Roadtrippin' Croatia - Part Two

It's been a while....I feel bad for neglecting my blog. I always mean to write but life's been busy. I should start writing again though because I've always liked writing and sometimes find it to be therapeutic. It's my creative outlet, and after a day of working around bankers, I need that! Quick updates on me first:

• I have a job! I went back to working where I was before moving to Germany in January. But soon after, got a new job in the same bank which I start next Monday. How hard was it to get back to work mode after a super long vaca? Don't ask. It still doesn't feel real. But I love that I just need to roll out of bed 20mins before I start and can walk to work with Umair! I don't miss taking the GO trains at all. 
• Our condo is slowly shaping up and coming together nicely. I had to redo it because this condo was Umair's idea of decor.... which isn't bad, it's just guy-ish with lots of brown. So we got the walls redone, new furniture, feature wall etc... it's still a work in progress. I love interior decorating, so it's exciting to pick out pieces and see it all come together. 
• I love our neighbourhood. It's right next to St. Lawrence Market and is in the Old Town so the area has a very charming feel to it. Plus lots and lots of restaurants all around. I'll post pictures once the weather gets better. But our winter days are mostly spent cozying up at home, checking out restaurants, inviting family and friends over. And a long weekend visit to Montreal, which consisted of indulging in gluttony.

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So, where were we? Oh yeah, we had reached Dubrovnik. We drove a little up to get this shot of the orange walled city:

That's the old walled town right there!

So it was a hilly, curvy drive with super narrow roads where I made Umair stop the car for 2 seconds, rushed out to get a few of these shots and back in the car to move further up the hill.

To get up the hill, they had cable cars which most people took. But Umair decided to rough it out by driving up the mountain. With no proper roads or road signs. It was exciting, but I almost felt like the car might just topple over and fall down. Now that would be a story to write home about. Or maybe not.

Trying to take a picture while keeping myself from falling over!

Umair maneuvered through that very nicely while I kept my one eye shut.

But it was all worth it for this beautiful view:

The cable car that most people took up and missed all the fun of driving!

On our way back down.

After admiring the prettiness around us and having lunch overlooking the orange and blue, we drove down to take a walk around the old town and walk the walls.

The tiles, the building....so cool!

Walking the walls of Dubrovnik:

Gorgeous orange and blue city!

the promenade

 After staying 3 days in Dubrovnik, we drove to Split:

the main square in Split with guards!

random fountain which intrigued the kids and Umair alike!

Loved the rugged feel of the town with pops of greens:

And then we made our way back to Munich, a long 9 hour drive....with a lunch stop in Slovenia of course!

Drove up the mountains to Lake Bohinj.

Roadtripping Croatia - Part One

It's been a month since we've moved back to Toronto, and slowly settling into our downtown condo. Life's been busy, first with packing, selling furniture, more packing, last minute traveling right before leaving Munich; then unpacking, buying new furniture, painting our condo...you get the picture. In all this, I never really got a chance to sit down and open up my blog. I did think of writing a couple times, but to be honest, didn't really feel like it because a huge wave of nostalgia would hit me. I miss Munich, and sometimes really wonder if the past 15 months actually happened because they really do feel like a dream now that I'm back in Toronto.

Today I finally decided I should write something, mostly because Umair keeps asking me when I'll update my blog. It's also kinda hard to decide what to write about when there's so many recent travels to write about. But maybe I'll go with Croatia as it was our last major holiday before leaving Munich (not counting the 2 day trip to Venice right after Croatia). 

So..last couple weeks in Europe, Umair's off from work....where do we wanna go? We have a huge list! Greece, Turkey, Portugal, Sweden..? In the end we ruled all of that out and decided on Croatia. Partly because all those we'd have to fly out to and we didn't have the time, and partly because we had heard amazing things about Croatia and were meaning to go last fall but didn't end up going. Also, after driving a whole week around south of Spain, Umair felt like driving some more.

