I was thinking about my swimming adventures and decided to make a list of all the major bodies of water I have SWAM in ... not just visited and saw with my eyes and dipped a tow or finger in, but actually was fully emerged in. This is what I came up with:

Oceans and Seas I Have Swam In

By

Bethany Johnson

Pacific Ocean
(California, Hawaii)

Atlantic Ocean
(North Carolina, Delaware)

Sea of Cortez
(Cabo San Lucas)

Caribbean
(Mexico and the Islands)

The North Sea
(off the Coast of Belgium)

Adriatic Sea
(the Dalmatian Coast)

Ligurian Sea
(Cinque Terra,
Part of the Mediterranean Sea)

I think that is it ... perhaps I left something out?

futuristic boats and and nameless eels (CROATIA TRAVEL LOG)

The historic island/city of Trogir (a UNESCO world heritage site, by-the-way) sits between the mainland and another larger island and is linked by foot and car bridges. You can read the history of the intact medieval city here. As a result the "Riva" or waterfront is the "it" place to park your HUGE yacht. Some of these boats looked like they were capable of not only sea voyages, but underwater and space travel as well ... these are boats of the future ... unfortunately the biggest ones were foreigners and not Croatians.




On an island, the name of which I cannot remember, where less than 100 people lived and only the small harbor had electricity, we romped around some long forgotten limestone houses and communities. We were lucky enough to have our own private boat and captain waiting for us to hike the few miles up to it, especially since there was only two ferry stops a day - 9 am and 12 noon. The island is so small that it doesn't even have a school, it shut down a few years ago since only one child lived here ... how strange is that. He ended up going to live with grandparents on the mainland. Something about that makes me a little creeped out ... not that I normally think about schools of the number of children that live in a town or neighborhood ... but doesn't that just seem kind of ... final. It makes a place feel even older. In the harbor area, the only place with electricity on the island, there is a really old church (of course) still standing with its fake facade (picture above) that started out as the real facade until they realized they couldn't afford to build such a big building. It now has a bit of a courtyard and I really really like it.

Another really cool thing about historical Dalmatian is the water catchment systems they set up. Oh, P.S. the coast of Croatia is called the Dalmatian Coast architecture and town plans, according to wikipedia: "Dalmatia is a region on the eastern coast of the Adriatic Sea, situated mostly in modern Croatia [... and] signified not only a geographical unit, but it was an entity based on common culture and settlement types, a common narrow eastern Adriatic coastal belt..." The climate is Mediterranean ... so its like southern California ... a bit arid at times and so they try to catch all the fresh water they can. These huge limestone (historically) and concrete (more recently) slabs lay in sloping expanses, in essence funneling the water into storage cisterns or wells. The water is channeled (above) into the well through a gravel and sand filter (below).

This particular well (below) located in an abandoned village on the coast was recently quality tested by the regional government and rated as having some of the purest water in the area! The owner, who heard through the grapevine (or at the local cafe) that American students were interested in documenting their little town, randomly meet up with us at the village and wanted to show off his well. His son, who now lives in Sweden was visiting and was kind enough to translate for us (another example of people speaking multiple languages ... Croatian, Swedish, and English ... sigh). He said that there was an eel living in the well and that is why it was so clean! I about died ... and then he said that the eel was 45 years old! I said ... wait ... how do you know he is that old and how do you know he is still alive (i was shocked and thus not thinking clearly that they put him in there that long ago and that he would float to the top and the water would start tasting bad if he were dead ... all good points). Then I asked if he had a name ... because hey at 45 ... he is part of the family! They roared with laughter and the son had to ask his dad to make sure he did not have a name (i thought that was funny). They said no and then I proceeded to ask if I could name it ... to which I got the response ... "no, you cannot Christen our eel" ... ahhhh, good times!

(home of nameless eel)

Italia and Hrvatska

Why is it that people rarely call countries and cities by their native names?

For example ... we say Italy, not Italia ... Florence, not Firenze ... Rome, not Roma .... and Croatia, not Hrvatska .... WHY?! It makes no sense to me.

Anyway, here are a few pictures of the trip to start:

an island on the Dalmatian Coast (in Croatia)

church in Sbenik, Croatia


self portrait ... laying down in Ancona, Italy


Trevi Fountain in Rome, Italy


Manarola, Cinque Terre, Italy


Abby and Bethany ... I ate a whole fish! That is a big deal for me... I don't really like fish, FYI.


Duomo - Siena, Italy


Tim and Bethany on roof of Duomo in Milano, Italy


This is what I woke up to every morning in Canova, Italy ... I know it doesn't seem real.


My feet and my huge backpack that got me through it all.

more "likes" ...

capers
Firenze (Florence for all you American speakers)
coat of arms, cartouches, medallions, crowns, scrolls, knights

I am into all thing royal right now and can find them on buildings as added architectural elements in both Italy and Croatia ... these have been the main things I am taking pictures of on this trip... oh yeah and lions and horse statutes as well.

new discoveries and things i am not into

While traveling I have learned a few more things about myself and what I do and don't like .... and while Europe is great and fabulous and wonderful, there are a few things that i won't miss:

squat toilets (to be expanded upon at a later date)
toilet brushes (eww and double eww)
tourists
feeling like a fool because everyone speaks multiple languages but me

But there are more things I have discovered that I do like:

cucumbers
bread salad
aviator sunglasses (italians dig them but i probably wont be buying them any time soon)
pistachio gelato (double yum)
boats
some fish
drawing and measuring buildings
curried carrots
breakfast in the morning
Richard Marx songs in Croatian blasting in my Radio Shower (it was sick)
The Adriatic Sea

Out of Order European Trip Notes

WOW ... graduate school really did kill the blog! Traveling around Europe without regular internet access doesn't help either. So I decided to add a few random notes of what happened last night. The posts will be out of order on what happened as I re-cap my trip (which is on its last leg of the journey).

