the details are this: T&D flew into Frankfurt on March 22 and then picked up our sweet ride for 3 weeks and drove the 5 hours to Prague. unfortunately they had missed their connection in Paris, along the way, and had no way of letting us know. so Mike and I were anxiously waiting by the window for almost *4* hours!! like little children on Christmas morning, when mom tells you to wait until 8am to open presents. then at 949pm, we see a car that could possibly be our rental, and then this rental starts flashing their brights at us and **YAH!!**..we ran down to meet them and i imagine that it was like the movies. there were hugs and kisses and tears and it was so beautiful to see 2 of my favorite people in the world! *tear* ok. enough of the cheese. so anyhoo, we took them straight to get some good czech grub and chatted all night. the first week, Mike and I were still working so Tina and Damir did their daytime exploring of Prague, met up with her friend Katie, who is studying here for a couple months, and had the evenings to show them some of our favorite bits of Prague. then we left early saturday morning for Croatia. we did a grueling 12 hour drive to Split to catch a 2 hour ferry to Hvar Island. and I have to say now, Damir did most of the driving on this trip and he did a fantastic job! thanks so much, Damir!! Tina and I appreciated the sleep :) Hvar was gorgeous and we stayed with incredible hosts, Mario and Vera, who let us peddle their bikes around the island, drink their wine, and taste some of the most incredible olive oil i might ever eat. we stayed there for 4 nights and it was a really nice time to just relax and play yahtzee and watch movies. Jelsa is the town we stayed in, and apparently the tourists dont come until after Easter. so half the restaurants were even closed. we took a day trip to Hvar city, which is usually the busy place, and it was even sleepy. fine by us! it was a looong term (and not by days, but by busy-ness), and we were exhausted. we needed the rest.
after our time in Hvar, we headed to Dubrovnik for 3 nights, which is a walled city at the bottom of Croatia. it was fasinating! there was a fortress, and a big wall, and seafood, and kittens living *in* the wall and it was all right beside the ocean! does it get any better?? (besides that kittens turn into cats, and there were sooo many cats and *EWW* i do not like cats. but KITTENS!! uuuuber cute and cuddly and worth getting allergic over.) we also did a day trip to Montenegro and saw Kotor and Budva. this new country is funny because you enter and they have EU flags and signs and even give you euros at the atm. when we had left Montenegro, we checked and nope! not EU. just wish they were. isnt that bizarre?? i feel like it's breaking some sort of law, but who knows?! the places we saw were really interesting though. both these cities we saw were on the water and situated in a fjord. Kotor was my favorite. a small little town with a beautiful castle up the hill. but we just admired from afar. there were A LOT of stairs! too many to really call it a vacation. in between the towns we discovered what can only be described as an abandoned beach. it looks like people used to camp there, and maybe they do in summer, but it was obviously not maintained in the off season. it was a nice relaxing hour of our vacation though. Dubrovnik was a great city. i'd go back.
the day we are to leave for Bosnia, Mike gets sick. like up all night and puking sick. poor little pumpkin. and we had an 8 hour drive ahead of us to Sarajevo. he was a trooper though. didnt puke the whole way. even with a 2 hour stop in Mostar. which was a great little town who's bridge was bombed to separate the town during the war, and then after the war, people scaled the river to find the *exact* rocks that the bridge had been made of (apparently they had all been marked) and rebuilt it. we made it into Sarajevo in good time and got to meet Baka Bosa and Predrag (Damir's grandma and uncle), who were kind enough to let us invade their apartment. neh, INSIST that we invade their apartment. and force many delicious foods into our mouths. i think Baka had cooked for an army for a month. we were there for 6 days. and Mike was still sick the first couple days. and after all the driving that first day, Damir had stepped out of the car and got sick too and was not well for the first couple days. (i think God kept him well enough to drive through Bosnia. it probably wouldn't have been best if any of the rest of us drove, due to language, corrupt police, you know. the usual.) so with our boys being sick and all this food in the house, Tina and i had to step it up a level. we ate soo much. i dont think i've ever eaten so much and i dont think i've ever seen my sister and i soooo full. i'm full just thinking about it. and just to give you an idea of how much she expected us to eat, she packed us *10* large bunwiches (ham and cheese), a tupperware with baklava (the best i've ever eaten!), a tupperware of vishna pita, and hardboiled eggs for a 14 hour car trip home. note the lack of vegetables... that was our week. Baka was hilarious though. she did not speak a stitch of english and kept saying "yeti, yeti", "eat up, eat up". i loved all of our "conversations" with her and trying to understand each other. it was great! and Sarajevo was fasinating! so the first day or two, were spent recovering and sleeping. then we got out and saw the city, the churches and mosques, the turkish quarters, museums, shopped a bit. the evenings were spent watching Farma (Baka and Predrag's favorite reality show), playing yathtzee and of course, eating. we did go and visit Damir's other Baka and uncle for a chat and some turkish coffee and sweets one day. his uncle had us all belly laughing with his chat about astrological signs and his obsessions with celebrities. it was really something else to be able to be there with Damir and to hear all about his memories and what his parents and relatives had told him about the war, seeing the bullet holes in buildings, going to the museum and Damir confirming "yes, that's what we ate during the war". words cannot describe how grateful i was that my brother in law is alive and well and making my sister so very happy.
well, we had a 14 hour drive back to Prague and then a couple more days here, where we went to IKEA, grocery shopped, (it was fun for mike and i to have a car!) introduced t&d to the Girafe Cafe, checked out Katie's new flat, and reminisced. it was really lovely to have them here. we miss them. but we have about 600+ photos, so you can reminisce with us..
loves. Leah
ps. Tina and Damir. feel free to correct me on anything that needs it.
photos by me and tina (www.tkphoto.ca)
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| 22.03-11.04.10 eurotrash2010 |
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