Some whoosh and shake in Dalmatia

Yesterday evening it again attacked us. It came behind the mountains, strengthened with the support of the freezing forces of the north. While diving into the pass between mountains it was pressed like a diamond under pressure and its power got more scary. From the pass it hit us, it was everywhere and it surely showed its mighty power. Bura, that gloomy northern wind.

The local meteorological center had already issued a formal red warning to the Dalmatian area in good time, luckily bura is not coming as suprise. The motorway was completely closed from traffic, often there is only a ban on large vehicles such as trucks and vans, but now all. There are breaks in the ferry service to the close by islands at sea and boats are urged to stay in ports. Here, the coast was warned of damages on buildings and other structures. When the wind blows up to 140km/h (that's about 39m/s) you surely should hold on to your hat.

When the night fell on us, it finally hit our village. Kitchen hood was buzzing and clattering even though it wasn´t turned on. The gusts bumbed into the walls of the house and howled around corners, on the balcony citrus and laurel trees were blowed from the dust and spider's quite effectively. The electricity broke down a couple of times darkening the whole village and rain was hitting the windows with the power of the wind. I went to bed being happy I had strong concrete walls around me instead of that straw house that sheltered three little piglets in the children story in witch the wolf blowed the house away.

In the middle of the night I woke up to the sound of my wardrobe doors clattering. At first I wondered how the wind could catch them until I realized the bed was shaking. Mother Nature sure was putting on a show and added an earthquake to this spectacle. Fortunately, it quickly faded away. As I learned in the morning the center was located little over twenty kilometers from here and it was  3.6 magnitude on the Richter scale.

The morning was sunny and calm, new day started out as usual. Even confusingly usual, where were the damages of the storm? Here the plants have bura resistance in their genes, they do bend but do not break under these winds. The tile roofs are not torn to the wind, they are firmly attached to their base. Except some occasional light garbage containers or other small stuff, everything is where it should be. In January last year, bura was windmilling deserted Christmas trees as tumbleweed at the desert, nothing like that this time.

The three buras of March are kind of concept in here. Actually, they are quite expected cause after the storms warm days are coming and it´s time to head towards summer. There is already a lot of buds in the lemon tree waiting for the nice sunny days so they can open.

Encounter with locals

I usually have 1-2 hour walk everyday with Tiuku and so did we yesterday also. As we were walking down the village road an elderly couple approached us on the street. As it often happens, they also started to speak something to Tiuku. That something sounded like baby talk and at least term small dog was mentioned in it. Tiuku stopped politely to listen with the tail waving and as often happens when the movement stops, her hind legs started to shake slightly.

This shaking makes people generally think that the dog is either cold or scared. Being cold is a pretty funny idea especially in the summer heat and with moderately hairy dog. But of course, you never know. Terriers shake, often it is said that it's kind of being prepared shake, a way to stay warm and ready for example to go after a rat at any time without danger of ruptures or other damage. When Tiuku was younger she also had that kind of shake, a bit different than the one she is having now. According to several opinions I have received from vets and other professionals this is due to an old age and aging of the nervous system. It doesn´t affect on her movement and it does not seem to bother the dog any way.

From the dog's physiology, we go back to the elderly couple. When they saw the vibration in the legs, they were wondering if there was something wrong with her? I assured them that there is no problem. I told the dog is just old, 13.5 years already and that´s why she is shaking a bit. And now comes the most important thing: all this conversation happened in the local language, no English or any other language was used. However, my dialect hopelessly revealed them that I´m not local so they were eager to know where I'm from. The knowledge of me coming from Finland gave them a very positive reaction and they very much praised my language skills. They asked if I live here and I said I have been in the country for 1.5 years. They seemed very happy and with the big smile they reiterated that it was so great that I had learned the language so well. It seemed to be a big thing for them. We continued in our own ways with happy smile.

In the name of honesty, the level of my Croat language is still very much at the point of beginner basics. But yes, it is quite surprising how well I understood yesterday and I was able to understandably communicate back. However, the greatest joy came from the encounter itself. Its genuineness and warmth, the interest and positive feedback shown by totally unknown people. I smiled all the way home and even after that. And this was not the only time something like this happened in here. Once after a few minutes of conversation (that time in English) with a complete stranger I surprisingly was given a bunch of oranges straight from the tree. At the beach I often meet an elderly lady, with whom we are having discussions in Croat and with the power of body language in very good spirit. And many other joyful moments with different people.

