Hrvatska! (Croatia!)

• Continuing on...

  After tearing May off the ol' desk calendar we turned our attention to June and a bit more travel. We had plans to be in Brussels for exactly 11 days in June, and plans for some friends to come to town to share in the fun. First to arrive were our good buddies DJ and Justin (who were actually making their second trips to visit us in Brussels). A few days and a short Ryanair flight later and we were in Croatia!
  We flew into Zadar, which is roughly a 2 hour drive on brand new, billiard smooth highways from Split which was our destination for the night. The only hiccup we found was when we got into the old town of Split in our little rental car. The map load on our GPS hadn't worked, so we were navigating via actual maps and road signs (the horror!), which works great to get you from town to town, but is a bit more problematic once you're actually in the city. Especially when you're trying to use the free maps from the rental car company. I ended up taking a wrong turn in downtown Split and we found ourselves needing to back up and pull a U-turn in the middle of the street. But I couldn't find reverse. For whatever reason it really seemed like the car had been manufactured without the ability to go backwards. Strange. It didn't seem possible, but rather than dig out the user's manual or really take the time to ponder the problem it was easier, and more expedient, to use gravity to roll us backwards in neutral, or to continue forward in a huge arc until we were pointed back in the right direction. Luckily for all of us, after 3 or 4 of these completely non-graceful direction changes, I figured out that you have to depress the gear shift to get it to go into reverse. That made more sense.
  Split has a beautiful and compact old town, dominated by Diocletian's palace, which forms the majority of the old town itself. We spend a day and a half wandering the limestone streets, kicking back on the esplanade while DJ and Justin had a geography lesson with a Croatian man, hiking to the top of the outlook on a nearby hill for a great view of the city, and most of all, eating gelato. Justin and I had gelato 4 times one day.
  
 

After 2 great days in Split we boarded a ferry for the town of Hvar. Hvar is a very characteristic Croatian fishing village built on a small port with a centuries old stone fort on a hill dominating the town below.  The hike up in the hot sun took a while, but it was definitely worth it.  The view was awesome: green islands popping up out of the crystal blue waters and old stone buildings with red terra cotta roofs combine for one of the nicest vistas I've ever witnessed.  Later we caught a taxi boat out to a nearby island where we hiked our way to a secluded beach.  The waters were a gorgeous blue, but instead of a nice sandy beach there were sharp, craggy racks.  We weren't about to let that stand in our way, though, so after a few minutes of assessing the situation and trying to find the place we could enter with the lowest chance of serious injury, we hopped in.  I don't remember exactly why, but that night there was a huge fireworks show on the island.  It was the perfect end to an awesome day.  Hvar was a bit out of the way, but it was definitely worth visiting.  

Green Invasion!

• 
  May was a busy month, and according to our calendar June looked to be much of the same. To close out May, however, we hosted our new friends Rena and George who are studying in Freiburg, Germany. We had a blast wandering around Brussels with them and watching videos of their band back in Germany! During Rena and George's stay we also had a group of cadets from the Air Force Academy in Brussels, so we offered to give them our patented walking tour. It was interesting to talk with cadets about the program and hear what they planned to do after graduation.
  
Next on the agenda was a visit by some of our favorite friends from SD, Nate and Laura and two of their friends who are currently living in London, Emily and Gui. We toured the city (Jen's getting really good at giving the walking tour), hitting all the sights, and sampled a few awesome beers along the way. It was a great opportunity to catch up with Nate and Laura, and it was great to meet Emily and Gui (who just got engaged, by the way!), especially since they're living so close. A great, laid back visit.

Bordeaux!

• Near the end of May we hopped in the car for another French road trip. This time we headed south and west to the regions of Bordeaux and Perigord for a week of fun with some fellow European stationed military folks. Paul took a break from french studies in Lyon, Brad and Maia headed over from Stuttgart, and we met our buddies Tim and Meghan in Paris so we could carpool down together. Tim found an absolutely amazing converted farmhouse in the tiny village of St Sernin on vrbo.com. The village is surrounded by vineyards and rolling hills, and for a week we played in the pool, played ping pong, dined al fresco on the patio, toured around the region, and oh yeah, drank some great French wine. Our first outing was to the nearby town of Duras to explore the chateau. Tim's become quite the wine connoisseur over the last two years so we also paid a visit to the town of St. Emilion for an unforgettable wine tasting, and Paul and I had a run-in with a local boulanger (bread maker) on the way back. The most adventurous day found us driving east to the town of Sarlat, home of foie gras and very popular with the Brit tourists, followed by a kayak trip down the Dordogne river to see the chateaus from the water. Finally, Paul and I made the drive out to see the prehistoric cave paintings in and around Lascaux. We got a little ego boost when the guy at the visitor center tried to switch to english for our conversation, then got stuck, and we told him that it would be better if we continued in french. It was. Booyah. What an awesome trip.