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Vienna & Croatia

November 2023 - January 2024
Finn has finished Grade 12 so we are heading off on a family holiday before he starts uni. Read more
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  • TravelerVienna & Croatia
    1
    Day 28

    Brac to Dubrovnik

    December 22, 2023 in Croatia ⋅ ⛅ 12 °C

    We woke up super early (like 5.00am early) in order to get down to the ferry by 6.45 for a 7.45am ferry. Turns out we arrived in time for the 6.30am ferry with minutes to spare, which made the ferryman a little bit grumpy at us.

    Still, it was smooth sailing as the sun rose. The drive was quite spectacular both inland between the mountain range and then along the coastline as we approached Dubrovnik.

    As a result of the early start and lack of timely communication from the apartment owner, parking was a painful issue (tip: if you live in Dubrovnik, ditch the idea of a car). Once we managed to secure one though, we headed into the old town for lunch.

    After we checked in, Craig and I walked back into the old town to get some steps up, just as the sun was setting. The Christmas markets were coming to life and there are a lot more tourists here than anywhere else we have seen in Croatia so far. We bought our first ever mulled gin and it was delicious!

    Whilst we were in the main square some musicians in a parade of three wise men, Jesus, Mary and Joseph and some angels walked down the main street. We asked "gin guy" if it was a traditional Croatian Christmas carol as lots of people were singing along. He reckons he had never heard it in his life 🙂

    The guy at the stall told us about 85% of restaurants closed down for the season in early November through to about April. But the good news is that the rest stay open for tourists, which means we should be able to get a restaurant for lunch on Christmas day.

    There are a L.O.T. of steps in Dubrovnik. And a lot of beautiful streets. Can't wait to explore!    Read more

  • TravelerVienna & Croatia
    11
    Day 29

    Christmas preparations

    December 23, 2023 in Croatia ⋅ ☁️ 13 °C

    This morning consisted of meal planning for the next three days of shops being closed, and gathering of the items which are cookable in the apartment kitchen with supplied appliances. In the space of about one hour, we are ready for Christmas!

    Craig did a 10km round trip walk to the far side of town search of Sim cards.

    Once he was back, we set off for a pizza lunch on the way back into the old town at a pizzeria I had found on Google which had excellent reviews. We ended up in their only remaining inside table in our own little stone cave. We had originally asked for an outside table up on their terrace, but we thought the cave was better when he eventually came back and said they would be willing to clean the outdoor furniture for us. Google reviews were correct!

    After lunch, the kids did a bit of strolling with us and found some more cats, including a very friendly one which jumped on their laps when they stopped to pat them.

    A bit further on we went through a doorway which went through the actual wall to a balcony on the outside of the wall. We decided we'd stop for a drink at the makeshift bar there, the kids ditched us, so we stayed there to watch the sunset. The friendly cat then reappeared and jumped up on to Craig and then my lap and contentedly sat there keeping my legs warm whilst we had a beer. Quite welcomed as the breeze cooled right down as soon as the sun went down.

    I have also started a new jigsaw puzzle, so have a few days to finish a 1,000 piece puzzle in the shape of a butterfly.    Read more

  • TravelerVienna & Croatia
    Day 30

    Queen Sensation

    December 24, 2023 in Croatia ⋅ 🌙 11 °C

    I saw a poster on a wall today for a concert which was on this evening from 9.00-11.00pm in Stradum which is the main square in the old town, as part of Winterfest, with a band called Queen Sensation.

    At 8.45pm I asked the husband if he was going, we put on our boots and coats and walked the 1.3km back in to watch the show. The setting was pretty spectacular.

    I googled the band when I got home. They are Croatian and formed in 2007 and are now one of the most popular Queen tribute bands in Europe.

    As we were leaving we had to go out the main gate of the wall, which was behind the stage, so now I can kinda say we've been back stage at a Queen concert.

    Fun night out!    Read more

  • TravelerVienna & Croatia
    Day 30

    Christmas Eve

    December 24, 2023 in Croatia ⋅ ☀️ 13 °C

    This morning we did a steep descent hike up to the mountain and fort which look down over Dubrovnik. At the end of each of the 14 switchbacks on the track was a plaque for the Stations of the Cross, which was a very convenient way of knowing how far we had left to go!

    Unfortunately a bit of cloud cover came in over the horizon out to sea during our climb, but the views were great anyway.

