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Croatia, Destinations

Dubrovnik for a Day: Adventures on Lokrum Island

July 3, 2012

During our single day visit to Dubrovnik, Croatia on the way south to Montenegro, we managed to find the best food inside Dubrovnik’s old city walls and the best pastime just a ferry ride away at calm, peaceful, crowd-free Lokrum Island where its kaleidoscope of green and gold light waves and sea stones sends shimmering invitations to swimmers and sunbathers alike.



My only impression of Dubrovnik before arrival was something of a cross between spy rendezvous spot and Alias-style black screen with grunge lettering spelling out D-U-B-R-O-V-N-I-K to the sound of J.J. Abrams’ trademarked techno music. Eastern Europe continues to reveal my shameful ignorance of place and laughable alter ego as CIA agent.

Our single-day visit (and my subsequent Google spree) cleared up a few misunderstandings and made me wish for a masters in medieval history. Continue Reading…

Destinations, Musings, South Africa

Weekend Update: In Midair Above the African Continent

July 1, 2012

A short note this weekend. Our Mediterranean days have come to a close.

This post goes live while we’re (hopefully) flying peacefully through the air on a long trail stretching between Cairo, Egypt and Johannesburg, South Africa. We’ll have started the trip on a June Saturday night in Beirut, Lebanon and we’ll finish the final transfer to emerge in Cape Town, S.A. on Sunday the 1st of July: our sixth anniversary.

The last time we crossed this much distance, we did it the deluxe way: sixteen days on a couple-thousand mile journey across the Atlantic. This time, without bursting too far through time zones, we’re entering the Southern Hemisphere for the second time this year, and jumping from summer to winter in a matter of hours in one of those modern-marvel tubes of steel. Continue Reading…

Croatia, Destinations

An Evening in Split: Croatian Food and Wine With Friends

June 29, 2012

One of my favorite pictures from Croatia is an iPhone snapshot: Ted and Tony, chilling on the Drasnice waterfront with afternoon drinks and faux-gardettos.

At this point in the trip, we were winding down from our Italian race, grateful to show up in a little town of 200 people and be greeted by travel friends Meg and Tony who could show us the best of the sleepy beachfront bar, afternoon espressos, and Adriatic sunsets and also make time for an adventure or two. Continue Reading…

Croatia, Destinations

An Apartment in Croatia: Scenes from a Beachfront Hideaway

June 25, 2012

Cafe cabana overlooking the Adriatic sea on the Croatian coastline

Had you asked me about travel in Croatia before this year of visiting countries around the world, I’d have given you a blank look. Aside from briefly memorizing the open-jaw jigsaw puzzle piece shape to pass my junior high geography course, I didn’t carry much context for the Croatian landscape, food culture, or travel scene.

Ask me now, after spending a week and a half renting an apartment in Croatia on the shoreline of the Adriatic, and I’ll tell you how this beautiful little country hugs the water, grows fresh vegetables, serves up tasty fish, and caters to travelers seeking peace and calm and beachfront hideaways (provided they know to come before tourism season kicks into full swing!). Continue Reading…

Destinations, Featured Partners, Italy, Walks of Italy

Our Italian Job: Escaping Disneyland Venice

June 18, 2012

Ted and I watched The Italian Job on a date night back when it was in theaters. I bought the DVD and would turn it on it during college procrastination sessions. There’s that scene at the beginning: magical morning mist, a burst of pigeons rising in unison from St. Mark’s Square, and soon after, a speedboat chase shattering the calm of idyllic Venetian canals.

We were in Italy for a month, surely we could visit Venice, fall in love with the ambience, flirt with cliche, and make it out unhindered by the logjam of 15 million visitors who arrive each year.

Not forty five minutes in, though, and we were ready to call it a mistake. Such a shame, we thought, considering the city’s magical reputation.

We’d taken the train in from Verona, hoping to see the highlights before bidding Italy “Arrivederci!” later in the week. True to warning, sluggish crowds gawking at fake murano glass and glittered Venetian masks clogged the zigzagged streets. Shop windows, mobile stalls, sweaty bodies, pushy people, narrow walkways, dead ends, crowded footbridges and kitschy gondoliers wordlessly taunted us, “Suckers! You’re in for it now!” Continue Reading…

Featured Partners, Italy, Walks of Italy

Milan in a Day: Visiting Da Vinci’s Masterpiece

June 16, 2012

That Mona Lisa moment.

If you’ve been to the Louvre in Paris, maybe you know it?

Awe and a twinge of disillusionment in the same breath.

Entering the gallery to see a tiny little painted woman smirking back across the room honestly underwhelmed me after a teenager’s lifetime of seeing reproductions plastered across canvas, t-shirts, and tapestries.

Then there are moments when reality exceeds expectations.

Continue Reading…

Destinations, Featured Partners, Italy, Photography, Walks of Italy

Paying Pisa a Savvy Visit Part I

June 13, 2012

Confession: at times on our independent trip around the world, we are absolutely, unabashedly tourists.

“We’re foodies. We’re fans of great design. I love taking pictures. Ted loves drinking coffee. We play the tourist part, signing up for guided treks, sailing the seas on a cruise ship, and snapping cliched shots at guidebook hotspots…”
–Writing Honestly From the Road

When the opportunity to visit Pisa and see the monumental sights presented itself, we penciled out our itinerary excitedly as adventures began falling into place.

Continue Reading…