Back from Traveling!
Well I have been gone for a bit now. Aug 24 & 25th were the last time I spent two nights in a row at home. Hopefully Sept 10 & 11th will be two nights at home in a row again.
I was out at Flock HQ, Sailing; working and getting more excited about Danphe. Then I flew out on the non-stop to MUC. Rented a car at the airport and went home to pack for vacation. Then it was up at 06:00AM local-time (16:00 in my day previous time-zone) and getting ready to pick up Simon, though we had to have an emergency investigation of his older Siamese cat. He looked, OK, and we thought we could continue on with our trip (Pixel's skin rash did not get much better, but was not in critical condition when we got back). We had chosen to drive because we wanted to bring diving gear and we had a dog. Via Michelin told us it should be 9.5hr to Split (going through Germany, Austria, Slovenia, Croatia (Zagreb, Split, ferry to Vis). This route did not take into account the construction in Austria and Slovenia. Most of the driving went pretty easy, though we had to wait at Hauptbahnhof until 08:00 for the SIXT agent to open up so we could register Simon as a driver. It is really nice to be able to split driving, for whatever reason I mostly know people who don't drive stick and on most road trips I do, I do most of the driving. 8hrs is so much less than 12 it is not even funny.
The car was a Ford Focus C-Max, pretty roomy, but felt like I was in a suprisingly large van, with a high seating position and a horrible turnning radius. Suprising amount of space for something that should have been a compact car. The navigation system had no idea about eastern Europe, but the radio did have an aux 1/8" mini-jack in the glove compartment, so Taska's iPod could play us music for our trip. But it was vacation!
We were happy to see that the ferry was well marked in split, when the A-1 (pride of croatia) ended in Split. Purchasing Ferry tickets was easy, after waiting for 20 minutes while various young english speaking female tourists tried to use the ticket agent as general tourist information (What is the best island? Is there a party boat between some islands?) Finding the right place to park for the Ferry was a bit of a mystery. The trick is you just park in the area that looks like a lane next to the ferry, and don't expect anyone to guide you in. But the two hour ride to the Island of Vis was fine and relaxing.
After taking the wrong turn down a street I got to see just how painful driving a compact car can be when you are in a town that was designed for foot traffic can be. Eventualy in the dark we found the right apartment and we were showed in by our entrepeneuring landlord. Nautic-apartments is also the site of Nautic-Internet, Nautic-Radio, Nautic-CellPhones, and the building is actually only half built, it is clear, when he has more capital the place will expand, the ground (sea level) floor is the shop, the middle level are the rental apartments, and the top floor is home to him and his wife. The room was clean and modern (I think the whole building is new). At the end of the hall to rooms was a wonderful shared deck looking out into vis harbour.
Thenext day was sleeping in late, realizing that lunch at 11:30 was an unheard of commodity, and the realization that we were not actually in the town of Vis but the town of Kut. The city centers of these two great metropoli are about a 10 minute walk in flip-flops from each other. Kut is quieter and cuter, Vis town has the major comercial center for this island and it's 4,000 residents. I took a swim in the harbour, Simon managed to freeze himself due to his lack of bioprene (fat) it was not spectacular snorkeling. Too much sea grass, but the water was 23-25C (73-77F) and refreshing, especially after long hours of planes and autos. We also scheduled ourselves for a SCUBA boat trip with one of the two dive boat operators. The first one lost Taska's vote because they made snide comments when I asked them where they were going to dive. ("In the water" I believe was the answer.)
Tuesday was dive #2, we drive to the South East side of the Island by Rukavac based on the recomendation of place to do shore diving from the guy at the tourist agency where we booked our trip. It was a little bit of off-roading for our vehicle. Also I found the nudists advertised by the tourist guide, they were not at the main beach, but further out on the rocks. The freediving here was far better. The thermacline was intense, going from 23 to 18 C (73,64F) in less than 5cm (2inches) the first time I crossed the -18m (-60feet) mark it made me tighten my stomach and lungs instinctivly with the shock of it. I am quite willing to dive in 18C water but entering it is always shocking. There were these polyps? I am not really sure what they were, but they had this lovely blue bioluminencence and intersting patterns in them that my camera converted into little bright blobs in a dark blue sea. They mostly were in about -10m (-33feet) of water, and pill shaped about the length of a dime. Sorry I cannot share them with my readers. My deepest dive that day was -22.3m (-73feet) which I did a couple of times. The out part of the bay had the clearer and colder water, no great big fish, no great ground cover, nice boulder formations, clear water (warm compared to the lakes here) and lots of schools of small fish.
