Can you believe it is July 1st already???

On Friday, we were picked up at 7:30 am for another field trip; this time we were on a four hour van drive to a city called Split which is the second largest city in Croatia after the capital, Zagreb. I was so tired that I slept for the first two hours in the van. I woke up just before the border check at Bosnia/Herzegovina. It was a lot more risky than when we went to Medjugorje because two of our kids are international students and their visas did not allow them to leave Croatia. We all held our breaths, hoping the guards would just wave us thru and not check out passports. We all were relieved when they didn't stop us.

Our student coordinator Zoran had made a "funny" joke saying if we were stopped, all the non-American and non-Canadian students should run for the bushes because the Bosnians would probably shoot them in the back. Ha ha. Weird sense of humor over here sometimes.

Anyhow, we finally arrived at Split and went to Diocletian's palace. He was a Roman governor and the building is still in pretty good shape. The lower level is full of gift shops! It is so strange to see counters full of souvenirs lined up along walls that are centuries old. That is the first picture, the kind of dark one. The girl in the orange shirt is our student Jackie.

The big statue in the picture is a Bishop: Gregory of Nin (Annette googled him). He introduced the Croatian language into religious services. The Croatian language nearly died out several times, but was recaptured before it became extinct. People rub the toe of the statue for good luck. Even though we are already the luckiest people in the world to be here, we rubbed anyways.

We all had free time to shop or eat lunch. Annette and I found a cool (temperature-wise) restaurant and had salads. Hers was good, mine not so much. Very vinegar-y. I soothed myself with a gelato (ice cream); coconut with chocolate chips! Yum. We shopped a little and bought coral necklaces. Annette had better keep an eye on hers or it will be going home in my suitcase. We keep checking to make sure stuff is made in Croatia, not China.

We stopped at a nice park for a rest stop on the way home. The kids were climbing the trees and Jackie surprised everyone by showing off her cheerleading/gymnastic skills; back handsprings and cartwheels. Everyone was very impressed.

In the van on the way home, Luisa and Tania started singing, so Annette and I responded by singing, too. We were surprised that no one requested an encore from us! It was really fun and we all laughed and talked and sang. Then everyone got quiet as it got darker. It had been a long day.

It was late when we got home, with lots of thunder and lightning, but no rain. We haven't had any rain since the first weekend we were here except for one five minute shower.

Saturday we just loafed around and went out for lunch. Sunday Annette came to the office and did some shopping; I stayed home and read and did laundry.

Monday was Culture class at 11:00 and Zoran lectured on Croatian music. He started with the traditional folk singing called klapa and then the introduction of rock and something called turbo-folk. He showed us a lot of video clips and the concerts looked and sounded like what we are used to in America. Since I never understand the lyrics (are they even called lyrics anymore?), it didn't matter that it was in Croatian.

Our Environmental Science class met for the first time in a week. Our professor was in Budapest at a conference all last week. He challenged the class to start brainstorming; their assignment is to think of an ecological disaster waiting to happen and then brainstorm solutions, no matter how crazy. His example was washing machines and how much water they use, how much power they consume, and then what do you do with it when it breaks? Tania kind of timidly suggested stainproof clothing as a solution and the professor was delighted! He had recently purchased a pair of pants made of fabric treated with a substance derived from the lotus plant. It sounds almost like Teflon. Annette and I love to caption this class because it is so interesting! Full of gloom and doom about the future, but interesting.

At 5:30, we met Professor Kate at the fountain in the old town to walk the walls. There is a huge wall around the entire area that was built in the 1400s to protect the city from invasion. It was a long hot walk, but the views were breathtaking. That shot of the red tiled roofs is so indicative of the brilliant colors and sites that we have become familiar with. Annette, God bless her, took along a spiral notebook and took notes for Jackie through the whole trip.

Finally, after a long day, Annette and I had a fashionably late supper at one of our former favorite cafes. We scratched them off our list when they served us a basket of stale bread one evening. Last night, everything was perfect. We had delicious cool chicken salads and ice water. After we paid our bill and were walking away, I looked down and saw a 20 Kuna bill on the street. I snatched it up and bought us each a gelato to eat on the way home. We have almost gotten to the point where we can make it up one flight of these horrendous stairs without stopping. Having a gelato in your stomach doesn't make the trip any easier.

