Getting Nicole to Pre-school

Today is Monday - so we had to get Nicole up for Pre-school. I was sad that she did not want me to take care of her any more. If Chris was around, she wanted Daddy to do everything for her. After Chris left for work, she still refused my help and insisted to have Mommy helping her instead. Even if I already put on her socks or jacket, she would pull it off right away screaming "Mommy's turn!!" There was no time for me to feel offended or upset, because we wanted to get her to school on time. But she continued to give out her commands: "Mommy sit here." We tried to explain her very big & pregnant Mommy could no longer fit into her little chair. Of course, she wouldn't listen and just kept crying. She also did not want to wear her old shoes and started yelling for her new black shoes. That was enough to drive both of us crazy. After Becky finally managed to put her old shoes on, next came the fight to go downstairs to the garage, because she wanted Becky to carry her down instead of me. I no longer wanted to spend time reasoning with her, so I just got hold of her and headed down the stairs with her wailing, struggling and kicking in my arms. At the bottom of the stairs, I tried to let her down to walk to the car, she refused to put her feet down. I had only the choice of hanging onto her by her arms with her feet curled up or dropping her onto the yucky garage floor. Luckily, Uncle Stephen came back just in time after his morning bicycle ride. That drew Nicole's attention long enough to stop from fighting with us and allow us to buckle her in her car seat. It really hurts to see your grandchild doesn't want you. I could just hope this will change after a few days.

Nicole runs to Daddy for a hug the minute she sees Daddy.
She is all smiles when Daddy is holding her.
She wants Daddy to play with her.
She wants Daddy to feed her.
She wants Daddy to put on her dress and shoes to get ready for Sunday school.
Well, if Daddy is not around, Mommy will do, but absolutely no PoPo.

Back in LA after after our pleasant trip to Croatia

After the long flight I was glad to be back to LA. Since our plane was delayed, Gabriel did not know when to come to pick us up at the airport, so we had to wait for his ride. By the time I got home, it was already dark.
My home coming was perfect timing for Becky and Chris. They had put Nicole to bed and were ready to go out to dinner with Hubert. I was still feeling funny and tired due to the lack of quality sleep on the plane. After they left, I ate a bit of their leftovers found in their refrigerator, then I headed straight to bed.

Sightseeing at Llublijana and Farewell dinner 2/25/06

This morning we started with a visit to Llublijana - a nice big city in Slovenia. The bus took us all around town to see the City Hall, the foreign embassies, the Parliament , Robba's Fountain and the three Bridges. A big temporary stage was built right next to the church. The music they played was really loud. The people were celebrating some kind of festival today. A lot of people young and old were wearing costumes, something like what we do for Halloween in America.

When we were left free to explore the town, first we went to look for the MacDonald restaurant in order to use their restroom. This particular MacDonald has something new installed. You need to buy something to get the code to use the restroom. Pretty clever eh? Then we headed for the open -air market where they sell fruits, vegetables, and flowers. The fish market and meat market are both indoors. On our way back to our meeting point, we even got the chance to watch the parade.

The last stop before getting back to the hotel was a visit to the Bled Castle. The view up on top of the castle was just wonderful and magnificent. It was worth the climb uphill in the cold.

During our free time, Daniel and I went to shop for candies and cookies to bring home for our relatives. The rest of our gang went for a walk around the lake. For our Farewell Dinner we had a choice between traditional farmer's meal or chicken. Since Daniel does not like trying new food, I suggested we ordered one each. It turned out the Chicken dinner was a much better choice. However, everyone seemed to have a good time at the dinner, taking pictures of each other. This whole trip was quite wonderful after all.

The streets in Llublijana were decorated in preparation for their festival.

The Cathedral in Llublijana, Slovenia.

Beautiful organ seen at the back of the Cathedral.

A stage was set up right next to the Cathedral celebrating the festival with live music.

Daniel shopping for bloody oranges in the open market.

A look at the fish market.

Just in time to catch the parade.

Pretty Slovenia girls in costumes serving nuts and candies to on-lookers.

Next came the musicians wearing colorful costumes.

Young girls in pretty uniform dancing along....

The farewell party where they served us the traditional farmers' dish of not so tasty sausages.

Going up the Bled Castle.

A look of the town from the Bled Castle.

Small chapel in the Bled Castle.

View of the lake as seen from the Castle.

