Croatia: Home Cooked Meal!...Part 10

My cappuccino morning turned into a cappuccino afternoon. Walked down to Stari Grad and sat alone with my coffee. Mom was working on emails at the hotel. It was very quiet there, probably because it was too hot for anyone to be out drinking coffee. Despite the cappuccino, the heat won out and I took a nice long nap when I got back to the hotel. 

After being awakened at 6pm (yes, 6pm), I dressed for dinner which was to be at Ivanka's home. She is our cousin Darko's girlfriend. She and I were both born in May of the same year. She has a daughter, 24, who attends college in Zagreb. Ivanka works as a secretary and is going through treatments for lung cancer. She is a very kind and lovely woman. She lives in her family home...the home she grew up in. It is larger than most I have seen. It is set up as an upstairs apartment and one on the main floor. He mother lives downstairs, she is upstairs. The original home was smaller, but was added on to. The hope here is to make the house bigger so the children will settle there when they are married and have families, but this does not often happen anymore. Just as in the US children travel to the bigger cities for college and more job opportunities. Ivanka's home is just a few kilometers out into the countryside.

We enjoyed a lovey meal of risotto with peas and carrots, lightly pickled peppers and cucumbers, bread, and ražnjići -  a Craotian meat kebab. She made two kinds. One with pork and bacon, the other wtih chicken and bacon. It was delicious. After dinner I stood out on her small balconey and looked at the stars and the almost full moon. So interesting to know that though we live half a world away, the night sky seems the same. Same big dipper, same north star. It was a very peaceful evening with only the sound of crickets to break the silence. This, too, reminded me of home. Her yard is modest in size and lined with fruit trees. The back has a large building that serves as a garage and has an area for her mother's chickens. I was such a treat to enjoy Ivanka's hospitality and to be out in this rural setting.

As we stood outside, I told Darko about Mt. Spokane and about Green Bluff, where local families go to enjoy fresh produce. Ogulin has it's own mountain, called Klek. It is very famous. It's outline against the sky is said to look like a witch who is lying down. You can see the outline of her face, then a distance away is her feet. Witches, good and bad are a large part of the folklore here. Klek was also the home of the first Croatian mountain climbing society. You can hike to the top of the mountain, but no one can talk mom and me into trying it out this trip. :) There is also good skiing not far from here. The Croatian Olympic team trains on a mountain about 50 kilometers from Ogulin.

Tomorrow there will be a celebration of the town's birthday. Ogulin is older than the whole United States and will recognize it's 511th birthday tomorrow. There will be a parade in the afternoon that we will attend with Darko. He want's to meet us for coffee in the morning and then show us some more historical sites in the area.

So, off I go. My mom just poked her head around the corner to see if I'd been kidnapped or something. I explained to her that the computer suddenly shut itself off in the middle of typing this up. I thought I had lost everything. Once they got the computer started again and logged on, they discovered that my note was still sitting here ready to be finished and sent. I am very glad because I would not have bothered to rewrite it. So, I will join "Momma Louisa" now. Perhaps we'll find a movie to watch. After sleeping till 6:00 I'm not sure how soon I will be able to sleep tonight. TV here can be amusing. This afternoon I found "Support Your Local Gunfighter" starring James Garner and Suzanne Pleshette on the Croatian channel. It was broadcasting in English with Croatian subtitles. There are also a lot of channels in German here at this hotel. I watched a version of HGTV that was all in German, and surfed passed the Simpsons, dubbed in German. Last night mom and I also watch Hawaii Five-O - again, with Croatian subtitles. So we'll see what we find tonight. Wish I hadn't finished my novel. Oh well, hopefully I'll be able to fall asleep by midnight.

Good night from Croatia! Laku noć!

Bernadette