We made the 4 hour drive from Croatia into Hungary yesterday. Went well ... off to explore some more of Budapest today.
Photos to follow.
This Morning in Rijeka
One of things I love best when I travel is developing a sense of ease and familiarity in each new place and so, when Julie woke with a headcold this morning and I woke with a desire for a good espresso, we agreed I should coffee and she should drink her tea and wake slowly.
It's a crispy autumn morning here in Rijeka, tons of sunshine ... I needed my jacket and scarf. We're right on the sea here, so the air is clear.
We have a favourite cafe here in the city. Just below us, on the Korso, and we love it for all kinds of reasons. The espresso is superb, the food is good too, and the staff are friendly and speak impeccable English. I would recommend the Filodrammatica Bookshop Caffe here in Rijeka without resevation.
Sitting there in the sun watching the world go by got rid of the last of yesterday's headache. And a good night's sleep did the rest. We're off to Budapest today, with me still feeling a little like Alice, that girl who fell down a rabbit hole and into Wonderland.
But first ... we must find out how to rescue the car from the carpark we left it in. There's the small matter of a lost carparking ticket. Here's to it ending well.
A Quiet Afternoon in Croatia
The sun is shining here in the city of Rijeka, and although we went wandering this morning ... finding a market, a park, and a beautiful coffee-making cafe, I have returned to the apartment to write a long-promised post for another website I admire.
And I'm nursing a headache. One of those ones that come from an old neck injury that doesn't respond well to this thing and that thing ... maybe one or many of those things I have done these last few days. I'm hoping to 'rest' my way out of it here in the quiet of the apartment.
Meanwhile Julie's off to climb 500 steps to the top of a hill that we were told we must visit. She has her camera. I shall live vicariously through her images. And the sun is pouring down on me as I sit here, next to the window, about to begin working. Adele is singing.
Tot straks.
Rijeka, Croatia
Ever found yourself in a country you didn't expect to visit ...?
I did that today and it has knocked the ground out from under me. Julie drove us from Verona to Rijeka - some 335kms - via Slovenia, where a very serious border guard checked our passports before letting us through.
Admittedly, we did drive away giggling, as Julie had been wearing a skimpy singlet due to the heat. There she was, leaping out of the car to dig her passport out of the car boot.
I didn't expect that. Initially we were two rather startled kiwis, there at that border crossing.
We arrived in Rijeka, met our lovely Air B&B hostess and enjoyed chatting with her as she showed us around this pretty little apartment in downtown Rijeka. Air B&B is a great way to travel - thank you to Julie for convincing me on that one.
This beautiful apartment is 94 euro for two nights, is completely self-sufficient. We would recommend you stay here, without hesitation. I'll link to it after taking some photographs ... don't worry.
I speak no Croatian but we've been lucky. The Croatians here have beautiful English and have been very easy to approach. I am so grateful.
For the first time in a long time, I knew no one here and that has been odd too. But I learned long ago, look around for someone who might share your taste and ask them ... where would be a nice place to eat dinner, for example.
The young couple I asked sent us to Ristorante Spagho where the lovely waiter recommended a Pinot Crni by Krauthaker. We have a fish restaurant, recommended by our hostess, planned for tomorrow night. We just made the mistake of imagining dinner would be easy tonight.
Ristorante Spagho provided us with a delicious dinner for two, costing about 35euro in total and accompanied by a nice glass of red wine, or two. Let's not talk of the mistake I made in ordering a dish containing peppers.
They don't use euros here ... I am so ignorant. 50 euro= 380.724 Croatian Kuna.
But no photographs today. It was all about traveling, it was about having the brand new GPS die ... less than 1km from our destination ... Again!!! We nursed it today but that didn't seem to help. It almost seems like a bug in the programme. As in, when you get close to your destination, as soon as that destination flag appears with just a few streets to travel, the battery dies in this particular GPS.
Is it the rental car and a faulty cigarettte lighter charge? Is it the GPS? We hope to find out before Budapest ...
We're exhausted. Photographs to follow in the days ahead.
Verona, Italy
It's been a freefall into life and people and adventures lately ...
A. Free. Fall.
Sometimes I've found myself wondering if I might hit the wall, other times it has been about 'when' I would hit that wall.
And people. It has been a festival of folk I adore, or folk I have come to adore. And family. And everyone else too.
But tonight ... tonight finds me, in Verona, Italy, listening to Zucchero, Pavarotti, and Bocelli singing Miserere. Introducing Julie to the music of Zucchero actually... because we need him in the car as we roadtrip tomorrow and because she confessed that, like me, she loves Pavarotti.
We ate dinner at Locandina Cappello tonight and matched a delicious pasta with a delightful red wine ... a Valpollicella Classico Superiore Ognisanti Bertani DOC. I wouldn't mind finding some more of that particular red wine.
You see we had wandered through the old city centre, in search of the perfect place to have our 'first night in Italy' dinner, and realised that we are really looking forward to wandering in tomorrow morning's first light. It seems like a pretty city ... and while Genova has my heart and soul, it seems my head could be slightly turned by Verona.
