Today we spent the day surrounded by the noisy buzz of cicadas in fragrant pines and the clear blue-green waters of a little bay somewhere outside of Trogir.  Yes, we found that pretty spot I was hoping we might find.  The island (Ciovo) is supposedly full of them, but you either need to drive or take a boat from Trogir.

Anyway, this little spot was not that far away (15 minutes drive from our pension) and we miraculously ended up avoiding the crazy, backed-up lines of traffic thanks to our impatience and Dave’s iPhone.  It felt pretty secluded, although we still had company and access to one of the prettiest restaurants we’ve seen so far.

We really took our time, allowing the boys to shape the day.  Landon is almost completely independent around the water.  He was in and out all day.  The only intervention he needed was in the application of sunscreen and reminders to keep hydrated.

Quentin is really starting to relax around deep water.  He bobs around like a cork, but still needs us within arms reach, more for reassurance than anything.  Stephen took both the boys out snorkeling.  Landon is an old pro, but Quentin usually panics and needs to bring his head up every few breaths or so.  Today, however, he had his first snorkeling epiphany.  He discovered a fish city with his dad and completely forgot that he was underwater breathing through a tube.  He was so pleased with himself!

As for me, I enjoyed hanging out in the water, supervising as the boys jumped off of the dock or searched around the rocks for fish.  I was able to go off on my own for a couple of relaxing swims, too.  The water is so easy to enjoy here.  It was nice to be in a state of mind where I could allow myself to be hypnotized by the perfect, almost mathematical lines that the sunlight created just in front of my hands as it reflected on the ripples of water.  And yes, all of this meditative relaxation did result in my first sunburn of the trip.  Fortunately, it was a minor one.  The good life does demand some sacrifices!

So, we were actually treated to one more day on the boat.  We had planned on staying two full days in Dubrovnik originally, but the crowds of tourists we so frightening that when my mom suggested that it might be nice for them to spend another day with the boys on the boat, we ditched Dubrovnik without hesitation.  It was Quentin’s birthday and he was thrilled to have a little Grandma Meanie time, anyway.

We ended up cruising out to the little town of Cavtat which is about 45 minutes away from Dubrovnik (by yacht, of course).  We spent the first couple of hours “parked” somewhere offshore.  The boys fed figs to schools of fish and practiced their dives and cannonballs off the back of the boat.  Stephen conked out after giving in to the gentle rocking of the boat (and possibly the alcohol which is clearly missing from the wine bottle in the photo).  Not a bad life, eh?

Cavtat itself is a gorgeous little town with a nice local vibe and manageable crowds of tourists.  Its restaurant scene isn’t anything special, but I enjoyed the slower pace.  It has a seawall which winds around the town and its teardrop shaped peninsula.  The water is the most beautiful, clear green-blue and is full of small fish.  We all enjoyed crouching down to watch these fish.  Actually, the beaches all around Dubrovnik and Cavtat were amazing.  They aren’t sandy and flat…they are rocky and full of interesting caves and pools.   I wish we were still there!

The following day we tried to tackle the fortifications of Dubrovnik, but we just couldn’t stomach the price to climb the stairs and walk around the outside wall in the blazing sun with thousands of people.  So, we relegated this task to our life’s “to do” list and wandered around inside the walls.  Our minds were, unfortunately, on breakfast more than anything else.  We quickly walked up and down the narrow streets and followed the wall as closely as we could.  It is a beautiful city, but it is just so hard to slow down and appreciate it when it is so hot and crowded!

We left Dubrovnik by around noon and were on the road to Trogir.  The roads were packed too, and we were held up in lines on both sides of the Bosnian section of the coast.  We found a great place to eat somewhere in a little valley in the Dalmation mountains.  They cooked our food (mixed grilled meat with fried potato) in a big, wood-burning stove/grill over glowing coals.  It was, of course, delicious.

