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On day 5 of our tour in Croatia we stopped at the Nada winery in Vrbnik, where they served us a huge lunch. As is the tradition, the kids sang for the proprietor after the meal.

After such a great experience there wasn't a dry eye in the house, including those of the owner.

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Taken three months after this, from the same spot. Can't remember the last time we had this nice of a summer.

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Over five years in the making and...it’s over.

It was probably even longer than five years ago when I first brought up going to Croatia to see where dad was from (he escaped from there over fifty years ago and has never returned), but regardless - it’s been a while. When the time finally came, marriages, babies, bad knees and good old fashioned old age resulted in my going it alone.  In retrospect I doubt either of my parents could have handled all the walking even if we went five years ago when it was originally proposed, but I couldn’t have known that at the time. I also didn’t realize until later that nearly all of the places on the itinerary were places he hadn’t been anyway, so they would have been of limited sentimental value.

In retrospect I think going alone was probably the best thing that could have happened if for no other reason than it made me reset my expectations from “take dad back to the country he left 50yrs ago” to “visit the country dad left 50yrs ago”. Once that was settled the trip became less of me being a chaperone and more of me being an observer, so I probably learned more than I would have otherwise.

It’s safe to say that fatigue plays a role in how I would rate the different places I’ve visited, but I’m pretty confident in saying that while Zagreb was an interesting place to visit I don’t think I could live there. You can see the leftovers of communism just driving from the airport to the hotel, and from talking to some of the locals there is still an undercurrent socially/politically as well. I think three days there was enough, though I didn’t get as much out of it as I would have if it weren’t for jet lag.

As you drive south down the Adriatic coast it gets more beautiful with each passing mile, and by the time you get to the Dubrovnik you’re left to wonder how people didn’t find out about this place sooner. You can really feel the Austrian influence in the north and the Italian/mediterranean influence the rest of the way down to Dubrovnik. And the food is amazing. It definitely makes a difference to use natural ingredients and foods that are in season, but even if I were to do that when I get home I don’t think I’d be able to duplicate the taste. I agree with Paul Javonovich that if there were one thing I’d like to be able to take back with me it’s the food.

The one thing that I was not expecting was so quickly fitting in with the people I was on tour with. I was pretty nervous about being a stranger in a strange land with a bunch of people I didn’t know, but everyone accepted me into the group very quickly and I enjoyed hanging out with all of them. The group was comprised of a handful of families that knew and/or were related to each other, which of course includes all the baggage that comes with that. Imagine going on a tour with your aunt’s and uncle’s families, all crammed into a bus for two weeks...you get the picture. Fortunately everyone got along for the most part, and every last one of the kids (23 in all) was great. There were no issues at all in the two weeks we were here.

Adding Rome and Paris to the end was a real stretch for me. As anyone that knows me can attest, I’m not real big about leaving my comfort zone, and you don’t get much more out of your comfort zone than going alone to countries where you don’t speak the language. Even though I was really nervous about it, pushing through the anxiety and forging ahead paid off; it turned out that not only was I able to navigate these places, but doing it without any help made it extra special. The big lesson is that if you’re nice to people and sincerely try to communicate in their language, they are more than happy to help you out.

As for regrets, I really don’t have any. I wish I would have been willing to go alone five years ago when this first came up, but that’s life. As to whether I’d do it again I really don’t know. Five years is a long time and who knows what will happen between now and then, or what I might have going on during the dates of the next tour. I do know that I would do a few things differently (shorts anyone?), and now that I’ve done it once I wouldn’t have the anxiety about doing things alone. My big hope is that the next time this kind of opportunity presents itself I’ll be able to go with a significant other.

Regardless, the experience this time was great, and I’m pleasantly surprised to say that I’ve made some new friends as a result. There’s not much more you can ask for than that.

So that's about it for me, and for this edition of Where's Paul. Hope you enjoyed traveling vicariously through me as much as I enjoyed the actual trip!

Until next time,
Do videnja
Arrivederci/Ciao
Au revoir

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(Ed. 2011: At some point the links to the photos within this post were broken, so rather than trying to figure out exactly which photos belong in the text, please refer to the Paris photo galley.)

When I set up this trip I kind of threw in Paris as an afterthought, thinking that I would pass through for a few days on my way home. After having spent the last two days here I can say for 100% certain that I’ll be back here some day. This might be the most beautiful city I’ve ever visited.

It didn’t start out very well though. I had a lot of anxiety over the language issue. I don’t speak a lick of French, and everyone I’ve talked to (even the Italians that I’d just met last Saturday!) said the French were a pain in ass about the language. They really want you to speak French, to the point that they pretend they don’t know English just to make you uncomfortable. This is part of the reason why I had avoided coming here sooner. I mean, how ungrateful could you be when so many people are adding to your economy! Then I realized that it’s not a whole lot different than having a bunch of immigrants picking your food and cleaning your homes, and then blaming them for your lousy economy, and I came around.

Still, I was nervous. On Tuesday morning I procrastinated in my room as long as I could, then headed out. After a frustrating experience ordering lunch - a great fresh fruit salad, where the waiter wouldn’t speak to me in English until I was done with my meal - I was feeling pretty dejected. Still, I had two days here so I had to make the best of it.

A couple of blocks from my hotel I walked into a huge park that turned out to be the Luxembourg Gardens and everything turned around. How could you not feel good in a place like this?

