Croatian Heat - Dubrovnik-style

 It's nice to be remembering beaches and hot sunshine as I see rain pouring down outside my window. We took a gorgeous ferry ride from Hvar Island to Dubrovnik Croatia, which also happened to be the hottest ferry ride of my life. There wasn't a lot of seating inside, and we wanted to be on the deck anyways, so we carried our packs out to the deck to find somewhere to sit. I insisted on something in the shade since it was already boiling outside and still early in the morning, so we sat along the side of the ferry on the ground with our packs and layered on the sunscreen. It was so intensely hot it wasn't even funny. Cath was loving it but I was dying and wanted it to be over. By the evening we had arrived in Dubrovnik and got a ride from our hostel owners from the ferry terminal to our hostel which ended up actually being about 20 minutes outside the city. It's what you have to do to save some money :).

Boats in a Dubrovnik Harbour

 We didn't have much time to spend in Dubrovnik, so we made the most of the time we had. We went out early the next morning to explore the old city, relax on the beach and swim in the beautiful blue water. It was a scorcher of a day. By 10am I was already feeling fatigued from the heat. We walked around the old city for about an hour and I couldn't take it anymore, I needed to cool down, so we went to the beach. After changing into swimsuits, I ran straight into the water for the ultimate refreshment. It felt so good. We spent about an hour in the water, then ate some lunch while we dried off on the beach, then were ready to explore again.

There's a small island off the coast of Dubrovnik that we took the ferry to. Most people go there to spend time on a different beach, but being who we are, my sister and I had to explore the whole island. We walked around for a while then discovered there's an old fortress at the top, so naturally we hiked up the island to see the fortress and the view from above. You could see all of the old city walls of Dubrovnik, so definitely worth the photo opportunities. We decided to take a different way down so we could get a different view on the way back. As we were walking, a French couple came out of a clearing in the bush, and the wife told her husband she was proud of him in French (Cath translated for me). We found that a little odd but figured they had spotted a shortcut, so we decided to sneak through the bushes as well. Cath made me go in front because she said she was scared. It was a wild bush adventure as we got a little lost and had no idea how to get out, so we just kept walking. As we walked we figured out why the French lady said what she did - it was definitely a rough trek. Catherine told me after we made it back to a path that she spent the whole time thinking of the story of Paul in the Bible on the island of Patmos, which would have been in this general area of the world, and the snake that jumped out a bit him. She had been worried a snake would jump out and bite us. Which is funny because I spent the whole time worrying a peacock would come out and scare me. (We had seen a lot of peacocks on the other side of the island and I have an irrational fear of birds.) I do have to admit though that a snake would have been much more troublesome than a peacock.

The View from the top of the Island

 After our bushwhacking, we found ourselves a little rocky private beach area and went for a dip to cool off. We walked around and swam at various points around the island, then headed back to Dubronik for more exploring.

It was a little expensive, but we felt we had to check out the old city walls, another UNESCO world heritage site. The views from the walls were stunning! We cheated a bit and located an English-speaking tour guide with a group and followed closely behind them to learn a bit about the city and the walls without having to pay.

Travel tidbit of the day: Find tour groups that speak your language and follow at an inconspicuous distance so as not to be found out. This way, you glean a lot of useful information without the added pricetag.

Dubrovnik City Walls

Hibiscus in the Old City

Dubrovnik

Taking a Refreshing break

  

I'll let the pictures do the rest of the talking. The weather was fabulous although the heat was intense, but well worth the trip. So glad we included Croatia on the itinerary. You should go.

We took another ferry the next day to Bari Italy as we continued our journey to Rome.

Saying goodbye to Croatia on the ferry to Italy

Croatian Island Hop

The photos I have don't really do justice to the beauty that is Hvar Island. The weather was a little stormy when we arrived, but it was still quite warm. This island is one of the main party islands in Croatia, actually there's a small island not far from here actually called Party Island, but since our trip was already pretty physically grueling and we were only halfway through it, we decided it probably would be wise not to go too crazy here. Plus we were only here for one night, but we made the most of the full day we spent exploring.

