Zadar, Croatia:to Ugljan with bicycles.12.Sept.2014.

[Hier auf Deutsch]

The weather forecasts mainly disagreed, but a few seemed to suggest that the nice weather we were seeing in the morning (we'd decided to get up earlier in hopes of actually seeing some sun) would disappear around 2pm. Well, maybe it'll only drizzle and we'll be fine.

At the beginning of this trip, we'd been met by a guy who'd shown us to the apartment and gave us some recommendations of things to do He'd said that  Ugljan (the nearest island) is easy to get to by ferry (takes about a half hour) and good to see by bike.

We found a place not too far away to rent some bikes: zzuum -- really, it was a guy in a Cafe-Bar,  who had a collection of bikes stashed in a courtyard or basement which he rented out.

We paid 100 Kuna (~ 13.3 Euro) per bike per 24 hrs and had to quickly jaunt over to the ferry to catch the 11 am one. It was something like 72 Kuna per person + bike.

First view from the ferry (to the south) -- to the right is the Zadar old-town peninsula:


There's this tradition (for some number of hundreds of years, passed down from father to son) that there's always a guy here rowing people to and from, between the two sides of the canal-type-area (for 5 Kuna/0.75 Euro):




We also went by the AIDA-Aura, which from where we were sitting seemed like a rather small cruise ship:







When we arrived to the city of Preko ( the name means "over" -- because it's over the water from Zadar) , we first hunted down the tourist info. Unlike the one in Zadar, this one was actually useful. She gave us a map and some suggestions of where to bike to. As we left, people came in and asked similar questions and she said you really need a bike to get around (and we didn't see anywhere to rent one, so were glad we'd brought them, despite the high ferry fee).

We started biking around but were almost immediately hungry. We asked restaurants in the next town we arrived in whether they served food -- nope. None before 16:00 at the earliest (we were going to see this as a theme in smaller/less touristy areas) And no grocery stores, either. So, back to Preko.

We ate at Konoba Roko -- but it took a long time and the sun was already gone behind clouds by the time we finished.

We got back on our bikes and biked around the coast some more. Every bit of coast was set up for swimming and sunning -- full of locals and tourists trying to soak up what sun there was before the rain came.

Here's a map of the area. You can see the ferry rout from Zadar to  Preko (on Ugljan).  Then we went north-ish  along the coast to Sutomišćica and than up the hill and back along the main street(Here's a page with pics and info about the various towns on Ugljan):



Here's a bench (in Poljana) with a good view of Zadar:



You can see a small island in this next photo.  Almost the only thing on it is some old religious building (cloister?). In the background you can see some of the mountain range and the coming rain storm:


This pic was somewhere between two villages. Everything was olive-green -- because of the olive trees (foreground) and the fig-trees (background):



As we were on the edge of Sutomišćica, we saw this former building which is now home to several pomegranate trees.  Pomegranates look a lot like apples, but I think we did not see one apple tree this trip (despite me constantly confusing pomegranates for apples):



Reasonably certain this was  Sutomišćica :


We also saw a marina (whose restaurant was called the Olive Garden (no relation to the US chain)) and then got a bit rained on. But, only just a few drops. It was gone and we kept going, then went up to the main road and started biking back Preko-wards.

We were approaching the road that leads up to the ruins (probably a good lookout point), one of these former-hil-forts-turned-church-now-in-ruins when we were hit by the real rain. It did not look like it would let up, so we gave up and pedaled back to Preko. I had no rain pants and just my Birkestocks, so was socked from the waist down.

Naturally, the rain let up a few minutes after we were back in town waiting for the ferry. I was done, though, and had no desire to bike any more in that condition. We went back to town and gave the bikes back.

Also ran into some kitties that agreed with me about staying out of the rain:




Next Post: The island Nin. 

Zadar, Croatia: Veni, Vidi, Pluit. roman things and the Archeological Museum.11.Sept.2014.

[auf Deutsch hier]

I should correct something I wrote previously -- an omission of a great restaurant. I forgot that we'd eating at Trattoria Calzona on Tuesday. Wednesday, which I hadn't said anything about lunch for, was at Na Po Ure, which Lonely Planet suggested.

``This unpretentious family-run konoba is the place to sate that appetite, with from-the-heart Dalmatian cooking: grilled lamb, calf's liver and fresh fish served with potatoes and vegetables.''

We had the ``Fish, first class" (grilled whole). You see this in every menu -- there's two classes of fish you order. Not what kind of fish (grouper or whatever), just what class it is. First class is more expensive (of course?). There's also usually a grilled tuna steak option as well. Maybe that's 3rd class? Anyway, due to the delightful prices, we could afford to try out the first class fish and it was really tasty.


11. September. Thursday

More rain. One forecast called for as much rain as the flood we had in Münster. Luckily, that's not what we got, but it was still pretty stormy.

