Kho San Road!

We booked a room at New Joes guesthouse, which is located in the back alleyway behind the Kho San. Moderately priced at about 350 baht for a double, with a friendly staff and all the amenities you’d need for a decent stay in the city including: on site travel agency, Thai message, restaurant and bar. Our friend Michael took massage classes here for a few hundred baht and in a week was a certified Thai masseuse.

Amazing Banana Roti!

After chow’n down on 30 baht pad Thai and comforting banana roti we sat down for a few beers in front of some kids break dancing in the street; our new friends Michael and Ron joining us. Our waitress was, how to put this, a pretty young man (ladyboy to be P.C). Despite what one might think about the confusing gender of this person, she was a good waitress and very polite (even when we stared a little).

Beer Tower with New Friends

Two beers quickly turned into four beers as we got to know Michael a little bit more. Our conversation flowed as he told us about his beat-boxing performances on Broadway in New York City. Frequent interruptions of women selling bits and bobs would otherwise been annoying, but we just chalked it up to the “Bangkok experience and laughed it off. The night ended shortly after our second tower of beer and we tucked in to bed dodging thoughts of bed bugs and concentrating on where we were leaving for the next morning… Angkor Wat!

Loving it!

Dave’s shirt lol~

Before our nearly five week stint in Santorini,  we had been feeling really confident about our traveling progression, thinking, yea now we’ve got the hang of this. So the 12am overnight ferry to Rodos was how we decided to put ourselves back into traveler mode and get the ball rolling.  We bought deck class meaning no assigned or actual seat, but ended up crashing in some reserved area. We didn´t even have to be sneaky about it since the ferry was so large and crew members can`t be bothered to check everyone’s tickets. We played it cool and passed out with garments (jacket for me, tech blanket for chels) over our heads just in case, figuring no one would wake us with our invisible cloaks on. Our theory proved correct and we both dozed off to la la land for about four and a half hours until the Ferry docked in Rodos.

Rodos (Rhodes)

Rodos is one of the largest islands in Greece and its main attraction is the old mid-evil city. A massive castle runs the length of the modern port and boasts some impressive sights. The remains have been well preserved thanks to large donations from the EU for the restoration. The old city is walkable and can be done within a few hours as long as you take a few breaks in the shade. After we walked in and around the city we found a nice little cafe with free internet and chilled out till it was time for our ferry.

Ferry service from Rodos to Marmaris Turkey runs twice a day and the cost is alarmingly disproportional compared with the prices from island to island. On top of that we payed a `Port Tax´ then had to buy a Turkish Visa.

Turkish tea!

Any negative feelings we had towards the costs were quickly turned around by the positive energy flowing from Marmaris. We had only planned on being here a few hours and catching the overnight bus to Antalya but decided we liked what we saw and checked into the Maltepe Pensyion. The owner was super friendly and before even discussing if we needed a room he was bringing us in to see his walrus cat. No exaggeration folks, the thing is bloody Massive! After wowing us with jaba the cat he made us some delicious apple (tea) and encouraged our overuse of the free internet… needless to say we liked the guy and the place .. and orca cat.

Second largest cat in Europe!

The view of Santorini!

As we pulled into the port of Santorini it was clear why this is one of the most popular Greek Isles. The historic volcanic eruption that took place nearly 3500 years ago has carved out a dramatic coast with steep cliffs and caldera on the eastern side of the island. We got off the boat with the hoards of backpackers and quickly realized that we would not be able to hoof it to the beach like we planned. The port is located at the very bottom of the aforementioned cliffs making walking with packs hardly possible. Although it went unsaid at the time, we both remember thinking how inconvenient for us, but how convenient for the gangs of local hotel/villa
owners that were making their way towards the crowd of recently departed tourists. We didn’t want to pay for accommodation since there was a nice comfortable beach that awaited us, but since we needed a ride up the mountain we bit the bullet and ended up negotiating for a reasonable rate. We pulled in to Villa Demetri which is a peaceful place with flowering vines growing up the sides of the atrium walls and walking distance from the black sandy beaches of Perissa.

