Croatian Update!

Hello folks! Kind of went through a blog black-out there...busy getting ourselves to Croatia and onto the island. Finally feeling a bit more settled in at our new home in the small hamlet of Filozici. Our home is a nice, partially restored traditional two story with a big cellar. The second floor has yet to be finished as well as the fireplace. I hope we get that done soon, since winter will be moving in! You can see pictures in the Croatia folder, as well as a slew of Italy pictures. We have been helping Igor get ready for the winter; there is a ton to do. Chopping wood, prepping garden beds, distilling (and sampling!) brandy. Im writing you from the library of Grad Cres, the main city. It is about 26km from the place where we live. Not looking forward to the ride back, since 10km is straight uphill and the sun is setting!
It is not nearly as cold as I thought it would be. This is good, because I dont like being cold. It is also bad because it means we could have set our sights further and ridden more before winter settled in. At any rate, it looks like we will probably be here in Cres until things warm up in March. Seems silly to spend 5 months off the bike but I dont really know any other way to manage it. Hopefully the downtime will give me time to sort out the proper path to Asia and get the visas in the works. I am EXTREMELY relieved to know there is relatively close and cheap internet access. I was optimistic about making some income when I heard there was a griffon vulture conservation center neardby (finally put my biology degree to use?) but today I went by there and they are closing for the winter! Oh well...perhaps I can find a kitchen job or something here in the city, but prospects are looking dim. Going to have to brainstorm other ideas to increase the income. Or, as Benji would say, get multiple streams of income. Anyways, I want to go grab a drink and some dinner before it gets too dark and cold for riding home, so I must sign off! Plenty of new pictures for you to browse through, but you may want to wait until this weekend; I should have them captioned by then. Some of them definately will not make sense without captions.
I need to send out a few thanks though. Big thanks to the Cortis for hosting us and putting up with my shenanigans. Also a big thanks goes out to Brandy and Jacob, my first official donors! I will be sending part of it on towards World Bicycle Relief and hopefully I can figure out a graphic or a way to link it up and show you how much progress we have made. I think every $110 buys one bike. In anycase, if those two slackers (well, jake at least) could pitch in to keep the ride going and spread the bicycle love, Im sure some of you out there can spare a few bucks!
Okay, thats enough ramblin for now. Hope to be speaking through the interwebs again very shortly. Cheers! (Or, in Croatian, Jivili!)