Tag: Cities

Croatia Return: Graz

Although we have spent marvelous 2 weeks in Croatia, our desire to see new places was never satisfied. And so, on our way back home <boo hoo> we stopped off at Graz – the second biggest city of Austria. Having done that, we put a fourth country on our list of visited countries during that holidays.

What can I say about Graz? It stood up to my expectations of Austrian city. Perfectly neat and clean, full of bikes, with charming façades – that’s Graz. Unfortunately, we were a bit tired and didn’t immerse the city properly. We also didn’t take so many pictures, so I chose just a collection of them for you to have an idea of the place.

Croatia Day 12: Crikvenica

That’s it, our last day in Croatia. I felt a penetrating sadness that we must leave. I fell in love in Croatia – there’s no doubt about that.
As our farewell to Croatia, we went to Crikvenica (15 km from Senj) which was, to be honest, not very attractive to me.

In the evning we went for a walk round Senj, to have a final goodbye with the sea, warm breezes, holiday carefree attitudes and the charm of Croatia.

Croatia Day 11: Zadar and Nin

Our Croatia trip was getting to the end so this was almost the last chance to see more of the country’s beauty. This time we headed south, to Zadar (centre of Dalmatia) and Nin (the town with the smallest cathedral on Earth).

Zadar is an amazing place. Full of tourists and full of richmen on their spectacular, jaw-dropping yachts. The old part of the city is also magnificent, it looks really old, like from ancient Roman times.

As most of Croatian towns, Zadar also had a tower to climb. I consider tower-climbing as a must on a tourist’s checklist.

Except for the view of red roofs, what was special in the city was the see organ. I’ve never seen or heard anything like that and I found it mesmerising! The waves press the water into the organ holes playing a tune of magical tone. It sounds strange, like a cacophony a bit, yet it made me want to stay there for hours (Radek needed to  hurry me because I didn’t want to leave the place). I wonder if it’s possible to get hypnotised by that sound. If you are interessted by my description, check out the YT video that shows the place.

In the end, I bowed to Radek and left the enchanting see organ and we drove to Nin. Nin is very small and not so swarmed by tourists. I liked that! We spent there lovely 3 hours, walking around and having a lunch.

Croatia Day 10: Ljubljana

We headed north from Senj to see Ljubljana – the capital city of Slovenia. We were lucky because we arrived in a perfect time to have a guided tour organised by the tourists office. Seeing places with a guide gives always a very different perspective than seeing them alone. One must devote more time to analyse everything, also the stories that are told enrich the memories of the places. That was also the case of Ljubljana.

The guided tour comprised of visiting the town hall, degustation of Slovenian national dishes in one of the posh restaurants in the city centre, a tour around the city with a guide and a cruise with a ship on the Ljubljanica river that cuts the city in two halves.




I really liked the ship ride on the river. The boat passed slowly, the reflexes from the water were everywhere and the angle made everything look different. We swam under all the bridges (there are so many of them and each has it’s unique story and artefacts – example: shoemakers bridge has the shoes hanged over). 



After this lovely boat ride we went to a lovers bridge we had seen from the water. Many lovers come there to honour the tradition and close the padlock on the bridge barriers. Well, we limited ourselves just to a kiss.








Yes, I found the sculptures a la HR Giger art a bit distracting. Anyway, we continued our walk over the city and set off to the castle. On our way we passed by many bridges, monuments and buildings. The old part of Ljubljana is well kept so we took a lot of pretty pictures and enjoyed the walk.

 We passed by a colourful street installation – I found it ingenious and very cheerful.

The castle was pretty charming. There were ongoing preparations to some concert, we climbed the tower (the view was really nice – Alps on the one side, Ljubljana on the other), visited a museum, drank a coffee and headed to the centre for a glimpse of Ljubljana’s night life.



Ljubljana at night surprised me in plus. It was amazing to see how many people went outside and chatted on the streets. All the bars, restaurants and cafes were full (we actually had problems to find a place to sit by the water). I’m not used to such situation and I like it every time I go abroad.  The city becomes vibrant, full of this specific character. It’s a pity we had to get going to reach Senj at a proper hour and to get some sleep.


