June-uary

It's been about twenty days since I've returned to Dubrovnik. It was a fairly smooth journey back. Lufthansa is high on my list of preferred airlines at the moment. Pricey Yes, but very prompt (as germans usually are.) and good service. Planes were great, and even though I had 45 minutes between connections, even with a delay I made it on time. Plus I got to fly in am Embraer jet for the first time.

First thing I noticed when I got back to Dubrovnik. It finally got WARM! It was a total relief after experiencing a mild winter in Vancouver... for the second time. It was like Vancouver realized my Aunt Claudette had passed away and decided to get cold and rainy after her passing.

It was really nice to get to spend time with my family after my aunts passing. I really felt like we all reached a new level of communication and friendship. I really look forward to spending some more time with them soon. During that time I was fortunate enough to spend time with my uncle and was even luckier to get a chance to document and take picture of the old family boat. the boat was originally built in 1964 and has since been in the hand of my grandfather and my uncle who each year tenderly care for the wood and keep the boat in fantastic working order. While m uncle showed me around the boat I managed to snap this portrait of him... I think it reflects him, the boat and his personality perfectly.

My Uncle Bud and his boat, the Crystal S

When I returned to Dubrovnik it was pretty much pedal to the metal once I hit the ground. Maria was amazing enough to cover my shifts while I was gone dealing with family stuff. She really was a superstar as the hostel was full every night after I left, yet she didn't complain or hold it against me that I left. It was time for me to pull my weight. Since then my month has been more or less filled with adventures. I've been running tours, cooking curries, exploring the city and working the front desk. "Save money for winter" has been my mantra over the last few weeks. I recently discovered the amazing classical music at the "Rectors Palace". My friend Anshel came to visit from Hong Kong for a few days and it was an amazing reunion. Especially strange when I think about it. We had met back in 2007 for two days while he was drinking at Fresh*. You know a true friend when you see one again after five years... and it's exactly as if no time had ever passed. A fantastic visit. Anyway he has introduced me to the classical music at Rector Palace which also happened to be my friend Jon's first time ever in eight years of living in Dubrovnik. Imagine a beautiful medieval feeling venue, with a world class orchestra as your entertainment while you sit amongst marble arches above... then imagine paying ten bucks for it. Amazing evenings.

Anyways I won't bore you with all the details of my last month. But I have been painting a bit, heading to Lokrum island on my days off, taking hostel guests on tours and trying to stay out of the oppressive heat. It's consistently been 32 celcius plus... with humidity. The poor little chinese made electric fan I bought isn't nearly cutting it. Fortunately it has cooled down last night... for the first time in two weeks. It's 26 C and night instead of 30. Bearable.

Here's some photos to pass the time.

A Picture Stash a professor at ACMT took of me on Lokrum

Kat loves her new hammock

Rouch day on Lokrum

Classical music at the Rectors Palace

Late nights with the hostel guests

Anyways I think everyone here in Dubrovnik has grown up a little in the last year. It's been really nice to spend time with people again and it feels a bit more like home than it did last year. Stay tuned to further blog posts as life gets interesting.

Future highlights:

-Lian comes to visit in July.

-Ben's brother and girlfriend come for a visit!

-Sailing up the coast with Bastian and friends!

Looks like it'll be a great summer... hope June-unary in Vancouver is finally coming to an end.

The Long Road Home

So life took an interesting turn last week. The last while had been going really great in Dubrovnik. I was shifting gears into work mode and the season was moving ahead great. Did my first tours of the season. First dinners, first Sangria nights. Things were looking good. Then I got word from back home that my Aunt Claudette had been admitted into the hospital due to gallbladder cancer that was really tightening it's grasp. Things weren't looking good and time was really ticking. Family always comes first for me so I immediately booked a ticket home and two days later I was on a whirlwind flight back to Vancouver.

I nearly pulled an all nighter as I slept for an hour before catching my bus at 3 am on thursday morning. A quick flight to Frankfurt and a few hours to kill before my flight departed. I was flying with Lufthansa and we boarded our Airbus 340-600 for the nine and a half hour flight to Vancouver. Realizing I had bought my tickets really last minute, I knew the potential for my seating arrangement to be shitty was a real possibility. I tried requesting a window seat... they were all taken. A center seat for nine hours was do-able. For some reason I ended up next to the bulkhead... which was home to four babies. Great. Babies on an intercontinental flight. Ok they all looked pleasant enough. All except the one next to me. I sat next to the baby from hell. For the next 9.5 hours... this kid cried for 8 of those hours. I understand that children sometimes get ear problems on flights but this was excessive. The child would constantly cry and while.. all because the parents weren't constantly comforting the kid. This kid had some serious whining problems... and as I tried to sleep would get hit by kicks and flailing arms which conveniently jarred me awake. If there was a child ejection seat button, I would have pushed it. The only respite I had was when the kid slept for an hour... or when I glared straight into the kids eyes projecting nothing but hate. I guess it scared the kid enough to stop crying... for about ten minutes.

Fortunately Alex, my seat mate was a younger guy who was on his way to Vancouver for the next four months. I was able to tell him about the city. How to find a place to live and explained to him the little differences in canadian culture vs german. It was nice to have a chat and distract myself from the wailing kid.

When I arrive back in Vancouver, it felt as though I had never left. Although it was finally sunny in Vancouver. I got off the plane, cleared customs and called my dad to pick me up. It's about a five minute drive from the airport to the hospital. During that drive I got word that my uncle, the husband of my aunt was being checked into emergency because of an unknown fever and extreme shivering. Ohhh great. Both my aunt and uncle are now in the hospital... just as she is getting critical. I arrived at the hospital and found the room my aunt was staying in. I said hello and little did realize how much effort it took her to open her eyes. She looked at me and tried her best to focus... but I could tell it was really difficult for her. I talked to her and told her about my flight, about Dubrovnik and how it was good to be by her side. I consoled my other family members and chatted about how life was. When I return to my aunts bedside, I saw she was back to having her eyes closed. Little did I know the effort she must have made to look at me. That was the last time I would see her with here eyes open.

From then on, it would be 24 hour bedside family vigil. My dad and my uncle would take midnight to 6 am, my mother 6 am to noon. I would fill in from 10 am until I was tired. People dropped food off to the palliative ward to keep us nourished. We talked, we laughed, we cried. And my aunt kept breathing.

In the meantime I wandered down to visit my uncle. He was hooked up ao a steady stream of antibiotics while the doctors tried to figure out what was wrong with him. Two relatives in the hospital at the same time is stressful, let alone when they're from the same family... and one is critical, the other mysteriously ill. I slowly got to know my uncle much better than ever before. We talked about living on the coast, fishing salmon in the Fraser River, my grandfathers life, my uncles life and travels and slowly grew to connect with him like never before. We were all going through a tough time and that was the plain and simple truth. It was time to come together.

