We had booked accommodation in a hotel close to Gare du Nord train station which was a very convenient location in terms of access to the Paris Metro system, and when you looked out of the window of our room you could see Sacre Coeur which was a beautiful sight.

On our first morning in Paris we got pastries and coffee and headed for the Metro station. Here we purchased a three day train pass which was a brilliant idea as it meant we didn’t need to worry about purchasing any train tickets for the rest of our stay. Our first train journey led us to Notre Dame cathedral where we took in the outstanding Gothic architecture from the outside and then joined the swiftly moving queue to take a look at the inside.

Notre Dame is an amazing structure, but I was disappointed by just how many tourists were in there talking loudly to one another or talking on mobile phones, taking photos with the flash on and treating this holy place like an amusement park. It really took away from the feeling of awe and holiness that a Gothic church was designed to inspire, there was no quiet place to sit and really take in your surroundings because the crowds were immense. This definitely was a tourist attraction and not like a proper church at all. It was surprising to note that mass still gets said here every day in spite of the crowds, how weird and challenging it must be for the priest to perform a full mass with people taking photos and talking around the isles of the church, and for the parishioners who attempt to partake in the mass, how do they feel about the crowds I wondered?

We left Notre Dame and crossed to the south side of the Siene river to get some lunch. We found a cafe where we managed to get a delicious filled baguette with a can of coke for only €4.80 each – our coffee that morning had cost €4.50 each so this was an amazing deal! Afterwards we stopped in at the famous Shakespeare and Co bookshop before heading on a lovely walk along the Siene riverside.

A while later we were still walking and found ourselves outside the Musee d’Orsay. The queues here were amazingly long so we took a look around all the interesting sculptures that were on display in the courtyard and then we crossed the river and entered le Jardin des Tuileries. Here we took the time to enjoy a beautifully manicured green space in central Paris. There was also a sculpture exhibition in the gardens so it was wonderful to walk around and discover random contemporary sculpture placed in obvious and not so obvious places around the gardens.

At one end of the Tuileries is La Louvre and at the other is La Place de la Concorde. We headed to La Place de la Concorde, stopping for a crepe along the way. There was a street performer on La Place de la Concorde who was blowing giant bubbles and teaching a young girl how to make these bubbles, we spent a while transfixed by these bubbles, trying to capture them on camera.

Walking away from La Place de la Concorde we began the walk up the most famous street in Paris – La Champs-Elysees – with our ultimate destination being the Arc de Triomphe which is at the top end of the street. Along the way up the street we got sidetracked by Avenue Matignon and a quick visit into the Paris office of Christie’s auction house. This was a beautiful French building and well worth the visit, there was a wine auction taking place while we were there so there was a lot of people around the building which made it all the more interesting to visit.

La Champs-Elysees is a crazy street not just for the big names stores which line the street, or the really large sidewalks, but for the sheer number of people that those sidewalks accommodate, and the insane amount of traffic in both directions on the road! This is most definitely the busiest street I think I have ever been on. By the time we got to the top of the street we were so exhausted that we decided just to take some photos of the Arc de Triomphe from across the road and leave it at that. We then decided to have dinner at the only place we could afford on La Champs-Elysees – McDonalds! (It was interesting to note that it was still more expensive here than at other McDonalds restaurants in Paris).

The following day we went to the Louvre. We had pre-booked our tickets at a ticket booth in Gare du Nord station the day before so we were able to jump the crazy long queue and go straight inside. I was surprised to find the the Louvre (home of such priceless art, like The Mona Lisa) did not have as strict a security policy as the Uffizi in Florence, we only had to walk through a metal detector and our bags through an x-ray machine but we were still able to hold on to our bags when we went through the galley (unlike at the Uffizi). We were also allowed our cameras which was a novelty for a museum, normally all form of digital recording device is forbidden.

There is so much to see in the Louvre and I know that the almost 6 hours we spent walking around it barely scratched the surface of the collection, but I was very happy with all I saw. Having completed a whole degree in the history of art with a focus on the Renaisance and also 17th-19th century French art (and with a few Classics papers completed), this museum was a treasure trove of art I had studied and written essays on. If I had to choose 5 pieces that blew me away they would have to have been The Winged Victory of Samothrace (an ancient Greek statue), Gericault’s “Raft of the Medusa“, David’s “Intervention of the Sabine Women“, Rubens’ “Marie de Medici cycle“, and Canova’s “Cupid and Psyche“. Each of these pieces were highlights in their own way but the power exuded by these works by their size or the way they were sculpted or painted really impacted on me.

