Thoughts on Croatia
This country isn’t a secret to Europe, everyone seems to go here for Holiday, it probably won’t be long before Americans start understanding what the fuss is about. I’ve heard Americans who have been say, “it’s the place that you think you only need a week for, but once you’re there, you need two.” So true.
Here are my ten favorite things about Croatia:
1. Crazy beautiful. The mountains, the turquoise waters and waterfalls of Plitvice, the drive from Orabic to Dubrovnik, the view from our hotel in Hvar, the entire country is amazing.
2. Rivas. Basically promenades along the harbor with lots of cafes to drink beer and coffee and eat gelato/ice cream.
3. Josep the driver from Orabic to Dubrovnik
4. Dubrovnik. One of the most charming towns in the world. And that’s even with all the tourists.
5. Café Bruz… both of them. I can’t imagine a better place for a drink at sunset.
6. Croatian humor. Notably, Josep and the waitress in Korcula.
7. Croatian Coffee in general. No need for a starbucks in Croatia. They have cafes every 2 feet.
8. Gas stations along the sea with cafes. It makes stopping for gas something to look forward to.
9. Nights in split. Hanging out in the square listening to a girl cover American pop hits or a three string players playing songs I don’t know, surrounded by old stuff. Very Cool.
10. Dubrovnik. What is not to love about a city that revolves around strolling, cafes, drinking and eating?
I guess now we're off to Greece.
Thursday, July 19, 2007
Day 9-11 Korcula, Orabic, Dubrovnik, or: bye, bye Croatia
We left Hvar town for Orabic via Korcula. Its still not clear to me why we went to Orabic. The way things looked, we could take a ferry from Hvar to Korcula and catch a quick ferry/taxi over to Orabic and once in Orabic, according the guy at the reception desk of the Grand Hotel, we’d be able to see the hotel from the ferry and it would be a “short walk…maybe 200 meters.”
When we arrive in Korcula, we find out that we effectively have a choice between the 9 or 11 pm ferry. Korcula seemed like another great small town, so we wanted to spend more time there.
We had initially planned to go to a restaurant suggested by a friend, Andy Katzman, but it turns out that this restaurant is too far away given our schedule. Its in pupnit. Pronounced: poop nut. Good times.
We found a great restaurant Monego Girgili, referenced in Mer’s book. The meal was again fantastic. Everyone, except for Mer, all ordered the exact same thing: noodles with shrimp in some sort of cream sauce. When the waitress told us it was the best thing on the menu, Mer, responds in her best Veruca Salt voice, “But, I want the best dish on the menu.” So, the waitress got a vegetarian version. This was of course after we had ordered, canceled, re-ordered every dish on the menu. We finished ordering when the waitress said, “can I get you anything else,” and literally ran away, not to come back. It may have been because she had quickly developed a pretty major crush on me. She was concerned I wasn’t going to finish my food so she grabbed my fork, made an airplane noise and fed me. Later she brought me my own tiny glass of beer.
After dinner, we rushed to catch our 15 minute ferry and upon landing, as expected, the grand hotel was not in sight. After a confusing conversation with the man at the front desk (he kept saying that I needed to take the ferry to Orabic and I kept saying I was in Orabi), he finally handed the phone to a nice girl who spoke English. She instructed me to follow the path by the water to the hotel. It should only be a fifteen minute walk – about 500 meters she said. After walking about 15 minutes and 500 meters and immediately before the Orabic parks district decided to discontinue lighting the path, rendering it pitch black, we stopped to understand where it was. I was instructed that we were almost there, to continue on the path another 300 meters and about 10 minutes. So we plowed forward. About 10 minutes into the walk we ran into some nice folks who knew where the hotel was. Apparently the hotel is new, so they hadn’t changed the signage…and it was another 10 minutes and 200 meters. After 2.7 miles and a half hour of walking we reached the hotel. Fortunately the bar was open for another 15 minutes (closing at exactly 11.59 pm) and I was able to have a beer once we were checked in.
After spending the day sitting at the pool, where I got sunburned, we were able to negotiate a private taxi to Dubrovnik. Our driver was fantastic. His name is Josep and if you are ever in Dubrovnik or Orabic…or I am sure Korcula, he should be your man to drive you around. He gave a history lesson, made fun of everyone in the car and drove us through ridiculously beautiful scenery on curvy mountain roads that overlooked the Sea. Josep (who is 27 and looks younger) even endured Mer’s questions. He was talking about the war and the relationship with Bosnia, when Mer asked, “did you fight in the war.” Confused, he looked back and said, “do I look that old?” He would have been 11/12 during the war. Later, we came to an intersection that pointed left to split and right to Dubrovnik, he chose to go left. Mer immediately perks up and asks, “why did you turn left, shouldn’t we be going right, aren’t we going to Dubrovnik?” Josep explains that he does in fact know where we’re going, but that we are going to stop for soda.
Once we arrive in Dubrovnik and find our respective residences (Bob at the classiest place in Dbv and the rest of us get random Sobe’s), we meet up for drinks. We find Café Bruz or we think. There are two cafés just outside of the walls with drinks and great views. This one said no nudes on the wall outside. It was sort of magical how you walk through this hole in the wall and find tables on the rocks by the Sea with Frank playing. It was a perfect beginning to our last night in one of the most beautiful countries in the world. We had Frank on the cd player, cold drinks and a great sunset. After drinks we went to Arsenal for dinner. It seemed trendy and expensive…it sort of was, but the food was good and inside they had air conditioning…and scotch…and Keane was playing on their cd player, so it wasn’t bad and Mer got drunk. We finished at one of the cafes on the main strip for drinks. It was a perfect end to our time in Croatia.
When we arrive in Korcula, we find out that we effectively have a choice between the 9 or 11 pm ferry. Korcula seemed like another great small town, so we wanted to spend more time there.
We had initially planned to go to a restaurant suggested by a friend, Andy Katzman, but it turns out that this restaurant is too far away given our schedule. Its in pupnit. Pronounced: poop nut. Good times.
We found a great restaurant Monego Girgili, referenced in Mer’s book. The meal was again fantastic. Everyone, except for Mer, all ordered the exact same thing: noodles with shrimp in some sort of cream sauce. When the waitress told us it was the best thing on the menu, Mer, responds in her best Veruca Salt voice, “But, I want the best dish on the menu.” So, the waitress got a vegetarian version. This was of course after we had ordered, canceled, re-ordered every dish on the menu. We finished ordering when the waitress said, “can I get you anything else,” and literally ran away, not to come back. It may have been because she had quickly developed a pretty major crush on me. She was concerned I wasn’t going to finish my food so she grabbed my fork, made an airplane noise and fed me. Later she brought me my own tiny glass of beer.
After dinner, we rushed to catch our 15 minute ferry and upon landing, as expected, the grand hotel was not in sight. After a confusing conversation with the man at the front desk (he kept saying that I needed to take the ferry to Orabic and I kept saying I was in Orabi), he finally handed the phone to a nice girl who spoke English. She instructed me to follow the path by the water to the hotel. It should only be a fifteen minute walk – about 500 meters she said. After walking about 15 minutes and 500 meters and immediately before the Orabic parks district decided to discontinue lighting the path, rendering it pitch black, we stopped to understand where it was. I was instructed that we were almost there, to continue on the path another 300 meters and about 10 minutes. So we plowed forward. About 10 minutes into the walk we ran into some nice folks who knew where the hotel was. Apparently the hotel is new, so they hadn’t changed the signage…and it was another 10 minutes and 200 meters. After 2.7 miles and a half hour of walking we reached the hotel. Fortunately the bar was open for another 15 minutes (closing at exactly 11.59 pm) and I was able to have a beer once we were checked in.
After spending the day sitting at the pool, where I got sunburned, we were able to negotiate a private taxi to Dubrovnik. Our driver was fantastic. His name is Josep and if you are ever in Dubrovnik or Orabic…or I am sure Korcula, he should be your man to drive you around. He gave a history lesson, made fun of everyone in the car and drove us through ridiculously beautiful scenery on curvy mountain roads that overlooked the Sea. Josep (who is 27 and looks younger) even endured Mer’s questions. He was talking about the war and the relationship with Bosnia, when Mer asked, “did you fight in the war.” Confused, he looked back and said, “do I look that old?” He would have been 11/12 during the war. Later, we came to an intersection that pointed left to split and right to Dubrovnik, he chose to go left. Mer immediately perks up and asks, “why did you turn left, shouldn’t we be going right, aren’t we going to Dubrovnik?” Josep explains that he does in fact know where we’re going, but that we are going to stop for soda.
Once we arrive in Dubrovnik and find our respective residences (Bob at the classiest place in Dbv and the rest of us get random Sobe’s), we meet up for drinks. We find Café Bruz or we think. There are two cafés just outside of the walls with drinks and great views. This one said no nudes on the wall outside. It was sort of magical how you walk through this hole in the wall and find tables on the rocks by the Sea with Frank playing. It was a perfect beginning to our last night in one of the most beautiful countries in the world. We had Frank on the cd player, cold drinks and a great sunset. After drinks we went to Arsenal for dinner. It seemed trendy and expensive…it sort of was, but the food was good and inside they had air conditioning…and scotch…and Keane was playing on their cd player, so it wasn’t bad and Mer got drunk. We finished at one of the cafes on the main strip for drinks. It was a perfect end to our time in Croatia.
Day 7 - 9 Hvar Town or: Uns Uns mixed with Mozart
Hvar Town Harbor
beautiful view, tasting wines, easy listening, get together
Joanna and Bob with some old stuff
Bob peaking through the fortThe ferry from Split drops you off right in the center of town. As you exit the ferry, theres a fresh fish restaurant, which lies immediately next to the famed, “Carpe Diem,” billed as the mother of all harbor town bars (more on that later). Hotel Dalmacija (our accommodations for 150 Euro/room/night) was about a five minute walk away. We immediately headed to the rooftop balcony overlooking the Sea for, as the hotel signage says: beautiful view, tasting wines, easy listening, get together. Or, as Bob says, “non sequitur, non sequitur, non sequitur, non sequitur”
Of course, they didn’t have all the wines and there wasn’t any hard alcohol. After a few drinks we head to Konobo Manego, an authentic Croatian family restaurant. It was hard to find because Lonely planet had it in the wrong spot, but after wandering aimlessly, Mer finally found the place. As we walked in, the owner offered us a place outside, that he said would be hot and uncomfortable or a place downstairs…after a long thought, we opted for the place downstairs. As he sat us down he explained that this was his house and he only serves traditional Croatian food, which means no Coca-cola, no pasta. We were excited about having this fantastic Croatian meal…As he explained the menu and our options, we quickly became confused if were supposed to order or he was just going to bring us food. So, we explained that mer was a vegetarian and we needed vegetarian options. I think the owner took this as all the girls were vegetarians. We also ordered some home-made spirits. So, when our food came, we got a nice cheese plate, about 31 plates of vegetarian food and bob and I got a plate that had a couple pieces of proscciutto and something that tasted like a combination between beef jerky and pepperoni. I guess the girls loved the vegetarian dishes (I thought they were somewhere between disgusting and bad). So, after our ham and pepperoni/beef jerky, the owner brings Bob and me our spirits. Wow. It tasted like a combination of Jaeger, rumple mints and everclear. Bob said it felt like an elevator inferno. It definitely woke us up.
Then we head to Carpe Diem….the mother of all beach-side/harbor-town…etc. clubs. I don’t know which was worse: the expensive drinks, the horrible Europeans dancing in their manpri’s, the lack of decent non-fruity drinks, the really Cocktail bartenders (they were actually throwing stuff in the air, but they didn’t catch them) or the fact that everyone there seemed to be taking this whole thing so seriously. Bob and I stayed long enough to finish our initial drink…and a couple cigarettes and went immediately a bar on the square. This bar was perfect. Not too many people around, a table to ourselves, beer. The evening ended with some random Germans drunkenly screaming songs, or rather the first verse of the songs.
The next day in Hvar town we went to some big fortress. It was old and big and there are only a couple of notes: 1. there was a long hike up a big hill and no coffee in sight, 2. I told Meredith and Heather the Ned and Ed joke. I’m surprised that they didn’t mention it in their update, as they said it was the highlight of the trip. Bob and Joanna were there, so this makes it 1,351st time for Bob and the 1,251,336th time for Joanna. It gets better every time.
For dinner, Bob and I wanted real food. I thought we should check out the fresh fish place near our hotel. I liked the idea of them taking a fish out of the harbor, beating it against the ground and throwing it on a grill. Upon sitting down, we realized that experience costs about 70 Euro. So, I went with the, “3rd tier” fresh fish. I don’t know what it means exactly. It was ok.
After dinner we checked out some sort of pianist playing in a Monastery. It sounds cool. I wanted to like it…and I did, just not as much as I wanted to. I’ve never really seen a classical/concert pianist play. I guess, it seemed to be more about the technical ability to play the music and not about the song or what the song is trying to say. And, it was quiet. Only polite applause, which seemed to occur only sometimes after she finished playing a song or part of a song. And, she kept having to turn the pages of the music. Its just me, but shouldn’t you have the song memorized if people are paying to see you play. I think she played an encore that she had memorized. Does she always play an encore? It didn’t seem like crowd applauded more so at the end or requested another song. I don’t think I was the only person there who wanted to like it more…I caught about 10 people sleeping.
Later that night (another late night of drinking), Bob and I found a late night food stand open, that seemed to be hidden from everything. They said that all they had was hamburgers and hot-dogs, but when we asked for fries, they quickly fried up some fresh ones. It was the best fries we ever had
Our final day in Hvar Town was spent doing laundry and mooching off of the 450 Euro/night resort on the side of the harbor. Mer, Heather and Bob bought chairs for the day and we spent the rest of our time swimming in the Sea and sunning.
Of course, they didn’t have all the wines and there wasn’t any hard alcohol. After a few drinks we head to Konobo Manego, an authentic Croatian family restaurant. It was hard to find because Lonely planet had it in the wrong spot, but after wandering aimlessly, Mer finally found the place. As we walked in, the owner offered us a place outside, that he said would be hot and uncomfortable or a place downstairs…after a long thought, we opted for the place downstairs. As he sat us down he explained that this was his house and he only serves traditional Croatian food, which means no Coca-cola, no pasta. We were excited about having this fantastic Croatian meal…As he explained the menu and our options, we quickly became confused if were supposed to order or he was just going to bring us food. So, we explained that mer was a vegetarian and we needed vegetarian options. I think the owner took this as all the girls were vegetarians. We also ordered some home-made spirits. So, when our food came, we got a nice cheese plate, about 31 plates of vegetarian food and bob and I got a plate that had a couple pieces of proscciutto and something that tasted like a combination between beef jerky and pepperoni. I guess the girls loved the vegetarian dishes (I thought they were somewhere between disgusting and bad). So, after our ham and pepperoni/beef jerky, the owner brings Bob and me our spirits. Wow. It tasted like a combination of Jaeger, rumple mints and everclear. Bob said it felt like an elevator inferno. It definitely woke us up.
Then we head to Carpe Diem….the mother of all beach-side/harbor-town…etc. clubs. I don’t know which was worse: the expensive drinks, the horrible Europeans dancing in their manpri’s, the lack of decent non-fruity drinks, the really Cocktail bartenders (they were actually throwing stuff in the air, but they didn’t catch them) or the fact that everyone there seemed to be taking this whole thing so seriously. Bob and I stayed long enough to finish our initial drink…and a couple cigarettes and went immediately a bar on the square. This bar was perfect. Not too many people around, a table to ourselves, beer. The evening ended with some random Germans drunkenly screaming songs, or rather the first verse of the songs.
The next day in Hvar town we went to some big fortress. It was old and big and there are only a couple of notes: 1. there was a long hike up a big hill and no coffee in sight, 2. I told Meredith and Heather the Ned and Ed joke. I’m surprised that they didn’t mention it in their update, as they said it was the highlight of the trip. Bob and Joanna were there, so this makes it 1,351st time for Bob and the 1,251,336th time for Joanna. It gets better every time.
For dinner, Bob and I wanted real food. I thought we should check out the fresh fish place near our hotel. I liked the idea of them taking a fish out of the harbor, beating it against the ground and throwing it on a grill. Upon sitting down, we realized that experience costs about 70 Euro. So, I went with the, “3rd tier” fresh fish. I don’t know what it means exactly. It was ok.
After dinner we checked out some sort of pianist playing in a Monastery. It sounds cool. I wanted to like it…and I did, just not as much as I wanted to. I’ve never really seen a classical/concert pianist play. I guess, it seemed to be more about the technical ability to play the music and not about the song or what the song is trying to say. And, it was quiet. Only polite applause, which seemed to occur only sometimes after she finished playing a song or part of a song. And, she kept having to turn the pages of the music. Its just me, but shouldn’t you have the song memorized if people are paying to see you play. I think she played an encore that she had memorized. Does she always play an encore? It didn’t seem like crowd applauded more so at the end or requested another song. I don’t think I was the only person there who wanted to like it more…I caught about 10 people sleeping.
