Saturday, August 1, 2015
I looked out to the boat next door - Six millenials sleeping on either the deck or cockpit, with the center table littered with beer cans. A man came out from below deck to walk to the stern, lean his head over, and cough into the water.
Splash. Splash.
Sigh. Two more boys followed his actions in the next half hour. This is what my generation has come to. It's so nice to be on vacation and not wake up feeling like that.
Alicia left early for her 7:45 A.M. flight. Terry and I wanted to catch a bus around 9:00 A.M. from Split.
I looked up available tickets.
"Terry, the earliest we can get is the 1:30 P.M. bus from Split to Ploče."
"Alright, buy tickets, and I'll let Aurora know we'll be late. Aurora is a friend of Terry's from NYC, who we'd be visiting today.
Terry checked our luggage at the marina so we wouldn't have to carry it with us the next few days. I was waiting by Pipi until we were ready to go.
We took a taxi to Split so we could take the bus to Ploče.
"Where are you from?" I asked the driver.
"I was born in Split, but now I live in Kaštela."
"Has Split been built up in the last decade? Or any renovations?"
"No no, we don't do that here! We'll fix old buildings to keep the culture alive."
The traffic in Split was awful. Granted, this was a Saturday morning, but I felt bad for our driver.
"Is it okay if I drop you off close to the bus stop, and you just have to walk 100 meters?" He asked. "Otherwise we'll be sitting in traffic for the next thirty minutes."
"That's fine. We don't mind walking." I'd rather not sit in traffic and take up a higher taxi bill.
Arriving at 9:45 A.M., Terry and I began to wander, looking for a place to stop and eat breakfast.
"How about this place?" I asked. It was a small cafe off of the street. Terry doesn't like going to the main street places, so we had already been walking in a residential area off the main drag.
I looked at the menu. Cafe Bistro TTOC. TripAdvisor 2015, 4.5 stars.
"Omelettes, breakfast burrito, looks good to me!"
I ordered a breakfast burrito and Terry ordered the English breakfast. As always, the bread was simply amazing. After eating and using the WiFi, we went on our way.
"I need to find an ATM. Wait here with the suitcase and I'll go look."
So I sat under a tree and watched countless people walk by. 11:00 A.M. on a Saturday and it was quite the bustling area. There were two people, a man and woman, dressed in white, making sure people didn't J-walk. A woman started to cross the street.
"No no no, walk up there," the uniformed woman told the tourist. This was a heavily commuted turn, with a sign for the ferry. I was surprised that they had two people policing the area until I counted how many violators there were. Probably one person each minute or so tried to J-walk.
We stopped again for coffee and drinks to kill some time before we took the bus inland.
The bus station was a mad house once the bus pulled up. It arrived about a half hour before the scheduled time, and people crowded in line to get as close to the front as possible. I was able to get first in line and grab a seat at the front of the bus, for the best views.
We were finally off to Ploče, driving on what appeared to be a relatively new highway system. We arrived in Ploče to see Aurora and her husband Marijo. Terry and I stepped off the bus. Terry expected the bus driver to help remove luggage, but he went off to sit down while people grabbed their luggage and went.
We arrived to a home with its own Eden in the backyard. Cats, a German Shepherd, chickens, olive trees, kiwi fruit, grapes, peppers, lemons...this is a classic Croatian home.
Our lovely friends drove us to Baćinska Jezera, a connected set of freshwater lakes. We took a boat ride around the different lakes.
Wildlife was sprinkled all around us. Baby ducks, a water snake, frogs. It was a scavenger hunt to see what you could find.
The perimeter of the lake was covered by grass. We approached the edge, and I assumed we'd then turn around, but the boat kept moving! There was a small channel, which went under a bridge that previously had doors to keep people from fishing, and connected us to another lake.
We continued through. Multiple times we passed through these narrow sections of water without grass.
"Peep peep!" the driver called, as if to tell us to look at the baby ducks, assuming his English skills weren't very good.
"Ducks didnt always used to be here," Marijo told me. "Karlovačko, the beer company, did a commercial where they brought in ducks, amd left them when they were finished with their project. They then bred and multiplied, even with native ducks. Before, you could shoot anything that moved, other than humans. Now you can't even throw rocks at them!"
He later tried to look up the commercial on YouTube, but unfortunately, couldn't find it.
We rounded another lake and came back to where we started. We exited the boat and sat down back on land for some drinks.
"What would you like?"
I looked at the drink menu. Various beers, some wines. I didn't want to drink anything with alcohol right now. I wanted something native to the area.
"Pipi? What's that?" I asked.
"Just try it!"
A bottle with a light yellow liquid arrived to the table. I examined the label.
"There's a blonde girl on the bottle!"
How perfect!
We then went for a swim. It's amazing how freshwater feels to swim in verses saltwater. I had to tread water more since my body wanted to sink, but I needed the workout. I've been eating so much in Croatia! Earlier this week, Alex asked me, what will you miss most? I told him, The food!
While swimming, Terry and I continued to talk with Marijo.
"Do a lot of young Croatians leave the country?" I asked.
"They may want more, but there is nothing they lack," he told me. Kids leave to explore more of the world, but they generally and come back.
It was a great response.
When we were back at the house, I talked about how my favorite food in Croatia was the fig. I've only eaten figs from my Great Aunt's house in the Bronx, because they don't last long once off the tree.
Soon after getting back to the house, Marijo's mom brought in a bowl of fresh figs from their tree. I was so happy! She must have heard how much I liked fresh figs.
"They're not perfectly ripe, they're a bit early, but that means they're not as sweet," Aurora told me.
I opened up one of the fruit and took a bite. I had forgotten exactly how delicious they were. Ah. I was a happy camper. Terry seemed amused by my expression.
Croatian families are known for their hospitality. As much as Terry wanted to help, he was a guest.
"No, no, relax!"
Dinner consisted of a homemade Croatian barbeque. Sausage, beef patties, chicken kebobs, a salad of cucumber, tomatoes, peppers, with a side of peppers stuffed with a cheese and grape tomatoes. And yummy bread. With Majmak.
"You can't find Majmak in the States!" Aurora told me.
"Have some more wine!" They saw Terry had an empty glass amd promptly filled it. From my last trip, I learned that it's impolite to have your guest sit with an empty plate or empty glass.
"I'm stuffed, but I don't want the food to go to waste," Terry told his hosts as he looked at his now filled glass and the food that lay untouched, ready to be consumed.
"Nothing is wasted, here. The cats love the meat, and the hens have been waiting for this bread! We'll pick up a fresh loaf tomorrow morning."
"What is considered old here is fresh in NYC!" Terry said, thinking about the differences between NYC and a Croatian home.
As Terry and Marijo talked world history, I asked Aurora about local food.
"I've loved the black risotto with cuttlefish here. I've never had it before," I told her. "What makes it black?"
"Ink from the cuttlefish."
Fascinating. Who would have thought such a thing?
Any large meal with some wine is enough to put a person into a food coma, and since Terry woke up before the sunrise this morning, he was really feeling it, so he headed to bed. I stayed an extra hour to hang out and chat.
It turns out that Aurora and Marijo lived in New Jersey for a few years while working in NYC. So naturally, we talked about my home state. Jersey tomatoes, my teaching career, and my fiancé.
"Why didn't he come?"
"He wasn't able to take off that much time from work, unfortunately," I told them.
"We're currently in a pre cana program. Traditionally, it's a year minimun between the engagement and the wedding. Is it the same here?"
"Croatia is just 45 days," they told me.
"So, if I got Alex to come to Croatia..." I joked. "but my family needs the party. We couldn't elope."
"In Croatia, family is very close," Marijo began. "The wedding is more for the family than the couple. It's the time for them to give their blessings and celebrate the marriage."
I hadn't thought of it like that, but he was right. What a wonderful day. Croatian hospitality is amazing. I'm really going to miss this.
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