Tag Archives: bars

Carousing in Córdoba

Posted by whitneyandjared in Travel, Whitney and tagged with , , , , , , , , , , ,

I’ve already posted on our visit to the Mezquita during our trip to Córdoba, but we did a lot more than that in our short overnight. We took the train and it was a short 1.5 hour trip, so half the travel time than our trip to Granada. We knew from that trip that the train station was probably well within walking distance of downtown, so we walked to our hotel since it was still only midday.

We stayed at the Hostal Alcazar, which was half the price of everywhere else in town. It definitely lived up to it’s budget reputation, but our room had a powerful heater and that was all that really mattered. Córdoba was FREEZING. It was probably the coldest place we’ve been so far (though sadly, I hear Barcelona is going to be pretty chilly as well). We set our bags down and went to explore the old Jewish Quarter.

Our first stop was the Casa Andalusi, a 12th-century house decorated to evoke the spirit of Andalusian Islamic life during that time.

medieval paper-making tools

The house was pretty but not much to see, really. We also went to see the medieval synagogue but it was tiny so there’s not much to report their either. It’s really true that the sight to see in Córdoba is the Mezquita.

At that point, we were getting pretty cold, so when Jared found out there was an Arab bath in the area, we were there! After going to the one in Seville on Sunday we ended up liking it better, but the one in Córdoba wins for biggest lifesaver. The baths were gorgeous and really warmed us up. When we were done, we wandered around to find some tapas for dinner (you can easily make a meal out of tapas, and we did).

Jared finally got his small beer

As we were walking around, we ran into an Australian tourist who was looking for his hostel. We pointed him in the right direction, and actually ended up running into him and his friends later in the evening. We had a great time hanging out with them and it was nice to just talk and hang out with friendly people. Apparently the bar that we were at was attached to their hostel and one of the employes was an awesome guitar player. He also took our requests for The Bed’s Too Big Without You (he was wearing a Police sweatshirt), but I preferred his more traditional selections.

The next day after visiting the Mesquita, we walked across the Roman Bridge and visited the Calahorra Tower and the Museo Vivo de Al-Andalus.

The museum by all accounts is a bit odd, and nearly fanatically proclaims that Islam is responsible for every great thing in the world (and was apparently founded by a controversial figure). The reason it is worth the money is that they have on display these spectacular scale models of the Alhambra and the Mezquita in its original form. They were SO COOL, and it was particularly interesting to see the Alhambra from above and better understand its layout.

It was also really helpful and interesting to see what the Mezquita looked like when it was solely a mosque. It’s a hard thing to picture when you visit and there is a giant cathedral plunked down in the middle of it.

They also had some cool mini models of daily life in medieval Córdoba, including what looked very similar to the bath we had visited the previous day!

The tower also afforded some beautiful views back at Córdoba. So in summary, weird museum but still worth it.

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Wins for the Week

Posted by whitneyandjared in Travel, Whitney and tagged with , , , , , , , , ,

I think this picture says it all

My computer is back! And even better, it’s paid for! Let me rewind one minute and explain.

This is my "Uncle Nick." As you can see, he is cool.

My parents have a friend Nick, who I have literally known my entire life (he was present at my birth). He and his family used to live in New Jersey and when I was in college in Montreal, I would come down and spend Thanksgiving with them. They were my introduction to New York, and really encouraged me to move to the city when I graduated. When I met Jared, he started to come to Thanksgiving at their house too, and when we got married, Nick’s kids were in our wedding. The above photo is him dancing at our wedding reception (everybody got DOWN that night).

Anyway, Nick and his family moved to California last year, and he visits Seattle a lot since it’s his hometown too. He was visiting my parents when the unpleasantness with my laptop occurred, and he immediately offered to cover the repair costs! He wanted to invest in the trip, because he is awesome.  So when I say that we have supportive friends and family, I really mean it! Thanks Uncle Nick, we are so very grateful for your help.

