Category Archives: Croatia

I know, I’m behind!

I know that I’m behind, but we’ve been moving around a lot! I’ll start from where I left off, in Vis, Croatia.  We left Vis and made our way to Trogir.  Trogir is, also, named a UNESCO World Heritage Site.  I’ll look up what that actually means eventually.  Trogir was a super tiny island with an old town built upon it.  We stayed on the other side of the bridge from Trogir which cut down a bit on the noise factor, and probably the price, although the little apartment we stayed in was more than we’d wanted to spend. Trogir was cute, but too touristy.  We stayed there because it was a short ride from the airport, so it suited our needs.  

The next morning the person who was renting out the apartment drove us to the airport (for a bit of a fee).  Split airport was quite deceiving.  After getting through security (where both Seth and I had to take off our shoes because we buzzed.  Weird, because there is absolutely no metal in our shoes) we parouzed the duty free shop and found a snack at the snack bar.  We were disappointed with our selection, and then were kicking ourselves when we went up a level to where our gate was.  On that level there were shops and restaurants with good looking food.  Bummer.

We were off for another adventure.  Athens was going to be our first CouchSurfing experience.  Sloane set it up for us.  A native Athenian, was going to host us near the center of the city (I didn’t ask for permission to use his name on the blog, so I’ll respect his privacy).  Seth and I were nervous of what to expect.  We made our way through the metro to get to a stop near his apartment and found him at the opening to the street.  He immediately whisked us away in his fancy Alpha Romeo with red leather interior.  It was nice to be in a nice car.  He was charming and informative.  After settling in and offering us drinks, he offered to take us to a place for lunch.  He drove us around in search of a place to eat.  Since it was Sunday, and at a weird in-between hour, it was a bit difficult.  We tried three places before we found one that was open.  It was really good! We had a Greek feast!  There was greek salad, fried cheese, a whole fish, some prawns, some kind of sautéed greens, but my favorite was this creamy, white paste that was made from caviar.  It was amazing.  I could eat it with a spoon for hours, or dunk bread in it, or tomatoes…

Athens Caviar

 

Apparently, it is Greek tradition that the youngest has to eat the most.  So, since there was one filet of the fish left, Sloane had to finish it, even though she was full.  But, she was promised to get ice cream if she did.  So, afterwards we headed to a wonderful little sweet shop with artisan ice cream.  We got what he told us were traditionally Greek flavors like, pistachio, rose water, and this one flavor called Mastic that I had to look up to see what it was.  It is the resin from a tree with hints of pine or cedar.  It’s really good, and we’ve tried ice cream elsewhere where they added honey to it.  It is really good.  (here’s a link to the wikipedia page http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mastic_(plant_resin) )

That night we went out to an area called Gazi where all these posh bars are.  It was really neat.  There were lots of people out even though it was Sunday.  We sat on a rooftop bar and drank fancy mixed drinks like pomegranate and honey martinis and smashed basil and mint coolers under a little olive tree.

The next day, our amazing host drove us to the Acropolis before he went to work.  We meandered about the ancient Greek ruin with wide eyes (and a lot of Spanish tourists).  The Acropolis was an amazing site with so much history, and spectacular views of the city.

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After the Acropolis we strolled around the streets at the base of the mountain.  There were tons of shops and things to look at.  It happened to be extremely hot, so we ended up doing a bit of drinking to cool ourselves down.  But that allowed us to use the free wifi and have a bit of Skype conversations.  We, also, bought Sloane some traditional Greek Sandals for her birthday.  She REALLY needed new sandals, and they were pretty cool.  We, also, found our ferry tickets to Milos and a place to stay.  Both were a little more than we wanted to spend, but it was our only option.

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After tons of walking around Athens city center, we metro-ed our way back to our couch surfing residence, and were picked up.  That night we cooked dinner at his home.  It was really nice.  There’s something about cooking and sharing a meal together that brings people together.  We were taught how to cook braised baby goat, a proper Greek salad (with a cool tomato technique), and goat chops and kebab on the grill.  It was all so good! And, I always like trying new things.  Goat was a first for me.  We finished off our meal with fresh fruit (Greek fruit), and some candied grapes in its own syrup that his mother made.  Everything was cooked with Greek ingredients and that made it all the better.  Our couch surfing host was patient, giving, well informed on everything Greek, and a good conversationalist.  It was a really good experience, and I hope all of our couch surfing experiences can be that good!