Later that night (another late night of drinking), Bob and I found a late night food stand open, that seemed to be hidden from everything. They said that all they had was hamburgers and hot-dogs, but when we asked for fries, they quickly fried up some fresh ones. It was the best fries we ever had
Our final day in Hvar Town was spent doing laundry and mooching off of the 450 Euro/night resort on the side of the harbor. Mer, Heather and Bob bought chairs for the day and we spent the rest of our time swimming in the Sea and sunning.
Wednesday, July 18, 2007
Guest Bloggers: Heather and Mer, Days 7 and 8
While John and Joanna ran some errands and focused on returning the car, we were considerably less productive. We'd had enough history; we'd had enough of walking tours. What we really wanted was to lounge by the pool at Le Meridien. And that's exactly what we did... all day. With the exception of a brief intermission to get pedicures at the hotel spa. Some people may look at pedicures as a silly waste of time; these were probably the most necessary pedis anyone has ever recieved. The people of Croatia thanked us.
A little tired, we decide to stop at a cafe on the Riva for capuccinos. While we sat on the outdoor veranda, Mer realized (shockingly) that she needed to visit the restroom. For those who haven't traveled with her before, it should be noted that frequent pee breaks are part of the itinerary. Anyway, upon her return to the table, a little old Croatian lady accosted her. We *think* she was asking for help up the stairs. But the language barrier was far and wide. Mer gets her up the stairs and resumes the search for the restroom. Meanwhile, the little old croatian lady makes her way to Heather who is still peacefully sipping cappuccino. The woman begins gesturing and speaking loudly in what we can only assume to be her native language. Heather is convinced that this woman was either cursing her or telling her that she liked her hair. It's a crapshoot.
Eventually we had to tear ourselves away from the pool for the ferry to Hvar. At the ferry we met back up with John, Joanna and Bob. Our first night in Hvar we were delighted to find that our hotel had a roofdeck with gorgeous views as well as a wine bar. Overcome with inspiration to adopt a real authentic croatian lifestyle we ate dinner at a small family restaurant on the hillside near the fortress. There were highs (stuffed peppers and cheese plate) and lows (everything else). But most importantly, Bob and John tried their homemade spirits much to the entertainment of the rest of us. We literally saw new chest hairs grow after they took their shots. John may no longer have any taste buds. The key takeaway is that the Croatian-food-turned-Italian-to-please-tourists is much better than the real deal.
The next day, we hiked up to the fortress. Key highlights include John getting reacquainted with nature and hiking as well as spectacular views of Hvar and the adriatic. It was beautiful. We also walked around to another part of the island to enjoy the beach. Sure, it would have been more enjoyable with far fewer children. Even the topless women couldn't get John to stay longer than a half hour before getting bored.
We made our way back to the hotel to change and had a pre-dinner cocktail at the famous Carpe Diem. Dinner was eaten at a waterfront seafood restaurant and followed by a Mozart concert in the cloister of the monastery. Surprisingly this sounded cooler than it ended up actually being. Or maybe that's not so suprising to you readers.
As always, drinks followed.
A little tired, we decide to stop at a cafe on the Riva for capuccinos. While we sat on the outdoor veranda, Mer realized (shockingly) that she needed to visit the restroom. For those who haven't traveled with her before, it should be noted that frequent pee breaks are part of the itinerary. Anyway, upon her return to the table, a little old Croatian lady accosted her. We *think* she was asking for help up the stairs. But the language barrier was far and wide. Mer gets her up the stairs and resumes the search for the restroom. Meanwhile, the little old croatian lady makes her way to Heather who is still peacefully sipping cappuccino. The woman begins gesturing and speaking loudly in what we can only assume to be her native language. Heather is convinced that this woman was either cursing her or telling her that she liked her hair. It's a crapshoot.
Eventually we had to tear ourselves away from the pool for the ferry to Hvar. At the ferry we met back up with John, Joanna and Bob. Our first night in Hvar we were delighted to find that our hotel had a roofdeck with gorgeous views as well as a wine bar. Overcome with inspiration to adopt a real authentic croatian lifestyle we ate dinner at a small family restaurant on the hillside near the fortress. There were highs (stuffed peppers and cheese plate) and lows (everything else). But most importantly, Bob and John tried their homemade spirits much to the entertainment of the rest of us. We literally saw new chest hairs grow after they took their shots. John may no longer have any taste buds. The key takeaway is that the Croatian-food-turned-Italian-to-please-tourists is much better than the real deal.
The next day, we hiked up to the fortress. Key highlights include John getting reacquainted with nature and hiking as well as spectacular views of Hvar and the adriatic. It was beautiful. We also walked around to another part of the island to enjoy the beach. Sure, it would have been more enjoyable with far fewer children. Even the topless women couldn't get John to stay longer than a half hour before getting bored.
We made our way back to the hotel to change and had a pre-dinner cocktail at the famous Carpe Diem. Dinner was eaten at a waterfront seafood restaurant and followed by a Mozart concert in the cloister of the monastery. Surprisingly this sounded cooler than it ended up actually being. Or maybe that's not so suprising to you readers.
As always, drinks followed.
Friday, July 13, 2007
Day 6 and 7 Split and Bob joins us!
After waking up in the heavenly bed in our air-conditioned room and grabbing breakfast at the Le Meridian (thanks starwood!), we met Mer and Heather in Split for a lonely planet walking tour. Basically, we saw a bunch of really cool old stuff.
Lunch was a bit of adventure as we went looking for a vegetarian place for Mer. For those that don’t know – there aren’t many vegetarian options for Mer in Croatia. Mer has had 2 options for meals (for every meal): cheese and pasta with vegetables or pizza. It was on the other side of town (about 15ish minutes away), and we weren’t sure if it was open. We found it, but it was closed. So we ended up at the best pizza place in spit (I think it was called Giglio, but i don't have my book, I'll edit it later). We had ridiculous pizza and great beer. We also got to see an 8 year old drinking beer with is lunch.
The excitement of the day was Bob joining us. This will be my fourth international trip with Bob in as many years and my 7th time traveling with him (not counting weekend trips and weddings). We’ve been to China, Vietnam, Prague, Budapest, London and Hawaii. I don’t fully understand why he continues to travel with me, but I like it. Since I’ve met Bob I haven’t had to plan a trip. And, we have the added bonus that he studied history in undergrad, so he is effectively a tour guide.
Bob and I grabbed beers along the riva and about 3 beers in, the girls showed up to go to dinner. We decided to repeat last night (dinner at Tifani and drinks in square). This time, they had a string section playing the square.
Bob and I forced the girls to go to the only bar open on the Riva for beers. However, we ended up drinking most of the two rounds for five people. Good times.
The next day in split was spent trying to figure out how to leave. Joanna and I didn’t have much time to run some errands and drop the car off before our Catamaran left for Hvar. But, in true Hamilton fashion we pushed things. As we were leaving for the airport to drop off the car, we realized that we were supposed to buy our tickets for the boat at that exact moment. However, we didn’t have tickets, couldn’t get ahold of anyone and no one was near the ferry terminal. We wasted most of our batteries confirming that someone, somewhere could get us tickets.
The thing is that there are no road signs in Croatia. So, we mostly guessed our way to the airport. We ended up missing turns, taking wrong turns and driving on a barely functioning gravel road to the Split International airport. My blackberry, Bob’s cell phone and Meredith and heathers phone are all running out of battery, when we finally make it to the airport at 3.20. Our boat leaves at 4 pm sharp. We hop in a cab and tell the cab driver to step on it. Step on it must mean drive as slowly as possible in Croatian, because the driver was passed by nearly everyone on the road. I should add, that we did not know where the boat terminal was or any other information of where to go. The cab driver insists he knows where to go, even though we get in an argument about his path to the terminal along the way, causing him to stop and potentially change directions. Somehow we make it to the terminal just as the last few people are boarding and get onboard. Heather and Mere had saved us seats and Bob was diligently waiting outside with our tickets. We are the last people on board (no surprise there) and off we go to Hvar town.
In closing on Split, we loved it. I don't think it gets enough credit for being such a great city. Its mostly looked at as the jumping off point for island hopping, but i definitely think it holds its own.
Day 5 Zadar and Split
Zadar was a nice city with some interesting sights. But, to start our day we got a killer parking spot near the main town square, along the harbor. We saw the Church of St. Donat. I was hoping it was Donut. But no. It was still cool and according to the Lonely Planet it is one of the most outstanding monuments in all of Dalmatia (dating from the 9th Century). It was built over the old Roman Forum (from 1st Century BC and 3rd Century AD), which I thought was actually much cooler. There were all sorts of columns and blood alters. What I always find amazing about Europe is that all of this stuff is just sitting in the middle of a city somewhere. People can climb on it, have lunch in it, just hang out by it and its no big deal. I am aware that the last statement makes me sound abit naïve and like an American.
