Breakfast Eggsperiment!

 So this morning Jenny and I had eggs benedict for brekkie.  I always ask for sauce on the side because in my opinion, they always put too much on and it makes it too rich, so I like to put it on myself - sparingly.  However, when it arrived to the table this morning it was a funny yellowy orangey colour, was lumpy and didn't look one bit appetising. So I opted to not have any, but Jenny was brave and ladled it onto the eggs.

I asked her what it was like and her reply was:

"It's like nothing you've ever tasted before.  Nothing!  Nothing I've ever eaten, has ever tasted like this"

It was the worst eggs benny that either of us had ever eaten, which is a shame.

Goodnight Sweetheart

On the plane to Salzburg, we were treated to a feast of the senses by these two gentlemen across the aisle.  They raced on to the plane late, shuffled people's luggage to fit in theirs and then one promptly made a phone call..... then tutted and sighed and made some grunting noises when he was asked to turn in it off. They had obviously run for the plane as they were both out of breath, were all sweaty and completely on the nose.  You know the smell I mean - the one that once it gets into your nostrils, there is nothing you can do to get it out.  Then you start to be able to taste it and sometimes your eyes burn a little bit..... that's the one I mean.

Within about two and a half seconds of the plane pulling away from the gate, they were both fast asleep and the chap in the window seat was snoring so loudly that you couldn't concentrate on anything else.  All the people around them were looking at each other and saying, can somebody poke him or throw something at him.  I'm surprised that he didn't wake himself up or his mate, he was that loud!  At one point he stopped for a minute and we all looked in his direction to see if he's stopped breathing, but he, still sleep, startled himself with a great big snort and got straight back into it.  

We asked the stewardess if she could maybe say something to him, but she looked at us with pleading eyes and said, "Yes, I could, but then he would be awake.  You understand?"  Yes, I understood perfectly.

Finally the mate woke up and spotted our lunch trays.  In one swift motion, he sat his chair up and pulled his tray table out of the armrest.  He'd been awake for about 1-2 minutes and he still hadn't seemed to have noticed his friend's fog horn impression.

About 5 minutes later, the stewardess came to give the awake chap his lunch and asked if he would wake his friend as the snoring was very loud and disrupting the other passengers.  The care factor was written all over his face.  He gave his friend a little back hander which woke him up and he said something in his language which we guessed was "she said you have to stop snoring."  

He sat up, pulled out his tray table and had some lunch.  Then, within seconds of the plate being taken away, his head went back and the symphony began again.  Lucky for us this time his mate stayed awake and gave him another tap.

Honestly, it was enough to put you off your lunch...... nearly!

Dubrovnik - Beyond The Wall

In the little marina the boats are all on moorings so the boat owners need to take their tiny dinghy to their bigger dingy and/or to their bigger boat.  This man was paddling with a stick in a boat he only just fit in. I didn't see which boat he went to, but if it was one of those first ones, I would be very disappointed!

Today's adventure was taking us to The Wall.  The old town, as you may or may not know has a massive wall built around it.  The building started back in the 12th century and the city has been through a fair bit since then.  You've got your traditional fires that destroyed everything, then you have all sorts of people through the past 700 years coming in and taking over doing a bit of destroying etc.... then in the war 20 odd years ago she was devastatingly bombed by their neighbours.  A lot of buildings were damaged, but they've stuck in there, worked together and with a bit of help from their friends, built her right back up again.  And let me tell you - she is fabulous! 

Probably not too fabulous if you like fancy schmancy shiny brand new stuff, but I love old stuff, as you may have realised, so to me, this is architectural heaven.

A lot of the rooves had to be replaced with new ones so you can see lots of different types of tiles

One interesting little tidbit that we learned was that when they made these tiles they were moulded around the thigh of the tile maker, which is why they are not uniform.  If your tile maker was a rugby full backer, your tiles were obviously going to be a little wider!

Even though the town is old! old! old! they still have fairly modern structures like this basketball court.  If they'd been playing basketball since the 12th century, that would explain why Croatia are so good at the sport..... and perhaps why they're so tall?

There is still a working monastery inside the walls and they work hard to keep their veggie garden - giving the stone city a bit of greenery and life.

The city had been planned in the shape of an oyster shell with the middle of the town being the lowest part and the streets went up hill from there, giving it a bowl effect.  This is the main street through the old town which is now FULL of tourist souvenir shops and ice creameries which I'm sure must be original.

