Sailing on the Valerina

Our week on the yacht started off with a few small bumps - 50 knot winds, all the girls had food poisoning, and torrential rain. But after 2 days of pretty crappy weather, the sun came out and we had a few amazing days of sailing and sunshine.


Our boat - Valerina


We stayed in the Split marina for our first night on the boat, waiting for the winds and rain to ease. The next morning we sailed to St Klements, a small island near Hvar, with the girls staying downstairs trying not to be sick, while the guys sat on deck drinking beer!


St Klements Island


Next stop was Hvar Town on Hvar Island. Philippa had forgotten that it was her birthday... yes, really... but it meant that we got to have a great unplanned dinner on the island to celebrate!




After Hvar, we had a long day of sailing with a very hung over skipper (a local Croatian guy, Mario) to get to Korcula. There was lots of sun, and we got to appreciate having our own yacht by lazing on the deck reading books, and stopping for swims in small bays. Korcula has a great old town, and REALLY beautiful ladies working in the local markets.




Our final island stop was Mljet, where we stayed for 2 nights. We hired scooters and explored the whole island...



We found a little place called Sobra that had the clearest water we've seen and an amazing seafood restaurant by the water.

We found hot hot sun!

Poland was getting cold, and we were worried that we'd arrive in Croatia and it would be a bit chilly for our week on the boat...

But we've now been in Split for 3 days, and it is HOT!!! Yay!



We get on the yacht with Philippa, Dave, Jamie and Keira (friends from Sydney) on Saturday. Keep all your fingers and toes crossed for good weather for us! (The boat above isn't our boat...)

Krakow wins

We fly out of Krakow tomorrow for our much awaited cruise on the Adriatic!! We can't wait for 7 days of laziness and sunshine (fingers crossed). As much fun as we're having travelling around the world, the thought of being really lazy for a few days is very very very exciting!



Krakow wins. It has been our favourite city in Poland. The city itself wasn't damaged in WWII, so it still has amazing buildings and artworks. It is definitely the most touristy city in Poland though - we've heard loads of Aussie accents here!

We visited Auschwitz and Auschwitz-Birkenau last week. They're about 90 mins from Krakow. While the Nazis tried to destroy most of the evidence of torture when they retreated, a lot of it still remains. It gave us shivers. (There are a few photos on Flickr if you want to see them)

On Philippa's recommendation we also went to visit the Salt Mines. The idea of a salt mine sounds really boring... but this one is over 1000 years old, 330 metres deep, and more than 300 kms long, and over the years miners have carved into the salt to create decorations and statues, including a huge chapel. Even the chandeliers are made of salt crystals! OK... maybe it still sounds boring... but you have to see it to understand how amazing it is!


The Last Supper carved in salt rock!!

Big meals and big beers

We discovered a restaurant in Warsaw called Podwale.

It's the "Ribs and Rumps" of Poland. Big meals, big beers, and lots and lots of meat!

Before...


During...


After...

Miss World takes over Warsaw

The Miss World pageant is being held in Warsaw on September 30, but the contestants arrived a couple of days ago, and the entire city has Miss World fever!



We saw the South American contestants on their guided tour of Warsaw's Old Town. Surrounded by cameramen, paparazzi, and young boys taking photos with their mobile phones (not that we were any better... we elbowed our way into the crowd to check out the girls too!). They were stumbling over cobbled walkways in their stilettos, and flashing cheesy Miss World smiles to anyone who called out their names.. "Brazil, over here!", "I love you Columbia!".

Warsaw is much more beautiful than we expected. Something like 90% of the city was destroyed in WWII, but they have rebuilt the entire old town exactly as it was before the war, as well as many other important buildings.



We also explored the area that used to be the Warsaw ghetto. Part of the old ghetto wall is still standing today. The history of Warsaw is really upsetting, but the people here seem genuinely pleased that tourists are coming to their city to learn about it.

We've been to Hel and back

No, we haven't spelt it wrong... it's a town in far northern Poland!



It's actually a pretty unexciting place. With a beach, an old church (a sign inside reads - "spreading the word of God in Hel"!!!), a seal aquarium, and a pier... but it does have some pretty hellish elements - like this barbed wire covered waterslide!!



We leave Gdansk today for Warsaw. Gdansk was the starting place for WWII, and most of it was destroyed in the war, but a lot has been rebuilt exactly as it was originally.



Gdansk is also famous for Goldwasser - a liquer with flakes of 22 karat gold floating in it. The story goes that Neptune (the photo below) decided to reward the people in the town who were always throwing gold coins into his fountain, by turning the fountain water into alcohol, and the coins ended up in flakes... thus "Goldwasser" (Gold Water). We're hoping to bring some home, as long as we don't drink it on the way!