Split

Woke at 6 in Dubrovnik for a final run through the city with C.

At 8.30, Dino came and checked us out. We commiserated about the bad Croatian loss to Spain last night.

9.00am - we're on the move! Cab ride to the bus station.

10.00am - the bus to Split pulls out. 5 hours of twisty roads and bad a/c await.

3.00pm - we pull into Split and before we're even off the bus, we're accosted by an army of people shouting 'accomodation?' at us, as if we're likely to book a room with someone who verbally assaults a bus.

After arriving in Split, we find our hotel, start a batch of laundry, and wander the city for a few hours.

One of the main centerpieces of Split is Diocletian's Palace, the retirement home of an ancient Roman emperor that has now become a center of commercial excess. The basement of the Palace is a museum, so we wandered there.

After the palace, we wandered Split some more, discovering Sarah's house:

And two signs painted on a wall near a club, clearly meant to discourage what apparently is a common practice.

Dinner was excellent! Sarah had lasagna and I had sea bass. Dessert was tasty, and after-dinner drinks means that I have a drunk wife at home!  

Tomorrow, C & I will rise friggin' early to take a run before we all try to take a boat ride to a nearby island. Split hits 98 in the shade today, so we're anxious to get out on the water and away from the heat.

Busch Gardens Europe

C and I got up early this morning to take a run. We ran up to the top of the cable car mountain, then down the back of the mountain and along the highway (like, in the shoulder) for a bit until we were able to get back onto regular surface streets. The run took us about 1:10 and lasted just under 6 miles, only perhaps 1/4 mile of which was flat surface.

Our first stop as a fearsome foursome was to walk the ancient walls of Dubrovnik. The old town is surrounded by a huge wall, which has been in place for hundreds of years but has only been used in combat once (in the early 1990's). The walls are a major tourist attraction, so we had lots of company on our journey in the hot hot sun.

Good views from the wall.

Sports facilities adjust to the walls, not vice-versa.

Apres-walk, we were hot, tired, dehydrated, and hungry, so we sat down for some pizza at a place that the apartment owner Dino recommended.  C & E had a margarita pie; S & I ate mushroom. Then, fortified, we wandered in search of an art gallery and a music shop that S found in her guidebook.  Both shops were closed, but we did find some other jewelry shops that were quite lovely. Both ladies got a little something.

Then, ice cream and a siesta!

An observation: Dubrovnik is the most Busch-Gardens-Williamsburg-like place I've ever been. The Old Town is manicured and pristine. There are well-marked (in English) places to meet tours, buy food, buy gifts. The attractions are clearly labeled, the main part of town is ADA-compliant... There is an exceptional amount of effort put into making this town tourist-friendly.  There's even a cable car!

After the siesta, C, E, and I went to a beach half a block away for a swim.  'Beach' is a generous term, as it was really a rocky ramp with cement and a ladder. Still, it was a beautiful swim. The water was clear and comfortable. It was sunny when we swam, but I snapped this later.

Before dinner, we had a drink at Buza bar, a bar sitting on the edge of a cliff, literally through a hole in the fortifications. We sat at a table drinking our drinks, staring at the Adriatic, watching people jump off of rocks into the water below. Awesome.

Then, a dinner of gnocchi (for the ladies) and stuffed squid (for the guys). The food was tolerable, but the venue, a terrace covered with vines, was exceptional. Then, a walk home down the main street with some ice cream.

Tomorrow we leave Dubrovnik for Split. Five hours on a bus, passing through Bosnia on the way. Whee!

Dubrovnik HDR

I took a few HDR shots yesterday and processed them this morning.  Dig:

On to Dubrovnik

HAPPY FATHERS DAY TO DADS OLD AND NEW!

12.21pm - We got up shortly after 3am to get to the airport to catch our flight out of Cluj to Dubrovnik by way of Bucharest. The flight to Bucharest was fine, and we've spent the last 5 hours in the international terminal waiting for the connecting flight. Here's how we passed our time:

- Figure out how to get to the international terminal (hint: the words 'arrival' and 'departure' are used interchangeably when posting directions)

- Watch an episode of Mad Men (Don and Joan get drunk, Megan throws spaghetti, Lane has money problems)

- Read a book. 

- Eat overpriced airport food. 

