Conner's Big Adventure 2017

Slovenia - Natural Beauty

guild_family_of_3 — Tue, 8 Aug 2017 00:19:00 GMT

As I mentioned before, we didn’t have a car so our experiences with Slovenia’s natural wonders were limited. A very sad thing considering how stunning the country is. Still, we did get to see two incredible places outside of Ljubljana and for that I am thankful.

One of Slovenia’s claims to fame is the picturesque Lake Bled. Nestled in a little valley surrounded by lush, green mountains, it is every bit as pretty as the pictures. To get there from Ljubljana we took a very comfortable one hour bus ride which cost $33 for three round trip tickets. As soon as we disembarked in the city of Bled we saw plenty of shops renting bikes and kayaks, or selling adventure tour packages. As exciting as they looked that was not our goal (nor did we have an extra bank account hiding somewhere…), so we walked on and headed down the hill toward the lake. My first thought was actually “Huh, I thought it would be much bigger?” My next thought was “My god it is stunning!” The lake itself was incredibly beautiful with pale blue/green water so clear you could see down 30 feet or more. The surrounding mountains and town were like something out of a fairy tale, picture perfect and oh so peaceful. We picked a direction and walked a short distance to a coffee shop with a small playground. Perfect, I thought, we can sit down, let Conner play for a bit, and enjoy a cup of espresso as we take in the valley. Did I mention that Bled is a tourist town? I almost choked when I saw the prices on the coffee menu. They were easily four times what they were in Ljubljana. Not only that, but coffee in Ljubljana is very simple generally, just like it was in Croatia. Espresso, espresso with milk, espresso with cream, and occasionally an Irish coffee. Basic. This place made me think of a Slovenian Starbucks with prices to match. However once Conner saw the playground it became worth the $5.00 not to have to make him leave right away, so we shared one very sweet caramel concoction while Conner played and then headed out.

There is a very well maintained paved trail that circles the lake with lots of pedestrian and bicycle traffic. We figured we would make the loop, find a lunch spot in town, and then decide where we wanted to swim, so we headed down the trail to see if we could find a nice swimming spot or two for later. In a very short distance though we came across a sign that said “No Swimming”. Seriously? It was already hot and it was only 10:30am, if we weren’t allowed to swim in the lake this day was going to be a whole lot more challenging. A little further down we came to something like a swimming resort with roped or walled in swimming areas, beach chairs, diving platforms, boardwalks with ladders to climb out of the water, a playground, sandboxes, and a waterslide. For a price. We really weren’t interested in paying to swim in a lake, but we promised Conner that if we didn’t find anywhere else to swim we would come back here and pay to get in. A little further and we noticed people walking down to swim right off the edge of the path, so we figured maybe it was just in some areas that you couldn’t swim? Halfway around the lake is where we found the good spots. You can actually swim in most places around the lake, we discovered, there are just a few where you are not allowed. The swimming resort even had a helpful map with areas where you could swim marked out, though strangely their resort was the only one marked? Ah tourism. We passed by the first place which looked like an old rowing club that was now used as a summer swim spot with docks to lay on or run down and launch off of. Next we arrived at a pebbly beach where there were lots of local seeming people in the water and laying out in the grass. We stopped to look around and decided that our original plan of circling the lake first was a pretty poor plan since the swimming spots all seemed to be across the lake from the main part of the town. It was a little early for lunch, but there was a decently priced restaurant next to the beach and they had plenty of GF options for me, so we decided to have an early lunch and then go for a swim.

Lunch was very yummy, if a little more expensive than we would have paid in Ljubljana. Thankfully it was nowhere near as bad I was expecting after our little side stop at the coffee shop. After lunch we found a public (pay) bathroom and all changed to go swimming. The first thing I will say is that I hate pebbly beaches. Call me a wimp, but we don’t have room to carry around water shoes and bare feet on pebbles just hurt after a while. Thankfully the water was warm and I didn’t want to get out once we got in, except to launch off of the dock with Conner. That crazy little boy has turned into a fish. He ran off the dock, jumped off the dock, and then even dove off the dock! It wasn’t a fifteen foot high dive, but for a kid that is only 120cm tall it was a long way down (he also half slid/fell off the dock once which almost made me snort water up my nose!.) We spent about two hours swimming before deciding that if we wanted to rent a row boat we had better go find one. We gathered our stuff and walked on around the lake some more in our bathing suits, since everyone else seemed to be wearing theirs and we were planning on getting back in the water anyway. We found a place with a single row boat for rent, but there were about ten other people waiting in line so we walked on. The next place we passed rented rowboats and paddleboards, or “sups” as they called them. I had said earlier that if they were inexpensive I would like to try one, so we turned in and asked to rent a boat and a sup which ended up being $30 for an hour for both.

Back into the water we went, Conner and Gregg in a little row boat and me on my sup. We wobbled around on our own for a while, Gregg trying to figure out how to go in a straight line with one loose oarlock, and me trying to figure out how to get my foot to stop cramping and my legs to stop shaking without dumping myself in the lake. We eventually got sorted and we met up and headed out toward the island in the center of the lake with the beautiful church tower. Paddling around Lake Bled was an incredible experience I will never forget. The absolute serenity of the clear water below, blue sky above, and green surroundings was breathtaking. We never heard a single motor on the lake, it was all oars and paddles, and it was so quiet out in the middle. We decided not to dock on the island, but to look around from the water. Conner wanted a chance to row the rowboat, so I practiced paddling around them while Conner rowed. Then he wanted me and daddy to race, so we raced down the lake until we were both laughing too hard, me trying not to laugh myself off of my board! Next up Conner asked if he could swim there in the middle of the lake. He had a life jacket on so I told him to jump on in. I sat down on my board and he swam over to me. He asked if he could try the board, so I had him climb up in front of me and we paddled around for a while, both sitting on the board (I’m not that crazy). Once our hour was up we headed back to the boathouse and returned our boat and board with many smiles and thanks.

Heading once more down the trail we came across another nice swimming hole where people were jumping in the water, and laying out in the grass. We all went for another swim, made interesting by an overeager swan chasing people around looking for food (Conner was not very excited about the swan…), and then we dried off in the sun while having a snack of cheese and crackers and fruit. We made our way slowly around the rest of the lake, soaking it all up, and ended up back in the town area with time for a little playing in a fountain before dinner. Dinner turned out to be hamburgers and a traditional Slovenian sort of cream cake at the Hotel Park Café with a little live music to sweeten the deal.

All was well as we finished our day in Bled and headed back to the bus stop. We had a bit of a scare at the bus stop with a group of about 30 French teenagers, presumably waiting on the same bus as we were (I had read that you have to be careful taking the last bus out of Bled as there is not always room), but thankfully they were headed elsewhere and we hopped on board when our bus arrived for the ride back to Ljubljana. A very successful adventure.

The other place we got to visit was a massive cave system called Skocjanske Jame, a UNESCO world heritage site since 1986. This was very lucky as it wasn’t even on our radar until a friend I had made through Zumba mentioned she was taking her husband’s visiting cousin and her daughter, and asked if we wanted to come along. We met up at a bus stop and they drove us to the park, about an hour southwest of Ljubljana. We went in and bought our tickets for the guided tour (these are not caves you can explore on your own), and then walked around looking for a vista point until it was time to meet up with the tour guide. The fact that we never actually found said vista point didn’t make the walking any less enjoyable, beautiful place that this was. Being severely directionally challenged myself, it was pretty nice actually to be following four other people who couldn’t find something that was supposedly “clearly marked”. I contented myself with following along behind with my adorable new 2 year-old friend holding one hand, and my crazy rock hopping (and sometimes throwing…) 6 year old holding the other. Also trying to keep Conner from trying to pick up and carry little miss independent 2 year-old who wanted nothing to do with him! He’s suddenly very interested in babies and toddlers which is super cute except that very few toddlers actually enjoy being squeezed and picked up by 6 year-old boys.

Time for our tour and we headed down a long, steep, loose trail toward the cave entrance, and I got gradually more and more concerned about just how I was supposed to get Conner to hike back up this long, steep, loose trail. We reached the cave entrance and they split the group into two tours, one in English and one in Slovenian. We jumped in with the English tour and descended down through a narrow tunnel carved into the rock. *Side note here, in both Slovenia and in Croatia almost everyone speaks at least some English, and most are quite fluent. It made travelling there extremely easy for us, and though we tried to learn as much of the local language as we could we were very appreciative.* As we travelled further and further down the tunnel, the air continued cooling. When we reached the bottom of the tunnel we were told it was 18 degrees Celsius, which was a nice relief from the 33 degrees in the park above, and we entered the cave system through a sealed door. Each section of the caves has its own light system which only gets turned on for the short times when visitors are walking through that particular area. We were not allowed to take pictures or video and we were given very serious instructions not to touch anything in the caves except the handrails. They really do care a great deal about preserving the unique ecosystem inside these caves.

The caverns at Skocjanske were simply incredible. Impressive enough to make Conner say to me “Mom, I’m glad we chose here instead of the lake today!” Quite a statement for my little fish ;). We first entered the Silent Cavern which was enormous and filled with stalagmites and stalactites, some of which were over 250,000 years old. We walked past old collapses, and pools that were carved into the cavern floor by the people who first came down to explore these caves. All throughout the caves we could see traces of the original explorers. Remnants of railings still attached to the walls, stairs carved into the stone. We continued through the Silent Cavern and started to descend deeper into the caves. The further down we went the more we began to hear a shushing noise. The tour guide stopped at the top of a steep descent and explained that there was a river below us at the bottom of what was the largest underground canyon in Europe, and one of the largest in the world. The bottom of the canyon at its lowest point is 190 meters below the surface. In the rainy season these caverns can become severely flooded due to the small outlet where the Reka River escapes the caves. The highest of these floods in recent recorded history brought the water level up to just 65 meters below the surface according to our guide. As we dropped down to the lowest observation point at 130 meters below the surface, still a full 60 meters above the river below, my mind simply couldn’t fathom that much water rushing through filling up the massive chamber in which we were standing. It didn’t seem possible, and yet I know it happens every year (to a lesser extent). We crossed over the bridge above the chasm and began to climb up the other side, all the while considering the terrifying insanity of carving stairs out of the stone walls of these caverns while standing on stairs you already carved 60 meters above the jagged bottom. I felt like I was in a constantly awe stricken state inside this secretive and enchanting place. And then, just in case I was getting a little too carried away, my little 2 year-old walking companion brought me right back to the present moment as I got a waft of her fully loaded diaper…. Kids really do have impeccable timing don’t they?

As we emerged finally back into the light the cave opened up and let out into a small canyon where the river flowed below and the walls were lush and green with trees and vines and ferns. A small trail walk and a few stairs led us up to a funicular which carried us back up to the parking lot (Conner was very appreciative of not having to hike back up). We had a little snack in the parking lot and then piled back into the cars for the drive back to Ljubljana. Skocjanske Jame was an incredible experience that I will forever be thankful to our friends for showing us!

Slovenia - City Living

guild_family_of_3 — Fri, 4 Aug 2017 03:25:00 GMT

Ljubljana is an incredibly easy city to move around in. Though I was a bit sad we didn’t get to see more of the natural side of Slovenia, having a car in the city would have been a complete waste. The bus system in Ljubljana was cheap, clean, efficient, and broad. You could take a bus anywhere in the city in under 40 minutes. The main routes have buses that run every 15 minutes or so, so missing a bus is never a crisis. They are easy to use because everything is done on a single card. You pick up a card at the tourist office for $2 and then you can load it there, or at any of the green kiosks around the city. Swipe your card when you get on and you’re done. $1.20 gets you anywhere in the city with 90 minutes to transfer as many times as you want. Also, Conner was free which was nice. The buses, however, were only a secondary form of transportation. The best, and most common, form of transportation around Ljubljana was bicycles.

