Billy's Lines Of Gibberish

Close to Mostar — March 13, 2009 (This one was a fast driver)

According to my experience of driving a car between Dubrovnik (Croatia) and Mostar (Bosnia-Herzegovina) today, drivers in this part of Europe are of two kinds: fast drivers, and slow drivers.

Low drivers are really slowwww. They drive an old car, are sometimes quite old themselves, and will hardly exceed 50 km an hour in speed... on the downhill with the wind at their back, that is.

On the opposite, fast drivers drive very ffffffffffffast!!! Also, they are very, very good drivers obviously: they are so skilled that it is not a problem for them to overtake you in the bends or on the brow of a hill, especially when there is a white line and they are on the phone. Quite impressive, especially when they suddenly appear, just in front of you, at about 30 meters in a bend, as they are astutely overtaking one of those above-mentioned slow drivers.

I confess I was a little surprised the first time it occurred. I was not any more, half an hour and three similar incidents later. You cannot go against local customs, yet trying to stay alive until you reach your destination appeared just fair to me at the time. I found a tip then, I give for free in case you ever drive a car in the area: as soon as you catch up with an old VW Golf with a granny-driver going dead slow, just don't overtake it. Keep a cautious fifty-meter-security-distance between your car and the improvised shield, and enjoy the scenery. You are in vacation after all, no need to hurry.

A rainbow in Dubrovnik — March 11, 2009.

Dubrovnik this evening bears scarcely any resemblance with the sunny, exuberant city they talk about in the guide I read in the plane this morning.

The crowd that was supposed to fill the streets of the old town, was made up in actual fact of one tourist with a camera, a couple of local women doing the shopping for tonight's dinner, and half a dozen schoolboys messing around at a bus stop.

Hors-saison (Off Season) by Francis Cabrel

It has been raining the entire day in Dubrovnik, and now it's getting dark. We're in the off season undoubtedly.

The atmosphere makes me think of a song by Francis Cabrel, that says:

C'est le silence qui se remarque le plus,
Les volets roulants, tous descendus,
De l'herbe ancienne dans les bacs à fleurs sur les balcons,
On doit être hors-saison.

La mer, quand même, dans ses rouleaux continue
Son même thème, sa chanson vide et têtue,
Pour quelques ombres perdues sous des capuchons,
On doit être hors-saison...

What you notice most is silence,
Rolling curtains, which are all down,
Some old grass in planters, on the balconies
We're probably in the off season.

Yet the sea, with its rollers, goes on
Its only theme, its empty and obstinate song,
For a few shadows, lost under their hoods
We're probably in the off season...

Yet, when I went out of the hotel a moment ago, there was a wonderful rainbow over the ramparts of the old town and the sea, standing out against the dark sky. Without rain, you cannot have rainbows, can you? Hurrah for the rain then. Anyway, a few drops of water will not prevent me to get to know the ancient city of Ragusa tomorrow.