Flickr homepage for additional photographs!

Check out my Flickr homepage for more Europe photos (some which make it on the blog, some which do not). I seem to be better at updating this link than I do at making posts to the blog (hopefully that will change though :) ).

http://www.flickr.com/photos/jlundbe2/

Much overdue update number 1...

First off, I apologize to my faithful readers who check my blog and have yet to see an update in the past few weeks. If I was to post everything that I have seen or done in the past weeks in as depth as I have in the past, I am sure to omit something important or bore you all to death. So, in an effort to get caught up I will try and make some general comments about the past few weeks, places I have been, realizations I have had, etc. before making another post commenting on my most recent adventure to Italy and Scotland.

Chelsea in London!

Two weeks ago Chelsea flew in from Milan, Italy (where she is studying for a year) to spend the weekend in London. The weekend was spent mostly on foot exploring London, its charm, and its sights. I am glad that everyone I have traveled with or visits enjoys walking as much as I do - I imagine Chelsea and I walked about 20 - 25 miles in a little over two days. We managed to only take the tube twice! When she arrived on Friday we went towards the Borough market via Parliament, Westminster Abbey, Big Ben, the London Eye, and the River Thames. From the market we made our way to the Tate Modern art museum. This was my first visit to the Tate Modern since I arrived in London. During our visit a portion of the museum was sectioned off for the installation of a new piece of art - a large crack in the museum floor. The Tate Modern is well known for their odd choices of Modern interactive art and the crack proves no different. I hope to make it back in the coming weeks to see the crack that visitors are falling into, perceiving the installation is painted on the ground.

The next day we continued our foot tour of London exploring Regent Street, Oxford Street, and the other major shopping areas. We intended to see a production but both were reluctant to pay even the half priced ticket fee of nearly 30 pounds for a weekend showing. We ended our day of exploration with Indian food in Covent Garden - an area renowned for its street performers. Sunday brought cooler weather to London. After sleeping in, recovering from the walking of the first two days, we wandered to Hyde Park to spend a few hours people watching and relaxing before meeting a London Walks tour guide near St. Paul's for a guided tour of Shakespeare and Dickens London. The highlight of the walk was the charisma of our tour guide - ironically from the Midwest region of the United States - as we wandered through central London and gazed upon the last remaining buildings of London from Shakespeare's times and the inspiration for many of Charles Dickens locations and characters.

Sotheby's Auction House

Later that week I visited the Sotheby's auction house with my Art and Society class. London and specifically Sotheby's had been preparing for weeks for one of its large art auctions of the year. Our professor tried to best explain the functions and commodity type trading of art throughout the world. As I understand, the art market is a very volatile market and is expecting a downturn in prices and values of many of the world's top works. Many within the trading and collecting industry are fearful of the decrease in certain works arts and the auction that week in London would be indicative of the season's largest shows. On display were works from Monet, Picasso, Worhel, and many others. Unlike an art museum where works are carefully placed and properly lighted, Sotheby's felt more like a store for the world's most expensive art that would grace the walls for a few weeks before being sold to a collector or collection. I was most intrigued by the prices of some pieces (all of which were listed on the respective identification placard), most pieces ranged from 800 thousand - 1 million US dollars with some of the Monet and Picasso pieces listed in the 30 - 40 million dollar range.

Globe and Rose Tour

Having been the Globe to see a performance in the past weeks I was most excited to see the Rose theater on this tour, a portion of my London Theater class. The Rose theater is believed to have been built in the late 1500's and was one of the original four theaters in London during the birth of the cities interest in theater. During the late 1980's during the redevelopment of a building complex remains of the Rose theater were unearthed about a half mile from the current location of the reconstructed globe. While excavation took place for nearly a year - the historical foundation ran low of funds to recover the theater in 1989. To preserve the remains until further excavation could be performed the Rose was covered in concrete, dirt, and sand and now sits in the basement of the office complex. Interestingly enough, the Shakespeare company still preforms in the basement area near the original stage during special performances a few times each year.

Dublin, Ireland - Wicklow Mountains - Howth Fishing Village

The weekend following Chelsea's visit I made my way to Dublin, Ireland to visit Jess. Jess is studying abroad in Dublin and attending the University College Dublin about twenty minutes from the city center. Upon my arrival we spent Friday afternoon exploring the city center including Dublin Castle, Trinity College (home to the Book of Kells), and Grafton Street. We continued our wandering around Trinity College, home to the Book of Kells, and ended at Kevin’s house (another DU student studying in Dublin) via the northern and canal areas of the city.

