Spring Break in Croatia

We booked our trip to Croatia months ago, and the idea of spring break was what got us through eight weeks with no breaks. I don't think we could have been any more excited to see 3 pm roll around on that last day. This year, spring break was eleven whole days! We spent seven of those days traveling to, around, and from Croatia.

Sitting in the airport; waiting on our flight.

Our flight there left Cairo at 2-ish am, and we were supposed to arrive at 10-ish am. Long, painful, story short, we arrived in Croatia around 11 pm, and didn't get to the Airbnb until after midnight. I really don't want to rehash this painful experience, so you are spared the details!

Our first day there, we didn't wake up until late morning. It was Easter, and research told us that not much would be open. Seeing as we had not gotten in until midnight, we hadn't eaten and didn't have any food at the Airbnb. So, we all decided to take a walk and see what we could find. We ended up having pasta and pizza at a nice restaurant we eventually visited again. We also spent a few hours sitting and drinking in an Irish pub. One roundwas on the House because it was Easter! On the way back to the Airbnb, we stopped at a Mexican restaurant to pick up some chips and salsa to accompany our leftover pizza and pasta for dinner. Thankfully we had gone to duty free before leaving the airport, so we had plenty of wine to drink for the night!

Happy Easter!

The next day, three of us went to a couple of wineries. Yay for having a car! We knew that we didn't want to stay in Dubrovnik the entire time (there's so much to see and do in Croatia), so we rented a car for the week. The drive to the wineries was so scenic! I tried to get some pictures as we were driving. The wineries we went to were literally in people's houses. As it turns out, these families have been in the wine-making business for hundreds of years. However, because of past communism, they have only recently begun selling for the public. For the previous hundreds of years, they've only made the wine for their own family. Each of these wineries has several dozens of acres for growing grapes. The climate of this part of Croatia favors grapes to make red wines. And let me tell you...they were all pretty fantastic!

First winery we went to.

Scenery on the drive.

Scenery on the drive.

The following day, Zach wasn't feeling well, so four of us took off to Split. Split is about a 3-hour (one-way) car ride from Dubrovnik. It turns out that the first hour of the trip was the same as the day before going to the wineries. So, we again, got to see some fantastic scenery! Another neat thing about going to Split was that we had to cross into Bosnia to get there. Yep! We got our passports stamped just to drive less than 20 minutes in Bosnia before crossing over into Croatia again. Throughout this trip, we ended up passing through Bosnia a total of four times.

I had so many people tell me that I needed to visit Split. However, I was not as impressed by Split as I was Dubrovnik. We only spent three hours there, but I just didn't see the appeal.

Sights in Split

Sights in Split

Sights in Split

Sights in Split

The next day, we decided to stay in and around the Airbnb. We had spent a lot of the time in the car the previous two days and knew that we were going to spend an extremely long time in the car the next day, and we just wanted a day to relax and drink the wine we had bought. We ended up playing several different games and had just a relaxing, fun day!

As mentioned, the following day, we spent a ton of time in the car. The one thing that was a must-see for us was Plitvice Lakes National Park. Click on the link to learn more about the park. It took us five hours from Dubrovnik to Plitvice, and it rained pretty much the entire drive. However, when we got there, the rain let up! Only one of the trails was open, so that made the decision for us. The waterfalls were absolutely amazing!

The final day we were there, we went to Old Town before our flight. Some of you might recognize some of the pictures, as Old Town has been a filming location for King's Landing in The Game of Thrones. I have never watched Game of Thrones, but Old Town was neat to see on its own. We walked around, had lunch, sat for a few beers, and ate some ice cream. It was quite the relaxing afternoon.

One final story about our time in Dubrovnik... We booked our Airbnb as soon as we booked our flight. The pictures of the place looked amazing! Come to find out, we were renting from an Olympic gold medalist - Maro Jokovic! He came to check in on us once, so we were able to meet him and shake his hand. At the time, we didn't know he was famous. The only thing he told us was that he played water polo. We found out from a taxi driver that Maro is one of the most famous people in Dubrovnik. That became quite evident when we saw a Fathead of him hanging up in someone's garage. His place was absolutely fantastic, and if you stay in Dubrovnik, I suggest you check out his Airbnb called Simply the Best.

Views from the Airbnb.

Views from the Airbnb.

Views from the Airbnb.

Views from the Airbnb.

Hanging out on the deck!

One drawback - 343 steps from our Airbnb to the bottom of the hill where all the restaurants are.

Spring Break in Munich, Germany

It's that time of year again. Spring break!!!! This year, we went to Munich, Germany with a friend. Another friend and her daughter joined us later in the week for a couple of days.

When I go on vacation, I am the type of person who likes to see and do everything there is to do in a city/area. Zach, on the other hand, hates my type of vacation. He would rather sit in a coffee shop or bar the whole day and people-watch or chat. This vacation, I tried to have a mix of both. We were in Munich for seven nights. I feel that we had a good combination of sightseeing and relaxing.

This is the first time we used Airbnb, and I was pleasantly impressed with our apartment. It was about a 15-20 minute walk to Marienplatz, Munich's main square.

We arrived in the early afternoon on Friday. One of the very first things the three of us did was find a bar to eat pork and drink a beer. I did't really miss pork until I ate it.

On the second day, we decided to take a Sandemans Free Walking Tour. If you are traveling in Europe, check out this company to see if they give tours in your area. We learned a lot about Munich in the 3-hour walking tour. For example, look at the picture below. We learned that lions represent something important in Munich (much like everywhere else in Europe). The lion in the picture has his mouth closed. That is because he is facing a church. The lion that is mirrored on the other side has his mouth open. He is facing where people used to make laws. We were told that it's this way because you should not speak out against the Catholic church, but it is more than okay to speak out against lawmakers. I thought that was just pretty interesting!

This next picture also has some importance. It has something to do with a baby who will one day be king and his pet monkey. The monkey carried the child up the tower, and it only came down when it smelled bananas. However, it wasn't bananas at all; it was beer (or something to do with the making of beer). Munich sure does have a strong beer identity!

The next day, we took another Sandemans Tour of Neuschwanstein Castle, which is also known as the Disney Castle. We learned a lot of history about it, but I'll just let you look at the pictures. We did tour the inside, but weren't able to take pictures.

One of the days, we all just got our haircut. It was the coldest day we were there, and while we were in the salon, it started to hail and snow. I'm really glad we weren't outside walking in it. By the time we all finished, about 2 1/2 hours later, it was clear outside.

Even though it was pretty cold, I really wanted to take a walk through the Englischer Garten. From what I've read, it's even bigger than Central Park. It also houses the 2nd largest beer garden in Munich. Unfortunately, we didn't stay and have a beer, because it was just too cold outside. I think everyone else agreed with us because there were only about 15 people sitting outside. Another reason I wanted to check out the Englischer Garten was because of the Eisbach. The Eisbach is an artificial river where surfers are able to "catch a wave".

Though we drank a lot of beer the whole trip, we didn't go on beer tour until the last night we were in Munich. Yes, we took another Sandemans tour. We were able to taste some beer and visit the beer halls. We also made some new friends. What a great ending to a great trip!

Single bock, Weissebier, Lager