Awesome holiday to Croatia (Part Two)

It's been a few days since I wrote the last update but I need to get this done so I'm going to type this up in free moments I get from now until it is completed.

Rosie is very excited for her Banana Split

Cannot wait to get stuck in

My cookies ice cream was really nice also

Only a little over spill

And done - what an effort!

I left you as we had settled into the French Square (not its real name) in the palace at Split. It was hot and we were well ready for the rest, the drinks and even more importantly the ice cream. Rosie ordered the banana split and when it arrived her eyes went wide. It was huge. My ice cream was pretty awesome as well to be fair however Rosie was the star of this show as she sat there and ate the lot without taking a break. Very impressive and she was rightly proud of herself.

House of a resistance fighter

Beautiful view across the bay above Split

So many lovely narrow shaded streets

Rosie was impressed with these bikes

An old section of the city wall

Split is full of beautiful old buildings

Raising a hat with a statue

Rosie really enjoys fountains

A pretty creative fountain we found

Rosie in Froggyland

Angela in Froggyland

Angela and Rosie in the narrow street

So much smoke from the fires

Rosie is tired but happy with her sweet

Large flames visible above Makarska

Loads of flames on the hill

Following this excellent rest we headed for a walk towards the viewpoint looking out over Split. On the way we saw Palmina's house (see this link, though you'll need to translate the page) and then continued past lots of cats which Rosie loved and finally reached the top after lots of climbing. It was very lovely indeed and the views were amazing however Rosie got a little upset on the way down as it was quite a long walk. We ended up in another beautiful square with statues and fountains and beautiful buildings and the old town walls. Amazing place, Split. It was starting to get to time for lunch and we headed over to a lovely Italian restaurant with great food, good service, and Rosie made friends with a little boy with an awesome bin lorry toy but spent most of the time sat with his parents talking to them. So funny. After lunch we headed towards the highlight of the day - Froggyland. This was incredible and despite misgivings Angela really enjoyed it too. I can recommend it very highly if you are ever in Split. It is just so funny, so cleverly done, and so inspiring. Rosie also loved it and when asked about her highlight for the day she couldn't decided between the Banana Split or Froggyland. Sadly we were not allowed to take any pictures at all. With that done we had a final little stroll around, found the really narrow street, then went for more coffee under water sprays right on the front by the port. Then it was uber back to the rabbit and then onwards towards home. A really great day and we did get some swimming in the evening as well. The fire near Makarska was looking really bad, the smoke was terrible, and while swimming I was starting to see ash on the surface of the sea. Rosie got to enjoy some of her sweets from the classic sweet shop in Makarska but then that evening as I looked across the bay I could see jumping flames on the hills not far from the town. Crazy!

Me and Rosie set off for our swim

We were having a really great time!

Quite a large fish tail

Angela and Rosie rig up the fishing line

Rosie getting her fish on

Loads of fishes (look closely)

Playing with the ball in the sea

My shoes covered in stones

Yes she is excited

Looking across towards where we were staying

The next morning Rosie joined me for my morning swim which honestly to me was the highlight of the entire holiday. She was so excited and had been asking to join me all week. We had bought her a full face snorkel mask after I broke the cheap one we'd picked up in Bulgaria. She was comfortable enough with it from her swimming the night before so we climbed down the steps, with Angela along to watch and be there in case something went wrong. Nothing did go wrong, however, and we had a lovely swim looking at the beautiful fish and sharing that experience together. After another lovely breakfast from the bakery we setup the cheap fishing rod and took it back down to the rocks and sat and fished for a while. Rosie had more fun just throwing the food in than actually holding the rod, but it was cool to see all the fish around. When Angela rejoined us I went in the water again to swim and watch from under the water. Later on that day we were once again down at the beach this time with our water polo ball and had lots and lots of fun throwing the ball around and just generally having a laugh. Angela was not in the water as she had been to the shops but was able to get some really cool pictures and a video. I also took some time to relax and while I was snoozing Rosie covered by shoes with stones which she thought was hilarious. Dinner was up at a lovely restaurant right across the other side of the village where Rosie had the best pork ribs and chips. On the walk back the sunset was beautiful, and also you could see where we're staying so I grabbed a picture and there is a red arrow on it showing the location.