The highlight was the “Sea Organ” which somehow has a bunch of organ pipes that make sounds based on the waves and currents of the ocean. It was free to just go sit on it, dangling your feet in the water and enjoying the beautiful day. We had an unremarkable lunch at one of the thousand pizza places lining the street and then headed out for a coastal drive to Split.
The drive to split was beautiful. And, along the way we stopped at a gas station for soda and bio-breaks. The view at the gas station was pretty breath-taking. I stopped and got an espresso at the café in the gas station and just took-in the view. Our beautiful drive was interrupted by road signs directing us to take the Croatian interstate the rest of the way. Croatia built a new, efficient highway through half the country. It’s great if you want to get somewhere fast, but its not attractive. The conspiracy theorist in me says that they put the signs there to get us to pay the tolls on the highway.
We quickly found our hotels. Joanna and I chose to stay at the Le Meridian. The first of a few SPG point stays on this trip. The lack of air-conditioning in Zadar and overall, lack of…hotel experience that I’ve grown accustomed to, combined with paying upwards of $150-200/ night per room, had me wanting some good old, heavenly bed and shower and a FREE room. When we called SPG they said they were sold out. I asked them to call the hotel to make sure. When the guy got back to he said, “we have one room and the manager is willing to give it to you for $365 euros.” I responded, “great, we’ll pay with points.” It was a great deal!
Once getting everyone settled in their hotels, we met up for dinner and went to Tifani (which is located at a hotel in Diocletian’s Palace). By far the most ridiculously awesome meal we’ve had so far on our trip. We had some fantastic Croatian wine and a mixture of some of their dishes. Everything we had was amazing. During dinner we heard a girl singing American pop music. We couldn’t hear it too well and didn’t think much of it. After dinner we walked toward the music and saw the old town square filled with people sitting on steps and ledges drinking and listening to a duo singing. It was AMAZING. We had a few beers (our new favorite since we arrived in Croatia: Karlovaċka) and just enjoyed the experience.
Day 4 Plitvice and Zadar
As you may have read, it’s basically nature. Lots of nature. Waterfalls, hiking, turquoise lakes, hiking, steep cliffs, hiking, dirt, plants and lots of other things that grow. And kids and dogs. But, I made it through. Just to be clear, there was no fainting. The guest bloggers were just being dramatic. I think they were hoping I’d faint but I didn’t.Ideally we’d publish pictures to this thing, but we’ve had some struggles getting pictures from our camera to our laptop. Before I wrote this update, I was reading the camera book. Its possible that I was supposed to format the SD card before taking pictures on it. So…well, that’s my bad. Anyway, if you see the pictures, you’ll probably enjoy them, because I am probably the only person who gets bored of waterfalls. Mostly, I just wanted a coffee.
Speaking of coffee…When we got to the top, I really wanted coffee. I know it was hot, but the morning coffee was pretty terrible, so I hadn’t quite quenched my craving. I saw folks drinking coffee at the end of the hike, and yes, I thought it was very refreshing. Until the ice cream girl knocked it out of my hands and all over me. Not an ounce of espresso was on the ground, it was all over my shirt. Incidentally, it’s a good thing I changed shirts. I was wearing a black Bryant-Lake Bowl earlier in the day, but didn’t think it was an appropriate shirt for nature.
So, I changed into a Kellogg t-shirt that I wore inside out. Thank God. Since, its now ruined and covered in espresso. The good news is that she felt bad and bought me another espresso. Now, off to Zadar.
You might be thinking, “why zadar.” The answer is, “mostly because we thought it was a cool name.” We found it was so much more.
But, first, accommodations. I had booked us in “the only apartment in the old town.” We spent about 2 hours driving around the old town trying to find, “a gate with a lion.” We finally found this gate with a lion and I met up with a nice woman who had been guiding us to the gate with the lion. She took me to see her apartment…It was old, rusty, there was no air conditioning or elevator to our fifth floor rooms. It didn’t look clean, the beds didn’t look great. I was just not happy. So, we left to find accommodations that better suited our needs. We found those at the hotel Albin. The staff was friendly; the rooms were clean and nice. It was 10 times better than the other place. And, it was about 15 minutes from the old town. We had dinner at their restaurant, which was again, FANTASTIC. We had drinks at the LA café down the street where they played a combination of random Tupac, Croatian rap, Lionel Ritchie, Billy Joel and some sort of live Croatian Celine Dion (the Croatian version of her is about as bad).
Note
We've had limited internet access and when we have had access, we spend about 3 hours searching for ferry times. Its been difficult to add pics, etc. So, we're adding pics to the posts today. Recheck some of the previous posts for pics.
Wednesday, July 11, 2007
Guest Bloggers: Heather and Mer, Day 4
After all of the commotion with yesterday’s journey, we awaken in Plitvice.national park at the Hotel Jezero. The hotel is pretty basic but has a great location about 100 feet from the entrance to the park. And it boasts an awesome breakfast. Mer and Heather were delighted to find among the basic/expected breakfast options a beacon of light in the jams/spreads area… a nutella-like half-chocolate, half-vanilla cream spread. Never mind that it came packaged in a cartoon character packet. This was clearly for adults.
Little did we know just how mission critical this breakfast would be, when we set out for what would become a five hour hike before we’d get to lunch. As most of you who know John would expect given this information, John fainted of starvation less than 27 minutes into the hike. We did not know whether John’s fainting spell was the result of insufficient nutrition or overexposure to nature, given that he complained of both. With John passed out, we began to enjoy the breathtaking scenery surrounding us. There were waterfalls around every turn and turquoise lakes that extended as far as the eye could see. The turquoise color was actually a little ironic because earlier in the morning, while looking for postcards in the gift shop, Heather refused to buy a postcard with images of the turquoise water convinced that the image had been doctored… in fact, the water truly is an other-worldly color. Apologies to those of you who could have received said postcards.
The highlight of the day came at the end. After lunch we began the final leg of the hike which turned out to be the most physically demanding, uphill and in the sun. Don’t worry, John made it. But Heather had to carry the backpack up the hill. We think John made it because there was ice cream waiting at the top. So, we stop for a respite and a refreshment. While some refreshed with water and ice cream, John chose espresso. Did we mention it was hot outside? Anyway, what happened next cannot truly be summed up with words. We’d like to share with you a brief video below.
Holding his super #1 coffee while ordering an ice cream, John soon found his espresso covering his shirt when the ice cream lady opened the freezer with a bit too sudden movement. I think John may have yelped. He was not happy. And he smelled a lot like espresso.
We made our way back to the car and hopped in for a two-hour ride to Zadar, a charming coastal town. It should be noted that we are a very hi-tech bunch. Joanna in the front seat with computer on, burned a cd for us to enjoy as a soundtrack for our journey.
When we got to Zadar, John went to check out the accommodations that he’d reserved on the phone earlier in the day while we waited in the car. John couldn’t handle that first hotel, so we wandered around getting lost in the neighborhood looking for a new hotel: Hotel Albin. This was by all definition identical to the first, but according to John the presence of air conditioning made it a thousand times better. Little did John know that the a/c in his bedroom was broken and that he would find himself taken two cold showers in the middle of the night to avoid overheating.
Little did we know just how mission critical this breakfast would be, when we set out for what would become a five hour hike before we’d get to lunch. As most of you who know John would expect given this information, John fainted of starvation less than 27 minutes into the hike. We did not know whether John’s fainting spell was the result of insufficient nutrition or overexposure to nature, given that he complained of both. With John passed out, we began to enjoy the breathtaking scenery surrounding us. There were waterfalls around every turn and turquoise lakes that extended as far as the eye could see. The turquoise color was actually a little ironic because earlier in the morning, while looking for postcards in the gift shop, Heather refused to buy a postcard with images of the turquoise water convinced that the image had been doctored… in fact, the water truly is an other-worldly color. Apologies to those of you who could have received said postcards.
The highlight of the day came at the end. After lunch we began the final leg of the hike which turned out to be the most physically demanding, uphill and in the sun. Don’t worry, John made it. But Heather had to carry the backpack up the hill. We think John made it because there was ice cream waiting at the top. So, we stop for a respite and a refreshment. While some refreshed with water and ice cream, John chose espresso. Did we mention it was hot outside? Anyway, what happened next cannot truly be summed up with words. We’d like to share with you a brief video below.
Holding his super #1 coffee while ordering an ice cream, John soon found his espresso covering his shirt when the ice cream lady opened the freezer with a bit too sudden movement. I think John may have yelped. He was not happy. And he smelled a lot like espresso.
