Last Monday night, after not dancing for a month, we danced at this little bar in Krakow called Klub Zaraz Wracam Tu. We stayed in the old town and took the tram there. The ride took 15 minutes, and we passed many beautiful old buildings.
Krakow is one of the few cities that wasn’t destroyed in WWII, but the city was mined by the departing Germans before they left the city, but luckily, the Polish partisans defused the mines. (I have heard many different stories about this.)
As we entered the club, there’s the typical section of smokers gathered around a small table in an even smaller outdoor space. In Poland, smoking is only permitted outside.
Surveying the room dancers, we looked for the host, who is also the dj, Roman Halek. He was dancing as he wasn’t sitting at his computer.
We watched the dancers. We looked at the embraced. We looked at the steps. We looked at the floor craft. We looked at the tables that were all situated against the walls.
We noticed the temperature in the room was quite warm, even if the exterior temperature was a bit cooler. We waited to find a table until the end of the tanda.
Unexpectedly, we were greeted by a helpful leader who spoke English and told to put our admission price into the open box on the dj table, and we could sit anywhere we liked.
Okay, the seating is a bit similar to most milongas in European countries except here the seating is not assigned to you as experienced in some milongas in Spain or Buenos Aires and it doesn’t seem neccesaryto make a reservation either.]
We started to walk towards a table, when the organizer, Roman, a big bear of a man, found us and I was greeted with a tango kiss on each cheek. He reiterated, “Please sit anywhere!”
Welcome to Milonga Loca. The room is filled with people dancing. All kinds of embraces and all kinds of bodies. They are mostly closed embraced, but a few are in open embrace. They dance around the room with some sense of etiquette. Some dancing to the music played and others dancing to the rhythms that only the leader hears.
We sit at a large table. We hear the music, and Maximo nods to me, and I respond with a nod.
We asked our neighbors to get up as we have peeps seated on both sides of us. Politely, we move onto the floor, and we take a moment to connect with each other, breathe, and then we move.
I find my body is a bit rigid as I haven’t danced for a month, same is true for my partner. We breathe. We dance. The second tanda is better, and by the third, we are both feeling better and dancing a bit looser.
We dance, we chat with our table mates. We drink our water from our canteens. If a beverage is wanted, you must walk up to the bar in the front area, order it, and bring it to your table.
We stay for a few hours. Enjoying the tango classic music of the old orchestras. We enjoy watching the peeps dance. Good DJ and music selections.
We take our leave as in reading the transportion schedule the trams stop running at 11.30 and the last run of the night is by bus.
We wait, and the bus shows up exactly on time. My partner remarks, “We are not in Argentina.” This is a reference that implies service in Argentina is very different. And it is!
We meet a fellow tangero at the bus stop. He lives here in Kraków and in Northern California. In our small world, we find we share many friends in tango.
We shall see him again at the Crakow Tango Marathon that begins shortly.
Once again, we are stuck with how small our world of traveling and tango actually is.
We love it!!!
More on tango in Krakow as we have two festivals here. This weekend, Crakow Tango Festival and next weekend with Quiero Verte Tango Festival. But all starts tonight with an appearance at a local club of Marisol Martínez with Andariega Orchestra from Buenos Aires. Another small world coincidence as we met her at El Beso.
We extended our stay here by 6 extra days because it is so beautiful. The town is approximately a 25-minute walk from our camp or a 10-minute ride on this train vehicle with two-car passenger seating areas. Or if you miss this transport you can take a cab for 10 €.
The old town of Rovinj is filled with cobblestone streets worn down by time. No cars are allowed in the old town streets after dark.
There are shops, art galleries, restaurants, and many gelato stores as eating gelato on a hot summer day is a must. All streets seem to end up on the harbor, so there are afternoon breezes that are welcomed as the weather has been in the mid-80s to mid-90s.
The old city used to be on a separate island close to the coast. It became connected to the mainland in 1763 by filling in the channel. For 500 years, the Istrian península was governed by Venezia, which accounts for the strong Italian influence. Most signs in this península are mandated to be written in Croat and Italian.
