HK Independent Traveller Blog

In the 5th morning we visited the temple of Jupita (Baptistery), Meštrović museum and hiked up to Mt Marjan.  The baptistery is for total immersion.  It is beautifully crafted.  Next to it is a statue of Saint John the Baptist.  Meštrović museum is detailed in another section.  Please refer to Day 5 Split - Ivan Mestrovic We started the climb of Mt. Marjan around midday.  The sun was high.  The ascend was quite steep.  But the view over the town was spendid.  The path was barren.  We hardly saw any people, perhaps one workman who was on duty.  There were some Romanesque churches along the way.  The first one looked bright white under the sun.  It's beautiful.   Continued on the white 'sandy' path, second and third churches came into view.  Hu hu, destination reached!  For a while the sky turned cloudy.  It did not rain, fortunately.  We went to a public swimming place to...

Ivan Meštrović is one of the most important artists in Croatia.  A very nice museum of him is found in Split.  It is situated on the western side of the city, nearby gorgeous beaches.  The museum is Ivan Meštrović's residence.  The villa is at a wonderful location, overseeing the sea with fresh air.  It was built between 1931 and 1939.  Unfortunately, the artist lived there for two years only.   The white marble statue right at the middle of the display hall got my attention.  It's so beautiful.  The tranquility and a dash of frozen sadness caught my admiration.  Some of the artist's sculpture were displayed in the garden of the villa.  They are huge and realistic.  If you were there, you would be amazed. I was touched by his version of Pietà.   Heading further west, you will arrive into Kastelet, the artist's chapel ornamented with his wooden scuplture of Jesus' life. It is a pleasant walk from t...

Day 4, it's time to leave Dubrovnik.  Our next destination is Split .  Long distance buses leave from the Gruz Harbour.  The bus terminal is easy to find.  It's one of the most efficient bus terminals we've ever been in Croatia.  If you stay in Dubrovnik, it is just a bus ride.  Bus from Durbrovnik to Split leaves every half hour.  It's a 5-hour journey.    Beauty is all the way long.  We passed by nameless beautiful spots along the coast.  The sister of our landlady was waiting for us at the bus terminal.  It's the busiest place in Split. She took us to our little apartment, passing by streets with figs on the ground, hawkers selling all sorts of things outside the palace wall.  Then we were at our little paradise with a lovely garden outside.    A supermarket was nearby.  We stocked up food for our breakfast quickly and started our sightseeing. Split is the second biggest c...

Sun shone again though thunder and rain roared in the night.  Another nice day began.  Only I forgot my camera.  So, pictures of the day were from my trip mate. We took a boat to Lokrum , the nearest island to Dubrovnik, from a little port.  Since it was not yet high season, boat frequency was on hourly basis.  The 15-minute journey took us to a little haven of tranquility.  Sightseeing points include botanical garden, monastery, a fort on the island's top with fabulous view of the suurounding and a little salty lagoon for a relaxing swim after a summer walk. Peacocks wandered around. You heard and saw them walking with pride everywhere, even next to swimmers at the jetty.  We first walked to the sea with cliffs.  Soon we arrived at the lagoon with beautiful crystal green colour.  It seemed like an invitation, 'come into the nice cool water'.  We could not decline the invitation.  Like other tourists,...

A friend nicknamed me 'Mango smuggler' because I bring Mangoes to Europe every every time because my trip partner loves it.  We enjoyed it during our breakfast in the garden.  It attracted the cat and dog of the owner.  A surprise!  Dubrovnik was full of tourists during the day.  Tonnes of tourists arrived by big vessels.  Crowds were everywhere.   The folks left in the late afternoon, leaving the city quite barren in the night. Dubrovnik is a pearl of the Dalmatian Coast, a favourite city of many people. The compact town is surrounded by hills and sea. Beautiful squares, buildings, monasteries reflect its richness. It's comparable to any rich little towns in western Europe. Mightly city wall protects it. People can climb up the wall to have a gorgeous panoramic view of the town and the surrounding. Walking on the wall is very enjoyable. We walked 1.5 round trips to reinforce the memory of the impressive walk.   Dubrovnik enjoy...

