Hello Everyone ! I say this, like there are more than 10 people that actually read this blog...ohh well Hi everyone!
Just a couple things first off before we get started, I still can't help but feel that every time that we get into a taxi, we're just getting ripped off. We have had some very nice taxi drivers and I'm sure all of them are not ripping us off, but I really wouldn't be suprised if the majority of them were.
I spend at least half of the time when we are walking around places, watching where I am stepping, cause... there's lots of dog poop everywhere. I wasn't sure at first, not about the poop, but about the amount of pet dogs people have here, and maybe people walk their dogs more here. But lots of dogs, no bags...lots of poop..excellent.
Ok, so we are in Ljubljana, yeah try to pronounce that one, the capital of Slovenia, we just got here yesterday, it's all very pretty so far. But Glen how did you get there? What's been happening since you last wrote? What exciting things have been happening? I'm so happy you asked. So when we last spoke, we were in Kotor. So we hopped on a bus there meaning to go to Dubrovnik, but the bus was actually going as far as Split, which is where we wanted to go, so cool. We got off the bus, walked around the corner to the ferry dock and caught the boat to Trogir.
We had done a day trip earlier with the kids to Trogir, but we thought it might be nice to stay for a few days and explore a little more. Ok soooooo... one of the people that actually reads this blog is Carrie, and I'm not sure how much of this I disclosed. One day in Trogir, we decided to rent a scooter. I have never driven a scooter before, much less with 2 people on it, but I mean it's just basically a bicycle with a lawnmower engine in it, how hard could it be? Ok it's not that hard, but whew! I was nervous. So we are going down this hill, that is basically straight down and of course dead ends. So Carrie gets off the scooter and I start to turn the scooter around and all of a sudden there is a solar flare and the magnetic field on Trogir shifts and the scooter falls over, embarrassed for the solar flare, I quickly pick up the scooter, and gun it up the hill. Back on the scooter we drive to the end of the island and stop at a beach. We open up the compartment on the back off the scooter to get our stuff out and.... ta dah no stuff, money, id, bus tickets, lots of good stuff not there. Minor panic episode, ok get back on the scooter, drive back to the site of the solar flare, get lost momentarily, find our way, back down the hill and ...ta dah just like we had left it there, all our good stuff... whew. Not the most relaxing day ever.
So from Trogir we took a bus to Opatjia and then hopped a bus the next day to Mali Losinj, an island off the Croatian coast. Mali Losinj is a very beautiful small town, lots of touristy stuff to do, but to be honest I was looking for a place to dive. So we checked out the 2 dive shops, only one was going out on dives, so that made the choice easy. Nice dive, nice people, good shop, that's all you can ask for.
From Mali Losinj we made our way to Pula, on the mainland of Croatia. Nice town, but for me, it was the first place where they had parking spaces that people used and no one parked on the sidewalks, amazing.
So we hadn't planned on going to Italy, but what the heck, on a 5 hour bus ride you can go from Croatia, through Slovenia and into Italy. I'm all in baby, so off to Trieste we go! Trieste is wonderful, expensive, which is sort of what we expected. By the way, this whole low season, cheaper prices thing, where ever it is, it's hiding from us. I spent a whole day there looking for a dive shop, lots of exercise, no diving. So back inland for us for the last couple of weeks, we actually spent the day at the underground caves at Postojna, totally amazing. I'm going to post some pictures on facebook, it will give you an idea of their amazingness.
Just a couple of other things that I noticed; for some reason we couldn't find ramen in Kotor,only in Croatia do they charge you to put your luggage on the bus, does nobody eat celery here? not that we looked for it all the time, but it was scarce. I don't really want to know why this is... but yogurt in all the countries we've been to except Italy and Slovenia, has been pretty liquidy. I remember meeting this guy in Budapest and he was saying how Budapest was OK, but the best thing about the city was the free subway system they had, which of course, just meant he wasn't paying for the subway. I have noticed most of the public transit systems here are "honor system" unlike Canada and the US, I wonder why that is?
