The Mediterranean. Truly one of the most beautiful places on Earth. Jodee and I had the fortune to have visited two amazing Coastlines in the Mediterranean.
The waters are crystal clear and a deep Turquoise blue. The weather, a shade south of perfect, and the people lead relaxed lives putting around on scooters and tut-tutting at tourists that rush through their sleepy little towns.
We took 3 trips along these Coasts.
First, we took a 7 day sailing trip through the Islands of Dubrovnik, Sipan, Korčula, Mlijet, Hvar and Brač.
Following that we rented a car and made our merry way through some coastal towns each blessed with an amazing beach. The towns of Rogoznica and Primošten deserve special mention for their amazing scenery.
Finally, we rented a car in Turkey as well and spent a week driving from the southern town of Antalya, through the beautiful towns of Kas, Olympos, Kekova, and Cesme, through to Izmir, which is close to the temple of Ephesus. Honestly, we were enjoying swimming in the waters so much that we decided to skip seeing yet another ancient ruin (Ephesus), and went to Cesme instead.
I was planning on posting pictures in this blog, but I couldn’t bring myself to pick just a couple. So instead please take a look at these albums on:
Turkey was the first place where I learned to swim. The ocean waters kept me afloat while I slowly learned to stop panicking in deep water. I still panic sometimes so I don’t go too far out yet!
GeronimoooooooSplash!
Our Journey to the quaint little town of Cesky Krumlov started with a train journey from Salzburg.
We get in the first train. It’s sparkling, beautiful, goes at 200km/h, has a full on restaurant and free wifi! On top of that the scenery is breathtaking. We could spend an entire week just sitting in the train enjoying the restaurant the wifi and taking in the scenery. But our enjoyment was cut short just an hour later…
We switch trains to go from Linz in Austria to Cesky Budojevice. Gone is the wifi and the restaurant. The train gets a bit grungier. But it’s still clean enough that you can lie on the floor (which I did, to do my physiotherapy).
Chug-chugging away
Funnily enough, the initial reason we had switched from Budapest to Salzburg as the transit point from Zagreb to Krumlov was to avoid a broken track close to Budapest. As luck would have it, the track close to Budojevice was broken as well, and we were all carted out from the train and onto a bus to take us to the next station.
So you want to have the romance of the railroad eh?
There, we transferred to the last train to cesky krumlov. Now we were getting very close to Indian Railway standards. The outside of the train was covered with grime and graffiti. The toilets were dirty. Fortunately, the seats, in stark contrast to the rest of the train, were nice and clean. Groaning creaking and with the familiar rhythmic beat that I was used to in Indian trains, we slowly chugged our way to Krumlov.
Cesky Krumlov is a tiny, very pretty little town nestled to the south of its more famous cousin, Prague. Walking through it felt almost like walking through a fairy tale town. The town is resplendent with a plethora of colors and curves.
Krumlov Skyline
And interesting street names…
And below it was a sign that said, “For a good time, call…”
Walking through this beautiful city, I was left scratching my head at the style of construction. Builders in Krumlov either seemed to be unable to make up their minds, or had way too much time on their hands. When constructing a building, first they would use bricks and mortar to build it. Then, they would cover the bricks with cement. Finally, they would paint back the bricks that they just covered, painstakingly back onto the cement?!!!!
Oh you think those are bricks, do you? Well think again!
Nope. Still paintings!
Food wise we got to sample a Central European favorite, Pork Knuckle!
It’s called knucke. But its the knee of a pig. There must be lots of pigs limping around at this rate…
We also enjoyed the best version of a Trdelnik. They are these pastries in the shape of a hollow cylinder made from sugar butter flour and eggs. Delicious Heart Attacks waiting to happen. While in Prague they are just handed to you, in here you could get them coated with Nutella. As if it wasn’t yummy enough…!
Yummy Goodness!
There was one other interesting thing I noticed though, in Krumlov. And that is the unusually high amount of Asian tourists (specifically Chinese tourists) wandering the town!
China? Nope, still Krumlov.
There must be a tour company in China and one in Korea that are laughing their way to the bank with Krumlov tours sold, for their is a crazy high concentration of chinese tourists walking the town. I swear, if it weren’t for the signs with a Latin Alphabet and Cobblestoned streets, I would have thought we were in Cesky Peking.
Cesky Peking
Oh and one fine day a bunch of classic American Muscle cars decided to show up in the main town square of Krumlov.
Apparently Krumlov is also the starting point of a few rallies and car club events!
