opatija, zagreb & split, croatia

25 Tuesday Aug 2015

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Croatia was supposed to be our slice of heaven with endless beaches and plenty of relaxation. As it turns out it was the start of many painful travel hiccups and ended with us chucking in the towel and heading for Italy.

We had a few night just across the border in Gorizia, Italy, where we had high hopes of checking out the Prosecco region. That didn’t end up happening due to there not being any real winery tours to be taken so we spent the day in Trieste with expectations that it would be cool due to it’s mix of Slavic, Latin and German cultures. Turns out it was just another city with a few nice buildings and large amounts of cruise ship tourists.

We said goodbye to Tash’s parents and then caught the train down to transfer to the bus and onwards to Opatija. We hadn’t printed the tickets which turned into a saga and ended with us having to re-buy the tickets with only seconds to spare. It was a short journey so not too bad.

Tash found this beautiful boutique hotel right near the beach and we spent a few days relaxing by the coast, walking the Lungomare, swimming in the Adriatic and sucking back some cheap Croatian beer.

Next stop was Zagreb and what should have been an easy journey turned into a right shit one. We booked our bus tickets and showed up at the stop (admittedly I didn’t exactly check the correct place the bus might be picking us up) and saw it pull up in the distance at the last minute, running over only to have the driver pretty much give us the finger and shut the door in our face before driving off. We then had to get another bus to Rijeka and buy our tickets again (is there a theme building here?). We arrived late and in Zagreb’s stifling humidity had to trek to our airbnb which was in an old Soviet looking building that looked like it may have actually been bombed. The plusses were: stopping for a beer to use the internet and realising they were only A$1 and the hosts being really cool and hanging out with us for a couple of hours when we arrived. Although, they were massive Croatia haters who were heading to Ireland the following week as that’s the only place that would take them (their words).

We spent the next few days taking the bus out of Zagreb to Velika Goricia to hang with more of Tash’s family, the Slavs this time. The hospitality of Anna, Mario, Ivan & Luka was above and beyond and they treated us to a wonderful meal at a local restaurant where Mario and I got stuck into some Croatian whiskey. Feeling a bit dusty the next day we were back at their place for lunch and Mario was cracking open the homemade whiskey from the coke bottle at 11.30am, oh dear. More meat for lunch, it’s the Croatian way! We then went and visited Tash’s great aunt Bara to catch up on the local family gossip.

During our time in Zagreb we did a brief walk around the city but the 38 degree heat was rather oppressive so we spent what little spare time we had in our Soviet bunker in front of the air-con which unfortunately didn’t reach into the bedroom.

We thought it would be nice to catch the train down to Split but upon arriving at the train station in the morning we were advised that the train wasn’t running and we would be taking a replacement bus, not really problem but yet another slight travel annoyance.

We arrived in Split and it was HOT. And we had a 30min walk to get to our next airbnb pad. After getting lost, we arrived at our next soviet styled shitty apartment block that was conveniently not represented in the photos. The apartment was nice but the a/c didn’t reach the bedroom (again!) so it was beyond uncomfortable at night which had me sleeping on the couch with a towel for a sheet. That was kind of the last straw and we decided that that was enough for Croatia and we would be back when we had planned it ahead of time and it wasn’t peak season. Split itself was beautiful and a joy for eating and indulging in bargain priced ice cream. We did a day trip down to the stunning Brela beach and finished up with some amazing burgers and beers by the beach before jumping on the overnight ferry to Ancona in Italy.

J & T

this is the entry to our apartment in Split!

Split accom

schaffhausen, flims & locarno, switzerland

17 Monday Aug 2015

Posted by mintyandtashi in travel

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cheese, cows, lakes, mountains, switzerland

So after 3 days of not showering and 2 rather efficient trains we arrived in Schaffhausen in the north of Switzerland right near the German border. This is where Tash’s granddad grew up and to be honest, it probably looks like it did back then. We had an amazing night of rest and a wonderful shower to scrub off the festival grime before meeting Tash’s parents Sonja and Robert the next day. We hopped over the border into Germany and stayed at this quaint little hotel that had cows and pigs tied up in the barn next door much to Tash’s disgust. The butcher was right across the road and we ate at the hotel restaurant so you could pretty much see the circle of life right there.

A few days were spent looking around Schaffhausen and surrounds. Europe’s largest waterfall, the Rheinfall was just down the road, it’s no Niagara but still impressive. We also stopped by the beautifully named Stein am Rhein which is a medieval town that popped up in the 1000’s – just a little old.

We then moved on to visit Sonja’s old school friend Wilma who lived in this cool little village, Trin-Mulin up in the hills just out of Flims which is better known for the ski resort of Laax. This was about the time Switzerland really starting cranking up picture perfect postcard views wherever you looked and I found myself going “ahhhhhhh c’mon really” every moment we were outdoors. Not only did we swim in some amazing lakes but Wilma took us on a hike up through the trees above her house that looked down on the valley below and the lake we we swam at the day previously. There was also a guy playing one of those big mountain horns or alpenhorn ticking off another cliché.

After Flims we were on our way down to the Italian canton of Ticino and Lake Maggiore where Wilma had a sweet apartment overlooking the lake. We spent just over a week playing cards, swimming in the lake and catching up with Tash’s family, including the amazing Aunt Silva and Uncle Fritz. We also took a couple of trips across the border into Italy to visit the markets in Luino and to enjoy an Italian lunch in Cannobio.

If you are ever in the area, and we highly recommend it, make sure you check out the Ponte de Salti (jump bridge) which is an old Roman bridge and to be honest something that I thought was not going to be as good as the pictures, again I was wrong.

And that’s a wrap for Switzerland, glad that we got to experience all 3 distinct areas of the country and extra thankful for all the hospitality we were shown.

J & T

geneva & open air st gallen, switzerland

16 Sunday Aug 2015

Posted by mintyandtashi in music, travel

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geneva, open air, st gallen, switzerland

Next stop Switzerland and we started in Geneva for a 3 week stay to catch up with Tash’s family. We spent a couple of nights staying with Tash’s Cousin Lukas, Marie and their two kids Kay (the tassie devil) and Lea just across the border in France in a village called Ecorans.

They have a wonderful place up in the mountains looking down into the valley and Geneva with views to Mont Blanc off in the distance. Ticked off the first Swiss cliché of cows with bells (even though we were technically in France and so they were French bovines). It was nice spending a few days in the village, we saw Kay perform at his end of school play where he played the big bad wolf in little red riding hood and we went to a village BBQ/bonfire, complete with mobile bar.

We had to tick off the Geneva tour so we spent a few hours in the city (more like a quiet town), drove past the UN headquarters and saw the lake and fountain. Tash was also asked if she wanted to buy drugs from an old dude sitting on a bench who then went on to talk about his respect for Fred Hollows?! Then it was time for fondue in the red-light district, Pâquis. The ladies are out early in Geneva, Lukas said the older ones have to get a head start, baby got back!

Cheese, bread, beer, wine, grappa, limoncello, done!

And so we set off early Thursday morning, heading for St Gallen in the east of Switzerland to the Open Air festival. A motley bunch of 7 cramming into a van and on the beers before we had even left Ecorans at 7.30am! Due to sticking to Lukas’s strict timetable, we didn’t stop for a toilet break until just out of Bern. I now know what pregnant women feel like, I practically had to waddle to the bathroom.

I’m not sure really how to explain the Open Air experience, in typical Swiss style it’s in a stunning location with snow topped mountains and a lovely river skirting around the edge of the site. Then there’s 30 thousand crazy people partying harder than I’ve seen in a while. OASG has been running for almost 40 years so it’s a bit of an institution much like Glastonbury or Meredith. It’s the first time we have used RFID tags also which was nice and also dangerous as you just topped up your wristband at a booth and then just swipe away. You were given a token for each cup, plate, whatever and it had to be returned or you were burning some serious francs, which was happening anyway. It was a heavily German themed lineup but we managed to checkout Rise Against, Royal Blood and the Chemical Brothers amongst a few other random bands

Most of the action was happening at the Stars and Stripes bar high up on the hill overlooking the festival and a short (convenient) walk from our tents. This bar was open from beginning to finish, not closing once, nothing like being woken up by the crew at 6am for a sunrise beer as the late night partiers were dying out and the daytime kickstarters were arriving. 8am signalled the Prodigy’s firestarter and a massive increase in volume and onwards we sailed into the blurry daytime. The bar, being on a hill had a rather precarious steep slope which provided great entertainment throughout the day as those boozed up bravados attempted to run, skate, surf or just walk past and fall down to their mud filled doom. Special mention has to go to the Turbojugends, a group of guys that bring no tent and spend the whole time at the bar in various levels of sobriety and drunkenness, anywhere is a bed, even the steep muddy slope.

cereal and beer at 7am

Euro festivals have a much more relaxed vibe, especially compared to the US and Australia. Some guys pushed a mobile bar into the river and we sat around drinking beers, someone was letting off large fireworks at random spots, there’s the bar and it’s on a non-fenced slope down to the tents below and there’s the large hay store where people go to buy hay to spread around the campsite and soak up the damp. Genius! Until the peeps in said camp somehow manage to set the whole thing alight! Might have been the large fire you had 5m from the tent??

A fantastically boozy slog which introduced us to one of the best festival bars around. Thanks to the crew; Lukas, Marie, Tania, Steve, Jonas, Alain and Super Steve for making it a cracker.

