Hi there! Ja'Nae again. I am in charge of getting our blogs completed today while Beth works on our taxes.
We are still on a high from our trip as we met our fellow passengers last night for a drink. What a great time. Such a shame to go from beautiful weather to rainy weather, but at least I can get back in my routine. (Geez, I am starting to sound like Beth now!)
Croatia was beautiful. We spent 8 days sailing along the different islands and had the chance to swim in the salty, blue Adriatic Sea. Again, all of our pictures are on Facebook but hopefully we will post some of the best ones on our blog.
Day 1 (Friday) - It's my birthday and we spent 4 hours of it travelling to Split, Croatia. 15 minutes away from landing, my head begins to feel like it is going to explode. I had a bit of a sinus infection and the pressure from the flight was making things much worse. My forehead had a sharp shooting pain and my ears wouldn't pop for the life of me. When we arrived at the Split Airport, we were very surprised at how small it was. Only two people were working the Passport Control line, which is unheard of and once you passed that in 2 minutes you were outside. We waited outside for a bit to catch the bus since it was pretty cheap to get into the city this way vs a cab. We waited and waited hoping that a bus would show up. After 10 minutes, we met another couple girls that were on our flight and waiting for the bus as well. We chatted about the bus situation and what we should do. One of the girls asked a rent a car company when the next bus was coming, he told us it would be another two hours because that is when the next flight comes in. At that point we were a bit frustrated because the bus obviously didn't wait for EVERYONE to get off the plane before it left. After waiting 30 minutes for the bus, we decided just to take a cab because it didn't make sense for us to wait another 2 hours. We negotiated 40 Euro to get to the city centre. After almost getting killed because the driver didn't really know how to drive and someone almost ran us off the road, we still had to negotiate the price because it seemed as though he was trying to rip us off. Whatever, we were in Croatia and I was ready to have a good time. Beth and I were a bit skeptical on our hotel that I had booked for the night. The name of the place we were staying had apartments not hotel listed. We had no idea what to expect. We weren't able to find the reception so I ended up calling and the owner came by and picked us up. The place we were staying was quite nice! I expected pure crap, but the furnishings and style was quite modern and sleek. I will be staying there again!!! I didn't mention that Beth and I travelled in jeans, so once we arrived in our hotel room, we quickly changed into shorts and put on our spf 50. We walked around Split, ate gelato twice, bought a bottle of wine, and had a nice dinner. Ater dinner we always feel that it is appropriate to walk it off. And we did just that. We walked up 750 stairs (it may have been less, but it felt like that many) to reach one of the highest points in Split. We have pictures of the stairs and the views too.
Day 2 (Saturday)- Woke up and had breakfast and made our way to the meeting point for our tour. Our tour consisted of visiting 5 islands, swimming in multiple coves, and sleeping on a cruise boat (sleeps 20 people). As we waited at the meeting point, we stared at one of the boats hoping that it was ours and luckily it was. Soon, we were on the boat and getting settled into our rooms. We had a meeting just after lunch where our tour guide, Kasey, explained the house rules and the itinerary for the week. Everyday we had breakfast from 8 to 10, swim at 11, lunch at 1, and arriving at our destiation at around 4 or 5. Shortly after our meeting we make our first swim stop. As most of you know, I am not a big fan of water and I don't know how to swim. Beth, on the other hand is completely opposite. Prior to our trip, I took swimming lesssons (5) thinking they would make me feel more comfortable in the water and it did. But I still didn't know how to relax enough so that I could float or tread water. The first swim stop I did get in the water but held on for dear life onto the ladder. The captain of the ship had his family on board and his kids or grandkids were watching me. I think they were making fun of me, but I have no idea because they were speaking Croatian. Rude little bastards!!! We make our way back onto the boat and make the attempt to shower before reaching Makarska. If you haven't seen the pictures of the shower, then you should. The place where we showered was the same as the toilet. So imagine a stand up shower, with a sink, and toilet. The shower was connected to the faucet. If the boat wasn't moving, hot water and pressure were hard to come by. Since this was our first night as a group, we all stuck together and had dinner together too. My dinner was not so appetizing. I should've known when I asked the waiter what type of meat it was and his response was 'Mixed. Like hamburger meat' that I shouldn't have eaten it. It did not taste anything like hamburger!!!!! We spent the rest of the night walking along the beach and later meeting everyone at a bar to dance the night away. Being the old couple we are, we headed back to the boat at midnight. I am not sure when everyone else came home, but this was one of the quietest nights of the week.
