Europe – Page 2 – ThePassportPrincess

Day 69 – Rome

October 23, 2015June 13, 2016SarahLeave a comment

I left my apartment in Split, Croatia just after 11am and headed to the airport.
My flight for Rome didn’t leave until about 3pm but I needed to walk down to the bus terminal with all my stuff and get a ticket.

Thank god I left when I did because it started pouring with rain as soon as I got to the terminal.
I bought my ticket and then waited for the next bus which was at 11.45am.

The bus ride was long, and everyone was so pushy trying to get on.
Eventually I got to the airport and checked in my over weight bag. And again, they didn’t charge me. Woohoo!
Maybe they understand that I need a lot of products to make me look half decent some days haha.

The airport was verrrry average. There wasn’t even anything to eat really. I just ended up buying some kit kats from duty free and nibbling on those while I waited for my flight.

When it was time the board, I kind of laughed at how small the plane was. Oh well, I guess I was only flying to Rome haha!
The time on the flight was spent talking to the lady next to me. I think she was slightly nervous flying on that small aircraft so we sat and chatted and she showed me her pictures of Croatia. She was actually from Split but had moved to Australia years and years ago. She just went back to Split to bury her mother as she had passed away recently which was sad.

It was good to meet someone new though to add to my list of ‘people I talk to on planes’
The flight wasn’t too long, and when I landed I tried to decide whether to catch the train or catch a bus.
The bus seemed cheaper so I went with that option.
I probably should have taken the train though because I had to wait for the bus for over 20 minutes.
Then when it came, everyone was so rude and just shoved past each other to get on. I had already loaded my bag underneath the bus so luckily I got on by probably pushing in front of a few people too. (But in a nice, slip-in-there way) not like some people who blatantly just stood right in front of you when they used to be 4 people behind you.

The bus took way longer than I expected, we got stuck in afternoon traffic so I didn’t get to my hostel until about 7.30pm.
It was easy enough to walk to from the train station (which was where the bus stopped) it was just so painful having to carry all that luggage 😣😣

I stayed at The Yellow Hostel and if you’re ever in Rome and want some cheap accommodation, I really recommend it. The rooms are all good, not super fancy or anything but I roomed with 3 other girls and we had our own shower and toilet.
The Yellow Hostel is spread out along one street, so they have like 3 different buildings where all the bedrooms are and they have their own pub/club too where you can get food 24/7 and good drinks!

They also have some entertainment on at night on certain days. That night they had a magic show and I saw this guy put his whole body in a balloon haha.

I headed to the bar as soon as I’d re-done my face and funnily enough I bumped into Nick who was on my Top deck tour through Europe haha. He was staying at the hostel as me so I sat down with him and we grabbed some late dinner from the bar.

I ended up talking to this American girl for a while over some drinks and then these Aussie’s came and joined us for more drinks. After a night of drinking and dancing I headed off for my first nights sleep in Rome at about 3am 😴

Day 68 – Split #2

October 23, 2015June 13, 2016SarahLeave a comment

Sunday 18th October

Today was my second to last day in the city of Sunny Split.

I was feeling a bit lazy so decided I needed to get out of the apartment and go for a walk.
As it was a Sunday, it was pretty quiet in Split. I Googled the nearest gym and as it was only a 15 minute walk I put on my gym gear and headed off.

Unfortunately, like I said, it was a Sunday and the gym was closed 😧
I was actually determined to do a good sweaty work out as well haha. At least my abs were hurting a little bit because I did 100 crunches and leg lifts in the apartment the afternoon before.

Thankfully, the gym I had headed to was right next door to the only mall I’d seen while I was in Split.
I decided to check it out and it wasn’t too bad!

new_yorker_1_5347de714f213

I went into this store called The New Yorker and ended up trying on like 5 different bras that just didn’t fit me 😟 I swear they only had one size and they were just too big!
I did however buy a winter scarf (Even though it’s summer back home) and another lighter scarf for Dubai.

I was feeling a bit hungry after that so decided to go to McDonald’s Haha!
It was downstairs and cheap so I thought why not. I was trying to toss up between a burger and a wrap but the healthy side of me decided on the chicken wrap with fries 😑
It was probably the best chicken wrap I’ve had from McDonald’s as well!
Usually they’re really stingy with the amount of sauce they put in it, but this Croatian Maccas put lots of this salsa sauce and it ended up being really yum. It even had cheese in it! So I doubt it was that healthy… haha.

colombia_mcwrap

I was pretty over shopping by this point so headed back to the apartment.
I felt I’d pretty much seen all of Split that I wanted to see so had a pretty chilled out afternoon. I took advantage of the Wi-fi the apartment had and pretty much streamed 6 episodes of MTVS Teen Mom 2 on my laptop.
It sure made the time go by!

Before I knew it, it was past dinner time so I hopped in the shower and gave my skin a good scrub with this amazing scrub I got from London. I wish I could buy more and take some home with me of my luggage allowed it!

As it was my last night in Croatia, I went for a walk down from where I was staying and got myself a yummy banana split sundae. The guy at the shop couldn’t understand why I mixed the flavors I chose but I thought Chocolate, yogurt and strawberry were delicious together!

I had a semi-early night after my yummy sundae. My flight was the next day at 3.55pm so I packed some of my luggage and then headed off to sleep 😴

Day 66 & 67 – Split (Croatia)

October 22, 2015June 13, 2016Sarah1 Comment

Friday 16th October & Saturday 17th

This is the first time that ive done 2 days in 1 post, but the Friday when we got back to Split wasnt super interesting.
We arrived in the afternoon and then all went out for dinner at this Italian resturant.

I had a really yummy lasagna (I don’t think I’ve eaten this much lasagna in a month haha) One of the guys on our Sail Croatia trip lost a game of ‘chances’ so he had to go and get a tattoo done. He got ‘Hakuna Matata’ on his wrists which actually turned out looking quite cool. Plus I love the lion king haha.

We all went out to a cocktail bar afterwards and had some yarns and some drinks but as lots of people had flights to catch in the morning it ended up kind of being an early night for a few of us.

The next morning we had to be off the boat by 8.30am.
I’d already packed some of my stuff the night before so when I woke up I had a shower and packed the last of my things into my already overflowing bag 😑
I’d organized to stay in Split for the next 2 nights at an Air B’n’B
If you’ve never used Air B’n’b before I highly recommend it (especially if you’re travelling as a couple)
It’s a website for people around the world to list their home, holiday house or apartment for people to stay in. So if you go onto their website, you can scroll through and find somewhere pretty much anywhere in the world to stay.
I Googled it and it has over 1,500,000 listings in 34,000 cities and 190 countries.

If you look on Airbnb there’s some awesome places that people rent out. Like homes underground, penthouse apartments and cool caravans.
You can either opt to have the whole place to yourself (some people own apartments or holiday homes) or you can share the house with the owners which is always a good way to meet people.

I got a studio apartment to myself in the center of Split. I organised to meet up with one of the owners at 9.30am so I had some time to kill. When I left the boat, I went to a cafe and had a croissant for breakfast and waited in the shelter while it absolutely poured down with rain.

When the owner Jure came and met me, the weather had cleared up and the sun was out yay! 🌞
He carried my heavy backpack for me all the way to the apartment which was nice of him. Along the way, he told me a little bit about the city and places to see. He worked at a restaurant just around the corner from where I was staying so I knew of somewhere to eat.

The apartment was up 4 flights of stairs so I was happy he was carrying my bag haha. I swear Croatia just doesn’t use elevators anywhere! They’re very behind with a lot of things.
The apartment was exactly what it looked like in the pictures. It was so cute! And so close to the local shops and restaurants.

I can’t crop the black boxes out of these pictures unfortunately

When Jure left me, I went for a walk to Diocletians Palace which is an ancient palace built by the Roman emperor Diocletian. It’s right in the center of Split and even though it’s referred to as a “palace” because of its intended use as the retirement residence of Diocletian, the term can be misleading as the structure is massive and more resembles a large fortress: about half of it was for Diocletian’s personal use, and the rest housed the military garrison.

There’s lots of places to eat in the palace, along with souvenir shops and places to buy bags and jewelry etc.
I stopped and listened to this really good Capella group which was nice and took lots of pictures.

I also went and bought a new SD card for my phone because I’d run out of room from all the pictures I’ve been taking lately!

Eventually after my exploring, I went to the local grocery store and bought an apple and a yogurt. Along with a couple of ciders and some corn chips with salsa haha.
The next 2 days I’d planned at the apartment just to chill out and relax a bit so that’s exactly what I did.
I ate my corn chips and watched some Orange Is The New Black on my tablet. I read some of my book and then got ready to head out and watch the rugby.

In New Zealand, Rugby is obviously a big deal because we’re so great at it and all. 😜
That night they were playing France in the quarter finals and seeing as I thought it was a big deal, I assumed some bar in Croatia would be playing it live on TV.
I got changed and headed out to the local sports bar but they were only playing Football (soccer) that night.
Turns out every bar was only playing football!
I’d seen a sign at a restaurant saying “rugby live tonight” so I went there and they were closed!! 😳
I was so annoyed.

So I went back to the apartment and tried about 10 different live streaming sites to try and watch it online but none of them worked.
Eventually, I ended up Skyping my friend Ben from Contiki who lives in Australia and was watching it on his TV. He set up the Skype on his iPad facing the TV so I could watch it. I only got to watch the last 40 minutes but it was better than nothing and it was such a good game!
We won against France

I ended up going to sleep about 2am after I’d Skyped Ben for like 3 bloody hours and had eaten my apple and yogurt. (Probably my first healthy thing I’d had all month)
🍎🍎