We made our way back to the car and hopped in for a two-hour ride to Zadar, a charming coastal town. It should be noted that we are a very hi-tech bunch. Joanna in the front seat with computer on, burned a cd for us to enjoy as a soundtrack for our journey.
When we got to Zadar, John went to check out the accommodations that he’d reserved on the phone earlier in the day while we waited in the car. John couldn’t handle that first hotel, so we wandered around getting lost in the neighborhood looking for a new hotel: Hotel Albin. This was by all definition identical to the first, but according to John the presence of air conditioning made it a thousand times better. Little did John know that the a/c in his bedroom was broken and that he would find himself taken two cold showers in the middle of the night to avoid overheating.
Tuesday, July 10, 2007
Guest Blogger: Bobby Day 1 split
I don't really understand this numbering thing from Day 0 and don't really know what which day that would mean I left Dallas. Leg 1 was the trip to Chicago from Dallas. I checked into my hotel, hopped on the Blue Line and joined Vanessa and Jay (approximately 1/5 of this blog's readership) for dinner. Afterwards, they drove me back to the hotel and I decided to stay up all night before heading to the airport at 4AM - my own way of thumbing my nose at Hamilton's laborious (and useless) jet lag avoidance tips.
Leg 2 was Chicago to Dulles, a quick plane change and then Leg 3 was Dulles to Heathrow. I checked into a hotel at Heathrow for the night - I had my usual Edinburgh Suite at the Sheraton Skyline - and was surprised to find my cell phone worked. I hadn't touched base with John that day, so we had to figure out where we would meet the following day. Note to travellers contemplating a Tour de Hamilton - don't tell John your (domestic, regular old AT&T - that you're paying for mind you) cell phone works in a foreign country. We talked for about ten minutes - so that will probably run me about $162.
Leg 4 was Gatwick to Split - ran into Dan Joss at the airport. I got into Split about 3:00, checked into my hotel - a very cool hotel inside Diocletian's Palace - explored a little, and then met up with Hamilton. We had a few cocktails on the Riva, the main pedestrian thoroughfare along the waterfront. The girls joined us, we had a few more, and then headed to dinner. Thanks to Mrs. Williamson for the octopus salad recommendation - fantastic stuff. Then we took in a string quartet concert in front of the Protiron, a few more cocktails, and then went to a late night bar on the Riva - for ONE drink - or so I promised the tired, and even more tired of the non-stop John-and-Bob show, ladies we were escorting. One round quickly became two, but John and I were forced to finish all of those. We dispersed and I woke up a few hours later in still in my clothes somewhere in the palace.
Leg 2 was Chicago to Dulles, a quick plane change and then Leg 3 was Dulles to Heathrow. I checked into a hotel at Heathrow for the night - I had my usual Edinburgh Suite at the Sheraton Skyline - and was surprised to find my cell phone worked. I hadn't touched base with John that day, so we had to figure out where we would meet the following day. Note to travellers contemplating a Tour de Hamilton - don't tell John your (domestic, regular old AT&T - that you're paying for mind you) cell phone works in a foreign country. We talked for about ten minutes - so that will probably run me about $162.
Leg 4 was Gatwick to Split - ran into Dan Joss at the airport. I got into Split about 3:00, checked into my hotel - a very cool hotel inside Diocletian's Palace - explored a little, and then met up with Hamilton. We had a few cocktails on the Riva, the main pedestrian thoroughfare along the waterfront. The girls joined us, we had a few more, and then headed to dinner. Thanks to Mrs. Williamson for the octopus salad recommendation - fantastic stuff. Then we took in a string quartet concert in front of the Protiron, a few more cocktails, and then went to a late night bar on the Riva - for ONE drink - or so I promised the tired, and even more tired of the non-stop John-and-Bob show, ladies we were escorting. One round quickly became two, but John and I were forced to finish all of those. We dispersed and I woke up a few hours later in still in my clothes somewhere in the palace.
Days 2-3 London to Dubrovnik, Dubrovnik to Zagreb to Plitvice
Days 2 and 3 we spent mostly driving or flying. Here are the highlights:
Dubrovnik was a freaking charming city. After checking into our apartment (the only one listed inside the old town), we quickly set out walking along the walls and ultimately ended up having drinks at café Buza. Its right outside the original walls and sits on some rocks overlooking the Adriatic. It was a great way to see “start” our vacation
We walked around the old town to determine our prime dinner location. Its worth noting that no cars are allowed within the city walls. So, the
main streets are lined with cafes, with all of tourists walking down the middle. There is apparently no need for me to find a starbucks in the city because every inch of every street has a café serving fantastic espresso. We finally decided upon Proto. It was highly recommended in lonely planet. But, the prices were pretty high and we just weren’t sure that the food was going to live up. LP was right. Food was fantastic. Well worth it.
Day 3 was spent flying from Dubrovnik to Zagreb, then driving to Plitvice, a Unesco World heritage site and national park. Before we left, I diligently printed off directions, however, I didn’t have any specific addresses, So, I had to print off directions from town center to town center…um, that didn’t work so well. The Zagreb airport was not in the town center. So, we are now driving our manual transmission car around Zagreb trying to find our way to Plitvice national park. This was complicated by the fact that there weren’t a lot of opportunities for me to turn around. Anytime I took a wrong turn, it took us around 15 minutes to just get back to the original spot. As you can imagine, after about 45 minutes of this I was fuming, cursing german automakers for their manual transmission, cursing croatia for posting their road signs only about 1 foot before you need to turn and cursing the internet for not providing good directions. On top of this, I was hungry and hadn’t eaten. At this point Joanna says, “wait, doesn’t your blackberry have GPS?” I grumbled about how it probably didn’t work and we shouldn’t bother. Joanna was unfazed and found the “directions” portion of the maps application. Turned on the satellites and entered Plitvice as the location that we need directions to. The blackberry found our location and told us exactly how to get there.
At about 9 pm, we arrived in the park. We quickly checked into the hotel (hotel Jezero in the park). And, we were rewarded with another fabulous meal (Restaurant Licka Kuka): A meat platter with potatoes that were cooked under a bell. I don’t know what that means, but I think it means that they were soaked in oil and cooked. It was fantastic.
Dubrovnik was a freaking charming city. After checking into our apartment (the only one listed inside the old town), we quickly set out walking along the walls and ultimately ended up having drinks at café Buza. Its right outside the original walls and sits on some rocks overlooking the Adriatic. It was a great way to see “start” our vacation
We walked around the old town to determine our prime dinner location. Its worth noting that no cars are allowed within the city walls. So, the
main streets are lined with cafes, with all of tourists walking down the middle. There is apparently no need for me to find a starbucks in the city because every inch of every street has a café serving fantastic espresso. We finally decided upon Proto. It was highly recommended in lonely planet. But, the prices were pretty high and we just weren’t sure that the food was going to live up. LP was right. Food was fantastic. Well worth it.
Day 3 was spent flying from Dubrovnik to Zagreb, then driving to Plitvice, a Unesco World heritage site and national park. Before we left, I diligently printed off directions, however, I didn’t have any specific addresses, So, I had to print off directions from town center to town center…um, that didn’t work so well. The Zagreb airport was not in the town center. So, we are now driving our manual transmission car around Zagreb trying to find our way to Plitvice national park. This was complicated by the fact that there weren’t a lot of opportunities for me to turn around. Anytime I took a wrong turn, it took us around 15 minutes to just get back to the original spot. As you can imagine, after about 45 minutes of this I was fuming, cursing german automakers for their manual transmission, cursing croatia for posting their road signs only about 1 foot before you need to turn and cursing the internet for not providing good directions. On top of this, I was hungry and hadn’t eaten. At this point Joanna says, “wait, doesn’t your blackberry have GPS?” I grumbled about how it probably didn’t work and we shouldn’t bother. Joanna was unfazed and found the “directions” portion of the maps application. Turned on the satellites and entered Plitvice as the location that we need directions to. The blackberry found our location and told us exactly how to get there.
At about 9 pm, we arrived in the park. We quickly checked into the hotel (hotel Jezero in the park). And, we were rewarded with another fabulous meal (Restaurant Licka Kuka): A meat platter with potatoes that were cooked under a bell. I don’t know what that means, but I think it means that they were soaked in oil and cooked. It was fantastic.
Friday, July 06, 2007
Days 1-3 (Heather and Mer)
After assorted domestic & international flights, we arrived in Croatia's capital, Zagreb. Most of our first evening was devoted to obtaining a cell phone which we have affectionately dubbed "Drazen" after our incredibly helpful t-mobile sales associate. We followed this with a much-needed night of sleep in a closet they called a hotel room. Our second day in country began with an early morning trip to the northern Kvarnar coast, after the alarm on our new cell phone failed to go off. I guess we aren't very good at following technical instructions in Croatian.