Our new home :)

Feeling like we made the right decision, we wanted to celebrate with a bottle of the local spirit, Ouzo. We whipped up some dinner in our little kitchen, which includes a hotplate, fridge and dishes then began the celebration. The best way to describe Ouzo is to compare it to Sambuca or black liquorish. It is intended to cleanse the pallet after a meal and after a few hours we had the cleanest pallets on the entire island. The celebration carried on into the night as we went around to a few bars and chatted up with the locals and other tourists. We apparently were such good company that we ended up landing a job with one of the bars! Full Moon Bar, hired us part time to walk around the beach handing out fliers, then make an appearance and talk with the customers at night.

Ouzo!

It sounded like an amazing gig and we were totally pumped about it! We got to wake up whenever we liked, go hang out at the beach all day…make a couple rounds and meet people and still go out and drink at night…so we decided we would work out a deal with Villa Demetri and stay for 3 weeks!

This did not work out for us. We spent about 4 days walking around annoying customers trying to coax them into the bar. Its poor location (away from the beach) combined with the bad specials and lack of tourists proved to big a hurdle. It was a mutual departure. Luckily the very same day we parted ways with Full Moon Chelsea inquired about a waitress job at the restaurant across the street from the hostel called Atlas (seen on the left) and walked out with a job. At the time of writing this we have been on Santorini for nearly 3 weeks. Chelsea works morning and evenings at Atlas and I, well.. here is a picture of what I spend most of my time doing…

Relaxation…

New Friends!

..just kidding. After two days of Chelsea working and me doing nothing I landed a job with a small pub called ‘Blues Bar’ handing out fliers during the day and waiting tables at night. Meanwhile i was falling in love with Atlas, the people i worked with, and the people i was meeting….so we decided to extend our stay!

We found a hostel…Hotel Zeus, and made our way out to see the Acropolis at night! We knew immediately when we were close because all of a sudden, there was outdoor cafe after cafe and music and tourist shops everywhere! We got our first gyro and WOW it was incredible!!! Way too good….and way to hard to resist! After dinner we started our way up the hill to see the Acropolis…unfortunately it was closed off at some point, but it looked nice all lit up!

The Acropolis by night!

On our walk back to the hostel, we only knew one way to go, but it was a BAD way! As if we crossed an imaginary line and without warning, we went from the nice cafe area to the slums. The music was gone, it was dark, there was trash everywhere, and tons of people sitting around on the streets. We were still with Zlatan, so even with 2 guys by my side, we were all quite scared. We tried to get out of it, but every corner we turned gave us a worse result. At one point…we looked ahead and said we are NOT going that way, so cut through a building when a mob of them came around the corner …im clutching my bag for dear life and walking as fast as i can. One of the locals says so us…”GO…before they come for you” or something to that effect and it scared the daylights out of us. We start almost running … passed some prostitutes..when poof…our hostel is right there…in the worst part of town! It was safe inside though and i sighed with relief when we got inside! There were a couple girls in there using the computers and immediately said “You went left didn’t you..we made the same mistake last night”….Thanks for the warning reception man!!

The huge ferry over!

The next morning Brad and i parted ways with Zlatan and even though a bit disappointed to leave without seeing the Acropolis…mostly happy to leave Ath
ens! We hopped on a ferry to Santorini, and being 14 hours, decided to take a nice nap on the benches…broke out our mats and everything! Then we spent the rest of our time playing Rummikub and reading our crazy book about junkies in Dublin!

a “one-way” two-way bridge!

Our first bus ride was to the southern tip of Montenegro..to a town called Bar. The whole time we were traveling, Zlatan was talking about how horrible Albania was and how we have to try not to get ripped off, and how the roads and horrible, and so on….Brad and I were pretty interested at this point to see what Albania was going to be like. So our next bus ride was just to cross the border into Albania, and it definitely wasn’t the best place to be. We crossed this dodgy wooden bridge that people had to take turns crossing and it looked like the bus was going to make it collapse!! But…the bus driver did it no problem! There was lots of trash everywhere…and quite a bit of poverty. Luckily when the bus dropped us off…the other bus was waiting to take us to Tirana, Albania’s capital.

