Back to the World of Blogging...

Hey all! I have to start off by apologizing for taking so long to get all of our vacation photos posted... It took some time to get all of the pictures sorted out and whatnot. Plus, I haven't been online (or the computer for that matter) very much this past week. You see, Brian's been home on vacation... Which means, we have to share the computer. And, when I say "share the computer", Brian is on it for about 90% of the time, and I'm on it for about 10%! :) (Therefore making it rather difficult to blog on a regular basis).

However, I do get full access to the computer today, being that Brian is gone for the day. He's doing some outdoor rock climbing in Austria with our friend, Dominik... And, as much as I'm happy to be able to get caught up on my blogging/computer time, I have to admit that I'm extremely jealous that Brian gets to go out rock climbing today! :) I would have, but there were two things holding me back... 1) I burned my hand in the oven the other day, which resulted in a huge blister that would have made climbing quite difficult, and 2) they're doing a route that is 8 - 10 times the height of the ones we normally do, and I have absolutely no experience in the type of climbing they're going to be doing today. So, for now, I'm staying home and letting Brian tackle this climb. After he does it, he'll be able to determine whether or not it's something I can handle... and if it is, you know I'll be heading out there with him on the next excursion! :) But, for now, I'm going to get caught up on all of my vacation blogging...

Being that we have so many pictures to share, I figured that blogging about the entire trip would be overwhelming. So, I've decided that the best way to do it is to break the trip up into segments, where I'll give background information on the area and then post the corresponding photos... And, on that note, I'd better get started. Enjoy!

And We're Back...

Wow, what an incredible trip!!  Italy, Croatia, Bosnia, and Montenegro... all in 3 weeks!!   We had such a wonderful time!! :)  I have so many stories and pictures that I can't wait to share with you.  But, considering that we're still trying to get all of our over 3,000 pictures uploaded (yes, you read that correctly... 3,000 pictures... yikes!), it might take a few days to get them all sorted out.  (I admit, we did get a little picture happy - especially Brian - and we took ALOT of pictures!)  So, please just be patient with us, and I promise to have stories and pictures of our vacation posted as soon as possible! :)  Miss you much!

Greetings from Pula, Croatia!!

Hey all!  I know it's been a while since my last post... I have to say that internet (or at least free internet access) is quite difficult to come by here.  Besides the fact that it can cost up to $45 to access the internet for a 24 hour period, it's also very hard to find places that have internet access... Unlike the U.S. where you can get free internet access at virtually every coffee shop! :)  But, we did finally manage to find free internet access at the hotel we stayed at in Pula, Croatia... Yay!! :)  And, I can now officially update you on our Italian/Croatian adventure... 

We've been having a wonderful time on vacation!! :)  We feel so fortunate to have been able to see so many places and things! :)  We're currently in the city of Pula, Croatia.  We left Italy on May 27th and we took an overnight car ferry to Dubruvnik, Croatia.  We arrived early in the morning on May 28th.  Since then we've been spending our time exploring Dubruvnik and it's surrounding areas... And, I have to say, that Croatia is an absolutely beautiful country!  Between the mountains, the endless coastline, the clear blue water, the palm trees, and the cute little towns and villages with their trademark red tiled rooftops that dot the landscape... it's the perfect vacation destination! :)  

During our stay in Croatia, we've also had the opportunity to visit the countries of Montenegro and Bosnia... Very cool!  We took a day trip to Montenegro and visited the Bay of Kotor... It was such a beautiful area!  We also took a day trip to Mostar, Bosnia to see the Mostar Bridge, which is a symbol of the city, and was destroyed during the Bosnian-Herzegovian War in 1993.  The town is still in the very early stages of recovery, where tourist money is very welcome. :)  The people were very friendly and they seem to still be jittery about the prospect of lasting peace.   Overall, it was probably the one place the has the most modern significant history of all the places we've visited.  Quite an amazing experience!!

On that note, I'm going to post some pictures of our travels, and then Brian and I are going to head out to do some more sightseeing... Today we're heading to Rovinj, Croatia... It's one of the most photographed cities in this country.  It's a small island city, where all of the buildings are built right to the edge of the island, so that it looks like the city is floating on water.  We'll make sure to take plenty of pictures! :)  We miss you much! 

Outside the city walls of Old Town in Dubruvnik, Croatia... That's the Adriatic Sea.

Old Town Dubruvnik...

Brian and I at the marina in Dubruvnik, Croatia...

The marina in Dubruvnik, Croatia...

Dubruvnik is on the right... The island on the left is the island of Lokrum...

The city of Dubruvnik in the distance...  So pretty! :)

Brian and I on the top of the fortress overlooking the Bay of Kotor in Montenegro...

The flag of Montenegro...

The Bay of Kotor in Montenegro...

Mostar, Bosnia... an area which has found peace in recent years.  You can see the new construction on the left, and an older, bullet-ridden building on the right...

The Mostar Bridge...