In other wins this week…GO GIANTS! We had such a fun time watching the Superbowl this year. We’d watched the last round of the playoffs at a bar that was chock full of college students, and when we found out that for the big game they would be charging an €18 cover, we decided to look elsewhere for a bar with satellite TV. Our neighbor had one suggestion for a bar that didn’t charge cover or require a reservation, but it was a bit far away. After a quick Google we found Merchant’s Malthouse which was also free and much closer to our apartment. Normally we wouldn’t care, but with the time difference the game didn’t start until 12:30AM and we weren’t too keen on walking further than we needed to at 5AM when the game was over.

Merchant's Malt House

showing my NYC pride - lucky thing I packed this shirt!

The bar was great, and we immediately wished we’d found it sooner. They had drink specials, food specials, and a ton of fun Giants fans. We soon met Brian and Rebecca who were running the box pool (and from New York), and we cheered on our team with them all night.

What. An. Awesome. Game. The only Superbowl that topped that for us was the last time the Giants won and we were both living in New York. If we couldn’t be in the city, this was definitely the next best thing.

The next day, because we were so exhausted, we decided to treat ourselves to the baths at Aire de Sevilla. It was HEAVEN. Seriously, this is my new favorite thing in life, and definitely the best thing we’ve done on the trip so far. We also went when we were in Cordóba (which I promise I will recap tomorrow) and are planning to go again in Barcelona. You sit in a warm pool, then move onto a hot pool and then to a freezing pool…and then do it all over again. The process relaxes the body but wakes it up at the same time, and is supposed to improve circulation. The baths in Seville also had a saltwater pool, steam room, and hydrotherapy tub, and if you were tired of the water you could just sit on warm marble slabs and drink tea. If you are in Spain, GO DO THIS. It’s worth every penny.

Oh and since I mentioned Barcelona, I should clarify that we’re heading up there on Friday to meet up with our friend Jorge who is visiting a friend there. We’re leaving Sevilla a bit early (sad) and have rented an apartment for 9 days in what seems like a cool neighborhood, so we’re getting pretty excited about it. Also, to save money and not stress about all our luggage, we will be taking the train along the coast, so that should make for some beautiful views. It’ll be a long day but we’ve really enjoyed the train here so far, so we’re actually quite looking forward to it.

Now I’m off to begin the long process of restoring the files on my computer…

Gorgeous Granada

Posted by whitneyandjared in Travel, Uncategorized, Whitney and tagged with , , , , , , , , , ,

I wanted to post this yesterday, but our internet was down for a good portion of the day. Sorry for the delay!

Friday afternoon we took the train to Granada for an overnight visit. We had a small 3-car commuter train, but it was really clean and comfortable. The ride was rather pleasant, and the 3-hour trip gave us some lovely views of the Andalusian countryside.

Santa Justa station

We stayed at the Hotel Los Tilos, which was centrally located on the Plaza Bib-Rambla. We really liked the hotel and the location, and the price of our room (55€) included breakfast.

One funny thing was that the bed only had one super long pillow that we had to share. Good thing we aren’t pillow hogs!

the view from our room

After we unpacked, we took a walk over to the Albayzin neighborhood to have a look around. All the guide books say that it can get pretty sketchy at night, so we thought we’d take a peek before the sun went down. There wasn’t a whole lot going on over there anyway, so we hiked to the highest point to check out the great views of the Alhambra. At the top, we stopped for a few minutes at the Plaza de San Nicolás to listen to a flamenco performance by two guitarists. They were obviously busking for tourists but it was a nice backdrop to the beautiful panorama (see the top of this post).

There was a café perched just below the square so we decided to stay for a drink and a coffee.

"Señor Tercera-meter" was with us (it was Friday, after all)

Next, we headed back to the hotel to grab a coat before our nighttime visit of the Alhambra. Granada was pretty warm during the day, but once the sun went down it was freezing since it’s up in the mountains. I’m going to give both Alhambra visits (we went both Friday night and again Saturday morning) their own post tomorrow since there are so many pictures to share.

the view at night

We finished with our visit around 9pm (only the Nasrid Palace is open for evening entrance) and grabbed some dinner. If we hadn’t been so hungry, we would have just gone to a couple of bars since the custom in Granada is for bars to offer free tapas with drinks. We had to turn down some tasty-looking items because we were too full (though I did have some of a baked potato concoction)! We checked out a few bars on the Calle de Elvira, which was pretty packed with college students (the University of Granada is a large presence there) and walked around a bit before heading home so we could get up early for our second Alhambra visit.