IMPORTANT TIP (for the weather):  There are a lot of weather predictions you can find online.  For the same day, we were seeing weather.com say one thing (like "Sun! Lots of it! Maybe some clouds") and BBC say the opposite ("Biblical floods!")   

I found this one to be the best and most precise (as far as you can be precise with weather here).   Also good to note -- it seemed like even if the forecast said rain, if you got up early enough (8/9am), you'd see some sun. There was also a good chance of seeing it again late in the afternoon for an hour or so/

On the left side of this following photo (red roof) is the University of Zadar. Nearby (further away) you can see rain. This was taken facing southwards:



Another photo of a rainy day -- the Pier in Zadar (facing West/Southwest):



For lunch, we ate at  Konoba Stomorica (Konoba is,,Restaurant'' or ,,Tavern" in Croatian). Very very very tasty tuna steak (had it rare and didn't regret it) and some veggies.

IMPORTANT TIP (for eating out): You get exactly what's in the Menu -- if you order tuna steak, you get tuna steak. Sometimes this will come with potatoes. Usually you'll need to order them (or veggies or whatever) yourself as sides. These cost between 15 and 30 Kuna  (~ 1,3 Euro / 10 Kuna).

Archeological Museum Zadar

The Museum had 3 (I think) floors. The highest was objects from pre-history in the area of Zadar.  Zadar had always had some people living around it. At some point, the Liburni tribes developed hill-forts which later became actual fortified places ---cities with walls, churches, defensive forts.

The pointy bits on hills around Zadar were all probably former hill-forts (I'll try to remember to say this again when I post a picture of the horizon looking at said peaks).

``After the year 59 B.C. Zadar became a Roman municipium, and in 48 B.C. a colony of Roman citizens. During Roman rule Zadar acquired the characteristics of a city with a regular road network, a main square – forum, and next to it an elevated capitolium with a temple. In the 7th century Zadar became the center (capital) of the Byzantine theme (province) of Dalmatia. At the beginning of the 9th century Zadar was mentioned as seat of bishop Donatus and the Byzantine leader Paulus. At the time a church was erected on the Roman forum, the church of the Holy Trinity, today St. Donat, for which it can be said to be the symbol of the city." Read more here

Zadar (Iader) was conquered by Romans and got a Forum (as any Roman city would have). The ruins are still kind of there, but with this Church in the middle:





There've been some excavations. Here's a game some Romans liked to play:



They also found these  ``charms against evil":


The text associated with it assured the reader that despite what people have heard of Romans being debaucherous and so on, the penis was really used as a luck talisman etc etc. I suppose if these came from graves, they're more likely to have been a serious kind of thing than something teenagers laughed with each other about.

After we were done, the rain (eventually) took a bit of a break.

On the left is the church ``Sv. Donat (Sv. = Saint) and on the right is the bell tower. Foreground is part of the Forum:



This next Church-and-Convent was originally built in 1091 and renovated in the 16th Century:



If you stand close to where the Temple (on the north end of the old Forum) was, this was the view that day -- complete with a rainbow.

That rainbow, by the way, points exactly to  theMuseum of Gold and Silver (in a religious context)


This wall and the stones with faces are what remains of the area leading up to the old temple:



Coming up:
Next day: a half-day visit of the island Ugljan by ferry with rented bicycles.
Next next day: finally some sun and a visit to the ,,island" (reachable easily by bus and walking) ``Nin"

Zadar, Croatia. The first few days: 09.Sept--10.Sept.2014.

[auf Deutsch hier]

I'm in Croatia again, this time more north than Dubrovnik (it'd be harder to be much south and still in Croatia)-- Zadar. 

Zadar is one of these places form which civilization spread -- since pre-historic times, people have lived here.  This includes the Romans, who were so kind as to set up the streets in a grid, which has persevered to the present day. It has made getting around much easier than expected.

So, why Zadar? It's a pretty city on the Adriatic coast, and not too far from many other places.

It has a collection of nearby islands and nearby parks:

Islands (just a small sample):

• Dugi Otok, with the ,,most beautiful"/,,most Carribean-like" beach in the area (the beach is called Saharun) and a lot of other nice parts 
• Ugljan, the nearest, easiest-to-get-to (ferries every hour until quite late) island, but you really need a bicycle or scooter there to get around 
• Nin, with two very tiny churches, sandy beaches, ,,medicinal mud", and salt pans

Parks:

• Kornati (strande group of islands, which are sort of a half-underwater mountain range. Makes it dangerous/difficult to navigate, so best as an organized tour)
• Telascica (pretty park on the southern tip of Dugi Otok, facing the Kornati islands)
• Plitvice Lakes/Waterfalls -- not that near, 2 hrs by bus, and supposed to be spectacular
• Zrmanja Canyon -- with canoe/kayak and tour groups. Where ,,Winnetou 3" was filmed, has a sort of ,,southwest US" vibe.
• Paklenica - good for hiking and such, about an hour away

==================================

09.09 -- getting there

[Flight]

This was my first time to fly through the airport nearest me, Münster-Osnabrück.  It should have been a 25 Minute bus trip to catch a 06:15 flight, but I hadn't realized until late that the local busses weren't running -- so, I'd have to take a taxi to the main train station (~ 20 minutes) to then catch the bus. At that point, might as well pay the extra bit and just go directly to the airport (~25 minutes away).

