Day 37 – Bol on the island of Brač, Croatia – Sitting on an empty Zlatni Rat listening to Kokomo.

I can’t help but feel like a carnival attraction walking around Bol. The season is closed. We are alone amongst locals. As I walk down the empty town streets I am watched from the few bars left open. Construction workers…

Day 33 – Zadar, Croatia – The city that refuses to die.

We didn’t plan to visit Zadar. It was the closest city to Paklenica National Park that Katy wanted to hike and it seemed like a better alternative to the seasonal climber village outside the park where I would be trapped…

Day 29 – Plitvička Jezera, Croatia – Wandering around a magical cloud.

Plitvice Lakes is the living embodiment of a water spirit, crystal waters tinged with chartreuse and aquamarine, the forest deadfall a ghostly mineral white texturing the haunting depths of the valley lakes as they rush, one to the next, down…

Day 28 – Brijuni Island, Croatia – Touring the playground of a benevolent dictator.

Zipping through the personal summer playground of a dictator, down tiny paved lanes past once splendid and palatial remnants slowly falling into disrepair, a glimpse into a different time. Cruising with cartoonish map in hand, we visit the expansive roman…

Day 26 – Day trip – Pula, Croatia

Even though the airport is in Pula, instead of staying in Pula we decided to set up home base in Rovinj and day trip there. There’s a bus station in the middle of Rovinj with nearly hourly buses to there…

Day 21 – Rovinj, Croatia – A sleepy medieval fisherman town.

Rovinj is the medieval storybook port town of your dreams. Shiny white stone streets spiraling up the hillsides in odd, often impossible-seeming pathways, claustrophobic lanes crisscrossed with drying laundry like Tibetan prayer flags waving in the cool evening air. All…

Day 16 – Split, Croatia

My highschool social studies project predicted the Yugoslavian civil war (known here as the Homeland War – Domovinski rat). And my college roommate was an ethnic Albanian from what is now Kosovo. He left home in the early 90’s at…

Day 13 – Barcelona, Spain

  I’ve been here before. The tiny bars lining the pedestrian allies of the gothic quarter off La Rambla were a revelation. The food, the people, enchanting. And did I mention the food? Seven years ago Katy and I were…

Day 0 – The grand adventure.

    “It’s only after we’ve lost everything that we’re free to do anything.” Today I am starting over. I’ve given away almost all of my possessions and packed a small carry on bag that I will be living out of…