Our first port of call (literally) in Slovenia was Piran, a picturesque Venetian town on a narrow peninsula. It had a particularly pretty and colourful main square, with narrow cobbled alleys leading off in all directions. We enjoyed a good (we’re coffee snobs) coffee, at last, and people watched by the waterfront. Next stop was…
Tag: culture
Farewell Croatia, you were incredible!
What a gem of a country Croatia turned out to be. So much so that we found ourselves comparing it with Norway for its consistent beauty and scenic drives. I think it’s the first country we’ve visited that we’ve done or seen something exciting every single day. We’ve explored walled old towns, driven along spectacular…
A creepy look inside a porn lords abandoned Palace Hotel
We came across a very interesting sight on Krk Island in Northern Croatia; The grand Haludovo Palace Hotel, which is also known as the Penthouse Adriatic Club Casino. Sounds pretty swanky huh? But it hasn’t had a paying customer in over a decade. The owner was the founder of Penthouse Magazine, Bob Guccione, and his…
Relaxing sea songs and squelchy mud baths
Zadar is home to a very unique thing; The Sea Organ. An architect put tubes and pipes under the concrete steps that lead into the sea as an experiment, and boy did it work! As the waves slap against the wall it creates it’s own music. We sat on the steps and listened to the…
The walled city of Dubrovnik
Arriving in Croatia from Italy, was like leaving Delhi for the Himalayas. Even the ferry was organised and calm; as we arrived in Dubrovnik everyone waited patiently in line and a staff member directed us out. As opposed to arriving in Italy with no staff so everyone honked and used aggression to overtake people. We…
The town of conical roofed houses
We drove along the arch of Italy’s sole, stopping at a beach for a leisurely stroll while Craig attempted to save giant jellyfish that had been washed up. Then we headed inland and took a wonderful road through the countryside. Fields were being seeded with grass and varied from freshly churned mud to fluorescent green…
A little drive through Southern Italy
We had 5 days to explore a smidgen of Southern Italy before our ferry to Croatia. The diesel is as expensive as in Norway, and the drivers are diabolical so we decided not to do a 1000km detour to Mount Etna and instead drove to Maratea on the western coast. We drove through a barren…
Cave dwellings in southern Italy
Half of Matera’s population lived in cave dwellings, called Sassi, until the 1950’s. The Sassi have been inhabited since the Paleolithic age and were brought to public attention when Carlo Levi’s book, ‘Christ stopped at Eboli’ was published in 1946. He described the poverty and poor conditions they lived in. The book shamed the authorities…
Italy – the India of the West
After a 10 hour ferry from Greece, we reached the top of Italy’s heel at Bari. An announcement told us to head down to the car deck, so off we all went. To get to the lower deck though, we had to squeeze our way through trucks. The gaps between them were the width of…
The unknown wonder of the world
Our jaws dropped as we drove closer to the huge rock pinnacles of Meteora in Northern Greece. The rock formations alone would of wowed us as they seemed to appear from nowhere within a green valley. They had sheer walls but rounded tops, like fingers reaching up. Caves and cracks penetrated the walls and trees…
