July 10-12, 2013 Croatia and Venice!
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| Dave and Zia in Opatija - taking a selfie with a real camera is a little complicated! |
A four hour drive took Vera, Z and myself to the Croatian
coast and the little berg of Opatija – a pretty little casino town on the
Adriatic Sea. Although I guess they are
all pretty little casino towns on the Adriatic.
We ambled about the waterfront for a bit and watched the increasingly
ominous black clouds move in. About the
time the lightning strike hit the bay just off the shore with instantaneous thunder,
there was a mass exodus off of the beach – including us!
We hit a machine to get some Kunas, or as the smart-alecky
American quickly retitled them, Kahunahs, and then stopped and enjoyed an espresso
at the Café Bar of the Bellevue Optija and a really great vegetable quesadilla
at the walk up stand down the street.
Back into the car, we left with the rain and jumped over the mountains.
*****
I am startled of course, but no longer surprised, that I am
alive to write this rant. In the course
of our journey today I have had near misses with a bus, a couple of trucks,
many cars, brain-trust motorcycle riders, and even a girl on roller blades
while walking down the street in Opatija.
At one point, nearing a stop light on a corner, and following a large
truck, I was passed on the left by a Darwin-Award winner, who then raced to the
trucks right to get to the
intersection first, narrowly missing death and dismemberment from the truck
driver, who evidently has very good breaks. Of course then missing the short green light
while he patted himself on the back for his exploits probably didn’t win him
any friends either.
And I thought Serbia was bad!
*****
We traveled over the mountains and through more tunnels than
I have ever seen in my life. The best
was the magic three-mile long tunnel with rain on one side and sun on the
other! Back to nice weather again, we
dodged the traffic back down to the coast.
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| Old Town in Poreč at night |
We ended our day in picturesque Poreč. I’m pretty sure that I have seen this façade in
plenty of Hollywood movies. Either that
or it looks just like plenty of façades in Hollywood movies. For example, it’s not the old town at the end
of the first Bourne flick, but it could be a body-double for it.
The old town area, as you would expect, is full of people,
stores, people shopping in the stores, people, restaurants, people eating in
the restaurants, and more people. And
this is a Wednesday. I shudder to think
about it on a weekend. Taking a clue
from our surroundings, we bought a couple postcards, found a place to eat, and
then returned, exhausted, to our pension.
You can find an agency to rent an apartment in most European
cities. Ours is a one-bedroom with a
small deck and a little kitchenette. The
small bedroom has a king bed and a rollaway shoehorned in it. There is a small bathroom with a shower. As we are only sleeping and eating here, it
is perfect!
*****
7/11
A 5:30 a.m. wake-up was our fate this morning, as we needed
to be at the port early enough to clear customs for our 8:00 hydrofoil to
Venice. It seems Venice is in a
different country (go figure), and we have to get passport stamps and the
all-important security vetting. I had
never been vetted before I went to Europe, now it happens all the time! Of course, in the US you have “background
checks,” but those aren’t as fancy. Long
story short, all this means that you need to arrive an hour early to catch your
flight – errr, boat.
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| On Rialto Bridge in pretty Venice |
Once checked in and seated, they take you through your
preflight – err, sail – in four languages, Croatian (authoritarian voice), British
English (dour), Italian (sounding as if he seriously couldn't give a shit about
your safety or anything else) and Russian (sounding as if it was recorded from
the top of a deep well). The preflight –
err , sail – is just like the ones on the airplane, except that your seat,
strangely, cannot be used as a flotation device. We then hit our cruising speed of 35 knots,
about 40.2772807 miles per hour (but who’s counting), and in a little over two hours
we were there.
Venice has been on my travel bucket list ever since I
started realizing that you could actually go visit these places 20 years
ago. The actual line item reads “Go to
San Marco and play Gabrieli in the chapel.”
We should all have dreams, but odds of getting to play there were surely
to be unrealized this trip. That said, I
greatly looked forward to scouting it out for my next trip with 11
brass-playing friends.
We cleared Italian customs and took a brisk 50 minute walk with
our Tour Dude to San Marco Square.
Venice, as it turns out, is a maze – one we had a lot of fun exploring
later. I’m OK with a map and probably
could have made it, but it was nice, and probably faster, to have a green
umbrella to follow. Thanks Tour Dude!
The Piazza San Marco was everything I expected – with the
possible exception of how really very small it is. It turns out movie camera make things look a
lot bigger, who knew? My favorite movie
view of the square is from the Bruce Willis flick “Hudson Hawk,” but I’m sure
you have your own, there being a million of them. Z and Vera left to “explore” (i.e. “shop for
shoes”), and I joined the line to check out the basilica.
OK Uncle Dave, why is Saint Marks on you bucket list?
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| Crossing San Marco off of the bucket list! |
Well my friends, a long time ago, in an empire far, far away,
there was a period of music referred to in Dr. Bob’s Music History Class (and
everywhere else for that matter) as the Renaissance. The three guys who brought this musical
period to its crowning glory all worked here.
The space had a lot to do with how they did their jobs as composers, and
I looked forward to being inspired.
The three guys, you ask?
Andrei Gabrieli, who invented stereo, and after him, his nephew Giovanni,
who invented dynamics (he was the first guy to write it into a piece of music),
who was followed by Claudio Monteverdi, who also wrote a pretty tune.
Stereo, in this case meaning “antiphonal,” is the practice
of two groups playing call-and-response across distances. Having played this music in some frightfully
large concert halls, I was always curious how they did it “back in the day.” It turns out it probably wasn’t so difficult,
as the platforms the musicians played from were not as far apart as I thought
they were and certainly not as far apart as the way we perform the stuff now. They were, however, far enough apart to give the
sound some separation (stereo-effect).