That is it for today. Keep safe, keep cool, and we will see you soon.

touring the islands

Professor Kate giving us island background

Thursday, with very little time to recover from our Italian adventures, we boarded a boat in Old Town harbor to tour a few local islands of Dubrovnik. The first island was Lokrum, the one we can see from our balcony. It is just south of the Old Town and we had been told it is inhabited by only one family, the caretakers of the island. Little did we know, from looking at this piece of land every day, the wonders and delights it held.
The island is deceiving. The southern part actually splits open and that is where the boat docked so we could get off. There are many remains of Roman ruins there and a fortress (Fort Royal) at the top of the island, built by Napoleon's army. Many people come here to go swimming and sunbathing. There is also a beautiful botanical garden with over 200 varieties of plants and trees; eucalyptus, cactus, palm trees. If you close your eyes, you can almost hear a voice-over saying, "Welcome to Jurassic Park". We wandered a bit more and came to a park area where we encountered one of the island's inhabitants; a peacock. After much patience, squawking and various methods of coaxing, we were able to get the feathered critter to show us his wares. Gorgeous!

Our next stop was a small island, with a restaurant as the only establishment. The owner had prepared a wonderful barbeque for us of sardines, mackerel, squid and sausages. Not your typical American picnic fare, but it was delicious. There were grilled vegetables, potatoes and cabbage, coleslaw salad. We enjoyed a leisurely meal before we headed onto Cavtat.

Cavtat (Sah-v-tat) was our last stop; here we visited the gallery of one of Croatia's most famous painters, Vlaho Bukovac. The gallery was actually once his home and he had painted murals on many of the walls. We also visited one of the churches on the island, again, impressed and in awe of the beautiful artwork and architecture.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vlaho_Bukovac

Stay tuned for our next installment, the trip to Split, the second largest city in Croatia... until then... Adio!

a & c

0628 Italy

Hi - no photos today. I left my USB cable back at the apartment and it isn't like I can just dash back there to get it. I will make up for it next time.

Well - Italy! Annette and I caught the bus to the port, Gruz (groozsh) around 8:00 pm on Tuesday night and arrived in plenty of time to sit and wait. The ferry boat was HUGE like a cruise ship. We went thru passport checks and entered the ship thru the huge lower door where the cars and trucks drive thru to park for the voyage. We went up to the reception desk and it was just like a cruise ship, except not as fancy. There were restaurants and a duty free shop.

Some of the tickets they sell are deck tickets: these were people who only pay for the ride over and sleep on blankets in the hallways and common areas. There were a lot of backpackers and families with little children. One little child was even sitting on a potty chair as we passed.

We got our cabin key and were please to find a nice clean cabin with bunk beds and a little half bath. The beds were comfortable and we were asleep before the ship even left port.

We awoke to a beautiful day and a nice buffet breakfast in one of the restaurants. We disembarked around 8:00 and had no clue where to go or what to do. We just expect that Italy would be laid out at our feet; we were shocked to find ourselves in an industrial port area with no tourist information booths or anything. Most of the people knew where they were going and soon we were the only people there. We headed out in one direction for a half mile or so, but it was still highway and warehousing and a wrought iron picket fence thru which we could see the city, but not get to it.

We headed back towards the pier and bought a map, but it was in Italian and we couldn't figure out what to do. Nobody could speak English! We found one woman at a desk who looked at us as if we were crazy and told us to go out and to the left. We found a gate and entered the city, finally. Of course, it was a million degrees and sunny, just like in Croatia.

The buildings were all very old and we found ourselves wandering thru peoples back yards. They were hanging out their wash and looking at us suspiciously. We just kept going and I was about ready to scream, because being lost just FREAKS ME OUT! Just as I was about to go into hysterics, we turned a corner and we were on a lovely modern downtown street, lots of shade trees and sidewalk cafes. Whew! We sat down and had a leisurely cappuccino and I relaxed. Thank goodness for Annette.

We strolled down the street which was lined with very high end stores like Armani and Louis Vuitton. We went thru a nice park and I asked a police man where we could find tourist information. He looked at me and shrugged, not understanding. I said "Turista informazione?" and he pointed down the street and said "Terminal."

