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I told y'all last week about Petit Point, the shop I found in Vienna, and the pretty box I bought there. This is the rest of what I got - old berlinwork patterns - five of them! This top one she threw in free for me. It's of the Sandman sprinkling sand to make kids go to sleep. I like it.
This is across the street from those stairs. You can see these houses were built shabbily also on fortifications. In the valley below, there's a gypsy camp that's even more pathetic than the houses. Total population of Virpazar can't be more than a couple of thousand people. It did have one advantage over the town on the other side of the lake - no huge dump right next to the road.
And now, why I call this The Hippie Zone. The place we stayed was Hotel Pelikan, founded in the Sixties and still stuck there. We ate at the restaurant, which is more what the place is than a hotel (it has four rooms, which are basically bedrooms in the house: ours was across from the family's living room. It was small, spider-filled, and the bathroom floor was always wet from the shower overflow. We were desperate, though. The next nearest place on the way home was through all those tunnels and such, and a ski resort that might not even be open in the summer. So stuck we were.We took a walk around the town (taking all of ten minutes to do so), and went to the restaurant for dinner. It was at least as much of an experience as the room. i was given a wilted bouquet of local wildflowers when we sat down to dinner. With the exception of the frozen mixed veg, it was obvious everything was from the local area. Our first course was mulberries. I don't think I've -ever- been served mulberries before. There was a cold fried dough, some honey, and olives - uncured, new olives. The veal was from an old milch cow from its toughness, but at least it was thoroughly cooked. Someone associated with the place came by with fresh water chestnuts he pressed us to try. By the end of the meal, we had somehow acquired a basil plant on top of that. The only other customers were a foursome of French caravaners who decided to eat out instead of cooking. All in all ... weird and definitely an imitation of an acid trip.
When I was alone in Vienna, I was walking along the main shopping drag and came across a shop named "Petit Point". Naturally, I had to stop in. This is one of two purchases I made there; the other's waiting for another blog post. The thread is DMC, she was working on it in her shop, and we talked about stuff. I gave her the names of several silk floss manufacturers and she was really interested in switching production to silk. She's not the only one who does it. As the work is hand made and well executed, its price is commensurate. She had a lot of lovely purses too, but they were out of my price range.
Yes, I'm still writing about the road trip weeks later - cause I keep getting photos put up and there's much to tell. On our last day in Split, we went to Trogir. It's about half an hour north of there and UNESCO has marked it as a World Heritage Site because it's the best-preserved medieval town in central Europe. It's a great little place. The old town is on an island in the middle of the newer parts, and there's not a single modern building in it. This top picture is the former town hall; it's used now as a school. I'd imagine it's hard to study there with the view of the boat basin out all the windows.
Been working on filling in more green on the plaques. Can't work on it tonight; my bag's checked in all the way to the States and I'm in Paris at a hotel. Tomorrow I'll be home. It seems so long and so short a time simultaneously. I am going to miss there. 
The beach by the hotel we stayed at is called Znjan. I have no idea how to pronounce it. It's a pretty beach with lots of white rocks and views of the islands a few kilometers away. It's also a very popular beach with the locals. most of the pictures my companion took don't have people in them because he really prefers not to take pictures of people without permission. He had to work to crop people out or not get them in the shot. Anyway... it's not because the beach isn't used that it looks empty in my pictures. During the day, people go out to sunbathe and enjoy the cooler breeze at the shore. These people leave between four and six in the afternoon in a process we called "the shift change". For about an hour, the beach is empty-ish, then the families come out to go to the little coffee bars (with playgrounds) and walk up and down the walkway lining the beach.
A lot of things go on there - walking dogs, rollerblade lessons for preteens, elderly strolls. It's like half the population comes out before dinner to enjoy the evening. Around sunset, they all start going home and then the fun begins.
Living in the Balkans means there's no privacy at home. Extended families live together in what we'd call single family dwellings here. So the Kosovars go to hotels to get it. The people of Split head to the beach. Cars cruise up and down it looking for the one thing in demand - empty benches. Benches are about twenty meters apart and provide that little bit of privacy you just can't get at home. Elderly men in groups drinking and talking. Teenagers making out. Older couples getting away from the in laws and kids at home. All come down to the beach after dusk for some time alone and together. We witnessed this every night, and we went down too - but not for privacy. My companion took a lot of photos of the beach at night and I acted as his assistant. 
