Karlovy Vary

I had to work Valentine's Day night, but had a three day weekend right before it, so Shanna & I decided to take a get away trip just for the weekend.  The new job is a 24x7 operation due to the nature of it, and when you first start, they like you to work all the shifts so you know everyone and what the job is like at all times of the day.  That means for January & February I've been working nights.  It's not too bad, it's quiet and I love the group of people who work at night, but I'm looking forward to shifting back to days in April.  So Friday morning I drove home, we loaded the dogs & luggage up, and hit the road.  First stop was to drop the dogs off, then I put my head back & slept in the car while Shanna drove to Karlovy Vary, Czech Republic.  Shanna had wanted to go since she heard of the town from friends and saw the movie, The Last Holiday, which takes place in the town and the hotel we stayed in, the Grandhotel Pupp.

Five hours later we pulled up at the hotel.  If you've read it in the news, the stories about the deep freeze going through Eastern Europe is no joke...it was COLD.  Thankfully they had parking right in front of the hotel, so we headed inside and checked in.  The first thing we noticed was the size of the room.  It was HUGE.  And the bathroom had heated towel racks and a heated floor.  After we unpacked & got settled in, we decided to take a drive into the center of the city.  On a nice day, we could have easily walked to city center, but like I said earlier, it was freezing out.  So we drove, parked, and walked  around for a bit.  It was early evening at this point, and since it's not high tourist season, most places were closed or were closing up.  We managed to pick up a bottle of Czech wine and got some information for things to do on Saturday.  I wish I could say we stayed & did more, but there just wasn't much to do, so we headed back to the hotel.

We did walk around that evening near our hotel.  While we weren't in city center, we were in the city, in an area known for ritzy shopping & spas.  I don't think I've ever seen so many jewelry and clothing shops in such  tight spaces.

One neat area we passed was where some thermal mineral springs were.  They had buildings built around them, which were closed for the night, but it was neat seeing the outdoor pipes that carried the water from the springs into the buildings.  The spring water had various temps, with the hottest being 72 degrees Celsius (161 degrees F), so the pipes were also hot.  In that frigid air, they gave off a TON of steam.  Shanna got this picture that I thought was neat of one of the churches through the steam.

After we'd walked around for a bit, we stumbled upon a little hole in the wall restaurant that looked cozy inside, so we stopped to eat.  I had a DELICIOUS plate with deer medallions in a brown cream sauce, and I'll be honest...I can't remember what Shanna had.  But she liked it!  They brought out some delicious bread, and we washed it down with some Czech beer.  Great food at reasonable prices.  Our last stop of the night was at the front desk to schedule massages at the hotel the next morning.

When we got up, we headed down to the breakfast buffet.  They had some great food, including a pancake making station!  After breakfast we headed to the massage area.  It was run by a Russian couple, and they didn't mess around with the massages.  There were times I thought I was going to have permanent bruising.  But they did a great job, and when it was done, my whole body felt relaxed.  Speaking of Russians, that's one thing we noticed...we heard a LOT of people speaking Russian.  The strangest sight was a guy speaking to his kids in Russian and wearing a Washington Capitals jacket.  But I digress.  After the massages, we wanted to walk around town.  Here's where things get a little embarrassing.  Remember how cold I said it was?  Well, I don't own thermal underwear because I never need it.  This weekend I needed it, and Shanna had brought along an extra pair of tights.  I don't know how I squeezed into them, but I somehow managed and WOW...they kept me warm under my jeans.

We walked around town a bit more and noticed how many ducks there were in the canals that ran through the town.  The canals were almost entirely frozen over except for a few sections, and those sections that were still water had ducks crowded in them.  I don't know how they stood the cold temps.  Our first stop was the train up the mountain behind the hotel.  At the top was Diana Tower, built in 1914.  From the top of the tower, you had a spectacular view of not only Karlovy Vary, but the huge forest behind it and the mountains in the distance.  Had the wind not been whipping along the top, I could have stayed up there for awhile admiring the scenery.

When we finished walking around up there, we took the train back down to the bottom and headed into the hotel cafe to warm up with some hot chocolate.  After we had sufficiently warmed up, we decided it was time to hit the Hot Springs.  They sell special mugs all through out town that are made so the handle doubles as a straw.  We each picked out our mugs at a store, then headed to the springs.  The water is free, you just need something to put it in to drink.  They have three different stations, with the temperature of the water ranging from 30 Degrees Celsius (86 degrees F) to as hot as 72 Degrees Celsius (161 Degrees F).  The water was very...mineraly.   At the low temp you could really taste it, and it was pretty bad.  But at the high temperature you couldn't, and it wasn't bad.  Shanna didn't like it, but I didn't mind.

Apparently in the first picture she took I was closing my eyes...so I made sure I wasn't in this picture. :)  After we spent some time wandering around this part of town, we had two more places we wanted to go visit that would require driving.  First up was a trip to the glass museum right outside of town.  It's not just any glass place...they make glass and sell it to big brand names like Waterford, who then slap their name on it, mark it up, and sell it to you.  Unfortunately only the shop was open by the time we got there, the tour & museum were not.  We walked around the shop, hoping to find some high quality glass cups, bowls, etc.. for dirt cheap, but man...they were expensive.  So that didn't last long.  We headed from there to the Becherovka Distillery museum.  Becherovka is a digestif served after dinner that is supposed to aid in digestion.  We cut it close with their closing time, but managed to catch the last tour.  The only problem?  It was only in German.  We actually enjoyed it because they gave us a written English guide, so we could try to pick up as much of the German as we could, then see what we got right or wrong when we read the written material.  There was another older German couple taking the tour and we were able to understand what they were saying and said a few things back.  I was even able to understand & answer the guide when she asked what country we were visiting from.  At the end of the tour we were given samples of all their products.  They are pretty good...Becherovka is made from herbs, and you can really taste them when you try it.  One of the funnier things we saw in their shop after the tour was an Advent Calendar, but instead of candy for each day, it had shots in it.  So 25 shots for 25 days of Advent!  It was a bit pricey at 1,490CZ ($75), but I guess when you consider it's 25 shots, that's not too bad.  No, we did not buy it. :)

We were in town at this point, so we headed to an Italian restaurant that a co-worker of mine had raved about.  He'd lived in Italy for 8 years, so when he said it was great Italian food, that was all the endorsement I needed.  Plus he said it was pretty cheap.  He wasn't kidding!  We each ordered a dish, had a few beers and shared a bottle of wine, all for about $40.  The food was delicious.  Shanna ordered a spinach & meat dish, while I ordered Gnocchi with spinach, chicken, and bacon.

After dinner we headed back to the hotel and ended the night in the lounge underneath the hotel.  They had a live band playing cover songs, so it was fun sitting down there & listening to the music.  One thing of note on the drink menu was a shot of 100 year old Cognac.  I was very tempted, but just couldn't justify $250 for a shot...but I won't lie, I thought about it.

The next day we checked out, hit the road, and headed home.  It was a great weekend, and a nice quick getaway.

We have a few weeks of downtime, then in early March we're flying to Ireland to visit Belfast & Dublin, so I'll be sure to have a post & pics up shortly after we get back!

To see the pictures, click any picture above or click here.

Istanbul Part 2

We arrived at the hotel right as our friends were arriving.  Regine has been friends with Shanna since they both started in the same intern program in Texarkana back in 2003 (I think that was the year, but don't quote me).  Several years before we got here she got a job in Germany, and now lives and works in Wiesbaden.  Her boyfriend Marcello came with, as well as two friends of theirs, Tre & Xolani.  We'd never met Tre & Xolani before, but they were nice, and we clicked pretty fast.

