philadelphia

After returning from my two week vacation, I had one day before heading back to the airport to fly to the US for work. We spent a couple days in Harrisburg at the client and then our last night in Philadelphia. It was my first time in Philadelphia and our US colleagues were nice enough to take us out and show us around. By the time I got back to Zurich on Saturday morning, besides being tired and jet lagged, I was ready to stay put for awhile!

 

Friday night happened to be Philly's "dinner en blanc" where people dress in white and bring tables, chairs, flowers, candles, drinks and set up on the street to have dinner.

valencia

After returning from my vacation on Thursday morning, I had the day in Zurich to catch up on laundry, emails, etc. Then Thursday evening I left for a long weekend with my american friend Matt in Valencia, Spain.

Valencia is beautiful. We spent our time walking around the city, enjoying the nice weather, laying on the beach, and eating tapas.

Bull fighting arena

Supermarcado

Saturday we took the train to Sagunto, a small city outside Valencia, and walked around the old castle.

Sunday we walked through the park down to the aquarium and science museum.

split

FINALLY, I made my Croatian beach/island vacation dreams come true! It was even better than I had hoped and imagined if that is possible. Croatia is now one of my favorite places in Europe. Everyone always asks me where my favorite place in Europe is and I just can't decide anymore! There are so many favorites.

Our apartment was in a great location in the old town. On our first day there, Lise and I walked through the old town, climbed the bell tower and shopped at tha market.

 

The view from our balcony couldn't have been better. I spent a lot of time out here reading, eating, working, relaxing...

 

In the afternoon we walked to one of the "beaches" which was basically an area of big rocks where you could climb down and jump into the water.

 

Tanja enjoying some sparkling rose at a seaside restaurant:

 

 

The following day, Lise & I took a ferry to Vis, one of the small islands of the coast.

 

When we were on the ferry, we saw 2 dolphins swimming and jumping alongside the boat for awhile. I tried, but never got a picture when they jumped:

 

We took a bus from the town of Vis to the opposite, more secluded side of the island. We enjoyed laying on the pebbly beach and had a coffee/ice cream before going on our tour to the blue cave.

 

 

 

We took a speed boat to the ilsand where the blue cave is and then had to transfer to a smaller boat which would fit into the cave. Even on the smaller boat we all had to duck down into the boat to get inside.

 

Once we got inside the cave, it was amazing. In this big open area of the cave, there is one side where there is light coming in from underneath the rocks (its 4 meters if you wanted to swim from inside the cave out into the sea). The sunlight coming in illuminates the water and makes it look neon blue.

 

On our ferry ride back to Split we saw one of the most beautiful sunsets.

 

The next day the three of us went to Slatine and then Trogir. The lady that owned our apartment had recommended Slatine as having some of the best uncrowded beaches. We enjoyed swimming, tried not to be too uncomfortable on the pebbles, and then took the boat on to Trogir, where we spent the evening walking around, shopping, eating ice cream, and having dinner.  

 

 

Trogir - an island that is connected to the mainland with a bridge.

 

On Tuesday, Tanja and I took a ferry to yet another island. Using Split as our base really worked out great as we were able to go several other places. We were deciding whether we should go to Hvar (the most popular island from split) or Solta (approximately the same distance, but not very popular). We decided we had had enough of the crowds in Split since this was high season for tourists and went to Solta. It was a wonderful decision. We walked a bit from the town and arrived at this completely secluded concrete dock/beach. We had it to ourselves all day until we were getting ready to head back and a family arrived. It was perfect.

 

On our last day, we had signed up for a sea kayaking + DWS tour. We had never heard of DWS before, but it stands for Deep Water Soloing, which is rock climbing on sea cliffs. So we kayaked out into the sea and along the shore and then tied up our kayaks, put on our climbing shoes and jumped in the water. We swam up to the rocks and then attempted to climb out of the water up the rock wall. Lise and Tanja have been rock climbing before, but not without ropes and I had only been on a fake rock wall with ropes before. It was extremely difficult but also really fun. The good part is that if you fell, you just fell into the water. The bad part is once you got up, you had to get back down by either climbing down or jumping in. At the end of our trip, our muscles were very tired from all the kayaking and climbing and we were a little bit cut up on our hands and shins from the rocks. It was worth it!

 

 

Wednesday evening, we went on a sailing trip. The sea had been so calm (no waves) all week and while we were kayaking, the wind and waves really picked up. So I was a little nervous to go on a sailboat for the first time with the waves and wind. The first hour of our sunset cruise, I was gripping the boat and was basically terrified. After we got around the penninsula, the water was more calm. we climbed up into the front of the boat and got splashed with water a few times. The two guys who owned the sailboat were really nice. We enjoyed some wine on the boat as well. Somehow we managed not to spill any with the rocking boat, water splashing, and having to move from one side of the boat to the other when we changed directions. After a glass of wine, I was able to relax a bit and really enjoy the beautiful sunset and our last evening in Croatia!