Fun in the Sun

This past weekend we made the long hull down to the Cornwall area in England.  This was my last trip...which was an odd feeling.  Things are becoming so bittersweet, and I have a weird excited-nervous feeling about moving home.  Hard to explain..

Our first stop was the city of St. Ives.  The entire drive down was gorgeous and it definitely did not feel like we were in England.  The countryside was beautiful, and it was amazing seeing a coast with clear blue water.  We didn't have a lot on our agenda, and the weather was warm.  Not warm enough to wear swimming suits though.  Most people on the beach were wearing wetsuits as they were surfing or just playing around on boogie boards.

Tide was low, so it was funny to see all the boats sitting in the sand.

We stopped by the local grocery store to pick up some sandwiches to eat on the beach.  Sounds like a good plan, doesn't it? The minute we got settled, the seagulls starting attacking us! I don't mean this in a "Oh, they are just flying around"--kind of way.  They were swooping down, and actually stole Jeff's sandwiches.  They took the entire box out of his hand, and starting pecking the plastic to get the sandwiches out.  The birds finally flew away with it. We never saw it again. Luckily, Jeff bought two sandwiches.   We decided not to risk the seagulls eating more of our food, so we moved up on a bench away from the beach.  We still ate with caution...  Jeff and I were watching them get into other people's bags as they stepped away from their spot on the beach.  I think a couple of the seagulls got a candy bar or something from someone else.  Another family had their lunch stolen, too. I think it is pretty common and known that you have to eat with caution or not near the beach at all.

Hope they like chicken wraps...

 

Locals used these special wind blockers. We wished we had them a few times!

Jeff and I moved back down to the beach, and laid down to get some sun.  We stayed on the beach, enjoying the beautiful weather (although a bit windy) and relaxing.  We ended our time in St. Ives with a walk around the city.  The streets were very narrow, and the city was filled with cute little shops.  We tried the famous Cornish pasties and some other desserts.  Jeff got a warm pasty filled with chorizo, bacon, and chicken.  I got one filled with chicken, potatoes, and leeks.  We had to be careful once again eating around the seagulls. I was a chicken and waited until we got into the car to eat mine.

One of the pastry shops we popped in

Next up on our Cornwall tour, was two spots on the southern most point of England.  Our first stop was Kynance Cove, which is one of the prettiest places in the world.  No really, I read that somewhere.  This place reminded us of the Cliffs of Moher, but the weather was warm and the water was this bright blue.  We didn't spend a lot of time in the area, as it was evening time at this point.  We still had a 3hr+ drive to get to our hotel in Bristol for the night.  We could have walked the trails in this area for a long time, as the coast was just gorgeous.

Love it!

The scary look down!

My favorite view!

There were a few people that were swimming down in this area.  Some getting plowed over with the big waves. 

The last spot on our road trip for the day was Lizard Point, the southern most point in England.  Once again, not much to do in this area...but it was cool to experience it and say that we had been to the southern most post in the UK.  

On to the next adventure...

#1 Birthday Weekend....Ever!

How spoiled am I that we spent my 28th birthday weekend looking at this...

 View from the terrace at our hotel

Dubrovnik, Croatia was one of my Top 3 places to visit while we are living over here. Jeff decided the perfect time to go was around my birthday.  We got up around 2:45 AM, and were at the Manchester Airport to fly out by 5:30.  We got into Dubrovnik, found our beautiful hotel, went into the city, grabbed lunch, and....it starting storming.  We rushed back to our hotel to wait out the storm.  Ended up working out well that we could take a quick nap since we got up so early.  Later that evening we went back out to explore the Old Town (a walled city).  We then fulfilled every child's dream...ice cream for dinner!  Jeff and I walked around the old city eating our ice cream.  We found some places we wanted to explore more in the morning. We walked north of the Old Town to just explore more of the city. We made it to a marina filled with boats, which was pretty cool.  

 View from our hotel window

View from the hotel window...beautiful clear water!

Sidenote: Cats.  I thought Italy was known for the amount of cats on the city streets, but I think I found a place to beat that record.  There was a crazy amount of cats walking around the city.  No matter where we were, like a side of a cliff...there was always a cat around.  A couple adorable kittens (one of which was all black, like Mackey) wandered the streets as well.  All the cats looked like they were in good condition, whether they belonged to someone or not. I just kept walking around the city think of Bob Barker. Yes, you heard me, Bob Barker. I kept picturing him saying "Have your pets spayed and neutered." Dubrovnik needs this...