the cathedral at night

Plaza Nueva

The next day – after our second Alhambra visit – we are lunch, walked around town some more and then stopped at a churrería for some churros y chocolate. I had been telling Jared that we couldn’t leave without having some, and he kept teasing me that he thought it should be a churro-free trip. I won.

spices and teas for sale outside the cathedral

this was the portion for ONE PERSON.

left to my own devices, I probably would have just drunk the leftover chocolate

As you can see, the portion sizes were huge. Jared took one for the team and ate a churro just to help me out. Once we were full of churros we went back to the hotel to check our email and grab our bags for the walk back to the train station. It was another beautiful day and we could see the snow-covered Sierra Nevada mountains  in the distance. It was a gorgeous farewell from Granada after such a fun visit!

the view from the train platform

Bonjour 2012!

Posted by whitneyandjared in Travel, Whitney and tagged with , , , , , ,

I’m not really sure how it happened, but we ended up having a pretty lively New Year’s. We had planned to stay in because Nice tends to get really packed on New Year’s Eve and we didn’t want to deal with a crush of people. Then Molly mentioned that she and Katy would be hanging out at home that night since Chris had to work and Nico is on a ski trip, so we decided to chill with them for a while and then maybe go out for a few drinks closer to midnight.

Kelly loves Jared

Katy is excited for dessert

design in the cake

Kelly pooped out early

It was fun hanging out with the girls. Molly cooked us a yummy dinner and then we watched a movie and drank champagne. We could have stayed there and been perfectly happy, but when Chris called to report that the Old Town was surprisingly subdued, we thought we’d go back to an Irish pub where we’d grabbed a quick drink that afternoon. I mean, how many times are you in France for New Year’s Eve?

Paddy's

this is probably why I felt so bad yesterday...

ready to count down

HAPPY NEW YEAR!

We didn’t really make new resolutions since we’re already living out some big ones on this trip. Though perhaps I’d resolve to not drink quite so much champagne next year? I spent yesterday on the couch in my sweats and Jared’s tuxedo t-shirt, because I’m classy. Starting off 2012 right!

Oh, and on the way home, we saw this guy (slightly NSFW, I guess):

Happy 2012 everyone!

Dubrovnik Wrap-Up

Posted by whitneyandjared in Travel, Whitney and tagged with , , , ,

This pretty much sums up our day today:

recognize anybody?

I hate packing. At least this time we have a finite amount of gear to pack up, and it’s slightly less than we came with since we’ve used up a lot of toiletries, etc. Still, boo.

It was a great last weekend here. We ended up going out both Friday and Saturday nights because Katie O’Connors was showing the Barcelona/Real Madrid match and our bartender buddies Matija and Hrvoje convinced us to come back for it. They have a funny way of convincing us to do a lot of things, like Sambuca shots.

Matija and Hrvoje

We were glad we came back because we had even more fun watching the match than we’d had the night before. Since we had the inside track and knew the place would fill up fast, we came an hour before kickoff and got a seat. Once it was standing room only we met some fun Australians, Lizzie and Phil, and chatted with them while the boys were busy with crazy soccer fans (and I mean crazy in a good way – that energy is infectious). Lizzie had a kickass Simpsons tattoo – bonus points if you know to which episode it refers.

"Philbilly" and Lizzie

"Sticking together's what good waffles do"

It’s nice to be leaving Dubrovnik on a good note. Oh, and for those of you wondering, here’s how “Oliver” is looking these days:

turning into a little fatty

he even let me pet him a little!

I think that about covers it here. So long, Dubrovnik! Next time we post, we’ll be in France!

Going Out in Style

Posted by whitneyandjared in Travel, Whitney and tagged with , , , ,

It’s our last Friday in Dubrovnik, so we’ve decided to do it up right. We’re basically re-creating my birthday by visiting all of our favorite spots: fancy tea and piano music at the Hilton, dinner at Nishta and hitting up our two favorite local pubs (Talir and Katie O’Connor’s). You can see below that Mr. F already has his party face on. If the weather is nice this weekend we may also try to catch the sunset one last time, but it’s been a lot colder and pretty windy the last few days, so we may or may not get that chance.

