Singing Dalmatians on my b day

Sorry, no photos, we haven't been able to upload our photos off the camera. (photos added on Oct 7th) But, I will help you imagine what it looks like here in Hvar. The sea is blue, very very clear, and warm. The town wraps around a harbor and up the hills. There are no cars allowed on most of the streets around the harbor so except for the sounds of the cafes and clubs after dark it is a lovely quiet town. It is a more upscale vacation town then anywhere else we've been in Croatia. Yachts are moored along the waterfront and fancy cafes and bars with new minimalist decor keep watch. It won't be long before P. Diddy is mooring his yacht here.



On on first night in town we saw a poster for a concert, the top vocal group on the Dalmation Coast was performing in the 17th century monastery cloister. I know, visions of singing dalmatian dogs danced in my mind too, but it was a group of three tenors, two baritones, and three bass singers, all male. Two of the bass singers had the deepest bass voices I'd ever heard. They sang unaccompanied for the first half, then with only a guitar. All Dalmatian folk songs.



It was dark and the monastery was lit up, underlighting the bats which flew overhead. The songs were wonderful, even without understanding any of the words we enjoyed them. The group is called a Klappa, we means they are a group of friends who sing for fun together. As one of the bass singers translated for the audience, it is all about wine, friends, and singing. They do it not because they are professionals, but because they love it. I teased Rich on the walk over that they were most likely the Tom Jones of the Dalmatian Coast, the darlings of the Croatian housewives, who would scream and throw panties on the stage. Any panty chucking and I'm out of here, Rich said.

No panties were thrown, the concert was great, and we have spent the rest of our time walking around and swimming. We are staying up the hill a bit in a room with a terrace and a view of the harbor and the islands. Today we catch the ferry to Split.

Catch up to Croatia

We are now in Croatia, on the Island of Korčula.



We went from Montenegro to Dubrovnik (photo above) on the bus, stayed in a nice little apartment close to the beach in the Lapa neighborhood, which was a short bus ride from the old city of Dubrovnik. The rain finally let up our second day in Dubrovnik (we resisted buying an umbrella) and we got to walk the city walls in sunshine and without crowds. We discovered that as long as you get where you want to be before about 9:30 the hoards of bus tourists will not be there yet. The walls around the old city are 2 km long and six meters thick on parts of the land side. We visited the musuem where I was, frankly, disappointed by the dungeon. It is called the dragon dungeon, and was a real active dungeon. I turned to Rich and said, it's not very cold in here. I always thought dungeons were really cold, and damp. It's not very damp either. So, Rich said, you're saying that the dungeon is a disappointment.

Here in Croatia the monetary unit is the Kuna. The exchange rate is about 6 kuna to the dollar. Knowing my off the cuff math skills as most of you probably do, you can imagine how much fun I am having trying to calculate things into dollars. For example, we walked down to the beach from our apartment and decided to sit for a while. You can rent beach chairs and umbrellas which are controlled by the various cafes. Our two beach chairs cost 20 Kuna, which my brain registers as a lot of money. Yeah, not really.

Here's a photo for the cat people, cats in Split.

Mostar club maddness

So Rich and I? We like stayed out until like 2? And then we like, were so late for the bus? We had to run, and we're so hung over ...



Ok, that wasn't us, but it seemed to have happened to some kids who were on our bus from Mostar to Dubrovnik. And I have embellished, they were British, not valley girls. Rich and I stayed out until a whopping 9:30 on our second night in Mostar. How quickly a routine develops. We scope out the town on our first evening, Rich agonizes over which resturant to eat at, while I keep saying "oh, this looks good, let's eat here!" Rich then comes up with one of his many reasons why that resturant is surely inferior to ten other resturants that may be around the corner and are vastly better. I teased him that there is one big kitchen under Mostar with pnuematic tubes delivering the food (I think that was in an Augustine Burroughs book, referring to Chinese food in NYC, and our friend Naomi claims it about the Indian resturants on a street in NYC, minus the pnuematic tubes.)