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The next morning we caught a cab at 6am to get to the port.  Milos, here we come!  Well, we’re here.  We found our sleepy little fishing village and our one bedroom apartment with ease and settled in by slapping on some suits and hopping in the water. It is so clear!  A little colder than expected, but refreshing.  There were tons of cool critters on the sea floor to follow in our masks.

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We swam a lot yesterday and hung around.  It was nice to read a book with our amazing view.

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At night we made our own greek salad with bread, all from the local market.  Then, we headed into ‘town’ to grab a drink and to play Farkle.  Seth won the first game, and since I lost I had to run screaming from the table and go back to our apartment to collect more money.  Luckily, I won the second game.  But, sadly, there was no wager.  Boo!

Today, after a delicious breakfast of eggs, tomatoes, and feta, we hopped on a bus to get to the port town of Adamas.  We poked around in the shops and grabbed snacks.  We then found our way to another little village to see the only Christian Catacombs in Greece.  We walked up a bit of a hill, then made our way down a switchback road to the catacombs.  Luckily, they were closed! So, we didn’t get to go in.  If there were things to see or do in the surrounding village we might have walked around a bit, but as it turns out there wasn’t, and the bus back to where we wanted to go left in 10 minutes time.  We decided to make a run for it.  We had 10 minutes to run uphill in 90 degree heat.  Man, oh man, were we sweating when we finally reached the bus stop.  But, we made it there with about 3 minutes before the bus arrived.  Fortunately, the buses here are well air conditioned.

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We grabbed a lunch of gyro and souvlaki at a restaurant in town.  Seth got his ‘covered’ which was a big mistake.  It was doused with cheese and bacon and french fries and mayonnaise. It was a mistake.  That was definitely a touristy option, but we didn’t know.  Sloane and I got ours in a more traditional fashion and it was pretty good, although lacking the proper amount of tzaziki.

We decided to do a bit of grocery shopping, due to the scarcity of goods in our sleepy little village.  So, so we gathered the usual suspects, of feta, tomatoes, eggs, etc. and made our way back to Pollonia.  

Tonight, I have a feeling our sleepy little village won’t be so sleepy.  Tonight is a Panagiri! So exciting.  Panagiri is the Greek word for party.  So we are going to a party run by the village where there will be food and dancing and probably some drinking.  Traditional music will be played, and I hope it’s a blast.  So, we’ve put on our fanciest outfits and we’ll head out soon!

Breakfast

This post is dedicated to my friend, Tina.  I hope she reads the blog!

So, the food has been quite predictable and overall fairly bad for the past week or so, since leaving Rovinj.  We have found that the menu has been almost identical in every restaurant we have looked at.  3-4 variations of soup, 2-3 types of salad, a few pasta dishes, a few types of risotto, and some overpriced seafood and grilled meats.  But, all in all, predictable and not that good when ordered.  This was a disappointment after leaving Rovinj, where the food was good and there was some variety. That’s why you haven’t seen Seth post much about food lately, because there hasn’t been much inspiration.

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But, there’s a bakery in Vis.  Let me begin by mentioning that Vis is a very small town.  So, I was surprised to see the hours of the little bakery.  They open at 6am and do not close until 2am.  That’s a long day.  This morning I noticed that the window mentioned that they sold bourek inside.  I know bourek because of my friend Tina.  I was kind of surprised to see it, because I thought it was an Armenian type of food.  And, perhaps it still is.  Maybe there’s some kind of link between Armenia and Croatia that I don’t know about, or perhaps the owner simply happens to be of Armenian descent.  Either way I had meat bourek for breakfast and it was delicious.  And I thought about my friend Christina with every bite.  We used to go to her grandma’s house and raid her kitchen.  The kitchen is any chef’s dream, and it was always filled to the brim with amazing Armenian food that her grandma would constantly prepare.  Bourek was one of them.  I hope my memory serves me correctly, because otherwise, I have no idea why I connect Tina to bourek.  Tina, you would have enjoyed it.  

