Croatia May 1 - May 9

Once again we landed very late at night, picked up our rental car and headed to our hotel in Zagreb where they checked us into a room with twin beds. This was starting to get old! Zagreb had more of an Eastern block country look with a capitalist face lift. When the stern looking guy at the desk asked us for our papers we got a little concerned but actually he was really very nice. Anyway, we got up the next morning, had our buffet breakfast which included frankfurters (first ones we've seen on the whole trip) and headed out to the Istria Peninsula.

We stopped first in the hilltop town of Motuvan which truthfully was a long ride for a beer on top of a hill with a wall but it was on our way to Rovinj, it's all good! Good timing on our part, we hit the town of Rovinj at the start of a four day holiday weekend, who knew. The guy at the Tourist Information hooked us up with a lady who ran a Sobe a few minutes out of town and that worked out (better than sleeping in the car again). The place was very nice, like a little Italian villa. We checked in and went for a walk on the beach promenade outside of town alongside the Adriatic and Tom fell asleep on the rocks remarkably resembling a fur seal in New Zealand! We went back to the room and headed out for our night on the town. Rovinj is a crumbly little seaside town which has made its nitch in tourism.


Small fishing boats in the harbor and the wash hanging out the windows all adds to its charm. The narrow cobblestone streets led us to a tiny spot up an alley where we sat outside with a carafe of wine and had wood fired pizza. We tried to order it with pepperoni and after much discussion and interpeting, we ended up with a pizza with tomatoes and red chilli peppers. Cheap wine, strange pizza sitting outside in a dark, cobblestone alley, it's all good! There was actually a concert going on that night in the square and we got to see the local Croatian diva. The place was hopping.

After breakfast at the villa we were on our way to Plitvice Lakes National Park and stopped on the way in the town of Puma for a quick look at their ancient Roman ampitheatre, one of the most well preserved ancient Roman ruins in the area. It actually took us longer to find a parking spot then it did to tour the theatre but it was pretty interesting. The countryside in north central Croatia, on the way to the lakes, is amazingly scenic and idyllic. It is all rolling hills with panaromic views and the drive was very enjoyable. On the way we stumbled on a little village called Slunjcica which had streams and waterfalls pouring out of virtually every crack and crevice there was in the town. The water even seemed to be pouring out from under the houses. There was just water and waterfalls everywhere you looked.








We went and sat at a cafe, which was tucked in the middle of this, and had a cup of coffee just watching the water flowing. They actually had a mill house where they were using the waterfall to make flour and you could stand there and watch the flour coming off the wheel. You were not really supposed to be there but Tom made friends with the two little old ladies that were working the mill! A little further up the road we checked into a sobe, where we were charmed by this cute little Croatian girl, AnnaMarie, who showed us the available rooms. We had a 10 minute unsuccesfull conversation with her and her father about where we could get ice for the chilly bag. Once they understood what we wanted, they just laughed at us! Plitvice National Park is a waterfall and lakes wonderland made up of 16 cascading lakes and waterfalls to numberous to count, in a beautiful valley. The water is all extremely clear and a very vibrant blue. You walk along these wooden planks that are set up as a path around the various lakes and in the center, where the largest lake is, there is a ferry that takes you from the "lower lakes" to the "upper lakes". Lets just say there were a lot of pictures taken at Plitvice Lakes National Park!




Leaving Plitvice we started our drive to Split and the coastal road to Dubrovnik. Split is another seaport town nestled on the Adriatic built around the Roman emporor Diocletian's retirement Palace.


We pulled up outside the old town and Madelina, a room hawker, was all over us. The tour books warn you about the room hawkers but we looked at it as a quick way to find a room without driving all over. It turned out she was a real character but one with a lot of good information and she gave us a room, a very old room, in the old town inside the palace gates. We even had shutters that opened up on one of the alleyways to the square. Pretty cool! Split also happened to be the home of the only laundromat in all of Croatia. Every other town where we asked, they had people who would tell you to leave it and pick it up in two or three days (if it didn't rain....then it would take longer!) So the next day, we did laundry in a laundromat where there was also an internet hook up, we blogged and then we started for Dubrovnik.


The coast road from Split to Dubrovink is known as the Croatian Riviera. The standard timeframe to drive is 3-4 hours depending on how many pictures you take. It took us 2 days!


We stopped in almost every town, walking around the harbors, taking pictures and just enjoying the scenery of the water and the towns themselves.


These guys have an awesome deal here and it is only going to get better! It is remarkable how well they have recovered and grown since the war. There are still a few signs of buildings with blown out roofs, abandoned or not yet completely renovated but with the location they have here it is only a matter of time before everything is better than 100%. We got to camp one night alongside the Adriatic. We do think we were the only non Croatians in the camp, it was all good, what a site, what a view!

