The Dalmatia Coast of Croatia

Welcome to Croatia, where the beach is always thataway...

After spending all our time in cramped hostels and cool climates, among pushy people while eating boiled meat, Croatia was a welcome oasis. Our room, a ground level appartment, was huge, with its own full sized bathroom, kitchen, even a tv. The weather was always sunny and hot, the people laid back and cool, and the cuisine a delicious fusion of Italian and fresh seafood.

Scooters, pizza, pasta and espresso done right, the Italian influence in Croatia is everywhere, as are the Italians.

Split, where we stayed, is a gorgeous and ancient city at the heart of the Dalmatia Coast on the Adriatic Sea. There are still remnants of the Roman Empire in Split, nestled in amongst the cramped, cobbled alleyways all teeming with shops and cafes. From here a constant fleet of ferry liners will take you away to the various islands along the coast. We spent a day in Bol, on the isle of Brac, where the beach extends out into the sea like a long, pebbly finger, and another day in Stari Grad on the isle of Hvar at a cozy little corner of the bay among mostly locals, snorkling and bathing in the sun. Otherwise, bumming around Split, whiling away the hot mornings and afternoons at the sandy beach, lazily wandering the evenings away through the old part of the city in search of just the right restaurant or cafe, saw us the rest of the way through.

We're now in Budapest, on the final leg of this four legged tour, and we've managed to catch up on the sleep we were in need of after soaking up all those rays. Lots of big days ahead, but here's a few to look back on...

Getting lost in amongst the tightly squeezed buildings in the old part of Split is easy, and easily romantic.

Talk about romance, try taking a ferry cruise on the Adriatic Sea to a tiny island destination.

Seriously.

When you're done being all smoochie and gross, why not try some snorkling? Its a whole other kind of being smoochie!

Doing our part to keep the post card industry alive.

Laura gears up for her first ever parasailing adventure!

I think she liked it...

Picturesque Zakopane

Welcome to Zakopane, where every days is a...
!!
One moment you'll be feasting on a waffle with your favortie topping on it...... amongst thousands of Polish tourists in the middle of the busy town center.
The next you're wandering the rustic old world market at an extremely high altitude,
then hiking down the rugged hillside,
stopping from time to time to admire the mountainous view.

What you wouldn't expect when you got back down to the bottom is that you'd suddenly find yourself 200 feet up, admiring the view all over again, only this time while teetering inside a tiny cage suspended from a giant crane with a bungee cord secured to your ankles.

The video below demonstrates my first, and certainly not last, bungee jump.

Standing on that edge, everything that makes you a living thing demands that you go no further. There is a barrier more real than thought keeping you from making that jump. That jump is clearly death; its clearly impossible. You're not thinking about whether this is safe; you're not concerned you might get hurt. You simply know, without thinking, that if you do this you're going to die. Then something happens. There is a surge from inside. Logic and illogic combine for a brief, incredible moment and burst through your primal will to survive. Suddenly you're leaning forward, your hands are letting go, you're tipping, tipping, the wind is in your hair, and your feet no longer touch the edge. No. Everything is horrible chaos. You have no control over anything. Absolute terror burns through you. Then suddenly the fear smashing all throughout inside you becomes the fuel for something so pure and euphoric. Andrenaline saturates the system and you are an endless explosion of triumph as the stretch of the chord finally takes hold and you are faster, fast, slower, slow, then sucked up into the sky, a celebration.

Or, as the instructor in the cage told me just before I jumped, in his Polish broken English, "First you will be like, 'Oh fuck! Oh fuck!' Then the adrenaline hits you and it will be like... tonight, nothing will piss you off!"

Krakow

Prague certainly was charming, but Krakow's the one with character. Particularly Kazimierz, the old Jewish Quarter, with all the gritty cafes, bars and restaurants; just far enough away from the main square, Rynek, to keep most of the tourists from wandering in and dumbing the place down. To be fair, from what I've seen Krakow is actually less a tourist destination that it is a place for travellers.