The main square in Tirana

Surprisingly, it was really nice!! We were a bit upset to learn that we had missed the last bus into Athens, and that we would have to wait until 4am, but decided to just check out the town and stay up until then! It apparently has one of the biggest squares in a city! And there were pretty paved roads, parks, and TONS of cute outdoor cafes! There was some political protest going on, which was exciting to see…but we did stay clear of it! Luckily, it was a Friday night and we found some cafes that were open really late. We tried this AMAZING fast food…it was basically the Albanian version of Souvlaki…a pita with meat and french fries in it..with this delicious sauce! It was at the recommendation of some Mormon girls from Utah (big surprise!) we met earlier!

Yummmm!

It was interesting, because these little kids came by and asked for our empty can, so we happily gave it…they said thank you and moved on. THEN…at about midnight these other little kids came by…both smoking cigarettes and couldn’t have been older than 8..and we thought they too wanted our empty can. We gave it to them and they threw it back at us..practically laughing in our faces and kept asking for money. Zlatan threw some change to them, but they would NOT leave us alone and kept lifting up his bag…we were SO frustrated. They were bothering us for about 10 minutes before they finally left…but they were little brats…laughing and smoking cigarettes in our faces. When it was eventually time to head towards the bus at 3am…we felt surprisingly VERY safe walking through the city…despite what we had heard about it being such an unruly country! At one point though, these 2 little kids came up to us and followed us the whole walk back..they did not say a word, but just walked beside us with their hand out. This time…we didn’t acknowledge them AT ALL, and even tried to duck into a restaurant to avoid them. Afterwards though…we felt a bit bad, because they really did loook bad off…the little girl cuddled in her brothers jacket on the side of the road as our bus took off…but those other kids completely ruined it for us.

Countryside!

Right before we hopped on the bus, we noticed someone hand our bus driver a really shady
looking package (drugs perhaps…probably!) but on we went….for our 15 hour bus ride to Athens. It was crazy too because NEVER before has anyone ever sat in their assigned seats on the busses we have been on. 3 hours after we had been sleeping in our own seats (although i dont know how, because the roads were AWFUL…just paved bumpy crossings), we hear this commotion, and these older Albanian men come and sit right next to me…in a practically empty bus…so of course Brad and i moved…but this kept happening until we realized we had assigned seats. But MAN…they gave us death looks when we were in their seat! So then the sketchy started…right before we got to border crossing..the bus driver pulled over on the side of the road…got off and put something in the luggage area…then hopped back on to precede to the border. I was soooo scared…thinking they tried to sneak it in our bag and we were going to be in crazy Albanian jail… ah! It took FOREVER to go through customs but thank god everything turned out alright. Then we pulled over at a gas station (didn’t get gas) and waited from some man to pull up on a motorcycle…the bus driver handed him the package..and off we went! SKETCHY!! But i guess interesting story since everything ended up alright!

Enjoying the view with Johnny!

From Dubrovnik…our plan was to make our way to Greece, but to stop at some cool places along the way! As we boarded the bus, we were both sad to leave Croatia, but excited to see a new country…especially one we hadn’t even planned to visit originally! It was only a couple hour bus ride to Kotor, Montenegro, and it went by super fast thanks to our new found friend, Johnny from San Diego. We all got off together unsure of what we wanted to do, but soon realized we wanted to hike up to the fortress on top of the mountain! First we stopped to enjoy some lunch and fresh strawberries from the market, and then went on to a surprisingly hard hike.

Cool bridge!

It was just what i like though…lots of little passageways you can choose to take, steep stairs to climb and scary bridges to cross! It had absolutely beautiful views! We stopped at every corner to take pictures, and it just kept getting better and better! We hung out and enjoyed ourselves at the top for a bit, but eventually made our way down to catch the bus to Budva…our original destination at Montenegro. According to Lonely Planet, it is the spot to be!

Climbing around the fort!

Amazing view!

When we arrived, still traveling with Johnny, we originally planned to camp or sleep on the beach again, but unfortunately the weather had other plans. Instead we found the Hippo Hostel which ended up being AWESOME! And it wasn’t even listed in Lonely Planet, which we were quite upset about! The guy running it was from Italy and really cool…it had a full kitchen, included breakfast, free internet…i could go on and on..all for a great price too! We met another guy there named Zlatan…he was born in Bosnia and could speak the language, but lived in Florida…(so could speak ours too!)

