Zadar, Croatia

Zadar may be a very charming city, but I really don't know. My interest here is in the islands. I purchased a ticket for a tour that would last all day and take my through the Kalnati National park on the island of Dugi Otok (one of the largest islands in the Dalmatian Archipelago, and the farthest seaward).

The trip started out a bit chilly, I found myself wishing that I had brought my jacket. The combination of the wind and sea spray had quite the chilling effect. Fortunately the crew had a bit of the local fire water to warm everyone up. Horrible stuff, but it did the trick.

The outer cliffs of the island are absolutely magnificent. They tower above you and drop straight into the sea. There is no transition between the cliffs and the sea, leaving you to wonder how deep do the go? The sea is calm today and barely makes a sound as it lightly crashes into the cliff side, but the cliffs have their scars. You can clearly see areas of the cliffs that have been battered by strong have and have lost massive pieces of the face to the sea, leaving a massive concave surface that contrasts with the near vertical cliff walls surrounding them.

After we saw the massive cliff walls, our guides took us into this very nice and calm cove where the killed the engine heaved the anchor, and announced swim call. It did not take long before most everyone on the boat was in the water. Before I dove into the water I had braced myself for the shock of cold water. Was I ever surprised!!! The water was not cold, in fact it was warmer than the air. And extremely salty. I have been swimming in the Pacific and the Atlantic Oceans, the Adriatic is saltier than both.

After the swim call we headed for the National Park where we would be served lunch and have an opportunity to explore the top of the cliffs that we had just observed. Lunch was a wonderful combination of Grilled Mackerel (a first for me) and veal steak. The Mackerel had this wonderful salty smokey flavor. I think that I prefer the flavor of this fish to that of the best Copper River Salmon that I have had. It really is that good.

During lunch, I sat with a French Family. I took 2 years of French in High School, so at least I knew a bit of their language. I always find it amazing how much people open up when you just make the attempt to speak their language. After starting a conversation by saying hello and introducing myself in French, they replied in kind and asked me how much French I knew. I replied, "Very little." and they immediately switched to English. We had a very nice conversation about how crappy the Croatian wine is, and how good the Californian and French wines are in comparison (and yes, they even said that they prefer some of the Cali wines to French wines).

After we left the national park we started our journey back to Zadar. The French family has a 9 year old daughter that is incredibly interested in learning English, so I entertained her interest for nearly 2 hours. She would point something out and say "En Englaise?", I would tell her the English word and then ask her "En Francaise?". I am certain that she learned far more from me than I did her, as even now, I don't remember most of the new words. Languages just aren't my strong suite.

Plitvice National Park, Croatia

When I heard about the Plitvice Lakes, I performed a quick google images search and upon seeing the first images, I knew that I had to go see these lakes. I honestly do not believe that there is a single photographer in the world that can capture the true majesty of this National Park, it absolutely mind boggling.

The lakes were formed as a result of water eroding the limestone, much in the same manner that caves are created. Additionally the lakes are enhanced by the creation of travertine barriers that help to separate the lakes from one another. Travertine is a rock/mineral material that is actually produced by a type of moss. The creation of travertine is an incredibly delicate process that takes an incredibly long period of time. As such, and this was the worst part of the lakes, swimming is not allowed in the national park. Really unfortunate because the water was so incredibly clear that, in most of the lakes, from an elevated position, you can actually see the deep bottom of the lakes.

I spent the entire day hiking around the lakes, all 16 of them. I had no watch and only a time that I had to be back at the entrance to catch a bus back to my campsite, I made it back with 5 minutes to spare, and never felt rushed, I even stopped for a nice nap in the afternoon sun after I had my lunch. Something that I have grown quite fond of and will sincerely miss after my return to the states.

Zagreb, Croatia

Getting to Zagreb was rather interesting. I had read that the train network in Croatia is not quite developed to the level of the EU, and when we were scuffled off the train by a large burly Croatian man grunting with a barely comprehensible "No Problem, No Problem", I actually was a bit worried. We were shuttled to 5 buses were it quickly became apparent that a portion of the tracks between Vienna and Zagreb was not in service and we would have to take a bus to the next station that had a connection to Zagreb. Tension relived. I actually rather enjoyed the bus ride. The buses are not your typical city public transportation bus, no, they are more touring coaches. The seats are comfortable, with adequate leg space (even for me), AC, tinted windows, and curtains. Rather nice in my opinion. The rest of the journey proceeded without any additional surprises and getting to my hostel was rather easy, as they had provided very explicit directions. "Take this bus to this station", "Get off the bus", "Follow the yellow feet". Very simple and easy. The city of Zagreb was very charming, unfortunately I happened to be in the city during a national day of remembrance for the people that have died in recent struggles for their liberty. Naturally most things were closed and really the only people that were on the streets were tourists. The lack of things to do actually developed into a very nice discovery. The Museum of Broken Relationships. The museum exhibits featured items that were unique to a relationship and the story of how that relationship failed. There were tales of hatred, of loving remembrance, of strife and grief, pain, and most touching of all, one story of frustration turned to pure love after death. The Item: An antique Key. The Summarized Story: - Woman meets man - Woman and man have a wonderful relationship full of passion and love. - Man refuses to have sex with woman, and (apparently) provides no explanation. - Woman becomes overly frustrated and leaves the relationship. - Years go by and woman receives a letter from man. - Man explains in letter that he has passed away from AIDS. - Woman understands that man loved her so much that he would not even consider the risk. Of all the stories, I found this one to be the most touching. There were other stories that rivaled it. But the simplicity of it I found incredibly elegant. The museum was put together so well that you wanted to read every story and look at every item. When all the exhibits had been viewed, I found myself looking for more.

