 |
| Fuzine, Croatia |
Yesterday, we had a taste of some amazingly generous Croatian hospitality. We spent the day in Fuzine, about an hour’s train ride from Rijeka, with Adam’s law school colleague Vesna Tomljenovic and her husband Edwin Tanzabel. They have a summer/weekend home in Fuzine which they had just opened up for the season, and we were their lucky guests. We had admired this village from the highway leading from Rijeka to Zagreb, and had planned to take a day trip there even before Vesna’s invitation.
 |
| Train passengers |
We woke up at 6:00 (this is diabolically early for us) to make it on a 7:30AM train. This was the kids’ first train trip.
The train was on time. We later learned that the train was on time only because Rijeka was the first point of departure. Vesna and Edwin met us at the train station and we walked to Fuzine’s center, stopping by the market where Vesna bought some breakfast and a hanging basket of flowers. Because people here don’t have a Home Depot or Meijer Garden Section, and in fact I don’t even know if the concept of nurseries exists here, flower vendors bring vanloads of annuals and perennials to outdoor markets in the downtown areas and sell their stuff.
 |
| Flower market |
We walked to their adorable house in the woods above Fuzine and had a nice breakfast, but the clouds looked threatening. Within a half hour, we were in the midst of a downpour, and this was going to be a major crimp in our morning walk. But we dodged the bullet. The storm passed and we had sun and fresh clean air the rest of the day.
It’s worth mentioning that Lucy and Georgie fell in love with Vesna and Edwin’s dog Rinka. They held the leash as much as they could, played with her all day, and at one point, had even dressed poor Rinka in Lucy’s shawl and Adam’s baseball cap.
 |
| Salamandra salamandra |
 |
| Vesna, Edwin, and us at breakfast |
We started out our walk with a Salamanra salamandra (European Fire Salamander), who came out of the undergrowth after the rain, and even climbed Lucy’s leg. She was unharmed by the salamander’s toxic skin secretions (no muscle convulsions or hyperventilation occurred) that I later learned about on google. Then we walked up and down hills, around lakes and rivers, for what was actually only about 3-4 kilometers, although my legs felt that we covered twice that distance. The scenery was almost Alpine and so green, and the air was super fresh. Our hosts were in great walking shape and by the time we got back to the house, I was glad to have the excuse to sit with Jonah and do math. Adam had been carrying either Lucy or Georgie on his shoulders nearly the entire time, so he was on the exhausted side too (but he likes the feeling). Our hosts, working with some energy reserve we did not have, got to right to work making a three course dinner. I was amazed at their stamina. After the walk, we were joined by another of Adam’s colleagues at the law school, Vesna Crnic-Grotic, and a law school student from Poland named Rafal.
 |
| Outside Fuzine |
 |
| Orata |
 |
| Dinner (chef Edwin standing in back) |
Our ambitious chef was Edwin. He made a scampi risotto from scratch, with a scampi broth, and that was our first course. I had almost as much fun watching him make it as I did eating it. This is a dish we see frequently in restaurants but I hadn’t yet tried. The kids loved sticking their fingers in the risotto get the scampi and de-carapace it, and those fishies were a great hit with them. Then Edwin started the wild orata course, best translated as gilt-head sea bream, bought from the Rijeka fish market. Adam has made this fish at home for us and we all adore it. I am sure that someone from an Adriatic nation coming to the United States wouldn’t even be able to fathom buying picking pre-filleted, frozen fish out of the freezer section of the supermarket – fish that doesn’t have red gills to inspect (if they are Bordeaux colored, the fish is not perfectly fresh, Edwin informed me), eyes that if dull, indicate the fish isn’t fresh, and fish that smells like the ocean and not a fish. Georgie got to smoosh down the eyeballs of the orata and she excitedly talked about it for hours afterward (this is a child who whimpers at the sight of a bug). Vesna prepared the blitva (the Croatian national side dish, boiled Swiss chard, potato, garlic and olive oil), and that was our next course. All five star, all the more so because they were working out of a kitchen considerably smaller than their normal one.
 |
| Done in |
Then Vesna pulled out the tiramisu she (the pasty chef) had prepared, and Adam got moscato. Soon after dinner (by now almost 8:00PM), we had to head for the train station to catch our 8:15PM train home, which turned out to be a bit late since it wasn’t the first stop on the route. We got home around 10:00PM, and after Georgie un-velcroed her sneakers, she fell asleep splayed out on the floor by the front door. We all followed suit shortly thereafter, and that was the end of our lovely day in Fuzine with Vesna and Edwin.
 |
| On the walk |