The most disappointing work I saw was the Mona Lisa. While I admit it is a beautiful work by da Vinci, the fact it was behind bullet-proof glass and security guards and a barrier set a few meters back meant that it was not as easy to appreciate as every other work in the museum is. I found watching the crazy crowd around this small painting to be a more interesting experience. People would fight their way to the front of the crowd, pull out their camera and take a couple of pictures, then move on. I am not sure that many people actually stop and really look at this painting which is sad, but then again, with all the camera lights reflecting off the glass in front of the painting it was quite difficult to really look at.

After our art overload we refueled and headed down to the Paris’s most famous icon – the Eiffel Tower. On my first trip to Paris I saw the Eiffel Tower at night, all lit up with twinkling lights, so it was strange to arrive here in daylight and see the iron structure in full light. For some reason I was really surprised that it was brown. I am not sure why I was surprised but for some reason in my head it was a black structure, not a brown one! We stayed in the area until it was dark enough for the lights to go on at which point we saw the Eiffel Tower transform itself into a beacon of twinkling lights.

Our last day in Paris had only one destination in mind, Sacre Coeur and the surrounding Monmartre area. Our first discovery was an entire street which led away from Sacre Coeur which was just fabric shop after fabric shop. This was a dream for my mother who loves to sew and for me who loves craft projects – a whole street of options for random bits and bobs to use in our sewing and crafting. Just wonderful!

We ate filled baguettes for lunch on a park bench in the garden just below Sacre Coeur, it was a beautiful day and this was the perfect spot for lazily watching the world go by and enjoying some very French food. After lunch we climbed the rest of the hill and entered Sacre Coeur. Unlike at Notre Dame, you were not allowed to take pictures in this church and people were generally less chatty so there was a completely different vibe inside. This church really felt like a church, it felt like an escape from the madness of the busy Parisian streets outside, it was a quiet sanctuary where you could sit and think. We took the opportunity for a moment of quiet contemplation in this beautiful place of worship.

The Eurostar journey back to London was comfortablele and straightforward. The two hour train ride was a great opportunity to just sit and reflect on the wonderful holiday I had just been on. Paris showed us a good time and I am glad to have been able to visit for a second time. It is a city so full of history, and so much of that history is visible in the design of the streets and buildings that despite the obvious modernisation and the millions of tourists, this city still leaves a lasting impression of delight.

Once we found our street we were greeted with a large garden wall covered entirely in greenery with a gate in the centre. It reminded me of a book I read as a girl – “The Secret Garden” by Frances Hodgson Burnet – what was behind this garden wall I wondered? Well, when Alfonso, the owner, opened the gate and led us inside it was just as I hoped, a gorgeous little secret garden! We followed the garden path towards the entrance of the villa and along the way Alfonso told us that the garden (and villa) are of great historical importance in Pisa, and that the garden is opened to the public twice a year so everyone can enjoy it.

After being shown our room, which had a lovely view out onto the secret garden, Alfonso showed us what the main sights were and how to get to them, and then recommended a place to get a good lunch. It was about 2pm when we arrived in Pisa and it was also a Sunday, so there was very little option for where to eat and what to see and do since so much was closed.

Our lunch recommendation ended up being perfect. Trattoria da Cicciolo was just around the corner from Villa Theresa and we were the only tourists in there, all the other patrons were local families enjoying a big Sunday family lunch! The menu was all authentic Pisan food cooked and eaten slowly, it was perfect.

Once we had filled ourselves up with food, wine and coffee we ventured out into Pisa to explore the town. We walked towards the Arno River which we then crossed and continued walking on the other side. What struck me about Pisa was the large number of buildings in this small Tuscan town which had the Medici family crest somewhere on them – the Medici really were the ruling family of Tuscany!

