Korcula

Korcula!

Hey everybody, I hope you’re all having a great time! And I hope your enjoying my blog; if you have any questions, comments or criticisms, feel free to email me!

Yesterday we took the ferry from Split across the rolling waves of the Adriatic on a small catamaran and met up with our friend Ruth on Korcula (Kor-Chu-la… I think). It’s quite the place, with a charming castle that encircles the old city and has the mark of Venice (the winged lion) cut into the stone over most gates. Rumor has it that the famous explorer of the East, Marco Polo was born here. Also, there’s supposed to be some tennis courts around here somewhere, I’m gonna check them out! Oh and our apartment here is great, after two nights in a room about half the size of my family’s kitchen, it was nice to have my own room and an actual bed.

(Four days later)

Well its our last day in Korcula, today were taking the 2:45 bus to Dubrovnik, where we’ll be staying two nights before flying to Barcelona. I haven’t written anything for a while because, we haven’t been doing a whole lot of noteworthy stuff.  For the first few days the weather kind of sucked so we stayed in and tried to get some stuff done. But if there is a place to be lazy, its here!

Finally, when the weather cleared off we were able to explore a little more of the island. When the weather was nice we were able to see across the sparkling blue water to the adjacent islands and the mainland in the East. The red tiled roof houses give it a warm feeling, and watching countless little boats bob around together in the rolling swells, makes certain parts of the water appear to be a rolling carpet of masts and whitewashed cabins.

            Yesterday we got the chance to go with some local friends of ours and drive out to their friend’s farm. It was one of the nicest day so far and the drive along the island was beautiful, after a while we turned onto a little gravel road that lead in, through a forest of olive trees. We drove up to a small stone house in a patch cleared of the local fauna. It belonged to a Croatian/Canadian/Jamaican man named Nick and his wife Mary from England. They asked us if we could help them clear up their property for a little bit to build up and appetite before lunch. We all readily agreed, donned the work gloves and set to hauling dead branches from one pile into the bonfire. Once we were done with the first, we walked through the fields until we reached the next, and then continued along until we must have burnt half a forest. It felt great to finally get some exercise.

We retired to their patio that was blissfully cool after the midday heat; we threw some logs into their giant clay oven/grill and started her up. We had bought some supplies that morning and before long there were Croatian burgers (about as thin a pancakes) sizzling away over the hot coals. The people were great, and after a few Croatian burgers and a beer or two everyone was in good spirits. 

Micky cooking some Croatian Burgers

Nick started telling us his story, about how, when he was just 8 years old his family tried to escape from communist Yugoslavia over the mountains across the border and into Italy, he was the only one who didn’t make it. Just as they were nearing the border, someone lit a match to have a cigarette. The patrols spotted it and started shooting in the air. His mother dropped his hand to pick up his younger brother, after hours of trooping through the mountains he was exhausted and unable to keep up with the rest, finally he crawled under a bush and fell asleep unable to walk any further. When he woke up in the morning he was alone on the hill, unable to decide where to go, he chose a random direction and started walking. He ran into some patrols, who not knowing what to do with a random 8 year old in the middle of nowhere sent him back to the city. He spent several days in the women’s jail and then was sent to an orphanage/re-education home for two months. He was kicked out of school because of his “anti-government” ideas and those of his parents. For two years his parents didn’t know if he was dead or alive and when they found out, they managed to get him a passport and fly him to Canada where they had escaped to. He lived in Canada for 15 years until he decided to travel and ended up in Jamaica. But, when he was 28 he was forced to leave his whole life there behind because of the revolution, he said he was lucky to escape with his life. At 30 he moved back to Croatia with his wife Mary. While we were in the fields he looked up at the clear blue sky and around at his groves and said, “there’s no place I’d rather live, this must be heaven on earth eh?”    

From left to right: Boris, Me, Nick, Ric.

Ooops a flat tire!

