Paris
wasn’t in the cards this year.
We started making plans late, and after considering
Madrid (affordable fights only at midnight and which apartment owner would be
crazy enough to come and deliver the keys to some strangers at that hour?) and
Lisbon (a bit far and also expensive), Mom suggested Paris. The two of us have
been there briefly a long time ago, but the boys haven’t, and I quite fancied
going back. I still do. While reluctant at first, Dad got all excited and even
suggested Little Brother to brush off his French. Little Brother lost his
interest after that. :P
Do you know how difficult it is to find suitable
accommodations in downtown Paris, in a building without stairs? I do. I wasted
two frigging weeks searching for apartments on the ground floor as there don’t
seem to be any elevators installed in the old city center. The plane ticket
prices went up, and we were exceeding the time window when Mom could take time
off from work, plus we had to consider the September weather and University
starting soon. The fact that many apartment owners didn’t bother to reply to my
inquiries (written in French, mind you) didn’t help. I guess they’re sick of
Romanians.
In the end, we had to admit it wasn’t going to
work, not this summer anyway. We considered Warsaw and Zagreb next, but Dad
didn’t want to drive through Ukraine to get to Poland, and if we went to Zagreb
then there were all the other locations on the coast worth visiting too. I felt
a headache coming on thinking about all the work finding accommodations would
imply, but I opened a map and started designing a circuit through Croatia. In
one weekend, I had everything mapped, and the following week I had three out of
four apartments booked. I was a bit in a hurry because we had to go and visit
grandma for a week and there wasn’t much time left after that. I sent inquiries
to tons of people and made my last choice based on distance to the city center,
floor residence, and, of course, price, without really caring about how the
apartment looked like. This fed up I was with the whole process.
My luggage was packed a week before our departure. Dad
and I had a bet made with Mom on 100 EUR each that she would spend the last
night before our departure packing, but at 10 PM she was all done and drying
her hair so she won.
Here we
were, the usual suspects (we'll keep their names secret to protect the
innocents, hehe): my Mom (MM), my Dad (MD), little brother (LB) and yours
truly. The same car, plus two GPSs (one newly bought and the other received by Mom
as advanced birthday present from a friend—all in the same day LOL), and a
brand new roof box (I don’t know why we waited so many years to get one). As
usual, these are some random thoughts about our vacation and the places and
things we've seen, non-edited (editors,
stay away), and not meant to insult anyone. OK, let the circus begin!
Sunday, September 8, 2013 – Iasi – Oradea 12:00-22:00
We woke up early and we were sort of ready, but we
weren’t. The boys had to install the roof box on top of the car, and by the
time we carried everything to the parking lot and LB brought the safety vest
from the other car (this will become important later on!), it was close to 11
AM. Then MD had to stop by the office for one last minute thing. We waited in
the car while MM went to the church across the street to lit some candles for
our journey to go well. This also will have a special significance later on. :P
Around noon, we were finally leaving Iasi. At least
we didn’t have to stop and put on gas. As we were approaching Ruginoasa, MM
announced that MD’s passport wasn’t in the same place as the rest of them. Stop
the car, search her bag well. It wasn’t there. Call grandma and ask her to look
around the apartment in case the passport was forgotten somewhere on the furniture
in the living room or the bedroom. It wasn’t. Curse because grandma found the
present we had left for her name anniversary one day in advance. Call the
friend who had visited us the previous evening and ask her if she remembered
what MM had done with MD’s passport. Yes, she put it in her bag. Well, it
wasn’t there. Untie the straps around the roof box and take everything out. Go
through all the bags. Curse some more. Pop open the trunk. Relief. The passport
was lying behind the headrest of the back seat where it had fallen out of MM’s
bag when she took out her wallet to go to the church. Ride furiously into the
not so distant sunset, keeping quiet so we wouldn’t throw blame at each other.
No music either, as the emitter was either broken after lying for a whole year
at the bottom of a drawer, or we had copied the files wrong on the USB flash
drive. I was relieved we hadn’t returned home to turn the apartment upside down
and still not find the passport since it was in the car.