After lounging at Kevin’s for awhile, the three of us made our way back to the University via Kiely’s of Donnybrook, a quaint little town about fifteen minutes walking from the University. For a Friday evening the pub was surprisingly quiet. Throughout the evening we met many more of Jess’s friends, went to a lacrosse game, and attended an American style house party (felt like being around DU) at Kevin’s before heading to bed with a big say ahead.

Saturday I joined Jess and her exchange program on a trip to the Wicklow mountains for a hike and tour of the monasteries remains. Walking the hills around Wicklow (these are not mountains, even though they may call them so) was refreshing with a cool mist in the air. After making a wrong turn on the looped path, we ended up walking back to the carpark the way we started missing the sweeping views of the upper lake from the ridge. Following our hike we watched a short film on Glendalough, and explored the churches, tower, and graveyard dating to the sixth century. We stopped at a pub on our way back to Dublin, compliments of the University. Jess and I spent the evening exploring the city center at night, grabbing dinner, and watching the Ireland vs. Germany football match and the England vs. France rugby match. Having been to pubs in London and Dublin during sporting events I have to say the Irish have far more pride for their teams than the English.

After sleeping in on Sunday, we rounded out a perfect visit to Dublin with a visit to Howth, a fishing port and village about an hour north of Dublin. We walked leisurely around the pier, stopped for lunch at a delicious seafood restaurant, explored the market and picked up some fresh fish for dinner that evening. Following our exploration of Howth we made our way back to UCD for dinner and an early night to sleep as my flight was scheduled to leave early the next morning.

A foggy day in London town...

Well, the fog and somewhat wet weather settled over London for a few days this past week. I have come to appreciate the 300 or whatever days of sunshine that Denver gets a year. Although, my European experience would not be the same without the typical weather of London. However, they seem to contend that they have more sunny days and less rain then New York.

My second week in London brought me to many more locations around London I missed on my previously short trip a few years back. This past week I visited (of notable remarks) the globe theater to see the Merchant of Venice, Borough Market, and St. Paul's Cathedral.

Globe Theater - Merchant of Venice

As a requirement for my new London Theater class (the class that replaced Devising London) I will be attending at least 4 (possibly more) theater performances throughout London. Majority of my experience in theater prior to this past week was trips to the Denver Center for the Performing Arts, or other similar "blockbuster" type venues, to see mainstream and popularized theater. The first week in class I was surprised to learn about a variety of different venues and settings that theater takes place. For example, London boasts interactive theater performances where the crowd meets at a certain location and travels with the performers to a dark alley or similar "back roads" venue where the show takes place. A few of the recommended performances for the class will explore theater in these settings which should be an interesting break from the normal "West-End' and "Broadway" theater I often associate with.

At the recommendation of the class syllabus, I met Bart after my Tuesday class for the matinée (2 p.m.) showing of the Merchant of Venice at the Globe Theater. The Globe, as an open air theater in the round, is finishing its summer season this week and this was our only opportunity to see the show this week. We purchased standing tickets, the preferred viewing location of the common man (or budget minded college student), and found a spot near the rear of the round with a spot to lean against the wall and avoid the slight mist from above. Standing for the three hour show was not nearly as bad as it seems.

The performance was great, although, I still struggle (like others I hope) to make sense of the language and voice employed through Shakespeare's style. Without much background on the plot or story line it took me awhile to catch onto the premise of the play. The show began very slow but developed quickly. Overall, I think I still enjoy the comforts and "showiness" of the big box theaters but was glad to have had the experience at the Globe. We will return this week for a tour of the Globe and Rose with the theater class, I will report on that in the coming weeks.

St. Paul's Cathedral

The second week of our Art and Society class found us exploring St. Paul's Cathedral. Just a quick note on the professor of this class. He is brilliant, passionate about London, and knows how to keep a three hour class entertaining. As such, I am greatly enjoying our visits to various locations around London that have an influence on art, architecture, or history. The highlight of our trip the St. Paul's was the climb to the top of the cathedral dome (an impressive 64,000 tons) up 530 stairs with stops at the Whispering Gallery, Stone Gallery, and Golden Gallery.