Trojir, Croatia

Trogir's castle

Pretty nice place they have here! Were now staying in an extremely small apartment in the town of Trogir, right outside the larger town of Split. Yesterday was crazy, during the night a huge storm had blown in and it was raining and blowing like crazy! It was a seriously rocky ferry ride to the island of Krk the wind was plowing over 80 Mph and when it started to rock the car back and forth we decided to take a lunch break and hopefully wait for the wind to die down a little. We stopped into the “Garfield Grill” and had some tasty Vienershnitzel. Apparently around 10 campers had actually been blown over on the bridge and had to be towed away. Even after we got back on the road, the wind was blowing so hard it was blowing us from side to side on the narrow road that dropped right off into the sea. Then we escaped to the inland toll road only to be diverted way up into the mountains where it started to snow.

Eventually though, we rolled into Trogir at around 6:30 and thanked our lucky stars that we had made it. Trogir is a small island town with only about 20,000 people, most of the buildings have been here for over 700 years and since 700 years ago nobody had cars, the buildings are spaced closely together. This makes it all the easier to get lost, one of my favorite things to do in these old towns, when your lost you are able to happen upon things you would have never found in a million years if you’d been looking for them.

Jelka Kalebota of Rooms Dobra where we stayed in Trogir

We even  happened on our apartment when we were lost as a matter of fact. The lady whose house we’re staying in looks just like Meryl Streep from “Sophie’s Choice”.  We think Meryl Streep apprenticed with her for the role. It was fascinating to talk to her, she grew up in communist Yugoslavia under Tito, so her outlook is completely different from most Americans. When she was a girl she used to wait in line for 3 or 4 hours just to get some milk and a loaf of bread. So naturally, she doesn’t take the little things for granted like most people do.  She had some incredible stories. After hearing her talk about her past it was hard not to imagine what this same city was like just over 20 years ago (Croatian declared independence in 1991).    

The harbor in Trogir!

Losinj:

Man, what a lazy afternoon, this is our third night in Croatia it sure is beautiful, but I have to say, its not quite Slovenia. It’s slightly lacking in great culinary experiences, and people are kind of grumpy.

Hi everybody!

When I left off last time our strange supervisor lady had just shown us into our room and then left disappearing into the night with our passports (and although she returned both of my parents passports she still has mine for some suspicious reason). We roamed around town trying to find somewhere to eat since all we’d had all day was a little granola and 1/3 of a doughnut so we were all starving. Unfortunately though by this time it was almost midnight and there were hardly any restaurant’s open, but by some miracle we happened upon a decent looking pizza place and I tell ya pizza never tasted so good. 

The past day and a half we’ve just spent being lazy, walking around the island, playing tennis, reading, writing and still trying to recover from jet lag. As I mentioned earlier, so far Croatia hasn’t quite lived up to its northern counter part: Slovenia. The people here a more brisk and short tempered and definitely don’t like to chat, quite the opposite of Slovenians who you couldn’t get to stop talking! Also, everything is super expensive here for some reason so we’ve been staying in and eating pasta almost every night since we left because restaurants are so expensive. But apart from that this really is a great place, and we’ve been lucky enough to have great weather so far! Tomorrow we have a 5-hour car ride and a ½ hour long ferry ride. Then (hopefully) we’ll end up in the small island town of Trogir, right outside the larger town of Split.  
Ill try and put up some more pictures later!
I hope you all are doing well!

Leaving Slovenia

At the top of the pass

Well, were leaving Slovenia… its been amazing and I’ve promised myself that sometime I’ll come back. Last time I wrote we were in the town of Bled, we stayed there one more night after we hiked up to the castle. In the morning we woke up, had another great buffet breakfast and once again piled into our tiny white car and headed off. We had a gorgeous three hour drive up and over the Julian Alps (names after Julius Caesar), and stopped for a quick picnic lunch (out of the back of our car) by the beautiful Soca river. Which, due to some unknown combination of chemicals in the rocks and surrounding banks turns the river a magical light blue, the color of crushed Nepali turquoise.

The beautiful Soca river

            Upon arriving in the town of Kobarid we headed directly for their famous war museum. It was incredibly well done; in three floors they covered Slovenia’s history from before the Romans, to the rise and fall of the Austro-Hungarian Empire to the end of WWII. They managed to convey in a relatively small amount of time, the huge atrocities dealt to both Slovenia itself and the whole of former Yugoslavia by both outside forces and by themselves. It made me realize once again, how much there is to learn and how fascinating and yet equally depressing most of it is. Walking back out onto the small street of a tiny town out in the middle of nowhere at the base of giant mountains it seemed incredible that this beautiful place, now home to adventure travelers looking for white water kayaking or mountain climbing, could have ever been torn apart by war and strife. Today people go about their normal business like nothing ever happened. People my parent’s age, who fought for their country’s freedom in the break up of Yugoslavia calmly sit on park benches or walk their dogs around town, it’s an incredibly testimony to human spirit. 

