After those twenty and so days in England, having recovered from covid and having learned few more things about resilience and the transcendence of shitty moments; I was again inside an airport, this time in London's, waiting for the flight to depart for the promised land which for this case, summer of 2022, was a small coast town at the south of Croatia's coast.
The blue of the Adriatic Sea appears far back and above the front doors of Splits airport and also some tall palm trees, not the coconut ones but the palm tree with rounder leafs, the kind of palm that is more adequate for semi arid zones and colder weathers than the tropical ones.
I walked to the exchange currency office and a lady is counting money behind the thick crystal. She was voluptuous, brown-dark haired, green eyes, pale brown skin and a face that resisted itself in showing a smile for free to the Mexican that suddenly was visually in love with her.
Coming out of Splits airport you immediately feel the heat of summer in that specific geographic location, much more south the globe than I was before.
Took the bus shuttle to downtown and on the way one of the biggest constructions that appeared was the Cemex factory which amazed me to see it there, not only because of its size but because the fifth largest cement company of the world is Mexican, scene that detonated a small proud feeling in my self and yet, the raw contrast also showed the devastation to the hill just aside of it in order to extract the minerals we need for constructing much of what we see.
Arrived to the bus station which is in front of the main maritime pier and coming out of the bus I saw a bunch of people walking in the street, most of them showing a red, sun burned face and there where also little commerce boots all along the street selling all kinds of goods like fast food, tobacco, buzz, luggage keeping, pizza and around three or four exchange currency tiny offices where unfortunately found that the one minute loved lady of the exchange office at the airport had ripped me with a lower tariff than here.
I was gonna stay only that night in Split because next day I had booked the ferry to my final destination, so decided to leave the bags in a locker room at the small bus and at the same time train station, full of young red faced backpackers laying somewhere in the floor, charging their phones and using the stations wifi.
I was eating a couple of slices from a deli street pizza meanwhile observing the smiles painted on the faces of the beautiful Croatian girls attending the tiny pizzeria but this time I tried to stay solid and not fall that easy for their outer beauty, so I moved on and placed my sight at the different yachts, ferries, catamarans sailboats and boats anchored just in front, sight that made me feel somehow in a sort of old but modern port town. The sun was down and with the freshness of the night I saw a bunch of people smoking or rolling tobacco in the streets, so after getting dizzy, in the attempt of feeling like a bohemian sailor smoking rolling tobacco in the old but new port town, I walked towards the Wall.
A thick and tall wall made of lime stone protects one of the many countries old towns jewels. Filled with architectonical homogenous houses made all of lime stone walls and roof tiles, green wooden blinds for windows and some plants hanging down the walls, plus those lines made for hanging the washed clothes. This old houses built since the 7th century and very well preserved, are connected by narrow passages in form of a labyrinth where you find all sorts of restaurants, taverns, pubs, ice cream shops, etc, filled up with marveled tourists like me.
Moreover the feeling of being in an ancient important naval town whose architecture shows a mix of greek, roman and mediterranean roots took over and turned on the cultural curiosity switch inside me.
#Split is around 1,700 years old and the second largest city of Croatia after its capital city Zagreb, hosting only 210,000 fixed inhabitants plus who knows how many more temporary beings, that pass by this attractive port. It is the largest city of the Dalmatian district and it was founded around the 3rd century BC as a greek colony and in 305 it became the palace of the Roman emperor Diocletian, after him the palace and city became part of the Venice Republic. For much of the high and late middle ages, this jewel barely enjoyed its autonomy since the Venice Republic also wanted it back and prevailing in the endeavor they conquered it back and controlled it again for a beat, heavily fortifying it against the Ottomans, until the Republic of Venice fell in to Napoleons hands in 1797.
Back then it seemed that the main vision of the emperors was to conquer as much territory and people as possible, subject that you can thoroughly see all along Europes collaged history; conquering and reconquering themselves to finally remix itself all the way through. After Napoleon’s empire and the Venice Republic, Split was conquered by the Austrian-Hungarian empire until it fell in 1918, but still after WWII the city was annexed by Italy and liberated by the Partisans which then was re-occupied by Germany and liberated again by the partisans in 1945, to then be included in the Socialist Yugoslavia as part of it’s republic of Croatia until 1991 when Croatia pursued its independence from the broken socialist republic, ten years after Titos death; the popular and generally loved former president of the Socialist Republic of Yugoslavia. The Croatian liberation war and against the Serbian aggression ended in 1995 and Croatia finally started its fully independent path.
