vass

Its been a while, but that is cos ive been quite busy. The ex-Yugoslavian countries are amazing. I had been to croatia before so I only visited dubrovnik which I hadnt seen and was dissapointed with the amount of yahoo tourists it has, but it certainly is a beautiful town. Belgrade doesnt have much to offer but that is where the dissapointment ends.

Sarajevo is a dream. I fell in love with that place about 45 seconds after stepping out of the bus at 0600. The atmosphere of the town is just breathtaking and the "Bosnian architecture courtesy of the Serbian army" as the locals call it (pretty much buildings with the crap brlasted out of them) just breaks your heart but certainly adds loads of character. Plus theres nothing better than an open air "turbofolk" concert while a mere 50 meters away the local Imam is blasting away at the evening prayer. The multicoultaralism of that town amazed me. Unlike belgrade, the people are suprisingly friendly and open and have a very positive attitude, even though the place is still in ruins. Mostar which I passed by is pretty much a mixture of dubrovnik and sarajevo at a very small scale (picturesque old town, new town blasted to hell).

I went to montenegro planning on only staying there for 1 night and then head towards italy. I loved it so much I stayed for 3. Kotor (europs southernmost fjord, and a beauty in itself) is absolutely gorgeous and I fell in love with the simplicity of the place. A tiny village with a population no more than 2000 people, and absolutely nothing to do, and no foreign tourists. I loved it. The truth is that after 50 days of jumping around europe I am pretty exhausted, and so kotor was very welcome.

After finaly leaving kotor (with a heavy heart) I toured southen italy for a day pretty much jumping on and off trains for 20 hours roughly heading towards sicily, which I eventualy ended up in. Syracuse is beautiful, Catania is a city and taormina is invaded by tourists (not as bad as dubrovnik though). I didnt spend much time in sicily though as I want to spend my last few days in rome, where I am now, taking it easy.

So Im off to for home in just a couple of days. My trip is almost over. Because of kotor im gonna miss out on Florence which was one of my objectiuves, but to be honest I dont really catre right now. All i want is a foot massage, and some decent sleep (havnt had one of those since early june).