A vegan and vegetarian guide to Istria

I've been planning to write this practical guide for some time now. The tourist season is now on so this could be useful for vegetarians and vegans travelling to Istria.

I've been vegan for the past 10 years and was a vegetarian for over 20 years before that. I've lived and travelled in many different countries so my experience living here for the past five years has been that it's not easy being a veggie! Istrian cuisine is dominated by animal products and for most people a meal is not a meal if it doesn't include meat. Also, many people are mostly clueless when it comes to eating plant-based and don't really understand how someone could live on vegetables and plants alone.

I don't know any vegans here and the few people I know who call themselves vegetarian eat fish. Actually many people think fish is vegetarian (from the Catholic tradition of substituting meat with fish on Fridays) so be prepared to explain what you don't and do eat. Indian vegetarians will also have to explain they don't eat anything prepared with eggs. 

Though plant-based cuisine is still a new concept here, people are pretty open and will try their best to accommodate you. Sometimes waiters are a bit clueless when asked for suggestions so sometimes it's better to ask them to check with the chef. At restaurants located in tourist spots this should be easier because they'll have more experience catering to plant-based diners.

LOCAL PLANT-BASED DISHES TO LOOK OUT FOR

There are a few plant-based dishes that you can inevitably find on the menu of almost every restaurant in Istria. Look out for the following:

Pasta dishes like fuži, njoki, pljukanci (note that fresh pasta is almost always made with eggs)
Risotto (rižoto) with mushrooms (gljive) or asparagus (šparoge) (when in season)
Roasted vegetables (povrće na žaru)
Swiss chard (blitva) served plain or prepared in a puree with potatoes
Pizza (vegans can request no cheese - bez sira)
Salads

EATING PLANT-BASED AT HOTELS

If you're staying in a hotel that's part of one of the large chains like Valamar or Maistra you're in luck because they cater to 'alternative diets' including plant-based and gluten-free, and will have several options on offer as well as staples like dairy-free milk. Smaller hotels will also be happy to cater to you if you let them know your requirements in advance.

VEGETARIAN AND VEGAN RESTAURANTS IN ISTRIA

This list is very short!

Artha is a vegetarian restaurant in Poreč run by Klaudija, who's super friendly and speaks English, Italian, German, and of course Croatian. The menu here is about 95% vegan according to Klaudija, and there are many gluten-free options too. I was surprised to see vegan pancakes on the menu, and there are plant-based milk options for your coffee. They have many good reviews on Tripadvisor, take a look...

Shanti Raw Bite in Pula serves 100% raw food so this is the only vegan place in town and in the whole of Istria. The menu changes every day and offers lots of raw and delicious goodies like gazpacho, pizza, lasagna, sushi, burgers, spring rolls, and quesadillas. Of course there are desserts too, like fruit tarts, chocolate and coconut cake and sorbets. UPDATE: SHANTI SHUT ITS DOORS IN 2019!

VEG-FRIENDLY RESTAURANTS

These restaurants are not vegetarian but are notable for their vegan and vegetarian offerings:

Velo Kafe in Labin stands out for its menu with dishes clearly marked as vegan and/or gluten-free.

La Grisa is a small hotel in charming Bale with a pleasant courtyard restaurant. The food served here is exceptional and the chef is happy to suggest off-the-menu vegan and vegetarian options. I've had very good experiences here.

Fresh Sandwich and Salad Bar in Pula serves up soups, salads and sandwiches, including falafel!

Hotel Amfiteatar in Pula has a restaurant that's a good option if you're looking for something more upscale. Celebrity chef Deniz Zembo has the run of the kitchen here and has created what's Croatia's most innovative vegetarian and vegan tasting menus. These tasting menus are quite the culinary experience and can be paired with local wines and olive oils (see my pics below!). Call in advance to reserve and specify which menu you're interested in.

CAFES

Finding cafes serving plant-based milks is a challenge. The only one I know of at the moment is Barbiere in Pazin where you can get lattes and capuccinos with soya or almond milk.

VEG-FRIENDLY SHOPS

Most supermarkets carry plant-based milk, including Lidl. But finding other ingredients like tofu or non-dairy yogurt in the usual supermarket chains is a challenge. That said, Lidl now stocks tofu, you can find hummus at Plodine and I've seen vegan ice cream at Konzum. 

Super Konzum has more options, but Spar is a vegan 'junk food' paradise where you can find stuff like vegan mayo, cheese, salami, and ice cream.

bio&bio is a chain of health food stores that stock a great selection of veg foods too. Their only shop in Istria is in Pula.

Zelena is a great little family-run vegan shop in Pula. Try their vegan camembert! UPDATE: ZELENA HAS CLOSED! THIS IS SAD NEWS.

You can also find some vegan and vegetarian products in the health food sections of drugstore chains like Bipa, DM and Mueller.

If you know of any other cafes, restaurants and shops that should be on this list, please share the details in the comments below and I'll update this guide!

Photo exhibition: Spirit of India

Readers of this blog will know that I usually go to India at this time of year... but this winter I'm bringing a little bit of the colours and spirit of India to Istria instead! I'm having an exhibition of some of my photographs of India at LG Galerija in Pazin. Do join me at the opening on Friday 23 February at 7pm. Or stop by and say hello during the exhibition!

Animal friends

Squeaky incognito on the bookshelf

It's been a while since I posted about Squeaky, the South Indian cat and our other animal friends in the village. Squeaky is doing great, but unfortunately we and other friends and neighbours lost quite a few animal friends this year...

This spring our friend M was heartbroken when she lost her cat Luna, a few months after her kitten MiMoon succumbed to organ failure. She suspects she was attacked by another animal: a stray dog or erring fox? It's hard to know. Around the same time, our friends A and V lost both their doggie friends Biba and Miki, possibly to poisoning. And not long after that, their cat MjuMju went missing one night and was found the next morning in the woods nearby. Unfortunately in a rural area like this one there are a lot of potential hazards out there.

Rest in peace Točka 

In August we lost our sweet little Točka. Točka's love for food ensured that she would never stay away from home for very long so when she didn't show up one morning we knew something was very wrong. After a thorough search of all her favourite hang-outs, we found her where we least expected: by the side of the main road. Of course we didn't imagine she ventured that far.

All of these animals are sorely missed!

In more positive news, M has a new kitty called Nube, and A and V have adopted a cat called Mitzy. We were all holding our breath when Nube disappeared for a few days in October, but M was sure she would show up. And sure enough, she did... about a week later. Had she wandered off somewhere? Or was she locked in a garage or barn during that time? Only Nube knows but the fact she did indeed come home was great news.

Ive snoozing in his favourite corner

I can't believe I haven't written here about Ive, who's probably the village's best known cat. If you've visited the tavern Konoba Marino, then you've definitely met Ive. He likes to nap on one of the window sills of the Salamon Palace just opposite or you'll find him wandering around the square or near the main church. Ive has become such a feature in the village that he was even featured in the local paper!

As for Squeaky, it's obvious she's enjoying being the only cat in the house again. Though she seemed to put up with Točka's antics and tolerated her presence, it's now clear that she didn't like the new co-habitation arrangement at all. Now that she's the one and only, she's gone back to being cuddly and affectionate and no longer fixes us with those cat looks that could kill.

These days she spends most of her time in front of the fireplace keeping warm (she is from South India after all), spying on our neighbours from the bedroom window, sitting in sunny spots, and making occasional forays into the village to check on things.

To see what she's up to day-to-day, check out her Instagram account!

Me, see from a certain perspective with some projected shadows and all the stuff needed to make an impression. #cat #catsofinstagram #cats #gato #katzen #gatto #meow #catstagram #pets #petstagram #instacat #paws #catoftheday #feline #petsofinstagram

A post shared by The Daily Squeak (@thedailysqueak) on Nov 22, 2017 at 5:49am PST

You know you grew up in an Istrian family when...

Have you come across those jokes and memes about growing up in a certain culture abroad that are light-hearted pokes at what it's like to grow up in, for example, an Italian or Indian immigrant family? I've even come across You Know You're Croatian When...

Well, I've come up with my own version of:

You know you grew up in an Istrian family (abroad) when...

