Aliways and Ulice

 I'm settling into a little routine in Pucisca, and sadly tonight will be my last night here before I move onto what could be my next favourite place. I know that being here for a few days only doesn't scrape the surface of a place, but maybe surface observations are valid. Cars are left unlocked with windows open, vespa's are ridden with no helmets and the keys are often left in the ignition.  Walking in the mornings (early) everyone you meet smiles and says 'jutro', There is a coffee pod machine in my apartment but why would you when you can sit in an early morning cafe with the locals (in my exercise gear (sorry Diana, I always think of you)) and listen to the chatter.  There are about 1000 permanent residents here - and that number is shrinking. There are three supermarkets,  a butcher, and no other shops. Let that sink in. No school supplies, no clothing shops, no tourist trinket shops selling reef shoes and croatia t-shirts.  I spotted a chemist and a dentist,

I'm about to make a huge huge claim, one that could send reverberations around the cosmos. Croatia. Has. The. Best. Smelling. Laundry. Products. There, I've put it out there. Walking around the villages in the morning you can smell the laundry on the lines. I did a load of washing yesterday and I'm pretty attracted to myself just because of the newly washed clothes! I've talked about this previously that if you go into a traditional Croatian supermarket, there are aisles of laundry products to choose from (as opposed to a couple of options for, let's say, breakfast cereal). Mind you, on the breakfast thing, this may have changed with more international brands (Lidl and Kaufland) making a play for the local market.  I just had to draw a line in the laundry stakes. Gold medal for Croatia for amazing smelling washing!

 I've been eating out each evening, and because my new apartman has a totally functioning kitchen, I decided that I would make a salad for dinner.  I normally try to alternate eating in / eating out. Cost and then I don't end up staring at menus and thinking I just want something simple. I picked up some tomatoes that smelled like tomatoes (they do here) and a packet of mozzarella and prsut. I'm thinking classic Capese Salad with prosciutto on the side.  I delayed eating until 8 (which is still early here) , sliced up the tomatoes, the mozzarella, black pepper, salt, small sprinkle of sugar to bring the flavours out... liberally drizzled olive oil from the dispenser on the bench, knife, fork, climbed the stairs to the terasa for the million dollar view and sat down, thinking, how lucky am I... took a mouthful, and eeeeyuck, that olive oil was lemon flavoured dishwashing liquid! Now, correct me if I'm wrong, but that dispenser, totally looks like olive oil! I tried to wa

 And this one is Pucsica, which I have now mastered saying after muttering it under my breath and listening to locals saying it.  I got chatting to a woman in a neck brace at the bus station and asked her how to say it a couple of times until I had it. I was also curious about her neck brace- she said she has low blood pressure and faints and hurt her neck. She asked if I'd like a chocolate (no but thanks) and then said she thinks if she eats salty things it may help her blood pressure. And had another smoke and another chocolate. But she also had pretzels. Right there, salt. I love taking local buses, there is always someone looking out for you, making sure you get the right stop. Buses here are efficient - if the ticket says 10:10, it leaves on the dot. The ticet lady said it would be 40 minutes, 10:50 we pulled up in Pucsica (I wish I had the Croatian keyboard to show just how many accents there are in that word). And joy, a man came up to ask whether I was the lady going to Apa

 I'm living the island life on the island of Brac. It's a long island just a 45 minute ferry ride from Split, so close indeed that it seems that some people live in Split and commute here daily for work (that's what I decided as i sat in a cafe at 7 am watching workers roll off the ferry). How lovely would that be? Cheaper commute than public transport in Auckland! I'm in Supetar for a couple of nights, it's a lovely place, gentle, lots of family groups from France holidaying here. I like it. I seem to wake at my normal 5 am no matter which time zone I'm in so I bounded out of bed to head out for a morning walk, bumped into the door, slid between the terasa door and the bed to get into the bathroom... Hotel Alegra is an experiment in seeing how small you can make a room, particularly the bathroom. I'm just lucky that I'm not a larger version of myself, because honestly, I wouldn't be able to get through the shower door into the  world's tiniest s

 But I couldn't resist a coffee on the riva in Split, just because I had time, and it's a great place to people watch. I reckon you can tell which country someone is from just by the way they walk on the riva. The young Croatian women sort of glide, effortless. Not so much some of the tourists. I sat beside a group of older Croatian women and listened, just to hear the language. There are a lot of numbers in their chat.  Great to see that the older women collecting cans are still around. False eyelashes have arrived in this part of the world too - ridiculously long, crazily false, honestly, it must be an effort to keep your lids up. And e-scooters also everywhere, and I guess where there are pedestrian zones this makes getting to work faster. For those of you who haven't been to the Diocletian Palace, there are little secrets everywhere. Secret passages to stay out of the sun, secret markings on buildings, secret meanings behind statues. High on a wall on one side of the pa