The Orriscope: Post SAS – Part 2 - Beyond Italy

We had been hoping to catch the train around the top of the Italian Adriatic Coast and cross over into Slovenia on our way to Croatia but it turned out that was much more difficult than we expected. Another issue was the continuing bad weather in Croatia. Since we were going there to do outdoorsy things like hiking in national parks, it seemed like it might be best to find an alternative.

So we looked for a) reasonably priced flights out of Venice, b) in the next 36 hours, c) to a destination with a good weather forecast. Even with all the low cost airlines in Europe, it was a pretty tall order but we ended up finding a flight to Athens and then on to Santorini. A few quick hours perusing AirBNB and we even had places to stay in both locations.

Athens was spectacular. It’s been a few tough years for Greece with their economic meltdown and refugee issues. However, the Greeks seem to have taken it all in stride and the streets where we stayed were full of people all day long and deep into the night. Through a fortuitous exchange with one of the restaurant owners we even ended up with a great tour guide to show us around the Parthenon and Acropolis.

We stayed only a few blocks from the site of the new Acropolis museum so we were in a primo location to walk to everything and we spend a couple of great days wandering around Athens, visiting all the major sites, including those above plus the original Olympic stadium (The Panathenaic Stadium). Having come so recently from Rome, it was incredible to see even earlier buildings still standing, and the degree of restoration that is taking place. The Greeks are in the process of literally rebuilding the Parthenon, including the roof and friezes. We heard the political side of that, since the Greeks are also trying to reclaim their heritage from the British Museum and other European powers that looted their ruins in relatively recent times. After a few days of history, walking and food in Athens, we moved on to Santorini.

Santorini was a quick flight and suddenly we found ourselves out of the urban center of Athens into the whitewashed hills of Santorini. We had a great place, just outside of Oia looking straight West at the sunset.

We enjoyed a relaxing few days on Oia, doing hikes and hitting the beach during our day trip to the ruins on Santorini. Santorini’s ruins are quite special in that they are the result of the destruction of an entire area due to a massive volcano. There is a lot of speculation that the ruins are in fact the remnants of Atlantis. It was fascinating to visit and see what is left, including hot and cold water plumbing from 3,600 years ago.

We had successfully waited out the worst of the weather on the continent and we finally were able to head towards Croatia. One remaining hurdle – no discount airlines flew between Greece and Croatia so we were forced to arrange our plans and make our way to Budapest, Hungary first.

Our initial thought was to rent a car and drive between countries but the rental agencies conspired to make that impossible so we settled on just getting to Budapest and figuring it out from there. Per usual, the “flexible” approach we take to our planning served us well. Budapest was the unexpected highlight of the trip. The city itself is full of life, with bustling restaurants, interesting history, great architecture and a beautiful river separating Buda from Pest. We only had a few days there before we had to make our way to Croatia but it was enough to encourage us to vow to return to Hungary someday to explore it more completely.

Even after agreeing to exorbitant one-way rental fees (which were still cheaper than all of us flying), we couldn’t convince a car rental company to let us take a car into Croatia and ended up taking a pleasant train ride to Zagreb, the capital of Croatia. And so, rather than zipping past the outskirts of Zagreb in our rental car, we altered our plans to spend a few days there, checking it out. While not as vibrant or interesting as Budapest (sorry to any Croatians reading this), we did have a pleasant stay in Zagreb, walking its friendly streets and taking in its history. One of our most fascinating stops was the Zagreb museum, a tiny museum where they house one exhibit at a time. The exhibit on display asked the question of whether 1945 was a good year or bad year for Croatia, as it was “freed” from the yoke of Nazi oppression, only to fall under the influence of the Soviet Union as part of the new Yugoslavia. From our North American perspective it seemed like an odd question to ask – how could it be bad to be freed from the Nazi’s? However the end of the Nazi regime, instead of ushering in a period of autonomous government for the Croats, resulted in Tito’s rule over Yugoslavia for the next 35 years leading into the bloody Balkans War.

We finally rented our car in Zagreb and started our tour around Croatia. First stop was the very beautiful Plitvik National Park, complete with more waterfalls than we had ever seen in one place before.

The weather that had send us scrambling to Greece proved to be a benefit now. Rain was still coming down, and the park was inundated with water, closing off some of the trails but also providing more than enough water for the many and varied falls to be in spectacular form. We spent a few days wandering around and reconnecting with nature after spending much of the last several months in large cities.