Ljubljana is a city made for bicycles. Roads have designated bike lanes, there are bike racks everywhere, and even the sidewalks are split between bike lanes and pedestrian lanes. Sidewalks are either painted with specific bike lanes (and they are strictly observed) or the sidewalk has two tiers, one for pedestrians and one for bikes. Almost everyone owns a bike with a basket and a bell. For those that don’t the city has a bike rental program with bike stations located all around the city. Each station has 20 bike stalls and a kiosk where you walk up, scan your Urbana card (the same card that serves as your bus pass, isn’t that convenient), choose your bike, and walk over and push a button to unlock it. Your first hour of riding is free after which you can choose to pay $1 for the second hour, $2 for the third, or $3 for 24 hours, or you can simply plug it into any stall near you, wait five minutes, and check it out again for another free hour. They have an app that lets you check how many available bikes, or empty stalls, are at each station at any given point in time, and a van that runs around the city taking bikes from full racks and spreading them out between empty or low racks. How cool is that!? So cool that we decided we had to get a bike for Conner so we could explore the city the way the locals do.

This led us to find the local Sunday flea market. And possibly my worst experience with buyers’ remorse ever. We had read about the flea market and I figured if everyone here rode bicycles there should be a pretty good selection of cheapies there. We hopped on the super smooth bus and rode out to the edge of town where we found a great sprawling affair in a fenced in dirt lot. I was pretty excited actually, I remember going to flea markets as a kid and they were huge, spread out events that took hours to walk through (ok part of that was probably because we went there with my dad, but still, they were big). Lately the flea markets we’ve found have been more like small rummage sales with a few tarps thrown out with clothes and old books, and booths with local crafts. Nice enough, but not a real flea market. This was definitely like what I remembered and we did spend hours there. We actually had to pay to get in, which was weird, but it was only $0.50 so not a big deal. We walked around looking at every bike in the place four times. The problem was that Conner was right in between the two kids’ sizes we found. They were either too small or just a smidge too big, and if he had been riding more than just one month last summer we probably would have gone with the larger one no problem, but my mind was envisioning the epic melt downs that would inevitably occur if he couldn’t get right on and go, and so we went with a smaller bike. Well, we waited too long and the two that we had been looking at were gone and we ended up getting a crappy little thing that probably wasn’t worth the $15 I paid for it, but it was only for a month so what the hell. I would regret not forking over the $30 for the much nicer, much better suited bike for the next damn week. Nevertheless, Conner was ecstatic and we left the flea market with our goal achieved. Conner now had a bike and a helmet. How far away from the gate do you think we made it before we had melt down #1? I’ll spare you the suspense and tell you that it was about 65 feet. Full scale tantrum laying in the gravel in the parking lot. Riddled with my buyers’ remorse, I had zero patience and was absolutely not able to deal. Thankfully Gregg was not suffering the same effects since he hadn’t been the one to say “sure, we’ll take it”, so he patiently worked Conner through it and by the time we reached the bus stop he was one happy, bike riding kiddo. The bus. Shit. How the hell are we going to get a bike back on the bus?? One would think that would have crossed our minds before we even got on the bus to go and get the bike. One would also think that in a city made for bicycles the buses would all have bike racks, right? Wrong. Because the city is so bike friendly, why the hell would anyone want to take a bus if they had a bike? This was the only thing that I will say may have made the small bike a better buy than the big one. It was small enough that the bus driver didn’t complain when we brought it onto the bus and stood with it in the stroller zone. We made it back to the house with a brand new, super junky, too small bicycle and Conner was the happiest kid on the block.

Here is what was so cool about Conner having a bike in Ljubljana. First off, the apartment building had a big brick courtyard where he could ride around and around without having to worry about traffic, car or pedestrian. Second, once he got comfortable riding again it made runs to the markets and parks SO MUCH FASTER! Conner has the energy of a damned hamster on crack when he’s doing something he wants to do. When doing something he doesn’t want to do he turns into the child equivalent of a mega stoned three-toed sloth, and walking is something he really doesn’t like to do. I was in fact terrified at the prospect of taking him through the crowded sidewalks downtown with all of us on bikes, but somehow he ended up being very good at playing follow the leader and we rarely had any issues. Fully mobile now we were free to explore the markets, shops, and parks around Ljubljana.

Ljubljana has one huge open air market right in the city center with fruits, veggies, flowers, and a few stalls selling clothes, shoes, or local crafts. On the same strip are permanent fish markets, cheese shops, and butcher shops. The produce in Ljubljana was fresh, delicious, and reasonably priced, and we ate tons of cherries and apricots. Gregg and I are so used to farmers markets in Alaska, where you can count on paying at least double what you would at a grocery store, that it is still a shock to find it the other way around. Grocery stores in Ljubljana had small produce sections, but there really wasn’t much and it was always more expensive than at the market. Possibly the best part of the market though was off to the side where there was a row of vending machines. These vending machines did not hold candy, chips, or soda though, they had fresh dairy! When I say fresh, I mean local, raw milk, yogurt, and cheeses. We saw a milk vending machine in Croatia, but never tried it because we weren’t quite sure how it worked. The milk in Ljubljana was one of our favorite parts (yep, we’re that lame). The fresh yogurt and cheeses were delicious and inexpensive, and they also had one machine filled with fresh apple juice varieties. The milk machine was the coolest though. You could bring your own bottles or you could buy a plastic or glass bottle for $1. Milk cost $1/liter, so you put $1 in, put your bottle inside the filling station, push the button and wait. When it’s done filling it stops automatically and then you take your jug out and it closes a door and sanitizes the filling station. They fill the machines daily and it was always cold and delicious. And open 24 hours :-) :-).

Ok enough about milk, I know. So what else is cool about Ljubljana? The parks. Aside from the river running through the center of the city, which had nice areas to sit and enjoy the shade of the weeping trees and watch the ducks and river boats floating by, Ljubljana has a wonderful variety of parks and playgrounds. The park downtown we talked about already, and Gregg and Conner found some pretty cool playgrounds around the city, but the two standouts were Smartinski Park and Tivoli Park. Smartinski Park was Ljubljana’s equivalent of Margaret Mahem Park in Christchurch, but “not quite as good” according to Conner. It had a smaller water course with a big sand box in the middle, a giant slide, lots of spider web ropes courses, a square swing set which was pretty cool, and a little road course for kids to ride bikes and scooter on. Plus it was backed by an enormous greenbelt with walking trails and picnic tables. Tivoli Park was a huge expanse around a mountain that we never actually made it all the way around. There was even a zoo on one side that we didn’t manage to see. Tivoli had three playgrounds, a duck pond, lots of bike trails, a botanical garden, and two cafes, one with a mini golf course. Ljubljana had water stations all over the city and in the parks which was great because it was damn hot and humid while we were there and you can only carry so much water with you, comfortably at least. Another awesome thing about the parks is that some of them have mobile libraries! A local group created these little mobile libraries using crates of books, sitting cushions, and small sling chairs. They spread them out in the green areas in the parks and they are free for anyone to sit and enjoy. All around Ljubljana, the public services and events were unbelievable, with the one exception of there not being public bathrooms in the parks which I think is weird and a bit annoying. There were a few public bathrooms downtown under the bridges, but none in the parks. But wait, I didn’t do my bathroom rave yet! Ok, so here it is. In the BTC shopping center we saw possibly the coolest bathroom yet. Not as new age or fancy as the talking bathroom in Christchurch, but equally cool because the entire bathroom was child size! The urinals, the sinks, the toilets, even the stall walls were short. The whole bathroom was designed strictly for children and it was awesome.

With that out of the way, I will finish by saying Ljubljana you are an absolute joy of a city to be in and we will be back some day.

Slovenia - Ljubljana Culture

guild_family_of_3 — Fri, 4 Aug 2017 01:10:00 GMT

Slovenia was a different experience for us because this was the first leg of our journey where we didn’t have a car. Because of that almost all of our experience in Slovenia was in Ljubljana. And that’s ok! Wow, what a city. Natural beauty, impressive architecture, simple layout, friendly people, great public transportation, festivals, music, food, Ljubljana has it all. What better way to experience the culture of a country than through food and festivals? That is just what we did, and we did it daily.

We arrived in Ljubljana late afternoon and headed straight to the apartment to unload our bags, and ourselves. The taxi driver was very friendly and the ride cost us just $5 (it wasn’t very far, but more than we wanted to walk with all of our stuff). Our host met us at the apartment and showed us the ropes, then left us to unwind. Exploring the apartment took about ten minutes total since Gregg could walk from one end to the other in about six strides (eight for me). Remember that piece I wrote about living small? This one put a topper on that. With a total of two rooms, the second being the bathroom, this was by far the smallest apartment I have ever been in. Kitchen, dining, living, and bedroom were all one and the same. There was also a small balcony with a table and two chairs, and a fantastic herb garden for us to enjoy! Although this place was tiny, and I do mean Thumbelina tiny, it was so well laid out that it felt completely comfortable. Every inch of space was designed with clever purpose. We even had a hammock chair inside! Brilliant. Bright white mixed with exciting color patterns and a wall mural done by a local artist made the apartment cheery and welcoming. So uplifting was the space that we were all quickly restored and ready to go seek out a dinner spot. I know you’re thinking “here we go again” and you could be right, but I am happy to say that this time it was easy peasy!

We decided to just start walking around downtown and stop when we saw something that looked good. In Zadar it was very easy for me to find gluten free options on most menus and I was hoping Ljubljana would be the same. We stopped to look at a couple of menus and on one of them I saw they had lamb which I know Gregg loves. I had just started to look to see what else they had when a Canadian couple came out and chatted a bit with Gregg. They said they had just finished dinner and the place was absolutely fantastic and they highly recommended it. Perfect! Relatively inexpensive, lamb, recently recommended, sounds great! We sat down at a table outside so we could look out over the river and the boardwalk. Looking over the menu I quickly discovered that the restaurant was an Indian restaurant. Well shit, that would explain Gregg’s hesitation when I asked if this was an ok place to eat. Gregg is an avid curry hater, and even non-curried Indian food is a huge turn off for him. Normally. Forgetting that his wife is about as perceptive as a frightened ostrich, he assumed that I had seen the name of the restaurant “Namaste”. Well that would have been a dead giveaway if I had seen it, but honestly all I saw was “lamb…$12”. Not wanting to repeat our rather epic failure in Marseille he decided to not make a fuss about it. Well what a happy oversight on my part, and lucky that Gregg went along with it, because everything we had there was delicious!! It was one of the best meals we had the whole time we were there. We had a wonderfully light and crispy tempura appetizer. Gregg was happily surprised by his aromatic lamb and tomato stew and Conner and I shared one of the best things I have ever eaten which was a yummy cashew chicken (and I can’t remember the Indian name so don’t ask), and we all left full, happy, and satisfied with our first meal in Slovenia. Win!

The trend only got better as we explored the vast array of foods Ljubljana has to offer. We had sushi, Pad Thai, ramen (real ramen, not the $0.10/pack shit we all lived off of in college), traditional Slovenian cuisine, fish n chips and frog legs next to the fish market, unique pastries, and gelato until our eyes popped! Seriously, everyone eats gelato in Slovenia. Daily. It’s kind of like coffee, you don’t even think about it, it’s just part of your day. “What time are we having gelato today?” One of the best food experiences in Slovenia was at the Friday food festival they have in the main market. Every Friday local food vendors set up booths and serve a couple of their favorite dishes to the milling masses of hungry locals and tourists alike. It was a wonderful look into Ljubljana food culture. I saw a crazy Ethiopian open grill, Thai woks, a four foot wide skillet with a giant pancake scramble, vegan, organic, steakhouse, horse burgers (yes Gregg ate one, and yes it was delicious), ice cream rolled into tubes on an anti-griddle, dumplings, Indian food, and on and on and on. And wine! Always lots of wine. In real glasses too, not the little plastic ones where the bottom falls off. People would take the wine, sit somewhere in the square or at one of the communal picnic tables, and then bring them back when they were done. It was an incredible place to spend a Friday afternoon. Conner’s favorite by far was the tortellini because he got to help make it. They had a giant cheese wheel that was probably two feet across and into the center of it (which was melted into a shallow bowl the first time we were there and a much larger bowl the second time!) they poured hot tortellini and a cream sauce with asparagus. Conner got to mix it all together with a giant metal spoon and voila! Cheesy, gooey tortellini with a fresh bread roll. The portions were large and the prices very inexpensive with the average meal going from $6-10. The only place that, for me at least, topped the Friday market was a tiny little restaurant called Cojzla in the BTC commercial zone. This was a delightful little gluten free restaurant with delicious food that I couldn’t stay away from! Chicken sandwiches, sautéed veggie sandwiches, mozzarella and prosciutto melts, buckwheat noodle salad. I think I ate there five times in four weeks, it was so good. Two full meals including dessert (apricot dumplings, apple strudel, chocolate coconut cake balls!!) cost us about $15. I’m drooling just thinking about it.

