San Sebastian Film Festival 2019

Hard for us to believe, but it is already time for the San Sebastian International Film Festival, the third we will attend since moving here. The Festival starts tomorrow and runs through September 29.

The first year we were here, we only attended nine movies in the nine days of the Festival (https://vinoconvino.blogspot.com/2017/10/9-movies-in-9-days.html) because we were limited by the hours we were in school and our need to do homework and sleep. Last year, we missed the first and last days of the Festival for two different trips, but managed to attend 16 movies in seven days (https://vinoconvino.blogspot.com/2018/10/san-sebastian-film-festival-2018.html).

This year, we are planning a similar pace to 2018 but during the full nine days (20 movies for Shana, 21 for me). After spending much time planning our purchases, we were ready to buy when tickets became available last Sunday at 9:00 am. However, because of technical glitches on the Festival site, what should have taken about one hour, took five! We were not very happy, but neither were all the Spaniards posting on the Festival's Twitter feed. It was fun to be able to understand all the complaining.

We will, of course, have a post about this year's Festival when it is over, but until then dear readers, we will be incommunicado.

Hasta la vista,

Jeff and Shana

Tivat and Dubrovnik

Although the point of our recent trip to the Balkans was to swim, we wanted to post briefly about the cities we visited - Tivat, Montenegro and Dubrovnik, Croatia.

Montenegro is a very small country (population is only about 625,000 people -- less than Seattle, not to mention LA), and Tivat is a small resort area. Although Tivat has a tiny, nearby airport, there are few flights. So, like most people, we arrived in Dubrovnik and took a car to Tivat. This required a border crossing into Montenegro, which looked a bit like crossing into an Eastern Block country in a movie from the 70's or 80's, a pretty long ride along a two-lane road and a ferry crossing. The ferry is totally utilitarian, but extremely important for getting people to and from Tivat:

On our trip back to Dubrovnik, a large cruise ship was passing through the narrow channel that the ferry crosses causing a terrible bottleneck. Fortunately, our aggressive Montenegrin driver got us very close to the front of the line so our wait was limited.

Tivat itself is very small and, like many resort areas is all about the "beach" -- although the "beaches" were more of a pebbly water entry point or concrete ledge. We stayed in a slightly older part of town, but a relatively new harbor is filled with large yachts (including one we found on the internet, which is owned by a Saudi sheikh and cost $300 million to build), and surrounded by high-end shopping and newly constructed resorts.

The location is beautiful; here is a view from our hotel:

Unlike Tivat, Dubrovnik is an ancient city and a long-time tourist destination. Given the level of tourism, we were amazed to hear that the population of the city is under 50,000 people. We chose not to stay in the old town, instead renting a VRBO above the new port. The views from our balcony were spectacular:

The first morning after we arrived, we woke up early and walked a bit over a mile to the Dubrovnik old town to walk along the ancient walls that still enclose it. We were happy to have done this early because once the tour groups show up (mostly off of cruise ships), the volume of people on the walls becomes unbearable. Not to mention that it was really hot. When we were on the walls, however, the crowds were limited and the views were amazing:

Although it was expensive (over $30 each), walking the walls of Dubrovnik is definitely the highlight of any visit there. While we visited a few museums, along with the old Synagogue (second-oldest in Europe after the Old-New Synagogue in Prague), none was really very impressive. The central square of the old city is nice, but the hoards of tourists and the heat, which is reflected and intensified by the stone walls, make it difficult to savor:

We very much enjoyed our visit to this part of the world we had never visited before, and can definitely see returning to Croatia to see Split and Zagreb (in the northern part of the country), perhaps along with a tour of the islands. Plus, we know they have good wine and oysters there.

Hasta pronto,

Jeff and Shana

Our Swimming Adventure in Montenegro

We had a terrific time on our Strel Swimming adventure in Montenegro. It was unlike anything we’d ever done before, and perhaps ever will do again; well, anytime soon at least. Perhaps a few highlights and observations will be a better format for this post, rather than a narrative.

First, our training was important. You should always train for what you are going to do and getting comfortable in the open water was super helpful. It gave us the confidence to jump right in each day, even though we weren’t the fastest or best swimmers in our group – not even close.