We both really wanted to go swimming in the Adriatic Sea (part of the Mediterranean) so as soon as we dropped our stuff off at our hostel, we geared up in swimsuits and went to the "beach". Our hostel by the way was very cute and had this sort of romantic honey-moon appeal to it. Maybe too romantic to be there with your sister :). Anyways, we went to the beach which was really just big rocks that touched the water with ladders attached to them so you could climb in and out. The water was a little cold, but so salty that I could lay on my back and float no problem.

We got a little cold, so we decided to stop swimming and warm up by hiking to an old castle/fortress at the top of the island. As we were walking, the sun started to come out and it warmed up a lot by the time we made it to the top of the island. We explored the fortress and took some pictures along the way, and then decided we were too hot and sweaty, so we ran back down to go back to the water.

View from the Fortress

We spent the rest of the afternoon swimming and lying in the sun. Our hostel had mini kitchens in every room, so we cooked a nice little meal for ourselves, showered/cleaned up, and went out to enjoy some night life. We explored the town a little, looked in shops, and saw a sweet street-side concert of a group of French guys playing African fusion music. It was pretty sweet.

Here's a couple more photos of the island...

The "Beach"

Harbour Sunset

Next stop - Dubrovnik!

"Split"-Second Decision

Our journey continues to hot, sunny beaches for a little rest and relaxation...or so we thought. We woke up in our little guesthouse in Korenica to thunderstorms. As in full torrential rainfall thunderstorms. We were so grateful for the gorgeous weather we had for our hike the day before. We left early in the morning with our Belgian friend to catch a bus to go to Split and our friend was headed to Zadar (on the way to Split). The buses are very inconsistent in Croatia, but oddly more reliable than the train, but they are also quite cheap. Apparently a lot of people choose to travel Croatia by car rental, but you can save a lot of money taking the bus.

Anyways, we found the "bus stop" which was really just a patch of pavement on the side of the road. We had to be there 30 minutes early because you never know what time the bus is going to be there. Finally a bus showed up, but since they're not very well labeled, we had to run up to the driver and ask if he was going to Split. He was, so we hopped on. 

The trip was supposed to be about 4 hours, but ended up taking 6 because our bus broke down in the middle of nowhere. We were well outside the last city, up on a hill with no civilization in sight and the bus just stopped. The announcements over the intercom didn't help us at all either since they spoke no English. So we just had to wait and wonder what was going on. 

The thunderstorms followed us to Split, but it stayed dry for our walk to our hostel. We put our stuff down in our room at the hostel and looked through the information we brought with us on Split to see what we wanted to do there. The Lonely Planet suggested one of the most beautiful trips in Europe that goes by ferry from Split to Hvar Island to Dubrovnik. We hadn't intended on visiting an island, but the owner of the hostel highly recommended it. We were swayed and decided to book a night in Hvar and go there the next morning. We spent the rest of the evening checking out a highly recommended local restaurant - Fife - and exploring the old town in Diocletian's Palace from Roman times with a guy we met from...actually I don't remember where he was from, somewhere in the States. The restaurant had delicious fresh-caught local fish and was delicious. Diocletian's Palace is quite small, so only spending an evening exploring it was enough for us. 

Fresh Fish!

We geared up after only a few hours in Split and got ready to go island-hopping the next day.

Diocletian's Palace

For the Beauty of the Earth

In the midst of these travels blogs, life still goes on around me. It's been taking me a while to document my whole trip while still keeping up in school, but it's fun to remember everything that happened not too long ago. Over my American Thanksgiving break, I had the opportunity to return to BC for a not so pleasant reason. I was very happy to go home, but it was for my Grandma's funeral. My Grandma was 89 when she passed away and she had been struggling with Alzheimer's for years now and was in the later stages of the disease. She was having seizures and we all knew she was suffering. She caught pneumonia and within a day, she was taken home to be with her Lord. My Grandma's life was a testament of God's faithfulness. She had such a servant heart and a warm personality. I look up to her so much and will miss being welcomed by her smile every time I came. Welterusten.

