Category: Personal

Today I went walking about the streets of Geneva. It was a beautiful day – cold in Israeli terms, but I was well prepared and properly dressed. The city is very beautiful and the atmosphere is very relaxed. I walked through the old city, then around the lake and the famous Jet d’Eau fountain, of which I took too many pictures that I had to sort through (see below.)

Later we ate an very delicious dinner at a restaurant with J’s brother and his wife. Such social encounters always make me a little anxious but again turned out to be a great experience – I had a really good time with them.

I arrived at Geneva airport around 11pm, met up with J, who picked me up from the airport, and we drove through the UN buildings complex (where she works) to the hotel. The scenic drive along the lake’s shore was very beautiful and I’m looking forward to walking around the streets of Geneva tomorrow while J is working, hoping that today’s nice weather will continue.

That’s it for today. Good night.

(This is a delayed post for October 2)

There isn’t much to say about today. I drove from Dubrovnik to Cavtat, a nice beach town, where I walked around and rested for a few hours. Then to the airport.

I’m now at the airport, waiting to board the plane. I really dislike this part of trips – hearing Hebrew all around me and being reminded of the reality I’m going back to. Oh well.

Until next time.

(There aren’t any pictures or videos from today. I have enough of those beach/marina/sunny days pictures.)

I drove to Dubrovnik first thing in the morning and started an unnerving search for a place to stay that is reasonably priced and has a parking spot. Parking, apparently, is a big issue in Dubrovnik, just like any other major city. I nearly gave up and drove away when I finally found an appropriate place, and I’m glad I did.

Dubrovnik’s old city is a beautiful place to walk around, whether it’s inside (a pedestrian only zone) or on its walls. I did that for a few hours and then went up the cable car for a beautiful view of the area. My friends from 2 days ago were right, though – there’s nothing else to do here and had I come here for another day I would have been bored out of my mind.

Tonight I’m going to try and go to a local club where they play electronic music. I wonder if they’ll let me in – I have no idea what the dress code for a club here is (or in Israel, for that matter :)

Tomorrow night is my return home. I already feel the reality of going back to normal life weighing on me. But I still have a few days vacation left this year and I intend to make good use of them, maybe even sooner than I expected :)

(This is a delayed post for September 30)

I went straight to Krka National Park hoping to find hiking trails. I was disappointed to find out that the only walking trail they had was an hour and a half long. I did it anyway. Krka is the under-privileged, over-commercialized little sibling of Plitvice Lakes National Parks. Everything is smaller and more expensive in Krka. Still, it was nice.

I then told my GPS to avoid toll roads and it took in the direction of Dubrovnik on the coastline road, which is an amazingly beautiful scenic road with many places to stop and look at the gorgeous Croatian coastline. I decided that I can’t just take pictures from above and went into one of the small towns that has a beach. I sat there for lunch and dipped my feet in the cold and clear water of the Adriatic Sea.

Later I drove to Ston, a small oyster-cultivating town which has a big wall going from it to Mali Ston, the neighboring town. I saw the wall and immediately decided I want to walk it. I made a little exercise out of it and tried to go as fast as I could. It wasn’t easy – the wall is located on a mountain side (and I also stopped for pictures :)

Eventually, after I couldn’t find a place to stay on a beach at a close-by location, I found a place in Ston. Tomorrow I’ll go to Dubrovnik for my last two days of this trip.

(This is a delayed post for September 29)

Today I went on a boat tour to Kornati Islands National Park. By itself the boat tour would have been pretty boring, as it is mostly being on a boat for many hours and seeing islands from afar. We had two opportunities to get off the boat – one to a very nice beach and the other to a fishermen town. It was OK. I used the beach stop for a short hike to the island’s top spot and walked around the fishermen town as well.

What made today good was meeting 4 cool Belgians (3 guys and a girl) who were a group. After that I met another Belgian guy, who hitch-hiked with me later on and another Irish woman. The latter two are travelling by public transport and hitch-hiking, looking for cheap places to stay for nights. I admire that kind of travelling and don’t think I can ever do it myself – I need my privacy at the end of the day to reset and don’t think I can get it at a hostel or on somebody else’s couch.

