Perfect Holiday, or: Sea, Books and Cats

So I have been on a holiday. Happens every other year, even to me. Being back now I have to say it felt too short but it felt really good. It felt too good to be that short. I’ve got more pictures on my instagram (I’m eve_massacre there, if you like to connect). I was in a croatian village in a not so pricy but really nice holiday flat. It was a hillside house, located directly at the sea.  From the street you entered it on ground level and on the sea-side you ended up on a third floor balcony. I love buildings like that. This was my view:

http://i.imgur.com/94KqeKK.jpg

There were a lot of hungry street cats around and of course I loved watching them. The perfect crazy old cat lady training. One of them – he looked a bit as if he wore a batman mask – even made a habit of climbing up a tree to my balcony. After a few days he lost all shyness and dared to entered the flat and stayed on the sofa for an hour or so. Miss him a bit. The one on the left on this picture:

 http://i.imgur.com/qpSMD6n.jpg

Watching over his own private Gotham:

http://i.imgur.com/CTtzaxT.jpg

I stayed at the third from last house of the village (a bit too small to recognize on this picture below), just a few steps from where a stony path lead around a beautiful lagoon and then along the coast. In some parts the rocks went from the typical grey to orange, or sometimes even like the earth: a deep rusty red. Some of the plants were purple. It felt like in a psychedelic Mars landscape.

http://i.imgur.com/gtiXybD.jpg

The sea was a crystal clear, turquoise, and you could see all the stones below.

When you walked into the other direction, deeper into the village, you could do that along a classic sea front.

http://i.imgur.com/0Bn7tDR.jpg

It had that certain sad empty half-broken atmosphere that things that were made for summer get in autumn.

What also was important to me: Not many people. I think I’ve met as many cats as humans while I stayed there. Wonderful and quiet.

http://i.imgur.com/tRGcv2B.jpg

It has been a while since I have enjoyed reading so much. Having no plans and a free mind to spend whole days reading was plain perfect. At home I’m too often too stressed out or tired to so. I also had brought my music equipment but I got sucked right in by those books. That’s why I hardly have any stories about this holiday or: The most stories would be those I’ve read. So I thought I’d blog a few words about those books cause I would recommend every single one of them.

The first book was one I didn’t read but listen to as audio book on my drive: T.C. Boyle’s ‘When The Killing Is Done’. The only other Boyle novel I have read so far was ‘Talk Talk’, one about identity theft of a deaf woman. It was decently thrilling but I couldn’t connect with any of the characters and it was a bit of a weary read. Still I wanted to give it another try and the audio book in german, read by Jan J. Liefers had gotten quite good reviews. Rightfully so. I am not the biggest fan of Liefers as an actor but his reading was a pleasure. Pace, intonation – everything. He grabs you and drags you right into the story. It is an eco thriller that shows two positions of eco activism at fight: The biologist’s idea of preserving a balance even if it means killing intruding species by the large versus the animal rights activist’s idea of protection of all animals no matter if an invasive kind destroys the balance and thus means extinction of another species. Boyle does not take a side but rather shows the god-complex rooted within both by contrasting them and exploring them in detail. Boyle’s descriptions of grim and beautiful nature are quite powerful and the infliction of the geographical history while keeping a thriller like tension up is quite skillfully. Lots of stories, some going back to one of the protagonist’s mother and grandmother, are woven into a gloomy tale of idealism and human nature. It was a real good pick for driving through the mountains.

To be continued tomorrow. Hopefully