Croatia 2003

Cec and I flew to Croatia and met Klaus, Zorana and Zorana's father Ljubomir on Unije, a little island floating in the Croatian Adriatic. Unije was a stress-relief miracle, I don't think I've ever been so relaxed. We spent almost two weeks doing absolutely nothing besides swimming, reading, sunning ourselves, watching satellites and shooting stars at night, and relying on the never-ending graciousness of Ljubomir our kind host. No work, no TV, no news, (no electricity). You'd think we'd have gotten bored after two weeks, but I could have stayed two years. It would be a good place to hide away for a while and write a book. Frankfurt, Germany Here are four shots from one of the long corridors at Frankfurt International. It was really cool how they set it up- there were slow changes in colour, as you see from the shots, but there was also some very mellow ambient music in the background, and I think they were pumping different fresh scents into the corridor as we walked by. The place reminded me of the interior of the ship in the movie 2001 by Kubric. Zagreb Zagreb airport wasn't hot, but it was happening. There were two MiG-21 interceptors on a runup ramp as we landed (they went by too fast for me to get a photo), and this line of helicopters—a brace of Mi-24 gunships and an Mi-17 transport. Seems like a lot of hardware for a relatively small airport. The terminal was swarming with Canadian military when we got inside, too—they must have been preparing to join KFOR in Kosovo next door. Closeup on one of the Mi-24s. There were also a line of UN helicopters near the terminal, half a dozen white-painted Mi-17s. We had a day and a night to bum around Zagreb, so we walked around taking in the architecture. One of the main squares in Zagreb. Croatian cats. The cafe quarter. The view from one of the hills. We assumed this bit of nice Austro-Hungarian looking architecture was a university. A lot of the architecture in Zagreb reminded us of Budapest. Zagreb central train station. Some pics of the Croatian hills and coast, shot from the train between Zagreb and Rijeka. View from the hills of the bridge connecting the island of Krk to the mainland. Unije Our first look at the town of Unije, the only settlement on the island. A couple of hundred people live here year-round, and that doubles or triples in the summer as people take vacation. The little red arrow on the left side of the photo points at Lubomir's house where we stayed. He's Serbian, and hadn't been able to get to the house for ten years while there was war and tension between Serbia and Croatia, but everything's cool now. Everyone on the island is incredibly laid-back and friendly. One of three ferrys that hopped between Unije and the other islands. This one is the Marina, the largest of the three. There was also the Ozalj, which we took to Maly Loshin, and a jet catamaran, which we took from Rijeka on the mainland. The small port of Unije, shot from the deck of one of two restaurants on the island. The first thing I noticed about Unije was how incredibly clear the water is. This is shot from the jetty at the little port. You can't tell from the photo, but the water is about 15 to 20 meters deep. A few days later we were diving from this spot. View from the jetty. We swam two or three times a day, every day we were there. The water was cool and lovely, and splashing around all day was free exercise. By the time we left the island we felt tan and fit. It was a pity we had to leave. Playing water polo. We were pretty bad at it, but it was fun. Panoramic collage of the view from the patio of Lubomir's house. You'll probably have to scroll right to see all of it. This is the view from where we ate every meal for two weeks. This pretty much sums up the whole vacation. Day after day of chess, books and beach. Absolute paradise. Cecilie, sitting at the restaurant. Cober and Klaus. Cober was Klaus and Zorana's best man when they were married in Novi Sad. Me relaxing in the shade. The temperature was around 25 to 30 degrees during the day and 18 to 22 at night. You had to stay in the shade between noon and around four, and it was a good idea to use a lot of suntan lotion pretty much constantly. Unije has pebble beaches instead of sand. I think I prefer that, because that way sand doesn't get everywhere. Lying down on the sun-heated pebbles feels like a warm back massage. Me looking about as relaxed as I've ever been in my life. It was good to get away. Golitsa and Sobor, catching a lift on a fishing boat to get back to the mainland. It turned into a nasty day later and we heard they were tossed around in a storm before they made port in Rijeka. Barbecue at night. We'd lost track of time playing chess and the sunset caught us by surprise. Unije sunsets on three different days.   Mali Losinj We took the ferry Ozalj to the neighboring island of Mali Losinj, which was much more populated than Unije (there were cars, for example). This is a view of the port. Shot from the Ozalj. Me, Ljubomir and Zorana having breakfast on Mali Losinj. One of the little streets in Mali Losinj. The architecture of the Croatian islands is much closer to Greek style, while mainland Croatia is more Austro-Hungarian. The feel of the islands is much more relaxed too. Floating veg shop on Mali Losinj. Some of the small boats that ply the coastal waters will come up to the ports and sell fish, while others sell veg. Going down to the port and wandering around the boats is a cute way of doing your daily shopping. It beats fighting through the crowds at Safeway. The islands are completely dependent on the mainland for supplies, so the ferries are always packed with tons of food and other stuff, coffee, bog roll, sandals, footballs, etc. Lots of things you wouldn't think about but which people need to get by from day to day. Here's a tractor on one of the other neighboring islands which has just loaded up on supplies from the Ozalj and is heading back to town. Heading back to Unije. Approaching the cliff on the western end of Unije. Leaving Unije Ljubomir, Cecilie and Klaus, waiting for the ferry to take Cec and I back to the mainland. It was a quarter to six in the morning here and we were all pretty zonked. Last view of Unije as the catamaran was pulling away. Back to the index page