1. You had to address your parents' friends as barba or teta.
2. 90% of your parents' friends were Istrian or Italian.
3. You couldn't understand the few Croatian friends your parents did have.
4. You didn't go to the Croatian church.
5. You didn't go to "Croatian school" on Saturday mornings either.
6. Your parents would watch Italian TV.
7. You had radić and blitva growing in the backyard.
8. And pršut hanging in the cellar.
9. Your parents would make wine and rakija in the basement.
10. Rakija was used as medicine.
11. You got in trouble for walking barefoot.
12. You went to Catholic school.
13. You had a souvenir of the Pula Arena somewhere in the house.
14. And old copies of Istarska Danica.
15. And Jugoton cassettes of Lidija Percan. 

What did I forget?

Istria's new olive oil museum

One thing I love about Istria is its olive trees and exceptional olive oil. 

Istria is the northern-most olive-growing region in the Mediterranean and olive oil has been produced here since Roman times. In the past two decades, the local olive oil industry has experienced a resurgence of sorts and Istrian olive oil has been put on the map thanks to its many excellent local producers. Many of these have won international awards for their high quality olive oil and for the past two years Istria has been named 'Best Olive Oil Region' by the Flos Olei olive oil guide.

A new museum that opened this summer in Pula is a fitting tribute to Istria's status as an increasingly important olive oil region. The Museum Olei Histriae (Museum of Istrian Olive Oil) is located on a pedestrian street in the city centre, within easy walking distance of the arena, the 1st century Roman amphitheatre. 

The museum includes a exhibition space that covers the 2000-year history of olive oil making in Istria (in four languages!) providing not only historical facts but also information about the scientific composition of olive oil and its health benefits. 

Audio-visual aspects make the experience participatory: wooden cupboards are opened to reveal interesting facts about olive oil, a short film introduces Istria as an olive-growing region, and a small room has been set up to look like a local 19th-century oil mill. There's also a kid's corner and – best of all – a tasting room where a professional olive oil sensory expert leads visitors through a guided tasting. At the entrance to the museum is a shop showcasing over 20 local olive oils available for purchase.

I recently visited the museum and wrote a short article for Olive Oil Times. You can read all about the museum at this link.

For more information about the museum and its opening hours, visit the website. 

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Where everyone knows your name

I've always lived in big anonymous cities. Life here in the village is different. 

Here, everyone knows your name.

My father is from here so I'm known as A's daughter. (My father's name is actually M but everyone calls him A – because everyone seems to have two names here: an 'official' and 'unofficial' name – this probably needs to be the subject of a future post!) My husband is known as A's zet (son-in-law).

The village has only a few hundred inhabitants and is made up of a few extended families who have lived here for generations so it's not surprising that everyone knows each other. No anonymity here!

But sometimes I'm surprised that even in Pazin – a town eight kilometres away with a few thousand inhabitants – it's hard to be anonymous.

I was reminded of this recently when my husband and I visited a government office there. He needed a document, so he filled in a form with his personal details. The clerk then told us when we could come and pick up the document. She was friendly and chatty and casually mentioned that she grew up close to the village. “You know that road that leads to your uncle's house?” she asked, wanting to point out to me exactly which house she grew up in. A flicker of confusion must have crossed my face because she paused and asked: “So-and-so is your uncle, isn't he?” I nodded, but I was trying to figure out how she knew who I was. I hadn't even given her my name!

So even people in Pazin know who we are... even if we don't know them. There have been many other incidents like this:

Sometimes when we meet people and tell them where we live they answer: “Yes, I know.”

Then there was the time the cashier at the supermarket asked my husband how his brick oven project was going.

And when someone drove into the back of our car at a stop sign and later the same day, my aunt called to ask how bad the damage was.

But the creepiest experience was at a hardware store in Pazin: a man who was intently studying me said to me: “Your mother's name is so-and-so and she's from this-place.”

It's not that my family is famous or anything. That's just how things are here. 

Like it or not, everyone knows your name!

Where am I?

This blog has been quiet... that's because I've had a change of window and am travelling in India again this winter. I hope to get to publishing the posts I have in the pipeline soon... but in the meantime you can have a peek at my Instagram page to see what I'm up to!

Čabeceda

Image courtesy of Čabeceda

While I was working on the last letters of my Istria abecedary, I came across Čabeceda on Facebook. This is a collection of super cute illustrations depicting images that describe a word in the Istrian dialect for every letter of the Croatian alphabet. 

