Photo time

I have finally managed to post the Croatia photos online, the link is here.

Also a couple of points:
1. Cavtat is pronounced "Tsav-tat"
2. I have since learned that the marble-like main street in Dubrovnik, Stradun, is in fact marble.
3. The Pile Gate (one of the entrances into the old walled town of Dubrovnik) is pronounced "pee-lay"

That is all! Enjoy the photos!

Croatia!

We've returned from a wonderful trip to Croatia. We stayed at the Hotel Croatia in Cavtat, just down the coast from Dubrovnik. The purpose of the trip was for a conference, and we opted to stay in the conference hotel. Good choice. It was fantastic - great views, good food, an amazing room with a rainfall shower. I couldn't bring myself to turn off the shower every time I was in it (and this one fortunately did not leak!) The hotel was up on a hilltop overlooking the town, and there were 126 steps to climb up each time we went to town. This didn't stop us, though. Every day we walked down into the town (sometimes several times per day!) and enjoyed the atmosphere. It was about a 10 minute stroll down. The town was such fun. Just a tiny little town with one street for cars and a few more for people, it was built into the hillside with all the back streets built as long flights of stone steps. Along the main road ran the waterfront promenade and this was where most of our entertainment took place. There were tons of restaurants and cafes along the road, we never ate two meals in the same place. The food was excellent, lots of fresh seafood - yum! Docked along the waterfront were 4 or 5 megayachts, and we spent hours each day admiring these yachts and dreaming about being the type of people who could afford to own one. Dreaming of a different life, really. It was major entertainment every day when one of the boats would leave, and of course that meant that another one would soon be along to take its place. Watching them maneouver the boats into the dock was great fun.

There was a bit of free time during the conference - most notably on Saturday afternoon when there was an organized sailboat tour from Cavtat down to Dubrovnik, then a guided walking tour of the old walled city. What a fascinating little city. It basically has two main streets, paved with what looks like marble, lots of Italian-style architecture, and the same stepped back streets as Cavtat. All the buildings in Croatia have red-tiled roofs which makes for a nice picture from above. Dubrovnik was heavily damaged during the Homeland Wars in the early 1990s, so a lot of the buildings have been restored. As a UNESCO World Heritage site, they had a lot of help. ;)

The weather was a bit of a mixed bag. The first two days were gorgeous, 30 degrees and not a cloud in the sky. Noise spent the time at the pool while I was in lectures all day. On Saturday it was sunny while we were in Dubrovnik, although the wind had really picked up which made the sailboat ride a bit less than pleasant. I don't get seasick but I was feeling a bit off, so imagine how Noise felt! Sunday was a mix of sun and clouds but still fairly warm. Sunday night we got hit with thunderstorms and high winds, and Monday (my only full day free from the conference) was cloudy and cool. Can't win 'em all. We were just finishing our dinner on the patio at a restaurant in town when the storm started to roll in. The staff came out and asked us to move inside but we figured since we were finished we would just get the bill and then move on. We didn't mind the little bit of rain on the canopy above us. The waitress then came back and said to get inside now, "we're not joking!" and we dashed inside just before a huge thunderstorm crashed down upon us. As it happens, we ended up staying in the restaurant for the rest of the evening. We had met a couple from Wales the first night of the conference and we sat with them and chatted, and then somehow ended up entertaining (?) the rest of the customers on the piano. Noise and I started it off with Heart and Soul, but then our Welsh friend (a retired music teacher) took over and played some lovely classics. An interesting evening, to say the least.

The town is on a peninsula, which made for a great route to run around. On one of our travels Noise and I discovered a tiny little hut built onto the side of the rocks, with a small bar and a few tables. So on Sunday we headed there with our travel companions (a friend from work and her fiance) to sit and have a drink and a nice swim. In the area there are no sand beaches, instead people either swim off the rocks, or off of concrete piers with ladders for swimming. The Adriatic was gorgeous for swimming, crystal clear, warm, and salty enough to be buoyant. We could swim for hours without tiring.

It was an amazing trip and somewhere everyone should visit if given half the chance. We did take lots of photos, of course, but I haven't had a chance to post them yet. I'll add a link to them as soon as I get them up! Stay tuned!

Barcelona mini-break!

