Hello again everyone..

So we're strictly chillin here in Split and lovin that we are somewhere new.. the weather here is very mild.. kinda windy, but at the same time very bright and hot. I remember Split being wayyyy hotter than this, but that was because I was here earlier in the year, like july.
Either way though, we plan on just going around town and takin some photos, eatin some food and taking it ez. Tomorrow will hopefully bring an even nicer day, and we can make our way to the beach.

Anywho, I know the last thing u all want is another page long rant of things, so Ima give u all want u come here for!

Shot of us in Pest.. high atop the hill where they plunked a citadel many years ago. Great views overlooking the entire city.. man what an amaying city it is. HAVE to come back..









Had to show u all a shot of the baths.. easily the coolest experience wećve had in our time in Europe. Lots of people there, but nevertheless, an amazing experience.
Not far from the town center either.. they have several of these baths around town, however, this one according to the
tourist agency we went to, is the nicest.



Shot of Hungary's Victory Monument.. located in the heart of the city. We we astonished and in awe by the sheer beauty of this monument, and the surrounding plaza, where the sun falls on it like an ocean. Being here was the most surreal experience and it literally took our breath away.







Wanted to also give one shot from here in Split.. this is a photo of Gregorius Nin, a statue that sits in the park just outside of Diocletian's palace. You can see the tower of the cathedral just behind as well.
Its said that rubbing his large brass toe brings good luck.. we both feel our luck is very healthy at the moment, but we still rubbed it anyway!








Well that's all I can muster for now.. using the computer here is harddddd on the pockets. Thank god we saved so much money in Greece or we'd be in debt by now.
Also want to remind everyone to go and have a look at Mia's blog, as she's posted her thoughts there for you all..
It will be a couple days now probably until our next post because we will be heading to the island of Hvar on Wednesday and staying for a few days. Until next time, take care everyone, and tty soon!
xoxoxoxoxV

Hey everyone..
We've made it to Croatia (split) and are very happy to be here. The weather is a very welcomed change, being that it is kinda cool and hot at the same time.. walking through the streets is awesome because you're always in the shade and there is lots to see.
We wanted to post some of the pictures that we got from our two days in Hungary, but unfortunately, the computers here have no accessability to the main drives and I cant access my camera to load them up. Hopefully we'll be able to find a place that will allow it. Amazing considering that for an hour of usage it's a whopping 5$. Sick. Also sick is the price of accomodation here. I was very shocked to hear that everywhere here in Split town is 300KN (almost 60$) for both Maria and I to bunk per night. Disgusting really, not sick. I imagine its this way simply because the town is bustling day and night with tourists from alllll over. Even haggling with any of the guest house owners hasn't eally gotten me very far.. apparently me being a croat doesn't entitile me to any special pricing. Maybe it did in the past, but not when they have toursists happily paying top-dollar.
Other than that though, we're so happy that we made it here and that we're on the last leg of our long journey. Hungary was absolutely amazing. The pictures we have speak volumes and I won't even begin to describe the fabulous 36 hours we had there. It is easily the most beautiful city that we've seen so far on this trip, and we simply have to find our way back to see it again.
Anyways, that's my two bits on the sitch.. and here's mia's.. MOM WHAT'S YOUR #!!!!!!!!!! k bye

WOW is the best word to describe Budapest. It is BY FAR the most beautiful place i've ever seen in my life. The architecture is breathtaking. Everything about it is amazing. Let me tell you about our day there...

We arrived in Budapest at 6 am local time and lugged our massive amounts of luggage (we've accumulated too much, its good that were going home soon) onto the bus and metro to get downtown Budapest. We walked off of the metro exhausted and looked up into the back of one of the many beautiful cathedrals sprawled around the city. Breathtaking...
What was also breathtaking was the stupid amount of hours we walked around the city trying to find accomodation because we took a wrong turn. But finally we found a very central place, quite cozy (and too overpriced) but good. We took an hour nap and decided a bus tour would be the easiest and fastest way to see all the city has to offer and give us a tease of what we can do next .(Vlads great idea)
We were just astonished at how beautiful the place was. So by this time it was around 4.30pm and I really wanted to go and visit a thermal bath house. ( something told me i should insist)
Wow are we really glad we went. We arrived at 5pm and had two hours to just relax. The bath house was built by the Turks during their occupation of Hungary (cant remember exactly when) but they are beautiful. The 9 separate pools have differing temperatures from 18 degrees to 39 degrees. You are surrounded by huge stone columns and thats just inside. There is also a huge outdoor pool with statues doubling as fountains everywhere. The courtyard (which is what the pool is basically) is painted a bright yellow and the sun decided to come out for our adventure to the baths. The most exhilarating part of the experience was when you go from a 39 degree bath into one that is as cold as a bathtub filled with ICE WATER.. IT was brilliant. Imagine your skin coming to life with little prickles everywhere. It was such an adrenaline rush.. well never forget that...