The group of four Belgians were really cool and most of the time I spent hanging out with them on the boat. I came to Zadar to see some people and got more than I bargained for. Meeting these people made my day.

Later on I drove near Krka (let’s hear you pronounce that!) National Park, which I’ll visit tomorrow. Again I have an entire apartment for myself at the same price I got a bed in Zadar yesterday. That’s what you get when you travel off season.

My trip is nearing its end and the original plan was to drive to Dubrovnik and spend there 2 non-driving days. However, I’ve been told that Dubrovnik might not be the right place to stay more than a day, so I might reconsider this plan and stop somewhere along the way.

The extremely nice family that hosted me prepared another delicious meal (and another deviation from my diet) and then I was on my way (a 4-hour drive) to Zadar, the beautiful heritage-rich city on the Adriatic Sea. The old city part of Zadar is a popular tourist destination even these days, which are considered out-of-season.

The sea is beautiful and calming and the beaches are a great sight. I definitely prefer a sunny day like this over the rainy days before. I just spent the day walking around Zadar and enjoying the scenery. For tomorrow I booked a boat tour to Kornati Islands that I hope will be fun.

(This is a delayed post from yesterday. Also, see the previous post for new pictures and videos)

To get away from the rain I drove to the north-eastern part of the country to visit Kopački Rit Nature Park. The park is mostly visited by bird watchers and the main attraction for people like me, who know nothing about birds, is to take the one-hour boat ride in the park’s lake. So that’s what I did, and it was pretty great. You get to see birds in their natural habitat, only disturbed by the sound of your boat’s engine. The park ranger, who took me on the boat ride, pointed to some interesting birds from time to time, including some white tailed eagles that were roaming the skies.

Later on I drove back west to Lonsko Polje National Park, where birds pass through during autumn. Apparently I arrived out-of-season, as the information office was especially opened for me. I was looking for hiking trails, even though the ranger at the information office offered me the keys to the bird watching observatory (but only if I promise to bring them back. :) The trail turned out to be quite a disappointment because it was just a walk through a wet and muddy forest with a lot of mosquitoes and frogs hopping out of the way as you pass them by.

The park does have a nice river flowing through it but I’m a little discouraged by the lack of interesting things for me to in it. Tired of driving for today, I’m staying at a guest-house in the park tonight. The place is famous for its wooden houses and I got an apartment in one of them, complete with a kitchen and a working fireplace, which the nice family who are hosting me today set up. They also prepared a home cooked dinner, which lifted my spirits considerably after eating only a pre-made gas station sandwich for lunch.

When I’m travelling on my own I rarely feel lonely. However without Internet in this secluded place I’m in, being alone does feel so. That’s why I think tomorrow I’ll drive 4 hours to Zadar, where there are more people, and hope for good weather conditions. The following day should be better weather-wise, so I might try to make it to Kornati Islands National Park.

I’ve wasted some time with all this driving and even though Kopački Rit Nature Park was beautiful I’m not sure it was worth it. On the other hand, my options otherwise were limited by the rainy weather, so at least I got some sunlight, blue skies, a taste of beautiful nature and a home cooked dinner.

My hopes for enjoying a rain-less day were quickly gone when I woke up. It was pouring outside, but I decided to go to Plitvice Lakes National Park anyway and take the 4-6 hour tour. In general I dislike rain but since I knew in advance that I will get wet and cold, I made up my mind not to care about it and went out there. And it was well worth it.

Plitvice Lakes is a ridiculously beautiful reservation, where huge lakes are positioned in different levels with waterfalls in between. In the programs supplied by the park you get to walk among the lakes on wooden bridges and also ride a boat on one of them. Because I tried to keep my camera dry, many of the pictures and videos came out fuzzy, crooked or just crappy.

Being wet to my bones and very cold I continued straight to Zagreb, where I pre-booked a room in a hostel because I wanted to get my laundry done. They don’t have a drier, which is a shame and means I’ll have to hang my clothes to dry in the car or something :)

Tomorrow I hope to get to Kopački Rit Nature Park, where I’ll get to see interesting flora and fauna and as a bonus it’s not supposed to (heavily) rain there tomorrow.