We all wanted to go out together, and started drinking local Montenegran wine…but it started storming like crazy and sadly we didn’t get to see the old town in Budva…big disappointment! Zlatan had told us his plans to get to Greece, which is really what we started out to do from Dubrovnik…and he seemed to know exactly how to get there! Yay…this was a relief since Brad and I definitely didn’t…it is really difficult from the coast..which we wanted to stick to! So we decided to leave the next morning with him! We left Johnny with a little goodbye note in the morning…telling him how awesome the club was that we went to in town, and how we met the owner and got hooked up with drinks haha! He was the one that was begging everyone to go out, but fell asleep before all of us…so who knows…maybe he fell for it! Bye Johnny and Bye Montenegro!

Copacabana!

The copacabana beach lacked the glamour of the NYC night club it was named after but it seemed to be a good spot to bed down for the night. Chels and I formed some grooves in the pebbles and ate some bread while we watched the sunset. The best part of the night came soon after the sun had fallen and half our bottle of wine had been drank. In the middle of our  conversation, we both happen to catch a shooting star!

Getting ready for our night on the beach!

We slept about as good as you can on a public rocky beach, and had the sound of the waves to lull us back to sleep after any interruption during the night. The rest of the day was spent doing absolutely nothing! We lounged on the beach from sunrise to sunset, taking a coffee break about mid day to write some postcards and a walk to the market around dinner time. Unfortunately this market had no Vegemite, which we would later run completely out of.

Our set up :)

We changed locations on the beach for the second night because we figured if security saw us they might think we were making a habit of this and ask us to leave. Our new spot was probably the rockiest spot on the beach which made it tough to find a groove. I was afraid that if I wiggled around to much it might not turn out to good for my backside. By the time we woke up the next morning we were ready for a night in a hostel.

No more Vegemite!!! NOOOO!!!

Brad writing some postcards!

Dubrovnik is not an easy town to walk around, it is spread out long ways and we refuse to pay for public transport; so we spent the morning walking around trying to find accommodation with free internet. The youth hostel was a ripp off (becoming a trend), so we ended up hitting up this villa that our new friend Long Hii (who we met on the beach and helped fix his sandal) had told us about. When we arrived the owner told us that he had accidentally overbooked the room but he could place a mattress on the floor for one of us. Instead of being mad, we were pumped to be in a position to negotiate, two for one. After some rest and a much needed shower, we took a long walk to Dubrovnik’s Old City.

The old town!

The walk was well worth it. The old city is in great condition, even after being bombed only 10 years ago! Restaurants and shops line the stone streets along with a church here and there. We decided to grab a drink at this bar called Buzo, perfectly located on the water. Finishing up our tour of the old city with a seat on a bench on the port, where we ran into Long Hii. We grabbed a bite to eat on the walk back and the night ended shortly after.

Drinks on the side of the cliff!

View from breakfast in Korcula!

Chel’s and I headed out with our packs, and new friend Trina from  Vancouver who we met on the ferry. Quick note to those who live in America not familiar with kilometers, 48km is approximately 30 miles and by about mile 3, or km 5, we were hurtin! No driver wanted anything to do with three foreigners with massive backpacks so as soon as we got to the next small town Trina dropped off. Not feeling like backtracking, we pushed on hoping to get to the next town before sunset. Travelers luck hit us right as we were about to give up as a bus came bombing around the corner. We jumped in front of it and flagged it down. Just happy to sit down we didn’t mind paying a few Kuna to ride.

First attempt at hitchiking!

It was a good thing we caught this bus because we had to travel up and over the mountain to get to our destination. So instead of a multi-hour trip, it took just 4o minutes. Although we were glad to have gotten a ride, those feelings changed when we realized that nearly all accommodation on the island was NOT OPEN yet (thanks for the heads up lonely planet). We used out traveler instincts and headed to the nearest watering hole. The owner of the wine shop ended hooking us up with guy who had a few rooms available.