So to top off our wonderful day in Budapest, we had a brilliant dinner at a restaurant on this popular street filled with other restaurants. (we will post a picture of our meal at a furthur date)

We had a nice sleep in finally cool weather (what a treat) and the next day we found our way to the museum of terror. Quite possibly the most interesting and detailed museum weve ever seen. They did a fantastic job on it. The museum is dedicated to everything about WWII .. The Soviet and Nazi Occupation and everything about them. They even had a base ment where they recreated the torture and holding cells. It was very real, and EXTREMELY interesting to see what the people had suffered. Plus the pictures of all of the devastation to their bridges and buildings... quite something.

Anyways, we had an amazing time there, never forget it!!So were in beautiful Split and its nice to have Vlad speaking the same language, although it kind of sucks that we dont get any special rates to rooms etc because Vlad speaks the language, but its nice nonetheless. The people are very nice and its cool to hear another language once again. Its unfortunate that its not as inexpensive as we first thought.
Love everyone. Keep in touch...
xoxo mia

Hello everyone..

So today we're hangin around the house and getting everything taken care of before we finally depart from Athens. Greece has been a wonderful experience, and we've enjoyed our time here for the most part. Staying here for such a long time has definitely gotten on our nerves a tad, mostly just because we became so used to doing our own thing, and being dependent on noone but ourselves. That was definitely not the case being here in Greece, as Maria's family consistently broke the generosity barrier on a day to day basis. It was a real treat to get to meet all of Mia's family, and I loved being able to explore and find this great country and all its treasures.

Things I will miss the most from Greece you ask?? Hmm well lets see..
- the souvlaki
- the beaches
- the plentiful pretty ladies
- the mullets

Things I will not miss so much...
- the heat my god the heat
- the music
- the prices
- the mullets

So the clothes are washing, our bags are refilling and bulging at the seams, and we're very anxious to get back on the road and explore all thet Budapest has to offer. We're going to try and catch as many z's as we can throughout the day before we go for one last souvlaki-fest so that we have enough energy to wake up at 3am and get to the airport. We plan on getting in after 6am in Budapest and finding a room hopefully by 7 if all goes well; grab a couple hours sleep, and then go balls to the wall, drink 5 espressos, and tour the city as fully and thoroughly as we can.

So there you have it.. the next 72 hours will be a rush fa' sho'. Once we get into Split we will call everyone so you guys, expect a call.
Mom if you read this, please send me your # and we will send you ours once we get there as well.. can't wait to see you two and hopefully you've been enjoying your trip so far! Sis, it was awesome to have the chance to talk to you! Give Mikey and Matty my best and expect another call soon.

To everyone else, stay cool and hope you're all doing well. Check back soon! xoxox
V & M

Wow.. SO sorry to have left you all in the dark for so long now.
Alright, so we're back in Athena for today. We made it back over to the mainland last night on the ferry and took a slight nap since trying to sleep on the boat was like trying to sleep with a jackhammer laying beside you. Bleh.

Our time on Crete was very nice. We got LOTS of sun, saw lots of beach, and met lots of people. It was sad to leave Mia's Grandparents at the end of it all, but with the way they take care of themselves, I'm sure we'll get plenty more opportunities to see them again soon enough.
It is good to be back in Athens though, and getting our trip back on the road so to speak. We leave from here tomorrow in the morn and head West to a town called Tripoli. Mia's sister lives there now, and we're going to go and visit here for a couple of days before we leave Greece. Mia and I are both very excited to be moving on towards Croatia, as I've learned about as much Greek as I think I will remember, and the thought of getting to see my rents is just too sweet.

Anyways, since we have left the blog unattended for so long, we thought we would do a nice large post (specially since now we're not paying 4 euro an hour!). Without further aideu...