By 6:00, we were in Trogir.  It is also a popular tourist town, but the crowds come in individual cars, rather than by bus loads and cruise ships.  So far, we love the market (which is touristy and over-priced, but still authentic), the restaurants, and the cool pedestrian streets of the old town.  The beaches here are not as beautiful or as accessible as what we experienced in Dubrovnik and Cavtat, but we still have a couple of days and are hoping to find at least one pretty spot that compares.

The weather has been hot, hot, hot, by the way.  Summer on the Adriatic!  I’m still trying to figure out a way to make time slow down, but as of yet have been unsuccessful.

Our first day in Dubrovnik was pretty unreal.

Dubrovnik  itself is an over-the-top sort of place.  It is ancient, shining, and barnacle-like with fortifications that kept it an independent republic over the centuries. No small feat in times when the Ottoman Empire dominated the Balkans, the Austro-Hungarian Empire pushed south through the Dalmation Coast, pirates swarmed the Adriatic and the Venetians ruled coastal trade and subjugated the Croatian people.   It has now, however, been completely taken over by tourists and surrounded on all sides by yachts and cruise ships.

Crazily, we were able to coordinate a day with my mom and dad, who just happened to be in the neighbourhood.  They started their vacation here in Dubrovnik and, since our schedules serendipitously lined up, we spent some good, old-fashioned family time with them and their good friends who happen to have….a boat!  And not just any boat–a crazy, luxurious yacht-boat.

They whisked us away from the tourist crowds on their little taxi boat early this afternoon.  Jelena couldn’t stop smiling the whole way.  We were all pretty psyched because we really wanted to see this famous boat that my parents are going to spend the next couple of weeks on.  Plus, the coast here is just so gorgeous.  We wanted to see it from the azure-blue waters.

We spent the afternoon and evening swimming, lounging, eating, drinking and being merry.  I tried very hard to slow down time in order to make the experience last for as long as I could.  Alas, here I am recalling it as I knew I eventually would be.  Landon and Quentin enjoyed it thoroughly, but had no clue how special it was.  Tourists actually took pictures of us as they passed by on their little excursions.  Ah!  Lifestyles of the rich and famous!

When we got back to the apartment later in the evening, giddy with disbelief, Stephen found us a video that perfectly matched our experience.  Rena and Zach showed us this video a couple of weeks ago, and we had very little appreciation for it at the time.  We get it now, however.   If you can, it’ll give you an idea at just how excited we were to be on the boat.  A big thanks to Hetty and Ron!  What an awesome day.

I have only one regret about deciding to drive through Bosnia to our destination of Dubrovnik: that we only passed through.

Bosnia is a beautiful, scenic country.  I actively watched the passing countryside through the window from the moment we entered the country until the moment we left it.  The roads were winding and twisty, so both Stephen and Quentin were a little car sick throughout the journey.  Roads traveled up mountains and down mountains, followed sinuous, emerald-green rivers and passed through one healing community after another.  Bosnia actually felt a lot like home…lots of dense forests, open pasture-land and impressive river canyons.  It reminded me of the Fraser Canyon in spots, Douglas Lake Ranch in others, and Duffy Lake Road at times.

The big difference was the obvious trauma that each community went through during the war in the nineties.  Houses were either freshly plastered and painted, pock-marked from bullet fire, or utterly demolished.  Every community had at least one cemetery.  I specifically looked for them, recalling the shape of the stones for either Muslim or Christian victims from documentaries I’d seen.  Sarajevo’s hillsides were bristling with them.  I felt a little bad for searching them out, but I just couldn’t help it.  When we were descending the mountains into Sarajevo on a narrow, single-lane road, I understood how easy it would be to trap the citizens the way they were during the siege.  I imagined the position of snipers and could see how they were able to pick out people as they crossed the streets below.

We only stopped briefly in Sarajevo to have a bite of lunch.  It was an interesting city to even see at a distance–beautiful, set in the middle of a ring of mountains, and recovering.  We also stopped for an hour in Mostar, which had also been devastated during the war.  The biggest wound to the little city was the destruction of the graceful, 500 year old bridge spanning the Neretva River.  We walked the rebuilt version of the bridge, which is still breathtaking even though it is a replica.  The people of Mostar have worked to restore many of the buildings along the river, especially those that are clustered around the bridge.  However, if you walk beyond this small area, the damage to the rest of the town is just as breath-taking as the scenic beauty of the bridge.  It is terrible to think that citizens of the same town directed such hatred towards one another, but it allows you to really cheer on the light, happy, tourist atmosphere of the town today.

