V is for Vrucht

Vrucht is Dutch for fruit. However, a look at our friendly Dutch-English dictionary gives me the impression that it might not be this kind of fruit. Or it's not just this kind of fruit. It also says vrucht is an unborn child (an embryo) or like "the fruit of your labor." But going the other way, fruit means vrucht -> stukje fruit. (And fruit means fruit.) So maybe I'm right. What. Ever.

While Fred and I were in Croatia last year, we drove down the coast to Dubrovnik (and through a small piece of Bosnia-Herzegovina). There were tons of little fruit stands along the way.

They also sold bottles of stuff. Some of it was obviously vinegar and some looked like syrup. There were tons of bottles and tons of fruit stands. I can't see how anyone made any money. We stopped because we knew there would be some good picture snapping opportunities. We bought some fruit so we wouldn't seem like "that kind" of tourist.

Fred took these. I cropped them. The light was great. Croatia is a strangely interesting place. A lot of people think of war and strife when they think of Croatia (and Bosnia sounds like the end of the earth, doesn't it?) but it's just a quiet little vacation destination for a lot of people here.

People actually drive from here to there. We flew.

G is for Groen

This is a picture representing groen, or green in Dutch. It's pronounced groon, but with a guttural g. It's difficult to describe, so I won't try. Coming up with a word for g was a little difficult for me. I went through a few before I settled on groen, which I sort of think is a cop out. I thought about gans, which means goose. Then I almost did groenten, which means vegetables, but neither of the photos I had on hand were very interesting.

This little snap was taken in Croatia last summer. We were at the Plitvice Lakes National Park. It was so incredibly beautiful and it was oh-my-God so crowded. People everywhere. But the water really is that blue and the foliage next to the water, next to the cliffs with the waterfalls in the background sort of made me forget, if only for a moment, that I hated everyone that was wrecking the whole experience for me.

Fred and I both had the same thought when we got in the car. One of us said, "Wasn't that beautiful?" And the other said, "Yeah. Except for all those people."

Croatia in general is pretty beautiful. I recommend it. It's not on the list of destinations for a first trip to Europe, but it should certainly be on the list for subsequent trips, or a very nice trip of you're already situated in Europe.

Croatia Post - We're Home

Fred and I arrived home yesterday at about 3:30. It is really great to be home. It always boggles my mind at how long it takes from waking up to walking in the door at home on the last day of a vacation. We got up at 6:30. So nine hours later, we were home. That is, of course, after a two hour drive to the airport a flight and a taxi from the airport here.


Baska Voda was a strange little town. Like I wrote before, almost completely touristy, devoid of any culture. The beaches were amazingly packed, which made lying on the sand not that appealing, however, we walked down the coast a bit the last day and found a spot that was not completely crowded. The water is nice, clear for the most part and safe. But the beaches are full of rocks. I bought a pair of beach shoes for 40 kuna, which is about €5,50.


We drove through Omis, which was another small, touristy town about twenty minutes away. It's situated in a way so that we had to drive through it five times on our way to and from different cities. It was good for a couple of hours and provided this nice view.


The last day, I finished my sock. I brought way too much sock yarn, which is a requirement for knitters. I have now cast on the second for that pair as well as another sock in a slightly different pattern, which I hope will help me get the second sock done in a timely manner.


The weather here is overcast with a little chill in the air, a far cry from the sun and heat of Croatia. Would I recommend Croatia? Absolutely. Several of the cities (Split, Zadar, Dubrovnic, Sibenik) are really wonderful and well worth taking time to explore. Zagreb was okay, but more for another trip. We might do Istria on another trip combined with a couple of islands that we missed this time around. Traveling up and down the coast was easy and beautiful, although traffic got a little backed up once or twice and sometimes we got behind some people who enjoyed driving very slowly. We had to wait a while until we were past the bends in the road and traffic going the other way was clear so that we could pass.

I'll try to get pictures posted to a link in the next day or two.

Croatia Post - Seven

We are now at the end of our trip. We have today, tomorrow and we leave Wednesday. Fred was going to go to the beach this morning, but it is cloudy, so he just went to the gym. My plan is to check my email and then head back to the room for some knitting on the balcony! (That is my kind of vacation.) We considered driving the hour our two that it would take us to get to Bosnia, just so we could say we had actually been there (besides that little strip on the way to Dubrovnik), but I would rather sit and knit.

I have finished three books (The Jane Austin Book Club is fabulous, no previous information on Jane Austin is needed and it is not really about her, more about the characters in this novel.) I also picked up On Beauty by Zadie Smith and Knit One, Kill Two byMaggie Shefton. (The hotels have places where you can drop off and pick up books to read. I mostly pick up. I will recycle them later in Amsterdam.) I am completely in love with reading again. I have not read like this in years.

Fred mentioned yesterday that the best part of vacation is going home. It is a cliche, but of course it is true. I am just sort of sitting around waiting to go home, where I will sit around. It is nice to sleep late and relax, but I have almost had my fill. Nice that there is not so much Internet access - it is sort of a pain in the neck to check my email here.

