August 22, 2004

Another Saturday Night

Saturday nights from San Francisco to Slovenia...

Saturday 21-August: Bled and Bohinj, Slovenia
Maybe daytrip just means rain. We woke up to a hearty breakfast at Jakelj Backpacker's House and caught our free shuttle into Bled. Because the skies were menacing, we opted to take the bus to Bohinj. Shortly after arriving, we spotted two girls from our hostel had biked to Bohinj and they offered to lend us the bikes for the rest of the day, but it rained so hard that we cut the whole day short and hopped back on the bus (without seeing the cable car, waterfalls, eating ice cream "sladoled", or swimming) with bikes underneath in the luggage area. Since the skies were dry in Bled, we decided to ride the bikes the 3km back to the hostel. Fast forward to an hour of pedalling in the pouring rain and our arrival back to a very tasty meal of goulash. Waited around in a smoky bar and watched a bizarre belly dancing show before catching our night train to Munich.


Saturday 14-August: Ljubljana, Slovenia
As suggested by Alec's dad, I tried planning the whole day for a change from our usual democracy. I found a Museum of Contemporary History (Slovenes in 20th century have seen a lot!) that we had pretty much to ourselves, at nachos at a bizarre Mexican place), a walking tour of the old town, dinner at yummy Grostina a Sokol, and a Mamet movie (Špartenec). Feet tired, good day.

Whole chicken for breakfast
Pushing the Wheel of Violence
Nice dinner at Sokol

Saturday 7-August: Polaće, Croatia (Mljet Island)
We missed our first boat by minutes and waited another three hours at the ferry terminal in Dubrovnik to catch a car ferry to Mljet. We waited at a cafe with some fellow travellers and played a long game of Scrabble to pass the time. Couple hour ferry; couple hour hot, sticky bus ride; hike an hour carrying our packs (why is it always uphill?); a small boat; and a mini van later we found ourselves in Polaće. The town and accommodations were lovely, but the day was exhausting.

Saturday 30-July: Tihany, Hungary (Lake Balaton)
After some long and hard travelling, we arrived at a scenic little lake town, Tihany. The kind of tourists here are more like holday folks than museum-church-souvenir folks. We took a train, a ferry, and then hiked about 3 miles wearing our packs to find a cute little German-run B&B, Andreas Haus. Dinner was tasty but once the sun went down, we were swarmed with pesky mosquitos.

Saturday 24-July: Olomouc, CZ
Spent today wandering around the town center of Olomouc and dodging raindrops. We climbed a clock tower and strolled through a park along the old Roman Wall. Alec assures me that we will have a lovely dinner, just the two of us, and enjoy some local pivo in celebration of our 3 week anniversary. We're due to stay at the Poet's Corner Hostel. Sounds good to me!

Saturday 17-July: N. London, UK
We've been on the road a week now, and my friend Dylan has hosted a sweet little garden party in his back "yard" for us. He cooked and bar-tended while hiring his nephew DJ to do the dirty work of refilling our drinks and bussing our plates. So far, so good.

Saturday 10-July: Cleveland, OH USA
After a week of packing and moving all of our worldly possessions into a box (or hiding them at Ross's place), Alec and I flew to my mom's for a newlywed/ going away party with friends and relatives (including my grandparents). She cooked many wonderful foods, and it was quite a feast. Another very good day.

Saturday 3-July: San Francisco, CA USA
Spent the day with some of my favorite people in the world getting married to Alec, Mr. Flibbs, in the Presidio. Following the ceremony and reception, I sang a very weak rendition of "Freakin' It" with my good friend, Marnie. A very good day.

What I'm doing here
As Cat Steven's once sang, "Another Saturday night and I ain't got nobody..." Well, that's not exactly my situation, but I thought it might be fun to track a-day-in-the-life by Saturdays. This assumes that each of the next several Saturdays will be somewhat different.

If you know me, you know that I'm an obsessive list-maker and I like to keep track of lots and lots of information... if for no other reason than to have the data. Maybe it's the engineer in me, but if you've been to a party of mine in year's past, it's likely that I wrote down when you arrived and whether you were visiting me or my roommate. I digress.

How to vacation during vacation?

This is the big question. Please help, secret Flibbs readers. When we are looking for "down time" from our hectic travel schedule, how can we rest?

You know how when you return from a big vacation you often need a few days of recovery? Josh and some other well-travelled friends have suggested taking a mid-vacation break, but I'm not sure how.

Beach? Don't I want to get away from the constant sunscreen-slathering, hat-wearing, umbrella-renting hassle?

City? A city can be a nice break, but if there's all sorts of culture, crowds, costs... it's not too relaxing?

An American friendly resort? Price-gouging and stereotypical American fare like hamburgers and nachos (although, maybe I could get some pancakes!)

TV or Movies? We have found some refuge watching second tier movies in English and seeing spotty coverage of the Olympics?

Internet? Sad but true... a decent Internet connection can bring out our inner geeks. We are binging right now in the "Easy Internet" in Munich with over 400 computers, fast connection, decent prices.... ahh.

All suggestions of actual places or activities are welcome!!! :-)