Croatia, Bosnia and Montenegro

September 4-14, 2009 Matt and I took the most amazing road trip through Croatia, Bosnia and Montenegro...traveling through the inland first and up the coast as we worked our way back to Garmisch. Here's a quick breakdown of our trip's itinerary:

Day 1 (4th): Drove from Garmisch to Plitvice Lakes National Park. It was raining the entire drive luckily once we arrived at the campsite the "receptionist," who worked in a small building in the middle of the road, so kindly let us know that it was only 1 euro more to get a bungalow (compared to the price of 2 people, a tent and a car) for the night. So, we stayed in a bungalow versus putting up our tent in the dark and rain!

Bungalow means 2 cots and a roof ....bathroom was on the other side of the campsite

Day 2 (5th): Still raining....BUT as soon as we set foot in the park it stopped raining, the sun came out and it turned out to be a hot day! After exploring the National Park we drove to Mostar in Bosnia and Herzegovina (BiH). We had some trouble crossing the border...the guards kept saying we needed a green card and I kept telling them we were American citizens....come to find out a "Green Card" is an International Insurance Card that just so happens to be green....1/2 hour later we were on our way!

Matt and I overlooking the lower and upper lakes

Looking down on the trail we had walked along several hours earlier..we spent about 6 hours walking around the National Park

Day 3 (6th): Train from Mostar to Sarajevo! and exploring Mostar at night. We got an early start to go to the train station but we still ended up running around...basically we didn't have any local currency yet because the one ATM we saw on our way from the hotel to the train station was broke and the train station didn't accept credit cards nor would she take our euros. So, we went to the bus station and convinced that lady to exchange us some money - she just estimated how much our euro was worth and gave us some Convertible Marks. We then ran back to the train station teller, bought our ticket and caught the train 5 minutes later! YAY for the Bus lady who acted as a bank teller that morning!

Hay stacks and houses scattered along our train ride

Nothing better to do on a Sunday than play chess....and tell others how to play! :)

Sarajevo Rose...

Typical building in Sarajevo

The Holiday Inn...where reporters stayed during the war

The Stari Most or "Old Bridge" in Mostar...one of my favorite sites!!!

Day 4 (7th): Explored Mostar, got lost while trying to leave BiH; spent the night in a "sobe." A sobe is a room that an individual rents out of their home -- we paid 40 euros for a spectacular room and view!!

exploring Mostar during the day

Day 5 (8th): Drove to Kotor Bay, Montenegro.

We were able to see Dubrovnik from the road on our drive to Kotor

The Bay of Kotor -- view from our villa!

Day 6 (9th): Explored Kotor then drove to Dubrovnik and had our first date night! During date night I might have admitted that Matt's beard was growing on me...

The wall surrounding Kotor

There's a fortress creeping up the mountain that protects Kotor beyond the wall

Me at the top of the fortress!

Spectacular views of Kotor and the Bay from the fortress

Date night in Dubrovnik

Day 7 (10th): Explored Dubrovnik, walked around the city wall, drove to the island of Hvar. We didn't know what time the ferry left, we just knew it left every hour or so. Well, when we arrived in the town of Drvenik we could see the ferry....it was getting ready to leave in 5 minutes!! Perfect timing! So we hurried up, bought our ticket and sped onto the ferry.

The view from the wall around Dubrovnik

On the ferry to Hvar

Sunset over the Dalmatian islands

Day 8 (11th): Took a day excursion using our 'change money' to the island of Brac with the famous beach, Zlatni Rat! (I hate coins so I always put them in a jar and cash it in when it's full, Matt does the same - so just before our trip we both cashed in our jars and decided that money would be spent on a fun day! so this was it) We hopped on a boat in the Hvar town harbor and relaxed on a beach chair on the upper deck of the boat while we made our way to the island of Brac, next to Hvar. Once we arrived on the island of Brac I drug Matt on a speed walk to the beach (about 20 minutes! we didn't see people from our boat until 10 minutes later...). We then enjoyed a day on the beach and swimming around! Even though it was a little windy and the water was a little chilly it was picturesque and relaxing! When we got back to Hvar we ate at a nice restaurant in the main square with the cathedral and finished our night with a complimentary shot of grappa from the owner....ugh! haha