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Also, in my earlier post I neglected to mention a little gem we happened upon last night.  But, Christina would have enjoyed this as well.  Seth and I went for a walk, and were about to call it a night when we noticed that the door to the bottom of the bell tower was open and people were huddling around the entrance.  When we inched closer we heard that there was singing coming from inside.  When we peeked our heads inside, and eventually sat down to listen, we found an octet of men we had seen around town during our stay.  Aside from the fact that their voices were heavenly, the acoustics in this stone tower with arched ceilings was magnificent.  Though Seth favored the lead tenor who would solo from time to time, I enjoyed the ultra bass whose voice reverberated through my bones.  It was awesome, and something I love to happen upon.  These little local gems are what I hope we can continue to find, even if we can’t understand a lick of what they are saying!

20 Bucks If You Throw that Cat Into the Water

I realized that I have not mentioned something that has been going on since the start of our trip with Sloane.  Basically, Seth has been offering Sloane money, and Sloane has been turning it down, every time.  It started out with easy stuff like, “Sloane, if you invite that guy to join us for dinner, I’ll give you 20 bucks,” and without fail Sloane has turned him down.  I think the number to date reaches over $1000 that she’s refused so far.  Anyhow, there’s this one feral cat that hangs around the ‘main drag’ of Vis.  The standing bet is that Sloane gets, I think, $250 if she throws the cat into the harbor overhand.  This bet stands as long as we’re in Vis (or if Sloane ever comes back and properly documents the occasion).  So far, Sloane has not followed through with any of them.  Hmm…  Maybe I’ll take a picture of the cat today.  Probably not though.

Anyhow, right now it’s 6:32am.  I thought my body would find a different natural rhythm from when I am at home, but so far, not so much.  I still wake up pretty early.  Though Vis is pretty quiet at night, I had mentioned that we are staying in the perfect location, one side beach, other side stores, and 180 degree view.  This still stands, but it means that lots of people will pass below our window.  It, also, means that it is the perfect corner for little kids to hide behind to scare their friends.  And, I think there are boats that pull up in the middle of the night to load or unload things.  So, last night, through my benedryl and earplugs, I was awoken by some heartily chortling men with heavy bags of something.  I don’t know what.  So, beautiful view, nice location, not much sleep.  Oh well…

Today we are catching a bus back to the main town, then a ferry back to Split, then a bus to Trogir where we’ll stay near the airport, because tomorrow we fly from Split to Milan, Italy, where we’ll stay for one night before catching our plane from Milan to Athens (Greece, not Texas).  Then, we stay a night in Athens before catching a Ferry, or plane, to Milos, what looks to be a beautiful island in the Cyclades. For those of you who don’t know, the Cyclades are the group of islands that include Mykonos and Thira (more commonly known as Santorini).  Milos is said to be ‘off the beaten path’.  I don’t think it will be empty, but hopefully it will be less busy than the major tourist destinations of Mykonos and Thira.  Milos is known for beautiful beaches and a lot of nature.  I’m looking forward to it.  But, we have a lot of travel before then!

Vis

We arrived in Vis yesterday morning, by ferry.  From the ferry, we piled on a bus with too many other people to get to our part of the island, Komiza.  After standing like a sardine in a bus for 20  minutes on a switchback road down a mountain, we file off the bus.  We take a look around, when Seth notices a woman holding a paper with his name on it! What?!?  So we followed this old woman back to our apartment, as she gives me a little tour of the town in broken English.  It was so wonderful.  

It turns out that we have the best apartment on the island.  Yeah it’s small, and sometimes there’s a funny smell that wafts from the bathroom, but we are on the corner of a little bay, with a beautiful ocean view, with a beach on one side and all the shops and restaurants on the other.  Later in the day we found out that if we walk up a few flights of stairs we have access to a kitchen, and a rooftop deck.  The deck was so pretty, so we played a round of Farkle up there.  Somehow Seth won, again!

One of the first things we did was head down to the little beach we can see from our window.  It’s a beautiful little rocky beach, with white stones and clear water of shades of blues and greens.  Beautiful, but apparently not the ideal beach.  Rocky beaches hurt!  And then, the water was really cold! Aah! It was nice though, and Seth gave me a ‘hot stone massage’.