It was monday. We were all exhausted, and it was time to start planning for the next week or the bedside vigil. It had been five days since I had returned and it had been a marathon of family, fighting time zones, living in a hospital and dealing with my own personal loss. I was fading. So there I was napping away around 3 pm, when my uncle decided to walk in. He Walked in and sat down next to my aunt. I got up and decided to give my uncle some space and wandered into the common area to stretch and get some fresh air on the balcony. It wasn't two minutes later that my uncle walked in, and told us, that she had passed away quietly.

It's one of those things you don't really want to have happen. It's inevitable though. Death that is. To be totally honest I'm not really scared of death, but at the same time, I don't want to be the only one there when somebody passes away. I'd much rather if be with more loved ones to fall back on for support should I need it. I had been somewhat worrying about my aunt passing while on my watch that way. Beautifully, she ended up passing while with my uncle.. the one she loved. It was magical to say the least. We had been there for nearly a week 24/7 at her bedside and my uncle walks in, talks to her gently, tells her everything is okay and then she passes on. As much of a sad situation it was, it couldn't have worked out better. I walked into the room to take one last look at my aunt. I contemplated her passing... and remembered her spirit. It's something I won't be able to forget. The following days were spent with my uncle, keeping watch over the house, welcoming any guests who stopped by. It was a tough. It was hard to get back into daily life again with somebody missing. It was even harder watching my uncle try and patch together his life without his partner. But slowly things have come together. Funeral plans were made, family gatherings were had, lots of memories, laughter and tears were had.

My cousin Mariko decided to host a games night at her house on one of my last days in the country. My family converged for a night as we drank coffee, ate the best rhubarb pie and played board games with each other. Aunts, uncles, cousins, boyfriends and girlfriends (and fiancees!) all came together. It made me realize that we don't do this nearly enough. We don't create nearly enough new memories together like that. We need to spend more time together, share stories, hang out, play with the kids and feel like a family again. I realized my aunt Claudettes legacy is us. We're the ones who carry on the name, the family and the commitment. It takes effort yes, but family comes first at the end of the day. At least it does for me.

It seems to be some kind of tradition that I finish my blog posts at the airport before my flights. Waiting around with nothing to do but reflect on the situations of the past. Take a minute to realize what I'm leaving behind. A strange tradition. I feel a little bit like Ryan Bingham in "Up In The Air". Always coming, always going. Take a minute and remember my Aunt Claudette with me. Check out the video below to one of my favourite songs, played to beautiful time lapse of Los Angeles. Take a moment and pause.

LA Light from Colin Rich on Vimeo.

Nuremberg Adventure

So I decided to edit up a little bit of my adventures in Nuremberg with Bastian. Needless to say, my life is awesome.

Tough Going

So my return to Dubrovnik had been relatively uneventful. Aside from the cooler than average weather, my time here has been productive. Everyone is working well together, great friendships all around and even more friendships being started. It's been great being back and I've started to fall back into the rhythm of things. I've met some seriously amazing people this week. It was a really amazing week. Then I got the phone call from home.

One of my aunts was recently diagnosed with liver cancer. I had found out last week... but then bad news came that things had suddenly taken a turn for the worse. She was hospitalized indefinitely and put immediately into palliative care. Suddenly my summer plans seem a bit haywire. My extended family on both sides of the family are pretty tight. This comes as a major blow. As a kid growing up, this was the aunt and uncle who would become our guardian should anything happen to my parents. She helped me practice my french growing up as a child. She put up with us running around her house, sliding down the stairs, playing with all the toys and causing a ruckus ourselves... and eventually with her grandkids. It is a very tight family bond. It's better to see somebody alive and get to tell them everything you've always wanted to say than to have to live with it all inside while attending a funeral. It's time to go be with family so at 3 am yesterday I booked a ticket home. Hoping desperately that I'll make it in time to see her. Tough going. Anyways so I'll be in Vancouver until the 6th of June. Unexpected yes. Sometimes life has a funny way of dropping a wrench into your plans. But there's a lesson to be learned in each of life's problems. Everything happens for a reason. Time to go learn the next lesson and spend time with those I hold dear.

My Aunt Claudette

Air Canada sucks.

So once again I left for Europe. Usually my trips back and forth between the two continents have been extremely pleasant. Sleep on the plane, wake up in a new land. No jet lag. Sweet. This time the travel gods had other plans as my return ticket to Munich had a two hour stopover in Lester B. Pearson International... aka Toronto. The first half of my flight from vancouver to toronto was smooth. 5.5 hours in a plane. I watched mission impossible. Blah.

Landing in Toronto was also smooth enough. My luggage was going to pass through so I could wander the hallways of the airport while I killed time for the next three hours. I stood by the glass windows and watched the airport traffic come and go... admiring all the massively expensive airplanes all ready at a moments notice to whisk their hundreds of passengers off to some foreign exotic land. Then I notice the clouds. Dark dark heavy rain looking clouds. Seemingly bearing down on the airport. "Hmmmmm kinda looks like a thunderstorm is headed this way." Man I could not have been anymore correct. As I sat and waited for my flight, I noticed the skies darken, the lightning begin and the rain start to fall. Hard. Needless to say it was a full blown thunderstorm headed straight for the airport. I watched as the time ticked. Our boarding time came and went... many passengers looking extremely confused. Then the announcement. All airport traffic had been delayed due to the thunderstorm stalling over the airport. I watched as the clock ticked... in the end we were delayed 2.5 hours at the boarding gate. Next we all piled onto the plane. Then the fog rolled in.

Toronto covered in night fog.

The airport during the thunderstorm

Little did I know that tarmac staff are not allowed to work in a thunderstorm. So they kindly left all our bags out in the pouring rain for 2.5 hours as the flight sat delayed. Completely uncovered, our bags were getting soaked with little care given about the fact we were going to be delayed a while. Once we were on the flight, more waiting began. The plane still needed to be refueled, baggage loaded and catering delivered.The fog thickened and we could barely see the terminal. I figured we were screwed and would be delayed even further. I watched a full movie on board the plane as we waiting.. even more. Finally around 11pm central time, we finally unlocked from the gate and were on our way. I could barely feel my ass from sitting so long. Only nine more hours to go. Time for a gravol and a nap.

