2015 Vienna Vacation

This was a difficult year with more health issues than usual and a lot of work that left us tired and in no mood for adventures, so we decided to go somewhere close and familiar. We chose Vienna. We had been there before, but it was a short stay and I felt we could have used more time to see more.

Based on our past experience, we tried to schedule our vacation as early in August as possible to ensure we’d have good weather. With the unusually hot summer we had this year, things looked promising when we booked the apartment several weeks in advance. There was one cold week all summer, and it turned out that was the one we picked. Bummer. At least we didn’t get rained on, but more on this later. The apartment we stayed in the last time wasn’t available any longer, but we found one even closer to the Ring on the east side, right next to the Belvedere Garden. But more on this later, too. 

So 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 one GPS and the roof box, and a trunk full of food. As usual, these are random thoughts about our vacation and the places and things we've seen, non-edited (editors, stay away!), and most likely politically incorrect. :P OK, let’s get on with the show!

Sunday, August 16, 2015

It must have been a record as we managed to get into the car and be ready to go by 9 AM. Granted, MM had the previous week off and I had scheduled our departure for Sunday on purpose for MD to have the Saturday off so we could all be ready on time.

We followed the usual route – Pascani, Tg. Neamt, Toplita, Reghin, Cluj, Oradea – curious to see what had changed since we skipped a year. The scenery is nice and the roads aren’t too bad, except for the segment between Cluj and Oradea that used to be full of holes and now is full of patches which isn’t an improvement as big as it might sound.

LB drove the whole way and did just fine. We stopped in Reghin to buy cakes and then we made a pause to eat. Another stop in Cluj to get more cakes and drinks. It was hot and the A/C worked on and off, but it wasn’t as hot as I had feared it would be. The sun was still up when we arrived to Lyra Hotel in Oradea. The only problem was our music selection turned out to be too short. Well, it would have been longer if LB had copied the musicals I had on the list, but he skipped those without adding anything in their place.

Monday, August 17, 2015

Our car had been beeping for years with no obvious reason, but MD choose this day to worry so he and LB took the car to the service for a checkup in the morning. Some part was replaced and then they returned to have breakfast together. The lady who used make a mean omelet wasn’t working there and since the prices had doubled since our last visit (the hotel is listed on booking.com now), we decided we wouldn’t return there.

Because of the rainy forecast and not wanting LB to drive through rain for his first time on a highway, we didn’t go through Debrecen but through Szolnok. Nevertheless, we still got caught by the rain – it always seems to happen when we cross Hungary – and for about fifteen minutes it was so bad we could barely see the car in front. LB claimed he didn’t mind. By the way, the car still beeped despite the repairs.

We stopped at a rest stop to eat, and the GPS lost the signal and failed to get it back for quite some time. Since we were early and had announced our arrival time for 18:00, we made another stop at Pandorf, the commercial center we kept talking about checking out for years but kept missing the exit. It was sunny but windy so we froze in between stores. We weren’t blown away by the prices and we didn’t really have time to check everything, but LB did find a perfume for himself. We headed back to the car when the army of black clouds caught up with us.

The GPS started working when we left the parking lot, and we made it to the apartment without a problem. The problems began after we got there. The elevator broke just when we entered the building so we had to carry our luggage up three flights of stairs. The boys hurried to take the car to the Erdberg P + R Parking since we couldn’t leave it in the street, and MM and I called the building manager and reported the problem. The mechanic came and fixed the elevator, and we were unpacking our stuff and preparing to fix dinner when LB called to ask for directions because they got lost on the way back. We had the wi-fi password, but I discovered I didn’t know the passwords for neither the laptop nor the tablet, and I didn’t know where the maps were packed. In the end, they found their way back on their own.

And so we started our first feast with instant soup. We never eat that at home, we prefer homemade food, but always seem to crave it while on a trip. The apartment was nice, big, with lovely dark-red parquet and colorful prints on the walls. The mattresses were only moderately okay, and it got really hot at night, but when sleeping with the windows open, it got really noisy.

Tuesday, August 18, 2015

Dark and rainy and surprise, surprise the elevator wasn’t working. The guy who did the cleaning in the building – also a Romanian – told us it had been like this all weekend, so after calling in to report it (one rude lady dare to hung up on me when I explained our problem) we took the stairs and went out.

It started to rain and stopped before we reached the Ring, but I got to wear my Amsterdam bought raincoat for ten minutes or so. No rain after that, but it was cold enough to be unpleasant while not quite freezing. MD had forgotten to pack his jacket so he had to borrow one of LB’s coats. I borrowed MM’s jacket as it fared the wind better than mine.

We stuck to the Ring for the first day, revisiting the old sights. Stephansdom looked much better. It used to be mostly black and dirty, but now most of the walls had been cleaned up and the roof looked new and shiny. Bonus, the square has stopped smelling of horse manure as the horses have been relocated near the Hoffburg.