We kept going in that direction and found a big bus terminal with a little information booth. They had maps sponsored by McDonald's and it was great. There was a McDonald's at the terminal and we used that as our point of reference for the rest of the day. Also to buy cold soda with ice which is very difficult to find in Dubrovnik.

We headed for Bari s (there is supposed to be an apostrophe in there) old town which looked really interesting. When we had walked around the whole thing, we finally found the entrance. We went in and the guy says "Old town closed today. Come back tomorrow." They were doing a lot of renovation - just our luck.

So back we go to the shops. We each found Italian leather sandals that actually say "Made in Italy" for a pretty good price. We saw the same shoes in another store for 5 Euros more, so we felt good about that.

We had such a weird thing happen to us. When we had gotten that first cappuccino after finding the main street, there was a "little person" talking to the owner. He was very distinctive looking with a mullet and a basketball uniform and high top sneakers. Anyhow, later in the afternoon, we were sitting exhausted on a bench near the shops and up comes this same little person. He shoves a cup with a coin in it at us and asks us something. We said "no". He says "No??" and we said no again. He stomped away in his little sneakers and said a very rude phrase to us in perfect English! We just gaped at each other and then started to laugh.

We were able to find a place to eat lunch where they seemed to understand us. Annette had a chicken sandwich and I just pointed to one in the case and it turned out to be ham and mushroom and mayonnaise. Never had that before, but it was very tasty.

However, at supper time - every place to eat was closed! That is because our supper time, 6:00, isn't Italian supper time. The restaurants don't open until 8:00. That is when we had to be back to check in at the ferry. We found a kind of a crummy place near the old area we had walked thru earlier and had a mediocre supper. I couldn't even finish my risotto, but Annette said her pasta was good. The waitress warned us to keep our bags in our laps so nobody would steal them. Not a comfortable way to eat.

We found our way back to the ferry, thanks to Annette. She has a great sense of direction. We checked in after waiting forever in huge crowd of people. We knew that we had booked the last cabin available because of the holiday, but we didn't know that we were down in the absolute lowest level of the boat. The hostess wouldn't even show us to our cabin. She stood at the top of the stairs and pointed and said "You are down there........................"

We unlocked the door and gasped. The room was about six feet wide with narrow bunk beds and teeny pillows. We just fit into the beds. We had a wash basin only - no toilet. That was down the hall. The sound of the engine was very very loud, but at least it had a nice rhythm. We managed to sleep a bit, although we did hear an alarm and a hissing noise. Annette thought maybe the room was going to fill with water; I was convinced that the engine fumes were going to kill us while we slept.

But - we survived and had another nice breakfast before the ship docked at Dubrovnik. We were so glad to be home. It isn't our "home" home, of course, but after three weeks it has become so familiar to us that we felt so happy to have returned.

Unfortunately, we had to take the bus home, shower and dress and be back down to the harbor for a field trip. But that story is for another day.

Hope you all are enjoying your summer. It can not possibly be as hot as it is here. We had a lot of lightning and a little thunder and two seconds of rain last night, but that was it and today is blazing hot again.

Take care and stay tuned for the next chapter of "Cathy and Annette Do Dubrovnik!"

Tuesday 0624...just another ordinary day...in CROATIA!!

Good morning, everyone! Yesterday was one of those days that was pretty much same old, same old.

We woke up, showered, ate breakfast and all left at different times. I am so proud that I don't get lost when they leave me to walk to work alone. It is still very hot and the air conditioning feels so good when we get to ACMT.

We had lunch at Fuego, one of our favorite places. I had my usual vegetarian risotto which is so delicious that I could eat it every day...and pretty much do! "Annette the Adventurous" ordered the seafood sandwich which listed octopus and anchovies or other various oddities of the sea that shouldn't be in a sandwich. It was displayed very nicely on her plate and she kept making little sounds of enjoyment as she ate it. Kudos to Annette - she should get her own show on the Discovery Channel.

Our art class yesterday was interesting. The professor had told the students that she was just going to hit the highlights of the different eras in art; prehistoric, Stone Age...all the way up to the present. Yesterday, she began class by questioning them in detail on characteristics of each period and asking them to name various artists. She would call on them by name to explain something and they all got that deer-in-the-headlights look! She got angry and said she was very disappointed in their responses. I felt bad for them.