Fortunately that was the most difficult part of my trip. I arrived in Munich without issue. Waited 20 minutes for my bag at the carousel after clearing customs. My good buddy Bastian was waiting to take my Nuremberg for the weekend. Little did I realize he drove two hours out to grab me! But the trip out to Nuremberg would be well worth the effort. Nuremberg was the momemtum building/staging grounds for the Nazi party in the 30's/40's. Plenty of world history to check out in this place. Bastian's father works for Playmobile. He is one of the head toy designers so I was given a whirlwind tour of Playmobile Land. An all access pass to all the coolest playmobile stuff in the world. I also found out Bastians girlfriend Sara worked at the Nuremberg Zoo called the "Tiergarten". At some point we were going to go check out the animals as it was one of the largest zoo's in the world. Sweet. I didn't expect anything when I arrived. I enjoy seeing old friends, experiencing their culture, seeing where they're from. That's the reason why I travel. Little did I know that the having locals show you around was the way to do things in Nuremberg. I was about to have a visit that I would never forget.

Nuremberg by night.

Another Chapter Begins

So once again I have decided to throw real life by the wayside and depart once again for Europe. When I returned to Vancouver in January, I had no idea what was in store for me. Four months later, I can safely say I loved being back home. Now that is a rare thing for me to say. For those of you who've hung out with me in the last few years, I know that you've put up with a large amount of grumbling and moaning about this fine city. And to a degree, yes it's all true. But I learned to look past it, realize the city life may not be for me and enjoy the surroundings to their maximum. I spent nearly every weekend getting up to an adventure. I had no shortage of good people to join me as I explored Victoria, Cortes Island, the local Vancouver mountains, GVRD beaches, bike paths and even new eateries and cafes. It was a heck of a time being back. And then I decided to give it all up again for the open road.

Now Vancouver is far from perfect. Here are my complaints. Vancouver is an independent city. We like to think of ourselves way out left on the west coast. The only problem is we might be a little too independent and refuse to acknowledge those around us withing out daily lives. All too often to find myself walking around the city, wandering the streets and smiling at passers by. More than ever have I noticed how unfriendly peoples outward faces are. Locked in a frown, or at best a look of "why the hell are you smiling at me?" the citizens of this city need to learn to lighten up and enjoy a little bit of social interaction. No man is an island. Open up a little, smile and spread the love. If everyone in this city smiled, no matter how grey the weather this city would shine like no other.

And of course my other gripe is the price. I know it's beautiful, but it's expensive. Prohibitively so. Maybe another reason I am skipping town.

So I'm sitting here relaxing at Pearson Airport in Toronto. The clouds have started moving in and there's a risk of thunder showers. But that bothers me none. I am on a journey. The final destination is unknown, but it's a personal trip to discover whether or not Vancouver is my home. There is so much more of the world to see and I'm not getting any younger.

A note to old friends, new friends, family and co-workers. I'll miss you guys. You've made Vancouver a magical place for me again. There is now a hope that the west coast will be my home one day. I don't feel like I'm running away. I'm only going on vacation... to a bit of a sunnier destination. Hopefully that also means that I will be breathing new life into this blog while I am away. More photos, more videos and more vicarious adventures.

Stay Tuned!

Brotherland: East Through The Balkans

It has literally been months in the making, but it is finally here. A culmination of some serious planning, the courage for my brothers to come out to europe, my perseverance to film as much footage as I possibly could and a personal thirst for adventure that drove us to do this trip in the first place have all come together to become "Brotherland: East Through The Balkans". We began in Dubrovnik and made our way north and then east to explore all the region had to offer. For many years now I have traveled around Croatia and managed to explore plenty of what the country had to offer but exploration of "Slavonia, the region furthest east had always eluded me. Steeped in history, it is the region that was the hardest hit during the Balkan conflict of the 90's. The eastern city of Vukovar is still in heavy recovery and is still scarred with the wounds of war. But where sacrifice and hardship left their mark, life goes on. Not only does it go on, but it flourishes. We were fortunate enough to have my friend Katarina show us around to see exactly how life in Slavonia moves forward at a hopeful pace.

Brotherland Episode 1 is the first of a many part series that showcases our travels through Eastern Europe and Ukraine. Stay tuned for following episodes. In the meantime please feel free to repost and share this film with anybody you think might enjoy it. I am not a professional film maker but I am proud of what I have managed to create so please share it. A special thanks goes out to everybody who gave us advice, gave us accommodation, helped us along our way and issued their support for the project. We couldn't have done it without you. And don't forget to check out all the websites and music of the artists who contributed as well.

Check out music from Akido, 41st and Home, Sinewave, A Lesser Panda and Teo Acosta. Big thanks go out for giving this film a fantastic soundtrack. Wouldn't be the same without you guys.

Without further delay, I bring you the first in a four part series. "Brotherland: East Through The Balkans"

Left You All Hanging...

I must apologize for the late late reply. To some of you it must feel like I've abandoned the blog altogether. That wouldn't be far from the truth. In a nutshell I have decided to return to Canada for the winter to sort out visa paperwork and also to make a bit more money for the coming season. So I have been hard at work cranking away on Brotherland Episode 1 as well as a full time job installing yacht systems. Enough to keep a grown man busy. I must apologize for the neglect this blog has been in the last few months and can only tell you that there are big things coming down the pipe... so stay tuned folks! In the meantime I will try to add a post here or there, as well as finish the post on my family quest in Ukraine! Thanks for your patience.

The Heart of Ukraine

So Ukraine is big. Of course in Canada it's all relative. Calgary is 12 hours away from Vancouver. Toronto is 6 hours from Montreal. There's big distances to cover. Ukraine itself isn't obviously as big as Canada, but the space between major cities and populations is pretty massive. Driving from Lviv to Kiev was a solid 8 hours in our packed little Mazda 2. Thankfully for the most part the highway between Lviv and Kiev has been upgraded for the upcoming Eurocup to move tourists and supplies through the country. It's of pretty decent quality with an average speed of 90km/h, but that still doesn't mean it's immune to the occasional horse wagon in your lane or a random villager trying to cross six lanes of traffic. Needless to say, driving on Ukrainian roads is a tedious process. Traffic fatalities are a reality of life in Ukraine.

To say we were relieved to arrive in Kiev would be an understatement. The drive had been long and tiresome and fortunately for me, Kat agreed to drive the last half of the journey. Rush house traffic awaited us on the outskirts of town and it took us about 45 minutes of stop and go driving to get us finally to our destination in the heart of the city. The GPS we had been using along the journey so far was a mixture of confusion and success. Sometimes it would lead us off onto a random pothole ridden country road, insisting it was the correct way to a major city. Thankfully as we drove into Kiev it was working as it should and led us directly to "Why Not?" hostel, which we had booked online the night before. Fortunately for us, the hostel has designated parking and we were able to once again not have to look at the car for a few days.

