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Published: April 3rd 2008
Pirate Pete
Now this is where the Skull and Crossbones, eyepatch and Captains Hat would really come in handy!!!!Dobra Dan,
(Hello) from Dubrovnik,
Well at the moment it is 6.00pm on Thursday night, the 3rd of April. Sad to say the weather has taken a turn for the worst and it is a bit cold and rather wet outside, perfect hot chocolate weather for Debsy though so I guess every Croatian cloud has a calorie lining!
Thought I would do a little blog update before we head north tomorrow and get on board our new home for the next 5 weeks, our yacht, ‘Paulina’. Not sure when we will get the opportunity again to say hello and let you know what we have been up to whilst we are sailing the Adriatic sea.
Well after all of the excessive celebrations of our wedding anniversary it was time to let life settle down and after all, April Fools day follows so you have to be a bit careful about what you do on the morning after you marry and so Tuesday morning was spent having a very relaxed morning channel surfing the 588 satellite T.V channels and taking it easy.
Sorry to say that Layni and I have both had a bit of the lurgi,
feeling a tad nauseas and quite weak and lacking any real appetite at all. I think that for the amount of travelling we have been able to fit in for the past couple of weeks, changes in weather, food, trains, planes and automobiles and all the rest, the old (and young) bodies might be a little vulnerable to any bugs about.
Happy to say that now I feel much better but Layni has had the added misfortune of a very sore throat, sore molars and a mouth ulcer. She has been incredibly brave though and suffering in silence (mostly) which is no mean feat for her. Nikki has been a brilliant nurse and has helped take great care of her younger sister. We had a trip to the Chemist this morning and came back armed with throat lozenges, throat spray, Vitamin C and multi vitamins. It is getting to the stage where a huge plate of vegetables is desperately being sought by all concerned.
I guess it is trips like this that really make you sit back and compare what we have at home to other countries of the world. We truly are blessed, especially where we live
in Coffs, to have the incredible range of beautiful fresh food of all descriptions, that is so reasonably priced.
Dubrovnik generally appears to be on a par as far as eating out and drinking (for standard fare) is concerned and about the same for a lot of the supermarket items but it just does not have the wide range that we enjoy. Things like lamb and beef are very expensive compared to home. Pizzas are very good and every second shop seems to sell them at all times of the day and night. Debsy’s staple food and life support system - ice cream - is very good value, well I think the reality is, it wouldn’t matter what price it was Debs would think it was good value!!
We haven’t actually tried any local wine, preferring to sample some of the local beers as we had been forewarned about the Croatian wines. We were talking to an Irish lady the other night who had just “enjoyed” a bottle of local white wine with her husband. She described it as watered down wood sap!!!! I think our decision to stick with the beer was a sound one!!!
We
Sunset Bar
Cafe Buza at sunset this time have made good use of the space our apartment has afforded us, especially in the afternoon when we come back for a bit of a rest and quite time after a day out exploring. You forget how far you actually walk each day, roaming the streets and finding new places.
So, what have we actually been up to for the past three days? Well, the time came to work out how we were going to get from Dubrovnik up to Zadar (to pick up our boat) which is about an 8 hour car / bus trip away. We looked at the option of a rent a car which of course sounded incredibly expensive. Trains are not an option as they don’t tend to go far south past Split which is about half way to where we want to go. Planes don’t go from Dubrovnik direct to Zadar, they do a bit of milk run back to Zagreb and then back to Zadar so by the time we did the flights and waited for the connections it wouldn’t really be any quicker anyway, and of course the flights aren’t cheap.
We opted to check out the good old Uncle
Gus. We headed out of the sanctuary of the city walls and hopped on a local bus and headed north to the Main Bus Station. 576 Kuna later and we had 4 one way tickets from Dubrovnik to Zadar with an estimated travel time of 8 hours including eat and pee breaks every two hours. Bargain at $138.00 AUD for the 4 of us.
Now that we had our tickets and seat reservations safely booked it was time to have a bit of a look around other parts of Dubrovnik. Checked out the Harbour area and found a very special boat that I really wish that Mick, Trace, Herb, Di and Laurie had seen before my birthday, it would have been the perfect accompaniment to the Pirate Pete outfit they spoilt me with.
Debs spent the afternoon doing what a lot of other women do on a bright sunny afternoon and that is do a load of washing and then hang it out over the street and let it drip on everyone down below. The washing line is on a pulley system and you put one thing on the line, pulley it out then put the next thing
On the way to Locrum
with Dubrovnik old town in the background on. Eventually you have a load of washing, four storeys up, across the walkway to dry in the wind and sun - simple really. Deb was convinced that a pair of knickers or socks would
fall the four storeys to the ground or she’d drop a peg whilst leaning out the window pegging the washing on. I did notice none of her undies found their way out on the line!!!
It was time to head back over to Café Buza to catch the Sunset views and were they worth it. To sit on the edge of the cliffs and have a couple of beers experiencing a Croatian sunset is one of Dubrovnik’s true pleasures. It is a very popular bar during the day as we had experienced a day or two ago but the late afternoon is definitely prime time.
The next day we caught a local ferry over to an island called Locrum which is just off the coast of Dubrovnik. It was advertised as having lots of nice beaches and hiking tracks, an old fort, an equally old monastery and lots of places just to veg out and take in the nature and the views.