The food in Ljubljana was top class, but if there was one thing that could have topped it, it was the festivals. There was something going on every night downtown even if it was just a couple of street performers. The street musicians were mostly people I happily would have paid money to see, and so we did. Conner, being the music lover that he is, insisted on stopping to watch every street performer we passed by (which made for some late lunches and slow walks…). After he had watched a song or two he would go and drop one or two euros in the hat/basket/guitar case and would usually get a “hvala (thank you)” or at the very least a smile and a nod. He danced on bridges, chased bubbles around the square, clapped his little heart out, and I enjoyed it all the more watching him. We saw folk music, classical flutes, Indian flutes, drummers of all sorts, a Dixieland band (about the last thing on earth I expected to hear in Slovenia!), jazz groups, comedy shows, break dancers, accordions, string quartets, a classical guitar duet, a handpan, a violin, and I’m sure I’m forgetting some. Day and night people played the streets and they were generally really good. Then there were the big events. In the main park in the center of downtown there was a full size concert stage that was up when we arrived and only came down two days before we left. On this stage we saw ballet dancers, puppet shows, rock bands, orchestras, something like a charity concert with many different performances and poetry readings in between, and a full blown production of Carmina Burana! One of my highlights for sure. The arts are incredibly important in Slovenian culture and it shows in the quality of the artists we saw while there, and in the daily lives of the residents. You could walk down the street and see people drawing in sketch books, inspired by local architecture or beautiful fountains. More than a few times we heard classical music being rehearsed through an apartment window or an open doorway. Friends would get together and play music and sing in the park or on the steps by the river. There is a cafe downtown called Plato and every Thursday night they turn their large courtyard into a dance floor for their “Salsa nights”. People took to the floor and it was like watching the finals in a Latin dance competition! One with small children weaving in and out of the crowd of dancers ;). I asked one of my Zumba friends if everyone in Slovenia was born dancing and she laughed and said “No, we take lessons”. We also stumbled into some sort of circus festival that closed down the main street through downtown for three days. But this was a much more dark-side style circus. They had strange ladies in alien costumes doing a wacky hair competition. Stilt walkers that were more than a bit creepy in dress and in character and scared the ever living shit out of Conner who promptly ran down the street in the opposite direction after one of them came over to me and examined my head with the end of a garden hose…. A kids circle where oddly dressed people ran around with the kids on what I am guessing was some sort of imaginary adventure, “Oh no! There are monsters this way and they want to eat us, run!!” We saw improv dancers, a cool kids’ science block with fun experiments and carnival style games, acrobats on a giant spinning ladder pretending to be birds, and an acrobatic comedy show, think Cirque de Soleil meets Pink Panther, where two bumbling cops tried to re-apprehend a con after she escaped their custody. But the highlight for Conner was most definitely the fire dancer. The park has a center section that is all dirt and while walking past we spotted a sign that just said “Start 9:30” with a little candle lit up next to it. There was a man setting up speakers and some other things, and Conner decided we had to be back by 9:30 to see what it was. When we made it back there it was about 9:45 and it had already started, but we couldn’t see what it was because of the huge crowd around the circle. We nudged our way in and discovered a man dancing around with different instruments of fire. He had batons, ropes, cups of fire that he threw, flammable powder, fire maces, and music mixed with a way of moving that was trance inducing. It was very impressive and we went back the next night, early, so that we could watch it from the beginning (and not through a sea of heads and legs). It was just as impressive the second time. Ljubljana never disappointed on our nightly walks, there was always something worth watching and every bit of it was free (though we voluntarily contributed to almost all of the street performers in Ljubljana). What an incredible place :-).

Slovenia - The Journey

guild_family_of_3 — Sun, 30 Jul 2017 00:20:00 GMT

Slovenia

THE JOURNEY

Whoa. First off, let me start by saying that it should be clear to all by now that I will never be able to write a weekly journal. I am apparently struggling to write monthly as we have been in Sicily for almost three weeks now and I still haven’t written a lick about our amazing adventures in Slovenia! Now that you know that important bit, I can tell you that the journey from Spain to Slovenia was incredible, frustrating, awe inspiring, and terrifying all at once. The terror was entirely unfounded, but it was our first European train trip and it was a long and fairly complicated one. Our route took us from Valencia to Ljubljana changing trains in Barcelona, Marseille, Milan, and Trieste where we boarded a bus to Ljubljana. Let’s break this down in sections.

Leaving Spain was sad, as it has been with every country we have left. Spain was kind, beautiful, and delicious with a very homey feel about it, but our journey wasn’t over yet so onward we headed out of our tiny town of Vera to drop the rental car in Valencia and hop on a train. The drive was another of those damned early mornings we can’t seem to get away from. Have I ever mentioned that I am not a morning person? I don’t function well until about 10:00am. Good thing Gregg is a morning person (irritatingly so at times…), so he drove and we got there in good time. We dropped off the rental car and they called us a taxi. We shoved all of our annual possessions into the trunk and back seat of the taxi and made our way to the train station. Up until now my experience with trains has all been riding the Amtrak trains to Chicago as a kid, so I wasn’t sure what to expect. We made sure to leave 2 hours, plenty of time I thought, for whatever we encountered. That ended up being about an hour and forty-five minutes more than we needed. The train station was very simple, a waiting area with a few benches and some shops, ticket counters, and cafes, then a small security check point to go through to get to the platform when our train arrived. We lost a couple of Gregg’s pocket knives at the security checkpoint (though they left us with two little ones) and, oddly, two pairs of tiny sewing scissors? Other than that there was nothing to it. We hopped on the train, found a spot for our bags in the car where we sat (thankfully there was plenty of room for our mountain of bags), and enjoyed Conner’s very first train ride as we traversed the north-eastern coast of Spain.

Our train from Valencia was about fifteen minutes late coming into Barcelona and thanks to my heightened level of anxiety I misread the time on our next train and thought we had twelve minutes to get through Barcelona’s much larger train station, find our next train, and get on it! I couldn’t find our train number on the story boards, so I grabbed a lady in a uniform and said “I can’t find our train on the board?” She looked at our tickets, looked a little confused and then pointed us toward a waiting area. We hustled over and I looked at the tickets for the 20^th time, and wanted to smack myself upside the head. “Sorry honey, I can’t read 24 hour time format and we actually have two hours and twelve minutes. That’s why our train isn’t on the board yet….” Nothing quite like almost missing your train to heighten the adrenalin, and then the crash of learning we actually had two hours to sit with our luggage mountain and a cranky, hungry, bored 6 year old. Thinking Putty to the rescue!! I swear, that has been one of the most useful things I’ve carried with me on this trip. A tiny little can of putty has saved many a melt-down moment. We also played dice, cards, rhyming games, water bottle toss, and a fun game called “Move all your shit to the other bank of chairs because you are in the wrong waiting area and you aren’t allowed to sit here.” That was probably Gregg’s favorite game. He loves moving our bags over and over again. Finally our turn and we got on the train with no problems. The trains in Spain were quite comfortable and we had a pleasant ride to our stop for the night in Marseille, France.

Ah Marseille. Not quite what I was expecting? Full disclosure, I actually knew nothing at all about Marseille except what my imagination had cooked up from hearing references to “charming villas in the south of France” and romantic getaways with steamy hotel room scenes. My expectations were pretty vague. Also, we had only one night in which to explore. Not a very rounded opinion then. With those pre-notations I will tell you of our brief adventure into Marseille. Thankfully our hotel was directly across the street from the train station, so we hauled across and checked in with ease thanks to a lovely front desk clerk who was friendly and full of smiles, and spoke perfect English (any French I did know was buried somewhere in the travel fog that encased my brain). Then came the arduous task of finding dinner. I searched online and found a place that got great reviews for their gluten free options, so although it was a bit of a trek we decided to go for it. After all, we lucked out in Spain right? We had also been sitting most of the day and a walk through Marseille sounded nice :-). We left our bags in the room and ventured out to see what Marseille had to offer.

Marseille was a big city that definitely felt like a big city. The not so exciting parts were that the streets were dark, loud, crowded, and filled with trash. Not just the usual litter, but piles of trash around full dumpster bins. Strange? Traffic was an insane mangling of cars and pedestrians, cars were liberal with the use of their horns, and there were plenty of explicit gestures from the drivers. The exciting part was seeing the massive amount of diversity in the people and the food! Marseille felt like a huge global melting pot. I must have seen food from more than 20 different cultures in the small area we got to explore. French bistros, Italian sit downs, Thai, Japanese, American, and lots of what looked like Middle Eastern and Ethiopian street food. The people wandering around at 10pm were equally as diverse looking and I heard quite a few languages being spoken. Surrounded by all of this wonderful culture in a brand new city and we ended up eating at the McDonalds by the hotel. I wish I were joking, but let me explain how it happened. We walked all the way to this supposedly amazing restaurant at 10pm only to find it closed for renovation until Monday. Shit. It was very late, we were all tired and hungry, we didn’t speak French, and we didn’t recognize any of the street food let alone know how to ask what was in it. I tried one Thai restaurant to see if their Pad Thai was safe for me and he looked at me like I was nuts and said “non”. If my brain hadn’t been fried from a day of traveling through four different cities I would have said “Lets just grab a pizza on the corner and I’ll get a salad”. Instead we flocked to the giant yellow sign that said “I’m easy, come see me” and Conner was happy which meant that all was well in the world. I got a salad with “grilled” chicken that was actually breaded which meant that Gregg got a chicken salad with his meal and I got to eat out of the designated train snack bag. Yay! Thankfully our hotel breakfast the next morning had lots of fresh fruit and yogurt so my stomach got a small reprieve from dried meats, cheese, crackers and granola bars.

I was disappointed that we didn’t get to see Marseille in the daylight, I wanted the chance to improve on my opinion of it, but we had a morning train to catch so we packed up and hauled back across to the station to catch our next train to Milan. What an incredible stretch of countryside!! This was definitely my favorite leg. Looking out the big windows of the train as the terrain changed was what I had been expecting and more. Beautiful mountains, crystal seas, and quaint seaside villages painted the landscape as we streamed by. We saw quite a few small towns that looked to be inviting us to stay there when we go back to Europe next time :-). It was a comfortable and enjoyable train ride, especially after a small bottle of champagne came back with Gregg from the dining car, and we arrived in Milan with just under an hour to switch trains which meant we didn’t have to wait in the station for long. The station itself was very cool to see though with its old metal arches towering overhead. Milan was probably my favorite train station simply because of the solid, old feel of it. Even if we did have to pay to pee….

The train from Milan to Trieste was a short one and we arrived on time, which was just before midnight. We had arranged with our Airbnb hosts ahead of time, so they knew we were coming in late. Unfortunately this place was not right across the street from the station, but with much patience and prodding we made it through the twinkling streets of Trieste to our beds for the night. The host was lovely and she had everything ready for us. We made it into the room and Conner fell asleep about ten minutes later. Believe me, that is a huge testament to our state of exhaustion. The next morning the host had a yummy spread of pastries and fresh fruit and yogurt for us. She even bought a large selection of gluten free pastries just for me! We had a nice conversation with an American girl over breakfast who was studying for the summer in Venice and taking a weekend in Trieste. This was just the revival we needed. The hosts were very accommodating and allowed us to keep our luggage in the room until it was time for us to catch our bus in the afternoon which meant we had half a day to explore the city of Trieste bag free!

Trieste was a very pretty city with interesting architecture and friendly people. They were having a kids volleyball tournament in the main square which entertained Conner for a bit. Then we walked down by the port and saw tons of jellyfish swimming around! They came right up to the surface all over the port, it was very cool. As we strolled down random streets we came across a few street musicians including a man playing a hand pan (one of Conner’s favorite instruments) and a man playing a couple of didgeridoos. We listened and danced and talked with the didgeridoo player, and then walked by an old ruined amphitheater on the way to find lunch. Lunch was inexpensive and yummy at a restaurant downtown and we happily went back to the B&B ready to trek back to the station to make the last leg of this trip.

