Kumeu River Winery near Auckland

 

Kumeu River winery visitor entrance.

The knowledgeable master of wine, with his delightful mother.

The laboratory.  

From Croatia to Kumeu River, this family-owned business is a big success story. 

Croatians emigrated for a better life in the 1930s, to the USA and New Zealand. Here in New Zealand they did hard work digging for gum in buried trees.

Later they bought land, and grew wines. 

We met a member of the family who has the prestigious qualification of Master of Wine. His mother takes a keen interest in meeting and greeting visitors

He showed us square metal tanks which I had never seen anwhere before, although he assured us that some can be found in France. 

He jovially told us that 'square tanks make an efficient use of space, but want to turn themselves into round or barrel-shaped tanks!' So square tanks have to be reinforced.

As the saying goes, you learn something new every day.

Please share links to your favourite posts.

Do wheeled suitcases make a noise? Dubrovnik in Croatia, London, Heathrow, flats and condos - small and big wheels, caster noise prevention

 For me wheeled suitcases and shopping trolleys are a blessing. 

I read that Dubrovnik planned to ban suitcases on wheels because they created noise in the old town of the walled harbour city which attracts cruise ships. 

Conflicting stories say banned, not banned, considering banning, all articles on different dates, and with what authority?

Meanwhile, here are some thoughts for you as a traveller to consider.

Cobblestones

How about getting rid of uneven cobblestones which make wheels makes noises. Cobblestones also destroy wheels. Worst of all, the danger of making people fall and twist their ankles. 

I have a small cobbestoned area by the block of flats where my parents used to visit and where I visit regularly. If I park near the cobblestones, or walk across them to the front door, I am liable to fall over. The block has lots of elderly residents and young mother with big wheel prams or small wheel strollers. It is a hazard for them.

What about bicycles? Do their wheels not make a noise? If not, why? Is it the size of the wheels? Maybe the old quarter should have free trolleys, like the ones porters use in hotels. 

Travelators

Travelators in airports also make dreadful noises if you try to pull along a wheeled suitcase. The same suitcase, makes no noise when pulled along carpets and flat areas alongside the travelator and between travelators at Heathrow airport.

Suitcase Wheels

Small wheels are quickly made unsightly and pulled out of shape over uneven surfaces. I used to carry a new suitcase over lumpy ground, and muddy grass areas, then put it down on flat surfaces. Bigger softer wheels which make less noise are a good idea. 

I have two and four wheel suitcases. Four wheels are better. If one wheel goes, you can usually still wheel it on three, or resort to pulling it on two. However, check manoeverability.

Suitcase shops should have surfaces on which you can try wheeling. If the wheels are immediately damaged after one minute wheeling them up and down over gravel, that suitcase won't stay pristine for long after you buy it.

Useful Websites

https://www.antler.co.uk/blogs/the-traveller/new-arrivals-meet-our-quietest-suitcase-yet

https://casterconnection.com/blog/how-to-quiet-caster-noise

https://casterconnection.com/noise-reducing-casters

Please share links to your favourite posts.

Croatia and the Dalmatians and Dubrovnik

  Croatia, former Yugoslavia, known for the city of Dubrovnic, and Dalmation dogs. 

Croatia looks like a letter c or r, with a horizontal east west band across the top and a long coastline parallel to Italy.

Dalmatia is down the coast, with the spotted Dalmatian dogs, and the city of Dubrovnik facing Italy across the sea.

I remember visiting Dubrovnik with my parents when I was about 10 years old in 1956 when Yugoslavia was one country, united.

You can take a walking tour of the Games of Thrones.

Useful Websites

https://www.decantalo.com/uk/en/testament-the-dalmatian-dog-babic.html 

https://croatia.hr/en-gb

What Are Stolpersteines? A new kind of holocaust memorial

 

Stones recalling the Frank family lived here. 

Maybe these are the first ones you have seen. But once you know about them, it becomes easier to find them. There are 70,ooo of these stones, in more than 700 locations,.

Countries include Austria, Germany

Stolpersteines sound like stepping stones but they are literally stumbling blocks. Stein is stone.  They are raised stones which make you stop and read the engraving that here lived a person before they were taken away by the holocaust. Mostly stones commemorate the last happy home of Jewish families such as the family of Anne Frank. But also other holocaust victims. 

The movement started small and spread city by city, sometimes unanimously welcomed, sometimes facing fierce opposition. Why put stones on the ground instead of the wall? Stones on the ground are harder to read.  You may have to stoop to see the writing. Is it disrespectful to tread on a memorial?

