Shalom and Hvala

Well, this post is going to be pretty boring, as I have taken a holiday from my holiday. My final week in Croatia (Hvala Dubrovnik for the relaxing break) was nothing much to write about, and my first week in Israel (Shalom from Tel Aviv) has been more in the planning than the actual doing.

Before I go into any details, and in case this post is my most boring one, here is a video of some crazy pigeons in Dubrovnik…. Sound on (but there is lots of wind noise, and I swear):

The rest of my stay in Dubrovnik was pretty boring to write about. Every day, I woke up… looked outside at either the rain or the overcast weather, decided to go back to bed. Left the apartment at midday, walked around the old city in a different way, had a lunch somewhere, walked some more, slept some more, watched some TV… basically, for the first time in this whole trip, I relaxed.

While Dubrovnik is a tourist town, the old city is actually full of local residents, and it is the off season, so just trying to live like a local is quite difficult. My translator app is not the best, so I often resort to google images to show people what I am trying to purchase, and use my calculator to negotiate price. Points to note: When locals offer you to test taste local homemade grappa – do it at your own risk (I suffered the next day). And cats… cats are everywhere, and, like Montenegro, they own the city:

Also, I didn’t exactly starve there:

The trip to Israel was pretty unremarkable. I arrived and got separated, with my passport taken, and put in a group of other “suspects” (???). That was a new experience. Not liking being separated from my passport, I encouraged a faster turnaround on their investigations. I was out of immigration pretty quick. I had my second stay at a hostel. I managed to sleep from 5am to 6am, then wait the whole day there until my Airbnb was ready. I have to say, I can appreciate a good hostel now. Great facilities, good staff, relaxing environment and cheap drinks.

I had two main goals in Israel (even though I am here for a month). Until I had them organized, I was not planning any tours or events. The first was to get a better zoom lens for my camera. So, after much walking around, I picked up this bad boy a couple of days ago:

Seems to be working fine:

The second was to organize a specific tattoo. I did that today. The design is being done now and I will get it on the 13th. So now, it’s the end of relaxing holiday time, and time to start locking in some serious traveling. Hopefully the next post will be full of pictures, adventures and a little more interesting.

Cheers,

JC