On a personal note, today is my last day in Zadar. I have such mixed emotions. I have fallen in love with this place in the two stints I’ve lived here, totaling 12 of the past 18 months. I will miss it.
But at the same time, I’m excited to see Ljubljana, Lake Bled, Bratislava, Vienna, Krakow, and Auschwitz–with a degree of dread, of course–on my way to Warsaw for a month. That will be my base for my ancestral research. I will visit the hometowns and birthplaces of my maternal grandparents, and look for evidence of earlier ancestors, and possibly cousins who stayed behind and perished at the hands of the Nazis.
Towards the end of summer into mid September, I’m planning a swing through southern Poland, Czechia, Germany, and the northern Polish seacoast. The trip, as planned so far, will include Zakopane, a resort town in the southern mountains, then Prague, Nuremburg, Leipzig, Dresden, Wroclaw (pronounced Vroetzwaf!), then north to the Baltic coast to the Tri-cities of Gdansk (pronounced Gdoinsk sort of😁), Gdynia, and Sopot.
It’s an ambitious itinerary, but I love the nomadic lifestyle of exploration and discovery. And this is a part of Europe in which I’ve never set foot before, other than a train transfer in Vienna a few years ago.
I’ll take a little break from regular publishing over the this Fourth of July weekend, but expect to maintain a fairly regular schedule other than that. The great thing about living in Europe, while serving an American market, is the 30 hour days. So I have time for both work and play. Just not for sleep. 😄
If you’re interested in this part of the world, you can follow my photos at https://www.instagram.com/200daysineurope/
