Sretno Pola Nove Godine!

Mark and I got off the bus and ran into Kevin, who was on his way back to Florida due an family emergency. He informs us that we have returned on the right date since the entire town is partying. The title means Happy Half New Year and as we arrived to Korcula from the other side of the island the entire town was celebrating. People were playing music on the streets and there was a live performers of all sorts on the beach. There were grills and food stands everywhere.



We decided to eat at the 40kuna restaurant that was directly across the main square from our hostel. There were so many people there that it took a while to squeeze through the hordes of people. I had no idea Korcula had so many people, but I was later informed that people from all over the islands come and visit Korcula for this event. That night I had fish; fish that was no de-boned. No matter, I am Chinese and we're skilled at eating just about anything, boned fish is a walk in the park.







My original plan was to get some rest after two rigorous days of diving. However with the entire town in party mode that was not going to happen. I hung out in the crowd for a while until I got tired. Music started to play as the dusk set in and there were three main performance stages. It was great to hear live music. However late into the night around 4 or 5am they were still playing. The strange thing was that it was not just young people partying. There were plenty of parents and grandparents out as well.





The next morning we hop on a bus that is destined for Dubrovnik which is the peninsula at the south end of Croatia. The bus will take a ferry and then drive the rest of the way there.

Scuba Diving Vela Luka

In the morning hours, Mark and I say good bye to Korcula and take the first bus across the island to Vela Luka. There we have arranged two dives with the local dive center. Upon arrival, the owner of the dive shop picks us up and we immediately start picking out our equipment. All the dives are do are boat dives and the boat is small inflated air boat. This requires that the dive a back flip dismount into the water. In previous dives I have always down the giant step, and the flip is much more fun. One of the first things I noticed when I got into the water is how clear it was. I could immediately look below and see school upon schools of fish swimming beneath me.



The day we dive Kitty's Dock and Vranine and the following day its the Blue Hole and Saint Ivan's Bay. All of these dive routes are made up and discovered by the local divemasters. For each dive the waters are crystal clear and thus visibility is exceptional. It is sad, but I left my underwater housing for my camera at home so I was unable to get any underwater pictures. The waters are warm, but at the depths we went to I was glad to have a 5mil wet suite. My favorite was Saint Ivan's Bay. We drop off to about 18meters (60ft) and swim along the a cliff drop off.



The owner of the shop even let us stay at their instructors lodge for the night. It is about 45C (115F) in Vela Luka and there is no air conditioning. We decide to take a siesta after the first day's dive. I am exhausted and at around 6pm I pass out and do not wake up until the next day. The night is bit cooler, but not by much. Mark sleeps outside that night. After the diving the next morning we hop on the next bus back to Korcula Town.

Korcula is an Island

Split is a big central hub for ferries, catamarans, ships, buses and trains. From here is easy to access the rest of Croatia. Mark did some research on scuba diving and found that the island of Korcula is a good place to do it in. I booked a hostel that I found via a search for Korcula on hostelworld. Thus the afternoon we boarded a fast catamaran from Split to Vela Luka, a port on the island of Korcula.



The boat was smooth since it cuts directly through water. The body of the ship elevates above water when up to speed. However there was little ac so it wasn't the most pleasant ride ever. We made a stop at Hvar another island that we heard had good nightlife. I wanted to visit Hvar, but unfortunately with San Fermin fast approaching, I had to make a few compromises.



We arrived at Vela Luka and after looking at the map it looked nothing like the directions that I got off of hostelworld. Turns out that the hostel is on the other side of the island, called Korcula town. Vela Luka is just a port city, while Korcula town is touristy places with accommodations. We hop on the next bus which takes about 45minutes to cross from one of the of the island to next. The bus winds up and down the mountain stopping in small rural villages along the way. The main source of jobs seems to be farming and vineyards.



Korcula town is amazing town. The waters that surround it are crystal clear, which is good because there are tons of sea urchins along he rocky bottoms. The good thing is that the edges drops off pretty fast so you can usually just dive or jump past the urchins. Getting out of the water without stepping on one is the tough part.



