Finished work on Brac, on to "break time" then more work!!

My last week and a half in Croatia has been a whirlwind. Phenomenal to say the least.
Found myself in Pucisca, on the island of Brac for ten days. I wrote earlier that we were attending a stone carving school…it was the experience of a lifetime!!!
My days in a nutshell: Breakfast consisting of very strong espresso, cheeses, bread and amazing Greek yogurt. By 8 am---pounding all my frustrations out on a 1’x1’ chunk of limestone. We use every tool imaginable… my grey pants turned white, limestone was constantly in my eyes (no, not healthy). By noon---a swimming break! Run to the hotel, put a bathing suit on, run downstairs and jump in the water until lunch. After lunch---we go to a local coffee shop or church and draw, measure, draw, and draw some more. (cut up hands and swollen and bruised knuckles of course ☺ ) By afternoon---we drive in a truck up the hill to the local stone master’s home. He is probably around 70, and he almost cried when he took us up there.
Here’s his story: His parents lived up in the hills at what they call a “secondary settlement”. It was used as a safehaven during the Civil War, but also as protection during WWII because apparently the Italians would ravage and burn the islands. Stone construction was the only thing that spared his family. He hasn’t lived up in this country home since his parents passed away, but has kept the land in the family and they grow olives and make wine and olive oil.
Our job: To learn dry stone masonry from him and fix a wall so that his farm would be functional and protected again. We finished in exactly 3.5 HOURS!! ☺
Because we finished early: HE GAVE US THE TREAT OF A LIFETIME. We had a farm “cookout” at his house. His whole family came to roast a lamb, and serve us a 6 course meal that took 4 hours to finish.
Best part was the company we had!!! A Catholic Croatian priest,
After finishing his wall, we all felt quite prepared for our next few weeks on Drvenik Veli, where we will be doing field work on our own….not really anyone to look to for direction except our professor who is also learning the ropes!
A few more days in Pucisca meant field trips, more knowledge, and FINISHING MY STONE CARVING. I succeeded in making flat and textured surfaces on all four sides of my block. Then I did two profile edges…kind of hard to explain, but let’s just say this:
As a fan of ancient architecture and handcrafted materials…I have a NEWFOUND APPRECIATION for the sweat, pain and toil put into EVERY sculpted stone ANYTHING.

AFTER TEN DAYS: SCHOOL FINISHED! For the next four days, Liz and I had a “vacation”. All to ourselves, no responsibility, no sore muscles at the end of the day…
What to do with ourselves? I’ll tell you ☺
To save money: we stayed within the country. Bonus=Croatia is amazing and I don’t know why I would leave anyways.
We took a 4 hour bus ride to Dubrovnik, southern most part of Croatia. Went through Bosnia for a bit, that was interesting and the food was mmmm, to be honest, exactly the same. ☺
In Dubrovnik we stayed at this adorable guesthouse with a cute family…we walked half an hour into old city, where we definitely admired the architecture…but also were desperate to find something fun to do.
Our first day of vacation: TOOK A CRUISE. A $40 all day cruise…it was MORE than worth it. Included a gourmet grilled fish meal which most Americans would pay $50 for…and all you can drink anythings, including the best wine in Croatia. I’m not much of a wine fanatic, but I do know that when I watched the Croatians mixing the wine with water I FOUND OUT WHY. It is SOOOO RICH and dark here, you don’t drink anything straight. Wine is cheaper than water…so you never drink straight water. (Unless your Sonia!! ☺ )
The cruise was just what we needed…amazing food, stopped at 3 protected islands that were GORGEOUS…
Next day is when the fun began!
We were trying to catch a ferry to Korcula, an island where our next hostel reservation was. Everyone we talked to said there was no big ferry that went there, only small ones. We showed up early in the morning with our 30lb backpacks and waited, waited, and waited for someone to show up. Boats came and left, no ticket man came, we finally found out that the HUGE cruise liner sitting right in front of us was leaving in ten minutes…to where we needed to go. ADVENTURES! ☺
Finally on Korcula, Liz and I both instantly fell in love with the island. It’s the perfect mix of everything we have experienced so far: amazing, historical architecture, less tourists, cheap, and GORGEOUS.
Our apartment is up a TINY staircase down the street from Marco Polo’s house!! We went on a tour of Marco’s house….let me just say, that man knew how to choose a view!
This brings us to the end of my “vacation” and back to school. We have one more day here to enjoy Korcula…I already want to come back someday!
BACK TO SCHOOL/REALITY: We leave for Drvenik Veli: Population 120.
Population age and occupation: 40+, 99% of which are fisherman. (ok maybe a bit of an exaggeration…but I don’t think so!)
We will do field work (meaning, FIX THINGS), recordation of a ten home village…and try to find a focus for our cumulating project. I hope to focus on rain water entrapment and the landscape and topography…but we will see what there is to discover!!!
This trip has been amazing for discovery!!