Life & blog update: July and August 2025 sums up our summer, from beach days to two very different day trips in Croatia and our fun family trip to Venice.

Actually, August was grand but I didn’t feel all right in July. It’s hard to explain why really. For the first time in a long time I was supposed to have free whole summer. It sounds great, doesn’t it? But I felt bored, restless and without a sense of purpose even though I had some fun beach days with my kids. It was as if I was just waiting for my husband’s holidays in August so our real summer could begin. I got a strange cold in July which left me feeling exhausted which is probably why I felt so low at some point. Anyway, I still had some fun in July. I had two fun movie nights with my best friends. Kids and I enjoyed lots of delicious ice-cream at the ice-cream festival and we all enjoyed the Ancient festival, both taking place on island Krk.

My daughter learnt how to ride a bike without those stabilisers. She was very cautious but it only took her a few tries before she was riding the bike on her own. She’s improved her swimming too. My son had his first ever sleepover at a friend’s. These are important milestones for both of my kids.

I had a very scary moment at the very beginning of August. I woke up during the night and I couldn’t get up, I felt very dizzy and nauseous. This lasted until the morning when I was able to get up and walk without fainting. Since I felt better as the day progressed I didn’t go to ER. I went to see my doctor on Monday since I still felt dizzy when getting up/down from the bed and she referred me to a specialist. It turned out that tiny crystals in my ear moved and caused that vertigo (BPPV) and a simple Epley maneuver helped me.

Luckily, I felt better just when my husband got his holiday. We spent several days at the beach on Krk island. We took a day trip to a small, Croatian town near the Slovenian border called Brod na Kupi. There’s an old castle which now houses a very interesting and interactive natural history museum. I was astonished when I saw at the museum a small indoor climbing rock for kids. Our kids asked us to visit that museum again. Our second day trip was something completely different. We went to a water park near Poreč. Kids loved all the water slides and rides and fun swimming pools.

The highlight of this summer was our family trip to Venice. We spent two nights in a hotel in Venice Mestre and explored the historical Venice on foot and by water buses. I’ve visited Venice several times but its beauty never ceases to amaze me. Kids enjoyed the vaporetto ride on the Grand Canal. We saw all the major landmarks such as the Rialto bridge and St. Mark’s square and had lunches at quiet squares. There weren’t as many tourists as I’d expected. We’ve also visited Burano and Murano islands by those small ferries. Our third day in Venice was divided in half. We spent morning at the Lego exhibition in Mestre and then drove to charming town Bassano dela Grappa in the afternoon. Kids were cute and annoying but travelling with kids is never truly relaxing. However, travelling with kids makes great memories for both us and them ( I do hope they will remember some of these trips!).

I managed to publish a decent number of posts this summer. My 10^th blogiversary is at the very end of August. I’ve been blogging non-stop for 10 years. I wrote about my love of London, about my time in England, about different trips around Europe with my husband or with my friends, about our family trips and about islands and castles in Croatia. Feel free to check my category tab or my archives for some travel inspiration.

Thank you for following my travel blog The Red Phone Box travels!

Published posts in July and August

How was your summer?

xoxox

Tanja