This weekend we’ve been busy but in a good way!
Saturday was not quite filled with all that much joy as we had to move houses. But we managed just fine for doing it for the first time. It looks like nothing got forgotten and we left on time. The next stop was a trip to the mechanic on the island as our “check engine” light came on and we don’t want to risk driving to the next country that way. Luckily we are still staying on Krk island for 2 weeks so the mechanic will see us Wednesday. Fingers crossed that it’s nothing bad!
The new house offers a lot more space than the old one did and is a lot closer to the ocean. Only a 15-minute walk to we are at the beach. We can even see it from our huge balcony. Pretty amazing. The weather is – obviously – not quite as hot as it is in summer, but still very nice and balmy, nothing compared to late October in Germany.
On top of that, all the tourists have gone home, so we are alone in most tourist spots, which is more than amazing.
Sunday was packed full of fun stuff and sightseeing. First, we went to Biserujka cave, a stalactite cave on the island that was nothing short of amazing. I don’t like going underground so I had a rough time deciding to even go down there but figured I’d do it for the kids. Thankfully, after a handful of other tourists left (and I mean like 5 people), we were the only ones down there other than the tour guide. She was great and told us everything about the cave (she’s worked there for 18 years), showed the kids hidden things all over the place, gave us traveling and sightseeing tips, told us about the island, its history, and much more. She did such a good job that I was distracted enough to enjoy the cave and got some great pictures taken. She must have talked to us about it for over an hour and took time to explain a lot about the cave to the kids. They learned that it takes 30 years for 1 single millimeter of stalactite to grow, that the beginnings of a stalactite (the very thin first strings that have a hole in the middle where the water drops out) are called “Spaghetti”, they learned which mistakes were made when the cave was first discovered (black color is stuck on a lot of the stones because people went in with torches, people used to rip stalactites off was souvenirs – remember it takes 30 years for 1mm! -, artificial lights lead to algae growth,…), they learned that she has to go off the paths of the cave each day to clean up all the trash that people throw in (in 1 day!), they learned all about the different animals that live in the cave (two of which have been found nowhere else in the entire world – a crab and a pseudo scorpion) and the animals that used to live there (a vegetarian bear family) and so much more. She even showed us a hidden gem that is stuck in the stairs that she doesn’t show to people for fear of it being stolen. The whole time we were the only ones down there, no other people coming in, after that she told us that during summer they have over 40,000 people being pushed through so that you can bearly see. Traveling off-season is truly exceptional. I can’t believe this is our life!
She also told us a lot about the locals and how they build lots and lots of stone walls around the island, as they have to dig giant holes and get rid of all the stones to get to fertile soil, they then use those stones and put them up as walls because they serve as protection from the strong and severe north wind that brings crazy storms and salt filled air that destroys the olive trees. That’s why all the walls we are seeing!
It was truly an amazing experience. I keep repeating myself, but I’d love to see the classroom that can teach my kids in 1 year what they just learned in 2 hours down in a cave. Insane!
The next stop after the cave was a famous beach in Soline with healing mud that the kids had an absolute blast playing in. The ocean water to wash off the mud was crystal clear and shallow so it was easy to walk in for a long time. We will for sure come back with our swimsuits on!
After that, we paid a visit to the city of Vrbnik and checked out the “Narrowest street in the world”. The signs still claim it is, even though they have found an even narrower one a couple of years ago in Germany, but hey, who’s going to spoil the fun? Kids had a lot of fun trying to squeeze through the narrow spot and again I was wondering how you are supposed to enjoy this with thousands of other tourists in summer. We were alone 🙂
We also checked out some small local stores and came home with traditional wines, liquor, and almond chocolate made with Krk olive oil – and it tasted really good!
All in all – very, very successful weekend.
The boss, the general, and the brains of the operation. Anya is the mom of this crazy group of misfits. When not traveling the world and teaching her kids to be decent human-beings, she likes to bake, sing, be goofy. Aside from all that she does for Five of a Kind, she is also a short term foster mother for infants in need.
She also enjoys unreasonably spicy foods and is searching for a hot sauce that is spicy enough and yet still has some kind of flavor to it.
