Dubrovnik

So we found our hostel, settled in and took a walk around our area of Dubrovnik. It was a really nice place with tons of marble and street cafes right by the beach. Of course as the evening went on a thunder storm rolled in. So we chilled at the hostel for a while where we met some Aussies. The rain finally subsided so we all decided to head into town. We found a club that was pretty good. At the club we met some nice girls from Malaysia. As the night went on we all decided we had enough, so we left the club to go back to their place. They where staying in the old town which allowed us to see the town in its deserted state. As well the marble that the entire old town is made of looked pretty cool under the moonlight after the rain soaked it. After hanging out in their swank apartment for awhile we decided it was time to head back to the hostel and hit the sack. So the two of us and an Aussie that was with us woke up a cabbie at the taxi station and headed home.
Our only full day in Dubrovnik was spent in the old town checking out the harbor and mostly walking around. The place looked very different by day when it is overrun by tourists. We also decided to walk around the old town walls which gave some amazing views. That evening we decided to go to a movie. Gran Torino was playing which turned out to be a really good movie. Movies in Croatia and most of Eastern Europe are in English with subtitles for the local language. The next day we hopped on a small 20 seat bus and headed up the coast to Split. From split we caught a 45 minute ferry over to the island of Hvar.

Belgrade to Dubrovnik

Belgrade did not seem to be the nicest city but to be fair we did not venture far from the train station. Our hostel was across the street from the train and bus station and after checking in we ventured out to find dinner. After walking by a bunch of gambling spots we ended up at the Sandwich King, “Canada’s number 1.” According to the literature in the place it was started on the east coast of Canada and quickly became the fastest growing franchise business in North America. This boggled our mind because we had never heard of it and the sandwiches were crap.
The next day we took the 1pm bus to Sarajevo. Bosnia has some beautiful country side. The legacy of the recent war was especially vivid close to the Serbian border where we passed numerous blown out, abandoned, shot up and half built houses. Joel even spotted a land mine warning sign. The rain followed us all day and did not let up in Sarajevo which was too bad because it appeared to be a very nice city. We stayed the night at a decent hostel and the next day we hopped on another bus which took us all the way to Dubrovnik. The rain stopped just before we made it to the coast.

