101 Dalmation...Raindrops

Since our last post, we worked our way south down the Dalmation coast of Croatia.  This stretch of rocky cliffs and pebble beaches on the Adriatic Sea is known for its stunning beauty - believe the hype.  Less than 20 years ago, this area was shattered by war as the former country of Yugoslavia fractured.  These days are long gone and we found Croatia to be full of friendly people, reasonably priced, brimming with history, and as gorgeous as it's reputed to be.  Despite unseasonably cool temps and persistant drizzle, we came away satisfied, which is quite a feat.

Our first stop on the coast was the town of Split, known for its incredibly well-preserved Roman ruins.  The highlight is Diocletian's Palace, built by the emperor in the third century A.D.  The lure of the almighty dollar (or Kuna, as it were) seems to be winning out over the prudence of protection, as the palace is stuffed full of restaurants and vendors.  Regardless, it was beautifully lit and peaceful at night.  At dinner in Split, we did some community service by singing "Hit the Road, Jack" for our waitress's daughter.  This worked out in our favor, as the restaurant quickly plied us with free glasses of wine to induce us to stop crowing.

From Split, we took a ferry to the island of Hvar, drawn by its reputation for 2724 hours of sunshine per year (yeah, really).  The morning was crystal clear in Split, but degenerated on the boat ride, much to our chagrin.  Hvar Town, as is the case for many Croatian coastal towns, is surrounded by walls built by the Venetians to keep out invaders.  The town also has an impressive Venetian fortress perched on a high hill, which yielded expansive views of the old town, pristine sea, and surrounding islands.  As with the rest of our time on the coast, it was too cold to swim, but the rocky beaches and turquoise water looked quite inviting.  Because it is late in the season, the town was very quiet
, an omen of things to come.

From Hvar, we took a boat to the island of Korcula, the birthplace of Marco Polo.  This town too was eerily quiet, which was great for playing a rousing game of Marco Polo (what else?), but made finding food challenging.  It became apparent that as time wore on and we got further from the beaten path, services would be harder to come by.

Undeterred, we forged on to the island of Miljet, home to a National Park of the same name.  The weather was stunning as we pulled in as the only two passengers aboard the catamaran ferry built to hold hundreds.  We were delighted to find solitude and oblivious of all the evidence piling up in front of us.  Little did we know as we stepped onto the deserted street in the town of Polace that this would become our prison over the next few days.
 

Unexpectedly, we were not greeted at the boat by the usual throngs of lodging peddlers.  In a town with one street and about 20 buildings, it did not take long to find the tourist info office, which was extremely closed.  Hmmm...maybe this was going to be more challenging than anticipated.  A bit of wandering past shuttered hotels and restaurants put us in front of the town's lone open business, a mini mart with dust-covered wares.  Inside, a local woman who would soon be affectionately known as "Old Bat" jumped up upon spying our conspicuous backpacks and offered us a room.  Delighted by the calm of the sea and setting sun (not to mention the lack of other options), we forgot to ask if the room had heat.

 The next day, we woke to find a thick mass of dark clouds dropping a torrent on the island.  The temperature had plummeted and our vision of hiking in the park all day was quickly dashed.  Luckily Tom Clancy writes long books, since we got a lot of reading time while huddled under the covers in our winter coats and hats in our furnace-free room.  The rain broke briefly in the afternoon, so we "borrowed" some bikes from a rental shop closed for the season and tooled around the hilly island enough to verify that we truly were the only tourists there.  Returning to town, we got our first inkling that we would not be leaving the next morning as planned, since the scheduled ferry never arrived.

That night, the rain transformed into a full blown tempest of streaking lightening and booming thunder.  The sea was even choppier the next day, so as we waited longingly for the ferry that never came, we got to engage our creative abilities to pass the time.  Our small apartment bore witness to endless cribbage duels, one-on-one charades, a fitness bootcamp on the balcony, and the two of us creating crossword puzzles for each other on the back of cereal boxes.  Evening provided another opportunity to create a magical spaghetti dinner from the mini mart's aged stores.

Thoroughly afflicted with cabin fever, we walked out into the rain at 4:45 the next morning, determined to take matters into our own hands.  The 5am bus rumored to run on the island (the only one of the day) did not materialize, so we put on our best hitchhiking smiles.  After successfully packing ourselves into the back of a tiny hatchback, we arrived in a town whose ferry had been stuck in port by the storms.  Much to the delight of all of us trying to escape the island, the operators decided to brave the still-surly sea and delivered us safely to the mainland.  In retrospect, we were only marooned for three nights, but it cost us the chance to make our planned excursion into Montenegro.  Luckily, that leaves us something to do on our next Around the World trip.

