Jiakomo Thief this is mission complete...

Hi Christian and Rhys,
My final picture comes to you from Split, Croatia. Similar to a mini Venice, nothing can be more Croatian than enjoying a cocktail by the waterfront.
I hope you guys have enjoyed they journey... I'm off to plaster your sticker on the world cup big screen as soon as I finish this cocktail, I'm positive lots of people will notice it there!
Amanda :)

Countries completed:
Spain
Romania
Bulgaria
Turkey
Hungary
Serbia (Switzerland - I think it counts too!)
Bosnia
Croatia

Pictures :)

Sail your worries away....?

I've hit the ocean in the last two days and its been just beautiful. The Croatian coastline is very serene and some of the boats have been just incredible.
I got off to a shaky start almost missing the boat, but since then I've been on it almost first out of everyone! Funny that!?!?!
We have three couples (two from Albury and one from Sydney... They are all friends and booked together) and Jo from Brisbane who is 6mths in to her crazy around the world tri. Jo and I are sharing the smallest room ever, but its ok as we only have to sleep in there... Our bags have to stand upright in front of the door as you enter as its the only space we have... But we have a cupboard! (well a shelf each!)
The boat has three toilets, none of which you really want to use if you don't have to, and two showers. The outside shower off the back of the boat (it means showering in swimmers) and one inside (which I tend to use... But it puddles with everyone's shower water so you don't always feel clean eek!).
Oh well the joys of sailing... Its not always glamorous folks.
(neither is the 43yr old skipper constantly trying to hit on you.. But that's a much longer story 😌).
Anyhoo... 5 days to go and then its time to start the journey home.
In the meantime... We have been to some very cute little islands and the lovely passengers on the boat have been ocean swimming. I even had a bit of a dip today in the Mijet national park which was nice (yes Lara I went swimming :p)..
Enjoy the photos...
Until next time
A
Ps. This sailing thing has a funny little system... All the small islands let you charge your devices at their restaurants which is great. You also buy lots of coffee so you can use cafe toilets (it means not using the ones on the boat!) lol. Tonight our marina in Korcula has free marina showers and toilets... Hello hair washing! (its really about the little things!).

Dubrovnik..

Just an absolutely stunning place. I haven't seen much of it, but what I have seen has been amazing. Enjoy photos of the town from the city walls, and from the fort high up on the hill.
Today is the start of my 44ft sailing trip. Its three couples, myself and my soon to be roommate Joanne from Australia. Its going to be a very go slow experience, which I'm looking forward to after almost 8 weeks away.
I'll have no internet I'm guessing! And there is also a possibility that I'll just have trouble charging my phone.
So if you don't hear from me for a week ... Just think of me soaking up the sun in Croatia on a sailing boat.. Lol
Love to all,
Amanda

Another day, another bruise...

1350 steps to the top of the fort in Kotor... Of course the clumsy me rolled my ankle on the way down and managed a nice ankle bruise and a slightly scraped knee (just adding to the collection of leg bruises!)... Almost fixed it with a bag of frozen chips (surprisingly they are cheaper in Kotor than frozen peas of frozen veggie mix... Lol I bet you were dying to find that out!).
Enjoy the view... I worked hard for it.
A x
Tomorrow last day of tour.. Dubrovnik! :)

A monastery and the bay in Kotor...

Not much longer and my 9th intrepid trip is almost over. Yesterday we left the cabins early to head to a beautiful orthodox monastery high in the Montenegrin mountains. It was built into the rock face and just had this eerily peaceful feeling. Its highly visited by Serbian people and Russians so we were happy to arrive early and beat the rush. I don't have photos of the actual chapel/church as you couldn't take photos.. But the have been working on the sleeping area and this is what you will see.
After that we again made our way along windy mountain roads to get to the bay of Kotoa. Its just beautiful and a must see in Montenegro. We took a boat tour to visit a man-made island church... Just stunning. And the food... Just amazing... Sorry I tucked in before remembering to get a photo of my delicious grilled baby squid.
We its another day in Kotor, and another fortress to climb and see... Tomorrow Dubrovnik and our last full day on tour before departure day... Then its on to sailing!
Thanks for reading...
A x

Montenegro...

Cabin huts by an open stream sound lovely right?!? Mmm, add wooden beams and rafters, a couple of snorers, a dirty shower and non-white sheets and then its just not so cool!
One night and I've bearly survived... It's 4:30am and i cant sleep, there's no curtains anywhere anyway... We have 6:30 breakfast and leave at 7am so... We've decided no showers this morning... Half of us will smell interesting! We stop at a monestary on the way to Kotor... Then its showers and the beach! Well deserved I think!
A x
Ps... Of course no internet here so this will upload when we get to Kotor.... 

Mostar...

Our trip in Bosnia is almost over... Just a brewery dinner visit tonight and then tomorrow is a new country and a new currency... I'm almost home folks.
Mostar, great city separated by a beautiful stream or river... Wasn't listening, sorry.
Its got a great old bridge and was of course heavily bombed by this time the Croatians. Yep, everyone wants what everyone else has. The fighting in the past, in this region, was just atrocious. This time the Croatians wanted to take the city, as a result it was heavily bombed and fired at, leaving nearly every beige damaged. The famous Mostar bridge, where idiots (no other way to describe it) will jump the 20m into the water is a reconstruction of the old one which was destroyed.
The amusing sign is from the mosque which you could visit... Thought you might all enjoy it.
A x

Was MIA, but now I'm back...

