Rovinj, Croatia

The bus trip to Rovinj, Croatia was a story in itself. With Croatian folk music blasting from the speakers and an enthusiastic bus driver belting out lyrics and waving his arms as if conducting a symphony, we careened through the winding roads on the coast of croatia.  With only 3 passengers, the bus driver felt compelled to act as our tour guide, hollering “moment, moment” in thick accented English as warning to ready our cameras for the upcoming breathtaking scenery and punctuating his pleasure with cries of “Very good! Very good!” (pronounced as vair-dee gouda).

 

We arrived in Rovinj and had the great fortune of finding excellent and affordable accommodation.  The other passenger on the bus, a Swedish Mexican (yes, you read correctly) named Alex, also bunked with us in a 2 bedroom flat complete with all amenities (including a black cat).  Rovinj is a thriving fishing town that also includes a wonderful old town to explore and rocky beaches to swim from.  As it was Anelia’s 21^st birthday, Jeff and Anelia proceeded to celebrate at one of the local restaurants.  With the vast choice of seafood and fish on the menu,  Anelia and Jeff opted for the pizza (both not too keen on seafood).  Just like in Piran, the weather was beautiful and we continued to soak up the sun’s rays and swim in blue waters of the Adriatic.  More adventures to come.

Piran, Slovenia

Piran was a welcomed change in pace and scenery.   This small town lies on the southwestern coast of Slovenia on the Adriatic Sea.  The coast had a Mediterranean feel far different from the Slovenia we had seen so far.  The town is a bit touristy containing some upscale restaurants. Anelia and Jeff, brought their own sense of class at one such restaurant.  In their stained and 3 day worn clothes, Anelia and Jeff made a lasting impression on a "refined" and well dressed couple sitting next to them as Anelia ground pepper into her paper napkin and stowed it in her camera case to be used for the following nights home made meal of chicken noodle soup.  Needless to say, the lady, wide eyed, could not tear her eyes from the spectacle. Meanwhile, Michael Buble crooned christmas carols in the background (we are sure this went unrecognized by the non-english patrons).  In addition to this, Anelia and Jeff watched stupefied as the other neighbouring couple ordered and consumed more food than thought humanly possible. A very classy evening. 

The next day Jeff and relaxed on the beach where Anelia was, for the first time, exposed to the European inhibition towards nudity. Yikes. 

Not much else to report from Piran, just enjoyed the sun's rays.  Off to Croatia!!

Lake Bled and Bohinj, Slovenia

This morning started off with a bang, canyoning at Lake Bled. For those of you unfamiliar with canyoning (as we were), it is traversing and traveling down a canyon by repelling, jumping into freezing cold pools, and sliding down natural water slides.  The water temperature was 5-10 degrees Celsius and the highest jump was 30 feet.  It was awesome.

Our next stop on the tour was a short bus ride to Lake Bohinj and the town of Ribcev Laz.  We rented bikes to tour the area and climbed up to view a 40 meter

 waterfall.  The area around the lake is truly stunning and the weather could not have been better.  Oh yes, and how could I forget the cheese.  This area is renowned for its dairy and specifically its cheese 

makers.  As we are fans of cheese ourselves we just had to find a local restaurant to sample the goods.  We were not disappointed!  Oh so good!  Until next time.

Bled, Slovenia

We love it here and it is not hard to see why. A crystal clear emerald colored lake, a picture postcard church on a tiny island, a medieval castle high on the bluff over looking the town.  There is lots to see and do here. One of our favourite trips so far was Vintgar Gorge.  The trails through the gorge were created in 1893.  The wooden walkway winds along a glacier fed white water river in the bottom of a deep gorge.  We also hiked Mala Osojnica mountain to a viewpoint overlooking the entire valley. Tomorrow we are off to do some canyoning. Oh and Anelia was excited to get her hands on more authentic Haribo original gummy bears, the first gummy bears ever made (product of Germany).

NOTE: If you click on the pictures they will enlarge for a better view.  Some of our followers have just figured this out so we thought we would spread the word.

Ljubljana, Slovenia

With only 300,000 people Ljubjlana hardly has the make of a capital city. However, what it lacks in size it makes up for in charm and beauty.  This was Jeff's favourite capital city so far.  There was nothing spectacular, there is no one stunning monument but, Ljubjlana captures the laid back European feel with river side cafes, cobblestone streets only bicycles commute on, and far less hustle and bustle.  The old town seems almost a world of its own. When sitting at one of the river side cafes there are no cars, no sky scrapers, and no traffic lights making you feel like you've traveled back in time to simpler days.   Our time there was short but well worth it.

