Destinations | Ciao for Now

September 14, 2011

Dreamy Spoleto

by Anna

We bid farewell to Croatia on Sunday and took a three hour ferry from Vis to Split where we had to take the Blue Line overnight ferry to get back to Italy. Now, I may be a little dramatic in saying that the ferry ride was a total nightmare (Johnny will tell you it wasn’t that bad), but I wasn’t expecting our sleeper cabin to be in the depths of the ship in a metal coffin. Ok, ok, I AM exaggerating, but we were surprised when we discovered that “Deck 2” was actually between the engine and where the cars were kept. There weren’t even windows until you reached “Deck 5.” Apparently they figured it was more important that the “night club” and “casino” have windows. I almost opted to sleep on the open air deck on the 8th level, but after a bottle of wine, some watery spaghetti and playing with Johnny’s hair, I felt better about descending back down to the depths of Deck 2 and slept pretty soundly with the help of an Ambien until our 6am wake-up call. We got to Ancona around 7:30am, ran to the train station which was farther away than we thought, missed our train by 5 minutes and subsequently posted up in the train station for the next few hours. We finally got on a train at 11:30am and after a couple hours had made it to Spoleto!

Boarding the Blue Line


Wine makes everything better	Johnny feeling very “Johnny Depp” with his tan & ponytail

Like most terrible travel days the trip paid off. Spoleto is beautiful, and we have been having the best time here! I have to give props to Johnny for randomly picking this town as a stop on our way to Rome. Located on a hilltop in the Umbria region of Italy it is surrounded by rolling hills that seem to be every shade of green and even sometimes blue and purple. The sky at sunset looks more like a painting than real life, the town itself somehow instantly felt “homey” and all the people have been extremely friendly and welcoming. Every steep winding street seems more ancient than the next, there are barely any tourists and every meal has been DELICIOUS. And as an added bonus, we are staying at a charming hotel/B&B. It’s the best of both worlds…our room is cleaned every day, we got shower gel AND slippers, and we are treated to a nice breakfast every morning on a terrace overlooking the hills. We’ve been feeling quite luxurious:)

Spoleto is probably best known for a music/dance/opera/drama festival that began in 1958 and is held here every summer in June/July. The performances take place around the town in amazing settings like an ancient Roman Theatre and on the Piazza del Duomo in front of the town’s cathedral. Since we just missed this festival, we wandered around and enjoyed the ancient ruins and pretty scenery. This included a visit past the hilltop fortress to a bridge built on a Roman aqueduct called the Ponte delle Torri and a short hike from there to the 13th century Chiesa di San Pietro. We made the most of the terrace at our hotel as well, reading and lounging in the afternoon. I even busted out my sketchbook finally…it is hard to not be inspired by such a beautiful landscape.

Piazza del Duomo

Fresco in the cathedral

Teatro Romano

Ponte delle Torri


Crossing the Ponte delle Torri	View from the Ponte delle Torri


Lounging on the hotel’s terrace	Sketching the view from the terrace

I think the highlight of our stay here though has been the food! The area is well-known for truffles, and there are all sorts of varieties of truffle dishes on every menu. Each restaurant has served food that tastes like a wonderful home-cooked meal. Today was undoubtedly the best experience of local food, as we decided to try out a wine bar called Osteria del Matto that we had passed several times over the past few days. We read on a food blog that the place is run by Filippo and his “Mama,” and that the food is bought fresh each morning and the menu decided on the spot by “Mama.” We settled in on a bench outside, and the courses of food started to arrive….lentils, toasted bread with olive oil and garlic, pancetta bruschetta, chicken in mustard sauce with grilled radicchio, home-made pasta with chili, garlic and olive oil, etc. It sounds like a ridiculous amount of food, but everything was in small-sized portions and came out slowly so that you had time to savor each bite and then digest before the next dish. Before we knew it, we had struck up a conversation with the man at the next table, Dennis. He was from Dublin, and he and his wife owned a vacation home in Umbria about an hour away. He had been coming to this place for years, and said it was the best (we had to agree!). Soon, Filippo came out to say hi to Dennis and bring him some home-made beer, followed by “Mama” asking us if we wanted more food. Next thing I knew, I was sitting alone at the tables as Filippo had taken Johnny and Dennis off to see where he was home-brewing his beer and the beginnings of a new beer bar that he plans to open in a couple years. Before the end of the meal we also ended up meeting a group of Australians from Melbourne and a group of Americans from Kansas City. It was an international affair at Osteria del Matto, and we left with full stomachs and some original artwork by Filippo.


