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Euro trip

March - May 2024
Doing whatever we want for 6 weeks Read more
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  • TravelerEuro trip
    11
    Day 45

    Marrakech

    May 5 in Morocco ⋅ ☀️ 33 °C

    With a good nights sleep, we got up early to enjoy our hostels' included breakfast. It was actually really good. It was an omelet with a crepe, some sort of bread that was a little spongy but really good, and for desert, a little cinemon bun with honey on the side. I had two because I was hungry and it was really good. After breakfast, the three of us started walking around in the scorching heat. We made sure to bring lots of water with us. We started by walking to Kotoubia, which is a mosque pretty much right outside our hostel. The inside was closed, so we took some pictures and continued walking with no real destination in mind. We ended up in a market with no tourists around. We were the only ones there. I think it was the weekly farmers' market Aziz was telling us about. Even though it was cool to see what it looked like, it smelled like shit. They had raw meat hanging and raw fish just sitting in the sun. There was a lot of mouth breathing going on. I don't know how the locals don't get suck from eating this kind of stuff. At one point, it had been over an hour since we had seen any tourists, and we came across a group of young kids who were actually excited to see us. They were all waving and saying "bonjour" to us. It was pretty cool, actually. It felt like something I've seen in a movie before. After having enough of the crowded narrow streets, we decided to go to a tomb built for a king and his wife. It was another 45 minutes away, so we stopped to get some water and made our way over. When we got there, my water was almost empty and hot. It was almost like tea. To actually see the tomb, we had to wait almost an hour in line in the dirrect sun. Just as we were getting to the tomb, we realized you couldn't even go inside. We had to take pictures from behind a rope. So we waited for an hour for two minutes of pictures. To be fair, though, it was beautiful inside. It was full of shiny tiles decorated with fancy patterns. Even though it was beautiful, I don't know if it was worth it. Once we left, I needed more water desperately, so we went to a restaurant and sat in the shade for a while. We chatted with Billy for a while. He's got some really cool stories from being part of the American Navy. After some water and a beer, we wanted to go back to the hostel and get away from the sun for a while. We ended up in Madina Square, which is just a huge tourist trap. There are snake charmers charming cobras and shops to buy little souvenirs. The only thing we stopped for were pictures with some monkeys. We gave them 20 durhims, which is about €2 for some pictures which they happily took in exchange for all three of us to get a turn holding the monkeys. It was cool, but at the same time, I kind of think monkeys are gross, so I was a little uncomfortable touching them. When we were done with our photo shoot, Pearse started to pull out some more money for them for a small tip because he said they were really nice, and all of a sudden, they were flies on shit. They asked for 200 durhims from all 3 of us. That's €20. Yeah, right, buddy. I said I had no more money. The guy grabbed my wrist until I went in my pocket and pulled out a couple of coins to give him. I was saving that for another bottle of water. They unwillingly let us go after we all chipped in a bit of money. Maybe a lesion learned not to pull money out in front of street hustling vultures. Something I've learned from being in Morocco is that a lot of people do not care about personal space and will touch you and grab you for no reason. It was really uncomfortable. After the monkeys, we were thankfully only a few minutes from the hostel, I noticed I had a slight headache, so I wanted to buy some more water and do nothing. I had actually made plans to go get a tattoo with Bill in the evening, but when I sat down, my headache got so bad. I chugged my fourth 1.5L water bottle, but it didn't do anything for me. I tried to tough it out, but my vision started getting blury, and I started to get really nausious. I canceled on my tattoo plans and decided to buy another water and go lay down in my bed. When I laid down, I got so much more nausious, and my head felt like it was being crushed. I definitely think I had some heatstroke or something because I felt so shitty. I ended up falling asleep for a few hours. When I woke up, I felt a little better but still had a headache. I took my water up to the rooftop balcony where Pearse and Billy were sitting with the ladies from our room. I just sat there quietly, listening for about half an hour until they had to close the rooftop down for the night. I didn't have the energy to do anything else, so I said goodbye to Billy because he had to leave early the next morning and then went straight back to sleep. We convinced Billy to come up to Canada next year and come to visit because it was so easy for both Pearse and I to get along with him. He even told his girlfriend it felt like the three of us had been friends for years, so that was really cool. I look forward to meeting back up with him.Read more

