Category: Uncategorized
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The Balkans: Breaking Up Is Hard To Do
September 29, 2024. Lake Bled, Radovljice. Croatia has lots and lots of islands. Slovenia, on the the other hand, has only one. It is in the middle of a wonderfully scenic lake, northwest of Ljubljana, Lake Bled. The castle has incredible views of the snow-covered Julian Alps. And also the chance to sample Blejska kremšnita,…
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The Balkans: Breaking Up Is Hard To Do
September 28, 2024. Postojna, Arriving in Ljubljana. This morning, we left Opatija (Croatia) and crossed into Slovenia, the last country on our Balkan itinerary. Only one item on the menu today, a world-famous cavern. A lot of southwest Slovenia consists of the Karst Plateau (Slovenija Kras). This is a geologic region where limestone predominates, and…
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The Balkans: Breaking Up Is Hard To Do
September 26-27, 2024. Rijeka, Opatija. Yesterday, Thursday (September 26), we left Zagreb (below, upper middle) for the Gulf of Kvarner, which separates the larger portion of Croatia from Istria (the small triangular peninsula, below, middle far left). We stopped off first at the port city of Rijeka. Going back to Roman times, it is now…
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The Balkans: Breaking Up Is Hard To Do
September 23-25, 2024. Zagreb, Plitvice Lakes. On Monday afternoon, we traveled 3+ hours to Zagreb, the capital of Croatia since 1557. The next morning our local guide, Kristina, took us on a walking tour. She noted that Zagreb has essentially two parts, the modern lower town (Donji Grad), and the older, medieval Gornji Grad (upper…
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The Balkans: Breaking Up Is Hard To Do
September 21 – 23, 2024. Sarajevo, Ðakovo, Karanac. After fighting what seemed to be regular cold symptoms for three days, Stef got achy, so much so that it seemed sensible to take a Covid test. And wouldn’t you just know it? Two red lines! Covid! This needed to be disclosed to Elsa and the rest…
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The Balkans: Breaking Up Is Hard To Do
September 19 – 20, 2024. Mostar, Sarajevo. Yesterday, Thursday (September 19), we left Dubrovnik for our stay in Bosnia and Herzegovina. That’s one country, divided a great number of ways. First, by physical geography: Herzegovina is the part closer to the Adriatic, with a Mediterranean climate; Bosnia is the other part, with the continental climate.…
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The Balkans: Breaking Up Is Hard To Do
September 18, 2024. Dubrovnik and Konavle. This morning, we drove to the top of Srd Mountain (pronounced sur-DJE), about 1,300 feet above sea level, where we enjoyed views of Dubrovnik (walls of the Old Town shown below). Srd Mountain is also the home of the War Museum, dedicated to the history of the Homeland War…
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The Balkans: Breaking Up Is Hard To Do
September 15, 16 and 17, 2024. Dubrovnik We left Shkodër in Albania Sunday morning, September 15, to drive through Montenegro on the way to Dubrovnik in Croatia. Once past the Montenegro border, most of the drive was along the Adriatic coast, passing St. Stephen Island (below, upper left), taking a car ferry across the Bay…
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The Balkans: Breaking Up Is Hard To Do
September 12-14, 2024. Berat, Shkodër Thursday, September 20, 7:30 pm. Earlier today was the excursion to Berat, called the “City of 1001 Windows” (see below, upper left). As our guide, Ilir, noted, this title is something of a misnomer. Berat’s real sobriquet is “the city with windows on top of each other.” Apparently the expressions,…
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The Balkans: Breaking Up Is Hard To Do
September 10-11, 2024: Arrival in Tirana Tuesday, September 10, 9:30 pm. This was a weird one. On Monday I was something of a wreck. Getting into the car to JFK without Stef? Negotiating airport security without Stef? Hanging out in the Lufthansa lounge without Stef? You get the picture. I’m writing this part of the…
Something to Declare 