Split cont’d: Nedo

A few minutes after we got off the boat, we met another lady offering us rooms for the night. As Tim and Sara negotiated, another man approached and, without a moment’s hesitation, made an offer for half the price the lady had quoted. We accepted. The lady was pretty angry, but our new host, Nedo, seemed unaffected and cheerfully led us onward.

We wanted to see the place before fully committing, but, since it was before 7 o’clock in the morning, the previous night’s tenants were still sleeping. Nedo assured us they would be leaving by 8:00 and offered to make us coffee while we waited. Coffee was exactly what we needed and wanted most, so we were pleased with this arrangement.

Here is Chez Nedo- the garden, dining, cooking, lounging, and porch area:


And, yes, of course everyone looks a little tired. The coffee hadn’t been served yet. And neither had the hard liquor.

After our jolly host provided caffeine and a plethora of maps and brochures, he busted out the rakija. Rakija is a homemade schnapps-like substance, and Nedo had two varieties: normal and rosemary flavored. Refusal wasn’t really an option, so I went with “normal” while the others chose the rosemary. Tim got a double serving, despite much protest.

I tell you what, taking a shot at 7am is quite the experience. Ouch. There’s really not much else to say about it.

As we sat at the table, one of the Australian sisters (supposedly sleeping in the place we were going to end up) unexpectedly emerged from Nedo’s other apartment, where some Irish lads were staying. Nedo exclaimed, “Oh, you slept in there last night?!” She just looked embarrassed, mumbled some sort of affirmation, and shuffled quickly on to her room.

Right about this time there was some awkwardness concerning sleeping arrangements, as Nedo really couldn’t comprehend why Brian and I were not going to share a bed. Finally (I think) he started to grasp important concepts like “just friends” and “only met last week” in English. In the end he shrugged and said, “Later, then, in a few more days…” while gesturing with some vague implication regarding the whole Australian/Irish hook-up we’d been witness to. Riiight. Someone repeated, “Just friends!” and that seemed to satisfy him.

Around 8:00, he escorted us to our rooms. I guess the Australians didn’t know they were leaving at 8:00, because one of the sisters was still in her pajamas and looked pretty unhappy to see us. The place itself was pretty cool. There was a combined entryway/bedroom, a hallway/kitchen (i.e. small sink in the corner) that also boasted a 10” television, a small bathroom, and another bedroom with 3 small beds, a table, and approximately 1 square ft. of free floor space. As far as I could tell, the interior walls were constructed mainly of balsa wood and saran wrap. But we didn’t need anything fancy, so after completing our eight-second inspection, we decided to take it. We left our bags and went for a walk.