One of the great things about living on post is that they schedule Halloween at their convenience. Because they don’t want to have trick-or-treating on a school night, we are already done with the madness and are enjoying the loot. To all those of you who are still celebrating, however, Happy Halloween!
One of the places we visited in Croatia was a Plitvice National Park. The park consists of a massive system of lakes that are separated by natural dams. The water travels downhill (naturally) which means that each of the dams is covered with a system of waterfalls. The water is extremely hard and leaves massive calcium deposits, so the topography of the park is constantly shifting. The water is extremely clear, and, because of the white deposits that cover everything, the lakes are an unnatural looking and vibrant blue. Needless to say, we took a LOT of pictures. Rather than adding detailed descriptions of each picture, I’m going to give you some general thoughts now. Then I will inundate you with images.
1. It was, unfortunately, quite hazy all day so our pictures are not as crisp as we would like. The images definitely don’t do the place justice.
2. None of the pictures has been altered – the water really is that blue.
3. My hair doesn’t like humidity.
4. I think Ben likes to capture a surprised look on my face when he takes my picture.
5. I definitely wore the wrong shoes that day.
Now….pictures.
It was a beautiful day.
Although reports exist to the contrary, we haven’t dropped off the face of the earth. Not only are we still here, we’re über busy trying to see as much of said earth (particularly Europe) as we can before we move back to the States next summer. This leaves me with a problem. I spend most of my free time planning trips and preparing for them which leaves me very little time to document them on the blog. I haven’t finished blogging about Rome, about our trip to France with my parents, about our month in Utah, about Croatia or about any of the fun day trips we’ve taken in the last nine months. I would eventually like to get pictures up of all of these adventures, but for the time being I’m going to focus on Croatia.
Last week, Ben and I were able to go to Croatia for the entire week WITHOUT KIDS. That's right – we were able to traipse about the Adriatic coast unhindered by the smaller and slower legs of our children and unbothered by the whining that inevitably accompanies long days of walking and/or driving. Don’t get me wrong. I love my kids and they really are exceptional travelers. However, it was really wonderful to have an adventure with just Ben.
We had originally planned to go to Greece for the week, but as I was researching and planning I could never get the trip to come together. For some reason, it just never felt right. Given the unrest and instability in Greece right now, I’m really glad we didn’t ignore those feelings and went to Croatia instead.
Our first day we drove to Zagreb. It’s about 9 hours of stunningly beautiful driving through here. I don’t think that there’s a road in Austria that’s ugly. Slovenia felt just like home (Utah) to us. Case in point:
Southern Utah county….
….or Slovenia (formerly part of Yugoslavia)???
Look again closely…
Definitely not Spanish Fork (although there are probably plenty of billboards for gun enthusiasts there too).
We did A LOT of driving (around 1800 miles) and nearly all of it was through beautiful, lush, mountainous regions. Inland Croatia, however, is a barren wasteland. Think Nevada desert. Not a lot there.
So, Zagreb.
I really liked the vibe in Zagreb. It is a bustling, clean, modern city with a great downtown. The statue in this square (see below) was disassembled and hidden during communist times because the man portrayed (Ban (which is kind of like governor) Jelacic) was feared to be a nationalist symbol behind whom the Croatian people could rally.
We loved the colorful tiles on this roof. The coats of arms represent the region of which Zagreb is a part.
The building to the left of the church is where the offices of the prime minister are. The newer looking part of the roof is where Serbian shells hit during the recent war and has since been repaired. There was some kind of important meeting the day we were there. You can kind of see the red carpet where the prime minister met an important guest (this person arrived in an impressive looking motorcade and was surrounded by secret service types) and escorted her into the offices. They were greeted by a ceremonial military guard as well as a very real military guard (you should have seen the guns they were carrying) as well as a band which played some catchy military sounding marches. I took a quick picture, but I didn’t want to be too persistent – after all I was in close proximity to government officials and lots of heavily armed soldiers. I guess OPSEC is always on the mind!
I loved all the hanging flower boxes in the area…
I find the lack of vowels in Slavic languages fascinating.
We had some delicious pizza in Zagreb. Good pizza should ALWAYS be documented.
I must pose this question, however. Even if a pizza is vegetarian, is that any excuse to use cucumber as a topping? I think not.
Our next destination was the cathedral. It has a name, but it is so long and impossible to pronounce that all of the guide books refer to it simply as “the cathedral.” Apparently at least one of the spires is always under renovation. At least they put a picture on the scaffolding so you can get a general idea of what it looks like, haha.
I thought that this relief above the entry was particularly interesting. Not only is the style completely out of character with the rest of the exterior, it shows very clearly the Godhead (Holy Trinity) as 3 distinct beings. This cathedral was severely damaged in the late 19th century and was pretty completely rebuilt. I imagine this sculpture is fairly modern.
We loved the inside of the cathedral. This inscription is in a pre-cyrillic language invented by none other than St. Cyril himself. Apparently the Croatians toyed with the idea of adopting this as their national alphabet when they gained independence. I bet the kindergarten teachers were all relieved when that idea was killed. Can you imagine?
The subject matter of the relief on the altar is one that I have never seen before (and we’ve seen a LOT of art). The sculpture depicts the Holy Family doing their daily chores while being helped by angels. I wish the picture were better. The detail is really quite beautiful.
Finally we wandered the local outdoor market. I’m sure people thought I was really weird, but I couldn’t help talking pictures of the bright and beautiful piles of produce.