I had feared I would find everything looking aged, but the buildings were well preserved and still looking good. Many of them were undergoing repairs – they have work there for decades and more. We walked on the two pedestrian streets, Kartner and Graben, and explored the border of the Danube.

We returned to the apartment cold and tired, and of course, the elevator wasn’t working. We called again, and after much debate, we were offered an apartment on the first floor. It meant packing up everything, including the soup, and moving, but one flight of stairs was better than three despite the spiral staircase remaining a nightmare.

The new apartment was a little smaller but similar in layout and furniture. The entertainment factor had increased tenfold as we were window to window with a gym. So we turned our chairs and watched people work out while we ate.

Too tired to go out again, LB and I watched a couple of episodes of Falling Skies season 3 – not really impressed with the way the story is going – while MM and MD rested then LB had the third floor apartment all to himself for the night.

Wednesday, August 19, 2015

Dark and cloudy on a rainy morning. No working elevator. We waited for the rain to stop and then went out to visit Vienna International Center. We had seen it before but in a hurry and at nightfall. We debated taking the metro to get there, but MM insisted we walked. It only took us a little over an hour, and I don’t recommend crossing the Danube by foot during strong wind. New buildings had been added, and it looked really good. I wouldn’t mind living there. :)

While the boys took photos, MM and I entered a Bipa and Billa store to warm up. Then we walked farther to Donau Center. A bit of shopping, MD found a suit and LB a jacket, and we had no more strength to go farther than that. I voted for taking the train back, and the rest weren’t unhappy with it. The elevator leading to the platform wasn’t working so I got to use the escalator for the first time in years. We rode to Stephanplatz and from there we walked home.

More soup, gym, and Falling Skies in the evening.

Thursday, August 20, 2015

Still cold so we decided to spend a couple of hours in a museum until it warmed up a little. We did one museum per day during our previous stay in Vienna which meant there weren’t many that would interest us left. On the way to downtown, we entered Belvedere Winter Palace – really nice entrance hall though a little busy – took one look at the stairs and turned around, preferring the sun that was just coming out.

We did visit Albertina Museum – elevators’ heaven, starting with the one outside, the three-door one inside, and the small ones in between mid levels. One thing we forgot, it’s usually cold inside museum and not warm, but I was bundled up like going to the North Pole so I didn’t mind. I didn’t care that much for any of the current exhibitions. I truly liked maybe a Cezanne, a Miro, and a Renoir. And I decided I really didn’t care for Klee’s work. I did like the entrance hall, the museum as a whole, and my favorite part were the Hoffburg Staterooms. I felt like in an Alexandre Dumas novel. Those should not be missed!

We walked some more around downtown, and then we wanted to visit the Belvedere Gardens since the weather was turning nice. Unfortunately, we entered the Schwarzenberg Palace’s yard first, and by the time we figured out there was no way to pass through to get to the other side and walked around to the real gate, it got too late and the gardens closed so we went home a little disappointed.

Dinner plus watching the activity in the gym – MM kept commenting on how one particular instructor had no idea what she was doing – we finished watching Falling Skies, and then I did some reading as I had brought along a couple of Bujold’s Vorkosigan saga books just in case.

Friday, August 21, 2015

From this day on, the weather improved and the elevator worked. Since we really enjoy open markets and we check them out everywhere we go, we went to Naschmarkt. Interesting market laid in the middle of the street, with the Secession building on one end and Majolica House on the side. One aisle with restaurant and terraces, one with foods, and clothes on the side. Next to a kiosk, on a board it was written “No free wi-fi. Talk to each other. Call your mom.” Many seeds, dried fruits, and teas – their smells overpowered everything else.

We walked along Mariahilffer Strasse all the way to the train station and a little past that. If we had continued that way for another thirty minutes we would have made it to Schonbrunn Palace, but we didn’t think about it. We entered a few stores but didn’t buy anything as usual. No, wait, LB found two pairs of sunglasses. Good timing since his broke later that day. I liked the glass elevator. :) On the way back, it had gotten hot enough for an ice cream. Then while walking along the Ring, we checked a couple of souvenir shops. Unfortunately, the one displaying Rosina Watchmeister cat statues in the window was closed.

This time, we didn’t miss the Belvedere Gardens. We entered by the gate on our street and went all the way to the other end. The garden between the palaces looked unkempt and had fewer flowers than we remembered. The garden from the big entrance looked better. We rested on the steps until the sun went down and then headed home.

We took Capoeira lessons from our neighbors, and then I read some.

Saturday, August 22, 2015

Best weather, I didn’t have to wear a sweater. We went back to Naschmarkt and crossed it to get to the flea market at the other end. I’m sorry to say it, but it was the worst flea market we had ever been to. LB and I went ahead, and once we were done checking all the tables, we waited outside. In the sun, it was too hot, but in the shade, it was too cold, so we ended up calling MM twice to hurry.

