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Your Papers Pleeeezzzzzz!!!!!

Crossing international frontiers has always been a stressful operation.  Even when you have nothing to hide you always have that look and feel about you that says you are guilty as sin and it radiates like a very bad sunburn.  And you are always wary that some new law or regulation will snag you in its bureaucratic trap and make your life a nightmare.  And than there is always the fear that Dagomar the Gate Guard is having a bad day and just wants to share it with YOU!!!!!!!

Well nothing like that happened in the hour and one half that it took to exit Italy, enter Slovenia, exit Slovenia and enter Croatia.  In fact the Croatian guard couldn't be bothered to even look at our "papers".  A far cry indeed from 1970 when the Yugoslav guards had nothing better to do than to examine the contents of our little VW van in great detail at the Greek border.  I think that they were just so bored that they wished to amuse themselves at our expense.

The Province of Istria

Lying in the extreme northwest corner of Croatia, Istria has been settled for at least 4 millennium.  Low lying hills, increasing to mountains in the southeast, shelter numerous bays and harbors that are becoming increasingly under pressure from the tourist industry for development.   As the nearest part of the Croatian coast to Central Europe, it draws hundreds of thousands of vacationers annually, primarily Italian, German, Austrian and Slovenian.  With reasonably clean waters, pristine vistas, interesting historical sights, inexpensive and numerous restaurants and a western style infrastructure, the area is one of the boom areas of the country.

Historically it was settled by the Illyrians, who were overrun by the Celts, then it became part of the Roman Empire in the 1st century BC.  After Rome it was visited or ruled by Visigoths, Ostrogoths, Mongols, Lombards, Avars, the Byzantine Empire, Franks, Venetians, the Hapsburgs, Italy and the Nazis.  As a tourist destination it is the nearest "foreign" site to Central Europe.

Porec

And with that we said "We're tired".

Takin' a vacation from the vacation

We had been on the go in Europe for 20 days straight, as well as weeks of stress and preparation at home, and it was time to stop for awhile.  Doing a map study we thought that a campground near the town of Vrsar would be close enough to town such that we could park up and walk to any venue or store or restaurant.  Happily that was the case and we checked in for 3 nights.  We were so pleased with everything here that we stayed 4 nights and had to force ourselves to get back on the road again.

Vrsar is a small village barely worth a mention in the guidebooks but we found it delightful.  It has a marina area and a number of smallish hotels, some ghastly souvenir shops (the hot items seem to be sports shoes and China knock-off hand bags), and the usual collection of restaurants of various quality all willing to serve up something that you are used to at home, especially if you like pizza, wurst or even "fast food".  When compared to some of the more known and visited towns on this coast we found Vrsar a tranquil delight.

We walked the town, we went shopping, we climbed the hill - and the church tower, we visited a restaurant or 2 and maybe a tavern, we even went on a

Below - from our Vrsar campsite at sun down

More Vrsar Photos on the P-base site

Rovinj

The next town south is Rovinj which was a much larger tourist center than Vrsar.  With a Roman, Byzantine, Venetian heritage the town's look and feel was very much Venice but on an incline.

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For 20 plus years we have lived in a one story house, if not a one story world, or used elevators.  Our legs are slowly beginning to get stronger and I have even tightened up the belt one notch.

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Shopping for groceries in Europe

Surprisingly similar to grocery shopping in the US, especially if you cannot read any of the words on the packages.  Most products usually have a picture or visual description on the label in both continents, thus you rarely read the label per se anyway.  Without the photo of the product within, it could become a nightmare.  In the US similar products are displayed together such as canned veggies or paper products, same in most European stores.  One big difference is that you find milk and OJ in a warm aisle packaged in paper.  That's right, not in a cold case.  They have many more products packaged in waxed paper containers such as milk that you refrigerate once you open them, such as our mayonnaise.  For meat and cheeses you can see the product out in the cold cases or behind the servers counter.

It really is not a problem other than it takes longer to shop because 1, it is a new store to you, and 2, you do take a little more time "reading" the label.  All part of the fun.

Laundry on the road

It certainly isn't like doing it at home and it is not as easy, nor as cheap as in the US.  Washing here is an energy consuming process so therefore it is very expensive, normally $5 a washing machine and up to $4 per dryer, though we have paid $7 a load in one campground.  And the dryers here are terribly inefficient and usually do not dry well.  And Laundromats are hard to find and even harder to find a parking place.

Many if not most Europeans on holiday simply wash a little load every day.  I thought to try that way but got a little behind, thus today in a camp ground that is not "officially" opened (which means nothing is working except electric) we are doing a lot of laundry by hand and have come to the conclusion that the price for a machine is well worth it.

Plivitska Lakes National Park

The pride of Croatia, this UNESCO World Heritage site has been a park since 1949.  Set in a deep canyon this is a series of waterfalls over the karst shelves.

Park Photos                        Park Website

WAR

	get  out!
Ethnic Cleansing		Serbs Croats Bosniacs
	burned out   Death   run off

For a few years in the early ninety's the country formally known as Yugoslavia became unglued and fractured.   It has been over a dozen years since the end of the fighting and the scars still remain.  We were not that close to the border area with Bosnia nor Serbia but we saw dozens of burned out dwellings.  And though the Serbs get the majority of blame for these crimes, there was plenty of ugly by all sides.  Though these photos are in Croatia I would not begin to speculate as to who did what to whom here.  I don't know the details of any of these incidents.

In 1970 when I drove south to north the entire distance of Yugoslavia I thought that no nation with 6 official languages and 2 official alphabets could survive without a strong leader.  Tito's death in the early 80's certainly proved that.  Actually I was surprised the killings didn't begin sooner.

Of the towns along the Dalmatian Coast, Zadar holds its heritage much better than most.  Here, as a well organized Roman city, it had straight and true streets at right angles to each other, and it still does today, though the Roman paving stones are a foot or 2 under the current surface.  And as with every town in the old world, recycling of material is a fact of life.  Below is a photo of St. Donat's church, which was begun in 820's on the site of the older Roman Forum.  And as you can see the remains of Rome were the foundation for the new church and the new times.

Krka National Park

Trogir

The most Venetian of cities.  The old town surrounded by water.  The twisting narrow streets, the style and flair of the architecture, the building material mostly white stone, the little cafes and restaurants tucked into impossible nooks and crannies, windows and doors with a charm of their own.  Little damaged by recent conflicts, the city and the townsfolk move to their own rythum, unimpressed with modernity.

Next - A Bosnian journey

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