We met our friends, Margot and Jocelyn at the airport, and had a smooth flight to Sydney. It was pouring rain in Sydney, much to the joy of the whole drought stricken country, but it meant our connecting flight to Santiago was delayed a little. The 11 and a half hour flight passed surprisingly quickly as we slept well in the comfortable seats. We landed in Santiago earlier than when we left Sydney, thanks to gaining a day by crossing the International Date Line. ...

Bled is only an hour and a quarter from Ljubljana by bus, but it is a whole different setting. The town is defined by its lake, its island in the lake (the only natural island in Slovenia), its castle set on a cliff top towering over the lake, and I would also add by its kremsnita - a delicious vanilla cream cake that can only be described as heaven on a plate. Bled’s beauty is indisputable, and pulling out the usual adjectives just aren’t enough to do it ju...

I must say that our trips between places have been as enjoyable as bunkering down in places and discovering them in more detail. Our direct train from Split to Zagreb turned into a journey broken midway by bus over a section of line work being carried out. Not to worry though - all went smoothly and we just followed everyone else when necessary. Not much English spoken around here, so we do a lot of following. Spectacular scenery enveloped us all the way, movin...

We took a bus from Mostar to Split - four hours of scenic coastline, hugging mountains on high and low roads above a sparkling blue sea. The tiniest sweeps of sand along this coastline attract settlement and, I imagine, a great influx of visitors in the summertime. We arrived in Split as the sun was going down, so we quickly checked in to our new digs and headed out to join the locals for a drink on the gorgeous waterfront of the old town. The Riva, Split's seaf...

A few days in the historic town of Mostar was a first time visit to Bosnia-Herzegovina for us. The three hour bus trip from Dubrovnik was quite scenic, following the dramatic coastline for some time before turning inland. Mostar spans a deep valley of the Neretva River in Bosni-Herzegovina. It developed in the 15th and 16th centuries as an Ottoman frontier town and during the Austro-Hungarian period in the 19th and 20th centuries. Mostar has long been known for ...