That evening we actually got a apartment that was meant for three people instead of two, it was nice not having to sleep on a couch for once, and it was situated right in the center of town! My dad and I went to buy some groceries for dinner, but unfortunately they haven’t quite mastered the 24/7 groceries stores here, we walked around the whole town (which took us less then 15 minuets) but to our chagrin all the shops were closed, the owners had gone home and it was only 7:30!

takin a train ride!

            As always we hit the road bright and early (ish) the next morning, drove the 3 hours back to Ljubljana and dropped of our car. Then hurried over to the train station, bought tickets and boarded the 2’oclock to Rijeka Croatia. It was the first time I’d ever done a boarder crossing by train and it’s a lot more laid back then by airplane, no customs, immigration or bag check, just a few officials who come on, stamp your passport and your on your way!

Sunset over the Adriatic

In Rijeka our fist plan of action was to somehow get out to the airport where we could pick up our new car. But since tourist season was off it turned out that there were only two buses to the airport, and we had missed both of them. Eventually we decided to bite the bullet and get a taxi (which turned out to be a good idea, otherwise we would have had a 20 mile walk.) We picked up our car at the airport (which was completely disserted) and drove and drove until we made it to the ferry, took the ferry across to the island of Losinj. This was my first look at the Adriatic Sea; we were crossing just as the sun was setting over the distant islands setting the water aglow with rays of dying sun. After countless hours of travel, we drove to our small apartment, but the woman who was supposed to meet us… wasn’t there. We walked up and down the street looking for her, just when we were starting to think about to sleeping in the car as a viable option, a older woman with a small black dog came down the street. My dad asked her (using hand gestures mostly) if she know the person who owned the apartment. She nodded, said something in rapid fire Croatian and beckoned for us to follow. As we walked down the hill she produced the keys from somewhere and let us into the tiny studio, she asked us how many day she would be staying, took our passports and without another word, took her dogs leash and together they disappeared into the night.        

        

Bled

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After spending around two days in Ljubljana we rented a tiny white Citroen and drove to the lakeside city of Bled. It was an amazing drive in, the rolling hills full of light and dark colored evergreen trees, making the mountain a rolling carpet of mottled green with white rock cliffs and castles popping up seemingly at random. In the center of “town” is a two mile long lake. Out of one side rises a sheer rock face and loftily perched on top is a tiny castle that surveys all that is below. It is said, there has been a castle on this spot for 1000 years. And in the center sits a small island, no bigger then a house, with a church built rising out of the trees. This has long been a sacred site, for hundreds of years the pagans worshiped this spot as well, building a Slavic temple to a goddess in the 8^th century on the exact same spot. 

The Alp Pension

We hadn’t made any reservations in advance so after driving around randomly for a bit, we decided to consult our guidebook. It led us to a small place called the Alp Pension. It was a tiny little mom and pop establishment in the middle of nowhere, but they had a tennis court! As soon as we left our bags in the room I switched into my gear and headed for the court. It was my first time playing on a red clay court and to my surprise it was a completely different game, the ball gets slowed down and every little bit of spin is exaggerated. Unfortunately it started to pour shortly after we arrived so we had to stop. We had a huge dinner at our hotel, of potato salad in mayonnaise and goulash, which is a bunch of meat and sauce in a bowl, which you then put on polenta.     

Some delicious Hungarian Goulash 

Lovely weather!

Today the rain has continued unabated, so no tennis for now. We spent the morning trying to get some work done, reading and journaling. Eventually, we managed to rouse ourselves into a state of action and walked down past the lake and into “town” (town consisting of a couple restaurants and shops).  In the summer this place is hopping with tourists from all over the globe but on a gray and rainy May afternoon there were just a few locals hurrying by under colorful umbrellas. We took advantage of the relative solitude and walked around the lake and had pizza at a small restaurant. Then we hiked up to the castle that sat high above the lake, it commanded a view of several miles in all directions and had the rainclouds not been in the way, it would have been quite a bit more. But all the same, the clouds and soft pitter-patter of rain added a significant mystery to the scene. With clouds drifting through the soft green carpet of trees and continuing through the valleys, the rain dulling the view made everything seem softer in a way. It was as if the whole world had stopped and there was nothing but the rain and the clouds and the lake far below. 