Sofia, Bulgaria and getting to Belgrade

Although we got woken up at 2 am when we crossed the border on the overnight train from Istanbul, overall the ride went pretty good. We arrived to a rainy and cool Sofia. Cabs and really everything was supposed to be fairly cheap in Bulgaria, something we were looking forward to. We met a girl on the train that was staying at the same hostel as us so we all got in a cab and went to the hostel. We made it to the hostel fine but as Joel suspected we got ripped off on the price of the cab. We would learn later that prices for cabs can vary greatly in Sofia, you just have to know what company to go with. Either way it was not absurdly expensive but when you know you could have gotten something cheaper it never feels good.
After settling into our hostel we set out to find some food. The girl we met on the train had a place in mind so the three of us braved the cold pouring rain and after walking around for a while finally found the spot. The food was really good and as expected was nice and cheap. The rain was a real downer, so on the walk back after it picked up some more we decided to stop for a drink at an R&B bar called Funky Town. What a great name.
That night the rain finally stopped. We had heard Sofia has quite the night life so we asked the guys running the hostel where some good spots to go were. They pointed out one or two so we headed out to find the places. As it turned out the first spot we went to had a private party going on and the second spot was dead. Considering it was already 1 am we were surprised, but apparently it was more of a late night spot. We had heard of another area called the student area where most of the students live and where there are some good clubs, so we hopped in a cab and told the man we wanted to go there. After a 20 minute and what worked out to be a 4 Euro ride we arrived at the student area. Basically it was a small street with about 5 or 6 huge clubs all lined up. He recommended Jim Beam’s which played “Black Music” so we paid our 1 Euro entry fee to go in. It turned out to be a pretty cool place with cheap drinks and good music. After a while the place was emptying out so we hopped in a cab and headed to another place that was recommended to us. The spot we arrived at did not seem very inviting and they wanted to rip us off on cover so we decided to walk back to the hostel. On the way back we stumbled upon what turned out to be another cool club. So we went in there for a while. It was getting kind of late the place was slowly emptying out so we decided to finally make the trek back to the hostel. Good news for us it was starting to get light out so the walk back was pretty easy. We arrived at our room around 6 am where an older lady that had been biking around the world since 2007 kindly opened the door for us as she was on her way out to hit the road again.
The next day was cold and rainy which gave us little motivation to see the city. Once again the rain stopped by the time it was dark. That night we made some friends with some Brits and Aussies at the hostel. By our recommendation the 8 of us went back to the student area where we went to 2 other clubs. We all had to check out the next day so we called it a night a little bit earlier.
10 am wake up came pretty early but we knew we had to catch the only train running to Belgrade which was leaving at 11:05. After moving kind of slow during breakfast it became apparent that we had to hurry up or we would miss our train. So at check out we asked the man to call us a taxi so we could get to the station on time. He strongly encouraged us to take the tram instead so that’s what we did. Of course we had no Bulgarian Lev (currency) left so it was probably better we did not take the cab. Either way, the tram slowly crept towards the station. We had neglected to purchase train tickets to Belgrade ahead of time, something we hoped to do before we got on the train. However, at the rate the tram was moving we figured we would be lucky if we got to the station before the train left. So we got off the tram at about 11 and started sprinting towards the station. Luckily some guys guided us to the train where we hopped on with about 2 minutes to spare. Of course they wanted money but we had nothing to give them. So we grabbed some seats in a compartment where there just so happened to be with a Canadian and an American our age that were traveling around like us. After making it on the train we felt the lack of tickets was merely a secondary issue. We had hopped to just pay cash when the ticket man came by even though we had no Bulgarian Levs or Serbian Dinars, just Euros. So he came by and seemed unreceptive towards cash so Joel presented his rail pass which was not supposed to be valid for Bulgaria or Serbia. After a long look the conductor actually accepted it. After that it was smooth sailing all the way to Belgrade where we arrived 2 hours late.

Istanbul

After enjoying a nice breakfast we were able to check into our hostel. We had a quick nap and decided to take a walk over to the Blue Mosk. We made it into the courtyard of this incredible building but then realized that pants where needed to enter so we had to come back another day. From there we walked through a small bizzar that sold carpets, scarfs and the like. Typical things tourists would expect to find in an Turkish bazaar. We ended up going to a nice cafe where we enjoyed some apple tea while smoking the Narghilèč. That evening we enjoyed the roof terrace on top of the hostel and socialized with the Turkish people that ran the hostel.
The next day we decided we should learn a bit about the extensive history that Istanbul has so we walked over to the area where there are a bunch of museums. Of course it was Monday so they where all closed. So instead we walked over to the Grand Bazaar. Quite the place. When walking around Istanbul you are constantly solicited by guys to come into their establishment whether it be a store or restaurant. So we were used to saying no thanks. In the grand bizzar it is even crazier. The sheer size of the place and amount of stuff they sell is overwhelming. Every 5-10 feet you are asked to buy something. The best two things we heard were "I am socks!" and "How can I take your money?" Most items sold where things only tourists would buy. As well there was enough knock off merchandise to rival a Chinese market. Of course after some hard bartering Scott bought a polo button up for what worked out to 10 euro and Joel picked up a red t-shirt with the Turkish symbol on it. That evening we hung out with our American roommates that had just finished serving in the peace corps in the Ukraine.
The next day we put on our pants and went to check out some of the mosks. They were cool but not a whole lot different than the cathedrals we had seen elsewhere in Europe. We actually thought they where more impressive from the outside, especially at sunset during the call to prayer. From there we decided to take advantage of cheap Turkish labour and got our shoes shined. Scott was quite impressed at how good his boaters turned out and we were even told it had a 3 year guarantee. As well it was time for some haircuts. Although we are living on a budget the price was right so we also got a shave while we were in the chair. That evening the champions league final was going on in Rome. So like every other European (and probably most of the world) we watched the game with some friends at the hostel bar.
By the last full day in Istanbul it was time to check out some museums. One was an archaeological museum and the other was on the history of Istanbul. They were alright, we felt it had to be done. Later that day we walked over the main bridge to what we thought was Asia. It was a pretty cool bridge with lots of old men fishing off the side and tons of fish restaurants underneath. So we had a later dinner basically where we though the border between Europe and Asia was. Of course we had to try some fresh fish. (Three days later after talking to a traveler we met in Sofia that had also come from Istanbul we found out the bridge did not actually link Europe and Asia and we never set foot on Asia. Oh well.)
On the final day we checked out of our hostel and had some time to swing by the grand bizzar again. There were a few items that caught our eye the previous day so we decided we may as well take advantage of the deals. Later that day we picked up our bags and boarded the overnight train to Sofia, Bulgaria.