At the end of the street is a beautiful old fountain - the Cesma Fountain, that was used by the Islamic people to wash before they went to their mosque.  There were other fountains around town, that other religions used, but none as big as this one.  The water comes from the fresh water lake inland and is refreshingly freezing once it gets to the fountain and a welcomed cooling place for peops who are here in summer!

Nothing is sacred here on the walls..... nobody has a dryer in Croatia, the weather is generally too good not to hang your bits and pieces outside for the world to see.

Here is a good picture of out hotel.  A case of the old and the ugly joining together to make quite a nice hotel - The Excelsior. The staff were so helpful and friendly and really.... that's what you want as well as a comfy bed and a view and Jenny likes tissues in the bathroom and quality mini shampoos and shower gels etc.... We don't want much.

Let me tell you people, it was hot on those walls today - damn hot! But we managed to do it in 2 hours.  The key is to go early - as early as you can and take lots of water.  I think we went through a litre each.  But even hot and sweaty - Jenny still looks good!

This was a sense of absolute relief coming down those stairs into the shade and onto flat, no stair ground.  Jakov simply stopped asking us if we wanted to climb the towers.... it took him a while, but he learned.

Back down with the street walkers we wandered through the main square and down the side streets lined with restaurants and more ice-creameries.... I mean, how much ice cream can people eat?

Looking back up to the walls, the people of the city must have felt quite safe surrounded by that massive thing!  And just look how many steps it was to get up there!

This chap was playing the traditional Croatian musical instrument, the gusle...

Bless his heart though, it was bloody hot and dressed in his long socks and what not, he needed to have a few breaks to cool down in the fountain.

Game of Thrones challenge.... can you guess which scene was filmed right here?

You may have heard some people say, "Seen one church, you've seen them all."  Well, we really have see them all.  We have been to EVERY SINGLE CHURCH IN CROATIA! and there had to come a time where a line had to be drawn and Jenny sitting on the sidelines with her hat on was that line!  They were very interesting and some were very beautiful and others were extremely old, but enough is probably enough.

Having said that..... here's another church we went into.  I thought this gated off area dedicated to Mary was lovely with all the flowers.

This was inside of St Ignatius' Jesuit Church

Which is at the top of these replica Spanish Steps which aren't in Spain at all, but in Rome!

And inside, at the main alter and on the two side alters is the best carpet I have ever seen..... it is reminiscent of the carpet that my Uncle and Aunty used to have in their rumpus room..... 

(is it close SB & BEB?)

NOTE:  I love that our guide, Jakov read our blog and made some critical information change suggestions so that it was actually factual and true!  

Changes have now been made.

A Day In The Montenegro

I had heard of Montenegro, I knew where it was geographically and I knew that the name Montenegro meant Black Mountains.... but that's about it.  So, since we were so close, and it was part of our planned tour with Jakov, we went there for the day.

The border is only about a 40 minute drive from Dubrovnik

This is the final fort on Croatian soil.  It sits on the very end of a peninsula that looks back to the border control hut on the mainland.

The mountainous terrain continues down the coast.  It's amazing how they have  any room to build anything here.  Most of the land is on a vertical angle, but oddly enough they don't have grapevines with the same enthusiasm as the do in Croatia.

You can see from the map the little tiny peninsula on the left is where Dubrovnik ends and Montenegro begins.  It is a really protected water way all the way into the main old town of Kotor.  On our way we met up with some gypsies who tried to sell us some table cloths. 

Montenegro, like Croatia and most other countries in this area were once occupied by the Ottoman Empire, the Venetian's, the Roman's, the Diocletian's and/or under communist rule.  There are signs of all these rulers all over the city.  There are Roman Catholic churches and Eastern Orthodox churches, there are Venetian winged dragons with the open book sculptures and communist stars like this one.

This coat of arms is the emblem of the former Yugoslavia from 1946 to 1963.  This version has five torches that represented the Brotherhood and unity of the five Yugoslav nations, with sun rays emanating from the red star.  The sixth torch in a later version of the emblem was added for the Bosnian Muslims.

The sign underneath says: 

"What belongs to others we don't want, what is ours we will never surrender."

Kotor had just had an art festival and this was apparently one of the pieces that you could come and admire.....

What is art really?

As with most old towns there was a shaming post, where you would be tied and publicly mocked.  Luckily Jenny got away with not having to pose on this one as it was already occupied with this dunce..... I wonder if this is where the 'Dunce Hat' originated?

