Time to Split

After a week camping in the most peaceful of surrounds I have grown edgy with having nothing to do but swim in the ocean and tan in the sun, I have now decided I need to travel up to the big cities, like berlin so I can rockout in some really underground clubs. As long as I can escape the english & hang with locals I will be a happy man. I am now working my way up the croation coast & willl be in slovenia in a few days, where I can chill, & sort my travel plans to berlin, I am thinking of finding a couch in budapest,staying there a few days, then berlin to meet up with some friends, totally rock out before moving to amsterdam, smoking alot of the finest weed I can find, then to england (to find some work) because by then I am going to be pretty broke.

Couchsurfing salvation

But thankfully on the last two nights in dubrovnik I met an english couchsurfer named Nic, who was chilled enough to redeem my opinion of the english, Couchsurfers are the best of people, who you can trust with your life.. mien casa, su casa!

The rise of the idiots

If you have ever watched nathan barley show you will be familiar with the concept of ‘the rise of the idiots’ something I contemplated whilst at exit, but my camping in dubrovnik confirmed this. The campsite I found in Dubrovnik was totally beautiful, called ‘autokamp paridiso’ it lived up to its name. I set up my tent under some lovely shady trees & was in the process of chilling, smoking a hash joint in the shade, when I was greeted by 6 english people camping next to me. Although friendly, after a few hours hanging with them, I realised that these guys were indeed idiots, none of their loud, obnoxious conversation was of any intellictual value,it just was ranting about crap,punctuated by bitching & complaining about life. After two days camping next to these guys,I really wondered if I could work in england, what If i was surrounded by these people I would soon take a gun to my head, or at the very least deafen myself so I would not have to hear such shit. I was also nice enough to share my small block of hash with them, which they ended up stealing,(note: as I write this I am in a hostel in split, croatia, run by a beautiful family, & am listening to another group of idiots, getting drunk & being very loud, even though the hostel staff has told them already to keep it down, I kind of hope they aren’t allowed to stay longer, as I would like to stay here a few more days, but if these idiots are around,I will have to go elsewhere).

Montengero – the gold coast on the adriatic

I arrived in montengro & highlight was finding a quiet campsite, settting up & then resting my heavily blistered feet in the adriatic ocean.The water is nothing like australia & it was soo nice to finally have a swim in the ocean.I didn’t stay long though, as the place reminded me of the goldcoast,a place I lived in for a year in australia.It was packed with units & there were building sites everywhere, was nice to swim, but I next chose to catch a bus up to croatia, a place made special in my heart by a certain girl whom I shared love with a number of years ago.

2nd class serbian rail to montenegro

This was probably the most interesting train ride so far.It came about after the end of exit festival. I had planned to stay an extra night, but the festival organisers put out a warning that there would be a severe storm that night (it turned out that 3 women who camped the extra night were killed by a falling branch during this storm). Not that that bothered me, as an aussie, i’ve had plenty of camping experience in bad weather. What changed my mind was waking in a pile of trash, being welcomed to the start of a 37 degree day. It was, & I felt filthy & figured the best option would be a comfortable 12 hour night train to montenegro. After purchasing my ticket I was rather suprised at the cheapness of the fare,only $35 euros for such a long journey. I did consider upgrading to a sleeping coach, but my ethos of cheap travel prevented this.

Once boarding the train I found a compartment to myself, but was soon kicked out by a mother with 5 children, so quickly chose to find another cabin. After searching a fast filling train, I eventually found one occupied by a sole traveller, and after some negotiation, in broken serbian z/english,he decided it was ok for me to share with him. He spoke no english, was very drunk & was travelling with only a plastic bag of possessions. Soon the cabin began to fill & I found myself travelling with this strange guy, a serbian bikie woman, a scientist (the only one who could speak english so he translated as best as he was able), another drunk & a woman who said nothing, but cluched a bottle of vodka close to her chest, taking the occassional sip, no rather swig.

The trainride turned out to be one of the trashiest experiences of my life, rather fitting for my post exit comedown. The train was literally falling apart, & so overloaded that people we’re sleeping on the filthy floors of the train hallways. The window of our compartment was broken open, & it was during this storm that we all came together to try to fix it. The drunken serbs chose to tear pieces of wood from the train in an effort to prop the window closed, & only after they gave up did I come to the rescue,using some of my backpack rope to tie the window closed using knots my uncle showed me as a child. This resulted in cheers from my cabinmates all chanting ‘aussie aussie aussie’. & then we slept. I was suprised at the closeness of the serbs, we all cuddled up, arms and legs entertwined in an effort to catch some sleep.

It turned out that the strange guy clutching the plastic bag was fresh out of prison, which explained why the border police consistantly gave him a hard time,searching his few possessions everytime they checked for passports. As the train emptied I was left alone with the scientist, who spoke rather good english & I had a great chat about life & politics with him.

& yes the trainride was amazing. It snaked through hundreds of mountain tunnels and as the light grew I realised that we were also travelling across bridges spanning valleys at least 100 metres high. It was without a doubt one of my most memoriable trainrides ever & I left having a special place in my heart for rowdy serbs.

porsche silo Melbourne

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porsche silo Melbourne, originally uploaded by giveaphuk.

taken at dusk, the perfect hour, neither day or night.

porsche silo Melbourne

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porsche silo Melbourne, originally uploaded by giveaphuk.

taken at dusk, the perfect hour, neither day or night.

porsche silo Melbourne

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porsche silo Melbourne, originally uploaded by giveaphuk.

taken on sunset, right when it was neither day or night.

porsche silo Melbourne

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porsche silo Melbourne, originally uploaded by giveaphuk.

taken on sunset, right when it was neither day or night.

art – control alt delete ak47