Wanderers Return

Some of you may have been following the Crowls' exploits overseas on the Travel Diary.
For those who haven't, we're now back in Dunedin, and happy to be home. Our time away was starting to get just a bit too long, so we came home about ten days earlier than planned.
We had a great time away, with a few ups and downs thrown in, but all in all it was worth doing, and certainly gave us a chance to get to know some of the younger members of the Goodson clan (Celia's family), most of whom we hadn't seen since our wedding, when they were all children. And we met their children as well, and can now put names and personalities to the faces.

Daphne in Croatia

We received an email today from Daphne. She and her brother John are touring around Croatia where their forebears come from.

What a relief! After using the e-mail at Singapore with no problems I couldn't get into it at Zagreb for some reason or another. Tonight we're in Split which is way down the coast in Croatia - into Dalmatian territory. Last night we were in Opajtia - a very quaint town on the coast and this morning after leaving there we traveled through Reijk which is where our grandfather lived. It was a very busy port and it was easy to see how our grandfather could have hopped on a boat to come to New Zealand. I would loved to have stopped there even for 5 minutes but didn't get the opportunity. We have actually been talking to a couple from Brazil over dinner tonight, Reuben and Beatrice - very nice people. His grandfather and grandmother also came from Croatia and the area we will go through tomorrow. John invited another Brazilian couple to our room for a glass of not very good wine before dinner. Sonia was a paediatrician and her husband an anaesthetist.

Croatia is a very lovely place and so much of it is so so old. Unfortunately, John and I are the only English speaking people on the tour, apart from the tour guide. At Zagreb she arranged for us to have a guide of our own which was really good and we had a thoroughly enjoyable time. Kristina our guide is very nice but she talks to us a lot on the bus and not so much when we get to places. Consequently by the time we get to where we're going we've forgotten what she said a lot of the time.

Tomorrow we're off to Dubrovonich where we'll spend 2 nights and then I think we make our way back to Zagreb and then to Poland. We've been on the bus most of the day today but are spending the morning here in Split before we more off again.

It's all going well and especially now that I know I can reach you all by e-mail again