We ate supper at an Italian restaurant called Maestoso. I had pasta carbonara which was excellent and Annette had vegetarian risotto!! Guess she was still recovering from her scary lunch.

I had to laugh because two little Asian tourist ladies came in to the restaurant and I thought "How will they ever be able to order?" They looked at the menu and ordered their meals in fluent Italian from the Italian waitress. Talk about stereotyping! I was ashamed of myself.

Today we will be having a short meeting to talk about our field trip to Split on Friday. Split is the second largest city in Croatia after Zagreb and there are many interesting sites. Zoran wants us to see it so we wont think that all of Croatia is quaint like Dubrovnik.

Wow - Italy tonight thru Thursday, field trip to the island on Thursday, Split on Friday. Whew! We are really on the go all the time. It is great and we are loving it!

The musicians were playing as we went to church on Sunday. The gargoyle picture doesn't really do it justice. It was much more impressive in person.

We wont be blogging again until we get some time, so stay tuned!

Love from A and C

our second weekend in Croatia

After our adventurous (read "tiring") hike through Mljet National Park Friday, we decided to be a little more low key on Saturday. A leisurely breakfast than another pilgrimmage to Tommy grocery store. We walked through Old Town on our hour-long trek; I never tire of walking down the Stradun, although we are developing a little bit of a 'tude... the first few days in Dubrovnik, it was just a "huh" kind of look as tourists pushed past us, oblivious to the "natives". Then they became "those tourists"... and now they're "damn tourists" (said with a sneer and look of disdain). This week I'm sure we'll start swearing at them in Croatian.. and we're told in August, when the Italians vacation, it's even worse. Thank goodness we'll be gone by there, or we might be responsible for an international incident... lol.

Anyway, after our purchases of cheese and yogurt and fruit (how very European), we hit the bread counter and bought a loaf of bread, still warm from the oven.. and a cheese pastry that was thin layers of dough and about 12" long. It wasn't sweet and I told Cathy as we ate it on the grocery store steps that it would have been awesome dipping it into pasta sauce.. yum.

We took a cab home and hung out at the apartment until we decided to go back into Old Town and stop at the college to check mail. We got through Ploce gate and as we started down the Stradun, we stopped in our tracks. Cathy and I looked over at some of the tourists at one of the outdoor cafes. They were signing.. two women were at a table signing to another woman walking down the Stradun, telling her they were deaf, asking her to join them. Cathy and I were amazed; we don't know what nationality the ladies were, but WE understood them. As I looked around, I saw a few other people having their picture taken, gesturing to their photographer friend to take the picture portrait length, not landscape. It felt like a touch of home, to be somewhere where we understood very little of the native language but saw people signing to each other and knew what they were 'saying'.

Pictures: The drummer and guards.. they march through Old Town to the Pile and Ploce gates each evening at 7:30

A minstrel who plays near Pile gate... that red thing on his foot is his tambourine which he uses to keep time with the music by stomping his foot up and down.

Sunday morning Cathy and I took momentary leave of our senses and planned out an ambitious day. We would go down to the beach in the morning for a swim in the Adriatic. Then we would attend the noon service at Saint Blais' and that evening we had been invited to the Dean's home for dinner. We knew that involved at least three trips down all those stairs and at least two trips back up, but we were buoyed by how well we had done on the stairs the day before; obviously one of the benefits of our trek around Mljet.

What we failed to consider in this equation was that after swimming in the sea for an hour, we would be tired. And we had 400+ steps to climb to get to the apartment, shower, and descend into Old Town again... in the hottest part of the day... and after church, we would face those same steps again... in STILL the hottest part of the day. Any sense of Saturday's accomplishment that we had ascended Harold and Kumar steps without taking a break and had climbed upper hell with only TWO rest stops... and then walked from the road all the way up the apartment without a break, vaporized. We're not twenty-something young chickies... I can tell you right now, even with all this exercise, I do NOT expect the producers of "Buns of Steel" or "Thighs of Iron" to be calling me to record their next video. ("Buns of Tapioca", maybe... "Thighs of Cottage Cheese", absolutely!).