We followed the by now familiar route: Pascani, Tg. Neamt, Toplita, Reghin, Cluj,
Oradea. We even stopped for a short lunch break at the same tourist rest stop
on the side of the road outside Reghin like last year. We didn’t stop in Reghin
to buy cakes from the Snowdrop shop because it was getting late so we drove
right through it. The road works from last summer were finished, so the roads
weren’t so bad, but the portion around Cluj was still a neck breaker, ouch.
It was dark when we entered Oradea and checked into
Hotel Lyra. One of the double rooms turned out to be a triple, no idea why, so
it was a bit cramped. No Dolph Lundgren movie, besides we were too tired to
watch TV, but The Expendables II had been on TV the previous night so we were
all set for our vacation, tee-hee!
Monday, September 9, 2013 - Oradea – Zagreb 10:00-18:00
We treated ourselves with the special omelet they
make for breakfast at Hotel Lyra. LB had been raving, and possibly even
dreaming, about it ever since leaving Iasi. At 10 AM, we were all packed and leaving
the hotel.
After filling the tank and buying the vignette for
Hungary, we presented the passports at the border and we were asked if we had
anything to declare. MM said “no” while MD said “yes, a bottle of whiskey.”
“No, tuica?” asked the guy. “No, nothing like that,” MD said, and then he
cursed, “Damn, he ruined the surprise,” as MM didn’t know about the bottle.
The GPS refused to show us the way to the highway,
so we turned on the second GPS, too. Letting both of them guide us, but mainly
watching the signs on the road, we made it to Debrecen, but there we missed a
turn and had to cross the town instead of going around it.
While it had been sunny and only a little cold in
the morning, the clouds started to gather and we crossed Budapest through a light
rain. The endless Hungarian highway was boring as usual, which was frustrating,
especially since our team had beaten the locals at soccer with 3:0 earlier
during the week, so MD was careful not to go over the speed limit. :P
We weren’t far from the Croatian border when we had
a flat tire. We had to change it in the pouring rain, so imagine this scenario:
me sitting inside the car, while the boys changed the tire, and MM held an
umbrella above herself and one over the luggage pulled out of the trunk, while
wearing the safety vest. No need to say they were all wet long before finishing
with the tire. No one thought about getting my yellow raincoat from the bags
(the one from Amsterdam, remember?), but then again it was in the roof box
along with all of our clothes and opening it would have meant getting
everything else wet too.
So we announced our host we’d be one hour late, and
then the boys did a little strip-tease show, swapping jackets and trying to
warm up. If you had seen LB trying to fit inside my coat (he’s twice my size),
you would have died laughing. If the tire had waited another kilometer, there
would have been no rain. Another car with Romanians had some engine trouble on
the other side of the road, and the driver asked us if we had any tools, but we
didn’t. Why would we carry any when we didn’t know what to do with them? :P
MM drove the last 30 km on the highway before
entering Zagreb (the highway access cost about 5 EUR and the nice thing was
that we paid in euros and received the change in kunas so we didn’t have to
rush to the exchange office as soon as we got into town) because MD’s eyes were
bothering him (it happens after driving on the highway through the rain
usually), then he took back the steering-wheel and drove us to the apartment. It
helped that we had looked it up on Google Maps to know how the building
looked-like so it was easy to find. On our way in, we passed by a long park
with many rows of colorful flowers that MM would want to visit later on.
The landlord was already there, waiting for us. He
was very helpful and showed us where to park the car for the night and said to
take it in the morning to the parking near the train station. Only 25 euros per day. Facepalm. We paid
the rest of the rent (he had done the math wrong, so he would have ended up 2
euros short if we hadn’t said anything, hehe!) and asked where we could have
the tire fixed. He showed us on the map the direction in which to go as it was
way off the map. We also inquired about how to get to the Old Town as we’d heard
there were stairs on the way. He confirmed it and said we had to take the
funicular, there was no way around it. It always puzzles me how people never
seem to get it that we don’t mind walking, we just don’t do stairs. And then he
said, “And now let me show you where the good restaurants are,” to which we
were quick to jump, “No, no, no restaurants!” thinking about the trunk loaded
with food we’d brought along.
