After we arrived in Zagreb at midday we continued to the Plitvice Lakes, half way Croatia. This is a national park with a total of sixteen lakes and a surrounding forest. It was hard to withstand the prohibition to swim in these lakes; they all had the green-blue water look and there were thousands of really big fish swimming in there. To avoid the mass of tourists we took the longest walk possible and met only 5 people. Only at the end we could practice our too-many-tourist-at–one-place-penguin-like walk. We camped close by and after the heavy thunder the next morning we took the bus to Split, because the bus to Zadar did not arrive. That night in Split we run off to the beach for our first dive in sea, there would be many more dives, sea and salt during the next weeks. In Biograd na Moru we took a diving course and that was really amazing! All those fishes and other sea-beings so close by …..!!!! With our diving certificate we continued to south Croatia, Dubrovnik. This is a beautiful city, especially the old part with the city walls and all the historic buildings. From Dubrovnik a bus brought us to Bar, Montenegro, were we took the night train towards Skopje, Macedonia. It was a hell of a job to get a ticket for the train but we managed to get a place. Communication was pretty hard; most people didn’t speak English or German. The good thing was there were almost no tourists, finally! After the funny experiences of the train journey we paid a taxi from Skopje to Lake Ohrid. The lake and its surroundings were impressive but I never got the idea to be welcome here. We took busses from Ohrid to Bitola to Florina to Athens where we arrived at 5 am. With sleepy eyes we thought of what to do in an enormous city where everyone was still asleep. Later on that day we visited the Acropolis, the grave of the Unknown Soldier and some other highlights of Athens. The next day we left and took the boat from Piraeus to Paros. From Paros to Naxos, Amorgos and Samos. The Greek islands were beautiful, the beaches, the houses, the people, the food, it was all typical Greece… Not a country I would visit again soon but I’m happy I’ve seen it. Getting the right boat at the right place and time was really a big job causing a lot frustrations and fun. At Naxos, Maaike fought with some kind of poisonous sub aquatic grass leaving nasty scars on her face…the combination of 35 degrees Celsius, burning sun, no doctor close around and a scooter to get back to the other site of the island wasn’t much fun. I was really happy Maaike got through it pretty well. We entered Turkey via Kuşadasi were we tested our diving skills for the last time. Pammukale was the next stop. Salt lakes, underground hot water baths and Ephesus. Be-a-utiful again. The last few days we spend in Istanbul, a mix between Asia and Europe indeed. Large, many many people, the Bosporus, Topkapi, Haghia Sophia, the grand bazaar, the Blue Mosque, Turkish baths, thee, water pipes, fake famous brands and we ate lots of delicious kebab!