"Why Not?" Hostel is probably my new favorite hostel in Europe. Aside from Fresh Sheets of course. The owners Peter(from Poland) and Volva (from Ukraine) are some of the most chilled out guys I've met in my travels. Staying at Why Not is more like staying at your friends house. It wasn't uncommon for the owners to show up with a bottle of vodka, or birthday supplies and a cake in support of somebody's special day. The second night we were there, it was a guest Elena's birthday and the whole hostel came together in the common room to eat cake and drink vodka in her honour. It was a really great feeling to finally have somewhere to relax and feel at home.

As an owner I was surprised how generous Peter was as on our second day he offered to take us out to explore the town a bit. It's a good thing too as catching the "Metro" in Kiev can be a confusing experience to say the least. Signs in cyrillic, people moving in every which way and a very unsympathetic crowd at the entrance to every train door. The Metro doors are what I would describe as "Soviet". If you are caught within the door frame as the door decide to close, they don't reopen to let you pass. They slam on whatever limb is in the way and then stay closed on it with a death grip as the train rockets to the next station. We were helplessly left behind as only half our group was able to make it into the train before the doors slammed shut, leaving the rest of us lost in disbelief. Fortunately for us Kat knew the name of the stop we were to get off at and using her cyrillic skills managed to decipher which stop was ours. I watched in horror as somebody on the next platform sprinted for a train, prying the doors open and pulling themselves through, only to have their shoulder bag get caught outside the doors as the train pulled away from the station.

As we arrived at our next stop, we managed to scurry out of the Metro as Peter described our destination. We were going to an abandoned stadium on the outskirts of Kiev. Our first stop was an abandoned air vent that had been built to accomodate a new metro stop that was never completed. Apparently the stadium had been used for baseball or some other type of sport and then was eventually abandoned only to be turned into a medieval movie set complete with a large steel castle like structure that had been burned out during the filming. It was waiting there amongst the fog, for us to enter. We managed to make our way up to the top floor of the structure. For some reason it had been built extremely well. Made of angle iron and welded at every joint, it could probably survive the apocalypse. We explored the stadium and watched as a local rode her horse nearby until it got dark and we headed back to the metro and then to the hostel.

The abandoned stadium and movie set.

Stephanie exploring the interior of the air vent

Katarina taking a moment on the shoes of Kiev.

There was a lot to see in Kiev. Everything from outdoor markets to huge monuments and squares. A forever apparent soviet feeling to the city gave it a unique flare that made it different from any other city I had ever been to. The proximity to Russia, Chernobyl and the old eastern block gave it an air of wildness I had yet to experience in Europe. Since the Chernobyl tours had been recently cancelled by the government we decided to go and check out the Chernobyl museum. For a mere 1 euro, we entered and explored what I would call an "Art/Museum experiment". Unfortunately most of the museum was in cyrillic but at the same time a disaster of this magnitude didn't need much translation. On April 26th 1986, the world stood still as a reactor experiment went horribly wrong causing a chain reaction of events that eventually lead to an explosion in reactor #4. Most of europe was heavily affected and to this day there are still high levels of radiation within the exclusion zone of Chernobyl. Within the museum we saw a lot of exhibits decorating people for bravery, photos of citizens of the area and an exhibit of the children of Chernobyl. It was surprisingly quiet as we slowly made our away through the museum. We were constantly supervised by a ukrainian woman during the whole process of the visit which was a little bit strange. Not sure if they thought we were going to steal or deface something but it did make the experience a bit odd.

All the signs are towns within the exclusion zone.

Children of Chernobyl Exhibit.

I wouldn't want these guys knocking on my doorstep.

Given the nature and history of Ukraine it isn't uncommon to see displays and monuments of military might. Being a boy I found these to be uniqie experiences to get up close to military machines we don't normally get to see in Canada. As we explored Kiev throughout the week, we managed to finx the "Defense of the Motherland" statue. A massive silver statue of a woman holding a sword and shield... I'm assuming in the name of Ukrainian defense. The whole area is a beautiful square with a few exhibits surrounding it to see. The first day we found it, it was a bit too dark to take many pictures as we (more like I) had managed to get lost along the way. But the second time we managed to make it back was very rewarding. There were three museums in the area. One was for the defense of the motherland statue, the other two were military museums. Kat, Emmett and I decided to skip the motherland defense and go straight for the opportunity to sit in and get a closer look at some soviet era military machines. The first stop was the main museum. 5 hryvna (50 cents) for an entry fee. For some reason at most museums there is an extra fee to pay to take photographs without being hassled. It was 12 hryvna for the photo ticket as well. I'm glad I splurged as one of the exhibits was an opportunity to sit inside a MIG-23 fighter jet and put yourself in the shoes of a Ukrainian pilot for a few minutes.

Miles posing on some of the hardware.

More monuments.

Defense of the Motherland statue.

Emmett living out his boyhood fantasies.

For a plane nut, it was a magical experienced. We take it for granted when we watch "Top Gun" how easy it looks to sit in a cockpit and fly a plane. When you finally get to sit inside one and imagine the rumble of the afterburner with 28,000lbs of thrust under your ass it's a humbling experience. One thing I never really thought of. When you're a fighter pilot, there is a shitload of stuff to control. The amount of switches, gauges, controls, knobs, dials, sliders and handles is absolutely insane. In fact there isn't any free space in the cockpit other than the tiny amount of room allocated for the pilot. Kinda takes the romance out of flying a fighter plane but I'm glad I got to experience it.

Next door was an MI-24 Hind. Yet another soviet era machine of death. Built as an attack gunship it was a machine to be feared, especially during the soviet-afghan conflict in the 80's. For yet another small fee you could get inside and explore the guts of this monstrosity. It was especially cool to me because as you sat inside somebody had rigged up a speaker with a gun sound when you pulled the trigger... as it scared the crap out of me when I first found it. Flying an attack helicopter and shooting a gun... at least pretending too. I also realized that all the controls were still very much connected. If you pull on the stick, it would still move all the blades. The only thing missing was a working engine. Most of the time any museum exhibit you see is generally very static. The great thing about the Ukrainian military museums was the fact that you could get inside everything. Push the buttons, flick the switches, move the controls... and live out your boyhood fantasies.

Overall our time in Kiev was excellent. When I return I know one thing though. Fly in. I will certainly save myself the hassle and fly into Kiev instead of driving. Not to mention it's gotta nice and cheap lately with Wizzair. Anyways after six days at "Why Not?" hostel, we decided it woul be best if we started the long drive south back towards Croatia. But not before asking for a little help. Nina one of the girls at the hostel was gracious enough to help me translate some letters we had written to us by relatives who were living in Ukraine back in 1989. We weren't able to understand the letters due to the language barrier and we figured it would make an interesting twist if we could at least try to track down where they were from. Little did we know what kind of adventure we were about to get ourselves into...