After he left, we inspected the apartment and set
for dinner. It was a modern apartment that had been recently renovated, a bit
oddly shaped, with a small living room because the room had been split by a
fake wall so it could have two twin beds fit in the back. A corridor decorated
with black and white posters of actors from the 40s and 50s connected the entrance
hallway to the kitchen and the master bedroom. Some budget cut must have been
made when decorating the flat as the hallway posters were left unframed, but a
wide selection of empty frames decorated the bedroom’s walls. It looked good,
actually. There was also a balcony opening in the interior yard. MM declared
herself satisfied with the kitchen and proceeded to prepare dinner. “Soup! We
want soup!” We don’t mind if soup is missing while at home, but we become big
fans of instant soup when travelling.
By the time we finished dinner, it was raining too
hard to go out for a walk, so we plugged in the laptop, let the people at home
know we were fine, and turned in for an early night.
Tuesday, September 10, 2013 – Zagreb
In the morning, the boys woke up early to move the
car in the garage in Tuskanac (close to us and also half the price). It was too
cold for MM to have her coffee on the balcony like she wanted to. We had a rich
breakfast and hurried out decided to see most part of the city as it was
announced to be the day with the best weather during our staying in Zagreb.
Our apartment located in Bruna Trenka was pretty
close to the center, we only had to go up north along two parks, which looked
more impressive on the map. We walked to Trg Bana Josip Jelacica (the main
square), checked the products the vendors were selling (MD bought spicy
sausages), then went around the corner to visit the cathedral and then Dolac
(the outdoor market) just before closing time. From there we headed again up north
on Kaptol and returned on Tkalciceva between all of the restaurant and
terraces.
Once we were back in Jelacica Square, we went west
on Ilica (a long street that separates the upper town from the lower town),
passed by the funicular, and turned north on Mesnicka looking for an entry to
old town. Of course there was a route that included no stairs! We ended up in
the north end of upper town and came from there. On the way to Markov Trg, we
visited Mestrovic workshop/museum, then walked around St. Marcus Church (it was
closed), to Lotrscak Tower where we watched the city from above, the Stone Gate
and back downtown.
It was
clouded and cold, so we returned to the apartment to eat and warm up. I didn’t
let them rest for long, I woke them up as soon as the sun came out. There were
still things to see. We went in the west part of town this time, by the
National Library, Mimar Museum, the Ethnographic Museum, the National Theatre,
and then up and down on Ilica and to the Mestrovic Pavilion from where we
returned home passing by the Gallery of Modern Art. It just proves that most
important sites in Zagreb can be seen in one day.
We were a little surprised to see so many women
wearing black and little make-up. LB commented on how most girls walked in
pairs and were rarely accompanied by boys. I instantly fell in love with the
sidewalks that were close to the street level (in downtown they were only
separated by a ditch from the pavement).
Wednesday, September 11, 2013 – Zagreb
It was cold and rainy in the morning, so MM and I
stayed at home while the boys went out for a stroll despite the rain. When the
rain stopped around noon, we called them to ask where they were and found out they
had visited the Museum of Contemporary Art. I was a little miffed that they had
gone without telling us. I’m not a big fan of modern art, but I like the modern
buildings the exhibitions are located in. We waited for them with the lunch
ready, more soup and noodles, and hurried out before it rained again.
We explored the east side for a while, ended up
back in Jelacica Square, then wanted to visit a Japanese exhibition, but it
wasn’t doable, and soon it was raining again so I got to use my yellow
raincoat. Of course, once we got to the apartment, the rain stopped.
Thursday, September 12, 2013 – Zagreb
Big day as it was MM’s 60th birthday.
Even the weather understood the importance of the event and improved some. We
went out around noon, walked around down town, bought homemade spinach pie and
sour cherry pie that we ate in the main square, then went to see the cathedral
again. I quite liked it, especially the chandeliers.
When MM complained about getting dizzy if we went
up and down Ilica once more, we headed south. We checked out the train station
and the underground passage. From there we went farther south to see the big
park with many rows of flowers and a fountain in the middle that we had seen
from the car on our way in. On our way back, we checked out the store inside
the passage. I was not impressed with
Zagreb fashion.
