To the Market

Saturday:  the day we clean the church.  We walked in the door and the junior elders came right to me asking me to help with the computer.  Alas, the computer is beyond my skill level.  A lot has changed in the many years since I retired from computer work.
    In a nutshell we have two issues at the chapel.  First, we don't have internet service.  Apparently we missed paying a bill and the service provider is refusing to restore our service.  So, we've been getting along by setting up a cellphone hot spot and connecting the computer to that. 
    Which leads to the second issue:  as of today the computer will connect to our hot spot and everything looks like we are good, but no website will download.  Nothing!  So I put in a call for help to our facilities person.

After the church was clean, the guy who made that amazing video of Osijek suggested we all go to the old fortress.  It seems that on the first Saturday of every month they have an open air market there.  It was very interesting.  There were two gramophones like I've never seen before.

On the front of this one is the picture of a dog with its head up to the bell, and it says "His Master's Voice".  It is a gorgeous piece.  Sadly, I didn't even ask how much they wanted for it.  Things are amazingly cheap here, but even so that will be an expensive thing to have.

This one is also a wonderful piece, but it's only silver.  It says "Gramophone Grand Master" on its face.  How amazing to have two of these rare pieces here.
    Then there is the china, which is exquisite.

It's not quite a Faberge egg, but it IS beautiful, and you can see they had lots more on the table.  There were vendors all over the square with this kind of amazing antiques.  There were also lots of military cast-off equipment.
    The other thing we'd heard were there were honey vendors.  They make lots of honey in the Adriatic, and many of the small beekeepers (which are mostly gone in the US) market their honey in the local markets and it is mostly varietal (meaning varieties).  I bought a bottle of acacia honey, only to discover two more jars of that variety at our apartment.  I wish I had bought one of the other varieties, but there will be plenty of time for that.  I talked with one of the vendors.  She and her husband keep a few trucks with their hive on them.  When my brother John was in Germany he sent home photos of them, brightly colored hives held on the truck with metal braces.
    I would love to have included a photo of the market, but you can't publish photos of people without their written permission, and how could that happen in a busy marketplace?

After that we walked along the banks of the Drava River for a while.  It will be prettier after the trees and flowers come out more, so no photos yet.  However, I couldn't resist this panorama.

The river was behind me, so this is looking into town.  I liked the yellow building, the modern green building, the ancient stone wall in front of the car, and the church.

    We are liking being here in Croatia.  We have lots to do, and go to bed tired every night.  We don't feel overworked, but we don't take much lazy time.  Our mission president's wife keeps encouraging us to take more time for ourselves, so we are taking a joy-ride to Zagreb on Monday.  We'll do some sight-seeing, and visit Ikea and the "American Store".   Life is good!