One reason why my friends are the craziest gals I know....

...and why I love them so!

Also for spontaneously breaking into a can-can in public, never saying no to ice cream and shrieking 'Opa!' (the wrong language, but oh well...) at the top of their lungs to ward off Croatian men. I am so lucky to have these girls in my life.

P.S. Can you figure out which words we are trying (and failing?) to spell?

The Hotel Belvedere

Visiting the Hotel Belvedere* was one of the most eye-opening experiences of our trip to Croatia. The hotel was devastated during the 1991 Siege of Dubrovnik and though the basic structure remains intact, the windows are without glass, the swimming pool without water and the building now utterly deserted. I possessed only a vague notion of the conflict that led to its destruction - which I now understand was called the Croatian War of Independence - before visiting yet the experience was far more informative than a museum. The war museum we visited presented only propaganda and anti-Yugoslav language; the bombed out hotel, however, was haunting and sincere in the truths it portrayed. Wandering through the vast concrete hollow and navigating the crumbling spiral staircases, the futility of violence seemed more apparent than ever.

The shattered teacups littering the floor, the hotel notelets trodden underfoot and the shards of glass on every surface conveyed the horrors of war in a way I have never experienced before. What shook me so much was how calm the place was, eerie in its silence, only the gentle lapping of the Adriatic against the shore in the distance. I could hardly imagine how anyone could bear to attack such a beautiful place - and in my lifetime too. I often forget, cocooned in tranquil England, the world's more recent violent history. It seems somehow appropriate that the building has been left untouched, an unadorned and honest tribute to the country's tragic past.

*The Hotel Belvedere was one of Dubrovnik's most exclusive hotels, popular with film stars and the affluent, and enjoyed its heyday in the 1950s. It sits just outside of the city, its fifteen storeys cascading down the cliff and looking west to the Old Town. The hotel suffered severe damage during a 1991 naval bombing and has been abandoned ever since.

11.7.11

Today I love

- spending time with my mother
- the summer heat
- my new dress, so blue it reminds me of the ocean
- strawberries with chocolate ice-cream
- our friendly street
- evening bicycle rides
- the flowers blooming throughout the neighbourhood
- silly videos made by my best friends
- having a book in one's bag for a long tube journey
- our darling cats
- last minute beach shopping
- being at home with my family

I am so grateful for the plentiful small but beautiful things in my life which make me so happy. It's the little things.

Our very own sisterhood.

The sisterhood, Dubrovnik's old harbour, 'C-A-S-T-L-E', dinner by the sea, shuttered windows and a best friend, sitting on the dock of the bay.

This past week felt as if I were living in my very own Sisterhood of the Travelling Pants fantasy....six best friends, one Adriatic city, numerous occasions where we jumped into the ocean from a clifftop. Okay, okay - so we lack a magical pair of pants which fit all of us perfectly, but we more than make up for that with our friendship, endless giggling, shamelessness, our closeness which brings us together even when we are apart. We spent the week in Dubrovnik, occasionally venturing by boat to several islands which sit like a necklace on the Croatian coastline. We ate life-threatening quantities of ice cream, enamoured many a Croatian waiter, danced down the Stradun in the dark, explored an abandoned hotel, tried to spell out various words in photographs with little success and went about our way without a care in the world. Everything was magical in its own way: the laughter, the fact we lost all sense of time and the crystal clear azure of the sea. Really, who needs a pair of pants? 

sutra je nada

Tomorrow I will be here, with five of my very best friends, hopefully swimming in the crystal clear sea and sampling Croatia's delights. I'm so excited!

See you soon!

Saturday.

Today was a wonderful day.
My mother and I went swimming in the early morning.
Then we ate eggs on toast and omelette in a neighbourhood cafe (I felt like I was in Gilmore Girls!)
We walked 'round town, visited thrift stores and bought vintage shoes and a straw tote.
I drove to my grandparents' house with my dad, admired my grandad's garden and sat in the kitchen talking with my grandma and felt glad that some things never change.
I watched lots of ER re-runs and didn't feel a bit guilty for not being productive.
I finished unpacking the boxes and boxes in my room and contemplated lots of important things in the process.
I read the weekend newspapers with the company of our darling cats.
I lay on the grass in the dying sunlight and felt happy as I've ever been.

It was a perfect Saturday, a perfect first day home, with little time to be homesick for my house in Bristol to which I have now bid farewell (though I miss my friends and bicycle dearly.)

Wochenende

This past weekend involved stargazing, three barbecues, taking silly pictures and endless laughter, baking ridiculously decadent desserts (including two batches of white chocolate and raspberry cake!) - and lying on the ground in my best friend's pebbled garden with my very closest, most beloved friends around me, wondering what I did to be so lucky. Board games and the sun so strong I could almost feel freckles forming on my nose, walking past abandoned churches in the dark, and feeling utterly at peace. A weekend I shall undoubtedly remember and feel nostalgic for, a little weepy even. I am so thankful to have such kind, accepting, endlessly funny friends - the sort everyone wishes for - and I am beyond grateful to have six who live just a few streets away.

all images c/o sophia.