Today is a significant one since it has been 90 days- 3 months- exactly since we left Los Angeles/ Orange County/ California/ The United States on our Great Adventure. I was trying to come up with one word that brought together our experiences in Valencia (SP), Tivoli (IT), and now, in Split, Croatia. And that word is: pastry!
Pastry is one thing in common in all three countries, yet each do it differently and with a different priority.
In Spain, pastries and pastry shops were everywhere and coffee was almost always available where you bought pastries. Sometimes they came in a breakfast format, ala empanadas, and sometimes they were glorified bread (toast) and some type of jam. The shops were prevalent and easy to find, and they were wonderful and incorporated fruit and other healthy ingredients. Still, carb city and coffee came second in importance to them.
Yum!
Italy also has pastries, or course, but they were second to their coffee. The teeniest weeniest cups of expresso you will ever find. The Italians would come into the coffee shop and many times not even sit. They would gulp their shot-sized dose of highly caffeinated coffee and off they would go. In most cases, no time for a pastry! Shame, because their pastries were also good, not as many “breakfast meals” as Spain, but I found certain ones that I liked and would sometimes go to a specific shop just to get those. Oh, we learned that cappuccinos after noon is a no-no, which is fine since I like my coffee WITH a pastry or breakfast.
Now we are in Croatia and of course, pastries are available here, too, but some shops ONLY have pastry and no coffee! And some have coffee and no pastry. It must be an unwritten rule (not that I could read it anyway!) that they stay out of each others’ turf and focus on that one offering. Weird. We did find an awesome pastry shop just minutes from here and these things are HUGE and the dough is a little less flaky than Spain or Italy. Even so, they are good and now that we understand their currency- the Kuna- one pastry is usually about 8 kunas, which is roughly $1.20 USD.
We heard reports from some that the food here in Croatia was not to their suiting, but so far that has not been the case. It is eminently affordable and very, very good. We are in a small village which is on the water and our sense is that many of these people have been here for decades or at least many years. We stand out one, as strangers because we don’t look like workers or residents (plus they know everyone) and two, because, well, I think they must sense that we are not Europeans. They don’t go out of their way to be friendly, but if we smile and say “hello” they will reciprocate. English is common here which we found out came from their exit to freedom from Soviet rule back in 1991.
You figure that for decades they were under the Iron Fist of Soviet communism and freedom did not exist. Their lives must have been horrible, but as they were delivered in freedom after a civil uprising or two, they concluded that they had to align somewhere, and that somewhere was the West, specifically the US. Many of the “young” understand and speak English and many of the shop keepers do as well, but the average resident here in our town, not so much. In America we have some understanding of Latin based languages, specifically Spanish (due to Mexican influence), but following suit, comes REAL Spanish and Italian. Slavic? Totally different and very hard even to remember hello, thank you, and good morning. We’ll see how much we pick up.
And so begins our 60 days or so in Croatia. Next week we will get a bike and explore, and since it’s not a large country we’ll hit as much as we can. We are outside the EU for visa purposes and must remain for a bit before we can return. Even so, we have Albania, Montenegro, Romania, and Bulgaria to visit, which we hear are beautiful as well. Since I am adjacent to Hungary, my Mother’s native country, I will go there and visit her hometown and try to obtain a copy of her birth certificate, which will be 100 years old in July. I may be eligible for a Hungarian passport. I truly wish I had honored her wish to visit with me when she was still alive, so anyone reading this, learn from me. Honor your parent’s wishes along these lines. Once they are gone, that door is forever closed.
#pastry, #spain, #italy, #croatia, #breakfast