Athens to Istanbul

The ferry ride from Ios was a rough one. There were some strong winds that day which not only shook the boat pretty hard but also made us arrive in Athens an hour later than expected. This meant we arrived in Athens at about 1am, 25 minutes after the metro closed. So the only option was to take a taxi back to the hostel, not something we like to do on our budget. So 30 euros later we arrived at our hostel.
The next day we got up and were planning on taking the 20ish hour train ride all the way around Greece and over to Istanbul. After checking out we headed over to the train station where it was oddly deserted. So we went up to the ticket counter where we read a small sign that said the railway workers decided to go on a 24 hour strike that day. Great. So we went back to the hostel where we looked into other options to get to Istanbul, but in the end decided to check back in and take the train the next day. That afternoon we took a walk around the city. On our walk we happened to stumble upon a fairly main square where we saw some interesting things (think Vancouver's downtown east side). An eye opening experience. That evening we had some delicious Gyros and Greek salad expecting it to be our last dinner in Greece.
The next day basically started of the same as the one before only this time the station was open and running. So we went to make the reservation for our trains to Istanbul only to find out all earlier trains to Thessaloniki (the city in northern Greece we had to make a connection in) were already full, meaning there was no way we would make it to Istanbul in the next 24 hours. At this point we were ready to get out of Athens so we booked the next train (5 pm) to Thessaloniki and bought tickets for the train from Thessaloniki to Istanbul the next night (this train only goes once a day at 10pm). So we pretty much had another afternoon in Athens and decided to visit the olympic stadium. It was a nice subway ride out to there and when we arrived we realized they had huge olympic grounds where many events would have been heald. There was also some impressive structures to see.

The train ride that evening was long and uneventful. We checked into our cheap motel and passed out.
Our train left at 10pm so this allowed us to explore Greece's second largest city for the better part of a day. We pretty much took a walk down the boardwalk, checked out the white tower and hung out a bit.
Being our first overnight train we were not quite sure what to expect. As well we would be leaving the EU for the first time on our trip so the boarder crossing was also a surprise. As it turned out the sleeper we got was fairly nice but the boarder crossing was a real pain. Of course we got to the boarder town in Greece at about 4am. So we all get off the train and gave the boarder guard our passports. After everyone was done doing this the train left. Then maybe 30 minutes later we all got off and got to go through the process again with the Turks, only this time we had to pay for our visa. Being Canadians it cost us 45 euro, apparently one of the most expensive. The Americans only had to pay 15. Either way, that got that all taken care of and arrived in Istanbul around 9am with less sleep than we hoped for. The hostel we where at was a little bit of a walk from the station and we were lucky enough to walk the wrong direction. It was at this point we experienced how nice the Turks are and after asking a few people for directions we finally found the place.