People all dressed up in costumes came to our hotel dancing room for a night of frolic and fun in celebration of the festival.

A quick look at the Plitvice Lake waterfall

It was still snowing in the morning. Our guide decided to play safe. So the walking tour was cancelled, but it was still all right for us to take a short walk in the deep snow and take a quick look at the waterfall. The fall was truly beautiful. Too bad we did not get to see the other falls in the entire lake area.

We then continue going north to Zagreb, capital of Croatia. Snow turned into rain by the time we arrived there. There are more big buildings and more inhabitants in this big city. The local guide first showed us a beautiful cemetary surrounded by fortress-like stone wall. It was cold and wet. Everyone was carrying umbrella. So it was hard to get close to him and listen to what he was talking. We stood there just wandering when would he ever finished. Then he took us down the streets, pointing out the administrative building, the type of architeture for the cathedral, the Roosevelt and Ban Jelacic Squares, etc. After a while, we decided we had enough of this guy, so we left and looked at the city on our own. The rain kept us from going too far. We found a MacDonald restaurant and had our lunch there. Then we came upon a grocery store. We went in just to have a look at their merchandise and their prices. After that, it was time for us to get back to the bus by the Cathedral. Our next destination would be Bled in Slovenia.

Bled is a quiet resort area. There are many hotels and restaurants. After checking into our hotel Jelovica, we went out on our own in search of the Chinese restaurant for dinner. To our surprise, the restarant is quite big and well decorated. The food was not too bad either. We enjoyed especially the sweet and sour soup and the fried babana for dessert.

Two waterfalls in one shot. It was extremely beautiful to see.

Another look at the fall.

All the snow on the trail prevented us to take a walking tour of the lake. What a pity!

Beautiful scenery seen through the bus window.

Statue of a poet and writer seen in Zagreb, capital of Croatia.

Beautiful roof of a building in Zagreb.

Travel to the Plitvice Lakes 2/23/06

Dubrovnik is at the south end of Croatia. Today we headed back north going towards the Plitvice Lake National Park. Our first stop was at Sibenik where we visited the medieval port , the merchant houses and palaces. For the sake of using their restroom, I had a cup of very good fresh ground coffee in one of their restaurants there. Other than that most of the time we were travelling inland so the scenery was rather dull. we came across one gray mountain after another. Most of these mountains are rocky and treeless. We also went through numerous mountain tunnels. I was so bored I started putting these thoughts in a poem. When I put my head up again, Wow, I was totally surprised to see the scenery has greatly changed. I saw snow on the ground and on top of the mountains. When the snow started falling, the whole world turned beautiful and pure. I was absolutely delighted.

It was passed 6:00pm before we arrived at the Hotel Grabovac in the Plitvice Lakes area. The temperature here was much lower, but we all dressed for it. We enjoyed a bigger size room in this hotel. Since there was no other place we could go, we all had our dinner at the hotel restaurant where they served us a choice between fish or pork chop. After dinner, they showed us a short movie on Plitvice Lakes National Park, where they have numerous beautiful water falls. I was dead tired after the movie, so I dropped right in bed and fell asleep right away. I was wakened by a sudden phone call telling me everything was all right, there was no fire happening. The sound of the blasting fire alarm and the noises of people running downstairs now fully woke me up. I asked Daniel what was going on and if we should get out of our room or not. Hurriedly I grabbed my jacket and purse and ran downstairs with all the other people, some wearing just pyjamas, some holding onto their backpacks. The alarm kept ringing for about 15 minutes before the hotel employees managed to turn it off and send us back to our rooms. However, we could actually smell the smoke coming out from one of the rooms.

Getting off the bus it was so exciting to see the beautiful snow scenes all around us.

It was snowing a bit when we arrived at our hotel Grabovac in Plitvice Lake. We had the unusual experience of a false fire alarm here.

Optional tour to Montenegro 2/22/06

We all joined the optional tour to Montenegro. All along the bus ride we enjoyed the beautiful view of the Adriatic Coast and chains of big or small islands. The bus took us onto the curvy roads all the way to the top of the mountain where we could have a better view of the whole city. However, there is only one very tiny restaurant up there selling ham and cheese sandwiches on home-made bread. Christie suggested that we tried their sandwich and saved our own for dinner at Richard's room again. I was getting tired of sandwiches, so I asked Daniel if we could share just one and then go out for a nice dinner instead. He agreed. We went back to the first restaurant again because I really like the veal with the mushroom sauce. Wow, the two of us hadn't taken a meal together alone for a few months, so I especially enjoyed this quiet dinner.