Although that turn of head might be because of the kindness of strangers here. You see, just before we arrived at our 'tricky to find anyway' destination, and after Julie had driven 201kms, our NEW GPS died. For some reason it wasn't receiving a charge from the car's cigarette lighter ...despite me pressing it in there when we got the low battery warning.
So there we were, in the ancient part of the city ...without directions.
I saw a man walking along the street, and stopped him to ask for directions. He turned on his phone, pulled up his GPS, frowned, sighed a little, and gave us a couple of options on locating this difficult to find street. He apologised for the complications we would encounter.
We set off and ended up taking the most difficult option while managing to follow his spoken directions then we saw two young men walking along the street and we stopped so I could ask them if they could help a little. They turned on their phones, turned on their GPS function ... our street didn't come up and they admitted that while they were studying in Verona, they weren't from Verona.
We 3 stopped a woman walking by ... as you do, gently and politely, and she had no English but the young men spoke with her. I saw some head-shaking and heard muttering. I asked if it was complicated and yes, I was told. Very. She apologised and left.
We drove on. I saw a guy walking along the street and stopped him to ask. We had parked the car by now. He was a local and said he was in no hurry to go home and that he would walk us there. And he did.
But, of course, we had no street number and so it was that another kind stranger, seeing us looking confused and staring at our papers while talking to our rescuer, came out and asked if he might help. But he wasn't sure either ... and then another neighbour came over, and she offered her advice, and then another neighbour.
And suddenly, just as we were wandering off to the viccolo with the same name, The Guy arrived and we were rescued. He took up up upstairs to this cute little student flat/summer Air B&B. And here we are, after a delicious dinner in this ancient city ... the location of a story I studied so long ago, back home in New Zealand, never imagining that one day I might wander by Juliet's balcony while searching out a place for dinner, one September evening in 2013.
Autumn ...
hello, autumn... hello, smell of smoke in the air. hello, hot cups of ginger tea with a cookie on the side, hello chilly evenings, hello colors spreading from mountaintops down, down down into the valleys here below.
Nina Bagley, extract from her blog Ornamental
If I had to describe the place I would most like to live then a location like Nina's would be high up on the list. Her blog is the place where I go when the need to wander off and be quiet is upon me and I can't physically go anyplace.
In fact there's a novel I've been writing since those days when I was an airforce officer's wife. It's a story that has retained the same main character but one that has reshaped itself as I have moved countries and lives. She always has a dog, lives someplace beautiful but slightly isolated, and her life has been simplified.
She was a war photographer, so I researched post-traumatic stress and Iraq and the Green Zone and so many other places where people like her go, filled with the conviction that if people just knew the truth of those places and situations, they would rein in the monsters who create wars.
My bookshelves have more than a few war journalists and photographer biographies sitting there, next to the climbers stories. Another people who fascinate me.
But there's still no dog in my life. Everyone feels compelled to remind me of the responsibility when I bring up my desire to have a dog again. They tell me ... the woman who has had dogs since she was 9 years old, that it's a big decision.
I don't roll my eyes ... well, not visibly but it does get boring. I rode horses, had cats, my daughter had a pony. There are things I just know by now.
Another birthday soon. Another year older and, oddly enough, I'm enjoying these years. I'm becoming less concerned about what people think of me, how I 'should' look, and I'm turning down the self-censorship dial on those things I would like to say directly.
I learned the fine art of careful and considerate behaviour as a child, with a side-helping of all-consuming guilt if I slipped up and was honest or direct. It's almost fun unlearning these things. Fun and frustrating, and challenging too, but as long as I'm gentle ...
Autumn is here. It was crisp out there this morning. The pollution levels have been high recently. Our city is split by a ring road that has some of the heaviest traffic loading in Europe. We're a true crossroads and it's a nightmare living so close to a section of it. And then there's the industrial pollution.
It takes about 3 days for my system to begin to clear when I flit off to Genova, that spot by the sea that is close to some beautiful hills and mountains.
New Zealand ... out there the air was simply stunning. I would all but dance, delighting in the variety of scents the air carried as we journeyed there.
Wild thyme in Central Otago, then the seemingly limitless beech forests and lakes that give Fiordland that unforgettable smell. The wild west coast of the South Island, with the Tasman Sea crashing on one side while, on the other, the Southern Alps roar up into the sky. The scent of the sea and the glaciers, soaking wet glacial moraine and forests.
Mmmm, I'm not really a city girl ... must work that one out one day soon.
But today is all about packing and preparing for another journey. My cousin continues her journey back to New Zealand on October 8. We will say our farewells in Milan, after almost two months together. It's been good having someone around who shares a history, whose mother was my mother's much-loved older sister.
Sometimes, over these weeks, I've looked into Mum's eyes - Julie's are almost exactly the same. Mum died way back in 1999 and I've missed her often over the years. Anyway, it has been a time of 'remember when ...' and of familiarity, of picking over old wounds, and creating new stories to tell next time we meet.
We're off on a roadtrip to a part of Europe I haven't thought of exploring before. Although, admittedly, I do find it hard to go past Genova ...
But anyway, meet Julie. She was the model of choice one day out there in Piedmont on the photography workshop. Sandy and I photographed her, delighting in the colourful backdrop Diana provided with her delicious use of colour.
Julie has eyes just like my mother's.