Paris, Again

Like all great adventures, I have now come full circle.  The ending and the beginning are one.  Back in Paris, only this time with John.  I have traveled many places, and seen many sights.  Now, I was returning to a city I was already familiar with, and taking time to enjoy the atmosphere. 


We awoke to a beautiful crisp morning.  Our hotel was not far from the Ile St. Louis, and it was to there that we walked for a breakfast of crepes.  We then wandered some of the historic core, walking past Notre Dame and a few of the big sights.  We walked through the exterior of the Louvre, giving John some sense of its immensity.

After wandering the historic core, we then took the metro to Montmarte, and walked up the hill to Sacre Coure.  We enjoyed a lunch lower on the steps, then walked to the top of the steps, where we sat for quite some time, listening to a thoroughly enjoyable street performer.  He was a singer from Italy, who sang mostly American songs, joked mostly in English with a smattering of other languages thrown in, and had a great talent for getting the entire audience interested and involved.  He would frequently ask people in the crowd where they were from, and reveled in the fact that on those steps were people from all 5 continents, all gathered in harmony, enjoying the same thing.  Later, we walked through the shops and artists around Montmarte, then headed back to our hotel. 

For dinner, we ate at a great restaurant in the Latin district.  This area is called the Latin district, since it contained one of the oldest Universities, and back in the 12th and 13th centuries, Latin was the language of learning.  It was the common language to the people of all of the different countries who gathered there, spoken so everyone could understand.  It has always been the area known for free thinkers, where ideas of liberty and equality were bred.  These days, you will no longer find Latin spoken, but it is still a lively scene.  The first restaurant we passed looked pretty good, and as we wandered deeper into the neighborhood, each restaurant looked even better, and for better prices, until finally we settled on one.  It was a lengthy and multiple course meal, with every bite absolutely delicious! 

Following dinner, we headed to the Eiffel Tower.  After the lengthy dinner, we got there a bit later than planned, and it was no longer open nearly as late as it had been during my visit in August.  Unfortunately, the very top was closed, but we could still go up to the second observation deck.  There is something thoroughly romantic about being up on the Eiffel Tower at night, seeing the sights of Paris, after a wonderful French meal, with the person you love!  A fun way to end the trip. 

Dubrovnik - the Pearl of the Adriatic

After Korcula, we took a ferry to Dubrovnik, a beautiful old walled town, which is known as the Pearl of the Adriatic.  Unfortunately, we had less than 24 hours there, and John's energy was still not up to full speed, so we didn't have a chance to do much.  This is a much larger town than Korcula, and had been wealthy for many centuries, having trading power in the area second only to Venice.  It has been partially destroyed several times, including an earthquake in the 1660's, and bombings during the Croatian war for independence in 1991. 

One of the most impressive things about the city is the walls, which you can walk around the top of.  I've been to several walled cities, and the walls of this one are more impressively fortified than the others.  They are tall and thick on the land side.  On the water side, much of the wall sits atop a very large cliff, and attacking by that route would be like trying to scale the Cliffs of Insanity. 

Probably a combination of how well fortified the city is and the fact that hundreds of years ago, they could afford to pay off any other powers to keep their independence, the only time the city walls were actually used to defend the city was during the war in 1991.  Crazy that such ancient defenses were of use in modern times! 

The city was beautiful, with tiny streets that were often quite steep, with restaurants and shops everywhere.  There is a great little bar that is perched on little terraces in the rocks outside the wall on that steep seaward side, which was a wonderful place to sit and have an evening drink.  With the city behind us, the rocks below us, the sea all around us, and Sinatra music bathing it all, it was quite romantic!  Dubrovnik is a great city, that definitely deserves more than the 18 hours we had for it.

 

Fevers in Korcula

After taking a night train from Slovenia, we arrived in Split, Croatia around 7 AM, with plans to take the ferry to Korcula at 10:30 AM.  That gave us just enough time to walk around a bit.  Split is the bigger city on the Adriatic Coast.  It has a small old city, within the walls of Diocletian's Palace, the retirement palace of the 3rd century AD Roman Emperor.
Around the old city is a large waterfront town, with large modern buildings interspersed with lazy Mediterranean buildings and old buildings from Roman times.   The thing that impressed me most about the old city was the way that newer buildings (some from centuries ago, some modern) were just built into and around the old ruins.  There was even a modern bank with large glass windows, which had desks,  computers, and the usual modern bank stuff, all around ancient Roman ruins sticking up out of the floor! 