I walked through the gardens and headed toward the area of the Louvre and d’Orsay museums. I wasn’t going to go into the museums on Tuesday though - the forecast was for rain on Wednesday and Thursday, so I decided to delay the indoor activities until then. As I was leaving the grounds of the Louvre a beggar came up to me and asked “Do you speak English?”, and then showed me a card saying she was a Bosniak (yes, Joe Biden was right - suck it!), her brother had leukemia and her mother was dead. I don’t know if it was all true but I had to give her some money just for the creativity even if it was a lie. About ten minutes later another beggar came up to me and asked if I spoke English, and when I was at Arc de Triomphe an American came up and asked me if I spoke English. What is wrong with you people? Why do you think I’m American? I’M WEARING PANTS IN NINETY DEGREE HEAT, CAN’T YOU TELL I’M A LOCAL?!

I also took this picture as I was walking through the gardens leading away from the Louvre.

Here you can clearly see the Champs-Elysees leading to the Arc de Triomphe, as well as the Eiffel Tower, all of which I would walk to on this day. If you’ve ever been to Vegas and said “Let’s just walk to the next hotel, it’s the next one down” you know where this is going. These sights are WAY farther away than they seem due to their size. 

So I headed toward the Arc de Triomphe, but I didn’t get very far before I had to stop again. At one point I was at an intersection and just stopped in my tracks. One one side was this (the "Petite Palace"), on the other the Grand Palace, and straight ahead was this (Les Invalides)

This is an extreme example, but there’s stuff like this all over the place. It seems like every time you walk a block you see some amazing sight. By the time I got to the park by the Louvre I just gave up putting my camera away. I ended up taking 265 pictures on Tuesday, by far the most of any day on the trip.

So I get back on track and head toward the arch, and after a loooong walk and a couple of breaks due to the weight of my camera gear (never again will I bring this much stuff) I got there. And once you’re there you have to go to the top! It’s a lot of steps, but I eventually got there and the view was worth it.

Under the arch is a memorial to the unknown soldier.

I finally figured out how to get to the right road leading to the Eiffel Tower and made my way there. I had a map, but the roads are pretty confusing so I wasn’t sure if I was in exactly the place I wanted to be. Then I turned a corner and I was there...

I knew it was big, but until you see it in person you have no idea. It’s just massive, both in the area it takes up and its height. I was going to pass on going to the top because the line was so long, but I eventually decided that it was worth it. The line was two and a half hours long, which while not great turned out to be a blessing in disguise because by the time I got to the top (it takes three elevators, and the last one could be pretty scary if you’re claustrophobic or afraid of heights). At the very top there’s a small apartment that Eiffel lived in. 

I don’t know if he was there full time though because it was pretty small; the mannequin you see at the back is against the back wall. The apartment is set up to recreate the moment when Thomas Edison (on the right) was up there showing off his latest invention, the phonograph. 

The top floor is pretty small, so I went down to the second where the better views are and took advantage of the light to get some decent shots of the city. This one faces toward where I took the picture above (just to the right of the purple lights):

By the time I got to the bottom it was dark enough that they’d turned on the lights on the tower.

By now it was late - 10:50pm - but I had one last thing to do before calling it a night. At the top of every hour the do a little light show on the tower, so I walked to a nice dark area, sat down and waited. The park was packed full of people. There had to have been around a thousand people there, most in groups of 10 or so, picnicking at 11:00 at night! Mea culpa, Rick Steves. You were right about that part. 

After the show I packed everything up and hunted down a taxi. I was really far from my hotel, and by that time I had easily walked 10-15 miles and spent over ten hours on my feet so there was no way I was going to walk back. 

Still, after I got back to the hotel I didn’t go to sleep for a couple of hours. I think I was so jazzed by what I’d experienced that day that I wasn’t tired.

Today (Wednesday) was spent in the Louvre and the d’Orsay museums. The Louvre is the first museum I’ve ever been to where I’ve thought “I’ve got to come back here”, and the d’Orsay is where the Impressionists are, so it was a great day. I walked back to the hotel, and just as I got to the front door it started raining. Even the weather cooperated.

Paris is an incredible city, and there’s no way you can experience it all in a couple of days or maybe even a week. In Rome you have to kind imagine how things used to be, but in Paris everything is still there and working so you can actually experience it first hand.

If there’s any way you can come here, you should. It’s worth it.

Tomorrow it's a walk around the Notre Dame area, weather permitting (thunderstorms right now). I won't have time to post pictures because I fly out of Paris tomorrow afternoon as I start my trip home, so you probably won't hear from me again until I'm back state side.

Salut!

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No, not the Vatican.

Bruce Springsteen and the E Street Band.

I don't remember why I Google'd (hey, it was before Bing launched. Gimme a break) Bruce Springsteen's tour originally, but when I saw that he was playing at Stadio Olimpico in Rome on July 19th I knew I had to extend my stay in Rome by an extra day. I had never seen him live and I'd heard great things about it, plus how can you pass up that kind of opportunity?

The concert was supposed to start at 8:30 but it was postponed until 10:00pm because of a conflict with the swimming world championships, and then they started half an hour late on top of that. People were getting pretty restless.

The first song was Badlands, the last one was Twist and Shout, and the concert was THREE HOURS LONG with no opening act. During the entire act there were maybe half a dozen times where there was actual silence; at the end of most of the songs the band just kept playing the last chord while Bruce changed guitars (he changed between almost every song).

The set was pretty straightforward except for one small part in the middle. During that section he walked around the front of the stage and collected a bunch of signs that people had made that included the names of his songs (clearly people knew about this in advance). Then he'd just pick up a sign, show it to the band, say "1, 2, 3, 4" and they'd play that song.

Shortly before 1:00am the house lights came up and they finished with Born to Run - or so we thought. They walked off for about 15 seconds (everyone except Clarence Clemons, who appears to have some health problems; he sat down during stretches) and then came back to play seven more songs.

