Owner: Lifejacket Adventures - Adriatic Kayak Expeditions URL:http://blog.lifejacketadventures.com Join Date: Sat, 19 Jan 2008 06:42:41 -0600 Rating:0 Site Description: Travel stories from a young Australian family living in Croatia - organizing kayak tours, rebuilding a traditional wooden boat and renovating an old stone house. Site statistics:Click here
Food and Wine 3 - Istria’s Truffles and Malvasia 2008-02-19 17:38:54 We were back up in Motovun again this weekend as our builder, Gino, prepared for demolition in the house we are renovating.
From a gastronomic POV, Motovun is known for its truffles. In fact the world’s largest was found in 1999 in the nearby forests - it weighed 1.30 kgs. Given Black truffle sells for [...] Read more:Truffles
The Apology 2008-02-12 16:59:49 Though we are living in Croatia we still keep an eye on what is happening back home in Australia.
The big news today is the long awaited apology from the Australian Government to the Aboriginal peoples for forced removal of children from their families - a practice that continued until the end of the 1960s. Those [...] Read more:Apology
Krka Waterfalls and Nikola Tesla 2008-02-12 03:38:00 Croatia is a nation of contradictions.
On Sunday we went to Skradin, a small town on the Krka River, just behind Šibenik, to visit Vina Bibich, run by Alen, a local wine producer and chef about whom we had heard great things. We wanted to try the local red wine, debit. Unfortunately everything is still closed [...] Read more:Waterfalls
Leut Renovation 3 - Finally! 2008-02-03 15:51:28 Its been a long wait but finally our leut is in the shed. Our previous attempts failed - but finally brute force prevailed. Only six guys, two fork lifts, twenty steel pipes and eight hours of continuous hard work were required to complete the task.
The knowledge of those involved made the whole task a lot [...] Read more:Renovation
, Finally
New Boat Design 2008-02-01 16:23:00 Except for the odd day when the bura howls down from the mountains, the Adriatic Sea is relatively calm. This makes the Dalmatian Coast a perfect location for ship-borne activities which may not be possible elsewhere. One idea that we have been asked to help on is a restaurant/bar catamaran. This work is part of [...]
Food and Wine 2 - Komiža Pie and Vugava Wine 2008-01-30 11:19:46 Time for another Dalmatian dish and appropriate wine. This month’s serving comes from Vis Island - another stop on one of our kayaking tours.
One of the remotest Dalmatian islands, Vis is proud of its fishing heritage. Komiža Pie was a staple of the men sailing their falkuše to the rich fishing grounds surrounding the [...]
Leut Renovation 2 - Oops! 2008-01-23 07:34:07 We encountered a small problem, yesterday, as we tried to shift the boat into the shed at the boatyard. Welded to the bottom of the trailer we built are 10 trolley wheels. They are rated to 300kgs each. The boat we judged to be 5 tons. But of course 10 x 300 doesn’t equal 5000. [...] Read more:Renovation
Salona’s Roman Ruins with Sweet and Sour Pork 2008-01-13 07:44:14 Its a laugh when Aussies or Yanks start talking about heritage. The moment we step out the door of our apartment we are breathing the same air Roman
Emperor Diocletian (236 - 316) did 1 700 years ago.
To try an give Aklie some perspective we took him, with our friends, the Smalbys, to the Split [...] Read more:Ruins
, Sweet
New Year’s Eve and Skiing in Slovenia 2008-01-10 12:11:35 For New Year
’s Eve we drove north to Lake Bled, Slovenia
. The town had been so highly recommended by many people coming into our laundromat in Split that we decided we had to visit.
The 6 hour drive up the auto cesta from Split to Bled took us passed Rijeka and Ljubljana. The thick covering of [...] Read more:Skiing
Skiing in Bosnia Hercegovina 2008-03-16 15:27:19 The skiing in Bosnia
Hercegovina has not been very good this year. The closest ski resort to Split, Kupres, has suffered from poor snow falls and has been closed for most of the season.
Finally, last weekend weather cold enough to throw a white blanket across the region blew through and most of Split headed to [...] Read more:Skiing
German Story About Day on Falkuša 2008-03-15 13:58:10 The dreaded ‘flu has meant we haven’t had many adventures recently.
For all our German
friends (Hi An!), you can read about a day spent with the Smalbys on the Gajeta Falkuša last summer on the Alles Kroatien website. The Falkuša is one of the boats we use on our Kayak Tours.
We had a beautiful, sunny [...]
Ray Fusco’s New Project - Kayaking in New York 2008-03-17 17:13:52 Ray Fusco, who I had fun with in early 2006, attempting to cross the Adriatic Sea, has been a busy man lately. Not only has he survived cancer - during our crossing, unbeknown to him, he had a fist-size tumor on his kidney - but he founded and organizes the New York
Mayor’s Cup, [...] Read more:Project
, Kayaking
Hvar Island - One of the 53 Places to Visit in 2008 2008-03-19 17:42:28 The New York Times recently published a list of the must-see places in the world for 2008. Included in this list, at an impressive #11, is the town of Hvar (on Hvar Island
).
