September 2004 Archives

Hvar Island is reportedly the sunniest spot in Croatia--2724 hours of sunshine per year. That was part of the reason we decided to come here, we were getting a little tired of clouds and rain. Hvar didn't disappoint. Even though it was drizzling a bit when we arrived on the boat (enough so that the guestroom hawkers that met the boat were trying to convince us that it was no weather to camp in and we should therefore stay at their place), the weather today is absolutely beautiful. We feel like we're in Paradise here! Our camp ground is in the tiny village of Milna, about 3 km from Hvar town. We took a crowded bus there yesterday (it was so full that we thought we were going to have to get out and push it up the hill) without knowing whether it was even open. Luckily it is--it's perfect. We have a gorgeous view of the ocean right from our tent. Today we hiked along the rocks by the ocean and through rosemary bushes back to Hvar town to take care of some errands. Tomorrow we plan on spending all day on the beach (hopefully the weather will cooperate). We're not sure of our plans after this. Unfortunately it's not going to work out to meet Michael's brother in Greece or in Turkey, so we'll just have to see.

Sorry there aren't any photos yet--the connection is way too slow here and the other day they wouldn't let us because of security reasons. We'll keep trying though, bye for now!

(The title is named after our favorite bank that we see everywhere around here: Splitska Banka)

(We've added a few different entries so you might want to start with the updated 'Zagreb to Sibenik' entry to read it in oder)

We woke up trying to come to terms with the fact that our ipod was gone ("We won't have as much to carry now", "we could have lost something much more important", "this is a lesson in not becoming attached to material things", etc...) We enjoyed our breakfast by the ocean and then Michael went ahead into town to the internet cafe to change various passwords that he thought might have been stored on the ipod. I went to the bus station to see if maybe they had a lost and found. The two women working there were so friendly and went out of their way to try to communicate with me and help that even though they couldn't find the ipod, I left in good spirits. The internet cafe where I was supposed to meet Michael was closed so not knowing where he was, I decided to stop by the restaurant we had eaten at, just in case the ipod had slipped out of my bag there. I asked a waiter there, and he replied calmy, as if he'd been waiting for me, "Yes, I have it. Wait here". It seemed too good to be true, so I tried not to get my hopes up as I waited. But sure enough, we walked back out with the ipod in his hands! Thank you Ante and thank you Restoron Fontana!
I left relieved and elated, but I still had no idea where Michael was. We had walked by another internet cafe the day before, but finding it through the maze of little alleys was not easy. After passing the same corner (and same group of British folks) about three times, I finally found it, also closed and also no Michael. I left a note saying to meet me in the main square, then walked back to the first internet cafe. There I found a note from Michael (that he'd written 5 minutes earlier) saying that he also was trying to find the second cafe! I wrote back on his note and then sat down in the main square for a cappucino as I tried to figure out the best way to surprise Michael with the good news. He found me a few minutes later, but I didn't even get a chance to use my rehearsed lines because he'd been to the restaurant too and knew that I had the ipod.

Again, this thing is getting too long! Let me sum up the rest of our experiences today: We love love love Trogir and highly reccomend it to everyone! We took a bus to Split (another beautiful but much bigger town), saw more Mestrovic sculptures (I've decided he's my favorite artist), and checked out times for the boat tomorrow to Hvar island, our next stop.

Saturday, September 25th
We awoke to a drizzly, cold and windy morning. Reluctantly, we crawled out of our warm sleeping bags, had a quick breakfast and asked the owner of Camping Krka when the bus to Sibenik would be coming by so we could catch a ride to the medieval island town of Trogir. He told us the bus arrived at 11AM, which left us about an hour and a half to pack up our tent and get our things together.

At 10:45AM we headed for the bus stop and waited until noon and still no bus came. The owner drove us a few kilometers up the road to another bus stop and told us (in Croatian) something to the effect of "Wait here, the bus will be right along. I promise." He could have been more truthful and said "Wait here, in the cold, while you're knocked around by gale-force winds, and then the bus will come. I think."

We were not alone at the new bus stop; there were some locals waiting there too which reassured us that we were in a more promising place. However, we began to doubt our situation as each one, cold and tired of waiting, stuck his thumb out and hitched a ride into town. We consulted our travelbook on the status of hitch-hiking in Croatia and, seeing that it was relatively safe, decided to give it a try. Car after car passed us by without even slowing down to see where it was we wanted to go. We even tried flagging down a school bus but the driver simply shook his head and sped on by as the children stared out the windows at the two frozen Americans with the big backpacks.

Another hour passed and finally our bus arrived. We hopped in, plopped down in our seats and began to de-thaw. The moral of the story as we learned is: check the schedule for your return trip before leaving town so you're not stuck relying on someone else's memory of bus times.

Once back in Sibenik we took the 2PM bus to downtown Trogir and walked 2 kilometers to our next home, Camping Seget. In order to have an uninhibited view over the blue-green waters of Splitski Channel we pitched our tent at the edge of the property. We headed back into Trogir to check out the old town which was named a Unesco World Heritage site back in 1997. The dark, winding alleys and side streets of the 15th century city provided us with hours of fun.

Tired from the days events we decided to treat ourselves to our first sit-down dinner in a restaurant (that we actually paid for ourselves). We chose the Fontana Restaurant because it sits right on the harbour and, according to our guide book, is where local Croatians go when dining out. We had a delicious dinner of salted sardines, mixed salads, grilled calimari and Frute di Mari pizza. We left downtown Trogir and walked the 2km back to our tent and settled in for the night.

Just before we said goodnight I decided I wanted to listen to our iPod for a bit. Megan looked in her hand bag (where it's always been kept) but couldn't find it. We tore apart the tent looking for it to no avail - our iPod was gone. We retraced our steps from that day, looked around our tent with flashlights but found nothing. Exhausted and disappointed, we decided to go to sleep and deal with it in the morning.

It was close, but we made it to the train on time. We switched trains in Salzburg and then enjoyed our 7 hour ride to Zagreb in a compartment all to ourselves. We caught up on sleep, read up on Croatia, and found out that almost half of the songs on our ipod had mysteriously disappeared. Random songs are simply gone! It was disappointing especially after spending a lot of time at Henni’s adding more songs and albums, but we’re over it and ready to be surprised each time we listen to an album.

We arrived in Zagreb around 4:30 and hopped on a tram to the Children’s Theater where Roman works as the general manager (Roman is a family friend of Emily, Michael’s colleague at Envision. She gave us his information when she found out we were going to Zagreb. We contacted him with the idea of simply meeting for coffee, but he immediately invited us to stay with his family.) He showed us around the Theater and then we drove to his appartment. He, his wife Daniella, and three children Dora, Karlo and Fran welcomed us warmly into their home, and Karlo even let us have his room—thank you Karlo! After a bite to eat, Roman gave us an initial tour of Zagreb by night—including our first delicious (and big) Croatian ice cream!

The next morning we met Roman at the theater and got a peak at their current show—Peter Pan. We then met the art director Nina, her son Ivan, and Gordon (aka Kinderinno, but more on that later). Ivan and Gordon took us on another tour of the city. We got to hear the daily canon sound at noon, ride the Uspinjača to the upper part of the city, see the beautiful National Theater, the cathedral, and the market. We also tasted the local street vendor specialty—Kukuruz (grilled corn). We highly reccommend it! We also had time to talk and joke. We found out that Gordon is currently working at Roman’s theater as “Kinderinno”, the Kinder Egg mascot (the theater gets money from the Ferrarro company and therefore has to advertise in that way). He told us all about the daily abuse he gets from school kids who see him as a huge punching bag.

After a tasty lunch prepared by Daniella and a short walk around Jarun lake right by their apartment, Roman took us to Kumrovec, the birthplace of Tito. The entire village has been transformed into a recreation of a 19th century village—kind of like Sturbridge Village in Mass. The only big difference is that Kumrovec is not all commercialized and touristy. We were just about the only ones there, didn’t pay anything, and they weren’t selling souvenirs.

This morning we hurried to the Theater once again, this time to catch Gordon as Kinderinno. He told us afterward that we experienced the friendliest group of kids—no serious injuries this time.

Oops, out of time again. We have to catch the night train down to the coast (Sibenik). We’ll have to catch up from there! Thank you Roman, Daniella, Nina, Ivan and Gordon—our time here in Zagreb was made very special because of you!

Update 9/23-9/25
Let me pick up where I left off... Seeing that giant Kinder Egg was like a dream come true and it took me back to my semester in Siena when Charlotte and I would eat at least one a day and ended up with a huge collection of toys (we even had big plans to make a game out of them, but that never did end up happening).

We sat in the theater cafe with Gordon for a while after that, Nina showed up and we arranged to meet her later at the Museum of Modern Art. We went into the city with Gordon and visited the Mestrovic studio. Ivan Mestrovic (1883-1962) was a famous Croatian sculptor who ended up emigrating to the US and became a professor at the University of Notre Dame. We were all mesmorized by his work (so much so that we went to see more of his work today in Split)and the house itself was beautiful too.