After a 3 hours boat ride and another 1 hour bus ride, we arrived in Korcula.  Korcula is a beautiful old walled city, which you can walk around the circumference in about 10 minutes, and across the middle in about 4 minutes.  The only way into the old city is up numerous stairs, and the roads are only about 1 -2 yards wide, so there is no way for motorized vehicles in the old city.  We were staying in a lovely apartment just outside the old city, with a small kitchenette, and a balcony with a great view of the old city and of the sea. 

What is the downside you ask?  Well, I have had a cold for about a week, which had gotten worse, so I was constantly having to blow my nose and cough.  But, that was nothing compared to poor John.  He got some sort of a virus, and spent the entire time here in bed with fevers, alternating between chills and sweats.  Most of the time, he hardly had enough energy to stand.  A couple times per day, I was able to get him up to walk the 2 minutes into town to get some food, then it would be back to bed for the rest of the day.  Fortunately, our apartment really was lovely, in a great spot.  Once we realized how sick John was (along with the fact that there was no Friday mid-day boat, but only a 6:45 AM bus/ferry/bus to get to Dubrovnik), we decided instead of only 2 nights here and traveling on, we would stay here a 3rd night.  He could stay in bed, with only a short walk for meals.  I could sit on the balcony reading, where there was a great view, and a great breeze above the city. 

One fun thing that I did here was I had the chance to go see the traditional Moreska Dance (while John stayed in bed).  It is a sword fight dance, that has been performed here for hundreds of years, and continues to be taught from one generation to the next, to be performed every Thursday.  It was a lot of fun to see.  The black king stole the princess from the red king.  Then the red and black nights "fight" to get her back, with about 10 or 12 knights on each side.  It is all very stylized fighting choreographed into the dance.  The whole dance lasted a long time, with numerous portions.  Each portion consisted of a different set of coordinated sword fighting, many of which the dancers were striking their swords hard enough to spark. 

On Friday night, John was able to muster up enough energy to go have a drink at a bar that is located in one of the old city wall towers, with a great view!  This morning, he is feeling a little better, and we will be traveling on to Dubrovnik, the "Pearl of the Adriatic". 

Adventures in Slovenia

On Sunday, John flew into Ljubljana, the capital of Slovenia, where I had take a late train to the night before.  We met at the train station, and it was great to finally see him.  The late morning bus to Bovec we had wanted to take did not exist, as it was Sunday, so we spent the afternoon wandering Ljubljana, while waiting for the evening bus.  It is a very pretty town, on a river, with a lot of outdoor cafes, and tons of bicycles.  You could tell that people were really into outdoor activities.  Not unlike Portland in a lot of ways.  John had a fair amount of jet lag, but only slept for a little awhile on a bench in the middle of the main square…. 

We then took a 3.5 hour bus ride over mountains through very twisty roads, stopping numerous times for everyone to get out and stare at the engine, because the coolant was leaking.  Luckily the bus made it there, and we made it to the camp.

Adrenaline Check is the name of the adventure group we were staying with, and our initial plan was climbing, biking, rafting, and canyoning all within 2 days.  After getting there late, and with John’s jet lag, we cut it down to just canyoning and rafting. 

The canyoning was awesome!  We did it with our guide, Simon, and with 4 guys from Holland who are about our age.  There is a river that has carved natural waterslides, waterfalls, and deep pools into a canyon.  When we first got there, our first sight of it was a 12 meter (39 foot) waterfall, that had someone going over it.  I exclaimed “awesome!” while two of the guys with us turned green and almost turned back.  Simon explained that it is the last thing to go over, is far and away the biggest, and there is a hiking path to go around, so you do not have to go over it.  Finally the guys with us were convinced to go forward.  After hiking to the top, you start with going over small things.  Some of the places you slide down a water slide, some you fall down a waterfall, and some places you jump off a rock into a pool.  The first ones were only about 3 feet high, and you build up from there.  For some of them, he had us go over belly down or backwards, just to mix things up. 

