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Exploring the Unknown

August 2019 - March 2020
A 212-day adventure by Sophie Read more
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  • Sophie And NeveExploring the Unknown
    Day 39

    Trogir and Sibenik

    October 8, 2019 in Croatia ⋅ 🌙 11 °C

    We are approaching the end of our stay in Croatia, one week left before we move on. We’ve got a reasonably busy week, with planned trips that included today’s visits to the towns of Trogir and Sibenik. Trogir is about 45 minutes from Split and Sibenik 1h15. The drive was little inland from the coast, we could see the Adriatic the whole way, but seemed to spend a lot of time going up and down switchbacks on the hills that follow the coastline. The countryside is green, lots of grapes, lots of scenic hills. Croatians drive fast, but generally, not aggressively.

    When we got Trogir, we walked through a bunch of alleyways. The walls of the buildings are made from stone, and the ground is covered in stone as well. The stone on the ground has been polished and it’s so slippery, it’s like an ice rink. There were lots of little souvenir shops, cafes and restaurants along the way.

    We visited the old town in Trogir, the highlight was the 13th century cathedral. The church is very ornate, with copious number of altars off to the side, confessional, marks tombs etc.

    We also visited the Kamerlengo castle and fortress in Trogir. It was built in the mid 15th century and is used for performances during the summer. It was really big with a tower that we got to climb. There were lots of houses, there was a soccer field on one side and the ocean on the other.

    After eating lunch, we drove to Sibenik. We wandered around the alleyways which were similar to the ones in Trogir, we stopped to look at the Mediteranean gardens which had lots of pretty colorful flowers. Then, we stopped at a cafe for ice cream and coffee.
    We also got to see the St. James cathedral and another fortress. If you zoom in on the door to St James Cathedral, you can see holes in it. Sibenik was the site of some fighting during the balkan war, and St James in particular was a bombardment target.

    Sophie and David    Read more

  • Sophie And NeveExploring the Unknown
    1
    Day 40

    Krka National Park

    October 9, 2019 in Croatia ⋅ ⛅ 20 °C

    Today we woke up at 6:00 in the morning and drove to Krka National Park. Once we got to Krka we took a ferry to the waterfalls. We did a 2 km walk around the park to look at many different sized waterfalls. At the beginning of the walk we came across a stand. The stand was selling lots of snacks like nuts, figs, candied orange peel and candied almonds. We got to try some of them but we decided to get some candied almonds. They were so good. We went on a bridge that had an amazing view of the waterfalls. There were a lot of little fish in the water. Some of the fish were the size of sardines and some larger fish were the size of 3 sardines. At one of the look out points there was an adorable little orange kitten. During the walk we saw a mill stone grinding corn flower. After the waterfalls we went to a different place to eat lunch. After lunch we walked up 517 stairs to a cave that people lived in for 8000 years. While walking down the steps, we saw a giant grasshopper and a praying mantis. We then drove to some military training ruins but on the way we came across an olive grove so we decided to pick some but when Sophie and Daddy tried them they had to spit them out the window. I threw mine out the window before trying them. In the ruins there was an amphitheater that had 4 entrances. From the ruins we drove for around 5 minutes to get to an arch from 1 AD. Me and Sophie climbed on them. They were very cool.

    Neve
    _ _ _

    Aujourd’hui on a lever très tôt pour conduire à Krka. Quand on est arrivé on a embarqué sur un bateau quand le bateau est arrivé au chute d’eau tous que je pouvais entendre été les chute. C'était vraiment beau on a marcher autour du parc et on a vue beaucoup de chutes. On a aussi acheter des amandes confites il était très bon .Puis on est allés à une grottes ou des personnes vivait dans pour 8000 ans. Pour rendre au grottes nous avons grimpé 517 escalier. On est aller dedans et on a vue des stalactites et des stalagmites.Puis on a conduit à des ruines de camp militaire c’était vraiment cool. Puis on a conduit à des arches que moi et Sophie on grimper desu.    Read more