And without going any further in to details and the many other empires and civilizations that wanted to take a piece of this naturally abundant and well located territory, Croatia’s history is a deep clash of European cultures. Having the fortune and miss fortune at the same time to be born as a juicy fruit placed in a very important naval channel of the Adriatic Sea, counting with more than 1,000 islands and 5 peninsulas, fed by a mediterranean templated weather. Attributes that made of this country such an attractive piece of pie for the strong, hungry and greedy ones.
Happened to arrive at Splits fair week, therefore the amount of tourists was even higher and after getting lost inside the old towns labyrinth, I searched for a nice enough place to have dinner.
Found a restaurant in one of the plazas where I didn’t feel much crowded. Ordered a typical Croatian beer, Ožujsko and an octopus salad, smoked a rolled tobacco meanwhile observing the people sitting in the other tables around me and passing through the streets. Several of them looked more or less like the stereotype of those who are traveling on a boat, those kinda looking like some sort of fancy sailors, most of them sun burned. Then I realized that sailing along the Adriatic Sea and getting lost in its archipelagos and peninsulas, was in the roots of this culture and also that the sun in this side of the world hits strong. Also the amount of female beauty congregated and dressed up for the nights gig marveled me. Later on I heard in different occasions from Croatians that their most beautiful women live in this city.
Even though the attractive human beings where shinning out the night sky and almost reflecting themselves in the lime stoned walls of this well conserved place of the world, I was feeling tired and without any appetite for going out and even less for talking to anyone. The observer mode was fully on inside me and right there it was the only mode available; I was still recovering the energy sucked away by the previous stage of my journey and besides this and more important, I had the luck of having a beautiful Mexican girl waiting to meet me, maybe in Croatia, maybe back in Mexico, so the hunter mode was off right there and then. Next day the ferry would leave until 3 pm and should arrive at my destination by 6:30 pm, so that night I slept in until almost the last moment before checking out at 10 am, a check out time which I found a beat too early yet, took another shower and left the rented for night university dorm.
Went for another stroll in downtown and then ate some delicious sea food risotto in a restaurant close to the ferries pier, smoked one last tobacco meanwhile I recorded in my head Splits coast full of all sorts of boats. The sun was pounding, you could see the red faces and tanned skins everywhere. I was hoping that the ferry would have an upper deck where you could sit under a shade, breath fresh air and observe the view, but unfortunately didn’t happened, I had to go inside and sit comfortable enough under the freshness of an a/c and get content with the possibility of looking through the ferry windows and be able to see the different shades of blue that the Adriatic Sea projects.
There where people from many places of the world in that boat; I could pick up Polish, Italian, German, Swiss and just in front of me a group of Mexican girls in around their 20's, carrying huge bags also showing much sun time in their skin, messy hair and their bodies trying to find a way to lay down between seats; they just seemed destroyed from partying and sun bathing.
On the way to the destination we passed through four stops. Amazing medieval-adriatic coast towns with walls raised over the small cliffs they have flirted with us tourists: Milna, Bol, Hvar and my stop was in the town of Korčula. Towns, that when you see them on the computer screen will seemed photo shopped because of their natural beauty, but when you see them live even for only 10 minutes, meanwhile people disembark and embark in the boat, you get amazed.
Finally arrived to Korčula and meanwhile the sun set, I observed mesmerized the fort walls protecting the town which was an important medieval naval trade point back in time. Today, the yachts and sailboats where anchored aside where classic houses painted with different kind of aquarelle colors are looking to the mountains of the Peljesâc Peninsula just in front. Being surrounded of that scenario and right then being able to witness this kind of magnificent architectural and natural design plus the sailor history that the place embeds, made me feel just thankful, to finally be there.
