Euro Trip Day 16: What a neat, neat day
Today started off early… too early. Because I couldn’t sleep, I went to bed sometime after 4:30… only to have to wake up at 7:45 for church. Whee!
I can’t remember if I mentioned it here or not, but here in Sveti Stefan, we’re actually staying with a coworker of mine whose husband’s family lives here. In fact, they used to live ON the island of Sveti Stefan, until the Communists decided in the 1950s that it’d make a nifty summer resort, so they evicted all of the residents. Yaay for an equal society, right? Sigh.
Anyway, initially the plan was to stay on their couch, but it just so happened that a relative who stays for the summer in a small apartment on the first floor is not here yet, so we get to stay there. Sweet! I owe SO MUCH to my coworker for letting us stay here — she’s wonderful. :-)
Anyway, this morning I went to church with her and her four daughters. Church was at a Serbian Orthodox monastery on the hill above the town of Sveti Stefan. After the service, we got to wander around a bit, and I (of course) took a bunch of pictures. I opted to upload a few now just because, but whenever I get the rest of my pics processed, I’ll get those online. Of course.
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Altarpiece at the monastery we went to
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It was raining when we went into church, but by the time we got home, the sky had cleared up, and it was absolutely GORGEOUS.
Holy Technicolor, Batman!
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Oh yeah, and ummm, shortly after I took the above picture, we got on the wrong bus, and ended up on a journey that took at least an hour and cost us 8 Euro total. WHOOPS. Sigh.
After church, John and I headed to Kotor, an ancient port city about 45 minutes north by bus from here, and a UNESCO World Heritage site. Honestly, this is one of the most amazing places I’ve ever been. Ever. It’s an old Roman walled city with a bunch of churches. Architecture-wise, it’s mostly in the style of the Renaissance and the Venetian Republic. And the whole city is situated right up against a huge basalt mountain, with the city wall climbing up that mountain. I was just in awe of how gorgeous the whole place is — there’s absolutely no mystery as to why it’s a World Heritage site.
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Gurdic Gate on the south end of Kotor. Notice the city wall going up the mountain to the top right of the picture.
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The gate even has a moat and a drawbridge. So so cool!! This was definitely my favorite of the old walled cities we've visited thus far.
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Gurdic Gate as seen through an arrow port on the parapet on the inside of the wall. (You can see the stone wall of the arrow port on the bottom right of the pic.)
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Street in Kotor.
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On the bridge outside the River Gate, looking toward the mountains. Notice the city wall climbing up the hill on the right -- see the fortress on the top? I would have loved to hike up there (you can, but my sea urchin heel still really hurts, so I wasn't really up for it.) Beautiful!!
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We wandered around for quite a while, then headed back home on the bus. Oh yeah, the bus. Both John and I are really really ready to move inland if for no other reason than we’re looking forward to riding the train… the intercity bus system around here is interesting, to say the least. They don’t put the schedule online because it’s subject to change on a daily if not hourly basis, so don’t ever look at the schedule coming INTO a new city and assume that it’s going to be the same as when you LEAVE the city, even if you’re planning on leaving only a few days later. Just go to the window and ask, and pray someone speaks English.
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This is what I'm talking about. This is the week's posted schedule, only already some of those routes are not accurate, as we found out by asking at the window.
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I just hope our bus to Mostar (which is the “Banja Luka” which is cut off on the bottom right of the schedule) really does come at 8:00 PM on Tuesday evening, because it’s not on the schedule on the wall, but that’s what two different people at the window said, and if they’re wrong, I’m going to be cranky. :-p
Anyway, the bus from Kotor back to Budva took about 45 minutes, then we got back to Sveti Stefan in another 20 or so, arriving sometime shortly before sunset. It wasn’t a very great sunset, as there were once again a fair number of clouds in the way. Once it was dark, we walked down the road to a restaurant for dinner. On our way back, we could see lightning lighting up the sky to the north — tonight we’re supposed to get another storm, so this was just the leading edge, I guess. And since I don’t have any good lightning pictures, I decided to give lightning photography tonight. Yaay for shutter release cable!
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I think John was just as excited about taking these as I was. :-)
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Tomorrow it’s off to Cetinje and Ostrog Monastery, a 17th century monastery built into the side of a cliff. I can’t wait. :-)
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Where we are now:
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Euro Trip Day 14: Best. Sunset. EVER
(The headline is a Simpsons reference, btw.)
This is going to be short because I’m exhausted — literally, I’m falling asleep writing this post. Today we got up at dawn and got to the bus terminal REALLY early and waited for our bus, in order to avoid yesterday’s snafu. The bus ride wasn’t long distance-wise, but we had to change buses twice, and we had a border crossing that took FOREVER. SERIOUSLY. So with that, and the fact that we, er, kind of got misdirected when trying to get from the bus to our host’s house, the whole day of travel was about 10 hours long. That’s a LONG day on a bus.