Friday, September 13, 2013 – Zagreb – Rijeka –
Rovinj 12:00-18:00
We were supposed to leave the apartment at 10 AM,
but it didn’t work as planned. When the boys went to get the car from the
garage and repair the tire, they found out the tire was damaged beyond fixing
and we had to buy a new one. They didn’t sell tires at the place where they did
repairs, but they gave us directions where we could find tires. It was
somewhere on the outskirts of town and we ran in circles for a bit until we
found the place. The thing is you can’t drive thousands of kilometers with
mismatched front tires, so we actually had to buy two. It took some rearranging
of the stuff in the trunk to make room for the extra tire. Thank God for the
roof box, or we would have been forced to either abandon the old spare or put
it in the car with us. It wouldn’t have been something new for us since we
returned from Greece with a spoiler once.
All said and done, it was already noon when we left
a hot and sunny (!) Zagreb. The plan was to stop and visit Rijeka on our way to
Rovinj, and we still did, even if it was late. The GPS kept losing signal as we
drove on the narrow streets near the mountain so we had to let the street signs
guide us while searching for one of the two garages I had located on the map.
We drove along the Riva (the street next to the water) three times before we
got to the parking, again it helped that I had looked it up on Google Maps as
it was easy to notice it thanks to the blue sings on top that made it look like
a playground once you were on the right street.
We went straight to the harbor where we looked at
the boats and inhaled the salty sea air. Lots of seagulls and fish near the
surface. We walked along the Riva and then entered Korzo, the pedestrian
boulevard parallel to it, which we also crossed three times to learn it well.
:P For once it was a warm day, we thought 24C was hot after the cold in Zagreb.
LB teased me, “See, there’s no difference compared to 16C, is there?” to which
I promptly replied “One jacket!”
After we had a sandwich, we notified the landlady
we would be an hour late and started on our way towards Rovinj. The landscape
changed rapidly, resembling more and more to that of Tuscany, except for the
tunnels. Croatia is very big on tunnels! Many nice, well-lit tunnels. The
longest was over 5 km long and we had to pay to cross it. We used the highway
twice on the way to Rovinj, each time paying close to 5 EUR.
The villa in which we had rented an apartment was
in the corner of the street at the periphery of the town, so we passed twice by
it before noticing it. Luckily, the owners lived upstairs and weren’t bothered
by our late arrival.
The kitchen cabinets were a little worn out, but
the living room was huge as well as the bed in the bedroom. Lots of big, pretty
plants inside and outside. The balcony was covered by a kiwi plant with fruits.
No internet access, but at least LB and I didn’t have to fight over the laptop.
We ate quickly and headed out into town. The
apartment was a little far from the city center, and we almost got bored
walking as there wasn’t much to see other than villas, plants, and tourists. It
was getting dark when we reached the pedestrian main street, the lights were
just turning on, and we absolutely loved it, the streets paved with shiny stones,
the small shops, the buildings, everything. We walked up to the market and then
up and down along the border of the water. Lovely. And for the first time since
the beginning of our trip, I didn’t freeze.
Saturday, September 14, 2013 – Pula – Rovinj
We had a healthy breakfast, finished the sweets
bought at the Pirates Cave Candyland the previous night, and hopped in the car
to go and visit Pula (my Romanian readers better not smirk! We’ve used all the
bad jokes already. :P) The first stop was, of course, the Arena. We baked in
the hot sun for about an hour while the boys took pictures of the smaller
version of the Collosseum. There was a cat around so I, at least, didn’t get
bored.
Then we took a stroll through the city center, the
pedestrian area and the waterfront, looking for historical monuments like the
Arch of the Sergi, the Gate of Hercule, the Chapel of St. Mary Formosa, the
Cathedral of the Assumption of the Blessed Mary and so on, without missing the
market, of course. Nice city, more modern than Rovinj but with a Roman feel. I
was glad, though that I hadn’t found accommodation there, because I had
considered it. Rovinj was much better.
So we hurried home, ate something, and went back
out to explore Rovinj in daylight. Being weekend, there was some kind of
festival in the main square with several bands, and orchestras playing. MD got
distracted by his photos and we lost him for an hour or so. His cell phone lost
signal so he didn’t worry as he didn’t receive our messages. It was bound to
happen sooner or later so I didn’t
panic, but it was still annoying.
Once we regrouped, we went to the church on top of
the hill. We chose a long alley without stairs, and while the pavement was
still bad, the view over the water was magnificent. Unfortunately, we arrived
during the mass so we only glanced inside from the entrance. Lovely stained
glass windows. We took the stairs back down as the road was just as bad, and
after walking some more in the streets, we finished the evening with a walk
along the whole length of the waterfront, while the boys try their skills at
taking night photos.
