Truffle Hunting, by Griffin

                              

Truffles are a delicacy in the USA, mostly because they don't grow in America. There are only a couple of places where you can find good truffles, including Croatia, France, Italy, New Zealand, and Australia.  My family went to the Motovun forest in Istria, Croatia to truffle hunt. Our guide, Nickoli, told us all about it. The first thing is that you can't  truffle hunt without dogs because they have a great sense of smell and can smell a truffle a meter deep in dirt. Truffle hunters used to hunt with pigs, but they ate the truffles that they found. There are two kinds of truffles, black and white, though I personally think they both smell like barf.  They grow underground and are a type of fungus called Ascomycete. Truffles have to live close to a tree root, the biological term for this is ectomycorrhizal. The trees include Beech, Birch, Hazel, Hornbeam, Oak, and Pine.

                                          

As you know, dogs play a huge roll in truffle hunting, but they don't just learn overnight. It can take many years to train a dog to truffle hunt. Truffle hunters have different tactics to training their dogs. Any dog can become a truffle hunter, it doesn't matter about the breed.  Our truffle hunter explained that he puts truffle on the mother's teat so when the puppy drinks the mother's milk it gets used to the taste of truffles. This is important because normally a dog doesn't like the taste of truffles. Any dog can learn how to hunt truffles it just takes time. When the dogs are puppies you teach them to use their noses to search for truffles by putting truffle on their toys or just hiding a truffle and urging them to find it. Our guide, Nikoli, usually takes three dogs out with him each session, and can spend two to three hour hunting for truffles with his dogs. When his dogs find something Nickoli tells the dog to dig. Then, when a truffle is shone the hunter looks over the truffle and then gives a little truffle to all the dogs. Even who did not contribute get a reward so all the dogs can learn to work together and be successful.

                                         

Truffles can be made into many different things including truffle oil, truffle paste, truffle with pasta, truffles with bread, salad with truffles, and truffle soup. The list is endless! People have been eating truffles for a long time, we still don't know a lot about them. We know that they are fungi and they grow near roots. We think we know what climate they grow in, but then the climate changes and it's the best truffle year ever. It's a hard job to have because sometimes the truffles don’t grow in a certain period of time and you have no income. Typically the white truffle is more expensive than the black. White truffles are typically 3,000 to 5,000 euros per kilogram and the black are usually around  2,000 euros. Truffle hunters sell truffles at markets and to restaurants.  Some people even ship truffles to other countries.

                                            Extra info:

Australian Black Winter Truffle (Tuber Melanosporum): June-August

Black Burgundy Truffles (Tuber Uncinatum): September- November

White Truffle (Tuber Magnatum Pico): October- December

Black Winter Truffle (Tuber Melanosporum): November-March

Getting from A to B in Croatia (Greg)

Well, transit here aint all that different from anywhere else.  And yet, of course, it’s got some quirks.  Being a slightly less than diligent planner, I’ve been schooled a bit in things I probably should have known, and a few I still can’t fathom.  So, to save any other subpar planners out there, here are a few tips on getting from A to B in Croatia.  

First lesson/reminder has been to ask, ask, ask.  I usually get a different answer from each person I ask.  Actually, that’s true been true of just about everything in Croatia, but especially with the buses.  In one town, I had five people point me to five completely different bus stop locations in the space of three blocks.  I finally found an actual bus - at yet a different spot.  That bus wasn’t on any schedule I’d seen, print or online, and no one seemed to know about it.  But when I asked the driver where I should wait he said:  “Sure, I take you.”  I asked when, and he shrugged and said: “now.”  (Me) “How much?”  (Him)  Shrug, “70 kuna,” shrug again, “50.”  So I went. …  I was the only one the bus for the next hour and a half.  Seemed like a pretty straightforward thing - driver makes a little pocket cash on an unofficial run.  But then he stopped and picked up a few more people who were clearly waiting.  So how did they know about the bus?

