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Published: August 15th 2007
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Hello all, this is my first entry from Croatia. A very long one (two pages). Good news: the past entries are back, but not all pictures!
Im working at a campingsite for a Dutch travelorganization who organize vacations especially for single families. When they arrive, they all have their own big tents with a fridge, beds, plates, spoons, forks etc. everything they'll need. Im the driver, which means that I have a small bus and I have to carry the guests to their activities around and pick them up again. Twice a week I bring them to the supermarket. Beside driving the car, I help my colleagues entertaining the kids, washing the dishes etc. Geertje is the coordinator. The other five: Mark, Nick, Thijs, Kelly and Jo Ann are the kid-animators. They do activities with the kids. We all have our own tent. Due to the heat you must wake up early. We have breakfast around 8.30 but the heat forces you to get out of your tent around 9:30. Most of the guests stay for one or two weeks. Tuesdays are always arriving and departing days of the guests. As a driver I don't have to do a lot:
plenty of time to hang around, go for a swim, play some beachvolleyball etc. The campingsite itself is big. Our place is just a one minute walk from the sea. The water is crystal clear and you can swim almost everywhere. The campingsite has it's own animation crew where Maja works. She's a nice Croatian girl from Zagreb who works here during the summer and I always talk a lot to her during the teen-disco on the campingsite. A few days ago we had a heavy thunderstorm and my tent was blown away. We managed to get everything out of the tent just in time. Then I got a much bigger and better tent. Saturdays we always have a BBQ which starts around 19:30.
Sunday is our day off. The first sunday I went to Plitvice Natural Park, which was a 4 hour drive. On the way to the park we drove along the coast of Croatia which is very nice. We also drove along the city of Rijeka. Driving to the park you can see some houses with bulletholes in the walls from the war. This part of Croatia was involved in the war in Yugoslavia till ca.
15 years ago. But Croatia is now modernizing and growing pretty fast. When driving around you notice that most of the highways and roads are new and they are still improving the infrastructure. Plitvice park is very very nice. Many waterfalls the lakes have a very nice blue colour. The next week we went with the small bus because there were only 6 guests who wanted to go. I drove all the way to Plitvice and instead of waiting outside for the group, I went to Bosnia & Herzegovina, to a city called Bihac which lies in the northwest of the country. Once in BiH I didn't notice much left from the war. I saw only one flat building with several bullet holes. All the time I was thinking ˝thank God that these people can live in peace now˝. Bihac itself is a small town, not very very nice but not ugly either. It seemed to be a quiet and peaceful place. I walked around for a while in the city, many friendly people looking and greeting you. I'm sure this country is worth to visit, maybe in the future I'll go back and see more!
Rovinj is an
ancient city and is very nice. Not big, but in the summer it's crowded with tourists untill late hours of the night. There are many terraces and bars in town and many times there is live entertainment. For example, on a Friday a Cuban band played live on a stage in the city and I went with Nick and Kelly. Rovinj has about 20000 inhabitants. It lies at the shore, with a small peninsula in a round form and there is a church right in the center of it. There are several narrow alleys and colourful houses.
There is a place called Monvi. It's like a square, surrounded by walls and it has one entrance. Entrance is free and inside there are many bars and clubs. In the middle you of the square you can hang around and have a drink, there is one bar there. We went on a Saturday there and it was very crowded. You see all kind of people there: skinny, fat, tall, short etc, many female beauties too. I met a Croatian girl there, Ana. Unfortunately she lives in Zagreb but I had a good night there in the club. A few days later
I went to Monvi again with some Italian guests I met on the campingsite: Matteo, Luca, Stefano and Fabio. They are from Torino and Milano. These guys are pretty crazy (like most Italians) but fun and friendly. They've been teaching me many ˝ugly˝ Italian words, hahaha! We went twice to Monvi and to Rovinj town in the evening with some Russian girls. I had a good time with them last week. I was hanging around with them almost everyday. I also met Francesca and Leonardo, who stayed for 10 days in a tent near us. They are very friendly and they're from a small town near Treviso. We started talking to each other one day I was washing dishes next to Francesca outside the bathrooms. We planned once to meet in Monvi but they didn't make it because they were too tired. We often had a small chat here on the campingsite. They don't live far from Noale, the town where Luca and Lucia live and next time I go to Veneto I will visit them as well.
Anyway, that was everything for now. I will try to write a second entry from Croatia.
Take care all and a
big hug.
Elton (Rovinj, Hrvatska)
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els
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plitvice
Hi Elton, it is great to see pictures of Plitvice again. We spent three whole days exploring the park in the early '80. Always wondered how much damage the park would have suffered from the war, but luckily not much (at least it still looks as unspoiled as before). Have fun in Kroatia! Els