Split

We took two buses to get to Split, Croatia. We stopped in a town called Rijeka to change buses and we noticed that lots of people wear fanny packs there. They're a dorky thing to wear in the States so I decided to secretly photograph some people in their fanny packs. Oh, maybe I should all them bum bags since "fanny pack" in the UK is a naughty word. So I have a little collection of bum bag photos now. The countryside was once again, really lovely though Croatia. We traveled along the coast for most of the trip so the views down the steep cliffs to the clear water were constantly beautiful. I've decided Croatia is a really beautiful country as a whole. The scrubby vegetation, big dusty mountains, crystalline water, it's all so pretty. And I especially love all the wild pomegranate trees that grow on the side of the road. I was also lucky enough to spot a deer bounding through a clearing as we went by. It was late at night by the time we got Split. Luckily the local buses were still running and we managed to figure out where we were going and where to get off all on our own. We walked past the hotel at first because its really an apartment. Next problem was that reception was closed. Robyn called the lady after a bit and she told us that our keys were in the mail slot. The apartment was great - very spacious with huge glass doors leading to the patio. It was very nice to finally get into the room and flop down on the bed.

The 24th was a relaxing day. The only time we left the apartment was to get food from the grocery store. Robyn layed out on the patio for a bit, we cooked dinner, nothing exciting. We were disappointed when our internet cut out at 10:30 PM. Bed time.

Chuck and I went into town the next morning to get bus tickets to our next stop: Budva, Montenegro. We had a lot of discussions and research before we came to our decision to go to Budva. At first we were talking about taking a ferry to Greece (which was the ultimate goal) which would entail taking a ferry to Italy and then another ferry down to Greece. I kept feeling this unfortunate knot in my stomach whenever I thought about all we'd be missing by taking a ferry to Italy, etc, when we could be taking buses down through Montenegro and Albania. I finally decided that we needed to go the bus-route and see what we could along the way. So that's how we decided on Budva. After getting the tickets Chuck and I walked around the massive market that is set up in the center of town. Everything from shoes and jewelry to fruits and veggies was available. I especially liked the produce section. Let me relate my experience. I decided the grapes were looking particularly tasty so I headed over to a randomly chosen stall to have a look. I noticed that the fruit was buzzing with bees. They were all over the place, crawling in and out of the grape clusters and flitting about. I really liked the idea that the bees were into the grapes so I went ahead and chose a cluster for myself, holding them out to the wrinkly, dark-skinned woman who had been encouraging me to buy. She plopped them onto a rusty old-fashioned balance scale and used a set of counterweights to balance it out. It seemed so old-fashioned to me. I didn't know people actually still used scales like that! And bees and bugs crawling around on my fruit makes me feel so... au naturale. Geeze, I sound like such a yuppie. After getting a few more fruits I saw some flip flops for sale. I've needed a new pair of flip flops since Milan where mine broke, so Chuck attempted to do some negotiating. I'm very bad at negotiating - I'm happy with just going with the listed price if I think it's worth it. But Chuck wanted to get a good deal. The vendors were not into the negotiating thing at all though it seemed. They didn't budge their prices no matter what. So I settled on a pair for about €7, which was the cheapest we could find them. We had a quick beer at a little cafe before taking the bus back to the hotel for the evening.

We packed up and left the apartment on the 26th and headed to the bus station to wait for our 4:00 PM bus to Budva. We ended up just sitting on a park bench by a very active fountain area. We saw all kinds of things during our wait. There were a few pigeons around so an old man went and got a loaf a bread to feed them. This attracted more pigeons and there was a bit of a feeding frenzy. Pieces of bread would fly in our direction and the birds slowly got more comfortable with coming close to us to pick them up. Chuck even manage to get birds to pluck pieces off of the toe of his shoe. After most of the frenzy had subsided a skinny little cat came along, attracted by all the attention. He was definitely a stray. The poor thing was dirty and obviously malnourished. He pawed through some discarded brown paper that had been used to wrap some kind of food, and leapt onto the rim of a garbage can and stuck his face inside trying to find something to eat. It didn't take him too long to turn to the birds. I thought he couldn't possibly take one down, but he crouched, wiggled his butt in the air, and leapt right onto a bird. He held it down with his little front legs as he worked to get a good hold on his neck with his teeth. When it was secured in his mouth he picked it up and jogged away. We were all in shock. I noticed that no one else seemed to be as shocked as us, so maybe it's an everyday occurrence. Survival of the fittest! Yay! The birds were a bit hilarious after the incident. There were about 10 pigeons near the unfortunate victim when it happened and they all just stood still, their heads held high in the air, eyes wide. Their little heads twitched back and forth as they listened and looked around for any other threats. They were on high alert. But that wore off fairly quickly and they moved on to bath time. In Europe they have these cool fountains that you can use to fill up water bottles, or cup your hands under the stream for a drink, or splash your face or whatever. They're usually much prettier than the average "water fountain" in the US and have basins to catch the excess water so it doesn't make puddles. There was a fountain just like this where we were sitting. A few of the basins seemed to have blocked drains because they were overflowing, to the pigeons delight. They perched on the edge of the fountain, lean in for a drink, and tumble, wings flapping into the water. Underneath the fountain, where the water sloshed onto the ground, were little birds who would stand in the puddles and fluff their feathers in the water. After they were all bathed to contentment they sat int he sun, rolling onto their sides and poofing up to dry quicker. It was actually pretty fascinating to see what goes on in the daily life of a pigeon. I was a little jealous. Eat, bath, sleep. Although the whole being-attacked-by-cats and being bored-out-of-your-mind thing doesn't sound so nice. We had lunch after that and then hopped on our bus to Budva.

