Sailing in Croatia

Howdy. We have been back in London for a week now after an excellent trip to Croatia. We were there for almost 10 days , sailing round Dalmatia (Croatia's Adriatic coast). For the most part we had beautiful hot sunny days spent sunbathing on the boat and swimming in the bays and balmy lazy evenings where we explored a different island each night. Bliss! (Except for one morning of sea-sickness and one unfortunate all-day hangover for MC...). We also got to go white water rafting on one of the stopovers on the coast which was fun but obviously (unfortunately) we couldn't take any photos of the experience.

We flew into Split, the largest city on the Adriatic coast, from where our boat would depart the next day. We spent the day (a full day, as, suckers for punishment yet again, we opted for the budget Easyjet 6am flight) wandering round the Old Town of Split (the rest of it is pretty industrial and not much to see) with its impressive Roman ruins, tangled marble streets and pretty promenade.

Night time view of Split from one side of the promenade.

The entrance to the Roman emperor Diocletian's Palace, dating from the 3rd century. Within the ancient walls there is a cathedral surrounded by shops and cafes. Below, inside the palace.

Our home for the next week, the middle boat (Eos). Our trip was only its fifth outing so it was nice and new.

The promenade in Split, lined with harbour-side cafes and below, the marble streets.

A quiet piazza facing the sea.

Where all the locals come to swim after work, Bacvice beach.

A spot of fishing.

Sunset in Split.

The next morning we boarded Eos, very excited about the week ahead.

One of the most beautiful islands we went to was Mljet, which is a Croatian national park. It was completely unspoilt and much quieter than most of the others. Above is our view while having dinner at a harbourside restaurant.

Boats in the water surrounding Mljet.

One of the salt water lakes on Mljet.

John going in for a snorkel.

More of the lake.

We hired a scooter (surprise, surprise!) to explore the island.

View from higher up in the hills, Mljet, and below, approaching from the boat.

We also went to Korcula island, (possible) birthplace of Marco Polo. The above is believed to be his house but there's a bit of controversy about that.

Korcula town is a walled town of round defensive towers and red-roofed houses, with lots of quaint narrow streets like the one above.

The party island of Hvar, and also the sunniest apparently.

We went out for dinner in Hvar with some of the others from our boat (mostly Aussie couples). Earlier in the day the couple on the right got engaged up on the fortress overlooking the island. Awwww.
So of course there was some celebrating to be done and lots of cocktails to drink...

This may have had something to do with MC's terrible hangover the next day!! MC also discovered upon chatting that the Aussie guy above John in the photo spent 8 months living in Ash Vegas playing rugby for Mid Canterbury in 2002. Weird!

The view of Hvar from the fortress on the hill.


John and the Croatian flag on top of the fortress.

More views of Hvar.

More quaintness in Hvar.

Next stop: Dubrovnik, the "pearl of the Adriatic". It really was beautiful too, enclosed in huge powerful stone walls, with the town centre containing white marble streets and squares with churches, monasteries, palaces and finely carved stone fountains. Beyond the walls are rocky beaches and the crystal-blue Adriatic.

The views from the city walls walk were awesome.


Town centre.

Outside the walls, before we started our sweltering city wall walk.

The huge Onofrio fountain, from 1438.

Red-roofed houses. Dubrovnik was shelled by the Yugoslav army in 1991 and almost completely destroyed but has been rebuilt and looks pretty amazing.


One of the fortresses at the corner of the city walls.

And below are some photos of fun on the boat!





The island of Brac, with its pebbly jutting beach. We jumped off the boat and swam to the shore to enjoy the pebbled beach.






So that was Croatia, we had a brilliant time and definitely recommend it!

Back in London and the the summer has been pretty good, even getting up to 30 deg a few days. Tonight we are off to see Meatloaf in concert which John is quite excited about, and then tomorrow we are going to the Emirates stadium to watch two pre-season friendlies (Hamburg v Juventus and Arsenal v Real Madrid). MC is going to Swansea next weekend with Krystal to visit Carla (pharmacy schoolmate), but apart from that we have no more trips planned, so will be enjoying the UK summer a bit more. We are playing social touch with NZ mates which is fun and so far haven't lost a game!
Love to everyone at home,
MC and John

More London Life

Here's the latest update (by popular request, well from John's mum anyway...). We haven't done any traveling since our Sardinia trip but have still been busy enough in London with so much to see and do! So here are some more London Life pics.

Last weekend we went with a group of friends to the O2 Wireless Festival in Hyde Park. Unfortunately was not the greatest weather on the day (cool and lots of rain) but we still enjoyed the music. We also managed to get up and close and personal (sort of) with Ben Harper - that's him in the blue hoody - after the power was cut on his sound and he jumped into the crowd and played some acoustic stuff.

The main stage - not sure who's playing in that photo but the big acts were The Goo Goo Dolls, Ben Harper, Powderfinger and the Counting Crows.

Counting Crows playing.

The night before the festival we went roller disco-ing down in south London with Ally and Jake and a few other mates. Was lots of fun (although maybe getting dressed up in 80s gear was more fun than the actual skating!)