So we set out for Croatia. Well, not so easily. First, it was hard to plan and cram all that we wanted to see in 6 days. Dubrovnik was my must-see place, so had to let go of Plitvice Lakes. Dubrovnik alone is a good 14 hour drive from Munich. Second, when we got to the car rental the day of (got there pretty late anyway because of running around government offices in Munich to attain forms re leaving the country!) and upon hearing that we were going to take the car to Croatia - the guy there told us we couldn't take that car. I think...it was a BMW they were giving us. But a BMW for an Eastern European country? Yeah, no. So the guy made some calls, tried to find us something else. After a long wait, we finally had a Ford to ourselves and were ready to leave!

Our stop in Croatia was Trogir - a medieval small town 10 hours away from Munich. We drove though the lovely alps of Austria, which I completely missed because I was napping even though Umair tried to keep me up. Then drove through Slovenia. 

And there was our third setback. We were stopped at the Slovenian border and were told that because we didn't pay toll, we had to pay a hefty fine. 'But, we did pay toll...', Umair argued. The guy said, 'No sir, you were supposed to buy a sticker at a gas station and put that up.'

Um. Maybe next time put up some signs around the border indicating to tourists about that? How would we know!? Or I suppose it was a case of research fail...my only research fail in all of our 15-month travels. But quite an expensive one. Oh well. 

After much time wasted there, we started off again. We got to Trogir late at night, but the drive down to the town was gorgeous because of the sea and lights. And  a little freaky because it was narrow and would go down the hill in curves with zero streetlights. Trogir is situated on a small island, and is walled. Once we were inside Trogir, it was like we had traveled back in time. The narrow streets, the old houses...this was definitely not 2013! 

our lovely stone walled apartment!

one of the gates into the walled town of Trogir

The next morning we walked to the promenade and had breakfast over there.

the promenade seen from the mainland (there's a small bridge that connects Trogir to the mainland)

We then took a small boat to a beach nearby, soaked in some sun, and headed back to Trogir in the evening. The promenade is lovely to stroll around in the evening.

promenade in the evening

the main square of Trogir. 

The next morning we left for Dubrovnik which was 3 hour drive away. Our GPS told us to take a turn downhill to nowhere. After a moment's hesitation, we followed the GPS. It kept taking us town the hill to literally nowhere. It was just tall grasses and mountains. Pretty, yes....but a little odd. After driving through tall grasses, we started driving up the hills again....and then we got on to the coastal drive to Dubrovnik!

It was 1.5 hours of this beautiful coastal drive through the Adriatic sea! It was similar to the Amalfi coast in Italy, minus the houses in Amalfi but plus the small islands all around the Adriatic. What made this a little more exciting than the Amalfi coast drive was that we were not on a bus but actually driving through the mountains and sea. It was heavenly!

So we kept driving this beautiful route until we got to the amazing Dubrovnik...which will be in the next part! 

One Year of Living in Munich.

Today completes my one year of being away from Toronto and home, and living in Munich. It feels a little surreal, like it all just happened yesterday. The day I landed, my first walk on the cobblestones, my first lunch in Munich which was an amazing four cheese pizza, my first night away from Toronto and family - it was a mix of excitement and sadness. After one year, It feels good...to know that I was able to manage life independently for an entire year. Of course, with tons of help from the hubby. Before this move, I had never stayed away from my family, so it was quite a big deal to leave them all behind and move across oceans. After living 25 years of my life with them, I finally moved out....of the continent. And it would not be wrong to say that it was very difficult. I was scared as hell, nervous and anxious. 

After a year, I'm much less nervous and anxious, and not scared at all. I've also learned quite a few things. I've learned....