Vis Stone Massage

Waterfalls, Meatsplotion, and Feral Cats

The rental car in Pula didn’t exist.  We walked around for at least an hour, with our packs, and it was hot, searching for our promised vehicle, to no avail! We ended up giving up and grabbing some lunch.  We picked up a tip about a place that was good and not touristy.  I think it was called Kantina, but I thought it was pretty good.  I ordered the octopus salad and the calamari.  Delicious.

Pula Kantina Octopus Salad

Pula Kantina Calamari

We, then, caught a taxi to the airport, because that’s where they keep their rental car places.  We found the place we had made a reservation and they had no knowledge of our booking, and no cars to lend.  Lovely.  But, we found a car.  A little Volkswagon Up, in red.

With the help of Serena, our British English Garmin guide, we made our way to Grabovac, a small town outside of Plitvice Lakes National Park.  Because we used the Garmin, it calculated a route through the Croatian countryside.  It was stunning.  I think that a car is the best way to see Croatia.  But, amidst the beauty I became saddened.  There were many homes and buildings that were abandoned, and both the homes and buildings that were abandoned and those being lived in, had holes from bullets.  Though Croatia has rebuilt much of their country since their war in the 90’s, there are still ways in which the tragedy can be viewed.  I felt sad as we drove past homes with people on porches and bullet holes in the sides of the homes.  I am lucky that I live in the US where we don’t have wars on our soil.  I can’t imagine what it’s like, and I hope I never have to experience that.

The next morning we head off to the national park.  Plitvice Lakes is one of the most beautiful places I have ever been, if not the most beautiful.  The crystal clear, turquoise water flows from falls into pools that house petrified logs and a single type of fish (we think some type of carp).  It is amazing that a place like this exists.

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From Plitvice Lakes we went in search of the Cerovacke Caves near Gracac.  It turns out that Gracac is a very small town.  And, in the middle of the day it is empty.  We did a round through the town in search of a place to stay, but couldn’t find one.  We head over to the caves to see what the deal was over there, and the nice girl who worked there knew of someone who rented out rooms.  We headed over to Apartman Ana, in a little residential area.  Well, just about all of Gracac is residential.  I think there were two industrial sites, one I think was a trash processing plant, and the other had something to do with fish.  Both were very small.  Anyhow, a man and his daughter met us and the daughter spoke English pretty well.  The father was super smiley, but spoke little English, which was fine, because we speak very little Croatian.  Anyhow, the girl asked where we were from and was very surprised to hear that we were from the United States.  She said that they had never had anyone from the US before.  Then she was shocked to hear that we were from Los Angeles, and asked what brought us to Croatia.  When we told her that we heard that Croatia was beautiful, she was in awe that people from Los Angeles spoke of Croatia.  It’s amazing how we see Croatia as this beautiful gem yet to be discovered completely by the US, while she is clueless as to why someone from Los Angeles would want to visit her country.  It was an interesting exchange, and to see her point of view.  

We walked down the street to have a beer.  Ojusko seems to be the beer of choice.  Most bars and cafes have awnings adorned with the Ojusko sign.  We ended up grabbing the dice and playing a round of Farkle.  For those of you who don’t know the game, it is a game of chance played with dice.  That’s the short explanation.  We drank a lot of beer and eventually Seth won.  So, Sloane and I had to take care of the bill. I think it came to about $3 american each.  Not bad for 6 large beers.

We eventually made our way to the recommended restaurant where we ordered the massive meat plate.  We had no idea it would be as massive as it turned out to be, and the meat was piled atop a mound of french fries.  It was so good, but way too much!

Gracac Meat Madness

Gracac Restaurant

Gracac Sloane

 

After dinner Seth and I went for a walk.  As we were walking I suddenly heard a little, “mew!”  I stopped, and I heard it again.  A kitten!  The momma was probably moving the kittens to a new location and we found this one when momma was away.  So cute!  We pet the kitten for a bit then began to walk away.  But, the kitten started mewing and following us!  We had to put her back and Seth scared her so she would stay in the bushes and not leave the spot where the momma had left her.

Gracac Kitten

That night we enjoyed the free internet, talked with some family, and went to bed.  We didn’t sleep too long before we were woken up by tons of dogs barking.  That was nice.

