blood – Energy and Time

Croatia day 25: Zadar

September 13th: We started by grabbing breakfast at the bakery near the bus station.

A slice of meat pie, and an apple pastry

Bakeries all over Croatia are multi-purpose. They’re breakfast places, and early morning coffee shops, as well as serving desserts and breads. (This was also true in Iceland.) One breakfast staple is a flaky deep pie with either cheese or ground meat inside.

The main task for the day was for me to find a medical clinic and get a blood test that I usually have once a month. My doctor insisted. 🙂 The first clinic I visited could not do the test, but directed me to one that could.

Me at the first clinic, waiting to be told that the test could not be done here.

On the way to the second clinic, we passed a “pyroshop” claiming to sell “pirotehnika”. My head swum with fantasies of hundreds of new ways to make fire. But sadly, it was only selling sporting goods like bicycles and scuba masks.

When we reached the second clinic, I had to show my vaccination certificates again, and wait a bit, but the doctor doing the blood draw was very professional. The charge for the test was 65 kuna (= about $10.72). That’s the full price; I was a foreigner with no applicable health insurance. Results were emailed to me in a little under 2 hours, about the same time as the Express Lab in Fort Collins takes. Makes “socialized medicine” (= “affordable health care”) start to sound reasonable.

The only minor snag was that “prothrombin time” was abbreviated PV, not PT. Because the Croatian word for “time” is “vrijeme”, naturally. So “PT/INR” became “PV/INR”.

Zadar is the oldest continuously-inhabited Croatian city, going back further than just Roman times (when it was called Jadera). The easiest way to get to the Old Town was to walk further out the harbor and cross over on a foot bridge.

Random columns dot the landscape. I just column like I see ’em.

I found the local EDM bar, but it was too early for anyone to be dancing.

Finding lunch took a long time. We could have just eaten near where we were – there were at least 2 open restaurants – but Carol was fixated on a particular street-food restaurant, so we walked a kilometer to get there. But it wasn’t open yet, and there was nothing near it, so we ended up walking almost back to where we started, through sights we had already seen. I think we need to start taking that “bird in the hand” idea a bit more seriously.

Carol had some mammal with gnocchi, and I had the seafood pasta.

Our main goal for the afternoon was the Museum Of Ancient Glass.

Bulk glass raw material, from a shipwreck near Mljet, 2nd century AD

An optical illusion mosaic “Old man and young boy”, made from glass tiles. Don’t see the young boy? Try turning it upside down.

The theme of the main exhibit was originals and imitations.

On raised stand, a glass bowl with ribs, 1st century AD. Below, 3 attempts to imitate it.

Some ancient tableware sets were all-glass, including plates, bowls, cups, vases, and jugs for wine and oil and vinegar.

Some public benches in Zadar are for sitting, but some are for lying back and resting.

For dinner, I had “mixed shells”, mostly clams and mussels but with a few razor shells. Carol went for the seafood risotto.

Around sunset, we went to listen to the Sea Organ and see the Greeting To The Sun.

Sonnets To Orpheus I, 25

Dich aber will ich nun, dich, die ich kannte
wie eine Blume, von der ich den Namen nicht weiß,
noch ein mal erinnern und ihnen zeigen, Entwandte,
schöne Gespielin des unüberwindlichen Schreis.

Tänzerin erst, die plötzlich, den Körper voll Zögern,
anhielt, als göß man ihr Jungsein in Erz;
trauernd und lauschend -. Da, von den hohen Vermögern
fiel ihr Musik in das veränderte Herz.

Nah war die Krankheit. Schon von den Schatten bemächtigt,
drängte verdunkelt das Blut, doch, wie flüchtig verdächtigt,
trieb es in seinen natürlichen Frühling hervor.

Wieder und wieder, von Dunkel und Sturz unterbrochen,
glänzte es irdisch. Bis es nach schrecklichem Pochen
trat in das trostlos offene Tor.

But you, now I'll show you to them, whom I
knew like a flower, whose name I couldn't guess;
once more remember you, stolen from us,
bright playmate of the insurmountable cry.

Dancer first, who, suddenly paused in mid-step
as if your youth were cast in bronze, was caught;
grieving and listening -. Then, from the high adepts
music fell into your altered heart.

Disease drew near, barely suspected. Your blood,
already seized by shadows, darkened, pulsed,
then burst out in its natural Spring;

disrupted by dark and collapse, would scintillate
earthly, earthly. Till after awful pounding
it stepped into the hopeless open gate.

Translation notes:

Even though the entire sonnets are dedicated to Wera, this is the only one that directly describes her.

Line 14: “das trostlos offene Tor” = “the hopeless open door”. Presumably the same door between life and death that appears in I,7 with Orpheus offering a bowl of fruit.