The beach!! :) It changes from day to day depending on the weather

Day 9 (12th): Drove to Split...didn't like it...kept driving to Novigrad (a small town further North). Before we got to Split we had to get off the island of Hvar...let's just sum this experience up by saying we missed the boat twice!! We didn't make it on the first ferry because it was full, so we were told it would be back in an hour and a half so we went to eat lunch. Well, as we were walking back to our car we noticed that there was another ferry and the line of cars was moving...sure enough they had all passed our car and we were stuck in a similar spot in the line as before. Then, 45 minutes or so later another ferry came....we were left to be the first car in line for the next ferry!! So, we had some down time to read magazines and research our upcoming destinations. I guess we weren't in a huge rush but waiting to board a ferry isn't my favorite past time but Matt considered it all worth it for the Hamburger we ate for lunch :-P

We arrived in the small town of Novigrad as the sun was setting and apparently the town was closing down! There is one camp ground in town and we arrived just as they were closing! So, the receptionist rushed through giving us a key and some info on where to eat (the one restaurant that was open!). After setting up our tent we drove back down into town to eat (it wasn't that far but we were hungry and wanted to get there asap!). We enjoyed a delicious pizza (each!) and of course, a liter of wine! Not a day went by on our trip that we didn't drink at least a liter of wine! Lunch and dinner were never complete unless we drank wine! When we returned to the campsite we realized we were never told what the code was to access the site...so I tried to lift the arm barring us from our tent...it didn't work so I told Matt he probably could lift it with his muscles...nope! So we had to call to get the code. Then, about an hour or two after we fell asleep we both laid there wide awake as the tent blew on top of us from the heavy winds and rain! Go figure. Then, I started to get scared and ran various scary movie scenarios through my head...not a good idea!! Let's just say it took a while to fall back asleep and I made sure Matt wasn't going to sleep until I did :)

Split

Boat on the water in Split

Day 10 (13th): Explored Novigrad, drove to Zagreb, date night #2. Even though Zagreb is larger than Split we didn't find it as overwhelming as Split. We also got smart and used the GPS to help us locate a hotel so we weren't aimlessly wandering around the city! We stayed at, in my opinion, the nicest hotel in Zagreb! The Hotel Dubrovnik **** located in the heart of Zagreb on the main square, Ban Jelačić square. We walked around for a little bit, enjoyed a glass of wine (the best of the entire trip!) and an appetizer at a swanky cafe near our hotel then we went back, got ready and had date night number 2 in the hotel's restaurant where I enjoyed my favorite meal of the entire trip, delicious gnocchi in a wine sauce.

The fortress of Novigrad...every town has one apparently... :)

The town of Novigrad

Day 11 (14th): Explored Zagreb and reluctantly drove back to Garmisch.... :(

The "cute street" as I call it or Tkalčićeva Street as locals call it

St. Marco's church with a beautiful mosaic roof

Fest Season!!

July 25 - August 17, 2009 Leading up to Oktoberfest in September almost all Bavarian towns have their own beer fest. In GAP, Garmisch has their fest first then after a short break Partenkirchen's fest begins. Both fests are similar but also different. Garmischer fest feels more like a party and draws a younger crowd while Partenkirchen fest has more traditional nights with an older/more traditional crowd. Each night has a different theme/entertainment. My favorite at Garmischer fest is the Stone lifting! Men try to lift a 500pound stone! They also have a party band night that plays fun, old songs and everyone stands on the tables and dances...I kept waiting for the table to break! At Partenkirchen fest I went to see the "whippers" as I like to call them - men stand on tables with cow whips and snap them in the air above the crowd's head. There are several different groups that rotate through the night leading up to the grand finale with all of them standing on the tables with their whips (as shown in the video below). Each group of "whippers" has their own accordian player that leads the beat of the whips. There's another night with "finger wrestling." Unfortunately, I didn't make it to that night of fest this year...hopefully next year!

Well, here's some pictuers of me, friends and the tent activities at the two fests.

Traditional bavarian garb called a dirndl - Yes, I bought one this year and I love it!! I feel so much more authentic walking into the beer tents wearing this!

Very traditional -- dirndl plus a maB (that's a liter) of beer! This just happens to be a Martzen, locally brewed by Lowenbrau (oh yeah, did I mention that Garmisch and Partenkirchen serve different beers at their tents....Garmisch serves Lowenbrau, Partenkirchen serves Ettaler (brewed by the monks in Ettal, half hour from Garmisch)

Jennifer and I with our pink dirndls

Kari, Bonnie, Shawnelle and I at Garmischer Fest

It's always a smart idea to reserve a table

Now on to Partenkirchen fest...

What's a beer fest without currywurst and pommes?!

Traditional Bavarian dancing

The Band (not pictured but noted...the same cute tuba player from last year was there again this year....people from Garmisch-Partenkirchen are known to live here their whole lives)

The whips!! He stood on our table later - check out the video below to get an idea of what this night at fest is like

And towards the end of the night people have drank enough beer to want to stand on top of their table and chug a maB of beer...exhibit A

The "Whippers" at Partenkirchen Fest



Traditional Dance at Partenkirchen Fest

MADONNA!!!!

