Leaving Cres

I had a really hard time leaving Cres this time. We stayed for more than a month and I had so much fun. I also managed to get some of my thesis work done. Best of all, the kids had a chance to spend time with people who love them.

Cres

On to a few more adventures and then back home…

Sheep Exhibition in Orlec

I was walking around in Cres the other day when I saw a poster advertising “4th Annual Sheep Exhibition” in Orlec. I had not heard of this event previously, but now that I have, I was not going to miss it. The poster promised tasting of sheep delicacies and “Harmonijada” (Accordian-fest) in the evening hours. It invited us to come and be entertained and I was instantly interested.

Orlec is the first town up the hill from Cres. We decided to take the regular bus line to get there which was all we needed to get Trevor interested in the trip.

CIMG5208
Trevor in the bus

CIMG5209
The twenty minute bus ride was so exciting, Trev fell asleep. He missed seeing the Renault 4 on the right

I might or might have not been to Orlec previously but I had no expectations of it except to see some abandoned houses and a few old ladies stubbornly holding onto their routines and evading their children’s attempts to put them into nursing homes. Well, I was to have my prejudices of small island villages overturned! Orlec seemed to be booming. Maybe it is the vacationers that make it busy in the summer, but there were more newly renovated houses than houses falling into disrepair.

CIMG5219
Orlec

Orlec seems to be the magnet for the few Renault 4 cars remaining in the world. I think I saw at least three. The town also seems to support agricultural community of sorts. Sheep, a horse, some veggie gardens and a kiwi tree were to be spotted.

CIMG5238
Sheep

CIMG5228
Kiwi

The sheep exhibition was small but vibrant. There were 10 sheep pens with four sheep each competing for the best specimen. There was to be a a sheep shearing with traditional (non-motorized) scissors, but we missed it because we had to catch the last bus back to Cres.

CIMG5215

Trevor was quite tired and a bit weary of sheep so we got some jams, honey and rakija (grappa) at the stands, had a nice meal of tripe and roast lamb and headed home.

CIMG5242

Tripe was actually very tasty though it is the kind of meal I would have on very few occasions this being the second time in my life that I tried it.

CIMG5247

The first time I had tripe was in a fancy New York restaurant and then it was beef, rather than lamb. I was talking to my great uncle, zio Peppi, about it a few years ago and he told me how, when he was younger, you could only find tripe in small hole-in-the-wall-working-man’s eateries.

Blog Tribute: Lovely Bicycle!

Lovely Bicycle! is a blog about pretty and vintage bikes.

As far as bicycle design goes, nothing is more dear to me than the old Pony bike. These classics are not so much bicycles as they are kitchen chairs on wheels. This is possibly why they are so omnipresent and timeless. I believe they are still being manufactured and sold.

CIMG5143

Ours are, of course, equipped with child seats. The orange pony has a vintage hand made seat, wound with kitchen rag. Very posh.

CIMG5167

I was going to go around Cres taking pictures of ponies but I am too occupied with my thesis to catch many good ones.

There was one pony in particular that is our favorite and we managed to discretely take a picture of it.

CIMG4685

Despite the fact that it probably has not been ridden in ten years, it is still a great bike for two.