My Grandma would have loved to hear all the stories of our wild travel adventures, so I continue with our next destination: Croatia.

Catherine discovered a National Park in Northern Croatia called Plitvice Lakes (Plitvicka Jezera) National Park, I googled some of the images, and we both knew we had to go there. We both love nature and beautiful places, so this was a must-see. Here's just a teaser picture to whet your appetite:

The plan was to travel about 6 hours by train from Budapest to Zagreb Croatia and then take a bus from Zagreb to the town we were staying at about 10km outside the park. We had heard the train system in Croatia was slower than buses, plus the only way to get to where we were going was by bus or renting a car, and the bus is significantly cheaper. Anyways, as we were on the train, it pulled into this rail yard/train station and stopped for an abnormal amount of time. We were by no means ahead of schedule, in fact we were running late, but that's normal for trains in Eastern Europe. After waiting about half an hour, not know what was going on, some officials came onto the train. Turns out they were customs officers and we had crossed the border into Croatia. I thought they were cops and something more serious was going on. The Croatian officer came to our seats, looked at our passports, asked a couple questions, stamped them and moved on. Then another guy came, a Hungarian customs officer, and did the same. A third guy came in and asked if we had any alcohol etc that we were taking across the border with us, which we didn't :). Finally we were on our way again, but our Croatian train problems were not over. A little while later, the train stopped again. One of the train workers came to our compartment and said 4 words to us in English - "change train bus baggage". I'm usually down for a good riddle, but this was not the time. In trying to piece these words together, Cath and I determined 1 thing, we needed to get ourselves and our stuff off the train. There were befuddled tourists from all over Europe gathering on the platform. I heard a guy speaking English, so I asked him if he knew what was going on. He said he'd been to Croatia before and this sort of thing happens all the time there. Great.

We ended up following the crowd of people who seemed to know where they were going and we ended up by 3 big tour buses. Everybody was putting their bags below and climbing on, so we did the same. We figured the bus would take us to Zagreb, but it ended up stopping at another train station and they kicked us all off. At this point, we were way later than expected. Another train came to that station which took us the rest of the way to Zagreb. From Zagreb, we walked to the bus depot and caught a bus to the small town of Korenica where I had found a cheap guesthouse to stay within a short bus ride from the park.

The guesthouse was run by an older couple that spoke very little English but kept a very clean house. We met a girl from Belgium who was also staying at the guesthouse and she was travelling alone, so we all went to the park together. She spoke perfect English as well as French and German, so having her around proved to be quite useful as well. I'll let the photos speak for themselves and attest to the beauty of this place. Definitely a must-see. It was quite busy, but Cath and I were some of the only North Americans there. It attracts a lot of European tourists. The weather was perfect as well.

Raised platforms to protect the landscape

One of many waterfalls

The water was so clear and clean!

Having the time of our lives

At the end of the day, after having some nice showers and resting up a bit, we went for dinner with our Belgian friend. There is almost nothing to do or see in the town of Korenica, but there was this delicious little restaurant (called Dalmatica) that was serving fresh caught fish. It was some of the best fish I have ever tasted in my life, and it was reasonably priced for the quality. Because food pictures are a necessity, here's something to salivate over...

Croatian tomato soup and the fish of the day - with a garlic sauce

The Best Place to Take a Bath

Budapest, Hungary would put your best bathing experience to shame. Even better than a hot, bubbling jaccuzzi, surrounded by flaming scented candles and quiet music, are the Budapest bath-houses. This was not originally on our Europe itinerary, but after a recommendation from a friend, I googled it and decided we had to go there. It helped that Budapest was on the way from Krakow to Croatia, so no detour needed there.

