Novigrad Redux

12/13
We are back "home" for a few days before leaving on Sunday for a lengthy trip to Singapore.

Time to wash clothes and dry everything. We've figured out a way to speed up the drying process...hang the clothes in the kitchen in front of the warm air heater/fan. It takes several hours and interferes with cooking, but it's faster than hanging outdoors especially now that it's raining and cooler.

The town is prepared for Christmas with street decorations. Also, several buildings on our street are covered in green material, not decoration, but renovation protection.

12/14
Grocery shopping. Our regular stops at the green grocer, the bakery, and the Konzum (grocery store). Using Kuna again. At the library to use Wi-fi indoors rather than outdoors at the town Trg (rainy and cold).

That's where we encounter a new problem...all of a sudden, we can not use our hotmail email account...can't even sign in because the password is not valid. I attempt several work-arounds, but to no avail.

Google comes up with the answer and a solution. We have been hacked (I thought that Apple products were immune to this kind of thing)! The website, JustAnswer.com, provides the solution (for a fee). It's not simple and it will take several days to work out. Evidently, FREE Hotmail.com does not have much online support (a solution for the future is to sign up for a PAY-FOR version). Until we resolve this situation, we will use our Gmail account, rreilein@gmail.com (note two r's).

12/15
Duśka treated us along with her two secretaries, both named Luana, and Robert, our driver/police chief to a wonderful meal. It was the company annual Christmas lunch at Konoba Perci in the small village of Tar. Mom and I each had an ox meat pasta. Very tasty and tender meat. We started out with a large platter of meat (local smoked ham), cheeses( one with truffles) and olives. Had chocolate souffle cakes (like we make at home) oozing with warm chocolate in the center for dessert and then of course a bit of grappa.
They gave us some holiday gifts that was so thoughtful, since they don't necessarily exchange gifts. The bag included a box of candy and some local honey products.
We had a long enjoyable lunch/dinner.
Robert has quite a sense of humor and relayed several work related stories.

12/16
Been catching up on some NY Times articles. We are both finishing books. Really just able to get two English news stations on TV. Expanded our card playing to gin as well as cribbage. It feels like we are back "home", being able to relax in the morning over coffee and reading. I have just finished "Sarah's Key". What an enlightening story of French history during WWII.

There is a Christmas fair, starting this afternoon, at the square in front of the church here in Novigrad. Kids are singing and dancing, so it should be fun. Also, a singing group at 8:00pm.

Duška has arranged a driver to take us to Venice Sunday morning, so now we just need to pack up. Need to lighten our load, mainly of brochures and information of all that we have seen. All the tourist centers that we visited have very prolific writers and we would walk away with piles of material. Again, we are glad to have the blog!

12/17
We're in the process of taking care of last day activities. We just printed our boarding passes for tomorrow's flight on Qatar Airlines, a 5-star airline! Most of our clothes are dry for packing. Gin Rummy and Cribbage help while away the afternoon, watching BBC and EuroNews Re repeated every half hour.

Several shops and cafes that have been closed since November have reopened for the holiday season. The harbor (mandrać) is filled with fishing boats. It could be that the fishermen are enjoying a holiday break, or maybe it's the end of the fishing season, or most likely it's the bad weather...rain and strong wind the last few days.

Dinner tonight will be at a Novigrad seafood konoba Čok. One that we haven't tried, but this is the week for some kind of special fish and they are supposed to have it. Maybe we will see what band is playing at the fair too. Last night we did a bit of dancing to a guitar player and singer that were quite good. Luckily it is under a tent because of the wind and periodic rain.

We said good bye to Luanna and Duska and Robert stopped by, so we are on to see the Garretts !

Oh, our E -mail address is working again. reileinsd@hotmail.com

Dinner was great. Started with scallops, then noodles with white truffles, grilled fish with potatoes and spinach and then pannacotta for Dick and apple tart with English cream for me. Of course no calories ! Then they brought some complimentary grappa. Cute place and very cozy, Think we better set an alarm to get up !