Sticky

After a rather frustrating morning in Zagreb, not knowing how to turn on gas, I had a cold shower and no polenta for breakfast. Thankfully, Croatian bakeries are amazing, so I bought a slanica (salty thing - soft bread stick with a slight saltiness to its surface) and a kind of apple strudel. The journey was calm and I had a great seat on the coach - front seat, almost as if I was driving.

On board the ferry, finally, I bought tea, did some work on my laptop and then sat on top deck in the hot sunshine, watching the water roll back in frothy white waves alongside the boat.

We managed a swim, my Mama and I, and played catch in the water too. Later in the evening, when all I wanted was to sleep, we went to visit the nuns, her nuns, her friends. We listened to them, and some children, play piano and flute and sing songs. It was quite delightful but by 9.15pm I was well and truly ready for bed.

This morning I finished off my work, sitting in the shade of the oleander and the mandarin tree my brother planted over 30 years ago and then, later, we walked down into the harbour to buy some yummy veggies and olives. Now, I shall be going for a walk in the hills to Javorna to get some swimming and peace on a far away beach, hopefully able to cool down in the sea for a while before trekking back across the hills, the dust of the paths sticking again to my hot skin.

Tonight we have a fresh fish BBQ at a my uncle and aunt's, along with numerous cousins and their children. It will be a good feed for sure, though I hope I can avoid the customary 'appetiser' that I have never enjoyed, to my mind too much like paint stripper. Terribly ungrateful of me, I know.