I’ll check in on Monday. We leave Tuesday morning, spend the night in Paris and arrive in Nice on Wednesday afternoon, so I’m optimistic that I can give you all the run-down on how that trip went on Wednesday. Fingers crossed!

Have a great weekend!

"ready to imbibe!"

Split Decisions

Posted by whitneyandjared in Travel, Whitney and tagged with , , , , , ,

I’m changing things up a bit for this post. We had a wonderful time in Split, but it would be a disservice to simply recap what we did, since what we really took away from the trip was how it made us feel and how it put this entire trip into perspective. So, I’m going to use this post to talk about some broader issues (with a little recap mixed in) and then I’ve put a slideshow of our photos from the weekend at the end to keep the post from getting ridiculously long, and to keep the photos from breaking up the discussion.

We set out to keep this blog for many reasons, but I’ve always wanted the primary focus of the blog to be about what it was really like for us to be here, what we learned from this trip and how we’ve changed as a result. With that in mind, it’s hard to know how honest to be about everything we are experiencing, since it usually takes a while to process our feelings and impressions of a place.

After we had been in Dubrovnik for about a month, we realized that we were both in a bit of a funk. We had separately come to the conclusion that we’d done everything here that we wanted to do, and weren’t really sure how to proceed with another month ahead of us in this sleepy town. We talked about it and realized that we both had this idea that we were supposed to feel a certain way, and felt that we were somehow failing if the reality of a place wasn’t matching our idea of it. We had to admit to ourselves that we were a little disappointed with Dubrovnik, and that it was OK to feel that way. It’s a beautiful place with a lot of interesting things to do, but two months were way too long to be here. Once we came to that realization, we both felt a lot better and were able to let go of the idea that we “should” feel a certain way, and we started to enjoy ourselves again. We started to embrace the downtime that we had, and of course really appreciated all the quality time together, which was the main reason for this trip.

Some important conclusions that we reached from that discussion were:

1. Usually we are feeling the same thing about a given issue, and we don’t realize until we talk about it (and when we do, we feel a lot better knowing we’re not alone in that feeling).

2. We need more of a sense of movement in this trip. In many ways, we enjoyed our drive cross-country more than we’ve enjoyed this trip so far, because we’ve felt stuck in one place.

3. We probably shouldn’t spend more than a month in any destination. Our original reasoning was that by staying here longer and saving on rent we’d be able to take more side trips, but the truth is that for our own mental health it would have been better to move on.

The tragedy is that when we had this talk, one of the solutions we came up with was to move on to Split for the next month. We know now that we absolutely should have done that. At the time, our arguments against leaving were that we felt weird about getting out of our arrangement with our landlady, we had already arranged our transportation to Nice and were leaving from Dubrovnik and (most importantly) literally no source we consulted had much to say about Split. Granted, the majority of travel guides aren’t geared toward our situation, but also the locals and friends we spoke to didn’t make it sound too exciting either. It’s really too bad, because Dubrovnik may be the beautiful favored child of Croatia, but Split is the fun older sister who takes you shopping and lets you get drunk with her cool friends who are home from college for Thanksgiving break.

We made it up to Split by 2:30 and made our way to our sobe. We got really turned around and missed both the entrance to Diocletian’s Palace and the street that our sobe was on, and I began to get really frustrated and suspected the trip was going to be a disaster (spoiler: it wasn’t). No matter what I did, I just could not orient myself to the map and it was driving me crazy. Jared saw that I was shutting down, took over and we found our way. Later, we realized that he had thought I wanted to do the navigating (usually it’s my job, since I USUALLY have a natural sense of direction) and I thought he wanted me to do it so I was even more frustrated that I couldn’t figure out where we were. We acknowledged that sometimes I just need to ask him for help, because he doesn’t always know I need it (which ties in nicely with point #1 above).