I feel like I am the only Asian person here on the island as I get stares almost everywhere I go. When we arrive at the hostel, I meet an Aussie in the hostel who is of Indonesian descent and he confirms that we are probably the only Asian people on the island.



Mark and I head over to a tower bar with Kevin who had recommended it. It is a cocktail bar in one of the tall towers of old town. It overlooks the waters and is a perfect place to check out the sunset over a few cocktails. In order to reach the top you have to walk up a flight of stairs as well as a small one way ladder. The bar is actually below the tower and the drinks are brought up to the waiter on top via a small pulley elevator system.





We only spend a couple of days here in Korcula town as the main reason for even visiting Korcula was to do some diving which is only available on the opposite side of the island.

Split: Old Town and Night Life

During the day Mark and I explored the old town. Just north of the concrete promenade is the old city. The streets are narrower, some to the point that its single file. There are still people that live in the old part of town which is surprising as most of the ones I've seen have all become businesses and tourist attractions. Ice cream in Split is cheap. It is usually around 7 kunas (1.5USD) for a cone.





During the evening Mark and I along with some of the people from the hostel: Linnea, Joel, and Bridget all head over to the beach. After seeing all the people in the water, Bridget and I actually went swimming. The water isn't deep and is only about knee to thigh deep for about the first 100 meters. We swam for a little bit while everyone else drank on the beach. There are large wooden posts pretty far out from the shore. I taught Bridget how to dive, but she ended up doing a belly flop off of one the posts. We head back to the group who all somehow managed to find beers along the beach. There, we all engage in philosophical debates and general exploration into deep thoughts that one can only have while traveling with no purpose.





Before we even dried off we went to a club that was along the beach. With shorts that were still wet and sandals we had no problems getting in. Linnea and Joel taught us all drinking songs from Sweden, none of which I can remember, but I still have a videos of a couple of them. Somewhere in the night, Mark disappeared. He had been holding my wallet, money, and apartment keys since I went for a swim. We all head back to the hostel and I crash in another room. About 5minutes after laying down, Mark wanders back in. Some how he went to the beach and then got lost and started sprinting around Split between familiar locations until he finally made it back to the hostel. It is a pretty impressive feat if you consider that he could have just walked along to beach to get to the main street that goes to the hostel. Instead he managed to navigate the smaller streets.

Lickity Split

Split is a coastal city and although I haven’t heard anything about it, I know for sure that it will be heaps better than Zagreb. The train station is near the water for easy ferry access to islands. To our left are the three beaches for swimming and to our right is old town and our hostel. We arrived at our Mediterranean Backpackers Hostel and unfortunately we were placed on the offsite housing. It lacks and hostel social scene and doesn’t have a/c, but the accommodations are much cleaner and nicer.



It is already late afternoon by the time we get there, so we head for the beach. It is a holiday here so the beaches are extremely crowded. On the walk over there we see a lot of people walking back, but I was still amazed at the number of people out. The waters feel so good after a day of sitting and walking around in the blazing hot humidity. Mark breaks his flip flops and a feeling a déjà vu sets over me. Last time Mark and I went to a beach was out in California in Malibu. We each took 20kg + of scuba equipment all the way down a cliff to scuba dive “the stairs”. After we put on and prep all of our equipment, Mark breaks his fin strap and we had to call it quits.



Since the beaches are rocky so Mark stays on the beach and just lays out. The waters here are clear to where I can still see the bottom at almost any point. I swim out to a small island area off the shore. There people take turns diving from the top. I do the same. During the climb I see a ton of sea life. There are soft corals lining the edges of the rock and then as I grab on to start climbing I see numerous crabs jump into the waters.



That evening I head over to the hostel to get on the internet. It turns out that it is Croatia’s national holiday and to celebrate the hostel owner has cooked a meal for all us. There was spaghetti, a seafood dish, meat dish, and bread along with cold beer and wine. Not a bad deal for free. We meet these two Swedish people, Linnea and Joel. Linnea breaks out her guitar. So the rest of the night we all chat and listen to the guitar. I can’t believe someone is traveling with a guitar, but I guess it’s a lot more short term compared to my traveling itinerary.