 Sometimes the actual house has gone. Sometimes you want the stones to stay even if the site is later redeveloped, unlike a plaque on a wall which could be removed. Sometimes the house is a private dwelling, but the road outside is public land so it is easier and quicker to get permission. Now these little memorials have spread through several countries.

Stolpersteine are found in Austria, Hungary, the Netherlands, Belgium, the Czech Republic, Russia, Croatia, France, Poland, Slovenia, Italy, Norway, Ukraine, Switzerland, Slovakia and Luxembourg.^[4]

Useful Websites

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_places_with_stolpersteine

About the author

About the Author Angela Lansbury

BIOGRAPHY

Angela Lansbury B A Hons ACG ALB PM5 EH5 DL5 VC5 
The Author of several books, including  Etiquette For Every Occasion. Wedding Speeches & Toasts. How to be the Best Man. Quick Quotations. Who Said What When.

Blogs travelwithangelalansbury.blogspot.com

dressofthedayangela.blogspot.com

translateforfun.blogspot.com

Braddell Heights Advanced Toastmasters Speakers Club Vice President Public Relations (VPPR), Previous President

Join BHA 1st Wednesday 7pm and 3rd Saturday 2 pm Singapore time 

Vice President Public Relations (VP PR) of Tampines Changkat Advanced;

Secretary of weekly online Singapore International Dynamic Toastmasters Speakers’ Club;

Member and past president of Harrovians toastmasters club, UK; Past member of HOD Toastmasters, London. Past member in Singapore of: Toastmasters Club of Singapore (TCS); Tiarel; and Senja Cashew.

More details from Toastmasters International find a club.

Regular attendee at annual Swanwick Writers’ School, England.

Regular attendee at annual Writers’ Holiday, Wales.

Contributor to poetry readings, and after tea courses on: Speaking On Radio To Promote Books; and Plots And Character.

Winner of many club and area speaking contests in the UK and Singapore.

Language advisor to Empire Toastmasters club in Indonesia.

Language and speech workshops in Singapore.

Speaker on radio and TV in England, Scotland, the USA, and Australia.

Compiler of a school course on public speaking for teachers to prepare pupils for school open days with attending ceremonies before government ministers, Singapore.

Former member of Harrow Writers’ Circle, London, and two writing groups in Singapore.

Angela is on Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn, Pinterest, Twitter. She would be delighted to link up with new friends.

 Please share links to your favourite posts.

CROATIA - what you need to know for your next trip

Croatian flag.

Here it is flying.


The advantage of sitting at home to much during Covid19 is you have plenty of time to sort out which country is where and what to visit next.

Today I am looking at Croatia. Why? Because I was in an online Toastmasters International meeting and during Table Topics (impromptu speaking contest at every club meeting worldwide) I was asked to pick a country starting with the letter C which I would like to visit.

Before I could start, a member of the audience interrupted, "The country is pronounced 'CROw-asia' - I should know, I'm from there!"

I said, "The country I must visit next is Croatia, because I now have a friend I can contact for advice. First I would like to know the capital. What is it?

"Zagreb."

"And what is the language?"

"Croatian."

Years ago I visited the picturesque walled harbour town of Dubrovnik, which has always been a popular cruise stop. Now it's time to see the new and old, the city culture and the countryside.

I continued:"I shall find at least three landmarks in the capital, three elsewhere in the country, and a food and drink to try, and ten words of the language which I will list: English-Croatian and Croatian-English."

I won the meeting's award for best table topic. Now I have to fulfil my promise and write the blog post. I shall deal with landmarks, tourist attractions, food and drink and finally language to order your food and drink.

I looked back to see if I had mentioned Croatia in any of my previous blogs and found I already had two phrase books.

GEOGRAPHY AND LAYOUT
The Republic of Croatia is a former part of Yugoslavia, and now a member of the European Union.






Top centres
Zagreb, capital

Zagreb cathedral, Croatia. Photo from Wiki. Photo by Palauenc05 .

Split, second city, on the sea


Roman Diocletian Palace. More a walled fortress city than a palace.
Seaside Split, Croatia. Photo from Wikimedia Commons.


Dubrovnik, Croatia, Old walled harbour. Photo by Furjaka in Wikipedia on Dubrovnik. You can walk along the tops of the walls.

LANDMARKS & TOURIST ATTRACTIONS in the capital of Croatia, Zagreb

RELIGIOUS LANDMARKS & AREAS
Croatians are mainly Catholics.