So, the Taxi saved me about half an hours time -- so I got 3 hours instead of 2.5 hours of sleep -- but then I was at the airport wayyyyyy too early. I clearly could have gotten there at 5:15 and been fine. Maybe even 5:30.

Then in Munich, i had 3 hours between flights. Pro Tip -- after you go through passport control, there's a place where you can take a nap. If I'd known that earlier....ah, well.

[in Zadar]

On the first day, we were too exhausted and worn out by travel and the temperature to do much. We did make it out to the Sea-Organ (Morske orgulje) , which is kind of surreal
You can listen to it here.

On the next day (Wednesday), the weather was of course crappy and we had to stay mainly instead. Rather than go to a museum, we walked around in the rain anyway and ran into the ,,Croatian Design Superstore Pop-Up" . It took place in the ``Rector's Palace", an old building which, according to the posters inside, was supposed to have become a museum in 2012. It looked like that was still sort of underway -- one small part was a kind of museum, outside of this ,,Design Superstore" thing -- which had everything from furniture and clothes to wine, olive oil and kid's toys. We walked very very slowly through but at the end, still had to wait inside for a while and let the torrential rain and thunder and lighting blow over a bit.

Here was the entryway:

It lightened up a bit after a while, and we hurried out to find somewhere to eat.
We decided on a place around the corner,  Trattoria Canzone.

We walked around the city some more later when it dried out a bit:

Here's a bit of the ,,Foša", a kind of moat bordering on the south end of the old city:




At the end of the Foša is this city gate -- which I think is the oldest in Zadar:




I'd bought a travel guide which said that you can see some venetian symbols in the city fortifications -- perhaps that's what this is:



Supposedly, Zadar has the ,, most beautiful sunset in the world". So, we tried to see it:



Here was the view from the edge of the Sea organ:



And where the sunset was supposed to have been:



We saw the Ferry which runs regularly between Zadar and Preko (on Ugljan):



After the sun set, there's an art installation powered by solar cells -- a light show of sorts -- called greet the sun (Pozdrav Suncu)






On the next day we got yet more rain and went into a museum (of Roman antiquities). More later.

2014.29.06. Dubrovnik. Cable Car. City Walls.

[hier, auf Deutsch]


2014.29.06. Sunday. First, the cable car ride.

It's good to know, that the bus (any bus shuttle at all) that takes you back to the Dubrovnik airport, leaves from the ,,Cable Car" stop instead in front of the Pile (Peee-lay) gate (where you're dropped off when you arrive).

To get there, you walk to the old city, but instead of walking you, you walk around, following the road north-ish, outside the city walls. It's really the only street you could take.

There's a place to buy tickets on the cable car which takes euros-- a fair amount of places (but not all) around Dubrovnik do. A round trip was about 14 Euros (100 Kuna).

Here are some photos I took while waiting in line:



You can see Lokrum (which we'd visited the day prior) in the background:



Inside the cable car, there wasn't a whole lot of room to take photos.  Here's one I managed to take:




From the top, here's a view of the city and cable car:




I figured out a way to make a panorama from some of my pictures from the top -- this is as you look north and a bit east (you can see why they'd filmed a fair amount of Spaghetti westerns in Croatia):




You could also see the ,,Red Keep" from Game of Thrones :



[Compare with this still from the Game of Thrones (2.Season, 6.Episode).]  The photo also shows a (returning?) canoe-tour group. We didn't end up doing that ourselves, but it was popular among other conference-goers.  If you look very very closesly, you can also see (sort of ,,under" the Red Keep) the Pier.

More to the west, you can get a good view of the western harbor (the "real" harbor) of Dubrovnik, and the Elaphiti Islands:







At the top of the mountain stands the fort  Festung Srd (originally constructed in the early 1800s by Napoleonic French forces).  It is now a museum about the Croatian war of Independence (which they call the Homeland War, of1991-1995).  During the war it was shelled from nearby mountains (those pictured earlier). You can still see traces of the damage:




It's worth noting that the cable car was damaged during the war and out of commission for a while. It's only been somewhat recently that it's been repaired/renovated/replaced and up and working again.


