Update #37 - The LAST European Update for awhile!

July 28th, 2011

hey there folks....well, its my last full day in the states and i am already packed, so i have some time to send out one last update about europe before my whole life changes again....as you already know, tomorrow the asian adventure will begin with my trip to my new home for the next two years at least - SHANGHAI!!!!  but before i can start writing about there, i need to finish up my summer vacation time in both montenegro & croatia.....and what an ending it was....

the pictures below are from two coast trips - one to montenegro with my friend vlad and one to the island of brac with my friend catherine....both locations showed me just how amazing the coastline of these two countries is....croatia was just a reminder, but montenegro was a new country for me...and if you haven't been to these places for a vacation on the coast, i highly recommend them....on with the shots....

vlad and i started off our vacation in dubrovnik....it really is the "gem of croatia", as i read recently in some travel magazine...and because it was still june, it wasn't too crowded....this time also i did not get caught in a two hour storm that included hail...however, we did decide to "walk the walls" in the heat of the day - noon - and let me tell you, it was HOT!!!!!  wouldn't recommend that time frame to anyone...but it was still stunning none-the-less.....the shot above is taken from the top of the walls around the city and through this canon port hole you can see the small harbor of dubrovnik proper and some of the walled city across that beautiful water....i really liked this shot :)

while we were in town, a cruise ship was bringing folks back to their ship and while walking the walls we watched this huge ship depart....i love this shot because it really does look like the ship is just about to hit the buildings....but there of course is a huge fortress wall separating them....but the trick of the eye made me smile....and don't you love all of the red-tiled roofs....this is what helps make the view from the walls spectacular.....

in this shot you see vlad pretending to fire on the imaginary guys attacking the walls...personally i think he went into this little space because of the shade it gave us....did i say it was really hot....but you can also see from this shot, just how thick the fortress walls of this medieval city are...very defend-able...and offer protection to those inside the walls....

in this shot you can see the walls and the amazing water of the adriatic....and vlad walking the walls...this shot really does show you how high the walls are and how beautiful this body of water is....when you walk the walls, the view is always quite incredible....the fort in the back is called fort lovrijenac....i never made it there in the two times i was in dubrovnik...but i sure photographed it a lot...

after being in dubovnik for a night and walking the walls, we headed to montenegro...crossing the border was easy and the border guard really wanted to practice her english, so she said "okay, buh-bye" about four times as we were pulling away....montenegro is another country that was once part of yugoslavia and can be found just south of croatia...we went into the bay of kotor and stayed in a sea-side town called budva....i forgot to take pictures there...as really it was just a beach town and we were there to relax....but we did go into kotor...another medieval town along the bay with a huge fort above it....in this shot you can see the cobbled stones that were well worn on the way to one of the gates (drawbridge style) into the amazing old city...

this is the outside of the spot the previous picture was taken from....but now we are on the outside of the walls...on the right side of the picture you can see the small drawbridge styled gate we walked through to get to this point....i love all of the stone....

this is another shot inside the walls of kotor....some of the courtyards were kept up really well by the people who lived there....it really was not a big town, but it sure was beautiful and very old...and yes, the well still pumped water....

in this shot you see the trail/steps up to the fort....i decided not to hike up, but vlad did and got some amazing shots....i was amazed with the town itself and wanted to walk around and take pictures of the crazy way it was built on the side of a mountain....the steps to some of the courtyards were incredible....

this is the main church of kotor, or at least the biggest one in the main square....if you look closely at the towers of the church, you will see it was first built in 809....yes....809 - it's amazingly old....and they had a celebration in 2009 for its 1200 birthday....crazy....there was a great family in this courtyard that i watched, because the mom was blowing bubbles with this huge wand and there were about 10 kids trying to chase them down and pop them....so much fun!

this final shot of kotor was taken after we had dinner and were headed back to budva....you can see the fortress walls of the city in the foreground and the the climb to the fortress about the city is all lit up...it was a beautiful spot and very cool to wander around a place that had so much history....just incredible..

the two shots above are from split at night....vlad and i & catherine and i were here and these two pictures are from those trips...split is a coastal city of croatia where most ferry lines head out and therefore it has many tourists....it is a cool medieval, walled city with amazing roman ruins still in tact...one of them being the diocletian palace...the first shot is taken just outside of what was the main court of this palace in roman times...and the second shot was taken in another one of the squares (called trgs in croatia) just outside of the walls....i felt the shots at night really showed the beauty of this place....ans as you can see, it was not crowded yet!!!!

this is vlad and i as he was getting ready to hit the road once more for the croatian coast....
 

and here is catherine and i just before we hit the road for our relaxing beach trip to the island of brac...
 

this is the view from the town of bol on the island of brac...its another medieval town with cobbled stoned streets and amazing sea views...it is not a walled city and as you will see below it is well known for its pebble beach peninsula that can be found at the edge of this town....i loved the harbor....it was tiny and we sat here and had some drinks and dinner...and people watched....it was great....
 

here's a daytime shot on the island of brac...the water is amazing and very salty...so salty it is hard to sink or even dive under in this water....plus, because there is the island of hvar across the way, the waves are very calm....it was an incredible place to swim....
 

here you can see the peninsula part that juts out into the sea...this is where everyone goes swimming and it is spectacular....we spent an entire day chillin' out and swimming....simply perfect....
 

i LOVE the water of the adriatic sea...it is soooooooo crystal clear everywhere you go....really a perfect place to swim and boat....if you haven't been there...i highly recommend it....
 

this is the shot as we were coming back into split from the island of brac....split is another medieval walled city, as mentioned above, and is a fun place to wander around and check out the history...just keep in mind that the coast of croatia is very similar to italy and that they take siestas from about 1-4pm.... the day catherine and i were there we got to watch salsa in the main square of the dicletian palace...it was a bunch of fun....

the shot below will not let me write underneath it....so i will write above it....this is a shot taken inside the dicletian palace tower...and as we were in this spot an gentleman on a tour decided to sing some lines from an opera...it was cool due to the acoustics of the tower and he sounded terrific....i just like how the picture turned out with the view of the sky and the tower peaking through at the bottom of the circle....
 

my last shot from croatia had to be me with my favorite drink! this was taken when we were on the island of brac having dinner...it is of course palinkovac and schwepps bitter lemon....which i am going to have to find a substitute for in china.....but i felt this was a perfect ending to my last update from this region of the world....croatia was an amazing place and really if you have not been to the coast of this country, it is stunning....and there are incredible places throughout the entire country....it was a good experience for me for three years, but alas, it is time for me to move to the next continent...however, i do feel i experienced much of europe and have only missed 10 countries located there :) can you guess the ten????

so as i say goodbye to europe....i say hello to asia....specifically i will be saying hello tomorrow....i am excited for my new adventure and invite you all along for the ride....if you no longer wish to receive the updates, just let me know and i will take you off of the list...and some of you i have not heard from in a long time and i may be cleaning out my list in the near future...if you do not get an update from china sometime in the next month, let me know.....

i hope you all have a terrific summer (or winter if you are in the southern part of the planet)....consider this an invitation to come visit and if you have questions or thoughts along the way, send me a note....

catch you on the flip side and if blogger does not work from china, i will let you know.....