LANDMARKS & TOURIST ATTRACTIONS in the country of Croatia

FOOD AND DRINK
Look for taverns. Try truffles, and desserts such as chocolate filled donuts.
The country has white wines in the cooler north and red wines in the warmer south. Also some sweet wines.

LANGUAGE, Croatian

CROATIAN PHRASE BOOKS
The Ebay second hand copy of  the Thomas Cook book did not arrive in time.

The Lonely Planet book was small and bulky, so most of the time I left it behind in the hotel bedroom, because my backpack was already heavy with a bottle of water and an umbrella, and food for the day.

When I arrived home in London the small thick postal package was on the mat. Was it a duplicate phrasebook. No. A different publisher, different languages, and different layout and information and size.

Now that I have both I can compare them.

LANGUAGES
Both books, from Lonely Planet and Thomas Cook, cover these languages:

Bulgarian
Croatian
Czech
Hungarian
Polish
Romanian
Russian
Slovenian

The Eastern Europe book by Lonely Planet also covers
Albanian
Macedonian
Slovak

The Thomas Cook book also covered
Estonian
Latvian
Lithuanian
Ukrainian

Wikivoyage includes a phrasebook which I have copied here for convenience.

GRAMMAR
Croatian is like Latin and Italian in that it uses endings instead of extra words. So in Latin the word amo means I love. Similar constructions are used in Croatian.

Pronunciation
I read through it and noticed that the sign or diacritic over the letter c turns it into Ch. The sign over the s turns it into Sh.  A j could be a y sound.

Similar Words
Similar words for a quick start are the equivalents of taxi, TV, telephone, doctor, pardon. The word for night looks like the start of nocturnal but the sign over the c tells you the sound is more like Notch. Tri pronounced tree is three. Doktor is doctor. Taxi bus, bicycle and motorcycle are also similar. Police, minutes and million are others.

Toalet is toilets. The word for men starts with an m.

Ne is no. Da, a bit like ya, or yeah, is yes.

So here's my simple list

CROATIAN - ENGLISH
auto - car
autobus - bus
da -yes
doktor - doctor
engleski - English
hotel - hotel
me - me
ne - no / I don't
noć - night
nula - nil/zero
pardon - pardon/excuse me
prije (PREE-yeh) like the English word prior - before
taksi - taxi
telefonom - telephone/phone
toalet - toilet
tri - three

ENGLISH -  CROATIAN

before - prije (PREE-yeh) (like the English word prior)

bus - autobus
car - auto
doctor - doktor
English - engleski
hotel - hotel
me - me
night - noć (pronounced notch)
nil/zero - nula
no - ne
pardon - pardon
taxi - taksi
telephone - telefonom
three - tri
toilet - toalet
yes - da

Useful Websites
Wikipedia - for a comprehensive overview of history and geography, and out of copyright photos which may require no payment but only mention of the photographer's name
Wikimedia - for more photos
Wikipedia on the language
Simple wikipedia for a quicker, easier read
Wikivoyage - for travel info and handy links to ads
wikitravel - for travel info without the ads
tripadvisor - for customer reviews, ads, and lots of customer photos

About the Author
Angela Lansbury is a travel writer and photographer, author of 20 books, and a speaker and speech trainer.
Her books include:
Wedding Speeches & Toasts
Quick Quotations

Writing Poetry For Fun
Angela's Alarming Animal Poems

For more phrases in Croatian see next post. Please share links to your favourite posts.

Woman Overboard, Delays, Compensation - Is This Good News?

Problem
A woman fell or jumped overboard from a cruise ship off Croatia in August 2018. She was miraculously rescued ten hours later. Ten hours in the water! On Facebook a friend reported that somebody was claiming compensation for two days delay in Venice. The comment was, Lucky or not.

Lucky for the woman being picked up from the water. However, as for the delay, at first sight it could be good news for some.

What could go wrogn, go wrong, go wrong?
I wrote:

Lucky to sit in the sun. Lucky to postpone going home. Not so lucky if you have to sit all day in the hall waiting for the call, because the coach to a ferry or plane or muster point might collect you any time they arrange it.

I remember one year when we were on a flight from the USA at Xmas. We were on an American airline leaving American soil, so we knew our rights for compensation, or at least our fellow passengers did. On a flgight into the USA, or on another airline from outside the USA, the rules might be different. Check the latest.