Dinner at La Torretta	Another great meal at La Lanterna


Osteria del Matto	Secret recipe chicken at Osteria del Matto

A close-up of Filippo’s work

We couldn’t have enjoyed our time here more, and we are ready to take on Rome tomorrow!

Posted in Italy | 1 Comment »

September 14, 2011

Island Time; Vis

by Johnny

Once we got ourselves all sorted out with our travel plans back to Italy, we spent our final few days in Croatia enjoying all that the small island of Vis had to offer. Vis is Croatia’s most isolated island, located deep in the Adriatic further from the mainland than any other. It’s also Croatia’s most unspoiled island, as it was previously a military base due to it’s strategic location and just recently opened its doors to tourism in 1989. These facts are evident when you’re walking around town. There’s a little less English spoken, it’s a little grittier, you may turn the corner and run into a goat, and the fishermen are a little saltier.

We based ourselves in the small fishing village of Komiza, located on the far west side of the island in the shadows of Mt. Hum. The setting was truly stunning. Komiza is said to be the place where fishing on the eastern side of the Adriatic was born, and it still remains a fishing village to its core. Oddly enough, many fishermen from Komiza migrated to San Pedro, CA in the 1920s. While there are only about 500 permanent residents of Komiza, over 5,000 San Pedro residents can trace their roots back to Komiza. I even met an old salty fisherman whose brother lives in San Pedro. Again, what a small world.

Komiza’s harbor


Fisherman talking about the day’s catch	Komiza’s main square

Green shutters everywhere in Croatia

Beach in Komiza


Church in Komiza	Hey there, goat

I am 100% addicted to scooters. When my 2002 Ford Explorer Sport goes out of style (errr, explodes the first time I try and start it), I am getting a scooter of some sort. It must run in the family…my Uncle Lenny is currently riding his Vespa from San Diego to Canada. Awesome! Anyways, on one of our days in Vis we rented a scooter (duh!) to explore the island. From hidden coves to inland vineyards to the top of Mt. Hum, we got to see how beautiful the island truly is. One highlight was our stop at Milna beach for lunch. The restaurant on the beach looked like it had been deserted for over a decade, but out popped a friendly waiter to give us the menu…followed by him pointing out the two or three items from the menu they could actually make that day. Anna’s cuttlefish black risotto was her favorite in Croatia, and I loved my cevapcici. I don’t know what it’s made of, but I do know it’s delicious. Side note: Apologies to France, Spain, Portugal and Italy, but we think Croatia has the best olive oil in the world. Hands down. It’s so thick and it actually tastes like olives. We discussed this fact with our waiter, and I swear he started weeping a little when talking about his family’s homemade olive oil. I recommend you get your hands on some ASAP. Milna also had the first real sandy beach we saw in all of Croatia. Bonus!

Born to be wild


Cuttlefish risotto in Milna	Cevapcici…as fun to say as it is to eat

Cove of Stoncica…I spy a donkey

Nude beach logo could use some work


Milna beach	Milna beach

From Milna we headed inland through the island’s vineyards and up to the top of Mt. Hum. We weren’t sure if our scooter was going to make it, and Anna and I both started chanting, “I think I can! I think I can!” but we finally got to the top. From here we had incredible views of the town of Komiza on one side and other Croatian islands on the other. We also hiked up to Tito’s cave. Tito was Yugoslavia’s most infamous president, and during the war he would have secret meetings at this hidden cave. It’s super creepy…like meeting a mob boss in the middle of the Vegas desert or something. I’d be all like, “Uh, Tito…this is a little weird. Maybe we can meet at Starbucks.”

