I like words with no vowels in them,

like Srđ, or words with way too few vowels, like Srpskohrvatski - ha! But seriously, I could read a decent amount of the Croatian (and even understand some of it spoken) and ended up buying a book; I'm already about half-way through ;)

But on a more serious note, I just got back from Dubrovnik! Here is a summary of Cody and my travels:

To get from Split to Dubrovnik we had to take a bus. It was so slow that it took over 6 hours! And it was bumpy as heck since we were going through mountains the entire time.


We stopped for a break in Bosnia. It looked basically like Croatia.


Our second day in Dubrovnik (the first we just wandered the neighborhoods around our hostel) we went to the old city (Stari grad, cf. Russian Stary gorod or Старый город). It was really beautiful, but also hot (90s)!


Dubrovnik harbor

We climbed the city walls and walked around all of the entire Stari grad.


view of Dubrovnik from the city walls


Inside the city walls we went to an aquarium that had flying fish! That's the first time I've seen live flying fish up-close (at the distance I saw them in the everglades, it doesn't count).


This tortoise apparently lived in our hostel's courtyard.

The next day we went back to the old city, saw a museum of Balkan icons, several churches and stuck our feet in the Mediterranean (freezing!).


We went into this really pretty monastery inside the city walls. It was really pretty and had this shockingly modern chapel.

In the evening we went to this place called Heidi Fast Food and got cheeseburgers that were literally the size of frying pans. And they were good! Those and burek (I had more than several of these) are officially my favorite Croatian dishes.

And now I'm back in Constance. We flew TUIfly, which made me nervous, because I thought it was going to be one of those awful cheap airlines, but it was actually completely decent. Croatia was fun, adventurous and new. It was quite Western, but not quite first-world (a lot of things I've grown to expect I think shocked Cody - "accommodations gypsies", a rooster that lived next door to our hostel, naked and near-naked people on the beach - some peeing). It wasn't as cheap as I'd hoped, but I still had a great time and experienced a lot!

Cody und ich fahren nach Augsburg

This will be a quick post, but here are some photos from Cody and my last two days. Yesterday we rode to Augsburg to spend a few days with my amazing relatives one last time before I have to go back to the States.


Last night we went to the Kirchweih beer tent in Augsburg. Cody and I finished our Masses with smiles.


Then today we went on a tour of Augsburg led by Rolf and Hermann. Here we are posing with a gorgeous lady-gnome.


This is a Holbein (one of four) in the Augsburg Cathedral.


Annakirche


more Annakirche


the Goldener Saal in the Rathaus (City Hall) - Why doesn't Byron's new million dollar capital building look like this?


And the last thing we saw on our tour was the Fuggerei, which was the very first "social settlement" in the world. It was built by Jakob Fugger the Rich in the early 1500s to help out the poor. It runs on the same principals today: If you're a Catholic Augsburger who's suddenly fallen into poverty (by no fault of your own), you could live here for €1 per year!

Afterwards we went to visit Sir Walter at his home. He turns 90 at the end of August! It was very nice to see him again.

Tomorrow Cody and I fly to Croatia at 11:30am! I'm very excited, but it's also sad to have to leave the Egenbergers. They have been (as always) spectacular hosts :)

PS - Und Max Haase, falls du dies noch liest, bitte schicke mir eine Mail (CMEHalverson@gmail.com), damit wir uns wieder in Verbindung setzen können!

Überraschung! (My sister graduated.)

"Why hasn't there been a blog post in the last week?!" I'll tell you why: I surprised my sister by flying home to good ol' Byron, Minnesota, (very very briefly) for her graduation!

My parents and I plotted surreptitiously for months. The effect was awesome.


graduation ceremony


my sister and I


the whole family
My lovely grandma Mary was at our house while I was home, but she's not in this photo.


My sister's graduation party was a blast. I saw loads of friends (including Cody, in this picture, who's coming to visit me at the end of July).


Ain't she purty?


And this is Cody's mom. She's a gangsta ;)

Even tho it was really brief, it was a blast, so thanks again everyone who came over, went out, etc. I'll see some of you sooner than others, but I'll be back in August to see the rest!