J & T

paris, france

15 Saturday Aug 2015

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Paris!! You stole our hearts (and our previously trim waistlines). We didn’t even get close to the Eiffel Tower, we only looked at the Louvre, Notre Dame & Sacre Coeur from the street but we experienced so much – and loved every minute of it! Arriving via overnight bus from London very ahead of time at around 6am, we took the metro to our airbnb pad on Rue des Dames in Les Batignolles in the 17th arrondissement. We parked ourselves at a nearby cafe drinking coffees and eating croissant until we were due to meet our host. We already felt at home in the city. Our apartment was perfection, with the couch facing the window, overlooking an array of old buildings. We spent many hours, sparkles in hand, chatting and staring out at the changing skies.

After catching up on some sleep we walked around our hood in the warm afternoon sunshine and stopped off at the grocery store spending the best part of an hour swooning over all the cheeses, wines and my personal favourite, mustard flavoured chips!! This was to be the beginning of many meals at home that somehow all involved cheese and multiple bottles of wine/sparkles. Delish!

Our second day in Paris had us walking down to the 9th arrondissement where we perused the beautifully dressed windows of the department stores Printemps and Galeries Lafayette and wandered up and down the streets admiring all the architecture and discussing ways in which we could arrange our affairs so that we could live in Paris! The evening weather was springtime perfection so we packed a picnic and walked to Montmartre. The hill turned out to be a little too angled to enjoy anything without it rolling away so we settled on drinking a bottle of red until we were hurried away at closing time by security.

When you have a whole week in a city, it allows you to really slow down and not feel pressured to see things every minute of every day. So we took full advantage of this, not leaving the house until 7pm the next day, flipping through the multitude of fashion books and magazines our host had lying around, planning our next stops, napping – and eating cheese of course! In the evening we walked through tree lined streets, manicured parks, past Parfums Christian Dior to take a quick snap in front of l’Arc de Triomphe and head out for dinner. It was around 10pm when we sat down to eat and the streets were still buzzing. We ordered onion soup and beef bourguignon (and French fries bien sûr!) and faced out into the street people watching, with l’Arc peering over at us in the near distance. Magnifique!

Le Marais had been hyped up to us so much that we thought we had better dedicate some time to it. It was a really warm day and we thought it would be great to go by foot which had us walking through the manic 10th and taking a diversion to walk past Notre Dame and lay our eyes upon the Seine. By the time we were exhausted and somewhat underwhelmed but what I’m sure would usually be a great neighbourhood. A champagne and a beer fixed this but not long after we were lost and decided to call the day and pick up some supplies from the store and metro home for a night in.

My absolute favourite day in Paris came next! We ate breakfast and took the metro to Canal Saint Martin where we wandered alongside the water, stopping to admire a ducky with her 6 ducklings (this took quite some time), watching boats go through locks (this also took quite some time), and checking out cute little boutiques. We went to Helmut Newcake, a gluten free bakery that made up for what was missing in wheat with copious amounts of sugar and dairy. Accompanied by a bottle of sparkling wine, we set ourselves on the edge of the canal amongst the locals and imagined ourselves as Parisians, if only for a moment. We then took a long stroll up into Belleville where Jaymin had read about a bar with great views of Paris. Once we reached the top of the hill we spied the Eiffel tower from afar, our first time since arriving! Moncoeur (Le O’ at the time) was interesting, it did have a great position perched high above Paris, but be sure to wear covered shoes when visiting the bathroom…We stayed for a drink and then walked down the hill, stopping at another outdoor bar along the way with an equally as detestable bathroom before heading back to Les Batignolles.

New York based, and improved, its highline on Paris’ Promenade Plantée. We decided to put our walking shoes on and stroll the 4.5km. It was a wonderful way to see Paris from the level of the treetops. We got hopelessly lost at one point where they had built a massive freeway in the middle of the train line but took a right turn and ended up in a sprawling park full of activity, then got hopelessly lost again before getting help to make it back to a metro.

Our final day in Paris (*sob) brought some chill in the air. What hadn’t we seen yet?! How were we going to prepare ourselves to say goodbye to the city we’d grown to love in such a short time? We took the metro to the Louvre but the masses of people immediately had us walking in the opposite direction through the beautiful parklands towards Les Champs Elysees. We saw 2 goats tied, ‘mowing’ the lawns and walked past amazing buildings, through grotty streets and almost to the Eiffel Tower when it started bucketing down with rain. We planted ourselves in a cafe and spent hours drinking coffee and eating crêpes while writing in our journals and reading our kindles. When the rain finally dissipated we headed home for a siesta before going out for a disappointing late dinner. Jaymin was yet to try a croque madame in France after indulging in many Canadian versions. Unfortunately the last meal in Paris turned out to be nothing more than a dry piece of toast, with non existent cheese and a poor excuse for a fried egg. Quel dommage! Still, it was only a small negative on an otherwise amazing week in the French capital. À la prochaine!

T & J