I met my trip partner at the boarding gate in  Munich Airport .  It was a pleasant flight.  We had a fairly good view of the coast prior to the landing. Temperatures in Munich and Dubrovnik were of two extremes.  It's cold in Germany but nicely warm in Croatia .  We managed to change some money at the airport at a much higher rate and headed towards our accommodation.  The bus journey was enjoyable with a fabulous view of Dubrovnik. See the picture and you will agree. Our bus stopped at the bus terminal at Gruz . It's only a 10-minute ride to Dubrovnik. The owner was very nice. He gave us an apartment instead of a double room without a private shower. He also showed us ways for restaurants and supermarket. The apartment is enclosed by a lovely rose garden. We enjoyed our evening tea, breakfast at a table outside our apartment right next to the garden. It's a blessing! We did not go to Dubrovnik the same day.  I was just too tired to do ...

Over the years I used Nikon SLR cameras to shoot photos. Nikon cameras are good for taking fine colours and texture. Once one has got it, it is difficult to switch brands. Switching brands necessitates buying new camera and lens. Investment on good lens can be higher than the camera. Canon's edge is speed. It's the choice of most sports reporters. Details, texture and colours are shown optimally with Nikon D70 Camera, Nikon 24-70mm and Tokina 80-200mm lens. The best handy lens fitting most occasions is 28-70mm. It's good for taking landscape photos. I moved into digital photography in 2004. With the smaller framing constraint, 18 - 55mmis a better choice of wide angle lens. With the advance of technology, a lot of automatic digital cameras can achieve very good photo quality. I owned two. Samung L700 and Fujifilm F70 EXR acquired in 2006 and 2009. F70 EXR comes with 10x Optical Dual Image Stabilized Zoom and 2.7 inch LCD. It can take quality pictures in extreme s...

Shutter Speed Shutter is a small plastic sheet that opens and closes to allow light onto the film/sensor or prevent light from reaching the film/sensor. Shutter speed controls the amount of time that your film/sensor, is exposed to light. It is measured in fractions or units of seconds. The lighter the environment, the shorter the time the shutter is needed to open for the light to reach the film or sensor, e.g. 1/250, 1/1000. When it gloomy, a slower shutter speed is required to maximise the time for the light to reach the film/sensor, e.g. 1/30, 1 second. Focal Length / Lens The focal length of a lens determines how much the subject will be magnified or distant. Lens are categorised as standard, wide-angle and tele. Standard lens is 50mm. It does not magnify or distant a subject. Wide-angle lens allows to take lots of things into the framing of a photo. It stretches the perspective and make the object closer to the len look bigger. Wide angel lens start from 10 and...

Vigevano is famous for its beautiful cathedral façade lying at the end of the Ducal Piazza. It is just a 27-minute train journey from Milan’s Porta Genova station. The city dates back to the middle ages. It was a thriving trading centre of textile but gave away to shoe manufacturing industry.  Our first sight visit is a building formerly used as a stable. It is enormous and part of the Sforzesco Castle . Slowly we arrived at the Ducal square . It was designed by Bramante and it is one of the most beautiful squares in Italy. The square is an elongated rectangle and enclosed with arched porticos supported by 84 columns. Cafe and shops are on the two sides. The floor is tiled.  The central pathe path leads to the cathedral facade. Sight seeing points were closed at lunch time. We and other tourists had been waiting for a long time (the staff came 15 minutes late) to climb the Bramante tower so as to have a panoramic view of the town. One roof has many chimney...

Basics of Photography: Light / Exposure - the subject should face the light source - exposure compensation / ISO to adjust the strength of light Click the image to magnify it. Composition Metering Centre-weighted and Multi-zone are the common metering methods.  The previous assigns the greatest weight of metering to the centre of the frame.  The latter measures the light density of various zones, combines the results to find the best metering.  Normally, I take multi-zone.  When contrast of light is emphasised, I will switch to the centre-weighted mode. Aperture Aperture controls the amount of light entering into the camera.  One can adjust the aperture if aperture-mode is available or at manual exposure mode.  It ranges from 1.4 to 32.  The lower the numeric the bigger amount of light can be taken for shooting.  References: Kindle version with big savings is available! No theory, jargon or complicated concep...