With an eye on the clock and our return to the US in another week or so, we headed south from there, briefly crossing Bosnia & Herzegovina to reach Dubrovnik, the “Pearl of the Adriatic” along the Dalmatian Coast. The walled city of Dubrovnik has a long and ancient history and was, at one point, the wealthiest city in the world, accordingly to its residents. We learned tons of interesting things about the ancient history of the city and even went on the “Game of Thrones” tour, since many of the scenes from the TV show are filmed in Dubrovnik.

One of the most interesting sites was the museum, in a fortress perched way atop a hill outside of the city. There we learned of the hardships that befell Dubrovnik during the Balkans War in the 90’s. There were detailed exhibits showing the conflict as it progressed and highlighting the role that the siege of Dubrovnik had in turning world opinion against the Serbs as they commenced shelling the UNESCO World Heritage site. It was certainly a turning point in the history of the conflict and pulled the world along to intervene in the conflict. Today, Dubrovnik is a very vibrant, crowded and fun city to visit. With a few more days here (and in Croatia in general) we would certainly have explored the islands and other interesting sites in the area.

Our final, brief stop in Croatia was in Split. We basically made our way there to hop a plane to really begin our journey home but managed to spend a day and a half in this charming seaside city. With a total population of a little over 4 million, no city in Croatia is all that large and Split was a perfect size to explore. Diocletian’s Palace and the beautiful waterfront area are the highlights of Split and we hope to return sometime to finish our exploration of the city and the many, many islands just off its coast.

Boarding the flight in Split was the first time that it felt like we were heading home, probably because all of our travel from this point on would be West and closer to Colorado. Our next stop on the journey home was none other than Amsterdam. For all the travel that Christy has done, she had never spent any time in The Netherlands. We found an apartment on one of the narrow streets of Amsterdam and proceeded to spend our next few days wandering the city, mostly on foot. We made the required visit to the Anne Frank House and spent some time just wandering the streets and canal around the vibrant city center.

And of course, there was our bicycle tour, which included a trip through the Red Light District. Since there is so much pedestrian traffic through the area, it was the one part of the tour that we had to walk our bikes for. Or maybe it was for safety’s sake, in case you couldn’t keep your eyes on the road while riding your bike through that district.

The boys did see some new things and we had a conversation about what the women in the windows were doing and the fact that many were Eastern European rather than Dutch. It certainly is one way to start a conversation about human trafficking. A final Dutch highlight was problem-solving our way out of one of the Escape Room games that have become so popular around Europe.

It turns out that the cheapest way to cross the Atlantic these days is to take Icelandair. One of their destinations is Denver and they throw in a “free” layover in Reykjavik on the way. We say “free” because stopping in Iceland is anything but free! But nonetheless, it is a super convenient way to check out a new place and it breaks up the trip back across the ocean. Iceland felt a bit like someone had taken Yellowstone, pulled it out of the middle of North America and plopped it down in the North Atlantic. Everywhere we went, there were bubbling mud pits, geysers or sulphuric hot springs.

We only had a few days there so we didn’t get to do the large ring around the entire island and instead settled for the small ring, staying closer in to Reyjavik but still being amazed at the sites we saw. We made the requisite visit to the Blue Lagoon (not the mediocre movie from the 80’s), the geothermal hot springs and restaurant where you slather yourself with volcanic mud and heal all your ills.

Other highlights were one of the most spectacular waterfalls we have even seen and desolate lakes, completely deserted except for us. We also visited the volcano museum and saw pictures of the incredible eruption that put a complete stop to European air travel for 6 days in 2010 and impacted weather worldwide. While our Iceland layover was a relatively brief 3 days, next time we will spend more time there, complete the larger loop and get out to see some whales.

Finally, after 4 months and 9 days on the road, we returned home to Boulder on May 14^th. We arrived tired but satisfied that we had spend the last four months learning worthwhile things and getting a greater understanding of our world around us, and more importantly, its inhabitants. We had circumnavigated the Earth by ship, bus, train, plane and car (thankfully, no camels) and had been to 20 countries on four continents. We had been in countries with well-established governments, countries emerging from years of authoritarian rule and countries falling into chaos. We had been among the poorest of the poor, and in places where the wealthiest go to play, and everywhere along the way we found friendly people trying to live their lives, make the best of their circumstances and provide the very best they could for their families. Regardless of the circumstances we found in the places we visited, the common denominator was happy people. To be sure, in every country we travelled (including our own) there were people in difficult circumstances and people in misery, but the most common threads between all of these places were people striving and happy to be living their lives.