(Easter) weekend break | zagreb, croatia

Zagreb, Croatia

We reached the capital city via car in about four hours from our home in northern Italy.

Generally, when we travel, we go for budget accommodations, usually opting for apartments over hotels, even though we are only three. It just makes more sense for our lifestyle. 

We've been mostly lucky with apartments across Europe, but there always seems to be one issue or another that we deal with, from no parking to restricted arrival times to bathrooms that aren't exactly as pictured to suspicious owners. But, you know...what are you going to do? It just comes with the territory of budget accommodations. We deal with it.

The travel agent in the family, I do always check the hotels, too, and for this trip, there was an offer we couldn't pass up: a five star hotel within our budget: Hotel Esplande. Oh, yes. Oh, YES!

My word.  Tell me:  Why must we travel any other way? It is so completely uncivilized, like air travel in the States. What a chore!

We also spend a lot of time in parks, coffee bars/caffes and churches. On this trip we also attended an Easter mass at the cathedral on the hill, found an incredibly cool "work out" public park just outside our hotel, and visited the weekly market at the same time the rest of the city's inhabitants were there procuring the Easter Sunday meal. (Ask me how much I enjoyed that?!)

Samobar, Croatia

This little light of mine will soon be eleven. She LOVED the five star treatment; I impressed upon her the value of an education once more.

Thoughts on Zagreb:

The dollar goes FAR in this city.
The city is impeccably clean.
Eat the strukli; it is not overrated.
We slept late, took naps, ambled here and there, discovering this and that. There are, however, tons of tips online to help you plan a full day or two of activities in this city.
Stay at the Esplanade Hotel.
Samobar, a quaint town about 30 minutes outside of Zagreb is worth a stop. It hailed the day we were there.
I would return.

Next trip: Paris, with Grandma.

corner view

corner view :: looking up

March 2015 | Instagram Photo

There is a lot to be missed in this country should you not spend some of your time looking up. This striking modern glass chandelier is found in the lobby of the nhow Hotel in Milan.

Corner View is a weekly appointment shared by people around the globe, an appointment started in the spring of 2009 by Jane in Spain and currently hosted by Francesca over at Fuori Borgo. We welcome you to join us.

carnival weekend in nice, france

The weekend in Nice was a wash: events were canceled, sidewalks were pulled up, the beach was inaccessible. The weather was absolutely awful, except for these few times I've captured here. We did have some lovely moments with friends new and old, but, really . . . we go to the South of France in February for the hope of warmth and sun along with the hope of a unique carnival experience.

Negative today? Absolutely. I am just attempting to "keep it real," friends; it rained on my parade, at least one of them and you should know by now that I am ALL about the parade.

I love a crowd of friends that instinctively pauses for a group "selfie" when the opportunity arises.

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Just a few travel tips for Nice, France:

::: AirBnB has lots of great tiny apartments in Nice, perfect for a family of three. We had a satisfying experience with this one.

::: There is a Pierre Hermé kiosk selling macarons inside of the Galeries Lafayette. We have decided that Pierre Hermé is THE best in the macaron business, so this was a lovely little discovery for us.

::: We had very fine Breton galettes (savory buckwheat crepes) at La Voix de son Maître and would likely return on a subsequent trip. The collection of antique phonographs was quite impressive as well.

::: Though not pictured here, we did visit the Chagall museum. Did you know that Chagall was alive when the museum was created and that he was involved in the concept and design of the space?

::: An absolute favorite thing for us to do in foreign cities is to hit the supermarket. There is a large CarreFour on the edge of town where we picked up things from almond flour and La Fermiere yogurt to butter and a piece of  Emile Henry cookware. I also found a few La Parfait jars. . . because who doesn't want a few French jars in her kitchen? And, of course, we found more wine.

::: Next time I'm heading to the carnival celebration in Menton.

autumn in budapest

When you visit Budapest, contact Tamas for lodging: he was incredibly kind and the apartments near the Opera House were perfect.

Have an absolutely lovely day.
xoxo
d


Here you can read about bathing in Budapest with the ladies.

bathing in Budapest with the ladies

I recently went on another travel adventure with some girlfriends; this trip took us East, to a place I had never visited: Budapest, Hungary.  

Budapest is renown for her geothermal springs that have been enjoyed by locals and tourists alike, dating back to Roman times.

Several years ago I may have foolishly skipped this part of the city, but I've grown to be a lover of and a believer in the curative powers of the mineral-enriched, thermal waters offered by our dear Earth, wherever I may find them.