The Whispering Gallery provides an astounding perspective of the magnitudes of the cathedral's construction and provides and excellent viewing location for the works of Thornhill on the dome above. Having recently undergone a 4 year restoration, the works of Thornhill are an al fresco representation of the life of St. Paul. Having been covered in the late 1800's, the works were recently restored to their original grandeur. It is claimed that you can stand on either side of the gallery and whisper into the wall and be heard by those opposite of you. However, it must require precision placement of your mouth for whisper and ear for listening as we were not able to complete such task.

Further above the Whispering Gallery we made our way to the other two galleries above (each about 150 steps higher than the one before) which provides and outside view of London. From either platform (the uppermost which is just wide enough for 1 - 2 people) you can see stunning views of London. From this point we were able to identify the top of the Westminster Cathedral (which is a mere 200 yards from my flat), the old building center of London, and many other points of historical and geographical reference. While the clouds were still settled in over the city the view was spectacular. If you make it London and need a "budget" means to see the city from above (this is much cheaper than the very touristy London Eye), I highly recommend the vantage point from St. Paul's.

Borough Market

To spare you the boredom of my description of the most amazing food market I have ever seen, I will try and keep this short and will get picutres next time I go. Continuing the European presentation of their food and adventurous tastes I have documented in previous entries, the Borough Market near the London Bridge tube station is no exception. While not only a leisurely Friday activity, a visit to the market provides the opportunity to taste many rare cheeses, spreads, jams, meats, and much more. On my most recent visit to the market I stumbled across a beer stand selling the full range of Flying Dog Ale's from Denver, Colorado. In future posts I hope to explore some of the prepared foods sold by the vendors of the market. Do not be surprised if I come home with many gifts from this or any of the various markets around London. Also, they have free samples, what more is there to love?

Well, that concludes the highlights of week two in London. In my next post look forward to: a weekend with Chelsea in London, a London Walk exploring Shakespeare and Dickens, a visit to the Tate Modern art museum, and much more. I hope to write before I head to Dublin this upcoming weekend to visit Jess. And once again, thanks everyone for keeping in touch with me through comments and exploring London and Europe through this blog.

London... a recap.

In no particular order I will recap some of the sights and experiences I have had in London over the past two weeks (including those mentioned at the end of the last post). PICTURES POSTED WHEN INTERNET IS NOT SLOW... :)

Imperial War Museum

Without classes last Friday, Bart and I took the opportunity to travel to the Imperial War Museum. We made our way from Victoria Station (closest to Wigram House where I am living) to Waterloo Station. The Imperial War Museum can be accessed from a variety of tube stops and we saw this as the perfect opportunity to explore Waterloo (another one of London's large transportation depot's) and the area around the station en route to the museum. With a map in hand we wandered in the direction of the museum. We were drawn astray by a small street market and ended up at the war museum an hour or so later. The opportunity to follow the crowd and explore whatever interests you is one of my favorite things about traveling in Europe. With a map and a seemingly endless transportation system, getting to a location does not necessarily occur by the quickest route but the route that looks the most interesting.

The Imperial War Museum (as we later learned) is one of the first buildings of the Imperial age in London and represented a shift in the city's style of architecture. Upon entering the museum, which was free (as are all National museums in London), we were standing in a large expansive room with various planes, tanks, bombers, and heavy machinery used throughout the past 50 - 100 years. As a side note, most of the exhibits we saw were 'modern' in sense containing artifacts and replica's of situations occurring within the past 100 or so years. It was interesting to see the comparison of heavy machinery and aircraft from WWI and WWII. On display was not only the craft of the English forces but also that of other countries that was on loan or given to the IWM. I was amazed to read that during the highest production periods, Britain commissioned 30,000 or more tanks a year!

Making our way from the main entrance we continued to explore exhibits on WWI, WWII, the holocaust, human genocide, and participated in interactive displays of the blitzkrieg and trench warfare. The most powerful display in the museum was the video presentation on current acts of genocide and racial cleansing occurring throughout the world. While I am aware of the atrocities of certain races on humankind, the video presented many real life examples and raw footage of genocide that occurs daily throughout the world. Moving from the video on genocide to the Holocaust portion of the museum, I was shocked at, what I perceive to be, the world's lack of response to current racial cleansing regimes. Having recently (within 50 years) seen the terrible effect of such measures with the highly publicized Holocaust in WWII, I can not fathom the justification for such murder.

