THE PAPAYA-COCONUT DIARIES

All homes have names here in Brdo. This one is called 'Keko', apparently it does not have any special meaning, it is just a nickname.
I wake up to a wonderful breakfast of plums pulled right out of the trees in front of the house. Grapes from vines growing in a canopy over the front entrance of the house were we will sit to have our meal. Sitting out here enjoying the gift of homemade cheese made by neighbors, bread, jam and tea with a beautiful view of the mountains, fruit trees all around what else could I ask for.
Now off to the beach with Irma. It's in a village called Korom Ačno, 38 km from Brdo. A small pebbled beach, the water is very pleasant. the salty water is quite a treat from this extreme heat. The temperature is about 30+. The clear waters allows one to see the tiny fish swimming close to the shore. However, care must be taken when walking down the beach and into the water. The rocks can be a challenge. You must either wear watershoes or plastic shoes to avoid slipping or cutting yourself on the rocks. Locals swim with their plastic shoes on and once I tried walking in the water I could understand why. I came close to slipping into the water a few times. We collected seawater in a couple of bottles brought in for that purpose and off we went after a couple of hours in the sea. The seawater collected was delivered to a sick neighbor who uses it as a therapeutic bath for sore joints.
Back to the Brdo house to clean up and a simple fare of homemade salad, sausage and bread.
I went to bed early as I was still feeling the effects of my travel.

August 19th, 2009

My plane left at 5: 45 pm to arrive the next day in Paris at 6:00 aprox. I then had to transfer to a smaller plane to get to Trieste, Italy and once there catch what I thought would be one bus, but turned out to be three buses to get to my destination of Rijeka, Croatia. 23hrs of travel later, I was picked up by Irma and Laura, the sisters who are kindly taking me in.
The third bus was a nightmare. The bus stopped suddenly in front of a small restaurant right by a highway and as I found out, had to walk on the side of the highway (no sidewalks) with two suitcases and a carry-on to a small hill on the side of the road, roll down my suitcases down the rocky road, getting caught in the branches protruding from the side of the road and Just as I was about to cry. The ticket-distributor on the bus felt sorry for me and grabbed one suitcase and helped roll it down the road. Later a king German tourist took the other and also helped me out.
I had been having trouble reaching the sisters on the phone to let them know I was arriving. The phone card I purchased in France was useless in Trieste and I had been unable to get local coins to call them. At the final destination, The kind German traveller, Marcus, insisted I use his cell (they call it Mobile, here) to call, even though it was a German phone and would probably cost him a fortune. He stayed until the bus driver gave instructions to the sisters on where I was. As it turns out, they were waiting at a different station, and then left once he felt I was ok.

Exhausted, dirty and sleepy, ( I can't sleep on planes, buses and cars) the trip was not yet over. The sisters stopped at a beautiful restaurant overlooking the sea down below (I'll post pics later on) to treat me to a meal. I had not realized how thirsty I was until I saw that I had finished an entire bottle of sparkling water. Driving up the winding roads felt very long. I did not time the ride, but we had to make yet another pit stop, this time in the village before Brdo to pick the pet dog, Moritza. It would have been impolite not to get out and chit-chat of course, I don't even remember what what said, at this point, I was fighting falling asleep in my chair.

Finally, welcome to Brdo, Istria.

August 14th, 2009

For the duration of this adventure my life will be like an open book to my friends, co-workers,neighbors,teachers (hi, Karim. Hi Pat) and family; uhhh, on second thought that's too scary. How about I share just some of my thoughts.

Most of you know this has been a long planning process, yet, I sometimes feel as though I did not really do any important planning mainly wasting time checking irrelevant info. Well, we'll see once I get there if any of the 'useless' research pans out.

Welcome and travel along with me through my trials and tribulations, through my tears, my joys,happy experiences and my journey into the unknown.

I hope a better person to become from this experience and so everyone:
HERE WE GO.......

[/quote]'THE BEST WAY TO PREPARE FOR LIFE IS TO BEGIN TO LIVE'.

Travelin'Betty