Tag Archive: croatia

  1. Zadar, Croatia

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    We started our morning with a light breakfast at the hotel–it was perhaps the most difficult one we had of the stay so I won’t name the hotel. But there was only a small amount and variety of food tucked into a corner and we had to beg a grumpy person to make us a spot of coffee (no I don’t mean pot I mean spot). Anyway, we were ready to get on the road.

    And I’m so happy we did, because our visit to Krka National Park was truly amazing. What a beautiful location and a very special natural wonder. We got there around 10 am and I’m glad we weren’t any later because soon after we hiked down the steep path to the viewing area, the tour buses started coming. We did have to do some serious elbowing to get our best pics.

    When I posted a few pictures to social media, Facebook told me that my former student Sydni had just been at Krka the day before! She was studying in Florence and was in Croatia for the weekend. I was sorry to miss her, but we typed back and forth a bit about the falls before both moving on with our travels.

    From Krka we took a very scenic drive to the town of Zadar, another coastal walled city. I was kind of getting walled citied out, since this was our fourth on the trip. But Zadar was really spectacular and had some features I adored. First, we checked into our hotel which was BANGING. Art Hotel Kalelarga was one of our most expensive on the trip so I had high expectations, and they were met. What a beautiful room with muted and high design touches. Comfortable bed, lots of space, and a huge fruit bowl greeting us.

    From there we went to lunch at Pet Bunara–it was a really lovely and delicious meal and that’s good because we worked up an appetite hiking those falls. After lunch we took a well-needed nap, then we toured around Zadar. My favorite spot was right along the coast–we enjoyed a lovely stroll along the Paseo Maritimo, and the best part was listening to the Sea Organ singing. What a fanciful design–a series of steps down to the water. I’ll let Wikipedia say it for me because it’s hard to describe: “Concealed under these steps, which both protect and invite, is a system of polyethylene tubes and a resonating cavity that turns the site into a large musical instrument, played by the wind and the sea.” It was so relaxing and refreshing to sit and listen to the music. Brilliant idea and I’m so glad I saw it. There is also a display that uses solar panels to collect sunlight during the day, that then turns into kind of a disco ball at night. We didn’t figure out what it was until later, and we didn’t get to see the disco ball effect.

    We continued our stroll towards the restaurant when we passed a really cute bar that stretched out across the front of the harbor. It turned out to be The Garden Zadar, and we decided to enter to have a sundowner. The garden was full of lounger beds and chairs and we enjoyed watching the sun go down while enjoying a drink.

    Then we moved on to the restaurant we had chosen Restaurant Kastel. We had a delicious dinner then headed back to get another good sleep.

  2. 7 hours to go

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    UltraLite

    Only seven more hours before we take off for our flight to England. We decided to travel UltraLite because we will be in six countries (we are now planning a day trip to Montenegro): England, Italy, Croatia, Montenegro, Slovenia, and Austria. That means nine hotels, plus an overnight on a ferry.

    Here are our 22 inch carry-on rollers. Note the UltraLite Patagonia bags on top. John got his backpack for Christmas from Cindy and Larry, and I was so jealous I bought the tote for myself. I love this thing. It weighs 10 ounces, and it folds into its own little pocket when you’re not using it.

    I want to tell you a story about our trip. I taught travel writing online in Summer Session A and I had an amazing variety of very talented writers. One of my students fights pirates in the Indian Ocean. His work was thrilling to read. Another student was traveling in Europe during the six week course. She started in Italy, moved on to Croatia, went to Montenegro, and then to Bosnia.

    Her last travel article was a gorgeous and moving 500 word piece about working a dead-end 9-to-5 job where the best part of her day was stopping at McDonald’s each morning for a coffee. After weeks of going through the drive-through, she became friends with the man who served her every morning. He was from a small town in Bosnia and had moved here after political unrest. She enjoyed her interactions with him so much that she started picking up some Bosnian phrases and started greeting him in his home language. They got to talking, and she was so moved by his story she went to visit his hometown during her stay in the region.

    Her article gave me goosebumps. It was difficult to respond to as a teacher, because she’s such a talented writer there was very little I could add about craft. Instead I wrote to her, “This travel article makes me really like you as a person, which is the highest compliment I can give to any writer.” She emailed me immediately and said that my comment made her feel good. After a few emails she told me she is spending the month of July in Slovenia. We will be there on July 17 which was my dad’s birthday.

    So we have plans to meet for coffee. Seems like this trip is already shaping up to be wonderful.

  3. Europe 2014

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    My friend Lesley and I were hiking to what we call “The Saddle”–a rock outcropping about .5 miles from the summit of South Mountain. She brought her dog Barney, a good-natured Labradoodle who makes me so happy with his swishy tail and droopy tongue. We started talking about our summer plans and when I told Lesley that John and I are going to Italy, Croatia, Slovenia, and Austria, she said “you’ve been wanting to go to Croatia forever!” And she is so right! I’ve been wanting to do this trip for about 5 years but could not make it happen. Well, this is the year it is happening.

    But it’s hard to get there from here. We like to use our British Airways miles and that will get us about as far as Italy. So we are flying to London then on to Venice, taking a ferry across the Adriatic Sea and landing in Split. From there we will head south to Dbrovnik, then back north to Tragos and Zadar, then a hike in Lake Plitvice and up to the capitol of Croatia, Zagreb. From there we go up to the capitol of Slovenia, Ljubljana then we stop for a hike in Lake Bled. We’ll drive across through the Austrian Alps and stay in the town of Lienz, then we head on to Canazei to compete in this skyrace. Then Back to Venice airport where we fly to London for a night. Them home! This means on a 15 night trip we are staying in 10 different hotels (oh, and one night on the ferry). It will be a whirlwind, but I’m really looking forward to it.

    We will get to do lots of exploring, and a total of 23 hours of driving! We need help with our playlists please! Let us know if you have some great music to share.

    Here are is the circuit we will make: