I’m not going to sit here and pretend to be smarter or more sophisticated than I actually am. Until recently my only association with Croatia was Goran Visnjic who played hot doctor with a troubled past Luka Kovac on ER. Through his character I learned that there was a bad war and that bad things happened after the fall of the soviet empire. Seriously, woefully ignorant here. In the 90’s I was too preoccupied with our own involvement with the first Gulf War to be aware of global politics elsewhere. Plus there was all the flannel to consider and raves to discover!

Last year my aunt suggested a trip to Croatia as she’d heard it was an inexpensive Mediterranean destination with great beaches. That was the first time I’d considered visiting. So when Tyler told me his team would be having an off-site in Dubrovnik I jumped at the chance to tag along for the weekend.

Tyler was already in town so I flew in and met him at our hotel. All afternoon it stormed and thundered and deluged. We stayed cozy in our room reading and napping until  finally venturing our for a lovely sushi dinner at a restaurant nearby. We never eat Sushi in Zurich because its not very good here and costs almost as much as a mid-sized car. It’s always a treat eating out elsewhere because it feels like we’re getting away with something. “EVERYTHING IS SO CHEAP” we scream! Since the forecast was for good weather the next day, on our way out we booked a boat tour of three nearby islands for Saturday morning.

Tourism is Croatia’s #1 industry at the moment and you certainly get the vibe that the service industries (66% GDP) are working very hard to accommodate the incredibly large numbers of tourists that pass through Dubrovnik each year. The service staff (hotels, tour operators, servers etc) we spoke to were all super helpful, gracious and friendly. They also didn’t mind talking about the way things used to be. Our front desk guy at the hotel told us how lucky he was to be working for a Swedish company (turns out the hotel is run by a Swedish chain, which explains the brand new sauna we christened). He said many of the Croatian companies were still quite corrupt and were having a had time adjusting to the new free-market economy. Croatia has had tourists for decades but prior to independence in 1991, the majority of visitors were wealthy Russians. He told us things are improving and there are increasing opportunities but that the old folks will tell you it was better under communism. We got the impression that Croatia was still working out its national identity as it rushes towards full integration within the E.U. (it’s only been an official member since 2013 and their currency is the Kuna, not the Euro). This all to say that tourism is booming and the city of Dubrovnik is a bustle with tourists from all over Europe, Asia and North America. According to one cab driver, much of the recent boom is due to an increase in cruise ships docking in the marina (which was getting a complete rebuild on our visit). However, he thought the biggest reason for the influx was the popularity of Game of Thrones and Star Wars (episode VIII), both of which have filmed on location in Dubrovnik. I believe him! In the city center there a countless GOT and SW themed souvenir shops hawking everything from t-shirts to life-sized replicas of The Iron Throne. You can also choose from a plethora of GOT themed walking or boat tours to all the film locations.

The weather was indeed better on Saturday and our non-GOT themed boat tour left early the next morning. We chose a small outfit and shared a little boat with two other parties, a retired couple from Scotland and a mother and son from Israel. We had sun and a gentle breeze as we tootled around the bay visiting the Elafiti islands; Lopud, Sipan and Kolocep.

The first of the three islands, Lopud, had a great big old monastery that was closed for restoration and a wonderful sandy beach. No cars are allowed on the island so your choices are to walk or to rent a golf cart. He hiked to the beach and had a swim in the perfectly clear and bath-water warm Mediterranean sea. What a treat! The other two islands each had their own charm. Sipan was home to a charming fishing village of about 500 residents and was lush with citrus, olives and bougainvillea.

Kolocep was dominated by an upscale resort hotel (I tried to sneak in and use their bathroom to change into my swimsuit and was stymied by security. I changed in nearby bushes because I am class act, what?) and lively beach-front bar scene.

At each stop of our island tour we kept running into the same tourists on their own island tours confirming a brisk tourist trade with little operations making the same routes day after day. However, we caught the very tail end of the season. All reports are that after mid-October things drop off significantly. I’m sure it’s quite a different scene during the off-season. Our day on the high seas was capped with a lovely harborside meal of whole grilled fish for me and seafood pasta for Tyler where we enjoyed the company of the local cat population and a spectacular sunset.

The next morning we were awoken by driving rain and more thunder. Our plan was to go into the old town and walk around the city walls. Thankfully, after bit of a lie-in and late breakfast, the rain had died down to a steady drizzle and we decided we could walk the 4 miles from our Lapad Island hotel to the city center. Fun fact! There are no sidewalks on Lapad island! We played a fun game called “Will This Car Slow Down or Splash us With a Puddle?”. Well, we won that game and made it to our destination sprinkled not soaked. On our way we passed by this beast, used during the most recent war for independence.

A colorful reminder of how recent these events were!

As we neared the entrance to the old city the sun came out as did the hoards of slow walking zombiesque tourists. This made navigating the narrow wall that encircles the city challenging. There were lots of bottlenecks and people being dumb and doing ALL my least favorite pet peeves (stopping at the top or bottom or a staircase to look at your phone or tie a shoe or whatever, stopping abruptly to take selfies with your stupid stick or simply picking the absolute worst spot to stop and gape when there are 30 people behind you just trying to live their lives). I admit it, I got stabby. I had to check myself: What an amazing place to be! The old city is beyond majestic. I was reminded of the medinas of Morocco as well as the medieval hill towns of Italy. High up on the wall you can look down into the morass of the city below. Narrow, twisty alleyways, grand boulevards, plazas teeming with cafes and shops, ornate cathedrals, quiet gardens and rooftop terraces as far as the eye can see; all surrounded by an aquamarine sea dotted with lush green islands. Once I found my center I ceased to feel stabby and was able to go with the (OH SO SLOW) flow, taking it all in as it came (a short break for a beer and some shade from the hot sun didn’t hurt my mood either).

After walking the wall and poking around inside the city we decided to take the (Swiss built!) cable car to the top of the hill overlooking the city. Wow! What a treat. At the top we were treated not only to spectacular views of the city below but also of the mountains and foothills to the east. The hilltop is also home to Fort Imperial, a strategic fort constructed during the French occupation of the early 1800’s and used more recently in the 1991 Serbian invasion. With all the walls and forts everywhere you get a real sense for how besieged this city has been over the centuries. While I took a much needed rest, Tyler checked out the Homeland War museum located inside the fort. This prompted Tyler to do a good deal of research on the war so if you have questions you know who to ask (HINT: it’s not me).

After a long day of sightseeing, we returned to our hotel for a rest before heading out to a lovely final dinner at a trendy and delicious bistro not far from our hotel.

The next morning, as the clouds and rain came back with a vengeance, we headed to the tiny airport for our flight back to Zurich. We got there ridiculously early thinking we’d spend the time looking around at the shops and getting a bite to eat but there was not much too see. We were so surprised at how small it was considering the numbers of tourists that flock to Dubrovnik every summer. Another reminder that the country and economy are in transition. I was out of high school before Croatia declared independence! Our cab driver pointed out a new terminal that was under construction and I got the feeling that in 5 or 10 years time, Dubrovnik will be a much changed place. Maybe then you’ll be able to get a hot meal at the airport but for the time being, be content with a pre-made sandwich. And bring a book!

And that’s my Croatian weekend: Short and sweet! I got to swim in the Mediterranean sea, the locals we interacted with were gracious and welcoming, the weather was glorious when it was glorious, wet when it was wet and the ancient walled city of Dubrovnik was truly a world class attraction (and it is a UNESCO world heritage site). From the little of it I’ve seen, Croatia is a beautiful country working hard to become a major player in the European Union as it moves away from it’s recent and historic struggles for independence and its communist past. I would love to visit Croatia again and explore some of the less trodden towns and countrysides. Even from the short glimpse I’ve seen I can say without hesitation that its a beautiful country and I highly recommend visiting it!

Here is an album of my photos from the trip. I’m bummed that the in blog WordPress photo quality is so low. I took some amazing shots, you gotta believe me!

