Balcony - two months later

So in the two months since we've planted our balcony paradise it has succumbed to mildew and has been attacked by some sort of little white insects. The invaders had a main culinary preference for raspberries but didn't refuse to try some blueberries as well. So Jack and I took a trip to the nearest hardware store and bought some organic insecticide and fungicide, which he very kindly sprayed on the plants. It has helped a little but we need to do it another one or two times.

So far everything has been surviving except for one lavender, which dried out and did not come back to life after my resuscitation attempts.

Kids have been very helpful picking out weeds, but haven't really shown much interest in actually eating the berries...

In the meantime there has been a little harvest...

Balcony - two months later

So in the two months since we've planted our balcony paradise it has succumbed to mildew and has been attacked by some sort of little white insects. The invaders had a main culinary preference for raspberries but didn't refuse to try some blueberries as well. So Jack and I took a trip to the nearest hardware store and bought some organic insecticide and fungicide, which he very kindly sprayed on the plants. It has helped a little but we need to do it another one or two times.

Kids have been very helpful picking out weeds, but haven't really shown much interest in actually eating the berries...

In the meantime there has been a little harvest...

18 meters of paradise... time will tell.

We bought our first flat in the end of 2007 and our second one in 2012, but only renovated and joined them together in 2013. When we put them together we also joined the balconies and ended up with one very skinny and very long balcony. For most of the year it's just a long grey space that collects dust off the busiest street in Berlin, bird droppings and dry autumn leaves. But in summer when the weather does pick up for a few months and when it's not too windy we do love to sit on it and see the city life go by.

So I've been cherishing the idea of having something green there. About two years ago I decided that vines or something such like would be great there.  I've done some research.  We even went with Emmi to look at some plants in the local hardware and gardening store two years ago.  Then nothing happened.  Last summer the desire picked up again in spring, but then nothing happened either.  So when the desire came again this spring I had a firm belief that it will come and go.  But no!  Given that we came back early from our road trip we actually had Thursday and Friday with Jack to ourselves while boys were at Kita.  We used Thursday wisely by just hanging out in a cafe by the river brunching and then shopping for new kids clothes.  But Friday we decided to be productive... first we took our car for a quote of repair, so that it can at some point be fixed.  While it was being looked at by the mechanic we went shopping for pots and plants and vine supports.  We first hit IKEA to see what they had... that took about 2 hours.  Then we went to pick up the car after the quote and drove to the hardware store next door.  That took another 2.5 hours.  While Jack was paying for and loading into the boot the stuff we bought there, I went to IKEA again to buy stuff from there that we were not sure of the first time around.  So a mere 5 hours and some couple of hundreds of euros later we drove home via a major detour due to a culture festival this week, needless to say in a less than happy and content mood.  To illustrate the mood we were in, here's a little sketch from KVN (sorry, Russian only)...




BUT... on Saturday with the help of the boys we put it all up and now our balcony looks a bit more like it should in my fantasy.  We bought five big pots for climbing plants and five types of climbing berries to go in them.  There are all the berries that my Grandpa used to have in his country house - raspberries, black currants, red currants, goosberries and blueberries (actually I think Grandpa didnt' have any of them, but in any case...). We also bought some lavender and a little olive tree in a pot, but it's already starting to look a bit sad*.  Here are some photos of the balcony as it is now...

 

* NB: I am not much of a gardener... the only plants that don't die around me are cacti and succulents. But I am hopeful... and there's Google to help.

Road Trip Day 7 - home, sweet home

We woke up in what turned out to be by far the most luxurious room of our trip. We were staying in a large corner suite of the mansion with gorgeous views of the gardens and it even had a tapestry (!) on the wall above the master bed. Kids didn't care about anything like that as much as they did about a giant TV that they watched while we were getting ready to go down for breakfast. The hotel is pretty cool. It has photos and history of the Trapp family (the original Austrian family from the Sound of Music film) over the walls and some of their old furniture. They even do tours of the house at midday every day. Each room has a theme, and you can even stay in the Sound Of Music suite. Breakfast was served on a giant long table where all guests could sit together. There were some very loud and chatty Americans and a Canadian couple who sat next to us. They were on their two week tour of Europe, and because he is of German heritage they went to his old ancestrial home and stumbled upon an 80+ neighbour who knew his uncle. Very cool story.