• that staying in your comfort zone means you miss out on some of the greatest things in life. 
• that sometimes in life, you need to take a leap of faith and do things you would've never thought to do. 
• that google translate is a pretty damn awesome means of communicating with a technician who's trying to fix your dishwasher. 
• that I can only have sushi as a snack food, not a proper meal. 
• that no matter where in the world I am, whether in a gorgeous resort in Mauritius or at the top of the Eiffel Tower, a piece of my heart will always be where my mama and papa are. 
• that I am not a big fan of Ethiopian food.
• that some German songs can actually be catchy! refer to song: augenbling - seeed. 
• that life in Europe is pretty sweet. 
• that Thai food has now become my favourite, replacing Italian. (which had always been my numero uno)
• that the best pizzas in the world are in Europe. I don't know if I can ever go back to Pizza Pizza. 
• that life is all about trying new things and welcoming change with open arms.
• that growing up can be fun and that growing up doesn't mean letting go of my childlike personality. 
• that Germans use a bajillion forms of "the" - der, die, das, den, dem...
• that living in a country which doesn't speak your language can actually be....fun at times. 
• that North Americans need to stop racing against time, and have a coffee and cake break. 
• that you may think something looks impossible, and that you're not capable of doing it, but once you make up your mind for it and take the plunge, things fall into place. It all works out. You can do whatever it is you want to do. 
• that I absolutely, absolutely do not like reading maps. 
• that my husband is one of the most amazing and inspiring people I know. 
• that I can be a pretty awesome wife ;)

It was my one year of being a wife on June 3rd! Crazy, crazy...I still sometimes have to take a moment and think in my head 'what, I'm actually married?!!'. I still remember the pre-wedding days and the chaos. So many things to take care of, so many emotions. I still miss it actually, and I still sometimes read wedding blogs. Can't believe it's been a year!

Anyway, figured I'd pick one picture from each month of my past year in Europe. So here goes:

June

Edinburgh, Scotland. Umair surprised me with this trip for my birthday last June.  This cafe is where JK Rowling first got her idea of writing Harry Potter, while overlooking the Edinburgh Castle!

July

In Prague with my lovely sisters who came to Europe for 2 weeks.

August

Brussels. Took a week long trip to Paris and Brussels end of  August.

September

My first Oktoberfest in Munich! Dirndl shopping was fun! We went quite a few times to Oktoberfest because I loved the rides! My favourite was the 5 360degrees loop rollercoaster, went on it 3 times.

October

Back in Toronto!

November

Day trip to Regenzburg - a small medieval town an hour from Munich. We were on detox diet during November and it  was probably the most difficult month for me! 

December

Christmas Markets! So fun, they go for a whole month and we went there about 4-5 times during the month.  Also visited the Christmas markets in Nuremberg, they're huge!  But the Christmas holidays were spent mostly catching up with Breaking Bad. 

January

Parasailing in Mauritius! Definitely one of the top highlights of this past year. I was absolutely freaked before going, but once we were up in the air, I felt like a bird :) Mauritius was lovely and so was our 2 day stay in Dubai before Mauritius!

February

London for 4 days! It was cold and rainy the whole time...

March

Cafes around our area. March was mostly spent with me trying to find things to do, play around with my new camera while Umair worked, worked and worked some more on every weekend of the month.

April

In Venice! Finally Umair took a break from work and we took a trip to Italy! 

May

Took a road trip to Berlin for a weekend. Berlin is the city of bears!

That's it folks!

Once Upon a Time in Bavaria

Yesterday was Labour Day in all of Europe, so Umair had a day off. And when you are living in Bavaria and the weather is gorgeous, it is silly not to take advantage of a day off. Bavaria has a lot to offer in terms of natural beauty and culture, easy travel is an added bonus. So we decided to take a day trip down to Chiemsee - a small town with freshwater lake, around an hour train ride from Munich. In Chiemsee, there is an island where the eccentric King Ludwig of Bavaria built his Versailles-like Palace. But before I get to that palace, I would like to talk about, among other things, my love for Disney. 

I am a Disney fan, yes, still. Please do not age discriminate. Nor give me judgmental looks. A couple of months ago, they were showing Cinderella on Disney channel here and I was singing along with the mice..

We can do it, we can do it
We can help our Cinderelly
We can make her dress so pretty

...when I realized Umair was giving me the weirdest look and asking me what on earth was I watching. I gave him a look back that said get out of the rock you live under and continued singing.