The city of Mostar, Bosnia as seen from atop the Mostar Bridge...

An arch leading into the Old Town in Pula...

How many towns or cities have this claim??

The Pula ampitheatre... The most complete Roman ruin in all of Europe.

Greetings from Italy!!

Hey all! We're having a fabulous time on the Italian portion of our vacation!! Over the past week we've seen the beautiful cities of Florence and Siena, witnessed the Leaning Tower of Pisa, enjoyed touring the Tuscan countryside, explored the ancient ruins of Rome, frolicked in the sunshine on the island of Capri, viewed the remnants of the tragic ending of Pompeii, braved the Amalfi Drive, and enjoyed swimming with an octopus in the Mediterranean Sea! The time has definitely flown by! We'll be in Italy for another couple of days and then we'll be heading over to Croatia... We're definitely looking forward to seeing what Croatia has in store for us! :)

Being that we only have a short amount of time on the internet, I can only post a few pictures of our trip thus far... Enjoy! (And I'm so sorry, but I completely forgot to upload the pictures of Rome, Pisa, and Amalfi onto my memory stick.... So, you'll just have to wait to see those at a later date. :)) Stay tuned for more updates! We miss you much!

Brian and I in Florence...

The medival town of Siena...

The Il Duomo in Florence... Gorgeous!

Brian and I at Pompeii...

Taking a coffee break in Capri...

The view from our campsite in Sorrento...

And We're Off!!

Hey all!  Today looks as if it's going to be quite a busy day... Lots of packing, laundry, running around for last minute items, etc. that has to get done! :)  We're heading out tomorrow morning at 5 a.m. (yikes!), so I need to make sure that everything is ready by this evening, before I head to the theatre to work backstage at the play (tonight's the last performance)... Fun times! :) 

We're very much looking forward to our upcoming vacation!!  We've got it planned so that we spend the first 11 days in Italy, and then we'll head over to Croatia for the second portion of the trip.  In case you're wondering how we chose to go to both Italy and Croatia... Brian asked where I would like to go on vacation, and I immediately said Italy, Ireland, or Greece... Italy ended up winning! :)  Brian's idea was to head to Croatia though... So, instead of spending the whole vacation in one area, we decided to compromise, and we both got to pick a location... I find it quite humorous though, because when we look at the schedule of the vacation, the Italian portion is crazy busy (I tried to fit in as much as possible!), and the Croatian portion is very laid back... You can definitely tell who planned what part of the vacation! :)    

Here's a sneak peek at the Italian portion of our trip...  I'm just so excited about it that I wanted to share it with you! :)  

5/16 - Leave at 5 a.m.... Drive to Pisa and check out the Leaning Tower of Pisa (yay!!), and then drive 45 minutes to a small village outside of Florence, where we will set up camp.

5/17 - Visit Florence...  The highlight of the day will be going to Galleria dell'Accademia to check out Michelangelo's Statue of David! :)

5/18 - Explore the Tuscan countryside... Take a trip down Chianti Road and possibly visit a winery (or two... :))

5/19 -  Leave early morning and head to Rome... Spend 1/2 day in Rome exploring Vatican City and area on the west side of the Tiber River.

5/20 - Brian's Birthday! :)  Full day of sightseeing in Rome... Key sights being the Colosseum, Circus Maximus, The Pantheon, The Spanish Steps... So exciting! :)  

5/21 - Head to Sorrento... Set up camp and spend the day sightseeing in the village of Sorrento.

5/22 - Boat tour to the island of Capri... :)

5/23 - Visit the city of Naples...

5/24 - Day trip to Pompeii/Mt. Vesuvius...

5/25 - Drive the Amalfi Drive...

5/26 - Free Day... We'll probably need it by that point in time! :)

5/27 - Head to Bari... We'll leave on the car ferry at 11 p.m. and arrive in the city of Dbrovnik (the southern part of Croatia) 9 hours later... 

(Needless to say, we won't have much time to sit back and relax while we're in Italy... You know me, I like to keep moving! :))

We have no set itinerary once we arrive in Croatia... We've heard that it's a more laid back country so we figured that we'd just see what awaits us once we get there.  Our plan is to spend the rest of the trip driving up the coastline of Croatia and heading back towards Germany... However, while we're in Dbrovnik, we do have reservations to go on a day trip/boat tour to Montenegro on one of the days, and we're also hoping to do a day trip/guided tour into Bosnia on another day... Very exciting! :) 

We are bringing our computer with us, so I'm hoping to be able to blog while we're on vacation.  However, being that we don't know when or where we'll have access to internet, I'm not sure how often I'll be able to post anything... Just check back periodically for updates! :)  

On that note, I have to get back to packing.  Have a wonderful weekend!   Just think, the next post from me will be coming from Italy... yay!! :)  Miss you much!!

Dancing on the Ceiling...

Germany...  Doing their part to keep the 80's alive! :)

I saw these posters and had to share them with you.  Only Americans can truly appreciate the humor! :)   How long ago was Lionel Richie popular in the U.S.??  Over here, they LOVE him! :)

Food Supplies - Check...

