Mazie

6:00 Tammy wakes up 8:00 Mazie wakes up, pack 8:20 Tammy walks to buy a spinach burek and Lindt chocolate bar for breakfast (don’t judge, it was good). 8:55 Check out of Airbnb and walk down the pier to meet our ferry to Dubrovnik! 9:06 Board the ferry 9:10 Ferry leaves. We make several stops at islands along the way, but it is a smooth and pretty ride. 12:30 Arrive in Dubrovnik. Uber from port to Airbnb just outside the Old City. 12:45 Another puzzle to figure out exactly where the Airbnb is, but we meet our host and check in without too much confusion. It is a beautiful, modern place with an amazing view of the sea. 1:15 Leave to explore the Old City. Walk down five million stairs to get there. Beautiful water views. 2:00 Chicken burek from Holy Burek. Very popular place. 2:15 Buy special Dubrovnik passes granting us access to the city walls, museums, and free public transport. 2:30 Walk the Old City walls! Gorgeous panoramic views from what felt like very high above the old city. It is really cool that the entirety of the wall is still intact. 3:30 Back into the Old City 3:35 Gelato stop at Molõ. Tammy had the salted caramel and Mazie tried dark chocolate orange, which she managed to get all over her fingers. 3:45 40 minute walk out of the city to escape room. 4:30 “Legends of Dubrovnik” at Puzzle Punks. Fun room! Reference my blog post or the Escaping Things website for more details :) 5:30 Narrow escape, walk back to the Old Town. 6:15 Explore 6:45 Take refuge in a tiny art museum because we are cold and it’s windy outside. 7:00 Dinner at Local Peka- our first time trying Croatian Peka, and it was homemade family style. We both LOVED the bread and olive oil, Mazie enjoyed the Peka meat, Tammy enjoyed the Peka potatoes. We smuggled our leftover bread out with us, it was that good😏. 8:30 Wander back to Airbnb. Walk back up the five million steps we descended earlier. 10:00 One last episode of Never Have I Ever. 10:30 Goodnight! 1:30 Mazie goes to bed- whoops :)

• 3:20 Wake up, pack up, say goodbyes. Have a safe journey home Jamie/dad and Tyler!
• 3:45 Meet our Uber outside the apartment. Wonderful driver, got to know him a little bit! -4:15 Arrive at airport. Line to check luggage -4:45 Security and walk to gate. Mazie gives the airport an early morning Bridge Over Troubled Water concert at a piano along the way. -5:45 Board the plane. We were almost the last to board (out of choice) -6:15 Take off!! -8:15 Landing!! -8:45 Collect luggage and take a very overpriced taxi to the Split city center -9:00 Drag luggage across very bumpy cobblestones to the Airbnb to check in. We had to give it a few tries before we found the right door :) -9:30 Climbed the secret ladder in our apartment to the old palace walls. We walked along the entire stretch of wall! -10:00 Walk around Split for a bit! We saw a nice park with Easter eggs, the Adriatic Sea, Froggyland, and the palace ruins on which the current city is built. -11:00 Pastries from Bobis. We tried two versions of cheese Burek- one was warm and rolled, the other cold and pizza shaped, and despite being cold, the pizza one was absolutely amazing! -11:30 Make our way to the edge of the city for our olive oil experience! 12:00 Meet Marian and he drives us to his farm in the mountains. We pick up Jason along the way- a hitchhiker that Marian met yesterday and blossoming friendship. -12:00-4:00 Tour Marian’s sustainable farm, learn a ton about olive oil and wine production notably. Two learnings that stood out: Balsamic is made from aged figs, and almonds and peaches share 85% of their DNA! Apparently there are almonds inside peach pits…? We enjoyed a charcuterie board of dried meats, cheese, and dried fruit all made by hand at the end. -4:00 Marian drives us back to the city center. -4:30 Explore, walk the windy streets, accidentally hike part of the way up Marjan hill. -6:30 Pit stop at Airbnb. -6:45 Walk to dinner at Pizzeria Portas. This will be our first and last pizza experience on this trip cause Tammy’s stomach is currently not liking pizza. The pizza itself (and olive oil) was amazing though! -8:00 Back to Airbnb for the night. -10:00 Goodnight!

