Beauty

8.11.16

A couple days ago, while driving around on the island of Brac, I commented to Vlad that Croatia might be the most beautiful place that I’ve been to so far. We talked about how yes, Greece and the islands were gorgeous, but it was just the coast. The interior seemed just a dusty desert. But then, just yesterday a Facebook memory from our honeymoon in Greece popped up with some pictures of Santorini at sunset, reminding me of what a gorgeous place it was. Beautiful. Obviously, beauty is in the eye of the beholder, and I’m loving that this is what occupies the space in my mind right now. San Francisco is beautiful, but it’s not new. Maybe that has something to do with it. I thought Makarska was beautiful…( I didn’t even notice the shadows of this tree on the church until I looked at these pictures later)

but coming in on the ferry, I was struck by the landscape of our new home for the next couple days.

Holy crap! Those clouds really helped Brac make a dramatic entrance.

But the sun on the stone of these old buildings in the little harbor in the town of Sutivan, just melted my heart. This is my new backdrop. The scene behind Matthew waiting for the milk truck to unload. I took this picture while he and Vlad went to get his umpteenth cup of strawberry gelato. We’ve been here three days and the woman already knows him by his tapping little finger on her nice clean glass.

So far, Croatia has taught me that I’m a sucker for old and new. That’s definitely a part of my definition of new. Old buildings and nice new tables and chairs. I can just picture the people drinking coffee here for ages. Boats, too. The little banged up fishing boats right next to the sleek fancy yachts.

The water here is ridiculously beautiful. Most mornings it is so perfectly calm and clear, you can see schools of fish and kids plucking sea urchins straight off the sea floor. And I just love looking out and seeing sailboats and ferries dot the horizon, adding perfect trails of white to mix up all the blueness. (Sorry, surprisingly no good picture of this!)

We’ve just started our journey, and as I scroll Instagram looking for inspiration for our next travel spots in Italy, I already know that I’m going to one up myself with places to take the next number one spot in beauty. What makes me most content is knowing that for the next five months, this is my new normal, finding more places to encounter that bring my hands up to my face as I gasp, “wow.” My favorite part, though, are the beautiful moments with these people: