Dubrovnik is so charming and picturesque, it reminds me a little bit of a land you might see on a ride at Disneyland.

my sightseeing was cut down since my flight was changed, but i feel like i still managed to get quite a bit in.

i stayed at a nice boutique hotel called Villa Dorma, which was very convenient to Old Town. the room was comfortable, it had a queen bed and private patio, AC – which i used due to humidity (let’s not have a repeat of the humidity rash of Columbia), and although breakfast wasn’t included, for a reasonable price could be added. two negatives 1) they use skeleton keys for the rooms, and although quaint, are super noisy in an echoing hallway without carpet and 2) they don’t take credit cards.

the first evening we just did a quick walk around town, and had dinner, since i was pretty tired.

the next day we we took a walk along the top of the wall, walked up and down countless stairs, took a ferry to Lokrum Reserve and in the evening took a drive to the top of the town for a panoramic view. sadly it was a bit overcast so there wasn’t a great sunset.

lots of history was shared along the way, and it is really interesting, but i’m not going to include all the details here. sorry, you’ll need to read up on your own. but one quick note…their currency, the kuna, is named after the kuna animal…..so cute, the kuna.

we ended the day at a local brewery, Dubrovnik Beer Company, which had a nice selection of beers and snacks. vegetarian options were slim, but who says tortilla chips and cheese dip can’t be dinner?!

photo notes of the day: try and take the time to get a good picture, you don’t have to rush through the shot. also, i need to work on my composition to make the images more interesting.

also, he didn’t say this, but i need to get a better camera. i sold all my big bulky camera bodies and lenses awhile back and got a decent pocket digital, but it’s really not the same.

Igor has a smaller Fuji camera he’s not using on this trip and will let me borrow it so i can practice my manual settings.

cute kuna photo courtesy of croatia.hr

as with Savannah, i was asked a number of times, why Croatia? i suppose it’s not the first place people think of when planning a vacation, but it has been on my mind since spring 2020.

i mentioned in February 2020 that i was going on a work trip to Dubrovnik and planned to stay an extra week or so to see the country. i had a small tour planned with Croatia Photo Tours, and was ready to go……then the world shut down.

after almost two years of smaller trips, (which i am most thankful for) i made the decision i wanted to go on a bigger trip in 2022. where to go and when, became the questions at hand. i figured, why not go to Croatia since i had a portion of a tour planned out already and it is a beautiful place to visit.

i contacted Croatia Photo Tour once again, and asked if they could put together a slightly different tour for me, one that was closer to two week. of course the answer was yes.

so here i am, in Croatia with my guide, and owner of the tour company, Igor.

i start in Dubrovnik, and will end up in Zagreb on June 8.

there will be a fair amount of stops along the way, as you know i pack in as many sights as humanly possible.

the cool thing about this trip is the photography element……although i love taking photos (and i take a lot), i’m very much an amateur. i will welcome all advice provided, and hopefully at the end of this adventure , i will be better!

of course, Igor doesn’t realize how amateur i am, or he might have given me to a different tour guide.

also, one note about future posts…….there is a lot of punctuation in Croatian words, and since i don’t have that keyboard and for the sake of ease, i’m not including any. i don’t think anyone reading this will be upset about that, but i wanted to make it known, my spelling is correct, but i am lacking accents and other symbols.

well, i spoke too soon. shortly after i posted from SFO, my flight to EWR was delayed by two hours, which would have caused me to miss my connecting flight to Dubrovnik.

being the proactive person i am, the minute i heard “delay” i made a dash for the customer service center. the nice (and very new) agent helped me change my flight from going through EWR, to Munich instead.

of course, Murphy’s Law……he just finished setting everything up with the new ticket, when the gate agent came over and said, we’re only going to be 30 minutes late, not two hours. oh well, too late, i was on a new flight, and hey…no weather reported in Munich. if i had kept my original flight, who knows if the flight to Dubrovnik would have even happened.

so i made it to Dubrovnik safe and sound, a little later than originally anticipated, but in one piece.

