Tales of Croatia. Part Four.

Entire story takes place from late May to late June in Zagreb, Dubrovnik, Makarska, Omiš, Split, Vodice
and Tribunj, Croatia, as well as Slovenia.

Continued from part three...

Dubrovnik, nearly.

So, eventually, after about 2 and a half weeks in Zagreb, spent nearly entirely on drinking and wandering around, our friend Alex Maleev showed up. We call him Sasho. Many on here know who he is, but for those who don't; Sasho and I worked on the Daredevil comic together (along with Brian Bendis) for three years or so. He's from Bulgaria, but later moved to New York and is now in Portland. He's very much like a NY person to me, but by way of Europe, of course.

Esad with Sasho, in Dubrovnik.

Anyway, Esad and I had purchased tickets for us to go to the South Adriatic coast, to Dubrovnik. The idea was that we'd stay in Dubrovnik from Monday midday until Thursday midday, then rent a car and drive North to Tribunj, a tiny fishing village maybe a couple hundred miles North, passing Makarska and Split on the way.

Esad with Sasho, in Dubrovnik.

Sasho arrived in the evening, and we picked him up, then returned to Gajnice to attend the opening of a new bar in the neighborhood where Esad lives. He's friends with the owners and everyone there, of course. We dropped off Sasho's bags at the studio and headed over to the bar. When we arrived, it was completely packed, wall to wall people. But, we just dove in, I headed to a midway point at the bar and Esad and I settled into position for drinking. Sasho was outside eating. And the drinking began. And, it was a night of drinking, at that. The owner brought over a full bottle of Southern Comfort for Esad and a beer for me, by this time my regular, Ožujsko. Hard to explain pronunciation on this one, but it's like this; The 'ž' is like the 's' in pleasure, or the French 'j'. So it's 'Oh-Zhooy-Sko', sort of. Only sort of. Anyway. Heh.

Sasho, in Dubrovnik.

It was pub drinking as it always is, but these people were happy to have the new bar. And, the owner was giving EVERYONE ALL of their drinks for free. I didn't pay for any beer at all that night and had maybe 8 large bottles, maybe 12 pints worth or so. They had a wicker theme of some sort going on, but it was nicer than normal California wicker. They had designed it into the ceiling in geometric shapes. People were getting wasted. It was a party, not an opening. A party in a cafe/bar, not disconnected like people don't know each other like at an opening, but a party where everyone knew everyone and everyone was wasted. But, it was just drinking and cigarettes, I saw no drugs. The idea of the place is that it also has wireless internet. It's a hip place, nice flavor.

People kept drinking and drinking. Esad drank that entire bottle of Southern Comfort by himself. He was dancing and hyper and drunk as shit. He got to a point in the evening when he'd pick up any girl that walked past. He'd pick her up and lift her over his head, not using his shoulders to support her or anything. He'd life her up in his hands, completely outstretched over his head, arms completely extended facing directly up. Lots of laughter and struggle there, but all good. I got into the mood and slapped the ass of whatever girl he was lifting. The room was raucous and all of it was in good fun. They came around with a bowl for donations for some charity, I don't remember what, and I put in 100 kuna. They reacted like it was a lot, but that's about $16 or $17 or so.

End Part 4.