Well thankfully we have moved on and processed our various cognitive dissonances to greater or lesser degrees. Happily Charlie (of Tea-Nautes in Biograd) has pulled a rabbit from his hat and our boat upgrades should be finished by Sunday. 260w of solar panels, wind generator, radar, gps. Charlie claims to be of Croatian stock but he is the very picture of the Scandinavian seafarer. A legacy of some distant viking raid perhaps?
In the meantime we have set off to Italy.
Trieste was a tad grotty, still with lots of history but with far less of the civic pride of Zurich: crumbling facades seem to be the order of the day.
The Ikea store was (as aways) a kind of religious experience. The cavernous warehouse space imparts a humility to the beholder that even the finest rennaissance churches struggle to achieve. Even better, without having self flagellated or kissed a papal ring we now have a full set of cutlery, linen, and the little things that will hopefully make a home on our yacht.
Venice...the romance, the gondoliers, the canals, the pizza, the pizza, the endless pizza, the Senegalese touts, etc, etc. Even the dodgy bits cant detract from the reality of being in one of the world's most immediately identifiable icon cities. Somehow the Trieste-style grottiness is imbued with amazing heritage value when located above a viable canal.
The main European revelations so far:
1. Amazing hot chocolate
2. Churches
3. Pizza (usually amazing, despite the ubiquity)
4. It's problematic lampooning national accents because it's really how they speak (especially Italians.) However, being gross juveniles it hasnt stopped us boys for a second.
Back to Biograd Mon or Tues to finally begin the sailing part!
Hi everyone--Looks like the sun was shining in Venice as it was in Sydney today. Loved reading all this--surely much better to be in Venice than scrubbing a filthy boat. Hope it's all sorted by the time you get back. And I guess now we really can say Bon Voyage. Pipx
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