Mateo the owner of the school had arranged my pick up in one of the school dingies by 6:45 pm so couldn't stayed longer contemplating more, instead rushed in, crossed the town and went straight to the pier where this tiny embarkations can dock. Two young lads arrived exactly at the time conveyed and I jumped in to the inflatable boat. When we where moving away from #Korčula island to reach the neighbor wind surfer town of #Viganj and observing the majestic scenario that surrounded me, I knew that all the pseudo little hell lived before was worth it.
We docked in one of the schools piers and finally disembarked in the summer of 2022 promised land. I was now at Liberan Surf School and Camp.
Few people from the school’s staff was still there, and after introducing ourselves and chatting for a beat, Mateo took me to my camper, helping me with the heaviest kite bag all the way up. Once there he helped plugging in everything so the camper and it’s little kitchenet powered on.
The camper was as clean as it can be and the showers, bathroom and staff main kitchen were just in front.
I was now in my temporary gypsy kiter palace and receiving Mateo's hospitality I thought, this is a nice and direct way to receive an instructor that has traveled from far away, in order to work at your school.
After leaving the bags and slowly landing, he invited me for dinner at the restaurant just aside of the camp site, The #Ciringuito. Mateo, Simona his girlfriend and my self had a deli Dalmatian dinner, few beers, few smokes and got to know each other just a beat.
Next day I got to use one of the very few bicycles that actually functioned of Antony boy camp and went through the only one lane road that connects tiny Croatian coast towns of that side of the Peninsula. My eyes where delighted with the color of the sea, the old coast houses, the boats, the mountains and sea breeze smell.
Came back to the camper to rest and cover from the pounding sun after mid day, some 35oC going on. The camper felt like an oven inside, so immediately opened all of its windows and still was hard to lay somewhere without sweating. I was shocked with the strength of the summer sun in that side of the world.
That afternoon went also through the schools operation and logistics, preparing my self for my first day of work which would be next day. I was impressed and very happy to see the surfer traffic in the sea and the shore, there where riders everywhere realizing that Viganj is one of those surfer-kiter towns that has an authentic sailing history because of its wind and geographic conditions.
This channel happens to be a peculiar windy spot since it receives a daily wind or sea breeze either coming from the south called the #Yugo or from the north called #Maistral or from the mountain called #Bura. The Yugo blows from south and it's strengthen by storms and clouds that push it upward the channel, being this one normally an earlier wind than the Maistral that has to wait until the mountains heat up, so around noon starts blowing, being normally the best time of the wind from 3:30 to 6:30 pm before the sun sets, as most of the thermal winds work.
It was crazy to experience some days, how the wind could shift in matter of minutes from south to north. There’s always room for new learnings and experiences.
And so it began the work, teaching students on a dingy in that beautiful sea channel. Committed to a couple of months of my service to the school and vice versa, the days started counting down.
The kiteboard teaching operation normally started around mid day, few days before, some days after, but never before 10 am and never after 7:30 pm when the sun went down and with it, the thermal wind. Giving a frame of around 6 hrs max to deploy the students in to the water.
The first week passed and I was already exhausted and sun burned, situation that made me feel somehow ashamed; being a Mexican brown bean and coming from the Yucatan Peninsula; which is one of the top 3 hottest zones of Mexico. But the Croatian sun mocked my Yucatan's delicate flesh and downloaded all of its radiation for the next month. At some point I thought I was just another shrimp getting boiled for the shrimp soup.
After a couple of weeks of work I actually felt sick. A couple of nights my head and skin where literally boiling and my body felt with very little energy, the throat was soared too and I thought: Covid again?? Noo it cannot be, I should be naturally immune now, having passed only 5 weeks since I got it...
Then I learned that there’s a normal sun sickness that goes on normally in the summer for some delicate people like us who spend an important amount of time under the sun. A couple of instructors also got it few days before and few days after me, although I was still the delicate Mexican subject to the bulling of the titan Croatian colleagues, who can be there every day during summer non stop, noting that this past summer there were wild fires in Spain, France and south of Croatia, recording one of the hottest summers in the Europes history (#globalwarming). Luckily the sea water was just deliciously refreshing with around 21oC.