Grumbling because of the long wait, we returned to the Ring and raided the souvenir shops to get gifts for people at home. With our backpack filled, we entered downtown to check out the biggest souvenir store and the two Swarovski stores.

Next on the list were the two Hundertwasser Houses. The one with a lot of black on the façade still looked ok, but the colors were faded on the bigger and prettier one. It’s seriously time for some restoration work to be done.

We hurried back to find a grocery store open and get ice cream and apple strudel while there was still time because the stores were closed on Sunday.

Capoeira at home during dinner, we had enough food left for one more day, and then we went out again.

This was the only day we went out in the evening, and it was great. A walk on Kartner and Graben, sitting on a bench near the horse and hussar statues at sunset, and then we went to see the Rathause and the lights. Or at least this was the plan. While we moved from one street to the next, attracted like moths by the light, and checked out passages and galleries, we took a wrong turn somewhere because instead of reaching the west side of the Ring, we ended up by the water in the north-east – quite embarrassing for veteran tourists like us!

By then it had gotten late so we postponed the Rathause for the following day. It was the best day of the whole trip as far as I’m concerned.

Sunday, August 23, 2015

What do Viennese people do on Sunday? The old city was deserted at 11 AM, and hungovered tourists appeared only on Kartner and Graben. We took no chances missing the Rathause so we went to the Danube and from there returned south on the west side of the Ring.

The Rathause looked a little darker than I remembered. It will probably turn black in a decade or so, but some walls were undergoing repairs so there’s still hope for it. Bleaches were installed for some music and film festival, and we sat for a bit until the strong wind chased us away. Despite being sunny and not the coldest day, it did feel so because of the wind.

We continued south along the Ring, passed by the Parliament – it still looked good – and then entered Museum Quartier. MM and I worked on our tan on some plastic benches while the boys checked out an architecture exhibition.

MD got hungry so he bought some terrible triangle sandwiches. Another tourist passing on them should have tipped us off, but I wasn’t there when MB put them in the basket. We ate them plus some really good chocolate covered biscuits on the Hoffburg steps because there were no unoccupied benches in Maria Theresien Platz, in between the two big museums.

We spent the rest of the day walking inside the Ring, I think we learned every little corner by heart, one last trip to the Danube where we enjoyed the sun for a bit. And then the wind sent us away – that and the adolescent couple putting on an X-rated show on a bench nearby.

At the apartment, we packed our luggage, looked for places to spend the night back in Romania, and turned in early.

Monday, August 24, 2015

While LB and MD went to bring the car, MM and I brought our stuff downstairs. We loaded the car and took off at 9 AM. The GPS worked only until we left our street. After that we had to pay attention to the road signs, which made LB panic a little since he was driving.

We were all fed up with the road between Oradea and Cluj, so MD and MM insisted to take another route since we weren’t going to stop in Oradea anyway. Instead of Szolnok, we passed by Szeged and headed to Arad. I didn’t see the point of driving 100 km extra on our roads, but I didn’t mind going through some towns I hadn’t seen before.

Around 4 PM, we crossed the Romanian border and discovered we did have a bit of highway. We drove on it until Arad, so that’s still something, I guess. The GPS woke up and took us to what it claimed to be the city center, but it clearly wasn’t. We didn’t have time to look for it so we continued our trip. What I did see of Arad, I didn’t like.

We made a lunch break on the side of the road, and a beggar came out of the woods to search through the trash bins. When MD gave him some money, he said he was hoping for food because he slept on a mattress in the woods – he wasn’t lying – so MM make him a sandwich and gave him one of our water bottles. We couldn’t help with the cigars as none of us smokes.

Deva I did like with its Dacian fortress up on the hill that could be seen from anywhere in town. Most roads were undergoing repair works which was great for the locals but not so great for visitors.

I also liked Alba Iulia, the little we saw of it anyway.

We stopped for gas and there were still a couple of hours of light left so we decided to keep going.

Teius is a nice village, and I remember thinking the locals must be rich since all the houses looked so good.

We passed by Blaj, I don’t remember anything worth mentioning there, and once it got dark, we started looking for a place to stay. We made it as far as Tarnaveni. There with the help of the GPS and the phone, we located two hotels, Iris and Trei Brazi. We tried Trei Brazi first, way up on a twisted narrow street, but the place looked and smelled bad and there were stairs so we tried our luck at Iris. We had to circle the block twice to find the entrance, but it had a guarded parking so we didn’t have to unload the car, and miracle, we even got rooms on the ground floor.

Rustic furniture so not exactly my style, but it was clean and the rooms were big. I had to cut our dinner short because my lower lip suddenly doubled in size. I suspect it was an allergic reaction to a new brand of humus (LB’s really into it, me not so much) combined to dehydration and chapped lips because of the wind.