I forgot to mention that we hired a driver to take us on this journey through the mountains.  We feel like we get the place now and would not hire a driver the next time we return.  And we really will return.  We really need to take our time and do it properly.

I can’t believe that tomorrow we’re off to Croatia already.  We were really spoiled here in Beograd and were pleasantly surprised by how much we were able to enjoy the city as a family.

Beograd is not a beautiful city in the standard sense, but it is easy to pick up on its spirit, both past and present.  It is ambitious and proud with its grand Saint Sava cathedral (still under construction), modern condo developments (standing half empty), and its public adulation of Novak Djokovic (tennis star) and Nicola Tesla (inventor and electrical engineering genius).  But with all its ambition, there is a humble reality.  Stephen and I were moved by the sight of working men selling their monthly bus passes to supplement their meager incomes. We saw abandoned, half-finished public works, Roma shanty-towns and the ruined shells of buildings bombed by Nato twelve years ago.  There simply isn’t the resources to deal with them, so there they stand, frozen in time.  Quentin and Landon were particularly fascinated by these “bombed out buildings”.  Quentin was constantly trying to wrap his head around the idea of buildings being bombed.  He wanted to know if Jelena were scared when it happened and if the “bad guys” who dropped the bombs were from Jupiter or Saturn.  We tried to explain the situation to him, but it just didn’t make any sense to him.  How could buildings be bombed by ‘”good guys”?

All of the dichotomous elements of the city’s infrastructure made it fascinating, but not scary.  We felt really safe and comfortable where ever we went.  We traveled from old to new Belgrade on the bus, which was easy to do not only because we had Jelena there to help us, but because the route was really straight forward.  Jelena’s dad took us on special tours of the city and always was there to transport us home if we ended  up staying out too late.  I told you we were spoiled, didn’t I?  He was quite taken with the boys and would have done anything to ensure their comfort.  He took us for walks on the Danube and the Sava Rivers, and helped us explore an interesting old churchyard and tower in Zemmen (right outside of New Belgrade).  We were treated to fresh bags of popcorn, which fed both the boys and the “wild” ducks.  I yammered on to him about what I knew of Serbian history from all of the reading I did only to make him feel badly that his English was not adequate.  I can be so oblivious to these things sometimes!  The result of my monologuing is that he promised to practice his English more.  My Serbian consists of exactly three phrases: thank you, good day and good night.  Perhaps I should do a little practicing as well.

We experienced Serbian hospitality beyond Jelena’s family as well.  In restaurants, shops and roadside fruit stands, people were very generous and very proud to serve us.  The food was always excellent and reasonable too.  We toured around Fruska Gora today and our favourite experience was buying apricot brandy (rakia) from a roadside farm fruit stand.  The women who owned the stand treated us to drinks and nectarines.  The boys played with her dog and she thought they were wonderful, of course.  I get the sense that Serbian people are extra happy to receive foreign tourists not simply to make money, but to show off the best of Serbia.  It is a good place, full of good people.

I’m not sure that I have done our experience here justice, but it is a good enough start.  It is late, late, late (past 2:00 am) and we have to be up early to head out on our road trip through Bosnia to Croatia.

We arrived safely last night at around 7:00 pm.  The flight was easy and our welcome was warm.  Jelena’s father met us at the airport along with a family friend, ready with umbrellas, goodies, and two separate vehicles so they might transport us to our apartment safely and comfortably.  Rain seems to like us, and was present in torrents here in Beograd (Belgrade) for our arrival. That’s okay, though…better rain than heat wave in my world!