City-Walls Walk

There are only about 2 places where you can start your walk along the city walls (which costs 100 Kuna, and no, you cannot pay in Euro).  We were wandering (after the cable car) around a bit first, starting through a northern gate into the old city:



We hadn't made it up the hill on the northern side of the old city, so we walked around a fair bit. I liked these nice tiny streets:



We also saw this rather funny tavern --- ,,Tavern Lady Pi-Pi".  The statue/fountain is of a woman peeing (I kid not).



Before finding the entrance to the city walls, we found a basketball court/playground and got some directions (half in Geman)

A view of the playground from the walls:



First view from the city walls -- this is what you see right after you enter through the Pile gate:




It was super warm and not particularly comfortable on the wall. We'd said this later to our host and he said you should only visit it early in the morning.













Here was another Game-of-Thrones place, the ,,House of the Undying"(still from the show):





There were also some empty buildings -- my guess was that these were sort of reminders of the war (or perhaps simply not repaired since then, for whatever reason):





End of the trip. Summary/ Thoughts.
On the next day, with the help of our host, we managed to use a way from where we were staying t othe Cable-Car stop, basically without stairs. It was incredible.

We were rather early, though, so we ate some lunch at ,,Yummi-Cafe" there.

A tip: Souvenirs are several Euros cheaper at the airport giftshop than in the old city.

All in all, Dubrovnik was very pretty and the people nice.

It was never clear to us how tipping works in Croatia, so we always gave something.

Where we stayed had a lot of steps between it and where we needed to go, but there were a lot of nice fruit trees around (lemon, apple) and everything was beautiful, green, and quiet. Also, most other places there had just as many steps.


The biggest ``attractions" of Dubrovnik are:

• the walk around the city walls
• the ride/view of the cable car (and the museum in Srd) 
• the Elaphiti Islands
• swimming in the very clear, refreshing, salt water 
• hiking in the mountains (not in the summer!) 
• canoe-tours around Lokrum and other places
• Snorkeling (German is ,,schnorklen") 
• tours with glass-bottomed boats
• eating fresh fish dishes
• good coffee
• beautiful, sunny weather (not always, but often)

We managed to do most of these things. I'd go gladly back to Croatia, although probably try out another city.

If you like swimming every day in the Adriatic Ocean and enjoying the sun, Croatia is a good travel destination.

28.06.2014 Dubrovnik. The Island of Lokrum.

Our host spoke some German (mixed with an occasional word of English). We learned from him that the nearest island, ,,Lokrum'',  is a kind of nature preserve.

We had lunch at  Konoba Gallus. There was a huge group of tourists, fresh off the cruise ship, who were to eat there. So, there was only a small little side area where we could eat (and only pizza).

It was here, further, below, and to the right. One one side was a stone wall, and not so far away was the matching stone wall of the building of the restaurant. It made a sort of breezeway that the wind gently flowed through and was very pleasant.  Here is someone else's photo. 

I had seen the following sign from this hidden area. It took a few times reading through it, before I understood what it was about :).



Afterwards, we walked to the east harbor of Dubrovnik, past the various stands for tours and dinners and tours, and finally saw the one ship which went to Lokrum.  It was 140 Kuna (~ 18,50 Euro, $25.20) round trip. Here are a few photos of the ride to Lokrum:

After 10-15 minutes, we were there. We'd learned (from previous travel) that it's a good idea to have a map. So, I took this picture of the relevant map before we went traipsing around:



We started at the harbor marked (1) and walked around sort of west and north.

Here's a view from the harbor where we landed:





and another:



There were a lot of peacocks on the island. Maybe they came from the time when the island belonged to the Hapsburgs (Wikipedia agrees with my theory).



The peacock danced -- either to try to scare us off or to impress the ladies. He vibrated, shaking his feathers, and made an odd rustling sound in the process.

Here's another, trying to do the same, without the giant feathers:



We saw a peahen with her babies as well:





We saw a fair-sized lizard (maybe as big as my foot) and another, which scampered off:



At the harbor of Lokrum were a lot of crabs. Here's the best picture of one I ended up taking:



There's a smoking ban on the island (so you don't burn it down). I like the sign for it:





One of the sights to see is a former benedictine monastery, now in ruins:




Another photo of the monastery. From this angle, it reminded me of the Alhambra. It's not easy to tell here, but the wall is a light pink. Pink granite? (Does pink granite tend to occur near limestone? It seems to in Texas).

'


After the previous-monastery, we walked down to the other side of the island, a part of the coast where a few people swam. Rather, where families with their small children were standing in the wayer. It was very shallow and not somewhere we felt like trying to swim.










After the coast, we walked back up to their "Dead Sea/Lake", (``Mrtvo More'' in Croatian), a saltwater lake.




And there were yet more peacocks there. We got to see a few fly up to and down from trees, which was quite a sight (couldn't get a picture fast enough, though):





There was a (also from the Hapsburgs) Botanical Garden,  with palms and cacti, and some really large prickly pear cacti:








Some random religious building:




I thought it was cute/funny that this restaurant (on the island) had, in addition to "normal" desserts, also fruit like watermelons in the dessert fridge here:




Next time (probably the last post from this trip):

Sunday: Cable car up the mountain, and later, walking around the city walls. Lots of photos.