My first experience with the Imperial War Museum left me intrigued. Having only explored three of the five floors of the museum, I hope to make it back before I leave London.

Stonehenge


Ah yes, Stonehenge. Located about an hour and a half west of London most near the town of Salisbury lies Stonehenge. Having explored various ways to get to Stonehenge, we decided that it would be best, both financially and for greater guidance and information, to join the tour offered through the National Student Union. Our trip to Stonehenge and Salisbury was a mere 28 pounds including transportation, entrance to Stonehenge, and a guided tour of Salisbury. We met the group at the International Students House at 8:30 a.m. and boarded a bus with other foreign (mostly American) students.

An hour and a half later, after meandering through the English countryside, we arrived at Stonehenge. The actual rock formation is in the middle of nowhere - literally no streams, trees, major roads, cities, etc. are nearby. Not having seen any other (that I can recall) man made wonders like Stonehenge, I am still amazed how the rocks were transported from the Welsh mountains and formed in the shape and method as they were. The stone site is very much protected from further research and visitor access, however, we were able to snap some cool pictures of the site. Overall, seeing Stonehenge was very intriguing and one of those things "you have to do" in London if you have the time. However, I was glad we were only at Stonehenge for an hour and a half before proceeding to Salisbury.

Salisbury, about twenty minutes further West of Stonehenge, and the primary access point for visitors to Stonehenge via train, is the proud home to Salisbury Cathedral with the tallest spire in Britain. As part of our guided tour, we walked throughout the market areas, along the river, and towards the Cathedral. We learned that the Cathedral is home to one of three original copies of the Magna Carta, however, we opted not to pay to go inside the Cathedral and spent the rest of the afternoon wandering through a park near the Cathedral and passing by the street markets back to the bus. Overall, I greatly enjoyed leaving the fast city life of London to experience the small town lifestyle of Salisbury and see Stonehenge. (Thanks Mario for the processing on the Stonehenge picture)


Banqueting House

As a break from the accounting rigor that I endured at DU last year, I am enrolled in two 'getting to know London' classes, as I call them, and two business classes. As a component of my Art and Society class we will be taking weekly visits to various locations throughout the city to explore the contemporary art and its impact on society in London. The first weeks class (which I almost missed... nothing like waking up 20 minutes before class starts when the tube ride alone takes 25 minutes to get to class) included a visit to the Banqueting House constructed by Inigo Jones in 1619. The Banqueting House previously held great Masques and ceremonies of the royal family and was particularly adored by King Charles the I of England. Without boring you with the details, I surprised myself and recalled some of the royal history we covered during our visit. If you find yourself in London and near Buckingham Palace, it is worth a stroll near the Banqueting House to at least see the plaque above the visitor entrance commemorating the death of King Charles I who was hung from scaffolding outside the hall in protest to the amount of money and adornment he gave to the great Banqueting House.

Devising London... and Yoga

So... I signed up for this great class, another one of the 'getting to know London' classes, called Devising London. The class is described in the course handbook as exploring various parts of London through the recommendations of the group and synthesizing the experience through in class assignments. Simple enough, right? Not.

First day of class there are about ten of us sitting in the lecture hall at 2:10. Class was supposed to begin at 2:00. Anyways, to make a long story short; teacher strolls in talking very soft, we move the desks out of the way, take off our shoes and socks and start doing yoga, start moving around in the classroom in a form of interperative theater. She keeps talking about the "performance." As everyone in the class looks a little stunned, I finally question the performance she keeps mentioning. Essentially, the class is about interperative theater where we improvise, yet it's still scripted, a two hour performance for our peers at the end of the term based on our "experiences' (from assignments like going to a cemetery) in London.

As I left the class three hours later... I needed time to process what I just experienced. I mean, I am studying abroad in a new country, experiencing new things, taking risks... was this supposed to be another risk. After contemplating for hours what didn't "balance" (pun intended) with the class, I decided my time would better be spent in the other London experience class for theater. I went to the study abroad office the next day and dropped Devising London for London and Theater and could not have been happier.

More to come in the next London post (hopefully tomorrow): St. Paul's Cathedral, Harrods (times two), Merchant of Venice at the Globe Theater, and more.

London... week 1.

Well an update about London is much overdo.

