Hellos and Goodbyes / Brief Encounters

Europe » Croatia
May 7th 2012

Published: May 7th 2012

As we all know when we are travelling or on holiday there are those quick meetings with others in a hotel or on a camp site and they are interesting because they are a “now you see me, now you don’t” sort of thing. Some people we wish we had more time to get to know others we were glad that one of us would be moving on soon!

We were talking the other night of those we’ve met over the last few weeks, here are a few!

German couple in the Riviera dei Fiori – they arrived late afternoon and had trouble maneuvering their caravan into place so we offered help, after a while we had made it worse and then gradually sorted it out and all was well. Throughout this event Mr German kept cracking jokes in English about marriage and other things. Now if you’ve ever tried to make a joke in a second language, be prepared for the long silence! Or the polite fixed smiles and laughter attempted by your audience in the hope it was at the right point in the story but with no real confidence. He was a very gentle guy though and we both took an instant liking to them both. She long suffering and polite, he a lovable and mischievous but well meaning sole. His comments about a thing called a router or rooter left us guessing but we laughed politely, as all good British would. Later he came and invited us to go to the “Mercedes bar”, intrigued we followed him. We were told to bring two glasses. He opened the boot of his Mercedes and revealed a wine box, which he filled our glasses from several times as we propped up the "Mercedes bar" and chatted happily. We are still left wondering about his marriage jokes and references to “rooters”, but we suspect it was humour of the “carry on” or “men behaving badly” variety! We left soon after and would have liked to get to know them better, they seemed really fun.

Then there was Gui who we met at Bob and Karen’s house, a Belgian octogenarian who lives in the next valley and still walks his dog in the hills looking remarkable fit and healthy. He sat in the chair by the window in Karen’s front room with Spiro, his dog, at his feet. He talked with a wonderful accent, which was a cross between Hercule Poirot and Tin Tin but with almost perfect English vocabulary. Again he was an enchanting character with many stories to tell but with not enough time to get to hear them. He amazed me when he used the terms such as “pejorative” comfortably in his chat, a term many English speakers would not use or understand. A most wonderful gentleman.

The Austrian couple, Werner and Micki, both in their twenties who invited us to share a bottle of wine on the beach in this campsite. Their dog Piero (Micki’s travelling companion and gift from Spain) and Horace played in the surf while we watched the sun go down over the Adriatic. They chatted easily to us although there was a forty year generation gap and Micki told us of her travels in Europe and Werner of his work in Austria as a Chef. I asked about how Austria sees Europe and they talked about national pride but also about a world of one people. Short meetings but fascinating all the same, to get the views of a different nation and a different generation on current issues. They talked of world war two without difficulty and how their nation was split in four after the war only regaining its sovereignty in 1955 and now of the changing borders in Europe. Even recently Czechoslovakia split into the Check republic and Slovakia. I get the impression that change will continue and we all wondered how the world would look when they were our age. Of course a couple of bottles of cheap white wine helps these conversations along nicely! They leave today and we exchanged e-mail address.

The man who leant through our window as we set of from Iseo and surprised us with an English accent. Having seen our number plates he wished us well for our journey. We learnt in a couple of minutes that they had travelled down the Rhine to get to Northern Italy we outlined our route to him, returned the good wishes and we were gone.

There have been many more of these encounters and they make travelling what it is, interesting!

I might also ask for some advice. We met a couple of young Italian ladies who ran up to us on the beach to ask about Horace, what breed he was etc. Being a perceptive sort of chap I quickly noticed that they weren’t wearing any bikini tops! My question is – What is the correct protocol in this situation? Is it to keep eye contact above shoulder height, pretend they were wearing tops and carry on as if everything was normal? Might that not seem impolite? Should one glance down and make a comment such as “very nice” in a sort of Terry Thomas voice? Dee said that giggling like a schoolboy and pointing would show the British male in a bad light. Anyhow I chose the option one and pretended that I hadn’t noticed until we were out of sight. Then of course giggled like a schoolboy and said “phoar, did you see that” Dee tutted, shook her head and walked away. It’s very difficult being a chap sometimes!

One of the few English couples we’ve come across was on the Croatia site. The site owner was telling us that a local brass band were staying nearby and being a Saturday night they may start playing on their return from their concert. We gathered that some Pivos (beers) may be taken and sorry if there was noise later. We immediately thought how nice it might be to see and hear some drunken Croatian brass band members entertain us. Our Englishman, though had an attack of the grumps saying he liked quiet on a campsite! He then went on to complain about the price of the tolls in Slovenia and how the words rip and off came to mind! Stay at home in future mate!

At this site in Croatia we met an Australian couple after Horace decided to protect us from the Aussie man as he tried to get water from a tap that H had decided was in our territory! He does this sometimes. Often someone will walk past a bit close and he will raise an eyebrow then fall asleep again. Other times, like on this occasion, he decides he’s had enough of these intruders disrespecting our boundaries and launches himself at them (he is tethered on a long lead). The mixed messages of a ferocious bark and waggy tail are almost like a warning and apology at the same time! Anyhow the couple were very understanding as their family have “Rotties” (Aussie accent please!) at home. They were on a seven week campervan honeymoon in Europe and told us of a “must see” place in Austria called Halstatt which they raved about so we will try and include it on the way back. An hour later they were gone. (Hope it wasn’t Horace’s bad manners!)

Hellos and Goodbyes / Brief Encounters

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