Oddities aside, Krumlov was the perfect small place to enjoy a few restful days. The small town has a beautiful feel to it. You don’t feel rushed, the weather is great, and it’s a good resting spot before immersing yourself in the madness of Prague.
After a relaxing time in Croatia doing my Physical therapy to get back on my feet, we decided to visit the Czech Republic where Jodee’s ancestry is from. I looked at train timetables and found there were 3 routes to get to the Czech Republic. Through Budapest, Salzburg or Vienna.
The train line to Budapest I heard from some fellow travelers was broken. So people were made to get off the train when the tracks ended, take a bus across the broken bit, and reboard another train to continue on their journey! I decided to avoid that adventure and route through Austria. As it turned out, it didn’t matter because the tracks in Czechie were also broken and we had to go thru the same rigmarole there as well!
Now I was left with the tough choice of picking Vienna or Salzburg. Life was tough☺. Since we’d lost a week in Zagreb for Therapy and only had one day to explore any town we went through, I picked Salzburg, as Vienna seemed a much bigger city deserving more days to visit.
And so it was that on a sunny day in September, two weary travelers ended up in the town of Salzburg. This town, contrary to what people might tell you, is famous for one thing and one thing only – The Sound of Music! I hear there is also some musician that was born there by the name of Mozart. But who cares. The Sound of Music!
To prep for our journey into Salzburg, we meticulously watched the movie en route to Salzburg (Nerds Alert!).
The hilllls fill my heeeeeeeart, with the Sound of Muuuuuuuuuuuusic.
The scenery entering into Salzburg is Breathtaking. I think the countryside in Austria is probably the most lush and beautiful that I have ever seen. No wonder the Nazis wanted to take over Austria (as The Sound of Music chronicled faithfully for us. Yes, I get my history lessons from Musicals.)
The town of Salzburg is a quaint beautiful town as well. I heard that 3 times the population of Salzburg enters the town as tourists due to the Movie alone! Salzburg is overrun with tourists clicking away at the various sites, posing goofily and wondering if a fairy tale ending will happen to them as well. The funny thing I heard is that Austrians aren’t really big fans of the movie at all!
The Sound of Music (I’m going to write SoM from now on to save space) was originally a book written by Maria Von Trapp chronicling her life before she and her family made their way to the US of A to open the Trapp Family Lodge which runs to this day. There was an Austrian movie made that was quite faithful to the book I hear. Unfortunately, it was made with German levels of Accuracy (and Emotional Depth). That movie didn’t fare too well. Come Hollywood, and some producer decides to take the original story, throw away historical accuracies, sprinkle on some good songs, and bang! A legend was born! Though the story now takes lots of liberties from the Von Trapp family’s real story (for instance, they didn’t really escape over the mountains. Like most boring escapes, they just took a train out of Austria), it has captured the hearts and minds of millions of starry eyed fans, and continues to line the pockets of all the tour operators in Salzburg.
Given that we only had a day here, we spent it doing the most important thing possible:
All Aboard!
This was probably the height of Touristic-ness on our trip. It’s tough to beat this. Clambering aboard a bus with a bunch of Movie Geeks, going from site to site where different shots of the Movie were filmed, listening to Songs from the Movie, and taking tons of pictures in front of each and every monument; It was Touristic Hedonism at its most commercial. And we loved it!
Going from the lake into which the kids fall when they see the Baroness for the first time,
Oh Captain! It’s so great to see you….!
To the Gazebo that 20th Century Fox gifted to Salzburg after they were done with the movie, which filmed the 2 love affairs in SoM, viz. the “I am 16 going on 17” song and the “I must have done something goooooooood” song…
I am 36 going on 37, baby it’s time to thiiiiiiiiink
To the big horsey fountain that Maria splashes to reinforce her confidence in herself…
I have confidence I can spray this entire horse with just one splash
To the park where they filmed the “Doe a Deer” song…
Look! It’s a Doe! It’s a Deer! It’s Julie Andrews and the Kids running through the park!
Youuu can siiing most aaaannnnythiiiiiiiing!
Finally to the church where the Captain and Maria get married…
Q: How do you solve a problem like Mariah? A: Get her married!
This was a movie feast, and a perfect holiday from a backpacking quest!