We have returned from sunny Spain to a dreary and wet London - how appropo! We left here Saturday morning at the late hour of 6:15 to catch the train and tube to Heathrow for our flight (typically we have to get up and be out by 5:00 so this was luxury indeed!) We had to be ferried to the plane on buses and then walk up steps from the tarmac, which was a bit unusual for Heathrow, and a bit annoying as it was raining. The flight was typical BA - the ubiquitous ham and cheese sandwich along with OJ and tea for breakfast, plus beer or wine if you wanted it (um, hello? It was 10am!) A short flight later and we had arrived in Barcelona! We opted to catch the train in from the airport and then the metro to our hotel, which all worked out mostly ok. We did hit a bit of a snag when we got off the train at the stop which on our map was linked to the metro line, but in fact was not. We eventually found our way at street level to another entrance several blocks away which got us on the metro line. The hotel was very nice - we had a junior suite in honour of our anniversary, which had one wall completely of glass that looked out over the Mediterranean Sea, including a view from the bathroom and the waterfall shower. Unfortunately we quickly discovered that the shower door leaked and if you took too long and enjoyed the luxury of the wonderful shower, you ended up with water all the way out of the bathroom and into the bedroom and under the bed. This required a call to housekeeping for someone to come with a mop and a boatload of towels stat!, and from then on required an extra towel on the floor outside the shower to decrease the risk of floods, and short showers. As you can imagine, this definitely decreased the pleasure of the fancy shower! Noise found this situation hilarious, I did not.

But I digress... After checking in to the hotel and getting changed into shorts and tees we went out for a wander. One thing we discovered is that Barcelona has an excellent public transport system, with the metro lines clean and (except for the one incident I mentioned earlier) well-marked, lovely trams stopping right outside the hotel, and all of it air-conditioned! We took the tram to the Olympic harbour and walked along the boardwalk of Barceloneta beach. As it was such a lovely evening we sat for a little while at a beachside bar and people-watched, before wandering on down by Port Vell, and admiring all the luxury yachts and sailboats. One yacht in particular caught our eye - the Kismet in all her glory. We were entertained by the guys on the street selling fake handbags and sunglasses. We saw them in Venice as well and they are always fun to watch because they have their wares laid out on a blanket so that when their spotter says the cops are coming they just bundle it all up and are gone. Word is that the unsuspecting tourist can be charged for buying from them, so we steer clear. For dinner we followed our guidebook's nose and ate outside at a tavern in the Barceloneta area. We shared a fisherman's mixed seafood and meat paella, which meant that I got all the mussels, clams, and prawns since Noise won't eat them. Yum!

On Sunday we played tourist. As this weekend was supposed to be relaxing and not exhausting, we had planned to make use of the hop-on hop-off turistic bus, and so we did! It stopped outside our hotel, so we got on there and rode it all around the city. You'll note that many of the photos are taken from the bus. It was a beautiful sunny day, so we sat up top and enjoyed it. We saw the Cathedral, some of Gaudi's works, the gardens of Montjuic and Olympic Stadium, the port where the cruise ships dock (and took a photo for the Singer and Serdic, who will be taking one of the gorgeous cruise ships out of Barcelona for their honeymoon!), and the old central section of Barcelona. We strolled up La Rambla and watched the street entertainers, and finally took the bus over to Sagrada Familia, the church started by Gaudi in the 1800s and still not finished. It is being slowly completed by anonymous donations, and currently the projected completion date is in 2026 or something. It is a very interesting building, as one side is much older than the other, and you can see two different styles and also where bits have been added on. To complete the day we headed back to Barceloneta and found ourselves a spot to relax at a beach-front restaurant. We sat on the patio on one of the big bed-like cushions and enjoyed lunch and sangria there. We also walked on the beach and had a photo op of wading in the Mediterranean (which was quite chilly, I might add!) For dinner that night we headed back to Port Vell and enjoyed another paella, this one with cod. Yum again!

Monday morning we had booked to have massages (another treat for our anniversary), so after breakfast we headed to the spa for that. Then we checked out of the hotel, stored our bags with the concierge, and went back upstairs to sit by the pool for a couple of hours before we needed to leave for the airport. It was overcast, so a bit too cool up at the breezy 23rd floor pool, but it was lovely down on the 3rd floor. The sun came back out for awhile as well, and we were able to enjoy a dip in the pool before we left. What a great way to spend the morning!

