……….and it is definitely time to come home as it is overcast and only about 10 degrees – the same as Halifax so we will not have any trouble getting used to our Canadian weather again. November 11 in Croatia is Martinje, St. Martin s Day, and it is celebrated in all the wine-producing regions across Croatia with wine celebrations and lots of feasting and sampling of new wines. The picture is of Jim in the square where the wine sampling was taking place and we had just had a large lunch so we only sampled one which, unfortunately, we did not like. The music was blasting and people were enjoying themselves especially the little lady behind Jim in the previous picture that you can hardly see She was dancing and singing up a storm and had a glass of wine in her hand ….. reminded us of Marilyn who has left us and is missed. Last night, over our last dinner together in Croatia, we reviewed our little journey and overall there were very few negative moments. We all agreed that it was a country we would come back to, and if it is not on your list already, you might want to think about adding it. Let us start with the people – they are wonderful! They sometimes can be a little brusque as they, and we, struggle to communicate but in three weeks I can truly say I only met one really cranky person and that lasted 30 seconds as I left and she was happy. Generally the people have a pretty good command of English as we, unfortunately, had no command of theirs, but that never really got in the way of their hospitality. They went out of their way to treat us well and meet our needs and once they found out we were Canadian they opened up even more to tell us about their relatives in Canada or their stay in Canada or their desire to go to Canada…………once again, it is easy to be a proud Canadian when you are travelling!
The weather has also been exceptional and except for the last couple of days we have had sunshine and warm weather every day except one……………and we took advantage of it to rest. For the most part the temperature has been in the low twenties and on a couple of days we hit 29………amazing really for late October-early November! This morning as we came into Zagreb it was 8.8 and we only hit a high of 13 and it was overcast with occasional showers…………..fine weather for walking around the city and the showers give you an excuse to have a cappucino, as if I needed one, an excuse that is!
Driving, says Jim, was not a problem but parking can often be a challenge so we were thankful we had a small car…………also because of the price of gas which was about $2 per liter(I think I have that right!). Parking can also be expensive in the small towns as well as the big cities and it was important to have kuna coins on you because they did not like to change your bills, ie. paper money and on occasion one of us had to stay with the car while the other two went on a coin hunt. Once we had that figured out we, too, were reluctant to part with our coins. The roads in towns and cities are narrow and the drivers drive fast so I was very grateful not to be behind the wheel…………Jim was happy about that as well. On the highway 130km per hour was acceptable and since we are used to 110 they just zoomed by………….sometimes going faster than that.
The food was quite the surprise for me and once we got the hang of what to order we were very pleased. As mentioned earlier in the blog Croations are big meat eaters so we had to be sure to order the vegetables separately. We often had snacks in the car which mainly consisted of wonderful tangerines\oranges, olives, prunes, figs, nuts, tomatoes, great cheese, yogurt and Marilyn’s tin sardines which we all got to really enjoy. Eating out was very inexpensive and we did so mainly for supper as we would often have granola, yogurt and other healthy stuff for breakfast and munch on the nuts or figs or grab a quick snack for lunch. The Italian influence here was a little surprising to me so the pizzas and other foods of Italy were great, including the gelato, and pork, veal, fish and chicken were plentiful on the menu done in a variety of ways. Jim was on the hunt for wild boar, not literally, but it was not that easy to find but his persistence paid off in Varazdin………..and it was delicious. The fruits and vegetables in the market were all so wonderful and fresh and a treat for us Canadians this time of year so we took full advantage as well. However as I write this and tell you about the wonderful healthy foods we were eating I am wondering why I have to undo the top button of my pants because it seems as if they have shrunk…….seems to happen every vacation! This of course brings me to tell you about the wines of Croatia which are fabulous and only available here as they do not export. They are also very inexpensive and available in all the markets which are everywhere so there’s never a reason not to have wine unless of course you need to take the pledge……….which I am carefully considering!
Accommodations were great, and inexpensive, and there was only one night we were not that pleased……..just made a poor choice due to being tired. Using the airbnb site worked really well and all of the places we rented were fabulous. The Lonely Planet guide was also helpful and this time of year there are generally loads of vacancies so booking ahead was not necessary which allowed for great flexibility if we wanted to spend an extra day somewhere.
The country itself is gorgeous and changes quite a big from north to south. The beaches were stunning and the National Parks, as mentioned earlier, were beautiful. Walking, hiking, lounging about, driving through the country in October were all breathtaking and tourism seems to be one of the main industries in Croatia. I suspect it will just get busier and busier so do come soon.
