Snow? In Tisno?

View towards the selo (the town centre)

Snow! There's something magical about it, the way it falls from those foreboding grey clouds and covers the landscape in a pure white blanket, instantly altering our perception of it. Is this awe an innate human reaction, or is it a learned reaction due to growing-up watching films such as Little Women and Home Alone where a snowy landscape equates to warmth, family, fun, adventure? Or is it that I've only experienced snow a handful of times, so it remains something unusual, interesting, amazing? Whatever it is, I'm always excited to see snow. I remember living in Paris, sitting on the lounge beneath the large Hausmann styled window in the sitting room. I glanced outside, and thought, 'Is that rain? Or is that snow?' Taking a closer look I perceived it to be snow. I dropped the book I was reading, put on my ugg boots and run outside to stand amongst the floating snowflakes. I must have appeared a little odd to some passers-by, but I was so enthralled by the snow. So when I experienced a snow fall in Tisno, again I found it difficult the contain my excitement. Even more so, since I had become accustomed to visiting Tisno during the summer. So seeing the town in its winter guise was strange enough, let alone seeing it during and after a snow fall.

Gomilica

Being situated on the coast, winters in Tisno are usually quite mild (during this winter we even had sunny days, with the temperature reaching almost twenty degrees Celsius) with temperatures averaging around ten degrees and I think the coldest day we had whilst I was there was about zero degrees. Compared to inland regions who were experiencing minus twenty degree weather, I consider zero to ten degrees to be reasonably mild. And it's not every year that snow falls in Tisno, so I felt especially lucky to be there this particular winter.

Kampaneja (the bell tower)

I think we (I had began dating one of the local boys by this stage) may have been sitting in Kole's cafe (where else would we be between the hours of 11am and 2pm - I need my daily does of cocoa, newspapers, town gossip, Mr. Steve's opinions, Dijana's happy smile), or someone gave us a call, I can't remember exactly, but anyway we heard that it was snowing in Dazlina (about 10km away). So, having nothing better to do (there is hardly any work during winter in Dalmatia, so we never really had anything better to do), and also being somewhat excited, we jumped into the car and drove to Dazlina to see snow, thinking that this would probably be the only chance we'd get that winter. As we passed the Magistral (the main coastal road in Croatia, running from Istra in the north to Dubrovnik in the south) at Kapela (the intersection of the Magistral and the road that leads to Tisno), we could see the dark clouds eerily hanging over the distant landscape. As we drove through Dubrava and neared Dazlina we saw that the small hamlet was quickly being covered in snow. Within moments, that snow began falling all around the car and the once dry, rocky landscape was soon completely disguised by a powdery white blanket.

Snow in Dazlina

We drove painfully slowly back to Tisno, as the road was extremely slippery. It continued to snow the entire way and, to our amazement, it was also snowing in Tisno! How beautiful moje malo misto (my little town) looked in the cool afternoon light with its snowcapped roofs and powderwhite footpaths. So still, yet somehow so animated. To me it appear to be much more beautiful than on a warm and sunny summer's day. It posessed a magical, other-worldly atmosphere, unable to be properly felt though these photographs. It was one of those 'you had to be there' moments.

The path to Karavaj

We also walked up to Karavaj (the southern hill on the island side of the town, where the Church of the Madonna of Carravaggio is located) in the snow. Even though the dusk was drawing near, I wasn't going to miss this perhaps once in a lifetime experience - I was going to enjoy it to the full. Walking up the hill wasn't the easiest of things, as my boots constantly fell through the fresh snow. I'd say that there was a good half foot of it. But the view towards the selo, Gomilica (the mainland side of the town) and the islands of Ljutac, Borovnik, Bisaga and Mimonjak (to the south of Tisno) was truely amazing.

I'm sure that most Tisnjani and visitors to Tisno would agree with me in thinking that Tisno is absolutely beautiful during the summer months. But am I wrong in believing that its winter landscape is beyond any description of beauty...?

The Church of the Madonna of Caravaggio

Final few photos captured just before evening fell

The view from Karavaj onto Tisno