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In Which I Send An Email
August 30, 2008 by Mike
From: Mike With (mikewith@hotmail.com)
Sent: 30 Augst 2008
To: vanessa@XXX.nz
___________________________________________________
Dear Van
Thanks soooooo much for tipping me off about Hvar. All those years you told us how beautiful it is. You were right. I promise I believed you! It's just that we never did anything about it. Like coming here. And did we ever discuss buying houses out here? You and Jono, me and Smanf? When things were falling down *and* falling apart and if it wasn't for the horrible truth of the war I'd be saying now that we could have made a killing? But the fact is.. property was cheap here then and a lot of it won't be now because the whole island is so bloomin' delicious!
I'm staying in Sučuraj, where your dad's parents came from. I spent hours today wandering round Gdinj, where yr Mum was born. Bloody hell! They're only 12 miles apart -- but yr parents met on the other side of the world! (I'm kinda glad they did) ;-)
This little connection I have with Hvar, through you, has made a huge difference. It meant that as I wandered round Sučuraj last night, which has now got a handful of restaurants and lots of 'Apartmani' and 'Sobe' and 'Pansions'.. my Hrvatski is getting dobro, as you can tell.. I could see behind this modern face of the village, where tourist money arrives on the ferry and some of it sticks.. and get some idea of the conditions that yr grandparents left behind.. how and why they could travel to the other side of the world to cut down trees and raise a family.
And if Sučuraj has got the ferry.. and the sea, and a couple of working fishing-boats and a little stall selling postcards and fridge magnets.. then Gdinj has.. nothing. (Except a brand-new bowling ground.. yr folks got anything to do with that?!)
For all I know, I walked past the house yr mum was born in. Maybe past family. (In Sučuraj, I mentioned yr family name: "Yes," the man in the shop said, "half the families round here are Mihaljevic." I now know how to pronounce it properly, at least..)
Gdinj, though. It's.. empty. One old woman shuffling along in dirty slippers. A couple of cats.. so thin! Even dear old Daphne would look fat out here. Remember Daphins?? Old Fiat 500s rusting in every garden. No number plates. But it looks like they're still used.. until they can't run any more. Collapsing stone buildings, slate roofs. Windows with no glass.. that never had glass.. just wooden shutters and the wood is old and falling away now. Weeds and grasses growing through the stonework. Silence. Nothing grows in the fields that anybody cares to harvest.. if anyone still claims the fields. The dry stone walls are falling apart.. same here as I've seen time and again in Croatia.
The other side of the island -- Hvar town and Stari Grad -- are pretty amazing. You were describing how you'd long to get there to party when you stayed in Gdinj. Heh.. I can believe it! The people are beautiful of course.. they're Croatian, after all.. but the money on that side of the island is incredible. Yachts the size of Auckland harbour. I was talking to a girl.. in the interests of research, you understand.. from Zagreb. She and her friends come to Hvar because the pay is so good.. in summer. Lawdy knows about the winters. And that's on the west side, the rich side. Gdinj in winter? It hardly bears thinking about.
But beautiful. The tourist doobrie says Hvar is "one of the ten most beautiful islands in the world". So there! And this is the bizarre/ ironic/ touching thing. I rode across Hvar and back, from the poor and barren east to the land of plenty, and back again. It's one of the great roads -- seriously -- top ten, no question. And all the while.. with every change of landscape.. every new vista, sweating at midday, watching the sun set.. I kept thinking of.. New Zealand. Yes! Yr parents moved halfway round the world and found a land as beautiful as Hvar.. but with money.
Anyhoo, I've wittered on. I went over-the-top with the pictures too.. my excuse: I had to get used to a new camera. I, err, took 230 pictures today. (That's more than I took on my entire bike ride in South America.. five countries, three months!) I've edited out the real duffers and the repeats. Here's a little selection and I'll stick the rest on a disk for you and yr folks. I know you can't get back for a while.. so let this serve as a reminder of what's waiting for you all. Including showing the kids where their lovely Baba was born.
Big hugs and big love to you and Jono and the kids and yr sister and let's face it THE WHOLE OF NEW BLOODY ZEALAND. Miss you! Love you all!
--Mike
x
ps you can see the best of my Hvar photos gathered here
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Comments
By Mike | September 17, 2008 9:39 AM
Sascha and family.. I can't picture you working! Zoe must wonder why her home has stopped moving around the world and stays in the same place all the time. For the time being, at least.
Great to hear from you
--Mike
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By Melanie, Sascha, Zoe | September 14, 2008 2:22 PM
Hello Mike, nice to see/ that you are feeling well. Hope you can remeber us. It was a long time ago. We were staying in Hvar too. Did some nice clim(b)ing there and enjoyed the life. Really lovely isle. Now we are back at home, working again. It is so hard. You can not believe it. So ride with the wind, free and easy and be happy as much as you can!!! Mike, great man, i have to think often at the time we stay together in italy.
greetings from germany and stay well. Sascha