crazy train to croatia

supetar, brac, croatia

it's because of a couple of friends of ours who both spent time on this island more than 20 years ago that we're now sitting here, in supetar, in the adriatic sea on the island of brac, croatia. thanks guys!

we took the "tilting train" from zagreb to split a couple of days ago, a proud new addition to the croatian railway system with tilting tracks and tilting cars to achieve maximum speeds of, wait for it... about 65 mph, to achieve a travel time from zagreb to split (on the coast) of six hours. can't imagine what it took before. i was standing behind the driver for a while and we lurched between 20 mph and 65 mph for no apparent reason. we could only surmise that after reading an article about this single track line, and their two fatal accidents, that they've identified danger zones and now, NOW, are sure to slow down in those areas.

we made it alive and we're here to report that this place is as stunningly beautiful as those friends of ours swore it would be.

today a scooter ride to another town, a soak in a quiet cove, and an amble around a 1000 year old village, skrip (oldest on the island), at the top of the road where, upon arriving in the village, we were intercepted by a woman who kept saying "vino. vino, vino..." well, we don't speak croatian but we know what vino meant and followed her arm gestures to her basement where she gave us tastes of red wine, grappa, olive oil and figs. wowza! we knew "dobro!" and she knew "thank you." we happily bought a liter of red wine and a half liter of grappa for $6. all homemade and we were more than happy to contribute to their little cottage industry. we liked her so much we went back for a $2 bag of figs picked that day. call us crazy.

along the way, we've been doing a pretty good job of always having some food with us. this has paid off in spades and today michelle combined ingredients from several locations to start off the evening. a salad made of peppers and tomatoes from split, figs from skrip tossed with pumpkin seed oil from styria all enhanced by ljubljana wine (purchased from the vintner in a plastic liter bottle that he drew from a large vat) and a skrip, brac red wine purchased today. that salad and wine combination cost a few dollars and is right up there with any restaurant meal we've had so far.