Our apartment is in a great central location, right around the corner from the Serbian parliament.  It is clean and comfortable and supposedly belonged at one time to a Serbian general.  We had a good sleep were up bright and early to explore the city.  And guess what?  Sunshine!  I actually needed sunscreen today.  We were interested in passing through the bohemian district (Skadarlija) and making our way to the fortress overlooking the river (Kalemegdan).  Stephen was a little worried about relying on the iPad, since it is a pretty desirable object in a place that is a little rough around the edges.  So…we didn’t end up finding Skadarlija.  But!  We passed through an amazing open air market full of  farm produce, pyramids of eggs and watermelons, fresh baked bread, fish and pork.  I wanted to pull out the camera, but I was also a bit paranoid about sticking out as a tourist flaunting fancy gizmos.  I missed a bunch of interesting photo ops for this reason alone.  It is a very interesting city to photograph–lots of graffiti and crumbling, elegant nineteenth century buildings.

At no point did I feel unsafe, by the way.  People are just out and about, doing their own thing.  No one bugged us, or begged or looked suspicious.  We did see a father and daughter in a shabby horse-drawn cart, holding up traffic.  The city is busy, but not touristy.  At no point have we had to fight crowds of tourists.  Plus, the food and attractions are cheap (or free).

In short, we enjoyed ourselves today. The kids enjoyed climbing all over the tank collection at the fortress museum and found a bunch of interesting red insects to handle and observe.  They wanted to go into the zoo at the fortress, but we’re saving that for tomorrow.  Jelena picked out a great restaurant featuring more traditional Serbian fare (pork stew with paprika, stuffed pork, cevapcicis, grilled chicken and tomato salad).  I was pleased with the location, since the backdrop was a couple of decrepit nineteenth century buildings with graffiti.  I can’t help but be fascinated by them.  Not every building is like this, by the way.  However, we had read that the greatest danger in Serbia is being hit with chunks of debris falling off of old buildings.

After dinner (around 9:00 pm), we walked back through the pedestrian shopping area which is on the way back to our apartment.  Nothing seems to close early here in Beograd!  There were all kinds of street entertainers and people out enjoying themselves.  The crowd was really comfortable…mixed and balanced.  We weren’t the only ones out walking with small children.

Now were are drinking a cheap, rather sour bottle of red wine.  The kids are sound asleep.  A good day!

Our four days in Copenhagen have passed quickly, as they always do.  Aside from dealing with a bit of illness, we have mostly had a very nice time in a very family-friendly city.

The kids loved Rosenborg Palace for its fish-filled moat and dragon play park.  Stephen and I liked the developing food culture, which is young and energetic.  We all had a great time at Tivoli, which is the nicest amusement park I’ve ever been to and is the oldest in Europe.  I couldn’t capture the classic, grand feel of the park in photographs.  The day was just far too grey.  Landon craves any rides that are fast, spin or have anything to do with heights.  Quentin can’t handle any of that.  We accidentally selected a very fast pirate ship ride to start the morning off.  It was going so fast that I had trouble getting a picture of the boys.  I wanted to capture Landon’s happy “dog-with-his-head-out-of-the-car-window” look and Quentin’s expression of sheer terror.  I should have opted for video, really.  The mini-ships were orbiting a ship full of pirates that boomed cannons and laughed maniacally at all of the little toddlers and surprised parents.

There are so many parks connected to parks in Copenhagen.  The boys had many opportunities to run “off-leash”, check out ponds and chase birds.  The trouble with traveling in Europe with two young boys is that I often feel like I have to hold onto their hands and keep them under control, so it has definitely been a treat to give them more freedom.  Ah yes…I shouldn’t forget to mention Kastellet, which is an old fortress just off the water front.  It also was a reasonable walk from our apartment.  The moats were full of clear water, plants, fish (different species and sizes) and birds.  The fortress itself wasn’t all that exciting (other than a really pretty church that bordered the earthen ramparts), but yes…the moat was awesome.   We spent quite a long time just looking over the bridge into the water.  Then we enjoyed a peaceful walk in the warm sunshine on a trail that followed the moat around the back of the fortress.  I know it is not the most famous tourist attraction in Copenhagen, but the Kastellet moat really was a highlight for us.

