Europe a la Carte Blog

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Split is in the middle of Croatian right off the coast and is a beautiful city with many things to see and do. The nightlife can’t be beat and the food options are limitless. There are many attractions and all throughout the year there are ferries that go to the many islands that are right off the coast.

Roman ruins, Split

Split is the second largest city in Croatia and true to its name the city is two parts, once of which is the beautiful old town, which include the Palace of Diocletian, and the other area is very industrial with a shipyard and some less than gorgeous neighborhoods. There are many tourists that use Split to check out some of the areas around the city. There is the ancient city of Salona and quaint city of Trogir, as well as the gorgeous beaches of Zlatini Rat, Brela, Pakleni Island, Solta and Milna. Other attractions in Split are the Archaeological Museum of Split, Marjan Forest Park, Mestrovic Gallery, and the Museum of Croatian Archaeological Monuments.

Split is a city that is steeped in history and you can check out all the histories by taking a walk through the old town, which is right off the coast and the area where most of the restaurants and major hotels are located. The city has been inhabited for thousands of years beginning with the Romans, who ruled the city during their heyday. You can still see the Roman ruins in part of the old town, as well as historical shows and men in old Roman military costumes.

The main tourist area is the old town, which is just east of the promenade near the waterfront. You can find all types of food here from small stands selling toast, pizza, and kebabs to amazing 5-star restaurants with amazing views of the coast. There are many large hotels in the area, but if you want to find a great deal you can head to the many travel agencies in the area. If you really want to find a deal, you simply have to take a walk around the old town and look for the “Apartman” signs and you can inquire how much rooms or apartments are. Many times you can find a great deal on apartments, especially during the off-season. There is great nightlife around the city and there are many clubs near the old town next to the waterfront.

Spilt waterfront

A trip to Split, or all of Croatia for that matter, is not complete without trying a Bosnian dish, which is popular all throughout ex-Yugoslavia, called cevepcici, which is a sausage like grilled meat that is served with onions, tomatoes, and Ajvar (a wonderful red pepper sauce). The seafood in Split is also amazing, especially in the small and quaint restaurants near the surrounding beaches.

A great way to see all of Croatia is head down the coast from the Istrian peninsula all the way down to Dubrovnik. Take a couple days and explore Split and the surrounding areas, especially the beaches and islands, and you will find out why Croatia is increasingly becoming popular with tourists from around the world.

Heilbronn Wine Festival

When I lived in south-west Germany I was always a little bit sad when the long evenings of summer were coming an end, as they are now - but September brings an event that cheers me up a lot. And it’s all about wine.

There are wine festivals all over Germany at this time of year, but my favourite is in my husband’s hometown of Heilbronn. Since Heilbronn is not a famous tourist town, but is surrounded by vineyards, it’s a great place to experience a really genuine German wine festival.

Known as the Heilbronner Weindorf (a German link, if you know the language), this year the “Heilbronn Wine Village” will run from 11 to 19 September. The centre of the city is completely taken over by small wooden stalls run by various local vineyards, along with a few other stands specialising in snacks like Zwiebelkuchen (”onion cake”) or Bretzel (the local variation on pretzels). The centre of Weindorf is on the square in front of the Town Hall, on the main street.

During the week of the Weindorf, I’m sure everybody in the whole region spends at least two or three evenings there. You can get small tastings of different wines for a low price (this year they’ll be 1.30 Euro for 100mL) and the bonus is that they’re served in attractive glasses decorated with the winery’s logo, and you get to keep them! You can also buy a bottle and share it amongst your friends.

The most important thing to remember about Weindorf is that you definitely shouldn’t drive home - so if you have a rental car, leave it at your hotel and either walk (many hotels are close to the centre) or get a taxi. And have a drink for me, since I won’t make it there this year. If you’re visiting another part of Germany, ask about a similar wine festival there.

Image from Heilbronn Marketing

We’ve all had those moments - standing in a foreign city, knees squeezed together as you try and work out if you have enough money to buy a coke so that you can use the toilets of the cafe across the street. Public toilets, as has been discussed here before, can be a bit of a hit and miss affair (my personal advice: do not, under any circumstances, consider using the airport’s toilets in Hurghada, Egypt) and simply finding some can be a challenge in itself.

Thankfully we can turn to some online databases to help us locate toilets.

Broken Toilet by borges,

The Bathroom Diaries
This has been online since 2000 and includes 12000 toilets from all over the world. Users can add their own toilet discoveries to it. Some entries haven’t been updated in a long time (they predate the introduction of the Euro), but it’s a great start and the Golden Plunger awards for the best bathrooms are worth checking out.

