travelling through bosnia

apologies for the lack of posts, the internet at my previous hostel was distinctly lacking. 

after an 8 hour stopover in zagreb and a seriously turbulent flight on a tiny aircraft, i arrived in sarajevo and was met by the hostel transfer. got in and had a catch up chat with ken and amer before bed.

the following day ken and i explored sarajevo while amer was with his family. first we went to the world war one museum, outside of which archduke franz ferdinand was assassinated - thereby beginning the war. it was quite fascinating to learn about, though i was quite proud to realise i knew most of the story. 

after wandering around the old town and seeing all the main tourist sites we caught a cab to the tunnel of hope. this 800m long tunnel was built during the sarajevo siege and was the only means of getting supplies into the 300,000 bosnians entrapped by serbian forces. 

we spent the early evening chilling at the hostel watching gladiator before heading out to dinner. feeling conspicuous due to ramadan, we didn't eat until after dark, and even then struggled to find a restaurant where people were consuming more than drinks and ice cream. anyway, was a nice night and we both had cevapi for dinner - a local minced meat dish served with pita and onions.

today i caught a bus to mostar, a smaller town in bosnia famed for a 30 metre high bridge off which bosnian boys traditionally jump to become men. suffice to say i didn't jump off the bridge, but it was a pretty place to stop and the scenery on the way was incredible!!

travelling to kotor in montenegro tomorrow. quite looking forward to a few days relaxing on a beach when i get to budva!

off to bosniaaaa

the jaeger train last night definitely lived up to expectations. 240 bombs all lined up ready to be knocked over like dominoes. so speccy!!

it was such a fun way to end my stay in budapest. going to miss all the incredible staff at carpe noctem, they made the last 4 nights unforgettable!!!

i'm off to sarajevo today. going to be a long day of travels, but i'm so excited to get there!

finally seeing budapest

after a rather late start this morning we accompanied some of the carpe staff to a farmers market at szimpla. 

it was really lovely, we wandered around the stalls and then sat drinking fresh lemonade and eating spaghetti bolognese. great final lunch in budapest!

took a solo gander through budapest to finally see all the sites. it's such a gorgeous city, full of beautiful buildings and narrow winding streets. had a wonderful time exploring before heading back to the hostel to give steph and daniel the caramel magnums they've been craving for weeks! 

now we're off to one of the sister hostels for the jaeger train! so excited to see it!! 

a bath party you say?!

well after 6 days of generally feeling pretty terrible, my body somehow decided that the migraines were over and it was time to party. just in time for cinetrip woooo!! 

so party i did. covered ourselves in glitter and decked out in matching carpe tops we set out for the biggest bath party of the year!

 the transformation of the baths for the sparty was incredible. neon lights, lazers, smoke machines, awesome music, alcohol and hot water. a mental and totally out of this world experience, so happy that i made it!!! 

had to have a cheeky maccas stop on the way home at 4am. perfect end to an awesome night! 

shout out to dancing dave - congrats on the job! :P

migraines suck

yesterday we went to the gellert baths and i lasted all of an hour before catching a cab back to the hostel. advil attempted to revive me, but unfortunately only lasted until 9.45 before heading home. was shattered i missed most of the ruin bars.

today once again feeling pretty terrible, really need to try and pull it together for the bath party tonight but not feeling confident. shattered this happened in budapest! 

česky krumlov

so annoying! just found this from last sunday....

yesterday i woke up at the crack of dawn to go to česky krumlov to do their infamous river pub crawl. 

after a 3 hour bus i arrived at my hostel, on to be told that the pub crawl likely wouldn't run as you need a minimum 6 people and it wasn't a busabout day to do it. so that plan went out the window! nevertheless, i'm glad i made the trip down there as česky krumlov was gorgeous and totally laid back.

went for a wander around the town and marvelled at the buildings and cobblestone streets. was quite shocked to realise much of the embellishment on the buildings was painted on - even on the castle! 

another shock to the system was the brown bear enclosures in the old moat of the castle. later on john and i drunkenly christened them paddington and humphrey. 

had a really lovely trip down there, hung out with some awesome people doing busabout. would definitely recommend going, but make sure the rafting is on that day, or you're in a group, because it is meant to be awesome fun!

a booze cruise? i think i'll do two!

my last night in prague was hawaiian night. my day of sleeping and a couple of red bulls rejuvenated me enough to stay out until 4am. 

to begin the evening, the wonderful madhouse staff put on a dinner of pork belly, pineapple salsa and potato salad, as well as tropical punch, for roughly $4 each! so yum! from the hostel we headed off to a bar for two-for-one drinks before boarding the boat for our booze cruise. it was ridiculously packed and boiling hot, but had so so much fun having dance-offs and going crazy. from the boat we went to a 4 storey club to dubstep in the basement. it was revolting! felt like you were showering in sweat, but pretending to be into the music and exaggeratedly dubstep dancing was awesome!

following that massive night, i had to get up at 6am to catch a bus to budapest. thankfully it was another student agencies bus - so i watched movies the entire way! i was totally unprepared for my arrival in budapest, so relied on the instructions of a lady in the train station. worked really well for me - i ended up at the wrong station, having to backtrack and eventually almost 2 hours later arrived at the hostel.

slept until steph and daniel arrived, then slept some more until they finished making dinner. so yum! then it was off to start booze cruise number 2! and included in the ticket price was a bottle of champagne - so dangerous!! tasted revolting but down it went. didn't stay up too late, but wow my head hurts this morning!

off to the thermal baths today to sweat all the toxins out of my body in preparation for another 3 big nights with these two awesome people!