February 2019 was the last time i took an international flight. the whirlwind work trip to Edinburgh, London and Paris….so much fun, so long ago.

ok, yes, i did go to Mexico, but that doesn’t feel the same as taking a flight to Europe. Mexico is close and relatively easy to get to, and i don’t prepare the same way.

it was interesting getting ready for a big trip, i’ll admit, i was off my game. tasks that used to be second nature to me, took a lot longer than trips past.

but i managed to get everything ready, all items in a carry on and to the shuttle on time. although i still wake-up early, it’s been awhile since i had to be somewhere dressed and ready to go at 5:15 AM. made it to SFO with plenty of time to spare.

my route to Croatia is via Newark, NJ and stopping in Frankfurt on the way home…..5 hours in Frankfurt. thank goodness for a Red Carpet Club pass, thank you JH for your generosity!!

hopefully there won’t be much to report on as far as the flights are concerned. there is weather in NJ and a loud talker at the gate…..those things may cause me grief. only time will tell.

see you in Croatia!

Malmö is really a very pretty place and super easy to get around. at least to the limited places i’ve been able to visit.

during some free time we went to Kungsparken and St. Paul’s Church.  we also took a short sightseeing boat tour, which went through the canals and under 22 bridges.  saw some fun sculptures throughout as well, including these cats along the canal.  the artist included five of them in various places because he said, “people should never sit alone”.  

we hit the rooftop bar at Malmö Live to check out the view, which was pretty nice.  back on the ground we happened across a female Swedish rap group giving a waterfront show, which was fun to watch.  you gotta love local music!

there were a lot of other sites seen as well, a castle, windmill, fishing stalls, museum, etc.  if you’d like to see more photos (although they’re not awesome) check out the Malmö photo album.

next onto Copenhagen.

Malmö, the third largest city in Sweden, is my home at the moment. i’m here for a conference, but also have a little free time as well.

Malmö is very much a walking and cycling town, and i’ve never been in a place with so many beautiful and fit people……it’s a little disconcerting.

since this was a work trip the travel and accommodations were arranged with corporate policy in mind. SAS Airlines was the airline of choice since they had a direct flight from SFO to Copenhagen. Copenhagen is just 20 minutes away from Malmö by train. The train ticket was inexpensive (under $15) and flying into Malmö is very expensive. i’m at the Radisson Blu Malmö, and it’s perfectly acceptable. there are two standard beds and plenty of space in the room and my view is of this church.

the hotel is very close to a square called Lilla Torg where we have had dinner every night. there are many different restaurants including a Scottish pub, the Drumbar, the Green Chile (Indian), Swedish classics at Victors, and the Steakhouse Lilla Torg. plenty of vegetarian options everywhere including the steakhouse.

one of the buildings in the square was being renovated and was covered in scaffold. the scaffold was then covered in a giant painting of the building. they even make building renovation pretty.

i’ve been home since Friday evening, and figured i had better write a wrap-up and put out the final Colombia post.

in Bogota there is the most amazing street art, sadly i was only able to get a couple of pictures.

a guide told us that a few years ago, a kid was tagging a wall and the local police shot him. not long after Justin Bieber was playing a concert and asked if he could create a graffiti piece.  the authorities said yes, and arranged security while the “celebrity” created some terrible Canadian leaf or something of that nature.  rightly so, the people of the city were outraged,  a local boy gets killed for painting a wall and yet they bring out 3/4 of the police force to guard a pop-star while doing the same thing.

in order to help right the wrong, the mayor opened up a portion of the city to street art and offered a cash award to the artist with the best piece.  people are still creating new pieces, and some of the artists are now quite famous.

a tragic story with an artistic outcome.

hard to believe this is our last day in Colombia.  seems like just yesterday we landed in Cartagena and i was complaining about the heat and humidity.  by the way, Bogota, perfectly lovely climate.

