It’s travel time again and this will be another trip of firsts.

The most important first will be the travel through Croatia! My first foray into the edges of Eastern Europe, Croatia is fast becoming a popular summer spot for all of Northern Europe.

The second is this new blog site. Unfortunately, Blogger by Google has become too difficult to use on an IPad so I have transitioned into WordPress. The app on IPad is relatively user friendly and allows me to add photos with ease.

Finally, I have an external keyboard to use with my IPad. I’m hoping that, similar to when I transitioned to an IPad, this will make writing each days events easier. I’m sure I will find some way to make it harder.

This trip will be in two parts. Part one is one week in Croatia; four nights in Dubrovnick and three nights in Split.

Then a ferry from Split to Ancona, Italy. This is an overnight ferry and I truly hope I do not get sea sick for the twelve hours of the trip.

My time in Italy will be spent mostly in Tuscany with the last two evenings in Venice.

For those who do not know, Croatia is part of the Balkans and was involved with the wars during the 1990’s. The town of Dubrovnick was shelled as a part of the Croatian war of Independence in 1991 with many buildings be damaged and over 250 soldiers and civilians killed. Land mines continue to be a problem in certain areas but are marked off from the public. Demining is expected to be completed in 2019 or 2020.

Since the war of Independence Croatia’s fortunes have taken a turn for the better. With many well preserved medieval villages and miles of Mediterranean coastline, Croatia tourism increases every year with the summer as the high point.

I have only a vague sense of what to expect of the food and the people. What I have read is, at times, contradictory. So, it should be a fun surprise! In a worst case scenario, I know they have pizza restaurants but I really hope it won’t come to that. Sitting on the Adriatic Sea, I am expecting a plethora of great sea food.

Currently, I am looking at rain for at least half of the trip. If only I drank wine, I would know at least one fun activity I could do during the wetter days. There are museums but I’m really going to see the historic towns and possible Roman ruins. Most of this requires significant outside walks. On the plus side, there should be far fewer tourists than the summer months! I have heard there can be lines waiting to get into the Old City of Dubrovnick during peak season, no thank you.

As always, I will try to post each day’s events at the end of each day. The blog look may change a bit through the trip as I am still playing with a host of fun new settings and templates. Please let me know if you have any problems view any of the posts as this will greatly help me!

Just two days left and off I go!