Eventually we found our way to what Pisa is most famous for, The Leaning Tower! My first impression of The Leaning Tower was actually how small it was compared with what I had imagined! It is still quite a sight to behold though! There were a lot of tourists around, although not as many as I suspect there would be if you visited in the summer months.

It was here amongst the crowds of this popular tourist sight that I had arranged to meet a friend who lives here – who became our very own local Pisan tour guide I learned a few interesting facts while we walked around the Piazza dei Miracoli, firstly that it is considered bad luck for a student to climb the Leaning Tower, but that it is good luck for a student to rub this tiny little lizard that is carved in bronze relief on the main doors of the Duomo.

We decided not to join the queues and climb the Leaning Tower and also unfortunately we could not enter the Duomo, we could only stand behind a rope at the open doors and look in, so after we walked around and absorbed these impressive sights my friend showed us to the Piazza dei Cavalieri, home to the University Normale (where many a Nobel-prize winning scientist has apparently studied). This was a really lovely little square where all the building façades were interesting to look at. One building in particular had a wonderful large clock in the centre of the facade and according to my firend this building is believed to have featured in Dante’s “The Divine Comedy”.

Unfortunately a little while later we had to say goodbye to my friend and we continued on our exploratoration of Pisa without him. We saw a few other wonderful looking old buildings around that also had a bit of a leaning look to them which made me wonder if maybe the Leaning Tower was actually on a lean at all and whether it is Pisa itself which is leaning

We found a market place that sold mostly food and jewellery and here we picked up some locally produced biscuits to enjoy for dessert with a cup of tea back in our room later. For dinner we just grabbed some slices of pizza from a cafe and then as it was getting dark we wandered down the main shopping street back towards our accommodation.

The most amazing sight to see once the sun went down and the stores closed their doors was how the main street came completely to life! There were old ladies sitting on benches chatting away to each other and watching everyone else in the street; there were also young people gathering together in groups talking with one another and generally everyone looked to be enjoying just being outdoors and seeing one another. Unfortunately the rain started at about this point so the crowds were short-lived and by the time we got into our room a full blown storm was well underway – thank goodness we had got such good weather for earlier in the day when we were exploring!

The rain was heavy, the lightning bright, and the thunder was loud and earthshaking! A serious storm that raged throughout the night, it was very comforting to be in a comfortable bed under a cosy duvet in the shelter of a nice room while all that crazy weather was going on outside.

The following morning the rain was still beating down outside but we were happily enjoying a relaxed breakfast in the conservatory looking out over the garden. Breakfast included freshly made croissants and marmalade made from the oranges grown in their garden, delicious Italian coffee, and even home made yoghurt! A real feast.

With the rain as bad as it was and most of the local tourist attractions visited the day before, we decided to stay at the B&B until we had to catch our train to the airport. We were the last guests to leave that morning and so Alfonso took us on a tour of the rest of the remarkable old building – the double bedroom he showed us had original frescoes on the ceiling, and the furniture in the room was all period furniture – a lot of care and effort had gone into making the rooms comfortable in the modern sense but still true to their origins, it was beautiful.

Pisa seemed to look favourably upon us, because as we were preparing to finally leave Villa Theresa and head to the train station with our suitcases the rain came to a stop and didn’t start up again until we were safely on the train! As our airplane flew out over Pisa in the direction of our next destination (Paris, France) the Leaning Tower of Pisa was clearly visible in amongst all the old orange-coloured Tuscan buildings.

Pisa was a great place for an overnight stay, and the previous 4 days in Florence were magic. I left my heart in Tuscany, and I definitely have it at the top of my list of places I must get back to one day soon.

From the moment we got off the plane at Pisa Airport our Italian experience was everything we had hoped it would be plus more. We befriended an English University Professor in the queue to buy train tickets and rode all the way into Florence with him – he is a seasoned Italian traveller who was about to start his sabbatical in the Tuscan countryside.

Upon arrival at Florence train station Santa Maria Novella we said goodbye to our new friend and found our way to our accommodation “Hostel Sampaoli”. When we got there we were disappointed to find ourselves faced with two flights of the steepest and narrowest stairs I have ever seen (and there was no mention of this when I found the place and booked it). But eventually us and our luggage made it to the top (albeit huffing and puffing and ready to collapse). The next shock was the discovery that the hostel had double booked us and we were not going to be able to stay there! However, they had a room for us for the first night and had booked us into alternate accommodation around the corner at the same rate we were going to pay to stay here.