  • TravelerEuro trip
    Day 44

    Sahrah to Marrakech

    May 4 in Morocco ⋅ ☀️ 32 °C

    Today, we got up at 5:30 so we could watch the sunrise from our camels. They said breakfast was included, but it was just small pastries and a lot of bread. It was pretty disappointing because we had a really long day ahead of us. After eating, Pearse and I made our way down to the camels where we waited to get on one. Other groups were leaving, and we were told to wait. We ended up waiting until we were the last two people waiting for a camel. It ended up only being Pearse and I on the one group of camels, so we kinda got a private tour. The saddles were probably even more uncomfortable today. I swear it was just made of wood with a little blanket over the hump. Unfortunately, because we had to wait so long for our camels to leave, we weren't allowed to stop for the sunrise. We could see the other groups sitting in the sand watching, but we had to catch up. The sun was rising behind us, so we could sort of turn around and see the begginging of it, but we ended up going behind a sand dune for most of it. When the sun first started rising, it made a perfect shot of our shadows. After an hour, we got back to the bus. It's about an eight hour drive back to Marrakech from the dessert. We stopped for some coffee after an hour and a half. I ran into the bathroom really quick, and when I was in the stall, there were 2 huge spiders in the corner just above the toilet. To be honest, I was terrified of them. They had really long legs and a body shaped like a long grain of rice. Absolutely nasty. It was a few hours until our lunch stop. For lunch, there was a pretty big buffet. It was about €12 for the buffet. I went up about four separate times and completely filled my plate all four times. I had to make it worth it. After lunch, we got back on the bus for a few more hours before we stopped at a rest stop with a little spot to take some pictures of the surrounding mountains. I quickly took a couple of pictures and went downstairs to just sit in a lawn chair in the sun. In short bursts, the hot sun feels so good. I pulled up my sleeves and just shut my eyes until Aziz, the tour guide, had to beg me to get back on the bus. Pearse and I booked our hostel we would stay at for the next 3 nights. Our friend we made on this trip, Billy, decided he'd come stay with us for a couple of nights before he left for London. When we got back to Marrakech, we had to deal with the city traffic again. The streets are so chaotic and stressful. I don't think there are any rules on the road, except for maybe stop at a red light if you feel like it. Seeing the streets here makes me feel bad for ever complaining about the roads at home. When the three of us checked into the hostel, it was almost 9:00. Pearse and I got onto our room, where we sat and spoke to our roommates for about an hour. Once we felt comfortable leaving our bags under the bottom bunk with these people, we met back up with Billy for a little bit of grub. We stopped at a place in the market that was filled wall to wall with people. It was a really good spot for one of my favorite pastimes, people watching. Billy was a professional as well. On the way back to the hostel, the three of us made plans to hang out and walk around. Today was a really long day of traveling, so it was pretty early to bed for us.Read more