And then there was Dubrovnik,


everything the pictures say and more.






Slightly too touristy when the cruise ships are in but after they leave the town settles down to a pretty nice pace, at least at this time of year. One of the waitresses was telling us there are times in season when there are 10 cruise ships docked in port with over 10,000 tourists. We can't begin to imagine, definitely not us. We stayed in the old town in what amounts to an old town house where Pero met us and before we even checked in he had us sample his Mama's grappa, a nice greeting!

We had a room on the upper floor with a great view over the old town. Tom took too many pictures of the same things and we had about at least a 50% deletion rate to get it to just a ridiculous amount of pictures!


The next day we unpacked our beach chairs and hiked to the beach where we got to take our first dip in the Adriatic. It was freaking cold! but a nice place to hang out and read our books for some time.

That afternoon we took a bottle of wine and some cheese and went to a place outside the old port which we thought we would have all to ourselves. After a short time of enjoying the view, the Chilean brothers showed up! One set of twins, their sidekick brother and the poor unfortunate wife to one of the twins! Pat challenged them to jump off the rocks into the Adriatic and we would share our bottle of wine with them (we did have a large bottle!). Next thing you know, somehow they unashamedly changed into their suits and Hugo and Yugo, the two twins took the plunge. The third brother just kept saying they were crazy, the wife kept taking pictures and we kept laughing. After passing around the bottle and taking group shots, we parted company!

We thought we were hanging out with the Giaccio brothers...









The following day we took the ferry to the island of Lokum and hiked the island for a few hours until we found the perfect rock boulder beach where we could sit and watch the fisherman and tourist boats go by.









Time for dinner, to get packed up and get ready for our 5:00 am pickup for our flight to Paris.

Bog and Zivjeli, Croatia

Things Croatian;

Pork and Lamb cooking on spits in front of the restaurants
Smoking in restaurants, in airports, smoking everywhere
Great people
Great roads
STILL no pretzels
NO ice
Lasagna.....
Beautiful country
Wash hanging from windows
Kunas
Cheap croatian wine but good Grasevina (like riesling)
More smoking
Ozujsko beer
Picturesque houses and churches
The Adriatic

Greece April 25 - May 1

The ferry ride to Santorini on the hi speed ferry took 5 hours. We loaded Tom up with sea bands, ginger drops for behind his ears and ginger gum to chew on. As a result, he was only marginally green and we arrived in Santorini without filling any barf bags......Santorini is an island with several towns built on the rim (caldera) of an active Volcano. The volcano originally erupted wiping out everything on the island and the center of the cone filled with the sea.

Our hotel in the town of Fira was a cute, very small cave room which are rooms actually built into the caldera of the volcano. This whole island was right out of a picture book. All blues and whites, churches and chapels and lots of bells. The town, and later we found out all the towns on the cadera were the same, was made up of small, narrow, meandering streets winding up and down the side of the volcano around all the shops and tavernas. From the verandah of our hotel we had an outstanding view of the entire caldera.










We arrived on Good Friday of the Greek Orthodox Easter and the hotel owner told us we should go to the Festival of 6000 lights in the town of Pirgos that night. Taking his advice we went and climbed up to one of the many churches in this hilltop town where the main ceremony was taking place. We stood outside with hundreds of other people who were coming to the church and lighting candles and waiting for the service to end. At this point we were a little confused about what the big deal was but we hung out and waited.


When the service ended, they began to light lanterns all around the church and on the rooftops of the neighboring buildings. We thought this was a little anticlimatic but then we realized the same thing was happening simultaneously throughout the town. There wasn't a single rooftop, ledge or wall in the entire town without lights, some even configured in the shape of crosses. The pictures cannot begin to describe what an awesome site this was. There were just lanterns burning, and sparks flying, everywhere and you couldn't take your eyes off of it as you walked down away from the town.The one thing the landlord didn't tell us was that the buses stop running at night. After a five mile walk there we were not ready to also walk home that late. We were lucky to hitch a ride from one of the locals to Firos with two American girls who were in the same situaion.

Saturday we took the bus to Oia, the furthest most town out on the Caldera which is a little more laid back and less touristy than Fira. It was a beautiful day and we wondered the streets for most of the day and even had our first Nescafe Frappe which is all the rage in Greece. Go figure, instant coffee ice tea, but the Greeks cannot get enough of it. Actually, it was not bad! That night was the big night for Easter all over Greece.