Lviv'ska Oblast

Finally we were in Lviv. We parked the car and fortunately for us, didn't have to get in it or even look at it for the next few days. Due to a recommendation from a friend we stayed at the "Kosmonaut" Hostel. The theme of the hostel was "Soviet Era" military. Needless to say I think they hit the nail on the head, as when you walk in you notice nothing but old military uniforms, a real russian space helmet, gas masks, old machine guns and plenty of old propaganda posters on every surface. A bit drab I would say other than the theme, the hostel was nothing too special but it was cheap and cheap is good.

I would call Lviv the cultural capital of Ukraine. It has a pretty central square surrounded by interesting districts and churches to see. What really makes Lviv special is the mixture of different restaurants, museums and historical places to see and experience. Everything from a museum dedicated to "Salo" (literally pig fat), to a crazy restaurant that you need a special password to get into. Lviv has all that somebody new to Ukraine needs. Our first visit was for a place of perogies and borscht at a restaurant called "Puzata Hata" (at least that's how it's said!). Home made Ukrainian food a la cafeteria style. I was pleasantly surprised when a try loaded with food and beer cost only 4 euros. Amazing.

We managed to get ourselves onto a free tour of Lviv and saw some of the sights. I've got to say that for a guy trying to film a lot of daily life in Ukraine, a free tour is the perfect way to get out. Traveling with a camera and tripod isn't easy in Ukraine. When you're holding a camera has a value comparable to some peoples yearly salaries, you get a lot of looks. I can't say I felt super safe walking around with the camera out, so I would repeatedly replace it into my camera bag. There is a sense of security you get when you're accompanied by a tour guide and a group of people with other nice cameras. You don't worry about being singled out and victimized or worry so much about people giving you dirty looks as there are about 20 other people taking the same photos. By the way a bit of a shameless plug here. If you're traveling with a camera, tripod, computer, hard drive etc... I highly recommend the Lowepro Fastpack 250. Great system so you can whip your camera out, grab some shots and replace it quickly while being nice and discreet. Not to mention it is well padded an holds nearly all the gear you'll need for the day.

After our fantastic tour of the city, we decided to hike to the top of City Hall. It's a massive tower that you can climb to the top of for the best view of Lviv. I think it was 10 hryvna which is about a euro. As we climbed to the top we realized how out of shape we were after not seeing the steps of Dubrovnik in over a month. At the top, the view was beautiful as it was definitely the highest point in town. I filmed plenty of clips as I was catching a great birds eye view of the city. Fortunately for us the bells didn't go off as they can be a bit deafening if you're nearby.

Our tour group

A few steps up to the top.

Great view of the city.

That evening we met up with Angela, my friend Katya's cousin. Back in April, Katya gave me a call wondering if I was free for a coffee. It just happened that at that exact moment I was with Emmett grabbing a coffee at 10th an Alma street. We were sitting around talking about the future, about potential travel for the fall and where Emmett would be willing to go. We were talking about returning to Ukraine and seeing the motherland. It was all a pipe dream but now that I think about it, it was all aprt of a much bigger plan that was actually falling into place quietly. The world had something in store for us.

So Katya shows up... with her cousin Angela in tow. Turns out Angela was from Ukraine. Lviv to be exact! So we talked about what it was like, the prices, things to see and at that point I invited her to my going away party that weekend. She came, we ate hamburgers and drank beer and played darts. Never in my wildest dreams would I actually have thought that we would see her in Lviv seven months later. It was a total trip to have Emmett there as well as she walked into the "House of legends" restaurant. It seems over seven months, she seemed to have grown up what seems like a few years. Her English was amazing compared to the previous months. In Vancouver I'm sure she was shy with her english, but in Ukraine she was a pro! We all ordered a vodka (turns out "one" vodka is actually a triple shot back in Van) and some food as she helped us translate some of the documents that we had received from my mother. Documents from 20 years ago that would hopefully help point us in the right direction to reuniting us with our family.

Angela's fiancee Nikolai came to visit us and we decided to head to Krjivka Restaurant. Well actually it was more like a bunker. As you walk up to the door, down the long brick hallway you realize there is no handle on the front of the doorto open with. You knock on the door and a big burly guy wearing a soviet era military outfit and wielding a machine gun answers the door. He says something in Ukrainian along the lines of "What's the password" as he says " Slava Ukraina!" which is your cue to answer "Hrvojem Slava" (I am slava). He then proceeds to pour you a shot of brandy which you must promptly take and then he shuffles you into the place. Based on the Ukrainian resistance movement, it has a pretty rugged setting for decorations. The walls are shingled raw log cuts, the toilet has a bit of an "outhouse" feeling to it, and the dishes are military style aluminum bowls. The food though was amazing and reasonable. Nikolai instantly ordered us a bottle of vodka, many shots were had, toasts were given and plans were made for the weekend. It was a great experience, especially Katarina's delicious potatoes and Mils and Emmett's potato pancakes. We left Krjivka nice and drunk only to be surprised by the first snowfall of the season. Enough snow to stick to items but not enough to cover the ground, I felt honoured to experience the first snow of the year in Lviv. Fortunate for us it was also the last snow we saw throughout our trip. Not sure what the odds of traveling Ukraine in November are without getting snow, but we certainly had a larger power on our side for the trip.

First snow of the year.

The next day we went to the "Salo" museum. A modern art museum, it was about 3 euros to get in, including a plate of Salo at the end. Now for a description of Salo. You either love or hate it. It is essentially pork fat. Pork fat in a cheese like state. Spread it on bread, slice it up or mold it into modern art. Salo was a cool experience except for the fact that at the end you get a platter of salo with a shot of vodka. The vodka was easy, chewing greasy funky fat was not. Needless to say we all gagged down a few pieces before we felt too sick to continue. I had the sick feeling of salo in my stomach for the rest of the day. Ugh, it still makes me feel ill when I think of it.

Potato pancakes at Krjivka

The largest piece of Salo ever exhibit.

A plate of pretty pig fat

Larger than life.

We all left the Salo exhibit a bit sick, but explored the town and checked out the public market in town. Mostly composed of pictures, knitted wool items and old soviet era and metal pieces, the market is a cool but somewhat limited place. I should have done souvenir shopping but seeing as I hate shopping period, I decided to put it off right until the very end of our trip.

Overall Lviv was a fantastic experience. I could easily return and eat myself retarded. Doing Ukraine in winter gives you a unique perspective on things. It was nice to see the town as it really is with the local people in winter. It was also amazing to get to reconnect with Angela and see a familiar face from Vancouver in such a different place. We planned to stick around and see a show at the local ballet show at the theater but unfortunately we realized that if we stuck around Lviv for much longer we would miss out Kiev. So we booked a hostel, hopped in the car the following day and made a B-line for Kiev. It was time to see the capital and all it had to offer.