  • TravelerEuro trip
    112
    Day 43

    Tinghir to Sahrah desert

    May 3 in Morocco ⋅ ☀️ 33 °C

    Today was a surreal experience. We left our hotel at 8 am. Our first stop was an oasis and a gorge. It's pretty much the only green I've seen in Morocco so far, so it was really cool. There was a river that ran through here and something like 30 villages share and help each other with farming in this one oasis. They dig irrigation ditches for the water to flow to their crops. When they have enough water, they just block off the stream they made with dirt and rocks. We walked along the banks of the oasis in the shade, which was much needed. It was only 10, but it was already a heater. The tour guide took us into a so we could enter somebody's home and learn about how rugs are made. We learned that women will sit and work on these rugs for 4 hours a day for months at a time. They are hand woven with crazy detail. My favorite rug took 6 months to make and full of symbolism about her life. It has her Berber tribes symbols on it as well as mountains, obviously meaning her tribe is from the mountains. I'm sure there's more symbolism I don't understand in the rugs, but those are the two I remember. While we were being taught about these rugs and watching a demonstration of how they were made, we were brought tea to enjoy. They call it Moroccon whiskey. It's really good with a bit of sugar in it. These people were so hospitable while we were there. It was really cool to see how welcoming they were. They laid out about 30 different rugs, all made of different materials. Sheep wool, camel hair, cactus silk, and more. Basically, whatever they had and could use, they had a rug for it. They kept flapping the rugs in this tiny room, and I felt like I was having allergies to something. My nose was leaking, and my eyes were so itchy. Up to this point, it was a really cool experience. They had the opportunity to try and sell us a rug just like everywhere we've been so far. It's their livelyhood. It started getting awkward at this point, though, because everyone on our guided tour is either young and backpacking with nowhere to put a rug, broke, or just not interested. I'm all 3. They made us watch as they started folding all the rugs up and told us to put one aside when we saw one we liked. It was 15 minutes of absolute silence. I felt bad because of the looks on their faces, but I just kept telling myself it's part of their bit. Make the tourists feel bad and they'll buy something. Even after all the rugs were folded up, the guy thanked us for coming into his home and said, "I keep smiling, no problem." Pearse and I ran out as fast as we could before the hard sell could start back up, plus I was actually dying from whatever was making me itchy. Some of the guys were inside for almost 10 more minutes because they got targeted. Other than the little bit of awkwardness, I thought it was a really cool experience. We were just in a berber families house, made of clay, learning about these insanely complex rugs. After everyone was out, the tour guide walked us through the village and back to the oasis. While still in the village, 2 little kids, maybe 8 years old, came running up to me, begging me for money. I said no, sorry, nicely. Like how I would talk to a kid anywhere. These kids were trained, though. They knew what they were doing. I had to talk to them like an adult and give them the silent treatment like I do 55 year old street vendors. It was a shitty feeling because they're children, but I know that's how they get you. It was still just a weird feeling. When we finally got back to the oasis, we got some awesome pictures with the surrounding gorge. Lucky for us, we got to walk through the gorge. The gorge is very famous for its rock climbing. For weeks, I've been telling Pearse that when I go home, I want to try a rock gym, and seeing these people climb here made me want to even more. How cool would it be to scale up a straight vertical wall? After spending a bit of time in the gorge, we all packed into our tiny bus to go for lunch before we hit the Sahara desert. My lunch was not bad it was roasted chicken, soupy rice, and vegetables. The rice was nasty, and I hate zucchini. I wanted the tagine with an egg, but I've had it 3 times since I been here already, so I wanted to change it up. I think it was a mistake. After a quick lunch stop, we drove a little longer to get to a store where we could buy our get-up. I swear I've never had more fun shopping in my life. When we came out of the store with the head dresses on and covered from the sun, I immediately knew next years Halloween costume. What could go wrong. Pearse and I looked like true locals. We were finally ready for the desert. We still had a ways to go, but I was so excited that the rest of the drive flew by. When I saw the first sand dune is when it began to not even feel real. We got out of the van and into the 32-degree mid day weather in our traditional berber outfit and onto a camel. I had to call mom and dad to just show them, which is crazy I had bars in the desert. We've done some cool shit on this trip, but it'll take a very long time for me to do something this cool again. I had to share it with them. We walked for an hour on the camels, which was more than enough for most of the fellas, I think. These harnesses were so uncomfortable to sit on I couldn't imagine doing any longer on them. We got to the tent where they gave us welcome tea in 35-degree weather. We got sorted into our tents and immediately went sand boarding. It was fun when you got going, but getting back up, the dune was terrible lol. Everyone did a couple of runs and gave up on that noise. Pearse and I went on a walk to explore the dunes where we made more of our classic videos of us acting like idiots. It was actually a lot of fun making them. I was doing flips in the sand. We were jumping off the dunes and doing summersaults down. To sum it up, just being children. We sat down to watch the sunset with a couple of people from the tour and then went for dinner. After dinner, there was a fire and a drum circle, which was cool, but a way cooler alternative was to lay in the pitch black on a sand dune watching the stars. Kinda creepy knowing there's weird fucking critters out there that could kill us lol. I wasn't worried it was just a thought. We just laid there and talked for a couple of hours listening to the drums in the distance. I don't know if there was supposed to be a meteor shower, but we saw 4 massive meteors. It's easily the biggest I've ever seen. They were flying right over us, bright orange from fire. They were so unreal. For me, today was the best day of the trip and the most fun I've had in recent memory. I'm so happy, dad told me to do this, and I'll remember this forever.Read more

