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! 

14 countries, 15 months and countless adventures/experiences later...

...it's time to head back to toronto! We are moving to Toronto on September 30th. The past few months have been busy doing moving stuff, taking stuffed suitcases back to Toronto, selling furniture, trying to get our phone, television etc contracts cancelled in German (which resulted in our phones getting cancelled on the 3rd instead of 30th, our TV guys bugging us to not leave them and that they'll give us a better deal - umm, we said we're leaving the country? Or maybe we said something else because it was a German conversation after all).

And also traveling. The first week of September, we took a family trip with Umair's parents down to the South of Spain (I want to blog about it, but that will probably happen after the move!). And just this week, Umair and I went for a 6 day road trip to Croatia (blogging about this too, someday!). In fact, I'm typing this as we drive back to Munich from Croatia through the lovely Slovenia. We've been to Slovenia before. Might stop around a lake for lunch today. (we did stop by the lovely Lake Bohinj that day...yes, I wrote this post a few days ago, and finishing it off today.)

How do I feel about moving back to Toronto? I'm not sure. It's a bittersweet feeling. Toronto is home and being close to family and friends will be awesome. In fact, it'll still be a new experience for me because we'll be living in downtown and I've always wanted to live in downtown, definitely looking forward to that. But Munich is where I started my married life, and that's how I've known my married life to be uptil now. Plus all the traveling. Oh, the traveling....I definitely will miss the spontaneity of getting up and going anywhere for a weekend or even a day trip.

I am absolutely grateful to have had this amazing experience of living in Europe. To be able to learn about different cultures, travel, broaden my horizon just a little bit more. Life has been good, and kind. And a bit surreal and even unreal at times. And I've had my fair share of surreal and unreal -ness! So maybe it's time to finally end my super long vacation and get back to reality. 

Just a few things running across my mind about what I will and will not miss about life in Europe...

I will miss:

• cobblestone streets! even after living in europe for 15 months, I love walking on cobblestones, it makes me feel like I'm in ancient times.
• side street cafes/outdoor cafes/just the European cafe culture in general. Loved living right by one of the main areas of Munich, which is filled with side street cafes and shops. 

• adorable, colourful buildings.

The bright blue! The yellow! Lime green! This is Burano Island, close to Venice. Which we visited again just 2 days ago. And I haven't even blogged about the first time have I? 

• catching a train and being in a different country in as little as couple hours. where the culture is different, the language is different. 
• drinking spezi (mix of coke fanta and sprite) 
• yummy wood oven pizzas because of the many Italians in Munich. I can never go back to Pizza Pizza or Pizza Hut.
• Umair getting ready for work early morning in Barcelona, and then heading straight to work in a couple hours in Munich. Or...having breakfast in Croatia, lunch in Slovenia and dinner in Germany! (which is what we're doing today). 
• randomly deciding on a saturday morning to take a train and be in a medieval little town. 
• seeing so many ahh-mazing sights that my mind boggles at the amount of beauty this world holds. And I have only seen a fraction of it. 
• the mango gelato 15min walk from our place! it's the best mango ice cream i've ever had, and i've tried many around europe. 
• adding to the above point, I'll miss our walks to the ice cream place before or after dinner. there better be a decent (I'm gonna be practical and not expect the awesome gelatos I'm used to here, so decent will do) ice cream place close to our downtown condo. 
• living in a place which is so rich in history. So rich that there are still historical bombs emerging from the city. They found a WW2 bomb like 5 mins from our place last September!! Crazy. 
• Hitting up castles after castles. and randomly finding a castle while driving through Austria.

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• conversing on google translate. did I tell you about the time I got our dish washer fixed by conversing with the German technician through google translate? fun times! 
• wearing my dirndl during oktoberfest and dragging Umair to my favourite ride ever - roller coaster with 5 of those 360degree loops! 
• running in the English Gardens. Which I didn't do as much as I would've liked to. 
• our favourite Mexican take out 5 minutes from our place which was our go-to place when neither of us was in the mood to cook. 
• Umair having a crazy total of 33 days of vacation.