Since I last blogged all of my visitors have left and I am settling into the "big city" lifestyle in London. Two weeks ago, the Monday after we arrived, I had my day of orientation at the University. Having not bought a weekly tube ticket yet, and unsure exactly where I was going, I decided it would be best to walk to class. Leaving myself plenty of time I was able to leisurely stroll to the American Student Orientation session via Buckingham Palace, Green Park, New Bond Street, and Regent Street. As I walked past the Queens residence, through a beautiful park, past the designer boutiques and Rolls Royce dealership on New Bond Street - it hit me... London was much unlike anywhere I had been and the next three months of my life would be much unlike a semester or quarter at DU.

Orientation was nice and brief - they do not mess around here with useless information. Essentially we were given a brief lecture on how to be safe in London, received our schedules, got scheduled for an appointment to see the adviser to confirm our time tables (this was the only other part of orientation the whole week) and that was the extent of orientation.

Without plans to meet Matt and Monica until around six p.m. I had a few hours to get settled into my room - buy sheets, etc. and explore the area around the flat. Bart, a friend from DU who I knew before coming to London, and I headed for the Argos nearby to buy everything a first year student would need for a dorm room. Argos operates under a very odd (well, odd to anything I had seen before) system of buying. Basically you look through a large book with everything they stock, punch numbers into a computer to check if its in stock, and purchase all items sight unseen. You then wait until your items are retrieved from the stockroom and you are on your way within ten minutes. Imagine shopping online and the UPS man bringing your purchase within the hour. Punching in the numbers for the cheapest pillow and seeing one left was much like playing the lotto. You could only hope to make it to the register before everyone else with the special item code to get the best deal. While it seems very convenient, shopping without seeing something is very stressful and not an experience I quickly want to repeat. However, I was able to get the bare essentials of home and settled into the "purple palace." Yes, the photo below is my room (err... closet) with bright purple walls.



After settling in, Matt, Monica, Bart, and I made our way to a nearby Indian restaurant to share stories of the day (Matt and Monica had further explored London). Over the next few days Monica and I explored further areas of London.

The very next morning we attended the changing of the guard at Buckingham Palace. Who knew that the whole ordeal took nearly an hour and a half with various processionals, marching bands, and rituals? Much to my surprise the changing of the guard is quite the ordeal and something I hope to make it to again during my time in London, after reading some about the justification for certain actions and movements by the processional... I mean, there has to be a reason why the guard marches back and forth from the gate to the palace a certain number of times... right?

After checking out the changing of the guard we made our way to London's version of Chinatown. Chinatown in London comprises of about four square blocks of Asian markets, noodle houses, and the typical things you would find in any well equipped Chinatown. I was most surprised by the rabbits and other meats hanging in the display windows of nearly every restaurant. Luckily, Monica and I found a friendly no frills quick Asian cafe to grab lunch. Having just briefly walked through the streets of Chinatown, I plan to go back in the coming weeks to have a look inside some of the Asian markets. The evening was spent cooking dinner (for the first time in two and a half weeks we did not wander around aimlessly trying to find a place to eat) and relaxing.

The next day I explored the Westminster campuses attempting to associate myself with the academic buildings so I would know where to go for class before meeting Monica and her friend from home for lunch near the Marleybone campus (where I have two classes). After lunch Monica and I went for another adventure on the tube to Harrods. If you are unfamiliar with Harrods, basically, you can buy anything and everything at Harrods in the most opulent and ritzy department store I have ever seen. We began on the ground floor and wandered through boutique area to boutique area, from jewelery to chocolates to fine teas. Five floors later, I had seen it all, where else can you have lunch at a sit down restaurant, buy designer ski wear, and plan you funeral (yes, Harrods offers such services) without leaving one roof. Simply amazing.

In stark contrast to Harrods, we made our way to Camden town, catching the markets just as they were closing. Camden Town has a very punk / alternative slant to the street vendors and shops with tons of tattoo parlors. While the markets were closing we were able to wander into a discount Aldo shoe store. Similar shoes to ones I wanted to buy in Denver for $100 were only 20 pounds, and they say everything in London is more expensive, I beg to differ. Camden Town is another location I hope to come back to before I leave London. The rest of the evening was spent cooking and relaxing and allowing Monica time to prepare for her trip to Dublin.