The Italian influence is felt all around from the warm colors of the buildings to the flavor of the food. We enjoy our almost daily ramblings around the city. We try to only walk in the shady streets, looking for a spot for the afternoon coffee. This led us to discover many obscure corners of the city that are uncrowded.
We have eaten lunch or dinner at many local restaurants, but we prepare breakfast in the campervan, fresh coffee, and a sandwich or berries and yogurt.
Today, on our last day in Rovinj, we will once again go to the beach and rent two lounge chairs with pillows and a large umbrella. We will swim in the Adriatic today as tomorrow we depart for a bit of inland camping at Krka National Forest.
From our base in Rovinj, we took the public bus to Pula. It was a 45-minute drive on back roads. This is the town that is famous for its arena or coliseum. Here, we found a somewhat preserved and mostly intact stone arena in the old city closest to the harbor. The crowds that were in Rome are thankfully not here.
Once inside, there was a stage permanently set up as there are now mock gladiator shows, and the arena is used for live concerts and operas. We will miss a performance by Andre Bocelli at the end of August, and the opera Aida was staged in early August. While it was a hot day, we walked the small arena looking at the ancient stones with a small crowd of foreigners.
Under the arena, they created a museum of all the items that had been unearthed nearby, many different amphoras that were used for storing olive oil, wines, or fish sauce. Was cool here, so we lingered a bit longer here. When they finished there, we walked further into the old city as there were a couple of older sites we wanted to visit.
Walking in the hot sun is difficult, and I was getting g hungry. We mistakenly stopped at the first restaurant. While I was hungry, we decided to order. A hamburger of meat and veal with French fries and a salad. What arrived was a Greek salad with an abundance of cucumbers, and a few tomatoes enhanced with a couple of pieces of feta and olives intermixed. The meat was passable, and the salad needed a lot of oil. We asked for iced tea! Not available, we asked for lemonade. We indeed got this in two huge pitcher glasses with straws. We ate somewhat filled and asked for the check and said we would pay by visa. Many places in Croatia don’t accept cards, only cash. No problem. The waitress brought the check. OMG the burger was 18€ with French fries. The salad was 14€, but here’s the surprise the lemonades were 7€ each, and we had to pay 4€ for the ketchup.
We paid almost that much for a fantastic flavorful lunch the day before in Rovinj. So I called this place a tourist trap and wrote that in a review.
After paying the bill, we walked further into the old town and found many other restaurants whose menus looked way more interesting and might have been better quality food too.The joys of finding a restaurant when hungry were disappointing, and not reading the reviews compounded the mistake, too.
But as we continue to walk around this old city, we compare Pula to Rovinj. The Pula Old Quarter is much smaller and not as picturesque as Rovinj.
As the time is getting late and we want to return, we walk towards the bus and my stomach decides it’s not happy.
But no restaurant or bar nearby, luckily I see a run-down bar in the distance. We walk quickly there. The woman at the door says you must spend money to use the bathroom. I said, “Yes, I would.” Wow… of course, it was probably the dirtiest bathroom in the city. But thank God there was toilet paper as the tourist trap restaurant wreaked its revenge. But after many minutes, I felt relief. And oh, so happy to have a toilet and the toilet paper. Instead of eating or drinking there, I just gave her 2 €.
Another day, we arranged a private tour guide with a car to Montevon y Grisyeda, two hilltop towns considered to be the gems of Istria. Motovun is the heart of the truffle country. Our guide’s name was Vladana she grew up in the area but left for many years to live in other countries in Europe. She speaks Spanish, Italian, German, Croat, and English. She is happy to speak to us in Spanish as she doesn’t get to practice much.
It’s a small winding road we use after traveling the autobahn. About 50 minutes north of Rovinj, we approached the town that was abandoned after WWII and remained so until the 1960s. Today’s appearance of Groznjan is due to the artist and sculptor Aleksandar Rukavina, who, together with other artists, worked to ensure the preservation and restoration of the buildings.
Now, the town is inhabited by 165 residents who are predominantly artists as there are 20 art galleries and numerous restaurants too.
As we walked through the streets of this very picturesque town, it was delightful not only for the eyes, but we were delighted to be listening to music students practice either the piano or the violin. There is also a music camp here. Was a wonderful experience, and we had one of the best views of the surrounding area at the cafe with our coffee.
