Jordan and the Balkans Wrap-Up

Facts and Figures
Length of Stay: 23 Days
Miles Traveled to Enter: 4,240 by plane from Bangkok
Miles Traveled: 800 by plane + 620 by bus + 300 by train + 160 by boat + 160 by car  = 2,040 total (37,190 since landing in Quito - yes, I realize the website's logo is now wrong)
Places Visited: Amman, Wadi Musa (Petra), Athens, Skopje, Dubrovnik, Split, Hvar.  Also drove through Kosovo, Serbia and Montenegro.
Intercity Buses Taken: 3
Trains Taken: 2
Ferries Taken: 1
Flights Taken: 1
Times a Croatian map failed us: 5

Rankings in the full post.

Croatian Walls

Most of our time in Croatia has been spent in old, walled cities and towns.  While with Marcia and Lee, we visited the UNESCO World Heritage Sites of Dubrovnik, Split and Trogir, along with the Walls of Ston.  After they returned to North Carolina, we stayed in Hvar for four days.  No pictures of half naked men here, just alleys, squares, forts and churches.

Go Take a Hike

First of all, let me apologize for the errant "Zs" and "Ys" you will undoubtedly see in this post.  Apparently they are switched on the Croatian keyboard. Silly Croatians.

Anyway!  For the past several days, to console ourselves after my mom and Lee's departure, we have been in repose on the beautiful island of Hvar about an hour off the coast of Split.  With five dazs to kill between leaving my mom and Lee, and before we meet the Bells in Italy, we decided taking it easy and recouping a bit would be a good idea.  (Those of you who have met our fabulous mothers know that one needs a lot of energy reserves to handle such forces of nature.)

Admittedly, Hvar, currently the hottest tourist destination for the rich and trashy, is admittedly not our usual scene.  We have, however, been able to look past the huge yachts and skimpy (or nonexistent) clothing, and have found a jewel of a historic little town set amongst some of the most incredible natural scenery to be found in Croatia.

Krka National Park: How to Ruin a Beautiful Place

1.  Make it overly accessible.
2.  Build large pavilions where restaurants serve overpriced food.
3.  Invite people to swim in the water.

These are the steps Krka National Park has taken to transform itself into a water park.  When I read about the park and its waterfalls and looked at the pictures, they sounded and looked pristine.  Yes, the descriptions stated that people swam at the bottom of the lowest waterfall, but I envisioned something similar to what we saw in Australia: a handful of people but by no means crowded.  Excited by the pictures, Marcia (on her birthday), Lee, Magge and I changed our plans to accommodate the hour and half trip north of Split.  When we arrived, we were very surprised at what we saw.  The park was beyond crowded, with the waterfalls and its surroundings packed with people doing their best to make Krka National Park look like the neighborhood pee-filled pool.  We had planned on taking a swim, but I don't know if we could have found any spare room in the water.  Besides, the bathrooms there charged five Croatian kuna (almost a dollar) entry fee, so the aforementioned pool is probably cleaner.

Guys Gone Wild: Dubrovnik

For many European men, Durbovnik is the Panama City Beach of the Adriatic.  It's a place where they can freely take off the shirts and flaunt what they've got, even if it's not much (or too much).

I tried to get a picture of Magge on one of Dubrovnik's narrow streets, and a sneaky bare-chested European found his way into the frame

A rare occasion of a shirtless specimen accompanied by a female

A slight variation on the no-shirt look, but nearly as popular

This scene at Onofrio's fountain makes me think of the following image:

Happy Birthday, Dad

It's my father's birthday today, rounding out my family's birthdays for the year (Magge can now put down her color pencils for a few months).  Following our post-Communist adventure in Skopje, we're in Dubrovnik, which makes for a much better birthday sign location.  Sorry again, Colin.  See you in ten days, Dad.

Happy Birthday in Croatian on the drawbridge at Pile Gate, on the west wall looking down the street Stradun in old Dubrovnik, and just outside the west wall

Finally Got My Mamma

After spending a couple luxurious months in Southeast Asia, where almost anything can be had for a fraction of the price it costs in the States, the past week in Greece and now Croatia has been a very rude awakening. An hour of internet time in S.E.A. cost us less than a dollar (usually nothing at all because it was free wherever we were staying).  Here we are forced to pay over six dollars an hour.  So, at risk of being killed by husband, I must make my entry very short and sweet - not something that is easy for me.

To be honest, I did not have much time to get excited about seeing my mom and Lee, whom I have missed very much, because Croatia seemed so far away just two weeks ago when I was in Thailand and I knew I still had four countries to go before seeing them.  I could not contain my excitement, however, once we finally arrived in Dubrovnik, exhausted from a terrible night of traveling by bus from Macedonia.  Who would have ever thought transport in South America would seem so luxurious?