Croatia Day 9: Krk Island

Krk is one of the biggest Adriatic islands and we had been recommended to go and see it on our previous Croatia trip in 2009. Krk is also well known for its vineyard – something untypical for the region we stayed in.

We visited 4 places on the island: Vrbnik, Krk, Baška, Čižići mud beach.

What Radek grabs in hand is olive oil, made locally on the island. In general, before we even reached the centre of Vrbnik, we visited a vineyard called Katunar where we supplied ourselves with Croatian wine of many sorts.

Then we continued our wine cellars trip in the town of Vrbnik. In principle, wine was sold every 2 meters, so it took us really long time to move along the streets. I particularly liked one elderly man who was very very friendly with us and made us taste everything he had in stock. He also told some stories about how wine is made and what is important in wine production. Lovely.

Our next destination was Krk – the biggest city on the island. We strolled around the place, but it was relatively deserted due to the siesta hours. Krk has a very nice marina, as well as the old part of the city, so we just strolled around, having a cup of iced cofee every now and then.

Spot number three on Krk’s map was Baška. It’s a very small town, yet very very crowded with tourists. The central point in Baškais undoubtedly beach and it’s adjacent promenade. We sunbathed and bathed in the sea. The main attraction for us was a floating wheel carried after a motorboat. Unfortunately, I didn’t take part in the ride (I didn’t have any bathing suit), but all the guys were delighted. Such a pity that no one fell down to the water…

And at last we arrived at Čižići mud beach. The sun was already low over the horizon and there were not so many people around. Maybe it’s good that few saw what guys did on that beach 🙂

Ps – If you ever wonder how the mud smells… The answer is – putrid.

Croatia Day 7: Muggia

Since I am absolutely in love with Italy, I just had to visit this country! 3 years earlier we had visited Triest – the biggest Italian city in the vicinity of Croatia. So this time we chose something less obvious – Muggia.

I cannot say a lot about this small city except for a statement: it’s a perfectly typical Italian town, with all the charms the country has to offer. What i mean by that? Small old town, see, shining cobblestone, espresso for 1 EUR, narrow streets, marina, pizzerias and most of all – smiling Italians having fun at every possible moment.

When we arrived we had a small tour round the place interrupted by a compulsory coffee break.

Around 5 PM we got hungry and decided to look for a typical Italian pizzeria to have pizza. We asked local people to recommend us something and they did, so we went there. What the locals didn’t tell us was that in Italy noone will serve pizza at 5 PM. It was actually pretty funny to observe the waitress’ reaction: „You want pizza now?” (hidden message: „Are you insane?”). We kindly replied that it’s OK and we will wait a bit for the oven to heat etc. and in the meantime we ordered some wine and starters. When pizza finally arrived at least we were already in good mood.

With full bellies and enhanced humour we set off to explore the town at dusk. In principle, with the sunset Muggia resurrected. From a lazy, bathed in sunlight,  a bit dormant place, it became one huge festivity scene. And the views… I really don’t know if the sunset was special that day, because if it’s ordinary, then I wanna move there when I retire!

Don’t ask me what the occasion of the fete was. Each and every time I visit Italy in summer, there is a celebration of some kind (no matter the week day, no matter the place). I find amusing. I love Italian spirit! Anyway, there was a multitude of events in Muggia that day. Parade, music orchestra concert, rock concert on the street – to name a few. We watched all of that with awe and high spirit.

Croatia Day 4: Opatija and Rijeka

On Monday we went to see two lovely points: Opatija nad Rijeka.

Opatija is an incredible place. It’s a small city at the seaside, often called as Croatian Riviera. It really is very posh and it shows. Classy restaurants, spectacular monuments, expensive super cars and chic boutiques – that’s an ordinary landscape of Opatija.

We did a tour round the spot and had a compulsory bath in the sea. A pretty high springboard occurred to be the top of the pops.

Rijeka, unlike Opatija, is not a very tourist place in my opinion, but it has some lovely spots as well.
We started by walking in the city centre and then went to see the port and have a dinner in one of the restaurants.

