Hasta luego, y gracias para leer

Unfortunately, all good things must come to an end, and it would seem that my travels are no exception.

After 9 countries, 7 different currencies and more hell-raising, sleep-deprived train journeys than I care to remember, I am now in Madrid, getting ready for my journey home tomorrow. What I mean by "getting ready" is screwing all my clothes into teeny-tiny balls and shoving them in the bottom of my rucksack, safe in the knowledge that once they are (properly) washed I can put them in my wardrobe and not look at them, let alone even think about wearing them for at least 6 months. Wearing exactly the same select items for 6 weeks running definitely loses its appeal after about....ooh 6 days.

I am also looking forward to having clean feet. However hard I try, I cannot keep them clean. Gross I know, but pounding the pavements of Europe´s finest in my faithful flipflops leaves the soles of your feet a very fetching shade of.......grubby. Incidently, their appearance is not helped by the fact that I got a lovely farewell present from Italy in the form of a monster insect bite on my right foot which has caused it to swell to gargantuan proportions, giving me a rather attractive limp in the process.

Despite my grumblings, I have had an absolutely amazing trip. 6 weeks is nowhere near enough time to see all the thing that I would like to see......so I think that another trip will be called for sometime in the near future, once my bank balance has recovered from this one. (Here´s a tip-when in Venice, if you eat only sliced pizza for 2 euros a slice for your whole trip.....you may be able to afford to visit some museums, or have a drink, or something equally decadent).

So......until later, and thank you for reading ;)

Liv x

Romeo! O Romeo! Where for art thou Romeo?

Hello All

Well, after a rather hellish overnight train journey from Salzburg to Venice (think a hot, packed train, and a fat grumpy man sat next to you) I arrived at Venice St Lucia train station at 9am Tuesday morning in a bit of a bad mood.
I got off the train, took one look at the hordes of screaming children, dithering tourists and mile long queues for everything, turned around and got straight back on the train. And ended up in Verona......200km down the road and made famous by being the setting for a romantic story of some kind written by some bloke called William something-or-other.

Naturally, I headed straight for Juliet's house and the famous balcony. It appeared that about 50 million other people had exactly the same idea at exactly the same time. No matter....it just means that all my photos of the balcony feature some slightly bemused Japanese/German/American calling to their loved one below. Very romantic.

But here's the thing. There is a bronze statue of Juliet outside the house, and legend has it that if you touch her heart and make a wish, true love will be yours forever. But it is Juliet's right breast that has been polished to a shine through years of groping.....and people were queueing up to have their photo taken with their hand on aforementioned right/wrong breast. Now call me a cynic, but I cant help but think that these poor people might be luckier in love if only they had a firmer grasp (excuse the pun) of the human anatomy.

Anyway.....Verona. Soooo pretty. All ringing church bells and little old nuns running around. But alas....the rain followed me from Austria for the first two days of my stay, and when your very beautiful but very boarding-school-like hostel deems it necessary to lock its occupants out of the building from 9 to 5 every day (it takes 8 hours to make my bed apparently), there are only so many ways you can occupy yourself in the rain. Lets just say I resorted to drinking alot of coffee and writing alot of emails.

Luckily, the rain held off for the performance of "Carmen" that I attended in the ancient Roman amphitheatre, which is a bit like a mini version of Rome's collesseum, only more intact. And this time I was far more prepared - I bought a synopsis of the opera in English beforehand (this one was sung in French) although I was still left a little baffled as to why Don Jose felt he just had to kill Carmen at the end. Sorry, didnt mean to ruin the ending.

I returned to the hell on earth that is Venice train station this morning and....prepare yourselves.....walked to my hostel which is on the other side of the canal......WITHOUT GETTING LOST. I cannot underestimate the importance of this statement. Everybody gets lost in Venice. It makes no sense. A higgeldy-piggeldy maze of a city that is floating on water. Finding the hostel without taking a single wrong turn is an achievement on a par with the moon landing, or the invention of the wheel, or mobile phones. Needless to say I arrived feeling very very smug.
I then struck out in search of a supermarket to buy something cheap and cheerful for dinner......6 hours later I still hadnt found one and had no idea where I was. When I finally made it back to the hostel I passed the big red sign pointing down the street next to it saying.........."Supermarket". Oh joy.

