Marie

The way to Marie can be tricky.

"I seen a few things a woman ain't sposed to see. I've been to paradise, but I've never been to me."
That is until today. Marie, at least, has been to Marie.

Marie is beautiful, pedestrianised, and surrounded by mountains.

Marie is about 45 minutes away. The way to Marie is very windy and one lane in places, but worth the effort (according to Marie). When we visited, they were having the celebration of Marie. I asked if we could pay up to join in, but the main man said don't worry, just help yourself. But Marie didn't feel comfortable freeloading, so we ended up leaving Marie hungry.

The band celebrating Marie

I suggested coming back for a weekend trip, as Marie is beautiful, but Marie didn't think the kids would enjoy staying for a whole whole weekend, even if there's lots of places you can walk all over Marie. Sadly, I don't think we'll visit Marie for a bit, until we get our next lot of visitors.



Lunch was down the street from Marie, and Marie was happier after a good feed, and a wine.

Jelena Danilo and Anna Maria

Ollie's gotten confident in the water.

On the rocks near our place.

Cagnes Sur Mer old town.

Marie's cousin Jelena came to stay, with her husband Danilo and one of their daughters Anna Maria. The boys love her, and everyone had a good time. After about 3 days, we could say a couple of words of Italian.

A couple more shots

Genoa. Probably good if you're loaded.

 They say less is more. Oh well, not on this blog. Here's a few snaps I forgot to throw in.

Typical town on Croatian coast.

On the coast

Ollie after the wind changed

Roadsign, Bosnia.

The way back home

River Krk National Park - a nice stop

Visovac monastery, or the Island of the Gentle Giant.

 Saw some more countryside. Got stopped by the cops for not having parkers on. That's a fine, but the smiling cop let us go. 

Zadar.

The jetty out the front of Teta Beba.

On the boat, giving Tiho a lesson in arm wrestling.

Stopped for lunch at a weird ski resort with Croatian flags everywhere, but we're still in Bosnia.

Crossed the border and stayed at Knin. Knin has fame as the capital of Serbian Krajina in Croatia. It's army got crushed by Croatia, with the unofficial help of the US, and official help of NATO, and ethnically cleansed in the process. Knin is an important junction in the country, and has important rail hub, and a little citadel. I was interested to have a look, but got outvoted by all, so we headed down to River Krk National Park for a swim and a bushwalk, a better choice. We've got a book called the Gentle Giant, which the boys love. The monastery on the island, Visovac, looks just like in the book. So we took a boat over to take a look, which the boys liked.

The historical city of Vicenza.

We got a call from Tiho. They were staying in Zadar, so we drove up, and stayed with Teta Beba. She's got every kind of flavoured brandy there is, and we tasted pear, cherry, and walnut, (not together) nice! She kindly put us in one of her rooms there. You can walk to a cafe, a couple of little shops, and it's 2m to jump in the sea. The boys hair started to go blonde.

Vicenza was next. Another pedestrianised, bike riddled tourist town that I'd kill to live in. Damn all these Italian towns banning cars, so jealous.

Finally we stopped in Genoa for the day. It's got a Cahill Expressway right along the whole length of it's waterway, heaps of parking, and we both didn't want to stay. It just felt dodgy. Nice old buildings, crazy skinny alleyways everywhere, a lovely central grand piazza.

Nice to be home again.

Down the coast and over to Bosnia.

Zagreb - thumbs up.

After Salvonski Brod, we went to Zagreb with Evonne. It's got a beautiful historic city centre, and a few stalinist blocks outside. Evonne took a plane back home.

Rolling south down the freeway along the coast, we got to Dubrovnik. A beautiful citadel. We stayed in a private home, a bit of a dive.

Dubrovnik - jewel of the Adriatic.

We did stop at Medjugorje, but didn't climb the mountain, as it was over 40 degrees and the hoardes of tourists made it hard.

Next was Mostar. It's well worth a visit, with it's extensive old town. It must have been really amazing before being levelled during the war. Today, it's been well restored from funds all over the world. A few building shells remain. The amazing clear water of the river is an even more amazing 12 degrees. That takes a little time to get into after 40 outside. We stayed in a private appartment, a bit of a dive.

Mostar. Don't jump, I mean, do!

Sarajevo is such an interesting city. See where Archduke Ferdinand got assasinated, and started WW1 (which arguably led to WW2). See the local Siege Museum, and feel impotent rage as you watch what happened to the people here. Or skip the depression, and just enjoy the variety of churches, alleys and interesting places. It would be easy to spend a good few days here. Marie was sick of dives, so we stayed in a 5 star hotel in the middle of town (same price as a pub in Oz mind you).

Sarajevo. Appartments in the middle of town.

Sarajevo. Pretty houses in the hills.

Slavonski Brod

And we're off for a walk.

Seeing the town, and visiting people.

Taking snaps of the buildings

We stayed with the family in Slavonski Brod, both sides of the family.

The town is one of the larger ones around. It has a grand central square, and a lot of European style buildings.

Visiting the people.

Marie takes after the Stanics