I will also be glad to use the apostrophe again. It has been a week without it and I miss it terribly. Croatian keyboards do not seem to have it.

We have taken some more great snaps, but again, there is no Internet access for my computer. And my sock is almost finished. That will be nice. Man, I sound completely bored, huh?

Croatia Post - Six

We arrived safely in Baška Voda (pronouned Bashka Voda), where we will be for the next six days or so - until the 8th. It is a little village that sold its soul to the Devil in favor of tourism and a few bucks. Way too many people, way too many children. The biggest problem is that I can not get my laptop to connect to the wireless connection in our hotel, or the hotel next to us - where I am sitting at this moment. Also the z and y are in opposite places and I can not find the apostrophe. Oh well, there are bigger problems in the world.

We will spend the next few days shuffling between the beach and the pool, possibly taking a side trip to an island if we can get some information on that. I found The Jane Austin Book Club in the lobby, and I have begun reading that and I have gotten to seven inches on my sock. Would love to post pictures and I will if that becomes possible.

All is well with us in Croatia. Hope the same for you.

Croatia Post - Five

We left Dubrovnic early, but not as early as we had planned. Getting up was rough, especially knowing that we had a really long drive ahead. Turns out it was not 350 km; it was more like 280. Still, it took six hours (including breaks) and we (fortunately) traveled down the same stretch of road we’d been down on the way to Dubrovnic. I say fortunately because we’d seen these stands with these fruits and bottles and I knew that they would make nice pictures.



Some of the bottles were filled with liquors made from local fruits, Fred guessed, but some are obviously vinegar with herbs. They are lined up one after the other on this one part of the road. We bought some fruit from the same woman who let us take snaps of her stuff – it just seemed right.


I must say that my opinion of Sibenik was a bit tainted by our experience of arriving at the hotel. After six hours in the car, all I wanted to do was lay on the bed and sleep for fifteen minutes before walking around the city. Turns out that our room was not air-conditioned. It’s like being in an airless apartment in New York City (or Texas) with no air conditioning in the middle of the summer. (I don’t mean to whine, but we’re on vacation!) So I took a sweaty nap and then we walked around.

The highlight for me was this church which has all these heads on one side. I don’t know what the heads are about, but they’re all different. We got several nice shots, check back later for the link to the full spread in the side bar. You can probably click on the picture and see them better. They were all different and pretty amazing.


We walked to the top of a (nother) fortress, which was a pain because my sandals broke and I bought some flip-flops, which are not agreeing with my feet. (I think there is a whole different set of muscles used to operate flip-flops.) Still, the view was pretty great and they have a nice harbor. It’s a pretty boat friendly city.



Other than that, it’s sort of “just another city on the Mediterranean,” (okay, I was bitter about the air conditioning) with its little streets and steps going this way and that, and everything that is hundreds of years old and looks like a postcard. It’s a tiny bit difficult to navigate. There’s a church we couldn’t find this morning.


Still, it’s one of those places that has a million shutters to take pictures of with chipped paint and old walls. Taking nice pictures is easy – great light and tons of shadows.



We arrived in Zadar today, ate lunch and decided to sit on the beach this afternoon rather than exploring another city. We’ll do that tomorrow. We’re having a great time still. I’m sort of glad the touring part of the trip is almost over. I’m looking forward to sitting and knitting and reading. I’ve managed to knit two inches on a sock, but I’ve finished This Book Will Save Your Life (can’t wait for the movie) and I’m about half way through Stephanie Pearl-McPhee Casts Off. It’s so great to have someone with whom you travel well. Fred is great.

Croatia Post - Four

Dubrovnik is a beautiful city. It took us five (or six, depending on how you count) hours to get here. The coast of Croatia is pretty beautiful, see it if you get a chance. The highway is two lanes the whole way, traffic slowing to a crawl only a couple of times. We actually drove through Bosnia and Herzegovia yesterday and saw the turn off to Sarajevo, which was pretty cool - and apparently fairly recovered from the mess it was a while ago.


We walked to the center from our hotel last night and then again today. The main strip, just as you walk into town is sort of fake looking, like a Disney version of what Dubrovnik would look like. This is because it was destroyed and built back. It’s a little too clean looking, but the side streets are congested and messy enough to make the main strip not matter.


There are lots of churches, which are okay, but nothing that special. There are also lots of shops where you can buy art. A big thing here is Naïve painting. We almost bought one. I’ll have to read up on it when we return. We went to two monastaries today. Here's the garden of one.

One thing we did today, which was really tiring and beautiful, was walk the wall that is around the old city. Great views, lots of stairs, two kilometers around. I am glad Fred didn’t tell me that it was two kilometers until we were almost finished.


The city it very walky as there is only foot traffic in the old city. Throngs of people. This is an amazingly popular destination and there have even been some Americans, which always surprises me. We had two very nice meals today. It’s all about what you order.