Not only are the illustrations delightful, but the name of the collection is very clever. Ča is the word for 'what' in the Chakavian (Čakavski) dialect spoken in Istria, after which the dialect is named. Abeceda is the Croatian word for abecedary. And beceda sounds very similar to beseda, which means 'word' in the dialect.

Having completed my attempt at an A to Ž of Istria, I knew that it was a challenge to come up with ideas for some letters which are less used in the Istrian dialect like Đ, DŽ, and Lj. But the artist had the added challenge of coming up with words that could be easily illustrated. 

The artist of this labour of love is Tina Radosavljević from Šišan near Pula. She's a recent graduate of the Academy of Applied Arts at the University of Rijeka who came up with this idea for her final Masters thesis. 

She obviously put a lot of thought into her project: the colour palette she uses is inspired by the colours of Istrian traditional costumes, and the figures depicted in her drawings are even wearing Istrian folk costumes. She has also included the translation of each word in Croatian, English and Italian.

I met Tina when I went to a Christmas art bazaar in Rijeka recently. She was there displaying a book and poster of her Čabeceda drawings, as well as other fun products like a memory game created from the collection, and illustrated mugs, t-shirts and cloth bags with cute Istrian sayings. You can see these things here.

Čabeceda is not only Tina's final art school project (I hope she got top marks!) but also a fun way to preserve the Istrian dialect. Do check out the Čabeceda Facebook page or Instagram page to see the whole collection.

By the way, I have also created an Istria A to Ž page on this blog with a round-up of my now completed Istria abecedary! You can see it just under the header image above.

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The pomalo way of life

Come to Istria, and you're bound to hear the word 'pomalo' sooner or later. Pomalo literally means 'slowly' but it seems to mean a lot more. 

It's a standard reply to many questions here. Ask someone how they are. The answer will be pomalo. How's work going? Pomalo. How's your mother? Pomalo. What's for dinner? Pomalo. Would you like a coffee? Pomalo.

Pomalo is practically a way of life. Italy has la dolce vita. We have pomalo. 

Indeed life has its own rhythm here, and you can only give in to it. Things can take time. Locals often ask me how I can put up with things here. Tedious things like the administration, paperwork, waiting for repairmen, expecting a letter (the post is so slow!)... All of these things go very pomalo. 

But what locals don't understand is what I went through while living in India for 6.5 years. Those long years taught me patience. I learned there's no point getting upset about things you can't control. You just have to give in and things just somehow work out in the end. So the small daily challenges here are nothing compared to daily power cuts, water problems, impossible traffic... I learned how to 'adjust' in India and it was a valuable life skill. So I can deal with all these pomalo issues.

An example of a current pomalo issue is our electric oven. Months ago, the thermostat stopped working, so the oven overheats and then turns off. We bought it at Ikea in Trieste along with the rest of our kitchen two years ago. Ikea Italy was quick to reply to our email inquiry with the helpful information that the warranty is valid across the EU and that we can contact Ikea in Zagreb to get it repaired. In true pomalo fashion, it took a few calls to Ikea in Zagreb until they finally got back to us with the phone number for the Whirlpool service centre. 

I've lost count how many calls we made to Whirlpool, but after four months and still no phone call from them as promised with details of the nearest certified Whirlpool serviceman, I called them again and used a tactic I had learned in India... No use getting angry, just tell them how difficult your life is without a functioning oven and make it sound much, much worse that it really is. 

We haven't been able to use our oven in months! It's been broken since before Christmas! There were no Christmas cakes or cookies for us! It's a really dire situation after all these months and still no call from your service centre. We've been living on only boiled vegetables all this time! How much longer do you think it will take??

The man at the Whirlpool service centre promised to get back to me that very day. I hung up with low expectations – but lo and behold, the sob story tactic seemed to have worked! He actually called back an hour later with the name and number of a qualified Whirlpool serviceman in Pazin, just a few kilometres away, and the news that he would come check out our oven on Monday. 