  • TravelerEuro trip
    111
    Day 42

    Ksar Ait Ben Haddou & Tinghir

    May 2 in Morocco ⋅ ⛅ 23 °C

    Today is the start of our 3 day trek across morocco. We had to get up at 630 to get up on time and find our meet-up location. It wasn't hard to get up because we slept on a brick of a mattress and the softest pillow ever made. I got up and had a shower with lots of time to spare and check the room for anything we may have forgotten. We made it to the pickup spot on time, but there were so many buses and people it was overwhelming. Buses started leaving for their tour before Pearse, and I even knew where we were supposed to be. We were worried our bus left without us because we just couldn't find our guide. Luckily, a man named Aziz pulled us out of the crowd and asked if we were Ethan and Pearse. We got on the "bus," which is just a work fan with seats in it. It's pretty small with no leg room at all. Of course, we got the very back with the least leg room as well. Crammed in this bus we left for our first stop. It was a look out of the Atlas mountain. It was the first really cool view we've had in Morocco so far, and it didn't disappoint. It's nothing like the mountains I'm used to back at home, but I think I liked it so much because the landscape surrounding us was so cool. It was dry and Rocky with this red rock gorge. It was really interesting. Our next stop was only about an hour away, where we stopped on Africa's highest road. It's about 2600 meters above sea level. I had no idea we were going to see this, so it was a nice surprise. After some more photos, we had to get a move on to today's main attraction, Ksar Ait Ben Haddou. This village was built in 800 AD. There are two main sides to the village, the old ksar and the new ksar. The old ksar has a ruined fortified lookout tower called a kasba. Unfortunately, an earthquake destroyed the kasba only a few years ago. All that remains from it is rubble and the bottom portion of it. What makes a ksar a ksar are the houses. They're made of clay and mud, meaning a rainy week will start melting the buildings away. I couldn't imagine seeing rain in the forecast and thinking, "Ah shit I'm gonna have to remold my house." Right before we got off the bus, Aziz told us to apply sunscreen because the sun was really strong here. I looked at my weather app, and it only said it was 20 degrees. I grabbed the sunscreen but decided I wouldn't need it because I'm really good at ignoring people's advice. Well, after standing outside the van for two minutes, I conceded and put it on. I felt like my neck was turning red in the two minutes I was outside for. We started by having lunch on the new ksar I had tagine for lunch. I had it for dinner last night, so I knew it was gonna be good. I think last night's was better, but it was still really good. We walked across the bridge that connected both sides above what's supposed to be a river, but it was completely dried up. I guess lucky for their homes, they haven't had any rain in a long time. When we got to the other side, we were able to look down at the bottom of the ksar and could see where the movie Gladiator was shot. Everyone knows Gladiator is a badass movie, so it was really cool to see where the arena used to be. My favorite show of all time, GOT, was also shot here in season three. This world heritage site has been the filming location for tons of different movies and shows. Those two are just my favorite. We kept climbing the stairs of the ksar when we came across an old man sitting down with a recorder playing some music. He called me over to sit next to him. When I was on my way over, he pulled a snake out of a burlap sack and put it around my neck. I was not expecting that at all. He started playing the recorder, and this snake that was probably almost dead just laid in my hands. It was a really weird experience. Pearse took some pictures and a quick video for me, so when I got up, I told him to sit down and I'd do the same for him. We were both pretty excited by it and not paying attention to the rest of the group. As the old man was about to pass a chameleon to Pearse, he froze with a concerned look on his face and put both the snake and the chameleon back in the bag. Confused, I ended the video and turned around where we saw a member of our group having a seizure. We later found out she has epilepsy. She's okay it was just a little concerning to see. She just sat down in the shade for a while while we finished the tour. The next stop was my favorite stop. We stopped in this guys ksar where he was painting. The style of art he was doing is hundreds of years old and is only practiced here. He only has a few colors to work with, blue, which is indigo in water, yellow is saffron and water, and for black and 6 used tea and sugar in water. The really interesting part is that the only color that's visible after being painted is the blue. The brown and yellow disappear into the canvas really quickly. The way they make the colors come back and stay on the canvas is by lighting a gas stove and heating the canvas over top of the flame. It was really cool to see the painting just appear after being over the flame for a few seconds. It doesn't really make sense to me how that works. I ended up buying a small painting because I thought it was so cool. After the demonstration, we continued to the top of Ksar Ait Ben Haddou, where the kasba was located. We got to walk around and explore for a few minutes before making our way back down. It was so hot in the sun. In only a couple hours, it jumped to almost 30 degrees outside. For the rest of my time here, my sunscreen won't leave my pocket. I think this is one of the cooler world heritage sites I've been to. It was really interesting to me. Unfortunately, it was time to leave, so we got back in the van. This is where I realized I left my fuckin headphones at the hostel. I'm devastated. There's no way to contact the hostel, so I'm gonna go back there after the three day trip to see if they still have them. I don't have much hope. It was a long drive to the hotel we stayed at, but it was worth it. We stayed at a really nice hotel with comfy beds and even a pool. We had one roommate named Billy who's really cool and easy to get along with. We had dinner where we played uno for a bit and chilled out. We sat by the pool for about an hour before hitting the hay. Tomorrow is a huge day!Read more