26.06-27.06.2014 Dubrovnik.End of the conference.

[auf Deutsch]

Since Thursday was mostly just about the banquet, I'll skip talking about it and posting pictures (since this is a travel blog). However, if you were there, or simply want to look at pictures from it, I can advise that the organizers are collecting photos and will post them, I think, on the conference webpage.

Ok, ok. One photo. In the middle (with the beard) is the person whose birthday we were celebrating. Around him stood many of his former students.



I should mention that every day I had breakfast at  Sesame,  a restaurant (and also a hotel, I just learned) near the IUC-- ,,Inter-University Center"-- where the conference was held. The waiters were nice and their coffee was delicious.

Here's the view from the IUC in the direction of Sesame. You can see a little of Sesame on the left side -- it's pretty well hidden by the trees.




Friday, 28.06..
Friday was the last day of the conference. the conference was held in the IUC which had a really pretty courtyard, where we daily had coffee and cake (and math chats):



Here's a view from in front of the IUC:




Lunch was at ,,...nishta", a vegetarian restaurant. Tasty and interesting. I had the felafel and lemonad.

After the last talk, a lot of people wanted to go swimming, since the weather was great. We went to a ,,Beach bar", where you could swim and snorkel nearby.  But, like every ,,beach" here (outside of the artifical one by one of the fancy hotels), it was no proper beach, but a rocky coast.

It was fun and relaxing. Some people swam, some sat, some drank. You could comfortably leave your stuff to be watched by the people there and go take a turn in the water. The water, as ever, was a bit ,,fresh" and therefore refreshing :). I finally had my swim-goggles with me, and the water there next to the ,,beach bar" was shallow enough that I could see a few things -- a sort of ,,sea-snake" and some fish. It would've been a lot easier with a snorkel. I was very much out of practice holding my breath.

Here's a nice view near where we were swimming. It's a part of  `Blackwater Bay" from Game of Thrones:




After the swim, we met up with a few others, then re-divided into groups for dinner. Because of my pleasant experience in the harbor in the west, I suggested we simply go there and find something. The weather was still nice enough that we all opted to walk there (it was mostly downhill, anyway). It was a pleasant walk.

A nice sunset view as we walked:



This is probably Croatian for ,,push":




We ended up eating at  Porat.  I had the seabass, which was steamed in banana leaves, and every bit as soft and delicious as the menu had promised.




Hier is some of what other people ate:







Next up on the travel blog:

• Saturday -- exploring the botanical garden/reserve on the island of Lokrum
• Sunday -- Cable car up the mountain, lots of beautiful views of Durbovnik. Later, a walk around the city walls. 

I flew back on Monday.

24.06-25.06.Dubrovnik, next two days.Swimming.Talks.The other Harbor in Dubrovnik.

24.06 Tuesday began with rain

I didn't sleep well Monday night and was woken up by some serious rain. Despite (or because of) this, the view from the window was pretty great:




For lunch, the group I was with grabbed some sandwiches (again) from a small shop and sat on the pier from Game of Thrones (Seriously. Remember this scene? Or this?) . Afterwards, we went for a swim around the corner (really, over a hill and back down) from the first cove, which was much nicer and cleaner, although the water felt cooler. Probably because it was much warmer and sunnier.

Same pier where we ate lunch, but on the next day:


After the talks, we went back to the old city. We ate (just outside the walls) at the same place as Monday evening,  ,,the Terrace". It had a great view and the food was pretty good. I had one of the daily specials, the ravioli with truffles as well as an order of grilled veggies. Our experience has been that most things don't come with veggies, but ordering them on the side for another 2.5-3 euros is always an option.

Some of us wanted to go into the old city proper afterwards to walk around. Here's a totally normal street in the old city:



and a woman with wings, swooping around the main street (she probably was advertising the Midsummer Night's Dream which was playing at the far end of the street)



On the next day (Wednesday), there'd be a proper tour of the old city. We weren't sure if we would go, especially since it was supposed to rain the next two days. So, we did our own little mini-tour of the side streets and alleys of the old city.



I saw this sign and thought, well, gotta check it out:



The view was reached through a whole/doorway in the city wall. Here are two pictures of the "most beautiful view":





Another normal (narrower) street, from near the south wall:



This building dates from 1664:



You have to pay around 100 Kun (btwn 7.5 and 10 euro) to clamber around the fortifications properly. We didn't really have that much daylight left, so left it for another day and just peaked through a fence:



We rounded a corner, and saw a great view of the other side of the city and its defenses, towards the north:



Outside of the old city, to the east, is a small harbor. Very pretty during dusk:








Dubrovnik from the Pier:
 




We saw some other people swimming, but I personally wasn't interested in swimming right there:




From the pier, we could see a cruise ship, which was probably headed to the other harbor in the west:




25.06 Wednesday and the other harbor of Dubrovnik. 

On Wednesday, there were only two talks (well, two talk time-slots) and then we had the rest of the day free. I discussed some math with people for a while and later did a very small amount of walking around. My friend had mentioned some not-so-touristy restaurants on the west side of everything, by the bus station (and the other harbor), so I decided to go for dinner over there.