PublicToilets.org
A simple database which is user generated and covers a variety of countries across the world, but not as many toilets as the other sites. This also includes entries such as “My place, ring the doorbell marked Arnold” which, although amusing, I’d probably bypass.

Find a Toilet UK
The lack UK public toilets has been covered before, and now someone has decided to help us out of the dilema. Findatoilet has 3700 public toilets in the UK documented and is not reliant on user input for growth. Search the database by going to the mobile phone link - which of course also means you can search direct from your phone. Exactly what you need when you haven’t checked it out beforehand and find yourself hopping up and down on one leg.

Diaroogle
Now it isn’t Europe, in fact it’s only one city specific, but Diaroogle is a new database for public toilets in New York. The entries are practical and slightly more unusual than you find in the other databases including, for example, The Museum of Sex and the US Bankruptcy Court.

Austin Hill is co-founder of the Travellious blog which urges us to travel smarter, often and rebelliously.

1 What is the aim of your blog?

Travellious is a blog for the independent traveler: offering advice, inspiration, and resources for planning your own travel adventure. Too often we’ve seen and experienced what we call “passive travel,” where the urge to run through a checklist of landmarks overshadows a real travel experience. Rather than providing you with a travel guide, we’re setting out to educate and empower others to create their own unique travel experience. If we can get just one person to travel who has never traveled before, or get someone to reconsider how they travel, we’d consider it a success.

2 What prompted you to start your blog?

We’ve both been avid travelers for the past 10 years or so. The more we’ve traveled, the less we found ourselves relying on travel guides and more on our friends’ advice, our intuition, and the virtual advice available from the Internet. The impetus to start a website came from our want to share our approach to travel: traveling simply, smartly, and actively. The site reflects those goals and provides a forum for our advice, inspiration, and education with the intent to instill our readers with the confidence to travel on their own.

3 What has been the hardest aspect of having your blog?

Letting ourselves just go and not be so calculated about it. We spent months planning and brainstorming trying to build a strong foundation, which has been a great asset. However, we sometimes need to remind ourselves to just go for it and learn from experience, just like in travel.

4 What is the funniest thing that has happened to you running your blog?

We’ve been blessed to not have any major incidents (knock on wood), so unfortunately we don’t have any tales of woe to recount. The closest we’ve come was our latest site upgrade, which kept us up all night . It reminded us of studying for exams in college….too much coffee and sleep deprivation can lead to delirium and some funny conversations.

5 Is there anything you would do differently with the benefit of hindsight?

We would have spent less time planning and just start writing. Yes, a blog needs a strong foundation and direction, but the process is what helps you define and redefine your goal and message. Experimenting, brainstorming and just trying anything and everything is what got us to the point we are today.

My comments - I totally agree with you about many people’s idea of travel being having a list of landmarks and feeling that they have missed out if they don’t manage to whizz around them in jig time. I’d advocate seeing less properly than this mad dash. during which you see nothing properly. I love the advice from Jan Morris, “The best way to find out about a place is wander around. Wander around, alone, with all your antennae out thinking about what’s happening and what you see and what you feel.”

I think it may be a positive thing that you spend a fair amount of time planning your blog, rather than just launching into it. There are so many travel related blogs out there and I believe that one’s blog has to have something unique to attract and retain readers, whether that is the personality of the author(s), the style of writing and/or the focus of the content.

It must be great to have a blogging partner, so can discuss things and share tasks as it can be quite isolating working away on a blog on your own.

When in 1994 the Woodland Cemetery in Stockholm was added to the UNESCO World Heritage list, it immediately made me wonder if perhaps there was an acute shortage of more worthy sites. The cemetery is lovely, green and big, but it’s just that – a cemetery. The lady at the Stockholm Tourist Office tried her best to convince me it was worth a visit. But when asked what was so special about it (my favorite question to annoy tourist office employees the world over) she gave me a typically Swedish blank stare.

“Well, Greta Garbo is buried there,” she finally mumbled. And that was it. She couldn’t tell me anything about the supposedly exquisite blend of architecture and landscape planning. She couldn’t tell me anything about the cemetery’s history, and she didn’t know the opening hours of its visitors’ center. No brochures on the subject were available either. Great.

And that’s how one early morning last week I found myself boarding the number 18 subway train (direction: Farsta) heading for Skogskyrkogården, which to make things easier is also the name of the station where you need to get off. Finding the cemetery is easy as well – just exit the station and turn right.

