Greetings everyone!  Hope you’ve had a fulfilling summer this year.  I returned to the States from southern Europe a little more than a week ago, and spent a few days recovering from jet lag and visiting family. Now it is time to write about the second half of the journey, as well as a few points to reflect on the trip in general.

ARRIVING IN CROATIA 

I’d describe the entire voyage as climbing up and down a hill:  it started pretty modestly in Iceland, and then things gradually picked up in excitement as I made my way through Czechia, Austria and Hungary.  Serbia and Croatia were the real pinnacle of the trip, and then Italy was like the cooldown at the end (only figuratively though!)

As my two-legged flight from Belgrade to Zadar ended, I descended into a beautiful coastal landscape on the northern Adriatic.  The weather was fairly hot, in the low 30s Celsius…but humidity was still pretty reasonable. A layover in Zadar gave me a few hours to chill on the beach before my bus to Tisno departed.  Lots of people were out swimming, and the beach bar was playing the perfect disco-house mix from YouTube. Lots of cicadas were singing in the rustic pine trees there…

Upon arrival in Tisno I had to take a taxi into the island town of Murter, where my five-day apartment rental was located. It definitely had the vibe of a tourist trap, but with excellent shops and restaurants. Croatian pizza is a culinary tradition in its own right, with a distinct palette of flavors that sets it apart from the Italian line.  

DEFECTED CROATIA 

After a good night’s sleep, it was time to call another taxi and set off for the centerpiece of my entire trip:  the Defected Croatia house music festival in the Garden Tisno resort park. The Garden is situated on a lagoon and is landscaped with classic Mediterranean trees:  pine, olive, fig, oleander and live oak.  

The festival has been held for 9 years (except 2020), and attracts nearly 5,000 music lovers from across the world.  Some of the world’s biggest names in house music were there; including Rio Tashan, Darius Syrossian, Derrick Carter, David Penn, Sam Divine and Masters at Work to name just a few.  

If you want to see more photos and video clips of the show, feel free to check out my Instagram page @karlbonner82…

On the second night I took a bus to an after-party that ran from midnight to 5am.  A powerful thunderstorm moved in as the bus was leaving, giving us a spectacular light show with literally hundreds of flashes and some dramatic bolts!  There was light rain falling through the laser lights for extra effect too:

This party is where I got to see the renowned Chicago DJ, Derrick Carter. 

 

All in all, it was a profoundly spiritual experience to see so many people brought together by a shared love for music. There were no brawls or bad blood, but there WAS a marriage proposal at the beach stage on the 3rd day!  Not everyone understands house music; but for those who do it touches the soul like nothing else. The festival ended with a very funky set by Masters at Work (Kenny Dope & Louie Vega), who delivered old-school dance vibes until the sun was up.

DUBROVNIK 

After Defected Croatia, I felt as though the emotional pace of the trip would slow again as I continued by bus to Dubrovnik and then flew over to Italy. But it was not yet the case!  The drive down the Croatian coast proved to be absolutely stunning, depriving me of several hours’ catch-up sleep in the process. It had a similar feel to the Oregon coast, just about 10°C warmer and the mountains are about twice as high.  

By evening I had arrived in Dubrovnik and took a quick bus to my B&B in the nearby resort town of Cavtat.  After a breathtaking evening walk it was time to finally get some sleep and prepare for…King’s Landing Day! 😁

The old town of Dubrovnik was used as a backdrop for King’s Landing in Game of Thrones, albeit with lots of CGI effects (the Red Keep in particular, was completely artificial).  The tour began near the entrance to Old Town and climbed a hill into the Lovrijenak Fortress, which is actually adjacent to Old Town. Many important palace scenes were filmed here.  I gained tremendous respect for the actors and extras, many of whom had to spend hours in heavy armored costumes in 35-40 degree sunshine in the middle of summer!  

The tour descended into Old Town proper, including the staircase where Cersei Lannister took her “walk of shame.”  There was a corner restaurant at the bottom of the stairs serving up Woks of Shame, though I didn’t partake in one.  I was incredibly impressed with the tour guide’s deep knowledge of the show, its multibillion-dollar effect on local tourism, and his understanding of fans’ frustrations as to how the show ended. 

Finally in the evening, I took a boat ride to the nearby island of Lokrim for a couple hours and hiked up the hill to another smaller fortress used in GoT (Qarth, I believe).  The island was full of botanical gardens including many species of palm, succulent and eucalyptus…not to mention the iconic native Croatian pines.