  • TravelerEuro trip
    1
    Day 41

    Split to Marrakech

    May 1 in Morocco ⋅ ⛅ 24 °C

    Today, we're leaving Europe to go to Africa. I've been so excited about this for a while now. My flight home leaves from lisbon so I wanted to finish my trip somewhere close to Lisbon but I didn't know where. I'm not ready to go back to a place i've already been to. I was talking to my parents about my dilemma, and my dad brought up Morocco and told me about a camel tour through the Sahara desert. Immediately, I was sold. Pearse just decided a couple of days ago that he wanted to do it as well. Now, here we are in Marrakech, Morocco. Our flight out of Split was at 10 am. To get to the airport it was about an hour long bus ride. I guess the Split airport is very small because we got everything sorted and at our gate really fast. This is the first time ever I've had an entire row to myself on my flight, so I really enjoyed that. Our connecting flight was back in Gatwick, where we had a three hour layover. I totally forgot to check my bag and brought it through security. We were in the duty free area when I realized I fucked up. So I sat for three hours worried I was gonna get fined for asking them to put it under the plane at the gate. We had an extremely overpriced burrito and tried to chill out. When we got to our gate, I realized it was really simple, and they had no problem tagging it and putting it on for me. I gave it to a young guy who told me he'd do it for me, but he was super busy. I just left it on the ground beside him and prayed he actually remembered. We had about four hours from London to Marrakech. I distracted myself by grinding out 5 find penguins posts on the plane. When we landed, it was 7:00. We got off the plane and started walking to customs in the airport. There was a window looking down from the terminal to customs where we saw this huge crowd of people waiting in line. By the time we got down there, it was even more full. Neither of us knew this airport would be so busy. We waited in line for over an hour just to get through customs. The entire time in line I was just thinking ablut my bag. When we got to the booth, there were 4 questions taped to the window, the reason for traveling, the address of accommodation, the length of stay, and occupation. There was no wifi working, and neither of us had a Moroccon sim, so it was very high stress finding some of that information and proof of the information. When we finally got through security. They'd already taken my flight off the screen, so I had no idea which belt my bag was on. I ended up finding a couple of British dudes with the same problem, and we ended up finding the belt together. There, my bag was going in circles. I bought a sim card at the booth, and Pearse decided he would get an esim tomorrow and just use my Hotspot for the night. We got on the bus to the stop closest to pur hostel. The hostel was right outside the city Square, where a huge music festival was happening. I had no idea this was taking place, especially so close to the hostel. The crowds were insane. There were so many people everywhere. Immediately, I could see how different this place was to anything I've ever seen. Trying to maneuver through the busy streets with our backpacks on was sucked so much. There was barely enough room to walk, let alone people riding motorcycles through the crowds. Once we got off the busy street, we realized how confusing it was to get to the hostel. Not even google Maps could figure it out. We walked down dark, quiet streets for almost another hour. We finally got to the hostel at 930 at night. We checked in and went looking for our first taste of Moroccon food. We saw a restaurant outside the music festival and wanted to check the menu, so we started walking over, and a guy asked me if I wanted hash. I said no and asked the guy in front of the menu if I could take a look. He opened it for me, over my shoulder. The guy who tried selling me hash was asking if we wanted a drink at the restaurant. I was kind of shocked. This man, who's front of house at the restaurant, tried selling me drugs as his side hustle and a minute later was pointing me to the other side of the restaurant where we could drink. I mean, a brothers gotta do what he's gotta do. Pearse and I sat down and had some Tagine, which I found delicious. We enjoyed the music and the service at the restaurant it was a really good first experience in Africa for me. Soon after, we went to bed in the most uncomfortable bed known to man.Read more

  • TravelerEuro trip
    Day 40

    Brač island

    April 30 in Croatia ⋅ ☀️ 23 °C

    After having a good night with a bunch of other Canadians, we all made plans to go to Brač for the day and hang out on the famous Golden Horn Beach. It was about an hour long ferry over to the island, and we found cheap tickets. €12 round trip. Once Pearse and I got up, we went to a Café near the port and met up with the Edmontonian lady. She was suffering pretty badly from a hangover, so she ended up bailing on the island to go to the beach we had already spent two days at. It turns out everyone was suffering pretty bad because Pearse and I were the only ones to make it onto the ferry. We got to the island around 2:00. We needed to take a taxi 30 minutes to the other side of the island. The taxis were asking for €80 to get to the beach, so we found a group of people and asked if they'd split a ride there with us. It worked out pretty well. It was only €10 per person. When we got off, we asked for their number so we could arrange a time we all wanted to leave so we could do the same thing later. We went our separate ways for a little while. Pearse and I grabbed a beer and set up camp on the beach. The water was beautiful here. I don't know how it was clearer and more blue than the water at the last beach, but somehow it was. It was pretty hot out, so we went for a swim and dried off on the beach. I had a little nap on the beach again. I woke up absolutely starving, so we packed our things and went for dinner. I picked a restaurant off Google maps that was about a 25 minute walk from where we were. As Pearse and I were talking about how we were worried, the group wouldn't wait for us and taxi back without us. We realized they were walking right in front of us. We stopped them and asked them not to leave without us, to which they agreed again. We continued our walk down the beautiful coast line to get to our restaurant. As soon as we got to the restaurant, I had to pee so bad, so I ran to the bathroom, which was in its own building, separate from the restaurant and used the urinal. After I flushed, I realized all my pee and water was pouring all over the floor. The pipes were completely missing, and i didn't even realize. I felt so bad. It made me feel even worse when I left the bathroom and found out the only people working in this restaurant are an old married couple who have run this restaurant themselves for almost 60 years. The lady cooked, waited, cleaned, and did everything. She was so sweet. A family next to us asked for salt and pepper, and it totally offended her. She said she had already put some on, and the family insisted. When she brought it to them, she said only a little and watched them put it on lol. She later came over to us to explain she doesn't use any electricity to cook any of the food. Everything was done over a fire. This was definitely the most authentic meal we've had on this trip. I brought it back to my childhood and ordered an entire fish with some potatoes. I remember loving it in Mexico, and if I was going to eat a fish anywhere, I think this restaurant was the place to do it. This one held up as well. It was so good. The bones weirded me out a little more than when I was a kid, though. Im so happy we ended up at this restaurant, so far thos is my favorite dining experience of the trip!While we were eating, the group of people started messaging me and rushing us. They wanted to catch the next ferry out. We told them we were about to go to dinner, and 20 minutes later, they were telling us to hurry. Pearse and i didn't even have our food yet, so we weren't going to have time. We asked if they'd be fine with taking the next ferry, which was only an hour later. They said sure but continued to rush us through our dinner. I totally thought they were gonna leave us. They had enough where the taxi would still be affordable. For just Pearse and I, it would have been extortionate. We quickly finished up and met them at the taxi where we got our ride back to the port. Stuffed from dinner and drained from the sun, Pearse and I were pretty much ready for bed. We had a really early flight the next day. We're heading to Morocco!Read more

