Train to Lyon, through Milan and Geneva
Well again some trains… It was still a long way home, but it was more than doable…. after a stop in Milan ( where I couldn’t get any Pizza because it was to early), and another stop in Geneva., I finally got back home…
Well, I almost didn’t because in italian ” Genova ” is in fact “Genoa”, and if you want to go to” Geneva “in fact you have to take the train heading to “Ginebra” … the train going to Genova an to Ginebra departed at the same hour, so it was a bit confusing…
When we crossed the alps, suddely going after a tunel, everything was covered by snow… it was so beautiful I couldn’t resist taking some pictures, so here we are:
Snowy swiss-alps
and the girl of the day:
Giorgia
Tomorrow…. well tomorrow I’ll eat & sleep, and that will be enough for the day!!!
Verona, Italy
This beautiful city about 2 hours from Venice is at the core of Romeo and Juliet… These characters didn’t really exist, although, the family conflicts did occur, and you can visit the house of Juliet, and even write her a letter…which I didn’t do… you can also caress Juliet’s breast ( of a statue), in order to get luck in love…which I did, of course.. .
There is also some things you can learn about Romans and stuff… well it’s Italy…
The only bad thing of the day is that it rained all day… in fact iit’s the only day of my whole trip that I got rain… such a shame….
Well here goes the picture of the day…
Roman Arena....
and the girl of the day…
Juliet, me and my hand
OK, she ain’t really a true girl, so there come s the true girls:
Giustina & friends & rain
Tomorrow, I’ll be finally heading home…. I should get to Lyon late at night…
Train day thorugh Bosnia & Herzegovina, Croatia, Slovenia… and letting me be in Verona tomorrow morning….
I fact I got pretty lucky, an I could take quite a few trains in a row…. in about 24 hours of training I could get to Verone, Italy… but that is for tomorrow…
I just had to wait 3 hours in Zagreb, and take a night-train…
On the way I took quite a few pictures, I don’t know et which one I’ll be putting here, but don’t worry iit’s gonna be a good one. Bosnia & Herzegovina has a really lovely country-side… and just for the fun, with the hour change, the sunset came at 16:30… it really feels kindda weird…
Railroad... to infinity and beyond
And about the girl of the day, I ran into two Sarajevinskis before getting in the train… you ‘ll see the pictures soon…
Kemala and Ediza
Tomorrow, Verone Italy…after this night-train
Sarajevo, Bosnia & Herzegovina
Well… this is a city that could frighten you by it’s name… Sarajevo made the first step into modern times by being the place where World War I started…
Also Sarajevo rymes with siege, war, a massacre…. being more precise, Sarajevo was under Serb-Bosnians siege during 3 years, and snipers regularily shot people on the street, about 15 years ago….
But that is history now… everything is going better… the city is full of life, and destroying old buildings helped to uils newer ones… Sarajevo is definitely reviving, full of color and joy…
The picture of the day, if it ever works to put pictures on the net is a shot taken in Sniper Alley, where brand new skyscrapers are right next to bullet-holed buildings…
Sniper Alley; modernity and bullet holes
The girl of the day is a lovely Sarajevinski I met before even dropping my backpack at the hostel…
Maja... 100% Sarajevinski
Tomorrow, I don’t know exactly, but I’ll be on my way home…. Maybe Zagreb, maybe Ljubljana, maybe Venice or Verone…depends of luck
Dubrovnic, Croatia
Well… after partying for some time yesterday, today’s trip to Dubrovnic wasn’t one of the most pleasants… But it wasn’t a problem to enjoy the city…
The city has an old town, completely surrounded by a fortress ramparts…. this gives Dubrovnic its special charm… When you add to it some sun and sea… well you’ve got a pretty good mix…
Going around the city is just a good excuse to spend a wonderdful sunday evening…
Well.. here goes the picture of the day…
View over the highest tower of the fortress
And the girl of the day..
Smiling Ana, waitress and waiting
Tomorrow Sarajevo , in Bosnia & Herzegovina
Kotor, Montenegro
Well… I do think this is THE place…. I mean… Here is heaven…. here you have everything….
Beautiful landscapes… sea, mountains… fortresses…old towns….
People are really friendly… I even got a date for tonight….
It is cheap, I’m staying at some people’s house…
The currency is the Euro… yes, sometimes it matters…
I ran into James again, so we’ve been going around (and took a swim in the adriatic coast….) ..and we’re kindda gonna party tonight…
….
