Croatia

Getting Settled

After a long winter with (albeit some slices of beautiful sunshine in Italy) otherwise lots of rain and cold... the weather when we arrived was perfect. The first thing the kids did when we unloaded the bags was put on their swimsuits and ask to go to the beach. The clear blue water of the Adriatic Sea and the inviting palm frond covered tables right on the sand were just what we were hoping for. 

But, the apartment we'd rented for the month, was much smaller than we'd expected. Sometimes they have creative ways of estimating the size of places... One bedroom was open to the walkway where another apartment's guests would walk right by the door (where Collin was to sleep). The other bedroom was connected to the patio so if Jeff tried to work there, the kids would be under feet every time we came in or out. It did have a beautiful view of the sea and the owner greeted us with fresh greens from the garden, and, this beach was across the highway from it. But, we'd decided to change apartments if possible. Fortunately, the lady we'd rented from had some other apartments for rent so when we told her this just wouldn't work for us, we could hopefully rent her other place.

Despite her very limited English and us understanding only a little of her Croatian/mixed with German, we got this point across and she took us to see another place that morning. It was down the coast in a town called Omis, which was supposed to have some of the best kid friendly beaches on the coast.

This apartment didn't seem ideal at first, only one actual bedroom and the girls would be sleeping in the kitchen/living area, but it was much bigger and somehow, after we got settled in, it worked amazingly well for us. 

We said we'd take it for 5 weeks which was the max time she had available. Finally it was all settled, this Croatian lady was as nice as could be but we didn't think she would EVER stop talking. She didn't seem to care that we understood very, very little of what she was saying.

So, we headed to check out the beaches and get some lunch. Had imagined a waterfront pizzaria/grill for our first meal in Croatia, but this cafe with a playground won the vote.

Giant pizza with shrimp and chicken salad, first meal out in Croatia. Yum!

Five Weeks in Omis - The City of Pirates

After a week or so and I got used to to getting around with the kids here, I really started to love Omis and thought it turned out to be a perfect place for us to spend some time. It has two very kid friendly beaches, beautiful scenery (mountains, river, sea), a lovely shaded main street with a plentiful produce and fish market, several decent grocery stores, and a beautiful old town; all within walking distance of our apartment. 

Brooke already rode her scooter most places we went, but Savannah was in need of a new scooter. We also realized that we can never go back to drip coffee after getting used to espresso, and the kids needed summer shoes, so we drove up to the big mall in Split and bought these few things. 

The mall in Split by the way, has a huge indoor play area for kids that is FREE for two hours. Drop the kids off and shop or relax, just make sure they have socks. Awesomeness!! Europe has it figured out when it comes to family friendly. So many cafes and bars have attached play areas, its a shame the states doesn't have more of this, too many laws I guess. 

Cafe with playground attached very close to our apartment,
spent a fair amount of time here drinking a coffee or wine while the kids played. 

Beach with toys and slide with sand toys. Next to a bar.
Why I love Europe, a restaurant with a play area does not mean McDonalds!

Dinner in Old Town Omis. My favorite night out in Croatia. Big platter of grilled meats and  veggies, liter of wine...  Collin chased cats around, the girls rose their scooters up and down the cobblestone walkways. It was perfect.

The girls ride these scooters everywhere!

The natural beauty of Croatia is really quite amazing. I haven't seen water this clean and clear many places in the world that is anywhere civilization. 

The clear, clean water of the Adriatic Sea. One of my favorite things about Croatia.

These mountains are spectacular. 

Old Town Omis

There is a fort on the top of one of these mountain ranges that Jeff and Brooke hiked to. It doesn't look possible from a distance, I was quite impressed that Brooke did it. Of course, she fared much better than Jeff, who's knees were killing him on the way back down. I think Brooke was really proud and she came home excited to take the rest of us on a tour of the fort (another one at the bottom of the hill). So, she led the way from the apartment through town. 

This way!

Fort  in Omis - built to defend the city from pirates

We read as many pirate stories as we could find while in Omis - the city of pirates so it was fun to pretend we were watching out for pirates from the outlooks.

Fish Market in Omis. She says, "These were caught fresh this morning by my brother." 

Love getting really fresh fish. Everything we tried was great. 