Riccardo the owner at Hostel Sampaoli was very friendly and gave us a map of the city marked with his recommendations of places to eat and places to visit and armed with this map we went off to do our first walk around Florence. The experience that made the biggest impression on me, and one that I will always remember, was walking down a street that night and turning a corner to be greeted by the monumental Duomo (Santa Maria del Fiore). What a spectacular sight, the white and dark marble façade of the church was almost glowing in the dark surrounds and the red brick Duomo was a marvel to see. I was really in Florence – what a dream come true!

The next morning we checked into our new accommodation – Liberty Tourist Hotel which was only 1 flight of normal stairs and it turns out that the room we were in normally costs €130 per night but we were only paying €70!!!! This place was very nice.

After breakfast at a nearby cafe we began our self-guided walking tour of Firenze. We began with the Piazza San Marco just down the road from our accommodation and then continued on to the Piazza della Santissima Annunziata where the Innocenti Hospital is located – a children’s orphanage that was built in the 1400s by the brilliant Brunelleschi (who built the Duomo). On the façade, above each column is a ceramic tondo of a child wrapped in swaddling clothes, created by Andrea della Robbia, which represent the (now gone) wheel in the wall where parents could place their child and pass them into the orphanage without being seen. The piazza itself was a sleepy little piazza with a few locals crossing through on their way to somewhere else and surprisingly few tourists – so far so good I say.

On this morning we approached the Duomo from the back and walked around to the front of the building in order to really get an appreciation for just how massive this structure really is. The interior of the church was breathtaking for its sheer size! So much open space, it was almost overwhelming by it size and relative emptiness and simplicity, the Renaissance style is so strikingly different from the much more decorative Gothic style, for example Notre Dame in Paris. I found myself thinking that it must be such a wonderful experience to come here for mass on Sunday’s – the Sacred Heart Basilica in my home town of Wellington NZ is not even remotely comparable!!

Standing outside the front of the Duomo and looking up at the beautiful details of the façade it really strikes you as incredible how 500 years ago people didn’t have any of the technology that we have today and yet they built these monumental structures which have not only stood the test of time but are still functional. The baptistery opposite was also quite stunning and the reproduced “Gates of Paradise” by Ghiberti (the originals are in a nearby museum) were more impressive in reality than in pictures I have seen.

Walking past the Bargello Museum we made our way to the Piazza della Signoria home of the Palazzo Vecchio which is synonymous with the historically significant Medici family and is also the seat of Florence’s government since the 1300′s!!! The Palazzo Vecchio casts an impressive shadow over the piazza, so much Florentine history has happened both inside and in front of this building (such as the burning of Savonarola); it is surreal to stand here in this very space.

There is a life size copy of Michelangelo’s “David” outside the front of the Palazzo Vecchio and I have to admit that I was a little disappointed by it; I found the nearby Giambologna statue of the “Rape of the Sabine Woman” a much more impressive sculpture. I understand the technical impressiveness of David, carved out of a single block of marble, and massive in scale, but ultimately it is just a static posed male nude, there isn’t anything particularly moving about the subject.

I was rather fascinated by the Fountain of Neptune nearby where many female tourists were posing in front of Neptune and getting rather excited by him – did they confuse him with David or is there some insider joke about Neptune that I am not aware of? Lynsey also found this flurry of excitement amusing, so we decided to join the crowds and Lynsey snapped a shot of me and Neptune – we hoped that looking at this later might enlighten us to the fuss but unfortunately many months later we are still in the dark on this one.

We got some sandwiches and found a spot on the sidewalk in the Piazza to have a quick lunch and put our feet up for a moment. We then had a brief moment of disorientation thinking we were headed towards the river only to discover we had gone in the total opposite direction. But this turned out to be a happy mistake as we stumbled across another building I had at the top of my must-see list – Orsanmichele. This medieval building was originally used as a grain store and in the 1400′s was converted into a chapel for the craft and trade guilds. In the late 14th century the Florence guilds were charged by the city to commission statues of their patron saints to be placed in the 14 exterior niches of the building. The richer guilds commissioned their works in Bronze while the others commissioned theirs in Marble. The results speak for themselves – divine! Nani di Banco’s marble “4 Crowned Saints” for the Stone and Wood workers guild, and Verrocchio’s bronze “Christ and St Thomas” for the guild of merchants are my two favourites.