After getting Tom to pee in the Trapp family gardens we drove off. We hit some roadworks coming out of Salzburg and a bit of traffic going past Munich. It's been a sunny 25 degree day. We stopped off for lunch somewhere past Nürenberg. Kids played on a playground for a bit and at around 14:30 we set off again. Tom slept for what must have been nearly 3 hours. After he woke we did another quick pit stop and then did the final 2 hour leg of the journey to Berlin with the kids watching cartoons. We walked through our front door at 19:40. Overall it has been a very nice short trip. We got good experience driving with kids over long distances and both agree that it works well despite expectations to the contrary. It was also very nice to get away, albeit for only a week. We definitely want to come back to Croatia again, but next time in proper summer. And... *drum roll*... this concludes my rambling about our trip :)

Road Trip Day 6 - the last of the sun...

Jack has had a cold coming on for a few days and this morning it really hit him after another night of being half cold in the apartment. So in the morning we left Jack to rest his cold and went to the ship playground on the shore. There we met another Russian mother from St Petersburg who was there with her daughter, who was just two months younger than Tom. We spent about two hours talking and the kids were happy playing together. Up until then Tim kept getting frustrated that none of the local kids seemed to understand any of the three languages that he was trying to talk to them in. One day there was a German boy who seemed to have had the same problem and was thrilled to play with Tim for a bit. But on this morning Tim was even happy playing with another two year old. And then after a while another girl joined them. She spoke only Italian but by that stage Tim was more confident and played with her as well, giggling every time she replied to him in Italian :)

Given that the weather was going to be rainy and cold from Wednesday, and the fact that inside there wasn't much to do, AND because outside there weren't many options for ourdoor activities in the rain, AAAND because the kids were still not completely healthy and Jack also got sick we decided to go back to Berlin. We first thought about the option of me driving us to Berlin overnight, but then decided on the more grown up and responsible option of breaking up the journey by staying one night in Salzburg. We found a last minute deal on Booking.com and reserved a family suite in Villa Trapp, which is the house from the Sound of Music.

Tim and I went out for ice cream and boat watching while Tom and Jack slept. Then we got back to pack. By the time we packed and said goodbye to the sea and picked some stones to take with us it was 7pm. We spent about 40 mins getting to the Slovenian border. We got our passports checked twice - first by the Croatian police and then by Slovenians. We then filled up spending our last Kunas and off it was towards Austria. The drive is amazing. The roads brilliant and the scenery is just staggering. There are mountains and green hills, and the sea... And beautiful little houses with flowers on their balconies. And then there was the sunset. It was an absolutely gorgeous day and a perfect one for a long drive.
 

At around 10:30pm we got to a checkpoint on the road to what we thought was the Slovenian/Austrian border. Instead it was a line into the 8km tunnel. We're not sure it's the longest in the world, but it's certainly long. We had to wait for about 20mins to get in, because there were oversized cars carrying yahts driving in the opposite direction. Driving in the tunnel is quite strange, because there is nothing to really see it gets so repetitive that after a while I found myself asking if I was having a deja vu. Pretty much immediately after the tunnel we got to the border. We read quite a bit about it beforehand that indicated that we're likely to have to wait in line and searched very well because of the influx of refugees on that route. Perhaps because it was so late, or perhaps because we look so harmless, the military policeman didn't even take our pile of passports, but just waved us through. We were very pleasantly surprised and drove on.

 

Pretty much as soon as we drove into Austria we got rained on. That wasn't so pleasant, especially in the dark and on a foreign road. We stopped off at a service station to get a Coke and some Malteesers and were hassled by a strange old Austrian lady with a little dog.  She approached our parked-in-the-dark car as we were about to drive off and started talking. Because Austrians speak with a funny dialect we couldn't really work out what she wanted, and drove off :/ Boys fell asleep after watching a set of Nu Pogodi, so by the time we got to our Salzburg hotel at 00:30 they were well transportable staight into bed. As in Croatia they shared a large bed with some divider pillows in between and both slept very well untill the morning. In the dark our room seemed nice but the main point was that it was warm. It was another good day and we were all happy getting closer to Berlin.

Road Trip Day 5 - fish and train

This morning we went for a long walk to try and find the sandy beach on the other side of the marina.  On the way there we went past hundreds of boats and yachts parked at the port.  Along the shore there were heaps of fish to be seen. Tom's excitement grew and grew with every fish that he saw.  After walking for about 40 mins we didn't find the sandy beach, which I think was still further, but we did find a nice big empty playground and a multitude of little green lizards. Kids played on the playground, we sat around in the sun, then in the shade (both of us adults are getting pretty sunburned). And then we headed back.

Back at the apartment Tom had his nap and Tim and I went for ice cream by the beach.  We watched a local guy fix his sports fishing boat. While he was at it another two older local dudes arrived and conversed in Croatian about what seemed to be advice on how to fix whatever he was doing. In the end the guy got frustrated and gave up and went with the others for what looked like a beer. Tim and I bought some postcards and then went the sea road back and annoyed a few crabs on our way. They kept hiding in the rocks, so we tried to fish them out without any success.

After Tom got up we went riding on a little tourist train that is effectively a bunch of cute carriages being pulled by a tractor. Tom absolutely loved it. Tim got bored after about 5 mins and then started playing a game on the camera that he got for his birthday. It made me think that he's hitting teenage years. After that we went past home to get buckets and went more stone and crab fishing and then for yummy fish dinner. At dinner a little cat came and kept us company under the table. Tim kept trying to interact with it and in the end fed it a piece of fish.

 

  

  

 It wasn't such a good day in terms of toilet training as Tom kept forgetting to tell us he needed to go and we kept walking around with little plastic bags of wet Tom washing. We got home fairly late and after putting the kids to bed, we did a load of washing, reminisced about the day and how the kids are growing and changing, and then finished watching the last episode of the House of Cards. The last season really did pick up in the second half. The final two episodes were just brilliant. Can't wait for Season 5!

Road Trip Day 4 - Novigrad... rocks into the sea!

Last night we put Tom to sleep into Tim's king size bed to see if perhaps he'll be warmer that way. But he decided that he won't have any of this blanket-on-top-of-me-crap, and slept perpendicularly across the top beyond the reach of the blanket and despite our numerous efforts throughout the night to cover him up. In the night Jack and I kept getting up and without checking with one another first, we kept either turning on the heater or turning it off, depending on whether it was freezing or boiling in their room. Still, in the morning Tom woke up cold and coughing. Sigh.  Perhaps tonight he'll have to sleep with us, meaning that neither of us will get any sleep... oh well. Sacrifices we do for our children :)))

It has been another warm and sunny day. We spent the whole morning on the waterfront, playing on a cute ship-playground, collecting and throwing stones in the water and playing the frisbee. Along the beach there are plenty of little puddles with fish, mollusks and little crabs. Kids have been carrying little buckets along and filling them up with water. In the afternoon we spent time blowing soap bubbles off the balcony and playing football on the lawn.

   

Towards the evening we all even got a bit of a sunburn. While Jack was cooking dinner, I took the boys for another walk along the water. On our way back we found a big white seashell not far from the edge. We couldn't reach it straight away, so we went searching for a long stick. After a little while we found one in a random courtyard. We returned and fished it out and all happy brought our treasure back to the apartment. It has been a nice day.

Road Trip Day 3 - Novigrad... beautiful seaside, but is it really us?

Novigrad is our first experience with AirBnB. We booked the apartment where we're staying a while back, because it was a) cheap, b) seemed to have everything we wanted (eg. two separate rooms) and c) very close to the beach.  When we got here it fulfilled most of our expectations except for the fact that it was freezing. Maybe because it hasn't been warm here for too long, or maybe because of some insulation issues, but it is colder here than it is in Berlin in the middle of winter with the heating off. And there were also not enough blankets.

So Jack and I spent our first night paranoid that the kids will be cold, who were still getting over some standard Berlin spring cold. And we were worried especially about Tom, because he was sleeping in his travel cot on the floor and among all the pre-trip stress we forgot his warmer sleeping bag. Even though we put some of the deficit blankets down for under his cot, he didn't seem to be that toasty. In the end we turned on the heater there, which is a little wall thing that probably eats a ton of electricity and doesn't really have a good regulator - ie. being either completely off, or boiling hot.

In the morning we went for breakfast and then to the supermarket for some food shopping. The absolute highlight was buying a 1kg block of cheese, that was nearly perfectly square. In the afternoon we did some unpacking and a load of washing.

We're taking the opportunity of warmer weather to do more toilet training with Tom... so he's been running around nappy-free and we're running after him, checking if he needs to pee... So far we've had only one set of wet pants to change.

The town is very cool, with many cute houses, lots of little parks with playgrounds, cafes, pizzerias and a beautiful seaside. It is very clean and the water is very clear. The beachfront is either stone or concrete, but that doesn't stop many locals from putting down a towel right on the stones and sunbaking.

  

  

 

Somehow Jack and I both had different expectations that it will be much warmer here (certainly inside the apartment) and cheaper in terms of food, as we are perhaps spoiled by Greece. So after putting the kids to bed Jack and I spent a few hours reminiscing about our beloved Greece and how things are different here, and whinging to each other how cold it is. But in the end we decided to stop our whining and focus on the fact that the kids love it, especially all the playgrounds and walking along the water. So perhaps we just need to give it more of a chance...

Road Trip Day 2 - Salzburg to Novigrad over the Alps

We were completely tired by the time we got back to our hotel in Salzburg, so we all went straight to bed. In some ways that was inevitable, 'cos we were all staying in one room. We got the longest amount of sleep in months - Tom was the first to wake around 8:30am. So good to catch up on sleep!

Then a quick brekky in the hotel and off we drove to Croatia, beginning our journey after filling up another tank of petrol pretty close to midday.

  

We decided to take the scenic route and drive along the Grossglockner High Alpine Road, which happens to be the tallest road in Europe. It took us about 1,5hrs to get to the start of it, and then having paid 25 EUR discounted price we were climbing into the Alps! The views were just staggering. After about 30 mins of driving we had snow on both sides of the road. The road is great and gets taken good care of. There was a multitude of special snow cleaning machines all along the road. There were many people on motorcycles enjoying the views. And a lot of very brave and motivated bike riders. The road is very steep and windy, but we saw only one guy who has gotten off and was pushing his bike - the rest were soldering on.

There are lookouts all along and a big one right at the top. From there we even saw an avalanche on a mountain across from us. Tom fell asleep a second before we got there, so he enjoyed it only passively. Having taken some pictures we set off again and after about another 30 mins the road stopped abruptly at a closed gate. This got us pretty worried, as we already began to imagine various scenarios of having to drive back to Salzburg and taking a different road. But it turned out to be only closed for those who wanted to go look at a glacier. Although even those people were not allowed through, because in half an hour they were expecting a helicopter to come flying to drop bombs to set off more avalanches to get the snow off the mountains. Unfortunately we had to head off and couldn't stick around for the fun, but we still saw plenty of beauty on the way down.

 

 Shortly after we got to the end of the Grossglockner Road we crossed the border into Italy. The change of scenery was interesting. After a little while it was very obviously no longer Austria - houses had plenty more flowers and people didn't seem to pay as much attention to the road - both drivers and pedestrians. As we left the Italian Alps behind us we got onto a paid Autostrada, which must be the best road I've ever driven on... EVER!  It was very empty in the beginning as we were passing Trieste and it had the same smooth paving as City Link when it just opened. At some point we noticed that in my excitement I kept overtaking everybody, so Jack looked up allowed speed and turned out that Italian top speed is 130. Oops.

In the late afternoon we sneaked into Slovenia. Sneaked - because the larger chunk of the Italian Autostrada lead to a great big Slovenian tollway, which would've set us back another 15 EUR, so instead we took a tiny little turn off at a service station right before the border crossing that took us onto the slower back roads. This had the additional advantage of us seeing more of the countryside, which is very pretty. We saw about 40 mins worth of Slovenia when the road suddenly stopped at a line of cars standing at the Slovenia/Croatia border. First it seemed that everyone was getting thoroughly checked but at some point the border guards must've gotten bored and just let everyone through.

Finally after another 20 mins we arrived at our final destination of Novigrad at just after 8pm. Everyone was very tired, so we went for quick dinner by the seafront. The kids didn't really eat much and Timmy nearly fell asleep in his chair. Then it was back to the apartment and sleep, sleep, sleep...