- Ate to much tapas, pizza and burek
- Picked up a car
- Drove around some dodgy places
- Still alive, no muggings or beatings
So, arriving in Spain after Morocco was a bit of a relief. We didn't need to worry about people trying to ask us for money every 2 seconds and we could freely browse markets and shops without being harassed. Unfortunately the great weather that we had in Morocco stayed there, and we had to get used to cloudy skies, rain and sub-zero temperatures. It was good but a bit miserable sometimes.
Granada was a really interesting town, its a blend of Moorish and Christian cultures that influences everything from the architecture through to their food and drinks (you can still get really good Moroccan mint tea here). The main attraction of Granada is the Alhambra, which was once the residence of the Muslim rulers until about the 14th century when the Christan kings took over. It has the most amazing architecture, and the Islamic influence is everywhere. There a dozens of small courtyards surrounded by elaborately decorated rooms which still have some of the original paint work visible in some spots. When the Christians took control of the palaces they added their own touches to the earlier Islamic work to create a pretty unique blend of styles. The intricacy of the carvings in the ceilings and mosaic floors has to be seen to be believed, I can't imagine how many people it would take to finish all that work. Unfortunately due to the bad weather our visit was a bit quick, I would have liked to spend a bit more time there looking around but it was just too cold to stay for long.
Granada also has a pretty interesting old town that we were able to explore, the streets were filled with tiny little tapas bars and cafes that have given me a million ideas of things to cook when I get back. The tapas bars here have dozens of legs of ham just hanging from the ceiling, when they finish carving one they just unhook a fresh leg of ham, clamp it to a table and go to town. The curing of the ham is a bit of a secret, and each leg of ham is worth more than 300 Euros.
We had planned to pick up our car on the 10th of February so after exploring Granada for several days we still had a few days to kill in Spain. We caught a bus to Madrid and settled there for a for a while to explore. On our first day we took a free tour which showed us around town a bit and let us in on a few secrets. One of the most surprising things I learnt was that in a recent survey, the Spanish people voted their king as the No.1 Spaniard of all time. When Franco, the fascist leader of Spain since 1939-ish died he had intended to pass along the title of dictator to the then exiled prince of Spain who he'd been trying to mould into his own fascist image. As soon as the prince returned he told everyone he was, in fact, going to abolish the fascist regime and install a new democratic government. At first the Spanish people didn't really know what to expect but they soon realised how lucky they had been, its pretty rare for someone in that position to hand over all their power just like that.
Apart from some interesting history, Madrid also had loads of streets to get to know. Again, a fairly consistent theme was the tapas bars and cafes, I think we spent a good portion of our budget on cheap (but not necessarily bad) Spanish wines and cured meats of all kinds.
From Madrid, we caught a cheap flight to Toulouse in France where we picked up our brand new car, a little Citroen C3 which is based on the iconic Citroen 2CV. Think of the love child of 'Herby the love bug' and an a VW Golf or something. Granted, its not the most manly car to drive around, and sometimes its a little embarrassing being overtaken by an old lady in a smart-car, but its small, very comfy, fits loads in the boot (4 large backpacks!) and the small diesel engine sips the fuel - so from a budget point of view its pretty much perfect. And even though its a manual, it still has cruise control which was a surprise. As soon as we got the car, we set our sights east and drove straight for Florence in northern Italy.
The drive to Florence took us along some beautiful landscapes. In the south coast of France we passed through medieval castle towns like Carcarsone, then as we approached the coast we began passing towns nestled into coves. Eventually we drove through Monaco then through a handful of Italian seaside towns hugging the coast. It was a long 8-9 hr drive but it seemed to go pretty quickly because we had so much scenery to look at.
You know you that you're getting close to Florence when traffic starts weaving in and out of lanes like an F1 driver and then just parking wherever their car will fit. It looks funny, but it works for them. Florence is most famous as the home of the renaissance in the 14th and 15th centuries. Pretty much anyone who was anyone in that period would have lived and worked in Florence at one point.