The next morning we made our way to the Cerovack Caves, also a UNESCO world heritage sight.  The caves were cold and pretty impressive.  They were bigger than we had expected.  

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After the caves we asked Selena (aka Magellan) how to get to Skradin, to see the waterfalls in Krka National Park.  Once again, we drove through windy streets to get there, passing through towns that once were and fields that once grew.  Skradin is a bustling little tourist town that feeds into Krka National Park.  We had a nasty little meal of fake risotto, then hung out to finish the Serious Eats blog post.  Seth took a liking to the ice cream shop around the corner from the hotel.  He ended up ordering 6 scoops of ice cream that day.  

Skradin Ice Cream

That evening Seth and I went for a little walk around Skradin.  We went to the top of the little hill to see the fortress.  It allowed us to view the entire little town and the lake and bridge beyond.  It was a pretty view at night.

Skradin Fortress View

The next morning we hopped on a boat down the river to visit the Roski Slap, which I think means waterfall.  It was pretty and we were allowed to swim in the water just beyond the falls.  Unfortunately, the weather was not too hot, and the water was a bit crisp.  So our time in the water was brief.  We stood in the sun to dry (we didn’t bring towels) then went for a walk.  It was pretty, but I think because we had been to Plitvice a few days before, we were not that impressed.

Krka Waterfall

Seth Krka Waterfall

We made our way back to town so Seth, and Sloane, could get more ice cream, then made our way to Split, Croatia’s second largest city.  We were not too happy to enter a big city.  I think we’re going to try to stick to smaller towns throughout our journey.  They are much more pleasant.  Seth did a great job at navigating throughout Croatia, and did not falter while entering the city.  Good job Seth!  We found our overpriced, crap hostel and took a walk to the city center.  It was crowded, a bit smelly at times, and overpriced.  We wanted to find a cheap meal, so we found a chain called Popej, pronounced Popeye and they had a cutout of his likeness.  It was horrible.  Weird version of kebab, but really bad.  I do not recommend.

Then, we bought our ferry tickets to Vis, a small island off Split before Seth and I made our way to the airport to drop off the rental car.  That was a pain.  Apparently, somewhere along the way someone had opened their car door into our wheel well and made a ity bitty dent.  So we got to pay 150 euros for that, lovely.

Volkswagon Up

Seth and Up

This morning we woke up and made our way down to the docks to catch our ferry to Vis.  Vis is an island that, supposedly, was forbidden to foreigners for about 4 decades.  It is out of the way and not very touristy.  It is known for it’s beaches and diving.  Seth and I hope to find a dive shop to check out some scuttled ships and airplanes.

Food – Pizza in Croatia

Recommended to us by our new friend and guide Marina, Pizza Italiana da Sergio, in Rovinj Croatia, has been our favorite meal and by far the best pizza we have had. They have a salad with what they call vrhnje, which in Croatian just means sour cream, this stuff is amazing. This inspired us to go there two nights in a row for dinner.

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Rovinj

Though this post is going to cover our time in Rovinj, Croatia, I want to start off by giving a clothing update.  Those of you who have been following since the beginning know that clothing was a difficult endeavor for me.  Well, it’s been interesting.  I only brought 1 strictly short sleeved shirt.  It is a wicking, quick dry, merino wool by Patagonia.  Strait away I didn’t like it.  I wore it one of the first days traveling and it was too much coverage.  I ended up purchasing 2 tank tops from Lefties (a European store) in Madrid.  So, I’ve been wearing those two tops and my jean shorts (something which was a last minute decision).  When I’m waiting for my shorts to dry I end up wearing a lightweight cotton dress (also, a last minute decision).  So, the majority of the clothing I have been wearing is not technical or quick dry whatsoever.  Interesting…

Rovinj! (Pronounced ROH-vin)  Before the ferry ride was over, Sloane’s friend had found us an apartment to rent in the center of the old city.  It worked out really well, with two bedrooms and two bathrooms.  It’s nice to have your own space like that.  Marina, Sloane’s friend, has been so wonderful.  Part of it is because she works in hospitality at the moment, but I think it is just her nature to be extremely friendly and helpful.  She has been a wealth of information, and a fun person to get to know.  I wish we had a Marina for every place we visit!