View of Komiza from Mt. Hum

Anna contemplating the meaning of life

You’re my boy, Blue!

Tito’s cave built into Mt. Hum

Thanks for everything, Croatia! You’ll be missed, but we know we’ll see you again one day!

Our last meal in Croatia at Konoba Jastozera

Posted in Croatia | Leave a Comment »

September 11, 2011

Back To The Boot

by Johnny

A couple weeks ago our second workstay host emailed us to say that she had gotten sick and would no longer be able to have us as helpers. We were a little bummed because this workstay was on an operating winery outside of Rome, and we were really looking forward to learning about the winemaking process as well as attending the weekly sustainable agriculture dinners the winery hosts. But we figured, “Hey, nothing an extra couple weeks bouncing around the Croatian islands and a detour down to Montenegro can’t fix.” And as you can see by our recent posts we’ve been having the time of our lives. But once we got to the island of Vis, even though it’s just as beautiful and even more remote than the others, something just wasn’t feeling right. It’s hard to explain, but both Anna and I were feeling a little…well…bored and worthless.

I think I just heard a collective “PUHH-LEEAAASSSSE!” from all the employed folk back home, but it’s true. We weren’t really meeting any locals…we weren’t really learning anything new…we were just lazing around waiting for something to happen. And while I am thoroughly enjoying being the tannest I’ve been since Junior Lifeguards, we didn’t save for years, quit our jobs and take this once-in-a-lifetime trip just so we could sit on the beach for weeks at a time (although we are definitely looking forward to posting up on the beaches in Thailand and Indonesia). OK, now I’m really pissing off my working friends. Anyways, we quickly booked an overnight ferry back to Italy and emailed every farm and winery we could find in hopes that they could take us for a week or so before our friends Brian and Marisa meet us in Florence on September 26^th. Fingers crossed!

Posted in Croatia, Italy, Random Musings | 1 Comment »

September 10, 2011

Island Time; Hvar

by Anna

Marija (our B&B owner): Would you like to try some of our homemade wine?
Johnny & Anna: Yes, we’d love to! You make your own wine? That is so cool.
Marija: Of course! Who doesn’t?!

For this and many other reasons, we loved Hvar.
Feeling a little sad to leave Korcula, and having heard the words “ritzy” and “party island” thrown out about Hvar, we weren’t totally sure what to expect. But we soon found that Hvar, although a little more pristine with its Venetian influenced architecture, sparkling main square and small lineup of yachts and sailboats in its harbor, had the exact same laid-back, easy-going and fun-loving attitude as Korcula with all the beauty and insanely friendly people to match! It also lived up to its reputation as the “sunniest and greenest” island. We were thrilled that we had a whole eight days to spend there!

Hvar

Hvar’s main square

Hvar’s busy harbor

When Marija picked us up from the 6am ferry boat on Monday morning, she told us that Prince Harry was in town living it up at the local nighttime hot-spots. She also told us that she had family in Laguna Beach…what a small world!…but wait, it got smaller…we figured out a few days later over some homemade wine that her cousins are our friends Nick and Hillary Brakovich! Just when the world seems infinitely vast, it always seems to contract again and you find friends in the craziest places.

It may look like apple juice, but it was actually homemade wine!

We had been dying to rent a boat, so on our first full day we found a friendly guy in the harbor named Igor and rented a little canopied boat from him. The slower the boat, the lower the price, so needless to say we putted across the Adriatic while other speedboats flew past leaving us bobbing in their wake. But we loved our little boat, and it was the perfect way to explore the Pakleni islands that form an archipelago just off the coast of Hvar. We found a nice secluded cove and anchored for the day, taking dips, using our new snorkel mask (yes, just the mask, we were too cheap for the snorkel) and snacking on chips and salsa. The Croatian islands are all known for having nude beaches, and the Pakleni islands had no shortage of nudists…on the rocks, on boats, etc. Johnny and I had to laugh as we passed by a small fishing boat filled with about six old, stocky naked men. They looked like professionals, because they showed no signs of tan lines! I read before getting to Croatia to “not get too excited over the nude beaches, because most of the nudists you’d rather see with their clothes on.” I can attest that this is indeed a fact:)

Heading out to sea with Captain Johnny!


