“Travels to a Different Time” : July 21, 1971: Novalja, Yugoslavia: More letters from Fritz and Ja Ja Nein Nein

Up early for a bus trip to our new destination Novalja on the northern tip of the island of Pag. Mom is not eating breakfast today as she says she is on a diet so she doesn’t look like a horse in Germany. We just hacked around for a bit and packed up for our bus trip to Novalja which is in the north of Pag. I picked up some mail which consisted of two letters from Fritz much to Mom’s delight. We got on the 2 o’clock bus and luckily got a seat although I had to push a surly guy over that was hogging two seats. The road is barren and rocky making for a bumpy and dusty ride. Novalja is considerably bigger than the town of Pag. It has running water! We went to the tourist office and found a really nice room but I fear it will be noisy as we are in front of the market and two restaurants. We don’t even have a key to our room in the house. We had a glorious hot shower the first one in days. We discovered where the bakery was and Mom bought a bottle of red wine which she later said was the best she ever had. Greasy spaghetti yet again and some very good goulash which really is a few chunks of meat in a sea of gravy. Good for mopping up with bread. A favourite low-cost meal of hippies because you can fill up with bread. Mom had a headache so she popped up a pill and headed up to bed while I people watched for half an hour and I came back to the room and woke Mom up and we went for a walk on the waterfront where we found a band playing music. Mom left at 9 and I stayed until 10 and came home and had another glorious hot shower. What a luxury! I drifted off to sleep to the clinking of cutlery below with lots of Ja Ja’s and Nein Nein’s at the restaurant below. We noticed many Germans here.