Bombarding Bulgaria- Vidin, Sofia

                                  Our ferry ride from Calafat, Romania to Vidin, Bulgaria

                        Six hour train to catch some shut eye while James and I catch up on some Gossip Girl

                                                    Giggs, what a sleepy head!

                                                     Our awesome loft hostel room

                                        Our beer expert pouring us some well deserved drinks

                                                Looks like James is enjoying the Ale House

                                  The chalk wall in the apartment bar we went to after the Ale House

                                  The following morning, just a casual bottle of wine with brunch

                                                            Off to sight see, I'm stoked!

                                                                   Second largest Cathedral

                               Supposed to be jumping but Giggs does a ballet pose instead

                                                                   Tourist shot

                                                 The outside of the Mosque

                                           James taking photos on his ipad inside the Mosque

When we got off the ferry we had no clue where to go so I approached a couple who had also gotten off the ferry. The man was so nice trying to speak a mix of English and French to explain that the train station was 5 km from the ferry and we would have to taxi. He was a boarder control over in Calafat where we just came from and he kindly waited for us at the boarder control in Bulgaria since they all knew one another. Once we were through he got a taxi for us and told the driver where to go, he even bargained a price for us, it was beyond generous of him to go out of his way like that to help us. We have been really lucky with how kind people have been in helping us find out way throughout this entire trip. The taxi dropped us off right in front of the station and we went inside to see if we needed a reservation thinking the only train was at two to Sofia but sure enough there was a train leaving for Sofia right then so we ran to catch it and made it on. In four and a half hours we'll have reached our destination so now would be a good time for some more episodes of Gossip Girl. About six hours later and four sleepy heads we arrived in Sofia. We walked the half an hour to the hostel, which is so great with their own private court yard and free beer and pasta for dinner, checked in and set off to enjoy our first night out. The hostel had given us a map with some suggestions for where we should go so we headed to the Ale House where they brew their own beer. Even though we had eaten the free pasta and beer at the hostel we were in for round two for food. While eating we watched some of the eurocup finals (Spain vs Portugal, go Spain!) then headed into the streets to look for a cool place out on the town. Well we failed miserably because it's a Wednesday night and nothing is going on. Instead we found the coolest cafe called the apartment cafe which is literally and apartment with themed rooms where you can sit and choose your own tunes and have a casual drink. We stayed for a little while before giving in to our tired eyes and heading home to the hostel mostel for bed. The following day we will have to explore the city before our bus to Greece, our final stop on this crazy adventure. We woke up late and slowly checked out of the hostel. As all four of us were hungry we hit a traditional bulgarian restaurant that the hostel had recommended. It was only noon but we ordered a bottle of red to cheers to our last day together as the boys are sticking around Bulgaria for a while longer. After eating I toured us around the town, we got to see the second largest cathedral within the Balkans, the synagogue, the mosque, and we tried getting into the Bulgarian baths but they were closed for renovations. It was a fun day though touring around being able to take our time and catch some rays out in the sun. Soon it was time to get back to the hostel grab our bags and say our goodbyes to the boys. It has been so great having them around we were sad to go our separate ways. We had all become instant friends so easily, as though we had known them much longer than three days. It is so nice to know that my next adventure could be to visit some of my new friends I have made along the way throughout this past year. Ashley and I arrived to the bus station and got our tickets settled, not the easier task as we had no more Bulgarian money so we tried paying in euros but for some frustrating reason they would not accept my bill because it was ripped. So we tried getting more Bulgarian money from an ATM but our cards weren't accepted because their machines don't accept foreign cards. So we had to go to an exchange office to convert our euros to Bulgarian but the conversion left us short five dollars so then the lady at the ticket office finally allowed us to pay the majority in Bulgarian and the rest in euros. For the next twelve hours we are confined to the bus but the up side is we're riding in style with TVs and internet and when we arrive we'll be in Athens!

Roaming Romania- Timisoara, Craiova, Calafat

                                                   Who doesn't love a yellow church??!!

                                                        Woooh Romania!

                                                  Anglican Church

                                           View inside the church. Breathtaking!

                            Garden Clock that reminded me of our old trips to Niagra Falls and the clock there

                                            Our fantastic hostel costel, we didn't want to leave....

                                           But when we did leave we brought new friends with us
                                            (James, Giggs, Ashley and I)

                                            Arrival in Craiova is in need of a beer or two

                                     Cheers to new friends and to no longer being in Serbia!

                                                    Jump if you're having fun! (James and I)

     Another jump shot, this time with Giggs which took some convincing since he was embarrassed

     Headed to the train station the next morning after our stay in Craiova (the boys bags wouldn't all fit in the trunk, they were too big. Maybe I should teach them how to pack lightly)

                                Our ride out of Romania....an ancient train makes for a sad face

                                      In all seriousness this was one of the stops during our risky train ride

Having had an uneasy time in Serbia we were anxious about Romania. Luckily we had emailed the hostel asking someone to meet us at the train station and they had agreed. We arrived to the train station in Timisoara around 9 and sure enough someone was there with a paper with our names on it. She was so nice and friendly and had brought her car to drive us. She even drove us around to see the town before heading to the hostel. Our hostel is called hostel Costel and it's so cute. It's an old house converted into hostel rooms with a basement suite for the workers to live. It is such a great atmosphere and everyone was so welcoming. The neighborhood is safe so we walked down the street to an Italian restaurant for dinner and when we came back everyone was hanging out in the kitchen so we joined them. There was such a mix of people and ages (they were from Luxembourg, Croatia, France, australia, and a couple Romanians). They were all so funny and kind. The one guy in charge of the hostel poured all ten of us a shot from his home brewed vodka, it was disgusting but it just went to show how generous they were to us all. This morning we were bound to wake up early to explore before our train at two but that never happened. We woke up later than expected but we still had plenty of time to head into the old town and take photos and sight see. We found my favorite church of all, despite all the pigeons surrounding it, it was yellow and so beautiful.  We couldn't go inside though so we continued walking. It must be their national day in Romania because everyone was carrying around flags (we even got one!) and there were a ton of guys in uniform in front of a church giving speeches. After trying to understand their speeches but failing we left and found a gorgeous square with another church at the far end so we made our way to it and this one we got to go inside. It was incredibly beautiful and i always feel at peace when inside a church so it helped calm my nerves from the Serbia experience. We decided to have lunch in the square and afterwards Ashley treated us both to gelato before walking back to the hostel to grab our things. The two Australian guys were also on their way to the train station so we all left the hostel together. They were headed to Sofia, Bulgaria and were supposed to transfer in Craiova (where we are headed for the night) so we all sat together for the ride. We had a ton of fun on the train to Craiova! Turns out James loves Gossip Girl so we watched a couple episodes together on the train and then the four of us played cards. They are both hilarious. When we got to Craiova they had missed their train so we told them they could crash with us as we are headed to Sofia tomorrow anyways and we can all go together in the morning. Ashley and I checked into the apartment we got for super cheap on booking. com and carried all four bags up (not an easy task as the boys did not pack lightly and both have a huge wheely bag that weighs more than me) then we met them outside to explore. The town is tiny and there wasn't really anything to do there. There was one main square where we took photos then we sat at an outside bar and just chilled for a while before we all headed to the apartment. We snuck them in and they crashed on the hardwood floor, not the best sleep probably. We had a super early start having to catch a train at eight so we ordered a taxi from the apartment to take us to the train. The boys bags barely fit in the car so it was a tight squeeze with their bags on our laps.  Quick side story: there are a lot of dogs here and while in the taxi to the train station we saw a guy riding a scooter with two dogs chasing him trying to bite his ankles, it was hilarious to see!  We arrived at the station and found what platform we were on before hitting the snack shops for our twelve hour journey to Sofia today. Let me tell you how lucky we are the guys missed their train yesterday because I would not have gotten on the train without them. The train is ancient, literally falling apart and so dirty that the guys were even weary we wouldn't make it, but we feel a lot safer traveling in a group of four rather then two.  To try and explain how awful this train was just picture a train thats been derailed and rusted over then multiply that by a hundred. The doors to get on the train don't even close and their is no toilets other then a hole in the ground. Some of the stops we made were literally in the middle of fields where farmers would just get off and have a horse there waiting for them. We endured the three hour journey on the train from the dinosaur ages and arrived in Calafat which is a tiny town on the boarder of Romania and Bulgaria. When we got there I asked a man working how to get to the Vidin train station (as it said we had to transfer online) and he was able to speak to me in French and explain that we had to walk to the ferry then boat across the river to Bulgaria. We walked the short distance to the ferry and bought our tickets. The lady ushered us quickly away as the ferry was scheduled to leave so we started running but as we rounded the corner the ferry was already moving. They were so nice though and came back just to get the four of us (they hadn't made it that far we could have taken a step or two in the water and climbed on but the boys with their huge bags would've gotten wet). The ferry only took about ten fifteen minutes and then we were in Bulgaria!

