Tel Aviv

Shalom y'all!

After our Sabbath excursion to Bethlehem we decided we'd had enough religion for one holiday, so we left Jerusalem and headed west. To Tel Aviv of course.

As you can see from the pictures Tel Aviv has some pretty nice beaches. Unfortunately they really don't want you to go in the water in the winter.

All the beaches had signs like the one above. They also seemed to be really worried about tsunamis, as you can see below. I didn't even know tsunamis were a thing in the Mediterranean...

Anyway, here's a picture of me about to throw Julius in the water. He came back shivering and murmuring something about really dangerous currents.

New Year's Eve came around while we were in Tel Aviv. Obviously New Year's Eve isn't really a thing in Israel so Julius and I went shopping in preparation for our own little party.

We found some nice Soviet champagne in one of the local shops but Julius kept nagging me until I bought a bottle for him too. Can you guess which one is his? The gold one of course. He really likes shiny things the little critter.

Finally I'm going to leave you with one more picture of me and the Tel Aviv skyline.

Bethlehem

Salam alaykum!

The day after out trip to Masada was a Saturday. When we woke up we saw that the streets were empty and everything was closed. At first we thought it was a nuclear apocalypse, but of course it was just the Sabbath. We hadn't planned for that though so we didn't have anything to eat for breakfast. While Julius was getting more and more cranky I came up with a solution. Let's go to Palestine! Palestinians don't celebrate Sabbath, and they make awesome food. Perfect! We hopped on a bus and soon we were in Bethlehem.

Bethlehem is a typical Arab town in the sense that there are shops and food stalls everywhere so finding breakfast wasn't hard. We settled for some fried chicken.

After breakfast we explored the town of Bethlehem. The locals were very nice. They'd even decorated their Christmas tree with reindeer! Just to make us feel at home.

We even met Santa Claus! Though I think he might have had one mulled wine too many...

Julius also insisted on taking a selfie with some random baby he found in a manger. Silly kid...

That's enough for today I think, but come back soon I still have more to tell you about our trip to the holy land.

Masada

Welcome back!

From Jerusalem we went on an excursion to Masada, an ancient hill fortress by the Dead Sea.

To get to the top you have two options. You can take the cable car or you can walk up. Julius the lazy bugger took the cable car of course.

But I walked up on the so called "Snake Path" like a real man.

The path gains about 300 metres in altitude, and the steps are quite a challenge for a little monkey like me.

I'm starting to regret this, but at least I'll get rewarded with a magnificent view when I get to the top...

Oh, for fuck's sake, the Dead Sea is right there and you can't even see it. Stupid desert haze.

Well, at least there's decent a view on the other side towards the Judaean Desert.

The plateau itself is full of ancient ruins (and some not-so-ancient gazebos).

I got inspired to try and build my own structure.

Here's the result. Quite a palace right?

Well, that's enough for today.
Come back soon, next stop Bethlehem!

Ho ho holy Land

Shalom friends!

Sorry for not bringing you any updates about my life in a long time. I've mainly been at home taking care of Julius and uncle Jevgeni. That's a full-time job, you know...

As a reward for being so good this year Julius decided to go to the Holy Land to see Santa Claus Jesus and also to get some much needed sun. We spent a few days in Jerusalem before continuing to Tel Aviv.

Jerusalem was a very interesting place. We walked around the old town and touched all the holy stuff.

Holy Jewish stuff...

Holy Christian stuff...

Holy Muslim stuff...

And eh... miscellaneous holy stuff...

In fact Julius got so affected by all the holiness that he developed a halo. As if he wasn't annoying enough to look at already...

Come back soon and I'll tell you more about our trip to the Holy Land.

Pula

Ćao drugari!

From Rijeka I had booked a bus to Pula on the southern tip of the Istrian peninsula. It was super cheap, only €5 I think. But maybe it was a little too cheap. I went down to the bus station and waited... and waited... and bought an ice-cream... and waited. The bus finally showed up 45 minutes after it was supposed to leave. By the time we got on our way towards Pula it was an hour late and so full that some people had to sit in the aisle. Next time I think I'll just sneak onto one of the more expensive buses.

Like Verona—which I visited this summer—Pula is famous for its Roman amphitheatre; Pula Arena. While it's not as well-preserved as the one in Verona it's certainly impressive, especially considering that it's two thousand years old.

By the way, the hill where I took this selfie is also where I took the very first picture I ever posted on this blog. But in that picture my head covers most of the amphitheatre so you can't really see that it's there. Here's a picture of me imagining I'm a gladiator about to enter the arena. You can almost hear the crowds cheering.

Of course, the arena is no longer used for gladiator fights, which is a shame really. I think I would have made a great gladiator. As you can see in the picture below it's now used for movie screenings.

