Britt-Arnhild's House in the Woods

I wonder what life might have been......

On a small island in the Adriatic Sea you might stumble upon this house, as I did. The house is abandoned now, but close your eyes and imagine what life have been here one day.

At first I found it hard to imagine. This small island is so far from the life I know, the life I sometimes dream of on small islands in the North Sea. The language, the vegetation, the heath, the surroundings.......

Then dreams started to come. People. Life. Laughter. Work. Green hands. I sat down to read my book, which happend to be Traveller's Prelude by Freya Stark.

..........og yes, it would not be difficukt at all to stay in this house during long winter night, among books, a fire and a mug of tea, dried figs.......

.....planning travels east of the moon.

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I found this house on Lopud island during our day on The Adriatic Sea.

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in the days since my stumble upon this old house, a tale about the life there is making itself come alive. I am daydreaming.

Laundry Time

Some time ago I enjoyed a blogpost from Venezia showing laundry hung over the canals. When we walked the Dubrovnik Wall the other night I was reminded of these photos, and together with birds eye views of the old city, I also shot a series of laundry photos.

I wonder, what is it like to live on the foot of the wall, with tourists watching you all day?

Of course I am captured by colours.

Cloth lines everywhere.

Underwear.

From window to window.

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Our two weeks in Croatia ands Bosinia & Herzegovina are over. We are back home in The House in the Woods, and guess what we are doing today?

Laundry, of course.

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Thank you for following me through the last two weeks, thank you for great comments (I especially love those about my hair:-)), and for those interested, since I've had a few questions - my sister in law's cds can be bought via her webpage, which you find through the link I gave you yesterday. Let me know if it doesn't work and I'll give you my brother's email address.

The Barber Shop in the side road

"Britt-Arnhild, have you seen the barber shop?". My sister in law came to me with shining stars in her eyes after the first visit in to Dubrovnik. "You simply must see it!"

Well, I hadn't, I made a note in my mind to remember to look for it, then totally forgot. My sister in law asked me again, I made a new mental note, I forgot.....

Then last night, when we again, the big group of us, had dinner, this time pizza and lasagne at Mea Culpa, Stina asked again; "Britt-Arnhild, have you seen the barber shop?"

When I again said no, she resolutely raised from the pizza table, grabbed my arm and started to walk away from the restaurant "Let the others wait for the bill. I am going to show you the Barber Shop"

I am so glad she did. The owner invited us into his tiny little barber shop, told us stories about the place and showed us the 10million different items which he had collected over the years.

One wall showed a photo of the barber and his shop in 1992, after the bombing of Dubrovnic.

I never counted the canary birds, nor the cages. There were too many I guess :-)

My sister in law is a singer and a composer, and she has a new dream now; to make a music video in The Dubrovnik Barber Shop.

I know she will come back one day to make it!

And then I have a new dream as well. I want to be there to watch it all.

Here is a link to Stina's music. Enjoy it.

And yes, I'll let you know when the music video is out.....

A day on the Adriatic Sea

We left Dubrovnik by boat in the morning, to visit the islands in the Adriatic Sea; Kolocep, Sipan and Lopud.

With bags filled with towels, bathing suits and water bottles, and an extra bag for me for the book I am reading, and my travel diary, we were ready for a day in paradise.

On the first island, Kolocep, we had only a short stop. Just enough for a cappuccino for me and Terje, icecreams for the girls and buying some postcards for my blog readers. Then it was time to continue to the next island....

 

......Sipan, which looked very interesting with its old fort and old houses. Not too many tourists, inhabitants living there daily lives.

I bought a crocheted fish from one lady,

have learned to say thank you - hoala,

and bought figs from another.

 

I am having my soso early morning hours on the terrace, viewing the Adriatic Sea, while I write this. The photos take ages to upload but I don't mind as I sit here reading "CROATIA through writer's eyes" while the computer does the job.....

