Croatia

Today was a full day of Croation culture and every-day life. We visited a rural farmhouse in Kopacevo, where the owner (Nino) has completely converted to tourism, providing a bit of culture with over-the-top personality and historical commentary. Very entertaining. We sampled simple food - salamis, and plum, cherry and walnut brandies. We saw a short film, very humorously commentated by our Nino.

Next stop was the Fortress, which is really a whole community within the fortified walls, including this church courtyard. The cross was made from 130 mm artillery shells provided by the US during the war in the 90’s and the figure on the cross is made from schrapnel. The small sculpture was a gift from the Jewish community. The two statues on the front of the church are St Anthony and St Joseph, who is the plague saviour.

Being Saturday, the weekly “antiques” fair was set up inside the main square.

For lunch, the four bus tours were further divided into smaller groups of 6 to 8 people and we were welcomed into the homes of Croation families, many of these were bed & breakfast establishments (advertising ‘sobe’, or ‘beds’). We ate vegetable soup and salad from their garden, and a very flavourful meat terrine, followed by a jammy cake. Our hosts spoke English very well and we were encouraged to ask questions about their family and daily life. Very interesting. Croatia, who had expelled the Ottoman Empire back in the day, is >80% Roman Catholic, while Bosnia Herzegovina, for example, is a similar high percentage Muslim. In contrast, Romania, Bulgaria, Serbia are all predominantly Christian Orthodox.

We were captivated by a stork’s nest on the way back; these nests are protected with large fines if destroyed. It was interesting to see the many small birds also using the sides of the stork nest to build their own.

Back at the ship, before dinner, we were entertained by a troupe of Croation musicians.

We’ve lost or broken some small engine part and so are moving much more slowly, expecting to still arrive on time, but they’ve rearranged the schedule slightly so that we will continue to sail all night in order to still permit the same shore excursion schedule for tomorrow despite our lack of speed.

Those who know me will not be surprised that I dropped and cracked my phone the other day.