albania to croatia via montenegro

i woke up at 2am with the worst tummy pains, hooray, i had gotten the dreaded gastro bug. after spending the rest of the night on the toilet, ashley gave me some pills to help out and i managed to make our 11 hour bus trip to croatia with no sudden mishaps. along with 11 others on the tour... 
we travelled via montenegro, and the scenery was apparently beautiful, but i was curled up in the back of the bus trying not to die, so i missed most of it. i got a few snaps of the montenegro coastline for you though....

we caught a 10mins ferry across the water to get to croatia and i got some nice photos for you there too, the fresh air helped to perk me up a bit. this is the southern most somethingarather in europe and its so pretty!

then we headed to croatia, made it across more border controls which took ages, and drove along the cliffs to our hostel. i wish id taken a photo for you of old dubrovnik from the coach, but id run out of energy, since all id eaten was a powerade and a few pretzel sticks! so youll just have to imagine it or google it. [i am still annoyed now [weeks later] that i didnt get that shot. oh well.]
we arrived at the hostel and just before dinner there was an amazing sunset, so i got that for you guys

and we had soup [which i ate, then went back to my room to sleep], and the rest of them had free range chicken yum! :) everyone went out for a girls night / boys night, except for the 11 of us that got gastro from albania. hopefully we will be fine in the morning!

friday 21 may 2010 - preveza to albania

we left prevetza with poor matt awaking with the worst bout of gastro. he could barely make it to the coach, and he just stayed sleeping in the back seat the whole day.
we drove through the tiny roads which was apparently a highway to albania.
 albania has the most pot-holed roads you’ve ever seen. it was SO bumpy! and we are driving through windy mountains and the road has slipped away in so many places, you wonder if we are even going to make it, but gazza the driver is AWESOME and he dominates, so we made it! honestly, there are these tiny roads and trucks come screaming down the hill and almost take us out! so scary! alot of the buildings are not finished because when you complete your home you have to pay a tax, so there are half finished houses that people live in everywhere!
the other thing that i was thinking was, that if this was based in france, it would be health resort central! the waters are crystal clear blue, there is amazing scenery and colours, its absolutely gorgeous here! i really hope that albania has some help to get back on its feet and grow into the gorgeous place that it is, it is so sad to see so much poverty in such a beautiful land. the locals are very friendly, and are very happy to see tourists and visitors coming into their city, so its a very safe place to visit.

 we went down the potholeliest street and got a huge rock stuck in between our back wheels and had to stop to get it out. the locals popped out and help us, which was so nice, the people here are very friendly.

we continued down the highway and headed into the city center and had a look around, theres only a couple of buildings to see, my favourite being the UFO university :).

we arrived at our hotel [above], which was ok, but a bit dirty, and the walls were crumbling in some of the rooms, and the driveway had collapsed part way up, but no worries. the building was complete and safe and warm and dry. :)
i just missed the sunset [poo!] but i did see some locals walking their cows. as you do.

we had salad, chips and crumbed rissoles for dinner, then got an early night.
a few of the contiki crew headed out to the bars, and alot of them said it was the best night of the whole tour, the locals were so lovely and friendly, shouting them drinks, and making sure they had an awesome time, so thanks albania for your hospitality to the contiki crew! :)