Vacation Thread

[Gurgie]

We've been in Europe since August 5th, going on our last leg today. Travelling from Rijeka to Venice with a stop in Trieste. We started with 2 nights in Ljubljana, then spent 4 nights close to Karlovac where we hit a bunch of small villages/towns, including where my parents were born, plus Zagreb. Then we headed down to the coast with a stop on the way in Rastoke & Plitvice. Spent 9 nights in a small town on the coast called Pirovac where we would walk to the beach daily & just relax & swim. While in Pirovac we did a couple afternoon trips to Biograd Na More, Zadar, Šibenik & Split. When we left Pirovac we took the old road up to Rijeka, what a road!!! Wish I had my 911 for that, instead we are stuck with a Fiat 600 hybrid that we got as a rental, real POS that's hard to get comfortable in for more than 2hrs. Only redeeming traits are its okay on power & quiet. I was supposed to get a manual (VW Golf or similar), but they didn't have anything available. Enough about that though. We also hit Pula, Rovinj & Opatija while we were staying in Rijeka.

 I'll try to post some pictures, but I literally have 100's of them. We've been posting on Instagram & Facebook, so I know Firm & maybe Fobroader are friends with me in there.

[Gurgie]

Ljubljana

[Johnnymac]

Love the canals.  So much history I bet it really feels like you only scratch the surface of what there is to see.

Any golf courses around those parts?

Also you know we all love to hear about the food and drink, so some highlights of that would be interesting.

[Tortoise]

It's been a whirlwind for the last 5 weeks.

It started with a work trip to Newfoundland that I added a few personal days to. It was my first time there and I can't wait to go back with more time to explore.









14 hours after getting home we were on the road to the cottage for 4 nights.





After a week at my in-laws cottage it was time for 5 nights of camping in Northern Ontario.









After being away for 7 consecutive weekends, it's nice to be home for a stretch.

[GreatBigAbyss]

^^^ Awesome.  I was on the Avalon Peninsula maybe fifteen years ago, and visited Cape Spear like in your first picture.  My favorite part of that was the disappearing guns, and the ammunition storage behind.

^^That camping trip reminds me of a trip I used to do as a teenager with my Dad.  We'd pull the boat up to French River Provincial Park, and go camp on an island for like 4 days.  The picture with your kid in the boat, surrounded by stuff... that was me in my Dad's boat.  Similar sized tinner, too.

[Gurgie]

Love the canals.  So much history I bet it really feels like you only scratch the surface of what there is to see.

Any golf courses around those parts?

Also you know we all love to hear about the food and drink, so some highlights of that would be interesting.

No golf courses that I saw anywhere along our drives, though I did identify quite a few good locations where some could be built 

As for food & drinks, we sampled a wide variety of both, from lamb grilled on a spit at home to fresh sea bass on the coast. Seems like a lot of it is north americanized now as well, pizza's at every beachfront restaurant & burgers. We did stop at a roadside stand on our way from the Plitvice national park where we had traditional cevapi wrapped in a thin bread with onions and a red pepper based sauce called ajvar, absolutely delicious. One of Bella's favourite snacks which we could get at many bakeries while wandering the cities was burek with meat, basically a pastery that has ground beef on the inside, thinly rolled. That was usually about 3 Euro's. For drinks, beer was cheap at the stores & less tourist area's. A big drink in Croatia is basically a white wine spritzer called gemist (pronounced gemisht), which is equal parts dry white wine and sparkling mineral water. At a lot of places that was 3 Euro's or less, even if it's not on the menu, you ask for it & they'll make it, and it's cheaper than a can of coke. Our dinners in Venice were nice, but we found the further we went from San Marco square, the better the food was and more fairly priced. Had a lot of Campari Spritz's walking around Venice, those could be had for 3.5 Euro's.

We got back home last night around 6:30pm, it was a long day of travel as we woke up in Venice at 7am, and by the time we got to bed last night it was 10am local, so 4am Venice time. Did have a hell of a sleep last night

[Gurgie]

These are pictures around my parents village & what's left of my Mom's childhood home & barn.

[Gurgie]

This next set is from where we spent 4 nights with friends & around the villages there, including lamb roast.  Zagreb & surrounding areas.

[Gurgie]

This is from Rastoke & Plitvice National Park, and our roadside stop for cevapi. I'm doing my best to be selective with the pictures here, lol!!

[Gurgie]

This is where we stayed in Pirovac for 9 nights & did smaller trips for an afternoon, or so. We generally tried to get as much beach time as possible.

[Gurgie]

This is Split

[Gurgie]

Another lamb roast & Zadar.

[Gurgie]

This is Šibenik.

[Gurgie]

Rijeka.

[Gurgie]

Rovinj & Pula.