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The next day we took a boat from Split to Dubrovnik. It was 7-8 hours and not a whole lot of fun. I got a lot of reading done. We arrived at Split in the early evening and were met by Minka’s cousin, Heda, who she hadn’t seen in ten years. Then we walked back to her apartment and met her husband and one of her sons—Elvis. Elvis is a bouncer (and looks like one, lots of muscles and tattoos, no neck, shirt optional.) He also only has one eye (although I didn’t notice, apparently he has gotten a good fake one recently). When he was a little kid a friend hit him with a slingshot and it sliced his eye out of the socket.
We stayed with Heda’s neighbor, actually a friend who lived in a different apartment building across the park. Mara is a 73-year-old widow who doesn’t speak any English and didn’t quite get that most of us didn’t speak any Croatian. She was very nice though, giving us brandy and homemade limoncello (lemon liquour). When we complemented her on the limoncello she gave us a whole bottle as a gift. She also cooked one of the best meals we had in Croatia, seafood pasta with homemade wine (best wine I’ve had since Italy.) In the morning she made these cheese rolls and chocolate candies that were excellent.
My parents and sister stayed in her room, she stayed in her boarder’s room, and Denis and I had the pull-out couch in the livingroom. This was great because Croatia was playing in the European Cup and we watched the game. When Croatia scored Denis turned down the tv and you could hear screaming from all the surrounding apartment houses as well as guns going off. I went in to tell my parents what had happened and Melissa said that mom had told her that a bunch of cars had just backfired at the same time. She also asked if they were shooting at each other (no, duh, it’s not “we scored a goal, now kill your friend.”)
The next day Elvis took us to the Mestrovic museum in Split. (Minka stayed to visit with Heda.) Mestrovic built a beautiful house that looks over the sea after he became famous and now it’s a museum. It was a long, hot walk so I think I enjoyed the museum more then lets say Melissa, but it was nice of everyone to come. Elvis didn’t want to go to the museum and we said we could find our way back so he left. Later we went out for pizza for lunch before returning to Heda’s.
That evening Darijo and Jasna’s father, Mirko, arrived with the cars so we packed up and drove to Seline which is a couple hours north of Split up the coast.
Seline is the small town where Jasna’s parents have a house. They live on the bottom floor, the second floor has four rooms which they rent out, and the third is still under construction, but will eventually be a place for Jasna’s sister and her family to stay. We stayed in rooms on the second floor, Melissa even got her own bedroom and bathroom which thrilled her because she was sick of getting the yuckiest bed because she’s single.
Seline was great because everyone was there together. All the grandparents (Mirko and Zora, Jasna’s mother, as well as Minka), and kids (Bruno, Lena, Slavica, and Katerina, as well as Stipe, Jasna’s nephew who is 9 months younger than Katerina, he just turned two.) The only people missing were Jasna’s sister, her husband, and their older child. We even met Jasna’s cousin who lived a few houses down and whose son, Philip, played with Bruno. Zora is a cook (she works in Germany nine months out of the year) so she and Jasna cooked great meals. The veggies were particularly good, tomatoes, cucumbers, and cabbage typically. The beach was only a five minute walk away so we took the kids there every day the weather was good. The beach is pebbles, no sand so I bought a pair of flipflops to wear. The cost is such that the mountains go almost to the edge of the sea, there’s only a small strip of land on which the road and houses rest. It makes for very dramatic scenery.
We spent a lot of time eating and playing with the kids. Katerina really likes to “do” hair so Melissa and I were prime targets. The older girls drew us pictures and we had brought a make-your-own bracelet kit that we played with. Stipe was obsessed with three things: balls, cars, and grandpa. He was actually a very powerful kicker and was able to drop a ball and kick it in the air before it fell which seemed pretty impressive for a two year old. He was also pretty accurate when he aimed. When he wasn’t kicking or throwing (he loved throwing rocks in the sea) he wanted to sit in the car or sit with grandpa (the best is sitting with grandpa in the car.) We got to know the girls a little bit. Lena is pretty independent and goes off by herself, while Slavica is a people-pleaser always coming over for hugs and will clear the table after dinner without being asked. (She’s only six, not even in school yet.)