They go to service starting at about 10:00 and by 12:00 the square in our town was absolutely packed with people holding candles. The ritual is to pass the light at midnight from the service to the people outside who keep passing it back in the crowd. Then you are supposed to walk home without losing your light. It was a windy night so this was a chanllenge. However, there were pros out there who had tin foil wrapped around their candle for extra security. The best part was that as the candlelight was being passed back, all the bells across the entire island starting ringing and fireworks were set off. It was pretty special to be part of!

Sunday it poured and we started walking around Fira but we got soaked so we bagged the rest of the day and hung out reading and listening to music in our hotel room. It was actually a good down day of just relaxing.


The next day we decided to check out the rest of the island so we rented a car and explored. We checked out the rest of the towns including the black sand beaches at Kamari and Perissa and the red sand beach at Kokkivn. They were nice but truthfully the special part, and best part, of Santorini is the towns on the caldera. Santorini is one of the most unique places there is and we definitely enjoyed being there but it was time to get back to the mainland.

We flew the next morning to Athens, picked up a rental car (which was an experience) and headed off to the ancient city of Delphi in the Northern Peloponnese. The drive thru the Greek countryside was very nice and the city, perched on the slopes of Mount Parnassus, was in an amazing spot. Even the ancient Greeks understood the value of location, location, location. This is, as Rick Steves says in his guidebook, the big enchilada of Greek sites and we enjoyed walking thru the ruins. The stadium where ancient games took place was remarkably preserved.









Next stop, Nafplio in the lower Peloponnese. The coutryside in this area of Greece is filled with olive and orange trees and road side stands selling local olive oil and oranges are everywhere.

Nafplio itself is a definite tourist destination but it is beautiful, especially at night. There is a harbor to explore and many cobblestone streets with restaurants and shops. Sitting in the town square watching all the kids playing reminded us how much we really miss all the kids! It was a great place, with restaurant tables all throughout the square and it was a nice place to sit in the morning sunshine after coffee planning our trip to the airport and Croatia.






THINGS GREEK:
Churches and chapels and chapels and churches and bells
More Bells and churches and chapels
cheap Greek wine
The absolutely best, yogart with walnuts and honey
Great tomatoes
Better strawberries
Ouzo
Methos beer
Still NO PRETZELS
great Gyros
street vendors
motorcycles and scotters
very easy to pronounce Greek names.........
donkeys
mandatory to ignore all speed limits, lanes and no passing signs
people smoking everywhere including restaurants
horn honking
more churches and chapels and bells
Yamas!...

Greece April 22 - April 25

We arrived in Athens from Beijing via France at about 10:30 at night and we had to rush to clear customs so that we could make the last Metro train to the city center at 11:30. We packed up all our "stuff" and luckily the station was pretty accessible. We caught the train for the Monastraki station supposedly only about a block from our hotel. Thank God it was because we were hauling a lot... Once again, the hotel had booked us with twin beds but it was late at night and we figured we would deal with it the next day.

The next morning we straightened out the room situation and were moved to a room with a balcony overlooking the Acropolis.

It was really cool especially at night. We headed out to explore Athens and first stop was the Acropolis. The Greeks realize they have a good thing here and so as it falls apart they keep putting it back together. They started the last renovation for the 2004 Olympics but the major parts, including the Parthenon, are still a work in progress. People lived in the Acropolis area from around 5000 BC but to put it into perspective the current buildings that are being reconstructed only go back to about 400 BC. Needless to say, they go back a very long time.



Athens is a quintessential urban sprawl city complete with smog. It has a street cart vibe with pretzel carts that are really not pretzels but bread, gyro stands, cafe and ouzo bars and lots of people and activity. Coming from New York, it put us right in the moment and we enjoyed walking around the neighborhood called the Plaka and just taking it all in.

The place is packed with wall to wall Tavernas with outdoor dining and we got to sample some classic Greek food (just not octopus) and wine. Typical us, as much as we liked it, the next day we were ready to bug out so we hopped the subway to the ferry which would take us to the island of Hydra for the day. What can we say, Hydra was a 10!!!!

A typical little fishing village on an island that turned to tourism but did it right. No cars, no scooters, just donkeys. Want a lift to your hotel? Take a donkey. Need your bags brought to your hotel? Load up a donkey.

HELLOOO DONKEY.......


After walking a good portion of the island we found a perfect cafe, on the rocks, overlooking the water. We felt compelled to stop for awhile and had the best bruschetta we've ever had (Bill Gough we need to make it this summer, we have pictures). After a few beers and a heroic plunge into the Aegean by Tom (we are talking very cold water here) we had to catch the ferry back to Athens. Hydra was definitely a place we could have spent more time doing nothing.



As with a lot of Athens Hotels, ours had a rooftop bar with a spectacular view of the Acropolis which was illuminated at night. We managed to take advantage of the view for our last night in Athens before taking off early, very very early, the next morning for Santorini.