Day 3 (Sunday)- We wake up and we were already making our way to our next destination- Trstenik. Nothing like waking up to the sun and sea. The ride was a bit bumpy though and most people were seasick (or hungover from the night before). Not too many people went swimming on that day. Trstenik was a VERY small place, smaller than Vermillion, South Dakota. It really took about 15 minutes to walk through the town, but still a lovely town. Croatia is knows for its wine, olives, and olive oil. The wineries are on the sides of very high hills so that when it rains, the grapes soak up what they need and let the rest run off, and due to the position of the water (reflection of the sun) and sun. I didn't realize there was such a science to wine-making. The hills are so steep that the workers have to wear harnesses to prevent themselves from falling. Beth and I decided against wine tasting and hit the beach instead. We swam for about 2 minutes and realized that these little fish were attacking Beth ( I guess she just tasted so sweet!) But seriously they were nibbling at her feet and ankles and it just freaked her out. So she didn't swim for very long. Istayed in the water a bit longer and then they started following me! I quickly made my way out of the water. We think the fish in the water may be those pedicure fish that eat the dead skin from your body, but nothing has been confirmed! Later that night we had a Pirate Party. We didn't have anything that resembled a pirate and didn't want to rip our clothing so we just attended as civilians. The boat party consisted of a few competitions such as tug of war, bobbing for apples, ice cream eating contest, and an arm wrestling contest. I participated in the bobbing for apples contest while my muscle woman wife did the arm wrestling. I am not going to complain, but I think that my team won the bobbing for apples competition. My team did win the tug of war competition fair and square! Our tour also went against another tour - Sail Croatia to see who could win at tug of war, of course we won!!!!! We even did a best two out of three!! Go Travel Talk!!!! (I didn't want to mention it, but Beth lost in arm wrestling.)
Next posts will cover the rest of the trip.
Sunday, 12 June 2011
Royal Wedding
I know, I know, I know...this is a bit late. Almost 1.5 months late, but better late than never right? Oh, this is JaNae` writing this lovely blog this time. I didn't even realize that Beth had written one in early May. That's so sweet of her to write one dedicated to our friends and family.
As you can see from the title, I will be talking about our experience at the Royal Wedding. And what an experience it was. I think the best part about the Wedding was that we received another day off. This gave those that didn't want to be a part of the wedding a chance to leave London, or England. The weekend before the Royal Wedding, we had a 4 day weekend because of Good Friday and Easter. The weekend of the Royal Wedding, we had the wedding itself and I believe the holiday was called 'beginning of summer'. But if you planned your holiday just right, you could have taken a very long holiday of 11 days and only 3 were used for PTO (paid time off).
Back to the RW (Royal Wedding). After debating for a few weeks whether to attend or watch on TV, the day prior we decidedd that we should attend. My adventurous wife wanted to camp at Buckingham Palace so that we had a spot for when they kissed on the balcony. (A tradition started by Princess Diana and Prince Charles). I am not that adventurous and wanted to just get up the next morning and make our way to the palace. As we watched the news, we saw many people had decided to camp on the streets and in the park the night before. Well, I love my bed too much and so I got my way. The next thing we had to plan was what time were we willing to wake up. Beth wanted to wake up at 3, although I didn't think it was that necessary I later agreed to waking up that early with her to make the trip. (And no, the tubes were not running yet. They don't start until 6 am.) We made sure to pack waters, cameras, umbrellas, and a few snacks. We were ready to do this!
