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| Losinj, Croatia |
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| Split, Croatia |
Kelly and I took a fast hydrofoil from Venice to Losinj, Croatia. The trip itself was efficient and speedy. Getting off the boat was like nothing I’ve ever experienced. There were about 300 people on the boat, which was an all-interior cabin very similar to an airplane. Everybody crammed toward the single exit to get off, which was made very difficult because the baggage was stowed right astride the exit, so people were cramming away from the exit to get their luggage, then trying to re-cram the other way to exit. Normally, even this chaos would take only a few minutes. However, the Croatian government, in their wisdom, decided the best way to check passports was one by one AT THE SINGLE EXIT POINT OF THE BOAT. Imagine a 767 plane with one exit, where each person’s passport is being checked by a single official at said exit, and each person’s baggage is five rows *behind* where they’re sitting. I took a picture of the madness. Kelly and I forced our way through the baggage crowd to escape in an amazingly quick (considering) time of a half hour. After we went to two tourist centers to find a room (this took about 40 mins), we walked past the boat and saw people still coming out one by one.
Croatians, at least many of them, are scary looking people. The men’s mere presence often makes me extremely nervous, until, that is, their eyes soften and their face forms a smile, and I’m reminded they’re just big teddy bears. Teddy bears that look like they could rip your intestines out. Croatians are big. Much bigger than Italians. This is excellent for me, as I was able to pick up a pair of stylish leather sandals, which were simply unavailable in my size in Italy.
As we learned in Losinj, the Croatians speak Croatian, which sounds a bit Germanish (not really, but more Germanish than Italian). They also speak German, Italian, and English, mostly due to the tourists I’m guessing. In Losinj, English was by far the least spoken of the 3 non-Croatian languages, and often we had to communicate in what little Italian we know. We’re now in Split, where English is much more prevalent. We stayed 4 nights in Losinj, mostly to recuperate. We didn’t do much there. I tweaked my neck and needed to rest it, and we had just been moving very quickly, especially in Venice where we came from.
Mali Losinj is a little port town making a big horseshoe shape around the water. There were many vendors selling fruit from boats docked near the main square. At night, the square turned into a big gathering place with street vendors and artists, and kids running amok. Kelly commented many places we’ve visited have big squares like this where you can get ice cream, sit at an open area bar, or just hang out. She noted these places really don’t exist back home. A shopping center is the closest you get, and it’s just not safe for kids to run around.
Our first full day in Losinj, a huge thunderstorm rolled through. It was awesome. The storm was absolutely unlike anything I’ve ever seen in San Diego. Enormous claps of thunder, many of which made me jump up and whimper to Kelly like a schoolgirl, they startled me so much (when they got close). At one point, the storm moved away from us, and from our balcony we had a view of about 120 degrees of constant visible lightning, both sheet and streak. Many times the streak lightning would strike 3 times in one area, so by the time your eyes tracked over to it, you could really get a good look at it. It was so continuous that the thunder never stopped, just varied in intensity. I hope (and Kelly does more than me) we get more storms, especially ones like this that started just as we were getting back to our room.
Kelly and I found a delicious restaurant where we ended up eating 3 nights in a row, and (brace yourselves) ordered the exact same thing all 3 nights. Vegetarian pizza and grilled calamari (although one night we were brought friend calamari instead). The calamari was the best I’ve ever had. Not a hint of chewy, and delicious despite lack of sauce (just a little olive oil and lemon, methinks). The veggy pizza was also the best pizza we’ve had so far, including Italy. The food in Croatia is as good as Italy, in my opinion. Their pastas and caprese salads do not compare, but their pizzas and fish are as good or better.
The next day I invited the two neighbor couples in our room complex to dinner. They agreed. One couple was from England, the other from Sweden. They were both very nice. Kelly and I took to the Swedes, Pierre and Sara, the most. Sara is extremely warm and gentle, and seems like she’s probably smart and creative underneath. Pierre is a garrulous, good natured jokester. One of his comments to us was, “I hope I don’t offend you. I don’t know how to say this…but you two seem skinny for Americans.” He’s a crackup. His inflection and humor remind me of my friend Morten’s from Denmark. We exchanged emails with the Swedes, and are going to try to meet up later in our Croatia travels if we can.