All these encounters has one thing in common. I have never experienced a negative attitude because of my foreign background. Usually the opposite. Often at first people seem to think I´m local, especially during the winter season when there are no tourists here and more so if there is a dog with me. When it turns out I do not necessarily speak so fluently in the local language and if the language skills of the opposite party are not the strongest area of ​​expertise, then with a smile they will spin some words in English or maybe German or at least there is a lot of vivid body language if they have something to say. And I'm trying to understand and be understood.

Hope that today you will meet someone completely unknown, create contact and get a great feeling about that.

Winter came to Dalmatia but the Finn is disappointed

Attached picture will describe this week quite widely on European scale. However, it was taken a month ago, not in Croatia, but in Sotkamo, Finland. There were 60 cm of snow and about -15 degrees. Normal day during winter time. We walked through forest to the hut, grilled sausages on open fire and drank some hot rum from a thermos bottle. Normal winter day activity.

Now, during this week we have experienced, heard and seen something not so normal. On the other side of the Adriatic Sea, Italy has measured -40 degrees, in Rome people have been skiing on the grassy slopes of the parks, in Barcelona the F1 cars remained in the garage when the snow covered the track. In England ski resorts had to close due to excessive snow. Schools have been closed across Europe and the roads have turned to one huge bumber car track. Even in Finland instructions were given to survive in a freezing atmosphere although the degrees that are now experienced are quite normal especially in the north. Right now it is reported that Geneva airport has been closed due to snowfall. At the same time in the Arctic region there is a heatwave and the snow melts away. What a bizarre moment in time.

Also here we have been experiencing quite crispy days. The Siberian breeze finally reached Dalmatia after hitting the northern inland with up to a couple of meters of snow. Yes, in Croatia. Here on the coastline and on the islands we just got a thin white cover, somewhere a bit more than other places. It's been six years since the last time winter surprised the Dalmatians, therefore this was not exactly the normal situation. And due to that, it sure was quite a hassle around it. Already throughout the previous week the upcoming winter hazard was among the top news. The ten point survival list was published including important notes like beware of walking under snowy trees and make sure you have enough food and drink at least for elderly and children. It was advised not to go anywhere by car and better not to go by foot either unless you have proper shoes. As a Finn who just came back from very wintry Finland, all this fuss made me smile a little. 

On the other hand, I almost expected such a good armageddon just to see how it would go. But no luck in that. Here in our village in Podstrana it can not be said that the land even became white. We didn't get bura wind that was expected or at least it did not hit Podstrana this time. It has now been a few minus degrees for three nights, but that's it. The schools were open normally and the cars have been sliding only with sand that was sprinkled on the roads as precaution. Which in itself is quite funny. I did take out my winter jacket and beanie to make sure I stayed warm when going out during these few chilly days. Last winter in Murter I felt much colder when thermometer showed minus ten days nonstop and bura came down hard. There was no snow back then but it was really cold. Compared to that these last days have been just a little frosty bite.

Today is still a chilly day. It even snowed little bit earlier but it melted away and left a ground wet. However, this is at least here the last day of winter. Tomorrow I do not need to wear winter jacket anymore but I still hold on to my woolen stockings for now.

Year in Croatia: living life to the fullest

It was a little over year ago when we drove across Europe to the Adriatic Sea. We became emigrants, expatriates and immigrants.

The past 12 months has given us tremendously, so many new things and experiences. I just watched the pictures I have taken over the year and they made me smile several times when remembering all those moments. There are sunny walks on the new trails by the beach in Murter, our Christmas atmosphere a year ago, the festive atmosphere of the February carnival, wild asparagus last spring, collecting sea shells from the beach, a great sailing trip in the spring winds, trips to the nearby islands and southern coast all the way to Montenegro, the visits of the loved ones here, the concert road trip to Pula, wonderful evenings on the terrace under the vine, turquoise sea, ancient fortresses, all the wonderful flavours. Most recently, our visit to Zagreb to celebrate the 100th anniversary of independent Finland at the Embassy party. And much more.

It hasn´t been just moments of smile. I've chopped rock hard firewood with nearly handleless ax, encountered several meters of poisonous worms, trembled in freezing temperatures in the chilling embrace of bura wind. I have been afraid of losing our home and even for my own safety while the summer forest fires raged, cleaned the terrace due to the ash that came from the sky after the forest fires. I have got out of bed well before six in the morning in order to be able go out for the walk with the dog before the sun appears to the sky during the worst heat wave.