The next day we went out to the ANMA dive boat for a 09:30 departure. Which didn't happen. The other group said they would be back by at 10:00. The captain and dive-master were very concerned with how many dives had we done and to what depth. The answer is not really that important but it is probably a reasonable way to judge new divers. The reality is Simon has done very few dives, but is pretty comfortable in the water if his ears clear. Taska gets spooked easily, but has done quite a few dives now. The rest of our party apeared to be a Polish diveschool doing a tech-diving course. They had nitrox tanks, reels, tanks with regulators & hangers on them, inflatable baloons. Despite my polish inheritence I cannot speak a word of the language, so I had to guess what they were up to. They did say they were going to -55m (-180feet) in english. While they were setting up for their dive, I just jumped off the boat and snorkeled around, the outer ridge was very steep. I only made it down to -19m (-62feet), and the cliff on the outside side of the ridge continued to tumble down. The water was 25-26C (76-78F) at the surface and dropped to 19C (66F) at -18m. The inside (towards theisland ridge was much more gentle) This was on the North East of theIsland and was the clearest water I saw for the whole trip. I was snorkeling without a wetsuit or weights. Again no large fish, but some nice terrain and 25m (82feet) of veritcal visability. When it was our turn to do the SCUBA diving. I got in my gear, I was running a little too much weight for a --20m dive (8kg - 17.6lbs) next time I will go for 7kg (15.4lbs) with a 1 peice 3mm suit, and standard Mares BC) Taska had way too much weight in her 1 peice 7mm with 12kg (26.5lbs) I took 2 from her to lighten her up at depth. The hightlights of the dive where a good cave with lots of sponge, worm, and other ground cover life and an octopus hidden in a crevise. Simon's ears just cleared and he had a great dive. Taska ran out of air and abandoned us early. About -23.2m (-76feet) was the deepest we did and it was in the cave. One of the more impressive sites was the themocline at 19 meters. You could see it. There was this strong shimmer that looked liked rough glass for about 5cm at -19m and it was several degrees warmer above it.
I suceeded in not getting sea-sick when going to the next dive site. It was just outside the vis harbour and by the wester lighthouse. The island that we were next to had a very steep wall we decended 30m (98feet) almost immediatly, and followed the spire that was the little island that thelighthouse stood on. Visability was not as good, but we did get an eel, at the end of the dive we found the boat (which had moved) and Simon and I spend another 10-15 minutes in around 4m (-12feet) doing a long decompression stop and working on our underwater photography skills.
That evening we had the best meal of the trip at Knoba Vatrica. I had not eaten all day because I have a tendancy to get sea sick on medium sized motor boats. A friendly waiter, who said he has lots of friends in San Pedro, California and a relative inviting him to San Francisco. He was unusual most waiters were frowning women. He was not good at reccomending food, he would just start listing dishes. We had:
- dalmation ham on melon slices
- lobster sauce pasta
- 1L local white wine
- sparkeling mineral-water
- fish soup
- 1.5kg Saint Peter's Fish
- 1 squid (about 16cm - 6 inch - long body)
- fries
- spinach
The food was all fantastic, from the fries to the lobster sauce, and I am not just sayin that because I started out famished. Finished with a walk down by the night harbour and past the ice-cream shop, extra- cream content ice-cream.
Thursday we walked to the eastern point of the Vis harbour which looked like a nice beach when we passed it with the boat. There is a curious abondaned house on the point, and a cafe selling drinks and playing horrible music. I went out for a little over a two hour swim, found some very nice snorkeling far away from the beach. My favourite was a tunnel at about -7m (-23f). Which I took a video of going through, even though I lost a little skin from my ankle each time I went through it. Then we explored more of the penninsula, climed up the old military watch-tower. Weather was gorgous, but I did not eat all day, I had a Latte at 11:00 and that was it. Then in the evening around16:30 starving and thirsty I started drinking way too much of the 20Kuna (3.44USD/2.71Euro) Wine that came in 1.5L mineral water bottle. I probably drank a litre of it before we went to supper. We went to this very pretty resteraunt (Villa Kaliopa), it was in a walled garden with statues, and instead of a menu it had just had a friendly waitress come by with a big plate of fish and show them to us. The scorpian fish was excellent but my stomach had not decided it was ready for any food. The expensive fish was lost on me and from me.
Friday we took the 11:30 Ferry, which was far better orginized and arrived in Split, this time Simon had the pleasure of driving through the chaotic streets. We drove a long time and despite the late hour westill got stuck in traffic around Ljubljana. We dropped Simon off around Midnight-15 and then went home. We unpacked and I went to sleep about 02:00 then we were out of the house (and repacked with dress cloths) by 10:00. Went out to the airport and saw the police everywhere, every bridge was covered, every major intersection. Then we remember the Pope was comming (and Angela Merkel) later that day. Dropped off the car, sited for a minor scratch when the trying to turn around on a way to small street and rubbed up against the plastic side bumper of the car. This time I could not use the electronic check-in because I had a dog.
The flight to Berlin is so easy, so short, and often not full it is a real pleasure. But for me a "normal" flight is LH 458 11hrs from MUC -> SFO and that flight is almost always stuffed. Berlin is well Berlin. Always changing, superficially grumpy, building new things based on hope not need. We stayed at a littletiny cheap hotel near Ku'dam. We dropped of Duco at the Hotel Taska got some dark stalkings from KaDeWe and we headed to Stadtmitte. Went to Dussmans, took the Tram to Hackersermarkt, had a Milchkaffe at Barista, watched the street performers. Looked at how gentrification is spreading, and the mess of the streets by Alexanderplatz. I spent much of the day reading "The life of Pi" which is a very fun book. The next day we got up dressed up, and prepared for the Taufe. Boring sermon, at least I can exercise my German listening to it. Nice dinner afterward, then a strangly long Coach ride for the 3 of us to Kenpinski Hotel. Then it was change, pack up and fligh back to Munich. Upack, start off some laundry and finish my book.
Now I am home for at least a whole week with no guests or places to run off to.
technorati tags:Croatia, vacation, vis, travel, Kroatien, scuba, apnea, freedive
Blogged with Flock