Shoulder season and the livin’ is easy
After just two weeks, we’re completely under Croatia’s spell. We flew into Split and spent a few days in the shadows of Diocletian’s holiday palace, then hopped the bus south to Dubrovnik.
Morning sunshine in Split
Here, we settled into a lovely apartment a few steps above the walls of the medieval Old Town; we’ve also settled into an easy routine.
The southern wall of Dubrovnik’s Old town
We wake up when it suits us, home school a little in the mornings, then spend our afternoons roaming the stone streets, swimming at Banje beach or climbing up above our apartment to watch the sun set over the Adriatic.
Joe building cairns at Banje
The wall of Old Town is visible in the background
Yesterday we took a ferry to a nearby island where the boys waded in a saltwater lake before we explored the ruins of a 12th century Benedictine monastery and a fort from Napoleon’s time. Plenty satisfied with ourselves, we ate ice cream before catching the ferry back to the mainland.
Joe contemplates the “dead sea” on Lokrum
Food in Croatia is a particular pleasure; after so many weeks in Ireland where not much can be locally produced (except of course the excellent butter and lamb, cabbage and potatoes … maybe not exactly nothing), we’re spoiled here on the Dalmatian coast by the Mediterranean climate and all the glorious food that results. The peppers, eggplants, greens, tomatoes, plums, and grapes are uniformly exceptional. The local wine is delicious and cheap, as is the olive oil. To Joe’s delight, the capers are enormous. Brian is basking in the best anchovies we’ve ever eaten. There’s fresh sea bass at the fish market early in the mornings and we’ve stumbled into two local butchers including one who speaks English and who, similar to our favorite butcher back in California, is delighted to talk meat at surprising length. Needless to say, we’ve mostly been cooking at home.
A view of Dubrovnik from the northern direction
Life here may be too easy; it’s making us soft. The boys chafe at more than two or three hours of daily study, despite the fact that last spring a seven hour school day was cheerfully met. I have made almost no discernible progress on the academic and creative projects I laid out for myself just a few months ago and it’s taken me a solid two weeks to get around to this lazy post. Instead, I stare at the ocean and eat burek and read trash. And none of us can be bothered to haul our growing pile of recycling down the sixty some steps outside our apartment to the municipal bins below.
So many steps!
The other day, Brian cast a glance around our apartment, open windows inviting the Adriatic breeze to blow from one end to the other, and said, You know, this place is available next week too. We could just … stay here. Forever? I said. Sure, he said.
In the end we decided to go to Hvar next week instead on the grounds that it will be different, but also, you know, exactly the same.