I am now very much looking forward to getting lost again tomorrow (although I will be more prepared this time and will take emergency rations) exploring this absolutely stunning city.

Right....heading off out for some drinks now. Perhaps I should take a sleeping bag with me just in case.

Ciao x

The Hills Are Alive With The Sound of Music!!!

Quite literally. It would seem that I have stumbled into Austria in the middle of the biggest Salzburg festival celebrations since it started in 1920, due to the fact that it is a certain W.A Mozart´s 250th birthday this year.

So, despite the rain (damn this mountain weather) I have spent the last 4 days wandering the city and sampling all things musical, Mozart.......and free!!

I have sat through an act and a half of The Marriage of Figaro in the rain, but gave up when I could no longer feel my toes, and deciphering the plot when the opera was sung in Italian and subtitled in German was just more trouble than it was worth; spent a rather pleasant (non-rainy) afternoon in the Mirabell gardens listening to a brass band from some random village near Canada; and, thanks to Rose, my opera-singing room-mate, I attended the semi-final of what can only be described as Pop Idol for opera geeks, and ended up listening to the most amazing bass singer from Finland scare the crap out of me in what can only be described as the most terrifying German opera solo I have ever heard.

But please dont worry, all this cultural development was balanced out by this afternoon´s ultra-tacky, kitsch as you like Sound of Music tour!! Unfortunately my bike-riding, curtain-wearing dreams weren´t quite realised, but I did get a chance to see all the fun stuff from the movie and sing-a-long to the soundtrack on the bus.

Although Salzburg has been utterly charming, the rain is starting to depress me (not to mention wash away my hard-earned Croatian tan) so I am now sat in the train station awaiting my midnight train to Venice. Which is in 5 hours time. It´s at times like this you really need someone to talk to!
I am not entirely sure what I am going to do when I get to Venice.......as I dont think I can afford to stay in Italy´s most expensive city until my flight on the 21st......so the plan is to hop off the train in the morning and ask Tourist Information if they have any fun, affordable suggestions. Like a beach or something. All this culture and musical dramatics has left me craving the simple pleasures of sun, sea and sand.

I will have to update you on my whereabouts when I know myself, so fingers crossed I´ll end up somewhere fun!

Take care all and keep in touch

Liv x

Slovenia

After 3 very relaxing day spent in the incredibly beautiful Lake Bled in Slovenia, walking, swimming and navel-gazing, I am now back in Ljubijlana (I still dont know if Im spelling that right) awaiting my morning train to Salzburg.

Slovenia has been really lovely. Its an absolutely tiny country- you can just base yourself in the capital and travel out to see its mountains and caves and forests. Ive had to start really watching the budget though- now I am officially out of Eastern Europe the prices have rocketed!!

With regards Salzburg.....I wasnt planning on going to Austria....but these two girls I met in the hostel told me that I had to go to Salzburg to do the Sound of Music Tour. So I am!!!
Not just for that though, its supposed to be a great city and a lot of fun......although I have to admit I am looking forward to spending my days spinning around on the Austrian Alps Julie Andrews-stylee and cycling through the streets wearing a dress made from curtains with 7 Doh-Ray-Meeing brats in tow (and who wouldnt??).

So I am leaving Gen in the morning and heading off to the land of Von Trapp.

Rather bizarrely, Im also getting really quite excited about the prospect of using the Euro. So far I have dealt in Czech Crowns, Polish Zloty, Hungarian Forint, Croatian Kuna, Bosnian Marks and Slovenian Tolar (and at 337 Tolar to the Pound its a bit of a head-bake I can tell you) so Im really looking forward to not having to stand at a shop counter/bus terminal/hostel reception scratching my head and looking like a loon while I try to figure out if Im getting ripped off or not.

So......a quiet night for me this evening as Im trying to save the pennies for Austria and then Italy!!