We vowed not to plan this much ever again. I know during the church service, not understanding a word of Croatian, we were praying we'd just make the second trip up the hill without heat stroke or twisted ankles :)

Dinner at Dean Don Hudspeth's home was a delightful event. It was the Dean, Vincent, Cathy and me. He had a special room, built away from the house, where he barbequed veal chops and sausages. We had potatoes baked with fresh rosemary and onions and grilled vegetables, eggplant, zucchini, mushrooms and peppers. His mother-in-law, who lives just down the road, had made a dessert, a custard with carmel syrup... baked with eggs fresh from the chickens penned in the Don's yard. There were tangerine, pomegranate and olive trees; grapevines and artichoke plants; chickens and kittens and bats, oh my! I said all Don needed was a cow for milk and he'd never need to visit a grocery store.

His home was at the base of mountains; on one side, if you went over the mountain, you'd be in Bosnia. There were actually mortar rounds discharged from the top of that mountain and Don showed us where the house and walkway had been hit. It is very humbling to think that a little over fifteen years ago there was a war going on here.

His wife's family is from Croatia, while he himself is a Candian. During dinner he explained the variations in languages in Croatia and Serbia and Slovenia, and the histories and attitudes of people in the different regions. As with Professor Stasa, Don told us how families are so tight-knit in this part of the world. It's not just immediate families, but mothers and fathers, sisters and brothers that many times gather for a meal, everyone sharing the cooking and cleaning and entertaining. Kids spend time on the computer playing games, but they also wander down to the river and congregate with their friends for hours of fun. Over and over we've heard of the strong sense of community and the unhurried pace here, something lacking in the States.

Well, I suppose I should get some work done. This week is going to be a busy one... Cathy and I leave for Italy tomorrow evening, as Wednesday is a holiday here. Tentatively, there are two class field trips planned for Thursday and Friday, so we jump off the boat from Bari Thursday morning and hop on another a few hours later. What was that again about us not being young chicks...? I can't remember... I'm too busy soaking up the culture and surroundings... I'll have time to sleep on the plane on the way home :)

mir... annette

Friday 0620 - are they trying to KILL US???

Who knew when they told us we should wear sturdy shoes that they wanted us to actually tromp up a mountain???

Annette and Vincent and I left the house by 7:30 on Friday to get to the pier at Gruz by 8:15. Annette and I taxied; Vincent bravely took the bus. He LOVES public transportation. We arrived at almost the same time and were the first ones there. Soon the students started showing up, then Zoran and the art professor, Kate (KA-teh) Bagoje (I haven't mastered that yet. Luckily, she wants us to call her Kate like in America). Like every other event in Croatia, we all had a coffee first while we waited for the ticket office to open. Zoran had told the kids to be there at8:15 for a 9:15 arrival because they are habitually late. Naturally, they were all early yesterday.

The boat was the hydrofoil in the picture - very sleek and very fast. The photo inside shows that it was like being on an airplane. Annette took dramamine just in case; our student Jackie took one also, but it was not too rough a ride.

When we arrived at the national park on Mljet(Myet), Stasha, the environmental science professor, was at the dock to meet us. He led us up a little hill to some ruins and gave us a brief history of the site. I am thinking to myself "This will be so interesting. What a lovely day." I was still laboring under this misconception when he led us up another hill - the one in the photo with the red roofs. Still thinking "...how beautiful! Good thing Annette and I climb all those steps every day or we would really be hurting!"

It gets hotter and steeper and hotter and steeper and narrower and narrower and stonier and slipperier. The path winds up a #$%&/ mountainside, thru fallen trees and brush ("Be careful! Watch out so the branch doesn't whip you in the face!!")

It never seemed to end. Soon Annette and I were trailing behind and I was at the tail end. We, but mostly me, were getting tired and I started thinking "We can not let ourselves get hurt or we will not be able to work!" I know, lame excuse. I sat down on a rock and waited and soon some of the others trickled back down. There were six or seven of us who went down to where it was a bit flatter and chatted.