A near collision on the skate-floor!

John getting his skating groove on.

Our awesome sunnies.

John being suave on the escalator.

Taking a break.
And below Gemma, Kelly, MC and Kelly modeling the scary 80s gear. Although what was slightly more freaky was the fact that we got all our outfits from Primark (ultra-budget UK High St chain), didn't have to go anywhere near a second-hand shop!

Interesting tube journey to Vauxhall - we got lots of comments and also one lady who thought we were lesbians on our way home from the gay Pride parade held earlier that day! (see below)...






So the gay parade was pretty cool - some awesome costumes, garish makeup and extravagant drag queens!

Another recent day out was the one-day cricket match between England and NZ at Lords.





Daniel Vettori after the Kiwis' convincing win over the English.

So that's what we've been up to in the last month. It's been good to spend a bit more time in London with friends (especially for John who is pretty happy that Watty has moved in a few doors down and more importantly has Sky for watching all those early morning All Black tests!). We are heading off on our next trip very soon (Friday!) and this time are going sailing in Croatia (round the islands in the Adriatic) for a week. After that we have tickets to Meatloaf (woo hoo!) and a pre-season Arsenal game which John is of course quite excited about.

We are both still in the same jobs (John at MFI and MC at the Royal London). MC's contract was meant to end in October but she has been asked to stay on another 9 months so will probably be there for a bit longer than originally thought. MFI also seem quite keen to keep John on but he is not so sure about whether he wants to stay, and is still figuring out visa issues (and doing some dodgy interpretation of the working holidaymaker visa guidelines...)

Birthday bliss in Sardinia

Having booked this trip for MC's birthday FIVE months ago, it was a long time coming and we were both really looking forward to some sun, sand and sea in Sardinia. Originally we were booked on an afternoon flight but the ever-reliable RyanAir cancelled it so we had to make do with a 6am flight out of Stansted which is the furtherest away airport from our place. We also had to be there 2 hours before as RyanAir won't let non-EU passport holders check-in online like the other airlines do. So weighing up the pros and cons we decided to head to the airport the night before instead of getting up around 2am! We did actually manage to get a bit of sleep too, wrapped up on the airport floor (you must have to get there pretty early to nab some seats with no annoying arm-rests!) in our sleeping bag with dozens of others doing the same thing. We didn't need to bother setting the alarm clock either as the staff give everyone a 'friendly' wakeup call at 4am. So although feeling a bit groggy we left a sodden London for the Sardinian sunshine.

Pia Maria beach, Alghero.

Pia Maria beach, Alghero.

The promenade in Alghero.

Sardinia in sepia! Alghero has a pretty, walled medieval town surrounded by the Mediterranean sea.

Unfortunately the best weather we had was the day we arrived and the day we left. The weather was (apparently) uncharacteristically cool and the seas were rough. This meant the main tourist attraction in Alghero (apart from relaxing on the beach and strolling through the Old Town), Neptune's Grotto, was closed every day we were there! We were keen to see it as the pictures of huge stalactites and stalagmites in the caves set into a sheer cliff looked pretty amazing so that was a bit of a disappointment. We went out to the entrance though, and the above photo is of the '654-step Goat's stairway' leading down the cliff into the caves.

The dramatic cliffs surrounding the caves.

There weren't too many tourists around at this time of the year so we found lots of quiet bays and beaches to relax on.

Old Town by night.

The medieval walls and apricot-coloured houses in Alghero.

MC in a typical Alghero street.

More of the beach.

Baywatch pose.

MC's 27th birthday dinner. The peachy-coloured buildings look really pretty at sunset.

Earlier the same evening. We had to have the birthday dinner the day after the birthday as unfortunately MC slept through the actual birthday after the sleep-deprived night at the airport. Luckily John was on hand to make an emergency dash for pizza when she woke up after the slightly longer than planned siesta!

Yummy pizza on the wharf.

The port and town in the background.

Pretty beaches.

Gate in the Old Town wall.

Another typical street scene.

So although the weather wasn't quite as warm as planned (we even had a day of torrential rain but luckily had a nice hotel to chill out in) we had a great and very relaxing time in Sardinia. Our next planned trip is to Croatia in July, however having been away for the last 7 or 8 weekends in a row, we are looking forward to spending a bit more time in London and catching up with friends!

Brighton

To get out of London for a quiet weekend we headed out to Brighton. Although the beach is pretty average and the pier is the epitome of the British seaside (ie tacky!) there are some nice restaurants and cool bars and lots of wee vintage/designer clothes shops.

The Brighton Pavilion, built in the early 1800s by Prince Regent (George IV). "A fantasy of Asian exoticism mixed with English eccentricity" as the trusty Lonely Planet says. The interior is pretty amazing too.

Entrance to the Pavilion.

The oh-so-tacky Pier. Fast food, amusement arcades, rides and pokies. And chavs.

The pebbly beach.

Carousel on the Pier.

John skimming stones on the beach.