Our drinking buddies!

We met some Aussie’s staying at the same place as us and we had a few drinks in the owners cellar/bar. He kept giving us pitchers of wine and the day seemed to be getting better and better. The owners name was Simon. We took Simon for the type of guy who just didn’t like to drink alone and shared his wine for a good time, and Scott, the Aussie we met, told us he had been giving out drinks the night before. We were all about it. However, when Simon called me outside and revealed that we owed him a good bit of money for the wine we had been drinking, I felt scammed and off to bed we went.

We woke up the next morning wanting to get out of there asap. Simon didn´t put up a fight when we refused to pay..maybe he knew he was in the wrong and we went our separate ways. The highlight of the day was that we got to enjoy some bacon and eggs for the first time since we left, and it was delicious. We read some of our book as we waited for the bus and arrived in Dubrovnik around 7pm.

After a lovely day at the park, we returned with Klaus and Hter to Senj…first stopping a very cute and quaint little restaurant and watermill down the road! It was really beautiful and they caught all their fish fresh before serving it to you…very cool! I didn’t even get anything to eat, but they gave me a free tank top for a souvenir!

Free tank!!

After another night in Senj, Brad and I had planned to find our own way to Zadar, but Klaus came up to us and offered to keep driving us, as they were heading south too! We happily tagged along, because not only was it a free ride, but it was great company! Zadar was really really nice!

Yachts at Zadar!

It had an awesome harbor and promenade with lots of cute cafe’s! We spotted an awesome yacht and were temped to try and find some work But apparently Zadar is known for its amazing sunsets..which we sadly didn’t see..even Alfred Hitchcock wrote about them! But really were mostly excited because this one nice cafe had FREE internet!! ahh we were so excited, cus at this point, were still anxiously awaiting for an email about Samantha’s baby…boy..girl…was it here yet?! Still no news, and on we went to Sibenik

Boardwalk at Zadar!

Sibenik the city…may or may not have been nice…but we did not find out! The camping site was way outside the city and the bus had stopped running from the campsite! But the campsite was actually a HUGE development of hotels, sporting activities, clubs and more! We again, saw a beautiful sunset like we have every night in Croatia *so lucky!!* and walked around to find some live music in one of the hotels! When we made our way back to our tent, Klaus and Hter had broken out their wine and chocolate and we sat and had great conversation with them all night! After the first bottle of wine, out came some German beer and champagne! They were truly so kind and generous to us!! And we just loved hearing all their stories and learning about the German music and culture! Before we left the next morning, we took a picture with them…or as Klaus says “I must make a picture”!

“Making” a picture!

After Sibenik, we made a quick stop over in Trogir, which was a beautiful old little town on the 
coast! We all loved it!!! They had some castles and pretty churches there, but i really like all the big wooden boats! We were also lucky enough to catch some traditionally Croatian music and dance right by the water! After some sightseeing, we ran into the fresh food markets, and had to buy some fruit and bread! We also grabbed some fast food…a cheeseburger…which was AMAZING and HUGE!! Brad and I shared it and were full! Half of it is still bigger than two cheeseburgers from McDonalds! It comes with tomatoes and cucumbers too which really add a nice touch! For some reason, i thought my Oma and Grandad would have really liked the Trogir!

Fort at Trojir!

Traditional dance!

Massive burger!!!

Then we were off to Split, where we sadly parted ways with Klaus and Hter…only after eating some of their delicious strawberries they just bought in Trogir! We were so thankful for them, and will always remember them…hopefully even find them again when we are in Germany! We found a small family run hostel there, which was very clean, had a full kitchen, and satellite TV and free internet! SO nice and the son was super nice and helpful! Of course…i jump straight online to find out that KYLIE was born!!!! Brad couldn’t stop smiling and we walked down to the promenade to celebrate with a bottle of wine by the water! There
were tons of kids around, so of course we just couldn’t stop talking and smiling about what Kylie will be like when we meet her! The promenade was great! Nice benches and plants everywhere with an awesome view of the ocean! We really liked it, but there was no camping, and we were ready for some beach time on the islands anyway, so decided to move on the Hvar in the morning!

Welcome to the world Kylie!