TravelStream™ news feed for member emily_and_marko on TravelPod's free travel blogs service http://www.travelpod.com/syndication/rss/emily_and_marko en-us Copyright ©2009 TravelPod.com Tue, 03 Mar 2009 19:50:29 -0500 http://www.travelpod.com http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/emily_and_marko/3/1235263800/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/emily_and_marko/3/1235263800/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/emily_and_marko/3/1235263800/tpod.html Tue, 03 Mar 2009 19:50:29 -0500 Europe 2009

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Verona, Veneto, Italy

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Venice, Veneto, Italy

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Milan, Lombardy, Italy

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Belgrade, Serbia

Despite the snow, we had a really enjoyable visit in Belgrade. We spent the first few days catching up with family and exploring the city. One of the highlights of our visit was a modern ballet/dance show, for which Marko's aunt bought us tickets. The show was based on a famous Serbian movie, about the lives of a group of people on a bus. The music was really upbeat and the dancing was incredible. The next night was Emily's birthday and Marko's uncle Zoran took us out for a great traditional Serbian dinner, some live music and beers. The weather remained pretty bad for the duration of our visit which meant that we couldn't spend too much time exploring the city, but meant that we spent a lot of quality time hanging out with the family.

On Saturday, February 21 we said our goodbyes to Belgrade and caught a night train heading into Venice for Carnival. This wasn't just any train, it was probably the dirtiest, most broken down, dilapitated train that either of us had ever been on. Luckily there were some friendly Serbians in our car who had decided to have a party and let us join in. We arrived in venice bright and early and enjoyed a few hours of walking around the canals and old cobblestone streets before the crowds. Around noon we started noticing people walking around dressed in elaborate costumes. We followed some of these costumed people into St. Marks square and found the crouds! They say that the population of Venice doubles during carnival, it actually seemed to triple! Neither of us have ever seen so many people in one place, the crowds were solid as far as the eye could see. After a few hours of enjoying the costumes and fighting the crowds we were both exhausted. We caught a ferry boat/bus to the train station and left for our hotel in Verona.
]]> http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/emily_and_marko/3/1234543320/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/emily_and_marko/3/1234543320/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/emily_and_marko/3/1234543320/tpod.html Wed, 18 Feb 2009 07:12:35 -0500 Europe 2009

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Dubrovnik, Croatia

After some sightseeing in Trogir and another bakery lunch, we once again braved the Croatian highway. This time Dubrovnik was our destination. On the way we made a quick stop in the city of Split to see an ancient roman palace. The palace was actually a part of the city and approximately three thousand people live in within its walls.

We finally "split" from Split left and arrived in Dubrovinik around 5 in the evening. Once again we were given a bigger apartment than the one that we actually booked. Our apartment was high up on a hill and looked down over the old walled city. We counted that there were exactly 396 stairs from our apartment to the main city, not a bad workout!

Dubrovnik is a walled city that takes up an entire island, although, it is much much larger and more beautiful than Trogir. In fact, Dubrovnik is breathtaking. It is without a doubt one of the most beautiful cities that we have ever visited. We managed to spend a very romantic Valentines day strolling around the old city.

Romance wasn't a high priority for the citizen's of Dubrovnik, instead they wanted to party. Before we knew it there were drums and music and people dressed in all sorts of costumes in a parade going down the main street right in front of us. It was Carnival in Dubrovnik! There were all sorts of costumes and it was alot of fun until Emily got her picture taken with a guy dressed up as a shaggy monster. Who then harrassed her for 10 minutes trying to take her scarf. Apparently you are supposed to give them your scarves to end winter and bring on summer.

The next day we wandered around the city a little more. Finally around 5pm we caught the bus headed for Belgrade, Serbia. 14 hours later, we arrived in Belgrade to find a foot of snow! It seems Emily should have given that monster her scarf after all.
]]> http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/emily_and_marko/3/1234455000/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/emily_and_marko/3/1234455000/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/emily_and_marko/3/1234455000/tpod.html Wed, 18 Feb 2009 07:04:41 -0500 Europe 2009

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Trogir, Croatia

After 10 days of paradise, we sadly packed our bags and said goodbye to Cres. Nela gave us a ride to the nearby island of Krk, where we had rented a car. Luckily for us, they were out of the class that we had requested, and gave us a free upgrade! We ended up with a diesel version of Opel Astra, which is basically the same car as the Saturn Astra in North America.

We decided to take the longer, but scenic route which hugs the Dalmatian coastline giving fabulous views of the surrounding sea and islands. It was a bit of a treacherous drive at times, as Croatian drivers seem to have no fear, no concept of speed limits and no idea which lane they should be in!! However, Marko handled the manual transmission really well and allowed Emily to relax and enjoy the beautiful scenery.

Our first destination was Krka National Park, which turned out to be a bit more challenging to find than what the GPS had envisioned. After a few minor detours and some exploration of war torn Croatian regions we managed to pull in to the park entrance exactly 4 minutes before it closed. However, when we got to the entrance there was no one in sight. Rather than give up, we just pulled around the closed gate and drove right into the park (hopefully the park staff will not be reading this). Krka park had some of the most beautiful waterfalls we have ever seen, far prettier than Niagara falls in our opinion! We will let you decide for yourselves in the pictures.

