Showing posts with label beach. Show all posts
Showing posts with label beach. Show all posts

Monday, August 7, 2017

Week 24: Whirlwind

Hey!

I know it’s Monday, which means that for the first time since I started this blog, I’m undeniably late. In my defense, I’ve completely lost all sense of time. We’ve been to so many places that the days have begun to blur together.

Okay, that sounds bad to me too. But I’ve been to 4 cities in 3 countries since last Sunday. I’m losing track of it all because so much has happened.

Last Monday, we nearly missed our flight from Istanbul to Sarajevo. We made it, thanks to some lovely travelers who let us cut in front of them in the passport line. It turned out that our bags had not taken the journey with us. Either leg. They were still in Tel Aviv. There was nothing we could do except for continue to the hostel without them. We were fortunate enough to get them the next morning, delivered straight to the hostel without further incident.

That was not the only mishap of the trip so far. On Saturday, we went on a bus from Zadar, Croatia to the Nin lagoon. Due to some unclear signage at a bus stop, we got off in a hurry at the wrong place. In the rush, I dropped my phone. It took a kind restauranteur and a whole lot of phone calls, but we managed to flag down the driver. Of course, I had to wait until we were back at the bus station in Zadar before I could actually get it back.

These incidents have been stressful, but the rest of the trip is incredible. Sarajevo is a fascinating place. We learned about the longest siege in modern history, which was still going on when I was born. Our tour guide told us about the shrapnel collection she had as a kid and showed us “Sarajevo Roses,” indents in the concrete from where a shell had hit. We also went to a few museums and hung around in Old Town Sarajevo.

The Dalmatian Coast of Croatia was a lot more laid back. We went to the beach in Split and then made our way up the coast to Zadar. We walked around the city, which is ancient and full of magnificent old buildings. We swam at the Sea Organ (Google it. Seriously.) and watched the sun set over the Adriatic. Then, we went to Nin, where we had a great afternoon at the beach despite the misadventure with my phone.

Yesterday, we took a bus to Ljubljana, the capital of Slovenia. We climbed a pretty big hill to a castle. The view was awesome, but thunder started as soon as we reached the top. It started pouring before we made it back to our hostel. We managed to hide from the worst of it, but that basically ended our night in town. This morning, we got up a bit earlier and went exploring. Ljubljana is a small city, but it’s got charm (and a canal).

And now it’s time for some pictures!!!

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We’re back in Croatia for the afternoon, so I’m gonna go explore with my travel buddy. See you Sunday!

Sunday, April 9, 2017

Week 7: A Slight Change of Plans (AKA I’m Okay Now, I Swear!)

Hey!

I had an interesting weekend, which mostly revolved around a lovely little asthma attack on Friday night. And, me being me, I forgot to bring an inhaler to Australia and procrastinated on getting one. So I had to recover the hard way, with sitting up, water, and eventually a hot shower. I was up all night. 

Even with a good day's sleep, four hours of not breathing leaves you a little bit exhausted. Instead of the afternoon out I was planning for yesterday, I bought the inhaler (which, of course, was cheap and didn’t require a prescription) for and then sat at the library on my computer all evening. My dad asked me for photos of campus, so I took a few.

A post shared by Emily (@emilyhannahk) on

A post shared by Emily (@emilyhannahk) on

Today, I was feeling 100% again, so I decided that I could reschedule my adventure day. Sundays are the best day to travel in Sydney because they put a $2.50 cap on public transit. And that’s for the day, not per ride. The forecast said rain, but not until evening, so I decided to spend my afternoon at the beach again. This time, I took advantage of the cheap travel and went far. Cronulla Beach is at the end of the train line, about an hour from where I live.

The beach was really long, and I walked along it for about half an hour. I started a small sandy area full of swimmers and sunbathers, but next to that was a rocky shore. The water eroded holes into the rocks, which were perfectly round and quite deep. I had to watch where I stepped, lest I soak one of my sneakers by accident. I managed to avoid that and also didn’t fall on the slipperier rocks. But I was pretty glad I didn't bring my camera because with my coordination, it would probably be in pieces on those rocks right now.

And now it’s time for another round of Pictures from the Beach!


A post shared by Emily (@emilyhannahk) on


I hope you enjoyed looking at those pictures as much as I enjoyed taking them (though I don't know if the satisfaction of taking a halfway decent picture can be felt secondhand. Let me know in the comments if you had some otherworldly experience with my photos). 

Next time I shout into my lovely little corner of the void, it will be Passover and I’ll be in New Zealand! I’m still not sure if I’ve totally processed the fact that I’m actually on a semester abroad, even though it’s been 7 weeks since I was last in the US. The semester is nearing its halfway point and I feel like there’s so much I still haven’t done, but I’ve got well over 2 months left here in Australia.


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Chag Pesach Kasher v’Sameach (That means have a good Passover)! I’ll see you again next Sunday.