Merry Christmas!

This is just a small detail (but the most important!) of the elaborate Christmas nativity scene that has been set up in the main church in Gračišće. The famous manger scene will take on much bigger proportions on December 26th and January 6th, when Gračišće will be hosting a ‘live’ nativity scene, which the village’s residents are now busy getting ready for. Our neighbours will be dressing up and enacting not only Mary, Joseph and yes, baby Jesus (a role reserved for the village’s youngest resident), but also the Three Wise Men, as well as traditional trades and craftsmen. Stay tuned for a future blog post on this... 

In the meantime, I wish all my readers a very Merry Christmas!

1st day of winter

Today’s the first day of winter. Though I wasn’t looking forward to winter, the fact that today’s the 21st of December is a bit of a relief because it means that from today the days will get longer. This morning the sun came up at 7:39 and will be setting at 16:22. Before I know it, the day’s over! So I’m glad that from tomorrow onwards, we’ll get a few seconds and then minutes more of daylight each day. 

This will be my first winter in seven years so that’s why I’m not looking forward to it. Yes, I’ve lived most of my life in Canada so I know all about winter and snow, ice, hats, coats, scarves, gloves and boots. But I was thoroughly spoiled during the seven years I spent in South India. I wore sandals year round, rarely wore socks and never had to think about heating. Though I’m not really a ‘summer person’ – my favourite seasons are Autumn and Spring – I loved living in a tropical climate where it was summer every day and very quickly got used to it. 

So now that I’m back in more Northerly climes, keeping warm has become a high priority. The sandals have been stored away, I now have an impressive collection of thermal socks, and I’ve been spending a lot of time thinking about heating… 

In Canada our heating ran on electricity (which is cheap over there) and in Belgium we used natural gas to run our central heating system. Here in Istria, piped gas is not available (except in a few cities), so we use a gas cylinder for cooking (like we did in India). However, very few people use gas for heating because it’s expensive and most use wood as it’s the cheapest and most readily available energy source. 

So when considering what kind of heating system we’re going to use in our little house, we’ve had to carefully weigh all the options. Gas is out because it’s too expensive and inconvenient: we’d need to order a new cylinder at least every other week, probably more. Wood is the cheapest option but there are other considerations. It is not very convenient either because it has to be cut, stored in a dry place, carried inside, and put into the stove. Also, there’s no waking up in a warm house because it’s not possible to maintain a fire overnight and it takes some time to light and get a fire running. 

One day at the Pazin market we saw a demonstration for some fancy Italian stoves which used pellets – a type of processed wood. Pellets seem to be more energy efficient than wooden logs and these sophisticated stoves have a built-in control panel and even a timer – which means you could wake up to a warm house. But of course these clever stoves come with a hefty price tag. 

When I ask family members for advice, I always get the same answer: wood is the way to go because it’s the cheapest option. But what about other considerations? No one here seems to think about the environmental impacts of burning wood. When I ask people where they get their wood, many tell me they have some forestland where they chop down a few trees every winter to use for firewood. There is a lot of forest in Istria and if there is an environmental impact, it’s not noticeable. My father told me that when he was young, most of the land in Istria was cultivated – today it’s covered with forestland. So the forest does seem to be able to regenerate itself despite the fact that so many people are cutting down trees. I wonder if this is because supply still outweighs demand, and whether this can continue and the forest will always be able to regenerate itself. 

Then there’s the question of air quality. Walking through the towns and villages here, the smell of burning wood in the air is a novelty for me and not unpleasant. But when we drive down into Pazin, we can see the layer of smoke hovering over the town. There’s no doubt that this must affect air quality. 

So the heating debate continues…it’s a question of cost over convenience and consideration for our environment. 

Welcome, 1st day of winter! May the days get longer and take us quickly into Spring!

'Tis the season in Istria

Christmas is just around the corner. The village has been decorated with colourful lights, giving it a touch of holiday cheer. The days have been bright and sunny, crisp but not cold. There’s no chance of a white Christmas in Istria. However, it is snowing on my blog!

Today I’m sharing with you a few pictures of the festive lights…

Exploring Oprtalj

One of the things I love about Istria is its varied landscapes: its picturesque seaside towns, spectacular islands, and breath-taking expanses of undulating hills stretching out for as far as the eye can see. But it's the landscape of central Istria that I love best: the rolling hills topped with scenic old villages. I love to explore these old villages, many of which are like ghost-towns of times past… 

One of these hilltop towns where time has stopped is Oprtalj (Portole is its Italian name). 

The drive up winds through pine forests before reaching a plateau at 378 metres from where there are magnificent views of the neighbouring hilltop town of Motovun, which is better known by tourists.

Walking through Oprtalj's cobble-stoned streets and passing under its ruined stone archways, I try to imagine what life was like here in the town’s glory days... 

When were its glory days? When it was a hill fort settlement during the Roman period? Or was it in the 16^th century when this was part of the Venetian Republic? Venice has indeed left many marks: the handsome Venetian loggia at the town’s entrance and a statue of the Lion of St. Mark, along with many architectural details which hint at its Venetian past.

Through an archway, the Venetian-style 'loggia'.

Inside the loggia we find the Lion of St. Mark. This is where an antiques market takes place on the second Sunday of each month. 

There are a few cafés, restaurants and shops here and the village seems to be going through a slow revival, but most of its old houses and buildings are in a neglected state.