Sunday, September 15, 2013 – Rovinj – Zadar – Split
– 10:00-20:00
It was time to leave Rovinj. Sob. And we forgot to
pick a kiwi fruit and take with us as souvenir. We definitely must go back!
The initial plan was to take the coast route
towards Split, but since we also wanted to stop and visit Zadar on the way, we
would have gotten there too late so we had to take the highway. Since parking
is free on Sundays during the off season in Zadar, we dropped the car in the
first parking we saw near the water and crossed over into the old town. Compared
to Rovinj, I found Zadar to be bigger, bulkier and less intimate, perhaps
because of the imposing Roman feel.
We started with People’s Square (another Mestrovic
Museum there, but we didn’t enter), and from there went to the Roman Forum and
continued towards the end of the peninsula. We passed through a square with
wells on the side and mistook it for The Five Wells Square (no wonder we
couldn’t get the count right!), then stopped to admire the view at the Sea
Organ and listen to the sea, but it was
too windy so we returned on to Riva to the Roman Forum where we checked the
souvenir stands and fed chips to pigeons while LB climbed into the tower of St.
Donat Church.
As it was getting clouded and threatened to rain so
we returned to the car, discovering the real Five Wells Square on the way. It was
dark when we arrived to Split, just in time to see the landlady parking in
front of the building. The living room felt cramped, and the whole apartment
was kind of dark during the day, but the kitchen looked nice and we all liked
the huge wardrobe in the bedroom. On the down side, there was no double bed,
only unfolding couches, and the wi-fi signal wasn’t strong enough to reach the
living room (the rooter was locked in the wardrobe—I’ve never seen a password
that long!). But it came with free parking and it was really close to downtown,
so we didn’t complain.
Because of the strong wind, we couldn’t go out that
evening, and it even rained during the night. The lightning reflected creepily
in the wardrobe’s mirrors.
Monday, September 16, 2013 – Split
With the windows facing the back yard, we couldn’t
get a correct feel of the weather to dress appropriately. When we went outside,
we realized it was the hottest day so far. The sun was shining brightly on a
clear blue sky with not a cloud in sight. LB grumbled about self-combustion all
morning, and MM complained about the heat too. I was in heaven.
We began with a walk along the border of the
water—a water that was less clean and had less fish near the shore compared to
what we had seen in Rijeka, Rovinj, Pula, and Zadar. Split has a lovely
promenade that looks amazing at night with all the lights on. We considered
taking the ferry to Dubrovnik, but I didn’t fancy being sick for half a day.
Once we had our fill of the water sight, we entered
the old town. The main attractions were the Palace of Diocletian and the
People’s Square, but that didn’t mean we didn’t explore every tiny little
street, with a mandatory stop at the flea market outside the north wall and the
souvenir stands and market on the east side. We were looking for souvenirs to
bring home, and I pointed out a bracelet
with white crystals. MM also spotted a matching necklace and when MD joined us,
they bought them both.
We enjoyed an ice cream around noon (the trick is
to go deeper into the town to escape the blown up prices for tourists closer to
the shore) and it was really good. Then we took another ride around the city.
Up until now, we hadn’t seen any stray animals, many dogs on leash, pigeons,
and seagulls mainly, but now we noticed several stray cats. We saw a pair of
gray with black stripes, grown up kittens sitting on top of some stairs, and of
course when LB wanted to take a photo they turned around and left. Typical.
The old city is not so big and tired because of the
heat, we returned to the apartment late in the afternoon. After we ate and a
short rest, we went out again to see the city at night. MM wore her new crystal
jewelry, after having decided to keep the bracelet for herself. She also
received a red coral bracelet with matching earrings from MD. Red coral and
blue stone jewelry are at every corner of the street in Croatia!
Since we had become quite expert in packing and
unpacking our things, we didn’t hurry to return but stayed out quite late,
first listening to jazz played live on the promenade and finishing with a
traditional walk along the water.