The last section just brought the house down. The first one was one he said they hadn't played for a while, My City of Ruins, which was a really nice touch in Rome. And thankfully I got to see Thunder Road, which they didn't play the previous show (?!).

Every time they finished a song the crowd assumed that was it; they were probably ready to go home. And then he'd walk back and pick up another guitar and people would just look at each other and say "no way!". At least that's what I assume they were saying by the looks on their faces. Did I mention I no capeche Italiano?

When they played Bobby Jean (which I don't remember hearing before) things just came unglued. The two keyboardists were playing accordions, the musicians in the back came up front and they just kept going. Then all of a sudden to ladies in the 70s (at least) came out and started dancing behind Bruce as he was playing. He turned around and had no idea what was going on, but he went along with it. By the end of the song the entire band was just laughing their heads off.

The last song was Twist and Shout, which included some weird part of La Bamba, and it went on forever. When they finished everyone including the fans were exhausted, but if he would have kept on playing I'd still be there watching.

And yes, he did bring out a young girl to dance with during Dancing in the Dark.

I love to see U2 whenever they're in town because they're such showmen, but after watching this I think I've seen the pinnacle of showmanship. Keep in mind: on September 23rd Bruce Springsteen will by SIXTY years old. He - and his band, who were all awesome - were still going strong at 1:30 in the morning when people half his age were ready to go to bed. They've been playing some of these songs for thirty years, and far from mailing it in, they act like they're brand new. And the production value of the show was unlike anything I've seen. There were two huge screens next to the stage, which is nothing new, but the video looked like they were filming for the DVD or something. It was awesome. And did I mention everyone was outside in shirtsleeves until 1:30 am? Gotta love Roma in July.

It was an incredible performance, and should you be so fortunate as to have him come to your town you really need to go. The tickets are expensive, but it's totally worth it. I know I'll be going if he ever comes back to Seattle.

Summary: I enjoyed the show.

OK, that's it for me. Time to get on a plane for Paris.

Because tramps like us, baby we were born to run.

Update

Here's the review of the show and the set list, from brucespringsteen.net. Turns out the two old ladies were his mom and aunt!

ROME, ITALY
Sunday, July 19, 2009

The Most Beautiful City in the World

By Guglielmo Latini

The first Springsteen concert in the biggest stadium in Rome, and definitely a concert that the Roman audience (though I should say Italian audience, because there were people from every single town of the country) won't forget for a long time. The concert was delayed by the local authorities to avoid coinciding with the Swimming World Championship, so it actually started at 10:30 p.m.--an unusual time for a Bruce show, but a good occasion to fully enjoy the magic in the Roman night.

The first emotional moment came with the opening music during the entrance of the band, which was the wonderful theme from Sergio Leone's Once Upon a Time in The West by Ennio Morricone, played with all the lights down. It's a tune that's been used several times by Bruce to open his Italian concerts, and also the one that acted as an intro for "Badlands" during the River tour. This mix of melancholy and epic really moved the crowd and prepared it well for the sudden explosion of "Badlands," which was quickly followed by "Out in the Street" and perfect "Outlaw Pete," which continued the homage to Morricone, as a composition in the same style of the Roman Maestro. The audience really felt it and sang even the guitar solos like they were well-known melodies, overwhelming the volume of Steve's guitar with their voices.

"No Surrender" was a punch of energy and was followed by "She's the One," which always does its work to excite the audience. During "Working on a Dream" Bruce spoke in Italian and referred to Rome as "the most beautiful city in the world," adding that the Band would bring the music, but the audience had to bring the noise! The "Recession trilogy" was embellished by a powerful "Atlantic City," and "Seeds" had very, very strong guitar work by Bruce himself.

After Bruce gathered the request signs, "Raise Your Hand" was played entirely (Bruce jumping on the piano like in the good ol' days), followed shortly by a "Hungry Heart" sung by the whole Stadio Olimpico and by a rare "Pink Cadillac." Then Bruce showed a sign made by a couple about to marry in a week, requesting "I'm on Fire," and "the wedding singer" surely didn't deny it. Another sign referred to someone's birthday, and the occasion was a good one for a happy, joyful "Surprise Surprise," but the mood changed quickly with an extraordinary rendition of "Prove It All Night", rocking the house with a superb Nils solo. The man can really play guitar!

After "Waitin' on a Sunny Day" (with a funny child trying to sing it without knowing any lyrics!) and "The Promised Land," it was time for one of the most moving moments of the entire show: a long, passionate, unexpected "American Skin," which first made the entire stadium silent and then made it explode with applause. "Hard Times" didn't make it tonight, but Rome was enough lucky to have it replaced by "Thunder Road" and another emotional moment strongly felt by the audience: a welcome "My City of Ruins" dedicated by Bruce to the city of L'Aquila, which in April was destroyed by a terrible earthquake with hundreds of people dying. The day before the concert a group of fans from L'Aquila, during a radio interview, told Stevie about this particular request, and he was great to pass it to the Boss and make this gift possible. Grazie, Steve and Bruce--we needed it.

Then... it was all fun! Starting with a wild "You Can't Sit Down" that made the whole stadium dance like crazy, "American Land" saw the special guest-starring of Bruce's mom and aunt! The Boss was singing his song as usual, when Mrs. Adele Zirilli, Italian heart, appeared on the stage and went beside her son to his surprise, and the crowd went nuts, watching these two "not so young" women dancing on stage like it was a tarantella.

