Eeek...Summer is coming to an end

Eeeek...I have just realised how far behind I have fallen in my blogging over the past two weeks.  The old saying ‘you have no one to blame but yourself’ comes to mind, but I am going palm this one off to the crazy amount of travelling we have been doing since leaving Turkey.  To arrive at our final summer destination of Croatia we have passed through many different countries, some admittedly only for a few hours but I will venture back to Bulgaria and catch you up.

Turns out that Bulgaria is a hidden beauty that Aussies don’t even consider when making their travel plans.  I am here to tell you people that you should be making this top of your destination list.  First impressions did not fail as we took the opportunity to check out the costal town of Nessebar, which evidently turns out to be a world heritage city.  Before continuing I have to give special mention to one of the most interesting breakfast buffets we have had on our travels, never before have I see golf balls/rum balls/truffles (whatever you like to call them) served up at breakfast, a nice chocolate hit in the morning never hurt anyone right.... !?
They were delicious by the way mixed in with yoghurt, which turned out to be very sour and not at all the yoghurt I was looking forward to.  We then headed off into the old town and discovered some amazing sights and ancient ruins scattered through what is clearly a large travel destination for everyone else in the world with many souvenir shops lining the street.  As we were only planning on being in Bulgaria for a few day I took every opportunity I could to have a traditional Bulgarian dish and for dinner I choose a chicken sach.  Not really knowing what to expect, a massive frying pan like dish is served to me with sizzling meat and a few mushrooms, zucchini and carrot bits here and there with melted cheese on top.  The best way I can describe this was almost like a massive pizza without the tomato paste and base.  At first it was really delicious and had a chicken stock combined with white sauce like flavour but after a few mouthfuls it tasted more like I was eating a plate of salt!  I definitely loved the concept but if I was to give this a try I would be altering the flavours to be a little more balanced.

 

The following day is where our real adventure began on our journey to Split, Croatia. We first started with an 8hour bus ride from one side of Bulgaria to the other.  We arrived late in the evening at the Bulgarian capital of Sofia where we stayed one night.  The next train to Belgrade in Serbia was not until 8pm the following night so we decided to wander around the streets a little and have a shop, where I discovered the biggest waffle cones I have ever seen.  This of course meant that I could treat myself to a delicious and healthy goats cheese salad for lunch.  For a town that is a major capital city it amazes me that you do not see the hustle and bustle and the streets seem so quiet as the locals are all off at work.  A very peaceful town that I would recommend visiting if you had the chance.  We then took the opportunity to have another healthy meal where I opted for an avocado and shrimp salad.  It was really tasty and was great to have something so fresh, oh how i miss avocado.  Doom time arrived as we headed to the train station for our first overnight train.  I was nervous to begin with but gosh sharing a cabin with 5 other people in an area that is not even big enough to turn a full circle in sure was an experience.  We at least managed a little sleep before arriving at Belgrade at 7am.  Our next connecting train was at 10:30am to Zagreb, Croatia so I can’t say I saw or did anything in Serbia but none the less it is a stamp on my passport.  The next train was thankfully a little more ‘upper class’ than the previous and we passed the next 8 or so hours playing cards and chatting to some people we had shared the overnight cabin with.  Arriving at Zagreb, Croatia around 7pm we were so exhausted we were contemplating staying the night but as the next train to Split left at 11:30pm we decided to suck it up and get it over and done with.  Finally we reached our destination of Split around 8am two days later.  It was heaven to have a shower and for the people that travel like this all the time, you are crazy! 

 