I am reading just now Sir Arthur John Evans ' Through Bosnia and Herzegovina on Foot during the Insurrection of the Summer of 1875......

I learn about pirates from Venice, and try to imagine life here in the time of the fightings.

It is soo time to go back to the boat through, where the crew is busy preparing our fish lunch.

Mackerel fried on the boat, spiced with salt from the sea. The best meal I've had in Crtatia!

After the lunch there was still one island left, Lopud, which was bigger and known for its lovely sandy beach.

We let an electric car drive us over the island and had a lovely swim + all the "fun" of changing first to the swim suit, then back to your ordinary clothes, on a beack packed with people, with a body covered in sweat and salt water.......

Postcards from Dubrovnik

I walked around in Dubrovnik saying to myself: how I wish that I could send a postcard to all my blog readers! Then I realised, that's excatly what I am doing. Through the blog!

I do have some extra postcards though, to be sent by mail.

Who wants one this time?

Leave a comment to this post if you want a postcard, and then email me your address. I plan to write postcards tomorrow. Today we will be out on the Adrtiatic all day.....

And then I found a small island.....

When you are 17, or 18 or 19 people living together for a week or part of a week (Torgeir left for Oslo yesterday morning, Øystein flew home yesterday night so we are 17 of us left in Dubrovnik right now) you don't need to walk in the paths of each other all day. Yesterday Terje and I decided to do our own excursion, and our goal was Lokrum, the small Unesco-protected island and national part right outside Dubrovnik.

Lokrum is a unique island, mentioned for the first time as a Benedictine estate in 1023, containing the remnants of the monastery complex, a botanical garden, a Fort Royal, and a long list of other interesting stuff. What about The Nudist Beach, the "Dead Sea", Charlotte's Well, The Path of Paradise.......and I could go on and on.

In spite of temperatures high as a Norwegian mountain peak and a humidity which made you not want to hold hands while walking around, we enjoyed every minute of our day. May be regretting that we didn't bring our swimsuits, but then we knew there was not time enough for a swim anyway as we wanted to be back in Villa Katarina in time to wave goodbye to Øystein.

We bought a pamflet with information when we came to the island and today I am reading:

Dubrovnik and the island of Lokrum have a moderate warm humid climate (the olive climate).....oh, how I LOVE the name the olive climate.......with the domination of the three winds, the southern wind scirocco, the north-eastern wind bora and the landward breeze......the daily motion of humidity is unique, in the morning hours it increases rapididly, instead of diminishing, so noon is more humid that mornings, which is due to the daily exchange of the winds from the sea and from the land.....

Walking, though not hand in hand, memories gathered, memories shared.

My initials engraved in the bark of an old tree. Have I been here before?

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I am having my quiet morning. Our gang of 17 (minus myself) is still sleeping. We occupy four of the five flats in Villa Katarina. The fifth flat had a Norwegian family untill yesterday, then a Britiash family with two young girls came, and apparently those girls love the small swimmingpool right outside my balcony. It is not quiet any more. Not at all. May be reading will block the noise out.......

At Lokrum: smoking strictly prohibitet

Postcard from Cavtat

During the first four days, staying in this divine Franciscan monastrey in Cavtat, a fishing village just sout of Dubrovnic, we had no internet. To mu own surprise I didn't miss it one second.

Yesterday morning, at Mostar, I took the time to write you a postcard, then happily closed my computer,

I am doing the same this morning, from the edge of Marta's bed in the tiniest little room in a guesthouse in Sarajevo. Due to a misunderstanding with the booking, the guesthouse's fault, they had prepared only one big room for my brother, my sister in law, my niece, none for me, Terje and Marta. After some discussions, some back and forth, they were able to squeese the three of us into a room more like a matchbox, with a promise that next night we'll get a better one.

So with Marta and Terje still sleeping close to me, and the moises of a city waking up outside, Iam ending my morning postvard for you.

My red leatherbound diary is filling up with stories, many to be shared......later.