The flight was overbooked and the airline staff made repeated requests for volunteers to be bumped. The compensation was a free flight. Plus, of course, a free night in an airport or city suburb or city centre hotel, but we were in transit, in a cold city, where good restaurants were all fully booked, and would miss a day of our short Xmas break in the Caribbean by the beach.

As the compensation increased, still not enough volunteers. As our hours of delay increased, I asked the people next to me why they had not rushed to volunteer. You'd think there would be a Ruby scrum of people fighting to get the free return ticket.

I heard these stories:
1 'I can't extend my long weekend break and take time off next week. I'm a surgeon and have operations booked. I would lose a lot of money, lose my reputation for reliability, and endanger seriously sick people.'

2 'I don't want to lose a day of my holiday. I can't take another day off. I am a teacher. I have to be back in school teaching my class. I can't abandon 30 children and upset them and their parents and the head teacher organizing a supply teacher, which costs the school more money.' (Again, she had to consider her own reputation for reliability, not to take a free holiday at the expense of being responsible to the pupils, parents, and staff.)

3 I am seeing my fiancee for a long weekend. We haven't seen each other for months. We had a special celebratory dinner planned for tomorrow. We'd miss the dinner and we wouldn't get our money back for the missed dinner.

4 What makes you think they will get you on tomorrow's flight? It will be overbooked like this one - with all the extra passengers bumped off today's flight as well?

We ended up getting a free flight.

On another occasion we were unavoidably delayed coming back from a beach resort to our home city. It sounded great. Unfortunately, I was dressed for the destination, Cold London, England, at Christmas. So I was plodding around a tropical hotel in boots and long socks, warm clothes and a coat.

The swimming pool looked lovely.

However, I had no swimsuit.

We had spent all our cash at the airport. At the hotel, for small items we could not pay with a credit card.

From then on we always made sure to carry onto planes: spare underwear, a swimsuit, and a book to read. I don't spend every last cent. I keep it for the next journey.

Author
Angela Lansbury, travel writer and photographer, author and speaker. (Please share links to your favourite posts.)

Quiz on capitals: Bosnia, Bulgaria, Montenegro, Romania, Serbia, Slovenia,

Problem
I have a hard time remebering these. I bet you do too. Instead of giving you the questions first and then the answer, this time I'll give you the answers first, then test you to see if you remember them.

Capitals are not always the largest cities

Country - capital

QUESTION AND ANSWER
EUROPE
Travelling to Europe?
Belarus - Minsk (Remember the s ends Belarus and appears in the capital MinSk.)
Bosnia & Herzogovina - Sarajevo (disputed). (You could remember SARA went to SARAjevo.)
Bulgaria - Sophia (You could remember that SophIA went to SophIA in BulgarIA.)
Croatia - Zagreb
Germany - Berlin (no, it's not Bonn)
Ireland - Dublin, Eire (Belfast is the capital of Northern Ireland which is part of the UK)
Macedonia - Skopje (The c in Macedonia sounds like S which starts the name of the capital)
Poland - Warsaw (I saw the big capital, Warsaw. Years ago it was cute little Cracow or Krakov.)
Republic of Macedonia -
Romania - Bucharest (Rest in Romania; book a rest, Bucharest)
Serbia - Belgrade (Letter B in the country and the capital)
Slovenia - Ljubljana (Slovenia has one l in the country and two in the capital)
Turkey - Ankara (But most tourists charge like bulls to Istanbul: K in the country and the Capital)

Travelling to America?
AMERICA
Canada - Ottawa (No, it's not Toronto, nor Montreal. The letter a appears twice in Canada and its capital Ottawa.)
Mexico - Mexico City
USA - Washington DC (No, it's not New York. Both New York in the North; and The South wanted the capital in their part of the country. As a compromise, a new city was built at the border.)

Travelling to Asia?

ASIA

China - Beijing (The letters IN are in both country and capital. ChINa and BeijINg.)

QUESTION - What's the capital"

EUROPE
Travelling to Europe?
Belarus -
Bosnia & Herzogovina -
Bulgaria -
Croatia -
Germany
Ireland / EIRE
Macedonia - area of Northern Greece as well as a separate new country to the north of Greece so the new coutnry is provisionally, in 2018, renamed Republic of Macedonia - which see below.)
Northern Ireland, UK
Poland -
Republic of Macedonia -
Romania -
Serbia -
Slovenia -
Turkey -

AMERICA
Canada -
Mexico
USA -

ASIA
China -

USEFUL WEBSITES
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_national_capital,_largest_and_second-largest_cities
https://www.infoplease.com/world/countries-world/world-capitals

Author
Angela Lansbury, travel writer and photographer, author and speaker. Humroous after dinner speaker. I am still talking at breakfast - you can't stop me.