But it wasn't the end: "Bobby Jean," an Italian audience favorite, had Clarence in perfect shape (in fact, he didn't miss a note the whole night); "Dancing in the Dark" had a girl dancing on stage after holding up a sign that read, "Shall we dance, Mr.Bruce?"; and for the climax we had a completely wild "Twist and Shout," with Bruce dancing like a flamenco dancer, a red hat on his head, and the crowd singing "La Bamba" along the way. Another memorable night for the Italian audience which, 24 years since Bruce's first concert here, still loves him with the same passion and heart and is still repaid with the same feelings.

Set List
Badlands
Out In The Street
Outlaw Pete
No Surrender
She's The One
Working On A Dream
Seeds
Johnny 99
Atlantic City
Raise Your Hand
Hungry Heart
Pink Cadillac
I'm On Fire
Surprise Surprise
Prove It All Night
Waiting On A Sunny Day
The Promised Land
American Skin (41 Shots)
Lonesome Day
The Rising
Born To Run

My City Of Ruins
Thunder Road
You Can't Sit Down
American Land
Bobby Jean
Dancing In The Dark
Twist & Shout

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I let the girl go in front of me. She fills up her water bottle, smiles and whispers "Danke schon" and I draw a complete blank.

Maybe it was because at the moment I was humming the tune to Croatian folks songs that I can't get out of my head - just the tunes, since I DON'T SPEAK CROATIAN, and I was coming back from dinner with a bunch of Italians where I tried to hold a conversation even though I DON'T SPEAK ITALIAN.

I'm off to Paris tomorrow, where I get to butcher another language for a few days.

Tonight though: BRUUUUUCE!!!!! Bruce Springsteen at Stadio Olimpico!

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Today was the obligatory visit to the Vatican. When I was on my tour of the ancient city yesterday the tour guide offered the Vatican tour for 30 euro and I accepted more for convenience sake. The tour guides I had at the Colosseum and Palatine Hill were...ok, but not that great. I had assumed that part of it was the subject matter (there are a lot of great historical facts, but at the end of the day you need to use your imagination more than anything) as well as the heat. For the Vatican tour we got another new guide: Jill, a theology major from Duke, and she was by far the best of the three guides.

You can’t helped but be impressed with the Vatican. The amount of artwork here is staggering; if you tried to see it all it would take you several years. We just had the highlights tour, which took about three hours.

As with many religious/historical places, we weren’t allowed to take pictures in many places, and in those where photography was allowed it’s so dark as to be pointless. The one shot I did get was of Nero’s bathtub, which is estimated to be worth 400 million euro. That’s not a typo: over half a billion US dollars. As with most of the artwork here, they can’t sell it because it’s so expensive they can’t get insurance for the sale. So here it sits. Poor guys.

The Vatican Museum is really nice, but the big draws are the Sistine Chapel and St Peter’s Basilica.

I really liked the hallways leading up to the chapel, one of which looked like a bunch of reliefs but were really just flat paintings. The guide kept telling us that the ceiling was flat and the 3D look was a trick, but it was hard to believe until as we left we were able to look straight up and see that the wall was flat.

I’d been reading a book called Michelangelo and the Pope’s Ceiling on the way here, so I ended up knowing quite a bit about the chapel. It’s obviously very impressive, especially when you take into consideration how long ago it was done and the way it was done. I do have to say though that from what I’ve seen Raphael’s work is better than what I saw in the chapel. That’s not to say that the chapel isn’t an impressive feat, it’s just that if you look at Raphael’s stuff it just jumps out at you. 

The end of the tour is St Peter’s Basilica, and it’s last for a reason. I couldn’t believe the scale of everything. And how in the heck did they get those statues placed up high like that? I assume they went through a lot of slaves back then.

As I was walking through it I had a lot of mixed feelings about how the obnoxiousness of it all. It’s a great cultural landmark and everything, but good grief did they really need to go that big with everything? I’m glad that I did this after the Roman ruins, because it struck me that I was seeing was what the Roman ruins would be like if they were kept in tact. So big, so ornate. Of course, much of the material used in the Vatican was taken from the ruins so I guess that’s no surprise. But the similarity did come to mind. I didn't take any pictures during the day but I went back at night when it was lit up.

OK, enough of the art talk.

A few other random things from my guide: 

- Milan is the financial capital of the country, and it used to be a fashion capital but apparently many people are going out of business due to the recession
- Tourism is by far the biggest industry, followed by government work
- An estimated 35% of the economy is what she called “black market”. When I asked what that was she explained that the revenue is off the books, and asked if I’d ever gotten a receipt since I’d been here. I hadn’t. According to her, most of the economy south of Rome is black market.

After the tour I had a quick bite and headed over to Castel Sant’Angelo, which is a very cool location but a bit of a rip as a museum. The best thing about it is that there’s a really nice breeze at the top of the castle.

At that point I’d been walking around for about 6hrs straight, so I decided to go home and rest up for what I was hoping would be a nice evening photo walk. I hit the major spots: Campo de Fiori, Piazza Navona, Pantheon, Trevi fountain, Spanish steps. I can’t believe how many people are at these places at all hours of the night. Here’s a photo of the Trevi fountain taken at around 11:30pm. It’s out of focus, but I took it because I wanted to show how many people were there. This place is just bustling at night.

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Yesterday was pretty brutal: 3:00am wakeup call, left the hotel at 4:00am, four hour bus ride to Zagreb...all to sit in the Zagreb airport until my flight at 2:30pm. The alternative would have been to take the public bus and I wasn’t comfortable doing that with all my bags, so that was that.

