DAY 39

Friday 19 August 2011

We bought groceries, car necessities and had a spare key made. Decided to skip the expensive highway vignette and be on the lam as we slipped through Slovenia. An hour later, we entered Croatia, with a real border, and got our first passport stamps since landing in Europe. We drove to the nearby large city Zagreb, found a bank to get some kuno (local currency), where the friendly teller taught us some essential phrases. When Dian said, I have a question, he responded, "Shoot." and we all laughed.

So far we’d encountered what the Europeans had been apologizing for as a rainy and cooler-than-normal summer. We got used to the rain (it never stopped us from doing what we wanted), and appreciated that it wasn’t blazing hot. But it soon became hot - 32+ C in Zagreb, hotter as we went south, into the high 90s F.

We thought the toll on the highway to Zareb was bad enough at $15, but from Zagreb to the coast was a shocker: close to 40 bucks. Finally reaching the coast, with no air conditioning, we were anxious to dive into the sparkling deep blue waters of the Adriatic Sea, and wasted no time. We also stopped to take a photo of an official road marker for a wild pig crossing – when’s the last time you saw that in the US?

We found Camp Michael, a few steps from our van to the water, and settled in. Michael’s son Ante welcomed us on the veranda with three very tall (1.5 l) frosted beers,  and we found out he’s been working there 56 years, all his life. We slept well, with the sound of the water lapping, but with visions of the bad Speedos we had seen racing through our minds.

The wild pig sign

A fisherman at work. Photo by Charles

Photo by Charles