I have encountered people. People who have met us with open arms and sometimes welcomed us into their lives as well. Sometimes even in astonishing ways. Helpfulness and genuine warm harted attitude have impressed me, over and over again. When a neighbor's old man waits for us on his driveway in the darkening night as we return from our two hour walk just to give me a bag full of mandarin and pomegranate or when our landlady pops in with the bowl of hot freshly cooked shrimps. Or when the fishermen on the beach are greeting me happily and smiling at a funny little dog who is so excited about the fishing. Or when our local friend comes from her home village with vegetables grown by her mother and with a big chunk of cheese. Or when in a small Austrian village one night we are creating friendships that will make us return again and again. Or when the small hence close-knit Finnish community here understands the joy of getting some liver casserole as a present from Finland and also confirmed that the Croatian word really is one and the same for both cranberries and lingonberries.

The year has taught, demanded and rewarded. It has made me laugh and cry.

Day after tomorrow we will begin our road trip to Finland, it´s going to be our longest visit there so far: one and a half months with travel. What are we waiting for? Getting to sauna for sure, seeing the people we love, both family and friends. Hopefully a bit of fun in winter wonderland. Of course some of the good tastes we have not been getting here at least so often. Campfire in the forest with some good things to eat and drink, the atmosphere of the traditional outdoor sauna and from sauna to have a break from the gentle heat to chilly outside under the starry sky. Visiting Vuokatti area in the more northern part of Finland. After all that it is good to return home, back here on the Adriatic coast. Cause here our home is. At least for now.

Something good out of olives and lemon but how?

There have been same hustle and bustle among the olive trees in recent weeks and it seems to be continuing still. It is the time of harvesting, the green and dark olives are collected in baskets and sacks to be delivered to oil presses or to oil-producing factories as they maybe should be called nowadays. Croatia is a big producer of olive oil, though trees grow mostly only here on the Adriatic coast and on the islands, as well as on the Istrian peninsula up north. From here you can get some excellent quality oil on a world scale, in fact some Istrian oil just got a new award in some oil quality competition. I heard from somewhere that this year should be qualitatively quite good, only summer drought has left its mark and in some places olives are smaller than usual. There are differences between years in wine and also in oil.

Couple of weeks ago I got the opportunity to visit one small oil producing factory with our landlord, actually just few hundred meters from our home. I got to see how the olives were poured into a small silo from witch they went through the water wash and then to crushing machine that turned those little juicy balls into a thick mass. Finally as a result the greenish oil was separated from this mass and it was slowly running from the metal pipe. 

Olives or crushed pulp, however, were not pressed. Modern technology has slightly altered this ancient process, and nowadays more and more oil is produced by separating oil from a mass with a kind of centrifuge using centrifugal force. So the term cold-pressed olive oil in the label of the bottle in the market may be little misleading. Should it be maybe called cold-swirled, where can I suggest the new term?

Of course, there are also many traditional presses in operation, in witch crushed olives actually release the oil due to compression force. Certainly there are many who think that it is still the one and only way to make olive oil and surely these two methods of production will both continue exist also in the future. The main thing is that nothing is added to the pulp or oil when it is produced and only mechanical actions are been used instead of for example some chemical dissolution. As strange as it sounds, olive oil is one of the world's forged products. The demand for high quality oil exceeds supply and so the temptation to use some cheap tricks is increasing. For example, determining the origin of oil can be challenging, it is a completely different matter where olives have grown and the oil is made compared to where it is bottled. So be careful with the labels if it matters to you.

But lets go back to my visit. The olive growers of the neighborhood bring their olives to the oil mill as soon as possible, as the quality of the olives begins to deteriorate fairly quickly after they are picked. Around here in Podstrana the olive groves are generally quite small and there are no machines used in the harvest. Instead the families spend quality time together while harvesting olives. The amount of that quality time depends on the number of trees, some farmers have them enough to produce oil only for their own use and some have a few more so they can sell the oil also for others. In that case of course there may be a need for some extra workers in addition to those doing it just because of the same family name. But manual work it is. Sometimes the olive grower either don´t want or can not afford to pay for the oil mill. In that case they will leave some of the oil as payment in the spirit of a exchange economy. By selling this oil the mill will then make the money and people like me without our own olives will also be able to get fresh local oil for our kitchens. I also left the place with a five-liter jug.

Due to the high amount of chlorophyll, fresh high quality olive oil is greenish and has a strong scent of cutted grass. There is still a bit sharp, bitter taste that you can feel in the throat. This bitter throat feeling is due to oleocanthal, anti-flammatory antioxidant can be found in big doses in good fresh virgin olive oil. All in all, freshly made olive oil has the highest concentrations of good ingredients that will gradually deteriorate with storage. The green color begins to turn yellow as the chlorophyll becomes carotene and the oil's acids are also getting yellow over time. At the same time, the taste becomes softer and the bitterness disappears. To keep my oil better for longer time I also store it in green glass bottles that protect the oil from light better than the plastic jug I got it in. What a wonderful excuse to enjoy a few bottles of wine ...