The smoke has really died down now

Fishes jumping (look to the left)

Angela and Rosie having fun

Final few moments at the beach

Looking up at the village of Pisak

A very very tasty final dinner

Double ice cream

Beautiful sunset!

And so finally we were at the last full day of our holiday and it had gone waaay too quickly! I was up, did my swim, and then relaxed on the balcony watching the smoke still around from the fires in the hills and also the awesome fish jumping. I got a good video of this finally as well, including an enterprising fisherman who was chasing around trying to catch the fish. We spent the day on the beach which was a whole lot of fun. The beaches at Pisak really are lovely, if small, and the water was warm, calm and full of fish. It was just a perfect location. It's a really pretty spot as well. For dinner Rosie had asked that we go back to the restaurant from the first night which we happily did. I ordered a stuffed chicken dish which took ages to arrive (because it was cooked fresh, and the chef had only just started work) while Rosie had her burger and Angela had a really nice pizza again - those pizzas were good! Afterwards we had icecream from the little ice-cream parlour next to the restaurant, which was also lovely. The evening was stunning, the sunset was beautiful, however during the night a huge storm came through that was so loud it woke me, Rosie and Angela!

A quick look at the beach in Pisak

Final breakfast is out the way

I treated myself to some Peach Cobbler

This was a pretty little bench

Sat with Rosie on the bench

A final look at a wonderful view

A bad picture of a beautiful view

Lots of waiting in queues on our return journey

Xena is so happy we're home

Rosie gets her lolly

Despite the slight disturbance from that storm we did sleep well and were up at normal time. I was going to swim but decided against it and I'm glad I did as it would turn out to be a super long day. I walked down to the bakery for the final time and got a picture of the little beach there (this is the first beach we went to, and also the last beach) and picked up a load of supplies for breakfast and also to feed us on the way home. After breakfast I straight away started loading the car and again I'm glad I did so as the temperature rose fast so I was able to get most of it done and avoid sweating. We were ready to leave by our target time of around 9am and Rosie and I sat on a little bench for a bit before we finally went in the car. We were super careful about the satnav this time and made sure we went the route up the length of Croatia then across into Serbia and back down. On the way we went over the new bridge we had gone under on our boat trip, though the pictures were rubbish. The rest of the journey was long and awesome at times and then tedious. There was a lot of traffic at times and the Croatian/Serbian border was a little slow however everything was looking good until we reached the Bulgarian border. This was incredibly slow. There were crowds of immigrants harrassing cars in the queue to wash windscreens (doing so without even asking unless you yelled at them) and it took about two hours to crawl up to the checkpoint. We got there and were through pretty quickly once we were seen and I got to about an hour away from home before I woke Angela as I thought she'd have to take over the drive. As it happens just chatting a bit woke me up and I was able to complete the full 19.5 hour drive on my own. It was 5:30am when we pulled up and after unloading the food only I went to bed and slept for 5 hours. The girls were super happy to see us, of course, and Rosie was very happy to get to start on her huge lolly she got at the shop in Makarska.

So there it is. Thank you so much for reading it all. I hope you enjoyed. I'll be back at some point, not sure when yet though.

Finally back to Greece (twice)

Once again I'm back to blogging as today Halil came past to help in the garden however it's been a fun and busy few weeks so let's get on with it.

Hat on a basketball

A storm in the distance

Let's get weeds removed

A beautiful sunset

After work one evening Rosie and I went into town and met up with some people at the local basketball court and I played some ball, Rosie played with the other kids, and then played badminton with me. It was fun and hopefully we'll do it again. I've also been trying to get out into the garden regularly and get a load of weeding done to keep our flower beds looking nice. It has been such lovely weather recently also.

Getting to the beach nice and early

Out for food (I'm just out to shot)

Mike playing with Rosie

The tortoise crosses the road

We had a really lovely and busy weekend after this. I was up very early on Saturday and drove across to Greece to collect my friend and his wife who were on holiday and visiting us for the night. I spent a couple of hours on the beach, got to lay and read and swim a little before I headed to the ferry port and picked them up. I didn't get all that many pictures however we had a lovely time, including getting out for dinner to the restaurant and then a lovely long drive around to do some sightseeing before I had to take them back over to Greece to their ferry again. On the way home I stopped and waited while a tortoise crossed the road. I didn't ask it why it was going though.