Here is where things started to get a little grumpy. The bus station was supposedly the same building as the train station (according to the all powerful Google Maps), so Conner and I hung out in a small park in front of the station while Gregg went to find where we were going to catch our bus. 30 minutes later he came back more confused than when he left. There was nothing about buses in the train station and the only place we saw buses was a little way down past another building surrounded by scaffolding, but those buses had no drivers in them. As we were talking about what to do next we came across another American couple sitting in the park also waiting for a bus. They helpfully explained that the building surrounded by scaffolding was actually the bus station and there was a doorway if you walked underneath the scaffolding on one side. Thank you random meeting in the park! I hope you are having a wonderful time wherever you are. Feeling a little better we decided to head over and see if our bus was there yet. I didn’t see our bus listed on the storyboard or even on the timetables listed for that route, so I went up and tried to ask the ticket clerk. I asked if he spoke English and he said “No” so I whipped out my handy Google Translate app and asked if our bus had arrived yet as I didn’t see it listed. He said something very fast in Italian which I didn’t understand and after a couple of minutes of failed communication it turned out that he did actually speak a bit of English and he told me the buses were through the red door. I went through said red door and saw buses. Progress! Except there were no lime green Flixbus buses. I was starting to worry a bit since our bus was supposed to be departing in ten minutes and I couldn’t even find the damn thing. I went back in to ask and he said again “All buses inside the red door.” I explained that our bus wasn’t inside the red door and was supposed to be departing at 4:25, ten minutes from now. His response was “Is it 4:25 yet? No.” and then he turned back to his desk happily denying my existence. Fine. We went inside the damned red door to sit and see what happened. Thankfully, right at the stroke of 4:24 a lime green bus came in and brightened the day (literally and figuratively, those things are almost neon!). A bunch of people got off and wandered around stretching their legs and smoking cigarettes, and we waited as the bus driver and his aid checked passports and loaded luggage. We were the last to get on, though there were only about four others getting on in Trieste, and when I climbed the stairs I was faced with a completely full bus. We saw two seats together and Conner and I sat down while Gregg scanned for another seat, but then a man got on and said we were in his seat. I asked if he would mind trading to a single empty seat so Conner and I could sit together and he said that he had both seats (I assume he was talking about his wife or other relation), so we got back up. I walked up and down the aisle and saw a total of two seats, far apart, without either people or bags sitting on them. We decided to wait until everyone got back on this time to see where people were sitting. Once everyone was loaded there were two seats total, both of which had bags in them, but no people. Many annoyed looks, mutters, and sighs later Conner and I were able to sit together and Gregg snagged a seat in front that the driver’s aid had set his bag on. So here is my rant, there was not a single elderly person or child younger than 15 on that bus. If I was traveling alone or even with my husband and saw a person trying to find a seat to sit with their 6 year old I would happily offer to give up my seat, even if it meant I had to split seats with Gregg, so that they could sit together. No question. Not one person out of the 50+ people on this bus felt that way. I had to beg, badger, and apparently piss people off in order to sit with Conner. I would later learn that this was totally normal on private and public transportation in Slovenia (and somewhat in Italy), but I will go into that in another section. I will finish by saying that we arrived safe and sound in Ljubljana, took a $5 cab ride to the apartment, and all too happily unloaded and settled in. Then, just like a bandaid on a skinned knee, our very first night in Ljubljana made everything all better…. :-)

Photos: Slovenia

guild_family_of_3 — Sun, 30 Jul 2017 00:13:00 GMT

Ljubljana mostly

Spain - Cities, Food, and Beaches

guild_family_of_3 — Wed, 28 Jun 2017 19:37:00 GMT

Cities, Food, and Beaches

I talked about Valencia and Madrid in Part 1, as well as a bit of Vera. Now I will tell you a bit more about Vera as well as the surrounding towns and cities.

Vera is a small town, and it feels like a small town. Shop owners know their customers, grocery checkout lines are places for friendly conversation, and the city police serve as crossing guards every day when the kids get out of school (and not in a “Dangerous Minds” sort of way either). Of the many small towns in this beautiful valley, I would say Vera and Cuevas Del Almanzora are the two locals towns in the area with more of the tourists and expats residing in Mojacar, Turre, and Vera Playa. Garrucha seemed to be a mix of both. Despite that distinction, it really didn’t seem like prices or amenities varied much between the towns. Each had their own unique character certainly, Mojacar with it’s Pueblo up on the hill (with a killer view of the valley!) and beach side town below, Cuevas with it’s wonderful park strip downtown, Vera with it’s massive Saturday market that takes up about 25 city blocks branching every which way, Vera Playa with it’s long and beautiful beach stretching all the way to Garrucha which held our favorite swimming beach being protected as it was by a manmade rock break. Garrucha also had the all important water park "Aquavera". Really a nice little water park actually, we spent two very happy days there.

Now here we can’t pass by the Naturist zone, so I will be sidetracking for a moment. At the northern most end of Vera Playa there is a naturist zone which is unique in that it is fully a part of the town of Vera Playa, not separated in any way, but it is officially recognized by the city as a naturist zone where clothing is entirely optional. Ok, so I knew this place existed when we picked Vera as our home base in Spain, and of course I told Gregg that we didn’t have to go there. It was just one section of the town and a small section of beach strip that we could easily avoid if we wanted to. And of course that was the first section of the beach we ended up at. Do you think he believed me when I said I didn’t mean to take us there? Well it’s the truth whatever he says, but end up there we did and our first clue was when we drove past an elderly man strolling down the sidewalk toward the beach completely in the nude. We parked in the lot next to the beach and decided we would just leave the car there and walk our way back down to the other end. As we walked past a small café/bar and past people lounging on towels or in chairs Conner looked at me and said “Mom, why is everyone naked?”. Well kiddo, just like you all of these people prefer their birthday suits over Armani, and this just happens to be a place where everyone agrees on that one small thing and so no one wears clothes. They are all more comfortable that way. Being my child, he of course accepted this bit of reasoning and left it at that. After walking almost the entire beach strip it was decided that topless was about as clothed as people were going to get, so Gregg agreed to drop anchor down near the Garrucha end and we swam and played and had a great time. I will say that the lack of concern over nudity in general in Spain was extremely refreshing. On any beach we went to people were completely comfortable changing in the open, women went topless as often as not, and not just young and fit women. It wasn't a display thing. Middle age women, mothers, and grandmothers too felt the need for skin freedom. Kids under the age of about 6 were just as likely to swim naked as with a suit. Most kids, even at the water park, under the age of about 8 went around in bottoms only, boys and girls. Skin was skin, everyone had it and no one cared.

But let’s get back on track here. Restaurants in all of these towns were plentiful and varied in quality and in price from simple cheap eats to fine dining with a mighty fine price tag. Tapas were everywhere and ranged from €0.50 to €3.00 each. Many places had a meal of the day deal where you could get a starter, main dish, bread, and either coffee or dessert for about €10-13. The paella was of course “to die for” as Conner says, but so was everything else we tried. Every menu had numerous fish and seafood dishes including multiple preparations of octopus. I ate a lot of octopus in Spain and boy was it good. We saw steaks, burgers, chicken, rabbit, and lamb, but the seafood was definitely the stand out everywhere we went. I was absolutely delighted of course, seafood lover that I am. Gregg was also delighted. He was delighted that every place we ate at had options enough that he could completely ignore the fish section ;-).

Being gluten free was surprisingly simple in Spain. All of the big grocery stores had plenty of GF items and just about everything in the store was clearly labeled with allergens including gluten. Most restaurants were very helpful in letting me know which dishes were naturally gluten free, or letting me know what could be made to accommodate. Food everywhere in Spain was fresh, flavorful, and very well put together. Did I mention wine at the grocery store was $2-6 per bottle? Ah Spain, you were delicious.

The two larger cities we visited around Vera were Cartagena and Almeria. Both were much more touristy with huge cruise ships docked in the harbor and lots of food and shops catering to foreigners along the strip and in the Old Town areas. Still, there was definitely some cool history to see in both places to say nothing of the streets and architecture of cities as old as these. Walking the streets in Europe has been an entirely different experience than anything I’ve felt before. I can’t think of a single city I have been in in the US where walking through the streets and buildings allowed me to feel how long ago they were built. In both Croatia and Spain, though the term “Old Town” seems to have become almost a synonym for “Tourist Zone”, the feeling of the cobblestones and alleyways, the shapes of doorways and windows, it all sort of bathes you in a feeling of age and endurance. The stores and restaurants may be modern or old fashioned, squares might be filled with old artifacts or pop concerts, but it all somehow lends itself to the sense of longevity. Please forgive my completely inadequate metaphor here, but I imagine it to be like a person going through the ages and stages of life. First we are our purest, most awkward and bumbling selves just trying to get a foot hold. Then we grow into our bodies and set out to absorb all of the world’s secrets into our quickly growing selves. Then come more changes and we lose ourselves for a bit in the grand torrent of the world around us, coming eventually back to an ordered chaos where we try to hold everything together into one forward motion. The older we get, the more we understand and come to terms with the idea of accepting ourselves as we are and allowing the rest of the world to do the same, accepting us or rejecting us as they will, and we learn to roll with what comes without allowing it to change who we are at our very core. That core, that is what I feel like we get glimpses of walking through these cities with their narrow, cobblestone alleyways with fiber optic cables running overhead. The broad squares with statues and fountains, and street musicians and tour guides. If the cobblestones could talk, they might say “My people may have changed, my walls have been rebuilt, my streets repaved, but I’m still here”. It is a very peaceful and humbling feeling walking these streets.

Cartagena had a bit of this feeling, as well as some neat museums, but we much preferred our visit to Almeria. The city felt more genuine and less made up, and the Alcazaba castle in Almeria was one of the highlights of our trip. Gregg had read about a “cat castle” online where the reviewer said to make sure to bring cat treats for all of the furry friends that stand guard throughout the castle. Since Conner had caught wind of this cat castle and was absurdly excited, I was of course expecting to show up and see not a single cat. I couldn’t have been happier to be wrong! We ran across about 10 different cats roaming the gardens and castle ruins. Some friendly, some not, but all were lured by the smell of “ocean medley” and came within range to be thrown treats, and in a few cases to receive a small amount of petting (after which Conner received a large amount of hand sanitizer….). The castle gardens were mesmerizing with their neatly trimmed hedges, fountains, pools, and cascading water channels leading down from the fortress itself. Conner ran around following the waterways for about 30 minutes before being persuaded to move on up to the fortress (mainly because 92°F was too hot to stay out in the sun any longer with no breezes). We made our way through each part of the fortress ending in the castle at the top of the hill. There was a lot of interesting information along the way about the history of the place, who controlled it during which periods and how they had to dig up the fortress and castle recovering them bits at a time. Fun fact, Almeria was founded (or possibly re-founded based on disputed evidence of earlier settlement) by Calipha Abd-ar-Rhaman III of Cordoba in 955 AD! Don’t you feel smarter now? You’re welcome :-).

Spain made us feel very welcome. Vera especially was wonderfully inviting and comfortable. We could have stayed there indefinitely, however although, Spain, you will be missed, it’s onward to Slovenia!!

Spain - Living Small

guild_family_of_3 — Thu, 22 Jun 2017 02:50:00 GMT

Living Small

One thing we are getting used to more and more as we go along is living smaller. Smaller living space, smaller luggage, even in terms of living more locally. These are all things that I am, for the most part, enjoying. We started by staying in rooms in someone else’ home in NZ, but with a very large yard and lots of space to move around. We had a car and drove around the island quite a bit. Then we moved to the North Island in NZ and we were in more of a cabin setting with one bedroom/shed space, a medium sized living/kitchen space, and a medium amount of outdoor space. We ventured out to the nearby towns every few days, but stayed closer to home more. Next up was Croatia where we were in an apartment, though a fairly spacious one with three bedrooms and a nice size kitchen. We had a car in Croatia and almost wished we hadn’t. Most everything was easily accessible by foot from where we were staying. While we definitely enjoyed having a car (rather than taking a bus) to get to the National Parks, there was really nothing that we needed to drive to while we were in Zadar. In Spain we went down in size again to a very small one bedroom apartment with a tiny balcony as the only outdoor space. While we ended up traveling quite a bit in Spain to different cities, the day to day stuff around Vera was easily as accessible as in Zadar, we just happened to get a killer deal on a car at $210 for a full month ;).

