May 30, 2007
Well, the same shrewd budgeting that made our round the world trip possible is now forcing us into a traveler’s version of Sofie’s Choice, only instead of children we’re choosing between countries.
While reviewing our European travel costs the other day, Brianne determined that if we continued to spend the same amount each month until October, we probably wouldn’t be able to continue our trip into South America after a visit back to the States. This is unacceptable to both of us.
Since we aren’t traveling extravagantly as it is, cutting back on spending isn’t really an option. Plus, lately neither of us have felt that we’re getting the same experiential (is that a word?) value out of the places we’re visiting that we did in the more exotic locations where we’ve already been.
We were hoping to feel that excitement again while in Turkey, but the two fatal bombings there in the last month knocked it off our itinerary- dodging bloody shapnel in street bazaars sounds a little too exciting.
As I’ve said before, travel is all about maximizing utility, and just biding our time in cafés, wandering through cathedrals, and avoiding tour bus groups throughout eastern europe simply because that was the plan isn’t helping us do that.
So with goals and budget in mind, we made a short list of what we still really wanted to experience while in Europe. Though a few things (a Vienna opera, Budapest’s chain bridge, Hungarian tokay, and working a vintage in France) will have to be saved for another time, we’re extremely psyched about our latest plan, which will include:
- One week touring Belgium’s trappist breweries and a visit to Flander’s Field.
- A month in France to see Paris, Normandy, Mont Saint Michel, Verdun, and most major French wine regions- Alsace, Champange, the Loire Valley, Burgundy, Bourdeux, and the Cote du Rhone.
- A few days in Amsterdam for some art museums, canal strolling and a DJ Shadow/Cut Chemist show.
- A week in Germany with stops in the Rhine valley and Berlin.
- Five days in Ireland to see some Celtic ruins and search for the spirit of James Joyce in Dublin.
- Home to see family and friends on both sides of the U.S.
- Up to six months in South and Central America. “¿Se habla espanol?” “Si, pero muy malo. ¡Mi casa es su coche!”
Basically we’re trading two months in one part of the world for six months in another, while preserving nearly everything we wanted to see and adding a few things besides. There’s usually a trade-off between quantity and quality, but happily that isn’t true in this case.
During the time leading up to us visiting Croatia, we were bombarded with Croatian tourism advertising both in print and on television. The most prominent slogan we saw was:
“Croatia… the Mediterranean as it once was.”
In addition to that slogan being a little silly and debatable, it seems to contain a veiled criticism of the countries Croatia shares the Adriatic with. Its message and appeal is that Croatia is still authentic- unlike all those other vacation destinations. Whatever the case, its tone struck me as odd and I couldn’t help thinking up a few Croatian tourism slogans of my own:
“Croatia: the prices of Italy, but with far fewer Italians.”
“Greece is a joke. ’nuff said.”
“Croatia: 1,777 kilometers of coastline… and that’s about it.”
“We heard Slovenia talkin’ jive about yo’ momma.”
“Croatia: More Fugees than Haiti.”
“Because where else are you going to go on holiday, Albania?”
“3 out of 5 Yugoslav despots agree: Croatia is beautiful and must be destroyed.”
And finally:
“The Mediterranean as it currently is… in Croatia.”
Forget engineering, I’m going into advertising.
There is a tendency among travelers to excuse the failings of a certain location with an explanation of their own status at the time. For instance, when we were in Dubrovnik we met the threesome from the States that we had talked with in Piran. We did some catching up, asking where they had been and what they had done since we last saw them. When they mentioned that they visited Split (where we had just come from that day), we asked what they thought of it. All three mentioned how they had arrived there on an overnight train and hadn’t gotten a lot of sleep and things like that, but they were clearly unimpressed despite their own issues.
“Yeah,” we told them, “we didn’t like Split either.”
***
Once the brilliant coastal setting of the Roman emperor Diocletian’s palace, Split hasn’t fared too well in the years since Yugoslavia broke up. Accomodations are spread out and overpriced, its beaches are strewn with trash and its coastline is dotted with cruise ships and barges. The biggest reason for visiting Split is its the aformentioned palace, and even that was a let-down.
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Plitvice Lakes National Park contains sixteen lakes that are all connected by hundreds of gushing waterfalls, one of which is the tallest in Croatia. Many of the waterfalls cascade over long silt and moss ridges that are anchored by trees and plants, forming pristine terraced pools everywhere. The area of the park includes much of the virgin forest surrounding the lakes, resulting in the oldest and largest national park in Croatia.
From the Plitvice Lakes Visitor’s Guide:
“To date, 1267 differnet species of plants, including 75 endemic plants and 55 different species of orchids have been recorded in the park. This gives a good overall picture of the richness of the park’s flora. Studies in the park area have recorded 321 species of butterflies, 161 species of birds and 21 species of bat, indicating the richness of the animal world here. Of the carnivores, the most attractive inhabitant of the Plitvice forests is the brown bear (Ursus arctos).”