When I finally got to my hotel it was shortly after 7:00pm, and I didn’t really feel like going out. I was tired, cranky, and to be honest a little nervous. Rome is a really big change from what I’ve been doing the last couple of weeks in that it’s a huge city and I have to find my way around by myself, as opposed to having the itinerary all planned out. And then there was yet another language to worry about. I walked around for a few blocks just to get the lay of the land, but I was so tired I turned around, went to bed and slept in all the way to 8:00am, which I think is the latest I’ve slept on the trip.

After procrastinating as long as I could this morning I finally got up the nerve to head out. I was initially annoyed with my hotel choice (recommended by my sister, who was here a year ago), but it turned out to be in a great place for transportation: it’s just a couple of blocks from the Termini, which is where two major subway lines meet. I can either take the blue down to the ruins or the red to the Vatican. Both are a long walk, but the subway makes it easy. I bought a Roma Pass, which is a three-day pass that includes free admission to your first two tourism sites (and discounts at the rest) and a three day transportation pass. Since I’m only here for four days that’s just about perfect; I’ll just walk around the places by my hotel on the fourth day to minimize costs (everything here is really expensive compared to Croatia).

(As an aside, how is it that the Romans can build a subway underneath their ruins but we can’t do anything in Seattle? It’s so annoying.)

After seeing the city on the drive from the airport and analyzing a map in my room, I decided to turn around my first two days. Instead of doing the Vatican the first day I’d hit the main ruins - the Colosseum, Palatine Hill, Circus Maximus - instead, and do the Vatican once I had things figured out.

View Larger Map

It’s been a bit of a struggle because I don’t know the language very well and I keep falling into replying in Croatian, but I’m hoping it will come.

I’d heard a lot about Rome, so I was ready for seeing a lot of old stuff. What I was not ready for was the size of the stuff. The ruins are HUGE! I can’t believe a society of people that were about the size of 10yr olds today would build things that gigantic. The Colosseum fit 50,000 people, basically the size of the Kingdome. And it’s still standing, whereas the Kingdome...

I took some pictures, but to be honest they’re not that good. First, it was blazing sun (90 degrees in the shade) in early afternoon, which is terrible light. But even more important is that I don’t think the pictures do it justice. We’ve all seen pictures of these things on TV many, many times, but without the context it’s really difficult to appreciate it without knowing the context of what you’re looking at. It’s the first time I’ve ever felt “you had to be there”, and I’m glad I took the recommendation of friends and paid to have a guide. Without them telling me what I was looking at it would have been much less rewarding.

So today was a pretty big chunk of sightseeing, with the Vatican and possibly Castel Sant’Angelo tomorrow in the day, and a nice walk for some pictures after dinner depending on how tired I am.

One last thing: I did try the gelato at a stand outside the Palatine Hills, and based on that sample the ice cream in Croatia is better. If someone has a recommendation of where to get the good stuff let me know. I’m also taking dinner recommendations.

See the full gallery on Posterous

Rome Photos | All Europe Photos

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(Ed. At some point the links to the pictures in this post were broken. Rather than trying to remember which picture went where, go to the Zadar Photo Gallery to see all of the photos I took in Zadar)

On Sunday we packed our bags and headed back north to Zadar, where we would be spending our last two days on the tour. The bus ride was another long one, leaving at 9:00am, stopping in Sibenik for a brief city tour, then finally arriving in Zadar around 5:30pm and immediately getting a tour of the city there as well. The only thing to see in Sibenik was St Jacob’s Cathedral, which was nice, but to be honest I think we would have been better served driving straight through because everyone was completely beat at the end of the day. I’d been doing pretty well on the tour so far. We had a late dinner and most people went to bed. I had to find a cash machine, so I went with our guide Sid, Johnny, Joanne and Pat for what I thought was going to be a short walk to the city that turned out to be an hour and a half round trip. When we got to the hotel I was so tired I had a hard time figuring out how to open my suitcase. I had definitely hit a wall, and I was not really looking forward to the next (and last) day of the tour at all. I think if I had a chance to fly home at that point I would have.

I’m glad I didn’t, because the last day turned out to be the best day of the entire trip. We got back on the bus at 9:00am and headed for the harbor, where we boarded a ferry and took a two hour trip to the small town of Sali on Dugi Otok (“long island”). I was so tired that I overslept and missed breakfast, so I was a little concerned that I was going to crash again if we had a lot of walking to do.

As with every other stop on the tour, there were people on the island we knew and they were waiting for us. In this case it was Tony, his wife Neva and Valerie and her children. Tony and Neva spend half the year in Ballard and the other half in Sali, in a home that has been in their family for four hundred years.

The house is literally two flights of stairs from the harbor, and across an alley from a small church. They had set up tables for us on  the small courtyard in front of the church, and  after everyone got seated sat down and the two hour parade of food began.

As with much of Europe, in Croatia lunch is the big meal. There are usually several courses, including appetizers, soup (we had soup several times this trip, even though it was over 80 degrees), the main course and dessert. Dinner is around 8:00pm (if you’re still hungry) and is usually leftovers from lunch.

Every lunch starts with platters of meat, including fresh prosciutto, cheese and olives and fresh bread.

Around that time Peter walked up the stairs with the fresh sardines, which had been sitting in the water of the harbor waiting for our arrival. A fire pit was created (which we all thought was pretty funny given that it was over ninety degrees), and the sardines were put on skewers and sprinkled with sea salt. Here you can also see how close they are to the harbor - it's just behind the tree at the bottom of the steps.

As the sardines were being prepared the pasta came out and cucumber and tomato salad came out, followed shortly by fried chicken.