Even though our own olive tree still did not give anything to harvest, our citrus tree did so. We have a hybrid tree that is mainly a lemon tree, but it has been associated with one tangerine branch. That part of the tree beared one gigantic mandarin that we ate with a hubby a while ago. It was really tasty, hopefully next year there would be more to pick from that branch.

The rest of the tree, the lemon compartment managed to produce four maturing fruits one of which we lost due to a storm earlier. But the three were spared, and now the first one had matured to be picked up. Yesterday I got that magical moment when I got to snap it off the tree. I have been quite childishly excited about this citrus tree and I have cared it with a lot of love. So it was absolutely wonderful to have the first self-grown yellow fruit in my hand, oozing with its exquisite smell that I just kept on sniffing.

But what would I do with the lemon? How would I use that precious treasure? After thinking about it, I ended up baking lemon buns, which contained a lemon-juice-flavored pudding inside a normal Finnish style bun dough. On top of them, I made the eyes of sugar, butter, grated lemon bark and a hint of fresh rosemary.

I have to say that at least to my taste they were just wonderful. So wonderful that I decided to give them away so I would not end up eating too many. So my landlady's family and my husband's co-workers were also able to enjoy these creations of my kitchen and seemed to be quite happy. Now I have to think about what am I doing with the remaining two lemons after they have matured...

Waiting for the snow and breaking the cold chain while doing that

The sun shines from the blue sky and it still has a bit of heating power left but long gone are the hot days of summer and soft warm nights. Autumn is a reality and winter is coming too, forecast just said we might even see snow here in Split next week. That would be a humorous happening for sure. And rare, the previous case of snow was several years ago, but it is still often mentioned and the pictures of those wonders of snow are been showed from the phones to anyone more or less interested. 

While the weather is getting chilly it is once again time to dig long sleeves and trousers out of the cupboards. And thick woolen stocks. Cause together with this start of cooler season floors are starting to feel particularly cold under your feet. Our apartment has largely tile floors and they already start to cool off quite badly. The locals use the shoes also inside, but I do not find myself local enough to do that. In our home the shoes are left in the hallway when entering inside just like in any other Finnish home. However, I also found some kind of indoor slippers quite comfortable cause even the thick socks don't really have what it takes to break the cold chain from the floor to the bottom of your feet. Last winter, our apartment in Murter had wooden floors which were slightly warmer but in the coldest days of winter there was a great need for slippers in there too. Now that season has already started here.

Getting and staying warm is, however, a topical issue just now. In this apartment, the only solid heating system is those two air-to-air heat pumps: one downstairs in the master bedroom and the other one upstairs. For example, neither of the bathrooms has any heat source. And when talking about the whole house there are no isolation of any kind which is very typical for houses here. So it is getting rather chilly when night temperatures drop to less than 10 degrees and during daylight it does not get too much over that 10 degrees especially when the bura wind is howling around the corners. When I returned from a long weekend trip on Monday evening, the indoor thermometer in upstairs had 18.5 degrees in its screen and the downstairs was clearly even cooler. So it was time to start up the machines to blow some warm air. That blowing is, however, not a good thing as the air moves a little too much and becomes unpleasant. For the same reason, I didn´t use the air con so much during summer, mostly only so much that Tiuku was more comfortable. Well ok, when the thermometer screamed continuously over forty degrees the cool air did feel good to myself too.

Yesterday we went on to get a relief from the hardware store: a couple of radiators and one small fan to the downstairs bathroom. In the bathroom the fan is convenient not only for heating the room, but most importantly it makes it easier to ventilate the moisture out of the window after showering. The only ventilation system in this house are the windows and it is especially challenging to extract the dampness out. With quick cross-draught it´s easy to get the air inside freshened but after two warm showers there is so much moisture in the bathroom that it does not go out of the small window so quickly. When you have a fan blowing warm air from the floor level, it will help a lot as we already figured out last winter when struggling with this same matter. Our landlord himself suggested this shopping trip to buy heaters, I will just deduct the costs from the next rent. They have some old heaters, but those are consuming so much electricity that getting new ones is more reasonable. 

And how wonderful it was to wake up in the nicely warm bedroom this morning and then come to upstairs to cook the breakfast without the draft. Slippers are still needed, but that´s ok.

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.

One bag at the time. Or even two.

It started little by little. I picked up a plastic wrap from the beach and tossed it into the bin near by. When swimming past some floating trash I brought it to the shore and to the trash bin. Then came the morning when on my dog walk on the beach I noticed an empty plastic bag and ended up filling it with other trash before throwing it into a large waste bin. I started wondering how trashy the seemingly clean beaches are. A small stone gravel hides quite well the bottle caps, plastic coffee spoons and all that little rubbish. Not to mention the cigarette butts. I started to take fruit bags or other bags with me every morning and pick up the trash as I walked along. My walks slowed down considerably due to this new squat exercise of mine, but I ended up happier. The best moments are when some passing joggers or other people enjoying the morning by the beach give positive comments and sometimes even pick up a thing or two into my bag. I've been spotted by the guys who are taking care of the trash bins of the beach and they are greeting me happily when we meet. Sure, these guys also pick up the biggest stuff along their route, but they do not have time to squat because of every little piece of plastic while other jobs are waiting. But I have that time.

Quite soon I started to run out of the plastic bags at home due to this new hobby of mine. It seemed a little insane to buy plastic bags separately so that I could collect plastic rubbish into them. Fortunately, our latest visit to Finland hit the spot and I came back with a couple of rolls of biodegradable 20-liter bags. I haven´t spotted these here, not sure if there are any available. Now at least my trash collecting bags are disappearing without any traces. For same reason the dog poop bags we use are also still imported, so I can use rapidly biodegradable versions for that use also. Big thanks for my cousin who got me 10 rolls of them from Finland while on holiday here since I forgot those myself. 

While the tourist season starting to end little by little, the beaches will hopefully be cleaner. So far I have filled one bag easily every morning and the length of the beach I walk by is not even that long. But there is still work to do elsewhere. The more closely I look, the more trashy the rest of my morning walk route appears to be. So I'm going to continue this one-woman's Bag at a Time -project and expand it from the beach to the upper slopes of Podstrana. The Bioska's bags will be on my standard list of things to bring from Finland, at least until I find the same kind of product from here. (Note, I have not received any compensation or reward from Bioska / Plasti Roll company for this product visibility and I have paid for all the bags myself. For more info on the products, check out the web page in english)

There are some things even I can do nothing about. What do you think of the final disposal place of this mattress or toilet seat? Unfortunately here too, some people think the waste can be thrown almost anywhere. Along the same road there is a tractor tire, a lot of some kind of cable, mixed construction waste and of course a lot of that small litter suited to my capacity. And the road doesn´t seem to be passing through any landfill, it goes by olive trees and next to the pine forest. I like the route because it gives you the feeling of being on the countryside. Only when one goes by daily and starts to really look around, the trashy truth is revealed.

Recycling here in Croatia only takes little baby steps. In Finland I had already become accustomed to such an amazing system that the shock when coming here was quite strong. I still feel bad putting bio waste into mixed waste. Fortunately here at our neighborhood there are separate collecting bins for plastic, paper and glass in addition to mixed waste. At least I can recycle something here. The bottle recycling system is so confusing that I do not even start to go through that now. That is why especially glass bottles still often end up on the roadsides or other wrong places. But things are going ahead here, slowly but still. I remember from my early childhood more than 30 years ago how the garbage bags were taken to a pit dug into the woods. Then at some point that pit was covered and new one was dug. That small village in the middle of the forest was not on the route of the garbage truck at that time. However I could swear that there was quite a small amount of waste produced by our family at that time compared to the present day. Long way have we come from that time. Nowadays even the traditional dumps are beginning to be history due to the fine energy-producing waste incineration plants and other waste management. It would definitely be a time in Finland to work more globally with this matter, to bring that knowledge and enviromental thinking forward. There really is a need for it.

However, everything is not ideal in Finland either, although in many areas environmental issues are in a very good shape. In the spring with my mother, we cleaned her normal morning walking route from litter before the hays grew to cover them. Several bags were collected from a few kilometers length of roadside. It felt so bad to pick up the take-away coffee cups with a plastic covers from the ditch, next to the cigarette packs and candy bags. For me it feels totally irrational to just throw litter out of the car window or toss it into the roadside while walking. But clearly for some it´s not an issue. People's attitudes surely are the biggest obstacle to promoting environmental issues.

But I do what I can do here. One bag at a time. And sometimes when I happen to find an empty plastic bag, then two bags at a time. Perhaps after seeing me doing this people will think at least a little next time they hold that empty pack in their hands. And if one of them ends up putting it to the nearest bin, I am very happy.