The days passed on and the routine was to wait for the wind, work teaching on the boat, get burned, salty, weary and happy for doing what you love to do in a beautiful place.
Slowly got to know the team mates, the Croatian Colleagues. Starting by the boat drivers, “the Capis” (as we would say back home), the other #kiteboard and #windsurf and #wingfoil #instructors and the rest of the staff that worked at the camp site.
Capi Jure inspired...
The work day normally finished when the sun hid behind the mountain, then the sunset painted a mix of radiant but soft colors in the sky hard to describe, just because every sunset is different and unique, but the blue of the sky merged with the orange, pink, red, yellow and all the other tints in between surrounded by those mountains, created a color pallet that maybe someone like Monet would be able to express in a canvas or someone like Patrick Süskind author of “the Perfume”, would be able to properly describe in a paragraph like this.
My day off finally came and it was like if I've managed to reach it barely, thus normally in the day off I would take it very easy; do some laundry, go to the grocery store to re stock, hide from the pounding sun and rest as much as possible to recharge this young body filled with an old skeleton.
The walk to the grocery store was simply lovely. The same narrow little road along the shore filled with old traditional Croatian coast houses on the side and the mountain Elijah with its 961m stands tall behind. Aside the road there are bushes, pines, fig trees, cats and herds of kids playing on the streets, the beach, the sea, everywhere. You could see all sort of electric and non electric vehicles passing through the narrow street. Kids rocketing in their electric scooter, others on the longboards, others in bicycles, roller blades, etc.
There is only one bar that could be considered the “night club” called the K2. A night club that in summer nights gets filled with kids below 20 years old and surely many below 18. It was the first time I was in a bar surrounded by so many kids and families, many of them playing billiard, foosball or watching a handball match.
There’s another reunion point called the “beach bar”, where the gathering for some drinks was quite common before going to the “night club”.
There is an ice cream shop and delicious pancake house called Vita Vi, which had always a line of customers waiting to refresh their mouths and elevate the glucose doze of their kids. Few restaurants where there, all of them packed at nights. Also the camp site was packed, the only narrow street was packed too and by 4-5 pm the sea was packed in by riders and students. Yet everything was full of people, it seemed it was running somehow with flow, but again my traffic - terror - in - the - near - future - thoughts appeared in my basic brain like bombs falling from the sky.
How can this little special surfer town conserve itself and not get completely crowded in 10 years?
I had interesting conversations with the locals and they told me that most of the land that surrounded the little town of Viganj was owned by the pioneer families that settled there and that they had the agreement of not selling land to foreigners or hotel corporations in order to preserve the town as much as originally is. An idea that sounds extraordinary, specially for an ecological-conservative mind like mine, but observing the reality with raw, nude eyes I thought that the idea of conserving that town as it is, is quite utopian since we are in the year 2023 and everything is packed already, moreover we keep growing at a crazy reproduction rate of 340,000 new babies per day, that is a 140 million new human beings a year, numbers that when translated in to a massively growing community such as the kiteboarder one, are really hard to fit in such a small and peaceful town as this one.
I also happen to be lucky enough and live in a beautiful small town of the Caribbean coast of Mexico, called Puerto Morelos. Today, Puerto is the least attacked town from the Riviera Maya by the tourist, economical and construction monster, yet has being strongly beat up in the last ten years, but not as much as Cancun, Playa del Carmen or Tulum.
And having learned from the scientists that live in town who study and work in the bio marine sciences national institute which is located there since many years ago plus several of the community members deeply involved with the fragile ecosystem of the town and the zone, there's a basic common sense and truth reached: Everything here depends from the healthy longing of this intricate and abundant ecosystem. Tourists come here because of it, therefore the economical system works because of it.
Then what needs to be done to be able to conserve one of the so many jewels like this?
The #ecology says that in order to preserve a place, 80% of its land should be left without human exploitation, leaving us some 20 something percent to work, use, exploit. Rule that when thinking about it, makes a bunch of sense, but might be to extreme and hard to apply. Maybe we can be more realistic with our modern life system and aim for a 60%-40%...
With this data and nearby future projections, an idea of setting up population limits come to the mind as the solution for #conserving a place.
