Du, Dubrov, Dubrovnik!

It was sunny and the water was is most beautiful thing I have ever seen!




We spent the first day checking out the old town (stari grad). At this point in the trip I have seen my fair share of "old towns" and this one was by far the best. What makes this one so interesting is that this town is still used today the same way it was hundreds of years ago. A huge chunk of Dubrovnik's population live and work in the intricately restored old town.



The next day, we took a boat to Lokrum island just off the coast of old town. Lokrum had the best swimming spots in Crotia hands down. The island also has a small salt water lagoon that reminded me of Swiss family Robinson. It was the best day in Croatia :)


- Jesse Mah (gives Croatia 2 thumbs up!)

12 hours on Korčula

6 pm: Leaving Hvar was sad but inevitable. Nin and I coined the island's new slogan "Hvar, were adults can eat as much ice cream as they like!"... And they do :)

7 pm: We took the ferry to Korcula island. The weather began to get stormy, possibly a sign of things to come.

8 pm: Arrive in Korcula. We were greeted by Dragen, the owner of Dragen's Den hostel where we were to stay for the night. He was a short hairy man who can only be described as ferret like. Dragen asks Nin if her and I are "together forever?" Nin stands a bit closer and says "YES!"

9 pm: Nin and I, along with two French Canadian girls, arrive at the hostel which seems to be in the most unexciting neighboured on the island. This is after the girls have suffered through an hour of inapropriate comments and questions during the car ride. ie. Dragen day dreams aloud about selling Nin in the Russian sex market. Upon arrival, Nin also gets her hair spray painted by drunk slovakien roomates.

10 pm: The four Canadians escape Dragen's Den to find food and of course escape Dragen. During dinner we laughed at his sexual comments, but the girls seem genuinely frightened.

11 pm: On our way home, we stumble across Dragen lurking around the bus loop. He offers to drive us home, which we turned down, but then we remembered the hostel is in the middle of nowhere. During the car ride home Dragen continued his sexual rants while giving us a full itinerary for the next day. BEACH AT 10!!! We realized Dragen is a lonely man... and possibly high.

12 pm: Nin and I searched desperately and found a place to stay in Dubrovnik (3 hours away)

1 - 5 am: We slept lightly as we heard Dragen scurrying about the house. I saw him on my way to the toilet, he was high as a kite.

6 am: We catch the bus to Dubrovnik and got the hell out of Dragen's Den!

- Jesse Mah (Drageb Den survivor)

The Zapper!!!

As some of you may already know, I have an amazing ability to get myself into awkward social situations. Case and point, chatting up our hostel owners, Ed and Slavika, upon our arrival to Hvar. The owners were a Serbian couple who imigtated to Croatia in the 80's and now live in Sydney Australia for nine months out of the year. The other three months are spent managing thier villa on Hvar, not a bad life.

Both Ed and Slavika are very friendly people, so naturally I felt a little rude cutting the social banter short to discover the local beaches. At the time the only "out" I could think of was to say "we should sit down and have a meal together some time." Not thinking for a second that I was pretty much inviting myself over to eat. There was a pause and then Slavika quickly piped up "yes, we will go to the market and get some fresh fish tomorrow for dinner!" Nin made sure to poke fun at my self-invitation, and rightfully so... We were both preparing ourselves for a forced and somewhat awkward meal.

The next day went by quickly on the beach and around town. We bought some local wine and met our hosts for dinner around 7pm. The dinner was delicious and Ed seemed to approve of the wine, things were going well. The first foreshadow for the rest of the evening came as I filled Ed's wine glass for the third time. Slavika turned from here conversation with Nin and said "give him anymore and he'll be talking all night." she wasn't kidding.

Our role for the next five hours that night would be to sit, nod politely and try to keep up with whatever Ed was saying. Slavika put her elbow on the table, her head on hand and watched adoringly. It seemed she'd had some practice.