Eventually we parted ways with Orsanmichele and went in the correct direction towards the Arno river, passing by the Uffizi Gallery. Once down on the riverside the view was amazing – the sun was shining directly on the infamous Ponte Vecchio and you could almost imagine what it must have been like in da Vinci’s time when this area was also full of people going about their day to day trades. It was at this point as well that I was suddenly confused as to how one of my oldest friends who spent 4 years living in Florence could ever have left here! How do you live anywhere else in the world after living here?

On the Ponte Vecchio it is not such an exciting place unless you are a really wealthy tourist as it is full of very pricey jewellery stores these days. The south side of the river is equally as charming as the north side and we spent a bit of time walking around from one street to the next just observing the buildings and the people, soaking up the Florentine vibe. We crossed back across the river a bit further down from the Ponte Vecchio at the Ponte Santa Triniata which offered some lovely photo opportunities of the Ponte Vecchio.

We then walked down to Santa Croce for gelato at a store recommended to us by my friend that had lived here for a few years – well worth the walk, very tasty! Dinner was next on the agenda and once we sat down it was very hard to get up again after the 10 solid hours of walking we had managed to do that day! But we still found the energy for an evening shopping trip in the San Lorenzo tourist markets on the way back to our accommodation – where mama got herself a very nice Italian leather jacket. We all slept very well that night!

We woke to day three feeling absolutely exhausted (after the previous day’s walking this wasn’t so surprising), and it was Mama’s birthday so it was a day to celebrate! We had breakfast in the San Lorenzo Markets and then stocked up on fresh fruit and nuts and headed off to Santa Maria Novella – another gorgeous Florentine church. The frescoes in this church were truly spectacular, in particular Masaccio’s “Trinity” – a marvel of perspective – and Ghirlandaio’s Tornabuoni Chapel which stopped me in my tracks. The floor to ceiling stories that filled this chapel’s walls were so beautiful and moving – painted over 500 years ago and yet still here, still relevant, still masterful.

It was a glorious October day outside and so when we left the church we sat down on the front steps in front of the main façade and enjoyed some time out in the sunshine. As we walked around the next corner we stumbled across “Officiana Profumo-Farmaceutica di Santa Maria Novella” an apothecary that was founded by Dominican friars in 1221 and then opened to the general public in 1621! Inside it was just beautiful and how you might imagine an old-fashioned apothecary shop to have been. There was a perfume room, a herbs and tea room, a library, and even a mini museum of Italian majolica jars and medicine making equipment. The whole shop backed onto an internal loggia of the Santa Maria Novella Friary – you couldn’t access it but you could look into it.

After a quick look around the Piazza della Republica we decided to split up as mama and Lynsey wanted to do some shopping and to visit a bookbinder in his store that they had discovered the day before. I on the other hand wanted to go to the Palazzo Medici Riccardi – the impressive palace that was once the home of one of the most powerful families in Italy – the Medici. Inside the palace was everything I remembered from my studies plus more – the Medici Chapel with its floor to ceiling fresco cycle painted by Benozzo Gozzoli was vivid and bold and overwhelmingly impressive. The reception room known as “Luca Giordano’s Gallery” was another visual feast with its ornate baroque appearance – the highly decorative ceiling fresco and the wall of mirror painted with all sorts of decoration. Out in the garden it felt like you were out in the Tuscan countryside as seen in a typical tourist photo – the orange building, the green grass and the potted orange trees, the fountain and a large marble statue – it was hard to imagine that just on the other side of the garden wall was the bustling city streets of modern-day, inner-city, Florence!

The palace also had a Museum of Ancient Marbles housed below ground full of mainly Roman busts and heads, some of which were quite beautiful.

