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Croatia just keeps getting better and better! Christine and I are in Bol, a small resort town on the island of Brac and it's such a charming little place, perfect for a vacation if any of you are wondering where to go next on holiday! The weather is hot, sunny, and dry every day, the water is a gorgeous colour of clear blue, and they've got the Zlatni Rat, 
a unique beach that constantly changes shape according to the whim of the wind and waves! Christine and I have just been relaxing on the beach, working on our tans, watching the windsurfers and kiteboarders do their thing and trying to wakeboard on the ocean. It's quite different from home, what with the ocean swells and all, it a little harder to keep
control, but it's super calm out today so I might just have to give it another try! I don't think I'll ever get used to the salt water though, I'd rather choke on freshwater than saltwater when I take a spill on the wakeboard! Anyway, it's such a relaxed atmosphere here I would recommend this place to anyone who can handle 35 degree plus temperatures! We're definately sweating out here! We're here until tuesday, which is when we head back up to Munich for a MuteMath concert and then on to Slovenia, our last stop of the trip.
Well, here I am with only two weeks left of my four and half month trip through Europe and yet it feels like coming home is still forever away! There's still so much to do! But I'm getting ahead of myself...After my relaxing stay in Hagedorn with Heike I said goodbye and headed to some more relatives in central Germany that I had not yet had time to see. I stayed with my mom's cousin Otto and his wife Svetlana and also had a chance to spend some time with their daughters (my second cousins) and their cute kids! They also took me out to see my Opa's sisters which was very cool because their family story is a really interesting and heartbreaking one and it was 
really nice to be able to talk with my great aunt Hilda and great aunt Agnes. During WWII my Opa and his family were seperated and he and two of his siblings eventually made it to Canada but his mother and younger sisters ended up in Siberia and only about 15 years ago were they able to finally come back to Germany. It was really intersting to chat with them both (Hilda moreso because Agnes is a little a quieter but she looks just like my Opa!). Otto and Svetlana took me sightseeing on my last day with them. We went to Bad Kissingen, a resort town centred around some water springs in the area and has basically turned into a retirement centre and tourist spot. They had some really cool therapeutic activities in the park we went through, my favourite was the 'Klang Garten', a section of the park that had Solitudes type music playing from speakers set up on the trees and is meant for relaxation. I nice place to take an afternoon mederschlop. I had a nice time with the family, but after three nights it was time to meet up with some different family, my sister! On June 16th her Bible School program in Austria finished so we planned to meet in Munich that day and prepare for part three of our trip through Europe. We met in our favourite waiting room at the 
Munich train station (we've been through that train station more than any other so it's become our favourite waiting room!) and proceeded to the nearest Starbucks to get a long overdue Mocha Frappacino! We then headed to our hostel, dumped our stuff and headed out to actually see Munich. Munich has been a central place that we've always travelled through but we've never had time to see the city itself so we thought it would be a good time to change that. We walked down to Karlsplatz and Marienplatz but didn't spend too much time out there that evening because we will be back there at the end of June and we also had to get up at 4am the next morning to catch our flight to Dubrovnik so we figured we'd have an early night. So much for that idea, I guess I was nervous about oversleeping because I didn't get any sleep that night at all and just stayed awake until 4am and then woke Christine up and headed to the airport. What a different feeling it is to see a city so early in the morning. We watched the sunrise on our 40 min S-Bahn ride to the airport and for the few moments that we were awake it was beautiful, as they usually are! 
The beauty didn't stop there though! We made our 7am flight to Dubrovnik, Croatia and were treated to an incredible aerial view of the city from our plane. It circled right overtop the old town and the amazing blue colored Adriatic sea surrounding it, what a sight! When we arrived I definately noticed the change in scenery, vegetation, culture and temperature!! We were in a different world! I think of all the places I've been to on this trip, Croatia is the only one that has made such a unique impression on me. Of all the places we visited, it's the one I knew the least about so it's been a different experience to travel into this country with a fresh perspective unclouded by any previous experiences or traveller's stories. The landscape also has that 'wow' factor and when we arrived at our guesthouse and I looked out our window at the view I really couldn't believe I was actually there.