Handy Maps of Bosnia, Croatia

Places to visit in Croatia: Dubrovnik; Split, Havar, Zagreb.

Well-known places in Bosnia and Herzegovina: Mostar (bridge); Sarajevo.

Travel to Croatia - where to find information

This is the Croatia flag, same as the Serbian flag, red white and blue from the top down, but with the added picture in the centre.

Where is it? Who are the neighbouring countries? What are the major cities and tourist places?


TRAVEL
CROATIA
Tourist Board
croatia.hr

Independent Information
wikipedia (detailed including history) no ads . Orignally from out of date encyclpaedias, supplemented by a few nerds and people. Increasingly written by full time or retired experts in a confusing amount of detail and jargon. Original reserach and opinions and promotion not allowed, or marked as such - must be from outside independent sources, with references. Out of copyright photos, or notes of in which country the photos may be used.

simple wikipedia (language for people for whom English is a second language, less jargon, quicker to find a fact or photo of a well-known place)

wikitravel (with ads)

wikivoyage (without ads)

tripadvisor (reviews from the public of hotels, museums, landmarks, tours) ads. Reviews may be critical. Hotel managers, restaurant staff and other owners are given the chance to reply with apologies, explanations or retorts.

Travel Advice for your nationality and from your home government

Tour operators (Often for specific regions, or types of travel, such as budget or luxury)
Outgoing operators
Outging (usually show flights from your country of origin). If you are researching on holiday in Italy, the tickbox allowing them to know where you are will give flights from where your phone or laptop is physically, which is handy if you are planning on ongoing journey, no good if you want to go home and start from here later in the year.

Incoming
After you have booked your flights, these operators arrange tours within the country. It's worthwhile comparing which combination gives the best deal. For example, some airlines will give you a reduced price hotel room for a stopover.

Why The Reduction?
The airline might own the hotel or have some deal. I imagine that's an incentive from either the hotel, or the tourist board giving a subsidy or reducing tax to get visitors because the spend per day in the country (there are tables for figures on how much visitors from each country spend, broken down by age groups, time of year and all sorts of things - they know from the VAT they collect. The visitor's spend will be higher than the reduction on the room.

On the other hand, you might find that booking locally on the ground at local prices is cheaper.

See my previous posts on Croatia.

Author
Angela Lansbury, travel writer and photographer, author and speaker. I can offer you courses, one to one online or in person in the UK and Singapore, and workshops or entertaining after dinner speeches for clubs and businesses in the UK, one-off or a series. This can be worldwide anywhere if you can organize a ipad or screen connection by whatsap, Skype, visual conference call or something better, or fly me to your destination.
Please share links to your favourite posts. I have posts on learning many languages.

Serbian, Croatian, Bosnian - help - are they the same?

Flag of Croatia

Flag of Serbia

Flag of Bosnia

Problem
I just spent time learning Croatian spelling and pronounciation. Do I have to start all over again with the other nearby languages, and when I drive a few miles north-south or east-west?

The good news is that Serbian, Croatian and Bosnian are written more or less the same. Know one and you know the others. The only difference is that Serbian can also be written in Cyrillic. (Pronounced like Cyril - easy to remember Serbia and Cyril start with the same sounds.)

So if you don't know Cyrillic, you have to look for the words written in the Latin alphabet. However, be generous, for those who grew up reading Cyrillic, or anybody who has just lerned it and wants to practise it, in Serbia you have two alphabets.

Go back to my post on Croatian. Much simpler than you think, once you analyse it.

Say:
"Show me the church,"  š=sh  č = ch
"Er, it's my pleasure." r = er ž=s as in sure or pleasure or shall
"Sh!" š=sh
"It's full of cats. This is a joy, you know."  ć=ts dž=j
"Thanks a million." j=ly

"D'you know how to pronounce the d with the line through it?"
"Yes, dy."

You have now pronounced all the sounds. You can read and speak Serbian, Croatian and Bosnian.
(If you want to learn the Cyrillic I have a post on that.)