  • Sophie And NeveExploring the Unknown
    1
    Day 42

    Paklenica

    October 11, 2019 in Croatia ⋅ ⛅ 11 °C

    Today was a great day! We woke up early, drove 2 hours and then arrived in Paklenica. There, we found a good spot to climb and got set up. We did 4 routes, with a break in between for lunch and I lead climbed 3 of them. In the morning, climbers were just starting to arrive, but by the afternoon there were lots of tour groups, hikers and other climbers.
    We did some pretty easy routes, but the rock was really polished in most places because so many people climb there, which made the routes a little harder. The rock was also really sharp in some places where it was the only thing to grab and it really hurt.
    My mom even tried climbing, and despite her fear of heights, she made it around 20m up the wall. The only issue was when she tried to belay with a gri-gri which she had never used before while my dad climbed. She couldn’t lower him, so he had to clip himself into the top bolt with a personal harness while I took over the belaying and lowered him.

    It also wasn’t too hot. We were surrounded on both sides by rocks, so they blocked out most of the sun and in the morning we were actually cold. Because of this, we were able to climb for longer than we usually would. When the sun came out in the afternoon, the tour groups started to arrive. They would crowd around me while I belayed and some people would stand a few inches away from me taking pictures of what I was doing which was very distracting.
    The climbing atmosphere here was similar to the one in Skaha near Kelowna when we went there.

    When we were done climbing, we went to a cafe called Dinko’s and then went to a grocery to get snacks for the ride home. We drove 2 hours to get home, and then had dinner.

    Sophie    Read more

  • Sophie And NeveExploring the Unknown
    11
    Day 47

    First day in Budapest

    October 16, 2019 in Hungary ⋅ 🌙 9 °C

    After 10 hours of buses, we arrived in Budapest yesterday evening. We slept in a bit this morning and had breakfast. We walked a few km to Hero's Square. It's a monument for the 1000th anniversary of Hungary. It has statues of horses, the archangel Gabriel and Athena.

    From there, we could see a castle. Near the castle, there was someone selling giant pretzels and we bought some to go.

    We walked to St. Stephens basilica which is from 1905. There’s lots of stained glass and sculptures inside. It was really pretty and you could tell that the catholic church had a lot of money.

    Then, we walked to a grocery store to buy lunch. We also found some stroopwafels, a dutch dessert. Stroopwafels are a small crunchy waffle with a caramely filling in the middle. They were first invented in the town of Gouda. We ate lunch in front of the parliament buildings. They were copied off the british parliament buildings. They’re really big and beautiful and have statues and flowers in front.

    Then, we walked along the Danube river. There were lots of statues along it of famous artists and important people. We also saw some World War II monuments, my mom is going to write a blog post about those later.

    For the whole day, I had been wishing for rain, and when we were heading home it started raining. Even though it isn’t as hot as Croatia, it was still kind of hot for part of the day. We walked in the rain for a bit and then found a coffee shop. It was a smoke free, book coffee shop. We read there for a bit and had some drinks, then we went home.

    For dinner, we tried some pickled beets and pickled cabbage. Both of them were okayish, but my parents liked them. Tomorrow we’re going to try Hungarian goulash and we’re also going to try chimney cakes.

    Sophie    Read more

  • Sophie And NeveExploring the Unknown
    Day 48

    Part I...Cat Cafe

    October 17, 2019 in Hungary ⋅ ⛅ 6 °C

    Today we did a bit of school then we ran to a park to do our work out. After our work out we went to a cat cafe. A cat cafe is a cafe but there cats in it. Me and Sophie got chai lattes. There were 14 cat and 4 of them were Maine coons which are cats that are the same size as some dogs! The cats were so cute, soft and friendly. It was nice to see all of them because I miss my cat Ginger so much. It was also nice to see the different kinds of cats and see them curled up or sprawled out or walking around. They looked like they were really well taken care of. I think it would be really cool to work in a cat cafe as a summer job. I think it was also cool to see the cats different personality. Some of the cats preferred to be left alone while others enjoyed being pet. The cat cafe is really close to our apartment, so I hope we get to go back again. Because I loved the cats so much, I’m going to attach a lot of photos of all the cats. I’ll write a second blog post about the Ruin Pubs we visited after the cat cafe.

