Wasser, Acqua, Voda
The Danube flows less than a mile from our house. Once, on a hot day, I peddled to it, took off my shirt, and jumped in. The current was strong. Off I went Eastward towards Vienna. I made it back home in time for dinner.
A few weeks later we drove to a bigger body of water. The Adriatic. Venice. Home of St. Mark’s corpse, Peggy Gegenheim’s dog cemetery, tagliatelle, and gondoliers. In Venice it’s legal for a 14 year old to operate a motor boat. “Can I have a boat daddy?” I heard this a dozen times.
After three days in Venice, we left the canals, returned to the parking garage, and hit the road again — headed for Trieste, and the lakes of Plitvice, in the mountains of Croatia. Plitvice is a national park with many lakes, each at a different elevation, like a staircase. Between each lake is a beautiful waterfall, the tallest is 80 meters. Along the lakes is a 20km boardwalk made of axe-chopped planks.
We stayed at an Inn called Plitvice Breza with a three legged dog named Bobby, who lost his leg chasing cars.
Bobby shares the property with a bunch of cats, one of which is blind, a herd of sheep, and dozens of chickens. Natashia, a friendly tall woman, served our meals, along with reminders that leftovers were wasteful.
“I can’t handle this pressure,” Zoe declared over breakfast in a moment of weakness.
After breakfast, we returned to the car, avoided the three-legged dog, and made our way back to Highway A1 going South along the coast. A few hours later we were looking across towards Venice from the other side of the Adriatic, waiting in a line for the Port Jefferson 🤪 ferry to take us to the Croation island of Vis.
And this is where we sit. Watching television and writing blog posts on the restaurant deck of the S.S. Jadrolinija.
We’ll be on the island of Vis for five days, eating vegan food at a sporty little place called Wear Active, with easy access to the beach.
It’s been a month since I jumped in the Danube. I haven’t gone swimming since then. So the first order of business on Vis is clear.
Note: we are being very careful about covid, of course. And people are wearing masks almost everywhere we go.