Rich has resturant radar. I don't. I wanted the one that had the cutest stray cats slinking around the tables. Or the one that is closest to where I am standing. So, we circle and circle and circle, and end up going back to the second one we saw. It's kind of like what happened on family camping trips when I was young. Dad would drop off a child at each possible campsite as he drove through the campground, to save the spot. You'd sit on the picnic table and wait, and wait, and wait. Eventually the station wagon or Chevy Surburban would come back and we'd set up camp, or a sibling would come back to fetch you. But, every campsite must be viewed and judged compared to the other sites. Wait a minute, Rich does that too.

As much as I tease him, Rich does have good resturant radar. He usually settles on a good one, and Mostar was no exception. Veal Kabobs while sitting on a terrace above a creek burbling down to the river, a swirling symphony of bats wheeling overhead. Perfection.

Mostar is quickly becoming a tourist destination/Disney-fied version of itself. The rebuilt bridge has launched a slew of new resturants and clubs. Bus loads of tourists arrive morning noon and evening, but most leave before nightfall, leaving the town a little emptier. New clubs and bars opening up. All in all, a fascinating place and well worth a visit.

The day of religion.

On our last full day in Sarajevo we went to the Greek Othodox Church and Musuem, the Jewish Museum, and the Muslim Mosque. You have to be pretty proactive when attempting to find and visit the various musuems, signage is not good, and then figuring out where you buy tickets is not easy.



The Mosque is beautiful. As long as you are modestly dressed, and remove your shoes, and for women have a headscarf, you can walk around and look at the amazing detail. The Mosque suffered about 100 direct hits during the siege but the walls are 3 meters thick so it was damaged but not destroyed.

The food has been great. Yesterday was lunch at Sarajevo's brewery, and dinner was at a little resturant in the old quarter. The range of our meal costs have been about $37 for a nice dinner with wine, appetizers, entree, and after dinner drink, to last night and our $10 dinner for a huge plate of grilled lamp in pita with onions and mineral water. Followed by ice cream, which is hugely popular and costs .50 KM, which is about 35 cents. So, Rich is not having withdrawls from my home made ice cream. At 35 cents he can eat all he wants. Sometimes it a bit of mystery if you choose a flavor you don't recogize.

We are packing to leave for Mostar today, so more when we find another internet connection. And one more photo, of Rich with a map!

The Hills of Sarajevo

As Rich tells me, we have uphill and we have downhill, and on some walks we are all out of down. But, in Sarajevo, our hotel is not very far up the hill, so when we walk up, we must come down. It is a city of hills and a river valley.



We arrived at the Sarajevo airport on Monday Sept 11th. To see the war scars on the buildings near the airport, and on many other buildings in the City, is a grim reminder of what Sarajevo went through, and what other cities and towns are going through in the Middle East because of my country and our mis guided war on an abstract notion.



There is a long pedestrian street which is crowded with shoppers and strollers. It starts in the old town with narrow streets and cobblestones. Young muslim women wearing headscarves and modest clothing also wear make up and carry handbags. The young muslim men blend right in with everyone else. Yesterday evening we heard the evening call to prayers broadcast over a loudspeaker from a mosque, and then as we were walking by the mosque we saw teenage boys running, late for prayers, pulling off their shoes at the entrance and getting inside as fast as they could. On the old street shoppers walked eating ice cream cones. It is an amazing City.

Haute Savior

That's France to you and me.



We are with our good friends Hannah and Erik, and their two boys Finn and Frank in the Vallee Verte. It has been wonderful to see them all again, it's been about five years since we've seen them all, they were in Norway the last time. New country, new language.

Great cycling, easy trip over. Cyclists, fly Luftansa. So simple with the bikes.

One more photo and a promise of more later. This is everything that went with us. Oh, and Rich as well.

Dancing

Dancing together for 9 years.


Dancing together for 50 years.



That's my Mom and Dad, Happy Anniversary.

We leave tonight for Geneva, as excited as I am it's difficult to realize I won't see my family and friends for 10 months. We will miss so much in their lives; happiness, sadness, babies arriving and kids growing up. I know it's only a year, less really, but for such a homebody like me, it's a lot.

The next post will be from an internet cafe somewhere in France.