done in Europe

The time has come to get ourselves out of Europe and on to Africa. Rome is doing its best to bleed our wallets dry... today I sat down at a cafe and without thinking ordered "the big beer". Well, that turned out to be a 12 euro (16 CAD) 800ml beer. Fortunately it was pretty hot out and I was thirsty. It actually went down pretty nicely, and on an empty stomach it 'kept me entertained' for an hour or so afterwards. ;)

Rome has been fun, lots to see and many many miles to walk. We feel like our feet are worn down stumps on the ends of our legs. Yikes. The sights were pretty cool though. It neat to walk around a corner and unexpectedly find yourself facing some grand piazza with a towering fountain or obelisk in the middle. We saw the Vatican Museums (along with about 2 zillion other people. All at the same time. In a corridor wide enough for about 6 people across, and doors that admitted 2 at a time. Craziness). Also the Colosseum, the Pantheon, the ancient city (they're called ruins Eddy!), St Peter's square and the Basilica, plus a few other museums and churches. One of the best museums was the Museum of Roman Civilization, which was way out of town near the end of the subway line. It was almost deserted, and they had scale models of all kinds of Roman catapults, military camps, and best of all, a HUGE model of ancient Rome at its peak. I mean this thing was BIG: at least 50 feet across. It took up the whole floor of a large rectangular room, and you viewed it from one storey above on the mezzanine that ran around the perimeter. We were both very impressed. Oh, and that museum was free. Probably the only free thing in all of Rome, I bet!

Accomodation was adequate but not much for the price. Location pretty good. We got around on the subway a lot, which was a good deal at 11 euro for a 3 day pass (each). Food was hit and miss: had a GREAT pasta and pizza meal on day one, were a bit disappointed by the 'nice' meal we paid extra for two nights ago, and really disappointed by dinner last night, and then today was Burger King. Yeah, we got lazy and weren't in the mood to overpay for some mediocre food. And the wine... what's up with the cold red wine? That is too weird. I'm no wine snob, but even I don't like cold red wine! Tracey was particularly unimpressed, I think. We were hoping for better, since Venice was top notch for both wine and food the whole time we were there. Oh well, this city is obviously one big tourist trap, and for good reason. I've never seen any other place quite like it. The history here is ridiculous!

We're still hoping to post some pictures eventually, but I left the camera cables in our checked luggage, so again, not happening now. Maybe in Africa? How likely is that? We'll try.

cheers everyone! On to "Part Two" of the great adventure tonight!

cheers,
Mike and Tracey

BTW: we're not back from Safari until Oct 7th, so if you don't hear anything at all from us, don't be concerned until around the 10th or so. Then send someone out into the bush looking for the remains of our tent, squished by trampling elephants. Or lions, maybe. That would be cool. =)

Goodbye Croatia

Well Croatia has been a blast but tomorrow we head off to Rome for a few days and then catch our flight to into Africa where we start our safari on Sept 26th.  Time sure does fly when you are having fun!  We cannot believe we are almost at the half way mark in our trip.  It really does not feel like we have been gone this long.

We have been up to a lot of the last week or so.  We had our 7 night cruise with Sail Croatia where we met some fantastic people and had a chance to take a quick glimps of many of the Dalmation islands.  I do not have time to list them all or our adventures on each but there are a couple of highlights.  First is Hvar which is also the first island we stopped at on Saturday evening.  We arrived in Hvar just at dinner time and headed out with a few folks we met on the boat for a lovely seafood dinner.  After that we stopped at this little caffe bar right on the water but out of town a bit (Hola Hola).  Here we ordered a very large picture of alcohol which we thought we would all pour into our glasses and share.  The big jug came with 4 straws...interesting.  Lets just say 3 jugs in we knew our new friends pretty well!  After that we headed out to another night club in town and had a few more drinks and some dancing.  At the beginning of the night we had been told about this club that off on another nearby island that we could take a ferry to but that didnt open until 130am.  Since it was close to this time we decided to wait it out and at least check it out for a drink...just to say we saw it.  Around 130am us and our new friends headed over to the island where we danced the night away.  Since the club was on its own little island they had setup this little beach area where you could go for a swim during the night.  Wow was that water beautiful!  Anyhow, we finallz headed out and back to the boat around 5am after..."just one more swim" there was a pool in the bar as well, right in the middle of the dance floor.  This is my kind of club!

Mike has already commented about our trip to Debrovnik which was amazing as well.  What a beautiful place.  We both wish we had some more time to spend there but have already decided that we will hit it again our next time out.  Croatia is so beautiful I just know we have to come back here.  The sights, the people and the food have all been an amazing experience.

We are off now, time for lunch and to make our way back to our apartment.  Vis has been great and we could easily see ourselves here for a few days.  We did a great tour of the island ysterday where we got to check out many of the Yugoslovian hide outs and bunkers.  It really was very interesting and worth checking out if you are ever hear!

