Blogs from Croatia, Europe - page 16

15.08.2019. Last night, after booking into our lovely hotel, we found the Bulldog Bar just a few short steps from the hotel and enjoyed a few drinks and dinner and bumped into four Aussies who we accused of being so loud we could hear them six feet away! They laughed and told us they were from Victoria - well, there you go! They, like us, we’re quite chuffed to hear an Aussie accent after so many weeks away. It’s funny, John and I sit amongst the crowds, drink, eat, chat and enjoy and everyone is speaking in different languages - so when we hear English being spoken, it’s quite comforting in a way. John and I also seem to be the only two people anywhere not bent over their mobile phones whilst out and about! At ... read more

I have a full day in Zagreb today plus all tomorrow morning, before catching a lunchtime train to Ljubljana, and I am looking forward to exploring this city. My only fix point today is meeting Vlatka at 5pm. She is the local guide we use in Zagreb, and from our email exchange she seems delightful . She has kindly agreed to meet me in the hotel lobby so she can explain how she runs our tours. After a great breakfast I head off to the main square, armed with a city map, courtesy of my hotel. I want to orientate myself, and try to walk as much of the city centre as I can. It is a much smaller city than Budapest. During my own ramble I actually get to see a great deal of the ... read more

Tuesday:plan. Get up, go to get a boat to Birjuni, have a nice day, go back to the house and maybe out for tea. The reality: up at the crack of dawn (ish) to go to the garage, chauffeured by lozz who really had no plans for this in his holiday. Told by the garage man that nope, not a chance of looking at the car (just looking at it, not even mending it) till Thursday. So we collected some stuff and sulked our way to the (very very hot) beach at Rovinj. Seth had a great time (loudly pointing out that a chubby preteen boy had boobies was perhaps the highlight though). We sulked our way through (having a few words with ourselves about being so grumpy in such a lovely place). Seth paddled, had ... read more

I learnt a very lot today.... First off I learnt what the Croatian for 'sour cream' is. Sadly it was only after having bought two pots of it at the shop yesterday, put a load on my cereal and eaten a bit that I thought that checking the translation would be good as it wasn't really like yoghurt! In all fairness it was really nice but I'm guessing not particularly healthy! I also learnt that health and safety is not even an afterthought for Croatians. Given the limited time spent at Slovenia's number one dinopark, we decided to forego the beach in the heat and try Croatia's number one dinopark. Oh my....... In all fairness the dinosaurs weren't bad, no noise so Seth was happy, and lots of them all dotted around but the rides.... The ... read more

From the “you never know” department. As usual we arrived at JFK 3 hours early and stopped for a pre-vacation drink. There was a time when my rent was less than the two drinks. We headed to the gate for a 7:05 boarding and an 8:00pm departure. When we were sitting in the boarding area at 7:30 I knew we had a problem. The board listed departure at 8:30, then 9:00. The crowd was growing restless. The captain, Captain Dan, announced that there was a computer glitch, it needed to be addressed and then tested and since the cabin temperature was 107, they would have to cool it down. New departure 10:30. Then the board changed to departure at Midnight. There were now nine people behind the podium trying to answer questions. The crowd was beginning ... read more