Category: Europe 2006

Our final few days of life on the continent came and went without too many remarkable moments.  The weather was fairly poor for most of the time, we were tired, and less than impressed with our accommodations, so it was hard to get excited about the whole Prague experience.  Had we gone there first, I’m sure we would have had a much different impression.  It certainly is old and has lots of beautiful/interesting buildings … just make sure that you pick some better accommodation than we did!

We flew from Prague to Edinburgh via Gatwick (London) without any troubles — British Airlines was a pleasant change from the usual discount airlines that we had been dealing with.  The only minor problem was that I had booked our flights with the credit card that we lost along the way … only took a few minutes to get that straightened out.

Back in Edinburgh, things felt very familiar … our few days there earlier in the trip helped us out.  It was good to see family again.  The city was cool but crowded, with the very large Edinburgh Festival going on.  We took it easy for a few days, picking up some souvenirs along the way and getting in a bit more pub food.  We did manage to take in a big soccer game too — one of Edinburgh’s teams was playing against a team from Athens, Greece in a qualifier for the European Championship.  Unfortunately the home team shat the bed, so to speak, giving up two goals in the last three minutes to lose the game.  The crowd was pretty excited up until that point, and it was fun to enjoy some good live sports.

After wandering the city on our last full day abroad, we returned to my brother’s apartment to find out about all of the terrorism-related arrests that had been made in England earlier in the day, and that flights everywhere were messed up.  We weren’t too certain what this was all going to mean for us, but, it seemed that the worst was happening for flights from England to the US — we were flying from Scotland to Canada, so, things should be okay.  As it turned out, they were — we weren’t allowed to bring anything with us on the plane … no water, no reading materials, no camera/film … nothing.  That was a bit of an inconvenience in some respects, but, it felt quite liberating to be able to walk around an airport without all sorts of bags weighing us down.

Our timing was pretty remarkable all in all.  We flew through London two days before the big day, and then one day after.  Had our timing been a bit different, at the very least, we would have been stranded in an airport for a long time, and possibly could have missed all of our non-refundable flights.  It could have been ugly, but it worked out well for us.

Before we knew it, our six-hour flight to Toronto was finished, and eventually we made it back to Athens safe and sound.  Over.  Finished.

Done.

Made our way to Prague without too many difficulties … unofficially the last new city of our two month travel bonanza.  By now, we’re getting a little jaded, and feel like we’ve seen enough to know when we’re getting screwed.  So, here’s a bit of our Prague welcome.

We’ve had an interesting struggle in Croatia, trying to use credit cards to pay for our trip to make sure that we keep lots of liquid cash for ‘just in case’ times that might come up later.  Other countries were easy, but virtually nobody in Croatia other than the big (expensive) hotels and jewelers take them.  We haven’t had a whole lot of luck.

Yesterday, we tried to buy some groceries on my card in Dubrovnik, but the attempt was blocked by Mastercard.  I contacted them today, and found out that my account has been closed because of suspicious activities … somewhere along the way, somebody stole my card number, and has been gambling online with it.  I’m guessing that it happened at an insecure internet cafe somewhere along the way, but, it really could have been anywhere.  I don’t think that this will actually cost me anything, other than the $15 or so that I had to pay to call my bank today.  Fun times.

Otherwise, things are going well.  We just finished a great dinner in an outdoor restaurant here on our last night in Dubrovnik.  We head north to Split tomorrow, and then further east the following day.  Put Croatia on your list of places to visit … just expect to pay in cash, not with credit.

I never really understood the whole Marco Polo game that people played in the pool … seems popular for some reason.

We’re still in Korcula, at least for a few more hours.  Korcula claims Marco Polo to be their own … apparently he was born here once upon a time.  Loads of shops, hotels, etc. bear his name … hopefully it is what he would have wanted.

Maybe I should change that last “Wes Knows …” thing to blame Wes.  I’ve somehow landed in one of the sunniest places on Earth … I don’t really get the conversion, but, they keep advertising here that they get more than 2500 hours of sunlight every year … whatever it works out to, it is sunny.  After a few days in Croatia, I’ve learned that there is no need to check the weather forecast … you’re pretty much guaranteed blue skies, sun, no clouds and hot.  I’ve got access to three bottles of sunscreen, which should be enough, provided I stay indoors for the majority of the day.  No bad burns yet, but, I need to stay careful.

Some of you know Wes Grubbs, some of you don’t.  Regardless, I’ve recently found out that Wes knows his stuff.  He used to live in Croatia, and encouraged Michele and I over and over (and over …) to make sure that we stop here for a visit.  We arrived in Dubrovnik, a beautiful, historic city in the south of Croatia yesterday morning.  The city, the scenery, the surrounding coastline, and the people have all exceeded our expectations.