I chose the the Széchenyi Thermal Bath for us solely because a friend who has visited Budapest several times suggested that it would be a great place to start...and it was.

We enjoyed the outdoor pools and really liked the series of hot and cold baths and saunas indoors as well. Sit in the sauna until the sweat drips, dip in the frigid pool, repeat. I'm telling you...pure bliss. Try it, and you will be a believer, too.

Budapest evokes a certain feeling of grandness for me, and the bathing experience certainly holds true to that as well. I may have had one of those rare "What am I doing here?" moments while beholding the grandeur of the bath.

A selection of treatments and massages are available at surprisingly low rates, I suppose partly because this is a public establishment with health as the objective and partly because the dollar seems to go further in the East.  After arriving late, we missed out on those. Hey...there will be NO early rising on girls' weekends.

We did all opt for fish pedicures and Thai massages, both offered by private contractors housed at the location. My first Thai massage....I'm still not too sure how I feel about a small Asian woman man-handling me...my masseuse was a tad rough. The other ladies loved it.

I did, however, absolutely enjoy every moment at the bath, and I hope to return some day. I hope you do, too.

Let's be happy campers. In Croatia.

We've taken up camping, dear friends. 

Imagine the three of us, tucked snugly into our brand new instant tent in our warm sleeping bags, atop our self-inflating mattresses with our heads resting on pillows from home, as we embrace the nights and days in the great outdoors.

Alas, we have stuck to sites with electricity (in our two outings) and we have, admittedly, brought along our electric coffee pot (the American one!), and our favorite dark roast from Community along with our Polish mugs.

For us, this is a change of pace and feels A LOT like we are roughing it in the great outdoors. Being forced to use the communal bathhouse is rough, very rough for the likes of us. It's downright savage.

Some have suggested that we are  "glamping," but I'm afraid I must disagree with them. For goodness sake, we are sleeping in a tent, a tent that leaked the first time we used it, and a tent whose walls still perspire quite a bit. Even a perfectly dry tent is still a tent.

I grew up camping with my family, though not exactly in tents and certainly not in France or Croatia, the location of our first two adventures. 

Did you know that most European campgrounds don't allow open fires? The kiddos made s'mores with tea lights....sigh. And they swam in the sea and played bad mitten and cards. They did the dishes, too. (For the record, we still only have one but we had a gang of friends with us.)

The whole experiment is prompted by the youngest of us who has been begging us to camp for nearly half her life. We finally acquiesced and invested in the necessary equipment. And after our first outing, invested in more necessary equipment. Can you believe we still NEED more stuff? 

Don't judge. We don't even compare to the Germans. Have you seen a German family camp set up in a European campground? Envious. "Glamping."

Of course, necessary equipment includes lights to adorn our tent. Yes, we must be festive, friends. Most Germans don't do lights, it seems. Also necessary is gin or wine or gin AND wine.

It must be noted that we did not embark on this alone and that both outings have been in the company of friends, some experienced and some not-so-experienced. I think I like group camping. Okay. I know I love group camping with friends.

I also like the challenge of meals in the great outdoors, and I'm not exactly ready to PB&J-it entirely just yet. The good news is that both France and Croatia have lovely grocery stores stocked with fine foods for camp meals (read: cheese, salami, olives, fresh fruits and veggies & wine)...and that restaurants are not off limits to our style of camping.

We hope to fit in another weekend before the cold arrives. Or...wait...did it ever leave? What a weird summer in Northern Italy!

Our first camping experience was five days near Lake Annecy in France, and for this recent three-day weekend we ventured to Croatia, where we stayed at Camp Polari just south of Rovinj on the Istrian Peninsula. (These photos are from the most recent trip.)

The campground in Croatia was huge, institutionalized, and packed, but it was also clean, quiet, and well-run. Our sizable pitch was in a quaint area full of crooked pines. Huge = 4900 possible guests. Oddly enough, the shore, which was a two minute walk from our campsite, never seemed crowded. We spent the days lounging under the olive trees that dotted the bay or taking walks along the forested coast as our kids swam in the Adriatic Sea. I'd return there in a heartbeat to camp among the Germans, who made up about ninety percent of the guests at this campground. 

We are making lots of observations as we take up this new "hobby," but Richard's was the most poignant. After a particularly lovely day and evening among friends, as we walked through the campground back to our tent, he observed: "Campers are happy people." It's simple, it's true. And we always welcome more "happy" into our lives.  Lord knows we need it. So, yes, "Let's be happy campers."