Well the city itself is gorgeous, surrounded by mountains, and still over the sea… a little wall-fortress climbing over the mountain… beauty everywhere…. “enjoyable”…
If there is a place where you have to go in your life it’s here…
The picture of the day…
View from the fortress over Kotor bay
And the girl of the day…
Party girls: JeleHa, Milja, TajaHa, DeHa
And just to make you believe I met James again and that we did swim in the Adriatic, a little picture…
James, me and kotor
Tomorrow Dubrovnic, Croatia…
Bar, Montenegro
Well… If you’d followed closely, you should be aware that I spent four nights on night trains… so I hadn’t slept in a bed for 5 days, and also hadn’t taken shower… That is why when,I got here in Bar, I just took a cheap room in a hotel, showered and took a well-deserved-5-hour nap… Basically when I woke up the few touristic attractions were already closed….
It doesn’t matter, Montenegro is much more of enjoying the landscape than anything else… My personal recommendation would go to walk along the beach during sunset…
Here goes the picture of the day:
sunset over Bar
And the girls of the day:
Biliana and friends, from left to right, Irma, the-one-and-only, Zorica, Biliana... Dijana took the picture
Tomorrow Kotor, Montenegro.
Belgrade, Serbia
Well Belgrade is a pretty wonderful city. I’ve been walking for hours in this major city in the Region, which is also over the Danube…yes the same that I saw in Vienna, Bratislava, Budapest and that makes the border between Bulgaria and Romania. It was also a strategic place since unmemorable times and has passed over many different countries. This has had two consequences: the first one is that the city has been destroyed and rebuilt a countless number of times, and the second one is that the city kept a bit of all the different cultures that ruled the lands…
The result is pretty magnificent… I would really recommend people to come and visit this part of the world…
Well here goes the picture of the day..
One entrance to Belgrade
And the girl of the day
Jaha...pronounce Yana... just try to telling me she ain
Tomorrow Bar, Montenegro…(that is the name of the city… I can’t help it)… finally some Adriatic beaches… and some rest…
Skopje, Republic of Macedonia or FYROM… Republic of Macedonia is the official name of the country, although FYROM is the official name for the United Nations, it stands for Former Yugoslavia Macedonian Republic….. but it is more comonly called Macedonia, even if Greeks don’t like the idea…so I-ll called it Macedonia… anyway… I don’t want to cause any harm calling it one way or another….
Well after a night train with 2h waiting in some train station in Serbia… I finally got there… well in fact WE got there, because I met Jason, a world-class-Scottish-traveler-adventurer person, and I spent most of my day going around and visiting Skopje with him. It was fun. I met also a Canadian-living-in-Dublin-moving-to-Australia girl with who I finished my touring around, her name is Jill…for those following my blog you wouldn’t think it is very strange to find here in the almighty award of ‘the Girl of the Day’ (also known as “tGotD”, but it is just to hard to pronounce, even in a foreign country…)… well yes I’m a bit tired that’s why I’m writing stupid things…. let’s get serious…
Well skopje is 50/50… a river divides the city in 2 completely different cities. The northern part is filled up with albanians, and the place looks pretty much like a turkish city, with small streets going everywhere and mosques everywhere… little shacks here and there… a huge and colorful market.
And when you cross the bridge, you get to this 100% western-looking city. fancy cafes fill up large straight pedestrian streets… a couple of malls complete the panorama…
Anyway, it was pretty fun discovering this city.
so here goes the picture of the day…
Stone Bridge of Skopje
and the girl of the day…
Jill
And well… I spent most of my time with James, visiting the city, so I’ll make another exception of the only-girls rule of this blog….
James, behind some mosque
Well tomorrow I’ll go to Belgrade, Serbia… night-train also…
Sophia, Bulgaria
Or more precisely : Софиа , yes because here they use the Cyrillic alphabet, and I can tell you it is pretty disturbing… Once you get the correct translations of a few letters you can walk your way through…
Who would write, instead of ..:
H -> N
P -> R
C ->S
Y ->U
not talking about the wird characters you may find…
Well any way… I had a lovely day in Sophia visiting a bit of everything… And just for you to know, if you go to Boyana, and ask for the National Museum (supposedly the best in Bulgaria), everybody will point you the church…. what’s wrong with you guys?
any way, here comes the picture of the day
Aleksender Nevski church, which is quite impressive
the girl of the day…
Elena, simple and overjoyed
and just to satisfy A* desire of having men pictures, here are the boys of the day…but be sure this will only happen once…
The Bandana Gang : James, Jason and Dustin... and of course me...
Tomorrow Skopje, in Macedonia… after a rather long night-train, again…