  • TravelerEuro trip
    11
    Day 39

    Krka waterfalls

    April 29 in Croatia ⋅ ☀️ 26 °C

    Last night, we signed up for a day trip to Krka National Park. I heard about this place in school a really long time ago and thought it looked beautiful. Now, years later, I'm going there. It's a really cool feeling, actually. On the drive out there, we drove past an old palace on the hillside in Split. Game of Thrones used this palace for one of the cities. Split has a GOT museum, but I don't need to go after going to the main one when I was in Ireland. The national park was about a two hour bus ride from where we were staying. For about the last half hour it was a beautiful drive with some really blue water beside us surrounded by trees. I couldn't wait to get out and abandon the rest of the geriatrics on the bus and go do our own thing. The entry fee to the park was €20 but I lied and said I was a student and showed my health benefits card from work, and they accepted it, I'll take that. As soon as we got off the bus and the tour guide explained the map to us, Pearse and I jumped ahead of everyone. As soon as we stepped foot on the boardwalk, I looked at the crystal clear water to see tens of fish swimming. We ended up googling it and found out there were a couple of types of trout in the park. We were 5 steps in, and I had already found a spot I could just sit and watch all day. Just around the corner from there, we could hear tons of frogs croaking, so we ended up looking for them. They were pretty easy to spot in the swampy areas because their cheeks would balloon up every time they croaked. I caught one for good measure. Pretty early on into the hike, we had our first lookout point of the falls. It was stunning. We didn't stay too long because there was a group of real geriatrics that we kept getting stuck behind. It must have been a seniors only type of tour. It was painful walking behind them. Once we got in front of them, though the hike through the trees was almost as relaxing to me as a beach day. I loved the birds and the frogs while watching the fish. You can constantly hear watter from one of the seven falls at almost any point. It was perfect for me. When we got to the bottom, we found a pretty good spot to post up and take some really good pictures. We found a beer and sat close enough to the falls to still hear them and just chilled out. The falls were stunning from the bottom. It was everything I hoped for and more. The tour also included a small town called Skradin. We did a wine tasting for an extra €10. The wine was okay, but the person hosting the event didn't really give any information on what we were drinking. He also just looked like he didn't give a fuck. From there, Pearse and I went to lunch, where we only had 45 minutes to eat and get on the bus. I had chicken stuffed with ham. It was pretty good, I think. I had to eat it so fast I might not have tasted it. We cut it close, but we made it with 2 minutes to spare. We're pretty good at doing that. On the way back, both of us got a bit of rest on the bus. We had a pretty chill night planned, we were going to chill and split that 2l bottle between us and call it a night. Until we heard someone inside say they were canadian. We went inside to investigate, and sure enough, three other Canadians were chatting. One was from Edmonton, and the others were from sask. I'm pretty sure one of the sask boys lived in Shorewood Park before he moved to Vancouver. Once we started chatting and talking about the coincidences, we decided to pull out a deck of cards and play the drinking game sociables. Pearse and I quickly grabbed a mini keg of hieneken and came back. I've never played a game of sociables and been okay after. Tonight would not be any different. Pearse and I finished all 7 liters of beer we had by 10 pm. The hostel closed the common area at 10, so we decided to go out to the bars. At the first bar, the doctor bought everyone a jager bomb, which would be the end of me. I was hiccuping and sweating. I knew I didn't need or want anything other than my bed. I ended up walking back to the hostel way before everyone and went to bed. Sociables is my biggest enemy. 10/10 will play it againRead more

