Live Sports Abroad Part IV: Croatian Table Tennis Association Men's Superliga

Attending the previous sporting events has been relatively straightforward.  We found out where they were, how much they cost, bought tickets, and went.  So, when I picked up a brochure of local events in Dubrovnik for November at the tourist info office I was delighted to see a table tennis match listed between STK Zagreb and STK Libertas.  However, it turned out to be a bit more of an adventure.

Table tennis?  So, you're still managing to find obscure competitions, huh?

Indeed I am.  If we were actually somewhere where there was a soccer match, I'd love to go, but that's not how things have shaped up.  

OK, what does STK mean?

It stands for stolnoteniski klub in Croatian which means table tennis club in English. STK Libertas has the full name of STK Libertas Marinkolor Dubrovnik.  Libertas was the motto and an ancient symbol of the Republic of Ragusa which is now Dubrovnik. Marinkolor is an art supply company.

Cool (and random), continue.

The brochure only listed a time (10:00 AM) and a place (Dubrovnik Sports Hall) and no other information.  A subsequent internet search was not more helpful.  I figured I'd just wander over there and try to go.  Chrissy chose to sit this one out.

So what happened?

Well, when I made it to the sports hall (which is a big complex of courts and gyms about a half an hour walk from the center of town) I found the main building and what seemed like an information booth.  It was about 9:45.  I asked the man there about the table tennis match and the conversation went something like this:

Me:  Is there a table tennis match here this morning?  I was hoping to go to it.

Man: You want to play table tennis? (Makes swatting motion with hand).

Me: Yes, table tennis (confirm swatting motion), but not to play, I would just like to go to the match.

Man: No one is here yet, it's at 5:00.

Me: So, there is no match at 10:00 AM?

Man: (goes to ask someone else) It's at 11:00.  Come back then.

After thanking him I now had over an hour to kill and still wasn't really sure there was a match.  After wandering a bit, I returned around 10:30.  I went up to the same man and he pointed out the coach of the Dubrovnik team as he was walking in from the parking lot:

Man: There is the head coach if you would like to speak with him.

Wait, did he think you were a random American jockeying for a position on a Croatian table tennis team?

That's my best guess.  We weren't having the clearest interaction, but he was nice and when I asserted again I was just trying to watch the competition he brought me to a small gymnasium on the side of the building, said something in Croatian to a man at the door, and told me I could sit.  Lo and behold some people were practicing table tennis and there were about 12 empty chairs along the side of the gym.  I was the only person there aside from the players and one or two others and didn't have to pay a thing.  I was just hoping a match would start at 11:00.

Did it?

It did!  And the remaining seats filled up too (though it was still only like 12 people).

OK, then give us some sweet table tennis action.

Here you go.

Awesome, how was it?

It was really fun to watch.  These guys were really good at table tennis.  There were three players on each team and they each played a match, then there was a double's match with two from each team.

Sets were to 11 points (you have to win by two) and three sets would win a match.  A coin flip determined first serve and serve switched every two points.  I believe four wins by a team wins the competition but Zagreb beat Libertas in all four matches so I'm not 100% sure if there would have been more if Libertas had won a match.  On the Croatian Table Tennis Association website it appears to say this was a massive upset.  The best match by far was the second one.  It went the distance of five sets and included several dramatic volleys and lots of screaming and grunting after points.  It was pretty exciting.  Emotions were running high.  One player almost got in trouble after kicking the table when he lost a point.

So, Part V, curling?

I actually went to a curling match when Lowell, MA of all places was holding the world championships in I think 2008 at the Tsongas Arena.  That would be awesome but no promises.

Dubrovnik

Dubrovnik is an awesome old city on the Adriatic coast.  The view doesn't get old and we've spent a good amount of time just enjoying it from our apartment, but we also obviously ventured out to see the sights.  I'll try to run through the highlights.  We took a ton of photos.  As I mentioned before a lot of Game of Thrones was filmed here and it's not hard to see why.  You can't walk around without humming the theme song.

There are so many cats here.  You can't walk around without encountering some.  This one lives across from our apartment and was very friendly.

Another thing that is unavoidable in Dubrovnik is steps.  There are steps everywhere. Depending on which way you go, it's about 400-500 steps to where we are staying from old town.  Makes for a good work out.

