It’s Easter Sunday and we’re starting to cross the T’s and dot the I’s on our next adventure. One of those jobs is to get this blog up and going. This time we’re starting in Budapest, Hungary and making our way south from there through the Balkan states, back up to Vienna and Salzburg, across to Strasbourg and then to Manchester via London.
Manchester is our final destination as that’s where Emily now resides, having set off on her own adventure to fulfil a life-long dream to live and work in the UK. She left a week ago with a three-year working visa in hand. It was very hard to see her go knowing the we’ll not be able to give her a kiss and a hug on many occasions in the next couple of years. But nevertheless, through the power of the internet, we’ve been in constant contact since she left. Hardly different to how it’s been since she returned to Melbourne 13 years ago, except for the 20,000kms physical barrier now in play.
We chose to start this adventure in Budapest and then travel through Serbia, Bosnia & Herzegovina, Montenegro and Croatia for a few reasons. Emily travelled through there after she finished her studies in Paris and really liked it, many people we’ve met who have been there speak in glowing terms about the region and it’s a part of the world from which we in the West have been somewhat excluded in the latter part of the 20th Century. I’m expecting a similar feel in Budapest to that which we experienced in Berlin and Prague in 2017 – each of those famous cities having once been on the other side of the Iron Curtain. We were scheduled to visit the Balkans on our very first European trip in 1987 but the political unrest in the region that culminated in the break-up of Yugoslavia in the 1990s was starting to emerge so we were kept away by the tour company. It’ll be fascinating to see and learn first-hand something about those terrible times and to see how the six countries have recovered and moved forward. Of course, the assassination of Prince Franz Ferdinand in Sarajevo, Bosnia & Herzegovina in 1914 which was the spark that started WWI will be interesting too.
After almost a week in Budapest by ourselves we’ll once again tour with Intrepid Travel through the Balkan states finishing in Split, Croatia three weeks later. Eric, one of our travelling companions in northern India, did the same tour in April 2022 and really enjoyed it. From Split we’ll get a car for a week and travel around Croatia, based out of the sea-side village of Rovinj. A train from Zagreb will take us to Slovenia for the best part of a week and then we’ll head north to Vienna and Salzburg. Thereafter, we’ll train it to Strasbourg and tour the Vosges mountains for a couple of days before heading to London via Brussels. We’ll have just a couple of days in London and then meet up with Emily in Manchester.
All up we’ll be travelling for about eight weeks. There’s lots of train travel involved, which we love with a lot of it being done on a 7-day Eurail Pass. As is our preferred way, we’ve organised all the accommodation and transport ourselves (half the fun of a trip like this is the planning) save for the flights and the Intrepid Travel tour which was taken care of by Leanne at Travelworld Bendigo. It’s really worthwhile “outsourcing” some part of the trip organisation to a local travel company to have a “local back home” working for us should we need some assistance along the way. Leanne’s help with our check-in luggage challenges on our Indian Adventure and with our lost luggage challenge in Berlin in 2017 is something for which we will be eternally grateful.
Our friend Jim Higginson will be “camping” in Maiden Gully for the duration, looking after the place and Percy. We’re very lucky to have met such a fine chap!
Our adventure starts on April 13th when we catch the Number 54 bus from the Pioneer Dve bus stop to Budapest via Melbourne, flying out on April 14th.
Manchester is our final destination as that’s where Emily now resides, having set off on her own adventure to fulfil a life-long dream to live and work in the UK. She left a week ago with a three-year working visa in hand. It was very hard to see her go knowing the we’ll not be able to give her a kiss and a hug on many occasions in the next couple of years. But nevertheless, through the power of the internet, we’ve been in constant contact since she left. Hardly different to how it’s been since she returned to Melbourne 13 years ago, except for the 20,000kms physical barrier now in play.
We chose to start this adventure in Budapest and then travel through Serbia, Bosnia & Herzegovina, Montenegro and Croatia for a few reasons. Emily travelled through there after she finished her studies in Paris and really liked it, many people we’ve met who have been there speak in glowing terms about the region and it’s a part of the world from which we in the West have been somewhat excluded in the latter part of the 20th Century. I’m expecting a similar feel in Budapest to that which we experienced in Berlin and Prague in 2017 – each of those famous cities having once been on the other side of the Iron Curtain. We were scheduled to visit the Balkans on our very first European trip in 1987 but the political unrest in the region that culminated in the break-up of Yugoslavia in the 1990s was starting to emerge so we were kept away by the tour company. It’ll be fascinating to see and learn first-hand something about those terrible times and to see how the six countries have recovered and moved forward. Of course, the assassination of Prince Franz Ferdinand in Sarajevo, Bosnia & Herzegovina in 1914 which was the spark that started WWI will be interesting too.
After almost a week in Budapest by ourselves we’ll once again tour with Intrepid Travel through the Balkan states finishing in Split, Croatia three weeks later. Eric, one of our travelling companions in northern India, did the same tour in April 2022 and really enjoyed it. From Split we’ll get a car for a week and travel around Croatia, based out of the sea-side village of Rovinj. A train from Zagreb will take us to Slovenia for the best part of a week and then we’ll head north to Vienna and Salzburg. Thereafter, we’ll train it to Strasbourg and tour the Vosges mountains for a couple of days before heading to London via Brussels. We’ll have just a couple of days in London and then meet up with Emily in Manchester.
All up we’ll be travelling for about eight weeks. There’s lots of train travel involved, which we love with a lot of it being done on a 7-day Eurail Pass. As is our preferred way, we’ve organised all the accommodation and transport ourselves (half the fun of a trip like this is the planning) save for the flights and the Intrepid Travel tour which was taken care of by Leanne at Travelworld Bendigo. It’s really worthwhile “outsourcing” some part of the trip organisation to a local travel company to have a “local back home” working for us should we need some assistance along the way. Leanne’s help with our check-in luggage challenges on our Indian Adventure and with our lost luggage challenge in Berlin in 2017 is something for which we will be eternally grateful.
Our friend Jim Higginson will be “camping” in Maiden Gully for the duration, looking after the place and Percy. We’re very lucky to have met such a fine chap!
Our adventure starts on April 13th when we catch the Number 54 bus from the Pioneer Dve bus stop to Budapest via Melbourne, flying out on April 14th.
