We arrived in Venice in the dark. We retrieved our rental car, also in the dark. My brother-in-law navigated the two and a half hour drive to the house he and my sister bought near Porec on the peninsula of Istria, also in the dark. Consequently, the first Croatian sight I gained was a grocery store!
I loved it. I loved the incomprehensible signs. I was fascinated by the labels on tins and packages. I was delighted at the furtive (or open!) glances in our direction when we casually spoke English among ourselves. I loved paying using kuna, the local currency.
I loved being in Europe!
When morning kissed the sun awake, the delights tripled. I loved the stone walls that guarded the tiny, twisting roads. I drank in the way the olive trees in their silver dresses tried to out-do others dramatically clad in gold, bronze, copper, and crimson. I thrilled to the way the gentle hills and the valleys separating them painted so lovely a backdrop.
And then we got to the sea...
My sister and her husband both had some errands to run - would it be all right if I wandered by the Adriatic on my own for a while?
I would have loved to see them try and stop me.
The sea was tranquil and smooth. The waves lapped at the pebbles on the beach in a teasing invitation to play. Clear and dazzling in the warm sunshine, reflections gamboled and jostled for position. I wandered about in this dream-world, getting my feet wet, contented to the core.
A sea-haze obscured my view of the 'old town' across the bay, but soon, as it cleared, I could see a herd of sails, white and ethereal - a class of sailboarders - take to the waves. The spire of the Basilica, built in 586, towered over its compatriots on the shoreline behind them. The spell was complete. I was hooked...
That water's beautiful! Everything I've seen of the Adriatic looks wonderful.
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