Refreshed by an excellent food, we set out on a trip to the castle. Yes, yes it was a trip comparable to Frodo’s one to Mordor… All right, maybe I’m exaggerating a bit but we found it really surprising that climbing a couple of stairs was such an effort for us. But almost always when one climbs up – one will be rewarded by nice views.

Croatia Day 1: Senj

Longly awaited holidays came at last. This year’s destination: Croatia.
We started from Szczecin in the afternoon, splitted into two cars. The route was fine, it took us ~13 hours to get to the place. But boy, when we got there we made a stop just to absorb the beauty of the place.

This is the first image of the sea we saw before getting to the destination – after a long ride it was a decent reward for the pains of journey…

And this was the second image…

We arrived in the morning, so after settling in our accommodation place, taking showers and short naps, we set out to see Senj – the city we stayed in.

The city as such is rather small, so after a short walk around we headed to the main attraction – Nehaj hill where the Senj fortess is situated. The view from the massif was really spectacular, so although climbing up in such a hot weather was an effort, it was worth it.

The view on Nehaj…

The very first day on holidays always is like a shock to me. I find everything so spectacular, so fantastic, so marvellous… This was the case with Nehaj too. I could have stayed there for ages just to watch over the sea and mountains. But well, there were other beauty – places to discover so we went down to the city in the quest for finding a beverage to cool down. On our way we spotted even more quaint views of the place.


Prague – revisit

Although we had visited Prague just a month earlier, we were not disappointed by the revisit. We had a chance to have a different look on the city – to visit the places we had forgotten, to stroll around not so hecticly end to delight ourselves with the fantastic weather.

We stayed in a very nice hotel in the city centre with a pleasurable view on the roof tops of the city.

When Radek finished his affairs we had the whole afternoon to walk across the city again. Radek was happy because he could take all the photo shots once again with his new camera. We didn’t have any specific aim while walking, First we guided ourselves in the river direction. Beyond no doubt, it’s the prettiest place of the city.

Then we moved across the bridge to the other part of Prague (is it left or right? I’m so bad at directions! Anyway, we crossed the bridges to and fro so I’m unable to track our route with details). We passed by a park with some interesting pieces of arts, peeped over a photo session of the newly weds, waved to some tourists in the ship sailing below on the water, listened to an organgrinder (heh, that’s very old-school, but also very touristic). All of that done unhurriedly. It’s the sense of tranquility I liked the best about that day.

 
 

Then we continued walking but in a bit more organised manner. I wanted to see the places we hadn’t „checked” during our previous visit. This were the Prague’s synagoge (I wish more buildings were so colourful) and the museum of sex and erotics our friends recommended to us.

As the sun started to lower, we continued wandering aimlessly.  We really were enchanted by this city and we will gladly return there for the third time.

We finished the day with a meal on the Strahov hill with a spectacular view on Prague and walked back to the car.

Mallorca, extasy and motion, oh oh oh

This month I had a marvellous occasion to travel on a business trip to Palma, Mallorca (how cool is that?). Well… What can I say? Everyone knows the song:

Mallorca, join the generation, oh oh oh
 
That’s Mallorca
Mallorca, 
feel the good vibration, 
oh oh oh
That’s Mallorca

 
For an Eskimo like me, coming from the North, Mallorca indeed is the place of never-ending happiness. I regret not taking better camera with me, the quality of my pictures is rather poor, but still, shows the charm.
 

 
 
The name of Palma (the capital city of Mallorca) is pretty obvious for Poles (palma in polish is a palm tree)…

The organizers of the conference really made a good job and took us to a trip outside Palma, to see the outskirts attractions like a village of Valldemossa (where Fryderyk Chopin, a polish composer spent part of his life with his lover George Sand).

When the guided tour in Valldemossa was finished, we were taken back to Palma, to Bellver Castle (the first round castle in Europe) for a banquet (and more sightseeing).
The castle (as castles tend to be) is situated on the hill, so we had a really good glimpse on Palma in the sunset and then at night.