Now, I am not much of a culture vulture, but I thoroughly enjoyed our visit to the Džmonja Sculpture Park in Vrsar. Perhaps that makes me a sculpture vulture? The location of the park on a hill overlooking the sea is a wonderful setting for the beautiful works of this world-famous Croatian artist. The Oldies were amazed that admission to the park is free. Definitely worth it!I wouldn’t know how to even begin to interpret these sculptures, made of a variety of materials of granite, marble, polyester and a wide range of metals, but this one was my favourite. It somehow gave me a sensation of riding the waves. Marvellous!

I think His Lordship liked the heavy metals.  I was just hoping that these weren’t rolling stones…

The Oldies managed to drag themselves away from the beach on another occasion, this time taking to the hills of central Istria in order to visit the smallest town in the world, Hum. Now I know it’s terribly tempting, but I promise I won’t trot out any predictable Hum puns, such as, ‘The claim that this is not the smallest town in the world is a load of humbug’ or ‘I wish I were a humming bird’ or ‘His Lordship hummed and hawed about what to choose from the menu’ or ‘We were humbled by the whole experience’. Promise.

Ooops!

This tiny, partly walled settlement, with a population of only 21, is still officially a town. There is a town council with elected officials, who according to a long-standing local tradition, engrave their votes on a wooden stick called a raboš. I know that politicians get a lot of stick these days, but it seems that the Hummers manage to give a little stick themselves!

This is me on Main Street, Hum, at rush hour. Wasn’t I brave to cross the road on my own? Talk about taking your life in your wings!

Her Ladyship was also unperturbed by rush hour Hum traffic and barely glanced right or left before dashing across the road into the nearest shop to bag a bottle of Humska Biska. This local brandy-based concoction is made from a secret recipe which includes herbs and white mistletoe. Herself claims she bought it purely for its purported medicinal properties. Yeah, she’s very health conscious. All of a sudden.

One thing I found fascinating in Hum was the Glagolithic writings which are peculiar to this part of Istria. The Glagolithic script was apparently introduced in the ninth century by St. Cyril, after whom Cyrillic script is named. The Glagolithic alphabet consists of 34 letters, each of which represents a letter, a word and a number. Intriguing.

This also explains the shapes His Lordship was throwing during the musical entertainment at the Fishermen’s Festival in Vrsar the other night. While everyone else was spelling out the letters ‘Y.M.C.A.’ with their arms in time with the music, I was completely bewildered by His Lordship’s apparent unsuccessful attempts to follow suit.

I now know better. He was, of course, showing off his multicultural and historical knowledge and spelling out ‘Y.M.C.A.’ in the Glagolithic alphabet.

Silly me!