Through some pretty crafty/dodgy banking transactions the Medici family basically controlled the entire city and were massive sponsors to the intellectual elite - they commissioned artists, painters, architects and philosophers to come to their city and work. Florence became a superpower, and the Medici's became so rich that they were able to pretty much buy the Vatican and install their own pope. In the end though, the rich banking families of Florence were ruined by people like King Richard of England who defaulted on massive loans, leaving the city bankrupt and open to the French who kept invading.
These days the old city of Florence is a tourist hot spot even in winter. The locals have some pretty mixed feelings about the all the tourists, and many are leaving the city to get away from the super crowds, but its still a nice place to visit, especially if you are interested in architecture, engineering or the arts or over sized novelty food. Yes, I think I can safely say that Florence serves the largest calzone (think of a pizza pasty) in the world, and I have photographic proof that I devoured one of those suckers.
We had 4 days in Florence, including Valentines day which was our 4th anniversary, so we went out to a really nice place at dinner. The food was great, they have a very gamey influence in Florence, so there was lots of lamb, rabbit and venison dishes to choose from. We both had a great meal and the house wine was awesome as well as cheap.
After a few days in Florence we needed to move south, we started driving towards the Amalfi coast, near Naples via the Tuscany region. Our first stop along the way was at Pisa, to see the famous tower. We had a coffee and walked around the tower and church. Apart from the obvious tourist spots, Pisa doesn't really have much to hold your attention, so we took off pretty quickly. Of course, we did get the obligatory pictures of Heidi pushing the tower over, but I refuse to insult your sensibilities by publishing them - I'm sure everyone has been subject to viewing (perhaps against your will??) pictures of someone pushing/pulling/kicking the leaning tower over.
So anyway, we were on the road again for a couple of hours when we just managed to spot a castle wall and a few houses sitting on top of a hill, so we turned our car off the road to explore. We arrived at the miniature town of Monteriggioni which must only have a population in the double figures. We managed to find a restaurant for lunch and had the best pizza we'd had so far, full of buffalo mozzarella and salami. The town was built sometime around the 11th century to control the lucrative trade routes and even though it became pretty rich it didn't grow in size. The whole village fits within the ancient castle walls, and surprisingly the walls and castle structure are still really well preserved.
The only downside of visiting such a cool place was that we were running out of time to get to Naples. Halfway from Tuscany to Naples we started looking for cheap hotels, but couldn't find a thing - we couldn't find anything and it was getting pretty late so we had to resort to pulling out the sleeping bags and taking a nap in the car. It might sound pretty dodgy, but its actually not too bad, the only thing that made it difficult was the fact that the temperature dropped to around -4 degrees overnight, so we were a bit cold. Nice scenery though. In the morning though we woke up, turned the car (and heater) on and kept driving to Naples.
(You might want to grab another coffee here)
Now, I'll take a short detour here to explain something that I feel is important to share. Just for a second, imagine a bad driver. Lets say, for example a bad French driver. French drivers are particularly bad because even if they cause a problem, it's still your fault (somehow), they change lanes erratically, speed, and rarely take notice of lane markings. Now imagine a French driver who has had a few drinks at lunch, and is in a rush to get home to his beautiful wife. If you double the bad drunken Frenchman's terrible driving and give them some attitude, a mobile phone in one hand and a cigarette in the other, you might be getting close to understanding just how bad Italian drivers are. They are without a doubt the worst drivers that have ever sat behind a wheel. I specifically say "sat behind the wheel", not 'taken the wheel' or 'at the wheel' because for much of the time, their hands are not actually controlling the car, rather they are busy texting, applying make up or wilding gesticulating to other cars - or sometimes all three at once. Unfortunately Naples happens to be full of bad Italian drivers. They cause complete mayhem on the roads, have fits of road rage that would embarrass Satan, and drive as though vehicles on the road do not exist. It's a fact that last year alone there were well over 100 mafia related assassinations in Naples (true story), it's my theory that they were all due to cases of road rage. Suffice to say that driving in Naples is not a pleasant experience.
