Days 12-14

Day 14 Where have you been all my life? So today is all about me and all about food. Well, sort of. Several years ago we went with the family to Oaxaca, Mexico and had a great tour of the ruins and the town. As part of the tour we spent time in the local market where there were seemingly hundreds if not thousands of baskets full of what looked like small red/brown/orange peppers but were in reality grasshoppers. Then we had lunch. Then, you can believe it or not, my family let me eat some of those same grasshoppers washed down with margaritas. !5 years ago we had the pleasure of going to Scandinavia with Liesl’s soccer team and the girls loved Nutella. No one let me have any. Now, I have always been under the assumption Kathie took good care of me. She always seems to have done a nice job of feeding and clothing me. I have always trusted her. But, after breakfast today the light has been turned on. NUTELLA, where have you been all my life? Now I see. Feed me bugs and deny me Nutella. I think I have found the new meaning of life. So much for the ranting’s of a chocolate starved old man. Woke to a little rain so off to see the best-preserved Roman ruins this side of the Adriatic, in Pula.

Sort of eerie going under the sand floor of the arena where you know the gladiators could hear the crowds and the foe whether it was man or beast. Good place to have been for the mild rain we had. Came back to Rovinj, and a nice day at Casa Garzotta. They have been great to us. Bags packed and much needed showers taken. Off to last dinner in Istria. We saved the best, and believe me, the best for last. Nice dinner of fish special of the day with truffle sauce and filet with green pepper sauce. Oh and the bottle of Riesling and then we were sauced. Seems to be a theme here. Gelato, pay our last bill and get rid of all our left over Kuna (next time we come they will be on the Euro) get our packed lunch for the ferry and off to an early bed with the ferry for us at 6 am. Final stop, Venice, on a much too short trip to Istria.

Day 13 ½ Droning on in Area 51 So how spooky is this? To crazy to believe. Kathie and I are sitting at a window table in a very small restaurant on an even smaller winding hillside street in Old Town Rovinj. We are talking about the new US/allies air strikes and what place drones must also be playing. So Kathie tells me about the next phase in Drone technology. Seems that with the exception of a baseball bat which can take out low flying types like the ones sold at the mall, radar jamming makes them crazy and the military is now working on autonomous ones with face recognition software that are immune to jamming by enemy computer technology. Then the next step, to imbed sensing capabilities so they can team up like bees or ants to attack in swarms without having to be directed. Trying to comprehend the meaning of all of this when we hear this buzzing noise and figure a small motorcycle is about to climb up the narrow winding street outside the window. Turn to check on the passing scoter and look straight into the 2 flashing red LED lights of a Drone. It hovers outside the window for a short 1-2 seconds then flies on up the street. I swear to …..How spooky is that. Had not even gotten half way through my glass of wine. What rabbit hole have we fallen down? Day 12-13 Where are we and how did we get here? Dear diary. Please forgive me for not visiting you for 2 days. I have been confused - Sort of like living in 3 completely different worlds. Has this ever happened to you? You go away for vacation and then when you come home the trip seems almost like a dream. The last 3 days have sort of been like that for us. Kathie spent much of the drive 2 days ago summarizing, if that can be done, the complex relationship between geography, economics, religion, ethnicity and European history that is Croatia, and the rest of what we sort of understand as the former Yugoslavia. A shortcut from Plitvice National Park to Opatija was like slow motion through the lifting fog of war. Houses, barns or for that matter entire villages shot up and burned out with not a sign of life now or for that matter likely for 15 years. You know as you pass people, entire families, perished there. Didn’t just go away as some say but died a gruesome death. There is not a plow, a cow, not even a cat to be seen. How then could we drive out of these battle-scarred mountains into Opatija, the Victorian “Monte Carlo” of Croatia. I guess when the Rockefeller’s where going to San Moritz and Monte Carlo the Austrian royal family was going to Opatija. To stay at the Savoy, complete with spa, our own beach, our room over the water, and our own parking at the front door was sort of a trip back 100 years. One could get used to this sort of stuff. To sleep, perchance to … Yesterday we then had the pleasure of visiting Motovun. A14th century hill town pops out of a delightful river valley that services as a transportation and agricultural lifeline for central northwest Istrian peninsula in Croatia. Rick Steves tells us it is the birthplace of Mario Andretti. I can figure out how he learned to drive curves but not how he learned how to drive faster than 5 miles per hour. So after all this Disney sort of setting how could we expect more. Well, all it takes is to enter a 2-3 mile tunnel and when you pop out the other end, pump the break and the gas peddle 3 times and you get your wish. You arrive in Rovinj - What Dubrovnik used to be. No big wall to walk around but what it lacks in walls it more than makes up for in food, shinny marble squares, winding narrow shop lined streets, friendly locals, and great gelato. Doing the best we can to absorb it all.

Last night, eager for more water fun, and not quite sure if we are contacting the local Croatian mafia or the real thing, we make arrangements to Kayak today, Wednesday . Dealing with Darko over the interne and this morning we get picked up by Bo Bo. As it turns out Bo Bo is the Croatian world cup mountain climbing champion biker; he doesn’t ride professionally now but was proud to tell me that 3 years ago when Contador won the Tour de Italy he did the toughest mountain stage climb in a record 47 minutes and Bo Bo did it the same year in 52. I pointed out to him that it looked like for a professional biker he looked like he had come through it all with all his arms and legs in one piece. He then pulled back his shorts to reveal a 6-8 inch ugly scar on his thigh and signs of knee surgery. Not a sport for the faint of heart. Sadly according to him the only sports you can make a living at in Croatia are soccer or basketball so he now also leads kayak tours as well as doing 40-60 miles a day in the mountains. So Bo Bo puts us in our kayaks along with a couple from Ireland and we get instantly transported back to the 14th century for a 4 mile paddle around the Rovinj archipelago, 5 small islands and a light house in the harbor that protects Rovinj. So we spent the day Island hopping complete with walking tours of 14th Benedictine monasteries and 19th century villas. Lunch and swimming. Hard to figure out if you are dreaming or in some sort of strange time warp. You know when you are dreaming and maybe you are flying or running? For some reason when I run in my dreams it is in slow motion. I know I am dreaming but it still seems real. So we are paddling in a pristine harbor. We put in on a small island where 14th century Benedictine monks built a monastery. We climb to the top of the remaining tower and look out over a crystal clear blue Adriatic that almost melds indistinctly with the sky, interrupted only by 15 or so white sails at the horizon. A dream, or is it. Then you again get shocked back to reality when you realize the clouds overhead are not clouds at all but contrails. Not the 1 or 2 you might see over Olympia on a perfect summer day but 20 or more, all starting in one place and heading the same direction. Then you recall the morning news that the US and its allies are going to Syria from the US base in Italy. Again the signs of mans’ inability to get along with man. The last 3 days have sort of been like a long dream. Drifting in and out of the fog of wars past and present, gliding in our personal boat from the 21st back to the 14st century and back again. Sort of disorienting. So back in our 16th century room in the old town of Rovinj. Another great meal and to early bed. Have tomorrow all planned. Off to the best preserved Roman amphitheater from 100 AD. That should help us figure out where the H… we are.