What dreams are made of.

So I'm not exactly sure where to start. My last post was from Budapest. The start of our trip had begun, we were in a new eastern european city and life was peachy. We were about to cross the border the following day with our preconceptions of Ukraine firmly planted in our minds. We had no idea how much our minds were going to be blown the following day. Now it wouldn't be fair to cram our entire trip to Ukraine into one long post. I'm having a hard time containing my excitement without blurting it all out in one post as I tend to do. Instead I will break it down to a few episodes of travel, even though we've been back for a few days now.

So where do I begin? Well we rolled into Budapest and stayed at the Aboriginal Hostel. I would highly recommend them with their clean rooms, comfy beds, awesome staff and amazing free breakfast (Fresh waffles first thing in the morning!). We explored the town, ate ourselves silly on goulash and the following morning piled back into the car in preparation for out departure to the border town of Zahony/Chop. Three and a half hours of driving on amazing hungarian highways made the time fly by. Smooth highways, great signage, first world gas stations every ten kilometers with proper facilities made the drive nice and easy. As we neared the border we realized things were all about to change.

Welcome to Ukraine sucker!

I'm always a bit bummed out that you're not allowed to take photos or video at border crossings. There's always shitloads of confused people running around trying to get their dilapitated cars and documents in order for the crossing into the next country. Since joining the European Union a few years ago, Hungary now has to maintain strict border security to limit access to the other E.U. nations. Fortunately at this point we were heading in the other direction. Hungary was more than happy to stamp us through and push us forward to the Ukrainian border crossing. It became evident to us quickly that the border layout itself was haywire. The crossing itself is over a river with a long bridge connecting Hungary and Ukraine. As you drive up to the bridge, there is a serious lack of signage to indicate which lane you should be in as you cross. Unfortunate for us we happened to take "truck lane" across the bridge only be to be stopped by a border guard in a fluffy hat communist hat. As he yelled at us in Ukrainian, we indicated with universal hand signals to "go backwards". The only issue is that the bridge is at least 200 meters long. Asshole. So we backed the car ALL the way back down the bridge instead of him letting us merge into the other lane. Right before we reached the other end of the bridge, a truck drive decided to pull in and start honking his horn for us to go forward. Greaaaaaat. We drive all the way back across the bridge and arrive to more yelling and hand signals until the guard finally shakes his head and finally accepts our passports. Thank god. Until we realized these guys were just doing "pre-checks". The actual border crossing was 100 meters further. We were waived through to the next station where the car was searched, all our documents taken and more questions asked. I've got to hand it to Katarina on this one, she used her croatian language and struggled to understand and sort everything out. Then we hit a speed bump. We weren't sure if they were feeling us up for a bribe or were actually angry that we didn't have a "letter of consent" from Katarina's mother that allowed us to take the car for two weeks. As they stood there with our documents in their hands, the ukrainian winter breeze freezing us to death and their "less than satisfactory" look on their faces we wondered if we had money whethere sliding them a bribe would actually make things move faster. Fortunately what seemed like a senior official stepped in, took our documents and added Kats name to the border documents as "owner of the vehicle". Thank goodness. After a minute of standing around in the cold, making sure we could leave we jumped back in the car and continued through the checkpoint. Once we were out, we pulled over, took a deep breath and with sweaty palms I snapped this picture of the "welcome to Ukraine" sign.

We were in.

A quick stop to grab some snacks and a road map and a gas station and we were off to Lviv. At this point my opinion of Ukraine wasn't that great. The amount of stray dogs running around everywhere was concerning, especially when we saw a pack of dogs gang up and attack another dog right in front of the car. As we stopped in the town of Chop, we were surprised by the old car, horse drawn carriages and car eating potholes that greeted us. The drive to Lviv was 5 hours of driving through the Carpathian mountains in the darkness.

When it comes to driving manners, Ukrainians have none. The difference between extreme wealth and poverty is very evident especially once you leave any of the major cities. Expensive cars pass you like rockets as their owners don't care for road rules. Road rules are to be ignored in Ukraine as you can bribe any of the police officers you may run into along the way. Caught driving at 160 km/h? Toss the officer a 100 Hryvna bill and drive on! Driving defensively is mandatory as yahoos from all over are constantly passing everybody at high speed. We drove cautiously through the carpathian mountains at night as the road was stating to freeze and the occasional light snowflakes fell. Thankfully other than the massive potholes that bottomed out the suspension and scraped across the bottom of the car, it was a smooth drive into Lviv.

That was until we got to Lviv.

A Lviv road under construction.

The street of Lviv are made of small bricks. Probably laid 200 years ago, they don't seem fit for small cars to drive on. Never have I seen such uneven streets in a city. At this point every kilometer we seemed to bottom out the car suspension on the bumpy streets, crossing tram tracks that seemed to stick above the street by 6 inches and in potholes that seemingly swallowed the whole tire of the car until the frame hit ground. Fortunately we made it into city center, pulled the car onto the curb and found a parking spot. Finding the hostel was not an easy task as I managed to goof up the directions on my iphone and copied the wrong information. Fortunately Lviv is a very safe and pretty city. Even the police officers were friendly when we asked them for directions, pointing us to the proper street without asking us for a bribe! We made it to out hostel and spent a few nights at the "Kosmonaut". Full of old soviet relics including a machine gun on the wall, a space helmet and plenty of military memorabilia it was quite the character hostel! We crashed easily that night, ready for another few days in Lviv. We were officially in Ukraine and it felt GREAT!

Wagons East

So we packed up our belongings and decided to hoof it for Budapest on friday morning. Belisce was sunny and clear as we checked the oil and loaded the bags into the car. After corralling the crew into conducting an interview each before we left, we jumped into the car, set the GPS for Budapest and hit the road. It occurred to me at this point that we are incredibly spoiled in this day and age with all the technological advancements of the 21st century. Setting a GPS is still foreign for me but having it for use during a road trip is really a godsend especially when traveling to countries with signs spelled in cyrillic. With the GPS set we headed into Hungary. Entering an E.U. country from a non E.U. member is always an interesting experience. Fortunate for us all documents were in order and we hopped onto the fantastic hungarian highway to Budapest. I have fond memories of Budapest from a past visit to Hungary with my friend Eva back in 2007. I had never been to the city and was incredibly surprised by her offer to come and join her in the city. My memories are comprised of the following thoughts. Hungarian people are incredibly nice. We ate shitloads of amazing hungarian food. Hungarian people know how to riot and are good at it. Budapest is very reasonably priced.

