Back in Spain! ...goodbye Eastern Europe.

Ok, we got back in Spain yesterday and now we're in San Sebastián in the País vasco. And it's fucking hot. Like 90 degrees. To the beach soon! It's nice to be able to speak the language again and have a general understanding about what's happening around me, but I'm sad to have left Eastern Europe.

I guess I'll just give a general overview of what I did over the last two weeks or so. We went to Dubrovnik after Mostar, where we met a Finn named Sanna in the bus station (as we were mobbed by people offering us rooms) who asked if she could stay with us because it's expensive to stay alone. So we stayed in a triple (with a tiny foldout bed for Sanna). Dubrovnik is nice but it's incredibly touristy. We walked around the city, went to the national park on the island of Mljet, and went to the beach. The Adriatic is so beautiful! The water was so clean and clear and absolutely amazing. The national park was incredible; it has two lakes, the bigger one has a small island in the middle with a monastery on it. So, it was an island within an island, which is fun. We swam in the lake which was as clean and clear as the sea around the island. There were trees that came right up to the water's edge.

Then we took a ferry to the island of Hvar. Once again, picture perfect and incredibly beautiful. We only stayed one night, which was probably for the best because I couldn't stand all the rich people walking around and all the yachts in the harbor. Rich people!

Then we took a ferry to Split, which is as nice as Dubrovnik but with a lot more life. I really enjoyed the old palace which encloses the old part of the city. We went to the beach one day but the water wasn't as nice as it was in Dubrovnik and it rained midday. Así es. We went to this town on a island, Trogir, one day.

Then to Zadar! Still on the coast. We only spent the evening there but it was still excellent. There is a sea organ there (don't ask me how, the informative brochure was written in broken English) which produces mystifying and magical music. We had a delicious dinner of fish with Sanna and Stefan (a German guy she had met earlier; he had the funniest German accent!!).

The next day we went to Plitvice National Park, which has 16 lakes connected through various waterfalls. It was absolutely amazing. We walked around and down the lakes for several hours. Unfortunately, you are NOT allowed to swim in them.

Next day to Zagreb, the capital of Croatia. We just walked around the old part. Nice, but not terribly impressive.

Then to Budapest to catch our plane the next day. On the verge of sleep I asked Sydney if she had checked the flight time, since we had both thought it was at 1pm the next but I couldn't check myself as I had thrown away my reservation (idiot). She dug out the paper and found that it left at 9:15am. Narrowly avoided catastrophe, I would say. A long day of traveling got us to sweltering Madrid. And now we're in San Sebastián! I can't wait to go to the beach! The original plan was to start the camino on Monday but Sydney is sick so perhaps we will wait until Tuesday... It's just so damn hot!