More of Venice and Slovenia!

Gosh when I think back to it, Venice seems like a month ago even though it was just a few days. Our whole stay in Venice seems to be shrouded in a jet lag induced fog. Our first full day we spent wandering through the streets, up and over the bridges and taking the Vapareto (water bus) through the canals to get from one island to another. But boy, is stuff expensive here! A small cup of coffee and a can of coke at a restaurant can sometimes be as much as 4 Euro each! I guess that’s what you get when there are more tourists then actual residents in a place. In total the population of Venice is around 60,000 but annually tens of millions of tourists flock to this city coming by plane, train, giant cruise ships or automobile. But if you manage to stray off the beaten path, you get a chance to see what real Venice used to be like.  Without all the vendors trying to sell you cheep mementos or tourist filled restaurants, off the beaten track Venice is almost like a completely different city.

We stayed in Venice for a total of 3 nights. Eventually though we had to leave and turn our backs on the canals, domed cathedrals and the general mystique called Venice. We took a train to the border town of Trieste where we had some great pizza and tasty gelato, then jumped on a bus headed for Ljubljana the Capital of Slovenia!

Slovenia:

Ljubljana!

The language here is incredibly difficult to understand it seems like they specifically put letters together in such a was as to make the words unpronounceable! For example: Happy Birthday! = Vse najboljše za rojstni dan! But since it only has an area of roughly 7,827 Sq. Miles (about 1/10^th the size of Washington state) most people speak English because there are so many tourists and because their dialects of Slovenian are incomprehensible to each other!

            What a gorgeous place! Our first stop is Ljubljana (j sounds like ye). It’s one of the smallest capitals in all of Europe but it makes up for it by being awesome, with countless outdoor Café’s, markets, gelato sellers and beautiful Hapsburg style buildings. Apparently it was built to replicate the beautiful city of Prague with its spires on the corners of the buildings and its many bridges crisscrossing the river. The old city is car free so it lacks the noise and pollution of most other cities. Instead countless pedestrians stroll through the cobbled lanes, accompanied by quiet bicycles that wiz past. At the cafes people talk about the latest gossip while bands play music in the background.                                                                                                                                                                                                                                     

Journaling at a cafe.

So we check into our little apartment, which we found on “Air BNB”, dropped our stuff off and then went to look for a place to eat. It was late and the city was completely dead, with only a couple bars open here and there. It definitely did not look like party central. Finally we talked to a man who motioned for us to follow him…. Now as those of you who have read my blog in the past know, we’ve had some weird experiences following random strangers. But this time we decided to throw caution to the winds and follow him, he took us into an empty restaurant, flipped on the lights and set a table for us. W sat there for a while, unsure of what to do, until the man finally came back with his friend from the bar who spoke English. The man who had hailed us outside went into the back and started to prepare our order. Over the course of dinner we chatted away with him and his wife Natalia they were super nice and even though they hardly spoke any English and we spoke absolutely no Slovenian we were able to communicate fairly well.

After a meal of Bosnian style hamburgers on Serbian bread they asked us if we would like to come over for a drink at their bar!  We tried to back down on the grounds that we were tired and it was late, but they insisted. So we followed them into their hole in the wall bar across from the restaurant. Inside was a great group of local Slovenian’s who were all regulars at the bar. He introduced us to them and showed us pictures of a friend meeting George Clinton and a famous boxer that he met. He gave my parents a complimentary glass of wine, and then another as we chatted away with the extremely friendly locals. Then in came the guy who shook hands with George Clinton! He was a really nice guy too, if a little big headed. He showed us pictures of him shaking hands with all sorts of famous people, we never got exactly what he did for a living but he sure had a lot of ideas to share on how to make the world a better place, then in came the famous boxer! Boy are those Slovenians friendly! Finally at like 1 o’clock in the morning we said goodbye to our new friends and walked out into the night.

A view from the Castle