We had the privilege of staying for one night only in a small town in the south west of Crete called Kantanos. This is a shot from the street where you enter this cool little town.







Maria x 2 in Yianni's Bakery in Kantanos. After a long hiatus, Maria was finally thrown back into the kitchen to prepare some sweets.. ..







...annnnnd so was I! Me and the bakerman himself! Yiannis & Maria are top drawer (thanks Kath) and they couldn't be better hosts. They invited us in and took care of all the arrangements.. what a pair!! Thanks again guys, we had a fantastic time :)







From Left to Right: Me, Maria, Adonis, and Irini sitting in front of Yiannis bakery in Kantanos. Adonis & Irini are 2nd cousins to Mia and Maria is Mia's 3rd cousin (she thinks) hehe.
Stayed for the night and enjoyed great drinks, great food, and great company.. you guys rock!




This is a shot from our hotel rooftop in Rethymno, another city on Crete. We got a pretty nice room for a couple nights and took some time to ourselves to tour the city. Very cute little fishing city, and the pool on the roof was certainly a nice touch.. beach and sand were close by, but come on! Whooo can turn down a swim after eight oclock with the sun going down?




As we were walking through town, we stumbled across this old-school Turkish Mosque that was erected some time ago, obviously.
This is one thing that I like the best in Greece, aside from the food, and steller haircuts; the old mixed with the older, mixed with the new.. it can be quite beautiful.



A show of the waters waving up onto the beach at Chrissi Island.. we took a ferry for a day trip here to one of the most pristine beaches that Greece has to offer. At first I was a bit teed off becuase I cut a chunk of skin off of my toe, and Mia hurt herself in much the same way.. but once we got past the first set of rocks, playing in the waves took all our worries away!




My lady and I sitting down and enjoying the cool breeze and the hot sun.. are we getting darker?? Its actually kinda tough for us to tell for sure..






This is a shot of the Chorio from the top of a small hill located just a couple minutes walk away. You can see just how high up it is (particularily in the next picture) and gives a very good idea of the landscape.







So yeah, as you can see, quite high up from sea level.. we decided to take a small walk that night and head up. Totally worth it once it cooled off because we were able to get some stunning pics of the valley!






A cute pic of Mia's fam. Her grandpa, grandma, and dad sitting at the house our last night at the chorio.







And now, we would like to take a moment from this post to honour a "special" influence to our trip. Yiannis Marcakis. Our chauffeur, our banker, and fearless navigator, he has been key to our time here in Greece. With sayings such as, "Mia, why don't you just go kill yourself, and jump in the ocean", to "Get that Shieat off yo' face".. and who could forget, "C'mon Mia, wake up and smell the reality". However, all though these are all 100% classics, they still cannot beat being in a pitch black room with Mia and him, only to hear him whisper at 3 AM, "Mia.. ..... ..... I can't see!"


A nice pic to end it all off on.. we just happened to be driving back to Iraklio to catch the ferry at that perfect time of the night when the sun is not very bright, and casts a beautiful stream of colours across the sky.. I tried to get a shot once the sun hung over the ocean, but the quicker we drove, the quicker it dipped out of sight. Oh well, I'm sure we won't be deprived of any sunsets in Croatia!




Alright! Hope you all got your picture fixes for a little while.. as per the usual, more to come as we find our way to Budapest and beyond..
Take it away Mia!

So you may all be wondering what our plans are next? We will be going to Budapest as Vlad said for a day, flying into Split on August 26th. While in Croatia, we will be trying to make a detour to Slovenia's capital Ljubljana.(fingers crossed) From Zagreb we will be taking a bus or train to Munich possibly a few days earilier than our departure date which is September 19th. We would also like to see a bit of Munich while were there, which will put our country count (if we see all the places we'd like to see) up to 8!!! yay. So yeah. The next few days we will just be tying up loose ends. We may possibly make it up to see my Great Grandmother if we can swing it which would be pretty cool.

The weather in Athens is supposed to reach upwards of 40 degrees, so hope for the best, although we have suffered far hotter and more humid weather in the tropics of SE Asia.

It seems like such a far way we've come from those scared kids we were from the start of the trip. Now that we think back, we were different people it seems like. Now we feel as if we can really face ANYTHING head first. No doubts on our abilities anymore, and fear, forget it!

Anyway, hope everyone is doing well. We officially have ONE MONTH left. Crazy. Let us know whats going on! Miss everyone lots...
xoxoxo
Mia (&V) !