Tuesday, August 25, 2015

The lip was fine in the morning, but we had slept poorly on the bad mattresses so we were still tired. After a quick stop to buy something to eat, we started on our last leg of the journey.

Really bad roads after Tarnaveni for several villages. Praid looked popular, lots o places to stay there. Bad roads again in the Gheorgheni area. It’s a shame because it’s a nice area otherwise. Things got really complicated when we entered the mountains. The twists and turns seemed like they were never going to end, and after a day spent sitting in the car, everything hurt already.

Lacu Rosu (The Red Lake) and Cheile Bicazului (a narrow pass between tall mountains) is a spectacular area, lots of tourists. Oddly enough, the only radio station working there was the church radio so we turned it off, feeling we exceeded our prayer quota each evening while heading to the apartment and hoping the elevator would work.

Good roads after that. I liked Piatra Neamt, we got a little lost there, and then we were on familiar territory, passing through Roman and arriving to Iasi where grandma was waiting for us with French fries. We had been longing for those.

Final thoughts:

I was miffed about the weather (I had a bag full of short sleeve blouses I didn’t get to wear, and in all photos I appear wearing the same sweater, pah!), the stupid elevator (we never had such a bad luck before, and especially in Vienna where I was so taken with the metro elevator the first time around, it even inspired one of my stories), and losing the initial apartment (we should have asked for a discount, but we didn’t think about it).

All these put aside, Vienna remains gorgeous no matter what, and we had a good time. I’m glad we didn’t spend so much time using the metro or staying inside museums like we did the first time and we got to see more of the city instead. My only regret is that we didn’t get to visit Salzburg the way we had initially planned, but the weather and the elevator conspired against us. Well, another time…

No idea where we’re going next year, but you can count on another vacation diary for sure. See you then!

2014 Istanbul Vacation – A la turca, bre!

There was no talk of Paris this year. Mom suggested going to Istanbul as she and dad had been there ten years ago and wanted us, the kids, to see it too. Dad had nothing against it, but wanted me to look for a hotel instead of an apartment, and while I wasn’t entirely convinced it was a good idea, I gave in.

There are tons of hotels, more or less affordable, in Istanbul. Finding a decent one in the old town is easy, figuring out if an elevator is available not so much, and there was also the parking issue. In the end, the trick was to find a hotel on one of the hotel booking websites and then look for the hotel’s official website and talk to the manager directly. Once I figured that out, it didn’t take long to make our booking. No elevator, but we can manage a few steps so no problem there.

At one point, I flirted with the thought of going a few days to Thessaloniki too, I even found an apartment, but other things came up, and in the end I didn’t even mention it to the family.

So 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 the two GPSs and the roof box, and a trunk full of food. As usual, these are random thoughts about our vacation and the places and things we've seen, non-edited (editors, stay away!), and most likely politically incorrect. :P Some things might be missing as I wrote the diary a month after we got back. OK, let the circus begin!

Sunday, August 17, 2014

Our yearly summer vacations taught me it’s best to schedule our departure day on a Sunday to have a full day for preparations previous to that. We had two days because of the bank holiday on Friday, which I had simply forgotten about while planning the trip. Still, guess when we finally managed to leave the house? At 2 PM. Not exactly a problem since we were only going to Giurgiu, near the south border, but still. The sky was clouded after several days in a row with over 30 C, which was good, it even rained for a few minutes, but the traffic was insane.

The sun was setting when we arrived to Bucharest. We had to take a detour to pick up LB from my cousin’s house who had moved in a village outside Bucharest. The GPS didn’t recognize the address, so we went in blind, having no idea where we were going and based on only some vague directions. To make it worse, the cell phones had no signal in the area. If I hadn’t checked out the location on Google maps a few days earlier out of curiosity, we would have driven in circles even longer. Since it was already dark when we got there, we saw little of the yard and outside of the house, but we were impressed by the number of stray dogs.

We picked up LB and headed off to Giurgiu to MD’s friends where we were going to spend the night. They had been waiting for us with the dinner ready for hours, so of course it got long after midnight by the time we went to bed. Oh, we slept in a kick-ass round room!

Monday, August 18, 2014

We managed to leave our very hospitable friends by 10 AM (this is considered a decent hour, according to our standards), and after a short stop at the market to get vegetables and fruits, we were on our way.

Bulgaria looked as poor as I remembered it from ten years ago, still despite the poverty, they still manage to have better roads than us. Poor villages, with many unfinished houses, and we rarely saw any cars on the empty roads. It was as if aliens had come and abducted them all.

The little we saw of Veliko Tarnovo, we liked a lot. We talked about stopping on our way back to visit it properly, which I think we all knew wasn’t going to happen because we’re always late and on the rush.

