June 29 - heading home

This is the day we have been dreading.... the long cramped flight home....oh...I dream of a day we could fly First Class!!!!

Set 3 alarms starting at 5:15 am....always have that movie playing in my head of the couple who wake up late for a flight and spend the next hour running and freaking.... and then they see their plane leave without them....not on my watch!!

Arrived in plenty of time....but still feel the stress....not sure I will ever find this form of travel relaxing or stress-free....

Flight from Zagreb to Frankfurt a success....better yet, lots of leg room and nobody in the seat beside me!!! Yay!!! They bus you from the airport to where the plane sits on the tarmac. 

Frankfurt airport is massive...glad our layover is just over 2 1/2 hours because it took us over an hour to get from the one gate to the other! Wow!

Touched down in Vancouver....almost home!

After months of planning and having successfully completed almost a month long stay in Europe...

Budapest was so much more than we expected, we knew the city was beautiful but it filled in many of the missing pieces to George's story....mission accomplished...

Croatia....lovely country...beautiful beautiful  sea....narrow roads....

Glad we went to the places we did, I think I planned well. Favourite places and memories....

It was awesome meeting up with Kim & Kath several times but it was especially amazing to spend 4 days on Korcula

I love not knowing the language.....listening to music, TV or even people around you talking and not understanding them is very relaxing....like someone singing you a lullaby........but also liked that to get around with the basics  at least English is written somewhere and most in tourist areas know some English...

June 28 - Rovinj (with love) to Zagreb

Rovinj was the absolutely perfect place to wind down our Croatian leg of the holiday....there is nothing we don't like about this place.....

What I won't miss is the steep ladder to the bedroom.......I guess after watching all those tiny home shows and thinking how charming it would be to sleep in a loft bed....it's no longer charming in reality...only charming in the picture.

We left the apartment and found Clio...all safe and sound after 3 nights alone.

We only have less than a 3 hour drive into Zagreb. 

I love their flaggers...moving  mannequins!!! We have driven through lots of construction on the Toll roads as well as rural... and this is the only flagger we have seen!

Croatian Flagger

We did not do any shopping here, oddly enough many places do not have price tags on clothes? You ask them and basically depending on what they think you can pay, they will pull a price out of thin air! Yup. Or if there is a price, they will say .....oh it's $30 today instead of $50....neither of us shop like that so we just window shopped...

We stopped in Old Town Zagreb.... we didn't stay long...it was pretty warm....didn't see too much....I think it took us longer to figure out how to pay for the underground parking than what we stayed...yikes

The Cathedral is under major restoration... and to be honest there were another of buildings being restored here.

This is how we will feel after the long flight from Frankfurt to Vancouver...

There was a large outdoor market and then right next to it was the underground one...like lots and lots of stuff.

We went in this large underground market...

Not sure how safe all the meat is here? Think we would pass.

And then Pigeon Man of Zagreb

The area reminds us of Hungary with the architecture of downtown.

What I wanted to see was this place! 

Museum of Broken Relationships

It seemed like such a crazy but interesting place...people can submit a physical item and a short story about a breakup and it gets put in the museum!!! Once I found out you could read it all online...heck....who needs Tik Tok!

Got to our apartment which is only a 10 minute drive to the airport! Super cute place where the owners have a few suites for rent...cheap cheap $55 euro a night! And like many of the places they put a large bottled water in the fridge!

And now to try to cram everything back in the suitcases...ug

We did drive by to the airport just to make sure we knew where to go and where the car rental return was..... and then found a great place to eat! George looks like he is trying to eat a leg of a animal! It was huge and so good!!!

We met one of the friendliest waitresses...young girl...24...studied tourism and will hopefully pursue her career...hopefully she does as she says Tourism is their biggest industry and she sees the value in it....but so many in the industry now are not passionate...nor happy.....just aloof because I don't have another word for it....disinterested...I have not found the exact word yet...but it will come...

It is a lovely country with growing pains from years gone by...but I feel the young people here will hold the hands of the elders to make this country prosper...because it is a beautiful country ❤️ 

June 27 - last chill day in Rovinj

This was a chill day...I think we needed it after the early wakeup for Venice.....in bed by 9:30....slept in and didn't leave the apartment until noon....

Finding food is different here...light lunches are sandwiches from bakeries...appies are like anchovies, little fried fish... cheese & meat...fish soup.... and pates and olive plates etc....so we were excited to find a noodle place... and it was excellent!

Food like home....but better by the sea...

Today was a walk about day...

And more yachts...

Passed by a high-end resort...super expensive stores... and the beach area down the way had beach lounge chair rentals for $160 euro a day!!! 2 nice padded lounge chairs, attached cocktail table and umbrella!!!

And it was busy!!!

As you got further from the resort, the Blue umbrella expensive rentals changed to $90 euro a day for a basic 2 lounge chairs with white umbrellas... it was stupid busy!!

The beach area was large, started with the ritzy area...mid range area....family and hammocks in the trees area to rocky beach and maybe not need a bathingsuit top kinda area..

And a beach bar mid way, only $4 euro each per beer... but you still pay for the toilet...I will never get used to asking a waiter..."where's your toilet?"...seems so odd...bathroom, washroom, even "water closet"...but toilet...odd

Saw this hand made dog bike rack...very interesting...we have been looking for one for Lu and nobody seems to make a good one.

Walked back into town and back to the apartment to cool off with a cold one.  Oddly enough the balcony is up in the bedroom loft....makes it interesting climbing the ladder with drinks in hand...but we made it....

We headed out again and found a whole new area of Rovinj that we did not know about.  This is by far our favourite city....we have many favourite apartments,  beaches, areas, but as a whole, this is it.

We have seen these door covers...we assume they keep the flies and mosquitoes out... they look like dreadlocks!

My favourite ocean view... this was a small clothing boutique that just drew you in...

I think I need one of these!

George's church bells

And then this happened...Rovinj moment

We walked around this church and this lady was playing a violin and between the song, the moment in time,  the view, the feelings of our "once in a lifetime holiday" coming to a close....I  was overcome with emotion... and as I type this the emotions return... and I choke up...we pulled off this amazing holiday that I never thought we could do.......Croatia, you are beautiful!

Took me a bit, but we went back into Old Town for dinner... there are so many artist studios and shops along the way. I am always amazed at all the talented artists there are in this world.

Found a nice place for dinner, we were enjoying our white wine when dinner arrived....we felt like we needed to name George's dinner mates!!!

We had no idea what they were so I asked the waiter...he had a great sense of humour  and he explained what to do with the little skampy buggers!

I had Lasagna....mine did not have eyes!!!!

Enjoyed our last sunset at the sea...

Rovinj, you hold a special place in our hearts on this holiday ♥️