I’m disappointed in myself for letting the blog go un-updated for so long. I had all intentions of writing an in depth post about my time volunteering in Greece yet found myself unable to put into words what I wanted to convey. As such I got stuck, life moved on and nary a post was made. What I can say (ever so briefly) is that my eyes and heart were opened and the relationships, experiences and observations made during those whirlwind two weeks still shape and inform my perspective of Europe, the world and my own life every day.

Here is a summary of the trips, events and visits I’ve had since I got back from Chios in early March:

• I made chicken mole, there is still some in my freezer. It took me three days to source the ingredients. It was delicious.
• At the end of March, Tyler and I took a wonderful trip to Amsterdam and Dublin. In Amsterdam we stayed on a funky little houseboat and met up with our Cali friends Dave, Darien and their daughter Annika. We went to karaoke where we realized the Dutch are absurdly tall. We took out a boat and puttered through the canals in the rain. We ate a lot of french fries. Beers were also consumed. In Dublin Tyler and I had the chance to meet up with an old friend, Rachel, who has been living there for a number of years. I had forgotten how great it is to have a local guide! In town we ate some great food and stayed in a really cool hotel that is a converted 19th century schoolhouse. We took a day trip to Galway via the Connemara countryside. Tyler had to return to work and I stayed on to meet up with some
  

  Tyler and I looking for my pony in Connemara.

  other friends from California. Teresa and Mike are both musicians and I had the incredible opportunity to watch them play a gig and meet a few wonderful Irish musicians to boot. I even sat in and sang Jolene! It was an exciting and exhilarating experience. Rachel and I also made a day trip to the fabulous Castletown House, an early 18th century manor house. I finished off my Dublin adventure by taking a cross-country horseback ride with a lot of thrilling galloping and jumps before I popped over to London for a mini-reunion of volunteers I met while working on Chios.

  

  Chios volunteers in London.

 

 

 

 

 

• We had a visit from Pam, Tyler’s mom, in April and took some fun day-trips from Zurich. We visited Liechtenstein (can cross yet another country off my list!) where we saw the crown jewels (so. many. Fabrege. eggs.), the National museum and the postage stamp museum. On our way back to Zurich we swung by HeidiDorf village, the setting for Swiss author Johanna Spyri’s 1881 classic. During Pam’s
  

  Oldest biggest cuckoo clock in the Black Forest

  visit we also made a trip to Germany’s Black Forest where we sampled some of the famed cake, checked out a surprisingly intriguing clock museum and saw both the “World’s Biggest Cuckoo Clock” and the “World’s OLDEST Biggest Cuckoo Clock”. The Black Forest; keeping Guinness on the ball since 1986 (date of the latter clock). Pam was lucky enough to be in town for the bonkers Swiss tradition of Sechseläuten, an annual festival and parade that is capped with the burning of The Böögg. The Böögg is a snowman set atop a giant pyre. the Pyre is lit and men on horseback gallop around its base. Everybody waits to see how long it will take before The Böögg is consumed by fire and his head (which has been packed with explosives) blows up. This is a live televised event. Bets are placed as to how long before the head goes up. The longer it takes, the longer we have to wait for spring.

  

  Picture perfect covered bridge in Lichtenstein

 

 

 

 

• May brought more family to us with a visit from my Aunt Dee who I met in Amsterdam. We had a wonderful time visiting the museums, eating giant pancakes and soaking up the spring sunshine. Dee returned with me to Zurich and we were met with more love as my auntie from another mantie (sorry, that was hella sweaty) Patrice and her son Jessie came to visit. My grand plan to show off our glorious Swiss Alps with a day trip to Luzerne and Mt. Pilatus was stymied by rain, snow and zero visibility. We had a lovely time all the same sipping wine out of coffee cups and staring out into the white abyss. After bidding adieu to Jessie, Dee, Patrice and myself hit the rails and took a train to the South of France to visit our dear friend Christine. Christine, who is French, recently moved back to France after having lived in the U.S. for many decades. Her house is in the breathtaking medieval village of Pujols. Again I was so glad to experience a place with a local guide! It makes such a difference and gives one the feeling of superiority over the lowly “tourists”. Christine’s amazing hospitality had us dining al fresco on her balcony, enjoying the best of the village market produce, traipsing across fields of wildflowers in the countryside and sipping locally made moonshine. It was utterly magical. And should you think the adventure ends here, you’re very wrong!

