Filed under: Croatia
Day 48, Sunday 5th October 2008 (Al)
Awaking to bright sunshine, a relief, it was time to walk the walls of Dubrovnik. We had all day free so were not in any particular rush. Breakfast would come first for a change! We found a cafe on the main walkway and ordered two hot chocolates and two omelettes. The hot chocolates turned out be just that – melted chocolate! Very indulgent… After downing mine quite quickly, I excused myself from the table to get some photos of a childrens´ choir singing on some steps nearby, drawing a crowd.
On the way back to the table, I put our Nikon zoom lens to the test and scored some paparazzi-style photos of Cathy. Cathy later told me that she could “sense that something was watching her” and so looked up quite amusingly. She now knows how celebs feel, and I know how paparazzi who take photos of Dannii Minogue feel – no wealthier for having taken the photos.
Now to the walls – lots of other people had the same idea so there was a bit of a queue to get through, but once on top of the walls it was fine. Beautiful views could be had in any direction. One way looked out to the sparkling blue waters of the Adriatic, the other across terracotta-tiled roofs of the old town.
Near the main land entrance to the old town, the Onofrio Fountain is always surrounded (unless after 11:30pm) by photo seekers and therefore souvenir vendors
The main walkway – our accomm was four streets up to the left
Taken by a woman from Sydney. Her mother excitedly informed us, upon learning we were from Melbourne, that “Manly beat Melbourne 40-0 last night!”. “I didn´t even know they were playing” was my friendly, but less enthusiastic reply. As if not really listening to me, she continued “… yeah really one-sided!”. Not knowing how, or if I even needed to respond, I offered “Maybe Melbourne should stick to Aussie Rules?”. No response. Okaaay, let´s keep walking Cath…
Nice little fella
Nice backyard to have (there was a kiosk here on the back of someone´s house)
The view towards Italy
The harbour – you might be able to see the long lines of people ready to be ferried back to one of the two giant cruise ships anchored offshore. Would be a picturesque place to arrive by boat in!
Pretty consistent colour scheme, with the brighter roof tiles where buildings have been repaired since they were damaged in the siege of 1991.
We later walked up to the fort opposite the old town but didn´t go in as it would have cost us 15 dollars more. It´s free if you bring your tickets from the walls walk, but we had left these back in our room after a quick change of clothes (into bathers, rather too optimistically).
We ended the day with a sunset bevvy (running into a lady from Hoppers Crossing at the same time), followed by dinner and perhaps a little gelati – perfect!
Filed under: Croatia
Days 46 – 47, Friday 3rd – Saturday 4th October 2008 (Cath)
A four or five hour drive down an enchanting, winding coastal road, passing through Bosnia and Herzegovina on the way, brought us to the Dubrovnik bus station. From the bus station, we caught a taxi to the old town taxi rank. At the old town taxi rank, I said `No´ to a woman who asked `Sorry, is your name Christine?´, and we walked into the old town to find our guest house. At the guest house, we were let inside by a fellow Aussie guest, called our host as she wasn`t there, and a few minutes later greeted her as she walked in the door – it was the lady from the taxi rank! She had my name wrong, but had gone down there to surprise us on our arrival. Very sweet. Our first conversation was typical of the rest of our time there, punctuated by her frequent exclamations of `Dah-ling!´and `Su-perr´, which we managed to still find endearing three days later!
(Our place, looking down the street towards the sea)
Evening wanderings in Dubrovnik old town (in my new Zara top)
Our anticipation of Dubrovnik was somewhat overshadowed by the knowledge that a young Australian backpacker had been missing since she was last seen here a couple of weeks earlier. It felt wrong to be there on a holiday, not helping, when all around us `Missing´posters were plastered on walls. It has been very sad to read the updates on The Age website, and especially sad for the family that the media coverage generally seems to have been so constant, sensationalist and emotive. We still hope the outcome will be a good one.
The rain finally caught up with us here, and our first full day in Dubrovnik was spent under a solid grey blanket of dripping clouds. We spent most of our time checking out the indoor tourist attractions of the city, starting with the third-oldest operating pharmacy in Europe.
It opened in 1391, and as you can see above, is still decked out with wooden shelves displaying glass and porcelain galenical bottles (above). However, on closer inspection, around the back we could see that they just use the same patented drugs as everyone else! I think I see some GenRx boxes there, maybe some Boehringer Ingelheim packaging, and is that Symbicort? Cheats.
The pharmacy was at one side of the cloisters of the Franciscan Monastery, which were lovely in themselves. On the other side was an interesting museum with old pharmacopeias and other pharmacy objects, as well as items from the monastery. On one wall, a plaque marked some damage from a shell that hit when Dubrovnik was under siege by the Yugoslav army in 1991.
At the opposite end of the main pedestrian street, the Sponza Palace also contained a museum, with city archives (including some really interesting medieval maps of Europe), and a one-room memorial to the people who died defending the city in 1991 and 1992.