Then we hear “Freedom fries!”, and what we thought were the french fries came out. These were cut like steak fries, but instead of being in an oven they appeared to be boiled with some kind of meat and drizzled with olive oil. Then the real french fries came out, along with the zucchini, prepared with garlic and olive oil.

At this point I was already too stuffed to continue, so I took a pass on the zucchini and sardines (I’m also not a sardine fan).

Then, just when we thought we were done, Neva comes out with bowls of freshly made frittes (don’t know if I spelled that right). The best I can describe them is to say they’re similar to donut holes, but that doesn’t do them justice. They’re nowhere near as heavy - they’re so light they’re almost like cotton candy in your mouth.

I had a couple of these, but at this point I was in a food coma and had to just sit in my chair for a few minutes to take it all in. It was around 2:30 at this point and the performance (the last one on the tour) was scheduled for 7:00pm so we had some time to walk down to the nearby swimming hole for a few hours and relax.

I was able to say no to ice cream for probably 45 minutes before Tony showed up. As he made rounds we joked that he must be the mayor since he knows so many people, but on an island of 800 everyone knows everyone. He eventually made it to me and asked me if I’d had any ice cream. I told him I hadn’t, but I was eventually talked in to it when it became clear that by turning it down I was being impolite. So I had a scoop of lemon-flavored ice cream and we all headed back up to the house.

When we got there the tables were covered with a least half a dozen different kinds of homemade cookies.

Eventually several others joined in, including Katherine Morovich.

It was an incredible meal, and it was all home made. The chicken, pasta and sardines were made while we were there, and all of the vegetables including the potatoes were from their garden. The wine was home made. Even the olive oil they used was home made.

All I can say is that if you can go through a day like that and not be sold on what Croatia has to offer, you can’t be sold. Many thanks to Neva, Valerie and Tony for being such great hosts. I look forward to seeing you when you’re back in the states!

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It's been non-stop on the bus, off the bus for the last two days so i haven't been able to post. Today was amazing, and possibly the highlight of the trip, but it's 10:45pm local time and I have a 3:00am wake up call, so the official update will have to wait until I get to Rome tomorrow.

That's all for now. Next stop, Italy!

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Grand Hotel Park, Dubrovnik, Croatia

Today some of us ventured back in Dubrovnik and walked around the wall encompassing the old town. It takes a good couple of hours when you add in stopping for pictures, and the weather was great.

Update, in response to Jeff's question in the comments:

According to our tour guide (and I'm going from memory so don't hold me to it ) and skimming Wikipedia, it was founded in the 7th century and eventually came under the control of Venice. The Venetians left to go conquer someone else, and when they returned they weren't invited back in the city.

It has always done a good job of holding its own in conflict, but in the war back in the '90s the Serbs bombed the crap out of it for no real reason.

It's also my understanding that the path I hiked up the other day is there because it was used by the citizens of Dubrovnik to take supplies up to the soldiers fighting at the top of the hill, where the big cross is. They were severely outmanned, and many, many lives were lost.

See the full gallery on Posterous

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Grand Hotel Park, Dubrovnik, Croatia

(Ed. At some point the links to the pictures in this post got broken. Rather than trying to remember which picture went where, go to the Dubrovnik Photo Gallery to see all the photos I took in Dubrovnik)

On Friday the agenda was for a 7:00am wakeup call, with the group leaving around 8:15 and heading to Korcula. There would be a brief tour of the town, followed by the group going to see Vela Luca, another dance group that apparently performs with knives. The kids would be performing around 9:00pm, and everyone would then have to high tail it in order to make it in time for the boat back. Best case we’d be back by 2:00am.

Since everyone told me that if they had the choice they wouldn’t go, I decided to stay back in Dubrovnik, and attempt something I’d had my eye on since I’d seen it on The Amazing Race: going to the cross high on the hill above Dubrovnik. The plan was to take a picture from there, with the old city in the background, for my Christmas picture. I was really looking forward to being lazy like everyone else and picking a picture as a Christmas card instead of doing each one myself.

The problem was getting there: our bus driver was with the group so I was on my own. I went to the front desk this morning and asked the not unattractive lady the best way, and she told me to take the number six bus to old town. She said walking to the top was pretty difficult, but I could take a bus to the top of hill and then walk down if I had to. Unfortunately, there are only two buses that go up there, at 11:30 and 5-something, and there was no way to make the early bus in time.

As I was leaving I ran in to another couple that stayed back - I think the three of us were the only ones that stayed - and they were going to old town too so we decided to take the bus together. We both had a map to the bus, so no problem, right? Well, maps are extremely useful in most cases, but they tend to be less so when the city doesn’t have any actual street signs. By the time we found the bus stop we had probably walked about a mile, and when it was all said and done it had taken us an hour to get to old town.

Once we got there Greg and Cheryl decided it was too hot to walked around the wall (that was their plan), so they decided to stop and get something to drink and cool off. I grabbed a large water, put a small water in my camera bag and looked up. Somehow I had to get from here to there on my own two feet:

I looked around, saw a stairwell (you can see it in the pic above) and just started walking.

Every time I’d get to the top of a stairwell there would be another one.

Sometimes it was kind of hidden.

I tried the one on the left first and it went to someone's residence, so I tried the one on the right and sure enough, it led to another stairwell

At one point I was walking down an alley and came across a terrace just kind of sitting there, hidden amongst the homes on the hill, so I stopped to take a couple of pictures (and cool down and catch my breath):

Eventually a stairway ended in a driveway, which when I walked up it was on a highway. Looking across the highway I happened to notice an unmarked trail that led in to the woods, so not knowing any better I decided to check it out.