• 6:00 Tammy wakes up to attend to medical matters
• 8:30 Tammy wakes Mazie up
• 9:00 Leave and get a spinach burek and chocolate for breakfast
• 9:28 Finally able to take out cash after trying many different machines
• 9:30 Meet up with bike guy, get acquainted with our e-bikes, learn about routes. We decided to take the longer island tour because we’re cool like that
• 9:45 Leave town on route to Stari Grad. Biked through Brusje and stopped for pictures and chocolate. Climbed to the top of the mountain and then descended back down to the coast; thank goodness for electric bikes
• 11:45 Arrive in Stari Grad frozen from the extremely windy and cold ride down the mountain.
• 11:55 Tammy buys “mittens” from a souvenir shop that is actually open.
• 12:00 Buy AMAZING bread from a local bakery
• 12:10 Buy cheese and water from the Tommy grocery store. Can you guess what kind of picnic this is shaping up to be?
• 12:15 Try to find somewhere warm and sheltered from the wind to eat our picnic. Give up and eat while walking. We managed to find the same cheese from our first European picnic a few days ago that we had loved, but somehow this cheese was different and tasted weird.
• 12:45 Afternoon stroll along the coast. Beautiful. Somewhat reminiscent of the North Shore.
• 2:00 Stroll around town.
• 2:15 Back on bikes for the ride up the mountain.
• 2:48 Serendipitous stop at Alavia on top of the mountain. They are (shockingly) open but have no menu, so we got some drinks and bread and cheese. Second European picnic of the day. Beautiful restaurant and views, and all the food was delicious.
• 4:20 Back on bikes, ride down the mountain. Really cool scenery and really cool villages the whole way. A few picture stops were required, but Tammy was very cold so was eager to finish. We rode around 40km in total.
• 5:15 Drop bikes back off at the rental place and walk back to Airbnb to drop stuff off
• 5:30 Face timed dad/Jamie. Got an update on how he’s doing- He’s trending much better!
• 6:15 Left for a walk along the harbor. Explored the side of town we hadn’t seen yet.
• 7:30 Dinner at Val Marina. Complimentary prosecco and bread & olive oil, Sea Bass, and tiramisu.
• 8:30 Leave restaurant and stroll around for a while admiring Hvar at night.
• 9:30 Back to Airbnb
• 10:30 One episode of Never Have I Ever, snuggling and cozy in bed
• 11:15 Goodnight :)

Escaped the Legends of Dubrovnik room at Puzzle Punks with 0:02 to spare! Fun room and the puzzles were the perfect level of difficulty- once we stood there for (several) seconds and figured out what was going on. We were moving relatively steadily (emphasis on relatively) until we got stuck on the same puzzle for the last 15 minutes and needed extensive clues to work through it :)

• 6:45 Tammy wakes up
• 8:45 Mazie wakes up
• 9:20 Leave apartment in search of the e-bike rental place
• 9:30 Found it! Filled out form online to hopefully rent bikes for tomorrow
• 9:45 Stopped for pastries from Pekka Bakery. Burek and Nutella filled donut.
• 9:50 Began the trek to Robinson beach via the coastal trail. The trail begins after the road out of town ends, so we almost deemed it nonexistent and turned back.
• 11:00 Reach Robinson beach, our initial destination, and decide to continue to Milna.
• 12:09 Reach Milna, walked around in search of European picnic supplies but slowly realize that literally nothing is open. It is a beautiful setting though.
• 1:00 Back to Robinson beach. We dissected some almonds.
• 2:00 Back to Hvar Town. Tammy is about to pass out from hunger and Mazie is about to pass out from thirst.
• 2:15 Procure European picnic supplies.
• 2:30 Return to Airbnb to eat European picnic. Enjoyed the view of the harbor and Adriatic Sea from our little balcony. Our cheese selection this time around was bad, but our choice in chocolate was impeccable.
• 3:45 Leave for Španjola Fortress. Short 10 minute walk from town, but it is starting to rain.
• 4:00 Enter Fortress. Very cool ancient feeling. There is even a prison we got to walk around in.
• 4:45 Leave Fortress, visited a tiny church on the way down.
• 5:00 Arrive at the oldest public theater in Europe (and maybe the world). We hung out for a while because the theater was adorable and dry and there were kids practicing for a play. Very cute.
• 5:45 Head back to Airbnb to grab umbrellas.
• 6:00 Watched dad/Jamie’s polo and realized the urgency of his situation. We knew he was sick before but didn’t realize how sick he really was.
• 6-10:00 Text, email, telephone campaign to alert people of Jamie’s situation and get him the help he needed. All of the friends and family we contacted were so amazing and willing to help, but still very scary.
• 10:15 Jamie is getting proper attention and has Tyler and Hector there with him. Watched one episode of “Never Have I Ever”.
• 11:00 Tammy goes to sleep. Mazie kind of does a bit of homework.
• 2:00am Mazie goes to sleep after covering herself in every blanket and comforter she can find because she is incurably cold.