About 15 years ago this place would not have been a place for tourists, what with the Balkan War going on, so I feel really lucky that I am now able to see this gorgeous country. 
We stayed at a guesthouse overlooking the Gruz harbour and caught an amazing sunset from there our first night. So far so good! We spent our two and half days in Dubrovnik exploring the old town, taking a scenic boat ride around Dubrovnik (and a neighboring island with it's nude beach), swimming from the bathing rocks just outside the old town walls, seeing the town from above on a walk atop the town walls and just taking in the atmosphere of Dubrovnik. We also spent an afternoon at another beach in Lapad, suburb of Croatia, but I much preferred the bathing rocks at the old town. So cool to go swimming with this huge old fortress looming in the background! Anway, our time in Dubrovnik was really nice, and I'm glad it worked out that we were able to spend some time there! 
We took a five hour bus ride north along the coast of Croatia and drove through the small portion of coastline that belongs to Bosnia and Herzegovina as well. We are now in Split where we will be staying for the night and tomorrow we head out to the island of Brac. I am really looking forward our time in the resort town of Bol where we will be for the next 5 nights and can't wait to work on my tan and have a few more adventures during this final stretch of our trip! 
Ahhhhhhhh....Life is Good. I've had a lot of fun exlporing Europe the last 4 months but sometimes it's nice to just stay in one place for awhile, especially with a great friend like Heike. 
I feel so at home here it doesn't really feel like I'm in a foreign country. I've had a really great week and a half staying with Heike in her big farmhouse in Hagedorn and am so grateful for the time off from thinking about all the details involved with constantly moving from place to place. the first weekend I was here Heike was away at a paddling course all weekend so I actually had her place all to myself. Before she left she let me take her new used car to Steinheim for a few groceries and thankfully this time it did not break down on me! That weekend I went for a hike in the Teutoburger Wald with some of the other people living here that I met last time around and found a very peculiar looking stone in the path that had a bit of gold colouring in it. Nobody really knew what it was, coal slag, gold or maybe even a meteorite. It would be so great if it was some kind of precious stone that was worth something, I could pay off my debt for this trip with it! We found out later what it was but you'll have to read further to find out what! Since then I've done a few long bike rides around the Hagedorn area. 
On Monday night I took the bike out on my own and ended up getting a little lost and took the wrong road back to Hagedorn and ended up biking up the steep hill to a town called Schwalenberg. It really wasn't such a bad thing because I had been wanting to go up there and see the old preserved painted German homes from the Middle Ages they have there anyway, I just didn't realize I would end up there so soon! I had been there in 1998 when I visited Heike last and just wanted to see them again. They're really quite nice, the old buildings have scenes, people, and places painted all over them in an artful way. really pretty. I also caught a great sunset view from the top of the hill in Schwalenberg. Heike and I also took the bikes out on Thursday and went strawberry picking and then proceeded to bike another 20 km's to the Schieder See and back. Needless to say the strawberries weren't in the greatest shape after getting bumped around on my handlebars but they still tasted soooo good! Anyway, for the last 14 years or so Heike has been running her own 'Indianishes Essen' (South American food) 
stand at music festivals and other events and she was booked to be at a small Yoga\Precious Stone event on the weekend so I went along to help her with her food stand. It was a really cool experience. It's a lot of work to prepare for these events and the payback isn't always great but what a way to make a living! I think I got a very good impression of her life as a food stand entrepreneur because the event was so small and therefore wasn't as hugely stressful as some of the other huge music festivals Heike has told me she's been to. We pretty well just set up shop in a little wooden shack on the edge of the property where the event was taking place and just had a blast serving up some really 'lecker' (yummy!) food. Her friend Klaus came along to help as well and the three of just enjoyed our time there together. We were serving juice called Lila Chicha which is made out of type of black corn that grows in Peru and it was really funny to see all these kids running around later in the day with Lila Chicha juice mustaches! The best part for me was this clear cool river that was flowing just beside the festival property. It has been so hot here the last couple of days so it was even more hot in the stand what with all the cookers and a deep frying oven on, so it was nice to go wading around in there a few times a day just to cool off. 