After they got checked in and settled into their room, we hit the next palace on our list to see, Topkapi Palace.  This was a deceiving Palace from the outside, it didn't look nearly as big as it actually was once you were inside.  Unlike the other palace, though, the parts you could tour were primarily outdoors in the courtyard area.  The indoor areas were rooms you'd walk in, then walk right back outside.

The various rooms had all kinds of artifacts that the Sultan owned.  Unfortunately, like the other palace, no pictures were allowed inside.  One of the first rooms we went into was the weapons room.  It had all the types of weapons both practically used and for ceremony.   One amazing sword they had from the Byzantine era was a broad sword that, from handle to tip, was taller then me.  That had to be just for display...the widest part of the blade was about the width my hands put side to side.  There's no way it could be used in combat.  The jewel encrusted daggers were neat too.  They also had a ceremonial chain mail armor encrusted with jewels all over it that was neat.  The neatest thing we saw, though, was in the jewel collection room.  They had an 86 carat diamond surrounded entirely by 49 carat diamonds.  It was first found in a garbage dump, and sold to a street vendor for 3 spoons.  When it was eventually figured out what it was, it was given to the Sultan.  This diamond was HUGE.  We walked around the rest of the palace, took some pictures, then headed out.

We showed everyone around the Grand Bazaar, did some more shopping, then went to find a Hookah Lounge.  No one was really hungry at this point, but we were tired of walking and they'd been up early for their flight, so we figured relaxing with some tea & Hookah sounded like the perfect thing to do.  In our quest for dinner Wednesday night, Shanna & I had stumbled upon a Hookah lounge that looked nice, so we took them there.  These are sometimes the best parts of a trip with friends...sitting around in a new city, in a new environment, relaxing.  One neat thing they had were these huge metal pipes on the ceiling that ran all around the place.  It was obvious they were for heating the rooms, but we didn't realize until we left just how neat that process was.  Outside was a guy stoking coals .  All the metal pipes ran from inside to right above the coals, so that heat we were feeling was coming from this fire outside.

After awhile we were ready for dinner.  Near our hotel was a string of restaurants, so we headed back there.  A lot of places had guys standing out front trying to convince you to eat at their place.  We stopped at one to look at the menu outside, and when Regine appeared like she might not want to go there, the guy offered us 10 percent off our bill.   We were probably going to eat there anyway, but we weren't going to complain about 10 percent off.  The food there was DELICIOUS.  They brought out this puffy bread that looked huge, but when you cut into it, it deflated.  But it was still fantastic.  Shanna got a fish that I think was a sea bass.  I got Turkish pizza.  When we got back to the hotel that night we asked Habib to call Esra & arrange to meet us the next day for a tour of other places in the city.

At 8:30 the next morning, we got our start.  Unfortunately, despite it being a beautiful day on Friday, it was cold & wet on Saturday.  Our first place to visit were the Basilica Cisterns.  They were used as a giant water filtration system for the palaces, but today the water level has been cut off from the aquaduct that used to feed it and brought down to a tiny level.   They have fish in the water now that keep it clean.  As you walk down into the Cisterns you can't help but be overwhelmed by the huge columns and the sheer size of the place.

Esra gave us the history of the place, and took us to the back where several columns were supported by a giant stone head of Medusa.  It's unknown where these came from.

From there we headed down to the docks.  The water was choppy, but not so bad that they closed the ferry down.  When we got on the Ferry, Esra started talking about what we'd see, but it didn't take long for the ferry captain to pull away from the dock & start the tour.  Unfortunately the weather never really cooperated.  It was extremely cold & windy on the top deck, so we spent most of the time on the main level inside.  I went up top for a bit to take pictures, though.  The continental divide goes right down the river, so we started on the European side of Istanbul.  The European side is where most of the Istanbul citizens work, and the Asian side is where most live.  After we got to the suspension bridge, the boat turned around and floated up the Asian side.  There were mansions lining the coast, with costs of some going as high as $165 million.

When the ferry tour was over, we got on an underground train that went up to the higher part of the city.  It's mostly a shopping district, and when we came back up to the surface, there was a large demonstration going on.  There were also riot police standing side by side forming a barrier in case things got out of hand.  We decided to duck into a restaurant nearby and get lunch in the hopes that things would calm down while we were in there.

It did, and after lunch we continued down the shopping district street.  This was interesting, while walking down we saw some American fast food places that we haven't seen in a long time.  Who knew that Little Caesars and Arby's had operations in Turkey??  Some of the highlights of that walk was the largest Catholic Church in Istanbul tucked away behind a fence and a restaurant that looked normal from the outside, but when you walked in & upstairs, you suddenly had a great view of the Bosphorous.  Well, what would have been a great view had the weather been better.  At this point the rain turned to snow.  That was unexpected...no where in the weather report I looked at was snow forecast.   At the end of the street we heard loud yelling and a protest group was walking the street heading our way.  We got over on the side of the street, expecting them to keep going, but when they got to our spot, they stopped.  At that point they split in half, with half going to one side of the street and the other half moving towards us.  When someone lit off a flare, we got the heck out of there.  When we turned to look back, the entire street was filled with smoke.

We got back to the underground train and took it back down to the other side of town.  When we got out, we were near the oldest bridge in Istanbul.  There were fishermen lined up all along the bridge...there must have been at least a hundred poles over the side, if not more.  We crossed the bridge and decided to visit one more mosque.  This mosque was much smaller then the previous ones, but was unique because of the tiles used to cover the outside & inside of it.  They were all the original tiles used in the 16th century and were in great shape.  We had to hurry because it was getting really close to prayer time, and visitors aren't allowed in during that period.

At this point we parted ways with Esra.  Shanna & I wanted to visit one more mosque, and everyone else wanted to head back to the hotel to rest up after a long day.  Here's where we ran into a problem.  Esra took us to the tram stop, but it was closed because of a power outage.  Not just a local outage...the entire old town area was without power.  She was nice enough to walk us to the point where we could follow the tracks in the street back to our hotel.  The only thing we were disappointed in was that we couldn't go to that other mosque.  It was just too far to walk all the way there, especially in the snow.  So we walked back to the hotel.  But it was actually a peaceful walk.  Because of the power outage, there was almost no cars on the road in Old Town, just people strolling outside.  Most shops were actually still open, running on generator power.  The chestnut vendors were still out, so it was a nice walk and smelled great along the way.  The amazing thing is it even made the news in San Diego.  A friend of ours who lives out there sent us a note saying she'd heard about the snow storm & power outage in Istanbul and asked if we were ok.

For dinner no one wanted to go far, so we took them to the Cozy Pub (that was the name) we found on our first night.  There isn't much to write about, but not because we didn't enjoy ourselves.  It was really nice sitting there, eating delicious food, and enjoying some of the local food & drink.  We even ended the night with a bottle of famous Turkish liquor called Raki.  It wasn't bad!  We liked it enough to get a bottle to bring home with us.

Finally, around midnight, we called it a night and headed back to the hotel.

The next morning we all met up for breakfast before heading our separate ways.  It was a beautiful day out, the complete opposite of the day before.  Since it was such a nice day, we decided to cancel our Turkish Bath appointment and head to the Süleymaniye Mosque, the second largest in Istanbul.  Like the Blue Mosque, it was huge & impressive on the outside, and just as beautiful on the inside.  There were only a handful of people there, so it was peaceful walking through it.

One thing interesting you might have noticed is how empty mosques are.  Unlike churches, which have seats (and kneelers, depending on the denomination), there is none of that in a mosque.  People come in with their prayer rugs, lay it out on the carpet, and pray on it.  Having grown up in churches, this was something completely new to me...I didn't even think of them not having any seating.

When we read the description of this mosque it mentioned that the namesake of the mosque, Sultan Süleymaniye, was buried there.  Sure enough, in the back, was a series of tombs & graves, including his.

After this, we still had 2 hours to kill.  I had gotten an iPhone app that showed a map of all attractions, and worked with the GPS to show ones near you.  I pulled it up see what was in the area, and it turns out there were two mosques nearby.  One was formerly an Eastern Orthodox Church, built sometime between the 9th and 12th centuries.  In the 13th century it became a Catholic Church, and in the 15th century it became a mosque, which it still functions as today.  This turned out to be a real gem.  It was tucked away in an alley, and is one we never would have found without the App.  Inside you could tell it was old...it still had the original columns and was amazing to walk through.

We headed to one more mosque, then made our way back to the hotel.  We were already packed, and the shuttle driver was already there waiting for us.  After checking out, the hotel had one more thing for us...a complimentary CD with Turkish music on it.

All in all, this was an amazing experience.  Istanbul is one of (if not the) most exotic city I've ever been to.  It has so much history behind it, and the people were incredibly friendly.  I also didn't realize how close Troy and the World War I battlefield of Gallipoli were.  We will definitely be back to Turkey.  If you ever have the chance to visit the country, jump on it...you won't regret it.

To see pictures, click here or any picture in this post.

Istanbul Part 1

This past week Shanna & I decided to take a long weekend for MLK weekend.  There had been various places we'd kicked around going to, but decided it would be a good time to try Istanbul, Turkey.  We found a great deal on direct flights & a hotel right in the heart of the old town area.

On Wednesday morning I dropped the dogs off at the kennel, then we headed to the metro which took us to the airport.  It was a quick 3 hour flight, and by 3pm we were in Istanbul.  The weather was cold & rainy, but it was supposed to clear up the next day, so I wasn't too concerned.  Because we were staying for more then three nights, the hotel offered a free shuttle service.  We've done the hotel shuttle service a few times at previous places, and it's always nice to walk out of baggage claim and have someone waiting there for you to load your bags in a car and drive you straight there.

When we arrived, as is standard every time we travel, the hotel had to take our passports to log them in, which takes about 5 minutes.  While we waited in the lobby, they brought us out hot tea.  I'm not a tea drinker, but I figured since we were here, I might as well try the local variety.  It wasn't bad...Shanna, who does drink tea, really liked it.  Below is a picture Shanna took of me waiting in the lobby.

After everything was set, they took our bags to our room and we got settled in.  We've stayed in our fair share of European hotel rooms, and this was by far one of the largest.  It even had a small balcony looking over the street below.  I had decided on this hotel when booking for a few reasons.  First, the reviews raved about the level of service from the employees.  So far, that was right on the money.  Second was the amazing view from the top floor.  That's where breakfast was served every morning, but I didn't want to wait, so I headed up stairs to look at it.  The rain had died down, and it was mostly clear out.  The view did not disappoint.  You could see over the entire city, and had amazing views of the Blue Mosque and the Hagia Sophia (I'll explain more about them later in the post).  Below is a shot of the Blue Mosque lit up at night.

It looked more like a spaceship then a mosque.  We spoke with Habib at the front desk, who couldn't have been more helpful.  We've gotten to the point where if at all possible, we try & hire a private guide to take us around.  It's more expensive then a conventional tour, but you get so much more out of it.  We initially asked Habib about getting a guide, and before we knew it, he had taken out a piece of paper and drawn out an entire itinerary of things we should see over the next few days, as well as "optional" things if we had time & were interested.  He also said the hotel worked closely with a guide who would take us around & show us the "highlights" of the old town area the next day if we were interested.  We definitely were, so he set that all up for us.  Since the weather was so bad that night, we decided to just walk around a little bit, get dinner, then call it a night.  We briefly walked around the Grand Bazaar, then came back to the hotel.

The next morning at breakfast the view was even more spectacular.  We could see the Golden Horn, Bosphorus, Sea of Marmara, as well as the half of Istanbul that was on the Asian continent.  When we were done we headed downstairs and were met by Esra, our guide.  Right off the bat we were comfortable with her.  Before we left she laid out a map and showed us all the places we'd be visiting.  We also got to know each other a little bit and found out she's been doing tours since 1993, and one of the main things she does is organize trips for Turkish people to visit the US.  She'd been to NY, DC, Atlantic City, and one of her favorite cities was San Diego.

We headed out of the hotel, and to our first destination, the area where the Hippodrome used to be.  I was disappointed that there were no more remnants of it left.  The Hippodrome was used when the Romans were in the area as a Chariot racing track.  By the time the Ottoman Empire took the city over in 1453, it was already ancient ruins.  Over the next 500 years, it decayed more & more until it was just paved over.  All that remains are the obelisks that were in the center of the track that were brought from Egypt in 390AD.

One neat thing in that area is the German Fountain.  It was given as a gift from Kaiser Wilhelm to the Sultan in 1901.  Apparently the two of them and Francis Joseph of Austria were good friends.  We found that out later on when we toured the Sultan's palace and there were paintings of the three of them there.  Right across from there was the Museum for Islamic Arts.  This is a museum we probably wouldn't have visited on our own, but it was actually really interesting with Esra there telling us about it.  The museum used to be the palace of the Grand Vizier whose wife was the Sultan's sister.  Now it's a museum that showcases the Nomad Turks and the famous Turkish Carpets.

Next up was the Blue Mosque.  Shanna & I have been to cities all over Europe in the 2 years we've been here, and seen a lot of things, but until now, they'd all been historically Christian.  This was our first time in a Mosque and a city that was historically Islamic.  The first thing you notice is the size of the Mosque.  It was enormous.  Since the mosque was still actively used, we had to take our shoes off before entering.  Once inside, we found a place to sit while Esra told us about the place.  The Blue Mosque is not it's actual name, it's a nickname visitors have given it over the years because of the abundance of blue paint used.  It's real name is the Sultan Ahmed Mosque.  It was completed in 1616, and for awhile, was subject to some controversy because of the number of Minarets (the tall Spires outside) it had.  At the time, the Mosque in Mecca also had six minarets, and people thought it might confuse pilgrims into thinking they were at Mecca.  They easily solved this problem, though, by building a seventh minaret in Mecca.  To date, it's the only mosque with seven spires.  Another neat thing was the lighting.  The ceiling was extremely tall, but the lights hung only a few feet above my head.  The reason being was before electricity, they were oil burning.  By keeping them low, it prevented damage to the ceiling.  Also, at that level, the cross draft would push the smoke right out the back door, preventing it from building in the mosque.

We headed out from there to the Hagia Sophia right across the street.  First up, though, was a trip into the Turkish Bath's.  Esra wanted us to see them and see if we were interested in making a reservation.  They were beautiful inside, so we decided to make reservations for Sunday morning before our flight out.

The Hagia Sophia is one of the most impressive places we visited all weekend, and I'd even go so far as to say one of the most impressive buildings I've ever been in period.  It was built & destroyed twice between it's first iteration in 360AD and it's final, current iteration completed in 537.  Between 537 and 1453, it was used as an Eastern Orthodox church and a Catholic Church.  In 1453, when the Turks took over the city, it was converted into a Mosque.  Here's the strange thing.  Instead of destroying the Christian symbols inside, the Turks plastered over them to hide them.  In 1931, it was converted to a museum.  When they started to do the restoration and removed the plaster, they found that it had perfectly preserved the ancient Christian mosaics.  Images that never would have lasted this long looked like they were painted yesterday.  The result was some amazing religious duality.  At the front of the inside of it you had the Arabic symbol for Muhammed on the left, the Arabic symbol for Allah on the right, and in between, a mosaic of Mary & Jesus.