OK that's all I got for now, love and warm thoughts from Ljubljana
Carrie and Glen
Saturday, September 27, 2014
Monday, September 8, 2014
Montenegro, cause it's fun to say Montenegro
So I was just at the store picking up some vodka and I walk up to the cashier to pay for my purchase and she starts adjusting her boobs, not like, oh something under my strap itches or an indiscreet tug on the bottom of your bra or something cause there's a strange asian guy standing in front of me wanting to pay for his vodka. Nope, it's like one's trying to run away and she has to catch it before she loses it all together, I had no idea where to look, just smiling and holding out my 20 dollar bill, waiting till she's done, ok done, thank you for shopping with us, come again, yup gonna bring my wife next time.
I am currently on our deck in front of our room on the Dobrota side of Kotor, we're probably 30 yards from the bay, which unfortunately is blocked by the hair salon and the bakery right in front of us. On the other hand the bay is only 30 yards away, the room is cheaper because we can't see the water and the bakery smells so awesome. Kotor is absolutely beautiful, my friend Brian calls it one of the wonders of the world, I really don't think that's over stating it. I know we have posted some pictures, but they don't do it justice. Even to get here is amazing, coming by bus, you're driving along the beautiful Montenegro coast and then you turn in land and into a mile and half long tunnel, which is real treat with all the windows on the bus open, suprised nobody died from the vehicle fumes. Anyways you come out of the tunnel and BOOM your in a valley leading to the bay of Kotor. You have Muo on the west side of the bay and Dobrota and old town on the east side of the bay. You should Google pictures of old town Kotor, just great.
We've been here now for about a week and a half now. We originally had an apartment on the Muo side for a week, tiny, let me emphasize small studio apartment up on the hill about a half hours walk from old town, great views of the other side of the bay and pretty close to the water, but... walking in the rain to old town to get supplies got to be kind of old. But we liked the feel of the town and the beauty of it, so we decided to book a room on the Dobota side of the bay and stay for another week. We are much closer to stuff here, the market is only a couple minutes walk from here and there are restaurants close by and well the bakery is right here. We were wondering about anlanguage that we would have to get used to, but it's just the same as Croatian, which makes sense, because they both were a part of Yugoslavia, so same words for thank you and hello etc.It's actually like Croatia, pebble beaches, a cool old town with cafes and resturants, live music, a nice feel to the place even with the 2 or 3 cruise ships a day they seem to get here.
By the way, like every where else we have been, no one has change here. WHAT"S the deal with that? They use the Euro here, so you go to the ATM and withdraw some cash and 50's and 100's which is like 65 and 130 US dollars and then go to a restaurant or something and try to pay with them and you get the whole dirty look thing like your trying pay with rocks or something, What! they have small bills in this counrty! I've seen them, are you hiding them? are you saving them for Easter or something? I don't get it, maybe they have an expiry date.
OK well back to how we got here...We were in Costinesti on the Romanian Black sea coast, still afraid to use the kitchen at the place we were staying at, they kept it locked, don't get me wrong they were happy to give us the key, but it was all quite uncomfortable. It wouldn't have been that bad if the restaurants there were decent and the one we liked hadn't stopped serving us, I don't know, one day they just wouldn't bring us menus, so we just didn't go there anymore. We did find a pool hall done by the beach and spent some good quality time there and Carrie found the nude beach, YEAH Carrie! The bad thing about nude beaches is they are usually far away from other beaches and well stuff period, but the great thing about nude beaches, besides the obvious, is that they are usually not busy...like the one in Costinesti. So we strpped down and promptly burned our kibbles and bits. So this only applies to men, so there are quite a few hairy guys in this part of the world, but on the nude beach in Costinesti, I noticed, and not trying to stare noticed, that a few of them were shaving their pubic area, so this bright white spot in a sea of body hair...a pubic eclipse ? A big white smiley face? I could go on..OK I will , a human launch pad with a rocket and boosters, OK anyways, pretty fun.