There are several natural parks in the world that are set up with the intention of not being developed and there's specific zones such as Machu Picchu that allow certain amount of tourists per day and per year. They divide the tourist visits in to two groups, one for the sunrise and one for the sunset. Being impossible to surpass that amount of visits per day. Rule, restriction, limitation that when thinking about it, seems to be a raw but needed solution for preserving special places such as my beloved Puerto and Viganj.
Coming back to this little #windsurfer town which has a real sailor history since it was the settlement of captains from the 17th century that sailed boats not only with the flags of Dubrovnik Republic but also sailed Venetian, Austrian, Russian, French, Spanish and English ships. The location of Viganj and Kučište is at the narrowest part of the Pelješac canal and at the foot of the hills which contributes to the development of the maistral wind that blows faster than is usual on the Adriatic because of the ventury effect, so Viganj and Kučište where found by windsurfer pioneers back in the beginning of the 80´s making of it just a special windy spot for wind and water sports enthusiasts.
The wind blows normally light, in average from 10 to 16 knts. We got only three days in two months with 16-20 knts and the direction of the wind is side and side on. The sea is from almost not choppy to semi choppy when the wind is light, but when the wind increases it gets choppy, conditions that makes it a very good spot for #foilers.
The days kept passing by and so did the work routine. The first month was tough on sun and students traffic, even though I got a beat exhausted, is always rewarding and motivating to be recognized by your students because of the passion, experience and professionalism you deliver in your job.
The language was the main barrier for me to get more social time with the Croatians. Their language is just completely different to a latin derived one, I couldn’t understand a word of it!
Their words are made with a majority of consonants. The sound of Croatian is strong but to my ears not as strong as a Russian or maybe as a German Bavarian, still is strong but also quite clear since they pronounce each letter of the word. I enjoyed listening to this new language and trying hopelessly to decodify it.
Even though they have a strong language and character, the Croatians can be quite gentle, educated and hospitable. Pretty much everybody spoke good English yet I felt many times like the fly in the soup, spoiling their avid full of slang and laughter conversations, having to change their native dialect to the global English tongue, transition that felt like the vibe of the conversation lost its momentum and deepness, situation that I understood perfectly since I live it quite often back home, so this situation many times made me stay lonely and silent contemplating the time, the night sky and my thoughts at the camper.
One morning of my day off, I was doing yoga and suddenly a new face appeared sitting by the table of the kitchen staff terrace. I was quite concentrated in my session when this fella couldn’t hold his curiosity and started inquiring about it. After few questions and having noticed that I was just concentrated in the breathing, posture stretching and silence, he decided to leave me alone. His name is Bruno and he just arrived to work and help with the boat driving. He was now the oldest of all, somewhere around 45 years old and has being living in Berlin since 30 years ago. He and his family left Croatia, like many did when the war exploded back in 1991. He is well educated and works in the software programming field but more in the statics side of it. His brain is sharp like a knife and charged with loads of curiosity and energy. He has being coming to Viganj since he was five years old, so he new everybody and everybody new him and now he wanted to get the most out of his free time by learning as much as possible about teaching kiteboarding, windsurfing and wingfoiling.
Maybe my yoga session caught his attention, but suddenly he happened to be my boat man for the next weeks, paying deep attention to the way I taught. We became friends and hanged out some nights, he invited me many times his favorite drink called something like Strutkani.
One day we had a couple of Croatian ladies in their mid 30’s for lessons. One of them Marija, also living in Berlin for a while and the other one Ivana, a dentist living in Zagreb which was born and raised in Viganj. Her mother lives in a classical old town just aside of the church of the tiny downtown, her grandfather was a captain that came to settle there back in the early 1930’s. After few lessons together and having had some beers after the work day we got to know each other better and planned for a nice dinner.
One afternoon we finished work kinda early and they took me to the other side of the peninsula, just around 30 mins drive in order to reach Lovište town. We had to drive above the mountain and cross to the other side. Bruno stopped at a mirador to observe the majestic high view of the town and channel.
I was really missing to have a tasty dinner with nice and joyful company and the ladies and Bruno just nailed it, taking us to Lovištes prime restaurant just by the sea. We arranged to be there by sunset so we could enjoy the most of it.