Saturday was our last full day in Florence and the main activity on the cards was the Uffizi Gallery. We had pre-booked our tickets the day before and so we arrived at the appointed time, breezed through security, checked in our bags and coats, and then it was off to explore. The horseshoe shaped gallery was spread over two densely packed floors and contained some of the most remarkable masterpieces of the Italian Renaissance.

I could spend all day telling you in detail about pretty much every painting or drawing in the building but I will spare you that and will just list my best of the best highlights: Botticelli’s “Primavera” and “Birth of Venus”, Da Vinci’s “Annunciation” and his unfinished “Adoration of the Magi”, Gentile da Fabriano’s ” Adoration of the Magi”, the “Maesta” by Giotto, and the same subject by Duccio, Verrocchio’s “Baptism of Christ”, Michelangelo’s “Doni Tondo” and Raphael’s “Goldfinch Madonna”, and finally my absolute favourite, Giovanni Bellini’s drawing of the “Lamentation of Christ”. The main corridor which linked all the rooms was full of sculptures and interesting ceiling frescoes and exquisite views across the Arno river.

Five hours later we decided that we should probably leave the Uffizi, get some lunch and do some souvenir gift shopping in the markets – Christmas was not that far away after all and what better gift to give then something all the way from Florence Italy!

I then popped into the Church of San Lorenzo while Mama and Lynsey did some other things they wanted to do. This church was different again from all the other ones we had been in so far but no less impressive or beautiful.

My lasting impression of Florence will be the power and might of the Medici family. They do not rule Florence any longer (I think the Medici dynasty ended in 1737 when the last ruling Medici died without any heir) but their family symbol is still prominently displayed on the outside of many of Florence’s buildings and in amongst the frescoes on the ceilings of the churches and other buildings – a symbol of their ownership, of their influence, of their power. Almost 500 years after their greatest era they are still physically an important part of Florence – fascinating!

I wish we had got to spend longer in Florence, I still feel like there is so much more to discover and experience. I fell in love with Florence and it is heartbreaking to leave but now that I have had a taste I will have to come back again some time.

Arrivadeirci Firenze

One thing I have come to enjoy about this weather is just how beautiful London looks when covered in a layer of snow. It conveys a fairytale sense of a winter wonderland – oh how I love it!

One morning on the way to work, Green Park had been transformed into a white park! The old fashioned street lights in this park with the dusting of snow and the bare trees made me feel like I had just walked into Narnia.

The following day was a Saturday and I awoke to a very heavy snowfall. I sat inside my house with a hot drink in hand and just watched the snow fall furiously outside. There is something quite hypnotic about watching the snow as it floats and swirls and softly lands on the ground. It is so different from the violence of rain or hail.

By the afternoon the snow had stopped falling so heavily and so I decided to venture outdoors with my camera and capture the transformation of the city. I walked to Holland Park where I was astounded by how white the gardens had become. There were also lots of other people out and about enjoying the snow which was nice to see.

My favourite spot in this garden is the Kyoto Garden, a peaceful Japanese garden with a waterfall and pond. It was completely transformed by the snow and just a lovely as ever.

Finally I came across the big sports field in the garden which now appeared to be a snowman making factory! There were snowmen EVERYWHERE!!!! Big ones, small ones, fat ones, thin ones, ones with three parts to the body, others with only two parts to the body – it was quite a sight!

So I decided that it would be fun to make my own snowman! I have never made one before and neither had my flatmate who was also visiting the park. We started to put some snow together and then had a group of boys laughing at us and our technique. They then challenged us to a competition for who can make the better snowman. We borrowed their technique of rolling the snow balls and ended up with two snow-people – a boy and a girl whom we named Fred and Wilma! We even gave them arms that are holding one another. I am very proud of my efforts with making Fred, his face is made of leaves and his spiky hair is made from twigs. The boys who challenged us just ended up making a giant snowball about the size of a small person and then gave up and left the park! I think we won the competition

I was very hopeful for a white Christmas but unfortunately the snow eventually melted away and had basically gone by the time Christmas rolled around.

Ja sam sretna

This would be the best way to describe how I felt when I touched down in Split in late July – Happy. After my experience in this beautiful part of the world last year I couldn’t wait to get back again, I have literally spent a year dreaming about coming back to this place and here it is at last!

