Days 24 and 25 - Dubrovnik, Croatia

For the remainder of our stay in Dubrovnik, we basically just enjoyed Old Town. We sat at outdoor cafes, took in some of the shopping and views, ate ice cream, and drank cheap Croatian beer. We also toured some museums (saw the 3rd oldest pharmacy in Europe in the Dominican Monastery) and did a walk on top of the city walls, which is a must if you come to Dubrovnik. The stay was a completely relaxing and awesome time.

Here are some pictures we took during our walk on top of the city walls:

Click on the panoramic photo below to make larger:

Here is the view from our balacony:

Here is a video of one of the cliff-side cafes, hidden on the outside of the city walls:

Cliff-side cafe - Dubrovnik, Croatia from Brian Burns on Vimeo.

Day 23 - Dubrovnik, Croatia

Today we got up early and went sea kayaking around the island of Lopud in the Adriatic. The kayaking was supposed to be for beginners. However, the first question one of the Norwegians in our group asked us was, “So, how many years have you been kayaking?” We immediately knew we were in trouble. We’ll call this Norwegian Bjorn Borg, since we later found out he wears Bjorn Borg boxer shorts (we know this because he changed his kayaking gear multiple times throughout the journey). He’s also a fisherman in the shrimpin’ business, kind of like Forest Gump (as he put it). Bjorn informed us that he kayaks 3 to 4 times a week. This intel solidified our decision to do a two-person kayak (the thinking was that maybe two of us could keep up with one of him… though there was a huge flaw in this logic, as we found out later).

At first, Kim and I had some trouble steering the kayak. After some time, our guide noticed the rutter wasn’t working, so he just took it out of the water for us. We’ll call our guide “Chief Sungazer”. He stares directly at the sun for nourishment. His plan is to eventually be able to stare at the sun long enough so that he will never have to eat again. Sound crazy? Well apparently this is a big diet movement (go ahead and google “sungazing”). Nevermind that the science behind it makes absolutely no sense.

The first half of our journey around the island from then on was better, but we still had some minor steering problems. The weather was nice and the water was calm. Meanwhile, Bjorn was kayaking circles around us (literally). Bjorn also went back to tow his dad’s kayak a few times. Unsurprisingly, Bjorn towing a second kayak holding his dad was faster than our combined paddling efforts in one kayak.

We stopped halfway around the island for lunch. Bjorn was itching to teach us kayaking safety rules, and I was having fun with it (he was so hard core). I would casually say something like, “So… how do I get back into a single person kayak if I capsize?” He would be so eager to show us that he would immediately throw his kayak into the water from the beach, swim out, and demonstrate. As humorous as it was, I was actually appreciative because Chief Sungazer gave us absolutely no safety tips.


After lunch, the wind had picked up and the water was much rougher. Kim and I were all of a sudden having major problems steering. Chief Sungazer, seeing that we were not making much progress and were getting frustrated, offered to switch spots with me (I would take his kayak, he would hop in with Kim). I took him up on the offer. Things were great for a while. We were up against a head wind the entire back side of the island. Every time I’d look over at Kim’s boat, Chief Sungazer was doing most of the paddling and Kim was all smiles again.

Things went downhill quickly when we turned the corner for the last stretch home. We suddenly faced gale-force winds and huge waves, and for the first time I started feeling slightly fearful (for my life). As we continued forward, the waves grew more intense, and all of a sudden all of the safety rules Bjorn had taught us started cycling through my head. I was quite sure that if a big enough wave broke over my kayak, I would definitely flip and be a goner. I was so thankful Kim was with the Chief Sungazer at this point. I had no doubt they would make it in safely (besides, Bjorn had informed us earlier that two person kayaks rarely flip). So, for the next 45 minutes I did everything I could and used all my energy to make it into a beach (any beach) without my boat turning over. The waves pushed me to a neighboring beach, but I was thankful to make it in safely.

When I looked back out at the ocean, I couldn’t see Kim’s kayak. A little later, Bjorn made it into shore and told me that Chief Sungazer and Kim were just spinning in circles somewhere out there. Apparently Bjorn had offered to tow their kayak, but Chief Sungazer refused to be towed. Great. When we saw their kayak in the distance, we could see they were still struggling. Bjorn said his arms were dead, but he would go back out and rescue them. I was very appreciative, as there was nothing I could do but watch. I also knew Kim had to be dead tired (Kim – tired is not the appropriate word. I had blisters on my hands, bruises on my arms, and could barely lift my left arm at all). The waves ended up pushing them in close enough before Bjorn got out there, so no towing was needed. We noticed that Kim and Chief Sungazer were paddling the kayak in reverse the whole way. This was apparently the only way they could get the kayak to go straight.

Chief Sungazer later said to me, “Yeah, now I know what you guys were going through. That kayak had a steering problem.” He also informed us he had never been in a two person kayak. Excellent. As we left he was preparing for a 20 minute sungazing session. We chose to skip that. By the time we got back to Old Town from the ferry and bus, it was 9pm. We ate a hearty pizza dinner at Mea Culpa, took some Advil, and then went straight to bed to rest our achy muscles.