There was one that he would not let us look over before going over, but instead had us each float on our back while he steered us toward the fall.  It turned out to be a 20 foot waterfall, with rocks overhead, so you almost land in a cave.  The pressure of the falls shoots you down like a torpedo.  It was amazing, and much better to do without looking first.  (A couple of the guys with us admitted that it was fun, they were glad they did it, but they would not have done it if we had seen it first).  Finally, we got to the 12 meter fall.  I was excited to go over it, and stepped right up.  John went because he was still tired from jet lag (and months of working on the house), and figured that letting gravity do the work was easier than hiking out.  Three of the guys with us hiked out, and one of the guys only went over the waterfall after watching John and I both do it, and realizing we didn’t die.  That night, the guys from Holland told John, “We feel really bad for you, having a girlfriend like that.  You can’t really back out of something if she says she’ll do it first!”  Once they found out I was his wife, they said, “Even worse!” :-)

The rafting the next morning was in an absolutely beautiful setting, with a beautiful river.  It would have been a lot of fun (and very challenging) in my kayak.  It would have been a ton of fun, without too much challenge in a small 4 person raft.  In the giant 10 person raft they had us it, it was a nice run to enjoy the scenery.  But, as the scenery was incredible, it was worth it. 

For the two nights we were with Adrenaline Check, we stayed in their camp, in tents.  They were platform tents with mattresses, but they were still tents, which John was not too happy with.  The camp was in a beautiful setting, but it was definitely roughing it. 

To get back to Ljubljana, instead of taking the 4 hour twisty bus, Simon, the guide we spent the most time with, offered to drive us, since he was headed that way.  It was a much shorter (only 2 hour) and much nicer ride with him.  The entire way, he kept pointing out sights and telling us the history behind different areas.  After that, we took a night train to Split, Croatia, then a boat to the island of Korcula for some beach town, old walled city, relaxation.  More on that soon! 

What is it - Answer

Mom was the one who finally got it!  An ancient potty training device.  Congrats Mom!!

Venice - Beauty and frustration

On my way to travel from Greece to Slovenia, I had 11 hours between when my flight landed in Venice at 10:30 AM and when my train left at 9:30 PM.  Between getting baggage, getting from the airport to the city, etc, that would leave me 9 or 10 hours to explore Venice.  What to do in that time? 

About half way through my trip in Greece, I realized what I would do in Venice.  Laundry.  As unglamorous as it sounds, it needed to be done.  There was nowhere to do it my last couple of days in Greece, and I didn’t want to have to worry about it when John got here.  So, I had it all figured out.  My guidebook mentioned a laundromat near the train station.  The trip from the airport to the city takes you right past the train station.  So, I would head in, do the laundry, stash the bags at the luggage check at the train station (all of which would take 3-4 hours at the most), then have much of the day left to explore Venice.  Perfect plan. 

The only hitch was, it is really hard to do laundry when you don’t have dirty clothes.  Or any clothes but what you are wearing.  The airline must have forgot to put a cart of bags on the plane, since about 15 people on my flight were missing their baggage.  They didn’t know where the baggage was, but “could deliver it to my hotel“.  Except for the fact that I had a 9 PM train to Slovenia, which got there in the middle of the night. Then I would leave on a bus at 11 AM for the adventure place, remote in the hills and woods of Slovenia.  Then a night train to Split, Croatia, the a boat to Korcula, where we don’t yet have a hotel booked.  Nowhere to deliver bags to for days.  But, with luck, they could get there during the day. 

So, I took the bus to the city.  I took one of the bus-type boats through the Grand Canal of the city, on which I scored a front seat with great views!  I followed Rick Steves’ self guided boat tour, learning about the city as I went.  I then wandered through San Marco, the big touristy area for a couple of hours.  It was all beautiful, but the whole time, I was worried that I wouldn’t have my bags, and I was trying to figure out how I would manage several days of rafting, climbing, etc in Slovenia with no bathing suit and only one set of clothes.

Luckily, when I called the airport at 3, they had my bag.  I went all the way back to the airport to get it, had time to come back and do laundry.  Unfortunately the Laundromat near the train station closed a year ago, so I had to walk through the entire city to get another one (the whole time wishing I was doing it at 11 AM instead of 6 PM and close to my train departure).  I paid way to much to do laundry, but in the end, I had clean clothes, and the chance to take another of Venice’s famous boats through the canal, this time at night, on the way back to catch my train.  A beautiful city, except for a few hours spent dealing with the bag, and a few more worried about the bag! 

What is it?

Please note - I am putting up 3 posts at the same time, so don't miss any! 

For this post, I am stealing a game from the blog my brother and his wife (Dan & Abby) did when they traveled. This post is interactive.  I will put a picture here.  Everyone who reads this should create a comment to guess what it is.  The first to guess correctly gets a great prize (if you think the respect of all the other readers is a great prize). 

This is a piece of ancient Greek pottery.  It is about a foot and a half tall.  What is it used for?