The morning of, the alarm goes off and Beth hits snooze. We ended up not waking up until 5:30am and headed out the door an hour later. We decided to walk to Westminster since it was closer and see just how many people were there and if we could get a good spot. If we couldn't then we would make our way to Buckingham Palace. For those of you that have not been along South Bank, Westminster Bridge, or the Abbey, it is usually jam packed due to the amount of tourist attractions. The Police had blocked off the streets so there were no cars to be seen.
As we made our way towards Westminster Abbey and Parliament, we began to see the crowd and the line of police along the streets. Thankfully, it was not incredibly packed just yet so we were able to mosey around for a bit and find a good spot. Our spot was standing on a ledge along of the buildings across the street from Parliament. We had scored big time. We were able to see over the heads of those in front of us. It was even better knowing that the wedding party and guests would drive by our spot and we had the opportunity to get some pictures.
As we waited for the wedding party and guests to arrive, we met a few good people from Cambridge. They told us about Princess Diana's wedding and funeral and where they were when it happened. Another lady even told us how she was at the crowning ceremony of Her Majesty, Queen Elizabeth II. Of course, they were delighted to hear that the Queen gave Prince William and Kate the title of Duke and Duchess of Cambridge.
By this time, my sister has Facebooked me asking me to fill her in on the details as she was watching it at home. We Facebooked each other back and forth and we even Skyped. I tried to do video but it wasn't working for whatever reason. As the cars started to make their way to the church, she was giving me the play by play as to who was in the car and what they were wearing. When Prince William and Prince Harry drove by, the crowd went wild as if their team just won the championship game. (You can watch our video on the 'Coming of the Princes' on our FB page) You could feel the excitement from everyone and in a strange way it brough everyone together no matter where you were from. (And yes, Jasmine is still giving me the play by play)
Watching the Queen and Duke of Edinburge, Prince Charles and his woman (yes, I forgot her name), and the rest of the wedding party just made it so exciting to be a part of it. Finally, Kate's car passed us and boy did she look beautiful. At that point, I was so happy to be standing on the street with thousands of people who also wanted to be a part of this moment.
The ceremony was played over the loud speakers in the streets and some parks had big screens so you could watch it. Once the words, 'I will' were spoken, everyone cheered again! And now we just waited for them to make their way to Buckingham Palace.
The parade started with the guards taking their positions and marching down the streets on their massive horses. A few minutes later, the newlyweds were being escorted to the palace. That was a pretty neat thing to see. Once they and the wedding party passed, everyone made their way to the palace.
We made our way through St James Park (which is directly across from the Palace) and it felt like the State Fair. Port-a-potties and food vendors were all around. What a sight! It seemed as though everyone had made it to the park and was waiting for the go ahead from the police for us to walk in the streets towards the palace.
We make our way to the palace finally and try to get our spot to view 'the kiss'. Unfortunately, the Queen Mother statue was in our way along with the media and their cameras. We were crammed in one spot and everyone was touching each other and most of us did not see the kiss. At that moment I felt a bit bad and realized that maybe we should've camped out at the palace so that we could get a good spot for the kiss. Oh well, I guess I learned my lesson.
For pictures of the RW, check out our Facebook page.
As you can see from the title, I will be talking about our experience at the Royal Wedding. And what an experience it was. I think the best part about the Wedding was that we received another day off. This gave those that didn't want to be a part of the wedding a chance to leave London, or England. The weekend before the Royal Wedding, we had a 4 day weekend because of Good Friday and Easter. The weekend of the Royal Wedding, we had the wedding itself and I believe the holiday was called 'beginning of summer'. But if you planned your holiday just right, you could have taken a very long holiday of 11 days and only 3 were used for PTO (paid time off).
