On the Road is a weekday feature spotlighting reader photo submissions.
From the exotic to the familiar, whether you’re traveling or in your own backyard, we would love to see the world through your eyes.
way2blue
I visited Croatia with my husband In 2009. I’d read somewhere that Italians vacationed in Croatia as it was cheaper and less crowded than Italy. A friend who toured Eastern Europe with her accordion gave me some tips on where to go… After a visit to Plitvice Lakes, we drove south and caught a ferry from Split to the island of Vis, off the Dalmatian Coast. Vis had served as a communist military base after WWII and had been closed to foreign visitors until 1989.
Cars park above the limestone village of Vis (on the island of Vis) which is transected by narrow lanes such as this one. Our hotel is marked by the small green sign on the left.
Me, viewing our first sunset on the quay at the end of our lane.
James Bond style yachts would tie up each evening, complete with uniformed staff to wash the windows. (Our first night, rowdy Russians—who had apparently just won a regatta—partied well past midnight in the dining room downstairs… )
View of the village from the opposite (NW) side of the bay.
I was intrigued by these odd stone hummocks. If anyone knows their purpose—please let me know…
The island has a rich, long history. This display, in the town’s Archaeological Museum, is a collection of wine casks (amphorae) retrieved from an ancient shipwreck.
Not the best photo, but I was intrigued by these children’s drawings from WWII. At first I thought they celebrated an Axis victory, but when I translated the Croatian, I found the child celebrated the opposite.
Locals told us that Josip Broz Tito (who’d led a resistance force of partisans against the Axis during WWII) hid out in a cave on the island at the end of WWII. So we decided to hike up to his cave on the island’s highest point, Hum Peak, for a look. [“ …Tito’s Cave, which the leader used as a Partisan hideout from the invading Nazi forces during the Second World War”; www.independent.co.uk] The hotel staff warned us to stay on the trail as a few years earlier someone had a leg blown off by stepping on a land mine left over from the Croatian War of Independence. Needless to say, the trail wasn’t well marked so it was slow going. We ended up walking on the tops of (ancient) dry stone walls, but called it quits at 4PM since we needed daylight to return to our car. Tito’s cave is in the rocky bluff in the center right of the photo.
eclare
Love the photos! I was in Croatia for two weeks in 2015, now I have another place to go back to. I stayed for a few days on the island of Brac, near Vis, and yeah, wow, the yachts!
Betsy
Are the stone hummocks on a former field for growing crops? I think I may see crop terraces on that hillside. If they are, maybe the farmers put the rocks in piles as the fields came under cultivation.
You plow a little section and pile the rocks in a pile, and the pile grows every years as more rocks are pulled out of the way of the plow.
In a very hilly field, it would make sense to have small piles because you can’t plow a long furrow all the way across the field anyway.
sab
I love that alley shot. I cannot imagine having your across the alley neighbors being able to look into and listen into your house like that.
Eunicecycle
I always enjoy the pictures from Croatia. My son-in-law’s mother and grandmother were from Croatia. They visited there several years ago; unfortunately the only Croatian my SIL speaks are swear words.
MazeDancer
How lovely.
Have to confess I had never heard of Vis. So great introduction.
Kristine
I’ve wanted to visit that area ever since I saw the Craig Casino Royale. Thank you for the lovely photos. I would enjoy staying in that hotel.
stinger
What a beautiful sunset! And I love the amphorae and the children’s drawings!
Sebastian
@Kristine:
That movie was shot in Montenegro which is small, beautiful, and completely overrun with Russians.
Croatia is beautiful beyond words. Not just the vista but also the vibe, the friendliness and no-nonsense yet relaxed attitude. Juicers would immediately feel at home.
I was born in Austria but am Croatian, grew up bilingual and bicultural and was fortunate to spend all my summers there.
Feel free to ask me anything, happy to answer to the beat of my abilities
eclare
@Sebastian: I absolutely loved Croatia! In my two weeks there (we rented a car), we saw Zagreb, Plitvice, Brac, Dubrovnik, and Zadar. It’s a gem, relatively cheap, and very few Americans and chain stores. I also noticed a lot of public infrastructure, nice highways, walking promenades, the sea organ at Zadar, etc.
JanieM
Fascinating and enticing, and people’s comments are adding to the effect.
Love the alleyway — and am trying to wrap my head around walking to the end of it and finding water!
