Winds of Croatia

I can't tell you what a feeling it was to see Ali walk out of the Zagreb hotel as I was approaching it. For months I had been looking forward to seeing my friend of 20 years. We laughed, we cried, it was better than Cats. Our week in Croatia went by way too fast, as all travel seems to do, but I relished every minute of it. We spent most of the week in the seaside resort town of Bol on an island called Brac in the Adriatic Sea off of Split, the largest city on the Dalmatian coast. The island is known for its cheese, wine and olive oil - needless to say we ate and drank well.

We chose Bol for its lovely 'golden horn' pebble beach surrounded by pine trees, but sadly the first few days offered non-fortuitous rain and clouds. We still walked the promenade and the beach with our umbrellas - mine was turned inside out with the gale force winds. Because of these unique and strong winds, Bol is popular for wind-surfing, kitesurfing and other windy sports. While we didn't partake, it was amazing to watch the kitesurfers fly into the air 30 feet above the water. Floating in the extremely salty turquoise water was more my style, that is, once the sun came out. Which it did, and it was glorious.

Ali and I took a daytrip from our island back to Split (usually people do that the other way around), but we wanted to maximize our island time. Split has a couple thousand years of interesting history, with the Greeks, Romans, Byzantines, Hungarians, Austrians & Slavs all ruling the city at their given times. The Romans built a large palace back in AD 300, as the Romans do, and today the palace walls house the old city where you can walk the narrow alleys and buy trinkets.

It was a trip to board a plane in Split for a short flight to Zurich, then fly direct to Miami. Miami! Back on US soil after 7 months. I think Miami was a smart choice for a pitstop in the states before heading to Mexico & Central America, not only because my grandma Libby, aunt Kathy and friend Jeanette live here (as wells as having many out of town visitors). My culture shock has been lessened by a city of bilingual signs, Spanish speakers and gorging myself on Cuban food.