Catch up Time
Wednesday, September 8th, 2010Profuse apologies to everyone! I am sorry, from the bottom of my heart that I went a whole big fat month without blogging. I will try to catch up now, and hopefully you’ll forgive me. I’ve been a little distracted, ya know…
So, now we are in Scotland. In a little town called Inverness. But I’m getting ahead of myself.
My last post was from Korcula, I think. After that we went to Mljet, which is a perfect little Croatian island, half of which is a national park. There we met our new friends – the Mrkonjic family. We initially planned to stay on Mljet for 2 days, but after we met them, we just didn’t want to leave! They own the soba we stayed in, so if you ever need a place to stay on Mljet, stay with them. House #11. They’ll treat you like family!
We went to Dubrovnik with Ljiljana (the mom) and the two daughters, Zrinka (16) and Lucija (13).
Ljiljana and I - the moms
Zrinka, left, and Lucija, peeking out from a Dubrovnik wall tower
Dubrovnik is a really beautiful city, it’s hard to believe it was bombed less than 20 years ago. The locals are very proud of their home, and of their culture. If you’re ever in the area, I highly recommend you drop by. Oh, and eat at Nishta, the vegetarian restaurant. I tried to, twice, but they were closed. So stop by and tell me how it was.
We walked the city walls, which is a must-do for all tourists. It was hot as hell up there in the baking sun, but at least all that sweat was good for pictures – it gave us a healthy glow. If you go in the summer, I recommend you go in the morning – you’ll beat the heat and the crowds.
View of the harbor from the city walls
The girls on the wall - ain't they sweet?
Moi on the wall. Notice the healthy glow. Thanks for the loaner hat, Zrinka!
View from the wall. Love all those red tiles. Notice the cruise ship with sails in the background!
Eat here! This is actually a restaurant! After you dine, cool off with a nice dip in the sea! And the view is great in every direction...
One nice thing about having native friends with you is they can tell you some of the local customs. As soon as you walk through the main gate into Dubrovnik, there is a church on the left. If you look to the left of the door, you will see a tiny little shelf. If you can stand on that shelf, you get good luck. I tried, and fell. So I tried again, and I fell again. Hamsa, however, had a little more success.
More good luck for Hamsa!
We visited a palace there in town, I forget the name, but it’s a museum now, with all kinds of historically interesting stuff in it. You should go. There’s a room on the bottom floor where they kept the most hardened criminals. So the girls and I ventured in and imagined what it would’ve been like back then. To really get a feel for it, we had to pretend to be hardened criminals ourselves!
We’re going on a hunger strike until we get cable TV! And pedicures.
We had so much fun with them. On Mljet, we went to the National Park. There are 2 lakes there, and we swam in the small one (it’s warmer) and rode along the current between the two lakes. It’s really beautiful there. Back near the soba, Hamsa and the girls would go swimming in the bay, sometimes all the way across the bay, and look for shells and coral. Ivo, the cool dad, would play chess with Hamsa. And he won, too. Yup, Ivo rocks at chess. And he’s such a funny, nice man. He always kept us laughing. If ever you need a place to stay on Mljet, drop him a line.
One day, we rented the Cat Car. It’s a 50 year old Communist-era heap of metal that was wisely covered in white fur-fabric, then topped off with whiskers, ears and a tail!! It was challenging to drive, to say the least. Hamsa was terrified every time I went around a curve. But we made it to our destination alive, somehow. We went to see the cave where Calypso seduced Odysseus. Apparently Homer spent some time here (7 years) and was inspired by this particular cave. Hamsa was inspired, too. He climbed/slid down to the mouth of the cave, then swam out the other side to the sea. He was fully clothed at the time, but oh well. Sometimes you just gotta grab an experience, even if you didn’t bring your swimshorts!
Alas, all good things must pass, and we left, tearfully, our new family. Ljiljana, bless her heart, dragged herself out of bed and drove us to the ferry at 5 am. Only a true friend does that!
We hopped a flight to London, where we stayed with my brother’s friend, Greg. Oh, boy! A new city! New sights to see! NOT! Nope, not one sight for me. Why? Hamsa’s shin. It crashed into my foot, breaking 2 toes! No, one wasn’t enough, I had to go for TWO! So, there we were, in London, and all I could do was lie around for over a week, keeping my stupid foot elevated while I waited for the stupid bone to knit. Thank God he has cable. Poor Greg. He thought he’d be putting us up for a couple of nights. Heh heh.
But heal it did, and we hopped a plane to Inverness. Why Inverness? I don’t know. Just randomly picked it. And boy am I glad I did! We love it here.
But that’s another story.
Love to everyone. And please, somebody race down to Florida with a fire extinguisher and stop those morons. Sheesh.
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Laura