We stopped at a Cafe for a bit after that (it's one of our favorite things to do here in Croatia--I love the comfy wicker chairs!) The museum that we wanted to see with Nina was closed, so instead she drove us up to Mirogoj, a beautiful cemetary built by architect Herman Bolle. It's surrounded by an arcade and looks more like a fortress from the outside. A lot of famous Croatians are buried there, including the first president, Franjo Tudman. Nina's grandparents are also burried there, we got to visit their grave and hear stories about them.

On our way back down Nina explained an anti-European Union billboard that we passed. Croatia is moving toward joining the EU, but a lot of people are against it. The billboard was basically saying that if Croatia joins the EU, people will face terrorism and won't be able to buy tradional meats anymore (because the small local producers won't be able to meet the strict EU standards). I can't remember the name of the meat (can you help us Nina?) but we got to try it at the special restaurant that Nina took us to (which doesn't even have a sign outside, only locals know about it). There we drank honey schnapps and sampled meats and cheeses while Nina entertained us with funny stories about her one-and-only vacation to the coast with her husband. (You're a great storyteller Nina, we keep talking about it!)

Then it was back to "our family" for dinner, packing, and a little Croatian 'Who wants to be a Millionaire' (it's not a very good deal for them though, since you divide by six to get dollars). Roman and Daniella then gave US gifts (I guess it wasn't enough for them to house and feed us for 2 days!). Thank you for the chocolates--I love the blue ones and Michael favors the cherry so it works out well! Daniella also packed us enough sandwiches to last for the whole next day.

We ended up having to switch onto a bus about 1 hour into our ride because of construction on the tracks (apparently the rail company bought fancy new trains that they can't use yet because the tracks are too old!) We arrived in Sibenik early in the morning, wandered around town, sat at a cafe on the water, and then got on a bus to Krka national park. Unfortunately we got off at the wrong stop and ended up having to walk almost 5km to the campground. We set up our tent (for the first time this trip!) then headed to the park (this time via a short cut we learned from the owners).

Now I feel like I'm rambling so I'll try to make it short. The park was beautiful. From the dry, almost desert-like land above, you go down into this lush green valley. There's a wooden walkway that leads you over the river and waterfall after waterfall. At the bottom are the big falls and then an area of calm water where I jumped in for a swim. The weather started to turn dark and cold so we caught the boat and bus back to the campground. We stayed warm and cozy in our tent as it stormed all night outside.

We're in a mad dash right now to catch our 7:52AM train to Zagreb. Our alarm clock didn't go off when it should have. We'll post an update about Innsbruck and Croatia as soon as possible.

Last weekend Megan, Henni, Junior (the dog) and I took a weekend trip to Hinterglemm and Saalbach. For the past 10 years or so Henni, Kurt and Roland have been going there to ski. Recently they've been there in the summers to hike, relax and enjoy the mountains and fresh air.

Friday, September 3rd
We left Linz at about 10:30AM and took the Autobahn towards Salzburg. I was still pretty tired from being up so late the past few nights and fell asleep (Megan took this picture without me knowing). I awoke just as we were passing through Germany. It was strange to see the old border patrol stations sitting there vacant and dilapidated. Now that the EU is in full effect there aren't any border checks between member countries. We stopped a few minutes later to stretch our legs and get some snacks.

We arrived in Saalbach at 2PM and hopped on the gondola to take a ride up to the eastern peak of Shattberg mountain. The weather was gorgeous and it felt great having the sun on our faces and breathing the crisp late summer air. We hiked around a bit, posed with some mountain goats, and Megan and Henni figured out the names of the snow capped mountain peaks we could see off in the distance. Megan and I found time to play a bit before we took the gondola back down.

We headed over to the hotel where Henni had booked our rooms, The Carolinenhof, and had an aperitif with the owner, Liane Einsle. Henni told us how much she loves staying at this hotel because of the friendly and warm atmosphere. After meeting Liane we too knew that The Carolinenhof was someplace special.

We went to our room to unpack and were amazed by the view we had from our balcony. Dinner was served at 7PM and we were invited to sit at the Stammtisch with Liane and some other guests from Germany (Thomas and Petra) to have an after dinner schnapps. They talked about their travels in America and raved about how we have great rollercoasters and steaks.