At this point we were getting a little hungry, so Esra took us to a small restaurant in back alley she liked.  Along the way Shanna mentioned that I had wanted to visit the town of Batman if it was close.  Esra had a look of total confusion on her face, and asked why in the world I'd want to visit there.  It's not close, and there's nothing to see or do there.  Then suddenly it clicked...she realized I wanted to go because the name was "Batman".  She was laughing so hard she almost had tears coming down her face.  Yeah yeah...what can I say, I thought it'd be awesome to say I was in Batman, Turkey. :)  At the restaurant we shared a large plate of vegetables cooked in olive oil, and we each had a bowl of Lentil soup.  The vegetable plate was delicious, but our favorite part was the grape leaves wrapped around rice and soaked in olive oil.  We liked it so much we ordered it several more times that weekend at other places.

After lunch it was time for the Carpet Shopping experience.  A good friend of ours had recently been to Istanbul and said that even if we didn't want to buy a carpet, we should go through the experience because of how enjoyable it was.  When we walked in they greeted us and took us downstairs to the carpet area.  We sat down on comfy plush chairs, and they served us hot tea.  Once we were settled, the "show" started.  They would bring out carpet after carpet made from Silk, Wool and Cotton and put them out on display for us, talking about them and the stories each pattern told.  We also got to watch a lady hand weave the carpet.  That was INCREDIBLE.  Her hands were flying over the loom so fast I couldn't tell what she was doing.  She then slowed it down so we could see, and I couldn't believe she had been doing that so fast.  One thing we learned here was I'm an awful haggler, but Shanna's great.  We found an antique carpet we really liked, and Shanna was able to haggle them down significantly from the original price.  We hadn't planned on buying a carpet, but loved one in particular.  The only concern I had was Murphy has a tendency to sometimes pee on rugs.  I didn't want to spend money on a carpet only to have him relieve himself on it.  The first time he did he'd become an outdoor dog.  But they said they could sew in little rungs to hang it on the wall, so that's what we'll do.  They offer free shipping world wide, so it should arrive at our house in 4-5 weeks!

From there we walked through the tiny streets & alleys until we got to the Grand Bazaar.  At that point it was late afternoon, and time for one of the 5 times a day Muslims are required to pray.  To let you know it's time, a man called a Muezzin chants in Arabic.  Before electricity he'd climb to the top of one of the minarets at the mosque and his voice would carry over the city.  Now they have giant speakers hooked up on all minarets across the city.  I didn't know that it wasn't recorded, though.  They use a speaker system, but it's still a human being chanting live...it's never been a recording.  It was neat to hear it called out over the city while we walked through the Grand Bazaar, knowing that 500 years ago people here were doing the exact same thing that we were doing right now.

The Grand Bazaar is a huge labyrinth of shops and vendors selling all kinds of things.  Everything from brand names to things hand made locally, you could find it here.  I got my standard Stein that I get from every new country we visit, and Shanna got all kinds of little things.  It seemed like every other vendor there knew Esra and would say hi to her, then offer us the "best price, guaranteed".  On the first night we were there, I hated how pushy they were, but by this point I'd gotten used to it and just considered it part of the experience.

Our last stop with Esra after that was the Spice Market.  This was really neat...it was small, but crowded with a ton of shops selling all kinds of spices, meats, cheeses, tea and other food.  We went into one store where Esra knew the owners, and they let us sample all kinds of desserts.  Of course, they also served us tea.  I drank more tea over that weekend then I have in my entire life.  Turkish Delight, the name they have for these treats, consist of sugar, gel and various fruits.  It might not sound all that appealing, but it was actually really good.  We ended up getting a few packages for ourselves and friends, and Shanna bought some apple tea from them.

Outside the Spice Market was the fish market.  It was funny watching them because the vendor shops were built into the side of a building.  On top of the building was an entire army of sea gulls just sitting there.  Every time a piece of fish would drop on the ground, the vendors would pick it up and throw it up on the roof for the birds.  In that area was a restaurant that Esra said had the best Baklava in the city.  Since I didn't try every vendor, that's impossible to say, but it WAS the best we would have all weekend.  It practically melted in your mouth.   We got Esra's contact info and told her we might user her again on Saturday when our friends came into town.

That night we were tired from walking around all day, so we found a pub, ate dinner and called it a night.

The next morning it was BEAUTIFUL.  Not a cloud in the sky, but it was cold.  Our friends were flying in early that afternoon, but we had all morning to do something, so we decided to tour a few palaces.  Right on the water is Dolmabahçe Palace, former home of the Sultan.  It's huge, and an impressive sight from the water.

We took the tram and it dropped us off five minutes from the palace.  When we got there, we were disappointed to see it followed the same trend that seems to be sweeping Europe, which is no pictures allowed inside.  I get the no flash rule because of what constant light exposure can do to antiques, but no pictures period is ridiculous.  They'll gladly sell you pictures in the gift shop at the end though.  It's really too bad, too because the palace was amazing on the inside.  Before we could start the tour, though, we had to put pink plastic caps around our shoes.  They looked like shower caps.  I almost couldn't get them on my big feet.  Once it inside, it was beautiful.  His bathing room was made entirely of marble.  The ceiling, walls, and floor, all marble.  There were huge windows that faced the river from inside the bathing area.  The staircase that led to the Grand Ceremonial room was amazing.  The railing was all marble, and are you ready for this?  The banisters were all made from crystal.  All this lead to the Grand Ceremonial room that was HUGE.  It was 80 meters high and the dome at the top was 25 meters across.  Hanging from the dome was the largest crystal chandelier I've ever seen, weighing in at 4.5 tons.    After that section, we went outside and to the back, where we toured the Harem section.  This was the area where the Sultan's wives and mother lived.  It was interesting, but as you can imagine, not nearly as impressive as where the Sultan lived.

We didn't have time at this point to visit the second palace, so we hopped on the tram and went back to the hotel to meet up with our friends.

In looking over the size of this post, I'm going to split it up into two posts.

Click here or any picture in this post to see all the pictures from the trip.

To continue on to Part 2, click here.

Christmas Markets

Shanna & I said this year that we wanted to visit Christmas Markets outside our area, and outside of Germany.  This past weekend was the first time this season we'd had a chance to do that.  We spent the weekend in Colmar, France and on the way home today, stopped in Freiburg, Germany.

I got off work Friday at 3pm, headed home, got the dogs, and drove out to Esslingen where Shanna was enjoying a Christmas party with her coworkers.  I took the dogs in the restaurant and we had dinner, then we hit the road.  It was raining a bit, but the wind was ridiculous.  More then once I felt like the car was getting blown into the next lane.  We eventually made it, though, around 9pm that night.  We were both exhausted, but we hadn't had dinner yet, so we ate at the hotel restaurant.  We brought the dogs down with us, and when the waitress saw them, she petted them and put her hand out to Milo and said "Bonjour'...and Milo shook her hand!  I couldn't stop laughing.  She put her hand out, so that's what Milo recognized, but seeing her say "Bonjour" and seeing Milo shake her hand cracked us up.

