The power of dumb

This weekend was two days, and I did two dumb things.

Don't worry, she'll be right!

Trick no. 1, went to the supermarket with the boys, on scooters and me on a bike. That's hard to herd them, and get things into the basket you know. At the f & v section, I looked for the weighing scales, and didn't see them. At the checkout, flustered, I asked it was ok, as it's queue was almost non existant, and I thought it must be just for small purchases. She scanned a couple of things, then got to the veggies, saying vous devez les peser! I said what? She says peser! And works out I'm a foreigner, says something like oh shit, and au secours, summoning some guy to show the guy who's not French how it's done. I asked if it's ok to leave my other groceries there, and yep that's ok. So we go over, with the boys plus scooters, and weigh all the different veggis to get the magic barcodes that are supposed to speed things up. Arriving back, there's a queue of 5 or 6 people all rubber necking to see who's the culprit, and the check out chick is just looking out the window. I realise now that no she can't cancel the sale halfway through. I sort of said sorry, and just got on with stuffing the now scanned items into my bike bags. Ignoring all the customers who must suffer is very French. For future note, the Geant Casino of Cros de Cagnes has the weighing machine hidden behind one of the columns.

Wine for lunch ruining my brain. Maybe it's age.

Trick no. 2 this afternoon, we were going out, and I'm flustered as normal, grabbing the car key, the blue bag with wallet and everthing else. Marie calls out, have you got house keys? I say yeah! Car key? Yeah! Then, oh wait! And a second later the door closes quite gently, so that I hope it didn't shut. My blue bag in fact does not have the house keys. I say, but you have yours don't you Marie? Uh no, that's why I asked if you had yours. Every time I go out, I usually double check this, as getting locked out is one of my worst fears. Then it sinks in. Why is France so hard? The front door key is the only crucial one, and can't be duplicated. It's Sunday, so getting the Real Estate to help is impossible. I ring next door's doorbell to see if I can climb across from their place. It wouldn't be the first 3-stories-up clamber for me. The bathroom door wouldn't open once, and luckily it's window is right next to the kitchen balcony. But the neighbours aren't home, so no spiderman solution.

Nice palace in Nice.

We head off for a drive and a walk, which lets us get over it. Who's place could we crash at? Marie suggests a hotel. The boys probably won't smell too much in their same clothes tomorrow. I'll take the morning off work. They'll probably smash the lock who knows when, and we'll just pay a big bill.

Meanwhile, our friends, who run an accommodation business, tell us about their locksmith and their experiences. They tell us they'll look to see if they have something to help, and will call back. They did! She dropped it off at our place. We got stuck in the traffic, while Ollie complained about being hungry the whole way home. The night's not looking good!

For ten minutes Marie tries, then I try, then Marie tries. Ollie says, you have the keys don't you? We have one more go after I remember that pulling the door back helps the striker thing budge... and it opens like magic. Lordy, it's just the best feeling in the world to realise you'll be sleeping in your own bed, dinner's 15 now only minutes away on the gas, and the boys won't be smelling as badly tomorrow.

Lyon

The museum of miniatures. They make sets for films.

When in Lyon... it's not the paddle pop lion

We spend a week in Lyon during the school holidays. It's my idea of real France, with the nice old buildings packed in between two rivers, public squares and good public transport. Day one, we scootered to the local very big park, and checked out the animals kept there. There's a great path along the river with a kids park, with enclosed pipe slippery slide that the boys just loved.

The old town in the centre - nice.

Louis' foot by Louis.

The Traboules, little alleys through buildings, were interesting. There's an old Roman amphitheatre. Tried a famous Andouillette, make from stomach and other odds, delicious for the first half, then the peculiar smell becomes overpowering. Got abused on the train for failing to make it on. I was trying to follow Marie and the kids, and got stuck in the doors. It took me about 1/2 an hour to agree with Marie, that yes he was making fun of me, then 2 more days to think of the perfect comeback.

Cinque Terre

Say cheese! Riet, Marie and the boys.

 When Riet visited, we all went to Cinque Terre, about 3 hours away on the coast. It's 5 towns on the water, at the base of a very steep hill. So they're pretty isolated. It is a National Park, very pretty.

This would be a good ad for gelato eh?

Normally the tourists walk between the towns (about 10kms to do them all). But after the rains, someone almost got killed by falling rocks. So the trail is mostly closed.

Portovenere

We jumped on a boat to got between them.



On the last day, we tried to push through by car. After a couple of hours of wiggling along clifftops, dirt road and half washed out roads, we got too scared and left.

Riomaggiore. Our bathroom arched over the alleyway.

Riet comes to visit

Bonson is about 1/2 an hour's drive.

Riet came to visit late October for about 10 days. The boys are going to miss her, as she payed them some attention, instead of the usual parents raving at them.

