This is the blog for Matt Hollingsworth. I'm from Ojai, California. I've worked in comics for 22 years as a color artist.

This blog will largely be used to show my daily life as I live in Samobor, Croatia and as I travel around the region. Lots and lots of photos! Leave me a comment, will you?

All content on this blog is copyright 2013 Matthew Dale Hollingsworth and cannot be copied or used for any purpose without my consent.

Wednesday, November 29, 2006

Okay, so nothing really too exciting, but wanted to show people my apartment in Zagreb so they can see my living situation. Some pics may seem strange as I zoom in on fixtures and such, but this it to show people who have no traveled and have not seen different electrical or door knobs or whatever. The apartment is pretty nice. The floor is tile and the heat is beneath the floor, so on cold nights, the heat is turned up and the floor gets nice and warm. Pretty great. Shower's a bit small and no bath tub, so no bubble baths, Marica!



Bathroom. This is a radiator sorta thing. It heats up and you can hang clothes on it or towels to dry.






Bathroom. This is the water heater cabinet. Seems to be the furnace too.



Front door area. The phone is the buzzer to let people in the downstairs door.






Currently working on the kitchen table, but there's a desk in the bedroom that I may move out to the living room to work on. Bedroom is for sleeping, not working, so not gonna work in there.



The door here leads out to a tiny deck outside.


The cabinet furthest back is actually the fridge.




Hukwe kitty!



What electrical plugs look like here.





Saturday, November 25, 2006

Tales of Croatia. Part Thirteen.


Entire story takes place from late May to late June in Zagreb, Dubrovnik, Makarska, Omiš, Split, Vodice
and Tribunj, Croatia, as well as Slovenia.


Continued from part twelve...

To recap; I'd spent about three weeks in Zagreb. Sasho Maleev joined us and we flew SouthEast to Dubrovnik, hanging out there for three days. We then rented a car and drove north to a small fishing village called Tribunj.

Click any pic to go to a gallery with all photos.


Krka National Park.

After that, we headed back North, to Krka National Park, to visit the waterfalls. The waterfalls were the site of the second waterfall based power plant, after Niagara Falls, having flipped their switch maybe a day later. Something like that. Beautiful place.





They have a nice wood walking path, raised above the water all through the marshy lands. There were little bright blue, iridescent dragon fly like bugs all over the place.











Esad gives me love.





After this, we headed back North to Tribunj and went to the cafe again. We had food there that night, watching the World Cup and eating more fish. Their catch of the day was some kind of smaller fish. Not as small as sardines, but not much bigger either. Breaded and fried. Nice. We'd pop them in half, remove the bones and eat them. Calamari, fries, fish, bread, olive oil and beer. We didn't go too crazy that night, just drank out there by the water in Tribunj, chatting, listening to the donkeys and watching the fish swim around.

I like this one of Sasho.

The next day, we headed home to Zagreb, an uneventful drive. I slept a bit. I left Zagreb two days later to return to Southern California, sad and not at all ready to leave. I hope to move to Zagreb in the fall sometime, if my permit for residency goes through. Thanks to Esad for hosting so graciously, and to Sasho, for joining us in our travel fun.

Tales of Croatia. Part Twelve.


Entire story takes place from late May to late June in Zagreb, Dubrovnik, Makarska, Omiš, Split, Vodice
and Tribunj, Croatia, as well as Slovenia.


Continued from part eleven...

To recap; I'd spent about three weeks in Zagreb. Sasho Maleev joined us and we flew SouthEast to Dubrovnik, hanging out there for three days. We then rented a car and drove north to a small fishing village called Tribunj.

Click any pic to go to a gallery with all photos.


We got burek to eat, with yogurt and got in the car and drove South, to Split. We saw a Roman Aqueduct in Split, alongside the highway. The city itself has a large area enclosed in an old walled Roman town.



Split.

Very old buildings, and the world's oldest (1800 years old, Esad tells me) Cathedral. The inside was ornate as one would expect. The old doors were there, intricately carved with many religious images twisting in the wood. The cathedral went up very high indeed, more and more narrow as it went up. Sasho and I climbed up the bell tower, maybe ten or 15 floors up. We went into the tombs. They were selling candles outside, so I bought one. Inside, near one of the alcoves, was a metal framed candle holding stand for maybe 50 candles and a few were burning. I stuck mine on a pike and lit it in honor of the woman who had killed herself, to honor her in her belief system, as a catholic would. Or so I assumed, as I'm ignorant.







Sasho and me, up at the top of the bell tower in Split.







We went for a beer, decided to grab lunch and walked towards the car watching for a restaurant. We came upon a place in a side alley. The signage in Croatia is very poorly designed, and it was a cheesy sign, but the restaurant was really great. We had more fabulous seafood, the usual suspects. Great stuff. And the environment of the restaurant, seated outside amongst a garden, was very tranquil and comfortable.

The view at the restaurant.

Sasho and Esad at the restaurant in Split.

End of Part Twelve