Next, we visited Motovun, another hilltop old town where we were lucky enough to get a ride to the top with the local hotel owner. Only local cars have the means to drive to the top, leaving many visitors to hike up the hilly cobblestone streets.
Once there, another magnificent vista awaits you, but this town is different as it has a very well-preserved wall that must be visited.
After all this viewing, we had lunch in a famous restaurant that is known for its pasta with truffles. The food was a tasty experience along with a glass of local chilled white wine.
Ahh, Istrian península! I think this is my favorite area of Croatia.
We ended up staying in Rovinj for 11 days and are so glad we did.
In all the time of traveling in the campervan, life was very simple. Put on a bathing suit, have breakfast, wash up. Go to the Adriatic for a float in the afternoon. Rinse repeat for 26 days.Refreshed.Relaxed.
We leave for Krakow Poland on Saturday. There, we will meet the local tangeros and dance at two tango festivals.
It will be wonderful to be back in a city, sleep in a normal bed, walk into the bathroom and use a normal toilet, go into the kitchen, and make coffee on a regular cooktop.
We are so grateful for the way we got to experience Croatia.
This month of August is very hot in Europe, so we will not be dancing much tango. Instead, we have opted to try something totally out of our comfort zone. We rented a campervan for about three weeks to explore the beaches of Croatia.
Now, we have been camping in Croatia for two weeks. This beautiful country has a rocky coastline, accessible beaches, and lots of antiquities.
We arrived in Split and decided to travel to the north as we wanted to avoid the whole busy tourist scene in Dubrovnik and, to a lesser extent, Split. When we depart the country from Split, we’ll spend time exploring there before we leave at the end of the month
Maximo is enjoying driving here as the roads are narrow but in fairly good condition. It only gets a bit scary when we go down these somewhat winding smaller lanes to the campsites driving this very long van.
Camp at sunset
One afternoon, we took a cab to see the old city of Zadar. Beautiful old city filled with many buildings that have been partially reconstructed as much of this country was bombed or partially damaged in not only WWII but the War of Independence, too
After spending 3 days in Drage, we left the camp, but I forgot to check my calendar and realized it was Saturday, not Sunday. LOL.
Luckily, our next pitch at Camp Dreizca on the island of Pag was very accommodating for the extra night. This island is reached by a bridge on the southern end. Visually, it is a giant rock-strewn island with not much soil and not much other vegetation. Arriving a day early, the manager was very accommodating and found us a site next door to the camp in the manager’s backyard with a power hook-up, and the next morning we would move to the site we rented for three days.
Stone beach
This camp is a bit off the beaten track, down a steep hill with many curves, but it has a small hotel with a great restaurant.
In the afternoons, we tend to hide from the afternoon sun by sipping homemade lemonade on the deck for a few hours. The staff at the restaurant are very sweet and kind. They are mostly university students working summer jobs supervised by the hostess.
Here at the camp, the pitches are located on small terraces up on a hillside, we are in a spot that might be a bit of a challenge to turn around tomorrow, but hey that’s tomorrow.
The Adriatic Sea I have learned does not have much of a tide as the opening to the Mediterranean is rather narrow. This is great as we swim mostly in small coves. The beaches here are always rocky from small to large craggy stone, with no sand. We bought water shoes as they make getting into the water much easier. And of course, I bought a foam noodle to float with, as I am not much of a swimmer, only a floater.
The most common view
Here, as the weather gets warm by 10, I seem to rise daily at 7 or 8 while Maximo continues to sleep. I am discovering that I need less sleep as I seem to nap most afternoons. The heat makes me sleepy.
Then, when Maximo rises, he makes the morning coffee on the campervan’s propane stove. We bought him a beautiful steel expresó maker in Barcelona, which is his pride and joy. He thoroughly enjoys this morning’s process. We eat breakfast in our bathing suits sitting in these camp chairs with our small folding table.
Fresh bread and cheese, salami with lots of local fruits, as at this campsite a truck comes with fresh fruits every couple of days. Freshly baked bread is delivered every other day too.
Yep! Me and my floatie.