I survived Serbia- Belgrade

        View from our room in the hostel. We over looked the train station

                                 our hostel room where we spent all our time in Belgrade

          Scary building we stayed in where the staircase lights were broken, the door
did not lock, and dead dogs roamed

We left croatia the 24th to start our downward journey to Greece. Our first stop being Belgrade, Serbia. Well Serbia isn't exactly my favorite, it has it's charm in that terrifying way. Luckily our hostel was right across the street from the train station so we booked it over there only to have to climb six flights of stairs in the dark. We burst through our hostel door half expecting to just turn around and leave but it was very quaint and the girl who checked us in was super friendly bringing us juice and a fan to our room for us. We built up some courage to head back downstairs to get food before dark but on the second floor our path was blocked by a dog lying across the bottom of the stairs and fearing it might bite or attack us if we disturbed it we tried whistling to get it to move but it didn't budge. We tried getting it to move for a while longer but it seemed to be dead and I'm not sure which one was worse but we headed back to the comfort of our room. Our hunger won in the end though so we made one more attempt to get down stairs and this time the dog was gone. We found a restaurant around the corner literally swallowed our food whole and headed back to the hostel for the night. On our way back up the stairs to the hostel the dog was back but I was NOT going to be stuck on the wrong side of our room so while dishing out compliments to the possibly dead dog I made a beeline past it. We have until four o'clock tomorrow evening before our bus out of here but check out is at eleven so hopefully the nice girl at reception will let us stick around til later.  The next morning we hid away in the hostel as long as we could then decided we'd better go get the bus thing figured out since no one understands us. It was good we did because it took a good hour to even find the bus station and to get someone who knew where we were trying to go. With our tickets ready we thought we would quickly eat at the same place as last night then head back to the hostel to grab our things and go. Well our plans never seem to go accordingly, I had ordered chicken stuffed with cream cheese and the chicken was raw when i got it so it took an hour and a half to get it recooked, not the fast meal we thought we'd have. So we had to rush to the hostel grab our things and run for the bus. We caught the bus and boy was that another experience! It was packed to the max with mo air conditioning and to make matters even more fun we had no idea where to get off. We had asked the girl when we bought our tickets and she said she thought the bus stopped right outside the station but as time ticked by on the bus I thought I'd be on the safe side and ask again and luckily enough as i asked we stopped and we were quickly ushered off the bus. We didn't know where to go though since it wasn't in front of the train like we'd thought, it was on the side of the highway.  Some guy also got off the bus so we followed him but he was taking his jolly old time so we went ahead and asked two men (who happened to look exactly like Mario and Luigi) walking down the street, they pointed us in the right direction and we made it to the train just in time to start boarding. Turns out Mario and Luigi were our ticket collection guys on the train so they were happy to see we'd found our way with their help. On to Romania!

Croatia- Opatija, Rijeka, Zagreb

                                                 Boat cruise of the Croatian Coast

                                        The Beach on Opatija near where we were staying

                                           Another beach. pit stop from our cruise

                                              silly beaches there was no sand just rock

                                   Small tidbit from our awesome firework shows we saw

         Cool art work of famous people who've been to Opatija. Einstein being one of them