    Neve

    Aujourd’hui on a fait un peu d’école et puis on est aller a un cat café. Un cat café est un café où il y a des chat. Au café il y avait 14 chat, 4 des chat été des Maine coons. Les Maine coons sont des très grandes chat, il sont la même grandeur que les Beagles. Moi et Sophie on commander des chaînes latter.Les chat été vraiment mignonnes et doux. Le cat café à me fait vraiment manquer mon chat Ginger. J’ai vraiment aimais le cat café. Sur notre marche on est aller dans un bar. Le bar aitre dans un bâtiment abandonner. Les chaises été vraiment intéressant parce que il sont fait des chose recycler. Un dès chaise été un baignoire un autre été un vraiment vieille machine à coudre avec un vieille chaise de tracteur.    Read more

  • Sophie And NeveExploring the Unknown
    1
    Day 48

    Part 2...Ruin Pubs

    October 17, 2019 in Hungary ⋅ ⛅ 4 °C

    On the way home from the cat cafe we went into a Ruin Pub. Budapest is famous for its Ruin pubs. Ruin pubs are abandoned buildings as a result of WWII and the Holocaust as the Ruin Pub we visited is in the Jewish Quarter of Budapest. The abandoned buildings have been made into pubs. There were 4 different pubs inside the one abandoned building. I think the pubs were cool because they had recycled items such as chairs and tables. There was a bathtub you could sit in and an old sewing machine with an old tractor seat you could sit on. There was also a chair made out of chains. I think the Ruin pubs were cool because upstairs there was a garden with bicycles in it as well as an old mannequin with what looked like an old stereo as its head. The Ruin pubs is very close to our apartment...less than a two minute walk. There is a farmers market there every Sunday which we will visit. So far I like Budapest a lot and I think Hungary is going to be one of my favourite countries because of its cooler temperatures, fewer tourists and there are Ruin pubs and pretty castles. I also think Budapest has a lot of history.

    Neve    Read more

  • Sophie And NeveExploring the Unknown
    Day 49

    Murals, street food and horses

    October 18, 2019 in Hungary ⋅ ⛅ 12 °C

    I have to start this blog post by stating that we LOVE Budapest. Neve has stated numerous times that this may become her favorite city she visits this year. With a fusion between Paris and Portland, Oregon, there is so much to see and do. David and I have repeatedly commented that around every corner we explore, we discover something new. Budapest was not a city we had discussed before heading off on our year off, but we are so grateful that we get to spend a month here to better learn of the rich history, absorb the city’s beauty and and eat some great food (David made a super yummy Goulash for dinner two nights ago and there is a local food truck court called Karavan about a 1 minute walk from our apartment). It’s not a good idea to walk down our street when hungry because there are so many good smells coming from the numerous restaurants.

    To continue familiarizing ourselves with the city, we went on a walking tour of 15 “must see” murals yesterday morning. One of the murals was of the rubix cube, a Hungarian invention, while others were just really beautiful paintings. After about a two hour walk, and empty stomachs we went to Karavan and tried some Langos, a type of Hungarian fried bread. We tried a pepper and sheep cheese one, one with cheese and David and Sophie’s favorite, a lango pork burger.

    Today we walked back to Hero’s Square and experienced the “National Gallop,” a national horse racing event with many Hungarian towns hoping to bring honor to their town. Hungarians have a strong equestrian culture and the first race dates back to June 6, 1827. In order to transform Hero’s Square into a horse race track, a type of “sand castle” was built around the main monument by placing multiple layers of special sand granules to prevent the horses from slipping and becoming injured. We were able to get into the middle of the square and get a really close look of the horses and the races. As Sophie mentioned in an earlier blog, we wanted to try Chimney Cakes. Part of the National Gallop included many food trucks and we were able to find a sizeable cinnamon flavored chimney cake, the official dessert of Hungary. They are a type of hungarian sweet bread that is crispy on the outside and has a light fluffy dough on the inside. They are shaped like a cylinder with a hollow centre, resembling a hot chimney when they come freshly out of the oven. So good.