Pierogies are incredible. I love the Polish traditional food, especially the way its served to you - it ain't. Even in a proper restaurant you get a number and when your order's up your number's called and you head on over to the counter to get it yourself. I can only assume it must be helping to cut down on costs, because I can't remember the last time a ball of pocket lint got me so far.

There's nothing quite like Polish vodka, and Zubrowka is the one that takes the cake - or pie as it were... apple pie. Mixed with apple juice, you'd swear you had a slice of mom's best in your glass.

After a night of clubbing (coming right up!), tomorrow will find us on the bus to Zakopane in the Tatra Mountains for a little weekend getaway, then its one more night in Krakow before catching a flight to the beach in Split, Croatia. Plenty more to come. And now, a look back...

Rynek is a beautiful and very large town square with lots of busy surrounding side streets with shops, cafes and clubs, but turn enough corners and you're sure to find a quiet place to escape.

Inside the walls of Wawel Castle they've got cathedrals on top of cathedrals. Kind of reminded me of George Street in St. John's. If the cathedrals were all bars. And the parishners all drunk?

Sitting at my favorite cafe cum bar, Vergano in Kazimierz, Laura pens an epic postcard while I admire the striking beauty of my latte.

Vergano again - this place has totally become our haunt - and I'm slurping on a big juicy slice of apple pie. That's Zubrowka and apple juice if you've skipped past all the boring words, above.

Finally, some entertainment from Rynek Square. This is a long video, nearly 10 minutes, but I just couldn't stop shooting (unfortunately, my memory card had its limits). Breakdancing, a drum kit, coreography and all the shapes you could ever hope to throw. These kids had it going on.

Krakow Quickie

The weather's improved, my health's improved, we're totally having an awesome time.

Computers here aren't always... usable. Sometimes I'll make a post and it will be missing some content. Don't be surprised if you scroll back over something you've already viewed and there's a new passage or photo or the like. Apologies for this, but sometimes I honestly feel like I'm carving stone tablets here...

Apart from that, like I said, awesome.


The preceding has been a Krakow Quickie.

Prague to Krakow *or* How I Learned the Truth About Night Trains

First, a confession: I've been keeping things from you. For one, it rained in Prague every day apart from the day we first arrived when it was gorgeous; grey skies and generous portions of rain met us every day after. Also, I've been suffering from a cold. Every day my throat gets more and more swollen and I'm less and less able to swallow. These are things that were never really worth mentioning before since we're doing our best not to let them affect our holiday. We still had a fabulous time in Prague. But admittedly, I don't know how much more of this we can take. My throat is at its all time most swollen, and despite being met by sun and blue skies upon our arrival in Krakow today, the moment we decided to step outside we were assaulted with thunder, lightening and a torrential downpour. Still, we have hope.

The journey here was quite the affair. Sleeper trains. They should really look into renaming those. Our train was loud, cramped, stuffy, and stopped often and abruptly, making sleep an adventure in futility. At around 2am a loud persistant knocking on our cabin door introduced me to an intimidating Polish officer demanding our passports, which I supplied wearing nothing but my underpants and a groggy expression approaching fear. Satisfied, he shoved the documents to my chest and began rapping on the adjacent cabin's door. Back to broken sleep for me. Did I mention the part about my having a throat-swelling cold??

Today was a write-off in Krakow, firstly because of our extremely early arrival/lack of solid sleep, coupled with my being poorly which saw us sleeping through the sunniest part of the day, then the downpour which got us as far as the cafe around the corner where the food was delicious and cheap but came at the price of getting cold and damp from top to toe. Still, we have hope. As I write this, the storm clouds above appear to be breaking up. The rain has stopped and patches of blue sky are emerging. We've bought ourselves a deck of cards and are prepared to spend the evening in bed going fish, conserving our energy for a big, bright, adventurous day tomorrow, when and where anything is possible.