Anyway, I grew up watching Disney fairy tales. And don't mind going back and watching Little Mermaid or Aladdin once in a while. I do realize the ridiculousness of those Disney fairy tales, but hey...no harm in indulging in a bit of ridiculousness sometimes ;). Also, watching Disney movies makes me nostalgic and gives me warm and fuzzy feelings. I always drooled over the castles shown in the Disney movies. Because well....who does not drool over castles?! And then, last summer, I got my chance to visit a Disney castle! Where I played my own fairy tale in my head....dancing to 'tale as old as time' with my Beast... 

Okay there was no Beast. It was just me and my 2 lovely sisters who were visiting Europe last summer.

And okay it wasn't exactly a Disney castle, but it was the very castle that became the inspiration for Walt Disney's fairy tale castles; the Neuschwanstein Castle.

picture off google image

picture off google image

Inside the castle grounds.

Situated on a high hill above a village, surrounded by gorgeous alps and lake, this 19th century Romanesque castle was the first of its kind, with the many towers and an innovative structure. It is situated close to a small village, Fussen, which is a 2 hour train ride from Munich. It was built by King Ludwig of Bavaria.The construction started in 1869. But the castle was never completed due to the sudden, mysterious death of King Ludwig.

King Ludwig. He was quite an interesting character. He was engaged to the princess of Vienna, I believe, but broke off the engagement because he was actually gay. Because of his love for castles, swans and romance, he is also called Swan King or Fairy tale King. He was only 19 when he became king.

The Bavarians were not very happy with Ludwig getting castles after castles constructed, especially because the Bavarian economy at that time was in bad shape. However, in Mr. Ludwig's defense, it is said that he used his personal money for the castles. 

Ludwig liked to keep to himself, avoid the public and live a life of mystery. Well, his love for mystery also led to his death being a mystery. Apparently, the government advisors wanted Ludwig off the throne, and thus plotted against him. This is what they did: they got doctors to report Ludwig as clinically insane and therefore incompetent to be king, without running any proper medical reports. And so Ludwig was forced to resign. A day after, he was found dead in lake Starnberg, which is pretty close to Munich. He was a great swimmer, so drowning doesn't seem to be a possibility. But the mysterious king of Bavaria died a mysterious death leaving his Neuchwanstein Castle unfinished.

Not exactly a fairy tale ending for a king who believed in fairy tales, now is it?

Imagine building the gorgeous castle and not being able to live in it. I've seen the inside, and too bad we're not allowed to take pictures but I kid you not the man had leather toilet seats in his washroom! And marble swans for sink faucets. The technology used in the castle was supposed to be very advanced for that time.   

He built another castle, Linderhof, for himself as well. I have yet to see this one!

His 3rd castle is what we saw yesterday in Chiemsee. We took a ferry to the island called Herrencheimsee, which is also the castle's name. Much like the Neuschwanstein, Herrenchiemsee was also left unfinished due to the sudden death of Ludwig and due to lack of funding. This castle is supposed to be a copy of Versailles Palace, and while there are similarities, it's got nothing on the Versailles! However, what's so awesome about this castle is that this is all there is on the island on lake Chiemsee. An entire island for Mr. Ludwig, and all the island's got is a castle!

One of the fountains by the castle - CREEPY CREEPY! 

So our Labour day was spent admiring the labour of many hardworking engineers, architects and builders; and admiring Ludwig's eccentric ways of life. Maybe a tiny part of the day was also spent with me having a conversation with Ludwig in my head...

Me: Buddy Wig, you were living a fairy tale! You were a king, you've got castles...
Ludwig: Yeah but when I mysteriously died, my prince never came to save me.
Me: Your prince...right. Too bad. But here's an idea! Let's build a castle more romantic and bigger than Neusch, and have a huge field with marigold flowers around it! But no swans. I want tortoises.
Ludwig: Anything for you. Where were you all my life? I never had anyone who understood my love for castles...
Me: I apologize, I was in North America and clueless about living the Bavarian dream. But let's get the project started - we wouldn't want an unfinished castle now, would we.
Umair: What are you thinking?
Me: Oh...umm, I don't understand this menu. 

