Venice
Towards the end of a hot June Liz and i flew into Venice Marco Polo airport to spend 5 weeks traveling. With our only key date the Exit festival in Serbia we were free to go where we liked. Starting in Venice allowed us to blow the budget from the outset and we found relatively cheap accommodation at The Hotel Antico Capon, which gave us a nice little room overlooking The Campo Santa Margherita, which was in a lively and central area. Be warned that you may be serenaded by groups of drunken students strumming and singing Hay Jude
in the early hours, earplugs are advised.
Its Hot in Venice, even in June, but it doesn’t smell like some people had said. Heading to St Mark’s square was our first outing and it was typically full of people feeding pigeons, popcorn kernels. We left the visit to the Cathedral to the last day but made a brilliant call on ascending the tower on a clear evening providing some stunning views. Not only did we get a lovely sunset but all the crowds and gone. We tried one morning to rent a boat, but my skills as a captain and lack of Italian failed this opportunity, probably for the best as it would have been like riding a bicycle on a motorway. Other than heading to Murano to see some glass where we perfected the technique for getting cheep cold beer (in supermarket, take two bottle’s, hide them in freezer, return 20 minutes later and collect prize!) and eating nibbles at our favourite wine bar.
Rovinj
Boarding an evening ferry took us across the Adriatic to Rovinj. Sandro of the Villa Salzburg picked us up and after dumping are bags dropped us back in town. We had a scrumptious fish platter for two and after touring some dubious bar’s we followed the noise and came across the 3rd Croatian Salsa Festival. It spilled out of the hotel and onto the streets, a very lively and sweaty crowd. While at the villa, which served a great breakfast from the friendly Sandro, we rented bicycles which we used to get into town and ride the coast. We climbed the tower (up rickety wooden stairs to Liz’s horror), relaxed on the beaches and fed crabs watermelon. Sadly i missed out on diving the Baron Gautsch, so i look forward to a return.
Bol
The best way to get to the south is from Rijeka, where we got on the Marco Polo Jadrolinija (The Jadrolinija is a reliable and cheap ferry service made up of many regular routes used by the locals to get around the islands of the south) which took us down the coast during the night to Split sleeping on the deck (lookout for the black soot which rains is pumped out of the chimney), where we got off and got another ferry to Brac, and a bus to Bol. The promenade connects the quite town to a series of large hotels, spa’s and dive centers and the spit pebble beach formation called Zlatni Rat
(Golden Horn), seen in many tourist images of Croatia. The resort is very much a family resort, so there is not much in the way of night life. A secret nudist beach can be found beyond the Church towards the east, after the first cove.
Havar
Next stop was Havar on Havar island. Stepping of the bus we negotiated a cheap deal for an apartment on the edge of town. We got a balcony with a great view and a small kitchen so we could be a little more self sufficient. It seems that as long as your not visiting in the middle of the high season their is no need to book in advance, and if you don’t find somewhere direct their are numerous tourist offices happy to help. Havar was definitely the pace to be, there is a lively nightlife around the harbor, as well as a cluster of small uninhabited islands a small boat ride form the town. Renting a boat here was easy, as long as you don’t mind only having 8bhp at your disposal. This keeps it pretty safe to, as there is not much chance you can make it out in to deep sea, just remember to take your mobile with you as running out of petrol is not fun, they insisted this wouldn’t happen but it did. Thankfully we got rescued by some nice locals who topped up our tank.
Renting a scooter was probably better than the boat, as it actually had some power. Our beast was a FireFox, and came with cool decals to boot. First of we ventured out of town in search of our own beach. After a dubious journey down a long dusty path we came back to a concrete road, but then found another shaky path which took us to the coast. sadly it wasn’t long till someone else joined us but it was worth it. After we went to an another town for dinner and while the sun was setting we made it on to the old road back to town. It took us into the peeks of this island and gave us some spectacular panoramic views. The road through an area which had previously been ravaged with fire, caused when the island got hit by lightening, which created an eerie contrast of burnt shrubs and open road.
Mjlet
Next stop was Miljet, an island reserved as a national park. This had to be the most difficult place to access (2 Boats, 2 Bus’ and a Taxi) and was the most quiet and peaceful. Having missed the regular ferry from Debrovnik we decided to catch another regular connection from Prapratno, which upon arrival we realized that this was for Drivers only and not really foot passengers, so access to and fro can be tricky. Luckily we managed to bribe our way into a mini-bus which we found by chance. Other than walking round the lakes and visiting the cathedral there is not much to do, so we rented a canoe and rowed out of the bay to the small uninhabited islands surrounding. The water across much of Croatia is really clear and great for snorkeling and diving.
An early start commenced our journey north back through Debrovnoik and onto Mostar in Bosnia. We waited much of the day here until our connecting bus arrived. Many of the buildings of Mostar are dashed with bullet holes and some lay abandoned overgrown on the inside. An incredible sunset said farewell as we drove out of the valley for a very shaky journey north through southern Serbia. In retrospect we believe flying would have been as the journey is most relentless all the way to Belgrade.
Novi Sad - Exit Festival
This was what this tip was all about, the Exit music festival in Novi Sad, Serbia. With almost 50 of my friend arriving in this normally sleepy town on the river Danube, joining 10,000 Brits and many more Europeans. Performances from Prodigy, Snoop Dogg & the Wu Tang Clan were accompanied by many little stages perched atop walls and hidden in moats of the Petrovaradin fortress. My favorite spots where Cafe del Danube (which had a great view of Novi Sad and the sunset, not that i made it there in time) and The Converse Chill zone (with its bean bag fun). Most impressive of all was the Dance arena which took 25,000 revelers at a time in a multi-tired environment.
Life during the four day festival (which goes on in the fortress from 8pm - 8am) is spent sleeping during the day while partying in the night. although for many of the campers and wreck-heads sleep is usually not an option. The main campsite sits next to the beach which blasts dance music in direction of the tents all day, attributed by the scorching sun, i recommend getting a hotel, hostel or flat for the week (which can be very pricey but is a sound alternative when considering its a four day event).
Once the festival had come to an end we got on one of the last trains of the day to Budapest. The train was packed full of Brits all on their way home, this time quietly on route, as we had heard that the inbound trains were rammed full of excited party goers getting invloved.
Budapest
After five consecutive days of little rest arriving in a sweltering city was probably not the best of idea’s as we probably would have preferred to be back on the beach and swimming in the sea. However Budapest does offer some fantastic Spa’s with thermal and massage treatment. We decided to go to the Gellert bath which was beautifully ornate. We indulged in a Thai massage and then headed to the hot baths. In the communal garden they have a wave machine which fires off every half hour or so. We also tried to go to the Lukacs Medical Bath, known for its healing mud baths, but we were turned away being told you had to have a note from the doctor to be allowed in.
After spending the rest of our funds it was time to fly home. We arrived back for the floods but had little choice to stay after i was frog marched to a cash point by large bouncers to pay a tab in a dance club… we had the last the laugh though by fully consuming our ‘quota’