Back to the RW (Royal Wedding). After debating for a few weeks whether to attend or watch on TV, the day prior we decidedd that we should attend. My adventurous wife wanted to camp at Buckingham Palace so that we had a spot for when they kissed on the balcony. (A tradition started by Princess Diana and Prince Charles). I am not that adventurous and wanted to just get up the next morning and make our way to the palace. As we watched the news, we saw many people had decided to camp on the streets and in the park the night before. Well, I love my bed too much and so I got my way. The next thing we had to plan was what time were we willing to wake up. Beth wanted to wake up at 3, although I didn't think it was that necessary I later agreed to waking up that early with her to make the trip. (And no, the tubes were not running yet. They don't start until 6 am.) We made sure to pack waters, cameras, umbrellas, and a few snacks. We were ready to do this!
The morning of, the alarm goes off and Beth hits snooze. We ended up not waking up until 5:30am and headed out the door an hour later. We decided to walk to Westminster since it was closer and see just how many people were there and if we could get a good spot. If we couldn't then we would make our way to Buckingham Palace. For those of you that have not been along South Bank, Westminster Bridge, or the Abbey, it is usually jam packed due to the amount of tourist attractions. The Police had blocked off the streets so there were no cars to be seen.
As we made our way towards Westminster Abbey and Parliament, we began to see the crowd and the line of police along the streets. Thankfully, it was not incredibly packed just yet so we were able to mosey around for a bit and find a good spot. Our spot was standing on a ledge along of the buildings across the street from Parliament. We had scored big time. We were able to see over the heads of those in front of us. It was even better knowing that the wedding party and guests would drive by our spot and we had the opportunity to get some pictures.
As we waited for the wedding party and guests to arrive, we met a few good people from Cambridge. They told us about Princess Diana's wedding and funeral and where they were when it happened. Another lady even told us how she was at the crowning ceremony of Her Majesty, Queen Elizabeth II. Of course, they were delighted to hear that the Queen gave Prince William and Kate the title of Duke and Duchess of Cambridge.
By this time, my sister has Facebooked me asking me to fill her in on the details as she was watching it at home. We Facebooked each other back and forth and we even Skyped. I tried to do video but it wasn't working for whatever reason. As the cars started to make their way to the church, she was giving me the play by play as to who was in the car and what they were wearing. When Prince William and Prince Harry drove by, the crowd went wild as if their team just won the championship game. (You can watch our video on the 'Coming of the Princes' on our FB page) You could feel the excitement from everyone and in a strange way it brough everyone together no matter where you were from. (And yes, Jasmine is still giving me the play by play)
Watching the Queen and Duke of Edinburge, Prince Charles and his woman (yes, I forgot her name), and the rest of the wedding party just made it so exciting to be a part of it. Finally, Kate's car passed us and boy did she look beautiful. At that point, I was so happy to be standing on the street with thousands of people who also wanted to be a part of this moment.
The ceremony was played over the loud speakers in the streets and some parks had big screens so you could watch it. Once the words, 'I will' were spoken, everyone cheered again! And now we just waited for them to make their way to Buckingham Palace.
The parade started with the guards taking their positions and marching down the streets on their massive horses. A few minutes later, the newlyweds were being escorted to the palace. That was a pretty neat thing to see. Once they and the wedding party passed, everyone made their way to the palace.
We made our way through St James Park (which is directly across from the Palace) and it felt like the State Fair. Port-a-potties and food vendors were all around. What a sight! It seemed as though everyone had made it to the park and was waiting for the go ahead from the police for us to walk in the streets towards the palace.
We make our way to the palace finally and try to get our spot to view 'the kiss'. Unfortunately, the Queen Mother statue was in our way along with the media and their cameras. We were crammed in one spot and everyone was touching each other and most of us did not see the kiss. At that moment I felt a bit bad and realized that maybe we should've camped out at the palace so that we could get a good spot for the kiss. Oh well, I guess I learned my lesson.
For pictures of the RW, check out our Facebook page.
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