We decided to stay in a seaside town called Opatija (pronounced "oPAtiyah") for some much needed r&r. Our accomodations were found by consulting with the local tourism office upon disembarking the bus, who referred us to a lovely grandmotherly woman named Milka. She rented us private acomdations with an incredible balcony and view of the Adriatic. She also brought us fresh, *strong* coffee and donuts each morning. Not a bad life. Most of our first day was spent wandering aimlessly and enjoying the promenade... and the gelato.
By the second day in Opatija, Mer and Heather were being mistaken as Croatian girls by Croatian men. TWICE. We are taking this as the highest compliment. Perhaps its the fact that we sneak into hotel pool areas and lounge for hours on seaside beach chairs that give us that unmistakably Croatian look.
Day three, we left Opatija to join up with John and Joanna. What was intended to be an easy bus transfer resulted in Mer and Heather being stranded in a communist-era bus terminal many miles from anything. Did this deter these Croatian imposters from continuing their journey? Absolutely not. The key was proper sustainance... this was found in a jar of nutella.
Drazen came to the rescue yet again when we were able to call John and Joanna who conveniently were on route with the rental car at that very moment. The pick up occured approx 1.5 hrs later when John stopped (stalled) the car in front of the primary bus loading zone just as a bus pulled up to use it. Maybe with his new mowhawk, John thinks he can get away with such shenanigans. And so began our 2 hour journey to the beautiful national park of Plitvice... and the beginning of our journey as a foursome.
We decided to stay in a seaside town called Opatija (pronounced "oPAtiyah") for some much needed r&r. Our accomodations were found by consulting with the local tourism office upon disembarking the bus, who referred us to a lovely grandmotherly woman named Milka. She rented us private acomdations with an incredible balcony and view of the Adriatic. She also brought us fresh, *strong* coffee and donuts each morning. Not a bad life. Most of our first day was spent wandering aimlessly and enjoying the promenade... and the gelato.
By the second day in Opatija, Mer and Heather were being mistaken as Croatian girls by Croatian men. TWICE. We are taking this as the highest compliment. Perhaps its the fact that we sneak into hotel pool areas and lounge for hours on seaside beach chairs that give us that unmistakably Croatian look.
Day three, we left Opatija to join up with John and Joanna. What was intended to be an easy bus transfer resulted in Mer and Heather being stranded in a communist-era bus terminal many miles from anything. Did this deter these Croatian imposters from continuing their journey? Absolutely not. The key was proper sustainance... this was found in a jar of nutella.
Drazen came to the rescue yet again when we were able to call John and Joanna who conveniently were on route with the rental car at that very moment. The pick up occured approx 1.5 hrs later when John stopped (stalled) the car in front of the primary bus loading zone just as a bus pulled up to use it. Maybe with his new mowhawk, John thinks he can get away with such shenanigans. And so began our 2 hour journey to the beautiful national park of Plitvice... and the beginning of our journey as a foursome.
Day 1 London (john and joanna)
J
Thanda, Ben, John
Thanda, Ben, JohnKey statistics:
Hotel: Ben and Thandas place - 4 stars
Food:
- Lunch: The Earl of Lowdone, Notting Hill- good, not great
- Dinner: Some hip place that Ben and Thanda took us too
Our first day of travel was uneventful, but jet-lag free. We attempted to get a quick bite at a pub that i remembered to be "right by the $75 tshirt shops" we walked up and down portobello road about five times before we found it. it wasnt as good as i imagined. After pub food we walked up and down oxford street looking for a selfridges (apparently a cool retail concept). we didnt find it. but, we did get rained on. so that was good. the evening ended with me forcing our friends, ben and thanda to stay out late with us. the result was thanda oversleeping the next day by what seemed like 2 hours.
i know nothing exciting has happened yet.
i will work really hard on getting arrested in croatia though.
coming up: guest blogging by our travel partners - heather and mere
Tuesday, July 03, 2007
Day 0
Getting ready and the flight to London
We’ve arrived in London and as expected no jet leg for me. I have a fairly successful record of not having jet leg. I attribute this to my anti-jet-leg lifestyle and some tactics and processes I follow prior-to, during and after the flight
Pre-trip
- Sleep erratically, with a stronger focus on not too much sleep
- go to bed at different times, wake up at different times
- Sleep four hours for a few nights, then eight or ten for a night
- Use caffeine to wake up in the morning and alcohol to go to sleep at night
By this point your body will have no idea what time it is anyway. You won’t have a certain time that equates to waking hours or sleeping hours. And, you’ll always feel tired anyway.
The previous two weeks I was up till 3 a couple of nights working, but also was in bed by midnight a couple of nights. Two weekends ago I was up till 4 am a couple of nights, but this last weekend I was up till midnight and got 9 hours of sleep. My body has no idea what time I am supposed to go to bed or wake up. And, I am constantly tired. Even if I were jet-lagged, I wouldn’t know the difference
During flight
- Only go to sleep when you are tired and think you’ll sleep the entire flight. Part of the problem with jet-lag is that travelers try to force sleep and end up sleeping restlessly.
- Drink a lot of alcohol. Much easier if you are sitting in first/business-class. Get drunk, go to sleep. Alcohol adds another component. When you wake up, you’ll feel as if you just had a late night out and are waking up early.
- Start training your mind that it is no longer the time of your departure city; it is the time of your destination city
- When you do sleep it is important to have uninterrupted sleep. If you find yourself waking up, that means that you should stay awake. Only sleep if it’s good sleep.
- Wake-up early. You want time to chill abit before landing. This time serves two purposes:
- You start acclimating to your new time – you are officially in your new time now. If it is 11 am, and you feel hungry, you are now hungry for lunch.
- Coffee and other caffeine products. Start getting them into your system now
Post-trip
- Continue to caffeinate and hydrate. Hydration is good because it causes you to constantly go to the bathroom, which keeps you moving.
- Go about your day in the new time zone. If its lunch hour, eat lunch. If its an hour at which you would normally sleep, then sleep.
- Do not take a nap and keep on the move.
Getting ready and the flight to London
We’ve arrived in London and as expected no jet leg for me. I have a fairly successful record of not having jet leg. I attribute this to my anti-jet-leg lifestyle and some tactics and processes I follow prior-to, during and after the flight
Pre-trip
- Sleep erratically, with a stronger focus on not too much sleep
- go to bed at different times, wake up at different times
- Sleep four hours for a few nights, then eight or ten for a night
- Use caffeine to wake up in the morning and alcohol to go to sleep at night
By this point your body will have no idea what time it is anyway. You won’t have a certain time that equates to waking hours or sleeping hours. And, you’ll always feel tired anyway.
The previous two weeks I was up till 3 a couple of nights working, but also was in bed by midnight a couple of nights. Two weekends ago I was up till 4 am a couple of nights, but this last weekend I was up till midnight and got 9 hours of sleep. My body has no idea what time I am supposed to go to bed or wake up. And, I am constantly tired. Even if I were jet-lagged, I wouldn’t know the difference
During flight
- Only go to sleep when you are tired and think you’ll sleep the entire flight. Part of the problem with jet-lag is that travelers try to force sleep and end up sleeping restlessly.
- Drink a lot of alcohol. Much easier if you are sitting in first/business-class. Get drunk, go to sleep. Alcohol adds another component. When you wake up, you’ll feel as if you just had a late night out and are waking up early.
- Start training your mind that it is no longer the time of your departure city; it is the time of your destination city
- When you do sleep it is important to have uninterrupted sleep. If you find yourself waking up, that means that you should stay awake. Only sleep if it’s good sleep.
- Wake-up early. You want time to chill abit before landing. This time serves two purposes:
- You start acclimating to your new time – you are officially in your new time now. If it is 11 am, and you feel hungry, you are now hungry for lunch.
- Coffee and other caffeine products. Start getting them into your system now
Post-trip
- Continue to caffeinate and hydrate. Hydration is good because it causes you to constantly go to the bathroom, which keeps you moving.
- Go about your day in the new time zone. If its lunch hour, eat lunch. If its an hour at which you would normally sleep, then sleep.
- Do not take a nap and keep on the move.
Sunday, July 23, 2006
Day 1 Prague
Today Bob arrived. Nothing happend until Bob arrived (which was about 3 hours late).
Once Bob arrived, we went looking for a non-touristy restaraunt. We weren't too successful because there are lots of tourist restaraunts. We found a nice restaraunt in the old town square and settled in for some authentic czech cuisine. Although, apparently, the authentic food was out because of all the tourists, the only thing that was left was the more expensive, non czech food. It basically we got some potatoes and meat. We did have two large Pilsner Urquels, so that was good.