Not gonna miss:

• being away from family and friends.
• fumbling on my phone to translate what I need while standing in the grocery store. 
• trying to figure out what kind of flour to use to make crepes. Because Germans don't do all-purpose flour. Each kind of flour has a different purpose. Duh, you silly North Americans.  
• staying at home while Umair worked away long hours, because I couldn't work/didn't have a work permit. 
• having someone speak to me in a language I don't understand and in return giving them blank stares. I promise I'm otherwise not an unfriendly person! 
• being the only ones to be asked by cops for passport checks on a train filled with people. Train filled with Germans. Minus the one brown couple. Don't tell me those cops weren't racist punks. 
• lack of multiculturalism here.
• Not being able to find a proper salon and spa. Seriously, I had to go through 5 different ones to find about getting eyebrows done because they all had no clue what I was talking about and instead suggested permanent makeup. Um no thanks! Also, have been told by few different girls here that manis and pedis are weird here. So, hello lots and lots of manis and pedis in tdot!
• asking for something at a store in germany and when words would fail me, using my hands to explain what I want, feeling like a 3 year old. 

There might be more....but I think this is it for now. I started writing this post like 5 days ago, and just getting around to posting it. Moving is no fun at all! And for some very strange reason, we have a lot of stuff. Like... A LOT OF STUFF. It's never ending. I'm not sure how or why. 

I blame it on Umair's eccentric shoe collection. 

PS- I will still continue writing here, about the travels I haven't written about, life in downtown Toronto, and what the future is looking out to be. 

A Trip Down the Italian South

It has been a while since I last blogged, life has been busy! Between flying back and forth twice to Canada in less than 2 months, attending a friend´s wedding, sneaking a weekend trip to Amsterdam, my sister´s engagement and losing luggage last week flying back to Munich - this summer has been busy. I feel like days are just passing me by, and I am trying to hold time shut in my fist. But my dismay is much like of a little child´s  of not being able to hold snow in their fists.

Today, I finally have some time to myself. And I feel like talking about my favourite part of Italy! A place we visited back in the first week of April. I know, I know, it was ages ago! I´ve been meaning to blog about Venice and the Amalfi Coast but, well, haven´t.

South of Italy - particularly the Amalfi coast and the little towns around it have always been on my must-visit lists. So when we were planning our week long Italy trip, I just had to squeeze that part in. While Rome and Florence are rich in history, the Amalfi coast is rich rich RICH in beauty.

We stayed in a town called Sorrento on the Amalfi coast, around 1.5 hours drive from Amalfi town. Sorrento is where the SITA buses (buses that run across the Amalfi coast) start. It is a lovely small resort hilly town by the Bay of Naples. However, getting there is a bit....sketchy. The train that gets to Sorrento is a local train and during late at night it feels seedy and a tad bit scary. I had told Umair about all that I had read about this train ride - Umair dismissed it saying it should be okay. And so he said to take the late evening train.

FYI - Umair was a teeny bit more scared than I was. ;)

Once in Sorrento, we realized it was a great decision to make Sorrento our base for South travels. The buses around the coast and ferries to Capri Island were all easily acceissble. And Sorrento is a charming little town.

I am a very nitpicky traveler. I can be nitpicky in general too but it's very apparent while we´re traveling because I always want to be on time, and know exactly what I want to see and do. Not to say I can't be flexible, but I wanna see what I wanna see! :) So, I wanted to get to the SITA bus as early as we possibly could, and sit on the right hand side on the bus. Yes, I had done my research as to which side of the bus gave better views. I had also read much about SITA buses being super crowded that people would  have to stand. And stand, I did not want! So, rising and shining like an early bird, we left to catch our bus. And sure enough, we were the first few ones to get on the bus, and I was able to sit on the right side! I was excited and nervous and didn't really know what to expect - I had heard the buses drove fast and crazy with sharp twists and turns, so I was a little scared too.

You can see how on the edge of the road we were!

