Taking it easy...

It's been a nice couple of days here, very hot though. Our kitchen thermometer was reading 92 degrees in the back bedroom this afternoon, and that was quite enough. Nada tells us that the last several days have been the hottest in at least a hundred years. We've gone to the beach early and late, and stayed under cover during the hottest part of the day.

Yesterday we snorkelled quite a bit, and got acquainted with the town. This morning we walked into Postira itself to register at the tourist office and pay our tourist tax; for the fifteen days it comes out to around fifteen euros. We also took the opportunity to shop at the market stalls for produce, which seemed to me to be of higher quality than the vegetables and fruits on offer at the local supermarket. The internet facilities in Molo Lozna are lacklustre, but I was able to connect to the wireless internet at the tourist office, just to grab email previews, let family members know that we made it safely, and publish my previous blog post.

The fish delivery guy is coming in a half an hour... This is a friend of Nada and Dragan's who brings freshly caught local fish whenever they request it. They have two BBQs behind the house and lots of fragrant wood for fire building, so we are looking forward to making something nice for tonight. Maggie is up at the grocery picking up some rice and pretty soon we can all head back down to the water for more swimming.

Tomorrow morning we are planning to go southeast along the island coast to Lovrečina, where we are told there is a lovely sand beach. The beach near us is very nice but made of pebbles, so it's not quite as comfortable to lie upon as sand.

This morning I bought some of the local wine from an old guy who had no English or French, so we were a bit stuck until he questioned "Weiß? Rot?" and I realized we were good to go in German. "Ein Liter, swansig Krona" was about our mutual speed. It was quite the local operation; operated out of his cellar, big steel vats, and he gave me a questionably clean glass to sample the product (alcohol kils germs, right?) and filled a water bottle with the stuff. Dragan tells me his neighbor has just as good wine, and it's even cheaper, 15 Krona per liter, or about 2 euros, and fine when chilled. There's also a good supply of Slivovica, a croatian plum brandy that I used to get from a work colleague back in Toronto. You can also find a few brands at the LCBO... strong stuff, but when chilled you could consider it Croatian limoncello, although Maggie has been a little reserved with her adoption of this new beverage. The local beer and wine is fine for her, and there's also a nice lemon beer, so she's happy. She also really likes these little round cakes made from figs, licorice and brandy.

Now it's later in the evening. The fish was a success, and Duncan even asked for seconds, which is something since he hates bones. Fortunately this kind of fish has large bones which separate easily from the firm but almost undercooked flesh. The kids are down on the street with perhaps six others, a couple from france and the rest from croatia, but the lingua franca seems to be english. Apparently it's cool to speak english here. Duncan is killing with movie quotes from Austin Powers, and introduced Malcolm as his brother (they know the tv show M in the Middle). Glad to see that there are other kids.