Useful Websites For Languages
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Comparison_of_standard_Bosnian,_Croatian,_Montenegrin_and_Serbian


TRAVEL
CROATIA
Tourist Board
croatia.hr
Independent Information
wikipedia (detailed including history)
simple wikipedia
wikitravel (with ads)
wikivoyage (without ads)
Travel Advice for your nationality and from your home government

Tour operators (Often for specific regions, or types of travel, such as budget or luxury)
Outgoing operators
Outging (usually show flights from your country of origin). If you are researching on holiday in Italy, the tickbox allowing them to know where you are will give flights from where your phone or laptop is physically, which is handy if you are planning on ongoing journey, no good if you want to go home and start from here later in the year.

Incoming
After you have booked your flights, these operators arrange tours within the country. It's worthwhile comparing which combination gives the best deal. For example, some airlines will give you a reduced price hotel room for a stopover.

Why The Reduction?
The airline might own the hotel or have some deal. I imagine that's an incentive from either the hotel, or the tourist board giving a subsidy or reducing tax to get visitors because the spend per day in the country (there are tables for figures on how much visitors from each country spend, broken down by age groups, time of year and all sorts of things - they know from the VAT they collect. The visitor's spend will be higher than the reduction on the room.

Author
Angela Lansbury, travel writer and photographer, author and speaker. I can offer you courses, one to one online or in person in the UK and Singapore, and workshops or entertaining after dinner speeches for clubs and businesses in the UK, one-off or a series. This can be worldwide anywhere if you can organize a ipad or screen connection by whatsap, Skype, visual conference call or something better, or fly me to your destination.
Please share links to your favourite posts. I have posts on learning many languages.

CROATIA and Dalmatia, Dubrovnik and Split to Zagreb

The flag looks pretty similar to that of Serbia, except for the addition of the shield in the middle. Since Serbo-Croat is the language, mutually intelligible, I suppose that is logical.

Problem
What do I know about Croatia? Croatia is Catholic, officially secular but mainly Catholic. It is coastal and famous for Dubrovnik. Croatia was previously part of Yugoslavia. Yugoslavia split up into several pieces like a jig-saw puzzle.

This map explains it all, what's where.

Cities, Towns and Villages
Dubrovnik on the coast in the south has 16th-century walls and a promenade.

Split from here at coastal Dubrovnik and drive three hours to Split, where you can roam around the Roman ruins.

Islands
Take the ferry from Split, and split via the island of Brac, to the island of
Hvar, an island fishing village, which has Dalmatian wines.

Islands are dotted like a string of oval pearls along the coast.

Korcula
Before the Romans there was scenery. Mountains surround the city.

Oddity
The oddest town layout is that of Karlovac in the north near Zagreb. Seen from the air, you can appreciate that the defensive layout is star-shape. The orange tiled roofs are attractive.

Offbeat Holidays
About a dozen lighthouses are available to you for a get away from it all holiday to watch the waves and write your novel.

Zagreb, the Capital
In the far north is the inland capital of Zagreb. The cathedral and churches are interesting. St Marks church is medieval and has a distinctive roof decorated with colourful tiles depicting two giant shields.

The art galleries include one with an impressive number of old masters.

The most modern, and unique is the award-winning Museum of Broken Relationships. You don't know whether to laugh or dry. Pointless but poignant and popular.

From the capital Zagreb, it's only two hours by bus, car or train to Ljubljana. From Zagreb you can fly home, or you could drive for about two hours to the capital of Slovenia, Ljubljana.

Food
Starters
Local olives and olive oil with your bread.

Savouries
The usual Med food, but often peppery or spicy. Cheese pastry (Strukli) and fingers of mincemeat on bread.

Sweets
Delightful Desserts
Almond cake from Rab island, called Rapska torta; cream cake called kremšnite; pancakes with cream cheese filling; pastries with walnut, poppy (makovnaka) or pumpkin and cheese, and strudels.

You can also buy chocolate-filled, freshly-baked doughnuts to end the day and end the diet. They are called Krafne.

Drink
Vineyards and tastings are all over the country. If, like me, you are not keen on red wine, you will be delighted to learn that evanda is a rich red wine diluted with tap water. Gemish is wine with mineral water. There's a sparkling red in Istria with herbal extracts. Also look for Maraschino from the marasca cherries. For non-alcoholics and drivers, a wake-up drink (smrikva) is made from sour berries. You have to be sober to say smrikva.

Airport
You can fly into Dubrovnik, from London, Edinburgh Toronto and many more places, on Air Canada, British Airways and WestJet.
From America, I suggest you fly to London for a stopover. Or into Europe to Frankfurt. Fly or drive from Europe or fly in direct from Dubai, Qatar or Tel Aviv.