Taking great photos is not a privilege of professional photographers. You and I, whether with an automatic or high end camera, can do it. Photography is communication. It conveys what you see to the audiences. A good photo gets people’s attention because it tells a story, invites imagination, delights, freezes the moment of beauty, memories….. Once or twice a year, I take photos when I travel. I acquire basic photography knowledge by reading, seeing others’ photos and practice. Before taking a photo, think yourself what you want to communicate, record. A purpose helps shooting great photos. Then consider the light source, composition, perspective and focal length. Most cameras optimise the combination of aperture and shutter speed well. Unless you aim for special effects, you can let the camera do its job. It’s a pleasure to share some basics and tips for taking photos. Photography is..... - Memory / Reporting - Creativity / Art - Communication Essence of taking great ph...

Order: upper left to right: Extra dining area outside our apartment at Gruz, Dubrovnik. Room in Zadar located in the centre. Spacious apartment in Pula next to the Arena.  Compact apartment in Split.  Outside our room is a garden with a dining table. Referred by a friend, I tried out Hostelbookers.com for this trip.  Don't be misled by 'hostel'.  Registered accommodation places are private rooms with full facilities.  We made our daily breakfast tea and cooked our dinner occasionally.  Hostelbookers.com provides instant availability check, location map, accommodation photos, rating and reviews by guests.  It eases the decision-making.  I compared prices against other web-based booking sites.  It's the cheapest at time of comparison and does not charge booking fee.  To confirm the booking, one just needs to pay 10% deposit.  No worry, you can book accommodation in over 2,500 destinations. W...

There are many attractions in Croatia. With two and half weeks, we picked the cities along the coast to maximize the resort feel combining historical sites. Here summaries the characteristics of the key cities in Croatia: Split – A lively city and Diocletian's palace is located (Unesco site) Dubrovnik – The pearl of Croatia (Unesco site) Šibenik – G orgeous white St James church with superb sculptures (Unesco site) Trogir – Unesco Romanesque city Poreč – Unesco mosaics and very tourist town Rovinji – A bit like Venice and its cathedral tower is the highest found in Croatia Zagreb – The capital and cultural hub Motovun – R omantic hill town with lots of artists

Apart from wonderful beaches scatter along the coast, Croatia is blessed with countless beautiful islands, cities with different characters, national parks and Unesco sites. The many resorts to relax, archeological remains and cultural heritage will please all sorts of holiday makers. Here are some recommended sites to have impressions of the country and facilitate itinerary design: http://www.croatiatraveller.com/ It provides practical information such as transport, when to go….along with cities / regions of special interests. http://www.planetware.com/croatia-tourism-vacations-hr.htm It shows tourist attractions by city and the surroundings http://www.croatia.hr/English/Home/Naslovna.aspx – official site I’ll post key cities, islands, beaches, national parks and Unesco sites in the upcoming updates. Cheers!

The only airline connecting Hong Kong and Dubrovnik conveniently is Lufthansa. I transited at Munich. Instead of waiting 7 hours boringly at the airport, I visited a nearby medieval town, Freising . A bus connecting the airport and the town runs every 15 minutes. Once stepping into the town, all sorts of teddy bears greet you in every corner. Houses have different pastel colours and exist in harmony. I enjoyed the walk although it rained,  Don't miss out the best bread in the world and German cheesecake (made with Quark, a white soft cheese which is unique in Germany). We started the trip from Dubrovnik and headed up along the coastline to the north. Below is our itinerary May 2009: ~3 nights in Dubrovnik + day trip to Lokrum ~3 nights in Split + day trip to Trogir ~2 nights in Zadar + visit of Šibenik ~2 nights in Plitvice Lakes ~3 nights in Pula + day trip to Brijuni Island ~3 nights in Porec + day trip to Rovinj

I am a Hong Kong resident but never join arranged tours. As an independent traveller my footprints have been to Europe, Asia and America. This blog is created to share tips to make independent travel planning easier and more cost-effective. I visited Croatia in May 2009 and will share the tips on planning this trip. Croatia is part of the former Yugoslavia. It is a very popular holiday destination for Europeans and packed with visitors in summer. I chose May to avoid the crowd. It is not yet well known for Asians. I take pictures as an amateur. If you would like to take more stunning pictures, feel free to leave comments and your email, I will send you an ebook on the tips of taking great photos. Click here to view my photos taken in Croatia http://picasaweb.google.com.hk/meyanyeung/2009Croatia # Valued accommodation is a key concern for independent travellers. My chosen double room accommodation in Croatia ranged between €36 and €59 (Half-board). I will share tips ...