Wed: The First Full Day

Well it is noon-thirty in your lives, 9:30 PM here. But I can't post this until tomorrow morning, 10:AM here, 1 in morning to you, when I can get to the next town that has internet in a beach bicycle rental shop. The roundness of the Earth and resulting time zones still amaze me.<div>

The day began with a 7 am run for about 20 hearty souls, followed by breakfast (continental plus granola). Individual choir practice was from 9:30 to 12:30, lunch (stuffed pepper,and potatoes in tomato sauce, salad, with yogurt for dessert) a nap, then a first combined choir rehearsal. Small busses of tourists visit the village by day, often sitting outside the rehearsal room windows listening to the choir and enjoying the hilltop view. A late afternoon break, play time was followed by dinner in the courtyard. From 8 to 10 pm choir members from each choir taught the other choir traditional games including red rover (honest), and then a crazy run, run, pony circle game that exhausted them all... silence and rest are coming soon.

This is a wonderful site for the meeting of the two choirs. They are in a confined space, with lots of adult availability, great buildings to explore, several parks to play in, solid food. I have to travel about 15 km to find broadband internet for uploading pictures... It is a walled village far from civilization and quite safe. Few lock their doors in the daytime. The only real danger is the cobblestones which are very uneven and can trip a person. so we are careful not to run in the narrow streets. A person can explore all four streets and see every building in a fifteen minute walk. The gravel paths outside the village that lead down the hill claimed a victim this morning, Ainsley, who tripped and fell, receiving a cut that required stitches. She is fine, see picture on right. Everyone has slowed down and we are watching the cobblestones.

The village now includes full plumbing and electrical service, but just outside the main wall is a 4 meter village wash basin for both clothes and dish washing, the only water available for the first 800 years of the village's life.

Tiz a tad warm, low 80's at peak, but we are taking lots of showers. Tomorrow we all go to the Adriatic for an afternoon of swimming and then tomorrow evening the joint choirs will perform in the medieval stone church which is at the top of the hill that is this village.

We have really stepped back in time.