The conversation started with their daughters, then grandchildren, then cronic fatigue syndrome, then friends' grandchildren, then growth hormones, then grandchildren again. I give Nin alot of credit, she really did appear interested for the first two hours... But then we were introduced to the Zapper...

A few years ago Ed had done some research that would help him deal with cronic fatigue. He stumbled upon a Canadian doctor who had developed blueprints for an electric machine that kills viruses in the body and boosts immunity to illness. My ears were giggling, but I was crying on the inside as Ed pulled out his home-made contraption of wired components. Think Dr. Ho's massager meets car jumper cables. Basically he holds the positive charge in one hand, the negative in the other, and electrocutes himself!

By this point I realized we were paying the price for dinner. Ed, who turned out to be quite the philosopher, was happy to continually shock himself throughout his endless mutterings on religion and todays youth. All Nin and I wanted was two advil, a glass of water and the silence of our private little suite.

Make like a Croatian and Split

Nin and I are leaving the town of Split today for Hvar Island island on the Dalmatian Coast!

Split is a very busy port town that acts as a main hub for boats travelling throughout coast. It is also home to Elda's Hostel! Her hostel may have been cramped and poorly decorated, but Elda herself was entertaining enough to recommend a nights stay... Maybe just one night though :)

Zagreb to Split

I arrived in Zagreb around 8 pm Friday evening. The city is super cute, sort of like the victoria of Croatia. I also got a chance to visit the public market on Saturday morning, which absolutely huge. If you're ever in Zagreb DON'T stay at the Carpe Diem hostel. I was woken up in the middle of the night, because some guy said I was in his bed. Turns out they double booked us. It's just super disorganized and the owner smelled of garlic and cabage... Stay far away!



The next morning I left for Split on the coast of Croatia. The train ride from Zagreb to Split was the most scenic ride so far, Croatia is such a beautiful country. It made me realize how lucky I am to be on this trip and see all this culture. Many European locals don't even get to visit half the cities I've seen. So for that I'm very grateful.




Moving down into the meditteranean is sort of an end to the first two weeks in eastern Europe. The pace, the weather, the people should all change now. Super excited :)




And of course I met up with Ninianne! We had a good time last night catching up and chilling along the seawall. We're going to leave tomorrow to do a little island hopping. Destination still to be determined :p

- Jesse Mah (eastern Europe conquorer)

10 Beds Budapest

Every backpacker remembers their first sketchy hostel experience. Max and I had both been pretty lucky throughout eastern Europe finding relatively clean hostels (ones that operated as actual businesses at least.) I guess you could say we were both virgins to the "sketchy hostel experience." That would soon change after discovering Adrian's 10 beds hostel in Budapest.

Max and I met in Vienna on route to Budapest. He had been traveling with some American girls who I ended up chatting with over breakfast. We all chilled for a while and before I knew it Max and I were on a train together to Budapest. Being the well adjusted/ sensible guys we are, I recon we trusted each other enough to ditch one of our separately booked hostels and both stay at the same place. The hostel I had booked (the 10 beds) was closer to the train station, so we decided to check it out first.

The walk to the hostel was a bit of a culture shock. Budapest is undoubtedly home to some of the knarliest looking panhandlers I have ever seen (seriously the streets are a circus act.) We made it to the hostel unscathed and buzzed up to the 10 beds. A kind aussie voice answered "Hey, Adrian isn't here. But come up, you have to take the stairs." The door opened to the most unnecessary ear-piercing alarm and we hurried inside, either to make the sound stop or to get away from the circus act outside.

We hadn't inspected the building until after we were inside. The place was definitely haunted; dark, large and vacant. We regretted the decision of going inside more and more with every step we took. I think we stopped on the second floor and actually considered turning back. Max and I both started to recall scenes from horror films as to make sure we didn't end up in one ourselves.