I arrived at the main gate at 9AM badly needing to pee, only to find out that the visitors’ center didn’t open until 11AM. Having no other choice but to take a photo of the posted map (no small maps available at the entrance) I began my search for a restroom. The first location was locked due to water damage, the second didn’t even have a note explaining why it was closed. The third had a sign with opening hours of 11AM to 4PM during weekdays (hmmm, and just what are people supposed to do outside those hours and on weekends?) and a helpful note directing me to the visitors’ center. Which was also closed. Finally, just when I was pondering doing my business in the woods, I found an open toilet opposite Skogskapellet. You’d think that a UNESCO World Heritage site in a major European city would be better prepared for the needs of tourists… But anyway…

On the other side of Skogskapellet was the reason for my trip – the grave of Greta Garbo.

photo: Anna Etmanska

After visiting Ms. Garbo, I went exploring further into the woods with the plan to see the “Muslim Quarter”. Alas, my plan was interrupted by a funeral in progress. The Woodland Cemetery is still very much in use and I can only imagine the discomfort of grieving relatives being watched by wandering, clueless foreign tourists.

When at 11:15AM the visitors’ center was still closed, I gave up and headed towards the exit. On my way out I met a group of French girls, who wanted to know where the toilets were.

Skogskyrkogården is a really lovely place to visit. I’m sure it would have been an even lovelier place to visit with a bit of proper tourist-oriented planning on the part of its management.
And just so you know, the visitors’ center is only open during summer - this year it closes on September 7.

This guest post describing the Romanian city of Oradea is written by New World Yankee who authors the Yankee in a New World blog which aims to help other American expats adapt to living in Europe.

“Did you see any vampires?”

When I told people I went to Romania, this was the first question I was asked, followed by self indulgent chuckle at their reference to Dracula’s home. Though I was in Transylvania, I went not to his castle, but to a burgeoning city right across the border from Hungary, Oradea or Nagyvárad.

Crisul Repede River, Oradea copyright of NewWorldYankee

This city of 250.000 people is going through a period of renaissance and reconstruction. Everywhere you look is new construction, refurbishing, and modernization all tucked into ancient turrets and churches older than the country itself. Tourism is only starting to grow in Oradea, so it is undiscovered treasure and un-traveled by most. It was passed back and forth between Hungary and Romania many times during its history, so has an incredible blend of both cultures.

But I have to say, I wish I lived there. I was able to use my Spanish, since Romanian is a Latin tongue and a lot of the words are similar. Many locals also knew English, German, Italian, or French, so most people are bound to be able to communicate. Of course the main aim in speaking is to shop in Oradea. Shopping there is extremely affordable and many of the local specialties of ceramics and shoe making are evident. The Strata Republicii is the main street of Oradea, and touted to be one of the most beautiful streets in Transylvania. It is here that reconstruction is fully evident.

We decided to not hit the tourist locations, but to simply wander through out the city and see what struck us as click worthy. This way, it is a pleasant surprise when what you find beautiful and what others want us to see collides. We passed through the famous Pasajul Vulturul Negru, or the Black Eagle Passage, an area full of stained glass ceilings that inspire the eye. Stop in the many cafés located within and appreciate them for all their glory.

Black Eagle Passage copyright of NewWorldYankee

Also worth a mention is Crişul Repede, the rushing river that runs through the center of the city, and paints a scenic background to the rushing passersby. The city is also famous for its health spas, having natural thermal springs. The most famous of which is the Baile Felix, located just outside the city and accessible by bus. Lastly, the famous pentagonal citadel, Cetatea Oradea is a sight to behold. It has 2500 steps on the outside, and was blessed by the Catholic Church in the 12th century. The fact that is it still standing with all the conflict and wars fought in the area is a testament in itself.

All in all, a trip definitely worth making. And if you go, tell me if you run into any vampires, because we missed out.

Take to the Skies - Copyright Andrew Hayes

Sometimes, I tend to over-analyse things. This is usually the case when I am searching for cheap airfare! I previously reported my thoughts on Dutch website cheaptickets.nl but I do have another trick up my sleeve. Kayak is a slick and easy-to-use website that allows endless amounts of manipulation to your search results to help you find endless possibilities of flight combinations. I have yet to figure out why they called it Kayak, though. Maybe because it glides easily through the airline reservation systems? Or because it is a tool that is simple, easy, and does exactly what you expect?

Good

- Multilingual service (English, German, French, Spanish, Italian)

- Easy to use controls allow you to select flights within certain timeframes or airline alliances

- Has ‘weekend’ getaway search option

- Flight Buzz section with up-to-the-minute deals

Bad

- Depending on which flight you choose, you might have to register at a new site to actually book (Kayak does not do any of the bookings, they are merely a screening tool.)