Croatian Airlines is a member of Star Alliance, so if I flew on Singapore Airlines into Europe I could pick up air-miles for the rest of the trip on Croatian Airlines, as well as enjoying any airport lounges..

Wikitravel gives you all your airline options.
Fifty best holidays chosen from those suggested by an assortment of travel writers including myself are on one list chosen by judges for flightnetwors.com/blog.
They have a lovely sliding slideshow of pictures of Croatia scenery.
https://www.flightnetwork.com/blog/dalmatian-coast-of-croatia/

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zagorski_Štrukli Recipe for savoury cheese pancake.
https://wikitravel.org/en/Croatia

https://www.learncroatian.eu/blog/basic-croatian-for-your-holiday-in-croatia
https://www.learncroatian.eu/blog/the-croatian-letters

Author
Angela Lansbury, travel writer and photographer, author and speaker. See my post on Slovenia, love Slovenia.

Slovenia - Love Slovenia they say, caves, castles and poppyseed

Love Slovenia, they said. What a clever pun. Of course I love Slovenia. I love travelling. I love everybody.

Problems
Just a minute. Where is it? East of Italy, near Italy's border town of Trieste which is to the west. North of Greece, part of the old Yugoslavia, the Communist country which broke away from Russia.

Memories of Yugoslavia
We had an au pair girl from Yugoslavia. She used to recite a saying with numbers, "Yugoslavia is a country with seven languages and five great lakes,' - or was it the other way round, five languages and seven great lakes?

She bought clothes in England.  But before she went home she cut out the labels.

I asked why. "Are the labels scratchy?"

She looked at me warily, disdainfully, surprised at my ignorance. "We are not allowed to take out money, more than a small amount, not enough to buy a lot of clothes. We are not allowed to buy and import items from other countries."

I was sorry when I first heard that the country had split up. I had been to Dubrovnik with my parents when I was a teenager, on a cruise. I remember my parents walking through the narrow cobbled streets, admiring the architecture, looking up. They paused to listen to somebody playing music overhead, beyond a balcony, through an open window. Now Dubrovnik, the well-known tourist stop, was cut off from the rest of the country.

Now in 2018 in the UK we have Brexit. Slovenia is independent, proud of it, glad of it. There are two sides to every story. Times change.

What is there to see and do?

In the middle of the country is the capital, Ljublijana - easier to say if you realise the j is pronounced like a y. Small capital city, pocket-size, or pint size they say.

 See all the usual museums on history and art. The main landmark is the triple arch bridge. At night the bridge is attractively lit and makes reflections in the water of the winding river.

Your next choice is a trip to the lake or a trip to the caves?

This is me at the World Travel Market at Excel in London last year. I am standing next to a delightful picture of a lake with an island reflected in the water. The lake is Lake Bled, famous for the island with the church. Bled's other attraction is a cliffside castle.

Poppyseed cake. Photo by Angela Lansbury. Copyright.

Slovenia Cake
In my hand is a pastry. The famous gibanica cake has poppyseeds. I love poppyseeds. The cake also contains walnuts, apple, raisins cheese and a cream topping.

The food features potato dumplings. Called Kraški pršut.

You could finished a meal with a Turkish coffee or a lemon tea. You can also take wine tours.

Take trips to two sets of caves, the giant Postoyna and the Unesco heritage Kkocjan.

Postyna Cave Complex
Take the train through the Postoyna cave. The cave contains a concert hall.

Railed walkways take you past stalagmites and stalagtites. Which is the mite and which is the tite? Stalagtites hang down like tights.

The place is busy. It even has an underground post office.

Admire the beauty - and learn about the history. In WWII the Nazis stored petrol (Americans say gas for gasoline) in the caves. Partisans set fire to the stores.

It's not hot now. Underground can get cool, even chilly. Wear a jacket and a hat.

The train in the cave. Photo by Donald Judge in Wikipedia.

Go to the nearby 13th century Predjama castle which is built into a cave. This castle has everything you'd want of a castle. History. A dungeon. A secret passage.

After the castles and caves, Slovenia has a gorgeous gorge.

Where next? West to Trieste or East to Zagreb? Look at the map again.

Slovenia used to be part of Yugoslavia. Instead of visiting one country, the old Yugoslavia, you can now cover the same distance and legitimately claim to have visited two countries. You are only two hours from Croatia whose capital, Zagreb, is to the East. Happy travelling!