You can walk around the top of the old city walls.  It's fun and provides some great views.  This is the old town from the walls.

Wall selfie!

A view along the wall.  The tower there is the highest point of the walls and where Daenerys was wandering around looking for the House of the Undying.

Another view along the walls.

Here's us on the walls with Fort Lovrijenac in the background on the left.  In King's Landing that's also Blackwater Bay behind us.

Here's a view of the walls from inside Fort Lovrijenac from the last picture.

A sweet view of the fort and Blackwater Bay from the other side.

Part of Gradac which is a park where the Purple Wedding reception was filmed.  I don't think we found the exact place but it was fun to walk around.

We finished up the day with a game of cribbage outside Lovrijenac.

Eviscerated without edible offal

Happy Thanksgiving!  None too surprising, we are missing traditional Thanksgiving, friends, and family, but are incredibly thankful for this life we get to make the most of . Since we didn't get to feast with you, we made an attempt at our own version of Thanksgiving abroad. Turkeys are difficult to find here, and really, Jim and I weren't about to take down a 20 pounder, so we settled on chicken as the next best thing. It weighed a kilo, and really, I was just hoping it came gut free.

After a purchase and some Google translate, we were hoping "eviscerated without edible offal" meant giblets free, and behold it did!

Additionally, it has been my experience that for the best flavor, fowl is best danced before roasted.

And since we're here in Croatia, I figured it couldn't hurt to wrap it in Dalmatian prosciutto.

Then roast at 190 degrees celcisus, after some quick Google research on the oven symbols, over leeks, onions, sweet potatoes, and carrots. Garnish with garlic and fresh lemon picked off the tree outside our apartment and make the most of salt and pepper as they are the only spices available.

Eat on the balcony porch outside overlooking the 12th century city walls of Durbovnik, while drinking delicious wine.

It's not exactly Thanksgiving in New England, but we're thankful nonetheless.

Good morning Dubrovnik! and Happy Monday!

Here's a quick panoramic of the view from our apartment this morning. Old town Dubrovnik on the right, the island of Lokrum on the left.

Also, Happy Monday!

Croatia So Far

We've been in Croatia for about a week now, and have been taking it relatively easy compared to some of the places we've visited.  In both Zagreb and Split, though they are the two biggest cities in Croatia, the main sights are all right next to each other in the center of town then they sprawl out into residential areas.   We wandered both cities a bit during the day and then would relax back at our apartment at night. It's been nice to not be running around like crazy people, but also there hasn't been as much here that has peaked our interest as other places.  It seems like just about everyone in Croatia has an apartment to rent to you and they are always a better value than other types of accommodation (especially in low season).  So we've stayed in some nice places and Croatia shows a lot of TV in English with Croatian subtitles which is a nice way to relax when you haven't watched much over the last couple months.

But here's some of what we actually did.  Above is St. Mark's Church in the old section of Zagreb.  Just down the street is the Museum of Naive Art where Croatian peasants paintings (mostly on glass because it was what was cheap and available) are displayed.  Ivan Generalic brought some of his paintings to a show in France and had success and is credited with founding the movement.  It's different from the classical stuff and pretty refreshing to see.  Since they were mostly farmers there are lots of paintings of fields and more than one painting of cooking a pig.  

There is also a museum of broken relationships here where people send a memento along with a description of why the relationship failed.  Most are heartfelt, some pretty disturbing, but the best were the few funny ones like the guy who was annoyed that he still had a bag of fancy popcorn from his ex-girlfriend who was a buyer for gourmet grocery stores.

And though you might not think of Zagreb as a great place for food, we actually had one of our best meals so far here at a place called Mundoaka.

Part of the center of Split is called Diocletian's Palace because the old Roman Emperor had a palace built there.  It was eventually abandoned and refugees and others built houses and have lived there throughout the years.  This means that you have tiny streets and alleyways with houses and shops and restaurants all within walled old Roman ruins.  Here's a view from the top of the bell tower in the photo above for a better view of part of it:

It's hard to describe just how narrow and winding some of the streets here are even outside the palace.  When I successfully navigated myself back to the apartment I felt a great sense of accomplishment.

Split is on the coast so there is a promenade along the waterfront where we played one of our more epic games of cribbage with a great view.

