Blogs from Istria, Croatia, Europe - page 19

Wow, has a lot happened since the last time I wrote to all of you. I don't have time to tell yout he whole story, but I will tell you that in the last 72 hours, we have spent about 27 hours either on a ferry, a train, or a bus (or were waiting for one). This also included 2 hours at the Split Emergency room (don't worry...it was just pink eye...Dave, not me...gross, right?). Anyway, it was all worth it to be able to see the Plitvice Lakes (if you get a chance, look them up online). This story is a crazy one, but will have to wait as Dave and I have to catch a train to Slovenia and then onto Salzburg! Thank you so much for the inflood of emails and messages. It ... read more

We left Italy after driving from Rome Monday 2nd June earlyish. We set GiPS and he decided to take us due east to Pescara, then up the coast. The drive over the mountains was one to remember. You would drive directly towards a mountain, enter a tunnel maybe 2 km long and come out on the other side directly onto a very high bridge, straight into another mountain. The mountains still had a little snow on them but this was a lot higher than we were. It was quite spectacular. When we got to Pescara, we turned northwards up the Adriatic coastline. A couple of hours, we were in Ancona. The Adriatic is very calm with few beaches and those who know the area will know they are not beaches in our sense of the word ... read more

May 28, 29, 2008 Istria, Croatia On a recent ferry trip we were looking at a magazine that showed some pictures and information about the Istrian Peninsula on the Adriatic in Croatia. It seemed like a good idea to check it out and what a pleasant surprise it has been. ( I guess print advertising still works ). This is a beautiful part of the world, on some very nice coastline, a 3 hour drive from Venice through Trieste and a short piece of Slovenia. Most of the drive in Slovenia and Istria is through pine forest and some small wheat and hay farms with a lot of vineyards. There is also a high speed ferry service from Italy but frankly we enjoyed the drive. We stayed for 2 days at a resort in a small ... read more

April 20, 2008--- Tonight at midnight my Eurail pass expires. It's weird to think about it and it feels like a big moment in my European experience. This weekend marks the beginning of the end. I'm ready. It's been great to see so much of the world God created for us, but now the creations I'd like to see most are the faces of family and friends back home. This past weekend was really nice though; I added my final two countries, Croatia and Slovenia, to my European semester abroad list. The grand total sits at 11 countries. Pretty awesome! ******************************************************** After a 13 hour night train (tiring!) we arrived in the seaside city of Rijeka, Croatia. Rain and large ferry boats greeted us. We didn't exactly know what lay ahead for our day-long adventure but ... read more

Wednesday October 10th We felt surprisingly good this morning and after negotiating with our landlady to leave our bags in the unit we set off to further explore the quaint little town of Rovinj. We took another route to the church of St Euphemia, enjoying the ramble up the narrow streets reminiscent of Venice. After once again enjoying the views from the churchyard we took an alternate route down that took us past the fishing boats unloading their night's catch. We then visited the aquarium, supposedly the oldest scientific aquarium on the Mediterranean coast. This was interesting and as we were the only visitors this morning we enjoyed the view of all the local sea creatures. Arriving at the bus station after collecting our packs we were in plenty of time for the midday bus to ... read more