As you can imagine we were rather exhausted so we spent very little of the day out and about but we did venture out on the town to grab some dinner.  I have discovered that Croatia is similar to Australia in the fact that it is influenced by many other cultures, especially Italian and Eastern Europe and does not have a ‘traditional’ cuisine as such, at least not one that I can find.  Being by the sea however you would expect that they have great seafood, so I opted for salmon which was cooked quite well.  I was very surprised to find that it was served with gnocchi but it was a welcome to change to other versions of potatoes that all meals are served with and the creamy sauce complimented the dish well.
Time to get some rest as my travel buddy had decided to go canyoning the next day.  Not my cup of tea so I spent the day exploring the old town.  It has an amazing history as the old town is built inside the old castle walls and like many European countries has some really interesting buildings.  I did the sophisticated grown up thing and had a lovely sit down lunch on my own and ordered an octopus salad.  It slipped my mind that I had made the same mistake in Italy expecting to be served a calamari salad when I was instead served a cold chopped up dish with small octopus, potato, spring onions and a few herbs here and there.  Even though not at all what I was expecting it was still a fresh salad, however lacked some flavour.  I think I ended up adding vinegar, oil and lemon to try and bring it to life!  After spending more of the afternoon shopping and then relaxing under the air conditioner we decided to check out the night life in Split before departing for the island of Hvar the following day.  Before our departure we had to grab some lunch and gosh you have no idea how I excited I am to report that I discovered ‘breaded chicken’ on a menu and when I got a chicken schnitzel served up that was not out of a steggles box I was so happy! The things that make your day when travelling hey...having a shower, eating chicken schnitzels haha.

 

Unfortunately our limited time in Croatia meant we could only visit one island but we decided to give it a fair crack and stayed for 4 nights in Hvar.  As seems to be our theme for arriving at places we did very little with our first afternoon expect go out for dinner.   I have had a bizarre carb craving over the past few days and couldn’t go past the vegetable risotto.  It was so delicious to get some cauliflower, broccoli and carrot even though the vegies were from a frozen packet (at least I assume they were).  The rice was a little undercooked but the longer it cooled the nicer it became and the flavour could have done with a little more tomato as it had a very prominent chicken stock taste (this was definitely no seafood risotto from Mykonos, oh how I wish I could go back just to eat that again!)
Day two and we decided to do a little exploring of the town.  The views were amazing and the similarities to Greece were unbelievable at times, the main difference being the buildings are not white and blue, but grey and red.  We decided it was time to soak in some sun and hit the beach.  It was a bit of a laugh when we discovered that there is no beach as such and that you just go in the sea wherever you please.  There are people sunbaking on rocks and cement jetty’s and not a speck of sand or even pebbles in sight but we made the most of it and spent some time being a lizard on a rock soaking up some rays before again heading out for dinner and a wander around to check out the night life.  I opted for Mexican, or at least that is what the menu claimed!  I had a chicken flauta which was served in a wrap with melted cheese on top.  I was expecting some spice but was similar to a chicken pie filling with avocado, corn and white cheese sauce wrapped in fresh tortillas.  It was actually very nice and was served with a mild chilli sauce and mayonnaise as condiments.

 

After what turned out to be a boringly tame night we were all revved up for our big adventure on the island, SAILING.  Yep we decided that we cannot go to Croatia without going sailing so we organised an afternoon on a yacht, unfortunately we could not afford to go on some of the private yachts that easily have 3 levels and are bigger than I ever imagined, but out to sea we headed.  It was one of the most relaxing afternoons where we were served wine in between sun baking and swimming behind the boat and we also docked to go snorkelling.  After having snorkelled in Fiji I have seen some really cool marine life so while we saw hundreds, if not thousands of fish, there was a lot of rubbish such as tyres and chairs and not a great deal of coral or spectacular colours to see.
An amazing afternoon was finished off with a visit to Hula beach bar and another fix to my carb cravings, this time pizza.  It was a meat lovers pizza and was cooked in a wood fire oven.  It was really nice, but I perhaps would have removed the corn in future, an odd addition to a pizza in my opinion.

 

This has almost brought us to now, where I sit at the kitchen table of our apartment in Dubrovnik while my travel buddy is cooking dinner, lucky me.  Unfortunately, but not at all surprisingly, we did not research the days that the ferries went from Hvar to Dubrovnik so we spent most of yesterday travelling yet again where we caught the ferry back to Split and then a bus down to Dubrovnik arriving late in the evening.  We headed out for dinner where I again managed to satisfy that carb craving but this time with lasagne.  It was probably one of the best ones I have had and apart from the steaming heat that the bowl was producing it was very satisfying.  I was also on the hunt for some chocolate cake to celebrate my Dad’s birthday but sadly did not succeed, fingers crossed that we find some tonight and I can have a belated celebration.

But for now I will sign off and enjoy our first home cooked meal in well over a month and the next time you hear from me will more than likely be a sad occasion as I fill you in on our last two summer destinations of Dubrovnik and Zagreb xxx