The first night, Marina picked us up from the ferry, brought us to our apartment, then we went on a mini tour of the town of Rovinj.  It’s very small.  It has a real cozy feeling.  Even as we were approaching in the ferry, our attitudes began to change.  The coastline is spectacular, with pine forests, sheer cliffs of white rock plunging into the crystal blue sea, and picturesque buildings scattered here and there.  Upon exiting our spirits were high.  The weather was warm with a bit of wind.  What a romantic  town.  Marina took us  around the town, and we ended up at a little bar between the coast and Saint Euphemia’s Church.  The bar was settled in the graveyard, but it wasn’t creepy.  It was quite relaxing with the breeze and the ability to see the stars, and a few bats.  We tried our first Croatian beer, Favorit, which turned out to be a favorite.

Rovinj Ferry

The next morning we woke and ventured out to find coffee.  We ended up at the Cinema Cafe where we enjoyed wonderful Illy expressos and what they call brioche.  Their brioche is our croissant with a marmalade filling.  It was very nice.  We then went in search of a place to swim.  It wasn’t much of a search, really.  Just a decision of where we wanted to hop in.  After choosing a spot, we cooled off in the water.  The temperature was wonderful.  It was pretty hot out and the water was refreshing, but not cold.  Already Croatia has an up on Madrid and Venice.  We were extremely hot in those cities, but had no way to remedy the exhaustion.  Here, we just hop into the water.  

Rovinj First Swim

Rovinj First Swim 2

We found a place to grab some lunch.  Once again, Sloane ended up the winner of the meal.  She ordered the grilled calamari and it was delicious.  I ordered a plate of assorted mussels, and though it was good, I was not blown away.  Seth’s was pretty good, a dish of pasta, scampi, and red sauce, but Sloane’s was the best.

Then, Seth and I went in search of internet.  Though Marina was going to give us the internet info for the hotel she works in, she didn’t start work until 3.  So we sat down at one of the restaurants near the water.  Seth ordered a beer and I opted for an iced coffee.  Surprise!! Iced coffee in Croatia is not the light, low calorie drink we know in the states.  The waiter brought me a sundae cup with something that looked like a milkshake, topped off with a scoop of iced cream, whipped cream, chocolate syrup, and a cookie.  Oops!  Though I graciously accepted the dessert, I asked the waiter about the difference.  He seemed confused as to why I would want a double espresso and a cup of ice.

While Seth and I were on our beverage adventure, Sloane had been exploring more of the town.  She found a daily open air market where the vendors push you to try all of their fare.  We went to explore and to to taste the different types of fruit and their locally harvested truffles.  Yum!  We bought these fruit that look like pears, but taste like a mix between a pear and an apple, perhaps.  But, not like an asian pear like we have in the states.  Closer to a crabapple, maybe.  Really tasty.  Then we sampled a bunch of truffle products.  Yum! We bought some white truffles in truffle oil.  We ended up making a mini feast of bread with a slice of really good tomato from Marina’s garden, truffle, then sea salt.  Wow.  

It was still hot, so we followed Sloane to the graveyard beach.  We scrambled down the rocks and, with some direction from a local, we hopped in at the right spot.  The water felt amazing.  We watched some children being taught by their father how to flip off the rocks into the water, before trying it ourselves.  Well, not the flip part, but jumping off the rocks into the water.

Rovinj Graveyard Beach

Marina recommended a pizza place, so we found our way there for dinner.  This turned out to be the best pizza we’ve had so far.  Sorry Italy.  We started off with salads, and Seth was the winner there.  His  was an arugula salad with this mysterious ‘cream’ on top.  Though we made the conjecture that it was sour cream at the time, we decided that it was nearly impossible that our sour cream could be so far off from this.  We found out later that it was sour cream.  Apparently, without pasteurization and preservatives sour cream can have a completely different, and amazing, flavor.  Dumb US rules.  They kill so much flavor!  Anyhow, when it came to pizzas, I was the winner, with Seth as a close second.  My pizza had sheep cheese, mozzarella, Istrian ham, and salami, and parmesan sprinkled on top.  So, so good.  Seth’s pizza had Istrian ham, arugula, and fresh tomatoes.  Sloane’s was good, but not like ours.  Wow, that was amazing.