We're in Krakow! I know you're jealous.

Prague

Greetings from Prague!

A friend of mine said, shortly before my departure, that Prague is like a fairy tale. And she was right. This is a place where they let you inside the palace walls to wander in amazement. Its so easy to get lost here, and doing so without a trail of breadcrumbs to mark your way is really quite the treat. The cuisine is a delightful combination of meat, dumplings and brie, with lots and lots of cheap, delicious beer (Pilsner Urquell!!) to wash it all down. Nobody litters here, apart from the tourists. The Metro is clean and simple to navigate and the trams and plentiful and always on time...

The only thing I would caution visitors against is the marionette theatre - its HORRIBLE!!! We were expecting real marrionettes (you know, like the heart wrenching stuff from Being John Malkovich?) but instead we got two sticks attached to wrists coming up from under the stage, bopping around to a recording of Mozarts "Don Giovanni". This was meant to go on for some two hours. We left after 20 minutes and reclaimed our night by getting lost and discovering a quaint little ice cream parlour with a variety of whimzical flavours to choose from and an even more whimzical harpist plucking and strumming right there inside the shop as we browsed. Chocolate ice cream as dark and as rich as the depths of the Earth.

We leave for Krakow this evening on the night train. This journey has only just begun...

... and here is a look back so far:

This is Prague as seen from Praysky Hrad, the palace, high above the old part of the city.

A not uncommon sight, the myriad of tourists wandering the streets of Prague often consult their guidebooks as the wander. Here, Laura immitates one such tourist. Right...

Did I mention the beer? Cheap, delicious, and lets say nutritious. I love beer. I mean, Prague.

Jana, Laura´s friend from their old Harrods days who has since returned to her native Czech Republic, was unnendingly kind enough to let us stay in her very modern and conveniently located flat here in Prague. She is awesome. But she can't have my dumpling.

Below, some entertainment from the Charles Bridge.

The Glade

Matt B. couldn't have known when he sent me the e-mail about The Glade that he'd be switching me on to my first ever music festival. Though, having been the year before, he surely knew how amazing it would be. Dammit if he wasn't bang on about that one.

3 days and nights of camping, electronic music and all the dancing you could muster. Everyone there had the same agenda: have a fabulous time amongst thousands of other people, all having a fabulous time. It took everyone to make it happen, but in the end we all succeeded!

I could go on about the beautiful weather, the dazzling decor, the music, the vibe, the bond, the way everything so seamlessly came together to make The Glade an unforgettable, unrelentingly incredible experience, but I'd fail if I tried. So instead I'll throw a few pictures at you, with a couple of captions to boot, and a little bitty video clip for good measure.

Welcome to our humble abode.

Beth was totally the chef!

Various elements of the decor.

The early morning queue for the showers. Most people abstained from what I could tell. I took one all weekend, and it was magic.

Most of the stages at Glade were inside giant tents. The Origin Stage was one of two exceptions. Hard thumping music got us kicking up the dust each day til sunset.

Things may have cooled a bit at night, but inside the tents it was nice and sweaty!

At 4am the main stages would all shut down til noon, but at the tea hut right on our camp doorstep an afterparty was always underway with great tunes, hot drinks and just enough happy dancing people to make staying up a couple more hours a worth while trade for a hot and stuffy tent come bed time!

Let loose. Wear a lampshade. You never know who you'll meet!

I'm told meeting and getting to know lots of different people is what's at the heart of any great music festival, and The Glade was no exception.

Of course the best part of all is you end up even closer to the one's you're with.

But what about the dancing? Its a tricky thing to describe, and photos simply don't work, so below is a small video sample of the vibe going down in the late afternoon at the Sancho Panza tent, our favorite place to boogie down at The Glade by far. The music is entirely distorted in this clip, nothing like the shiney beeps and happy thumps we bopped and waddled to, but the dancing comes through clear enough. Enjoy!