So!  Tomorrow we are off to Belgrade.  Strangely, I am not worried about the flight, although feeling calm has suddenly made me nervous.  I am looking forward to our time in the Balkans, as I have been doing quite a bit of reading in preparation, strangely enough.  I feel much more connected to Serbia, Bosnia and Croatia than any other place we have visited and the visit is still to come!  One day I  would definitely like to return to Scandinavia and I think that I’ll make sure to do some reading before I do.  Oh yes, and I’ll save some extra money too.  It really is expensive here.  I forgot to mention that!

Our final day in the Netherlands was spent mostly lazying around Dave and Jelana’s place, although we did manage to get out to Rotterdam in the late afternoon.  Why Rotterdam?  Well, it was rainy and miserable and Rohan has a great place in Rotterdam.  We figured that if the rainy, miserable weather continued we would simply hang out there!  So off we went, much later than we should have.

Our first stop-a posh Vietnamese restaurant called “Vii”-ended up being our first really great food experience of the trip (other than the great meals at Dave and Jelena’s, of course).  I’ve never really experienced up-scale Vietnamese cuisine before, so it was really a treat.  All of the dishes were familiar, but made with very high quality ingredients and attention to presentation.  I loved the salad rolls in particular.  They contained some kind of sprouts that had a kick to them…I would guess some kind of radish sprout or something.  Anyway, it was a satisfying meal and the kids did well.

We wandered over to Rohan’s house next.  He is renting this awesome apartment with three floors, connected together with insanely steep Dutch steps.  They made Quentin dizzy, so he was happy to stay away from them, although Landon took it upon himself to practice descending and ascending straight away.  We decided video games might keep him in one spot.  For the next hour or so, Dave, Stephen, Rohan (providing moral support), Landon and Quentin played soccer on the PS3.  Not much fun for me, but relaxing.  Plus it was nice to see all of the boys playing together so well!  We finished up our time in Rotterdam wandering around the old port to see the view and then headed back to the train.
We were late, late, late coming home.  There was something blocking the track, so we ended up having a quick bite to eat at the train station while the problem was cleared up.  We ended up finally getting home at around 10:00, quickly threw the boys into bed, and sat up for some sour-cherry birthday tart with Jelena.  At 1:00 am, we thought it might be best to go to bed given that we needed to get up bright and early for our flight to Copenhagen.  Landon was still awake (agh!!).  Our clocks are all still a little messed up, but Landon is definitely having the toughest adjustment.

So!  We woke up dutifully before 7:00am, caught the train to Schiphol and were up, up, and away along with a bunch of young scouts from Brazil and Africa.  Copenhagen was buzzing with thousands of young scouts from all over the world.  We walked right into a big, international scouting jambouree!  It looked like a lot of fun, but we were on a mission to get to our apartment.  So, through the crowds of scouts we waded and, after a short metro ride and iPad consultation, were at our lovely, eccentric apartment in downtown Copenhagen.  None of the floors are anywhere near level.  In fact, you must walk down hill to get from one side of the apartment to the other (or uphill depending on the direction).  The location is amazing.  We won’t have to don wheels for any of our sight seeing over the next four days.

Dragon Playground at Kongens Have/Rosenborg Palace

Phew!  This is what happens when I skip a writing day!  Anyway, we only did a short park visit with the kids and got the pair to bed as early as possible so far.  Oh…and we had crazy-big hamburgers at a famous Danish cafe.  They were the most expensive hamburgers we have ever eaten (about $20 each).  We expected the price, but not the huge size, so everything evened out to that nice, slightly uneasy feeling of overspending, but coming out full.

There you are!  I’ll write again tomorrow.

We purchased a digital camera for Quentin yesterday on the way to Haarlem as an early birthday present.  This may seem a bit much for a four year old boy, but decent digital cameras are becoming less expensive every year (we paid 75 euros) and they are a great travel tool especially for young kids.  Landon has one too…he inherited our old Sony camera after we upgraded to the faster, more sensitive Nikon P300.