The produce market  was daily and quite plentiful, but I did have to be careful choosing as a few times I spent quite a lot, not realizing what was a deal and what wasn't. Best deal by far, cherries! 

We grilled a lot at our apartment, which we all really loved.

Day Trip to Trogir

Trogir is a beautiful town on the coast. We enjoyed our morning there, walking and scooting the old town walking streets, eating lunch on the water, and perusing boats in the marina.

Beautiful handmade spring towys

Trying to keep up with my scooting girls...

Natural sea sponge, a popular souvenir

Hmm, which way now...

Lunch - Salad, chicken strips, and pizza

Which gelato to have today??

The boys

We'd been seriously scheming when and how we can move on a boat again. We'd hoped to charter or get aboard one here, but it didn't work out.

Dino Park Omis

This small Dino Park in Omis, made for quite a fun afternoon. Not totally cheap, but worth it for one time. The girls were in heaven and we learned a bit more about dinosaurs...

Aquazorbing - I'll have to try this one of these days

What, it doesn't go all the way around?? The daredevil girls were slightly disappointed...

T rex, complete with movements and sounds

Huge!

Collin was not a fan, he couldn't get out of that dino park faster. Huge moving scary creatures, not his thing. But, since then, he is very interested in dinosaurs.

Lucky girls

So happy!

This slide was fun as I experienced having to climb up and help Collin

Up the River from Omis

The river and mountains in from Omis were quite spectacular and we drove up a few times. We'd considered taking a boat trip up, but decided it would be too hard with the kids.

No need for extra concrete reinforcements in here, solid rock.

Beer garden restaurant on the river, quite beautiful

Nice spot for my Mother's Day lunch

Beautiful clear water, watched rafts float by, caught tadpoles, lots of fun...

Split

We were really impressed with Old Town Split and spent a great day there. Like many other parts of Croatia, its not undiscovered. There are lots of tourists, but also lots of things tourists enjoy... restaurants, ruins, beautiful architecture. It was market day as well and quite busy, we almost gave up trying to find a place to park near here, but glad we didn't.

Along the waterfront in Split

Best and Worst things about Croatia 

The best things about Croatia overall in our opinion:

-The beautiful clear water, which is mostly all public land and easy to find places to enjoy it. There is something like 3500 miles of coastline in Croatia if you count all the islands.
-The availability of fresh seafood. The fish markets have actual fresh seafood that was all delicious and if you like the little ones like anchovies (which were delicious on the grill) its pretty affordable. 
-The old towns are so impressive and lovely to walk through.
-The people are quite friendly and many speak very good English

The worst things about Croatia:

-The food in grocery stores isn't cheap. We find it to be about the same cost as the US, which is more expensive than Czech Republic and Italy, where we have been recently.
-Its not as easy to find accommodation as some other places
-Those locals that don't speak English, speak sort of a combination of Croatian and German that the translator doesn't decipher

Real Italian Family Woodfired Pizza Party

I was dreaming and hoping to get to experience something really authentic while here in Italy. Its harder than it seems, even while spending many months here. We never quite tuned in with daily life here, the biggest challenge is adapting to the different times Italians, like the French and Spanish eat. Primarily, a big long lunch, and a late dinner. We often wanted to go out to dinner only to find that we were ready to eat much earlier than Italians even think about eating dinner. 

I suppose we do plenty of authentic things, we shop where the locals shop, we attended some real local events and festivals, we have eaten pretty much exclusively Italian food while here. But, I wanted to understand how they live, and taste how they really eat at home. 

So, while there were times that living in the country here felt a little isolating and lonely especially during the winter months... I am really glad we were able to get to know the Gatto family and will treasure the many shared afternoons, conversations and friendly exchanges. They couldn't be nicer! 

I was thrilled when they suggested we could have a woodfired pizza lunch here and it made a perfect farewell to our time here.

First, making the pizza dough with Nonna. I will share the secret recipe!

For 1 batch of dough = enough to feed 4 people (this dough was made to rise in the fridge overnight)

- 1 kilo of flour type '0' here is best for bread and pizza. (In America she suggests the flour brand Manitoba)

- 1 package of yeast (7 grams)

    Mix the flour and yeast in a large bowl

- 400 ml Milk (any type you have...)