    Christmas Eve is a big deal, and there was a cacophony of sound reaching us as we hoked. We could hear music coming from a concert in the old town, canons being intermittently fired, with one round having 20 shots fired, intermingled with church bells. We could also see loads of people in the main square.

    On our descent we headed into the main square, but since we were in our walking gear and all the locals looked dressed as though they were attending the fanciest wedding they'd ever been invited to, we felt very out of place and as Craig put it "like we turned up at a party we hadn't been invited to". The square was packed, so we grabbed some food from the bakery and headed towards home.

    We have cracked open the butterfly jigsaw and the edge is almost impossible. As we were doing that we had a knock at the door and Robert, the son of Ari the owner dropped by with a plate of various homemade cakes his mother had made. Robbie, who is only 19 and just started uni 3 months ago, was up for a chat and stayed for ages. I think I forgot to mention that Ari had dropped in the night before with two bottles of wine for us too.

    To get to the start of the track up to the lookout we had to walk along the edge of a road which is the main highway going south through Dubrovnik. We moved to the other side of the guard rail favouring falling down the hill over being run over by a car. Unfortunately this caused Craig to snag his jeans on the guardrail and rip a 30cm hole down the side seam. So he spent several hours tonight starting sewing them back together, necessary because he only has two pairs of jeans with him.    Read more

  • TravelerVienna & Croatia
    Day 31

    Christmas Day

    December 25, 2023 in Croatia ⋅ ⛅ 12 °C

    Sretan Božić!

    Casual day for us today as no presents, no big breakfast, casual doing of jigsaw, a glass of bubbles and then we toddled into town to find a restaurant.

    There was not much open but we found one (all you need) and you could tell it was full of tourists. So we had a pleasant lunch, then went back down into the main square for dessert which are called prickle here but went by the name fritule in northern Croatia. Like a dense doughnut ball and AMAZING. Now I feel sad we haven't been eating them sooner. We washed that down with a mulled gin.

    On the way home we bumped into a Croatian we knew! Robert was out walking his dog.

    Back home, more jigsaw puzzling continued and we had beef massaman curry for dinner. Craig also spent an inordinate amount of time finishing off sewing his jeans back together.    Read more

  • TravelerVienna & Croatia
    1
    Day 32

    Boxing Day

    December 26, 2023 in Croatia ⋅ ☁️ 12 °C

    Quiet one today in that we literally did not step outside our door, except for Kate whose turn it was to take the rubbish out 🙂

    We accomplished completion of the painful butterfly jigsaw minus two missing pieces and I have donated the puzzle to the accommodation place.

    And bought tickets to walk the wall tomorrow - can't wait!

    Other notable events included me saying "is that a plane taking off over the top of us" just as we started to then hear lots of honking in the street below, so we hurried outside to see a great many Santas on motorcycles going down the street.

    We have also seen a few times now where a little break in the cloud makes a spotlight of sun on the water, and I managed to get a photo this time.

    Finn worked on his university enrolment for next year for the Bachelor of Engineering (Honours)/Master of Engineering which UQ hasn't seemed to make easy. So now that he has set up a spreadsheet he is writing some code to do his proposed program plan taking into account prerequisites and corequesites.

    Ari, the apartment owner dropped by this afternoon to see if we needed anything, so we chatted to him for a bit and then got some new paper towel and loo rolls. There is a person in the apartment complex who plays the piano for hours a day. On the first day some of those hours included a lot of scales and arpeggios, but since then it has been piece after piece of classical music. Ari asked if it was bothering us (no!) because he has had some guests leave bad reviews of his accommodation as a result of the piano playing. He said she is one of the most notable pianists in Croatia... No way to verify this of course, but we have free live music so why would we complain?

    And I haven't yet posted about the original artwork in our apartment. Seven pieces by a Dubrovnik artist named Josip Škerlj. I think in our conversation we have deduced he is Ari's brother. Most of the pieces in our apartment are depictions of life around Dubrovnik with the walls featuring heavily.

    https://hr.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Josip_Škerlj    Read more

  • TravelerVienna & Croatia
    Day 33

    Dubrovnik Walls Part I

    December 27, 2023 in Croatia ⋅ 🌙 10 °C

    O.M.G.

    Pretty sure this has become my most favourite town EVER! We walked the wall today and had perfect weather with clear blue skies. It is the most number of photos we have taken in one day on our entire trip so far! And with good reason, the views were spectacular and got better with every turn. As a result this post will be spread over about 2-3 because I cannot choose my favourite 20 photos for one day.