My next post will highlight some of my adventures in the past week including: finalizing my class schedule, a trip to the Borough market, first week of classes, yoga in my Devising London class (yeah, this is a good story), a visit to the Banqueting House, a trip to the Imperial War Museum, and a trip to Stonehenge (including more pictures)... Look for that in the coming days.

Opatija and London!!!!

Well, this is long long overdue. But here is the end of the two weeks prior to London.

Day two in Rijeka began with us checking out of the hostel and incurring another hidden charge, 5 kune to store our bags. As you can tell, I was the least bit impressed with this hostel. But like Troy said, at least there was a hostel to stay at (and the included breakfast was pretty tasty).

After checkout we made our way back to Rijeka and boarded a bus for Opatija. With high recommendations I really did not know what to expect. Luckily, Opatija was every bit as beautiful as it was described. Had we known better it would have been fun to stay our last night in a nice hotel overlooking the Adriatic - maybe next time. Opatija is everything you would envision a cheesy (albeit very nice) European destination spot. There were multiple cafes along the beach, a boardwalk of sorts, many locals pitching boat rides on their glass bottom boats, street vendors selling "authentic" sunglasses and hand bags. Beyond the sights and people watching opportunities there was little of historical value to see in Opatija. That was ok though, after two weeks of sightseeing, it was a nice change.

Below is a photograph of Opatija (once again from Flickr, I will get some pictures that we took later).

We did wander into a fresh food market (it was a Saturday morning after all) and encountered some of the locals. It has been interesting throughout our travels to compare the prices and offerings of local markets and supermarkets. I don't think I blogged about it but we went inside the most amazing gourmet grocery store in Vienna that I had ever seen. Every item was labeled with a flag of its country of origin. They, like most European grocers, pride themselves on the presentation of the food, both prepared and boxed, unlike anything I have seen in the United States.

After a morning in Opatija and a quick lunch we headed back to the hostel to grab our belongings and made it back in town a few hours before our bus to the airport to spend some time updating our friends and families through email about our travels. We then made our way via bus to the airport. The airport in Rijeka is located thirty minutes from town on an island. The best way to describe it would be imagining yourself on a bus ride to a nature preserve on a deserted island and poof there appeared an airport. After flying through Frankfurt, Vienna, Split, etc... the airport at Rijeka was a little bit of a surprise with limited flights daily. The same person who checked us in also took our tickets to board the plane.

Two hours later we landed in London at Luton airport. Finally arriving into London I was somewhat relieved and a little bit anxious. Having not planned nearly as well as Matt and Monica had, I was not quite sure where we were to go. I did know my flat was near Victoria station and I had confirmed our late arrival. We got a bus from Luton to Victoria station for 8 pounds (about $16 USD). I complained when I had to pay $7 USD to get from the airport to town in Vienna, welcome to London and the poor value of the dollar I guess. I will touch some more on this topic later as I have begin to believe the theory that you pay the same price everything is just double is not necessarily true.

Getting off the bus at Victoria I pretended like I knew exactly where we were going, after all this was "my" city... Luckily Monica and Matt both quickly talked some sense into me and I swallowed my pride and asked for a map and directions to the flat (I had an address!) from a nearby hotel. The friendly staff gave me a map and pointed me in the right direction and a few minutes later we were in front of Wigram hall. After checking in we made the way to my room on the ground floor. I was a little disappointed to not be higher, but such is life. My room is tiny and it has purple walls (the purple palace I have so affectionately named it) and gets NO sunlight since I am on the bottom floor of an eight story building facing into the "courtyard." But at this point, we didn't care. It was late, we were hungry and in LONDON!

Without much knowledge of the area or a hostel receptionist to ask, we begin to walk towards the crowds anticipating to find something for dinner. Within literally twenty minutes we had walked by Parliament, Westminster Abbey, Big Ben, the London Eye, and Trafalgar Square. I quickly realized my location was very central to many of London's attractions (well some, London is a huge sprawling city). We managed to find some food and made our way back to my flat to turn in for the evening. After a full day of sightseeing and travel we were exhausted.

