Hvar - hitting the islands

This is it - we are finally starting to get where we want to be. This place is idyllic - the water is crystal clear, the beaches are.. ummm.. pebbles but strangely comfortable, and the weather is insanely hot and still. Perfect for a spot of boating and island exploration. Maybe even a skinny dip if you are brave.. hey the locals do it, why not.

Croatia - Split

Six years of pining to come to Croatia through stories from close Croatian friends, and we are finally here for the postcard waters and hot summer tan refresh.
We started our journey in the capital Zagreb.. but since this was a one night stop over and non coastal, we really didn't take any pictures. Zagreb was pretty cool though - and we stayed at a family run hostel which was real nice - with the owner being seriously comfortable on a day lounger trying to get us to hang out as long as possible.






We were really pining the coast - so the next day we set out on a motion sick adventure on the train system down to Split. Split is amazing - a maze of tiny almost unmarked streets to run through and find hidden treasures.

We knew this to be the start of the journey - and the real holiday would come when we start Island hopping, but impressed with Split we were.

Slovenia and our Prison accommodation

Slovenia is incredible - I would love to explore the whole country. We got to see part of it traveling on eurail from Vienna down to the capital city Ljubljana. I was actually shocked at how breathtaking this place is - especially at night with the candle lit moss green river, and cocktail bars to sit and enjoy the view over a dangerous concoction or two.




One of our highlights here was staying in a ex military prison. The prison has been converted into accommodation and each room is a cell that has been individually designed by separate architects. Ours happened to feel kind of Indonesian with lots of wood and loft style bunks.


Outside of the prison was actually a pretty out of control squat, but they did have some cool graffiti.


A riverside berry cocktail.. two please.. ahh.. two more please.


The view from the castle that stands on a hill in the middle of the town.







Did I say that I love Slovenia? Damn I love this place.

Vienna

I really don't have too much to say about Vienna. A very very nice place indeed.. but to be honest, we had just lived in Germany for 3 months and toured from North to South - so what we saw here we kind of felt we had seen already, or it was no surprise. Once again - be aware of massive amounts of tourists flocking the streets. The main centre of the city is contained within a ring - which also contains the tourists - so best to go for a big wander from the navel out.
The highlight for us was finishing our day at the Nasche markets - which is a food market just outside the centre ring - some amazing stalls and restaurants/bars spread down this strip and entice you to hang and taste the local delicacies.



While you are here find a wine bar and drink some sturm.. yum

Kutna Hora - Sedlec Ossuary

Just out of Prague is Kutna Hora. A really nice town with not too much going on. So it is a pretty cool place to come and visit - and the bonus is (apart from saying goodbye to tourists) is you get to visit the Sedlic Ossuary. This place is special for being a chapel that contains 40,000 bodies which are on display. The difference between this place and the catacombs we visited is decoration - In the 18th century the job was given to a woodcarver to arrange and order the bones somehow. He decided to build a few displays such as;
A chandelier that contained every bone found in the human body.. . hey, how about I just show you what he did.

Prague

Prague is a pretty special place. A lot of it tends to be from a past of being conquered by the Roman Empire and pretty much any surrounding European country.. one example on hand would be Germany.

It is incredibly beautiful, but the centre is spilling over with tourists which seem to be unavoidable.

Tourists in numbers seem to think that they can do anything – a form of mob mentality, which can be really entertaining to watch. One example I took a photo of was in the Jewish section outside a Synagogue. There were some Jews on one side of the street sitting in a small group minding their own business, and on the other were a big group of ‘I presume’ American tourists taking photos of them. It was like they were on a safari – and the Jews were a dangerous rare man eating species to be treated with extreme caution.

On a whole there isn't really much to say about Prague - it is a really pretty place, but you have to put up with a mind blowing amount of tourists.. and yes you are going to be one of them. All that aside though - just put the blinders on and rummage through the streets, rivers and castles to check out the amazing scenery. We also did a walking tour which gave some pretty fascinating history - but I wont bore you with that.

Below - A Prague alleyway. Amazing tight streets and buildings that seem to be brittle and crumbly adorn them.


The Astronomical clock. This was designed and built in 1490. Back then it was about as technologically advanced as the iphone. It was so good that the town decided to poke the creators eyes out with a hot poker.. why? So he couldn't build any body else one like it. Really good idea, except the following year it broke and the only guys that could fix it was blind.

And this is the crowd that gathers to watch the anticlimactic performance every hour on the hour. Without fail they gather and watch the disappointing act of a skeleton pulling a cord and a crow making a sound like a dying pigeon.

The new old Synagogue. Legend has it that Gollem lives here in the attic. We bought a really nice etching of Gollem terrorising the city over this building.. cool souvenir.

The castle that looks over the city - a very nice example of Gothic architecture.



Just down from the castle is a view of the city from above.. A pretty terracotta site.


One of the rivers flowing through the city like a vein feeding it.



Thought I would slip in this last pic of a local taxi. Some websites warn against taking unknown companies for fear of getting ripped off. It's almost like this guy advertises that message. Not only does he have barbed wire in his grill - bu the whole car is tagged with statements such as "f*ck the police" etc.. at your own risk