Around noon, MD got tired and let MM drive while he slept in the back seat. The plan was to follow the route Veliko Tarnovo – Stara Zagora – Svilengrad – Edirne, only we must have taken a wrong turn somewhere on the way because instead of passing by Stara Zagora, we ended up in Nova Stara, which is also on the route to Istanbul but more to the east. MM was freaking out, thinking we were lost since we didn’t recognize any of the names on the plate signs, but I insisted that as long as the sun was on the right side and we were traveling south, it was fine. MD slept during the entire drama.

We woke him up before reaching the border because MM didn’t want to drive in a country she was unfamiliar with, and we put on some gas. We had to pay cash since they didn’t take credit cards, and we suspected we got fooled when we received the change in the local currency, but we had no way to check the exchange rate so we just moved on.

Passing through the border controls went rather fast despite having to show our papers like four times. Good thing we had the car papers translated into Turkish, or we would have been forced to turn back.

Turkey. Better roads, more civilization. Only a few kilometers into the country, and I was already impressed. I hadn’t expected them to be so advanced and so much ahead of us. Granted, all I knew about Turkish people from our history books was that they used to cross the Danube and steal our women. Really, if they want to join UE, they get my vote.

We had no sticker to pay for the Edirne – Istanbul highway, but since it could be bought later on at the post office, we didn’t fret about it.

Istanbul started long before getting to the old town, many sky scrappers and new buildings at the periphery. It was all so big and the traffic so busy that if the GPS hadn’t known the way, we would have been forever lost.

Well, we did feel a little lost when were unable to find the hotel. MM got out of the car and asked a carpet store owner for directions. He didn’t know where the hotel was, but he saw the phone number on the paper with the address so he pulled out his phone and called the front desk. We could have done that too, but while the manager had been very accommodating during our email exchange, his English was just so so, and we figured it would be much worse over the phone.

We were told to wait where we were, and a guy showed up shortly after that – a sign that they were prepared for this type of situation – and led us to the hotel. There we had a nice surprise. Because the hotel was advertized as having an elevator when it didn’t have any, we had been upgraded to a newly refurbished apartment on the first floor and we were allowed to park the car and leave it in the street in front of the building for the entire stay.

The apartment was very chic despite not having a real stove and the small fridge. Beds were good, and while we could hear everything happening in the street, sleeping was quite possible with the windows closed. The only thing I would complain about was the absence of a regular table, which made eating and using the computer uncomfortable.

We ate quickly and headed out. The hotel was located 5 minutes away from Sultan Ahmet Park, with the ancient hippodrome, Blue Mosque, Hagia Sofia, and the colored fountain, and this became our daily route for leaving and returning to the hotel. In fact, we crossed the hippodrome so many times that we decided to change out name from the traveling bunnies (the way my uncle call us when we’re on vacation) to the racing horses.

It was a bit windy, and after spending the entire day cooked up in the car, MM worried I might catch a cold. We didn’t want to return to the hotel to get a sweater, so we used the change given by the hotel manager to buy a purple shawl. I guess MM will have something new to wear this fall.

We headed to the water and walked along the quay to Galata Bridge, passed underneath it through the passage and continued on the quay until the end through the crowd of street vendors. It was past midnight when we made it back to the hotel.

Tuesday, August 19, 2014

Since it was our first day, we decided to take it slow. We left the apartment between 10 and 11 AM (our usual hour regardless of how early we tried to wake up) and enjoyed the hippodrome, Sultan Ahmet Park, Blue Mosque, Hagia Sofia, and the fountain in the daylight. Really beautiful, and plenty of tourists around. A street vendor tricked us into buying an Istanbul guide. We already had one with us, but it was nine years old so…

Then we went to visit the Grand Bazaar. The place is huge, lovely arched ceiling, but the whole building is in badly need of repairs. The stores are packed close together, not much different from our malls. Aside for the traditional stuff, I wasn’t impressed with the regular merchandise or the prices. Of course, I was already tired after cruising the first aisle full of only jewelry stores. I haven’t seen that much gold put together in my entire life, more than on the golden bridge in Florence even.

We spent a couple of hours in there without buying anything, and then we moved to the spice bazaar, smaller, and oh so crowded. Oh, full of more sweets, spices, and tea than one could use in a lifetime. We crossed it twice, and when we got out in the square next to the Small Mosque, MM wasn’t with us. MD said she was just behind us and asked us if we wanted an ice cream so busied ourselves with the ice cream for a while. Then MM came storming out, pissed because we left her in there and didn’t go back after her. In her defense, her purse was with us, which included her phone, wallet, passport, and she didn’t know the hotel address. But the ice cream was good…

We visited the animal market, book market, and grocery market nearby while she gave us the silence treatment, then we returned to the hotel for a late lunch and rest.