We are off for now.  Hopefully we can get some pictures up soon.  It is easier said than done as finding computers we can upload to is not a simple task.  In the mean time the stories will have to do.

Lots of love!  Tracey and Mike

Corcula

Just a quick note before I log off here in Corcula. I think we've truly got our sea legs now, as I was enjoying my breakfast today despite the rolling sea. Still watching this monitor wobble in front of me, but its not making me sick this time!

We're going on a self-driven buggy safari today. Not sure exactly what that means, but it should be fun to drive the buggies. They look a lot like the one we rented in Oregon to drive the dunes.

OK, I need to keep this short, so hi everyone, and cya later!
M+T

hey make it stop spinning!

We're in Dubrovnik now, still one of the most beautiful places I've ever been. Did the walk around the walls with Tracey, and marvelled at how big the mountain was that Tim and I hiked when I was here last. The blasted out cable car station that I took pictures of at the top has been repaired and is now working: I think we're going to go up for a ride and see how the top has changed.

Only problem right now is that T and I are both getting sick staring at this computer screen, which is wobbling around like crazy. After a few days on the boat, our balance is totally off; solid ground feels like its swaying everywhere! I guess we've got sea legs now, except I still get sick when the boat starts rolling around on the swell too much. Hasn't been horrible, but yesterday was pretty messy. Never actually got sick sick, but it was bad. Tracey thinks I should mention that it was partly caused by a good strong hangover that came from partying at a beachfront club until 5am the night before. OK, fair enough. It still sucked!

OK, we're going to run now I think, but hope everyone is doing well back home!

Cheers,
Mike + Tracey

cruising

Heading for the boat in just a few minutes, don't expect too much blog activity for a while! Take care all, talk to you when we get back!

M+T

Hi everyone, First, thanks for all the comments. Felt great to get a little feedback from friends and family (well, Traceys family at least... mom? Matty? JJ? hallooo?)
Just kidding. sort of.

Anyway, we just booked our flight into Arusha in Tanzania. We'll fly out of Rome, and I believe we'll be taking an overnight ferry from Split to the east coast of Italy, and then a train to Rome. We're thinking about stazing in Rome for a few days, but we'll decide on that later. Cost was a bit high but not horrible. At least we don't have to fly all the way back to London or Brussels or something.

Otherwise all is well. Split is nice and looks to be a lot of fun. Our apartment didn't have the kind of kitchen we were hoping for, but it's a cool place with a killer view. And A/C. You can forgive a lot of things for A/C!
On Saturday morning we're off on the sailboat for a week. Honestly one of the most exciting parts of that is the fact that we can see different places each daz WITHOUT HAVING TO BOOK HOSTELS AND PACK OUR BAGS! shocking, eh? seriously though, it's going to be awesome. Not sure how often you'll hear from us that week though, internet connections will probably be few and far between. cya!

btw, the Zs and Ys are switched on these kezboards, in case zou were wondering.

Zagreb

Well were in zagreb now after a nice train ride through the slovenian countryside. we booked an 'apartment' without really knowing what that was going to mean but it turns out to be a full basement suite with a kitchen and everything. we're definitely excited to make bacon and eggs tomorow- we already bought the groceries. pretty sure we have bacon but it might just be something that looks like bacon. whatever, i'm sure it will be good. As you canprobably tell breakfast continues to be the most reliably crappy meal, as is always the case when you travel it seems.

ok ttyl everyone. oh and if you're reading this could you just leave a quick comment to say hi? it feels so lonely here it would be great to hear from you all!

love m+t

Still in Slovenia

To our surprise we are still in Slovenia. This is just a beautiful place that seems to lend itself well to romantic getaways. Right now we're getting ready to check out of a beautiful hotel up in the Alps that was offering great summer rates. We rented a car in Ljubljana and drove up here, enjoying every minute of it. We popped into Austria yesterday to find a nice lake to swim in, and today we're going to stop in at Bled to swim in the lake there. Our plan now is to go to Zagreb for a couple of nights and enjoy life in the city, and then head to Split for a week of sailing in the Croatian islands. We're also looking into renting a cabin on a remote island and holing up for a few days of total privacy. We'll keep you posted on how it all turns out!

Here are a few pics for you, now that we're finally at a computer that will allow us to do this:

This is one of our first nice pics together, this one in Venice. Before this we were basically jetlagged in Amsterdam (in the rain) and then in transit via Milan. Here in Venice is where the trip truly began.


This is Tracey on the castle wall at Bled. We didn't do anything except visit the castle when we were there on the way up to the mountains. You can see the camera man in the background, filming the world rowing championships. The place was a zoo, so we went to the castle and then got out. We hope to stop in for a swim on the way back today.


This is our wine and cheese party on the balcony of the cute little hotel here in Kranjska Gora.