Day 22 - Dubrovnik, Croatia

So we woke up at 4:30am and caught a 30 min cab ride to the airport (public transit wasn’t fully running at 5am). We arrived at the airport to find our flight was delayed until 10 (and later was delayed even longer). We are now 2 for 2 with Sky Europe in long flight delays. What should have been a full day in Dubrovnik with a 9am arrival turned out to be a partial day with the mid-afternoon arrival.

All of the pictures you see of Dubrovnik are of Old Town. It is a small city surrounded by huge fortified walls on the coast (like a huge castle). The city is entirely pedestrian, and to enter the city, you must walk through one of two castle drawbridges. The city got shelled heavily in 1991 and 1992 by Serbian war ships and artillery, however the city has rebuilt itself and gone through an astonishing resurgence.

We chose to stay up on the hill just outside of Old Town so we could have a view of the city and Adriatic Sea below. It was a 3 bedroom house owned by an old man named Josep. The only downside – 250+ steps to climb to get to our place! We both thought we were going to faint while climbing all of those steps with our luggage in the heat. Once we got there, Josep greeted us with welcome beers in our fridge (however, all we wanted at that point was water!). The view was sweet . . . seeing the city below from our balcony was quite the site (we'll post pics from the balcony in a later blog post).

We were quite tired from our early morning wake-up and the climb, so we briefly toured the town, snapped some pictures, and sat down for a seafood dinner outside in the square before heading to bed.

This is Placa, Dubrovnik's main street for processions and festivals, as well as for shopping and strolling:

Day 21 - Vienna, Austria

Today it rained in Vienna. Thankfully we had seen all the outdoor sights we had wanted to already. We started off the day with a melange and snack at Cafe Central. This cafe is famous for being the place where Trotsky played chess.

Afterward, we went to the Albertina, an art museum, to see their Modern Masterpieces Exhibit. We saw paintings from Monet to Picasso, and they also had some restored Imperial Apartments on display (where visiting royalty stayed when in Vienna during the Hapsburg Empire). We were thankfully pleased that there was no free audio tour.

For some quick nourishment, we stopped at a Wurstelstand and then bummed around in various shops waiting for the rain to stop. We had our second melange at Cafe Griendenstil and then took the tram to the suburbs for some authentic Wiener Schnitzel. Contray to popular belief (and Brian's), Wiener Schnitzel is not a hot dog, but rather a veal or pork cutlet that is breaded and fried.

Accompanied by some local beers, it was just the thing to fill our bellys on this rainy day. After, we headed back to the hotel to turn in for our early flight the next morning to Dubrovnik.

Day 20 - Vienna, Austria

I will start off with a side rant -

Museums with free audio tours: I'm no longer a fan. Keyword “free.” It seems that when a museum gives you a free audio tour, it does so because the museum wouldn’t be worth visiting without the explanation. In my opinion, you’re damned if you take the audio tour and you’re damned if you don’t. If you don’t do the audio tour, you may as well skip visiting the museum altogether. On the flip side, if you do the free audio tour, you are sentenced to the prolonged torture of listening to filler narrative that drags on much longer than it should (it is something that you could listen to on your couch at home . . . you don’t need to be at the museum). Standing in one place for minutes at a time staring at some old relic you don't care about just sucks the life out of you.

We started today off by visiting Schonbrunn Palace, which was just a few minutes walk from our hotel. About 20 minutes from the city center, Schonbrunn Palace was the summer residence for the Habsburgs. The palace and surrounding parks/gardens are pretty amazing - they rival Versailles in size and opulence. We enjoyed the early part of the day roaming the grounds and visiting the Gloriette behind gardens (you can see the Gloriette in the background of the 2nd picture below).

Next, we visited the Nachsmarkt, which is a large outdoor market (not quite bazaar size, but large nonetheless) with fresh food, clothes, and other goods for sale. We ate lunch at one of the small restaurants here, Mr. Falafel.

Following this, we decided to hit up the Haus Der Musik (the “House of Music” museum). The concept of the museum was pretty cool, with 4 floors of music/sound topics ranging from the Viennese composers to conducting your own virtual symphony (it was tough) to learning about sound and measuring your hearing threshold. There were also a few strange rooms, including one where you hear what it sounds like to be a fetus in the amniotic sac. Overall, I think the museum would be more fun as a kid to visit, but still interesting for us. By the way, the whole 3rd floor was a free 45 minute audio tour about the composers that dragged on and on (see rant above).

