Dubrovnik, Croatia

More internet complaining. I never have an English keyboard (keys swapped around). The blog website is always in the local language (French right now). And 12 swiss francs per hour is insane! OK, enough complaining.

Dubrovnik, the `Pearl of the Adriatic` and rightly so. Famous for enormous city walls (some 12m thick), marble sidewalks and senseless bombing by the former republic of Yugoslavia.

sidenote: Don't bother seeing spiderman III. Very disappointing. Especially since it was the first American film we'd seen in two months.


You can see how massive the city walls are from here. When we arrived a ship had just finished an attempt to take the citadel. Instead of plundering the city it decided to take tourists. Still a form of robbery, but legal and the tourists don't mind.



We are standing on a massive bastion opposite the town. Like two castles on a chess board they protect one another. Take one and the other is left to destroy the other. Not surprisingly, neither has been taken.



The streets in Dubrovnik are narrow and character filled. Think tourist trap, but more beautiful. Ice cream anyone? Ship museum?



This great treasure of a city was shelled by Serbia/Montenegro when Croatia attempted to secede from the Republic (Yugoslavia) in 1992-95. If you look closely you can tell that the roofs and buildings were rebuilt to match the older untouched ones.



Tara is becoming quite the photographer. Next I need to trick her into doing this blog!



To hold the city a brave group stayed and paid the ultimate price. This place is dedicated to the people who died during the shelling.



Yugo! Those who remember these crappy cars (including Tara's uncle John who owned one) will get a kick to know they are still on the road. Not many are left and it is a total mystery how they didn't all fall apart years ago.

The journey up and down the coast on a bus is a real pain. Uncomfortable, overcrowded at times, un-air conditioned at others. We have vowed to avoid buses from now on. But the views can be spectacular.

Hvar Island, Croatia

Wow. So 9 days after my last posting and a full 2 weeks after Croatia I get good internet access. We are in France with our good friends Marion and Damien. Hvar Island was way back on the 16th of May!

Our plan was to stay in Hvar Island for 1 night. We stayed 3. It was incredibly picturesque.

Step off the ferry, little old crazy lady jumps all over you to basically force you to stay in her house. OK! The town is behind Tara's head.



I already love this town. Small town, ancient citadel, city guns to protect ye from the pirates and turks. Yarrr! Give me all your gold doubloons.



We are enjoying our lunch in the main square of town. Correction: We WERE enjoying our lunch. Island paradise?



To escape the hustle-bustle of the town and the speedos we hired a boat to a nearby island. Population: 20.



Lunch at our own private spot on the island. This piece of heaven served wine, olives, artichokes and seafood - ALL from the property! We loved this spot and just stared out at the vineyard for hours.



This shot captures how blue the water is. I had a hard time resisting stacking all the blocks on top of each other. The water is very salty and therefore makes you bouyant. I swam around for half an hour with very little effort.

Piran, Slovenia

So we are hanging out in Ljubljana and thinking let's head down to Croatia. BUT WAIT! Piran has a ship museum!! So immediately we jumped in our personal train.

Turns out I had been here before with my mom and dad. My only recollection is hating the long bus ride and then being really dissappointed with the rocky beach. I still hate buses and yes the beach is still covered in rocks.

Here she is, Slovenia only has about 15 miles of coastline, but they've got a ship museum. And that is all that matters to me!


Check out the cool drawing on the rocks here. Seems like a young impressionist painting of a 6 wheeled cubist car. I just had to take the photo to make the little kid who drew it famous. Oh and I wasn't wearing any pants when I took this shot.


Wow we really lucked out on this one. We grabbed two tickets for an overnight ferry from Rijeka to Hvar island. We never realized we'd be taking the LOVE BOAT! Isaac the bartender, Captain Stubing, Gopher - the whole gang was there!

Ljubljana, Slovenia

Update - We are currently in Bosnia (Sarajevo). Dodging bullet holes. I'm about a week behind on the blog and will get Slovenia, Croatia, Montenegro and Bosnia up soon.

Ljubljana is pronounced Loob-li-ahna and we pronounced it lub-jub for most of our trip until we finally arrived. Slovenia is an "Eastern European" country but wants nothing to do with that name. Former Yugoslavian, but really more connected with Austria.


Lots of art and always looking to beautify and already spotless city. Great city, but not a lot of the 'greatness' of many of their neighboring countries. Check this shot out, the bottom is a photo of a reflection of a photo of a reflection of a building.



I'm not really that amused with these guys. Blokes from the UK come down to these countries to party and then make asses of themselves. Quote from moron, "A country has really made it when guys from the UK come down in dresses." Later we saw guys in full drag who apparently come down for stag parties.



These honeys were totally macking on me. The one checking me out later asked for the 411 and I gave her my digits. You can see that the three ladies are showing a little leg. Much to the consternation of the more respectable gal on the end.


This is John our friend on the train to the coast (Piran). His reaction to us Americans was priceless. (Two thumbs up) "America Good, America Good!" He is from Kosovo and just couldn't be happier with us. The Serbs pretty much beat up on every one of their neighbors when Yugoslavia broke up. He showed us photos of his kids, I drew my occupation (antennas) and he drew his (brick layer, I think, or maybe really bad architect).

Florence, Italy

We flew through Florence to spot the famous statue of David and to get some really good Italian food.


Everywhere you look in Florence you see the beans and weiner. Not really into the circumcision I noticed. I'm sure this guy noticed too.



I believe this is the third largest church in Europe. It was absolutely massive. I'm standing 20 miles away to get this shot (just kidding). I called this the inside out church, the outside was rediculously ornate, the inside was boring.



OK so this is a really crappy photo. Yours would too if you had the photo police at every turn. Most of Europe is like that. But I had to try a shot. Michelangelo's David is a masterpiece and very few doubt it to be the greatest carved statue. And I could not possibly agree more. I stared at his unit for like 5 minutes straight.


Oh the Italians know how to live the life. We lived it up on the Prodotti Freschi (with non surgelati!). Insert money, instant yummy. I'm amazed that this exists as Italians take their food way to seriously.

Cinque Terra

Cinque Terra - 5 towns. 5 tiny towns along the west coast of Italy all linked by a walking path and train. All five can be reached in about 5 hours. Or 15 minutes if you are lazy (by train). We did 4. Got to the forth and thought.. ehh.. 4 is enough.

Really what we wanted to do is relax:
Cinque Terre is famous for PESTO! We bought some for about 3 euro, some noodles, bread. Viola! A masterpiece. We loved just hanging out in our little rented home. My favorite? Watching Walker Texas Ranger in Italian.



This was our home base. Our place is on the right. WAY to the right. The one with the view of nothing. Sorry the pic is a little crooked, it wasn't me. I think the town leaned over.



It's all beautiful. This is the fourth city. So when we got here we just called it a day. No way the next town would be better. So we hit the train.



Took the train back. The towns are in the cracks between mountains. So the trains cut through the mountains and peak out just enough to let people on. Looks like a scene from Mister Rogers neighborhood.

Venitia, Italia

We spent a pricey 2 days in Venice. The price to ride one of these gondolas? 80 euro (110 US) for a 30-40min ride. So of course we got two!


Venice is sinking. Supposedly they are trying to do something to stop the increasing water levels (dam, helium balloons, etc.). Many buildings can no longer use their ground floors. This place used to have a yard, a kids swing set and a dog. All are now underwater.

Cost to pee in Venice? 1 euro (1.35 dollars). Even the restaurants charge you to use their precious facilities. Cost to pee in the canal? Zero if you don't get caught.

San Marco square. Here is where you go in Venice to drink overpriced coffee, feed the birds and take photos of churches. This kid is grimacing because of what the birds just did on his shoulders.

Rome, Italy

Roma! We spent 6 days in this city and probably about 2 days too long. Simply because we ran ourselves into the ground. We found it overwhelming and exhausting. I think my knees now bleed from the insides and my ankles will have to be replaced.

For starters Italians love art. Love it so much they display it over all surfaces. Spray paint is a favorite on subway cars. Subways are also a favorite of thieves. Tara and I had the pleasure of having my wallet nearly taken as we entered a tram. Three guys, wait for you to enter the overpacked tram. Then they squeeze in behind you as a team and all try for different pockets. If they succeed they immediately jump off the tram and you get whisked away sans wallet. Luckily I had my lucky zippered pants on.



The Roman Forum just outside the Colloseum. It's a most impressive place with lots of old broken down stuff. The columns and buildings all recall a long gone era. Down there somewhere, Julius Caesar is buried as well as the place where St. Peter was imprisoned. All kinds history through the 800 years or so of Roman power.



After visiting churches all day Tara needed to do go to her local place of worship. Gelato! I counted 122 flavors. I admit, it was better than any ice cream I'd ever had.



If you throw a coin in this fountain you supposedly will return to it. So I threw in my wallet instead to see what would happen. Sure enough, I returned to fish my wallet out. Turns out the legend is true.



The Italians are a friendly lot. Always smiling and willing to help out. They particularly like the tourists around the Colloseum.



St. Peter's Basilica is the most beautiful church I've seen. It's the 2nd largest church in the world (1st is in Ivory Coast) and must easily be the most lavish. It's 186m INSIDE. Nearly 2 football games could be played inside this place! Too me this church is a reflection of how rich and powerful the Catholic church is. With 1.1 billion members I guess they have a lot of cash flow.



As a sovereign state the Vatican has it's own army. These guys mean business. The changing of the guards ceremony included a dance of joy like Balki Bartokomus from the 80s tv show Perfect Strangers.



To truly appreciate Rome you have to have a knowledge of art and antiquity. So of course Tara and I didn't appreciate it.. But no joke the volume of beautiful sculpture and painting made a believer out of me. This is Cupid kissing some maiden.



The Pantheon (125 a.d.) is domed building that is well preserved given it's age. The only source of light inside is a 9m hole in the top of the dome which also lets the rain in. But I just like the silly fountain outside.



The churches around town have the most amazing art collections. Turns out most of the art in Rome is a result of the church's coffers in the 17/18th century. This is recent art with really striking lighting found in some old church. Rome is like that. Look around and you find beauty.