More to come from Dubrovnik (AKA King's Landing) soon.

The Soda Post

One of the fun things about wandering around grocery stores in different parts of the world are the local products you come across that you don't see at home.  With that in mind, I've bought and drank several different kinds of soda that were mostly bad. Basically Coke and Pepsi don't have to worry.  Let's run through the list for your amusement.  As a note, I'll describe what they are (with help from internet research after the fact) but when I drank all of these I was going in blind with hope springing eternal.

Kofola

Where?: Prague, Czech Republic

What?: A cola type soft drink.  A pharmaceutical company was trying to find uses for excess caffeine from coffee roasting and the syrup they produced led to this.  It became popular in the communist era because of the lack of access to Western products.
Any good?: No, it's terrible.  I didn't come close to finishing the bottle.
What did Chrissy think?: "Gross, it's like non-alcoholic Jagermeister."

Almdudler

Where?: Vienna, Austria

What?: It's a soft drink made with grape and apple juices and herbs

Any good?: Not really.  It starts off as oddly fruity but gets more bitter as you continue drinking.  Hard to describe (sort of like ginger ale) and you think it might be good at first, but it gets worse not better.

What did Chrissy think?:  "Weirdly tasty."  She of course only had two sips.

Cockta

Where?: Ljubljana,  Slovenia

What?: A Slovenian soft drink made from rose hips, herbs, lemon, and orange.  It isn't caffeinated.  It was also popular in the communist era because of the lack of access to Western products.

Any good?: No, it's really weird.  I expected it to be similar to cola from the color but it has a way sweeter taste that is strange.

What did Chrissy think?: "It's like someone spiked Coke with Sweetarts."

Sky Cola

Where?: Zagreb, Croatia

What?: It's cola.  Owned by a large conglomerate that dominates the Croatian market.  They have the most popular bottled water, mayonnaise and supermarkets in the country.

Any good?: Not bad, but nothing special.  It's cola which I like, but I prefer Coke.

What did Chrissy think?: "Yeah, that's cola."  Noticing a theme?

Pipi

Where?: Split, Croatia

What?: It's orange soda made by a company based in Split who also makes other sodas and alcoholic beverages.  Apparently they went bankrupt not that long ago and shut down for a bit, but they are back up and running.

Any good?: I know it's called Pipi and it's yellow which is unfortunate, but it's pretty good.  I enjoyed it.

What did Chrissy think?: "It's like carbonated Tang."

Birthday at Plitvice Lakes National Park

My 30th birthday included multiple rainbows, hand feeding a chickadee, numerous waterfalls and travertine pools, a 4 hour hike, 5 hours of bus riding, and chocolate creme schnitte. 

The Sun Came Out!

Check out the difference:

Caves, Another Castle, and More in Slovenia

Slovenia is a small country but has a lot of different terrains and natural features. Chrissy has shown you some in the city in Ljubljana and the lake and mountains in Bled, but it also has numerous systems of caves and we visited the most popular one at Postojna.  You can see part of the cave above, but since there is not much light down there and you can't use a flash it can be hard to get a good shot.  Still it's a remarkable place to visit that includes a train ride from the entrance deeper into the cave and a walk around the truly massive place.  There are even salamanders that are native to the cave that are white and can't see but they only have to eat once every seven years because of their metabolism.

Speaking of caves, we also went to Predjama Castle which is built into a cave.

Predjama was built more for defense and protection and never really as a place to live.  The caves inside provide a natural escape route into the mountains. 

Notice the castle walls on one side and the cave walls on the other.  Here's the view to the outside from the top of the castle/cave:

And a look out from part of the castle where you can actually see:

We did row out to the island as Chrissy mentioned was the plan in the last post.  Here she is in action:

In the church on the island there is a rope that you can pull to ring the bell.  They say if you can make it ring three times with one pull your wish will come true or you will have luck in love.  I managed more like one ring with three pulls.  It was really hard. 

Here we are at the steps leading up to the church on the island.  If you get married in Bled the groom is supposed to carry the bride up all of the steps on their wedding day for the marriage to be prosperous.  It's unclear how often this actually happens.

Finally, I would like to thank everyone who sent along a birthday message or video.  I really appreciate it.