No visit to Croatia would be complete without a trip to the charming walled city of Dubrovnik, the so -called pearl of the Adriatic.  Here we were blessed with a break in the weather that allowed us to walk atop the walls that circumnavigate the old town.  This afforded us comprehensive views of the city's red-tiled roofs, narrow stone streets, and formidable defensive fortifications.  For the delight of our faithful readers, we even took a cheesy senior picture shot suitable for framing (below).  We also had the pleasure of renting a room over-looking the walls from an elderly woman who we dubbed "Aunt".  The only English word in her vocabulary was "please", which delivered us many hilarious conversations consisting of various charades and a repeated drone of "please, please, please....".

 

 

 

From Dubrovnik, we turned north again, braving bus rides along what has recently been rated the world's fifth most dangerous stretch of road.  We reconnected with our old friend the sun and spent a couple days meandering along the stunning cliffs that make up the coastline on our way back to Split.  We spent nights in the cities of Makarska and Trogir, each of which has its own incredible collection of aging stone walls and cavernous churches.  One simple highlight was stumbling upon a flat that had free laundry, which everyone stuck on public transport with us since has greatly appreciated. 

 

From Croatia, we flew to London, where we're exploring and taking care of some administrative tasks.  You'll get a full report soon and then we're off to Asia!

Hungary - Land of Goulash and Cousins

From the thoroughly Western city of Vienna, we headed east to Budapest, Hungary, where one can still sense the vestiges of Communist rule.  We dubbed our room for the first two nights the "Commie Cube", as it was a mammoth cavern with equal height, width, and length, and a heating element the size of a Yugo.  It certainly wasn't cozy, but it was clean, quiet, and came fully decked out with a putting green.  The weather delivered a relentless drizzle and temps near freezing for the bulk of our stay, so we were happy to have warm, dry bases of operation.

We had a one day respite from the rain and made the most of it by walking and gawking.  Buda and Pest were two distinct cities separated by the mighty Danube until a bridge united them in 1111.  Even 900 years later, they still retain distinct personalities - Buda with its leafy hills and imposing castle and Pest as the noisy, fast-paced urban area.  Our favorite sites were the photogenic Parliment building, the view from the turrets of Mathias Church, and the sprawling bridges tying the two distinct cities together.

The highlight of our stay in Budapest was connecting with Carolyn's long lost Cousin, Tiana, who is in medical school there.  We think it has been at least 15 years since Carolyn and Tiana got together, so obviously their lives have changed a bit since then.  The reunion was a happy one, with a few dinners and Tiana giving us a personal tour through the city one night.  She also generously offered up her flat for our last two nights in town and we got to enjoy the thrill of cooking in a real kitchen and watching trashy American TV shows on a couch via the internet.  It is amazing what a treat that can be after months on the road. The role reversal was comical, with the thirty-somethings as the low budget backpackers and Tiana, the college student, as the established one with the nice flat.  We promised to have an "adult" home for Tiana to visit when she comes to the States, although the specific location is to be determined.

One way that we are keeping our minds sharp while on constant holiday is wrestling with the rapidly shifting currency conversions that come with changing countries once or twice per week.  In Hungary, 200 forints equals a US dollar, allowing us to walk around like mafia bosses with tens of thousands in bills stuffed in our pockets.  This contrasts greatly with countries on the Euro, each of which is worth about $1.50.  Imagine going from buying a Coke for 1.5 and feeling ripped off to buying one for 200 and being thrilled to buying one for 10 a few hours down the road and having no idea whether to be mad or glad.  That was us this week.

While the math and the stacks of books we've plowed through on trains and buses keep our minds sharp, our bodies have taken a drubbing.  Since there is no routine anymore, exercise comes mainly from walking.  This comes in voluminous quantities but doesn't deliver the cardio workouts we enjoyed in our running days back home.  The food, though usually quite tasty, has also been punishing on our taut elastic waistbands.  Most meal decisions are focused on low cost with a quick turnaround, which means lots of grub that sticks to more than your ribs.  European mothers must not tell their kids that breakfast is the most important meal of the day, because in our experience, it generally consists of crusty bread, jam, and secondhand smoke.  Luckily markets are ubiquitous, so we scoop up fruit and veggie snacks often.

