Riding Around Korčula

 

Michael: "One of our shorter but still very memorable day trips was taken to the island of Korčula, where we planned to ride scooters around the island just like my outing to Preko. I was stoked, as riding the scooter was one of the favorite things that I did in the six week Zadar trip. After a drive and a boat ride, we arrived in beautiful town (and island) of Korčula."

Michael: "First things first, of course we had to eat lunch. We ate out at a pizzeria and if I remember correctly, we had some delicious pizza and Tony ordered an interesting mixed salad which I was slightly jealous of.

Michael: "After that, we all went our separate ways-- my mom went shopping, Tony and my dad wandered around and found some super shady casino (I don't actually know any of the details), and us kids went to go rent some scooters. In classic Zeets fashion, we had a very late start to the day so we didn't have more than 3 hours to ride, but regardless we weren't dissuaded. We rented those machines of freedom and began our outing on the island."





Michael: "The hardest thing about writing about these scooter outings is that there isn't one particular moment that makes it awesome. For me, the Preko scooter outing was my favorite part of the trip because it was such a wonderful overall experience-- the fresh air, the empty roads, the gorgeous views, a whole island to explore, nobody to experience that moment but you. Or in the case of the Korčula trip, nobody but you and your beloved siblings. And experience that moment we did."

 

Danielle: "Photobomb!"

Once again, the scooter outing was awesome, pictures only beginning to capture how cool the whole experience is. The panoramic picture that Danielle does get pretty close though. We rode around the island, Danielle stopped us for pictures, Matt made goofy faces, and we continued on our way. The two or three hours that we had the scooters were simply not long enough. When our time ended, we sadly returned the scooters, met up with the family, got intrigued by Tony and Dad's shifty casino, and then went home. Good trip!

Dubrovnik

Joe: "The books say Dubrovnik is a must see in southern Croatia (actually in all the Mediterranean).  The books are right and it's worth it to jostle with the tour bus crowds.  The Slano condo that Deanne found was only 45 minutes away, and we had a great Dalmatian coast view both ways.  Danielle always thought she was sitting on wrong side of vehicle for pics, but there really is no wrong side of vehicle."

Joe: "The walk around the top of the wall is amazing and every place screams "take a picture from here".  Good thing for digital cameras.  There were some rain clouds, but not enough to wreck the day (or scare away all the other tourists).  We did our part to support the local economy, buying jerseys, scarfs, etc."



Joe: "I'm not sure why Matt and Michael were thrown in jail,
probably giving their Dad a hard time."

                                        

Joe: "Dubrovnik's most famous feature is the thick walls that ring the city (over 1 mile long and up to 19' thick). The boys were looking into the "Game of Thrones" tour, but we missed it by a day or so. I guess the show has done a good deal of filming in the city." 

 

 More in Dubrovnik.....


 

Danielle: "Dubrovnik had a small aquarium."

Danielle: "Gnocchi!"

Danielle: "The best blueberry ice cream ever!"








Danielle: "A little kitten that ran up to Mikey."

Slano HQ

Our Home Away From Home

Michael: "The headquarters from which we took the aforementioned day trip and basically lived in for a week was a nice little villa in Slano, Croatia. It was a really nice find by my mother-- it had beautiful views and generally was just a very comfortable place. However, the first thing that struck us as we were driving there was that the road was getting narrower and narrower. Soon enough it became clear to us that these roads were not designed for the Zeets family. It took some serious driving from my father and many held breaths from the passengers for us to finally reach our destination. Pictures can only begin to depict the fear that the narrow road causes.

  

                              

We settled in very quickly at the new place, purchasing an internet stick that only gave us 1GB a day and quickly blowing through it as we Skyped, searched, and blogged to our content. There were three bedrooms for the six of us, a nice living room, and a patio--everything we could ask for. It also helps that we were closer to the sea than we were to the car, so we had ample opportunity to swim as well.

 

              

 

  

Keep in mind that while we took day trips from this location, they were often only about a half day or so and we usually still had evenings and morning to find things to do. This free time happened to be spent on things such as renting a boat and lazily driving around the bay. After a good ride around as a family, us kids anchored it out in the middle and snorkeled around the bay. And another day we picked up a jet ski. It was pretty expensive but it went about 40 mph, a terrifying speed to us newbies.

                                    

 

              

 

 

Swimming and boating certainly works up an appetite. Luckily, that never lasted long. About a 20-30 minute walk and we were in the town of Slano proper. We stocked up at the grocery store, and usually ate out there for dinner. Our favorite in particular was an unassuming restaurant called Maestral. We went there once on a whim and loved it-- the prices were great and the food was fantastic, earning its place as my favorite restaurant of the entire trip.



Danielle: "Incredible dessert we found at the market.
Easy way to try eight different flavors."

 

Nearing the end of our stay, we still had a handful of groceries left, so Matt and I cooked up a vegetarian meal to finish them off. I was quite impressed with how it turned out. We had a lot of potatoes, so we made fries and a twice baked potatoes and then we finished off the bread and tomatoes with some brochette. Excellently decent if I do say so myself.

 

 

 

Also one night we happened to find out about a folk festival that was going on while we were staying there (Note: If you are confused about the date, know that it is day.month.year in Croatia). It was interesting to see a bunch of traditional folk dances and hear traditional songs, but tough to follow along since we couldn't understand too much. The bad part was that the names of them were all on the tip of my tongues since I'd learned a lot of them from my Croatian classes, but I just couldn't quite remember them. Regardless, it was an interesting thing to see and a nice coincidence of timing.

On the final night in Slano we made use of Danielle's painting equipment that she brought and all painted the landscape outside our villa. I don't think I've painting that long or quite that patiently since I was a kid. As to be expected, Danielle's painting was leagues above the rest of ours. Whose was second best will forever remain a point of contention.

       

That's basically it for Slano. There are some miscellaneous photos of all of the guys with our Croatia jerseys on, some good shots of the sunset in the bay, but otherwise just some general group photos. Overall, we had a great time in Slano-- aside from the terrifying road, it was a great place to stay and we had a blast.