One Amazing Week in Halki

The idea for this European trip began 15 months ago when John's cousin (also named John) and his wife Val came down and, together with Helen and John, we toured around the Avoca vineyards. (Yep - three Johns!) Somewhere on that weekend we learned that the house that Val has on the tiny Greek island of Halki would be 100 years old in 2016. And thus the first plans for a Halki get-together were laid.

Fast-forward to June 2016 and 40-something friends and family turned up for the celebration on Halki. Many of us didn't know each other but it didn't take long to work out that all John and Val's friends were great people.

We had the most AMAZING week!

Halki was hot, hot, hot but the water was cool and refreshing. The island was bleak and barren but the houses were gorgeous although, like the rest of Greece, many were in disrepair. We spent the week exploring, drinking, partying, swimming, eating, partying, walking, chilling and partying. It was HUGE!

Part of the main town viewed from the ferry. Our house is towards the left.

The view from our balcony. This is where we swam. The water was incredibly clear and so refreshing. The underwater visibility was incredible although there was little life to see.

The view towards the town from our balcony.

The interior was surprisingly rugged.

Some houses were beautifully painted......

....others needed some TLC.

Courtney and Alanna.

Part of the younger generation of family.

John, Helen and Maddy.

One day a group of us climbed up to an old fort. It was great!

Connor and Chelsea.

Maddy.

I try to remember to turn the camera around occasionally!

Our favourite watering hole - the Steki Bar.

Great location, great company!

Eating and drinking ...... again!

Alanna, Connor, Liam, Paris and Maddy.

John with Maria, his favourite drinks lady.

Us with Maria and Kiki, the owner of the restaurant next to the Steki Bar. They were such fun people!

I'll be back soon with pics from the infamous 'apartment crawl'!

Heather xx

Dubrovnik

We drove to Dubrovnik and had a terrible time driving around the outside of the old town. Parking was non-existent and the roads were chaos. We finally worked it all out and we walked through the ancient city walls into the old town.

Dubrovnik was 'ancient walled Croatian city #3' for us, but it was the most spectacular. Thousands old gorgeous old stone buildings were crammed in behind the huge stone walls. They had some pretty serious enemies in days gone by! Some of the streets were very steep and it turned out that our apartment was at the highest point - there were soooo many steps to climb every time we went out. The streets were beautiful and we had a wonderful time just exploring.

The kids found an amazing lolly shop full of all sorts of things like fried egg lollies. I took this photo for you mum!

We shopped for breakfast each day and loved buying at the small fruit and vege market where the products on sale were whatever was being grown locally at the time.

One of our favourite places to hang out was this bar perched partway down a cliff on the outside of the walls. It was a great place to have a drink or two while watching people leap off the edge into the crystal clear water. We swam here too, but there was no cliff-leaping bravado involved!

Dubrovnik is famous for more than just its gorgeous old city - it's also the main filming location for Game of Thrones. We don't usually do tours as such but we thought this was one we should do. I've never watched the show but I thoroughly enjoyed the tour as it gave us a really good overview of the city. Tom, the guide, had photos of locations from the film and it was great to see where certain parts were filmed and how they changed things to suit the filming. The others all love it!

If any other members of our little group could drag themselves to a computer to write a blog post then they could tell you a lot more about these GoT  locations, but despite my proddings, it's been left to me so all you get are a few pics sorry!

Apparently, Peter Dinklage (one of the GoT actors) got plastered one night during filming. Some backpackers took him back to their hostel and he passed out on this couch. They now have a sign up on the wall proudly displaying this fact!

The 'Walk of Shame' location. The kids had a ball taking it in turns to do the walk down the steps re-enacting the scene (with clothes on!). 

We later found this Jon Snow mannequin but we decided they modelled it on you Uncle Undies!

Game of Thrones isn't the only series filmed here. We watched as a show called Knightfall was being filmed. It hasn't been released yet. It was great watching them blow things up and have big fights with swords.

On our last morning we walked on top of the walls. It takes about an hour to go around. Unfortunately, Courtney was sick and couldn't join us. She had a virus before we left home and it keeps coming back. It's making things hard for her and she's missed a few key things.

The wall walk was fantastic. We looked down over the gorgeous tiled roofs and the views were stunning.

Old roof tiles.