Hey all!

So now we're in a place called Rethymno, still on the island of Crete.
It's a pretty nice little fishing type town that we're staying in for a few nights before we make our way back to the chorio.

We spent yesterday in a small village called Kadanos, and had a ball of a time! We stayed in a nice little room that Maria ( a different one) set up for us. We had the chance to meet a bunch of extended family, and I have to say, the Greek hospitality is top drawer. We didn't want to leave!
Everyone was so nice, and I want them to know, if they are reading this, that we had the best time and wish we could have stayed longer. Hopefully we will you all you guys in Athens when we get back to party it up!
Big thanks going out to Yiannis, Maria, Adonis and Irini, among others for making our time there so memorable. You guys are truly the best!

We found a nice little internet cafe, so pics will be posted tomorrow for you all.. not much else to report.. stay happy everyone!

V

Hey everyone! We have arrived in a slight paradise. Its quite different from the quiet village we were at for a week and a bit. But its a nice welcomed change.
We found a cute room for rent, a bit steep for our cheap Asia travels 30euro for a night as opposed to like 7 euro, but whatever. You gotta roll with it. Its been an interesting couple of days, with family drama (no no drama, i dont want no drama) but now things have gotten better and Vlad and i will be spending time by ourselves again which is how we like it!!
We are getting SOOOO excited to go to Croatia.... YAY. And were excited to see Vlads familla. I miss Vera and Stan. so yeah. hmm what else...
We reallyare enjoying it here!! yay.
Yesterday we went to the beach and we played in these 6 feet waves. they were pretty amazing. The only not so amazing thing is that my glasses got thrown off my face as i got pummeled by the water.. sniffle sniffle. It made me really sad...But i bought these cheap aviators to go to the beach in so i cant see anything, but at least the sun wont beat down on my eyes. I will just have to purchase a new pair when i get home. Plus winter is coming soon, so I wont be needing them as much as i need them now... tear...
Today were going to Elafonissi, a really beautiful island just off the south coast here. As we were driving from East to West across the island, the scenery changes so drastically. Its so much greener on this side. Almost reminds me of Canada, but then you open the window and feel the 35 degree weather and see the most blue ocean you've ever seen, and you are quickly reminded that you arent in Canada... But for all of the beautiful things our travels have to offer, im missing home quite a bit these days. We just have so much to look forward to.. and just so everyone can mark their calendars, SEPTEMBER 19th well be home, so family,(Rozic side) are going to go out to the Olive Garden (yay kath and matt) for a SUPER wicked dinner all together. We miss you guys....(and everyone else..)
Ok, well, im gonna boogie. Were gonna go and chill at the room until we go take off for the beautiful island. We will post some pictures soon because the internet cafe we found is quite rockin and fast..
hugs and kisses for all. kath, keep the updates coming, its so nice to hear whats up. Tell Mikey happy birthday for me. (and vlad too)
Everyone else, post whats going on with you too!!
Love..Mia

Hey everyone!

Just one for you all today..

This is a shot from the beach today.. obviously. The waves were so big here that upon gettin hit with one, Maria lost her sunglasses (prescription) and was definitely put out by it.. quite a shame since we travelled a long way today from the Chorio to get here to the south west corner of Crete.. honestly, I dunno what the name of this town even is.. we found some "cheap" accomodation and like the rooms that we got, and this town is very Vancouver Islandish.. I feel very at home here, and its easily one of the nicest places I've been to so far in our Greek travels. Too bad that we'll only be here for a couple of days :(

My dear parents are in ROME right now.. one step closer, and I'm hoping that they got there okay. Every day we're getting more excited to move on to the next stop, which will be Hungary for a full day 1/2 to do some exploring before we head off to Croatia. We've sorta planned where we're going to be heading once there, but its tough to say pre-emptively. So far, I would like to think that we're going to stay in Split for a couple days, and then head off to the island of Hvar for a couple days as it sounds and looks quite beautiful. From there, meet my parents and head with them to Dubrovnik.

Our tans are getting very tasty my friends. We're making up for it in a big way since there are so many friggen beaches here.. man, its like everywhere you turn there is the ocean. I LOVE IT!
Even this town.. on both sides of it is the ocean.. if you're not looking where you're going, you're gonna fall in whether you like it or not.
The weather has been nice, but unfortunately, we saw a couple of clouds today. I know.. I was quite sad. Though they were nowhere near the sun and didn't save us a second of scorching heat, it still brought a tear to my eye; for that was the end of the 2 week cloudless sky.