Back on track. We woke up and went into the Old Town where we walked the city walls.  As you can tell in the pictures, the Old Town was enclosed by walls.  You can walk on top of the walls and boy is it beautiful! It took us about 2 hours to get around it, and that was stopping for a beer about half way through.  It was really fun walking around, and probably one of our favorite things we did while we were there. 

 Could get a little chilly and windy at times. "All you need is a light jacket."--Name that movie!

Great view of the wall we walked around in the Old Town

 At another fortress that has a great view of the city and the Old Town Wall

 The Croatian flag

If we were there longer, it would have definitely been great to go out on a boat!

We headed back to the hotel to go to the hotel's private beach (About mid-60's). We grabbed lunch seaside at the hotel restaurant, and then we laid around reading until the sun was hidden by the large cliffs.  This was perfect timing to head up to Mount Srdj, the 412 meter (350 feet) high mountain. We braved the cable cars, as the walk up the mountain would have took for-ever! Not a huge fan of cable cars, but this one was definitely better than the one we rode in Barcelona. Not nearly as scary.  We made it to the top, went to to Fort Imperial.  This fort was a crucial part during the 1991 war, and much of it is still in shambles.  It was crazy to look from the west side of the fort, as it was beautiful, beach-filled Dubrovnik.  The east side was Bosnia, which was mountainous and bare.  The fort was turned into a museum, but a lot of the material presented wasn't in English. Needless to say, I  lost focus.

 The Bosnia side of the mountain

 The Croatia side of the mountain

We ate at the top, Restaurant Panorama, where I had the best Bailey's coffee ever. Jeff was checking off a few new beers off the count. For those of you who know our goal, I will look at our count later, and get back to you.  We had a great time watching the sunset over the city.  We grabbed an "linner" (lunch+dinner), as the sun was setting around 4:30!  We took the cable car back down, enjoyed another chilly night in the city, and headed back to the hotel.  

Our beautiful view for dinner & drinks

The next morning, we went down to the beach for a few hours.  The feeling of relaxing on a beach, reading a book felt amazing.  Are my snow-filled Indiana friends/family closing their computers at this point? Sorry!  Jeff and I both finished our books, and put our feet in the cold Adriatic Sea.  Well, Jeff braved it and got all the way in. I was a chicken. 

After our beach-filled morning, we went back into the city to check out a bar on a cliff and walk around the city one last time.  We had a few beers at Buza Bar (Buza=hole, not Booze). We grabbed a seat right in front, and enjoyed the view.  It was great to see sailboats, kayaks, ships, etc. go by in front of us.  Besides the cultural side of walking around the walls, I really enjoyed this afternoon.  It was so relaxing! 

 Best view in the house!

So stinkin' pretty, right?

We ended our time in Dubrovnik by walking to a restaurant outside of the city walls and getting a "jumbo" pizza.  I'm not sure if I was just so hungry or what...but it was one of the best pizzas I have ever had (pepperoni, hot peppers, Tabasco, arugula, sauce, and a couple kinds of cheese). We ate the entire thing, and headed back towards the hotel.  

 Beautiful view on our way to the pizza place

 And yes, we ate the last piece! Yum!

Once the sunset, we went on a long walk to the Cave Bar (One of the Top 5 Hotel Bars in the World). It was really impressive, as stalactites were still hanging from the ceiling.  You could also see through the cave floor in one spot of the bar where the water flowed. Really cool!  It was definitely a long walk to this hotel bar, but definitely worth it. 

 This "hallway" leads into the room in which you could see the floor. 

(People were in there, so I couldn't snap a photo)

 The entrance from the outdoor seating

I leave you with an odd picture.  We were walking late in the city on our first day, and found this picture... Many of my loyal readers know my new-found fascination with the world of eggs over here. Bet you have never seen eggs in a pop-like machine! 

Overall, I was very grateful to spend my birthday weekend celebrating with Jeff in this beautiful destination. Thank you to all of you who sent cards, messages, emails, etc. for my birthday.  You definitely made me feel right at home! Love you all! 

Want to come along, too? Check out this interactive website I found!

Onto the next adventure...