Look out for FKK Stand
You never know what you might find!!! It really is a beautiful island, not all that big and one that you can walk from one end to the other in about an hour and a half, that is of course if you don’t stop at the café which is about smack bang in the middle of the island and enjoy their very good smoked Dalmatian ham and salad baguettes and iced coffees. Now these were very good and seeing they cost about $5.00 it made them even more enjoyable to have, sitting back in the sun and soaking it all in.
We had a brilliant day walking around the island, dodging the huge numbers of peacocks and peahens who dot the island, but marvelling at the crystal clear Adriatic Sea and the wonderful smells of the forests that you meander through. We found one area they call the ‘dead sea’ and it is a small lake in the island that is fed through a sea cave. This place would be packed in the summer as a perfect place to swim, sunbake and just relax away from the crowds of Dubrovnik.
We also discovered the letters and word - ‘FKK Stand’ is something that you need
Croatian Nudist 'Beach
Well you should have been here yesterday...... to pay close attention to, especially if you are wearing clothes and those who are on the ‘beach’ aren’t. We found our first Croatian Nudist Beach and well the word beach is used somewhat liberally to what we would use at home and other parts of the world, I think the term very rocky crag might be more in order but at least if would offer lots of nooks and crannies for those shy types (such as me).
On we wandered, through the Islands botanic garden and up to the old monastery. This old and mysterious double story building reminded me of something out of a movie. It has been disbanded for some years but as you walk around it you feel as though there are still eyes watching you from the deep and dark insides.
We followed the forest tracks and climbed to the top of the island where the old fort was built around 1835. The views from the top of the fort extend right up and down the coast. Even though, in my humble opinion, a lot of Europe can be very hazy at times, the views were, well, how would you say? hazy? What
the hell, it was still a great sight.
It was just one of those days where there was no rush and no hurry and we had a great family day, just being together, chatting and laughing, talking and appreciating each other. I took one photograph that sticks in my mind and that was of Debs walking along the path, holding hands with her girls. I think the images says a lot about the time we are having with our kids and hopefully, the memories we will share as a family for many years to come. I later remarked to Debs that as Nik and Layni get older the travel experience changes from being Mum and Dad and the two kids to four individuals travelling together.
I think it is fair to say you have to be very careful that you take into consideration the things that Nikki and Layni like to do and when that happens I think it really starts to enrich the whole trip for everyone. The exciting thing for me is that everyone is really looking forward to getting on the boat and heading off to explore the islands. From our little taste of Locrum
and its beautiful coastline, I think we are all of one mind in our anticipation of what lies ahead for the next few weeks.
As we have, very sensibly, started to really sit down and discuss plans and options more and more with the girls we looked long and hard about what we had planned and could plan to do when we drop the boat off. Our original plan was to drop the boat off at Trogir, just north of Split, on the 7 May and then hire a car and head into Bosnia for a few nights before getting back into Croatia and Zagreb to fly out to Amsterdam on the 14th.
Whilst the thought of going to Mostar has a lot of appeal, the thought of lugging all of our luggage in and out of different accommodation every night in a country that, with the greatest respect, is about out of left field, started to lose its gloss. Whilst Mostar would be incredibly interesting, we have not had the time to sit down and really explore other options in Bosnia apart from Sarajevo. I think it was a common concern that after we had spent the
Debsy and her Girls
A picture tells a thousand words previous weeks sailing around the islands, travelling in Bosnia might just not live up to our expectations for this trip.
Different options were put up and at the end of the day we have decided to extend out sailing trip by another 3 nights, take the boat back up to where we picked it up from and then head off to the Plitvice National Park. If you have the time, Google Plitvice National Park. I think you will see we will be able to spend two or three days having a good time hiking around the lakes which will be a nice contrast to being on the boat for that length of time. It is also on the bus route from Zadar to Zagreb and fits in really well with the travel plans to get back to Amsterdam.
We had another option of taking out another boat for a couple of days but we thought once we give the Paulina back it was going to be a hassle to pack, unpack and then head out for just a couple of days. Another option was to head to Zagreb but we (and the kids) thought that we had seen
Coastline view of Dubrovnik
Looking north east from the Old Fort on Locrum Island enough of churches and Museums for a while. So eliminating the wheat from the chaff, Plitvice National Park won out. Everyone was in agreeance that this was the best option and the good thing was that it only took 3 hot chocolates, two coffees and two ham and cheese omelettes to come to the unanimous decision! We’re still hopeful that we might end up being able to do a trip into Bosnia to visit Mostar from one of out mainland marinas.
So today, with the weather being a bit miserable and Layni just starting to fight back, it has just been a case of getting things ready to head off tomorrow, re packing bags, buying some novels to take on the boat (I think you will like these ones Trace) settling our bills for our Pension Ragusa (Its on the net) and generally allowing Layni to recharge her batteries. I am sure the bus trip, whilst a bit long, is going to be really enjoyable as it follows the coast for most, it not all, of the way to Zadar and so we should be able to get a bit of a glimpse of our new nautical playground for
The Old Monastary
From the Old Fort the next few weeks.
Have no idea what our access to the internet is going to be like over the next few weeks but we will do the best we can to update the blog as often as we can with all the essential information you are just dying to hear about, latitudes and longitudes, distance made good, speed over the ground, tidal flow and high and low pressure systems, beaufort readings and passage plans. We will do our best to mix in a bit about beaches (of all persuasions), fine restaurants, great anchorages and meeting a whole lot of interesting and unusual people. Ahh the joys of not having a clue where we are going but we are on our way!! Take care and catch up soon.
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lloyd
non-member comment
Good , luck , happy sailing and remember your caps