2 Weeks. 2 Trips: Week 2 - Croatia

To continue the 2 trips post - Last week we went to Zadar, Croatia. Croatia is one of the little-known vacation gems of the world. It is an AWESOME vacation spot that I would definitely go back to. It was warm, on the sea, and had an amazing national park just a couple hours away.
It was an awesome way to bid farewell to summer - especially now that it's down in the 50s back in Germany.

This is at Plitvice (plit-vissa) National park. It's miles and miles of waterfalls, forest, and these ridiculously clear blue lakes. You can see to the bottom of every lake. And there are these cool boardwalk paths everywhere.





The touristy spot in Zadar is the Old Town. Lots of super old buildings and ruins and stuff, but also a pretty good shopping district. And the streets are strangely smooth and shiny.


This is the sea organ. It's these steps build into the sea, and when the waves come in and out they make music that sounds kind of like an organ...or a whale. But it's cool either way.

And then there's this giant glowy disk thing, which I never really quite figured out its purpose...


And while the sunsets weren't the most amazing that I've seen - you can never go wrong with a sunset on the sea.

2 Weeks. 2 Trips: Week 1 - Ireland

Two weekends ago we took a weekend trip to Ireland. We heard that the best way to go was just to show up and find a bed and breakfast to stay in, so that's what we did. And it's true. There are TONS of them. So we just drove until we saw one with a light on and pulled over.

It turned out to be an awesome little place. The owner was a super nice little Irish lady who made us delicious breakfast both mornings.

Then our plan was just to drive around the country side and see the famous "Ring of Kerry" and the not quite so famous Dingle Loop. Well we drove the Dingle Loop first, and it was Awesome. A little cold and windy, but other than that I loved it. By the time we hit the Kerry loop though it was super rainy, and we'd already been driving for hours, and it turned out to be a really long loop. I don't think I even got any pictures of the second half. It was not as enjoyable.





Aside from the roads being ridiculously narrow, resulting in many near-death experiences, and the wind and rain - I loved Ireland. I even bought a scarf woven from the wool of Irish sheeps, and it's my new favorite thing!
We also went into town one night and ridiculously good restaurant, and then to a pub with live (and rather drunk) entertainment. It was way fun.
Overall, I highly recommend a weekend in Ireland.