Tuesday, September 17, 2013 – Split – Dubrovnik – 10:00-16:00
The weather forecast predicted rain, and while the
sun was visible through the clouds it could go either way, so we decided
against visiting Trogir and went straight to Dubrovnik, following the coast
road this time. Beautiful scenery, but with the road full of twists and turns
it made for and exhausting trip. The few kilometers driven through Bosnia and
Herzegovina showed a noticeable change in scenery, road quality and
architecture. No one stopped us to ask anything at either border.
We missed the entrance on the street of our next
apartment so we had to enter through the opposite end. Another villa, only
smaller, with a nice garden and its own garage. Two okay bedrooms, a tiny
bathroom, and a small entrance hall that served as both kitchen and living
room. MM declared that was the worst equipped kitchen so far.
While we prepared lunch, a very skinny cat with a
very long tail showed up. Her fur was dark gray with yellow smudges that made
it look like the color had run out of it. It also made her look dirty when in
fact she wasn’t. She meowed pitifully, ready to run at the slightest gesture
but obviously hungry. MM gave her a few bits of prosciutto to which MD
protested that we’d never get rid of her, so when she meowed again I suggested
to give her a bit of bread. They were skeptical, as we had never seen cats eat
bread with nothing on it, but the poor thing was starved. It was MD who
encouraged LB to feed her the entire loaf, and when that turned out not to be
enough, he asked if there was any pate left in the fridge. So we gave her pate.
Our cat loves it too.
Everyone’s hunger sated, we went out to check the
old city of Dubrovnik. Everywhere I had looked on the internet, everyone said
there were stairs at the west gate and recommended entering the city through
the east gate so we went along the city wall towards est. MD got bored half-way
through and insisted on walking in through the north gate because “there are
only a few steps.” Yes, there were few steps to the gate, but from there to get
down to the Placa (the main street) there were a lot of stairs. LB took one look from above and exploded, “In the
entire Europe, you couldn’t find one
city without hills, stairs, or bridges? What is wrong with you?”
We managed the stairs, walked up and down the
Placa, went out on the pier, but it was a little too windy for me (I hadn’t
imagined that a city surrounded by such tall walls could be so windy), so we
spent most of the time on the west side where the streets were more accessible.
We hid inside an art gallery near the east exit when it rained for a few
minutes and looked at some paintings. LB commented that the artist had gotten
the perspective wrong in several places and offered to teach him how to do it
right, the way he’d learned at the university. It was particularly amusing
because the artist was chatting with a group of people in a corner, but of
course he couldn’t understand what we were saying.
The return we made it through the west gate (no
stairs, but a nice, wide ramp) and the road was shorter and nicer, going
parallel to the water for a bit. We arrived at the apartment through a light
rain. A few minutes later, the cat showed up accompanied by a black kitten who
was also very hungry. So we fed them both.
Wednesday, September 18, 2013 – Dubrovnik
We had three cats for breakfast. No, we didn’t eat
them. We fed them. It turned out mamma cat had a second, shyer kitten, white
with black spots. This time she let them do the begging, and they were
shameless, while she waited patiently for every one of them to be fed.
MM insisted we should dress well because it was
very windy outside, but when we looked out the trees weren’t moving. She argued
that the bush in front of the door shook like it was having a seizure, and of
course it did since the kittens were playing hide and seek in it. No wind, a
perfect hot, sunny day.
We gave the boys the morning off to do all the
photos they wanted and walk on top of the city walls while we explored the old
city in our own rhythm. So many cats! They were everywhere. We checked out the
stores, the market, the souvenir stands, and even walked outside the walls for
a bit on the border of the water but also in the city towards east. As a kid,
it always puzzled me when people said the sea was blue because the only sea I knew,
The Black Sea, was green (ha!). Well, near Dubrovnik, the water is dark blue.
There were plenty of tourists, and we heard all
possible languages, from Russian to German, French, English, Italian, Spanish,
Romanian and Japanese. Many Asian women walked in pairs, and although they wore
wedding rings, we never saw their husbands.
When the boys rejoined us, we ate and walked some
more in the same streets. We checked the jewelry stands one last time, and I
somehow ended up with a coral bracelet with small, red beads. Before leaving
the old city, we entered four churches in a row (the fifth was closed) which
made it difficult to keep the memories separate later on.
We didn’t return to the apartment, but crossed the
city in the opposite direction to see the harbor. The goal was to watch the sun
setting there, but we were too late. Still, the view was beautiful with all the
lights on on the hill and a bright full moon.