We went to visit Marina at the hotel and to use the internet.  It turned out that there was a Croatian folk festival going on in the town center, and we had front row seats!  It was amazing to see the tradition of the culture.  We saw dancing and heard music.  We had no idea what they were saying between numbers, but we think it was traditional stories.  There’s no connection between English and Croatian, so we were in the dark.

The next morning we picked up our laundry (Marina had found us a place to drop it the day before), picked up a kebab for lunch, and headed over to Red Island for a bit of snorkeling.  Though the island wasn’t much more than a bunch of resort hotels, it was a nice change of scenery.  We snorkeled and saw little fish, some sea urchins, and a sea cucumber.  We, also, saw an enormous bee.

we decided to treat Marina for dinner, so we headed back to Sergios, the amazing pizza place.  This time we all ordered the Sergio salad, which is the one Seth had ordered the night before.  The plan was to get less pizza and share, but our eyes were too big! I think either my pizza or Marina’s pizza were the winners.  I ordered a pizza with mozzarella, soft cheese, eggplant, arugula, fresh tomatoes, and salami.  It was wonderful.  Marina got a 4 cheese pizza and added salami.  The gorgonzola on her’s was really tasty.  We, then, went to stuff ourselves on ice cream.  We have to start watching our weight if we’re going to be laying around in bathing suits!  Or at least I do!  We did a few more laps around the town before calling it a night.

Today we are going to head off to Pula, mostly to pick up a car.  After many phone calls, it was decided there were no cars to rent in Rovinj.  So we will pick up a car in Pula and drive to Plitvice Lakes National Park.  The pictures look amazing, so I’m excited.  We then make our way down the coast, stopping at places here and there to see neat things like caves and waterfalls.  It’s going to be a fast paced week, but hopefully it will be worth it!  I think it will.

Hostel Swap

Hostel Swap. It’s kinda like Wife swap, but less entertaining.  We packed up all of our things and headed toward the islands of Venice.  We were off to find a lady with sardines.  What I mean by that, is we had to make it to a meeting point by 10am to find Mrs. Di Cicco, our cooking class instructor.  This sounds simple, right? You plan enough time to get from point A (our hostel on the mainland) to point B (an obscure vaporetto stop).  And, it would be simple if we had a map that included all of Venice’s windy streets, or if all of the windy streets were labeled with names.  Honestly, I don’t think all of the ‘streets’ have names.  So, what you do is you look at the map, walk in the general direction you think you are supposed to go, then ask someone who looks like a local where this point B is, then turn around because you’ve been going the wrong way.  Eventually we seem to get to all the places we need.  If it weren’t so darn hot, or if we weren’t carrying all of our possessions, it wouldn’t be that big of a deal.  My strategy with directions, so far, is to take off my sunglasses, place a semi-vapid look upon my face, and walk up to an Italian man while butchering their romantic language, pointing to a dot on a map.  Then I smile real big, with a bit of confusion in my eyebrows.  This seems to be working relatively well, met with smiles, laughs and very helpful directions.  

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We made it to our destination with 5 minutes to spare, and met Mrs. Di Cicco.  She led us through the labyrinth to her apartment on the top floor of a building.  It was a beautiful space with air conditioning and a serene balcony view.  Sadly the weather didn’t permit lunch on the terrace.  With the guidance of Mrs. Di Cicco, and Seth’s expertise, we created a delectable meal of Sarde di Saor (marinated sardines in an onion, pine nut, and raisin mix), zucchini and prawn  risotto, baked sea bass in tomatoes, olives, and capers, and Zabaglione (a marsala wine custard).  It was all so delicious.  I really, really liked the sardines.  I was impressed that Sloane liked them too.  She even had seconds! The risotto was cooked in an amazing broth that we made with the prawn heads and a variation of a mir poux.  I could have sipped that from a cup, it was so good.  The dessert was surprisingly good.  I don’t normally like custards, or custard-like consistencies (aka Jell-O [which is the devil so don’t even go there]), but this was so good.  She said it could be served warm, but due to the heat we popped them into the fridge, so they were cold when we ate them.  We dunked thin, little Venetian cookies into the cream and it was oh so good.