Second, although all levels of swimmers are welcome on these types of trips, we think that’s a bit of an overstatement. Before the trip we thought of ourselves as strong swimmers, and we still believe that’s true. But being able to swim well and being a swimmer are two different things. My background, with loads of swim lessons, swim team in high school, and swimming for exercise at various times, meant I had developed and maintained a decent level of technique. Jeff had the ability and fitness to power through the swims, but, as we learned, his lack of technique meant that he was probably working twice as hard as everyone else to keep up. Nearly everyone else on the trip regularly swims for exercise. To truly enjoy a trip like this, being a “swimmer” helps a lot.

Third, we had a great group of 16 other swimmers (and 2 guides) who were fun, supportive, and diverse in age and background. We really lucked out and hope to see members of the group again in London, Melbourne, Zurich, LA and Chicago.

Here are photos of our main boat and a mid-swim drink break – bonus points if you can pick us out:

Our swims ranged from 2 to 2.5 km and we swam twice a day – once in the morning and once in the afternoon. In between we visited small towns in the area, had lunch, and one day did a hike. We spent two days in the Bay of Kotor and the other two in the Adriatic Sea. The scenery was amazing and being out on a boat all day was a great way to enjoy and appreciate these coastal areas.

During day 3 of swimming we were hitting our wall. Jeff was sore and developing an overuse shoulder injury and I was running out of steam. I borrowed a pair of fins to do swim #6 and was glad I did. You don’t notice your physical exhaustion in the water as quickly as you might on land. We both took the fourth day of swimming off – I was sick and Jeff was ready for a break.

We have no regrets about taking the swim trip. It was a new challenge and we met amazing people. While we confirmed that swimming is not Jeff’s thing, that made Jeff the hero of our group – everyone was so impressed that he was willing to go outside his comfort zone to make his wife happy. He gets the “super hubby” award. Jeff may not do another swim trip, but I would be up for it! Any volunteers to join me?

More details of our adventures in Montenegro and Croatia to come soon.

Hasta pronto,

Shana & Jeff 

Best Oysters Ever!

We have returned from our swimming trip to Tivat, Montenegro, and we will have much more to say about swimming, Tivat and our visit to Dubrovnik, Croatia as well. But first, I want to post about an amazing half-day tour we took from Dubrovnik to Ston (pronounced "stone"), about 45 minutes north on the Peljesac peninsula.

The ride north was beautiful along the amazing Croatian coastline, where small towns are built in picturesque inlets of the Adriatic. When we arrived, our first stop was a bay where oysters are farmed. Oysters have been cultivated in this area since Roman times, and our host for this part of the tour was a fourth-generation oyster farmer who took us out on his little boat so we could try the freshest oysters possible.

The location was drop-dead gorgeous:

The things you can see on the water are small buoys that each mark the location of a rope covered in oysters, which is connected to a concrete block on the bottom of the bay. We watched our host haul up a rope covered in oysters and shuck them right on the boat:

 The end result was simple, enjoyed with lemon, some local white wine, and absolutely delicious!

Definitely the freshest oysters I have ever tried, and Shana even managed to eat one although she still does not appreciate the delicacy. Oh well, more for me (I managed to eat a half-dozen with my wine for the best breakfast ever).

After leaving the boat, we continued on to a local winery, Vina Vukas, where we tasted a number of wines including what is believed to be the first champagne-style sparkling wine made in Croatia (technically, it is too hot in Croatia to make that style of wine, but the winemaker we met did it by growing the grapes in shaded areas). We were very impressed, and even bought a bottle to bring home with us.

(Our tour guide on the left, wine maker on the right). We enjoyed all four wines we tasted (a white and two reds in addition to the sparkling), and learned a lot about Plavac Mali, the most important red wine grape in Croatia, which is closely related to Zinfindel and Primativo from Italy.

The final stop on our tour was the small town of Ston, which is home to the longest defensive wall in the world other than the Great Wall of China:

So, why did Ston need this amazing defensive wall? Believe it or not, because of salt. Ston is home to the oldest salt pans in Europe, which are still in use today. In the year 1333, Ston became part of the independent Dubrovnik Republic, and its salt began to provide 1/3 of the income of the Republic (at the time, 1 kg of salt was worth 1 kg of silver, about $650 US today). So, in the 14th and 15th centuries, the Dubrovnik Republic built (and garrisoned) these walls to protect the salt of Ston.

After a short time in Ston (it really is just a tiny town), during which we devoured some really good pastries, we returned to Dubrovnik.

Overall, it was a really good tour, with spectacular oysters, great views and good wine. I couldn't ask for more.

Hasta pronto,

Jeff and Shana