Saturday, September 4th
We woke up to a foggy, rainy morning and had a late breakfast. We hung around hoping the weather would improve and when the sun broke through the clouds at around 1PM we walked into Hinterglemm. We took a different gondala half way up, and then hiked to the peak of the Reiterkogel (1918 Meters high), stopping along the way to pick wild blueberries which we ate with breakfast the next day. The weather turned out great and we were treated to spectacular views of the cloud covered mountains that surrounded us. (We took over 250 photos during the weekend and had a difficult time of deciding which ones to keep.)

Again we sat at the Stammtisch and had drinks with Liane and a few other guests. We talked about our round-the-world trip and where we were heading. As we were leaving the table Liane gave us a little silver Buddha to carry with us for good luck and protection. It was a simple, heartfelt gift that really meant a lot to us because it was given out of genuine thoughfulness and kindness.

Sunday, September 5th
We had breakfast and a goodbye glass of champagne at the Stammtisch. Unfortunately, we didn't know the gondolas took a one hour break at noontime and we arrived at the base of the Zwölferkogel and everything was closed. We decided to hike around the base a bit and have a coffee while we waited for one o'clock to roll around.

The lifts started up and we headed up to the summit. We hiked another 128 meters to reach the Hohe Penhab peak and had a late afternoon snack. We headed back down to the parking lot around 4PM and were on the road in time to see the late day sun color everything in warm, golden tones.

It was great to spend time with Henni in a relaxed, peaceful environment. Thank you Henni and Kurt for such a great weekend!

Now we're off to pack again because we're taking an early morning train to Innsbruck for more hiking and sightseeing; Omi will meet us there Tuesday afternoon. We'll be sure to give an update and more photos when we're back.

OK, it's time to finally catch up. We haven't actually been that lazy here, it's just that between vistiting Omi, planning future parts of our trip, registering for absentee voting, and chosing a travel insurance plan (yes, we are finally insured!), there hasn't been much time to write updates.

Right now Michael is working with Kurt and Roland to tear down an old house. I'm going over to Omi's in a bit, probably to look at more photos (so far we've covered 1950 to 1977).

Here's what we've been doing since Salzburg:

8-30-04
A down day, we didn't leave the house at all. I spent about 3 HOURS just copying addresses that we had in our old book and on random scraps of paper into our new book, it's amazing how long little things like that take. Michael worked on the computer and Roland flew in from California in the afternoon.

8-31-04
Roland, Tamara and the two of us met Omi at the Chinese Restaurant near her apartment. Michael got yelled at by the waitress for taking some rice because it didn't go with the noodles he ordered. Michael and I then went over to Omi's for a bit and later met up with Roland, Tamara, and a bunch of friends at Rosie's, a cafe/bar where his friend Lulee was bartending. We stayed until he closed up at around 2 or 3 AM and then we all headed over to Leberkas Pepi to sample the various kinds of Leberkaes (an Austrian/German meat that's hard to describe or translate, literally it means 'liver cheese'--doesn't sound too appetizing). Michael's favorite was the one with horse meat.

After getting kicked out of there at around 4 AM, we continued on to the next bar. Michael and I were the first to leave at about 6 AM, just as it was getting light outside. We rode the tram back to the house, with Michael hicupping loudly all the way home. On our way to bed we met Henni who was just getting up.

9-1-04
We slept until about 1 PM after our long night out (we’re getting too old for that kind of thing!). In the evening we were invited over to Erich (my mother’s 2nd cousin) and Anni’s for a delicious dinner. The two of them live in the house where his grandmother (Omi’s mother’s sister) once lived, it’s neat to be surrounded by that kind of family history. Besides being a great cook, Erich is also quite the wine connoisseur, so we were able to enjoy some excellent wine selections with dinner (we had a bottle from his private collection that was over 18 years old).

9-2-04
I went over to Omi’s on my own and later met up with Michael and Kurt at the Klosterhof for a beer. We then made our way to the Wine Festival that was going on in the Altstadt (Old Town). It was bigger than we thought it would be—lots going on and lots of wine to be tasted. We parted ways with Kurt and met up with Roland’s friends that we’d met on Tuesday night. It ended up being another pretty long night—we met up with Kurt again coincidently and shared a taxi home at 2:30 (after the traditional stop at Leberkas Pepi of course.)

9-3 to 9-5
Our trip to Hinterglemm with Henni and Juni. (We’ll write about it in a separate entry once we get the pictures up.)