One saving grace for Naples however, is the fact that it is the home of pizza. By some miracle of miracles We managed to find our way to the famous restaurant 'Da Michelle' which has been serving the best pizza in Naples (the world maybe?) since something like 1870. You walk past the busy group of people waiting outside, take a ticket and come back an hour later to check to see if you have a table. But the wait is worth it, Heidi and I can confirm that the pizza is truly amazing. They only serve 2 types of pizza - Margarita, which is a thin doughy bread base, tomato sauce, buffalo mozzarella cheese and basil and the original Marinara, which is a margarita with garlic added (no, supposedly there is no seafood on a traditional Marinara). After stuffing our faces and talking to lots of locals who assured us this was THE pizza, we left Naples for Amalfi. Unfortunately we didn't leave the bad drivers behind.
The Amalfi coast is a region that contains a number of seaside towns built along the steep cliffs. Famous small towns such as Atrani, Amalfi, Sorento and Positano are full of tourists in the high season, but not really very busy at all during the early months of the year.
The drive along the coastal roads makes the Great Ocean Road look like an autobahn - in some spots the one laned road hugs the hill on one side, and the cliff on the other, often a sheer 200m drop to the rocky ocean below. Buses and coaches fly along the roads, honking their horns as they round a corner to give other drivers a valuable half second notice to pull over as far as they can. Its an amazing drive, but difficult sometimes because the views are so nice that you really find it hard to concentrate. We had the best weather here, bright sunshine and clear, clean air. The people are very friendly, the food is cheap and nice and the scenery never gets old - it's a pretty good spot to spend some time. We stayed for a few nights in a nice hostel in Atrani, and explored the coastal towns as well as a day trip around Vesuvius to Pompeii. Take a look at the second picture below, the dark clouds are a bit ominous...
Italy was a great spot to stay, but our plan was to explore Eastern Europe. We were also spending too much money in Italy, so we needed to get cracking. We decided to drive from the western Mediterranean coast to the eastern Adriatic coast. A town called Bari had ferries that could take us over the Adriatic sea to Croatia. We started driving from the Amalfi coast, up through the middle mountainous areas but soon we started to realise that something wasn't right. We noticed some snow on roads and soon the traffic slowed to a crawl. Visibility dropped to a few metres and the roads became a mix of snow, ice and slush. We had to work our way down slippery mountain roads towards Bari in pretty thick snow, and although it took ages, but we arrived safely. We drove to the ferry port but quickly found out that the ferry was cancelled due to the rough weather. A huge snow storm had blown through central Italy, dumping more snow in one night than a month in winter. Our only option was o drive north the next day to Ancona and catch a ferry to Zadar in Coratia. We made friends with a couple from Sydney who were caught in the same situation as us, and we decided to travel together for a bit. The next day the roads were still icy, but the drive was much easier than the day before. We all got the overnight ferry across to Zadar, it was a bit rough at times but generally OK. A quick breakfast of strong Croatian coffee and tea, then a 4 hour drive down the Croatian coast delivered us to Dubrovnik.
Dubrovnik has had loads of bad press recently, but I don't think it deserves it. The people are fantastic - the owner of the hostel we stayed at explained the history of the town, showed us all the sights on a map, upgraded us to an apartment instead of a dorm and even did all our laundry for free. It really feels like a small country town in Australia, the people all know each other. Whatever happened to Brit Lapthorne in Dubrovnik really shocked the community, so I think it was either another tourist or maybe someone from out of town. I know it might sound a bit harsh, but at the end of the day, every city in the world is the same - if you're not careful bad things can happen sometimes. The locals are trying really hard to put the whole episode behind them because they are afraid it might deter other tourists from coming. Hopefully the summer is still very busy. As we arrived Channel 7 had just finished filming a tele-movie, I'm sure it will be crap and full of mistakes that make everyone here seem like terrible people - nothing could be further from the truth.