Saturday morning when we took the dogs out to do their morning usual, I noticed a plaque on a rock in front of a tree.  It was a Sequoia tree from California that was dedicated from the US to the people of France in recognition of 200 years of friendship.  After that we ate breakfast at the hotel, and they had the most amazing spread of cheeses out.  My favorite was this goat cheese that I couldn't get enough of.

After breakfast we put the coats on the dogs and hit the town.  Colmar had five separate Christmas Markets, but they were all connected, so you could easily walk from market to market.  The first one we came to was the kids Christmas Market.  They had vendors with kids toys and a few rides.  One that stood out was the mechanical horse rides.  Kids would sit on the horse, and it'd ride along a track in a circle.  For those that have heard the story of the debacle of when I attempted horse riding, this would be the closest I'll ever come to riding a horse again.

From that market we walked along one of the many canals that run through Colmar and noticed a sign that said at 5pm that day there would be kids singing Christmas Carols in boats in the canal.  We made a note to come back later that evening.  Next up was an indoor market with all kinds of fresh food being sold.  Cheese, bread, seafood, you name it, they had it fresh.

We walked around the various markets until it was obvious the dogs were starting to get worn out.  On the way back to the hotel we came across an old Carousel that had been converted into a cafe!  It was closed, but we took a few pictures.  The owner (we assume) was cleaning up inside and his dog was in there...it looked like a Jack Russel, just like Murphy.  As we walked around the Carousel looking in, the dog was running along with us, inside, growling at Milo & Murphy.

We headed back to the hotel from there and laid down for a bit.  Once Milo & Murphy were settled down we left some toys out for them in the room and left them there.  They've gotten to be great hotel dogs...even though Milo whined a bit, he quickly quieted down and they were quiet the rest of the night until we got back.

From the hotel we walked back into town and headed to some of the places we couldn't go earlier because we had the dogs.  First up was St. Martin's church.  It was built in 1375, and has survived ever since.  Inside there was a plaque thanking the Virgin Mary for protecting the city during WWII and liberating it from the Nazi's on Feb. 2nd, 1945.  There was also a plaque dedicated to those killed in WWI.

The rest of the afternoon was spent wandering through the beautiful old town area.  It looked perfectly preserved, exactly like it might have 500 years ago.  Shortly before 5pm we headed back to the bridge over the canal.  We got there early, but there was already a crowd.  Luckily a spot opened up and we were able to get a good spot overlooking the canal.  Shortly after 5pm, when it was dark, the first boat pulled up to the bridge.  5 more pulled up and lined up side by side across the canal.  Then a boat pulled up behind them with Santa inside and a ton of presents.  The kids then began to sing various carols, some we recognized, but most we didn't.  It was strange hearing "Oh Christmas Tree" and "Jingle Bells" in French.  The Jingle Bells song was neat because they sang it in French and English.

Once they were done we took a walk, looking for dinner.  There was a place we thought looked good, but the lady said they didn't open until 6:30, and it was only 5:30.  Place after place we went to were all closed until 6:30 or 7pm.  So we got some Gluehwein (or Vin Cauld as it was called in French) and sat on benches along the canal for a bit.  We also headed to a Belgian Bar we'd seen earlier in the day.  Eventually it was 6:30, but when we went back, the same lady said they were booked for the night.  Why she didn't tell us that an hour ago was beyond us.  We tried a few more places, and they all said the same thing...they were booked solid with reservations all night long.  Who would have thought we'd need reservations??  We eventually found a place that wasn't too expensive, and what a find.  The food was AMAZING.  The waitress didn't speak much English, and the menu was entirely in French.  Here's an example of what the menu looked like:

So we decided to be adventuresome and randomly picked two things off the menu.  I got a DELICIOUS chicken cooked in a Riesling sauce (although it was brown, which I thought was strange), potatoes and mushrooms.  I demolished the entire thing, even the mushrooms.  It was one of the best meals we've had while living here in Europe.  Shanna got Salmon on top of buttery garlic mashed potatoes and capers.

For dessert we decided to roll the dice again, and again came up with a winner.  It was a plate with a shot of cappuccino, a brownie, ice cream, and a glass with some sort of strawberry sauce and whipped cream flavored jello.  I wasn't a fan of the coffee since I don't like coffee, but the rest of it was fantastic.  All & all it was an amazing meal, and I'm so glad we ran into problems with other places which forced us to try this place.  Had we gone somewhere else, the menu would have been in English and we wouldn't have tried something new.

After dinner we were full, and worn out from walking around all day.  We went back to the hotel & called it a night.

Sunday morning we woke up to snow coming down outside.  I was less then thrilled since we had 2 1/2 hours to drive home, and the last thing I wanted to do was drive home in snow.  But we got lucky.  It only lasted for 15 minutes, didn't stick, and the sun came out after.  After breakfast & checkout, we loaded the car up and headed to Freiburg, Germany.  It was close to Colmar, and on the way back home, so it was easy to get there.  Freiburg was pretty neat...it was no Colmar, but few markets are.  We walked around the old town area, and saw something interesting.  Apparently, Freiburg is a sister city with Madison, Wisconsin!  Who knew?

Shanna found a wood molding of a boy & a snowman that she can use to make Christmas cookies, as well as some special paper so that she can use that same molding to make Christmas Cards.  It's too late to do it this year, but maybe next year.  We wandered around the market, and once done, headed back home.

This past weekend was a LOT of fun, and Colmar is by far our favorite Christmas Market.  The food, drinks, and ambiance of the town was amazing, and we highly recommend it if you ever find yourself in Southern Germany or Eastern France.

Over the next few months we have trips to Hamburg and Ireland planned, so check back soon!

To see the pictures, click here or any picture above.

Thanksgiving in Sicily

I know it's been awhile since my last post, but not too much has happened.  Last week I started at SAIC and life's been busy getting myself acquainted with the new job.  Last week was Thanksgiving and over the summer, Shanna & I decided we wanted to go somewhere warm.  After kicking around various ideas, we settled on Taormina, Italy, on the island of Sicily.  I mentioned it to my parents and invited them along.  They got their tickets and met us down there.  They flew into Rome Sunday, toured there, then flew to Catania Airport Thursday and met us there.

Thursday morning is when we left, and it was EARLY.  So early, in fact, that it was before the trains started running, so we had to drive.  We only live 15 minutes from the airport, so we got there plenty early.  It was FREEZING that morning.  By mid day it's been in the 50's for the past few weeks, but before the sun rises, it's been in the high 20's.  Our flight to Catania went smooth, and when we stepped off the plane, it was 70 degrees & sunny.  I had previously arranged for a shuttle service from the airport to the hotel, and am glad I did.  There wasn't really a public transportation option, so we'd have had to get a taxi for the 45 minute drive.  The drive was absolutely beautiful.  Catania & Taormina are right on the coast, so our entire drive was along the coast line.  Last May I visited Rome with some friends, and while I enjoyed it, I never really saw the Italian country side that I think of when thinking of Italy.  We definitely did this time though...it was the Med on our right and the beautiful old Italian countryside on our left.

We eventually got to our hotel and checked in.  I'd read in the reviews how friendly the staff was and how beautiful the view from the outside terrace was, and neither disappointed.  Our family must have been the only people checking in that day, because when I walked in & said I wanted to check in, the guy behind the desk, Sebastiano, said "Yes, welcome Mr. Norton.  Your parents are down at the restaurant.".  After we checked in, we walked out on the terrace and saw Mount Etna.

We then headed down to the restaurant and met my parents & brother there.  It was good to see them again.  We ate lunch and walked around the old town area for the rest of the afternoon.  Shanna & I called it an early night since it'd been a long day.