After ten or fifteen minutes, the main group came down and we all trooped down to the pier again where another little boat waited to take us to lunch on another island, Ovet Santa Maria. We ate at a beautiful cafe, under a rush canopy. Stasha had arranged for a special meal consisting of foods that the locals only serve at weddings or celebrations. We had a delicious soup with homemade, handcut noodles, a cabbage slaw and a pasta dish with little pieces of beef. For dessert, we had "Croatian apple pie" which was like a coffee cake. All delicious.

Stasha taught us that instead of saying "Hvala" or "Thank you" after a great meal, we say what sounds like "Old Leech Naw" which means something like "I was not feeling so great when I came, but after eating this my mood has really lifted!" We all tried it out and the waiters seemed pleased with our efforts.

After lunch, we all swam in the beautiful cool blue water. It is so salty that everyone except Gene was buoyant. He kept saying "How can you just float like that when I keep sinking!" We all had a fun time. Jackie took her hearing aids out to swim and the kids were so kind and made sure that she was looking at them when they spoke.

Jackie told me on the boat that she is so glad she stayed. It was a great life lesson for her to work thru her homesickness. She seems so relaxed and happy and enjoyed yesterday just as much as everyone else. Whew!

We all conked out on the way home. I slept for half an hour and then loud music blared to let everyone know that we had reached another stop on the island where people wanted to disembark. Annette went up to the top deck with some of the kids and shortly after, Jackie came down and insisted that I go up top to see how great it was. It was windy and sunny and gorgeous and I stayed until the ship came in to port.

The kids left to get ready to go out and party because Croatia played Turkey in soccer (football). Annette and Vincent and I all took the bus home. I posted a photo of the decal that was on the window of the bus. I since I didn't have a dog, I wasn't carrying an ice cream cone, and I sure didn't look like the chick in the bathing suit, it was OK for me to ride.

The bus dropped us at the Bikers Cafe near Upper Hell. Annette looked for her favorite biker that reminds her of Antonio Banderas, but he wasn't there. Darn. So, we trudged up the steps, up our street, up the 58 step front porch and crashed. Well, Annette and I crashed. Mr. Vincent got tidied up and went out to rub elbows with the locals and watch the game...which Croatia lost in double overtime. No fireworks, no sirens. Sigh.

All for now. We miss you and we are still having a wonderful time. The three of us are becoming a little family. I bought an ibrik which is a Turkish coffee maker. Look it up on Google. I bet some of you have family that make their coffee that way. I had brought a pound of Finger Lakes Coffee Roasters "Jamaica Me Nuts" coffee and I tried it today. It was very good and when I offered Vincent and Annette a sip, they all drank out of my cup. That is what I mean about being a little family. It is a comfort to have such great friends when you are so far away from home.

Annette will post our next adventures. I hope I didn't ramble on too long. Love to you all - CathyB

just another day...

Cathy and I realized on the balcony last night that we had nothing truly remarkable happen to us yesterday. We got up, ate our breakfasts, left for work individually, attended/captioned the Culture class given by Zoran, went out for lunch on the Stradun (pictured at here - see how worn the stones are?) in Old Town, captioned Art History, left work and headed to Fuego for dinner... yeah, nothing extraordinary except we're... in... Croatia!!!







But seriously, we keep saying over and over what a blessing and privilege it is to be here, not that we would take any of this for granted. There are no specific plans for today, other than the usual classes and meals and walk through a 600AD old town... but tomorrow we head to Mljet National Park (about an hour and a half northwest along the coast... and yes, I have dramamine and sunscreen) and Sunday Cathy, Vincent and myself have been invited to the Dean's house for dinner, so I'm sure we'll have more to write about early next week.


Last night Cathy and I did have a guest for dinner at Fuego. Sadly, I don't think it was our clever wit, sparkling personalities or newly acquired European ways that attracted this third diner. It was the scraps from my seafood pasta that were of most interest to him. Nicki, you'll be pleased to know we're doing our part to nourish the kitty population, one feline at a time. This little guy loved the squid and had the very best manners!


I do have a success to report, as well. I finally was able to download my camera and I have attached a few pics for your viewing pleasure.


Again, we realize what an amazing opportunity this is to be here, to do what we love to do in an environment that holds new adventures each day. A gal can't get any luckier than that.



Harold and Kumar, or the lower wide steps.



















ugly broccoli tree :)






The view at the bottom of H&K, and the gate of Ploce (plaw-chick) into Old Town.