[mr.sinha]

Sretna Nova Godina 2012 (Happy New Year 2012 - in Croatian) to all Team-BHP members !!!

DOBRODOSLI (Welcome - in Croatian) to my first travelogue on TBHP.

As the title suggests, this is about a recently concluded solo trip to Croatia, Slovenia and Bosnia & Herzegovina.

I have been thinking of posting this travelogue for the last few weeks now. Initially I thought I'd process all of the 300-odd photos, write the complete text of the travelogue, and then start posting it. But then I got lazy, and I realized that if I don't start posting at least the beginning portions of my trip, I'd never complete it.

So, here goes the first part covering Day 0 and Day 1 of the trip.

Now I know the question that pops up in your mind immediately: why the hell did he go to these places? I know, because everyone I told this to, asked me that question, including the immigration officer at Newark airport on my return home. So this is why I chose to go to these countries.

I had a week long time-off from work during the last week of December. The family was in India. I was in India during November, so I decided not to go again in a month and instead do some traveling to see some new countries, but it had to be something spectacular, something uncommon.

I never did think that I would be traveling to the aforementioned countries initially, at least not in the peak of winter.

1. My first plan was to go somewhere in the southern hemisphere since it would be summer there. South America perhaps. I had always wanted to drive on the notorious Death Road (El Camino de la Muerte) in Bolivia ever since that was featured on Discovery Channel a few years ago as one of the most deadliest roads in the world (google for more details please). But after doing a bit of research, I found out that the Bolivian government had closed down that road recently for vehicular traffic (only bicycles allowed now) after opening a spanking new 4-lane highway. Ehhh, boring !!!
Plus the airfare during Christmas time to La Paz was turning out to be quite expensive, almost $1900, which alongwith accommodation, food, car rental etc. would have gone way beyond my budget. So I dropped it.

2. My 2nd plan was another crazy idea: it was to fly to Moscow, and ride the 7-day long Trans-Siberian train journey to Vladivostok, then take a flight back to New York from there. But further research showed that to get a Russian visa, I needed a sponsor from Russia who would have to send a letter of invitation which I would have to take to the consulate. Since I knew no one in Russia to ask for a sponsor letter, I had to drop this idea too.

3. My final plan was to go somewhere in Europe then. OK, so which countries? I had already been to most of Western Europe and Scandinavia, and the Czech Republic. Thats when I discovered Sam Kapasi's travelogue on TBHP which described his trips to Slovenia and Croatia. That appealed to me , so I started doing further research, and finally decided to add Bosnia & Herzegovina to the itinerary.
Thank you Sam for the inspiration.

I got a cheap airfare deal from Newark to Zagreb (Croatia capital), did a rental car booking from SIXT (Zagreb airport), took travel insurance from American Express, printed out all the notes that I had accumulated during my research, and I was all set for the trip.

I will attempt to give as much details as possible about the trip. Since this is my first travelogue, please forgive if you find the details too boring and verbose.

As Sam Kapasi mentioned in his travelogue, not many people, and definitely not Indians travel to these countries much. In my whole 9-day trip, I met just one Indian family in Slovenia and a lone desi trekker (probably another crazy fellow like me) in Plitvice National Park, Croatia. Thats all.

The itinerary was as follows:

Dec 22, 2011: Take flight in the evening from Newark (with 2 stops via Amsterdam, Vienna - remember, cheap ticket?) and reach Zagreb late afternoon on Dec 23.
Dec 23: Take the rental car from Zagreb airport, and drive to Bled, Slovenia.
Dec 24: Spend day in and around Bled. Night stay.
Dec 25: Start driving early in the morning south and enter Croatia from the west along the Adriatic coast, stop in a few coastal towns like Rovinj, Pula, Rijeka, and then finally drive to Plitvicka (interior Croatia). Stay night there.
Dec 26: In and around Plitvicka National Park (where Sam captured those fantastic images of emerald colored lakes). Night stay.
Dec 27: Drive to Split, Croatia (another Adriatic coastal city) via Zadar. Return the car at Split airport. Night stay in Split.
Dec 28: Take 6am bus to Mostar, Bosnia. Reach around 10am. All day there and night stay.
Dec 29: Take 7:50 am train to Sarajevo, Bosnia. Reach around 10 am. All day there and night stay.
Dec 30: Take 6:30 am bus back to Zagreb, Croatia. Reach around 3pm. Stay night.
Dec 31: 8:30 am flight back to Newark via London Heathrow (I hate LHR airport next only to Paris CDG !!!). Reach home around 5pm on New Years Eve and go party somewhere.


First, let me start with a cheesy photo. This was a packet of hand sanitizer served with breakfast on Croatian Airlines on my return trip.



So this was what I took on my trip. My goal was to travel as light as possible since I was not traveling with family this time.

- A Swiss Army rucksack which contained 2 pairs of socks, 3 sweatshirts, 1 towel, 1 jeans, 1 light fleece jacket (just in case), enough underwear for 9 days, 2 bars of dark chocolate, 8 bars of dry snacks, 1 small flashlight, 1 Swiss Army knife, toiletry kit, a lightweight tripod (which I used only once). This was check-in baggage.
- A heavy goose down Patagonia jacket which I was going to wear on the trip. I had checked the weather forecast. It ranged from a few degrees above to a several degrees below zero.
- The pair of hiking boots I was going to wear.
- 1 Pentax DSLR with 2 prime lenses: a 15mm and a 31mm. No zooms. This was my hand baggage. The 15mm was mounted, which I used 99% of the time. I am a lazy photographer. I don't like changing lenses often. My zoom are my legs whenever possible.

Here is a pic:



Before I left the US, I had purchased an international SIM card from Telestal, so I could at least SMS my wife in India a few times every day giving my current location, and for emergency phone calls, calls to hotel for directions, pickup etc.

I also pre-booked hotels in each of the locations I was going to visit using booking.com. Not all of them were real hotels. Some of these were actually 1-room apartments within homes which I found was quite common in those counties. I think these are really VFM, and much cheaper than real hotels. These are called by names in different languages like Sobe/ Apartma/ Zimmer etc.

Some other facts:
The currency in Croatia is called HRK (Croatian Kuna). 1 USD = 5.6 HRK.
Slovenia uses Euro. 1 Euro = 1.3 USD.
Bosnia uses BAM (Bosnian Convertible Mark). 1 USD = 1.5 BAM.
(note: even though its called 'convertible' Mark, let me tell you, its not much convertible outside Bosnia).



Day 0 (Dec 22, 2011):

Since it was a working day, I worked from home. My flight was at 6:30 pm, so set my Out-of-office by 4 pm, called a cab, and headed to Newark airport.

Newark airport was fairly busy with a lot of holiday travelers.



Anyway, Continental's flight to Amsterdam left on time. Got a window seat. Here are a couple of aerial pics of night-time Newark and a bit of downtown Manhattan.





All American carriers really suck nowadays. I mean, there is now a huge difference in the inflight services offered between an American carrier and other carriers like Emirates, Jet, Lufthansa (these are the ones which I use the most on international flights), Singapore, perhaps even Air India (haven't travelled in AI for a long time but heard good reviews recently). Continental/United charges you $8 for each alcoholic drink, which is free on these other carriers. The food is awful of course. The flight attendants are old women, and mostly wear a frown. AVM (Asian Vegetarian Meal) is an unknown term to them. I am not a vegetarian myself, but I heard other fellow Indians on the flight asking for AVM meals and drawing blank looks from the flight attendants. The I.C.E. system is literally from the ice ages. Luckily, one piece of check-in baggage was free (versus 2 for these other carriers).

As an FYI, for flights to/from the USA, the checkin baggage limit goes by piece system - 2 bags, each not exceeding 50 lbs (23 kgs). Nowadays, US carriers have started charging for the 2nd bag too. The economy is really screwed up here.



Day 1 (Dec 23, 2011):

Reached Amsterdam around 7:00 am-ish. Dawn was breaking out. I had a few hours wait for the next flight by Austrian Airlines to Vienna. So, clicked some pictures inside Amsterdam airport.






The next flight by Austrian Airlines to Vienna was slightly delayed. When I reached Vienna, it was snowing and gloomy weather. On the bus from the aircraft to the terminal building, I noticed this plane from Niki Air. Never heard of this airlines before. It had a cool pic of a bee painted on the fuselage. Here's the photo.

(OK, just read Sam Kapasi's Christmas travelogue in which he mentions NIKI air, formerly known as LAUDA Air (Gentlemen, please behave yourselves again !!!). )



The flight to Zagreb was also delayed since the aircraft had not reached Vienna yet. One photo of the seating area in Vienna airport waiting for the Zagreb flight.



Finally, the aircraft arrived. It was a small plane, perhaps a Bombardier with 2 propellers. It was a short 1 hr flight to Zagreb from Vienna and it reached around 3:30pm.

Zagreb airport is nothing to write home about. Its just 1 long terminal building serving both national and international flights, 2 cafes, 1 modest duty-free shop, 1 newspaper stand, 4 or 5 different car rental agencies including Sixt, Hertz, Avis etc., and 2 currency exchange places. It reminded me of my native place's airport in Agartala, Tripura. No kidding.

Interior of the airport building:



After exchanging some USD to HRK, went to the Sixt counter to get the car. I also took the GPS navigator (which turned out to be so bad that it got me into trouble a few times). Will describe as the story progresses.
I already had about 200 Euro with me (from my previous Europe trips), so I thought that would suffice for my Slovenia stay.

From Sixt, I only took Liability insurance. I had made the reservation using an Amex card, and I had checked earlier with Amex that they would cover the rest of the auto insurance other than Liability.

Here's a shot of the outside of the the Zagreb terminal building. As you can see, pretty unspectacular. It was getting late, with falling light, so hurried to the parking lot where the rental car was parked for my 2 hour drive (or so I thought) to Bled, Slovenia.



Here's a pic of the Opel Astra that I got. It was not too appealing a car anyway, just something to get from point A to point B.



OK, so I was driving a manual drive car after a long time, almost over a year. In my 17 years of driving, I had driven manual only for 3 years in Bangalore. The rest of it was always in automatic cars in the US. But I got used to it within 5 minutes. I guess learning manual drive is like learning how to swim. Once you do it, it always comes back to you. The only quirk was the reverse gear. Unlike non-German cars in India, the reverse gear required you to press a button on the shifter and shift to a position near where the first 1st gear is located. It takes a few minutes of getting used to. No big deal really.

Within about 45 minutes, I reached the Slovenia border. In the middle, I paid the equivalent of about 1 euro in toll. Went thru the checkpost, and enquired about Vignette (this I had learned about from my Google research). You need this 'Vignette' or 'permission to drive in Slovenia' by paying 15 Euros for a sticker valid for 7 days (thats the minimum requirement). Very innovative way to make money, I guess. Anyway, parked the car and got the vignette.

The sun had just set, and the checkpost looked great in the after glow of dusk, Here's a pic.



After that I resumed the drive to Bled, and thats when the GPS screwed up for the first time during the trip. It should have been just a 1.25 hours journey from that point, via the major highways, to Bled. But Mr.GPS decided to have fun with a poor Indian. It made me take an exit soon after the above checkpost. And then it was country roads all the way. Long, winding, mountainous roads. Actually it would have been great perhaps if I was driving in daylight. But at nighttime, there isn't much to appreciate the scenery other than concentrate on driving on a dark two-lane highway with frequent curves and bends, and some very narrow roads through villages where two cars can't pass at the same time.

And then I almost had my first accident on this trip. I was lucky I didn't.

You see, I had pulled into a gas station on the way to buy some water and chewing gum, and find out how long it would take for me to reach Bled on that road. The answer to my last query was not too encouraging, and as I was coming out of the gas station, I paused to let the oncoming traffic pass. Now, since I am mostly used to driving in the US, I know that there is a white line which marks the border of the road. It was a bit dark there, I stopped at that white line, and in a few seconds I realized to my horror that the white line where I had stopped was actually the center line of the 2-lane highway. In other words, I had stopped bang on the middle of the lane of oncoming traffic, and there was a convoy of vehicles bearing down upon me, including a semi-truck in the lead. Perhaps it was due to fatigue that I had failed to pay attention. After all, including all the plane rides from US, I hadn't slept for more than 20 hours already.

In any other situation if I'd been driving an automatic car, I could have easily put the car in reverse gear and backed out in a fraction of a second. But combined with my fatigue, the anguish of the GPS leading me into wrong roads, the manual gears, and the reverse gear not being in the place I have been mostly used to in cars in India, I just froze. By then it was too late to do anything. Luckily for me, the semi-truck which was bearing down upon me braked hard and in time and was able to stop like 10 ft from my driver-side door. It honked loudly and angrily, which jolted me up, I finally engaged reverse, and pulled back. WHEW !!!

No further adventures on the way, and I finally reached Bled in 5 hours - thanks to the bloody GPS - rather than what should have been just a 2 hour trip from Zagreb.

[amitwlele]

Originally Posted by mr.sinha

Now, since I am mostly used to driving in the US, I know that there is a white line which marks the border of the road. It was a bit dark there, I stopped at that white line, and in a few seconds I realized to my horror that the white line where I had stopped was actually the center line of the 2-lane highway.

Sretna Nova Godina 2012 to you as well Mr.Sinha. Ok i copied it from your post above.

Liked the way you have described everything in chronological order with the required amount of pics to fill in. Great work.

It would be a wonderful experience to go through the TL as it unfolds.

And the white line experience was scary for sure.

[ASHISHPALLOD]

This is going to be interesting travelogue.

@mr sinha,
please add as much pics as possible.
Waiting for more.

[mayankjha1806]

Lovely start, and excellent narration. Loved the way the stage one has been descried and set for later stages to open up.

Waiting for the rest of TL to unfold, Traveling alone has its own charm, today its unthinkable one of my good friend has been pestering me to do it (just the boys stuff). Need to seriously think about it.

[viper_711]

@Mr.sinha
Looking forward to the rest of the travelogue.
Well documented and the chronological flow of events is interesting to follow.

[Tapish]

Very well documented indeed. Glued to the rest of the thread.

Even I am plannng a solo trip soon. Gives me confidence

Cheers,
Tapish

[Sam Kapasi]

Originally Posted by mr.sinha

Thats when I discovered Sam Kapasi's travelogue on TBHP which described his trips to Slovenia and Croatia. That appealed to me , so I started doing further research, and finally decided to add Bosnia & Herzegovina to the itinerary.
Thank you Sam for the inspiration.

Zagreb late afternoon on Dec 23.

drive to Bled, Slovenia.
Dec 24: Spend day in and around Bled. Night stay.
Dec 25: Start driving early in the morning south and enter Croatia from the west along the Adriatic coast, stop in a few coastal towns like Rovinj, Pula, Rijeka, and then finally drive to Plitvicka (interior Croatia). Stay night there.
Dec 26: In and around Plitvicka National Park (where Sam captured those fantastic images of emerald colored lakes). Night stay.


(OK, just read Sam Kapasi's Christmas travelogue in which he mentions NIKI air, formerly known as LAUDA Air (Gentlemen, please behave yourselves again !!!). )

Wonderful beginning. And thank you for the mention. Happy you were able to repeat the great trip.

I'm curious to know where you stayed in these places. Waiting for more.

[BoneCollector]

Originally Posted by mr.sinha

Sretna Nova Godina 2012 (Happy New Year 2012 - in Croatian) to all Team-BHP members !!!

Sretna Nova Godina 2012 to you also Mr Sinha.Amazing choice for a trip and beautiful set of pictures. Waiting for more snaps and write up from you.

[Figopian]

Sretna Nova Godina, Mr. Sinha!
Snaps are awesome, good read, exceptional choice of places to visit, keep the updates coming!!

[MX6]

Oh man. You let the cat out of the bag right away when you said Plitvicka!
I'm sure people here, including me, would go crazy when they look at the photos of Plitvicka lakes national park!
Your teaser pics and your gear tells me that there is going to be some mind blowing pics of Plitvicka.

[A M]

Great choice of places to spend the holidays.
I've always been a fan of eastern Europe for the natural beauty it has.
And its travelling to such offbeat locations that makes a true traveller.

Awaiting more and more and more pictures(damn the 2 smiley limit!!!).

[drmohitg]

Great writing skills and an excellent choice of places to visit. The photos are just breathtaking. Hope you keep the updates coming fast.

PS: All European car's in India too come with that Reverse gear in the opposite direction ( from what we are traditionally used to ofcourse). Now even the Japs are copying them. My Toyota Altis has the same set up and I can imagine your struggle with the gear shifts. I myself slotted into 6th gear many times in the beginning instead of reverse.

[Sam Kapasi]

Originally Posted by Sam Kapasi

Wonderful beginning. And thank you for the mention. Happy you were able to repeat the great trip.

I'm curious to know where you stayed in these places. Waiting for more.

Just spoke to my wife about your visit and she reminded me that in sub zero weather, it would either be overcast or frozen causing a (not necessarily undesirable) change of landscape compared to our september visit which had warm blue skies.

Lets see what your photos look like :-)

[mr.sinha]

Thank you all for your good comments and encouragement. This gives me the added impetus to write the travelogue faster than I thought I could.

Solo travel is great in some ways. You don't have to stay busy within your traveling group. It gives a lot of freedom, of making choices without any conflicting opinions, being responsible for your own actions, and above all, make quick decisions. I also think you can reach out to more people and learn a lot of things about the local culture, customs and the country, language barrier notwithstanding. Believe me, there are so many ways to communicate without speaking the local language.