And this is why you go see the stuff where it happened. It gives you some insight into how the
composer thinks and works, especially in this case. It would be a thrill to see it in person.
Tour books will tell you that you will stand in line for
hours to get into San Marco, but it only took me about 10 minutes on the
Thursday morning. Be prepared to check
your bag at the door. Your clothing will
be inspected before you are allowed to enter, and looking too “touristy” will
get you spiked. Bare shoulders are
out. Shorts that are excessively short
also get you the boot. In short, you are
entering a church, show some respect, huh?
Surprisingly, some folks (Americans mostly) have a hard time
with this, the two young women in line in front of me for example. Two older ladies, who had just finished their
tour, walked by and, upon seeing the bare shoulders of the young women, made a
gift to them of the cloth they had brought to cover themselves with. All the way to the front of the line, they
were making it clear that they would not be wearing this over their shoulders,
it was too hot, not attractive, etc, etc.
As I passed the women at the entrance, they were still arguing with the
door guard about how they were not going to wear the unattractive cloth, and he
was making it clear they weren't getting in without it.
My reasons for visiting St. Marks were primarily musical, so
you can imagine how delighted, thrilled, overwhelmed and overcome I was to walk
into the chapel to the sounds of a live choir singing Monteverdi. I’m not sure where they were in the sanctuary,
but they were very good – a few dropped notes in the chant between tunes being
the only clue that it was not a recording.
Well, that and no obvious sound reinforcement equipment. It was stunning. It was beautiful. The memory of it will haunt me for a long
time. Why aren't you out making these
kinds of memories?
*****
After a tour of the beautiful cathedral and a visit to the
gift shop to procure enough “educational material” to ensure my tax write-off
of this trip, I made my way back outside to find Z and Vera. Regrettably, they had gotten lost – easy to
do in Venice. There are signs painted on
buildings all over everywhere. The hard
part is believing that this little passage between these two buildings is the
correct path (and won’t lead you to the friendly neighborhood mugger). You get better at finding your way around as
the day progresses, and you finally get pretty good at it just about the time
you leave. With the help of some
descriptions back and forth on the cell to each other and the map in my pack,
30 minutes later we were reunited.
We enjoyed lunch at a little café on a side street. In Venice, you will pay an extra surcharge to
sit down to eat. Watch the menu fine
print for this. If you would like to
save a buck, go to one of the many walk-up places that don’t charge the fee.
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| The whole crew - Z's the one with the camera |
On any given day in high season, Venice will have 100,000
tourists. Between this, the flooding
(remember kids, as our friends in congress will tell you, there is no such
thing as global warming), and the extreme cost of everything, the locals are
moving away in droves. Our Tour Dude,
who makes this trip all year around, told us that except for high season and
Carnival, Venice is a ghost town/museum piece.
As hard as it is to get through the crowds, we could use a little of
that today.
We had a beautiful day visiting a beautiful city. I wish we had more time, but as Peter always
tells me “if you see it all this trip, you have nothing to look forward to next
trip.” Although I get to cross Venice
off my bucket list, I can hardly wait to return and see the many things I
missed this trip. But for us today, back
to Poreč for people, dinner, shopping, and then to bed.
*****
7/12
Croatian Driving Rules:
Should you ever need to drive in Croatia here are the rules,
and good luck to you:
1) 130 kph on the freeway unless otherwise marked –
usually 110 kph
a.
This, of course, does not apply if you are from
Zagreb, in which case you must drive as fast as you think you can control plus
an extra 10 kph
2)
50 kph in town
a.
This of course does not apply if you are from
Zagreb, in which case you are expected to nearly miss as many things as is
humanly possible. Records will be kept,
and your license removed, for failure to do so.
3)
It really doesn't matter what is in front of you
– go ahead and pass. Blind corner, no
biggie. Big truck you can’t see around,
who cares? The other car from Zagreb
barreling at you at 2000 kph will surely hit their breaks, right? Likewise the car you are passing. Especially when you are doing both at the
same time.
4)
100 kph in tunnels, of which there are a lot in
Croatia.
a.
Needless to say, Zagreb-ians traveling lass that
50,000 kph through a tunnel will be cited.
5)
If you have been on the road for an hour and
have not faced death at least five times – not serious injury, the big sleep,
you are not in Croatia, and certainly not in Zagreb.
I was getting excited when I heard in the original plans for
this trip that I would get to drive in Italy.
Italian drivers have the reputation of being amongst the worst in the
world and I was looking forward to seeing if my skills were ready for
primetime. As always, our trip followed “the
Oregon Plan,” and hence our sea voyage rather than the drive. All I can say for sure is that if Italian
drivers are amongst the worst I really don’t need to see them anymore. Their neighbors in Croatia are more than up
for their title run. Our one hour trek
from Poreč to Opatija was full of moments that were a testament to my mad
skills as a driver and the Opel’s great brakes – or blind luck as the case may
be. In any case, I’m good on the bad
driver experience, and really don’t need to experience it again.
A special Darwin Award mention goes to the gentleman who
passed us in a space with so little room that both the folks in the oncoming
car and myself were forced to lock up the brakes to save his sorry rear
end. And then he did it again in the
next “gap!” Obviously life is cheap in
Zagreb.
*****
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| The harbor in Opatija is a pretty place |
Back in Opatija we allowed the nerves to calm with a swim in
the Adriatic. You can rent a beach chair
with a ubiquitous orange, red and blue umbrella for 70 Kahunahs a day, about $13.00. At this time of the year the Adriatic is like
coldish bath water, but I am told it warms up.
We enjoyed a great swim until about 4:00 in the afternoon when Z stepped
on a sea urchin. She says they are
painful, fyi. After removing as many of
the spines as we could, we called it a day and headed for home.
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