music

Day 9 – Tripoli

Posted on March 31, 2018

Your team are noobs.

A late start for us today, while the others were out doing god knows what. They did order some lunch for us though (wraps) which were delivered and consumed with great delight in the afternoon.

Then we got ready to go to another relative’s house for dessert and a catch-up. Another lavish home with a great view of Tripoli, with both the ocean and the mountains visible. I saw my first proper sunset here (usually it’s obstructed, or we’re busy doing something else).

After many sweets, cake and fruit, we said goodbye and drove a short distance to another relative’s house for dinner, followed by even more dessert. We finally met some cousins who were our age though and spoke English well, so we could actually hang out and have conversations (and a sneaky OW game). What a strange feeling.

After our meal, they took us youngens out to a swanky underground bar, which had live music (English songs tonight!) and we had even more food and drinks.

It was nice to go out at night and do something different for a change. This post is late because we got back late and I was too tired. It won’t happen again (haha…ha).

Day 27 – Zagreb

Posted on July 23, 2017

Steak! Where’s my steak?! Where’s Armani? He’s on the phone. Too slow. You’re not going to Paris. I’m so much better than you.

Today I opted to stay in for longer in the morning, and planned to head out later in the day, so we could stay out later and catch the sunset at the observation deck. Well that didn’t happen.

We did go out for an early dinner though to a steak/grill restaurant and had some tasty meat. I had two dishes of chicken, because… hungry (and cheap). After that, we walked towards the observation deck, but came across the main square again and saw the seating and preparation for the last concert of the folklore festival which has been going on since we arrived.

So we decided to grab an early seat and wait for it, watch some, and then continue on. We thought it would start at 7pm, but was a while later before it did, so there was no time to catch the sunset, but we stayed a while and watched the concert.

I will try once again on Tuesday to get up there for sunset, as tomorrow we have a long full-day tour we booked out of the city. Expect bigger blog and a lot of photos then (maybe delayed if a lot to process).

Day 25 – Zagreb

Posted on July 21, 2017

We’ve had one yes, but what about second breakfast?

Our hotel has a buffet breakfast included, so we didn’t have to worry about that. After we ate, we got ready to head out and just started exploring the local area. There is pretty good signage around pointing out the various museums and other landmarks around, of which there appears to be a lot.

We walked down to the nearby square, where there was a market and a folklore festival of sorts happening, with a stage set up and performances by a range of different groups from various countries. They played instruments, sang and danced in traditional fashion.

After listening for a while, we walked around some more before needing a break from the intense heat (well over 30 degrees), so we stopped into a place we came across called Tolkien’s House. There were some LoTR references around and on the menu, but it turned out to be a pretty shallow use of the name.

We had a nice cold drink though and a chance to rest, before continuing on and getting to a large cathedral. There were also some interesting old walls and buildings around the church.

From there, we walked back to the hotel, stopping into a supermarket to get water and a few supplies. After a rest, we went to an Italian restaurant for dinner which was a short walk away. We ordered some bread and a pizza as a starter to share, as they were quite cheap.

When they were brought out, we realised how big the portions were. We actually didn’t finish them, as we needed to save room for our mains. Speaking of which, those came out and were huge too. Everything was so good though, and we did our best to get through it all. Was way too full to try the dessert unfortunately, but we may go back another day to try some new dishes.

After dinner, we headed back to the main square, as the folklore concert was supposed to continue from 7pm, and lo, it was in full swing when we arrived. We watched a couple of the performances (from Iraq, then Macedonia) before calling it a night. I got mostly videos of the performances, so not many photos to share.

Tomorrow we’ll likely check out all the museums and galleries in the area.

Day 20 – Prague

Posted on July 16, 2017

I’m always serious; I’m Czech.

After having a nice home cooked breakfast at the apartment, we headed out for a slightly late start, but it’s summer, so we get plenty of daylight here. We didn’t have any specific destinations in mind today, just decided to wander around the city and see what we could find. We started in the main square in Old Town, since it’s super close to our apartment.

From there, we walked back towards the newer area, as we had seen a few museums and other interesting looking buildings back there when we walked past yesterday to get to the supermarket. We briefly stopped into a chocolate shop and tried some goodies.

A bit further on, we found the other main square, which had some marquees and a stage set up, where a group of Hare Krishnas had some sort of event. There wasn’t too much set up yet (more on that in a minute).

Nearby there was a Museum of Communism which we decided to check out. Inside, there were many walls with information, photos and items from Prague’s history with Communism after the Second World War. There was a lot of depressing information to take in, it’s weird to think how recently all this was happening.

Once we had made it through the museum, we headed back out onto the square to find a much larger amount of people. The Hare Krishnas were on the stage speaking while free food was being given out from a nearby marquee.

We made our way through the crowd, and continued on to a nearby shopping centre (of course…). After a bit of inevitable shopping, we went upstairs to the food court to get some late lunch/early dinner. There was a good looking Japanese place there, and it looked well priced. It turned out to be pretty great, with large portions, tasty food and really good prices. A decent variety of choices too.

After eating, we walked back towards Old Town, getting some strange donuts along the way, and walked up to the river and bridge. There were a couple of bridges, so we walked across to what seemed like the main one, and hung out there a bit.

There were a number of buskers out today, and again I got quite a lot of video, but balanced with a decent number of photos too. Tomorrow will probably be a similar day hanging out in the city, seeing other things we didn’t get a chance to today. Perhaps even a concert/show tomorrow night.

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