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Pula

We had to switch trains three times on our way to Pula, Croatia. The last train dropped us off in Trieste, Italy and from there we had to catch a three hour bus the rest of the way. When we passed the border the bus was stopped and everyone's passport was checked over. They did a pretty thorough inspection and we even got a stamp. The bus takes off and about two minutes later we stop again for another border check. Turns out we had to pass through Slovenia (the first passport check) and then enter Croatia (the second check). It seemed a bit ridiculous, but border security is no laughing matter! Apparently. The countryside we passed through was really beautiful. Not in a sweeping-mountains-and-dramatic-scenery sort of way, but a rustic beauty. There was a lot of farmland and little plots of different plants were scattered about along the roadside. There were small mountains whose cliff edges we frequently drove along, offering great views of the valleys below. We had to pass slow-moving tractors a couple of times - it was a bit scary to imagine our big charter bus swerving out into the opposite lane of a two-lane highway to pass traffic. But we arrived safe and sound and even managed to figure out which local bus we had to take to get to our hotel. With a little help from some kind old ladies on the bus we even got off at the right stop. By the time we got settled into our little apartment it had been dark out for an hour. Some beer and pasta put us right to sleep for the night.

On the 18th we woke up to a bright, beautiful day and the first thing we wanted to do was see exactly what this resort we were staying at looked like. It was, of course, really lovely. The resort is basically a little village on a peninsula of Pula. It has a couple of hotels on it, a number of restaurants, a supermarket, a put-put golf course (which looked completely unused) and other little entertainment shops. Most of the space is taken up by little 3-story blocks of apartments though. We stayed in one of these. The shoreline is all rocks and no sand. The closest they get to having sand is a beach full of large pebbles, otherwise it's big rocks and sheets of stone. This makes for a beautiful coastline, but not a very comfortable beach. The water was the stuff of dreams: a crystal clear aqua that faded to deeper blues and turquoise as the water stretched away from the shore. Every time I walked along the path and looked out at the water I was amazed at how clear and pretty it was. After exploring one of the rocky formations near our apartment we decided we had better get some water shoes so our feet weren't in so much pain. We went to one of the many souvenir shops where Robyn and Chuck picked up some shoes, a pair of goggles for me, and Robyn got a big green blow-up float to lay on. On the way back to the apartment I was lucky enough to find a beat up, faded, foam floaty for myself. Armed and ready, we made for the water again! Robyn went off to one of the beaches to lay out while Chuck and I went back to our rocky formation to explore the life lurking below the surface. Unfortunately, the lurking life got the better of us and Chuck stepped on a sea urchin that went straight through his water shoes. Little did we know that we had stumbled into a field of urchins, ready to take on anything that crossed their path. He hobbled to the dry rock and sat down to examine his foot. There were about five spine tips in his big toe and two big spines stuck in his heel. Poor guy! I felt so bad for him! I did my best to help him pull them out and after limping back to the apartment I did my best to pull out the big ones in his heel with a pair of tweezers. I didn't do a good job at all though - the spine kept crushing under the pressure of the tweezers whenever I managed to get a hold of it. So after all was said and done, Chuck was left with some urchin spines stuck in his foot. We read online that they would dissolve over a month or so, so it was no harm to his health or anything. Needless to say, that put a damper on our day though. Chuck couldn't really put weight on his heel for the rest of the day so we just sat inside relaxing. We soon discovered that there was a litter of kittens living in a hole at the bottom of the stairwell outside out apartment. Mamma kitty would come to the top of the stairs with a lizard in her mouth and meow until the kittens crawled out, meowing in return. They were all adorable, but very skittish of people.



I woke up on the 19th to the sound of a woman saying "Gato! Gattino! Gattini!" outside the window. She was busy trying to get the cats to come out and just stood there for what seemed like 10 minutes calling them. "Gato! Gata! Gattino!" Gah, shut up! So that was a pleasant start to the morning. Other than that it was a pretty boring day. Robyn and I laid out for a bit. Robyn took a quick dip and informed me that the rocks were very slippery going into the water. I figured I could handle it and set out for a swim. I slipped on a rock and as I wobbled I figured I would easily find my balance. I took a corrective step and that foot slipped as well. I went down right onto my butt. I imagined that I looked like a cartoon character whose legs flail uselessly for a few seconds before a freezing in the air and then falling to the ground. Despite wearing Chuck's water-shoes I managed to get a nice cut on my big toe. I also felt like an idiot. Otherwise it was a nicely uneventful day.



