<< Back to all Blogs
Login or Create your own free blog
Layout:
Home > The Vacation Portion of the Vacation (photos!)

The Vacation Portion of the Vacation (photos!)

July 15th, 2016 at 03:20 pm

Despite the fact that the visiting-family portion of our holiday was challenging, the vacation portion was AMAZING. When we visit D's mum, dad, sister, etc. in the UK, we always plan a vacation afterward (not before!) to somewhere in Europe.

This trip was Croatia. Wow! It was like unspoiled Italy with a little Eastern Bloc and a little Pirate. We were in Rovinj on the Istrian peninsula.

Here are some of the financial notes:
- We traveled on Ryanair; unlike many people I don't have a problem with that airline. They charge very little, but you have to comply with the rules or risk extra fees. D, F and I travel carry-on only, one bag each (and no additional personal bag!) that fits Ryanair's requirement. So it's pretty inexpensive to get from the UK to the rest of Europe.
- We rent an apt. for a week (this time was through Homeaway) so we don't have to eat out all the time. We eat simple, inexpensive meals in our apt.
- We did have meals out that were amazing. Best food I've ever had in my life for about $12 each at a restaurant in Motovun, a hilltown near Rovinj. That's a photo of what I had: polenta with truffles and a parmesan crisp.
- We splurge on cool activities. This time we went sea kayaking to the nearby islands. We also went to the Harry Potter studios in the UK (so worth it!).
- Grandma (my MIL in the UK) gave us some money to "have a nice meal" and gave F 40 pounds to buy some souvenirs at Harry Potter. That was nice!
- We don't usually buy any souvenirs, but we were in Venice for two days and painted our own Carnevale masks. So that was our souvenir (besides F's wand from Harry Potter!)
- We brought picnics to the beach
- We only rented a car for three days, and otherwise used public transport (including the boat to Venice)

Here are a few photos:











Posted in Frugal Living | 8 Comments »

8 Responses to “The Vacation Portion of the Vacation (photos!)”

  1. MonkeyMama Says:
    July 15th, 2016 at 04:04 pm 1468598696
    1468598696

    Beautiful!

  2. ThriftoRama Says:
    July 15th, 2016 at 05:07 pm 1468602461
    1468602461

    Wow. That looks amazing. I sure wish American cities were pretty and cool like that!

  3. snafu Says:
    July 15th, 2016 at 06:10 pm 1468606253
    1468606253

    Sounds fascinating! DH and I discussed E Europe but never made tangible plans. How did you manage communications? Is English the 2nd language? Would you return to Croatia again? Curious about apt. Did you stay in old area, depicted? Any apt. photos you might share? Would you go to Zagreb?

  4. livingalmostlarge Says:
    July 15th, 2016 at 06:30 pm 1468607438
    1468607438

    So amazing. Wish we could visit.

  5. starfishy Says:
    July 15th, 2016 at 07:00 pm 1468609221
    1468609221

    welcome home - sounds like a fabulous vacation! Smile

  6. Buendia Says:
    July 15th, 2016 at 07:27 pm 1468610869
    1468610869

    Communication was easy! Most people speak English (and Italian). I learned to say please (molim) and thank you (hvala) as well as hello (zdravo). They liked it when you said thank you in Croatian! I would absolutely return. We did stay in the old area of Rovinj (I will post another photo of our apt)... you can't get a car anywhere near there (which we like). The streets are very steep and sort of slippery. To access the apt., you go up a half flight of stairs; when you enter the door, you're in a little entry area and have to go up another flight of steep stairs to get to the living room/kitchen/dining/patio. Then it's another very steep flight of stairs up to the bedrooms and another patio. Everything in Rovinj is steep! Actually we always felt like we were going uphill everywhere we went! But we like walking/hiking, so we loved it! There are some new hotels and we walked to those because they were on the way to some of the beaches. The beaches are rocks not sand, and often there are concrete areas or stone areas with deck chairs. Food is not inexpensive but it's really amazing (truffles, pasta, seafood of all types), and ice cream was just a euro, so we had ice cream every night! It's something between ice cream and Italian gelato. There were a ton of tourists because Rovinj is a tourist town, but they were mostly German, Austrian and Italian. A few Americans (not many) and other nationalities (Polish, some English). People eat late, and lots of stores didn't close until midnight! Even the farmer's market was still open at 9 pm!

  7. ceejay74 Says:
    July 16th, 2016 at 03:04 am 1468638294
    1468638294

    Wow, gorgeous! So funny--we do the same thing when we visit England. A week with the inlaws and then a week with friends. Usually we just go to Oxford, just a few hours away from the inlaws, but this time we convinced the UK friends to come to Barcelona with us instead. That was awesome--we might see if we can go somewhere new from now on when we visit. (Our inlaws are very nice folks and we get along with all of them, but they're not exactly who I'd party with if given the choice. Well, maybe NT's stepmum--she's a good-time gal despite being in her 60s! Big Grin )

  8. FrugalTexan75 Says:
    July 17th, 2016 at 01:05 am 1468717531
    1468717531

    Lovely!

Leave a Reply

(Note: If you were logged in, we could automatically fill in these fields for you.)
*
Will not be published.
   

* Please spell out the number 4.  [ Why? ]

vB Code: You can use these tags: [b] [i] [u] [url] [email]