There’s this gelato server in Losinj who has mastered a little routine to draw in customers. He throws the scoops in the air and re-catches them in his scooper. Then when he hands the cone to people, he performs one of the following:
1. The Double Cone – patron grabs cone, which turns out to be a second cone housing the main cone. When server takes main cone away, patron is left with an empty cone.
2. The Upside Down Fake Out – right when patron is about to take the cone, server tips cone upside down (which still grips the thick ice cream), then rights the cone.
3. The Vertical Cone Drop – right as patron is about to grab cone, server drops cone, so that patron is left with his fingers in the ice cream (just a bit, not enough to anger).
Usually he employed these tricks in order (1, 2, then 3). He also would wing scoops across the terrace to his server buddy, who would catch them in his mouth. After this, he would sometimes then wing one at a customer, who would freak out until it became apparent it was a plastic ball looking like ice cream. This whole ice-cream routine was extremely fun to watch, and the crowds simply loved it. Kelly and I stopped to watch every time we passed, agreeing it never got old. I think the ice-cream guy had some clown training, as he had that good-natured quality that made us want to keep watching. I have a couple videos of this routine…for later.
On our final day, Kelly and I went to the local swimming hole, where Kelly and I swam, then found an unoccupied two person seat/swing, and just hung out for an hour or so. It was one of those times we’ll look back at and say, “Remember that swing, where we didn’t have a care in the world? That was great. Alright, I’m off to another grueling day of work and stress.”
From Losinj we overnight ferried to Split, where we are now. Split is a thriving city, with an old palace in the center that is so big you don’t notice you’re in an old palace (it’s big with tons of restaurants and shops within its walls). There’s an enormous fresh fruit market open every day, lots of foot traffic (many narrow pathways reminiscent of Venice), internet cafes, gelato, sunglass shops…sort of a standard biggish city like the ones we’ve seen earlier. At dinner last night Kelly and I agreed it doesn’t have a super-strong cultural feel or sights enough to make us feel like staying here very long. We will leave tomorrow after only two days. This is to the great dismay of our room landlady, who stopped into our room every 15 minutes to repeat, “Split nice? You stay three nights.” We negotiated a price for 3 nights in the beginning, and today we knew it would now be two. She came into the room this morning and said, “Three nights, yes? You pay now.” After an awkward silence, I panicked and said I needed to get money. You gotta understand, this woman has a presence, and throws a smile that says, “We’re friends now, but if you cross me I’ll burn you while you sleep.” We came back and said it would be two nights, and she was cool about it, if not a little distant. We’re going to buy her flowers or something, especially since she let us use her washer to do laundry.
As usual, Kelly is feeding the local cats, which are almost all wild here. I am buying $12 magazines because they have stereo mags in English for the first time in 6 weeks. I also bought a couple of books, which have been sorely lacking until now. Today we passed by a square where there was a 6 man acapella singing group. They were very, very good. I found out they are amateurs who enjoy keeping alive their traditional Croatian songs. For amateurs with no major singing education to speak of, they are *incredible*. I sat and listened for the whole hour or so they sang, and bought the CD they had for sale, as I’m quite fond of acapella harmony groups, like Take 6 and the King’s Singers. I am not fond of the fact that I am using the word “fond”.
Overall, I have found Croatians very cordial and friendly. Waiters seem eager to ensure you have a good experience, and are sincerely apologetic when things go wrong. I think the friendliness is more striking because the people look like they should be beating you up. Aside from the people, Croatia doesn’t seem to have an overwhelming sense of anything in particular. It could be that their culture is just mellow, or that I have been traveling long enough now that it will take an India to bash me over the head with culture shock.
Kelly and I will pick a Croatian island (most likely Brac or Vis) and leave for there tomorrow. We heard Croatia gets better the further south you go. We’ll see.