Barcelona is a great city- bustling and modern, but with a relaxed atmosphere and amazing beaches. The varied architecture is amazing, and who can beat the weather!

The flight home was a disappointment - we arrived at the airport to discover that our BA flight was in fact being operated by Iberia (their oneworld alliance partner), but we figured it was no big deal. Turns out it is a big deal, it was like flying on Skyservice. No legroom on the plane, poor service, all announcements in Spanish, and not even a free coke. We had been anticipating a sandwich on the plane (having become seasoned BA travelers!) and instead had to pay for any food or drinks. Fortunately we had eaten at the airport before boarding the flight. Good thing it was only a 2 hour flight! But that said, the flight was smooth and we arrived at Heathrow early. There was no line for customs, and when we got to the luggage carousel our bags were already arriving. We picked up the car at Clapham Junction and made a quick detour home to drop off the luggage and pick up Buggy's car blankets so we could go pick him up... and that's where our luck ran out. I couldn't get the door to our flat unlocked, Noise couldn't get it to work, and no amount of jiggling, juggling, pushing or pulling would get the lock to budge. As it was nearing 8pm, the estate agents who manage the flat could not be reached, so we googled ourselves a locksmith (thank god for blackberries) and then waited 45 minutes with our luggage in the hall and the rent-by-the-hour car parked on the street for him to arrive. Of course he was able to get it open in a few minutes, and then charge £100 for the work, but at least we were in! He said the mechanism for the lock had seized up and the whole thing needed to be replaced. Good thing there are two locks on the door and that one can be left open! We dashed off again to pick up Buggy from his mini-break weekend, and then finally by 9:30 were home again. Still needing to unpack, of course! So our lovely relaxing weekend ended with a stressful evening. But all's well that ends well - the estate agents are reimbursing us for the cost of the locksmith, and they sent someone over yesterday to change the lock so we have a functioning lock again. But what a fiasco.

So another trip over - how sad! But on the bright side, it's only 8 days until we head off to Croatia! After that we still have a few trips booked; me to Toronto in September, both of us to Ottawa in October, and Noise to Scotland in July. But we are looking now at a few more weekends away if we can arrange it. We're considering Edinburgh for the Fringe Festival in August, maybe Greece in September, and potentially some more weekend mini-breaks to Amsterdam, maybe Copenhagen, maybe Prague, and so on. And hopefully another ski trip in the winter. And possibly another German Christmas market adventure? And the list goes on...

We are off tonight to the Jamie Oliver Recipease store down the street to take part in our first cooking lesson - knife skills! We are going to learn how to properly chop, slice, and dice. Apparently the lesson ends with a meal and bottle of wine, so it should be good fun.

Oh yeah, one last thing- photos of Barcelona are here. Enjoy!

What a difference a year makes...

Well here we are - I can't believe this milestone has arrived. Today is the one-year anniversary of our arrival in the UK. This time last year we were jet-lagged, emotionally exhausted, and exhilarated at the same time. I am amazed at how much has changed. To think that we had a flatwarming party this weekend and had 25 people attend, only 2 of whom we knew a year ago! Think of all the things we have done and the places we've been, and how much we have grown.

I remember when we arrived last year and had to get all our luggage from Gatwick to Victoria, then into our temporary accomodations. The next step was to call the pet travel agent to make sure Buggy had made it through customs. Tears of relief followed. Then we set out to explore. We had lunch in a Pret (old hat now!) and took our first ride on the tube (Piccadilly line from South Kensington to Holborn). We saw so many things that now we wouldn't even look twice at. We made our first trip to a local grocery store to pick up tea and milk and bread, and had to peer closely at the coins to see what they were worth. We bought our Oyster cards at South Kensington tube station and then stood back and watched a few people go through the gates so that we could look like we knew what we were doing too.

And here we are a year later, so much has happened! We've had lots of visitors, and are expecting more in the coming months. I have two trips home planned in the fall. We've moved to our new flat and are loving it. We've been to Ireland, France, Switzerland, Germany and Italy, and are off to Spain and Croatia this month. We have learned to speak the lingo and know at a glance what coins we have in our hand.

This is a real milestone - even if we packed up and came home now, we can now say that we lived in England for a year. But don't get too excited! We plan to make the most of our two year visas and won't be on a plane home quite yet. If we were able to accomplish that much in the first year, just think what we can do in the next year!