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Published: June 18th 2006
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After the very cooler climes of the north, we arrived in Croatia to
all we had expected, warm weather, sun and sea. The trip from Vienna
to Zagreb (Croatia's capital) was fantastic. Somewhat over excited by
the idea of a restaurant car, a compartment to ourselves and the
fabulously cheap cost of the trip we spent a lot of time waxing
lyrical about the joy of train travel, unfortunately Austrian train
lines have a few up on their Croatian counterparts and the next leg
down the coast to Split in Croatia inspired no such soliloquies (for
me anyway). The train was very new and the tracks also new,
unfortunately the seats were straight out of an old Boeing 747 and the
train had this funny way of tilting at 15 degree angles to take the
corners (full suspension etc) for me this induced a rather ill feeling
for 5 hours and I was very keen to see the back of it, even if it was
from a bus due to a break down at the end. However, we arrived in
Split (not too worse for wear) which is a lovely little seaside town
much underrated in the guide books built in
and around an old roman
palace built by the roman emperor Diocletian. Beware however the
extremely slippery flagstones that the town is built from (marble or
soapstone I think) which saw us just about on our bums a lot of the
time. Not a place for those with fragile hip bones me thinks!
we were in Split for two days and it was here that i had a rather
strange phone interview for a position I had applied for before we
left at UCL university. I was convinced I had fluffed the thing and
spent the next 24 hours sure I did not have the job, much to my
surprise I was offered it. the job is in the school of psychology, but
in a research unit called Centre for Outcomes Effectiveness (CORE).
Their work is focused on improving the use of research and evidence by
health care practitioners, exploring why and why they don't use it and
designing interventions to improve its use in different settings, the
work I will be doing is public health orientated, so right up my alley
after my work at ADHB. Anyhow, it is all very exciting, the details
are a little unclear
overethusastic bike ride
the heat and the hills and the mad drivers soon got the better of us at the moment, but once we get back I will be
sorting out the details and will let everyone know. the great news is
UCL is in Bloomsbury - very central so we can look for flats just
about where ever we want. It also means Paul will be free to pursue
sound work without too many problems.
onto Hvar...
this is a island about 1 hour out from Split, where we spent 4 days.
After the rest of our travels things somewhat slowed down to island
life pace. We wandered around, admired the beautiful scenery, rode up
a hill in a somewhat misplaced sense of energy (soon to be regretted)
and swam. It was all quite glorious really.
Croatian food has been generally excellent. Much to our joy we have
been able to shop in the local morning markets and get really fresh
fish and veggies and cook for ourselves. it is weird but eating out
every night does become a little tiresome. there is a real focus on
fish, goats and sheeps cheese and scampi ( big prawns), which suits us
very nicely. the wine is also fabulous, with different regional
specialties, it is a bit
of a relief (for me) after the beer focus in the
previous areas.
After 4 nights in Hvar we moved onto the Dubrovnik , which is right near the bottom of Croatia, this was an all day ferry ride and very pleasant it was in sunny calm conditions, on the Adriatic sea. Luck was on our side as we manged to get a fabulous apartment right next to the city wall with a view over the old town and sea for a discounted rate. We spent our evenings up on the terrace watching the sunset. Paul''s 30th birthday was spent in style here with pancakes on the terrace overlooking the city, a day trip to an island just out of the harbour and a lovely meal out in which a whole
fish platter was consumed! The whole area is very Agatha Christie ''Evil Under the Sun'', beautiful clear azure water, steep rocky cliffs, pine trees and bathing platforms........very atmospheric (not sure where the endless sets of matronly boobs on display fit into 1930s Poirot fiction though!).
Highlight of Dubrovnik was a climb around the fortress walls and a trip out to an abortorium planted in the renaissance period
- just stunning set on a cliff top with the full water features of netptune and 500 year old plane trees.
We have just moved up the coast a bit to an another island called Korcula for 6 days before heading to Hungary on the 24th for a week of bike riding, which will be needed after the amount we are eating here!
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fiona
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Good to see someone is enjoying the sun. NZ is freezing - literally!!! Happy birthday Paul!! How exotic, wedding anniversary in Vienna, 30th in Croatia...what next...??? And congrats on the job Jess - must be a great feeling to know you have that sorted out!