Heading there, one could see more mountains in the distance:



We managed to avoid all stairs going there, and just walked down a gentle hill. Success!

First view of the other harbor:




After we ate, more harbor, with some sunset light awesomeness:





The restaurant we picked is called ,,Amfora". Tasty tasty, and the waitstaff was a lot more laid back than the pushy super-used-to-throngs-of-tourists guys around the old city. Similar prices, but the food quality was higher. I had the risotto, which had the correct rice and lots of basil and parmesan. Delicious.

There are stray cats all over Dubrovnik. They seem to be both rather clever and sweet. This one, as I approached and hauled out my camera, scampered up on the scooter and then mewed at me as I pointed the camera at it, like he wanted payment for doing what he was supposed to. I didn't throw him any food (to be fair, I had none on me).

22.06 --23.06 Dubrovnik Croatia, arrival. First 2 days.

Auf Deutsch.

I'm in Croatia now, for a conference which runs from 23rd through the 27th of June. It's in honor of the 60th Birthday of the  founder of my sub-area of Topology (Goodwillie).  I'm happy to see my colleagues again -- and the sun as well :) .
==========
Arrival -- day 1. 

Croatia -- from the plane, everything seemed very hilly (really, mountainous), sunny and beautiful. I'm here for a conference, and immediately had the feeling that I should come back to visit again, when I really have enough time to enjoy the place.




After we landed, we took the shuttle (not the public bus, which we didn't see) into the city -- it took maybe 20 or 30 minutes. It was a beautiful ride along the adriatic coast.



What I had not understood when booking a hotel, was that its location necessitated schlepping my 16kg suitcase up ~100 stairs -- I chose to hold it over my head, and cursed not wearing my ankle brace.

Well, I guess I'll get in shape this way.

When looking up the ``street", what you see:



And here's the view from half-way down:



I sent an SMS to a friend who's also here, so we could meet up and find some dinner. We opted for the old city ---which is ``close" as the crow flies, and a little less close when you take into account the stairs. We ate at the ``favorite" restaurant of our host, which was not that great.

Here's a picture of the main street of the old city (it's about 300m long):


 We discovered that the old city *also* has a lot of big staircases (thankfully, the restaurant-street was only up about 5 or so steps) :





After eating, we took some time to go to the/a harbor (the one on the east end of the city), had some ice cream and looked around.



There was a fake submarine:





Outside of, but near to the old city:


A nice vantage point, looking south-east ish:



2nd Day (First Day of the Conference)

On the second day in Dubrobnik started the conference. For breakfast, we ate in a restaurant which is adjacent to the conference center (it's called "Sesame"). Good coffee, and I could get a totally normal breakfast of müsli, yogurt and fruit.

We had sandwiches from the "Sandvich Stand" for lunch and sat on the pier (which was in Game of Thrones):




While we were sitting there, one of the other people mentioned that on a nearby island they saw an octopus along the coast. This was said while we were watching little crabs scuttling around an outcropping.

Afterwards, we walked up a hill towards a fortress and looked out over the city:




Looking in the other direction, we saw a cove where one could go swimming (which also showed up in Game of Thrones). Later that evening I even went swimming there:




The water was amazingly clear, which you can kind of see in this picture:




In the city, we saw a lot of pretty little side streets (which is called an "Ulica" in Croatian):

After lunch and after another lecture, I gave my own talk. I felt it went quite well :).
I swam later (after all the talks were over and after dinner), sort of in celebration. The water was a bit cold, but sort of "marbled" warm-cool and the saltiness was nice (and different from just pool swimming).

[Next: more pictures, more of everything!]

2014.02.21--24. Galway-area.Day 2.Connemara.

A bit from "The Irish Sketchbook" William Makepeace Thackery (1843) on Connemara:

``The Clifden car, which carries the Dublin letters into the heart of Connemara, conducts the passenger over one of the most wild and beautiful districts that it is ever the fortune of a traveller to examine; and I could not help thinking, as we passed through it, at how much pains and expense honest English cockneys are to go and look after natural beauties far inferior, in countries which, though more distant, are not a whit more strange than this one. "

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Weather forecast for the day: rain, wind, rain. Rinse, wash, repeat.  We'd brought rain pants, which were the perfect remedy to this day.