                                                    Yellow building in Zagreb

                                                          Church in Zagreb

                                                     Statue outside church in Zagreb

Croatia where have you been all my life. We left Slovenia around three pm and chose an empty train compartment so that we could spread out except that got interrupted by three little ladies joining us. The one was so cute trying to speak to us in her language, and playing hot potato cuz she kept changing seats every two seconds going from beside Ashley to beside me. We hit customs on the train and I was so excited to finally be getting some stamps where as usually you pass through on the train without anyone checking your passports. As the guy came to check tickets we asked him how to get to opatija, where we were staying for the next two nights and had no clue how to get there, and surprised he said this is the stop so he ran outside to hold the train while we gathered our stuff hurriedly.  We got off knowing nothing other then that it was our stop, in the middle of no where! We followed a path down past houses and got to a main street and started asking people about buses since we were on the top of a mountain and we needed to get to the bottom shoreline. After asking a hand full of people someone finally understood us and pointed us to the bus. Luckily a family at the bus was from the states and had been there before so they showed us on our gigantic map we bought where to go once we got to opatija. Turns out the bus station is practically next door to our apartment we rented which is also right up the street from the beach, it's paradise. We checked into our apartment, which has air conditioning (yay!), and then went for a walk along the water. The town is so adorable and quaint, with buildings painted in every color imaginable. We scouted out a good place to eat and while waiting for a table we went across the street to the excursions booth to talk to the guy about doing a half day trip tomorrow, he convinced us to do a riviera tour down the cost to Moscenicka Draga. When we were finished booking our excursion our table was ready and we got the cutest waiter who ended up giving us free bruschetta to start and free shots once we had finished eating. The meal itself was amazing, we split their homemade pasta with truffels (a Croatian specialty) and a chicken dish that was stuffed with cheese and zucchini. After dinner we stopped in at a concert in the park for a bit before heading up the street to our place. As we walked in the door to our apartment we heard fireworks (just our luck) so rushed to the window and were able to watch from there, although two heads out one small window is not that comfortable. Turns out there is a festival going on here for the next four days where pyrotechnic companies are competing by having firework shows every night on the water, what are the chances that we showed up for it.    Last night we may have been over excited with the air conditioning cuz it is freezing in here now, I barely slept I was so cold. Good thing it is hot outside and we have to be at our excursion for ten. We got lost on the way and arrived a little late and saw the boat already driving away but a man on shore whistled him back in to the dock to get us just in time. The tour was short but sweet and the guide was really funny telling us about the history of the small towns and how the one house is owned by the mafia. We got off the boat in Moscenicka Draga for two hours and laid on their beach. The beaches here however are not sand they are rock so not the comfiest thing to lay on. We both burnt, of course, and are now in pain. Our guide said there was a storm coming so we headed straight back to opatija. As we were hungry and have a stove in our room we bought some pasta and sauce at a market and made food for lunch before heading to the beach in our town since the guide was wrong and there is no storm, at least not yet anyway. We had the perfect relaxing afternoon, reading and napping out by the water. Because the pier is all cement they have free lounge chairs and we literally stayed there all evening, only to come back to our room and shower before heading back out. We got kebabs for dinner and walked and ate as we continued exploring the town. As the fireworks show is on tonight too we set up camp on some of the lounge chairs by the water around ten to eleven so we'd have front row seats to the show.  They were amazing yet again, like no fireworks I'd ever seen before. It's been a blast here in opatija and we don't want to leave but tomorrow we move on to Zagreb, also here in Croatia but we say goodbye to the beach and move inland. The sun these last couple days has taken all our energy so we slept most of the way on the train. Even after our nap on the train I was exhausted arriving in Zagreb. We found our hostel and headed back into town to walk around and take it easy for the rest of the day. We settled into a cafe bar to map out the rest of our trip (we're going to tey hitting Romania!) when a group of army boys on a bachelor trip came on by dressed in costumes. The "to be" groom was dressed in a snow white costume while the other guys were dwarfs. They were all from the U.K. so we chatted with them for a while. It was getting dark though and we had a bit of a treck to the hostel so we left and headed back before it got too dark. Previously traveling with my parents must have made me age cuz I can no longer handle the exertion and I look forward to hitting the pillow at night. Happy shut eye for me.

Wedding Bells (don't worry not mine)

I would just like to wish my cousin Greg and his beautiful bride Vanessa Congratulations on their wedding today. Welcome (officially) to the family Vanessa!Love you guys and wish I had been there. By the way it is the 23rd here so I didn't get the day wrong even though it says I posted this the 22nd

I sLOVEnia- Ljubljana

                               The view from the ancient train. So beautiful love this country

                              The view however could not keep me awake, so knackered

                                  Ashley on the other hand is wide awake and loving life

                                        View from the top of Ljubljana Castle

                                            Cute little side streets while exploring at night

                                                 The canals at night and my favorite pink Church

We were uncertain how safe slovenia would be for two girls to be traveling alone to but we thought it was an unfair assumption so we went for it. Boy am I glad we did its so unbelievably beautiful. It was like the minute we crossed over into Slovenia the landscape became brighter and the water became clearer and the hills became higher. It's definitely a place of wonder, and I want to spend as much time here as possible. At first we weren't sure about whether we should have come this way as we were on the milk run, catching all kinds of trains from brand new to about to break down. We had to train from Trieste to gorizia then transfer to another train station which was so old that we had to cross the rail tracks to get on the train rather then there being an underground tunnel. And when the train pulled up everyone's heads were out the window like from a 50's movie because there was no air-conditioning on the train. But it was all part of the atmosphere that Slovenia brings, classic beauty in a simplistic way. We found our hostel right away when we got to Ljubljana (slovenia's capital city and where we are staying the night), so we dropped off our bags and headed to the castle first. We took the tram up to the castle and climbed its bell tower for a spectacular view of the city. We also learnt a lot about the history and uses of the castle dating back to when it was first built. Having eaten nothing but apples all day we settled on the first restaurant we saw for dinner. It was delicious and not to mention so cheap (this is when Slovenia truly caught my heart). After dinner it was dark but the streets were more alive then ever. We even stumbled upon a singing competition in the park (we had thought it was a concert the crowd was so big). We slowly made our way back to the hostel for bed and although we had wanted to hit the beach early tomorrow in Croatia we are not quite ready to leave behind our new treasure. Thursday morning, we finally got a chance to sleep in. We checked out of our hostel and had a very casual morning, no more running around. We had lunch on the promenade an took turns sitting with our bags while the other would walk around the markets. It felt like a Saturday afternoon with families bustling around us. Its such a fun and relaxing atmosphere that the heat is actually bearable for now. The time to leave came too soon and we were off again this time en route to Opatija, Croatia. 