The last time I was here was about eight years ago... and I had imagined Orptalj would be in a more advanced state of reconstruction. But its charm is intact and this remains one of my favourite villages in Istria. Our next stop was another central Istrian gem: Završje, which will be the topic of a future post.

I leave you with this image of a boat perched on the edge of the village!

The J is pronounced Y

After a lifetime of having my surname mispronounced, misspelled and misunderstood, it is absolutely delightful – and I should also add very odd – to live in a place where my name is understood by everyone, where I don’t even have to ever spell it, and not only that, half the village (OK maybe not half but many, many people) have the same surname as me. 

The cause of this mispronunciation, misspelling and misunderstanding all has to do with the letter J. Growing up in an English-speaking country, my surname was invariably mispronounced because in Croatian (like in many other European languages) the J is pronounced like a Y. 

It could have been worse. I once had a Croatian friend in Canada who had an even harder time than me: the first four letters of her surname were all consonants! At least my family name has a few vowels thrown in for ease of pronunciation. Not that this really helped… I have heard so many distorted and convoluted variations of my surname it’s not even funny. It’s amazing how a J can completely throw people off. Actually, I would be happy if anyone managed to pronounce it right even with the erroneous J sound thrown in. But those exceptional few who pronounced the J like a Y right off the bat (and they were very few and far between) instantly got a big shiny star in my books. 

Then at some point I decided it was time to put things straight. How difficult is it to understand that the J is pronounced like a Y?? Everyone knows how to say Sarajevo and AFC Ajax… So I decided that from that point on, I would gently point out to anyone attempting to pronounce my surname that the J is pronounced Y. 

So it’s a big relief that for the first time in my life, there is no need to repeat or even spell my surname. It is immediately understood, and duly noted down correctly, not a letter out of place. 

However, I am now confronted by a new problem… this time by my first name! Isabel is not a Croatian name at all so it is often mispronounced or misspelled by Croatian speakers. Being a phonetic language, the S in Croatian is pronounced with a soft ‘sss’ sound, so my name here becomes Isssabel (which I got used to hearing in India). Written down, it is invariably spelled Izabel – which I kinda like! 

I can live with that.

Doors of Istria

A door in Pula

Readers who have followed me here from my India blog will know that I love photographing doors and doorways. I already have a small collection of photographs of doors I've taken in Istria and would like to share a few here. Open the door and step inside...

A door in Oprtalj

A door in Draguć

A door in Gračišće

A door in Livade

A gate in Oprtalj

Another door in Oprtalj

And another gate in Oprtalj

Our house – the story

Well I guess it’s time to mention the story of our house in Gračišće and the on-going renovation work, which is the reason why we’re here in Istria. 

We became the owners of this property earlier this year, after a very long process which started more than seven years ago... 

It was during one of our frequent visits to Istria to visit my grandparents and other family that we considered buying a property in Gračišće. About eights years ago, this crumbling and almost deserted village was just starting to experience the beginnings of a rebirth. With each visit, we saw the gradual changes as the old stone houses were being rebuilt and renovated and the village seemed to slowly come back to life. This is a trend happening across many of Istria’s villages but at a slow and measured pace. In most cases, these old houses are bought and completely renovated and then resold at significant mark-ups, or rented out during the tourist season. 

Inspired by the magnificent makeover of Grožnjan, another delightful Istrian hilltop village which was practically a ghost town for decades, we decided we wanted to contribute to the regeneration of Gračišće by restoring one of its old stone houses. At the same time, the decision to buy a house here was also made for sentimental reasons because of the strong family connection I have here. I can also add that we love Istria’s scenic beauty and simply enjoy spending time here so these were all good reasons to buy a house here. 

Buying a house in Istria was not a simple process! It took a lot of time, perseverance and patience.

The first step was to find a house available for sale. Walk around any village in Istria and you’ll see many abandoned houses in various stages of decay so you would think that there’s a lot available. However, the reason why many houses are in a derelict state is because they were abandoned when people emigrated to North and South America, Australia, and other countries in Europe. Many people left, never to come back. Properties automatically got handed down from one generation to the next. Families tended to be big, and as a result a house can have multiple owners on its property title who are often resident in several different countries and even continents. In some cases property registers were not updated properly and as Istria was bartered between countries – from the Austro-Hungarian Empire to Italy to Yugoslavia to Croatia – and administrative systems changed as a result – well, you can imagine the mess. 

When we first heard a house was for sale in Gračišće, it was sold before we could even make a bid. Then we heard another old stone house was available which had been abandoned for decades and didn’t even have a roof anymore but it was located on the very edge of the village with a spectacular view. This time we were outbid by a buyer who was willing to pay more than the property’s value (and today the house is still in the same crumbling state). 

Trying to find out who owns one of the village’s many dilapidated houses is detective work. My uncle helped us by asking around and checking property records. Finally we identified a house owner living in Italy who wanted to sell her family home. Before being able to sell, the first step for her was to ‘clear’ the property title which listed 18 persons as part owners! Apparently when her father had bought the house long ago, the property title was not updated. She had to hire a lawyer to investigate who the other 'part owners' were and whether they were even still alive. This process took three years! When things seemed to be resolved and the title could finally be registered in her name, the municipality claimed part ownership and the matter had to be settled in court. To cut a very long story short, it took four years for us to be able to buy this house. 

So after many years of waiting for administrative hurdles to be crossed and hoops jumped through, we now have a home in Gračišće. The next test of patience is the renovation work… this post is already long enough so this will be the topic of a future post!

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