Lets make like a Croatian town and... Split

Starting at 2:00 in the morning for anything is normally a pain. But not when it is the start of a 24 day excursion around Europe. All the planning and indecisiveness has been dealt with and now, finally the journey starts, with a car journey from Nottingham to London Stansted Airport.

As previously mentioned, our flight into Croatia was via Frankfurt, and departed Stansted at 7:15. Stansted at that time of the morning, just before a mega bank holiday, is a disgrace! The Weatherspoons was full of hen and stag do`s and there was just nothing pretty about it.

So we eventually departed, and pretty quickly end up in Frankfurt. A short stop over (with a dodgy interaction with a transvestite) and we were on our way to Zadar. The original plan was to get a bus to Novalja, the town on the island of Pag, about 90km north of Zadar. Upon landing it was red hot and immediately the beach and an ice cold beer was calling me. The bus journey was ditched and replaced with a hire car to speed us along our way.

The car journey was sumptuous, the scenery consisted of rolling arid coast line backing onto a mountain range with the Adriatic glistening in the sun and loads of islands dotted about; this was paradise!

Once in Novalja, we settled down with a beer on the beach, the hostel, Big Yellow House has a great bar and some fantastic staff to help the party atmosphere. I was the victim of my own success, and end up falling asleep upright at the bar!

The next day we lazily up, feeling slightly worse for ware. We moved out, next destination Split. The previous days scenery couldn`t be missed either, so we stopped off in the town of Pag and had a quick dip in the sea, before hurtling to our bus to Split.

The bus route to Split from Zadar is fantastic, and traces the coast down passing numerous islands and rolling over some dramatic hills and mountains. Upon arriving in Split, we settled in our home for the night, Beach Hostel. It was getting late and upon some great help from the manager of the hostel, we walked through Split old town and through the decaying roman ruins and had some dinner, before heading to the beach and hitting the bars hard. We met up with a group of Croatians and waded into the sea once the club had kicked out, before heading back and sampling some local liqueurs, which were pretty rank, then realising we had about an hour before our morning bus departed for Sarajevo. We had to drunkenly rush back to our hostel, pack, and head straight for the bus station, before starting yet another leg of our journey.

Once on the bus, we both conked out, only to be rudely awoken at the Bosnian border by a steely faced police officer, shouting "Passport" several times at our fragile faces. Once awake, we witnessed yet more lush scenery, dancing through mountains and valleys. We stopped a couple of times before hitting Sarajevo, to witness some abject povety and the biggest challenge so far; nobody could speak any English. With some basic pointing and gesturing, I managed to secure some Bosnian Marks to acquire some snacks and drinks, whilst also having to find the petrol station so I could break the large 100 note the ATM spat out at me.

We eventually got to Sarajevo and the scars from war were still evident. The occasional bombed out building and several poc marks from bullets on the building. Our hostel, Harris Youth Hostel was atop a large hill, with a fabulous view over the fantastic city. Once our bags were dropped, we headed straight into Sarajevo, taking in the Latin Bridge, where World War I was effectively started with the assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand and his wife Sofia, then cruising around the old town, stumbling across a couple of relics from the war and admiring the clash of east meets west. The hostel offered a BBQ for the evening, so after walking around and finding a couple of excellent viewing places of the city and a roman fortress, we headed back.

So, that is where I am, I`ve had plenty of food and have a couple of beers waiting, which by the way, cost about 50p each, so on that note, I am going to leave you and enjoy the view, which you can see in the picture.

View over Sarajevo, where I will be enjoying my beer

The final planned route across Europe.

More Bookings than Paul Scholes

We'd now planned the route, but the next bit was probably tougher. All the planning now had to be put into action. There were the initial flights into Croatia, then the horrible return flight back to the UK out of Amsterdam, all of the overland travel, some of which can be booked in advance, but in some of the far flung corners of Europe we were heading, there was no advance internet bookings. Then the slight problem of the multiple languages that the information we could find was in...  Oh, and we had to find somewhere to stay.


Hutch and I work at the same company, and had to sort out getting the required 14 days off work. I had to pull together an intricate handover document, Hutch just seemed to get it authorised. Jammy sod. In the time it took me to get the time authorised, the flights into Zadar had jumped from about £100, to £170... blowing our budgets. Another solution was required.


I became very familiar with www.skyscanner.net, and found some extraordinary low cost budget airlines. Suddenly, something cropped up. An indirect flight via Frankfurt from Stansted, costing nearly half of the direct route, at about £86. A lot of people dislike Ryanair, but I bloody love them. Cheap travel and actually quite efficient and organised for the crap quality they offer.


Then the return flight from Amsterdam. Expensive. An adjustment was needed. Return from Eindhoven? Peanuts, again on Ryanair, plus another city, abliet for just a couple of hours. Thank you Mick O'Leary.


So that was thr flights booked, and over the last few weeks the accomodation has fallen into place. All is now done and dusted. We have shortened Kiev from the original plan; when England are in town for our visit, the prices rocket! So we adjusted and are staying in L'viv for an extended period. So, more bookings than Paul Scholes, it most certainly is, the dossier of information would make the KGB weep!!