In the evening, we went out again on the quay, which became our favorite evening walk. This time we went along the length of the bridge, crossing all the restaurants on the water level. On the west side, right at the end, it’s a restaurant, rather expensive considering the dress code, but with really good dancing music.

First general impressions:

- Istanbul is a beautiful city, but tourists leave a lot of litter behind.

- we heard English, French, Spanish, Russian, and Romanian, duh, however, Turkish people don’t speak English that well. They’re helpful, though, and polite, even while driving.

- everyone seems to wear flip-flops. I know it was hot, but I don’t know how they managed to walk in those things on those streets. Pavement’s not so good.

- many of the women still wear traditional attire, which ranges from fully clothed to which several other layers are added like head scarf, long coat, another long black coat, big overall black robe, black head piece, with the occasional black face cover (creepy!). The make-up consists of lipstick and black eyeliner. And they wear quite a bit of gold.

- it’s full of sweet shops, tea shops, and carpet stores. There are restaurants, hotels, and souvenir stores everywhere; the blue glass eye that’s supposed to bring luck seems to be very popular.

- I love their lively ceramics and colorful lamps!

- popular food sold in the street was corn on the web, water melon slices, and oysters, though who would risk eating those after sitting in the sun the whole day.

- I don’t think I’ve seen more than two dogs on a leash and a couple of stray ones, but there are cats everywhere, and it’s clear people are taking care of them because there was cat food on the sidewalk in every street. After recently losing our kittens, it was bitter sweet to see so many cats around. Unlike the long-tailed cats from Croatia, these ones had faces looking different than ours. Weird.

Wednesday, August 20, 2014

It was time for art and culture. So at noon, when the sun shone brightly on top of our heads, we hid from the heat inside Hagia Sophia. Massive, red brick walls, typical Roman architectures. Lovely golden ceilings with green decorations. Plus a grumpy cat sitting on a threshold, who glared at us, annoyed by all the visitors’ flashes who wanted to take a photo of it.

The inside was undergoing repair works so it was hard to take a good look at the entire room because of the scaffolding on a side. MM claimed it was still there when they visited nine years ago. The boys went to check the upper level and take more photos from above, and before leaving, MM wanted to stay in line at the wishing column. She’s got great elasticity, so she managed to do a full circle with her hand on that bronze disk. It’s supposed to bring you health, but I think all she got was germs, considering how many people had touched it only that day.

Back to the heat and hurrying to the Blue Mosque where we had to take off our shoes and cover our heads with a scarf. Well, the women did, which is a huge discrimination if you ask me. The entire walls and ceiling are covered in blue mosaics, very delicate and pretty, but a little too busy for my taste. The all around windows were a nice effect though. The carpet looked clean despite how many barefooted people walked on it, but it didn’t smell so good.

We went next to the small mosque from across the square. It had a cute, small yard in front where we refilled our water bottles. The tap water was ok but tasted bad, so we had to rely on bought water. This one didn’t taste much better either.

Since it was so hot, we decided to head south and see the Marmara Sea from close. The quiet neighborhood was nice and we got to visit two more mosques on the way, and see more cats. LB set his eyes set on a tiger eye beads on a string, but MM didn’t feel like bargaining with the vendor to make him drop the price (she’s very good at that), so we got the pleasure of him grumping about it the entire rest of the week.

We reached a dead end, and while we figured we were only a couple of streets away from the water, there was no way of getting there. Since we weren’t in the mood to walk much longer, we headed back to the hotel, passing through a rich vegetable market on the way.

Usual evening walk on the quay later that night.

Thursday, August 21, 2014

We’d talked about taking a bus or something to get to Taksim Square on the other shore, but in the morning they decided they wanted to walk. Crossing the bridge was fine, but there was work on the road on the other end, so we had to take a slight detour which took us through a small bazaar where we spent more time than needed.

The climb up the hill was a steep one. Oh, did I tell you Istanbul is full of up and down streets? Well, it is. Luckily, the effort was worth it. I absolutely loved Istiklal Cadesi, the pedestrian boulevard. It reminded me of the old part of Köln.

I wasn’t impressed by Taksim Square, even less by the patrolling police cars armed with water canons, but the little streets around it were pretty cool. We even found a set of Turkish tea glasses LB wanted to buy and had been searching for for a while.

We walked back on the same road and stopped to look in the cat yard – there’s a yard towards the end on the right side of the street and there must have been over 20 cats lying in the sun there. Then we made it to Galata Tower, circled it, and it was all down hill from there. Just before reaching the bridge, I hit my knee, which considerably lowered my spirit, but compared to other times, it could have been much worse.

I think it was the only day when we were too tired to go out for an evening walk.

Friday, August 22, 2014

The hottest day so far, so of course we had to spend it inside a museum. Topkapi Palace is in fact a collection of several small museums, most of them located in the third courtyard.