This year I had two of my closest friends meet me in Split and join me for 5 days in Makarska with my family. It was great to have them there and to share with them a part of my culture that they knew about but had never experienced before.

Relaxation

It had been a really busy 6 months in my day to day life in London leading up to this visit to Dalmatia and when I got here my prime objective was just to relax and enjoy the break! So on our very first afternoon in Makarska we were already enjoying the refreshing Adriatic sea. Unfortunately on this day there was a bura (very strong wind) blowing so the water was not its usual crystal clear stillness but had a bit of a roll to it, not that this made the pleasure of swimming in the sea any less wonderful.

Our second day in Makarska we decided to spend the whole day at the beach, so that morning, with books, towels, togs and hats in tow we found ourselves a spot on the beach and spent the day enjoying being outside with nothing else to do but read, swim, talk to one another and eat! This is the best kind of holiday I think!

After a day at the beach we went home and got freshened up for an evening out in the town centre. Dinner was delicious local produce at a local restaurant in the old town square. I had lignje (calamari) which were amazing. Late July, early August is also festival time in Makarska so while we were at the restaurant there was an orchestra warming up for an evening performance in front of the church in the old town square. We stayed in the area after our meal to watch a bit of the concert then we got ourselves some sladoled (ice cream) and went for a late night walk up to the top of Sveti Petar (St Peter) peninsular where we could get an impressive view out across the marina and see Makarska old town all lit up – it was quite magical.

Cruising along the Adriatic

On the third day of our holiday my friends and I had a very early start to the day, we had a boat to catch that was leaving the Marina at 8am sharp! We picked up some breakfast from a local pekara (bakery) and found a good spot on our boat – the Makarski Jadran. There are a great many boats which depart from Makarska Marina each morning to take tourists out to at least two of the 1000+ islands of Croatia for the day. They all leave first thing in the morning and return again in the early evening.  Later in the evening you can walk up and down the marina and see all these boats moored there, some converted to restaurants for the evening, but most just advertising themselves with local staff standing around trying to sell tickets to passers-by for the next day’s sailing.

Our boat is one of the biggest of the choices available and possibly the liveliest. Makarski Jadran spends most of the year in far away seas as a fishing trawler and then comes back to Makarska for the summer months where the crew go from being fishermen to being hosts to hundreds of tourists wanting to spend a day on the water. It is a brilliant conversion from fishing boat to tourist boat as well, the back of the boat, where I assume they would normally drop and drag back their fishing nets, gets converted into a huge barbecue to cook freshly caught fish for all on board.

Our delicious fish lunch was served while we were on the boat before we reached our first stop of Jelsa on the island of Hvar.

Upon arrival in Jelsa we were given a couple of hour’s free time to just wander around. So once we were off the boat we took to the streets and explored the local area. Following a road up a hill we got a good appreciation for the local area. I really loved the stone walls and the matching stone built houses which combined with the blue sky and the surrounding greenery just made this area so picture perfect! On the way up the hill we encountered some locals who were selling their produce - lavender products (very common on this island), and local wines and spirits. By the time we got back down to the marina we stopped in a local cafe for some sladoled to cool off from the heat and then we jumped back on the boat ready for the next destination.

Bol on the island of Brac was the next destination where we had a good three hours to do whatever we wanted on shore. The best beach on the island is Zlatni Rat, a spit of land which changes shape slightly depending on wind direction. This beach is idyllic for finding a spot under one of the yellow and white sun umbrellas and taking a nap. Very relaxing!

After a good dose of sunshine and water we got back on our boat and cruised further around the islands, slowly making our way back to Makarska. Our boat, the Makarski Jadran is famous for being the “party” boat of the Dalmatian coast, and with the mixture of Croatian and English pop songs blaring out of the speakers so loudly that the people on the nearby beaches were jumping up to join us for a dance I can see why! There was a Croatian family sitting in the centre of the boat that were really enjoying the music and the drinks available for purchase and on the journey back to the mainland the singing just got louder and louder!

It was a lot of fun to do a boat trip like this with good friends.

And just before arriving back in Makarska we toasted our day with a shot of Rakia (a local specialty drink) – Zivila!!

