Days 26 and 27 New Comrades

Italy/Croatia 2010

Days 26 and 27

"New Comrades"

Ready, Aim, Fire! This picture, taken from the south wall of old Dubrovnik, shows one of several cruise ships that arrive and release thousands and thousands of visitors for the day onto this small port city. This and other cruise ship destinations can be overrun, something we’ve tried in our journeys to avoid. It’s hard on the locals and locations they visit, something we’ve been told (unsolicited information) from the locals.

On our last day in Dubrovnik, we took a ferry to Kolocep Island, one of the nearby Elafiti Islands.

We decided to kick back and enjoy the beach for the day. The weather was great, and the water was perfect – clean and the right temperature.

The next day was moving day. Driving from the far south to the far north of Croatia isn’t common, but there are no trains as in Italy. Taking a plane to the northern city of Zagreb, which isn’t real close to where we were going, would still take time and money.

Getting a car at the last minute proved difficult. We’ve been learning over the days we’ve spent here that the Croatians are very friendly, helpful, and funny.

The car was reserved over the phone without any of the usual data collection. They showed up on time with the car and gave us five times the usual help we get at rental car dealers.

We weren’t sure if we could live with the little Opel he delivered, mostly due to our suitcases and backpacks. Rather than wonder, he loaded the car and showed us it would work. Here’s our man Tony after successfully loading the tiny back area.

We started the day without the benefit of caffeine and food, but an hour later we stopped at a local place along the road for breakfast.

Only a couple of hours later, when we’d almost reached the freeway (and Shari and Jan couldn’t take being in the tiny back seat any longer along the winding roads), we stopped for espresso, cappuccino, and cookies. The food looked so delicious that we started thinking we would really like to order our lunch. The “voice of reason” (not Jan, Dan, or Roberto) said we really needed to get going because we had a very long drive ahead of us, but this voice did not prevail. We ordered lunch. Christian, our waiter, was very funny, especially with his impersonations. He kept us laughing far longer than we had planned, and the food was great. We then had to make up lots of time in a small and heavily loaded Opel.

When we finally got to Rovinj (the ‘j’ is silent), it was after the 7 pm check-in time.

The instructions to find the rooms in the old town of the small city were pathetic, and of course we had no cell phones. There were many confusing moments to find the place, and it took almost two hours to finally move in! That said, we love this place. More on this in the next blog.

We did finish the day with a great meal. We are on the Adriatic, and the fishermen bring in a fresh catch daily, and you eat the morning’s catch. Three of us ate the fresh catch with the help of our waiter. None of the three fish-eaters wanted to remove the bones, etc., even the smiling lady shown here: