vampires...oh vampires

Well I think I have had the most interesting experience of my study abroad trip so far...read on to learn more...

Yesterday was our last official Friday class trip...we got a later start than our past trips at 4 p.m. and began in Poreč, a small coastal town in Croatia. We saw some old Roman villas and a Byzantine Basilica with original frescoes and mosaics, which was pretty awesome. After a little more walking tour of the city, we stopped in an outdoor cafe area to enjoy the city and watch the first half of the Romania-Italy soccer game. I got this great whipped cream fruit tart and hot tea, because it was raining...there was this awesome moment where I felt so European...the church bells rang, and we were sitting in the square sipping tea watching soccer...it was pretty memorable. After halftime we made our way to the second and final stop of our field trip...Kringa, Croatia. We stopped for dinner at a big old restaurant right across the street from this beautiful villa and vineyard. They made our dinner in this big pots under hot coals...the food cooks for a long time! It was pork and potatoes, kind of a broth-less stew. There were again huge heaping plates to share amongst ourselves, but a lot of us got the vegetarian option, fettucine, because the meat is always a little scary option if you're not a big carnivore =). We also had a potato-bean-corn soup and good bread...and finished off the meal with an espresso (they don't have just regular coffee here, only espresso, which they call black coffee...go figure. What I would do for a cup of coffee right now).

Now for the most memorable moment so far...we took the bus to the Caffe Bar Vampire in Kringa. Kringa is the historical residence of the vampire Jure Grando...the most famous Eastern European vampire legend. There were about 6 women in the bar dressed as female vampires, and one guy dressed as a male vampire. The walls of the bar were painted with these very interesting vampire scenes...red and black lighting, and a mix of weird vampire-esque and American classic hits music. We got one round of drinks...some type of "blood" soda. We watched a video of the Jure Grando story (in Croatian) and then listened to a short lecture by a journalist who is an expert on the Istrian vampire legends...then a few of us got another round of drinks -- this time either a "Vampire Kiss" or a "Jure Grando" and then we saw the first-ever Friday the 13th Vampire short play in Kringa. It was borderline inappropriate, but interesting nonetheless...the vampire is often associated with sexual things, so if you watched from an anthropological/scholarly viewpoint it wasn't as crazy!! We spent another hour or so at the bar, talking with some locals and the actresses. Throughout the rest of the evening we got "attacked" by the vampire actors...they would get us under a cape and fake-bite our necks...it was pretty hilarious but I think after an hour or so we were all ready to go home (at Midnight!). What a trip...and you should have seen the boys faces when they got attacked by the female vampires. All three boys on the trip are fairly quiet and respectful, so the pictures we got are pretty hilarious.

Anyways, it has been raining on the Istrian coast for the last 3 days and I am getting a little stir-crazy.

Our professor's birthday was on Thursday, so we all went and watched the game together and had a nice dinner at our usual Maslina restaurant. We tried to surprise him with cake at the beginning of class in the morning, but he saw me with the cake on the street on the way to class! Haha...surprise gone wrong but it was still a fun day. We also bought him a nice cigar and a bottle of Croatian white wine, Malvasia. It was fun!

The main street in town, Carrera, finally finished construction and opened today. I guess there were bands and people on unicycles and stilts...I got down here a little to late to see it all. But the news when we first arrived in Rovinj was that the street was going to be finished by June 1st. Now that its June 14th...this is just a tiny example of the laid-back life style of Mediterraneans. They definitely don't overwork themselves and are not very concerned about deadlines!

I hope the weather improves for our last week...AAAH! I can't believe it's almost over. This week I think we are visiting one of the islands again, as well as Lim Fjord, the longest inland bit of the Adriatic Sea, by boat. Our goodbye dinner is Thursday and then off to Trieste, Brescia & Milan hopefully and then the airport! Yikes.

Hope you all had good and vampire-free weekends! Ciao for now!

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