Enjoying our boat	“Snorkeling”

Coming back into the harbor

Speaking of nudists, the guy who we rented a scooter from another day told me that the first time he rode a scooter when he was a teenager, he was riding down the coast and saw a naked lady on the beach. He was looking at her and not at the road and went right over the edge and broke both his arms! Well, luckily, that did not happen to Johnny and me. Johnny picked up maneuvering the scooter like a pro, and we set off down the coast. The island is known for its amazing farming climate, and we rode through olive and fruit orchards, vineyards and fields of rosemary and lavender, while also stopping to hike down to some beautiful beaches and coves. Another amazing sight on our way to Stari Grad, a town on the north side of the island and also one of Europe’s oldest towns, dating back to its settlement by the Greeks in 384 BC, was the Stari Grad Plain. This UNESCO protected area represents “one of the best preserved examples of ancient Greek agriculture throughout the Mediterranean.” It has remained in tact for 24 centuries and is still in use today. The land is divided geometrically by ancient stone walls and shelters that were put in place by the ancient Greeks. The walls blend so well with the natural landscape that it takes a minute to realize that as far as the eye can see, the land is blocked into small squares.

Scooter time!


Looking out at the Pakleni Islands	A view from the road


Hiking down to Dubovica	The church and “restaurant” in Dubovica

Dubovica

Part of the Stari Grad Plain

The town of Stari Grad was also an amazing place that we reached after about a 45 minute ride down a winding, steep road above the sea. I think we reached it right around siesta time, because we wandered the narrow winding streets feeling like we had the whole place to ourselves. We settled down at a café on the bay and after some scampi risotto and grilled squid, we were ready for the journey back to Hvar Town. Once back in town, and relieved that we hadn’t run out of gas (!), we settled in on some rocks by the water and read our books and took dips till the sun set. We rode back through the warm pink dusk and reluctantly returned our scooter.

A local working on fishing nets in Stari Grad


Pit stop in Stari Grad	Stari Grad


Reading time	Not a bad spot for a good book


Urchins on the rocks	Almost sunset

The photographer

An amazing sunset

Another day we sought out a beach where we heard there was a good lunch spot called “The Mustache.” We figured any place called The Mustache had to be pretty bombtastic, so we loaded up our backpacks and found the cove with Il Mustaco after about a 40 minute walk down the coast. We rented beach chairs for the day, had an amazing pizza, finished our books and floated on my newly purchased raft (best purchase ever!).

Il Mustaco

On another day we caught a boat taxi to the Pakleni islands again, specifically to Palmizana where we heard you could hike to an unforgettable restaurant called Dionus. It truly was an unforgettable experience, and therefore deserved its own blog post (click here to read about it!).

On our last night we tried a tapas place called Luviji on one of the narrow back streets in the old town. We had met a chef from Finland who was also staying at Marija’s place, and he recommended it, so we thought we’d try it out. We had such a great time, chatting with our server who was from Ljubljana but who fell in love with Hvar and had moved there. She told us that everything they served was homemade, including the wine (of course!), which she said she had gone to collect grapes for at 5am that morning at the restaurant’s vineyard on the Pakleni islands. We had some delicious homemade red wine and Prosek, vegetable spreads, “meat rolls,” octopus salad, grilled fish and bread made from the seeds of the Cannibus flower (head-y).

Rooftops in the old town


Mmm…tapas	Enjoying our last night in Hvar

It’s probably pretty obvious by this post that we had an awesome time on Hvar. I hope to be back many times!!

Posted in Croatia | 2 Comments »

September 3, 2011

A Day In The Life

by Johnny

Lately I’ve been getting a ton of emails asking, “Johnny, what are the five best days of your life?” No, not really. But I’m going to tell you anyways. Here they are, in chronological order.

July 11, 1989 – Anaheim, CA: 1989 MLB All-Star game at Angel Stadium with my dad, Grandpa Joe and Papa; Bo Jackson crushes lead-off homer to center field.