The incident also highlighted one of the key differences in Split: the attitude was much lighter here. We had to ask more than one person where we were going and they were all really helpful (one woman even went online to look up the address), which was almost shocking to us after our time in Mostar and some of the surly shopkeepers we’ve encountered in Dubrovnik. The guy who gave us the best directions even remembered us when we came back for breakfast the next day and asked how we were doing. We noticed this difference in attitude almost immediately upon arrival – it was clear that there is a pulse to this city that we hadn’t yet felt anywhere else. It’s true that we’re here in the off season, but Split was still full of people this time of year, and they were locals that didn’t leave once the sun went down. It felt like this was a town that people actually lived in and enjoyed.

We arbitrarily chose a restaurant from our guide book and ended up at Šperun. On our way out, we got to talking with the owner and had a lovely conversation about our trip and the differences we felt between the towns that we’d visited. We gave him our card and he had already posted our blog on the restaurant’s Facebook page by the time we made it back to Dubrovnik. It was the warmest interaction we’ve had on the whole trip, and the kind of meeting that we’d been hoping for all this time. After dinner, we meandered around Diocletian’s Palace, sniffing out bars by following the sounds of conversation. I’m pretty sure we were the only non-locals at any of them.

Another thing that kept coming to mind was how easily the weekend could have gone badly in our minds (or not as well). We already got lost, but we could have arrived to a less charming room, gone to a less inviting restaurant, or walked in a different direction and not found the fun bars to drink at. It all speaks to the fact that on a trip like this, you don’t know what is around each corner, which I think is part of why we gave Dubrovnik more of a chance than we needed to. We are both so open to meeting new people and having a good time here, and we just keep trying and hoping that we’d find that spark that eluded us. I think in this case it was just in Split the whole time.

However, what is steadily becoming the truth for us is the idea that there is no perfect place. We know that we probably would have also gotten bored with Split eventually, and that’s still OK, because we have a home and we’re not trying to find a new one. We’re trying to exhaust our current dreams while we have the mobility and financial means to do it, and to reinforce the idea that the grass is not always greener so that when we have kids and it gets difficult to travel for a while we won’t feel like we’re missing out on something. The one constant we have is that we love spending time together and that we are a good team, and we are very fortunate to have all of this time to just be together in the same space, wherever in the world that may be.

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Reflections on Mostar

Posted by whitneyandjared in Travel, Whitney and tagged with , , , , , ,

I have never been so happy to be “home.”

I’ll start by saying that we had a lovely time in Mostar.  But…it was almost a bit of a disaster.  Because I’m mean and I want you to read the whole post, I’ll leave that part of the story to the end (also because it happened at the end).  I should warn you that this is kind of a long post, just so you know what you’re getting into.  You might want to take a bathroom break now, and grab a beverage or a snack to hold you over.

We left Dubrovnik on the 8am bus on Saturday (for the record…ouch) and made it to Mostar around 11:30.  We arrived at our B&B without incident – besides being overcharged for the cab ride (word to the wise: be wary of the metered ride, and if it costs more than 5 Euros to get to the Old Town, you are being ripped off).  For our lodging, we went with a Rick Steves pick called Villa Botticelli that was a few blocks away from the Old Bridge, and we would highly recommend it to anyone visiting Mostar.  The owner’s son Denis met us there, gave us the keys and took note of the times we wanted breakfast set out and the cab called to get back to the bus station the next day.  He was very helpful and the whole stay including breakfast was only 46 Euros (about $60 USD).

the entrance

our room

other direction

sweet balcony + view

We were the only people staying in the whole place, which was pretty nice.  They were doing some work on the terrace so it was a little torn up, and the stream was kind of dried up, but we didn’t care (it was quite cold all weekend so it’s not like we were hanging out on the balcony anyway).   It’s clear that in the high season, this place is impossibly adorable.  Even with the chilly weather it was still pretty adorable – with the heater on, our room was as cozy as can be and we had an excellent nap that afternoon and sleep that night.

Can I also just take a moment to mention how much I love these blankets??  I wanted to steal them.  Looking at this design and color combination instantly puts me in a good mood.