For all you crazy cat ladies out there, Kotor has a cat museum housing all your famous cats throughout history.  I would have liked to have a look in there, being an apprentice CCL myself, but our guide couldn't believe that anybody would actually pay money to see something like that, so we moved on.

Lots of live music around the old town.  The poor people on the left kept being interrupted by the church bells that drowned them out.

This was the gates into the city on the mountain side which also had a massive "Great Wall of China" type wall built on the face.  My eye was caught by the face of the poor winged lion carved into the gates and wondered if he was meant to have that look on his face or if it had perhaps become like that over the years due to the amount of pigeon poo he had to endure?

Gorgeous little streets with one of the only modes of transport allowed in the old city.

Old churches that had been built and torn down and rebuilt and then burned in a  fire before being rebuilt again.  Notice to the two different tops of the towers?

 One of the jewels on the Montenegro coast is the island of St Stefan.  It has been made into a 5 star resort with prices up to the ridiculous to stay there for a night.  They charge you €50 per person just to go and have a look!  The beach to the left is a public beach that anyone can go to..llll  

But the one on the right and two extra bays around the corner belong to the resort and they charge €50 to sit on the beach... even on the sand.... with your own towel!

 

In fact, you're not even allowed to sit on the towel - the use of the beach equipment is mandatory!

I guess it keeps the beach looking tidy and keeps the riff raff away.

I mean, it's a nice beach and everything, but €50?  One thinks not!

This is one of the other bays that charges €75......... €75!

So after our day in Montenegro, I'm glad I went and saw it, with it's spectacular mountains and beautiful sea, but I think I can tick it off my list of places that I've been to and don't have to return.  

Jenny's reply to my asking her "what did you think of Montenegro?" was "Oh, I thought it was spectacular, but you'd never go back!"

So that's that!

We Need A Buža Like A Hole In The Head

Buža in Croatian translates simply to "hole", which is exactly what this pub/cafe in the Dubrovnik wall is..... a hole in the wall which was used to get supplies into the city when it was under siege during the war in the 90s.  Now it's a place where you can look at the beautiful view whilst paying through the nose for drinks served by rude, humourless waiters who constantly have ciggies hanging out of their mouths.  It's also a beach, so people can jump off the rocks and climb up the little ladder to get back out. 

It's not an easy place to find and there are no signs.  You have to be 'in the know'.  It is shown on a map, but you still need to know which unmarked hole in  the narrow little backstreets of the old town to go through before finding it.  There are actually 3 holes in the wall, but only 2 at the front overlooking the water that have been made into bars.  From what I can gather, the lackadaisical service is the same in both.

 It's nice for a drink at sunset, but you'll probably only stay for one.

There's nothing like having a 5sies @ 7.30pm (except maybe having it at 5pm!)

and watching the changing colours on the island of Lokrum.

Dubrovnik - The Pearl of the Adriatic

Well, we finally made it - the final destination of our Croatian leg.  Even though I'd been here before, it was just as magical coming in and seeing the magnificent walled city of Dubrovnik.

We were staying here for three nights and checked eagerly into our hotel.  I'd checked out the location of the hotel before we left and knew where it was and what sort of views it would give from the last time we were here...... however, when we checked in amongst 100s of radiologists from around the world, and the Croatian President, we were given a 'sea view' room.  Now we all know what's about to happen, right?

We were given a room that looked at the street behind us and if you opened up the window and stuck your head out, preferably with someone holding your legs, you could see a bit of the sea.

Our guide, Jakov spoke to them and said that wasn't good enough and they said they were full that night, but maybe they could find something for the other nights..... which generally means - 'whatever, that's your room, deal with it!'

So after much deliberation about whether we would say something ourselves and decided that it was well worth the conversation.  Not realising that Jakov had left the hotel and made some phone calls to management to fix the situation.... so with him in one ear of the manager and us at the front counter he probably threw his hands in the air and said 'oh for goodness sake, just give them the balcony room on the top floor facing the sea and the city!'  And we probably would've said 'okey dokey'

Now this is the view from our room.

 and this....

And this.... 

And this.....

And now we're happy.

I mean, we've not come all the way to Dubrovnik to look out at the road!  

Am I right?

See that square, ugly, office type building that was built in the communist times on the left of the picture?  We our room was at the back of that.