Pula is popular holiday destination. And no wonder, it seems to have everything: a lovely climate, beautiful nature (including a national park), ancient Roman temples and villas, beaches and so on. On the downside, there are way too many tourists. Germans and Scandinavians everywhere. shudders. The city does have its quiet places, though, some of them with an abundance of beautiful flowers.

Alright, people, that was the end this journey, but I have more travel tales coming up.
Doviđenja and don't let the rainy autumn weather get to you.

Rijeka

Dobar dan!

From Ljubljana I took a bus to Rijeka in Croatia. This time I did notice the border. While Croatia is in the European Union it's still outside the Schengen Area, so there's a good old-fashioned passport check at the border. Most of the passengers had EU passports that they simply waved at the border guard like Jedi knights but we did have to wait a while for the two Australians to have their passports properly inspected and stamped. Because you you can never be too careful when it comes to Australians... I of course hadn't bothered to bring my passport, I just hid under the seat.

When I got to Rijeka I immediately fell in love with the city. I mean just look at the above picture, that was the first sign I saw in Rijeka. How can you disagree with that? And just like Bologna they have their own leaning tower.

Rijeka of course just means river in Serbo-Croatian. Depending on what variety of the language you speak it can also be spelt Reka or Rika. Here's a picture of me on the main street.

On a side street I found the good ship "Dobro More 2". I'm still not quite sure what it was good for. Maybe it was an art installation of some kind. I don't know but it was rather rusty.

After a while I got tired of being the captain of a rusty head of metal that wasn't going anywhere. So I decided to climb a lot of stairs to get to the Trsat Castle where I met this guy.

He wasn't the only mythological creature I encountered there. You may remember from my Top 5 list of statues and sculptures that I met and defeated a basilisk all on my own.
The view from the castle was magnificent. You could see the whole city and more.

What you see in the background is the Istrian peninsula, which was my next stop. See you there!

Ljubljana

Dober dan!

From Trieste I took a bus to Ljubljana, the capital of Slovenia. A few minutes after leaving Trieste we were suddenly in Slovenia, I didn't even notice the border.

Ljubljana is a perfect holiday destination.

1. It's in the foothills of the Alps so the view is beautiful no matter which direction you turn. 
2. Location. You can take a day trips to Austria, Croatia or Italy.
3. It's cheap. Eastern European prices but Western European standards.
4. There isn't really anything to do there. No really, that's a good thing. It means that there's no pressure, you can just relax and enjoy the cafés by the river without feeling bad because you ought to be doing some proper touristing.

Me in Ljubljana Castle

The main landmark of the city is Ljubljana Castle. It sits on on a hill overlooking the city so you get a great view of the city from there.

The other main feature of the city is the Ljubljanica River. The river is lined with cafés, bars and restaurants. It's a great place to relax and enjoy life.

Me enjoying a glass of sparkling wine.

If you get bored with drinking and eating you can take a trip on one of the many boats cruising the river.

Me on a riverboat

As you may remember from my Top 5 list of statues and sculptures I met this dude on one of the bridges crossing the river. I'm still not quite sure what he is, but he seemed nice.

That'll do for today, next stop Rijeka in Croatia!

Trieste

Ciao!

From Venice I took the train to Trieste. Trieste is an interesting mix of Slovenian, Austrian and Italian. It was part of the Habsburg Empire for more that 500 years. After World War I it was annexed by Italy. And today It's only a few kilometres from the Slovenian border and in the surrounding villages people still speak Slovene despite the best efforts of the Fascists.

Taking a selfie during an evening stroll along the beach promenade in Trieste

From Trieste you can take a bus north, after about half an hour you'll get to the village of Prosek which you might know better by its Italian name Prosecco. Stay on the bus for another five minutes and you'll be in Briščiki which is the home of Grotta Gigante. It's the biggest cave in the world, or well, so they told us. Turns out what they meant was that it used to be in the Guinness Book of Records as the "world's largest tourist cave" (whatever that means) but it's not anymore. It was overtaken by a cave in the Pyrenees.

The white bands are two pendulums used for some sort of scientific measurements. They are a 100 metres long!

As you'd expect the cave was full of  stalactites  stalagmites.

I had just gotten a new camera and a hadn't quite figured out the flash and light settings yet which is rather important in a dark environment like a cave, so some of my photos from the cave look a little silly.

When I came back from the cave I took a walk along the coast. It was simply beautiful.

And the water was clear and warm, perfect for swimming.

After walking for a bit I got to the Miramare Castle. My initial though was that 'castle' was a bit of an overstatement. It was really rather small...

... but then I learned that it was built for the Austrian Archduke Ferdinand Maximilian who later became emperor of Mexico.

And it was in a very beautiful spot, you could see all the way to Croatia.

Me in a flowerpot outside the castle

That's all for today, my dear friends. Next stop Ljubljana!