We found fantastic beer garden after dinner where people weren't speaking english. However, I don't think that they were speaking czech either. So, I am sure it was touristy. I've heard that Prague is cheap. We haven't really found that yet.
Big learning from the first night is: there are alot of tourists in prague.
Once Bob arrived, we went looking for a non-touristy restaraunt. We weren't too successful because there are lots of tourist restaraunts. We found a nice restaraunt in the old town square and settled in for some authentic czech cuisine. Although, apparently, the authentic food was out because of all the tourists, the only thing that was left was the more expensive, non czech food. It basically we got some potatoes and meat. We did have two large Pilsner Urquels, so that was good.
We found fantastic beer garden after dinner where people weren't speaking english. However, I don't think that they were speaking czech either. So, I am sure it was touristy. I've heard that Prague is cheap. We haven't really found that yet.
Big learning from the first night is: there are alot of tourists in prague.
Saturday, July 22, 2006
Day 0 Prague
Welcome, ladies and gents to Bob and John's international incident!
I (John) arrived on Friday. However, after 2 weeks of partying in Kitzbuhel, Austria (for some McK training), I had to recover. So I pretty much spent the day sleeping in our hotel. Its good that I go here a day before Bob did, because I was spent. Here is a brief rundown of my previous 36 hours
Thursday night/Friday morning 3.30 am: Come home from the bar. Pack a bit
Thursdzay night/Friday morning 4.30 am: Go to bed
Friday morning 6.30 am. hit snooze
6.45 am. wake up, pack, shower
Friday morning 7.20 am. go downstairs where my two friends were waiting because we were supposed to leave for Prague at 7 am. They haven't known me very long, so they don't know that I am always late.
Friday morning 7.35 am. Go to sleep
Friday morning 10.30 am. I am awakened, because we are at a border crossing. I can't find my passport. It isn't in my passport thingy. That sucks. I have to completely empty out all my luggage to find out that my passport is in a pair of pants that I wore on like the second day. I was starting to think about how easy it was going to be for me to sleep in the border crossing station and how much it was going to cost for me to go back to the hotel....And how i didn't put shoes on to look for my passport. so, now my socks are dirty.
Friday afternoon 2 pm. Our driver doesn't know prague, so he drops us off somewhere outside of prague. We have to get cabs to go to our hotels. This works out fine.
Friday 3 pm: I go to sleep. I'm tired.
Friday 7pm. Its important to note here, that I have not eaten breakfast, lunch or dinner at this point. I am truly amazed. I decide to go walk around to find something to eat. There all sorts of hotdog stands on the street. It occurs to me that I will never need to find aplace to eat again here, because they serve massive hotdogs for about $1 a piece. These things are huge and they are really good. I love Prague. I walk around for a while and then go back to the hotel.
Friday 11 pm: I go to bed. For those of you counting, I was up for about 13 hours and of those 13 hours, I spent about 9 hours sleeping. Thats a great day in my book.
I (John) arrived on Friday. However, after 2 weeks of partying in Kitzbuhel, Austria (for some McK training), I had to recover. So I pretty much spent the day sleeping in our hotel. Its good that I go here a day before Bob did, because I was spent. Here is a brief rundown of my previous 36 hours
Thursday night/Friday morning 3.30 am: Come home from the bar. Pack a bit
Thursdzay night/Friday morning 4.30 am: Go to bed
Friday morning 6.30 am. hit snooze
6.45 am. wake up, pack, shower
Friday morning 7.20 am. go downstairs where my two friends were waiting because we were supposed to leave for Prague at 7 am. They haven't known me very long, so they don't know that I am always late.
Friday morning 7.35 am. Go to sleep
Friday morning 10.30 am. I am awakened, because we are at a border crossing. I can't find my passport. It isn't in my passport thingy. That sucks. I have to completely empty out all my luggage to find out that my passport is in a pair of pants that I wore on like the second day. I was starting to think about how easy it was going to be for me to sleep in the border crossing station and how much it was going to cost for me to go back to the hotel....And how i didn't put shoes on to look for my passport. so, now my socks are dirty.
Friday afternoon 2 pm. Our driver doesn't know prague, so he drops us off somewhere outside of prague. We have to get cabs to go to our hotels. This works out fine.
Friday 3 pm: I go to sleep. I'm tired.
Friday 7pm. Its important to note here, that I have not eaten breakfast, lunch or dinner at this point. I am truly amazed. I decide to go walk around to find something to eat. There all sorts of hotdog stands on the street. It occurs to me that I will never need to find aplace to eat again here, because they serve massive hotdogs for about $1 a piece. These things are huge and they are really good. I love Prague. I walk around for a while and then go back to the hotel.
Friday 11 pm: I go to bed. For those of you counting, I was up for about 13 hours and of those 13 hours, I spent about 9 hours sleeping. Thats a great day in my book.
Saturday, July 30, 2005
Day 19: Wrap up Saigon and travel to Siem Reap, Cambodia
Joanna surrounded by Vietnamese fine art
Today was sort of a shortened day because we are traveling. We start off at the “Fine Arts Museum.” The building was a very classic french colonial building, that had seen better days. But, that added to the charm. While the art was so-so (I know I am not an art critic, but I think it was objectively so-so), it was good to see what they call fine art. Unfortunately, communism hasn't helped the creative arts. Much of the art was similar to the pictures, paintings, drawings and portraits seen in the museums. One pretty cool aspect was an exhibit from a Japanese photographer that tried to capture the essence of cites across the world in a creative fashion. For instance, for NYC, it was a photograph of a reflection of buildings off a pond in Central Park. We wrapped up with a tour through the art galleries on the basement floor, where we had the opportunity to purchase paintings if we felt inclined. It was all nice, but no purchases, although you felt bad leaving without a purchase. Next stop was a quick trip to the market. It was mostly cheap stuff, but we picked up a Conoco hat and some purses.
For lunch , we ate at the continental hotel (where A Quiet American takes place). We finished up our time in Saigon with more shopping. I was looking for more furniture, but didn’t find anything that I was ready to purchase. We had some interesting conversations with folks about trying to view their inventory online through a website. They said that I could email them, but they didn’t have a way to send me pictures. It was sort of funny, because that conversation took about 20 minutes. Me asking how I’d view the pieces and the girl going to various people to try to interpret what I was saying. Good times.
We arrived in Siem Reap and zip through passport control. There is a nice girl waiting for us at the airport to take us to our nice hotel: The Angkor Village. She tried to teach us Cambodian on the way to the hotel. We didn’t do well. But, we taught her: awesome and cool. She seemed pretty excited about it. The hotel is fantastic. All teek wood. The room is small and the toilet and shower are the same room (ala Halong Bay). Overall, it seems pretty classy. We have a quick dinner and hang out in the bar area. We see lisa, bob and ryan and hang out with them for their dinner. Have to go to bed early, b/c we're supposed to get up early.
Monday, July 25, 2005
Its small and dark in the tunnels
John can't fit in the tunnel
Joanna is practucally sitting, these tunnels are small
Day 18: The Cu Chi Tunnels
Leave early again, this time for the CuChi tunnels, which are both eerie and awesome. We stop at the Cao Dia temple - which is "a very important religion," according to our guide. Cao Dia is somehow made up of all the world religions (Christianity, Judaism, Islam, Buddhism, etc.). Once at the tunnels, we watch the ridiculous propaganda video about the American Devils and Satans, the Heroic American Killers and the American Lackeys.
Once the video was over, we were taken to see the tunnels, including some base stations, that served as headquarters, hospitals, etc. that might require more space. They are large holes about 6 feet deep, that were covered with brush and grass. Our guide showed us an actual tunnel entrance and allowed us to try to fit in. I…um…well, I’ve haven’t lost much weight with all the walking we’ve been doing, because I couldn’t fit my belly through the tiny hole. We were shown some of the booby traps that were set up (which were very freaky and a bit humbling) as well. Its amazing how resourceful the Vietcong were in using leftover explosives to create their own explosives as well as using simple things like nails and bamboo to create deadly weapons. It was scary.
While you are walking through the jungle, peering into the tunnels, which could not be more than a few feet high and a couple feet wide (at times that’s generous), and looking at other relics, you hear massive bangs and explosions off in the distance. That’s because there is a shooting range on site. I am sure that the shooting range was only created as another way to get tourist dollars, but it really adds to the whole experience of walking through jungle. Imagine you are 19 years old, away from home, its hot and sweaty, there are mosquitoes, bugs and a surprising number of ants all around you and loud gun shots are all you hear and everywhere you step there is the possibility of a booby trap. Scary, really scary.