- 400 ml water (room temp is fine)

   Mix milk and water and pour slowly into flour/yeast gently folding together to mix. No need to overmix...

- 2 tablespoons of olive oil

   Mix oil in halfway through mixing of flour and liquid

- 2 tablespoons salt

   Mix salt in last

Knead for a few minutes. It didn't take long to knead and become the right consistency...

**** Nonna likes to knead in some lard at the end, other family members don't like it.

She then came over to start the fire, the day before the pizza party. Took quite a bit of tending to and lots of branches.

Finally, time to make the pizza! New types of pizza, I'd never tried before, all delicious.

Potato and rosemary, onions (cooked before in milk and butter) topped with sage, zucchini and anchovies, zucchini alone and one with only a cream cheese, wasn't called this here but tasted very similar.

For the red sauce pizzas, a kids favorite... hotdog and mozzarella and margherita.

And, in the oven they go! She said the traditional way is to cook on the stone, but they don't have the proper tools for this. I like the pan cooked though, with a little lard or oil, gives it a bit crispier crust. All were yumm, the favorite was the onion and sage.

No formalities. Monica's sister carried a tray around and everyone ate as they pleased.

We made a big fruit salad and veggie salad (Brooke's specialty with arugula, cherry tomatoes, olives, basil or rosemary, orange slices, oil and balsamic.

The kids slid down the hill and then did some drawing together at the table.

Dessert was a traditional cake they made with layers of different creams with a soft cake and red liquor. Super yumm. Our chocolate chip peanut butter cookies were a hit as well.

It was a really nice afternoon, the Gatto family is really much like ours, aside from some language barriers... felt like we were really in a home away from home:)

When in Rome

The weekend trip to Rome started well enough. We woke early and rushed out to the early train (which we said we wouldn't do again if we could help it...) Early mornings aren't my thing, I just never seem to be prepared quite enough, but we made it on time. The train trip was about two hours, we ate sandwiches and scones we'd made and with only a few toys, the kids stayed pretty entertained.

It amazes me how entertained he can be zooming his car around.

Brooke catching up on Jolly Phonics, (workbooks that came along with the reading class she took in Prague)

So we arrived in Rome, excited and in good spirits. After a long walk through the train station... (Savannah was tired of walking before we even got out of the station), we stepped out of the metro terminal to look up at the enormous Colosseum.  We'd read about, discussed, watched some and videos about Roman times but I'm not sure the Colosseum at first sight impressed them as much as it it me. It is pretty well, colossal. 

We crossed the street and got in line. We didn't expect it to be very crowded, but even in off-season the wait to get in turned out to be long, maybe 45 minutes. You could pay $17 euros each I think and skip the line but we waited. 

We'd wanted to travel as light as possible and made the choice not to bring jackets, imagining that we'd be stuck carrying them around all weekend as the weather was supposed to be warm. But, at this early hour, in the shade waiting in line at the Colosseum it was not warm. It was chilly and the kids started to whine. We were the only people in line or anywhere in Rome so far that weren't wearing jackets and now we felt pretty uncool as everyone around us could hear the kids complaining they were cold. Definitely not feeling like parents of the year... So, to add further embarrassment, we started unpacking clothes from the backpack and layering them with pajamas and whatever extra clothes we could find. 

They were warmer, but still not loving waiting in line, so hey, why not add bribery to our parental repitoire? We started promising extra scoops of gelato if they would just be tough and patient so we could get in to see the iconic site of Rome. Well, we almost gave up, but finally entered the Colosseum.

 

Probably thinking, "if only we were able to get down there and climb around."

"Say, gelato!"

Jeff explains, "Here is where the people used to sit to watch the gladiators,
at the bottom they used to fill it up with water to have mock sea battles."

Expensive, pretty horrid tasting hotdog sandwiches outside,
but I think we were still feeling guilty for not bringing jackets....

Look, pigeons!

And, we kept the promise, double scoops of gelato, dangs it good/ If only they wouldn't always order strawberry so I can't share (allergic).

 We hopped in a taxi to get to the next sight, little legs were getting tired.But, amazing how they were revived after a massive gelato! We sat for quite awhile admiring the Pantheon and waiting for Savannah to finish her gelato (she is the slowest ice cream eater in the world) and chase Collin around the piazza.

