Jul 2006

Continuing on from earlier we moved on from Bled in Slovenia to Ljubljana the capital of Slovenia where we watched the World Cup Final at some dodgy pub. What was even more dodgy were the dodgy Horse burgers that we got for dinner from the "Hot Horse" restaurant that some bloke recommended to us in Bled. This picture doesn't really show how dodgy these burgers were, because I don't think any of us actually finished one.

After Slovenia we headed for the clear warm waters of the Adriatic along the Croatian coastline. The first stop was Split, there was not a lot here except for the old town which was formerly an ancient Roman summer palace.

From Split we took a day trip to Hvar, a smallish island off the coast and about an hours ferry ride.

Here we spent the entire day swimming and finding better swimming spots and places to jump into the water. In this next picture we spent a good hour and a half jumping off the wall on the right.

After Hvar we got back in the Parter and headed to Dubrovnik deep at the southern end of Croatia, we had to drive through 15 km of Bosnia & Herzegovnia to get there. But this town is absolutely amazing and totally full of tourists. But the beaches were spectacular and we had a great time.

We said goodbye to Dubrovnik on the overnight ferry to Italy and in particular Bari, where the ferry arrived. Upon arrival we headed straight for Naples. The Lonely Planet strongly advises against driving in Naples but we were lucky to have no problems with accidents, break-ins or having the entire car stolen. Apart from the food (the home of the pizza) I would say that Naples was a fair shit-hole.

One night in Naples was enough before we headed to the glory of Rome. Some might say Rome is a fair dump too with all the ruined buildings everywhere but the tourists keep coming. I reckon they could just bulldoze some of those ruins and put up some nice apartment blocks... kidding. Rome was amazing and I got to see some of my favourite landmarks like the Colosseum and the Vatican.

We saw this bloke in a place called Piazza Navona, he had these little hand puppets and did the same routine each day or so. He even had a little Michael Jackson there with smoke machine and lights.

This is me at the Victory Monument. They went all out on this one, pretty spectacular

Me again at the Vatican

Swiss guards are funny

So that wraps up the last few weeks, there are plenty more stories to tell but that can be done later. Over and out

Ok this is going to be a fairly disjointed blog entry but anyway I can do what I want can`t I?

It has been a while and I have skipped over some places that I will go over next time I upload some pictures. This collection is from the first time we went to Austria (after the Australia versus Japan match) until now but some things have been skipped and others have not.

Innsbruck, Austria. Our first stop outside Germany during the World Cup. Amazing place nestled between the alps. We went white water rafting here which was awesome. We flipped the boat on the first bit of white water we got to. The bloke running it said that river was really high so that kind of made us feel better for flipping straight away...

Vaduz, Liechtenstein. Yes I have been to Liechtenstein

Stuttgart Fan Fest, Germany. After finally scoring a bed to sleep in whilst in Germany we went to the Fan Fest for the Australia versus Croatia match. As you can see we were kind of out-numbered.

Prague, Czech Republic. Huge town nice and old too. This is the view from the old castle here. The town square was real big and impressive but overrun with tourists and horse drawn carts.

Cesky Krumlov, Czech Republic. A small town in the south of the country. Nice and quiet and very beautiful, the river looked great but we didnt go in, bummer.

A hearty meal in Cesky Krumlov

Krakow, Poland. Great place, except for Auschwitz which is just up the road. Pretty intense place but something that must be seen.

Budapest, Hungary. Nice place, apparently has the oldest subway system in the world. It certainly seemed to be pretty old and rickety. This is the view from the Citadel on the top of a hill near town over looking the Danube.

Vienna, Austria. Nice place like everywhere else. Plenty of old people around and lots of shopping to be done. Coffee is very expensive here but apparently it is a thing to be done here. Some were about 3-4 euro a cup

Bled, Slovenia. Beautiful place, there is a crystal clear lake here with amazing blue water. We went swimming beneath the Castle on top of a cliff overlooking the lake. Great place