Bonson. The road is there to share: cafe in a parking spot.

Bonson: where you can work on your car.

She took it easy, getting over the jetlag, and taking some easy walks to the local village (well and truly wedged in surrounded by France's not so famous Beirut/Mexico city style appartment blocks. They don't make it into everyone's photos.)

She visited us in yankee land too.

Marie

The way to Marie can be tricky.

"I seen a few things a woman ain't sposed to see. I've been to paradise, but I've never been to me."
That is until today. Marie, at least, has been to Marie.

Marie is beautiful, pedestrianised, and surrounded by mountains.

Marie is about 45 minutes away. The way to Marie is very windy and one lane in places, but worth the effort (according to Marie). When we visited, they were having the celebration of Marie. I asked if we could pay up to join in, but the main man said don't worry, just help yourself. But Marie didn't feel comfortable freeloading, so we ended up leaving Marie hungry.

The band celebrating Marie

I suggested coming back for a weekend trip, as Marie is beautiful, but Marie didn't think the kids would enjoy staying for a whole whole weekend, even if there's lots of places you can walk all over Marie. Sadly, I don't think we'll visit Marie for a bit, until we get our next lot of visitors.



Lunch was down the street from Marie, and Marie was happier after a good feed, and a wine.

Jelena Danilo and Anna Maria

Ollie's gotten confident in the water.

On the rocks near our place.

Cagnes Sur Mer old town.

Marie's cousin Jelena came to stay, with her husband Danilo and one of their daughters Anna Maria. The boys love her, and everyone had a good time. After about 3 days, we could say a couple of words of Italian.

A couple more shots

Genoa. Probably good if you're loaded.

 They say less is more. Oh well, not on this blog. Here's a few snaps I forgot to throw in.

Typical town on Croatian coast.

On the coast

Ollie after the wind changed

Roadsign, Bosnia.

The way back home

River Krk National Park - a nice stop

Visovac monastery, or the Island of the Gentle Giant.

 Saw some more countryside. Got stopped by the cops for not having parkers on. That's a fine, but the smiling cop let us go. 

Zadar.

The jetty out the front of Teta Beba.

On the boat, giving Tiho a lesson in arm wrestling.

Stopped for lunch at a weird ski resort with Croatian flags everywhere, but we're still in Bosnia.

Crossed the border and stayed at Knin. Knin has fame as the capital of Serbian Krajina in Croatia. It's army got crushed by Croatia, with the unofficial help of the US, and official help of NATO, and ethnically cleansed in the process. Knin is an important junction in the country, and has important rail hub, and a little citadel. I was interested to have a look, but got outvoted by all, so we headed down to River Krk National Park for a swim and a bushwalk, a better choice. We've got a book called the Gentle Giant, which the boys love. The monastery on the island, Visovac, looks just like in the book. So we took a boat over to take a look, which the boys liked.

The historical city of Vicenza.

We got a call from Tiho. They were staying in Zadar, so we drove up, and stayed with Teta Beba. She's got every kind of flavoured brandy there is, and we tasted pear, cherry, and walnut, (not together) nice! She kindly put us in one of her rooms there. You can walk to a cafe, a couple of little shops, and it's 2m to jump in the sea. The boys hair started to go blonde.

Vicenza was next. Another pedestrianised, bike riddled tourist town that I'd kill to live in. Damn all these Italian towns banning cars, so jealous.

Finally we stopped in Genoa for the day. It's got a Cahill Expressway right along the whole length of it's waterway, heaps of parking, and we both didn't want to stay. It just felt dodgy. Nice old buildings, crazy skinny alleyways everywhere, a lovely central grand piazza.

Nice to be home again.

Down the coast and over to Bosnia.

Zagreb - thumbs up.

After Salvonski Brod, we went to Zagreb with Evonne. It's got a beautiful historic city centre, and a few stalinist blocks outside. Evonne took a plane back home.

Rolling south down the freeway along the coast, we got to Dubrovnik. A beautiful citadel. We stayed in a private home, a bit of a dive.

Dubrovnik - jewel of the Adriatic.

We did stop at Medjugorje, but didn't climb the mountain, as it was over 40 degrees and the hoardes of tourists made it hard.

Next was Mostar. It's well worth a visit, with it's extensive old town. It must have been really amazing before being levelled during the war. Today, it's been well restored from funds all over the world. A few building shells remain. The amazing clear water of the river is an even more amazing 12 degrees. That takes a little time to get into after 40 outside. We stayed in a private appartment, a bit of a dive.

Mostar. Don't jump, I mean, do!

Sarajevo is such an interesting city. See where Archduke Ferdinand got assasinated, and started WW1 (which arguably led to WW2). See the local Siege Museum, and feel impotent rage as you watch what happened to the people here. Or skip the depression, and just enjoy the variety of churches, alleys and interesting places. It would be easy to spend a good few days here. Marie was sick of dives, so we stayed in a 5 star hotel in the middle of town (same price as a pub in Oz mind you).