We had thought about going to to Macedonia and Albania or maybe even Greece, but in the end we decided to go to Montenegro. I didn't want to be land locked anymore ( Macedonia and most of Albania) and Greece looked like it would blow our budget, so on to Montenegro and we're going to fly dammit! So, catch a bus from Costinesti, back to Constanta and then catch the fancy train , still ridiculously cheap and because it's Carrie's BIRTHDAY!!! to Bucharest, got a nice fancy hotel room in the center of town and found nice little french restaurant in old town for a nice meal cause... it was CARRIE"S BIRTHDAY!! We got a cab to the airport the next morning and flew to Istanbul, I know the wrong way, but it was the cheapest flight we could find and then an hour later got on a flight to Podgorica, Montenegro. I had read on some blogs and in the lonely planet guide book, that the taxi drivers in the airport would try to take for a ride, literally, instead of taking you to the bus station. So we agreed before we got out there that we wouldn't pay more than 15 Euros for the ride to the bus station. Taxi, taxi! you need a taxi? ahh sure how much to the bus station? 12 Euros, ok sounds good, ok then follow this guy. Not as hard as it sounded like it was going to be. So we follow him to a line of taxis, which are all late model Mercedes, cool I like that. After we get in, he does ask where we are going and we tell him , Kotor, he says he can take us straight there if we want, I ask if he will do it for 7 Euros, which is what the bus will cost us, he laughs and says maybe for 70 Euros. So we can take the bus back and forth from Podgorica to Kotor 5 times or take a nice Mercedes taxi once to Kotor...bus station please, does anybody actually take that deal?
I forgot I wanted to write about the family we met on the train to Bucharest, they were sitting across from us, mom, dad and their 2 daughters, college age I think.Anyways we started talking to the one daughter whose english was quite good, they were coming back from the coast as well, to Bucharest, where they lived. As we got to the train station we started to ask them about getting from there to our hotel in the center of town. She said you can take the subway there, they should just follow them cause they were going to the subway as well. So off we go, through the train station down stairs to the subway station, where they pay for our fares, get on a train with us tell us where to get off and then walk up the stairs to your right and catch another train, go 2 stops and get off and your there. Ok see you, nice to meet you, bye bye. I love travelling!
It has been raining here quite a bit and we're hoping it will pass soonish, or this is what september in eastern europe is. Now that it is september, we are getting into low season, so we are hoping things will get a little cheaper, not so far though. The plan next is probably back to Croatia for a little while and maybe Slovenia, we only have just a little over a month left before we fly home...it sure has gone by quick. Well that's all I got for now. Love and warm thoughts from Kotor!
Love Carrie and Glen
I am currently on our deck in front of our room on the Dobrota side of Kotor, we're probably 30 yards from the bay, which unfortunately is blocked by the hair salon and the bakery right in front of us. On the other hand the bay is only 30 yards away, the room is cheaper because we can't see the water and the bakery smells so awesome. Kotor is absolutely beautiful, my friend Brian calls it one of the wonders of the world, I really don't think that's over stating it. I know we have posted some pictures, but they don't do it justice. Even to get here is amazing, coming by bus, you're driving along the beautiful Montenegro coast and then you turn in land and into a mile and half long tunnel, which is real treat with all the windows on the bus open, suprised nobody died from the vehicle fumes. Anyways you come out of the tunnel and BOOM your in a valley leading to the bay of Kotor. You have Muo on the west side of the bay and Dobrota and old town on the east side of the bay. You should Google pictures of old town Kotor, just great.
We've been here now for about a week and a half now. We originally had an apartment on the Muo side for a week, tiny, let me emphasize small studio apartment up on the hill about a half hours walk from old town, great views of the other side of the bay and pretty close to the water, but... walking in the rain to old town to get supplies got to be kind of old. But we liked the feel of the town and the beauty of it, so we decided to book a room on the Dobota side of the bay and stay for another week. We are much closer to stuff here, the market is only a couple minutes walk from here and there are restaurants close by and well the bakery is right here. We were wondering about anlanguage that we would have to get used to, but it's just the same as Croatian, which makes sense, because they both were a part of Yugoslavia, so same words for thank you and hello etc.It's actually like Croatia, pebble beaches, a cool old town with cafes and resturants, live music, a nice feel to the place even with the 2 or 3 cruise ships a day they seem to get here.
By the way, like every where else we have been, no one has change here. WHAT"S the deal with that? They use the Euro here, so you go to the ATM and withdraw some cash and 50's and 100's which is like 65 and 130 US dollars and then go to a restaurant or something and try to pay with them and you get the whole dirty look thing like your trying pay with rocks or something, What! they have small bills in this counrty! I've seen them, are you hiding them? are you saving them for Easter or something? I don't get it, maybe they have an expiry date.
OK well back to how we got here...We were in Costinesti on the Romanian Black sea coast, still afraid to use the kitchen at the place we were staying at, they kept it locked, don't get me wrong they were happy to give us the key, but it was all quite uncomfortable. It wouldn't have been that bad if the restaurants there were decent and the one we liked hadn't stopped serving us, I don't know, one day they just wouldn't bring us menus, so we just didn't go there anymore. We did find a pool hall done by the beach and spent some good quality time there and Carrie found the nude beach, YEAH Carrie! The bad thing about nude beaches is they are usually far away from other beaches and well stuff period, but the great thing about nude beaches, besides the obvious, is that they are usually not busy...like the one in Costinesti. So we strpped down and promptly burned our kibbles and bits. So this only applies to men, so there are quite a few hairy guys in this part of the world, but on the nude beach in Costinesti, I noticed, and not trying to stare noticed, that a few of them were shaving their pubic area, so this bright white spot in a sea of body hair...a pubic eclipse ? A big white smiley face? I could go on..OK I will , a human launch pad with a rocket and boosters, OK anyways, pretty fun.
We had thought about going to to Macedonia and Albania or maybe even Greece, but in the end we decided to go to Montenegro. I didn't want to be land locked anymore ( Macedonia and most of Albania) and Greece looked like it would blow our budget, so on to Montenegro and we're going to fly dammit! So, catch a bus from Costinesti, back to Constanta and then catch the fancy train , still ridiculously cheap and because it's Carrie's BIRTHDAY!!! to Bucharest, got a nice fancy hotel room in the center of town and found nice little french restaurant in old town for a nice meal cause... it was CARRIE"S BIRTHDAY!! We got a cab to the airport the next morning and flew to Istanbul, I know the wrong way, but it was the cheapest flight we could find and then an hour later got on a flight to Podgorica, Montenegro. I had read on some blogs and in the lonely planet guide book, that the taxi drivers in the airport would try to take for a ride, literally, instead of taking you to the bus station. So we agreed before we got out there that we wouldn't pay more than 15 Euros for the ride to the bus station. Taxi, taxi! you need a taxi? ahh sure how much to the bus station? 12 Euros, ok sounds good, ok then follow this guy. Not as hard as it sounded like it was going to be. So we follow him to a line of taxis, which are all late model Mercedes, cool I like that. After we get in, he does ask where we are going and we tell him , Kotor, he says he can take us straight there if we want, I ask if he will do it for 7 Euros, which is what the bus will cost us, he laughs and says maybe for 70 Euros. So we can take the bus back and forth from Podgorica to Kotor 5 times or take a nice Mercedes taxi once to Kotor...bus station please, does anybody actually take that deal?
I forgot I wanted to write about the family we met on the train to Bucharest, they were sitting across from us, mom, dad and their 2 daughters, college age I think.Anyways we started talking to the one daughter whose english was quite good, they were coming back from the coast as well, to Bucharest, where they lived. As we got to the train station we started to ask them about getting from there to our hotel in the center of town. She said you can take the subway there, they should just follow them cause they were going to the subway as well. So off we go, through the train station down stairs to the subway station, where they pay for our fares, get on a train with us tell us where to get off and then walk up the stairs to your right and catch another train, go 2 stops and get off and your there. Ok see you, nice to meet you, bye bye. I love travelling!
It has been raining here quite a bit and we're hoping it will pass soonish, or this is what september in eastern europe is. Now that it is september, we are getting into low season, so we are hoping things will get a little cheaper, not so far though. The plan next is probably back to Croatia for a little while and maybe Slovenia, we only have just a little over a month left before we fly home...it sure has gone by quick. Well that's all I got for now. Love and warm thoughts from Kotor!
Love Carrie and Glen
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