From the fortress to the treasures of wine cellars

In my previous post I mentioned the redo of the junction next to our house and I was wondering when the actual work would start. No need to wonder that anymore, it has started this week. The crossing is closed for traffic from all three directions and detours are in use. Now we are listening the noises of construction site coming from both machines and people. There has been some great drama already as the locals do express themselves quite vividly when they feel like it. From our balcony we have a great view for site monitoring and in the morning I was having a coffee cup in my hand watching one of these drama situations. Despite the roadblock drivers just tried to go through as they have used to. There they were trying to move those barricades and at the same time the workmen were trying to prevent this activity both physically and verbally. As long as the road is even somehow accessible, it is guaranteed that every night after the workers are gone, the obstacles will be pushed aside and people will be driving through. This happened last night and certainly will happen today. So now we're just waiting to see when the first car has gone to the bottom of the pit in the dark.

During the weekend, we did a bit of domestic tourism with my hubby. On Saturday, we headed for a car ride towards inland and the town of Knin, less than 100 kilometers away from Split when taking those nice small roads. There we were interested in the fortress of Knin on the side of the actual town. It is actually Europe's second largest military fortress site or at least that has been said in several sources, although I do not know what is the largest. There seem to be quite many categories when listing these castles and fortresses in the world. After a little survey, I found a number of "second largest" fortresses and then even the biggest ones started to emerge from many directions. Let's just say that the Knin fortress is big. And old, at least since the 9th century the site has been classified as a fortress.

The fortress consists of a total of five parts that have had a different use at different times by varying amount of people living inside the its walls. It has been a actual city once, easy to defense against the enemy. Close by is the highest mountain in Croatia, Dinara (1831 meters), and the view to all directions is quite amazing. The fortress was a really great place for a history lover like me. You can wonder around in your own pace, take a peek from the loopholes of the walls and climb to higher levels to see the mountains and valleys around the fortress. I could not stop imagine how was it to live here in the Middle Ages?

View from the loophole down to the riversite.

After the fortress adventure, our journey continued towards Skradin. This small town located seemingly inland is in fact a nice active harbor. Skradin is the last place where even quite big boats can get along upstream the Krka River offering a very sheltered port for example during storms. From Skradin you can easily reach the most famous part of the Krka National Park, the Skradinski Buk area. At the price of a park ticket, you can take a half-hour boat ride from the harbor directly to the National Park. I strongly recommend this to anyone who is heading to the park. Another option is to rent bikes from the town and ride to the park via small road on a riverbed where cars are not allowed. This time however, we did not go to see the waterfalls as they have been seen few times already although they are just as wonderful every time. Instead we focused on getting some lunch. Due to the harbor and the influence of the park, Skradin is a rather vivid and idyllic place. Even when the season is already low, there still are several restaurants open. We ended up in Konoba Dalmatino, located just a few steps from the waterfront on the narrow streets of the town. The terrace was in the shade so we joined the other guests inside the restaurants. The shrimp pasta was tasty and a special mention must be given to the restaurant's own baked olive bread.

With full stomachs we headed to the nearby Bibich vineyard. From the small shop we picked up a few bottles of red wine named R6, already familiar to us. In addition, we asked to taste white wine named PS and is was able to get a smile on both of our faces. Bottle of that was also added to our bags. Bibich seems to like those short code-like titles for their wines, but there were also some labels with a bit more letters on them. Place is absolutely worth a visit, especially if the wines are of interest. Compared with the local price level, wines are a bit high priced, but also of high quality. Funny how I already think that if the wine costs more than 10 euros, it is expensive even though in Finland I could easily by bottles priced way more than that. Here in Croatia you can get a decent bottle with 5 euros or even less, makes you think twice paying 30 - 40 euros for one.  

The winery also organizes tasting events, a nice activity for a small group. Of course this must be booked in advance. There is also an exquisite restaurant on the vineyard which you have to pre-book. What a great idea for any special occasion for a small group to book a dinner and start with a wine tasting session. Based on what I have heard the risk of disappointment is very low.

Car trips through countryside are nice. We saw again many amazing, cool and even weird things made by both nature and man. After a full day when finally at home, it was time to open one of those red wine bottles that we just bought and continue spending quality time with a hubby. It was a rare treat that he had two days off right in a row. So there was no hurry in the next morning either.

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Season is still on, another season is just beginning.

October on the way, September left behind. I visited Finland for couple of weeks, enjoyed autumn colors in Lapland and hiking in the fells for one week. Almost 90km of hiking in the amazing wilderness, also my little Tiuku managed that with the help of activating smells of reindeer from time to time. Pretty good from that 13-year-old grannydog. It was nice to recover from all the traveling on the nearby beach after returning back home. Even though the weather is no longer summer hot, 23 degrees and the sun shining from the blue sky makes it quite nice. Even so nice and warm that time to time one needed a splash in the cooling sea. The dog I mean, the owner merely watered the toes and then focused on reading the book on dry land. After the refreshing dip, she was again happy to enjoy the lovely heat of the sun. Especially when there was nice and peaceful at the beach, gone were the towel camps and colorful sunshades.

Here on the Adriatic coast October means that the summer season will inevitably get closer to an end. The first restaurants and beach bars have already closed their doors and fallen into the winter hibernation for the coming months. Yesterday we went to have dinner to our nearby beach restaurant and almost all tables were taken. When the options are reduced, there are enough customers for those who still keep their doors open. It looks also that this year the season is stretching to bit further than usual. More and more people have figured out how brilliant time this is to come here: there are not too many people around, the weather is superb for everything more active than just lying on the beach and the nature has woken out of the coma caused by heat and dryness after getting some rain. Friend of mine who arranges tourist activities said that they have reservation books almost full until November, and that has not been the case before. This is a perfect time to visit national parks and other cool places here, also still it´s nice to take a boat trip to visit the nearby islands like Brač or Hvar. 

One activity I can now highly recommend is a zip line in Omiš. A total of over two kilometers of airborne trails in eight individual slides. Around and below you such a spectacular scenery. At some point you find yourself quite high above the ground but at least I was not feeling afraid even though I´m definitely not an adrenaline junkie. Skillful guides, clear instructions and trustworthy looking equipment provided a sense of security. I was well able to concentrate on enjoying the amazing views provided by nature while gliding up in the air, head turning from side to side and the mental camera taking images to be remembered later. 

Omiš is about twenty kilometers south of Split and you can easily reach it by the coastal road. In the absence of your own car the bus number 60 takes you there from Split or you can book an organized excursion with the transport. The zip line itself is then a few kilometers from the center of Omiš and the guides will take you there from their office. Whole excursion will take about three hours and after it´s over you can enjoy lunch on some of the narrow streets of old Omiš and revise the great glides you just experienced.

There we glided, to the opposite side over the river. What an amazing view!

If the touristic season starts to slow down, the construction sites are just coming back to alive. The construction projects that were suspended due to the summer season have again been authorized to proceed and number of sites that looked totally abandoned are again full of activity. In just a few days, the large brick walled house-to-be nearby has got a green insulation cover. Even here people are gradually starting to understand the benefits of house insulation. Let's see what kind of surface that house will get at the end. Another project that I´m quite forced to closely follow is the one just next to our apartment. There is an intersection that they partially modified in the spring already but now it is intended to carry out a bit bigger reformation. The surveyors were already measuring the site and they marked the street how much to lift there and to lower at the other mark. Now we just have to wait and see when the actual work begins. It may be tomorrow, may be the coming spring or just as well this time next year. At that case though, the markings on the street may have slightly faded.