July 20, 1998 – Ventura, CA: My first Phish concert at Ventura County Fairgrounds; monster 21-minute, funked out “Bathtub Gin” opener had me hook, line and sinker (pun intended).

August 14, 2004 – San Francisco, CA: I move to San Francisco and start work; feel truly independent for the first time and lucky to live in my favorite city on the planet.

August 15, 2009 – Santa Ynez, CA: My wedding day; best party of my life.

September 3, 2011 – Hvar, Croatia: See below.

I’m just kidding. I couldn’t possibly rank the best days of my life, but today was definitely up there…one of the more memorable ones of this trip for sure. Now, if you only check in on this blog once in a while, you may have the impression that our trip is full of lavish meals and endless wine drinking. That’s far from the truth. It’s actually full of cheap meals and endless wine drinking. Just kidding again…Johnny’s on fire! Actually, most days we make a tea and have some granola in our room for breakfast, wander around town, have a baguette and some fruit for lunch, wander some more, make some pasta or find a relatively cheap restaurant for dinner, wander again, go to bed and then have leftover pasta for three meals the following day. Well, after a few days of this routine here in Hvar, Croatia, we decided to treat ourselves to something special.

Our day started like most do with some granola for breakfast on our deck, and since awesome decks are commonplace here in Croatia we were spoiled with a fantastic view. We ran out of our usual green tea, so we decided to get some kava (coffee) in the old town (what a treat!) and found a tiny, authentic coffee shop. The shop has been in the same family for generations, and the woman who runs the place still uses her grandma’s original recipes. We enjoyed our coffee sitting on some cushions on old stone steps.

Coffee break

When Anna and I talk about “treating ourselves,” it basically means we search out some unknown restaurant with incredible food and stuff our faces. Today was no different. We had read on some foodie blog about a restaurant called Dionis located somewhere in Pakleni group of islands right off of Hvar. We called ahead because it’s encouraged to make reservations…not because it’s overly popular but because they need to know how much food they are going to make that day. We jotted down some confusing directions from the blog and grabbed a 30 minute taxi boat over to the cove of Palmizana on the island of St. Clement. While this may seem like a lot of effort just for a bite to eat, this was only the beginning of our journey. Our directions basically said “find the red sign to the village of Vlaka and follow the blue markers all the way to Dionis” and, well, that was exactly right. Little did we know, however, that these blue markers took us on an hour long hike through the center of the island on an incredibly overgrown hiking trail. Even though we’re sitting here with scratches all over our arms and legs, the beautiful views and best meal of our trip (no joke!) were well worth it.


Red sign to Vlaka…so far so good	Follow the blue marks…piece of cake


Is that a blue mark? I think we’re lost.	Blue mark on a tree? Now I’ve seen everything.

Yep…definitely on the right track now

With views like these, who cares if you get lost?

After navigating the rocky, narrow path for about an hour we cut inland for a little bit and finally laid our eyes upon Dionis. With its setting in the middle of vineyards and olive trees and with views of a bay in the distance, they could’ve served chicken nuggets and I would have been happy. The setting only got better when we got inside. There were about six big, wooden tables under a thatched roof with an open wall towards the vineyards…a perfect, rustic setting. We were definitely the only English speaking people in the place, but another group loved us and would cheers us every time they took a drink of wine (which was often). It was great.

We made it!


Getting closer	Inside of Dionis

We’re hungry!

View from our table

Our new buddies

I don’t pretend to be a food critic, and I’d run out of adjectives talking about how delicious the food was, so I’ll let the pictures do most of the talking. Everything was super fresh and simply prepared with olive oil, garlic, lemon, rosemary, chives and parsley. And the coolest part is that everything we ate came from within an eye-shot of those pictures you see above you. Warning: Looking at the following pictures will make you hungry and jealous.

Bread, olive oil and white wine…all homemade


Eggplant isn’t our favorite, but we loved this aubergine pie	Dalmatian cheese and olives

Anna asked the waiter about the fish, so he showed us the morning’s catch


Grilling up our grub	More grilling

Anna’s Scorpaena fish and grilled veggies

Johnny’s grilled squid and veggies

After a couple hours we finally and reluctantly peeled ourselves away from the table. We were so full that we contemplated just sleeping somewhere in the vineyards so we wouldn’t have to make the hike back, but we pressed on slowly but surely, stopping at a couple of the coves we saw one the way in for some dips (some of the skinny varietal).

Nice little spot for a dip

I ate so much my boardshorts literally exploded off my body…good thing I had some nudist friends across the bay


Some cool flora on the hike back	Beautiful

Coolness

We made it back in time to catch our boat back to Hvar, and Anna made a new buddy during the ride. Too stuffed to eat anything for dinner, we wrapped up our amazing day with some red wine on our deck, and I couldn’t help but smile knowing that we have many more of these types of days ahead.

Anna and her new friend Coffee

Dusk from our deck

Posted in Croatia, Food & Wine, Random Musings | 5 Comments »

August 31, 2011

Island Time; Korcula

by Johnny

Now begins the Croatian island hopping portion of our trip. First stop, Korcula! Legend has it that this island is the birthplace of famous explorer and awesome pool game inventor Marco Polo. To be honest, I don’t know why he ever left the place. It’s amazing!

Korcula Town, where we based ourselves, has actually been dubbed “mini-Dubrovnik” because of its walled old town. Unlike Dubrovnik, however, there were hardly any tourists. While we thought Dubrovnik was beautiful, we spent much of our time in its old town dodging the hordes of tour groups and cruise ship day-trippers. In Korcula’s old town, you truly felt like you’d taken a step back in time. It’s hard to explain in writing, but Anna and I just felt an instant connection with the place. It was just so mellow and casual…just our style. Also, while we had to walk 356 steps down to the sea in Dubrovnik, here we only had to walk about 10. The place we stayed, Villa Depolo, may have been our favorite yet. For the equivalent of about $50/night we had a huge, clean room, air conditioning, en-suite bathroom, fridge and an enormous deck right on the water.

View from our deck

Korcula’s old town from our deck

Did I mention we had a super sweet deck?


Entrance to Korcula’s old town	Awesome dinner at U Maje i Tonke


Beauty everywhere you look in Korcula	Ditto

Johnny’s a.m. buoy swim

One day, when we weren’t bouncing back and forth between our deck and the sea right out front, we took a taxi boat over to the small fisherman’s village of Lumbarda where the island’s only sandy beaches are. I didn’t think Korcula could get any more beautiful, but it proved me wrong. We swam in some of the warmest, clearest, bluest water we’ve ever been in on a sandy beach lined with ancient walls. Oh, and the Lumbarda area is know for its Grk wine which is grown in sandy soil, so there were vineyards coming straight down to the sea. Incredible!

Vineyards all the way down to the crystal clear Adriatic


Vivid blue and green everywhere	Johnny, ancient walls and vineyards


You get the idea	One more, for good measure

Korcula was just perfect. Look for Anna and me on a Korcula episode of House Hunters International in about 20 years.

Posted in Croatia | 3 Comments »

August 26, 2011

356 Steps To Paradise

by Anna

From Ljubljana we had a pretty serious travel day/night that took us from one hot, sweaty overnight train to the next with a three hour pit stop in Zagreb, Croatia’s capitol (which was really pretty….a nice place for a train layover!), and then finally on a five hour bus ride winding down Croatia’s coast. Along the way we met some nice Germans and a Kiwi, swapped some travel stories, and tried some Croatian beer – Karlovacko. The somewhat sleepless journey was worth it though, as we had finally made it to the “Pearl of the Adriatic,” Dubrovnik!

We’ve had high expectations of Croatia in general….it is actually one of the destinations that I have been looking forward to the most, and so far we have been loving it.

Dubrovnik was amazing, and we had an awesome view of its red roof-topped old town surrounded by fortress walls, its small bustling port and the forest-blanketed island of Locrum. We soon found that this glorious view came at a cost…..356 steps, but the reward was just as great at the other end (plus, we think our calves are looking pretty toned after four days of walking up and down these infamous steps!).