Certain places have such a natural peculiarity about them that they are really set aside in our memories as being particularly special. It’s almost like you have to get a good look to really convince yourself that you’re on Earth and not somewhere else. Ha Long Bay in Vietnam was one of those places, Milford Sound in New Zealand was another, and Bryce Canyon, Utah fits that description as well. Plitvice Lakes Croatia definitely falls into the “bizarre beautiful places” category.
We stayed in a small village near to the park that looked (again) like a set from The Sound of Music. Little houses with rooms for rent were scattered among the green hills and almond trees, with dense forest creeping up all around. The forest in this part of Croatia was largely birch and fir trees. The mix of leafy trees and needle evergreen trees was really pretty, and the lack of thick underbrush reminded us of East Coast forests, as opposed to the tangly West Coast forests at home.
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We arrived in Croatia eager to investigate traditional Croatian food- who would of thought that would turn out to be such a challenge?
It’s true that we limited our opportunities by cooking meals in a number of times, but that was only because the menus we looked at each day typically seemed more Italian than Croatian, and we were supposedly done with Italian food, at least for a while.
What are some examples of Croatian dishes? I still don’t really know. The closest thing I found was Ćevapčići, and the first time I had that we were still in Slovenia, so I’m thinking that Ćevapčići is a Balkan specialty rather than just a Croatian one. Even so, it has quickly joined Galician octopus and Tuscan roasted fennel as one of my favorite European dishes that I’d never encountered before coming here.
Ćevapčići, also known as Ćevapi, consists of 5 to 10 small well-spiced beef, pork, or mixed meat caseless sausages lightly roasted over coals and served on a plate or bun with finely chopped onions and a roasted red pepper relish called ajvar. The word cevapi is thought to be related to the Turkish name for coal-grilled meat: kebab.
I realize that in print, Ćevapčići doesn’t sound all that exciting, but it puts a regular hamburger to shame and ranks as one of those dishes that I’d be happy to eat any time. Something about the savory spices used and the fact that the meat is always served pretty rare makes it better than you’d expect it to be. But enough about what I think, why not try making some yourself?
C.J.’s Ćevapčići
Ingredients:
1 pound of ground lamb, pork or veal
1 pound of ground beef
1 beaten egg
5 drops of Tabasco sauce
1 teaspoon of marjoram
1 teaspoon of salt
1 teaspoon of paprika
1 large crushed garlic clove
4 tablespoons beef broth, if needed
Directions:
Combine all ingredients, blending well. Form into sausages about 3/4″ thick and 4″ long. Grill slowly until browned on a charcoal grill, turning often. The sausages should be brown on the outside and slightly pink on the inside. Serve as a sandwich or alone with roasted red pepper spread and chopped onions.
Serves six. Enjoy!
May 28, 2007
Before deciding on our next destination, we typically do a search of our options on Flickr in order to decide what place looks the most interesting. Before entering Croatia, Brianne checked out Rovinj (which looked adorable but identical to Piran), Rijeka (which looked like a big, industrial port town), and Pula, which is a medium sized port town with gleaming white, rocky Adriatic beaches and the 6th largest Roman Amphitheater in the world. So making Pula our next stop was an easy decision.
***
Even if C.J. didn’t have long hair and a full beard right now, the change in appearance from his passport photo would be obvious to anyone. He lost a lot of weight in SE Asia and is gradually gaining it back with all the cheese, bread, proscuiotto, kielbasa, gelato and delicious cevipicici (small spiced sausages) that we’ve been eating. But the other things still throw people.
Have you seen this man?
Brianne’s sister noticed the weight loss (”Dude! You’re skinny!), a woman in Lake Bohinj remarked that his passport was for “a different man” than who checked in, and there was a tense moment as we crossed the border into Croatia when an armed guard eyed his passport photo for a long time before and finally asked flatly, “What is your occupation?”
C.J. pondered of a couple of funny answers (Creedence cover band member, logger, hash dealer) before finally admitting that he was an engineer. Then the guard flipped through the book and noticed the Cambodian and Vietnamese visas. He raised an eyebrow.
“We’re traveling around the world,” he offered, as though barbershops are a rarity throughout the planet. The guard took a final glance at the photo and smirked. “Have a good trip,” he said, and handed back the passport.
You can’t really blame the border guard for his hesitation
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Over the last few months we’ve received a significant amount of kudos from both friends and strangers for following through on our plans to sell everything we owned and see the world, and it feels good to know that our experiences might inspire others to get out there (here?) and do it themselves.
Today I wanted to mention a traveler who inspires me, and whose journey has been longer, more challenging, and possibly more satisfying than anything we set out to do: The Hungry Cyclist, Tom Kahill Davies.