Interesting Tidbit. Other than SoM and Mozart, the other thing that comes from Salzburg, very surprisingly for a sleepy elegant town, is RedBull. The RedBull headquarters are located in Salzburg! Perhaps that was it that gave the Von Trapp family wings to fly over the Alps…
The Red Bull Headquarters just outside Salzburg. Idyllic Countryside? Pfft…
Hvar, one of the bigger islands off the Croatian mainland, has been getting some media attention lately as a tourist hot spot, and for good reason. The island itself is gorgeous.
Just Another Place in Paradise
Where anyone with a sailboat to their name (worth more than a million at least) docks harbor at some time in their life…
It has luxury accommodations, luxury weather, and lots of options to Party. Apparently it is also a Mediterranean getaway for the rich and famous. A waiter told me that once this ginger haired guy in flip flops came and got coffee and left, and shortly after there was a commotion there as someone recognized that that was Prince Harry!
I was quite taken aback on reaching the island. Never have I seen such a display of wealth in Yachts as before I saw Hvar. For instance I’d never even seen a “SuperYacht” before.
But after seeing some of these floating feats of engineering luxury gently lapping against the docks of Hvar, I quickly did some window shopping to see how much a toy like that would set me back.
First, I see there’s an entire website that’s like an amazon for super yachts. Then, I see the prices. The cheap ones go for about 12 Million dollars, and I saw ones uptil 66 Million Dollars! If you’re complaining about Real Estate prices in San Francisco, try getting yourself a little floating Studio of about 800 sqft.
After getting sticker shock for something I didn’t even want, as Jodee and I were walking around we see a small sign advertising motor boats for rent for quite cheap… Sometimes we do these experiments with ourselves. One experiment we were running there was ‘First Thought Best Thought’. Which is to express the first thought that comes into our heads, without filters. You should try it sometime. It’s fun! So I had a thought of, ‘It’ll be fun to take a boat and pilot it out’, followed by a flood of ‘Oh no, too dangerous!’, ‘You’ve never done it before’, ‘Don’t be stupid’, et. al. You know, the peanut gallery. But since the first one was to take the boat out, I said that to Jodee. She lit up, and said we should do it!
And so it came to pass that we find ourselves talking to the boat renter.
“Do you have a Boat License?”
“Nope”
“Have you ever driven a motor boat before?”
“Nope”
“Hmmm. Ok, we’ll give you the smaller boat. And a lesson in how to drive it”
“!!!!!”
The lesson was all of 45 seconds long. Essentially he grabs the motor stick (the handle that protrudes from the motor) and says.
“Clockwise fast. Anti-clockwise slow. Left to go right. Right to go left. Ok, off you go”
That was it. Donning life jackets, we were off piloting our first ever motor boat!
Smiling as we leave the harbor. The smiles lasted for all of 7 seconds…
If you ever want to know how big a wake a super yacht has as it ambles its way across the harbor, try being in a tiny little boat in the wake’s wake. Everytime a yacht passed by, our boat was rolling uppppp and downnnnn so hard I was screaming for my mother, for god, and for anything and everything with my eyes closed. It was probably one of the scariest experiences I have had in my life
Intense concentration. Is it to pilot the boat, or to stop me soiling my pants?
The initial plan was to go out of the harbor and visit the neighboring islands. But I was so scared being thrown around by the waves (did I mention I hadn’t yet learnt how to swim?!) that we decided to putter around the island to the other side, staying close to the coast in case the boat capsized.
When we got out of the big yachts, we managed to catch some good pics of life on Hvar:
It’s been a hard day’s night, and I’ll be sleeping like a log
When I was your age, I had to paddle to work, uphill, both ways…
We made it back to land safely, and without sinking back (hence why this blog got written. I dont know if there is internet at the bottom of the ocean). So we treated ourselves to an awesome dinner of, yep, italian food (which is what you mainly get in Croatia unless you wander away into the un-touristed inland villages). the food was good, and the view from the restaurant, breathtaking…
Should we admire the food…?
Or the view…? Decisions, decisions.
To see more pictures of Hvar, as well as the other islands we visited, check out our Croatian Islands Photo Album here!
Ljubljana, Marko tells me, is not a Slovenian word. However, if you change one letter, then it becomes Ljubljena, which means, ‘The Woman I Love’. We spent some time sampling the coffee there (not my favorite), followed by the food (which was good), during which time Marko educated me on the differences between Croatian and Slovenian language.