It was really, really rocky, with hard red clay. Very hard to walk on it, but it went up so I thought I’d just keep going until I couldn’t go any more either because of fatigue or because the trail ended.

Part-way along I thought this might not be such a great idea since I had no idea where I was, if there were animals to worry about, etc., but after stopping for a while I just decided “Hey, I may never be here again, and if I am it’s very unlikely I’d be able to even think about doing something like this, so go for it.” So I kept on walking with no idea where I was headed.

As I got close to the tree line I came across another person heading back down the trail, the only person I saw here the entire day. It was a Japanese tourist. We stopped, and I asked him if this trail went to the top. He shook his head and said “One kilometer”, which I think meant that either it was one kilometer to the top, or he had to stop one kilometer from the top. I asked him again, and he just repeated it, and then smiled and said “Very hot”. I smiled and said “Yes, very hot” and wished him well.

Just a few feet after I passed him I came across what I thought was a memorial for someone that had died or something.

Then, just above the treeline, another one, this one with “II” on it. At that point I figured it out: these were stations of the cross. They had to be connected to the big one on top, so I must be on the right trail! Here's the fourth station, and you can see at least one other cross higher up on the hill to the left, as well as the main cross up at the top. Getting closer...

I wish I could say that I made it to the top, but I had to stop. Once you got above the tree line it got much hotter in the direct sun and I was running out of water. Worst of all I was getting a blister on my foot, and with two more weeks left and a lot of walking to do I didn’t think it would be wise to make it even worse.

As I was trying to talk myself in to going to the top I hit the switch back between stations four and five. There was a steep drop off, but there was also a little flat area, and a great backdrop. I set up my tripod, put it on self-timer, and got my Christmas picture.

(BTW, in case you didn't know, you can click on the pictures to see a larger version)

No, you can’t see it - that would spoil the surprise. But for those of you that get a card from me, remember when you see it that I’m baking in the sun, my clothes are completely soaked through with sweat and I’m completely wiped out from carrying all that equipment on my back. So that’s why I’m not smiling. I’m definitely happy though.

Once I took the picture it seemed to get cooler and I just stopped there for a while to soak in the view. I also took a picture of the cross at the top of the hill. I thought about making the title of this post “Paul Fails The First Time” in honor of the stations of the cross, but I don’t really think I failed. I did something not many people would do and got pretty darned close. And how can you look down from there and not be thrilled at having made it that far and being there at all?

I did get close though:

I packed my bag, walked all the way back down and got back on the bus. I missed my stop and had to back track (the driver just laughed and said “Vait ten minute” and let me get back on for free), and when I got off the bus I saw the entrance to a promenade about twenty yards away. Turns out we went the wrong way in the morning; I walked down there about a block and was at the entrance to my hotel.

I wasn’t upset though. I was actually pretty happy.

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Grand Hotel Park, Dubrovnik, Croatia

On Thursday we left Trogir for Dubrovnik, late as usual, for the three hour drive to Dubrovnik that ended up taking almost seven hours. Turns out Croatians are known for being late everywhere, to the point that the clock town in the old town in Dubrovnik only updates every five minutes, since in Croatia if you’re within 5min you’re considered in the ballpark. Apparently this year’s tour is going much better than previous years in this regard, so I should consider myself lucky. I also now know why I’m always late: hey, it’s genetic. What can I do?

Before we left we were warned that the drive would be going down very windy roads and that we should take Dramamine if we thought there was a chance we’d get sick. I hadn’t been car sick since I was five so I figured no problem. You can guess where this is going. I’m glad that I only had two pieces of bread with three pieces of cheese for breakfast that morning (remember the commie food I mentioned previously?) because only some deep breaths and concentration allowed me to get to the first rest stop in Markarska without getting sick. We stopped for lunch, but all I could force down was some ice cream and a Dramamine. I started feeling a little better after a while so I walked along the promenade and through the town square while everyone else had lunch.

Upon driving into Dubrovnik our guide told us that instead of going to the hotel to check in we were going to go directly to the old town for a tour. My biggest concern was that I didn’t have any suntan lotion and the tour was going to be over two hours, but fortunately it was only 30 degrees when we got there so it wasn’t an issue.

The old town is as spectacular as the postcards. A small, walled city that to this day houses over 2000 people, old town also has 46 churches (not all of which are operating), which is a bit of overkill if you ask me, but they didn’t so they have 46 churches. During the war in the 90s Dubrovnik was shelled for the first time ever, and you can still see where the shells hit on some of the buildings.

It turned out that we were in town at just the right time, avoiding the huge cruise ship crowds and in great light for photography.

Life’s rough.

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The morning of the 7th felt just like Seattle. We all got up and went to load the bus and it was pouring rain the entire time. It had been raining off and on the entire trip, and I was starting to get worried that we wouldn’t ever get the weather that everyone raves about here, but by the time we got to the viewpoint over the river Krkra it was sunny and hot and has stayed that way ever since.

The hotel we’re in isn’t great, but we have a decent view.

Everyone immediately hit the beach, and then went to dinner around 7:00pm or so. Unfortunately the food at this particular hotel seems to be stuck in an eternal commemoration of Tito’s last meal. In the evening most of us headed to the promenade to relax a bit, and I took the opportunity to take a few pictures before heading to bed.

One of the things I’m really liking on these coastal towns are the promenades, the long walkways along the water. They just go on and one in every direction, with restaurants, bar and shops on the side. You just find a place you like and sit down right there on the beach.

