Croatia and Switzerland

Wow. It's been a while. The last time I blogged it was a month after break up. Well it's now 3 and a half months since the break up and I am really good. Hell, I'm impressed with myself. I am stronger than I thought.

Sometimes it still hurts, like finding out he has a new girlfriend when his reason for breaking up was that he couldn't be in a relationship with anyone and needed to find himself...Oh look at that... a month after our break up, he got himself a new girlfriend. Men.

The good news? He really does make it easier to move on and get over him.

Croatia is ridiculous. I am sorry. It is not possible for a place to be THAT gorgeous and magical. Unless you've been there, I can't actually describe how MAGICAL the place is. The ocean is turquoise. There is no beach sand, so the clean, clear water is warm and extremely salty. You literally float and bob (no treading water) - it's amazing.

The culture is warm, friendly and welcoming. It doesn't matter who you are, you are welcomed and welcomed warmly. We swam from our villa to another island about 600/700m away and when we got onto the beach, a warm, friendly woman invited

us into her stone home for coffee. Incredible. Coming from South Africa, we obviously we skeptical and wondering if we were walking into a sex-trade syndicate. Kidding. But you do feel guilty for feeling so on guard when people are so friendly and genuine.

The villages are just gorgeous with lots of stone homes and buildings, cobbled streets, wild olive trees, vineyards, gorgeous cafes, shops to die for, shoes to die for, the vegetables and fruit are just too delicious. I have been spoilt with the taste of genuine olive oil, home made wine and the potatoes and tomatoes are something else.

It was exactly what I needed. My soul completely rejuvenated! I bonded even more with my amazing-don't-know-what-I-would-do-without-them girlfriends. We had fun regardless of what we did, from the car trips and ferry trips to the walking around the cobble streets, hav

ing coffees, lying in the sun listening to music, shopping, taking taxi boats from island to island listening to Croatian bands while drinking G&T's, finding children play areas and satisfying our inner child, cooking together, our wine drinking, sitting in peace and watching the ocean, our coffee and chocolate tradition before bed and our laughs. I will never forget this trip. It was the best trip I have ever had.

Dubrovnik

The Stone Villas where we stayed - we had the place to OURSELVES!!

The view from our villas.

Vela Luka.

Special K and my feet on the speed boat :-)

Split - best place for shopping :-)

I also had the pleasure of going to Switzerland... I haven't seen my gran, cousins, uncle and rest of the family in 5 years. I don't really know much about my Swiss family and spending time with my 81 year old gran was just so amazing. I found out things about her and my late grandfather, found out things about my dad, how he was when he was little, all the stories etc etc ... It's made me learn more about who I am and where I come from. The last time I saw my grandpa, I was 9 years old (1992) and he passed away in 2001. I learnt so much about him and there are several things about his personality and character and even his hobbies, that now make so much sense... I have a lot of them and never knew where they came from. Awakening.

I've also only ever been to Switzerland in winter. It was most bizarre to not see the country covered in snow. Instead, it almost looked fake. I have never seen such greenery everywhere. It was so lush and I honestly think the alps looked like they are covered in green felt material.

It was quite something to think that in one morning, I had been in Croatia lying in the sun on the beach and then not even 14 hours later, I was hiking in the alps and standing in snow that had fallen and was starting to melt.

The photos I took, looked like I had doctored them. Incredible.

Switzerland is such a clean country and it's so efficient. If the train says it will leave at 15h03 ... it leaves at 15h03, not 15h04 or a second after. Wow.

It was a whirlwind trip and I travelled around Switzerland within 6 days, I even crossed into Germany for a day. It's amazing how easy that is in Europe.

The food. Don't get me started on the food and the chocolate. *drool*

Davos