Unfortunately, the weather was not the greatest when we were there, but we made the most of it. We spent most of our time soaking up the mineral waters of the bath houses. After hiking in the Alps, biking, hiking, and walking constantly in Austria, and walking for 3 days in Krakow, we were ready for a little relaxation and made the most of it in our time in Budapest. 

Over the course of 2 days in Budapest, we probably spent about 7 hours in two different bath-houses. When we got to Budapest, we walked 30 minutes to our hostel, but when we got there, the guy who was working the "front desk" said there had been a mistake with the bookings. I say "front desk" because this hostel was basically somebody's apartment where they just rented out the rooms. This is pretty common in Eastern Europe, but it was weird to get used to. On the plus side, it's cheap. He apologized that he had to upgrade our room to the private double bed with our own bathroom instead of the mixed 6-bed dorm we had booked. Cath and I had no problem with that. It was like the honeymoon suite of a low-cost Hungarian hostel. The beauty was that it only cost us 50 euro for both of us for 3 nights. So cheap!

As I said before, the weather was not fantastic, so we spent most of our bath time in the warm thermal baths to heat up. The first bathhouse we went to was the biggest one in Budapest. It had 3 larger pools outside, with old men playing chess and jets that spurted up sporadically. The were also a whole bunch of baths inside, ranging from 8-40 degree water. I tried going into the cold plunge 8 degree pool for after the saunas, but made it to my waist and chickened out. It was way too cold! The thermal mineral water was so relaxing, and you just feel so clean after it.

Cath and I under water

Catherine's digital camera is waterproof, so naturally we took it to the baths with us and got some candid underwater photos, like this beauty above....

Wave Pool at bath house #2

The second bathhouse we went to had a wave pool outside which was awesome, but it also had separate men's and women's sections inside. Catherine was excited to go in those, but I was a little more wary. I know what "women only" means - there's a good chance people will be naked in there! Europeans have no shame like North Americans do when it comes to stripping down in public. Thankfully, most people chose to keep their tops on in the female section. By the end of the whole trip in Europe, I definitely got more used to seeing people "bare all" in public - the beaches of Croatia will do that to you.

Capturing the sunset along the Danube

Budapest Parliament building

We took a free walking tour in Budapest as well, which ended with a large portion of the group going out for a cheap Hungarian lunch together. It was delicious, and only a couple bucks. I'm trying to remember the name of the restaurant (it was more of a cafeteria), I'm sure I'll think of it later, but for some cheap, authentic food, it is a great find. On our last night in Budapest we watched the sunset on the famous Danube river.

Great city!

Next it's off to our adventures in Croatia!!

Aushwitz and Birkenau: Emotions Running High

I have been putting off writing this post, and I think it's because it's still difficult for me to process everything I saw that day in Poland. I do not regret going, because it was a very meaningful experience, but it is hard to describe it all in words. This post will be mostly pictures instead, since a picture says 1000 words. Hopefully this gives you a taste of what I saw that day

It was cloudy and cool that day, which set the tone for a somber occasion. I'm not trying to put anyone off of visiting concentration camps in Europe, just be prepared if you go, to feel overwhelmed.

Entrance to Auschwitz

The wooden structure on the right is where the Nazi guard would stand for roll call each day. The photo is taken from where the prisoners would stand.

Sleeping quarters for prisoners. 6-8 people would sleep on each level.

The killing wall. This is where countless prisoners were shot. It is now a memorial to those who died.

The view from the shooting wall

The Auschwitz museum had collections of different items that were seized by the Nazis when prisoners entered the camps. This photo shows some of the many crutches and prosthetic limbs that were taken. This one hit me hard just trying to imagine the physically disabled losing their crutches and aids. It was basically just a death sentence to them all since they could not work.

Some of the shoes that were collected by the Nazis. These used items were of more value to the Nazis than the people who once owned them.

Birkenau toilets.