Sunset view of Dubrovnik’s old town from our room


356 steps down…	and 356 steps up…

Dubrovnik’s Old Port

The old town of Dubrovnik was beautiful and so much fun to explore. Cut down the middle by its main street, the Stradun, a labyrinth of narrow and charmingly gritty streets wind out on both sides. There are shops, cafes, laundry lines, old palaces, cathedrals, clock towers, monasteries and plazas tucked into every nook and cranny, making it a great place to just wander around and get lost within.

Old town at night


Stradun	More steps in the old town


View of Buza Bar on the cliffs around the old town	View of Locrum from Buza Bar – Johnny and I stopped here for some cold beers after a day of swimming

We had read that Dubrovnik has become a “European vacation hotspot,” so we were not completely surprised at how crowded and touristy it was. We were a little surprised by how hot and humid it was though, and even the owners of the place where we stayed (the funniest brothers of all time – Igor and Zoran) said it was the hottest summer they could remember. We managed to escape the heat during the day however by taking a quick ferry ride to the island Locrum. This place was really incredible….car-free, covered in trees and wild peacocks, with cathedral and fortress ruins and rocky edges where you could bask in the sun (kind of like a seal) and jump in and out of the crystal clear, warm Adriatic. There were even a couple salty pools with rope swings that we stumbled upon.


Leaving the Old Port on the way to Locrum	Swimming spots around Locrum

Johnny taking the plunge on Locrum

Checking out the best swimming spots on the island

Salty pools on the island

Another highlight of our time spent in Dubrovnik was the walk along its 2km of city walls. We were a little turned off at first because we thought it was pretty pricey to just walk the walls, but we sucked it up and did it anyways, and it was well worth it. The walls are completely in tact, unlike many of the other walled cities we have visited, and they offer spectacular views all around. We did the walk close to sunset, and the glowing terra cotta rooftops and sun reflecting in the turquoise waters was beautiful. It was interesting to learn that in the recent war in the early 90s, two thirds of Dubrovnik’s rooftops were damaged by bombings. In replacing the damaged roofs, they kept true to their terra cotta tiles, but there is a noticeable difference between the new, bright red/orange tiles and older, faded original tiles.

Today we woke up bright and early and took a three hour bus ride to the island of Korcula. Smaller, less crowded, but equally (if not more so!) beautiful, I think Johnny and I have both fallen in love. We’ve already been talking about extending our stay here…..but more to come on that in the next blog post!!


We made it to Korcula!	Ready for three days of relaxing…

Posted in Croatia | 1 Comment »

August 25, 2011

Ljubljana

by Johnny

We arrived in Ljubljana, Slovenia’s capital, with no expectations. We figured it would just be a solid pit stop before heading south to Croatia. However, after a couple days there we came away really impressed with all it had to offer. Ljubljana has beautiful Eastern European architecture, great parks, big squares, a castle overlooking the city and everything else you could want in an “off the beaten path” destination. Some have referred to Ljubljana as the “next Prague” in the sense that it is still a pretty undiscovered gem of Eastern Europe.


Eastern European buildings	Ljubljana’s famous Triple Bridge


Ljubljana’s famous Dragon Bridge	Ljublj-Anna’s famous Dragon face


Slovenian wine on our B&B’s balcony	Slovenian beer at dinner

The city was a little dead during the day because it was so hot (like Seville hot), but at night Ljubljana is HAPPENING! There is live music around every corner, literally. The place must have the highest level of street performers per capita in all of Europe. And I’m not talking about those creeps who dress up like statues and just stand still all day. These guys had talent…and Anna and I loved stumbling on to one after the other.