    Clarinda    Read more

  • Sophie And NeveExploring the Unknown
    Day 52

    Budapest Zoo

    October 21, 2019 in Hungary ⋅ 🌙 12 °C

    Yesterday afternoon, we went to the Budapest zoo. Which is one of the oldest zoos in the world. It was established in 1866. The first animals we saw were the orangutans. The orangutans had a playground that included ropes to swing on and logs to climb as well as places for them to sleep. The playground looked very fun. We even saw an orangutan somersaulting down a hill. They kind of reminded me of little kids playing. There were two adults, one of which seemed very old and grumpy and two kids. The gorillas had a similar area to live in.

    Next we saw two hippos. We only saw the back of one of the hippos because he was under water, but the other one, we saw its head, but it never fully came out of the water. We did see its teeth, which seemed very large, although not sharp. We also saw yaks, warthogs and anteaters, which are very funny looking animals. Next, we saw zebras and flamingos. The flamingos were standing on one leg to sleep and they are able to bend their knees the opposite way that we do. We also so lots of rodents, who seemed to have lots of space to live in. We also saw some very unhappy rhinoceros’; I think they were lonely because there were three of them but they were kept in separate pens. We also saw 5 giraffes and I think their space should have been three times the size!

    We also went into a botanical garden for lizards. The lizards were very interesting looking. Some of them were bigger, some of them were smaller and all of them had very interesting colors. We also went into a butterfly museum and saw some very pretty butterflies. There weren’t any monarch butterflies which made me happy because those are the only ones I see in Yellowknife.

    I like the zoo but wish that the animals could be in the wild instead of being locked up in cages. How would you like it if a Rhino locked you up and stared at you taking lots of photos and hope you will do something interesting?

    To get to the zoo we took a very old metro. It felt like we were transported back in time because it was so old. The metro was super loud and squeaky.

    Neve

    _ _ _

    Hier après midi on est allé au zoo de Budapest. Quand on est arrivé le premier animaux qu'on a vu été les Orangutans il y avait 2 bébé et 2 adultes, un des adultes été vraiment vieille. Les Orangutans avait une place pour jouer il y avait des cordes et des chose qu’ils pouvez grimper desu. Les Gorilles avait un place similar. Puis on a vu des Yacks et des Warthogs puis on a vu des Hippopotames. Il y avait 2 Hippopotames les Hippopotames na pas sortie de l’eau complètement mais on a vu leur bouche et leur dos. Après ça on a vu des Zébre, 1 Elephant et des Flamingo. On a aussi vu des Rhinocéros mais il ne regarder pas heureux. Puis on a vu des Girafes qui n’avait pas assez d'espace du tout! On a grimper des escalier et on a vu des animaux qui regarder comme un combinaison d’un renard et un loup il grognait à nous. On a vu des Ostrich il regarder vraiment drôle je pense qu’ils étaient les animaux preferer de ma mere. Après on a vu des phoques et 2 ours polairs. Je ne pense pas que les ours polaires été heureux parce que c’est trop chaud. La dernière chose qu’on a fait été d'aller voir des lezar.    Read more

  • Sophie And NeveExploring the Unknown
    1
    Day 55

    Hospital in the Rocks

    October 24, 2019 in Hungary ⋅ ⛅ 13 °C

    After a morning of staying at home and reading, we had lunch and walked to the Buda side of Budapest. We went up a hill to the hospital in the rocks. We had to wait about half an hour before the guided tour started. The guide took us through 1km of tunnels through caves. There were little rooms with all original tools and very realistic looking wax figures. There were fake bandages and fake blood on the wax figures, and some of them were missing fingers or were in wheelchairs. The hospital only had one operating room, and it was set up to look like the doctors were operating on someone. There were tools from when the hospital was still in use, machines, different medicines and fake bloody tissues. On the walls of the hallway, there were other tools on display including a stomach and intestine stapler, scissors and needles.

    In the 1800s, the caves were used as cellars, but in 1939, they decided to transform them into a hospital. The hospital was used during World War ll and after being closed for 10 years, it was reopened again after the revolution. It was first built for a capacity of 60 patients, but was expanded to a capacity of 200. Because of the number of injured people, there were 665 patients at some points. We were told there would have been people everywhere, including the floor. There was only one operating room, but there would have been so many injured men who needed to be operated on.