While I won’t say that I would choose apartment living for our eventual home, it has been liberating not having so much “stuff” to deal with. Living out of a backpack with a week’s worth of clothing, a couple of pairs of shoes, and a few toys/electronics and other essentials has been much simpler than I thought it would be. I hate being a cliché, but I am already agreeing with all of the people who say “you will only use half of what you pack”. Well, we’re not down to half yet, but we could definitely send back a small box of stuff that we don’t use enough to make worth lugging around. I am finding myself shaping my idea of “comfort” a bit differently, and my vision of our future house is shrinking bit by bit :-).

While the smaller living is becoming more comfortable, one thing I don’t know that I would ever get used to is the close living. Even in Vera where there is plenty of space in terms of usable land, all of the apartments, duplexes, townhouses, and homes are stacked right next to one another. Vera is more pleasant than some with apartment complexes rising just 3 or 4 stories rather than the 10-20 stories in towns closer to the beach and in the larger cities, but this little town is still packed like a sardine tin. Growing up as I did in wide open spaces, this feels almost more foreign to me than the languages and mannerisms. I have absolutely enjoyed having the ability to walk wherever we need to go, but I don’t know yet if I would consider it a fair trade for the lack of space and privacy. Plus, I am a terrible neighbor! I dislike random socializing, I’m too shy to ask to borrow anything (though I am happy to lend things if someone asks, so I have that going for me at least), I like running around naked but I hate having the windows covered, I like loud music but I hate when I can hear someone else’s music or TV. Really I’m just not someone you should live next to. You have been warned.

We shall see which feature will win out by the end of our journey, convenience of living within a tightly packed yet accessible city, or the space and privacy of living further out….

Spain - The People

guild_family_of_3 — Thu, 22 Jun 2017 01:30:00 GMT

The People We Met

We had plenty of neighbors in Vera, but we only ever met one of our neighbors in our own apartment building (not counting the occasional “Hola” as you pass by in the halls). He was an older gentleman named Carlo who lived in the apartment next to ours, and he spoke not a lick of English. That didn’t stop him from being as neighborly as could be. He would smile and talk to Gregg and I any time we crossed paths, including at the Saturday market. The only problem was that Gregg doesn’t speak Spanish, and my Spanish is rudimentary at best. Gregg would just smile and say he didn’t understand until the man got bored and went back to his apartment. I was able to carry on a little bit of a conversation, but for the most part we just smiled and nodded at each other like a couple of loons. The last week we were in Vera he started bringing us watermelons when we got home in the evenings. We got three watermelons over the course of four days, and on the last night he asked if we wanted another and I explained that we were leaving very early in the morning and wouldn’t be able to eat it before we left. He smiled and went back to his apartment and I went about getting Conner ready for bed. Then when I was in the bedroom putting Conner to sleep he came and gave Gregg a huge bag of oranges! Gregg tried to politely refuse with what I would call questionable success since the end result was a jug of fresh squeezed orange juice for us to drink on the drive to Valencia the next morning.

This generous and funny man was a great example of the type of people living in Vera. Friendly, open, welcoming, and people who love their city and take care of it well. Everything in Vera was clean and well kept. The parks were old, but clean. Garbage cans were abundant and emptied regularly. Shop owners swept or washed down the sidewalks in front of their shops every morning, and in a city that smokes (though not so much as in Zadar) there were surprisingly few cigarette butts left on the ground. Vera was a town full of smiles and welcomes.

Vera was also a town full of English people! Well, I should say the Vera Playa area was full of English people, especially in the town of Turre, but we heard and met quite a few expats who had moved themselves from England to Spain and settled themselves in the Vera region. Absolutely no surprise to me since I could happily see us living there as well, but it was a funny thing to run into. Strangely, both of my Zumba instructors in Spain ended up being English which led to a few lovely mornings of post Zumba coffee and information sharing about Vera, Spain, and England.

One interesting thing about Spain (that we first noticed in Croatia actually) is that when grocery shopping you are expected to bag your own groceries. This was a rather embarrassing lesson the first time we went shopping in Zadar and had no bags with us. There were bags for purchase at the store for about $0.05, conveniently located way back at the beginning of the line of people staring at us…. If I didn’t already have “Tourist” stamped on my forehead I did now. The thing is, in Spain it almost seemed like a bit of a local joke. The first few times we went shopping it was like a race to see how fast they could throw your groceries at you before giving you your total and waiting for you to fumble out your wallet and get your card in the slot while still bagging groceries with your other hand. Then one day I was stuck behind a lady with a huge cart full of groceries. The clerk went at a leisurely pace and helped bag the rest of the groceries when she was done. Then she patiently waited while the woman counted out what seemed like $50 in change. My turn next and it was game on again. Still, somehow it never seemed rude or malicious in any way. The clerks were always polite and would wait as long as it took and not say a word. It was almost like you could feel the joking smile, but not see it. Gregg and I both commented on it, else I might have thought I was imagining it, but a couple of days after my incident with the full cart lady Gregg came back from a quick trip and said “I think they are getting used to me at the store.” I asked what he meant and he said that the lady was tossing groceries at him like he was on Supermarket Sweep (yes, we are now that old) and when she gave him the total and he already had his card out and ready and most of the groceries bagged she gave him a smile and helped bag the rest of the groceries while he worked the credit card machine. Like I said, it never felt rude, just maybe like an inside joke ;-).

I would say that the pace of life here was a bit faster than in Zadar, but still quite slow and enjoyable. People take their time over coffee and stop to chat when passing by friends. Most people seemed to walk around town rather than drive. I saw many more cell phones in Spain than in Croatia or in New Zealand, but the people, and kids, using them weren’t completely absorbed in them. The used them for a bit and then put them down and socialized or watched kids play. One of Gregg's favorite sights was walking home at night past a cafe below our apartment and the couple who owned it would be sitting outside sharing a bottle of wine after closing time.

One of the most interesting things about Spanish living was the split days and late nights. Where we were in Vera and in the surrounding towns everything shut down between about 4-8 and would then reopen for about 2-4 hours. Shops rolled down the doors, restaurants closed the kitchens and only serve coffee, beer/wine, and sometimes tapas. It made for quite a few “damnit!” moments for us, but mostly it was just interesting. Because of this people stayed out much later. It was common to see kids still playing at the parks or eating at restaurants at 10:00pm when I would walk out of my Zumba classes. We were somewhat prepared for this, so Conner’s bedtime was pushed back to 10:00pm in Spain. Living like the locals is what this trip is all about after all! ;)

Something else different about being in Spain has been the relief of not being hassled all the time like I feel is common in the US. What I mean by that is since people in Spain are generally paid fairly in both retail and in restaurants (or so we’ve been told) you aren’t constantly being hassled by people looking for tips or commissions. This in no way means that they are inattentive, quite the contrary actually. Wait staff was always standing by to get us anything we needed, but you won’t see a waiter at your table unless you catch their attention and wave them over, which is much easier than it is in the US, I would say for a couple of reasons. They are not working for tips, so anyone will come and help you regardless of whether you are at “their” table, and also they don’t seem as understaffed here so there are plenty of people to share the work load, thus more people available at any given point in time. Likewise, you can walk into a retail store and see three or four employees who will smile and say hello, but only ask if you need help if you actively attempt to get their attention. While people in Spain seem like skilled and diligent workers, they don’t seem overworked and seem to enjoy a less stressful working atmosphere than you find in the US. All of this being based on my very limited point of view of course :-).

As a whole, Vera was filled with friendly people who were pleasant to engage with and happy to help us learn about their town and their culture. In a word, Vera was quite comfortable.

Spain - Part 1

guild_family_of_3 — Tue, 30 May 2017 20:32:00 GMT

Spain

The Journey

Week one was absolute madness!! Of my own doing of course, but still…. It started when we woke up at 4:00am so we could make the drive to Zagreb to catch our flight to Valencia. Conner was strangely wide awake despite getting just half the amount of sleep he normally gets. We got him up with just enough time to pee before being transferred into a dark, cold car, snugged up in a blanket with a pillow against the window. I would have been passed out before the door closed. Not Conner, he stayed awake for the whole drive. Freak. The drive between Zadar and Zagreb was as beautiful as this time as it was the first time, and we arrived in the city with what should have been plenty of time to get checked in at the airport. Of course the sidetrack to fuel up the rental car used up the greater portion of that time. Is there any country that doesn’t have morning rush hour?? Good thing everything else went smoothly (and I mean that sincerely this time). Rental car returned, we got to the gate just a few minutes before the plane started boarding. Since this was a much shorter flight, the airplane was much smaller. At one point I looked over and saw Gregg and the man across from him both sleeping, each with their legs sprawled out to the side in order not to be smashed into the seat in front. One of the few times I have appreciated being short! The flight went by quickly, which is a good thing since drinks were only provided if you didn’t mind paying $4 for a tablespoon of soda in a glass of ice. Ah the joys of budget airfare. We then had a 6 hour layover in Barcelona which was just enough time for me to fantasize about being able to leave the airport for a quick whirl around the city, or even just lunch, before coming back to the reality that is travel with a six year old…. Have you ever traveled long distances with a six year old? If your answer is “no”, allow me to backtrack a bit and I will enlighten you.

You arrive at the airport with a sigh of relief after hours of hearing “I’m bored, I hate being in the car!” You then spend 15 minutes trying to get your child out of the car by explaining that the seatbelt buckle is in the same place it was when they got into the car, and that their “tired” legs will in fact hold them up if they exit the car. Reminding them that they hate being in the car only results in hearing “I’m tired!” at louder and louder volumes. Under no circumstances will reminding them that they have just had three hours in which to sleep in the car where they sincerely declared they were “not tired” help at all. Finally out of the car, you give your child one very small, very light, very easy to carry item (pillow, toy bag, ukulele case, etc…) as you and your spouse suddenly morph into octopuses in order to carry the rest of the luggage necessary for keeping the entire family alive and entertained. Remember the old woman in the junkyard in Labyrinth? Yeah, that’s about it. You make it about 50 feet before your child gives you a look like a kid in a sweat shop and falls to the floor in apparent utter exhaustion (bonus points if this occurs in the most inconvenient, high traffic area possible). Grow one more limb to carry child’s unfair burden. You make it to the check-in line and suddenly your child simply cannot contain his or her instantly acquired abundance of energy and begins swinging around each and every one of the line markers they can reach. Eventually you give in and bribe them into some semblance of stillness at which point you immediately make an ass of yourself by knocking over one of the line markers you just told your child to stop touching when you bump it with your junk lady load. You make it through check-in and head toward your gate and your child now declares that they are starving. This is where you bust out your creative truth speaking skills as you convince them that there is food waiting for them at the gate (aka somewhere in your junk lady bundles) which gets them moving and hopefully through the security line, although this is likely to require more bribery. On the way to the gate you will pass escalators and moving sidewalks which are some of the strongest child magnets known to mankind. You use your best negotiating skills and finally settle on three trips up and down the escalators before moving on to the next set of escalators. Repeat this process until you finally make it to the gate. At the gate you take up an entire row of chairs in order to unload your bags and lay out every morsel of food you have with you before your child settles on the first choice you offered (before you unloaded and laid out the buffet...). Three trips to the bathroom later and it’s time to board. You get to your seats and stow the bag of carefully selected toys and snacks under the seat while ignoring the fact that, subconsciously of course, you know the only thing you actually needed to bring on the plane was the Kindle. This is one of those times in parenthood where you script the call to your mother apologizing for every time she had to take you anywhere beyond the mailbox. Don’t worry though, you will soon have a moment when you remember exactly why putting your sanity on the line in order to travel is all worth it, I promise :-).

So here we are at the airport in Barcelona and we have established that leaving the airport is definitely not an option. Thankfully there is a nice outside courtyard with plenty of space for Conner to get his crazies out. We play and eat the last of our delicious meats and cheeses from Croatia, and before long it’s time to board the next flight. 40 minutes later we arrive in Valencia where we will stay for the night before driving four hours down to our apartment in Vera for the month.