We wanted to do a tour, decided on Connemara and Cong, from the Galway tour company, in part because it seemed like between that and the Cliffs of Moher, the Connemara and Cong tour would involve less time getting soaking wet in the rain. I was also bummed out that it was the wrong season to hope to catch sight of any puffins at the Cliffs of Moher. (Here's a page on all the birds you can see there). 

There didn't seem to be any small-bus tours (like the one we took in Dublin to Co. Wicklow), so we were stuck on a giant monster-sized bus. Our tour guide was named Michael, and he kept up a pleasant monolog about the various sights and passed on snippets of Irish history. 

We passed by this traditional Irish house. They were usually 2 rooms: a communal room and sleeping room. There might be a loft for the daughters to sleep together in. Supposedly, a woman who stayed with her family, unmarried (sleeping up on that loft), was said to have been "left on the shelf" (and that being the source of that saying):

thatched cottage

There's a patter along the thatch at the top. These vary between thatchers, works as a kind of "signature".

Our tour guide assured us that there's nothing Irish (men) love more than potatoes (food-wise?). He said, the surest way to an Irish man's heart is to invite him over for dinner and make him a giant pot of potatoes. The way to lose him is to later invite him over for dinner (again) but only make salad.

Connemara is a beautiful, boggy region, made more beautiful by the drizzle and clouds.
A lot of the trip was just shuffling quickly out of the bus, taking a picture or two, and scurrying back on to avoid the drizzle and cold.  The roads were well-maintained, but they are "bog roads" -- constantly sinking, and generally bumpy. I got motion-sick, and this lasted most of the day, even through the two-hour break at Kylemore.

beautiful Connemara

I think these colors are amazing. Yellows and reds and blacks and greys of the water.

more beautiful bog scenery

In the next picture, you can see what it looks like when people have been actively digging out peat (to use to burn in fires): 

The next two pictures show in the water, mussel farms. They are not eaten by the Irish (or so said Michael), just tourists. They ate a lot of them (to survive) during the famine, and removing them from the water was outlawed afterwards by cranky landowners:

I assume the buouys mark where you pick up the whatever-it-is in which the mussels are growing

One of the big attractions on this tour was the Kylemore Castle/Abbey.

A short history: 
Englishman (Mitchell Henry) goes to Connemara-region for his honeymoon. Loves it. Later, inherits a bunch of money. Comes back (mid-famine) to build his dream estate to have his wife (and future) kids in. The neighborhood loves him, as he brings money and employment.

They go on a trip later with their kids, travel around, go to Egypt. She gets some illness you wouldn't die of these days, and dies. He's heartbroken, comes back, builds a chapel in her memory and a small mausoleum. They had her embalmed in Egypt so that her corpse would survive the trip being shipped back to Ireland.

Later, he sells the place. To the Duke and Duchess of Manchester. They think they King's going to be their guest, so they make a lot of "improvements" to the place (tearing out some beautiful arches and other nice things to "modernize"). The Duke's got a gambling problem. Legend says he lost the castle in a game of cards or dice. They had to move out.

Then it sort of lapsed into disrepair.

Time goes by. A bunch of nuns (there was a nunnery in Ypres, Belgium that had a girl's school and was a popular place to send Irish girls with some money away for schooling) were looking around for a new place to live after their previous home was blown up in WWI. Found the castle, thought it was awesome, bought it.  Started up a school eventually to pay the mortgage.

Closed the school down around 2007. Combo of not enough nuns anymore and also too many regulations meaning they'd have to seriously renovate (and destroy parts of) the place to make it wheelchair-friendly and up to snuff with respect to the current fire code.

Result: now a chunk of the place is actually open to tourism (as it's no longer a school), and the rest is where the remaining nuns live and, apparently, make chocolates to sell in the shop at the visitor center.

Here's the view as we pulled into the parking area (yes, I saturated the photo a bit, but it really is oddly green. It's the moss, mainly):

First view of Kylemore Castle/Abbey:

Kylemore Abbey/Castle

Somehow the land is both rocky and boggy; Kylemore castle had to be built into/on/around the rock, since it's so dense that even blasting with dynamite wouldn't clear it. It's hard to tell by looking at it, I think, but it is on several levels as a result.

View across the lake:

The chapel built to honor the wife of Mitchell Henry:

again, that is not grass on the ground, that's moss.

As you can clearly see, moss grows all the way around the tree, so not just on the north side:

The next stop on the trip was a Friary (Ross Errilly Friary)  built in 1351 by Franciscans. It was pretty big, had had two stories (the floor and roof were timber, and have not survived), and housed, they think, roughly 200 people.  Here is an aerial view to give you a sense of size. From a blog piece of someone who is a (recreational?) historian from the area.