Yesterday Abby (fellow graduate student and friend) and I took a ferry boat across the Adriatic Sea from Split, Croatia to Ancona, Italy. We arrived an hour later than expected - about 10 pm - and were one of the last people off the boat since our huge backpacks were stored on the otherside of the boat from where we were sitting ... and really, who wants to hold a 50 lb bag on their back and a 15 lb front-back (aka backback worn on the front because your big old hiking pack is on your back) while just STANDING in line waiting for costums to stamp your passport before getting into another long line to walk through a tiny portal and off the boat? We didn't, so we waited. By the time we got off the boat there were no taxis around ... you would think that there would be TONS of taxis waiting at a ferry arrivial in a port city, but no ... no taxis for us. We knew where we were going to stay for the night since we had stayed there last week on our way to Croatia, so we started to walk in that direction. We ended up walking the whole way, which was only like a 20-30 minute walk but we were carrying a lot of weight here people! In the course of our walk (by this time it is about 11pm) we had more than 3 whistles and "cat calls" ... more than any we had had our entire trip (which may be due to the fact that we did have a man traveling with us before)! Anyway ... we decided that the front-back must be considered attractive here in Ancona because we were definitely not looking good ... we were sweaty and frumpy and grumpy. But the front-pack it drives Italian men wild! hahaha

After we get our room and leave our bags we decide to go to the ATM, since in Croatia they use the Kuna and in Italy it is the Euro, and we also wanted to go across the street to the train station and get our train tickets for the next day. Of course we passed multiple ATMs on our treck to the hotel but now could not find even one that was working! The Johnson luck as we say in my family. I was also starving, not having had dinner, and so we stopped into the "Fast Food" place down the street which had "kebabs" which were really like gyros that turned out to be very good, although very spicy hot. Before we could get our food however, we witnessed an italian argument between the vendor and a punk kid that was being a jerk ... but as all things in Italy the war of words took a good 15 minutes before we could get our food ... so much for fast. There was another young Italian guy that could tell we were a little uneasy and annoyed as we sat down to wait out the episode and told us in English "don't worry, it is ok" ... he was a cute little muffin as a friend would say.

Finally we get food and eat and the vendor appologizes and tries to explain what happened and says to eat inside, not outside because the guy is still there ... we were like - "its ok ... fine, fine" ... we just wanted to eat since it was now MIDNIGHT! Heart burn here we come! As we are finishing up our meal of "kebabs" and FANTA which is actually really good (side note: Italian fanta is better than Croatian fanta) a guy in a leather jacket and a motorcycle helmet comes in to buy beer or something and starts talking to us but we have no idea what he is saying. He is pointing under his eyes and pointing at Abby and I say "do we look that tired? because we are" and he realizes we dont understand him. We get up to pay the vendor at the counter and says, "beautiful girl" and the vendor tries to explain to us what has now become obvious. It takes another 10 minutes to get out of there saying "thank you, goodbye" numerous times to both the motorcylist and the vendor.

Ah ... and that is just one story to get you started for my more regular updates on my European adventure.

thinking and doing ... the disconnect

I think about blogging often. Something funny happens in my life and I want to share it. But I lack follow through with out a deadline holding a knife to my back and making me walk the plank to take the plunge. I don't think its because it is spring ... when the sun is out here in Oregon it is beautiful. The leaves are sprouting and the flowers are blooming and it is wonderful ... but it is still raining a lot. And from what I hear, it will continue to rain until June which is right when I will be leaving for the summer.

Following through. I don't feel like this has always been a huge struggle for me ... but right now it is one of the biggest. I have time to write the papers I need to and even blog to let you people know I am alive and well and thinking strange thoughts ... but unless the due date is tomorrow - I can't bring myself to do it. Procrastination is awful and I hate that I am letting myself be engulfed by it.

Other Random Things:

• I watched a disaster film last night and cried (remember how I feel about them?)
• I am addicted to Propel and cookies from Safeway's bakery ... but I don't eat them at the same time.
• I feel behind in life.
• I feel like I want too much and I don't know how to get it.
• I wish I took more pictures these days.
• I need to start looking for monthly storage.
• I want to wear skirts and shorts again.
• I love my car - it was a really good purchase
• I need to wash my car - but its going to rain again so its hard to convince myself to do it
• I have this strange obsession with the South right now - architecture and everything about it ... I feel like I want to live in South Carolina or Louisiana or somewhere like that.
• I constantly want to be in multiple places at once - have different lives all at the same time ... live here in the Pacific Northwest, live in the South, live in New England, live in San Francisco ... maybe its all the buildings I have been studying lately.

Anyway - those are the thoughts and feelings in my head.