They are very similar, much like Mexican & Argentinian Spanish, and the letters are pronounced like most Germanic languages. The only difference is the addition of the single accented consonants (such as ć and ś) which are found only in Croatian, and double accented č, š and ž, which are common to both Croatian and Slovenian. An accent implies pronouncing the letter with an ‘h’ after it. The single accent being a soft h and the double accent, a hard h. The only other language I am familiar with that does this is Malayalam(ć being similar to ച് and č to ച്ച്. ś to ശ് and š to ശ്ശ്. The difference here is that they also start words with the hard č and š, unlike Malayalam where you cannot start words with ച്ച് and ശ്ശ്).
One interesting difference was in how numbers are spoken. For double digit numbers, e.g. 52, a lot of languages say fifty-and-one, such as
English: Fifty Two
Spanish: Cinquenta y Dos
While some other languages reverse it, like
German: Zwei und Fünfzig
Numbers in Croatian and Slovenian are almost the same, with a confusing difference that Croatian speaks it the English way, while Slovenian does it the German way!
So for 52, where 50 is Petdeset, and 2 is Dva:
The Croats say
Petdeset Dva
While the Slovenians say
Dve I Petdeset
That should make for some interesting conversations when a Croat crosses the border, or vice versa. For instance this German friend of mine once was giving us a headcount, and said ‘We are One Fifty people here’, when there were 51 of us… Oh joy!
After Ljubljana, we drove over to Marko’s uncles farm house to spend the night. It was a cute house in the countryside with a farm! The farm had a mild mannered german shepherd named Aska, a bunch of rabbits, chickens, and horses.
Aska & I getting along well. 🙂
Marko’s cousins Katja and Tina took care of the animals on the farm, in addition to having full time jobs. They’d wake up at the crack of dawn to feed the animals, clean the area, head off to work, come back, and continue with their farm duties. And we think we are pressed for time…!
They were expecting us, and had prepared all sorts of goodies for us to eat. It was a great Welcome!
Tina was a horse trainer, and was gracious enough to teach me how to ride a horse. Much like training dogs, where you need to be the alpha, I needed to be firm with directions and start/stops. The first few times I was being ‘polite’, and she (the horse) totally ignored my requests and decided to hang around with Tina and the others. It was only when I started being specific and deliberate that she finally decided to listen to me. Then we had a nice time trotting around the paddock.
Who’s a good horsey then? Who’s a good horsey?!
While seeing castles and churches are all well and good during traveling, it is experiences like this, where you get welcomed into the house of new friends and get to witness how a different culture lives, that, for me, make traveling such a rewarding experience. I have Marko, Vero, Vojč, Tina, and Katja to thank for making my Slovenian sojourn such a memorable one!
P.S.: And Giovanni for introducing me to Vero. ☺
P.P.S: Check out the Slovenia Album page for all pictures of my Slovenia Trip!
On my way back from getting an MRI in Croatia, I took a detour up a mountain (heck, I had a rental car, a full tank of gas, and 16 hours to return it. What would you do?). Up at the top, close to the Skiing Town of Sljeme, was a cafe where I had a real tasty Apple Strudel and ended up posting it’s picture on FaceBook.
Apple Strudel on a Mountain Top
Privacy issues aside, this is one of the reasons why Facebook is so awesome. Just a few hours after I had posted the picture, my friend Veronica whom I know from San Francisco messaged me asking if I was in Croatia. As it turns out, she was at the moment in Slovenia with her husband, Marko! Not only that, they were in a town called Senovo which was just an hour away from where I was! We excitedly made plans for me to visit them that weekend. Saturday, I get on a train to Slovenia. Trains in Croatia and Slovenia seem to be freebie canvases to all the resident homeless artists, much like the alleyway walls of most major cites.
Slovenian Mobile Easel
After being subjected to the scrutiny of the sternest passport officer I have met at Dobova, who actually moved around to view my face from multiple angles to make sure (really sure) that the passport was legitimately me and not some gypsy trying to sneak his way in, I arrived at Krško. There I was met warmly by Veronica, Marko, and his dad, Vojč. As far as dads go, he is the cheeriest person I have met. Everytime I met him he would always have a smile on his face, and usually a Pivo (Beer in Slovenian) in his hand.
Marko, Vero, and Vojč
Our first stop was the town of Bled, on the opposite end of Slovenia. The journey from one end to the other only took 2 hours. Slovenia is a small country, mostly covered with a lot of greenery. Unlike countries like Austria and Belgium where even the trees sprouting the countryside seem to be lined in order, as if planted by Mother Nature’s OCD Aunt,
The Austrian Countryside. Note the regularities of the trees.
The trees adoring the sprawling countryside of Slovenia were spread thick all over the mountains. Irregular and bunched together, this appearance is what I think gave Slovenia its nickname, “The Broccoli of Europe”.
See?! Can’t tell one apart from the other, can you?
Bled is a beautiful town with a lake of the most Turquoise colour I have seen.
Castle Bled
There are tiny Ferry boats made of spruce wood whose orangeish tinge perfectly match the turquoise waters. The whole scene was like a picture postcard manufacturer’s dream.
Boats that take you to the Castle
We spent a relaxing morning here, spending a couple hours sauntering around the lake shore and a beautiful island in the middle of the lake,
Island in the center of Lake Bled
We finished off the visit with a sampling of a Kremšnita, a custard cream cake native to Bled. After that, we all headed over to Ljubljana, and Marko’s cousins’ farm. You can read about that in my second blog on Slovenia.
Also, check out all photos from my trip to Slovenia here!
After 3 months of traveling through countries where the sun is worshipped fervently because it only makes an appearance rarely, I arrived in Croatia, a Mediterranean Sun Kissed land blessed with miles of beaches and over a thousand islands.
Having only heard about the country recently (embarrassingly enough), I tried to remedy by ignorance by learning a bit about it. Here are some interesting tidbits I learned.
As far as countries go, it’s brand new, having been formed only in the 90s when Yugoslavia split up in a Civil war.
Yugoslavia and it’s Republics. Image courtesy of www.ciee.org
Prior to that, it existed as a Republic of Yugoslavia. It seems that Croatia got the lions share of the coastal land from the other republics when it was formed, almost as if the Croat king secretly told its people “All right, all of you quickly go and stand along the coast. Now!” That ended up nearly locking out their southern Neighbor, Bosnia, from having any coastline at all. But they weren’t having any of that. Somewhere in 1699 they laid claim to a town called Neum, squat on the coastline that Croatia was trying to get. So now the southern most coast of Croatia, which has the famous (and annoyingly touristic) town of Dubrovnik, was cut off from the rest of Croatia. In fact if you’re driving along the coastline of Croatia to Dubrovnik, you have to cross the border twice! Once into Bosnian territory and then out.
For Jodee and I, Croatia was supposed to be a quick stopping point towards the end of the European leg my trip where I’d meet up with friends, and then have Jodee join me from Chicago before moving on. As it happened, my knee started to hurt pretty bad and it turned out I needed a minor surgery to get back full mobility. It’s tough be a wanderer hopping on one leg. So we ended up staying back and taking in Croatia while I underwent my surgery and did a bunch of physical therapy. You can read about that here (blog coming soon…)
The good side is that we got to spend a month and a half in a beautiful country, make some new friends, and learn some Croatian.
I arrived in Croatia by taking a bus from Munich, through Slovenia, and ending up in the Island of Pag.
The Pag coastline as we drive onto it from the mainland
The island of Pag, to put a broad stroke of generalization on it, is the less glamorous and cheaper cousin of Hvar, the Mediterranean partying and Yachting hotspot. We visited Hvar on a yachting trip from Dubrovnik to Split. More on that later.
Pag is known for 3 things:
Though Croatia is supposed to be cheaper than the rest of Europe, I found prices here still pretty high. I soon learned that the tourist season in Pag is essentially for 3 months. During those 3 months, the locals make enough money to last them 12! No wonder then!
Pag was a beautiful place to hangout with friends. We spent a good 2 weeks here taking in the sun and the DJs that flew in to perform. Or at least, we spent 1 week doing all that. During the second week, as I found out, the country of Italy had a national holiday. And so we had an Italian invasion as bus after bus of loud, drunk Italians swarmed the entire island, yelling phrases in Italian to each other.
After spending the next 5 days pushing through throngs of drunk Italians to get from A to B, we happily left and went on to our different destinations.
I took a bus to Zagreb where I spent the next week recovering, prepping for Surgery, and getting disappointed with Croatian Food. I’ve written more on our experiences with food in Croatia in my next blog.
After my surgery, Jodee and I spent the next couple weeks taking a sailing trip from Dubrovnik to Split, followed by a road trip up the coast, back to Zagreb. More details on that coming as well!
Things to Do, Things to See
Things to Do, Things to See
Things to Do, Things to See, Travel Guides
Things to Do, Things to See
Things to See, Travel Guides
Things to See, Travel Guides
Things to See
Things to Do, Things to See
Things to See
Things to See
Things to See
Things to Do, Things to See