 The photo above shows the bathroom facility for the prisoners of Birkenau. Auschwitz was a work camp, but Birkenau was more where people came to die. Prisoners were given 30 seconds to use these washrooms only twice per day. A lot of prisoners were sick and would have the runs, but they could only use this twice in a day. It was heart-breaking to see this. Some of the prisoners' jobs were to clean out these washrooms, with their bare hands. They were only given a short amount of time to wash their hands in running water, no soap.

Living quarters at Birkenau

These bunks would each have 8-10 prisoners, each prisoner sleeping on  a plank of wood. Before the war this building was a horse stable. Just goes to show what the Nazis thought of the Jews.

In between these tracks is where the sorting would take place. One side of the camp was the death side, the other side was for the fit and was the work side, but both lead to eventual death.

Before the camps were liberated, the Nazis attempted to hide the evidence of gas chambers by blowing them up. This is the rubble of one of the 4 chambers found at Birkenau.

A part of the memorial set up at Birkenau in remembrance of  those who suffered and died in the camps.

At the end of an emotional day, Cath and I decided to debrief and bring in some light and enjoyment to close off our Poland leg. Seeing as we both love the piano and Chopin, we found a cheap concert that included wine and this guy playing piano for us in a small, intimate setting. He was fantastic, the wine was delicious, and we were able to get over what we had seen that day and move on to our next destination with renewed vigor. I think we will always carry a piece of this experience in Poland with us. It is one thing to read the stories in books, but to see for yourself where the mass-killings took place is a whole other experience.

Take-home message: We are blessed.

Krakow, Poland

Random but every time I hear Krakow, I always think of this cartoon...

Add caption

I'm not much of a history buff, I'm sure my past high school socials teachers can attest to that, but one area I was always interested in was World War II. Maybe it's because it hits closer to home. I remember hearing lots of stories from my parents and grandparents about the experiences my grandparents had in the war, and it always made me proud to be Canadian because if it weren't for the Canadians liberating Holland when they did, most of my family would have died and I probably would not have existed. This brings me to the next destination on my journey around Europe - Krakow, Poland.

Fountain in the Main Square

I have always wanted to see the Auschwitz concentration camp. It has always intrigued me, and I think it's a valuable part of world history to remember. Another reason I wanted to go to Poland was to complete the Europe music tour I went on in high school on my own terms, in the country of my favorite classical musician - Chopin. While planning the trip, we decided to eliminate Chopin's birthplace, Warsaw, because it is quite far out of the way and would have taken up a couple extra days that we just didn't have. So, we decided to stick with Krakow. We didn't know very much about the city itself, aside from the fact that Auschwitz is not far from it, so we went in without clear direction of what we wanted to do. We discovered a free walking tour of the city run mostly by local university students, which was a great way to see the city. A lot of major European cities have free tours like this. (Free as in by donation)

Main Market Square

We spent our first day exploring the city. We arrived early in the morning after an overnight train that was super cramped and a little cold, and very old, so we were a little tired, but after a nice shower and some breakfast we were ready to explore. The downside? After our free walking tour it started pouring outside. Being from Vancouver we are very used to rain. But this was rain like I had never seen before. Torrential downpour. Not to mention thunder and lightning. We ran for cover with the locals in whatever buildings we could.  There were even these guys dressed as beer steins, probably promoting a pub, who ran down the street looking for shelter. This might not be funny to anyone else, but having the visual remembered in my mind is actually making me laugh out loud.

The next day we decided to go take a tour to see Auschwitz and Birkenau Concentration camps. I was going to talk more about that in this post, but it's getting long, so I'll cover that in the next one.

Tower from the old medieval city wall 

On our last day in Krakow, we took another free walking tour of the old Jewish quarter. There are very few Jews still living in the city after WWII, but the old synagogue, school, and the Jewish ghetto are evidence of the large population that was there before. We went to Schindler's factory, from the movie Schindler's list. It has been turned into a museum about the whole city of Krakow during WWII and it's a super unique museum. I'm not usually a fan of museums, but this one was pretty sweet. Well done.

Our next stop was Budapest, Hungary, only a 6 hour train ride away.