Rosie with all the peas

A ladybird on a wildflower

Enjoying the weather on the patio

Put a new chair together

Loads of puppies

Snake skin scrap

There's been some harvesting going on the last few weeks and first off the peas were ready. Angela and Rosie went out with a pot and collected them all and then worked together to shell them all - a great result for a little work. We spent some lovely time sunbathing on the patio on the recliners and I put a new one up so we have one each; unfortunately Dutch then went and chewed the new chair which made me quite unhappy. It did warn us that we needed to keep him away from our new insulation tiles and the pool so we've delayed putting the pool up until we can fence it in; this fencing is now due tomorrow so hopefully soon we can finally put the pool up! Down at the farm there are more and more puppies all the time; they are very friendly and cute! I found a scrap of snake skin while watering which was pretty cool to see - Rosie was fascinated.

We set out the wooden track for fun

The strong winds took this tree down

Rosie chilling on Grandma's bench

Her first ever painted miniature

Here's a tortoise

We've mostly had absolutely glorious weather for the past few weeks however a huge storm did blast through which brought the most incredible winds before dumping a load of rain (very welcome indeed as this refilled our water collection, and soaked the ground really nicely) however the wind did break some branches on some of the tea trees and also took down the top off a walnut tree! Other than this, it's been lovely and warm and I'm gutted we don't have the pool up yet. We've seen a fair few tortoises around which is always exciting and Rosie does love seeing them just like I do. While watering I noticed one of the plum trees that gives an early crop was absolutely loaded with perfectly ready plums so I grabbed the harvesting bag and in about 30 minutes had 3kg of plums ready for preparation. I have since chopped all these and they are in the freezer. We have so much fruit this year it's going to be a bumper crop!

Early to the beach and how lovely it was

A flying fork

Mummy and Rosie burying me

I'm buried!

Sat in the waves having fun

She really does love the sea, and so do I

Panorama of the beach

Time for lunch

Yesterday we were up super early and out the door towards Greece; on the way we picked up our friend. The queues at the border were really long however they processed everyone super quickly and we were on the beach before 8am which is perfect. We had such a great day as the weather was perfect - hot but a breeze and lots of lovely shade as well. Rosie had a blast, she buried me and I got a fair amount of snorkeling done, though there was a strong current going across the beach so it wasn't as relaxing as it can be as I was swimming hard to stay still sometimes. Towards the end of the morning the swell built up and Rosie had a blast jumping in the waves and then just sitting down and letting them wash over us. It was so beautiful and a perfect day, topped off by a lovely lunch at a cafe next to the port. By the time we got home I was wiped out and slept for two hours straight!

There's an (empty) duck pond in there somewhere

Running water back into the pond

Cleaned out the dried up scum

Fixing the stairs

Trimming branches

Levering out a clump of saplings

Chopping down a dead tree

This area is looking so much better already

We have a lovely clean pond again

And so to today. I had a super busy early morning getting stuff done before Halil arrived and had just got outside to clean out the pond when he did get here. I swept out the bottom of the pond and collected all the material for the garden then started the tap to refill it. This took all of five minutes total. Inside Halil was working on fixing the one step on our spiral staircase where one of the welds had come loose. It did not take him long to repair this and then we were both outside back to the task of clearing the trees that are spreading everywhere by the driveway. We worked for about 2 hours straight and got another four or five trees removed. This time we did not use Thomas as the trees we are removing are so tangled with their roots it was crazy difficult to get them up. Halil also cut down and chopped up a dead tree we found. We've decided to leave the big trees for now and take all the sapling and spreading encroaching growth. He'll probably be back next Sunday for another session. I'm really enjoying working with him! During this time the pond refilled so now hopefully the ducks will enjoy it again.

So there it is. I may be back next Sunday with another update but I'm not sure. Let's see how it goes. Thanks for reading.