For lunch it was salads and this evening it was pasta. Simple, difficult to screw up. Oh. And it was very hot today. We were drenched with sweat for the greater part of the day. Still having fun. Tomorrow we’re off to Sibenik – 350 kilometers. We’ll leave early.

Croatia Post - Three

Split is such a nice city, at night or during the day. Of course it’s completely crowded with tourists, but the little tiny streets and the zillions of shops make it fun.


What I found completely fascinating was the palace. It’s now a giant shopping and living area. There’s tons of stuff there from the Roman times, which is very nice. The streets are marble blocks smoothed from years of wear.


I love a city where there are people living and it looks like it. Split is very old and it shows. Every one uses shutters because the sun is amazingly hot. The nights are absolutely wonderful. Lots of people walking around in the warm sea breeze eating ice cream.


We walked to the beach, which was wonderful, although I don’t really enjoy lying in the sun until late in the day. Everyone was there from young men with tight bodies to old, fat ladies in bikinis. We forgot the camera, which is too bad as the beach was great, though low on snacks. We might make it back there during the last week.


The food hasn’t been great. They say you can’t get a really good meal in the center any more and after making it through a dry piece of fish last night, I can tell you that we didn’t have a great meal. However, we’re having a good time. And it’s very hot. Big drive tomorrow.

Croatia Post - Two

Yesterday we got to our second destination fairly early and went straight to Plitvice Lakes National Park. It is a very nice park, as you can see from the photos.


The water is amazingly blue and it’s very well kept up (read: no litter). The only problem was the overwhelming number of visitors. It would have been bearable if there were half the number of people and one-third the number of children. Plus, besides it being really beautiful, it was sort of nothing else. We opted for the three to four hour walk and ended up regretting it as we wanted more waterfalls and fabulous nature stuff, which was on the six to eight hour tour.

The calming blue waters were nothing on those children. Also, the walkway around the lakes is only about four feet wide, meaning that the New Yorker in me almost came unglued with the traffic pattern that wasn’t there. One day was enough.


We woke up really early this morning and departed for Split, where we will stay for all of tomorrow and then leave early for Dubrovnic. On our way, we passed by the fort of St. Savior in Knin, an old fortress built in the tenth century and used as recently as 1991.


It was really great. Much better than similar fortresses we’ve seen in Portugal. Well kept up, lots of tunnels and stairways.


We arrived in Split and I must say that I’m sort of enchanted. It’s very much like Venice in that the Center is only for walking traffic. Sort of a bitch to carry the luggage to the hotel, but that’s what wheeled luggage is for, eh?

Croatia Post - One

The pictures have nothing to do with the text.

"Croatia is experiencing a heatwave," said the waiter. "We don't know what to do."

It's really hot, but nothing we can't handle. It's hovering around 37 celcius. I don't know what that means in fehrenheit. We left the hotel at 11:00 this morning, and returned at 9:00. We're both pooped. Zagreb is fine for a day, but neither of us are overwhelmingly enchanted. We've had some nice meals and seen some interesting stuff. Our hotel is a good 20 minute walk from the Center, which means we walk a lot. Public transportation? Not Fred.


My legs feel like they did after a long weekend in Edinbrough. I never walk this much, and certainly not with the hills and stairs. Walked forever today to get to "one of the most beautiful cemetaries in Europe." It was real nice. Here are a few snaps from yesterday after we arrived.


We leave tomorrow for some national park that starts with a P. More on that later.


More news as it happens, as my friends Trudy and Lisa are fond of saying.

And We're Off...

Fred and I had a map mounted and framed so that we could keep track of where we've been and where we want to go. I'm green, he's orange and places we've been together (which trump either single color) are red. The places we are planning on going - or want to make plans to go - are white. That's Croatia in the middle.

Of course the most pins are in Europe with a smattering of orange pins in Asia and South Africa. I didn't want to cover the USA with green pins, so I put a few representative pins here and there. The map is hanging in the kitchen in a space we've been trying to fill for years. It's a great idea - if you travel. Sort of puts things in perspective.

So we're off tomorrow. By this time tomorrow I'll be driving in Croatia. Not far. We have a couple of days in Zagreb and then we drive all the way down the coast to Dubrovnik. How exotic does "Dubrovnik" sound? Very. We're spending six days just outside of Split, which is in the middle. Hoping to get some beach time and then nap and get some more beach time. I've said it before, but I'll say it again (in case you worry), my preference is to sit under an umbrella having slathered my self with 30 SPF sunblock in the room - giving it 30 minutes like the bottle says to do. I try to get as little sun as possible and I always come back with a healthy tan from just being out in the sun.

To contrast me, Fred lays in the sun for a while and then asks me to rub a little 4 SPF into his back. His tan is generally darker, but I'm not competitive in that way.

I hope to be posting from the road. (What will I do if there's no Internet connection along the way?) So you may be getting some updates if you check in regularly. So check in regularly!