September in Croatia

                     It's an art form and I realize that it is....but it still makes ordering or making your own cup of coffee very difficult. Like most Americans you reach for a mug or the waitress sets down a mug and coffee is poured into it. Cream, sugar and you are done.                              That's far too easy for Europeans. There are countless descriptions of the exact type of coffee....kinda like going to Starbucks and trying to figure out what "Vente" and "Grande" have to do with small, medium or large. Anyway, I stopped at a cafe. It was situated so close to the Tram line that the "whoosh" of the tram could knock you over if you weren't prepared. Nevertheless...it was early, no one seemed to be waiting on anyone but the door was open. I walked to the counter and ordered. The waiter seemed mortally offended that I had come in and not just set ...

Zagreb, Croatia                                        My German friends joke a bit about American waitresses and workers and how incredibly friendly they are. I never thought much about it...but we are a rather friendly-type when it comes to serving a meal or giving directions (not that others are not...I onetime had a group of three folks in Liverpool hold an impromptu summit conference on the city street ....all trying to figure out where my hotel was located...they kept stopping random Liverpudlians in a vain attempt to help me, fresh off the train.) Anyway, I digress. But, that sort of service has not quite caught on here in Europe yet, though it is coming! Case in point. I get off the plane...three rather long but good flights and arrive in Zabreb, Croatia. I know enough to ask lots of annoying questions because jet lag and language barriers often do not make for smooth communicatio...

Sabbatical: a period of leave granted to a worker for study or travel. A more archaic form of the word: of or appropriate to the sabbath...a day of religious observance. Many years ago, a friend in London said that he had traveled the Yugoslovian coast along the Adriatic Sea. I remembered his enthusiasm for the coast and now I finally have the opportunity to see it for myself. The plan is to begin at Zagreb, Croatia in the north and take a train to the coast (practically the only train in the country). On the coast, I'll start in the ancient city of Split, palace home to Roman Emperor Diocletian.                                Take a ferry to Dubrovnik and head back North from there along the coast.                              I've been along the Adriatic Sea before, when I went to Piran, Slovenia a few years ago.     ...