There's No Chile Here: A Season's Worth of Recollections

Oh dear! Where did the summer go? It slipped by, and I didn't post a single thing.

I suppose I'll begin at the beginning: The end of our trip in Croatia!

Slavs in socks, waiting to be costumed in Ogulin, Croatia.

This is what I wrote when I was there:

Ogulin is a most interesting little town. About an hour and a half from Zagreb, nestled in a valley among high green hills, not far from a large pale blue lake. We arrived Friday afternoon under a gray sky. We would be staying in Ogulin for two nights for a folk festival. The folk festival was a small but entertaining—consisting of about 15 Croatian folk groups—and us. They were very generous with us, providing us with meals—and entertainment. They fed us breakfast this morning, and then we workshopped with Josko Caleta, After lunch, we were taken to the lake, which was beautiful, and then to a small living history museum in a nearby village. This land is beautiful, and the day was beautiful, bright and blue, which puffy white summer clouds. The hills rear up gently around this valley, which is covered with gardens. Everywhere you look, corn, potatoes, raspberries. Being a Saturday, everyone was working in their garden today, or so it seemed, driving along the narrow winding roads.

After our afternoon in the countryside, we got costumed! We only brought black outfits to perform in, but after the opening night of the festival, it became apparent that that would not do. So our host got her friends to costume us in brightly colored garb from various regions of Croatia. It took two hours for all of us to me outfitted, and boy did we look a sight! Long woolen stockings, head dresses, tunics, and aprons. We performed our two songs as a mismatched but at least somewhat more appropriate looking group.

What a day!

Ogulin's Lake

And then on to Zagreb, which is famous for its fantastic outdoor market. This is the monument to the women who sell produce in these markets.

While in Zagreb, our schedule opened up for entire day, so we took the opportunity to go to Plitvice National Park, which consists of an incredible series of lakes. It was amazing. If you ever get the chance to go there, do.