The repairman really did show up on Monday (after a call from me to make sure he was coming). He chatted away while poking the thermostat dial with his multimeter. He asked me how I enjoyed living in Istria, and told me that life is different here, that everything goes pomalo. I told him that I knew all about pomalo... that I had been waiting for months to hear back from Whirlpool so we could get the oven repaired. “You should have called me first,” he proffered, “I would have come immediately.” He then announced that the thermostat was kaput, and that it would take seven to ten days to get a new one from Germany. 

This was promising news. What's seven to ten days after waiting four months? Surely if the thermostat is coming from Germany, it'll be here in no time at all? 

It's now been seven weeks since Mr Whirlpool came by. In the meantime I've called him twice. No new thermostat from Germany. He promised to look into it and get back to me. He's getting another call from me next week...

My neighbour joked that they're just waiting for our warranty to run out! There are three years left...  I'll surely have a functioning oven again soon?

In the meantime, I will adjust.

Home sweet home

By the way... yes, I am back home in Istria after spending most of the winter in India, and I will be sharing the local sights and sounds of Istria again, and giving readers a break from the Istria abecedary! From now on, the abecedary posts will continue but will be interrupted with updates about life in Istria.

Also, this month my article on seaside Istria was published in the in-flight magazine of Aer Lingus. The Irish national airline offers flights from Dublin to Pula during the spring and summer tourist season. You can read the article here.

How to send a package in Croatia

The Croatian Post is one option but not your best bet!

If you want to send a package in Croatia, you can go to the post office of course, but this is not the only option -- there are others. You can also head to your local kiosk... or to the bus station!

Unfortunately my experience of the Croatian postal service has not been very positive and it is not the most reliable or fastest way to send anything. So luckily, there are these other options.

A typical kiosk

First I'll tell you about the kiosk. Sending packages from a kiosk is a new service recently launched by Tisak Media. In case you're wondering what a kiosk is, these are the little enclosed stalls you see in Croatian towns and cities selling primarily newspapers and magazines, but also cigarettes, chocolates, chewing gum, fiscal stamps, and tram tickets, among other useful things. Thanks to the new Tisak Paket service, it costs only 10 HRK (1.30EUR / 2CAD / 95INR / 1.44USD) to send documents, and 15 HRK (1.95EUR / 3CAD / 142INR / 2.15USD) to send packages from and to any kiosk in Croatia. They also have an international service for packages sent to a foreign address. Their website even has a 'kiosk locator' where you can find out which of the over 1000 Tisak Media kiosks across Croatia is located closest to the person you want to send a package to. They claim to offer same day service within Zagreb (if you drop off your package before 12pm), and three to six days for other cities in Croatia. This option is quite cost effective for packages, costing less than the post office. Three to six days seems a bit long for national delivery, but compared to the time it takes Hrvatska Pošta to deliver mail, it is not bad at all.

Just ask the bus driver!

The other way to send a package is via the bus driver. This is definitely the fastest and most cost effective way to get a package to a friend or family member. I was reminded of this Croatian 'tradition' recently when I took the bus from Pazin to Zagreb. A lady got on with a package – something wrapped in a plastic bag. She asked the driver if he could hand it over to her niece who would be waiting at the bus station in Rijeka, where we would be stopping on our way. She also passed him some money, saying “This is for your marenda.” He took the package but refused the money, answering that he doesn't take payment from neighbours. One hour later, the package was handed over at Rijeka bus station. That's what you can call express delivery! Cost: free.

I remember seeing many similar transactions on bus trips when I used to visit as a child and we would travel all over Istria by bus visiting family. I also remember overhearing aunts saying that they would “send it with the bus driver”. At that time, there used to be many more buses travelling between cities and towns across Istria and beyond, and people used to use this cheap and very reliable way of sending things to family and friends in other cities. Drivers would also make a little bit of extra money this way, accepting 'tips' for the 'express delivery' service they were providing. It's nice to see that this tradition continues!

So, if like me, you're frustrated with the Croatian postal service, know that there are other, more reliable – and cheaper! – options.

While living in India I observed how long-distance bus drivers in India also make extra cash – much more than just tips – by transporting 'unofficial' shipments on bus routes. ...Like the time when I was travelling on a bus from Bangalore to Pondicherry and we made an unscheduled stop on the way. You can read about it here.