So here are some pretty pictures. :-)
Croatian coast somewhere between Orebic and Ston.
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Somehow we took a wrong turn and ended up in Norway... ok, these are really the fjords of northern Montenegro. Breathtaking. (And no, I'm not pining for them...) (Monty Python joke...)
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We're staying in Sveti Stefan, Montenegro with one of my coworkers, whose husband's family is there. This is the view from their front balcony. Her husband's family actually used to live ON the island -- I'll explain what happened there in my blog post for tomorrow.
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Sunset over the Montenegrin Riviera.
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Sveti Stefan at sunset.
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Where we are now:
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Euro Trip Day 11: Hoping that this is as unfun as it gets
I’ve had better days.
We slept in a bit today, had a leisurely breakfast, and then decided to rent bikes and head out to explore the island a bit. However, we somehow took a wrong turn, and ended riding 3 kilometers up a REALLY BIG HILL. I know, only 3 km — cry me a river, right? Well, it was 90F+ and humid as heck, and there was NO SHADE the whole way up, and because we have more good intentions than brains apparently, we went smack dab in the middle of the day.
3 km into the ride, we realized we were in the wrong place, and headed back down, stopping by an interesting-looking cemetery that dates back to the mid-1800s. Something I thought was neat — the graves from the Communist period still had crosses on them.Huh!
Old crypts.
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Anyway, we wandered around a bit, but it was so hot with the sun reflecting off of the crypts that we ended up just sitting in the shade and panting for a bit before riding back downhill. We were both fairly miserable by the end of the ride — let me tell you. Ugh.
Once we got back to our hostel, we decided a swim was in order, and headed down to the beach. It was PERFECT. OMG.
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This guy tried to get us to share our lunch with him. Ha.
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Me, right before my day took kind of a crappy turn.
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Shortly after the above picture was taken, I stepped on a sea urchin and ended up with a whole bunch of spines in my foot. It was, to say the least, less than fun. I didn’t realize quite the extent of the damage until I got out of the water and looked at my foot… it was ugly.
After hanging out a bit more, my foot really started to hurt, so we walked (well, John walked — I limped) back to our hostel (which was really really close, thankfully) and I spent almost TWO HOURS pulling spines out of my foot. Ok, it didn’t take all two hours — I kept having to take breaks since it hurt, and the way I had to sit with my neck bent to get them out gave me a big crick in my neck and back, and my foot kept falling asleep. Bleh. After that time, I’d gotten most of them, but there were a few stubborn straight-in, deep ones that I just couldn’t get to. So I hit Google for a solution, and found an old diver’s trick — soak the foot in vinegar and they’ll dissolve. Apparently it’s the same process by which you make a turkey wishbone rubbery (ever done that?) Something about the acetic acid in the vinegar reacting to the calcium in the bones, or in the sea urchin spines.
Well, we didn’t have any regular vinegar, so I decided to use some basalmic vinegar (which we’ve been eating with our bread and cheese for lunch) on gauze and taped to my foot to soak it that way. We only had an hour left on our bike rental at this point, and I didn’t want to waste it! So I taped up my foot, shoved it into a shoe, and away we went, sticking to the coast this time. All things considered, it was a lovely ride.
Flowers outside a convent.
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We had to return the rental bikes, so we did, then came back to our hostel and showered and did laundry (whee!) before going to eat dinner. The hostel we’re staying in is pretty empty right now (high season doesn’t really start for another couple of weeks) so the owner offered us a discount on a fourth night… Heck yeah!! So we’re here through Thursday.
Oh, the vinegar managed to dissolve all but one or two of the deepest spines–it’s hard to tell, since it kind of stained my foot. :-p So it still hurts, but at least I got most of them out. Depending on how it feels tomorrow, I may give it another vinegar soak tomorrow evening.
During the day tomorrow we’re going to rent a kayak and go cruise around… hopefully it’ll be a nice day, and not the comedy of errors that today was. Sigh. :-)
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Where we are now:
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Euro Trip Day 10: In which the entire day can be summed up in one picture
That's one big freaking swimming pool.
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Slept in, went to the beach, went to the grocery store, ate lunch, went back to the beach. Read, napped, swam, sunned.
It’s a brutal life.
Sorry for the boring post… it was a boring day, but so so so heavenly to have that boring day.
(It was a beach day because we’re saving up for something fun, like a kayak trip… and because sometimes it’s just nice to lie on a beach and read. Ya know?) :-)
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Where we are now:
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Euro Trip Day 9: In which we get to Korčula and I wonder why we didn’t just go straight here
(Side note — the island’s name is actually pronounced “KOR-chula” — the č in Croatian is a ch sound.)
