Mountains in My Bones -- Split, Croatia

It's Tuesday. Jurate eats an orange (or four) at the little brown table underneath the old-fashioned tv next to the turquoise wall.

I have never seen another human being so addicted to fruit. She demolishes pears the way I demolish Camembert. 

Milda and Mario sleep.

Once again, I try to keep myself from drifting off.

Without all that invigorating morning yoga and grounding meditation, waking up has gotten so much more difficult. Pillow, why do you still look so GOOD? it's after seven o'clock and you look aMAZing. This is not natural. You are supposed to lose your appeal for my face between the hours of four am and eleven pm.

I've been living in Split since Saturday night, and regardless of how spectacular this ancient city is, I'm already longing for the nature of Vis. The violent thunder and lightning. The barefoot walks through the sparsely populated hillside. The birds and the bumblebees.

The quiet.

Bourget, you will never be a city girl. You've got mountains in your bones. 

You've got the Colorado River coursing through your veins. 

You've looked into your backyard and seen elk, deer and hawks too many times. You've avoided skunks under the porch and galloped bareback through the canyons. Listening to whispering, roaring wind and seeing brilliant displays of shooting stars has ruined you for traffic and city lights. 

I don't particularly enjoy cities. 

But my favorite part of cities are the markets.

 The vibrant, colorful, pungent markets.

 Full of local characters covered with wrinkles and local vegetables sans wax.

Jurate purchases enough fruit to last two days. And she's always kind enough to offer me an apple, a pear or an orange whenever she sits down to destroy her pile of fruit. My veins are full of river water (with traces of Camembert and dark chocolate). Jurate's veins are full of orange juice. 

Strawberry season is just around the corner for Croatia!

I don't particularly enjoy cities.

But my second favorite part is the history. The area of the city with wrinkles. Lots and lots of wrinkles. 

I don't particularly enjoy cities.

But I love finding a good park.

Drinking coffee with a spectacular sea view definitely isn't at the bottom of my list, either.

We return to Vis on Saturday. I'll miss the relaxed atmosphere of this week-long vacation and the access to chocolate whenever I like, but I'll welcome back the sights, sounds, smells, sensations of living so close to nature.