 From there we walked a lot, just enjoying the back streets of Rome. Its actually quite a relaxed, clean, colorful, beautiful city. So different than I imagined it, we really like it.

Trevi Fountain, pretty beautiful 

Ooh, must.touch.water!

Vatican City (smallest state in the world)

Space to run, pigeons to chase

Playing with an Italian girl

St Peters Basilica

Religious procession, Savannah didn't like the smoke though...

 

Cool, a picture with gladiators.
Didn't know they were going to want 5 Euros for it! 

Carousel by the river:)

Look its an invisible man!

Overall it was a really great weekend, we'd love to spend more time there, I hope we get to go back:)

Slow Food

How interesting this concept or slow food is, and how little I knew about it! I am so excited to find the International Slow Food Organization that offers so much information including an educational handbook ( Slowfood Education Handbook ) for learning about slow food with kids. This seems to be the kind of food theory I can relate to.

"Slow Food believes that by understanding more about our food and where it comes from, we will learn to combine pleasure and responsibility in our daily choices, better appreciate the cultural and social importance of food and generally, make the world a better place." 

I just love this process, it allows each of us to think and internalize information about food without instituting a lot of rules about what we can eat and more importantly what we can't eat. When I think about starting certain diets that might be better for our health I get totally overwhelmed and unhappy at the thought of limiting our options. I love to enjoy food of different cultures and restricting our diet would really put a damper on the enjoyment of traveling and life. But, slow food is so different! It opens our consciousness about what is in the food we eat and where it came from, so we really think about each individual ingredient, and as a result we want to eat better for ourselves and our environment. Being in Italy really inspires this desire, you almost can't help but want to eat more fresh and healthy foods.

Here is the Education for Slow Food manifesto...

… is about pleasure, a light and convivial occasion to feel good and enjoy ourselves

… teaches the values of slowness and respect for our own and other people’s rhythms

… is learning by doing, because hands-on experience increases and strengthens educational outcomes

… values the diversity of cultures, knowledge, skills and opinions 

…  approaches topics in their complexity, favoring a multi-disciplinary approach

… means taking time to understand, internalize and elaborate one’s own vision

… is a personal journey that involves cognitive, experiential and emotional dimensions

… is nourished by its own context, giving value to memory, knowledge and local cultures

… facilitates exchange among local networks, reinforcing the sense of community

… stimulates curiosity and trains intuition and critical thinking

… promotes change generating new and more responsible thoughts and behaviors

This open eat in kitchen makes such a difference in our lives. The girls love to cook with me in here and it is definitely a dynamic environment providing lots of light and inspiration to our experiences. There is plenty of room for Collin to run around under our feet and everyone is happy. Brooke says emphatically, "Do not make any recipes without me!"

Brooke's own Tuscan salad creation. She is a food artist! And it was so delicious.
She says, "I was born to be a chef!"

Our picnic in the country near the house. This is my kind of winter and picnic food!
Brooke says, "I feel happy when I'm out in nature."

I'll admit, Savannah is less enthusiastic about slow food and the idea of eating more healthy foods. She in her 3 year old style rebellion says, "I will only eat food that is not good for me!" I am pretty sure she will come around as she gets older, so I'm trying not to push it, while of course trying to limit those foods that are really not so good for her.

The pleasure of fresh food in the sun, wouldn't trade it for the world. 

I like this ideology because it makes me feel there is purpose and importance in a slow life. With three kids under 6, a slow life is necessary for my sanity. Trying to get us out of the house before 10:00 puts stress on all of us. I know we could do things differently, but it feels more natural to let everyone wake up at their own pace, cook a hot breakfast, then devise a plan for the day and get out of the house when we are ready. I also like basing the plan for the day dependent on the weather and how everyone is feeling. The thought of having to stick to a strict schedule that doesn't allow for illness and weather, let alone special events and travel plans just doesn't feel right to me.

Spending a few months in the country without a lot we have or need to do, was really a refreshing change to life in the city. The kids love walking around the property. They can all explore at their own pace. We are slowly working toward a garden and learning about plants despite the fact that it is still winter. I'm trying to spend more time listening and observing nature with them and enjoying it from their fresh perspectives.