I think if we stayed at any campsite for over a week, I would lose my ability to think… as life becomes so simple. It’s hot. Go to the water for a swim. I’m hungry. Open the fridge. I’m tired, go to bed.
But for good or bad we have great wifi in all our campgrounds. So we both receive our email and look at the world from a distance.
Another day, our adventure was going to the closest town to buy a beach umbrella as we came to learn that many places do not have trees to provide shade.
Along the road on Pag
Pag is a bit different as it is a larger island, mostly rocky, unfarmable land with lots of these stone walls called “suhozid” or “gromače”. And the special thing about them is the fact they are handmade without mortar to hold the stones in place. Instead, they were stacked stone by stone to fit like puzzle pieces. The technique is thousands of years old.
On the ride back to camp, I noticed more of those amazing stone walls when looking out the campervan’s windows.
As Wikipedia states From the very old piles of rocks to the very modern straight walls. These walls were used to protect the sheep from the elements. The sheep are key in making the cheese that is famous from Pag Island.
We successfully found a store bought an umbrella and a few other things we needed and had breakfast at a beachside restaurant. Our young waiter, while hung over and serving us breakfast, was very attentive and pretty entertaining.
Celebration
We leave the island of Pag for another island called Krk tomorrow. To get there, we use the ferry from a small town, Zigljen, and travel to the mainland, which takes 20 minutes to cross and about 3 hours of driving.
On Krk I had booked us into a hotel to get a break from the campervan. But the gods were laughing as there was not a parking space big enough for the campervan. The hotel staff was very accommodating in letting us cancel the room in favor of another camp pitch.
Cross the bridge for free!
Yes, we found a place for 3 days right next to the old town of Khk. Instead of being intimate, this place was a huge camp city.
Again, I had a learning curve in play, as I figured out the types of camps we liked and the experiences we wanted. There is a huge variety of camps too as they range from a primitive campsite to a 4-star luxury campsite.
I think we are one of the few folks who have not pre-booked our entire adventure. I usually look for the next site once we are on a new site.
Driving into campsite
Unfortunately, the only space available was a sunny spot.
This camp is part of the chain called Valomar, we ended up at a site called Jezevac. Our site, while close to the showers and a food restaurant area, and within walking distance of lovely beaches was totally sunny.
With the weather bordering on 95 degrees, we did our best to hide from the afternoon heat and chased the shade by moving the table and chairs around in the shadow of the van.
Every day, around [5pm] 17 hours, it is our time to go to the beach for a float. We will spend an hour floating on the water, enjoying the coolness of the Adriatic. This will be our way for 3 more days.
We do get to explore the old city of Hkh which was closeby. One evening, there was a concert and fireworks which we watched from the comfort of a front row couch at a waterfront restaurant.
Old city of Krk
We find that most people will respond if you say Hola to them. They will respond in their language. We have learned to differentiate Croatian from German, lots of Italian and French. Many folks speak some form of English, too.
There are many types of people and types of campervans, small RVs, and lots of tents in most campgrounds. The car camper crowd has boxes on the roofs of their cars to hold all the stuff necessary to spend the night in your tent in a campground. While the small RV crowd opens their extra storage spaces that hold rugs for the floor, drying racks for bathing suits, lounge chairs, and small cabinets that can hold a whole barbecue or cooktop.
Yes, we are learning it takes time to perfect your setup.
As we near the end of the second week of camping, we are on the Istrian Península, just outside the charming city of Rovinj. We adore this place as the small city reminds us of places we have stayed in Turkey.
We continue our daily habits of rising early. Maximo is in charge of the coffee making and breakfast. Then, after showering in the campground facility, which is kept spotless, we figure out what day the adventure will be. A boat ride, a bus trip to another city, or just hanging out chasing the shade.
As we are traveling Croatia for another week, we will visit and stay inland next week at a Krka National forest as it has waterfalls.
Pula Arena
This is a beautiful, very safe country filled with many unique spots to visit, from the Adriatic Sea to the coastline filled with many ferry-served islands that range in size from small to very large. The landscape ranges from vast nothingness but rocks to a tree-filled paradise, and we are thoroughly enjoying our adventures.
And maybe next time we hire a boat instead of a van as we now know we are good at living in small spaces.