In an attempt to out maneuver the rain, we headed south from Budapest into Croatia.  Our first stop was the capital city of Zagreb, which greeted us with dazzling blue skies.  We spent the afternoon and evening wandering the streets and downing pizzas (see above), thrilled to jettison our raincoats.

The next morning we continued south to Plitvice Lakes National Park, where we took an incredible hike through the deciduous forest.  Autumn has hit the park with full force and the hills surrounding the cascading lakes were painted in broad brushstrokes with bright yellow, orange, and red hues.  We were thrilled to relish the peace of the woods after a string of big cities.

 

 

 

From the park, we made our way to the city of Split, on the coast of the Adriatic Sea.  One of Croatia's best attributes for the lazy backpacker is that when you step off a bus, train, or boat, you are typically greeted by a jostling throng of locals hoping to rent you a room in their house.  We love how cheap and easy this makes lodging...especially as we look cringingly ahead to hostels in London.

From Split we plan to work our way south down the Dalmatian Coast.  More to Come!  Thanks again for all your comments and thoughts.

Czech Us

After our last post, we got to work on the transport for our next leg, from Greece to Croatia. Although this looks straight forward on a map, we found it exceedingly difficult, requiring some combination of trains and overnight busses that *might* get us where we wanted to go. Any notion that travelling is all romace can easily be squelched by researching this leg while paying for internet by the minute. In the end, we called an audible and leapfrogged Croatia for the time being, throwing caution to the wind and braving a flight to Prague on a discount carrier. Despite the confidence-leeching name of Wizz Air, the biggest issue on the flight was losing our Nutella spread to airport security (but not before pouring ourselves a sandwich in the pat-down area).

Prague delivered on our high expectations. The city is everything we hoped for, with pedestrian-friendly cobblestone streets, amazing architecture, and a river slicing through the center. It is certainly a touristy place, but since we avoided the summer high season we didn't find it to be too contrived or packed with tour groups. With the most reasonable prices we have found thus far, a skyline bristling with interesting towers and spires, and thousands of years of history, we would definitely recommend adding Prague to your list. Our highlight was the magnificent St. Vitus Cathedral inside Prague Castle, which was built over the course of 600 years and outfitted with flying buttresses and stunning stained glass.

Working our way south, our next destination was the quaint Czech town of Cesky Krumlov. A postcard-perfect Bohemian village of red-tiled roofs, rolling hills, a lazily meandering river, and the requisite castle, it proved the perfect place to relax between big cities. We wandered the maze of streets aimlessly, sampling a local speciality that the Czechs call "beer" and savoring a few days at a snail's pace.

One challenge of being a foreigner (especially one on a budget) is that you rarely know enough about how things work in a given place to get a good deal. We have overpaid on everything from food to transport to lodging, only to figure out the smart way to do things a short time later. This is frustrating for Ben, who always tries to get the best deal on everything, but is just the way of things when you're always new to a place. In short, our advice when planning a trip to Europe would be to avoid the Euro currency, if budget is a concern.  One notable victory on this front came on our next leg. On our train to Vienna we teamed up with two Chinese and an Aussie to form an unconventional "family" and score a heavily discounted family ticket that allowed us to make the multihour trip for less than $10 each. One point for the good team!

We enjoyed Vienna, though it certainly felt like the big city that it is. The other issue that we ran into was one of our risk factors for the trip - cloudy skies and rain. Not very many people like rain on their parades, but we have identified ourselves as "solar powered" since before Obama made it cool. We have found, individually and together, that our moods sour in a hurry without sunshine. On the plus side, one great thing about Austria was being in a place where we had some small shred of language capability. Both of us studied German in high school and have retained a few scraps. It felt great, after weeks of non-comprehension, to recognize some words and to be able to say useful things like "hello," "thanks," and "Can I please sharpen my pencil?"

We spent our time wandering past many of Vienna's stately buildings and parks. We toured Schonbrunn, the immense summer palace and gardens of the Hapsburg Empire and marvelled at its gluttonous scope and splendor. Under the guise of being civilized folk, we also took in the opera at Vienna's ornate opera house. With Ben dressed to impress in his finest convertible pants, we gutted out about 45 minutes in the standing room area before conceding. This was long enough to confirm our preconceived notions - opera really is just overweight ladies screeching unintelligably.



Now it's off to Hungary, with Croatia next in line. If you have recommendations for either place, drop us a note!