Sarajevo. Appartments in the middle of town.

Sarajevo. Pretty houses in the hills.

Slavonski Brod

And we're off for a walk.

Seeing the town, and visiting people.

Taking snaps of the buildings

We stayed with the family in Slavonski Brod, both sides of the family.

The town is one of the larger ones around. It has a grand central square, and a lot of European style buildings.

Visiting the people.

Marie takes after the Stanics

Tuesday Vukovar

Miro's museum - pretty impressive.

The church - before.

..is with Ivo, Miro, Jelena, touring Vukovar, Ilok and Nijemci in Croatia, all in the former greater Serbia during the war. Nijemci is Miro's presbytery and church, all rebuilt. He has a youth centre, complete with it's own museum. The bike is staying here. Hope they get some use out of it. It's a pretty town, with a nice park at the centre with the church in it. Landmines are still in the nearby forest. The local bridge looked like a beautiful period piece, but sadly got blown up. We pass a Serb village, untouched by both sides, as they stayed neutral.

Louis braves Ivo, with Anna Maria.

Vukovar has a quaint old town at it's centre, totally rebuilt. Some buildings still have damage. One is mostly just a series of columns with the reinforcing sitting out the top half like flowers in a vase. The columns are solid, so must have taken a lot of explosive damage. One corner of the building is there with the good old staircase exposed to the sky, and a few large holes in the walls. Many of the Serb residents of Vukovar stayed to defend their city and suffered with the rest.

Vukovar after being fully rebuilt, is pretty nice.

In the big vineyard at Ilok.

Ilok is Germanic looking, with a large castle. The vineyard has high walls on the street. It was taken during the war, as the residents agreed to leave.

Monday

We go to see the new baby. The outside of the apartment block looks normal, but inside is very new, marble all over the place, new kitchen and ceiling lights.

There's no place like home, with any luck. The girls go back
to where they came from.

After that we go to Marko's for dinner, check out their house, and the long veggie garden out the back. He also has a sensational looking vintage Miele (same as the electrical appliance company) bike, made in Germany, still running fine every day. It's got a retro front light and dynamo (made in Germany) that sits on the tyre, and a leather saddle with springs. Dinner is meat, meat and 2 big trays of meat. Some of the restaurants we went to later, they didn't bother with a menu; it's either meat or chivapis, and a salad.

The family home is now a small
pile of rubble.

In the morning we cross the border into Unka. The guard is interested to know what Marie is doing and how often she comes to Croatia, since she's got her original family name in the passport, and the place of birth is now effectively off limits. It did not have a friendly atmosphere I'll put it that way. Mara wants us to go first, as the cops are there, and French plated cars are less likely to have problems than plates with a Grb on it. This national symbol is not appreciated by the other side.

The family home. If you look closely,
there's a fence ther in the middle.

On the way, there is a Catholic church, new, then a mosque, new, then another couple of new churches. All the homes are bombed out shells. The local school has the Serb flag flying, and a memorial with the paranoid two headed eagle looking both ways, and pictures of 5 men on it. Why you'd want to remember the people who did these crimes is odd. I'm sure the school's history books make for interesting reading. Every student would get high grades in history, because there would be so much revision (get it, get it, eh?).

The neighbours.

The old home has been completely destroyed. 20 years of overgrowth is making it hard to see that there was a place at all. The fence is still there in the undergrowth. Two more homes nearby are in ruins but still standing, and the rest of the village is mainly a collection of weeds. After viewing the rural villages all the way to here, it is hard not to imagine that it would normally have been lined with homes close to the street. The little chapel looks little used. All the gravestones are quite new. Zdenka said the old ones had been shot up. We visit their sister's grave, and later their granma's.

This memorial is actually inside a
school near Unka, complete with Srb
flag flying overhead.

Further on towards Zeravac, a hand full of homes amoung the weeds have people who watch us roll by. Of the cars that pass, only a few will wave back.

Zeravac has a large brand new church. Apparently they destroyed the old one, and removed it brick by brick. The local priest is currently documenting all of the churches that did exist, so that the deniers cannot simply claim the area. All the cars here are HR plated. It's one of the few places that I'd let the kids play with their soccerball, which is covered in the national symbol. Paranoid I know, but the place makes me feel this way. The priest says a few families have returned, and hopes that more will come home. We chat to one of the builders, who has married a local. He says he gets no problems. He just keeps his head down and works. Just nearby, the local school is a shell, as is every single other home around in the area.

Brave people and new homes at the
only place that looks normal, Zeravac.

The new home with bullet holes and
grafitti, 5-10km away.

A new home a few k's away looks new, has bullet holes and nasty graffiti. It says something like we'll say when you can join us.