Brooke says, " this is how you do it"

We were talking about putting together a menu for our lunch party with our Italian friends. Brooke wanted to write the menu. Love not having to enforce reading and writing lessons, they are motivated to write when they want to.

Brooke is copying "A Wine Country Dinner" from my mom's cookbook. Educational and personal:)

Concocting a recipe for medicine - main ingredients: honey and jam...

Another of Brooke's own salad creations, she calls it the
"Salad from around the world"

Just a walk around the property opens so many ideas. The wheat fields that surround are full of seashells, an amazing look at how this land used to once be covered in ocean! 

Collin exploring the wheat fields

Ah, the contentment of sloshing in puddles...

I have to remind myself to have patience when it comes to all of these ideas that come out of the handbook. I will probably not ever get organized enough to do all of them, and when I do, certain little people don't make organized activities all that easy. And, I get a little discouraged when I get excited about gardening and other projects and realize we won't be here long enough to see our plants come to fruition. But, some of the ideas in the handbook take place over a three year period, we have time to continue this learning journey other places and other times. 

So, we just have to make the most of every day and opportunity. At the moment, there has been a lot of activity around our property as the owners are busy pruning the trees. The grandma lives in a small apartment attached to the house and her daughter and husband and 1 year old son come over often to work together to keep up with the work. Only Monica, the daughter speaks English, but we communicate more or less with them all. Brooke loves to help them and runs outside when she sees them start work. 

Savannah is most excited by the baby Enrico, who is only a few months younger than Collin, but to her he is "like a newborn baby!" 

We only have five more weeks here, but over the next few weeks there will be a lot more spring gardening activity that we can watch and help with. Maybe our own garden won't be as thorough a project as I would like, but we will still have learned a lot from our time living a slow food life here in the Italian country.  

Changing Plans

“Sometimes good things fall apart so better things can fall together.” -Marilyn Monroe

It feels a bit strange at the moment to look back and think how different our plans were only a few months ago.

Not that we have really had set plans at any point in time I suppose. We have thought and debated and changed our minds and gone in circles about what to do this year, its about enough to drive a person crazy! But, we'd had the goal in mind to live somewhere were we could try to immerse a bit more, put the kids in school, and learn the language. 

But, these really annoying visa rules don't help, they actually really complicate things!

Anyway, we showed up at the Prague Police/Immigration office, on a very snowy cold day after a long trip. We met our friendly helper, who supposedly had everything in order so they would grant us more time. But, no such luck. Now they were telling us we had to show a 1 year lease in Prague if we wanted more time. Well, we weren't going to do that and were feeling slightly annoyed that our helper didn't know this! So, here we were with a visa about to expire. Actually the worst part about this at the moment was that we had a car registration that was about to expire and guess what? You have to have a visa to register a car in Czech. A new rule, perfect! 

It was feeling like nothing was quite going as planned. We were feeling a bit fed up with it...

What's the big deal, you might wonder? Well, we'd planned to keep more of a home base because moving a bunch of stuff all of the time is a pain in the you know what. It was nice traveling and having a place to come home to in Prague. We chose Italy so we could be central in Europe and keep this up. Unfortunately this didn't seem possible now... 

So what can we do? Well, we could spend the rest of our time already planned at the house in Italy, but then have to leave the Schengen Zone (a zone of countries including Italy, France, Czach Rep. Germany, Belgium and Spain. We could have started over again and applied somewhere else like Spain or France which we'd been considering, but it was just feeling like so much work and expense, and we were tired of it.

Closest options to leave the zone are Croatia or England. If we stay out for a few months we get a few more months back in the zone and repeat. Doesn't sound so bad, but its just the logistics, and the stuff. We now have to somehow fit all of our stuff in our car or pay to store it or make multiple trips places. 

Funny though, once we got our heads around the idea of getting rid of a good portion of our stuff and traveling more, it started to feel really good! We were now excited to lighten the load and live a little freer.

Our tentative plan for the coming year now is... Italy till the end of April, Croatia in May/June, maybe stop in Greece, then head back through Austria, Slovenia, Germany, Belgium and on to England for a few months to reset our time again. Then head south through France and Spain before the winter. We'll then need to visit Morocco to reset the visa again to return to Spain. From there, who knows!