A few weeks after we got back from Croatia, my boyfriend and I left for a new adventure with my parents - a cruise on the Danube through Europe from Vienna to Belgrade. We stayed on a small-ish cruise boat, River Navigator, with about 140 guests + the crew. Here is a few thoughts about the different cities we passed through..



Vienna (Austria)
Vienna was a really nice city. As we only spent one day in most of the cities, we really only got to scratch the surface, but the surface was definitely nice. We did a bus tour with a guide, visiting all the famous places like the Hundertwasser house and St. Stephen's Cathedral. We had lunch at a place called Tel Aviv Beach, right on the river side, which was absolutely delicious, and I would highly recommend it. We also went to the top in St. Stephen's Cathedral and had some amazing vegan ice cream at Veganista! In the evening we went to a classical concert with music from Mozart ant Strauss. The music was beautiful, and it was a great experience. 




Bratislava (Slovakia)
I honestly don't feel like I spent enough time here to really get a good impression of the city. We had a walking tour, went up to the castle, and then had some free time to explore. It seemed like a quite calm and quiet place which I liked, but I think I would have to pay it another visit to give you a full opinion. Our tour guide was really funny though, and we had a great time!





Budapest (Hungary)
My favorite city from the trip! I really really loved Budapest, and I would love to go back! We were also lucky enough to spent two full days here, which was great as it allowed us to explore a bit more of the city. We went to the main tourist attractions like the citadella and liberty statue, the fisherman's bastion and the heroes' square. We also went to the Széchenyi Thermal Bath which was huge with both indoor and outdoor baths with every temperature and size. I definitely recommend going if you're in Budapest.
Two of my favorite things from Budapest were the market hall and the synagoge. The market hall was a huge indoor market with a ton of different stalls with everything from fresh fruit and veg to clothes, bags, little nicknacks, tons of dried chilli and so much more. I love markets, and just walking through all the stalls looking at so many new and interesting things is just amazing! And the synagoge was just beautiful! I have only ever been to one before, the Portuguese synagoge in Amsterdam which was also beautiful, but this one was just gorgeous! The decorations and embellishments were just breathtaking, the ceilings were unbelievable and it was just overall such a unique and amazing experience. There was also a museum and an outdoor area with some history and information there as well.








Pécs (Hungary)
Our next stop was Pécs. The ship stopped in Mohács and we took a bus in to Pécs. The town was so quiet when we were there, with hardly any people around. I think it is usually quite busy though, as it is a big university city. We walked around the old part of the city for a bit, saw an old monastery and church and just relaxed with some fresh juice..



Vukovar (Croatia)
Vukovar was such an interesting town with so much history. It is very close to the Serbian border and was the first place that was attacked during the Balkan war. It is a town that I don't think many people visit, but I am so happy that I got to experience it, with such a mix of war-weathered and new buildings, and a really special atmosphere.




Novi Sad (Serbia)
This was our first Serbian city, and it was such a cool one. I really liked Novi Sad with the big main street just for pedestrians with a ton of restaurants and shops and just so much life. There was a huge festival going on when we were there, so the whole place just seemed so happy. We mostly spent the day just walking around the city, sitting down for something to drink. We also had some ice cream, of course :) After dinner on the ship, we went back into the city for a couple of drinks and to just experience the evening life.



Belgrade (Serbia)
Belgrade is another place that I really don't feel like I have a good enough impression of. We had a bus tour around to see the main attractions and we also went for a walk in the Kalmegdan park with the fortress and inside the huge orthodox cathedral that is still being built. Our tour guide for the day was actually moving to Norway to study at the university where both my boyfriend and I are, which was a fun coincidence. After the tour we had a little bit of free time to walk around before we had lunch at a really cool place right outside the city centre. It had a kind of farm like feel to it, and we were served traditional Serbian food and there was also a live band. Then we headed off to the airport..





Spending a week on a guided tour like this was a little bit intense and I feel like sometimes you don't really get to know the place before you are on to the next. It is a really good way to experience a lot and especially the highlights of a lot of different places in a really short period of time though, so overall I really enjoyed it. The crew on the ship were also really friendly and the food was overall really nice! If I had to pick my top three destinations that we visited I would choose Budapest, Novi Sad and Vukovar. I definitely want to go back to Budapest again, and I would love to visit some of these other places sometime in the future too!

At the beginning of this summer, my boyfriend and I went to Croatia for a week of cycling. He is a big adventure cycler and has cycled across the US all by himself. He has also cycled the Pacific coast from Vancouver to San Diego + a bunch of trips in Europe as well, so naturally I was bound to end up on one of these trips at some point. We decided on Croatia because of practical reasons, but mostly because it was a country we both really wanted to visit. I had heard some amazing things about the Plitvice national park, and had really wanted to go for a while (spoiler alert: we didn't actually make it to Plitvice, but ended up somewhere probably equally as amazing).

