another storm crashed in over us. We stayed in, hoping that the weather would clear and eventually we got lucky and immediately headed out to Heroes’ Square which, like the Parliament is one of the most impressive structures I have ever seen.

It is probably my favourite monument so far. Beyond the square was the city gardens and we thought we may as well check these out, finding some pretty interesting examples of Hungarian modern art in a moat around a smaller castle and a rather disappointing ‘park’. After plenty of milling about we decided to head back to our appartment we were hit with another storm but this was no ordinary storm, we were pelted with some sizable hailstones as well. We’re from England, we’re used to awful weather and we continued back despite being soaked. On the way a girl took pity on my state and offered me shelter, I felt bad for David, due to his height he was unable to join us out of the worst of the elements.

After drying out, we headed out to a small local pub recommended by our hostel owner and were not dissapointed, we were even able to order some beer without being seen as criminally insane. We didn’t stay out too late and headed back to get ready for our long train ride to Belgrade.

I woke up looking like a pirate, I had a shower and still looked like a pirate. It became quickly apparent that I was still drunk. David and I stumbled about, trying to get our things together as quickly as possible so that we would be out on time. We managed to get out of the hostel and onto the S-Bahn where we found that we hadn’t validated our tickets properly, but we were let off anyway. We made it to the station and fell into a couple of seats and were carried on to Bratislava.

On arrival the hangover had kicked in and the scorching heat of the day was making things particularly unpleasant. We made our way to the Backpackers Hostel where we spent the remainder of the day in recovery. Late in the evening, feeling somewhat better we headed down to the hostel’s bar and ordered some food before returning to bed to continue healing.

The next morning, feeling significantly better we grabbed some breakfast which consisted of bread, cream and jam which made a pleasant surprise from the usual meat and cheese challenge. We then headed out into the city, starting off at Bratislava Castle, which had been around since the Stone Age, having been modified and redeveloped and even destroyed at points throughout it’s history.

From the summit we had incredible views across the Danube to the newer half of the city dominated by Soviet style tower blocks and the aptly nicknamed UFO bridge.

After exploring the castle grounds we headed down into the old town, which was similar in style to most European old towns we had already been to. Once in one of the smaller central squares we found Bagel and Coffee Dream where we stopped to enjoy some lunch.

Following a Mexican bagel and strawberry cooler, we explored what was left of the city, quickly establishing that it was one of the smallest we had visited yet. We opted not to cross the river, as it looked like it would have been similar to Warsaw. We stopped off in a supermarket to grab some fruit and enjoyed this under the parliament buildings before returning to the hostel.

After a brief stop, we headed out to find some dinner eventually settling in the basement of Prašná Bašta where I enjoyed pork with potato pancakes and David ordered what was becoming his regular favourite, salmon.

After eating we headed back fairly early, I was still feeling the effects of the Viennese blow-out and wasn’t up for facing more alcohol yet. Over the course of the night, we were disturbed by some German lads and ladies on tour, who did their best to be quiet but once they’d fallen asleep managed to snore at hazardous volumes for the rest of the night.

The journey from Krakow to Vienna was a largely uneventful one and the day was spent either in train stations or trains that crawled across Poland, the Czech Republic and eventually Austria. We arrived pretty late and once we had checked in headed to the nearest restaurant for any kind of food. Just around the corner from our hostel was a small, homely place where we were met by a middle-aged drunk American who introduced himself as Gary. We enjoyed a hearty sausage and chips while he talked about his love of snooker, the blues and a cruise around the UK he would be doing in a couple of weeks. Shortly after eating we returned to the hostel and crashed after another long day on the go.

The next morning we awoke with time for breakfast, which to our surprise was served in the same restaurant we had been in the previous night; no sign of Gary at this early hour though. After a simple but filling start, we headed down the Viennese high street towards the city centre, counting the number of times we passed a Zara or H&M. We strolled past the Museum Quarter and into what was once the Hapsburg’s winter palace.

We then pushed on into what was apparently the oldest part of the city, but with the exception of St. Steven’s Cathedral didn’t look more than 40 years old. We decided to cross the Danube Canal but found little of interest outside the centre and came to the conclusion we would have to find out whether or not a Viennese coffee house lived up to the hype.

We ended up in Kleine’s Cafe and enjoyed some impressive lattes before deciding to see some more of the city’s sights. On our way we found a supermarket and decided it would be wise to take on some fruit after some of our more questionable dining choices in Krakow and we enjoyed this in Sigmund Freud park over discussions of the psychoanalyst’s theories and how little we knew of them. We then continued our walk past the Rathaus and the parliamentary buildings before taking detour into a small record store which we explored extensively before continuing on back to the hostel.

After cleaning up we found a large bar-restaurant where we enjoyed some authentic Austrian dishes and a few beers and we decided it would be a good idea to find somewhere to enjoy a few more beers. We found our way to the Travellers Shack and after quickly becoming friends with the bar-man began our next journey to party town. We enjoyed a local classic “Vienna Blood”, a flaming shot, a “snuff-shot”, beer bong, and several other pints knowing that we’d definitely have to get up early the next day and spend several hours on a train to Bratislava, but that didn’t stop us. By the end of the night, several new-friends later and covered in face paint we stumbled back to the hostel and passed out after a fantastic night in Vienna.