Budapest March 2007

This time around, Budapest definitely did not disappoint. The opportunity to share this experience with my brothers was a once in a lifetime opportunity. We found a very nice hostel just outside the center of downtown and went out for an evening of hungarian goulash, fantastic beer and lots and lots of photos along the Budapest waterfront. Our first stop was a restaurant called "For Sale". Home of 1100 Forint litre bowls of goulash, this place is a must see when you visit Budapest. A cozy dark brick room welcomes you along with straw hay strewn about on the floor. A basket of peanuts on your table for you to enjoy... simply discard the shells on the floor. Somewhat reminded me of a tasteful version of the Pioneer Pub in Richmond. Then the Goulash. Litre bowls of it. Thank goodness we were sensible and ordered two bowls for four people, complete with three different types of chili powder. The hungarians love their spice... and I love hungarians!

Kat testing the chili.

Goulash Aftermath

After dinner was the start of the photo/video excursion. Which is probably where our groups opinions of how it went differ. When you're a photographer/camera man it's quite easy to stay warm. Your day is usually comprised of stopping to take photos of the group, interspliced with hundred meter sprints to catch up with the group. It's a great way to stay warm, but if you're trying to convince people to pose for a photo its a great way to piss off the group as they are slowly getting colder and more disguntled with time.

The Danube

The chain bridge roundabout.

I always told myself that if I returned to Budapest with an SLR digital camera, I would have a field day. You can ask Katarina, Miles or Emmett and I'm sure you'll get a different opinion but I certainly made a damn good effort to balance my subjects and desperately try to gather as many quality night shots as I possibly could at the same time. We made our way up to the Buda palace at the top of the hill and took some shots of the city. One of my favourite places to explore when I was there back in 2007 it was an experience that was extra special when shared with my brothers. Getting to show them around such a magical place at night was a real treat.

We made our way to "Simple" bar. Simple is a very cool place to say the least. It's similar to what you get if you took East Vancouver alternative lifestyle and mated it with eastern european socialism. A studio warehouse literally turned into six different bar rooms. Take something you found on the sidewalk and attach it to the wall. The place was a decoration in itself. Everything on the walls including plenty of advice. Cheap beer, good crowd and an amazing atmosphere. It was artists commune turned into a bar. Very very cool.

Kat pointing out some good advice.

The next morning was the big day. We woke up and enjoyed the free breakfast at the "Aboriginal Hostel". I must say after working at many hostels over time, this definitely had the best breakfast of any hostel I had been to. Waffles with chocolate, Museli and proper brewed coffee were the highlights. We packed our things and prepared for a 7 hour day of driving through Ukraine up to Lviv. We were optimistic as we drove through the beautiful hungarian countryside. The new highway was a delight with it's modern fuel stations, wide shoulders and 130km/h speed limits. Little did we know that Ukraine would be very very different.

Three things I did not expect.

- The underside of your car will bottom out against the ground. A lot.

- Passing other cars is a national sport in Ukraine.

- Expect the unexpected when driving outside of any Ukrainian town. Pack of dogs on the highway? Horse drawn carriage coming at you in an oncoming lane? A tractor pulling a wagon full of potatoes across four lanes of traffic? Yeah all normal in Ukraine.

But that's a story for next time.

The start of something big.

So over the last few days since leaving Dubrovnik I have been filming and documenting as much as I can. It has been a rewarding experience so far documenting our trip form Zagreb through to Serbia and back again. Yesterday We made a side trip to the towns of Vukovar and Ilok. We stopped by and checked out the vukovar "Ovcara" museum. A sad sad place where 261 people were massacred during the war. Not a very uplifting place but a vry important experience to fully understand croatian history and culture.

On top of seeing the sights and experiencing the lifestyle, I have also been shooting my ass off! So much so that I actually managed to kill my $1000 camera lens. Looks like I'll have to make a trip to Zagreb or Slovenia to get it fixed for the big Ukraine trip. It is such a massive pain in the ass because it is the only camera lens I have that has any zoom/range. My only other lens is a fixed 50mm prime lens so I NEED to get my other lens fixed so I have something to take to the Ukraine. Anyways aside from the lens incident, things have been going smoothly and I look forward to leaving for the Ukraine this weekend. If all goes well I will keep filming and should have some interesting footage to put together a nice little doc by the time I'm done. Anyways here's what I have so far, so give it a whirl and leave some comments if you dig it!

Untitled from Fraser Martyniuk on Vimeo.

On the road... again

It has been an incredible month. Time has flown by as always but October seems to have been even worse than the rest. It was October 1st... then suddenly it was the 28th.

I was very melancholic while slowly dismantling the life I had previously lived for the prior six months. The house what was my home was being reduced to two backpacks full of random items. One full bag of computer and photo gear, one of clothing and real life stuffs. As I went through everything I had to decide what to store, pack or throw away. At the same time in Dubrovnik because the ex-pat community is so tight, I was also doing the rounds of "goodbyes" and "see you in Zagreb"s. A coffee here, return an item there, clean my room and suddenly the day was nearly over. The last few hours until 1 am were spent checking my baggage twice to make sure I didn't forget anything. I crashed around 1:30 only to wake up at 4:30 am to catch the 6:00 am bus to Zadar to meet Dave.

Its a strange feeling to walk out of a city for the last time. I was leaving behind something so familiar, a city I had lived in for six months. It's a strange feeling looking down and empty street and not knowing whether you will ever return to that place. With a heavy heart I walked out of town with my belongings on my back, but not before snapping one last shot of the "grad". I caught the bus to the station and boarded the eight hour bus to Zadar.

It's strange. Once my ass hit the seat on the bus, it was all familiar once again. That feeling of being on the road once again. Not to mention that all too familiar bus seat that feels like it's been "designed to be uncomfortable". My home for the next eight hours. Days earlier I had booked two beds for Dave and I at the "Drunken Monkey Hostel" in Zadar. Now I'm not one for party hostels, but according to hostelworld reviews this was the only hostel in Zadar that hadn't recently had any encounters with bed bugs. party hostel be damned, I was going to sleep bed bug free so I booked us two beds and prepped myself to see Dave again.

It's a funny thing seeing friends while abroad. There's quite a difference between "true friends" and "acquaintances". Acquaintances tend to lose contact and feel the geographical distance and time a friendship suffers while two people are apart. With "true friends" time and distance don't matter. It's just like old times when you finally do come together again. That is exactly how I felt when I finally met up with Dave in Zadar. It was literally like no time had passed since we last saw each other. Other than the obvious fact that we were both in Croatia, nothing had changed. Time to explore Croatia as friends.