Although Im sure I could stretch to just one beer......

Liv x

Sarajevo Roses

Hello All.

Gen and I have been in Sarajevo for a couple of days now, and I think that it is one of my favourite places that I have visited so far. Its just absolutely fascinating.

We are staying in the Old Turkish quarter where Bosniak Muslims in headscarfs mingle with Jews, Croatian Catholics and Serbian Orthodox. There are copper-smiths everywhere creating beautiful coffee sets and ornate vases, mosques next to synagogues, little old ladies selling flowers on the corner, and all enveloped by the intoxicating smell of Turkish coffee which you can ACTUALLY stand a spoon up in....before drinking it and blowing your head off.

Absolutely everywhere the buildings are showered in bullet holes, and the streets bear the marks of the Sarajevo Roses - huge indentations in the pavement where shells have hit and been poignantly filled in with red cement to mark a particularly high loss of life.

We went to the Sarajevo tunnels yesterday - during the seige of the city between 1992 and 1995 the citizens built an 800m tunnel running underneath the airport runway in order to bring food and weapons and fuel to the city which had been completely cut off from the outside world by the Serbian army. We were able to walk along the tunnel for abit....and true to form I whacked my head on one of the low beams and now have a huge bruise on my head!!!

The Bosnian people have definitely been some of the friendliest so far.....and the almost total lack of tourists (apart from curious backpackers such as myself) means that you actually feel like you are in a different country and culture....instead of like Prague where there are more Chinese and Japanese tourists in the city than actual Czech residents.
However....this place is just itching for a tourist boom which no doubt will occur in the next few years. Im just glad that I got to visit it before then!!

We are catching an overnight bus to Lubijlania in Slovenia tonight.....something that I am looking forward to as I have nothing but good things about the country. I am then planning on spending about 10 days exploring Slovenia before heading to Venice, Madrid, then home on the 24th.

So......hope all is well at home and elsewhere.....keep me updated....

Love Liv x

PS - when we were having dinner in Dubrovnik in Croatia who should walk into the restaurant and plonk herself about 3 tables away?? Bjork!! Totally random!

Yay!!!!!

Quick update - disaster averted. Some very wonderful angel-person handed my card into the bank!!!! I could have kissed the bank man when he handed it to me. Luckily I didnt though.....could have been abit awkward.

It was just in time too - we left Korcula this morning after spending 4 great great days staying in the Big Happy Fun Hostel with the crazy owner Žee; a South Efricen and a bit of a legend around these parts due to his participation in South Efricen Big Brother 2 years ago. After lots of swimming, sunbathing and only a little bit of drinking we were all fully rested and ready to move on.
We are now in the beautiful, magical Dubrovnik. Ive just finished walking the walls......I really didnt realise I was so unfit. All good though. Got some super duper photos of the city - It is an incredible place....a bit like Disneyland. Only real, and minus the Mouse and the Americans.

Although I am only here for 24 hours unfortunately. Anne is off home on Saturday so am heading to Sarajevo tomorrow morning with my new found travel buddy, Gen from Sydney. So Mum......no need to worry about me too much just yet.
Although I will have to remember to avoid those unexploded landmines.........I dont want to come back with only one leg.

Anyhoo, must be off......am meeting Jen for a beer in the Old Town (as you do) then going for some fish!

Take care all and am loving the emails

Liv x

PS - Daddy......dont worry am having super time despite bugs and card-swallowing ATMs. Its just that the mishaps are always so much more fun to write about than than the successes!!

Doh

Its official. I am a fully certified, beyond-belief plonker.

I left my bloody credit card in the ATM machine. I am very very cross with myself. But dont worry - I have smacked myself in the head enough times already so no one else needs to do it for me. I actually have a bruise.

There is a teeny-weeny itsy-bitsy chance that someone has handed it into the bank (Korcula seems an honest enough island) but to be honest I am not getting my hopes up.

I do have other means of finances.......but thats not the point.

I am now going to get drunk. That will definitely help the situation.

Doh indeed

x