One downside of Dubrovnik was that it was really busy. It was FULL of tourists. Try spotting the Aussies in this photo!

Five happy Aussies in Dubrovnik.

Cheers!

Heather

Let's Split!

We drove from Trogir to Split. We had three main interests in Split - 1. It's a beautiful old walled town 2. Game of Thrones was partly filmed there and 3. There is a restaurant there that Rick Stein ate in and featured on his show 'From Venice to Istanbul'.

We had a great apartment and spent ages just wandering around the old town. It was old and dilapidated in a few places and well maintained in others.

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One hot morning we walked up a nearby hill through a lovely park. We had great views over the old city. You can see the far less attractive new city behind the old one.

We climbed another bell tower. This was was really high and scary at times where we passed open sections with nothing to catch us if we slipped. The views were spectacular.

 We tried to book in at the tiny restaurant that Rick Stein had visited but they don't take bookings. We just had to roll up early and luckily we got seats. The place was very simple - they shop at the markets in the morning then make up the day's menu using whichever ingredients they were able to get fresh. As things are sold out during the day, that meal is crossed off the menu. Nothing is reused the next day - they don't even own a freezer. The food was amazing to say the least!

We hadn't found many Game of Thrones locations here but we visited the Klis Fortress on the way out of town where some parts were filmed. It was an amazing place.

This is the site of Mereen for those Game of Thrones fans amongst you. Jut add some timberwork.

We found a few swords just lying around! I'm sure someone was going to use them but we thought we'd give them a try anyway.

Got to go - the internet here is terrible!

Heather

Croatia - Trogir

We left Plitvice and drove through more lush, green countryside before crossing over a pass. Suddenly the country became dry and scrubby,  very reminiscent of the arid Greek countryside. They must get a lot less rainfall on this side of the hills.

Our first stop was Knin Fortress, an old fort that was built by the Croats but taken over in turn by the Ottomans, the Venetians, the Austrians, the French then back to the Austrians. We stepped out of the air-conditioned car and were hit with the heat. We nearly melted!

We really don't know who this lady was putting on the archery display for as there was only us there at the start, but we appreciated it anyway!

We saw these signs telling us to watch out for wild boar. There were also some warning to watch for bears and wolves!

We drove on to Trogir, a walled town on the coast, and had our first experience of trying to drive and park near a town that has no car access. The little parking available nearby was in high demand but we found something while we got ourselves to our rooms.

We were met by the owner of the hotel who promptly brought out the welcome drinks - homemade rakia, cherry liqueur, walnut liqueur plus a plum brandy. It took us a while to just check in!

Trogir was beautiful - narrow laneways, shuttered windows and gorgeous stone houses surrounded by a stone wall. Unfortunately, it was quite busy in places.

 We were only here for one night but it turned out to be really special. Firstly, the kids had gone back to the rooms and John and I thought we'd check out an interesting looking cathedral. We had to pay to enter and as soon as we went inside we saw people all dressed up - a wedding was about to start! They kept letting tourists in until the bride entered so a dozen or so of us sat quietly and watched the start of the wedding. Awesome!

After a bit we crept out and I saw a sign saying "Warning - Climb bell tower at own risk." Well that was like waving a red rag to a bull so off we went. The first part of the climb was up a spiral staircase and was quite claustrophobic but fun. We got to the top and the view was stunning. We could see over the whole city and out to the connecting islands.

Back down on the ground again we could see that all around the town areas were set up to watch the football (soccer) on TV that night. Croatia was in the final 16 which was a big deal. People wore Croatian football jumpers and the town was pumped. The kids weren't interested so John and I headed out to join the throngs in one of the squares. It was set up with tables, chairs and large TV screens and waiters and waitresses almost ran between tables trying to keep up with the orders for cocktails and beers.

The atmosphere was amazing. Most of us were tourists and we were all barracking for Croatia. Every now and then someone would get clapping going and horns would blast. Whenever Croatia had an attempt at goal people would get up and barrack them on. We watched all this under a gorgeous indigo sky that deepened to sapphire as the night wore on. It was great fun. We left at the end of the main match when it was 0-0. Croatia ended up losing which was a shame as they had most of the play, but we still had a great night.

Sorry that none of these photos have been adjusted at all. There was a hiccup transferring Photoshop from my old computer so you just have to see them warts and all!

Cheers,
Heather