After lunch we promptly hauled our junk over towards the hostel.  It wasn’t far at all, and if my memory serves me correctly, we didn’t ask for directions.  Well, maybe we did.  There definitely wasn’t a street name.  We had to go to the ‘alley’ behind the street name.  We had a bit of trouble with the guy who checked us in because he didn’t want to allow us to only stay one night.  And the rules surrounding this situation were quite ridiculous, but we decided to wait until the morning when we could speak with the manager.

After doing some planning and relaxing in the AC, we made our way to Vaporetto 1.  Ok, a little info about Venice for those of you who don’t know.  Before I came to Venice the first time, I was unaware that it was a series of islands.  In the city center there are no cars.  It’s a walking city.  I don’t even think I saw bikes.  This is because to get to places you want to go you usually have to cross several bridges, and many of the streets are barely wide enough for two people to walk side by side.  But, there is a lot of water.  The canals are the lifeblood of Venice.  So, any and all transportation happens upon them.  Mail, police, deliveries, you name it, it happens on the water.  A vaporetto is public transportation, or Venice’s version of a bus or subway.  Something to know about the vaporettos, and public transportation in general in Venice (and perhaps Italy), is that they hardly check for tickets.  At our bus stop on the mainland there wasn’t a place to buy a ticket, and when we asked the driver he waved us along.  Silly us, we got on Vaporetto 1 and asked the boat guy where we could buy a ticket.  So we paid 7 euro each.  As we were on the little boat we watched the hoards of people waltz onto the boat without mention of tickets or the like.  Gah!  Oh well.  Anyhow, Vaporetto 1 makes its way down the Grand Canal and you get to see Venice how it’s meant to be seen.  I finally was able to see some of the magic of Venice.  Getting lost in the stale, humid heat while trekking through the maze of streets is not a pleasurable experience, while losing yourself with the wind blowing through your hair making your way down the Grand Canal with the magnificent architecture of the old masters passing by can leave a lasting impression.

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Finding our way back to our stop at the Rialto Fish Market, we set off in search of dinner.  We found a spot that looked decent and didn’t try to steal too much of our money.  We then traipsed back to our hostel, only a few turns away, and settled in for the evening.

This morning we abandoned our hostel on time, as the manager begrudgingly agreed to not charge us for an extra night.  It was still cool when we left the hostel.  Wait, wait.  Cool is the wrong word.  Maybe I should say that it was cooler than painfully hot.  So, maybe we didn’t start sweating until we walked a few yards.  That’s a more accurate description of the weather.  Anyhow, we left in search for the docks to buy tickets to Croatia.  We found the docks, left our big bags at the station, and caught a Vaporetto to the island of Murano.  Murano is known for it’s blown glass.  I was hoping to find a hands on class to take while in Venice, but that was not in our cards for the day.  We had about three hours until we had to get back to the station.  

Remember my schtick about public transportation and not really having to pay the fare?  Well, I’m going to have to say that that rule does not apply when taking a vaporetto to a super touristy island.  We took a few vaporettos without purchasing tickets, but on this boat they checked.  There went another 7 euros each!  I bet they never actually fine you for not paying for a ticket (it’s 57 euros if they do), that they just make you buy a ticket. 

As we exited the boat someone was kindly there to tell us that there was a glass blowing demonstration, free of charge, all the way down the path to the left.  We watched the demonstration, which was just a lure to get us to shop, then we shopped.  LOL  But I think glass blowing is really cool, so I thought the demonstration, no matter how mundane they made it, was interesting to me.  One day I will take a course.  Anyhow, it was neat to walk through the shops and see all the glass.  We wanted to buy a really interesting Christmas ornament, but didn’t want to babysit a glass orb through Africa. 

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After finding a cheap lunch (which included the best pizza we had in Venice) we returned to the docks, bought our ferry tickets to Rovinj and we are on our way.  We don’t have a place to stay for the night, but Sloane has a friend in Rovinj who is, supposedly, finding us a place to stay.  I hope this works.  Either way, we are pretty excited for Croatia.  We’re hoping it includes relaxation, beaches, outdoor activities, good food, and a stronger dollar