I also brought the weird stone I found to the festival as there was a mineralogist there who could examine it. From the photo you can't really see the gold coloured streak in the stone very well but the expert guy scraped a bit off the stone, put it under his microscope and deduced that it was merely pyrite, aka fool's gold. No golden nugget to pay this trip off for me! Oh well, I guess I have to work for my money like everyone else! At the end of the day yesterday we packed up the stand and drove back to Hagedorn in the rain that had been threatening to fall all weekend! So great. So now I'm here in Hagedorn until Wednesday which is when I'm heading to Örlenbach to visit a few realtives that I have not yet visited and then I'll be meeting Christine in München on Saturday which is when we take off for Croatia! Can't Wait! 
After leaving the beautiful country of Norway it was time to head for some familiar territory in the Czech Republic, namely Prague. Christine and I visited Prague at the beginning of April and now a month and a half later, the experience there was as unique as the first. The reason I went back to Prague was to meet a friend of mine from back home in Winnipeg, Angela. She was in Europe to attend a conference in Berlin with her PhD research and we decided before I left that we would do a bit of travelling together before she went back home. 
We chose Prague because I knew that the two days Christine and I would spend there would probably not be enough, and I also didn't want to be the reason Angela didn't get to see that gorgeous city, so we decided to meet there. I arrived a few days before Angela got there so I had a lot of time to reaquaint myself with the city and just enjoy the atmosphere of the place. What a feeling it was to just walk the medieval streets of Prague every day on my way to relax in the park and see all these amazing sights along the way, what a great place it would be live! I spent a lot of time exploring the corners of Prague I hadn't discovered with Christine and also just relaxing in the 
'Kampo' along the Vlatava river, reading or just writing about my trip in my journal. It was a lot of fun to just pretend I was local for a few days. Someone actually started talking to me in Czech at the grocery store one day which was kind of cool, maybe I actually did look like a local?! Anyway the weather was unbelievably warm the entire time I was there which was a quite a change from the first time I had been through there. Apparently it was quite unusual for Prague to be so warm this time of year, but I guess the warm temps they had all through winter are just carrying on into the summertime as well. What a difference from the cool spring temperatures of Norway though! Having been gone about 3 1\2 months now I also decided that it 
was time for a little TLC and treated my tired feet to a pedicure. I figured since I'd be wearing my sandals everyday now with the summer like weather it was the perfect time for one. I just randomly found a place in my travels one day, walked in there and got the best pedicure I've ever had! I actually learned a lot about the Czech people from the girl giving me the pedicure. She had lived in London for 3 years so she spoke english really well and was able to answer all my curiousities about her country. It was a good time for me and my feet!So after three days of experiencing Prague on my own, I was able to experience it again from someone else's perspective when Angela arrived on Friday night. I picked her up from the train station, brought her to the hostel, and herded her straight back out into the city to do something Christine and I had missed when we had first been there: a ghost tour of Prague. 