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My window on Instagram

Maybe you noticed the link to my Instagram page in the right-hand sidebar…

I was resisting joining Instagram at first because it meant spending time on yet another social media network in addition to Facebook and Twitter.

At first I joined so that I could follow photographers I like. Then I started following other blogs I enjoy. Then I decided that I may as well start using it more actively.

So when I see something that strikes me and I whip out my smartphone to capture it, I now often share it on Instagram. So if you would like an almost daily peek of life through my window in Istria, follow me on Instagram.

I don’t have a top-end smartphone (it’s more bottom-end) so the quality of the photographs is not great and nothing like what my DSLR produces. But some of the colours and spirit of the places I shoot are captured.

The images I share on Instagram are mostly of the lovely Istrian houses I come across, the nature, flowers and landscapes I see during my walks, the South Indian cat of course, and there’s also a huge fish head I came across in the woods.

Curious? Check out my new Instagram page!

70 years ago today

My grandfather is on the right

Dachau concentration camp was liberated 70 years ago today on April 29, 1945. Many Istrians were detained in Dachau towards the end of World War II, including my grandfather. Many also died there; my grandfather luckily made it home.

I remember my grandmother telling me the story of how she had gone looking for my grandfather when he didn’t return home. It was the winter of 1944 and she was pregnant with my father, her second child. My grandfather had gone to the coalmine in Raša with a neighbour. On the way there, they were rounded up by German soldiers and taken away. My grandmother set out on foot with the wife of the neighbour to Raša to find out what happened to them. The women were told that their husbands had been taken to Pula. They travelled south to Pula where they got the information that the men were sent to Trieste. They went all the way to Trieste next but the trail ended there.

What they didn’t know is that in Trieste the men were put on a train to Dachau. For almost two years my grandmother had no clue where my grandfather was and if he was dead or alive. It was only four months after the end of the war that he finally made it home. I remember her telling me that story too. She had mistaken him for his brother – he weighed only 36 kg (80 lbs) when the war ended. “What are you doing here?!” she had asked him, not recognizing him and mistaking him for his brother. My father was over a year old by then and was seeing his father for the first time.

I found my grandfather’s name on the Dachau Concentration Camp Records which are available online. Our family name is written the Italian way, because Istria was part of Italy during that time, and all Croatian names had been ‘Italianized’. His record says he arrived in Dachau by train on January 16, 1944. I also found the name of his neighbour who made the journey with him but unfortunately he would not return home because his record says that he died on March 21, 1945, only weeks before the camp was liberated. By typing in Gallignana (the Italian name of our village), I found the names of many other people from here. Some made it home, many did not.

Dachau was not a death camp like other concentration camps set up by the Nazis, but many people died there because of the harsh conditions and diseases like typhoid. Prisoners like my grandfather were used for forced labour. While he was there, he worked on a lathe making pieces for airplane engines.

World War II was a dark, terrible time which left deep scars for the people of my grandparents’ generation. There are many, many terrible stories and many lives were lost. My grandfather made it home from Dachau, but many did not. I remember them today.

The village features in a TV series

About six months ago during the foggy days of winter, there was a film crew crawling all over the village. Their big trucks were parked here and there, a camera was set up on rails on the square, and there were lots of people milling around (much more than usual in this sleepy village!). We also saw a uniformed police officer wandering around in a very casual way and found out he was not on duty but part of the filming!

A neighbour told me that a crime TV series called Počivali u miru (Rest in peace) was being filmed here in the village.

The second season of this Croatian TV series takes place here in Istria, the first time a TV series is shot here. You can watch the trailer above!

The village appears from 0:05: we see the village square, the church bell tower, the churchyard and the graveyard. (I’m not sure which village is visible in the opening shot on a hilltop – anyone know?)

I haven't watched the series, but I read that locals are unimpressed with the acting because the actors (who are not locals) have made a less than convincing attempt to speak the Istrian dialect with a local accent. The director even apologized to the people of Istria for the actors' 'exaggerated accents', admitting that it's difficult to imitate for someone who is not from here.

But the film crew managed to make the village look very sinister with the foggy atmosphere and winter landscapes, fitting for a crime series!

I'm in India!

Look what I found for sale on a sidewalk in India!

The window I’m looking through today is in India and not in Istria.