9-6-04
Another lunch with Omi at the Klosterhof, followed by more picture albums at her place. We spent the evening going through over 200(!) pictures from our Hinterglemm weekend.

9-7-04
We decided to take advantage of the beautiful day by walking up the Pöstlingberg here in Linz. The top offers a nice view of the city, but more importantly it is home to the Grottenbahn—the dragon train that takes you around the dwarf and fairy tale world (built in 1906 as I just learned from the website). At first we felt a little silly being the only two adults there without kids, but we got over it quickly and went a bit crazy with the camera. On the way down, Michael amused himself with a little game of “kick the rotten apple down the road”. I bet him 5 Euros to take a bite out of the apple.

We met Omi at Henni’s for some wonderful homemade Marrillen und Zwetschken Knödel (apricot and plum dumplings)—delicious! We then showed Omi the Hinterglemm photos on the DVD player.

9-8-04
A work day for us. We accomplished quite a bit, most importantly we finally purchased our travel insurance (through IMG, world travel center).

9-9-04
We made brunch for Omi, then spent some time planning the next leg of our journey. Looks like we’ll be leaving for Zagreb, Croatia around the 21st.

That's all for now. We promise to be back soon with the Hinterglemm pictures and write-up.

P.S. I hope the beginning of the school year has been a good one for all those teachers out there (and students too of course)!

Best Birthday wishes!

Love,
Mike & Megan

We've been so "busy" relaxing here we haven't had a chance to really sit down and write a proper update. Henni has a new computer and new broadband internet connection which Michael is VERY excited about--he's basically taken over the computer. So...what have we been up to?

08-28-04
Saturday morning we took the train to Salzburg with Omi. It was a beautiful day for a trip through the area and we got some nice shots of typical Austrian farmhouses along the way. (Omi also especially enjoyed the "Safterl" that we brought with us.)

After checking into Hotel Neutor and enjoying a complimentary glass of champagne, we headed out for a pre-opera dinner at Hotel Blaue Gans (The Blue Goose). This was the hotel where Megan and her mom stayed 18 years ago during a short trip to Salzburg, and is also right next door to the Goldener Hirsch, where Sanna and David celebrated their wedding.

The Salzburger Festspiele (Salzburg Festival) takes place every summer from the end of July to the end of August, and is a really big deal here in Austria. Megan had been once before in 1992 to see the famous 'Jedermann' play with Omi, Opi, Alexa and Roland. This time we saw Richard Strauss' Opera 'Der Rosenkavalier'. It was a beautiful performance and it was great to be able to follow along with the supertitles in both German and English. It was also a lot of fun to see all of the Salzburg high society dressed in their finest. Of course mixed in with all the women in fancy ballgowns there was also the American lady who sat down next to us dressed in her Myrtle Beach sweatshirt. She and her son arrived two hours late and missed the entire first act because she thought 18:00 meant eight o'clock.

08-29-04
The next morning, after a delicious breakfast in the hotel, Omi treated us to a carriage ride around the city. It was a great way to see the sights and learn a bit more about them. (Although I did keep waiting--to no avail--for the driver to point out the oldest bakery in Salzburg, or was it Austria? Remember Mama?) Michael's trying to upload a short video clip that we took from the carriage.

We then rode the Festungsbahn up to the fortress for a nice view of the city and a yummy lunch of Griessnockerl Suppe (dumpling soup) and Salzburger Nockerl (a regional specialty that's a bit soufflé-like, see photo). We made it back down in time for the concert in the Felsenreitschule. The Attersee Institute Orchestra played pieces from Mendelssohn, Hummel, and de Falla. It was another beautiful performance. One of the violinists got so into the music that she lost her grip on the bow and it went flying out into the audience. A guy in the first row had to pick it up and hand it back to her.

As we mentioned in the photo, the Felsenreitschule is the setting for one of the scenes in Sound of Music. For those of you who haven't seen the movie at least 50 times like Alexa and Megan have, it's the part where the whole family sings in the concert and then sneaks away so that the father doesn't have to go fight for the Nazis.

After the concert, we stopped by the Blaue Gans one more time for a little snack, and then headed to the train station for the ride back to Linz (this time in the rain). It really was a beautiful weekend. Thank you Omi! And thank you Henni for organizing it all!

This evening we're heading into town for a wine festival that's going on, and then tomorrow morning we're driving with Henni and Junior (the dog) to Hinterglemm for a weekend of hiking. Stayed tuned for more updates and pictures from our night out on the town with Roland and his friends.

Love,
Megan and Michael