What a day...

Each and every time I think there is no one to talk with, a surprise blows in.

1) A young man from Ft Collins in my room. Recent graduate from Colorado State University with a double major in marketing and management. Pleasant pleasant pleasant guy. He was surprised to meet a Summit County resident sleeping in the same hostel, room, and bed next to his.

2) Lunch at a local's restaurant: I am asking the waiter about fish. From three tables away, I hear, squid is good. The man and I start talking. He was a high school graduate of my rival high school (South Hills High) in West Covina, CA, and graduated one year after me. He lives in Santa Barbara today and first visited Croatia in 1975 under Tito. 

People my age are amazed that I have not traveled to Europe before. I explain this apparent gap by saying, I have always traveled south of the border to Mexico, Central and South America, like I have to make up for the life-gap. It is an ongoing competition - who has traveled the most, the furthest, the longest, the cheapest. lol

3) I am watching the sunset over the Adriatic in Split and a woman bounces down on the bench. I almost teeter-totter up because her exuberance is BIG. What a lovely woman from Switzerland. We share the evening. She has a 20 year old son, is married, and biking from Switzerland to Dubrovnik in southern Croatia. Road-biking and camping in her tent along the route! She has ferried and traveled by bus as well.

Bikes are welcome on ferries, trains, buses - bike friendly nations in Europe. She shared some of the journey with her husband but most of the time went it alone. A bubbly delightful woman who relishes the physical sport of seeing a country by road-bike. Did I mention she speaks 5 or 6 languages? I couldn't keep up. She also learned enough Croat to speak the basics. I am envious!

Thus, this is a typical day. I meet and encounter. Life is good.