They do all kinds of walking tours through the city, but the one I wanted to do most was this haunted tour that takes you to all the places in Prague where unusual or frightening things have occurred. It wasn't actually that scary, but the stories our tour guide Jan told us were quite interesting and really added to the mystery that is Prague. The most famous one is about this creature called 'Golum' (no not the one from Lord of the Rings!). He was made of earth by a Jewish Rabbi living in the Jewish quarter of town who also brought him to life and used him to protect the Jewish people in Prague. Everyday the Rabbi brought him to life and gave him specific duties to perform and at the end of the day also removed the lifeforce from him to give him rest. One day, the rabbi forgot to remove the lifeforce from him at the end of the day and because at this time Golum had no specific duties, he did not have an outlet for the energy within him and so just went crazy and went on a rampage and began to destroy everthing in his path. I'm not sure what supposedly happened to this creature, but he's a legend in Prague! The tour also gave us a chance to see Prague at night, a time of day that I hadn't spent too much time out in the city yet, but now after having seen it at night, think it looks even more beautiful. The next couple of days I brought Angela to all the major sights in 
the city and had a chance to see what she thought of the place. Of course she loved it, it's hard not to like a place with so much history and preserved medieval character. Her first thoughts as we walked the streets of Prague were that they looked like they were straight out of a movie. It's no wonder she thought that, they do film a lot of them there because the streetscapes are just so ideal. We climbed the 287 spiral steps at the St. Vitus' Cathedral tower for an amazing view over the city, we walked Charles Bridge at night to watch a beautiful lightening storm in the distance behind Prague Castle, we had dinner in a cafe in the Old Town Square and even went to hear the orchestral opera 'Carmina Burana' at the Art Nouveau Municipal House on Sunday evening. I think our experience there was as ideal as the place itself. I'm so happy I got another chance to be in Prague because at this point I don't think I could ever get bored of it.
After some good times in Prague, we flew to Milan, Italy for a little shopping. I actually didn't do too much shopping given the limited space in my backpack, but Angela had a heyday there! I think it helped for her that she was actually being paid to be in Europe, given that she was presenting research at a conference, so she had a great time spending that money while I was pretty much just there to offer an opinion! We also used Milan as a jumping off point to visit her cousin Charlene that is working at a private American school in 
Lugano, Switzerland with her husband Keith. We arrived there early in the morning and Charlene and Keith showed us around their school and also the area of Lugano. What a gorgeous place, how lucky they both are to be able to live and work there! The view of the Lugano lake surrounded by mountains from their apartment window was superb! The school they work for is also a pretty high end place given that a lot of wealthy people from around the world send their kids there to be educated. We were there on prom night and I think a lot of the dresses we saw walking around there that evening cost more than any salary 
I've ever made or ever will!! Keith and Charlene also took us to the top of one of the mountains surrounding Lugano for some coffee and a panoramic view at a cafe up there and also took us out for some authentic italian food for dinner that night. It was so great! What was also really cool was that I in effect was also visitng a cousin because Keith and I played the Mennonite `Who Are You Related to Game' and discovered that we are third cousins! Pretty cool. Anyway, I had a fantastic time in Switzerland. After our whirlwind visit in Lugano, Angela and I took the train up to Zürich yesterday and flew to Düsseldorf where we parted ways. Angela to visit relatives in Münster and me back to Heike's place in Hagedorn. After five weeks of travelling on my own I am now quite content to just relax in Hagedorn until it's time to meet with Christine in Munich on the 16th of June and head out to Croatia for the last leg of our trip. Can't wait!
Well our last day in Croatia was just a relaxed as the rest, but at the end of the day yesterday the electricity shut off! That meant no more t.v., no more cooking (we weren´t quite done yet!), and no more air conditioning! Wow, it was hot all night and to be honest I think I´m ready for a reprieve from the constant heat out here and am glad we´re heading back up to Germany today. Anyway, Christine and I are back in Split after getting up super early to catch a bus to Supetar where we caught a ferry to 
Split which is where we are now, waiting for our bus to the airport, from where we fly to Stuttgart and then take a train back to Munich. Man it´s gonna be a long day! My spate of good luck while travelling on this trip ended this morning as well when I went to get my backpack from the cargo hold on the bus and discovered that someone had dumped about half a bottle of olive oil onto the straps of my bag!! I was not impressed!! I spent the entire ferry ride over to 
Split trying to get my bag clean but oil is not the easiest thing to clean off. So today I will be hot and greasy, just like a french fry. yay. Anyway, I figured I´d post a few more pics since I have some time so here they are! 