The central building in this picture was our hotel. Actually, not all of it was our hotel - only the middle two floors. The rest was private housing. Hotel More was a great place to stay. The picture was taken from the beach, so you can see how close it is! That cross in front of it, the tall metal pole? It's historically significant. It marks the place where Pope John Paul II celebrated mass a decade ago. The cross was part of the elevated altar and everyone was on the beach. The hotel wasn't built at the time. This place takes care of you - they're always concerned that things are right, ask you what kind of food you want for breakfast, loan you silverware for dinner, and give you a table chairs, -and- chaise longues on the veranda. Can you tell I want to go back?
This picture is from the restauraunt about a mile from the hotel that we had dinner at - twice. Like most places in the Balkans, it has a patio to eat outside. The day was good, so we did. I just like how my companion caught the colors of the sunset in this view. I'll make a post with some dinner pictures on it if my companion ever gets to processing my phone pictures...
Being stopped for road construction is rather normal in Croatia and Montenegro. You have to build it into your transit time when going places. So we thought nothing of it when we were stopped in this rather scenic area (yes, they're all scenic, really) on the way from Dubrovnik to Split and waited for a few minutes. We were about a dozen cars back from the light. Paying more attention to the view down to the sea than the road work going on up the mountain, we were slightly startled to hear a series of booms. Oh! They were blasting a new place to build the road and get another couple of lanes. Great. Then... rumble, rumble, bounce, rumble.... one boulder comes crashing down the mountainside. Sure enough, it landed right on the road. We saw it coming down, but my companion didn't react quickly enough to take pictures on the way.
It was kind of funny to watch the construction workers afterwards. All of them at the top stood in a line with their hands on their hips, looking down and shaking their heads. In unison. You could tell they were cursing, even from that distance. This poor guy was the flagman below, kicking off the pieces of rock to finish tumbling down into the sea.
And this is the boulder in all its glory. Notice the guard rail is -still- intact, and only bent. It gave my companion a lot more confidence in driving on the roads that if something happened, the rail wasn't as flimsy as he thought. On our way back three days later, the boulder had already been removed but the guard rail was still bent.
I got the flame started this week and completely finished the blue. I promise, in a few posts you'll see why I've been so slow stitching!
When we were driving from Dubrovnik to Split, we had plenty of time - we ended up with a whole day to do it and it was a three hour drive. Sooo... we saw a sign for a tourist spot called Ston and decided to explore. It's a teeny tiny town on the peninsula west of the coast road an hour or so north of Dubrovnik. For a small spot, there's a lot to see. This top picture is of the salt pans there. It looks kind of like a rice paddy, but they're evaporating sea water to make salt. You can even buy it.
The first thing you see on entering Ston is the walls, though. This picture was taken from the back side, where most of the town is. These walls go over the hill and all the way down the other side. Not quite as high as Kotor, but still very impressive.
These few pictures are of Split's old town. The place is weird because it's built of the palace of the Roman emperor Diocletian (end of the third century AD). The roads are the palace's corridors, and the buildings, former rooms. This top picture is an example. The columns are part of the old palace and the cathedral was built inside. Kind of neat looking.
While in the old town of Split, which is also Diocletian's palace, I found three! shops. Two were trim shops and one was a fabric shop. I helped the daily receipts of all three. This top shop shows some cute ribbons and a wide piece of lace I found.
More trims here and the only piece of fabric I bought at the fabric shop. Fabric was top quality, but I really don't like paying nearly a hundred euros per meter for stuff I could get in the states for about thirty dollars a yard, especially since I can dye my oen silk. So I bought this piece of linen, which I found really interesting. Now to figure out what to do with it.
The metal trim snaking across this picture is heavy and was expensive, but I really like it. It's made up of basket charms and Swarovski crystals. It'd make a good bracelet with some left over, but I have other plans. The ribbon on netting will do well on some projects, too.