Hey all!  I'm managing to keep myself quite busy today, with getting ready for our upcoming trip.  I think I have all of the food supplies ready for the camping portion, so now I just have to get the camping supplies ready, get all of our laundry finished and packed up, try to find some camping chairs, and get all of the other last minute details worked out... Fun, fun!  However, I have to admit, that I think the most difficult part of the packing is finished... the food.  Ugh!   That was a feat in itself! :)

Usually when we go camping in the U.S., we simply head to REI and get some pre-packaged food and energy bars.  We then go to Costco and pick up the huge bags of trail mix, cereal, and bread.  Afterwards, we pick up the remaining essentials at the local Kroger store...  Piece of cake, and I can usually get it all finished within a couple of hours.  Let's just say it's not quite that easy here...

For one, I have yet to find stores like Costco or REI in Germany... All of the stores here are small markets or there's the occasional supermarket.  So, needless to say, buying our food supplies wasn't as easy as I had anticipated.   I have now been into all of the grocery stores within this area.  In buying food for the camping portion of our trip, I had to look for foods that could be prepared by simply adding water (Being that we don't have a camping grill, and all that we're bringing is our Jet Boil, we can't get very creative in the way of meals. :)).  The problem with that is that most of the prepackaged foods here require additional ingredients for the preparation... Ingredients that we most definitely will not have with us while camping! :)  So, I have literally spent the past few days, standing in the aisles of grocery stores, trying to translate the preparation directions on the backs of all the packages... Oh, what fun that was! :) After spending what seemed like hours standing in grocery stores and translating directions, I am quite pleased to announce that I managed to find quite a variety of foods to take with us...  Not only do we have prepackaged foods, but we also have bags of trail mix, cereal, granola bars, cans of soup, and lots of peanut butter and jelly (I foresee alot of peanut butter and jelly sandwiches in our future! :)).   I can now officially check that off of my list! :)

On that note, I'm off to run a few errands...  I'm posting a few pictures at the end of this blog for you to check out.  We've been having some crummy weather here for the past couple of days... bleh!  However, Brian managed to catch some of it on camera and the pictures turned out really well, so I wanted to share them with you... Enjoy!  Miss you much!

The food supplies for our trip... :)

One of the plants in our garden after the storm...

I love this one! :)

You can see how hard the wind was blowing just by looking at the waves and the trees!

Holy Guacamole!!

As many of you already know, Brian and I have a slight addiction to guacamole... :)  We literally used to make it on a daily basis, and we would eat it with pretty much everything.  Sometimes, we would simply make a batch up and consider it our dinner... We do love our guacamole!! :)  

However, since moving here, Brian and I have gone through guacamole withdrawals.  The guacamole here simply does not taste the same as the guacamole we make in the U.S.  We have spent months searching for avocados that taste like the ones found in the U.S.... You see, the majority of the avocados found in the U.S. are called Haas avocados and they're typically from either Mexico or California... Over here, the avocados are shipped from Israel...  And, let me tell you, they do not taste anything like the avocados we eat in the U.S.!!  And believe me, we've tried ALOT of them!! :)  Since we moved here, we've sampled avocados from virtually every store within the area...  And each time, we were met with disappointment.  We've even tried the guacamole they sell in jars... And, still, we had no luck...  That is, until yesterday...

Yesterday, I was at our local market.  As usual, as soon as I walked into the produce department, I headed directly to the avocados, in the hopes of finding some from Mexico/California.  And, as usual, they weren't. :)  However, another avocado caught my eye.  It was called a "Bio" avocado (that's what they consider natural products here), and it looked awfully similar to the avocados we have back home.  I picked it up and felt it, and it was actually soft to the touch... Unlike the avocados you find here, which are hard as a rock!  At that point, I was quite excited with my find, so I picked up two of them, bagged them up, and went on my merry little way (this time with a little more spring in my step! :)).    

I showed my purchase to Brian after he got home last night, and we decided to try them out.  As I began peeling them, I noticed that they peeled very much like the ones we have at home.  (And I've peeled my fair share of avocados! :))  By now, I could feel the excitement building... But, I didn't want to get my hopes up just yet.  So, I proceeded to mash them up and then I added the flavoring.  I then called Brian out to the kitchen to be the guinea pig... :)  He took his first bite, and chewed it thoughtfully...  In the meantime, I was bouncing up and down with anticipation.  He finally looked at me, with a huge smile on his face, and told me that it was a winner!!  Yay!!  :)  Needless to say, we inhaled that bowl of guacamole in about 5 minutes flat!!  It was so very tasty!!  It's not quite the same as what we make in the U.S., but it will definitely suffice!

So there you have it, I can officially say, that after months of searching, I have found avocados that taste remotely similar to the ones you find in the U.S... Brian and I can now indulge in our guacamole habit once again...  Life is good! :)