Its been a busy few days and so I've been a bit slack. Here is where I've been lately...
To Sarajevo... Great, and hilarious guide Muhammad, showed us around the city. Most has been rebuilt since the war, but some bombed out buildings still remain. The Sarajevo roses.. Are the red wax they use to fill the holes where bomb blasts destroyed streets and often left many injured or worse. Its also a place for new and old architecture, so you can see a real contrast in buildings that were rebuilt, and those newly designed....
Yesterday was Mostar, but I'll show you in a separate post so photos are mixed up :)
A x

The Sarajevo war tunnel...

This is a story of hope and sadness, but an important one nonetheless for the Bosnian and Herzegovinian people. This tunnel was created under a family home and stretched 800m underneath the UN occupied airport to Bosnian occupied territory. It was, for almost 3 years, the only way the city (which was held hostage by the Serbian forces from 1992-1995) could be supplied with, fresh fruit and veggies, minimal electricity, ammunition and weapons and transfer heavily wounded people out to hospitals with better supplies. It was often filled with water, sometimes chest high, while transferring electricity and food, meaning that when bent over (its also quite low) there was just one inch of breathing room for people walking through. Traffic flowed in just one direction it was so narrow, and a one way trip of 800m would take between 45 & 75min.
It helped people make up to 4000 trips per day to collect supplies and over the war period was used 1.5 million times.. Its truly a remarkable story and one worth sharing with people around the world.
Hopefully, from your Facebook page Christian and Rhys, more people will learn about the amazing spirit and love that the Sarajevo people showed in times of complete destruction and terror.
A 
Sorry its a little depressing... Do visit Sarajevo though if you have a chance... The people are just incredible, and have great senses of humor!

I deserve extra points for this one!

This is your sticker at an underground ska music concert (yes I had to google it!) at a technical college in Belgrade, Serbia. Thank you, thank you very much lol
(sorry its not great quality... Wasn't taken on my phone... On the plus side this picture is also going to Switzerland... Is that an extra country?)
:)
A

Another day, another fortress...

Welcome to Serbia people, the land of fortresses... With all these wars, I guess you can't blame them.
Actually the Serbian people have turned out to be very nice and friendly. Our crazy, but lovely guide Boyana had a wonderful sense of humor about the Serbian lifestyle. With almost 29% unemployment, their favorite pastimes include people watching, drinking coffee and smoking... All day! There is approximately 12000 cafes in Belgrade and close to 1200 nightclubs she says... So there is lots of shouting of drinks, rating out late and borrowing money from one friend to pay another when you have one yourself.
We saw some really great sites with her, including a fortress.. She is standing the fortress map photo, and then had a wonderful dinner. For all those missing the food photos here are two, last nights (bread bowl filled with slow cooked pork, mushrooms, onions and bacon) and todays lunch on the Danube (seafood risotto).
Tomorrow we travel to Sarajevo. Its turned into a private transfer at 8am, instead of the public bus at 5:30am... This is incase there are flood waters, the private driver will figure out ways around it. Sarajevo is in Bosnia, so its new currency (I think I'm up to 6-7 for this trip now) and back to Muslim customs. Should've interesting as my last group did this trip and mentioned a dragon lady accommodation owner... See how we go!
Love to all back home.. Just two weeks to go I think (the dates and days blur when you're away this long lol),
A x

Croatia to Serbia

We crossed another border today, so another stamp in my passport. Those poor EU travelers who get no stamps, our Swiss traveler gets disappointed all the time. Except today of course. Serbia isn't part of the EU but they are trying hard.
Today was a fairly depressing day site wise. Not a lot of pictures, sort. While still in croatia we went to a hospital that was heavily bombed during the homeland war. It was so heartbreaking to see the video the poor doctors and nurses trying to squeeze over 200 patients in the basement while the building was being shelled. The hospital's symbol is the bullet/bombed red cross. After that we went to a site were 261 people were bused by the Serbian army to be tortured and killed. All very depressing, and yet they really want to talk about it as Serbians pretend it didn't happen.
After that it was mostly upbeat! Wine tasting (at a 500+ year old winery almost destroyed by Serbian military) and then into Serbia.
In Serbia (Novi Sad) we had an orientation walk and then more wine tasting and honey tasting. Apparently the two go together! The father keeps the bees, the son runs a vineyard. After that it was definitely time to fill our bellies with substantial food.
Off to Belgrade tomorrow after a walk around the local fortress.... Seems there are a lot of tourist attraction fortresses in this part of the world... Maybe we need one in Griffith?
A :)

Stud farms, nature parks and eco farms...

Awesome day today. Igor our guide for the day took us to all of the above. First off we were at the stud farm. The horses are 'Lipizannas'. A breed that is apparently great for pulling royal carriages and for generally looking pretty. They go for €2,000-50,000 and there are about 7,000 in the world. 180 of them were at the stud farm today and apparently they only breed on mare to every 25 male horses. Crazy... And just so we're all clear no horse butt jokes please people!
Next was a massive beautiful catholic church, I'll spare the photos. Followed by a beautiful nature reserve. The nature reserve includes Tito's summer castle/palace/house. Tito was leader of one of the largest partisan movements in WWII and united Yugoslavia. Croatians loved him and basically believe that after he died everything went downhill. The place is a bit run down but still it looked like it was pretty :) 
After that we went to Croatia's first eco house and farm. It basically means organic, with the house being built from entirely natural products, except the glass I'm guessing. Lunch came completely from their garden and farm, of course organic and completely delicious. Wooden furniture handmade by owner. The house is held together with wooden rods, not nails. The roof is straw from the nature reserve etc. The wife refused not to have electricity, and who can blame her! I loved the furniture, which was sealed with special natural lacquer from Austria, so I took lots of pictures.... Dad, fancy a retirement project?!?
Tomorrow we cross to Novi Sad in Serbia.
A x