A new feature - Restaurant Review!

I was recently in Pula, Croatia for a conference on Roman provincial art.  The site was chosen for its extensive Roman history, founded in the Republican period and for the numerous archaeological sites that are preserved, including the amphitheater that dominates the skyline.  After I finished tweaking my paper, I set out into the city for a celebratory meal.  I discovered the Forum Cafe, located in the heart of Pula on the original Roman forum.  The menu was posted in several different languages (Croatian, German, English, French, Italian, and Russian) accompanied by pictures.  The waitress greeted me, assessing what kind of food I was interested and what language I spoke.  She wasn’t pushy like most restaurant shills, so I allowed myself to be escorted to a peony-bedecked table and immersed myself in the extensive menu.

There are several specialties in Istria: seafood including fresh fish, squid, and octopus because of the proximity of the Adriatic; fried cutlets inspired by their Austro-Hungarian history, and truffles.  I was torn between the fresh asparagus omelet and the fried squid (I love the tentacles!) but the waitress persuaded me to try fuži with truffle cream sauce.  In addition I ordered a mixed salad and a Croatian white wine then sat back to enjoy the bustle of the forum. 

Temple of Augustus, Pula

The function of the Forum hasn’t changed much in 2000 years.  It is still a center of commerce and law.  Every provincial center had a forum, harking back to the original forum in Rome.  In addition to the reconstructed first century temple to Augustus, there was originally a temple to the Capitoline Triad (Jupiter, Juno and Minerva).  City hall has replaced this monument, but the outline of the (presumed) Diana temple can be seen at the back of this building.  The Pula tourist bureau is also here, as are several other restaurants and souvenir shops around the wide central square.

Fuži

 Fuži are thin squares of pasta which have been folded over into tubes.  The sauce was pure cream and butter, with a dollop of truffle tapenade on top.  The salad was a mixture of tomatoes, lettuce, cabbage and cucumber, and could be adapted to taste with oil and vinegar (you have to ask if you want olive oil).  The house white wine was the perfect complement.  My only complaint was that the pasta was undersalted, but that may be because my tastebuds are not sophisticated enough for truffle. The price for my meal  was reasonable by American standards:  about $12 for the pasta, $4 for the salad, $3 for a glass of wine and $3 for a bottle of mineral water. 

The dinner was exactly what I needed to relax, and my paper the next day went well.  Thanks to the friendly staff at the Forum Cafe for taking good care of me!

Greetings from Croatia!

This year has been good for conferences – first CAMWS in Grand Rapids and now the XIIth International Colloquium on Roman Provincial Art in Pula, Croatia.  In retrospect, it’s amazing that I presented a paper in Pula.  I didn’t know about the colloquium until the day before the deadline and begged for another 24 hours to submit an abstract.  By the time I found out it had been accepted (through the program posted on the internet) I had missed the registration deadline.  I never received any information about the conference except for hotel information.  Somehow I made my way from Baton Rouge to Atlanta to New York to Venice, and then to Trieste by train and by bus to Pula, arriving 28 hours after I’d started my journey.  When I showed up with my 26 minute paper, I found out it as supposed to be 20 minutes – but this was an hour before I presented and it was too late to change anything.  It wasn’t until the last day of the conference that I discovered that the email address they had for me was wrong!  But my paper was well-received, and should be published in the Proceedings – a real publication for me!

Headquarters, Italian Community in Pula

In most other respects, the conference was extraordinarily well-organized.  It was held at the Headquarters of the Italian Community in Pula in a state of the art meeting room with simultaneous translation of papers into Croatian, German, English, French and Italian through headsets.  Coffee breaks were held on the expansive terrace and lunch was held in the lapidarium of the Archaeological Museum of Istria, where we stood on Roman mosaics and used tombstones as tables!

New friends at the Archaeological Museum of Istria

Several excursions were arranged, including cocktails at the archaeological site of Nesactium, lit by titi torches, with entertainment provided by a Roman music enthusiast:

We traveled to Brijuni National Park by boat, and visited local museums at Buzet  and Labin.  After the conference, there was an optional excursion to Nin, Zadar , and Split to see Diocletian’s Palace.  An anonymous benefactor made this excursion possible (Thanks, Dad!).  

Pula amphitheater at sunset

ABCDE

Bonnie Branson Illustration

May is Skin Cancer Awareness Month.  How do I know and why should you care?  Because I am a survivor of dermatofibrosarcoma protuberans (DFSP), the “most benign of all the skin cancers,” according to my dermatologist as he gave me the news. 

ABCDE refers to the warning signs of skin cancer, particularly melanoma:

(Read more about skin cancer here)

Unfortunately I had none of these warning signs.  I had a thickening of a patch of skin on my left hip.  It felt like scar tissue although I’d never had an injury there.  My dermatologist thought it was nothing to be concerned about.  “Watch it.  If it grows, we’ll biopsy it.” 

A year later, this mysterious patch had doubled in size, so it was now about an inch in diameter, but still skin colored.  The biopsy came back positive for DFSP, a relatively rare form of skin cancer which my nearly-retired dermatologist had only seen a 12 times in his career.  The only cure involves cutting out the cancer, but taking a wide enough margin that all the “runners” are also excised.  I ended up with a surgical wound 13 x 15 x 7 cm (5 x 7 x 3 in).  That’s length, width, and depth – I often joke that the doctor exacted his pound of flesh.

Remarkably, this was done as outpatient surgery and I was bedridden for three weeks (with surgery after 12 days to close the incision properly). I’ll spare you the gory details of vacuum pacs and skin grafts and dressing changes.  The original surgery was January 4, 2002, and I wasn’t out of bandages until mid March of that year.  My lasting legacy is medically termed a “contour deformity” but I lovingly refer to it as my “alligator bite.” It makes for a much more interesting story. 

And the moral of this story is, if you ever have anything on your skin that you know doesn’t belong there, get it checked out as soon as possible.  Prevention and early detection are the key to avoiding a potentially disfiguring and even deadly disease.  I was lucky - and don't think I don't count my blessings every day!

In training!

Remember the 600-yard dash, AKA the 600-yard run-walk?  It was part of the Presidential Fitness Test (now the President's Challenge) that my generation had to participate in every school year, along with assorted other tasks like sit-ups and pull-ups.

Well, today my 11 year old self would be so proud!  I just jogged around the lake, 1.6 miles total, pausing momentarily to pick a sprig of elderflowers.  That's 2816 yards.  Take that, Mr. Chambers!

Dirndl by Schneiderei Kathrin, Irdning

Why a sprig of elderflowers?  On 600 yard run day, my mom would always spritz my wrist with perfume.  She said, "When you think you can't go any farther, just sniff your wrist for inspiration."  My mother had top-quality perfumes (Joy, Lalique) and sharing them was a gift from her heart.  The sweet-smelling elderflower I picked today was my inspiration, reminding me of Europe where elderflower grows rampant and is used to make syrup for refreshing drinks.

And that's why I'm in training:  It's been a long, sedentary winter, and soon I'll be back in Austria.  I have to be in shape to climb every mountain (cue Julie Andrews) and fit into my custom-made dirndl!