More information from:
http://www.slovenia.si/visit/
https://wikitravel.org/en/File:Slovenia_in_its_region.svg
https://wikitravel.org/en/Main_Page
https://www.skyscanner.net/flights-to/si/airlines-that-fly-to-slovenia.html
https://simple.wikipedia.org/wiki/Slovenia

Author
Angela Lansbury
Travel writer and photographer, author and speaker.
See my next post about countries splitting up, covering the USA and the Romans.

Serbian Language Secrets revealed, the Cyrillic alphabet, sounds and colours

Problem

A colleague of mine is employing some people from Serbia to do work for him online, helping with his news website. He says it's cheaper than employing people in the UK. If he writes to them, no problem. 

But speaking to them on the phone or on Skype would be a problem. So would going to meet them. He can't pronounce their names!

How often would you meet people who speak the Serbian language? Even if you are not planning travelling to Serbia in the near future, you might meet Serbian speakers in Bosnia, Croatia, the Czech Republic or Romania. Wiki says:

Official status
Official language in	Serbia  Bosnia and Herzegovina  Kosovo[a]
Recognised minority language in	Croatia  Hungary[3]  Montenegro  Slovakia[4]  Czech Republic[5][6]  Macedonia[7]  Romania

Serbian Letters

Cyrillic Latin IPA value А а A a /ä/ Б б B b /b/ В в V v /v/ Г г G g /ɡ/ Д д D d /d/ Ђ ђ Đ đ /dʑ/ Е е E e /e/ Ж ж Ž ž /ʐ/ З з Z z /z/ И и I i /i/ Ј ј J j /ʝ/ К к K k /k/ Л л L l /l/ Љ љ Lj lj /ʎ/ М м M m /m/

Cyrillic Latin IPA value Н н N n /n/ Њ њ Nj nj /ɲ/ О о O o /ɔ/ П п P p /p/ Р р R r /ɾ/ С с S s /s/ Т т T t /t/ Ћ ћ Ć ć /tɕ/ У у U u /u/ Ф ф F f /f/ Х х H h /x/ Ц ц C c /ts/ Ч ч Č č /ʈʂ/ Џ џ Dž dž /ɖʐ/ Ш ш Š š /ʂ/

How do you remember them? You'll have to make up some memory aids. Here are some of mine:

The b looks like a Big B written in a hurry so it's like a small b and the small b looks like a b written in a hurry of a number 6. Six bees. however the B shape is like v. I think of the word believe. When I see the letter b, which is at the start of the word believe, I go to the end of the word believe and find the V.

The Gamma is next. (Alpha, beta, gamma). It looks like a pointing r. Revving up. Go go go! Get the Gamma.

The D or delta looks like a door.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Serbian_Cyrillic_alphabet

http://mylanguages.org/serbian_alphabet.php

Serbian Latin Alphabet

From Wikipedia; credit author Albatalad.

Serbian Names

Once you have managed to read the names, you need to know how to say them. I found a helpful website which gives names in both a Latin and a Serbian lettering plus a recording of the sound.

How do you get to hear the name? You see a wide oblong with the triangle on the left. At first I kept clicking on the oblong or on the teeny symbol alongside the triangle. I would tap several times and eventually hit the right place by chance. I thought the site was slow or not working. Then I wondered if it was me.

You have to be sure to click on the triangle, not just anywhere in the oblong.

The girl's name Anna looks like AHA in the Serbian script. (I remind myself, 'aha - it's Anna! But the vowel is pronounced more like u n n a , or uh-ha.

https://www.hearnames.com/pronunciations/serbian-names/serbian-boy-names/

https://www.hearnames.com/pronunciations/serbian-names/serbian-girl-names

https://www.hearnames.com/pronunciations/serbian-names/serbian-surnames

I decided to try to learn a couple of words. I went onto another website and chose colours. At first I could not see the icon for play. Then I realised I had to download flash player in order to see the bar which starts with the triangle pointing forward for go.

My next problem was that the words didn't match up with the colours in the columns. then I realised you read the two words on each line horizontally, zig zagging down the page. The words which sounded almost the same as English were Orange and Brown.
http://mylanguages.org/multimedia/serbian_audio_colors.php

If you go to Serbia, what is there to see? The Nikola Tesla museum. It is in Belgrade, the capital city. Belgrade is known as the White City, The White Castle, and The city which never sleeps.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nikola_Tesla_Museum
http://www.nikolateslamuseum.org/web/index

Angela Lansbury, travel writer and photographer, author and speaker, teacher of English, public speaking, and learner and speaker of other languages. Please share links to my posts.