We set out to explore and get our bearings.  Turns out, it does not take much time to walk the span of Mostar (or at least the Old Town).  It’s pretty small.  As we headed toward the Crooked Bridge, a Muslim call to prayer rang out in the quiet and crisp air.  It was beautiful and moving.  Our impression of Mostar was that it felt like a ski town in the mountains: it was really cold and the smell of wood burning stoves was in the air (we smelled like a campfire when we got home).  The cold was really enchanting, but at the same time Mostar is the only place we’ve been so far that I would also like to see in the high season.  There are a lot of beautiful terrace restaurants and bars (closed this time of year), and there is a club of divers who routinely leap from the Old Bridge in the summer months.

The Crooked Bridge

Mostari Diving Club sign

This thought brought up a debate that we’ve been having on and off about whether we’d rather be on this trip in the high season vs. now.  For the most part, we aren’t missing out on much by being here in the off-season and there are a lot of inherent benefits (lower prices, fewer tourists).  Sure, some things are closed, but in Dubrovnik we’ve still gotten to do almost everything we wanted to do (even if sometimes it was at the last possible minute) and even now there are still quite a few cruise ships coming through, so I can’t imagine what it would be like at full capacity.  We aren’t getting the best possible weather now, but we’re also not getting the worst, and we’ve had some beach days so we’re not suffering by any means.   It will be interesting to see how this view changes as we move on to other places, and whether Dubrovnik is just an anomaly.  I’ll keep you updated.

that is a person on the bridge - not something coming out of my head

bridge views

Coppersmiths' Street

A note on Mostar: it was horribly, mercilessly ravaged during the Croat-Bosniak War.  A lot of the town was rebuilt, but there are still visible scars from the war everywhere.  The most notable and crushing event of the siege of Mostar was the destruction of the Old Bridge, which had been a source of pride for the town and was considered an old friend (it was rebuilt in 2004).  I don’t want to get too into the complicated history here, because that’s not really what this blog is about, but I encourage anyone who is not familiar to read up on the war a bit if you would like some insight on this region.  It’s pretty hard to escape the war when you’re in Mostar (and to a lesser extent, Dubrovnik because it has been rebuilt so thoroughly).  There is a museum dedicated to the destruction of the bridge, and there is a cemetery that used to be a park, where war dead were buried because it was the only place safe from sniper fire (often, bodies would lie unclaimed in the streets for days because it was not safe to retrieve them).  Sorry to be a downer, but it’s kind of hard to talk about Mostar without giving some of this perspective, and I think this perspective may help to frame our experience there.

in the cemetery, a cat had cornered another cat up a tree...ah, life.

We were pretty sleepy from getting up so early for the bus, so we stopped for lunch and some Bosnian coffee at Sadrvan (you should pretty much assume at this point that our hotel and restaurant picks are all from Rick Steves; it’ll save us all a lot of time).  For some reason, it wasn’t so cold that we needed to eat inside so we sot in their beautiful outdoor courtyard and watched the show of a pack of 10 cats running from table to table as food was served.  As you can imagine, we enjoyed this to no end, and fawned over the most wee baby kitten that was really holding his own with the other cats.  We saw him later that evening and fed him from our cat food stash.

Bosnian coffee

workin' it

so much food (it was delicious and 13 euros total!)

cat beggars

this cat was mean, but this picture cracks me up

After lunch we went back to our room and had a nap, took a shower and went back out for dinner.  Dinner was delicious, but the highlight for me was when I ordered a “sour pickle salad” and was literally given a bowl of pickles.  I do not mention this to be funny.  Anyone who knows me or had eaten enough meals with me will tell you that I LOVE PICKLES.  It’s kind of my thing.  Sometimes (no joke) I will just order a side of pickles because I want them.  So to be served a bowl of pickles was like a dream come true.

do I look happy here? because I am really, really happy.

After dinner we walked around the town at night because I wanted some killer pictures of the bridge.  We also had a drink at the only bar that was open that wasn’t a dance club for horny teenagers.  Let me give you a little nugget of wisdom that we’ve picked up here: if you want free drinks in Dalmatia, tip your waiter.  I can’t say that this is always going to be the case, but 95% of the time, that is what has happened to us.

we loved these glasses

The next morning we had a sweet little breakfast at our B&B and then lunch at Sadrvan again to fill up for the bus ride back to Dubrovnik.

