Getting around Croatia
by means of the occasional Vegetable Stand
(Pictures from Croatia will be forthcoming in the next post. For now, here's an amusing little story that happened to me yesterday.)
Croatia is a hoot. Things are not quite as
developed here as what we're used to. For
instance, the shelves in grocery stores are not
really very full, and don't bother going looking for over the counter pain
relievers in any regular store, shop, or grocery: you need a pharmacy for
that. The local bus service apparently likes
to make changes at random, not only to their timetables, but also to the
location of their bus stops. They do have tourist information offices, here,
even in the smaller towns; I dutifully went to one because I was in fact in
search of the local bus stop.
Unfortunately, the woman who
actually worked at the tourist information office wasn't really quite sure exactly
where the bus stop was currently located.
She said she'd called the bus company last week, and they told her it
was in front of Kamik, which was
caddy corner from her office, across a traffic roundabout. Hmmmm…so she's supposedly little more than a
stone's throw from this town's bus stop, but she's not 100% sure it's where she
says it is, AND she works for tourist information…very interesting.
In fact I had just come from the
establishment called Kamik because
they advertised bike rentals. Their
rentals were too expensive compared to other prices I had seen online for the
area, so instead I asked them where the bus stop was. Again, a lot of shadiness on the location of
the bus stop: the girl said it used to
be just in front of them, but then they put the "rondo" in (I take it
that is the local word for traffic circle, because that is what I now see in
front of their shop). She said when they
put the rondo in they moved the bus stop, and she's not sure where it went. Hmmmm, I'm thinking they couldn't have moved
it all that far, could they? Maybe they
decided that with all the improved traffic flow from the newly installed rondo,
the citizens and visitors to Banjole wouldn't need access to the bus
anymore? lol!
Well, back to the lady at the
information desk…so I told her of my conversation with the girl at Kamik, and how she'd said the bus stop
wasn't there anymore…but the information desk lady just repeated that she called
the bus company last week, and that's where they said it was. Ok.
Then she said, "That's the problem here, they are always changing
things. We're not very organized." I think she was apologizing. She might have had the feeling that things
weren't quite living up to expectations of visitors from other European
countries, what with Croatia just having newly joined the EU. I think they are under some pressure to get
up to speed with various things, Euros being one of them. Croatia, while in the
EU, does not yet use the Euro for currency.
So I had to cash in my 50 Euro note, and when I did, I got 327 kuna back! Oh boy. I'm going to have to keep my
calculator handy in order to understand how much anything costs here! The
information desk lady said that the bus fare, for instance, is 15 kuna. That sounded expensive to me, but after
calculations I discovered it's only about $2.25--still kind of pricey for a
local bus ticket, but I didn't have much other choice!
So, we covered bus stops, bus
fare, and now I just needed the bus schedule.
Much to my surprise, again because she works at the tourist information
office, she didn't have any printed bus schedules ready to go. However, she was very quick to offer to print
one for me off the internet. Interestingly
enough, after printing it, she proceeded to write a whole bunch of extra and
different times on it, referencing a little post-it note she had on her desk
with hand-written scrawls on it. She explained again that they have made some
changes, and told me she thought these times she had written would work. Ok! I guessed that was about all the
information I could glean from Tourist Information, and off I went in search of
the bus stop.
I walked beyond the Kamik bike rental shop to see if a bench
sitting in the grass might be the bus stop.
Hmmm, no signage, and also it seemed to be on the wrong side of the
road. I figured I better cross the road
and continue my search on the other side.
Directly across the way was a roadside vegetable stand with a big shade
umbrella in front. In the midday heat it
was a little bit enticing. I figured I
could ask the lady there, and also, maybe buy some fresh grapes, or a nectarine
or something. The shade was quite
inviting. When I asked her if she knew
where the bus stop was, she said, why yes! The bus stop, in fact, was right in
front of her vegetable stand! Hmmmm…I looked around again, and I saw no
signage or other indication that this was in fact a bus stop. But she looked at her watch, and said, "Yeah,
it should be coming soon." Well, if
she works at her vegetable stand every day, I don't think I can argue with her
if she says this is where the bus stop is. So, I planted myself in the shade of
her umbrella, checked my watch (11:55) and proceeded to wait for the bus. According to the bus schedule, there should
be one at 12:00 noon, plus the vegetable stand lady had also looked at her
watch and said, "Yeah, it should be here soon." So, I had some hope that I was in the right
place, and would soon be on my way. It
was while waiting there that I noticed the restaurant next door to the stand was
also called Kamik…..
By 12:15 there was still no sign
of the bus. A couple of cars had pulled in to buy things at the stand, and each
time they did, I thought to myself, "Hey! you're blocking the bus stop!"
ha ha ha! Finally, another car pulled
in, a black Audi with two nicely dressed tourists. They rolled down the window and, without
getting out, called out to ask directions to Prementura. Funnily enough, that's where I was going, so
I pointed down the road, in the direction of where I hoped to be able to take
the bus soon. In the meantime the
vegetable stand lady came over to answer their question too. When they asked her where Prematura was, she
pointed down the road, then she pointed to me, and put her hand on my shoulder,
and said to the people, in a rather directive but friendly voice, "She's
going to Prematura, you take her there."
Then she said to them, "You're Italiano?" to which they
nodded, "Ahh," the lady said, "she is Deutsch (pointing to me),
you take her to Prematura."
"OK," they said, looking a little befuddled, but nonetheless
agreeable. Then the vegetable stand lady looked at me and said, "You go
with them. They go to Prematura."
And that was that. Even though
I'm not really German, of course, and I don't know where she got that idea, it
all worked out!
I guess in a country where things
don't always run the way they are supposed to, perhaps people get rather used
to just figuring things out for themselves.
Maybe they're just so used to improvising because they often have to,
and so it comes naturally to simply work out a practical solution, especially
when it presents itself so readily like that.
I really liked the vegetable stand lady's attitude, and she really made
my day. I couldn't speak much with the
Italians though, as they didn't speak English or French, and I didn't speak
Italian or German (not being German that is!), but we had a pleasant enough
ride down to Prementura.
Once we got there, the Italians dropped
me off and went on their way to the
nature reserve that's there. It's
supposedly loaded with what I read are some of the most beautiful beaches anywhere. That's exactly where I has headed, but first
I had to go to the other bike rental shop I had read about. (I couldn't just ride with the Italians all
the way to the park, because it's a large park that merits exploring, and it's
crisscrossed with bike and walking trails.
Some of the best beaches are only accessible by foot.) Turns out the Italians had dropped me off
right around the corner from the rental shop.
Quelle chance!
So, I went in to rent the bike,
but that will have to start the next story (and there is another story)… Turns
out Croatia is full of stories! Or rather,
perhaps, Croatia is full of the ability to generate stories! That's all for
today though, as I'm exhausted after riding my bike all over the nature reserve,
hiking up and down to beaches, and swimming in the Adriatic sea. Until next
time…