• After leaving Patrice and Christine in France (don’t judge, I know for a fact that Patrice eventually made if back to Berkeley!) Dee and I embarked on a bigger adventure. Taking the train to Toulouse, we flew to Casablanca to begin a Moroccan excursion. Travel in Morocco was challenging and rewarding. We got a taste of both ancient and modern Morocco and witnessed a country struggling to balance both. We witnessed poverty and generosity, beauty and squalor, Western aspirations and aversions. We rode camels through the Sahara desert and had dinner under the stars with a Bedouin guide. Lest our reverence be too earnest, we also saw the heavily guarded mines just over the hill and heard about the devastating environmental degradation of the desert caused by unrestricted and rampant use both private and commercial. We also learned that two single gals driving around Morocco isn’t for the faint of heart but can be extremely rewarding, especially in hindsight! Dee and I capped our Morocco trip with a horseback ride through the countryside and ended our wonderful visit with a cocktail in Montmarte, Paris. Where is Tyler all this time you ask? Poor man has been working tirelessly back home in Zurich. He needed a break so he joined me in Paris for a long, well deserved weekend. We ate, we walked, we looked at stuff, we ate some more.

 

 

 

 

 

 

• Finally home for more than a week at a time we enjoyed the fine early summer weather of May/June in Zurich. A visit from Rachel up from Dublin for the weekend found us day-tripping to Gruyere, you know, like the cheese. Adorable town, lovely castle and incongruously, crazy smutty H.R. Giger museum (the designer of the Alien creatures from the movies, Swiss born Giger once lived in the village of Gruyère).

• Comes June and Tyler and I’s 5th wedding anniversary! We booked a remote cottage in Umbria for the week. Tyler got to read an entire book! We visited the ancient walled city of Orvieto and the stunning hilltop village of Civita di Bagnoregio. We ate fresh truffles brought to us by the kindly groundskeeper of our cottage and picked our own veggies out of the garden. Finally we had dinner in the town of Macerino in the shadow of the villa we were married in. I had forgotten how glorious the air smells in that region, heady with the sweet smells of jasmine and broom brush and the herbal notes of rosemary and wild sage. Truly magical.

 

 

• July brought Swiss national day where there was an airshow and carnival followed by fireworks. I also took myself to see Beyonce in concert on her Zurich stop of the Formation Tour. She slayed.

• Late in July I made my first journey back to the U.S. since we arrived in Zurich  in August of 2015. I can’t believe it’s been a year already yet it also seems like it’s been much longer given the amount of traveling and number of random adventures we’ve had! Since I probably saw most of you at some point during that trip I’ll keep it brief. My book club is still better than your book club. Our Tahoe offsite #2 was beyond compare. My niece is still cuter than your niece. The Bay Area is still my favorite place to eat in the whole world (sorry Paris, ya tart!).

• Returning home was a very special experience as was returning home from returning home. This fall Tyler and I have been concentrating on work and participating in various social events (thank you to everybody who miraculously keeps inviting us to things!) here in town. Wanting to invest more of myself here in Zurich, I started taking an intensive German class in September. I also started an English Conversation workshop for Spooglers (spouses of Googlers) with the help of my good friend Tracy. In addition, I’ve made an earnest promise to myself to write every day. Not necessarily on the blog but I mention it here in an effort to keep myself honest. I will be updating regularly though so don’t unbookmark it just yet!

So… good lord! You’re still here? What a long and convoluted post. But it’s been a long and convoluted year so I suppose it’s fitting. As our second year living abroad charges forward I have so much to look forward to and to be thankful for.