Day 1
We departed in the early morning to catch our first train to Zwitserland. We caught a bus at 8 and we arrived an hour early for our train to Frankfurt. We had some juice at Starbucks before we entered the train. The trainride itsself went really quick. Within a few hours we arrived in Frankfurt. There we had a little pizza. Afterwards we grabbed a train to Basel. Again that train seemed to go quite quick. Around 18:00 we arrived in Basel. We decided to have some dinner there before moving on to Bellinzona.
We ate some Chinese food at a Chinese fast food restaurant. I also phoned the hostel to tell them we were coming in a bit late. From there we caught the final train to Bellinzona. Once there we walked out of the station and checked out the streetmap outside of the train station. We had to walk for about 10 minutes to get to our hostel. It turned out to be quite easy to find.
The hostel itself turned out to be very particular. It was setup in an old school institute. Once we got the key at reception we walked to our room. There we found a classroom with about 12 beds in it. The funny thing about it was that everything was still in place. The chalkboard, the hallway with the little hooks to put your jacket on etc..
We ended the day with a few beers at a local bar near the train station. There we met a local hairdresser who I talked to for a bit in Italian. Around 1am he insisted to show us the city of Bellinzona. He grabbed his bike and showed us the city center and told us a bit about the history. Afterwards we went back to the hostel and went to sleep.
Day 2
The day started early as we had set the alarm at 8 am. After breakfast we went to explore the city of Bellinzona and its castles which are on the UNESCO list of preserved buildings. The castles were quite nice to see. The second castle was a few hundred meters up the hill, which was even at 11am quite hard with the heat. After visiting the castles we ate a slice of pizza and went to the trainstation to catch our train to Locarno.
Once in Locarno we grabbed a bus, which at first was a tad hard to find. After asking around we found it. The bus took us in 20 minutes to the Verzasca Dam. The dam where James Bond bungees off from in the movie Goldeneye.
Once we arrived the dam turned out to be quite high.. According to the bungee company about 220 meters. We walked across the dam to the bungee platform. There we told them we had arrived and that we had a reservation for 15:00. We signed a form and paid the 200 euros for the jump.
Unfortunately it turned out to be a busy day for bungeeing. A load of people were waiting to do their bungy. We ended up waiting for about 2 hours. But it was worth it. The jump from the dam was incredible. I also did quite a cool jump. The 220 meter fall was great. I could finally say I had done the 2nd highest bungy in the world and the highest in Europe.
After the jump we took a bus back to Locarno. From Locarno we grabbed a train to Bellinzona. In Bellinzona we grabbed our bags and spent our last Swiss Francs on a piece of pizza. From there we grabbed a train to Milan.
Once in Milan we grabbed a metro to the hostel I had booked. We checked in, had some pizza and went to sleep. Even though we were planning to have a big night in Milan, we ended up falling asleep as the day was extremely tiring.
Day 3
Another early start. As the nighttrain to Zagreb happened to be booked up, we decided to get as East as possible by train as we could. Before grabbing the train we decided to have a little peek in Milan. We went to the cathedral and the castle in the center. Due to a little mistake on my part we at first walked the wrong direction. Due to that mistake we missed the train we were meant to take to Venice.
Once at Milan Central Station we decided to grab another train to Venice. The only problem was that this train had to be reserved, which we hadnt done. Therefor once we boared we didnt have a seat. We decided to play dumb and try to get on the train anyway. The guy checking our tickets asked us for our reservation which we didnt have obviously. He told us we had to pay an extra fee of 18 euros to board. We decided to pay the fee, as we had no choice. We had to get as close to Croatia as possible.
On the train came a begger who was giving those annoying cards asking for money. Once the personel of the train found out they threw the woman off the train. A big discussion followed where the girl even spit in the face of the guy.
Once we arrived in Venice we sat down in fron of the central station to wait for our train to Trieste. The train to Trieste happened to be a regional train which didnt require a reservation.
We got to Trieste around 16:00. In the train we met a Croatian girl who was going to the busstation to buy a ticket to Croatia. We decided to walk along with her to hopefully catch a bus to Zagreb. Once there we found a big queue of people who all needed to go to Croatia. Unfortunately the bus to Zagreb didnt run because it was Sunday. We then decided to go to Pula. Unfortunately that bus happened to be booked up already. The only bus heading to Croatia turned out to go to a place called Reikj. We decided to grab it and go from there.
The bus ride took about 2,5 hours. On the bus we met a girl from Uruguay and a girl from Australia. We had a little chat with them. It turned out the girl from Uruguay, Maria, had booked a hostel in Reikj. We decided to join her and see if we could get a room there too.
It turned out the hostel was all full, but the staff was willing to help us and told us we could sleep on the couch of the tv’room. It turned out to be a great alternative, as we happened to have the only room with a television. The people at the hostel were really friendly.
Once we checked in I had a shower and we went for a drink in the center of town together with an Irish guy, Dave, we met in the hostel and Maria.
The town turned out dead as it was a Sunday night. We had a few beers at a bar and then headed back to the hostel.
Day 4
We decided to grab a bus to the capital of Croatia, Zagreb, as we still had a bit of time left due to our success of getting to Croatia in one day. We grabbed a bus in the afternoon together with Maria, who was going the same way. We got to Zagreb in the late afternoon. Maria told us she had the directions to the hostel so we followed her. After half an hour we arrived at a hostel, but not the hostel we were meant to go to. It turned out she had the directions to another hostel. At the hostel we got us a map of the city. We found out the hostel we had a reservation happened to be quite close to the bus station. We traveled another half an hour back on the tram to the right hostel.
Once there we checked in and checked out the room. We had a little rest in the room. Afterwards I had a shower and then we went to explore town to eat some food. We ended up at a grill restaurant. We had a great dish with loads of meat for about 6 euros each which was really good.
After dinner we had a few drinks in a street full of bars. As it happened to be a Monday night there wasnt much of a party going on, which disappointed Luc a bit.
Jul 29th 2011 – Aug 1st 2011
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