So today I discovered one of the little problems with traveling and not really having a set schedule… one forgets what day it is fairly easily. This morning I woke up gradually shortly after 8, as the sound of jackhammers infiltrated my consciousness. As I came slowly awake, I tried to figure out what the sound was and from where it was coming, and then my next thought in the as of yet groggy, dimly-lit recesses of my brain was, “Dude, it’s Sunday — can’t they take a break from work for one stinking day?”
And then ZING!, the lightbulb went off and I came wide awake and reached for my phone, where I’d saved the bus schedule for the bus we were going to take to Orebic, where we’d catch the ferry to Korčula.
I looked at the schedule and reread the words I’d read before and somehow glossed over: “Departs 14:15 every day except Sunday.”
SUNDAY.
At this point the adrenaline kicked in, and I kicked off the sheet and grabbed my clothes to change out of my pajamas so that I could grab my laptop and run down two flights of stairs (outside stairs — the hostel we were in is built on a hill, so even though it’s three stories, it’s more like three terraces on the hill) to the patio where the wifi was. Fortunately, I’d saved some links with a couple different transit options from Dubrovnik to Korcula, so I was able to relatively quickly find alternate transportation. The bad news was that it was a more expensive ferry direct to the island, and that it left from the ferry terminal (a 15-minute hike down the hill and a ten-minute bus ride away) at 10AM.
I ran back up the two flights of stairs. At this point, John, having heard me exit the room in a rush, was awake and wanting to know what was amiss. When I told him, he sprang out of bed about as fast as I had, and much packing chaos ensued. The bus that we’d planned to take didn’t leave until 2:15 PM, so we were under the impression that we had plenty of time, and hadn’t even begun to pack… whoops.
We got everything packed as quickly as we could, checked out of the hostel, ran down all 514 steps as fast as we safely could with all of our luggage, and caught the bus to the ferry port just as it pulled into the bus stop. We got to the ferry terminal, and after accidentally getting into the wrong ticket line once, got our tickets and were seated in the ferry lounge with about 30 minutes to spare. WHEW.
Big ol' ferry.
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John managed to put his head down and go back to sleep for a few minutes, but I was wide awake and the adrenaline was still going, so there was no way I was going to fall back asleep. Heh.
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In retrospect, both John and I were glad that we were forced to take the earlier, somewhat more expensive transportation option. It ended up not being as expensive as a travel website had led us to believe, and it sure beat the heck out of a bus ride. First and foremost though, we got to spend several more daytime hours than we would have originally had exploring and enjoying an absolutely smashingly gorgeous place. Neither of us can get over how beautiful it is here.
When the ferry got in, we were met by the owner of our hostel, who was there to give us both a ride and some bad news. The bad news was that he’d inadvertently overbooked, and we weren’t going to be able to stay at his hostel. The good news is that his mother runs a hostel as well, and she had a room, and he’d arranged to get us a room there for the duration of our stay at the same rate we would have paid at the other place.
This was good. Very good. Excellent, in fact. Why? Well, first of all, his mother’s hostel cost 20 Euro more per night than his. Second, it has air conditioning in the room (although the weather has been so pleasant we haven’t needed it yet.) Third, it has an in-room bathroom (rather than a shared one… I don’t mind a shared bathroom, but it is pretty nice to have our own!) Finally, his is a 15-minute walk from the old town… hers is RIGHT IN THE CENTER OF TOWN. I mean, RIGHT there. 50 yards from the ocean, 100 yards from a nice low, flat, broad rock that people use to sunbathe on and to swim in the ocean from (there’s even a metal pool ladder bolted to the rock to aid in getting out.)
We SERIOUSLY lucked out here. He kept apologizing for the inconvenience, and we were both like, “Uhhh, ok man… apology accepted.”
But it gets better… ok, not better, but at least more hilarious. While we were checking in and he was going over the hostel’s policies, he asked us where we were from, and John answered, “The US — California.” The guy’s eyes LIT UP, and the next thing out of his mouth (I kid you not) was, “So, California? Do you know anyone in the film industry? Because I have written these two screenplays…”
It was all I could do to stifle a snort. Seriously. Clearly because we live in California, we must be somehow connected to the film industry, right? The poor guy seemed so let down when we told him that we were in northern CA and had absolutely nothing to do with the film industry whatsoever. If there’s a “Native Californian Bingo”, I’m pretty sure I just crossed off a square there.
