Afternoon to you,

Our next blog begins with a sad moment when we said goodbye to our good friends tegs and Kahn. After 2 exciting weeks in Turkey we were set to head our separate ways, us heading for Sarajevo and they were off to Bucharest!
We said our farewells at the airport and Kahn even shed a tear. Not to worry tho as we'll see them back n Aus in a few months!
We arrived into Sarajevo that afternoon and had a quick look around town that evening, enjoying a traditional Bosnian meal for dins. The first thing that struck me was how much devastation remains from the 1992-1995 siege. Bullet holes everywhere and many lifeless buildings remain ruined.

The following day (Thursday 8th may) we went on a few tours. The first we ventured to the tunnel museum where we saw how the Bosnians transported goods into the city via a tunnel under the airport runway for 4 years whilst they were under attack for the Serbs. Lucky I wasn't around then as the tunnel was only 1.6 metres high! On the afternoon we went on a free walking tour of the city.

On Friday we had a free day so we went for a walk to the sight of the 1984 Winter Olympics.and after 30mins of searching we finally found the uninspiring museum. We also ventured about the city a little more and saw the opening of the city hall which had been closed since 1992!

The next day we departed Sarajevo for budva, Montenegro and spent 8 hours getting there via mini bus. Some of the scenery was ridiculously good but at times I was worried we'd fall off the steep cliff. Soon as we passed the border into Montenegro (and the EU) you could notice how much better the roads got. Once at budva we chilled that arvo n got in one swim. Ps our hotel was sick with an indoor pool and outdoor one which overhung the beach/water.

For the next few days (Sunday to Tuesday) we pretty much did the same thing. Got up for a buffet breakkie, hit the pool, went for a walk around the old town, I watched football/rhi had a massage, had a cocktail and then had a massive feast for dins!
The weather turned abit grey on mon arvo and tues but we still enjoyed our time.

Wednesday we were headed for Nis, Serbia. We deliberated about going there or Skopje In Macedonia but thought Nis would be quicker and more direct. How wrong we were haha. After Initially thinking the bus may take 5 hours we then heard 8-9 hours.but then we found out it would take 13 hours! So after hopping on at 2.30pm we arrived on Thursday morning at 3.30am. The drive consisted of a lot of looking out the window, rhi sleeping, me checking google maps to see how far to go, stopping at random smoky restaurants where no one spoke a word of English and lots and lots of rain. We were in bed by 4am.

After about 6 hours sleep we were up again to venture out into the town of Nis. We had an afternoon bus to sofia, Bulgaria so we quickly set off. We went and saw an old skull tower (made up of Serbian soldiers skulls as a warning from the Turkish after a battle) and a fortress. We then made tracks to the all to familiar bus station which had graced our presence less than 12 hours earlier. After a short 3 hour ride we made in to sofia and headed for a quick bite to eat as we had lost an hour in transit.

Friday morning we were up early again and this time we were off on a tour to the Rila Monastery in the mountains south of sofia. This place was incredible and was literally wedged between two mountains. You could see snow from the ground. We also went into an old cave which involved climbing up a very narrow hole. Rhi didn't make it through unfortunately (saying she was getting 'claustrophobic'....). That afternoon we managed to squeeze in a free walking tour of sofia as we hadn't seen any of the city yet. Our tour guide was young and taking her 3rd tour ever but she was tops and knew so much about sofia and their history. That night we headed for an authentic Bulgarian meal and also on show were traditional Bulgarian dancers. Top day/night.

The following day we were up again early (broken record much?) and made a beeline for the bus station. We were headed for Veliko Tărnovo which is a small Bulgarian town set upon the hills on the way to Bucharest where are flying out from on Tuesday. We didn't plan on stopping there but it was going to be too hard getting to Bucharest in one day so we stayed a night there. We arrived about lunchtime and went and saw another huge fortress. We also had a wander about the old town and relaxed that afternoon with a few ciders and crisps. Dinner was a free home cooked meal courtesy of our hostel!

On Sunday we were up early for a 730am bus to Bucharest however upon reaching the station we were to find out that the bus in fact left at 7 and there were no more buses til 11.(the Eastern Europeans are very blasé in their description of times of things) so we headed back to the hostel and ended up organising a train to bucharest which left at midday.we met a cool dude from Leicester and we chatted to him for most of the 6 hour ride.he was a rookie traveller and was interesting hearing his perspective on travel. We arrived at Bucharest, Romania at 6pm and had a bite to eat and had a bit of a walk around town and saw the second biggest government building in the world! (Behind the pentagon)

Today we were up early to catch a train up to Brasov where we would also go and see bran castle which is also known as draculas castle. That was interesting and rhi was shocked to learn that Dracula was not real, seriously.we had a look around Brasov also and then made our way back to bucharest. Tomorrow we are off to Chicago, America!

This brings us to the end of our time in Europe and what an amazing 2 years it has been seeing this part of the world. We saw so many places and met so many wicked people along the way. We will definitely be back one day soon :-)

Talk soon bloggers!

Ev