Anyway, there are multiple bus companies in Croatia.  And while they generally all go through the central bus station in the bigger cities, it’s, again, better to ask 10 people.  For example, it turns out Split has a completely different main bus station for routes leaving the city and the “city” buses, which incidentally do go to other cities that must be, what? close?  Also, even though they are completely separate companies, there’s often just one company kiosk looking like the sole official bus company at the city station - but they can only sell you tickets on their line. So where do you buy tickets for the other buses at the same station?  .. just keep asking

Luggage on Croatian buses is sometimes an extra fee and sometimes not.  Seems to have more to do with whether the driver feels like getting out of his seat.  I thought it might be a scam so I tried to pay at the “official” ticket window and was told:  no, you can only pay the driver for luggage and we (i.e, the company ticket office) have no idea whether or how much it costs.  So, just like anywhere else … be nice to your driver, eh.

Renting a car is pretty straightforward and you can find good deals.  Roads are pretty good and the main toll roads are about 1 kuna / kilometer.  But if you’re renting watch out for the one way drop off fee.  $150 in country was the going rate when I looked.

Ferries are a whole different  ball game.  The official company, Jadrolinija, has its own site, and the agencies or consolidators that pop up in online searches don’t have all the smaller routes (and charge more).  But the site is funky.  You can eventually find the posted schedule for any line, but won’t necessarily be able to buy.  On our last ferry ride, the online schedule had shown no sailing the day we needed.  But then I did a search to buy a ticket, and of course that day came up.  I then tried to book online and got a note to call or email.   Refreshingly, I actually got a personal response by emailing, and the person kept answering my questions.  Turns out that you can’t book online too close to sailing.  But the smaller ferries without cars are called catamarans (they are in fact catamarans, and apparently it’s bad form to call them ferries when speaking to a live person but of course they are still listed as “ferries” online) and you can have both on the same route.  But the cats don’t seem to allow online booking, and some of the non-catamaran ferries only take reservations for cars, and so may show fully as fully booked even though you can still walk on.  

Overnight ferries, especially too or from another country, are again a whole different world.  Those you can and should book ahead if you want an actual cabin to sleep in.  If you miss that, the options will be either just general space on deck, or a reserved “reclining” seat.  But the recliners are already in an ever so slightly reclining position.  I.e., they do not move.  Also, the room with the reclining seats is (in summer) ungodly hot and the lights stay on.  Not surprisingly we were almost all alone in our “reserved” reclining seats, until about 2:00 am when a few drunks wandered down and and took a seat to snore away for a few hours.  No reservation needed for that I guess.

Colleen wrote about this before, but turns out that what everyone else does is to buy a general seating ticket and then head to the bar, which has couches.  It’s loud (it’s a bar on a night boat after all).  But people aren’t bashful about claiming an entire couch and sleeping in the midst of the shouting 14 - 24 year olds.  In fact, the smart ones all rushed up to the bar to stake out their couches before we could figure out what was happening.  So, lesson learned.  If you can’t get a cabin, treat the overnight ferry like the day after Christmas sale at Fry’s.  Get there early, shove your way to the front of the line, and when the doors open, sprint like hell for the bar, and guard a couch like a junk yard dod.  Then drink yourself silly so you can sleep through the young hooligans.  

Boat Week, by Rowan

On Saturday, we met Rodco, our skipper. The start of our boat trip excursion started there, in a little marina on the coast of Split, Croatia. We hauled all of our bags to the boat, it took us a good two hours to set sail, but we finally started going. The ship was around 30 or so feet long. It had three bedrooms, a kitchen with a stove, broken fridge, a booth nailed to the floor, and two extremely stinky bathrooms. You could also sit up top by the wheel, or at the very front, which we did a lot because once or twice we all succumbed to the seasickness. We had to learn to, “not go down, is bad for your stomach”, as Rodco liked to say.

Anyway, the first night we sailed for about three or so hours, getting used to the boat and attempting to actually sail, not motor. We finally got to a little bay where maybe 5 or so boats were already anchored. By this time it was around nine o'clock. Rodco had promised us a swim, so we got into our suits and kind of clung to each other while Rodco jumped. This wasn’t the smartest decision on the Butwartz part, but Griffin decided to watch Jaws the night before we left, and we ended up all coming over to watch it. Now, on the actual boat, we were standing there freaking out because the water was pitch black and we were sure a huge shark was going to eat us all if we went in. Eventually, I caved and jumped first. The rest of the family jumped after that, though Griffin would always jump and then immediately climb back onto the boat, screaming, “SHARK!!”.