We awoke early, too early. We had given ourselves an excessive amount of time to get breakfasted before our train and ended up hanging around the station for over an hour. We did our best to get rid of as much remaining Czech currency as we could and then boarded the train and prepared ourselves for the journey ahead. A lot of reading was done and much music was listened to and we had a pretty alright time across the eight hours.

On our eventual arrival in Warsaw David and I were greeted with towering walls of concrete on every side which in comparison to many of our previous destinations left a lot to be desired. We were then graced with the Palace of Culture and Science which was a gift to the city from Stalin which was a fairly unique site within the city and seemingly Europe. We walked onto the hostel, and found a fairly nice place graced with unreasonably attractive staff. After checking in and dropping our things, we decided it would be best to make as much contact with the staff as possible and asked the receptionist if she could recommend somewhere for us to eat, and she did not disappoint. We found ourselves in a busy Polish-themed restaurant, which is surprising considering we were in Poland, where the staff were, genuinely surprising, unreasonably attractive. The menu consisted of dumplings stuffed with just about anything, and these were enjoyed with several beers and plenty of distractions

We awoke feeling slightly groggy and eventually made our way out of the hostel and into the city. We first stopped at the tomb of the unknown soldier and we spent a bit of time discussing whether it was actually an original feature or if it had been designed to look like it had been partially destroyed. We then headed into the Old Town, which had been lovingly reconstructed after the Nazi’s had destroyed 80% of the city. It sits in stark contrast to the rest of the city and it leaves you wondering how the city could have looked.

We then walked on to the Warsaw Rising Monument which commemorates those who fought and died in trying to free the city from Nazi occupation.

We stopped for a while after this, to “enjoy” a “burger”. We then continued our trail of monuments coming to the Jewish Ghetto Monument which was completely destroyed by the Nazi’s following an uprising within it’s walls. Nearby are the remains of the Pawiak Prison which formed part of the Warsaw concentration camp before also being destroyed after the attempted uprising.

We then continued in an attempt to find the Warsaw Rising Museum and after a little confusion, we found only to be further confused. The museum itself houses a lot of information on the people and the events of the Warsaw Rising but it is so difficult to navigate in a chronological order that I often became confused as to what had happened when. We eventually found our way out of the museum and returned to the city centre, using the Palace of Culture and Science as our guide and returned to the hostel.

On this occasion we didn’t bother to ask for a recommendation and just headed onto the high street near the hostel and ended up with Polish menus and were forced to play it safe and order a steak, although this was what we had actually gone in to said restaurant for anywhere. We were however delighted to find that we could order pitchers of beer which once again lead to the likelihood of another hazy start.

Krakow
It won’t come as a surprise to find that we took a leisurely approach to checking out of Warsaw, checking out just in time. We found our way back to the station and onto the next train to Krakow and were shocked and impressed to find that the Polish rail company offered a complimentary hot drink, and after our attempts at refusal and the stewardess’ insistence we had a very free tasting coffee. we then arrived in the city which looked like it had avoided a similar fate to Warsaw as the concrete was limited and the older buildings around the centre gave the city a much nicer look and feel. We shortly arrived at our hostel and spent the afternoon chilling out and trying to get up to date with things and get more destinations booked. In the evening we headed into the city where I discovered a love for chicken stuffed with blue cheese and made attempts to convince David that he doesn’t have free will. As the drinks flowed on the conversation began to slow and we decided to head back to the hostel and enjoy the lighter entertainment of music.

The next morning we awoke to torrential rain which wrote off much of the day. We managed to get more planning done and had extended our trip as far as Greece before heading out into the weather in the hope that it would ease off if we were confident enough about it. We were shortly driven into a cafe, and after one latte each we were convinced the weather would have cleared but to no avail. We then returned to the hostel and spent the afternoon sorting out laundry and cleaning ourselves up a bit. Fortunately, we had what I had designated as a “spare-day” in Krakow and we had to hope that the weather would improve for the following two days. David then reminded me that it was the Champions League Final, and that his beloved Manchester United might happen to beat Barcelona so we headed out and found that the rain had finally ceased. After checking a few places we found a small restaurant that was showing the game on one of it’s walls and we enjoyed food washed down with litres of beer which turned out to be a slight disaster as they were continuously being ordered throughout the game and we found ourselves incredibly drunk by the time we left.

When we eventually woke up the following morning we found glorious sunshine and relatively light hangovers. We got ourselves together and headed out in search of the perfect cure; a kebab. We then explored much of the Old Town before heading to Wawel Hill, the main tourist sight in Krakow which towers over the city and houses a castle, cathedral and several of the cities museums.

After spending a lot of time within the castle walls, we returned to the city centre past some of the old walls and through an old city gate. David had then suggested that we check out a traditional Polish restaurant where we enjoyed an incredible beetroot soup and generous helpings of rice and meat wrapped in cabbage and pork roulade.

Auschwitz
For ever let this place be a cry of despair and a warning to humanity. Where the Nazis Murdered about one and a half million men, women and children, mainly Jews from various countries of Europe.

There are no words that do justice to the mixture of emotions that came over me when I was in Auschwitz. It is a place that really needs to be seen first hand to have any limited understanding of the horrors that were committed there.