Filed under: Croatia
Days 44 & 45, Wednesday 1st & Thursday 2nd October 2008 (Cath)
(Happy Birthday Gran!)
We left drizzly grey skies in Zadar, hopped on the bus, and arrived in mid-afternoon sunshine in Split. We stayed in a private room, sharing the bathroom with the family, just across the road from Diocletian`s Palace. The decor was eclectic and welcoming, and the Lion King lampshade an especially nice touch.
Most of our time in Split was spent wandering through the ancient Emperor`s retirement palace and enjoying the restaurants, bars, gelaterias and bakeries that now call it home. I was also quite excited to find my favourite European clothes shop, Zara, just outside the palace walls (I was driven by a need to replace a disintegrating top, not by an empty materialist whim, I promise). Full of touristy eateries and drinking holes, lots of souvenir shops, and apartments with washing lines hanging across the streets, Diocletian`s Palace is not the typical fenced-off Roman ruin you might expect.
(Our temporary home was just through the gate in the photo above and then straight across the market place and the road. Below is our actual building, with convenient bakery at the bottom left, and entry around the right hand side)
The old and the new in Split:
(Aargh! The palm trees have invaded here too!)
On Thursday morning on our quest for breakfast, we were excited to find a fresh food market happening across the road from our place. Picking up some fruit and almonds there, some jam and OJ at the supermarket, and some bread and other baked goods from the bakery underneath our apartment, suddenly we had a feast which saw us through until dinner that day, and gave us breakfast and snacks for another two. You might have to see it through the eyes of someone who`s been eating out or on the move for about six weeks straight to really appreciate it.
Yum (there was plenty of nom-nom-nomming later)
A week and a half later, we still haven`t finished the jam (although not always having a knife with us, and not wanting to jam-up Al`s Swiss Army knife, makes it a bit tricky to use).
Filed under: Croatia
Day 43, Tuesday 30th September 2008 (Al)
Today we decided to travel differently. We hired a car at Zadar airport and drove to our destination! Cathy handled the Opel Astra (not Holden) on the way there, me on the way back. It was a lot of fun driving again, despite having to get used to positioning yourself on the wrong side of the road (after a few close calls with road side reflectors).
Plitvice National Park is beautiful. It´s a series of azure-coloured lakes (travertine pools for you budding geologists out there) joined by cascades and waterfalls, set amidst rocky mountains and autumnal trees. Not much more to say really, might just let the photos do the talking:
Days 40 – 42, Saturday 27th – Monday 29th September 2008 (Al)
Today we made our way from Sighet to Cluj Napoca (also in Romania), arriving late. Straight to our nearby hostel to freshen up and sleep, `fore a 6:30am train to Budapest. We didn`t have breakfast and had few snacks, so hungry were we in Hungary – pun most definitely intended!
Budapest´s large and often ornate train station was a welcome change, although we did see a fist fight between two middle-aged men which gave it an edge. That edge was taken off with donuts from a bakery. There were long lines at the ticket office from where we would purchase tickets to Zagreb, and we swapped our queue ticket with an Austrian woman who would otherwise have missed her train to Vienna.
The train went by giant Lake Balaton (Hungary´s `seaside´), but the journey was otherwise uneventful. Arrived in Zagreb at night and got a taxi straight to hostel. Woke up starving, and expected to find only a McDonalds or something for breakfast on the way to the station. Instead, we found a gourmet health food store which was heavenly after the snacky foods that had sustained us for what seemed like a week, but was actually only 2-3 days. Vege lasagne, chicken salad, fruit yoghurt and vitamin juice (and brownie) were great…
There are plenty of buses to Zadar, on Croatia`s coast so we weren´t in a huge rush (luckily, as we spent most of the morning on the phone with a really annoying Australian car leasing agent, organising our upcoming time in Belgium and France). The bus ride was smooth, just read and watched the on-board movie. I think it was “The Skeleton Key” with Kate Hudson – boring movie with a lame ending, 1 star.
Zadar does not get mentioned as often as Split and Dubrovnik, but its old town is charming and was the beginning of my desire to one day live in an old town such as this. We went for a walk along the foreshore at sunset which was beautiful – great to be back on the coast again:
In the above photo, Cath is sitting above the “Sea Organ”. It´s a series of pipes built into the steps, that connect to the sea. As the waves come in, they push air through the pipes and play a random and soothing melody. Beautiful.
Next to this is what seemed like just a giant ring of light, that changed colours. It turns out the largest circle represents the sun, then there are others representing the other planets, with their sizes and distances to scale. Pluto has been left out – so I guess according to the artist it really does not count as a planet (or maybe it was just so far away we didn`t find it on our walk).
On the way back to the place we were staying in the old town, we had another magical musical moment – we turned a corner near an old church to find a group of about seven men and women standing facing each other in a circle, singing in beautiful harmony. They finished to a round of applause from the older men sitting in the laneway cafes and bars, and from us and the other wanderers in the street.