The cats were waiting for us when we got home so we
fed them and spent the rest of the evening in their company.
Thursday, September 19, 2013 – Dubrovnik
We’ve been on TV! Okay, let me explain. It rained
in the morning, so hard that even the cats went into hiding. MM and MD napped
while LB watched a show on the laptop and I watched TV. We had discovered a
channel that broadcast a live feed from the Placa. Chances were we’d been quite
a bit on it the previous day.
When we saw that people closed their umbrella in
the Placa, we started for the old city. Our mission was to help LB find gifts
for his girl friends back home, and it took a while to achieve that. I’m
willing to bet the number of souvenir stores equals that of cats. For us, we bought
a colorful glass support made for candles. It rained on and off so my raincoat
came in handy, especially protecting me from the wind.
Another night spent packing and entertaining the
cats. Just before going to bed, MD asked us to make a list with the towns we
were going to pass through on our way back to Romania as it was an unknown
route for us and we didn’t fully trust the GPSs. LB grumbled because he wanted
the laptop, but then started clowning around and soon there was so much
giggling I don’t know how MD managed to sleep at all.
Friday, September 20, 2013 – Dubrovnik – Bosnia –
Serbia – Drobeta Turnu Severin – 10:00-22:00
The cats showed up late in the morning. We were
already packed and heading for the car. It was heartbreaking seeing the kittens
try to climb up LB’s legs as if wanting to stop him from leaving. I made sure
to leave some bookmarks and my writer business card inside the map we found in
the apartment, just like I had done in every location we had stayed in during
this trip, then we said goodbye to our host, and we were on our way. Or so we
thought.
Just before leaving Dubrovnik, we stopped to change
the location of the GPS on the windshield because the sun made the screen shine
and we didn’t see a thing. When we wanted to get back into the traffic, we
nearly ran into a bus. I had had a bad a feeling each time I saw one of those
big, white, metal monsters rushing by, being under the impression that they
were driving too fast and too close to the sidewalk, and this time it was a
close call. Lucky for us, MD has good reflexes and avoided the collision.
A bit shaken up, we took the right instead of left
at the next crossway and for the next hour or so we wandered on a small road
that passed through Mlini until it brought us back to the same crossway. This
time we turned left and finally left Dubrovnik.
There was no problem at crossing the Bosnian border
and no taxes other than a 1 EUR eco tax. What puzzled me was that those who
were leaving Bosnia had to pay it too. We followed the route Trebinje – Bileca
– Foca – Gorazde – Visegrad.
We missed the right turn twice and had to go back,
and once the GPS tried to take us on a truck road, but MD simply refused to go
that way. There wasn’t much traffic, only a car here and there which was a good
thing because the road was full of twists and turns, particularly after we
entered the natural park, with no
straight portions of road. They had
tunnels too, only that they were less well lit, looking like some poor copies
of the ones in Croatia. In fact the whole country looked poorer. The road
quality was good. I think some portions had been recently repaired or made as
they didn’t show up correctly on the map.
When we passed through towns, I noticed they don’t
have houses like we do. There were mainly villas, looking quite new and many
still unfinished. I really liked Gorazde, a very nice town.
In the afternoon, we crossed the Serbian border.
Again, no taxes. Uzice – Pozega – Cacak – Kragujevac – Pozarevac. The scenery
changed again, resembling more to ours, from the landscape to the building
style. Another step down on the poverty scale. Wider roads since there were not
so many mountains around but full of patches, still usable. We snapped photos
of mosques and Muslim cemeteries as that’s not something we see often. 50 km on
the highway (around 5 EUR).
Unfortunately, when we got to the Danube, it was
already dark. So we drove over 100 km along the border of the water, trying to
catch glimpses of it and looking at the gorgeous full moon above. Good thing
there was only one road to follow because the GPS was swimming more often than
not. It was cool to pass through a fort and then all of the 16 tunnels (we
didn’t count them, but they were numbered).
We crossed the Danube at Portile de Fier II and
were let to pass at the border right away when they heard we were returning
from vacation. Welcome back home! MD was like “Remind me the local driving
rules. I’m scared here!” We reacquainted with the bad roads without markings,
unlit roundabout intersections, the whole nightmare.