The next morning, we woke up and met up with Della, Vance, Jen, and Miles. They are old friends who had done the same trip around the world three years before when Miles and Griffin were in third grade and Della and I were in sixth. We all had breakfast, and then swam for half the day, talking and catching up. The eight days went something like that. Waking up and swimming, then either hiking, sailing, play games, or swimming some more. Then finding our way to a quiet bay, eating some dinner, swimming again, and then falling asleep. It was an adventure because every day we could do whatever we wanted. We found this one restaurant with Miles and Della’s family, along with their skipper, Vlaho, where we got a huge lamb on four platters, and ate almost all of it.

On the day of my birthday, August 9, Rodco had gotten this little old Croatian lady to bake me a cake and send it to a restaurant in the town we were staying. We had just finished eating our dinner, and a new waiter brings a giant chocolate cake out, it was super gorgeous, but all I could look at was Rodco’s huge saucer eyes, staring at the waiter. We had just finished our pieces of cake when Rodco grabbed his phone, pulled up a picture, and whisper shouted, “OUR WAITER IS KOKO”. We kind of all stared at him for a second, I mean Rodco was crazy but now we all thought that that he was actually crazy. We all must’ve looked very confused so he explained that Koko’s adventures was a very famous kids’ movie series, and that they were the most watched kids’ movies in Croatia. When “Koko” came to give us the check Rodco asked for his autograph, he said yes, but then he asked for my name. I said Rowan, and he wrote a little note and gave me a signed piece of paper. Rodco was confused and then asked, “um can I have one too?”. My fourteenth birthday turned out to be a pretty memorable experience.

Thoughts on an overnight ferry from Italy to Croatia, by Colleen

We had a hellish night on an overnight ferry from Ancona, Italy to Zadar, Croatia.  It was unanticipated as our experiences on the Italian overnight ferries were more like cruise ship experiences, with cocktails served immediately upon embarking, overpriced but good Italian food, and comfortable clean cabins with showers.

Not so with the Croatian ferry company!  The cabins were all booked so we had to make due with the "reclining chairs" ferry section (which Greg really did pay extra for) and I assume something was lost in translation because the chairs definitely did NOT recline. Oddly, the glaring florescent lights were also kept on all night, I think the idea was to encourage people to pay more for this type of chair, but to actually torture them into remaining awake between departure at 10pm and arrival at 6am. The best part was awakening to a woman's smelly feet literally in my face, as she had pushed them through the gap in the seats from behind me.  

Apparently, the Croatian ferry bars stay open all night so we were roused in the wee hours by gaggles of young Croatian men "singing" (or yelling / slurring) some hilarious American pop music.  We apparently did not receive the memo that the thing to do on a Croatian ferry upon embarking was to immediately run to the top floor and stake out the couches in the bars and "jazz club" so that you had a nice flat surface upon which to lay your weary head.  Amazingly, people were literally snoring on what looked like comfortable couches, despite the blaring music and drunk young travelers reveling. So I will chalk this one up to "adventure," as opposed to "fun."  

I did have lots of time to think, though, and created a few lists:

Things I miss about home:

1. Shower stalls that are larger than 12 inches by 12 inches and actually drain
2. Sitting at a cafe enjoying a coffee or cocktail without being completely engulfed in cigarette smoke
3. Efficiency
4. Not feeling stupid all the time due to my abhorrent lack of language skills
5. Summer in Seattle by Greenlake, Lake Washington, and Golden Gardens, and camping at Icicle Creek
6. Girlfriends and talking to people other than my immediate family (this is perhaps actually #1)

Things I do not miss about home 

1. Trump
2. Tweets from Trump
3. Trump firing people every 10 minutes
4. More news stories about Trump
5. Driving in Seattle traffic
6. Constantly running from one thing to the next thing
7. Not being able to swim in the warm sea, which is heaven