This year to celebrate our anniversay (#3) we drove to Croatia -- a small country in South European, near Italy. It was B.E.A.utifil! :) I might be slighty biased because I had such a great time with my handsome husband and also because I LOVED being by the water. I grew up in a landlocked state, live now in landlocked country and pretty much didn't think much about the ocean -- but it drew me in this time. So peaceful to watch the waves crash on the rocks and to look out and see only water for miles....ahhh! :-)
On our drive down to Croatia, we stopped in Postjana, Sloveina to see a castle. This castle was probably the coolest thing we saw on our whole trip. It was built into caves that were already there and then generations later, they built a castle onto/in front of the caves. The caves that serve as walls for the back of the castle actually go 8 km deep and come up at the nearby town. Incredible! They had a weapons room, ancient kitchen, dungeon (which i hated!) with an actual rack for pulling people (again ugh!), itty bitty beds that would be luxury at the time, and so many other cool features.
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| The castle -- the cave at the top was the orignal shelter |
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| An opening where they would dump hot oil on intruders...ouch! |
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| Old cannonballs! |
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| Khalid says the sword probably weighed like 20 kilos (45 lbs)!!! |
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| Stairs to different floors |
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| What good is a castle if you can't pray!?! :) |
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| Small hold -- tour guide didn't know what for |
Our hotel was in Opatija, Croatia and is mostly a tourist town because of its year-round temperate climate. All our meals were included (which was nice!) and drinks as well -- except for water. Weird, huh? You could have unlimited wine, soda, and beer, but a water cost $3.80. We were just two blocks away from the shore of the Adriatic Sea. We took a walking tour of the town at night and treated ourselves to some ice cream as well. :-) (I know you're thinking, Stacia and ice cream!?! - ha!) There was a tree park there that had over 500 different trees from all around the world -- we were walking by and Khalid stopped and said that he remembered that tree from Pakistan. I laughed, not believing him, but sure enough we found a sign saying that tree was from Pakistan. Impressive memory for someone that has trouble remembering what we had a for dinner last week.
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| Our hotel -- the Hotel Opatija (original name, huh?) |
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| The gardens |
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| Taking a look-see around |
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| Our ice cream! :) |
One day we took a day trip to Pula, Croatia (which is a southern tip of Croatia and about two hours by boat from Venice). They have an ampitheatre/colosseum just like in Rome....and I mean just like in Rome (minus the floor panels). It was very impressive and is in much better condition than the one in Rome (albit smaller). We went to the 'beach' there as well, but I guess it is called the coast because it was only rocks and no sand -- beautiful no matter what the name.
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| Beach by our hotel |
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| Mr. Giraffe liked the water too (water is so crystal clear behind him!) |
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| Roman Ampitheatre |
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| Cheese! |
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| Enjoying the gorgeous blue, green water |
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| We spent some time worshipping God for His creation! I just kept thinking (and singing) How Great Is Our God!!! |
Another noteworthy side trip was to Hum, Croatia -- the smallest town in the WHOLE WORLD! I think must be pretty cool to have that title. The orginal town walls are still standing from the 13th century and 17 people live inside them. It was pretty far off the beaten path and up a few narrow mountain roads which only made it all the more impressive. :-)
We also went to a town named Rijeka nearby -- but it wasn't as impressive = not so many photos. The wonderful thing about that town was that they had a MEXICAN RESTURANT!!! And it was the best Mexican that I have ever had in Europe -- yeah! :-) All in all we had a B.L.A.S.T. It was fun to get away, to spend some quality time together, and to learn about another country. Thanks God for the blessing of the trip and for our three years together!
