Schengen Shuffle
For those fortunate enough to be able to travel Europe, you will be or certainly should be, familiar with 90/180 rule in relation to Schengen Treaty countries. In essence, we antipodeans and other non-EU
folk are welcome to travel in any of the Schengen visa areas for 90 days in 180. So enter via France, travel through Spain, Italy, Portugal etc for up to 90 days no problem. After that, you have to get out for 90. The Schengen Shuffle!!
The life that the Chaotic Compass is now living makes managing my 90/180 somewhat of a challenge and a really important focus each trip. Get it wrong and not only do you face deportation and fines, but you can also be refused entry in future. But there is App for that!!
So having only 47 days left in my current time and while Craig was back in Kaz working, I needed to vamoose out of Schengen for a wee bit and regain some time. Of course, I could have returned to Oz but frankly, that just whoops the hell out of my wallet and is just physically exhausting for me. I usually spend what short time I have in Oz swollen and sore and frankly not entirely good company.
So for the month of June, I weighed up the options of visiting friends in the US, UK, or Ireland for 4 weeks until Craig's return. In the end, the budget always wins and so I took a week off to Ireland to visit my wonderful friends and their new little man and then I popped over to Croatia to spend 3 weeks in the sunshine of Split.
Every time I go to Ireland, I fall a little more in love. This trip, I managed to get utterly lost. With time
up my sleeve, I pottered around Kilkenny for a couple of hours visiting Kilkenny Castle which was really interesting and celebrating, like me, 50 years of ‘renovation’. But it was a miserably rainy day so any plans I had for a lovely long walk along the river went out the window. So I decided a nice drive through the countryside was in order. I am huge road tripper so I figured meandering along country lanes in the rain might be nice. Music on, singing away. You can picture it right? Well one thing to another and my phone charge died. I was completely lost and the fog set in. I found myself utterly bewildered. I knew I was somewhere in the Wicklow Mountains but beyond that, your guess was as good as mine. I couldn’t even phone a friend! Or take any photos for you. I did have a relatively full tank of fuel so I figured “hey, its not a huge country, how bad can it be!”. I employed my trusty outback navigation skills, found an old toothless bloke wandering along the road with his sheep, got some wild and woolly unintelligible directions but good hand signals and finally made my way to what seemed like a decent paved road. EventuallyI ended up in Hollywood. Yep, Hollywood. There I managed to buy a phone car charger! All fun and games, but four hours later, I did manage to find my little BnB in Kildare. I can tell you that the drive along the Nore River valley is magnificent and the little villages of Bennettsbridge, Thomastown and Inistoge are just divine. I’ll definitely be coming back to these spots, perhaps in the middle of winter as I can just picture hiding away here in front of a fire!!
After a few days baby gazing, I then headed north to Carlingford. Never been that far north before and I’m glad I made the effort. Beautiful part of the country and the walks around the Lough were lovely. While I don’t particularly enjoy travelling by myself these days…I'd rather share the experience with someone, I do find that I have rather interesting encounters by myself.
On my first morning, I decided to walk 9kms along the Lough to this tiny village. The sun was out and the water looked lovely so walking along the waters edge, past the ruined castle of King James, chatting to horses and sheep as I went, was good for the soul. Finally I reached this little village and after seeing signs advertising the great coffee at Rosies Café, I made a beeline for there. I’m sitting in my wee booth enjoying my coffee and all these locals start wandering in or by the window giving me waves and saying “Hello Brona”. Odd but ok. Just a friendly community here in Ireland! Then this little old lady comes along, shimmies into my booth opposite me, orders her brekky and then proceeds to tell me about her hectic day yesterday and all her happenings. She didn’t take a breath and I just listened until after about 5 minutes later, she stops and says “You’re not Brona!”. Apparently, I am a dead ringer for this local lass called Brona. Anyway, I ended up having a lovely long hour chatting with this lady and learning her life’s story before the local Priest also joined in. She was so entertaining. She has 9 children (all adults now) and blames every one of them on the Pope!!! After what was a lovely morning, I started the trek back along the Lough to Carlingford, giggling and thinking I need to find this Brona!
Eventually, my time in Ireland was up and it was my boarding call for Croatia. While I have been
lucky to have visited Croatia a couple of times previously, its been 10 years since I was last in Split and it was on my ‘return’ list. So glad I picked here to hide out for 3 weeks. I took an AirBnB in the old city and I absolutely loved it. Apart from my little place being just perfect, I had a bakery, wine shop, ancient walls and history all right on my street. Everything is within walking distance, including the most gorgeous secluded little coves and beaches. If you ever get the opportunity, you really do need to include Split, the islands and Croatia on your travel list. The people are incredibly welcoming and proud of their city and happy to chat and tell you a story. I felt totally at home here really and with 3 weeks to play, I had no pressure to ‘do’ anything or be a tourist. Best way to travel really. Just sit in a piazza/plaza/square whatever you want to call it, order a coffee or a wine and just watch the world go by. You will be pleased to know that I did partake of various other activities though including a day exploring the islands and sea kayaking around the coastline of Split.
Lessoned learned this month? I look like a blonde Julia Roberts apparently?? I’m a dead ringer for an Irish lady from Carlingford called Brona. I also apparently look like the sister of a lady I met from Seattle. It is quite possible to get lost in Ireland. Lavender and honey icecream is lush!! Croatia produces beautiful wine but exports very little of it! And travel is always best done with someone likeminded but if that’s not possible, just relax and let be what will be.
You meet the most interesting people and have wonderful experiences if you allow yourself to be vulnerable and awkward!