After we got settled in our room, we tossed on our swimsuits and headed for the beach. It was a pebbly beach, and I stepped on a sea urchin while wading in (I didn’t have my glasses on, so I can’t see anything, even though the water is really, REALLY clear) but it was still unbelievably beautiful. We hung out until John was toasted a lovely shade of pink, and then we headed back for showers and laundry (which has to be my least favorite thing about traveling thus far.) After that, I grabbed my camera and we wandered around our end of the island a bit. This island was once part of the Venetian Empire, and that’s quite represented in the architecture of the old city, which is walled and doesn’t have any vehicle traffic within its walls. The main church in the center of town is even called Sveti Marko, or St. Mark’s, just like in Venice. It’s SO BEAUTIFUL.
It occurred to me when I was uploading it that I've only posted two pictures of me, and I'm wearing the same shirt in both of them. Get used to it--I have four shirts that aren't long-sleeved.
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We looped around once, then stopped at a pizza place right around the corner from our hostel for dinner when we both realized that we hadn’t eaten lunch, and come to think of it, we really hadn’t eaten breakfast either, owing to our mad rush to the ferry. We’d had a couple of granola bars and an apple, but that’s not much for a the day. The pizza place was right in front of Sveti Marco Church, and while we were sitting there, the church bells rang, so I took a short video so y’all could hear them. I love church bells so much.
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Another view of the church.
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After dinner, we went back to wander a bit more and enjoy the gorgeous sunset, picking up ice cream cones along the way.
I think when I get home I'm going to take all of the door pictures I've taken on this trip and put them together in a collage frame, or something. So many neat doors! And yes, I know I'm odd.
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Old city of Korcula near sunset.
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Y'all have NO CLUE how many takes I had to do of this on a cameraphone (difficulty -- HUGE lag between pressing the shutter and it actually taking the picture, and can only do one picture at a time) so that I could get a swallow in the foreground (they were out hunting at the time.) I love this shot, though.
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Tomorrow we have no plans other than to go to the beach, and to wander around town seeing what else there is to see. We’re debating pushing back Montenegro a day or so and staying here instead… not sure yet though. We’ll see on Tuesday what our thoughts are on that. :-)
This is definitely my favorite place thus far, though.
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9:15 PM: Late rainy evening looking east over the Puget Sound
No picture can do justice to the quality of light, or the cool evening air, or the gentle rain, or the peace of this place. So you’ll just have to use your imagination. It’s beautiful here, y’all.
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Seen on my way to work
Random 001, originally uploaded by Kari_Marie.
I know those of you who live in climates where it snows in the winter are probably laughing at me right about now, but keep in mind that I’m a native Southern Californian, so driving to work and seeing snow-covered mountains (even if they are a 75-mile drive from here) is still amazing and awesome to me. I love it. :-)
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One of the reasons I love Sacramento
One of the reasons I love Sacramento is the relative proximity of everything. We’re about an hour and a half from Tahoe/snow/skiing, an hour an a half (ok, or longer depending on traffic) from San Francisco and the coast, we’re a decently large city but can easily get to the Bay Area if we want a larger city, and we’re also close to the mountains if we want wilderness. I live in midtown Sac, which means I’m close to the Capitol and pretty much smack dab in the middle of everything, but in only 10 minutes, I can drive to where I’m out with nature.
I took advantage of this a couple of weeks ago when I made two trips (one sunset, one sunrise) out to the Vic Fazio Yolo Wildlife Area, about ten miles from my house. The entire Sacramento Delta area is part of the Pacific Flyway, so tremendous numbers of birds pass through here on their way north and south, making for some fun bird photography. I’ve driven over this particular stretch of land many times while taking the Yolo Causeway, AKA I-80, west from Sacramento to the Bay Area, and I’ve always admired it because of its wide-open space, rice fields, and wetlands. It’s especially beautiful at the end of the day, when the setting sun reflects off of the shallow, standing water and tens of thousands of birds (no, I’m not exaggerating) swoop and settle in for the night.
I went for sunset, and I was so blown away that the next morning I dragged myself out of bed in the dark and cold hours and went to watch the sun rise as well. I wasn’t disappointed… In fact, the worst part of the whole experience was trying to figure out how I was going to delete some truly awesome shots (since I really can’t and don’t need to keep everything…)
As always, a few shots :
Day 1: Sunset
Dried star anise. It smells like black licorice!
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Mallards!
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You really need to click on this next one to enlarge it.
Red-winged Blackbirds swarming and then settling in the reeds for the night.
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Collision course.
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Egret silhouetted against the sunset sky.
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Day 2: Sunrise
Sunrise over the Sacramento River delta.
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Red-winged Blackbird.
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Red-tailed hawk.
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I was carefully walking closer to an egret, trying to get a good shot, and inadvertently flushed out this blue heron. Sweet. Check out those wings!!
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Great egret.
[Gallery of more pics can be found here]
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