The intercom began crackling around 6 a.m. telling us it was time to rise and shine, though seemingly announced by Charlie Brown's Italian teacher. We looked out of the porthole of our Deluxe Suite (while all the losers were still sleepin' in their seats) and could see the coast of Croatia! We passed a teeny-tiny bouy shaped like a ship.
Our Deluxe Suite included breakfast, so we went up to the restaurant and enjoyed a breakfast of coffee, ...... while looking out the windows at the coast coming closer.
After breakfast we climbed up to the top of the ship and we saw our dear Italian lady from the night before. She was so excited to see us and wanted so badly to talk to us. She finally found someone on deck who spoke Italian and English. It turned out that she, along with nearly all of the passengers on the ferry with the exception of us, was on her way to Medjugorje, Bosnia-Herzegovia. It was the 24th anniversary of the appearance of an apparition of the Virgin Mary to six children in the village of Medjugorje. The ferry was filled with primarily Italian pilgrims (and their tour buses) destined for the anniversary celebration. They thought we were headed there too, and even though we weren't, they were happy to tell us about the spiritual experiences they had had before in Medjugorje. This, of course, accounted for the Virgin Mary souvenirs we had seen the night before.
We had pictures taken with our sweet new friend in the yellow dress and before we parted, she asked our translator to tell us, "Peace in your hearts." She was the real angel - no need to travel to Bosnia-Herzegovia.
We humped our luggage down to the car. Somehow they had already gotten the car in front of us and behind us off the ferry without touching our car. We drove off the ferry and immediately got lost. We came around again and stopped and two adorable boys started flirting with us while a toothless man washed the window. When the cute boys found out we were camping, they asked if the could come with us!
The signs to the pamping site (Karen always called it pamping instead of camping, so we did too) were easy to follow. Camping Strobrec was about 3 km as the crow flies from the center of Split, but about 8 km by car. It's just around a little bend in the coastline and right on the water. The very nice staff took our info and allowed us to drive around and choose a campsite in the tent area. We picked out a spot within view of the sea and near the bathroom. This turned out to be a mixed blessing, as the lights on the bathroom building were on, and bright, all night.
We went back and checked in officially, then drove to the campsite and set up our tent. It was only 9 am! Our next door neighbors, in a HUGE tent, were Polish. We thought we might have the smallest tent in the campground, but there was one way smaller than ours, and later we were to find out that there were two people in it!
The whole campground was lovely, clean, safe, shady and with olive trees planted all around! There was a small store, a bar and a restaurant.
We drove to the grocery store for ice...and no dice. We said, "We need ICE in CUBES in a BAG." This was accompanied by many hand gestures ala "Charades." First they took us to the ice cream section. We repeated the pantomime. Then they took us to the section with ice cube trays and freezable cold packs. Pantomime repeated. "But you can put these in the freezer!" It took a lot to make them understand that we were camping, had a cooler with food, no freezer. The very sweet clerk (Ivanka) actually stole ice from the fish department for us. There was a conspiracy among the clerks to get us this ice without the boss knowing!
The fish department lady turned out to also be the cheese department lady, so we got to know each other well. Bought: kolbasa, olives, bread (rosemary), nectarines, extension cord (to watch DVDs in our tent), yogurt (cranberry flavor), Pag (traditional Croatian cheese from the Island of Pag on the Dalmation Coast,) bleu cheese, Emmentaler cheese, mustard, two 1 litre bottle of Croatian wine (1 red, 1 white, what Ray calls the "Billy Joel Special",) @ $3, lemon soda (Plodine store brand - it kicked ass,) shorts for Jane, and batteries.
 |
| "Wenice"? |
 |
| Or nice cheese and fish woman! |
Came back to the campsite, jumped into our swim suits and went to the beach around 2 pm. Put out a blanket, napped, read, relaxed. Very sunny, had to keep moving the blanket.
Got up and walked the length of the beach. Watched some teenage kids pushing each other off the end of a low diving board. Then watched fascinated as a big brother encouraged his little brother to jump off of a very high dive. He was so sweet to the little guy!
Went back to the campsite and got out our chairs and our bottles of wine and walked back to the beach to drink for a while and watch the sun start to go down. It doesn't get dark until nearly 10 pm.
Back at campsite we grilled our dinner keilbasa, and had bleu cheese on Tuc crackers with mango chutney, Pag, Emmentaler, Rosemary bread, and martinis.
Got into our tent and passed out without watching "Holes." Woke when the drunken Italians came back.
campsite olive trees
(night - bonfire)
No comments:
Post a Comment