Yesterday morning we docked portside at Zadar, Croatia and were whisked away on to go out on an all day “Off Road Photo Safari”.
Every trip has one of these kinds of experiences (y’know, the crappy kind)... and this was it. We drove through Zadar – which appeared to be a fairly prosperous city, and headed out into the countryside to visit a mountainous wildlife reserve, where we were to go “off-roading”. When the bus pulled up to where our “jeeps” awaited us, we knew something wasn’t right. The Land Rovers were really beat up – and they proclaimed happily how they were only going to put 6 of us into a vehicle that was meant to hold eight. Clearly these guys didn’t know how big Americans are. It was a squeeze and it was extremely uncomfortable. It was also screaming hot… and truth be told, I felt it was dangerous. No seat belts – they didn’t even bother checking the doors before pulling out. It was a pretty dicey situation.
We headed up the mountain on a bumpy gravel road. And then went up some more… and then some more. Of course since it was a caravan, everybody except the front Range Rover was enveloped in dust from the vehicle(s) in front. It was pretty awful.
We finally got about ΔΎ of the way up the mountain and stopped at this strange, small church that was an architectural blend of Greek and Byzantine… built in the 19th century. The area was a front line in the Bosnian war – and most areas off the road still have landmines. Kinda interesting. 40 minutes later our monotone and heavily accented tour guide was still blathering on about it while we were choking down lunch, which consisted of deep fried chicken cutlets, deep fried fish (mmm… fresh! Fried only hours ago!!!!). Slices of tomato, pepper and cucumber and chunks of bread (no, not slices. CHUNKS). Topped off with Croatian Coke (simple red wine) and warm water. Reminder, in case you all forgot: we’re on a cruise that celebrates food and wine….
This went on (no kidding) for another 4 hours. See a wide place in the road – stop, look at it for about 45 minutes… throw some rocks over the edge….lather, rinse repeat. We never did go “off roading”… just stayed on the gravel road on the mountainside. As it turns out, that’s probably a good thing. Anyway, on the last stop I told the poor guy leading the tour he needed to get us back to the ship pronto, and he obliged. He was going to go until 7…. I think he probably would have been murdered if he would have stopped those jeeps one more time.
Today, we awoke in Koper, Slovenia, and had a polar-opposite experience. The day started with a ride to the world’s most environmentally friendly fish farming operation. We got to go out (in a solar powered boat) to the pens in the Adriatic and feed the Branzino (Mediterranean Sea Bass). The outfit is run by a family of scientists – all of them deep environmentalists. It was an incredible experience, and we (FINALLY) now know how to buy fish that is truly fresh. The outfit is run by the Fonda family (yes, Jane is the aunt of the woman who runs the place, although none of them have ever met the acting family). After the fish farm experience, we then went on a tour of a vineyard that included taking specially trained dogs out to go truffle hunting – and they did in fact find one (dogs are better for finding truffles than pigs, as the pigs eat them as soon as they find them).
We headed back to the family homestead/winery, and they proceeded to feed us lunch, which consisted of pheasant pate’ with truffle shavings, goose garnished with proscuit, fresh tomatoes from the garden, and handmade pasta with truffle shavings. The winemaker spent about 2 hours with us sharing his wines, showing us his cellar and describing his farm and his country… it was awesome.
Slovenia is the 2nd smallest country in Europe after Luxembourg. Only 24 years old, it was formed after Yugoslavia was divided into sensible national boundaries that are based on centuries of history (Macedonia, Serbia, Croatia, Slovenia… I may be missing one or two). A lovely and wonderful place. Clean and green (75% is forest), no chemicals used in their food production, these people are trying mightily hard to live in harmony with the planet. It resonated intensely with both Jeff and I. Their national anthem is a drinking song – not a military march – and it speaks of love – our guide reminded us repeatedly the way you keep all these similar sounding country names apart from Slovenia is love – sLOVEnia. Today’s experience is what travelling is all about.
