Change of plans

Day 5, August 7th: Our original plans were to go to Bosnia with the two Antons as our guides. We were going to see the bombed out buildings left from the war, beautiful mosques, and a waterfall. But at 11:30 Anton B came to tell us that he needed to be on a conference call that afternoon. So without him we wouldn't know where we were going.


Instead, we took Anton Marinović's little boat Pivac, out to a sandbar where the water is very shallow a half mile out. There are very few sand beaches in Croatia and this is one of them. It was a very cool way to spend the day, standing by the boat munching on prosciutto, cheese, bread and tomatoes.



We came back, had a nap, then motivated to do a hike to the top of a huge hill overlooking the valley and the village where an Italian bunker still stands from WWII. Dominik was our tourguide and he took off like a shot. He'll be 70 this year and we were having a hard time keeping up with him! He said as children he and his siblings would run up and down the hill barefoot. He didn't have shoes until he was about 15. When any of them would cut their toe open on some of the rocks they would just rub some dirt on it and keep going. Seriously. They are incredibly tough and resilient people.

The 360 degree view atop the hill was stunning. There was a panoramic view of the ocean, vast expanse of the valley , and the hazy space where the ocean meets the mountains. Inside what is left of the bunker buildings are pieces of wood, tile, debris. Kids have carved things into the walls. There are huge holes in the ceiling. Outside you can still find the cement ring that was used as a machine gun turret.


We trekked back down listening to more of the stories from WWII, about the Marinović family hiding from the bombings, being shipped off to Egypt with all the other Croatians to keep them safe, and how some of the old men still have prejudices today based on politics, religion, and what region you were from.

We planned on maybe getting pizza with Uncle Tommy and Aunty Patty. Instead, Vesna insisted we stay and have stuffed bell peppers she made. You don't argue with Vesna. And these peppers were better than any pizza we could have had. The Marinović women can COOK. All the food they make is so delicious. Jason doesn't normally like bell peppers and he had three of these. After hanging out with Vesna, Ante Pivac, Uncle Tommy, and Aunty Patty we got ready to go out with Anton B. and Tihana.

We went to a beachside nightclub in Gradac. We sat at the end of the area dubbing it the VIP section since no one was there other than the occasional bartender. There were kids dancing in the lights near the main bar at their tables. We learned all kinds of inappropriate words and phrases in Croatian, as you should learn in all foreign languages. Jason E. was painfully quiet and didn't chime in once. But if you ask him, he says he's having a good time.

We took off from there and went to another part of Gradac in search of burek - a filo dough pizza pocket with either meat or cheese stuffed inside. Great drunk food which means really bad for you. We found it and it was indeed tasty. It was almost like a large pretzel with the cheese twisted into the dough. After that, it was 2:30 and we called it a night. The plan is to return to Gradac tomorrow morning and enjoy the beach scene with Uncle Tommy and Aunty Patty.