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Day 104 – 105: Istanbul – Part 1 (Turkey)
After 3+ months of bouncing around Europe, it was finally time to head eastward to Turkey. Istanbul would be our first stop in the country we’ve always wanted to see and heard so much about – “here, Europe meets Asia”, “East meets West”, etc..
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Day 98 – 100: Ljubljana, Bled & Postonja Cave (Slovenia)
The last country on our Eastern/Central Europe tour was Slovenia. Aside from knowing the name of the capital (but not necessarily how to spell it correctly), we really didn’t know much else about the 2-million strong nation. That said, Slovenia made a very positive impression straight out of the shoot. Driving to Ljubljana was a combination of highway and departmental roads, the latter taking us through a beautiful and diverse countryside with dense forests, superfluous mountains and cute little towns (reminiscent of Switzerland and Austria).
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Day 94 – 97: Dubrovnik & Zadar (Croatia)
I’ve known my friend Tony for about 14 years and one of the most accurate and honest things he ever told me was “get ready to be wowed”! This of course was in reference to visiting Dubrovnik. Tony is Croatian (naturally), so he compiled a comprehensive list of To Do & To See Croatia for us. Our expectations of the old city were A-grade and Tony’s succinct advice only elevated them to a higher degree.
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Day 91 – 93: Makarska & Hvar Island (Croatia)
It was about 6 hours to our next destination (Makarska), a combo of highway and national road driving. The E65 (aka the Adriatic Highway), is the coastal road that runs down to Croatia’s most southern point and offers hours of viewing pleasure. Undulating around the rugged limestone coast, we drove by myriads of towns lining up the beachfront. And it was in one of these little towns that we paused for lunch, followed by an irresistible dip in the water. The arid landscape reminded us of southern France and the calanques, not to mention the vegetation.
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Day 89 – 91: Rovinj & Pula (Istria – Croatia)
Driving directly west past Zagreb into Croatia was fairly uneventful – the road was long and straight and the landscape was flat. But all that changed right as we approached Istria, the grand peninsula prominently protruding into the Adriatic Sea. Mountains appeared all around us and the highway turned and twisted along through numerous tunnels.
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Day 87 – 88: Belgrade (Serbia)
We planned for a 1-night stop over in Belgrade but due to delinquent planning (on my part), we ended up with an extra night. And we couldn’t have been happier! Belgrade, the Serbian capital sits in the north of the country right at the confluence of the Danube and Sava rivers.
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Day 85 – 87: Cluj Napoca & Corvin Castle (Romania)
As we made our back into Transylvania from the northern part of Romania, we stopped in the city of Cluj Napoca for a night (simply known as Cluj). The old city (dating back to 12th century), used to be the capital of the Grand Principality of Transylvania. Today it’s a very important academic center with 12 or so universities. I’ve always wanted to see Cluj because my parents went to school there and it’s also where they met.
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Day 84: Sapanta & Sighetu Marmatiei (Romania)
After a couple of days of visiting monasteries in Neamt and Bucovina, we decided to head west into Maramures. Our GPS calculated the “best” route and spat out an estimated time of 4 hours – not too bad. Little did we know this would become the best and worst road we’d travel. We started out through the idyllic countryside traversing through the Carpathian Mountains. A hot and sunny morning morphed into a cooler and grayer afternoon producing fog at the top of the mountains.
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Day 81 – 83: Alba Iulia, Neamt & Bucovina (Romania)
Arriving in Romania was a unique and much anticipated experience. First there was the border control – of all European countries we visited previously this was the only checkpoint where cars were actually stopped upon entry (including ours). Formality or not, it seemed pretty unnecessary. The other immediate noticeable difference was the roads. Roads in Romania are a work in progress, to put it gently.
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Day 80: Esztergom, Visegrad & Budapest (Hungary)
After a couple of solid days of exploring Budapest we opted for a road trip. Our itinerary included one of Buda’s caves, and the towns of Esztergom and Visegrad. Budapest is not only fascinating above ground but under as well – there about 200 caves under the Hungarian capital but only 3 are open to the public.