That’s it for today. I’ll try to post more this week, but I make no promises. Das vedanya!
Blogging about Rome is proving to be a mammoth task. I have a feeling that it will take several more posts to document the entire adventure. The last post didn’t even cover an entire day. In fact, we only got to lunch time. I guess that is where we’ll pick up.
After pushing our way through the Colosseum, I called my friend Heidi, who was also in Rome with her family. They had also just been at the Colosseum (this was pre-arranged) and (like us) were unsuccessfully trying to find their way to the entrance of the Roman Forum. The signage between the Colosseum and the Forum is seriously unhelpful. Actually, it’s not that it’s unhelpful, it is nonexistent. Given the number of people that walk between the two attractions, I really don’t think that a sign reading “FORGET YOUR MAP. IT IS MOST LIKELY WRONG. THE ENTRANCE TO THE ROMAN FORUM IS THIS WAY ----------->” would go amiss. Some arrows on the sidewalk would likewise not be unwelcome. Anyway, after an unnecessarily long walk, we found Heidi and her family AND the entrance to the forum. All of our kids were starving, but we were there and had snacks so we went in.
The Roman Forum is one of those places that I wasn’t too excited about as a teenager. I was interested in Roman history, but I wasn’t too impressed by a few columns surrounded by piles of Roman rubble. This time, however, I really loved the forum. For one thing, there is a lot more left standing than I remembered. I think, though, that what is so impressive is the scope of what was there. Ancient Rome was huge. The buildings they built were tall. Not only was I struck by the impressive architectural and engineering abilities of the Romans, but by the fact that those abilities were lost for a significant time period after Rome fell. It made me wonder how secure our hold on the scientific knowledge we have actually is. I’d like to think that because of wider dissemination and greater access, the information we have as a society is more secure, but it is humbling to see how much can be lost in such a (relatively) short period of time. So, I guess what I’m saying is that I really loved the Roman Forum (and the other ruins we visited) because they made me think.
One of the perks to traveling with Heidi and her family was the access to her teenagers. My kids adore them. Here they are playing tag on the some of the aforementioned Roman rubble. So much more fun than sticking with mom and dad!
The house of the vestal virgins is one of the prettiest parts of the forum. It is the model for many of the convents and monasteries in Europe. The grassy part behind Ben is the inner courtyard and the areas outside of the walkways were living quarters. It is one of the few places in the forum where there are still statues (which are probably replicas). Almost all of the statuary in Rome has been moved inside to better preserve it.
Here we are right before we headed to lunch. Despite friends, chocolate and a game of tag, Naomi was done and ready to eat. (By the way, will someone PLEASE fix that woman’s shirt??? It is really getting on my nerves.) We decided to head towards the Pantheon and find food along the way. Heidi’s daughter carried Naomi (who weighs 50 lbs) the ENTIRE way. I kept telling her that any time she got tired, she could put Naomi down, but she insisted that she was fine and and that she was having fun. Yet another perk to spending time with Heidi and her family!
We found a decently cheap restaurant with good pizza along the way and that even had decently clean restrooms. (Making this kind of find is a feat in that area of Rome – it is pretty heavily geared towards tourists, which usually means expensive, bad food, and bathrooms in Italy…well…let’s just say it’s always a pleasant surprise when there’s actually a toilet with a seat.) So, with full stomachs and a refreshed attitude made our way to the Pantheon.
The Pantheon was a temple to all Roman gods, or at least the most important ones. After Constantine, however the building was converted into a Catholic church and it is, I believe, the only building in Rome that has been in continual use since it was built (that’s nearly 2000 years). This is another building that I thought was kind of boring as a teenager. My kids must be more enlightened than I was, because they (especially Naomi) loved it. She and Ian took a bunch of pictures…
Here’s my favorite:
Gives you a feeling for the crowds we were up against, doesn’t it?
After we’d finished gaping at the Pantheon, we took a slow, slow, slow walk back to the metro station. Here are some things we saw (deliberately) along the way…
a church with a nifty frescoed ceiling. Check out the false dome. From one vantage point, the “dome” looked quite convincingly real. Once we walked further down the nave, however, the illusion was quickly dispelled. (Naomi was particularly enthralled by this ceiling and insisted of taking a picture of anything remotely dome-like after we saw it. We had a lot of conversations about why someone would make a fake dome and whether or not subsequent domes we saw were real or not. There are a LOT of Roman domes, so this was a frequent conversation topic.)
…the Trevi Fountain. The crowds at the Trevi fountain made the crowds at the Pantheon look like child’s play. I put on my Italian mama persona, however, and we pushed our way to the front with the best of them. Because I couldn’t stand back from the kids, getting a picture was tricky, but we managed. At least this time the entire thing wasn’t under scaffolding – it was when I was 14.
And here’s what the crowds looked like…
Any movie scene you’ve ever watched of a lonely romantic moment by the Trevi fountain IS A LIE. Just so you know.
We walked past the Victor Emmanuel monument and gazed upon its (unpopular) pristine whiteness…
As a point of reference, the mustache on the guy on the horse (Vittorio Emmanuele himself) is 5 feet long. This monument is huge.
And the kids…
…posed………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………..and in their natural state. Just keeping it real.
Our last stop was the mouth of truth - 10 minutes too late. Aaargh! We promised the kids we’d go back and we headed through the Circus Maximus (think Ben Hur and chariot races) to the metro station. It was a wonderful, stressful, exhilarating and exhausting day.