This bit (taken from Wikipedia) is something our tour guide commented on as well:

"Life at Ross Errilly was disrupted by the English Reformation. The Franciscans had loudly opposed King Henry VIII's break with Rome, which would prove costly after the schism. In 1538, English authorities imprisoned two hundred of the monks and banished or killed an indeterminate number of others. The rest of the Franciscans' history at Ross Errilly would be marked by repeated evictions and other persecutions."

[Also just learned that as a consequence of ``Glorious Revolution", there was an act (the Popery Act of 1698) that effectively put a bounty on Catholic Clergy]

clearly, Irish-Gaelic went with "Monastery" (Mainistir) rather than "Friary".

Ross Errilly Friary

looking into a courtyard

Old-friary-become sheep-grazing spot. The smell was...earthy.

We also stopped in Cong, a small town whose main claim to fame seems to be some film was filmed there.  Wikipedia to the rescue:

``Cong was the filming location for John Ford's 1952 Oscar-winning film, The Quiet Man, featuring John Wayne, Maureen O'Hara and Barry Fitzgerald. Much of the movie was filmed on the grounds of Ashford Castle. The town and castle area remain little changed since 1952, and Cong's connection with the movie make it a tourist attraction. (The movie is still celebrated by the local "Quiet Man Fan Club")."

Someone else's picture of the requisite ``Quiet Man" statue.

It also seemed a scant distance from being completely flooded -- river flowing super-high, to just below the containing walls, no clearance under bridges. It was bad enough that the public toilets seemed to no longer be able to work (I think the water table was too high).  

We also stopped at this fairy tree. You tie something to it -- when you get married, when you want a kid, when you have a kid. When the kid gets sick and you want it to get better. When it gets better.  For luck. For thanks.

Fairy Tree!

Getting back in to Galway, we debated various things -- including deciding to skip the Cliffs of Moher the next day-- and then headed back in to town proper for a late dinner. Lots of wandering around, in the rain. We settled in to the Pie Maker for dinner.  I had sausage and veal gravy pie (came with mashed potatoes and mushy peas) with ginger beer. Lovely. 

We walked around afterwards looking for live music. Was reminded of the bar past the "red light district" known for trad stuff. We walked out that way and re-found it. The Crane Bar.

The Crane Bar, during the day 

There were, after about an hour, 20 or so musicians all jamming, jigs, reels, what have you. 5 or so pipes, an irish bagpipe, a few concertinas, and 5 or 6 fiddles. Quite lovely.  Outside of the (other) tourists and their flashes on their cameras. 

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Parting thoughts on Galway, Dublin and (Republic of) Ireland (I still have one more post on Northern Ireland/Belfast in this trip): 

Our tour guide, Damien, to Co. Wicklow had said that people who come to Ireland, visit Ireland, on average, 3 times in their lives. I can totally see this. It is a lovely country with great scenery and an interesting history.  

One impression I had in Dublin was there was no real "Famine" museum. Sure, there were statues (and in Galway, a park and monument), but I expected more (apparently you can find bits and pieces in one of the museums we didn't visit, as well as the former-jail in Dublin, in the context of a precursor to the (eventually) successful succession movement).

I can see how it's still a bit touchy -- it wasn't exactly a famine, inasmuch as food was still being produced and (forcibly) exported, due to the British landowners.  

Malone. … My father died of starvation in Ireland in the black ’47. Maybe you heard of it?
Violet. The Famine!
Malone (with smouldering passion) No, the Starvation. When a country is full of food, and exporting it, there can be no famine. Me father was starved dead; and I was starved out to America in me mother’s arms. English rule drove me and mine out of Ireland . …
---George Bernard Shaw, Man and Superman (1903) (found cited here)

Here's some stuff from the internet, for the curious:

• a famine timeline. 
• a very good University College Cork page, including various excerpts of relevant texts (incl. primary and secondary sources):

• ``Excess deaths, that is, deaths over and above the normal rate, for 1846–51 are reckoned at between a million and a million and a half. The population declined by 2,225,000 in the period 1845–51 from a probable high of 8,200,000."

• a blog talking about the type of potato being grown then (and used as the main source of nutrition in Ireand).  Includes comment that the estimated pre-Famine daily intake of potatoes for a laborer was 10-14 pounds (4.5--6.35 kilos). 

I saw/heard the statistic that some 30 million people worldwide (or maybe just in the states?) claim Irish ancestry, as part of the mass emigration due to the Famine. There were a surprising (to me) number of shops and such advertising to help you with genealogical research, finding your family crest/seal/whatever. It felt very American to me, but it's really, I suppose, the other "end" of the American obsession with finding our roots -- Ireland lost a giant chunk of people, and not that long ago.
Also, for the curious, Ireland was neutral during WWII. I thought that was interesting. It makes a lot of sense, having freshly come from their own civil war. For Ireland in WWI and leading up to post-WWII, see this page at University College of Cork.

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Next post -- Belfast/Northern Ireland (it will be a small-ish one, as I didn't take many photos).