The NY Times describes Hvar thus:
“As Croatia’s Dalmatian Coast has become a new Riviera, Hvar has become its St. Tropez: a tiny village [...] Read more:Places
Motovun Concerns Update 2008-03-22 11:28:58 For those that can read Croatian, the Istrian Voice newspaper published today an article describing the findings of a commission regarding a proposed golf-course in the valley below Motovun (click here). The commission sided with local residents and demanded that the developer reduce the number of beds by half to 250. Given that the economics [...] Read more:Update
Another Day in Motovun - Villages, Olives and Asparagus 2008-03-22 10:09:57 During a drive around Istria this weekend we stumbled upon Draguć. Its just another small, picturesque, hill-top Istrian town, with a main street, square, water fountain, dirt streets and church - a dime-a-dozen around the region.
But after speaking to the owner of Buffet Zora (shown above), we discovered the town has even more to offer.
Of [...] Read more:Villages
, Olives
We’re Only Making Plans for (Sailing with) Nigel 2008-03-24 04:12:51 Above is one of the hardest working and most generous expats in Split, our friend Nigel Turnball. (This picture was taken on Hvar Island when he first arrived - he was a white, pasty Pom back then!)
Several years ago he set up Sailing
School Croatia. Its the only RYA approved sailing school in these parts, [...]
Leut Renovation 4 - Wood 2008-03-24 03:54:21 These last weeks we have been learning about wood in relation to traditional boats. For the leut, oak (hrast in Croatian) will be used below the water-line. But not just any oak - it must be either from Slavonia (the north-east rump of Croatia) or Lika (the area around Plitvice Lakes) - i.e. hrast lužnjak [...] Read more:Renovation
One Last Poll - Vis Island in Top Romantic Getaways 2008-03-27 03:27:10 As can be seen from the last posts we have been catching up on our newspaper reading. Old lefties who read The Guardian in the UK may have seen a recent article about the best places to take your loved one. Under the title Glamorous Romantic Getaways, our friend Goran and his restaurant Vila [...] Read more:Island
More Good Press - Dalmatian Islands in World’s Top 10 2008-03-26 16:19:14 Another magazine, another poll and the Dalmatian Islands
are again ranked very highly. Travel + Leisure Magazine put them at #7 in their Top 10 World
’s Best Islands. Follow the link and you arrive at a 2005 article about many of the islands we often visit.
Of Dubrovnik - “Dalmatia’s most famous city is touted [...] Read more:Press
Food and Wine 1 - Primošten Chicken & Babić Wine 2008-01-09 11:33:39 Storm-surges of competing empires eroded Croatia into its present form and left their influences on bordering regions as they receded. They gave Croatia, a small country of about four and a half million people, a remarkable variation of traditions. This variety is reflected in the country’s food and wine.
At least every month, from Julie’s kitchen [...] Read more:Primo
, Chicken
A Day in Split - Boats and Politics 2008-04-01 09:14:50 Today’s picture comes from the set of Bella Biondina. The movie, based a true story of a young Split girl who falls in love with an Italian Fascist soldier at the end of the Second World War, is being shot on the streets of Split at the moment. It is being directed Danijela Marušić, who [...] Read more:Boats
More People Coming to Visit Us - Growth in Split Tourism 2008-04-03 06:29:27 The European Cities Marketing Association has released figures which shows Split is #1 on a list of European holiday destinations for growth in visitors between 2001 and 2006.
“Split saw an annual growth of around 17 percent more tourists, to top their survey of 93 locations across Europe.
In 2006, some 200,000 holiday makers crowed into [...] Read more:Growth
, Tourism
Hob-knobbing #2 - Cricket in Split 2008-04-14 04:36:38 Warm spring day; the crack of leather on willow followed by polite applause from the crowd; men dressed-up like modern day white knights in helmets and padded armor; picnic blankets and coolers filled with wine, brie and crackers - yesterday anyone would think we were enjoying watching cricket in the English countryside.
Amazingly the game was [...] Read more:Cricket
Hob-knobbing #1 - Split’s Croatia Boat Show 2008-04-13 18:47:22 The Croatia
Boat Show was on again this week. Its Split’s chance to see the latest bling - and not just that which floats. Here’s Aklie learning what’s important in life!
The Lamborghini was not for sale - it was a sweetener if you bought one of the super-yachts.
Most of the boats were of no [...]
Boat Projects Being Completed 2008-05-02 07:14:25 Spring is here - so there is a rush to finish the winter boat building projects. The picture above is of a model of the research vessel One Eagle. It was completed in the German Neue Jadewerft Shipyard in 1969. When it left, after final fit-out, the Arista Nautica yard here in Split last week [...] Read more:Projects
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