The word is a very exciting place

Hello all! The next part of my Croatian journey was Zadar. I'd actually never heard about it until I got to Croatia, but it sounded interesting  and I decided why not! It's quite a small city, but it has a rather charming old town by the sea front. The two main highlights of Zadar are the sea organ and the archaeological museum. The sea organ is incredible, the sounds that come from it are just beautiful. As waves hit the sea wall, the water goes inside the pipes and pushes air up past lots of little holes in the pipes, which is what makes the notes. (I've never uploaded a video to blogger before, so bare with me this dosnt work first time) The are archeology museum is a very well planned and designed one. It flows beautifully through the time periods, and has some amazing exhibits And here's just a couple of pictures from around Zadar, including its many roman remains: And finally, in Zadar I had the cutest and friendliest roommate of all! ...

Dubrovnik is one of those places which everyone has heard of. Unusually for Croatia, Dubrovnik is mostly style, with little substance. When I say that, I can genuinely testify that Dubrovnik, especially the old town, is one of the most dazzling and beautiful cities I have every visited. The sun seems to shine through the city itself, and you cannot help but be wept up in its glory. However, there is actually very little to do in Dubrovnik. There's very few museums and places to go that tempted me, or that I could justify paying a rather large amount for. Dubrovnik truly is Croatia's most expensive city. It's geared towards day trippers who don't mind forking out, it's not designed for those on a limited budget or those who want a well there. But don't ever let that stop you from going. I cannot recommend it enough, even just a for a couple of hours. The sparkling water, the sun kissed stones, bleached rocks and perfectly placed decorations. This truly is the je...

First of all, hello and welcome to Croatia! I got of the ferry and the first thing I had That was to catch my breath, the city of Split was stunning even at 7am. After a small drama at the hostel (I had emailed ahead to ask if I could drop my bags off early, the response was a yes Will someone pull a lady from across the road turned up and let me into the hostel, but there we go That ) I set about exploring the city. Split is a city barmy, ITS all built into the roman walls of Diocletians Palace, giving it a sort of Indiana Jones kind of feel to it! It was really nice to explore the tiny little old streets, and I managed to find a very good pastry shop and the process! Of course, the first thing I did was to explore the unground basement of the palace. Wow. Just wow. Huge collomns, beautiful bricked ceilings, rolling vaults, you name it, it was there underground, and virtually all of it was very well preserved as well. There's a Campanile Also you can cl...

So you can imagine, leaving Italy after spending nearly a month there was quite heartbreaking, especially as I had fallen in love with the country! But I was now on my way to Croatia! Im going to start with a confession. I hate RORO ferries. (Roll on, roll off). The reason being, when I was very young, probably around 7 or 8, I stayed up late and watched one of those seconds from disaster type shows. This particular episode featured the MV Estonia. Some of you might remember, it was a ferry ship that operated in the Baltic sea. She sunk becuase of faults with the bow doors, used to let cars on and off, which let water into the car deck, dooming the vessel and a great many passengers into the freezing Baltic sea.  I know full well that the events that night would never reoccur, especially on a small ferry heading across the calm Adriatic sea, but it played on my mind and made me feel nervous. Coupled with the fact that I was just a deck passenger and had to sleep wherever I could f...

Next I visited everyone's favourite micro state, (no not Andorra!) San Marino! It was a bit of a challenge to get to, I caught the train from Ravenna to Rimini (literally managing to get on the train as it was about to pull away after a small fiasco at the ticket machine) then a coach from Rimini to Citta Di San Marino. First of all, no I didn't meet Valentina Monetta while I was there, but my gosh wow the views are fantastic! The whole city is perched high on the hills, and the ground is just a vertical drop next to you And perched atop these dramatic cliffs are the 3 towers of San Marino. Only one was open while I was there, and not only did it give me amazing views from the top, but It also had quite an interesting medieval weaponry exhibition, (yes that is a child's toy cannon, and people wonder why so many children died from accidents when they were allowed to play with cannons and muskets!) San Marino is a bit like the land that time forgot. Everywhere ...

Next stop on my travels was Ravenna. I didnt know a lot about it, except for the fact that it had some fabulous mosaics. I certainly wasn't wrong there! Thy are spread all across town, and rather handily, you can get a ticket that gives you access to all of them. Some are literally just mosaics, like in the baptistry, others are inside museums, which give you some history about Ravenna. Heres just a small selection of pictures: They really were absolutly stunning, it really worth a visit, even if you do a day trip from Bologna. 

I only initially went to Ferrara as a day trip from Bologna becuase I needed a new car, and It seemed a good a place as any to get one. Just teasing, I actually went, becuase there is a brilliant castle in the centre of Ferrara, and the city has a rather interesting story of its own. Once a large powerful entity in its own right, it was gradually beaten back until now. Ferrara has a charm that threatens to overtake Bologna's! The castle is a fantastic little building, from climbing through jail cells, to climbing the tower, or even stood on the terrace surrounded by orange trees. It's a great castle to spend the day, and plus there was a really awesome little market in the town centre as well. I'm starting to like these random little pop up markets! The other high point of Ferrara is the campanile. I think it's the most beautiful one I've seen yet! Apparently it's currently under restoration, but it should be open soon!