We went swimming the next day. The water is very cold so the easiest way to get in is to just jump. I always have to have someone else count to three for me. If I count myself I chicken out. Chuck and I paddled around using the goggles while Robyn laid out. There aren't any reefs or anything but there were usually quite a few fish hanging around. None of the fish were over five inches long. They usually hung around us in groups of two or three, but sometimes we saw whole schools of fish. I paddled over and took a look at the collection of sea urchins that we had stepped on the day before. They're so primal looking. After our morning in the water we went to the restaurant closest to us for lunch. A group of three Austrian guys who were sitting next to us decided to introduce themselves. They told us they didn't like Americans. Then they bought us drinks. And they continued to buy us drinks. We ended up talking and laughing and drinking for the next five hours or so! They were staying at a place 10 km down the beach from us and were taking a beer break from their jet ski riding. They were all in their 40's. Heinrich - the apparent "leader" of the group - was a bit chauvinistic and wasn't afraid of mentioning that his current and second wife was annoying but had a big rack. Andy didn't really speak English so we thought he might be a quiet guy, but he turned out to be the crazy guy. He tried to light some money on fire at one point, initiated a hand slapping game that left Chuck's hand with a few red welts the next day, and asked the wait staff for a frying pan to do...manly head bashing things of some sort. He was crazy! And Jeff was a bit of a goofball and had a really light, nice sense of humor. He had nice things to say about his wife and didn't seem as cynical about the world as the other guys did. They were an interesting group and a lot of fun to hang out with. Despite their initial claims that they didn't like Americans they seemed to like us well enough. They asked us our thoughts about Mr. President Obama and various other US policies, but that sort of talk was only a small part of the afternoon. We did a lot of comparing languages and they wrote out the longest word they knew in German which I can't actually type out because I can't make out the handwriting. I can tell you that it was about 68 letters long. Geeze! After too many beers they headed back to their hotel and we went back to ours. We managed to feed the cats some hotdogs before I fell into bed dead asleep and Robyn headed down to the reception area for internet.



On the 21st we decided we had better go into the town and see the sights before we had to leave Pula. We'd been spending too much time on the beach at this point. So we took the bus to Pula's very own ancient Colosseum. This one, unlike Rome's, is still intact. I imagine it hasn't seen quite as much violence and death as the one in Rome, but I assume it was still a place of death. I hadn't known that the Romans reach extended into Croatia although I should have guessed. They were quite the empire. We didn't have a set path to follow so we just wandered around the city and happened upon various points of interest. We saw the remains of the old ancient Roman wall, the old Forum area, a temple, lots of shops and restaurants, and various other random little statues, etc. Pula is a nice city - not too big, an active atmosphere, some history, and the beautiful coastline of course. We went to dinner at a restaurant near the reception building that night. Have I mentioned yet how cheap the food is? We would have large, good quality meals for $20-30 US for the three of us. We tried the "Istrian specialty" meals and found that they were delicious. Robyn's Istrian steak was like a chicken cordon bleu with a delicious white gravy sauce. Chuck got a Fuzi something-or-other which was pasta with a bolognese-like sauce with some different herbs and flavors. I tried cevapcici (pronounced che-vap-chi-chi) which was a bunch of finger-sized fried meatballs. I love trying new foods. While at dinner we got to watch all the kids and teenagers from the kickboxing competition walking around. Apparently our resort was host to a European Kickboxing Championship of some kind while we were there. We saw teams from Russia, Greece, Slovakia, Turkey, Poland, Ireland, etc. It was fun to watch them all flirting with each other and goofing off. A giant kickboxing hormone-fest. Kids seem to be pretty much the same everywhere we've been so far. Interested in looking trendy and attractive, full of energy, lots of laughing, and just being typical teenagers. And babies and toddlers too. They act just like babies and toddlers in the US or Amsterdam or wherever.



We did a lot of interneting on the 22nd. I got some pictures of crabs and shrimp (not very good pictures) in the tidal pools that form on the rocks. And I also managed to break my eReader. For those of you who don't know what that is, let me explain. Before we left for our trip I knew I was going to be getting bored easily. Since I like to read I looked into getting a digital book reader, like the Amazon Kindle or something. I did a bit of research and decided on the Sony eReader 505. It looks sleek and sexy and can support a couple of different formats. The reader has been absolutely great the have on the trip! I've read about 20 books on this trip so far, so new and some I've already read before. When Robyn joined us she also read a lot. It was an awesome $300 investment. So I was reading in bed and got up to go to the bathroom. I set the reader on the sheets next to me as i got up and managed to get my feet kind of tangled in the covers. I guess this put some pressure on the reader and crack the internal screen because when I came back to read some more there was a big scar from one corner of the screen to the other. When I flick the power button it just sort of flashed weakly at me, but nothing legible showed up on the screen. Feeling very sad I put it on the bedside table and decided to wait until morning and see if it would magically fix itself. Nope. It was broken. I was so sad! And still am. It has been a great little device. Stupid Sony... I read online that other people's Sony's have broken very easily as well, so I feel a little ripped off. $300 down the drain. It sounds like Sony isn't really into customer service either. I don't know how I would even go about returning mine though, seeing as I'm constantly on the move. Such a bummer.

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