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I am not a rabbit

You may have seen the photo of me in a dungeon, in my last post.  The more observant among you will have noticed I am neither a rabbit nor a tortoise.

So, could someone please explain why my wife has fed me nothing but leaves since we came home?  We're supposed to eat the things that eat the things that eat the leaves, surely?

Hopefully she will tire of salad soon....

 

 

Friday - Monday, Dubrovnik

We arrived in Dubrovnik on Friday night, at around 9pm with it already dark and a pleasant 20 deg C. The hottest we experienced any day (early July btw) was 30 deg- although this was avoided thanks to a pleasantly shaded apartment. On Saturday we found a secluded beach that nobody else, except some guy who moored his boat nearby seemed to know about. Below you see The Wife swimming in the Adriatic, with the Old Town in the background.



Sunday was a chill-out day too. Normally we'd have gone to church but without an English-language option, we glanced at 'God TV' (very weird) and after lunch watched the British Grand Prix (on RTL, with German commentary). Tea on Friday and Saturday nights was via recommendations in the Lonely Planet guide.

On Monday we intended to go to Kotor, in neighbouring Montenegro on a day-trip with Atlas Travel but the bus didn't show up. After some waiting, we walked into town (it's not far) to ask at their office why there was no bus. The pleasant lady, who appeared thankful we weren't another pair of shouting foreigners, explained that due to the Rolling Stones playing in a tourist resort in Montenegro, the main roads were closed and all operators had to cancel trips. So we rescheduled for the next day - more to come in another post.

So, Tuesday's schedule became Monday's and we visited the Rector's Palace and Franciscan monastery - pics below. A better selection shall be Picasa-fied in due course.

Changing of the guards - with such a catchy flute tune.

The Rector's palace, with weird handrail and me in prison. A friend pointed out it looks like I am using an old-style toilet.

A lovely view of the dome of the monastry that my wife spotted.

Back from Croatia

We're back.  More info on our trip to Croatia, with surrounding parts of former Yugoslavia to follow.  For now, here are some nice photos.

First, the view from our Apartment.  While most of UK seemed to be waking up to floods, we had the crystal-blue waters of the Adriatic a stone's-throw away, with cruise-ships to look upon.

 

Dubrovnik's cobbled streets haven't changed much since Roman times, though there was a bit of rebuilding in the mid-1990s due to 'Serb Aggression'.  Friendly place, good atmosphere, nice people.  

 

Below you see the famous old bridge in Mostar, destroyed in the mid-1990s but since rebuilt. Unfortunately large parts of Mostar still need to be rebuilt - our tour guide's line of "There WAS my primary school, there WAS the shopping centre, there WAS the street where I grew up..." speaks for itself.  I'll post about this, and the wonderful Nico from Atlas Tours, later.

 

Walsall

Walsall - a friendly town with nice people.

Walsall Travelodge - on a par with a very, very, very bad Quality Inn I stayed in in Birmingham once. Walsall's non-smoking room had a worse smell of smoke though and the largest cockroach I have ever seen. Walsall's staff were friendly though, just under-resourced.

Barry from Airport Link taxi (HERE) gets full marks though - he says he doesn't often get sick kid in in his minibus.  Such is security now, the sick-bag had to be x-rayed at the airport.  Really.  Security bloke called all his mates over for a look.

Can anyone top my "really, it WAS that big" cockroach or x-ray vomit?

Off to Croatia... see you all in a few weeks :-)

Crappy customer service - revisited

After the idiot I had to speak to, claiming to be a manager (and who could probably not satisfactorily manage the act of making a cup of tea - possibly a Media Studies graduate?), I went home, calmed down and a few days later phoned another trained monkey on the end of the phone.

Credit to this one, he was a highly-skilled trained monkey. Indeed, he had more intelligence than the manager. This is probably why he is not in charge - management keep rejecting him at interview as they want to surround themselves with other clueless muppets so they are safe. Safety in (inept) numbers. I digress...

Oh yes, back to the phone call.

Me: "PC's not working."
Him: "In what way?"
(there followed a brief conversation, convincing me this company do emply people with an IQ above that of the average pot of yoghurt)

Him: "Sounds like the memory's faulty, what day would you like the courier to collect it for repair?"

There you go - five minutes, no shouting or telling anyone exactly how moronic they appeared to be. Well done that man - hopefully he gets employee of the month and another star on his badge.