The next morning the plan was to explore the city.  The hotel provided breakfast, and then called a cab for us.  There was a village way up on a hill over looking the city, and up there was the remains of the old castle & fortress. 

On the drive up, our cabbie gave us a mini-tour, explaining all the things we were seeing.  He even pointed out the huge land mass in the distance across the water...turns out that was mainland Italy.  When we got to the top, we headed to the old fortress.  There wasn't much left of it, but it had a beautiful view of Taormina & the Med. Sea.

After exploring the fortress, we explored the little village up there.  There was a church (of course) and several restaurants and shops.  Mom & Shanna spent most of the afternoon wandering through the shops there, picking up all kinds of little things.  We also ate lunch while up there at a restaurant with a panoramic view of the city & hills.  The picture I posted above is pretty much what the view of the city was like from the restaurant...the picture below is of the hills.

Later that afternoon, we walked down from the village to a chapel on the hill side, but it had already closed for the day.  That night was the big Arkansas/LSU game, so we went to a local supermarket to get some beer, then set up the laptop in the lobby of the hotel, where they had free WiFi.  Arkansas is becoming an international sensation.  We've watched them play over the internet in Austria, Germany, France, and now Italy.  Unfortunately they lost, but it was still fun watching some college football.

Saturday we'd talked with Sebastiano, and he set up our day for us.  A driver would take us down to Siracusa, and we'd be met there by a guide who would give us a personal tour of the city.  Once we got there, we were met by Rosa.  The first thing I noticed was her perfect English...so perfect, in fact, that she seemed to have an American accent.  It turns out she was born in Sicily and when she was 8, her family immigrated to Connecticut.  When she graduated from High School, she moved back to Sicily and has lived there ever since.  She still has family in the US, so the visits have helped her keep up with her English, and her American accent.  We started in Largo Port, and walked through the city.  We started down a street with a house that was one of the few buildings to survive the devastating earthquake of 1693.  That fact jumped out to Shanna & I because we remembered learning that earthquake also decimated Dubrovnik, Croatia, killing 90 percent of the population in Dubrovnik.  We eventually got to the Siracusa Duomo.  That church had a fascinating history.  It was first built thousands of years ago as a Greek Temple for Apollo.  When Christians took the territory over, they converted it to a Church.  Eventually Muslims took the town over, and converted it to a Mosque.  Finally, the Catholics took the city back over and turned it back into a Church.  When you go in, you can see the old Greek columns, the area where the round top of the Mosque used to be, and of course, all the Christian symbols currently there. 

We continued walking around the city, seeing all the various landmarks, including the remains of the first Greek Temple built in the city in 800 B.C.  Our driver picked us up and drove us across town to the location of Roman & Greek ruins.  The Romans had built a small Gladiator ring there.  In the center was a pit with two columns in the center.  The Gladiators would stand on the columns and try to knock the other off.  The loser would fall into the pit of water, which had crocodiles in it.  She also showed us the mass graves they'd bury the dead Gladiators in.  Right around the corner from it was the old Greek Theater.  The hill it was built into consisted of Limestone, so all the Greeks had to do was chisel the stage & seats out right in the mountain.  It's the only Greek Theater in the world built that way.  Behind the theater we walked through the old rock quarry where they mined the rock that was used to build the city.  They used slave labor, and it was an accepted fact that once you went in, you never came out.  The slaves who died down there were just left there.

Finally Rosa showed us the old altar area where they performed animal sacrifices.  The king at the time sacrificed 450 cows for protection against the Romans.  What the people didn't know was he had made a secret deal with the Romans to not attack.  Siracusa had peace for 22 years of his reign.  When he died, a resistance movement sprang up and killed all the Romans who were living in the town and blockaded themselves.  Archimedes, who lived in the city, came up with inventions to keep the Romans at bay.  It's a 3 day journey by boat from Rome to Siracusa.  He first came up with catapults that launched stones doused in oil & lit on fire.  They repelled the Romans, who had never seen anything like that before.  They assumed Siracusa had a God protecting them.  When they tried again, Archimedes had a new invention.  He'd put a huge magnifying glass on a wooden lever that could move up, down, left & right.  The result was they could set the Roman ships on fire from a distance.  The Romans finally conquered Siracusa by sending spies, who found out the real reason Siracusa was able to fend them off.  One night the Romans snuck in and the spies let them in.  They then proceeded to decimate the city, and beheaded Archimedes.

The history of the town was absolutely fascinating.  The next & last stop was a Basillica in the town of Arcireal.  It's famous because it has the tomb of St. Clemente, the fourth pope, who died in 89 AD.  It was absolutely beautiful inside.  After we finished there we headed back to Taormina.  Shanna & Mom walked through a few shops until we came to a restaurant to eat at, Mama Rosa's.

It was some of the best Italian food we'd had.  We actually didn't have a bad dish the entire time we were there, but this place stood out.  I had lasagna & ravioli, and Shanna had seafood ravioli.  It was our last dinner before my parents left the next morning, so we had wine, great food, and thoroughly enjoyed ourselves.  My parents & brother had a 6am flight out the next morning, so we said our goodbyes that night.

The next morning we got up early.  Shanna & I had a 5:30pm flight out, so we decided to do one more tour before we left.  Sebastiano made all the arrangements, and even acted as our driver that day.  Shanna & I first took a picture on the terrace with the sun rising.

The plan for the day was for Sebastiano to drive us to Mount Etna, us to tour it, then he'd drive us to the airport in Catania.  We hit the road, and it was a crystal clear beautiful fall day.  The leaves on the trees were turning and there was only a little bit of smoke coming out of the Mount Etna volcano.  We got there a little early, so Sebastiano took us to a crater that was now dormant.  All around us most of the frost had melted, but it didn't in the shadows.  The result was you had some interesting shapes of frost.  At that point we were only 2,000 meters high (approx. 6,000 ft), but we had a beautiful view of Taormina.

Finally it was time for the tour to start.  Normally they have a cable car running up most of the mountain, but it was broken, so they took us up by bus.  By this time the clouds had rolled in and you couldn't see much, but when we got to the 3,000 Meter mark (9,000 ft), we were above the clouds and it was bright & sunny.  It was amazing seeing the clouds from above.  The guide gave the tour in Italian, but we had some English speakers in the group, so he'd explain things sometimes in English too.  He showed us the house the guides used to live in that was now covered in Volcanic rock from the eruption in 2002.  Some parts of the rocks were above a fissure, so if you grabbed a handful, the rocks were actually hot!  It was surrounded by snow, so it was really weird grabbing hot rocks.  He walked us all over the top of the mountain, and it was one of the most amazing experiences we've had since moving here.  After the tour, they bussed us down part of the way, and now the cable car was working, so we took that the rest of the way down.  At one point the cable car came to a complete stop, and it was just Shanna & I in the car.  It was cloudy again, so you couldn't see far around you, but we could clearly see the LONG drop below us.  Thankfully it only stopped for a few minutes. :)  When we got to the bottom, we walked through some of the gift shops, and I finally found a souvenir I wanted.  I usually get beer steins, but I thought this time I'd get something more appropriate for Italy...a wine carafe!

Sebastiano then drove us to the airport.  It had been a long day, and in that warm sun, I was OUT.  Shanna told me at the airport that Sebastiano had noticed me asleep and made sure to go over speed bumps as slow as possible so he wouldn't wake me.  As you can see from this post, the hotel was GREAT.  If you ever find yourself in Taormina, stay at the Hotel Continental.  You won't regret it.

The trip home was uneventful, and we finally landed back in Stuttgart around 11pm...and it was back to the cold weather.