Saturday afternoon, we had tried to get some cash out of the ATM…and it declined us.  “Silly me,” I thought, “I forgot to let the bank know we were going to Bosnia.”  We went home and contacted the bank and they told us it was no problem and we’d be able to take out cash in 10 minutes.  After about 6 tries at various ATMs, we were still not able to get cash and the bank didn’t know why, but our card was accepted at dinner that night so we figured it would sort itself out by morning.  We had exchanged enough kuna to pay for our room so we thought we’d be fine.  We got to the bus station an hour early, just in case and well, things were not fine.  We were 15 Euros short for the bus tickets, still couldn’t get money from the ATM, there was no way to pay with a credit card, hardly anyone spoke English and the bus we were planning to take was the last bus of the day back to Dubrovnik.

All of the sudden, the fact that people had left us alone all weekend (which we had previously found refreshing) became a huge problem, because nobody would help us.  We tried explaining to anyone we could what the problem was in the hopes that they could suggest a solution, but due to the language barrier or ambivalence they all just shrugged and turned away.  We were stranded, alone, and for the first time on this trip it became apparent just how very far we were from home.  After about 45 minutes of trying everything we could think of (Jared even went to some restaurants to see if he could charge something and get cash, but they all thought he was trying to scam them), Jared let out an exasperated expletive in English and a teenage boy came up to him and offered to help.  He translated between Jared and an agent for the bus company, who finally suggested he try an ATM five minutes away that was connected to a bank.  We didn’t think it would work, but Jared sprinted down there anyway.  When I saw him sprinting back, I knew it had worked, and we jumped on the bus 3 minutes after it was scheduled to leave (we’d persuaded them to wait a few minutes while we tried this last ditch effort).

I don’t know why our card didn’t work, or why it finally worked at this ATM, but sitting there completely helpless and thinking we were going to watch that bus leave without us was a terrible feeling.  Look, I am very much aware that in the grand scheme of things, it was a very minor crisis, and we would have been fine.  We could have afforded to stay another night in Mostar.  We are very lucky, and we were safe the whole time.  But something about the experience deeply bummed me out, and I’m still feeling it today.  I think I feel particularly sad because it marred an otherwise lovely visit to Mostar.  I’m sure we will tell our kids about “that time we almost got stuck in Mostar” and kind of chuckle in a oh-how-young-we-were-once sort of way, but right now all I can think about was how we were in trouble and nobody cared.  I think that will probably influence my actions a lot going forward.

Also, the experience led us to the decision that we’re not going to take the bus anymore, even though it’s cheaper than renting a car.  The driver went just a little too fast around some cliff-side curves for our taste, and it made us see that we much prefer to be in control of our own transportation.  It also made us appreciate this nice little setup we have in Dubrovnik.  We wandered around all evening saying how nice it was to be “home.”

You Say It’s Your Birthday??

Posted by whitneyandjared in Travel, Whitney and tagged with , , , , , , ,

For those of you who don’t know, yesterday was my 29th birthday.  Last week I was a little sad at the prospect of spending the day so far away from friends and family, but Jared made sure we had a really nice time and it ended up being definitely up there on the list of top birthdays.

We had a pretty normal day and then at 4 we went out for some tea and cakes, like fancy ladies.  The Hilton (where our gym is located) has a special service every afternoon in the lounge from 3-7pm with unlimited cakes and coffee/tea for 45 kuna per person (about $8 USD).  We had been wanting to check it out for a while, so we thought my birthday would be the perfect opportunity to indulge.

the Hilton Imperial

the spread

our choices

a nice view of the Fort of St. Lawrence at sundown

It was WELL WORTH the 45 kuna.  The cakes were delicious (the apple strudel was my favorite) and the lounge was the perfect mix of posh and comfortable – just enough to feel special on my b-day.

I am a classy tea-drinking lady.

We came home and to have a little champagne before dinner and our landlady had left a gift at the door!  I could not figure out how she knew it was my birthday – it turns out she had checked the passport copies we sent in advance of our arrival.  Smart woman!

wine!

We had been waiting to try a place called Nishta around the corner from our apartment, so I picked that for my birthday dinner.  It’s a vegetarian restaurant that is one of the only spots Rick Steves recommends in Dubrovnik, and it smells ridiculously good whenever we walk by, so we were pretty psyched to finally be trying it.  Nishta did not disappoint!  The restaurant is delightfully cozy and cheerfully decorated, the music was festive but unobtrusive (more on that later), and the service was very friendly – they even gave me a free glass of champagne when they found out it was my birthday!

the entertaining ladies room

see? friendly!

I had falafel with hummus and Jared had a rice noodle stir-fry, and both were excellent: nothing fancy but really well done.  The real winner was the chocolate fondue we had for dessert that came with a dish of shaved coconut for dipping (brilliant)!

falafel

fondue!

the works

Jared got really into the music they were playing (or maybe it was just a sugar high from the fondue) and performed an impromptu birthday dance for me.  It was really special.

This video is my new favorite thing.  Seriously, if somebody wants to make a gif out of him dancing (or tell me how) I would be forever grateful.

Since it IS Friday, I should mention that Mr. Footlong came along to join in a toast.

huzzah!

We went to our favorite neighborhood bar to cap off the evening and Frank came along.  He had quite the time!

he met Goran Visnjic...

indulged in a bit of honey grappa...

...and engaged in some lively debate with the locals.

Since I’m a completely spoiled wife, I also got a present!  As you know we are very budget-conscious, so Jared and I talked it over and agreed that I could get a piece of traditional Croatian jewelry for my birthday.  The store that had the piece I liked was closed when we stopped by yesterday so we went today on the way back from the gym.  I chose a small bracelet and it was too long so they offered to take the two extra pieces off and make earrings for me.

pardon my post-gym appearance

the set

The staff was really pleasant and while we waited for the jeweler to make my earrings we enjoyed checking out their display of old currency (including a US 2 dollar bill):

now THAT'S inflation

Thanks to the wonders of the internet I had some lovely birthday Skypes with family and an overwhelming number of messages from friends (in addition to being completely spoiled by my sweet husband).  I felt very loved and not all that far away after all.  I am a very lucky girl!

Early tomorrow morning we’re heading to Mostar for an overnight, so I will update you all on Monday.  Have a great weekend, everyone!

Mostar

We Like the Nightlife (We Like to Boogie)

Posted by whitneyandjared in Travel, Whitney and tagged with , , , ,

I’m going to be honest here: this time of year, it’s pretty quiet in Dubrovnik.  However, that’s not so much of a problem since we like to chill out most of the time, and when we do go out together we can make a good time happen pretty much anywhere (translation: we bring the party).

After exhaustive research, we’ve narrowed down our two favorite bars in Dubrovnik.

The first is the sister to the cliff-side bar that we visited on our first day in town.  There isn’t much difference between the two, but we like the vibe of this one better because it feels more cozy and has more comfortable chairs.  Jared suggested last week that we go there to have a drink while the sun set, which was an excellent idea.  While we missed the sunset that day, we went back for some mimosas on Saturday and got the Full Monty (plus we almost literally got the Full Monty with some guys jumping off the rocks below us).

As you can see, it sucks here.

Our second favorite bar just happens to be on our street.  At first we favored an Irish pub a few blocks down, but after being overcharged and drinking flat cider we decided to check out the place that looked like it was full of locals.  It totally wins in my book: it’s quiet, only has one TV, has nautical touches of decor and a brick ceiling, displays old pictures of Dubrovnik and locals who have visited the bar AND we’ve befriended one of the bartenders to the point that he gives us free honey grappa when we come in (it’s SO GOOD).  That all adds up to the perfect neighborhood bar, if you ask me (and you’re reading my blog, so I will take that as you asking me).

Most Friday nights we just park ourselves in the corner and hang out for a couple of hours, and it’s great because we only have to go up the stairs to get home!  It’s not a bad way to start the weekend.