Anyway, the old town of Dubrovnik is basically a fortified port/harbour. A thick stone wall surround the old town and provided security for the merchant traders and fishermen in ancient times. With it's strong navy the city state of Dubrovnik controlled important trade routes and grew to be a very rich town, its often described at 'The Pearl' of the Adriatic. Today you can climb up to the walls and walk around the battlements which give fantastic views of the Adriatic sea on one side and the mountains on the other. The same snow storm that stranded us in Italy also dumped about 50cm of snow in Dubrovnik, some people said the last time it snowed that hard was 40 years ago. It was a bit strange to see perfect sandy beaches covered with patches of snow. Odd. We arrived during the winter carnival, so we got to see a parade or two and try some Croatian food, it's good, Heidi managed to pinch a recipe. During the early 1990's Dubrovnik got caught up in the fighting that was going on in the region. Despite the fact that the old town was a UNESCO World Heritage site, the Serbian and Montenegrin army shelled the crap out of it - over 2000 explosive shells rained down on a town not much bigger in area than the MCG. It caused a massive amount of damage to ancient churches, houses and other buildings. The people here are very proud of their town so most of the damage has been repaired, but it's quite obvious - the brand new tiles are where a shell went through a roof, new square cut bricks (instead of the old worn cobblestones) are where shells destroyed roads, and bright new walls against the old faded stones are where houses have been rebuilt. There are still a few ruins where restoration is yet to start. During the fighting, the locals huddled in one of the corner fort buildings which had stone walls several metres thick, fortunately this structure didn't get blown up.
Apart from some dramatic history, there are also dozens of little island off the coast to explore. We caught a ferry to a little island and spent a day walking around old forts, beaches and small cafes. We're thinking of coming back to Dubrovnik in a couple of months to relax for a while in the beautiful waters around the islands, it was a bit cold this time around. The waters around Dubrovnik are spectacular. They are a greenish blue colour and so clear that we could see the bottom of the sea from the ferry. From the old town walls we could see through maybe 10 metres of water, perhaps even more, and we could spot loads of fish. I'm not sure why they're so clean and clear but its good to see the environment hasn't suffered badly like in lots of other places (Naples, I'm looking at you...)
On our drive from Zadar to Dubrovnik, we actually passed through Bosnia and Herzegovina. This gave us an idea to check out the region, so we did a bit of research and found of that Sarajevo looked like a great spot to visit. It was only a 4-5 hr drive, and again it was through really nice countryside. We managed to find a good spot to stay near the old area in Sarajevo. Sarajevo is famous for a few things, but unfortunately its most famous because of the longest siege in modern history which lasted for almost 4 years from 1991 to 1995. The Serbian, former Yugoslavian and Montenegrin military (and some citizens with guns) surrounded the city and cut it off from the world in early 1991. The city had no power, phone or gas lines for the entire time and only survived because of a tunnel that was constructed under the UN controlled airport through to the free areas of Bosnia. Thousands of people died and the city was devastated but these days we can see that a lot of effort has gone into reconstruction. Buildings still show signs of fighting, bullet holes are common and shrapnel and bomb blasts from the 3 million shells that were fired at the city are easy to spot. We did a tour of the tunnel which was pretty sobering - its hard to believe that a city of almost half a million people (not full of soldiers, we're talking about mostly civilians here) held off a massive combined army for 4 years. Also, the city was the site of the assassination of Arch Duke Ferdinand in 1914 which basically started the ball rolling on World War 1.
With such a dark history you'd forgive the people for being a bit sad and depressing but in fact they are really positive and show a real love for their city. They're not afraid to talk about the war and the effects, but are equally as eager to talk about the great things about the city, and quick to point out that they hosted the 1984 Winter Olympics. Heids and I managed to it in a day of skiing which we found to be fantastic and cheap. We had loads of snow thanks to the recent storms, bright blue skies and the slopes more or less to ourselves. Bosnia and Croatia has some fantastic food, but the best is a Burek, which is basically a layered meat pie - think of a mix between a lasagna, sausage roll and meat pie. It's cheap, tasty and can be eaten for all 4 meals in a day, which we found out quickly. We've been eating a lot in these European countries, and when you take into account my dodgy looking hair (no haircut for....ages) I'm starting to look more and more like a lego man. Short, chubby, dodgy helmet hair and a huge smile.
This morning we left Sarajevo and drove north through the Bosnian countryside before turning west towards Zagreb, in Croatia again. Our plan (at the moment - sure to change) is to stay in Zagreb for a couple of days then drive to Slovenia to see some of Heidi's family (which country doesn't she have family in !!). After that we'll probably turn east again and head up and over to Romania, and Bulgaria. I'd really like to see Serbia, but it might have to wait until we drive back from Bulgaria. More pictures of Bosnia etc soon
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