This trip was a LOT of fun, and Shanna & I agreed that this is one of the few places we really want to go back to to explore more. 

You can view the pictures by clicking here, or any of the pictures in this post.

Anniversary & France

Shanna & I have been doing a lot of traveling this month, and we had two trip weekends bookend the weekend of our anniversary, so we decided on a quiet night for the actual anniversary.  It was a Monday, so while Shanna was at work, I ran around town.  In town there's a great indoor year round market with vendors from all over Europe.  I was able to get some delicious Chicken Cordon Bleu, cheese stuffed peppers, French Brie, pretzels, a bottle of wine, and of course, chocolates all at the market.  I then picked up some flowers and a card, and headed home.  Once home I realized I'd made a mistake with the card.  Shanna was just going to have to pretend that Hochzeit meant "Anniversary" like I thought and not "Wedding", like it actually meant.  If you're curious, Jubiläum is the word I should have been looking for.  I knew that, but in my rush, I forgot, and got a wedding card instead of an anniversary card.  All in all, it was a relaxing evening with good food, good wine and...Survivor. :)

This past weekend it was FINALLY time for the International Beer Expo in Strasbourg, France.  Shanna had found out about it before my birthday back in June, and gave me a birthday card with a print out of the details so we could go.  I've been looking forward to it ever since.  Strasbourg is only an hour & a half away, so Shanna worked a normal work day, then I picked her up Friday afternoon and we hit the road.  That was definitely the biggest mistake of the weekend.  We've always traveled in the middle of the day, or on a weekend...this was the first time we'd tried to hit the road on a Friday and the roads were packed.  Instead of an hour & a half, it took us two and a half hours.  While most of the drive was on the Autobahn, the last half hour was through some really pretty French countryside.  The sun was almost set, there was a light mist over the ground about six feet high, and it was pretty to look at as we drove through some small French towns.

Finally we get to our hotel, get checked in, and head to the beer expo.  It looked a lot closer to our hotel on the map then it actually was, and I didn't realize the metro stop outside our hotel went right to it, so we walked that first night.  30 minutes later we were there, and ready to sample.  A friend of ours met us there, and we got to try some of our favorites, Dogfish Head, Stone, Weyerbacher, Lagunitas, and Ommegang to name a few.  A few years ago I went to Montreal for a friends Bachelor party, and fell in love with Quebec breweries.  They had some outstanding ones in attendance this year at the expo.  One of the neat areas they had set up was showing you how to pair French beer with French cooking...as expected, the food samples they had out were delicious.

When we were done for the night, we headed back to the hotel & went to bed.  The next morning we got up and took the metro into the city.  I'd been to Strasbourg last year with a USO tour and really enjoyed it.  This was Shanna's first time, so I was able to show her around the Old Town area.  We headed into the cathedral, which is the tallest one in France, and walked around all the shops.  The weather was cold & dreary, but at least it wasn't raining.  After we'd walked around for a few hours, we got a text from some other friends of ours who live in Wiesbaden that they were just about there.

We met up with them at the expo about an hour later.  Regine is a friend that Shanna has known since her early days with the Army in Texarkana, and her boyfriend Marcelo works with her at the Corp of Engineers.  It'd been a long time since we'd seen them, so it was great to meet up with them again.  Marcelo, like Shanna & I, is a big fan of Microbrew beers, so he was just as excited as we were to be there.  It was neat to see some of the things they had set up there, including a motorcycle with hops & barley all over it.

The previous night we'd wandered from booth to booth, but this time we did it right.  We bought fresh cheeses & sausages from some of the vendors there, as well as some bread.  We laid it all out at a table in the expo center, got our beers, and caught up.  That was pretty much how the rest of the evening went.  We'd wander from booth to booth, trying what they had to offer.  One of the stand out breweries we discovered there was À l’Abri de la Tempête, from Quebec.  They had two beers in particular (Corne de Brume and Corps Mort) that were outstanding.  No luck finding them here, of course, but they are definitely a brewery I'm going to keep an eye out for when we go home next.

The night ended with us heading to the shopping area, and buying beer for us and for friends back in Stuttgart who had requested a few bottles.  It was heavy carrying that back to the hotel, but definitely worth it.  One beer I got not because I had tried & liked it, but because it was in a big growler and we both really liked the artwork on it.  It was brewery that's near Neuschwanstein, and the artwork was all centered around King Ludwig.  The main image on the front is of Neuschwanstein, and along the bottom they had pictures of all his castles, including the one he grew up in that sits almost right next to Neuschwanstein.

The next morning there really wasn't much else left to do.  We checked out, loaded the car up, and hit the road.  The only thing of note was the weird weather.  There was some thick fog in Strasbourg, and through out the entire remaining drive in France.  Within ten minutes of crossing the border into Germany, the fog cleared, and it was bright & sunny, without a cloud in the sky.  Thankfully the drive home only took about an hour & 15 minutes.

That's it for traveling for a few weeks now.  My next post most likely won't be until December.  For Thanksgiving, Shanna & I are flying down with our friend Penny to Sicily, and meeting my parents & brother there.  We are both really looking forward to it!

There weren't enough pics to upload a new album, so the pictures above will just take you to a hi-res version of which ever pic you click on.

Croatia and Montenegro

For Columbus Day weekend, Shanna & I wanted to take a trip somewhere.  A few months back our friend Penny had mentioned cheap deals to Dubrovnik, Croatia.  I'd heard so much about how pretty the country was, and we're always up for visiting somewhere new.  It was good deal, so we jumped on it.

Friday morning I dropped the dogs off at the kennel, we hopped on the train, and headed to the airport.  Once there we met up with our friends Craig, Penny, & Adam.  You might remember Penny & Adam because they went with us to London back in July.  The flight there was uneventful, although the last part of the leg to Croatia we started to talk with the lady sitting next to us.  She was from the Ukraine, and was on her way to vacation with her 8 month old grandson, daughter, & son-in-law.  She insisted that we visit the Ukraine sometime, because it was beautiful.  Sounds good to me...any place we haven't been is a place I want to visit.  When we had landed & collected our bags, we took the shuttle I'd arranged to our hotel.  It was about a 30 minute drive to the hotel, and along the way the shuttle driver would point out various things along our route.  For example, I knew we were close to Bosnia, but had no idea that one point, we were only 6 miles from the border.  I remember all the news coverage of the war in Bosnia during High School, and never pictured myself vacationing a few miles from it's border.  The view during the drive was spectacular.  Dubrovnik sits along the Mediterranean cost, with huge mountains behind it, so it's an amazing view.

Once we arrived, we checked in, got settled, and took the 10 minute bus from our hotel into Old Town where Penny, Adam, & Craig were staying.  We walked around the old town area for a bit, and stumbled across an unexpected memorial.  It was a room dedicated to Dubrovnik Defenders.  I'll admit my knowledge of the history of this area isn't the greatest.  I remember the conflicts in Kosovo & Bosnia, but the other major conflicts following the fall of the Soviet Union I don't know too much about.  This room told a small part of it. Croatia, Montenegro, Serbia, and Bosnia all used to be one country, Yugoslavia.  When the USSR fell, the country fractured into Serbia, Bosnia, and Croatia.  Montenegro was it's own country, but part of the greater Serbia.  In 1991, the Montenegrin army, Serbian army, and the remains of the former Yugoslavian Army, all attacked Dubrovnik, trying to annex it to their own country.  The bombardment came from sea, air & land and lasted until July of 1992.  Then, from 1992 - 1995, there were sporadic bombings and attacks.  In 1995, Dubrovnik rejoined the rest of Croatia.  This memorial we found was dedicated to those who died fighting against the invading armies.