And while Slovenia isn’t exactly known for its cuisine, we had a couple really great meals in Ljubljana. One day for lunch we went to Ribca, a seafood restaurant tucked away underneath the Triple Bridge. It’s right next to Ljubljana’s fish market, so everything is super fresh. It’s cheap and simply prepared…usually just grilled with some lemon and olive oil. Anna and I spent a couple hours there enjoying our food and wine, escaping the midday heat and watching the boats pass by on the river. We would have gone back again, but they were closed on Sundays. For dinner on our last night we went to Lunch Café Marley & Me (weird name, I know) for some traditional Slovenian food. We had been dodging all the boiled potatoes and sausages we had seen but figured we had to give them a go on our last night. I got the restaurant’s award winning Karst style sausage and Anna got some potato dumplings with mushrooms. I won’t be going out of my way to find any Slovenian restaurants back home, but it was pretty tasty.


Fish at Ribca	Karst sausage at Lunch Café Marley & Me

And a couple more pics from a places that’s definitely worth checking out for a couple days. Between festive Ljubljana and beautiful Bled, we had an awesome week in Slovenia.

Ljubljana at dusk


Old town Ljubljana	Love padlocks and Ljubljana’s Butchers’ Bridge


Ljubljana Castle at night	Ljubljana’s old town

Triple Bridge at night


Lunch at Ribca	Hangin’ on some steps listening to the sounds of the city

Posted in Slovenia | 1 Comment »

August 18, 2011

Bled-Head

by Johnny

After another long bus->train->bus->bus->walk travel day, we made it to Bled, Slovenia. Truth be told, we weren’t really feeling this place at first. We were beat from a long travel day, our apartment looked like a hospital room and part of the town looks like it’s stuck in the ’70s. But now, after five days here, we’re going to be sad to say goodbye to this beautiful place and its super friendly people.

After finding the first Mexican food we’ve seen since we’ve left (I don’t care that we paid €9 for chips and salsa…it was amazing) and getting a much needed good night’s rest, we woke up in much better spirits. I mean, how can you not feel good when you’re celebrating your second wedding anniversary with the love of your life?! We set off to check out the area determined to make the most of our special day. Like Anna mentioned in our last post, that included a long walk around Lake Bled, a visit to a Picasso and Slovenian Impressionism exhibit and some dinner at Oštarija Peglez’n.


Anna’s lucky to be married to such a cultured individual	Walking around Lake Bled


Our view from dinner at Oštarija Peglez’n	Some of Bled’s famous Kremna Rezina cake for dessert

Nightcap with our bottle of Amarone wine from Verona…Happy Anniversary to us!

On one of our days here we rented a rowboat for the afternoon. This made two things very clear: 1) Lake Bled and it’s surroundings are absolutely breathtaking, and 2) I am extremely out of shape. We packed up some bread, fruit, cheese and two of Slovenia’s finest canned brews and slowly but surely made our way to Bled Island in the middle of the lake. Our highlight of the day was docking our boat just in time to witness an Italian fisherman in Speedos reel in a gigantic lake monster. He brought the beast on land, posed for a couple pictures and then let it go back into the lake, garnering a standing ovation from a tour boat full of Asian women. Only in Slovenia…


Huffin’ and puffin’	Just chillin’ while Johnny gives himself a hernia

We’re on a boat!


Catch…	…and realease

Rowboats with Bled Castle in the background

Another highlight was renting bikes and riding to the nearby Vintgar Gorge, a stunning 1.6 kilometer long ravine through which the Radovna River flows. You can walk through the ravine on a series of paths and bridges carved into the rock. Super cool.


Riding through the Slovenian countryside	Watch out for cows

Vintgar Gorge


Navigating the wooden paths	Walkway built into the ravine


Vintgar Gorge	No day is complete without a Euro dude in a Speedo

Other than that, we had a really relaxing time in Bled. We took walks and bike rides around the lake, went for a couple dips and just lazed around admiring the landscape. I think it’s definitely the most physically beautiful place we’ve been so far. Here are some more snapshots from an amazing place…

Am I in a postcard?


So graceful	Weeeeeeee!


Hi Anna!	Hi Johnny!

Posted in Slovenia | 6 Comments »

August 15, 2011

A Slovenian Anniversary

by Anna

Celebrating two years of married bliss today with a Pablo Picasso and Slovenian Impressionism exhibit, a walk around Lake Bled, dinner at Oštarija Peglez’n and our bottle of Amarone!