Friday morning we walked back to the Blue Mosque and Aya Sofya in order to get pictures of both with a clear blue sky as the backdrop. We wandered around admiring the mosaics on the fountain between the two, we took more pictures of the carpet of tulips, and were amazed at the multitude of people milling around. Unfortunately for many of them, the Blue Mosque was closed.. Fun Fact: There are 16 million people living in Istanbul!! 7 million live on the Europe side while 9 million reside on the Asian side. We knew this city was big, I even compared it to Toronto but you do not get a true appreciation or understanding of its vast size until you have seen it from the highest point and then while cruising down the Bosphorus. Fun ... read more

Our time in Split has been great and somewhat more relaxed than past cities. Once we found our apartment and settled in we were thrilled with it as well as the location. Although we are in the Old Town, in an old building, the apartment has been totally renovated and is completely new and modern. We have enjoyed sitting out on our terrace in the sunshine after touring around each day. On Sunday, we began our day walking down The Riva, which is the official name for seaside pedestrian walkway. It is lined with restaurants on one side while on the other there were numerous booths set up selling meats, cheeses, oils, soaps, linens, jewellry, etc. We then arrived at the remains of Roman Emperor, Diocletian's palace. In its day this was a huge complex with ... read more

According to the Merriam-Webster dictionary, the definition of the word 'relaxation' is " to spend time resting or doing something enjoyable, especially after doing work." In our fast-paced society of today we are constantly on the go, often making sure our days our full. There are a variety of synonyms and terms that people use to describe "relaxation" such as "just chillin', down time, taking time to smell the roses, chillaxin", kicking back, cooling your jets, just hangin', takin' it easy, vegetating, and knocking back", to name a few. Curtis and I have never been really good at this to say the least ( I blame his ADHA:). We always seem to pack a million things into a day at home and on this trip it has not been much different. We have tried to cram ... read more

Curtis and I are quite compatible as travellers. His laid back, "go with the flow" attitude counterbalances my incessant worrying and detail-oriented character. As husband and wife, we are a team in all aspects of our relationship, complementing each other very well. However, after spending 24 hours a day together for the last 39 days we have somehow evolved into Abbott and Costello! The old "Who's On First?" routine pretty much sums up how several of our conversations go in a day! There are some moments where we just look at each other during a discussion, shake our heads because the conversation between us has made absolutely no sense at all and we have been talking in circles. At the end of it we just have to laugh and try again! Later in the morning we ... read more

We trudged down to the bus station at 6:30 this morning in order to catch our bus from Ljubljana to Rovinj. As we walked along the streets we were amazed at the number of people already up and about. Upon arriving at the bus station we set down our bags at the assigned post and waited with anticipation. Dozens of highschool-aged kids were getting of the train and walking into town. Evidently school starts at 7:30 am! At 7:10 our big, blue Crnja bus pulled in. We showed our ticket and asked if we had to change buses in Trieste (as indicated on our sheet). The driver said no, that this bus went straight to Rovinj. Thank goodness as we were both a little worried about the transfer, recalling the bus drop off point in Trieste ... read more