Which actually was true. I've now started to read the menu on my own without Umair having to translate every single item to English. But yesterday's fish menu was extensive and very confusing to my already consumed brain. The sweet waitress tried her very best to explain each fish item on the menu to me.

After lunch, we walked around the promenade of Chiemsee for a bit before heading back...

...where I mentally checked off the number of castles I've seen since last summer. Way too many for my own good! I've seen the ones in Edinburgh, Munich, Meersburg, Vienna, Prague, 3 in Bavaria, Versailles...that's 9 already!

The next one I see is the one Umair is building for me. Shush, no need to laugh. He is building one for me. With fields of marigold flowers.

But in all seriousness, my favourite castle so far has to be the Neuschwanstein Castle. I think it is one of the top most popular castles in Europe, and definitely one of the biggest tourist spots in Germany.

Moral of the story? Don't mock or question someone who's building castles upon castles despite economic issues, because years from now those castles will be helping your economy! 

Castle next to Neuschwanstein where Ludwig spent his childhood

the area around both the castles is gorgeous with serene blue lake bordered by alps.

The bookworm inside me....

“This is why dreams can be such dangerous things: they smolder on like a fire does, and sometimes they consume us completely.”

I think I haven't read as much in the last year as I'd like to. In Toronto, I'd read daily on the train while commuting  to and from work. Here, it's not happening daily. In the last 10 months, I've only finished...3.5 books. Tsk tsk, bad Naima! Just to give a sense of how much I used to read - Last year between January and April, I had already read 4 books! Here, some days I do snuggle up on my couch or go to a cafe and read...but most of the reading happens while traveling. I finished up a crazy thriller while on the many trains we took during our Italy trip. 

Anyway, the above quote is from the book Memoirs of a Geisha. It's one of my favourite

books. I read it 2 years ago, but recently felt like re-reading it and since I left my book in Toronto, I ended up watching bits and pieces of the movie. Of course, just like other book-turned-movies, this one doesn't do full justice to the book either. It's still good. Slow, but the book itself is slow.

The book follows the life of a girl during pre and post-WW2 Japan, who is sold to the life of a geisha. Geisha are women in Japan who are trained in arts - music, dance, performances at tea ceremonies; and their job is to entertain the wealthy men who come to their tea houses. Sayuri, who's sold to one of these tea house owners when she's a little girl, grows to learn all the skills required to become a geisha. She has to struggle, and face animosity from rivals, but makes it to becoming a high class geisha. Only to lose it all because of the outbreak of the war. Poor girl can't catch a break. 

The book is so well written, and gives a little peak into the Japanese culture. It also gives you an insight on the lives of geisha and shows us that geisha are not really prostitutes, which is the common perception.  They are more of a companion/entertainer for men. It is a full fledged career where you have special schools and lessons to train these little girls to become a geisha. 

The narrative is captivating, characters nicely developed, story well told. The title can be misleading, it still is a work of fiction. But such a poetic work of fiction. The analogies/idioms are well used. I cried sad and happy tears for Sayuri through her journey. 

The book is slow paced in the beginning, picks up pace in the middle and drags again towards the end. However, it still is one of my favourite books!

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On another note, this week has been so summery with temperature ranging between 20 and 24 degrees celsius! So gorgeous, not even a spring jacket needed, I'm lovin' it! And of course good weather means ice cream walks that I mentioned earlier are to be resumed! Except yesterday was more of an ice cream run. Umair and I went running last evening, and I was able to keep up with him! It isn't easy keeping up with a marathon man, you know. So to reward myself we both went to my favourite ice cream place after our run. I had forgotten how amazing their mango ice cream was! I've tried mango in quite a few places and no one else does it like them. So, so good! My mango ice cream, I've missed you!