I was pleasantly surprised by what Zadar had to offer. It is a small city with a population of around 80,000 residents, but in comparison to Dubrovnik it seemingly has a lot. Real grocery stores, western european shops and brand names, even an H&M store to buy reasonably prices winter wear. I was very impressed with the amount of local art and culture presented within the old city walls. The old city itself felt large than that of Dubrovnik with an emphasis on art. Zadar has a few local installations as attractions along it's beautiful riviera. The "sea organ", a stone waterfront with holes cut in the side to allow water to generate air pressure as the waves pass by is a definite highlight. Sitting on the waterfront not just watching the waves coming in, but hearing them as well was a total treat. You wouldn't really think it, but the waves do have a magical and hypnotizing sound to them that does actually sound musical. Right next to the sea organ is the "Sun Salutation" circle. A solar powered LED light exhibit that captures the light during the day and illuminates panels during the night while putting on a "jumbo-tron" like light show. I managed to snap plenty of night shots along the riva with a local tallship moored alongside.

In Zadar we happened to run into Andy Davidson, a friend of my brothers. Now it's a bit of a funny story but Andy actually gave my brother Miles a ride back from Greece on the back of his motorcycle. It may sounds simple, but it was far from it. Bad roads, crappy signage, crazy drivers and cold weather were some of the obstacles that confronted them. When they arrived in Dubrovnik Miles asked if Andy could spend some time at our place to get some much needed rest. What was supposed to be "a few days" turned into over a week... which was our pleasure as Andy turned out to be a stand up dude. About as good as they come. Miles had left to go meet Emmett in London but Andy had stuck around and hung out with us in Dubrovnik a few days longer... then rode his bike up to Zadar and managed to meet Dave and I at the Drunken Monkey Hostel. It's strange how easy it is to get along with other travelers... people who really know how to grab life by the balls and cherish every moment of being on the road. Andy is definitely one of those dudes.

Here's a picture of Andy and his ride.

How Andy, Miles, both their bags, fuel tanks and camping gear ever fit on there... I will never know.

Anyways we all had a blast in Zadar, meeting other fellow travelers, locals and for myself getting to experience a new part of the croatian coast. It's strange how once you spend a lot of time in Dubrovnik, you get used to the fact that you miss out on a whole shitload of other cool things out there. After spending a few days in Zadar, we decided it was time to part ways and head to Zagreb. Dave and I jumped on a bus while Andy once again saddled up and headed directly to Ljubljana. We boarded the bus in the warm adriatic sun. As we drove along the road to Zagreb we passed through a super long tunnel. I swear it must have taken us 10-15 minutes to drive through! Once we passed through the other side, it was cloudy and foggy and cold. A sign of the weather to come. We had officially left the dalmatian coast behind for cool weather, cloudy skies and real winter. What was even better was that Dave was sleepingmost of the time... so when he passed out, it was sunny and warm. When he woke up the sun was gone and it was hovering about 5 celcius. Not anybody's favourite way to wake up...

Anyways we arrived in Zagreb... met up with my friend Booboo and finally laid our heads to rest. It was a good trip so far and as we would find in the coming days, familiar places were all about to get a bit more familiar...

Tofino Family Getaway (one year later)

So I was arranging all the files and footage on my computer the other day and realized I had over 100 gigabytes of footage on my computer that I had never really finished editing. Last year my family and I rented a minivan and decided to head out to Tofino for a weekend to reconnect and get back to nature. It was a fantastic trip and I was even able to drag both my brothers out surfing for a bit. Fortunately I also managed to drag along my go pro camera and capture all of the action as well! Anyways I apologize to my parents for taking so long, but I finally managed to find the time to edit it all up and I think it turned out nicely!

Song: "Bourgeois Shangi-La" by "Miss Li"

The Day Winter Finally Caught Up With Dubrovnik...

So over the last two months, I've got to say I've had relatively little to complain about weather wise. On my igoogle homepage, I've installed side by side webcam apps so I can simultaneously watch Vancouver and Dubrovnik weather. Needless to say in comparison Vancouver has got the shitty end of the weather stick this season with it's few precious weeks of summer. Aside from the occasional hour long shower, Dubrovnik hasn't really seen rain since May. With temperatures hovering in the 25 to 30C mark consistently for the last five months, my mixed feelings of leaving Vancouver have been reinforced by the warm water, sunny days and beautiful temperatures.

There was a lot of talk the other day about the weather as it seemed summer was really about to come to an end. Temperatures were forecast to drop 15 degrees, snow was forecast in Zagreb and the locals were making a last ditch effort to solidify their sesonal tan by spending the last sunny hours on a beach. I myself joined in on the action with some last minute snorkeling and a last attempt to spot an octopus in it's natural habitat. I never saw the octopus, but I did manage to find an eel... a very colourful yellow and grey one which I stalked for many minutes while it hit between some rocks. As it turns out, 24 hours later, summer really would be over in spectacular fashion.

The following day was a mixture of sun and cloud when I woke up. There was a nice onshore breeze but you could tell something was different. Over the last week I have been house sitting at Jon and Sanja's house, looking after the dog and taking care of the Launderette. As I woke up and walked out onto their beautiful balcony, I looked out on the horizon and had to do a double take. As I wiped the sleep from my eyes, I couldn't believe what I was looking at. Off in the distance was a TORNADO! Well to be perfectly honest, when it's on the water it is a "water spout" but it really was a full on cyclone whipping up the water and sucking it up a thousand feet into the clouds. I watched as it started off in the distance, but was slowly coming towards shore in my exact direction! Unfortunately I didn't have my camera with me so I was only able to snap some lousy quality iphone photos.

I can only imagine what the captain of that cruise ship was thinking as the water spout was coming closer and closer to the ship. There's no point raising the anchor cause it means you are now at the mercy of the winds, you can't run away as it would take too long... you can only really sit there and pray that it doesn't bowl you over, suck up all your passengers and destroy the ship. Luckily for him, as the spout came closer to land it also dissipated in strength and eventually made contact with land and vanished. Life in Dubrovnik returned to normal.

Then later in the evening the clouds rolled in, the air became sour with ozone and you could feel the electricity in the atmosphere. I had to make a serious attempt to run for the launderette, close it up just in the nick of time and then run home on the scooter to close up the windows and shutter just as the storm hit. Wind, sideways rain and massive lightning bolts illuminated the sky. Once the initial rain subsided I was able to duck out on the balcony with my tripod and snap this photo of lightning hitting behind Lokrum Island.

Thankfully the storm was over just as quickly as it had arrived leaving behind clean fresh air and a much cooler temperature. Summer was officially over. Away with the flip flops, shorts and t-shirts and time for winter jackets, jeans and gloves. Ugh. At least it will be a good way to get to the temperatures in the Ukraine...