On the 8th we had a city tour of Trogir, followed by a short bus drive to Croatia’s second largest city, Split, and a tour of Diocletian’s palace. We stayed in Split for lunch and got back this afternoon with plenty of time for a nap, followed by a quick shower before we skip out on this hotel’s “dinner” and have an adult’s night out in Trogir.

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We got to Opatija the evening of the 4th of  July and got in just early enough to spent about an hour on the beach before a thunderstorm blew in and had everyone heading back to the hotel. Shortly after dinner the clouds broke enough to allow me to take a few pictures, but I was pretty beat and ended up going to bed early that night.

The rest of the group went to see the Roman ruins on the 5th, but decided to skip that and use it as an off day to spend by the pool. On the 6th we got up early and headed to the city of Punat on the island of Krk.

After a brief tour of the city we got on a boat and were taken to the island monastery of Kosljun. We were given a tour of the monastery, got back on the boat and headed back to the mainland for lunch. The plan for lunch was to head to Vrbnik to do some wine tasting. As part of the tasting we also got great prosciutto and cheese (there doesn’t seem to be bad prosciutto here) and some really, really good pasta.

After lunch we had a few hours to kill before the SJTs performance so everyone headed to the beach. The beaches here are unlike any I’ve ever seen, in that they don’t actually have any sand - they’re just big concrete slabs where you put down your blanket. If you’re lucky you get some stairs to shallow water, and you have to be aware of sea urchins, which are basically underwater porcupines. Three of us have been stung so far, and it’s really hard to get the stingers out (no one’s been able to get them out completely yet). A lot of people brought water shoes, but since I didn’t know about this I didn’t bring any and will probably be avoiding the water most of the time.

Around 7:30 everyone went back to the bus, grabbed their bags and headed to the town square. There were a couple of rooms made available for the kids to change, and around 9pm they had their performance, which went great.

The group seems to have people they know in each town, and today was no exception. In this case we were met by Sandra, who was the tour guide for the group when they were here five years ago. They all became fast friends and have kept in touch ever since. Sandra brought her 4yr old daughter Lucia to the performance, and even made up her hair to match the performers. I don’t know if I’ve ever seen a cuter girl in my life. Everyone loved her, and she had quite an eye for the camera.

After the performance everyone went for pizza, then loaded on to the bus and slept during the 90min drive back to Opatia. We got back around 1:00am and had a 7:00am wake up call. The next morning we loaded up the bus and headed to our next stop, Trogir.

See the rest of the Opatija pics here  All Europe Photos

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 Yesterday was jam packed. After a 7:30 wake up call we took the bus to the island of Krk, where we toured the city of Punat. After that we drove to Vrbnik for some wine tasting and lunch, and had one of those unexpected great moments you hope for on trips like this. Unfortunately it will have to wait until I get home because I have no good way of uploading video. I also can't do any pictures today because I'm all packed up and using my phone for this update.

 After lunch we hit the beach for a couple of hours and then the kids put on a performance in the town square. After a late dinner we loaded up the bus and got back to our hotel a little after 1am, just in time for some shut eye before a 7am wakeup call this morning.

 It's pissing rain but i couldn't cate less since I'll probably be sleeping on the bus anyway.

 Hopefully I'll be able to do a picture post at the end of the day, but who knows what tonight brings!

 All for now...

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I read all the books. I watched all the shows. Apparently I’m supposed to “fit in” and not be like all of those other “ugly Americans”, because, you see, people in Europe wear pants. They’re used to the heat, and shorts are considered too informal, almost weird. So I pack four pairs of lightweight traveling pants, including one of that converts to shorts THANK GOD, and right before I closed my suitcase I threw in a pair of swim trunks just in case.

Well guess what Rick: everyone in Europe wears shorts you dumbass. Everyone except The Guy That Hasn’t Travelled Much, also known as The Only Man Wearing Pants in Croatia. Now I’ll give you that I’m on a tour bus with a bunch of people who aren’t on a Rick Steves tour and really couldn’t care less about fitting in. Still, as I was taking a slow walk down the streets of Opatija last night I took an informal poll of those with pants versus those without. The final tally required no numbers. It was Pants: Paul and men over 80, Shorts: Everyone Else. And the people I’m traveling with see me in the morning and are thinking “Dude, where’s the wedding?”.

But hey, at least I managed to fit everything into one suitcase and one carry on with 2.5lbs to spare.

Bastard.

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The Grand Hotel, Opatija, Croatia (This is a better link to the hotel than the previous ones. I'm sitting at a table right behind the people in this picture)

The schedule for today was a day trip to the Roman town of Pula, but since the trip so far has been non-stop activities and tomorrow is another great day trip that includes a performance by the SJT, several of us decided to stay here in town and lounge by the pool instead. I’m going to use the day as an opportunity to recharge the batteries literally and figuratively, but I thought I’d mention one thing that I forgot in the last post.

The drive from Zagreb is 2.5 - 3 hours by bus (probably a little over an hour by car), and along the way there are several rest areas. These rest areas are similar to ones I’ve seen in the eastern US, where it includes a restaurant as well as a gas station, though these are bigger and have nicer restaurants than McDonalds.

We decided to stop for a short break at one of these areas, and as the bus pulled into the parking lot we noticed that we were next to some kind of motorcycle club. turns out the Hell’s Angels have a Croatia chapter.

OK, that’s it for me for the day. I’m off to the pool to relax, read a book, and maybe try some of that ice cream everyone is always raving about. It sounds a lot like the stuff everyone tells me about in Rome that’s supposed to be so good.

In case you can’t tell, these people really like their food. I gotta be careful though, because if I eat everything everyone is suggesting I’ll have to buy a second seat to fit on the airplane.

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