The wine casks remind me of a book I read called Extra Virginity, about olive oil. It tells about attempts to enforce what we might call truth in labeling — at least back to Roman times.
way2blue
@Betsy: Could be. The regularity of the pattern confused me, and that the orientation of the piles alternated between down-dip & across-dip. Yes, evidence of terracing lingers on the hill slope.
@Kristine: The hotel was wonderful. Outside untouched, inside ‘euro sleek’. Maybe eight rooms. Renovated by a local who had just brought in an Italian chef and served wine from his vineyard on Vis. Sometimes you’re lucky…
Sebastian
@eclare:
The social infrastructure is because the country was part of communist Yugoslavia, a lot of bureaucracy is still wired that way and it’s a European country so there is a certain minimum expected which is much higher than anything in the USA.
Another reason is a national unity born in shared suffering and sacrifice during the brutal war for independence in the 90ies.
I asked one of my cousin about the rocks, he had no idea but he offered an interesting tidbit: Vis has such mild climate that they grow tomatoes for Christmas. He lives in Varazdin, north of the capital Zagreb, and they have snow and freezing temperatures right now.
way2blue
@Sebastian: I think I learned three words in Croatian while there (hello, thanks, yes… ). My sense of the language was that it sounded like Russian, but with an Italian energy to the cadence. The lack of vowels—when written in the Latin alphabet—was challenging to decipher…
way2blue
@eclare: We drove back to Ljubljana along the Dalmatian Coast. Stunning vistas of the Adriatic Sea along the way.
way2blue
@Sebastian: Vis had a thriving agriculture & fishing economy when we visited. Although we were told that English tourists were knocking on doors in the village and offering to buy their homes. (I hope the island has been able to shield their culture from such pressures.) The seafood was amazing by the way; our last night we ate at a small outdoor restaurant on the quay. First time I’ve had the chef come out with a tray of fresh fish & ask which one I wanted… (Red scorpion fish with a ragout of eggplant, tomatoes & onions.)
way2blue
@stinger: I managed to translate the writing (via Google) on the poster »
< Naši saveznici su oborili 2 njemačka aviona; živjeli saveznici / Our allies shot down 2 German planes; long live the allies >
Sebastian
@way2blue:
It is a Slavic language like Russian (which is a big outlier in the group btw), Polish, Ukrainian, Czech, Slovak, Bulgarian, and others. Well observed with the Italian/Mediterranean cadence!
Sebastian
@way2blue:
The translation is correct :)
Sebastian
@way2blue:
Oh you will have that kind of experience all over Dalmatia (Croatian coast). We once sat in a restaurant having drinks and being undecided what to eat. Unlike in the States the whole dinner thing is a rather prolonged affair of slowly drinking and snacking.
So as we sat there a boat (10ft maybe) with an old dude pulled up. His skin was like old leather, deepest tan I’ve seen and wrinkly. The maitre d’’mason stepped off the terrace and walked over, all that is happening less than 30ft away from where we are sitting.
The old guy is showing him his catch and the maitre picked a bunch of them and a few minutes later he and a strong young waiter carrying an oval silver platter 4ft wide with all the fish lined up came to our table and asked us which one we would like and how they should prepare it.
It was a big ass Branzino pan fried in Olive oil and garlic accompanied with swiss chard and potatoes (blitva! National side dish) that ended up in our bellies with copious amounts of wine!
No name
@Sebastian: just a little closer to Zadar and I would think that fisherman was my uncle! Still cannot make blitva the way my aunts did.
Sebastian
@No name:
What’s not working? You know you have to boil the chard in saltwater first to get the bitterness out, right? The potatoes need plenty of salt when boiling too.
Only then you combine it with lots of olive oil and garlic.
You are adding Vegeta, right? Without Vegeta nothing will taste like at aunties or grandmas :)
No name
@Sebastian: I don’t have Vegeta, of course that’s the reason!
Even when it doesn’t taste the same it brings back memories of sitting around the kitchen table with everyone talking at once.
Sebastian
@No name:
Lol indeed and no conversation can be so important it cannot be immediately interrupted by an inquiry if you are hungry or had enough to eat.
Vegeta has MSG and it truly makes everything taste better! World Market stocks it and it’s available on amazon. There are very few dishes that aren’t improved by a pinch or more of Vegeta!
No name
No name
@Sebastian:
I was frequently asked if I had had enough to eat, as my aunts were adamant that I was too skinny!
Puno hvala for the shopping info.