Bustling (Belated) Bohemia

Almost a year ago to the day (I know...), we embarked upon an epic adventure through Easternish Europe.  After a busy first half of the year, we deserved a good break.  So we planned to spend two weeks taking in Dubrovnik, a couple of stops in Bosnia and our first group bus tour, starting in Split, Croatia, and making it's way up through Slovenia, Slovakia and then up to end in Prague.

Black Water Bay by night.  From our room!

First stop was Dubrovnik. We were staying in this place where the windows opened onto this bay that was used as Black Water Bay in Game of Thrones.  Naturally, GoT themed walking tours were easy to come by, but apparently that's "nerdy".  Hmph.  So instead we spent a few days wandering the streets in the Old Town, sampling the fresh seafood and enjoying the warmth. 

We walked along the City Walls, which gave great views of the harbour and the city and also (thankfully) a fresh sea breeze.  On this walk, we started to learn a little bit about the conflict in the area all centered around the breakup of Yugoslavia, which became something of a theme for the trip (hardly surprising, considering our itinerary).

That evening the funicular whisked us to the top of the local hill (a year later I can't remember it's name, but it's the only funicular in town!) for gorgeous views of the sunset.  I though I nearly lost Kyle for a moment there when he decided that the optimal place for a photo was down the shingly hill a bit.  I had roped in a guy to help me rescue him, should the worst happen, but thankfully (for us both, I think) his services were not required as Kyle's mountain goat prowess prevailed!

Nawww...  puke!

A short boat ride away was a small island called Lokrum, which we visited for some lunch and a bit more of a walk.  We almost had to share our food with the local peacocks, almost.....

Once we'd sampled all we had time for in Dubrovnik, we jumped onto a ridiculously slow bus to take us into nearby Bosnia.  First off, we stopped in the small town of Mostar for a night, famous for it's bridge...  which guys jump off for money, as you do.  We climbed the minaret in the nearby mosque to get the best view.

Look at him go!

Om nom NOM nom NOM!

We also had a meal here that I may well remember for the rest of my life...  Bosnians know what to do with meat.... oh my goodness!  I think two pairs of eyes rolled back in their respective heads throughout this amazing (and cheap!) feast.  If you're in Mostar, you HAVE to go to Irma Tima's.  You just have to.  Have the mixed grill and thank us later.

A small town Mostar may have been, but it still carried fairly obvious reminders of the war from the 90s, which was quite shocking to a couple still quite used to safe old NZ. 

Although we both remembered hearing about the war when we were kids, seeing the damage caused by it was something completely different.  All the cities we've visited that were wrapped in WW2 have had time to rebuild, so it's no longer really noticeable.  Twenty years later, Bosnia's still working on that.


Next stop?  Sarajevo.  And if Mostar was eye opening, well, that really was just the opening act.  We stayed in a place on the hill on the outskirts of the city and just looking out the window you could tell this place had survived.

Dusk falls over Sarajevo

Our time here focused on that survival.  First, we visited the Tunnel of Hope that had been used during the three year siege to bring food, medicine etc in from outside.  Only a small section of it remains, as it had passed underneath the airport, but they let you walk down it so you could try to appreciate how tight the space was.  We were dropped off and picked up by the guy from our hotel who, around our age, told us about how he remembered his parents shipping him off as a child to stay with family in Germany to escape.

Putting on a brave face

After that, we visited a photographic exhibition dedicated to the Sbrenica massacre and genocide of 1995 and it's aftermath.  It was a shocking, sobering and ultimately very sad experience.  We hadn't realised the full meaning behind U2's Miss Sarajevo, but we kind of do now.  Needless to say, we needed some time afterwards to cheer up!

Enough of that!  Back to Croatia...  A short all day bus ride and a broken tooth later, we were in Split.  Sadly, we only had one full day, so no real opportunity to get around the nearby islands.  Instead we went to this fabulous guy to get Kyle's tooth fixed.  He was meant to be on holiday, but he was a total champ, so instead, Kyle was in the chair while a guy in tshirt and shorts fixed him up on the fly.  What extortionate sum did charge us for such an amazing feat?  10 euro.  Brilliant!  That night we met up with some of the group we'd be spending the next week with...  Mad bunch that they were, in all the right ways :)

The next morning we bid Split goodbye and headed for Zagreb, where the order of the day was a pub crawl.  The less that is said about the group rendition of Paradise City, however, the better...

The real fun began when we got to Slovenia.....  Ah Slovenia, what an amazing place!  We passed through Ljubljana, but the couple of nights spent by Lake Bled were a real highlight.  We had such an amazing time here.  In one day, we crossed I don't know how many things off the bucket list.  We had a go at Paragliding over beautiful pristine countryside.  "Just run off the side of the hill", they said. "Err, no problem?"

Slovenia is right into its Golden Horned Goats

The day after that was jam packed with fun and adventure...  white water rafting, hiking, swimming in an ice cold waterfall cave and even a midnight surprise swim.  Kyle (the brave one) also jumped off a 12m bridge...  We were exhausted by the end :)  Oh.  And they make this amazing cream cake stuff over there which we totally earned.

After that, on to Bratislava, Slovakia.  As with Sarajevo, we learned a lot more about past conflicts here, particularly in relation to the creation and enforcement of the Iron Curtain.  We went to a bunker that Hitler had visited after he'd sneakily acquired possession of the then Czechoslovakia and saw a section of the Curtain that had been retained to make sure no one forgot. We also visited a castle, a bridge that joins Austria and Slovakia and Bratislava's own Shard.

One foot in Austria (Osterreich), one in Slovakia

The beer in Bratislava is insane...  comes by the litre and if you can't decide if you want light or dark beer, don't worry!  You can have both in the same bucket glass.  

Our relationship, in one simple photo

Later we found this amazing bar - all they played was rock and some of the locals took a shine to some of the pretty young things in our group...  in a desperate bid to protect their virtues, the Siege of Bratislava was born.  Needless to say, we were victorious in the end.  We also discovered that Kyle can pole dance....

Pity he left his tassles at home.

Saying goodbye to Bratislava meant saying hello to the final phase: Prague.  Kyle managed to pick something up on the way out of Bratislava, which meant a pretty quiet day the next day...  So what does that mean?  Why, a visit to the sex machine museum of course!  Three floors of kink, which got more eye popping the higher up you went.

Cough, no explanation necessary?

Prague was gorgeous - much more than just a clock, although that was worth a look too.  We steered clear of the absinthe ice cream, but did partake of the meat and various sauces.  We also got our feet poked and prodded by evil women who called the poking a "massage" and us "big babies".  And we paid for the privilege.

Such a crazy combination of medieval history, beautiful architecture, ethnic diversity and kinky fetishness.  A heady mix, for sure!  The Jewish Quarter was beautiful and calm; just moments walk from public sculptures of pixelated naked women.  Makes me sound prudish, I guess, but it was interesting!

Yeah baby, work it

And just like that, it was all over.  One final meal with the people who'd stuck around after the tour ended and back on the plane.

The group tour was amazing.  We met a fantastic group of people from all over the place and a stupidly great time.  It inspired us to give another one a go later in the year.  But that's a story for another day (not in 6 months...).  Peace out xxx

The Motley Crue - Bohemian styles

Chillin' in Iceland

The late May bank holiday saw us pop over to Reykjavik with the Von Yarralls for a packed weekend of fun-filled adventure, thanks to a sweet package deal. 

Watch out for Vikings

We stayed a little out of Reykjavik, in a place called Hafnafjordor, aka Huffhuffhuff, which was a really good base from which to check out the local area.  On day one, we explored the old Huffy a bit, even taking the time to climb the tallest peak we could find.

Then it was off whale watching.  Our second experience of this kind (after Hermanus, South Africa), this was the most successful.  With Dean, Lou and Kyle decked in neon Arctic onesies reminiscent of those we donned in Finland, we saw a few whales (I want to say of the Humpback variety) cavorting near our boat.  Sadly, we have yet to see one fully breach the surface, but it was exhilarating nonetheless.

That night we had dinner at the Hafnafjordor Viking Restaurant.  Whoops...  A costumed bard asked us where we were from, we responded with "New Zealand", which prompted him to burst into Waltzing Matilda.  Whaaat?  I had whale for my dinner, the irony of which wasn't lost on me, not to mention some guilt.  It was nice, but seriously, I don't know what all the fuss is about. 

The next day it was off the Blue Lagoon for a swim in the luke warm geothermal springs.  There was crazy silica clay stuff to put on your face, which we did, while I gazed longingly at the people getting massages on lilos in the pools...  next time.  We also drove a fair way around the coast looking at lighthouses and the rugged landscape.  It was very beautiful and offered good opportunity for post-swim naps in the back of the car.  A fine meal of Icelandic fusion tapas (including smoked Puffin - eww) later and four tired kiwis were ready for bed.

Next day it was off on our Golden Circle tour to take in more of the landscape.  We were taken to a tomato farm/orchard with ginormous greenhouses to keep the fruit alive.  They made lovely tomato soup which kept the cockles toasty warm long after we'd left.

We witnessed the eruption of "Geysir", from which all others geysers take their name.  It was crazy to see the giant dome of water build at the surface before the pressure burst and water shot up however many feet in the air. 

Following that, we found ourselves Beyond the Wall in Thingvellir National Park, where the Gullfoss Waterfall (meaning "Golden Falls") is.  We didn't know it yet, but this was the first of two Game of Thrones locations we would visit that year.

A quick burger and a massive choose your own adventure ice cream and it was back on the plane back to London. Good times!

Coasting in the Cinque Terre

April was a fun month.  Other than our Easter meanderings in the Cotswolds I was essentially handcuffed to the table studying for my first three hour exam in years.  At the end of the month, I crushed that and Kyle and I hopped straight on a plane to Italy for a long weekend and our first glimpse at the sun in a while.  RESULT!

The Cinque Terre, not far from Pisa, is a collection of gorgeous coastal villages linked by hiking paths running through a national park.  We based ourselves in Monterosso, the largest one, and got amongst it.  Coastal means fresh seafood.  My bliss, Kyle's... tolerable.

Wandering through Monterosso, we found a place with this view to have a bite to eat.  And Kyle discovered for the both of us that pesto is amazing.  I know, everyone else knew that already.  Well, now we do too.

We used all modes of transport available to mooch between villages - the train, a ferry and, of course, our own two feet.  We didn't really get up to much, to be honest.  Just chilled out, enjoying being outside in the warmth and admiring the multi-coloured buildings.  We ate fresh fried seafood out of cones, drank house wine by the carafe, naturally there was gelati (contain your surprise, please)

We made our way back to Pisa airport a little than necessary too.  Why???  So we could get these, like every other plonker in the place.  Natch.

 
We were glad we got that sunshine too.  A couple of weeks later, we were in chilly Reykjavik.

M&K xxx

Chocolate Box Country

Over the Easter break, we decided to keep it local, so we rented a car and made our way up to the Cotswolds for the long weekend.  Renowned for its picture-perfect scenery, good enough to be put on the front of a chocolate box, we were keen to take long walks, maybe cycle a bit and take in the spring views.

We arrived late in the afternoon on the Thursday and, after a brief detour through some fields to get some cell phone reception, were greeted at the recently opened Longmeadow B&B by the owners carrying a tray of freshly brewed coffee and plates of Victoria sponge...  Delicious!  That sponge ultimately constituted our dinner.

Throughout the weekend, we pottered around the various villages, ate cream tea (what is the deal with clotted cream? How is it so scrummy?) and basically just chilled out. 

Our first stop was the comparatively large Chipping Campden, just down the road.  We gave the Badger Tea Rooms a go...  but kind of wish we hadn't, and stumbled the Campden Gallery exhibiting the works of Kurt Jackson, who we both liked (!!!).  Sadly, the paintings stayed on the gallery wall - we weren't prepared to part with the 23 grand required to obtain our favourite piece!

After that, Burton-on-the-Water and Snowshill (Bridget Jones was apparently filmed here) stand out as being particularly gorgeous.  For all the villages, it seems as though there's a building dress-code.  You must be made of a certain yellow and veined type of stone, you must have daffodils planted in your garden, thatched roof optional.

nom nom NOM NOM NOOOOOM

The food was a mixed bag, but when it was good, it was very very good.  The Ebrington Arms was a particular highlight.  I still dream of my duck liver parfait starter....  Mmmmmmmm, gooooooooooooood.  No wonder we only just scored a table!

The Cotswolds also has a castle, Broadway Tower.  So we climbed it.  Turns out, its had a varied past...  Thanks to its both picturesque and remote location, it has been favoured by local artists and was used during the Cold War to monitor nuclear fall out, with easy access to its own nuclear bunker.  Two things that I'm sure don't often go together.

Other than that, we pretty much ate chocolate...  Easter eggs were delivered with our breakfast on Easter Sunday, which was brilliant.  Religious festival = observed.

On our way back to London, we thought we'd swing by Stonehenge and take a look.  The massive queue and the 14 quid entry fee kind of put us off, so we followed the other cheap skates down the nearby country lane that offered fair-middling views without the price tag.  Whatever, it's ticked off the list!

A very relaxing and enjoyable weekend, really.  A good build up to our next adventure in Italy...

TTFN
M&K

In Bruges

Melissa:  Sweetie, where do you want to go for your birthday?
Kyle:  I want to go to Bruges and drink Belgian beer all weekend.

Well, alright then.

Head over we did, with VP and Dom for a beer-soaked weekend in the Flemish countryside at the end of March. Arriving on Friday night, we had just enough time for a late meal at Christophe, before heading off to bed.

The next morning we started exploring Bruges properly.  We wandered through the (cough) four streets soaking up the atmosphere.  Having had a pretty mild winter, spring was starting to flex its muscles so it was really lovely - quiet, still and low key.

Turns out, you CAN have too much mayo

Lunch consisted of the famous frites soaked in mayonnaise.  And when I say soaked....  We needed this fortifying nourishment as we were about to embark on our first bike tour in over a year.  Four hours through the countryside with a guy who took exception to Kyle's pink shorts. 

Picturesque warfare residue

It was fantastic.  We saw operational windmills, canals built by Napoleon and a farmer herding his flock of sheep.  Randomly, we also were introduced to the local cattle, famous because they have been bred to produce offspring so huge that the cows can't give birth without surgical help.  So they all have visible scars from their caesarean sections...  Weird!  But interesting!  To top it all off, we stopped in a wee village called Damme for a beer and a real Belgian waffle topped with chocolate ice cream.  Amazing.

 

After a wee rest, we were back on the streets for some dinner. It was at this point that the birthday boy really started to see out his aim for the weekend.  Beers were sampled while food was consumed.  We roamed the streets and found a couple of bars, one which was practically underground and had to be entered via a very low, almost Hobbit-door. Eventually, one poor beer was pushed under a table to hide it from view...  but, alas, it was too late.

The next morning, we quietly rose and gently made it to a cafe for a coffee and a croissant.  We were then rudely serenaded by an idiot constantly blowing his whistle whilst strutting about with a bass drum strapped to his stomach.  Just what we needed.  Kyle especially was not amused.

Sunday morning punishment

Not to be deterred, we made our way to our lunch reservation.  Unable to get a table for dinner at this place the night before, we settled for a three course lunch instead.  VP, Dom and I had a marvellous meal.  Kyle enjoyed his half an apple juice.  

Only I found this funny at the time.

Then, there was just time for a final wander through the streets.  We made it into the courtyard of the bell tower, but none of us could really face the queue or the climb up to the top.  Thank goodness we didn't have time.  Instead, one of our party took the opportunity to have a wee power nap, which seemed to have an amazing restorative effect.  Suddenly perky, it was time to head back to train station and return to London.


Overall, a good time had by all but, sometimes, you have to be careful what you wish for.

M&K

Summer Down South

New Year's Eve 2013 was spent at 10,000 feet winging our way home to ole Un-Zud for the first time in two years.  The cherry on the top was that the flight attendants were handing out Singapore Slings.  Fantastic.

Invited to attend the beautiful wedding of one of Kyle's school mates and his stunning bride in Petone also gave us the long awaited opportunity to catch up with friends and family.  Not to mention sample some of the countries finest wares that are no longer at our finger tips.

Tip top - we love you.

After a few days of rain of the kind we'd not experienced since we'd left, Wellington thankfully put on a pearler for Dave's special day - where we took part in our first ceilidh! 

It was a jam packed 10 days.  We visited as many people as we could, saw how children had grown and met the new ones who'd arrived (all over the place - honestly, is there something in the water???).  Mum was brilliant at helping us cross all our culinary requirements off the list and we visited a few of our favourite old haunts too.  Big shout out to the pepper steak pie on the drive round the bays.

On our way back to the UK, we stopped off in Singapore for a few days to break up the trip and to have a look around at the Chinese New Year festivities.

Year of the Horse

Only our second visit to an Asian country, we got amongst the food and drink, including the eye-poppingly good, bright purple dragonfruit juice and resident dish, chilli crab.

And the sights and sounds.  We visited the Singapore Zoo night safari, wandered down Orchard Road and past the waterfront, complete with Merlion.

All in all, it was a good couple of weeks away.  Fantastic to see everyone again, even if it was only for a very short while.