It was a very tiring day with lots of uphill walking, but I went home that night feeling incredibly ecstatic at the beautiful world I had stepped into.

AMALFI/POMPEII REGION

The next day was a short flight from Dubrovnik to Naples. As I set foot in Italy – the final country in this saga – I was finally confronted with a stifling obstacle:  humidity. 

Dewpoints during my Croatian trek were somewhat muggy but stayed mostly in the 15-20° C range; in other words, nothing I hadn’t experienced before. But Italy was a different beast.  Dewpoints in the regions around Naples and Salerno (the province of Campagna) were consistently between 21 and 24 degrees Celsius, that’s 70-75° F!  Later in Sicily they would rise as high as 79°F, which is well into U.S. Gulf Coast territory. 

These high humidity levels made temperatures of 31-33°C feel more like 36-40 degrees, and led to profuse episodes of sweating. An air-conditioned hotel room became a necessary safe haven after 3-4 hours out in the sun.

After my first night in Salerno, I rented a car for one day to drive to Pompei(i) and the Amalfi Peninsula. That was the second big ordeal of the trip!  Italy has very limited traffic control, and driving as a foreigner on their streets can be very unnerving.  Thankfully I survived a full day of “Wild West driving” without any collisions, so I’ll mark that down as a triumphant victory! 😁

Seeing the ruins of Pompeii was beautiful and touching , especially the pottery, frescoes and mummified corpses.  But the place is HUGE – way too big to see everything in the middle of a sultry summer day.  Here are a couple of the best photos I grabbed:

The rest of the day was a long and arduous drive down to Sorrento…then on to Termine, Positano and Amalfi, before finally stopping to eat dinner in the town of Minori.  I’ve never driven on such narrow roads before, and native drivers were getting impatient at my cautious approach to navigation. But I got to see some of the most rugged coastline I’ve seen in my entire life, rivaling Oregon (and Croatia) in its awesome grandeur. 

IONIAN SICILY

After a long and stressful day of driving on chaotic Italian roads, it was time to turn in the vehicle and take a train from Salerno to Syracuse, one of the southernmost cities in Sicily.  The ride down was relaxing, and I got to cross the Strait of Messina on a special barge designed for trains!  

The train continued down the eastern coast of Sicily, along the Ionian Sea.  I arrived in Syracuse early that evening and checked into a modest hotel on the south side of town, then enjoyed some excellent fish pasta for dinner.  

The next day was my one day exploring Ortigia, the historic “old town” of Syracuse.  It contains a mix of Greek and Roman cultural and architectural influence, including the ruins of the Temple of Apollo.  (This is where the highest dewpoint, 26C/79F, was reported on my phone app.)  There was also a museum dedicated to Archimedes and Leonardo da Vinci, though I was not permitted to take photos except in the infinite mirror room.  One of the best cathedrals in the city is called Nativita di Maria, which served as a welcome relief from the hot sun for a little while.  

I was amazed at how well I handled the humid heat for the 4 hours I was out exploring Ortigia, but eventually it was time to return to the hotel room to cool down under the A/C.  I did take a second walk outside that night in the “main” part of Syracuse, and got some good close-up views of the Basilica Santuario, a church with a unique astrolabe spire on top.  (See my IG page for more photos).

The next day I took the bus back north to Catania, another Ionian coastal town.  There were plenty more ancient and medieval sites here as well.  That evening I went to the beach south of downtown and dipped my ankles in the seawater; it must have been around 28-30 degrees C!  Definitely the warmest sea water I’ve ever felt and almost too warm to offer any relief from the heat.  But at least now I had an answer as to why, despite very little summer rain, Sicily gets so oppressively muggy…

ROME AND HOME

Finally, it was time to take a short flight to Rome – my final destination on the trip.  I had only one evening to explore the city and did most of it on foot.  (Bus and train services in Rome are hit-and-miss, and Google Maps is not your best friend for getting the schedules correct!).  That was enough time to see three of the city’s most iconic landmarks:  the Colosseo, the Santa Maria Maggiore Basilica, and the pre-Christian Pantheon (temple of all gods).  I had a nice pasta dinner next to the Pantheon and then began the difficult task of getting back to my hotel at night with unreliable Google cues.  