    We had the wall to ourselves for most of the time we were there and I cannot imagine what it would be like in summer when you would be sharing it with hundreds of others. Today is a day where I think it is 100% worth not being able to swim because the water is cold and most of the restaurants are closed because the trade-off is that we are experiencing something like the Dubrovnik walls without hoards of people.

    We took a couple of hours walking the 1940m of wall. There were some quite steep stairs in sections. We were able to get views of various places we had already visited during the previous several days.

    We spied a great looking setting for a restaurant which we later visited for lunch, met up with a cat we are sure was my lap warmer a few days before at Buza Bar, found a unique basketball court which is the result of a 700 year old wall gets in the way of your rectangular court requirements, found someone who had 28 pairs of white underwear hanging on their line and possibly the same number of white singlets to match, could peer into lots of backyards where the wall was part of their backyard (imagine!), and found a really spectacular vege patch with a load of citrus trees and grape vines with a great view. We also enjoyed bit of cat spotting including one white cat asleep in the most precarious spot you could imagine.

    Many of the rooftops were destroyed by shelling during the Yugoslav Wars in 1991, and during the walk you could clearly see the difference between the original and new terracotta tiles. The walk also brought you up close to the various church bells.    Read more

  • TravelerVienna & Croatia
    11
    Day 33

    Dubrovnik Walls Part II

    December 27, 2023 in Croatia ⋅ ☀️ 15 °C

    More beautiful pictures...

  • TravelerVienna & Croatia
    Day 33

    Dubrovnik Walls Part III

    December 27, 2023 in Croatia ⋅ ☀️ 15 °C

    After we finished walking the walls we went over to the Lovrijenac Fort. We had bought the Dubrovnik Pass which grants entry to multiple historical sites and museums. Still cannot get over the clarity and colour of this water!

    Here we found our favourite cat so far - Fort Cat. He was lying in the sun and did not move from his bizarre position the entire time the kids were patting him - quite a chill dude. Loved him!

    We then met up with Glen and Jeff for lunch at the restaurant we spied from up on the wall. It would be lovely if Brisbane could build some 700 year old walls and an equally old building and put a restaurant near it. Walking to the restaurant we ascended a large stone staircase used in Game of Thrones for Cersei Lannister's 'Walk of Atonement' scene.

    Lunch was a leisurely affair because it was such a lovely setting.

    Afterwards we meandered through the Rector's Palace which served as the Seat of the Rector of the Republic of Ragusa, and also housed an armoury, watch house and prison, so the museum contained related artifacts. We also visited the Christmas markets one last time for a mulled gin (called kahuna gin here), and the yummy 'prickle' donuts. The kids left us because Craig and I decided to visit the Museum of Modern Art of Dubrovnik which we have walked past every day as it is in the same street as our apartment. The Tasmanian Moma is safe, this was not anything to write home about. Due to our food indulgences today, dinner was a bit of cheese and biscuits at about 8pm. A fabulous day!    Read more

  • TravelerVienna & Croatia
    Day 34

    Dubrovnik to Plitvice Lakes NP

    December 28, 2023 in Croatia ⋅ ☀️ 12 °C

    We left beautiful Dubrovnik today and drove about 5 hours to a tiny village of Korana which is a few kilometres out of one of the entrances of Plitvice Lakes National Park. This is our home for the next three nights.

    Croatia has a large number of mountain ranges so they don't mind a tunnel or two, and we went through several today that were 3+km long.

    We stopped in a reasonably sized village called Korenica at this really popular restaurant. The menu was totally in Croatian and it was a place like IKEA where they dish out your food for you. We just took 4x of whatever the first thing she took the lid off which was a really delicious thick beef steak in gravy served with mashed potato. By way of comparison, a 500ml bottle of Ozujsko beer is just over €1 in the supermarket, about €8 in restaurants in Dubrovnik and €2.40 in this restaurant. We then did a small grocery shop and found our Airbnb in a tiny village of about 15 houses located in Korana right on the river Korana. There is a restored water mill in the village with its own little series of cascading waterfalls. Once again, crystal clear water.

    Craig and I then did a quick reconnaissance trip about 5km down the road to see what the supermarket and restaurant scene looks like around here. We have also downloaded the app ready for our visit to the National Park tomorrow. Unfortunately there is no snow as I would have really liked to have seen the NP in snow, but the upside that we don't need to fit snow chains to the car.

    It would also be very nice if the brown bears and lynx and wolves and deer in the region also congregate in the NP over the next two days for our viewing pleasure 🤭    Read more

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