The big mistake was to check into Hotel Traian in
Drobeta Turnu Severin, a hotel from the communist era that hasn’t been
renovated since. It’s a dump, with rooms having the feel of the inside of a
tomb. The furniture looked like something grandma might have received when she
got married, and the blankets were older than me. To top it all, the light
wasn’t working in the hall of one of the rooms and the other had no fridge. Both
remote controls looked like they were coming from war, and we had to pick them
up from the reception desk, though for the life of me I can’t imagine why
anyone would want to steal them.
When we arrived, all the windows were dark so we
were probably the only guests. We discussed about moving to one of the pensions
down the street after seeing the rooms, but it was past 10 PM and after 12
hours of driving, we were exhausted. We ate something (there was a Dolph
Lundgren movie on TV, hehe!) and promptly fell asleep.
Saturday, September 21, 2013 - Drobeta Turnu
Severin – Radu Voda – 10:00-18:00
I’m not crazy to wake up at 7 for something as
irrelevant as breakfast, so of course I was brought breakfast to bed. The
omelet wasn’t as good as the one at Hotel Lyra, but the sausages were okay.
We had barely started our trip to Giurgiu when a
fallen truck blocked the access to the bridge ahead. We waited in the long
line, while some of the cars headed back or crossed over the field. When we saw
the crane that handled the truck putting it back in place instead of moving it
to the side, MM declared there was no point in waiting and urged MD to also cut
it over the field. So for the next few kilometers we shook like canned beans
following the wagon tracks while looking for a way to cross the river and the
train tracks and get back to the main road. With more than an hour delay, we
did. But we did get to test the GPS in the off road mode, so yeah…
From there we went to Craiova and then Alexandria
where we felt like we were in another country. Great roads and markings—I
didn’t think we had anything like that in Romania. High five to whoever made
that happen. In Giurgiu, we stopped at the supermarket to get a cake for my
aunt’s birthday, and LB demonstrated his driving skills while we waited in the
parking. The roads had been repaired since the last time I had been there so we
easily got to Radu Voda.
My cousin and his wife were in a hurry to return to
Bucharest (it was past 6 PM already), and we barely had time to exchange a few
words and take a look at their giant dog before they left. Don’t worry, we
weren’t left without a dog. My other cousin’s old Spaniel was vacationing
there.
My aunt and her husband proudly showed us the
garden, vineyard, and orchard, and then we retired on the porch where we
enjoyed my aunt’s great cooking and caught up with their news for the rest of
the evening.
Sunday, September 22, 2013 – Radu Voda – Iasi –
12:30-20:30
It was such a beautiful day that we didn’t want to
leave, but we still had a long trip ahead of us, so at noon, after having a
barbeque and a huge slice of cake we were getting back into the car.
The road from Bucharest to Iasi was long and
boring, but at least I got to plot the ending of a story, which came as a
surprise. MM drove for a couple of hours to let MD rest and also because she
had promised she would once we got back into the country. It was funny to
listen to LB giving her driving tips, considering that he’d only finished his
driving lessons the day before we left on vacation and she had been driving for
thirty years. She was going a little slow for my liking, but in her defense,
she’s not used to drive this car.
At 20:30, we arrived home to an anxious grandma and
a traumatized cat. The poor thing had managed to lock herself up in a nearby
building and remained trapped in there for a couple of days until grandma sent
someone to rescue her. 112 said they had more important things to do than deal
with cats. :P She’s been eating like crazy ever since. Grandma is fine.
Final comments (I’m sure I forgot to mention lots
of things that seemed important/amusing at the time but hopefully not too
many):
- Visiting Croatia was well worth it.
- I need to remember to schedule the departure for
future vacations on a Sunday with return early during the weekend (just in case
we decide to stop somewhere on the way) because it worked well this time.
- We shouldn’t schedule our vacation later than the
beginning of September. The risk of having bad weather is too high, and it’s
crowded with old tourists during the off season.
- I still regret not visiting Trogir. *sniffs*
- We should have booked one extra day in Rovinj and
less time in Zagreb.
- I wanna go back to Rovinj! :D
Next year, Paris, here we come!
Not much to report this month as I had a two weeks vacation and the weeks before and after were pretty much wasted too.