We made it to the shooting range, which I had been looking forward to for a while. I immediately handed over $20 for 20 M-60 bullets and my friends bought M-16 and AK-47 bullets. BAM! BAM! BAM! The M-60 was fully automatic and was awesome to fire. I did a couple sprays and my $20 was quickly spent.
The highlight of the tour was the trip through the tunnels. There are three sections (the first two are 30 meters and the final one is 40 meters) that were recreated for tourists, meaning that they are larger. However, each section gets successively smaller, tighter and darker, and ends with you popping up through a hut. We did each section and the final section was ridiculous. There was a massive puddle we had to wade through pretty much on our hands and knees. Actually, we were pretty much on our hands and knees for the entire 40 meters. We popped up hot, sweaty and exhausted from all the crawling and our tour guide lets us know that most tourists do the first 30 meters, some do the second 30, but few do the last 40. . It was fantastic. Of course the trip ended with our tour guide pointing out all the great things we could purchase – including chopsticks.
Bob, Lisa and Ryan headed off for Phnom Penh; but our love for Siagon kept Joanna and I in town for one more day. We just didn’t feel as if we had the opportunity to explore it enough. So, we headed out for lunch. The first place, Annies Pizza, is supposed to be a “Saigon Institution,” according to Lonely Planet, but it was under construction due to new management and the second place was closed from July 15-Aug 1. So, we went to a third choice. On the way we found a little café run by a Aussie that had pizza and nachos, so we stopped there.
After a quick bite to eat, we spent the afternoon shopping. While we were shopping on the street we were hounded by a three year old girl trying to sell postcards. It was sort of cute, because she would repeat over and over, “one, two, three, four, five, six., seven, eight, nine, ten. One dollar.” I started counting with her and started laughing and then I tried to shake her, by moving back and forth again and she laughed more. But, she quickly composed her self and put on the hard sell and started telling me $1 over and over again. It was very sad, to watch this 3 year old girl push postcards, while her mother was watching from down the street.
We took some time to head to a huge department store to see what that was like. It was quite similar to a Bloomindales, with one major exception. The sales clerks are just standing (not slouched), very professionally, waiting for you to enter their section. When you do, you are quickly greeted and they stand by you as you browse through whatever you are interested in. It was sort of suffocating.
We headed back to the hotel for our massages. It was pretty sketchy and not very clean. But, hey, its $15.
We eat dinner at Le Fochette, another French restaurant where we had another steak and ended the evening with drinks at Saigon, Saigon with fantastic views of the city.
The boat ride on the delta. Notice how the rower is sitting.
Joanna holding the snakeDay 17: The Mekong Delta.
We started our morning semi-early again. We made a decision that we were just not going to have enough time to head overnight for the Mekong Delta, so we had to do a day trip. Overall it was so-so. Our personal guide on the Delta was awesome; she was a cute, sarcastic and witty 27 year old. She noticed that our friend Bob was not coupled up, so she let him know that she would be his girlfriend for the day. Our first stop involved walking along a path to head to a place to eat fruit. There was a family singing (I bought the cd), what sounded like some traditional music. This should have been a good hint that there were people selling local goods; because, that was the theme for the day. The whole, "some chopsticks?" thing in Hoi An has really become a theme in Vietnam. One neat experience that we had was a trip down a small little river in a row boat. It was a great experience, mostly because we had the opportunity to see locals rowing (or motoring) past us and to see the vegetation. It really felt like a jungle environment. The experience was sort of lessened when we trip ended and we got off our boats with about 20 loud, Japanese tourists. We did some more walking around the island to sample different candies, fruits and food. Along the way we also stopped by a honeycomb and a snake. We were all brave enough to pick up the honeycomb and wrap the snake around us. There was a long break for lunch where we had some local food such as elephant ear fish, some sort of sweet rice concoction, some fantastic barbeque pork (possibly the best pork I’ve had on the trip) and of course shrimp. After lunch we headed back to our van for a long ride back, where everyone crashed.
We had some time left in the afternoon, so we quickly headed out to the market, the major result of which was the purchase of about 70 dvd’s by yours truly. Part of the fun for DVD shopping is looking at the descriptions. For instance, Hamburger Hill is a “love story.” The problem is that we can’t keep the cases, to make it easier to bring them into the country. The entire dvd purchasing took about two hours, but its well worth it just to see locals buying their dvds, to read the descriptions and of course to get a dvd for less than $1.
We ended the day with steak – this time at an Argentinean steak house called Amigos. It was fantastic and included a salad bar and bread. I ate a lot of pasta salad at the salad bar, a couple pieces of bread, my 400 g Australian rib-eye steak and a crème brule. The key piece there is 400 g. We had to do the conversion on the gram- ounces thing and I still am not sure if ordered the right amount because it was a massive steak. I did finish most of it though. I did some stretches and took some breaks to make sure there was room. At the end the waiter said that he thought that I could join the 2 Kilo club – meaning that I could finish a 2 Kilo steak. I would be rewarded with a plaque and my picture. I checked it out on the way out the door and it was mostly westerners that had completed it. On my next trip to Saigon, I will definitely try for it.
We were exhausted and didn’t go out for drinks; we have the Cu Chi tunnels tomorrow.
Sunday, July 24, 2005
The Rex Hotel, where we started and finsihed our tour.
Day 16: Saigon whirlwind tour
Another whirlwind tour day. We start off at the Rex hotel, famous due to the fact that Army officers used to hangout on the rooftop deck and watch the bombing raids across the river during the war. However, since its morning, we merely meet for our walking tour there. We see Ho Chi Minh City Museum, which is actually a pretty interesting museum that has two different aspects: the first, an all around history of HCMC’s history in terms of agriculture, architecture, art, and generally how people lived in the area through the ages. The second is regarding HCMC’s place in Vietnam’s liberation, both in terms of the French rule and the Vietnam war (what they call the American War). This was mostly just preparation for the War Remnant’s museum (which was at one time called the war crimes museum). We were prepared for the massive propaganda campaign. And, it was interesting. The bulk of the museum really focused on the impact of Agent Orange on the people and there was a section on journalists lost in the war, which was particularly interesting. But, there was a lot of anti-American that was both subtle and in your face. What the museum was missing was context regarding the situation. Also, the captions don’t quite fit the picture. There were two things that stood out to me. The first is that even without context, the guest comment book was full of a lot American resentment. The second is that I realize after thinking back is that there is a lot of talk about how there were a lot of civilian and women and children casualties, while at the same time, in other museums (and somewhat here), there is a lot of talk about the youth and female involvement in the guerilla war effort and how effective the Vietcong were in guerrilla war, including the fact that many were regular people.
We tried to find a place for lunch, but the first two choices were not available. One is literally not there (the building is not there, it’s completely knocked down) and the other is under construction. We consult our friend Lisa's book (Frommers) for another option and it rocks. Joanna has Vietnamese steak; I and two others have the steak pho. Pho is soup and it is awesome. We loved our meals. And, Joanna ate Vietnamese. After lunch we head to the reunification palace, which was the Presidential Palace, but got taken over during the war. It was eire and cool walking around the Palace. It is preserved almost as it was on the day it was taken over in April of 1975, when the Republic of South Vietnam ceased to exist. On the morning of April 30, 1975, the first tanks to arrive in Saigon crashed through the front gates of Palace (a moment captured by many journalists). It’s pretty amazing how well kept the palace actually is, there were maps, communication stations, phones and even desks, that were left as they were.
After the palace we took a long walk to see the Jade Emperor Pagoda. The long walk consisted of us crossing the most complicated and busy street yet. It must have been at least eight lanes wide and there was a constant stream of cars. There was no island in the middle, but we had to step over (actually for short people like Joanna and I, we had to step on a over) a massive guard rail. One of the things that we learned early is that you have to just have to walk (not run) and don’t stop and the motorcyclists won’t hit you. So, we made up our minds and just started walking. We cheered when we had finally crossed the street and the locals all laughed at us. It was well worth it. The Pagoda is not often visited by tourists, but is a regular place of worship for many locals. It was small, had interesting architecture, full of locals and a lot of small place to explore. The architecture has Chinese influences and was very ornate. There was a constant smell of incense in the air due to all the worshipers and for such a small pagoda, there were many small, almost hidden, rooms to explore with a new god to worship.
We ended our tour, taking a cab over to the Rex Hotel for drinks on the rooftop bar to enjoy some nice sights of the city. We had to end it early though, because we had to head over to the hotel to book our trips to the Mekong Delta and the Cu Chi tunnels.
We had intended to have dinner at Lemongrass, but instead went next door to Augustin’s for French food. We had great steaks, good wine, a nice dessert and great coffee. We ended the evening at the Sheraton Hotel rooftop bar for great views of the city.
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