  • TravelerEuro trip
    Day 38

    Split

    April 28 in Croatia ⋅ ☀️ 21 °C

    We were pretty slow moving after staying up all night. We got out of the hostel at 1230 and went straight to lunch. We walked up away from the touristy area and into the city where we could see what normal life is like in Split. It seemed overwhelmingly normal. It was still beautiful, but there wasn't a whole lot to it. We went to a burger restaurant called Plan B Pub. The food was pretty good, I got a gorgenzola burger and finished what Pearse couldn't of his BBQ burger. They sat us on the "patio," which was wrapped with a tarp. It was sitting right in the sun, so the inside was like a sauna. They were trying to slow cook us, I swear. Afterward, we went to a grocery store and bought two of those 2 liter bottles of beer we saw earlier, as well as a cooler bag. Even though it was so cheap, we had faith it'd keep our beers at least cool. Neither of us was up for a two hour walk to the same beach we chilled at yesterday, so we took a taxi over there. We met up with a lady we met from the pub crawl last night and just chilled out with her on the beach. We went for a swim and napped on the beach almost all day. The weather was too good. We decided to stay for the sunset, which was a really good call because the sunset was nice but we ended up seeing a dolphin swimming right in front of us. The scene looked like one of those puzzles I used to do back in the day with the sun setting and the dolphins jumping out of the water. The dolphin was my favorite part of the day forsure. We went back with 2 liters of very warm beer and stopped to get a kebab. It was good but I'm missing donairs from home. We made plans for the Krka waterfalls for tomorrow, so we went to bed really early. I don't want to be tired for something I've really wanted to do for a long time. Other than the dolphin, today was very uneventful but relaxing. We definitely need a few beach days in our system.Read more

  • TravelerEuro trip
    1111112
    Day 37

    Split

    April 27 in Croatia ⋅ ☀️ 19 °C

    When I showed Pearse pictures of the hike, he wanted to do it as well. I agreed and thought it would be a nicer day to do it then yesterday. We had a bit of a late start, so we popped into a burrito place for lunch. It was really cheap and really good. We agreed we'd go buy some sunscreen, check out a beach, and go do the hike. We really should have reversed the order of the last two. We did great by getting sunscreen and a bottle of beer first. We just got the half liter, not the absolutely insane 2l bottle. We will put that in our back pocket for another time. When we were walking to the beach, we found a bit of a cliff that was climbable. Some people know us as mountain goats, actually. We took a few awesome pictures and decided to just "look at the beach." What a joke the second we saw the water we were sold. No hike for us. I love the picture of us lying down with the beers because we just got to the beach, and we were just laughing. We weren't even saying anything or joking around it was just staright happiness. The only shitty part was neither of us had a towel, so we were lying on these really chalky pebbles that turned our shit white. It was worth it, beautiful water, women, and mountains lol. We went for a little swim, and when i came back out, I was freezing. The water was a little cold for sure. I laid on the beach to dry off and shut my eyes. After a few minutes of being too comfortable, I sat up and said to pearse "shit I almost fell asleep." He just looked at me with confusion and said, "What do you mean? You were out." I guess I was too comfy and didn't even know. We stayed there almost all day but skipped the sunset. We were starving at this point, so we started the hour long walk back to split for dinner. We went to a bistro right across the street from our hostel that we get 10% off at because they have a deal with the hostel. We both got this delicious authentic Dalmatian meal. It was braised beef in a sweet wine sauce with potatoes. I couldn't ask for a better meal than beef and potatoes. While eating, I noticed a lizard run across the restaurant wall. The lizards in Capri might have been too fast for me, but these little guys weren't. I snagged one after we had dessert. I was not expecting to actually get him because he was hiding in a tree that was growing out of the wall of the restaurant. I was so excited after I caught him that my entire body was shaking. It made my day. Seconds after that, we looked at the time and realized we were about to miss the start of the pub crawl we wanted to do. It only ran on Friday and Saturday, so this was our last chance to do one in Split. We ran into the hostel and asked if we could still make it, and the lady said they would leave the first bar at 930. We both had 2 minute showers got dressed, and ran to the bar. We made it at 927, enough time for our welcome shot, a very heavy free poured cocktail, and we stole two more of the free welcome shots lol. We pretty much coasted off that for the rest of the night until the club. It was a pretty typical pub crawl 3 bars and free entry to a nightclub. Somewhere along the way, I got the Netherlands flag painted on my face for Kings Day. I don't think there's a picture of it anywhere, but it made the fit way better. Anyways, Pearse and I pulled the most greasy move in the club. The club was way too full, so we were looking for a tiny bit of space to stand and dance with our new friend. This is when we saw a standing table with nobody there. We sussed it out and made it ours for 5 minutes. On this table, there were 6 untouched beers and two full bottles of Jameson on ice. We exchanged a look and grabbed a beer each, poured a shot of Jameson into each other's mouths before pouring a double shot into each of our glasses. Pretty soon after the free shots of Jameson two guys saw us loitering around the table and said what the fuck man. Like the little rats we are, we squeezed through the crowd and disappeared still with their beers in hand. I didn't think I was proud of this, but as I'm writing it on the plane, I'm chuckling to myself. It's stupid but a really funny memory. We walked back to the hostel at 4 am. We probably could have been a little quieter in the room. Like not playing tiktoks without headphones, Pearse. He was asked at 430 to please turn his videos off lol. Our first full day in Croatia was an absolute success.Read more