Exploring the forest and the neighboring town

Day four began with a visit to another pekara to pick up breakfast as well as supplies for the day ahead. Today we were planning to walk from Makarska to the next town along the coast – Tucepi. Tucepi is my ancestral home, it is where my grandparents were born and raised and it is where my family still have homes, and some of them still live. It is a much smaller town than Makarska and although still a popular spot for summer tourism it is not as popular as Makarska.

We chose to walk to Tucepi rather than take the bus so that we could explore the whole coastline in between the two towns. There is a forest that sits between the two and a few paths along it to follow. I was told that it takes about half an hour from one town to the other but we decided to enjoy ourselves and take it slowly – so it took us about an hour!

Protected from the heat of the sun by tall trees it was quite a pleasant walk, although once we got to the uncovered part of the walk we suddenly wished we had left much earlier in the day! There were a few delights to enjoy on the walk such as the wild berry bushes we discovered and the olive groves we walked along the edges of… it really was a great walk

It is said that the beach in Tucepi is even more beautiful than the beaches in Makarska and I would have to agree. However I was really disappointed to arrive there with my friends only to discover the bura was out and was not only making the water much rougher than usual but also the beach itself much cooler than I would have liked.

Despite the less than perfect weather, my friends and I still managed to enjoy another lazy day on the beach with a few refreshing swims and some drying off in the sunshine – probably because it was still pretty weather good conditions, just not for a local!

For lunch that day we got ourselves some slices of pizza from a local cafe and then for afternoon tea we enjoyed some palacinke filled with jam – YUM!!!!

The walk home later in the day was after the heat of the day had gone and by the time we reached Makarska it was starting to get dark. We stopped by the sports ground near the house to see my cousin at his football practice and then we went home to sort ourselves out for the night ahead.

After a final dinner out in town with my friends, who were leaving me tomorrow to head back to London, we sat down by the marina and watched an amazing lightening storm over the island of Hvar. It was quite spectacular to see the island in relative darkness beyond our safe little harbour and then all of a sudden the whole island was lit up by the lightening and on more than one occasion you could actually see the lightening fork!!

After another day in the sun we were exhausted and so headed home for some sleep. During the night the lightening storm arrived on the mainland with earthshaking thunder and torrential rain as well!! The amazing part was that the very next morning it was as if the storm never happened!

Summer Carnival Time

On Saturday morning my friends and I did a leisurely stroll along the beach and stopped off for an early morning coffee at a cafe-bar on the beachfront. We walked almost to the other end of the town and then walked all the way back again, with a quick stop for lunch.

Then it was time to say farewell to my friends and drop them off at the bus station for their journey back to Split. I was really surprised when we arrived at the bus station by just how insanely busy it was! This was when I discovered that it is always busier on Saturdays, but in addition to that, today was the day of the Makarska Carnival so tourists were flooding in to enjoy the party. I felt very guilty when I later discovered that my friends had spent almost 3 hours waiting to be able to get on a bus!! In that time I had gone to the beach and been enjoying some swimming while they sat in the heat waiting for the next empty bus!!

That evening there was a lot of excitement around town, Across the road from our house there was a concert about to start of a very popular Croatian singer and then down in the Old Town everyone was getting ready for Carnival to begin. I went with my aunt and my cousin down to the Old Town where we wandered amongst the stalls, listened to a band performing from a boat anchored on the Marina and then found a good spot to stand so we could watch the carnival parade.

The parade was great fun, full of people (both young and old) dressed in all kinds of costumes, from the traditional local costumes to the more outlandish and ‘creative’ costumes dancing their way along the road towards the Old Town Square. We followed the end of the parade into the square and watched the award ceremony for the costumed revelers and then a band started playing and we all started singing and dancing, what a wonderful night!! I only wish my friends had been able to stay an extra night to enjoy this as well!

Family Time

In my last couple of days in Dalmatia I split my time between swimming on the beach and spending time with my family both in Makarska and in Tucepi. My evenings were spent sitting outside the front of the house talking to my aunt, uncle and cousins, eating and drinking and just feeling at home.

Then all too soon it was time to head back to London!

This beautiful place is forever in my heart, I love it when I am here and I miss it when I am not!

I am now counting down the days until I can go back again…