After a not so amazing start to the trip due to Ryanair giving us a really hard time about getting the bikes on the plane (even though we had paid for them and contacted them in advance to make sure everything was okay), we arrived at the airport in Zadar on the late morning of June 12th. We (mostly Roy) assembled the bikes, mounted our panniers and rode into the city centre. We had actually been on a day trip to London the day before, so due to less than three hours of sleep + the Ryanair drama we decided to stay the night in Zadar. We spent some time exploring the city, and then we spent the night at a lovely apartment/B&B a little outside the main centre. We got a two (three?) room apartment with two double beds, a sitting area, a nice bathroom and even a baby bed.. We also had a little balcony area, and it was pretty much perfect (+ the price was great too)! It was called Villa Valentina if you're ever in the area :)




The next day we took off south along the coast. The day started with a massive down pour, but luckily it didn't last too long. After some hours on the bike and lunch at a bus shed along the way, we ended the day at Jezera Village, the most beautiful campground. It is definitely a place that I would love to come back to one day! We put up our tent, had a shower, changed, and after a little mixup with our pizza order we ate dinner, watched some football (the European championship) and went to bed.



After breakfast we continued a bit further south towards Sibenik before we headed inland with Krka national park as the next destination. Krka is one of Croatia's beautiful waterfall national parks, and it was such an amazing experience! We even got to swim in the waterfalls, which was a bit cold, but so  lovely in the hot summer sun.
After a refreshing break we continued through the Croatian inland with beautiful views along the way. We saw so many fields of wildflowers, olive threes, fruit trees, cute little houses +++ And the roads were fairly quiet as well which I was very happy about.
After a lot of uphills we reached Robeko campground, our destination for the day. It was a nice little campground, and we had a lovely evening chatting to a Spanish guy and a Swiss woman, both traveling through Europe, one by bike and one by car. 






We had really wanted to get to some of the islands a bit north of Zadar, so the next morning we continued north. It ended up being the most tiring day by far. It was absolutely beautiful, but the scorching sun and headwind + some pretty intense hills (at least for me) definitely gave their mark. When we finally got to Ražanac I was about ready to just lay down right there on the street, so we decided to skip the tent and find a bed for the night. There didn't seem to be many places to stay, but after about 25 minutes Roy returned from a tiny grocery store/kiosk with good news. The lady in the store knew another lady who had some spare room in her house and her son was coming to meet us. We were a bit sceptic as we were led through narrow alleys and sandy paths, but then the most beautiful view appeared. We were right on the beach, with the gorgeous turquoise sea and majestic mountains towering right on the other side of the water. It just goes to show that things really do work out if you just have some faith and a little bit of luck. The place itself was not the most luxurious, but it filled our needs perfectly and we had absolutely nothing to complain about. 






After three pretty long and tiring days we decided to take it a bit easy when leaving Ražanac, and that day everything seemed to go in our favor. We had a very welcome tailwind, mostly downhill and we arrived in the beautiful little town of Nin just in time for lunch. It was such a nice place with cobblestone streets, old  ruins and a really great beach. The campground was a bit stuffy, and we had staring middle-aged couples on all sides of our tent, but we really enjoyed our time nonetheless, exploring the area, chilling at the beach and eating more good food. 





The next day we returned to Zadar, where we found our beloved room that we stayed in the first night. We spent the day getting bike boxes for our return flight and ended it at the beach. The next day we just relaxed in Zadar with lunch at the amazing Garden Lounge (definitely go if you have the chance, even just for drinks) and football and dinner in our room that evening. The guys who ran the B&B gave us a lift to the airport the next morning which was amazing as we had two huge cardboard boxes and a big bag to lug around. 






Overall it was such an amazing experience. I had never been on a bike holiday before and wasn't sure what to expect, but it is definitely one of my favorite memories from this summer! It was tiring and challenging for sure, but looking back it was also so rewarding and I can't wait to go on another trip (hopefully) soon! 

Here's my little summary that I posted on instagram right after the trip:

Croatia was...
🌸Endless fields of wildflowers 

☀️Scorching sun and pouring rain 

🚴🏼Long uphills and headwind finally rewarded by speedy downhills and tailwind

🏕Beautiful campgrounds and stuffy ones too 

🐠Turquoise water 

🕷Mosquitos, lots of mosquitos 

🍕Pizza and bread 

🏰Quaint towns and helpful people 

⛰Majestic mountains and waterfalls 

🍌Cereal, bananas and water 

🙏🏼Sore legs, tiredness and feeling rewarded 

⚽️European football championship 

💕Happiness and love

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