August 18, 2009 Matt took me to see Madonna in Munich!!!!!!! It was the best concert I've ever been to!!! The concert started at 19.30 with Paul Oakenfold for one hour. After a 40 minute break Madonna finalllly hit the stage with "Candy Shop" off her new CD, Hard Candy :) What made the concert so spectacular was that Paul Oakenfold DJ'd throughout the concert so there wasn't a single quiet moment! He transitioned the beats from song to song and played 2 or 3 of Madonna's songs while she took a break....yeah, no 1/2 hour break or anything! and even when she took a short break you didn't really notice because the dancers were still out there entertaining! We felt like we were in one of Madonna's music videos the entire night! The choregraphics and lights were perfectly synched and continuous! Best concert ever!!!! Thank you Matt :)

Since the olympic stadium was so dark all night it was hard to get many good pictures/videos but here's a few.

Matt and I waiting for the concert to start at the Olypmic Stadium in Munich

Madonna!!

Madonna!!! She was hopping, skipping and dancing around alllll night!!! amazing!

Maddona performing "Give it 2 Me" -- it's two segments of a video pieced together

Hiking the Kramer

August 15, 2009 The Kramer is a a mountain in my backyard here in Garmisch. It's 1985m tall, which is about 6,512 feet! Yesterday Matt and I ventured towards the top of the mountain to touch the cross....all mountains in Germany have a cross on the peaks! Some mountains have a cable car that will take you to the top but the Kramer does not, so the only way to the peak is to hike up there. It was an awesome hike!! Once you are almost to the top you have to do some climbing, which was a little scary but Matt and some other Americans we ran into helped me through it. We started our hike to the summit via the Stepergalm (alm = hut) and then decended via the halfway house/St. Martin's hut. The views on the decend were amazing - we could see several valleys and mountains that we don't see everyday because they're behind the Kramer. I wish my photos showed how rugged the terrain was towards the top but oh well...I was too focused on not falling down the mountain and dying!! More pictures to follow later! :)

Matt and I at the top!!

That's the "trail" we followed down from the summit

I <3 the Alps!!

On Saturday Matt and I went hiking through the Hollentalklamm....roughly translated it means Hell's Gorge. Although it wasn't a bad hike at all!!! Once we made it to the "eingang" (start) hut it was easy trekking! It took about an hour to get to the start of the gorge then it was about a 3 hour hike through the gorge to the hut at the end. The views were well worth it!! Here's part of the hike through the gorge. There were many staircases along the edge of the gorge, bridges that crossed over the gorge, as well as tunnels through the mountain. :) More pictures to follow

Hollentalklamm

Blogging addict...Berlin Sneak Peak!!

Apparently I'm a blogging addict the past few days! I can't help it! :) Well, here are a few, and by a few I mean 11 because that was as far as I could narrow it down, photos from Berlin. Jenn and I were in Belrin July 30 - Aug 2. enjoy :) stories and more photos to follow soon

Memorial to the Murdered Jews

Memorial to the Murdered Jews

Berliner Dome

Reflection of the Pergamon Museum

Alexanderplatz

Alexanderplatz....remembering when the wall came down 20 years ago

Brandenburg Gate

East Side Gallery....artists are painting sections of the wall

Reichstag

Brandenburg Gate

Brandenburg Gate....Pariser Platz

A few more faves

So, I'm going through my many, many, many pictures taken in Malta and can't seem to focus on narrowing the mass down! So instead I decided I would post a few more favorites from Malta and Copenhagen! enjoy :)

Flower in a park in Copenhagen

Park in Copenhagen

Valletta, Malta

Comino!! Malta

Comino, Malta

Quick Update

Hi everyone!

I thought I'd post a quick update while I'm waiting for some friends to go to a softball game. The weather is finally nice so I want to be outside as much as possible!! but the weather forecast says it's supposed to be rainy this weekend...go figure! It's always nice when I'm at work and rainy as soon as I get off work!

In case you hadn't noticed, I snuck in a link to more pictures in the Copenhagen post. I'm still sorting through my pictures from Malta and Sicily...so far I have narrowed it down to 500....so I'm working on narrowing it down a little bit more!! For everyone's sanity!

After Malta expect posts from Garmischer fest, featuring yours truly in a dirndl!! and then Berlin pictures with my sister.

Ciao :)

July 3-12, 2009 Sheer bliss down south :) 7 days in Malta, 3 in Sicily! HOT, HOT, HOT! The weather was 30-36C/90-100F all week and it was so fabulous! Garmisch surely out rains Seattle hands down! So, the constant sun and heat of Malta was very welcome...even if I did complain at the time that I was sweating as soon as I stepped out the door of our apartment! Before going to Malta I started to wonder why we were going there (even though I did pick it out haha). I was starting to think we would do a few things and then lay around the pool the rest of the time...wrong! You know me better than that, there were tons of sights to see and I kept Mom and I busy everyday! I did allow us to have a half day on our last day. We walked around downtown/Saint Paul's Bay near our apartment; took a day cruise around the island, including a memorable stop at Comino and the Blue Lagoon; visited the new capital, Valetta, and the old capital, Mdina; shopped at a crafts village and glass blowing place; went to Gozo; saw the colorful fishing boats in Marsaxlokk and a few other small stops in between! After spending a week in Malta, we took a very, very early flight to Sicily (the transportation service picked us up at 3:50am or they were supposed to anyway...). Our trip to Sicily was short but we had specific plans: Taormina, Mt. Etna (the volcano), and Catania. As was the case in Malta, buses were pretty cheap in Sicily. 54 cents/ride in Malta...closer to 7euros/round trip in Sicily (that was for buses outside of the city...inside the city they were maybe 1 euro or something). Friday we caught the bus to Taormina, walked around town, then took the cable car down to Mazzaro (Taormina's Beach). On our way home we learned a $$$ saving trick from two German ladies traveling around. They "do everything on [their] own" and knew how to get to Etna without the 60euro tour guide/bus and without taking the 8:15am train from Catania. The trick is to take the 11:20 train from Catania to Nicolosi and then transfer buses. This option cost less than 6 euros/person/roundtrip and you don't have to spend all day at Etna...because the only bus back to Catania is at 4:30pm. Once at Etna we weren't even sure what we were going to do to occupy our 4-5 hours, good thing we didn't take the 8:15am bus! The cable car to the top was 27 euros/person and it didn't even take you to the highest point so that wasn't something we were interested in...after eating lunch on a terrace over looking Sicily's coastline and walking through all the shops we realized there were a few craters that we could walk around, so we did! The volcanic site was neat and the drive up to Etna was interesting to see - you could see all the lava and damage from previous eruptions (most recent, May 2008). Then, Sunday, our last day of vacation, we walked around Catania. As big as Catania is, it didn't take us as long as expected to see the highlights but it was still nice. We leisurely strolled along (well, I tried to leisurely stroll but I just can't help but to speed walk) and stopped for a gelato break and a few water breaks. After 10 solid days of vacation time I was not ready to come back to GAP or work...but here I am, in my single room blogging about my wonderful vacation!! More pictures to come later...as you can imagine I have lots of pictures to sort through between our three destinations.

Valletta, Malta's capital, at the bus terminal :)
yes, those are the buses we rode around in all week!

Blue Lagoon, Comino (there are only 8 inhabitants on the island of Comino)

Mom and I in Dwejra, Gozo...getting ready to see...

The Azure Window!!

Marsaxlokk, traditional Maltese fishing village

Mt. Etna, Sicily (Europe's largest active volcano)

Catania city center - Duomo and elephant statue

More Malta Pictures

Copenhagen Sneak Peak

June 26-29, 2009 Mom came to visit! First stop, Copenhagen. She flew from Dulles to Munich via Amsterdam, then hopped on a plane with me to Copenhagen...so she had no time for jet lag! While in Copenhagen we saw all the main attractions, including the little mermaid, twice since it was so close to our hotel. We also rode the train that connects Denmark to Sweden! So, we were in Sweden for a day...who does that?! :) Malmo, Sweden was a small town and the boat canal didn't offer much in the way of beautiful views...more industrial than pretty but it was still nice. We ate lunch at the only cafe in one of the parks/gardens and had the best scones with cream cheese and jam, so good it inspired our breakfast choice for our week in Malta! The weather was pretty nice - not too hot, not too cold - just right :) On another note, the one thing that stood out the most while in Copenhagen was how expensive everything was!! Copenhagen was definitely the most expensive city I've visited since moving to Europe!!! Average meal dish cost $20! No matter what it was - pizza, sandwich, etc. and public transportation was also pricey and less than convenient. The trains/metro sort of circled the central area of the city but didn't take you to the meat of the city...but all in all it was a great trip! Mom nor I had ever been to Denmark and Scandanavia was a stark contrast to our next trip, Malta and Sicily!!

walking through Kastellet, a fortification with a church and a windmill

so many bikes in Copenhagen!

sunset from our hotel balcony

Nyhavn - the hangout street for locals and tourists

Nyhavn, again

More Pictures