That concludes the two weeks of European "vacation" I had prior to making it to London. More on London soon.... In the meantime, enjoy the picture below of fireworks over the river Thames on my second night in London. This picture is mine. :)

Rijeka (Day 1)

Arriving in Rijeka via the ferry meant we had to get an early start to the day. Having booked a cabin rather than the "deck" as many passengers appeared to have done, we had breakfast aboard the ship included in our fare. Breakfast before unloading at 7:00 a.m. meant we were up the earliest we had been in the past two weeks. It is a good thing we took advantage of the free breakfast - it was great. Nothing like scrambled eggs for the first time in a few weeks. Beyond that, being off the ship so early meant we had a full day of sightseeing ahead of us in Rijeka.

Rijeka is an interesting city. From what we had heard prior to our arrival from a few people we had met at various points on our journey was that Rijeka was nothing special in comparison to where we had been. Rijeka is a major port city for Croatia and much of its older architecture and charm has been destroyed to make way for a fledging industrial port city. As a result, tourism is not necessarily the biggest draw to the city and we had only one selection for a hostel, which had just opened the year prior.

Our hostel was very clean and obviously new but lacked the character and charisma of the other locations we had stayed. The receptionist was monotone, the rooms were bare white walls, and everything seemed to have a charge. 5 kune for a towel, 5 kune to use the internet, 10 kune for a Hosteling International card (you were required to have one), etc. After dropping off our bags we were given some insight into transportation around town and directed to the tourist office. Arriving in the center of Rijeka before 9 am allowed us some time at a cafe on the cities main pedestrian street people watching and surfing the internet (the whole city has free wifi) before the tourist office opened. At 9 a.m. we were given a map of the city and some recommendations of things to do. The tourist office, the couple we met in Dubrovnik, and the hostel all made recommendations to visit Opatija, the touristy area of northern Croatia about a twenty minute bus ride from Rijeka. With a full two days ahead of us we delayed our visit to Opatija and decided today to climb to the castle north of the city (via 500 steps) followed by a lazy afternoon at the beach (about fifteen minutes from our hostel).

Matt and I set out to conquer the 500 steps to Trsat castle as Monica turned back to do some sightseeing around the city. With a backpack in tow with laptop and camera the 500 steps seemed to go on for ever. We reached a landing after climbing without stopping and decided to take a break before finishing. Fifteen steps and a long straight landing into our second wind to climbing the stairs we realized we had already reached the top - what a relief. Matt and I toured around a chapel at the top of the stairs and made our way to view the Rijeka port from the vantage point of the castle. While not much to see besides the Adriatic sea and various cranes for loading and unloading cargo ships - we still had a favorable "high" vantage point of our last destination. Walking back down the steps we met Monica for lunch and returned to the hostel to check in to our room and change for a trip to the Adriatic.

The beach was about fifteen minute walk up the road from our hostel. There was no sand, only small rock pebbles, and not much room between the road and the water but we managed to sneak a spot on the rocks to lazily spend the afternoon. Each of us took a dip in the Adriatic (which is pretty cold in comparison to what we are used to) and spent some time taking in the sun. The view from the beach was beautiful across the crystal clear waters.

Having rested from a lazy afternoon we headed back to the city to a small restaurant near the fishing port and fish market that came as a recommendation of a guide book. The restaurant was just as it was described, small, quaint, and a hit with the locals. Our waitress was very friendly and apologized to not have an English menu. It is quite an experience to be in another country trying to make sense of what you are ordering. You sometimes wonder if you are getting a small appetizer or a large plate of food not being able to discern anything on the menu. In exchange for an English menu our waitress brought large platters of fresh fish to our table and attempted to explain our choices. After four large platters we were still overwhelmed with what to order (there was no Alaskan/Atlantic salmon :) ). I settled on a risotto with the "fruits of the sea" which was a fantastic blend of shelled fish with a very tasty plate of risotto. Overall the meal and local atmosphere was a hit.

After dinner we made our way back up to the castle (this time via bus) to inquire about the concert they were having that evening. Unfortunately the ticket price was beyond what we were willing to pay but we did manage a five minute preview at the hands of the gracious ticket seller. After leaving the main venue we spent some time on the grass just outside the castle listening to the muffled concert before returning to the city via the stairs (it is a lot easier to go down then up). We had a few drinks next to the cafe we had earlier had coffee at and called it a day.

Unfortunately I don't have any pictures from Rijeka.... I think I took a few (not too much to see) but for some reason they don't seem to have made it on to the computer and are not on my camera. I will have to get some from Monica or Matt in a few weeks to add to this post, in the meantime I have added a few I found on flickr.