After the visit to the falls we continued on to the city of Sibenik in search of the famous cathedral, before finally arriving into Trogir where we had arranged accommodation. The apartment that we rented was on another island just past the city of Trogir, and once we got there we were pleasantly surprised to find out we had been upgraded to a larger and better suite. The following morning we explored the city of Trogir, which is an extremely cute little medieval town with cobblestone streets. The city actually takes up an entire small island, and there is only enough room for a narrow road between the city walls and the sea. After the stroll though the city we continued our coastal drive towards Dubrovnik.
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Merano, Trentino-Alto Adige, Italy

We arrived in Merano after some 30+ hours of traveling (from the time we left our apartment to the time we arrived at the hotel). Needless to say we were exhausted! So after we dropped off our bags, we hit the town for some take-out pizza (which was delicious). The hotel itself was beautiful as it was actually an old Italian Villa that had been converted into a hotel.

The next day we toured Merano for a few hours, checking out the sights. The city is a fairly old and wealthy, which can be seen in cobblestone streets and beautiful architecture. The town is located in a valley, surrounded on all sides by impressive mountains.

After some sight-seeing we headed up to local ski resort (Merano 2000) for some winter activities. To get to the ski slopes you have to take a short bus ride followed by a 15 minute gondola ride that takes you from some 500m to 2000+ meters. The gondola stops at the bottom of the ski slopes where a series of lifts takes you onto various peaks. We grabbed a quick lunch at the base of the ski hill before renting a pair of skis for Emily and a snowboard for Marko. Emily had not skied in the last decade, so we were a little slow at the start. However, it did not take a while before she was carving the slopes. The ski resort was a series of bowls with marked, groomed trails weaving through the middle while the surrounding areas were also available, but were hardly used at all. Being the middle of the week we ended up sharing the slopes with a few lift operators and one or two Italians. The views from the peaks were incredible. Number of snow covered dolomite peaks could be seen in the distance, however due to our elevation we did have a hard time locating the little town where we were staying in. It was some of the best ski conditions either of us has ever experienced.

Unfortunately, by the time we got back from skiing and had some dinner, we were too late to go to the local spa. This spa is famous and it is one of the reasons that we decided to visit Merano in the first place. We were pretty disappointed. On the brighter side, this gives us a reason to return to Merano some day!! The next day we left bright and early to catch a train to Trieste, Italy and from there a bus to Pula, Croatia.
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Cres, Kvarner Bay Islands, Croatia

From Pula we took a scenic bus trip along the coast toward Rijeka. There we packed our two suitcases onto a catamaran (passenger ferry) and we headed for the island of Cres. The weather was overcast with periods of rain and the seas were getting rough, but our vessel did end up taking off. Afterwords we found out that during the winter periods the passenger ferry is more likely to stay at the pier rather than travel because of its light aluminum body that is prone to damage in rough seas.

Arriving in Cres we were faced with cool wind and heavy rain, but the weather could not spoil the atmosphere at the Vrabac household. The whole family was thrilled to see us and we were quickly offered various food and beverage selections in copious amounts! Another highlight was the arrival of Igor and Natalia who have been great company for us.

The weather on the island has not been in our favour thus far, it has rained every single day. However, each day we manage to bike or walk around the island for at least an hour or two. On a typical day we have a big breakfast, then go for a long walk, maybe see some sheep. Sometimes we go and feed the local mascot, a donkey called Cheepo. Marko has gone fishing once or twice, unfortunately he has yet to experience even a nibble from an Adriatic fish. Then we come back for a giant lunch with the family. In the evenings we play card games and hang out. Emily and Natalia practice their Croatian, which is coming along slowly but surely.

The days are flying by so quickly that we can't believe we have been here for a week already. Even more alarming is the fact that we will have to leave in a couple of days, as we head towards Dubrovnik. We will make more posts in the near future. Hope everyone is enjoying the photos, please feel free to comment!
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Pula, Istria, Croatia

We finally reached Pula around 9PM after a whole day of travel. We had a contact person in Pula who rents our apartments, but the plan was for us to contact him upon our arrival. Little did we know that every since payphone in Croatia requires a special calling card which can usually be purchased from pretty much any store, if they are open or if you have the right currency to pay for them. After helplessly wondering through Pula we managed to find a gas station that was willing to let us make our call.

The apartment was small by North American standards, but very clean, comfortable and located directly next door to the ancient Roman Amphitheater (which was the whole reason that we wanted to visit Pula). The Amphitheater is about 3000 years old and is in remarkably good condition. It took very little imagination to picture what it must have been like when the Romans used it. Pula is a pretty coastal city in Croatia, and we enjoyed touring it for a few hours both on the evening we arrived and early the next morning. Around noon we caught a bus and were on our way to Cres, Croatia to see Marko's family.
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Newark, New York, United States

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