  • TravelerEuro trip
    112111
    Day 36

    Budapest to Split

    April 26 in Croatia ⋅ ☁️ 16 °C

    It was a looooongggg night. I have no sleep from yesterday, and I got no sleep on the bus today. My first bus was about 5 hours from Budapest to Zagreb Croatia. I had a 15-minute layover at 6 am. I had to find my platform while trying to add more data to my esim. I must have looked like a zombie walking around, but that's okay because I completed both tasks successfully. I was on the website buying more data on 1 bar of the free wifi, so I didn't want to move, and the bus drivers were definitely yelling at me to get on the bus. I delayed the bus by two minutes, but I think everyone survived. I wasn't going another 5 hours with no reception at all. The second bus was better than the first one because I had nobody sitting next to me or on the other side of the aisle. So I laid down and took up all four seats lol. I still didn't manage any sleep, but at least I was somewhat comfy. We finally got to split at almost 1100, so I had some time to kill before I checked into my hostel. I haven't booked yet lol. Everything is always better last minute. So I went to a cafe and ordered a coffee and a beer while I searched for hostels. I'm meeting back up with Pearse today, but his flight is arriving at almost 9 pm. When he had some time, he gave me a call, and we agreed on a hostel. It was still a little too early to check in, so I walked down the beach with my backpacks on and just explored the area a little. It was warm and sunny out so it was really nice because we haven't had good weather since Venice so it's been a little while. I rocked up to the hostel and checked in. It's a really small hostel with only 4 rooms and a kitchen but it seemed really nice. The lady at the front desk gave me lots of recommendations for everything to do it split. She told me about a hike so I decided to do it because it was nice out the hike seemed fun. Sleep is the cousin of death, I don't need it. As soon as I entered the park it started pouring rain on me. I still can't escape the rain. Rains never hurt anybody, though, so I decided to do it. It was absolutely worth it. I didn't count, but after I finished, the lady at the desk told me there were 814 stairs on the trail. A decent amount. At the top, there is a huge cross looking over the city as well as a huge Croatian flag. I read a fact at the top that they removed the cross during WWII because they didn't want the sight to be a point of interest in the war and get bombed. Of course, I had to stop and look at some of the little critters. I tried taking a cool video of this little miliepede I saw, but I accidentally flipped the camera to my lega, so dont mind me lol. The top is the highest point of the city, so I got a full 360 view of the city. The city is surrounded by mountains on one side and the ocean on the other. The view would have been nicer if it was still sunny out, but I was still happy I did it. On the way down, I took a different route to avoid all the stairs the way I went. It took me to the smallest church I've seen. It was built in 1250. It was pretty random, but it made a nice picture. Shortly after that, I ran into a bar with a really nice view over the city. The rain went away just in time as well. I was so wet and cold, though I ordered a drink and sat outside shaking. I asked a guy to take my picture. I'm thankful he did, but he was standing on a ledge, so my hat looks a little goofy over my face. When I left and got lower into the city and more into the sunlight, I started to warm up a lot, so I just kept walking and looking around. I found a restaurant to sit and chill at. I ordered chicken with gorgenzola sauce, and it was so good. While I was sitting, I spoke to dad on the phone for a little while and had a nice conversation with him. When Pearse landed, I grabbed us a 6 pack and went back to the hostel where we met up. We ended up just sitting on the balcony telling each other about what we did for the last few days. There was a thunderstorm way off in the distance, I guess it moved pretty quickly because it started hailing on us lol. We took that as a sign to go to bed and have a sort of early night.Read more

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