Beautiful view of the Montenegro Bay.

A look at the city of Serbia-Montenegro.

Fortress overlooking the sea.

Up on the mountain there was only one tiny restaurant that serves ham and cheese sandwich on home-made bread. The smkoking process for the ham takes as long as a year before it is ready to be served.

From the mountain top one could enjoy magnificent peaceful-looking scenery like this.

Walking Tour of Old Dubrovnik 2/21/06

This morning the local guide showed us around the old Dubrovnik city which is surrounded by stone city wall. Walking through the main entrance we came upon the main street of Stradum. Little shops lined on both side of the street. the Franciscan Monastery was founded near the entrance opposite of the water house where they collected rain water. At the end of the street is the clock tower, the city hall and the concert hall. There is also a small Cathedral and a tiny Jewish synagogue. In spite of the occasional heavy rain, we climbed the whole fortress wall, on top of which we could enjoy the panoramic view of the city's red rooftops, the harbour, the bays and the sea. It was absolutely beautiful to behold. Too bad Sharon and Daniel could not come with us to catch this breath-taking view.

We were free after this walking tour. Since most of us were wet and hungry, we decided to return to the hotel first. Paul, Christie and I joined Richard and Barbara in their room for our lunch. Using Richard's heating element, we enjoyed a good cup of instant coffee or tea.

At 3:30pm we headed back to the old Dubrovnik city by bus to attend a free concert there. The concert hall is not huge but beautifully built. It was a wonderful concert. We especially enjoyed the folk music they played.

After the concert, we went to a more classy restaurant to celebrate Paul's birthday. The prices of course was a bit higher. The food was so so and service was rather slow. We all thought we enjoyed last night's meal better.

Suspending bridge leading to the city of Dubrovnik.

The city of Dubrovnik as seen from afar.

The entrance gate to "Old Dubrovnik" - a living old Roman town surrounded by city walls, protected by the St. Laurence Fortress.

The main street of Stradun with the clock tower at the very far end and the Franciscan Monastery at the left front.

The same street as seen at night.

This old Roman fortress reminds me of the Great Wall of China.

City of Dubrovnik as viewed from the top of the city wall.

Beautiful view of one of the bays in Dubrovnik.

Sea water splashing up the foot of the fortress.

Up on the city wall.

A view of the houses in Dubrovnik.

A view of the old harbor.

The old town was well protected with cannons.

Cannons ready to be fired at any approaching enemies.

Sightseeing tour of the Roman remains of Diocletian's Palace in Split

2/20 We set off on foot after breakfast to the Roman remains of Diocletian's Palace. This Palace was built on the slope of the land facing the sea. The guide showed us how clever the way they built the fortress for protection and the wide basement, so the first floor could be build on level ground. The Cathedral of St. Domnius was built for the Emperor himself, but right now housed the remains of two Christian clergy that he killed. A statue of John the Baptist was erected inside the temple of Jupiter, but I couldn't remember the story behind it.

We had lunch at Makarska. We sat on the seaside bench, enjoying the beautiful view while eating. It was a bit too windy though. Then we took a stroll in the quiet town. Luckily we found the public toilet by the open market. I didn't really like to drink another cup of strong coffee in the afternoon in order to get to a restroom. On our way to Dubronick, we had to pass through Bosnia. We stopped by a grocery store, so everyone could use the restrooms there.

Finally we checked in at the Grand Hotel in Dubrosnick around 6:00pm. As it was raining when we got out for dinner, we decided to have our dinner at the nearest restaurant Felixi. Daniel ordered broiled calamari and I ordered veal with truffle - the special crushed mushroom sauce. Mmmmm... it was great! The dish Barbara ordered turned out to be completely black. It was very yucky looking, but amazingly the rice which was soaked with the ink from the squid and mixed with little bits of squid tasted really good.

St. Donat Church in Zadar.

View from our hotel Marjan in Split.

Underground basement of the Diocletian's Palace.

The Cathedral of St. Domnius inside the Palace.

One of the four sphinx in the Palace.

There are still people residing in this Palace today.