Croatia: 2nd Hand Smoke, Miscellaneous Thoughts and Kolaci...Part 13

Hello everyone! We have now been in Croatia for 2 weeks. It has flown by...and it feels like forever, if that makes sense. We have really had the best weather here with only one day of rain. It has been very hot...in the 80s and just slightly humid here in Ogulin. (It was a bit more humid by the sea and made my hair curly every day, but nothing like Pensacola, Jillian! Thank goodness!!) This week it has been perfect weather for afternoon naps.

After today's nap, we prepared to meet Darko in order to go visit his aunt, and our cousin, Marica. (Pronounced Marreetsa) As I sat drinking my 3rd cappuccino of the day I asked my mom about the cigarette smoke here. It had been quite bothersome to us when we first arrived, but seemed like there had been less around us lately. We couldn't decide if there was truly less or if we had just become accustomed to it. Then Mom coughed...hahaha. I called it her second-hand smoking cough. We may both need nicotine patches when we get home. Every time she coughs I tease her that she needs to quit. But that would mean that she needs to quit breathing. It is true, though, that it is not bothering me so much. We will probably return home and wonder why the air smells strange.

A note on the cappucinos and my cousins: The capps. are served in a 6 oz coffee cup and are quite dainty, so do not worry that I am on a huge caffeine binge. My cousin, Darko, keeps teasing me by ordering them with an exaggerated Italian accent...cappucciiiiiiiino! Darko is just a little older than me. His father, Mato, is actually my mothers 1st cousin, so Darko is her 2nd cousin...and, somehow, he is my cousin too. His daughter, Tea, is also a cousin? I fear that we need a geneology expert to sort all this out. In the mean time, I have decided that we are all just cousins and I will leave it at that.

Speaking of our cousins, I told Mom today that I miss all the girls. Tea and Mirella and Marianna and Nada! Darko is good company, but there is nothing quite the same as "girlfriend" time. Am I right, girls? We are surely missing all of them. Nada is at her home by the sea. Tea, at work in Zagreb, an hour away. Marianna has gone back to Istra...the coastal peninsula of Croatia where the cities of Pula and Rijecka are located. Marella is in Munich this week with her family for Octoberfest. Yes, I know it is not October, but as they say here in their lovely Croatian accent "NEVER MIND!!" 

We did get to see Marica this evening and she had baked us many kolaci (little cakes). One was like an apple pie wrap, one a layered cookie with ground nuts and raisins, and she also made delicious little mild butter cookies. You have to understand that this lovely woman is very old, walks on her extremely swollen legs with a decided limp and a cane...and yet she baked us all these wonderful goodies. She is a very generous woman, will not accept any gifts from my mother, and barely allows us to thank her for her kindness. Her eyes sparkle, though, and I loved it today when she smiled and patted me on the cheek and rattled on in Croatian. She was telling me that I looked 15 instead of almost 50...another reason why I like her so much! haha! We will see her again tomorrow morning after we do a bit of digging around at the local parish for more of my mother's family records.

We are back at the hotel. Darko bought me a "night cap" for the evening before he left - another cappuciiiino! There is a big soccer match on TV tonight, a Zagreb club verses a very good team from Madrid. Mom and I will likely head to bed a bit earlier. We need to be up and ready for breakfast by 8:00. Darko comes at 8:30 for coffee- kava - and we will head back to the village where Marica lives. In the afternoon we plan to drive to Rastoke where there are lakes and waterfalls...similar to Plitvice National Park, only on a smaller scale. Darko loves this place more than the big park and it is closer to Ogulin.

Doviđenja until the next update and, from us, good night!

Love,

Bernadette