Rating out of 10: 9.5

You start but simply defining your search criteria, and then you will quickly be presented with a large amount of results. Then you can use the Filters on the left side of the screen to easily narrow down your choices by Number of Stops, Airline Alliance, Flight Times, Aircraft Type, Trip Duration, or Price Band. It may sound like a lot of choice but really it is easy! Each result has all the necessary details on-screen but by clicking the ‘details’ link, additional information is displayed. You can even click on a flight that you definitely want and it will reconfigure to show all the flights that will pair up with the one you chose. When you are done, click the airfare link and you will be taken to the corresponding website for booking.

Before you buy, be sure to check out our other air travel tips on Europe A La Carte.

An easy day trip from Prague (2 hours by train), this sleepy Czech town is famous for its creepy-cool bone church or ossuary, Kostnice Sedlice. At first glance, its Tim Burtonesque bone chandelier may seem a bit shocking, but in the end, you just can’t turn away. And luckily for your friends and family back home, cameras are allowed inside.

Make your way through the town’s winding cobblestone alleys to a cozy, medieval pub for a hearty feast of wild boar goulash with potato dumplings in a cranberry sauce and a half liter mug of the local beer.
As with most Czech cities, there is always one church that stands out above the rest, but here you have two: the bone church and Saint Barbara Cathedral. But the route to this second church alone is an inspiration in itself, with statues graceful and grand lining the narrow road, and overlooking a valley with a river running through. You can take the city bus from the train station into town, but it’s also possible to just walk by following the railroad tracks or the river.

When people talk about Croatian tourism what generally comes to mind is the gorgeous city of Dubrovnik, which is located on the southern coast. Dubrovnik is now one of the hot spots for tourism and for good reason, as the city is absolutely gorgeous, which is an understatement like saying Italy has decent food or the Eiffel Tower is a nice structure.

View from the Dubrovnik city wall

The city of Dubrovnik is spectacular itself, but the main tourist destination is inside the city walls. Inside the city walls there are gorgeous churches, many restaurants, shops, souvenir shops, and cafes. A visit to Dubrovnik is not complete without taking a walk on top of the city walls, where you can walk around the entire walled city center and have fantastic views of the coast and the lively town center. The walk takes a couple of hours, but it is something that can’t be missed and it only costs around 50 kunas, which is only 5 pounds.

If you go during the summer get ready for the tourists, as Dubrovnik is a secret no longer and there are throngs of tourists, especially in the city center, but even with them all around it is hard not to walk around in wonder at this wonderful city. The main highlights in the city are the main street, Stradun, the Prince’s Palace, the church of St Vlaho, the Cathedral, the 3 large monasteries, the Custom’s Office and the City Hall. The coast is picturesque and a there are many great places just to soak up the sun and take a dip.

View from window in Dubrovnik city wall

One of the best ways to get to Dubrovnik is to take a ferry ship, which departs from either Rijeka in the northern part of the country or Split, which is in the middle of Croatia right on the coast. The ferry is an overnight one and has restaurants, nightclubs, and various shops. The ride from Split to Dubrovnik is especially nice, as you meander through some of the islands and it gives you awe inspiring views of the amazing coastline.

Just because Dubrovnik is very popular for tourists it does not mean that it is super-expensive. The cheapest way to go is to rent an apartment outside the city center. I went with my parents, girlfriend, and 2 aunts (6 people total) and we found a huge and spacious apartment right next to the old city and it was only 120 Euros a night, or 20 euros each. There are some 5 star hotels that are expensive, such as the Hilton, but apartment rentals can be had for a good deal. You can stay inside the city walls, but the accommodations can be pricey. Going in the off-season can also save you money, as the city is gorgeous all year round, but a good time to go is in the spring or early fall, as there are not as many tourists and the prices for accommodations and food are less expensive.

The food is amazing in Dubrovnik, especially the seafood. There are many restaurants inside the city walls and just outside and the prices are reasonable. There are also many cafes and gelato stands, where you can get gelato that is comparable to the gelato in Italy. On my bio you can see me, sloppily, enjoying some gelato from Dubrovnik on the main street in the city center.

Take my word for it Dubrovnik is amazing, it is one of the most beautiful and interesting cities I have ever been to and I have been to a ton. Come check out the pearl of the Adriatic coast, Croatia, and head down to Dubrovnik, as it is a city that you will never forget.

The Penta Hotel in Reading has an exclusive “rocktail” on offer to celebrate the 2008 Reading Rock Festival. The rocktail is aptly named “Stairway to Heaven” and will only be available 22 - 24 August 2008, the weekend of the Festival. The expert cocktail maker, Giles Looker, co-founder of Soulshakers. created the fusion of fresh strawberries, pink grapefruit juice, vodka and rose wine.

I wonder what Giles would come up with for a Europe a la Carte travtail?