Over two years ago, this determined young Englishman set out to travel from New York City to Rio de Janeiro by bicycling across the United States, over the Canadian Rockies, down the west coast, through Mexico and Central America, and eventually into Brazil. Streaming from his heavily loaded steel bike frame are a U.S., British, and (more recently) Brazilian flag, and a sign that reads EATING MY WAY FROM NEW YORK TO RIO.
He has traveled over 14,000 miles so far, repaired countless flat tires, and eaten meals that ranged from splendid to humble with every step in between. One of my favorite of his stories happened in Banff, Canada, where he took on a gigantic brunch buffet at an expensive hotel and ended up curled up on a couch to sleep in front of the hotel’s many roaring fireplaces.
Brianne and I met Tom in December of 2005, at a lighthouse hostel on the rugged California Coast. He had just come from Oregon and was planning on entering Mexico a few days later. Brianne and her cousin and I had eaten dinner and were playing Trivial Pursuit, and Tom showed up and casually began answering questions for both teams as required. Later, we talked with Tom about traveling and the trip we were planning to take, though it was still just an idea at that point, and we hadn’t actually taken any steps to make it happen.
I remember Tom telling us about how common it was for someone to stop their car to find out more about his trip and then insist on loading up his bike and taking him out to dinner, sometimes to their favorite nearby restaurant but often for a home cooked meal and a place to sleep that night. While describing his experiences, Tom painted a picture for us that suggested that the challenges inherent in traveling are always outweighed by the rewards. It meant a lot to hear that from someone actually doing it, and we’ve certainly found his view to be the case ourselves.
Because Tom has finally reached Brazil, I’m not sure how much longer his trip will last. But to me, the time he’s spent and the distance he’s covered represent the heart of why I believe travel is so important- it’s the surest way I know of to ward off the spectre of regret.
Years from now, Tom will still be benefiting from his decision to do exactly what he wanted, to see what he saw and to go where he went. That portion of his life will remain in his memory like a jewel that can’t be stolen, a glass that can’t be emptied, or a meal that continues to satisfy long after the table has been cleared.
Congratulations, Tom. We wish you all the best and we hope that you make it home safe.
The Wine and Food of Slovenia
The Wine
Question: After tasting nearly 900 wines over five months, how is it possible to keep things interesting?
Answer: Spend some time tasting wines made from grape varieties that you’ve never even heard of.
That’s exactly what we did in Slovenia. Red wines like Refosk, Teran, and Blue Frankenja and whites such as Sipon, Laski and Renski Reislings, and Rebula gave us plenty to analyze, but add to that attempting to get Slovenia’s take on old standbys such as Pinot Noir, Cabernet, Sauvignon Blanc, Traminer, Pinot Blanc, Malvasia, and Muscat… it was a very busy week and a half.
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On the day we left Postojna, we had decided to stay in the mountains if the weather improved or head to the coast if it didn’t. As we walked back to the train station, a low growl of thunder marked the start of more pouring rain and told us we had made the right decision in moving on. Though it would mean missing the Skojan caves, Slovenia’s only Unesco World Heritage Site, there is no doubt in my mind that we would be returning someday to this wonderful country.
We had a pleasant two hour train ride to the shimmering coastline followed by a brief bus trip to Piran, our final destination in Slovenia.
***
While traveling to so many different places in such a short time, certain adjectives are bound to get overused. “Picturesque” is one of them. Every one of Piran’s narrow Venetian-style streets lead to the shimmering blue Adriatic, and across Piran bay are the snowcapped mountains of eastern Italy, and to the south of those, Venice.
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May 25, 2007
5.14.07 - 5.16.07
Postojna is about 1.5 hours south west of Ljubljana. So we took the train back across the width of Slovenia, into the capital, then hopped onto another train south. The train went up into the mountains and chugged past a couple of small towns and a lot of trees.
Postojna is probably a lot like any of the other little town, except that nearby are the Predjama Castle and a little south the Skocjan Caves. We hoped to see both. We still hope to.
We checked into the giant “Hostel-Hotel Sport” at the bottom of a long hill from the train station. Why Sport? Because the facilities rent out decent mountain bikes, organize treks and fishing trips and mountaineering trips. Our room was large and sparse and a barely equipped kitchen was down the hall. Other than a few couples the place was empty, that is, until the large Japanese tour descended.
The next morning we got suited up with a couple of bikes, helmets and water bottles and then received a brief tutorial of the trails to ride from the hotel manager. With a map in hand we went out in the prescribed direction under grey calm skies and mild temperature. We both agreed that it was the perfect riding weather.
Yeah, I ride so fast I’m nothing but a blur in pictures - like Superman but on a bike
C.J. was busy terrifying the local pets
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