Valencia

Valencia was a brief experience, but we did learn right away that driving is equally as tight as in Croatia and parking is almost impossible. Silly me, I forgot to download maps of Valencia, so while I knew where we were supposed to be staying Google maps wouldn’t direct us there. If you ever want to test a relationship, drive yourselves to a brand new city, the larger the better, and help each other navigate to some random location with nothing but a street map and a cranky 6 year old in the back seat (if no such child is available a particularly yappy Chihuahua should do the trick). This not being our first experience in this particular test Gregg and I apologized to each other for being assholes and made our way through an impressive number of one-way streets and completely strange intersections and roundabouts to arrive at our apartment for the night. The apartment itself was beautiful and thankfully had its own spot in an underground parking garage. Safely settled in, it was now dinner time. This is where my dietary restrictions become incredibly irritating. For most of our travels not being able to eat gluten hasn’t been all that bad. Most grocery stores have had a small selection of essentials (flour, bread, crackers, sweet treats, etc…) and for the rest I just eat simpler foods, which is great, or we head to any of the fantastic restaurants that either have naturally gluten free dishes, or are happy to help accommodate my annoying auto-immune disease (made easier by simply claiming I am coeliac rather than trying to explain Hashimotos Thyroiditis in any language, including English). The first couple of days in a new city, however, royally suck in terms of food for me. Tired, grumpy, and hungry are not great assets when it comes to attempting to navigate a foreign grocery store (with a tired, grumpy, and hungry spouse and child) in search of food that is safe for me to eat, or even finding and agreeing on somewhere to eat dinner in place we don’t know, in a language we don’t understand, with food that won't make me sick. This is why in Valencia we ended up walking 2 miles to a dedicated gluten free restaurant that was a bit more expensive than we have been trying to stick with, but it was yummy and they had treats to bring home for breakfast the next morning. Plus I didn’t have to ask a single damn question about the menu which makes it a huge win in my book. The next morning Gregg went for his usual morning walk while Conner and I enjoyed our breakfast treats on the balcony. He came back with a bag full of fresh and delicious fruits and veggies, and some snacks to get us through the drive down to Vera.

While the drive down to Vera was not quite as stunning as in Croatia, it was still beautiful with its rolling hills and valleys. I don’t think there was a 10 minute stretch when we didn’t pass some sort of crops or orchards. I now understand why the fruits and veggies seemed so fresh! Living the last 13 years in Alaska, I am used to considering anything that isn’t either already starting to rot or picked at the peak of flavorlessness “good quality”, so we have been absolutely spoiled these last few months by getting to eat produce that was recently picked when it was ripe! It was fun trying to guess what was growing on all of the strange little trees we drove by, beyond the obvious oranges of course. A few smelly cattle farms later we arrived in Vera.

Vera

Vera is a beautiful little town about 8km from the coast. We arrived late in the afternoon and were welcomed and given the keys to our apartment by a very friendly lady working the café downstairs. The apartment was smaller than I remembered when I booked it, but it was also nice, clean, and functional with a designated underground parking spot :-). We dropped our bags and went walking around a bit to stretch our legs from the long drive. In the first five blocks Vera already felt like a different place than Croatia. People here are much more outwardly sociable (not to be confused with friendly! Croatians were incredibly friendly, just less outgoing I think) and without that quiet reserve that we found in Croatia. Everyone smiles and says hello as you walk by, and kid squeals and friendly chatter make up the background noise of the city. The sidewalks are beautiful red cobblestone and brick and are incredibly clean. There are playgrounds every couple of blocks, all clean and nice. We made our way to a restaurant called Terraza Carmona for a late lunch/early dinner only to find that the kitchen had closed at 4:00pm and wouldn’t open for dinner until 9:00pm (Surprise! You’re definitely in Spain now!), however the tapas bar was open. Great! We wanted to try some tapas anyway. Lucky for me there were a few delicious selections that were gluten free including clams and a yummy fish dish in a chunky tomato sauce, AND they brought me gluten free bread! Much restored we decided to brave the grocery store on the walk back to the apartment to stock up for the drive to Madrid. Wait, didn’t we just get here? Why yes, yes we did, and now we are leaving. That’s about all we got to see in Vera because the next morning we got in the car once again and drove the 5 hours it took to get to Madrid.

Madrid

Driving from Vera to Madrid was a challenge for a few reasons. First being that we were all more than tired of traveling after making our way from Zadar to Zagreb to Valencia and then to Vera. Second being that in my frazzled state of consciousness I had forgotten to contact the host of our Madrid apartment to let them know when we were coming and, more importantly, to find out how we were supposed to get the keys! We solved this problem by stopping midway in Albacete to use good old McDonalds Wi-Fi and got instructions from the host explaining that we were to pick up our keys at the concierge desk. Perfect. A little lunch and we were back on the road. The upside of this trip was that we had downloaded maps of Madrid and Google helpfully took us right where we needed to go. Also, thanks to Conner’s creative mind, we have now played the A-Z game with everything from animals and foods to song artists and car models (anyone have a car starting with a Q??). It really does make the drive go faster :-).

Driving through Madrid was much like Valencia, fast and narrow with lots of one way streets. Gregg and I passed the “Madrid relationship test” without too much grief and we arrived at our apartment, once again, just before dinner time (we’re not very fast learners). After a bit of research (and much huffing, eye rolling, and snarking) I declared that we were going to a restaurant 2-1/2 miles away and we could either walk or take a taxi, but I wasn’t giving up our hard won parking spot by the apartment. Guess which option Gregg picked?

Walking through Madrid was an unexpected surprise. I’m not much of a big city person, but Madrid was a very pretty city with attractive architecture, large, clean sidewalks (can you tell I’m obsessed with clean streets? Really I just hate carrying around packs of handy wipes for when Conner steps in something or falls/plays on the ground next to meandering trash piles, dog shit, or suspect puddles…), and lots of parks and playgrounds. There was one park in particular that we walked past, though I can’t remember the name, which was immense in size and a very cool design of trails and trees and fountains. The city just seemed to have a very friendly and inviting feeling. There were plentiful bus stations as well as subway stations all along our chosen path, which we could have used if we had had a scrap of mental energy left to attempt deciphering public transportation routes in a new city.

An hour later we arrived at a little restaurant called Pizzasana. If you are keeping track that means that we walked at a roaring speed of 2-1/2 mph, aka 6 year old “I’m too tired” walking speed. By this point we are all understandably starving, and I am happy to say that Pizzasana was exactly what we needed. The owner was there that night and greeted us, in English, with a big smile. He explained that the only thing on the menu that had gluten in it was the pasta, which left me with lots of choices. Happy girl right here :-). The owner disappeared into the kitchen for a moment and returned to walk us through the menu, and to say that he had the chef working on some nachos for Conner “on the house” while we were deciding. This guy was my momentary hero! I was even more impressed when the nachos came out loaded with three types of meat and even more cheeses. Conner’s eyes nearly jumped into the bowl after his tongue. Finally decided, we ordered ravioli for Conner, steak for Gregg which came with asparagus and fries, and for me chicken wings with a crazy chutney and a “hamburger” which was actually an entire steak on a bun with arugula, mushrooms, onions, provolone, and Iberico bacon. And fries. On top of all that the owner went into the kitchen and personally cooked our meal for us. Holy crap we were stuffed and we still had an entire meal’s worth of food leftover. Some of the best food we have ever had and the total bill, including drinks, was $48. With everyone fed and feeling much less grouchy, the walk home was a nice, leisurely stroll with the occasional light drizzle to cool us off. A much needed respite in the middle of a crazy and stressful week.

The next day was actually our reason for driving all the way to Madrid. There was a training course I was meaning to take when we returned from our travels abroad, but circumstances changed and I had to get it done before June 1^st. The only opportunity within reach was in Madrid, so there we were. I successfully navigated myself through Madrid’s morning rush hour (major accomplishment for me!) and spent the day training while Gregg and Conner walked around in Madrid visiting 15 playgrounds that were all within 2 miles of the apartment. 15! It was some much needed play time for Conner, and Gregg got to walk around exploring the city which is pretty much his favorite thing to do. A quick walk up to the market when I got home and we had a simple dinner in our itty bitty apartment (when I say itty bitty, I’m talking about a kitchen that is almost too small to open the refrigerator door and a bedroom that is a loft over the little living room). The next morning we were out of the apartment by 11 and on our way back to Vera for the remainder of our month in Spain. Phew!

So, to recap, our introduction to Spain went like this:

Day 1 – Drive 3 hours to Zagreb, travel for 9 hours to get to Valencia

Day 2 – Drive 4 hours from Valencia to Vera

Day 3 – Drive 5 hours from Vera to Madrid

Day 4 – Finally in one place for 24 hours!

Day 5 – Drive 5 hours from Madrid to Vera

I’m sure you’re not surprised to hear that we didn’t touch the car for 3 days after that. Thankfully Vera is a small town with lots to walk to :-).

Photos: Spain

guild_family_of_3 — Sun, 28 May 2017 04:06:00 GMT

Vera, Madrid, Valencia, Cartagena

Croatia - Natural Wonders

guild_family_of_3 — Wed, 17 May 2017 00:52:00 GMT

NATURAL WONDERS

While in Croatia we visited two of the national parks and they were even more stunning than I imagined. The first park we visited was Krka National Park. In my dreams I have never imagined so much water in one place. Croatia is a very green country and Krka was like the epicenter of an explosion of vibrant green plant life. Waterfalls and spills, lakes and rivers, streams, springs. I was smiling like a toddler in a toy store! We took the ferry out to Roski Slap which took about an hour and a half both ways. If we had known more before we went we would have saved the $50 and driven to the entrance by Roski Slap, but the ferry wasn’t all bad. It was a pretty ride through the canyon and we got to stop at an island in the middle which had been built stone by stone (the whole island was built by monks in the 1800s!) and on the island they built a beautiful monastery surrounded by gardens and olive groves. This is the monastery where we found the museum I mentioned with the war memorial. Roski Slap was a beautiful series of small cascades ending in a very pretty mid-sized waterfall. The rushing water was once used to power a large grain mill which had been preserved for tourists to go into and see how things were done long years ago. It was very cool to see how the mill was set up and for Conner, little engineer that he is, to see how a water wheel works. We hiked all around the area and up 517 steps (that felt like five million!) to a small cave where they have found evidence of human inhabitance dating back to 5,000 B.C. We also saw two cute little furry brown bats which caused Conner to squat down and duck walk quickly away whispering fiercely “Mom! Don’t talk! Come to me!” Hahaha! After the ferry ride back we took a bus to the other side and walked the boardwalks around Skradinski Buk. It was amazing walking through endless cascades and pools and flowing streams. I could have spent three days there easily. Since we were early in the season there weren’t too many people there with us which made for easy walking and viewing around the boardwalks. Really just a stunning place.

The day we chose to go to Plitvice National Park was a different story. We ended up going on the Croatian equivalent of Labor Day, so the park was PACKED. Unlike Krka where the boardwalks are a one way walking trek, Plitvice’s boardwalks are a free for all, so there were people going both directions and lots of them. Plitvice was certainly beautiful, but it did put a slight damper on things having to fight! through so many crowds. We had to wait in line for an hour to get on a ferry to take us further into the park. I can’t imagine being here in high tourist season! Crowds aside, Plitvice was breathtaking with its huge falls and endlessly deep lakes with colors I can’t even describe. The water in the lakes at Plitvice was such a mesmerizing blue/green I just wanted to sit and stare at it. At the same time it was so clear you could see trees and boulders 30 feet down that had fallen in. If the magic at Krka was the endless water, at Plitvice it was the color of the water. The pictures we took hardly do it justice, but even still they are incredible. I am so thankful to be able to have seen such places of natural beauty as these. When people tell you to “imagine your happy place” Krka and Plitvice most definitely fit into mine. Plitvice also had an old grain mill that you could walk around and these were actually working when we were there. There were two active mills grinding corn which delighted Conner (since parental explanations rarely make much sense to children without being demonstrated).

All in all, Croatia was an incredible experience and I would love to return, multiple times ;-).

Croatia - The Food

guild_family_of_3 — Wed, 17 May 2017 00:50:00 GMT

THE FOOD

The food we tried was generally pretty simple, but incredibly well done and inexpensive. A cheap “fast food” meal of sandwich and fries cost about 20 Kuna which is about $3. A three course meal at a nicer restaurant cost between 80-120 Kuna ($11-18) and was almost always served with bread to start. There were lots of grilled or rotisserie meats with vegetables, risotto, carbonara, perfectly grilled fish and squid, caprese salads, dried meat and cheese platters, fresh bread, pizza, and French fries. They love French fries here :-) as did we! Bakeries were EVERYWERE and had everything from $1 loaves of fresh bread and pastries to giant savory meat and cheese filled filo dough. All manners of cakes and sweet treats, though their version of the donut was much different. Conner loved the chocolate filled donut which was more of a slightly sweet bread puff with a little chocolate cream in the center. The simplicity of food showed in the bakeries as well. Sweet pastries came filled with either chocolate, or marmalade with the occasional strawberry filled variety. Savories were pretty much either cheese or meat. Most bakeries had the same items as the next one down and while everything we tried was delicious, there was definitely less variety than you would see in a bakery back home. Totally not a bad thing for this indecisive person.

Coffee shops were more plentiful than drive-throughs in the US, but the coffee in Croatia is also quite simple. No crazy concoctions, no frills or syrups, and no “drip coffee” (to Gregg’s utter frustration). Just different preparations of espresso with or without milk or cream and sugar. Soda cost more than beer. A Coca-cola cost the same as a beer and was half the size. Ice cream was the dessert of choice in most places and was absolutely fabulous.

We discovered that one of the more traditional Croatian breakfasts consists of different dried meats (mmmm prosciutto) with local hard sheep, cow, and goat cheeses, and a dense bread (or crackers in my version as the gluten free version of this dense bread was…. Yeah it was just yucky). Delicious and incredibly filling. Another traditional dish we tried was called Peka. It is a dish where they put meat and vegetables in a big roasting pan with a “peka”, a dome shaped lid, over the top and slow cook it under the coals in a big stone oven. Once we learned about peka the giant brick ovens outside of every house we passed by made more sense. Thanks to my most awesome Zumba friend Ana, we found a delicious and inexpensive place to try peka. Our only regret was that we hadn’t tried it sooner! A scrumptious plate filled with enough meat and vegetables to fill all three of us (with leftovers to bring home) cost us 90 Kuna, or about $13. The food in Croatia was an absolute delight and one of the best parts of the trip :-).

Croatia - The People

guild_family_of_3 — Wed, 17 May 2017 00:46:00 GMT

THE PEOPLE

The people in Croatia were a mystery to me at first. I had heard many people say that Croatian people were some of the friendliest they had ever met, but as we walked around Zadar there were very few people smiling and no one really said hello or even gave the head nod as they walked by. Waiters and store clerks were rather short and to the point. It didn’t seem rude at all, just strange to me. We did lots of people-watching as Conner played at parks, and as we began to meet people and make friends we found that underneath the rather somber exterior is a people who are kind, generous, and love to laugh. The older generation of grandmas and grandpas loved to pat Conner’s head and cradle his cute little face, and I also got my share of head patting and hair petting. The apartment where we stayed was above the apartment where our host’s mother lived. She spoke no English, but she always smiled and said hello (and other things that I didn’t understand) when we passed each other coming in or out. She even gave Conner a giant chocolate bar for Easter! Our host Ljubo was very friendly and helpful and always answered our questions with a big smile. The younger generations all spoke some degree of English, most very well (making me quite annoyed with myself at the fact that I only spoke one language), and were more than happy to help or answer any questions we had.

People in Zadar seemed to be generally a quieter people than we raucous Americans which was interesting to watch. It also had the side effect of making Conner seem like a walking air horn. Walking around, sitting at cafés, in grocery stores, conversations were still very animated and there was plenty of laughter, it was just that they all had the volume turned down. People rarely call out to each other, they just talk to each other when they meet. This sense of quiet even translated to the way parents dealt with their children. Leaving the park, they would walk over to their kids rather than calling out to them to say it’s time to go. With very few exceptions, when I saw a child upset, whether it was sad, angry, overwhelmed, or hurt, a parent would hold the child and quietly talk to them until the upset had passed and the child went merrily on their way again. It was very heartening to see.

Walking around in the late afternoon we saw lots of groups of old men playing a sort of bocce ball game or sitting down playing cards at a picnic table by the sea. It felt as though the people, like the city, had that same sense of old blended with new. Zadar was a very cool place to sit and observe. Older people and children were both treated kindly and with respect. Kids weren’t tolerated, they were enjoyed. People’s faces would break into smiles when kids would run by chasing balls or on scooters or jumping from chairs or walls. No one seemed annoyed by normal childhood antics, rather they were looked on with fond memory maybe? I never once felt like I had to apologize for Conner being a kid. Croatia for us was the very definition of stress free living.

Croatia - The Cities

guild_family_of_3 — Wed, 17 May 2017 00:38:00 GMT

THE CITIES

Zagreb

My first impression of Croatia was “Wow, it sure is quiet and serene for being at an international airport?” We were surrounded by lush greenery and only one road that we could see. It was beautiful! My second impression was “Whoa, ok so everyone in Croatia smokes cigarettes.” Both impressions seemed to hold true throughout our stay. In Croatia, almost everyone smokes and they do it absolutely everywhere, in cars, over coffee, at the beach, walking around, parks, playgrounds, concerts, wherever. It was off-putting at first, but since it wasn’t tourist season yet there was plenty of space to move in to avoid most of it. As for the impression of being quiet, Croatia really does feel like a quite country. Of course every city has its sounds, but somehow here they all seemed muted, like everyone was working at library decibels. Very relaxing :-).

We decided to stay the first night in Zagreb before making the drive to Zadar. We picked up our rental car from the airport and headed over to our hotel. At first glance driving through Zagreb it seemed pretty run down with many abandoned and half destroyed buildings, and there was graffiti everywhere on buildings both abandoned and occupied. It was a bit strange, but after walking around the city for a day I found that, while many buildings were abandoned and half busted up, the city was both vibrant and bustling, and pretty cleanly kept. Our hotel was a beautifully restored old building and very cozy. It wasn’t long before we discovered that restored buildings, originals, and abandoned buildings are mixed together all over the city with no particular rhyme or reason that I found. The lady that checked us in was very pleasant and showed us to our room. She gave us information about the area and directed us to the tram. Ah the tram, Conner’s favorite part of Zagreb. Actually the tram was really cool. Zagreb’s tram system was set up in the late 1800s and runs all through the inner city with a few trains going out through the suburban areas. They are fast, inexpensive, and run so frequently we never saw more than an 11 minute wait on the time boards for any tram. Over 500,000 people ride Zagreb’s tram system daily, but they were still clean and not crowded. You can buy monthly passes for not much, or daily passes for 30 Kuna which is about $4.25, or 30 minute one way passes for 4 Kuna. Pretty sweet system really.

Exploring downtown Zagreb was interesting with lots of old mixed in with new. Markets, shops, music, cafes. Remember when I told you that New Zealand had the most futuristic bathroom I had ever seen? Well Croatia put a new one over on me too. I kept hearing strange mechanical noises while sitting down to pee and when I got up to open the door the toilet flushed and then the damn seat started spinning! The whole seat rotated around itself while a cleaning brush came out from the back of the toilet and washed the seat for the next lucky bottom to sit on. America, you have got to improve on your public restrooms. Seriously.

Zadar

Zadar was a very laid back city. The pace of the place seemed to be a nice mosey with no particular hurry or worry. People sit for hours and drink Kava (coffee) or beer and chat or just relax. Walking through the city you will see many people taking naps or sunbathing on stone walks near the water, or beaches, or in parks. Cell phones are rarely seen in public which was a great reminder for me to keep mine in my purse and just enjoy where we were. It was an enjoyable city with lots of character and fun to find little secrets :-).

Our apartment in Zadar was ideally located just outside of old town where it was quiet, but within walking distance to everything. We only used our rental car about once a week while we were there, it just wasn’t necessary unless we were going to another town or a specific shop/restaurant all the way across town. Within two miles of our apartment were more restaurants and café/bars than I could ever count, supermarkets, shops, small produce markets, meat markets, bakeries on every block, playgrounds, beaches, the sea organ, and endless cool bits of architecture and history. Zadar was completely different than any place I’d been in that residential and commercial were blended together throughout the entire city. No matter where you lived in Zadar you could walk to restaurants, café/bars, markets, shops, playgrounds, and bakeries in under 10 minutes. The bottom floor of most apartment buildings was filled with cafes and shops. This was a good thing since driving in Croatia was another new experience for us…

Driving in Croatia is fast and tight. People race around in tiny little cars, in tiny little “streets” aka alleyways, and park in tiny little spots that often leave you squeezing to get out of your door. I have never seen such skillful parallel parking in my life. Similar to NZ, parking seems to be wherever you can fit. Sidewalks and grass are totally fair game. Driving from Zagreb to Zadar was slightly confusing as Gregg was going 150km in a 130km zone and getting passed like an old man that couldn’t see over the steering wheel. But at least we were back on the right side of the road again! AND we had a very comfortable car this time around. I am happy to report not a single piece of the car ejected itself from our beautiful and reliable Opal Astra :-).

Most of the playgrounds in Croatia were not notably special. Green areas or gravel/dirt with maybe a play tower and a slide or a teeter totter. It was a bit disappointing for poor Conner after being spoiled by New Zealand’s playgrounds, however they did have quite a few fountains which he loved to watch :-) and a few little hidden gems that were more fun and in better condition. There is a very large, beautiful, and serene forest park in old town that we walked through four times before realizing that there was a great playground tucked away in one corner. One of our favorite spots was a small café/bar on the water that had a playground attached to it with a slide, swings, sandbox, and a four pack of big trampolines. Gregg and I could sit and watch the incredible sunset over the Adriatic while Conner played. I’ve never been much of a sunset watcher, but here in Zadar it just seemed to be the thing to do, so we did and it was magical (forgive the terrible cliché if you please). Zadar had many such places where the playground was, if not attached, right next to a café. Brilliant really. If New Zealand’s playground highlight was the flying fox, Croatia’s was trampolines! Trampolines were everywhere in Zadar. They were usually in four or six pack set ups with a single net around the outside. Kids just bounced their little hearts out with no one saying “wait your turn” or “don’t play that way”. I can’t see this working everywhere, but here it did. I never saw anyone get hurt or left out of the fun. Similar to NZ, kids here all happily play together. They share, they take turns, and they help each other. Watching the way kids play together around the world has been one of my absolute favorite unexpected pleasures :-).

Cats. Cats. Cats. Everywhere! Zadar had so many cats it was the first word Conner remembered in Croatian. Macka (pronounced machka). People even put out cans of cat food at the big market so the cats will stick around. It became a game to see how many cats we could get pictures of as we were walking around the city before they went into hiding. The final week we were in Zadar we caught 18 cats on camera. We walked around to the sound of Conner yelling “Macka!” :-).

Now, let me tell you about the Sea Organ! This is a magical bit of engineering in the form of a set of wide stairs leading down into the ocean. As the waves lap up on the steps the water flows into different channels and plays a pipe organ built into the underside of the steps! It is very cool (slightly creepy in the dark…) and was an amazing place to relax while Conner rode his scooter in the park around the sea organ. There is also a giant circle of glass covered solar panels that measures about 50 feet across and is deliciously warm to lay across on a chilly April day. At night the circle lights up and dances in a dazzling multicolored light show with the sea organ as accompaniment. We had a very fun, very late, night dancing with the lights and watching kids play light tag :-).

In Zadar, similar to what we saw in Zagreb, new was mixed with old, occupied with abandoned. History on display to walk by on your daily routine wherever you go. I had forgotten just how recently Croatia had been a war zone. When we visited Krka National Park we were brought to a very old monastery that had been partially transformed into a museum. One of the rooms was dedicated to remembering the Croatian war of Independence (1991-1995). There was a framed statement on the wall with the heading “We have forgiven, but we must never forget…”. I felt like that statement explained much about both the cities and the people as we got to know both.

Split

We only spent one day in Split, so I don’t have a whole lot to say about it, but it was a much more businesslike city with big shopping malls and much more of a hustle and bustle feeling than Zadar. Still nothing like a US big city, but noticeably different. The river flowing through town was quite nice though :-). We visited Klis fortress just outside of Split and although we were too late to go inside, the view of the city and the sea from the fort entrance was breathtaking.