The following day was my flight out of Fiumicino Airport.  It was a two-legged flight with a connection in Calgary – definitely the most unimpressive airport terminal on my entire journey.  On the evening of Tuesday, August 13 I finally touched down again in Portland, Oregon after 27 days abroad.  

SUMMARY AND A FEW KEY POINTS

The first half of my trip was written hastily from my Murter apartment, on the first day of Defected Croatia.  I wanted to cover a few extra thoughts from those first few cities:

• Icelandic public transit is not that great.  At least from my B&B location in Keflavik, there were only a few daily routes to Reykjavik, and I wasted nearly 2 hours after hopping on an earlier bus thinking it would go all the way to Reykjavik when it didn’t (failed to read the fine print on the sign!).  Though I’m sure my jet lag and lack of sleep also impacted my level of emotional enjoyment that day.
• In contrast, the transit in Prague, Vienna and Budapest is marvelous!  Buses and tram cars depart every 10-15 minutes, and the underground Metro (subway) even more frequently than that.  Not once did I see any drug overdoses or violent activity on the trains.  This is in sharp contrast to the cynicism of many public figures in southwest Washington, who are convinced that expanding Portland light rail into Vancouver will bring crime and “Antifa” problems across the river.  I would encourage all the naysayers to spend a week or two in Central Europe, riding the trains!
• European countries are not as ethnically “homogeneous” as some people think.  When I was in Brno I got to see some Moravian and Roma (gypsy) neighborhoods, who are significant ethnic minorities in the Czech Republic.  Sadly, the Roma face significant discrimination and assimilation difficulties in most of the countries where they are abundant.  Roma are also prevalent in Hungary.  Serbia is especially diverse, with large Hungarian and Bosniak populations mingling with the Serb majority.  (This ethnic overlap also exists in Croatia, Bosnia and Kosovo – and while they may have been a flashpoint for bloody conflict in the 1990s, it’s also true that millions of Balkaneers live in harmony with diverse neighbors, friends and extended family.
• It was unusually sunny and dry in Central Europe when I was there.  Czechia and Austria are not normally that hot and arid in the summer, though it was mostly dry and in the upper 20s / low 30s C when I was there.  This was also true in Hungary and Serbia, both of which experienced a historically hot and dry summer this year with many days in the 35-40 degree range.  In a “normal” summer Budapest is only marginally warmer than Portland, and even Belgrade is on par with Roseburg or Grants Pass.  Both countries also normally get quite a bit of monsoonal rain in the summer, but this was a difficult year for agriculture due to the drought and heat.
• Nights and mornings tend to be a little warmer than the Pacific Northwest, even when daytime temps are similar.  They don’t have a cool ocean to bring marine relief overnight, and the local terrain is not quite as rugged.  This means less opportunity for cool air to move in at night from the sea or from surrounding mountains or hills.  Winter is a different story though…inversions in the Pannonian Basin can get ugly at times!
• Serbia has its own east wind, similar to Portland!  It’s called the Košava, and is largely a gap wind similar to our Columbia Gorge wind.  It is caused by cold high pressure descending over Ukraine and Romania; then the cold air is pushed through the Iron Gates (Danube Gorge) by the pressure gradient.  The wind blasts Eastern Serbia and sometimes sweeps through to Belgrade and even Novi Sad. 

To summarize the entire experience…wow, this was a LOT of destinations even for a month-long trip!  Having to keep track of more than a dozen accommodations is not easy; neither is having to go to a train or bus station (or airport) every couple days to make connections to the next city.  (This is doubly true if you overpack like I did!)  It’s far easier to have a central destination hub; let’s take Belgrade as an example.  From there you could arrange short trips to relatively nearby locations, such as the Iron Gates, Novi Sad, Bosnia, Macedonia etc.  That’s just one example, but the point is that this approach can be far less stressful (and costly) than having to hop from city to city every 2 or 3 days. Now this trip was a special situation for me because I had never gone abroad before, and wanted to “go big” on my first trip.  But it’s something to keep in mind for future excursions.

In any case, I highly recommend that you travel abroad if you’ve never done so before.  If anything, experiencing other cultures and customs will allow you to think outside the box that we can trap ourselves in when we live highly predictable lives from one month to the next.  Take it from Oberyn Martell in Game of Thrones:  

“It is a big and beautiful world. Most of us live and die in the same corner where we were born and never get to see any of it. I don’t want to be most of us.“

May you all have memorable adventures of your own!

Karl