pics of Bari, the ferry and Dubrovnik, so far

The restaurant we ate lunch at everyday, invited me to a go away dinner.  This was the fish we had.  It looks scary but was outstanding.

Fresh calamari, it wasn't even chewy, it was so good.

The train ride to Bari

One of the churches lit up at night

The fisherman's bay in Bari.

From across the bay.

The old castle in the heart of town.

In the St. Nich Museum.  The names of things were only in Italian.

A staff of St. Nich's

One of the several paintings of him.

They love the Virgin Mary in Italy

St. Nicholas statue just outside his church

This is where he rests for all time

His actual grave and the priest on watch/prayer duty

The ceiling of the St. Nich's church

More of the outside of the castle

The front of the Palace where the government works out of now

Inside the castle walls

Not really Mary's body, but it looks real right

When it s a 100 out, get a Big Gelato 

Getting onto the ferry while cars pulled in next to us

My room.  The top bunk actually flipped up and the bottom did also to make a couch.  Glad I was alone

Pulling out of Bari.

The Moon lighting us all up.

Sunrise over the Croatian coast

Hard to beat that view.

There were several ships all heading to the same place as us.  It was funny to see us all together is such a small distance.

The actual town of Dubrovnik.

Inside the bay as we docked

A cool looking suspension bridge they have in town

My view from the bay where I spent my afternoon swimming and sunning

"American" hot dog and Croatian beer.  What a lunch.

Bari, Italy and a ferry ride

SPOILER ALERT:  IF YOU OR ANYONE NEAR YOU STILL BELIEVES IN SANTA CLUASE DO NOT READ THIS OUT LOUD.

The day before yesterday I left Porto Sant' Elpidio and took a train south to Bari, Italy.  I was only there for the night and most of the next day waiting to catch my ride to Dubrovnik, Croatia, but it was a great little town.  It is right on the coast of the Adriatic also, so a very nice train ride, and also a pleasent coastal town.  Very hot though!  It got to be 100 degrees F, or about 40 Celsius for my metric friends on Saturday.  Plus there is humidity.  So next time any of you Portland folk think about complaining that is is over 80 degrees, keep that in mind.

I met a nice chap in my hostel from England and he and I went out a grab some dinner and explored town a little.  It was very lively and of course the food was good.  A nice evening that gave me lots of ideas of things to explore the next day.  So I got up and checked out of my hostel, they were nice enough to watch my bags for me for the day while I toured around since my ride was not leaving until 11:00 that night.  I walked around the ocean side/boardwalk area.  It was Sunday so there were not many things open but I still found some fun sights.

I went to the fish market and watched a lot of local fisherman prepare their catches for sale, including a lot of octopus.  I also got to check out the old sea wall and walked all the way out to the edge of the pier and check out the Adriatic from there.  I noticed that I was coming up some signs directing me to some local churches and a couple of museums and I thought I would go there and see them.   

Santa Alert:  One of the churches is said to have the remains of St. Nicholas, whom the Santa Clause legend is based on as, amongst other things, he said to be the Saint protector of children.  We have even celebrated St. Nicholas Day in the Maple Room.  First I went into the St. Nicholas museum which was only a couple of Euro and just happened to be air conditioned, a fact that did not hurt its odds of me exploring it fully.  There were a lot of paintings, chalices and religious gala.  It was really interesting and fun to see some of these artifacts from several hundred years ago and learn a little more of the story.  Then I crossed the street to the actual church where he is said to be buried.  The church was amazingly beautiful.  Very detailed in all of its decoration and they happened to be having service while I was there so I sat and listened for a couple of minutes.  Afterwards I made my way downstairs to the tomb.  It was a very intense scene.  There was the marble/granite casket behind some protective bars and a Priest was right next to them praying.  There were a couple row of seats where some nuns were sitting also praying with a lot of intensity.  They had a big picture of St. Nich in the back of the room and some other artifacts around the little room.  It was quite an experience the likes of which I do not think I have ever had before, definitely not in church.

From there I moved on and saw a couple of other churches that were very old, the main square and different parts of old town.  It was a great stop over until I had to go back and grab my bags to head towards the boat departure area and catch my ferry.

Once I got all checked in we had a short wait to get onto the ferry and then they escorted us on and told us where we needed to go on the elevator to get our designated spots.  This is the first time I have been on an overnight ferry like this, left at 11:00 got there at 7:00, and it was so comical.  When you buy the tickets there are several options based on if you have a vehicle or not to bring and where you want to be for the ride.  Many people, especially younger, just choose to sleep on the floor of the main decks.  It is the cheapest and they all bring air mattresses or even just blow up float devices like you would use in a swimming pool.  I watched many folks blowing or foot pumping up what would eventually be there bed. I chuckled just at the sight.  I got a room, which I was lucky enough to have to myself.  It had a shower and bathroom and a nice little window to look outside.

As we pulled away from Bari we were able to see the whole city lit up and once far enough away we were covered in a blanket of stars for rest of the evening.  There was about a 3/4 moon that lit up the whole other side of the sea.  It was a very amazing evening and all aboard were in high spirits.  Has we got close to our destination, about 5:50 am, they came around and knocked on everyone's door.  I was in a deep sleep and feeling good until a strong wrap came at my door.  I jumped up wondering if we were going down, not realizing what was happening.  Trying to remember the directions they announced about life vests while I was having an evening cocktail I realized that we were ok and just getting close.  I got dressed and went out to witness our arrival into Dubrovnik and the rising of the sun just behind it.  I was very happy to be able to see something so wonderful and special.  We departed after arrival, right at 7:00, and got checked out with our passports.  I finally found my way to my hostel and after a quick shower spent the afternoon at the beach swimming in the sea water, snorkeling and catching a little vitamin D.  It was a relaxing afternoon to say the least.  I am here for 3 days and am going on an island tour tomorrow.