First Day in Vienna

Today was a lot of fun. In the morning I stepped outside to have a smoke and was asked by a couple of people that I talked with the prior evening about what my plans were for the day. When I told them that I really had none, they invited me to join them. Their plan was to rent some bicycles and tour the city. As my plans included touring the city, I figured it sounded like a great idea. We made our way to the bike rental shop, and for 12 Euros we each had a decent bike for the entire day. The lady at the bike shop was incredibly kind and even made us a little map of where to go and what to see. Among that list was a place on the Danube River that was open to swimming. I explored the first half of our map, then decided that it was necessary to go back to the hostel and grab the things that would be necessary for swimming. We also stopped by a market and picked up some things for a little bit of lunch. We set out for the river, stopping along the way to check the map and marvel at the wonderful buildings here in Vienna. After about an hour of cycling, we made our destination. The four of us removed the extra clothing that we would not need and dove into the frigid, but refreshing waters of the Danube. We spent the remainder of the day relaxing and swimming on the banks of the Danube. I find it incredibly difficult to rank the days. There have been so many wonderful days on this trip, hiking in the Alps, exploring buda and pest, the F1 weekend...it is amazing. Next I will be off to Zagreb Croatia and the Plitzvice Lakes, but first I have another day to explore Vienna...

The past week or so

Well...I have come to the realization that I am just not good at blogging. It isn't that I don't have anything to talk about or share, It is just that I have been having so much fun that I forget to make time to write about it. So let me catch everyone up. I left Prague and headed to meet Lazlo in Budapest. What an incredibly gracious host he was. He provided me with everything that I may possibly need and more. One of the coolest things that he had prepared was a very detailed map of the best things in Budapest. The map had at least three days of things planned out on it. It was one of the most useful things that I have had on my trip. I explored Budapest during the days and hung out with Laszlo and his friends in the evenings. It was great fun. On Thursday evening we headed to the Hungaroring for the F1 race. Thursday evening weekend ticket holders were allowed to walk through pit lane, so we did that. It was an absolute zoo, especially around the Red Bull, Ferrari, and Mercedes-McClaren pits. After the pitwalk we went to setup camp. Selecting a good location was a bit of a challenge, but incredibly important as it had been raining and we did not want to select a spot that could become a pond. After sorting through several spots we settled on a nice spot (the only challenge was an ant hill that we discovered as we were setting up the tent). Camping at the Hungaroring was absolutely incredible, what an amazing party scene...and the topless dancers was pretty nice too :) I have pics and videos of this that I will share when I get home, I figure that I shouldn't post them here. Friday was filled with Practice for all of the different series that would be racing on Saturday and Sunday. Lots of fun. As the first F1 cars hit the track I was in heaven. I could not bel;ieve how incredibly loud the cars are. I knew that they would be loud, but this was almost obscene, except for the fact that I loved it. They are so loud that it really hurt my ears, to the point that I thought my ears were going to start bleeding. Fortunately I did have earplugs. Saturday was qualifying day, lots of fun and lots of really loud cars. Qualifying was a lot of fun to watch, but I think that it is actually more entertaining on the TV. Sunday was race day. This is what I had been waiting for, and it was well worth the wait. There is nothing in the world like the sound and feeling of a F1 races start. It is absolutely deafening and it vibrates every single internal organ. It is absolutely amazing. I would advise everyone to attend at least one F1 race in their life. The race was filled with action and attrition. One of the most excititing parts was when Nick Heidfelds Lotus Renault caught on fire in the pits. The team didn't realize it before he left the box and headed out to the track. By the time he got to Pit exit the entire rear section had been engulfed in flames. Nick stopped the car and got out faster than I have ever seen anyone move. Unfortunately someone did get hurt. One of the track workers was extinguishing the fire when something exploded and sent shrapnel shooting into his leg. You could see that he had been hit, but he continued to put out the fire. I don't think that he was severely injured as the emergency helicopters never took off. Probably just a cut or a bruise. Next I am off to Vienna, Austria for a few days. I will try and write more often.