The first courtyard looks like a regular park surrounded by high stone walls. It’s where we had to wait in line for tickets along with too many other sweaty tourists.

The second courtyard includes several models of the palace, the entrance to the harem and the one to the third courtyard through the Gate of Felicity.

The tour started well with the Audience Hall in the third courtyard, a nicely decorated pavilion right in front of the entrance, including the sultan’s bed, which was huge. As soon as we entered the courtyard, it stopped being so hot, the heat being replaced by a pleasant breeze.

Out of the one or two-room museums, the ones that stood out were:

- the clothes museum – we noticed how tiny people’s necks were back in the days, based on the clothes neck openings;

- the weapon museum – swords, swords, and more swords, all heavily decorated, especially the Turkish ones. The Huns’ swords were over 1.5 meter long, big and heavy, probably used on horses and carried with two hands. One simple sword stood out, the one belonging to Stefan the Great. Simple but obviously very efficient if you check all of his victories recorded in our history. Bayasid’s sword resembled a snake and didn’t look efficient at all, no wonder we beat him.

- the ancient texts library – one passage caught my attention because it stated the prophet was a regular looking man, not too tall or too short, and with white skin. Umm, okay.

Once we entered the fourth courtyard, we stopped on the south-east terrace to rest and look at the sea. Then it was time for my favorite part of the palace, several small kiosks decorated with many windows and covered in mosaics. My favorite was the sofa kiosk.

By the time we were done with the fourth courtyard, we were tired and the rest of the family complained about being hungry, so we skipped the harem and went home.

In the evening, we went out again on the usual route towards the quay. We had an extra mission as we had to look for souvenirs for the friends and family back home, so it took a while.

Saturday, August 23, 2014

During each trip, there has to be a day that feels like it was wasted. This was one of those. First, we woke up late and decided to postpone our trip to the Asian shore. Second, LB woke up with some kind of itchy bite marks on his forearms, and he was in a terrible mood all day.

So, we headed to Suleyimanie Mosque, up yet another hill. Hot, a long way to go, and when we got there the mass was on so we had to wait. The courtyard was big and impressive, but rather cold. The garden surrounding it was better and with a nice view over the water and city. The cemetery was closed.

Entering the mosque was quite a hassle and made for a terrible experience. The interior reminded me of the Blue Mosque, only bigger, colder, and less decorated. The carpet smelled even worse.

We returned by Valens Aqueduct, then along the quay for a bit. We wanted to wanted to visit the Small Mosque but couldn’t, so we went up the hill through the busy market streets. One of them was so crowded you could only pass through with great difficulty. Those vendors had to have a lousy day since no one could stop to buy anything.

Since it wasn’t late enough, we went back to our usual walking area. And of course we remembered we’d seen another market close to the Mosaic Museum and we had to check it.

LB was feeling worse, so after we returned to the hotel, MM and MD went out again to look for a pharmacy and get some ointment for him. Unfortunately, being weekend, they were all closed. They did, however, brought him the tiger eye beads he wanted, and of course MM got them cheaper. Some online digging and heavy use of Google Translate revealed the on-duty pharmacy for our area was close to Suleyimanie, and we were all like “No way we’re going all the way back there!” So we just went for our regular evening walk. Finding some trinkets on the way improved LB’s mood even more.

MM’s mood kind of dropped when we made reservation at a hotel in Thessaloniki. I had mentioned my initial vacation plan during one of those “We only have X days left of staying here? Why didn’t we book more nights from the start?” talks, and MD had really set his mind on it after that.

Sunday, August 24, 2014

We managed to take a boat and sail to the Eastern coast before noon. Granted, the ship had no sails and both MM and I got seasick while waiting to leave the pier, but the cruise was smooth and enjoyable after that.

Despite the heat, we walked along the border of the water until we reached the harbor, and then we turned and went up the hill, yes, yet another one, to explore this side of the city. Our map didn’t cover this area so we played it by ear, based on old memories and street signs. We ended up mostly in a residential area, but it was nice and quiet, and we found a mini-market to buy drinks, and then a pharmacy for LB. The eruption on his skin had gotten worse since morning, so we had to agree those weren’t bite marks but some kind of allergy or food poisoning. Poor thing, he’s the one most likely to get sick while abroad out of all of us, just like the cat who’s often getting sick while we’re away.

We went down the hill on the other side and explored the square and market near the harbor until the time for our boat ride came. We headed back to the hotel, but only for a quick stop because it was our last evening in town and we wanted to make the best of it.

So we went on a last minute souvenir hunt. If you plan to get those 3 baclava boxes packages that are sold everywhere, don’t! The boxes might look nice and big, but that’s just the box. They only contain twelve pieces of baklava when there’s room for twice as much. Of course, we only discovered that when we opened them at home. Man, we were glad we hadn’t tried to give them as present to anyone. It would have been so embarrassing.