Italy- Genova, Milan, Venice, Trieste

                                    Breakfast in Genoa. Ashley and I were super sick.

                                     Church in Milan. only sight we saw there because of the heat

                                               Detail on the side of the church. It was incredible

                                    Shopping in Milan. we got the stink eye from the employees

                                                   Ashley's first visit to Venice

                                                         True Italiano

                                                  Screams tourist with the camera Ash!

                                                                Bella Italia

                                                      Walking on the Rialto Bridge

We trained into Genova from Nice stopping only in ventimiglia for a quick transfer. Genova was slightly frightening as we arrived late and the town was dark and gloomy but when trying to find the bus to take to the hostel everyone was so kind and helpful. We got to our hostel which was an old converted school, the rooms were classrooms and the halls still had the original lockers lined up. It had an amazing view down to the seafront as we were high up in the hills, hence why we bused and did not walk to the hostel (that and it was dark). As we are both still very sick and Ashley was running a fever we went straight to bed. After hastily planning our day we made our way back down the hill by bus and had breakfast close to the train station in a small cafe bar. Now off to Milan for the day. Milan was a scorcher, it was so hot when we got there that we had to ditch our bags right away and found solace by taking the metro four stops to the duomo. This heat is messing with everyones minds, while we were buying our metro tickets a boy got caught in a conveyer belt so there was a huge commotion of people running getting help and trying to free him. The boy was ok but we bought the wrong metro tickets. Luckily our sweaty selves talked our way into having the guy let us on the metro anyway. Only to discover four stops later that we went in the wrong direction, so we had to switch and go back. We finally made it to the Duomo and we were bombarded once again by the heat and people trying to sell us things only grandmas keep lying around to collect dust. The duomo was definitely a sight to see though, it was beautiful. I woe have loved to go inside but unfortunately in this heat I'm not dressed appropriately, who would be! With the little energy we had left  we found a place to eat out of the sun and then courageously walked back to the train station. We got on the next train to Venezia only to be kicked off at the following stop for not having a reservation. The man was very nice though he gave us the option to either pay or get off and told us what trains we could take with our passes since some are different prices and others are free. So instead we got on the next train to Verona and had to transfer to Venezia. While waiting on the train in Brescia to depart for Verona we heard a blood curdling scream from a lady who hand been trying to catch the train and got her arm caught in the door while her body was still on the platform. Fearing the train was leaving she started screaming for help and some people were able to free her and get her on the train before it started moving. What an eventful day, first the boy now the lady, told you it's the heat, as long as its not us. We finally arrived in Venezia and having been here before I knew my way around and got us to the hostel in a jiffy. Being exhausted we had dinner at the hostel, a nice bowl of pasta and salad,  before calling her quits for the night. We woke up at the crack of dawn on Wednesday so that we could explore Venice before it got too hot. Everything was closed, which is good for my shopping addiction, and also it was great for photos because the streets weren't crowded. Not having a map in Venice is never a good idea so we got lost and had to buy one in order to find our way back to the train station to make it in time for our check out at the hostel. Our next journey in Italy and the last is Trieste. Because yesterday we found out there are trains that you must reserve ahead of time for ten euros or on the train for double we had been trying to avoid those altogether but somehow ended up choosing one with a reservation. We were frantically running to buy a reservation with only seven minutes before the train was scheduled to leave but all the machines were broken, some workers saw that we had the train passes though so one guy was shouting to go to a different platform but then another guy was talking to us and in the midst of the commotion we missed the free train and swallowed our pride and our wallets and just got on the reservation train. For some reason however the stars were in line for us today and the guy never came around to check tickets so we never even had to buy the reservation, good thing the machines had been broken! We got to Trieste but never left the station because it was so hot and we only had an hour so no point in checking our bags. Guess this is goodbye Italy.