Properly speaking this blog entry should be called Croatian and Montenegrin kindness for we have been showered with good will in both countries. I was simply looking for an alliterative title. Croatia and Montenegro are undoubtably filled with areas of great natural beauty. Cities walled by ancient fortifications are filled with historical buildings and artifacts.…
Zagreb has that certain something something. An intangible vibe that the French people vaguely term Je Nes Sais Quoi. Is it the blue trams, the gorgeous people, the public art work, the historical buildings? Or is it all these things and more that had me saying ‘Wow, we are in Zagreb’ on our initial arrival…
Time tumbles by like a boulder crashing down the precipitous slopes of the mountain sides ringing Kotor. Mere mortals are left crushed in it’s wake in their feeble attempts to divert generated inexorable momentum. No sooner are we acclimatised to the beauty of our surroundings we are moving on. No gathering of moss allowed despite…
Two days in a row with our day’s activity planned. We are shooting for the record. Our planned destination, Ostrog Monastery which is vertically recessed into the rock of the Ostrog Cliffs 900 meters above the Zeta valley. According to the lonely planet website Ostrog Monastery is one of the three most visited Christian destinations…
Lou Reed – born March 2 1942 passed away October 27 2013 The gritty humour, candid worldly observation and often brutal honesty embedded in his verse combined with his zero-tolerance-for-bullshit, flat, gravel voiced, deadpan delivery and guitar mastery formed the core of the musical backdrop of my adult life. The world is left the lesser…
Bare stone surfaces of the surrounding mountains provide excellent acoustic sound boards for the frequent fireworks explosions that resonate all through the night. Pam is woken frequently, I sleep like a snoring log. When I wake in the morning sporadic explosions are still occurring and a layer of smoke from wood cooking fires and fireworks…
The constantly gathering cloud cover of the previous day solidifies during the night. We wake to the sound of waterfalls coursing the stone stairs outside our apartment once more. The glory of our climb to the sky tides over into our last full day in Dubrovnik. Despite our inactivity we are at peace. Having had…
Incontrovertible evidence of how closely tied to nature humankind thankfully remains is displayed in the association of our emotions or moods to weather conditions. Blue skies have Pam bouncing around the apartment, ready for action, by the time I awaken. The flat greys of the past few days banished. ‘C’mon’ she urges ‘today is our…
Waking bleary eyed later on New Years Day morning I am none too disappointed to hear that the rain has returned. I fall back to sleep comforted by the sound of cascading water running down the stone stairs beside our apartment. The wet weather has set in, it rains for the rest of New Year’s…
New Years Eve is always a strange day for me. Thirty eight years ago this evening my family became a part of Australian National Road statistics. My mother was killed. I suffered multiple broken bones, was rendered unconscious for five days and spent three months in traction. My siblings were also smashed to smithereens and…
andtheywalked.com 