But one thing is important though: if you are going solo to places outside your normal comfort zone, it is always a good idea to have a close friend or family keep track of your whereabouts. During this trip, using the international SIM card, I was in touch with my wife at least 2-3 times a day on SMS. It didn't cost much, just 39 cents USD per SMS. That way, I could exactly communicate to her which places I was driving or taking the bus/train to, the points along the way I planned to stop at, the hotels I was checking into etc. Things can always go wrong in a foreign land. You may get injured, you may have an accident, you may even get arrested by local law enforcement, you may get lost in the mountains during hiking, but at least someone would know from your communications where you had been last, so as to enable embassies or local authorities to help track you down.

Originally Posted by Sam Kapasi

Just spoke to my wife about your visit and she reminded me that in sub zero weather, it would either be overcast or frozen causing a (not necessarily undesirable) change of landscape compared to our september visit which had warm blue skies.

Lets see what your photos look like :-)

She is absolutely right. In all my 8 days of travel, I only got about 2 and half days of partial sunshine. Rest of the time, it was all overcast, snowy, foggy or extremely crummy weather, which does no good to your photography. However with my less than optimal photographic skills and equipment, I tried my best. I am no Rudra Sen but I hope you all enjoy the photos.

[mr.sinha]

After finally reaching the city of Bled, GPS continued its screwing up, and led me to some dark and very narrow roads with a final announcement "you have arrived at your destination". After spitting out some choicest expletives at it, I finally called the hotel, and they were able to guide me to their place from a gas station on the main road.

The hotel is called Vila Bojana. It was quite a decent hotel, the rooms were clean, and the manager was very helpful. Breakfast was included in the tariff.

Hotel (for 2 nights): 84 Euros.

I think the price goes up significantly during summer time at the height of the tourist season.

Anyway, dumped my rucksack in the room, freshened up and went out towards the center of the town, which was about 100 meters away to get some dinner. It was cold, maybe a few degrees below zero, but I was quite warm and comfortable in my down jacket, gloves and ear plugs. There weren't too many people around, just an odd smattering of tourists. But the good thing is most of the bars and restaurants in the city center stay open well past midnight, even in winter.

The Bled castle could be seen across the Bled lake (Bledski Jezero) on the top of a mountain. Jezero means lake (singular). A collection of lakes becomes Jezera.

The castle was lighted up and looked beautiful. I didn't take my camera along here, because I was too tired. This was going to be my first good rest after leaving the US, so I wanted to eat a quick dinner and go to sleep.

Not surprisingly, I found a Chinese restaurant and had some rice and chicken there. They say there are three things which come up first in a new settlement. First is a church or a place of worship, next a bar, and the third, a brothel. It can be safely said that the fourth business which comes up there is a Chinese restaurant. They seem to be in every small town in every country around the world.

Dinner and drinks: 13 Euros.

There was also an Indian restaurant which boasted of having the honor of wining and dining Paul McCartney of Beatles fame, no less. Impressive though that was, the prices were prohibitively expensive.

After dinner, I retired for the night.




Day 2 (Dec 24, 2011):



I did not make any ambitious plans for the day. The intent was to lazily drive around in Bled and the surrounding areas, the nearby villages and go up to Triglav National Park. I did not have a list of places to visit, so I decided to just drive along, soak up the sights and do some photography.

Breakfast at the hotel was pretty sumptuous, considering that it was free. After a good breakfast, I hit the road.

This looks like an abandoned building near the city center but its actually a hotel accommodating many guests as seen from the cars parked in front.



A shot of Bled castle across the lake.



Even though a bit of blue sky was visible then, it was getting overcast very fast, and would stay that way for the rest of the day.

Some more photos in Bled city.




As I started driving out of Bled, I noticed this small road off the main highway and decided to follow it. It led me to a small village called Bohinjska Bela.








Another small single lane road leading into the forest. I followed it but it turned out to be a dead end. Finally returned back to the main highway.



A church along the highway on the route to the village of Bohinj, where there is a bigger lake called Bohinjsko Jezero. Notice the cake of frosting on the tree to the left.




Finally, reached the village of Bohinj. Parked the car and walked around a bit.





This was the main shopping center for groceries.





As I headed out of Bohinj, I saw this really pretty village on the way.




Finally reached the shores of Bohinj Lake. There was s small stone bridge on one end of the lake over a creek flowing into the lake.








After crossing the bridge, I headed on the narrow road which leads into the heart of Triglav National Park. The road passed through many small villages on the way. I paused at each place, parked the car and just walked around a bit.




The gap at the bottom left of the yellow house is actually the road where a compact car can barely pass through.




There, I have reached the 30 photo limit of a single post. More coming up soon.