Hope all of you are well and I will post some pics on a different blog since there are a bunch.  Have a great week, I know I will.

Ciao

The last, last day

Well the end has arrived and camp is officially over.  This means two things, I am moving on to other parts and I am retired again.  YEAH for both!  Working for a month for four hours a day was good, got me back in touch with my people.  I know many of you want to kill me right now, HEHEHE!  The camp was really great though and this last group I had were fantastic!  It was a perfect ending to the whole experience.  Camp was at a local baseball diamond where the kids had training everyday in the afternoon after English in the morning.  I even got to see some of them play yesterday as they had tournaments at the field.

Most everyone is leaving late in the night, around 3:00 am my time, to make their way to Rome and back to the places they live.  I will be leaving around lunch time to catch my train down to Bari, Italy.  It is a few hour train ride south along the coast of the Adriatic and should be very scenic since it is, of course, supposed to be a warm sunny day tomorrow.  Then I leave Sunday night at 11:00 on a ferry to Croatia where I will be for three days.  Not a lot else to report yet but I am sure that will change with a new venue for me to explore.

Enjoy some pics and I will talk to everyone from Croatia.

Ciao

Baseball locker rooms are all the same no matter what age or language, smelly and full of goofballs.

Yesterday we had a scavenger hunt I wrote up that had the kids running around all over.

They had to ask different people questions in English and get English answers.

Right after running the bases.

Trying to figure out which tutors mascot is a husky and what in the world in a UCONN.

I made them watch "The Pick" and then write down Kenny Wheaton's name.  They asked if that was me making the famous play.  I almost said yes but Duck honor wouldn't let me.  GO O!

The two teams came down to the last second but team one edged out the victory.

The big stinkin' pot for sauce I spoke of last time, I mean right?

Our last day together.  Group photo.

Goofballs, I told you.

Heaven, thy name is Italy

Well I am in my last week here in Porto Sant' Elpidio and WOW has the month gone fast.  On Saturday, around lunch time, I will be catching a train down to Bari, Italy.  I will spend one night there and then I will take a ferry late Sunday night over the Adriatic Sea to Dubrovnik, Croatia. I had this recommended as a must see place from several trusted friends.  I will be there for three days and then I move on again, slowly making my way north to Ireland and hopefully a chance to see Notre Dame on September 1 in Dublin.  Kay comes into London shortly after this and then her and I will work our way back down to Italy and I am going to be playing tour guide and show her why I love this country so much.

We started with a new group this week.  It is a baseball camp that is an English camp in the morning.  That is where I come in.  It is all boys in my group and they are really great.  I have the younger group again but these guys are a little older then any of my other groups so far.  I also spend time with the older boys, 14-16.  They get a kick out of me cause I play sports with them and we spend just about all our free time playing foosball.  They have a table at the camp and I can't play with or against them fast enough.  They are good spirited but competitive games.  They love it when the think they can take down "Jeff".  It just kills them when I score a goal from my goalie position.  After we do a few hours of English we all sit down and have lunch together at the camp.  Still two plates of food everyday and it is also pretty good.  On Monday I saw the biggest pot for anything, filled with pasta, that I have ever seen.  I will see if I can grab a picture of it before camp is over.  I am trying to teach them American football and they enjoy playing and learning but admit it seems very complicated and that there are a lot of things to knowing how to play.  I tell them they are right and this is the simple version and I am leaving out a lot things.  This usually makes their eyes turn in their heads like a slot machine.

One of my made connections has been with the family that owns the restaurant we ate at for the first three weeks.  I was taken off guard and a little disappointed to find out we would not be having lunch there everyday.  I have made my way over a few times for dinner, AMAZING pizza, and I usually end up being there until well after they close.  We have beer or wine and lots of food that is often followed by a desert also made by Louie, the chef.  They refuse to let me pay.  Everything is really good and they have insisted for me to come to dinner on Friday night so they can send me off with a proper meal.  I usually leave there very full, a little tipsy and extremely happy.  Good thing I live close.  We are having fish on Friday and I am sure to be pleased.  I may go get a pizza "to go" tomorrow for just one more time before I go.  He, Louie, even shared the recipe for his dough with me and I hope to try it out when I get home.  I shared my pancake recipe with him.  There were several hurdles in these two exchanges, language, metric to english measurements, ingredients not readily available here like there are at home or vice versa.  Somehow we figured it all out and always have a good laugh together.

Tomorrow my class has two birthdays in it and we are going to have a scavenger hunt.  So I am off to bed soon but enjoy the new crop of photos and I will probably talk to you again soon, maybe from Croatia.

Ciao

Finally the Irish bar up the street opened up after a long vacation.  Tall, dark, glass of bliss right there.

One of many amazing pizzas I have had in the last couple of weeks.  Prosciutto and mushrooms.

Standard margarita.  Simple but still a big WOW!

The "dolce" or desert after dinner last night.  Chocolate cupcakes with coffee and cream cheese frosting.  

Some of the guys from my group playing a favorite game of theirs'.

Being a bunch of baseball players they are really competitive.

Every once in a while we can still stump them with a word, but they knew a good level of English before we got there and get better everyday.

Just a great picture of the Adriatic Sea I took on the way to Fermo, a small town about 30 minutes away on bike.  Great beaches.

This was just across from the beach we went to in Fermo.  I thought Oregon had the only Aplenrose, but I guess not.