• 7:45 Tammy wakes up and goes for a run
• 9:10 Tammy wakes Mazie up
• 9:45 Leave our apartment- bye bye!
• 10:10 Leave luggage at a storage place on the harbor after finally getting cash. Walk to Cookie Lab pastry shop
• 10:40 Hazelnut eclair and hazelnut mousse dessert at the Cookie Lab. Tammy enjoyed the eclair “very much”.
• 11:10 Began the walk back to the Old City along the beach. Saw some crazy waves
• 11:45 Walked around the Substructure of Diocletian’s Palace
• 12:30 Tried to go to the Cathedral (oldest one in the word) and the Temple of Jupiter but they were not open :(
• 12:30 Smallest street in the world!
• 1:00 Ethnographic Museum of Split
• 1:30 Discovered a random staircase while trying to exit the museum. Led to a beautiful rooftop looking out across Split that was called the Vestibule Terrace. We were probably supposed to pay…
• 1:45 Uncovered some new streets!
• 1:50 Quick tourist stop for some souvenirs: Beach towel with Croatian boats and wooden boat wall art.
• 2:00 Gelato stop at the same shop as yesterday. Tammy tried the salted butter caramel flavor and we wandered around one last time.
• 2:30 Return to storage place and collect our luggage
• 2:40 Figure out that our boat is docked at Port 21. Board and sit there rocking in the waves for an uncomfortable amount of time.
• 3:00 Depart for Hvar island. It’s a smoothly rocky ride.
• 3:50 Arrive at Hvar Town.
• 4:00 Met with our lovely Airbnb host to get acquainted with our apartment. It is quite a beautiful place with a balcony overlooking the Adriatic sea.
• 4:15 Banana, trail mix, and marvel at the four chambered garbage
• 4:30 Left to explore Hvar Town. Walked through some quaint streets and along the shore.
• 6:00 Dinner at Mizarola, right down the street from our apartment. Vegetable Tagliatelle, roasted chicken breast, “pizza bread”, tiramisu- a Tammy standout!
• 7:40 Back to the Airbnb. Both Tammy and Mazie shower.
• 9:40 One episode of Young Sheldon before bed

• 8:45 Tammy wakes up
• 10:18 Tammy wakes Mazie up (almost 12 hours of sleep!)
• 10:50 Leave and walk to bus station
• 11:10 Buy bus tickets somewhat successfully
• 11:30 Bus to Klis
• 12:10 Get off at Klis Fortress and realize that we took the wrong bus, so hike down the hill to the bus stop we wanted to get off at and hike back up on the pretty path to the fortress.
• 1:00 Explore Klis Fortress. Thoroughly.
• 2:30 Leave the fortress and raid the local supermarket for European picnic supplies
• 3:00 Find a nice spot on the hillside to enjoy our European picnic. The cheese was incredible.
• 3:15 Realize that buses are scarce up in the mountains and the next one for a few hours is arriving soon
• 3:25 Run back down the hill in record time, successfully buy our second round of bus tickets, and hop on Bus 35. It arrived and left 8 mins early, which I didn’t think was exactly allowed.
• 4:00 Walk to Airbnb to drop off our extra bread and cheese.
• 4:30 Walk around town. We like the vibe when stores are actually open. Bought designer vibe t-shirts and gelato while exploring. Salted butter caramel and Kinder.
• 6:00 Began hike up Marjan hill
• 7:00 Reach the weirdly modern viewpoint at the end of the peninsula. Includes a bathroom. Begin hike back down.
• 7:30 Back down from Marjan hill
• 7:45 Dinner at Cicibela. Stone bass and pesto gnocchi with grilled bread and virgin mojitos. -8:45 Wander back to Airbnb. Stumble across Boris, a local guitar player and singer who entertained Tammy and Mazie until Tammy got tired and cold and went to bed.
• 10:20 Mazie stays and hangs out with Boris and Vivian (studying abroad in Madrid) until past midnight. Boris imparts a lot of wisdom, shares lots of very long stories, and plays lots of music for us. He even teaches us a bit of Tai Chi. We are joined partway through by three other students, including- get this- Maisie, who is studying (permanently) in Prague. At the end of the night we exchanged phone numbers and took a selfie together
• 12:15 Mazie back to the Airbnb and to bed :)

I am not a fan of flying. In fact, I really don’t like flying and am continually annoyed by how takeoff puts half the plane to sleep while it only ever seems to jolt me awake out of fear. That is why, when the flight attendants buzz the classic “enjoy your flight” message over the loudspeaker as the plane is approaching 10,000 feet, I don’t expect to actually enjoy it much.

But my flight back from Paris was different. To start off, we were the last flight out of Terminal 3 for the night which was equal parts fun and depressing. The people on our flight were pretty lively, which made the airport feel fuller than it really was. I noticed a few people sporting Disney Paris merch! Soon after we finished boarding, the pilot gave a full blown speech over the loudspeaker. He talked about many things, notably how two of the flight attendants had just gotten married (to each other, I think?) and how handsome they both were. He had the entire plane laughing and clapping.

He then went into a little section about how aviation is the safest mode of transportation nowadays but why many people are still wary of flying. I’m not sure a pilot should joke about the safety of their passengers, but there were plenty of jokes sprinkled in. At one point during his explanation of airplane safety, he said: “Well, we’ll see about our flight tonight. Hope for the best!”.

And then he repeated an abbreviated version of the same speech in English and French (actually I’m pretty sure all he said in French was “Welcome aboard, we value your safety…. I really don’t speak French”), meaning he was talking for close to 10 minutes. Definitely the most connected I’ve ever felt to a commercial pilot! Aside from the intense turbulence storm as we came into Barcelona, he did a great job flying the plane as well :)

Remy (our adorably hilarious mouse friend from Ratatouille) invited us to dinner at his restaurant. He himself prepared us a delicious three course meal and, because he has a special place in his heart for our family, reserved us the best table in the house. Hardest part was figuring out how we were going to fit in the mouse sized door as very much as not mouse sized humans.

Disneyland Paris: The second leg of a wonderful weekend with some wonderful people!!!