I’ll set the scene a little here: I’m sitting under a sun canopy on the top deck of a yacht under sail to yet another of the many islands in the Adriatic Sea. The tour excursion guide has told us repeatedly how many islands there are but my poor aging brain only has so much storage capacity so I’m letting some of the details slip. We are a group of 34and I haven’t even got half the names straight yet, let alone who the married couples are. So far I haven’t missed the boat or been late for dinner so I’ve the important things covered.
Our first two days in Croatia were rainy but we are back to hot and sunny now. Regardless, we went on the walking tours to learn about the history of the place. The details of names and dates are lost on me but the gist of it is that this region has been taken over/conquered/annexed multiple times over the last 2000 years and each period shows a different type of architecture, and depending on how much was destroyed when the next batch took over, there can be three different styles of buildings on the same street. (And by ‘street’ I mean tiny cobblestoned passages between buildings.). The way my brain picks up information I tend to store bits of trivia, hence I know now that if you see the symbol of lions with wings it means that the Venetians have been there. I’m certain that will come up in conversation some day ….
The first couple of days was all land tours. We have traveled by bus to different places. We have hiked up and down canyons along a little chain of uniquely blue lakes and countless waterfalls, and we’ve seen several places that were used as sets for Game of Thrones. The main industry here is tourism but they also grow olives and grapes for wine. I think today will be our third oil and wine tasting session. If I keep this up I should be pretty good at it by the time I get home.
Everyone has their own point of context though. The young people come to destinations like this to party. The older ones come for warmth and to see the world. While I am in that bracket, I am also a farmer. As the bus, and now the boat, travel past the countryside a little voice inside my head keeps asking “why on earth would anyone want to conquer this land?” There is nothing here but rock. Oh okay, there’s that wine and olive oil thing, but really? There has got to be easier places to grow them.
Regardless, they came and they conquered.
Repeatedly.
This morning as the party crowd and the adventurous swim off the back of the yacht I’m sitting on the upper deck and pondering the skyline. When I travel west on #1 between Swift Current and Medicine Hat I am always struck that the land is so open and vast and vacant. What went through the minds of the first European explorers and settlers when confronted with such endlessness? Weren’t they afraid of the unknown?
And now I gaze out over the Adriatic Sea from my perch on the top deck of a modern yacht and try to put myself in the shoes of the ancient mariners in their tiny wooden boats. How fearless they must have been. How did they know where to go? How did they stay safe from storms and dangerous shores?
Maybe they didn’t conquer for any other reason than they had found solid ground and weren’t going to give it up again.
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