We spent one day in Zadar, just our family. It’s a “large” city about 45 minutes away. We walked around, climbed the bell-tower (at noon so the bells went off), toured a octagonal church, ate lunch, and window shopped. We also toured the museum of church art run by the Benedictine convent which was quite impressive. Later Denis bought me a lovely ring with a flower design as an anniversary present/souvenir of the trip.
We stayed with Heda’s neighbor, actually a friend who lived in a different apartment building across the park. Mara is a 73-year-old widow who doesn’t speak any English and didn’t quite get that most of us didn’t speak any Croatian. She was very nice though, giving us brandy and homemade limoncello (lemon liquour). When we complemented her on the limoncello she gave us a whole bottle as a gift. She also cooked one of the best meals we had in Croatia, seafood pasta with homemade wine (best wine I’ve had since Italy.) In the morning she made these cheese rolls and chocolate candies that were excellent.
My parents and sister stayed in her room, she stayed in her boarder’s room, and Denis and I had the pull-out couch in the livingroom. This was great because Croatia was playing in the European Cup and we watched the game. When Croatia scored Denis turned down the tv and you could hear screaming from all the surrounding apartment houses as well as guns going off. I went in to tell my parents what had happened and Melissa said that mom had told her that a bunch of cars had just backfired at the same time. She also asked if they were shooting at each other (no, duh, it’s not “we scored a goal, now kill your friend.”)
The next day Elvis took us to the Mestrovic museum in Split. (Minka stayed to visit with Heda.) Mestrovic built a beautiful house that looks over the sea after he became famous and now it’s a museum. It was a long, hot walk so I think I enjoyed the museum more then lets say Melissa, but it was nice of everyone to come. Elvis didn’t want to go to the museum and we said we could find our way back so he left. Later we went out for pizza for lunch before returning to Heda’s.
That evening Darijo and Jasna’s father, Mirko, arrived with the cars so we packed up and drove to Seline which is a couple hours north of Split up the coast.
Seline is the small town where Jasna’s parents have a house. They live on the bottom floor, the second floor has four rooms which they rent out, and the third is still under construction, but will eventually be a place for Jasna’s sister and her family to stay. We stayed in rooms on the second floor, Melissa even got her own bedroom and bathroom which thrilled her because she was sick of getting the yuckiest bed because she’s single.
Seline was great because everyone was there together. All the grandparents (Mirko and Zora, Jasna’s mother, as well as Minka), and kids (Bruno, Lena, Slavica, and Katerina, as well as Stipe, Jasna’s nephew who is 9 months younger than Katerina, he just turned two.) The only people missing were Jasna’s sister, her husband, and their older child. We even met Jasna’s cousin who lived a few houses down and whose son, Philip, played with Bruno. Zora is a cook (she works in Germany nine months out of the year) so she and Jasna cooked great meals. The veggies were particularly good, tomatoes, cucumbers, and cabbage typically. The beach was only a five minute walk away so we took the kids there every day the weather was good. The beach is pebbles, no sand so I bought a pair of flipflops to wear. The cost is such that the mountains go almost to the edge of the sea, there’s only a small strip of land on which the road and houses rest. It makes for very dramatic scenery.
We spent a lot of time eating and playing with the kids. Katerina really likes to “do” hair so Melissa and I were prime targets. The older girls drew us pictures and we had brought a make-your-own bracelet kit that we played with. Stipe was obsessed with three things: balls, cars, and grandpa. He was actually a very powerful kicker and was able to drop a ball and kick it in the air before it fell which seemed pretty impressive for a two year old. He was also pretty accurate when he aimed. When he wasn’t kicking or throwing (he loved throwing rocks in the sea) he wanted to sit in the car or sit with grandpa (the best is sitting with grandpa in the car.) We got to know the girls a little bit. Lena is pretty independent and goes off by herself, while Slavica is a people-pleaser always coming over for hugs and will clear the table after dinner without being asked. (She’s only six, not even in school yet.)
We spent one day in Zadar, just our family. It’s a “large” city about 45 minutes away. We walked around, climbed the bell-tower (at noon so the bells went off), toured a octagonal church, ate lunch, and window shopped. We also toured the museum of church art run by the Benedictine convent which was quite impressive. Later Denis bought me a lovely ring with a flower design as an anniversary present/souvenir of the trip.