Sat 18.May.2013
Lovran, Croatia
For Austrians and Germans, Croatia is the great exotic vacation goal, like Hawaii
and the Caribbean are for Americans. Somehow though, this travelers' wonderland is
simply not on Americans' travel radar. Ask a hundred of your friends where they would
go in Europe; betcha don't get a single "Croatia". Among Europeans themselves,
it ranks in the top half-dozen.
Go figure!
It is convenient though; this little country's famous vacation regions
are already packed in high season. If it were discovered by yet another major tourist
group, hassles would multiply like teraflops on a supercomputer.
Around Home
What a great sight to start the day! The forecast calls for the sun to be
back tomorrow, and I for one will welcome it.
So, I imagine, will the sunbathers lying out on the rocks and concrete,
thinking they are on the beach. They do have
some excuse; the water in the Adriatic really is clear and beautiful.
My house here is knee-deep in potted plants and garden, as is most of the
neighborhood. I gather that the Kvarner Gulf gets considerably more rain than the
other, drier Croatian coasts of Istria and Dalmatia. This is certainly the most lushly
grown part of the Adriatic that I know of.
Another in my occasional series of accidental self-portraits. Not a clue how
I took this one.
I was clearly standing by the grape arbor over the carport, though.
seedlings, seeds, decorative ceramics, garden tools
Yes, sjemenje is "seeds", and no, I will not elaborate.
My dictionary doesn't have butiga. Perhaps it is related to
bodega (Sp.) or Boutique, i.e. "shop".
Smoking Permitted
I suspect you know you are in the Balkans when you see a sign explicitly
permitting smoking.
Your guess is as good as mine, what is meant by
No Camels. Personally, I suspect the obvious cigarette pun, but I don't
understand why. I suppose you could simply take it at face value, but that
is redundant to say the least.
Let's wind up this page with (yet) another stroll along the lungomare.
(You can't stop me... and why would you want to?)
