“Four passengers set sail that day for a three hour tour
(a three hour tour)”

If you’re not familiar with Gilligan’s Island, I recommend you have a listen to the theme song before proceeding. It was stuck in my head the entire time we were in Hvar, so I feel it’s important that you understand my inspiration in order to grasp the full experience here. If you’re lucky, it will stay with you for the rest of the day (or week).

Hvar is the self-proclaimed “Queen of the Croatian Dalmatian Islands.”  Ironically, the Dalmatian coastline resembles the Dalmatian dog… but then again it’s believed that the breed of dog is native to Croatia, so maybe not so ironic after all.  Anyhow, think tons of islands dotting the coastline, some big, some small, some inhabited, some not.  Hvar is one of the largest islands, and the Pakleni Islands are scattered about nearby.

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I fell in love the minute we landed.  No, actually, it was before that – it was at my first glimpse of the turquoise waters dotted with islands that loosely follow the jagged coastline.  Ok, maybe it was even as early as the Michael Palin’s New Europe special we watched several months ago.

Croatia was one the top places on my “must see” list, and it completely lived up to my expectations.  Scott’s mom and step-father (Mary & John) are here from Los Angeles to visit and do some traveling with us, and I think it’s safe to say that they are also pleased.  To quote Mary, “I don’t know what I was expecting, but this is better.”

We toured the country in a big circle, as our flights were in/out of the same city.  We started in Dubrovnik for a couple of days, drove up to Split, then slowly worked our way back to Dubrovnik via boats, stopping at the islands of Hvar & Korcula.  There are literally hundreds of islands, as well as amazing spots on the mainland, so it was tough to figure out where we should go and for how long.  However, I now realize that it’s impossible to make a poor decision – it’s all breathtaking.

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Sorry we’ve been kinda quiet lately… just taking a break and staying put in Barcelona for a while! The weather has been weird - beautiful for a few weeks, then rain moving back in. Even so, it’s good to be “home” for a bit. I love traveling, but also like being able to put my clothes in a drawer, and know where the nearest market is. It’s peaceful here, despite the noisy bar down the alley.

More excitement to come though! Scott’s mom and step-father are coming to visit soon, and we’ll be doing a bit of traveling with them, so stay tuned…

Adam & Nicki spent most of their trip doing slow-paced tourism with us in Barcelona, with the exception of a brief getaway to San Sebastián. I figured out that an over night bus would be cost-effective and give us more time in the city than flying. Adam & Nicki, being the troopers that they are – and having taken their fair share of janky buses and trains around the world – were game.

Luckily several passengers got off at some of the earlier stops on the route, giving us the opportunity to spread out in separate rows for part of the night. Scott, Nicki & I all got a little sleep – about as good as you can expect on an over night bus where you have to consciously hold your body onto the seat to prevent yourself from rolling off when our Formula One bus driver would stop, go or turn. Adam got about 20 minutes max. His row was across from mine, and every time I would wake up (about every 10 minutes I think), all I saw was him sitting straight up with a slight look of panic on his face as he stared directly forward.

I was absolutely right – taking a bus gave us significantly more time in the city! In fact, thanks to our bus driver, we arrived way ahead of schedule, and a couple hours before the sun.

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So our good friends Adam & Nicki from CA came to visit us here in the pickpocket capital of the world. They both studied in Germany for a while and have done their fair share of traveling, so they already knew the basics. For example…

• Men, keep your wallet in your front pocket.
• Women, if you must carry a purse, make sure it has a zipper (and preferably a flap over the zipper), and a long strap so you can wrap it around your neck/shoulder.
• Don’t carry your passports on you unless you’re actually traveling
  Note: most places in Spain will accept a photo copy of your passport or your U.S. drivers license as ID, so hide the passports somewhere safe and leave them in your hotel. (I don’t know if this is true in other countries, but it flies in Spain)
• Be extra alert when on crowded public transit
• When seated, make sure your purse/backpack is in your lap or somewhere that you can see and feel it (don’t just put it under your chair).
• Get one of those cheap carabiner things to hook the two zippers on your backpack together. It’s not a lock, but it’s hard enough to open that it will annoy you when you need to get into your own bag.

Scott is actually working on a resource for safety tips, so more to come on that later. To sum it up for now, there are plenty of targets out there, so do whatever you can to make yourself a difficult one, to encourage the thieves to move on to someone else. We are certainly not experts, but we see people making themselves easy targets all the time, and if we can see it, the thieves can see it.

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Prague is said to be one of the most beautiful cities in all of Europe. It was largely preserved during the war, although it was bombed toward the end of WWII. However, any damage caused throughout the decades has been replaced or restored, in some cases with even greater magnificence.

When you walk around Prague, look up. Some of the cities most beautiful and unique treasures are on top of buildings, or sometimes even hanging over the edges. For a while it was quite popular for young, undiscovered artists to take it upon themselves to decorate the city with sculptures (sometimes in random places). They often received no fame or recognition, nor did they expect it; it was simply their contribution to their beloved city.

Even the houses are decorated. Each building has (or had) some type of unique sign by which it could be identified. Before street names & numbers existed, you could send a letter to “the house with the three flying ducks”, and the messenger would know where to deliver it.

It’s hard to imagine that such a beautiful place was under such oppression not so long ago. We took a free walking tour (yes, we’re becoming quite fond of the free walking tours, especially when we don’t have a lot of time in a particular city), and our tour guide was a girl around 30 years old named Victoria. She was a Prague native, born into communism, but her parents gave her and her brother “Western” names in hopes that they could grow up and immigrate, in order to make better lives for themselves. Thankfully now, it is not necessary for them to leave their country to find opportunities.

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Cesky Krumlov takes the cake for the “Most Likely to Make You Want to Stay Longer and Do Nothing” award. When you plan your trip, figure out how long you want to stay, then add a day or two. It has the relaxing feeling of a beach resort, except that there are no beaches and it’s not overpriced.

It’s a charming medieval village set in what feels like the middle of nowhere (about a 3 hour bus ride from Prague). There’s a river that winds through the town, on which you can raft or kayak in the summer months, but don’t bother trying to orient yourself based on the river as you will get lost following its many twists and turns. However, as our hostel host told us when we first arrived “getting lost is just part of the experience here.”

It doesn’t take much aimless wandering before you stumble across the castle, which includes one of my favorite attractions of the city. Back in the days when the castle was still in use, the mote surrounding it was stocked with bears for protection, rather than water. The bears are still there just for nostalgia, although they are well-fed, slow-moving, and don’t look like they’d really give a rip if you fell into their mote. That happens to be my favorite kind of bear.

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