Gdansk and Sopot - Polish city & beach holiday combination!

It's been a busy spring and start of the summer for the blogger - but still time for small trips! During Easter, mid April, we headed to Gdansk (or formally Gdańsk - and in German, BTW, Danzig), Poland. My second trip to Poland this year!?

Gdansk is the biggest city in Northern Poland, located on the Baltic coast. It is Polands main sea port and home to about 450.000 people. It's also part of Tricity (Trójmiasto), together with Gdynia and Sopot. Gdansk has an interesting history, as a free city, as part of the Hanseatic league as well as under German rule. It is and has been a part of Poland since 1945.

The most famous view of Gdansk

Spectacular Dubrovnik

Dubrovnik is an ~1300 year old city on the southern end of Croatia - and probably the most popular tourist destination of that small country. The city is famous for it's old town and for it's massive harbour that lures in thousands of sailors and cruise ships passengers on a daily basis. With a population far smaller than Split (40.000 vs. 180.000) it seems like a much bigger city, spreading out and up the coast line.

We had a place to stay on the hills above Gruz harbour - the location was a bit hard to find without a GPS (though I don't know if it had helped) as the city is built more like a maze. The views over the harbour and Lapad was stunning, if you stay there make sure you book a room with a sea view.

Above the Gruz harbour: Day..

..and night, equally beautiful!

On the road again, at Pelješac peninsula

While touring Croatia we tried to find some nice, peaceful, interesting places with lots of nature and we ended up going to the Pelješac peninsula - it was also conveniently "on the way" from the island of Brač to Dubrovnik. To get back to the mainland we drove from Bol to Sumartin and barely made it to the ferry leaving to Makarska (and possibly made an island record with those mountain roads as we noticed the ferry schedule a bit too late). The view of Makarska from the sea is quite impressive with the Biokovo mountain range looming right behind the city, going from 0 to 1700m in altitude within quite a short distance. Makarska looked like a lovely town too - shame we couldn't stay everywhere!

From Makarska we drove the picturesque coastal road to Ploče where we would get on another ferry to Trpanj, on the Pelješac peninsula (nothing to see in Ploče btw, an industrial town). Another short, one hour ferry ride and we were on the peninsula's northern side in Trpanj from where we continued straight to the southern side of the peninsula, to our next destination: Orebić.

Pelješac peninsula

Vines and wines – Say Malbec, you’re in Mendoza!

Thanks for the beautiful Northern Argentina, the amazing Brazilian Carnaval and all the great people I've met I'm again behind on my blog. But no worries, I've used all (well some parts) of the long bus rides to write stuff and organise pictures so I can start making blog posts during all the quiet moments I have - so many fun stories & gorgeous pictures to share!

So --- I’m becoming an expert in long bus rides. Another 19 hours of sitting (with over two hours circling the different terminals in Neuquén) I got myself from Bariloche to Mendoza. Thankfully the bus seats are comfy, there are TVs with crappy movies and if you bring your own snacks, warm clothes (OMG tone down on the air con!) and some light entertainment – like your laptop – you’ll have a somewhat relaxing day ahead.

It was morning when I arrived in Mendoza. I had managed to pick a nice hostel again, this happened to have been voted the best hostel in South America (by hostelworld users, one myself). My bed wasn’t free that early but I got myself all cozied by in a hammock in the garden, frankly I was a bit tired. So after noon I was ready to venture out to the city.

My bible (Lonelyplanet) told me that Mendoza was once been eradicated by an earthquake and after that was built with wider avenues and larger plazas to help clearing out the next disaster – very nice for walking around and people watch. I walked through most of the leafy downtown which I admit was nice but it missed some of the wibe of Buenos Aires. Couldn’t put my finger on it but it wasn’t as interesting.

I headed towards the San Martin park and the sheer size of it just hit me when I arrived. It was something in the scale of Central Park, maybe even bigger, I think the full length was around 5km? So forget about walking through all the park, actually you can drive through the various tree lined streets. Unfortunately the park also lacked all the charm. Just a trees here and there and worn down grass, t didn’t invite you to walk around the green areas, you’d basically just stroll around the streets. The lake was quite pretty and there I found some flowers as well. There was a big tennis club where there was also a pool – that looks like a nice way to spend a hot day and I’m sure that’s where the city people flock during the weekends.

Summer favourites

Summer is almost over in Finland and it was another enjoyable weekend - maybe the last summer weekend. Sad... Bur it has been another good summer! Summer city life and leaving the city are - for me - equally fun. Here's some of my this summer's favourite things.

Cold drinks * Ice cream * Sunsets * Clouds * Picnics * BBQs * Nature * Enjoying the sun * Boats * Picking berries * Cycling * Dancing *  Participating in all kinds of summer events * Having fun for no apparent reason.... :)