Saturday, October 24, 2009

A Trip to Ilovik

Imagine a village where there are no cars.
Imagine a village where the only way
to arrive is to travel the sea.
Imagine a village where the supplies, mail,
even drinking water gets there by boat.

This is the island of Ilovik:

To get there...

...we traveled through a city
that had mythological as well as marching dragons.

It is the he city of Rijeka where there are castles:

Floating fortress:

And wise men who watch over the city and tell of its’ history:

There are princesses who still wait for their Romeos to come back...

...many who were lost at war:

We traveled by sea to the island of Ilovik.

To an island of magical sunsets…

…clear water…

…and vivid evenings.

By day the island is clean and colorful.

We hiked endless trails…

…and saw ancient rock walls…

…that flowed along seemingly endless flower gardens:

While hiking we saw olive pickers…

…met new friends…

…and saw abstract shapes:

The views were vast…

…and now a new type of castle guards the beaches:

In a small village many people do many different jobs to survive. Over the years with the increasing amount of tourism some traditional ways of working are falling off. For example, a few believe it is easier to earn a living from tourism than from picking olives. However some of those ways are changing. While we were there we met a man, Randy, who lives in White Plains, NY. He was visiting for four weeks to help pick olives. I feel that as much as he was there to pick olives, he was also there to keep tradition alive and to maintain his family's connections on the island.

On Sunday everything stopped. It was a beautiful morning. The ferry came and went and everyone attended church. I have some strong opinions about organized religion because I feel we should each invent our own, but if I lived on Ilovik I would attend mass regularly because throughout the history of this little village the church has offered a reason for coming together and socializing and helping to keep traditions alive.

4 comments:

Anonymous said...

Ah, you've outdone yourself with this one! A pleasure to experience. I'm sure I'll be back again and again to savor the whole of this post. Thank you for the images, the thoughts and the details.

On the loss of old ways on the island, check out this article in the Guardian about Carmelina Ricciardello, a Sicilian woman who was concerned about modernity's encroachment and the subsequent loss of traditional methods on her island. She's building a thriving eco-tourism business that is venerating and supporting the old ways rather than obliterating them:

http://www.guardian.co.uk/travel/2009/oct/18/gail-simmons-sicily-tradition-tourism

Anonymous said...

Ilovik also has its own traditional song, called "O Sanpjero" -

Oj Sanpjero, misto moje
Misto moje
Misto moje
Oj Sanpjero, misto moje
Misto moje
Misto moje
O ljubavi, zavežena
zavežena
zavežena
O ljubavi, zavežena
zavežena
zavežena

Chorus
Oj joj joj!
Anđeliću moj
Kad će doći ona ura da ćeš biti moj!

Vader

Anonymous said...

My cousin recommended this blog and she was totally right keep up the fantastic work!

Unknown said...

Very nice reportage about our small island Ilovik.
Greetings from Ilovik !!