Anyways, its getting late here and a kid is crying out on the street and I am getting increasingly agitated.. soooooooo I better cut it here.
Hope everyone is doin well, and keep posted.. more to come as always from the Mia and Vlad show.. L8a!

V

Hello everyone!

As mentioned in my last post, everything is well and good on our end. We are in Ierapetra at the moment, which is a small town right on the southern coast of Crete. The weather is perfect and we're doing good.. aside from my knee.

Yesterday we went to Water City water park up near the North Coast and spent the day there. Everything was going well and good until we decided to go on this zipline over the pool and then jump in.. I happened to forget that the pool is only a couple meters deep, and when I went to perform a cannonball, my knee hit on the bottom of the pool pretty hard. Admitedly, it could be a whole lot worse, as I slept on it and walking around today is feeling a lot better than I expected.. it did swell up pretty good though. Oh well, if thats as bad as it gets on a four month trip, I'll still come home laughin ;)

And of course, as promised, MORE PICS!


Here is Maria x 2, and their Grandparents at the chorio.. They have been so nice to me since I've been here and have really made me feel at home. The house that we're staying in is very new and quite nice.. only problem is that some days (particularily like today) are very hot, and at night, without A/C, its kinda warm indoors.




Alright, as you all know I have to take pictures of all the great food that we have had the privilege of eating, and this is the best example of it here in Greece. The souvlaki is out of this world, and it deeply saddens me whenever I eat it becuase I realize after every bite that it is only a matter of time before I won't be able to eat it anymore. *sheds a tear*. Why can't they make it like this in Canada?!?! Damnit!




Here we have the lovely Maria enjoying the sun on one of the numerous and plentiful beaches here on Crete. Mostly the beaches that we've been to are rocky, but there are plenty that are sandy. The water here is heavenly since it is nice and cool and very clear. Swimming here is a pleasure!






A pic of Mia and I at the Palace of Knossos. We made a trip of it a couple days ago, and went around the entire are to snap shots and read about the birthplace of Zeus, and the Minotaur.
The shade was nice to see at the bottom of the hill where we decided to sit down and take a couple photos.








And to end it off, a nice shot of the beach for your viewing pleasure!







So there you have it! Our plans for the next couple days are to relax and attend a couple of beach parties held in the towns close to our own, and then on Tuesday, we'll head off for a drive to the other end of the island to a place called Hania. We'll stay there for a week or so, and then find our way back to Mournies for a couple more days before we head back to Athens on the 18th.

We want to extend our bon voyage to Mama and Papa Rozic on their journey to Rome! Can't wait to see you two and thank you mom for the numbers!

Alright, time to go hop in the ocean.. this net cafe is very hot without and ac, and I wanna go eat some souvlaki, soooooo byeo!
V

Hello all!

Kalispera!!!

Many sorries for not posting in the last couple of days.. we've been pretty busy and moving around alot. We are currently on the Island of Crete, in a tiny town called Mirtos, which is down the hill from the Chorio (like "selo" in Croatian/"villiage" in english). Yes, you heard right. We are literally staying in the villiage of Maria's Dad and I've had the pleasure of meeting her Grandparents who are the kindest most lovely people..
Mournies is a very small villiage and there isn't too much to do outside of go to the beach during the day, and sit and watch the stars at night... which is just fine by me. The views are spectacular, and we can get around the island in style... by this I mean, John drives us around in a brand new honda odyssey.

It's odd at times to think of what kind of a transformation our trip has taken. One second we're living out of a backpack in a foreign country, taking buses and trains and god knows what else, to going to a place with a completely different climate, terrain, and being totally and completely taken care of.. it's definitely a trip, and we're loving our time in Greece so far very much.

Anyways, I need to cut this post short since we're on our way to the ocean, so I will just say that once we find our way back to Ierapetra, and have more internet time, pics will be updated in a big way. Tomorrow we will be heading to a water park for a day of fun in the sun and it should be sweet. The weather here is nothing short of perfect and we're also looking forward to a beach party that will be here in Mirtos in a couple nights.. yeeeeeehaw!

Alright, peace out everyone, and talk to you all soon. stay tuned!!

V