throughout the entire trip we have been enjoying a variety of local beverages including beer from BBC, the Bogota Beer Company.  since we were in Bogota, we decided to spend part of our day on a BBC tour.

the BBC started in an old downtown Bogota house, and outgrew the space a couple of years ago.  they moved into a new business zone area about 40 minutes outside of the city into a brand new and specifically designed building.  the business is run by 22 employees and they brew a wheat, lager, ale, red, porter and honey beer, plus 4-5 seasonal beers.

we had a private tour and enjoyed every bit of it.  we learned the history of the beer and brewery, had a tour of the space, saw the beer lab, had a tasting at the bar and even saw the beer master (a woman!),  a very fun tour.

after the tour we took the cable car up to Monserrate to see the view of the Bogota, and the site itself. the view is pretty amazing, as it is 10,341 ft above the sea level, and there is a church (built in the 17th century) with a shrine, devoted to El Señor Caído (the Fallen Lord).

we ended the day at a crazy fun restaurant called Andres Carne de Res on Calle 82.  i can’t even begin to explain what it was like, and my pix don’t do it justice. try to picture a 4 story warehouse, with a small dance floor on the second floor, and Colombian and American music favorites playing.  the decor was a cross between a Cirque du Soleil set, Mexican tarot card art, a flea market and a little Disneyland thrown in for good measure.  they had people in costume putting on skits throughout the restaurant and a crazy band that played at individual tables.  the whole experience felt like it it would be home in Las Vegas.  the food and drinks were good, combined with the atmosphere, it equaled an unforgettable experience.  a perfect way to end the vacation.

Bogota is really like any other big city i’ve visited……there are good areas with very picturesque sites, and then not so pretty areas that just feel sketchy.

we walked around a little bit last night looking for a place to have dinner, and i was slightly unnerved.  maybe it’s because everyone during this trip has said, “oh be careful when you get to Bogota, watch your bag, watch your wallet, it’s pretty bad, they’ll take the cell phone right out of hand, etc.”  so the streets felt dark & sinister.

we ended up at a fun little place (a chain) called La Hamburgueseria, which really felt like a jazz club that served burgers.  lot’s of cool jazz posters on the wall and a crazy colorful painting in the back of the room, and good jazz playing throughout dinner.

today, in the light of day, we saw that there wasn’t anything sinister at all about our area. it’s primarily student filled, and there is a lot of activity as it’s by a variety of cultural attractions…..you do need to watch your step while walking though, lots of missing utility covers causing big holes in the sidewalks and people with dogs here don’t seem to know the concept of bringing bags on a walk.  but hey, at least unlike the streets of SF, this poo belongs to a dog.

the day started with a bicycle tour through the city hosted by Bogota Bike Tours.  Mike, the owner, is from Walnut Creek and we spent some time chatting over coffee and pastry at our first stop on the tour.  he’s a really nice guy, and i’m glad we had the opportunity to hang out with him for a bit before we headed out for the rest of the ride.

we only road about 10 miles, but saw lots of sites along the way.  we stopped to enjoy a coffee at Cafe de la Fonda, fresh fruit at the La Macerena Market and a quick game of Tejo.

Tejo, the brown square you see is clay, the white circle is made up of gun powder in paper triangles, and the goal is to hit and make the triangle explode, plus, hit the center of the target with a hand-sized rock. it’s a drinking game……gun powder and alcohol, what could go wrong?

super fun tour once you get comfortable riding on the sidewalk, dodging pedestrians and cars, and not using any directional hand signals. warning, don’t try this at home.

after the tour we went to the Museo Botero (which is free) to see not only the works of Fernando Botero, but also his private collection of art.  pieces by Picasso, Monet, Dali, and Miro to name a few.  impressive.  we also walked down to the Plaza Bolivar and enjoyed a little organ music at the Catedral Primada.