As you know, before moving to Istria I spent close to seven years living in India. I needed to go back... and am spending the winter there to attend a few dance festivals, work on my projects, and catch up with friends.

During this time, I’ll be updating my India blog so do follow my adventures by heading over to India Outside My Window.

But do come back to this window again in April, when I’ll be back in Istria.

I also take this opportunity to wish you, dear readers, a Happy New Year!

The Istrian language: is it dying out?

One of the things which is unique about Istria is its language. The Istrian language is a dialect of Croatian and is quite different from standard Croatian. The language reflects Istria’s rich history with many words borrowed from Italian, and a few smatterings of German.

The Croatian language has three main dialects which are divided into many sub-dialects. The three main dialects are named after the way the word ‘what’ is pronounced in that dialect: čakavski, štokavski, and kajkavski. In Istria, the čakavski dialect is spoken, while štokavski is ‘standard’ Croatian.

There are several variations of the Istrian dialect and the accent and vocabulary can change from one village or town to the next. Like most dialects, this is not a formal written language, though some local writers and poets do write in the Istrian language for stylistic (and cultural) reasons.

While growing up in Canada, we would speak the Istrian dialect at home and this is the language I spoke with my grandparents and other family members when I would come to Istria for visits. This is why I struggle with standard Croatian and tend to understand old people best!

While older people tend to speak Istrian, I’ve noticed that today young Istrians are more likely to speak standard Croatian in everyday situations, though some make a point of speaking the dialect. There are several reasons for this; one may be increased literacy. My grandparents were not educated in Croatian but Italian, since Istria was part of Italy in their school-going days. The Istrian language was what was spoken at home. In my grandparents’ time, and even in my parents’ time, not everyone was able to go to school or complete their schooling. For this reason, they may have been less exposed to ‘Serbo-Croatian’, as the language was called during Yugoslavia. Fast forward two generations and today everyone is educated at least to the secondary level, with most students moving on to higher studies. Since all schooling is in standard Croatian, young people have a high proficiency in the language.

A poet from the village who writes in the Istrian language told me that another reason why the dialect is being spoken less today is because people do not marry within the same region anymore. While transportation links were poor in the past, making travel a challenge, today people can move around more easily. They go away to study in other parts of Croatia and often marry non-Istrians.

Since being fluent in standard Croatian indicated a certain level of education (at one time), Istrian is seen by some as a ‘peasant’ language, or a language spoken only by old people, hence a certain ‘inferiority’ complex on the part of Istrian speakers and a ‘superiority’ complex on the part of standard Croatian speakers (especially from outside Istria). As high literacy and education levels have now created a level playing field, I think (hope) that young people today speak Istrian because they want to speak their language, and by speaking it, they preserve it and a part of their identity and heritage.

I was curious to know what they think so I asked a few young people (in their 20s and 30s) from different regions of Istria a few questions and am including their answers below. Their answers are often contradictory and reflect the region of Istria they come from.

Thoughts about stuff

Left: the box containing our stuff being loaded in Bangalore. Right: our stuff arriving in Gracisce.

Having experienced three international moves in the space of seven years, I have a few thoughts about stuff. You know, the stuff you tend to drag around from one home to the next. The stuff you keep in boxes in the basement or an attic, which simply takes up space. The stuff you either have to face by sorting through it and deciding what is indispensable and what isn’t, or the stuff whose real or imagined utility you don’t question at all and instead just move it to another basement or attic where it sits until the next move.

I’ve learned that you don’t need most of this stuff but you end up paying to pack it, move it, store it, and sometimes even to dispose of it.

I’ve learned that life is simpler without stuff.

I’ve learned that it’s very liberating to get rid of stuff. When I wrote about my experience packing up my previous life in India I mentioned the feeling of liberation and how after purging years of accumulated stuff, I felt lighter.

The reason why I’ve been thinking about stuff is because over the past few months I’ve been sorting through all our possessions, unpacking the boxes we shipped from India, and those we had left in storage for the past 8 years.

Of course emotions are invariably linked to stuff too. I felt a burst of nostalgia when I opened up the boxes packed with my Indian clothes, the smell of India still there. Unpacking the moving boxes I had packed up in London eight years ago (which we had stored in Brussels and transported to Istria recently) felt very strange… like I was handling artifacts from another time. And I was delighted to be reunited with my books and enjoyed the ritual of lining them up on new bookshelves.