LATER: it’s been a long day! We started out getting up at 6am Croatian time to catch our 9:55am flight but first had to check out of hotel, get to the airport, return car to Avis and be there two hours before departure for our international flight. Quite the surprise when we got to the airport to learn our itinerary had been changed and we had not been notified and our flight was leaving 50 minutes earlier than we thought…..good thing we were on time as they got us through to Frankfurt but were unable to book us through to Halifax as that had to happen in Frankfurt. Any of you who have travelled through Frankfurt know what chaos that can be and we were not disappointed……….well we were but not surprised. It took us an hour and a half shuffling about between Air Canada and Lufthansia(sp?) airlines to sort out the issue but finally got out of Frankfurt to Toronto……………an eight hour flight. It went smooth except I had George Constanza’s parents(from Seinfeld) sitting in front of me and Jim was across the aisle as we couldn’t get seats together. From the moment I sat down we became aware that she was complaining already to the stewardess about her seats, the flight change……….and this was in a very loud whiny accented voice that everyone was aware of…….Mr. C. was fairly quiet. The window seat next to me was vacant and along comes this young man in his early 20’s who looked very hungover, seemed to have a bit of an edge and certainly had a cold as he was sniffling and sneezing and he sits next to me. Great, I thought, managed to travel for three weeks throughout Croatia without getting sick and now I’ll catch whatever he’s been dragging around. He had barely sat down when she started to complain about something and he immediately tensed and mumbled something like “oh shit!”. I just smiled and thought the same thing. Once we were in the air Mr. C. puts his seat back driving the tray into my belly, and this wasn’t because it has grown a little, and my young neighbor became very annoyed stating how rude that was. He decided to tap Mr. C. on the shoulder and asked him to move back a little and Mr. C. moved all the way back and then Mrs. C. shouted “why did you do that to him?” and he stated he was asked to. She again shouts “go back, you need to rest and they can put their seats back if they want” and he comes again which really pissed my neighbor off and he just shook his head and mumbled something I couldn’t understand. He was quite chivalrous and I said “it’s OK, I don’t mind” which I did but the seats do come back and they didn’t care. Less than five minutes later Mrs C. puts her seat back and my neighbor got pissed………..and kind of pushed the seat a little and she began shouting to her husband about how rude we were………..I was getting anxious. Time for the bathroom but in getting out I had to push Mr. C’s chair a little forward so I could get out and she began shouting again. Thank God there was a line-up for the bathroom because I could take a break from what was becoming a very uncomfortable situation and I had a good view of it from the line up. Mrs. C. and my neighbor were shouting at each other, she called the stewardess and people were paying attention from all around. The stewardess arrived and tried to settle things down and when I came back from the bathroom the situation was tense all around and Mrs. C. was glaring at me. Back comes the stewardess with the head steward and offered my neighbor a seat up front that did not have anyone in front so there was no ability for anyone to put their seat back. Mrs. C. began talking very loudly that they deserved service and the seats are meant to go back and the young man said “I’m getting out of here” so I quickly got up to let him out and as he left Mrs. C, again in a loud voice, said they were seniors, deserved respect and that he was terrible to her and then looked at me and said “probably the way he was raised” and then I realized she probably thought he was my son. I just looked at her and as she said something to her husband that sounded like ‘the bitch is staying’ I said “pardon me” and she shouted “I’m not talking to you, I’m talking to my husband” and I just looked at the head steward who asked me if I wanted to move and I just said “No, I want to sleep!” The airline staff really de-escalated the situation as Jim later told me that when I was in the bathroom the young man told Mrs. C. to “shut the f… up” and she kept shouting at him and everyone was watching the episode and he said it again……..glad I missed it. It took a little while for the tension to settle and shortly thereafter the lady behind me tapped me on the shoulder and said “are you all right?” I told her I was fine and knew I picked up a Newfie accent and so the chat began for about ten minutes about where she was from, where she had been, blah, blah, blah! Now, sitting in Toronto and landed without any more episodes and waiting for our flight to Halifax which is different than the one we originally booked so we will be home in the wee hours of the morning! Overall, except for the minor irritance of Mrs. C., it has been a good day and looking forward to sleeping in our own bed tonight, talking to the girls tomorrow, picking up O’Reilly and thankful for the fabulous trip we just had and looking forward to planning another. Thanks for following and will chat soon!
Madonna
…….the first of many markets in Spain and what a treat it was! Our air bnb host, Manel, suggested that we needed to go here on our first day in Barcelona and because we were so tired from our travels we eagerly complied……..and so glad we did! Everything you needed was here and so much you didn’t even know you needed was also available. We ate well for lunch, picked up munchies and wine to enjoy later in the pm, and also a few things to enjoy on the long walk home to our apartment. We are staying in the Eixample District of Barcelona, which is well connected by subway/bus to the whole city, but because we love to walk the streets in hopes it will keep our pants from tightening up too much, we walk miles daily………..and really enjoy every moment, well most of them! Barcelona is an amazing city and the weather has been hovering between 15-20 degrees daily and Marilyn is acting as if she has been let out of prison and constantly reminding us of how she’s been locked up in Ottawa for months…….we let her ramble because she obviously needs to let off steam and it has nothing to do with the politics! The city of Barcelona is very clean, with the exception of dog poop on the street, and it is hard to believe that owners do not pick it up but many do as I see them in action – O’Reilly would be horrified! The population of Barcelona is around 1.6 million and I am sure they all live in condos/apartments because we have not seen a single family dwelling yet! Actually that’s not true – we did see one in the heart of the city that was owned by the soccer team and talk about big business! Anyway, I digress……..Barcelona is a beautiful city and is known as one of the Mediterranean’s busiest ports. It’s busiest rival is Madrid and more about that later once we get there. It is also best known for many of the buildings in the Eixample District(where we are staying) that were left by the artistic explosion of Modernisme in the decades around 1900……..more about that later as well after we explore the city, the Picasso Museum, Sagrada Familia and Gaudi………..to name just a few! But for now I must retire as it’s been an exhausting, yet wonderful, couple of days………check in later and hope all is well.
journeywithmadonna 