Instead of passively wandering through the markets and churches of Haarlem complaining about being tired or bored or hungry, Landon and Quentin actively engaged in searching for things to photograph.  The the market in the central square in Haarlem (which runs every Saturday) was a great place to wander.  We bought some nice sausage (wild boar), bread, and olives.  The boys happily tagged along, photographing fish and flowers.

We also entered the prominent church on the square, hoping to catch a concert featuring their famous organ (which is the largest in the world). For what ever reason, we had our dates and times mixed up once again!  However, it was starting to rain outside and we felt that we might as well have a look.  Luckily, the organ was being played as we entered and so we were treated to a short, impressive little concert anyway!  Again, the boys happily wandered around snapping photographs of anything that caught their interest.  Quentin declared that this trip is really getting to be awesome now!

The wind and rain started to come down more seriously near the end of our Haarlem visit, so I was also treated to a glowing sense of satisfaction.  I was dry and comfortable, although Steve knows (after having read my last entry) that I was hoping for a chance to gloat over my superior packing skills and so was giving me a hard time.  I never said a word!

We ended the day with a nice birthday dinner (it is Jelena’s birthday today).  Dave and Jelena’s friend Rohan treated us to home made butter chicken (his mother’s own recipe), Jelena made fish and potato salad, and Jelena’s friend Anna brought squishy, chocolatey brownies (I ate far too many).  My contribution was “expertly” cutting up the chicken for Rohan…it took me a while, but I am at least aware that there is a logic to it.  It is something I haven’t done too often.  Anyway, I’m hoping to have evenings like this at home once Dave and Jelena move to BC.  Only trouble: we went to bed after 2:00 am and didn’t get up until 10:30.  Dave and Stephen-over glasses of Tokaj and Rakia-kept cooking up plans  for revenge against Amazon for messing up a gift certificate we gave to Jelena.  The scheming ended when Amazon promptly agreed to rectify the problem.  It was fun while it lasted, however.

Given that the weather forecast isn’t much better than at home, we decided to take advantage of the sun that revealed itself sporadically today.

We were a little slow to get going, but eventually left the house just after 11:oo am and headed for a tram that would take us to Kaiserstrasse, which is located in a neighbourhood that borders the North Sea.  The tram payment system has recently been “modernized” and is a bit glitchy, which caused some delay.  However, we eventually figured out that it wasn’t really a problem to pay the driver directly (5 euros for the family) and were at the bike rental shop on Kaiserstrasse  in a jiffy.

We were hoping to rent bikes for Landon and Quentin, but it is supposedly not the norm for a child Quentin’s size.  The fellow at the rental shop said that there are no bicycles small enough for him in all of the Netherlands! There are a lot of funky bikes for carrying small children here, but not many for the kids themselves, I guess.  Anyway, we ended up with a tandem bike that is steered from the back while the small child rides in the front.  Quentin couldn’t reach the peddles to turn them, but that wasn’t the biggest problem.  He was terrified by the feeling that he was being steered in ways that he couldn’t tolerate (too close to Landon, too close to the side of the trail, too close to the bushes, etc) and screamed at Stephen to slow down, turn and pay attention every time Stephen strayed from the center of the trail.  I get that that must have been scary and required a great deal of trust, but it was still exhausting to listen to.  He can be such a maniac when he is frightened!

Anyway, it was a beautiful, worthwhile ride. We saw all kinds of birds (which thrills both boys always) and even police helicopters, motorcycles and trucks scouring the park for some mysterious reason.  A famous prison is located nearby, and so we were imagining escaped convicts or kidnappers…and eventually Stephen remembered that the Serbian war criminal Goran Hadzic was being brought in today.  At this point we’re guessing that the excessive presence of police in the park had to do with security for this “event”, but I’m still unsure.  They were definitely out there looking for someone, it seemed.

Tomorrow is calling for rain, rain and more rain.  No problem, because I brought a coat!  Stephen stubbornly refused to consider such an item and even refused proper shoes.  Poor guy.  I always like feeling superior, but I have to do it silently because my smug comments usually end up shot down pretty quickly.  Still…I am well pleased with my coat and shoes.