Absolutely gorgeous, the bus ride was! And a roller coaster of an experience. Every time the bus would make a sharp turn, which would pretty much be every few seconds as the drive was constantly through the mountains, I´d clutch onto Umair´s hand for dear life, terrified. But I was mostly just captivated by the lovely views and the enthralling ride.

we had driven through all those mountains

We reached Positano, another small town on the coast, build on the hills, and it literally took my breath away. I had seen it in pictures, but seeing it out there is a completely different experience, one that I can't describe in words. Colourful houses stacked up on the hills, stunning Mediterranean landscape....I truly was speechless. Except for every 2 seconds, when I would repeat exactly this:

OMG UMAIR LOOK SO PRETTY!!
2 seconds later:
OMG UMAIR LOOK SO PRETTY!!
many 2 second intervals later, when I started 'OM-..':
Umair interrupted: Omg did it stop being pretty?! 

approaching Positano by bus

  

This was on our way back, when we stopped at Positano.

But before you get too envious of me - let me tell you that I did, after 1 hour of being on the bus, stop enjoying the ride. My motion sickness kicked in, and I felt super nauseous and was done with the ride and wanted to literally open the window and jump off the bus. Okay maybe not literally.

Finally we got to Amalfi town, and as always is the case with us and weather, it was rainy and windy! Umair must have seriously pissed off the Gods of weather at some point, because every city we visit, we get rain. And it has to be Umair and not me because....well, I'm the apple of everyone's eye. Shh, don't burst my bubble. 

Amalfi town

There are all apartments around - such wonderful views they wake up to everyday!

This is how the inside of the apartments stacked up on the hills. Must be no fun climbing for those who live at the top!

From Amalfi, we took a bus to a town up on the hill, Ravello. It was a 20 minute curvy, jerky ride up the hill. But thankfully the journey ended before my nausea could kick in. Plus, this view would be worth any kinda motion sickness!

"OMG UMAIR LOOK SO PRETTY!!"
(in mock tone) "OMG WHERE?!"

I'm back in medieval times!!

And then we headed back to Sorrento. But no...it wasn't that simple. It was possibly the worst ride of my life. Going back, we couldn't get a seat, we were standing. And it was crowded. And my motion sickness kicked in full force. I don't remember the last time I felt so sick like I did on that bus ride. We couldn't continue our journey and had to get off halfway through at Positano. We then shared a cab from there with some very chatty Germans. But I stayed shut because I was feeling sick again. It's strange though - because I absolutely love roller coasters and other fast joy rides. I wasn't expecting to actually feel this way on a bus ride. But I suppose roller coasters are a few seconds and the bus was for almost 2 hours. 

Next day we took a ferry to Capri Island. It was as beautiful, if not more, than the Amalfi coast. But that's another post altogether. 
 

Day Trippin' to Adorable Little Bamburg

Are we talking about ANOTHER cute German city?! I know, I know the list is never ending! Germany really is the land of adorableness! 

Couple weekends ago we took a day trip to Bamburg.

It's a small city - we walked from the train station into the city and around, and were done in less than 4 hours. There were flower markets all around as we entered the old town.

It was a lovely Saturday with gorgeous weather - tons of little markets around and streets filled with people.

Canals running through the city, walking along the main bridge with lovely architecture...

The view from the bridge below of the alte rathaus (old city hall) is lovely! And the area is called klein Venedig (mini Venice). As someone who's been to Venice, no, it's nothing like mini Venice, but it's still very charming! And we did get a little lost around the city - much like you do in Venice. We took a complete detour to get to mini Venedig when it was really just 5 minutes from where we were. So maybe it is a klein Venedig after all. 

Here is the view of alte rathaus from the above bridge:

There was a cute little shop around the corner....I waited a good 5 minutes for the lady to walk away so I could get a picture but she wouldn't stop staring at whatever she was staring so hard...I wonder if she was trying to eye-steal something. Should've gone up to tell her it never works. Tried a million times. 

As if Bamburg isn't already adorable enough, there's also a Rose Garden! 

Eating out around the wonderful roses!

But we ate right in the middle of old town...by a little pond, where a little ducky was swimming away all shy because some German boys were flirting with it. After lunch we chilled around the water, video taping myself! No, we're not weird. I mean, yes we are....but this was not one of our weird moments. This was for my best friend's wedding. Umair had to video tape me for a little presentation us bridesmaids put together for her! 

I've seen too many of these burgs in Germany. Rothenburg is definitely my nummer eins! Bamburg might be the 2nd? Or maybe it's Nuremburg. I'm not sure. Too many options! But one thing I know for certain is that I like them burgers burgs!