Extreme Housewives

So strong is the tourism ethic here, and so important is the tourist dollar, that every single corner is being swept and cleaned and groomed. Yesterday new flowers were being planted in the planting boxes around the parks, and new truckloads of ‘sand’ have been delivered. The edgings of the gardens on the riva are now a shamble of coloured petunias, and there is man hosing the grass berms dnevno (daily). He was happy to water around me as I sat in the sun with the newspaper, but I can report that he was taking his job with the correct amount of seriousness.
Now, let me paint you a picture (I may even be able to find one in my stock if you have no imagination)

; I have raved about the blue of the sea, the clarity of the water but don’t think that I have talked specifically about the edging of pines on the beach. So in the visual tapestry I am building, imagine that these pine trees are sometimes actually only about ten feet away from the water’s edge (I love the disconnect with this, particularly when I am running through the forest – running along the track, through the pine trees, with the sea only ten feet away! Imagine!)

I heard an English tourist yesterday saying ‘don’t you think it’s a bit unusual having pine trees right on the beach?? Well, pine trees are more fitting here than, say, pacific palms, believe me. And just to add to the mind’s eye picture, most of these trees, particularly on the main beach have a very pronounced lean on them, away from the Biokovo and leaning towards the sea (yes, the bura wind influence!)
But, (and this is where I am heading if you were wondering), pine trees have the annoying habit of dropping needles and cones – added to, all over the footpath there are the remnants of the cones that the squirrels have been nibbling on in the trees, little piles everywhere. (Oh, sudden thought, maybe it was a squirrel that took my running top.. no? oh, ok).
The obvious answer, and in the context of the opening paragraph, is that each and every morning (dnevno) there are women with rakes and brooms who come and sweep and rake the beach free of needles and cones. Ultimate Housewives! There it is. Absolute Attention to Detail for you, The Tourist.
Today’s Makarska Kronika chronicles the need for the town’s people to ensure that the town is clean and tidy, and talks particularly about the bits of plastic that the bura blows into the trees, the blue and white plastic bags perhaps becoming the ‘new symbol of the quality of tourism’ when what the tourists are expecting is the clear clean sea.
These last few weeks and perhaps the next one or two can be considered the annual dress rehearsal, because the tourists will be here en masse by early June. And then for the next few months it will be…….impossible to get a seat in your favourite café, impossible to find a parking place on the main street, impossible to get into your favourite restaurant, and impossible to run along the beach to Kvavica because of all of the tourists! Ho Hum.