A pretty girl named Anne greeted us at the door. She gave us fresh linen, a rundown of Budapest and apologized for Adrian's absence. At the time we found it suspicious of a fellow guest to be so helpful... And who was in charge of the place at the moment. was this Adrian guy? Did we enter a cult? Is Adrian some kind of polygamist leader who summons guest to the suspicious bed in the middle of the living room? We were now pretty sure we were living the movie hostel. Two gullible guys lured in by a fit Aussie :s
It was also a little strange that Anne had Adrians phone number, and was able to text him to find out where to find spare keys.

As much as I hate to admit it now, we actually set out to see if the hostel Max had booked was any better. Maybe it was fate but for the life of us we couldn't find the other hostel. We would have to stay with 10 beds for the night.... Dun dun dun

The 10 beds were all booked up with some of the strangest characters I have ever met. There was a couple from china (the guy wanted to arm wrestle everyone and I don't think I heard the girl talk), Anne and Dan were a traveling Aussie couple who had been away for years (very descent people), Ferdie was a German from Berlin who had lived in Budapest the year before, Nick was an American who had hitched hiked all the way to Budapest from the states (don't ask how that's possible), Liz was a Romanian missionary... you get the idea. Max and I were definitely the only traveling rookies in the place.




The days that followed were an absolute blast. It's not like it was easy getting to know some of these people. But by the time I had left the hostel, I can honestly say it was a pleasure to meet everyone there. Going clubbing with ferdie, watching the white Chinese guy arm wrestle people and listening to Nick's absurd hitch hiking stories. It was a wicked experience. We even got to drink with the all mighty Adrian one night (he is not a cult leader... I don't think)


In the end the clear lesson was that when your traveling, you should never expect to be too comfy. Sketchy hostels aren't always sketchy. And if you stick enough freaks in a room we're bound to become friends eventually. That is if we don't kill each other first.

Thanks for having us Adrian. Also thanks to Anne and Dan who reassured us that other sane people were close by ;)

And thanks to all of those who actually made it through this really long story

Ps. I will upload some more photos to this post that I need to get off my camera

Buda-Best!!!

One of the swankier British guys I've met in my travels so far would have to be my new mate Max. The two of us have spent the last four days checking out local culture, having a few drinks, meeting alot of strange people and of course chilling with Adrian at the 10 beds (see next post).

I have to give a shout out to old maxxy, without whom Budapest could have never been as great of an experience as it was. Even if he got more attention at the baths then me (no not that one, the one in the yellow) ;) But I will miss travelling with Max and wish him the best of luck. I recognize you will get along proper fine in Serbia buddy!




Budapest is by far the most amazing city I've visited in Europe. Beautiful buildings, interesting people, hundreds of things to do at night. It's kind of like Paris but with only 20% of the hype.

Culturally, The city breaks away from the rest of Europe with a little more eastern flava. A perfect example would be the gypsy festival that a group of us went to on Wednesday night. There was a live Hungarian band playing with hundreds of people drinking and dancing on the steps of an abandoned train station. Afterwards we went to a popular rooftop club which was too crazy to even try to explain... Lets just say it involved hidden elevators, large shots of whiskey and a rooftop view of the city.

I'll have to end this post with the best thing you can possibly do in Budapest, and that is visiting the Hungarian bath houses!! The baths are fed by thermal springs under the city and are probably the most relaxing thing I've ever experienced. What is even more amazing is the design and history of each building. You can swim and soak in the same pools that were used by the locals hundreds of years ago. To put it lightly, it was like swimming in the middle of a cathedral.

I could probably go on about this place for ever. Just don't be suprised if I'm living in Budapest in a few years... You can all come visit :)




Now I'm crossing the Croatian border to a city called Zagreb. Unfortunately I can only spend one night, but I'm super stoked to travel to Split tomorrow and meet up with my buddy Ninianne from Vancouver!

Bye for now Budapest!

Ps. Last night I had dinner with a girl who turned out to be a missionary and tried to convert me to Christianity :s Gyyyyulllp. She gave me a book called "More than a carpenter" should be a good read :)