Photos: Croatia part 2

guild_family_of_3 — Mon, 15 May 2017 21:22:00 GMT

Zadar

Photos: Croatia

guild_family_of_3 — Sun, 14 May 2017 03:06:00 GMT

Zagreb, Zadar, Krka National Park, and Plitvice National Park

Croatia - The Journey

guild_family_of_3 — Sun, 14 May 2017 02:54:00 GMT

THE FLIGHT

Holy crap!! We survived, and we did it quite well I say. 25 hours from Auckland, NZ to Zagreb, Croatia. Thank god we weren’t flying with any of the US airline companies. Qatar airways was so much more enjoyable in every aspect than any airway I’ve flown before. More room so Gregg’s knees weren’t wedged into the seat in front of him, friendly service with the exception of one flight attendant but I’m just going to say she’s the exception here…, yummy food including specially gluten free meals just for me, and (take notes here Alaska Airlines) a free entertainment center in every seat with more movies than I could scroll through in two hours. Plus games, music, and a kid’s center. They even brought Conner a little travel Guess Who game in a cute zip pouch. Oh, and they have pull out bassinets!! Seriously, I had to go up to the front bathrooms after Gregg told me about them just to see for myself. The seats just behind the middle partition had two pull out bassinets that were attached to the partition wall with little bitty babies sleeping in them.

Our first flight was from Auckland to Qatar and it took 17.5 hours. That’s a long ass time in a seat not matter how comfy it is! But, with food and free alcohol it really didn’t take long before we were all asleep. We woke up in the morning and had breakfast, then watched movies and played battleship and chess with each other until we landed in Qatar. The Qatar airport was nice and very large. Just like in Fiji we had to go through security again to get to our connecting flight. It took so long that by the time we got to our next gate we had about 10 minutes to pee, play at a really cool playground, and make it back to the gate for last call to board. Yeah, Gregg was pretty irritated, but there was no way we were getting back on a plane after 17.5 hours without letting Conner get some of his crazies out on the playground. And hey, we made it so no point making a fuss right? ;)

The flight to Zagreb was a pretty uneventful 6 hours, but quite pleasant with another comfy airplane and good food again. We got to the airport and went down to get our bags where we were greeted by the sounds of sirens. Yay! Conner’s favorite! Shit…. I finally found a lady near the baggage claim to ask about the sound and she explained that the airport was brand new and had only been open for two weeks and they were still working out the kinks. The alarm was from one of the emergency exit doors they were working on. She was a very nice lady and after talking with Conner a bit about where we came from and our adventures so far she went on her way and Conner was fine again. We got our bags and looked at the “customs” area which was a red counter and a green counter telling us to go to the red counter if we had something to declare, green if we did not. The only person near the customs zone was in front of the hallway next to the counters and people seemed to be checking with him before walking out, so we figured he was “the man”. We walked over and handed him our passports. I said “I don’t think we have anything to declare, but we do have some food and a few pocket knives?”. He looked at the top passport for about 1 second, handed all three back to me and said what I believe was the Croatian equivalent of “meh” and nodded his head for us to go on our way. Ok then, we have arrived in Croatia! We got down to the car rental counter and had to wait for an hour before they opened, but they were happy to give us our car early, so we were out of the airport in not much time at all. The rental car we got was an Opal Astra and it was brand new, as in less than 500 miles on it. Well shit, as much as I loved the sight of it (and it was seriously fun to drive!) the mother in me was panicking at the thought of just what my 6 year old can do to a car in one month....

NZ - North Island Part 3 - The People

guild_family_of_3 — Sat, 22 Apr 2017 01:57:00 GMT

We were warned before we ventured North that the inhabitants of Northland, the northernmost province in New Zealand, are of a different variety. By this I am guessing they were referring to the observation that shoes and shirts are entirely optional, and the only hurry is in getting out of the rain when a storm hits or getting to the beach for a perfect kite-surfing day. Everyone we met during our stay came with a ready smile and open conversation. Parents easily make conversation with you in the parks, people smile and wave as they drive or walk by. It was like a non-creepy version of Pleasantville. Even so, socializing doesn’t come naturally for Gregg and me, so when the opportunity came up for Gregg to join a local Friday football (aka soccer) game he was a bit hesitant. Also, he’s never actually played football (slight deterrent...). It came about after a Zumba class of mine. Zumba has been a great confidence booster for me socially. Everywhere I’ve been to a Zumba class, US or abroad, I have made instant friends with at least one or two people. Dancing just makes people happy :-). On the North Island there were three such wonderful ladies that became true friends over the course of our stay. Jocelyn, Bronwyn, and Stephanie. As we were heading out after a class Bronwyn mentioned that her husband was starting up a Friday game "just for the blokes" and Gregg was invited if he wanted to come. We said thanks and we would see what we were doing Friday and maybe he would join in. Neither of us said it out loud, but we both knew that meant “Thanks, but I don’t think so”. I thought about it the whole way back to the bach, and I kept thinking that it sounded really fun, but I would be too shy to go so I shouldn’t pressure him. Then we had a conversation back at the bach about living in the moment wherever we were and not letting opportunities pass by because we were shy, or embarrassed, or nervous (you know, the deep stuff). What better way to learn the way of the locals then with a Friday game? He decided he would go and if it was horrible he wouldn’t go back. I’ll save you the suspense, he had a blast :-). Turns out they only had three guys show up, so the wives all came and they had a great game that was competitive, but in that fun way where everyone is laughing at each other feeling like 10 year olds. They decided to just make if family Friday, so Conner and I joined in the next two weeks. Others joined in too and it ended up being one of the major highlights on the North Island, and we made some fantastic friends. They all laughed at our weird shoes as we shared ciders at half time (playing soccer in five fingers was not as bad as I thought it would be), and later the kids had their own game. That was almost better than playing myself, watching Conner happily chase after the ball with a troop of about 15 other kids :-). If you know Conner, you know that this is a rare sight. He is much more of a one-on-one kid, but he ran around and had a great time for three hours like he’d known these kids his whole life. This was exactly what I had hoped for when setting out on this crazy adventure. Natural friendships are few and far between for me and this was definitely a happy time :-). Stephanie invited us out to their bach (which didn’t work out because of schedules, but we appreciated the offer) and we ended up hanging out with Bronwyn’s family again after the Manganui waterfront festival. It was such a good time for everyone. The festival was a perfect final weekend with a day of good food, good music, dancing with Conner on a grassy hill, watching paddleboard races, and friendly people. Everything that we had come to know and love about life on New Zealand’s North Island.

NZ - North Island Part 2 - The Beaches

guild_family_of_3 — Sat, 22 Apr 2017 01:43:00 GMT

THE BEACHES

Tokerau beach is in the picturesque Doubtless Bay on the Karikari Peninsula, Northland, New Zealand. Gentle surf and gradually declining beaches made for a very safe play area for Conner. Even better, it took less than two minutes to walk from our front porch across the street and through the park to the beach. It was wonderful to be able to watch Conner get more and more comfortable with the water, going further and further out into the little waves every day. Then he got his first crab pinch and the world ended. Shrieking, running, crying, hysterics, the whole show. I would say he overreacted to the most unbelievable extreme, but that would mean that I also overreacted to the most unbelievable extreme and so did Gregg (minus the crying. And I would like to think of the noise I made as more of a yelp than a shriek). Seriously, there are few things more entertaining than watching a grown man (or woman, I admit it) try to do the high knee prance out of the surf with that look of sheer terror on their face, all because of a little crab pinch on the toe. Tears of laughter were streaming down my face. And although that very definitely ended Conner’s time at the beach that day, I am happy to report that we all eventually grew accustomed to the occasional crab pinches and seaweed caresses. Although we never caught any of these crabs, we did dig up a bunch of tua tuas (and by “we” I mean Gregg) and made delicious clam chowder! Very cool :-).

We took a day to make the drive up to Cape Reinga to see where the Pacific Ocean meets the Tasman Sea. That was a very cool thing, we could see a definite color line where deep blue met lighter blue/green. On the way back down from the cape we stopped at the sand dunes where people go sand boarding down steep dunes (yeah, not this person), another beautiful white sand beach called Rarawa Beach, and of course 90 mile beach which was very different from the other beaches we had been to. 90 mile beach was much rougher and had a pretty strong fish/seaweed smell, but then we didn’t drive the whole beach like most people do (remember, we have the most gutless car ever made that also happens to be falling apart) so my opinion was based on the one small section that we saw. It was cool (aka terrifying for mom) for Conner to get to play in the big waves though, so that was fun. He was tackling waves on his own that lifted Gregg off of the sandy bottom!

The other drive we took was to a small town called Kohukohu in search of a local artist my mom had come across years ago on her visit to NZ. This was another stunning drive. It was also long which meant that Conner got to have some Kindle time. It was also extremely curvy which meant two things. First, we really wished that we had a better car. Second, Conner got terribly car sick. Holy. Vomit. He’s been car sick before, but not like this. He was miserable and trying to sleep it off in the back seat, but about five minutes after we got back onto the flat straight section of the road I heard the telltale deep breaths indicating imminent expulsion. I asked if we needed to pull over and he said yes. About two seconds later the car was filled with barf. Conner rarely pukes, but when he does he always tries to hold it in with his hands. While I appreciate the effort, it definitely didn’t work this time. We got him out of the car and he puked some more on the side of the road. Car seat, clothes, hair, and the back of the driver’s seat were all covered in vomit. It was fun to clean up too with just a few handy wipes, a handkerchief, and a bottle of water. His clothes were beyond cleaning without a washer, so he ran around in his undies all the rest of the day. Luckily, we are in New Zealand where this is perfectly acceptable :-). The upside of this little adventure is that Conner now believes me when I tell him he will get sick if he plays his kindle for the entire car ride. Small victories right?

Enough about barf though, let me tell you about our absolute favorite beach. It had no smell, no seaweed, and we only got two crab pinches in three visits, hooray! And it was only a ten minute drive from our bach. If I were to attempt to describe the perfect beach, Matai Beach would be it. Beautifully warm water. Soft white sand, but the shape of the bay is such that it is protected from the wind so you don’t get sandblasted. Clear blue water that you can see through to the soft, clean, sandy bottom. Waves big enough to play in in the center of the cove where Conner took to the boogie board like a frog to a lily pad, and baby smooth waters at the edges. Rocky pools for snorkeling at both ends. A short walk to the water from the small parking lot, and showers to get de-salted when you are done playing. We could have spent every day here and been happy J.

NZ - North Island Part 1 - The Bach

guild_family_of_3 — Sat, 22 Apr 2017 01:07:00 GMT

THE BACH

This “traditional Kiwi bach” was both homey and quirky. Surrounded by a wide green lawn and a massive wrap around deck, the outside was perfect for hanging out and playing. Also, there was a playground right outside our front door so Conner got to walk across the street and play anytime he wanted and I could see and hear him from anywhere in the bach. The outside looked very cabin like, though well kept, with weathered wood siding and tin roofs. The interior was clean, bright, colorful, and full of tasteful yet personal touches from the family and friends who spent many summers there. The layout of the bach I will admit was a bit strange. The kitchen and living room are in one building with a bathroom (a very nice bathroom) that has to be accessed by going outside around the side of the building. The bedrooms are in a separate building with the storage shed. Odd, sure, but nothing about it made our stay unbearable. Much to our Alaskan born child’s confusion we had to be thrifty with water since the entire area is on rainwater and we were at the end of a dry summer. Yes I know, I just said we had a huge storm with massive flooding, but we had no way of knowing how much water was actually in the tanks and it was good education for him anyway. Another side effect of the storm was a seriously creepy amount of BUGS! Every time it rained while we were there the local insects fled the soggy and windy outdoors and congregated on the walls and ceilings of every room in the bach. Yuck. Luckily not too many of them were nibbling bugs, so we didn't get too terribly eaten. This did however make one particluar observation we had painfully apparent. So far as we saw on the South and North islands, screens are altogether unknown in New Zealand. How does a place that gets so hot in the summer not have screens?? I forgot to ask while we were there.... To make up for the strange layout and the neverending supply of bugs, this place came fully loaded. There were tons of games and puzzles in the house (Conner’s new favorite game is a toss-up between charades and Cranium) and the shed was an absolute goldmine of entertainment! Beach toys, mats, and chairs, boogie boards, skim boards, bocce ball set, croquet, dart board, BBQ grill. With the beach across the street and the big lawn area all the way around the bach we had endless options for fun times. Another important feature of the bach was the giant aloe plants growing all around the house. Very handy for the first few full beach days when we lost the last of our Alaskan pale skin! Funny thing, we all played croquet together and we thought we would give Conner a double handicap, two strokes for every one of ours. Yeah that was a joke. He kicked our asses! I think we have finally found a sport that Conner is not totally lost in :-). This place was a true fun house and we felt very lucky to be able to stay here.