They were in charge of ordering food knowing well the traditional dishes, since they are true locals of the zone and I happen to suck at ordering tasty dishes when going out to nice restaurants. Normally I have the fine touch of ordering the worst dish from the table…
The sunset, the Croatian sea food, the local delicious red wine plus the local fine company, made out of this sunset dinner session a special one. I was mostly grateful for it.
Getting to know deeper the Croatians I became quite curious about the roots of their culture and personality. Coming from a harassed past and having a generalized nostalgia called “Yugonostalgia”, which is more accentuated in their elders, about the times when they shared the wealth, peace and good life quality they had when conformed the socialist empire of Yugoslavia consolidated after the WWII till nationalism rised up and with the death of the former and well loved president of this socialist but independent empire and having no one to follow up the strength and charisma Tito had, Croatians searched for their independence in 1992.
So having passed only 26 years of the beginning of the full independence of this Country, you can still see, feel and breathe a socialist-communist background. Which in a small bubble such as Viganj surfer town simply translated as a more collaborative and equal environment where is harder to find an egocentric leader or character.
This personality of the Croatians really attracted me. Coming my self from the occident side of the world and being neighbor to the arrowhead of the capitalist-individualist system, yet being born in a latin country which for many years was considered part of the third world list, could still perceive the roots of a communist system in these guys.
I could observe owners of restaurants, windsurf schools and lodges working solid together with their staff or better said their #colleagues. I met beautiful young ladies that were still studying university working as cleaning ladies at the camp and lodges of the town, some others working in the grocery store, noting that the cashier lady of the grocery store was also beautiful and almost fell visually in love for her, but I stayed strong and turned my sighted to the peaches rack of the fruit section instead.
Mateo the school owner and Simona his work partner and girlfriend treated me the whole time nice and polite, even though there where days that the school was just absolutely full of clients, they will keep the relaxed but focused mode even when having to reorganize the schedule few times a day according to the wind whim. I have to admit that I would've gone crazy if I had to organize the client-instructor-boat schedule and re organize it according to the winds drastic changes of this spot, but of course after years of practice and experience you find the way and the most efficient method.
In the schools instructor staff didn’t find one profile that wanted or needed to stand over everyone else, like I’ve found in other places of the world. The working energy just felt more humble and equal, without individual personality peaks. Every body was there for working in their thing without finding the complaining, temperamental and capricious, normally found on the good looking, strong and agile ones.
Just more neutral and more even, just more ego free and therefor more stress free.
I believe that this was the deepest learning from the two months spent collaborating with the Croatian prijateljis (friends).
The last days of work approached and with them the farewell gatherings. Two nights before leaving the town for Zagreb the capital city of Croatia, Bruno kindly organized a dinner gathering at one authentic tavern placed somewhere in the middle of mt. Elijah where they prepare from zero the wine, cheese, the prosciutto legs and cultivate their own vegetables with the traditional recipes of their ancestors. A cool group of random people that appeared at the camp that day joined us. At the entrance of the tavern there was a wood oven and a very hairy dog laying aside, a kid appeared trying to dribble his soccer ball through every one that came in. There was an older lady watching the fire by the entrance and an older man sitting down in the outside stairs in whose wrinkled face and serene eyes, you could see the pass of time for those that belong to a place and don’t move anywhere else, the pass of time in the eyes and face expression of those who are self sufficient and have being doing the same thing for generations: take care of the soil that feeds them, their stock, their house, their family, without worrying much about what is going on in the outside world.
We where inside the stone made tavern and prosciutto legs drying where hanging every where.
A younger lady which was the daughter appeared on the scene and her kid the little soccer player was the grandson of them. A family runned, agro-turistic traditional restaurant in a very small town on the hills of the Pelješac Peninsula receiving their guests on wooden long tables and benches that once we sat and the table got filled up of their hams, cheeses, vegetables and wines, looked like an authentic medieval feast that delighted our senses. The home made wine bottles didn’t stop coming to our table and my self feeling like in an old medieval tavern gathering with the fellow knights, sitting aside the oldest and most experienced windsurf instructor, Tijo. An actual windsurf knight whose voice rumbled from the sea all the way up to the hill every morning at 10 am, absorbing very efficiently the radiation of the pounding sun, he was normally the first one on the water instructing with that solid and loud tone to his pack of students.
Aside of him there was Martina one of the oldest camp receptionist and my neighbor at the camp site, which for the previous two months showed herself quite reserved to me but by the end of my days, magically appeared as a kiteboard student on my boat, so I shared with much joy my knowledge in a syntethized session. Aside of her there was my dear, sharp brained and hungry to learn all about watersports Capi Bruno, which for this stage of the season he was already teaching windsurfing and some kiteboarding lessons too. Aside of him there was Vedran a young kiteboard instructor who has a quite relaxed attitude and also loads of energy since he was the instructor adding up the most amount of hours amongst the instructors team.
Sitting aside this group of people for the last moments of my journey with Liberan Surf School, made me feel humbly honored. The wine didn’t stop coming to the table and with its magic for slackening personalities we had one of the most delightful and funny feasts I’ve had. We where laughing our asses up and even Martina could’t control her bursting.Holly wine!
Next day my head was about to explode and my body just out of energy. Still had to prepare everything for the exit and 9 hr night bus trip to Zagreb.
Took the bus to Zagreb city for the final stage of this beautiful Croatian trip. Had a strong call in order to go to the capital city and learn more about their culture and background.
There I have a friend that met back in Viganj who kindly received me in his apartment.
Arrived at 7 am at the capital city and being back in a place surrounded of concrete and cars, having to wear pants and tennis shoes since the temperature dropped down a bit compared to the coast, away from the sea salt, sun, the board shorts and sandals; for a moment felt great, at least just for those 3 days I stayed there since my self can’t be away of the sea and wind for much time.
Allen again, showing that kindness, hospitality and natural sharing way of his people, left me his room.
He’s a skilled carpenter and a descendant of gypsies that lived in a neighborhood 10 mins bike ride to the cities downtown. After taking a nap caused by the 9 hrs or so bus journey, we went to pick up the bikes and rolled towards Zagrebs downtown. A capital city that hosts around a million humans or even less.
We rolled around the main parks and buildings, I was enjoying it so much, since basically I consider the bicycle one of the simplest and greatest creations of the human kind.
It’s actually a funny and synchronized gathering with Allen, since he owns a place of Mexican food called Taquitos Bandidos, since Bandido means Bandit and I happen to ride the legendary #fone #bandit #kite.
Street lunch bar in one of the main streets of Zagrebs downtown where we had a snack full of tex-mex flavor and after it went rolling again on the bikes and smoking some joints in some of the cities parks, until the afternoon came and with it some beer thirst, so he took me to a beer garden where we met another friend and colleague of Liberan Surf Camp, the Sun Ze of Viganj and windsurf instructor Ana.
After few more beers and getting finally a beat dizzy, the three musketeers took their metallic two wheeled horses and rode with the wind.
For the next day we agreed on going up for a hike to the popular hiking trails of mt. Medvedgrad with Ana, the hiking master. She took us and her dog Kay along a sort of easy hike, she said, but still wasn’t that easy for Allen and myself. Around 2.5 hrs of hiking in a beautiful and silent forest where the last hour and so, the trail was mainly step in order to get us back to the hill where we started. At some point at the end, I was getting tired of the never ending trail that looked downward on us, but the exercise and body oxygenation through deep breathing focus, was delightful for my cells and muscles.
The last day we spent it again on the bikes, but this time the musketeers gang added a couple more female elements, a friend from Allen and Ivana my kiteboard student from Viganj. We went to the main and largest park on a beautiful sunny day of around 23oC and enjoyed to the max this last moments with the Croatians souls.
And with a Cherry to the Pie, this #Croatian summer working and learning story ends for this #Mexican #Gypsy #Kiter #Bandit.
Puno Hvala for being able to live such a nice and sort of work challenging time in that special side of the world.
Home made video dedicated to the #Colegas of Liberan Surf Camp and the blues of the #Adriatic #Sea.
Ti si lijepa Croacia!
Aimooo Moi Prijateljis.
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