It's Hot in Zagreb

We arrived from Budapest to Zagreb, the capital of Croatia. It is landlocked and thus far we have not heard anything exciting about the city. With that in mind I decide to just spend one night here to recharge and get some laundry done. We booked a single night at Hostel Lika which a ways off from where we get off the bus.

The public transportation system here consists of above-ground trams. They are each two carts in length and have no AC. The high temperature and addition of high humidity makes these moving ovens. On top of that we go towards the wrong stop. Slovenka and Slovanka are both on opposite sides of the city. After running around in the high noon heat we finally make it towards the correct side of the city. From there yellow footprints painted in the sidewalk lead us to the hostel.

On hostelworld, this place was described to have a/c. When mark went downstairs to the reception to get laundry done, the owner even bragged that this was one of the few hostels that actually has a/c and also instructed him to write a good review about this place. Well it turns out the a/c either doesn’t exist or does work because we slept in the heat in a string of 30minute intervals.

In the morning, hop on the tram taking us back to the center of two to grab a train Split. The train ride is about 4.5 hours. There are only two carts. The cart that we got seats for, again, either did not have a/c or the a/c just didn’t work. It was about ten folds worse than the hostel. Towards the end of the trip people were just moving to the baggage area since it had no windows and was much cooler. While in that area I discovered that the other second class cart had a/c. It was a freezer in there. It was amazing how differently people look when they are comfortable. In our cart people looked like they were melt. In the air conditioned cart, people looked relaxed and seemed to enjoy the ride and the scenery. It wasn’t longer before just moved my bags over and took an empty chair on the other cart.

Spelunking Budapest!

Besides thermal pools Budapest also has a ton of cave systems running underneath the city. The staff at our hostel was able to recommend a caving tour that goes everyday. We all meet up at a metro station and took 2 buses over to the cave entrance. There, we are all given a hard hat with LED light and overalls.



The heat is intense, but as soon as we enter the cave the hot temperatures are not a problem. Our eyes adjust to the darkness and no visibility and the cool damp temperatures become cooler as we descend. Our guide explains each cavern that we enter shows us how certain formations resemble certain objects.



There is a tight squeeze that we are allowed to try. In order to fit through you must take off your hardhat. Basically there is hole on the bottom then it curves upwards and out. There is barely enough room to squeeze your shoulders through. I got stuck coming out where my entire body was out but my shins and down. My boots got stuck and all my weight was on my arms as I hung on to a ledge. Then all my weight shifted onto my shins and edge of the opening. I was finally able to get out when someone helped untangle my bulky boots that I was wearing.





While crawling, climbing, and stumbling through the cave passages we all get clay all over ourselves. Good thing that they provided us with overalls. There were roots hanging from the ceilings and sometimes water trickling down, making the rocky surfaces extremely slick. Overall it was a great experience.

Museum Night, Therma Spa, Night Photography, Oh My!

Last night was Museum Night in Budapest. This means that at night you can buy a single ticket to one museum and use that same ticket to visit all the museums of Budapest as well as you the public bus system with that ticket. We ended up checking it out briefly before heading out to a club. The main museum street were packed and tons of people lined up to see the various exhibits. We all ended up staying up really late, or should I say early so today we are taking it easy by visiting the photography museum exhibit and then going to the spa. Mark decided to stay in so it was me Nang, Gab, Marie, and Melissa.



The Szepmuveszeti Muzeum of Budapest is currently displaying a photography exhibit called Body&Soul. Gab, Marie, and Melissa leave first for the exhibit while I wait for Nang to meet up. We end up running into them at the Body & Soul exhibit. There were numerous photographs that were inspiring. The first section was all photographer's self-portraits, which really made me want to get a remote shutter for my camera. I wish I could have taken some pictures of the ones I liked as I have already forgotten most of them, but it was an extra charge to be able to use your camera in there.

I do remember one of them since Melissa actually wrote down the information for it. Violon d’Ingreswork by Man Ray, pictured below.


Budapest sits right on top of a fault line and due to this geographic fact, there are numerous geothermal spas throughout Budapest. Today we decide to visit the main one that we saw during the bike tour. Melissa stayed to check out the museum more. Gab and Marie went there first while Nang and I went on a hunt for some lunch. We finally make it to the spa and meet up with Marie. It seems that Gab forgot her swimwear and had to back and get it.