After that we were all ready for dinner.  There's a show that Shanna & I watch, as well as our friend Adam, called Three Sheets.  The basic premise is the host travels around the world and explores whatever food & drinks the area is known for.  He had done an episode in Dubrovnik, and ate at a place called Pupo.

When we walked up, we weren't sure we were at the right place.  The waiter walks up, sees us looking around, and we ask for a seat.  But he knew what we were looking for, so he asked if we had any questions. We told him we wanted to know if this was the place from Three Sheets, and he starts laughing.  He tells us to take a seat, and he goes in the back and brings a glass for each of us, filled with Grappa that had been infused with Rosemary and other Italian Herbs.  It burned at first, but the after taste was delicious, just like garlic bread.  Everyone who comes there & mentions Three Sheets gets to try it for free.  We asked for another round (fully intent on paying for it), and he brought us out the entire bottle...on the house.  The food wasn't bad, but wasn't great...what really made the place, though, was the owner, Ivan.  He was funny, and put on a show all night for us.  Later in the evening a group of four Germans sat next to us.  We started talking with them, and found out they live just north of us.  Somehow we got on the subject of Volksfest, and then started the German drinking songs.  Even Ivan joined in for a bit.  Eventually we called it a night, and ran through a sudden rainstorm to get to the bus that would take us to our hotel.

The next morning we had breakfast, then headed to a kiosk outside our hotel.  We had seen it advertising excursions, including one to the country south of us, Montenegro.  Penny had really wanted to take a day trip down there, and after looking at the pictures of the country, I really wanted to visit also.  It was pretty a cheap too...an all day, guided tour, visiting famous landmarks and stopping in two cities, all for 33 Euros a person.  We signed up, then hopped on the bus to old town.  Shanna & I were doing our own sightseeing that morning, and would meet up with the rest of the group for lunch.  We started off walking on top of the old fortress walls that surround the city.  The view from up there was amazing.  It's a decent size city, so walking around the entire wall took about 2 hours.  While walking around, we noticed film crews.  We'd also seen some the evening before.  We figured they were shooting a documentary, but found out the next day while talking with our tour guide that we were wrong.  He asked us if we were here as tourists, or with HBO.  I told him tourists, but asked what he meant by HBO.  It turns out the series Game of Thrones is shooting it's second season in Dubrovnik.  The city will serve as a location called Kings Landing, and they were shooting location shots.  So if you watch the show, and see us, you'll know why.  :)

After we finished walking around the wall, we met up with the group and had lunch.  You'll notice a common theme with the food here...it just wasn't that good.  We didn't eat at a single place that we really liked, and what made it worse was it wasn't cheap.  It was hard to keep track of what you were spending because of the inflated numbers they use, but once you did the math, it wasn't cheap.  It's a 5.5 to 1 ratio, so 100 Krunes was just under $20.  After lunch, we wandered along the tiny streets, looking in on the various shops.  We even ran into the lady from our flight, and got to meet her grandson & family.  We then headed to a cafe Penny had heard about that was located just outside the walls, facing the sea.  It was nice to have a drink in hand & relax, watching the Med. Sea.  We ended the afternoon sitting at another cafe in the harbor, waiting on all the cruise ship tourists to leave.  It's amazing the difference in the early morning / evening when the cruise ships are gone, and during the day when they are there.  With multiple ships in the harbor, approximately 15,000 - 20,000 people visit, then are gone by the evening.  At this point it was early evening, and we knew we had to get up early the next day for our day trip.  Plus, it was starting to look like rain was coming, and Shanna & I didn't want to get caught in it heading back to our hotel.  We headed back, and ate dinner at a tiki theme bar on the beach by our hotel.  Again...not great and over priced.  It rained while we ate, but thankfully we were fully covered and it subsided before we finished.

The next morning the tour van picked us up from our hotel, and we hit the road.  It took about 45 minutes to get to the border, then we sat & waited.  Normally when you drive across a border where you need to show your passport, there's two checkpoints.  First for leaving the country you're in, then for entering the country you're going to, and typically they are right next to each other.  There's still tension from the war 20 years ago, though, so the two checkpoints between Montenegro & Croatia are 700 meters apart, and not within line of sight.  We sat to have our passports stamped on the way out of Croatia, then again on the way in to Montenegro.  Once that was squared away, we headed in.  The pictures did not do the country justice...the coastline was beautiful.  We made a few stops along the way for pictures, but the first major stop where we had an hour & a half to walk around, was Kotor.  Kotor is an old city that sits on a bay, with huge mountains behind it.  Once inside, we went to the three major churches, including one that was first built in 809 AD.  It had been damaged & renovated over the years, and in 1979 a devastating earthquake severely damaged it.  Finally, in 2009, they had the funds to renovate it and now it's a beautiful church.  One of the things we noticed was all the dogs & cats running around.  The dogs had collars, so they probably weren't stray, it was just strange to see it.  They were friendly though...Penny would pet both the dogs & the cats, and they seemed to eat it.  We picked out some souvenirs, and when our time was up, headed back to the van.

The next stop was just for pictures, and it was Sveti Stefani, an island that is only accessible if you are a guest.  And being a guest doesn't come cheap.  It costs 1,000 Euros per person per night.  There's also a private beach that is split in half (makes more sense when you see the picture).  If you aren't staying at the island, you can still access the beach for a price.  The right side of the beach is 35 Euros per day, and the left side is 55 Euros per day.  Maybe we'll stay there next year. :)  After seeing the island from above, we headed to our final stop, the capital of Montenegro, Budva.  Budva was neat, it sat right on a bay, and was still surrounded by an ancient fortress wall.   The first thing we did was have lunch, and it was by far the best meal we'd had on the trip.  Shanna & I both got Calamari, and hers was stuffed with garlic & onions.  It tasted amazing.  We had beer from Niksicko, the only brewery in Montenegro.  After paying the tab, we headed into the city to sight see.  It was a neat town.  It was small, with narrow streets, but it connected to a pretty beach, and the mountains surrounding it were breath taking.  Finally, the trip came to an end, and we headed back to the van.  We took a car ferry across the Bay of Kotor, and continued on the drive home.  We rolled back in to Dubrovnik around 7pm.  We were all beat, so we headed back to the hotel to watch some College Football on the computer, then called it a night.

Monday was our departure day, so we didn't do much that day, but we did have until noon before our shuttle to the airport was going to arrive.  Shanna got up early for a massage at a spa next door, and afterwards we walked along the beach and explored our part of town since we hadn't really done that yet.  We got to the airport early, and watched the Arkansas game on the computer while waiting for our flight.

Normally I'd end the post by saying the flight home went smooth.  While that's true, something did happen.  We had a lay over in Vienna, and when we touched down, I turned my phone back on.  I had a voicemail.  A week & a half ago I'd interviewed for a network security job with SAIC.  The interview went well, and later that week I found out a friend of ours is friends with the hiring manager I interviewed with, and he put in a good word.  I listened to the voicemail, and it was that hiring manager.  All he said, though, was that he was calling about the position and would call back later.  At this point it was too late to call him back, so I had to wait an agonizing 12 hours until 9am the next morning, when he called to offer me the job.  It's going to take 4-5 weeks due to the paperwork on SAIC's end, as well as the fact that the German Government has to review it to make sure I qualify to be exempt from German taxes.  Once that's all said & done around December, I'll finally be employed.  I cannot wait to go back to work!

The next post will be in about two weeks, when we get back from Strasbourg, France, for the International Beer festival!

To see the pictures, click here or any picture above.