Live from Croatia!

It’s true, I’m here in Croatia – literally typing as we speak!  Full of wine and loaded up on seafood, my travels so far are truly some only dream of.  Sitting and writing from the city of Zagreb, I’m getting ready to head off for the southern city of Dubrovnik.  Zagreb, located in the northern half of the country, temperature wise today is about 55 degrees with a sky full of sunshine.  The culture, the people and the wines are so very interesting.  From the Catholic Cathedrals (Croatia is 95% Catholic) to the intricate architecture, to the open squares and big city parks loaded with gorgeous plantings of giant eucalyptus trees.  They are just stunning!
Yesterday, I spent the day visiting the local squares walking thru a big open-aired market.  Filled with vibrantly colored fruits, lavender, hand-made linens, wooden children’s figurines made as you walk by, to hand-pulled mozzarella being made by an older community of Croatian women.  The smells of the market are fresh and the number of beautiful flowers are endless, creating a whole other row of shopping.  The pussy willow branches jet out from buckets and the bundles of curly twigs make an interesting backdrop to all the colors.
Went for lunch at a funky little cafe, I ordered a latte thinking that they got my ‘Starbucks’ lingo…um, they brought me a LATTE (milk)!  Silly me!  So, I then I asked for coffee. They came out with grounds and basically threw them in my coffee.  The little old women giggled in the corner… Super entertaining.
The rest of the day was spent visiting crazy little wine shops, some of the more famous restaurants in the city and drinking ALL kinds of Croatian wine.  One of my new favorite whites, Malvazija.  A gorgeously floral-ed grape with a sturdy acidic backbone.  LOVE and tasted exquisite with the Sole, John Dory, and Octopus (my husband would have freaked out with that dish!) – all that I had for lunch. I loved it!
Of course, I left my cord to connect my pictures to my computer, there are a lot of them…but I must show you (pictures to come) the most interesting man in Croatia and shots from his bottle shop, Vladimir Bornstein.  He holds the oldest bottle of Croatian wine in his shop!  So super cool.  He looked a little like Keith Richards, and sort of acted like him too.  Smoking and opening bottle upon bottle.  It was the most interesting and unique wine experience of my life, hands down!  He owns an almost ‘basement like’ cellar faming the oldest and first wine shop in all of Croatia!
The food continued last nite with a dinner snuggled into a quaint boutiquey restaurant perched up on a hilltop over-looking the city.  The amounts of food came plate by plate pairing to the Croatian wines on the table.  Grapes like:  Posip (White), Plavac Mali (Red), Teran (Red) and Zinfandel.  The meats, the foods, the desserts…all just stunning.  My belly was fat and happy!  I’ve never had so much seafood, but all in these delicate serving styles.
Today- my head a little fuzzy, but hey…I’m just soaking it all in – literally!  My friend Katharine today says, we need to ‘Spin Dry’ out.  Salad spin out the wine, I guess!
I’m loving the experience, the people for sure and all that is to be shared of the land.  I’m sure that Dubrovnik will hold just as much with entertainment, but for sure will expose me more to the very steep slopes that hold this unbelievable grape: Plavac Mali that is found produced from every winery in the country.  While the economy here is quite depressed, the Croatians tell me that they are waiting and hoping for their tourist summer season.  This is the time that the Dalmatian Islands are loaded with folks hopping off big cruise ships looking for a fun way to spend day abroad the beautiful Croatian shores.
Tomorrow I will be visiting a winery, walking the hills of the Dingac wine-growing regions and the Peljusac Pennisula.  Also, off to the island of Korcula where the infamous grape: Posip grows.  Both the grapes Plavac Mali and Posip are two that truly make the wine world here in Croatia go round.  Plavac that many claim have one parent born under Zinfandel and the Posip a crisp, aromatic white that just goes on and on.  With a touch of brine and summer glints of sunshine, this wine makes you want to lick the inside of an oyster shell.  Great stuff!
I will pick up tomorrow once in Dubrovnik and tell my tales before leaving the country on Tuesday.
Živjeli! That’s CHEERS! in Croatian, don’t even ask me how to pronounce it.  I’m still trying to figure out “latte” with some actual coffee in it!