I’m happy to finally have the unpacking, sorting and purging behind me and am glad to now have all our stuff in its place, in one place.

Now that the unpacking is done and the house renovations are over, I finally feel like I have a home again.

It’s marenda time

When I have errands to run, I’ve learned not to expect to get anything done between 10:00 and 10:30am.

10 o’clock is ‘marenda’ time you see, a sacrosanct time of the day when workers across Istria are taking their morning break. Since most offices and workplaces start their workday at 7am, 10am is usually break time.

So now I know not to bother going to any administrative office, the electricity board, or even to the shoemaker between 10 and 10:30am because I’ll just be wasting my time waiting for them to come back from their Marenda break. Sometimes Marenda can even stretch to 11am, so 10-11am is a ‘no-go’ time!

Marenda comes from the Italian word merenda and this habit or custom must be a legacy of Italian times. While in Istria marenda is a snack or light meal eaten between breakfast and lunch, in Italy merenda is usually an afternoon snack.

Many local restaurants in Istria have a special marenda menu at a set price meant for workers who’d like to have a cheap and filling meal. In restaurants in the nearby town of Pazin (there are only two!), marenda is super cheap at 28 Kuna (3.65 Euro). For this price a hot meal of a main dish is served with two side dishes and often a small salad. The special marenda menu usually has three or four main dishes to choose from.

Since marenda is a light meal eaten between breakfast and lunch, this means there are four mealtimes in Istria. Breakfast is a very light meal (or some skip it entirely) followed by marenda, while lunch is the main meal of the day, and dinner is again usually something light.

Four mealtimes – why not? Any excuse to eat is a good one in Istria!

5 foods from my childhood I’m rediscovering

Blitva (Swiss Chard) growing in my neighbour's garden

Since I’ve been living in Istria, I’ve been rediscovering some of the foods I knew as a child. Here are a few:

1. Blitva (Swiss chard). This leafy green vegetable is a staple in Croatian cuisine. Everyone grows it in their vegetable gardens and you can find it on all restaurant menus as a side dish. It’s served just plain, drizzled with a bit of olive oil, or mashed together with potatoes. This was a dish my mother would make very often and it’s a comfort food for me. I hadn’t eaten blitva for years but now I get huge bunches of fresh blitva from my neighbours. Nothing like yummy, home-grown, naturally organic blitva. Blitva I missed you!

2. Gris (Cream of Wheat). A bowl of hot cream of wheat cereal brings back memories of cold winter mornings in Canada when I would have this for breakfast. At home we would use the Croatian word for it, gris (pronounced like ‘grease’), so that’s what we called it. This is another winter morning comfort food I hadn’t eaten in years before moving to Istria. My Indian friends will know this as rava.

3. Vegeta. Vegeta is Croatia’s ‘garam masala’. Every Croatian recipe calls for a dash of Vegeta, a powdered mix of dried spices and vegetables. At home in Toronto we had a steady supply which my mother would pick up at a European-style deli. Here, Vegeta takes up much aisle space at the supermarket because it now comes in many different flavours. There’s even a non-MSG version. But in the olden days there was just one type of Vegeta.

4. Napolitanke. Produced by the Croatian confectionary company Kraš, this is a type of wafer biscuit made with chocolate and hazelnuts. The European deli in Toronto also sold Napolitanke and when I was living in London I would find them at a local Turkish shop. We would always get the hazelnut ones, but today they’re available in other flavours: chocolate, nougat, lemon, chocolate-covered, mocha, rum. Oh and guess what? They’re vegan!

5. Ki-Ki. Ki-Ki is a type of soft candy I knew from the summers I spent here as a child. When I see packages of Ki-Ki at stores here it brings back memories of my grandfather who would always bring his grandchildren a bag of Ki-Ki when he would go ‘to town’. Today Ki-Ki comes in a whole bunch of different flavours but I remember that back then there was only one generic flavour and kids loved them.

That’s my round-up of childhood foods I’m rediscovering here in Istria. You’ll be forgiven for thinking so, but no, this is not a sponsored post!