    Later, the hospital was turned into a nuclear bunker. It had gas filtration systems and air tight doors. It was never attacked, so no one knows whether or not it would have actually survived. The hospital was not very far underground, and the air filtration system probably wasn’t the best, so it’s a good thing that it never had to be used. Sadly, we weren’t allowed to take photos in the hospital.

    After the hospital, we went to Fisherman’s Bastion, a look out tower from the 19th century. There was a panoramic view of Budapest. I could see all the bridges, the Parliament buildings and some churches too. It was really cool to be able to see everything.

    We also got some pictures of Buda castle.

    Sophie
    ___

    Ce matin, pendant que mes parents ont allé à un café, moi et Neve ont resté à la maison. J’ai cuisiné des biscuits, on a lu, et j’ai fini ma 29ème livre dans 55 jours. J’ai cuisiné un peu en Crotia, mais pas beaucoup. C’est difficile, parce qu’il n’y a pas de bicarbonate de soude ou des épices ici. On a aussi cherché pour du beurre d’arachide organique, mais on ne pouvait pas le trouver. On a cherché pour la beurre d’arachide
    dans chaque magasin qu’on a vu. J’ai trouvé une recette pour des biscuits avec juste 3 ingrédients: le nutella, des oeufs et du farine.

    Mes parents ont aussi allé à un autre magasin et trouvé du beurre d’arachide, ils ont pris le dernier contenant. On va retourner au magasin plus tard pour acheter plus pour faire EBC.

    Une chose qu’il y a beaucoup de ici, c’est le miel. Il y a un marché chaque fin-de-semaine très proche de notre maison et il y a beaucoup de différents types de miel. Hungary est connu pour leur miel.

    Dans l’après-midi, on a visité un hôpital dans sous-terrain, dans des vieux caves. C’était utilisé pendant la deuxième guerre mondiale et durant la révolution en 1956. On a fait un tour guidé, il y avait beaucoup de petits salles avec les outils qui étaient utilisés quand l’hôpital était ouvert. Il y a aussi des personnes faits de cire qui ressemblent comme des vraies personnes. On n’avait pas le droit de prendre des photos dans l’hôpital pour aider à le préserver.

    L’hôpital était aussi un bunker nucléaire, mais il n’était jamais attaquer.    Read more

  • Sophie And NeveExploring the Unknown
    11
    Day 58

    Running and Thermal Baths

    October 27, 2019 in Hungary ⋅ ☀️ 18 °C

    The last two days have been entirely about relaxing and recovering from driving to various Hungarian towns and cities. In three days we visited Godollo, Eger, Visegrad, Lillafured and Miskolc. Our two favorite excursions were definitely Visegrad and Miskolc.

    Our main reason for visiting Visegrad was to complete the “Peak Attack” Citadel run, the last racing event of Hungary’s running season. There are numerous trails leading up to the citadel and the views of the Danube are absolutely stunning. Add some amazing fall weather and beautiful fall colors and what’s not to like about running up a steep hill. The race was noted as being one of the hardest ones around and after completing the run, we all agreed that this was an accurate description. David and the girls ran 5km with a 290 meter elevation gain, while I ran 10 km up along a different route with a 350 meter elevation gain. There were about 600 other runners in total participating in the event. We ran over leaf covered trails, through a field with a view of the citadel in the distance, and beautiful panoramic views of the Danube. Once at the top, we each received a beautiful finisher medal and got to explore the citadel. As David and the girls started their run an hour earlier than I did, they tried their hand at ax throwing and taking turns trying out midieval torture devices.

    Once I was finished my run and took a quick tour of the castle, we headed over to a 700 meter bobsled track. David and the girls winded their way down a metal chute while sitting on a felt-bottomed cart. So much fun!!!

    To relax sore muscles, the next day we drove to Miskolc. Although Miskolc was a two hour drive away, we were on the road by 7:15 to arrive early in order to enjoy some of Hungary’s thermal baths. While there are thermal baths in Budapest, the reason we wanted to visit the ones in Miskolc, is that the thermal baths are in caves that have developed during thousands of years. Because the water has a lower salt content than other thermal baths, you can stay in the baths for an unlimited time. Not only was the water temperature perfect, but it was super fun leisurely swimming through the various caverns. This outing was the perfect way to balance out the girls’ hard work from the day before.

    Clarinda    Read more

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