Lake Balaton, Hungary

Anelia and Jeff decided to take it easy for a while and head to Lake Balaton, Hungary, the largest body of fresh water in Central Europe. The town of Keszthely lies on the northeast shore of the lake and was a welcome reprieve from the usual whirlwind tour. Not much to say as we just relaxed on the beach.  The highlight of our stay was our accommodation, our own private suite complete with full kitchen, bath, living room, and outdoor veranda (Oh and pear and apple trees in the backyard, which provided fruit for apple crisp compliments of Anelia).  All for the low price of $25 CDN/night.  The one thing we did avoid was the mini-golf.  The course looked too challenging.  

Budapest, Hungary

Budapest, another beautiful European city, is actually three cities- Buda, Obuda, and Pest, which joined together in 1873. The city paints a picturesque view stratling the Danube River. Beautiful old ornate architecture, stunning bridges, café lined cobblestone streets, and historical landmarks make Budapest well worth visiting. Oh, of course we can’t forget all the little greasy yummy pastries that Jeff and Anelia ate more than their share of.   Budapest is also home to many Turkish baths heated by natural springs. The water of these springs are said to have medicinal powers.  We just used it to ease our aching bones. Oh we have to mention the sauna.  Jeff says that he has been in many scorching saunas, none however, could compare to the heat we experienced in the sauna and the Szechenyi Baths. Our stay in Budapest rounded out with a day trip to Szentendre (an art community 20km north of Budapest) and a trip to Memento Park.  Memento Park contains many historical monuments from the Soviet backed communist regime that took power after World War 2 and lasted until 1989.  Anelia would like to apologize for filming sideways, again, and promises to smarten up!  

Pics in order 1.  Lenin and Jeff in Momento park, 2.  Anelia on the Daube in Szentendre, 3.  Old hungarian homesteads in Skanzen (Ft. Edmonton Hungary style),  4. Enjoying the thermal baths,  5.  meats and things in the market (so good), 6.   Jeff enjoying the boat cruise,  7.  The Hungarian Parliment building,  8.  The Fishermans Bastion on the castle,  9.  Anelia on Gellert hill (the statue represents the defeat of evil facism) 10. Anelia buying pastries (also so good)

Aggtelek Caves, Hungary

It’s been awhile but we are finally able to post again!! We have travelled across the country of Hungary with our first stop being in Miskoloc, a gateway for the Aggtelek National Park. In the park there are about 300 caves totaling 25.5 km. We had a guided tour in the Baradla Cave (as a guided tour was the only option). Unfortunately the mandatory tour was in Hungarian and Jeff and Anelia didn’t understand a lick.  That’s okay though, the caves were spectacular anyway.  The Baradla Cave is 2 million years old and were first used by primitive man as burial grounds and a dwelling place. The cave boasts fossils from the Triassic era and dipstone formations some as high as 30 feet. Enjoy the pics.

Speis Castle

The bright shining star of Slovakia. This castle was incredible, with the first indications of human settlement here dating back to 5000BC. Under control of various Empires throughout the ages, Speis castle was an important landmark of culture, economy and military strength. The castle had been remodeled many times over as styles of architecture changed. However, many buildings were left untouched and stand in their original form (with of course some upkeep). It is one of the largest castle complexes in Europe and truly strikes an impressive image high above the town.

We stopped in here for a tour on our way south from Poprad to Miskolc, Hungary. We arrived in Miskolc and much to our dismay found little in the way of help except of course from some Shady cab drivers trying to get us into their cabs to find a “cheap hotel”. Jeff and Anelia beat a hasty retreat, hopping on the closest transport downtown, greasy cab drivers in hot pursuit. Seeking refuge in one of the only places open downtown, MacDonalds, we were able to evade old greasy fingers and his gang of Garaputo’s. Also, to our delight, we found perhaps the only English speaking McD’s worker in all of Eastern Europe who pointed us in the direction of a hotel. We slogged through the streets of Miskolc, finally reaching our destination, tired, a little cranky, bewildered and filthy. The hotel, a three star beauty, way out of our price-range.

So here we are, resting and regrouping in a beautiful three star hotel with private bath, comfortable beds, soaker bathtub, WiFi and even towels! Perhaps blowing the budget but living large. If only we had clean clothes to wear to our free breakfast in the hotel café tomorrow. Too tired to write anymore so we will sign off. Take a look at the pics of Speis. Pretty cool eh?