Croatia ...and we're broke

I gotta clear my conscience for a moment to justify why our blog is covered with what appears to be a year of competition for "Amazing Race". The thing is, when we moved to Europe, we told ourselves, this will likely not happen again, so assuming I land job (phew, thanks ABN), we're spending our money on travel.... and that we have done.

That said, onto Croatia! (Our final big trip for the year) Croatia was an adventure on many levels, mainly because we found 2 souls brave enough to join us. Yes, travel friends. And we're still friends! Turns out it was a perfect match as Sue and I were able to gossip beachside while the boys risked their lives jumping off absurdly high rocks into the Adriatic. We all gave huge props to Geno as he planned our entire 8 day itinerary, really. The 3 us just followed and handed over money...we loved it.

We covered the Dalmatia Coast (passing 10 minutes in Bosnia), including the city of Dubrovnik, which was bombed in 1991 by the Serbians. Miraculously, they've preserved the city miraculously well, which is surrounded by a light tan brick wall, buildings with red tiled rooftops, and that little thing called the Adriatic, which we called heaven.

For 8 days we worked to turn our pale skin brown (success). Rather than a typical sandy beach, Croatia is unique because you have huge slabs of black rocks everywhere. Pretty cool as you don't end up with sand in your ears. We spent most of the week island jumping, including renting a boat for Geno to captain and scooters for zipping around more efficiently. Our days also centered around the viewing of EuroCup where we were devastated by the Holland and Croatia losses but rejoiced big time with Spain coming out the winner.

View the visuals by clicking here.

AND, we've also got another one of Geno's fun videos below!

I like Red Meat & Captain Gene

1) Brussels - 3 hour train ride to hear a honky-tonk band? This ain't any band, this is Red Meat, comprised of two of Geno's old work friends from SF (Jill & Owen Bly) along with lead singer, "Smelly", are all in a band that was touring Belgium. Super fun overnight trip for us - fabulous music (Hank Williams, Graham Parsons, and tons of originals) the whole crowd sang along to ... no matter the language. Yeehaa!

2) Boat - Geno got the deal of a century on a little boat for touring canals. We spent the first part of the summer touring around, only get hit with minor splashes of dirty water. Sadly, we now know why it was a bargian ... the engine is a bit sad these days. Nonetheless, good times are had on S.S. Goodtimes.

Shalom!

A blog update on Israel doesn't do our rapid 6-day tour justice ... which is why writing has been a struggle. Here's the deal, it's a beautiful country, with enough history, religion, culture and politics to make your brain beg you for a break. For those of you thinking we were crazy for taking a holiday in the Middle East, yes, it wasn't the most relaxing trip, but aside from a 90-minute drive through the West Bank where Geno wouldn't let me stop for a bathroom break, and the gunshots during the Palestinians walk toward the Jewish Quarter to commemorate "the day of tragedy" (i.e., the end of the six day war) - we felt safe. Or perhaps that was a result of
Bush staying in the hotel across the street from us in Jerusalem with the entire Israeli army and US secret service protecting him. We had to crawl on our stomachs to our room, but when else can you say you slept next door to the President?

Rather than fill a whole page with info, we've done detailed captions on the photos, mainly for our benefit so that 10 years from now we remember what we saw. Here's a quick recap of the regions we hit to give you a flavor of our adventure:

1) Tel Aviv - Israeli capitol and thanks to my co-worker hooking us up, we stayed along the local strip, eating delicious fresh fruits and fresh hummus while enjoying the Mediterranean beaches and touring the old city of Jaffe.

2) Sea of Galilee - Along the way, we stopped in Nazareth, Mount of Beatitudes, Capernaum, Jordan River and actually got to walk in Sea of Galilee, near the site where Jesus fed the thousands and walked on water.

3) Jerusalem - Brilliant decision by Geno to hire a local tour guide ... without him, we would've walked in circles. We started at Mount of Olives, continued down to Garden of Gethsemane, tunnel tour through City of David, Western / Wailing Wall, walked Via Dolorosa in the old city leading to Jesus' empty tomb. We also saw the Yad Vashem holocaust museum. An unforgettable day to say the least.

4) Masada / Dead Sea - Headed south where we hopped on a camel, then hiked up Masada and toured the city on a hill, followed by a dip in the waterfall at Ein Gedi. Finally, made the trip complete with a float in the Dead Sea.

Click here for pics!

VIDEO! Geno got a new toy ...a Flip camera ...it hold small videos, bit shaky, but you'll get the idea, click here.