We ended the night with one last walk along the water and under the bridge to the restaurant with good music. There were even fireworks fired from a passing boat. A fun night!

Monday, August 25, 2014

At 10 AM, we were leaving towards Thessaloniki. MD drove up to the Greek border where we had to wait for a bit as it appeared to be the lunch hour and only one gate was open which made the line crawl like a snail.

Once we entered the highway, he let MM drive and she did most part of the way. Nice scenery, the road mostly empty, the only thing I found unusual was that we didn’t receive a ticket when we entered the highway but had to pay the toll several times on the way. The road goes up and down the mountain with quite a few twists and turns, which reminded me of Oituz area.

MD woke up shortly before entering Thessaloniki and drove to the hotel. Because the streets around the building were undergoing repairs, the manager told us we could leave the cars right in front. The sun was still up while we carried our luggage upstairs, but it had gotten dark by the time we went out again so we missed the sunset. The constructions in the street detoured us for a little bit and without a map we missed the main boulevards and got sidetracked, but we made it to the main square eventually.

A walk along the water is always nice, despite the walkway being crowded with girls in short shorts and all of the noise and fumes coming from the cars speeding on the street parallel to the water. Really, there should be some strict speed limit on that road to make the walk more enjoyable and less damaging to the lungs.

Walked only a little past the tower and then returned by the main square because it was getting late and we were tired. Imagine me at midnight wearing short sleeves. I don’t think it has happened since the last time we’ve been to Thessaloniki.

Tuesday, August 26, 2014

We were in the breakfast room, faced with the big breakfast, when we all had to agree this was the hotel where we had stayed the last time too, though we didn’t remember its name and it wasn’t written on my blog. I checked. It has also looked much better back then. We ate, good pastry and yogurt with fruits, which made LB abandon his diet, and then we went out.

We got a map and explored the part of the city away from the water first while also running some errands for a couple of things we couldn’t find at home. What had been less obvious the previous night, it became clear in the daylight. This wasn’t the Thessaloniki we had visited nine years ago. Now there were many closed stores, leaving empty rooms instead, there was graffti everywhere, and everything looked dirty and neglected. Plus, only the main roads are still lit in the evening, the rest of the city looking like an abandoned ghost town.

More up and down walking before getting to the water again. We followed the waterfront up to the main square, then checked the market and headed back to the hotel through the city.

We missed the sunset again because of their nap, and then argued over ice cream, and took a longer walk along the water up to the new blue lit hotel that hadn’t been there before. The metal sculpture with many umbrellas from the border of the water was interesting.

Not bad, but not a vacation destination I’d recommend at this point.

Wednesday, August 27, 2014

My uncle had warned us to be careful while crossing Bulgaria because there was going to be a Romania – Bulgaria soccer match in Sofia that evening, and the roads were most likely going to be crawling with police. So we decided to avoid Sofia and go back on the highway towards Turkey and then up north on the same route we had come from or we should have… Yes, I know it sounds like we were making it hard for ourselves on purpose but… I don’t drive. I’m only the co-pilot.

We didn’t know exactly where we were supposed to leave the highway, and the GPS seemed also clueless, so we followed two cars with Bucharest plates. If they had gone anywhere else but home… but they did and we made it to Bulgaria on a seemingly new road. This time we did make it to Stara Zagora, and we arrived to Veliko Tarnovo along with the sunset.

My aunt called to ask where we were just before crossing the border. Gotta love the employees at the Romanian border-crossing point. The guy asked, “Everyone’s Romanian inside?” and then said, “Good night!” and signaled us to pass through without asking for our passports. And of course, the moment we entered our half of the bridge across the Danube, the holes appeared in the road. We were clearly home.

It was too late to stop by our friends’ house in Giurgiu, so we went straight to my aunt in Radu Voda. She was waiting for us with a lot of yummy food so it was very late when we went to bed.

Thursday, August 28, 2014

We spent the morning in the garden. It was windy after having rained during the night, but still warm and pleasant. After lunch, we stopped by our friends’ house in Giurgiu, but they weren’t home, so then we went straight to my cousin’s house outside Bucharest to pick up her daughter. She took turns diving with LB up to Iasi. One policeman signaled us to pull over while she drove, and of course she panicked and wondered what she did wrong, but it turned out the policeman was only looking for a free ride. Unfortunately for him, our car was full.

And so we arrived home two nights later than planned to an anxious grandma and a limping cat. Yes, again.

 

At this point, I have no idea where we’ll go next year. The local airport is opening some new flights, which will make traveling easier, but it will be a shame to fly when we’ll have three drivers available next year. Well, we’ll see… Until then!

2013 Croatia – One tunnel, two tunnels...

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 60^th 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!