Since we had already bought a combo ticket, we headed to the Mozarthaus after this, which was the house Mozart lived in for 10 years in Vienna until his death (his most productive years). We were pretty beat from the Haus Der Musik (mainly due to the audio tour floor), so we took a quick break for some ice cream and Fantas to rejuvenate ourselves. I was really hoping/praying the Mozarthaus was not an audio tour. Well wouldn’t you know it, the whole thing turned out to be a free audio tour (uggghh)! The audio tour was like listening to a documentary with hardly any visuals, except for some portraits and manuscripts on the wall. Just give me a DVD next time (haha). At least we can now say we visited Mozart’s house.

The sad part is, as much as I hate the free audio tours, I will probably continue to do them. I'm badly afflicted with a common condition known as "FOMO" (fear of missing out).

In the evening, we went to the Music Film Festival over at the Rathaus (court house). They have a huge screen where they show different operas/concerts every night. Thousands come to hang out, eat dinner (lots of outdoor food/alcohol vendors), and socialize. It’s basically a big party. Tonight they were showing Carmen. We had seen it before, but fun to see again without the subtitles.

Additional notes/thoughts:
- In Vienna, many people have dogs, and in some cases it seems that dogs have more rights than humans (ex. there are certain green areas in the city where people aren’t allowed to walk on, but dogs are). Today was a first for me. I witnessed a bulldog riding an escalator. He got on the crowded down-escalator right in front of us like he owned the thing (equipped with leash, muzzle, and owner of course). For some reason it struck us as very humorous.

Day 19 - Vienna, Austria

We just so happened to be in Vienna on a Sunday, so we started off our day with Mass at Stephansdom. Stephansdom is a huge gothic cathedral in the center of Vienna, dating from the 1300s, its most distinct feature is its tiled roof.

After mass (in German) we wandered around the Inner Stadt (city center) along the main shopping streets of Kartner, Graben, and Kohlmarket and saw the baroque church Peterskirche. Vienna has quite the cafe society, and Austrians drink a lot of coffee. We stopped at Cafe Demel mid-morning for our first melange (kind of like a cappuccino), apple streudel, and sacher torte. Sacher torte is a dense chocolate cake made famous in Vienna because it was a favorite of one of the Hapsburgs.

After our snack, we headed to the Hofburg, the winter palace and imperial court of the Hapsburgs. From here they ruled the Hapsburg and later Austro-Hungarian empire until World War I. We took tours of the Kaiserapartments, the part of the palace where Emperor Franz Joseph and Empress Elizabeth lived, the Sisi Museum, and the Imperial Silver Collection.


Included in the ticket price were audio tours of each museum (Yippee!). Here's Brian looking super-enthused 45 minutes into the Imperial Silver Collection tour, as he listens to the story behind the 47th placesetting we've seen.

After the Hofburg, we wandered around the Ringstrasse (an inner ring around the city) to take in some architecture. We saw the Kunsthistoriches and Naturhistoriches museums, the Neueburg (the new wing of the Hofburg), the Volksgarten, the Burggarten, the Burgtheater, Parliament, the Univerisity of Vienna, and the Staatsoper (State Opera House).

In the afternoon, near a statue of Mozart in the Burggarten we stopped at our first Wurstelstand (think hot-dog stand but better). They have all kinds of sausages, such as frankfurters, bratwurst, burenwurst, currywurst, and even sausages stuffed with cheese. You can get them sliced or in a roll - but they don't just slice the bun open. They have a contraption that makes a hole through the center of the roll, then they drizzle some mustard inside and then slide the sausage in - quite an efficient bit of packaging.

Later in the afternoon we headed down to Karlsplatz to take in the baroque church Karlskirche, dedicated to the end of the plague in the 1700s.
We capped off our night with a Mozart and Strauss concert. We heard Eine Kliene Nachtmusik and the Waltz of the Blue Danube, among other songs, performed by a string quartet.

Day 18 - Athens/Vienna

The majority of today was dedicated to travel. Our ferry back to Athens last night didn’t get in until 1:15 am, so by the time we caught a cab downtown, checked-in, and got situated in the room, it was well after 2. Since we were very tired, we slept in until 10. After eating breakfast and checking out, we had about an hour and a half window to do something in Athens before we had to head to the airport to catch our flight to Vienna. I convinced Kim to go to the War Museum. It was close to the hotel and it was free.

The War Museum covers Greek history from ancient times until the after WWII. There are plenty of good visuals here, from weapons to war maps and replicas. However, I was hoping there would be more in-depth descriptions of historic battles, etc., and some of the captions were only in Greek (I kept joking with Kim, “This is all Greek to me”). I definitely could have spent longer than the hour or so we were there, but I’m not so sure Kim could have. Here I am in front of a Greek fighter and missile (both made in the USA, by the way).

Unfortunately, our flight to Vienna got delayed a few hours. We had hoped to have a nice Saturday evening catching dinner in Vienna and wandering around. However, by the time we made it to the hotel, which was well outside the city center, it was after 10 and we were exhausted from travel. We ate “dinner” in our room, which consisted of fruits and granola bars we picked up at the airport grocery store (yes, there was a nice little grocery store at the airport), then hit the sack to prepare for tomorrow’s sightseeing.