The spa charges in 3 or 4 hours intervals. You pay for the entire amount and depending on when you leave you may get a little bit of your money back. The spa is setup into three different pools. The one on the left is medium in temperature, I would name it luke warm. The on in the middle is cool and is ambient temperatures. The pool on the right is hottub hot. There is even a sign that suggests you do not stay there for an extended amount of time. There is also a circular hottub looking structure that people wade around in and if enough people are there it creates a current around that looks pretty fun.



That night Nang and I head out and take some sunset pictures of the Budapest. We arrived a little bit late and were unable to get an actual sunset. Nonetheless it was productive day. We walked around from bridge to bridge and up several different hills to get these shots. At the end of the night we were exhausted.

My good friends Buda and Pest

The only thing I know about Budapest is that it was originally two cities, Buda and Pest. That was as far as I got in my Lonely Planet research that I did back in the states. So when looking at a map of Europe and selecting another location that would bring me closer to my ultimate destination of Croatia, I naturally remembered this city. From the hearsay of fellow travelers no one has complained about a bad time in Budapest, so I assume it to be safe bet for my next destination.

Since the city came into existence because of the merge of two previous cities, I got to thinking: why does Buda get to come first in the new name of Budapest? Why not call it Pestbuda? Isn't that a cooler name? I am not sure, but it sure is mysterious. I was able to formulate my own theories as to why this city's name came to be. Budapest is split down the middle by the Danube river. The town of Buda lies on the west bank and the Pest lies on the east bank. So naturally from a reading left to right perspective Buda comes first. Just think if we all read right to left, I would have visited Pestabuda.

Tired from our train ride and my ponderings of why a city is named a certain way, I decide to take a power nap in the afternoon. It wasn't long before my dreams of pristine beaches of Croatia were rudely interrupted by the loud ramblings of three French girls who pronounce croissant without the t at the end and say deja vu with the vu ever so slightly differently that they claim that I say it wrong.

As it turns out Gab, Marie, and Melissa (the Frenchies) are actually French Canadians. They have just arrived at Budapest as well. We are all tired from our travels so we decide to take it easy for the night and just grab a quick beer. The staff at the 11th hour hostel recommended a pub nearby that was suppose to be really good. I tag along with the girls and Mark decides to stay in for the night. The entrance to the pub looks like a bicycle shop as there are several bikes hanging in a room. In the front room there are red bull girls handing out free red bull vodkas with the typical European patented exactly measured shot dispensers. After grabbing our drinks we head into the bar and realize that this pub is huge. There are several floors a big patio area with a car in the middle. We head to the top floor and attempt to 'chill' there in the muggy hot weather.





The next day we all decided that we would get up and take a bike tour of Prague. When we got to the meeting spot, we discovered we were the only people in the tour. We walk over bike garage and pick out our bicycles. The entire time the sun is beating down on us. I believe it was in the upper 30's C which equates to the upper 90's F, with enough humidity float a boat. Our guide was cool and brought water for all of us during the stops. During the middle of the bike tour I ran into Nang, from Berlin, and we were able to chat real quick and arrange a meet up later.



I brought my DSLR trying to imitate [daily dose of imagery]'s style of shooting while riding a bike. Apparently it takes a lot more practice and skill than what I have.






We cross the Széchenyi Chain Bridge and coincidentally it is Budapest's bridge festival. Basically this weekend there are tons of shops and venders on the bridge. Besides an overcrowded bridge and some performances on either side of the bridge I really don't know what the whole festival is about.






Another highlight of the tour is the castle. We bike up pebble switchbacks all the up to the Buda castle at the top. The view from the top of the castle is amazing and worth definitely worth the uphill peddle. Below is a picture of all us with our guide. The guy that took this was part of a Chinese tour group. He took about 5minutes to get the shot right.



By far the funnest part of the tour was going down hill from the castle at full speed on a winding road. At one point I felt like I should be putting a knee down during the turns. Then I remembered how bald my tires looked when I first got my bike.