- Wander the duty-free shops. Did you know there are SIX different kinds of Martini & Rossi vermouth? Rosso, Rossetti, Extra Dry, Bianca, d'Oro, and Golden. Yes,  know d'Oro means 'golden,' but I swear they were different bottles and different prices. I wonder - what do the last three bottles do?

- Watch the Tuscany episode of No Reservations. Yum! Now we've watched the programming for all of our destinations. 

- Play video games. 

We carefully managed our cash, and we just spent the last 5 lei in a vending machine. We are officially done with Romanian money.

1.05pm - in the airplane en route to Dubrovnik. Below us is either Romania or Serbia. Or both!

There are two in-flight magazines. Insight is your standard inflight mag, bilingual in Romania and English. The text was clearly translated from the Romanian - there's a lot of Engrish in it. Also, apparently Bucharest is getting its first Benehanna restaurant. It's in the ground floor of the Howard Johnson's. Suddenly, it's 1965!

The other inflight mag is called Sky Lady, and it's just for women! Because women like to fly places too! It's full of articles about where to go on vacation with your girlfriends and what kind of swimsuit will suit you if you have a grandmother-shaped body. 

10.14pm - We're here, safe and sound. It's now quite late and we're all tired, so I'll be brief: Dubrovnik is beautiful. Rocky, arid, formidable. C&E met us at the airport and we took a cab into town. We dropped our stuff, had an excellent seafood feast (grilled tuna, swordfish, squid, octopus, shrimp, and more!), wandered Old Town Dubrovnik, rode up the cable car to watch the sun set over the city, and then came home. 

When we got home, we had to pack up and move into another apartment, as the shower in our unit was leaking and causing damage. We were grumpy to move (none of us had slept more than 4 hours in the last 24), but move we did. Our new apartment is nicer. Tomorrow will start with a run for me and C.  Here are some photos:

S, E, and C outside the hotel.

E & C stare in awe.

S is dubious...

...but is pleasantly proven wrong.

Old things are pretty.

Old Town Dubrovnik from the top of the cable car.

Opening

It's the day of the show, y'all! Time to wrap up here and get ready for the next adventure. I took a final run along the river, washed some laundry, and started packing. S and I joined Eli, Mihai (the artistic director), and Anca (Mihai's wife) for lunch at a new local restaurant called Adi's Steakhouse. 

Adi's Steakhouse has an interesting business model: they rely entirely on referrals from previous customers. They don't advertise and don't even call themselves a restaurant. Rather, the only way you can get a table for he first time is through a referral. It's a little weird to me, but if they can generate buzz through a little bit of exclusivity, more power to them. 

The meal was excellent. We started with bread and two pate-like spreads: tuna and artichoke. Then, an awesome green salad (the tomatoes here in Romania are perhaps the best common tomatoes I've ever had, btw). For my main course, I had the ribeye. I'm not usually a steak guy, but the head waiter (Adi himself?) talked it up extensively. It was exceptional beef from Argentina. Finally, for dessert, we sampled a few dishes, including a Hungarian rum cake that I'll dream about tonight. 

Back at the room, we took a small snooze. Well, I did anyway. S has had a very rough time sleeping since she arrived.  The beds are terribly hard and she can't get more than 30 minutes of sleep without waking in pain. Hopefully Croatia will be better. 

I got to the theatre about two hours before curtain to help the clowns warm up. They were in great spirits and used the warm-up to tease each other and limber up. There was an exchange of gifts and some preshow celebration. Then, the show...

...which was awesome. The clowns were excited, which rubbed off on the audience. The audience was excited, which rubbed off on the clowns. The show was terrific! Not flawless, but exceptional, with everyone using each others' energy to create the piece. The curtain call was easily 10 minutes, and Eli and I were pulled up on stage to participate. After the show, there was a party in the upper lobby, where I got to talk to most of the cast and say goodbye to them.  S took off for home early, but I stayed a little later.  Truly a great night. Congratulations and thank you to everyone at the National Theatre of Romania - the cast, the administration, the crew, the audience... you made this experience memorable and exceptional!  Thank you so much!

And so ends a very busy spring for me.  Since mid-March, I've opened four big shows in four different cities on two different continents. I've had two dance pieces premiere at a national conference. All this while teaching full-time at UCI. I've earned a break.

Tomorrow, we fly to Croatia to meet Chris & Elysia!  Hooray!